title: Shocker (character)

text: During the "Spider-Geddon" storyline, Earth-91053 featured a female version of Shocker named Anita Dillon, who is the mother of Max Dillon. Shocker breaks into the Brand Corporation in search of her son and takes several hostages, but is taken down by The Spider and arrested by the NYPD.


title: Shocker (character)

text: In the Marvel Noir universe, Herman Schultz is an American citizen who owns his own company, called Schultz Enterprises. In 1940, during World War II, Schultz secretly allied with the Nazis, building for them a battle suit capable of firing powerful shock waves, which, according to Schultz, would help them "end the war in a month". In the middle of a meeting between him and some Nazi officers, Spider-Man Noir and the White Widow, in an attempt to prevent Schultz from selling the suit, confront him and they manage to disable it after a brief fight.


title: Shocker (character)

text: The Shocker is part of a small group of supervillains who survived for decades after America was conquered and laid to waste. This group comes between a war between the new Avengers and Doctor Doom, but do not survive.


title: Shocker (character)

text: The Herman Schultz incarnation of Shocker appears in the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film "", portrayed by Bokeem Woodbine. This version is an employee of Adrian Toomes' salvaging company before it went out of business following Damage Control being established and the group turned to crime. Additionally, Schultz is the second individual to use the Shocker alias after Toomes accidentally kills the first, Jackson Brice (portrayed by Logan Marshall-Green), and wields a modified version of Crossbones' vibro-blast emitting gauntlet. Schultz assists Toomes in his criminal operations until he is defeated by Spider-Man and arrested by the authorities.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: In woodworking and construction, a nail is a small object made of metal (or wood, called a tree nail or "trunnel") which is used as a fastener, as a peg to hang something, or sometimes as a decoration. Generally, nails have a sharp point on one end and a flattened head on the other, but headless nails are available. Nails are made in a great variety of forms for specialized purposes. The most common is a "wire nail". Other types of nails include "pins", "tacks", "brads", "spikes", and "cleats."


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Nails are typically driven into the workpiece by a hammer or nail gun. A nail holds materials together by friction in the axial direction and shear strength laterally. The point of the nail is also sometimes bent over or "clinched" after driving to prevent pulling out.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: From the late 1700s to the mid-1900s, nail prices fell by a factor of 10; since then nail prices have increased slightly, reflecting in part an upturn in materials prices and a shift toward specialty nails.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: The Bible provides a number of references to nails, including the story in Judges of Jael the wife of Heber, who drives a nail (or tent-peg) into the temple of a sleeping Canaanite commander; the provision of iron for nails by King David for what would become Solomon's Temple; and in connection with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: The Romans made extensive use of nails. The Roman army, for example, left behind seven tons of nails when it evacuated the fortress of Inchtuthil in Perthshire in the United Kingdom in 86 to 87 CE.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: The term "penny", as it refers to nails, probably originated in medieval England to describe the price of a hundred nails. Nails themselves were sufficiently valuable and standardized to be used as an informal medium of exchange.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Until around 1800 artisans known as "nailers" or "nailors" made nails by hand – note the surname Naylor.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: At the time of the American Revolution, England was the largest manufacturer of nails in the world. Nails were expensive and difficult to obtain in the American colonies, so that abandoned houses were sometimes deliberately burned down to allow recovery of used nails from the ashes. This became such a problem in Virginia that a law was created to stop people from burning their houses when they moved. Families often had small nail-manufacturing setups in their homes; during bad weather and at night, the entire family might work at making nails for their own use and for barter. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter: "In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail maker." The growth of the trade in the American colonies was theoretically held back by the prohibition of new slitting mills in America by the Iron Act of 1750, though there is no evidence that the Act was actually enforced.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: The production of wrought-iron nails continued well into the 19th century, but ultimately was reduced to nails for purposes for which the softer cut nails were unsuitable, including horseshoe nails.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: The slitting mill, introduced to England in 1590, simplified the production of nail rods, but the real first efforts to mechanise the nail-making process itself occurred between 1790 and 1820, initially in the United States and England, when various machines were invented to automate and speed up the process of making nails from bars of wrought iron. Also in Sweden in the early 1700s Christopher Polhem produced a nail cutting machine as part of his automated factory. These nails were known as "cut nails" because they were produced by cutting iron bars into rods; they were also known as "square nails" because of their roughly rectangular cross section.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: The cut-nail process was patented in America by Jacob Perkins in 1795 and in England by Joseph Dyer, who set up machinery in Birmingham. The process was designed to cut nails from sheets of iron, while making sure that the fibres of the iron ran down the nails. The Birmingham industry expanded in the following decades, and reached its greatest extent in the 1860s, after which it declined due to competition from wire nails, but continued until the outbreak of World War I.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Cut nails were one of the important factors in the increase in balloon framing beginning in the 1830s and thus the decline of timber framing with wooden joints. Though still used for historical renovations, and for heavy-duty applications, such as attaching boards to masonry walls, "cut nails" are much less common today than "wire nails".


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Wire nails are formed from wire. Usually coils of wire are drawn through a series of dies to reach a specific diameter, then cut into short rods that are then formed into nails. The nail tip is usually cut by a blade; the head is formed by reshaping the other end of the rod under high pressure. Other dies are used to cut grooves and ridges. Wire nails were also known as "French nails" for their country of origin. Belgian wire nails began to compete in England in 1863. Joseph Henry Nettlefold was making wire nails at Smethwick by 1875. Over the following decades, the nail-making process was almost completely automated. Eventually the industry had machines capable of quickly producing huge numbers of inexpensive nails with little or no human intervention.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: With the introduction of cheap wire nails, the use of wrought iron for nail making quickly declined, as more slowly did the production of cut nails. In the United States, in 1892 more steel-wire nails were produced than cut nails. In 1913, 90% of manufactured nails were wire nails. Nails went from being rare and precious to being a cheap mass-produced commodity. Today almost all nails are manufactured from wire, but the term "wire nail" has come to refer to smaller nails, often available in a wider, more precise range of gauges than is typical for larger common and finish nails.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Nails were formerly made of bronze or wrought iron and were crafted by blacksmiths and nailors. These crafts people used a heated square iron rod that they forged before they hammered the sides which formed a point. After reheating and cutting off, the blacksmith or nailor inserted the hot nail into an opening and hammered it. Later new ways of making nails were created using machines to shear the nails before wiggling the bar sideways to produce a shank. For example, the Type A cut nails were sheared from an iron bar type guillotine using early machinery. This method was slightly altered until the 1820s when new heads on the nails' ends were pounded via a separate mechanical nail heading machine. In the 1810s, iron bars were flipped over after each stroke while the cutter set was at an angle. Every nail was then sheared off of taper allowing for an automatic grip of each nail which also formed their heads. Type B nails were created this way. In 1886, 10 percent of the nails that were made in the United States were of the soft steel wire variety and by 1892, steel wire nails overtook iron cut nails as the main type of nails that were being produced. In 1913, wire nails were 90 percent of all nails that were produced.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Today's nails are typically made of steel, often dipped or coated to prevent corrosion in harsh conditions or to improve adhesion. Ordinary nails for wood are usually of a soft, low-carbon or "mild" steel (about 0.1% carbon, the rest iron and perhaps a trace of silicon or manganese). Nails for concrete are harder, with 0.5–0.75% carbon.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Most countries, except the United States, use a metric system for describing nail sizes. A "50 × 3.0" indicates a nail 50 mm long (not including the head) and 3 mm in diameter. Lengths are rounded to the nearest millimetre.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Nails have been used in art, such as the Nail Men—a form of fundraising common in Germany and Austria during World War I.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Before the 1850s bocce and pétanque boules were wooden balls, sometimes partially reinforced with hand-forged nails. When cheap, plentiful machine-made nails became available, manufacturers began to produce the "boule cloutée"—a wooden core studded with nails to create an all-metal surface. Nails of different metals and colors (steel, brass, and copper) were used to create a wide variety of designs and patterns. Some of the old "boules cloutées" are genuine works of art and valued collector's items.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Once nails became cheap and widely available, they were often used in folk art and outsider art as a method of decorating a surface with metallic studs. Another common artistic use is the construction of sculpture from welded or brazed nails.


title: Nail (fastener)

text: Nails were sometimes inscribed with incantations or signs intended for religious or mystical benefit, used at shrines or on the doors of houses for protection.


title: Sexy Star

text: Dulce Maria García Rivas (born September 20, 1982) is a Mexican "luchadora" "enmascarada", or masked female professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and professional boxer who is better known by the ring name Sexy Star. She is best known for her work in Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), where she is a three-time AAA Reina de Reinas Champion, while also being a former one-time AAA World Mixed Tag Team Champion. She previously wrestled under the name Dulce Poly and held both the FILL Women's Championship and the FILL Mixed Tag Team Championship under that name. She worked for Lucha Underground, where she was a former Lucha Underground Champion and Gift of the Gods Champion. She is the first woman to win the Lucha Underground Championship and, by extension, the first woman to hold a World Heavyweight Championship in a major wrestling promotion.


title: Sexy Star

text: García has competed as a boxer since 2017, winning all five of her professional fights to date. She also won in her mixed martial arts debut for Combate Americas in 2019. She currently remains undefeated as a fighter for the company Combate Global before Combate Americas. García became the center of a controversy in August 2017 following a match at "Triplemanía" XXV, during which she legitimately injured Rosemary with a shoot armbar. This resulted in a backlash in the wrestling world, and was soon followed by her firing from AAA and stripping from the AAA Reina de Reinas title; several known wrestling figures also called for her to be blacklisted including Road Dogg & Cody Rhodes. She would not return to wrestling until joining Nación Lucha Libre in July 2019.


