title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram has promoted various social causes and appeared as the Youth Envoy for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 2011. He has been a brand ambassador of Sanjeevani Trust and a school for special children, Vidya Sudha, which he stayed at during the making of "Deiva Thirumagal" as well as having long-term associations with the Kasi Eye Care and running his own welfare association through the Vikram Foundation. In 2016, he produced and directed the video to the flood relief anthem, Spirit of Chennai, as a tribute to the city's volunteers following the 2015 South Indian floods.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram was born as Kennedy John Victor on 17 April 1966 to a Christian father and a Hindu mother. His father, John Victor (alias Vinod Raj) was a native of Paramakudi and ran away from home to start a career in films. However, his father did not fare successfully, and only managed to act in supporting roles in Tamil films and television serials and this inspired Vikram to take part in theatre lessons and become professionally trained in classical and cinema dance forms to ensure he became a leading actor. Rajeshwari, Vikram's mother, was a sub-collector and her brother, Thiagarajan is an established director-actor in the Tamil film industry; with his son, actor Prashanth, being Vikram's first cousin.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram has a younger brother, Arvind, who appeared in the low-budget Tamil film, "Eppo Kalyanam" (2022). Vikram also has a younger sister, Anitha, who is a teacher. Vikram is used as a screen name as he disliked his original name, Kennedy; the name Vikram was composed by taking "Vi" from his father's name, "K" from Kennedy, "Ra" from his mother's name and "ram" from his sun sign, Aries.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram was educated at Montfort School, Yercaud (a boarding school in a hill station near Salem) and graduated in 1983. He has mentioned that he used his opportunities at school well by taking part in karate, horseback riding and swimming and noted that such early exposure to activities gave him confidence as a youngster. Vikram lurked in the fringes of the school's theatre club for a long period and often took part in backstage work before being handed the lead role in a school adaptation of Molière's "The Doctor in Spite of Himself" after the original lead had contracted chicken pox. Despite expressing his interest to join films after school, his father forced him to go through education and Vikram subsequently graduated from Loyola College, Chennai with a degree in English Literature and worked halfway towards an MBA programme. Through the prolific dramatics club, Vikram appeared in stage productions including college adaptations of "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" and Peter Shaffer's "Black Comedy", receiving best actor awards for his performances. After winning a Best Actor Award at a function held at IIT Madras, Vikram was hit by a truck during a ride on his motorbike on the way home and suffered a serious leg injury. He remained hospital-ridden for three years during college and subsequently went through twenty-three surgeries to prevent his leg from being amputated. Vikram then returned to finish the final year of his degree after his accident and secured permission to finish his dissertation at home, as he was only able to walk on crutches for a short period.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram began his professional career by modelling in advert films for brands including Chola Tea, TVS Excel and Alwyn watches as well as appearing in a six episode television serial titled "Galatta Kudumbam", which aired between November and December 1988. During the final year of his M.B.A programme at Loyola College, he was recognised by the film industry, with veteran director C. V. Sridhar approaching him for a lead role in a film. Vikram made his film debut in 1990 by appearing in "En Kadhal Kanmani", a small budget love story featuring him alongside Rekha Nambiar, with Sridhar's "Thanthu Vitten Ennai", opposite Rohini being his next release. He then signed on to be a part of cinematographer P. C. Sriram's college love story "Meera", with high expectations, however, the three films failed to launch his career. His appearances in "Meera" and in "Kaaval Geetham", with another veteran director S. P. Muthuraman, helped him secure film offers from the Malayalam and Telugu film industries. In 1993, he almost signed on to appear in Mani Ratnam's "Bombay" and featured in the initial photo shoot alongside Manisha Koirala. However, Mani Ratnam wanted Vikram to remove his beard for the role, and Vikram could not do so due to continuity problems with another film he had signed and hence was dropped from the project.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Between 1993 and 1994, Vikram appeared in a series of films where he portrayed supporting roles. He appeared in three successful Malayalam films by appearing with Mammootty, Suresh Gopi and Jayaram in Joshi's successful action film "Dhruvam", before teaming up with Gopi again for Shaji Kailas's "Mafia", which explored Bangalore's criminal underworld. Furthermore, Joshi cast him again alongside Mammootty in the action drama "Sainyam" in the role of an air cadet. During the period, Vikram also appeared in the small budget Telugu film "Chirunavvula Varamistava" in the lead role and as Akkineni Nageswara Rao's eldest son in the family drama "Bangaru Kutumbam", with both films failing to give him a breakthrough although the latter was a box office success. A brief return to Tamil films also proved unsuccessful, with his role in Vikraman's multi-starrer "Pudhiya Mannargal", with music composed by A. R. Rahman turning out to be a commercial failure.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Throughout 1995 and 1996, Vikram appeared in further Telugu and Malayalam films to receive income, being kept away from Tamil films due to a lack of offers. He played the lead role in the Malayalam film "Mayoora Nritam" directed by Vijayakrishnan's and even played villain in "Street" opposite Babu Antony and lead roles in the small budget Telugu films "Adalla Majaka" and Sriraj Ginne's "Akka! Bagunnava?". He collaborated again with Mammootty in "Indraprastham" and Suresh Gopi in "Rajaputhran", before appearing in his first lead role in Malayalam with "Itha Oru Snehagatha" opposite Laila. Vikram signed Amitabh Bachchan's first Tamil language film production, "Ullaasam", which also featured Ajith Kumar and Maheswari. The big budget film created anticipation prior to release, but was average run at the box office. However, Vikram acknowledged the film for expanding his female fan base as a result of the soft-personality of his character. He followed it up with appearances in the unsuccessful films "Kurralla Rajyam" in Telugu and then in the Ilaiyaraaja musical "Kangalin Vaarthaigal", before playing a short role in Parthiban's critically acclaimed film "Housefull".


title: Vikram (actor)

text: During his struggling phase, Vikram dubbed for other heroes in films including voices for Prabhu Deva in "Kaadhalan", Ajith Kumar in "Amaravathi" and Abbas in "Kandukondain Kandukondain" respectively. Vikram has mentioned that he did not look down on dubbing and saw it as a "dignity of labour". During the period, he also attended dancing classes every day, and tried acting out different scenes and different characters with his small group of friends. He began to turn down chances to play supporting roles in films and was intent on making a breakthrough as a lead actor and notably turned down the role of Swarnamalya's fiancée in Mani Ratnam's "Alaipayuthey". Vikram also rejected approaches from television serial producers, citing that working in television would reduce his chances of becoming a mainstream actor. He also refused opportunities to take part in film events as a backing dancer, with actor Sriman revealing that Vikram was "one amongst not many" who was not interested in travelling to Canada to participate in such shows.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: In 1997, debutant director Bala offered him the role of the rogue Sethu (Chiyaan), in the film "Sethu". To prepare for the character, Vikram shaved his head, lost twenty-one kilograms and grew his nails long for the role. After beginning production in April 1997, the film went through development hell after industry strikes and lack of funds hampered progress. During this phase, he did not accept other acting offers to maintain the continuity of his looks. The film then struggled to find a distributor, who shunned it due to the tragic climax and the film remained unreleased. Vikram described the period of production as "the worst phase of his career" as he was financially strapped and "his fire was in danger of dying down". He turned down an opportunity from a friend to take up a job in technology and attempted to stay in the industry by directing a serial titled "Mounam Pesiyadhey", with Ameer as his assistant director. "Sethu" finally released in December 1999 and initially began running at a single noon show at a suburban theater, but gradually gained an audience through word-of-mouth publicity. Eventually, it ran for over one hundred days at several cinema halls across Chennai. Vikram was constantly being mobbed by people on the streets as a result of the film's success. Critics praised Vikram's performance with a reviewer referring to Vikram as "a revelation" and that "he is very natural and his acting in last few scenes are just too good and could even be compared with the best we have seen". Similarly, a critic from the Malaysian daily New Straits Times, described the film as an "unforgettable experience" and described Vikram's performance as "praise-worthy". The performance drew accolades with Vikram winning the Filmfare Special Award – South and the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for his portrayal of the title character, while reports emerged that he missed out on the National Film Award for Best Actor by a single vote to Mohanlal. Post-"Sethu", Vikram has said that the film would have been close to him regardless of its commercial success and that it put him on the "right path", with Vikram choosing to adapt the prefix of Chiyaan to his screen name.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram did not sign up to a film for sixty five days after the release of "Sethu", to ensure that he made the right career move. Vikram spent time completing projects he had agreed to feature in before the release of "Sethu" and hence made a couple of appearances in the Malayalam films "Red Indians" and the horror film "Indriyam". He also played a leading role in "Siragugal", a rare Tamil telefilm produced and featuring Raadhika, which was shot entirely in the suburbs of London. Furthermore, he also completed two Telugu films during the period; "9 Nelalu" and "Youth". "9 Nelalu" featured Vikram as the husband of the character played by Soundarya, who faces the challenges of being a surrogate mother. The film won positive reviews, with a critic mentioning that Vikram gave a "controlled performance" while Vikram's newfound popularity in Tamil films saw the film dubbed into Tamil soon after as "Kandaen Seethaiyai", with an inserted comedy track by comedian Vivek. His next release was Rajakumaran's "Vinnukum Mannukum", alongside Sarath Kumar, Khushbu and Devayani, which revolved around an ordinary boy falling in love with an actress. Vikram has since mentioned his displeasure at being a part of the film, claiming that he had arguments with the director for every single shot and that "everything in that film, right from the first shot was wrong"; the film became a failure commercially.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: His next film was "Dhill", where he played an aspiring police officer, Kanagavel, who tackles a corrupt policeman. To appear trim in the role of the aspiring police officer, Vikram went on a strict diet eating only fruits and drinking juice. The film opened to positive reviews, with a critic from "The Hindu" claiming that "Vikram has the ability and potential" and that "Vikram has once again proved that his success in "Sethu" was not a fluke". "Dhill" subsequently went on to become Vikram's first success in the masala film genre and led the way for more such films in the same genre for him. Vikram's portrayal of a blind folk singer in Vinayan's "Kasi" won him the Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award and the film also did well commercially. For the movie, he sunbathed on the terrace of his beachside home in Chennai for a sunburnt look and got dizzying headaches while practising to look blind. Again, Vikram's performance won positive reviews from critics, with a reviewer describing it as an "extraordinarily detailed performance" and that "as the blind singer, he brings laughter, tears and a lump in one's throat".


