Lenna

Lenna or Lena is the name given to a standard test image originally cropped from a Playboy magazine centerfold picture of Lena Söderberg, a Swedish model who posed nude for the November 1972 issue. The image is probably the most widely used test image for all sorts of image processing algorithms (such as compression and denoising) and related scientific publications.
The anglicised version "Lenna" of Söderberg's name comes from the Playboy article; Playboy changed the original "Lena".

History

The picture's history was described in the May 2001 newsletter of the IEEE Professional Communication Society, in an article by Jamie Hutchinson:
“ Alexander Sawchuk estimates that it was in June or July of 1973 when he, then an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California Signal and Image Processing Institute (SIPI), along with a graduate student and the SIPI lab manager, was hurriedly searching the lab for a good image to scan for a colleague's conference paper. They got tired of their stock of usual test images, dull stuff dating back to television standards work in the early 1960s. They wanted something glossy to ensure good output dynamic range, and they wanted a human face. Just then, somebody happened to walk in with a recent issue of Playboy.
The engineers tore away the top third of the centerfold so they could wrap it around the drum of their Muirhead wirephoto scanner, which they had outfitted with analog-to-digital converters (one each for the red, green, and blue channels) and a Hewlett Packard 2100 minicomputer. The Muirhead had a fixed resolution of 100 lines per inch and the engineers wanted a 512 × 512 image, so they limited the scan to the top 5.12 inches of the picture, effectively cropping it at the subject's shoulders.
”
This scan, nonetheless, became one of the most used images in computer history, so much that the mysterious Lenna came to be dubbed the "First Lady of the Internet".
Lenna was not the first Playboy magazine image to be used to illustrate image processing algorithms. Lawrence G. Roberts used a 1960 Playboy image, with permission and attribution, in his 1961 MIT master's thesis on image dithering.


Impact

David C. Munson, editor-in-chief, January 1996 IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, cited two reasons for the popularity of the image in research:
“ First, the image contains a nice mixture of detail, flat regions, shading, and texture that do a good job of testing various image processing algorithms. It is a good test image! Second, the Lena image is a picture of an attractive woman. It is not surprising that the (mostly male) image processing research community gravitated toward an image that they found attractive. ”
Lenna is so widely accepted in the image processing community that Söderberg was a guest at the 50th annual Conference of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology in 1997.


Controversy
The use of the image has produced some controversy, with some people concerned about Playboy magazine as the source of the image, and with the image being copyrighted.
In a 1999 essay on reasons for the male predominance in computer science, Dianne O'Leary wrote:
“ If a professor makes a sexist joke, a female student might well find it so disturbing that she is unable to listen to the rest of the lecture. Suggestive pictures used in lectures on image processing are similarly distracting to the women listeners and convey the message that the lecturer caters to the males only. For example, it is amazing that the "Lena" pin-up image is still used as an example in courses and published as a test image in journals today. ”
When the IS&T wanted to invite Söderberg to their meeting,
“ Playboy helped track down the Swedish native in Stockholm, where she helps handicapped people work on (non-networked) computers. Although Playboy is notorious for cracking down on illegal uses of its images, it has decided to overlook the widespread distribution of this particular centerfold.
Says Eileen Kent, VP of new media at Playboy: "We decided we should exploit this, because it is a phenomenon."
”
Coincidentally, Playboy states the issue (November 1972) was its best-selling issue ever, having sold 7,161,561 copies as of May 2006.


Popular culture
The Playboy centerfold makes an appearance in Woody Allen's 1973 science fiction comedy Sleeper, which features Allen as a man cryonically preserved and revived 200 years later in a repressive police state. A scientist asks Allen's character to identify various items and people from an archive of late-20th century material, to humorous effect, culminating with just a glimpse of Lena's face inside the centerfold which he promptly pockets, saying "I'll take this for further study and give you a complete report later".
Source:wikipedia

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn, (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress of film, television and stage.

Hepburn holds the record for the most Best Actress Oscar wins with four, from 12 nominations. Hepburn won an Emmy Award in 1976 for her lead role in Love Among the Ruins, and was nominated for four other Emmys, two Tony Awards and eight Golden Globes. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Hepburn as the greatest female star in the history of American cinema.

Early years

Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of suffragette Katharine Martha Houghton (1878 – 1951) (an heiress to the Corning Glass fortune and co-founder of Planned Parenthood) and Dr. Thomas Norval Hepburn (1879 – 1962), who was a successful urologist from Virginia with Maryland roots. She was of Scottish and English ancestry.[citation needed] Her siblings were Thomas Houghton Hepburn (1905–1921), Richard Houghton Hepburn (1911–2000), Robert Houghton Hepburn (1913–2007), Marion Houghton Hepburn Grant (1918–1986) and Margaret Houghton Hepburn

Perry (1920–2006).

Hepburn's father insisted the girls do swimming, riding, golf and tennis. Hepburn, eager to please her father, won a bronze medal for figure skating from the Madison Square Garden skating club, shot golf in the low eighties and reached the semi final of the Connecticut Young Women's Golf Championship. Hepburn especially enjoyed swimming, and regularly took dips in the frigid waters that fronted her bayfront Connecticut home, generally believing that "the bitterer the medicine, the better it was for you." She continued her brisk swims well into her 80s. Hepburn would come to be recognized for her athletic physicality—she fearlessly performed her own pratfalls in films such as Bringing Up Baby (1938).

On April 3, 1921, while visiting friends in Greenwich Village, Hepburn found her older brother Tom (born November 8, 1905), whom she idolized, hanging from the rafters of the attic by a rope, an apparent suicide. Her family denied it was self-inflicted, arguing he had been a happy boy. They insisted it must have been an experiment gone awry. It has been speculated he was trying to carry out a trick he saw in a play with Katharine. Hepburn was devastated and sank into a depression. She shied away from other children and was mostly home-schooled. For many years she used Tom's birthday (November 8) as her own. It was not until her 1991 autobiography, Me: Stories of My Life, that Hepburn revealed her true birth date of May 12, 1907.

Hepburn was educated at the Oxford School (now Kingswood-Oxford School) in West Hartford, Connecticut, before going on to Bryn Mawr College. Hepburn was suspended for breaking curfew and smoking, which at that time was particularly not encouraged for women. Decades later, Hepburn also confirmed that after dark, she would go swimming naked in the college's "Cloisters" fountain. She received a degree in history and philosophy in 1928, the same year she had her debut on Broadway after landing a bit part in Night Hostess.

A banner year for Hepburn, 1928 also marked her marriage to socialite businessman Ludlow ("Luddy") Ogden Smith, whom she had met while at Bryn Mawr and married after a short engagement. Hepburn and Smith's marriage was turbulent, and they spent less and less time living together as Hepburn pursued her career on the stage and traveled. They were divorced in Mexico in 1934. Fearing that the Mexican divorce was not legal, Ludlow obtained a second divorce in the United States in 1942 and a few days later he remarried. Katharine Hepburn often expressed her gratitude toward Ludlow for his financial and moral support in the early days of her career. "Luddy" continued to be a lifelong friend to her and the Hepburn family.

On September 21, 1938, Hepburn was staying in her family's Old Saybrook, Connecticut beach home when the 1938 New England Hurricane struck and destroyed the house. Hepburn, her mother, brother and servants narrowly escaped before the home was lifted off its foundations and washed away. She stated in her 1991 book entitled Me that she lost 95% of her belongings in the storm, including her 1932–1933 best actress Oscar, which was later found intact.

Career

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Stage

Hepburn developed her acting skills during her time at Bryn Mawr. There, Hepburn met Eddie Knopf, a young producer with a stock company in Baltimore, Maryland, who cast her in several small roles, including a production of The Czarina and The Cradle Snatchers.

Her first leading role was in a production of The Big Pond, which opened in Great Neck, New York. The producer dismissed the original actress at the last moment, and substituted Hepburn. Terror stricken, Hepburn arrived late and stumbled over her lines, tripped over her feet and spoke so fast she was almost incomprehensible. She was also dismissed, but continued to understudy and gain small stock company roles.

Hepburn was cast in the Broadway play Art and Mrs. Bottle. Hepburn was dismissed from this role too, although she was later rehired when the director could not find a replacement. After another summer of stock companies, in 1932, Hepburn landed the role of Antiope the Amazon princess in The Warrior's Husband (an update of Lysistrata), which required her to wear a very short costume, and received excellent reviews. Hepburn became the talk of New York City, and was noticed in Hollywood.

In the play, Hepburn entered the stage by jumping down a flight of steps while carrying a large stag on her shoulders — an RKO scout (Leland Hayward, whom she would later romance) was so impressed by this display of physicality that he asked her to do a screen test for A Bill of Divorcement, which starred John Barrymore, David Manners, and Billie Burke.

