title: Paul McCartney

text: After the break-up of the Beatles, the two collaborated musically and formed Wings in 1971. They faced derision from some fans and critics, who questioned her inclusion. She was nervous about performing with Paul, who explained, "she conquered those nerves, got on with it and was really gutsy." Paul defended her musical ability: "I taught Linda the basics of the keyboard ... She took a couple of lessons and learned some bluesy things ... she did very well and made it look easier than it was ... The critics would say, 'She's not really playing' or 'Look at her—she's playing with one finger.' But what they didn't know is that sometimes she was playing a thing called a Minimoog, which could only be played with one finger. It was monophonic." He went on to say, "We thought we were in it for the fun ... it was just something we wanted to do, so if we got it wrong—big deal. We didn't have to justify ourselves." Former Wings guitarist McCullough said of collaborating with Linda, "trying to get things together with a learner in the group didn't work as far as I was concerned."


title: Paul McCartney

text: They had four children—Linda's daughter Heather (legally adopted by Paul), Mary, Stella and James—and remained married until Linda's death from breast cancer at age 56 in 1998. After Linda died, Paul said, "I got a counsellor because I knew that I would need some help. He was great, particularly in helping me get rid of my guilt [about wishing I'd been] perfect all the time ... a real bugger. But then I thought, hang on a minute. We're just human. That was the beautiful thing about our marriage. We were just a boyfriend and girlfriend having babies."


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 2002, McCartney married Heather Mills, a former model and anti-landmine campaigner. In 2003, the couple had a child, Beatrice Milly, named in honour of Mills's late mother and one of McCartney's aunts. They separated in April 2006 and divorced acrimoniously in March 2008. In 2004, he commented on media animosity toward his partners: "[the British public] didn't like me giving up on Jane Asher ... I married [Linda], a New York divorcee with a child, and at the time they didn't like that".


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney married New Yorker Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony at Marylebone Town Hall, London, on 9 October 2011. The wedding was a modest event attended by a group of about 30 relatives and friends. The couple had been together since November 2007. Shevell is vice president of a family-owned transportation conglomerate which owns New England Motor Freight. She is a former member of the board of the New York area's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Shevell is about 18 years younger than McCartney. They had known each other for about 20 years prior to marrying, having met because both had homes in the Hamptons.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Though McCartney had a strained relationship with Lennon, they briefly became close again in early 1974, and played music together on one occasion. In later years, the two grew apart. McCartney often phoned Lennon, but was apprehensive about the reception he would receive. During one call, Lennon told him, "You're all pizza and fairytales!" In an effort to avoid talking only about business, they often spoke of cats, babies, or baking bread.


title: Paul McCartney

text: On 24 April 1976, McCartney and Lennon were watching an episode of "Saturday Night Live" at Lennon's home in the Dakota when Lorne Michaels made a $3,000 cash offer for the Beatles to reunite. While they seriously considered going to the "SNL" studio a few blocks away, they decided it was too late. This was their last time together. VH1 fictionalised this event in the 2000 television film "Two of Us". McCartney's last telephone call to Lennon, days before Lennon and Ono released "Double Fantasy", was friendly: "[It is] a consoling factor for me, because I do feel it was sad that we never actually sat down and straightened our differences out. But fortunately for me, the last phone conversation I ever had with him was really great, and we didn't have any kind of blow-up", he said.


title: Paul McCartney

text: On 9 December 1980, McCartney followed the news that Lennon had been murdered the previous night; Lennon's death created a media frenzy around the surviving members of the band. McCartney was leaving an Oxford Street recording studio that evening when he was surrounded by reporters who asked him for his reaction; he responded: "It's a drag". The press quickly criticised him for what appeared to be a superficial response. He later explained, "When John was killed somebody stuck a microphone at me and said: 'What do you think about it?' I said, 'It's a dra-a-ag' and meant it with every inch of melancholy I could muster. When you put that in print it says, 'McCartney in London today when asked for a comment on his dead friend said, "It's a drag".' It seemed a very flippant comment to make." He described his first exchange with Ono after the murder, and his last conversation with Lennon:


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1983, McCartney said: "I would not have been as typically human and standoffish as I was if I knew John was going to die. I would have made more of an effort to try and get behind his 'mask' and have a better relationship with him." He said that he went home that night, watched the news on television with his children and cried most of the evening. In 1997, he said that Lennon's death made the remaining ex-Beatles nervous that they might also be murdered. He told "Mojo" magazine in 2002 that Lennon was his greatest hero. In 1981, McCartney sang backup on Harrison's tribute to Lennon, "All Those Years Ago", which featured Starr on drums. McCartney released "Here Today" in 1982, a song Everett described as "a haunting tribute" to McCartney's friendship with Lennon.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Discussing his relationship with McCartney, Harrison said: "Paul would always help along when you'd done his ten songs—then when he got 'round to doing one of my songs, he would help. It was silly. It was very selfish, actually ... There were a lot of tracks, though, where I played bass ... because what Paul would do—if he'd written a song, he'd learn all the parts for Paul and then come in the studio and say (sometimes he was very difficult): 'Do this'. He'd never give you the opportunity to come out with something."


title: Paul McCartney

text: After Harrison's death in November 2001, McCartney said he was "a lovely guy and a very brave man who had a wonderful sense of humour". He went on to say: "We grew up together and we just had so many beautiful times together – that's what I am going to remember. I'll always love him, he's my baby brother." On the first anniversary of his death, McCartney played Harrison's "Something" on a ukulele at the "Concert for George"; he would perform this rendition of the song on many subsequent solo tours. He also performed "For You Blue" and "All Things Must Pass", and played the piano on Eric Clapton's rendition of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".


title: Paul McCartney

text: During a recording session for "The Beatles" in 1968, the two got into an argument over McCartney's critique of Starr's drum part for "Back in the U.S.S.R.", which contributed to Starr temporarily leaving the band. Starr later commented on working with McCartney: "Paul is the greatest bass player in the world. But he is also very determined ... [to] get his own way ... [thus] musical disagreements inevitably arose from time to time."


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney and Starr collaborated on several post-Beatles projects, starting in 1973 when McCartney contributed instrumentation and backing vocals for "Six O'Clock", a song McCartney wrote for Starr's album "Ringo". McCartney played a kazoo solo on "You're Sixteen" from the same album. Starr appeared as a fictional version of himself in McCartney's 1984 film "Give My Regards to Broad Street", and played drums on most tracks of the soundtrack album, which includes re-recordings of several McCartney-penned Beatles songs. Starr played drums and sang backing vocals on "Beautiful Night" from McCartney's 1997 album "Flaming Pie". The pair collaborated again in 1998, on Starr's "Vertical Man", which featured McCartney's backing vocals on three songs, and instrumentation on one.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 2009, the pair performed "With a Little Help from My Friends" at a benefit concert for the David Lynch Foundation. They collaborated on Starr's album "Y Not" in 2010. McCartney played bass on "Peace Dream", and sang a duet with Starr on "Walk with You". On 7 July 2010, Starr was performing at Radio City Music Hall in New York with his All-Starr Band in a concert celebrating his seventieth birthday. After the encores, McCartney made a surprise appearance, performing the Beatles' song "Birthday" with Starr's band. On 26 January 2014, McCartney and Starr performed "Queenie Eye" from McCartney's new album "New" at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. McCartney inducted Starr into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2015, and played bass on his 2017 album "Give More Love". On 16 December 2018, Starr and Ronnie Wood joined McCartney onstage to perform "Get Back" at his concert at London's O2 Arena. Starr also made an appearance on the final day of McCartney's Freshen Up tour in July 2019, performing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" and "Helter Skelter".


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 as a member of the Beatles and again as a solo artist in 1999. In 1979, the "Guinness Book of World Records" recognised McCartney as the "most honored composer and performer in music", with 60 gold discs (43 with the Beatles, 17 with Wings) and, as a member of the Beatles, sales of over 100 million singles and 100 million albums, and as the "most successful song writer", he wrote jointly or solo 43 songs which sold one million or more records between 1962 and 1978. In 2009, "Guinness World Records" again recognised McCartney as the "most successful songwriter" having written or co-written 188 charted records in the United Kingdom, of which 91 reached the top 10 and 33 made it to number one.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney has written, or co-written, 32 number-one singles on the "Billboard" Hot 100: twenty with the Beatles; seven solo or with Wings; one as a co-writer of "A World Without Love", a number-one single for Peter and Gordon; one as a co-writer on Elton John's cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"; one as a co-writer on Stars on 45's "Medley"; one as a co-writer with Michael Jackson on "Say Say Say"; and one as writer on "Ebony and Ivory" performed with Stevie Wonder. , he has 15.5 million RIAA certified units in the United States as a solo artist plus another 10 million with Wings.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Credited with more number ones in the UK than any other artist, McCartney has participated in twenty-four chart topping singles: seventeen with the Beatles, one solo, and one each with Wings, Stevie Wonder, Ferry Aid, Band Aid, Band Aid 20 and "The Christians et al." He is the only artist to reach the UK number one as a soloist ("Pipes of Peace"), duo ("Ebony and Ivory" with Wonder), trio ("Mull of Kintyre", Wings), quartet ("She Loves You", the Beatles), quintet ("Get Back", the Beatles with Billy Preston) and as part of a musical ensemble for charity (Ferry Aid).