title: Sexy Star

text: Dulce García was born on September 20, 1982, in Monterrey, Nuevo León. Growing up she had devoted herself to sports such as boxing, kickboxing and Muay Thai. She also earned a college degree in Communication Sciences and worked in that field until she became a professional wrestler.


title: Sexy Star

text: García made her professional wrestling debut on August 29, 2006, under the ring name Dulce Poly, on a Federacion Internacional de Lucha Libre (FILL) show. In FILL she often teamed up with one of her trainers, Humberto Garza Jr. and together the two won the FILL Mixed Tag Team Championship at one point. She also won the FILL Women's Championship on December 17, 2006. She held the title until February 27, 2007 when she lost the title to La Bandiad.


title: Sexy Star

text: A few weeks after losing the FILL Women's Championship García made her debut for AAA as the "enmascarada" (masked) character Sexy Star, a "técnica" (fan favorite character, or Face). Her first match for AAA saw her on the losing side of a "Relevos Atómicos de locura" match (Spanish for "Eight-man madness match") where she teamed up with Billy Boy, Octagóncito and Pimpinela Escarlata losing to Faby Apache, Gran Apache, Mini Chessman and Polvo de Estrellas. After joining AAA she received further training from both Abismo Negro and Gran Apache, AAA's main trainer for "luchadoras". Sexy Star participated in the 2007 "Reina de Reinas" (Spanish for "Queen of Queens") tournament, and was one of six women to survive a 16-woman torneo cibernetico match. The finals of the tournament saw Tiffany outlast Sexy Star, Cinthia Moreno, Faby Apache, Miss Janeth, and Rossy Moreno to win the tournament. The following year Sexy Star once again competed in the annual "Reina de Reinas" tournament, but lost to Mari Apache in a five-way match that also included Chikayo Nagashima, Martha Villalobos, and Sonoko Kato.


title: Sexy Star

text: Sexy Star's first major angle in AAA began in early 2009 as she was written into a long running storyline between real life husband and wife Billy Boy and Faby Apache. She was introduced as the new object of Billy Boy's affections after Billy Boy had turned "rúdo" (bad guy, or Heel) on Faby Apache. When Aero Star entered the picture as a possible suitor for Faby Apache, Billy Boy acted like he did not care as he himself had found a new love in Sexy Star, who in the process turned "rúdo" (villain) in the storyline. During a television taping on March 21, 2010, Aero Star came to the ring and asked Gran Apache's permission to ask Faby Apache out, which led to Billy Boy storming to the ring and attacking Aero Star. The storyline evolved and saw all four involved in an intergender "Lucha de Apuesta" Steel Cage Match where the last person in the ring would either have their hair shaved off or be forced to unmask. The match took place on the 2009 "Verano de Escandalo" show and came down to Faby Apache and Billy Boy in the cage, after which Faby Apache pinned Billy Boy. After the match Billy Boy's hair was shaved off as Faby Apache celebrated her win.


title: Sexy Star

text: Following the "Apuesta" loss the storyline began to focus more on the rivalry between Faby Apache and Sexy Star and less on Billy Boy. The two faced off in a "Bull Terrier" match for Faby Apache's AAA Reina de Reinas Championship during AAA's Heroes Inmortales III event, in which Sexy Star defeated Faby Apache due to the interference of "La Legión Extranjera" members Jennifer Blade and Rain. In the time following the title victory Sexy Star became a member of La Legión, making her the only Mexican female in the group. The storyline between Sexy Star and Faby Apache continued at the 2009 "Guerra de Titanes" where Sexy Star defeated Faby Apache in a "Lucha de Apuesta" match, thanks to the interference of "La Legión". On the same night Cinthia Moreno returned to AAA, siding with Faby Apache in her fight against La Legión. This meant that Moreno, Faby, and her sister Mari Apache faced off against Sexy Star, Rain, and Christina Von Eerie during the 2010 "Rey de Reyes" event, a match which Moreno won for her team by pinning Sexy Star. During a post "Rey de Reyes" interview Sexy Star claimed that the Apaches and Cintia Moreno were nothing but maids, which led to AAA booking a match between Cinthia Moreno, Faby, and Mari Apache against Sexy Star, Rain, and Jennifer Blade in a Triplemania XVIII match where the person pinned or submitted would have to be the winning team's slave for a month. At Triplemania "La Legión" defeated Moreno and the Apaches, when Blade pinned Mari, thanks in part to the biased refereering by Hijo del Tirantes. Following the match Konnan ordered Mari Apache to begin her maid duty right away by cleaning up their dressing room. The stipulation expired on July 6, 2010.


title: Sexy Star

text: On August 14 at Verano de Escandalo, Sexy Star lost the Reina de Reinas Championship to Mari Apache in a six-person tag team match, where she, Alex Koslov, and Christina Von Eerie faced the Apaches and Aero Star. Just prior to her title loss, she had traveled to Tampa, Florida to take part in World Wrestling Entertainment's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling's tryouts, but was rejected by the promotion, who claimed that her English and wrestling were subpar, and that she was overweight and not pretty enough without her mask. Afterward, AAA removed Sexy Star from "La Legión Extranjera" and demoted her to random opening matches or simply not booking her at all, which eventually led to her considering a jump to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Eventually in March 2011, Sexy Star once again began appearing with "La Legión Extranjera" under the "La Sociedad" banner, teaming with Jennifer Blake and feuding with the Apaches and the recently debuted Lolita. On June 18 at Triplemanía XIX, Sexy teamed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling wrestlers Angelina Love, Mickie James, and Velvet Sky to defeat Cynthia Moreno, Faby Apache, Lolita, and Mari Apache.


title: Sexy Star

text: On December 16 at Guerra de Titanes, Sexy Star defeated Pimpinela Escarlata in a lumberjack match to win the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship for the second time. On March 18 at "Rey de Reyes", Sexy Star took part in a twelve-person steel cage Hairs vs. Masks match, which eventually came down to her and Pimpinela Escarlata. In the end, Sexy Star managed to escape the cage, forcing Escarlata to have his head shaved. On May 19, in her first title defense, Sexy Star defeated Cynthia Moreno, Faby Apache and Lolita in a Bull Terrier match. On November 27, Sexy Star put her AAA Reina de Reinas Championship on the line in the 2012 Reina de Reinas tournament, which AAA held in collaboration with Pro Wrestling Wave in Tokyo's Korakuen Hall. After defeating Jennifer Blake in her opening match, she defeated Kaguya in the finals to win the tournament and retain the Reina de Reinas Championship.


title: Sexy Star

text: On February 19, 2013, Sexy Star vacated the Reina de Reinas Championship and became inactive for an undisclosed reason, which was later revealed to be her pregnancy.


title: Sexy Star

text: Sexy Star returned to AAA on December 8, 2013, at "Guerra de Titanes", taking part in an eight-way steel cage Hair vs. Hair match. She managed to escape the cage, saving her hair. On April 19, 2014, Sexy Star and Pentagón Jr. defeated Drago and Faby Apache, and Dark Cuervo and Mari Apache in a three-way match to win the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship for the first time. On February 5, 2016, Sexy Star announced she was relinquishing the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship. Later that month, it was reported that García had quit AAA. Reportedly, she had contacted the AAA office, stating that she was retiring from professional wrestling.


title: Sexy Star

text: On July 16, 2017, Sexy Star made a surprise return to AAA, winning the vacant Reina de Reinas Championship. She gained some attention on August 26, 2017, when she submitted and injured Rosemary with a shoot armbar to retain her title in a four-way match at "Triplemanía" XXV. Afterwards, several wrestlers voiced their opinions on the incident, including fellow black listed wrestler Joey Ryan, who stated "we constantly put our health in each others hands. If you violate that trust, you're not one of us". Sexy Star also lost bookings because of the incident with WrestleCade announcing they had removed her from an upcoming event. Cody Rhodes stated that she would never set foot into one of his locker rooms, while Road Dogg called for her to be blacklisted. On September 4, Sexy Star was stripped of the Reina de Reinas Championship.


title: Sexy Star

text: In August, Sexy Star was announced as one of five AAA wrestlers to star in the new El Rey program "Lucha Underground", which premiered on October 29; her first match was against Son of Havoc. When Blue Demon Jr. was attacked post-match by Chavo Guerrero Jr. with a steel chair, Sexy Star came in to try and persuade Chavo to desist, but was struck in the head by Chavo with the chair. Her storyline for Season One was her determination to get revenge on Chavo, and on the December 3 program she teamed with Fénix against Chavo and Pentagón Jr. in a tag team match that ended with Sexy Star getting the pin on Pentagón Jr. On April 1, 2015, Star participated in a tournament to crown the first LU Trios Champions. Sexy Star, Pentagón Jr. and Super Fly were defeated by Big Ryck, The Mack and Killshot. After the match, Pentagón tried to break Super Fly's arm, but Star saved him. On February 7, 2015, Sexy Star won her first mask, when she defeated Super Fly in a Mask vs. Mask "Lucha de Apuestas". After the match, Pentagón Jr. attacked Star and broke Super Fly's arm. On April 22, 2015, Star defeated Pentagón Jr. On June 3, 2015, Star was defeated by Pentagon Jr. in a Submission match after Super Fly attacked her. On "Ultima Lucha", broadcast on August 5, 2015, Sexy Star was one of seven "Aztec Medallion" holders who participated in a seven-way Battle Royal Match for the inaugural Lucha Underground Gift of the Gods Championship, but was unsuccessful in winning the match. At the end of "Ultima Lucha" she was shown to have been kidnapped by Marty "The Moth" Martinez as part of a storyline leading into Season Two. On January 31, 2016, at the second season "Ultima Lucha", Sexy Star became the first female Gift of the Gods Champion. She lost the title to Johnny Mundo on March 19, 2016. On April 9, Sexy Star won the third Aztec Warfare match to become the first female Lucha Underground Champion. She also lost that title to Mundo the following day.


