title: General Motors

text: In New Zealand, GM locally assembled Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Pontiac vehicles from 1926 and Vauxhall cars from 1931. After World War II, the local production of Chevrolet and Vauxhalls resumed, followed by Pontiac in 1959. In 1954, sales of fully imported Holden vehicles into New Zealand began. New Zealand assembly of Holdens began in 1957, and by the end of the 1960s, Holdens replaced all Chevrolets and Pontiacs (both in 1968) and most Vauxhalls. Opel, Bedford, and Isuzu vehicles were assembled or imported at different times during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. All local General Motors assembly plants in New Zealand closed by 1990. GM New Zealand was renamed Holden New Zealand in 1994.


title: General Motors

text: In 1926, GM formed an Australian subsidiary, General Motors (Australia) Limited, which imported, distributed and assembled General Motors products. The bodies were manufactured at an Adelaide-based family business, Holden's Motor Body Builders, which had built up its operations with the help of tariff protection and amicable relations with trade unions. During the Great Depression, Holden's Motor Body Builders collapsed, which allowed General Motors to acquire Holden, becoming General Motors-Holden [GMH] in 1931. In 1948, the first fully manufactured Australian car, the Holden 48-215, was released to great fanfare amongst the Australian public. It was marketed as "Australia's Own" Holden, and became an iconic feature of post-war Australian culture.


title: General Motors

text: In 2020, GM discontinued the Holden brand due to poor reception and sales, shutting the facilities where they were produced. GM continues to export some Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC vehicles through a new entity called General Motors Specialty Vehicles.


title: General Motors

text: In 2012, GM established Opel as a niche marque in Australia and began to sell Opel branded cars in Australia. However, in August 2013, sales of Opel ceased due to low sales.


title: General Motors

text: GM participated in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) from 2004 to 2012, and has also participated in other motorsport championships, including 24 Hours of Le Mans, NASCAR, SCCA and Supercars Championship.


title: General Motors

text: GM's engines were successful in the Indy Racing League (IRL) throughout the 1990s, winning many races in the small V8 class. GM has also done much work in the development of electronics for GM auto racing. An unmodified Aurora V8 in the Aerotech captured 47 world records, including the record for speed endurance in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. Recently, the Cadillac V-Series has entered motorsports racing.


title: General Motors

text: GM has also designed cars specifically for use in NASCAR auto racing. The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is the only entry in the series. In the past, the Pontiac Grand Prix, Buick Regal, Oldsmobile Cutlass, Chevrolet Lumina, Chevrolet Malibu, Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Chevrolet Impala, and the Chevrolet SS were also used. GM has won many NASCAR Cup Series manufacturer's championships, including 40 with Chevrolet, the most of any make in NASCAR history, 3 with Oldsmobile, 2 with Buick, and 1 with Pontiac. In 2021, Chevrolet became the first brand to reach 800 wins.


title: General Motors

text: In Australia, Holden cars based on the Monaro, Torana and Commodore platforms raced in the Australian Touring Car Championship until 2022. Holden won the Bathurst 1000, a record 36 times between 1968 and 2022 and the Australian Touring Car Championship 23 times. From 2023, the Chevrolet Camaro will be raced.


title: General Motors

text: General Motors was the largest global automaker by annual vehicle sales for 77 consecutive years, from 1931, when it overtook Ford Motor Company, until 2008 when it was overtaken by Toyota. This reign was longer than any other automaker, and GM is still among the world's largest automakers by vehicle unit sales.


title: General Motors

text: In 2008, the third-largest individual country by sales was Brazil, with some 550,000 GM vehicles sold. In that year, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela sold another 300,000 GM vehicles, suggesting that the total GM sales in South America (including sales in other South American countries such as Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, etc.) in that year were at a similar level to sales in China.


title: General Motors

text: In 2009, General Motors sold 6.5 million cars and trucks globally; in 2010, it sold 8.39 million. Sales in China rose 66.9% in 2009 to 1,830,000 vehicles and accounting for 13.4% of the market.


title: General Motors

text: In 2010, General Motors ranked second worldwide with 8.5 million vehicles produced. In 2011, GM returned to the first place with 9.025 million units sold worldwide, corresponding to 11.9% market share of the global motor vehicle industry. In 2010, vehicle sales in China by GM rose 28.8% to a record 2,351,610 units. The top two markets in 2011 were China, with 2,547,203 units, and the United States, with 2,503,820 vehicles sold. The Chevrolet brand was the main contributor to GM performance, with 4.76 million vehicles sold around the world in 2011, a global sales record.


title: General Motors

text: Annual worldwide sales volume reached 10 million vehicles in 2016. Sales in India for April 2016 – March 2017 declined to 25,823 units from 32,540 the previous year and market share contracted from 1.17% to 0.85% for the same period. However, exports surged 89% during the same period to 70,969 units. GMTC-I, GM's technical center in Bangalore, India continued in operation. Weak product line-up and below par service quality were the reasons for the poor showing by GM in India that year.


title: General Motors

text: Global Volt/Ampera family sales totalled about 177,000 units from its inception in December 2010 through 2018. including over 10,000 Opel/Vauxhall Amperas sold in Europe up to December 2015. The Volt family of vehicles ranked as the world's all-time top-selling plug-in hybrid , and it is also the third best selling plug-in electric car in history after the Nissan Leaf (375,000) and the Tesla Model S (253,000), . The Chevrolet Volt is also the U.S. all-time top-selling plug-in electric car with 148,556 units delivered through October 2018.


title: General Motors

text: GM publishes an annual Social Impact Report detailing its contributions to charity; in 2020 it provided nearly $35 million in funding to 357 U.S.-based non-profits as well as in-kind assets (primarily donations of vehicles) to non-profits valued at more than $9.8 million. From 1976 until 2017, philanthropic activity was carried out via the General Motors Foundation, a 501(c)(3) foundation.


title: General Motors

text: General Motors has a close relationship with the Nature Conservancy and has fundraised for and donated cash and vehicles to the charity.


title: General Motors

text: In 1996, GM commissioned five designer-original vehicles, sold in a silent auction for Concept: Cure, to benefit the Nina Hyde Center for breast cancer research, founded by Ralph Lauren. The program involved five designers, each lending their artistic talents to customize five different vehicles. Nicole Miller, Richard Tyler, Anna Sui, Todd Oldham, and Mark Eisen were tasked with transforming a Cadillac STS, Buick Riviera, GMC Yukon, Oldsmobile Bravada and Chevrolet Camaro Z28, respectively. The cars were then auctioned with the proceeds presented to the Nina Hyde Center at the Greater LA Auto Show in 1997.


title: General Motors

text: Since 1997, GM has been a source of funding for Safe Kids Worldwide's "Safe Kids Buckle Up" program, an initiative to ensure child automobile safety through education and inspection.


title: General Motors

text: The 1936–1937 Flint sit-down strike against General Motors changed the United Automobile Workers (UAW) from a collection of isolated local unions on the fringes of the industry into a major labor union and led to the unionization of the domestic United States automobile industry.


title: General Motors

text: After the first convention of UAW in 1936, the union decided that it could not survive by piecemeal organizing campaigns at smaller plants, as it had in the past, but that it could organize the automobile industry only by going after its biggest and most powerful employer, General Motors Corporation, focusing on GM's production complex in Flint, Michigan.


title: General Motors

text: Organizing in Flint was a difficult and dangerous plan. GM controlled city politics in Flint and kept a close eye on outsiders. According to Wyndham Mortimer, the UAW officer put in charge of the organizing campaign in Flint, he received a death threat by an anonymous caller when he visited Flint in 1936. GM also maintained an extensive network of spies throughout its plants. This forced UAW members to keep the names of new members secret and meeting workers at their homes.


title: General Motors

text: As the UAW studied its target, it discovered that GM had only two factories that produced the dies from which car body components were stamped: one in Flint that produced the parts for Buicks, Pontiacs, and Oldsmobiles, and another in Cleveland that produced Chevrolet parts.


title: General Motors

text: While the UAW called for a sit-down strike in Flint, the police, armed with guns and tear gas, attempted to enter the Fisher Body 2 plant on January 11, 1937. The strikers inside the plant pelted them with hinges, bottles, and bolts. At the time, Vice President John Nance Garner supported federal intervention to break up the Flint Strike, but this idea was rejected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The president urged GM to distinguish a union so the plants could re-open. The strike ended after 44 days.


title: General Motors

text: That development forced GM to bargain with the union. John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers and founder and leader of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, spoke for the UAW in those negotiations; UAW President Homer Martin was sent on a speaking tour to keep him out of the way. GM's representatives refused to be in the same room as the UAW, so Governor Frank Murphy acted as a courier and intermediary between the two groups. Governor Murphy sent in the U.S. National Guard not to evict the strikers but rather to protect them from the police and corporate strike-breakers. The two parties finally reached an agreement on February 11, 1937, on a one-page agreement that recognized the UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative for GM's employees, who were union members for the next six months.


title: General Motors

text: The tool and die strike of 1939, also known as the "strategy strike", was an ultimately successful attempt by the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) to be recognized as the sole representative for General Motors workers. In addition to representation rights, the UAW, working jointly with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), sought to resolve existing grievances of skilled workers.


title: General Motors

text: From November 21, 1945, until March 13, 1946, (113 days) CIO's United Automobile Workers (UAW), organized "320,000 hourly workers" to form a US-wide strike against the General Motors Corporation, workers used the tactic of the sit down strike. It was "the longest strike against a major manufacturer" that the UAW had yet seen, and it was also "the longest national GM strike in its history". As director of the UAW's General Motors Department (coordinator of union relations with GM), Walter Reuther suggested to his colleagues the idea of striking the GM manufacturing plants with a 'one-at-a-time' strategy, which was "intended to maximize pressure on the target company". Reuther also put forth the demands of the strikers: a 30 percent increase in wages and a hold on product prices. However, the strike ended with the dissatisfaction of Walter Reuther and the UAW, and the workers received only a 17.5-percent increase in wages.


