title: Robert Cummings

text: When the government began licensing flight instructors, Cummings was issued flight instructor certificate No. 1, making him the first official flight instructor in the United States.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings studied briefly at Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, but his love of flying caused him to transfer to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. He studied aeronautical engineering for a year before he dropped out for financial reasons, his family having lost heavily in the 1929 stock market crash.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings became interested in acting while performing in plays at Carnegie Tech, and decided to pursue it as a career. Since the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City paid its male actors $14 a week, Cummings decided to study there. He stayed only one season, but later said he learned "three basic principles of acting. The first – never anticipate; second – take pride in my profession. And third – trust in God. And that last is said in reverence."


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings started looking for work in 1930, but couldn't find any roles, forcing him to get a job at a theatrical agency. Realizing that, at the time, "three quarters of Broadway plays were from England" and that English accents and actors were in demand, Cummings decided to cash in an insurance policy and buy a round-trip ticket there.


title: Robert Cummings

text: He was driving a motorbike through the countryside, picking up the accent and learning about the country, when his bike broke down at Harrogate. While waiting for repairs, he devised a plan. He invented the name "Blade Stanhope Conway" and bribed the janitor of a local theatre to put on the marquee: "Blade Stanhope Conway in "Candida"". He then had a photo taken of himself in front of the marquee and had 80 prints made. In London, he outfitted himself with a new wardrobe, composed a letter introducing the actor-author-manager-director "Blade" of Harrogate Repertory Theatre, and sent it off to 80 New York theatrical agents and producers.


title: Robert Cummings

text: One of the producers to whom he sent letters, Charles Hopkings, cast him in a production of "The Roof" by John Galsworthy, playing the role of the Hon. Reggie Fanning. Also in the cast was Henry Hull. The play ran from October to November 1931 and Brooks Atkinson of "The New York Times" listed "Conway" among the cast who provided "some excellent bits of acting."


title: Robert Cummings

text: In November 1932, "Conway" replaced Edwin Styles in the Broadway revue "Earl Carroll's Vanities" after studying song and dance by correspondence course.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings later encouraged an old drama school classmate, Margaret Kies, to use a similar deception – she became the "British" Margaret Lindsay. He later said pretending to be Conway broke up his first marriage, to a girl from Joplin. "She couldn't stand me."


title: Robert Cummings

text: He was an extra in the Laurel and Hardy comedy film "Sons of the Desert" (1933) and in the musical short "Seasoned Greetings" (1933).


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings decided to change his approach, when in the words of one report, "suddenly the bottom dropped out of the John Bull market; almost overnight, demand switched from Londoners to lassoers."


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1934, Cummings changed his name to "Bryce Hutchens". He appeared under this name in the "Ziegfeld Follies of 1934", which ran from January to June in 1934. He had a duet with Vivi Janiss, a native of Nebraska, with whom he sang "I Like the Likes of You". Cummings and Janiss went with the show when it went on tour after the Broadway run, and they married towards the end of the tour.


title: Robert Cummings

text: The tour of "Ziegfeld" ended in Los Angeles in January 1935. Cummings enjoyed the city and wanted to move there. He returned to New York, then heard King Vidor was looking for Texan actors for "So Red the Rose" (1935). He auditioned, pretending to be a Texan, having acquired his own version of a Texan accent by listening to cowboy bands on the radio. His ruse was exposed, but Vidor nevertheless cast him, under his actual name. In their review, "The New York Times" said that Cummings "does a fine bit" and "has the only convincing accent in the whole film."


title: Robert Cummings

text: He followed this with a part in Paramount's "The Virginia Judge" (1935). In July, the studio signed Cummings to a long-term contract. Before his first two Paramount films were released, he was also cast in a supporting part in "Millions in the Air" (1935).


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings appeared as one of the leads in the Western "Desert Gold" (1936), then had a supporting role in "Forgotten Faces" (1936) and a starring part in "Three Cheers for Love" (1936). He also appeared in:


title: Robert Cummings

text: Most of these were B pictures. He had a small role in an A picture, "Souls at Sea" (1937), then appeared in "Sophie Lang Goes West" (1937), "Wells Fargo" (1937) and "College Swing" (1938).


title: Robert Cummings

text: He had a small role in "You and Me" (1938) (directed by Fritz Lang), and was in "The Texans" (1938) and "Touchdown, Army" (1938).


title: Robert Cummings

text: Eventually, Paramount dropped their option on him. "I was poison", he said. "No agent would look at me." In June, Paramount announced he would return for "King of Chinatown" with Anna May Wong, but he does not appear in the final film. In September he was cast at Republic, playing the lead in the crime movie "I Stand Accused" (1938). Cummings said it was "...a fluke hit—so at least I could get inside the casting agents again."


title: Robert Cummings

text: In November 1938, Cummings auditioned for the romantic lead in "Three Smart Girls Grow Up" (1939), starring Deanna Durbin, for producer Joe Pasternak. Pasternak was reluctant to cast him, preferring to find a musician, but Cummings told him, "I could fake it". He later said, "I'd had a lot of experience faking things harder than that. He let me try it and he signed me up."


title: Robert Cummings

text: On 21 November Cummings gave Universal an option on a seven-year contract starting at $600 a week, going up to $750 a week the following year, then ultimately up to $3,000 a week. His first film for them, "Three Smart Girls Grow Up" (1939) was a big success, and in March 1939 Universal took up their options on the actor. The film was directed by Henry Koster, who called Cummings "brilliant, wonderful… I made five pictures with him. I thought he was the best leading man I ever worked with. He had that marvelous comedy talent and also a romantic quality." Reviewing the film, "The New York Times" said Cummings "displays a really astonishing talent for light comedy—we never should have suspected it from his other pictures." Pasternak used him again, supporting another singing star, Gloria Jean, in "The Under-Pup" (1939). (He was meant to reteam with Jean in "Straight from the Heart", but it appears not to have been made.) In August 1939 Columbia wanted him for the lead in "Golden Boy," but could not come to terms with Universal. Cummings supported Basil Rathbone and Victor McLaglen in "Rio" (1939), then was borrowed by 20th Century Fox to romance Sonia Henie in "Everything Happens at Night" (1939). At Universal he had a key role in "Charlie McCarthy, Detective" (1939), then was borrowed by MGM to play the lead in a B movie with Laraine Day, "And One Was Beautiful" (1940). Back at Universal, Cummings was the romantic male lead in a comedy, "Private Affairs" (1940); then he romanced Durbin again in "Spring Parade" (1940). Cummings made his mark in the CBS Radio network's dramatic serial titled "Those We Love", which ran from 1938 to 1945. He also played the role of David Adair in the serial drama "Those We Love", opposite Richard Cromwell, Francis X. Bushman and Nan Grey.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings and Allan Jones were cast as the comic team leads in the film "One Night in the Tropics" (1940), but were overshadowed by the performances (as supporting actors, in their first film) by Abbott and Costello.. MGM borrowed Cummings a second time, to play opposite Ruth Hussey in "Free and Easy" (1941). In the same period, he was borrowed by a company established by Norman Krasna and Frank Ross, who were making a comedy from a script by Krasna for release through RKO: "The Devil and Miss Jones" (1941). Cummings played a union leader, Jean Arthur's love interest, under the direction of Sam Wood. Cummings shot the film at the same time as "Free and Easy". "Free and Easy" lost money for MGM, but "Devil and Miss Jones" was a critical and commercial success. 20th Century Fox borrowed him for "Moon Over Miami" (1941), starring Don Ameche and Betty Grable; Fox was willing to postpone the film so Cummings could finish "Devil and Miss Jones". In January 1941 Louella Parsons wrote, "is that boy going places in 1941. From the looks of things it's a Cummings year – because all his troubles with Universal are ironed out and almost every studio in town wants to borrow him. Back at Universal, Pasternak used Cummings as the romantic male lead in "It Started with Eve" (1941), from a script by Krasna, opposite Deanna Durbin and Charles Laughton. Meanwhile, Sam Wood was directing an adaptation of the novel "Kings Row" (1942), over at Warner Bros, where the head of production was Hal Wallis. Wallis did not have any contract players at Warner Bros who were considered ideal for the role of Paris, and, after trying desperately to get Tyrone Power, he tried to borrow Cummings, who had done an impressive test. However, Cummings was busy on "It Started with Eve" and the actor had to drop out. Then the schedule was rearranged and Cummings was able to make both films. Production of "Kings Row" did have to be suspended for a week so Cummings could return to Universal to do reshoots for "Eve". Both films were huge successes. Hal Wallis said Cummings "was actually too old for the part" in "Kings Row" "not quite right, but he was helped considerably by an extraordinary support cast." Back at Universal, Cummings starred in the Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller "Saboteur" (1942), made at Universal, with Priscilla Lane and Norman Lloyd. He played Barry Kane, an aircraft worker wrongfully accused of espionage, trying to clear his name. In December 1941, John Chapman said Cummings was among "the most sought-after leading men in town" and was one of his "stars for 1942". Universal announced Cummings for "Boy Meets Baby" with Deanna Durbin, which became "Between Us Girls" (1942) with Diana Barrymore. He filmed it concurrently with a Hal Wallis movie at Warner Bros, and "Princess O'Rourke" (made 1942, released 1943), Norman Krasna's directorial debut. Cummings was meant to be in "We've Never Been Licked" (1943) for Walter Wanger at Universal, but did not appear in the film.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In December 1941, Cummings joined the fledgling Civil Air Patrol, an organization of citizens and pilots interested in helping support the U.S. war effort. In February 1942, he helped establish Squadron 918-4 located in Glendale, California, at the Grand Central Air Terminal, becoming its first commanding officer. Two weeks later, he and other members of the squadron went in search of the Japanese submarine that had attacked the oil refinery at Goleta, California. During the war, Cummings participated in search and rescue missions, courier missions, and border and forestry patrols around the Western United States. For this work he used his own aircraft, Spinach I, a 1936 Porterfield, and Spinach II, a Cessna 165 Airmaster. The squadron he established still operates as San Fernando Senior Squadron 35 and is based at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, Los Angeles. In November 1942, Cummings joined the United States Army Air Forces. During World War II, he served as a flight instructor. After the war, Cummings served as a pilot in the United States Air Force Reserve, where he achieved the rank of captain. Cummings played aircraft pilots in several of his postwar film roles. During the war service, he had small roles in the all-star "Forever and a Day" (1943) and "Flesh and Fantasy" (1943), but he was effectively off screen for two years.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings was meant to be in "Fired Wife" with Teresa Wright, Charles Coburn, and Eddie Anderson and a director "comparable with" Leo McCarey. However, when he found out these actors would not be in the film, and the director would be Charles Lamont, he refused to be in it. (Filming began in April 1943 with Robert Paige taking Cummings's role.) Universal put him on suspension for five weeks, refused to give him a new part, or pay his weekly salary of $1,500 after the suspension had been lifted. Cummings notified the studio in May 1943 that he considered himself no longer under contract. In September 1943, Cummings sued the studio for withheld wages of $10,700, also arguing that for some time, Universal tried to put him in minor roles to "run him ragged" and "to teach him a lesson". In March 1944, the court ruled in Cummings's favor, saying Universal had voided its contract with the actor and owed him $10,700. This decision happened in the same fortnight as another court case involving Olivia de Havilland, which also ruled in the actor's favor.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings was considered free of Universal since August 1944. In January he signed a four-year exclusive contract with Hal Wallis, who had left Warner Brothers to become an independent producer. Shortly after, he took leave from the Air Force to star in "You Came Along" (1945) for Hal Wallis, directed by John Farrow with a screenplay by Ayn Rand. The Army Air Forces pilot Cummings played, Bob Collins, died off camera, but was resurrected 10 years later for Cummings's television show. Cummings was under contract to Wallis for four years. Also for Wallis—who had now moved to Paramount—he did "The Bride Wore Boots" (1946), a comedy with Barbara Stanwyck. He was announced for "Dishonorable Discharge" for Wallis from a story by John Farrow, but it appears to have not been made. Neither was "Its Love Love Love", which was announced by RKO, or "Dream Puss", which Wallis announced for Cummings at Paramount.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1946, Cummings said, "Often I play the boyfriend of a girl young enough to be my daughter. I'm 36, and whenever I start drooping, I run one of my pictures and feel like a kid again." Around this time, he also said he was more interested in producing and directing, and hoped to act in only one film per year.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings had the leads in two films for Nero Films, a company of Seymour Nebenzal and Eugene Frenke, who released through United Artists: a film noir, "The Chase" (1946); and a Western, "Heaven Only Knows" (1947).


