We've lost two great, underrated American celebrities this weekend. Actor Jeff Conaway of Taxi and Grease fame and Joseph Brooks who wrote and composed Debbie Boone's hit song You Light Up My Life.
Read all about them here. From Wikipedia.
Jeff Conaway.
Jeffrey Charles William Michael Conaway (October 5, 1950 – May 27, 2011) was an American actor, best known for his roles in the movie Grease and the television series Taxi and Babylon 5.
Conaway began acting on Broadway at two. He appeared in the play All The Way Home in 1960 and the 1977 Disney film, Pete's Dragon.
He was best known for playing Kenickie in the 1978 motion picture musical Grease and for his role in the television series Taxi, where he played cocky, vain, struggling actor Bobby Wheeler from 1978 to 1981.
He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1978 for his role as Wheeler.
From 1994-1999, he played Sergeant Zack Allan, on Babylon 5. From 1989-1990, he was cast on The Bold And The Beautiful, in the role of Mick Savage.
In the mid-1960s, he was the lead singer and guitarist for a rock band, The 3 1/2.
He was married thrice and his second marriage from 1980 to 1985 was to Olivia Newton-John's sister Rona.
A drug addict for most of the 1980s, he died of a drug overdose.
Joseph Brooks.
Joseph Brooks (March 11, 1938 – May 22, 2011) was an American screenwriter, director, producer and composer.
He composed the song You Light Up My Life for the film of the same name that he also wrote, directed and produced.
In his later years he became the centre of a scandal after being accused of a series of casting-couch rapes.
He was indicted in 2009, but committed suicide on May 22, 2011, before he could be brought to trial.
In the 1960s, Brooks composed advertising jingles for clients including Pepsi (You've Got A Lot To Live) and Maxwell House (Good To The Last Drop Feeling).
He received numerous Clio Awards for his work, as well as a People's Choice Award.
In October 1977 You Light Up My Life reached Number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts and held the top position for 10 consecutive weeks, then the longest run in the chart's history.
With sales of over four million copies in the US, the song became the biggest hit of the 1970s.
The passionate ballad earned Brooks a Grammy Award for Song Of The Year, as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Golden Globe Award and an American Society Of Composers, Authors And Publishers Award.
The song was Debby Boone's first solo hit record and only top 40 pop hit.
Brooks was married with two children. His brother is Institutional Investor Magazine founder Gilbert Kaplan.
In June 2009, Brooks was arrested on charges of raping or sexually assaulting 11 women lured to his East Side apartment from 2005 to 2008.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Bonnie And Clyde - Notorious Criminal Couple
From Wikipedia.
Bonnie Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were well-known robbers and criminals who travelled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression.
Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934.
Barrow preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations.
The gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders.
The couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in Louisiana by law officers.
Their reputation was cemented in American pop folklore by Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie And Clyde with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway portraying the criminal couple.
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children.
Her father, Charles Parker, a bricklayer, died when Bonnie was four.
Her mother, Emma Krause, moved with the children to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb of Dallas.
Parker was one of the best students in her high school, winning top prizes in spelling, writing and public speaking.
Parker did not date until she was in her second year of high school, but in that year she fell in love with a classmate, Roy Thornton.
The two quit school and were married on September 25, 1926, six days before Parker's sixteenth birthday.
Their marriage, marked by his frequent absences and brushes with the law, was short-lived, and after January 1929 their paths never crossed again.
But they were never divorced, and Parker was wearing Thornton's wedding ring when she died.
Thornton was in prison in 1934 when he learned of his wife's ambush.
His reaction was, "I'm glad they went out like they did. It's much better than being caught."
In 1929, between the breakdown of her marriage and her first meeting with Clyde Barrow in January 1930, Parker lived with her mother and worked as a waitress in Dallas.
One of her regular customers in the cafe was postal worker Ted Hinton, who would join the Dallas Sheriff's Department in 1932, and as a posse member would participate in her ambush in 1934.
Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born in Ellis County, Texas, near Telico, a town just south of Dallas.
He was the fifth of seven children, from a desperately poor farming family that emigrated, piecemeal, to Dallas in the early 1920s.
Clyde was first arrested in late 1926, after running when police confronted him over a rental car he had failed to return on time.
His second arrest, with brother Marvin "Buck" Barrow, came soon after, this time for possession of stolen goods (turkeys).
Despite having legitimate jobs during the period 1927 to 1929, he also cracked safes, robbed stores and stole cars.
After sequential arrests in 1928 and 1929, his luck ran out and he was sent to Eastham Prison in April 1930.
While in prison, he was sexually assaulted repeatedly for over a year by a dominant inmate, whose skull he eventually fractured with a length of pipe.
It was Clyde Barrow's first killing.
Paroled in February 1932, Barrow emerged from Eastham a hardened and bitter criminal.
In his post-Eastham career, he focused on smaller jobs, robbing grocery stores and gas stations.
Barrow's favoured weapon was the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (called BAR).
Barrow's goal in life was not to gain fame or fortune from robbing banks, but to seek revenge against the Texas prison system for the abuses he suffered while serving time.
Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow in January 1930 at a friend's house.
Parker was out of work and was staying in West Dallas to assist a girlfriend with a broken arm.
Barrow dropped by the girl's house while Parker was supposedly in the kitchen making hot chocolate.
When they met, both were smitten immediately.
After Barrow was released from prison in February 1932, he and Ralph Fults assembled a rotating core group of associates and began a series of small robberies, primarily of stores and gas stations.
Their goal was to collect enough money and firepower to launch a raid of liberation against Eastham prison.
On April 19, Bonnie Parker and Fults were captured in a failed hardware store burglary in Kaufman, Texas, and subsequently jailed.
On April 30, Barrow was the wheelman in a robbery in Hillsboro, Texas, during which the store's owner, JN Bucher, was shot and killed.
When shown mugshots, the victim's wife identified Barrow as one of the shooters, even though he had stayed outside in the car.
Meanwhile, Parker remained in jail until June 17.
When the Kaufman County grand jury convened, it declined to indict her, and she was released. Within a few weeks, she reunited with Barrow.
On August 5, while Parker was visiting her mother in Dallas, Barrow, Hamilton and Ross Dyer were drinking alcohol at a country dance in Stringtown, Oklahoma, when Sheriff CG Maxwell and his deputy, Eugene C Moore, approached them in the parking lot.
Barrow and Hamilton opened fire, killing the deputy and gravely wounding the sheriff.
It was the first killing of a lawman by Barrow and his gang, a total eventually amounting to nine officers.
Another civilian was added to the list on October 11, when storekeeper Howard Hall was killed during a robbery of his store in Sherman, Texas.
The take, twenty-eight dollars and some groceries.
WD Jones had been a friend of the Barrow family since childhood, and though he was only 16 years old on Christmas Eve 1932, he persuaded Barrow to let him join up with the pair and ride out of Dallas with them that night.
The very next day, Jones was initiated into homicide when he and Barrow killed Doyle Johnson, a young family man, in the process of stealing his car in Temple, Texas.
Less than two weeks later, on January 6, 1933, Barrow killed Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis when he, Parker and Jones wandered into a police trap set for another criminal.
The total murdered by the gang since April was now five.
On March 22, 1933, Buck Barrow was granted a full pardon and released from prison.
Within days, he and his wife, Blanche, had set up housekeeping with Clyde Barrow, Parker and Jones in a temporary hideout in Joplin, Missouri.
Lawmen assembled a two-car, five-man force on April 13 to confront the suspected bootleggers living in their rented apartment over a garage.
Though taken by surprise, Clyde, noted for remaining cool under fire, was gaining far more experience in gun battles than most lawmen.
He, Jones and Buck quickly killed Detective McGinnis and fatally wounded Constable Harryman.
During the escape from the apartment, Parker laid down covering fire with her own BAR, forcing Highway Patrol sergeant GB Kahler to duck behind a large oak tree while slugs slammed into the other side, forcing wood splinters into the sergeant's face.
Parker then got into the car with the others.
The car slowed long enough to pull in Blanche Barrow from the street, where she was pursuing her fleeing dog, Snow Ball.
The surviving officers later testified that their side had fired only fourteen rounds in the conflict, although one of these hit Jones in the side, one struck Clyde and was deflected by his suitcoat button, and one grazed Buck after ricocheting off a wall.
The group escaped the police at Joplin, but left most of their possessions at the rented apartment: Buck and Blanche's marriage license, Buck's parole papers (only three weeks old), a large arsenal.
