title: Greenland shark

text: In August 2013, researchers from Florida State University caught a Greenland shark in the Gulf of Mexico at a depth of , where the water temperature was . Four previous records of Greenland shark were reported from Cuba and the northern Gulf of Mexico. A more typical depth range is , with the species often occurring in relatively shallow waters in the far north and deeper in the southern part of its range.


title: Greenland shark

text: In April 2022, a large "Somniosus" shark was caught and subsequently released on Glover's Reef off the coast of Belize. This shark was identified as being either a Greenland shark or a Greenland/Pacific sleeper shark hybrid. This observation is notable for being the first possible record of a Greenland shark from the Western Caribbean, and being caught on a nearshore coral reef (the only other record of this species from the Caribbean was made from a deep-water habitat off the Caribbean coast of Colombia). The discovery indicates that Greenland sharks may have a wider distribution in the tropics, primarily at greater depths, than previously believed.


title: Greenland shark

text: The shark is often infested by the copepod "Ommatokoita elongata", a crustacean which attaches itself to the shark's eyes. It was speculated that the copepod may display bioluminescence and thus attract prey for the shark in a mutualistic relationship, but this hypothesis has not been verified. These parasites also damage the eyeball in a number of ways, leading to almost complete blindness. This does not seem to reduce the life expectancy or predatory ability of Greenland sharks, due to their strong reliance on smell and hearing. The shark occupies what tends to be a very deep environment seeking its preferred cold water () habitat.


title: Greenland shark

text: The Greenland shark has the longest known lifespan of all vertebrate species. One Greenland shark was tagged off the coast of Greenland in 1936 and recaptured in 1952. Its measurements suggest that Greenland sharks grow at a rate of per year. In 2016, a study based on 28 specimens that ranged from in length used radiocarbon dating of crystals within the lenses of their eyes to determine their approximate ages. The oldest of the animals sampled, which was also the largest, had lived for 392 ± 120 years, and was consequently born between 1504 and 1744. The authors further concluded that the species reaches sexual maturity at about 150 years of age. Efforts to conserve Greenland sharks are particularly important due to their extreme longevity, long maturation periods, and the heightened sensitivity of large shark populations.


title: Greenland shark

text: As recently as 1957, females were found not to deposit eggs in the bottom mud, but retain the developing embryos within their bodies so they are born alive (a process known as ovoviviparity) after an estimated gestation period of 8–18 years. About ten pups per litter is normal, each initially measuring some in length. Within a Greenland shark's uterus, villi serve a key function in supplying oxygen to embryos. It is speculated that due to embryonic metabolism dealing with reproduction, this only allows for a limited litter size of around 10 pups. It has been estimated that due to their extreme longevity, Greenland sharks can have 200 to 700 pups during their lifetime.


title: Greenland shark

text: Like other elasmobranchii, Greenland sharks have high concentrations of the two nitrogenous compounds urea and trimethylamine "N"-oxide (TMAO) in their tissues, which increase their buoyancy and function as osmoprotectants. TMAO also counteracts the protein-destabilizing tendencies of urea and of deep-water pressure. Its presence in the tissues of both elasmobranch and teleost fish has been found to increase with depth.


title: Greenland shark

text: The blood of Greenland sharks contains three major types of hemoglobin, made up of two copies of  globin combined with two copies of three very similar  subunits. These three types show very similar oxygenation and carbonylation properties, which are unaffected by urea, an important compound in marine elasmobranch physiology. They display identical electronic absorption and resonance Raman spectra, indicating that their heme-pocket structures are identical or highly similar. The hemoglobins also have a lower affinity for O compared to temperate sharks. These characteristics are interpreted as adaptations to living at great water depths.


title: Greenland shark

text: The flesh of the Greenland shark is toxic because of the presence of high concentrations of trimethylamine oxide (TMAO). If the meat is eaten without pretreatment, the ingested TMAO is metabolized into trimethylamine, which may be a uremic toxin. Occasionally, sled dogs that eat the flesh are unable to stand up because of this effect. Similar toxic effects occur with the related Pacific sleeper shark, but not in most other shark species.


title: Greenland shark

text: The meat can be treated for safe consumption by boiling in several changes of water, drying, or fermenting for several months to produce "kæstur hákarl". Traditionally, this is done by burying the meat in boreal ground for 6–8 weeks, which presses the TMAO out of the meat and also results in partial fermentation. The meat is then dug up and hung up in strips to dry for several more months. It is considered a delicacy in Iceland.


title: Greenland shark

text: The Greenland shark's poisonous flesh has a high urea content, which gave rise to the Inuit legend of Skalugsuak, the first Greenland shark. The legend says that an old woman washed her hair in urine (a common practice to kill head lice) and dried it with a cloth. The cloth blew into the ocean to become Skalugsuak. Another legend tells of Sedna whose father cut off her fingers while drowning her, with each finger turning into a sea creature, including Skalugsuak.


title: Greenland shark

text: The Greenland shark plays a role in cosmologies of the Inuit from the Canadian Eastern Arctic and Greenland. Igloolik Inuit believe that the shark lives within the urine pot of Sedna, goddess of the sea, and consequently its flesh has a urine-like smell, and acts as a helping spirit to shamans.


title: Greenland shark

text: As both scavengers and active predators, Greenland sharks have established themselves as apex predators in Arctic ecosystems. They eat a wide variety of fish, seals, and other prey within these ecosystems and have an important role in the intricate food web.


title: Greenland shark

text: Greenland sharks are recognized as the longest-lived vertebrates on earth. They have a slow growth rate, late maturity period, and low fecundity, making the management and conservation of this species very important. As a result of their low productivity and extreme longevity, this species is particularly susceptible to overfishing. Therefore, Greenland sharks' longevity and conservative life history traits, in tandem with their vulnerability to accidental catching and commercial fishing, promotes a growing concern for the sustainability of this species.


title: Greenland shark

text: The shark has historically been targeted for its liver oil up until the development of synthetic oils and cessation of export of liver oil and skin from Greenland in the 1960s. In the 1970s, the species was perceived as a problem for other fisheries in western Norway and the government subsidized a fishery in order to reduce the stock of the species. Approximately 3,500 individuals are taken as bycatch each year in the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean and Barents Sea. More than 1,000 individuals are caught annually from Arctic waters south to USA waters. Annual catch of Greenland shark from the Barents Sea was estimated to be around 1,200 individuals per year.


title: Greenland shark

text: The shark is also likely affected by anthropogenic climate change, which is affecting the quantity, dynamics, and distribution of Arctic sea ice. The rate of projected loss of sea ice will continue to negatively influence the abundance, distribution and availability of prey, while, at the same time, providing greater access for fishing fleets. Further, there is greater potential for new fisheries to develop as more productive and abundant southerly species invade the warming Arctic waters.


title: Song Kang

text: Song Kang (; born April 23, 1994) is a South Korean actor. His notable lead roles in television series include "Love Alarm" (2019–21)", Sweet Home" (2020), "Navillera" (2021), "Nevertheless" (2021), and "Forecasting Love and Weather" (2022). He is popularly known as the "Son of Netflix" because most of his series are aired on the platform.


title: Song Kang

text: Kang made his acting debut with a supporting role in the 2017 romantic comedy television series "The Liar and His Lover". The same year, he was cast in the family drama "Man in the Kitchen". He also appeared in two music videos: "Sweet Summer Night" by acoustic duo The Ade and "Love Story" by Suran. On July 8, 2017, his agency Namoo Actors organised a fan meeting – "Introduction to Rookies" for Kang alongside Oh Seung-hoon and Lee Yoo-jin.


title: Song Kang

text: Kang hosted the SBS music program "Inkigayo" from February to October 2018 along with Seventeen's Mingyu and DIA's Jung Chae-yeon. He also joined as a fixed cast member on the variety show "Village Survival, the Eight". For the two works, he was nominated for the "Rookie Award" at the 2018 SBS Entertainment Awards. In July 2018, Song marked his big-screen debut with the fantasy film "Beautiful Vampire".


title: Song Kang

text: In 2019, Kang played the supporting role of Jung Kyung-ho's assistant in tvN fantasy melodrama "When the Devil Calls Your Name". He next starred in the Netflix original romantic series "Love Alarm", based on the popular webtoon of the same name. Kang was cast in his first main role through auditions out of 900 people; he played the role of a handsome high-school student who falls in love with a girl (Kim So-hyun) who was his best friend's secret crush. "Love Alarm" was ranked as one of Netflix's top releases of the year and was renewed for a second season. His final appearance that year was in the music video of Vibe's "Call Me Back".


title: Song Kang

text: Kang was propelled to stardom in 2020 when he starred in apocalyptic horror Netflix original "Sweet Home", based on the eponymous webtoon. He was auditioned for the cast on the recommendation of "Love Alarm" director to the director of "Sweet Home", Lee Eung-bok. His role was Cha Hyun-su, a suicidal high school boy who, along with a group of fellow apartment residents, tries to survive a "monsterization" apocalypse. Critical responses of the series were mixed, but gathered a wide international audience. One month after the release of the series, "Variety" revealed that it had been viewed by 22 million member households of Netflix. At the 57th Baeksang Arts Awards Kang received a nomination for Best New Actor – Television.


title: Song Kang

text: In 2021, he reprised his role as Hwang Sun-oh in the second season of "Love Alarm" which was released on Netflix on March 12. He next appeared in the tvN series "Navillera", adapted from the eponymous webtoon. He played a ballet student who struggles due to unresolved issues about his father and tries to support himself by working as a part-timer. Kang took ballet lessons for six months in order to portray his character. Later the same year, Kang starred in another webtoon adaption "Nevertheless", JTBC's romance drama, alongside Han So-hee.


title: Song Kang

text: In terms of viewership record, the year 2021 is considered a success for Kang as "Sweet Home", "Love Alarm" and "Nevertheless" managed to rank as 5th, 6th, and 8th most watched K-dramas in Netflix worldwide, respectively.


