Steven Spielberg - Biography

Personal details
Name: Steven Spielberg
Born: 18 December 1946 (Age: 62)
Where: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Height: 5' 7"
Awards: Won 3 Oscars, 2 BAFTAs, 2 Golden Globes

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Biography:
In the fickle world of cinema, there are very few names you can splash across a billboard to ensure a film's financial success. Harrison Ford, perhaps, or Julia Roberts. George Lucas, if it's a Star Wars movie. Tom Cruise seemed a cert till Eyes Wide Shut. These names will probably make you millions, but there's only one sure-fire guarantee - Steven Spielberg.

As a director, he's the most successful of all time. His films have been so popular, so consistently entertaining, that people rush to see anything tagged as A Steven Spielberg Production, even movies he merely financed. No one else has muscle like that. No one else ever has. As a film-maker, he started early. He was born Steven Allan Spielberg on the 18th of December, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, Arnold, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers, while mother Leah, a concert pianist, looked after the four children - Steven was the oldest, the others being Annie, Sue and Nancy. The family soon moved to Scottsdale, Arizona - Steven would attend Arcadia High School in Phoenix - and it was here that his love for movies (and his financial acumen) began to blossom.

Perhaps unnaturally quickly, if reports that Spielberg suffered from Asperger's Syndrome are to be believed. This is a mild form of autism that leads to obsessional interests - often with very positive results.Leah being as indulgent as Arnold was emotionally remote (many fathers in Spielberg movies are either missing or distant), Steven's interest in film-making was encouraged.

By 12, he'd made his first amateur film, an 8-minute Western called The Last Gun, which Steven financed with a tree-planting business. He'd charge admission to his home movies, getting Annie to sell popcorn, and his projects rapidly became more ambitious in scale and scope. By 14, he'd made a 40-minute war film, Escape To Nowhere, on 8mm, and another short, Battle Squad, which mixed WW2 footage with sequences he'd shot at Phoenix airport. Even that young, he'd learned how to make stationary aircraft seem as if they were travelling at supersonic speed. Within two years he was working on Firelight, a 140-minute sci-fi epic, based on a story his sister Nancy had written about a UFO attack.

He would, as all the world knows, return often to the subjects of war and alien life-forms.There would be an emotional side to his story-telling, too, and a vaguely autobiographical one. Many of Spielberg's films feature kids in distress and that aforementioned distant father. This mirrors Steven's own relationship with Arnold - not a good one.

On one occasion, Arnold brought a tiny transistor home, showed it to Steven and told him is was the futureSteven took it, put it in his mouth and, washing it down with milk, swallowed it. So much for Arnold's future (though, of course, he was very right). Eventually, Arnold and Leah's marriage began to fall apart. Steven would shove towels under his door to keep out the noise of the arguments. Divorce followed, and Steven was estranged from Arnold for 15 years.. As an Eagle Scout (he'd later serve on the Advisory Board of the Boy Scouts of America, only to quit over a perceived discrimination against homosexuals) with such enthusiasm and practical experience, you'd have thought he'd walk into film school. Yet Spielberg was twice turned down for the prestigious film course at the University of Southern California, instead studying English at California State University at Long Beach, then moving into film.It was a minor hitch since, by the age of 22, Spielberg was signed up by Universal.

Legend has it that the canny Steven inveigled his way into the industry by sneaking away from a tour of Universal studios, finding an abandoned janitor's backroom, doing it up as an office and turning up for work every day until someone mistakenly gave him some work to do. In reality, it was a 26-minute movie called Amblin' that scored him his big chance. Concerning a boy and girl who meet while hitch-hiking and become friends and lovers on their way to a paradisiacal beach, the film was a prize-winner at the Atlanta Film Festival and won Steven his 7-year contract with Universal. In fond memory of this, he would name his first production company Amblin Entertainment.

There is a further story here. Amblin' was financed to the tune of $15,000 by one Denis C. Hoffman. In return for his money and support, Hoffman agreed that, instead of taking a cut of the boy's future earnings (which Hoffman apparently thought to be mean-spirited), Spielberg would direct a film of Hoffman's choosing within 10 years of the contract's signing - on 28th of September, 1968. However, in 1975, when Spielberg broke big with Jaws, the contract was said to be unenforceable. Being born on December 18th, 1947, it was claimed, Spielberg was still a minor when he signed. Come 1994, when it was revealed that Spielberg was actually born in 1946, Hoffman would sue for fraud and breach of contract.Contracted to make TV shows, Spielberg directed episodes of Marcus Welby MD, The Name Of The Game, The Psychiatrist and Owen Marshall: Counsellor At Law.

