1.
Alan J. Pakula
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Alan Jay Pakula was an American film director, writer and producer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, Best Picture for To Kill a Mockingbird, Best Director for All the Presidents Men, Pakula was also notable for directing his paranoia trilogy, All the Presidents Men, Klute, and The Parallax View. Pakula started his Hollywood career as an assistant in the department at Warner Brothers. In 1957, he undertook his first production role for Paramount Pictures, in 1962, he produced To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. Pakula had a professional relationship as the producer of movies directed by Robert Mulligan from 1957 to 1968. In 1969, he directed his first feature, The Sterile Cuckoo, in 1971, Pakula released the first installment of what would informally come to be known as his paranoia trilogy. Klute, the story of a relationship between a private eye and a girl, was a commercial and critical success. This was followed in 1974 by The Parallax View starring Warren Beatty and it was another commercial hit, considered by many critics and fans to be one of the best thrillers of the 1970s. Pakula scored another hit in 1982 with Sophies Choice, starring Meryl Streep and his screenplay, based on the novel by William Styron, was nominated for an Academy Award. Later commercial successes included Presumed Innocent, based on the novel by Scott Turow, and another political thriller, The Pelican Brief. His final film was the drama thriller film The Devils Own. Pakula was born in The Bronx, New York to parents of Polish Jewish descent, Jeanette and he was educated at The Hill School, Pottstown, PA and Yale University, where he majored in drama. From October 19,1963 until 1971, Pakula was married to actress Hope Lange and he was married to his second wife, Hannah Pakula until his death in 1998. He has two stepchildren from his marriage with Hope Lange, Christopher and Patricia Murray and three stepchildren from his second marriage and they are Louis, Robert and Anna Boorstin. He also spoke openly about his stepsons battle with depression before his death. Pakula died on November 19,1998 in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway in Melville, New York. A driver in front of him struck a metal pipe, which went through Pakulas windshield, struck him in the head, Alan J. Pakula at the Internet Movie Database Alan J Pakula – Daily Telegraph obituary American Film Institute interview The Pakula Parallax essay Alan J. Pakula. Alan J. Pakula papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
2.
The Pelican Brief
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The Pelican Brief is a legal-suspense thriller written by John Grisham in 1992. It is his third novel after A Time To Kill and The Firm, the hardcover edition was published by Doubleday in that same year. Two paperback editions were published, both by Dell Publishing in 1993, a film adaptation was released in 1993 starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. The story begins with the assassinations of two ideologically divergent Supreme Court Justices. Both murders are committed by Khamel, one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, Justice Rosenberg, a liberal, is killed at his home while the conservative Justice Jensen is killed inside a gay movie theater in Washington. The circumstances surrounding their deaths, as well as the deaths themselves, shock, Darby Shaw, a Tulane University Law School student, conducts research on Rosenberg and Jensens records, as well as cases pending before the Supreme Court. She suspects that the motive might be simple greed, not politics. She shows the brief to Thomas Callahan, her law professor and lover, soon afterwards Callahan is killed by a car bomb, while Darby, who witnesses his death, is contacted on the scene by some suspicious people. Afraid that she become the next target, Darby goes on the run. She contacts Verheek and after a series of calls they agree to meet personally. He is just about to kill Darby when he is shot by an unknown perpetrator, meanwhile, Gray Grantham, a reporter for the Washington Post is contacted by an anonymous lawyer who calls himself Garcia. He eventually backs off without revealing any details, Darby also decides to contact Grantham and shows him her findings. A court case on appeal, filed on Mattieces behalf to gain access to the land, is expected to make its way to the Supreme Court, Grantham believes her story and sets out to help her prove that the Pelican Brief is correct. Meanwhile, the president and his Chief of Staff, Fletcher Coal, try to cover up the White Houses connection to Mattiece, afraid that it might endanger the presidents re-election the next year. The president orders FBI chief F. Denton Voyles to temporarily stop working on the Pelican Brief and asks the more trusted CIA head Bob Gminski to conduct the investigation instead. They also send an agent to Mattiece to find out whether the statements in the brief are true, but Mattiece and they manage to contact his widow who tells them that her husband hired a new bank safe a few days before his death. Although there is no proof that he has seen it. With the evidence, Grantham and Darby approach the Posts chief editor and he also arranges a plane for Darby to flee the country
3.
John Grisham
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John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American bestselling writer, attorney, politician, and activist best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide, John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the House of Representatives in Mississippi from January 1984 to September 1990 and his first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. As of 2012, his books have sold over 275 million copies worldwide, a Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell 2 million copies on a first printing. Grishams first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. Eight of his novels have also been adapted into films, The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, Skipping Christmas, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury. Grisham, the second of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda Skidmore Grisham and his father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer, while his mother was a homemaker. When Grisham was four years old, his family settled in Southaven, DeSoto County, as a child, Grisham wanted to be a baseball player. Grisham has been a Christian since he was eight years old, after leaving law school, he participated in some missionary work in Brazil, under the First Baptist Church of Oxford. Although Grishams parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and he drew on his childhood experiences for his novel A Painted House. Grisham started working for a nursery as a teenager, watering bushes for US$1.00 an hour and he was soon promoted to a fence crew for US$1.50 an hour. He wrote about the job, there was no future in it, at 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor but says he never drew inspiration from that miserable work. Through a contact of his fathers, he managed to work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at age 17. It was during this time that an unfortunate incident got him serious about college, a fight with gunfire broke out among the crew causing Grisham to run to a nearby restroom to find safety. He did not come out until after the police had detained the perpetrators and he hitchhiked home and started thinking about college. His next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store mens underwear section and he decided to quit but stayed when he was offered a raise. He was given another raise after asking to be transferred to toys, a confrontation with a company spy posing as a customer convinced him to leave the store. By this time, Grisham was halfway through college, planning to become a tax lawyer, he was soon overcome by the complexity and lunacy of it
4.
Julia Roberts
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Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress and producer. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman and she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie nomination for her performance in the HBO television film The Normal Heart. Roberts was the actress in the world throughout most of the 1990s. Her fee for 1990s Pretty Woman was US$300,000, in 2003, as of 2007 Robertss net worth was estimated to be US$140 million. She has been named one of People magazines 50 Most Beautiful People in the World eleven times, Roberts was born on October 28,1967, in Smyrna, Georgia, to Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts. She is of English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German and her father was a Baptist, her mother a Roman Catholic, and she was raised Catholic. Her older brother, Eric Roberts, from whom she was estranged until 2004, sister Lisa Roberts Gillan, Robertss parents, one-time actors and playwrights, met while performing theatrical productions for the armed forces. They later co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Atlanta and they ran a childrens acting school in Decatur, Georgia, while they were expecting Julia. The children of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King attended the school, as a thank-you for his service, Mrs. King paid Mrs. Robertss hospital bill when Julia was born. Robertss mother filed for divorce in 1971, the divorce was finalized in early 1972, from 1972, Roberts lived in Smyrna, Georgia, where she attended Fitzhugh Lee Elementary School, Griffin Middle School, and Campbell High School. In 1972, her mother married Michael Motes, who was abusive and often unemployed, the couple had a daughter, Nancy Motes, who died at 37 on February 9,2014, of an apparent drug overdose. The marriage ended in 1983, with Betty Lou divorcing Motes on cruelty grounds, Robertss own father died of cancer when she was ten. Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian as a child and she also played the clarinet in her school band. After graduating from Smyrnas Campbell High School, she attended Georgia State University and she later headed to New York City to pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Click Modeling Agency and enrolled in acting classes, Roberts made her first big screen appearance in the film Satisfaction, alongside Liam Neeson and Justine Bateman, as a band member looking for a summer gig. She had previously performed a role opposite her brother, Eric, in Blood Red, filmed in 1987. Her first television appearance was as a rape victim in the initial season of the series Crime Story with Dennis Farina, in the episode titled The Survivor. Her first critical success with moviegoers was her performance in the independent film Mystic Pizza in 1988, that same year, she had a role in the fourth-season finale of Miami Vice
5.