She demanded $1,500 per week for film work (at the time she was earning between $80 and $100 per week), assuming RKO would refuse. To her surprise, after seeing her screen test, RKO agreed to her demands and cast her. At 5 feet, 7 inches (1.71 m), Hepburn was one of the tallest leading ladies of the day.The director George Cukor became a lifetime friend and colleague. Barrymore pinched her posterior on the set in one of many attempts to seduce her. She said, "If you do that again I'm going to stop acting." Barrymore replied, "I wasn't aware that you'd started, my dear."

Film

from the trailer for Little Women (1933)

After the positive audience reaction to A Bill of Divorcement, RKO signed Hepburn to a new contract. But her non-conformist, anti-Hollywood behavior off screen made studio executives fret she would never become a major star. The following year (1933), Hepburn won her first Oscar in Morning Glory, as a young actress who rejects romance in favor of her career. That same year, Hepburn played Jo in the screen adaptation of Little Women, which broke box-office records, and for which she won the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival.

Intoxicated by her success, Hepburn wanted to return to the theater. She chose The Lake, but RKO would not release her and she made the forgettable Spitfire. Having satisfied RKO, Hepburn went immediately back to Manhattan to begin the play, in which she played an English girl unhappy with her overbearing mother and weak father. The play was generally considered a flop, and Hepburn's performance elicited Dorothy Parker's quip that the actress "ran the gamut of emotions from A to B."

In 1935, in the title role of the film Alice Adams, Hepburn earned her second Oscar nomination. By 1938, Hepburn was an established star, and her forays into comedy with the films Bringing Up Baby and Stage Door were well-received critically. But audience response to the two films was tepid, and the good reviews from the critics were not enough to rescue her from an earlier string of flops (The Little Minister, Spitfire, Break of Hearts, Sylvia Scarlett, A Woman Rebels, Mary of Scotland, Quality Street). As a result, Hepburn's movie career began to decline.

Katharine Hepburn would often come to interviews dressed in men's suits, saying that it was "comfortable". Without meaning to, she made a fashion statement, and women who admired her started wearing trousers, which was not encouraged at the time.

"Box office poison"

Some of what has made Hepburn greatly beloved today—her unconventional, straightforward, anti-Hollywood attitude—at the time began to turn audiences sour. Outspoken and intellectual with an acerbic tongue, she defied the era's conventions, preferring to wear pantsuits and disdaining makeup. She also had a famously difficult relationship with the press, turning down most interviews, which did not help her image with the public. On her first outing with the Hollywood press corps after the success of A Bill of Divorcement, Hepburn talked with reporters who had invaded her and her husband's cabin aboard the ship City of Paris. A reporter asked if they were really married; Hepburn responded, "I don't remember." Following up, another reporter asked if they had any children; Hepburn's answer: "Two white and three colored". Hepburn's aversion to media attention did not thaw until 1973, when she appeared on The Dick Cavett Show for an extended two-day interview.

Adding to her self inflicted public dislike were her criticisms of other female stars. Her outspoken jilts against other leading ladies of her time, such as Ginger Rogers, offended many and helped stain her public image.

Hepburn could also be prickly with fans; though she relented as she aged, early in her career Hepburn often denied requests for autographs. However, on movie sets, she was eager to learn the ways of the stage and camera crews and befriended many of them. Even so, her refusal to sign autographs and answer personal questions earned her the nickname "Katharine of Arrogance" (an allusion to Catherine of Aragon). Soon, audiences began to stay away from her movies.

Hepburn was affected by a series of flops when, in 1938, she — along with Fred Astaire, Mae West, Joan Crawford, Dolores del Río, Marlene Dietrich, and others — was voted "box office poison" in a poll taken by exhibitors. In 1939, Hepburn was going to do producer David O. Selznick a favor and play the role of Scarlett O'Hara because he did not yet have anyone else signed for the role. Hepburn insisted that she did not have the lustful sexual appeal that the part demanded and told Selznick that his studio needed to find the woman who did. Hepburn rehearsed the lines thoroughly just in case. The night before the deadline, Selznick finally cast Vivien Leigh. Unknown to Hepburn and the rest of Hollywood, Leigh was long favored for the role, but as an English actress, she was deemed unsuitable. Her affair with Laurence Olivier, while he was in the middle of a divorce, made her a controversial choice. The vast "search for Scarlett" was orchestrated to make it seem as if no other actress could be found, thus limiting the shock of Vivien Leigh landing the role. Hepburn was later the maid of honor at Leigh and Olivier's wedding in 1940. Hepburn remained a close friend of Vivien Leigh until Leigh's death in 1967.

Yearning for a comeback on the stage, a play was written especially for her by Philip Barry, The Philadelphia Story, a year after Hepburn had starred in the film version of his play Holiday. In the new play, she played spoiled socialite Tracy Lord and received rave reviews. With the help of ex-lover Howard Hughes, she acquired the film rights and sold them to MGM; the resulting film was one of the biggest hits of 1940. As part of the deal with MGM, Hepburn got to choose the director—George Cukor—but not her costars—Cary Grant and James Stewart. She wanted Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy for the roles played by Grant and Stewart respectively. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her work and won the New York Film Critics award. Her career was revived almost overnight. Yet, in the documentary on Cary Grant — A Class Apart, it specifically states Hepburn was allowed the choice for her final male lead once Gable was unavailable. With $100,000 to use, Katharine chose her friend and favorite costar, Cary Grant.

At the height of the pre-McCarthy stages of the post-war Second Red Scare, Hepburn's strongly progressive social views also became a target of anti-communist hysteria. Myron Fagan, the right-wing writer, producer and director at the center of Hollywood's anti-communist witch-hunting denounced her after Hepburn had spoken up on behalf of fellow actors, directors, and screenwriters facing the notorious blacklist of the 1940s. Despite Hepburn's lack of actual membership in (or any formal links to) the American Communist Party, Fagan, in his polemical speech against "the Reds" in Hollywood, named Hepburn as "an example", forwarding the claim that "Katharine Hepburn's love for Joe Stalin is no secret".

Hepburn and Tracy

Tracy and Hepburn from the trailer for the film Adam's Rib (1949)

Hepburn made her first appearance with Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year (1942), directed by George Stevens. Behind the scenes the pair fell in love, beginning what would become one of Hollywood's most famous romances, despite Tracy's life long unwillingness (he was a Catholic) to divorce his estranged wife, the former Louise Treadwell, whom he had married in 1923.

Hepburn and Tracy became one of Hollywood's most recognizable couples. Hepburn, with her agile mind and distinctive New England accent, complemented Tracy's working-class machismo. When Joseph Mankiewicz introduced them, Hepburn, who was wearing special heels that added several inches to her slender frame, said, "I'm afraid I'm too tall for you, Mr. Tracy." Mankiewicz retorted, "Don't worry, he'll soon cut you down to size." As The Daily Telegraph observed in Hepburn's obituary, "Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were at their most seductive when their verbal fencing was sharpest: it was hard to say whether they delighted more in the battle or in each other".

Most of their films stress the difficulties that couples can have when they try to find an equable balance of power. The sparring over power and control is almost always resolved in an agreement to share. They appeared in nine movies together, including Keeper of the Flame (1942), Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), Desk Set (1957) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), for which Hepburn won her second Academy Award for Best Actress.

Hepburn and Tracy carefully hid their affair from the public, using back entrances to studios and hotels and assiduously avoiding the press. They were undeniably a couple for decades, but did not live together regularly until the last few years of Tracy's life. Even then, they maintained separate homes to keep up appearances. Their relationship, which neither would discuss publicly, lasted until Tracy's death in 1967. Their relationship was complex and there were periods during which they were estranged. Tracy had several affairs while estranged from Hepburn, notably while filming Plymouth Adventure with his co-star Gene Tierney.

Hepburn had had several prior liaisons, most notably with her agent Leland Hayward, John Ford and Howard Hughes. Tracy, however, seems to have been her true love. Hepburn took five years off after Long Day's Journey Into Night to care for Tracy while he was in failing health. Out of consideration for Tracy's family, Hepburn did not attend his funeral. She described herself as too heartbroken to ever watch Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, saying it evoked memories of Tracy that were too painful.

The African Queen

Hepburn in The African Queen

One of Hepburn's Academy Award nominated performances was her role as Rose Sayer in The African Queen (1951), where she played a prim spinster missionary in Africa (around the time of World War I), who convinces Humphrey Bogart's character, a hard-drinking riverboat captain, to use his boat to destroy a German ship. Hepburn received her fifth Best Actress nomination, losing to Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire.