title: Song Kang

text: In 2022, Kang starred in another JTBC drama, "Forecasting Love and Weather", alongside Park Min-young. On March 4, 2022, Kang held a fan meeting to communicate with fans around the world in real time via 'The Swoon', a YouTube channel dedicated to South Korea. In May, it was reported that Kang will hold a fan meeting on June 12, 2022 at the YES24 Live Hall.in November Song has confirmed that the "2023 Song Kang Asia Fan Meeting Tour" will take place in six countries, starting with Seoul, followed by Tokyo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bangkok, which will take place sometime in 2023.


title: Toby Stephens

text: Toby Stephens (born 21 April 1969) is an English actor who has appeared in films in the UK, US and India. He is known for the roles of Bond villain Gustav Graves in the 2002 James Bond film "Die Another Day" (for which he was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor), of William Gordon in the 2005 "" film, Edward Fairfax Rochester in a BBC television adaptation of "Jane Eyre" and as Captain Flint in the Starz television series "Black Sails". Stephens was one of the leads in the Netflix science fiction series "Lost in Space", which began streaming in 2018.


title: Toby Stephens

text: Stephens, the younger son of actors Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Robert Stephens, was born on 21 April 1969 at the Middlesex Hospital in Fitzrovia, London. He was educated at Aldro School and Seaford College. He then trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).


title: Toby Stephens

text: Stephens began his film career with the role of Othello in 1992, in Sally Potter's "Orlando". He has since made regular appearances on television (including in "The Camomile Lawn", 1992) and on stage.


title: Toby Stephens

text: He played the title role in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of "Coriolanus" shortly after graduation from LAMDA; that same season he played Claudio in "Measure for Measure" for the RSC. He played Stanley Kowalski in a West End production of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire", and "Hamlet" in 2004. He has appeared on Broadway in "Ring Round the Moon". He played the lead in the film "Photographing Fairies" and played Orsino in Trevor Nunn's 1996 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night". In 2002 he took on the role of Gustav Graves in the James Bond film "Die Another Day". Aged 33 at the time of film's release, he remains the youngest actor to have played a Bond villain.


title: Toby Stephens

text: In 2005 he played the role of a British Army captain in the Indian film, "", portraying events in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The following year he returned to India to play a renegade British East India Company officer in "Sharpe's Challenge". In late 2006 he starred as Edward Rochester in the highly acclaimed BBC television adaptation of "Jane Eyre" (broadcast in the United States on PBS in early 2007) and "The Wild West" in February 2007 for the BBC in which he played General George Armstrong Custer in "Custer's Last Stand".


title: Toby Stephens

text: During mid-2007, Stephens played the role of Jerry in a revival of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal" under the direction of Roger Michell. Later that year, Stephens starred as Horner in Jonathan Kent's revival of William Wycherley's "The Country Wife". The play was the inaugural production of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company.


title: Toby Stephens

text: In February 2008, the Fox Broadcasting Company gave the go-ahead to cast Stephens as the lead in a potential one hour, prime time US television show, "Inseparable", to be produced by Shaun Cassidy. Billed as a modern Jekyll and Hyde story, the show was to feature a partially paralysed forensic psychologist whose other personality is a charming criminal. Stephens' casting was highly unusual, because Fox had not yet approved a script nor purchased a pilot for the show. However, in mid-May 2008, "The Hollywood Reporter" announced that "[b]y the time the network picked up the pilot (...) [the producers'] hold on Stephens had expired (...)"


title: Toby Stephens

text: In May 2008, Stephens performed the role of James Bond in a BBC Radio 4 production of Ian Fleming's "Dr. No", as part of the centenary celebration of Fleming's birth. The production was reportedly the first BBC radio dramatisation of the novel though "Moonraker" was on South African radio in 1956, with Bob Holness providing the voice of Bond. He has since appeared in a number of adaptations of other James Bond novels.


title: Toby Stephens

text: Also in May 2008, Stock-pot Productions announced that Stephens will have the lead role in a feature-length film entitled "Fly Me", co-starring Tim McInnerny. Stock-pot was the producer of "One Day", a short 2006 film shown at international film festivals, in which Stephens played a small part as the boss of McInnerny's character.


title: Toby Stephens

text: On 5 October 2008, Stephens appeared onstage at the London Palladium as part of a benefit entitled "The Story of James Bond, A Tribute to Ian Fleming". The event, organised by Fleming's niece, Lucy Fleming, featured music from various James Bond films and Bond film stars reading from Fleming's Bond novels. Stephens took the part of James Bond himself in the readings.


title: Toby Stephens

text: In early December 2008, Stephens read from "Coda", the last book written by friend Simon Gray, for BBC Radio 4. The excerpts from which Stephens read included Gray's description of his participation as godfather at the christening of Stephens' son Eli.


title: Toby Stephens

text: Early in 2009, Stephens appeared as Prince John in season 3 of the BBC series "Robin Hood". The series aired on BBC America in the United States. Stephens appeared in two episodes of a six-part television series, "Strike Back", based on the novel by Chris Ryan. The series aired in May 2010.


title: Toby Stephens

text: In mid-2009, Stephens returned to the London stage in the Donmar Warehouse production of Ibsen's "A Doll's House" alongside Gillian Anderson and Christopher Eccleston.


title: Toby Stephens

text: In 2010, he starred in the made-for-television film "The Blue Geranium", a further sequel to the television series and films based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple character. The show was broadcast in the US on PBS in June 2010. Stephens starred as a highly self-centred detective opposite Lucy Punch in a three-part comedy television series for BBC Two entitled "Vexed".


title: Toby Stephens

text: Stephens took on a small supporting role in a short film, "The Lost Explorer", the directorial debut of photographer Tim Walker. The film is based on a short story by author Patrick McGrath.


title: Toby Stephens

text: On the London stage in the spring of 2010, Stephens received outstanding reviews for his performance as Henry in a revival of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing", directed by Anna Mackmin at the Old Vic Theatre in London. Of debuting at the Old Vic, where his parents performed as part of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre Company, Stephens said: "It's quite moving for me to do something there. It means it has an added fascination. It was an historic place but I never saw anything when [my parents] were there, which is really sad, because I was just born. I'm a huge admirer of Stoppard's work."


title: Toby Stephens

text: In 2010, Stephens appeared as Georges Danton in "Danton's Death". The play was another debut for Stephens, this time at London's Royal National Theatre.


title: Toby Stephens

text: Over the years, Stephens has continued to prolifically narrate audiobooks and perform in broadcast radio dramas. In January 2011, Stephens joined other stars in narrating portions of the King James Version of the Bible for BBC Radio 4 as part of a celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Bible's publication. Stephens performed the role of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in a radio serial, which debuted in February 2011. Stephens narrated another audiobook, "Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery", released in February 2011.


title: Toby Stephens

text: From 2014 to 2017, Stephens starred as Captain James Flint in the Starz television series "Black Sails", a prequel to "Treasure Island" set in the early 18th century during the Golden Age of Piracy.


title: Toby Stephens

text: Between 2018 and 2021, he appeared as John Robinson in "Lost in Space", the Netflix remake of the 1965 TV series. In 2021, he featured as Damian Cray in the second season of "Alex Rider".


title: Toby Stephens

text: Stephens and New Zealand actress Anna-Louise Plowman were married in 2001. Their first child, son Eli Alistair, was born in May 2007. The British playwright Simon Gray (who penned "Japes", a stage play, and "Missing Dates", a radio drama, both of which starred Stephens) was reported to be Eli's godfather. Their daughters Tallulah and Kura were born in May 2009 and in September 2010, respectively.


title: Toby Stephens

text: Plowman and Stephens performed together as Sibyl and Elyot in Jonathan Kent's revival of "Private Lives" —the Noel Coward play in which his mother starred in 1975 on Broadway—for the 2012 Chichester Festival, reprised at the Gielgud Theatre in 2013.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef Jr. (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989) was an American actor. He appeared in over 170 film and television roles in a career spanning nearly 40 years, but is best known as a star of Italian Spaghetti Westerns, particularly the Sergio Leone-directed "Dollars Trilogy" films "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966).


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Born and raised in New Jersey, Van Cleef served in the United States Navy during World War II aboard a minesweeper, earning a Bronze Star for his actions. After acting on stage in regional theatre, he made his film debut in the Oscar-winning Western "High Noon" (1952) in a non-speaking outlaw cast role. With distinctive, angular features and a taciturn screen persona, Van Cleef was typecast as minor villain and supporting player in Westerns and crime dramas. After suffering serious injuries in a car crash, Van Cleef's acting career started to decline. However, he achieved unexpected stardom when director Sergio Leone offered him the co-leading role in "For a Few Dollars More". The film proved to be a huge hit and cited him as a box-office draw, largely in Europe.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Van Cleef went on to appear in such films as Leone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), "Death Rides a Horse" (1967), "Day of Anger" (also 1967), "Sabata" (1969) and its sequel "Return of Sabata" (1971), "El Condor" (1970), "The Magnificent Seven Ride!" (1972), "Mean Frank and Crazy Tony" (1973), "Take a Hard Ride" (1975), "The Octagon" (1980), "Escape from New York" (1981) and "Speed Zone" (1989). He also played the lead role of John Peter McAllister on the martial arts television series "The Master" (1984).