He also made a full-length Columbo movie, and helmed one of the more famous episodes of Rod Serling's Night Gallery. Here Joan Crawford played a rich blind woman who purchases the eyes of Tom Bosley, who's badly in debt, in order to gain eight hours of sight. She thinks the operation is a failure but, unbeknownst to her, New York is suffering a power-cut. Spooky stuff, despite the nagging suspicion that New York might have the odd emergency generator.

This episode was superb, with Spielberg drawing an excellent performance from the ageing CrawfordBut it was his first TV movie proper that made him. Starring Dennis Weaver as a travelling salesman taunted, menaced and nearly killed by the faceless driver of a monster truck, Duel was a classic, so good it actually opened in European cinemas. Next came spook-flick Something Evil, with Sandy Dennis, and blackmail thriller Savage with Martin Landau, but Spielberg now had his own cinema project in mind.

This was Sugarland Express, where Goldie Hawn (desperate to escape her dippy comic image) played a mother who, fearing her child is to be put up for adoption, persuades her hubbie to come on the run. The movie, while often hilarious (the couple are eventually tailed by hundreds of police cars), was also taut and upsetting, brilliantly handled.

For his role as co-writer, Spielberg won for Best Screenplay at Cannes.. Now came the big one. Peter Benchley had scored a massive hit with his book Jaws, about a Great White Shark feasting on New England holidaymakers, and Spielberg was handed the job of taking the bestseller to the screen. It proved a nightmare big-budget debut.

Not only were there all the extras to choreograph, but seabound shoots are notoriously difficult. And of course there was the shark. State of the art technology was employed to create a convincing 25-foot man-eater (affectionately known as Bruce), yet malfunctions were continual. The production was bad-tempered, the shoot over-ran by 100 days, Spielberg was almost replaced, and editing continued right up until the eve of release. Everyone expected disaster. Yet, thanks to Spielberg's mastery of suspense and clever action techniques, the $8.5 million Jaws took off, making $260 million and, in the process, beginning the trend for summer blockbusters.

Beyond this, it made the world afraid to go back in the water. Some of us haven't gone back in since. We don't much like to inspect the underside of boats either. Spielberg was now Hollywood's It Boy, and he immediately took the opportunity to make a "real" sci-fi movie. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, like Jaws starring Richard Dreyfuss (Spielberg calls him his alter ego), was a monster.

Combining sweeping action with intensely emotional close-ups, it saw Spielberg attempting to match his hero, David Lean, director of Lawrence Of Arabia and Bridge On The River Kwai (another of his influences, Francois Truffaut actually starred in Close Encounters). The SFX were mind-boggling, even out-shining those of the movie's sci-fi rival in 1977, Star Wars.Spielberg could now do as he pleased, and he nearly blew it. 1941 was another epic, this time concerning events surrounding Pearl Harbour. However, starring John Belushi, it was also intended to be a comedy and, though stylish, it just wasn't funny. It was Spielberg's first and last real failure, having the effect of launching him on an unbelievable run of success.

Next came the swashbuckling and enormously exciting Raiders Of The Lost Ark, produced by fellow-wunderkind George Lucas, which introduced renegade academic Indiana Jones and allowed Spielberg his first pop at the Nazis (his father had had relatives in the death camps)Next came ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, starring Spielberg's god-daughter Drew Barrymore and involving a cute baby alien abandoned on Earth. The first production by Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, it was the biggest grosser in history, sending him on his way to a personal fortune that would eventually top $2 billion. More success followed with the movie version of The Twilight Zone and the Raiders sequel Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, if anything better than the original. In the meantime, there were big production successes with Poltergeist, Gremlins and The Goonies, the first and third based on stories written by Spielberg. He could do no wrong.

Well, not in the public's eyes. Critics, on the other hand, found his work spurious and emotionally flimsy, claiming his films were all flash and no content. Oscar-nominated as Best Director for Close Encounters, Raiders and ET, he was overlooked each time. Spielberg reacted by getting serious, taking on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple, another hit novel, this time concerning the journey of black women to self-discovery and inner liberation. Again the critics went at him, complaining that the film was too sugary (as if the book wasn't). The film was put up for eleven Oscars but Spielberg the director was pointedly ignored.Still, he persisted. Empire Of The Sun was a superb film, outlining the boyhood of author JG Ballard in Japanese prison camps. There were brilliant performances by John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson and a host of Brit favourites.