Denzel Washington
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Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, director, and producer. Tolson in The Great Debaters, and drug kingpin Frank Lucas in American Gangster and he has been a featured actor in the films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and has been a frequent collaborator of directors Spike Lee, Antoine Fuqua and Tony Scott. In 2016, Washington was selected as the recipient for the Cecil B, deMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards. In 2002, Washington made his debut with biographical film Antwone Fisher. His second directorial effort was The Great Debaters, released in 2007, Washingtons third directorial effort, Fences, starring himself and Viola Davis, was released on December 16,2016. Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York and his mother, Lennis Lynne, was a beauty parlor owner and operator born in Georgia and partly raised in Harlem. Washington attended Pennington-Grimes Elementary School in Mount Vernon until 1968, when he was 14, his parents divorced, and his mother sent him to a private preparatory school, Oakland Military Academy in New Windsor, New York. That decision changed my life, Washington later said, because I wouldnt have survived in the direction I was going, the guys I was hanging out with at the time, my running buddies, have now done maybe 40 years combined in the penitentiary. They were nice guys, but the streets got them, after Oakland, Washington next attended Mainland High School, a public high school in Daytona Beach, Florida, from 1970 to 1971. He was interested in attending Texas Tech University, I grew up in the Boys Club in Mount Vernon, so when I was in high school, I wanted to go to Texas Tech in Lubbock just because they were called the Red Raiders and their uniforms looked like ours. Washington earned a B. A. in Drama and Journalism from Fordham University in 1977, at Fordham, he played collegiate basketball as a guard under coach P. J. Carlesimo. After a period of indecision on which major to study and taking a semester off, Washington worked as creative director at an overnight summer camp, Camp Sloane YMCA in Lakeville. He participated in a talent show for the campers and a colleague suggested he try acting. He then attended school at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Washington spent the summer of 1976 in St, shortly after graduating from Fordham, Washington made his screen acting debut in the 1977 made-for-television film Wilma, and his first Hollywood appearance in the 1981 film Carbon Copy. A major career break came when Washington starred as Dr. Phillip Chandler in NBCs television hospital drama St. Elsewhere and he was one of only a few African-American actors to appear on the series for its entire six-year run. He also appeared in television, motion picture and stage roles, such as the films A Soldiers Story, Hard Lessons. In 1989, Washington won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a defiant, in 1990, Washington starred as Bleek Gilliam in the Spike Lee film Mo Better Blues
6.
Sam Shepard
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Samuel Shepard Rogers III, known professionally as Sam Shepard, is an American playwright, actor, author, screenwriter, and director, whose body of work spans over half a century. He is the author of plays as well as several books of short stories, essays. Shepard received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child and he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff. Shepard received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009, New York described him as the greatest American playwright of his generation. Shepards plays are known for their bleak, poetic, often surrealist elements, black humor. His style has evolved over the years, from the absurdism of his early Off-Off-Broadway work to the realism of Buried Child, Shepard was born November 5,1943, in Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He was named Samuel Shepard Rogers III after his father, Samuel Shepard Rogers, Jr. but his nickname was Steve Rogers. His father was a teacher and farmer who served in the United States Army Air Forces as a pilot during World War II, Shepard has characterized him as a drinking man. His mother, Jane Elaine, was a teacher and a native of Chicago, Shepard worked on a ranch as a teenager. Shepard soon dropped out to join a repertory group, the Bishops Company. At this time Samuel Steve Rogers adopted the professional name Sam Shepard, although his plays would go on to be staged at several Off-Off-Broadway venues, he was most closely connected with Cooks Theatre Genesis, housed at St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery in Manhattans East Village, several of Shepards early plays, including Red Cross and La Turista, were directed by Jacques Levy. A habitué of the Chelsea Hotel scene of the era, he contributed to Kenneth Tynans ribald Oh. Calcutta. and drummed sporadically from 1967 through 1971 with psychedelic folk band The Holy Modal Rounders, appearing on Indian War Whoop, Shepards early science fiction play The Unseen Hand would influence Richard OBriens stage musical The Rocky Horror Show. Shepards Cowboy Mouth – a collaboration with his then-lover Patti Smith – was staged at The American Place Theater in April 1971, providing early exposure for the future punk rock singer. The story and characters were inspired by their relationship, and after opening night, he abandoned the production. He wrote plays out of his house and served for a semester as Regents Professor of Drama at the University of California and his diary of the tour was published by Penguin Books in 1978. A decade later, Dylan and Shepard co-wrote the 11-minute Brownsville Girl, included on Dylans Knocked Out Loaded album, in 1975, he was named playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre, where he created many of his notable works, including his Family Trilogy
7.
Tony Goldwyn
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Anthony Howard Tony Goldwyn is an American actor, producer, director and political activist. He portrayed Carl Bruner in Ghost, Colonel Bagley in The Last Samurai, and he stars in the ABC drama Scandal, as Fitzgerald Grant III, President of the United States. His maternal grandparents were playwright Sidney Howard and actress Clare Eames, one of his maternal great-great-grandfathers was Maryland Governor and Senator William Thomas Hamilton. Goldwyn attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, following his departure from drama school, Goldwyn began acting in guest star roles in the mid-1980s. Goldwyn is well known for his portrayal of Carl Bruner, friend-turned-betrayer of Patrick Swayzes character Sam Wheat in Ghost, in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Goldwyn played astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11. He had a role on the NBC-Universal drama Law & Order, Criminal Intent as Frank Goren, brother of lead character Robert Goren. He also had acting and directing duties for the first season of Dexter for Showtime, as a stage actor, Goldwyn has appeared twice in Off-Broadway shows at Second Stage Theatre and on Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre. At Second Stage he appeared in Theresa Rebecks Spike Heels alongside Kevin Bacon, most recently, in the summer of 2006 at Second Stage Theatre he starred opposite Kate Burton in another Rebeck play, The Waters Edge. Goldwyn played J. D. Sheldrake, the business executive, in the Broadway musical Promises, Promises starring Sean Hayes. The cast recording was released on June 23,2010, with Goldwyn in three tracks, Goldwyn played Captain von Trapp in a concert performance of The Sound of Music at Carnegie Hall on April 25,2012. The benefit included opera singer Stephanie Blythe as the Mother Abbess, Brooke Shields as Baroness Schraeder, as a director, Goldwyn has directed four feature films, A Walk On The Moon, Someone Like You, The Last Kiss, and Conviction. He has also directed episodes of television series such as Without a Trace, The L Word, Dexter, Law & Order, Criminal Intent, Greys Anatomy. In 2014, he directed the episode of the WE tv series, The Divide. Since 2012, he has appeared as President Fitzgerald Grant III in ABC television series Scandal, in 2013, Goldwyn was cast in new Lifetime movie, Outlaw Prophet, as Warren Jeffs. In 2014, he appeared in Divergent as Andrew Prior, Caleb, in 2015 he signed on to star in James Gunns horror thriller film The Belko Experiment. A former President of the Creative Coalition, Goldwyn is also involved with arts advocacy. He is also a spokesperson of the AmeriCares Foundation, Goldwyn has been married to production designer Jane Michelle Musky since 1987. Additionally, Goldwyns brother John is an executive of Paramount Pictures
8.
James Sikking
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James Barrie Sikking, credited as James or James B. Sikking, is an American actor known for his Emmy-nominated role as Lt. Howard Hunter on the 1980s NBC TV series Hill Street Blues. He also starred on the ABC TV series Doogie Howser, M. D. as Dr. David Howser, all three series were co-created by Steven Bochco. Sikking did the voice of General Gordon on the short-lived 1998 cartoon series Invasion America. His film work includes The Competition, Outland, Up the Creek and Star Trek III, The Search for Spock, as well as a part, as a cynical hitman. Sikkings film career started in 1955, Sikking starred in the 1992 Fox Network TV movie Doing Time on Maple Drive. Sikking was born in Los Angeles and his mother, Sue Sikking, was a founder of Santa Monicas Unity-by-the-Sea Church. Sikking graduated from UCLA in 1959 and attended the University of Hawaii and he has two brothers, Tom and Art, and a sister, Joy. He is married to Florine Sikking, a cookbook author and they live in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. * - directed by Peter Hyams James Sikking at the Internet Movie Database James Sikking at the TCM Movie Database James Sikking at AllMovie
9.