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Lee Van Cleef was born on January 9, 1925, in Somerville, New Jersey, to Marion Lavinia Van Fleet and Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef. Lee graduated high school early at the age of 17 from Somerville High School New Jersey in order to enlist in the United States Navy in September 1942.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: After completing his military training, Van Cleef was assigned to a submarine chaser and then to a minesweeper called the , on which he worked as a sonarman.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: The ship initially patrolled the Caribbean, then moved to the Mediterranean, participating in the landings in southern France. In January 1945, "Incredible" moved to the Black Sea, and performed sweeping duties out of the Soviet Navy base at Sevastopol, Crimea. Afterwards, the ship performed air-sea rescue patrols in the Black Sea before returning to Palermo, Sicily.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: By the time of his discharge in March 1946, he had achieved the rank of Sonarman First Class (SO1) and had earned his mine sweeper patch. He also had been awarded the Bronze Star and the Good Conduct Medal. By virtue of his deployments, Van Cleef also qualified for the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. He was discharged from the Navy in 1946.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: After leaving the Navy, Van Cleef received his first acting role as a reader for the play "Our Town" at the Little Theater Group in Clinton, New Jersey. From there, he continued to meet with the group and audition for parts. The next biggest part was that of the boxer, Joe Pendleton, in the play "Heaven Can Wait". During this time, he was observed by visiting talent scouts, who were impressed by Van Cleef's stage presence and delivery. One of these scouts later took him to New York City talent agent Maynard Morris of the MCA agency, who then sent him to the Alvin Theater for an audition. The play was "Mister Roberts".


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Van Cleef's screen debut came in "High Noon". During a performance of "Mister Roberts" in Los Angeles, he was noticed by film producer Stanley Kramer, who offered Van Cleef a role in his upcoming film. Kramer originally wanted Van Cleef for the role of the deputy Harvey Pell, but as he wanted Van Cleef to have his "distinctive nose" fixed, Van Cleef declined the role in favor of the part of the silent gunslinger Jack Colby. He was then cast mostly in villainous roles, due to his sharp cheeks and chin, piercing eyes, and hawk-like nose, from the part of Tony Romano in "Kansas City Confidential" (1952), culminating 14 years later in Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966).


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Aside from Westerns and the science fiction films, three of his early major roles were in noir films, "Kansas City Confidential" (1952), "Vice Squad" (1953) and "The Big Combo" (1955).


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: In 1952, he made his television debut when he was cast in the episode "Formula for Fear" of the Western aviation series "Sky King". Van Cleef appeared six times between 1953 and 1955 on the children's syndicated Western series "The Adventures of Kit Carson", starring Bill Williams. He was cast three times, including the role of Rocky Hatch in the episode "Greed Rides the Range" (1952), of another syndicated Western series, "The Range Rider". He appeared in episode 82 of the TV series "The Lone Ranger" in 1952. In 1954, Van Cleef appeared as Jesse James in the syndicated series "Stories of the Century".


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: In 1955, he was cast twice on another syndicated Western series, "Annie Oakley". That same year, he guest-starred on the CBS Western series "Brave Eagle". In 1955, he played one of the two villains in an episode of "The Adventures of Champion" the Wonder Horse. He played Cherokee Bob in the NBC Western series "Tales of Wells Fargo" in 1957. In 1958, he was cast as Ed Murdock, a rodeo performer trying to reclaim the title in the event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, on "Richard Diamond, Private Detective".


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Van Cleef played different characters on four episodes of ABC's "The Rifleman", with Chuck Connors, between 1959 and 1962, and twice on ABC's "Tombstone Territory". In 1958, he was cast as Deputy Sid Carver in the episode "The Great Stagecoach Robbery" of another syndicated Western series, "Frontier Doctor", starring Rex Allen. In 1959, Van Cleef appeared as Luke Clagg in the episode "Strange Request" of the NBC Western series "Riverboat" starring Darren McGavin, as Jumbo Kane in the episode "The Hostage" on the CBS Western series "Wanted Dead or Alive" starring Steve McQueen, and in an episode of "Maverick" titled "Red Dog" in 1961 starring Roger Moore and John Carradine.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Van Cleef played a sentry on an episode of the ABC sitcom "The Real McCoys", with Walter Brennan. Van Cleef was cast with Pippa Scott and again with Chuck Connors in the 1960 episode "Trial by Fear" of the CBS anthology series "The DuPont Show with June Allyson". A young Van Cleef also made an appearance on "The Andy Griffith Show" and as Frank Diamond in "The Untouchables", in an episode entitled "The Unhired Assassin". He also appeared in an episode of the ABC/Warner Brothers Western series "The Alaskans".


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Van Cleef guest-starred on the CBS Western series "Have Gun – Will Travel", on the ABC/Warner Bros. series "Colt .45", on the NBC Western series "Cimarron City" and "Laramie", and on Rod Cameron's syndicated crime dramas "City Detective" and "State Trooper". He guest-starred in an episode of John Bromfield's syndicated crime drama "Sheriff of Cochise". Van Cleef starred as minor villains and henchmen in various Westerns, including "The Tin Star" and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral". His film characters died in many of his Westerns and gangster portrayals.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: In 1960, he appeared as a villainous swindler in the "Bonanza" episode, "The Bloodline" (December 31, 1960) and also made an appearance on "Gunsmoke". In 1961, he played a role on episode 7 ("The Grave") of the third season of "The Twilight Zone" starring Lee Marvin. He played a villainous henchman of Lee Marvin's titular character in the 1962 John Ford movie "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" starring John Wayne and James Stewart. In 1963, he appeared on "Perry Mason" (episode: "The Case of the Golden Oranges"). That same year, he appeared in "The Day of the Misfits" on "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters".


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: In 1965, Sergio Leone cast Van Cleef, whose career had yet to take off, as a main protagonist alongside Clint Eastwood in "For a Few Dollars More". Leone then chose Van Cleef to appear again with Eastwood, this time as the primary antagonist, Angel Eyes, in the now seminal Western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966).


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: With his roles in Leone's films, Van Cleef became a major star of Spaghetti Westerns, playing central, and often surprisingly heroic, roles in films such as "The Big Gundown" (1966), "Death Rides a Horse" (1967), "Day of Anger" (1967), and "The Grand Duel" (1972). He played the title role in "Sabata" (1969) and "Return of Sabata" (1971), and co-starred with Jim Brown in an Italian-American co-production, "Take a Hard Ride" (1975). In two of his final westerns he co-starred with Leif Garrett in "God's Gun" (1976) and "Kid Vengeance" (1977), both of which were filmed mainly in Israel.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Van Cleef later had a supporting role in John Carpenter's cult film "Escape from New York" (1981). He slipped out of the limelight in his later years. In 1984, he was cast as a ninja master in the NBC adventure series "The Master", but it was canceled after thirteen episodes. In all, Van Cleef is credited with 90 movie roles and 109 television appearances over a 38-year span.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Van Cleef was married three times. His first marriage was to Patsy Ruth Kahle, in 1943. They had three children, Alan, Deborah and David, and divorced in 1958. His second marriage was to Joan Marjorie Drane, from 1960 to 1974. His final marriage was to Barbara Havelone in 1976, who survived him.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: He lost the last joint of the middle finger of his right hand while building a playhouse for his daughter.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: In 1958, a severe car crash nearly cost Van Cleef his life and career. A resulting knee injury made his physicians think that he would never ride a horse again. This injury plagued Van Cleef for the rest of his life and caused him great pain. His recovery was long and difficult and halted his acting for a time. He then began a business in interior decoration with second wife Joan, as well as pursuing his talent for painting, primarily of sea and landscapes.


title: Lee Van Cleef

text: Despite suffering from heart disease from the late 1970s and having a pacemaker installed in the early 1980s, Van Cleef continued to work in films until his death on December 16, 1989, at age 64. He collapsed in his home in Oxnard, California, from a heart attack. Throat cancer was listed as a secondary cause of death. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Hollywood Hills, California, with an inscription on his grave marker referring to his many acting performances as a villain: "BEST OF THE BAD".


title: Evil Dead

text: Evil Dead is an American horror film franchise created by Sam Raimi consisting of four feature films and a television series. The series revolves around the "Necronomicon Ex-Mortis", an ancient Sumerian text that wreaks havoc upon a group of cabin inhabitants in a wooded area in Tennessee.


title: Evil Dead

text: The protagonist, Ashley Joanna "Ash" Williams (Bruce Campbell), is the only character to appear in every installment of the original trilogy, with the notable exception of his main love interest, Linda, who appears in "Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness" during only the prologues. The original trilogy includes "The Evil Dead" (1981), "Evil Dead II" (1987), and "Army of Darkness" (1992), all written and directed by Raimi, produced by Robert G. Tapert, and starring Campbell. The franchise has since expanded into other formats, including video games, comic books, a musical, and a television series.


title: Evil Dead

text: The franchise was resurrected in 2013 with "Evil Dead", both a reboot and a loose continuation of the series directed by Fede Álvarez, who cowrote the screenplay with Rodo Sayagues. It was produced by Raimi, Campbell, and Tapert. A TV series called "Ash vs Evil Dead" premiered on cable network Starz in 2015, lasted for three seasons, and ended in 2018, with Campbell announcing an animated revival to be in active development in July 2022. It starred Bruce Campbell as Ash and was executive produced by Campbell, Sam Raimi, and Rob Tapert.


title: Evil Dead

text: A new film in the franchise, titled "Evil Dead Rise", is set to be theatrically released on April 21, 2023, with Lee Cronin serving as writer and director, Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan starring, and Tapert, Campbell, and Raimi serving as producers.


title: Evil Dead

text: Filmed in 1979 and released in 1981, this is the first film in the series. It introduces the series' protagonist Ash, the Book of the Dead, and the Deadites.


title: Evil Dead

text: Released in 1987, this film is a sequel to the original, continuing where the last film ended (a recap of the previous film is shown in the beginning). This entry shows the horrors of Ash's continuing battle with the "Necronomicon Ex-Mortis" and the Deadites. It also introduces elements of slapstick humor that came to define the series.


title: Evil Dead

text: Filmed in 1991 and released in spring of 1993 in the United States, this is the third film in the franchise (and the last featuring Ash Williams taking a lead role so far), taking Ash back in time to England in 1300 AD. The movie has horror attributes, but is based mainly on slapstick and action.