Once more the stunning action was combined with scenes of tremendously human interaction, making sense of Spielberg's assertion that "Before I go off and direct a movie, I always look at four films. They tend to be The Seven Samurai, Lawrence Of Arabia, It's A Wonderful Life and The Searchers". It was superb, but not a big hit, unlike the following third Indiana Jones instalment (Spielberg had been working on Rain Man for five months, but had to helm The Last Crusade because he'd shaken on it). And, aside from the moderately successful Always (a remake of his boyhood favourite A Guy Named Joe, and featuring the final performance of Audrey Hepburn, who donated her entire $1 million fee direct to UNICEF), and Hook, a retelling of Peter Pan that was a little too whimsical for its own good, he now ONLY made big hits.First came Jurassic Park. Like Jaws with dinosaurs, this allowed Spielberg to once again exhibit his awesome ability in the use of shock tactics.

The computer-generated monsters furthermore kept him on the cutting edge of popular cinema and, as Jurassic Park was the biggest grosser ever (beating Spielberg's own ET) and, combined with its sequel The Lost World, made $1.6 billion, he was furthermore very rich indeedBut Spielberg really wanted respect and set to work on a movie he'd been planning for a decade. Based on Thomas Keneally's Booker Prize-wining book, Schindler's List told the tale of a Nazi who risked his life and fortune to save Jews from the extermination camps.

Spielberg had never dealt with ethnicity before but, with Empire Of The Sun, he did have experience of portraying large scale wartime misery. With the film shot in stark black and white, Liam Neeson excellent as the dissolute altruist and Ralph Fiennes even better as the cruel, tortured Kommandant, Schindler's List was magnificent. And, given Clint Eastwood's recent triumph with Unforgiven, the Academy were in the mood to accept that fact, bestowing upon Spielberg the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.. Of course, the movie made a fortune but Spielberg, considering it to be "blood money", gave his share to various Jewish projects via the Righteous Persons Foundation. He also established the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation which, in 57 countries and 32 languages, taped over 50,000 statements from victims and witnesses of the Holocaust.It all just got bigger and better.

Having made Amistad, the tale of a slave revolt aboard ship and the subsequent trial ("Give us us FREE!"), Spielberg upped the ante by forming the multi-media giant Dreamworks with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, dealing in live action and animated features, music, television programming and interactive software - the company insuring Steven's life for $1.2 billion. He was building a big family with actress Kate Capshaw (who'd starred in Temple Of Doom), siring Sasha, Sawyer, Jessica and Destry and adopting Theo and Mikaela (both black, if you ever doubted Spielberg's sincerity with The Color Purple or Amistad).

And he paid out a very big divorce settlement to his ex, Amy Irving, who bore him son Max and, in 1989, took him for between 100 and 125 million dollars.Having proved himself as a "serious" director, Spielberg took his newfound reputation and returned to his roots (remember Escape To Nowhere and Battle Squad?) with Saving Private Ryan, the first large-scale WW2 movie since Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far. Almost foolishly ambitious, it attempted to accurately portray the full horror of the Normandy landings and, with the bullets hissing through the water, the sound and vision rising and falling, and the bodyparts flying, it was indeed as terrifying as it could be. Without Bruce suddenly gliding into sight, that is.

The movie was extraordinary, spawning Band Of Brothers (a collaboration between Spielberg and Ryan star Tom Hanks and, at $120 million, the most expensive TV drama ever), and winning Spielberg another OscarSo bruised was Spielberg by his previous Oscar experiences, he humbly asked in his acceptance speech "Am I allowed to say I really wanted this?". Spielberg was now THE major player in Hollywood. Aside from his own monstrously successful projects, he'd been involved in the production of smashes like Deep Impact, Men In Black, Twister and the Back To The Future trilogy.

On TV, there was ER and Sea Quest DSV. And there was the animation, a childhood love. Spielberg had his own Amblination studio, and helped make An American Tail, Land Before Time and Fievel Goes West, as well as the TV hits Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and Pinky And The Brain.Now came AI: Artificial Intelligence, Spielberg being one of the very few directors with the class and the cajones to take over the project after the death of Stanley Kubrick.

Starring Haley Joel Osment as a 'borg seeking the meaning of humanity, it saw Spielberg once again viewing the world through a child's eyes, as he had done with ET, Empire Of The Sun and, in a roundabout way, with Duel and Raiders, the heroes of which were most child-like in being confronted and confounded by a cruel (read Adult) world. Arnold's distance had certainly left its mark. There would have been more, as Spielberg had been down to direct Big, with Harrison Ford in the Tom Hanks role, but he pulled out so as not to steal the thunder of sister Annie who co-wrote the script (and received an Oscar nomination for her pains).