title: General Motors

text: The 2007 General Motors strike was a strike from September 24 to 26, 2007, by the United Auto Workers (UAW) against General Motors.


title: General Motors

text: On September 24, 2007, General Motors workers represented by the United Auto Workers union went on strike against the company. The first US-wide strike against GM since 1970 was expected to idle 59 plants and facilities for an indefinite period of time. Talks broke down after more than 20 straight days of bargaining failed to produce a new contract. Major issues that proved to be stumbling blocks for an agreement included wages, benefits, job security and investments in US facilities.


title: General Motors

text: Two car assembly plants in Oshawa, Ontario and a transmission facility in Windsor closed on September 25. However, on September 26, a tentative agreement was reached, and the strike's end was announced by UAW officials in a news conference at 4 a.m. By the following day, all GM workers in both countries were back to work.


title: General Motors

text: On the morning of September 15, 2019, after talks broke down to renew their contract, which expired earlier that day, the United Auto Workers announced that GM employees would begin striking at 11:59 PM. This strike shut down operations in nine states, including 33 manufacturing plants and 22 parts distribution warehouses.


title: General Motors

text: After 40 days, on October 25, 2019, the "longest strike by autoworkers in a decade" and the longest against GM since 1970 came to an end when United Auto Workers members voted to approve a new contract with GM. The strike cost GM more than $2 billion, while members of the labor union were reduced to a salary of $275 a week in strike pay.


title: General Motors

text: Between 1938 and 1950, GM allegedly deliberately monopolized the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines (NCL) and its subsidiaries, in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, intending to dismantle streetcar systems in many cities in the United States and make buses, sold by GM, the dominant form of public transport.


title: General Motors

text: Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader, published in 1965, is a book accusing car manufacturers of being slow to introduce safety features and reluctant to spend money on improving safety. It relates to the first models of the Chevrolet Corvair (1960–1964) that had a swing axle suspension design that was prone to 'tuck under' in certain circumstances. To compensate for the removal of a front stabilizer bar (anti-roll bar) as a cost-cutting measure, Corvairs required tire pressures that were outside of the tire manufacturer's recommended tolerances. The Corvair relied on an unusually high front to rear pressure differential (15 psi front, 26 psi rear, when cold; 18 psi and 30 psi hot), and if one inflated the tires equally, as was standard practice for all other cars at the time, the result was dangerous over-steer.


title: General Motors

text: In early March 1966, several media outlets, including "The New Republic" and "The New York Times", alleged that GM had tried to discredit Ralph Nader, hiring private detectives to tap his phones and investigate his past, and hiring prostitutes to trap him in compromising situations. Nader sued the company for invasion of privacy and settled the case for $425,000. Nader's lawsuit against GM was ultimately decided by the New York Court of Appeals, whose opinion in the case expanded tort law to cover "overzealous surveillance". Nader used the proceeds from the lawsuit to start the pro-consumer Center for Study of Responsive Law.


title: General Motors

text: A 1972 safety commission report conducted by Texas A&M University concluded that the 1960–1963 Corvair possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporary competitors in extreme situations. The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a press release in 1972 describing the findings of NHTSA testing from the previous year. NHTSA conducted a series of comparative tests in 1971 studying the handling of the 1963 Corvair and four contemporary cars — a Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Volkswagen Beetle, and Renault Dauphine — along with a second-generation Corvair (with its completely redesigned, independent rear suspension). The 143-page report reviewed NHTSA's extreme-condition handling tests, national crash-involvement data for the cars in the test as well as General Motors' internal documentation regarding the Corvair's handling. NHTSA went on to contract an independent advisory panel of engineers to review the tests. This review panel concluded that 'the 1960–63 Corvair compares favorably with contemporary vehicles used in the tests [...] the handling and stability performance of the 1960–63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic'.


title: General Motors

text: Former GM executive John DeLorean asserted, in his book "On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors", that Nader's criticisms were valid.


title: General Motors

text: Journalist David E. Davis noted that despite Nader's claim that swing-axle rear suspension were dangerous, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen all used similar swing-axle concepts during that era.


title: General Motors

text: In May 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fined the company $35 million for failing to recall cars with faulty ignition switches for a decade, despite knowing there was a problem with the switches. General Motors paid compensation for 124 deaths linked to the faulty switches. The $35 million fine was the maximum the regulator could impose. The total cost of the recall was estimated to be $1.5 billion. As well as the Cobalts, the switches of concern had been installed in many other cars, such as the Pontiac G5, the Saturn Ion, the Chevrolet HHR, the Saturn Sky, and Pontiac Solstice. The recall involved about 2.6 million GM cars worldwide.


title: General Motors

text: In 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute accused at least 82 major brands, including General Motors, of being connected to forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential stand-up comedians of all time. Pryor won a Primetime Emmy Award and five Grammy Awards. He received the first Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998. He won the Writers Guild of America Award in 1974. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians. In 2017, "Rolling Stone" ranked him first on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor's body of work includes the concert films and recordings: "Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin'" (1971), "That Nigger's Crazy" (1974), "...Is It Something I Said?" (1975), "Bicentennial Nigger" (1976), "" (1979), "" (1982), and "" (1983). As an actor, he starred mainly in comedies. His occasional roles in dramas included Paul Schrader's "Blue Collar" (1978). He also appeared in action films, like "Superman III" (1983). He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder, including the films "Silver Streak" (1976), "Stir Crazy" (1980), "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" (1989), and "Another You" (1991).


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor was born on December 1, 1940, in Peoria, Illinois. He grew up in a brothel run by his grandmother, Marie Carter, where his alcoholic mother, Gertrude L. (née Thomas), was a prostitute. His father, LeRoy "Buck Carter" Pryor (June 7, 1915 – September 27, 1968), was a former boxer, hustler and pimp. After Gertrude abandoned him when he was 10, Pryor was raised primarily by Marie, a tall, violent woman who would beat him for any of his eccentricities. Pryor was one of four children raised in his grandmother's brothel. He was sexually abused at age seven, and expelled from school at the age of 14. While in Peoria, he became a Prince Hall Freemason at a local lodge.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor served in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1960, but spent virtually the entire stint in an army prison. According to a 1999 profile about Pryor in "The New Yorker", Pryor was incarcerated for an incident that occurred while he was stationed in West Germany. Angered that a white soldier was overly amused at the racially charged scenes of Douglas Sirk's film "Imitation of Life", Pryor and several other black soldiers beat and stabbed him, although not fatally.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 1963, Pryor moved to New York City and began performing regularly in clubs alongside performers such as Bob Dylan and Woody Allen. On one of his first nights, he opened for singer and pianist Nina Simone at New York's Village Gate. Simone recalls Pryor's bout of performance anxiety:


title: Richard Pryor

text: Inspired by Bill Cosby, Pryor began as a middlebrow comic, with material less controversial than what was to come. He began appearing regularly on television variety shows such as "The Ed Sullivan Show", "The Merv Griffin Show", and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". His popularity led to success as a comic in Las Vegas. The first five tracks on the 2005 compilation CD "", recorded in 1966 and 1967, capture Pryor in this period. In 1966, Pryor was a guest star on an episode of "The Wild Wild West".


title: Richard Pryor

text: In September 1967, Pryor had what he described in his autobiography "Pryor Convictions" (1995) as an "epiphany". He walked onto the stage at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas (with Dean Martin in the audience), looked at the sold-out crowd, exclaimed over the microphone, "What the fuck am I doing here!?", and walked off the stage. Afterward, Pryor began working profanity into his act, including the word "nigger". His first comedy recording, the eponymous 1968 debut release on the Dove/Reprise label, captures this particular period, tracking the evolution of Pryor's routine. Around this time, his parents died—his mother in 1967 and his father in 1968.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 1969, Pryor moved to Berkeley, California, where he immersed himself in the counterculture and met people like Huey P. Newton and Ishmael Reed.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In the 1970s, Pryor wrote for television shows such as "Sanford and Son", "The Flip Wilson Show", and a 1973 Lily Tomlin special, for which he shared an Emmy Award. During this period, Pryor tried to break into mainstream television. He appeared in several films, including "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972), "The Mack" (1973), "Uptown Saturday Night" (1974), "Silver Streak" (1976), "Car Wash" (1976), "Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings" (1976), "Which Way Is Up?" (1977), "Greased Lightning" (1977), "Blue Collar" (1978), and "The Muppet Movie" (1979).


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor signed with the comedy-oriented independent record label Laff Records in 1970, and in 1971 recorded his second album, "Craps (After Hours)". Two years later Pryor, still relatively unknown, appeared in the documentary "Wattstax" (1972), wherein he riffed on the tragic-comic absurdities of race relations in Watts and the United States. Not long afterward, Pryor sought a deal with a larger label, and he signed with Stax Records in 1973. When his third, breakthrough album, "That Nigger's Crazy" (1974), was released, Laff, which claimed ownership of Pryor's recording rights, almost succeeded in getting an injunction to prevent the album from being sold. Negotiations led to Pryor's release from his Laff contract. In return for this concession, Laff was enabled to release previously unissued material, recorded between 1968 and 1973, at will. "That Nigger's Crazy" was a commercial and critical success; it was eventually certified gold by the RIAA and won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album at the 1975 Grammy Awards.


title: Richard Pryor

text: During the legal battle, Stax briefly closed its doors. At this time, Pryor returned to Reprise/Warner Bros. Records, which re-released "That Nigger's Crazy", immediately after "...Is It Something I Said?", his first album with his new label. Like "That Nigger's Crazy", the album was a critical success; it was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA and won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording at the 1976 Grammy Awards.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor's 1976 release "Bicentennial Nigger" continued his streak of success. It became his third consecutive gold album, and he collected his third consecutive Grammy for Best Comedy Recording for the album in 1977. With every successful album Pryor recorded for Warner (or later, his concert films and his 1980 freebasing accident), Laff published an album of older material to capitalize on Pryor's growing fame—a practice they continued until 1983. The covers of Laff albums tied in thematically with Pryor films, such as "Are You Serious?" for "Silver Streak" (1976), "The Wizard of Comedy" for his appearance in "The Wiz" (1978), and "Insane" for "Stir Crazy" (1980).


