Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and film producer. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema and his style of filmmaking was unique among directors, in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a subversive twist that typically relies on satire and humor to express his personal vision. Altman developed a reputation for being anti-Hollywood and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style, actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity. He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activity taking place on the screen, critic Pauline Kael, writing about his directing style, said that Altman could make film fireworks out of next to nothing.
In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Altmans body of work with an Academy Honorary Award and he never won a competitive Oscar despite five nominations. His films MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Altman is one of the few filmmakers whose films have won the Golden Bear at Berlin, the Golden Lion at Venice, and the Golden Palm at Cannes. Altmans ancestry was German and Irish, his grandfather, Frank Altman. Altman had a Catholic upbringing, but he did not continue to follow or practice the religion as an adult, although he has referred to as a sort of Catholic. He was educated at Jesuit schools, including Rockhurst High School and he graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri in 1943. In 1943 Altman joined the United States Army Air Forces at the age of 18, during World War II, Altman flew more than 50 bombing missions as a crewman on a B-24 Liberator with the 307th Bomb Group in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies.
Upon his discharge in 1946, Altman moved to California and he worked in publicity for a company that had invented a tattooing machine to identify dogs. He entered filmmaking on a whim, selling a script to RKO for the 1948 picture Bodyguard, Altmans immediate success encouraged him to move to New York City, where he attempted to forge a career as a writer. Having enjoyed little success, in 1949 he returned to Kansas City, in February 2012, an early Calvin film directed by Altman, Modern Football, was found by filmmaker Gary Huggins. Altman directed some 65 industrial films and documentaries before being hired by a businessman in 1956 to write. The film, titled The Delinquents, made for $60,000, was purchased by United Artists for $150,000, while primitive, this teen exploitation film contained the foundations of Altmans work in its use of casual, naturalistic dialogue
Academic degree
An academic degree is a qualification awarded on successful completion of a course of study in higher education, normally at a college or university. These institutions commonly offer degrees at various levels, typically including bachelors, master’s and doctorates, often alongside other academic certificates, and professional degrees. The most common degree is the bachelors degree, although in some countries lower qualifications are titled degrees while in others a higher-level first degree is more usual. The degrees awarded by European universities—the bachelor’s degree, the licentiate, the degree. The doctorate appeared in medieval Europe as a license to teach at a medieval university and its roots can be traced to the early church when the term doctor referred to the Apostles, church fathers and other Christian authorities who taught and interpreted the Bible. The right to grant a licentia docendi was originally reserved to the church required the applicant to pass a test, to take oath of allegiance.
The Third Council of the Lateran of 1179 guaranteed the access – now largely free of charge – of all able applicants, at the university, doctoral training was a form of apprenticeship to a guild. The traditional term of study before new teachers were admitted to the guild of Master of Arts, originally the terms master and doctor were synonymous, but over time the doctorate came to be regarded as a higher qualification than the master degree. The earliest doctoral degrees reflected the historical separation of all higher University study into three fields. Over time, the D. D. has gradually become less common outside theology, Studies outside theology and medicine were called philosophy, due to the Renaissance conviction that real knowledge could be derived from empirical observation. The degree title of Doctor of Philosophy is of a time. Studies in what once was called philosophy are now classified as sciences and humanities, Master of Arts were eligible to enter study under the higher faculties of Law, Medicine or Theology, and earn first a bachelors and master or doctors degrees in these subjects.
Thus a degree was only a step on the way to becoming a qualified master – hence the English word graduate. The naming of degrees eventually became linked with the subjects studied, scholars in the faculties of arts or grammar became known as master, but those in theology and law were known as doctor. As study in the arts or in grammar was a prerequisite to study in subjects such as theology and law. The practice of using the doctor for PhDs developed within German universities. The French terminology is tied closely to the meanings of the terms. The baccalauréat is conferred upon French students who have completed their secondary education
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron was an American journalist, playwright, novelist, producer and blogger. Ephron is best known for her comedies and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Writing, for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally. She won a BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met Sally and she sometimes wrote with her sister Delia Ephron. Her last film was Julie & Julia and she co-authored the Drama Desk Award–winning theatrical production Love and What I Wore. In 2013, Ephron received a posthumous Tony Award nomination for Best Play for her play Lucky Guy, Ephron was born in New York City to a Jewish family, the eldest of four daughters, and grew up in Beverly Hills. Her parents, Henry Ephron and Phoebe Wolkind Ephron, were both East Coast-born and were noted playwrights and screenwriters, noras younger sisters and Amy, are screenwriters. Her sister Hallie Ephron is a journalist, book reviewer, ephrons parents based the ingenue character in the play and film version of Take Her, Shes Mine on the 22-year-old Nora and her letters from college.
