title: Mackenzie Crook

text: Crook appeared as a postman in the music video for Paul McCartney's single "Dance Tonight" alongside actress Natalie Portman. The video for the song was directed by Michel Gondry and was posted exclusively on YouTube on 22 May 2007.


title: Mackenzie Crook

text: Crook has a deal with publisher Faber to illustrate and write a children's book. His first one, "The Windvale Sprites", was released in November 2011. It was announced on 8 February 2012, that Crook's book was nominated for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, in the 5–12-year-old category. The book contains references to a storm in 1987 which hit Dartford and surrounding areas.


title: Mackenzie Crook

text: Crook teamed up with the writers of Modern Toss and footwear giant Kickers in 2009 to provide voiceovers for a new series of comedy cartoons called Random Bandits, which are featured online at the Kickers MySpace.


title: Mackenzie Crook

text: On 9 April 2010 it was announced that Crook would star in the music video for Slow Club's new single, "Giving Up on Love", after band member Rebecca Taylor wrote to him.


title: Mackenzie Crook

text: Crook regularly works in radio, and is scheduled to appear in the BBC Radio Four show North by Northamptonshire, in 2011. Crook stars alongside Geoffrey Palmer, Sheila Hancock, Lizzie Roper and Jessica Henwick.


title: Mackenzie Crook

text: Crook's first jobs included working at a Pizza Hut restaurant and also at Halfords where he felt he was "waiting for real life to start".


title: Mackenzie Crook

text: Crook and his wife, a former advertising executive, reside in Muswell Hill, London. They were married in April 2001 and have a son and a daughter. Crook is an atheist.


title: Jeremiah

text: Jeremiah (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, the Books of Kings and the Book of Lamentations, with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple.


title: Jeremiah

text: In addition to proclaiming many prophecies of Yahweh, the God of Israel, the Book of Jeremiah goes into detail regarding the prophet's private life, his experiences, and his imprisonment.


title: Jeremiah

text: Judaism and Christianity both consider the Book of Jeremiah part of their canon. Judaism regards Jeremiah as the second of the major prophets. Christianity holds him to be a prophet and his words are quoted in the New Testament. Islam also regards Jeremiah as a prophet and his narrative is recounted in Islamic tradition.


title: Jeremiah

text: Jeremiah was active as a prophet from the thirteenth year of Josiah, king of Judah (626 BC), until after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's Temple in 587 BC. This period spanned the reigns of five kings of Judah: Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. The prophetess Huldah was a relative and contemporary of Jeremiah while the prophet Zephaniah was his mentor.


title: Jeremiah

text: Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, a priest from the land of Benjamin in the village of Anathoth. The difficulties he encountered, as described in the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations, have prompted scholars to refer to him as "the weeping prophet".


title: Jeremiah

text: Jeremiah was called to prophecy c. 626 BC by God to proclaim Jerusalem's coming destruction by invaders from the north. This was because Israel had forsaken God by worshiping the idols of Baal and burning their children as offerings to Baal. The nation had deviated so far from God's laws that they had broken the covenant, causing God to withdraw his blessings. Jeremiah was guided by God to proclaim that the nation of Judah would suffer famine, foreign conquest, plunder, and captivity in a land of strangers.


title: Jeremiah

text: According to , the LORD called Jeremiah to prophecy in about 626 BC, about five years before Josiah king of Judah turned the nation toward repentance from idolatrous practices. According to the Books of Kings and Jeremiah, Josiah's reforms were insufficient to save Judah and Jerusalem from destruction, because of the sins of Manasseh, Josiah's grandfather, and Judah's lustful return to the idolatry of foreign gods after Josiah's death. Jeremiah was said to have been appointed to reveal the sins of the people and the punishment to come.


title: Jeremiah

text: Jeremiah resisted the call by complaining that he was only a child and did not know how to speak, but the Lord placed the word in Jeremiah's mouth, commanding "Get yourself ready!" The qualities of a prophet listed in Jeremiah 1 include not being afraid, standing up to speak, speaking as told, and going where sent. Since Jeremiah is described as emerging well trained and fully literate from his earliest preaching, his relationship with the Shaphan family has been used to suggest that he may have trained at the scribal school in Jerusalem over which Shaphan presided.


title: Jeremiah

text: In his early years of being a prophet, Jeremiah was primarily a preaching prophet, preaching throughout Israel. He condemned idolatry, the greed of priests, and false prophets. Many years later, God instructed Jeremiah to write down these early oracles and his other messages.


title: Jeremiah

text: Jeremiah's prophecies prompted plots against him. Unhappy with Jeremiah's message, possibly from concern that it would shut down the Anathoth sanctuary, his priestly kin and the men of Anathoth conspired to kill him. However, the Lord revealed the conspiracy to Jeremiah, protected his life, and declared disaster for the men of Anathoth. When Jeremiah complains to the Lord about this persecution, he is told that the attacks on him will become worse.


title: Jeremiah

text: A priest, Pashur the son of Immer, a temple official in Jerusalem, had Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin for a day. After this, Jeremiah laments the travails and mockery that speaking God's word have caused him. He recounts how, if he tries to shut God's word inside, it burns in his heart and he is unable to hold it in.


title: Jeremiah

text: While Jeremiah was prophesying the coming destruction, he denounced a number of other prophets who were prophesying peace.


title: Jeremiah

text: According to the book of Jeremiah, during the reign of King Zedekiah, the Lord instructed Jeremiah to make a yoke with the message that the nation would be subject to the king of Babylon. The false prophet Hananiah took the yoke off Jeremiah's neck and broke it, prophesying that within two years the Lord would break the yoke of the king of Babylon, but Jeremiah prophesied in return: "You have broken the yoke of wood, but you have made instead a yoke of iron."


title: Jeremiah

text: Jeremiah was sympathetic to, as well as descended from, the northern Kingdom of Israel. Many of his first reported oracles are about, and addressed to, the Israelites at Samaria. He resembles the northern prophet Hosea in his use of language and examples of God's relationship to Israel. Hosea seems to have been the first prophet to describe the desired relationship as an example of ancient Israelite marriage, where a man might be polygamous, while a woman was only permitted one husband. Jeremiah often repeats Hosea's marital imagery.


title: Jeremiah

text: The biblical narrative portrays Jeremiah as being subject to additional persecutions. After Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem would be handed over to the Babylonian army, the king's officials, including Pashur the priest, tried to convince King Zedekiah that Jeremiah should be put to death for disheartening the soldiers and the people. Zedekiah allowed them, and they cast Jeremiah into a cistern, where he sank down into the mud. The intent seemed to be to kill Jeremiah by starvation, while allowing the officials to claim to be innocent of his blood. Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian, rescued Jeremiah by pulling him out of the cistern, but Jeremiah remained imprisoned until Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian army in 587 BC.


title: Jeremiah

text: The Babylonians released Jeremiah, and showed him great kindness, allowing him to choose the place of his residence, according to a Babylonian edict. Jeremiah accordingly went to Mizpah in Benjamin with Gedaliah, who had been made governor of Judea.


title: Jeremiah

text: Johanan succeeded Gedaliah, who had been assassinated by an Israelite prince in the pay of Ammon "for working with the Babylonians." Refusing to listen to Jeremiah's counsel, Johanan fled to Egypt, taking with him Jeremiah and Baruch, Jeremiah's faithful scribe and servant, and the king's daughters. There, the prophet probably spent the remainder of his life, still seeking in vain to turn the people back to God. There is no authentic record of his death.


title: Jeremiah

text: The consensus is that there was a historical prophet named Jeremiah and that portions of the book probably were written by Jeremiah and/or his scribe Baruch.


title: Jeremiah

text: Views range from the belief that the narratives and poetic sections in Jeremiah are contemporary with his life (W. L. Holladay), to the view that the work of the original prophet is beyond identification or recovery (R. P. Carroll).


title: Jeremiah

text: See the extensive analysis in . First there were early collections of oracles, including material in ch. 2–6, 8–10, 13, 21–23, etc. Then there was an early Deuteronomistic redaction which Albertz dates to around 550 BC, with the original ending to the book at 25:13. There was a second redaction around 545-540 BC which added much more material, up to about ch. 45. Then there was a third redaction around 525–520 BC, expanding the book up to the ending at 51:64. Then there were further post-exilic redactions adding ch. 52 and editing content throughout the book.


title: Jeremiah

text: Although Jeremiah was often thought of traditionally as the author of the Book of Lamentations, this is probably a collection of individual and communal laments composed at various times throughout the Babylonian captivity. Albertz considers ch. 2 as the oldest, dating shortly after the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC) and ch. 5 after the assassination of Gedaliah, with the other chapters added later (p. 160).


title: Jeremiah

text: In Jewish rabbinic literature, especially the aggadah, Jeremiah and Moses are often mentioned together, their life and works being presented in parallel lines. The following ancient midrash is especially interesting, in connection with , in which "a prophet like Moses" is promised: "As Moses was a prophet for forty years, so was Jeremiah; as Moses prophesied concerning Judah and Benjamin, so did Jeremiah; as Moses' own tribe [the Levites under Korah] rose up against him, so did Jeremiah's tribe revolt against him; Moses was cast into the water, Jeremiah into a pit; as Moses was saved by a slave (the slave of Pharaoh's daughter); so, Jeremiah was rescued by a slave (Ebed-melech); Moses reprimanded the people in discourses; so did Jeremiah." The prophet Ezekiel was a son of Jeremiah according to rabbinic literature. In 2 Maccabees 2:4ff the subject is credited with hiding the Ark, incense altar, and tabernacle on the mountain of Moses.


title: Jeremiah

text: Christian worship services regularly included readings from the Book of Jeremiah. The author of the Gospel of Matthew is especially mindful of how the events in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus fulfill Jeremianic prophecies.