William Atherton
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William Robert Atherton Knight Jr. known professionally as William Atherton, is an American film, stage and television actor. Atherton was born in Orange, Connecticut, the son of William Robert Atherton Sr. and he studied acting at the Drama School at Carnegie Tech and graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1969. He got his big break playing hapless fugitive Clovis Poplin in The Sugarland Express, after this, he garnered major roles in dark dramas such as The Day of the Locust and Looking for Mr. Goodbar, as well as the big-budget disaster film The Hindenburg. Atherton also starred as cowboy Jim Lloyd in the 1978 miniseries Centennial, in 1984, Atherton appeared in the comedy Ghostbusters as the EPA agent Walter Peck. In 1985, Martha Coolidge chose Atherton to play Professor Jerry Hathaway in the teen comedy Real Genius, in 1988, Atherton played reporter Richard Dick Thornburg in the blockbuster action film Die Hard, and reprised the role in its 1990 sequel Die Hard 2. Other film credits include No Mercy, The Pelican Brief, Bio-Dome, Mad City, The Crow, Salvation, The Last Samurai, Grim Prairie Tales, the TV movies Buried Alive, Headspace and Virus. He has also made guest appearances on such TV shows as The Twilight Zone, Murder She Wrote, Desperate Housewives, Law & Order, The Equalizer, Boston Legal, Castle, Atherton provided the voice of Dr. Destiny on Justice League. He had a role in NBCs detective drama Life. His 2007 appearances included the film The Girl Next Door, an adaptation of the best-selling Jack Ketchum novel of the same name and he has reprised his role as Walter Peck in Ghostbusters, The Video Game, released on June 16,2009. Atherton was cast in the season of ABCs Lost. He appeared in the musical Gigi for the Reprise Theatre in Los Angeles as Honoré Lachailles in 2011. Following his work on the musical, he stepped into a role in Tim and Erics Billion Dollar Movie, produced by Will Ferrells Funny or Die, Gary Sanchez Productions. In summer of 2014, Atherton was cast in a role as Viceroy Mercado in the Syfy series Defiances second season. William Atherton at the Internet Movie Database William Atherton at the Internet Broadway Database William Atherton at the Internet Off-Broadway Database William Atherton at AllMovie
10.
Robert Culp
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Robert Martin Culp was an American actor, screenwriter, voice actor, and director, widely known for his work in television. Culp earned a reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy. Prior to that, he starred in the CBS/Four Star Western series, the 1980s brought him back to television. He starred as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on The Greatest American Hero and had a role as Warren Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond. Culp gave hundreds of performances in a career spanning more than 50 years, Culp was born, an only child, on August 16,1930 in Oakland, California, to Crozier Cordell Culp, an attorney, and his wife, Bethel Martin Culp. He graduated from Berkeley High School, where he was a pole vaulter, Culp attended the College of the Pacific, Washington University in St. Louis, San Francisco State College, and the University of Washington School of Drama, but never completed an academic degree. Culp later appeared in two episodes of Zane Grey Theater, Morning Incident and Calico Bait playing different roles. Trackdown then had a CBS spin-off of its own, Wanted, Dead or Alive, in the summer of 1960, he guest-starred on David McLeans NBC Western series, Tate. He played Clay Horne in the finale, Cave-In, of the CBS Western Johnny Ringo. In 1961, Culp played the part of Craig Kern, a morphine-addicted soldier, about this time, Culp was cast on the NBC anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show and in the NBC Civil War drama, The Americans. Culp was cast as Captain Shark in a episode of NBCs The Man from U. N. C. L. E. Some of his memorable performances were in three episodes of the science-fiction anthology series on The Outer Limits, including the classic Demon with a Glass Hand. In the 1961 season, he guest-starred on the NBCs Western Bonanza, in the 1961–62 season, he guest-starred on ABCs crime drama Target, The Corruptors. In the 1962–1963 season, he guest-starred in NBCs modern Western series Empire starring Richard Egan, in 1965, he was cast as Frank Melo in The Tender Twigs of James Franciscuss NBC education drama series, Mr. Novak. Culp then played secret agent Kelly Robinson, who operated undercover as a tennis professional. Culp wrote the scripts for seven episodes, one of which he also directed, for all three years of the series, he was also nominated for an acting Emmy, but lost each time to Cosby. In 1964, Culp played Charlie Orwell, an alcoholic veterinarian and that same year, he appeared in yet another Western, Gunsmoke. In the series episode Hung High, he portrays an outlaw named Joe Costa, in 1968, Culp also made an uncredited cameo appearance as an inebriated Turkish waiter on Get Smart, the spy-spoof comedy series, in an I Spy parody episode titled Die Spy
11.
Stanley Tucci
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Stanley Tucci is an American character actor, writer, producer and film director. Tucci was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Lovely Bones and he won two Emmy Awards for his performances in Winchell and Monk. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, for The One and his parents, both of Italian descent, had roots in Calabria. He is the oldest of three children, his sister is actress Christine Tucci, screenwriter Joseph Tropiano is a cousin. During the early 1970s, the family spent a year living in Florence and he attended John Jay High School, and SUNY Purchase, where he majored in acting and graduated in 1982. Among his classmates at SUNY Purchase was fellow acting student, Ving Rhames and it was Tucci who gave Rhames the nickname by which he is now known, Ving. His film debut was in Prizzis Honor and he performed at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1991 in a Molière play. Tucci is known for his work in such as The Pelican Brief, Beethoven, Kiss of Death, Road to Perdition and Big Night. Big Night, which he starred in, co-wrote with his cousin Joseph Tropiano, the film also featured his sister Christine and their mother, who wrote a cookbook for the film. It won him and Tropiano the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and he has been nominated three times for Golden Globes, and won twice – for his title role in Winchell, and for his supporting role as Adolf Eichmann in Conspiracy, both for HBO films. He also received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Winchell and he was nominated for Broadways Tony Award as Best Actor in a Play for his role as Johnny in the 2002 revival of Terrence McNallys Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. In 2004, Caedmon Audio released an audiobook of Tucci reading Kurt Vonneguts 1973 novel Breakfast of Champions, in July 2006, Tucci made an appearance on the USA Network TV series Monk, in a performance that earned him a 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series. Tuccis TV series, the medical drama 3 lbs. debuted on CBS on November 14,2006 and he provides the voiceover in the AT&T Wireless Raising the Bar marketing campaign. In 2007, he had a role in medical drama ER. To prepare for the role, he consulted with retired FBI profiler John Douglas, the following year, Tucci directed a revival of the Ken Ludwig play Lend Me a Tenor on Broadway, starring Tony Shalhoub. Tucci played Dr. Abraham Erskine in 2011s Captain America, The First Avenger, in 2014, he portrayed the comedic Joshua Joyce in Transformers, Age of Extinction, a role he is set to reprise in its sequel The Last Knight. Tucci was co-owner of the Finch Tavern restaurant in Croton Falls and his cookbook, The Tucci Cookbook, was released in Autumn 2012. On September 24,2013, Variety and Entertainment Weekly reported that Tucci will guest voice-star in the adult animated series American Dad
12.
Hume Cronyn
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Hume Blake Cronyn, Jr. OC was a Canadian-American actor of stage and screen, who enjoyed a long career, often appearing professionally alongside Jessica Tandy, his wife of over fifty years. Cronyn, one of five children, was born in London, Ontario and his father, Hume Blake Cronyn, Sr. was a businessman and a Member of Parliament for London. His mother, Frances Amelia, was an heiress of the company of the same name. His great-uncle, Benjamin, Jr. Cronyn was also a cousin of Canadian-born theater producer, Robert Whitehead, Cronyn was the first Elmwood School boarder and boarded at Elmwood between 1917 and 1921. After leaving Elmwood, Cronyn went to Ridley College in St. Catharines, and McGill University in Montreal, early in life, Cronyn was an amateur featherweight boxer, having the skills to be nominated for Canadas 1932 Olympic Boxing team. In 1934, the year he joined The Lambs, he made his Broadway debut as a janitor in Hippers Holiday and became known for his versatility. He won a Drama Desk Special Award in 1986, in 1990, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. His first Hollywood film was Alfred Hitchcocks Shadow of a Doubt and he later appeared in Hitchcocks Lifeboat and worked on the screenplays of Rope and Under Capricorn. He was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance in The Seventh Cross, Cronyn bought the screenplay What Nancy Wanted from Norma Barzman, who was later blacklisted with her husband Ben Barzman, with the idea of producing the film and starring Tandy. However, he sold the screenplay to RKO which later filmed it as The Locket, Cronyn also made appearances in television, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode Kill With Kindness and Hawaii Five-O episodes Over Fifty, Steal and Odd Man In. In 1990 he won an Emmy award for his role in the TV Movie Age Old Friends, the show was scheduled to move from radio to television, with Cronyn producing as well as acting in the show. However, Tandy suffered a miscarriage and the debut was delayed a week. The series premiered in July 1954 to warm and enthusiastic reviews, the couple had a daughter, Tandy, and a son, Christopher. Cronyn and Tandy lived in the Bahamas, then at an estate in Pound Ridge, New York. Jessica Tandy died in 1994, aged 85, from ovarian cancer, after he was widowed, Cronyn married author/playwright Susan Cooper in July 1996. His 1991 autobiography was titled A Terrible Liar and he died on June 15,2003, one month before his 92nd birthday. In 1979, Cronyn was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, on July 11,1988 he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, giving him the Post Nominal Letters OC for Life. Cronyn was inducted into Canadas Walk of Fame in 1999 and he also received the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal in 1992 and the Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002
13.
