1.
University of Texas at Austin
–
Founded in 1881 as The University of Texas, its campus is in Austin, Texas—approximately 1 mile from the Texas State Capitol. The institution has the nations seventh-largest single-campus enrollment, with over 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students and over 24,000 faculty, UT Austin was inducted into the American Association of Universities in 1929, becoming only the third university in the American South to be elected. It is a center for academic research, with research expenditures exceeding $550 million for the 2014–2015 school year. J. Pickle Research Campus and the McDonald Observatory, among university faculty are recipients of the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Emmy Award, the Turing Award, and the National Medal of Science, as well as many other awards. UT Austin student athletes compete as the Texas Longhorns and are members of the Big 12 Conference and its Longhorn Network is the only sports network featuring the college sports of a single university. The first mention of a university in Texas can be traced to the 1827 constitution for the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Although Title 6, Article 217 of the Constitution promised to establish education in the arts and sciences. On April 18,1838, An Act to Establish the University of Texas was referred to a committee of the Texas Congress. On January 26,1839, the Texas Congress agreed to set aside fifty leagues of land towards the establishment of a publicly funded university, in addition,40 acres in the new capital of Austin were reserved and designated College Hill. In 1845, Texas was annexed into the United States, interestingly, the states Constitution of 1845 failed to mention higher education. On February 11,1858, the Seventh Texas Legislature approved O. B,102, an act to establish the University of Texas, which set aside $100,000 in United States bonds toward construction of the states first publicly funded university. The legislature also designated land reserved for the encouragement of railroad construction toward the universitys endowment, Texas secession from the Union and the American Civil War delayed repayment of the borrowed monies. At the end of the Civil War in 1865, The University of Texas endowment was just over $16,000 in warrants, the more valuable lands reverted to the fund to support general education in the state. The legislature additionally appropriated $256,272.57 to repay the funds taken from the university in 1860 to pay for frontier defense, the 1883 grant of land increased the land in the Permanent University Fund to almost 2.2 million acres. Under the Act of 1858, the university was entitled to just over 1,000 acres of land for every mile of railroad built in the state. On March 30,1881, the legislature set forth the structure and organization. By popular election on September 6,1881, Austin was chosen as the site, galveston, having come in second in the election was designated the location of the medical department. On November 17,1882, on the original College Hill, smite the earth, smite the rocks with the rod of knowledge and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth
2.
Academy Awards
–
The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
3.
Track and field
–
Track and field is a sport which includes athletic contests established on the skills of running, jumping, and throwing. The name is derived from the sports venue, a stadium with an oval running track enclosing a grass field where the throwing and jumping events take place. Track and field is categorised under the sport of athletics, which also includes road running, cross country running. The foot racing events, which include sprints, middle- and long-distance events, the jumping and throwing events are won by the athlete who achieves the greatest distance or height. Regular jumping events include long jump, triple jump, high jump and pole vault, while the most common throwing events are shot put, javelin, discus and hammer. There are also combined events or multi events, such as the pentathlon consisting of five events, heptathlon consisting of seven events, in these, athletes participate in a combination of track and field events. Most track and field events are individual sports with a victor, the most prominent team events are relay races. Events are almost exclusively divided by gender, although both the mens and womens competitions are held at the same venue. It is one of the oldest sports, in ancient times, it was an event held in conjunction with festivals and sports meets such as the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece. The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos, a cook from the city of Elis, won the stadium race. According to some traditions, this was the only athletic event of the games for the first 13 Olympic festivals. In modern times, the two most prestigious track and field competitions are athletics competition at the Olympic Games and the IAAF World Championships in Athletics. The International Association of Athletics Federations is the governing body. Records are kept of the best performances in specific events, at world and national levels, however, if athletes are deemed to have violated the events rules or regulations, they are disqualified from the competition and their marks are erased. In North America, the track and field may be used to refer to other athletics events, such as the marathon. The sport of track and field has its roots in human prehistory, Track and field-style events are among the oldest of all sporting competitions, as running, jumping and throwing are natural and universal forms of human physical expression. The first recorded examples of organized track and field events at a festival are the Ancient Olympic Games. At the first Games in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, only one event was contested, Track and field events were also present at the Panhellenic Games in Greece around this period, and they spread to Rome in Italy around 200 BC
4.