In 2000, Spielberg was made a Knight of the British Empire for his services to the British film industry (though, not being a Commonwealth citizen, he cannot call himself Sir Steven), having earlier received a Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern, Germany's highest civil distinction. His face was now familiar to all, though he had made several high profile onscreen appearances. He'd turned up in Michael Jackson's video for Liberian Girl, and Cyndi Lauper's Goonies R Good Enough. He was Man In Electric Wheelchair in Gremlins, a tourist at the airport in Temple Of Doom, the Cook County clerk in The Blues Brothers, and a voice on the radio in Jaws.It wasn't all good. In 1998, one Jonathan Norman was jailed for life for stalking Spielberg, and even threatening to rape him. But Spielberg deals in decency where he can.

His deep love of film causes him to spend large sums on historical artifacts and donate them to the Academy for posterity - items including Clark Gable's Oscar for It Happened One Night ($607,500), Betty Davis's for Jezebel ($578,000) and an original Rosebud sledge from Citizen Kane. He ensured a US release for Dreams, by Kurosawa, another big influence. And he's strict but fair and kind with those around him.

Hiring Tom Sizemore for Ryan, he was aware of the actor's addiction to heroin and cocaine and told him he'd have him tested every day of the shootIf a trace of drugs was found, even on the last day, he'd re-cast and re-shoot, no matter what the expense. Sizemore stayed clean.. 2001 saw Spielberg deliver the film version of another publishing phenomenon, Harry Potter And The Sorceror's Stone. At least, that's how the movie was presented even though Spielberg did not direct it. "For me," he said "that was shooting ducks in a barrel. It's just a slam-dunk.

It's like withdrawing a billion dollars and putting it into your personal bank accounts". The movie was actually directed by Chris Columbus, but this is seldom mentioned. Though he helmed such mega-hits as Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and Stepmom, Columbus's achievements pale beside those of his producer. Spielberg is now a kind of cinematic brand-name.After the mega-success of Harry Potter, one of the biggest hits in history, came the collaboration everyone was waiting for - Spielberg and Cruise, the biggest name and the biggest face.

In Minority Report (like Blade Runner based on the work of Philip K. Dick) Cruise played John Anderton, head of a pre-crime unit who, thanks to the work of psychics, bust criminals before they actually commit their crimes. Then he himself is accused and disappears into a world of crazy intrigue, in the first real detective story Spielberg's directed since Columbo. It was yet another US Number One.After this came another thriller, Catch Me If You Can, this time with old buddy Tom Hanks playing an FBI agent tracking down young con artist Leonardo DiCaprio as he flips between a crazy series of identities and professions.

The movie would bring an Oscar nomination for Christopher Walken (another mark of the respect Spielberg's films were now receiving) and would make a beefy $164 million at the US box office. Spielberg would stay with Hanks for The Terminal, where Hanks would play a displaced Eastern European, unable to return home or to step onto American soil and therefore doomed to a bizarre existence at a US airport.

These last two movies were almost entirely action-free, as if Spielberg were finally ready to consistently deal in character-driven pieces. But there was no way he could resist re-teaming with Tom Cruise to remake one of the great sci-fi classics of his youth, War Of The Worlds. This saw destruction reach unprecedented heights as Spielberg indulged in a feast of SFX, capturing the public imagination yet again and this time raking in a massive $264 million.2005 would clearly define the two sides of the middle-aged Spielberg. War Of The Worlds proved he had not lost his childhood love of thrills and spills (or his ongoing dislike for absent fathers). Munich, on the other hand, saw the new(ish) politicized Spielberg, keen to explore the world's present problems by considering traumatic events in the past.

The movie would begin at the Olympics of 1972, where 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by terrorists, and would follow a crack squad assembled by Mossad as they criss-crossed the globe, hunting down the perpetrators and offing them in ever more ingenious waysNaturally, the truth of his version of events was questioned and, just as naturally, so was the behaviour (both good and bad) of the state of Israel. Growing more thoughtful and therefore more provocative with age, Spielberg was suddenly controversial - about time, too, many would say - and Munich, nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, would also see him nominated as director for the first time since Saving Private Ryan.. More hits, more money to add to the billions already made.