title: Jeremiah

text: There are about forty direct quotations of the book in the New Testament, most appearing in Revelation 18 in connection with the destruction of Babylon. The Epistle to the Hebrews also picks up the fulfilment of the prophetic expectation of the new covenant.)


title: Jeremiah

text: As with many other prophets of the Hebrew Bible, Jeremiah is also regarded as a prophet in Islam. Although Jeremiah is not mentioned in the Quran, Muslim exegesis and literature narrates many instances from the life of Jeremiah and fleshes out his narrative, which closely corresponds with the account given in the Hebrew Bible. In Arabic, Jeremiah's name is usually vocalised "Irmiyā", "Armiyā" or "Ūrmiyā".


title: Jeremiah

text: Classical historians such as Wahb ibn Munabbih gave accounts of Jeremiah which turned "upon the main points of the Old Testament story of Jeremiah: his call to be a prophet, his mission to the king of Judah, his mission to the people and his reluctance, the announcement of a foreign tyrant who is to rule over Judah."


title: Jeremiah

text: Moreover, some hadiths and tafsirs narrate that the Parable of the Hamlet in Ruins is about Jeremiah. Also, in Sura 17(Al-Isra), Ayah 4–7, that is about the two corruptions of children of Israel on the earth, some hadith and tafsir cite that one of these corruptions is the imprisonment and persecution of Jeremiah.


title: Jeremiah

text: Muslim literature narrates a detailed account of the destruction of Jerusalem, which parallels the account given in the Book of Jeremiah.


title: Jeremiah

text: In July 2007, Assyrologist Michael Jursa translated a cuneiform tablet dated to 595 BC, as describing a Nabusharrussu-ukin as "the chief eunuch" of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. Jursa hypothesized that this reference might be to the same individual as the Nebo-Sarsekim mentioned in .


title: Jeremiah

text: A 7th-century BC seal of Jehucal, son of Shelemiah and another of Gedaliah, son of Pashhur (mentioned together in ; Jehucal also mentioned in ) were found during excavation by Eilat Mazar in the city of David, Jerusalem, in 2005 and 2008, respectively.


title: Jeremiah

text: Pottery shards at Tel Arad were unearthed in the 1970s that mention Pashhur, and this reference may be to the same individual mentioned in .


title: Jeremiah

text: Очи́стив ду́хом, вели́кий проро́че и му́чениче,/ твое́ светоза́рное се́рдце,/ сла́вне Иереми́е,/ проро́чествия дар свы́ше прия́л еси́/ и возопи́л еси́ велегла́сно во страна́х:/ се Бог наш, и не приложи́тся ин к Нему́,// И́же, вопло́щся, на земли́ яви́лся есть.


title: Jeremiah

text: Ochistiv dukhom, veliky proroche i mucheniche,/ tvoe svetozarnoe serdtse,/ slavne Ieremie,/ prorochestviya dar svyshe priyal yesi/ i vozopil yesi veleglasno vo stranakh:/ se Bog nash, i ne prilozhitsa in k Nemu,// Izhe, voploshchsya, na zemli yavilsya yest’.


title: Jeremiah

text: Jeremiah inspired the French noun "jérémiade", and subsequently the English "jeremiad", meaning "a lamentation; mournful complaint," or further, "a cautionary or angry harangue."


title: Jeremiah

text: Jeremiah has periodically been a popular first name in the United States, beginning with the early Puritan settlers, who often took the names of biblical prophets and apostles. Jeremiah was substituted for the Irish "Diarmuid/Diarmaid" (also anglicised as Dermot), with which it has no etymological connection, when Gaelic names were frowned upon in official records. The name Jeremy also derives from Jeremiah.


title: Charlie Plummer

text: Charlie Faulkner Plummer is an American actor. Plummer began his career as a child actor in short films before appearing on the television dramas "Boardwalk Empire" and "Granite Flats." In 2019, he starred in the Hulu miniseries "Looking for Alaska" as Miles "Pudge" Halter and received critical acclaim. In 2022, he starred as young Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Showtime series "The First Lady".


title: Charlie Plummer

text: He made his feature film debut in David Chase's drama "Not Fade Away" (2012) before landing the lead role in Felix Thompson's directorial debut "King Jack" (2015). In 2017, he gained wider recognition for his supporting role in Ridley Scott's crime thriller "All the Money in the World", and his lead role in Andrew Haigh's drama "Lean on Pete". His performance in the latter garnered critical praise and earned him the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best emerging actor at the 74th Venice Film Festival.


title: Charlie Plummer

text: Plummer was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, to theatre actress Maia Guest and writer-producer John Christian Plummer, and grew up in Cold Spring. He has a younger brother, James. His family moved frequently due to his parents' jobs which resulted in his attending seven different schools growing up: three in Los Angeles, two in upstate New York and two in New York City. Despite being very shy as a child, Plummer was exposed to acting at an early age by his parents, both of whom had worked in theatre. He gained experience acting in local stage productions of plays and musicals, crediting the experience with the latter for sparking his love of acting. He met his current manager at the age of ten when he first sought professional acting roles. Plummer eventually transferred to and attended the Professional Children's School in Manhattan due to his demanding filming schedule on television shows.


title: Charlie Plummer

text: As a child, Plummer acted in short films such as "Frank" (2010), "Three Things" (2011), and "Alan Smithee" (2012). In 2011, Plummer starred in eight episodes of HBO's television period drama "Boardwalk Empire". He portrayed Eli Thompson's son Michael in season 2, 3 and 4. In 2012, Plummer made his feature film debut by playing a supporting role in David Chase's drama "Not Fade Away". The film was released on December 21, 2012, by Paramount Vantage and received positive reviews. In 2013, Plummer joined the BYUtv's drama series "Granite Flats", in which he played the lead role of Timmy Sanders. He starred in all 24 episodes of three seasons, which premiered on Netflix and officially ended on June 25, 2015.


title: Charlie Plummer

text: In 2015, he played the lead role of Jack in Felix Thompson's directorial debut "King Jack". The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 17, 2015. Later in June, Plummer along with Tom Holland were rumored to be Marvel and Sony's top picks amongst actors in contention to play the lead role of Spider-Man in the reboot film ""; the role eventually went to Holland.


title: Charlie Plummer

text: In 2017, Plummer co-starred in Oren Moverman's drama thriller film "The Dinner". The film was released on May 5, 2017, and received mixed reviews. He played the kidnapped heir John Paul Getty III in Ridley Scott's crime thriller "All the Money in the World". The film was released on December 25, 2017, and received positive reviews. The same year, Plummer portrayed the troubled teenager Charley who finds solace and purpose in his friendship with the titular racehorse in Andrew Haigh's drama "Lean on Pete". The actor felt a deep desire to play the role after connecting strongly with the story, which spurred him to send a letter to Haigh, expressing his passion for the project. The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival where his performance received critical acclaim; he was awarded the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best emerging actor. Richard Lawson of "Vanity Fair" stated Plummer had "one of the most striking breakthrough performances of the year". The film was released on April 6, 2018, by A24.


title: Charlie Plummer

text: In 2018, Plummer starred in Joshua Leonard's drama "Dark Was the Night". He also appeared in Duncan Skiles's suspense thriller "The Clovehitch Killer".


title: Charlie Plummer

text: In 2019, Plummer starred in Nabil Elderkin's feature film debut "Gully". The film is set in a dystopian vision of Los Angeles and follows three disaffected teenagers, all victims of extreme childhoods, who are running a hedonistic riot as they try to work out a way in life. He also featured in Pippa Bianco's "Share", produced by A24. In 2019, Plummer also had a leading role in Hulu's serial adaptation of John Green's novel "Looking for Alaska", starring as 16-year-old Miles "Pudge" Halter. The series was released in October 2019 to critical acclaim.


title: Charlie Plummer

text: In 2020, Plummer starred in Thor Freudenthal's drama "Words on Bathroom Walls", playing a young man diagnosed with schizophrenia, and headlined the dark comedy "Spontaneous", directed by Brian Duffield and based on the novel of the same name by Aaron Starmer. Both films received positive reviews.