title: Evil Dead

text: "Evil Dead" is the title of a film that serves as a soft reboot and a continuation of the "Evil Dead" franchise. Unlike the first three films, this one does not feature the character of Ash Williams in a major role (Ash only appears briefly in a post-credits scene) and instead follows a new protagonist named Mia Allen. The film is considered a continuation of the franchise, and plans to feature both Ash and Mia in future installments have been discussed.


title: Evil Dead

text: At the premiere event for "Evil Dead" (2013), Álvarez announced that a sequel is in development, though he did not intend to be involved with the project. At the 2013 WonderCon, Campbell stated that plans at that time for future films in the franchise concurrently included both a sequel to Álvarez's film and a direct sequel to the original trilogy of films, with a planned crossover film including Ash and Mia to be developed thereafter. In October of the same year, Álvarez later suggested that he was involved with the follow-up to his movie.


title: Evil Dead

text: In March 2017, Raimi announced that he was writing another "Evil Dead" film with his brother, titled "Army of Darkness 2". In October 2018, Campbell was slated to reprise his role as Ash, while Raimi later signed onto the project to additionally serve as director. In September 2017 at the Fan Expo Canada, Campbell stated that he believed the future success for the franchise was through a premium cable network, referencing "Ash vs. Evil Dead" on Starz as an example. By November of the same year, Campbell expressed additional doubts in a sequel to the original trilogy materializing.


title: Evil Dead

text: In July 2019, Sam Raimi discussed the future of the "Evil Dead" franchise stating that he was working on "ideas", while expressing hopes that Bruce Campbell would return for a continuation; while acknowledging continued potential for a sequel to the 2013 film, stating that news would follow within the next six months. By October of the same year Raimi announced at the New York Comic Con, that a new film is officially green-lit and in development, stating that Bruce Campbell will serve as a producer instead of starring in the movie. In June 2020, Lee Cronin was chosen as a director with a script he wrote. Raimi chose the filmmaker from a list of potential directors, to continue the franchise. Officially titled "Evil Dead Rise", the project was announced to be developed by New Line Cinema and released on HBO Max. Principal photography commenced on June 6, 2021, in New Zealand. In May 2021, Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan had been cast in the film, followed by Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, and Nell Fisher in June and Mia Challis in July. Cronin stated the production was half-way completed by July 2021, while filming concluded on October 27, 2021. The filmmaker stated that the project used over 6,500 liters of fake blood during production. "Evil Dead Rise" is scheduled to be released on April 21, 2023.


title: Evil Dead

text: A prototype short film, produced by Raimi on a micro-budget was developed to market his concept and acquire funding from producers and studios for a feature-length film. Titled, "Within the Woods", the short was a meager success. Despite this, the release proceeded to spawn an entire franchise.


title: Evil Dead

text: In January 1978, Bruce Campbell was a college dropout who had just quit his job as a taxicab driver. Sam Raimi was studying literature at Michigan State University with Robert Tapert, who was finishing his economics degree. While putting the finishing touches on "It's Murder!", Tapert suggested doing a feature-length film to Raimi. Raimi felt it impossible, stating that they could never acquire the funding. Campbell declared: "I could always move back home." Tapert feared a career in fisheries/wildlife while Raimi was afraid that he would have to go back to work at his dad's home furnishing store. These were the practical reasons that convinced the three to put forth a feature-length film. The three were big fans of the comedy genre, but they decided not to produce a comedy as they felt "a feature-length yuck fest just didn't compute". A well-noted scene from "It's Murder" moved Raimi to write the short film "Clockwork". The three felt the result was very effective and represented a new direction that their films could take, that of a semi-successful horror film.


title: Evil Dead

text: This would later lead to research of low-budget horror films at the local drive-in theater. The many films that they watched were the "two films for two dollars," allowing them the chance to document the behavior of what would become their target audience. Campbell said, "The message was very clear: Keep the pace fast and furious, and once the horror starts, never let up. 'The gorier the merrier' became our prime directive." Films they watched included "Massacre at Central High" and "Revenge of the Cheerleaders". The idea to do a "prototype" was commissioned, to prove not only to themselves, but also to potential investors, that they were capable of doing a full-length horror film. The same year, at Michigan State, Raimi had been studying H. P. Lovecraft and was most impressed with "Necronomicon", or simply "The Book of the Dead". From these rough concepts, he concocted a short story where a group of four friends unwittingly dig up an Indian burial ground and unleash horrific spirits and demons. In the spring of 1978, filming of "Within the Woods" started over a three-day weekend, on a budget of $1,600.


title: Evil Dead

text: "Within the Woods", as well as serving as a prototype, had impressed the filmmakers. For a marketing strategy, a screening was arranged at their former high school, with a positive response.


title: Evil Dead

text: Filming was first commissioned for the summer of 1979 in Michigan. In order to organize the budget, Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell bought a few "how to make an independent film" guide publications. The budget was originally centered on $150,000 while shooting with a Super 8 camera. However, due to technical difficulties, it was decided to move it up to 16 mm format, as they wanted to film the project in the style of the many low-budget films at the time that had come out in the 1970s. Since they had little experience in the film industry, the three felt they should buy business suits and briefcases as a means to convince investors that they "had all the answers." A man named Andy Grainger, who was a friend of Tapert and owner of a series of movie theaters, was the first primary investor. He stated, "Fellas, no matter what, just keep the blood running." As a tribute to him, there's a scene in the finished film where an old film projector whirs to life and "projects" blood running down the screen.


title: Evil Dead

text: Most importantly, Grainger provided the name of a distributor in New York City whom they could approach for possible distribution. The company was Levitt-Pickman Films, who most recently was famous for "Groove Tube", starring a very young Chevy Chase. The filmmakers took a train at $40 each, as they knew none of their cars could make an entire round trip road trip. One of Campbell's old girlfriends named Andrea allowed them to stay at her apartment. Andrea's cat fell asleep on Raimi's face without even disturbing him, and Raimi, who is allergic to cats, had his eyes swollen shut.


title: Evil Dead

text: The series stars Bruce Campbell reprising his role as an older Ash Williams with a supporting cast that includes Dana DeLorenzo, Ray Santiago, Lucy Lawless, and Jill Marie Jones. The series is executive produced by Campbell, Sam Raimi, and Rob Tapert. It premiered on Starz on October 31, 2015.


title: Evil Dead

text: "Ash vs Evil Dead" proved to be a critically well-received television show, earning a 98% from Rotten Tomatoes. Four days before its premiere, the show was picked up for a second 10-episode season. The series lasted for three seasons (30 episodes) before it was canceled by Starz in April 2018. Following the series' cancellation, Bruce Campbell announced he was officially retired from portraying the character of Ash, although he would continue to voice the character in animation. Subsequently, on July 25, 2022, Campbell announced that an animated revival of "Ash vs Evil Dead" was in active development, with Campbell returning as the voice of Ash.


title: Evil Dead

text: Ash Williams also appears as a playable character, along with Kelly and Pablo from the "Ash vs. Evil Dead" TV series, in "Deploy and Destroy", a competitive multiplayer FPS available for iOS and Android, and also as a non-playable character in Telltale Games' game "Poker Night 2". He also appears as a playable character in the asymmetrical horror game "Dead by Daylight".


title: Evil Dead

text: In 1992, Dark Horse Comics produced a mini-series adaptation of "Army of Darkness" adapted and illustrated by John Bolton. A trade paperback of this series was released by Dynamite Entertainment on September 25, 2006.


title: Evil Dead

text: In 2008, Dark Horse revisited the franchise with a four issue adaptation of "The Evil Dead" written by Mark Verheiden and once again illustrated by John Bolton.


title: Evil Dead

text: In 2004, Dynamite Entertainment acquired the license to publish titles based on "Army of Darkness" and, in conjunction with Devil's Due Publishing, released the "Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes" mini-series. A second mini-series, "Army of Darkness: Shop till You Drop Dead" followed in 2005. Later that year, Dynamite separated itself from Devil's Due and began focusing entirely on self-published titles featuring the "Army of Darkness" franchise. This included an ongoing series that began in 2005 and saw Ash battling other horror icon such as Herbert West and Dracula. The series lasted thirteen issues before being rebooted with a second volume in 2007. The second series lasted twenty-seven issues before coming to an end. Over the years, there have also been several one-shot specials as well as crossovers with a wide variety of characters such as, Marvel Zombies, Darkman, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Xena, Danger Girl and even Barack Obama. The series was then rebooted in 2013 and started over from the last scene in Army Of Darkness the film, because Ash mispoke the words S-Mart was sent back in time to the Medieval times where the wiseman has been possessed, Ash fights through many battles with the same characters from the film. At the end of this series Ash proposes to Sheila, in the next series "Ash gets hitched" they get married but Ash gets sent forward in time when he accidentally speaks a phrase that opens up a vortex. He wants to get back to Sheila but runs into many situations causing delays, he is currently in space fighting the evil.


title: Evil Dead

text: In 2015, Space Goat Productions acquired the license to publish titles based on "Evil Dead 2". The company has released, or was planning on releasing, the following titles:


title: Evil Dead

text: The official board game was funded through Kickstarter in 2018, but Space Goat Productions never produced the game, nor refunded money to the investors. They ceased all communications with customers and investors that year and refused to discuss the game with media.


title: Evil Dead

text: In the documentary "The Untold Saga of The Evil Dead" Rob Tapert states that New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures wanted to do "Ash vs. Freddy vs. Jason": "We thought about it for one second but we knew we would have totally trashed the franchise in doing that, in that there would be no reason to reunite Bruce and Sam for "Evil Dead 4" whatever that would be nor would there be any reason to go back and reinvent the original "Evil Dead" with a hot new filmmaker". Two comic book series were produced based on this concept, titled "Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash", and "".