Spielberg had reached a peak undreamed of by most directors. George Lucas has had hits, too, but - remember - almost exclusively with Star Wars (incidentally, Spielberg would help direct some of the action sequences for Revenge Of The Sith). All the different things Spielberg touches turn to gold. And now comes a new challenge. Spielberg has always wanted the respect of his peers, and always loved the history of cinema and its pioneers. He would love to be counted amongst them. Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and Munich have have seen him taken seriously in most quarter but, even so, after the long-anticipated Indiana Jones 4, we can expect a deeper Spielberg, a Spielberg who consistently has something to say. Of course, he's sure to also deliver us a massive injection of entertainment. That's Spielberg - always the selling point, the ONLY guaranteed good time.Dominic Wills

Tom Cruise Biography

An actor whose name has become synonymous with all-American testosterone-driven entertainment, Tom Cruise spent the 1980s as one of Hollywood's brightest-shining golden boys. With black hair, blue eyes, and unabashed cockiness, Cruise rode high on such hits as Top Gun and Rain Man. Although his popularity dimmed slightly in the early '90s, he was able to bounce back with a string of hits that re-established him as both an action hero and, in the case of Jerry Maguire and Magnolia, a talented actor.

Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, NY, Cruise led a peripatetic existence as a child, moving from town to town with his rootless family. A high-school wrestler, Cruise went into acting after being sidelined by a knee injury. This new activity served a dual purpose: performing satiated Cruise's need for attention, while the memorization aspect of acting helped him come to grips with his dyslexia. Moving to New York in 1980, Cruise held down odd jobs until getting his first movie break in Endless Love (1981).

His first big hit was Risky Business (1982), in which he entered movie-trivia infamy with the scene wherein he celebrates his parents' absence by dancing around the living room in his underwear. The Hollywood press corps began touting Cruise as one of the "Brat Pack," a group of twentysomething actors who seemed on the verge of taking over the movie industry in the early '80s. But Cruise chose not to play the sort of teen-angst roles that the other Brat Packers specialized in -- a wise decision, in that he has sustained his stardom while many of his contemporaries have fallen by the wayside or retreated into direct-to-video cheapies.

Top Gun (1985) established Cruise as an action star, but again he refused to be pigeonholed, and followed up Top Gun with a solid characterization of a fledgling pool shark in The Color of Money (1986), the film that earned co-star Paul Newman an Academy Award. In 1988, Cruise took on one of his most challenging assignments, as the brother of an autistic savant played by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. "Old" Hollywood chose to give all the credit for that film's success to Hoffman, but a closer look at Rain Man reveals that Cruise is the true central character in the film, the one who "grows" in humanity and maturity while Hoffman's character, though brilliantly portrayed, remains the same. In 1989, Cruise was finally given an opportunity to carry a major dramatic film without an older established star in tow. As paraplegic Vietnam vet Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Cruise delivered perhaps his most outstanding performance. Cruise's bankability faltered a bit with the expensive disappointment Far and Away in 1990 (though it did give him a chance to co-star with his-then wife Nicole Kidman), but with A Few Good Men (1992), Cruise was back in form.

In 1994, Cruise appeared as the vampire Lestat in the long-delayed film adaptation of the Anne Rice novel -Interview with the Vampire. Although she was vehemently opposed to Cruise's casting, Rice reversed her decision upon seeing the actor's performance. In 1996, Cruise scored financial success with the big-budget actioner Mission: Impossible, but it was with his multilayered, Oscar-nominated performance in Jerry Maguire (also 1996) that Cruise proved once again why he is considered a major Hollywood player. 1999 saw Cruise reunited onscreen with Kidman in a project of a very different sort, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. The film, which was the director's last, had been the subject of controversy, rumor, and speculation since it began filming. It opened to curious critics and audiences alike across the nation, and was met with a violently mixed response. However, it allowed Cruise to once again take part in film history, further solidifying his position as one of Hollywood's most well-placed movers and shakers.

Cruise's enviable position was again solidified later in 1999, when he earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as a loathsome "sexual prowess" guru in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia.

In 2000, he scored again when he reprised his role as international agent Ethan Hunt in John Woo's Mission: Impossible II, which proved to be one of the summer's first big moneymakers. His status as a full-blown star of impressive dramatic range now cemented in the eyes of both longtime fans and detractors, the popular actor next set his sights on reteaming with Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe for a remake of Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar's (The Others) Abre los Ojos titled Vanilla Sky. Though Vanilla Sky's sometimes surreal trappings found the film recieving a mixed reception at the box office, the same could not be said for the following year's massively successful sci-fi chase film Minority Report.

Based on a short story by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick and directed by none other than Steven Spielberg, Minority Report scored a direct hit at the box office, and Cruise could next be seen gearing up for his role in Edward Zwick's The Last Samurai alongside Ken Watanabe, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. For his next film, Cruise picked a role unlike any he'd ever played; starring as a sociopathic hitman in the Michael Mann psychological thriller Collateral. He received major praise for his departure from the good-guy characters he'd built his career on, and for doing so convincingly.