title: Vikram (actor)

text: The following year, Vikram went on to play the title role in Saran's "Gemini", produced by AVM Productions, his first big-budget film in the Tamil industry, which featured him in the role of a local rowdy. The action film won good reviews, with a critic citing that Vikram "delivers a convincing performance" and consequently became a "box office triumph". Similarly, the film's soundtrack composed by Bharathwaj had become popular prior to release, with Vikram also singing a version of the hit song "O Podu!" for the album. Balaji Sakthivel's "Samurai" was his next release, featuring him as a vigilante Robin Hood-esque figure who kidnapped corrupt politicians. Vikram had signed the film in early 2000 and the film was on hold during production, leading to a two-year delay and the film finally opened to average reviews and collections. The critic from "The Hindu" gave praise for Vikram's "admirably well-maintained physique and powerful eyes", whilst another labelled that the film's single major positive was Vikram's convincing portrayal. His final release of the year was Prabhu Solomon's "King", a drama film which featured him alongside Sneha and Nassar. Vikram played Raja, a magician, who is unaware that he has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, with his family trying to keep the truth away from him. The film also met with an unfavorable response commercially, but won positive acclaim from critics.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: The success of Dharani's "Dhill" resulted in the film's team collaborating to make a film in a similar genre; "Dhool", which also featured Jyothika, Reemma Sen and Vivek. The film saw Vikram play Aarumugham, a villager, who comes to the city seeking help in regard to a water crisis back home, but subsequently ends up tackling the corrupt politicians who are behind the water scam. In regard to his performance, the Rediff.com review praised his enactment, citing that "Vikram is at his peak" and that "he seems as much at home with comedy as with action, in romance as in emotional sequences", while the critic from "The Hindu" also praised his performance. The film became a blockbuster and his fifth success in two and a half years, with Vikram being dubbed as "the matinee idol of our times" by a leading Indian newspaper. He also featured in the romantic film "Kadhal Sadugudu", with Priyanka Trivedi which was a critical and commercial failure, with reviewers claiming that "there are times you wish Vikram were a little more brisk and dynamic" in regard to his performance. After release, Vikram was critical of the film's failure, confessing that the story "underwent a lot of changes after the initial narration", lamenting that he was "taken for a royal ride" by the producers.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram was then signed on by K. Balachander to appear in his banner's biggest production until date, "Saamy", directed by Hari. Vikram played Aarusaamy, an honest cop working in Tirunelveli, who solves the region's communal problems with his down-to-earth approach. Vikram worked on his body for the film, sporting a thick waist to show notable differences from his other police film, "Dhill" and also put on eight kilograms. The film took a large opening, grossing over Rs. 70 million in 10 days in Tamil Nadu, while also taking the largest opening of the new millennium in Kerala, with the Telugu remake rights also sold for a record price. Due to the good opening, the film has proved to be profitable just 10 days after its release and consequently went on to become a blockbuster. Vikram's performance also was lapped up by critics earning him a nomination for Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award, with the critic from Sify claiming that Vikram had "succumbed to the superstar image trap", but is the "mainstay of the picture".


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Later that year, he starred in Bala's "Pithamagan", along with Suriya, Sangeetha and Laila, playing the role of Chitthan, a gravedigger with autism spectrum disorders. He did not have any dialogue in the film and the actor's acting muscles were stretched as he had to use body language and facial expressions to convey his feelings and thoughts, with Vikram also applying the make-up for the character himself. The film won positive reviews with the critic from "The Hindu" calling it a "symphony on celluloid", while noting that it will be a "milestone in Vikram's career" and "he carves a niche for himself in the viewer's mind with his expressions and excellent body language". His portrayal won him both the Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award and the National Film Award for Best Actor, with the latter accolade making him only the third Tamil actor to win the award. His next release was the revenge drama "Arul", directed by Hari. The film received mixed to positive reviews. and moderate box office collections.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram signed on to feature in the action thriller "Anniyan", directed by prominent director Shankar in March 2004. Vikram agreed to shoot for the film for 140 days, which was revealed to be amongst the longest contracts signed by an actor in a Tamil film. The film featured him as a character suffering from dissociative identity disorder with three distinct personae: a meek lawyer, a suave fashion model and a psychotic serial killer. Prior to release, the film was touted as the most expensive South Indian film ever, costing Rs 263.8 million, and was released across India with 400 prints. "Anniyan" took an "extraordinary opening", and went on to become a blockbuster grossing more than Rs. 1 billion through the original and two dubbed versions. Vikram's performance was unanimously praised, with a reviewer from Sify citing that "Anniyan truly belongs to Vikram and the film is unthinkable without him" and "it is a role that could have been reduced to a caricature by a lesser actor". The film won 8 out of the 15 awards possible at the 2005 Filmfare Awards South, with Vikram adjudged Best Actor.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Later in the year, he signed and completed Shafi's comedy film with Asin, "Majaa", in less than five months. The film which also featured Pasupathy as his brother, saw Vikram work as the assistant director under Shafi. "Majaa" faced a poor response at the box office and fetched average reviews, with a reviewer citing that "you will surely find something missing".