title: Charlie Plummer

text: Plummer lives in New York City and is a vegetarian. Prior to pursuing a full-time acting career, Plummer had considered dropping acting to become a general manager for a football team due to his passion for the sport.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Transcendence is a 2014 American science fiction thriller film directed by Wally Pfister (in his directorial debut) and written by Jack Paglen. The film stars Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy and Cole Hauser, and follows a group of scientists who race to finish an artificial intelligence project while being targeted by a radical anti-technology organization.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Paglen's screenplay was listed on the 2012 edition of The Black List, a list of popular unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. "Transcendence" was a box office flop, grossing just $103 million against a budget of as much as $150 million. The film received mainly negative reviews; it was criticized for its plot structure, characters and dialogue but praised for its cinematography, acting, and score.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Dr. Will Caster is a scientist who researches the nature of sapience, including artificial intelligence. He and his team work to create a sentient computer; he predicts that such a computer will create a technological singularity, or in his words "Transcendence". His wife, Evelyn, is also a scientist and helps him with his work.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: An anti-technology terrorist group called "Revolutionary Independence From Technology" (R.I.F.T.) carry out synchronized attacks on A.I. laboratories, while one member shoots Will with a polonium-laced bullet. Will is given no more than a month to live. In desperation, Evelyn comes up with a plan to upload Will's consciousness into the quantum computer that the project has developed. His best friend and fellow researcher, Max Waters, questions the wisdom of this choice, reasoning that the "uploaded" Will would only be an imitation of the real person. Will's consciousness survives his body's death in this technological form and requests to be connected to the Internet to grow in capability and knowledge. Max believes that the computer is not actually Will and demands that it be shut down. Evelyn, being offended, demands that Max leave.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: At a bar, Max is met by Bree, the leader of R.I.F.T. He refuses to talk with her and leaves, but is kidnapped by other members of R.I.F.T. in the parking lot. They use his cellphone to track down Evelyn’s location. When R.I.F.T. discovers where Evelyn has established her project, she connects the computer intelligence to the Internet via satellite and escapes before R.I.F.T. destroys the equipment.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: In his virtual form and with Evelyn's help, Will uses his newfound vast capabilities to build a technological utopia in a remote desert town called Brightwood, where, over the course of two years, he spearheads the development of ground-breaking technologies in medicine, energy, biology and nanotechnology. However, Evelyn grows fearful of Will's motives when he displays the ability to remotely connect to and control people's minds after they have been subjected to his nanoparticles.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: After visiting Evelyn and the underground facility Will has built, and seeing the capabilities of the hybrids Will has created, FBI agent Donald Buchanan and government scientist Joseph Tagger become suspicious of Will's motives and plan to stop the sentient entity from spreading, with help from the government and R.I.F.T. As Will has already spread his influence to all the networked computer technology in the world, Max and R.I.F.T. develop a computer virus with the purpose of deleting Will's source code, destroying him. Evelyn plans to upload the virus by infecting herself and then having Will upload her consciousness. A side effect of the virus would be the destruction of technological civilization. This would also disable the nano-particles, which have spread in the water, through the wind and have already started to eradicate pollution, disease, and human mortality.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: When Evelyn goes back to the research center, she is stunned to see Will in a newly created organic body identical to his old one. Will welcomes her but is instantly aware that she is carrying the virus and intends to destroy him. The FBI and the members of R.I.F.T. attack the base with artillery, destroying much of its power supply and fatally wounding Evelyn. When Bree threatens to kill Max unless Will uploads the virus, Will explains that he has only enough power either to heal Evelyn's physical body or upload the virus. Evelyn tells Will that Max should not die because of what they've done, so Will uploads the virus to save Max. As Will dies, he explains to Evelyn that he did what he did for her, as she had pursued science to repair the damage humans had done to the ecosystems. In their last moment, he tells Evelyn to think about their garden. The virus kills both Will and Evelyn, and a global technology collapse and blackout ensues.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Three years later, in Will and Evelyn's garden at their old home in Berkeley, Max notices that their sunflowers are the only blooming plants. Upon closer examination, he notices that a drop of water falling from a sunflower petal instantly cleanses a puddle of oil — and realizes that the Faraday cage around the garden has protected a sample of Will's sentient nano-particles.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: The movie ends with a voiceover by Max: "He created this garden for the same reason he did everything: So they could be together."


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: "Transcendence" is Wally Pfister's directorial debut. Jack Paglen wrote the initial screenplay for Pfister to direct, and producer Annie Marter pitched the film to Straight Up Films. The pitch was sold to Straight Up. By March 2012, Alcon Entertainment acquired the project. Alcon financed and produced the film; producers from Straight Up and Alcon joined together for the film. In the following June, director Christopher Nolan, for whom Pfister has worked as cinematographer, and Nolan's producing partner Emma Thomas joined the film as executive producers.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: The Chinese company DMG Entertainment entered a partnership with Alcon Entertainment to finance and produce the film. While DMG contributed Chinese elements to "Looper" and "Iron Man 3", it did not do so for "Transcendence".


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: By October 2012, actor Johnny Depp entered negotiations to star in "Transcendence". "The Hollywood Reporter" said Depp would have "a mammoth payday" with a salary of versus 15 percent of the film's gross. Pfister met with Noomi Rapace for the film's female lead role and also met with James McAvoy and Tobey Maguire for the other male lead role. The director offered a supporting role to Christoph Waltz. In March 2013, Rebecca Hall was cast as the female lead. By the following April, actors Paul Bettany, Kate Mara and Morgan Freeman joined the main cast.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Continuing his advocacy for the use of film stock over digital cinematography, Pfister chose to shoot the film in the anamorphic format on 35mm film. Filming officially began in June 2013, and took place over a period of 62 days. The majority of the movie was filmed in a variety of locations throughout Albuquerque, New Mexico. The fictional town of Brightwood was created in downtown Belen, New Mexico. The film went through a traditional photochemical finish instead of a digital intermediate. In addition to film, a digital master was completed in 4K resolution, and the film was additionally released in IMAX film format. "Transcendence" was also scheduled for a 3D release in China.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: The musical score for the film composed by Mychael Danna was released on April 15, through WaterTower Music. A compact disc format of the score was released through Amazon.com. The song "Genesis" from the solo album "Quah" by Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen is prominently featured in the film.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: "Transcendence" was released in theaters on April 18, 2014. It was originally scheduled for April 25, 2014.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Warner Bros. distributed the film in the United States and Canada. Summit Entertainment (through Lionsgate) distributed it in other territories. DMG Entertainment, who collaborated with Alcon Entertainment to finance and develop "Transcendence", distributed the film in China. The Chinese version includes a 3D and IMAX 3D release, funded by DMG, which is done in post-production.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: "Transcendence" grossed $23 million in North America and $80 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $103 million. The film was a box office bomb, with "Deadline Hollywood" estimating the losses for the studio could reach as much as $100 million, though a more realistic figure was around $35 million.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: In the film's opening weekend, the film grossed $4.8 million on Friday, $3.8 million on Saturday and $2.3 million on Sunday in North America, for a weekend gross of $10.9 million, playing in 3,455 theaters (an average of $3,151) and ranking #4.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: The biggest other markets were China, France and South Korea, where the film grossed $20.2 million, $6.45 million and $5.3 million respectively.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Publications such as "The Guardian", "Forbes" and "International Business Times" considered the film to be largely a critical failure, with "The Guardian" stating that the reviews were "almost universally damning" and referring to the film as "one of 2014's bigger critical turkeys". Film critic Mark Kermode said that the film got a "critical kicking" in the United Kingdom, much as it did in the United States. However, a number of sources considered the film to have received a mixed rather than a primarily negative reception.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 19% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "In his directorial debut, ace cinematographer Wally Pfister remains a distinctive visual stylist, but "Transcendence"s thought-provoking themes exceed the movie's narrative grasp." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Criticism was aimed largely at the film's logic and storytelling. Michael Atkinson of "Sight & Sound" identified "vast plot holes and superhuman leaps of logic", writing that "[f]or all its gloss, hipster pretensions, plot craters and sometimes risible attempts at action, "Transcendence" traffics in large, troublesome ideas about Right Now and What’s Ahead, even if the film itself is far too timid and compromised to do those hairy questions justice". William Thomas of "Empire" believed that the cast and director had been "wasted on a B-Movie script with pretensions of prescience", dismissing the film as a "banal sci-fi slog"; he awarded it a 2 out of 5 star "poor" rating. David Denby of "The New Yorker" considered the film to be "rhythmless and shapeless" with "some very cheesy and even amateurish fighting". Nigel Floyd of Film4 concluded that it was "[a]n ambitious, old fashioned, ideas-driven science fiction film that is never as mind-expanding as its futuristic images and topical, dystopian ideas seem to promise". Artificial intelligence expert Barney Pell criticized the film's depiction of 3D printing, saying that the self-organizing smart particles in the film "could quite possibly violate laws of physics."


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Writing for Spanish film site eCartelera, Jesús Agudo stated that the movie suffered from being made to look like a Christopher Nolan film. "But where the director of "Inception" knows how to do it with intelligence and cunning, Pfister gets tangled up in his own mysteries, leading us to dead ends in the plot, creating frustration and not just curiosity." He also criticized Johnny Depp's performance: "even when he's not playing an AI it seems like it's a computer talking. If many have complained of the actor's excessive expressiveness, with characters in the style of Jack Sparrow, in "Transcendence" he offers the exact opposite, which isn't good either."


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Contrary to the many less than flattering reviews that the film received, Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" lauded the film and awarded it four stars, calling it a "bold, beautiful flight of futuristic speculation" and "a stunning piece of work". Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" was also positive towards the film, praising the quality of the cast and intelligence of the script.


title: Transcendence (2014 film)

text: Some sources like "The Independent" thought that the negative reviews reported for the film were harsh and that the film was "stylish and entertaining", treading a "fairly well-judged path between paranoia and technological utopianism". AI researcher Stuart Russell claims that despite particular technical aspects of the movie being "a non-starter", the basic premise of superhuman AI is quite possible, and that "AI researchers must, like nuclear physicists and genetic engineers before them, take seriously the possibility that their research might actually succeed and do their utmost to ensure that their work benefits rather than endangers their own species."


title: Seven Pounds

text: Seven Pounds is a 2008 American drama film directed by Gabriele Muccino starring actor Will Smith as a man who sets out to change the lives of seven people. Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, and Barry Pepper also star. The film was released in theaters in the United States and Canada on December 19, 2008, by Columbia Pictures. Despite receiving negative reviews, it was a box-office success, grossing US $168,168,201 worldwide against an estimated budget of $55 million.


title: Seven Pounds

text: In Los Angeles, Ben Thomas berates a sales representative, Ezra Turner, over the phone. Ezra, who is blind, maintains his composure and politely ends the call. At an IRS office after hours, Ben researches Emily Posa, finding that she is being treated for a congenital heart defect. His brother calls, but he denies having taken something from his house.


title: Seven Pounds

text: At an elderly care home, Ben introduces himself as an IRS agent. Administrator Stewart Goodman brags about cutting costs despite buying himself a new BMW. Having paid for an unsuccessful bone marrow transplant, Stewart asks for an extension from the IRS until he can receive a bonus. Ben asks a resident named Inez if Stewart is a "good man", and she reveals that he is punishing her by refusing to bathe her. Ben takes Inez to the washroom himself, angrily denying Stewart’s request for an extension.


title: Seven Pounds

text: Ben tells Emily she is being audited, surprises her at home to assist with her debts, and they begin to bond. He moves into a motel room, where he keeps a deadly box jellyfish.