Both her parents became alcoholics during their declining years, Ephron graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1958, and from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in 1962 with a degree in political science. Her first marriage, to writer Dan Greenburg, ended in divorce nine years. In 1976, she married journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame, in 1979, Ephron had a toddler son and was pregnant with her second son Max when she discovered Bernsteins affair with their mutual friend, married British politician Margaret Jay. Ephron was inspired by this to write the 1983 novel Heartburn, in the book, Ephron wrote of a husband named Mark, who was capable of having sex with a Venetian blind. She wrote that the character Thelma looked like a giraffe with big feet, Bernstein threatened to sue over the book and film, but he never did. Ephron was married for more than 20 years to screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi until her death, the couple lived in New York City. Although Jewish by birth, Ephron was not religious and you can never have too much butter – that is my belief.
If I have a religion, thats it, she quipped in an NPR interview about her 2009 movie, Julie & Julia and her son, Jacob Bernstein, directed an HBO movie on her life called Everything Is Copy. After graduating from Wellesley College in 1962, Ephron worked briefly as an intern in the White House of President John F. Kennedy and she applied to be a writer at Newsweek. After she was told they didn’t hire women writers, she accepted a position as a mail girl, after a satire she wrote lampooning the New York Post caught the editors eye, Ephron landed a job at the Post, where she stayed as a reporter for five years. In 1966, she broke the news in the Post that Bob Dylan had married Sara Lownds in a private ceremony three-and-a-half months before, upon becoming a successful writer, she wrote a column on womens issues for Esquire
Mario Van Peebles
Mario Van Peebles is an American film director and actor best known for directing New Jack City in 1991. He is the son of actor and filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, Mario Chip Cain Van Peebles was born Mario Cain Van Peebles in Mexico City, the son of writer and actor Melvin Van Peebles and German actress and photographer Maria Marx. He graduated from Saint Thomas More School in Connecticut in 1974, Van Peebles played the lead in the short-lived detective show Sonny Spoon. The show ran for two seasons, both of which aired in 1988, before being canceled. He directed several episodes of the show as well as episodes of 21 Jump Street, Van Peebles directed Malcolm Takes a Shot, a CBS Schoolbreak Special about an aspiring high-school basketball star whose obstacles include epilepsy and his own arrogance. Van Peebles appeared in the special in a cameo, as Malcolms doctor and he made his feature film directorial debut in 1991 with New Jack City. This was followed by Posse in 1993, Panther in 1995, in that period he co-directed Gang in Blue with his father.
Describes the making of his fathers film, Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song. He directed the film, and portrayed his father in the lead role, Van Peebles guest-starred on the television show Damages, as Agent Harrison. Van Peebles was first brought on to the FX series to direct a few Season 1 episodes, hard Luck Sons of Anarchy Season 1, episode 10, Better Half Law & Order Season 19, episode 6, Sweetie Damages Lost Season 6, episode 7, Dr
Ron Carver
Ronald Ron Carver is a fictional character on the NBC-USA Network series, Law & Order, Criminal Intent, played by Courtney B. He was named after George Washington Carver, Carver often works in conjunction with detectives Robert Goren, Alexandra Eames, Mike Logan and Carolyn Barek of the Major Case Squad. He graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, as an ADA, his interpretation and prosecution of the law is strict and unyielding, and he has little sympathy for people who break it, regardless of circumstance. Carver is frequently in conflict with all the detectives because they tend to rely on hunches and instinct, despite this conflict, however, he has a strong working relationship with both teams. Few things have been revealed about his personal life and he evidently has some experience with religion, as he can recognize and recite Biblical passages. He is pro-life and a fan of classic model cars, while in law school, he formed a barbershop quartet-style singing group with several of his classmates.