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor co-wrote "Blazing Saddles" (1974), directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder. Pryor was to play the lead role of Bart, but the film's production studio would not insure him, and Mel Brooks chose Cleavon Little instead.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 1975, Pryor was a guest host on the first season of "Saturday Night Live" ("SNL") and the first black person to host the show. Pryor's longtime girlfriend, actress and talk-show host Kathrine McKee (sister of Lonette McKee), made a brief guest appearance with Pryor on "SNL". Among the highlights of the night was the now-controversial "word association" skit with Chevy Chase. He would later do his own variety show, "The Richard Pryor Show", which premiered on NBC in 1977. The show was cancelled after only four episodes probably because television audiences did not respond well to his show's controversial subject matter, and Pryor was unwilling to alter his material for network censors. He later said, "They offered me ten episodes, but I said all I wanted to in four." During the short-lived series, he portrayed the first black President of the United States, spoofed the "Star Wars" Mos Eisley cantina, examined gun violence in a non-comedy skit, lampooned racism on the sinking Titanic and used costumes and visual distortion to appear nude.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 1979, at the height of his success, Pryor visited Kenya. Upon returning to the United States from Africa, Pryor swore he would never use the word "nigger" in his stand-up comedy routine again.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 1980, Pryor became the first black actor to earn a million dollars for a single film when he was hired to star in "Stir Crazy". While on a freebasing binge during the making of the film, Pryor doused himself in rum and set himself on fire. Pryor incorporated a description of the incident into his comedy show "" (1982). He joked that the event was caused by dunking a cookie into a glass of low-fat and pasteurized milk, causing an explosion. At the end of the bit, he poked fun at people who told jokes about it by waving a lit match and saying, "What's that? Richard Pryor running down the street."


title: Richard Pryor

text: Before the freebasing incident, Pryor was about to start filming Mel Brooks' "History of the World, Part I" (1981), but was replaced at the last minute by Gregory Hines. Likewise, Pryor was scheduled for an appearance on "The Muppet Show" at that time, which forced the producers to cast their British writer, Chris Langham, as the guest star for that episode instead.


title: Richard Pryor

text: After his "final performance", Pryor did not stay away from stand-up comedy for long. Within a year, he filmed and released a new concert film and accompanying album, "" (1983), which he directed himself. He wrote and directed a fictionalized account of his life, "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling", which revolved around the 1980 freebasing incident.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 1983 Pryor signed a five-year contract with Columbia Pictures for $40 million and he started his own production company, Indigo Productions. Softer, more formulaic films followed, including "Superman III" (1983), which earned Pryor $4 million; "Brewster's Millions" (1985), "Moving" (1988), and "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" (1989). The only film project from this period that recalled his rough roots was Pryor's semiautobiographic debut as a writer-director, "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling", which was not a major success.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor was also originally considered for the role of Billy Ray Valentine on "Trading Places" (1983), before Eddie Murphy won the part.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Despite his reputation for constantly using profanity on and off camera, Pryor briefly hosted a children's show on CBS called "Pryor's Place" (1984). Like "Sesame Street" (where Pryor appeared in a few oft-repeated segments), "Pryor's Place" featured a cast of puppets (animated by Sid and Marty Krofft), hanging out and having fun in a friendly inner-city environment along with several children and characters portrayed by Pryor himself. Its theme song was performed by Ray Parker Jr. "Pryor's Place" frequently dealt with more sobering issues than "Sesame Street". It was cancelled shortly after its debut.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor co-hosted the Academy Awards twice and was nominated for an Emmy for a guest role on the television series "Chicago Hope". Network censors had warned Pryor about his profanity for the Academy Awards, and after a slip early in the program, a five-second delay was instituted when returning from a commercial break. Pryor is one of only three "Saturday Night Live" hosts to be subjected to a rare five-second delay for his 1975 appearance (along with Sam Kinison in 1986 and Andrew Dice Clay in 1990).


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor developed a reputation for being demanding and disrespectful on film sets, and for making selfish and difficult requests. In his autobiography "Kiss Me Like a Stranger", co-star Gene Wilder says that Pryor was frequently late to the set during filming of "Stir Crazy", and that he demanded, among other things, a helicopter to fly him to and from set because he was the star. Pryor was accused of using allegations of on-set racism to force the hand of film producers into giving him more money:


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor appeared in "Harlem Nights" (1989), a comedy-drama crime film starring three generations of black comedians (Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Redd Foxx).


title: Richard Pryor

text: In his later years starting in the early to mid-1990s, Pryor used a power-operated mobility scooter due to multiple sclerosis (MS). To him, MS stood for "More Shit". He appears on the scooter in his last film appearance, a small role in David Lynch's "Lost Highway" (1997) playing an auto-repair garage manager named Arnie.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Rhino Records remastered all of Pryor's Reprise and WB albums for inclusion in the box set "... And It's Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968–1992)" (2000).


title: Richard Pryor

text: In December 1999, Pryor appeared in the cold open of "The Norm Show" in the episode entitled "Norm vs. The Boxer". He played Mr. Johnson, an elderly man in a wheelchair who has lost the rights to in-home nursing when he kept attacking the nurses before attacking Norm himself. This was his last television appearance.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 2002, Pryor and Jennifer Lee Pryor, his wife and manager, won legal rights to all the Laff material, which amounted to almost 40 hours of reel-to-reel analog tape. After going through the tapes and getting Richard's blessing, Jennifer Lee Pryor gave Rhino Records access to the tapes in 2004. These tapes, including the entire "Craps (After Hours)" album, form the basis of the February 1, 2005, double-CD release "Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966–1974)".


title: Richard Pryor

text: Jerry Seinfeld called Pryor "the Picasso of our profession" and Bob Newhart heralded Pryor as "the seminal comedian of the last 50 years". Dave Chappelle said of Pryor, "You know those, like, evolution charts of man? He was the dude walking upright. Richard was the highest evolution of comedy." This legacy can be attributed, in part, to the unusual degree of intimacy Pryor brought to bear on his comedy. As Bill Cosby reportedly once said, "Richard Pryor drew the line between comedy and tragedy as thin as one could possibly paint it."


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 1998, Pryor won the first Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. According to former Kennedy Center President Lawrence J. Wilker, Pryor was selected as the first recipient of the Prize because:


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 2004, Pryor was voted number one on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. In a 2005 British poll to find "The Comedian's Comedian," Pryor was voted the 10th-greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.


title: Richard Pryor

text: The animal rights organization PETA gives out an award in Pryor's name to people who have done outstanding work to alleviate animal suffering. Pryor was active in animal rights and was deeply concerned about the plight of elephants in circuses and zoos. In 1999, he was awarded a Humanitarian Award by the group, and worked with them on campaigns against the treatment of birds by KFC.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Artist Preston Jackson created a life-sized bronze statue in dedication to the beloved comedian and named it "Richard Pryor: More than Just a Comedian". It was placed at the corner of State and Washington Streets in downtown Peoria, on May 1, 2015, close to the neighborhood in which he grew up with his mother. The unveiling was held Sunday, May 3, 2015.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In a Netflix special released in May 2022, "" inducted Richard Pryor into the National Comedy Center in


title: Richard Pryor

text: In 2002, a television documentary entitled "The Funny Life of Richard Pryor" depicted Pryor's life and career. Broadcast in the UK as part of the Channel 4 series "Kings of Black Comedy", it was produced, directed and narrated by David Upshal and featured rare clips from Pryor's 1960s stand-up appearances and films such as "Silver Streak" (1976), "Blue Collar" (1978), "" (1978), and "Stir Crazy" (1980). Contributors included George Carlin, Dave Chappelle, Whoopi Goldberg, Ice-T, Paul Mooney, Joan Rivers, and Lily Tomlin. The show tracked down the two cops who had rescued Pryor from his "freebasing incident", former managers, and even school friends from Pryor's home town of Peoria, Illinois. In the US, the show went out as part of the "Heroes of Black Comedy" series on Comedy Central, narrated by Don Cheadle.


title: Richard Pryor

text: A television documentary, "" (2003) consisted of archival footage of Pryor's performances and testimonials from fellow comedians, including Dave Chappelle, Denis Leary, Chris Rock, and Wanda Sykes, on Pryor's influence on comedy.


title: Richard Pryor

text: On December 19, 2005, BET aired a Pryor special, titled "The Funniest Man Dead or Alive". It included commentary from fellow comedians, and insight into his upbringing.


title: Richard Pryor

text: A retrospective of Pryor's film work, concentrating on the 1970s, titled "A Pryor Engagement", opened at Brooklyn Academy of Music Cinemas for a two-week run in February 2013. Several prolific comedians who have claimed Pryor as an influence include George Carlin, Dave Attell, Martin Lawrence, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Colin Quinn, Patrice O'Neal, Bill Hicks, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Bill Burr, Joey Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Louis C.K., and Eddie Izzard.


