title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: When she was 16, her parents sent her to Mexico for seven months to learn Spanish. During those seven months, Nyong'o lived in Taxco, Guerrero, and took classes at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México's Learning Centre for Foreigners. Nyong'o later attended St. Mary's School in Nairobi, where she received an IB Diploma in 2001 and received the mean grade of 6 out of 7 and came second in her class. She went to the United States for college, graduating from Hampshire College with a degree in film and theatre studies.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In 2013, her father was elected to represent Kisumu County in the Kenyan Senate and by 2017, he became Governor. Nyong'o's mother is the managing director of the Africa Cancer Foundation and her own communications company. Other family members include Tavia Nyong'o, a scholar and professor at New York University; Omondi Nyong'o, a paediatric ophthalmologist in Palo Alto, California, US; Kwame Nyong'o, one of Kenya's leading animators and leading technology expert; and Isis Nyong'o, a media and technology leader who was named one of Africa's most powerful young women by "Forbes" magazine.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o began her career working as part of the production crew for several films, including Fernando Meirelles's "The Constant Gardener" (2005), Mira Nair's "The Namesake" (2006), and Salvatore Stabile's "Where God Left His Shoes" (2007). She cites Ralph Fiennes, the British star of "The Constant Gardener", as someone who inspired her to pursue a professional acting career. In 2008, Nyong'o starred in the short film "East River", directed by Marc Grey and shot in Brooklyn. She returned to Kenya that same year and appeared in the Kenyan television series "Shuga", an MTV Base Africa/UNICEF drama about HIV/AIDS prevention. In 2009, she wrote, directed, and produced the documentary "In My Genes", about the discriminatory treatment of Kenya's albino population. It played at several film festivals and won first prize at the 2008 Five College Film Festival. Nyong'o also directed the music video "The Little Things You Do" by Wahu, featuring Bobi Wine, which was nominated for the Best Video Award at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o enrolled in a master's degree program in acting at the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, she appeared in many stage productions, including Gertrude Stein's "Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights", Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya", and William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter's Tale". While at Yale, she won the Herschel Williams Prize in the 2011–12 academic year for "acting students with outstanding ability" .


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Immediately after graduating from Yale, Nyong'o landed her breakthrough role when she was cast in Steve McQueen's historical drama "12 Years a Slave" (2013). The film, which met with widespread critical acclaim, is based on the life of Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free-born African-American man of upstate New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in Washington, DC, in 1841. Nyong'o portrayed Patsey, a slave who works alongside Northup at a Louisiana cotton plantation; her performance garnered rave reviews. "Empire" reviewer Ian Freer wrote that she "gives one of the most committed big-screen debuts imaginable," and Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" called her "a spectacular young actress who imbues Patsey with grit and radiant grace". She was nominated for several awards for "12 Years a Slave", including a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, including Best Supporting Actress, which she won. She also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the sixth black actress to win the award. The blue Prada dress she wore to the awards garnered substantial media attention and acclaim, being considered one of the classic red carpet gowns in Hollywood history. She is the second African actress to win the award, the first Kenyan actress to win an Oscar, and the first Mexican to win the award. She is also the fifteenth actress to win an Oscar for a film debut performance.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Following a supporting role in the action-thriller "Non-Stop" (2014), Nyong'o co-starred in "" (2015) as Force-sensitive space pirate Maz Kanata, a CGI character created using motion capture technology. She had wanted to play a role where her appearance was not relevant, and the acting provided a different challenge from her role as Patsey. Scott Mendelson of "Forbes" described Nyong'o's role as "the center of the film's best sequence," and Stephanie Zacharek of "Time" magazine called her a "delightful minor character". She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 42nd Saturn Awards and Best Virtual Performance at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards for her role.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In 2015, Nyong'o returned to the stage with a starring role as an unnamed girl in the play "Eclipsed", written by Danai Gurira. The play takes place during the chaos of the Second Liberian Civil War, where the captive wives of a rebel officer band together to form a community, until the balance of their lives are upset by the arrival of a new girl (played by Nyong'o)."Eclipsed" became the Public Theater's fastest-selling new production in recent history and won Nyong'o an Obie Award for Outstanding Performance. The play premiered on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre the following year. It was the first play to premiere on Broadway with an all-black and female creative cast and crew. Nyong'o had understudied the play at Yale in 2009 and was terrified to play the character onstage. She turned down film roles in favour of the production. Her performance garnered critical acclaim; Charles Isherwood of "The New York Times" hailed Nyong'o as "one of the most radiant young actors to be seen on Broadway in recent seasons," and added that she "shines with a compassion that makes us see beyond the suffering to the indomitable humanity of its characters." Her performance in "Eclipsed" earned her a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance and a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. In addition, she was nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Play at the Outer Critics Circle Award and a Distinguished Performance Award at the Drama League Award.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o co-starred in Jon Favreau's "The Jungle Book" (2016), a live-action/CGI adaptation of its 1967 animated original, voicing Raksha, a mother wolf who adopts Mowgli (played by Neel Sethi). Robbie Collin of "The Telegraph" wrote in his review that Nyong'o brought a "gentle dignity" to her role. She later co-starred in Mira Nair's "Queen of Katwe" (2016), a biopic based on the true story about the rise of a young Ugandan chess prodigy, Phiona Mutesi (played by Madina Nalwanga), who becomes a Woman Candidate Master after her performances at World Chess Olympiads. Nyong'o played Phiona's protective mother, Nakku Harriet. Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com said, "Nyong'o is phenomenal. She has an incredible ability to convey backstory." Geoff Berkshire of "Variety" wrote, "Simply radiant in her first live action role since winning an Oscar for "12 Years a Slave" [...] [Nyong'o] imbues what could have been a stock mother figure with such inner fire that Harriet feels worthy of a movie all her own."


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o reprised her role as Maz Kanata in Rian Johnson's "" (2017), as well as in the animated series "Star Wars Forces of Destiny". The following year, she starred as spy Nakia, a former member of Dora Milaje, a team of women who serve as special forces of Wakanda and personal bodyguards to T'Challa / Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), in Ryan Coogler's superhero film "Black Panther" (2018), which marked the eighteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In preparation for the role, Nyong'o learned to speak Xhosa and undertook judo, jujitsu, silat, and Filipino martial arts training. David Betancourt of "The Washington Post" wrote that the film "takes superhero cinema where it's never gone before by not being afraid to embrace its blackness" and particularly praised Nyong'o for avoiding stereotypical depictions of a black leading lady, stating that she "throws punches, shoots guns and steals hearts in a role she seems born for." "Black Panther" grossed over $1.34 billion worldwide to emerge as the eleventh highest-grossing film of all time. Nyong'o received a Saturn Award for Best Actress nomination for the role.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Following the success of "Black Panther", Nyong'o starred as a kindergarten teacher dealing with a zombie apocalypse in the comedy horror film "Little Monsters" (2019). Amy Nicholson of "Variety" wrote that Nyong'o's "deadpan humor and grace ennoble the slapstick". The 2019 South by Southwest marked the premiere of her next release, Jordan Peele's psychological horror film "Us". It tells the story of a family who are confronted by their doppelgängers. Emily Yoshida of "Vulture" labelled Nyong'o's dual role "astounding" and found her performance as the doppelgänger "an achievement on another level; a physical, vocal, and emotional performance so surgical in its uncanniness that it almost feels like it could not be the work of a flesh-and-blood human." "Us" grossed over $255 million worldwide against its $20 million budget. At Universal Studios Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights, Nyong'o attended a maze inspired by the film and appeared inside the attraction dressed as her character Red. Nyong'o earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role and won an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Also in 2019, Nyong'o narrated the Discovery Channel documentary series "Serengeti", about wildlife in the Serengeti ecosystem. Nyong'o spoke on the lack of African women narrating nature documentaries and how the "Serengeti" team encouraged her to use her native Kenyan accent on the series. She earned her first Emmy Award nomination for her narration as an Outstanding Narrator at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, making her the third black woman to be nominated in the category. She was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Character Voice-Over Performance. She hosted the Channel 4's documentary "Warrior Women with Lupita Nyong'o", in which she undertook a journey across Benin, West Africa to search for the Dahomey Amazons. She left the production of The Woman King in which she had been cast around the time of filming this documentary. Nyong'o reprised her role as Maz Kanata for the third time in "", which marked the final installment of the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy. She appeared on the Global Citizen organised television event, "Together at Home" and joined the radio play presentation of "Richard II" from The Public Theater and WNYC as The Narrator. Nyong'o was featured in Beyoncé's musical film "Black Is King", which premiered on Disney+ in July 2020.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong’o partnered with Nairobi-based media and tech startup Kukua in support of YouTube Originals' STEM-themed, "Super Sema" (2021), which became Africa's first kid superhero animated series. "Super Sema" follows the adventures of an extraordinary young African girl, Sema, who lives in the neo-African-futuristic community of Dunia. Nyong’o serves as an executive producer and voice actress in the series. Afterwards, she starred alongside Juan Castano in Saheem Ali's bilingual radio play adaptation of "Romeo & Juliet", titled "Romeo y Julieta" (2021). She also provided narration for Apple TV+'s documentary, " Who Are You, Charlie Brown?" (2021), based on the origins of Peanuts and its creator Charles M. Schulz. Nyong'o won the Outstanding Limited Performance in a Children's Program category at the 48th Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for her involvement in Netflix's television series, "Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices" (2020). In 2021, Nyong'o reprised her narration role in "Serengeti" (2019), where she earned her second Primetime Emmy Award nomination.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: The following year, Nyong'o starred in Simon Kinberg's ensemble spy-thriller "The 355" (2022) alongside Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, and Diane Kruger. She also guest-starred in Netflix's adult-animated sitcom, "Human Resources" (2022) as Asha, a Shame Wizard who became Lionel's interest. Later, Nyong'o reprised the role of Nakia in "", the sequel to the original "Black Panther" film, released in November 2022.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o is developing a television series based on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel "Americanah", which she will produce and star in. She will produce and star in "Born a Crime", a film adaptation of Trevor Noahs memoir of the same name, in which she will portray Noah's mother, Patricia. She will be reuniting with director Abe Forsythe and the creative team behind the horror comedy film "Little Monsters" for a starring role in a science fiction comedy film. She will also produce an animated musical based on her number-one best-selling children's book, "Sulwe" (2019), for Netflix. In addition, Nyong'o will star in the horror film "A Quiet Place: Day One".