Sprint (running)
–
Sprinting is running over a short distance in a limited period of time. It is used in sports that incorporate running, typically as a way of quickly reaching a target or goal. In athletics and track and field, sprints are races over short distances and they are among the oldest running competitions. The first 13 editions of the Ancient Olympic Games featured only one event—the stadion race, there are three sprinting events which are currently held at the Summer Olympics and outdoor World Championships, the 100 metres,200 metres, and 400 metres. The set position differs depending on the start, body alignment is of key importance in producing the optimal amount of force. Ideally the athlete should begin in a 4-point stance and push off using both legs for maximum force production, athletes remain in the same lane on the running track throughout all sprinting events, with the sole exception of the 400 m indoors. Races up to 100 m are largely focused upon acceleration to a maximum speed. All sprints beyond this distance increasingly incorporate an element of endurance, the 60 metres is a khaled and Rion indoor event and it is an indoor world championship event. Less common events include the 50 metres,55 metres,300 metres, biological factors that determine a sprinters potential include, The 60 metres is normally run indoors, on a straight section of an indoor athletic track. Since races at this distance can last around six or seven seconds, having good reflexes and this is roughly the distance required for a human to reach maximum speed and can be run with one breath. It is popular for training and testing in other sports, the world record in this event is held by American sprinter Maurice Greene with a time of 6.39 seconds. 60-metres is used as a distance by younger athletes when starting sprint racing. Note, Indoor distances are less standardized as many facilities run shorter or occasionally longer distances depending on available space, the 100 metres sprint takes place on one length of the home straight of a standard outdoor 400 m track. Often, the holder in this race is considered the worlds fastest man/woman. The current world record of 9.58 seconds is held by Usain Bolt of Jamaica and was set on 16 August 2009, the womens world record is 10.49 seconds and was set by Florence Griffith-Joyner. World class male sprinters need 41 to 50 strides to cover the whole 100 metres distances, the 200 metres begins on the curve of a standard track, and ends on the home straight. The ability to run a good bend is key at the distance, as a well conditioned runner will typically be able to run 200 m in an average speed higher than their 100 m speed. Usain Bolt, however, ran 200 m in the time of 19.19 sec, an average speed of 10.422 m/s, whereas he ran 100 m in the world-record time of 9.58 sec
5.
Louisiana
–
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the state in the U. S. with political subdivisions termed parishes. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Much of the lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh. These contain a rich southern biota, typical examples include birds such as ibis, there are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a process in the landscape. These support a large number of plant species, including many species of orchids. Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, the current Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a period, a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century, many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715, when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane. The suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to information relating to an individual, subject. Thus, roughly, Louis + ana carries the idea of related to Louis, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened, Louisiana slowly developed, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago, the history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearings Roadside Geology of Louisiana. The sediments were carried north to south by the Mississippi River
6.