title: Richard Pryor

text: On May 31, 2013, Showtime debuted the documentary "" directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Marina Zenovich. The executive producers were Pryor's widow Jennifer Lee Pryor and Roy Ackerman. Interviewees included Dave Chappelle, Whoopi Goldberg, Jesse Jackson, Quincy Jones, George Lopez, Bob Newhart, Richard Pryor, Jr., Lily Tomlin, and Robin Williams.


title: Richard Pryor

text: On March 12, 2019, Paramount Network debuted the documentary "I Am Richard Pryor", directed by Jesse James Miller. The film included appearances by Sandra Bernhard, Lily Tomlin, Mike Epps, Howie Mandel, and Pryor's ex-wife, Jennifer Lee Pryor, among others. Jennifer Lee served as an executive producer on the film.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In the episode "Taxes and Death or Get Him to the Sunset Strip"(2012), the voice of Richard Pryor is played by Eddie Griffin in the satirical TV show "Black Dynamite".


title: Richard Pryor

text: A planned biopic, entitled "Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?", was being produced by Chris Rock and Adam Sandler. The film would have starred Marlon Wayans as the young Pryor. Other actors previously attached include Mike Epps and Eddie Murphy. The film would have been directed by Bill Condon and was still in development with no release date, as of February 2013.


title: Richard Pryor

text: The biopic remained in limbo, and went through several producers until it was announced in January 2014 that it was being backed by The Weinstein Company with Lee Daniels as director. It was further announced, in August 2014, that the biopic will have Oprah Winfrey as producer and will star Mike Epps as Pryor.


title: Richard Pryor

text: He is portrayed by Brandon Ford Green in Season 1 Episode 4 "Sugar and Spice" of Showtime's "I'm Dying Up Here".


title: Richard Pryor

text: In the "Epic Rap Battles of History" episode "George Carlin vs. Richard Pryor", Pryor was portrayed by American rapper Zeale.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor's influences included Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Abbott and Costello, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Woody Allen, Dick Gregory, Bill Cosby, Redd Foxx, and Lenny Bruce.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor met actress Pam Grier through comedian Freddie Prinze. They began dating when they were both cast in "Greased Lightning" (1977). Grier helped Pryor learn to read and tried to help him with his drug addiction. Pryor married another woman while dating Grier.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor dated actress Margot Kidder during the filming of "Some Kind of Hero" (1982). Kidder stated that she "fell in love with Pryor in two seconds flat" after they first met.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Nine years after Pryor's death, in 2014, the biographical book "Becoming Richard Pryor" by Scott Saul stated that Pryor "acknowledged his bisexuality"; and, in 2018, Quincy Jones and Pryor's widow Jennifer Lee stated that Pryor had a sexual relationship with actor Marlon Brando, and that Pryor was open with his friends about his bisexuality and the fact that he slept with men. Pryor's daughter Rain later disputed the claim, to which Lee stated that Rain was in denial about her father's bisexuality.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Lee later told the Hollywood entertainment television series "TMZ on TV" that, "it was the 70s! Drugs were still good...If you did enough cocaine, you'd fuck a radiator and send it flowers in the morning."


title: Richard Pryor

text: In his autobiography "Pryor Convictions", Pryor talked about having a two-week relationship with Mitrasha, a trans woman, which he called "two weeks of being gay".


title: Richard Pryor

text: In his first special, "Live & Smokin'", Pryor discusses performing fellatio, and in 1977, he said at a gay rights show at the Hollywood Bowl, "I have sucked a dick."


title: Richard Pryor

text: Late in the evening of June 9, 1980, Pryor poured 151-proof rum all over himself and lit himself on fire. The Los Angeles police reported he was burned by an explosion while freebasing cocaine. Pryor claimed his injuries were caused by burning rum. While ablaze, he ran down Parthenia Street from his Los Angeles home, until being subdued by police. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for second- and third-degree burns covering more than half of his body. Pryor spent six weeks in recovery at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital in Los Angeles. His daughter Rain stated that the incident happened as a result of a bout of drug-induced psychosis.


title: Richard Pryor

text: Pryor's widow Jennifer Lee recalled when he began freebasing cocaine: "After two weeks of watching him getting addicted to this stuff I moved out. It was clear the drug had moved in and it had become his lover and everything. I did not exist."


title: Richard Pryor

text: In November 1977, after many years of heavy smoking and drinking, Pryor had a mild heart attack at age 36. He recovered and resumed performing in January the following year. In 1986, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In 1990, Pryor had a second heart attack while in Australia. He underwent triple heart bypass surgery in 1991.


title: Richard Pryor

text: In late 2004, his sister said he had lost his voice as a result of his multiple sclerosis. However, on January 9, 2005, Pryor's wife, Jennifer Lee, rebutted this statement in a post on Pryor's official website, citing Richard as saying: "I'm sick of hearing this shit about me not talking ... not true ... I have good days, bad days ... but I still am a talkin' motherfucker!"


title: Richard Pryor

text: On December 10, 2005, nine days after his 65th birthday, Pryor had a third heart attack in Los Angeles. After his wife's failed attempts to resuscitate him, he was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:58 a.m. PST. His widow Jennifer was quoted as saying, "At the end, there was a smile on his face."


title: Richard Pryor

text: He was cremated, and his ashes were given to his family. His ashes were scattered in the bay at Hana, Hawaii, by his widow in 2019. Forensic pathologist Michael Hunter believes Pryor's fatal heart attack was caused by coronary artery disease that was at least partially brought about by years of tobacco smoking.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, filmmaker and musician. He had his first break when he co-wrote and starred in the 1992 thriller "One False Move", and received international attention after writing, directing, and starring in the independent drama film "Sling Blade" (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He appeared in several major film roles in the 1990s following "Sling Blade", including Oliver Stone's neo-noir "U Turn" (1997), political drama "Primary Colors" (1998), science fiction disaster film "Armageddon" (1998), the highest-grossing film of that year, and the crime drama "A Simple Plan" (1998), which earned him his third Oscar nomination.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In the 2000s, Thornton achieved further success in starring dramas "Monster's Ball" (2001), "The Man Who Wasn't There" (2001), and "Friday Night Lights" (2004); and comedy films, "Intolerable Cruelty" (2003), and "Bad Santa" (2003). In 2014, Thornton starred as Lorne Malvo in the first season of the anthology series "Fargo", earning a nomination for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie at the Emmy Awards and won Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Film at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. In 2016, he starred in an Amazon original series, "Goliath," which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton has written a variety of films, usually set in the Southern United States and mainly co-written with Tom Epperson, including "A Family Thing" (1996) and "The Gift" (2000). After "Sling Blade", he directed several other films, including "Daddy and Them" (2001), "All the Pretty Horses" (2000), and "Jayne Mansfield's Car" (2012).


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton has received the President's Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, a Special Achievement Award from the National Board of Review, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has also been nominated for an Emmy Award, four Golden Globes, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. In addition to film work, Thornton began a career as a singer-songwriter. He has released four solo albums and is the vocalist of the rock band the Boxmasters.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton has been vocal about his distaste for celebrity culture, choosing to keep his life out of the public eye. The attention of the media has proven unavoidable in certain cases, his marriage to Angelina Jolie being a notable example.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton was born on August 4, 1955, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the son of Virginia Roberta ("née" Faulkner; died July 29, 2017), a self-proclaimed psychic, and William Raymond "Billy Ray" Thornton (November 1929 – August 1974), a high school history teacher and basketball coach. His brother Jimmy Don (April 1958 – October 1988) wrote a number of songs; Thornton recorded two of them ("Island Avenue" and "Emily") on his solo albums. He is of part Irish descent. He has another brother, John David.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton lived in numerous places in Arkansas during his childhood, including Alpine, Malvern, and Mount Holly. He was raised Methodist in an extended family in a shack that had no electricity or plumbing. He graduated from Malvern High School in 1973. A good high school baseball player, he tried out for the Kansas City Royals, but was released after an injury. After a short period laying asphalt for the Arkansas State Transportation Department, he attended Henderson State University to pursue studies in psychology but dropped out after two semesters.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In the mid-1980s Thornton settled in Los Angeles to pursue his career as an actor with future writing partner Tom Epperson. He had a difficult time succeeding as an actor and worked in telemarketing, offshore wind farming and fast food management between auditioning for acting jobs. He also played the drums and sang with South African rock band Jack Hammer. While working as a waiter for an industry event, he served film director and screenwriter Billy Wilder. He struck up a conversation with Wilder, who advised Thornton to consider a career as a screenwriter.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton's first screen role was in 1988 "South of Reno", where he played a small role as a counter man in a restaurant. He also made an appearance as a pawn store clerk in the 1987 "Matlock" episode "The Photographer". Another one of his early screen roles was as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in 1989 he appeared as an angry heckler in Adam Sandler's debut film "Going Overboard". His role as the villain in 1992's "One False Move", which he also co-wrote, brought him to the attention of critics. He also had small roles in the 1990s films "Indecent Proposal", "On Deadly Ground", "Bound by Honor", and "Tombstone". He went on to write, direct, and star in the 1996 independent film "Sling Blade". The film, an expansion of the short film "Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade", introduced the story of a mentally disabled man imprisoned for a gruesome and seemingly inexplicable murder.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: "Sling Blade" garnered international acclaim. Thornton's screenplay earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award, while his performance received Oscar and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actor. In 1998, Thornton portrayed the James Carville-like Richard Jemmons in "Primary Colors". He adapted the book "All the Pretty Horses" into a 2000 film of the same name. The negative experience (he was forced to cut more than an hour of footage) led to his decision to never direct another film; a subsequent release, "Daddy and Them", had been filmed earlier. Also in 2000, an early script which he and Tom Epperson wrote together was made into "The Gift".