title: Sexy Star

text: On November 12, 2016, García, working unmasked and under the name Dulce Garcia, made her debut for Shimmer Women Athletes, defeating LuFisto. The following day, she was defeated by Mercedes Martinez. On April 1, 2017, at Shimmer 91, she defeated Kellyanne in a singles match.


title: Sexy Star

text: On July 2, 2016, García unmasked herself at a boxing event in Mexico City and announced she was changing professions and becoming a professional boxer.


title: Sexy Star

text: On April 22, 2017, Garcia was victorious on her boxing debut, defeating Yanely Ceja Hernandez at the fourth round in a unanimous decision.


title: Sexy Star

text: In March 2017, García showed her interest in pursuing a career in mixed martial arts and, ten months later, it was reported she was in conversations with the MMA promotion Combate Americas. On February 19, 2019, it was announced García signed with Combate Américas. She made her debut on April 12, defeating Mariana Ruiz. She won her second combat against Alina Lopez. On April 30, 2021, she lost her third combat against Claudia Díaz at Combate Global: Combate Latina.


title: Sexy Star

text: During the spring of 2010 Sexy Star appeared in an episode the National Geographic Channel show "Tabú", a fact that was advertised on large billboards in Mexico City prior to the show airing on television.


title: Sexy Star

text: In the fall of 2017, she began to do projects for Monterrey's Multimedios Televisión, including competing in the second cycle of the network's celebrity dance competition "Bailadísimo" for that year, and co-hosting the children's afternoon show "Destardes".


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: John Lewis Gilbert III (born July 13, 1928) is an American show business personality who has worked mainly on television game shows. Originally a nightclub singer and entertainer, he has hosted and announced a number of game shows from various eras, dating as far back as the 1950s. He is known primarily for his work as the announcer and audience host for the syndicated version of the quiz show "Jeopardy!" since its revival in 1984.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: Gilbert was born in Newport News, Virginia. He began performing by singing as a boy in his hometown Lutheran Church choir. Although his parents had never worked in the theatrical profession themselves, his grandmother had been a church singer.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: While he was still in high school, Gilbert decided to take up a professional singing career and learned from an opera teacher. He never sang opera independently, but was the regular vocalist with Shelly Harmon and His Orchestra, a group that toured the Virginia area.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: A few years after graduating from high school, Gilbert resided in Florida for three months working as an emcee, during which he received on-the-job training, and learned to walk on stage, speak in front of a public crowd, and tell jokes and stories.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: The Dead End Kids, a group comprising such young actors as Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and Gabriel Dell, were organizing a revue. Gilbert joined the group and played throughout the southwestern United States for 16 weeks. When they played in Norfolk, Virginia, Gilbert got special billing.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: In the 1950s, Gilbert joined the United States Army's Seventh Army Special Services in Germany, and was cast as the lead in "", an original musical comedy inspired in part by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem "Kubla Khan", which chronicles Marco Polo's trip to China. The company toured throughout Western Europe, performing for servicemen and civilians alike.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: After resigning from the service and returning to the U.S., Gilbert continued singing and hosting in clubs. One day, a manager of a well-known group in Philadelphia asked Gilbert if he was interested in auditioning for television. He said yes, and received his first television assignment as a singer and emcee on WDSU in New Orleans.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: Gilbert went to New York City, where he quickly signed with the William Morris Agency and in 1958 received his first job on national television—as the host of a newly created game show, "Music Bingo". The show ran for three years, airing first on NBC and then on ABC. His popularity on that show led him to record an album and several singles. Gilbert went on to emcee the local game show "Words and Music" on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: Gilbert was later contacted by Avco Broadcasting to host his own local talk/variety show, "The Johnny Gilbert Show", which aired on WLWD-TV (now WDTN) in Dayton, Ohio, and three other Avco stations in Ohio and Indiana. The show was a 90-minute, live telecast running 5 days a week. It included celebrity guests and a 60-person studio audience. He hosted it for two years, until he left Dayton on short notice for New York, where he became the host of the Metromedia-produced game show "Fast Draw". His slot was then given to Phil Donahue, who at that time was a reporter in WLWD-TV's news department.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: After his yearlong run on "Fast Draw", Gilbert was contacted by Bing Crosby Productions to host the game show "Beat the Odds", produced in Los Angeles by Bill Carruthers. After that, he hosted a local, weekday version of "Dialing for Dollars" on Los Angeles's KCOP-TV.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: In 1963, Gilbert was selected by Mark Goodson to replace Don Pardo as the announcer and audience host for the original Bill Cullen-hosted version of "The Price Is Right" when it moved from NBC to ABC. He hosted the show for the absent Cullen on June 19, 1964. Gilbert also served as the announcer and audience host for Dinah Shore's syndicated daily talk show, which ran from 1974 to 1980.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: When Merv Griffin's quiz show "Jeopardy!" was reintroduced to television in 1984 as a daily syndicated program hosted by Alex Trebek, Trebek convinced Griffin to hire Gilbert as announcer; Trebek had met Gilbert at a dinner party in the early 1980s and was impressed with his voice. Gilbert has held the announcer role ever since. He has become well known for opening each of the show's nightly episodes with the announcement, "This is "Jeopardy! "" and (from 1984 until 2021) "...and now, here is the host of " Jeopardy!", Alex Trebek!" (Mike Richards in 2021 and Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik since 2022). In 2017 Gilbert was honored by Guinness World Records for having the longest career as a game show announcer for a single show, after 32 years with "Jeopardy!" This was commemorated with a rare on-screen appearance by Gilbert just before the Final Jeopardy! segment of the episode aired September 28, 2017 (season #34, show #7599, Austin Rogers's 3rd win). He has also been the main announcer for most of the "Jeopardy" video games since 1992, including a few game versions in which he voiced all of the clues and effectively hosted the entire game off-screen in lieu of Trebek.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: Gilbert briefly considered retirement after Trebek's death but chose to continue in the role. In recent years, Gilbert has handled much of his announcer load remotely, with a member of the Clue Crew providing in-studio announcements that are replaced with Gilbert's in post-production.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: In addition to announcing for "Jeopardy!", Gilbert has worked as a guest announcer on its sister show, "Wheel of Fortune". He announced on the episode that aired on April Fools' Day in 1997, as well as a few weeks of episodes in 2010 following the death of the show's longtime announcer, Charlie O'Donnell. Gilbert also guest announced on "Wheel" in late 1995, when O'Donnell was ill, and on the daytime show in 1988 before the death of then-regular announcer Jack Clark.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: Other game shows for which Gilbert has announced over the decades include "The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime"; "The $25,000 Pyramid"; "The $100,000 Pyramid"; "Anything for Money"; "Blackout"; "Camouflage"; "Chain Reaction"; "Dream House"; "Every Second Counts"; "Fantasy"; "Go"; "Headline Chasers" (produced by Griffin); "Jackpot"; "Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time"; "The Joker's Wild"; "Make Me Laugh"; "Perfect Match"; "Quiz Kids Challenge"; "Sports Challenge"; "Supermarket Sweep"; "Tic-Tac-Dough"; "Win, Lose or Draw"; and "Yours for a Song". He substituted for Gene Wood on several Goodson-Todman game shows, including "Family Feud", the CBS version of "Card Sharks", and "Child's Play". He succeeded Rich Jeffries (another part-time substitute for Wood) as permanent announcer of Chuck Woolery's game show "Love Connection" during the 1988–89 season.


title: Johnny Gilbert

text: Gilbert's voice was heard on the CBS television special "Circus of the Stars", in "People's Choice Awards" and "Emmy Awards" ceremonies, and on episodes of the animated series "The Angry Beavers" and "Johnny Bravo". He announced a fictional episode of "Jeopardy!" in the "Ellen's Energy Adventure" show at EPCOT Center's Universe of Energy attraction, and appeared in a subplot of the 1992 movie "White Men Can't Jump" in which a character played by Rosie Perez attempts to pass the "Jeopardy!" audition. Gilbert also lent his voice to an announcer in a 1989 episode of the TV series "227" and announced in The Golden Girls episode "Questions and Answers" (season 7, episode 17, on February 8, 1992) and in the "Cheers" episode "What Is... Cliff Clavin?" (season 8, episode 14, on January 18, 1990).


title: Targeted killing

text: Targeted killing is a form of murder or assassination carried out by governments outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield.


title: Targeted killing

text: Since the late 20th century, the legal status of targeted killing has become a subject of contention within and between various nations. Historically, at least since the mid-eighteenth century, Western thinking has generally considered the use of assassination as a tool of statecraft to be illegal. Some academics, military personnel and officials describe targeted killing as legitimate within the context of self-defense, when employed against terrorists or combatants engaged in asymmetrical warfare. They argue that drones are more humane and more accurate than manned vehicles, and that targeted or "named killings" do not occur in any context other than a declared state of war.