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o resides in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. She is a fluent speaker of English, Spanish, Luo, and Swahili. On 27 February 2014, at the "Essence" Black Women in Hollywood luncheon in Beverly Hills, she delivered a speech on the beauty of Black women and opened up about the insecurities she had as a teenager. She said her views changed when she saw South Sudanese model Alek Wek become successful.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In 2014, the National Trust for Historic Preservation recruited Nyong'o in an effort to oppose development, including a new minor league baseball stadium, in the Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond, Virginia. The historic neighbourhood, one of Richmond's oldest, was the site of major slave-trading before the American Civil War. On 19 October 2014, Nyong'o sent a letter to Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, which she posted on social media, asking him to withdraw support for the development proposal. She later lent her voice in Conservation International's "Nature is Speaking" campaign as the flower.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In June 2015, Nyong'o returned to Kenya and announced that she would advocate globally for elephants with the international conservation organisation WildAid, as well as promote women's issues, acting and the arts in Kenya. WildAid announced Nyong'o as their Global Elephant Ambassador.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o is involved with the organisation Mother Health International, which aims to provide relief to women and children in Uganda by creating locally engaged birthing centres. She said she had never thought much about birthing practices until her sister introduced her to MHI executive director Rachel Zaslow. Nyong'o felt bringing attention to such important but overlooked issues is a mandate for her as an artist. "Variety" honoured her for her work in 2016.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In April 2016, Nyong'o launched an anti-poaching "hearts and minds" campaign with her organisation Wildaid in advance of Kenya Wildlife Service's history-making ivory burn that occurred 30 April. The Kenyan government burned 105 tonnes of ivory and 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn in a demonstration of their zero tolerance approach to poachers and smugglers who were threatening the survival of elephants and rhinoceros in the wild.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In October 2017—in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal and the MeToo movement—Nyong'o wrote an op-ed for "The New York Times" divulging that Weinstein had sexually harassed her on two separate occasions in 2011, when she was a student at Yale. She had vowed never to work with him thereafter, hence turning down an offer to star in "Southpaw" (2015), a Weinstein-distributed film. She further wrote about her commitment to work with female directors, as well as male feminist directors who have not abused their power. Nyong'o's op-ed was part of a collection of stories by "The New York Times" and "The New Yorker" that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o made her writing debut with a book titled "Sulwe" (2019), which is published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. "Sulwe" (Luo for "star") is the story of a five-year-old Kenyan girl, who has the darkest complexion in her family, for which Nyong'o drew on her own childhood experiences. The book became a number-one "New York Times" Best-Seller. "Sulwe" was selected for the 2020 Illustrator Honor at the Coretta Scott King Awards and won for Outstanding Literary Work – Children at the 2020 NAACP Image Awards.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In September 2019, Nyong'o became an ambassador for Michael Kors' "Watch Hunger Stop" campaign. In October, Nyong'o and her mother were honoured at The Harlem School of the Arts' Mask Ball with a "Visionary Lineage Award". Then, she was honoured at WildAid to receive the "Champion of the Year" award in November.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o was mentioned in Christian rapper Lecrae's song "Nuthin'" from his 2014 album "Anomaly" and was referenced by Jay-Z in his verse from Jay Electronica's song "We Made It". She was also mentioned in the parody song "American Apparel Ad Girls" by the drag queens Willam Belli, Courtney Act and Alaska Thunderfuck. Nyong'o was mentioned in the 2015 song "Nerea" by Kenyan afro-pop band Sauti Sol. Rapper Nicki Minaj mentioned Lupita in her verse on A$AP Ferg's remix of "Plain Jane" and was referenced by rapper Wale in his song "Black is Gold". Singer Beyoncé mentioned Nyong'o in the single "Brown Skin Girl" from "" (2019).


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o was included in Derek Blasberg's 2013 best-dressed list in "Harper's Bazaar". In 2014, she was chosen as one of the faces for Miu Miu's spring campaign, with Elizabeth Olsen, Elle Fanning and Bella Heathcote. She has also appeared on the covers of several magazines, including "New York"'s spring fashion issue and the UK magazine "Dazed & Confused". In April of that year, she was named "The Most Beautiful Woman" by "People". and was named the new face of Lancôme, making her the first black woman to appear on the brand. Later that November, she was named "Woman of the Year" by "Glamour".


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o was on the July 2014 cover of "Vogue", making her the second African woman and ninth black woman to cover the magazine. That same month she also appeared on the cover of July's issue of "Elle" (France). She appeared on the October 2015 issue of "Vogue", making it her second cover in a row. That month, Congressman Charles Rangel and Voza Rivers, the head of the New Heritage Theatre Group, announced the day is officially "Lupita Nyong'o Day" in Harlem, New York. The honour was announced as a surprise during an open discussion between Nyong'o and image activist Michaela Angela Davis at Mist Harlem.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o was included in Annie Leibovitz's 2016 "Vanity Fair"s Hollywood Issue. Nyong'o was honoured with a caricature portrait in May 2016 at Sardi's restaurant in New York City for her debut on Broadway. That July, she was chosen as one of the first celebrities, along with Elle Fanning, Christy Turlington Burns, and Natalie Westling to star in Tiffany & Co.'s Fall 2016 campaign styled by Grace Coddington. Nyong'o appeared on "Vogue"′s October 2016 cover, making it her third issue. That month, she was an honouree at the 2016 Elle Women in Hollywood Awards.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In January 2017, she appeared on the cover of "Vanity Fair"s Hollywood Issue. She later appeared on the cover of UK's "The Sunday Times Magazine" for their October 2017 issue. In November 2017, she appeared on the cover of "Grazia UK " magazine. She later expressed her disappointment with the cover on social media for altering her hair to fit European standards of what hair should look like. Photographer An Le later apologised in a statement, saying it was "an incredibly monumental mistake". Nyong'o often speaks out about embracing her "African kinky hair" and collaborates with hairdresser Vernon François to show how versatile her hair texture is.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In December 2017, Nyong'o landed her fourth "Vogue" cover in a row for the January 2018 issue, making her the first black actress to do so. She was also included in Tim Walker's 2018 "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" – themed Pirelli Calendar as character The Dormouse.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: In June 2018, The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced Nyong'o will be among the honourees to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the film category. The following month, Nyong'o starred with fellow actress Saoirse Ronan for a Calvin Klein campaign for their new fragrance entitled "Calvin Klein Women". The campaign features both striking, minimalist portraits of the award-winning actresses alongside women they have personally been inspired by, where Nyong'o named Eartha Kitt and Katharine Hepburn as her inspirations. In October 2018, Nyong'o became a two-time honouree, alongside her "Black Panther" co-stars Danai Gurira and Angela Bassett for "Elle" magazine's "Women in Hollywood" issue. Nyong'o appeared on the cover of "Vogue" España's November 2018 edition. Nyong'o is a 2019 Hollywood Walk of Fame honouree.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o appeared on the cover of "Vanity Fair"s October 2019 issue. In November, she made her music debut with her single "Sulwe's Song", which she wrote for her book "Sulwe". She was also featured on singer Ciaras song "Melanin" under the moniker, "Troublemaker" along with La La Anthony, City Girls, and Ester Dean. "Melanin" was nominated for the Her Award at the 2020 BET Awards. Nyong'o was cited as one of 2019's Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine.


title: Lupita Nyong'o

text: Nyong'o made her first appearance on British "Vogue"'s February '20 cover. In March 2020, she appeared on Africa's "50 Most Powerful Women" list by "Forbes".


title: Rose Byrne

text: Mary Rose Byrne (born 24 July 1979) is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut in the film "Dallas Doll" (1994), and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s. She obtained her first leading film role in "The Goddess of 1967" (2000), which brought her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and made the transition to Hollywood in the small role of Dormé in "" (2002), followed by larger parts in "Troy" (2004), "28 Weeks Later" (2007), and "Knowing" (2009).


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne appeared as Ellen Parsons in the legal thriller series "Damages" (2007–2012), which earned her two Golden Globe Awards nominations and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. "Get Him to the Greek" (2010) and "Bridesmaids" (2011) established her as a comedic actress, in addition to the dramas and thrillers in which she continues to appear. She has since starred in a number of commercially successful comedies and dramas, including "Insidious" (2010) and its sequel "" (2013), "" (2011) and its sequel "" (2016), "Annie" (2014), as well as "Peter Rabbit" (2018) and its sequel "" (2021).


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne was born in Balmain, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney. She has Irish and Scottish ancestry. Her parents are Jane, a primary school administrator, and Robin Byrne, a semi-retired statistician and market researcher. She is the youngest of their four children; she has an older brother, George, and two older sisters, Alice and Lucy. In a 2009 interview, Byrne stated that her mother was an atheist, while both she and her father were agnostic. Her family was described by "The Telegraph" as "close-knit", and frequently kept her feet grounded as her career took off. "At one point one of my sisters had a word with me saying, 'Watch yourself'", she once remarked. "But they were really supportive."