title: Paul McCartney

text: "Yesterday" is one of the most covered songs in history with more than 2,200 recorded versions, and according to the BBC, "the track is the only one by a UK writer to have been aired more than seven million times on American TV and radio and is third in the all-time list ... [and] is the most played song by a British writer [last] century in the US". His 1968 Beatles composition "Hey Jude" achieved the highest sales in the UK that year and topped the US charts for nine weeks, which is longer than any other Beatles single. It was also the longest single released by the band and, at seven minutes eleven seconds, was at that time the longest number one. "Hey Jude" is the best-selling Beatles single, achieving sales of over five million copies soon after its release.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In July 2005, McCartney's performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with U2 at Live 8 became the fastest-released single in history. Available within forty-five minutes of its recording, hours later it had achieved number one on the UK Official Download Chart.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In December 2020, the release of his album "McCartney III" and its subsequent charting at number 2 on the US "Billboard" 200 earned McCartney the feat of being the first artist to have a new album in the top two chart positions in each of the last six decades.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Andrew Russell Garfield (born 20 August 1983) is an English and American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Tony Award, a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards. "Time" included Garfield on its list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Born in Los Angeles and raised in Epsom, England, Garfield trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and began his career on the UK stage and in television productions. He made his feature film debut in the 2007 ensemble drama "Lions for Lambs". He won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for his performance in the television film "Boy A" (2007). He came to international attention in 2010 with the supporting role of Eduardo Saverin in the drama "The Social Network", for which he received nominations for a BAFTA Film Award and a Golden Globe Award.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield gained wider recognition for playing Spider-Man in the superhero films "The Amazing Spider-Man" (2012), "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" (2014), and later in "" (2021). He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for starring as Desmond Doss in the war film "Hacksaw Ridge" (2016) and as Jonathan Larson in the musical "Tick, Tick... Boom!" (2021). Garfield also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for the latter. In 2022, he starred as a troubled cop in the crime drama miniseries "Under the Banner of Heaven", earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: On stage, Garfield appeared in the 2012 Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman", which garnered him a Tony Award nomination. For playing Prior Walter in a 2017 London production of "Angels in America", Garfield was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award; he reprised the role on Broadway the following year and won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Andrew Russell Garfield was born on 20 August 1983, in Los Angeles, California. His mother, Lynn (née Hillman), was from Essex, England, and his father, Richard Garfield, is from California. Richard's parents were also from the United Kingdom. Garfield's parents moved the family from Los Angeles to the UK when he was three years old, and he was brought up in Epsom, Surrey. Garfield had a secular upbringing. He is Jewish on his father's side, and describes himself as a "Jewish artist." His paternal grandparents were from Jewish immigrant families who moved to London from Poland, Russia and Romania, and the family surname was originally "Garfinkel."


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield's parents ran a small interior-design business. His mother was also a teaching assistant at a nursery school, and his father became head coach of the Guildford City Swimming Club. He has an older brother who is an NHS doctor at Royal Brompton Hospital. Garfield was a gymnast and a swimmer during his early years. He had originally intended to study business but became interested in acting at the age of 16 when a friend convinced him to take theatre studies at A-level, as they were one pupil short of being able to run the class. Garfield attended Priory Preparatory School in Banstead and later City of London Freemen's School in Ashtead, before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. His first job was at Starbucks, being moved between three separate establishments in Golders Green and Hendon.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield began taking acting classes in Guildford, Surrey, when he was nine, and appeared in a youth theatre production of "Bugsy Malone". He also joined a small youth theatre workshop group in Epsom and took theatre studies at A-level before studying for a further three years at a UK conservatoire, the Central School of Speech and Drama. Upon graduating in 2004, he began working primarily in stage acting. In 2004, he won a "Manchester Evening News" Theatre Award for Best Newcomer for his performance in "Kes" at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre (where he also played Romeo the year after), and won the Outstanding Newcomer Award at the 2006 "Evening Standard" Theatre Awards. Garfield made his British television debut in 2005 appearing in the Channel 4 teen drama "Sugar Rush". In 2007, he garnered public attention when he appeared in the series three of the BBC's "Doctor Who", in the episodes "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks". Garfield commented that it was "an honour" to be a part of "Doctor Who". In October 2007, he was named one of "Variety"s "10 Actors to Watch". He made his American film debut in November 2007, playing an American university student in the ensemble drama "Lions for Lambs", with co-stars Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, and Robert Redford. "I'm just lucky to be there working on the same project as them, although I don't really expect to be recognized later by audiences," Garfield told "Variety" in 2007. In his review for "The Boston Globe", Wesley Morris considered Garfield's work "a willing punching bag for the movie's jabs and low blows".


title: Andrew Garfield

text: In the Channel 4 drama "Boy A", released in November 2007, he portrayed a notorious killer trying to find new life after prison. The role garnered him the 2008 BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Amy Biancolli of the "Houston Chronicle" wrote, "there is no doubt about the intelligence and sensitivity" of Garfield's portrayal. Minneapolis "Star Tribune" Christy DeSmith echoed Biancolli's sentiment, citing his "detailed expressions" as an example. Writing in "The Seattle Times", John Hartl noted that Garfield demonstrated range in the role, and concluded: "Garfield always manages to capture his passion". Joe Morgenstern, the critic for "The Wall Street Journal", dubbed Garfield's performance "phenomenal", assessing that he "makes room for the many and various pieces of Jack's personality". In 2008, he had a minor role in the film "The Other Boleyn Girl", and was named one of the Shooting Stars at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2009, Garfield held supporting roles in the Terry Gilliam film "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" and the "Red Riding" television trilogy. Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" thought that Garfield gave a stand out performance in the latter.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: In 2010, Garfield co-starred opposite Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley in Mark Romanek's dystopian science-fiction drama "Never Let Me Go", an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel of the same name. He said of his character, Tommy D., "There's a sense of anxiety that runs through these kids, especially Tommy, because he's so sensory and feeling and animalistic, that's my perspective of him." Garfield was attracted to the film based on the existential questions the story expresses. He said the experience of being a part of "Never Let Me Go" was "just a dream to come true". He further remarked that the scenes in which his character—unable to contain his frustration—erupts with a wail, were "intense" for him. "I think those screams are inside all of us, I just got a chance to let mine out". For his portrayal of a well-meaning, but dim young man caught in a love triangle, he won the 2010 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. Writing for "Entertainment Weekly", Owen Gleiberman praised the performances of the lead cast, reflecting that "these three all act with a spooky, haunted innocence that gets under your skin." In comparison to Mulligan and Knightley, Scott Bowles, writing for "USA Today", deemed Garfield "the real find" of "Never Let Me Go".


title: Andrew Garfield

text: The same year, Garfield co-starred opposite Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network", a drama based on the founders of Facebook. On his character, Garfield remarked, "No one knows who Eduardo Saverin is, and I don't either. Of course, the fact he's a real-life human being, breathing on this Earth somewhere, creates a whole new dimension to my approach because you [sic] feel a greater sense of responsibility". Initially, the film's director, David Fincher, had met Garfield under the auspices of him playing Mark Zuckerberg, having been referred to him by Mark Romanek. However, Fincher did not like Garfield for the part as he found Garfield's "incredible emotional access to his kind of core humanity" better tailored for the role of Saverin. Garfield's performance was very well received; he earned wider recognition and numerous nominations, including BAFTA nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Rising Star, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance in a Supporting Role. Mark Kermode of the BBC expressed his surprise that Garfield had been overlooked for an Academy Award nomination, opining that "everyone knows he's one of the very best things about "The Social Network"." Writing in "The Wall Street Journal", Joe Morgenstern thought the role was portrayed with "great subtlety and rueful charm". "Rolling Stone" said Garfield delivered "a vulnerability that raises the emotional stakes in a movie", and proclaimed: "Keep your eyes on Garfield — he's shatteringly good, the soul of a film that might otherwise be without one."


