1.
Alan J. Pakula
–
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
Alan J. Pakula
–
Pakula in Sweden, 1990.
2.
The Pelican Brief
–
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
The Pelican Brief
–
First edition cover
3.
John Grisham
–
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
John Grisham
–
John Grisham in 2009
John Grisham
–
This house in Lepanto, Arkansas was the house used in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie A Painted House
4.
Julia Roberts
–
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
Julia Roberts
–
Roberts at the 2011
Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Jesus Henry Christ
Julia Roberts
–
Roberts at the
Deauville American Film Festival in Normandy, France, September 1990.
Julia Roberts
–
Brad Pitt,
George Clooney,
Matt Damon,
Andy García, and Roberts with
Ocean's Eleven director,
Steven Soderbergh in December 2001.
Julia Roberts
–
Deployed troops show Julia Roberts the controls of an
F-15.
5.
Denzel Washington
–
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
Denzel Washington
–
Washington in 2000
Denzel Washington
–
Washington at the
62nd Academy Awards, at which he won
Best Supporting Actor for the film
Glory.
Denzel Washington
–
Washington's signature in front of
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Denzel Washington
–
Washington after a performance of Julius Caesar in May 2005.
6.
Sam Shepard
–
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
Sam Shepard
–
Sam Shepard in 2004
Sam Shepard
–
Shepard at the age of 21.
7.
Tony Goldwyn
–
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
Tony Goldwyn
–
Goldwyn in May 2014
Tony Goldwyn
–
Goldwyn at the film premiere of
Divergent on March 18, 2014
8.
James Sikking
–
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
James Sikking
–
James B. Sikking at the Atheneum Hotel, London
9.
William Atherton
–
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
William Atherton
–
William Atherton in February 2009
10.
Robert Culp
–
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
Robert Culp
–
Robert Culp in a publicity photo in 1965.
Robert Culp
–
Trackdown
Robert Culp
–
Culp with
Kamala Devi in I Spy, 1966.
11.
Stanley Tucci
–
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
Stanley Tucci
–
Tucci at the 18th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival 2010.
Stanley Tucci
–
Tucci at the James Beard Awards in May 2009
Stanley Tucci
–
Tucci with
Transformers: Age of Extinction castmates Melanie Specht and Greg Matthew Anderson in August 2014
12.
Hume Cronyn
–
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
Hume Cronyn
–
Wife
Jessica Tandy and Cronyn at the 1988 Emmy Awards
Hume Cronyn
–
Cronyn in Lifeboat, 1944
13.
John Lithgow
–
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
John Lithgow
–
John Lithgow in
Central Park in 2007
John Lithgow
–
John Lithgow on the red carpet at the 40th Annual Primetime
Emmy Awards on August 28, 1988.
14.
James Horner
–
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
James Horner
–
James Horner in 2015
15.
Stephen Goldblatt
–
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
Stephen Goldblatt
–
Goldblatt in 2010
16.
Warner Bros.
–
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
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
–
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
–
Lobby card from Open Your Eyes (1919)
Warner Bros.
–
Lobby card from
The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
17.
Tulane University Law School
–
Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulanes Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana, established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States. Students are permitted to survey a range of subject areas or to concentrate in one or more. Tulane Law Schools environmental law and sports law programs are considered among the strongest nationwide, for more than 20 years, the school has hosted the Tulane Corporate Law Institute, a preeminent mergers and acquisitions and corporate law forum. The law schools 160, 000-square-foot building, John Giffen Weinmann Hall, was completed in 1995, the law school has been on the Uptown campus since 1906, and has been housed in several buildings since then, until the completion of Weinmann Hall. The law school was located in Jones Hall from 1969 until 1995, next to Weinmann Hall on the 6200 block of Freret Street is the Law Annex, a light gray cobblestone building that houses the Career Development Office. The Law Annex was a faculty residence before being converted for its current use, the Uptown campus is marked by many large live oak trees and historically significant buildings. Architectural styles include Richardsonian Romanesque, Elizabethan, Renaissance, Brutalist, the front-of-campus buildings use white Indiana Limestone or orange brick for exteriors, while the middle-of-campus buildings are mostly adorned in red St. Joe brick. The campus is also a bicycle ride from the Mississippi River. The St. Charles Avenue Streetcar Line makes the campus accessible via public transit, loyola University is directly adjacent to Tulane, on the downriver side. The street has been replaced with a pedestrian walkway. The project was completed in January 2010, coincidentally, in late November 2008 the City of New Orleans announced plans to add bicycle lanes to the St. Charles Avenue corridor that runs in front of Gibson Hall. That work started in August 2009 and should be completed in 2010. The U. S. News & World Report rankings for 2015, released in March 2014, placed Tulane University School of Law as the 46th best law school in the nation, up from a ranking of 48th the previous year. And the schools environmental law program has been ranked 6th in the United States for 2014 and 2015, the Law School 100 for 2009-2010 ranks Tulane as 34th, relying on a qualitative assessment. The Hylton law-school rankings, conducted in 2006, put Tulane at 39th, the 2010 Leiter law-school rankings put Tulane at 38th, based on student quality, using LSAT and GPA data. To complete the Juris Doctor degree program, a student must finish six semesters in residence,88 credit hours, a writing requirement. The first-year curriculum comprises eight required courses, the first-year legal-research-and-writing program is taught by instructors with significant experience as lawyers and writers, each assisted by senior fellows
Tulane University Law School
–
John Giffen Weinmann Hall,
Tulane University Law School's main building.
Tulane University Law School
–
Tulane University Law School
Tulane University Law School
–
Jones Hall, where the law school was located from 1969 until 1995 and where scenes for
The Pelican Brief were filmed.
Tulane University Law School
–
Photo taken on 2009 New Orleans port tour for Tulane JD/MBA students.
18.
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
–
The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of that agency and responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI Director is appointed for a single 10-year term by the President, the current Director of the FBI is James Comey, who assumed office on September 4,2013. The FBI Director is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, along with the Deputy Director, the Director ensures cases and operations are handled correctly. The Director also is in charge of staffing the leadership in any one of the FBI field offices with qualified agents. The Director briefed the president on any issues arose from within the FBI until the Intelligence Reform. Since then, the Director reports to the Director of National Intelligence, the Director is also supervised by the Attorney General, as the FBI is an agency of the Department of Justice. When the Bureau of Investigation was established in 1908, its head was called the Chief of the Bureau of Investigation. It was changed to the Director of the Bureau of Investigation since the term of William J. Flynn, the FBI became an independent service within the Department of Justice in 1935. Senate confirmation of nominee was required after 1972. fbi. gov
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
–
Incumbent
James Comey since September 4, 2013
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
–
Seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
19.
Brown pelican
–
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
Brown pelican
–
Brown pelican
Brown pelican
–
adult in flight,
Bodega Bay,
California
Brown pelican
–
immature in flight,
Tobago
Brown pelican
–
Showing throat pouch
20.