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings decided to form his own production company with Frenke and Philip Yordan, which they called United California. (They originally called it United World, but it was too similar to another company's name.) In December 1946, it was announced that Cummings had signed an exclusive contract with United California Productions, and that his deal with Wallis was for one film a year for seven years. They announced "Bad Guy" from a script by Yordan. They were also going to do "Joe MacBeth" (which was ultimately made by others).


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1947, Cummings had reportedly earned $110,000 in the preceding12 months. "The Lost Moment" (1947) with Susan Hayward was a film noir for Walter Wanger at Universal based on "The Aspern Papers" by Henry James. It was a resounding flop at the box office. Cummings was initially meant to follow it with "The Big Curtain" for Edward Alperson at Fox but that picture was never produced.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings appeared in "Sleep, My Love" (1948), another noir, directed by Douglas Sirk and produced by Mary Pickford.


title: Robert Cummings

text: United California eventually brought in manufacturer Frank Hale as partner. Its first film, "Let's Live a Little" (1948), was a romantic comedy with Hedy Lamarr, released through United Artists.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings announced a series of projects for United California: "Ho the Fair Wind" from a novel by IAR Wylie, "The Glass Heart" by Mary Holland, "Poisonous Paradise" (a docudrama for which some footage had been shot called "Jungle"), "Passport to Love" by Howard Irving Young, and a remake of "Two Hearts in Three Quarter Time". Cummings was also trying to interest Norman Krasna into writing the story of how Cummings broke into acting, to be called "Pardon My Accent".


title: Robert Cummings

text: "Reign of Terror" (1949) was a thriller set in the French Revolution for director Anthony Mann; Eagle Lion co-produced with United California.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In July 1949, Cummings signed a three-picture deal with Columbia. He made "Tell It to the Judge" (1949), with Rosalind Russell, for them. He did one for Wallis at Paramount, "Paid in Full" (1950) (originally "Bitter Victory"), then went back to Columbia for "The Petty Girl" (1950) a musical with Joan Caulfield.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings did announce he would make "The Glass Heart" for his own company and release through Columbia, but this did not happen.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings supported Clifton Webb in "For Heaven's Sake" (1950) at Fox, then played a con man in "The Barefoot Mailman" (1950), his third film for Columbia.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings began working in television, appearing in "Sure as Fate" ("Run from the Sun") and "Somerset Maugham TV Theatre" ("The Luncheon").


title: Robert Cummings

text: He was in a Broadway play "Faithfully Yours" (originally "The Philemon Complex"), which had a short run in late 1951.


title: Robert Cummings

text: At Columbia, he was in "The First Time" (1952), the first feature directed by Frank Tashlin. On TV, he was in "Lux Video Theatre" ("The Shiny People", "Pattern for Glory"), "Betty Crocker Star Matinee" ("Sense of Humor"), and "Robert Montgomery Presents" ("Lila My Love").


title: Robert Cummings

text: He was offered "Battle in Spain", the story of El Cid, with Linda Darnell, but turned it down because it was too controversial.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings starred in his first regular television series in the comedy "My Hero" (1952–53), playing a bumbling real estate salesman. He also wrote and directed some episodes. The series ran for 33 episodes before (it was reported) Cummings decided to end it and accept other offers. In reality, the show had been axed. "After it was dropped, I was as dead as you could possibly get in show business" said Cummings. "I sat in my agent's office one day and heard a top producer tell him on the phone that nobody would buy me." Out of work, he accepted the State Department's invitation to go on a goodwill mission to Argentina. The show earned him an Emmy nomination.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings was in "Marry Me Again" (1953) at RKO for Tashlin, then went to England to star in another Hitchcock film, "Dial M for Murder" (1954), playing the lover of Grace Kelly, whose husband Ray Milland tries to kill her. The film was a hit.


title: Robert Cummings

text: He was chosen by producer John Wayne as his co-star to play airline pilot Captain Sullivan in "The High and the Mighty", partly due to Cummings's flying experience; however, director William A. Wellman overruled Wayne and hired Robert Stack for the part.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1954, Cummings appeared in "Twelve Angry Men", an original TV play for "Westinghouse Studio One" written by Reginald Rose and directed by Franklin Schaffner, alongside actors including Franchot Tone and Edward Arnold. Cummings played Juror Number Eight, the role taken by Henry Fonda in the feature-film adaptation. Cummings's performance earned him the 1955 Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Single Performance. Other television appearances included "Campbell Summer Soundstage" ("The Test Case"), "Justice" ("The Crisis"), "The Elgin Hour" ("Floodtide"), and a TV version of "Best Foot Forward" (1954).


title: Robert Cummings

text: In July 1954, Cummings formed his own independent film production company, Laurel Productions, Incorporated. The company's name had several affiliations to Cummings: his youngest daughter was named Laurel Ann Cummings; the street he and his family lived on was named Laurel Way; his wife's grandmother's name was Laurel; and finally, the fact that Laurel & Hardy had given Cummings his film debut back in 1933. His wife Mary Elliott was appointed president of Laurel Productions. In July 1954, Cummings filmed the pilot for his television show, "The Bob Cummings Show," and would go on to produce 173 episodes. Cummings intended to produce a film titled "The Damned" through Laurel Productions, from a novel by John D. MacDonald and to be written and directed by Frank Tashlin. In December 1954, Cummings and George Burns formed Laurmac Productions, with the hope of co-producing a feature film in May 1955.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In January 1955, "The Bob Cummings Show" began airing, and went through 1959. Cummings starred on the successful NBC sitcom, "The Bob Cummings Show" (known as "Love That Bob" in reruns), where he played Bob Collins, a former World War II pilot who became a successful professional photographer. As a bachelor in 1950s Los Angeles, the character considered himself quite the ladies' man. The sitcom was noted for some very risqué humor for its time.


title: Robert Cummings

text: A popular feature of the program was Cummings's portrayal of his elderly grandfather. His co-stars were Rosemary DeCamp as his sister Margaret MacDonald; Dwayne Hickman as his nephew Chuck MacDonald; and Ann B. Davis, in her first television success, as his assistant Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz.


title: Robert Cummings

text: When Cummings appeared on the NBC interview program "Here's Hollywood", he was seen by Nunnally Johnson, who cast him opposite Betty Grable in "How to Be Very, Very Popular" (1955) at Fox, which turned out to be Grable's last film. Cummings's contract was amended to allow him time off to rehearse and record his TV show.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Around this time, Cummings said he had made 78 films, and "I always had the feeling I was distinguished for none of them. Hollywood's never been really hot about me. I was always second choice. I used to say to my wife Mary, 'Somebody's got to be sick someday – Bill Holden or maybe some boy not even born yet! I used to say 'If I could find another business where I could be successful!'."