The African Queen was shot mostly on location in Africa, where almost all the cast and crew suffered from malaria and dysentery—except director John Huston and Bogart, neither of whom ever drank any water. (Many of the studio shots were completed in the unlikely location of Worton Hall aka Isleworth Studios which is sited in the Greater London suburb of Isleworth, West London.) Hepburn, ever the urologist's daughter, disapproved of the two men's drinking and piously drank gallons of water each day to spite them. She wound up so sick with dysentery that, even months after she returned home, the famously vigorous actress was still ill. The trip and the movie made such an impact on her that later in life she wrote a book about filming the movie: The Making of The African Queen: Or, How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind, which made her a best-selling author at the age of 77.

In an interview in Playboy, Huston spoke of how on their days off, he and Bogart would go big game hunting, and how one day Hepburn asked to go along. He described her as a "Diana of the Hunt" — utterly fearless — and able to shoot with the best of them.

Later film career

Following The African Queen, Hepburn often played spinsters, most notably in her Oscar-nominated performances for Summertime (1955) and The Rainmaker (1956), although at 49 some considered her too old for the role. She also received nominations for her performances in films adapted from stage dramas, namely as Mrs. Venable in Tennessee Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and as Mary Tyrone in the 1962 version of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, for which the cast received a special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Hepburn received her second Best Actress Oscar for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, though she believed it was meant to honor Spencer Tracy, who had died shortly after filming was completed. The following year, she won a record-breaking third Oscar for her role as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, an award shared that year with Barbra Streisand for her performance in Funny Girl. Peter O'Toole, her co-star in The Lion in Winter, said in many interviews, including with host Charlie Rose, that Hepburn was his favorite actor to work with. He and Hepburn remained friends until her death.

Hepburn continued to do filmed stage dramas, including The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), The Trojan Women (1971) by Euripides, and Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (1973). In 1973, she first appeared in an original television production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.

Two years later, Hepburn received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Special Program (Drama or Comedy) for Love Among the Ruins, which co-starred friend Laurence Olivier and was directed by George Cukor. Hepburn also appeared in one of her most well received roles of her later period with John Wayne in Rooster Cogburn, the sequel to Wayne's Academy Award winning film True Grit. Rooster Cogburn was essentially The African Queen done as a western. Hepburn won her fourth Oscar for On Golden Pond (1981), with Henry Fonda. In 1994, Hepburn gave her final three movie performances — One Christmas, based on a short story by Truman Capote, as Ginny in the remake of Love Affair; and This Can't Be Love, directed by one of her close friends, Anthony Harvey (The Lion in Winter).

Death

On June 29, 2003, Hepburn died of natural causes at Fenwick, the Hepburn family home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. She was 96 years old, and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, Connecticut in the family plot. In honor of her extensive theater work, the lights of Broadway were dimmed for an hour.

The book Kate Remembered, by A. Scott Berg, was published just 13 days after Hepburn's death.

In 2004, in accordance with Hepburn's wishes, her personal effects were put up for auction with Sotheby's in New York. Hepburn had meticulously collected an extraordinary amount of material relating to her career and place in Hollywood over the years, as well as personal items such as a bust of Spencer Tracy she sculpted herself (used as a prop in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner on the desk where Sidney Poitier makes his phone call) and her own oil paintings. The auction netted several million dollars, which Hepburn willed mostly to her family and close friends, including television journalist Cynthia McFadden.

Family and personal life

Hepburn's genealogy has been researched through the Whittier line back to King Louis IX of France. She is listed as one of the descendants of the Mayflower compact author William Brewster (her family tree).

In her 1973 interview on The Dick Cavett Show Hepburn stated that although she agreed with Christian principles and thought highly of Jesus Christ although she did not believe in religion or in the afterlife. Her paternal grandfather, Sewell Snowden Hepburn, was an Episcopal clergyman, but on the subject of religion, she told another journalist (this time a Ladies Home Journal reporter) in October 1991 that:

I'm an atheist and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.

In 1910, the Hepburn family lived at 133 Hawthorne Street in Hartford, Connecticut. Eight years later, they were recorded living at 352 Laurel Street, also in Hartford. By 1930, Katharine's parents and four younger siblings had moved to a large eight bedroom house at 201 Bloomfield Avenue in West Hartford. As of 2007, the house is owned by the University of Hartford.

Margaret "Peg" Perry, Hepburn's last surviving sister, died on February 13, 2006, aged 85. Perry was a librarian in Canton, Connecticut.

Robert Hepburn, the last surviving sibling of Katharine Hepburn, died on November 26, 2007. Robert was a doctor who followed in the footsteps of their father, Dr. Thomas Hepburn. He was the head of the urology department at Hartford Hospital for more than 30 years.

Hepburn's professional legacy is today carried on within her family. Hepburn's niece is actress Katharine Houghton, who appeared as her daughter in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Hepburn's grandniece is actress Schuyler Grant, who appeared in Anne of Green Gables and All My Children.

Legacy

To honor Hepburn, a theater is being built in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Hepburn lived and died in the Fenwick section of Old Saybrook. During the spring of 2009, the state-of-the-art Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Theater was opened. In October 2007, the town of Old Saybrook received a check for $200,000 from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, Historic Restoration Grant for the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Theatre, totaling one million dollars received in grants for this project.

On September 8 and 9, 2006, Bryn Mawr College, Hepburn's alma mater, launched the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center, dedicated to both the actress and her mother. At the launch celebration, Lauren Bacall and Blythe Danner were awarded Katharine Hepburn Medals for "lives, work and contributions that embody the intelligence, drive and independence of the four-time-Oscar-winning actress."

Hepburn lent her name to some liberal social and political causes, particularly family planning. In 1985, she received the Humanist Arts Award of the American Humanist Association, presented by her friend Corliss Lamont.

Hepburn, who resided in a brownstone located at 244 East 49th Street in the borough of Manhattan of New York City, was honored posthumously by neighbors in her community, Turtle Bay. First, a garden near her home was dedicated in her name in 2004. The garden contains 12 stepping stones each inscribed with quotes. One reads:

I remember when walking as a child, it was not customary to say you were fatigued. It was customary to complete the goal of the expedition.

In addition to the garden, the intersection of East 49th Street and 2nd Avenue has been renamed Katharine Hepburn Way by the city.

To mark the 100th anniversary of her birth in May 2007, the cable channel Turner Classic Movies dedicated a week of its evening broadcast hours to her films and documentaries on her life. Warner Brothers Home video also celebrated the 100th anniversary of her birth by releasing a box set of movies not previously available on DVD -- Morning Glory (1933), Sylvia Scarlett (1936), Dragon Seed (1944), Without Love (1945), Undercurrent (1946), and the TV movie The Corn Is Green (1979).

In the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, Hepburn was portrayed by Cate Blanchett, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. It marked the first instance when an Academy Award–winning actress was turned into an Academy Award–winning role.

In the "Legends of Hollywood" stamp series, Hepburn was honored as being star number sixteen to earn her own stamp. These commemorative stamps were unvailed in Old Saybrook, CT and became available for sale in U.S. post offices on May 12, 2010, which would've been her 103rd birthday.

Awards

Academy Award

Academy Award for Best Actress

Wins

1933: Morning Glory

1967: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

1968: The Lion in Winter

1981: On Golden Pond

Nominations

1935: Alice Adams

1940: The Philadelphia Story

1942: Woman of the Year

1951: The African Queen

1955: Summertime

1956: The Rainmaker

1959: Suddenly, Last Summer

1962: Long Day's Journey into Night

Golden Globe Award

Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama

Nominations

1957: The Rainmaker

1960: Suddenly, Last Summer

1963: Long Day's Journey into Night

1968: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

1969: The Lion in Winter

1982: On Golden Pond

Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television

Nominations

1993: The Man Upstairs

Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

Nominations

1953: Pat and Mike

[edit]Emmy Award

Best Actress in a Drama

Nominations

1974: The Glass Menagerie

Best Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie

Wins

1975: Love Among the Ruins

Best Actress in a Limited Series or Special

Nominations

1979: The Corn is Green

1986: Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry

[edit]BAFTA Award

Best Actress

Wins

1969: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

1969: The Lion in Winter

1983: On Golden Pond

Best Foreign Actress

Nominations

1952: Pat and Mike

1955: Summertime

1957: The Rainmaker

[edit]Tony Award

Best Actress in a Musical

Nominations

1969: Coco

Best Actress in a Play

Nominations

1981: The West Side Waltz

Work

Stage credits

Night Hostess (1928)

These Days (1928)

Art and Mrs. Bottle (1930)

The Warrior's Husband (1932)

The Lake (1934)

Jane Eyre (1936–1937)

The Philadelphia Story (1938)

Without Love (1942)

As You Like It (1950)

The Millionairess (1952)

The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, and The Taming of the Shrew (1955)—On tour in Australia with the Old Vic

The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing (1957)—Stratford, Connecticut Shakespeare Theatre

Antony and Cleopatra and Twelfth Night (1960)—Stratford, Connecticut Shakespeare Theatre

Coco (1969) (Tony Award nomination for Leading Actress in a Musical)

A Matter of Gravity (1976)

The West Side Waltz (1981) (Tony Award nomination for Leading Actress in a Play)

Katharine Hepburn filmography

Television credits

The Glass Menagerie (1973)

Love Among the Ruins (1975)

The Corn is Green (1979)

Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (1986)

The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn (1986)

Laura Lansing Slept Here (1988)

The Man Upstairs (1992)

All About Me (1993)

This Can't Be Love (1994)

One Christmas (1994)

Books

Making of the African Queen: Or How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind (1987)

Me: Stories of My Life (1991)

Carr, Larry (1979). More Fabulous Faces: The Evolution and Metamorphosis of Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Dolores del Rio, Carole Lombard and Myrna Loy. Doubleday and Company. ISBN 0-385-12819-3.