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield was cast as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, opposite Emma Stone as his love interest Gwen Stacy, in Marc Webb's "The Amazing Spider-Man" (2012), a reboot of the "Spider-Man" film series. Garfield saw his casting as a "massive challenge in many ways", having to make the character "authentic" and "live and breathe in a new way". He described Peter as someone he could relate to and stated that the character had been an important influence on him since he was a child. For the role, he studied movements of athletes and spiders, and tried to incorporate them, and practiced yoga and pilates. "The Amazing Spider-Man" earned a worldwide total of $752,216,557, and Garfield's performance was generally well received. "The Guardian" Peter Bradshaw labelled his portrayal as the "definitive Spider-Man" and Tom Charity of CNN commended his "combination of fresh-faced innocence, nervous agitation and wry humor".


title: Andrew Garfield

text: In March 2012, Garfield made his Broadway theatre debut as Biff Loman in the revival of "Death of a Salesman". According to "The New York Times" David Rooney, Garfield had successfully "exposed the raw ache of Biff's solitude". Garfield was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance. Two years later, Garfield hosted an episode of "Saturday Night Live" and appeared in a music video for the song "We Exist" by Arcade Fire, playing a trans woman. Also in 2014, he co-produced and starred in the 2014 independent drama "99 Homes" and reprised the titular role in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2". Following a deal between Sony and Marvel Studios to integrate the Spider-Man character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, sequels to the latter film were scrapped, and the role was later taken on by Tom Holland in a reboot. Arachnologists Yuri M. Marusik and Alireza Zamani honored Garfield's portrayal of the role by naming a new species of crevice weaver spider, "Pritha garfieldi", after him.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Following a year-long absence from the screen, Garfield had starring roles in two films of 2016, Martin Scorsese's drama "Silence" and Mel Gibson's war film "Hacksaw Ridge". In the former, based on Shūsaku Endō's 1966 novel of the same name, Garfield played Sebastião Rodrigues, a Portuguese Jesuit priest in the seventeenth century who travels to Japan to spread his faith. Garfield spent a year with James Martin studying to be a Jesuit priest and went on a silent retreat in Wales. The film's arduous principal photography took place in Taiwan, and Garfield lost to achieve his character's physicality. Kate Taylor of "The Globe and Mail" disliked the film and wrote that Garfield "is sweetly resolute and gently anguished as the missionary Rodrigues but any hope that the actor might elucidate the psychology of philosophical certitude or the pain of religious doubt proves vain". At the box office, it earned less than half of its $50 million budget. "Hacksaw Ridge", however, was a commercial success, earning over $175.3 million worldwide. In it, Garfield portrayed Desmond Doss, a combat medic during World War II, who was the first conscientious objector in American history to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Writing for "USA Today", Brian Truitt labelled the film as "brutally intense and elegantly crafted"; he believed that the central role allowed Garfield to bring depth to his career and commended him for portraying Doss with both "simple sweetness" and "steadfast mettle". He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for "Hacksaw Ridge".


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield played the role of Prior Walter in Tony Kushner's two-part play "Angels in America" at the Lyttelton Theatre in the National Theatre, London from April to August 2017, and the performance was broadcast live to cinemas around the world in summer 2017 through the National Theatre Live series. It was directed by Marianne Elliott and co-starred Nathan Lane, James McArdle, Russell Tovey, and Denise Gough. Paul T Davis of The British Theatre Guide wrote that Garfield was "transformative and unrecognisable in places, completely inhabiting camp, laconic, frightened and totally loveable Prior Walter". He was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield's sole film release of 2017 was the biopic "Breathe", in which he portrayed Robin Cavendish, a young man paralysed by polio. In preparation, he interacted with individuals who had polio and collaborated closely with Cavendish's wife and son. Stephen Dalton of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that despite an exceptional story, the film had glossed over the complexities in Cavendish's life, and thought that Garfield was "hampered by a role that restricts him to little more than nodding and grinning". In March 2018, Garfield reprised the role of Prior when the "Angels in America" production transferred to Broadway for an eighteen-week limited engagement at the Neil Simon Theatre, alongside a majority of the London cast. Reviewing the production for "The Washington Post", Peter Marks remarked that "nothing [Garfield's] done prepares you for the star-powered dexterity of his Prior" and considered his performance to be the "persuasive moral core of the piece." He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: The 2018 Cannes Film Festival marked the premiere of Garfield's next film, the David Robert Mitchell-directed neo-noir "Under the Silver Lake". In it, he played Sam, an unemployed and wayward young man who sets out on a journey to find his neighbour who has mysteriously disappeared. Writing for "Vanity Fair", Richard Lawson found Garfield to be "great in the role, doing nimble, subtle bits of physical comedy and teasing out the creepy, menacing side of Sam". Garfield starred in Gia Coppola's drama "Mainstream", alongside Maya Hawke and Jason Schwartzman, which had its world premiere at the 2020 Venice Film Festival.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: In 2021, Garfield starred in "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" opposite Jessica Chastain, a drama about the televangelists Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, which had its world premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. That same year, Garfield portrayed composer Jonathan Larson in Lin-Manuel Miranda's film adaptation of "Tick, Tick... Boom!". Miranda had first seen Garfield performing on stage in "Angels in America". Garfield, who had not professionally sung before, underwent vocal training in preparation for the role. The film was released on Netflix. For his performance, Garfield received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Despite issuing repeated public denials to the contrary, Garfield reprised his role as Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "", starring alongside his Spider-Man successor Tom Holland and predecessor Tobey Maguire. Garfield described his experience working on the film as "joyful", and said that it gave him "closure" with his version of the Spider-Man character. He also said that he would be open to reprising the role in future if it felt right.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: In 2022, Garfield was included on "Time" magazine's annual list of 100 most influential people in the world. He starred in Dustin Lance Black's miniseries "Under the Banner of Heaven", an adaptation of Jon Krakauer's book of the same name, that same year. Reviewing the miniseries, "Vulture"s Kathryn VanArendonk highlighted Garfield's "almost flagrantly tender portrayal" of Jeb Pyre, a Mormon detective. His performance earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield has referred to himself as an "agnostic pantheist", though he identifies as Jewish. Having completed the "Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola" for playing a Jesuit in "Silence", he said how "What was really easy was falling in love with this person, was falling in love with Jesus Christ. That was the most surprising thing."


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield has dual citizenship in the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2009, he told the "Sunday Herald" that he felt "equally at home" in both countries and enjoyed "a varied cultural existence". When asked again in 2019, he stated, "I identify more as Jewish than anything... I have a love-hate relationship with both countries and used to be very proud to have both passports. Today, I'm slightly less proud." Garfield's primary place of residence is in North London near Hampstead Heath. He told Shaun Keaveny on a podcast in 2021 that he considers England home as that is where his family and friends are.


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield customarily gives interviews about his work, but does not publicly discuss details of his private life. In 2011, Garfield began dating his "The Amazing Spider-Man" co-star Emma Stone sometime during production of the film. In 2015, they were rumoured to have broken up although no formal statement was released. When asked about his sexuality, Garfield identified himself as heterosexual but has stated "I have an openness to any impulses that may arise within me at any time."


title: Andrew Garfield

text: Garfield's mother Lynn died of pancreatic cancer during his filming of "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" and shortly before "Tick, Tick... Boom!" began production. He was able to fly home to be there with her.


title: Ezra Miller

text: Ezra Matthew Miller (born September 30, 1992) is an American actor. Their feature film debut was in "Afterschool" (2008), which they followed by starring in the drama "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (2011) and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (2012). In 2015, they co-starred in the drama "The Stanford Prison Experiment" and the comedy "Trainwreck", before playing Credence Barebone / Aurelius Dumbledore in the "Fantastic Beasts" films "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (2016), "" (2018), and "" (2022). In 2020, they also had a recurring role on the miniseries "The Stand" as Donald Merwin "Trashcan Man" Elbert.


title: Ezra Miller

text: Miller also portrays the Flash in films and television series set in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), first appearing in a cameo the films "" (2016) and "Suicide Squad" (2016), before having a more prominent role in "Justice League" (2017), its director's cut "Zack Snyder's Justice League" (2021), and "The Flash" (2023), as well as a cameo in the TV series "Peacemaker" (2022–present).


title: Ezra Miller

text: Since 2022, Miller has been accused of committing disorderly conduct, assault, and burglary, resulting in multiple widely publicized arrests and citations, and has also been accused of grooming minors.


title: Ezra Miller

text: Ezra Matthew Miller was born in Wyckoff, New Jersey, on September 30, 1992. They have two older sisters named Saiya and Caitlin. Their mother, Marta Miller (née Koch), is a modern dancer. Their father, Robert S. Miller, was senior vice president and managing director of Hyperion Books, and later became a publisher at Workman Publishing. Miller's father is Jewish; their mother is of Dutch and German descent. Miller identifies as Jewish and "spiritual". At the age of six, they started to train as an opera singer in order to overcome a speech impediment. They have sung with the Metropolitan Opera, and performed in the American premiere of Philip Glass's opera "White Raven". Miller attended Rockland Country Day School and The Hudson School, dropping out at age 16 after the release of the film "Afterschool".


title: Ezra Miller

text: Miller's career in film began in 2008 with Antonio Campos' "Afterschool", in the role of a teenager at a boarding school who accidentally films the drug-related deaths of two classmates, and is then asked to put together a memorial video. The following year they appeared in "City Island" with Andy García, Julianna Margulies, and Steven Strait. In 2010, Miller portrayed the lead of "Beware the Gonzo" and had a supporting role in "Every Day", both of which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. They next appeared in the BBC Films drama "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (2011), alongside Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly, which was adapted and directed by Lynne Ramsay from American author Lionel Shriver's 2003 novel of the same name. In television, Miller played Damien on the Showtime hit comedy series "Californication". They then appeared on "Royal Pains" as Tucker Bryant for two seasons. In the 2012 film adaptation of the novel "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", Miller played Patrick, alongside Logan Lerman and Emma Watson.