For the next three months, they ranged from Texas as far north as Minnesota.
In May, they robbed banks in Lucerne, Indiana and Okabena, Minnesota. Previously they had kidnapped Dillard Darby and Sophia Stone at Ruston, Louisiana, in the course of stealing Darby's car.
This was one of several incidents between 1932 and 1934 in which they kidnapped lawmen or robbery victims, usually releasing them far from home, sometimes with money to help them return.
Stories of these encounters made headlines, but so too did the darker encounters.
The Barrow Gang would not hesitate to shoot anyone, lawman or civilian, who got in their way.
Other members of the Barrow Gang known or thought to have committed murders included Raymond Hamilton, WD Jones, Buck Barrow and Henry Methvin.
Eventually, the cold-bloodedness of the killings would not only sour the public perception of the outlaws, but lead directly to their undoing.
On June 10, while driving with Jones and Parker near Wellington, Texas, Barrow missed warning signs at a bridge under construction and flipped their car into a ravine.
Parker sustained horrific third degree burns to her right leg.
The burn was so severe, the muscles contracted and caused the leg to "draw up".
Near the end of her life, Parker could hardly walk and would either hop on her good leg or be carried by Clyde.
After getting help from a nearby farm family and kidnapping two local lawmen, the three outlaws rendezvoused with Blanche and Buck Barrow again and they hid out in a tourist court near Fort. Smith, Arkansas.
Then Buck and Jones bungled a local robbery and killed Town Marshall Henry D Humphrey in Alma, Arkansas.
With the renewed pursuit from the law, they had to flee again, despite the grave condition of Bonnie Parker.
On July 18, 1933, the gang checked into the Red Crown Tourist Court south of Platte City, Missouri (now within the city limits of Kansas City).
The Red Crown Court was just two brick cabins joined by garages and the gang rented both.
To the south stood the Red Crown Tavern, a popular restaurant and a favourite watering hole for Missouri Highway Patrolmen.
When Clyde and Jones went to town to purchase bandages and atropine sulfate to treat Bonnie's leg, the druggist contacted Sheriff Holt Coffey, who put the cabins under watch.
Coffey had been alerted by Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas to be on the lookout for strangers seeking such supplies.
The sheriff contacted Captain Baxter, who called for reinforcements from Kansas City including an armoured car.
At 11pm that night, Sheriff Coffey led a group of officers armed with Thompson submachine guns toward the cabins.
But in a pitched gunfight at considerable distances, the submachine guns proved no match for Clyde Barrow's preferred Browning Automatic Rifles, stolen July 7 from the National Guard armoury at Enid, Oklahoma.
The Barrows laid down withering fire and made their escape when a bullet short-circuited the horn on the armoured car and the lawmen mistook it for a cease-fire signal.
They did not pursue the retreating Barrow automobile.
Although the gang evaded law enforcement once again, Buck Barrow had sustained a horrific wound in the side of the head and Blanche Barrow was nearly blinded from glass fragments in both her eyes.
Their prospects for holding out against the ensuing manhunt dwindled.
Five days later, on July 24, the Barrow Gang was camped at Dexfield Park, an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa.
So plainly mortal was Buck's head wound that Clyde and Jones dug a grave for him.
After their bloody bandages were noticed by local citizens, it was determined that the campers were the Barrow gang.
Surrounded by local lawmen and approximately one hundred spectators, the Barrows once again found themselves under fire.
Clyde Barrow, Parker and WD Jones escaped on foot.
Buck was shot again, in the back, and he and his wife were captured by the officers.
Buck died five days later, at Kings Daughters Hospital in Perry, Iowa, of pneumonia after surgery.
For the next six weeks, the remaining trio ranged far afield of their usual area of operations — west to Colorado, north to Minnesota, southeast to Mississippi — keeping a low profile and pulling only small robberies for daily-bread money.
They restocked their arsenal when Barrow and Jones burglarised an armoury at Plattville, Illinois on August 20 and scored three BARs, handguns and lots of ammunition.
By early September, they risked a run back in to Dallas to see their families for the first time in four months, and Jones parted company with them, continuing on to Houston, where his mother had moved.
He was arrested there without incident on November 16 and returned to Dallas.
Through the autumn, Barrow executed a series of small-time robberies with a series of small-time local accomplices while his family, and Parker's, attended to her considerable medical needs.
On November 22, 1933, they narrowly evaded arrest — but not bullets — while attempting to hook up with family members near Sowers, Texas.
This time, it was their hometown Sheriff, Dallas' Smoot Schmid and his squad, lying in wait nearby.
As Barrow drove up, he sensed a trap and drove right past his family's car, at which point Schmid and his deputies stood up and opened fire with machine guns and a BAR.
The family members in the crossfire were not hit, but not so the outlaws.
A single BAR slug penetrated the car — and the legs of both Parker and Barrow.
The couple made their getaway that night, but the attempted ambush would prove to be a dry run for deputies Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn, who would get another shot at the pair six months hence in Louisiana.
Bonnie Parker crossed an ominous personal threshold the following week when on November 28, a Dallas grand jury delivered a murder indictment on her and Barrow for the January 1933 killing of Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis.
It was the first murder warrant issued for Parker.
On January 16, 1934, Barrow finally made his long-contemplated move against the Texas Department of Corrections as he orchestrated the escape of Raymond Hamilton, Henry Methvin and several others in the infamous "Eastham Breakout" of 1934.
The Texas prison system received national negative publicity from the brazen raid, and Barrow appeared to have achieved what Phillips describes as the burning passion in his life, exacting revenge on the Texas Department of Corrections.
During the jailbreak, escapee Joe Palmer shot prison officer Major Joe Crowson and this act would eventually bring the full power of the Texas and federal governments to bear on the manhunt for Barrow and Parker.
As Crowson struggled for life, prison chief Lee Simmons reportedly promised him that all persons involved in the breakout would be hunted down and killed, and all were, except for Henry Methvin, whose life would eventually be exchanged for turning Barrow and Parker over to authorities.
The Texas Department of Corrections then contacted former Texas Ranger Captain Frank A. Hamer, and persuaded him to accept an assignment to hunt down the Barrow Gang.
Though retired, Hamer had retained his commission, which had not yet expired.
He accepted the assignment as a Texas Highway Patrol officer, secondarily assigned to the prison system as a special investigator, and given the specific task of hunting down Bonnie, Clyde and the Barrow Gang.
Frank Hamer was tall, burly, cryptic and taciturn, unimpressed by authority, driven by an "inflexible adherence to right, or what he thinks is right."
For twenty years Hamer had been feared and admired throughout the Lone Star State as "the walking embodiment of the 'One Riot, One Ranger' ethos.
In accomplishing the aims of Texas law enforcement he "had acquired a formidable reputation as a result of several spectacular captures and the shooting of a number of Texas criminals.
He was officially credited with fifty-three kills (and seventeen wounds to himself).
Although prison boss Simmons always said publicly that Hamer had been his first choice for the Barrow hunt, there's evidence he approached two other Rangers first, both of whom had been queasy about shooting a woman and declined.
Hamer apparently had no such qualms.
Starting February 10, he became the constant shadow of Barrow and Parker, living out of his car, just a town or two behind the bandits.
Three of Hamer's brothers were also Texas Rangers, and while brother Harrison was the best shot of the four, Frank was considered the most tenacious.
On April 1, 1934, Easter Sunday, Barrow and Henry Methvin killed two young highway patrolmen, HD Murphy and Edward Bryant Wheeler, in an area of Grapevine, Texas now called Southlake.
A contemporary eyewitness account stated that Barrow and Parker fired the fatal shots and this story got widespread coverage in the press before it was discredited.
Henry Methvin later admitted he fired the first shot, after assuming Barrow wanted the officers killed.
He also admitted that Parker approached the dying officers intending to help them, not to administer the cold-blooded point-blank coup de grace the discredited eyewitness had described.
Having little choice once Methvin had shot Wheeler, Barrow then joined in, firing at Patrolman Murphy.
Most likely, Parker was asleep in the back seat when Methvin started shooting and took no part in the assault.
Five days later, Barrow and Methvin killed 60-year-old Constable William "Cal" Campbell, a widower single father, near Commerce, Oklahoma.
They kidnapped Commerce police chief Percy Boyd, drove around with him, crossing the state line into Kansas, and then let him out with a clean shirt, a few dollars and a request from Parker to tell the world she didn't smoke cigars.