White House
–
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D. C. It has been the residence of every U. S. president since John Adams in 1800, the term White House is often used to refer to actions of the president and his advisers, as in The White House announced that. The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style, construction took place between 1792 and 1800 using Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he added low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior, reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semi-circular South portico in 1824, because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, in the main mansion, the third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as an area for social events. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space, by 1948, the houses load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the rooms were completely dismantled. Once this work was completed, the rooms were rebuilt. The Executive Residence is made up of six stories—the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, the property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the Presidents Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of Americas Favorite Architecture, in May 1790, New York began construction of Government House for his official residence, but he never occupied it. The national capital moved to Philadelphia in December 1790, the July 1790 Residence Act named Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the temporary national capital for a 10-year period while the Federal City was under construction. The City of Philadelphia rented Robert Morriss city house at 190 High Street for Washingtons presidential residence, the first president occupied the Market Street mansion from November 1790 to March 1797, and altered it in ways that may have influenced the design of the White House. As part of an effort to have Philadelphia named the permanent national capital, Pennsylvania built a much grander presidential mansion several blocks away. President John Adams also occupied the Market Street mansion from March 1797 to May 1800, on Saturday, November 1,1800, he became the first president to occupy the White House. The Presidents House in Philadelphia became a hotel and was demolished in 1832, the Presidents House was a major feature of Pierre Charles LEnfants plan for the newly established federal city, Washington, D. C
White House
–
Top: the northern facade, facing
Lafayette Square Bottom: the southern facade, facing
The Ellipse
White House
–
First Presidential Mansion:
Samuel Osgood House, Manhattan, New York. Occupied by Washington: April 1789 - February 1790.
White House
–
Second Presidential Mansion:
Alexander Macomb House, Manhattan, New York. Occupied by Washington: February - August 1790.
White House
–
Third Presidential Mansion:
President's House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Occupied by Washington: November 1790 – March 1797. Occupied by Adams: March 1797 – May 1800.
21.
Cynthia Nixon
–
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
Cynthia Nixon
–
Nixon in May 2014
Cynthia Nixon
–
Nixon at the Berlin premiere of
Sex and the City: The Movie, 2008
Cynthia Nixon
–
Nixon,
John Hurt and
Swoosie Kurtz at the premiere of
An Englishman in New York, 2009
Cynthia Nixon
–
Nixon in 2013
22.
Jake Weber
–
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
Jake Weber
–
Jake Weber
23.
Roger Ebert
–
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
Roger Ebert
–
Ebert giving an interview for
Sound Opinions in 2006
Roger Ebert
–
Roger Ebert (right) with
Russ Meyer in 1970.
Roger Ebert
–
Ebert and his wife Chaz Hammelsmith Ebert (left) giving the thumbs up to
Nancy Kwan (right) at the
Hawaii International Film Festival on October 20, 2010
Roger Ebert
–
Ebert (right) at the
Conference on World Affairs in September 2002, shortly after his cancer diagnosis
24.
Rotten Tomatoes
–
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
Rotten Tomatoes
–
60–100%
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
–
≤0-59%
25.
CinemaScore
–
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
CinemaScore
–
A CinemaScore survey card
26.
American Film Institute
–
The American Film Institute is an American film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the moving picture arts in America. AFI is supported by funding and public membership. The institute is composed of leaders from the film, entertainment, business, a board of trustees chaired by Sir Howard Stringer and a board of directors chaired by Robert A. Daly guide the organization, which is led by President and CEO Bob Gazzale. Prior leaders were founding director George Stevens, Jr. and Jean Picker Firstenberg. <ref>AFI Board of Trustees etc. American Film Institute. October 2014. Retrieved December 24,2014. </ref>Two years later, in 1967, AFI was established, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Ford Foundation. The institute established a program for filmmakers known then as the Center for Advanced Film Studies. The institute moved to its current eight-acre Hollywood campus in 1981, the film training program grew into the AFI Conservatory, an accredited graduate school. AFI educates audiences and recognizes excellence through its awards programs and 10 Top 10 Lists. In 1969, the established the AFI Conservatory for Advanced Film Studies at Greystone. The first class included filmmakers Terrence Malick, Caleb Deschanel and Paul Schrader, mirroring a professional production environment, Fellows collaborate to make more films than any other graduate level program. Admission to AFI Conservatory is highly selective, with a maximum of 140 graduates per year, in 2013, Emmy and Oscar-winning director, producer and screenwriter James L. Brooks joined AFI as Artistic Director of the AFI Conservatory where he provides leadership for the film program. Brooks artistic role at the AFI Conservatory has a legacy that includes Daniel Petrie, Jr. Robert Wise. Award-winning director Bob Mandel served as Dean of the AFI Conservatory for nine years, jan Schuette took over as Dean in 2014. AFI Conservatorys alumni have careers in film, television and on the web and they have been recognized with all of the major industry awards – Academy Award, Emmy Award, guild awards, and the Tony Award. The AFI Catalog, started in 1968, is a web-based filmographic database, early print copies of this catalog may also be found at your local library. Each year the AFI Awards honor the ten outstanding films and ten outstanding television programs, the awards are a non-competitive acknowledgement of excellence. The Awards are announced in December and a luncheon for award honorees takes place the following January. The juries consisted of over 1,500 artists, scholars, critics and historians, with movies selected based on the films popularity over time, historical significance, citizen Kane was voted the greatest American film twice. AFI operates two film festivals, AFI Fest in Los Angeles, and AFI Docs in Silver Spring, Maryland, AFI Fest is the American Film Institutes annual celebration of artistic excellence
American Film Institute
–
American Film Institute
27.
Washington Post
–
The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper. It is the most widely circulated newspaper published in Washington, D. C. and was founded on December 6,1877 and its current slogan is Democracy Dies in Darkness. Located in the city of the United States, the newspaper has a particular emphasis on national politics. Daily editions are printed for the District of Columbia, Maryland, the newspaper is published as a broadsheet, with photographs printed both in color and in black and white. The newspaper has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes and this includes six separate Pulitzers awarded in 2008, the second-highest number ever awarded to a single newspaper in one year, second only to The New York Times seven awards in 2002. Post journalists have also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards, in years since, its investigations have led to increased review of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In 2013, its owners, the Graham family, sold the newspaper to billionaire entrepreneur. The newspaper is owned by Nash Holdings LLC, a holding company Bezos created for the acquisition, the Washington Post is generally regarded as one of the leading daily American newspapers, along with The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The Post has distinguished itself through its reporting on the workings of the White House, Congress. It is one of the two daily broadsheets published in Washington D. C. the other being its smaller rival The Washington Times, unlike The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post does not print an edition for distribution away from the East Coast. In 2009, the newspaper ceased publication of its National Weekly Edition, the majority of its newsprint readership is in District of Columbia and its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia. The Sunday Style section differs slightly from the weekday Style section, it is in a tabloid format, and it houses the reader-written humor contest The Style Invitational. Additional weekly sections appear on weekdays, Health & Science on Tuesday, Food on Wednesday, Local Living on Thursday, the latter two are in a tabloid format. In November 2009, it announced the closure of its U. S. regional bureaus—Chicago, Los Angeles and New York—as part of a focus on. political stories. The newspaper has bureaus in Maryland and Virginia. While its circulation has been slipping, it has one of the highest market-penetration rates of any metropolitan news daily, for many decades, the Post had its main office at 1150 15th Street NW. This real estate remained with Graham Holdings when the newspaper was sold to Jeff Bezos Nash Holdings in 2013, Graham Holdings sold 1150 15th Street for US$159 million in November 2013. The Washington Post continued to lease space at 1150 L Street NW, in May 2014, The Washington Post leased the west tower of One Franklin Square, a high-rise building at 1301 K Street NW in Washington, D. C
Washington Post
–
Front page for May 21, 2015
Washington Post
–
The Washington Post
Washington Post
–
The headquarters of The Washington Post in
Washington, DC.