(source:wikipedia)

Vatertag, Father's Day

The importance of Father's Day , and the exact date of the German-speaking regional differences. As an official holiday it has its roots in the USA . There the Father's Day as a day of honor for fathers like the Mother's Day celebration. Is due to the holiday Louisa Dodd, whose father was in the Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865. In 1910 she called a movement to honor fathers in life. President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 was a recommendation for the introduction of a special holiday to the states of the United States issued a. President Richard Nixon in 1974 elevated him to the rank of an official public holiday for each third Sunday in June.

Germany

The Father's Day is popular in Germany at the Christian holiday Ascension celebrated, the 40th day after Easter . He is also known as Men's Day or, especially in front of East Germany than Lord's means. Since 1936, the Ascension is a public holiday in Germany (in East Germany was the day only to 1966 and in 1990 a public holiday).
The current form of the Vatertagfeierns is the end of the 19th century in Berlin and the surrounding area come up and is popular with men is still very popular. Key element here was the inauguration of the younger ones in the good and bad manners of masculinity.


Carriage ride on Father's Day 2008 in Nuthe-Nieplitz in Beelitz , Brandenburg
The Father's Day is all in from the north and east by the so-called Mr. match marked. The participants (traditionally exclusively male - young and old) make this mostly a hike or a common exit, where much alcohol is often consumed (Father's Day tour). This one has more points than traditional common goal or one tour of restaurant to restaurant. When walking, are often handcart handcart or wheelbarrow carried, the better to be able to transport beverages. For the trips are usually bikes (some with trailers), Kremser car carriages) or older tractors with trailers used (. The vehicles or cars are here in part, to this day use only and specifically for rebuilt, for example, special bicycle tandems or bikes with more than a dozen seats. Often with the companion lilac and birch branches decorated.
Due to increased alcohol consumption, and the often carried out mass events (this may include social trips, such as barbecue trips, trip to the fishing pond) there is, if one looks at the statistics, on Father's Day a lot more fights than usual to other days. According to the Federal Statistical Office , the number of alcohol-related traffic accidents in Christ's three times the average of the other days of the Assumption with an annual peak.
Today is Father's Day is often celebrated as a family, shared by about day trips to make, but also over the long weekend (with Friday as a bank holiday , many of the schools is released in a short vacation to take).
Austria

In Austria we mean by the Father's Day the second Sunday in June, the analogy to the Mother to buy flowers and small gifts to offer one occasion. The Father's Day was celebrated in Austria for the first time in 1955 and is still perceived more. 2009 reached the Father's Day in Austria with € 108 million already two thirds of the Mother's turnover (2009: 156 million €)[2].
Switzerland

In Switzerland, the Father's Day was not celebrated universally. Only in migrant families, and in border regions, he was committed singly.
2007 this action was fixed, and Switzerland also introduced: the so-called Swiss Father's Day is on the first Sunday, June celebrated nationwide. According to the initiators of the Men's Movement ( maenner.ch ) to the Swiss for Father's Day father's commitment to express appreciation. In contrast to Father's Day in other countries, Father's Day is the first in line at a children's fathers Action Day and also focuses on a political dimension: the framework for a committed fatherhood in work, family and society should be improved. In the first implementation on 17 June 2007 events were held regional and the media was in the political demands reported. [4]In the second development on 15th June 2008 focused on the challenges around the reconciliation of family and career center.
In Ticino , the Father's Day, as in Italy, on 19 March celebrated (St. Joseph / San Giuseppe).
Liechtenstein

In Liechtenstein, Italy is the Father's Day as celebrated on March 19. This day is also the official St. Joseph (St. Joseph). The day is a local holiday. Even in the Catholic south, Liechtenstein, the day as usual in the non-"Lord batch 'as committed.
Luxembourg

Pappendag - In Luxembourg, the Father's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in October. The children give their father flowers or small gifts or crafts. In the primary school are partly prepared at home Father's Day songs and then put forward.
Rest of Europe

Bulgaria
On 26 December is celebrated Father's Day in Bulgaria.
Belgium
On the second Sunday in June (except in Antwerp ) in Belgium celebrated Father's Day.
Denmark
In Denmark, Father's Day is on 5 June, who is also the day of the Danish constitution is celebrated.
Finland
In Finland, the Father's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in November.
Italy
In Italy , the Father's Day, festa del papà , March 19, celebrated on. As a Catholic country is at St. Joseph the father figure revered tradition that Joseph of Jesus was. The Father's Day is here, unlike for example in Germany , not a day for Mr. lots or "day for men," but a deeply rooted family holiday, as a counterpart to the Mother and committed is celebrated. The children make or buy small gifts for the father to learn or perform poems in kindergarten and school in small pieces.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the Father's Day (vaderdag) 70er/80er years on the third Sunday in June has been celebrated for. Typically, the fathers of that day, breakfast in bed brought in and there are "men's gifts" presented typical (ie ties, socks, cigars, razors, electronics or own homegrown). Some divorced fathers to take the opportunity to sign up for the movement of Fathers 4 Justice set.
Poland
In Poland, which is Dzien Ojca celebrated on June 23.
Portugal
Father's Day In Portugal, the Dia do Pai on March 19 celebrated.
Romania
In Romania, the Father's Day since 2008 on May 5 is celebrated officially. The decision was reached in 2007, connected to the initiative of the brewery Interbrew Romania SA with the brand mountain beer.
Sweden
The Swedish fars dag is celebrated on the second Sunday in November. USA 1931 came the tradition of the first to Sweden and was also celebrated in June. But later, Father's Day was at the request of nordiska handelssamfundet Nordic trading community) on the November-Sunday transferred (to his Mother comparable status to give the one. Also has been increased commercialization of the holiday reached one.
Day Father's Day is all over Scandinavia and Estonia held on the same date, apart from Denmark, where he held on June 5.
Slovakia
Originally, the Father's Day in Slovakia on St. Joseph, celebrated on March 19 also. In the meantime, however, U.S. version was adapted. Now Sunday is Father's Day celebrated on June 3.

On March 19 the Spaniards celebrate their Vatertag El Día del Padre . This day was chosen, therefore, because it is the Joseftag , the day of Saint José (Jesus' father) is. In Spain, it is customary to receive gifts from children, which she painted at school or have tinkered often.
Hungary
Father's Day in Hungary on the 3rd Sunday of June at the. However, he plays in society, in contrast to mothers , who on Sunday in May is celebrated there first, hardly a role.
Africa

South Africa
In South Africa, is the Father's Day on the third Sunday in June.
American

Brazil
In Brazil the annual Father's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in August.