title: Targeted killing

text: Scholars are also divided as to whether targeted killings are an effective counterterrorism strategy.


title: Targeted killing

text: During fighting in the Somali Civil War, Sean Devereux described torture and killing by warlords in Kismayo as "targeted killings, a kind of ethnic cleansing", shortly before his assassination.


title: Targeted killing

text: Also in Africa, Reuters described "targeted killings of political opponents" by Hutu army and militias in Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide. The American State Department reported the "politically targeted killings" were a prelude to general massacres in Rwanda.


title: Targeted killing

text: During the 1980s and 1990s, targeted killings were employed extensively by death squads in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Haiti within the context of civil unrest and war.


title: Targeted killing

text: Starting under the George W. Bush Administration, targeted killings became a frequent tactic of the United States government in the War on Terror. Instances of targeted killing by the United States that have received significant attention include the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011 and the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2022, as well as these of American citizens Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son in 2011. Under the Obama administration, use of targeted killings expanded, most frequently through use of combat drones operating in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen.


title: Targeted killing

text: Referring to killings by drug cartels in Washington, D.C. in 1989, mayor Marion Barry infamously stated, "Washington should not be called the murder capital of the world. We are the targeted-killing capital of the world." Barry said that "targeted killings" by D.C.'s cartels were comparable to those during the days of "Al Capone and Eliot Ness" at the time of Prohibition in the United States. Similarly, drug-related "mob hits" in Moscow during the 1990s were euphemistically described as "targeted killings" by the Cox News Service and "Atlanta Journal-Constitution".


title: Targeted killing

text: The U.S.-backed Operation Condor was a campaign of political repression and state terror in Latin American right-wing dictatorships involving assassination of political opponents and dissidents. The National Security Archive reported, "Prominent victims of Condor include two former Uruguayan legislators and a former Bolivian president, Juan José Torres, murdered in Buenos Aires, a former Chilean Minister of the Interior, Bernardo Leighton, as well as former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his 26-year-old American colleague, Ronni Moffitt, assassinated by a car bomb in downtown Washington D.C."


title: Targeted killing

text: In 1986, the human rights group Americas Watch released a report stating that death squads and armed forces under President José Napoleón Duarte in El Salvador had carried out 240 targeted killings throughout 1985. The report relied upon figures provided by the Roman Catholic Church and included allegations of torture and summary executions. Americas Watch and other rights groups reported "targeted killing" of civilians by the Nicaraguan Sandinista government in the following year during its campaign against the Contras. Politically motivated targeted killings of trade unionists and activists were also recorded in Haiti and Colombia during the late 1980s and 1990s. Targeted killings linked to the drug trade and paramilitary organizations including FARC and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) resulted in large numbers of deaths among human rights and political activists, and women and children, throughout the 1990s.


title: Targeted killing

text: An early example of American targeted killing is Operation Vengeance during World War II. This counterattack shot down the plane of Isoroku Yamamoto, the senior planner of the attack on Pearl Harbor.


title: Targeted killing

text: During the Vietnam War, the Phoenix Program targeted political leadership of the Viet Cong for assassination.


title: Targeted killing

text: The United States has made targeted killing—the deliberate assassination of a known terrorist outside the country's territory, usually by airstrike—an essential part of its counter-terrorism strategy. Hence, the United States has justified the killing of terrorists under a war paradigm. "Using the war paradigm for counter-terrorism enabled government lawyers to distinguish lethal attacks on terrorists from prohibited assassinations and justify them as lawful battlefield operations against enemy combatants, much like the uncontroversial targeted killing of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto while he was traveling by a military airplane during World War II."


title: Targeted killing

text: Further support for the U.S. government's use of drone strike tactics is found in a report found in the Journal of Strategic Security concerning the surgical nature of drone strikes for use in a populated area. The author concedes, "Indeed the tactic of using drones promises the ability of eliminating enemies in complex environments, while minimizing the political implications of resorting to war."


title: Targeted killing

text: The domestic legislative basis offered to justify drone strikes is the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF), a joint resolution of both houses of Congress passed exactly one week after 11 September 2001. The AUMF permits the President to use "all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on 11 September 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons".


title: Targeted killing

text: A report published in the Journal of Strategic Security focusing on the future of drones in geopolitics finds the U.S. government's use of drones in targeted killing operations an "indiscriminant and disproportionate use of force that violates the sovereignty of Pakistan".


title: Targeted killing

text: Twenty-six members of United States Congress, with academics such as Gregory Johnsen and Charles Schmitz, media figures (Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald, James Traub), civil rights groups (i.e. the American Civil Liberties Union) and ex-CIA station chief in Islamabad, Robert Grenier, have criticized targeted killings as a form of extrajudicial killings, which may be illegal under both United States and international law.


title: Targeted killing

text: In early 2010, with President Barack Obama's approval, Anwar al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be approved for targeted killing by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Awlaki was killed in a drone strike in September 2011.


title: Targeted killing

text: A Reuters report analysing the killing of 500 "militants" by US drones between 2008 and 2010 found that only 8% of those killed were mid- to top-tier organisers or leaders; the rest were unidentified foot soldiers.


title: Targeted killing

text: "The Intercept" reported, "Between January 2012 and February 2013, U.S. special operations airstrikes [in northeastern Afghanistan] killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets. During one five-month period of the operation, according to the documents, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets."


title: Targeted killing

text: According to analysis by Reprieve, 874 people were killed, including 142 children, in drone strikes in Pakistan that targeted 24 people successfully and unsuccessfully, and, in numerous failed attempts to kill Ayman al-Zawahri, 76 children and 29 adults were killed.


title: Targeted killing

text: Estimates for the total people killed in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, range from 2,000–3,500 militants killed and 158–965 civilians killed. 81 insurgent leaders in Pakistan have been killed. Drone strikes in Yemen are estimated to have killed 846–1,758 militants and 116–225 civilians. 57 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leaders are confirmed to have been killed


title: Targeted killing

text: In a speech titled "The Ethics and Efficacy of the President's Counterterrorism Strategy" John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, outlined on 30 April 2012 at the Wilson Center the use of combat drones to kill members of al-Qaeda by the US Federal government under President Barack Obama. John Brennan acknowledged for the first time that the US government uses drones to kill selected members of al-Qaeda.


title: Targeted killing

text: He justified the use of drones both from domestic law and international law point of view. With respect to domestic law Brennan stated, "as a matter of domestic law, the Constitution empowers the President to protect the nation from any imminent threat of attack. The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress after the 11 September attacks authorizes the president "to use all necessary and appropriate force" against those nations, organizations and individuals responsible for 9/11. There is nothing in the AUMF that restricts the use of military force against al-Qa'ida to Afghanistan." And he further said: "As a matter of international law, the United States is in an armed conflict with al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, and associated forces, in response to the 9/11 attacks, and we may also use force consistent with our inherent right of national self-defense. There is nothing in international law that bans the use of remotely piloted aircraft for this purpose or that prohibits us from using lethal force against our enemies outside of an active battlefield, at least when the country involved consents or is unable or unwilling to take action against the threat."


title: Targeted killing

text: The speech came a few days after Obama authorized the CIA and the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) to fire on targets based solely on their intelligence "signatures"—patterns of behavior that are detected through signals intercepts, human sources and aerial surveillance, and that indicate the presence of an important operative or a plot against U.S. interests. Under the previous rules the CIA and the US military were only allowed to use drone strikes against known terrorist leaders whose location could be confirmed and who appeared on secret CIA and JSOC target lists.


title: Targeted killing

text: The justification by Brennan built upon remarks by US top officials like the State Department's top lawyer Harold Hongju Koh, US Attorney General Eric Holder, the US Defense Department general counsel Jeh Johnson and President Obama himself, who defended the use of drones outside of so-called "hot battlefields" like Afghanistan.


title: Targeted killing

text: In 2011/2012, the process for selecting targets outside of warzones was altered so that power was concentrated in the hands of a group of people in the White House centered around White House counterterror chief John Brennan. Under the new plan, Brennan's staff compiles the potential target list and runs the names past agencies such as the State Department at a weekly White House meeting. According to "The New York Times", President Obama has placed himself at the helm of a top secret process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, reserving the final say on approving lethal action, and signs off every strike in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.


title: Targeted killing

text: U.S. Congressional oversight over the targeted killing operations increased as the drone program intensified under the Obama Administration. Once a month, a group of staff members from the House and Senate intelligence committees would watch videos of the latest drone strikes, review intelligence that was used to justify each drone strike, and sometimes examine telephone intercepts and after-the-fact evidence, such as the CIA's assessment of who was hit. The procedure used by House and Senate intelligence committees to monitor CIA drone strikes was set up largely at the request of Senator Dianne Feinstein who became determined to ensure that it was as precise as the CIA had been claiming. "That's been a concern of mine from the beginning," Feinstein said in little-noticed comments after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011. "I asked that this effort be established. It has been. The way in which this is being done is very careful." Feinstein explained how the oversight works in general. "We receive notification with key details shortly after every strike, and we hold regular briefings and hearings on these operations," Feinstein wrote in May in a letter sent in response to a column that ran in the "Los Angeles Times" questioning the oversight of drone strikes. "Committee staff has held 28 monthly in-depth oversight meetings to review strike records and question every aspect of the program including legality, effectiveness, precision, foreign policy implications and the care taken to minimize noncombatant casualties." If the congressional committees objected to something, the lawmakers could call CIA leaders to testify in closed investigative hearings. If unsatisfied, they could pass legislation limiting the CIA's actions.