Carver was written out of Law & Order, Criminal Intent after Vance left the show at the end of its fifth season, Carver was to be replaced by Patricia Kent. The part was given to Nona Gaye, but she left the show within a few days citing creative differences. Gaye was replaced by Theresa Randle, who only appeared in two episodes. Kent once quoted Carver as referring to Major Case as major hunch, as has often taken place in the Law & Order franchise, Vance first appeared on the original Law & Order series in a 1990 episode, By Hooker, By Crook as an unnamed Mayors Aide. He appeared in the season 5 episode, Rage, in that episode, he portrayed Benjamin Greer, a suspect interviewed and arrested by Detective Mike Logan. Appearing in 111 episodes, Carver is the second longest serving ADA in the Law & Order franchise, behind SVUs Casey Novak
ER (TV series)
It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Television, in association with Warner Bros. ER follows the life of the emergency room of fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. The show became the longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history and it won 23 Primetime Emmy Awards, including the 1996 Outstanding Drama Series award, and received 124 Emmy nominations, which makes it the most nominated drama program in history. ER won 116 awards in total, including the Peabody Award, in 1974, author Michael Crichton wrote a screenplay based on his own experiences as a resident physician in a busy hospital emergency room. The screenplay went nowhere and Crichton focused on other topics, in 1990, he published the novel Jurassic Park, and in 1993 began a collaboration with director Steven Spielberg on the film adaptation of the book. Crichton and Spielberg turned to ER, but decided to film the story as a pilot for a television series rather than as a feature film.
Spielbergs Amblin Entertainment provided John Wells as the executive producer. The script used to shoot the pilot was virtually unchanged from what Crichton had written in 1974. Because of a lack of time and money necessary to build a set, the episode of ER was filmed in the former Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles. After Spielberg had joined as a producer, NBC ordered six episodes, ER premiered opposite a Monday Night Football game on ABC and did surprisingly well. Then we moved it to Thursday and it just took off, ERs success surprised the networks and critics alike, as David E. Kelleys new medical drama Chicago Hope was expected to crush the new series. Crichton remained executive producer until his death in November 2008, although he was credited as one throughout that entire final season. Wells, the other initial executive producer, served as showrunner for the first three seasons. He was one of the shows most prolific writers and became a director in years. Lydia Woodward was a part of the first season production team and she took over as showrunner for the fourth season while Wells focused on the development of other series, including Trinity, Third Watch, and The West Wing.
She left her executive position at the end of the sixth season. Joe Sachs, who was a writer and producer of the series, believed keeping a commitment to medical accuracy was important, Wed bend the rules. A medication that would take 10 minutes to work might take 30 seconds instead, a 12- to 24-hour shift gets pushed into 48 minutes
August Wilson
August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Each work in the series is set in a different decade, Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel, Jr. in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, the fourth of six children. His father, Frederick August Kittel, Sr. was a Sudeten German immigrant and his mother, Daisy Wilson, was an African-American cleaning woman, from North Carolina. Wilsons maternal grandmother walked from North Carolina to Pennsylvania in search of a better life, Wilsons mother raised the children alone until he was five in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue, his father was mostly absent from his childhood. Wilson wrote under his mothers surname, the economically depressed neighborhood where he was raised was inhabited predominantly by black Americans and Jewish and Italian immigrants. They were soon forced out of their house and on to their next home, in 1959, Wilson was one of fourteen African-American students at the Central Catholic High School, from which he dropped out after one year.
He attended Connelley Vocational High School, but found the curriculum unchallenging and he dropped out of Gladstone High School in the 10th grade in 1960 after his teacher accused him of plagiarizing a 20-page paper he wrote on Napoleon I of France. Wilson hid his decision from his mother because he did not want to disappoint her, at the age of 16 he began working menial jobs, where he met a wide variety of people on whom some of his characters were based, such as Sam in The Janitor. Wilson made such use of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh to educate himself that it awarded him an honorary high school diploma. Wilson knew that he wanted to be a writer, but this created tension with his mother, Frederick August Kittel, Jr. changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother after his fathers death in 1965. That same year, he discovered the blues as sung by Bessie Smith, and he bought a typewriter for $10. At 20, he decided he was a poet and submitted work to magazines as Harpers. He began to write in bars, the cigar store.