The outlaws didn't realise at their upbeat parting that Boyd would identify both Barrow and Parker to authorities — he never learned the name of the sullen youth who was with them — and when the resultant arrest warrant was issued for the Campbell murder, it specified Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker and John Doe.
Barrow and Parker were ambushed and killed on May 23, 1934 on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
The couple appeared in daylight in an automobile and were shot by a posse of four Texas officers (Frank Hamer, BM "Manny" Gault, Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton) and two Louisiana officers (Henderson Jordan and Prentiss Morel Oakley).
The posse was led by Hamer, who had begun tracking the pair on February 10, 1934. They were mutilated.
Word of the ambush quickly got around when Hamer, Jordan, Oakley and Hinton drove to town to telephone their respective bosses.
A crowd soon gathered at the spot, and Gault and Alcorn, who were left to guard the bodies, lost control of the jostling curious.
One woman cut off bloody locks of Parker's hair and pieces from her dress, which were sold as souvenirs.
Hinton returned to find a man trying to cut off Barrow's trigger finger, and was sickened by what was occurring.
One eager man had opened his pocket knife, and was reaching into the car to cut off Clyde's left ear.
The coroner enlisted Hamer for help in controlling the "circus-like atmosphere," and only then did people move away from the car.
Bonnie and Clyde wished to be buried side by side, but the Parker family would not allow it.
Mrs. Parker had wanted to grant her daughter's final wish, which was to be brought home, but the mobs surrounding the Parker house made that impossible.
Over 20,000 people turned out for Bonnie Parker's funeral, making it difficult for her family to reach the grave site.
Parker's family used the now defunct McKamy-Campbell Funeral Home, then located on Forest Avenue in Dallas, to conduct her funeral.
Hubert “Buster” Parker accompanied his sister’s body back to Dallas in the McKamy-Campbell ambulance.
Her services were held Saturday, May 26, at 2pm in the funeral home, directed by Allen D Campbell.
His son, Dr Allen Campbell, later remembered that flowers came from everywhere.
Thousands of people gathered outside both Dallas funeral homes hoping for a chance to view the bodies.
Barrow’s private funeral was held at sunset on Friday, May 25, in the funeral home chapel.
He was buried in Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas, next to his brother, Marvin.
They share a single granite marker with their names on it and a four-word epitaph previously selected by Clyde: “Gone but not forgotten.”
The life insurance policies for both Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were paid in full by American National of Galveston.
Blanche Barrow's injuries left her permanently blinded in her left eye.
After the 1933 shootout at Dexfield Park, she was taken into custody on the charge of "Assault With Intent To Kill."
She was sentenced to ten years in prison but was paroled in 1939 for good behaviour.
She returned to Dallas, leaving her life of crime in the past, and lived with her invalid father as his caregiver.
She married Eddie Frasure in 1940, worked as a taxi cab dispatcher and a beautician, and completed the terms of her parole one year later.
She lived in peace with her husband until he died of cancer in 1969.
Warren Beatty approached her to purchase the rights to her name for use in the 1967 film.
While she agreed to the original script, she objected to her characterisation.
She died from cancer at the age of 77 on December 24, 1988, and was buried in Dallas's Grove Hill Memorial Park under the name "Blanche B. Frasure".
Henry Methvin's ambush-earned Texas pardon didn't help him in Oklahoma, where he was convicted of the 1934 murder of Constable Campbell at Commerce.
He was paroled in 1942 and killed by a train in 1948.
Bonnie Parker's husband Roy Thornton was sentenced to five years in prison for burglary in March 1933.
He was killed by guards on October 3, 1937, during an escape attempt from Eastham.
Prentiss Oakley, who all six possemen agree fired the first shots, was reported to have been troubled by his actions.
He often admitted to his friends that he had fired prematurely and he was the only posse member to express regret publicly.
He would go on to succeed Henderson Jordan as Bienville Parish sheriff in 1940.
Frank Hamer returned to a quieter life as a freelance security consultant — a strikebreaker — to oil companies, although, according to Guinn, "his reputation suffered somewhat after Gibsland" because many people felt he had not given Barrow and Parker a fair chance to surrender.
He made headlines again in 1948 when he and Governor Coke Stevenson unsuccessfully challenged Lyndon Johnson's vote totals during the election for the US Senate.
He died in 1955 at 71.
His possemate Bob Alcorn died on May 23, 1964 — exactly thirty years to the day after the Gibsland ambush.
The criminal couple's enduring appeal to the public was due to their revolt against an uncaring system.
Bonnie Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were well-known robbers and criminals who travelled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression.
Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934.
Barrow preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations.
The gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders.
The couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in Louisiana by law officers.
Their reputation was cemented in American pop folklore by Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie And Clyde with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway portraying the criminal couple.
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children.
Her father, Charles Parker, a bricklayer, died when Bonnie was four.
Her mother, Emma Krause, moved with the children to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb of Dallas.
Parker was one of the best students in her high school, winning top prizes in spelling, writing and public speaking.
Parker did not date until she was in her second year of high school, but in that year she fell in love with a classmate, Roy Thornton.
The two quit school and were married on September 25, 1926, six days before Parker's sixteenth birthday.
Their marriage, marked by his frequent absences and brushes with the law, was short-lived, and after January 1929 their paths never crossed again.
But they were never divorced, and Parker was wearing Thornton's wedding ring when she died.
Thornton was in prison in 1934 when he learned of his wife's ambush.
His reaction was, "I'm glad they went out like they did. It's much better than being caught."
In 1929, between the breakdown of her marriage and her first meeting with Clyde Barrow in January 1930, Parker lived with her mother and worked as a waitress in Dallas.
One of her regular customers in the cafe was postal worker Ted Hinton, who would join the Dallas Sheriff's Department in 1932, and as a posse member would participate in her ambush in 1934.
Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born in Ellis County, Texas, near Telico, a town just south of Dallas.
He was the fifth of seven children, from a desperately poor farming family that emigrated, piecemeal, to Dallas in the early 1920s.
Clyde was first arrested in late 1926, after running when police confronted him over a rental car he had failed to return on time.
His second arrest, with brother Marvin "Buck" Barrow, came soon after, this time for possession of stolen goods (turkeys).
Despite having legitimate jobs during the period 1927 to 1929, he also cracked safes, robbed stores and stole cars.
After sequential arrests in 1928 and 1929, his luck ran out and he was sent to Eastham Prison in April 1930.
While in prison, he was sexually assaulted repeatedly for over a year by a dominant inmate, whose skull he eventually fractured with a length of pipe.
It was Clyde Barrow's first killing.
Paroled in February 1932, Barrow emerged from Eastham a hardened and bitter criminal.
In his post-Eastham career, he focused on smaller jobs, robbing grocery stores and gas stations.
Barrow's favoured weapon was the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (called BAR).
Barrow's goal in life was not to gain fame or fortune from robbing banks, but to seek revenge against the Texas prison system for the abuses he suffered while serving time.
Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow in January 1930 at a friend's house.
Parker was out of work and was staying in West Dallas to assist a girlfriend with a broken arm.
Barrow dropped by the girl's house while Parker was supposedly in the kitchen making hot chocolate.
When they met, both were smitten immediately.
After Barrow was released from prison in February 1932, he and Ralph Fults assembled a rotating core group of associates and began a series of small robberies, primarily of stores and gas stations.
Their goal was to collect enough money and firepower to launch a raid of liberation against Eastham prison.
On April 19, Bonnie Parker and Fults were captured in a failed hardware store burglary in Kaufman, Texas, and subsequently jailed.
On April 30, Barrow was the wheelman in a robbery in Hillsboro, Texas, during which the store's owner, JN Bucher, was shot and killed.
When shown mugshots, the victim's wife identified Barrow as one of the shooters, even though he had stayed outside in the car.
Meanwhile, Parker remained in jail until June 17.
When the Kaufman County grand jury convened, it declined to indict her, and she was released. Within a few weeks, she reunited with Barrow.
On August 5, while Parker was visiting her mother in Dallas, Barrow, Hamilton and Ross Dyer were drinking alcohol at a country dance in Stringtown, Oklahoma, when Sheriff CG Maxwell and his deputy, Eugene C Moore, approached them in the parking lot.
Barrow and Hamilton opened fire, killing the deputy and gravely wounding the sheriff.
It was the first killing of a lawman by Barrow and his gang, a total eventually amounting to nine officers.