title: Ezra Miller

text: Miller has been credited with singing, drumming and percussion on musical recordings by the band Sons of an Illustrious Father as early as 2011. The band is a trio that features Lilah Larson (vocals, guitar, bass and drums), Josh Aubin (bass, keyboards, guitar, vocals), and Miller. In 2019, the band released a cover of "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls and Miller appeared in its music video.


title: Ezra Miller

text: Miller played Credence Barebone in the 2016 film "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", a spin-off of the "Harry Potter" film series. They reprised the role in the film's sequel, "", which was released in November 2018, and in "", released in April 2022.


title: Ezra Miller

text: Miller portrays Barry Allen as the Flash in Warner Bros.' DC Comics adaptations, first appearing in cameos in "" and "Suicide Squad", and continuing the role as one of the leads in "Justice League". They are set to play the character in the standalone film "The Flash", which is set to be released in 2023. Miller attended Middle East Film and Comic Con in 2018 representing their character in the DC Comics franchise film "Justice League". In 2020, they reprised the role of the Flash for a cameo appearance in the Arrowverse crossover event, "Crisis on Infinite Earths".


title: Ezra Miller

text: In December 2020, Miller portrayed Trashcan Man in the Paramount+ television miniseries "The Stand", based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.


title: Ezra Miller

text: In 2010, Miller dated Zoë Kravitz while they were filming "Beware the Gonzo". Miller became engaged to Erin, a woman they began dating in 2016, but called it off after a spiritual adviser told them that she was a "parasite".


title: Ezra Miller

text: Miller came out as queer in 2012, but later said they avoided the use of the label "queer". They had also said in 2018, "Queer just means no, I don't do that. I don't identify as a man. I don't identify as a woman. I barely identify as a human." Miller uses they/them pronouns, which "GQ" wrote in 2020 was "a pointed refusal to be gendered". They previously used all pronouns interchangeably but, , use they/them, it, or zir pronouns. Having expressed an interest in "kissing boys" at a young age, Miller said, "The way I would choose to identify myself wouldn't be gay. I've been attracted mostly to 'shes' but I've been with many people and I'm open to love whatever it can be." Miller also commented on having "a lot of really wonderful friends who are of very different sexes and genders. I am very much in love with no one in particular."


title: Ezra Miller

text: In 2018, Miller showed support for the #MeToo movement and revealed a personal experience concerning a Hollywood producer and a director, both of whom were left unnamed: "They gave me wine and I was underaged. They were like, 'Hey, want to be in our movie about gay revolution?' And I was like, 'No, you guys are monsters. Later that year, they announced that they were in a polyamorous relationship with multiple people, including their bandmates in the rock band Sons of an Illustrious Father.


title: Ezra Miller

text: Following the divorce of their parents in 2019, the status of Miller's mental health began to plummet, although their spokesperson denied that it was caused by the divorce. According to "Insider", Miller began to travel while wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying at least one firearm in early 2022 following fears that they were being followed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Tokata Iron Eyes, Miller's partner, later referred to their bulletproof vest as "a fashionable safety measure in response to actual attacks and received death threats."


title: Ezra Miller

text: On January 27, 2022, Miller posted a video on Instagram that seemed to threaten members of the Ku Klux Klan operating in Beulaville, North Carolina. In response, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported no knowledge of recent Klan activity in Beulaville.


title: Ezra Miller

text: On June 28, 2011, in the midst of filming "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", Miller was a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over in Pittsburgh for a broken brake light; police discovered 20 grams of marijuana in Miller's possession. The actor was initially charged with drug possession, but the charge was later dropped by a judge. They instead faced a penalty of $600 for two citations of disorderly conduct. Miller later remarked, "I don't feel like there's any need to hide the fact that I smoke pot. It's a harmless herbal substance that increases sensory appreciation."


title: Ezra Miller

text: On April 6, 2020, a video surfaced in a since-deleted tweet that appeared to show Miller strangling a woman and throwing her to the ground. The video was confirmed by "Variety" to have taken place at Prikið Kaffihús, a bar in Reykjavík that Miller frequents when in the city. A bar employee identified the person in the video as Miller, who was escorted off the premises by staff after the incident.


title: Ezra Miller

text: In September 2022, a representative for Miller claimed that the strangulation was a spontaneous reaction spurred by "a group of teenagers" taunting Miller over their mixed martial arts skills.


title: Ezra Miller

text: On March 28, 2022, Miller was arrested in Hawaii following what police said was a physical altercation with patrons after having hurled obscenities at clients at a karaoke bar and was charged with disorderly conduct and harassment. Miller later claimed that they became enraged after being "accosted by a Nazi". During the arrest, Miller claimed that they were being "unlawfully persecuted" and, after members of the police misgendered them, accused the officers of intentionally committing a hate crime.


title: Ezra Miller

text: Three weeks later, on April 19, 2022, Miller was again taken into custody for second-degree assault by Leilani Estates Subdivision police authorities in Pāhoa. According to "Midi Libre", they were arrested for throwing a chair, which hit a 26-year-old woman and left a half-inch cut on her forehead, after being told to leave during a private get-together. Miller was arrested 20 minutes after the attack during a traffic stop at the intersection of Highway 130 and Kukula Street in Kea'au. Just hours after this second arrest, Miller pleaded no contest to the karaoke incident and was fined $500 for disorderly conduct by Judge Kanani Laubach.


title: Ezra Miller

text: In June 2022, the Standing Rock Sioux tribal court issued a temporary order of protection against Miller on behalf of 18-year-old activist Tokata Iron Eyes. Her parents, Chase Iron Eyes and Sara Jumping Eagle, requested the court order because, they said, of Miller's use of "violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions, and drugs" to hold sway over their child. The relationship between Miller and Iron Eyes, which began in 2016 when Miller was aged 23 and Iron Eyes was aged 12, also included Iron Eyes flying to London in 2017 to visit Miller on the set of "The Crimes of Grindelwald". Iron Eyes dropped out of school in 2021, which her parents believe she did in order to follow Miller. Her parents also stated in court documents that Miller had caused bruises on their child's body and that Miller has groomed and manipulated her. Text and video responses were later posted on the Instagram believed to belong to Iron Eyes, denying her parents' allegations; however, the parents countered by claiming their child does not control her social media. Iron Eyes stated in the video response that it's her own choice not to have a phone. , law enforcement has been unable to locate Miller to serve them with the order. Miller then posted messages on their Instagram account mocking the court's attempts to find them, but has since deleted them.


title: Ezra Miller

text: In August, Miller's former music collaborator Oliver Ignatius stated that he had witnessed Miller verbally abuse Iron Eyes over her wearing makeup. Iron Eyes defended Miller by referring to the incident as "a catty comment" and a part of "queer dialogue"; she called the allegation of abuse "homophobic". According to a former resident of Miller's farm in Vermont, Miller believes that people criticize their relationship with Iron Eyes because she is "an apocalyptic Native American spider goddess" who, along with Miller as Jesus Christ, will bring about an Indigenous revolution. Miller allegedly refers to themself as a Messiah to Native Americans, although they do not have Indigenous ancestry.


title: Ezra Miller

text: On June 16, 2022, a mother and her twelve-year-old child were granted a temporary harassment prevention order against Miller in Massachusetts after they said that Miller threatened the woman's family and showed inappropriate behavior towards the child. According to the mother and child, Miller, who was originally visiting a neighbor, showed up at the family's house unexpectedly while wearing a bulletproof vest and brandishing a gun before "pestering" the child by "uncomfortably" touching the child's hips. The child's mother told "Business Insider" that Miller had known the family since February, had taken an interest in the child because of their "style and maturity level", and had offered to start a clothing line with the child and fund their attendance to a design school. The mother also said that Miller considered the child to be a powerful "mystical being" who "would be lucky to have Ezra to guide and protect them." Shortly before the order was granted in June, the mother stated, Miller arrived at the family's house dressed as a cowboy and attempted to buy the child horses.


title: Ezra Miller

text: As reported by "Rolling Stone", Miller has been housing a woman they met in Hilo, Hawaii and her three children on Miller's farm in Stamford, Vermont since mid-April 2022. Allegations from both anonymous and named sources as well as the children's father are that guns and ammunition are easily accessible to the children, all aged 1–5 years old, and that the one-year-old put a loose bullet in her mouth. The woman claims that Miller has offered a refuge for healing and an escape from the children's father, who she alleges is abusive. Further claims include assault rifles propped up on piles of the children's stuffed animals, and "heavy marijuana use" with people smoking marijuana in front of the children in rooms without proper ventilation, including a witness stating that he "saw Miller blow marijuana smoke in the baby's face and use their arm to waft more smoke in the baby's direction." "Rolling Stone" also published that Miller has been running a large, unlicensed marijuana cultivation operation.