John Lithgow
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John Arthur Lithgow is an American actor, musician, singer, comedian and author. Lithgow has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and his performances in The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment each earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. On the stage, he has appeared in many Broadway productions including the adaptation of Sweet Smell of Success. In 2007, he made his Royal Shakespeare Company debut as Malvolio in Neil Bartletts production of Twelfth Night. He has also recorded music, such as the 1999 album of music, Singin in the Bathtub. His work for children has earned him Grammy Award nominations and two Parents Choice Silver Honor Awards, Lithgow was born in Rochester, New York. His mother, Sarah Jane, was a retired actress and his father, Arthur Washington Lithgow III, was a theatrical producer and director who ran the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. His father was born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to an American family of Scottish and English descent, Lithgow is descended from Mayflower passenger and colonial governor William Bradford. Lithgow attended Harvard College, and graduated with an A. B. magna cum laude in 1967, in history and he lived in Adams House as an undergraduate. Lithgow later served on Harvards Board of Overseers, Lithgow credits a performance at Harvard of Gilbert and Sullivans Utopia Limited with helping him decide to become an actor. After graduation, Lithgow won a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, also, after graduation, he served as the Director of the Arts and Literature Department at WBAI, the Pacifica radio station in New York City. In 1973, Lithgow debuted on Broadway in David Storeys The Changing Room, the following year he starred opposite Lynn Redgrave in My Fat Friend, and in 1976 he starred opposite Meryl Streep in Arthur Millers A Memory of Two Mondays. He was nominated for the Best Actor Tony Awards for Requiem for a Heavyweight, in 2002, Lithgow won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of J. J. Hunsecker in the Broadway adaptation of the 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success, in 2005, Lithgow was elected into the American Theater Hall of Fame for his work on Broadway. He was also nominated for a Best Leading Actor in a Musical Tony for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, in 2004 and 2007, Lithgow debuted Carnival of the Animals elephant character — nurse Mabel Buntz — with the New York City Ballet and Houston Ballet, respectively. In 2007, Lithgow played Malvolio in the Royal Shakespeare Companys production of Twelfth Night, at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 2008 through 2009, Lithgow played Joe Keller in a Broadway revival of Arthur Millers All My Sons. Lithgow starred alongside Jennifer Ehle in Douglas Carter Beanes comedy Mr & Mrs Fitch presented Off-Broadway by Second Stage Theatre from February 22,2010 to April 4,2010. Lithgow returned to Broadway as Joseph Alsop in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of David Auburns new play The Columnist, the National Theatre tempted Lithgow to appear on the London stage in the winter of 2012/13 as Police Magistrate Aeneas Posket in a revival of Arthur Wing Pineros The Magistrate
14.
James Horner
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James Roy Horner was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator of film scores. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for his frequent use of motifs associated with Celtic music. His first major film score was for the 1979 film The Lady in Red, but did not establish himself as a mainstream composer until he worked on the 1982 film Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan. Horner composed music for over 100 films, he won two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, and three Saturn Awards, and was nominated for three British Academy Film Awards. Horner was killed in a single-fatality crash of his Short Tucano turboprop aircraft at the age of 61, Horner was born in 1953 in Los Angeles, California, to Jewish immigrants. His father, Harry Horner, was born in Holíč, then a part of Austria-Hungary and he immigrated to the United States in 1935 and worked as a set designer and art director. His mother, Joan Ruth, was born into a prominent Canadian family, Horners brother Christopher is a writer and documentary filmmaker. James Horner started playing piano at the age of five and his early years were spent in London, where he attended the Royal College of Music. He returned to America, where he attended Verde Valley School in Sedona, Arizona, after he earned a masters degree, he started work on his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied with Paul Chihara, among others. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970s, he finished teaching a course in theory at UCLA. Horner was also a pilot, and owned several small airplanes. Horner began his career scoring films by working for B film director, Horners first composer credit was for Cormans Battle Beyond the Stars. From there, his works gained notice in Hollywood, which enabled him to take on larger projects, One of his first major film scores was for the 1979 film The Lady in Red. Horners major breakthrough came in 1982, when he had the chance to score the music to Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, Horner continued composing music for high-profile releases during the 1980s, including 48 Hrs. Krull, Star Trek III, The Search for Spock, Commando, Cocoon, Aliens, *batteries not included, Willow, Glory and he frequently collaborated with film director Ron Howard, a partnership that began with Cocoon in 1985. Aliens earned Horner his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score in 1987, somewhere Out There, which he co-composed and co-wrote with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for An American Tail, was also nominated that year for Best Original Song. A Dinosaurs Story, The Pagemaster, and Casper, Jumanji, and Balto, Mighty Joe Young, Horners biggest financial and critical success would come with the score to the 1997 film Titanic. The album became the best-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack in history, selling over 27 million copies worldwide, at the 70th Academy Awards, Horner won Oscars for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for My Heart Will Go On
15.
Stephen Goldblatt
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Goldblatt was born on April 29,1945 in Johannesburg, South Africa. When he was seven years old, he and his moved to London. Goldblatt attended Guildford School of Art for photography, but later discovered his interest in film while working on an assignment for Lions Films at Shepperton Studios. It was this interest that motivated him to attend Londons Royal College of Art Film School, upon graduation, he went to work shooting documentaries and animation, much of it in 16mm. Among his assignments were two Disappearing World episodes for Granada TV, Goldblatt began his career as a cameraman for documentaries and commercials. From 1972-75, he worked shooting TV commercials for such as Hugh Hudson, Alan Parker, Ridley Scott. In the 1990s, Goldblatt joined the Batman series with director Joel Schumacher and shot Batman Forever and Batman, in the late 1990s, during a “film sabbatical” and after many years of only taking snapshots, Goldblatt built a darkroom and began to photograph his life and surroundings again. Stephen Goldblatt now lives in Berkeley, California and has three grown children, when he is at home, Goldblatt enjoys tending to his pond and koi fish, gardening, playing his guitar, cooking, reading everyday, and mastering the art of husbanding with his wife Deborah. The Beatles wanted some fresh publicity photos shot by an unknown photographer, one of Goldblatts shots became a two-page spread in Life magazine, and a few others were used as album art on Beatles compilations. Two Academy Award nominations, one for Barbra Streisands The Prince of Tides, three Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for outstanding cinematography for a miniseries or movie, which include Conspiracy, Path to War, and Angels in America. Two Camerimage nominations, in 2007 winning the Lifetime Achievement Award, one Hollywood Film Award in 2007 for Cinematographer of the Year. Stephen Goldblatt at the Internet Movie Database
16.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
17.