Another civilian was added to the list on October 11, when storekeeper Howard Hall was killed during a robbery of his store in Sherman, Texas.
The take, twenty-eight dollars and some groceries.
WD Jones had been a friend of the Barrow family since childhood, and though he was only 16 years old on Christmas Eve 1932, he persuaded Barrow to let him join up with the pair and ride out of Dallas with them that night.
The very next day, Jones was initiated into homicide when he and Barrow killed Doyle Johnson, a young family man, in the process of stealing his car in Temple, Texas.
Less than two weeks later, on January 6, 1933, Barrow killed Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis when he, Parker and Jones wandered into a police trap set for another criminal.
The total murdered by the gang since April was now five.
On March 22, 1933, Buck Barrow was granted a full pardon and released from prison.
Within days, he and his wife, Blanche, had set up housekeeping with Clyde Barrow, Parker and Jones in a temporary hideout in Joplin, Missouri.
Lawmen assembled a two-car, five-man force on April 13 to confront the suspected bootleggers living in their rented apartment over a garage.
Though taken by surprise, Clyde, noted for remaining cool under fire, was gaining far more experience in gun battles than most lawmen.
He, Jones and Buck quickly killed Detective McGinnis and fatally wounded Constable Harryman.
During the escape from the apartment, Parker laid down covering fire with her own BAR, forcing Highway Patrol sergeant GB Kahler to duck behind a large oak tree while slugs slammed into the other side, forcing wood splinters into the sergeant's face.
Parker then got into the car with the others.
The car slowed long enough to pull in Blanche Barrow from the street, where she was pursuing her fleeing dog, Snow Ball.
The surviving officers later testified that their side had fired only fourteen rounds in the conflict, although one of these hit Jones in the side, one struck Clyde and was deflected by his suitcoat button, and one grazed Buck after ricocheting off a wall.
The group escaped the police at Joplin, but left most of their possessions at the rented apartment: Buck and Blanche's marriage license, Buck's parole papers (only three weeks old), a large arsenal.
For the next three months, they ranged from Texas as far north as Minnesota.
In May, they robbed banks in Lucerne, Indiana and Okabena, Minnesota. Previously they had kidnapped Dillard Darby and Sophia Stone at Ruston, Louisiana, in the course of stealing Darby's car.
This was one of several incidents between 1932 and 1934 in which they kidnapped lawmen or robbery victims, usually releasing them far from home, sometimes with money to help them return.
Stories of these encounters made headlines, but so too did the darker encounters.
The Barrow Gang would not hesitate to shoot anyone, lawman or civilian, who got in their way.
Other members of the Barrow Gang known or thought to have committed murders included Raymond Hamilton, WD Jones, Buck Barrow and Henry Methvin.
Eventually, the cold-bloodedness of the killings would not only sour the public perception of the outlaws, but lead directly to their undoing.
On June 10, while driving with Jones and Parker near Wellington, Texas, Barrow missed warning signs at a bridge under construction and flipped their car into a ravine.
Parker sustained horrific third degree burns to her right leg.
The burn was so severe, the muscles contracted and caused the leg to "draw up".
Near the end of her life, Parker could hardly walk and would either hop on her good leg or be carried by Clyde.
After getting help from a nearby farm family and kidnapping two local lawmen, the three outlaws rendezvoused with Blanche and Buck Barrow again and they hid out in a tourist court near Fort. Smith, Arkansas.
Then Buck and Jones bungled a local robbery and killed Town Marshall Henry D Humphrey in Alma, Arkansas.
With the renewed pursuit from the law, they had to flee again, despite the grave condition of Bonnie Parker.
On July 18, 1933, the gang checked into the Red Crown Tourist Court south of Platte City, Missouri (now within the city limits of Kansas City).
The Red Crown Court was just two brick cabins joined by garages and the gang rented both.
To the south stood the Red Crown Tavern, a popular restaurant and a favourite watering hole for Missouri Highway Patrolmen.
When Clyde and Jones went to town to purchase bandages and atropine sulfate to treat Bonnie's leg, the druggist contacted Sheriff Holt Coffey, who put the cabins under watch.
Coffey had been alerted by Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas to be on the lookout for strangers seeking such supplies.
The sheriff contacted Captain Baxter, who called for reinforcements from Kansas City including an armoured car.
At 11pm that night, Sheriff Coffey led a group of officers armed with Thompson submachine guns toward the cabins.
But in a pitched gunfight at considerable distances, the submachine guns proved no match for Clyde Barrow's preferred Browning Automatic Rifles, stolen July 7 from the National Guard armoury at Enid, Oklahoma.
The Barrows laid down withering fire and made their escape when a bullet short-circuited the horn on the armoured car and the lawmen mistook it for a cease-fire signal.
They did not pursue the retreating Barrow automobile.
Although the gang evaded law enforcement once again, Buck Barrow had sustained a horrific wound in the side of the head and Blanche Barrow was nearly blinded from glass fragments in both her eyes.
Their prospects for holding out against the ensuing manhunt dwindled.
Five days later, on July 24, the Barrow Gang was camped at Dexfield Park, an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa.
So plainly mortal was Buck's head wound that Clyde and Jones dug a grave for him.
After their bloody bandages were noticed by local citizens, it was determined that the campers were the Barrow gang.
Surrounded by local lawmen and approximately one hundred spectators, the Barrows once again found themselves under fire.
Clyde Barrow, Parker and WD Jones escaped on foot.
Buck was shot again, in the back, and he and his wife were captured by the officers.
Buck died five days later, at Kings Daughters Hospital in Perry, Iowa, of pneumonia after surgery.
For the next six weeks, the remaining trio ranged far afield of their usual area of operations — west to Colorado, north to Minnesota, southeast to Mississippi — keeping a low profile and pulling only small robberies for daily-bread money.
They restocked their arsenal when Barrow and Jones burglarised an armoury at Plattville, Illinois on August 20 and scored three BARs, handguns and lots of ammunition.
By early September, they risked a run back in to Dallas to see their families for the first time in four months, and Jones parted company with them, continuing on to Houston, where his mother had moved.
He was arrested there without incident on November 16 and returned to Dallas.
Through the autumn, Barrow executed a series of small-time robberies with a series of small-time local accomplices while his family, and Parker's, attended to her considerable medical needs.
On November 22, 1933, they narrowly evaded arrest — but not bullets — while attempting to hook up with family members near Sowers, Texas.
This time, it was their hometown Sheriff, Dallas' Smoot Schmid and his squad, lying in wait nearby.
As Barrow drove up, he sensed a trap and drove right past his family's car, at which point Schmid and his deputies stood up and opened fire with machine guns and a BAR.
The family members in the crossfire were not hit, but not so the outlaws.
A single BAR slug penetrated the car — and the legs of both Parker and Barrow.
The couple made their getaway that night, but the attempted ambush would prove to be a dry run for deputies Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn, who would get another shot at the pair six months hence in Louisiana.
Bonnie Parker crossed an ominous personal threshold the following week when on November 28, a Dallas grand jury delivered a murder indictment on her and Barrow for the January 1933 killing of Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis.
It was the first murder warrant issued for Parker.
On January 16, 1934, Barrow finally made his long-contemplated move against the Texas Department of Corrections as he orchestrated the escape of Raymond Hamilton, Henry Methvin and several others in the infamous "Eastham Breakout" of 1934.
The Texas prison system received national negative publicity from the brazen raid, and Barrow appeared to have achieved what Phillips describes as the burning passion in his life, exacting revenge on the Texas Department of Corrections.
During the jailbreak, escapee Joe Palmer shot prison officer Major Joe Crowson and this act would eventually bring the full power of the Texas and federal governments to bear on the manhunt for Barrow and Parker.
As Crowson struggled for life, prison chief Lee Simmons reportedly promised him that all persons involved in the breakout would be hunted down and killed, and all were, except for Henry Methvin, whose life would eventually be exchanged for turning Barrow and Parker over to authorities.
The Texas Department of Corrections then contacted former Texas Ranger Captain Frank A. Hamer, and persuaded him to accept an assignment to hunt down the Barrow Gang.
Though retired, Hamer had retained his commission, which had not yet expired.
He accepted the assignment as a Texas Highway Patrol officer, secondarily assigned to the prison system as a special investigator, and given the specific task of hunting down Bonnie, Clyde and the Barrow Gang.