Washington Post
–
Washington Post building in 1948
28.
IMDb
–
In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
IMDb
–
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
29.
AllMovie
–
AllMovie is an online guide service website with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. As of 2013, AllMovie. com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by All Media Network, AllMovie was founded by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine, who also founded AllMusic and AllGame. The AllMovie database was licensed to tens of thousands of distributors and retailers for point-of-sale systems, websites, the AllMovie database is comprehensive, including basic product information, cast and production credits, plot synopsis, professional reviews, biographies, relational links and more. AllMovie data was accessed on the web at the AllMovie. com website and it was also available via the AMG LASSO media recognition service, which can automatically recognize DVDs. In late 2007, Macrovision acquired AMG for a reported $72 million, the AMG consumer facing web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in August 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. The buyers also include the founders of SideReel and Ackrell Capital investor Mike Ackrell. All Media Network offices are located in San Francisco, California, AllMusic AllGame SideReel All Media Network Official website
AllMovie
–
AllMovie
30.
Box Office Mojo
–
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way, founded in 1999. In 2008, Box Office Mojo was bought by the Internet Movie Database, the website is widely used within the film industry as a source of data. From 2002–11, Box Office Mojo had forums popular with film fans, on October 10,2014, the websites URL was redirected to Amazons IMDB. com website for one day, but the website returned the following day without explanation. Brandon Gray began the site in 1999, in 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and grew the site to nearly two million readers. In July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon. com through its subsidiary, Box Office Mojo had forums with more than 16,500 registered users. On November 2,2011 the forums were closed along with any user accounts. Tracking is still very closely to the day by day, actual tabulation of distributors. The site also creates an overall chart, combining all box office returns from around the world, excluding the United States. The overall weekend chart currently tracks the Top 40 films as well as approximately fifty additional films with no ranking, the site additionally has yearly and all time features for its various territories. Box Office Mojo was as of June 2009 reporting limited data from overseas and is work on improvements, most of the international charts have not been updated since November 2014. On October 10,2014, all traffic to Box Office Mojo was redirected to IMDbs box office page, queries about the closure to IMDb and Amazon representatives were met with no response. Neither Brandon Gray, who founded the website but left several years ago after its sale to Amazon, nor Ray Subers, on Ray Subers Twitter account, he revealed the websites return, but also stated he would not answer any questions pertaining to closure. Subers subsequently left the website seven months later
Box Office Mojo
–
Box Office Mojo homepage
31.
A Time to Kill (Grisham novel)
–
A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal suspense thriller by John Grisham. The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it a modest 5 and this made Grisham extremely popular among readers. In 1996, the novel was adapted into a film of the name, starring Matthew McConaughey. In 2011, it was adapted into a stage play of the same name by Rupert Holmes. The stage production opened at the Arena Stage in May 2011, the story takes place in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi in the 1980s, a period of time during which racial tension was heavily prevalent in America. This setting is featured in other John Grisham novels. Three of the characters, Jake Brigance, Harry Rex Vonner and Lucien Wilbanks, Harry Rex Vonner and Lucien Wilbanks also appear in Grishams 2003 novel The Last Juror, which is set in Clanton in the 1970s. Harry Rex Vonner also appears in the 2002 Grisham novel, The Summons, a brief reference to the events depicted in the book is also contained in Grishams 1994 novel The Chamber. In 1984 at the De Soto County courthouse in Hernando, Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim, the inspiration came from the case of the rape and assault of 12 year old Marcie Scott and her 16 year old sister Julie Scott. Unlike Grishams depiction, however, the Scotts were white and their assailant, according to Grishams official website, Grisham used his spare time to begin his first novel, which explored what would have happened if the girls father had murdered her assailants. He spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987, Grisham has also cited Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird as an influence. This book is set in 1984, another stated inspiration was the success of Presumed Innocent. Tonya is later found and rushed to a hospital while Pete, Jake tells Carl Lee not to do anything stupid, but admits that if it had been his daughter, he would kill the rapists. Carl Lee is determined to avenge Tonya and, while Pete and Billy Ray are being led into holding from their bond hearing, Carl Lee is charged with capital murder. Despite efforts to persuade Carl Lee to retain high-powered attorneys, he elects to be represented by Jake, helping Jake are two loyal friends, disbarred attorney Lucien Wilbanks and sleazy divorce lawyer Harry Rex Vonner. Later, the team is assisted by law student Ellen Roark. Ellen appears to be interested in Jake romantically, but the married Jake resists her overtures, Carl Lee is prosecuted by Ford Countys corrupt district attorney, Rufus Buckley, who hopes that the case will boost his political career. It is claimed that the judge presiding over Carl Lees trial, Billy Rays brother, Freddy, seeks revenge against Carl Lee, enlisting the help of the Mississippi branch of the Ku Klux Klan and its Grand Dragon, Stump Sisson
A Time to Kill (Grisham novel)
–
Wynwood Press Book Club Edition cover
32.
The Firm (novel)
–
For the film of the same title based on this book, see The Firm. For the television series based on this book, see The Firm. The Firm is a 1991 legal thriller and the novel by John Grisham. It was his first widely recognized book, and in 1993 after it sold 1.5 million copies, was made into a film starring Tom Cruise, Grishams first novel, A Time to Kill, came into recognition afterwards due to this novels success. Mitch is married to his school sweetheart, Abby Sutherland. His older brother Ray is imprisoned in Tennessee, and his brother, Rusty. Mitch spurns offers from law firms in New York and Chicago in favor of signing with Bendini, Lambert and Locke and he finds the firms offer—a large salary, a lease on a new BMW automobile and a low interest mortgage on a house—too generous to resist. Soon after he joins, his new colleagues help him study, Mitch is assigned to partner Avery Tolar, the firms bad boy, but a highly accomplished attorney. Two of Mitchs colleagues, Marty Kozinski and Joe Hodge, die in a diving accident in the Cayman Islands a few days before he starts at the firm. On his first scheduled day of work, Mitch attends their funerals, Mitch finds the deaths unsettling, but focuses on his goal of becoming the youngest partner in the firms history. During a memorial service at the firm for the two deceased attorneys, Mitch notices plaques commemorating three other attorneys who died working at the firm. Suspicious, he hires an investigator, Eddie Lomax, an ex-cellmate of his brother Ray. Lomax discovers that the three deceased attorneys died under suspicious circumstances, in a car accident, a hunting accident. While the details of their deaths dont add up, nothing concrete was ever proven, Lomax cautions Mitch to be careful. Soon after delivering his report to Mitch, Lomax is murdered, shortly after Mitch passes his bar exam, Wayne Tarrance, an FBI agent, confronts Mitch. While in Washington, D. C. on business, Mitch learns from the FBI that the firm is part of the white collar division of the Morolto crime family of Chicago, the firms founder, Anthony Bendini, was actually the son-in-law of old man Morolto. He founded the firm in 1944, and for almost half a century it has lured new lawyers from poor backgrounds with promises of wealth and security. The firm is involved in laundering money from the Moroltos gambling and drug-dealing operations by using it to start corporations
The Firm (novel)
–
First edition cover
33.