Tulane University
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Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It is generally considered the top university and the most selective institution of education in the state of Louisiana. From a nationwide perspective, U. S. News & World Report categorizes Tulane as most selective, the school is known to attract a geographically diverse student body, with 85% of undergraduate students coming from over 300 miles away. The school was founded as a medical college in 1834. The institution was privatized under the endowments of Paul Tulane and Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1884, Tulane is the 9th oldest private university in the Association of American Universities, which consists of major research universities in the United States and Canada. The Tulane University Law School and Tulane University Medical School are considered the 12th oldest and 15th oldest law and medical schools, respectively, members of Congress, heads of Federal agencies, two Surgeon Generals of the United States, U. S. At least two Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the University, the university was founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 partly as a response to the fears of smallpox, yellow fever, and cholera in the United States. The university became only the medical school in the South. In 1847, the legislature established the school as the University of Louisiana, a public university. Subsequently, in 1851, the university established its first academic department, the first president chosen for the new university was Francis Lister Hawks, an Episcopalian priest and prominent citizen of New Orleans at the time. The university was closed from 1861 to 1865 during the American Civil War, after reopening, it went through a period of financial challenges because of an extended agricultural depression in the South which affected the nations economy. Paul Tulane, owner of a dry goods and clothing business. This donation led to the establishment of a Tulane Educational Fund and this act created the Tulane University of Louisiana. The university was privatized, and is one of only a few American universities to be converted from a public institution to a private one. In 1884, William Preston Johnston became the first president of Tulane and he had succeeded Robert E. Lee as president of Washington and Lee University after Lees death. He had moved to Louisiana and become president of Louisiana State University, in 1885, the university established its graduate division, later becoming the Graduate School. One year later, gifts from Josephine Louise Newcomb totaling over $3.6 million, Newcomb was the first coordinate college for women in the United States and became a model for such institutions as Pembroke College and Barnard College. In 1894 the College of Technology formed, which would become the School of Engineering
18.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, which simultaneously serves as the nations prime federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the U. S. Department of Justice, Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading U. S. counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, although many of the FBIs functions are unique, its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and the Russian FSB. At an FBI field office, a senior-level FBI officer concurrently serves as the representative of the Director of National Intelligence. Despite its domestic focus, the FBI also maintains a significant international footprint and these overseas offices exist primarily for the purpose of coordination with foreign security services and do not usually conduct unilateral operations in the host countries. The FBI can and does at times carry out secret activities overseas, just as the CIA has a domestic function. The FBI was established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation and its name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. The FBI headquarters is the J. Edgar Hoover Building, located in Washington, in the fiscal year 2012, the Bureaus total budget was approximately $8.12 billion. In 1896, the National Bureau of Criminal Identification was founded, the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley created an urgent perception that America was under threat from anarchists. The Departments of Justice and Labor had been keeping records on anarchists for years, the Justice Department had been tasked with the regulation of interstate commerce since 1887, though it lacked the staff to do so. It had made little effort to relieve its staff shortage until the breakage of the Oregon land fraud scandal at approximately the turn of the 20th Century, President Roosevelt instructed Attorney General Charles Bonaparte to organize an autonomous investigative service that would report only to the Attorney General. Bonaparte reached out to other agencies, including the Secret Service, for personnel, on May 27,1908, the Congress forbade this use of Treasury employees by the Justice Department, citing fears that the new agency would serve as a secret police department. Again at Roosevelts urging, Bonaparte moved to organize a formal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Investigation was created on July 26,1908, after the Congress had adjourned for the summer. Attorney General Bonaparte, using Department of Justice expense funds, hired thirty-four people, including veterans of the Secret Service. Its first Chief was Stanley Finch, Bonaparte notified the Congress of these actions in December 1908. The bureaus first official task was visiting and making surveys of the houses of prostitution in preparation for enforcing the White Slave Traffic Act, or Mann Act, in 1932, the bureau was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation. The following year it was linked to the Bureau of Prohibition, in the same year, its name was officially changed from the Division of Investigation to the present-day Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI. J. Edgar Hoover served as Director from 1924 to 1972, a combined 48 years with the BOI, DOI, Hoover was substantially involved in most major cases and projects that the FBI handled during his tenure
19.
Car bomb
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A car bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, is an improvised explosive device placed inside a car or other vehicle and detonated. The latter type may be parked up or the vehicle might be used to deliver the bomb. It is commonly used as a weapon of terrorism or guerrilla warfare, the gasoline in the vehicles fuel tank may make the explosion of the bomb more powerful by dispersing and igniting the fuel. Car bombs are effective weapons as they are a way to transport a large amount of explosives to the intended target. A car bomb also produces copious shrapnel, or flying debris, in recent years, car bombs have become widely used by suicide bombers. Since the height of the Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign in 1991, where major public roads pass near buildings, road closures may be the only option. Historically these tactics have encouraged potential bombers to target soft or unprotected targets, in the Syrian Civil War, and Iraq, the car bomb concept was modified so that it could be driven and detonated by a driver, but armoured to withstand incoming fire. The vehicle would be driven to its area, in a similar fashion to a kamikaze plane of WW2. These were known by the acronym SVBIED or VBIEDs and this saw generally civilian cars with armour plating added, that would protect the car for as long as possible, so that it could reach its intended target. Cars were sometimes driven into enemy troop areas, or into incoming enemy columns, most often, the SVIEDs were used by ISIS against Government forces, but also used by Syrian rebels against government troops. In some cases trucks were used, as well as cars. They were sometimes used to start an assault, generally the vehicles had a large space that would contain very heavy explosives. In some cases, animal drawn carts with improvised explosive devices have been used, tactically, a single vehicle may be used, or an initial breakthrough vehicle, then followed by another vehicle. Though using a less refined technology, the principle of the hellburner is similar to that of the car bomb. The first possible suicide car bombing was the Bath School bombings of 1927, mass-casualty car bombing, and especially suicide car bombing, is currently a predominantly Middle Eastern phenomenon. The tactic was first introduced to the region by the Stern Gang, the tactic was widely used in the Lebanese Civil War by the Islamic fundamentalist group Hezbollah. A notable suicide car bombing was the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, marines and 58 French military personnel. The perpetrator of attacks has never been positively confirmed
20.
Brown pelican
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The brown pelican is a small pelican found in the Americas. It is one of the best known and most prominent birds found in the areas of the southern and western United States. It is one of only three species found in the Western Hemisphere and one of the only two that feeds by diving into the water. The brown pelican is the smallest of the eight species of pelican and it is 106–137 cm in length, weighs from 2.75 to 5.5 kg and has a wingspan from 1.83 to 2.5 m. Through most of its range, the pelican is an unmistakable bird. Like all pelicans, this species has a large bill,28 to 34.8 cm long in this case. The head is white but often gets a yellowish wash in adult birds, the bill is grayish overall in most birds, though breeding birds become reddish on the underside of the throat. The back, rump, and tail are streaked with gray and dark brown, in adult pelicans, the breast and belly are a blackish-brown and the legs and feet are black. The juvenile is similar but has a neck and white underparts. The Peruvian pelican, previously considered a subspecies of brown pelican, is now considered to be a separate species and it has very similar plumage to the brown, but it is noticeably larger. The brown and Peruvian pelicans may overlap in areas along the Pacific coast of South America. The brown pelican lives on both coasts in the Americas, on the Atlantic Coast and Gulf Coast they distribute from Nova Scotia to Venezuela, and to the mouth of the Amazon River. Along the Atlantic, they are less common north of the Carolinas. On the Pacific Ocean they are found from British Columbia to northern Peru, in the Pacific, they are fairly common along the coast of California, Mexico and Central America. Some immature birds may stray to inland freshwater lakes, after nesting, North American birds move in flocks further north along the coasts, returning to warmer waters for winter. They are also common in Mangrove swamps, Pelicans are very gregarious birds, they live in flocks of both sexes throughout the year. They are exceptionally buoyant due to the air sacks beneath their skin and in their bones. In level flight, pelicans fly in groups, with their heads back on their shoulders
21.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
22.
Cynthia Nixon
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Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress. She is known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series, Sex and she reprised the role in the films Sex and the City and Sex and the City 2. Other film credits include Amadeus, The Pelican Brief, Little Manhattan,5 Flights Up, James White, Nixon made her Broadway debut in the 1980 revival of The Philadelphia Story. Other Broadway credits include The Real Thing, Hurlyburly, Indiscretions, The Women, Wit and her other television roles include playing political figures Eleanor Roosevelt in Warm Springs, Michele Davis in Too Big to Fail, and playing Nancy Reagan in the 2016 television film Killing Reagan. Nixon was born in New York City, the child of Anne Elizabeth, originally from Chicago. She is of English and German descent and she is no relation to the late U. S. President Richard Nixon. Nixons parents divorced when she was six years old and she graduated from Hunter College High School and attended Barnard College. In the spring of 1986, she studied abroad with Semester at Sea, Nixons first onscreen appearance was as an imposter on To Tell the Truth, where her mother worked. She began acting at age 12 as the object of a wealthy school mates crush in The Seven Wishes of a Rich Kid and she made her feature debut co-starring with Kristy McNichol and Tatum ONeal in Little Darlings. She made her Broadway debut as Dinah Lord in a 1980 revival of The Philadelphia Story, in 1984, while a freshman at Barnard College, Nixon made theatrical history by simultaneously appearing in two hit Broadway plays directed by Mike Nichols. These were The Real Thing, where Nixon played the daughter of Jeremy Irons and Christine Baranski, and Hurlyburly, the two theaters were just two blocks apart and Nixons roles were both short, so she could run from one to the other. Onscreen, she played the role of Salieris maid/spy, Lorl, in 1985, she appeared alongside Jeff Daniels in Lanford Wilsons Lemon Sky at Second Stage Theatre. She landed her first major supporting role in a movie as an intelligent teenager who aids her boyfriend in building a bomb in Marshall Brickmans The Manhattan Project. She reprised the role for the 2004 sequel Tanner on Tanner and she was the guest star in the second episode of the long running NBC television series Law & Order. She played the role of a woman in a February 1993 episode of Murder, She Wrote titled. Nixon was a member of the Off-Broadway theatrical troupe Drama Dept. Nixon has contributed supporting performances to Addams Family Values, Babys Day Out, Marvins Room. She raised her profile significantly as one of the four regulars on HBOs successful comedy Sex, Nixon received three Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning the award in 2004, for the shows final season. In 2002, she landed a role in the indie comedy Igby Goes Down
23.