He liked to write on cafe napkins because, he said, it freed him up and he would gather the notes and type them up at home. Gifted with a talent for catching dialect and accents, Wilson had an astonishing memory and he slowly learned not to censor the language he heard when incorporating it into his work. Malcolm Xs voice influenced Wilsons life and work, both the Nation of Islam and the Black Power spoke to him regarding self-sufficiency, self-defense, and self-determination, and he appreciated the origin myths that Elijah Muhammad supported. In 1969 Wilson married Brenda Burton, a Muslim, and converted to Islam to sustain the marriage and he and Brenda had one daughter, Sakina Ansari-Wilson, and divorced in 1972. In 1968, he co-founded the Black Horizon Theater in the Hill District of Pittsburgh along with his friend Rob Penny, Wilsons first play, was performed for audiences in small theaters and public housing community centers for 50 cents a ticket
Black Panther Party
In 1969, community social programs became a core activity of party members. The party enrolled the largest number of members and made the greatest impact in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. The program was accused of assassinating Black Panther members. Black Panther Party membership reached a peak in 1970, with offices in 68 cities and thousands of members, after being vilified by the mainstream press, public support for the party waned, and the group became more isolated. In-fighting among Party leadership, caused largely by the FBIs COINTELPRO operation, by 1972 most Panther activity centered on the national headquarters and a school in Oakland, where the party continued to influence local politics. Though under constant police surveillance, the Chicago chapter remained active, the Seattle chapter lasted longer than most, with a breakfast program and medical clinics that continued even after the chapter disbanded in 1977.
Party contractions continued throughout the 1970s, and by 1980 the Black Panther Party had just 27 members, the history of the Black Panther Party is controversial. Other commentators have described the Party as more criminal than political, the sweeping migration of black families out of the South during World War II transformed Oakland and cities throughout the West and the North. But not much changed in the cities of the North and West, Police departments were almost all white. In 1966, only 16 of Oaklands 661 police officers were African American, insurgent civil rights practices proved incapable of redressing these conditions, and the organizations that had led much of the nonviolent civil disobedience such as SNCC and CORE went into decline. Young black people in Oakland and other cities developed a rich ferment of study groups and political organizations, in late October 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party. In formulating a new politics, they drew on their experiences working with a variety of Black Power organizations and Seale first met in 1962 when they were both students at Merritt College.
They joined Donald Warden’s Afro-American Association, where they read widely, dissatisfied with the failure of these organizations to directly challenge police brutality and appeal to the brothers on the block and Bobby sought to take matters into their own hands. After the police killed Matthew Johnson, a young black man in San Francisco. He had an epiphany that would distinguish the Black Panther Party from the multitude of organizations seeking to build Black Power. Newton saw the explosive rebellious anger of the ghetto as a force, inspired by Robert F. Williams armed resistance to the KKK, Newton studied California gun law until he knew it better than many police officers. Like the Community Alert Patrol in Los Angeles after the Watts Rebellion, but with a crucial difference, his patrols would carry loaded guns. According to Bobby Seale, they would sell the books, make the money, buy the guns, well protect a mother, protect a brother, and protect the community from the racist cops
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It originally aired on NBC and, in syndication, on cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13,1990, and completed its 20th, at the time of its cancellation, Law & Order was the longest-running crime drama on American primetime television. Its record of 20 seasons is a tie with Gunsmoke for the longest-running live-action scripted American prime-time series with ongoing characters, although it has fewer episodes than Gunsmoke, Law & Order ranks as the longest-running hour-long primetime TV series. Gunsmoke, for its first six seasons, was originally a half-hour program, plots are often based on real cases that recently made headlines, although the motivation for the crime and the perpetrator may be different. The show has been noted for its revolving cast over the years, the success of the series has led to the creation of additional shows, making Law & Order a franchise, with a television film, several video games, and international adaptations of the series.