title: Evil Dead

text: The production team of George Reinblatt, Christopher Bond and Frank Cipolla created an Off Broadway show titled "Evil Dead: The Musical", based on the film series. Its New York run was directed by Bond and Hinton Battle, who also choreographed the show. Ryan Ward played the part of Ash. Tying in with the midnight movie plot of a group of friends visiting a wooded cabin and unleashing untold evil, performances did not start until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Previews began October 1 and the show opened November 1 at the New World Stages. It was announced on January 31, 2007, that "Evil Dead: The Musical"'s New York production at New World Stages would close on February 17, 2007. Toronto producers announced a new Toronto production of the show, also starring Ryan Ward, at the Diesel Playhouse. The new production started its running May 1, 2007, and has been announced to end on September 8, 2007, which won the Dora Audience Choice Award and praised by the "Toronto Star".


title: Evil Dead

text: In 2017, the English comedian Rob Kemp created and performed the stage show "The Elvis Dead", a retelling of Evil Dead II in the style of Elvis Presley.


title: Evil Dead

text: In Italy, "The Evil Dead" was released under the title "La Casa" (""The House"") and "Evil Dead II" became "La Casa II". These were followed by three unrelated movies: Umberto Lenzi's "La Casa 3" (a.k.a. "Ghosthouse") (1988), Fabrizio Laurenti's "La Casa 4" (a.k.a. "Witchery") (1988) and Claudio Fragasso's "La Casa 5" (a.k.a. "Beyond Darkness") (1990). This is similar to what has happened in George A. Romero's "Living Dead" series starting with "Zombi 2". "" (1987) and "The Horror Show" (1989) were retitled "La Casa 6" and "La Casa 7", respectively, in their Italian releases.


title: Evil Dead

text: "Evil Dead" influenced numerous directors, such as Peter Jackson and Edgar Wright, and inspired films such as "Shaun of the Dead", "The Cabin in the Woods", "Bubba Ho-Tep", "Dead Alive", "Dead Snow", "Ghosthouse", and "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil". "The Cabin in the Woods" features many references to the film and even features Deadites and the possessed trees, although this is considered more a reference than a direct sequel. In 2020, Steve Villenevue premiered the documentary "Hail to the Deadites", which focuses on the franchise's fandom and legacy. It features interviews from people involved with the film, such as Bruce Campbell, as well as with fans.


title: Evil Dead

text: The "Evil Dead" films and the character of Ash influenced 1990s first-person shooter video games such as "Doom", "Duke Nukem 3D", and "Blood". Duke Nukem quotes so many lines from Ash that Bruce Campbell stated that he was angered by not being paid for them. "Evil Dead" was cited as an inspiration for the original "Doom".


title: Evil Dead

text: Bruce Campbell directed and starred in a film titled "My Name Is Bruce". It does not continue the story of "Army of Darkness" but is a fictionalized portrayal of Bruce living his everyday life in which he is erroneously believed to be as heroic as the Ash character and is hired to fight an ancient spirit. The film was released to a limited number of theaters on October 26, 2008, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 10, 2009.


title: Evil Dead

text: Awards Pictures, a company that attempted to begin a new line of movies in the series in 2004, announced plans in May 2012 to film an "Evil Dead 4", one that has nothing to do with the original films. Because of this, Sam Raimi sued Awards Pictures in an attempt to stop them from making said film, due to his own plan to someday film one himself. In August 2012, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer entered a default judgment that "permanently enjoined" Awards Pictures from using the names "Evil Dead, Evil Dead: Genesis of the Necronomicon, Evil Dead: Genesis of the Necronomicon, Part 2" or "Evil Dead: Consequences" "as or as part of the title of a motion picture, television program, video game, play, book or any other form of entertainment provided or to be provided through any media."


title: Kingdom of France

text: The Kingdom of France (; ; ) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe since the High Middle Ages. It was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world.


title: Kingdom of France

text: France originated as West Francia ("Francia Occidentalis"), the western half of the Carolingian Empire, with the Treaty of Verdun (843). A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, when Hugh Capet was elected king and founded the Capetian dynasty. The territory remained known as "Francia" and its ruler as "rex Francorum" ("king of the Franks") well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself "rex Francie" ("King of France") was Philip II, in 1190, and officially from 1204. From then, France was continuously ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was abolished in 1792 during the French Revolution. The Kingdom of France was also ruled in personal union with the Kingdom of Navarre over two time periods, 1284–1328 and 1572–1620, after which the institutions of Navarre were abolished and it was fully annexed by France (though the King of France continued to use the title "King of Navarre" through the end of the monarchy).


title: Kingdom of France

text: France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy. In Brittany and Catalonia (now a part of Spain), as well as Aquitaine, the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France. Initially, West Frankish kings were elected by the secular and ecclesiastic magnates, but the regular coronation of the eldest son of the reigning king during his father's lifetime established the principle of male primogeniture, which became codified in the Salic law. During the Late Middle Ages, rivalry between the Capetian Dynasty, rulers of the Kingdom of France and their vassals the House of Plantagenet, who also ruled the Kingdom of England as part of their so-called competing Angevin Empire, resulted in many armed struggles. The most notorious of them all are the series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) in which the kings of England laid claim to the French throne. Emerging victorious from said conflicts, France subsequently sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain and the Holy Roman Empire in the ensuing Italian Wars (1494–1559).


title: Kingdom of France

text: France in the early modern era was increasingly centralised; the French language began to displace other languages from official use, and the monarch expanded his absolute power, albeit in an administrative system (the "Ancien Régime") complicated by historic and regional irregularities in taxation, legal, judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions, and local prerogatives. Religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion (1562–1598). The Wars of Religion crippled France, but triumph over Spain and the Habsburg monarchy in the Thirty Years' War made France the most powerful nation on the continent once more. The kingdom became Europe's dominant cultural, political and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV. In parallel, France developed its first colonial empire in Asia, Africa, and in the Americas. From the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over 10,000,000 square kilometres (3,900,000 sq mi), the second largest empire in the world at the time behind only the Spanish Empire. Colonial conflicts with Great Britain led to the loss of much of its North American holdings by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America but was costly and achieved little for France.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the other great powers in 1814 and lasted (except for the Hundred Days in 1815) until the French Revolution of 1848.


title: Kingdom of France

text: During the later years of the elderly Charlemagne's rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks. After Charlemagne's death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Charles the Bald was also crowned King of Lotharingia after the death of Lothair II in 869, but in the Treaty of Meerssen (870) was forced to cede much of Lotharingia to his brothers, retaining the Rhone and Meuse basins (including Verdun, Vienne and Besançon) but leaving the Rhineland with Aachen, Metz, and Trier in East Francia.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Viking incursions up the Loire, the Seine, and other inland waterways increased. During the reign of Charles the Simple (898–922), Normans under Rollo from Scandinavia settled along the Seine, downstream from Paris, in a region that came to be known as Normandy.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The Carolingians were to share the fate of their predecessors: after an intermittent power struggle between the two dynasties, the accession in 987 of Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, established the Capetian dynasty on the throne. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The old order left the new dynasty in immediate control of little beyond the middle Seine and adjacent territories, while powerful territorial lords such as the 10th- and 11th-century counts of Blois accumulated large domains of their own through marriage and through private arrangements with lesser nobles for protection and support.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The area around the lower Seine became a source of particular concern when Duke William took possession of the kingdom of England by the Norman Conquest of 1066, making himself and his heirs the King's equal outside France (where he was still nominally subject to the Crown).


title: Kingdom of France

text: Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married France's newly single ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who ruled much of southwest France, in 1152. After defeating a revolt led by Eleanor and three of their four sons, Henry had Eleanor imprisoned, made the Duke of Brittany his vassal, and in effect ruled the western half of France as a greater power than the French throne. However, disputes among Henry's descendants over the division of his French territories, coupled with John of England's lengthy quarrel with Philip II, allowed Philip II to recover influence over most of this territory. After the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line. Under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman (Philip IV's daughter was Isabella, whose son was Edward III of England), so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois. This, in addition to a long-standing dispute over the rights to Gascony in the south of France, and the relationship between England and the Flemish cloth towns, led to the Hundred Years' War of 1337–1453. The following century was to see devastating warfare, peasant revolts (the English peasants' revolt of 1381 and the "Jacquerie" of 1358 in France) and the growth of nationalism in both countries.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The losses of the century of war were enormous, particularly owing to the plague (the Black Death, usually considered an outbreak of bubonic plague), which arrived from Italy in 1348, spreading rapidly up the Rhone valley and thence across most of the country: it is estimated that a population of some 18–20 million in modern-day France at the time of the 1328 hearth tax returns had been reduced 150 years later by 50 percent or more.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The Renaissance era was noted for the emergence of powerful centralized institutions, as well as a flourishing culture (much of it imported from Italy). The kings built a strong fiscal system, which heightened the power of the king to raise armies that overawed the local nobility.


title: Kingdom of France

text: In Paris especially there emerged strong traditions in literature, art and music. The prevailing style was classical.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Largely the work of Chancellor Guillaume Poyet, it dealt with a number of government, judicial and ecclesiastical matters. Articles 110 and 111, the most famous, called for the use of the French language in all legal acts, notarised contracts and official legislation.