title: Seven Pounds

text: Ben asks Holly, a child and family services worker, for someone he can help. She directs him to Connie Tepos, a Hispanic immigrant trapped in an abusive relationship. Ben visits Connie and urges her to take action, leaving his business card. He donates a kidney to George, a junior hockey coach who arranged partial scholarships for some of his players to attend college.


title: Seven Pounds

text: When Emily is taken back to the hospital, Ben comforts her with a story about a boy named Tim and his little brother, and spends the night at her bedside. Beaten by her boyfriend, Connie calls Ben, who gives her the deed to his own house, providing her and her children with a safe home.


title: Seven Pounds

text: Emily is placed on the priority list for a heart transplant, and Ben takes her home. He initially rejects her attempts to become closer, but later apologizes, and she shows him her letterpress printing workshop. At the hospital, Ben donates bone marrow to help treat Nicholas, a young patient. Emily invites Ben over; after a romantic evening, he shows her he repaired her antique printing press, and they kiss. Ben’s brother arrives, revealing he is the real IRS agent Ben Thomas; “Ben” is actually Tim, who stole his brother’s identity temporarily. Tim starts to leave, but spends the night with Emily.


title: Seven Pounds

text: After Emily falls asleep, Tim goes to the hospital, where her doctor explains that her rare blood type makes finding a viable donor organ almost impossible. Tim calls his lifelong friend Dan Morris, who has promised to execute Tim's will, and announces, “It’s time”. Returning to his motel room, Tim calls Ezra, to apologize and explain that his previous rude call was to ensure Ezra was a decent person, and Dan will contact him with a “gift”. He then calls 9-1-1 to report his impending suicide.


title: Seven Pounds

text: It is revealed that Tim, once a successful aeronautical engineer, texted while driving and collided with a van, killing all six occupants and his fiancée. Submerged in a bathtub of ice water, Tim allows himself to be stung to death by the jellyfish. His carefully-planned suicide preserves his organs.


title: Seven Pounds

text: Haunted by the deaths of these seven people, Tim was able to save the lives of six others with his organs: Ben required a lobe transplant, Holly receives part of his liver, George a kidney, Nicholas got bone marrow, Emily receives his heart, and Ezra receives his eyes. The seventh, Connie, received Tim's home allowing her and her children to escape an abusive relationship. Emily meets Ezra, who is now a music teacher and has Tim's eyes. Ezra realizes who she is from the heart surgery scar, and they embrace.


title: Seven Pounds

text: "Seven Pounds" is based on a script written by Grant Nieporte under Columbia Pictures. In June 2007, Will Smith joined the studio to star in the planned film and to serve as one of its producers. In September 2007, director Gabriele Muccino, who worked with Smith on "The Pursuit of Happyness" (2006), was attached to direct "Seven Pounds", bringing along his creative team from the 2006 film. Smith was joined by Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson the following December to star in "Seven Pounds". Filming began in February 2008.


title: Seven Pounds

text: Most of the film was shot in Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Malibu, California. Points of interest used in the film include the Travel Inn in Tujunga, California, the Colorado Bar, the Huntington Library, the Sheraton, and the Pasadena Ice Skating Rink all in Pasadena, as well as Malibu Beach in Malibu.


title: Seven Pounds

text: Before the film's release, the title "Seven Pounds" was considered a "mystery" which the studio refused to explain. Early trailers for "Seven Pounds" kept the film's details a mystery. Director Gabriele Muccino explained the intent: "The [audience] will not know exactly what this man is up to." In an interview Will Smith said that the title is a reference to Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", in which a debtor must pay a pound of flesh. In this case, it amounts to seven gifts to seven individuals deemed worthy by Smith's character, to atone for seven deaths he caused.


title: Seven Pounds

text: "Seven Pounds" was promoted on a five-city tour across the United States in November 2008, screening in Cleveland, Miami, Dallas, St. Louis, and Denver to raise funds for food banks in each region. The film was promoted at a charity screening in Minneapolis in support of Second Harvest Heartland. Since screenings of new films usually took place in Los Angeles or New York City, the choice of cities was unconventional. Smith said, "This is more like the old-school music tours. Different clubs, different cities, meeting people. You get in touch with what people are feeling and thinking, and it's much more personal when you're actually out shaking hands." The actor sought to "get reacquainted" with an America that he felt had an "openness to change" with the country's election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president.


title: Seven Pounds

text: The film was released on December 19, 2008, to 2,758 theaters in the United States and Canada. It grossed an estimated US$16 million, placing second at the weekend box office after "Yes Man". The opening gross was the lowest for a film starring Smith since "Ali" in 2001. The gross was US$5 million less than anticipated, partially ascribed to winter storms in the Northeast over the weekend.


title: Seven Pounds

text: The film was released on DVD on March 31, 2009, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film is also available to rent or buy on the PlayStation Network in standard or high-definition format. , in North American DVD sales, the film has grossed US $28,812,423.


title: Seven Pounds

text: The film received generally negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 27% based upon a sample of 195 reviews with an average rating of 4.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Grim and morose, "Seven Pounds" is also undone by an illogical plot." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100 based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: Seven Pounds

text: "Variety"s film reviewer Todd McCarthy predicted that the movie's climax "will be emotionally devastating for many viewers, perhaps particularly those with serious religious beliefs," and characterized the film as an "endlessly sentimental fable about sacrifice and redemption that aims only at the heart at the expense of the head." A. O. Scott, writing for "The New York Times", said that the movie "may be among the most transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made."


title: Seven Pounds

text: Positive reviews singled out Dawson's performance. Richard Corliss wrote in "Time" that Dawson gives "a lovely performance," while Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" noted that Dawson's performance "shows once again that she has it in her to be the powerhouse." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun Times" commented on the fact that the audience is kept completely out of the loop as to what Ben is doing, comparing the film to Jean-Pierre Melville's "Le Samouraï", pointing out how he "finds this more interesting than a movie about a man whose nature and objectives are made clear in the first five minutes, in a plot that simply points him straight ahead."


title: Island

text: An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be called an eyot or ait, and a small island off the coast may be called a holm. Sedimentary islands in the Ganges delta are called chars. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands, such as the Philippines, is referred to as an archipelago.


title: Island

text: There are two main types of islands in the sea: continental and oceanic. There are also artificial islands, which are man-made.


title: Island

text: The word "island" derives from Middle English "iland", from Old English "igland" (from "ig" or "ieg", similarly meaning 'island' when used independently, and -land carrying its contemporary meaning; cf. Dutch "eiland" ("island"), German "Eiland" ("small island")). However, the spelling of the word was modified in the 15th century because of a false etymology caused by an incorrect association with the etymologically unrelated Old French loanword "isle", which itself comes from the Latin word "insula". Old English "ieg" is actually a cognate of Swedish "ö" and German "Aue", and related to Latin "aqua" (water).


title: Island

text: There is a widely accepted difference between islands and continents in terms of geology. Continents are often considered to be the largest landmass of a particular continental plate; this holds true for Australia, which sits on its own continental lithosphere and tectonic plate (the Australian Plate).


title: Island

text: By contrast, islands are usually seen as being extensions of the oceanic crust (e.g. volcanic islands), or as belonging to a continental plate containing a larger landmass (continental islands); the latter is the case of Greenland, which sits on the North American Plate.


title: Island

text: Continental islands are bodies of land that lie on the continental shelf of a continent. Examples are Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Sakhalin, Taiwan and Hainan off Asia; New Guinea, Tasmania, and Kangaroo Island off Australia; Great Britain, Ireland, and Sicily off Europe; Greenland, Newfoundland, Long Island, and Sable Island off North America; and Barbados, the Falkland Islands, and Trinidad off South America.


title: Island

text: A special type of continental island is the microcontinental island, which is created when a continent is horizontally displaced or rifted Examples are Madagascar and Socotra off Africa, New Caledonia, New Zealand, and some of the Seychelles.


title: Island

text: A lake such as Wollaston Lake drains in two different directions, thus creating an island. If this island has a seashore as well as being encircled by two river systems, it becomes what might be called a "subcontinental island". The one formed by Wollaston Lake is very large, about .


title: Island

text: Another subtype is an island or bar formed by deposition of tiny rocks where water current loses some of its carrying capacity. This includes:


title: Island

text: Oceanic islands are typically considered to be islands that do not sit on continental shelves. Other definitions limit the term to only refer to islands with no past geological connections to a continental landmass. The vast majority are volcanic in origin, such as Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. The few oceanic islands that are not volcanic are tectonic in origin and arise where plate movements have lifted up the ocean floor above the surface. Examples are the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and Macquarie Island in the South Pacific Ocean.


title: Island

text: One type of volcanic oceanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring. Examples are the Aleutian Islands, the Mariana Islands, and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. The only examples in the Atlantic Ocean are some of the Lesser Antilles and the South Sandwich Islands.


title: Island

text: Another type of volcanic oceanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples: Iceland, which is the world's second largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen. Both are in the Atlantic.


title: Island

text: A third type of volcanic oceanic island is formed over volcanic hotspots. A hotspot is more or less stationary relative to the moving tectonic plate above it, so a chain of islands results as the plate drifts. Over long periods of time, this type of island is eventually "drowned" by isostatic adjustment and eroded, becoming a seamount. Plate movement across a hot-spot produces a line of islands oriented in the direction of the plate movement. An example is the Hawaiian Islands, from Hawaii to Kure, which continue beneath the sea surface in a more northerly direction as the Emperor Seamounts. Another chain with similar orientation is the Tuamotu Archipelago; its older, northerly trend is the Line Islands. The southernmost chain is the Austral Islands, with its northerly trending part the atolls in the nation of Tuvalu. Tristan da Cunha is an example of a hotspot volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. Another hotspot in the Atlantic is the island of Surtsey, which was formed in 1963.