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In 2000, Thornton appeared in Travis Tritt's music video for the song "Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde". His screen persona has been described by the press as that of a "tattooed, hirsute man's man". He appeared in several major film roles following the success of "Sling Blade", including 1998's "Armageddon" and "A Simple Plan". In 2001, he directed "Daddy and Them" while securing starring roles in three Hollywood films: "Monster's Ball", "Bandits", and "The Man Who Wasn't There", for which he received many awards.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton played a malicious mall Santa in 2003's "Bad Santa", a black comedy that performed well at the box office and established him as a leading comic actor, and in the same year, portrayed a womanizing President of the United States in the British romantic comedy film "Love Actually". He stated that, following the success of "Bad Santa", audiences "like to watch him play that kind of guy" and that "casting directors call him up when they need an asshole". He referred to this when he said that "it's kinda that simple... you know how narrow the imagination in this business can be".


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In 2004, Thornton played David Crockett in "The Alamo". Later that year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 7. He appeared in the 2006 comic film "School for Scoundrels". In the film, he plays a self-help doctor, which was written specifically for him. More recent films include 2007 drama "The Astronaut Farmer" and the comedy "Mr. Woodcock", in which he played a sadistic gym teacher. In September 2008, he starred in the action film "Eagle Eye". He has also expressed an interest in directing another film, possibly a period piece about cave explorer Floyd Collins, based on the book "Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins".


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In 2014, Thornton starred as sociopathic hitman Lorne Malvo in the FX miniseries "Fargo", inspired by the 1996 film of the same name, for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Mini-Series.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton made a guest appearance on "The Big Bang Theory" in 2014, where he played a middle-aged urologist who gets excited about every woman who touches him.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: "Goliath", a television series by Amazon Studios, features Thornton as a formerly brilliant and personable lawyer, who is now washed up and alcoholic. It premiered on October 13, 2016, on Amazon Video. On February 15, 2017, Amazon announced the series had been renewed for a second season.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In 2017, Thornton starred in the music video "Stand Down" by Kario Salem (musically known as K.O.). It received the Best Music Video award from the Toronto Shorts International Film Festival and has had 13 million views on Facebook and counting.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In the 1970s, Thornton was the drummer of a blues rock band named Tres Hombres. Guitarist Billy Gibbons referred to the band as "the best little cover band in Texas", and Thornton bears a tattoo with the band's name on it.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In 1985, Thornton joined Piet Botha in the South African rock band Jack Hammer, while Botha worked in Los Angeles. Thornton recorded one studio album with Jack Hammer, "Death" "of" "a" "Gypsy", which was released in 1986. September


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In 2001, Thornton released the album "Private Radio" on Lost Highway Records. Subsequent albums include "The Edge of the World" (2003), "Hobo" (2005) and "Beautiful Door" (2007). He performed the Warren Zevon song "The Wind" on the tribute album "". Thornton recorded a cover of the Johnny Cash classic "Ring of Fire" with Earl Scruggs, for the "Oxford American" magazine's Southern Music CD in 2001. The song also appeared on Scruggs' 2001 album "Earl Scruggs and Friends".


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: On April 8, 2009, Thornton and his musical group The Boxmasters appeared on the CBC Radio One program "Q". The appearance was widely criticized and received international attention after Thornton was persistently unintelligible and discourteous to host Jian Ghomeshi. Thornton eventually explained he had "instructed" the show's producers to not ask questions about his movie career. Ghomeshi had mentioned Thornton's acting in the introduction. Thornton had also complained Canadian audiences were like "mashed potatoes without the gravy." The following night, opening for Willie Nelson at Toronto's Massey Hall, Thornton said mid-set he liked Canadians but not Ghomeshi, which was greeted with boos and catcalls. The Boxmasters did not continue the tour in Canada as, according to Thornton, some of the crew and band had the flu.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: From 1978 to 1980, he was married to Melissa Lee Gatlin, who in her divorce petition cited "incompatibility and adultery on his part". They had a daughter Amanda (Brumfield), who in 2008 was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the death of her friend's one-year-old daughter. Amanda was freed in 2020 after a deal was reached with prosecutors prior to an evidentiary hearing to provide medical and scientific evidence of her innocence.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton married actress Toni Lawrence in 1986; they separated the following year and divorced in 1988.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: From 1990 to 1992, he was married to actress Cynda Williams, whom he cast in his writing debut "One False Move" (1992).


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In 1993, Thornton married "Playboy" model Pietra Dawn Cherniak, with whom he had two sons Harry James and William. The marriage ended in 1997 with Cherniak accusing Thornton of spousal abuse, sometimes in front of his children.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton was engaged to be married to actress Laura Dern, whom he dated from 1997 to 1999, but in 2000, he married actress Angelina Jolie, with whom he starred in "Pushing Tin" (1999) and who was 20 years his junior. The marriage became known for the couple's eccentric displays of affection, which reportedly included wearing vials of each other's blood around their necks; Thornton later clarified that the "vials" were actually two small lockets, each containing only a single drop of blood. Thornton and Jolie announced the adoption of a child from Cambodia in March 2002, but it was later revealed that Jolie had adopted the child as a single parent. They separated in June 2002 and divorced the following year.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: In 2003, Thornton began a relationship with makeup effects crew member Connie Angland with whom he has a daughter Bella. Although he once said that he likely would not marry again since marriage "doesn't work" for him, his representatives confirmed that he and Angland were married on October 22, 2014, in Los Angeles.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: During his early years in Los Angeles, Thornton was admitted to a hospital and diagnosed with myocarditis, a heart condition brought on by malnutrition. He has since said that he follows a vegan diet and is "extremely healthy", eating no junk food as he is allergic to wheat and dairy.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton has obsessive–compulsive disorder. Various idiosyncratic behaviors have been well documented in interviews with Thornton; among these is a phobia of antique furniture, a disorder shared by Dwight Yoakam's character Doyle Hargraves in the Thornton-penned "Sling Blade" and by Thornton's own character in the 2001 film "Bandits". Additionally, he has stated that he has a fear of certain types of silverware, a trait assumed by his character in 2001's "Monster's Ball", in which Grotowski insists on a plastic spoon for his daily bowl of ice cream.


title: Billy Bob Thornton

text: Thornton is a baseball fan and a devout fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. In his movie contracts, one of his demands is a television in his trailer with a satellite dish so he can watch the Cardinals play. He narrated "The 2006 World Series Film", the year-end retrospective DVD chronicling the Cardinals' championship season. He is also a professed fan of the Indianapolis Colts football team.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Forfar, (Edward Antony Richard Louis; born 10 March 1964) is a member of the British royal family. He is the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the youngest sibling of King Charles III. Edward is 13th in line of succession to the British throne.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Born at Buckingham Palace, Edward studied at Heatherdown School and earned his A-levels at Gordonstoun before spending a part of his gap year teaching at the Whanganui Collegiate School in New Zealand. He studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, and graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1986 with a degree in history. After a brief stint in the Royal Marines, Edward worked as a theatre production assistant at the Really Useful Theatre Company before assisting in television production. He later formed his own company, Ardent Productions.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Edward stepped down from the company in 2002 to begin full-time duties as a working member of the royal family, and undertook engagements on behalf of the Queen. He holds patronage within over 70 charities and organisations, including the National Youth Theatre, the Sport and Recreation Alliance and the British Paralympic Association. His charity work focuses on the arts, athletics, and the development of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, which centres around fitness, wellbeing and community service.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Edward was made Earl of Wessex prior to marrying Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999. The Earl and Countess of Wessex have two children: Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and James Mountbatten-Windsor, Viscount Severn. Edward was given the additional title of Earl of Forfar in 2019.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Prince Edward was born at 8:20 p.m. on 10 March 1964 at Buckingham Palace, London, as the third son and the fourth and youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His birth was the only one witnessed by his father. He was baptised on 2 May 1964 in the private chapel at Windsor Castle.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: As with his three older siblings, Charles, Anne, and Andrew, a governess was appointed to look after Edward and was responsible for his early education at Buckingham Palace before he attended Collingham College, Kensington (then known as Gibbs School). In September 1972, he joined Heatherdown School, near Ascot in Berkshire. Later, as his father and elder brothers had done before him, he moved to Gordonstoun in northern Scotland, and was appointed head boy in his last term. Edward obtained a C-grade in English and two D-grades in history and politics at A-level, and after leaving school spent a gap year abroad, working as a house tutor and junior master for two terms at the Wanganui Collegiate School in New Zealand.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Upon his return to Britain, Edward studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read History. His admission to Cambridge despite his A-Level results caused some controversy. Edward graduated in 1986 with a BA degree (lower second class honours).


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Upon leaving university in 1986, Edward joined the Royal Marines, who had reportedly sponsored his tuition at Cambridge on condition of future service. He had signed on to join the Marines in September 1983. In January 1987, he dropped out of the commando course having completed one-third of the 12-month training. Media reported that Prince Philip, who was the Captain General Royal Marines, was displeased but Prince Edward later said that his father had not put undue pressure on him to change his mind. Others stated that Philip was the most sympathetic family member toward his son's decision. Buckingham Palace said that Prince Edward's decision came after "much consideration" and that he was leaving with great regret "but has concluded that he does not wish to make the service his long-term career".