It has won and has been nominated for awards over the years. On May 14,2010, NBC announced that it had canceled Law & Order, in July 2010, however, he indicated that those attempts had failed and declared that the series had now moved to the history books. However, in February 2015, rumors started that NBC was planning to bring the back for 10 episodes. In May 2015, former star Sam Waterston announced to The Hollywood Reporter that he supports and would join a revival of Law & Order, Youre darn right. Creator Dick Wolf has expressed wanting to use a L&O revival to do a ripped from the headlines story-line surrounding the trial of Robert Durst. Everybody who knows me knows its something I want to do, he continued, at the 2015 Television Critics Association summer press tour, Wolf noted everyone wants a revival, It is a question of. Most of the involved are very successful in their careers. To try to get everything in sequence is more difficult than it looks on the outside. I would love to do it if we can make it work, in 1988, Dick Wolf developed a concept for a new television series that would depict a relatively optimistic picture of the American criminal justice system.
He initially toyed with the idea of calling it Night & Day, the first half of each episode would follow two detectives and their commanding officer as they investigate a violent crime. The second half of the episode would follow the District Attorneys Office, through this, Law & Order would be able to investigate some of the larger issues of the day by focusing on stories that were based on real cases making headlines. Wolf took the idea to then-president of Universal Television Kerry McCluggage, who pointed out the similarity to a 1963 series titled Arrest and Trial, which lasted one season
The Closer
The Closer is an American television police procedural, starring Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Leigh Johnson, a Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief. Deputy Chief Johnson sometimes uses deceit and intimidation to persuade a suspect to confess, the series ran on TNT from June 13,2005, to August 13,2012. The Closer was created by James Duff and the Shephard/Robin Company in association with Warner Bros, on Monday, July 11,2011, the series began its seventh and final season, having finished its sixth season as cables highest rated drama. The Closers final six episodes airing on Monday, July 9,2012, with its finale airing on Monday. Following the finale, The Closers spin-off Major Crimes premiered, each episode of The Closer deals with an aspect of the Los Angeles culture as it interfaces with law enforcement in the megacity. The show deals with complex and subtle issues of policy, personal integrity. Season five introduced Mary McDonnell as Captain Sharon Raydor of Internal Affairs and Johnson start out as rivals, but gradually they develop grudging respect for each other and form an uneasy alliance.
Raydor went on to star in The Closers spin-off, Major Crimes and Raydor take an active role in attempting to combat the leaker and the legal matters do not reach a final resolution until the series end, in the episode The Last Word. On December 10,2010, TNT announced that the season of The Closer. The channel said that the decision to retire the show was made by Kyra Sedgwick, on January 30,2011, the media announced that the final season would add six episodes to the usual fifteen episode order, building toward the spin-off series, Major Crimes. The cast consists largely of an ensemble of detectives who make up the LAPDs fictional Major Crimes Division and it is led by Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, played by Kyra Sedgwick. In interviews, Sedgwick has acknowledged that the show owes a debt to Prime Suspect and her admiration for that show, other main characters include Johnsons superior officer, Assistant Chief Will Pope, Robbery-Homicide Division Commander Russell Taylor and her FBI agent boyfriend-then-husband Fritz Howard.
The remainder of the cast makes up Brendas squad, each with expertise in a specific area, the first and only departure from the regular cast occurred in Season 5, when actress Gina Ravera left and her character, Detective Irene Daniels, was transferred to another division. Mary McDonnell, a recurring cast member in Seasons 5 and 6, joined the cast full-time for Season 7, continuing her role as Captain Sharon Raydor. Both gender researchers and members of the media have claimed that the series has expanded the vocabulary of what is acceptable for women as seen through the lens of popular culture. We’ve certainly seen women in powerful positions before, says author and gender researcher Maddy Dychtwald, pointing out Angie Dickinson in 1974s Police Woman, and Cagney & Lacey from 1981. But those women were largely token in a sea of dominant males, just glance at the equal number of recent Emmy nominations for basic and premium cable shows is confirmation, he adds. It’s helped people get used to the idea that summer is a time to original series on televisions
Media related to Courtney Vance at Wikimedia Commons