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne attended Balmain Public School and Hunters Hill High School before attending Bradfield College in Crows Nest, New South Wales. She later moved to Newtown, New South Wales and Bondi, New South Wales. Encouraged by one of her sisters, she began taking acting classes at age eight, joining the Australian Theatre for Young People. Growing up, Byrne experienced "plenty of rejection" from film schools. "I auditioned for a few of the big drama schools—Nepean, WAAPA, NIDA—and didn't get in to any of them. I was really disappointed with myself. I wasn't quite sure if I'd be legitimate without training for three years in a more traditional sense". Instead, she studied an arts degree at Sydney University.


title: Rose Byrne

text: "I still have great memories of those days: studying, working, auditioning. Just being a jobbing actor trying to figure out life after high school". In 1999, Byrne studied acting at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by David Mamet and William H. Macy.


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne obtained her first film role in "Dallas Doll" (1994) when she was 15 years old. Throughout the 1990s, she appeared in several Australian television shows, such as "Wildside" (1997) and "Echo Point" (1995), and starred as an alterna-girl love interest in the film "Two Hands" (1999), opposite fellow up-and-coming actor Heath Ledger. A role in the award-winning film "My Mother Frank" (2000) was followed by her first leading role in Clara Law's "The Goddess of 1967" (also 2000), which gained her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 57th Venice International Film Festival. Byrne revealed in a post-award interview that, prior to winning the Venice Film Festival Award, she was surprised by her own performance and found it confronting watching the film because her acting was "too depressing". Byrne admitted that "watching myself is confronting because I'm convinced I can't act and I want to get out, that's how insecure I am."


title: Rose Byrne

text: On stage, Byrne starred in "La Dispute" and in a production of Anton Chekhov's classic "Three Sisters" at the Sydney Theatre Company. In 2002, she made her first appearance in a Hollywood film with a brief appearance as Dormé, the handmaiden to Natalie Portman's Senator Padmé Amidala, in "". She also appeared in the 2002 thriller "City of Ghosts", with Matt Dillon. Byrne had flown to the UK to shoot "I Capture the Castle" (2003), Tim Fywell's adaptation of the 1948 novel of the same title by Dodie Smith. In it, she portrayed Rose Mortmain, the elder sister of Romola Garai's Cassandra.


title: Rose Byrne

text: In 2003, Byrne starred in three Australian films; "The Night We Called It a Day", with Melanie Griffith and Dennis Hopper; "The Rage in Placid Lake", with Ben Lee; and "Take Away", alongside Vince Colosimo, Stephen Curry, John Howard and Nathan Phillips. All films were comedies and opened to varying degrees of success at the box office, but "The Rage in Placid Lake" earned Byrne an AACTA Award nomination for Best Actress. In the epic drama "Troy" (2004), she took on the role of Briseis, the captured priestess presented to "amuse" Brad Pitt's Achilles. "Variety"'s review of the film stated: "Byrne's spoils-of-war chattel plays more as a convenient invention than as a woman who could possibly turn Achilles’ head and heart around". In her other 2004 film release, the thriller "Wicker Park", Byrne appeared, opposite Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger, as the girlfriend of a young advertising executive's old friend. "Wicker Park" director Paul McGuigan described her as the best actress he has worked with, and her "Troy" co-star Peter O'Toole described her as "beautiful, uncomplicated, simple, pure actress and a very nice girl".


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne reunited with Peter O'Toole, playing a young servant, in the BBC TV drama "Casanova" (2005), a three-episode production about 18th century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova. In 2005, she also starred with Snoop Dogg in "The Tenants", based on Bernard Malamud's novel. In 2006, Byrne portrayed Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, a French aristocrat and friend of Marie Antoinette, in Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette", with Kirsten Dunst; and appeared as a medical examiner who thinks the dead woman she is prepping is her missing sister in the critically acclaimed thriller "The Dead Girl", directed by Karen Moncrieff.


title: Rose Byrne

text: In 2007, Byrne had significant parts in two studio sci-fi thriller films. She played a space vessel's pilot in Danny Boyle's "Sunshine", alongside Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans, and also an army medical officer in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's "28 Weeks Later", the sequel to Boyle's "28 Days Later". While "Sunshine" flopped, "28 Weeks Later" was a critical success and grossed over US$64.2 million globally. In 2007, Byrne would begin playing Ellen Parsons, a bright, young attorney, in the FX legal thriller television series "Damages", alongside Glenn Close. Her performance was widely praised, with Byrne being nominated twice for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2009 and 2010, and twice for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film in 2008 and 2010. She played her role in all fifty nine episodes of the series and until its finale in September 2012.


title: Rose Byrne

text: Following starring roles in the 2008 independent films "Just Buried", directed by Chaz Thorne, and "The Tender Hook", with Hugo Weaving, Byrne returned to the mainstream with the role of the mother of a teen, alongside Nicolas Cage, in the sci-fi thriller "Knowing" (2009), which made US$186.5 million worldwide and met with mixed reviews. Back then, Byrne was not being strategic about her film choices. "You gravitate to where you want to go, but so much is out of your control", she once remarked. After the success of "Damages", she asked her agents to send her out for comedies. "I was doing all of this really heavy, dramatic stuff, and I just needed a break,” she stated. Her request was met when she obtained the role of a scandalous pop star and the on and off girlfriend of a free-spirited rock star in the comedy "Get Him to the Greek" (2010), also starring Russell Brand and Jonah Hill. Director Nicholas Stoller admitted that, in her audition, he thought: "'Why is she here?' Because, you know, very good actress, but very serious". Nevertheless, he noted that Byrne "just destroyed [...] Like, destroyed in the way that someone from "Saturday Night Live" would. And that was that". The film was a commercial success, with a gross of US$60.9 million in North America.


title: Rose Byrne

text: 2011 marked a turning point in Byrne's career, as there were three high-profile films released theatrically featuring her in prominent roles that eventually would lead to a trajectory that included three to four films per year. In her first 2011 release, James Wan's horror film "Insidious", she starred as one half of a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for ghosts in an astral dimension who want to inhabit his body. Budgeted at US$1.5 million, the film grossed US$97 million and marked the beginning of a whole franchise. The comedy "Bridesmaids" saw Byrne take on the role of the rich, beautiful, and elite wife of the groom's boss, alongside Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Ellie Kemper, and Wendi McLendon-Covey. "Bridesmaids" was both critically and commercially successful; it grossed US$26 million in its opening weekend, and eventually over US$288 million worldwide.


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne appeared in "", directed by Matthew Vaughn, as Moira MacTaggert, a character she described as: "a woman in a man's world, she's very feisty and ambitious—you know, she's got a toughness about her which I liked". She said she was unfamiliar with both the comics and the film series, except for "what a juggernaut of a film it was". The actress was cast late into production, which had already begun by the time she was picked for the role. Her third and final 2011 film, "First Class" was also a box office success, grossing US$353.6 million around the globe.


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne had four film releases and one short film in 2013. She obtained the part of the newlywed wife, opposite Rafe Spall, in "I Give It a Year", a comedy about the trials and tribulations of a couple during their first year of marriage. "The Hollywood Reporter" found Byrne and Spall to be "mismatched", while "Variety" praised their chemistry and noted: ""Year" will do nothing but enhance the reputations of its core actors, especially Byrne, who's shaping up into an ace comedienne perfectly suited to screwball". The film was a commercial success in the UK and Australia, where it was given a wide release in theaters. In "The Place Beyond the Pines", a generational drama directed by Derek Cianfrance, she appeared with Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, as the wife of a police officer who shoots a bank robber and has to deal with the consequences. She played a Google executive in the film "The Internship", opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, as she was drawn to "the way it addressed the generational gaps and the ever-changing landscape of the technological world".


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne filmed "The Turning", a short film installment in a Tim Winton omnibus feature, and worked again with fellow Australians Wan and Whannell for the sequel "", reuniting with Patrick Wilson and Lin Shaye. The film received mixed reviews from critics and became the biggest opening day in North America box office history for the month of September following its release. It eventually made over US$160 million against a budget of US$5 million. 2014 saw Byrne star in the family dramedies "Adult Beginners" and " This Is Where I Leave You" as well as the comedy "Neighbors," alongside Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, in which she played one half of a couple who come into conflict with a fraternity that has recently moved in next door. Critics highlighted her performance in "Neighbors", with "The Atlantic" writing: "Byrne walks away with the film by making [her character] a well-rounded, conflicted person, rather than the film's fun cop who has to tell everyone the boring truth". The film was a box office success, taking in US$270.1 million worldwide.


title: Rose Byrne

text: A critically panned but commercially successful remake of the 1982 classic, "Annie", was released in December 2014 and featured Byrne playing the role of Grace Farrell, the titular character's mother figure and Mr. Stacks' faithful personal assistant. In 2015, Byrne reunited with Melissa McCarthy and starred with Jude Law and Jason Statham in the hit comedic action film "Spy", playing the daughter of an arms dealer, and also starred with Susan Sarandon in the dramedy "The Meddler" as the daughter of an aging widow who moves to Los Angeles in hopes of starting a new life after her husband passes away. The film was acclaimed by critics and found an audience in limited release. In 2016, she reprised her roles in "" and "," and in 2017, she filmed the black comedy "I Love You, Daddy", directed by and also starring Louis C.K., but it was dropped by its distributor following sexual misconduct accusations made against C.K.


title: Rose Byrne

text: In 2018, Byrne voiced Jemima Puddle-Duck and played a local woman named Bea who spends her time painting pictures of the rabbits in the live-action comedy "Peter Rabbit", which made US$351.2 million worldwide. She reprised her role in the 2021 sequel "". In "Juliet, Naked" (also 2018), a romantic comedy adapted from Nick Hornby's novel of the same name, she appeared as a woman dating an obscure rock musician (played by Ethan Hawke). The film was an arthouse success, with Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus reading: ""Juliet, Naked"'s somewhat familiar narrative arc is elevated by standout work from a charming cast led by a well-matched Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke." "I Am Mother" (2019) is a thriller and sci-fi movie with Clara Rugaard and Oscar winner Hilary Swank. Byrne also voiced a virtual assistant in the 2019 movie "Jexi", costarring Adam Devine, Alexandra Shipp, and Wanda Sykes.