United States
In the U.S. Sunday is Father's Day celebrated on June 3. In 1909, Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd first brought the idea of a "Father's Day" on to William Smart, a Civil War veteran, to honor their father. His wife was at the birth of sixth child died, and Mr. Smart took the baby and the other five children alone on a farm in the east of the State of Washington on. Mrs. Dodd wanted to honor the strength and selflessness that his children had met with her father. The first Father's Day was June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington, watched on. At the same time appeared different U.S. cities on Father's Day celebrations in. 1924 supported President Calvin Coolidge , the idea of a national Father's Day. And in 1966, signed by President Lyndon Johnson a proclamation , the third Sunday in June Father's Day declared.
President Nixon in 1974 rising to the rank of the Father's Day an official holiday for the third Sunday in June.
The Father's Day in the U.S. is primarily the day on which the children meet their fathers with gifts, poems and flowers. Joint excursions are on the program and many, particularly male Americans are the forgotten Father's Day trips and activities, with their fathers. In addition, there is also a day for men, similar to the as in Germany the idea of a man's cult is celebrated.
The U.S. President George W. Bush announced on June 13, 2003 a "President's Father's Day Proclamation out.
Asia

China (Republic)
In the Republic of China on Taiwan on 8 August, the Father's Day celebration. This is because the "eight" in Chinese ba ( Chinese: 八 , psr is pronounced) and the eighth day of the eighth month in so short baba is, what both the Chinese pronunciation for "father" ( Chinese: 爸爸 , baba ) is similar .
China (People's Republic)
In the People's Republic of China is the Father's Day celebrated on the third Sunday in June.
Japan
In Japan, the Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June.
South Korea
The Republic of Korea there is no "Father's Day," but a "Children's Day ' on May 5, the holiday is to serve as legal, that fathers have time for her family. On top is May 8, but not legally, as "Elterntag".
Thailand
In Thailand , the Father's Day Wan phosphorus mentioned and is a national holiday. It is the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on 5 December, committed. On this day the country will be "outstanding fathers of the (changing number) awarded in. In 2004 there were 327 fathers. December 5 should fall on a Sunday, so Monday is the Father's Day on the following from the King's birthday celebrated independent.
Turkey
In Turkey, the Father's Day ( "babalar Günü" ) celebrated on the third Sunday in June. It is "Day of the men," but the equivalent to celebrate Mother's no.
Oceania

Australia
In Australia, Father's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in September.
New Zealand
In New Zealand, the Australian Father's Day as celebrated on the first Sunday in September
Source:wikipedia

Germany's Next Topmo

Germany's Next Topmodel is a German reality television show, based on a concept that was introduced by Tyra Banks with America's Next Top Model. The competition is hosted by Heidi Klum, who also serves as the lead judge and executive producer of the show, and revolves around IMG Models searching for a new supermodel.
IMG is developing it into a Nintendo DS and PC game.

Show format

Each yearly search of Germany's Next Topmodel has 10 to 17 episodes and starts with 12-19 contestants. Each episode, one contestant is eliminated, though a double/triple elimination or no elimination was given by consensus of the judging panel.
Makeovers are administered to contestants early in the competition (usually after the first or second elimination in the finals).

Differences between ANTM and GNTM

While the American version's season premieres (except cycles 1 and 2) start with thirty-something semi-finalists and they're cut-down to a batch of ten to fourteen contestants, Germany's Next Topmodel season premieres begin with highlights from the auditions of 100 candidates (cycles 1 and 2) and 120 candidates (cycle 3) respectively.
The panel challenge in front of the judges on America's Next Top Model is almost always replaced by a runway walk in front of the judges on the German show.
In the elimination process on America's Next Top Model, host Tyra Banks hands out the photograph of each contestant that are safe in order of merit.
The bottom two of each episode are called to stand before Banks and are judged individually. The call-out order does play a major role in determining who this week's best contestant was – quite in contrast to Germany's Next Topmodel where the call-out order does not say anything about the quality of the contestants' performance. Moreover, they are called out one by one while the others are waiting in the backstage lobby. The US contestants are all present.
The final five or six contestants travel to an international destination on the American show while Germany's version is noncommittal about the number of journeys abroad; cycle 1 went abroad two times, cycle 2 did so four times and cycle 3 went to five different international countries. Cycle 4 completely takes place in the USA, except for the casting and the final episode.
On America's Next Top Model the final two remaining models compete in a runway, and the winner is chosen in the judging room. On Germany's Next Topmodel, the final three contestants compete in a runway and a photo shoot in front of live audience in Cologne, Germany before the winner is revealed. The final show is live on TV. Cycle 4 final show was the first to air live from a concert hall instead of a tv studio.


Finalists from the first cycle.
Due to the pregnancy of Heidi Klum, the start of the fifth season was postponed and will kick-off in March. Instead a spin-off called Die Model WG was shown featuring several former contestants from the show and hosted by judge Peyman Amin.

Cycles

Cycle Premiere date Winner Runner-up Other contestants in order of elimination Number of contestants International destination
1 January 25, 2006 Lena Gercke Yvonne Schröder Andrea Lichtenberg, Anne Mühlmeier, Celine Roscheck (quit), Rahel Krüger, Micaela Schäfer, Luise Mikulla, Charlotte Offeney, Lena Meier, Janina Ordmann, Jennifer Wanderer 12
New York

Paris

Rotterdam
2 March 1, 2007 Barbara Meier Anni Wendler Alina (quit), Sophie (quit), Janine Mackenroth, Antje Pötke, Enyerlina Sanchez, Janina-Katharina Küpper, Alla Kosovan, Denise Dahinten, Aneta Tober, Tonia Michaely, Milla Gräfin von Krockow, Anja Platzer, Mandy Graff, Fiona Erdmann, Hana Nitsche 15
St. Moritz

Paris

Cape Town

Bangkok

Los Angeles

Lisbon
3 February 28, 2008 Jennifer Hof Janina Schmidt Rubina Radwanski, Aisha Grone, Sandra Korte, Aline Tausch, Tainá Santos Silva, Elena Rotter, Katharina Yvonne Harms, Gina-Lisa Lohfink, Bianca Schumacher, Sophia Maus, Anna Vanessa Hegelmaier (quit), Sarah Knappik, Raquel Alvarez, Gisele Oppermann, Wanda Badwal, Carolin Ruppert, Christina Leibold 19
Barcelona

Salzburg

New York / Los Angeles

Paris

Tel Aviv

Sydney / Melbourne
4 February 12, 2009 Sara Nuru Mandy Bork Olivia Bermann, Johanna Popp, Daphne Braun, Tessa Bergmeier, Dana Franke, Aline Bauer, Tamara Busch, Stefanie Theissing, Katrina Scharinger, Larissa Marolt, Ira Meindl, Sarina Nowak, Maria Beckmann, Jessica Motzkus, Marie Nasemann 17
Los Angeles / Las Vegas / Miami / Honolulu / New York

Singapore
5 March 4, 2010 TBA TBA Eliminated: Aline Kautz (quit), Lena Kaiser, Petra Roschek, Lara Emsen, Luisa Krüger, Catherine Kropp, Nadine Höcherl, Miriam Höller, Wioleta Psiuk, Jacqueline Kohl
Still in the running: Alisar Ailabouni, Hanna Bohnekamp, Laura Weyel, Leyla Mert, Louisa Mazzurana, Neele Hehemann, Pauline Afaja, Viktoria Lantratova 18
Cape Town

New York / Los Angeles / San Francisco
Source:wikipedia

Maria Belén

Maria Belén Rodriguez Cozzani, (born 20 September 1984) is an Argentinian showgirl, model, and television personality who lives and works in Italy. She is known by the name of Belén Rodriguez and has presented many variety shows. In 2009 and 2010, she has appeared in television commercials alongside actor Christian De Sica advertising a popular mobile phone network operating company.

Career

Belén was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and began her modeling career at the age of 17. Besides her native Argentina, she worked also in Miami and Mexico, before she moved to Italy in 2005; where she has worked as a model, showgirl and has presented variety shows such as Scherzi a parte, Love Bugs 4, and Sarabanda. In 2007, she made her television debut in the variety programme La Tintorella.

In June 2008, she posed for Max magazine, and in the autumn of the same year, she appeared on the reality show L'isola dei famosi, which was televised by Rai Due.

In 2009 and 2010, she appeared in television commercials, advertising a mobile phone network operating company. She also modelled jewellery during this period.

On 18 February 2010, Belén was a guest performer at the prestigious, televised Italian song contest, the Sanremo Music Festival, where she sang a duet with singer Toto Cutugno.

Following the break-up of her highly-publicised romance with Italian footballer Marco Borriello, she has since been the companion of Sicilian photographer, television personality, and actor Fabrizio Corona (born 29 March 1974 Catania); and their relationship has been the subject of many gossip magazine articles.

(source:wikipedia)

Robert Downey, Jr.

Robert John Downey, Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut at the age of five when he appeared in one of his father's films, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the Brat Pack. Less Than Zero (1987) is particularly notable, not only because it was the first time Downey's acting would be acknowledged by critics, but also because the role pushed Downey's already existing drug habit one step further. After Zero, Downey started landing roles in bigger films such as Air America (1990) and Soapdish (1991). These higher-profile roles eventually led to his being cast as Charlie Chaplin in the 1992 film Chaplin, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Between 1996 and 2001, Downey was frequently arrested on drug-related charges and went through several drug treatment programs, but had difficulty staying sober. After being released from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in 2000, Downey joined the cast of the hit television series Ally McBeal, playing the new love interest of Calista Flockhart's title character. His performance was praised and he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a mini-series or TV Film, but his character was written out when Downey was fired after two drug arrests in late 2000 and early 2001. After one last stay in a court-ordered drug treatment program, Downey finally achieved lasting sobriety and his career began to take off again. He appeared in semi-independent films such as The Singing Detective (2003), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), and A Scanner Darkly (2006). He also had supporting roles in the mainstream films Gothika (2003) and Zodiac (2007). In 2004, Downey released his debut studio album The Futurist.