The Client (novel)
–
The Client is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham, set mostly in Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana. Boyd Boyette, a United States Senator from Louisiana, goes missing, because of his vocal opposition to a proposed major toxic landfill project by a company known to be Mafia-backed, murder is suspected. But no body can be found and Roy Foltrigg, United States Attorney in New Orleans, is desperate for a suspect, barry The Blade Muldanno, a well-known thug and nephew of Johnny Sulari, head of the local Mafia, is suspected. The FBI stalk Muldanno, hoping hell lead them to the body, eleven-year-old Mark Sway, his younger brother Ricky and their divorced mother Dianne live in a trailer park in Memphis. Mark and Ricky are smoking cigarettes in the woods near their home, trying to remove the hose, Mark is grabbed by the man and forced into the car. The man, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, reveals himself to be lawyer Jerome Clifford, Clifford tells Mark that he is about to kill himself to avoid being murdered by Muldanno, who has revealed to him the location of Boyettes body. Mark manages to escape, and Clifford then shoots himself, Ricky becomes catatonic after witnessing the suicide and is hospitalized. Authorities — and the Mob — suspect that Clifford may have told Mark where the body is, at the hospital, the FBI want to talk urgently to Mark. Street-smart beyond his years, he realizes that he will need a lawyer, by coincidence, he meets Regina Reggie Love, a lawyer specializing in child abuse cases, who agrees to represent him for a token retainer of one dollar. Reggie suspects that Mark has not told her the complete story, two Mafia operatives, Bono and Pirini, are dispatched from New Orleans to Memphis to see what Mark knows, they hire local security specialists, Nance and Sisson, to snoop at the hospital. Reggie represents Mark in an interview with the FBI, knowing that she not have the full story. Roaming the hospital, Mark is cornered and threatened by Nance that hell kill him if he talks, the FBI apply to Harry Roosevelt, a judge of the Juvenile Court, to arrange Marks detention for his own protection. This is reluctantly approved by Roosevelt and Mark is arrested in the room where Ricky is recovering. Mark and Reggie appear before the judge, but, scared out of his wits, Mark takes the Fifth and he is returned to detention, and after faking a medical condition, is taken to the hospital, from which he escapes, eventually taking refuge with Reggie. The Sway family trailer is burned to the ground by Bono and Pirini, Dianne loses her job in a minimum-wage sweatshop, but Reggie threatens the company president with a lawsuit, on condition that they keep sending her paycheck and fresh flowers to the hospital. K. O. Lewis, Deputy Director of the FBI, is drawn into the case and he proposes a deal — if Mark reveals the location of the body, they will place the Sway family in the witness protection program. Reggie and Mark drive to Cliffords house at the time as Muldannos accomplices. They start to dig up the body, which is buried under concrete in Cliffords boat shed, Mark and Reggie discover the body and then also flee
The Client (novel)
–
The Client
34.
The Chamber (novel)
–
The Chamber is a legal thriller written by American author John Grisham. In 1967, in Greenville, Mississippi, the office of Jewish lawyer Marvin Kramer is bombed, injuring Kramer and killing his two young sons. Sam Cayhall, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, is identified, arrested and tried for their murders, sams first two trials, engineered by his Klan-connected lawyer, each end in a mistrial. Twenty years later, the FBI pressures a suspected associate to testify against Sam at a third trial, Sam is convicted and sentenced to death by lethal gas. He is sent to the Mississippi State Penitentiary and placed on death row, now without a lawyer, Sam becomes a pro bono case for a team of anti-death penalty lawyers from the large — and ironically Jewish — Chicago law firm of Kravitz and Bane. Representing Sam is his own grandson, Adam Hall, who travels to the firms Memphis office to aid Sam in the month before his scheduled execution. Although lacking experience in death penalty cases, Adam is determined to argue a stay for his grandfather, Sam, despite his violent past, is one of the few living links to Adams family history. Sams alcoholic daughter, Lee Cayhall Booth, slowly reveals the tragic past to her nephew. Initially uncooperative, Sam eventually opens up to Adam and reveals a depth of hard-won legal knowledge, regularly preparing his own briefs. Sam, nevertheless, has a long and largely-secret history of Klan-related crime and has killed several times, Dogan, the associate who testified against Sam at his third trial, has apparently been murdered by the Klan. Sam himself will not reveal if another associate exists, thus not violating the Klans loyalty oath, Adam desperately files motion after motion and argues some of them before judges. Sam is now repentant, but does not want Adam as a witness to the execution. With Sam and Dogan dead, no one knows that Roland, Adam, sickened but fascinated by the experience, quits the law firm to accept a poorly-paid position with a group of anti-death penalty lawyers. After Grisham prevailed in a court ruling in 1996, the case was dismissed on appeal in 1997. In 1996, The Chamber was made into a film starring Gene Hackman. John Grisham Official Website The Chamber
The Chamber (novel)
–
Mississippi State Penitentiary, the primary setting of the book
The Chamber (novel)
–
First edition cover
35.
The Rainmaker (novel)
–
The Rainmaker is a 1995 novel by John Grisham. It differs from most of his novels in that it is written almost completely in the simple present tense. Rudy Baylor is about to graduate from Memphis State Law School and he secures a position with a Memphis law firm, which he then loses when the firm is bought up by another, larger firm. To earn his fee, Rudy is required to hunt for potential clients at the local hospital and he is introduced to Deck Shifflet, a less-than-ethical former insurance assessor who received a law degree but doesnt practice law, having failed to pass the bar examination six times. One is his new elderly landlady, who needs a revised will drawn, the other is a poor family, Dot and Buddy Black, whom he met during a class visit to a community center. Their insurance bad faith case could be several million dollars in damages. The procedure should have covered and paid for by their insurance company, Great Benefit Life Insurance. Rudy, having just passed the bar exam, has never argued a case before a judge or jury but now finds himself up against experienced and ruthless lawyers from a large firm, on his side, Rudy has several supporters and a sympathetic newly appointed judge. While preparing the case in the hospital, he meets and later falls in love with Kelly Riker. Donny Ray dies just before the case is due to be heard, the case goes to trial and Rudy uncovers a scheme Great Benefit ran throughout 1991 to deny every insurance claim submitted, regardless of validity. Great Benefit was playing the odds that the insured would not consult an attorney, a former employee of Great Benefit testifies that the scheme generated an extra $40 million in revenue for the company. The trial ends with a judgment of $50.2 million. Great Benefit quickly declares itself bankrupt, thus allowing it to avoid paying the judgment and this leads to a series of lawsuits which forces Great Benefit out of business. In fact, she testified that if awarded any money from Great Benefit, during the Black trial, when Kelly is beaten again by Cliff, Rudy helps her file for divorce. While he and Kelly retrieve items from her home, Cliff arrives and threatens to kill Rudy, Rudy wrestles the bat away from Cliff and cracks his skull with it. Kelly intervenes and orders him to leave, Cliff dies from the injuries and Kelly allows herself to be charged with manslaughter to protect Rudy. Kelly spends a day in jail before Rudy gets the charges dropped, Rudy and Kelly leave the state, heading for someplace where Rudy – who has become disillusioned with the law – can let his license expire and then become a teacher, and Kelly can attend college. In 1997, The Rainmaker was adapted into a directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight
The Rainmaker (novel)
–
First edition cover
36.