Frank Hamer was tall, burly, cryptic and taciturn, unimpressed by authority, driven by an "inflexible adherence to right, or what he thinks is right."
For twenty years Hamer had been feared and admired throughout the Lone Star State as "the walking embodiment of the 'One Riot, One Ranger' ethos.
In accomplishing the aims of Texas law enforcement he "had acquired a formidable reputation as a result of several spectacular captures and the shooting of a number of Texas criminals.
He was officially credited with fifty-three kills (and seventeen wounds to himself).
Although prison boss Simmons always said publicly that Hamer had been his first choice for the Barrow hunt, there's evidence he approached two other Rangers first, both of whom had been queasy about shooting a woman and declined.
Hamer apparently had no such qualms.
Starting February 10, he became the constant shadow of Barrow and Parker, living out of his car, just a town or two behind the bandits.
Three of Hamer's brothers were also Texas Rangers, and while brother Harrison was the best shot of the four, Frank was considered the most tenacious.
On April 1, 1934, Easter Sunday, Barrow and Henry Methvin killed two young highway patrolmen, HD Murphy and Edward Bryant Wheeler, in an area of Grapevine, Texas now called Southlake.
A contemporary eyewitness account stated that Barrow and Parker fired the fatal shots and this story got widespread coverage in the press before it was discredited.
Henry Methvin later admitted he fired the first shot, after assuming Barrow wanted the officers killed.
He also admitted that Parker approached the dying officers intending to help them, not to administer the cold-blooded point-blank coup de grace the discredited eyewitness had described.
Having little choice once Methvin had shot Wheeler, Barrow then joined in, firing at Patrolman Murphy.
Most likely, Parker was asleep in the back seat when Methvin started shooting and took no part in the assault.
Five days later, Barrow and Methvin killed 60-year-old Constable William "Cal" Campbell, a widower single father, near Commerce, Oklahoma.
They kidnapped Commerce police chief Percy Boyd, drove around with him, crossing the state line into Kansas, and then let him out with a clean shirt, a few dollars and a request from Parker to tell the world she didn't smoke cigars.
The outlaws didn't realise at their upbeat parting that Boyd would identify both Barrow and Parker to authorities — he never learned the name of the sullen youth who was with them — and when the resultant arrest warrant was issued for the Campbell murder, it specified Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker and John Doe.
Barrow and Parker were ambushed and killed on May 23, 1934 on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
The couple appeared in daylight in an automobile and were shot by a posse of four Texas officers (Frank Hamer, BM "Manny" Gault, Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton) and two Louisiana officers (Henderson Jordan and Prentiss Morel Oakley).
The posse was led by Hamer, who had begun tracking the pair on February 10, 1934. They were mutilated.
Word of the ambush quickly got around when Hamer, Jordan, Oakley and Hinton drove to town to telephone their respective bosses.
A crowd soon gathered at the spot, and Gault and Alcorn, who were left to guard the bodies, lost control of the jostling curious.
One woman cut off bloody locks of Parker's hair and pieces from her dress, which were sold as souvenirs.
Hinton returned to find a man trying to cut off Barrow's trigger finger, and was sickened by what was occurring.
One eager man had opened his pocket knife, and was reaching into the car to cut off Clyde's left ear.
The coroner enlisted Hamer for help in controlling the "circus-like atmosphere," and only then did people move away from the car.
Bonnie and Clyde wished to be buried side by side, but the Parker family would not allow it.
Mrs. Parker had wanted to grant her daughter's final wish, which was to be brought home, but the mobs surrounding the Parker house made that impossible.
Over 20,000 people turned out for Bonnie Parker's funeral, making it difficult for her family to reach the grave site.
Parker's family used the now defunct McKamy-Campbell Funeral Home, then located on Forest Avenue in Dallas, to conduct her funeral.
Hubert “Buster” Parker accompanied his sister’s body back to Dallas in the McKamy-Campbell ambulance.
Her services were held Saturday, May 26, at 2pm in the funeral home, directed by Allen D Campbell.
His son, Dr Allen Campbell, later remembered that flowers came from everywhere.
Thousands of people gathered outside both Dallas funeral homes hoping for a chance to view the bodies.
Barrow’s private funeral was held at sunset on Friday, May 25, in the funeral home chapel.
He was buried in Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas, next to his brother, Marvin.
They share a single granite marker with their names on it and a four-word epitaph previously selected by Clyde: “Gone but not forgotten.”
The life insurance policies for both Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were paid in full by American National of Galveston.
Blanche Barrow's injuries left her permanently blinded in her left eye.
After the 1933 shootout at Dexfield Park, she was taken into custody on the charge of "Assault With Intent To Kill."
She was sentenced to ten years in prison but was paroled in 1939 for good behaviour.
She returned to Dallas, leaving her life of crime in the past, and lived with her invalid father as his caregiver.
She married Eddie Frasure in 1940, worked as a taxi cab dispatcher and a beautician, and completed the terms of her parole one year later.
She lived in peace with her husband until he died of cancer in 1969.
Warren Beatty approached her to purchase the rights to her name for use in the 1967 film.
While she agreed to the original script, she objected to her characterisation.
She died from cancer at the age of 77 on December 24, 1988, and was buried in Dallas's Grove Hill Memorial Park under the name "Blanche B. Frasure".
Henry Methvin's ambush-earned Texas pardon didn't help him in Oklahoma, where he was convicted of the 1934 murder of Constable Campbell at Commerce.
He was paroled in 1942 and killed by a train in 1948.
Bonnie Parker's husband Roy Thornton was sentenced to five years in prison for burglary in March 1933.
He was killed by guards on October 3, 1937, during an escape attempt from Eastham.
Prentiss Oakley, who all six possemen agree fired the first shots, was reported to have been troubled by his actions.
He often admitted to his friends that he had fired prematurely and he was the only posse member to express regret publicly.
He would go on to succeed Henderson Jordan as Bienville Parish sheriff in 1940.
Frank Hamer returned to a quieter life as a freelance security consultant — a strikebreaker — to oil companies, although, according to Guinn, "his reputation suffered somewhat after Gibsland" because many people felt he had not given Barrow and Parker a fair chance to surrender.
He made headlines again in 1948 when he and Governor Coke Stevenson unsuccessfully challenged Lyndon Johnson's vote totals during the election for the US Senate.
He died in 1955 at 71.
His possemate Bob Alcorn died on May 23, 1964 — exactly thirty years to the day after the Gibsland ambush.
The criminal couple's enduring appeal to the public was due to their revolt against an uncaring system.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Seve Ballesteros - Spanish Golf Legend
From Wikipedia.
Severiano Ballesteros Sota, who died after a long battle with cancer on May 7, 2011, will always be remembered as Spain's greatest golf icon.
A World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, he gained attention in the golfing world in 1976, when at 19 he finished second at The Open Championship.
A member of a gifted golfing family, Ballesteros won five major championships between 1979 and 1988, The Open Championship three times, and The Masters twice.
He was also successful in the Ryder Cup, helping the European team to five wins both as a player and captain, and won the World Match Play Championship a record-tying five times.
He is best known for his great short game, and his erratic driving of the golf ball.
Ballesteros was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for the second time at the BBC Sports Personality Awards 2009.
Ballesteros was born in Pedrena, Cantabria, Spain.
He learned the game while playing on the beaches near his home, mainly using a 3-iron given to him by one of his elder brothers.
His uncle Ramon Sota was Spanish professional champion four times and finished sixth in The Masters in 1965.
Seve's elder brother Manuel finished in the top 100 on the European Tour order of merit every year from 1972 to 1983, and later became Seve's manager.
Brothers Vicente and Baldomero, and nephew Raul are also professional golfers.
Ballesteros turned professional in March 1974 at the age of 16.
In 1999, Ballesteros was inducted into the World Golf Hall Of Fame.
He was instrumental in introducing the Seve Trophy in 2000, a team competition similar to the Ryder Cup pitting a team from Great Britain and Ireland against one from continental Europe.
In 2000, Ballesteros was ranked as the 16th greatest golfer of all time by Golf Digest magazine. He was the top golfer from the continent of Europe.
Ballesteros was married to Carmen Botin O'Shea, daughter of Emilio Botin, from 1988 until their divorce in 2004.
They have three children.
Severiano Ballesteros Sota, who died after a long battle with cancer on May 7, 2011, will always be remembered as Spain's greatest golf icon.
A World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, he gained attention in the golfing world in 1976, when at 19 he finished second at The Open Championship.