title: Kingdom of France

text: After the Hundred Years' War, Charles VIII of France signed three additional treaties with Henry VII of England, Maximilian I of Habsburg, and Ferdinand II of Aragon respectively at Étaples (1492), Senlis (1493) and in Barcelona (1493). These three treaties cleared the way for France to undertake the long Italian Wars (1494–1559), which marked the beginning of early modern France. French efforts to gain dominance resulted only in the increased power of the Habsburg house.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Barely were the Italian Wars over, when France was plunged into a domestic crisis with far-reaching consequences. Despite the conclusion of a Concordat between France and the Papacy (1516), granting the crown unrivalled power in senior ecclesiastical appointments, France was deeply affected by the Protestant Reformation's attempt to break the hegemony of Catholic Europe. A growing urban-based Protestant minority (later dubbed "Huguenots") faced ever harsher repression under the rule of Francis I's son King Henry II. After Henry II's death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine de' Medici and her sons Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. Renewed Catholic reaction headed by the powerful dukes of Guise culminated in a massacre of Huguenots (1562), starting the first of the French Wars of Religion, during which English, German, and Spanish forces intervened on the side of rival Protestant and Catholic forces. Opposed to absolute monarchy, the Huguenot Monarchomachs theorized during this time the right of rebellion and the legitimacy of tyrannicide.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The Wars of Religion culminated in the War of the Three Henrys in which Henry III assassinated Henry de Guise, leader of the Spanish-backed Catholic league, and the king was murdered in return. After the assassination of both Henry of Guise (1588) and Henry III (1589), the conflict was ended by the accession of the Protestant king of Navarre as Henry IV (first king of the Bourbon dynasty) and his subsequent abandonment of Protestantism (Expedient of 1592) effective in 1593, his acceptance by most of the Catholic establishment (1594) and by the Pope (1595), and his issue of the toleration decree known as the Edict of Nantes (1598), which guaranteed freedom of private worship and civil equality.


title: Kingdom of France

text: France's pacification under Henry IV laid much of the ground for the beginnings of France's rise to European hegemony. France was expansive during all but the end of the seventeenth century: the French began trading in India and Madagascar, founded Quebec and penetrated the North American Great Lakes and Mississippi, established plantation economies in the West Indies and extended their trade contacts in the Levant and enlarged their merchant marine.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Henry IV's son Louis XIII and his minister (1624–1642) Cardinal Richelieu, elaborated a policy against Spain and the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) which had broken out in Germany. After the death of both king and cardinal, the Peace of Westphalia (1648) secured universal acceptance of Germany's political and religious fragmentation, but the Regency of Anne of Austria and her minister Cardinal Mazarin experienced a civil uprising known as the Fronde (1648–1653) which expanded into a Franco-Spanish War (1653–59). The Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) formalised France's seizure (1642) of the Spanish territory of Roussillon after the crushing of the ephemeral Catalan Republic and ushered a short period of peace.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The "Ancien Régime", a French term rendered in English as "Old Rule", or simply "Former Regime", refers primarily to the aristocratic, social and political system of early modern France under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. The administrative and social structures of the Ancien Régime were the result of years of state-building, legislative acts (like the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts), internal conflicts and civil wars, but they remained a confusing patchwork of local privilege and historic differences until the French Revolution brought about a radical suppression of administrative incoherence.


title: Kingdom of France

text: For most of the reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715), ("The Sun King"), France was the dominant power in Europe, aided by the diplomacy of Cardinal Richelieu's successor as the King's chief minister, (1642–61) Cardinal Jules Mazarin, (1602–61). Cardinal Mazarin oversaw the creation of a French Royal Navy that rivalled England's, expanding it from 25 ships to almost 200. The size of the Army was also considerably increased. Renewed wars (the War of Devolution, 1667–68 and the Franco-Dutch War, 1672–78) brought further territorial gains (Artois and western Flanders and the free county of Burgundy, previously left to the Empire in 1482), but at the cost of the increasingly concerted opposition of rival royal powers, and a legacy of an increasingly enormous national debt. An adherent of the theory of the "Divine Right of Kings", which advocates the divine origin of temporal power and any lack of earthly restraint of monarchical rule, Louis XIV continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized state governed from the capital of Paris. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism still persisting in parts of France and, by compelling the noble elite to regularly inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, built on the outskirts of Paris, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the earlier "Fronde" rebellion during Louis' minority youth. By these means he consolidated a system of absolute monarchy in France that endured 150 years until the French Revolution. McCabe says critics used fiction to portray the degraded Turkish Court, using "the harem, the Sultan court, oriental despotism, luxury, gems and spices, carpets, and silk cushions" as an unfavorable analogy to the corruption of the French royal court.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The king sought to impose total religious uniformity on the country, repealing the "Edict of Nantes" in 1685. It is estimated that anywhere between 150,000 and 300,000 Protestants fled France during the wave of persecution that followed the repeal, (following "Huguenots" beginning a hundred and fifty years earlier until the end of the 18th century) costing the country a great many intellectuals, artisans, and other valuable people. Persecution extended to unorthodox Roman Catholics like the Jansenists, a group that denied free will and had already been condemned by the popes. In this, he garnered the friendship of the papacy, which had previously been hostile to France because of its policy of putting all church property in the country under the jurisdiction of the state rather than that of Rome.


title: Kingdom of France

text: In November 1700, the Spanish king Charles II died, ending the Habsburg line in that country. Louis had long waited for this moment, and now planned to put a Bourbon relative, Philip, Duke of Anjou, (1683–1746), on the throne. Essentially, Spain was to become a perpetual ally and even obedient satellite of France, ruled by a king who would carry out orders from Versailles. Realizing how this would upset the balance of power, the other European rulers were outraged. However, most of the alternatives were equally undesirable. For example, putting another Habsburg on the throne would end up recreating the grand multi-national empire of Charles V (1500–58), of the Holy Roman Empire (German First Reich), Spain, and the Two Sicilies which would also grossly upset the power balance. After nine years of exhausting war, the last thing Louis wanted was another conflict. However, the rest of Europe would not stand for his ambitions in Spain, and so the long War of the Spanish Succession began (1701–14), a mere three years after the War of the Grand Alliance, (1688–97, aka "War of the League of Augsburg") had just concluded.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The reign (1715–74) of Louis XV saw an initial return to peace and prosperity under the regency (1715–23) of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, whose policies were largely continued (1726–1743) by Cardinal Fleury, prime minister in all but name. The exhaustion of Europe after two major wars resulted in a long period of peace, only interrupted by minor conflicts like the War of the Polish Succession from 1733 to 1735. Large-scale warfare resumed with the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48). But alliance with the traditional Habsburg enemy (the "Diplomatic Revolution" of 1756) against the rising power of Britain and Prussia led to costly failure in the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and the loss of France's North American colonies.


title: Kingdom of France

text: On the whole, the 18th century saw growing discontent with the monarchy and the established order. Louis XV was a highly unpopular king for his sexual excesses, overall weakness, and for losing Canada to the British. A strong ruler like Louis XIV could enhance the position of the monarchy, while Louis XV weakened it. The writings of the philosophes such as Voltaire were a clear sign of discontent, but the king chose to ignore them. He died of smallpox in 1774, and the French people shed few tears at his passing. While France had not yet experienced the Industrial Revolution that was beginning in Britain, the rising middle class of the cities felt increasingly frustrated with a system and rulers that seemed silly, frivolous, aloof, and antiquated, even if true feudalism no longer existed in France.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Upon Louis XV's death, his grandson Louis XVI became king. Initially popular, he too came to be widely detested by the 1780s. He was married to an Austrian archduchess, Marie Antoinette. French intervention in the American War of Independence was also very expensive.


title: Kingdom of France

text: With the country deeply in debt, Louis XVI permitted the radical reforms of Turgot and Malesherbes, but noble disaffection led to Turgot's dismissal and Malesherbes' resignation in 1776. They were replaced by Jacques Necker. Necker had resigned in 1781 to be replaced by Calonne and Brienne, before being restored in 1788. A harsh winter that year led to widespread food shortages, and by then France was a powder keg ready to explode. On the eve of the French Revolution of July 1789, France was in a profound institutional and financial crisis, but the ideas of the Enlightenment had begun to permeate the educated classes of society.


title: Kingdom of France

text: On September 3, 1791, the absolute monarchy which had governed France for 948 years was forced to limit its power and become a provisional constitutional monarchy. However, this too would not last very long and on September 21, 1792, the French monarchy was effectively abolished by the proclamation of the French First Republic. The role of the King in France was finally ended with the execution of Louis XVI by guillotine on Monday, January 21, 1793, followed by the "Reign of Terror", mass executions and the provisional "Directory" form of republican government, and the eventual beginnings of twenty-five years of reform, upheaval, dictatorship, wars and renewal, with the various Napoleonic Wars.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Following the French Revolution (1789–99) and the First French Empire under Napoleon (1804–1814), the monarchy was restored when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the House of Bourbon in 1814. However the deposed Emperor Napoleon I returned triumphantly to Paris from his exile in Elba and ruled France for a short period known as the Hundred Days.


title: Kingdom of France

text: When a Seventh European Coalition again deposed Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Bourbon monarchy was once again restored.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The Count of Provence - brother of Louis XVI, who was guillotined in 1793 - was crowned as Louis XVIII, nicknamed "The Desired". Louis XVIII tried to conciliate the legacies of the Revolution and the Ancien Régime, by permitting the formation of a Parliament and a constitutional Charter, usually known as the ""Charte octroyée"" ("Granted Charter"). His reign was characterized by disagreements between the Doctrinaires, liberal thinkers who supported the Charter and the rising bourgeoisie, and the Ultra-royalists, aristocrats and clergymen who totally refused the Revolution's heritage. Peace was maintained by statesmen like Talleyrand and the Duke of Richelieu, as well as the King's moderation and prudent intervention. In 1823, the liberal agitations in Spain led to a French intervention on the royalists' side, which permitted King Ferdinand VII of Spain to abolish the Constitution of 1812.


title: Kingdom of France

text: However, the work of Louis XVIII was frustrated when, after his death on 16 September 1824, his brother the Count of Artois became king under the name of Charles X. Charles X was a strong reactionary who supported the ultra-royalists and the Catholic Church. Under his reign, the censorship of newspapers was reinforced, the Anti-Sacrilege Act passed, and compensations to Émigrés were increased. However, the reign also witnessed the French intervention in the Greek Revolution in favour of the Greek rebels, and the first phase of the conquest of Algeria.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The absolutist tendencies of the King were disliked by the Doctrinaire majority in the Chamber of Deputies, that on 18 March 1830 sent an address to the King, upholding the rights of the Chamber and in effect supporting a transition to a full parliamentary system. Charles X received this address as a veiled threat, and in 25 July of the same year, he issued the St. Cloud Ordinances, in an attempt to reduce Parliament's powers and re-establish absolute rule. The opposition reacted with riots in Parliament and barricades in Paris, that resulted in the July Revolution. The King abdicated, as did his son the Prince Louis Antoine, in favour to his grandson Count of Chambord, nominating his cousin the Duke of Orléans as regent. However, it was too late, and the liberal opposition won out over the monarchy.