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram then signed up for "Bheema" in October 2005, with the film facing severe delays and only releasing in January 2008. The film saw him portray Sekhar, who grows up idolizing the gangster played by Prakash Raj, and Vikram revealed that he approached the film like an actor, even though the film's script was written "for a star". Upon release, the film gained mixed reviews though reviewers praised Vikram's performance, with a critic claiming that "Vikram breathes life into the film", "he looks sensational with his toned body, killer looks and unarguably delivers yet another outstanding performance of his career" and to "see the film only for him". Similarly, the review from "The Hindu" was critical of the excessive violence and mentioned that "as narration gives way after a point, Vikram can only appear helpless". His next release, "Kanthaswamy", directed by Susi Ganesan and also featuring Shriya Saran, became the first superhero film in Tamil cinema, with Vikram being featured as a vigilante dressed as an anthropomorphic rooster, Kokorako and a CBI Officer. "Kanthaswamy" became Vikram's most expensive production beating "Anniyan", with the film boasting of high production values of having an innovative pre-launch trailer and with scenes shot in Italy and Mexico. The film earned a mixed response from critics, with the reviewer from Sify claiming that the film "strikes a fine balance between style and substance" and proceeding to state that "Vikram is mesmerizing and has given an extra dimension to the characters he plays in the film and steers it to the winning post", suggesting that "there are very few people in Indian cinema who can do the larger-than-life fantasy characters as easily as Vikram". Sudhish Kamath of "The Hindu" labelled the film as "slow death", claiming that "as an actor, Vikram has nothing to do". The film took a strong opening, with a collection of Rs. 370 million, including Rs. 160 million in Tamil Nadu, at the box office in the opening week of its international release. The film subsequently went on to become one of the most profitable films of the year and ran in theaters for over one hundred days.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram then featured in Mani Ratnam's bilingual films "Raavanan" and "Raavan", inspired by the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana, with Vikram featuring as the tribal leader, Veeraiya, in the Tamil version and the cop, Dev Pratap Sharma, in the Hindi version of the films, which were shot simultaneously. Vikram revealed that changes between the two characters during filming took up to 45 minutes, with Abhishek Bachchan playing the tribal leader in the Hindi version, whilst Prithviraj played the cop in the Tamil version, with Aishwarya Rai also in the cast. Vikram was initially apprehensive, because both roles were to be shot almost simultaneously, but revealed that he succeeded by showing differences in his body language and expressions. Vikram revealed that he and Abhishek Bachchan played the roles in the respective versions without inspiration from one another. Despite being a non-speaker and making his debut in Hindi, he dubbed his lines in the language, remarking jovially that it was the "most difficult thing in the world". After promotions at the Cannes Film Festival and a premiere at Leicester Square in London, the two versions and the dubbed Telugu version released simultaneously in 2,200 screens worldwide and took a big opening on day one, earning 200 million. The Tamil version, "Raavanan" won rave reviews from critics, with "The Hindu" calling it a "master stroke" and claiming that Vikram "raises the bar higher with every venture". The critic cited that "emotions of love, animus, anguish and joy dance on his face in quick succession", concluding that "Vikram lifts the role to an admirable level". The critic from Sify labelled it as an "astonishing portrayal", while the critic from the "Hindustan Times" praised Vikram's "ability to get into Veeraiya's skin and emote with conviction". The Tamil version consequently went on to become a commercial success, with Vikram's performance leading to him winning the Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor among other accolades. In contrast, the Hindi version fetched mixed reviews, with critics agreeing that Vikram's performance as the tribal leader was more convincing than Bachchan's. Baradwaj Rangan, writing for "The New Indian Express" rated the film 4/5 and said: "Raavan falls for Sita (and vice versa) in an intriguingly idiosyncratic take on the Ramayana – if you can get past the lead performances, that is". Whereas, Taran Adarsh, writing for Bollywood Hungama rated it 1.5/5 and said: "On the whole, "Raavan" is a king-sized disappointment, in terms of content" though mentioning that Vikram was "first-rate, although the role isn't substantial enough". "Raavan" subsequently went on to become a surprise flop at the Indian box office. The film was also screened at the Venice Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival, with Vikram in attendance.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: After two years of discussions, Vikram began a film under the direction of Selvaraghavan in a project dubbed by the media as "Sindubad". The film began shoot and completed a schedule by early 2010 in the Himalayas with Swati Reddy appearing as the female lead. However, the film was reported to be momentarily shelved and subsequently never took off again after the producer Singanamala Ramesh walked out. Vikram then agreed terms to feature in Vikram Kumar's "24", produced by Mohan Natarajan, with Ileana D'Cruz signed on to play the female lead role. The film progressed briefly with shots being canned in caves, before the director was ousted from the project, cancelling the film. Vikram then also shot briefly for a third successive shelved project directed by Boopathy Pandian for the same producer, featuring him in the role of an investigative cop; however the film failed to progress and instead Natarajan financed Vikram's next film.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: His 2011 release "Deiva Thirumagal", directed by A. L. Vijay, saw Vikram portray a father with a developmental disability having the mental maturity of a seven-year-old. To prepare for the role, Vikram visited homes for the mentally challenged such as Vidya Sagar and Vidya Sudha for a month, watching their body language and taking notes. He also communicated with the patients, to pick up the nuances of people with impaired speech. Vikram has since gone on to describe his role as Krishna as the best character he has ever portrayed. The film, which also featured Sara Arjun, Anushka Shetty and Amala Paul in supporting roles, opened to predominantly positive reviews from critics and enjoyed commercial success at the box office. The reviewer from The Deccan Chronicle described that the film was "Vikram's show all the way" and that "his rendition of a mentally-challenged man trying to cope with the everyday realities of raising a child is a work of art", praising his "fiery, complex performance as one of the more viciously honest depictions of mental illness cinema has seen". Similarly, another critic described that the on-screen chemistry between Vikram and his daughter, played by Sara Arjun, is "magic" and their performances "are sure to leave a lump in your throat". The critic from "The Hindu" praised the film and Vikram's performance, but analysed that "a problem arises only when you stop looking at Krishna as a character, and begin to see him as Vikram, the hero" and that Vikram should have "underplayed a little here and there and it would have worked better". However, Vikram once again completed a sweep of the top acting awards that year, with further recognition at the Vijay and Filmfare Awards.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram next featured in "Rajapattai" (2011), alongside Deeksha Seth, under the direction of Suseenthiran, where he played a henchman trying to get a break in the Tamil film industry. The film opened to mixed reviews from critics in December 2011 and performed below expectations at the box office. Vikram also completed half of a fantasy period film during 2011, "Karikalan", in which he played Karikala Chola, a Tamil king who ruled in 270 BC, opposite Zarine Khan, under the direction of graphics director Kannan, but the film was later shelved owing to production troubles. He then appeared in his second project with director Vijay, portraying the lead role of a blinded RAW agent in the action-thriller, "Thaandavam". The film, which also featured Anushka Shetty, Amy Jackson and Lakshmi Rai in pivotal roles, opened to mixed reviews in September 2012. For his role of a blind man, Vikram trained under noted human echolocation specialist Daniel Kish, with the latter also playing a cameo in the film. A critic from Sify.com noted that it was "Vikram and him alone who diverts your attention from the film's little logical script flaws and spellbinds you with an endearing act that is Thaandavam's biggest strength"; subsequently, the film did average business commercially. The actor was next seen portraying the title role in Bejoy Nambiar's Hindi-language film "David" playing out a love story between a careless drunkard fisherman and a mute girl played by Isha Sherwani. The film won mixed reviews and performed average business at the box office. The film was also released in Tamil.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram signed on to collaborate again with Shankar for "I", a romantic thriller opposite Amy Jackson, in early 2012. Following hushed production developments, it was revealed that the actor would sport four significantly different looks in the film: a body builder, a beast, a model and a hunchback. He put on weight to portray the bodybuilder, sticking to a diet of protein and coffee, to ensure his muscles were defined on screen. Vikram subsequently lost weight to portray a model, before shaving his head and reducing his weight to 56 kilograms to portray the crippled hunchback. He changed his physique by eating small meals of egg whites and apples instead of regular food intakes, while engaging in an intensive weight loss regime to become thin. The cast and crew of the film reportedly struggled to recognise the actor at times, while he also stayed away from the media for close to a year when sporting the look. Taking almost three years for production, Vikram described the film "as the toughest he has ever done" and regularly suffered folliculitis as a result of the prosthetic make-up he had to wear. The film opened amidst much expectation in January 2015 to mixed reviews, though critics gave Vikram's portrayal of Lingesan, unanimously positive reviews. A critic from Times of India noted: "Vikram bowls you over with a heart-wrenching performance whether he is handsome or disfigured", while The Hindu added his transformation was "laudable", and that "Vikram wins hearts as the earnest-to-boot gym rat and as the strapping new model on the block, he floors the audience with his performance as Koonan, the deformed hunchback". Similarly, Rediff.com noted the actor "is truly impressive and deserves much applause", while Sify.com added he "lived the role". Despite mixed reviews, "I" performed well at the box office, as well as becoming the most successful Tamil film of all time in Kerala. By early 2015, it was the sixth highest-grossing Tamil film of all time at the time.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: He then worked on Vijay Milton's road-thriller, "10 Enradhukulla" (2015), which featured him as an unnamed race driver who goes on a road trip through India. Paired opposite Samantha, the film opened to mixed reviews and did not perform well at the box office. A critic from Sify.com however, noted that Vikram "breathes life to his role and his energy level is highly infectious", adding that "the way he smiles, dances and fights is a treat for his fans". Likewise, a critic from The Hindu criticised the film's script, adding that "it's hard to see Vikram in this fluff".