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings was one of the hosts on ABC's live broadcast of the opening day of Disneyland on July 17, 1955, along with Ronald Reagan and Art Linkletter. On that day, Cummings played off his playboy character image by being “caught” embracing and kissing a young woman in a bonnet with a stricken look on her face.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings's performance in "The Bob Cummings Show" earned him another Emmy nomination for Best Actor in a Continuous Role in 1956.


title: Robert Cummings

text: He turned down "The Heavenly Twins" for the Theatre Guild; and was mentioned for "Bewitched" by Charles Bennett in England, but did not do it.


title: Robert Cummings

text: During the series' production, Cummings still found time to play other roles. He returned to "Studio One" ("A Special Announcement"), and did episodes of "General Electric Theater" ("Too Good with a Gun"), "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show", and "Schlitz Playhouse" ("One Left Over", "Dual Control").


title: Robert Cummings

text: He was also in "Bomber's Moon" for "Playhouse 90" (1958), from a Rod Serling script directed by John Frankenheimer, who said "Bobby's a really fine dramatic actor, but people usually associate him only with comedy. Naturally enough I suppose. Directing an actor like this who feels immediately what the script wants and what the director wants makes you love this business."


title: Robert Cummings

text: "It's a great life, acting", Cummings said in 1959. "I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm a completely content actor."


title: Robert Cummings

text: When his TV show ended in 1959, Cummings claimed it was his decision, as he was tired and wanted to take a year off. He was also keen to sell the show into syndication. "I don't think I'll do another comedy", he said.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1960, Cummings starred in "King Nine Will Not Return", the opening episode of the second season of CBS's "The Twilight Zone", written by Serling and directed by Buzz Kulik.


title: Robert Cummings

text: He guested on "Zane Grey Theatre" ("The Last Bugle", directed by Budd Boetticher), "The DuPont Show of the Week" ("The Action in New Orleans"), "The Dick Powell Theatre" ("Last of the Private Eyes", co-starring Ronald Reagan), and "The Great Adventure" ("Plague").


title: Robert Cummings

text: "The New Bob Cummings Show" followed on CBS for one season, from 1961 to 1962. It was a variation of "The Bob Cummings Show" with Cummings as a pilot who had various adventures. It ran for 22 episodes before being cancelled.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings returned to films with a supporting role in "My Geisha" (1962), written by Krasna. He was top-billed in "Beach Party" (1963), although the film is better remembered today for first teaming Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings had supporting roles in two popular films, "The Carpetbaggers" (1964) with George Peppard and Alan Ladd and "What a Way to Go!" (1964) with Shirley MacLaine, and was in "Theatre of Stars" ("The Square Peg").


title: Robert Cummings

text: Also in 1964, he was a guest as a beauty pageant judge in "The Beverly Hillbillies" episode, "The Race for Queen".


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1964–65, Cummings starred in another CBS sitcom, "My Living Doll", co-starring Julie Newmar as Rhoda the robot and Jack Mullaney as his friend. After 21 episodes, Cummings asked to be written out of the show. It lasted five more episodes.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In the late 1960s, Cummings had supporting roles in "The Carpetbaggers" (1964), "Promise Her Anything" (1966) and the remake of "Stagecoach" (1966) (playing the bank embezzler).


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings had the lead in "Five Golden Dragons" (1967) for producer Harry Alan Towers and supported in "Gidget Grows Up" (1969).


title: Robert Cummings

text: He was in another Broadway play, "The Wayward Stork", which had a short run in early 1966. A review in "The New York Times" said Cummings "is not in top form. He sounded a bit hoarse and somewhat strained. Usually he is a quite , breezy farceur."


title: Robert Cummings

text: He guest-starred again on "Theatre of Stars" ("Blind Man's Bluff"), as well as "The Flying Nun" ("Speak the Speech, I Pray You"), "Green Acres" ("Rest and Relaxation"), "Here Come the Brides" ("The She-Bear"), "Arnie" ("Hello, Holly"), "Bewitched" ("Samantha and the Troll"), "Here's Lucy" ("Lucy's Punctured Romance", "Lucy and Her Genuine Twimby"), and several episodes of "Love, American Style".


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings's last lead roles on film were in a pair of TV movies, "The Great American Beauty Contest" (1973) and "Partners in Crime" (1973).


title: Robert Cummings

text: During the 1970s for over 10 years, Cummings traveled the US performing in dinner theaters and short stints in plays while living in an Airstream travel trailer.


title: Robert Cummings

text: He relayed those experiences in the written introduction he provided for the book "Airstream" written by Robert Landau and James Phillippi in 1984.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings had a cameo in "Three on a Date" (1978) and appeared in 1979 as Elliott Smith, the father of Fred Grandy's Gopher on ABC's "The Love Boat".


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1986, Cummings hosted the 15th-anniversary celebration of Walt Disney World on "The Wonderful World of Disney".


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1987, he said, "I wouldn't mind living until I'm 110. I still swim, do calisthenics, and keep fit. I've never been in hospital, except for a hernia operation at one time. People laugh about my using so many vitamins. When I tell them I take 50 liver pills a day, they look surprised, but whether they laugh or not, the thing works." He added, "I'm retired, I live on a pension" and "if I have a problem I get expert counsel, then ask the opinion of a good psychic."


title: Robert Cummings

text: Robert Cummings's last public appearance was on "The Magical World of Disney" episode "The Disneyland 35th Anniversary Special" in 1990.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings got married five times and fathered seven children. His first marriage was to Emma Myers, a girl from his hometown. His second marriage was to Vivi Janiss, an actress he met while performing in "Ziegfeld Follies". His third wife, Mary Elliott, was a former actress and she ran Cummings's business affairs. They separated in 1968 and had a bitter divorce, during the course of which she accused him of cheating on her with his former secretary Regina Fond and using methamphetamines which she said caused wild mood swings. She also claimed he relied on astrologers and numerologists to make financial decisions with "disastrous" consequences.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1970, when the divorce was finalized, their communal property was estimated as being worth from $700,000 to $800,000 (equivalent to between $ million and $ million in ).


title: Robert Cummings

text: He was married to Gina Fong from 1971 to 1987 and married Martha Burzynski two years later. He died the following year.


title: Robert Cummings

text: He was an avid pilot and owned a number of airplanes, all named "Spinach." He was a staunch advocate of natural foods and published a book on healthy living, "Stay Young and Vital", in 1960.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1952, Cummings was sued by a writer of "My Hero" who had been fired. In 1952, Cummings was served with papers concerning the suit by LA County Deputy Sheriff William Conroy; Cummings assaulted Conroy and was then sued by the sheriff for damages. Conroy stated that when he tried to serve Cummings with a subpoena the actor gunned the motor of his car and dragged him along the pavement. Cummings explained that he didn't know Conroy was a deputy. Both cases were settled in 1954.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1972 he was charged with fraud for operating a pyramid scheme involving his company, Bob Cummings Inc, which sold vitamins and food supplements.


title: Robert Cummings

text: In 1975 he was arrested for being in possession of a blue box used to defraud the telephone company. He avoided trial under the double jeopardy rule.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Despite his interest in health, Cummings was alleged to have been a methamphetamine addict from the mid-1950s until the end of his life. In 1954, while in New York to star in the "Westinghouse Studio One" production of "Twelve Angry Men", Cummings began receiving injections from Max Jacobson, the notorious "Dr. Feelgood". His friends Rosemary Clooney and José Ferrer recommended the doctor to Cummings, who was complaining of a lack of energy. While Jacobson insisted that his injections contained only "vitamins, sheep sperm, and monkey gonads", they actually contained a substantial dose of methamphetamine.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings allegedly continued to use a mixture provided by Jacobson, eventually becoming a patient of Jacobson's son Thomas, who was based in Los Angeles, and later injecting himself. The changes in Cummings's personality caused by the euphoria of the drug and subsequent depression damaged his career and led to an intervention by his friend, television host Art Linkletter. The intervention was not successful, and Cummings's drug abuse and subsequent career collapse were factors in his divorces from his third wife, Mary, and fourth wife, Gina Fong.


title: Robert Cummings

text: After Jacobson was forced out of business in the 1970s, Cummings developed his own drug connections based in The Bahamas. Suffering from Parkinson's disease, he was forced to move into homes for indigent older actors in Hollywood.


title: Robert Cummings

text: Cummings had seven children. His son, Tony Cummings, played Rick Halloway in the NBC daytime serial "Another World" in the early 1980s.


title: Robert Cummings

text: On December 2, 1990, Cummings died of kidney failure and complications from pneumonia at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.


title: Honorific

text: An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It is also often conflated with systems of honorific speech in linguistics, which are grammatical or morphological ways of encoding the relative social status of speakers. Honorifics can be used as prefixes or suffixes depending on the appropriate occasion and presentation in accordance with style and customs.


title: Honorific

text: Typically, honorifics are used as a style in the grammatical third person, and as a form of address in the second person. Use in the first person, by the honored dignitary, is uncommon or considered very rude and egotistical. Some languages have anti-honorific ("despective" or "humilific") first person forms (expressions such as "your most humble servant" or "this unworthy person") whose effect is to enhance the relative honor accorded to the person addressed.


title: Honorific

text: The most common honorifics in modern English are usually placed immediately before a person's name. Honorifics used (both as style and as form of address) include, in the case of a man, "Mr." (irrespective of marital status), and, in the case of a woman, previously either of two depending on marital status: "Miss" if unmarried but "Mrs." if married; more recently, a third, "Ms.", became the more prevalent norm, mainly owing to the desire to avoid identifying women by their marital status. Further considerations regarding identifying people by gender currently are raised with varying prevalence and details; in some environments, honorifics such as Mx, Ind. or Misc. may be used often or occasionally so as not to identify people by gender or at least those so requesting but without to date having broad general prevalence. In some environments, the honorific "Mstr" may be used for a boy who has not yet entered adult society; similar to this, "Miss" may be considered appropriate for a girl but inappropriate for a woman (but unless parallel to "Mstr" the reasoning is not explicit). Note: all the above terms but "Miss" are written as abbreviations—most were originally abbreviations (e.g., from "Mister", "Mistress"), others may be considered as coined to directly parallel them for consistency. Abbreviations that include the initial and final letters (a type of contraction) are typically written in most English dialects (British English, Australian English, South African English as examples) without full stops (periods) but in American English and Canadian English always end with a period.


title: Honorific

text: Other honorifics may denote the honored person's occupation, for instance "Doctor", "Esquire", "Captain", "Coach", "Officer", "The Reverend" (for all Christian clergy) or "Father" (for a Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, or Anglican Christian priest), "Rabbi" for Jewish clergy, or Professor. Holders of an academic Doctorate such as PhD are addressed as "Doctor" (abbreviated Dr).


title: Honorific

text: Some honorifics act as complete replacements for a name, as "Sir" or "Ma'am", or "Your Honour/Honor". Subordinates will often use honorifics as punctuation before asking a superior a question or after responding to an order: "Yes, sir" or even "Sir, yes, sir."


title: Honorific

text: Judges are often addressed as "Your Honour/Honor" when on the bench, the plural form is "Your Honours" and the style is "His/Her Honour". If the judge has a higher title, that may be the correct honorific to use, for example, for High Court Judges in England: "Your Lordship" or "My Lord". Members of the U.S. Supreme Court are addressed as "Justice".