title: Targeted killing

text: Congressional criticism of drone strikes has been rare. However, in June 2012, 26 lawmakers, all but two of them Democrats, signed a letter to Obama questioning so-called signature strikes, in which the U.S. attacks armed men who fit a pattern of behavior that suggests they are involved in terrorist activities. Signature strikes have been curbed in Pakistan, where they once were common, but in 2012 Obama gave the CIA permission to conduct them in Yemen, where an Al Qaeda affiliate that has targeted the United States has established a safe haven in the south. The lawmakers expressed concern that signature strikes could kill civilians. They added: "Our drone campaigns already have virtually no transparency, accountability or oversight."


title: Targeted killing

text: While the Bush administration had put emphasis on killing significant members of al Qaeda, the use of combat drones underwent a quiet and unheralded shift during the Obama Administration to focus increasingly on killing militant foot soldiers rather than high-value targets according to CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen. Bergen noted: "To the extent that the targets of drone attacks can be ascertained, under Bush, al Qaeda members accounted for 25% of all drone targets compared to 40% for Taliban targets. Under Obama, only 8% of targets were al Qaeda compared to just over 50% for Taliban targets."


title: Targeted killing

text: Facing the possibility of defeat in the 2012 Presidential election, the Obama administration accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules for the targeted killing of terrorists by unmanned drones, so that a new president would inherit clear standards and procedures. The work to codify U.S. drone policy began in summer 2011. "There was concern that the levers might no longer be in our hands," said one unnamed U.S official. With a continuing debate about the proper limits of drone strikes, Obama did not want to leave an "amorphous" program to his successor, the official said. The effort, which would have been rushed to completion by January had Mitt Romney won, will now be finished at a more leisurely pace, the official said. "One of the things we've got to do is put a legal architecture in place, and we need Congressional help in order to do that, to make sure that not only am I reined in but any president's reined in terms of some of the decisions that we're making," Obama said and added "creating a legal structure, processes, with oversight checks on how we use unmanned weapons, is going to be a challenge for me and my successors for some time to come." U.S. President Obama also expressed wariness of the powerful temptation drones pose to policy makers. "There's a remoteness to it that makes it tempting to think that somehow we can, without any mess on our hands, solve vexing security problems," he said.


title: Targeted killing

text: In response lawsuits brought by "The New York Times" and the American Civil Liberties Union seeking to use the Freedom of Information Act to make public more details about the legal basis for the drone programs U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon ruled at the end of December 2012 that the U.S. Government has no legal duty to disclose legal opinions justifying the use of drones to kill suspected terrorist operatives abroad. While noting that a more detailed disclosure of the administration's legal rationale "would allow for intelligent discussion and assessment of a tactic that (like torture before it) remains hotly debated", McMahon came to the conclusion that the Freedom of Information Act did not permit her to require such transparency.


title: Targeted killing

text: In a letter dated 22 May 2013 to the chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary committee, Patrick J. Leahy, U.S. attorney general Eric Holder wrote that the United States will use lethal force by combat drones "in a foreign country against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al Qa'ida or its associated forces, and who is actively engaged in planning to kill Americans, in the following circumstances: (1) the U.S. government has determined, after a thorough and careful review, that the individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States; (2) capture is not feasible; and (3) the operation would be conducted in a manner consistent with applicable law of war principles." In a Presidential Policy Guidance entitled "U.S. Policy Standards and Procedures for the Use of Force in Counterterrorism Operations Outside the United States and Areas of Active Hostilities" from May 2013 the United States government stated that lethal force by combat drones "will be used only to prevent or stop attacks against U.S. persons, and even then, only when capture is not feasible and no other reasonable alternatives exist to address the threat effectively". The U.S. government further declared, "lethal force will be used outside areas of active hostilities only when the following preconditions are met:


title: Targeted killing

text: U.S. President Barack Obama touched on the subject of combat drones in a speech on Counterterrorism delivered on 23 May 2013 at the National Defense University. "It is a hard fact that US strikes have resulted in civilian casualties," he said, adding, "These deaths will haunt us. But as commander-in-chief I must weigh these heartbreaking tragedies against the alternative. To do nothing in the face of terrorist networks would invite far more civilian casualties." Obama said new guidance allowed targeting only those terrorists posing "a continuing and imminent threat to the American people", which administration officials said meant only individuals planning attacks on the U.S. homeland or against U.S. persons abroad. Obama defended the use of drones as just because America "is at war with al Qaeda, the Taliban and their associated forces". To stop terrorists from gaining a foothold, drones will be deployed according to Obama, but only when there is an imminent threat; no hope of capturing the targeted terrorist; "near certainty" that civilians won't be harmed; and "there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat". Never will a strike be punitive.


title: Targeted killing

text: A report by Ben Emmerson QC, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, who identified 33 drone strikes around the world that have resulted in civilian casualties and may have violated international humanitarian law urged the United States "to further clarify its position on the legal and factual issues ... to declassify, to the maximum extent possible, information relevant to its lethal extraterritorial counter-terrorism operations; and to release its own data on the level of civilian casualties inflicted through the use of remotely piloted aircraft, together with information on the evaluation methodology used". Human Rights Watch said that in Yemen more civilians were killed than admitted by the Obama administration, while Amnesty International said the same of drone strikes in Pakistan. Caitlin Hayden, a White House spokeswoman, declined to comment on the reports, but said in an e-mail statement: "As the President emphasized, the use of lethal force, including from remotely piloted aircraft, commands the highest level of attention and care."


title: Targeted killing

text: While the U.S. government is considering whether to kill an American abroad suspected of planning terrorist attacks and how to do so legally under new stricter targeting policy issued in 2013, The Intercept reported that the U.S. government is using primarily NSA surveillance to target people for drone strikes overseas. In its report "The Intercept" the author details the flawed methods which are used to locate targets for lethal drone strikes, resulting in the deaths of innocent people. According to "The Washington Post", NSA analysts and collectors (i.e. NSA personnel who control electronic surveillance equipment) use the NSA's sophisticated surveillance capabilities to track individual targets geographically and in real time, while drones and tactical units aim their weaponry against those targets to take them out.


title: Targeted killing

text: NBC News released in February 2014 an undated Department of Justice White paper entitled "Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa'ida or An Associated Force" in which the Obama Administration concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be "senior operational leaders" of al-Qaida or "an associated force"—even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S. However any such targeted killing operation by the United States would have to comply with the four fundamental law-of-war principles governing the use of force which are necessity, distinction, proportionality and humanity – i.e., the avoidance of unnecessary suffering. (Page 8 of). The memo also discusses why targeted killings would not be a war crime or violate a U.S. executive order banning assassinations:


title: Targeted killing

text: "A lawful killing in self-defense is not an assassination. In the Department's view, a lethal operation conducted against a U.S. citizen whose conduct poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States would be a legitimate act of national self-defense that would not violate the assassination ban. Similarly, the use of lethal force, consistent with the laws of war, against an individual who is a legitimate military target would be lawful and would not violate the assassination ban."


title: Targeted killing

text: In 2013, a report on drone warfare and aerial sovereignty proposed that U.S. government drone policy in Pakistan potentially violated human rights according to the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The rights in direct question were the right to life; right to a fair trial; the freedom of association; right to protection of the family; and, less directly, right to highest attainable health standards; right to education; and right of freedom from hunger.


title: Targeted killing

text: On 21 April 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the above-mentioned December 2012 ruling by U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon and ruled that the Obama administration must release documents justifying its drone-killings of Americans and foreigners. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal released on 23 June 2014 a Juli 2010 memo by then U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel David Barron which outlined the rationale for killing the American Citizen Anwar al-Aulaqi.


title: Targeted killing

text: CIA-ordered drone strikes were eventually ended by President Obama, who transferred control entirely to the U.S. military, under a separate legal authority. President Trump reversed this decision in 2017. A 2016 Obama executive order requiring an annual report of civilian deaths from US airstrikes outside combat zones was not complied with by the Trump administration for 2017 and was then revoked by an executive order in 2019. According to the BBC, citing the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a UK-based non-profit news organisation, there were 2,243 drone strikes in the first two years of the Trump presidency, compared with 1,878 in Mr Obama's eight years in office. According to press reports, the Trump administration has at times employed a drone missile that deploys flying blades rather than explosives to kill targets, because it hoped to decrease non-combatant casualties. The missile is believed to have seen its first combat action in the 2017 killing of Abu Khayr al-Masri.


title: Targeted killing

text: Alleged and confirmed assassinations were reported to have been conducted by the Islamic Republic of Iran and previously by the Pahlavi regime. It includes attempts on notable persons who were reported to have been specifically targeted by the various Iranian security and intelligence forces, most notably against Kurdish dissidents of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran in the 1980s and 1990s. Prior to the establishment of the Islamic State in 1979, the Organization of Intelligence and National Security also allegedly performed a number of political motivated assassinations against dissidents and opposition leaders.


title: Targeted killing

text: According to Ronen Bergman, "since World War II, Israel has used assassination and targeted-killing more than any other country in the West, in many cases endangering the lives of civilians."


title: Targeted killing

text: During the First Intifada Palestinian uprising, the Palestinian human-rights group Al Haq condemned Israeli soldiers for what they described as "deliberate, cold-blooded... targeted" killings of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 1993, the human rights group, Middle East Watch, alleged that Israeli soldiers had targeted often unarmed Palestinians, some under the age of 16, for "premeditated assassinations" or targeted killing, a charge denied by Israeli officials. The allegations included the execution of Palestinians in custody.