Little Elm, Texas
–
Little Elm is a city in Denton County, Texas, United States, and a part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. It is an suburb of Dallas. The population was 3,646 at the 2000 census, by the 2010 census, the city total had jumped to 25,898, making Little Elm one of the fastest growing municipalities in Texas since 2000 in terms of percentage. At the entrance to the city limits, population signs reflect a size of more than 31,000 as of 2013. Little Elm is generally located along the northern and eastern shores of Lewisville Lake at the roads of Eldorado Parkway and FM423. Its neighbors include Frisco to the east, The Colony and Hackberry to the south, Prosper, Aubrey, and Providence to the north, and Oak Point, Cross Roads, Little Elm is located at 33°9′50″N 96°55′49″W. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, it has an area of 18.6 square miles, of which 14.6 square miles is land and 4.1 square miles. Little Elm has more miles of shoreline than any city in DFW, lakeside amenities off Eldorado Parkway include a cable wake board park, a boat ramp, a massive swim beach, a marina, an amphitheater on the water, and many miles of trail. Other park attractions include the golf course at McCord Park on FM423. Because Little Elm is rapidly growing and expanding, most of the city is new, some of the newer subdivisions include Paloma Creek, The Towers by the Park, and Frisco Ranch. Little Elms current estimated population, as of May 1,2016, is 34,355, including active subdivisions in the Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction, that figure exceeds 45,000. Little Elms build-out population is anticipated to be over 90,000, as of the census of 2000, there were 3,646 people,1,210 households, and 965 families residing in the town. The population of Little Elm grew by 610% between 2000 and 2010, ballooning from 3,646 to 25,898, making the city one of the fastest growing in not only the state of Texas but also the United States. According to city-data. com, the 2011 population was 26,011, as of the census of 2010, there were 25,898 people. According to the census,69. 3% of the population was white,14.3 was Black or African American, of the total population, 24% was Hispanic or Latino. Three school districts serve Little Elm, Little Elm ISD, Frisco ISD, generally, the U. S.380 corridor is served by Denton ISD, the FM423 corridor and east Little Elm by Frisco ISD, and the rest of Little Elm by Little Elm ISD. The Little Elm Independent School District serves most of the parts of Little Elm. Little Elm ISD is one of the fastest growing in Denton County, the school district finished building its athletic stadium in 2006 located at the intersection of Hart Road and Eldorado Parkway
7.
Texas
–
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
8.
Option offense
–
The option offense is a generic term that is used to describe a wide variety of offensive systems in American football. Option offenses are characterized as such because of the predominance of option running plays employed in them, Option offenses have traditionally relied heavily upon running plays, though modern option offenses now incorporate a large number of passing plays. Because they are run-based, option offenses are very effective in managing the game clock, giving the team less time to score. However, this means that when the option team is losing near the end of the game. These schemes rely on timing, deception, and split-second decision-making under pressure, an option offense is any football scheme that relies on option running plays as its cornerstone. There are a variety of such schemes, the result is a backfield alignment that resembles the shape of a wishbone. While the wishbones success reached its zenith in the 1970s, it remains popular at the high school, wing T offense The traditional wing T offense employs many of the concepts of the wishbone offense. It often employs three running back formations, especially in the Bay City version of the offense, as the triple-option became prominent, the wing T quickly incorporated the veer into its arsenal. In conjunction, it tends to significantly more misdirection running plays. The traps, crosses, fakes, pulls, sweeps, the veer is well suited to the wing T offense, especially the Delaware version. It continues to be employed by schools and small college teams. Flexbone option offense The Flexbone was invented by Emory Bellard at Mississippi State in 1979 and it was called the Wingbone, a variation of the Wishbone Bellard originally invented. A variant of the offense, the flexbone came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s. The flexbone offense varies from the wishbone in a few fundamental ways, first, and most notably, the flexbone replaces the halfbacks that are aligned in the backfield of a wishbone with one or two wingbacks or slot backs, that align off-tackle or off-end. These hybrid players are very quick and must be adept at running, blocking. Because of their positioning, they can more easily facilitate the game in the flexbone. Teams that employ this scheme tend to consistently high rushing averages. The name flexbone is somewhat controversial and usually reflects the school of thought from which the offense was born, some practitioners, such as Air Forces famed former head coach, Fisher DeBerry, welcomed the name flexbone because the offense was seen as a modification of the traditional wishbone
9.