A member of a gifted golfing family, Ballesteros won five major championships between 1979 and 1988, The Open Championship three times, and The Masters twice.
He was also successful in the Ryder Cup, helping the European team to five wins both as a player and captain, and won the World Match Play Championship a record-tying five times.
He is best known for his great short game, and his erratic driving of the golf ball.
Ballesteros was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for the second time at the BBC Sports Personality Awards 2009.
Ballesteros was born in Pedrena, Cantabria, Spain.
He learned the game while playing on the beaches near his home, mainly using a 3-iron given to him by one of his elder brothers.
His uncle Ramon Sota was Spanish professional champion four times and finished sixth in The Masters in 1965.
Seve's elder brother Manuel finished in the top 100 on the European Tour order of merit every year from 1972 to 1983, and later became Seve's manager.
Brothers Vicente and Baldomero, and nephew Raul are also professional golfers.
Ballesteros turned professional in March 1974 at the age of 16.
In 1999, Ballesteros was inducted into the World Golf Hall Of Fame.
He was instrumental in introducing the Seve Trophy in 2000, a team competition similar to the Ryder Cup pitting a team from Great Britain and Ireland against one from continental Europe.
In 2000, Ballesteros was ranked as the 16th greatest golfer of all time by Golf Digest magazine. He was the top golfer from the continent of Europe.
Ballesteros was married to Carmen Botin O'Shea, daughter of Emilio Botin, from 1988 until their divorce in 2004.
They have three children.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Alan Tang - HK's Alain Delon
Alan Tang Kwong Wing's death from a stroke on March 29, 2011 has robbed Hong Kong and Taiwan of a brilliant leading man, producer and director.
Read all about him here. Thanks Wikipedia.
Alan Tang Kwong Wing (September 20, 1946 – March 29, 2011) was a Hong Kong film actor, producer and director.
Tang was born in Shunde, Guangdong, China, the youngest of four children.
His first starring role was actually at 16 in the 1963 film The Student Prince.
Upon graduation from secondary school, Tang acted in Hong Kong youth films starring Josephine Hsiao, Chen Chen, and Connie Chan throughout the 1960s.
Tang was often voted Best Actor by film magazines.
Tang found greater fame when he moved to Taiwan during the 1970s, and made over 60 feature films, often dramas and romances.
He often co-starred with Brigette Lin.
In 1974, Tang produced and starred in Splendid Love In Winter with Chen Chen, and Dynamite Brothers with American footballer Timothy Brown.
In 1977, he formed The Wing-Scope Company.
A decade later, Tang established In-Gear Film Productions, with his brother Rover Tang.
Well-known films of Tang during this time included Flaming Brothers, Gangland Odyssey, Return Engagement, Gun N Rose and The Black Panther Warriors.
He also produced two films directed by Wong Kar Wai, As Tears Go By and Days Of Being Wild.
In the 1990s, Tang became a restaurant businessman. He also became the godfather of Adam Cheng's daughter, actress Joyce Cheng.
Tang was a generous celebrity who devoted much of his time to philanthropy.
Read all about him here. Thanks Wikipedia.
Alan Tang Kwong Wing (September 20, 1946 – March 29, 2011) was a Hong Kong film actor, producer and director.
Tang was born in Shunde, Guangdong, China, the youngest of four children.
His first starring role was actually at 16 in the 1963 film The Student Prince.
Upon graduation from secondary school, Tang acted in Hong Kong youth films starring Josephine Hsiao, Chen Chen, and Connie Chan throughout the 1960s.
Tang was often voted Best Actor by film magazines.
Tang found greater fame when he moved to Taiwan during the 1970s, and made over 60 feature films, often dramas and romances.
He often co-starred with Brigette Lin.
In 1974, Tang produced and starred in Splendid Love In Winter with Chen Chen, and Dynamite Brothers with American footballer Timothy Brown.
In 1977, he formed The Wing-Scope Company.
A decade later, Tang established In-Gear Film Productions, with his brother Rover Tang.
Well-known films of Tang during this time included Flaming Brothers, Gangland Odyssey, Return Engagement, Gun N Rose and The Black Panther Warriors.
He also produced two films directed by Wong Kar Wai, As Tears Go By and Days Of Being Wild.
In the 1990s, Tang became a restaurant businessman. He also became the godfather of Adam Cheng's daughter, actress Joyce Cheng.
Tang was a generous celebrity who devoted much of his time to philanthropy.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Elizabeth Taylor - Grand Dame Of British Cinema
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) will always be remembered as the grand dame of British cinema.
The former child star who passed away after a long illness recently, was known for both her acting talent and beauty.
She was also frequently in the spotlight because of her Hollywood lifestyle, and many marriages.
Taylor is considered one of the greatest actresses of Hollywood's golden age.
She was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of North West London, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897–1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1895–1994), who were Americans residing in the United Kingdom.
She was of British, Jewish (Israeli), Spanish, Portuguese, Iranian and Native American heritage.
Taylor's family came from Arkansas City, Kansas.
Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress.
She was a dual citizen of the UK and the US for life.
At three, Taylor took ballet lessons. Shortly before World War II, her parents returned to the United States.
The Taylors were family friends of Andrea Berens, a wealthy British socialite and the fiancee of Cheever Cowden, chairman of Universal Pictures in Hollywood.
Berens introduced Sara and Elizabeth to Cowden, and he had her signed to Universal as an actress.
Taylor appeared in her first film at nine, There's One Born Every Minute.
Not long after, she joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and starred in Lassie Come Home.
This 1943 film featured her lifelong pal Roddy McDowall.
In 1944, she starred in Jane Eyre.
At 12, she played Velvet Brown in National Velvet. Velvet was a young girl who trains her horse to win the Grand National.
The film also rocketed Mickey Rooney and Angela Lansbury to fame.
In 1946, she starred in The Courage Of Lassie.
Other notable films in the 1940s were Life With Father (1947), Cynthia (1947), A Date With Judy (1948) and Julia Misbehaves (1948).
In 1949, she starred in Conspirator which bombed at the box office.
But her portrayal of 21-year-old debutante Melinda Grayton was praised by critics.
Her first major box office success in an adult role was Kay Banks in the romantic comedy Father Of The Bride (1950).
In late 1949, Taylor starred in A Place In The Sun as a spoiled socialite.
The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) saw her reunited with her Big Hangover co-star Van Johnson.
Following a substantial role opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in Giant (1956), Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated for her roles in Raintree County (1957), Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly Last Summer (1959).
In 1960, she starred in Cleopatra as the title character. Her future husband, British actor Richard Burton played Mark Antony.
Taylor won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for Butterfield 8 (1960), which co-starred then husband Eddie Fisher.
Her second Best Actress award was in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966), which co-starred Burton.
Burton and Taylor starred in six films during the decade – The VIPs (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), The Taming Of The Shrew (1967), Doctor Faustus (1967), The Comedians {1967} and Boom! (1968).
Taylor appeared in Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967) opposite Marlon Brando and Secret Ceremony (1968) opposite Mia Farrow.
Taylor continued to star in numerous theatrical films throughout the 1970s, such as Zee And Co (1972) with Michael Caine, Ash Wednesday (1973), The Blue Bird (1976) with Jane Fonda and Ava Gardner and A Little Night Music (1977).
With then-husband Burton, she co-starred in the 1972 films Under Milk Wood and Hammersmith Is Out and the 1973 made-for-TV movie Divorce His, Divorce Hers.
Taylor starred in the 1980 mystery film The Mirror Cracked, based on an Agatha Christie novel.
In 1985, she played movie gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the TV film Malice In Wonderland.
Her last theatrical film was 1994's The Flintstones.
In the 2000s she starred in television series such as General Hospital, All My Children and The Simpsons.
Taylor made her Broadway and West End debuts in 1982 in The Little Foxes.
She also starred in Noel Coward's Private Lives (1983) with Burton.
On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger inducted Taylor into the California Hall Of Fame, located at The California Museum For History, Women And The Arts.
Taylor devoted much time and energy to AIDS-related charities and fundraising. She helped start the American Foundation for AIDS Research after the death of her former co-star and friend, Rock Hudson.
She also created her own AIDS foundation, the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF).
By 1999, she had helped to raise an estimated US$50 million to fight the disease.
She also became a close pal of Michael Jackson, and attended his funeral in 2009.