title: Targeted killing

text: Controversy over targeted killings continued during the Second Intifada. Palestinians stated that individuals belonging to the group Hamas and shot in targeted killings were being assassinated. Israelis stated that those killed were responsible for attacks against Israelis. Israeli officials initially accepted responsibility for only some of the killings, and Israeli media termed the practice a "liquidations policy", whereas Palestinians called it "state terrorism". In January 2001, Israeli officials confirmed "the practice of targeted assassinations". Conflict in Israel over the legality of the practice centered on the case of Dr. Thabet Thabet, assassinated as he left his home on New Year's Eve. Dr. Thabet was alleged by the Israeli military to be a senior local leader of Fatah and plotting attacks against Israelis in the West Bank. A dentist, Dr. Thabet was a friend of many Israeli peace activists and considered one himself. Israeli activists called the killing "a crime", "Mafia-style", and "immoral". Ephraim Sneh, then Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, described the policy as "effective, precise and just".


title: Targeted killing

text: "The Washington Post" wrote that the Israeli policy of targeted killing during the Second Intifada expanded upon previous policies, targeting not only terrorists but also those thought to direct or coordinate them. Another controversial killing, which occurred following the George W. Bush administration's condemnation of the practice, was that of Mahmoud Madani, a leader of Hamas shot while leaving a mosque in the Balata refugee camp. The Israeli military suspected Madani of plotting bombings in Israel.


title: Targeted killing

text: At that time, spokesman for the U.S. State Department Richard Boucher condemned both violence by Palestinians and targeted killings by Israelis during a State Department news briefing. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell registered his opposition to "a policy of targeted killings" and the U.S. State Department urged Israel to stop them.


title: Targeted killing

text: Then Democratic Party senator Joe Biden criticized the George W. Bush administration for condemning the targeted killings. The administration continued to oppose them.


title: Targeted killing

text: Use of targeted killings by Israeli conventional military forces became commonplace after the Second Intifada, when Israeli security forces used the tactic to kill Palestinian militants.


title: Targeted killing

text: In the Philippines, since Rodrigo Duterte assumption of the presidency in 2016, police and vigilantes have targeted drug related criminal suspects, with many cases, some involving children, thought to be the result of police extrajudicial executions. The group Human Rights Watch has described these extrajudicial killings as "targeted killings".


title: Targeted killing

text: In 2016, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad showed British politician David Davis a spreadsheet containing the identities of 783 people who were being targeted for assassination by the Syrian government.


title: Targeted killing

text: Referring to human rights abuses during the Bosnian War, the U.S. State Department noted politically or ethnically motivated "targeted killings" in Bosnia in Section 1a., "Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing", of its 1993 report on human rights practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Targeted killings were also reported by Serbian and Albanian forces during the Kosovo War. Both wars involved large scale targeted killings of journalists.


title: Targeted killing

text: During the First Chechen War, Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudaev was killed on 21 April 1996 by two laser-guided missiles when he was using a satellite phone, after his location was detected by a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, which intercepted his phone call.


title: Targeted killing

text: On 20 March 2002, Ibn al-Khattab, who led his militia against Russian forces in Chechnya during the First and Second Chechen War, setting up many effective ambushes against Russian forces as well as managing the influx of foreign fighters and money, was killed when a Dagestani messenger hired by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) gave Khattab a poisoned letter. Chechen sources said that the letter was coated with "a fast-acting nerve agent, possibly sarin or a derivative".


title: Targeted killing

text: On 13 February 2004, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, who served as acting president of the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria between 1996 and 1997, was killed when a bomb ripped through his SUV in the Qatari capital, Doha. Yandarbiyev was seriously wounded and died in hospital. His 13-year-old son Daud was seriously injured. The day after the attack, Qatari authorities arrested three Russians in a Russian embassy villa. One of them, the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Qatar, Aleksandr Fetisov, was released in March due to his diplomatic status and the remaining two, the GRU agents Anatoly Yablochkov (also known as Belashkov) and Vasily Pugachyov (sometimes misspelled as Bogachyov), were charged with the assassination of Yandarbiyev, an assassination attempt of his son Daud Yandarbiyev, and smuggling weapons into Qatar. There were some speculations that Fetisov had been released in exchange for Qatari wrestlers detained in Moscow. On 30 June 2004, both Russians were sentenced to life imprisonment; passing the sentence, the judge stated that they had acted on orders from the Russian leadership. But on 23 December 2004, Qatar agreed to extradite the prisoners to Russia, where they would serve out their life sentences. The agents however received a heroes' welcome on returning to Moscow in January 2005 but disappeared from public view shortly afterwards. The Russian prison authorities admitted in February 2005 that they were not in jail, but said that a sentence handed down in Qatar was "irrelevant" in Russia.


title: Targeted killing

text: On 10 July 2006 Shamil Basayev, a Chechen militant leader who was alleged to be responsible for numerous guerrilla attacks on security forces in and around Chechnya and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis and described by ABC News as "one of the most-wanted terrorists in the world", was killed by an explosion near the border of North Ossetia in the village of Ali-Yurt, Ingushetia, a republic bordering Chechnya. According to the official version of Basayev's death, the FSB, following him with a drone, spotted his car approaching a truck laden with explosives that the FSB had prepared, and by remote control triggered a detonator in the explosives.


title: Targeted killing

text: Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium, which the European Court of Human Rights ruled Russia was responsible for.


title: Targeted killing

text: US and UK intelligence agents reportedly say they believe Russian assassins and possibly the Russian government could have been behind at least fourteen targeted killings on British soil, which were dismissed as non-suspicious by UK police.


title: Targeted killing

text: Ukrainian authorities have blamed Russian security services for multiple killings in Ukraine, including assassination of Colonel Maksym Shapoval.


title: Targeted killing

text: The Russian government is alleged by the British government of being behind a failed assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal and his daughter using a Novichok agent.


title: Targeted killing

text: Since the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, close to 20 Russian-appointed officials and Ukrainian collaborators have been killed or injured in targeted killings. Ukrainian hit squads and saboteurs have gunned down, blown up, hanged and poisoned people who were regarded as collaborators of the puppet governments of Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics. On 30 August 2022, "Meduza" reported that nearly a dozen people had been killed and others injured in assassination attempts and provided information on every attack recorded by the media in the occupied territories. Some of the attacks were carried out by Ukrainian partisans who are led and trained by Ukrainian special forces.


title: Targeted killing

text: On 27 September 2022, the OHCHR documented six killings of suspected "traitors" of Ukraine. The victims were officials of local authorities, policemen and civilians who were believed to have voluntarily cooperated with the enemy. According to OHCHR, these killings may have been committed by government agents or with their acquiescence and may amount to extrajudicial executions and war crimes.


title: Targeted killing

text: While article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits the threat or use of force by one state against another, two exceptions are relevant to the question of whether targeted killings are lawful: (1) when the use of force is carried out with the consent of the host state; and (2) when the use of force is in self-defense in response to an armed attack or an imminent threat, and where the host state is unwilling or unable to take appropriate action. The legality of a targeted drone strike must be evaluated in accordance with international humanitarian law (IHL), including the fundamental principles of distinction, proportionality, humanity, and military necessity.


title: Targeted killing

text: The part of The Charter of the United Nations that regulates "action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression" is Chapter VII (articles 39–50), which requires that it is the Security Council that determines any threat to peace and decides on measures to be taken to maintain or restore peace. Article 51 mentions the only exception, as being members of the United Nations have "the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security".


title: Targeted killing

text: Targeted killing operations, according to Harvard Law School professors Gabriella Blum and Philip Heymann, amplify the tension between addressing terrorism as a crime versus addressing terrorism as an act of war. Governments pursuing a law enforcement strategy punish persons for their individual guilt, which must be proven in a court of law, where the accused enjoys the protections of due process guarantees. Governments in the midst of war, on the other hand, may claim a legal obligation to take advantage of the relaxation of peacetime constraints on the use of deadly force. Enemy combatants may be targeted and killed not because they are guilty, but because they are potentially lethal agents of a hostile party. No advance warning is necessary, no attempt to arrest or capture is required, and no effort to minimize casualties among enemy forces is demanded by law.


title: Targeted killing

text: The tactic raises complex questions as to the legal basis for its application, who qualifies as an appropriate "hit list" target, and what circumstances must exist before the tactic may be employed. Opinions range from people considering it a legal form of self-defense that reduces terrorism, to people calling it an extrajudicial killing that lacks due process, and which leads to more violence. Methods used have included firing a Hellfire missile from an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter (Israel), or a Predator or Reaper drone (an unmanned, remote-controlled plane), detonating a cell phone bomb, and long-range sniper shooting. Countries such as the U.S. (in Pakistan and Yemen) and Israel (in the West Bank and Gaza) have used targeted killing to kill members of groups such as Al-Qaeda and Hamas.


title: Targeted killing

text: It is especially forbidden * * * to kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army. [Article 23(b) of the 1907 Hague Regulations]


title: Targeted killing

text: This article is construed as prohibiting assassination, proscription, or outlawry of an enemy, or putting a price upon an enemy's head, as well as offering a reward for an enemy "dead or alive". It does not, however, preclude attacks on individual soldiers or officers of the enemy whether in the zone of hostilities, occupied territory, or elsewhere.