100 metres
–
The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and it has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1928 for women. The reigning 100 m Olympic champion is named the fastest runner in the world. The World Championships 100 metres has been contested since 1983, jamaicans Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are the reigning world champions, Bolt and Elaine Thompson are the Olympic champions in the mens and womens 100 metres, respectively. On an outdoor 400 metres running track, the 100 m is run on the home straight, runners begin in the starting blocks and the race begins when an official fires the starters pistol. Sprinters typically reach top speed after somewhere between 50–60 m and their speed then slows towards the finish line. The 10-second barrier has historically been a barometer of fast mens performances, the current mens world record is 9.58 seconds, set by Jamaicas Usain Bolt in 2009, while the womens world record of 10.49 seconds set by American Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 remains unbroken. The 100 m emerged from the metrication of the 100 yards, the event is largely held outdoors as few indoor facilities have a 100 m straight. US athletes have won the mens Olympic 100 metres title more times than any country,16 out of the 28 times that it has been run. US women have dominated the event winning 9 out of 21 times. At the start, some athletes play psychological games such as trying to be last to the starting blocks, at high level meets, the time between the gun and first kick against the starting block is measured electronically, via sensors built in the gun and the blocks. A reaction time less than 0.1 s is considered a false start, the 0. 2-second interval accounts for the sum of the time it takes for the sound of the starters pistol to reach the runners ears, and the time they take to react to it. For many years a sprinter was disqualified if responsible for two false starts individually, however, this rule allowed some major races to be restarted so many times that the sprinters started to lose focus. The next iteration of the rule, introduced in February 2003, meant that one false start was allowed among the field, but anyone responsible for a subsequent false start was disqualified. To avoid such abuse and to improve spectator enjoyment, the IAAF implemented a change in the 2010 season – a false starting athlete now receives immediate disqualification. This proposal was met with objections when first raised in 2005, justin Gatlin commented, Just a flinch or a leg cramp could cost you a years worth of work. The rule had an impact at the 2011 World Championships. Runners normally reach their top speed just past the point of the race
10.
Trinidad and Tobago
–
During the same period, the island of Tobago changed hands among Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Courlander colonizers, more times than any other island in the Caribbean. Trinidad and Tobago were ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens, the country Trinidad and Tobago obtained independence in 1962, becoming a republic in 1976. Trinidad and Tobago is the third richest country by GDP per capita in the Americas after the United States, furthermore, it is recognised as a high-income economy by the World Bank. Unlike most of the English-speaking Caribbean, the economy is primarily industrial, with an emphasis on petroleum. The countrys wealth is attributed to its reserves and exploitation of oil. Historian E. L. Joseph claimed that Trinidads Amerindian name was Iere or Land of the Humming Bird, derived from the Arawak name for hummingbird, however, Boomert claims that neither cairi nor caeri means hummingbird and tukusi or tucuchi does. Others have reported that kairi and iere simply mean island, christopher Columbus renamed it La Isla de la Trinidad, fulfilling a vow made before setting out on his third voyage of exploration. Trinidad and Tobago are islands situated between 10°2 and 11°12 N latitude and 60°30 and 61°56 W longitude, at the closest point, Trinidad is just 11 kilometres from Venezuelan territory. Trinidad is 4,768 km2 in area with a length of 80 km. Tobago has an area of about 300 km2, or 5. 8% of the area, is 41 km long and 12 km at its greatest width. Trinidad and Tobago lie on the shelf of South America. The terrain of the islands is a mixture of mountains and plains, the highest point in the country is found on the Northern Range at El Cerro del Aripo, which is 940 metres above sea level. As the majority of the live in the island of Trinidad. There are four municipalities in Trinidad, Port of Spain. The main town in Tobago is Scarborough, Trinidad is made up of a variety of soil types, the majority being fine sands and heavy clays. The alluvial valleys of the Northern Range and the soils of the East-West Corridor are the most fertile, the Northern Range consists mainly of Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous metamorphic rocks. The Northern Lowlands consist of shallow marine clastic sediments. South of this, the Central Range fold and thrust belt consists of Cretaceous and Eocene sedimentary rocks, the Naparima Plains and the Nariva Swamp form the southern shoulder of this uplift
11.