Jake Weber
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Jake Weber is an English actor, known in film for his role as Michael in Dawn of the Dead and for his role as Drew in Meet Joe Black. In television, he is known for playing Joe DuBois, the husband of psychic Allison DuBois, in 2001 and 2002, Weber was a series regular in HBOs The Mind of the Married Man and made guest appearances on Law & Order, Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue. As of autumn 2016, Weber joined the cast, in a role, of ABCs Secrets. Weber was born in London, the son of Susan Ann Caroline, a British socialite, and Thomas Evelyn Tommy Weber and his father was born in Denmark of Danish and English descent. His mother is of half Sephardic Jewish and half British Isles ancestry, through his English maternal grandmother, Weber is the great-grandson of politician Archibald Weigall and the great-great-grandson of business magnate Sir John Blundell Maple, 1st Baronet. Webers mother, Susan, was diagnosed with depression and LSD-induced schizophrenia and died of an overdose when Jake was 8 years old. His father, who sold drugs and utilized both his sons in trafficking the drugs to various international destinations, struggled with drug addiction until his death in 2006. In an article in The Times of 20 May 2010, Weber recalled that when he was 8 years old, his father used him as a mule to bring cocaine out for Mick. He has one sibling, a brother, Charley, Weber attended Summerhill School, Leiston, Suffolk. A. He attended The Juilliard Schools Drama Division as a member of Group 19, Weber also studied at Russias famed Moscow Art Theatre. Jagger joked about the rarely seen original footage that reveals eight-year-old Weber rolling marijuana joints for them, Weber scored one of his premier leads as Dr. That programme did not last long, and neither did the Mike Binder sitcom The Mind of the Married Man, in which Weber signed on as one of the leads, Chicago newspaper employee Jake Berman. As of autumn 2016, Weber is now a recurring guest-star as the psychotherapist husband of Detective Andrea Cornell in the season of the ABC murder mystery, Secrets. The series was picked up for a second season by ABC after a successful limited run last spring as a midseason replacement. He has performed on Broadway and off-Broadway, as well, Weber and Elizabeth Carey have a son, Waylon. Jake Weber at the Internet Movie Database
24.
Casey Biggs
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Casey Patrick Biggs is an American actor, best known throughout the Star Trek community for starring as the Cardassian Damar, on Star Trek, Deep Space Nine. Biggs was born on April 4,1955 in Toledo, Ohio, when he was very young, he was a foster child. He decided to pursue acting when he was a student at Central Catholic High School and he received a BFA from Juilliard in 1977 and first did some guest roles in television shows. In 1995 he was nominated for the role of Damar in the science fiction show Star Trek, first intended as a minor character, Damar later became one of the major figures in the show, leading the entire Cardassian Union and having a major influence on the shows events. Biggs later returned to the Star Trek universe, making a guest appearance on Star Trek, biggss other TV roles include the soap operas Ryans Hope as Fenno Moore from 1988–1989, and on General Hospital as Chad Wainwright in 1990. Another television role was on the 1990s TV series Stat and he has appeared in movies such as The Pelican Brief, Broken Arrow, Dragonfly and the Star Trek documentary Trekkies 2. Biggs currently teaches directing and acting at The New School for Drama, Biggs is now the face of Paso Robles Wine. He currently stars in their commercials, Biggs appeared in the HBO docudrama Too Big To Fail on the 2008 financial crisis as Wells Fargo chairman Richard Kovacevich. He was married to Roxann Dawson who played BElanna Torres in Star Trek and their marriage ended before either of them were in the shows. Casey Biggs at the Internet Movie Database Casey Biggs at AllMovie Casey Biggs official website Interview with Casey Biggs & The Enterprise Blues Band on Slice of SciFi
25.
Roger Ebert
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Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic and historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the two verbally sparred and traded humorous barbs while discussing films. They created and trademarked the phrase Two Thumbs Up, used when both hosts gave the film a positive review. After Siskel died in 1999, Ebert continued hosting the show with various co-hosts and then, starting in 2000, Ebert lived with cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands from 2002. This required treatments necessitating the removal of his jaw, which cost him the ability to speak or eat normally. His ability to write remained unimpaired, however, and he continued to publish frequently both online and in print until his death on April 4,2013. Roger Joseph Ebert was born in Urbana, Illinois, the child of Annabel, a bookkeeper, and Walter Harry Ebert. He was raised Roman Catholic, attending St. Marys elementary school and his paternal grandparents were German immigrants and his maternal ancestry was Irish and Dutch. In his senior year, he was president and editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper. In 1958, he won the Illinois High School Association state speech championship in radio speaking, regarding his early influences in film criticism, Ebert wrote in the 1998 parody collection Mad About the Movies, I learned to be a movie critic by reading Mad magazine. Mads parodies made me aware of the machine inside the skin – of the way a movie might look original on the outside, I did not read the magazine, I plundered it for clues to the universe. Pauline Kael lost it at the movies, I lost it at Mad magazine, Ebert began taking classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an early-entrance student, completing his high-school courses while also taking his first university class. After graduating from Urbana High School in 1960, Ebert then attended and received his degree in 1964. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, One of the first movie reviews he ever wrote was a review of La Dolce Vita, published in The Daily Illini in October 1961. Ebert spent a semester as a student in the department of English there before attending the University of Cape Town on a Rotary fellowship for a year. He returned from Cape Town to his studies at Illinois for two more semesters and then, after being accepted as a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. Instead Kogan referred Ebert to the city editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Hoge and he attended doctoral classes at the University of Chicago while working as a general reporter at the Sun-Times for a year
26.
Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, in February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcasts Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, since 2007, the websites editor-in-chief has been Matt Atchity. The name, Rotten Tomatoes, derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly The Rotten Tomatoes Show, featuring hosts, a shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, InfoMania, which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced TV Zone, a section for reviewing scripted TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12,1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U. S. As a fan of Jackie Chans, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chans movies as they were being published in the United States, the first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors. The website was an success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo. and USA Today within the first week of its launch. They officially launched it on April 1,2000, in June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired rottentomatoes. com for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN was bought by News Corps Fox Interactive Media, in January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster. The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies, in May 2011, Flixster was acquired by Warner Bros. In early 2009, Current Television launched the version of the web review site. It was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek, the show aired every Thursday at 10,30 EST on the Current TV network. The last episode aired on September 16,2010 and it returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create, one group, The Golden Oyster Awards, accepted votes of members for different awards, as if in parallel to the better-known Oscars or Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups, announcing, in the meantime, please use the Forums to continue your conversations about your favorite movie topics. As of February 2011, new community features have been added, for example, users can no longer sort films by fresh ratings from rotten ratings, and vice versa
27.
CinemaScore
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CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their experiences with letter grades, reports the results. A Yom Kippur donation card with tabs inspired the survey cards given to audience members, the company conducts surveys to audiences who have seen a film in theaters, asking them to rate the film and specifying what drew them to the film. Its results are published in Entertainment Weekly, CinemaScore pollster Dede Gilmore reported the trend in 1993, Most movies get easily a B-plus. I think people come wanting the entertainment, theyre more lenient with their grades. But as do it more and more, they get to be stronger critics, in 1993, films that were graded with an A included Scent of a Woman, A Few Good Men, and Falling Down. Films graded with a B included Sommersby and Untamed Heart, a C-grade film for the year was Body of Evidence. CinemaScore at first reported its findings to consumers, including a newspaper column, after 20th Century Fox approached the company in 1989, it began selling the data to studios instead. A website was launched by CinemaScore in 1999, after three years delay in which the president sought sponsorship from magazines and video companies, brad Peppard was president of CinemaScore Online from 1999 to 2002. The website included a database of nearly 2,000 feature films, prior to the launch, CinemaScore results had been published in Las Vegas Review-Journal and Reno Gazette-Journal. CinemaScores expansion to the Internet included a weekly email subscription for cinephiles to keep up with reports of audience reactions, in 1999, CinemaScore was rating approximately 140 films a year, including 98–99% of major studio releases. In the summer of 2002, CinemaScore reported that the season had the biggest collective grade since 1995, in the summer of 2000,25 out of 32 films received either an A or B grade. Twenty-six of the summer of 2001s 30 films got similar grades, while 32 of the summer of 2002s 34 films got similar grades, thirty-five to 45 teams of CinemaScore representatives are present in 25 large cities across North America. Each Friday, representatives in five randomly chosen cities give opening-day audiences a small survey card. The card asks for age, gender, a grade for the film between A+ and F, whether they would rent or buy the film on DVD or Blu-ray, and why they chose the film. CinemaScore typically receives about 400 cards per film, the company estimates a 65% response rate, the ratings are divided by gender and age groups, film studios and other subscribers receive the data at about 11 p. m. Pacific Time. Subsequent advertisements for highly ranked films often cite their CinemaScore grades, an A+ grade from CinemaScore for a film typically predicts a successful box office. From 1982 to August 2011, only 52 films received the top grade, A+ films include Titanic, Tangled, The Kings Speech, A Few Good Men, Driving Miss Daisy, and Toy Story 2
28.