By 2005, he teamed up with Steven Spielberg again for the second time in three years with an epic adaptation of the H.G. Wells alien invasion story War of the Worlds. The summer blockbuster was regarded as a good popcorn film, but was in some ways overshadowed by the negative publicity that Cruise had been gathering. It began in 2005, when Cruise became suddenly vocal about his beliefs in the principles of Scientology, the religion created by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard.

Cruise publicly denounced actress Brooke Shields for taking medication in order to combat her postpartum depression, citing antidepressants and the psychological sciences as immoral and unnecessary, going so far as to call it a "Nazi science" in an Entertainment Weekly interview. On June 24, 2005, he was interviewed by Matt Lauer for The Today Show during which time he appeared to be distractingly excitable and argumentative in his insistence that psychiatry is a "pseudoscience," and in a Der Spiegel interview, he was quoted as saying that Scientology has the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. This behavior caused a stirring of public opinion about Cruise, as did his relationship with 27-year-old actress Katie Holmes.

The two announced their engagement in the spring of 2005, and Cruise's enthusiasm for his new romantic interest created more curiosity about his mental stability. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 23, where he jumped up and down on the couch during his interview, professing his love for Holmes. He also ecstatically shook Winfrey's hands and at one point fell dramatically to one knee. The actor's newly outspoken attitude about Scientology linked intimately to the buzz surrounding his new relationship, as Holmes converted to the faith despite a lifelong adherence to Catholicism.

The media was flooded with a rumor that the young actress had a "lost" period around this time, when for two weeks she was unreachable to her parents, friends, and extended family. Many suspected that Cruise's strange public behavior was nothing more than a failed publicity stunt to raise interest in War of the Worlds, a general attitude that continued through October 2005, when he and Holmes announced that she was pregnant. Some audiences found Cruise's ultra-enthusiastic behavior refreshing, but for the most part, the actor's new public image hurt his fan base, as he alienated many of his viewers.

As he geared up for the spring 2006 release of Mission: Impossible III, his ability to sell a film based almost purely on his own likability was in question for the first time in 20 years. Despite a cast that boasted such names as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, curiosity about the film's success seemed to hinge solely on Cruise's controversial personal life. The movie ended up performing essentially as expected, despite lining up almost conspicuously with the birth of he and Holmes' daughter Suri in spring of 2006. The media frenzy that followed the pregnancy and birth were no less involved.

There were whispers of dangerous or inadvisable methods of childcare and feeding, rumors that the Scientology endorsed method for birthing demands complete silence from everyone -- including the mother -- and questions about what kind of access to medical care and pain medicine Holmes would have in accordance with the practices of Scientology. Holmes said little publicly of her new relationship, religion, or role as a mother, but Cruise insisted in interviews that the process of the "silent birth" demands others in the room be quiet, but not the mother. Even after the child was born, controversy surrounded the name that the couple chose for her, as Cruise's public statement claimed the name Suri was chosen because it means "princess" in Hebrew and "red rose" in Persian, while experts on both languages insisted that this was not accurate.

Scholars and speakers of the languages in question said that in Persian (conventionally known as Farsi) the word denotes the color red but has no connection whatsoever to roses, while in Hebrew, the closest connection it bears to its claimed origin is that the Jews of Eastern Europe use it as a nickname for the name Sarah, and that in ancient Hebrew Sarah is the feminine form of the word Lord. After the birth, the couple finally set their wedding date and held the event in July of that year. Cruise next made headlines on a business front, when -- in November 2006 -- he and corporate partner Paula Wagner (the twin forces behind the lucrative Cruise-Wagner Productions, est. 1993) officially "took over" the defunct United Artists studio. Originally founded by such giants as Douglas Fairbanks and Charles Chaplin in 1921, UA was run into extinction after the Heaven's Gate fiasco in the early '80s and its purchase by Transamerica's Kirk Kerkorian.

The press announced that Cruise and Wagner would "revive" the studio, with Wagner serving as Chief Executive Officer and Cruise starring in and producing projects. MGM (UA's parent company) handed the team the rights to almost single-handedly develop United's production slate, and gave them an allotment of four films per year, a number expected to dramatically increase. Harry Sloan, the chairman of MGM, remarked in a press release, "Partnering with Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner, we have the ideal creative foundation from which to reintroduce the United Artists brand.