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram later appeared in "Iru Mugan" (2016), a science fiction action film directed by Anand Shankar, featuring him alongside Nayanthara and Nithya Menen. His next films are "Sketch" (2018) directed by Vijay Chandar followed by "Saamy Square" (2018) directed by Hari.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: In 2022, Vikram appears in "Mahaan" as Gandhi Mahaan, along with his son Dhruv Vikram. It released on 10, February in Amazon Prime Video.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: He also signed his 58th film with R. Ajay Gnanamuthu as the director who is known for his work in "Demonte Colony". The film was titled as "Cobra" and was released on 31 August 2022. The film received mixed reviews from critics. His most recent role was Aditya Karikalan in Mani Ratnam's film "", which released on 30 September 2022. It is the first Tamil film to release in IMAX format.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Apart from acting, Vikram has also been a part of other film-making processes with credits as a playback singer and as an assistant director. In 2000, Vikram and actress Meena launched a pop album titled "Kadhalism", which the pair would sing and appear in music videos for, although the project was completed without much promotion. Following the success of Bharathwaj's music for Vikram's 2002 film "Gemini", Vikram sang a version of the hit song "O Podu!" for the extended version of the album. During the making of "Kanthaswamy" in 2009, the music composer Devi Sri Prasad had asked Vikram to sing a few rough tracks during the film's song composition in Malaysia. The producers were impressed with his voice and Vikram ended up singing four songs in the film. Furthermore, Vikram also recorded all four tracks in the Telugu version of the album titled "Mallana". He then went on to sing for a film he was unrelated to, by lending five different voices in "Meghame" for G. V. Prakash Kumar's album in "Madrasapattinam". He sang two further songs under Prakash Kumar for his "Deiva Thirumagal", singing in the voice of his character, an adult with the maturity of a six-year-old. In 2011, he sang the song "Laddu Laddu" for his film "Rajapattai", under composer Yuvan Shankar Raja's direction. Vikram announced his own production company Reel Life Entertainment in July 2009 and announced that Sasikumar would direct his first film, the action thriller "Easan", featuring Samudrakani, Vaibhav, Abhinaya and Aparnaa Bajpai. However, after 90% of the shoot had been completed, Vikram pulled out of the venture, citing that Sasikumar had overshot his budget and the director eventually bought and released the film. The actor, however, was later listed as one of the three producers for the Tamil version of the 2013 film, "David", thereby making his debut in film financing. Vikram has also worked as the assistant director under Shafi in "Majaa", and has mentioned that he would like to direct a film in the future.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram has promoted various social causes with several of his charity works being linked to characters he had portrayed in his films. He has been a brand ambassador of Sanjeevani Trust and a school for special children Vidya Sudha, where he stayed during the making of "Deiva Thirumagal". Moreover, he has had a long-term association since the making of his film "Kasi" with the Kasi Eye Care, which does free eye surgeries for the poor. Vikram has also set up The Vikram Foundation through his fan club to provide heart operations for the poor, educate poor children and rehabilitate victims from natural disasters. Every year, Vikram has celebrated his birthday doing charity work across Tamil Nadu and in 2008, he organised a camp where a thousand of his fans pledged their eyes in an eye donation appeal.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: He has lent his support for the Chennai-based charity "The Banyan", and appeared in the charity musical Netru, Indru, Naalai directed by Mani Ratnam for the cause. The actor also starred in the 2010 "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" music video on national integration alongside a bevy of Indian actors and musicians, describing the experience as "phenomenal". In 2011, Vikram was selected as a Youth Envoy for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme with his aim being to spread awareness about the statutes of U.N. Habitat which include urban stabilisation and to help formulate plans for effective water management, slum eradication and women and youth empowerment. Soon after, he announced two further social projects, "Karka Kasadara" and "Patchai Puratchi", with the former being to identify school and college dropouts and help them to stand on their own feet, while the latter was about planting trees with an aim to make Chennai go green. In 2016, he produced and directed the video to the flood relief anthem Spirit of Chennai, as a tribute to the city's volunteers following the 2015 South Indian floods.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram is a prolific method actor, being often compared akin to Hollywood's Christian Bale. Since the success of "Sethu", Vikram's intense performances and variety of roles have received critical acclaim. His performances as a rogue turned mentally ill patient in "Sethu", a gravedigger with autism spectrum disorder in Bala's "Pithamagan", a Brahmin lawyer with multiple personality disorder in "Anniyan" and a mentally challenged adult with the maturity of a six-year-old boy in "Deiva Thirumagal" are all roles in which he played a mentally affected man, with Vikram mentioning that he does such roles to reinvent himself on screen.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Furthermore, Vikram has enjoyed a large fan following in Andhra Pradesh as a result of a series of successful dubbed Telugu films with "Aparichitudu", dubbed from his Tamil film "Anniyan", being among the most successful Telugu films of 2005. All his films are thus released in Telugu soon after their original release in Tamil, while "Anniyan" was also dubbed in Hindi as "Aparichit". He has also enjoyed success in Kerala, where his films have demanded large box office openings akin to Malayalam film stars. In 2004, Vikram participated in a live stadium stage event organised by producer P. L. Thenappan titled "Vikram Mega Nite". The event, held in Singapore, attracted several hundreds of his South East Asian fans and was held in the form of a stage musical. Vikram's pan-Indian popularity has also prompted him to be regularly considered for brand endorsements. In 2005, he was signed as Coca-Cola's brand ambassador in Tamil Nadu. He has been the ambassador for Brooke Bond 3 Roses, Manappuram General Finance and Leasing Ltd and Josco Jewellers since 2010. In 2015, Vikram has endorsed Big Deal TV, a celebrity-driven home shopping channel.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: He is amongst the most decorated actors in terms of awards in the history of Tamil cinema. He holds a National Film Award for Best Actor; a feat only matched by four other actors in Tamil films. Moreover, Vikram holds seven Filmfare Awards South, with the tally being only second to Kamal Haasan who has ten wins. In 2010 his film "Raavan" was promoted at the Cannes Film Festival and then screened at Venice Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival. Within weeks of release, "Deiva Thirumagal" was sent to the Asia Pacific Screen Awards after it was nominated by the Film Federation of India and the National Film Development Corporation. Vikram is also a recipient of the Kalaimamani Award from the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2004. Other recognitions includes a string of Cinema Express Awards, Vijay Awards and Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, including recognition in three different categories. In 2011, Vikram was awarded an honorary doctorate from Università Popolare degli Studi di Milano (People's University of Milan) in the field of Fine Arts. Vikram accepted the title on 29 May 2011 and in his next release, "Deiva Thirumagal", he was credited as Dr. Chiyaan Vikram.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: Vikram met Shailaja Balakrishnan in the late 1980s and married her in 1992 at Guruvayoor Temple in a mass wedding alongside dozens of couples. The pair then had a low-key wedding ceremony conducted at the church at Loyola College, Chennai. She hails from Thalassery, Kerala and now works as a psychology teacher at a leading Chennai school. Shailaja also worked with the team of "Deiva Thirumagal" by giving professional advice on how people with special needs are treated and helping develop the character played by Vikram.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: The couple has a daughter Akshita born in 1993 and a son Dhruv born in 1995. His daughter married Manu Ranjith, the great-grandson of M. Karunanidhi, on 30 October 2017. He lives near the beach in Besant Nagar, Chennai and has stated that he would remain based in Chennai regardless of any offers in other regional films.


title: Vikram (actor)

text: His son Dhruv made his debut with "Adithya Varma" in the year 2019 which was the Tamil remake of the Telugu film "Arjun Reddy".


title: Arrival (film)

text: Arrival is a 2016 American science fiction drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve and adapted by Eric Heisserer, who conceived the project as a spec script based on the 1998 short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. The film stars Amy Adams as Louise Banks, a linguist enlisted by the United States Army to discover how to communicate with extraterrestrials who have arrived on Earth before tensions lead to war. Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Tzi Ma appear in supporting roles.


title: Arrival (film)

text: "Arrival" had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2016, and was released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on November 11, 2016. It grossed $203 million worldwide and received critical acclaim, with particular praise for Adams's performance, Villeneuve's direction, and the exploration of communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. Considered one of the best films of 2016, "Arrival" appeared on numerous critics' year-end lists and was selected by the American Film Institute as one of ten "Movies of the Year".


title: Arrival (film)

text: It received eight nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, and won Best Sound Editing. For her performance, Adams received nominations for a BAFTA, SAG, Critics' Choice, and at the 74th Golden Globe Awards, Adams was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and Jóhann Jóhannsson was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. The film was awarded the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2017. The score by Jóhannsson was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 60th Grammy Awards.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft hover over various locations around the Earth. Affected nations send military and scientific experts to monitor and study them. In the United States, US Army Colonel Weber recruits Banks and physicist Ian Donnelly to study the craft above Montana. On board, Banks and Donnelly make contact with two cephalopod-like, seven-limbed aliens, whom they call 'heptapods'; Donnelly nicknames them Abbott and Costello. Banks and Donnelly research the complex written language of the aliens, consisting of palindromic phrases written with circular symbols, and share the results with other nations. As Banks studies the language, she starts to have flashback-like visions of her daughter.


title: Arrival (film)

text: When Banks is able to establish sufficient shared vocabulary to ask why the aliens have come, they answer with a statement that could be translated as "offer weapon". China interprets this as "use weapon", prompting it to break off communications, other nations follow. Banks argues that the symbol interpreted as "weapon" can be more abstractly related to the concepts of "means" or "tool". China's translation likely results from interacting with the aliens using mahjong, a highly competitive winner-takes-all game.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Rogue soldiers plant a bomb in the Montana craft. Unaware, Banks and Donnelly re-enter the alien vessel, and the aliens give them a more complex message. Just before the bomb explodes, one of the aliens ejects Donnelly and Banks from the vessel, knocking them unconscious. When they wake the alien craft has moved beyond reach and the US military is preparing to evacuate in case of retaliation.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Donnelly discovers that the symbol for time is present throughout the message and that the writing occupies exactly one-twelfth of the 3D space into which it is projected. Banks suggests that the full message is split among the twelve craft and that the aliens want all the nations to share what they learn.


title: Arrival (film)

text: China's General Shang issues an ultimatum to his local alien craft, demanding that it leave China within 24 hours. Russia, Pakistan, and Sudan follow suit. Communications between the international research teams are terminated as worldwide panic sets in.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Banks goes alone to the Montana craft which sends down a transport pod. Abbott has been mortally injured as a result of the explosion. Costello explains that they have come to help humanity, for in 3,000 years they will need humanity's help in return. Banks realizes the "weapon" is their language. Learning the language alters humans' linear perception of time, allowing them to experience "memories" of future events. Banks's visions of her daughter are revealed to be premonitions; her daughter will not be born until some time in the future.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Banks returns to the camp as it is being evacuated and tells Donnelly that the aliens' language is the "tool". She has a premonition of a United Nations event celebrating newfound unity, following the alien arrival, in which Shang thanks her for persuading him to stop the attack, when she calls his private number and recites his wife's dying words: "War doesn't make winners, only widows".


title: Arrival (film)

text: In the present, Banks steals CIA agent Halpern's satellite phone and calls Shang's number to recite the words. The Chinese announce that they are standing down and releasing their twelfth message. The other countries follow suit and the twelve spacecraft depart.


title: Arrival (film)

text: During the evacuation, Donnelly expresses his love for Banks. They talk about life choices and whether he would change them if he could see the future. Banks knows that she will agree to have a child with him despite knowing their fate; Hannah will die from an incurable disease and Donnelly will leave them after she reveals that she knew this.


title: Arrival (film)

text: "Arrival" is based on the Nebula-winning science fiction novella "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, written in 1998. The novella involves Earth's first communication with heptapods who speak in a cryptic language. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer had been introduced to the story through another of Chiang's stories, "Understand", and had begun reading through Chiang's collected works when "Story of Your Life" had a "profound emotional effect" on him. As a result, he decided to try to adapt the story into a film script as he wanted to share it with a wider audience. After writing an initial spec script, Heisserer pitched it to production companies for several years without receiving any interest and nearly gave up on the project. Heisserer believes it was not until he had successfully completed and produced 2013's "Hours" that others took interest in his work, having proved himself capable. Eventually, Dan Levine and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps Entertainment expressed interest in Heisserer's script. Shawn Levy of 21 Laps said they had become aware of "Story of Your Life" around 2011 and considered it a powerful work; and when they learned of Heisserer's script adaptation, started working closely with him, helping him refine the script before they began seeking a director and distribution studio.