The Runaway Jury
–
The Runaway Jury is a legal thriller novel written by American author John Grisham. The hardcover first edition was published by Doubleday Books in 1996, pearson Longman released the graded reader edition in 2001. The novel was published again in 2003 to coincide with the release of Runaway Jury, the third printing bears a movie-themed cover, in place of the covers used on the first and second printings. Every jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him, Wendall Rohr and a legal team of successful tort lawyers have filed suit on behalf of plaintiff Celeste Wood, whose husband died of lung cancer. The trial is to be held in Biloxi, Mississippi, a thought to have favorable tort laws. The defendant is Pynex, a tobacco company, even before the jury has been sworn in, a stealth juror, Nicholas Easter, has begun to quietly connive behind the scenes, in concert with a mysterious woman known only as Marlee. Rankin Fitch, a consultant who has directed eight successful trials for the tobacco industry, has placed a camera in the courtroom in order to observe the proceedings in his office nearby. He has begun to plot many schemes to reach to the jury and he planned to get to Millie Dupree through blackmailing her husband through a tape that has him trying to bribe an official. He reaches to Lonnie Shaver through convincing a company to buy his employer and he also tries to reach Rikki Coleman through a blackmail of revealing her abortion to her husband. As the case continues, Fitch is approached by Marlee with a proposal to buy the verdict, eventually, Easter becomes jury foreman after the previous one falls ill. Meanwhile, Marlee acts as Easters agent on the outside, increasingly convincing Fitch that, indeed, Easter is in control of the jury and in a position to deliver any verdict on demand. Marlee gives the highly experienced and cynical Fitch the impression that the object in doing all this is purely mercenary - to sell the verdict to highest bidder. Still, Fitch makes an effort to discover Marlees true name. This turns out to be difficult, and the detectives employed by Fitch express their grudging respect for her skill in hiding her tracks. With the court proceedings reaching their climax, Fitch - still in the dark about Marlees past - agrees to her proposal to pay $10 million for a favorable verdict, thus, Fitch knows that he lost his principals $10 million in addition to having lost the trial. Inside the closed room, Easter convinces the jury to find for the plaintiff and make a large monetary award – $2 million for compensatory damages. While not able to sway the jury, Easter gets nine out of twelve jurors to back him - which is enough. The defense lawyers and their employers are devastated, the book closes with Marlee returning the initial $10 million bribe to Fitch, having used it to make several times that much, and warning Fitch that she and Nicholas will always be watching
The Runaway Jury
–
First edition cover
37.
The Partner
–
The Partner is a legal/thriller novel by noted American author John Grisham
The Partner
–
First edition cover
38.
The Street Lawyer
–
The Street Lawyer is a legal thriller novel by John Grisham. The book was released in the United States on 1 January 1998, published by Bantam Books, and on 30 March 1998 in the UK, published by Century. It shares with other Grisham novels the major element of a lawyer getting fed up with the life of a giant law firm, employing hundreds of lawyers. In all three novels, the protagonist ends up breaking away and taking up a job which is incomparably less well-paid -, grishams partisanship on this issue is evident, and he clearly approves wholeheartedly such choices made by his characters. He finds his way to the 14th Street Legal Clinic, where he meets Mordecai Green, an advocate for the homeless, Green, along with his abrasive but brilliant and committed staff work to provide legal help to the most downtrodden members of society. As Brocks investigation deepens, he finds that his own employer was complicit in an illegal eviction and he takes a confidential file, intending to copy it, but is quickly suspected of its theft. Shocked by what he has found, Brock leaves his firm to take a paid position with the 14th Street Legal Clinic. This leads to the severing of his links to his previous white-collar life and he later becomes emotionally involved in the case of a woman named Ruby, whose drug addiction led to her losing custody of her son. He also meets a young homeless advocate named Megan and they start a relationship. As Drake & Sweeney comes after Brock with theft and malpractice allegations, Drake & Sweeneys head partner, deeply troubled by the events, offers to make pro bonus staff available to assist the work of the clinic in fighting for the rights of homeless people. The book ends with Brock taking a vacation with Megan and Ruby. Michael Brock - the protagonist, a lawyer at Drake & Sweeney. DeVon Mister Hardy - homeless man who takes hostages at Drake & Sweeney, Mordecai Green - a street lawyer. Claire Brock - wife of Michael Brock, aspiring neurosurgeon, arthur Jacobs - senior partner at Drake & Sweeney. Barry Nuzzo - long-time associate lawyer with Drake & Sweeney, Braden Chance - a real estate lawyer at Drake & Sweeney, who covered-up the illegal eviction. Hector Palma - paralegal for Braden Chance, who helps Brock gain evidence for his case, lontae Burton - a homeless woman with four children, Ontario, Alonzo, Dante, and Temeko. They all die of carbon monoxide poisoning when snow blocks the exhaust pipe of their car and they were victims of the eviction, which indirectly resulted in their deaths. Abraham Lebow - a street lawyer, associate of Mordecai Green, Sofia Mendoza - a social worker, associate of Mordecai Green and Abraham Lebow
The Street Lawyer
–
First edition cover
39.
The Brethren (novel)
–
The Brethren is a legal thriller novel by American author John Grisham, published in 2000. Three former judges incarcerated at Trumble, a fictional, federal minimum security prison located in northern Florida, with the help of their lawyer, Trevor Carson, they transfer their ill-gotten money to a secret Bahamian bank account. Meanwhile, Teddy Maynard, the ruthless and soon-to-retire director of the CIA, is orchestrating a scheme to control the United States presidential election, aaron Lake, a strongly pro-defense expenditure candidate has been identified, and Maynard is determined to control him - and then get him elected. Unknowingly, the Brethren hook Teddys candidate for President, the CIA scrambles to stop them from finding out what theyve done. It takes all of Teddys experience with illegal maneuvering to save his candidate from being exposed, the Brethren lose their trust in Trevor and fire him, he is later killed by CIA agents in the Caribbean. The CIA plant a man inside Trumble, who tells the judges that he knows they have involved in the scam. A deal is worked out, money changes hands and the judges are pardoned by the out-going President at Maynards insistence, the judges leave the country and travel in Europe
The Brethren (novel)
–
First edition cover
40.