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne has been considered one of the world's most beautiful women. She ranked 9th and 16th in Australian "FHM"s "Sexiest Women in the World", in 2001 and 2006 respectively. She has been featured several times in "The Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces from Around the World", ranking 15th (2004), 3rd (2005), 7th (2006), 5th (2007), 8th (2008), 1st (2009), and 15th (2010). She was also featured in the "Most Beautiful People" list of 2007 in "Who Magazine", and ranked 5th in Hallmark Channel's 2008 "TV's Sexiest Leading Woman" poll. She was voted 78th on Ask Men's Top 99 'most desirable' woman of 2012 list, and "People" ranked her 7th in its "Best Dressed Celebrities" list of 2015. Byrne was the face of Max Factor between 2004 and 2009, and in 2014, she became the face of Oroton, the Australian producer of luxury fashion accessories.


title: Rose Byrne

text: Since the beginning of her career, her performances have been acclaimed by critics. In 2018, Byrne was noted for her comedic work. She consciously made the transition to less dramatic material in the late 2000s, finding the idea of being "boxed in" to be "insufferable". "You have to be aggressive in this business,” Byrne noted. "You have always got to push for what you want. Working with Glenn [Close, on "Damages"], she was the hardest worker ever. She was constantly pushing". Her turn to comedy led to "The Hollywood Reporter" calling her "the most in-demand supporting actress for comedies". "Decider" wrote a story titled "How Did Rose Byrne Become One of Our Best Comedic Actresses?", in which it was remarked: "Byrne's emergence as one of the brightest stars in the Apatowverse is all the more remarkable for her lack of a comedy background. [...] Any doubts about Byrne's massive comedic talent—and after "Bridesmaids" and "Neighbors", you'd have to be pretty stubborn to still have doubts—were put to rest with 2015's "Spy", where she again steals the show as merciless terrorist Rayna. Byrne and McCarthy's private-plane banter is the highlight of the film and could have gone on another 30 minutes as far as I'm concerned".


title: Rose Byrne

text: In 2013, Byrne lived in New York and said she remained insecure about a stable career: "I don't think that insecurity ever leaves you. You're a freelancer. There's always an element of uncertainty."


title: Rose Byrne

text: In 2003, Byrne was in a relationship with Australian writer, director and actor Brendan Cowell for over six years. Cowell moved from Sydney to New York City, following Byrne's success on "Damages". Their relationship ended in January 2010.


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne has been in a relationship with American actor Bobby Cannavale since 2012. The couple have two sons, born in February 2016 and November 2017.


title: Rose Byrne

text: Byrne has supported UNICEF Australia by being the face of the 2007 Designers United campaign and a member of Tropfest jury in 2006 and Tropfest@Tribeca in 2007. She is a graduate and ambassador for NIDA's (National Institute of Dramatic Art) Young Actors Studio.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: The next United Kingdom general election is scheduled to be held no later than January 2025. It will determine the 59th House of Commons.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: The next election is scheduled to be held no later than January 2025, after the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 repealed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: The result of the 2019 United Kingdom general election and members in the House of Commons is given below.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: Ahead of this general election, "HuffPost" reported in March 2022 that the Labour Party abandoned all-women shortlists, citing legal advice that continuing to use them for choosing parliamentary candidates would become an "unlawful" practice again under the Equality Act 2010.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: Following the UK Supreme Court's decision, in November 2022, that a proposed second Scottish independence referendum is outside the competence of the Scottish Parliament, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) announced her intention to treat the next general election as a "de facto" independence referendum. Other parties have rejected this characterisation.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: General elections in the United Kingdom are organised using first-past-the-post voting. The Conservative Party, which won a majority at the 2019 general election, included pledges in its manifesto to remove the fifteen-year limit on voting for British citizens living abroad, and to introduce a voter identification requirement in Great Britain. Provisions for these changes have been enacted in the Elections Act 2022.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: The Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which proposed reducing the number of constituencies from 650 to 600, was commenced in 2011, but temporarily stopped in January 2013. Following the 2015 general election, each of the four parliamentary boundary commissions of the United Kingdom recommenced their review process in April 2016. The four commissions submitted their final recommendations to the Secretary of State on 5 September 2018 and made their reports public a week later. However, the proposals were never put forward for approval before the calling of the general election held on 12 December 2019, and in December 2020 the reviews were formally abandoned under the Schedule to the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: A projection by psephologists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of how the 2017 votes would have translated to seats under the new boundaries suggested the changes would have been beneficial to the Conservative Party and detrimental to the Labour Party.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: In March 2020, Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith confirmed that the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies would be based on retaining 650 seats. The previous relevant legislation was amended by the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020 and the four Boundary Commissions formally launched their 2023 reviews on 5 January 2021. They are required to issue their final reports prior to 1 July 2023. Once the reports have been laid before Parliament, Orders in Council giving effect to the final proposals must be made within four months, unless "there are exceptional circumstances". Prior to the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020, boundary changes could not be implemented until they were approved by both Houses of Parliament.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: At the 2019 general election, where the Conservatives won a majority of 80 seats, the manifesto of the party contained a commitment to repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act due to "paralysis at a time when the country has needed decisive action". The pledge was confirmed in the first Queen's Speech following the election.


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: In December 2020, the government published a draft Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (Repeal) Bill, later retitled the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022. In September 2021, Oliver Dowden, the newly appointed chairman of the Conservative Party, told party staff to prepare for a general election. "The Daily Telegraph" reported that an election could be held in May or June 2023. In March 2022, Dowden announced that the Conservatives would start a two-year election campaign in May, implying an election date of May 2024. On becoming Conservative leader in September 2022, Liz Truss said she would deliver "a great victory for the Conservative Party in 2024".


title: Next United Kingdom general election

text: The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 received royal assent on 24 March and entered into force the same day. The Prime Minister can again request the monarch to dissolve Parliament and call an early election with 25 working days' notice. Section 4 of the Act provided: "If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met." For the MPs elected in the 2019 United Kingdom general election, who first met on 17 December 2019, this means the fifth-anniversary date of 17 December 2024 and the latest possible polling day 25 working days later, which is 28 January 2025.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "The Great One", he has been called the greatest hockey player ever by many sportswriters, players, "The Hockey News", and by the NHL itself, based on extensive surveys of hockey writers, ex-players, general managers and coaches. Gretzky is the leading goal scorer, assist producer and point scorer in NHL history, and has more assists in his career than any other player scored total points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, Gretzky tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Born and raised in Brantford, Ontario, Gretzky honed his skills on a backyard rink and regularly played minor hockey at a level far above his peers. Despite his unimpressive size and strength, Gretzky's intelligence, stamina, and reading of the game were unrivaled. He was adept at dodging checks from opposing players, and consistently anticipated where the puck was going to be and executed the right move at the right time. Gretzky became known for setting up behind his opponent's net, an area that was nicknamed "Gretzky's office".