title: Ezra Miller

text: On the weekend of August 6, 2022, Vermont State Police approached Miller's residence and "repeatedly attempted to serve the mother an emergency care order that demanded the children's removal from her care and the home over fear for their safety... based on a DCF caseworker's affidavit, the State Attorney's office had requested two emergency care orders over the past week that sought to transfer legal custody of the children over to the state." Police and social workers were unable to locate the children or the mother. Miller told police that the woman and her children don't live there, and haven't "for the past two months". Contradicting Miller, the DCF caseworker, in her affidavit to the Court, presented evidence that up until late July 2022, the woman had been regularly posting images on social media that confirm that she was living with Miller. The Vermont State Attorney's office stated that Miller's response "seemed like an attempt to 'evade service'" of the order.


title: Ezra Miller

text: On August 7, 2022, Miller was charged with felony burglary in Stamford, Vermont, stemming from what the police report indicated was theft of bottles of alcohol from a private home in May 2022, according to Vermont State Police. According to the report, Miller was identified by police via video surveillance footage. Miller was due to be arraigned in court on September 26, 2022. A week prior to the planned arraignment date, a representative for Miller stated that the home is owned by a former childhood friend of Miller's and that Miller believed that they were welcome to enter the home to obtain rice wine for cooking.


title: Ezra Miller

text: The arraignment was later pushed back to October 17, 2022. Appearing in court remotely on that date, Miller pleaded not guilty to the charges. The next hearing on this case is scheduled for January 13, 2023.


title: Ezra Miller

text: On August 15, 2022, a representative of Miller released a statement to "Variety" in which Miller apologizes for the past behavior, stating that Miller has recently "gone through a time of intense crisis" and has begun treatment for "complex mental health issues". A September 2022 article in "Vanity Fair" quoted others as saying Miller has claimed to be Jesus, the devil, and the next Messiah. They believed their relationship with Tokata Iron Eyes would bring about the apocalypse. They also believed Freemasons were sending demons to kill them.


title: Christian Bale

text: Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles, he has been a leading man in films of several genres. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. "Forbes" magazine ranked him as one of the highest-paid actors in 2014.


title: Christian Bale

text: Born in Wales to English parents, Bale had his breakthrough role at age 13 in Steven Spielberg's 1987 war film "Empire of the Sun". After more than a decade of performing in leading and supporting roles in films, he gained wider recognition for his portrayals of serial killer Patrick Bateman in the black comedy "American Psycho" (2000) and the titular role in the psychological thriller "The Machinist" (2004). In 2005, he played superhero Batman in "Batman Begins" and again in "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012), garnering acclaim for his performance in the trilogy, which is one of the highest-grossing film franchises.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale continued in starring roles in a range of films outside his work as Batman, including the period drama "The Prestige" (2006), the action film "Terminator Salvation" (2009), the crime drama "Public Enemies" (2009), the epic film "" (2014) and the superhero film "" (2022). For his portrayal of boxer Dicky Eklund in the 2010 biographical film "The Fighter", he won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Further Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations came for his work in the black comedy "American Hustle" (2013) and the biographical dramedies "The Big Short" (2015) and "Vice" (2018). His performances as politician Dick Cheney in "Vice" and race car driver Ken Miles in the sports drama "Ford v Ferrari" (2019) earned him a second win and a fifth nomination respectively at the Golden Globe Awards.


title: Christian Bale

text: Christian Charles Philip Bale was born on 30 January 1974 in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, to English parents—Jenny James, a circus performer, and David Bale, an entrepreneur and activist. Bale has remarked, "I was born in Wales but I'm not Welsh—I'm English." He has two elder sisters, Sharon and Louise, and a half-sister from his father's first marriage, Erin. One of his grandfathers was a comedian while the other was a stand-in for John Wayne. Bale and his family left Wales when he was two years old, and after living in Portugal and Oxfordshire, England, they settled in Bournemouth. As well as saying that the family had lived in 15 towns by the time he was 15, Bale described the frequent relocation as being driven by "necessity rather than choice" and acknowledged that it had a major influence on his career selection. He attended Bournemouth School, later saying he left school at age 16. Bale's parents divorced in 1991, and at age 17, he moved with his sister Louise and their father to Los Angeles.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale trained in ballet as a child. His first acting role came at eight years old in a commercial for the fabric softener Lenor. He also appeared in a "Pac-Man" cereal commercial. After his sister was cast in a West End musical, Bale considered taking up acting professionally. He said later he did not find acting appealing but pursued it at the request of those around him because he had no reason not to do so. After participating in school plays, Bale performed opposite Rowan Atkinson in the play "The Nerd" in the West End in 1984. He did not undergo any formal acting training.


title: Christian Bale

text: After deciding to become an actor at age ten, Bale secured a minor role in the 1986 television film "". Its star, Amy Irving, who was married to director Steven Spielberg, subsequently recommended Bale for Spielberg's 1987 film "Empire of the Sun". At age 13, Bale was chosen from over 4,000 actors to portray a British boy in a World War II Japanese internment camp. For the film, he spoke with an upper-class cadence without the help of a dialogue coach. The role propelled Bale to fame, and his work earned him acclaim and the inaugural Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor Award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Earlier in the same year, he starred in the fantasy film "Mio in the Land of Faraway", based on the novel "Mio, My Son" by Astrid Lindgren. The fame from "Empire of the Sun" led to Bale being bullied in school and finding the pressures of working as an actor unbearable. He grew distrustful of the acting profession because of media attention but said that he felt obligated at a young age to continue to act for financial reasons. Around this time, actor and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh persuaded Bale to appear in his film "Henry V" in 1989, which drew him back into acting. The following year, Bale played Jim Hawkins opposite Charlton Heston as Long John Silver in "Treasure Island", a television film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's book of the same name.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale starred in the 1992 Disney musical film "Newsies", which was unsuccessful both at the box office and with critics. Rebecca Milzoff of "Vulture" revisited the film in 2012 and found the cracks in Bale's voice during his performance of the song "Santa Fe" charming and apt even though he was not a great singer. In 1993, he appeared in "Swing Kids", a film about teenagers who secretly listen to forbidden jazz during the rise of Nazi Germany. In Gillian Armstrong's 1994 film "Little Women", Bale played Theodore "Laurie" Laurence following a recommendation from Winona Ryder, who starred as Jo March. The film achieved critical and commercial success. Of Bale's performance, Ryder said he captured the complex nature of the role. He next voiced Thomas, a young compatriot of Captain John Smith, in the 1995 Disney animated film "Pocahontas", which attracted a mixed critical reception. Bale played a small part in the 1996 film "The Portrait of a Lady", based on the Henry James novel of the same name, and appeared in the 1998 musical film "Velvet Goldmine", set in the 1970s during the glam rock era. In 1999, he was part of an ensemble cast, which included Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer, portraying Demetrius in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", a film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale played Patrick Bateman, an investment banker and serial killer, in "American Psycho", a film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel of the same name, directed by Mary Harron. While Harron had chosen Bale for the part, the film's production and distribution company, Lionsgate, originally disagreed and hired Leonardo DiCaprio to play Bateman with Oliver Stone to direct. Bale and Harron were brought back after DiCaprio and Stone had left the project. Bale exercised and tanned himself for months to achieve Bateman's chiseled physique and had his teeth capped to assimilate to the character's narcissistic nature. "American Psycho" premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Harron said critic Roger Ebert named it the most hated film at the event. Of Bale's work, Ebert wrote he "is heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor." The film was released in April 2000, becoming a commercial and critical success and later developing a cult following; the role established Bale as a leading man.


title: Christian Bale

text: In the four years that followed "American Psycho", Bale's career experienced critical and commercial failure. He next played a villainous real estate heir in John Singleton's action film "Shaft" and appeared in John Madden's film adaptation of the novel "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" as Mandras, a Greek fisherman who vies with Nicolas Cage's title character for the affections of Pelagia, played by Penélope Cruz. Bale said he found it refreshing to play Mandras, who is emotionally humane, after working on "American Psycho" and "Shaft". In 2002, he appeared in three films: "Laurel Canyon", "Reign of Fire" and "Equilibrium". Reviewing "Laurel Canyon" for "Entertainment Weekly", Lisa Schwarzbaum called Bale's performance "fussy". After having reservations about joining the post-apocalyptic "Reign of Fire", which involved computer-generated imagery, Bale professed his enjoyment of making films that could go awry and cited director Rob Bowman as a reason for his involvement. In "Equilibrium", he plays a police officer in a futuristic society and performs gun kata, a fictional martial art that incorporates gunfighting. "IGN"s Jeff Otto characterised "Reign of Fire" as "poorly received" and "Equilibrium" as "highly underrated", while "The Independent"s Stephen Applebaum described the two films along with "Shaft" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" as "mediocre fare".