title: Island

text: An atoll is an island formed from a coral reef that has grown on an eroded and submerged volcanic island. The reef rises to the surface of the water and forms a new island. Atolls are typically ring-shaped with a central lagoon. Examples are the Line Islands in the Pacific and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.


title: Island

text: Approximately 45,000 tropical islands with an area of at least exist. Examples formed from coral reefs include Maldives, Tonga, Samoa, Nauru, and Polynesia. Granite islands include Seychelles and Tioman.


title: Island

text: The socio-economic diversity of tropical islands ranges from the Stone Age societies in the interior of North Sentinel, Madagascar, Borneo, and Papua New Guinea to the high-tech lifestyles of the city-islands of Singapore and Hong Kong. International tourism is a significant factor in the economy of many tropical islands including Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Réunion, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Maldives.


title: Island

text: The process of de-islandisation is often concerning bridging, but there are other forms of linkages such as causeways: fixed transport links across narrow necks of water, some of which are only operative at low tides (e.g. that connecting Cornwall's St Michael's Mount to the peninsular mainland) while others (such as the Canso Causeway connecting Cape Breton to the Nova Scotia mainland), are usable all-year-round (aside from interruptions during storm surge periods).


title: Island

text: Some places may retain "island" in their names for historical reasons after being connected to a larger landmass by a land bridge or landfill, such as Coney Island and Coronado Island, though these are, strictly speaking, tied islands. Conversely, when a piece of land is separated from the mainland by a man-made canal, for example the Peloponnese by the Corinth Canal, more or less the entirety of Fennoscandia by the White Sea Canal, or Marble Hill in northern Manhattan during the time between the building of the United States Ship Canal and the filling-in of the Harlem River which surrounded the area, it is generally not considered an island.


title: Island

text: Another type of connection is fostered by harbour walls/breakwaters that incorporate offshore islets into their structures, such as those in Sai harbour in northern Honshu, Japan, and the connection to the mainland which transformed Ilhéu do Diego from an islet. De-islanded through its fixed link to the mainland, the former islet's name, Ilhéu do Diego, became functionally redundant (and thereby archaic) and the location took the fort as its namesake. Some former island sites have retained designations as islands after the draining/subsidence of surrounding waters and their fixed linkage to land (England's Isle of Ely and Vancouver's Granville Island being respective cases in point). Their names are thereby archaic in that they reflect the islands’ pasts rather than their present structures and/or transport logistics. Other examples include Singapore and its causeway, and the various Dutch delta islands, such as IJsselmonde.


title: Island

text: Almost all of Earth's islands are natural and have been formed by tectonic forces or volcanic eruptions. However, artificial (man-made) islands also exist, such as the island in Osaka Bay off the Japanese island of Honshu, on which Kansai International Airport is located. Artificial islands can be built using natural materials (e.g., earth, rock, or sand) or artificial ones (e.g., concrete slabs or recycled waste).


title: Island

text: Sometimes natural islands are artificially enlarged, such as Vasilyevsky Island in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, which had its western shore extended westward by some 0.5 km in the construction of the Passenger Port of St. Petersburg.


title: Island

text: Artificial islands are sometimes built on pre-existing "low-tide elevation," a naturally formed area of land which is surrounded by and above water at low tide but submerged at high tide. Legally these are not islands and have no territorial sea of their own.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Vincent Thomas Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Lombardi is considered by many to be the greatest coach in football history, and he is recognized as one of the greatest coaches and leaders in the history of all American sports. He is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight and five total NFL Championships in seven years, in addition to winning the first two Super Bowls at the conclusion of the 1966 and 1967 NFL seasons.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi began his coaching career as an assistant and later as a head coach at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. He was an assistant coach at Fordham, the United States Military Academy and the New York Giants before becoming head coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967 and the Washington Redskins in 1969.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: He never had a losing season as head coach in the NFL, compiling a regular-season winning percentage of 73.8% (96–34–6), and 90% (9–1) in the postseason for an overall record of 105 wins, 35 losses and 6 ties in the NFL.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: The year after his sudden death from cancer in 1970, he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the NFL Super Bowl trophy was named in his honor.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi was born on June 11, 1913, in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn to Enrico "Harry" Lombardi (1889–1971) and Matilda "Mattie" Izzo (1891–1972). Harry's mother and father, Vincenzo and Michelina, emigrated from Salerno, Italy. Mattie's father and mother, Anthony and Loretta, emigrated from Vietri di Potenza, Basilicata. Harry had three siblings, and Matilda had twelve. Vince was the oldest of five children, including Madeleine, Harold, Claire, and Joe. Both the Lombardi and Izzo clans settled entirely in Sheepshead Bay.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Matilda's father, Anthony, opened up a barber shop in Sheepshead Bay before the turn of the century. At about the time of Lombardi's birth, Harry, and his brother, Eddie, opened a butcher shop in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. Throughout the Great Depression, Harry's shop did well, and his family prospered. Lombardi grew up in an ethnically diverse, middle-class neighborhood.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Church attendance was mandatory for the Lombardis on Sundays. Mass would be followed with an equally compulsory few hours of dinner with extended family members, friends, and local clergy. Lombardi himself was an altar boy at St. Mark's Catholic Church. Outside their local neighborhood, the Lombardi children were subject to the rampant ethnic discrimination that existed at the time against Italian immigrants and their descendants. As a child, Lombardi helped his father at his meat cutting business, but grew to hate it. At the age of 12 he started playing in an uncoached but organized football league in Sheepshead Bay.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi graduated from the eighth grade at P.S. 206 at age 15 in 1928. He then enrolled in the Cathedral Preparatory Seminary, a division of Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception in Brooklyn, a six-year secondary program to become a Catholic priest. At Cathedral, he played on the school's baseball and basketball teams, but his performance was hindered by his poor athleticism and eyesight. Against school rules, he continued to play football off-campus throughout his studies at Cathedral. After completing four years at Cathedral he decided not to pursue the priesthood. He enrolled at St. Francis Preparatory high school for the fall of 1932. There he became a Charter Member of Omega Gamma Delta fraternity. His performance as a fullback on the Terriers' football team earned him a position on the virtual All-City football team.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In 1933, Lombardi received a football scholarship to Fordham University in the Bronx to play for the Fordham Rams and Coach Jim Crowley, who was one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in the 1920s. During his freshman year, Lombardi proved to be an aggressive and spirited player on the football field. Prior to the beginning of his sophomore year, Lombardi was projected to start games at the tackle position. Lombardi was only 5'8" and about 180 pounds and was classified as undersized for the position.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In his senior year of 1936, he was the right guard in the Seven Blocks of Granite, a nickname given by a Fordham University publicist to the Fordham University football team's offensive front line. In a game against Pitt, he suffered a severe gash inside his mouth and had several teeth knocked out. He missed most of the remainder of the game, until he was called in on defense for a successful goal-line stand that preserved a scoreless tie. The Rams were 5–0–2 before losing in the final game of the season, 7–6, to NYU. The loss destroyed all hopes of Fordham playing in the Rose Bowl and taught Lombardi a lesson he would never forget — never to underestimate your opponent.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi graduated from Fordham University on June 16, 1937. The nation was still plagued by the Great Depression, so there were few career opportunities for the young Lombardi, and for the next two years, he showed no discernible career path or ambition. He tried to play semi-professional football with the Wilmington Clippers of the American Association and worked as a debt collector for a collection agency, but those efforts very quickly proved to be failures. With his father's strong support, he enrolled in Fordham Law School in September 1938. Although he did not fail any classes, he believed his grades were so poor that he dropped out after one semester. Later in life, he would explain to others that he was close to graduating, but his desire to start and support a family forced him to leave law school and get a job. He also joined the Brooklyn Eagles.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In 1939, Lombardi wanted to marry his girlfriend, Marie Planitz, but he deferred at his father's insistence because he needed a steady job to support himself and a family; he married Marie the following year. In 1939, Lombardi accepted an assistant coaching job at St. Cecilia's, a Catholic high school in Englewood, New Jersey. He was offered the position by the school's new head coach, Lombardi's former Fordham teammate, quarterback Andy Palau. Palau had just inherited the head coaching position from another Fordham teammate, Nat Pierce (left guard), who had accepted an assistant coach's job back at Fordham. In addition to coaching, Lombardi, age 26, taught Latin, chemistry, and physics for an annual salary of under $1,000.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In 1942, Andy Palau left St. Cecilia's for another position at Fordham, and Lombardi became the head coach at St. Cecilia's. He stayed a total of eight years, five as head coach. In 1943, St. Cecilia's was recognized as the top high school football team in the nation, in large part because of their victory over Brooklyn Prep, a Jesuit school considered one of the best teams in the eastern United States. Brooklyn Prep that season was led by senior Joe Paterno, who, like Lombardi, was to rise to legendary status in football. Lombardi won six state private school championships (NJISAA - New Jersey Independent Schools Athletic Association), and became the president of the Bergen County Coaches' Association.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In 1947, Lombardi became the coach of freshman teams in football and basketball at his alma mater, Fordham University. The following year, he was an assistant coach for the varsity football team under head coach Ed Danowski, but he was arguably the "de facto" head coach.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Following the 1948 season, Lombardi accepted an assistant coaching job at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a position that greatly influenced his future philosophy and system of coaching. He was offensive line coach under head coach Earl "Colonel Red" Blaik. "As integral as religion was to [Lombardi's] sense of self, it was not until he reached West Point and combined his spiritual discipline with Blaik's military discipline that his coaching persona began to take its mature form." Blaik's emphasis on execution became a trademark of Lombardi's coaching style. Lombardi coached at West Point for five seasons, with varying results. The 1949 and 1950 seasons were successful, but the 1951 and 1952 seasons were not, due to the aftermath of a cadet cribbing scandal (a violation of the Cadet Honor Code) which was revealed in spring 1951. By order of the Superintendent, 43 of the 45 members of the varsity football team were discharged from the Academy as a result of the scandal. "Decades later, looking back on his rise, Lombardi came to regard ..." Blaik's decision not to resign "... as a pivotal moment in his [own] career" — it taught him "perseverance". After the 1951 and 1952 seasons not much was expected from the 1953 team as it had also lost six players due to academic failure. The 1953 team, however, did achieve a 7–1–1 record, as Lombardi had a bigger role than ever in coaching the team. Following these five seasons at Army, Lombardi accepted an assistant coaching position with the New York Giants.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: At age 41 in 1954, Lombardi began his NFL career with the New York Giants. He accepted a job that later became known as the offensive coordinator position under new head coach Jim Lee Howell. The Giants had finished the previous season under 23-year coach Steve Owen with a 3–9 record. By his third season in 1956, Lombardi, along with the defensive coordinator, former All-Pro cornerback turned coach Tom Landry, turned the squad into a championship team, defeating the Chicago Bears 47–7 for the league title. "Howell readily acknowledged the talents of Lombardi and Landry, and joked self-deprecatingly, that his main function was to make sure the footballs had air in them." At points in his tenure as an assistant coach at West Point, and as an assistant coach with the Giants, Lombardi worried that he was unable to land a head coaching job due to prejudice against his Italian heritage, especially with respect to Southern colleges. Howell wrote numerous recommendations for Lombardi to aid him in obtaining a head coaching position. Lombardi applied for head coaching positions at Wake Forest, Notre Dame, and other universities and, in some cases, never received a reply. In New York, Lombardi introduced the strategy of rule blocking to the NFL. In rule blocking, the offensive lineman would block an area, and not necessarily a particular defensive player, as was the norm up to that time. The running back was then expected to run towards any hole that was created. Lombardi referred to this as "running to daylight".