title: Honorific

text: Similarly, a monarch ranking as a king/queen or emperor and his/her consort may be addressed or referred to as "Your/His/Her Majesty", "Their Majesties", etc. (but there is no customary honorific accorded to a female monarch's consort, as he is usually granted a specific style). Monarchs below kingly rank are addressed as "Your/His/Her Highness", the exact rank being indicated by an appropriate modifier, e.g. "His Serene Highness" for a member of a princely dynasty, or "Her Grand Ducal Highness" for a member of a family that reigns over a grand duchy. Verbs with these honorifics as subject are conjugated in the third person (e.g. "you are going" vs. "Your Honour is going" or "Her Royal Highness is going".) Protocol for monarchs and aristocrats can be very complex, with no general rule; great offence can be given by using a form that is not exactly correct. There are differences between "Your Highness" and "Your Royal Highness"; between "Princess Margaret" and "The Princess Margaret". All these are correct, but apply to people of subtly different rank. An example of a non-obvious style is "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother", which was an official style, but unique to one person.


title: Honorific

text: In aviation, pilots in command of a larger civil aircraft are usually addressed as "Captain" plus their full name or surname. This tradition is slowly diminishing in the United States and most European Union countries. However, many countries, especially in Asia, follow this tradition and address airline pilots, military pilots, and flight instructors exclusively as "Captain" even outside of the professional environment. In addition, such countries' etiquette rules dictate that this title must be placed on all the official letters and social invitations, business cards, identification documents, etc. In the U.S., when addressing a pilot, common etiquette does not require the title "Captain" to be printed on official letters or invitations before the addressee's full name. However, this is optional (akin to "Esq" after an attorney's name, in the U.S.) and may be used where appropriate, especially when addressing airline pilots with many years of experience.


title: Honorific

text: Occupants of state and political office may be addressed with an honorific. A president may be addressed as Your Excellency or Mr/Madam President, a minister or secretary of state as "Your Excellency" or Mr/Madam Secretary, etc. A prime minister may be addressed as "the Honorable". In the UK, members of the Privy Council are addressed as "the Right Honourable...". A member of Parliament or other legislative body may have particular honorifics. A member of a Senate, for example, may be addressed as "Senator". The etiquette varies and most countries have protocol specifying the honorifics to be used for its state, judicial, military and other officeholders.


title: Honorific

text: Former military officers are sometimes addressed by their last military rank, such as "Admiral", "Colonel", "General", etc. This is generally adopted only by those officers who served and at least obtained the rank equivalency of Major. In the U.S., veterans of all ranks who have served during wartime and were honorably discharged may 'bear the title' of the highest rank held, as codified in law, 10 USC 772e, both officer and enlisted.


title: Honorific

text: In areas of East Africa where the Bantu language Swahili is spoken, "mzee" is frequently used for an elder to denote respect by younger speakers. It is used in direct conversation and used in referring to someone in the third person. Other honorifics include "mukubwa" (for ministers, employers, and authorities), "dada/kaka" (for peers, friends, colleagues), and "mama/baba" (for parents and grandparents). Additionally, some Arabic loanwords are used in coastal regions as honorifics, too, such as "ami" (paternal uncle) and "haloo" (maternal aunt), the familial roles for which are more often described elsewhere in the Swahili-speaking world as "baba mkubwa/mdogo" (older/younger father) or "mama mkubwa/mdogo" (older/younger mother). Furthermore, parents are oftentimes addressed by a combination of their parental title and the name of a child, e.g. "Baba Zekiyah" refers to the father of Zekiyah. While Swahili is Bantu, it is highly influenced by Arabic and Hindi languages and cultures. "Babu" is a prefix honorific used with elders, similar to "mzee", but may also mean grandfather. Other prefix honorifics are "ndugu", for brother or a close male friend, and "dada" for a sister or close female friend; thus, John and Jane would be Ndugu John and Dada Jane, respectively.


title: Honorific

text: Amongst the Akan ethnic groups of West Africa's Ghana, the word "nana" is used as an aristocratic pre-nominal by chiefs and elders alike.


title: Honorific

text: In Yorubaland, also in West Africa, the word "ogbeni" is used as a synonym for the English "mister". Titled members of the region's aristocracy are therefore called "oloye" instead, this being the word for "chief". Although the former of the two titles is only used by men, aristocrats of either gender are addressed using the latter of them.


title: Honorific

text: Chinese honorifics () and honorific language are words, word constructs, and expressions in the Chinese language that convey self-deprecation, social respect, politeness, or deference. During the ancient and imperial periods, Chinese honorifics varied greatly based on one's social status, but with the end of Imperial China, many of these distinctions fell out of favour due to the May Fourth Movement. As such, honorific usage today is mostly used in formal situations and business settings only. Although Chinese honorifics have simplified to a large degree, many classical constructs are still occasionally employed to convey formality, humility, politeness or respect. Honorific language in Chinese is achieved by using honorific or beautifying alternatives, prefixing or suffixing a word with a polite complement, or by dropping casual-sounding words.


title: Honorific

text: Indian honorifics abound, covering formal and informal relationships for commercial, generational, social, and spiritual links. Honorifics may be prefix, suffix, or replacement types. There are many variations.


title: Honorific

text: Italian honorifics are usually limited to formal situations. Professional titles like "Ingegnere" (engineer) are often substituted for the ordinary "Signore" / "Signora" (mister or Mrs.), while "Dottore" or "Dottoressa" (doctor) is used freely for any graduate of a university. For college professors on academic settings, the honorifics "Professore" or "Professoressa" prevail over "Dottore" or "Dottoressa". Masculine honorifics lose their "e" ending when juxtaposed to a surname: e.g., Dottor Rossi, Cardinal Martini, Ragionier Fantozzi. Verbs are conjugated in the third person singular (as opposed to the second person singular) when addressing someone using an honorific and the formal pronoun "Lei" (with a capital L) is used instead of the informal "tu".


title: Honorific

text: The word in Japanese for honorifics, , is used in Japanese everyday conversations. Japanese honorifics are similar to English, with titles like "Mister" and "Miss", but in Japanese, which has many honorifics, their use is mandatory in many formal and informal social situations. Japanese grammar, as a whole, tends to function on hierarchy; honorific stems are appended to verbs and many nouns, primarily names, and in many cases one word may be exchanged for another word entirely with the same verb or noun meaning, but with different honorific connotations.


title: Honorific

text: Korean honorifics are similar to Japanese honorifics, and similarly, their use is mandatory in many formal and informal social situations. Korean grammar as a whole tends to function on hierarchy; honorific stems are appended to verbs and some nouns, and in many cases, one word may be exchanged for another word entirely with the same verb or noun meaning, but with different honorific connotations. Linguists say there are six levels of honorifics in Korean but, in daily conversation, only four of them are widely used in contemporary Korean. Suffix -ssi-(씨) is used at most honorific verbs, but not always. It is considered very impolite and offensive not to use honorific sentences or words with someone who is older or has a higher social status, and most Koreans avoid using non-honorific sentences with someone they have met for the first time. In Korean, names, first or last, always precede a title, e.g., Park Sonsaengnim, Park Kwanjangnim, etc.


title: Honorific

text: A complex system of Titles and honorifics is extensively used in the Malay language-speaking cultures in Brunei and Malaysia. In contrast Singapore, whose Malay royalty was abolished by the British colonial government in 1891, has adopted civic titles for its leaders. Being Muslim, Malay people address high-ranking religious scholars as "tok imam" (grandpa imam). "Tok dalang" is a honorific used to address a village leader.


title: Honorific

text: Pakistan has numerous honorific forms that may be used with or as a substitute for names. The most common honorifics in Pakistan are usually placed immediately before the name of the subject or immediately after the subject. There are many variations across Pakistan.


title: Honorific

text: Persian honorifics generally follow the second name, especially if they refer to gender or particular social statuses (e.g., "Name Agha" [= Mr. Name], "Name Khanom" [= Ms. Name], "Name Ostad" [teacher or cleric], "Name Rayis" [manager, leader or director]). Such honorifics are used in both formal and informal situations. A more formal honorific referring to gender would be "Jenab" [His Excellency], which precedes "Name Agha" [= Mr. Name] and "Sarkar" [= Her Excellency], which precedes "Name Khanom" [= Ms. Name]. A newer honorific is "Arjomand" [esteemed], which comes after other honorifics (except those referring to gender), and is not gender-specific (e.g., "Ostad Arjomand Name Surname", or "Rayis Arjomand Sarkar Khanom Name Surname"). They are generally used in very formal situations.


title: Honorific

text: The usage of Filipino honorifics differs from person to person, though commonalities occur like the occasional insertion of the word "po" or "ho" in conversations, and their dependence on age-structured hierarchies. Though some have become obsolete, many are still widely used in order to denote respect, friendliness, or affection. Some new "honorifics", mainly used by teenagers, are experiencing surges in popularity.


title: Honorific

text: The Filipino language has honorifics like "Binibini/Ate" ("Miss", "Big sister"), "Ginang/Aling/Manang" ("Mrs.", "Madam"), "Ginoo/Mang/Manong/Kuya" ("Mister", "Sir", "Big brother") that have roots in Chinese culture.


title: Honorific

text: As such addressing a man who is older, has a higher rank at work or has a higher social standing, one may use Mr or Sir followed by the First/ last/ or full name.


title: Honorific

text: Addressing a woman in a similar situation as above one may use "Miss", or "Madam" and its contraction "Ma'am", followed by First/ last/ or full name. Older married women may prefer to be addressed as "Mrs."


title: Honorific

text: The use of Sir/Miss/Madam or Ma'am, followed by the first name, nickname, or surname is usually restricted to Filipino vernacular and social conversation, even in television and film. Despite this, non-Filipinos and naturalized Filipinos (such as expat students and professionals) also address older people in the Filipino way.


title: Honorific

text: On a professional level, many use educational or occupational titles such as Architect, Engineer, Doctor, Attorney (often abbreviated as Arch./Archt./Ar., Engr., Dr. [or sometimes Dra. for female doctors], and Atty. respectively) on casual and even formal bases. Stricter etiquette systems frown upon this practise as a sign of Filipino professionals' obsession with flaunting their educational attainment and professional status. Despite this, some of their clients (especially non-Filipinos) would address them as simply Mr. or Mrs./Ms. followed by their surnames (or even Sir/Ma'am) in conversation. It is very rare, however, for a Filipino (especially those born and educated abroad) to address Filipino architects, engineers, and lawyers, even mentioning and referring to their names, the non-Philippine (i.e. international standard) way.