A Painted House
–
A Painted House is a February 2001 novel by American author John Grisham. It was made into a film in 2003, starring Scott Glenn. Inspired by his childhood in Arkansas, it is Grishams first major work outside the legal thriller genre in which he established himself, the novel portrays the experiences that bring him from a world of innocence into one of harsh reality. The story begins to unfold as Luke and his grandfather Eli, also known as Pappy and they initially consider themselves lucky to hire the Spruills, a family of hill people, and a few Mexican migrant workers who annually come to the area looking for work. When Luke sees Cowboy, one of the Mexicans, later murder Hank and toss his body into the river, Cowboy and Tally, the teenage daughter of the Spruills, then run off together and are not seen again. Luke also learns that his admired Uncle Ricky, fighting in the Korean War, might have fathered a child with a daughter of the Latchers, Grisham surrounds these dramatic moments with descriptive passages of life in the rural South and the ordinary events that fill Lukes weekly routine. A devoted fan, Luke is saving his money to buy a team warm-up jacket he saw advertised in the Sears. Saturday afternoons are spent in town, where the adults share idle gossip and serious concerns and the youngsters visit the movie house, while Sunday morning is reserved for church. A visiting carnival, the annual picnic, and Lukes introduction to television - to see a live broadcast of a World Series game - are additional bits of local color scattered throughout the tale. The novel ends with Lukes mother smiling on the bus, having finally got her wish to leave cotton farming, the books title refers to the Chandler house, which never has been painted, a sign of their lower social status in the community. Luke Chandler - the youngest in the family and the protagonist of the story, Eli Pappy Chandler - Lukes highly respected and hard-working grandfather and patriarch of the family. He is a World War I veteran, ruth Gran Chandler - Lukes quiet, conservative, and wise grandmother who prays for the safe return of her younger son, Ricky, from the Korean War. Jesse Chandler - Lukes father, who served in World War II, kathleen Chandler - Lukes mother, who tends to the garden while dreaming of a better life in a suburban home with indoor plumbing and modern conveniences. Hank Spruill - the hill people familys oldest son, boastful, Tally Spruill - the seventeen-year-old daughter in the migrant worker family. Trot Spruill - the youngest Spruill, who suffers from a crippled arm and he is also mentally slow, and is the only member of the family, other than his sister Tally, to whom Hank is never cruel. Cowboy - the Mexican who kills Hank, carries a switchblade and is quick to use it, the remainder of the Spruill family—consisting of the parents, Leon and Lucy, who fear Hank, and their two nephews, Bo and Dale. Pop and Pearl Watson—owners of the store, a meeting place for the community. Miguel—leader of the Mexicans who work for the Chandlers, reverend/Brother Akers—the fiery minister of the Black Oak Baptist Church
A Painted House
–
First edition cover
A Painted House
–
This house in Lepanto, Arkansas was the house used in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie A Painted House
41.
Skipping Christmas
–
Skipping Christmas is a comedy novel by John Grisham. It was published by Doubleday on November 6,2001 and reached #1 on The New York Times Best-Seller List on December 9 that year, the story focuses on how Luther and Nora Krank try to avoid the frenzy traditionally experienced during the Christmas holiday. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the two take their daughter Blair to the airport, where she departs for a year-long Peace Corps assignment in a area of Peru. Nora at first is skeptical but accepts the idea on one condition - that they still donate $600 to the church, at first Luther refuses, but when Nora refuses to consider the cruise otherwise, he agrees, and they begin to plan the trip. It doesnt take long for Nora to adjust to the idea of no Christmas shopping or Christmas tree, Luther stops the protest by freezing his sidewalk to prevent the carolers from singing there. A newspaper even gets in the act by asking Luthers #1 rival, Walt Scheel, Luther and Nora find themselves the objects of derision and anxiously await their departure on Christmas Day. Without warning, Blair calls on Christmas Eve to announce shes at Miami International Airport, shes anxious to introduce Enrique to her familys holiday traditions, and when she asks if theyre having their usual party that night, a panicking Nora says, Yes, much to Luthers dismay. Comic chaos ensues as the couple finds themselves trying to decorate the house and coordinate a party with mere hours to spare before their daughter and future son-in-law arrive. Because the Boy Scouts have sold out of Christmas trees, Luther arranges to borrow the tree of a neighbor who is leaving for the holidays. Luther attempts to set up a Frosty the Snowman decoration on his roof but fails, Scheel reluctantly calls 9-1-1, and Luther is rescued. The Kranks then admit their dilemma and are rescued by everyone theyve alienated, with the pulling together. Blair calls before the party can be started, saying she has arrived, after successfully keeping Blair and Enrique busy so the party can get started, Luther decides to celebrate Christmas. He then gives the package to Walt Scheel, who is having a very bad Christmas because his wife has an illness has a 90% probability of being terminal. Publishers Weekly observed, For all its clever curmudgeonly edge and minor charms, no way does this Christmas yarn from Grisham rank with A Christmas Carol, nor does it rank with Grishams own best work. The premise is terrific, as youd expect from Grisham, but as clever as this setup is, its elaboration is ho-hum. Theres a good reason why nearly all classic Christmas tales rely on an element of fantasy, for, literarily at least, Grisham sticks to the mundane, however, and his story lacks magic for that. The misanthropy in this novel makes a good antidote to the more cloying Christmas tales. To compare it to Dickens, however, is. humbug, bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly graded the book C+ and commented, Even at 177 minipages, Skipping Christmas feels padded
Skipping Christmas
–
First edition
42.
The Summons
–
The Summons is a legal thriller novel by noted American author John Grisham which was released in December 2002. The main character, Ray Atlee, is a law professor with a salary at the University of Virginia. He has a brother, Forrest, and a father, known to many as Judge Reuben V. Atlee, Ray is sent to his fathers house in Clanton, Mississippi, to discuss issues regarding the old mans will and estate. To do this, Ray has to go to fictional Ford County, Mississippi, when he finds his father dead in the study, Ray discovers a sum of over $3 million in the house, money which is not part of Judge Atlees will. Ray immediately thinks the money is dirty because his father could not possibly have made so much money in his career, Ray is being followed, someone else knows about the money. He finds Forrest in a drug rehab compound and confronts him, at the end both part, with Forrest telling Ray that he will contact him in a year
The Summons
–
The Summons
43.
The King of Torts
–
The King of Torts is a legal/suspense novel written by American author John Grisham. Doubleday published the first edition in hardcover format, it debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Dell Publishing published the paperback edition later in 2003, Clay Carter is a poorly paid public defender who dreams of joining a large law firm. One day he takes on the case of Tequila Watson. Watson insists that he wasnt in control of his body when he pulled the trigger, a story which Clay tries to dismiss. A short while later, unexpectedly, a man named Max Pace contacts him. Having earned a large amount of money from this task, Clay establishes his own law firm specializing in torts, hiring several of his colleagues. He continues to work with Max Pace, who provides him with information concerning two other defective drugs, Dyloft and Maxatil, allowing him to mount class-action lawsuits and profit further. Before long, Clay has become one of the top 10 highest-paid lawyers in the country, as time goes on, however, Clay becomes reckless and is subject to investigations for various crimes, including insider trading. In the end, Clay is beaten up by men from Reedsburgh. Then, he loses a huge case against Goffman and slides downhill as previous clients sue him. In the end, with most of his wealth lost, Clay and his girlfriend fly to London on their jet, hoping to start a new life
The King of Torts
–
The King of Torts
44.