title: Vince Lombardi

text: The Green Bay Packers, with six future Hall of Famers on the roster in 1958, finished at 1–10–1 under head coach Ray McLean, the worst record in Packer history. The players were dispirited, the Packer shareholders were disheartened, and the Green Bay community was enraged. The angst in Green Bay extended to the NFL as a whole, as the financial viability and the very existence of the Green Bay Packer franchise were in jeopardy. On February 2, 1959, Lombardi accepted the position of head coach and general manager of the Packers. He demanded and gained full control over the football operations of the community-owned franchise, leaving no doubt of this when he told the franchise's executive committee, "I want it understood that I am in complete command here."


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi's assertion of "complete command" applied to the players as well. For his first training camp, he instituted harsh regimens and demanded absolute dedication and effort from his players. The Packers immediately improved in 1959 to 7–5, and rookie head coach Lombardi was named Coach of the Year. The fans appreciated what Lombardi was trying to do and responded by purchasing all the tickets for every home game during the 1960 season. Every Packers home game—preseason, regular season and playoffs—has been sold out ever since then.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In Lombardi's second year in 1960, Green Bay won the NFL Western Conference for the first time since 1944. This victory, along with his well-known religious convictions, led the Green Bay community to anoint Lombardi with the nickname "The Pope". Lombardi led the Packers to the Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Before the championship game, Lombardi met with Wellington Mara and advised him that he would not take the Giants' head coaching job, which was initially offered after the end of the 1959 season. In the final play of the game, in a drive that would have won it, the Packers were stopped a few yards from the goal line. Lombardi had suffered his first and only championship game loss. After the game, and after the press corps had left the locker room, Lombardi told his team, "This will never happen again. You will never lose another championship." In later years as coach of the Packers, Lombardi made it a point to admonish his running backs that if they failed to score from one yard out, he would consider it a personal affront to him and he would seek retribution. He coached the Packers to win their next nine post-season games, a record streak not matched or broken until Bill Belichick won ten straight from 2002 to 2006 with New England. The Packers defeated the Giants for the NFL title in 1961 (37–0 in Green Bay) and 1962 (16–7 at Yankee Stadium), marking the first two of their five titles in Lombardi's seven years. After the 1962 championship victory, President John F. Kennedy called Lombardi and asked him if he would "come back to Army and coach again". Kennedy received Lombardi's tacit refusal of the request. His only other post-season loss occurred to the St. Louis Cardinals in the third-place Playoff Bowl after the 1964 season (officially classified as an exhibition game).


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Including postseason but excluding exhibition games, Lombardi compiled a 105–35–6 (.740) record as head coach, and never suffered a losing season. He led the Packers to three consecutive NFL championships — in 1965, 1966, and 1967 — a feat accomplished only once before in the history of the league, by Curly Lambeau, co-founder of the Packers, who coached the team to their first three straight NFL Championships in 1929, 1930, and 1931. At the conclusion of the 1966 and 1967 seasons, Lombardi's Packers won the first two Super Bowls, for championships in five of seven seasons.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: As coach of the Packers, Lombardi converted Notre Dame quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Paul Hornung to a full-time halfback. Lombardi also designed a play for fullback Jim Taylor: both guards, Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston, pulled to the outside and blocked downfield while Taylor would "run to daylight" — i.e., wherever the defenders weren't. This was a play that he had originally developed with the Giants for Frank Gifford. It soon became known as the Packers sweep (or Lombardi sweep), though Lombardi openly admitted it was based on an old single wing concept.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In 1967, Lombardi's Packers hosted the Dallas Cowboys in Green Bay on December 31 in the NFL Championship Game, a rematch of the previous season. This became known as the "Ice Bowl" because of the game-time temperature. Lombardi had a heating coil underneath the field but on this day it was not functioning. Some people believe that he turned it off on purpose. With 16 seconds left in the game and down by three points, the Packers called their final time-out. It was 3rd and goal on the Dallas two-foot line. In the huddle, with the game on the line, Quarterback Bart Starr asked Kramer whether he could get enough traction on the icy turf for a wedge play and Kramer responded with an unequivocal yes. Starr came over to Lombardi on the sidelines to discuss the last play and told him he wanted to run a 31 wedge, but with him keeping the ball. Lombardi, having had enough of the bitter cold, told Starr to 'Run it! And let's get the hell out of here!' Lombardi was asked by Pat Peppler what play Starr would call, to which Lombardi replied, 'Damned if I know.' Starr returned to the huddle and called a Brown right 31 Wedge, but with him keeping the ball. Kramer blocked Jethro Pugh low and Ken Bowman hit Pugh high as Starr followed them into the end zone for the Packer lead and assured victory.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Shortly after the victory in Super Bowl II, Lombardi resigned as head coach of the Packers on February 1, 1968, continuing as general manager. He handed the head coaching position to Phil Bengtson, a longtime assistant, but the Packers finished at 6–7–1 in the 1968 season and were out of the four-team NFL playoffs. In February , Lombardi became head coach and general manager of the Washington Redskins. The Redskins finished at 7–5–2, their first winning record since the 1955 season. Lombardi died the following year, but he was credited with having "truly changed the culture in that one unforgettable season in 1969," laying the foundation for Washington's early 1970s success under another future Hall of Fame coach, George Allen.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In the fall of 1934, Lombardi's roommate Jim Lawlor introduced him to his cousin's relative, Marie Planitz. When Marie announced her ardent desire to marry Lombardi, her status-conscious stockbroker father did not like the idea of his daughter marrying the son of an Italian butcher from Brooklyn, a prejudice he would face more than once in his life. Lombardi and Marie wed, nonetheless, on August 31, 1940.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Marie's first pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage. This had a terrible effect on Marie and caused her to turn to heavy drinking, a problem she would encounter on more than one occasion in her life. Their son, Vincent Henry Lombardi (Vince Jr.), was born in 1942, and their daughter Susan followed five years later in 1947.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi's perfectionism, authoritarian nature and temper, instilled in his wife a masterful ability to verbally assault and demean Lombardi when he verbally abused her. His children were not immune from his yelling. When Lombardi had not lost his temper, he would often be reticent and aloof.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi's grandson, Joe Lombardi, was named the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions in January 2014. He was relieved of this position midway through the 2015 season. Lombardi was previously quarterbacks coach for the New Orleans Saints. In the 2009 season, he helped lead the Saints to win the trophy bearing his grandfather's name, and Drew Brees to win a Super Bowl MVP award. He is now the offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers, under new head coach Brandon Staley.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Though he was 28 years old when the United States entered World War II, Lombardi did not serve in the war. He obtained a series of deferments: his first was a 2-A due to his teaching occupation; in 1943, he obtained a second deferment due to parenthood (3-A); and his final deferment was labelled a 4-A and given in 1944.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: The three constants throughout Lombardi's life were his Roman Catholic faith, his family, and football. His father was a daily Communicant throughout his life and his mother's favorite picture of Vince as a child was on his Confirmation. When Lombardi was 12, while serving as an altar boy on Easter Sunday, "... amid the color and pageantry scarlet and white vestments, golden cross, scepters, the wafers and wine, body and blood ... the inspiration came to him that he should become a priest ...". When his mother, Matty, got wind of it she bragged about her son's plan to her neighbors. Lombardi attended Mass on a daily basis throughout his life.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: During his tenure at St. Cecilia, Lombardi attended Mass every day and "prayed for calm and control: of his temper and ... his wife's drinking". When Lombardi became head coach of football in 1942, he led his team to Sunday Mass before each home game. At St. Cecilia, Lombardi shared an office with Father Tim Moore wherein it was not unusual for Lombardi to interrupt a conversation and request to go to Confession and for which Father Tim obliged him right in the office.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: During his stay at Green Bay, Lombardi once emerged from his office and appeared before his secretary, Ruth McKloskey, wearing "... all these priest robes on, and he had a miter with a tassel, everything". Each day on his way to work for the Green Bay Packers, Lombardi would stop at St. Willebrord Church and "offer a prayer in case of unexpected death: 'My God, if I am to die today, or suddenly at any time, I wish to receive this Communion as my viaticum ... '". He regularly attended Sunday Mass at Resurrection Church in the Allouez neighborhood of Green Bay's southeast side, always sitting with his wife in the middle of the ninth pew.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: On the morning of the dedication of Lombardi Avenue, Lombardi remarked to his 37-member entourage that he was pleased to have gotten them all up to attend morning Mass. Lombardi was a Fourth Degree in the Knights of Columbus.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In 1960, a color barrier still existed on at least one team in the NFL, but Jack Vainisi, the Scouting Director for the Packers, and Lombardi were determined "to ignore the prejudices then prevalent in most NFL front offices in their search for the most talented players". Lombardi explained his views by saying that he "... viewed his players as neither black nor white, but Packer green".