Metacritic
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Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
29.
Variety (magazine)
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Variety is a weekly American entertainment trade magazine and website owned by Penske Media Corporation. The last daily printed edition was put out on March 19,2013, Variety originally reported on theater and vaudeville. Variety has been published since December 16,1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering vaudeville with its headquarters in New York City, on January 19,1907, Variety published what is considered the first film review in history. In 1933, Sime Silverman launched Daily Variety, based in Hollywood, Sime Silverman had passed on the editorship of the Weekly Variety to Abel Green as his replacement in 1931, he remained as publisher until his death in 1933 soon after launching the Daily. His son Sidne Silverman, known as Skigie, succeeded him as publisher of both publications, both Sidne and his wife, stage actress Marie Saxon, died of tuberculosis. Their only son Syd Silverman, born 1932, was the heir to what was then Variety Inc. Young Syds legal guardian Harold Erichs oversaw Variety Inc. until 1956, after that date Syd Silverman was publisher of both the Weekly Variety in New York and the Daily Variety in Hollywood, until the sale of both papers in 1987 to the Cahners Corp. In L. A. the Daily was edited by Tom Pryor from 1959 until 1988, for twenty years its editor-in-chief was Peter Bart, originally only of the weekly New York edition, with Michael Silverman running the Daily in Hollywood. Bart had worked previously at Paramount Pictures and The New York Times, in April 2009, Bart moved to the position of vice president and editorial director, characterized online as Boffo No More, Bart Up and Out at Variety. From mid 2009 to 2013, Timothy M. Gray oversaw the publication as Editor-in-Chief, after over 30 years of various reporter, in October 2014, Eller and Wallenstein were upped to Co-Editors in Chief, with Littleton continuing to oversee the trades television coverage. This dissemination comes in the form of columns, news stories, images, video, Cahners Publishing purchased Variety from the Silverman family in 1987. On December 7,1988, Barts predecessor, Roger Watkins, proposed, upon its launch, the new-look Variety measured one inch shorter with a washed-out color on the front. In October 2012, Reed Business Information, the periodicals owner, PMC is the owner of Deadline. com, which since the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike has been considered Varietys largest competitor in online showbiz news. In October,2012, Jay Penske announced that the paywall would come down, the print publication would stay. A significant portion of the advertising revenue comes during the film-award season leading up to the Academy Awards. During this Awards Season, large numbers of colorful, full-page For Your Consideration advertisements inflate the size of Variety to double or triple its usual page count, paid circulation for the weekly Variety magazine in 2013 was 40,000. Each copy of each Variety issue is read by an average of three people, with a total readership of 120,000. Variety. com has 17 million unique monthly visitors, Variety is a weekly entertainment publication with a broad coverage of movies, television, theater, music and technology, written for entertainment executives
30.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
31.
VHS
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The Video Home System is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes. Developed by Victor Company of Japan in the early 1970s, it was released in Japan in late 1976, from the 1950s, magnetic tape video recording became a major contributor to the television industry, via the first commercialized video tape recorders. At that time, the devices were used only in professional environments such as television studios. In the 1970s, videotape entered home use, creating the video industry and changing the economics of the television. The television industry viewed videocassette recorders as having the power to disrupt their business, in the 1980s and 1990s, at the peak of VHSs popularity, there were videotape format wars in the home video industry. Two of the formats, VHS and Betamax, received the most media exposure, VHS eventually won the war, dominating 60 percent of the North American market by 1980 and emerging as the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period. Optical disc formats later began to better quality than analog consumer video tape such as standard. The earliest of these formats, LaserDisc, was not widely adopted, however, after the introduction of the DVD format in 1997, VHSs market share began to decline. By 2008, DVD had replaced VHS as the preferred method of distribution. After several attempts by other companies, the first commercially successful VTR, at a price of US$50,000 in 1956, and US$300 for a 90-minute reel of tape, it was intended only for the professional market. Kenjiro Takayanagi, a broadcasting pioneer then working for JVC as its vice president, saw the need for his company to produce VTRs for the Japan market. In 1959, JVC developed a video tape recorder. In 1964, JVC released the DV220, which would be the companys standard VTR until the mid-1970s, in 1969 JVC collaborated with Sony Corporation and Matsushita Electric in building a video recording standard for the Japanese consumer. The effort produced the U-matic format in 1971, which was the first format to become a unified standard, U-matic was successful in business and some broadcast applications, but due to cost and limited recording time very few of the machines were sold for home use. Soon after, Sony and Matsushita broke away from the collaboration effort, Sony started working on Betamax, while Matsushita started working on VX. JVC released the CR-6060 in 1975, based on the U-matic format, Sony and Matsushita also produced U-matic systems of their own. In 1971, JVC engineers Yuma Shiraishi and Shizuo Takano put together a team to develop a consumer-based VTR, by the end of 1971 they created an internal diagram titled VHS Development Matrix, which established twelve objectives for JVCs new VTR. These included, The system must be compatible with any television set
32.
Blu-ray
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Blu-ray or Blu-ray Disc is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was designed to supersede the DVD format, in that it is capable of storing high-definition, the plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Conventional Blu-ray Disc discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the standard for feature-length video discs. Triple-layer discs and quadruple layers are available for BD-XL re-writer drives, the name Blu-ray refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs. The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as films and physical distribution of video games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4. Besides the hardware specifications, Blu-ray is associated with a set of multimedia formats, high-definition video may be stored on Blu-ray discs with up to 2160p resolution, at up to 60 frames per second. DVD discs had been limited to a resolution of 480p or 576p. The BD format was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing makers of consumer electronics, computer hardware, Sony unveiled the first Blu-ray disc prototypes in October 2000, and the first prototype player was released in April 2003 in Japan. Afterwards, it continued to be developed until its release in June 2006. During the high definition disc format war, Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. Toshiba, the company that supported HD DVD, conceded in February 2008. According to Media Research, high-definition software sales in the US were slower in the first two years than DVD software sales, Blu-ray faces competition from video on demand and the continued sale of DVDs. As of January 2016, 44% of U. S. broadband households had a Blu-ray player, the information density of the DVD format was limited by the wavelength of the laser diodes used. Following protracted development, blue laser diodes operating at 405 nanometers became available on a production basis, Sony started two projects in collaboration with Philips applying the new diodes, UDO, and DVR Blue, a format of rewritable discs that would eventually become Blu-ray Disc. The core technologies of the formats are similar, the first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000 by Sony. A trademark for the Blue Disc logo was filed February 9,2001, on February 19,2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray Disc, and Blu-ray Disc Founders was founded by the nine initial members. The first consumer device arrived in stores on April 10,2003, the Sony BDZ-S77, but there was no standard for prerecorded video, and no movies were released for this player. On October 4,2004, the name Blu-ray Disc Founders was officially changed to the Blu-ray Disc Association, the Blu-ray Disc physical specifications were completed in 2004
33.