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale starred as the insomnia-ridden, emotionally dysfunctional title character in the psychological thriller "The Machinist". To prepare for the role, he initially only smoked cigarettes and drank whiskey. His diet later expanded to include black coffee, an apple and a can of tuna per day. Bale lost , weighing to play the character, who was written in the script as "a walking skeleton". His weight loss prompted comparisons with Robert De Niro's weight gain in preparation to play Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film "Raging Bull". Describing his transformation as mentally calming, Bale claimed he had stopped working for a while because he did not come upon scripts that piqued his interest and that the film's script drew him to lose weight for the part. "The Machinist" was released in October 2004; it performed poorly at the box office. Roger Moore of the "Orlando Sentinel" regarded it as one of the best films of the year, and Todd McCarthy of "Variety" wrote that Bale's "haunted, aggressive and finally wrenching performance" gave it a "strong anchor".


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale portrayed American billionaire Bruce Wayne and his superhero alias Batman in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins", a reboot of the Batman film series. Nolan cast Bale, who was still fairly unknown at the time, because Bale had "exactly the balance of darkness and light" Nolan sought. For the part, Bale regained the weight he lost for "The Machinist" and built muscle, weighing . He trained in weapons, Wing Chun Kung Fu and the Keysi Fighting Method. Acknowledging the story's peculiar circumstances involving a character "who thinks he can run around in a batsuit in the middle of the night", Bale said he and Nolan had deliberately approached it with "as realistic a motivation as possible", referencing Wayne's parents' murder. Bale voiced Wayne and Batman differently. He employed gravelly tone qualities for Batman, which Nolan believed reinforced the character's visual appearance. "Batman Begins" was released in the US in June 2005. Tim Grierson and Will Leitch of "Vulture" complimented Bale's "sensitive, intelligent portrayal of a spoiled, wayward Bruce who finally grows up (and fights crime)." The performance earned Bale the MTV Movie Award for Best Hero.


title: Christian Bale

text: In the same year, Bale voiced the titular Howl, a wizard, in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle", a Japanese animated film adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones's children's novel of the same name. He committed himself to voice the role after watching Miyazaki's animated film "Spirited Away". Later that year, he starred as a US war veteran who deals with post-traumatic stress disorder in the David Ayer-helmed crime drama "Harsh Times", which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He portrayed colonist John Rolfe in "The New World", a historical drama film inspired by the stories of Pocahontas, directed by Terrence Malick. The film was released on 25 December 2005. The following year saw the premiere of "Rescue Dawn", by German filmmaker Werner Herzog, in which Bale portrayed US fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, who fights for his life after being shot down while on a mission during the Vietnam War. After the two worked together, Herzog stated that he had considered Bale to be among his generation's greatest talents long before he played Batman. "The Austin Chronicle"s Marjorie Baumgarten viewed Bale's work as a continuance of his "masterful command of yet another American personality type."


title: Christian Bale

text: For the 2006 film "The Prestige", Bale reunited with "Batman Begins" director Nolan, who said that Bale was cast after offering himself for the part. It is based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Priest about a rivalry between two Victorian era magicians, whom Bale and Hugh Jackman play in the film. While it attracted acclaim from critics, the film performed more modestly during its run in theatres, earning $110 million against a $40 million budget. In his review for "The New York Times", A. O. Scott highlighted Bale's "fierce inwardness" and called his performance "something to savor". Bale next starred in the 2007 drama films "I'm Not There", portraying two incarnations of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, and in "", playing a justice-seeking cattleman. He characterised his Dylan incarnations as "two men on a real quest for truth" and attributed his interest in "3:10 to Yuma" to his affinity for films where he gets to "just be dirty and crawling in the mud". Bale reprised the role of Batman in Nolan's "Batman Begins" sequel "The Dark Knight", which received acclaim and became the fourth film to gross more than $1 billion worldwide upon its July 2008 release. He did many of his own stunts, including one that involved standing on the roof of the Sears Tower in Chicago. "The Dark Knight" has been regarded by critics as the best superhero film.


title: Christian Bale

text: In February 2008, Warner Bros. announced that Bale would star as rebellion leader John Connor in the post-apocalyptic action film "Terminator Salvation", directed by McG, who cited Bale as "the most credible actor of his generation". In February 2009, an audio recording of a tirade on the film's set in July 2008 involving Bale was released. It captured him directing profanities at the film's cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, who walked onto the set during the filming of a scene acted by Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard, and culminated in Bale threatening to quit the film if Hurlbut was not fired. Several colleagues in the film industry defended Bale, attributing the incident to his dedication to acting. Bale publicly apologised in February 2009, calling the outburst "inexcusable" and his behaviour "way out of order" and affirming to have made amends with Hurlbut. "Terminator Salvation" was released in May 2009 to tepid reviews. Claudia Puig of "USA Today" considered Bale's work to be "surprisingly one-dimensional", while "The Age"s Jake Wilson wrote he gave one of his least compelling performances. Bale later admitted he knew during production that the film would not revitalise the "Terminator" franchise as he had wished. He asserted he would not work with McG again.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale portrayed FBI agent Melvin Purvis opposite Johnny Depp as gangster John Dillinger in Michael Mann's crime drama "Public Enemies". Released in July 2009, it earned critical praise and had a commercially successful theatrical run. Dan Zak of "The Washington Post" was unsatisfied with the casting of Bale and Depp, believing their characters' rivalry lacked electricity, while "The New Republic"s Christopher Orr found Bale's "characteristically closed off" performance "nonetheless effective". The following year, Bale starred in the role of Dicky Eklund, a professional boxer whose career has ended due to his drug addiction, in David O. Russell's drama film "The Fighter". It chronicles the relationship between Eklund and his brother and boxing trainee, Micky Ward, played by Mark Wahlberg. To balance Eklund's tragic condition, Bale incorporated humor in his characterisation. The portrayal, for which he lost , was acclaimed, the "San Francisco Chronicle"s Mick LaSalle describing it as "shrewdly observed, physically precise and psychologically acute". Bale won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his performance. In 2011, he starred in Zhang Yimou's historical drama film "The Flowers of War", which was the highest-grossing Chinese film of the year. Critics described it as "nationalistic", "anti-Japanese" and "too long, too melodramatic, too lightweight".


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale played Batman again under Christopher Nolan's direction in the sequel "The Dark Knight Rises", released in July 2012. He described Batman in the film as a remorseful recluse in poor mental and physical health, who has surrendered following the events of "The Dark Knight". Following the shooting at a midnight showing of the film in Aurora, Colorado, Bale and his wife visited survivors, doctors and first responders at The Medical Center of Aurora as well as a memorial to victims. "The Dark Knight Rises" was the 11th film to gross more than $1 billion worldwide, surpassing "The Dark Knight". Nolan's Batman film series, dubbed the "Dark Knight" trilogy, is one of the highest-grossing film franchises. It is also regarded as one of the best comic book film franchises. Bale's performance in the three films garnered universal acclaim, with "The Guardian", "NME" and a poll conducted by the "Radio Times" ranking it as the best portrayal of Batman on film. Bale later revealed his dissatisfaction with his work throughout the trilogy, saying he "didn't quite nail" his part and that he "didn't quite manage" what he had hoped he would as Batman.


title: Christian Bale

text: In 2013, Bale played a steel mill worker in Scott Cooper's thriller "Out of the Furnace". Cooper rewrote the film's script with Bale in mind before the two even met and would not proceed with the project without the actor's involvement. Critics commended the film and deemed it an excellent beginning of the next phase in Bale's career after playing Batman, with Kristopher Tapley of "Variety" noting his work in the film was his best. That same year, he starred in "American Hustle", which reunited him with David O. Russell after their work on "The Fighter". To play con artist Irving Rosenfeld, Bale studied footage of interviews with real-life con artist Mel Weinberg, who served as inspiration for the character. He gained , shaved part of his head and adopted a slouched posture, which reduced his height by and caused him to suffer a herniated disc. Russell indicated that Robert De Niro, who appeared in an uncredited role, did not recognise Bale when they were first introduced. Writing for the "New York Daily News", Joe Neumaier found Bale's performance to be "sad, funny and riveting". He was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his work.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale portrayed Moses in Ridley Scott's epic film "". Released in December 2014, the film faced accusations of whitewashing for the casting of Caucasian actors in Middle Eastern roles. Scott justified casting decisions citing financing needs, Bale stating that Scott had been forthright in getting the film made. Its critical response varied between negative and mixed, and the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch"s Joe Williams called Bale's performance in the film the most apathetic of his career. Bale appeared in Terrence Malick's drama "Knight of Cups", which "The Atlantic" critic David Sims dubbed a "noble failure". During its premiere at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015, he said he filmed the project without having learned any dialogue and that Malick had only given him a character description. Later that year, he starred as Michael Burry, an antisocial hedge fund manager, in Adam McKay's "The Big Short", a biographical comedy-drama film about the financial crisis of 2007–08. He used an ocular prosthesis in the film. "The Wall Street Journal"s Joe Morgenstern found his portrayal "scarily hilarious—or in one-liners and quick takes, deftly edited". The role earned Bale Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.