In 2007 Downey was cast as the title character in the comic book adaptation Iron Man which premiered in the spring of 2008, making almost $100 million in the United States and Canada during its opening weekend. In addition to receiving commercial success, Downey's performance in the film received rave reviews. His other 2008 films include Charlie Bartlett and the Ben Stiller-directed Tropic Thunder, in which he portrayed an Australian method actor overly engrossed in his role as an African-American soldier. He received his second Oscar nomination for said film, in the category of Best Supporting Actor, which he lost to Heath Ledger. Next he played the titular lead character in Guy Ritchie's adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, released Christmas 2009, for which Downey won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his portrayal of the famous detective. He reprised the role of Iron Man in the 2010 sequel, Iron Man 2.

Early life and family

Downey was born in New York City, New York, the younger of two children. His father, Robert Downey, Sr., is an actor, writer, producer, cinematographer, and director of underground films, and his mother, Elsie (née Ford), is also an actress and appeared in Downey Sr.'s films. Downey's father is of Irish and Russian Jewish ancestry and his mother is of German and Scottish descent. His father was born "Robert Elias," but changed his last name to "Downey" (after his stepfather James Downey) when he was a minor and wanted to enlist in the Army.

Downey had minor roles in his father's projects in his childhood. He made his acting debut at the age of five playing a sick puppy in the absurdist comedy Pound (1970), and then at age seven he appeared in the surrealist Greaser's Palace (1972).[3] At the age of 10, he was living in England and studied classical ballet as part of a larger curriculum. He grew up in Greenwich Village and attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York, as a teenager. When his parents divorced in 1978, Downey moved to California with his father, but in 1982 he dropped out of Santa Monica High School and moved back to New York to pursue an acting career full time.

Career

Beginnings and critical acclaim

Downey and James Spader in Less Than Zero (1987)

In 1985, at age 20, Downey joined the cast of the weekly television comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL), but was fired in 1986 following a cast overhaul that was done in order to save the show from cancellation due to low Nielsen ratings and critics panning the show for its mediocre cast at the time.Downey had his breakthrough when in 1985 he played James Spader's sidekick in Tuff Turf and then a bully in John Hughes's Weird Science. He was considered for the role of Duckie in John Hughes' film Pretty in Pink (1986), but his first lead role would be with Molly Ringwald in The Pick-up Artist (1987). Because of these and other coming of age films Downey did during the 1980s, he is sometimes named as a member of the Brat Pack.

In 1987, Downey played Julian Wells, a drug-addicted rich boy whose life rapidly spirals out of his control, in the film version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero. His performance, described by Janet Maslin in The New York Times as "desperately moving", was widely praised, though Downey has said that for him "the role was like the ghost of Christmas Future" since his drug habit resulted in him becoming an "exaggeration of the character" in real life. Zero drove Downey into films with bigger budgets and names, such as Chances Are (1989) with Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O'Neal, Air America (1990) with Mel Gibson, and Soapdish (1991) with Sally Field, Kevin Kline and Whoopi Goldberg.

In 1992, he starred as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, a role for which he prepared extensively, learning how to play the violin and tennis. He even had a personal coach in order to imitate Chaplin's posture and way of carrying himself. The role garnered Downey an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor at the Academy Awards 65th ceremony, losing to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman. His other films in the 1990s included Heart and Souls, Only You, Natural Born Killers, Restoration, Two Girls and a Guy, Black and White, Short Cuts, Richard III, and The Last Party, a documentary written by Downey.

Substance abuse

Downey Jr. at the premiere of Air America, 1990

From 1996 through 2001, Downey was arrested numerous times on drug-related charges and went several times through drug treatment programs unsuccessfully, explaining in 1999 to a judge: "It's like I have a loaded gun in my mouth and my finger's on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gunmetal." He also explained his relapses by claiming to be addicted to drugs since the age of eight; his father was giving them to him as he was also an addict.

In April 1996, Downey was arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded .357-caliber Magnum handgun, while he was speeding down Sunset Boulevard. A month later, when on parole, he trespassed into a neighbor's home while under the influence of a controlled substance, falling asleep in one of the beds. He was sentenced to three years of probation and required to undergo mandatory drug testing. In 1997 he missed one of the court-ordered drug tests and had to spend four months in the Los Angeles County jail. When Downey missed another required drug test in 1999, he was arrested once more. Despite Downey's lawyer, John Stewart Holden, assembling for his client's 1999 defense the same team of lawyers that successfully defended O. J. Simpson during his criminal trial for murder, Downey was sentenced to a three-year prison term at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California (a.k.a. "Corcoran II"). At the time of the 1999 arrest, all of Downey's film projects had wrapped and were close to release, with the exception of In Dreams, which he was allowed to complete filming. He had also been hired for voicing "The Devil" on the NBC animated television series God, the Devil and Bob, but was fired when he failed to show up for rehearsals.

After spending nearly a year in California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California, Downey, on condition of posting $5,000 bail, was unexpectedly freed when a judge ruled that his collective time in incarceration facilities (spawned from the initial 1996 arrests) had qualified him for early release. A week after his 2000 release, Downey joined the cast of the hit television series Ally McBeal, playing the new love interest of Calista Flockhart's title character. His performance was praised and the following year he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a mini-series or TV Film. He also appeared as a writer and singer on Vonda Shepard's Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life album, and he sang with Sting a duet of "Every Breath You Take" in an episode of the series. Despite the apparent success, Downey claims that his performance on the series was overrated and that "It was my lowest point in terms of addictions. At that stage, I didn't give a fuck whether I ever acted again." In January 2001, Downey was scheduled to play the role of Hamlet in a Los Angeles stage production directed by Mel Gibson.

Before the end of his first season on Ally McBeal, Downey was arrested during Thanksgiving 2000, when his room at Merv Griffin's Hotel and Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs, California was searched by the police who were responding to an anonymous 911 call. Downey was under the influence of a controlled substance and in possession of cocaine and valium. Despite the fact that if convicted he could face a prison sentence of up to four years and eight months, he signed on to appear in at least eight more Ally McBeal episodes. In April 2001, while he was on parole, a Los Angeles police officer found him wandering barefoot in Culver City, near southwest Los Angeles. He was arrested for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs but was released a few hours later,even though tests showed he had cocaine in his system. After this last arrest, producer David E. Kelley and other Ally McBeal executives ordered last-minute re-writes and re-shoots and dismissed Downey from the show, despite the fact that Downey's character had resuscitated Ally McBeal's ratings. The Culver City arrest also cost him a role in the high-profile film America's Sweethearts, and the subsequent incarceration forced Mel Gibson to shut down his planned stage production of Hamlet as well. In July 2001, Downey pleaded no contest to the Palm Springs charges, avoiding jail time; instead, he was sent into drug rehabilitation and put on a three-year probation, benefiting from the California Proposition 36, which had been passed the year before with the aim of helping non-violent drug offenders overcome their addictions instead of sending them to jail.

The book Conversations with Woody Allen reports that director Woody Allen wanted to cast Downey and Winona Ryder in his film Melinda and Melinda in 2000, but was unable to do so because he could not get insurance on them, stating, "We couldn't get bonded. The completion bonding companies would not bond the picture unless we could insure them. We were heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before [on Celebrity] and thought she was perfect for this and wanted to work with her again. And I had always wanted to work with Bob Downey and always thought he was a huge talent."

Career comeback

After five years of substance abuse, arrest, rehab, and relapse, Robert Downey, Jr. was finally ready to work toward a full recovery from drugs and a return to his career. In discussing his failed attempts to control his own addictive behavior in the past, Downey told Oprah Winfrey in November 2004 that "when someone says, 'I really wonder if maybe I should go to rehab?' Well, uh, you're a wreck, you just lost your job, and your wife left you. Uh, you might want to give it a shot."He added that after his last arrest in April 2001, when he knew he would likely be facing another stint in prison or another form of incarceration, such as court-ordered rehab, "I finally said, 'You know what? I don't think I can continue doing this.' And I reached out for help, and I ran with it.... You can reach out for help in kind of a half-assed way, and you'll get it, and you won't take advantage of it. It's not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems...what's hard is to decide to actually do it."

Downey got his first post-rehab acting job in August 2001, lip-syncing in the video for the Elton John's single "I Want Love". Video director Sam Taylor-Wood shot 16 takes of the video and used the last one because, according to John, Downey looked completely relaxed, and "the way he underplays it is fantastic."