title: Kingdom of France

text: On 9 August 1830, the Chamber of Deputies elected Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans as "King of the French": for the first time since French Revolution, the King was designated as the ruler of the French people and not the country. The Bourbon white flag was substituted with the French tricolour, and a new Charter was introduced in August 1830.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The conquest of Algeria continued, and new settlements were established in the Gulf of Guinea, Gabon, Madagascar, and Mayotte, while Tahiti was placed under protectorate.


title: Kingdom of France

text: However, despite the initial reforms, Louis Philippe was little different from his predecessors. The old nobility was replaced by urban bourgeoisie, and the working class was excluded from voting. Louis Philippe appointed notable bourgeois as Prime Minister, like banker Casimir Périer, academic François Guizot, general Jean-de-Dieu Soult, and thus obtained the nickname of "Citizen King" ("Roi-Citoyen"). The July Monarchy was beset by corruption scandals and financial crisis. The opposition of the King was composed of Legitimists, supporting the Count of Chambord, Bourbon claimant to the throne, and of Bonapartists and Republicans, who fought against royalty and supported the principles of democracy.


title: Kingdom of France

text: The King tried to suppress the opposition with censorship, but when the "Campagne des banquets" ("Banquets' Campaign") was repressed in February 1848, riots and seditions erupted in Paris and later all France, resulting in the February Revolution. The National Guard refused to repress the rebellion, resulting in Louis Philippe abdicating and fleeing to England. On 24 February 1848, the monarchy was abolished and the Second Republic was proclaimed. Despite later attempts to re-establish the Kingdom in the 1870s, during the Third Republic, the French monarchy has not returned.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Before the 13th century, only a small part of what is now France was under control of the Frankish king; in the north there were Viking incursions leading to the formation of the Duchy of Normandy; in the west, the counts of Anjou established themselves as powerful rivals of the king, by the late 11th century ruling over the "Angevin Empire", which included the kingdom of England.


title: Kingdom of France

text: It was only with Philip II of France that the bulk of the territory of Western Francia came under the rule of the Frankish kings, and Philip was consequently the first king to call himself "king of France" (1190).


title: Kingdom of France

text: The division of France between the Angevin (Plantagenet) kings of England and the Capetian kings of France would lead to the Hundred Years' War, and France would regain control over these territories only by the mid 15th century.


title: Kingdom of France

text: What is now eastern France (Lorraine, Arelat) was not part of Western Francia to begin with and was only incorporated into the kingdom during the early modern period.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Acquisitions from the Plantagenet kings of England with the French victory in the Hundred Years' War 1453


title: Kingdom of France

text: Prior to the French Revolution, the Catholic Church was the official state religion of the Kingdom of France. France was traditionally considered the Church's eldest daughter (French: "Fille aînée de l'Église"), and the King of France always maintained close links to the Pope. However, the French monarchy maintained a significant degree of autonomy, namely through its policy of "Gallicanism", whereby the king selected bishops rather than the papacy.


title: Kingdom of France

text: During the Protestant Reformation of the mid 16th century, France developed a large and influential Protestant population, primarily of Reformed confession; after French theologian and pastor John Calvin introduced the Reformation in France, the number of French Protestants (Huguenots) steadily swelled to 10 percent of the population, or roughly 1.8 million people. The ensuring French Wars of Religion, and particularly the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, decimated the Huguenot community; Protestants declined to seven to eight percent of the kingdom's population by the end of the 16th century. The Edict of Nantes brought decades of respite until its revocation in the late 17th century by Louis XIV. The resulting exodus of Huguenots from the Kingdom of France created a brain drain, as many of them had occupied important places in society.


title: Kingdom of France

text: Jews have a documented presence in France since at least the early Middle Ages. The Kingdom of France was a center of Jewish learning in the Middle Ages, producing influential Jewish scholars such as Rashi and even hosting theological debates between Jews and Christians. Widespread persecution began in the 11th century and increased intermittently throughout the Middle Ages, with multiple expulsions and returns.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: James Burke (July 5, 1931 – April 13, 1996), also known as "Jimmy the Gent," was an American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate who is believed to have organized the 1978 Lufthansa heist, the largest cash robbery in American history at the time. He was believed to be responsible for the deaths of those involved in the months after the robbery.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: Following the testimony of Henry Hill, Burke was convicted in 1982, of conspiracy charges related to his involvement in the 1978–79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal, and sentenced to 12 years in prison. While in prison, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to another 20 years. He died of cancer at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, eight years before he would have been eligible for parole.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: Burke inspired the character Jimmy "The Gent" Conway, one of the main characters of the 1990 film "Goodfellas", played by Robert De Niro.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: At the age of two, Burke was placed in a foster home and was exposed to violence and sexual abuse while in the care of dozens of foster parents. At the age of 13, an altercation with his foster parents while riding in a car resulted in a crash and the death of his foster father.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: In 1962, Burke married his girlfriend Mickey but discovered that she was being bothered by an ex-boyfriend. On their wedding day, police found the ex-boyfriend's remains, in over a dozen pieces, strewn around the inside of his car. He is the father of Lufthansa heist aide Frank James Burke (who was murdered by drug dealer Tito Ortiz in 1987), Jesse James Burke, and Catherine Burke (who married Bonanno crime family member Anthony Indelicato).


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: As Burke was of Irish descent, he was ineligible to become a "made man" in the American mafia, so he was relegated to associate, under capo Paul Vario. During the 1950s, Burke was involved with various illegal activities, such as distributing untaxed cigarettes and liquor. Burke became a mentor to Thomas DeSimone, Henry Hill, and Angelo Sepe, during the 1960s. Burke owned the South Ozone Park, Queens tavern Robert's Lounge.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: In November 1972, Burke and Hill were arrested for beating Gaspar Ciaccio in Tampa, Florida. Ciaccio allegedly owed a large gambling debt to their friend, union boss Casey Rosado. They were charged with extortion, convicted, and sentenced to 10 years in the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg. Burke was paroled after six years and resumed his criminal career, as did Hill, who was released two years prior.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: Both Hill and Burke began trafficking illegal narcotics, despite a ban by the Lucchese family, who feared their associates becoming informants in exchange for a lesser sentence, which is exactly what Hill did in 1980.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: In the book "Wiseguy", Henry Hill said that after William "Billy Batts" Bentvena was released from prison in 1970, they threw a "welcome home" party for Bentvena at Robert's Lounge, which was owned by Burke. Hill stated that Bentvena saw Tommy DeSimone and jokingly asked him if he still shined shoes and DeSimone perceived it as an insult. DeSimone leaned over to Hill and Burke and said "I'm gonna kill that fuck." Two weeks later, on June 11, 1970, Bentvena was at The Suite, a nightclub owned by Hill in Jamaica, Queens. Late in the night, with the bar club nearly empty, DeSimone pistol-whipped Bentvena. Hill said that before DeSimone started to beat Bentvena, DeSimone yelled, "Shine these fucking shoes!"


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: After Bentvena was beaten and presumed killed, DeSimone, Burke, and Hill placed his body in the trunk of Hill's car for transport. They stopped at DeSimone's mother's house to get a shovel and lime. They started to hear sounds from the trunk, and when they realized that Bentvena was still alive, DeSimone and Burke stopped the car and beat him to death with the shovel and a tire iron. Burke had a friend who owned a dog kennel in Upstate New York, and Bentvena was buried there.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: About three months after Bentvena's murder, Burke's friend sold the dog kennel to housing developers, and Burke ordered Hill and DeSimone to exhume Bentvena's corpse and dispose of it elsewhere. In "Wiseguy", Hill said the body was eventually crushed in a mechanical compactor at a New Jersey junkyard, which was owned by Clyde Brooks. However, on the commentary for the film "Goodfellas", he states that Bentvena's body was buried in the basement of Robert's Lounge, a bar and restaurant owned by Burke, and only later was put into the car crusher.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: The Lufthansa heist was planned by Burke and carried out by several associates. The plot began when bookmaker Martin Krugman told Burke's associate Henry Hill that Lufthansa flew in currency to its cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The information had originally come from Louis Werner, a worker at the airport who owed Krugman $20,000 for gambling debts () and from his co-worker Peter Gruenwald.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: Burke decided on Tommy DeSimone, Angelo Sepe, Louis Cafora, Joe Manri, Paolo LiCastri and Robert McMahon as the robbers. Burke's son Frank would drive one of the backup vehicles and Parnell "Stacks" Edwards's job was to dispose of the van afterwards. Depending on their role in the robbery, each participant was to receive $10,000 to $50,000. However, those amounts were based on the estimated haul, which was only $2 million compared to the actual take of $5.875 million. Werner was to receive a flat 10% of the take.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: On December 11, 1978, an estimated $5.875 million (equivalent to $ million in ) was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, making it the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: Burke is also alleged to have either committed or ordered the murders of many of the robbers to avoid being implicated in the heist. The first was Edwards, on December 18, after he failed to get rid of the robbery van. Burke was never implicated or charged in the robbery, and the stolen cash and jewelry were never recovered.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: In 1980, Burke was arrested for a parole violation. In 1982, Burke was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to 12 years in prison for his involvement with the 1978–79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal, based primarily on the testimony of former mob associate Henry Hill. Hill's testimony in federal court resulted in a total of fifty convictions in this and other cases, including those of Burke and their boss, capo Paul Vario. While Burke was serving that sentence, he was charged with the 1979 murder of drug dealer Richard Eaton. He was convicted at a trial in which Hill testified and was sentenced in 1985 to a further 20 years in prison.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: Burke was serving his sentence in Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, when he developed cancer. He died on April 13, 1996, while being treated at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York. Had he lived, he would have been eligible for parole on March 11, 2004. Burke was buried at Saint Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale, New York.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: James Burke was portrayed by Robert De Niro in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film "Goodfellas", renamed Jimmy Conway.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: Burke was played by John Mahoney in the 1991 television film "The 10 Million Dollar Getaway", which details the events of the Lufthansa Heist. Donald Sutherland also portrayed Burke for the 2001 television film "The Big Heist".