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: After leaving the Marines, Edward opted for a career in entertainment. He commissioned the 1986 musical "Cricket" from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, for his mother's 60th birthday celebration, which led to a job offer at Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Theatre Company, where he worked as a production assistant on musicals such as "The Phantom of the Opera", "Starlight Express", and "Cats". While there he met actress Ruthie Henshall, whom he dated for three years.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Edward's first foray into television production was the programme "The Grand Knockout Tournament", informally known as "It's a Royal Knockout", on 15 June 1987, in which four teams sponsored by him, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of York competed for charity. The programme was criticised by the media and the public, and it was later reported that the Queen was not in favour of the event, with her courtiers having advised against it. The programme raised over £1,500,000 for its selected charities.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: In 1993, Edward formed the television production company Ardent Productions. Ardent was involved in the production of a number of documentaries and dramas, but Edward was accused in the media of using his royal connections for financial gain, and the company was referred to by some industry insiders as "a sad joke" due to a perceived lack of professionalism in its operations. Andy Beckett, writing in "The Guardian", opined that "to watch Ardent's few dozen hours of broadcast output is to enter a strange kingdom where every man in Britain still wears a tie, where pieces to camera are done in cricket jumpers, where people clasp their hands behind their backs like guardsmen. Commercial breaks are filled with army recruiting advertisements".


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Ardent's productions were better received in the United States and a documentary Edward made about his great uncle, Edward VIII (the late Duke of Windsor) in 1996, sold well worldwide. Nonetheless, the company reported losses every year it operated, with the exception of one when Edward did not draw a salary. An Ardent two-man film crew later allegedly invaded the privacy of Edward's nephew, Prince William, in September 2001, when he was studying at the University of St Andrews, which went against industry guidelines regarding the privacy of members of the royal family; William's father (Edward's elder brother Charles) was reportedly angered by the incident. In March 2002, Edward announced that he would step down as production director and joint managing director of Ardent to concentrate on his public duties and to support the Queen during her Golden Jubilee year. Ardent Productions was voluntarily dissolved in June 2009, with assets reduced to just £40.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Edward met Sophie Rhys-Jones for the first time in 1987 when he was dating her friend. They met again at a promotion shoot for the Prince Edward Summer Challenge to raise money for charity in 1993, and the two began their relationship soon afterwards. In December 1993 and amid growing speculation about whether they were planning to marry, Edward wrote a letter to newspaper editors, in which he denied any wedding plans and asked the media to respect their privacy. Edward proposed to Sophie at a holiday in the Bahamas in December 1998 and their engagement was announced on 6 January 1999. Edward proposed to Sophie with an Asprey and Garrard engagement ring worth an estimated £105,000: a two-carat oval diamond flanked by two heart-shaped gemstones set in 18-carat white gold.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Their wedding took place on 19 June 1999 in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. This was a departure from the weddings of his elder brothers, which were large, formal events at Westminster Abbey or St Paul's Cathedral, and had ended in divorce. On his wedding day, Prince Edward was created Earl of Wessex, with the subsidiary title of Viscount Severn (derived from the Welsh roots of the Countess's family), breaking from a tradition whereby sons of the sovereign were created royal dukes. Edward's children are styled as the children of an Earl, rather than as "prince/ss" and "royal highness". However, on the wishes of the Queen, he might be made Duke of Edinburgh (the title held by Edward's father, Prince Philip, between 1947 and his death in 2021). The title was inherited by Prince Philip's eldest son, now Charles III, and merged into the crown upon Charles's succession in September 2022. Charles III will decide whether he will pass the title on to his brother.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Sophie had an ectopic pregnancy in 2001. Edward and Sophie have two children: Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, born prematurely on 8 November 2003 due to a sudden placental abruption; and James Mountbatten-Windsor, Viscount Severn, born on 17 December 2007. The family's country residence is Bagshot Park; their office and official London residence is at Buckingham Palace.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: The Earl and Countess of Wessex established their foundation, the Wessex Youth Trust, in 1999, with a focus on helping, supporting and advancing registered charities which provide opportunities specifically for children and young people. His patronages include: the British Paralympic Association, the International Real Tennis Professionals Association, the Commonwealth Games Federation, BadmintonScotland, the Tennis and Rackets Association, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, London Mozart Players, Haddo House Choral and Operatic Society, Northern Ballet, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and the Production Guild.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: The Earl of Wessex assumed many duties from his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as the Duke reduced his commitments and retired from royal duties. Prince Edward succeeded the Duke as president of the Commonwealth Games Federation (vice-patron since 2006) and opened the 1990 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand and the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia. He has also taken over the duke's role in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, attending Gold Award ceremonies around the world.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: In September 2007, the Earl visited Israel in his capacity as chair of the International Council of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award to attend a number of events organised by the Israel Youth Award program, an affiliate of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award which was founded by his father to recognise adolescents and young adults for completing a series of self-improvement exercises. Edward was himself a recipient of the award's gold medal in 1986 for "a 60-mile, four-day trek from Blair Atholl to Tomintoul" that he had planned. Edward later went on to become the chair of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award, and has promoted its work on different occasions. Edward is also a trustee of the International Award Association, which "encompasses the DofE UK and all its other 61 National Award Authorities across the globe". He was also chair of its international council and in 1999 founded the International Special Projects Group "to provide a capital fund to broaden the reach of the Award".


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: In June 2011, Edward visited Baltimore to meet the students and staff of the Living Classrooms Foundation and encourage them to participate in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award's programme. In December 2011, the Earl and Countess of Wessex visited troops in Afghanistan. On the same trip, the royal couple visited Bahrain, and received two gifts of jewels from the Bahraini royal family and Prime Minister. Given concern about human rights abuses in Bahrain, this gift attracted controversy, with calls for the jewels to be sold, and the proceeds used for the benefit of the Bahraini people. In February and March 2012, the couple visited the Caribbean for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The itinerary consisted of Saint Lucia; Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Grenada; Trinidad and Tobago; Montserrat; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda. Highlights included Independence Day celebrations in Saint Lucia, addressing Senate and Assembly of Barbados jointly, and a visit to sites affected by the volcanic eruptions in Montserrat.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: In 2013, the couple visited South Africa. The Queen appointed the Earl of Wessex as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2014. In 2015, for his contributions to projects associated with badminton, Edward was awarded the President's Medal by the Badminton World Federation President Poul-Erik Høyer. In May 2016, the Earl visited Ghana. Alongside President Mahama, he presented young people with the Head of State Awards for their participation in the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Scheme. In September 2016, Edward travelled to Chile as a part of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award's diamond anniversary, and visited projects by British and Commonwealth Fire and Rescue Company and Chilean-British Culture University, of which he is an honorary member and patron respectively. The Earl and Countess of Wessex represented the Queen at the 50th Anniversary Celebrations of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's Accession to the Throne of Brunei in October 2017. In February 2018, the Earl and Countess toured Sri Lanka, participating in the 70th Independence Day celebrations in Colombo. In April 2018, the Earl visited Australia to attend the XXI Commonwealth Games and attend fundraising events for those participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award challenges.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Twenty years after its inception, the Wessex Youth Trust changed its name to the Earl and Countess of Wessex Charitable Trust, managed by the private office of the Earl and Countess of Wessex and Forfar. The trust will continue to develop sustainable relationships with a range of selected partner charities, and will expand its remit beyond supporting children and young people.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: In July 2019, the Earl and Countess visited Forfar on their first official visit to the town since the Queen granted the Earl the additional title Earl of Forfar in March 2019. The Earl was presented with 'Earl of Forfar' tartan, which was designed by Forfar's Strathmore Woollen Company to celebrate their new titles. The weave is based on the existing Forfar tartan, which the company designed in 2004 around the colours on the Forfar coat of arms. The geometry remains virtually the same, but the colours have been strengthened, with azure blue replaced by the St Andrew's blue of the Scottish flag, and white yarns replaced by a brown to reflect the rich agriculture of the surrounding area. In 2020, he took over the patronage of London Youth from his father who had held the position for 73 years.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: In February 2022, Edward was appointed president of the Royal Windsor Horse Show, a position previously held by his father the Duke of Edinburgh. In the following month, he visited Kenya to oversee the progress of The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award in the country. In April 2022, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and Forfar toured Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Their planned visit to Grenada was postponed after talks with the island's government and governor general, and the couple expressed their hopes to visit the country on a later date.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: In 2011, close associates of Jonathan Rees, a private investigator connected to the "News International" phone hacking scandal, stated that he had penetrated Edward and Sophie's bank accounts and sold details about them to the "Sunday Mirror".