Bleachers (novel)
–
Bleachers was published on June 22,2004. The hardcover edition was published by Doubleday and the edition by Dell. The book focuses on whether the famous Eddie Rake, former coach of the Messina High School football team, was loved or hated by his former players. Neely Crenshaw was a high school All-American quarterback, who had been Messina High Schools golden boy, number 19, Neely was a highly recruited quarterback with a golden arm, fast feet, plenty of size, maybe the greatest Messina QB ever. When Neely was younger and playing football with his friends, a man watching him approached Neely and his hand injury had been caused when Neely punched Coach Eddie Rake in the face, after Coach Rake backhanded him, causing him to break his nose. After graduation, Crenshaw had received 31 scholarship offers and chose Tech and he had received $50,000 for signing with the school. In the second half of the 1989 Gator Bowl, Crenshaw came off the bench for Tech in the second half, as a sophomore, he was national player of the week when he threw for six touchdowns against Purdue University. But against A&M later that year, he suffered a knee injury on a late hit. Crenshaw subsequently dropped out of college and drifted across the country living in the Orlando, Florida area. Rake had ended his career with 418 wins,62 losses, during a gruelling, unsanctioned, Sunday morning practice in 1992, Messina player Scotty Reardon had died of a heat stroke. Rakes brutal training methods were called into question, and the superintendent of education, at the funeral, Neely ends up forgiving coach after all those years of debating whether he likes or dislikes Eddie Rake
Bleachers (novel)
–
First edition cover
45.
The Last Juror
–
The Last Juror is a 2004 legal thriller novel by John Grisham, first published by Doubleday on February 3,2004. The story is set in the town of Clanton, Mississippi from 1970 to 1979. Clanton is also the venue for John Grishams first novel A Time to Kill which was published in 1989, some of the characters appear in both novels with the same occupation and characteristics. Although A Time to Kill was published 15 years before The Last Juror, it place in 1985, which is a year after Grisham formed the idea for A Time to Kill, his first novel. Therefore the characters who appear in novels, such as Lucien Wilbanks and Harry Rex Vonner, have matured in A Time to Kill. Harry Rex Vonner also appears in the novel The Summons, published in 2002, the novel is divided into three parts of approximately equal length. The first covers the trial of Danny Padgitt, the focuses on Willie adjusting to life in Clanton, and the third includes the main events. In 1970, the first person narrator, a 23-year-old college dropout named Willie Traynor, comes to Clanton, Mississippi for an internship at the local newspaper, however the editor, Wilson Caudle, drives the newspaper into bankruptcy through years of mismanagement. Willie decides to buy the paper spontaneously for $50,000, using money borrowed from his wealthy grandmother, months later, a member of the notorious Padgitt family brutally rapes and kills a young widow, Rhoda Kassellaw. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, is put on trial, before being found guilty, Padgitt threatens to kill each of the jurors, should they convict him. Although they find him guilty, the jury decide whether to send him to life in prison or to death row. After nine years in prison, Danny Padgitt is paroled and returns to Clanton, immediately, two jurors are killed and one is nearly killed by a bomb. A jury member and close friend of Willie, Callie Ruffin, Callie Ruffin is black, and was the first black on a jury trying a white criminal in Ford County. With her husband, she has a family of highly accomplished adult children, convinced that Danny is exacting his revenge as promised, the judge in Clanton issues an arrest for Danny Padgitt. At Padgitts bail hearing, the lover of Rhoda Kassellaw, Hank Hooten, having hidden in the crawl space above the courtroom, guns down. He then barricades himself in the court tower and, after a short standoff that mainly destroys a few windows. After nine years of ownership, Willie sells The Ford County Times for $1.5 million, soon after, Callie Ruffin dies of a heart attack and the book ends with Willie writing her obituary. Joyner William Willie Traynor - the protagonist and editor of the local newspaper, Calia Miss Callie Harris Ruffin - a black woman with eight children, seven of whom have Ph. Ds
The Last Juror
–
First edition cover
46.
The Broker
–
The Broker is a suspense novel written by American author John Grisham and published in the United States on January 11,2005. The novel follows the story of Joel Backman, a newly pardoned prisoner who had tried to broker a deal to sell the worlds most powerful satellite surveillance system to the highest bidder. Joel Backman is the Broker, a Washington power broker-lobbyist, considered by some to be one of the most powerful men in Washington, however, his life falls apart when a deal collapses involving a hacked spy satellite that nobody knows about, and Backman ends up in jail. Six years later, the wheels in Washington have turned. He has a new name and mysterious new friends who teach him to speak the language. However, he realizes that something isnt quite kosher in this new setup. In reality, the CIA is setting him up for professional assassins from China, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia and he escapes surveillance and returns to his home to contract a new deal with the U. S. government. The CIA is told about the satellite, along with the taking of the satellites program, in return, they agree to do what they can to get the countries targeting him to back off, though they caution him that some of them will not listen. Backman then covers his escape by pretending that he is resuming his old life, then quietly disappears, the Broker made number one on the New York Times bestseller list. The book has been hailed by critics as a return to form for Grisham. A New York Times book review claimed that the description of a president who was an idiot. But a clean one seemed to be referring to President Bush, the description of the town of Bologna, Italy, in the novel is quite accurate, however, it contains quite a few mistakes. It is explained that Bologna is nicknamed the Red city because it is the most deeply communist town in Italy, actually, Bologna was nicknamed la Rossa centuries before Marx was born, the word communism was invented, or the colour red was even associated with a political ideology. This nickname is because most old buildings in the centre are red, since the earth of the local hills. As any traveler may easily prove, numerous medieval towers are still standing in Bologna, some of them are clearly visible from the places the main character visits, like Piazza Maggiore or the top of the Asinelli Tower. And the municipality has never systematically demolished any towers, the author possibly confused another piece of information. In 1917, the municipality had three towers demolished to build new palaces, the decision in question was harshly criticised by some famous people of that time. To date, it is the case of publicly demolished towers in town
The Broker
–
First edition cover
47.
Playing for Pizza
–
Playing for Pizza is a short novel by John Grisham, released on September 25,2007. He is cut from the team, vilified in the press and his agent Arnie tries to find him work in the NFL, but no team will take him. Arnie manages to find him a position for the Parma Panthers of the Italian Football league for meager compensation. The Parma Panthers have only two other Americans on the team -- halfback Slidell Sly Turner, who ends up leaving early in the season, and Safety Trey Colby. The Panthers win their first game with Rick, then lose a couple for various reasons, including the loss of his American teammates to homesickness, Rick decides to honor his contract with the Parma Panthers. Rick Dockery - Former NFL third string quarterback and Iowa alum who loses his NFL job and he is unmarried and is constantly looking for a girl. Big Joe - Owner of the pizza shop. Sam Russo - An American who coaches the Panthers, Arnie - Ricks agent, who found him the job in Italy playing with the Parma Panthers Slydell Turner - Running back from Colorado State, an American who quits early in the season. Trey Colby - A safety turned wide receiver who breaks his leg mid-season, played at Ole Miss and was 3rd team SEC. Fabrizio - Talented but egotistical Italian-born wide receiver, known to walk off field in the middle of games, giuseppe Franco Lazzarino - fullback of the Panthers and Italian Judge who sorts out Ricks legal problems. Nino - Center, and co-owner of a restaurant where Rick is introduced to traditional Italian cuisine. Maschi - Talented Italian linebacker who plays for rival team, the undefeated Bergamo Lions, injured on the Kill Maschi play, designed by Rick in preparation for their first matchup. Idolizes Lawrence Taylor and demands to be called L. T, charley Cray - Writer for Cleveland Post, who attacks Rick following his disastrous performance in his last NFL game, then follows up with more nasty articles after Rick has relocated to Italy. Livvy Galloway - American college student studying in Italy, and love interest for Rick, gabriella Ballini - Beautiful opera singer with whom Rick is infatuated. Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi Share The Dream with Grisham Official Site
Playing for Pizza
–
First edition cover
48.