title: Targeted killing

text: Daniel Reisner, who headed the International Legal Division of the Israeli Military Advocate General's Office from 1994 to 2005, has stated that although targeted killing is illegal under previous understanding of international law, "If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it. The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries." Reisner continues, "International law progresses through violations. We invented the targeted assassination thesis and we had to push it. At first there were protrusions that made it hard to insert easily into the legal moulds. Eight years later it is in the center of the bounds of legitimacy." This view is disputed by George Bisharat of the University of California's Hastings College of the Law, who contends that assassination is not widely regarded as legal.


title: Targeted killing

text: Georgetown Law Professor and former U.S. Marine, Gary Solis, has argued that under certain conditions, "Assassinations and targeted killings are very different acts." For Solis, these conditions require that there is an ongoing military conflict, the targeted individual (civilian or military) has taken up arms, that there is no reasonable possibility of arrest, and that the decision to kill is made by senior political leaders.


title: Targeted killing

text: Abraham Sofaer, a former legal advisor to the U.S. State Department and fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution think tank, has written that targeted killing is "sometimes necessary, because leaders are obliged to defend their citizens". After the killing of Hamas founder and quadriplegic Ahmed Yassin by Israeli helicopter gunships, Sofaer argued that targeted killing is not prohibited by American Executive Order 11905 banning assassination: "killings in self-defense are no more 'assassinations' in international affairs than they are murders when undertaken by our police forces against domestic killers."


title: Targeted killing

text: Sofaer had previously argued during the First Gulf War that targeted killing was ethical but impractical: "Targeted killing will also invite revenge against the leaders who order it as well as their citizens and property. Given the legal, political and moral constraints that limit such activities in democratic regimes, the United States has a substantial interest in discouraging acceptance of the killing of political leaders as a routine measure, even in self-defense."


title: Targeted killing

text: Author and former U.S. Army Captain Matthew J. Morgan has argued, "there is a major difference between assassination and targeted killing... targeted killing [is] not synonymous with assassination. Assassination ... constitutes an illegal killing." Amos Guiora, formerly an Israel Defense Forces Lt. Colonol and commander of the IDF school of military law, now Professor of law at the University of Utah, has written, "targeted killing is ... not an assassination". Steve David, Johns Hopkins Associate Dean & Professor of International Relations, writes: "there are strong reasons to believe that the Israeli policy of targeted killing is not the same as assassination." Syracuse Law Professor William Banks and GW Law Professor Peter Raven-Hansen write: "Targeted killing of terrorists is ... not unlawful and would not constitute assassination." Rory Miller writes: "Targeted killing ... is not 'assassination'", and associate professor Eric Patterson and Teresa Casale write: "Perhaps most important is the legal distinction between targeted killing and assassination."


title: Targeted killing

text: American defense department analyst and professor Thomas Hunter has defined targeted killing as the "premeditated, preemptive, and intentional killing of an individual or individuals known or believed to represent a present or future threat to the safety and security of a state through the affiliation with terrorist groups or individuals. Hunter writes that the target is a person who is allegedly taking part in an armed conflict or terrorism, whether by bearing arms or otherwise, who has allegedly lost the immunity from being targeted that he would otherwise have under the Third Geneva Convention. Hunter distinguishes between "targeted killing" and "targeted violence" as used by specialists who study violence.


title: Targeted killing

text: In response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) stated on 14 September 2001, "That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, harbored, committed, or aided in the planning or commission of the attacks against the United States that occurred on 11 September 2001, and to deter and pre-empt any future acts of terrorism or aggression against the United States". This authorization is still in effect today. There are no restrictions regarding the physical location of where this law is applied. It only states that the President has the "authority to use all necessary and appropriate force" this could be interpreted to mean that the President can attack al-Qaeda anywhere in the world.


title: Targeted killing

text: During the 1998 bombing of Iraq, "The Scotsman" reported, "US law prohibits the targeted killing of foreign leaders... Administration officials have been careful to say they will not expressly aim to kill Saddam."


title: Targeted killing

text: Frank Sauer and Niklas Schoernig have described targeted killing as a violation of international law and a contravention of domestic laws, and maintain that the term itself is merely a legitimized euphemism for assassination.


title: Targeted killing

text: The American Civil Liberties Union states in its website, "A program of targeted killing far from any battlefield, without charge or trial, violates the constitutional guarantee of due process. It also violates international law, under which lethal force may be used outside armed conflict zones only as a last resort to prevent imminent threats, when non-lethal means are not available. Targeting people who are suspected of terrorism for execution, far from any war zone, turns the whole world into a battlefield."


title: Targeted killing

text: Yael Stein, the research director of B'Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, also states in her article "By Any Name Illegal and Immoral: Response to 'Israel's Policy of Targeted Killing'":


title: Targeted killing

text: The argument that this policy affords the public a sense of revenge and retribution could serve to justify acts both illegal and immoral. Clearly, lawbreakers ought to be punished. Yet, no matter how horrific their deeds, as the targeting of Israeli civilians indeed is, they should be punished according to the law. David's arguments could, in principle, justify the abolition of formal legal systems altogether.


title: Targeted killing

text: In 2001, Ibrahim Nafie criticized the U.S. for agreeing with "the Israeli spin that calls ... its official policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders 'targeted killing'."


title: Targeted killing

text: In 2013, United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter terrorism, Ben Emmerson, stated that U.S. drone strikes may have violated international humanitarian law.


title: Targeted killing

text: For drone strikes to be effective, the United States must obtain consent from the host country they are operating in. The growing chorus of objections from host countries, most notably emanating from Pakistan, seriously inhibits drones' effectiveness. "Host states have grown frustrated with U.S. drone policy, while opposition by non-host partners could impose additional restrictions on the use of drones. Reforming U.S. drone strike policies can do much to allay concerns internationally by ensuring that targeted killings are defensible under international legal regimes that the United States itself helped establish and by allowing U.S. officials to openly address concerns and counter misinformation." Micah Zenko at the Council on Foreign Relations believes the United States should "end so-called signature strikes, which target unidentified militants based on their behavior patterns and personal networks, and limit targeted killings to a small number of specific terrorists with transnational ambitions. He wants more congressional oversight of drone strikes and stricter regulation on armed drone sales. Finally, he recommends the United States work with international partners to establish rules and norms governing the use of drones. Zenko believes the U.S. government has not been transparent regarding how non-battlefield drone strikes are reconciled with broader foreign policy objectives, the scope of legitimate targets, and their legal framework. While drones may be a critical counterterrorism tool that advances U.S. interests, their "lack of transparency threatens to limit U.S. freedom of action and risks proliferation of armed drone technology without the requisite normative framework." Zenko thinks current drone policy might share the same fate of the Bush-era enhanced interrogation techniques and warrantless wiretapping, both of which were unpopular, illegal and ultimately ended.


title: Targeted killing

text: Harvard Law School Professors Gabriella Blum and Philip Heymann cite six potential hazards of targeted killings: First, the so-called Hydra effect, or the rise of more—and more resolute—leaders to replace those who were recently "decapitated." Second, drones can drive terrorist leaders into hiding, making the monitoring of their movements, and subsequent intelligence gathering, extremely difficult. Third, "the political message flowing from the use of targeted killings may be harmful to the attacking country’s interest, as it emphasizes the disparity in power between the parties and reinforces popular support for the terrorists, who are seen as a David fighting Goliath." Fourth, when conducted in a foreign country, drone strikes run the risk of heightening tensions between the targeting government and the government in whose territory the operation is conducted. Fifth, targeted killings threaten criticism from local domestic constituencies against the government allowing strikes within their country. Finally, there is a danger of over-using targeted killings, both within and outside the war of terrorism. Max Abrahms finds that "more than the quantity of violence, decapitation reduces its quality," as leadership vacuums in militant groups are filled by less competent younger members with fewer inhibitions on harming civilians, and that this effect is most pronounced in the immediate aftermath of a successful decapitation strike.


title: Targeted killing

text: Daniel Byman, security studies professor at Georgetown University, argues that Washington must clarify its policies behind extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings, lest a nefarious precedent in international law is set. Additionally, Byman argues that Washington must "remain mindful of the built-in limits of low-cost, unmanned interventions, since the very convenience of drone warfare risks dragging the United States into conflicts it could otherwise avoid." Though Byman recognizes the problems inherent in using armed UAVs, he believes that they are very effective. "U.S. drones have killed an estimated 3,000 al Qaeda, Taliban, and other jihadist operatives in Pakistan and Yemen. That number includes over 50 senior leaders of al Qaeda and the Taliban—top figures who are not easily replaced." Drones have also undercut terrorists' ability to effectively communicate with its target audiences, ultimately straining their recruitment pools. To avoid attracting drones, al Qaeda operates have avoided gathering in large numbers and mitigated use of electronic devices. Byman argues that al Qaeda leaders "cannot give orders when they are incommunicado, and training on a large scale is nearly impossible when a drone strike could wipe out an entire coupe of new recruits. Drones have turned al Qaeda's command and training structures into a liability, forcing the group to choose between having no leaders and risking dead leaders."


title: Targeted killing

text: Audrey Kurth Cronin of George Mason University argues that while drones are tactically savvy, they have failed to advance the strategic goals of U.S. counter-terrorism policy. Terrorism itself is a tactic, Cronin notes, but it succeeds on a strategic plane when a shocking event is successfully leveraged for political gain. "To be effective, counter-terrorism must itself respond with a coherent strategy. The problem for Washington today is that its drone program has taken on a life of its own, to the point where tactics are driving strategy rather than the other way around." Cronin agrees with Daniel Byman of Georgetown University insofar that drones have inflicted real damage upon al Qaeda. However, "Washington now finds itself in a permanent battle with amorphous and geographically dispersed foe, one with an increasingly marginal connection to the original 9/11 plotters. In this endless contest, the United States risks multiplying its enemies and heightening their incentives to attack the country."