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky was the top scorer in the 1978 World Junior Championships. In June 1978, he signed with the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association (WHA), where he briefly played before being traded to the Edmonton Oilers. When the WHA folded, the Oilers joined the NHL, where he established many scoring records and led his team to four Stanley Cup championships. Gretzky's trade to the Los Angeles Kings on August 9, 1988, had an immediate impact on the team's performance, ultimately leading them to the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, and he is credited with popularizing hockey in California. Gretzky played briefly for the St. Louis Blues before finishing his career with the New York Rangers. Gretzky captured nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player, 10 Art Ross Trophies for most points in a season, two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP and five Lester B. Pearson Awards (now called the Ted Lindsay Award) for most outstanding player as judged by his peers. He led the league in goal-scoring five times and assists 16 times. He also won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times, and often spoke out against fighting in hockey.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: After his retirement in 1999, Gretzky was immediately inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, making him the most recent player to have the waiting period waived. The NHL retired his jersey number 99 league-wide, making him the only hockey player and one of only three players in professional sports history to receive such an honor, along with Jackie Robinson, whose uniform number 42 was retired by Major League Baseball in 1997, and Bill Russell, whose uniform number 6 was retired by the National Basketball Association in 2022. Gretzky was one of six players voted to the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) Centennial All-Star Team. Gretzky became executive director for the Canadian national men's hockey team during the 2002 Winter Olympics, in which the team won a gold medal. In 2000, he became part-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, and following the 2004–05 NHL lock-out, he became the team's head coach. In 2004, Gretzky was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. In September 2009, following the Phoenix Coyotes' bankruptcy, Gretzky resigned as head coach and relinquished his ownership share. In October 2016, he returned to the Oilers as a minority partner and vice-chairman of their parent company, Oilers Entertainment Group. He left in 2021 to become an analyst on Turner Sports' NHL coverage.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Wayne Douglas Gretzky was born on January 26, 1961, in Brantford, Ontario, the son of Phyllis Leone (Hockin) and Walter Gretzky. The couple married in 1960, and lived in an apartment in Brantford, where Walter worked for Bell Telephone Canada. The family moved into a house on Varadi Avenue in Brantford seven months after Wayne was born, chosen partly because its yard was flat enough to make an ice rink in winter. Wayne was joined by a sister, Kim (born 1963), and brothers Keith, Glen and Brent. The family regularly visited the farm of Wayne's grandparents, Tony and Mary, and watched "Hockey Night in Canada" together. By age two, Wayne was trying to score goals against Mary using a souvenir stick. The farm was where Wayne skated on ice for the first time, aged two years, 10 months.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Walter taught Wayne, Keith, Brent, Glen and their friends hockey on a rink he made in the back yard of the family home, nicknamed the "Wally Coliseum". Drills included skating around Javex bleach bottles and tin cans, and flipping pucks over scattered hockey sticks to be able to pick up the puck again in full flight. Additionally, Walter gave the advice to "skate where the puck's going, not where it's been". Wayne was a classic prodigy whose extraordinary skills made him the target of jealous parents.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The team Gretzky played on at age six was otherwise composed of 10-year-olds. His first coach, Dick Martin, remarked that he handled the puck better than the 10-year-olds. According to Martin, "Wayne was so good that you could have a boy of your own who was a tremendous hockey player, and he'd get overlooked because of what the Gretzky kid was doing." The sweaters for 10-year-olds were far too large for Gretzky, who coped by tucking the sweater into his pants on the right side. Gretzky continued doing this throughout his NHL career.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: By age 10, Gretzky had scored an astonishing 378 goals and 139 assists in just one season with the Brantford Nadrofsky Steelers. His play attracted media attention beyond his hometown of Brantford, including a profile by John Iaboni in the "Toronto Telegram" in October 1971. In the 1974 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament, Gretzky scored 26 points playing for Brantford. By age 13, he had scored over 1,000 goals. His play attracted considerable negative attention from other players' parents, including those of his teammates, and he was often booed. According to Walter, the "capper" was being booed on "Brantford Day" at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens in February 1975.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: When Gretzky was 14, his family arranged for him to move to and play hockey in Toronto, partly to further his career, and partly to remove him from the uncomfortable pressure he faced in his hometown. The Gretzkys had to legally challenge the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to win Wayne the right to play in a different area, which was disallowed at the time. The Gretzkys won, and Wayne played Junior B hockey with the Toronto Nationals, in a league that included 20-year-olds. He earned Rookie of the Year honours in the Metro Junior B Hockey League in 1975–76, with 60 points in 28 games. The following year, as a 15–16-year-old, he had 72 points in 32 games with the same team, renamed the Seneca Nationals.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Despite his offensive statistics—scoring 132 points in 60 games in Junior B—two teams bypassed him in the 1977 Ontario Major Junior Hockey League draft of 16-year-olds. The Oshawa Generals picked Tom McCarthy first, and the Niagara Falls Flyers picked Steve Peters second overall. With the third pick, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds selected Gretzky, even though Walter Gretzky had told the team Wayne would not move to Sault Ste. Marie, a northern Ontario city that inflicts a heavy travelling schedule on its junior team. The Gretzkys made an arrangement with a local family they knew and Wayne played for the Greyhounds, at age 16. It was with the Greyhounds that Gretzky first wore the number 99 on his jersey. He originally wanted to wear number 9—for his hockey hero Gordie Howe—but it was already being worn by teammate Brian Gualazzi. At coach Muzz MacPherson's suggestion, Gretzky settled on 99.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: By 1978, the World Hockey Association, which had been in competition with the established NHL since 1972, was clearly struggling. The league, which at one point iced fourteen teams, was down to seven surviving franchises. The WHA had long sought to arrange some sort of merger with the NHL, but were constantly rebuffed by a group of hardline owners in the older league. With the WHA's long-term survival obviously in doubt, Birmingham Bulls owner John F. Bassett believed the only way to gain meaningful leverage over the NHL was to sign as many young and promising superstars as possible. The NHL did not allow the signing of players under age 20, but the WHA had no rules regarding such signings. Bassett saw Gretzky as the most promising young prospect. Several WHA teams courted Gretzky, notably the Bulls and the Indianapolis Racers.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Ultimately, it was Racers owner Nelson Skalbania who, on June 12, 1978, signed 17-year-old Gretzky to a seven-year personal services contract worth US$1.75 million. Skalbania opted to have Gretzky sign a personal-services contract rather than a standard player contract in part because by that point it was well known that a majority of NHL owners, if not yet the ¾ required to add new NHL franchises, were willing to absorb at least some WHA teams. While Skalbania knew it was unlikely the Racers would be one of these teams (in part because the WHA insisted that all of its surviving Canadian teams be included), he still hoped to keep the Racers alive long enough to collect compensation from the surviving teams when the WHA dissolved, as well as any funds earned from selling the young star.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky scored his first professional goal against Dave Dryden of the Edmonton Oilers in his fifth game, and his second goal four seconds later. However, he played only eight games for Indianapolis. The Racers were losing $40,000 per game. Skalbania told Gretzky he would be moved, offering him a choice between the Edmonton Oilers and the Winnipeg Jets. On the advice of his agent, Gretzky picked the Oilers, but the move was not that simple. On November 2, Gretzky, goaltender Eddie Mio and forward Peter Driscoll were put on a private plane, not knowing where they would land and what team they would be joining. While in the air, Skalbania worked on the deal. Skalbania offered to play a game of backgammon with Winnipeg owner Michael Gobuty, the stakes being if Gobuty won, he would get Gretzky and if he lost, he had to give Skalbania a share of the Jets. Gobuty turned down the proposal and the players landed in Edmonton. Mio paid the $4,000 bill for the flight with his credit card. Skalbania sold Gretzky, Mio and Driscoll to Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, a former business partner. Although the announced price was $850,000, Pocklington actually paid $700,000. The money was not enough to keep the Racers alive; they folded that December.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: One of the highlights of Gretzky's season was his appearance in the 1979 WHA All-Star Game. The format was a three-game series between the WHA All-Stars and Dynamo Moscow played at Edmonton's Northlands Coliseum. The WHA All-Stars were coached by Jacques Demers, who put Gretzky on a line with his boyhood idol Gordie Howe and Howe's son, Mark. In game one, the line scored seven points, and the WHA All-Stars won by a score of 4–2. In game two, Gretzky and Mark Howe each scored a goal and Gordie Howe picked up an assist as the WHA won 4–2. The line did not score in the final game, but the WHA won by a score of 4–3.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: On Gretzky's 18th birthday, January 26, 1979, Pocklington signed him to a 10-year personal services contract (the longest in hockey history at the time) worth C$3 million, with options for 10 more years. Gretzky finished third in the league in scoring at 110 points, behind Robbie Ftorek and Réal Cloutier. Gretzky captured the Lou Kaplan Trophy as rookie of the year, and helped the Oilers to first place in the league.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: By the end of the regular season, the signings of Gretzky and other young stars in addition to other factors had compelled enough of the hardline NHL owners to change their positions, and an agreement (technically recognized as the 1979 expansion by the NHL) was finalized. Under the agreement, the WHA agreed to fold after the 1979 season with the Oilers and three other teams (the Hartford (New England) Whalers, the Quebec Nordiques and the Winnipeg Jets) joining the older league as expansion franchises. The Oilers, like the other three teams, were to be allowed to protect two goaltenders and two skaters from being reclaimed by the established NHL teams in the 1979 NHL Expansion Draft. The NHL also lowered its minimum age, ensuring players such as Gretzky would not need to return to the junior level, albeit with the caveat that such previously underaged players were supposed to be placed into the 1979 NHL Entry Draft pool. Nevertheless, to avoid any potential for litigation over the validity of Gretzky's personal services contract the Oilers were allowed to keep the young star on their roster as one of their priority selections. In exchange for agreeing to keep Gretzky off the draft board, the NHL placed Edmonton at the bottom of the draft order.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The WHA completed the playoffs of its final season as planned. The Oilers reached the Avco World Trophy finals (the only WHA championship series appearance for the franchise), where they lost to the Winnipeg Jets in six games.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky's success in the WHA carried over into the NHL, despite some critics suggesting he would struggle in what was considered the bigger, tougher and more talented league. In his first NHL season, 1979–80, Gretzky was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player (the first of eight in a row) and tied for the scoring lead with Marcel Dionne with 137 points. Although Gretzky played 79 games to Dionne's 80, Dionne was awarded the Art Ross Trophy because he had scored more goals (53 to 51). The season still stands as the highest point total by a first-year player in NHL history. Gretzky became the youngest player to score 50 goals, but was not eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, given to the top NHL rookie, because of his previous year of WHA experience. The Calder was instead awarded to Boston Bruins defenceman Ray Bourque.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In his second season, Gretzky won the Art Ross (the first of seven consecutive) with a then-record 164 points, breaking both Bobby Orr's record for assists in a season (102) and Phil Esposito's record for points in a season (152). He won his second straight Hart Trophy. In the first game of the 1981 Stanley Cup playoffs, against the Montreal Canadiens, Gretzky had five assists, a single game playoff record.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: During the 1981–82 season, Gretzky surpassed a record that had stood for 35 years: 50 goals in 50 games, first set by Maurice "Rocket" Richard during the 1944–45 NHL season and tied by Mike Bossy during the 1980–81 NHL season. Gretzky accomplished the feat in only 39 games. His 50th goal of the season came on December 30, 1981, in the final seconds of a 7–5 win against the Philadelphia Flyers and was his fifth of the game. Later that season, Gretzky broke Esposito's record for most goals in a season (76) on February 24, 1982, scoring three to help defeat the Buffalo Sabres 6–3. He ended the 1981–82 season with records of 92 goals, 120 assists, and 212 points in 80 games, becoming the only player in NHL history to break the two hundred-point mark. That year, Gretzky became the first hockey player and first Canadian to be named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. He was also named 1982 "Sportsman of the Year" by "Sports Illustrated". The Canadian Press also named Gretzky Newsmaker of the Year in 1982.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The following seasons saw Gretzky break his own assists record three more times (125 in 1982–83, 135 in 1984–85 and 163 in 1985–86); he also bettered that mark (120 assists) in 1986–87 with 121 and 1990–91 with 122, and his point record one more time (215, in 1985–86). By the time he finished playing in Edmonton, he held or shared 49 NHL records.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The Edmonton Oilers finished first overall in their last WHA regular season. The same success was not immediate when they joined the NHL, but within four seasons, the Oilers were competing for the Stanley Cup. The Oilers were a young, strong team featuring, in addition to Gretzky, future Hall of Famers including forwards Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Jari Kurri; defenceman Paul Coffey; and goaltender Grant Fuhr. Gretzky was its captain from 1983 to 1988. In 1983, they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, only to be swept by the three-time defending champion New York Islanders. The following season, the Oilers met the Islanders in the Finals again, this time winning the Stanley Cup, their first of five in seven years.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky was named an officer of the Order of Canada on June 25, 1984, for outstanding contribution to the sport of hockey. Since the Order ceremonies are always held during the hockey season, it took 13 years and 7 months—and two Governors General—before he could accept the honour. He was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada in 2009 "for his continued contributions to the world of hockey, notably as one of the best players of all time, as well as for his social engagement as a philanthropist, volunteer and role model for countless young people". Five times between 1981–82 and 1986–87, Gretzky led the NHL in goals scored. The Oilers also won the Stanley Cup with Gretzky in , and .