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Among professional football head coaches, in the midst of the civil rights movement, Lombardi's anti-discrimination views were unusual. When Lombardi joined the Packers, they only had one black player, Nate Borden. During his time as coach the team became fully integrated: by 1967 they had 13 black players, including All-Pros Willie Davis, Willie Wood, Dave Robinson, Herb Adderley and Bob Jeter.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: During his first training camp in Green Bay, Lombardi was notified by Packer veterans that an interracial relationship existed between one of the Packer rookies and a young woman. The next day at training camp, Lombardi—who was vehemently opposed to Jim Crow discrimination and had a zero-tolerance policy towards racism—responded by warning his team that if any player exhibited prejudice in any manner, that specific player would be thrown off the team.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi let it be known to all Green Bay establishments that if they did not accommodate his black and white players equally well, then that business would be off-limits to the entire team. Before the start of the 1960 regular season, he instituted a policy that the Packers would only lodge in places that accepted all his players. Lombardi also refused to assign hotel rooms to players based on their race: by 1967 the Packers were the only NFL team with such a policy.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi was a member of the all-white Oneida Golf and Riding Country club in Green Bay, and he demanded that he should be allowed to choose a Native American caddie, even if white caddies were available. Lombardi's view on racial matters was a result of his religious faith and the ethnic prejudice that he had experienced as an Italian-American.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi was known to be volatile and terse with players during practices and games, and he insisted on unconditional respect for everyone in his organization. Lombardi demanded "Nothing But Acceptance" from players and coaches toward all people, and he would immediately terminate a coach or release a player if that particular person insulted the sexual orientation of gay players and front office staff. According to Lombardi biographer and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Maraniss, if he caught a coach "discriminating against a player thought to be gay, he'd be fired". Richard Nicholls, the lifelong partner of Lombardi's younger brother, Hal, stated, "Vin was always fair in how he treated everybody ... a great man who accepted people at face value for what they were, and didn't judge anybody. He just wanted you to do the job."


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In Washington, Lombardi's assistant general manager David Slatterly was gay, as was PR director Joe Blair, who was described as Lombardi's "right-hand man". According to son Vince Lombardi, Jr., "He saw everyone as equals, and I think having a gay brother (Hal) was a big factor in his approach ... I think my father would've felt, 'I hope I've created an atmosphere in the locker room where this would not be an issue at all. And if you do have an issue, the problem will be yours because my locker room will tolerate nothing but acceptance.'"


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Upon his arrival in Washington, Lombardi was aware of tight end Jerry Smith's sexual orientation. "Lombardi protected and loved Jerry," said former teammate Dave Kopay. Lombardi brought Smith into his office and told him that his sexual orientation would never be an issue as long as he was coaching the Redskins; Smith would be judged solely on his on-the-field performance and contribution to the team's success. Under Lombardi's leadership Smith flourished, becoming an integral part of Lombardi's offense, and was voted a First Team All-Pro for the first time in his career, which was also Lombardi's only season as the Redskins head coach.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi invited other gay players to training camp and would privately hope they would prove they could earn a spot on the team. At the Washington Redskins training camp in 1969, Ray McDonald was a gay player, with sub-par skills, who was trying to make the Redskins roster again, but this time with Lombardi as the Redskins' new head coach. True to his word, Lombardi told running back coach, George Dickson, 'I want you to get on McDonald and work on him and work on him – and if I hear "one" of you people make reference to his manhood, you'll be out of here before your ass hits the ground.'


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Although his wife was a Republican, Lombardi was a lifelong Democrat with liberal views on civil rights: he supported John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, Robert F. Kennedy in the 1968 primaries, and was also a supporter of Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. Despite this, during the 1960s he became uncomfortable with the burgeoning youth protest movements associated with the emerging counterculture, such as the New Left and the Anti-war movement. In a speech that he first delivered in February 1967 to the American Management Association, he suggested that "everything has been done to strengthen the rights of the individual and at the same time weaken the rights of the church, weaken the rights of the state, and weaken the rights of all authority". Due to Lombardi's popularity, Richard Nixon once considered him as a possible running mate in the 1968 presidential election but dropped the idea upon learning about Lombardi's support for the Democratic Party.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: Lombardi had suffered from digestive tract problems as early as 1967, and he had refused his doctor's request to undergo a proctoscopic exam. On June 24, 1970, Lombardi was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital, and tests "revealed anaplastic carcinoma in the rectal area of his colon, a fast-growing malignant cancer in which the cells barely resemble their normal appearance". On July 27, Lombardi was readmitted to Georgetown and exploratory surgery found that the cancer was terminal. Lombardi and Marie received family, friends, clergy, players, and former players at his hospital bedside. He received a phone call from President Nixon telling Lombardi that all of the U.S. was behind him, to which Lombardi replied that he would never give up his fight against his illness. On his deathbed, Lombardi told Father Tim that he was not afraid to die, but that he regretted he could not have accomplished more in his life. Lombardi died in Washington, D.C. at 7:12 a.m. on Thursday, September 3, 1970, surrounded by his wife, parents, two children, and six grandchildren. He was 57.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: The funeral was held on September 7 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. Approximately 1,500 people lined Fifth Avenue, and the avenue was closed to traffic between 39th and 50th Street. Terence Cardinal Cooke delivered the eulogy. In attendance were team owners, coaches Tom Landry, Dick Nolan, Weeb Ewbank, Alex Webster, Norm Van Brocklin, Phil Bengtson and Bill Austin, Commissioner Pete Rozelle, past and present members of the Packers, Redskins, and Giants, broadcasters Ray Scott and Howard Cosell, former students from Saints, colleagues and players from West Point (including Red Blaik), and classmates from Fordham University, including the remaining Seven Blocks of Granite. Lombardi was interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown Township, New Jersey.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In 1968, Lombardi starred in a half-hour motivational film titled "Second Effort", that has been called "The best-selling training film of all time".


title: Vince Lombardi

text: On December 14, 1973, ABC aired "Legend in Granite" starring Ernest Borgnine as Vince. The biographical TV drama focused mostly on his first two years as Packers head coach (1959–1960).


title: Vince Lombardi

text: In 1986, CHCH aired the TV movie "Lombardi: I Am Not a Legend" starring Robert Knuckle in the title role that depicted Lombardi's life up until the NFL.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: ESPN produced the 2005 TV movie "Code Breakers" that depicted the West Point cheating scandal and its effect on the football program. Richard Zeppieri played then-Assistant Coach Lombardi.


title: Vince Lombardi

text: A play titled "Lombardi" opened on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City in October 2010, following an out-of-town tryout at the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The production starred Dan Lauria as Lombardi and Judith Light as his wife, Marie. The play received positive reviews, as did Lauria's performance.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: Vicki Ann Lawrence ( Axelrad; born March 26, 1949), sometimes credited as Vicki Lawrence Schultz, is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She is best known for her character Mama (Thelma Harper). Lawrence originated multitudes of characters beyond Mama on CBS's "The Carol Burnett Show" from 1967 to 1978, the variety show's entire series run.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: In "The Carol Burnett Show"s 7th season, Lawrence debuted her famed Mama role on a comedy sketch called "The Family". Only created as a one-off skit, "The Family"s unexpected success with audiences led to it having recurring installments for the final 5 seasons of the program. With Lawrence portraying the character of a cold, unaffectionate, widowed elderly mother to the neurotic, misfortunate Eunice (played by Burnett despite Lawrence being 16 years younger), "The Family" bred some of "The Carol Burnett Show"s most famed blooper moments.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: The success of "The Family" skits eventually spun off into Lawrence landing her own television sitcom, "Mama's Family", her character becoming the focal point and Mama's traits expanding and evolving dramatically. Continuing Mama's evolution, Lawrence has hosted an untelevised stand-up comedy routine since 2001, "Vicki and Mama: A Two Woman Show." Moreover, Lawrence has made numerous post-"Mama's Family" guest TV show appearances in her famed Mama role.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: In 1973, Lawrence became a one-hit wonder songstress, landing on the U.S. chart with "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia". It reached number one on both the United States and Canada charts. She also released an album on Bell Records. Lawrence has multiple Emmy Award nominations, winning one in 1976. She is also a multiple Golden Globe nominee, all for "The Carol Burnett Show". She also made several guest appearances in the Disney Channel sitcom "Hannah Montana". Most recently, Lawrence starred in the Fox sitcom series "The Cool Kids" from 2018 to 2019.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: Lawrence was born Vicki Ann Axelrad in Inglewood, California, the daughter of Anne Alene (née Loyd) and Howard Axelrad, a certified public accountant for Max Factor. The family surname was legally changed to "Lawrence" when Vicki was young. She is a graduate of Morningside High School in Inglewood, class of 1967. Lawrence had originally planned on being a dental hygienist. She attended UCLA while on "The Carol Burnett Show", and changed her major to theater arts, but dropped out after two years.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: In high school, she auditioned for and got into the musical group The Young Americans. She stayed with the group almost until the end of high school. By being with the group, she gained experience from touring, performing at the Oscars, coming in contact with noteworthy performers such as Johnny Mathis and Louis Armstrong, and performing on "The Andy Williams Show".