title: Christian Bale

text: In the 2016 historical drama "The Promise", set during the Armenian Genocide, he played an American journalist who becomes involved in a love triangle with a woman, played by Charlotte Le Bon, and an Armenian medical student, played by Oscar Isaac. Critics disapproved of the film, which accrued a $102 million loss. Reviewing the film for "The New York Times", Jeannette Catsoulis wrote that Bale appeared "muffled and indistinct". In Cooper's 2017 film "Hostiles", Bale starred as a US Army officer escorting a gravely ill Cheyenne war chief and his family back to their home in Montana. He calls the film "a western with brutal, modern-day resonance" and his character "a bigoted and hate-filled man". Bale learned the Cheyenne language while working on the film. "Empire" critic Dan Jolin considered his performance striking and one of the strongest of his career. In 2018, Bale voiced Bagheera in the adventure film "". "Rolling Stone"s David Fear wrote that his voice work and that of Andy Serkis, who directed the film, "bring the soul as well as sound and fury".


title: Christian Bale

text: For the 2018 biographical comedy drama "Vice", written and directed by Adam McKay, Bale underwent a major body transformation once again, as he gained over and shaved his head to portray US Vice President Dick Cheney. He described Cheney, who is reckoned the most influential and loathed vice president in US history, as "quiet and secretive". The film reunited Bale with Amy Adams, with whom he had co-starred in "The Fighter" and "American Hustle". It received positive reviews, and "The Guardian"s Peter Bradshaw commended Bale's "terrifically and in fact rather scarily plausible" Cheney impersonation. Lauded by critics, the performance won Bale the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and garnered him an Academy Award nomination. During his acceptance speech at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, Bale thanked Satan for inspiring his Cheney portrayal, which elicited a response from Cheney's daughter and US Representative Liz Cheney, who stated that Bale ruined his opportunity to play "a real superhero". Bale then portrayed sports car racing driver Ken Miles in the 2019 sports drama "Ford v Ferrari", for which he lost after playing Cheney. Directed by James Mangold, the film follows Miles and automotive designer Carroll Shelby, played by Matt Damon, in events surrounding the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race. The role earned Bale a fifth Golden Globe Award nomination. While promoting the film, he said he would no longer go through weight fluctuations for roles.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale played Gorr the God Butcher, a villain, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film "", which was released in July 2022. He cited a character in the music video for the Aphex Twin song "Come to Daddy" as an inspiration for his characterisation of Gorr. Bale's portrayal drew praise from critics, who deemed it "grounded and non-campy". He starred in David O. Russell's period film "Amsterdam", and is set to appear in Scott Cooper's thriller "The Pale Blue Eye", reuniting with both directors for the third time. "Amsterdam" was released in October 2022, receiving dire reviews and failing at the box office. Bale is slated to produce and play a preacher in the film "The Church of Living Dangerously".


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale is known for his exhaustive dedication to the weight fluctuations that his parts demand as well as "the intensity with which he completely inhabits his roles", with "The Washington Post"s Ann Hornaday rating him among the most physically gifted actors of his generation. Max O'Connell of "RogerEbert.com" deemed Bale's commitment to altering his physical appearance "an anchoring facet to a depiction of obsession" in his performances, while the "Los Angeles Times"s Hugh Hart likened the urgency that drives Bale's acting style to method acting, adding that it "convincingly animates even his most extreme physical transformations." Bale has said that he does not practise method acting and that he does not use a particular technique. He named Rowan Atkinson as his template as an actor and added that he was mesmerised by him when they worked together. He also studied the work of Gary Oldman, crediting him as the reason for his pursuit of acting.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale has been recognised for his versatility; Martha Ross of "The Mercury News" named him one of his generation's most versatile actors. Known to be very private about his personal life, Bale has said that his objective was to embody characters without showing any aspect of himself. He explained that "letting people know who you are" does not help create different characters, viewing anonymity as "what's giving you the ability to play those characters". During interviews to promote films in which he puts on an accent, Bale would continue speaking in the given accent. Bale has also been noted for portraying roles with an American accent, with "The Atlantic"s Joe Reid listing him among those who "work least in their native accents"; in real life, Bale speaks in an "emphatic, non-posh" English accent.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale was ranked at number eight on "Forbes" magazine's list of the highest-paid actors of 2014, earning $35 million. He has been described as a sex symbol.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale has lived in Los Angeles since the 1990s. He holds US citizenship. Bale married Sandra "Sibi" Blažić, a former model, in Las Vegas on 29 January 2000. The couple have a daughter and a son. In 2000, Bale became feminist Gloria Steinem's stepson following her marriage to his father, who died in 2003 of brain lymphoma.


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale became a vegetarian at seven years old but in 2009 said he was "in and out of the vegetarianism now". He had stopped eating red meat after reading the children's book "Charlotte's Web". An animal rights activist, he supports the organisations Greenpeace, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Doris Day Animal League, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International and Redwings Horse Sanctuary. While promoting "The Flowers of War" in December 2011, Bale, and a crew from the CNN television network, attempted to visit Chen Guangcheng, a confined blind barefoot lawyer, in a village in eastern China. He was forced to retreat after scuffling with guards at a checkpoint. Bale finally met Chen at a dinner held by the nonprofit Human Rights First the following year, during which he presented Chen with an award. Bale voiced Chen's story in Amnesty International's podcast, "In Their Own Words".


title: Christian Bale

text: On 22 July 2008, Bale was arrested in London after his mother and his sister Sharon reported him to the police for an alleged assault at a hotel. He was released on bail. Bale denied the allegations and later called the incident "a deeply personal matter". On 14 August, the Crown Prosecution Service declared they would take no further action against him because of "insufficient evidence to afford a realistic prospect of conviction".


title: Christian Bale

text: According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which assigns films scores based on the number of positive critical reviews they receive, some of Bale's highest-scoring films are "The Dark Knight" (2008), "Ford v Ferrari" (2019), "American Hustle" (2013), "Little Women" (1994), "The Fighter" (2010), "Rescue Dawn" (2007), "3:10 to Yuma" (2007), "The Big Short" (2015), "Howl's Moving Castle" (2005) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012); the first, third and last of which are also listed by the data website The Numbers as his highest-grossing films, alongside "Terminator Salvation" (2009), "Batman Begins" (2005), "Pocahontas" (1995), "Thor: Love and Thunder" (2022) and "Exodus: Gods and Kings" (2014).


title: Christian Bale

text: Bale has garnered four Academy Award nominations, including two in the Best Actor category for his work in "American Hustle" and "Vice" (2018) as well as two in the Best Supporting Actor category for his work in "The Fighter" (2010) and "The Big Short"; he won one for "The Fighter". He has earned two Golden Globe Awards, including Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his role in "The Fighter" and Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role in "Vice", and received two nominations for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performances in "American Hustle" and "The Big Short" and a nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his performance in "Ford v Ferrari". Bale has also been nominated for eight Screen Actors Guild Awards, winning in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role category for "The Fighter" and the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture category as part of the "American Hustle" cast.


title: Hong Kong

text: Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta in South China. With 7.5 million residents of various nationalities in a territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world. Hong Kong is also a major global financial centre and one of the most developed cities in the world.


title: Hong Kong

text: Hong Kong was established as a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island from Xin'an County at the end of the First Opium War in 1841 then again in 1842. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. British Hong Kong was occupied by Imperial Japan from 1941 to 1945 during World War II; British administration resumed after the surrender of Japan. The whole territory was transferred to China in 1997. As one of China's two special administrative regions (the other being Macau), Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of "one country, two systems".


title: Hong Kong

text: Originally a sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages, the territory has become one of the world's most significant financial centres and commercial ports. It is the world's tenth-largest exporter and ninth-largest importer. Hong Kong has a market economy characterised by a focus on services, low taxation and free trade; its currency, the Hong Kong dollar, is the eighth most traded currency in the world. Hong Kong is home to the third-highest number of billionaires of any city in the world, the second-highest number of billionaires of any city in Asia, and the largest concentration of ultra high-net-worth individuals of any city in the world. Although the city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, severe income inequality exists among the population. Most notably, housing in Hong Kong has been well-documented to experience a chronic persistent shortage; the extremely compact house sizes and the extremely high housing density are the effects of Hong Kong's housing market being the least affordable and the most expensive housing market in the world.


title: Hong Kong

text: Hong Kong is a highly developed territory and ranks fourth on the UN Human Development Index. The city has the largest number of skyscrapers of any city in the world, and its residents have some of the highest life expectancies in the world. The dense space has led to a highly developed transportation network with public transport rates exceeding 90%. Hong Kong is ranked 3rd in the Global Financial Centres Index.