title: Honorific

text: Even foreigners who work in the Philippines or naturalized Filipino citizens, including foreign spouses of Filipinos, who hold some of these titles and descriptions (especially as instructors in Philippine colleges and universities) are addressed in the same way as their Filipino counterparts, although it may sound awkward or unnatural to some language purists who argue that the basic titles or either "Sir" or "Ma'am/Madam" are to be employed for simplicity, as they are unnecessary when he or she is included in a list of wedding sponsors, or when their name appears in the list of officials of a country club or similar organization. They are uncalled for in public donations, religious activities, parents–teachers association events, athletic competitions, society pages of newspapers, and in any activity that has nothing to do with one's title or educational attainment. It is also acceptable to treat those titles and descriptions (except "Doctor") as adjectival nouns (i.e., first letter not capitalized, e.g. "architect" ) instead.


title: Honorific

text: Even though Doctor is really a title in standard English, the "created" titles Architect, Attorney, and Engineer (among other examples) are a result of vanity (titles herald achievement and success; they distinguish the title holder from the rest of society) and insecurity (the title holder's achievements and successes might be ignored unless announced to the public), even due to historical usage of pseudo-titles in newspapers when Filipinos first began writing in English.


title: Honorific

text: Possible reasons are firstly, the fact the English taught to Filipinos was the "egalitarian" English of the New World, and that the Americans who colonized the Philippines encountered lowland societies that already used Iberian linguistic class markers like "Don" and "Doña." Secondly, the fundamental contradiction of the American colonial project. The Americans who occupied the Philippines justified their actions through the rhetoric of "benevolent assimilation". In other words, they were only subjugating Filipinos to teach them values like American egalitarianism, which is the opposite of colonial anti-equality. Thirdly, the power of American colonialism lies in its emphasis on education—an education that supposedly exposed Filipinos to the "wonders" of the American way of life. Through education, the American colonial state bred a new elite of Filipinos trained in a new, more "modern", American system. People with advanced degrees like law or engineering were at the apex of this system. Their prestige, as such, not only rested on their purported intelligence, but also their mastery of the colonizer's way of life. This, Lisandro Claudio suspects, is the source of the magical and superstitious attachment Filipinos have to attorneys, architects and engineers. The language they use is still haunted by their colonial experience. They linguistically privilege professionals because their colonizers made them value a certain kind of white-collar work. Again, even expatriate professionals in the Philippines were affected by these reasons when they resided and married a Filipino or were naturalized so it's not unusual for them to be addressed Filipino style.


title: Honorific

text: Spanish has a number of honorific forms that may be used with or as substitutes for names, such as "señor" or "caballero" ("Mr.", "Sir", "Gentleman"); "señora" ("Madam", "Mrs.", "Lady", "ma'am") and "señorita" ("Miss", "young lady"); "licenciado" for a person with bachelor's or a professional degree (e.g., attorneys and engineers); "maestro" for a teacher, master mechanic, or person with a master's degree; "doctor" ("doctor"); etc. Also used is "don" (male) or "doña" (female) for people of rank or, in some Latin American countries (e.g., Puerto Rico), for any senior citizen. In some Latin American countries, like Colombia, "Doctor" is used for any respected figure regardless of whether they have a doctoral degree (for instance Colombian presidents are often referred to as Doctor ___); likewise "Maestro" is used for artistic masters, especially painters.


title: Honorific

text: Additionally, older people and those with whom one would speak respectfully (e.g., one's boss or teacher), are often addressed as "usted," abbreviated "ud.", a formal/respectful way of saying "you" (e.g. "Dra. Polo, ¿cómo está usted?" Dr. Polo, how are you?). The word "usted" historically comes from the honorific title "vuestra merced" (literally "your mercy"). This formal you is accompanied by verb conjugation that is different from the informal you "tú". Intimate friends and relatives are addressed as "tú". In some regions, addressing a relative stranger as "tú" can be considered disrespectful or provocative, except when it's directed to a person notably younger than the speaker, or in an especially informal context.


title: Honorific

text: Pingelapese is a Micronesian language spoken on the Pingelap atoll and on two of the eastern Caroline Islands, called the high island of Pohnpei. Pingelapese does not employ many honorifics into their speech. Their society is structured in a way that everyone is seen as equal, most likely due to the fact that there are so few of them due to emigration. There is no structured hierarchy to enforce the use of honorific speech. There are not many polite vocabulary words and the language they use can be classified as a commoners' language.


title: Honorific

text: However, among the Micronesian languages, Pohnpeian is the only language that uses a thoroughly developed honorific speech. This demonstrates that a highly structured hierarchical society was very important in their culture. There are multiple ways that Pohnpeic speakers show respect through their language. In the Pohnpeic language there is royal language, which is used for the two highest-ranking chiefs. Next, respect honorifics are used with other superiors and people who are considered respected equals. There is not only the use of honorifics, but humiliative language as well, which is used to lower oneself below higher-ranking people, showing respect and reverence. This speech was lost in Pingelap when Pohnpei speakers migrated to the Pingelap atoll and adapted their more casual way of speaking.


title: Honorific

text: Even though the younger generation of Pingelapese speakers does not use honorific speech, elders in the language report being taught a form of 'language of respect'. This language was to be used to address elders and leaders in the community. Women were also told to use it towards their brothers and with their children. Phrases could be made polite by adding the second person singular possessive suffix "-mwi". Other ways to utilize honorific speech is by changing words entirely.


title: Honorific

text: According to Thai translator, Mui Poopoksakul, "The Thai language is absolutely immediate in its indication of the speaker and addressee's places in the society and their relationship to each other. Thai has honorifics as well as what I like to call 'dishonorifics': it has a multitude of pronouns that are extremely nuanced—for example, there are so many ways to say 'I', and most of them already indicate the speaker's gender and often their age and societal standing relative to the person they are speaking to."


title: Honorific

text: The most common Thai honorifics are used to differentiate age between friends, family, and peers. The most commonly used are:


title: Honorific

text: Turkish honorifics generally follow the first name, especially if they refer to gender or particular social statuses (e.g. Name Bey [Mr.], Name Hanım [Ms.], Name Beyefendi [literally meaning "Lord Master"], Name Hanımefendi [literally meaning "Lady Master"], Name Hoca [teacher or cleric], Name Öğretmen [solely for teacher]), Name Agha [high official]. Such honorifics are used in both formal and informal situations. Another honorific is "Sayın"/Muhterem [esteemed], which precedes the surname or full name, and is not gender-specific. (e.g. Sayın/Muhterem Name Surname, or Sayın/Muhterem Surname). They are generally used in very formal situations.


title: Honorific

text: Honorifics in Vietnamese are more complex compared to Chinese, where the origins of many of these pronouns can be traced, and many have fallen out of usage or have been replaced due to the changing times. An honorific, or a pronoun, in Vietnamese when referring to a person acts as a way to define two peoples' degree of relationship with one another. Examples of these pronouns include 'chị' older sister, 'ông' male elder and 'chú' younger uncle (younger brother of father/only used on father's side). The exclusive use of the Vietnamese words for 'I' and 'you' are considered informal and rude. Rather honorifics are used to refer to oneself and to others. These terms generally differ from province to province, or region to region. As with East Asian tradition, the surname is written prior to the given name (i.e., Hoang Khai Dinh: Hoang is the surname and Khai Dinh is the given name). This occurs in all formal situations. However, placing the surname last has become a commonality in order to cater to westerners, for example, on social media sites such as Facebook. When referring to a person as Mr or Mrs (teacher, painter, etc.) as in the English tradition of 'Mr Hoang', the given name is more commonly used e.g., "Mr Khai Dinh") in order not to cause confusion. This is due to many Vietnamese sharing the same surname (e.g., up to 40% of Vietnamese share the surname Nguyen).


title: Honorific

text: Wuvulu-Aua does not normally incorporate honorifics as it is reserved for only the utmost respect. Originally without any honorifics, the semantics of pronouns change depending on the social context. In particular, the second person dual pronoun is used as an honorific address. The dual reference communicates that the second person is to be respected as two people. This honorific is typically reserved for in-laws. It is undocumented if any other honorifics exist beyond this one.


title: Honorific

text: People who have a strong sense of egalitarianism, such as Quakers and certain socialists, and others, eschew honorific titles. When addressing or referring to someone, they often use the person's name, an informal pronoun, or some other style implying social equality, such as "brother", "sister", "friend", or "comrade". This was also the practice in Revolutionary France and socialist countries which used ("Citizen") as the manner of address.


title: Honorific

text: Feminist criticism of the use of separate honorifics for married and unmarried women (Mrs. and Miss) has led to some women adopting the honorific "Ms."


title: Ferrara

text: Ferrara (, ; ) is a city and "comune" in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located north. The town has broad streets and numerous palaces dating from the Renaissance, when it hosted the court of the House of Este. For its beauty and cultural importance, it has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.


title: Ferrara

text: The first documented settlements in the area of the present-day Province of Ferrara date from the 6th century BC. The ruins of the Etruscan town of Spina, established along the lagoons at the ancient mouth of Po river, were lost until modern times, when drainage schemes in the Valli di Comacchio marshes in 1922 first officially revealed a necropolis with over 4,000 tombs, evidence of a population centre that in Antiquity must have played a major role.


title: Ferrara

text: There is uncertainty among scholars about the proposed Roman origin of the settlement in its current location (Tacitus and Boccaccio refer to a "Forum Alieni"), for little is known of this period, but some archeologic evidence points to the hypothesis that Ferrara could have been originated from two small Byzantine settlements: a cluster of facilities around the Cathedral of St. George, on the right bank of the main branch of the Po, which then ran much closer to the city than today, and a castrum, a fortified complex built on the left bank of the river to defend against the Lombards.


title: Ferrara

text: Ferrara appears first in a document of the Lombard king Desiderius of 753 AD, when he captured the town from the Exarchate of Ravenna. Later the Franks, after routing the Lombards, presented Ferrara to the Papacy in 754 or 756. In 988 Ferrara was ceded by the Church to the House of Canossa, but at the death of Matilda of Tuscany in 1115 it became a free commune. During the 12th century the history of the town was marked by the wrestling for power between two preeminent families, the Guelph Adelardi and the Ghibelline Salinguerra. The powerful Imperial House of Este threw their decisive weight behind the Salinguerra and eventually reaped the benefits of victory for themselves. Thus, in 1264 Obizzo II d'Este was proclaimed lifelong ruler of Ferrara, taking the additional titles of Lord of Modena in 1288 and of Reggio in 1289. His rule marked the end of the communal period in Ferrara and the beginning of the Este rule, which lasted until 1598.