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: Before Edward's marriage in 1999, royal commentators conjectured that former royal dukedoms such as Cambridge or Sussex might be granted to him. Instead, Buckingham Palace announced the intention that Edward would eventually be created Duke of Edinburgh, then held by his father Prince Philip, once that title had merged in the Crown upon the death of both his parents. The title automatically passed to his eldest brother Charles when their father died in April 2021. In July 2021, "The Times" reported that Charles had decided not to give the title to his brother upon accession, although Clarence House stated that "all stories of this nature are speculation, no final decisions have been taken" and declined to comment further.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: On his marriage in 1999, Edward was ennobled in keeping with tradition; he was the first prince since the Tudors to be created an earl rather than a duke (while reserving the rank of duke for the future). "The Sunday Telegraph" reported that he was drawn to the earldom of Wessex after watching the 1998 film "Shakespeare in Love", in which a minor character with that title was played by Colin Firth. Edward was also granted the subsidiary title of Viscount Severn, which subsequently became the courtesy title of his son and heir.


title: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

text: On 10 March 2019, on his 55th birthday, Edward was granted the additional title of Earl of Forfar for use in Scotland. Since then, he has at times been referred to as the Earl of Wessex and Forfar, such as at the funeral of his father and the state funeral of his mother.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of "Playboy" magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obscenity. The first issue of "Playboy" was published in 1953, featuring Marilyn Monroe in a nude calendar shoot; it sold over 50,000 copies.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner extended the Playboy brand into a world network of Playboy Clubs. He also resided in luxury mansions where "Playboy" playmates shared his wild partying life, fueling keen media interest. He was a political activist in the Democratic Party and for the causes of First Amendment rights, animal rescue, and the restoration of the Hollywood Sign.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner was born in Chicago on April 9, 1926, the first child of Glenn Lucius Hefner (1896–1976), an accountant, and his wife Grace Caroline (Swanson) Hefner (1895–1997) who worked as a teacher. His parents were from Nebraska. He had a younger brother, Keith (1929–2016). His mother was of Swedish ancestry, and his father was German and English.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Through his father's line, Hefner was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. He described his family as "conservative, Midwestern, [and] Methodist". His mother had wanted him to become a missionary.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: He attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School, then served from 1944 to 1946 as a U.S. Army writer for a military newspaper. Hefner graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a double minor in Creative Writing and Art, having earned his degree in two and a half years. After graduation, he took a semester of graduate courses in Sociology at Northwestern University, but dropped out soon after.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: In January 1952, Hefner left his job as a copywriter for "Esquire" after he was denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he took out a mortgage loan of $600 and raised $8,000 from 45 investors (including $1,000 from his mother—"not because she believed in the venture," he told "E!" in 2006, "but because she believed in her son") to launch "Playboy", which was initially going to be called "Stag Party". The first issue was published in December 1953 and featured Marilyn Monroe from a 1949 nude calendar shoot she did under a pseudonym. That first issue sold more than 50,000 copies. (Hefner never met Monroe, but he bought the crypt next to hers at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in 1992 for $75,000.)


title: Hugh Hefner

text: "Esquire" magazine rejected Charles Beaumont's science fiction story "The Crooked Man" in 1955, so Hefner agreed to publish it in "Playboy." The story highlighted straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. The magazine received angry letters, so Hefner responded, "If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too." In 1961, Hefner watched Dick Gregory perform at the Herman Roberts Show Bar in Chicago, and he hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club. Gregory attributed the launch of his career to that night.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner promoted a "bon vivant" lifestyle in his magazine and in the television shows that he hosted "Playboy's Penthouse" (1959–1960) and "Playboy After Dark" (1969–1970). He was also the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, the publishing group which operates the magazine.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: On June 4, 1963, Hefner was arrested for promoting obscene literature after he published an issue of "Playboy" featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield in bed with a man present. The case went to trial and resulted in a hung jury.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: In the 1960s, Hefner created "private key" clubs that were racially diverse. During the civil rights movement in 1966, Hefner sent Alex Haley to interview American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, much to Rockwell's shock because Haley was black. Rockwell agreed to meet with Haley only after gaining assurance that he was not Jewish, although Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout the interview. In "" (1979), the interview was recreated with James Earl Jones as Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell. Haley had also interviewed Malcolm X in 1963 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 for the newly established 1962 "playboy interview".


title: Hugh Hefner

text: In 1970, Hefner stated that "militant feminists" are "unalterably opposed to the romantic boy-girl society that "Playboy" promotes" and ordered an article in his magazine against them.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: In his later years, Hefner's star dimmed, but he remained a well-known personality, often appearing in cameo roles. In the 1993 "The Simpsons" episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled", Hefner voiced himself. In 1999, Hefner financed the Clara Bow documentary "Discovering the It Girl". "Nobody has what Clara had," he said. "She defined an era and made her mark on the nation". Hefner guest-starred as himself in the 2000 "Sex and the City" episode "Sex and Another City". In 2005, he guest-starred on the HBO shows "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Entourage". He guest-starred as himself in a 2006 episode of Seth Green's "Robot Chicken" on the late-night programming block Adult Swim. In the 2007 "Family Guy" episode "Airport '07", he voiced himself. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and made several movie appearances as himself. In 2009, he received a "worst supporting actor" nomination for a Razzie award for his performance as himself in "Miss March". On his official Twitter account, he joked about this nomination: "Maybe I didn't understand the character."


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Brigitte Berman's documentary "" was released on July 30, 2010. He had previously granted full access to documentary filmmaker and television producer Kevin Burns for the A&E "Biography" special "Hugh Hefner: American Playboy" in 1996. Hefner and Burns later collaborated on numerous other television projects, most notably on "The Girls Next Door", a reality series that ran for six seasons (2005–2009) and 90 episodes. Hefner also made a voice-only appearance as himself in the 2011 film "Hop".


title: Hugh Hefner

text: In 2012, Hefner announced that his youngest son Cooper would succeed him as the public face of "Playboy".


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner was known to friends and family simply as "Hef". He married Northwestern University student Mildred ("Millie") Williams in 1949. They had a daughter named Christie (b. 1952) and a son, David (b. 1955). Before the wedding, Mildred confessed that she'd had an affair while he was away in the army. He called the admission "the most devastating moment of my life." A 2006 "E! True Hollywood Story" profile of Hefner revealed that Mildred allowed him to have sex with other women, out of guilt for her own infidelity and in the hope that it would preserve their marriage. The couple divorced in 1959.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner remade himself as a "bon vivant" and man about town, a lifestyle that he promoted in his magazine and TV shows. He admitted to being "'involved' with maybe eleven out of twelve months' worth of Playmates" during some years. Donna Michelle, Marilyn Cole, Lillian Müller, Shannon Tweed, Barbi Benton, Karen Christy, Sondra Theodore, and Carrie Leigh were a few of his many lovers; Leigh filed a $35 million palimony suit against him. In 1971, he acknowledged that he experimented in bisexuality. Also in 1971, he established a second residence in Los Angeles with the acquisition of Playboy Mansion West, and moved there permanently from Chicago in 1975.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: On March 7, 1985, Hefner had a minor stroke at age 58, whereupon he re-evaluated his lifestyle, making several changes. He toned down the wild, all-night parties; also, daughter Christie took over the operation of Playboy's commercial operations in 1988. The following year, he married Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad; they were 36 years apart in age. The couple had sons Marston Glenn (b. 1990) and Cooper (b. 1991). The "E! True Hollywood Story" profile noted that the Playboy Mansion had been transformed into a family-friendly homestead. He and Conrad separated in 1998, after which she moved into the house next door to the mansion. Hefner filed for divorce from Conrad in 2009 after an 11-year separation, citing irreconcilable differences. He stated that he only remained nominally married to her for the sake of their children, and their youngest child had just turned 18. The divorce was finalized in 2010.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner became known for moving an ever-changing coterie of young women into the Playboy Mansion, including twins Mandy and Sandy Bentley. He dated as many as seven women concurrently. He also dated Brande Roderick, Izabella St. James, Tina Marie Jordan, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson. Madison, Wilkinson, and Marquardt appeared on "The Girls Next Door" depicting their lives at the Playboy Mansion. In October 2008, all three of them decided to leave the mansion.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: In January 2009, Hefner began a relationship with Crystal Harris; she joined the Shannon Twins after his previous "number one girlfriend" Holly Madison had ended their seven-year relationship. On December 24, 2010, he became engaged to Harris, but she broke off their engagement on June 14, 2011, five days before their planned wedding. The July issue of "Playboy" reached store shelves and customers' homes within days of the wedding date; it featured Harris on the cover, and in a photo spread as well. The headline on the cover read "Introducing America's Princess, Mrs. Crystal Hefner". Hefner and Harris subsequently reconciled and married on December 31, 2012.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: In January 2016, the Playboy Mansion was put on the market for $200 million, on condition that Hugh Hefner would continue to work and live in the mansion. Later that year it was sold to Daren Metropoulos, a principal at private equity firm Metropoulos & Company, for $100 million. Metropoulos planned to reconnect the Playboy Mansion property with a neighboring estate that he purchased in 2009, combining the two for a 7.3 acre (3-hectare) compound as his own private residence.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: In May 2017, Eugena Washington was the last Playmate of the Year to be announced by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner debated "The Playboy Philosophy" with William F. Buckley Jr., on "Firing Line" in Episode 26, recorded on September 12, 1966.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: The Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award was created by Christie Hefner "to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans."


title: Hugh Hefner

text: He donated and raised money for the Democratic Party. In 2011, he referred to himself as an independent due to dissatisfaction with both the Democratic and Republican parties. Nonetheless, in 2012, he supported Barack Obama's reelection campaign.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: In 1978, Hefner helped organize fund-raising efforts that led to the restoration of the Hollywood Sign. He hosted a gala fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion and contributed $27,000 (or 1/9 of the total restoration costs) by purchasing the letter Y in a ceremonial auction.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner donated $100,000 to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts to create a course called "Censorship in Cinema", and $2 million to endow a chair for the study of American film. In 2007, the university's audiovisual archive at the Norris Theater received a donation from Hefner and was renamed to the Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive in his honor.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Both through his charitable foundation and individually, Hefner also contributed to charities and other organizations outside the sphere of politics and publishing, throwing fundraiser events for Much Love Animal Rescue as well as Generation Rescue, an anti-vaccinationist campaign organization supported by Jenny McCarthy.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: On November 18, 2010, Children of the Night founder and president Dr. Lois Lee presented Hefner with the organization's first-ever Founder's Hero of the Heart Award in appreciation for his unwavering dedication, commitment and generosity.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: On April 26, 2010, Hefner donated the last $900,000 sought by a conservation group for a land purchase needed to stop the development of the vista of the Hollywood Sign. "Sylvilagus palustris hefneri", an endangered subspecies of marsh rabbit, is named after him in honor of financial support that he provided.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: The Barbi Twins, who are among a notable cohort of celebrity Playmates, including Pamela Anderson and Hefner's third wife Crystal Harris, praised the publishing icon for providing centerfolds and extended members of the Playboy family with a platform for activism and advocacy on behalf of animal populations in need.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner supported legalizing same-sex marriage, calling it "a fight for all our rights. Without it, we will turn back the sexual revolution and return to an earlier, puritanical time."