Taylor was married seven times to Conrad Hilton (1950-51), Michael Wilding (1952-57), Michael Todd (1957-58, he died), Eddie Fisher (1959-64), Richard Burton (1964-74, 1975-76), John Warner (1976-82) and Larry Fortensky (1991-1996).
She is survived by two sons (from Wilding) and two daughters (one each from Todd and Burton).
She has nine grandchildren.
The former child star who passed away after a long illness recently, was known for both her acting talent and beauty.
She was also frequently in the spotlight because of her Hollywood lifestyle, and many marriages.
Taylor is considered one of the greatest actresses of Hollywood's golden age.
She was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of North West London, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897–1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1895–1994), who were Americans residing in the United Kingdom.
She was of British, Jewish (Israeli), Spanish, Portuguese, Iranian and Native American heritage.
Taylor's family came from Arkansas City, Kansas.
Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress.
She was a dual citizen of the UK and the US for life.
At three, Taylor took ballet lessons. Shortly before World War II, her parents returned to the United States.
The Taylors were family friends of Andrea Berens, a wealthy British socialite and the fiancee of Cheever Cowden, chairman of Universal Pictures in Hollywood.
Berens introduced Sara and Elizabeth to Cowden, and he had her signed to Universal as an actress.
Taylor appeared in her first film at nine, There's One Born Every Minute.
Not long after, she joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and starred in Lassie Come Home.
This 1943 film featured her lifelong pal Roddy McDowall.
In 1944, she starred in Jane Eyre.
At 12, she played Velvet Brown in National Velvet. Velvet was a young girl who trains her horse to win the Grand National.
The film also rocketed Mickey Rooney and Angela Lansbury to fame.
In 1946, she starred in The Courage Of Lassie.
Other notable films in the 1940s were Life With Father (1947), Cynthia (1947), A Date With Judy (1948) and Julia Misbehaves (1948).
In 1949, she starred in Conspirator which bombed at the box office.
But her portrayal of 21-year-old debutante Melinda Grayton was praised by critics.
Her first major box office success in an adult role was Kay Banks in the romantic comedy Father Of The Bride (1950).
In late 1949, Taylor starred in A Place In The Sun as a spoiled socialite.
The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) saw her reunited with her Big Hangover co-star Van Johnson.
Following a substantial role opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in Giant (1956), Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated for her roles in Raintree County (1957), Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly Last Summer (1959).
In 1960, she starred in Cleopatra as the title character. Her future husband, British actor Richard Burton played Mark Antony.
Taylor won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for Butterfield 8 (1960), which co-starred then husband Eddie Fisher.
Her second Best Actress award was in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966), which co-starred Burton.
Burton and Taylor starred in six films during the decade – The VIPs (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), The Taming Of The Shrew (1967), Doctor Faustus (1967), The Comedians {1967} and Boom! (1968).
Taylor appeared in Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967) opposite Marlon Brando and Secret Ceremony (1968) opposite Mia Farrow.
Taylor continued to star in numerous theatrical films throughout the 1970s, such as Zee And Co (1972) with Michael Caine, Ash Wednesday (1973), The Blue Bird (1976) with Jane Fonda and Ava Gardner and A Little Night Music (1977).
With then-husband Burton, she co-starred in the 1972 films Under Milk Wood and Hammersmith Is Out and the 1973 made-for-TV movie Divorce His, Divorce Hers.
Taylor starred in the 1980 mystery film The Mirror Cracked, based on an Agatha Christie novel.
In 1985, she played movie gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the TV film Malice In Wonderland.
Her last theatrical film was 1994's The Flintstones.
In the 2000s she starred in television series such as General Hospital, All My Children and The Simpsons.
Taylor made her Broadway and West End debuts in 1982 in The Little Foxes.
She also starred in Noel Coward's Private Lives (1983) with Burton.
On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger inducted Taylor into the California Hall Of Fame, located at The California Museum For History, Women And The Arts.
Taylor devoted much time and energy to AIDS-related charities and fundraising. She helped start the American Foundation for AIDS Research after the death of her former co-star and friend, Rock Hudson.
She also created her own AIDS foundation, the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF).
By 1999, she had helped to raise an estimated US$50 million to fight the disease.
She also became a close pal of Michael Jackson, and attended his funeral in 2009.
Taylor was married seven times to Conrad Hilton (1950-51), Michael Wilding (1952-57), Michael Todd (1957-58, he died), Eddie Fisher (1959-64), Richard Burton (1964-74, 1975-76), John Warner (1976-82) and Larry Fortensky (1991-1996).
She is survived by two sons (from Wilding) and two daughters (one each from Todd and Burton).
She has nine grandchildren.
Monday, March 14, 2011
About Japan
Thanks Wikipedia.
Japan is an island nation in East Asia.
Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.
The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land Of The Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands.
The four largest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety seven percent of Japan's land area.
Japan has the world's tenth largest population, with over 127 million people.
Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
A major economic power, Japan is the world's fourth largest exporter and fifth largest importer.
Although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains an extensive modern military force in self-defense and peacekeeping roles.
Japan has the highest life expectancy of any country in the world.
The English word Japan is an exonym.
The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon and Nihon.
Japanese people refer to themselves as Nihonjin and to their language as Nihongo.
Both Nippon and Nihon mean "sun-origin".
The British coined the name Japan from the Malay word Jepang which is derived from the Shanghai Chinese word for the country, Zepen.
The Japanese are of Chinese and Mon origin.
The Ryukyu Islanders in the south of Japan are the same people as the aboriginals of Taiwan and the people of the Philippines.
They are Austronesians of the Bajau subgroup (Kenyah in Sarawak and Kayan in Indonesian Borneo aka Banjarmasin).
Japan received Buddhism from the Koreans.
During the 16th century, traders and missionaries from Portugal reached Japan, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West (Nanban trade).
On March 31, 1854, the United States' representative Matthew Perry inked a business treaty with the Japanese monarch.
Emperor Meiji subsequently introduced a constitution for Japan and modernised the country extensively.
After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Japan gained control of Taiwan and Korea.
World War I enabled Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies, to widen its influence and territorial holdings.
It occupied Manchuria in 1931, and in 1940, joined Adolf Hitler's Germany fighting the Allies in World War II.
Japan invaded China in 1937, precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).
In 1940, it took South East Asia and on December 7, 1941, attacked the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbour.
After the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies.
The Allies (led by the United States ) repatriated millions of ethnic Japanese from colonies and military camps throughout Asia.
The Allies also convened the International Military Tribunal For The Far East on May 3, 1946 to prosecute some Japanese leaders for war crimes.
However, the bacteriological research units and members of the imperial family involved in the war were exonerated from criminal prosecutions by the Supreme Allied Commander despite calls for trials for both groups.
In 1947, Japan adopted a new constitution emphasising liberal democratic practices.
The Allied occupation ended with the Treaty Of San Francisco in 1952 and Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956.
Japan later achieved rapid growth to become the second largest economy in the world.
On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered the strongest earthquake in its recorded history.
It had a magnitude of 9.0 and was aggravated by a tsunami, affecting the northeast area of Honshu, including the capital city Tokyo.
About 73 percent of Japan is forested, mountainous and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial, or residential use.
As a result, the habitable zones, mainly located in coastal areas, have extremely high population densities.
The islands of Japan are located in a volcanic zone on the Pacific Ring Of Fire.
The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate, but varies greatly from north to south.
Japan's geographical features divide it into six principal climatic zones: Hokkaido, Sea Of Japan, Central Highlands, Seto Inland Sea, Pacific Ocean, and Ryukyu Islands.
The northernmost zone, Hokkaido, has a temperate climate with long, cold winters and cool summers.
In the Sea Of Japan zone on Honshu's west coast, northwest winter winds bring heavy snowfall.
In the summer, the region is cooler than the Pacific area, though it sometimes experiences extremely hot temperatures.
The Central Highlands has a typical inland climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter, and between day and night.
The mountains of the Chugoku and Shikoku regions shelter the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round.
The Pacific coast experiences cold winters with little snowfall and hot, humid summers.
The Ryukyu Islands have a subtropical climate, with warm winters and hot summers.
Japan has nine forest ecoregions which reflect the climate and geography of the islands.
They range from subtropical forests in the Ryukyu Islands, to temperate forests in the mild climate regions of the main islands and the cold northern islands.
Japan has over 90,000 species of wildlife, including the brown bear, the Japanese macaque, the raccoon dog, and the Japanese giant salamander.