The Appeal
–
The Appeal is a 2008 novel by John Grisham, his twentieth book and his first fictional legal thriller since The Broker was published in 2005. It was published by Doubleday and released in hardcover in the United States on January 29,2008, a paperback edition was released by Delta Publishing on November 18,2008. Their choice is Ron Fisk, a lawyer with no political experience or ambitions. Fisk defeats McCarthy and immediately adopts the position expected of him and he votes against upholding several large settlements in cases brought before the court on appeal, and the Paytons expect he will do the same when their case comes up for review. The issue of corporate responsibility affects him and his family on a personal level, however, even though Fisk feels that he has been used and tricked, he makes no move to do what is right, and has come to relish his new-found wealth and power. He sides with the big corporation and does not take any action for what happened to his son because he would look silly. Grisham has stated that the novel was inspired by the tax evasion and bribery cases involving former Mississippi Supreme Court Judge Oliver E. Diaz, Grisham appears in the documentary Hot Coffee commenting on Judge Diaz. Grishams plots closely resembles a real-life decade-long legal battle between West Virginia coal mining competitors, when Don Blankenship, chairman and CEO of A. T. Benjamin declined and cast the vote to reverse the Caperton verdict. Among those who noticed similarities between the case and The Appeal was former West Virginia justice Larry Starcher, who criticized Benjamin for not disqualifying himself. He wrote in an opinion, I believe John Grisham got it right when he said that he simply had to read The Charleston Gazette to get an idea for his next novel. In June 2009, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Justice Benjamin should have recused himself in Caperton v. Massey, sending the case back to the West Virginia Supreme Court. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. s dissent warned that the United States Supreme Court majority decision would have consequences for public confidence in judicial impartiality. Only a minority of states elect judges directly, a system virtually unknown outside the United States. The Appeal has been seen as an attack on this system of selecting judges, since judges have a conflict of interest when ruling on cases involving major campaign contributors
The Appeal
–
First edition cover
49.
The Associate (novel)
–
The Associate is a legal thriller by John Grisham. His 21st novel, it was published by Doubleday and released in the United States on January 27,2009 and his plans are derailed when he is approached by two FBI agents who interrogate him and then pass him on to a mysterious man known only as Bennie Wright. Bennie has a videotape of a party that took place in Kyles apartment five years earlier, at the time, the incident was investigated by local police, who determined there had been no assault and declined to take further action. With the tape now in his possession, Bennie threatens to expose Kyles secret unless he cooperates with Bennie and his associates. Bennies plan is to have Kyle accept a position at New York City-based Scully & Pershing, the worlds largest law firm, which is representing Trylon Aeronautics in its case against Bartin Dynamics. Legal battles ensued, and Trylon and Bartin, each laying claim to ownership of the design, Kyle will be required to infiltrate Scully & Pershings files and deliver to Bennie crucial information desired by the people he represents. He seeks help from Joey, who has more to lose than Kyle does if the videotape is made public and he creates an interest in different spy novels, and buys them at a used book store. Baxter is found dead, with no evidence of the murderers identity. Bennie and Nigel, an expert, force him to use a thumbdrive to download the files. But by this time, realizing that Bennie is nearly always one step ahead of him, Kyle has spoken to Roy Benedict and he tells Roy the whole story. Roy still has connections within the FBI, and they set up an operation to catch Bennie while Roy transfers information that is not sensitive. But it misfires, Bennie and his associates vanish and remain unidentified and unapprehended, Kyle admits his actions to the firms partners, and agrees to leave their employ immediately and not practice law in New York. He also voices his belief that one of the partners has acted as a mole. Refusing the FBIs offer of protection, Kyle goes home to his father, also a lawyer. Kyle plans to become a partner in his fathers law firm, Roy, himself a highly paid New York lawyer, is a bit surprised at Kyles decision, The Editor of the Yale Law Journal - practicing law on Main Street in York, Pennsylvania. To which Kyle answers exuberantly, I have never been more serious, deer hunting on Saturdays, Steelers on Sundays. Janet Maslin of the New York Times stated, Mr. Grisham so often writes similar books that the same things must be said of them, Kyle McAvoy is another of the two-dimensional yet terrifically likeable heroes who come to life on Mr. Grisham’s pages only to evaporate later. It’s easy to predict what choice Kyle will make at the end of the novel, it’s impossible to imagine, let alone care, what his life will be like once the improbably wild furor surrounding this one lone law-firm recruit is over
The Associate (novel)
–
First edition cover
50.
The Confession (novel)
–
The Confession is a 2010 legal thriller novel by John Grisham, his second novel to be published in 2010. The novel is about the murder of a high school cheerleader and this was Grishams first novel to be released simultaneously in digital and hardcopy format. In 1998, Travis Boyette abducts and rapes Nicole Nikki Yarber and he watches unfazed as the police arrest and convict Donté Drumm, a black high school football player with no connection to the crime. Despite his innocence, Drumm is convicted and sentenced to death and he has been on death row for nine years when the story takes place. While Drumm serves his sentence, lawyer Robbert Robbie Flak fights his case while Black Americans protest his false conviction, creating a law. Meanwhile, Boyette has fled to Kansas and has living there ever since and he has been suffering with a brain tumor for the past nine years and his health has deteriorated. In 2007, with Drumms execution only an away, reflecting on his miserable life, he decides to do what is right. He meets a pastor, Reverend Keith Schroeder who takes him to Slone, despite his confession to the public, the execution proceeds on and Drumm is executed by lethal injection. The town is beset by racial tension though a riot is averted, Boyette then reveals the resting place of Nikki and DNA samples show signs of rape and assault on her body. But before there is an arrest warrant for him, he takes off, in Slone, Flak leads legal attacks on those responsible for the false conviction and execution, while Schroeder agonizes over both what he has done out of his parole zone. Schroeder winds up making his actions public, paying a fine, resigning from his church, the latter happens after Boyette is caught attempting another rape. Dontés ordeal begins as a 17-year-old with everything going for him and he has only had mild altercations with law enforcement for possession of marijuana when he was younger. Now he is a star on the school football team. His potential and ambition inspire jealousy in Joey Gamble who, when rejected by Nicole, Joey tips off the police with an anonymous phone call, later proven to be his using voice-analysis. When the police take Donté in for questioning, Donté naively but in good faith and this is the catalyst which sees him detained for the next nine years and ultimately executed. The long-suffering mother of Donté who is convinced her son is innocent and she is part of a large family. Her husband, Dontés father Riley Drumm, died of disease while Donté is on death row. The girl whose rape and suspected murder led to capital murder charges
The Confession (novel)
–
First edition cover