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: When the Oilers joined the NHL, Gretzky continued to play under his personal services contract with Oilers owner Peter Pocklington. This arrangement came under increased scrutiny by the mid-1980s, especially following reports that Pocklington had used the contract as collateral to help secure a $31 million loan with the Alberta government-owned Alberta Treasury Branches. Amid growing concern around the NHL that a financial institution might be able to lay claim to Gretzky's rights in the event the heavily leveraged Pocklington were to declare bankruptcy, as well as growing dissatisfaction on the part of Gretzky and his advisers, in 1987, Gretzky and Pocklington agreed to replace the personal services contract with a standard NHL contract.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In June 1985, as part of a package of five rule changes to be implemented for the 1985–86 season, the NHL Board of Governors decided to introduce offsetting penalties, where neither team lost a man when coincidental penalties were called. The effect of calling offsetting penalties was felt immediately in the NHL, because during the early 1980s, when the Gretzky-era Oilers entered a four-on-four or three-on-three situation with an opponent, they frequently used the space on the ice to score one or more goals. Gretzky held a press conference one day after being awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy, criticizing the NHL for punishing teams and players who previously benefited. The rule change became known as "the Gretzky rule." The rule was reversed for the 1992–93 season.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky had a major influence on the style of play of the Edmonton Oilers and in the NHL as a whole, helping to inspire a more team-based strategy. Using this approach, the Oilers, led by Gretzky, became the highest-scoring team in NHL history.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: "He was, I think, the first Canadian forward to play a true team game", said hockey writer and former NHL goaltender Ken Dryden. The focus of the game prior to Gretzky's arrival, he said, especially among the Canadian teams, was on the player with the puck—in getting the puck to a star player who would make the big play. "Gretzky reversed that. He knew he wasn't big enough, strong enough, or even fast enough to do what he wanted to do if others focused on him. Like a magician, he had to direct attention elsewhere, to his four teammates on the ice with him, to create the momentary distraction in order to move unnoticed into the open ice where size and strength didn't matter. ... Gretzky made his opponents compete with five players, not one, and he made his teammates full partners to the game. He made them skate to his level and pass and finish up to his level or they would be embarrassed."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Between 1982 and 1985, the Edmonton Oilers averaged 423 goals a season, when no previous team had scored 400, and Gretzky on his own had averaged 207 points, when no player before had scored more than 152 in one year. Dryden wrote in his book "The Game", "In the past, defenders and teams had learned to devise strategies to stop opponents with the puck. To stop them without it, that was interference. But now, if players without the puck skated just as hard as those with it, but faster, and dodged and darted to open ice just as determinedly, but more effectively, how did you shut them down?"


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In this, Gretzky added his considerable influence as the preeminent NHL star of his day to that of the Soviets, who had also developed a more team-style of play, and had successfully used it against the best NHL teams, beginning in the 1972 Summit Series. "The Soviets and Gretzky changed the NHL game", says Dryden. "Gretzky, the kid from Brantford with the Belarusian name, was the acceptable face of Soviet hockey. No Canadian kid wanted to play like Makarov or Larionov. They all wanted to play like Gretzky."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: At the same time, Gretzky recognized the contributions of their coach in the success of the Oilers: "Under the guidance of Glen Sather, our Oiler teams became adept at generating speed, developing finesse, and learning a transition game with strong European influences."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Two hours after the Oilers won the Stanley Cup in 1988, Gretzky learned from his father that the Oilers were planning to deal him to another team. Walter Gretzky had known for months after having been tipped off by Skalbania, but kept the news from Wayne so as not to upset him. According to Walter, Wayne was being "shopped" to Los Angeles, Detroit, and Vancouver, and Pocklington needed money as his other business ventures were not doing well. At first, Gretzky did not want to leave Edmonton, but he later received a call while on his honeymoon from Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall, who asked permission to meet and discuss the deal. Gretzky informed McNall that his prerequisites for a deal to take place were that Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski join him as teammates in Los Angeles. Both McNall and Pocklington quickly agreed. After the details of the trade were finalized by the two owners, one final condition had to be met: Gretzky had to call Pocklington and request a trade. When Pocklington told Oilers general manager and head coach Sather about his plans to trade Gretzky to Los Angeles, Sather tried to stop the deal, but when he found out that Gretzky had been involved in the negotiations, he changed his attitude and requested Luc Robitaille in exchange. The Kings refused, instead offering Jimmy Carson.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: On August 9, 1988, in a move that heralded significant change in the NHL, the Oilers traded Gretzky (along with McSorley and Krushelnyski) to the Kings for Carson, Martin Gélinas, $15 million in cash, and the Kings' first-round draft picks in 1989 (later traded to the New Jersey Devils, who used it to select Jason Miller), 1991, (used to select Martin Ručínský), and 1993, (used to select Nick Stajduhar). "The Trade", as it came to be known, upset Canadians to the extent that New Democratic Party House Leader Nelson Riis demanded the government block it, and Pocklington was burned in effigy outside Northlands Coliseum.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In Gretzky's first appearance in Edmonton after the trade, a game nationally televised in Canada, he received a four-minute standing ovation. The arena was sold out, and the attendance of 17,503 was the Oilers' biggest crowd ever to that date. Large cheers erupted for his first shift, his first touch of the puck, his two assists, and Mark Messier's body check of Gretzky into the boards. After the game, Gretzky took the opportunity to confirm his patriotism: "I'm still proud to be a Canadian. I didn't desert my country. I moved because I was traded and that's where my job is. But I'm Canadian to the core. I hope Canadians understand that." After the 1988–89 season, a life-sized bronze statue of Gretzky was erected outside Northlands Coliseum, holding the Stanley Cup over his head.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The Kings named Gretzky their alternate captain. He made an immediate impact on the ice, scoring on his first shot on goal in the first regular season game. The Kings got off to their best start ever, winning four straight en route to qualifying for the playoffs. For only the second time in his NHL career, Gretzky finished second in scoring, but narrowly edged the Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux (who scored 199 points) for the Hart Trophy as MVP.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Despite being underdogs against the defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers in the Smythe Division semifinals, Gretzky led the Kings to a shocking upset of his old squad, spearheading the Kings' return from a 3–1 series deficit to win the series 4–3. He was nervous Edmonton would greet him with boos, but they were eagerly waiting for him. The Kings were then swept by the Calgary Flames who went on to win their first Stanley Cup.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In 1990, the Associated Press named Gretzky Male Athlete of the Decade. For the second year in a row, the Kings eliminated the defending champions in the first round when they defeated the Flames in six games, but also for the second year in a row their season ended in a second round sweep, this time at the hands of Gretzky's former team. The Oilers went on to win their fifth Cup (and first without Gretzky). In his post-championship interview, Messier (who had replaced Gretzky as Edmonton's captain following the trade) paid tribute to his former teammate by dedicating the Oilers' Cup win to him.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky's first season in Los Angeles saw a marked increase in attendance and fan interest in a city not previously known for following hockey. The Kings now boasted of numerous sellouts. Many credit Gretzky's arrival with putting non-traditional American hockey markets on "the NHL map"; not only did California receive two more NHL franchises (the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and San Jose Sharks) during Gretzky's tenure in Los Angeles, but his popularity in Southern California proved to be an impetus in the league establishing teams in other parts of the U.S. Sun Belt.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky was sidelined for much of the 1992–93 regular season with a back injury, and his 65-point output ended a record 13-year streak in which he recorded at least 100 points each season. However, he performed well in the playoffs, notably when he scored a hat trick in game seven of the Campbell Conference Finals against the Toronto Maple Leafs. This victory propelled the Kings into the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history, where they faced the Montreal Canadiens. After winning the first game of the series by a score of 4–1, the team lost the next three games in overtime, and then fell 4–1 in the deciding fifth game, where Gretzky failed to get a shot on net.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The next season, Gretzky broke Gordie Howe's career goal-scoring record of 801, and won the scoring title, but the team began a long slide, and despite numerous player and coaching moves, they failed to qualify for the playoffs again until 1998. After the financially troubled McNall was forced to sell the Kings in 1994, Gretzky's relationship with the Kings' new owners grew strained. Under both McNall and the new ownership group, the team was fiscally unstable, to the point that paychecks to players bounced. Finally, in early 1996, Gretzky requested a trade. During the 1994–95 NHL lock-out, Gretzky and some friends (including Mark Messier, Marty McSorley, Brett Hull and Steve Yzerman) formed the Ninety Nine All Stars Tour and played eight exhibition games in various countries.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: On February 27, 1996, Gretzky joined the St. Louis Blues in a trade for Patrice Tardif, Roman Vopat, Craig Johnson and two draft picks (Peter Hogan and Matt Zultek). He partially orchestrated the trade after reports surfaced that he was unhappy in Los Angeles. At the time of the trade, the Blues and New York Rangers emerged as front-runners, but the Blues met his salary demands. Gretzky was immediately named the team's captain. He scored 37 points in 31 games for the team in the regular season and the playoffs, and the Blues came within one game of the Conference Finals.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: However, the chemistry everyone expected with winger Brett Hull never developed. Gretzky was also forced to endure public criticism from his head coach for the first time in his career. Long prior to either him or Gretzky joining the Blues, Mike Keenan had refused to moderate his coaching style even while coaching Gretzky while with Team Canada during international tournaments. Gretzky's professional relationship with Keenan was thus never particularly warm, and the coach's public rebukes effectively ended any realistic prospect of Gretzky remaining in St. Louis once he became a free agent. Gretzky rejected a three-year deal worth $15 million with the Blues, and on July 21, signed with the New York Rangers as a free agent, rejoining longtime Oilers teammate Mark Messier for a two-year, $8 million (plus incentives) contract.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky ended his professional playing career with the New York Rangers, where he played his final three seasons and helped the team reach the Eastern Conference Finals in 1997. The Rangers were defeated in the Conference Finals in five games by the Philadelphia Flyers, despite Gretzky leading the Rangers in the playoffs with 10 goals and 10 assists. For the first time in his NHL career, Gretzky was not named captain, although he briefly wore the captain's "C" in 1998 when captain Brian Leetch was injured and out of the line-up. After the 1996–97 season, Mark Messier signed a free agent contract with the Vancouver Canucks, ending the brief reunion of Messier and Gretzky after just one season. The 1997 playoff run was Gretzky's last as a player, and Rangers did not return to the playoffs until 2006, well after Gretzky retired. Along with Jaromir Jagr, he topped the NHL in 1997–98 with 67 assists. It was the 16th time in 19 seasons that Gretzky earned at least a share of the league lead in the statistic.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In 1997, prior to his retirement, "The Hockey News" named a committee of 50 hockey experts (former NHL players, past and present writers, broadcasters, coaches and hockey executives) to select and rank the 50 greatest players in NHL history. The experts voted Gretzky number one. Gretzky said he would have voted Bobby Orr or Gordie Howe as the best of all time.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The 1998–99 season was his last as a professional player. He reached one milestone in this last season, breaking the professional total (regular season and playoffs) goal-scoring record of 1,071, which had been held by Gordie Howe. Gretzky was having difficulty scoring this season and finished with only nine goals, contributing to this being the only season in which he failed to average at least a point per game, but his last goal brought his scoring total for his combined NHL/WHA career to 1,072, one more than Howe. As the season wound down, there was media speculation that Gretzky would retire, but he refused to announce his retirement. His last NHL game in Canada was on April 15, 1999, a 2–2 tie with the Ottawa Senators and the Rangers' second-to-last game of the season. Following the contest, in a departure from the usual three stars announcement, Gretzky was awarded all three stars. Upon returning to New York, Gretzky announced he would retire after the Rangers' last game of the season.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The final game of Gretzky's career was a 2–1 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 18, 1999, in Madison Square Garden. Although the game involved two American teams, both national anthems were played, with the lyrics slightly adjusted to accommodate Gretzky's departure. In place of the lyrics "O Canada, we stand on guard for thee", Bryan Adams ad-libbed, "We're going to miss you, Wayne Gretzky". "The Star-Spangled Banner", as sung by John Amirante, was altered to include the words "in the land of Wayne Gretzky". Gretzky ended his career with a final point, assisting on the lone New York goal scored by Brian Leetch. At the time of his retirement, Gretzky was the second-to-last WHA player still active in professional hockey. Mark Messier, who attended the game along with other representatives of the Edmonton Oilers' dynasty, was the last.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky told journalist Scott Morrison that the final game of his career was his greatest day. He recounted:


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky made his first international appearance as a member of the Canadian national junior team at the 1978 World Junior Championships in Montreal, Quebec. The Canadian coach, Punch McLean, was originally sceptical of Gretzky's ability as he was the youngest player to compete in the tournament at the age of 16. He went on to lead the tournament in scoring with 17 points to earn All-Star Team and Best Forward honours. His 17 points remain the most scored by a 16-year-old in the World Junior Championships. Canada finished with the bronze medal.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky debuted with the Team Canada's men's team at the 1981 Canada Cup. He led the tournament in scoring with 12 points en route to a second-place finish to the Soviet Union, losing 8–1 in the final. Seven months later, Gretzky joined Team Canada for the 1982 World Championships in Finland. He notched 14 points in 10 games, including a two-goal, two-assist effort in Canada's final game against Sweden to earn the bronze. Gretzky did not win his first international competition until the 1984 Canada Cup, when Canada defeated Sweden in a best-of-three finals. He led the tournament in scoring for the second consecutive time and was named to the All-Star Team.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky's international career highlight arguably came three years later at the 1987 Canada Cup. Gretzky has called the tournament the best hockey he had played in his life. Playing on a line with Pittsburgh Penguins' superstar Mario Lemieux, he recorded a tournament-best 21 points in nine games. After losing the first game of a best-of-three final series against the Soviets, Gretzky propelled Canada with a five-assist performance in the second game, including the game-winning pass to Lemieux in overtime, to extend the tournament. In the deciding game three, Gretzky and Lemieux once again combined for the game-winner. With the score tied 5–5 and 1:26 minutes to go in regulation, Lemieux one-timed a pass from Gretzky on a 3-on-1 with defenceman Larry Murphy. Lemieux scored to win the tournament for Canada; the play is widely regarded as one of the most memorable plays in Canadian international competition.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The 1991 Canada Cup marked the last time the tournament was played under the "Canada Cup" moniker. Gretzky led the tournament for the fourth and final time with 12 points in seven games. He did not, however, compete in the final against the United States due to a back injury. Canada nevertheless won in two games by scores of 4–1 and 4–2. Five years later, the tournament was revived and renamed the World Cup in 1996. It marked the first time Gretzky did not finish as the tournament's leading scorer with seven points in eight games for fourth overall.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Leading up to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, it was announced that NHL players would be eligible to play for the first time. Gretzky was named to the club on November 29, 1997. However, Gretzky was passed over for the captaincy, along with several other Canadian veterans including Steve Yzerman and Ray Bourque in favour of the younger Eric Lindros. Expectations were high for the Canadian team, but the team lost to the Czech Republic in the semi-finals. The game went to a shootout with a 1–1 tie after overtime, but Gretzky was controversially not selected by coach Marc Crawford as one of the five shooters, all of whom failed to score. Team Canada then lost the bronze medal game 3–2 to Finland to finish without a medal. The Olympics marked Gretzky's eighth and final international appearance, finishing with four assists in six games. He retired from international play holding the records for most goals (20), most assists (28), and most overall points (48) in best-on-best hockey.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky's size and strength were unimpressive—in fact, far below average for the NHL—but he is widely considered the smartest player in the history of the game. His reading of the game and his ability to improvise on the fly were unrivaled, and he could consistently anticipate where the puck was going to be and execute the right move at the right time. His coach at the Edmonton Oilers, Glen Sather, said, "He was so much more intelligent. While they were using all this energy trying to rattle his teeth, he was just skating away, circling, analyzing things."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: He was also considered one of the most creative players in hockey. "You never knew what he was going to do", said hockey Hall of Famer Igor Larionov. "He was improvising all the time. Every time he took the ice, there was some spontaneous decision he would make. That's what made him such a phenomenal player." Gretzky's ability to improvise came into the spotlight at the 1998 Olympics in Japan. Then an older player in the sunset of his career, he had been passed over for the captaincy of the team. But as the series continued, his unique skills made him a team leader.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: The Canadians had trouble with the big ice. They had trouble with the European patterns and the lateral play and the endless, inventive cycling. ... Slowly, as game after game went by and the concern continued to rise, Wayne Gretzky began climbing through the line-up. He, almost alone among the Canadians, seemed to take to the larger ice surface as if it offered more opportunity instead of obligation  ... His playing time soared, as he was being sent on not just for power plays but double shifts and even penalty kills. By the final round ... it was Wayne Gretzky who assumed the leadership both on and off the ice.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: He passed and shot with prodigious skill. Hall of Fame defenceman Bobby Orr said of Gretzky, "He passes better than anybody I've ever seen." In his first two seasons in the NHL, his deft passing skills helped earn him a reputation as an ace playmaker, and so opposing defencemen focused their efforts on foiling his attempts to pass the puck to other scorers. In response, Gretzky started shooting on goal himself—and with exceptional effectiveness. He had a fast and accurate shot. "Wayne Gretzky was one of the most accurate scorers in NHL history", said one biography. Statistics support the contention: whereas Phil Esposito, who had set the previous goal-scoring record, needed 550 shots to score 76 goals, Gretzky netted his 76th after only 287 shots—about half as many. He scored his all-time record of 92 goals with just 369 shots. Because he was so light compared to other players, goalies were often surprised by how hard Gretzky's shot was. Goalies called his shots "sneaky fast." He also had a way of never shooting the puck with the same rhythm twice, making his shots harder to time and block.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Veteran Canadian journalist Peter Gzowski wrote that Gretzky seemed to be able to slow down time. "There is an unhurried grace to everything Gretzky does on the ice. Winding up for the slapshot, he will stop for an almost imperceptible moment at the top of his arc, like a golfer with a rhythmic swing." "Gretzky uses this room to insert an extra beat into his actions. In front of the net, eyeball to eyeball with the goaltender ... he will ... hold the puck one ... extra instant, upsetting the anticipated rhythm of the game, extending the moment. ... He distorts time, and not only by slowing it down. Sometimes he will release the puck before he appears to be ready, threading the pass through a maze of players precisely to the blade of a teammate's stick, or finding a chink in a goaltender's armour and slipping the puck into it ... before the goaltender is ready to react."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Commentators have noted Gretzky's uncanny ability to judge the position of the other players on the ice—so much so that many suspected he enjoyed some kind of extrasensory perception. Sports commentators said that he played like he had "eyes in the back of his head." Gretzky said he sensed other players more than he actually saw them. "I get a feeling about where a teammate is going to be", he said. "A lot of times, I can turn and pass without even looking."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: However, Gretzky denied that he had any exotic innate abilities. He said that many of his advantages were a result of his father's brilliant coaching.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Some say I have a "sixth sense" ... Baloney. I've just learned to guess what's going to happen next. It's anticipation. It's not God-given, it's Wally-given. He used to stand on the blue line and say to me, "Watch, this is how everybody else does it." Then he'd shoot a puck along the boards and into the corner and then go chasing after it. Then he'd come back and say, "Now, this is how the smart player does it." He'd shoot it into the corner again, only this time he cut across to the other side and picked it up over there. Who says anticipation can't be taught?