Downey was able to return to the big screen only after Mel Gibson, who had been a close friend to Downey since both had co-starred in Air America, paid Downey's insurance bond for the 2003 film The Singing Detective. Gibson's gamble paved the way for Downey's comeback, and Downey returned to mainstream films in the mid 2000s with Gothika, for which producer Joel Silver withheld 40 percent of his salary until after production wrapped as insurance against his addictive behavior; similar clauses have become standard in his contracts since then.

After Gothika, Downey was cast in a number of leading and supporting roles, including well-received work in a number of semi-independent films: A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Good Night, and Good Luck, A Scanner Darkly, and Steven Shainberg's fictional biopic of Diane Arbus, Fur, where Downey's character represented the two biggest influences on Arbus' professional life, Lisette Model and Marvin Israel.Downey also received great notice for his roles in more mainstream fare such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Disney's poorly received The Shaggy Dog, and David Fincher's 2007 take on one of the most famous unsolved serial killing cases ever, Zodiac.

On November 23, 2004, Downey released his debut musical album, The Futurist, on Sony Classical, for which he designed the cover art and designed the track listing label on the CD with his son Indio. The album received mixed reviews, but Downey stated in 2006 that he probably will not do another album as he felt that the energy he put in doing the album was not compensated.

In 2006, Downey returned to his television roots when he guest-starred on Family Guy in the episode "The Fat Guy Strangler". Downey had previously telephoned the show's production staff and asked if he could produce or assist in an episode creation, as his son is a fan of the show. The producers of the show accepted the offer and created the character of Patrick Pewterschmidt, Lois Griffin's long lost, mentally disturbed brother, for Downey.

Downey signed on with publishers HarperCollins to write a memoir, which in 2006 was already being billed as a "candid look at the highs and lows of his life and career". In 2008, however, Downey returned his advance to the publishers and cancelled the book without further comment.

[edit]Iron Man and beyond

With all of the critical success Robert Downey, Jr. had experienced throughout his career, he had never appeared in a "blockbuster" film. All of that would change in the summer of 2008, when Downey starred in two critically and commercially successful films, Iron Man and Tropic Thunder. In the article Ben Stiller wrote for Downey's entry in the 2008 edition of The Time 100, he offered an observation on Downey's commercially successful summer at the box office:

Yes, Downey is Iron Man, but he really is Actor Man.[...]In the realm where box office is irrelevant and talent is king, the realm that actually means something, he has always ruled, and finally this summer he gets to have his cake and let us eat him up all the way to the multiplex, where his mastery is in full effect.

—-- Ben Stiller, The 2008 Time 100, entry #60, "Robert Downey Jr."

Iron Man (film)

In 2007, Downey was cast as the title character in the film Iron Man, with director Jon Favreau explaining the choice by stating: "Downey, Jr., wasn't the most obvious choice but he understood what makes the character tick. He found a lot of his own life experience in 'Tony Stark'." Favreau insisted in having Downey as he repeatedly claimed that Downey would be to Iron Man what Johnny Depp is to the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, a lead actor that could both elevate the quality of the film and increase the public's interest in it. For the role Downey had to gain more than 20 pounds of muscle in five months so as to look like he "had the power to forge iron."

Iron Man was globally released between April 30 and May 3, 2008, grossing over $300 million in the United States and Canada and receiving rave reviews which cite Downey's performance as a highlight of the film. As a result, both Downey and Favreau stated their interest in making Iron Man a trilogy.By October 2008, Downey had agreed to appear as Iron Man in two Iron Man sequels and the future film The Avengers, named after the superhero team that Stark joins. He also made a small appearance as Iron Man's alter ego Tony Stark in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk, as a part of Marvel Studios' attempt to depict the same Marvel Universe on film by providing continuity among the movies.

Tropic Thunder

Main article: Tropic Thunder

After Iron Man, Downey appeared alongside Ben Stiller and Jack Black in another 2008 summer film, the Stiller-directed Tropic Thunder. Each man plays a Hollywood archetype—self-absorbed multi-Oscar winning Aussie method actor Kirk Lazarus (Downey), aging action hero desperately looking to reinvent himself as a serious actor (Stiller), and overweight heroin-addicted self-destructive comic best known for portraying multiple characters in a franchise of comedies about a family that farts in every film (Black)—as they star in an extremely expensive Vietnam-era movie called Tropic Thunder. Lazarus undergoes a "controversial skin pigmentation procedure" in order to take on the role of African-American platoon sergeant Lincoln Osiris, which required Downey to wear dark makeup and a wig. Both Stiller and Downey feared Downey's portrayal of the character could become controversial:

Stiller says that he and Downey always stayed focused on the fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African-Americans. 'I was trying to push it as far as you can within reality,' Stiller explains. 'I had no idea how people would respond to it.' Stiller screened a rough cut of the film [in March 2008] and it scored high with African-Americans. He was relieved at the reaction. 'It seems people really embrace it,' he says.

—Entertainment Weekly- First Look: 'Tropic Thunder'

When asked by Harry Smith on CBS's The Early Show who his model was for Lazarus, Downey laughed before responding, "Sadly, my sorry-ass self."

Released in the United States on August 13, 2008, Tropic Thunder received generally good reviews with 83% of reviews positive and an average normalized score of 71%, according to the review aggregator websites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, respectively. It earned US$26 million in its North American opening weekend and retained the number one position for its first three weekends of release. The film grossed $180 million in theaters before its release on home video on November 18, 2008. Downey was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal as Lazarus, but lost to Heath Ledger for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Post-Iron Man career

Opening in late April 2009 was a film Downey finished in mid-2008, The Soloist; the film was pushed out from a November 2008 release by Paramount Pictures due to the studio's tight end-of-year release schedule. Critics who had seen the movie in 2008 were mentioning it as a possible Academy Award candidate. Downey still picked up an Academy Award nomination for the 2008 release year for his role in Tropic Thunder, but did not gain similar recognition for The Soloist after its delayed release.

The first role Downey accepted after Iron Man was the lead in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. Warner Bros. released on December 25, 2009. The film set several box office records in the United States for a Christmas Day release, beating the previous record holder, 2008's Marley & Me, by nearly $10M, and finished second only to Avatar in a record-setting Christmas weekend release at the movies. Sherlock Holmes ended up being the 8th highest grossing film of 2009. When Downey won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his role as Sherlock Holmes, he noted in his acceptance speech that he had prepared no remarks because "my wife (Sherlock Holmes producer Susan Downey) told me at 10:00 this morning that Matt Damon (nominated for his role in The Informant!) was going to win."

Music career

Robert Downey, Jr.'s passion for singing has become known, as he has sung on several soundtracks in his films such as Too Much Sun, Two Girls and a Guy, Friends and Lovers, The Singing Detective and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He released a CD in 2005 called The Futurist, and while promoting his film Tropic Thunder, he and his co-stars Ben Stiller and Jack Black were back up singers "The Pips" to Gladys Knight singing "Midnight Train to Georgia".

Awards and recognition

In 1992, Downey became the first cast member of Saturday Night Live to be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, which he garnered for 1992's Chaplin. Though he lost the award to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, he won the BAFTA (the awards given by the British Academy for Film and Television Arts, the U.K. equivalent of the Oscars) for Best Actor for Chaplin, in Chaplin's own home country.

In 1993, Downey won a Saturn Award for Best Male Actor (Film) for Heart and Souls, an early sign of fan recognition of his talent leading to guild-level awards.

Downey's 1993 film Short Cuts, an ensemble piece directed by legendary filmmaker Robert Altman, received two "Best Ensemble Cast" awards, one from the Venice Film Festival,[68] and the other from the 1993 Golden Globes.

As of 2010, Downey has three Golden Globe Awards to his name: A "Best Ensemble Cast" Globe for 1993's Short Cuts, and a "Best Supporting Actor – Television" Globe for his 2000 turn in Ally McBeal. In 2010, Downey won a Golden Globe for his role in Sherlock Holmes.

The Screen Actors Guild also recognized his 2000 Ally McBeal performance by giving him the Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series award.

In 2003, shortly after Downey returned to the acting world clean and sober, he received a Career Achievement Award from the Chicago International Film Festival.

In 2004, Downey was named "Man of the Year" by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

The 2006 large ensemble piece A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, a film Downey co-produced, received a special jury prize for Dramatic film from the Sundance Film Festival.

In May 2008, Downey was named to the annual list of The Time Magazine 100 Most Influential People.

In October 2008, Paramount Pictures began advertising for Downey to receive an Academy Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Tropic Thunder. In a November 2008 issue of Entertainment Weekly, Downey's performance as self-important Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus was considered one of three sure contenders for the best supporting actor award. As a way of extending the film-within-a-film "universe" into real life, there have also been at least two online "For Your Consideration" ads touting Downey's character, Kirk Lazarus, for Best Supporting Actor; one of these contains "scenes" from the faux trailer for Satan's Alley that were not in the trailer as released in theaters. GetTheBigPicture.net has verified that at least one of these ads was definitely produced by Paramount and intended for early FYC awareness for Downey's role.