United Artists is once again the haven for independent filmmakers and a vital resource in developing quality filmed entertainment consistent with MGM's modern studio model." One of the fist films to be produced by the new United Artists was the tense political thriller Lions for Lambs, which took an earnest and unflinching look at the politics behind the Iraq war. Cruise both starred in and produced the film, and though it performed unevenly with critics and at the box office, he soon green-lit another UA production, Valkyrie. Both producing and starring again, Cruise would play Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a Nazi officer who infamously attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler during the Thrid Reich in Germany. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009), dubbed the "King of Pop", was an American musician and one of the most commercially successful entertainers of all time. His unique contributions to music and dance, along with a highly publicized personal life, made him a prominent figure in popular culture for four decades.
London, September 7 (ANI): Michael Jackson has been predicted to become the world’s top earning celebrity next year.
The late King of Pop’s estate is expected to amass up to 150 million pounds from beyond the grave, thanks to merchandising contracts, album sales, and other royalties.
The top 1,000 licensing and merchandising experts across Europe, participating in the Brand Licensing trade event in London, made the predictions.
“Michael Jackson’s image and legacy is licensed on anything from coins and clothes, to coffee table books and singing, stuffed animals,” the Daily Express quoted Ciaran Coyle, The Beanstalk Group chief, as saying.
Other high profilers to feature among the top 20 stars, dead or alive, include Elvis Presley, Heath Ledger and Jade Goody. (ANI)

Jackson tipped to be 2010’s highest earning star
London, Sep 7 (IANS) Late pop legend Michael Jackson is set to become the highest earning celebrity of 2010, with experts predicting the star will bring in an estimated $240 million in revenue.The King of Pop’s music shot back into the charts following his sudden death in June and the executors of his estate are planning to launch an official range of merchandise as well, reports contactmusic.com.
Bosses at the company behind Jackson’s doomed comeback concerts in London, AEG, are set to release a movie featuring rehearsal footage for his ‘This Is It’ residency, and are also reportedly considering a live album and DVD.
The ventures look set to make Jackson the highest earning celebrity in 2010, ahead of Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, Lady Gaga and Harry Potter actors Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe.
Also featuring in the top ten is British supercouple David and Victoria Beckham, racing driver Lewis Hamilton, “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson, Elvis Presley and Britney Spears, according to a survey of licensing and merchandising experts across Europe.

MJ may become top-earning dead star
London, August 14 (ANI): Michael Jackson has been predicted to become the top-earning dead star and his estate is expected to amass 120 million pounds alone this year.
The late King of Pop’s earnings since his death on June 25 were apparently set to top the entire 90 million pounds earned by Jimi Hendrix since he died in 1970.
The executors of the star’s estate, lawyer John G. Branca, music executive John McClain and a Jackson family friend, were said to have already gathered 60 million pounds through a film deal and several merchandising contracts.
“Clearly it’s a new record for estates that likely will not be broken,” The Sun quoted Branca as saying of first-year earnings.
Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain is the top earning dead star, with 450 million pound earnings since his death in 1994, followed by Elvis Presley with 362 million pounds.
John Lennon comes next at 140 million pounds, then Jimi Hendrix, followed by reggae legend Bob Marley with 24 million pounds. (ANI)

The Celebrity 100

Coming off a concert tour, a hit 3-D movie and a risqué picture in Vanity Fair, pop star Miley Cyrus (a.k.a. Hannah Montana) leads a slew of young stars onto our annual Celebrity 100 ranking of the world's ultrafamous. Also building buzz, and drawing dollars, from the under-18 crowd: Daniel Radcliffe, Zac Efron and Ashley Tisdale. Despite weakening television ratings and magazine circulation, Oprah Winfrey remains at the top of the list, a power ranking based on both earnings and fame. The biggest earner: J.K. Rowling, whose final installment of the wizardly adventures of Harry Potter helped add $300 million to her coffers, solidifying her status as the richest author on the planet. Edited by Matthew Miller More ...