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner was very distantly related to the 41st and 43rd presidents of the United States, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, respectively.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner died at the Playboy Mansion on September 27, 2017, at the age of 91. The cause was sepsis brought on by an "E. coli" infection.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: He is interred at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, in the crypt beside Marilyn Monroe, for which he paid $75,000 in 1992. "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to pass up," Hefner had told the "Los Angeles Times" in 2009.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Suzanne Moore wrote in "The Guardian" that Hefner threatened to file a lawsuit against her for calling him a "pimp". Defending her position, Moore argued that "he was a man who bought and sold women to other men". She further stated that "part of Hefner's business acumen was to make the selling of female flesh respectable and hip, to make soft porn acceptable." Julie Bindel argued in "The Independent" that Hefner "caused immeasurable damage by turning porn—and therefore the buying and selling of women's bodies—into a legitimate business." Robin Abcarian wrote in the "Los Angeles Times", Quoting Wendy Hamilton, that Hefner "probably did more to mainstream the exploitation of women's bodies than any other figure in American history," adding that he "managed to convince many women that taking off their clothes for men's pleasure was not just empowering, but a worthy goal in itself." She further stated that Hefner "embodied the aesthetic notion that images of women—and women themselves—exist to please men."


title: Hugh Hefner

text: Hefner's former girlfriend Holly Madison said that he "would encourage competition—and body image issues—between his multiple live-in girlfriends. His legacy is full of evidence of the exploitation of women for professional gain." Ed Stetzer wrote in "Christianity Today" that Hefner would have the residence systematically cleaned whenever Christie Hefner visited in order "to keep the realities from his own daughter". Stetzer further lamented the consequences of Hefner's role as a "general" of the "sexual revolution":


title: Hugh Hefner

text: A 10-part television documentary series, "Secrets of Playboy", debuted on A&E January 24, 2022, in which former female employees made claims of sexual misconduct and drug use at the Playboy Mansion. The PLBY group, now publicly owned, distanced itself from Hefner in a statement released shortly before the first episode was broadcast, saying, "Today's Playboy is not Hugh Hefner's Playboy. We trust and validate these women and their stories and we strongly support those individuals who have come forward to share their experience".


title: Hugh Hefner

text: The Amazon original series "" was released in April 2017. It stars Matt Whelan in the title role, along with Emmett Skilton and Chelsie Preston Crayford. The first season was released on April 7, composed of ten episodes. The series is a combination of interviews, archival footage (including moments found in Hefner's vast personal collection), and cinematic re-enactments that cover the launch of the magazine as well as the next six decades of Hefner's personal life and career. The series was filmed in Auckland.


title: Hugh Hefner

text: On October 3, 2017, Playboy Enterprises announced that a Hugh Hefner biopic directed by Brett Ratner with the screenplay by Jeff Nathanson was greenlit with Jared Leto rumored to play Hefner. It was indefinitely put on hold following sexual harassment allegations against Ratner on November 2, 2017, and Leto's representatives stated that reports of him being attached to the film at any point were false.


title: Manga

text: Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term "manga" is used in Japan to refer to both comics and cartooning. Outside of Japan, the word is typically used to refer to comics originally published in the country.


title: Manga

text: In Japan, people of all ages and walks of life read manga. The medium includes works in a broad range of genres: action, adventure, business and commerce, comedy, detective, drama, historical, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction and fantasy, erotica ("hentai" and "ecchi"), sports and games, and suspense, among others. Many manga are translated into other languages.


title: Manga

text: Since the 1950s, manga has become an increasingly major part of the Japanese publishing industry. By 1995, the manga market in Japan was valued at (), with annual sales of 1.9billion manga books and manga magazines in Japan (equivalent to 15issues per person). In 2020 Japan's manga market value hit a new record of ¥612.6 billion due to the fast growth of digital manga sales as well as increase of print sales. Manga have also gained a significant worldwide audience. Beginning with the late 2010s manga started massively outselling American comics. In 2020 the North American manga market was valued at almost $250 million. According to NPD BookScan manga made up 76% of overall comics and graphic novel sales in the US in 2021. The fast growth of the North American manga market has been attributed to manga's wide availability on digital reading apps, book retailer chains such as Barnes & Noble and online retailers such as Amazon as well as the increased streaming of anime. According to Jean-Marie Bouissou, manga represented 38% of the French comics market in 2005. This is equivalent to approximately 3 times that of the United States and was valued at about ($million). In Europe and the Middle East, the market was valued at $250 million in 2012.


title: Manga

text: Manga stories are typically printed in black-and-white—due to time constraints, artistic reasons (as coloring could lessen the impact of the artwork) and to keep printing costs low—although some full-color manga exist (e.g., "Colorful"). In Japan, manga are usually serialized in large manga magazines, often containing many stories, each presented in a single episode to be continued in the next issue. Collected chapters are usually republished in "tankōbon" volumes, frequently but not exclusively paperback books. A manga artist ("mangaka" in Japanese) typically works with a few assistants in a small studio and is associated with a creative editor from a commercial publishing company. If a manga series is popular enough, it may be animated after or during its run. Sometimes, manga are based on previous live-action or animated films.


title: Manga

text: Manga-influenced comics, among original works, exist in other parts of the world, particularly in those places that speak Chinese ("manhua"), Korean ("manhwa"), English ("OEL manga"), and French ("manfra"), as well as in the nation of Algeria ("DZ-manga").


title: Manga

text: The word "manga" comes from the Japanese word 漫画 (katakana: ; hiragana: ), composed of the two kanji 漫 (man) meaning "whimsical or impromptu" and 画 (ga) meaning "pictures". The same term is the root of the Korean word for comics, ""manhwa"", and the Chinese word ""manhua"".


title: Manga

text: The word first came into common usage in the late 18th century with the publication of such works as Santō Kyōden's picturebook "Shiji no yukikai" (1798), and in the early 19th century with such works as Aikawa Minwa's "Manga hyakujo" (1814) and the celebrated "Hokusai Manga" books (1814–1834) containing assorted drawings from the sketchbooks of the famous ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. Rakuten Kitazawa (1876–1955) first used the word "manga" in the modern sense.


title: Manga

text: In Japanese, "manga" refers to all kinds of cartooning, comics, and animation. Among English speakers, "manga" has the stricter meaning of "Japanese comics", in parallel to the usage of "anime" in and outside Japan. The term "ani-manga" is used to describe comics produced from animation cels.


title: Manga

text: According to art resource Widewalls manga originated from "emakimono" (scrolls) dating back to the 12th century. During the Edo period (1603–1867), a book of drawings titled "Toba Ehon" further developed what would later be called manga. The word itself first came into common usage in 1798, with the publication of works such as Santō Kyōden's picturebook "Shiji no yukikai" (1798), and in the early 19th century with such works as Aikawa Minwa's "Manga hyakujo" (1814) and the "Hokusai Manga" books (1814–1834). Adam L. Kern has suggested that "kibyoshi", picture books from the late 18th century, may have been the world's first comic books. These graphical narratives share with modern manga humorous, satirical, and romantic themes. Some works were mass-produced as serials using woodblock printing. however Eastern comics are generally held separate from the evolution of Western comics and Western comic art probably originated in 17th Italy,


title: Manga

text: Writers on manga history have described two broad and complementary processes shaping modern manga. One view represented by other writers such as Frederik L. Schodt, Kinko Ito, and Adam L. Kern, stress continuity of Japanese cultural and aesthetic traditions, including pre-war, Meiji, and pre-Meiji culture and art. The other view, emphasizes events occurring during and after the Allied occupation of Japan (1945–1952), and stresses U.S. cultural influences, including U.S. comics (brought to Japan by the GIs) and images and themes from U.S. television, film, and cartoons (especially Disney).


title: Manga

text: Regardless of its source, an explosion of artistic creativity occurred in the post-war period, involving manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka ("Astro Boy") and Machiko Hasegawa ("Sazae-san"). "Astro Boy" quickly became (and remains) immensely popular in Japan and elsewhere, and the anime adaptation of "Sazae-san" drew more viewers than any other anime on Japanese television in 2011. Tezuka and Hasegawa both made stylistic innovations. In Tezuka's "cinematographic" technique, the panels are like a motion picture that reveals details of action bordering on slow motion as well as rapid zooms from distance to close-up shots. This kind of visual dynamism was widely adopted by later manga artists. Hasegawa's focus on daily life and on women's experience also came to characterize later "shōjo manga". Between 1950 and 1969, an increasingly large readership for manga emerged in Japan with the solidification of its two main marketing genres, "shōnen manga" aimed at boys and "shōjo manga" aimed at girls.


title: Manga

text: In 1969 a group of female manga artists (later called the "Year 24 Group", also known as "Magnificent 24s") made their "shōjo" manga debut ("year 24" comes from the Japanese name for the year 1949, the birth-year of many of these artists). The group included Moto Hagio, Riyoko Ikeda, Yumiko Ōshima, Keiko Takemiya, and Ryoko Yamagishi. Thereafter, primarily female manga artists would draw "shōjo" for a readership of girls and young women. In the following decades (1975–present), "shōjo" manga continued to develop stylistically while simultaneously evolving different but overlapping subgenres. Major subgenres include romance, superheroines, and "Ladies Comics" (in Japanese, "redisu" , "redikomi" , and "josei" ).