In October 2008, Downey was ranked at #4 on AskMen.com online magazine's 49 Most Influential Men in 2008.

In November 2008, Downey was named by Entertainment Weekly as "Entertainer of the Year".

Since the opening of the 2008 film critics' award ceremonies in early December 2008, Downey was repeatedly nominated for Best Supporting Actor awards for his portrayal of Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder on the various film critics' award lists; on December 11, 2008, Downey picked up a nomination for one of the more significant awards, receiving a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Tropic Thunder.Downey picked up his first win of the 2008 award season as part of the Boston Society of Film Critics' Best Ensemble Cast for Tropic Thunder.ShoWest Convention has saluted him as "Actor of the Year".

On January 22, 2009, Downey was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Tropic Thunder, which he ultimately lost to Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

On 2009 Downey was nominated for three award for Favorite Male Movie Star, Favorite Superhero and Favorite Male Action Star at People's Choice Awards.

On February 15, 2009, Downey won best international actor for Iron Man at the Irish Film and Television Awards, his second win for the 2008 awards season.

In November 2009, Downey was number 5 in People Magazine's "The Sexiest Man Alive 2009".

On January 17, 2010, Downey won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical for his role in Sherlock Holmes. However, he failed to earn an Academy Award nomination for the same performance.

On March 27, 2010, Downey was a guest at Nickelodeons' Kids Choice Awards.

Personal life

Downey started dating actress Sarah Jessica Parker after meeting her on the set of Firstborn. They separated in 1991 because of his drug and alcohol abuse, according to Downey. Also in the late 1980s, Downey dated Marisa Tomei, with whom he appeared in Only You and Chaplin. He married actress/singer Deborah Falconer on May 29, 1992, after a 42-day courtship, and had a son with her, Indio Falconer Downey, born on September 7, 1993 in Los Angeles County, California. The strain on their marriage from Downey's repeated trips to rehab and jail finally reached a breaking point; in the midst of Downey's last arrest and sentence to an extended stay in rehab, Falconer left Downey in 2001 and took Indio with her. Downey and Falconer finalized their divorce on April 26, 2004.

With his parents' guidance, Indio Falconer Downey began developing his own show-business career before he had even reached his teens. His first professional work was an appearance in one of his father's movies, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, playing a younger version of his father's character Harry Lockhart. Following his mother's musical lead, Indio has branched out into a musical career as lead guitarist for a rock band, The Jack Bambis, whose members are all under the age of 18. Downey now sees his son frequently after settling custody arrangements with Falconer, and the pair are often photographed together at public appearances for each of their careers.

In 2003, on the set of Gothika, Downey met producer Susan Levin, an Executive Vice President of Production at Joel Silver's movie company, Silver Pictures. Downey and Susan quietly struck up a romance during production, though Susan turned down his romantic advances twice. Despite Susan's worries that the romance would not last after the completion of shooting because "he's an actor; I have a real job", the couple's relationship continued after production wrapped on Gothika, and Downey proposed to Susan on the night before her thirtieth birthday. The couple was married on August 27, 2005, in a Jewish ceremony at Amagansett, New York.He has described his religious beliefs as "Jewish-Buddhist" although he has been interested in the past in Christianity and the Hare Krishna ideology. In a panel discussion, Rachel McAdams, who co-starred with Downey in Sherlock Holmes, called him a "superhero" for his "committed" work ethic.On the same panel, Downey described how he worked long hours and many weekends to ensure the accuracy of his portrayal of Holmes so as to help make the film a success.

Downey has been a close friend of Mel Gibson since they starred in Air America. Downey defended Gibson during the controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ, and said "nobody's perfect" in reference to Gibson's DUI. Said Gibson of Downey:

“ He was one of the first people to call and offer the hand of friendship. He just said, ‘Hey, welcome to the club. Let's go see what we can do to work on ourselves.’ ”

Downey has indicated that his time in prison changed his political point of view somewhat, saying: “I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics ever since.” In a 2007 interview with W magazine Downey showed the journalist a photograph of himself and his wife with then President George W. Bush.

Filmography

Film

Year Film Role Notes

1970 Pound Puppy Directed by Robert Downey, Sr.

1972 Greaser's Palace uncredited Directed by Robert Downey, Sr.

1975 Moment to Moment uncredited Directed by Robert Downey, Sr.

1980 Up the Academy Caleb Yoon Directed by Robert Downey, Sr.

1983 Baby It's You Stewart

1984 Firstborn Lee

1985 Deadwait short subject

Tuff Turf Jimmy Parker

Weird Science Ian

1986 Back to School Derek Lutz

America Paulie Hackley Directed by Robert Downey, Sr.

1987 The Pick-up Artist Jack Jericho

Less Than Zero Julian Wells

1988 Johnny Be Good Leo Wiggins also stars Robert Downey, Sr.

Rented Lips Wolf Dangler Directed by Robert Downey, Sr.

1969 Ralph Carr

Indio

1989 That's Adequate Albert Einstein

True Believer Roger Baron

Chances Are Alex Finch

1990 Air America Billy Covington

1991 Too Much Sun Reed Richmond Directed by Robert Downey, Sr.

Soapdish David Seton Barnes

1992 Chaplin Charlie Chaplin BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role

London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor

Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor

Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

1993 Heart and Souls Thomas Reilly Saturn Award for Best Actor

The Last Party Himself documentary written by Downey

Short Cuts Bill Bush Golden Globe for Best Ensemble Cast

Volpi Cup

1994 Hail Caesar Jerry also stars Robert Downey, Sr.

A Century of Cinema documentary

Natural Born Killers Wayne Gale

Only You Peter Wright, alias Damon

1995 Richard III Earl Rivers

Home for the Holidays Tommy Larson

Restoration Robert Merivel

1997 Danger Zone Jim Scott

One Night Stand Charlie Boston Society of Film Critics Award for (3rd place) Best Supporting Actor

Two Girls and a Guy Blake Allen

Hugo Pool Franz Mazur Directed by Robert Downey, Sr.

1998 The Gingerbread Man Clyde Pell

U.S. Marshals Special Agent John Royce

1999 In Dreams Vivian Thompson

Friends & Lovers Hans

Bowfinger Jerry Renfro

Black and White Terry Donager

2000 Wonder Boys Terry Crabtree Male Screen Idol Award

Auto Motives Rob short subject

2002 Lethargy Animal therapist short subject

2003 Whatever We Do Bobby short subject

The Singing Detective Dan Dark Festival de Cine de Sitges Award for Best Actor

Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin Himself documentary

Gothika Pete Graham Produced by Susan Downey

2004 Eros Nick Penrose segment "Equilibrium"

2005 Game 6 Steven Schwimmer

The Outsider documentary

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Harry Lockhart Produced by Susan Downey

Cameo by Indio Falconer Downey

Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Original Song

Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor

Good Night, and Good Luck. Joseph Wershba Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast

Nominated — Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast

Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Nominated — WFCA Award for Best Cast

Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow documentary

2006 The Shaggy Dog Dr. Kozak

A Scanner Darkly James Barris Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints Dito Montiel co-produced by Downey

Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize – Dramatic

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus Lionel Sweeney

2007 Zodiac Paul Avery

Lucky You Telephone Jack Cameo

Charlie Bartlett Principal Nathan Gardner

2008 Iron Man Tony Stark/Iron Man Saturn Award for Best Actor

Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Actor of the Year also for Tropic Thunder

Irish Film & Television Award for Best International Actor

Nominated — Empire Award for Best Actor

Nominated — National Movie Award for Best Actor

Nominated — People's Choice Award for Favorite Superhero

Nominated — Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor: Action Adventure

The Incredible Hulk Tony Stark cameo

Tropic Thunder Kirk Lazarus Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Ensemble Cast

Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Actor of the Year also for Iron Man

Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture

Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture

Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion Picture

2009 The Soloist Steve Lopez

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes Produced by Susan Downey

Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor

Nominated — Empire Award for Best Actor

2010 Iron Man 2 Tony Stark/Iron Man Co-writer

Executive Producer Susan Downey

Due Date Peter Highman Completed

2012 Iron Man 3 Tony Stark/Iron Man

Television

Year Title Role Notes

1985–1986 Saturday Night Live Cast member 18 episodes

1995 Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree Mr. Willowby television film

2000–2002 Ally McBeal Larry Paul 15 episodes

Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

Nominated – American Comedy Award

Nominated – Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

Nominated – TV Guide Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated – Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy

2005 Family Guy Patrick Pewterschmidt voice, episode "The Fat Guy Strangler"

(source:wikipedia)