title: Ferrara

text: In 1452 Borso d'Este was created duke of Modena and Reggio by Emperor Frederick III and in 1471 duke of Ferrara by Pope Paul II. Lionello and, especially, Ercole I were among the most important patrons of the arts in late 15th- and early 16th-century Italy. During this time, Ferrara grew into an international cultural centre, renowned for its architecture, music, literature and visual arts.


title: Ferrara

text: The architecture of Ferrara greatly benefited from the genius of Biagio Rossetti, who was requested in 1484 by Ercole I to draft a masterplan for the expansion of the town. The resulting "Erculean Addition" is considered one of the most important examples of Renaissance urban planning and contributed to the selection of Ferrara as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Ferrara

text: In spite of having entered its golden age, Ferrara was severely hit by a war against Venice fought and lost in 1482–84. Alfonso I succeeded to the throne in 1505 and married the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. He again fought Venice in the Italian Wars after joining the League of Cambrai. In 1509 he was excommunicated by Pope Julius II, but was able to overcome the Papal and Spanish armies in 1512 at the Battle of Ravenna. These successes were based on Ferrara's artillery, produced in his own foundry which was the best of its time.


title: Ferrara

text: Upon his death in 1534, Alfonso I was succeeded by his son Ercole II, whose marriage in 1528 to the second daughter of Louis XII, Renée of France, brought great prestige to the court of Ferrara. Under his reign, the Duchy remained an affluent country and a cultural powerhouse. However, an earthquake struck the town in 1570, causing the economy to collapse, and when Ercole II's son Alfonso II died without heirs, the House of Este lost Ferrara to the Papal States.


title: Ferrara

text: Ferrara, a university city second only to Bologna, remained a part of the Papal States for almost 300 years, an era marked by a steady decline; in 1792 the population of the town was only 27,000, less than in the 17th century. In 1805–1814 it was briefly part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, a client-state of the French Empire. After the 1815 Congress of Vienna, Ferrara was given back to the Pope, now guaranteed by the Empire of Austria. A bastion fort was erected in the 1600s by Pope Paul V on the site the Castel Tedaldo, an old castle at the south-west angle of the town, this was occupied by an Austrian garrison from 1832 until 1859. The fortress was completely dismantled following the birth of the Kingdom of Italy and the bricks were used for new constructions throughout over town.


title: Ferrara

text: During the last decades of the 1800s and the early 1900s, Ferrara remained a modest trade centre for its large rural hinterland that relied on commercial crops such as sugar beet and industrial hemp. Large land reclamation works were carried out for decades with the aim to expand the available arable land and eradicate malaria from the wetlands along the Po delta. Mass industrialisation came to Ferrara only at the end of the 1930s with the set-up of a chemical plant by the Fascist regime that should have supplied the regime with synthetic rubber. During the Second World War Ferrara was repeatedly bombed by Allied warplanes that targeted and destroyed railway links and industrial facilities. After the war, the industrial area in Pontelagoscuro was expanded to become a giant petrochemical compound operated by Montecatini and other companies, that at its peak employed 7,000 workers and produced 20% of plastics in Italy. In recent decades, as part of a general trend in Italy and Europe, Ferrara has come to rely more on tertiary and tourism, while the heavy industry, still present in the town, has been largely phased out.


title: Ferrara

text: After almost 450 years, another earthquake struck Ferrara in May 2012 causing only limited damage to the historic buildings of the town and no victims.


title: Ferrara

text: The town of Ferrara lies on the southern shores of the Po river, about north-east of the regional capital, Bologna, and south of Venice. The territory of the municipality, entirely part of the Padan plain, is overwhelmingly flat, situated on average just above sea-level. The proximity to the largest Italian river has been a constant concern in the history of Ferrara, that has been affected by recurrent, disastrous floods, the latest occurring as recently as 1951. The Idrovia Ferrarese links the river Po from Ferrara to the Adriatic at Porto Garibaldi.


title: Ferrara

text: The climate of the Po valley is classified as humid subtropical (Cfa) under the Köppen climate classification, a type of climate commonly referred to as "warm temperate" that features mild winters and hot summers, heavy rains in spring and autumn but there is also a lot of rain even in the driest month of January for Ferrara.


title: Ferrara

text: The legislative body of the Italian communes is the City Council ("Consiglio Comunale"), which, in towns having between 100,000 and 250,000 population, is composed by 32 councillors elected every five years with a proportional system, contextually to the mayoral elections. The executive body is the City Committee ("Giunta Comunale"), composed by 12 assessors, that is nominated and presided over by a directly elected mayor. The current mayor of Ferrara is Alan Fabbri of the Lega Nord. The urban organisation is governed by the Italian Constitution (art. 114), the Municipal Statute and several laws, notably the Legislative Decree 267/2000 or Unified Text on Local Administration ("Testo Unico degli Enti Locali").


title: Ferrara

text: The current division of the seats in the city council, after the 2019 local election, is the following:


title: Ferrara

text: The imposing Este Castle, sited in the very centre of the town, is iconic of Ferrara. A very large manor house featuring four massive bastions and a moat, it was erected in 1385 by architect Bartolino da Novara with the function to protect the town from external threats and to serve as a fortified residence for the Este family. It was extensively renovated in the 15th and 16th centuries.


title: Ferrara

text: The Cathedral of Saint George, designed by Wiligelmus and consecrated in 1135, is one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture. The duomo has been renovated many times through the centuries, thus its resulting eclectic style is a harmonious combination of the Romanesque central structure and portal, the Gothic upper part of the façade and the Renaissance campanile. The sculptures of the main portal are attributed to . The upper part of the main façade, with arcades of pointed arches, dates from the 13th century. The recumbent marble lions guarding the portals are copies of the originals, now in the cathedral's museum. An elaborated 13th-century relief depicting the Last Judgement is found in the second storey of the porch. The interior was restored in baroque style in 1712. The marble campanile attributed to Leon Battista Alberti was initiated in 1412 but is still incomplete, missing one projected additional storey and a dome, as it can be observed from numerous historical prints and paintings on the subject.


title: Ferrara

text: Near the cathedral and the castle also lies the 15th-century city hall, that served as an earlier residence of the Este family, featuring a grandiose marble flight of stairs and two ancient bronze statues of Niccolò III and Borso of Este.


title: Ferrara

text: The southern district is the town's oldest, crossed by a myriad of narrow alleys that date back to the Early Middle Ages. is perhaps the best preserved Medieval building in Ferrara. It was the private residence of merchant Giovanni Romei, related by marriage to the Este family, and likely the work of the court architect Pietrobono Brasavola. Thanks to the nuns of the Corpus Domini order, much of the original decorations in the inner rooms have been saved. The house features fresco cycles in the "Sala delle Sibille" ("room of sibyls"), an original "terracotta" fireplace bearing the coat of arms of Giovanni Romei in the adjoining Saletta dei Profeti ("room of the prophets"), depicting allegories from the Bible, and in other rooms, some of which were commissioned by cardinal Ippolito d'Este, paintings by the school of Camillo and Cesare Filippi (16th century).


title: Ferrara

text: Palazzo Schifanoia ("sans souci") was built in 1385 for Alberto V d'Este. The palazzo includes frescoes depicting the life of Borso d'Este, the signs of the zodiac and allegorical representations of the months. The vestibule was decorated with "stucco" mouldings by . The building also contains fine choir-books with miniatures and a collection of coins and Renaissance medals. The Renaissance Palazzo Paradiso, part of the Ferrara University library system, displays part of the manuscript of "Orlando furioso" and letters by Tasso as well as Ludovico Ariosto's grave. Its famous alumni include Nicolaus Copernicus and Paracelsus.


title: Ferrara

text: The northern quarter, which was added by Ercole I in 1492–1505 thanks to the master plan of Biagio Rossetti, and hence called the "Addizione Erculea", features a number of Renaissance palazzi. Among the finest is Palazzo dei Diamanti ("Diamond Palace"), named after the diamond points into which the façade's stone blocks are cut. The "palazzo" houses the National Picture Gallery, with a large collection of the school of Ferrara, which first rose to prominence in the latter half of the 15th century, with Cosimo Tura, Francesco Cossa and Ercole dei Roberti. Noted masters of the 16th-century School of Ferrara include Lorenzo Costa and Dosso Dossi, the most eminent of all, Girolamo da Carpi and Benvenuto Tisi (il Garofalo). The district is also home to University of Ferrara Botanic Garden.


title: Ferrara

text: The town is still almost totally encircled by of ancient brick walls, mostly built between 1492 and 1520. Today the walls, after a careful restoration, make up a large urban park around the town and are a popular destination for joggers and cyclists.


title: Ferrara

text: In 2007, there were 135,369 people residing in Ferrara, of whom 46.8% were male and 53.2% were female. Minors (children ages 18 and younger) totalled 12.28% of the population compared to pensioners who number 26.41%. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06% (minors) and 19.94% (pensioners). The average age of Ferrara residents is 49 compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Ferrara grew by 2.28%, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.85%. The current birth rate of Ferrara is 7.02 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births. Ferrara is known as being the oldest city with a population over 100,000, as well the city with lowest birth rate.


title: Ferrara

text: , 95.59% of the population was Italian. The largest immigrant group was other European nations with Ukraine and Albania: 2.59% followed by North Africa: 0.51%, and East Asia: 0.39%. The city is predominantly Roman Catholic, with small Orthodox Christian adherents. The historical Jewish community is still surviving.


title: Ferrara

text: The Jewish community of Ferrara is the only one in Emilia Romagna with a continuous presence from the Middle Ages to the present day. It played an important role when Ferrara enjoyed its greatest splendor in the 15th and 16th century, with the duke Ercole I d'Este. The situation of the Jews deteriorated in 1598, when the Este dynasty moved to Modena and the city came under papal control. The Jewish settlement, located in three streets forming a triangle near the cathedral, became a ghetto in 1627. Apart from a few years under Napoleon and during the 1848 revolution, the ghetto lasted until Italian unification in 1859.