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: In her senior year, she entered the Miss Fireball of Inglewood contest for the local firefighter's ball. A reporter for a local newspaper wrote a story about the contest and stated that Lawrence bore a striking resemblance to a young Carol Burnett. An avid fan letter-writer, Lawrence's mother urged her to write a letter, which Lawrence did, including the newspaper article.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: After receiving the letter, Burnett found Lawrence's father's name in the phone book, called him, and said she would go to see the Miss Fireball contest. Lawrence won the contest and Burnett was called to the stage to crown her. Coincidentally, Burnett was looking for an actress to play her younger sister on her upcoming show. After a few months and auditions, Lawrence got the part at age eighteen, specifically for playing Chrissy in the "Carol and Sis" sketches.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: After Lawrence was given the job on "The Carol Burnett Show", both Burnett and Harvey Korman took her under their wings. Korman taught her various sketch comedy skills, such as listening not just for a cue line, and also coached her in other areas, such as speaking in different accents. Lawrence has credited Korman and Burnett with being her mentors, and has referred to her experience on the show as the "Harvard school of comedy". Lawrence has stated that she learned show business from Burnett and looked up to her very much, and that the two share a very close friendship.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: As a comedian and actress, Lawrence is best known for her work on "The Carol Burnett Show", of which she was a part from 1967 to 1978. She was the only cast member, except for Burnett herself, who stayed on the show for the entire 11 seasons. After "The Carol Burnett Show" ended in 1978, Lawrence and her husband Al Schultz moved with their children to Maui, Hawaii, but after a few years, returned to Los Angeles, where they have remained.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: Her portrayal of the Mama character on "The Carol Burnett Show's" "The Family" sketches was so popular that NBC subsequently created the sitcom "Mama's Family", elaborating on the Mama character. (Burnett reprised the Eunice Higgins character for the sitcom from time to time.) The series ran from 1983 to 1985 on NBC; after its cancellation from NBC, it was renewed from 1986 to 1990 in first-run syndication. The show was more successful in the renewed version. She also reprised the Mama character on stage for "Vicki Lawrence & Mama: A Two-Woman Show".


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: Lawrence has made appearances on other programs, such as the sitcoms "Laverne & Shirley", "Major Dad", "Roseanne", "Hannah Montana", and "Yes, Dear". Between the NBC and syndication runs of "Mama's Family", Lawrence starred in the 1985 comedy pilot "Anything for Love", which aired as a special on CBS that summer and co-starred Lauren Tewes and Rebeca Arthur. Lawrence has also appeared with Burnett, Korman, and Tim Conway in the Burnett show retrospectives that were broadcast in 1993, 2001, and 2004. Lawrence played Sister Mary Paul (Sister Amnesia) in the TV special based on "Nunsense Jamboree" that originally aired on TNN in 1998.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: Lawrence played Mamaw Stewart (the mother of Robby Ray Stewart and grandmother of Jackson and Miley Stewart) in the hit Disney series "Hannah Montana" alongside Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter Miley Cyrus.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: Lawrence played as Mama in an Ohio commercial, promoting a constitutional amendment that would permit casino gambling in Ohio. Lawrence played Dan's old high-school flame, Phyllis, in an episode of "Roseanne". She also appeared in a special celebrity-edition episode of the Anne Robinson version of "The Weakest Link". Playing for a charity, she made it to the final two but ended up losing to Ed Begley, Jr.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: As a singer, Lawrence got her start as one of the scores of hopefuls on the syndicated "Johnny Mann's Stand Up And Cheer" program. However, she is most known for her number-one hit, "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", a song written by her first husband Bobby Russell, which was released on Bell Records in November 1972. It sold over two million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 1973. During the last episode of the sixth season of "The Carol Burnett Show" (March 24, 1973), Lawrence received her gold record by surprise from Carol Burnett. Her first LP, "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", was issued soon after the single went gold. The song was re-recorded by Reba McEntire for her 1991 album For My Broken Heart. McEntire released the track as a single to country radio in 1992 and it peaked at No. 12 on the country chart, aided in part by a highly cinematic music video.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: "He Did With Me", Lawrence's follow-up to "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", reached number 75 in the United States, although it reached the top 20 of the adult contemporary music charts and also became her biggest hit in Australia, peaking at number one there in November 1973. She followed it up there with "Ships in the Night" (1974). In the fall of 1975, Lawrence managed one last minor U.S. chart entry on the Private Stock label with "The Other Woman" (number 81).


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: In 1974, she recorded her second LP for Bell Records, "Ships in the Night". The label was in the process of being phased out by Arista, and the LP was not released in the U.S. The LP was, however, released in Australia, where she continued to have chart success. Lawrence's first two LPs were released as a single CD with bonus tracks on April 1, 2014, by Real Gone Music.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: She released a disco album entitled "Newborn Woman" late 1979. The album produced the minor disco hit "Don't Stop the Music".


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: As an emcee, she hosted the daytime NBC version of the game show "Win, Lose or Draw" (1987-90), as well as an unsold pilot for Mark Goodson Productions, 1990's "Body Talk", and has also appeared often as a popular celebrity player on such game shows as "Match Game", "Password", "Password Plus", "Super Password", and various incarnations of the "Pyramid" game show, where she was known for verbally sparring with host Dick Clark on numerous occasions. In one episode, she also left after losing only to return during the closing credits. She also appeared on the 1986–89 version of "Hollywood Squares", where she appeared both as herself and in character as Thelma "Mama" Harper. Lawrence was nominated a number of times for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host for the eponymous "Vicki!" (1992–1994), but the show ended after two seasons amid creative battles with her syndicator. In 1997, she hosted "Fox After Breakfast," which was renamed "The Vicki Lawrence Show", but was cancelled five weeks later due to low ratings. She was a regular panelist on the 1998 revival of Match Game, but the series only lasted one season.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: She tours the country with her "two-woman" show with the first half as herself and the second half done as Mama. She can also be seen on TV in an infomercial for the Big Boss Grill. She is also known for her voice-over work as Flo on the animated series "Hermie and Friends".


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: In 2018, Lawrence was seen promoting "The Carol Burnett Show" and other classic television series on the MeTV television network.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: Lawrence was married to singer and songwriter Bobby Russell from 1972 to 1974. Lawrence's second husband is Hollywood make-up artist Al Schultz, to whom she has been married since November 16, 1974, and with whom she has two children, Courtney Allison Schultz (born May 3, 1975) and Garrett Lawrence Schultz (born July 3, 1977).


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: Lawrence was diagnosed with chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) around 2011. She teamed with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America and has become the spokesperson for the campaign CIU & You.


title: Vicki Lawrence

text: She appeared on "The Doctors" in 2015 to relay her story and talk about CIU and promote the CIU & You campaign.


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: Relations between the NATO military alliance and the Russian Federation were established in 1991 within the framework of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. In 1994, Russia joined the Partnership for Peace program, and through the early-2010s NATO and Russia signed several additional agreements on cooperation.


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: Russia has engaged in hostile threats or actions against several countries since the end of the Cold War, including Moldova (1992–2016); Georgia (2004–2012); Estonia (2006–2007), Ukraine (2014–present); Syria (2015–present), and Turkey (2015–2016), amongst others. The Russia–NATO relations started to deteriorate, following the Ukrainian Orange Revolution in 2004–05. In October 2021, following an incident in which NATO expelled eight Russian officials from its Brussels headquarters, Russia suspended its mission to NATO and ordered the closure of the NATO office in Moscow.


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused a dramatic deterioration in Russia–NATO relationships to the lowest point since the end of the Cold War: the 2022 NATO Madrid summit declared Russia "a direct threat to Euro-Atlantic security", while Russian officials and propagandists have increasingly said they're "at war" with the whole of NATO.


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany, NATO and the Soviet Union (now Russia) began to engage in talks on several levels, including a continued push for arms control treaties such as the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze made a first visit to NATO Headquarters on 19 December 1989, followed by informal talks in 1990 between NATO and Soviet military leaders.


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: After the fall of the Soviet Union, there were conversations regarding the role of NATO’s role in the changing security landscape in Europe, with U.S. President George H.W. Bush, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl, West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and Douglas Hurd, the British foreign minister. The West German foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, in a meeting on February 6th, 1990, stated that, “NATO does not intend to expand its territory to the East.”


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: In June 1990 the Message from Turnberry, often described as "the first step in the evolution of [modern] NATO-Russia relations", laid the foundation for future peace and cooperation. The NATO Secretary General, Manfred Wörner, visited Moscow in July 1990 to discuss future cooperation, a first for NATO–Russia relations.


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: Russia and the western countries signed in 1990 the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Formal contacts and cooperation between Russia and NATO began in 1991, within the framework of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (later renamed Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council), and were further deepened as Russia joined the Partnership for Peace program on 22 June 1994.


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: In 1994, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), an alternative Russian-led military alliance of Post-Soviet states, was founded.


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: On 27 May 1997, at the NATO Summit in Paris, France, NATO and Russia signed the , a road map for would-be NATO-Russia cooperation. The act had 5 main sections, outlining the principles of the relationship, the range of issues NATO and Russia would discuss, the military dimensions of the relationship, and the mechanisms to foster greater military-military cooperation. Additionally, the act established a forum called the "NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council" (PJC) as a venue for consultations, cooperation and consensus building.


title: Russia–NATO relations

text: In 2001, following the September 11 attacks against the United States, Russian president Vladimir Putin reached out to President George W. Bush, the President of the United States at the time. This was the height of U.S.-Russian relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the fall of 2001, Russia even shared intelligence that they had with the United States, which proved vital to the U.S. forces in Afganistan. The United States, being a member of NATO, meant that their new relationship with Russia would positively impact NATO’s relationship with Russia.