title: Arrival (film)

text: One of the directors that 21 Laps approached was Denis Villeneuve. Villeneuve had wanted to make a science fiction film for some time, although he "never found the right thing". Cohen and Levine, however, introduced Villeneuve to the novella, which the director immediately took to, although his work on "Prisoners" meant that he did not have the time to properly adapt it into a screenplay with Heisserer. Heisserer completed a first draft, which Villeneuve and Heisserer reworked into the final script. Villeneuve changed the title, as he felt the original sounded like a romantic comedy and that the script had become very different from the short story. While Villeneuve went through "hundreds" of possible titles, "Arrival" was the first one his team of producers and writers had suggested.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Heisserer had made several changes from "Story of Your Life" between writing his original screenplays and the final script, the main one being that the heptapods actually arrived on Earth in a type of first contact situation, as he felt this helped to create the tension and conflict needed for a film. Heisserer said that earlier versions of the script had a different ending: the gift from the heptapods was to have been "blueprints to an interstellar ship, like an ark of sorts", to enable humanity to help them in 3,000 years. But after the release of "Interstellar" in 2014, Heisserer and Villeneuve agreed that this would not work, and decided that the heptapods' gift would be what was "there in front of us … the power of their language".


title: Arrival (film)

text: Amy Adams entered negotiations to star in the film in April 2014, and would be confirmed by the time Jeremy Renner joined the film in March 2015. Forest Whitaker signed on in April, with Michael Stuhlbarg joining soon after in June. Adams, who was playing a linguistics professor in the film, consulted with linguist Jessica Coon to prepare for her role.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Principal photography lasted for 56 days, beginning on June 7, 2015, after Renner had fulfilled his obligations to "". Filming was done mainly in and around Montreal, Quebec, with Saint-Fabien serving as Montana. The team took some time to find the right site to represent the landing of the spacecraft because producers wanted to avoid a mountainous site that might dwarf the scale of the ship, but thought that a barren location would be clichéd. Most of the filming that did not involve the exterior of a ship was done indoors on sound stages, although a real house located in Chemin de l'Île, Vaudreuil-Dorion, was used as Banks's home. The scenes of the university where Banks teaches were shot at HEC Montréal.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Bradford Young was sought out by Villeneuve as he was looking for a cinematographer with a sensibility toward natural lighting. Said Villeneuve: "I wanted the movie to have strong roots in realism. I wanted a cinematographer who would not be afraid to deal with intimacy. It’s a very specific sensibility that I felt in Bradford’s previous work." Color timing was used as a means of matching Louise's state of mind at a given moment. Young stated "I went for cooler colors when I wanted Amy to feel worn down. We tried to pull back on that a little bit, but then Denis stopped me in the [color timing] and told me not to be so concerned about skin tone and let her be pasty, let her exist in that melancholy space, let us feel that visually." When discussing the film with Villeneuve, Young described the director's goal of making a "dirty" science fiction film, by making the look of the film more grounded and "slightly boring" as Villeneuve put it. Additionally, Young looked towards the book "Speedway" by photographer Martina Hoogland Ivanow as a reference for the look of the film.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Production designer Patrice Vermette discussed the film in a February 2017 interview with "Popular Mechanics", stating that a big influence on the look of the film was the works of artist James Turrell, particularly the design of the meeting room aboard the alien craft. "I wanted the simplicity and the sensorial experience you feel in a room like that. That big screen was always there in the script, and I used it as an element to unite Louise's world. For me, that big screen is more than a screen—that room, which they called in the script 'the interview room,' is a classroom. That big white screen, [you see it] represented in Louise's house with the big window. You also see it in her school, in her classroom."


title: Arrival (film)

text: Rodeo FX completed 60 visual shots for the film, and stated that the biggest challenge for them was the sequence in which Louise and Ian first enter the alien craft.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Both the book and the screenwriting required the invention of a form of alien linguistics which recurs in the plot. The film uses a script designed by the artist Martine Bertrand (wife of the production designer Patrice Vermette), based on scriptwriter Heisserer's original concept. Computer scientists Stephen and Christopher Wolfram analyzed it to provide the basis for Banks's work in the film. Their works are summarized in a GitHub repository. Three linguists from McGill University were consulted. The sound files for the alien language were created with consultation from Morgan Sonderegger, a phonetics expert. Lisa Travis was consulted for set design during the construction of the scientist's workplaces. Jessica Coon, a Canada Research Chair in Syntax and Indigenous Languages, was consulted for her linguistics expertise during the review of the script. Heisserer said at the Alamo Drafthouse's Fantastic Fest premiere of "Arrival" at the end of September 2016 that Shang's wife's last words, translated into English, were "In war, there are no winners, only widows". Villeneuve decided not to include subtitles for the line; Heisserer said he would have preferred it not be kept secret, and was happy to reveal the translation.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Jóhann Jóhannsson began writing the score as the shooting started, drawing on the screenplay and concept art for inspiration. He developed one of the main themes in the first week using vocals and experimental piano loops. The original soundtrack was released by Deutsche Grammophon on November 11, 2016.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Max Richter's pre-existing piece "On the Nature of Daylight" is featured in the film's opening and closing scenes. Due to the prominent use of Richter's music, which had also featured in Martin Scorsese's film "Shutter Island", Jóhannsson's score was deemed ineligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the rationale being that voters would be influenced by the use of pre-existing music when judging the merits of the score.


title: Arrival (film)

text: A teaser trailer was released in August 2016, followed the next week by the first official trailer. Paramount Pictures released a series of promotional posters, with one showing a UFO hovering above a Hong Kong skyline that included Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower. The inaccuracy angered Hong Kong social media users. The posters were withdrawn and a statement attributed the inaccuracy to a third-party vendor.


title: Arrival (film)

text: In May 2014, while titled "Story of Your Life", Paramount acquired the US and Canadian distribution rights. Shortly after, Sony Pictures Releasing International and Stage 6 Films acquired some international distribution rights, while Entertainment One acquired the UK distribution rights and Roadshow Films acquired Australian distribution rights. Spentzos Films acquired distribution rights for Greece, Reliance Entertainment for India, Lev Cinemas for Israel, Italia Films for the UAE, and Chantier Films for Turkey. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2016. It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, and the BFI London Film Festival. The film was released on November 11, 2016.


title: Arrival (film)

text: "Arrival" grossed $100.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $102.8 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $203.4 million, against a production budget of $47 million.


title: Arrival (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, "Arrival" was released alongside "Almost Christmas" and "Shut In", and was originally expected to gross around $17 million from 2,317 theaters in its opening weekend, with the studio projecting a more conservative debut of $12–15 million. The film made $1.4 million from Thursday night previews at 1,944 theaters and $9.4 million on its first day, pushing projections up to $24 million. It ended up grossing $24.1 million over the weekend, finishing third at the box office. In its second weekend, the film grossed $12.1 million (a drop of 49.6%), and in its third made $11.5 million (dropping just 5.6%). Following its eight Oscar nominations, the film returned to 1,221 theaters on January 27, 2017 (an increase of 1,041 from the week before) and grossed $1.5 million (up 357.4% from its previous week's $321,411).


title: Arrival (film)

text: "Arrival" was released on Digital HD on January 31, 2017 and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on February 14, 2017.


title: Arrival (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 437 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Arrival" delivers a must-see experience for fans of thinking person's sci-fi that anchors its heady themes with genuinely affecting emotion and a terrific performance from Amy Adams." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 52 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Robbie Collin of "The Telegraph" praised the film, calling it "introspective, philosophical and existentially inclined—yet [it] unfolds in an unwavering tenor of chest-tightening excitement. And there is a mid-film revelation—less a sudden twist than sleek unwinding of everything you think you know—that feels, when it hits you like your seat is tipping back." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four: "It's a movie designed to simultaneously challenge viewers, move them and get them talking. For the most part, it succeeds." For "Time", Sam Lansky described it as "sophisticated, grownup sci-fi: a movie about aliens for people who don't like movies about aliens". IGN reviewer Chris Tilly gave it a score of 8.5 out of 10, saying: ""Arrival" is a language lesson masquerading as a blockbuster, though much more entertaining than that sounds… it's smart, sophisticated sci-fi that asks "big" questions, and does a pretty good job of answering them". Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" praised Adams's performance, stating ""Arrival" is really Adams’ film, a showcase for her ability to quietly and effectively meld intelligence, empathy, and reserve". Writing for "USA Today", Brian Truitt referred to Adams as a "definite Oscar contender", and credited Adams as "spectacular in giving Louise the right emotional balance".


title: Arrival (film)

text: Conversely, Forrest Wickman of "Slate" had a more mixed opinion of the film, praising the cinematography and musical score, but stating that he thought it was similar to Christopher Nolan's "only intermittently stellar" "Interstellar", and criticizing the dialogue as "clunky". In a heavily negative review, Rex Reed of "The New York Observer" gave the film one out of four, calling it Villeneuve's "latest exercise in pretentious poopery" and also being critical of the lack of action in the storyline.


title: Arrival (film)

text: "The Guardian" rated it as the third-best film of 2016. Critic Catherine Shoard said that it "amounts to something transcendent; something to reignite your excitement for cinema, for life". Numerous other publications and websites, including io9, Den of Geek, "Mir Fantastiki", "The Atlantic", Blastr, and Digital Trends named "Arrival" the best film of 2016.


title: Arrival (film)

text: David Adger, a linguist professor who teaches at Queen Mary University of London had a favorable view of the accuracy of the linguistics in "Arrival", saying that "the portrayal of trying different hypotheses about the language, coming up with generalizations, and testing them out was spot on."


title: Arrival (film)

text: Similarly, Jessica Coon, a linguistics professor who teaches at McGill University and helped with the film's linguistics, stated that "what the film gets exactly right is both the interactive nature but also that you really have to start small." She noted that the creators had not invented a complete language.