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: In 2013, possible human remains were unearthed by the FBI and NYPD organized crime investigators at his former home.


title: James Burke (gangster)

text: In October 2014, Burke's involvement in the Boston College Point Shaving Scandal was discussed in the ESPN "30 for 30" episode "Playing for the Mob." Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in "Goodfellas", is the narrator of the documentary.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: Jean Paul Getty Sr. (; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American-born British petroleum industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and was the patriarch of the Getty family. A native of Minneapolis, he was the son of pioneer oilman George Getty. In 1957, "Fortune" magazine named him the richest living American, while the 1966 "Guinness Book of Records" named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion (approximately $ billion in ). At his death, he was worth more than $6 billion (approximately $ billion in ). A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th richest American who ever lived, based on his wealth as a percentage of the concurrent gross national product.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: Despite his vast wealth, Getty was famously frugal, notably negotiating his grandson's kidnapping ransom in 1973. He had five children and divorced five times. Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities. His collection formed the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; more than $661 million of his estate was left to the museum after his death. He established the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1953. The trust, which is the world's wealthiest art institution, operates the J. Paul Getty Museum Complexes: the Getty Center, the Getty Villa and the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, as well as the Getty Conservation Institute.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: Getty was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Sarah Catherine McPherson (Risher) and George Getty, who was an attorney in the insurance industry. Getty was raised as a Methodist by his parents; his father was a devout Christian Scientist, and both were strict teetotalers. He was of part Scottish descent. In 1903, when Getty was 10 years old, George Getty traveled to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and bought the mineral rights for 1,100 acres of land. The Getty family subsequently moved to Bartlesville, where J. Paul Getty attended the Garfield School. Within a few years Getty had established wells on the land that were producing 100,000 barrels of crude oil a month.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: As newly minted millionaires, the family moved to Los Angeles. But, J. Paul Getty later returned to Oklahoma. At age 14, Getty attended Harvard Military School for a year, followed by Polytechnic High School, where he was given the nickname "Dictionary Getty" because of his love of reading. He became fluent in French, German and Italian. Getty was also conversational in Spanish, Greek, Arabic and Russian. A love of the classics led Getty to acquire reading proficiency in Ancient Greek and Latin.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: He enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, but did not complete a degree. Enamored with Europe after traveling abroad with his parents in 1910, Getty enrolled at the University of Oxford on November 28, 1912. A letter of introduction by then-President of the United States William Howard Taft enabled him to gain independent instruction from tutors at Magdalen College. Although he was not registered at Magdalen, he claimed the aristocratic students "accepted me as one of their own" and he fondly boasted of the friends he made, including Edward VIII, the future King of the United Kingdom. He obtained a diploma in economics and political science from Oxford in June 1913, then spent months traveling throughout Europe and Egypt before meeting his parents in Paris and returning with them to America in June 1914.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: In the autumn of 1914, George Getty gave his son $10,000 to invest in expanding the family's oil field holdings in Oklahoma. The first lot he bought, the Nancy Taylor No. 1 Oil Well Site near Haskell, Oklahoma, was crucial to his early financial success. The well struck oil in August 1915 and by the next summer the 40 percent net production royalty he accrued from it had made him a millionaire.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: In 1919, Getty returned to business in Oklahoma. During the 1920s, he added about $3 million to his already sizable estate. His succession of marriages and divorces so distressed his father that Getty inherited only $500,000 of the $10 million fortune his father left at the time of his death in 1930. Getty was left with one-third of the stock from George Getty Inc., while his mother received the remaining two-thirds, giving her a controlling interest.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: In 1936, Getty's mother convinced him to contribute to the establishment of a $3.3 million investment trust, called the Sarah C. Getty Trust, to ensure the family's ever-growing wealth could be channeled into a tax-free, secure income for future generations of the Getty family. The trust enabled Getty to have easy access to ready capital, which he was funneling into the purchase of Tidewater Petroleum stock.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: Shrewdly investing his resources during the Great Depression, Getty acquired Pacific Western Oil Corporation and began the acquisition (completed in 1953) of the Mission Corporation, which included Tidewater Oil and Skelly Oil. In 1967, Getty merged these holdings into Getty Oil.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: In 1948–1949, Getty paid Ibn Saud $9.5 million in cash, guaranteed $1 million a year, and a royalty of 55 cents a barrel for the Saudi Arabian Neutral Zone concession. Oil was finally discovered in March 1953. Since 1953, Getty's gamble produced 16 million barrels a year, which contributed greatly to the fortune responsible for making him one of the richest people in the world.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: Getty's wealth and ability to speak Arabic enabled his unparalleled expansion into the Middle East. Getty owned the controlling interest in about 200 businesses, including Getty Oil. Getty owned Getty Oil, Getty Inc., George F. Getty Inc., Pacific Western Oil Corporation, Mission Corporation, Mission Development Company, Tidewater Oil, Skelly Oil, Mexican Seaboard Oil, Petroleum Corporation of America, Spartan Aircraft Company, Spartan Cafeteria Company, Minnehoma Insurance Company, Minnehoma Financial Company, Pierre Hotel, Pierre Marques Hotel, a 15th-century palace and nearby castle at Ladispoli on the coast northwest of Rome, a Malibu ranch home, and Sutton Place, a 72-room mansion near Guildford, Surrey.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: Getty's first forays into collecting began in the late 1930s, when he took inspiration from the collection of 18th-century French paintings and furniture owned by the landlord of his New York City penthouse, Amy Guest, a relation of Sir Winston Churchill. A fan of 18th-century France, Getty began buying furniture from the period at reduced prices because of the depressed art market. He wrote several books on collecting, including "Europe and the 18th Century" (1949), "Collector's Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey through Europe" (1955) and "The Joys of Collecting" (1965). His stinginess limited the range of his collecting because he refused to pay full price. Getty's companion in later life, Penelope Kitson, said "Paul was really too mean ever to allow himself to buy a great painting." Nonetheless, at the time of his death he owned more than 600 items valued at more than $4 million, including paintings by Rubens, Titian, Gainsborough, Renoir, Tintoretto, Degas, and Monet. During the 1950s, Getty's interests shifted to Greco-Roman sculpture, which led to the building of the Getty Villa in the 1970s to house the collection. These items were transferred to the Getty Museum and the Getty Villa in Los Angeles after his death.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: Getty was a notorious womanizer from the time of his youth, something that horrified his conservative Christian parents. His lawyer, Robin Lund, once said that, "Paul could hardly ever say 'no' to a woman, or 'yes' to a man." Lord Beaverbrook had called him "Priapic" and "ever-ready" in his sexual habits.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: In 1917, when he was 25, a paternity suit was filed against Getty in Los Angeles by Elsie Eckstrom, who claimed he was the father of her daughter, Paula. Eckstrom claimed that Getty had taken her virginity and fathered the child, while his legal team tried to undermine her credibility by claiming that she had a history of promiscuity. Getty agreed to a settlement of $10,000, upon which Eckstrom left town with the baby.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: In 2013 at age 99, Getty's fifth wife, Louise, known as Teddy Getty Gaston, published a memoir reporting how Getty had scolded her for spending money too freely in the 1950s on the treatment of their six-year-old son, Timmy, who had become blind from a brain tumor. Timmy died at age 12, and Getty, living in England apart from his family who were in the U.S., did not attend the funeral. Gaston divorced Getty that year. Teddy Gaston died in April 2017 at the age of 103.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: Getty was quoted as saying "A lasting relationship with a woman is only possible if you are a business failure," and, "I hate to be a failure. I hate and regret the failure of my marriages. I would gladly give all my millions for just one lasting marital success."


title: J. Paul Getty

text: In Rome on July 10, 1973, 'Ndrangheta kidnappers abducted Getty's 16-year-old grandson, John Paul Getty III, and demanded a $17 million (equivalent to $ in ) payment for his safe return. However, the family suspected a ploy by the rebellious teenager to extract money from his miserly grandfather. John Paul Getty Jr. asked his father for the money, but was refused, arguing that his 13 other grandchildren could also become kidnap targets if he paid.


title: J. Paul Getty

text: In November 1973, an envelope containing a lock of hair and a human ear arrived at a daily newspaper. The second demand had been delayed three weeks by an Italian postal strike. The demand threatened that Paul would be further mutilated unless the victims paid $3.2 million. The demand stated "This is Paul's ear. If we don't get some money within 10 days, then the other ear will arrive. In other words, he will arrive in little bits."


title: J. Paul Getty

text: When the kidnappers finally reduced their demands to $3 million, Getty agreed to pay no more than $2.2 million (equivalent to $ in ), the maximum that would be tax-deductible. He lent his son the remaining $800,000 at four percent interest. Getty's grandson was found alive on December 15, 1973, in a Lauria filling station, in the province of Potenza, shortly after the ransom was paid. After his release, the younger Getty called his grandfather to thank him for paying the ransom but Getty refused to come to the phone. Nine people associated with 'Ndrangheta were later arrested for the kidnapping, but only two were convicted. Getty III was permanently affected by the trauma and became a drug addict. After a stroke, brought on by a cocktail of drugs and alcohol in 1981, Getty III was rendered speechless, nearly blind and partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. He died on February 5, 2011, at the age of 54.