Famous, Celebrity and Historical Biographies

Famous, Celebrity and Historical Biographies
Aaliyah
Ab Lincoln
Al Capone
Adolf Hitler
Amelia Earhart
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Johnson
Albert Einstein
Alicia Keys
Aretha Franklin
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Ashanti
Ashlee Simpson
Avril Lavigne
Babe Ruth
The Beatles
Beethoven
Ben Franklin
Benjamin Harrison
Bessie Coleman
Beyonce
Bill Cosby
Bill Gates
Bob Dylan
Bow Wow
Calvin Coolidge
Cesar Chavez
Charlie Chaplin
Chester Arthur
Charles Lindbergh
Christopher Columbus
Ciara
Coldplay
Colin Powell
Condoleezza Rice
Coretta Scott King
Diana Princess of Wales
Dolley Madison
Doris Miller
Dr. Dre
Dr. Seuss
Dwight Eisenhower
Eddie Murphy
Edward Jenner
Elvis Aron Presley
Emily Dickinson
Eminem
Fifty Cent
Florence Nightingale
Franklin Roosevelt
George Bush Jr
George Bush Sr
George Washington
George Washington Carver
Gerald Ford
Grover Cleveland
Helen Keller
Henry Kissinger
Henry Ford
Herbert Hoover
Hillary Duff
James Buchanan
James Garfield
James Madison
James Monroe
James Polk
Jay-Z
Jesse Jackson
Jessica Simpson
Jesus Christ
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Carter
John Adams
John Belushi
John Kennedy
John Quincy Adams
John Tyler
Jonathan Davis
John Walsh
Justin Timberlake
Julie Andrews
Kayne West
Laura Bush
LeAnn Rimes
Left Eye Lisa
Lizzie Stanton
Lil Kim
Luther Vandross
Madam Walker
Madonna
Mahatma Gandhi
Mark Twain
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Van Buren
Maya Angelou
Michael Jackson
Millard Fillmore
Oprah
Outkast
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope John Paul
Prophet Muhammad
Ray Charles
Richard Cheney
Richard Nixon
Rosa Parks
Ronald Regan
Russell Simmons
Rutherford Hayes
Sacagawea
Sean John Combs (Puff Diddy)
Shaquille O'Neal
Stonewall Jackson
Teairra Mari
Terry Fox
Theodore Roosevelt
The Wright Brothers
Thomas Jefferson
Tom Hanks
Thurgood Marshall
Ulysses Grant
Usher
Warren Harding
William Clinton
William Henry Harrison
William Howard Taft
William Mckinley
Will Smith
Winston Churchill
Woodrow Wilson
Zachary Taylor

THE CELEBRITY 100 FROM FORBES

The Celebrity 1001. Tom Cruise 2. Rolling Stones 3. Oprah Winfrey 4. U2 5. Tiger Woods 6. Steven Spielberg 7. Howard Stern 8. 50 Cent 9. Cast of The Sopranos 10. Dan Brown 11. Bruce Springsteen 12. Donald Trump 13. Muhammad Ali 14. Paul McCartney 15. George Lucas 16. Elton John 17. David Letterman 18. Phil Mickelson 19. J.K. Rowling 20. Brad Pitt 21. Peter Jackson 22. Dr. Phil McGraw 23. Jay Leno 24. Celine Dion 25. Kobe Bryant 26. Michael Jordan 27. Johnny Depp 28. Jerry Seinfeld 29. Simon Cowell 30. Michael Schumacher 31. Tom Hanks 32. Rush Limbaugh 33. Denzel Washington 34. Cast of Desperate Housewives 35. Jennifer Aniston 35. Angelina Jolie 37. The Olsen Twins 38. Nicole Kidman 39. The Eagles 40. Rod Stewart 41. Shaquille O'Neal 42. Jerry Bruckheimer 43. David Beckham 44. Jessica Simpson 45. Andrew Lloyd Webber 46. LeBron James 47. Neil Diamond 48. Alex Rodriguez 49. Will Smith 50. Dick Wolf 51. Dave Matthews Band 52. Tom Brady 53. Ronaldinho 54. Jodie Foster 55. Ray Romano 56. Paris Hilton 57. Adam Sandler 58. Derek Jeter 59. Jennifer Lopez 60. Rick Warren 61. Scarlett Johansson 62. Katie Couric 63. Maria Sharapova 64. Valentino Rossi 65. Halle Berry 66. James Patterson 67. Leonardo DiCaprio 68. Kiefer Sutherland 69. Jim Carrey 70. Cameron Diaz 71. Gisele Bundchen 72. Renee Zellweger 73. Carson Palmer 74. Michelle Wie 75. Reese Witherspoon 76. Bill O'Reilly 77. Kate Moss 78. Diane Sawyer 79. Sean (Diddy) Combs 80. John Grisham 81. Rachael Ray 82. Dave Chappelle 83. Larry the Cable Guy 84. Tyra Banks 85. George Lopez 86. Regis Philbin 87. Serena Williams 88. Ryan Seacrest 89. Wolfgang Puck 90. Venus Williams 91. Annika Sorenstam 92. Matthew Broderick/ Nathan Lane 93. Mel Brooks 94. Emeril Lagasse 95. Nicole Richie 96. Heidi Klum 97. Mario Batali 98. Eric Idle/ Mike Nichols 99. Adriana Lima 100. Ty Pennington