title: Arrival (film)

text: Linguistics professor Betty Birner, who teaches at Northern Illinois University, said that the film's use of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis went "beyond anything that is plausible". She also felt the film oversimplified the process of translating the aliens' language, skipping straight from Banks establishing the basic vocabulary of the language, to her being able to understand abstract concepts such as "weapon".


title: Arrival (film)

text: "Arrival" received numerous awards and nominations. At the 89th Academy Awards, it won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing, and received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design and Best Sound Mixing. Additionally, at the 74th Golden Globes, Adams received a nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson received a nomination for Best Original Score.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation – the FBI's predecessor – in 1924 and was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director for another 37 years until his death in 1972. Hoover built the FBI into a larger crime-fighting agency than it was at its inception and instituted a number of modernizations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. Hoover also established and expanded a national blacklist, referred to as the FBI Index or Index List.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Later in life and after his death, Hoover became a controversial figure as evidence of his secretive abuses of power began to surface. He was found to have routinely violated the very laws the FBI was charged with enforcing, to have used the FBI to harass political dissidents, to amass secret files for blackmailing high-level politicians, and to collect evidence using vigilantism and many other illegal methods. Hoover consequently amassed a great deal of power and was in a position to intimidate and threaten others.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: John Edgar Hoover was born on New Year's Day 1895 in Washington, D.C., to Anna Marie ("née" Scheitlin; 1860–1938) and Dickerson Naylor Hoover (1856–1921), chief of the printing division of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, formerly a plate maker for the same organization. Dickerson Hoover was of English and German ancestry. Hoover's maternal great-uncle, John Hitz, was a Swiss honorary consul general to the United States. Among his family, he was the closest to his mother, who was their moral guide and disciplinarian.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover was born in a house on the present site of Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, located on Seward Square near Eastern Market in Washington's Capitol Hill neighborhood. A stained glass window in the church is dedicated to him. Hoover did not have a birth certificate filed upon his birth, although it was required in 1895 in Washington. Two of his siblings did have certificates, but Hoover's was not filed until 1938 when he was 43.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover lived his entire life in Washington, D.C. He attended Central High School, where he sang in the school choir, participated in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, and competed on the debate team. During debates, he argued against women getting the right to vote and against the abolition of the death penalty. The school newspaper applauded his "cool, relentless logic." Hoover stuttered as a boy, which he later learned to manage by teaching himself to talk quickly—a style that he carried through his adult career. He eventually spoke with such ferocious speed that stenographers had a hard time following him.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover was 18 years old when he accepted his first job, an entry-level position as messenger in the orders department at the Library of Congress. The library was a half mile from his house. The experience shaped both Hoover and the creation of the FBI profiles; as Hoover noted in a 1951 letter: "This job ... trained me in the value of collating material. It gave me an excellent foundation for my work in the FBI where it has been necessary to collate information and evidence."


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover obtained a Bachelor of Laws from the George Washington University Law School in 1916, where he was a member of the Alpha Nu Chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order, and an LL.M. in 1917 from the same university. While a law student, Hoover became interested in the career of Anthony Comstock, the New York City U.S. Postal Inspector, who waged prolonged campaigns against fraud, vice, pornography, and birth control.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Immediately after getting his LL.M. degree, Hoover was hired by the Justice Department to work in the War Emergency Division. He accepted the clerkship on July 27, 1917, aged 22. The job paid $990 a year ($ in 2022 dollars) and was exempt from the draft.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: He soon became the head of the Division's Alien Enemy Bureau, authorized by President Woodrow Wilson at the beginning of World War I to arrest and jail allegedly disloyal foreigners without trial. He received additional authority from the 1917 Espionage Act. Out of a list of 1,400 suspicious Germans living in the U.S., the Bureau arrested 98 and designated 1,172 as arrestable.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In August 1919, the 24-year-old Hoover became head of the Bureau of Investigation's new General Intelligence Division, also known as the Radical Division because its goal was to monitor and disrupt the work of domestic radicals. America's First Red Scare was beginning, and one of Hoover's first assignments was to carry out the Palmer Raids.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover and his chosen assistant, George Ruch, monitored a variety of U.S. radicals with the intent to punish, arrest, or deport those whose politics they decided were dangerous. Targets during this period included Marcus Garvey; Rose Pastor Stokes and Cyril Briggs; Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman; and future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter, who, Hoover maintained, was "the most dangerous man in the United States."


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In 1920 the 25 year-old Edgar Hoover was initiated as a Freemason at D.C.'s Federal Lodge No. 1 in Washington D.C. He went on to join the Scottish Rite in which he was made a 33rd Degree Inspector General Honorary in 1955.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In 1921, Hoover rose in the Bureau of Investigation to deputy head, and in 1924 the Attorney General made him the acting director. On May 10, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge appointed Hoover as the fifth Director of the Bureau of Investigation, partly in response to allegations that the prior director, William J. Burns, was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal. When Hoover took over the Bureau of Investigation, it had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover was sometimes unpredictable in his leadership. He frequently fired Bureau agents, singling out those he thought "looked stupid like truck drivers," or whom he considered "pinheads." He also relocated agents who had displeased him to career-ending assignments and locations. Melvin Purvis was a prime example: Purvis was one of the most effective agents in capturing and breaking up 1930s gangs, and it is alleged that Hoover maneuvered him out of the Bureau because he was envious of the substantial public recognition Purvis received.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover often praised local law-enforcement officers around the country, and built up a national network of supporters and admirers in the process. One whom he often commended for particular effectiveness was the conservative sheriff of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, J. Howell Flournoy.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In December 1929, Hoover oversaw the protection detail for the Japanese Naval Delegation who were visiting Washington, D.C., on their way to attend negotiations for the 1930 London Naval Treaty (officially called Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament). The Japanese delegation was greeted at Washington Union (train) Station by U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson and the Japanese Ambassador Katsuji Debuchi. The Japanese delegation then visited the White House to meet with President Herbert Hoover.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In 1933, Hoover learned of a namesake, John Edgar Hoover, who had failed to pay a debt of $900 to a store in Washington. As Hoover was particular about paying his bills on time and so did not want to be associated with this disreputable behavior, he changed his name to "J. Edgar Hoover".


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In the early 1930s, criminal gangs carried out large numbers of bank robberies in the Midwest. They used their superior firepower and fast getaway cars to elude local law enforcement agencies and avoid arrest. Many of these criminals frequently made newspaper headlines across the United States, particularly John Dillinger, who became famous for leaping over bank cages, and repeatedly escaping from jails and police traps. The gangsters enjoyed a level of sympathy in the Midwest, as banks and bankers were widely seen as oppressors of common people during the Great Depression.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: The robbers operated across state lines, and Hoover pressed to have their crimes recognized as federal offenses so that he and his men would have the authority to pursue them and get the credit for capturing them. Initially, the Bureau suffered some embarrassing foul-ups, in particular with Dillinger and his conspirators. A raid on a summer lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, called "Little Bohemia," left a Bureau agent and a civilian bystander dead and others wounded; all the gangsters escaped.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover realized that his job was then on the line, and he pulled out all stops to capture the culprits. In late July 1934, Special Agent Melvin Purvis, the Director of Operations in the Chicago office, received a tip on Dillinger's whereabouts that paid off when Dillinger was located, ambushed, and killed by Bureau agents outside the Biograph Theater.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover was credited for overseeing several highly publicized captures or shootings of outlaws and bank robbers. These included those of Machine Gun Kelly in 1933, of Dillinger in 1934, and of Alvin Karpis in 1936, which led to the Bureau's powers being broadened.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In 1935, the "Bureau of Investigation" was renamed the "Federal Bureau of Investigation" (FBI). It was not simply a name change. A lot of basic restructuring was done. In fact, Hoover visited the lab of Canadian forensic scientist Wilfrid Derome twice - in 1929 and 1932 - in order to plan the foundation of his own FBI laboratory in the USA. It was the insight gained from these visits which helped him transform the BI into FBI in 1935.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In 1939, the FBI became pre-eminent in the field of domestic intelligence, thanks in large part to changes made by Hoover, such as expanding and combining fingerprint files in the Identification Division, to compile the largest collection of fingerprints to date, and Hoover's help to expand the FBI's recruitment and create the FBI Laboratory, a division established in 1932 to examine and analyze evidence found by the FBI.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: During the 1930s, Hoover persistently denied the existence of organized crime, despite numerous "gangland" shootings as Mafia groups struggled for control of the lucrative profits deriving from illegal alcohol sales during Prohibition, and later for control of prostitution, illegal drugs and other criminal enterprises.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Many writers believe Hoover's denial of the Mafia's existence and his failure to use the full force of the FBI to investigate it were due to Mafia gangsters Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello's possession of embarrassing photographs of Hoover in the company of his "protégé", FBI Deputy Director Clyde Tolson. Other writers believe Costello corrupted Hoover by providing him with horseracing tips, passed through a mutual friend, gossip columnist Walter Winchell.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Although Hoover built the reputation of the FBI arresting bank robbers in the 1930s, his main interest had always been Communist subversion, and during the Cold War he was able to focus the FBI's attention on these investigations. From the mid-1940s through the mid-50s, he paid little attention to criminal vice rackets such as illegal drugs, prostitution, and extortion and flatly denied the existence of the Mafia in the United States. In the 1950s, evidence of the FBI's unwillingness to investigate the Mafia became a topic of public criticism.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: After the Apalachin meeting of crime bosses in 1957, Hoover could no longer deny the existence of a nationwide crime syndicate. At that time Cosa Nostra's control of the Syndicate's many branches operating criminal activities throughout North America was heavily reported in popular newspapers and magazines. Hoover created the "Top Hoodlum Program" and went after the syndicate's top bosses throughout the country.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover was concerned about what he claimed was subversion, and under his leadership, the FBI investigated tens of thousands of suspected subversives and radicals. According to critics, Hoover tended to exaggerate the dangers of these alleged subversives and many times overstepped his bounds in his pursuit of eliminating that perceived threat. William G. Hundley, a Justice Department prosecutor, joked that Hoover's investigations had actually helped the American communist movement survive, as Hoover's "informants were nearly the only ones that paid the party dues." Due to the FBI's aggressive targeting, by 1957 CPUSA membership had dwindled to less than 10,000, of whom some 1,500 were informants for the FBI.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: The FBI investigated rings of German saboteurs and spies starting in the late 1930s, and had primary responsibility for counter-espionage. The first arrests of German agents were made in 1938 and continued throughout World War II. In the Quirin affair, during World War II, German U-boats set two small groups of Nazi agents ashore in Florida and on Long Island to cause acts of sabotage within the country. The two teams were apprehended after one of the agents contacted the FBI and told them everything – he was also charged, and convicted.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: During this time period President Franklin D. Roosevelt, out of concern over Nazi agents in the United States, gave "qualified permission" to wiretap persons "suspected ... [of] subversive activities". He went on to add, in 1941, that the United States Attorney General had to be informed of its use in each case.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: The Attorney General Robert H. Jackson left it to Hoover to decide how and when to use wiretaps, as he found the "whole business" distasteful. Jackson's successor at the post of Attorney General, Francis Biddle, did turn down Hoover's requests on occasion.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In the late 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave Hoover the task to investigate both foreign espionage in the United States and the activities of domestic communists and fascists. When the Cold War began in the late 1940s, the FBI under Hoover undertook the intensive surveillance of communists and other left-wing activists in the United States.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: The FBI also participated in the Venona project, a pre-World War II joint project with the British to eavesdrop on Soviet spies in the UK and the United States. They did not initially realize that espionage was being committed, but the Soviets' multiple use of one-time pad ciphers (which with single use are unbreakable) created redundancies that allowed some intercepts to be decoded. These established that espionage was being carried out.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover kept the intercepts – America's greatest counterintelligence secret – in a locked safe in his office. He chose not to inform President Truman, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, or Secretaries of State Dean Acheson and General George Marshall while they held office. He informed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the Venona Project in 1952.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: After World War II, Hoover advanced plans to create a "World-Wide Intelligence Service". These plans were shot down by the Truman administration. Truman objected to the plan, emerging bureaucratic competitors opposed the centralization of power inherent in the plans, and there was a considerable aversion to creating an American version of the "Gestapo."