Terrence Malick
–
Terrence Frederick Malick is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Malick began his career as part of the New Hollywood film-making wave with the films Badlands and Days of Heaven, Malicks films have been noted for exploring themes such as individual transcendence, nature, and conflicts between reason and instinct. The stylistic elements of the work have inspired divided opinions among film scholars. Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois and he is the son of Irene and Emil A. Malick, a geologist. His paternal grandparents were Assyrian Christian immigrants from Urmia, Iran, Malick attended St. Stephens Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, while his family lived in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Malick had two brothers, Chris and Larry. Larry Malick was a guitarist who went to study in Spain with Andrés Segovia in the late 1960s, in 1968, Larry intentionally broke his own hands due to pressure over his musical studies. Their father Emil went to Spain to help Larry, but his son died shortly after, the early death of Malicks younger brother has been explored and referenced in his films The Tree of Life and Knight of Cups. Malick received a A. B. in philosophy from Harvard College, graduating cum laude. He did graduate work at Magdalen College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, after a disagreement with his advisor, Gilbert Ryle, over his thesis on the concept of world in Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein, Malick left Oxford without a degree. In 1969, Northwestern University Press published Malicks translation of Heideggers Vom Wesen des Grundes as The Essence of Reasons, after returning to the United States, Malick taught philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology while freelancing as a journalist. He wrote articles for Newsweek, The New Yorker, and Life, Malick started his film career after earning an MFA from the AFI Conservatory in 1969, directing the short film Lanton Mills. At the AFI, he established contacts with people such as actor Jack Nicholson, longtime collaborator Jack Fisk, and agent Mike Medavoy and he wrote early uncredited drafts of Dirty Harry and Drive, He Said, and is credited with the screenplay for Pocket Money. Malick was also co-writer of The Gravy Train, under the pseudonym David Whitney, after one of his screenplays, Deadhead Miles, was made into what Paramount Pictures believed was an unreleasable film, Malick decided to direct his own scripts. Malicks first feature-length work as a director was Badlands, an independent film starring Martin Sheen and it was influenced by the crimes of convicted teenage spree killer Charles Starkweather. Malick raised half of the budget by approaching people outside of the industry, including doctors and dentists, the rest was raised by executive producer Edward R. Pressman. After a troubled production that many crew members leaving halfway through the shoot. As a result, Warner Bros. bought distribution rights for three times its budget, Malicks second film was the Paramount-produced Days of Heaven, about a love triangle that develops in the farm country of the Texas Panhandle in the early 20th century
12.
Elijah Wood
–
Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor, voice actor, DJ, and producer. He made his debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II. Landing a succession of roles, he was critically acclaimed as a child actor by age nine. As a child, he starred in the films Radio Flyer, The Good Son, North and he began to take on teenage roles in the films The Ice Storm, Deep Impact and The Faculty. He is best known for his leading role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jacksons epic film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Since then, he has chosen varied roles in such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sin City, Green Street, Everything Is Illuminated. Wood provided the voice of Mumble in the animated musical films Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two. In 2005, he started his own label, Simian Records. He did the voice acting for Spyro in the Legend of Spyro trilogy, from 2011-14, Wood played the role of Ryan Newman in FXs dark comedy, Wilfred. As of late autumn 2016, he co-stars in the BBC America series Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency, Wood was born on January 28,1981 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the second of three children. His parents, Debbie and Warren Wood, operated a delicatessen, Wood is of Austrian, Danish, English, German, and Polish descent. He has a brother, Zachariah, who is a video game producer at Sony, and a younger sister, Hannah. At age seven, Wood began modeling in his hometown and took piano lessons, in elementary school, he appeared in The Sound of Music, followed by the title character in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He also served as boy in a Marion Creative Council production of See How They Run. In 1989, his parents sold their delicatessen and the family–without his father–moved to Los Angeles for Wood to pursue an acting career and his parents divorced when he was 15. Wood modeled and did local commercials and he got his first break in the video for Paula Abduls Forever Your Girl, directed by David Fincher. This was followed by a role in the TV film, Child in the Night. Playing Aidan Quinns son in Avalon and Tin Men garnered professional attention for Wood, a small part in Richard Geres Internal Affairs, was followed by the role of a boy who brings estranged couple Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson back together in Paradise
.jpg)