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky learned much about hockey from his father on a backyard rink at his home. Walter Gretzky had been an outstanding Junior B hockey player. He cultivated a love of hockey in his sons and provided them with a backyard rink and drills to enhance their skills. On the backyard rink, nicknamed the "Wally Coliseum", winter was total hockey immersion with Walter as mentor-teacher as well as teammate. Walter's drills were his own invention, and were ahead of their time in Canada. Gretzky would later remark that the Soviet National Team's practice drills, which impressed Canada in 1972, had nothing new to offer him: "I'd been doing these drills since I was three. My Dad was very smart."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In his autobiography, Gretzky describes how at practices his father would drill him on the fundamentals of smart hockey:


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky also credits his coach at the Edmonton Oilers, Glen ("Slats") Sather, as an important influence in his development as a hockey player. Gretzky played for 10 years with the Oilers, with Sather as coach. "It's as if my father raised me until age 17, then turned me over to Slats and said, 'You take him from here.'"


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Where Gretzky differed from others in his development was in the extraordinary commitment of time on the ice. "From the age of 3 to the age of 12, I could easily be out there for eight to 10 hours a day", Gretzky has said. In his autobiography, he wrote:


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: All I wanted to do in the winters was be on the ice. I'd get up in the morning, skate from 7:00 to 8:30, go to school, come home at 3:30, stay on the ice until my mom insisted I come in for dinner, eat in my skates, then go back out until 9:00. When asked how he managed, at age ten, to score 378 goals in a single season, Gretzky explained,


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: See, kids usually don't start playing hockey until they're six or seven. Ice isn't grass. It's a whole new surface and everybody starts from ground zero. ... By the time I was ten, I had eight years on skates instead of four, and a few seasons' worth of ice time against ten-year-olds. So I had a long head start on everyone else.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Much has been written about Gretzky's highly developed hockey instincts, but he once explained that what appeared to be instinct was, in large part, the effect of his relentless study and practice of the game, in co-operation with his coaches. As a result, he developed a deep understanding of its shifting patterns and dynamics. Peter Gzowski says that the best of the best athletes in all sports understand the game so well, and in such detail, that they can instantly recognize and capitalize upon emerging patterns of play. Analyzing Gretzky's hockey skills, he says, "What we take to be creative genius is in fact a reaction to a situation that he has stored in his brain as deeply and firmly as his own phone number." Gzowski presented this theory to Gretzky, and he fully agreed. "Absolutely", Gretzky said. "That's a hundred percent right. It's all practice. I got it from my Dad. Nine out of ten people think it's instinct, and it isn't. Nobody would ever say a doctor had learned his profession by instinct; yet in my own way I've put in almost as much time studying hockey as a medical student puts in studying medicine."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: When he entered the league in 1979, critics opined that Gretzky was "too small, too wiry, and too slow to be a force in the [NHL]." His weight was , compared to the NHL average of at that time. But that year, Gretzky tied for first place in scoring, and won the Hart Trophy for the league's most valuable player. In his second year in the league, weighing just 165 pounds, he broke the previous single-season scoring record, racking up 164 points. The next year (1981–82), at 170 pounds—still "a wisp compared to the average NHL player"—he set the all-time goal-scoring record, putting 92 pucks in the net. He weighed "about 170 pounds" for the better part of his career. He consistently scored last in strength tests among the Edmonton Oilers, bench pressing only 140 pounds (64 kg).


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Despite his lack of strength, Gretzky had remarkable physical stamina. Like his hero, Gordie Howe, Gretzky possessed "an exceptional capacity to renew his energy resources quickly." In 1980, when an exercise physiologist tested the recuperative abilities of all of the Edmonton Oilers, Gretzky scored so high that the tester said he "thought the machine had broken." His stamina is also indicated by the fact that Gretzky often scored late in the game. In the year he scored his record 92 goals, 22 of them went in the net during the first period, 30 in the second—and 40 in the third.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: He also had strong general athletic skills. Growing up, he was a competitive runner and also batted .492 for the Junior Intercounty Baseball League's Brantford CKCP Braves in the summer of 1980. As a result, he was offered a contract by the Toronto Blue Jays. History repeated itself in June 2011, when Gretzky's 17-year-old son, Trevor, was drafted by the Chicago Cubs. Trevor signed with the Cubs the next month. Gretzky also excelled at box lacrosse, which he played during the summer. At age ten, after scoring 196 goals in his hockey league, he scored 158 goals in lacrosse.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: According to Gretzky, lacrosse was where he learned to protect himself from hard checks: "In those days you could be hit from behind in lacrosse, as well as cross-checked, so you had to learn how to roll body checks for self-protection." Gretzky adroitly applied this technique as a professional player, avoiding checks with such skill that a rumour circulated that there was an unwritten rule not to hit him. This was how Gretzky avoided serious injuries despite being undersized and entering the NHL during its "rough and tumble time"; Gretzky noted that his contemporary Mike Bossy “took a beating to score goals, which consequently led him to retire because his back took a beating”. Defencemen found Gretzky a most elusive target. Fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Denis Potvin compared attempting to hit Gretzky to "wrapping your arms around fog. You saw him but when you reached out to grab him your hands felt nothing, maybe just a chill." The 205-pound (93 kg) Potvin, a three-time winner of the Norris Trophy for best defenceman, added that part of the problem in hitting Gretzky hard was that he was "a tough guy to dislike ... what was there to hate about Gretzky? It was like running Gandhi into a corner."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: He received a good deal of cover from burly Oiler enforcers Dave Semenko and Marty McSorley. The latter was traded with Gretzky in 1988 to the Los Angeles Kings, where he played the same policeman role for several more years. But Gretzky discouraged unfair hits in another way. "If a guy ran him, Wayne would embarrass that guy", said former Oiler Lee Fogolin. "He'd score six or seven points on him. I saw him do it night after night."


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky was named honorary chairman of the Open Ice Summit, held in August 1999 to discuss ways to improve Canadian ice hockey. He stressed the need to play and practice hockey for the love of the game, and felt that skill was more important to develop than talent and that Canada had the potential to be world leaders in skill development.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 22, 1999, becoming the tenth player to bypass the three-year waiting period. The Hall of Fame then announced that he would be the last player to do so. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2000. In addition, Gretzky's jersey number 99 was retired league-wide at the 2000 NHL All-Star Game, a decision inspired by Major League Baseball's retirement of the number 42 worn by Jackie Robinson. In October 1999, Edmonton honoured Gretzky by renaming one of Edmonton's busiest freeways, Capilano Drive—which passes by Northlands Coliseum—to Wayne Gretzky Drive. Also in Edmonton, the local transit authority assigned a rush-hour bus route numbered No. 99 which also runs on Wayne Gretzky Drive for its commute.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In 2002, the Kings held a jersey retirement ceremony and erected a life-sized statue of Gretzky outside the Staples Center; the ceremony was delayed until then so that Bruce McNall, who had recently finished a prison sentence, could attend. Also in 2002, Gretzky received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. His hometown of Brantford, Ontario, renamed Park Road North to "Wayne Gretzky Parkway" as well as renaming the North Park Recreation Centre to The Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre. Brantford further inducted Gretzky into its "Walk of Fame" in 2004. On May 10, 2010, he was awarded The Ambassador Award of Excellence by the LA Sports & Entertainment Commission. Gretzky was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in 2017.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: Almost immediately after retirement, several NHL teams approached Gretzky about an ownership role. In May 2000, he agreed to buy a 10% stake in the Phoenix Coyotes in a partnership with majority owner Steve Ellman, taking on the roles of alternate governor, managing partner and head of hockey operations. The Coyotes were in the process of being sold and Ellman convinced Gretzky to come on board, averting a potential move to Portland, Oregon. The sale was not completed until the following year, on February 15, 2001, after two missed deadlines while securing financing and partners before Ellman and Gretzky could take over. Trucking magnate and Arizona Diamondbacks part-owner Jerry Moyes was added to the partnership. Gretzky convinced his long-time agent Michael Barnett to join the team as its General Manager.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In 2005, rumours began circulating that Gretzky was about to name himself head coach of the Coyotes, but were denied by Gretzky and the team. Ultimately, Gretzky agreed to become head coach on August 8, 2005. Gretzky made his coaching debut on October 5, and won his first game, on October 8 against the Minnesota Wild. He took an indefinite leave of absence on December 17 to be with his ill mother. Phyllis Gretzky died of lung cancer on December 19. Gretzky resumed his head-coaching duties on December 28. The Coyotes' record at the end of the 2005–06 season was 38–39–5, a 16-win improvement over 2003–04; they were 36–36–5 in games Gretzky coached.


title: Wayne Gretzky

text: In 2006, Moyes became majority owner of the team. There was uncertainty about Gretzky's role until it was announced on May 31, 2006, that he had agreed to a five-year contract to remain head coach. The Coyotes' performance declined in 2006–07, as the team ended the season 15th in their conference. During Gretzky's coaching tenure, the Coyotes did not reach the postseason, and their best finish in the Western Conference standings was 12th.