Japan is one of the world's leaders in the development of new environment-friendly technologies, and is ranked 20th best in the world in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index.
Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited.
As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people".
Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected members of the Diet, while sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people.
Japan's legislative organ is the National Diet, a bicameral parliament.
The Diet consists of a House of Representatives with 480 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and a House of Councillors of 242 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms.
There is universal suffrage for adults over 20 years of age.
Japan consists of forty seven prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy.
Each prefecture is further divided into cities, towns and villages.
Japan has a large industrial capacity, and is home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronics, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemical substances, textiles and processed foods.
Agricultural businesses in Japan often utilise a system of terrace farming, and crop yields are high.
Japan is the second largest producer of automobiles in the world.
Its main exports are transportation equipment, motor vehicles, electronics, electrical machinery and chemicals.
Japan is a leading nation in scientific research, particularly technology, machinery and biomedical research.
Some of Japan's more prominent technological contributions are in the fields of electronics, automobiles, machinery, earthquake engineering, industrial robotics, optics, chemicals, semiconductors and metals.
Primary schools, secondary schools and universities were introduced in 1872.
Since 1947, compulsory education in Japan comprises elementary and middle school, which together last for nine years (from ages 6 to 15).
Japanese music is eclectic and diverse.
Many instruments, such as the koto, were introduced in the 9th and 10th centuries.
The accompanied recitative of the Noh drama dates from the 14th century and the popular folk music, with the guitar-like shamisen, from the sixteenth.
Historically, the primary ingredient of Japanese cuisine has been Japanese rice.
In the early modern era ingredients such as red meats that had previously not been widely used in Japan were introduced.
Japanese cuisine offers a vast array of regional specialties.
Traditionally, sumo is considered Japan's national sport.
Japanese martial arts such as judo, karate and kendo are also widely practiced and enjoyed by spectators in the country.
Japan hosted the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 1964.
The Japanese professional baseball league was established in 1936.
Today baseball is the most popular spectator sport in the country.
One of the most famous Japanese baseball players is Ichiro Suzuki, who plays for the Seattle Mariners.
Since the establishment of the Japan Professional Football League in 1992, association football has also gained a wide following.
Japan was a venue of the Intercontinental Cup from 1981 to 2004 and co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with South Korea.
Japan has one of the most successful football teams in Asia, winning the Asian Cup four times.
Japan is an island nation in East Asia.
Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.
The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land Of The Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands.
The four largest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety seven percent of Japan's land area.
Japan has the world's tenth largest population, with over 127 million people.
Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
A major economic power, Japan is the world's fourth largest exporter and fifth largest importer.
Although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains an extensive modern military force in self-defense and peacekeeping roles.
Japan has the highest life expectancy of any country in the world.
The English word Japan is an exonym.
The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon and Nihon.
Japanese people refer to themselves as Nihonjin and to their language as Nihongo.
Both Nippon and Nihon mean "sun-origin".
The British coined the name Japan from the Malay word Jepang which is derived from the Shanghai Chinese word for the country, Zepen.
The Japanese are of Chinese and Mon origin.
The Ryukyu Islanders in the south of Japan are the same people as the aboriginals of Taiwan and the people of the Philippines.
They are Austronesians of the Bajau subgroup (Kenyah in Sarawak and Kayan in Indonesian Borneo aka Banjarmasin).
Japan received Buddhism from the Koreans.
During the 16th century, traders and missionaries from Portugal reached Japan, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West (Nanban trade).
On March 31, 1854, the United States' representative Matthew Perry inked a business treaty with the Japanese monarch.
Emperor Meiji subsequently introduced a constitution for Japan and modernised the country extensively.
After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Japan gained control of Taiwan and Korea.
World War I enabled Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies, to widen its influence and territorial holdings.
It occupied Manchuria in 1931, and in 1940, joined Adolf Hitler's Germany fighting the Allies in World War II.
Japan invaded China in 1937, precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).
In 1940, it took South East Asia and on December 7, 1941, attacked the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbour.
After the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies.
The Allies (led by the United States ) repatriated millions of ethnic Japanese from colonies and military camps throughout Asia.
The Allies also convened the International Military Tribunal For The Far East on May 3, 1946 to prosecute some Japanese leaders for war crimes.
However, the bacteriological research units and members of the imperial family involved in the war were exonerated from criminal prosecutions by the Supreme Allied Commander despite calls for trials for both groups.
In 1947, Japan adopted a new constitution emphasising liberal democratic practices.
The Allied occupation ended with the Treaty Of San Francisco in 1952 and Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956.
Japan later achieved rapid growth to become the second largest economy in the world.
On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered the strongest earthquake in its recorded history.
It had a magnitude of 9.0 and was aggravated by a tsunami, affecting the northeast area of Honshu, including the capital city Tokyo.
About 73 percent of Japan is forested, mountainous and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial, or residential use.
As a result, the habitable zones, mainly located in coastal areas, have extremely high population densities.
The islands of Japan are located in a volcanic zone on the Pacific Ring Of Fire.
The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate, but varies greatly from north to south.
Japan's geographical features divide it into six principal climatic zones: Hokkaido, Sea Of Japan, Central Highlands, Seto Inland Sea, Pacific Ocean, and Ryukyu Islands.
The northernmost zone, Hokkaido, has a temperate climate with long, cold winters and cool summers.
In the Sea Of Japan zone on Honshu's west coast, northwest winter winds bring heavy snowfall.
In the summer, the region is cooler than the Pacific area, though it sometimes experiences extremely hot temperatures.
The Central Highlands has a typical inland climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter, and between day and night.
The mountains of the Chugoku and Shikoku regions shelter the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round.
The Pacific coast experiences cold winters with little snowfall and hot, humid summers.
The Ryukyu Islands have a subtropical climate, with warm winters and hot summers.
Japan has nine forest ecoregions which reflect the climate and geography of the islands.
They range from subtropical forests in the Ryukyu Islands, to temperate forests in the mild climate regions of the main islands and the cold northern islands.
Japan has over 90,000 species of wildlife, including the brown bear, the Japanese macaque, the raccoon dog, and the Japanese giant salamander.
Japan is one of the world's leaders in the development of new environment-friendly technologies, and is ranked 20th best in the world in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index.
Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited.
As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people".
Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected members of the Diet, while sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people.
Japan's legislative organ is the National Diet, a bicameral parliament.
The Diet consists of a House of Representatives with 480 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and a House of Councillors of 242 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms.
There is universal suffrage for adults over 20 years of age.
Japan consists of forty seven prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy.
Each prefecture is further divided into cities, towns and villages.
Japan has a large industrial capacity, and is home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronics, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemical substances, textiles and processed foods.
Agricultural businesses in Japan often utilise a system of terrace farming, and crop yields are high.
Japan is the second largest producer of automobiles in the world.
Its main exports are transportation equipment, motor vehicles, electronics, electrical machinery and chemicals.
Japan is a leading nation in scientific research, particularly technology, machinery and biomedical research.
Some of Japan's more prominent technological contributions are in the fields of electronics, automobiles, machinery, earthquake engineering, industrial robotics, optics, chemicals, semiconductors and metals.
Primary schools, secondary schools and universities were introduced in 1872.
Since 1947, compulsory education in Japan comprises elementary and middle school, which together last for nine years (from ages 6 to 15).
Japanese music is eclectic and diverse.
Many instruments, such as the koto, were introduced in the 9th and 10th centuries.
The accompanied recitative of the Noh drama dates from the 14th century and the popular folk music, with the guitar-like shamisen, from the sixteenth.
Historically, the primary ingredient of Japanese cuisine has been Japanese rice.
In the early modern era ingredients such as red meats that had previously not been widely used in Japan were introduced.
Japanese cuisine offers a vast array of regional specialties.
Traditionally, sumo is considered Japan's national sport.
Japanese martial arts such as judo, karate and kendo are also widely practiced and enjoyed by spectators in the country.
Japan hosted the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 1964.
The Japanese professional baseball league was established in 1936.
Today baseball is the most popular spectator sport in the country.
One of the most famous Japanese baseball players is Ichiro Suzuki, who plays for the Seattle Mariners.
Since the establishment of the Japan Professional Football League in 1992, association football has also gained a wide following.
Japan was a venue of the Intercontinental Cup from 1981 to 2004 and co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with South Korea.
Japan has one of the most successful football teams in Asia, winning the Asian Cup four times.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)