title: Ferrara

text: In 1799, the Jewish community saved the city from sacking by troops of the Holy Roman Empire. During the spring of 1799, the city had fallen into the hands of the Republic of France, which established a small garrison there. On 15 April, Lieutenant Field Marshal Johann von Klenau approached the fortress with a modest mixed force of Austrian cavalry, artillery and infantry augmented by Italian peasant rebels, commanded by Count Antonio Bardaniand and demanded its capitulation. The commander refused. Klenau blockaded the city, leaving a small group of artillery and troops to continue the siege. For the next three days, Klenau patrolled the countryside, capturing the surrounding strategic points of Lagoscuro, Borgoforte and the Mirandola fortress. The besieged garrison made several sorties from the Saint Paul's Gate, which were repulsed by the insurgent peasants. The French attempted two rescues of the beleaguered fortress: the first, on 24 April, when a force of 400 Modenese was repulsed at Mirandola and the second, General Montrichard tried to raise the city-blockade by advancing with a force of 4,000. Finally, at the end of the month, a column led by Pierre-Augustin Hulin reached and relieved the fortress.


title: Ferrara

text: Klenau took possession of the town on 21 May, and garrisoned it with a light battalion. The Jewish residents of Ferrara paid 30,000 ducats to prevent the pillage of the city by Klenau's forces; this was used to pay the wages of Gardani's troops. Although Klenau held the town, the French still possessed the town's fortress. After making the standard request for surrender at 08:00, which was refused, Klenau ordered a barrage from his mortars and howitzers. After two magazines caught fire, the commandant was summoned again to surrender; there was some delay, but a flag of truce was sent at 21:00, and the capitulation was concluded at 01:00 the next day. Upon taking possession of the fortress, Klenau found 75 new artillery pieces, plus ammunition and six months worth of provisions.


title: Ferrara

text: In 1938, Mussolini's fascist government instituted racial laws reintroducing segregation of Jews which lasted until the end of the German occupation. During the Second World War, 96 of Ferrara's 300 Jews were deported to German concentration and death camps; five survived. The Italian Jewish writer, Giorgio Bassani, was from Ferrara. His celebrated book, "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis", was published in Italian as Giardino dei Finzi-Contini, 1962, by Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a. It was made into a film by Vittorio de Sica in 1970.


title: Ferrara

text: During WWII, the Este Castle, adjacent to the Corso Roma, now known as the Corso Martiri della Libertà, was the site of an infamous massacre in 1943.


title: Ferrara

text: On December 13, 2017, the first day of Hanukkah, Italy's Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah opened on the site of a restored two-story brick prison built in 1912 that counted Jews during the Fascist period among its detainees. This is the initial phase of a project—known as MEIS, after its initials in Italian—to be completed in 2021, with additional buildings that will create a major Jewish cultural hub and add exhibits focusing on the Jews in the Italian Renaissance and the Shoah.


title: Ferrara

text: During the Renaissance the Este family, well known for its patronage of the arts, welcomed a great number of artists, especially painters, that formed the so-called School of Ferrara. The astounding list of painters and artists includes the names of Andrea Mantegna, Vicino da Ferrara, Giovanni Bellini, Leon Battista Alberti, Pisanello, Piero della Francesca, Battista Dossi, Dosso Dossi, Cosmé Tura, Francesco del Cossa and Titian. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Ferrara again hosted and inspired numerous painters who grew fond of its eerie atmosphere. Among them Giovanni Boldini, Filippo de Pisis and Giorgio de Chirico. A large collection of paintings is displayed in the National Gallery of Palazzo dei Diamanti.


title: Ferrara

text: The Renaissance literary men and poets Torquato Tasso (author of "Jerusalem Delivered"), Ludovico Ariosto (author of the romantic epic poem "Orlando Furioso") and Matteo Maria Boiardo (author of the grandiose poem of chivalry and romance "Orlando Innamorato") lived and worked at the court of Ferrara during the 15th and 16th century.


title: Ferrara

text: The "Ferrara Bible" was a 1553 publication of the Ladino version of the Tanakh used by Sephardi Jews. It was paid for and made by Yom-Tob ben Levi Athias (the Spanish Marrano "Jerónimo de Vargas", as typographer) and Abraham ben Salomon Usque (the Portuguese Jew "Duarte Pinhel", as translator), and was dedicated to Ercole II d'Este. In the 20th century, Ferrara was the home and workplace of writer Giorgio Bassani, well known for his novels that were often adapted for cinema ("The Garden of the Finzi-Continis", "Long Night in 1943"). In historical fiction, British author Sarah Dunant set her 2009 novel "Sacred Hearts" in a convent in Ferrara.


title: Ferrara

text: Ferrara gave birth to Girolamo Savonarola, the famous medieval Dominican priest and leader of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, and hostility to the Renaissance. He vehemently preached against the moral corruption of much of the clergy at the time, and his main opponent was Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia).


title: Ferrara

text: During the time that Renée of France was Duchess of Ferrara, her court attracted Protestant thinkers such as John Calvin and Olympia Fulvia Morata. The court became hostile to Protestant sympathizers after the marriage of Renée's daughter Anna d'Este to the fervently Catholic Duke of Guise.


title: Ferrara

text: The Ferrarese musician Girolamo Frescobaldi was one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. His masterpiece "Fiori musicali" ("Musical Flowers") is a collection of liturgical organ music first published in 1635. It became the most famous of Frescobaldi's works and was studied centuries after his death by numerous composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach. Maurizio Moro (15??–16??) an Italian poet of the 16th century best known for madrigals is thought to have been born in Ferrara.


title: Ferrara

text: Ferrara is the birthplace of Italian film directors Michelangelo Antonioni and Florestano Vancini. The latter shot in Ferrara his 1960 film "Long Night in 1943". The town was also the setting of the famous 1970 movie "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" by Vittorio De Sica, that tells the vicissitudes of a rich Jewish family during the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and World War II. Furthermore, Wim Wenders and Michelangelo Antonioni's "Beyond the Clouds" in (1995) and Ermanno Olmi's "The Profession of Arms" in (2001), a film about the last days of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, were also shot in Ferrara.


title: Ferrara

text: The Palio of St. George is a medieval-themed horse race held every last Sunday of May. Established in 1279, it is probably the oldest such competition in the world. The Ferrara Buskers Festival is a non-competitive parade of street musicians from all over the world. At the 2017 edition, more than 1,000 artists from 35 different nations took part in the festival, including dancers, clowns, equilibrists, jugglers and other original performers. Additionally, the town hosts the yearly Ferrara Balloons Festival, a large hot-air balloon show.


title: Ferrara

text: The town's football team, SPAL, was established in 1907. In 2017 it was promoted to Serie A, Italy's top-level football league, after a 49-year absence. Its home ground is Paolo Mazza Memorial Stadium, with a capacity of 16,134.


title: Ferrara

text: Ferrara's basketball team Kleb Basket Ferrara competes in the Serie A2 Basket and plays its home games at the Palasport di Ferrara.


title: Ferrara

text: The culinary tradition of Ferrara features many typical dishes that can be traced back to the Middle Ages, and that sometimes reveals the influence of its important Jewish community.


title: Ferrara

text: The signature dish is "cappellacci di zucca", special ravioli with a filling of butternut squash, Parmigiano-Reggiano and flavored with nutmeg. It is served with a sauce of butter and sage or bolognese sauce. Another peculiar dish, that was allegedly cooked by Renaissance chef Cristoforo di Messisbugo, is "pasticcio di maccheroni", a domed macaroni pie, consisting of a crust of sweet dough enclosing macaroni in a Béchamel sauce, studded with porcini mushrooms and ragù alla bolognese.


title: Ferrara

text: The traditional Christmas first course is cappelletti, large meat and cheese filled ravioli served in chicken broth. It is often followed by "salama da sugo", a very big, cured sausage made from a selection of pork meats and spices kneaded with red wine.


title: Ferrara

text: Seafood is also an important part of the local tradition, that boast rich fisheries in the Po delta lagoons and Adriatic sea. Pasta with clams and grilled or stewed eel dishes are especially well-known. Popular food items include also "zia" garlic salami and the traditional coppia bread, protected by the IGP (Protected Geographical Status) label. Not unusual is the typical kosher salami made of goose meat stuffed in goose neck skin.


title: Ferrara

text: Local patisserie include spicy pampepato chocolate pie, "tenerina", a dark chocolate and butter cake, and zuppa inglese, a chocolate and custard pudding on a bed of sponge cake soaked in Alchermes. The clay terroir of the area, an alluvial plain created by the river Po, is not ideal for wine; a notable exception is Bosco Eliceo (DOC) wine, made from grapes cultivated on the sandy coast line.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: We Will Rock You (often abbreviated as WWRY) is a jukebox musical based on the songs of British rock band Queen with a book by Ben Elton. The musical tells the story of a group of Bohemians who struggle to restore the free exchange of thought and fashion, and live music in a distant future where everyone dresses, thinks and acts the same. Musical instruments and composers are forbidden, and rock music is all but unknown.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: Directed by Christopher Renshaw and choreographed by Arlene Phillips, the original West End production opened in 2002. Although the musical was at first panned by critics, it has become an audience favourite, becoming the longest-running musical at the Dominion Theatre, celebrating its tenth anniversary on 14 May 2012.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: The original production closed on 31 May 2014, at that time the eleventh longest-running musical in West End history. Numerous international and touring productions have followed, and "We Will Rock You" has been seen in six of the world's continents.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: On the 6th December 2022, it was announced that We Will Rock You will return to the West End in June 2023, for a 12-week run at the London Coliseum