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In 1946, Attorney General Tom C. Clark authorized Hoover to compile a list of potentially disloyal Americans who might be detained during a wartime national emergency. In 1950, at the outbreak of the Korean War, Hoover submitted a plan to President Truman to suspend the writ of "habeas corpus" and detain 12,000 Americans suspected of disloyalty. Truman did not act on the plan.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In 1956, Hoover was becoming increasingly frustrated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions that limited the Justice Department's ability to prosecute people for their political opinions, most notably communists. Some of his aides reported that he purposely exaggerated the threat of communism to "ensure financial and public support for the FBI." At this time he formalized a covert "dirty tricks" program under the name COINTELPRO. COINTELPRO was first used to disrupt the Communist Party USA, where Hoover ordered observation and pursuit of targets that ranged from suspected citizen spies to larger celebrity figures, such as Charlie Chaplin, whom he saw as spreading Communist Party propaganda.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: COINTELPRO's methods included infiltration, burglaries, setting up illegal wiretaps, planting forged documents, and spreading false rumors about key members of target organizations. Some authors have charged that COINTELPRO methods also included inciting violence and arranging murders.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: This program remained in place until it was exposed to the public in 1971, after the burglary by a group of eight activists of many internal documents from an office in Media, Pennsylvania, whereupon COINTELPRO became the cause of some of the harshest criticism of Hoover and the FBI. COINTELPRO's activities were investigated in 1975 by the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, called the "Church Committee" after its chairman, Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho); the committee declared COINTELPRO's activities were illegal and contrary to the Constitution.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover amassed significant power by collecting files containing large amounts of compromising and potentially embarrassing information on many powerful people, especially politicians. According to Laurence Silberman, appointed Deputy Attorney General in early 1974, FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley thought such files either did not exist or had been destroyed. After "The Washington Post" broke a story in January 1975, Kelley searched and found them in his outer office. The House Judiciary Committee then demanded that Silberman testify about them.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In 1956, several years before he targeted Martin Luther King Jr., Hoover had a public showdown with T. R. M. Howard, a civil rights leader from Mound Bayou, Mississippi. During a national speaking tour, Howard had criticized the FBI's failure to investigate thoroughly the racially motivated murders of George W. Lee, Lamar Smith, and Emmett Till. Hoover wrote an open letter to the press singling out these statements as "irresponsible."


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In the 1960s, Hoover's FBI monitored John Lennon, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali. The COINTELPRO tactics were later extended to organizations such as the Nation of Islam, the Black Panther Party, King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and others. Hoover's moves against people who maintained contacts with subversive elements, some of whom were members of the civil rights movement, also led to accusations of trying to undermine their reputations.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: The treatment of Martin Luther King Jr. and actress Jean Seberg are two examples: Jacqueline Kennedy recalled that Hoover told President John F. Kennedy that King had tried to arrange a sex party while in the capital for the March on Washington and that Hoover told Robert F. Kennedy that King had made derogatory comments during the President's funeral. Under Hoover's leadership, the FBI sent an anonymous blackmail letter to King in 1964, urging him to commit suicide.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: King's aide Andrew Young claimed in a 2013 interview with the Academy of Achievement that the main source of tension between the SCLC and FBI was the government agency's lack of black agents, and that both parties were willing to co-operate with each other by the time the Selma to Montgomery marches had taken place.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In one 1965 incident, white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo was murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen, who had given chase and fired shots into her car after noticing that her passenger was a young black man; one of the Klansmen was Gary Thomas Rowe, an acknowledged FBI informant. The FBI spread rumors that Liuzzo was a member of the Communist Party and had abandoned her children to have sexual relationships with African Americans involved in the civil rights movement. FBI records show that Hoover personally communicated these insinuations to President Lyndon B. Johnson.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover also personally ended the Federal inquiry into the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by members of the Ku Klux Klan that killed four girls. By May 1965, local investigators and the FBI had identified suspects in the bombing and witnesses, and this information was relayed to Hoover. No prosecutions of the four suspects ensued, however, even though the evidence was reportedly "so strong that even a white Alabama jury would convict". There had been a history of mistrust between local and federal investigators. Hoover wrote in a memo that the chances of a conviction were remote and told his agents not to share their results with federal or state prosecutors. In 1968, the FBI formally closed their investigation into the bombing without filing charges against any of their named suspects. The files were sealed by order of Hoover.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover in 1970 personally authorized "black-bag" jobs against the Weather Underground per testimony from William C. Sullivan.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: One of his biographers, Kenneth Ackerman, wrote that the allegation that Hoover's secret files kept presidents from firing him "is a myth." However, Richard Nixon was recorded in 1971 as stating that one of the reasons he would not fire Hoover was that he was afraid of Hoover's reprisals against him. Similarly, Presidents Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy considered dismissing Hoover as FBI Director, but ultimately concluded that the political cost of doing so would be too great.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In 1964, Hoover's FBI investigated Jack Valenti, a special assistant and confidant of President Lyndon Johnson. Despite Valenti's two-year marriage to Johnson's personal secretary, the investigation focused on rumors that he was having a gay relationship with a commercial photographer friend.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover personally directed the FBI investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1964, just days before Hoover testified in the earliest stages of the Warren Commission hearings, President Lyndon B. Johnson waived the then-mandatory U.S. Government Service Retirement Age of 70, allowing Hoover to remain the FBI Director "for an indefinite period of time". The House Select Committee on Assassinations issued a report in 1979 critical of the performance by the FBI, the Warren Commission, and other agencies. The report criticized the FBI's (Hoover's) reluctance to investigate thoroughly the possibility of a conspiracy to assassinate the President.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: When Richard Nixon took office in January 1969, Hoover had just turned 74. There was a growing sentiment in Washington, D.C., that the aging FBI chief should retire, but Hoover's power and friends in Congress remained too strong for him to be forced to do so.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover remained director of the FBI until he died of a heart attack in his Washington home, on May 2, 1972, whereupon operational command of the Bureau was passed onto Associate Director Clyde Tolson. On May 3, 1972, Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray – a Justice Department official with no FBI experience – as Acting Director of the FBI, with W. Mark Felt becoming associate director.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover's body lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, where Chief Justice Warren Burger eulogized him. Up to that time, Hoover was the only civil servant to have lain in state, according to "The New York Daily News". At the time, "The New York Times" observed that this was "an honor accorded to only 21 persons before, of whom eight were Presidents or former Presidents." (The Architect of the Capitol website provides a list of all those so honored, including Capitol Police killed in the line of duty in 1998 and 2021.) President Nixon delivered another eulogy at the funeral service in the National Presbyterian Church, and called Hoover "one of the Giants, [whose] long life brimmed over with magnificent achievement and dedicated service to this country which he loved so well". Hoover was buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., next to the graves of his parents and a sister who had died in infancy.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: For better or worse, he built the FBI into a modern, national organization stressing professionalism and scientific crime-fighting. For most of his life, Americans considered him a hero. He made the G-Man brand so popular that, at its height, it was harder to become an FBI agent than to be accepted into an Ivy League college.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover worked to groom the image of the FBI in American media; he was a consultant to Warner Brothers for a theatrical film about the FBI, "The FBI Story" (1959), and in 1965 on Warner's long-running spin-off television series, "The F.B.I." Hoover personally made sure Warner Brothers portrayed the FBI more favorably than other crime dramas of the times.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: U.S. President Harry S Truman said that Hoover transformed the FBI into his private secret police force:


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: ... we want no Gestapo or secret police. The FBI is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail. J. Edgar Hoover would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Because Hoover's actions came to be seen as abuses of power, FBI directors are now limited to one 10-year term, subject to extension by the United States Senate.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Jacob Heilbrunn, journalist and senior editor at "The" "National Interest" gives a mixed assessment of Hoover's legacy:


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: The FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. is named the J. Edgar Hoover Building, after Hoover. Because of the controversial nature of Hoover's legacy, both Republicans and Democrats have periodically introduced legislation in the House and Senate to rename it. The first such proposal came just two months after the building's inauguration. On December 12, 1979, Gilbert Gude – a Republican congressman from Maryland – introduced H.R. 11137, which would have changed the name of the edifice from the "J. Edgar Hoover F.B.I. Building" to simply the "F.B.I. Building." However, that bill never made it out of committee, nor did two subsequent attempts by Gude. Another notable attempt came in 1993 when Democratic Senator Howard Metzenbaum pushed for a name change following a new report about Hoover's ordered "loyalty investigation" of future Senator Quentin Burdick. In 1998, Democratic Senator Harry Reid sponsored an amendment to strip Hoover's name from the building, stating that "J. Edgar Hoover's name on the FBI building is a stain on the building." The Senate did not adopt the amendment. The building is "aging" and "deteriorating" and its naming might eventually be made moot by the FBI moving its headquarters to a new suburban site.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover's practice of violating civil liberties for the stated sake of national security has been questioned in reference to recent national surveillance programs. An example is a lecture titled "Civil Liberties and National Security: Did Hoover Get it Right?", given at The Institute of World Politics on April 21, 2015.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover received his first dog from his parents when he was a child, after which he was never without one. He owned many throughout his lifetime and became an aficionado especially knowledgeable in breeding of pedigrees, particularly Cairn Terriers and Beagles. He gave many dogs to notable people, such as Presidents Herbert Hoover (no relation) and Lyndon B. Johnson, and buried seven canine pets, including a Cairn Terrier named Spee De Bozo, at Aspen Hill Memorial Park, in Silver Spring, Maryland.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: From the 1940s, rumors circulated that Hoover, who was still living with his mother in his early 40s, was homosexual. The historians John Stuart Cox and Athan G. Theoharis speculated that Clyde Tolson, who became an assistant director to Hoover in his mid 40s and became his primary heir, was a homosexual lover to Hoover until his death. Hoover reportedly hunted down and threatened anyone who made insinuations about his sexuality. Truman Capote, who enjoyed repeating rumors about Hoover, once remarked that he was more interested in making Hoover angry than determining whether the rumors were true. On May 2, 1969, "Screw" published the first reference in print to J. Edgar Hoover's sexuality, titled "Is J. Edgar Hoover a Fag?"


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Some associates and scholars dismiss rumors about Hoover's sexuality, and rumors about his relationship with Tolson in particular, as unlikely, while others have described them as probable or even "confirmed". Still other scholars have reported the rumors without expressing an opinion.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Cox and Theoharis concluded that "the strange likelihood is that Hoover never knew sexual desire at all." Anthony Summers, who wrote "Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover" (1993), stated that there was no ambiguity about the FBI director's sexual proclivities and described him as "bisexual with failed heterosexuality."


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover described Tolson as his alter ego: the men worked closely together during the day and, both single, frequently took meals, went to night clubs, and vacationed together. This closeness between the two men is often cited as evidence that they were lovers. Some FBI employees who knew them, such as Mark Felt, say the relationship was "brotherly"; however, former FBI executive assistant director Mike Mason suggested that some of Hoover's colleagues denied that he had a sexual relationship with Tolson in an effort to protect Hoover's image.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: The novelist William Styron told Summers that he once saw Hoover and Tolson in a California beach house, where the director was painting his friend's toenails. Harry Hay, founder of the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights organizations, said Hoover and Tolson sat in boxes owned by and used exclusively by gay men at the Del Mar racetrack in California.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover bequeathed his estate to Tolson, who moved into Hoover's house after Hoover died. Tolson accepted the American flag that draped Hoover's casket. Tolson is buried a few yards away from Hoover in the Congressional Cemetery.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: One of Hoover's biographers, Richard Hack, does not believe the director was gay. Hack notes that Hoover was romantically linked to actress Dorothy Lamour in the late 1930s and early 1940s and that after Hoover's death, Lamour did not deny rumors that she had had an affair with him.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hack further reported that, during the 1940s and 1950s, Hoover attended social events with Lela Rogers, the divorced mother of dancer and actress Ginger Rogers, so often that many of their mutual friends assumed the pair would eventually marry.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Hoover kept a large collection of pornographic material, possibly the world's largest, of films, photographs, and written materials, with particular emphasis on nude photos of celebrities. He reportedly used these for his own titillation and held them for blackmail purposes.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Lewis Rosenstiel, founder of Schenley Industries, was a close friend of Hoover's and the primary contributor to the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation. In his biography "Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover" (1993), journalist Anthony Summers quoted Rosenstiel's fourth wife, Susan, as claiming to have seen Hoover engaging in cross-dressing in the 1950s at all-male parties at the Plaza Hotel with her husband, attorney Roy Cohn, and young male prostitutes.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Summers alleged the Mafia had blackmail material on Hoover, which made Hoover reluctant to pursue organized crime aggressively. According to Summers, organized crime figures Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello obtained photos of Hoover's alleged homosexual activity with Tolson and used them to ensure that the FBI did not target their illegal activities. Additionally, Summers claimed that Hoover was friends with Billy Byars Jr., an alleged child pornographer and producer of the film "The Genesis Children".


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Another Hoover biographer who heard the rumors of homosexuality and blackmail, however, said he was unable to corroborate them, though it has been acknowledged that Lansky and other organized crime figures had frequently been allowed to visit the Del Charro Hotel in La Jolla, California, which was owned by Hoover's friend, and staunch Lyndon Johnson supporter, Clint Murchison Sr. Hoover and Tolson also frequently visited the Del Charro Hotel. Summers quoted a source named Charles Krebs as saying, "on three occasions that I knew about, maybe four, boys were driven down to La Jolla at Hoover's request."


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Skeptics of the cross-dressing story point to Susan Rosenstiel's lack of credibility (she pleaded guilty to attempted perjury in a 1971 case and later served time in a New York City jail). Recklessly indiscreet behavior by Hoover would have been totally out of character, whatever his sexuality. Most biographers consider the story of Mafia blackmail unlikely in light of the FBI's continuing investigations of the Mafia.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Although never corroborated, the allegation of cross-dressing has been widely repeated. In the words of author Thomas Doherty, "For American popular culture, the image of the zaftig FBI director as a Christine Jorgensen wanna-be was too delicious not to savor." Biographer Kenneth Ackerman says that Summers' accusations have been "widely debunked by historians".


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: The journalist Liz Smith wrote that Cohn told her about Hoover's rumored transvestism "long before it became common gossip."


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: The attorney Roy Cohn served as general counsel on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations during Senator Joseph McCarthy's tenure as chairman and assisted Hoover during the 1950s investigations of Communists and was generally known to be a closeted homosexual. According to Richard Hack, Cohn's opinion was that Hoover was too frightened of his own sexuality to have anything approaching a normal sexual or romantic relationship. Gossip columnist Liz Smith claimed that Roy Cohn "was the source of all those delicious tales about Hoover in smart frocks. He told these tales while Hoover was alive and after he died in 1972, during the fall of Richard Nixon."


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Some of Cohn's former clients, including Bill Bonanno, son of crime boss Joseph Bonanno, also cite photographs of Hoover in drag allegedly possessed by Cohn.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: During the Lavender scare, Cohn and McCarthy further enhanced anti-Communist fervor by suggesting that Communists overseas had convinced several closeted homosexuals within the U.S. government to leak important government information in exchange for the assurance that their sexual identity would remain a secret. A federal investigation that followed convinced President Dwight D. Eisenhower to sign Executive Order 10450 on April 29, 1953, that barred homosexuals from obtaining jobs at the federal level.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: In his 2004 study of the event, historian David K. Johnson attacked the speculations about Hoover's homosexuality as relying on "the kind of tactics Hoover and the security program he oversaw perfected: guilt by association, rumor, and unverified gossip." He views Rosenstiel as a liar who was paid for her story, whose "description of Hoover in drag engaging in sex with young blond boys in leather while desecrating the Bible is clearly a homophobic fantasy." He believes only those who have forgotten the virulence of the decades-long campaign against homosexuals in government can believe reports that Hoover appeared in compromising situations.


title: J. Edgar Hoover

text: Some people associated with Hoover have supported the rumors about his homosexuality. According to Anthony Summers, Hoover often frequented New York City's Stork Club. Luisa Stuart, a model who was 18 or 19 at the time, told Summers that she had seen Hoover holding hands with Tolson as they all rode in a limo uptown to the Cotton Club in 1936.