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: Alien Nation is a 1988 American science fiction action film written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and directed by Graham Baker. The ensemble cast features James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, and Terence Stamp. Its initial popularity inaugurated the beginning of the "Alien Nation" media franchise. The film depicts the assimilation of the "Newcomers", an alien race settling in Los Angeles, much to the initial dismay of the local population. The plot integrates the neo-noir and buddy cop film genres with a science fiction theme, centering on the relationship between a veteran police investigator (Caan) and an extraterrestrial (Patinkin), the first Newcomer detective. The duo probe a criminal underworld while attempting to solve a homicide.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: The film was a co-production between American Entertainment Partners and 20th Century Fox, which distributed it theatrically. "Alien Nation" explores murder, discrimination and science fiction.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: "Alien Nation" was released in the United States on October 7, 1988, and grossed over $32 million worldwide, becoming a moderate financial success. The film was met with mixed critical reviews before its theatrical release, although it has since gained a cult following. The motion picture spawned a short-lived television series, five television films, a set of comic books, as well as a number of novels, all in an attempt to continue the character development surrounding its fictional alien culture.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: In 1991—three years after a spaceship landed in the Mojave Desert bearing 300,000 enslaved alien Newcomers, who now live in Los Angeles—police detective Matthew Sykes loses his partner in a shootout while trying to stop two Newcomer criminals from murdering another Newcomer. Sykes's superior, Captain Warner, informs his squad that they will have to work with the newly promoted Newcomer detective Sam Francisco. Sykes volunteers to work with Francisco to investigate the homicide of a Newcomer named Warren Hubley, hoping he will also find opportunities to investigate his partner's death (which he is officially forbidden to do).


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: While at a crime lab, Francisco detects an abnormality on the body of one of the Newcomer criminals who was killed in the robbery. This leads Sykes and Francisco to a nightclub to question a Newcomer named Joshua Strader, but Strader is murdered by a criminal ring led by Newcomer businessman William Harcourt and his henchman Rudyard Kipling.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: Harcourt is in the advanced stages of launching a scheme to exploit the Newcomers by mass-producing a drug called Jabroka, which was used to pacify Newcomers when they were slaves, but has no effect on humans. The abnormality noticed by Francisco on the body of the Newcomer criminal turns out to be a visual sign of the drug's influence. The Newcomers Hubley, Porter, and Strader were involved in the planning phases of the operation, but were later murdered due to Harcourt's desire to exclude them from any future financial rewards. Ultimately, Sykes and Francisco track down Harcourt, who is negotiating a timetable for the release of Jabroka. The detectives are led on a car chase with Harcourt and Kipling through the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Following a head-on collision where both parties are injured, Harcourt attempts an escape on foot. Sykes pursues and corners Harcourt onto a desolate drawbridge. Harcourt then purposely overdoses on a sample of Jabroka.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: Harcourt is presumed dead, but later mutates into a significantly larger, more muscular, and more violent Newcomer. The duo pursue Harcourt, catching up with him near a fishing pier. Sykes later ends up in a physical confrontation with Harcourt in the open sea. Harcourt's body disintegrates due to direct contact with salt water, which is hazardous to Newcomer physiology. Francisco commandeers a police helicopter and rescues Sykes from the water. Sykes and Francisco, now friends, attend Sykes's daughter's wedding together. Sykes asks Francisco to forgive him for all the stupid things he will do and say in the years to come, and Francisco reassures Sykes it'll be all right, after all Sykes is only human.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: One out of twenty to twenty-five stories received each week by 20th Century Fox in 1988, Rockne S. O'Bannon's original screenplay for "Alien Nation" was submitted as a spec–script to producer Gale Anne Hurd. The agency representing the storyline asked the production staff to view it as quickly as possible due to it also being submitted to other film studios. Both Hurd and her director of development Ellen Collett had the same initial response, seeing the script as a real page-turner. According to Hurd, what really interested her about the film's story was the whole approach to the immigrant setting and the extrapolation of that to a science fiction setting. The genre of science fiction, in regards to representing aliens, tends to usually be in the form of one or two beings as shown on network series like "Star Trek". Typically, large numbers of stand-ins were not common in film since "Planet of the Apes" twenty years earlier. Working with co-producer Richard Kobritz, Hurd secured funding from Fox Studios and began casting an experienced makeup team for the creation of the alien society.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: Later, Hurd contacted cinematographer Adam Greenberg at his home in Israel to work on the production. Caught by surprise, Greenberg recalled, "I was vacationing on the Dead Sea in a kibbutz (it was 125 degrees) and I got a call from Gale. That was the last thing to expect there."


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: Though mostly an action movie, "Alien Nation" was somewhat of a throwback to other similar genre films such as "Planet of the Apes" and "Silent Running". The alien "Newcomers" are relegated to a second-class status. Like other minorities, they live in their own neighborhoods, frequent their own clubs, and develop their own underground. Following the murder of a policeman, a human must partner up with an alien to solve the murder. Their uneasy alliance creates a social mistrust, dealing with issues such as prejudice and racism. By the end of the saga, the two completely different humanoids have combined their talents and overcome their social barriers to complete their task.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: Although several makeup effects companies were considered, 20th Century Fox chose Stan Winston Studios. Winston was not directly involved in the pre-production, but left the task to his top artists–Alec Gillis, Shane Mahan, John Rosengrant, Tom Woodruff, and Shannon Shea. Producer Gale Anne Hurd commented on creating the foundation for the makeup setting saying, "The primary problem was how to sell an alien race that was humanoid without making it look like people in rubber suits—and how to make it affordable. We knew there was going to be a lot of makeup application time and removal time—that was a given." Artist Gillis recalled his involvement in the project saying, "We were involved in everything from designing and sculpting the aliens to supervising a crew of about thirty people. We sculpted the main characters, supervised the molding and production of their appliances and oversaw the sculpting of the secondary and background characters." During the design phase, the producers supported the subtlety of the makeup and trying to make the aliens look as human as possible.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: A preliminary design sketch for the aliens as described by Mahan, was that "the males were going to have spines on top of their heads–kind of like a rooster's comb–and when they got angry, these spines would raise up. That would've required a mechanical headpiece, and Graham Baker thought it was a little too extreme so we went with smooth heads instead." Coming close to a final design for the headpiece makeup, Woodruff explained how the masks had "heavier brows and a heavier skin texture that looked more leathery, and there were more pronounced lumps on the backs of their heads. After we went into production on these masks, Graham Baker decided that he wanted the aliens to look even more subtle, so we streamlined the design once we started doing the principal characters."


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: Mike Spatola was head of the painting crew for the mask design. Hairless by design, the coordinators felt the masks should have spotted marks where hair would be present on humans. Each alien headpiece had to be custom painted with a spotting pattern to match every backup secondary piece used for individual characters. Each of the actors who played aliens also had their hands painted in a spot pattern, as an original plan of supplying them with appliances for hand pieces was discarded.


title: Alien Nation (film)

text: After the generic alien concept was finalized, each of the effects coordinators worked with a specific actor. Mahan chose to work with Mandy Patinkin, as well as Francisco's son. Rosengrant worked with Leslie Bevis who played Cassandra. Woodruff worked on Terence Stamp who played the part of Harcourt. In trying to emphasize the uniqueness of the characters, Mahan commented, "We wanted the audience to be able to recognize the actors immediately. They were all so good, it would have been a shame to cover them up completely." Other effects coordinators like Gillis remarked, "The actor who played Trent Porter, for example–Brian Thompson–was a really rugged guy, so he came off looking like a really tough character. On the other hand, Kevyn Major Howard–who played Harcourt's murderous henchman–had very delicate, boyish kind of features, so we used that quality to create a creepy juxtaposition." While effects coordinators were struggling to finish the final design and full-scale production of the alien prosthetics, Hurd chose makeup artist Zoltan Elek to supervise the overall application. Elek had previously worked on the film "Mask" and the character "Max Headroom". Elek insisted that the alien coloration be much more closer to human skin tones rather than the originally chosen yellowish pigment. Elek recalled his disagreement with Winston as Stan felt, "...the aliens should be a totally different color than the humans, with a lot of yellows, blues and grays. To me, that scheme was too monstrous–in fact, we ended up using it on the Harcourt monster at the climax." Another creative aspect of the makeup was the gradation between the principal and background masks. The crew of "Alien Nation" sought to avoid the same mistakes made in "Planet of the Apes" twenty years earlier. As explained by Gillis, "We had what we referred to as 'A-B-C-D' makeups, ... The 'A' makeups were those custom designed for the principal actors, while the 'B' makeups were mix-and-match where we would recombine pieces from other actors to create a new character. Our 'D' masks–the ones furthest from camera–were overhead slip latex masks "incapable" of changing expression. The 'C' masks, however, were made of foam latex and could be glued down to get some expression from the characters in the middleground." Application of the Newcomer makeup known as ""spuds"" or ""potatoheads"" on set, required four hours; a task which Patinkin described as being "a pain in the ass." Masks were manufactured in a production line to meet the enormous demand for the film. Mahan mused, "We would pull the pieces out of the oven, fix them up, paint them and have them ready for pickup that afternoon to be taken to the set. The pieces were barely cold when Zoltan and his crew applied them."