DVD
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DVD is a digital optical disc storage format invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. The medium can store any kind of data and is widely used for software. DVDs offer higher capacity than compact discs while having the same dimensions. Pre-recorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically stamp data onto the DVD, such discs are a form of DVD-ROM because data can only be read and not written or erased. Blank recordable DVD discs can be recorded using a DVD recorder. Rewritable DVDs can be recorded and erased many times, DVDs containing other types of information may be referred to as DVD data discs. The OED also states that in 1995, The companies said the name of the format will simply be DVD. Toshiba had been using the name ‘digital video disk’, but that was switched to ‘digital versatile disk’ after computer companies complained that it left out their applications, Digital versatile disc is the explanation provided in a DVD Forum Primer from 2000 and in the DVD Forums mission statement. There were several formats developed for recording video on optical discs before the DVD, Optical recording technology was invented by David Paul Gregg and James Russell in 1958 and first patented in 1961. A consumer optical disc data format known as LaserDisc was developed in the United States and it used much larger discs than the later formats. CD Video used analog video encoding on optical discs matching the established standard 120 mm size of audio CDs, Video CD became one of the first formats for distributing digitally encoded films in this format, in 1993. In the same year, two new optical disc formats were being developed. By the time of the launches for both formats in January 1995, the MMCD nomenclature had been dropped, and Philips and Sony were referring to their format as Digital Video Disc. Representatives from the SD camp asked IBM for advice on the system to use for their disc. Alan E. Bell, a researcher from IBMs Almaden Research Center, got that request and this group was referred to as the Technical Working Group, or TWG. On August 14,1995, an ad hoc group formed from five computer companies issued a release stating that they would only accept a single format. The TWG voted to both formats unless the two camps agreed on a single, converged standard. They recruited Lou Gerstner, president of IBM, to pressure the executives of the warring factions, as a result, the DVD specification provided a storage capacity of 4.7 GB for a single-layered, single-sided disc and 8.5 GB for a dual-layered, single-sided disc
34.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
35.
Doubleday (publisher)
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Doubleday is an American publishing company founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 that by 1947 was the largest in the United States. It published the work of mostly U. S. authors under a number of imprints, in 2009 Doubleday was merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. The firm was founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday, one of their first bestsellers was The Days Work by Rudyard Kipling. Other authors published by the company in its early years include W. Somerset Maugham, theodore Roosevelt, Jr. later served as a vice-president of the company. In 1900, the company became Doubleday, Page & Company when Walter Hines Page joined as a new partner, in 1922, the founders son, Nelson Doubleday, joined the firm. In 1910, Doubleday, Page, and Co. moved its operations, the Doubleday company purchased much of the land on the east side of Franklin Avenue, and estate homes were built for many of its executives on Fourth Street. In 1916, company co-founder and Garden City resident Walter Hines Page was named Ambassador to Great Britain, in 1927, Doubleday merged with the George H. Doran Company, creating Doubleday, Doran, then the largest publishing business in the English-speaking world. In 1946, the company became Doubleday and Company, Nelson Doubleday, Jr. resigned as president, but continued as chairman of the board until his death on January 11,1949. Douglas Black took over and was president from 1946 to 1963, by 1947, Doubleday was the largest publisher in the US, with annual sales of over 30 million books. In 1980, the company bought the New York Mets baseball team and it defeated the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series in 1986 in a classic 7-game contest. The company had offices in London and Paris and wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with joint ventures in the UK and the Netherlands. Doubleday sold the company to Bertelsmann in 1986, and teamed up with minority owner Fred Wilpon to buy the Mets in his own name. In 1988, portions of the firm part of the Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. In late 2008 and early 2009, the Doubleday imprint was merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, image Books, Catholic Books—still a Doubleday unit as part of Doubleday Religious Publishing Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, a literary imprint established in 1990. Talese, the publisher and editorial director, is a senior vice president of Doubleday
36.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
37.
Turner Classic Movies
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Turner Classic Movies is an American movie-oriented basic cable and satellite television network owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner. TCM is headquartered at the Techwood Campus in Atlanta, Georgias Midtown business district, historically, the channels programming consisted mainly of featured classic theatrically released feature films from the Turner Entertainment film library – which comprises films from Warner Bros. However, TCM now has licensing deals with other Hollywood film studios as well as its Time Warner sister company, Warner Bros. and occasionally shows more recent films. The channel is available in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, France, Spain, Nordic countries, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. In 1986, eight years before the launch of Turner Classic Movies, concerns over Turner Entertainments corporate debt load resulted in Turner selling the studio that October back to Kirk Kerkorian, from whom Turner had purchased the studio less than a year before. As part of the deal, Turner Entertainment retained ownership of MGMs library of films released up to May 9,1986, Turner Broadcasting System was split into two companies, Turner Broadcasting System and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and reincorporated as MGM/UA Communications Co. The film library of Turner Entertainment would serve as the form of programming for TCM upon the networks launch. After the library was acquired, MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner to continue distributing the pre-May 1986 MGM and to begin distributing the pre-1950 Warner Bros. film libraries for video release. Turner Classic Movies debuted on April 14,1994, at 6,00 p. m. Eastern Time, the date and time were chosen for their historical significance as the exact centennial anniversary of the first public movie showing in New York City. The first movie broadcast on TCM was the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, at the time of its launch, TCM was available to approximately one million cable television subscribers. AMC had broadened its content to feature colorized and more recent films by 2002. In the early 90s AMC abandoned its format, leaving TCM as the only movie-oriented cable channel to devote its programming entirely to classic films without commercial interruption. In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner, which besides placing Turner Classic Movies, in March 1999, MGM paid Warner Bros. and gave up the home video rights to the MGM/UA films owned by Turner to Warner Home Video. In 2008, TCM won a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, in April 2010, Turner Classic Movies held the first TCM Classic Film Festival, an event – now held annually – at the Graumans Chinese Theater and the Graumans Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. In 2007, some of the films featured on TCM were made available for streaming on TCMs website. The networks programming season runs from February until the following March of each year when a retrospective of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies is shown, called 31 Days of Oscar. Turner Classic Movies presents many of its features in their original aspect ratio whenever possible – widescreen films broadcast on TCM are letterboxed on the standard definition feed. TCM also regularly presents widescreen presentations of films not available in the format on any video release
38.
Turner Broadcasting System
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The company was founded in 1970, and merged with Time Warner on October 10,1996. It now operates as a unit of Time Warner. The companys assets include CNN, HLN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, the companys current chairman and CEO is John K. Martin. Across Interstate 75/85 from the Techwood campus is the home of Turners WTBS superstation. By careful programming acquisitions, Turner guided the station to success, during December 1976, WTCG originated the superstation concept, transmitting via satellite to cable systems. On December 17,1976 at 1,00 pm, WTCG Channel 17s signal was beamed via satellite to its four cable systems in Grand Island, Nebraska, Newport News, Virginia, Troy, Alabama, and Newton, Kansas. All four cable systems started receiving the 1948 Dana Andrews - Cesar Romero film Deep Waters already in progress, the movie had started 30 minutes earlier. WTCG went from being a television station to a major TV network that every one of the 24,000 households outside of the 675,000 in Atlanta was receiving coast-to-coast. WTCG became a so-called Superstation and created a precedent of todays basic cable television, HBO had gone to satellite transmissions to distribute its signal nationally in 1975, but that was a service cable subscribers were made to pay extra to receive. Ted Turners innovation signaled the start of the cable revolution. In 1979, the changed its name to Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. On June 1,1980, CNN was launched at 17,00 EST becoming the first 24-hour news cable channel, in 1981, Turner Broadcasting System acquired Brut Productions from Faberge Inc. In 1984, Turner initiated Cable Music Channel, his competition for WASECs MTV, the channel was short-lived, but helped influence the original format of VH1. In 1986, after an attempt to acquire CBS, Turner purchased the film studio MGM/UA Entertainment Co. from Kirk Kerkorian for $1.5 billion. Following the acquisition, Turner had a debt and sold parts of the acquisition. MGM/UA Entertainment was sold back to Kirk Kerkorian, the MGM/UA Studio lot in Culver City was sold to Lorimar/Telepictures. Turner kept MGMs pre-May 1986 and pre-merger film and TV library Turner Entertainment Co. was founded on August 4,1986, on October 3,1988, the company launched Turner Network Television. Turner expanded its presence in movie production and distribution, first with the 1991 purchase of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, on December 22,1993, Turner acquired Castle Rock Entertainment
39.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
40.
CBS Interactive
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CBS Interactive Inc. is an American media company and is a division of the CBS Corporation. It is a content network for information and entertainment. Its websites cover news, sports, entertainment, technology and business and it is headed by Jim Lanzone. On May 30,2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last. fm for £140 million, on June 30,2008, CNET Networks was acquired by CBS and the assets were merged into CBS Interactive, including Metacritic, GameSpot, TV. com, and Movietome. In April 2014, CBS Interactive quietly acquired a site Modern Auto Reviews to roll its extensive user database and it was never disclosed how much CBS Interactive paid for the acquisition but it likely to be in the 10-15 million dollar range. CBS Interactives entertainment brands are CBS, CBS Interactives music brands are Last. fm, the music discovery service and listening service, and MetroLyrics, lyrics, videos and news for music. CBS Interactives sports brands are CBSSports. com, the home of CBS Sports, with news, scores, video. BNET, founded in 2007, was a magazine dedicated to issues of business management. It merged into CBS MoneyWatch in June 2008 to become the anchor to CBS business-related content