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: According to Brian May, Queen's manager Jim Beach had spoken with the band about creating a jukebox musical with Queen's songs since the mid-1990s. Initially, the intent was to create a biographical story of Freddie Mercury. About this time, Robert De Niro's production company Tribeca Productions expressed interest in a Queen musical, but it found the original idea difficult to work with.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: In 2000, Ben Elton was approached to start talks with May and Taylor on the project. He suggested taking the musical down a different path than initially imagined, creating an original story that would capture the spirit of much of their music. He worked closely with May and Taylor to incorporate Queen's songs into the story. Elton has also stated that he was in part inspired by the computer-controlled dystopia of the 1999 science-fiction film "The Matrix". The script was eventually completed midway through 2001.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: "We Will Rock You" opened in the West End at the Dominion Theatre on 14 May 2002, following previews from 26 April. It was directed by Christopher Renshaw and choreographed by Arlene Phillips, with musical supervision and vocal arrangements by Mike Dixon. The production featured a nine piece live band. The cast included Tony Vincent as Galileo, Hannah Jane Fox as Scaramouche, Sharon D. Clarke as Killer Queen, Nigel Planer as Pop, Nigel Clauzel as Brit and Kerry Ellis as Meat. For her performance, Clarke was nominated for "Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical or Entertainment" at the 2003 Olivier Awards. Notable cast replacements included Mig Ayesa and Alex Gaumond as Galileo, Mazz Murray and Brenda Edwards as Killer Queen, and Rachel Tucker as Meat. In 2005 "We Will Rock You" became the longest running musical at the Dominion Theatre, surpassing the previous record-holder "Grease". At the 2011 Laurence Olivier Awards, the show won the Audience Award for Most Popular Show. The production closed on 31 May 2014, shortly after its 12th Anniversary, and after 4,600 performances at the Dominion Theatre.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A UK tour was launched in 2009 at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. The cast included Gaumond as Galileo, Sarah French-Ellis as Scaramouche, Edwards as Killer Queen, Georgina Hagen as Meat, Jonathan Wilkes as Khashoggi and Kevin Kennedy as Pop. A second UK tour launched in December 2010, also at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. The show embarked on a further UK and Ireland tour, beginning at the Bromley Churchill Theatre, on 16 September 2019. After a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour resumed performances on 7 February 2022 at the Kings Theatre in Portsmouth, closing on 10 September 2022 at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A of the London production toured arenas in Europe and North America from February 2013 until August 2014.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: Following the UK tour, the show is set to make a return to the West End in 2023, opening at the London Coliseum on 2 June 2023 for a limited 12-week run.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: The first international production premiered at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, on 7 August 2003. The cast included Michael Falzon as Galileo, Kate Hoolihan as Scaramouche, Annie Crummer as Killer Queen, and Amanda Harrison as Oz. The production closed on 4 March 2004 before touring to Perth, Brisbane and Sydney. It then made a stop at the Shinjuku Koma Theater in Tokyo, Japan, where it ran from 27 May to 24 August 2005. A second tour launched in 2006, performing in Tokyo and Osaka.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: An Australasian tour was launched at the end of 2007 in New Zealand; the cast included Ayesa as Galileo and Crummer as Killer Queen. The tour performed in Auckland at The Civic, The Edge (26 October to 2 December 2007), in Seoul, South Korea, at the Seongnam Arts Centre (2 to 24 February 2008), in Singapore at the Esplanade Theatre (28 March to 27 April 2008), in Hong Kong at The Lyric Theatre of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (16 May to 22 June 2008) and in Bangkok, Thailand, at the Muangthai Ratchadalai Theatre (12 to 27 July 2008).


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A new tour of Australia commenced in Sydney on 30 April 2016, before touring to Brisbane and Melbourne. Another production was scheduald for 2023-2024, It was supposed to have over 500 cast members including: Courtney Act as Killer Queen and Peter Rowsthorn as Buddy.,In October of 2022 it was announced that the tour was cancelled because of legal reasons.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A Spanish-language production ran from 1 October 2003 (opening officially on 3 November) to 30 May 2004 at Teatro Calderón, Madrid, with Momo Cortés and Miquel Fernández as Galileo. The songs "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" retained their English lyrics. After closing at Teatro Calderón, the show toured around Spain. In 2007 the production returned to Teatro Calderón with previews from 23 January and an official opening on 12 February. Daniel Diges and Julián Fontalvo shared the role of Galileo.The production closed on 6 January 2008.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A new production began previews on 9 October 2021 at the Gran Teatro Príncipe Pío in Madrid, and officially opened on 24 November.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: On 15 October 2013, a North American tour began at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland. The cast included Brian Justin Crum as Galileo, Ruby Lewis as Scaramouche, PJ Griffith as Khashoggi, Jacqueline Arnold as Killer Queen, Jared Zirilli as Britney, Ryan Knowles as Buddy and Erica Peck as Oz. The tour covered nearly the whole of the US, corners of Canada and a sold-out run in Mexico City at the Auditiorio Nacional. In all, the tour included 298 performances in 30 cities.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A resident production at the Paris Las Vegas hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, began previews on 4 August 2004, with an official opening on 8 September. Tony Vincent, who originated the role of Galileo in London, reprised the role, which he alternated with Jason Wooten. Aspen Miller and Kacie Sheik shared the role of Scaramouche, Patti Russo was Killer Queen, and Ty Taylor was Brit. The Las Vegas production "trimmed" down the book into a single act show. The production closed on 27 November 2005.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A second North American tour launched on 3 September 2019 at the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and included a stop at the Madison Square Garden in New York City from 14 to 17 November 2019.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A Russian production opened in the Estrada Theatre, Moscow on 17 October 2004. The production's dialogue and all songs but three were translated into Russian, by Evgeny Margulis of Mashina Vremeni. This production closed only four months after its opening due to disagreements between the show's producers, despite fan protests to keep the show going.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A German production opened in the Musical Dome, Cologne, on 12 December 2004. The spoken dialogue was in German, but the musical numbers consisted of a mix of German and English lyrics. According to Brian May, Ben Elton intended German to represent the show's "present day", and English represented the distant past. The production closed in Cologne on 30 September 2008. It next opened at the Apollo Theatre in Stuttgart on 13 November 2008 after previews from 7 November 2008.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A German-language production opened in Zürich, Switzerland, on 3 December 2006 at Theatre Stadthof 11, Oerlikon using the book of the Cologne production. The production starred Jessica Kessler as Scaramouche, Brigitte Oelke as Killer Queen and Rachel Fischer as Ozzy. This production closed at the end of 2007. It reopened in Vienna, Austria, on 24 January 2008, at the Raimund Theatre where it ran until 13 July 2008.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: Another tour started in December 2012 in Basel, Switzerland, and closed in June 2013 in Essen, Germany. It restarted in September 2014 in Munich, followed by Frankfurt and Vienna.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A South African production opened at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg on 9 May 2006. It starred Francois Schreuder as Galileo, Helen Burger as Scaramouche, Vicky Sampson as Killer Queen, and Helen Goldberg as Oz. The production made tour stops at the Artscape in Cape Town (from 25 July) and the Playhouse Opera in Durban (29 September to 29 October 2006) before closing.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A Canadian production began previews on 14 March and officially opened on 10 April 2007 at the Canon Theatre, Toronto.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: Yvan Pednault played Galileo. Erica Peck was Scaramouche, Alana Bridgewater was Killer Queen, Suzie McNeil was Oz and Evan Buliung was Khashoggi. The production closed at the Canon Theatre on 11 May 2008 and reopened at the Panasonic Theatre on 16 July 2008 after major rewrites to trim the show. Cuts included dialogue between "Ga-Ga" and "I Want to Break Free"; "One Vision" was cut; and the Act Two song sequence was changed. In October 2008, Camilla Scott took over the role of Khashoggi, a character that had previously been portrayed as a male. The production closed on 28 June 2009.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: Another production opened at the Magnus Theatre in Thunder Bay, Ontario, on 8 September 2017. It played to sold-out audiences and was extended, closing on 30 September 2017.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: In April 2007 a non-equity production of "We Will Rock You" began at the Jedlicka Performing Art Centre in Chicago.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: An Italian production opened on 4 December 2009 at the Allianz Teatro in Milan, Italy. All the dialogues are in Italian and almost all the songs are in English, except for "Radio Ga Ga" and "No One But You". The tour visited Milan, Bologna, Trieste and Rome. From 12 September to 18 December 2010 a production was played in Stockholm, Sweden at the venue Cirkus. The production moved to Oslo, Norway on 23 January 2011 at Folketeateret. It closed on 16 April 2011.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A production of the show opened on 23 April 2015 on board the new Royal Caribbean cruise ship, "Anthem of the Seas". An Icelandic production opened on 15 August 2019 at the Háskólabíó Theater in Reykjavík, Iceland. The spoken dialogue and most lyrics were translated into Icelandic by Jóhann Axel Andersen. Directed by Vignir Rafn Valþórsson, with Chantelle Carey as choreographer, the cast included Kristinn Óli Haraldsson as Galileo and Þórhallur Sigurðsson as Pop.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: A French production opened on 28 September 2018 at the Casino de Paris in Paris, directed by Ned Grujic, with choreography by Raffaele Lucania.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: An international tour will start in the Philippines on 27 October 2022, with scheduled stops in South Korea, Singapore, and South Africa.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: Since 2006, the show has been licensed for amateur and school productions in the UK, with proceeds going to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: London's critics almost uniformly panned the show, criticising the concept and direction. "The Guardian" wrote that the premise "really is as sixth form as it sounds", called the production "ruthlessly packaged and manufactured" and opined that the "sometimes funny" libretto exists mainly to "devise more unlikely ways to wring out another Queen song." The "Daily Mirror" wrote that "Ben Elton should be shot for this risible story." "The Daily Telegraph" described it as "guaranteed to bore you rigid" and "prolefeed at its worst." However, some individual performances received praise.


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: The story is set exactly 300 years in the future in a vaguely Orwellian world. Earth has been renamed as the "iPlanet" (sometimes called "Planet Mall" in older productions) and is controlled by the Globalsoft Corporation. ("Innuendo")


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: On the iPlanet, mainstream commercial conformity reigns, in which Ga Ga Kids watch the same movies, listen to computer-generated music, wear the same clothes and hold the same thoughts and opinions. Musical instruments are forbidden, and rock music is unknown. ("Radio Ga Ga")


title: We Will Rock You (musical)

text: In the newest graduating class is black sheep, Galileo, who has dreams and hears strange words in his head, most of which are lyrics of songs long since lost, though he does not understand their significance. Despite his teacher's advice, Galileo refuses to conform like the rest of his classmates. ("I Want to Break Free") Galileo is captured by Khashoggi, commander of Globalsoft's police. The teacher also reveals a second anomaly, a young, goth woman named Scaramouche who is openly mocked and derided by her peers ("Somebody to Love"). She too is arrested by Khashoggi.