title: Hong Kong

text: The name of the territory, first romanised as "He-Ong-Kong" in 1780, originally referred to a small inlet located between Aberdeen Island and the southern coast of Hong Kong Island. Aberdeen was an initial point of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. Although the source of the romanised name is unknown, it is generally believed to be an early phonetic rendering of the Cantonese (or Tanka Cantonese) phrase "hēung góng". The name translates as "fragrant harbour" or "incense harbour". "Fragrant" may refer to the sweet taste of the harbour's freshwater influx from the Pearl River or to the odour from incense factories lining the coast of northern Kowloon. The incense was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before Victoria Harbour was developed. Sir John Davis (the second colonial governor) offered an alternative origin; Davis said that the name derived from "Hoong-keang" ("red torrent"), reflecting the colour of soil over which a waterfall on the island flowed.


title: Hong Kong

text: The simplified name "Hong Kong" was frequently used by 1810. The name was also commonly written as the single word "Hongkong" until 1926, when the government officially adopted the two-word name. Some corporations founded during the early colonial era still keep this name, including Hongkong Land, Hongkong Electric Company, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).


title: Hong Kong

text: Earliest known human traces in what is now Hong Kong are dated by some to 35,000 and 39,000 years ago during the Paleolithic period. The claim is based on an archaeological investigation in Wong Tei Tung, Sai Kung in 2003. The archaeological works revealed knapped stone tools from deposits that were dated using optical luminescence dating.


title: Hong Kong

text: During the Middle Neolithic period, about 6,000 years ago, the region had been widely occupied by humans. Neolithic to Bronze Age Hong Kong settlers were semi-coastal people. Early inhabitants are believed to be Austronesians in the Middle Neolithic period and later the Yueh people. As hinted by the archaeological works in Sha Ha, Sai Kung, rice cultivation had been introduced since Late Neolithic period. Bronze Age Hong Kong featured coarse pottery, hard pottery, quartz and stone jewelry, as well as small bronze implements.


title: Hong Kong

text: The Qin dynasty incorporated the Hong Kong area into China for the first time in 214 BCE, after conquering the indigenous Baiyue. The region was consolidated under the Nanyue kingdom (a predecessor state of Vietnam) after the Qin collapse and recaptured by China after the Han conquest. During the Mongol conquest of China in the 13th century, the Southern Song court was briefly located in modern-day Kowloon City (the Sung Wong Toi site) before its final defeat in the 1279 Battle of Yamen. By the end of the Yuan dynasty, seven large families had settled in the region and owned most of the land. Settlers from nearby provinces migrated to Kowloon throughout the Ming dynasty.


title: Hong Kong

text: The earliest European visitor was Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares, who arrived in 1513. Portuguese merchants established a trading post called Tamão in Hong Kong waters and began regular trade with southern China. Although the traders were expelled after military clashes in the 1520s, Portuguese-Chinese trade relations were re-established by 1549. Portugal acquired a permanent lease for Macau in 1557.


title: Hong Kong

text: After the Qing conquest, maritime trade was banned under the "Haijin" policies. From 1661 to 1683, the population of most of the area forming present day Hong Kong was cleared under the Great Clearance, turning the region into a wasteland. The Kangxi Emperor lifted the maritime trade prohibition, allowing foreigners to enter Chinese ports in 1684. Qing authorities established the Canton System in 1757 to regulate trade more strictly, restricting non-Russian ships to the port of Canton. Although European demand for Chinese commodities like tea, silk, and porcelain was high, Chinese interest in European manufactured goods was insignificant, so that Chinese goods could only be bought with precious metals. To reduce the trade imbalance, the British sold large amounts of Indian opium to China. Faced with a drug crisis, Qing officials pursued ever more aggressive actions to halt the opium trade.


title: Hong Kong

text: In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor rejected proposals to legalise and tax opium and ordered imperial commissioner Lin Zexu to eradicate the opium trade. The commissioner destroyed opium stockpiles and halted all foreign trade, triggering a British military response and the First Opium War. The Qing surrendered early in the war and ceded Hong Kong Island in the Convention of Chuenpi. British forces began controlling Hong Kong shortly after the signing of the convention, from 26 January 1841. However, both countries were dissatisfied and did not ratify the agreement. After more than a year of further hostilities, Hong Kong Island was formally ceded to the United Kingdom in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking.


title: Hong Kong

text: Administrative infrastructure was quickly built by early 1842, but piracy, disease, and hostile Qing policies initially prevented the government from attracting commerce. Conditions on the island improved during the Taiping Rebellion in the 1850s, when many Chinese refugees, including wealthy merchants, fled mainland turbulence and settled in the colony. Further tensions between the British and Qing over the opium trade escalated into the Second Opium War. The Qing were again defeated and forced to give up Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island in the Convention of Peking. By the end of this war, Hong Kong had evolved from a transient colonial outpost into a major entrepôt. Rapid economic improvement during the 1850s attracted foreign investment, as potential stakeholders became more confident in Hong Kong's future.


title: Hong Kong

text: The colony was further expanded in 1898 when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories. The University of Hong Kong was established in 1911 as the territory's first institution of higher education. Kai Tak Airport began operation in 1924, and the colony avoided a prolonged economic downturn after the 1925–26 Canton–Hong Kong strike. At the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Governor Geoffry Northcote declared Hong Kong a neutral zone to safeguard its status as a free port. The colonial government prepared for a possible attack, evacuating all British women and children in 1940. The Imperial Japanese Army attacked Hong Kong on 8 December 1941, the same morning as its attack on Pearl Harbor. Hong Kong was occupied by Japan for almost four years before Britain resumed control on 30 August 1945.


title: Hong Kong

text: Its population rebounded quickly after the war, as skilled Chinese migrants fled from the Chinese Civil War and more refugees crossed the border when the Chinese Communist Party took control of mainland China in 1949. Hong Kong became the first of the Four Asian Tiger economies to industrialise during the 1950s. With a rapidly increasing population, the colonial government attempted reforms to improve infrastructure and public services. The public-housing estate programme, Independent Commission Against Corruption, and Mass Transit Railway were all established during the post-war decades to provide safer housing, integrity in the civil service, and more reliable transportation.


title: Hong Kong

text: Nevertheless, widespread public discontent resulted in multiple protests from the 1950s to 1980s, including pro-Republic of China and pro-Chinese Communist Party protests. In the 1967 Hong Kong riots, pro-PRC protestors clashed with the British colonial government. As many as 51 were killed and 802 were injured in the violence, including dozens killed by the Royal Hong Kong Police via beatings and shootings.


title: Hong Kong

text: Although the territory's competitiveness in manufacturing gradually declined because of rising labour and property costs, it transitioned to a service-based economy. By the early 1990s, Hong Kong had established itself as a global financial centre and shipping hub.


title: Hong Kong

text: The colony faced an uncertain future as the end of the New Territories lease approached, and Governor Murray MacLehose raised the question of Hong Kong's status with Deng Xiaoping in 1979. Diplomatic negotiations with China resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which the United Kingdom agreed to transfer the colony in 1997 and China would guarantee Hong Kong's economic and political systems for 50 years after the transfer. The impending transfer triggered a wave of mass emigration as residents feared an erosion of civil rights, the rule of law, and quality of life. Over half a million people left the territory during the peak migration period, from 1987 to 1996. The Legislative Council became a fully elected legislature for the first time in 1995 and extensively expanded its functions and organisations throughout the last years of the colonial rule. Hong Kong was transferred to China on 1 July 1997, after 156 years of British rule.


title: Hong Kong

text: Immediately after the transfer, Hong Kong was severely affected by several crises. The Hong Kong government was forced to use substantial foreign exchange reserves to maintain the Hong Kong dollar's currency peg during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and the recovery from this was muted by an H5N1 avian-flu outbreak and a housing surplus. This was followed by the 2003 SARS epidemic, during which the territory experienced its most serious economic downturn.


title: Hong Kong

text: Political debates after the transfer of sovereignty have centred around the region's democratic development and the Chinese central government's adherence to the "one country, two systems" principle. After reversal of the last colonial era Legislative Council democratic reforms following the handover, the regional government unsuccessfully attempted to enact national security legislation pursuant to Article 23 of the Basic Law. The central government decision to implement nominee pre-screening before allowing chief executive elections triggered a series of protests in 2014 which became known as the Umbrella Revolution. Discrepancies in the electoral registry and disqualification of elected legislators after the 2016 Legislative Council elections and enforcement of national law in the West Kowloon high-speed railway station raised further concerns about the region's autonomy. In June 2019, mass protests erupted in response to a proposed extradition amendment bill permitting the extradition of fugitives to mainland China. The protests are the largest in Hong Kong's history, with organisers claiming to have attracted more than three million Hong Kong residents.


title: Hong Kong

text: The Hong Kong regional government and Chinese central government responded to the protests with a number of administrative measures to quell dissent. In June 2020, the Legislative Council passed the National Anthem Ordinance, which criminalised "insults to the national anthem of China". The Chinese central government meanwhile enacted the Hong Kong national security law to help quell protests in the region. Nine months later, in March 2021, the Chinese central government introduced amendments to Hong Kong's electoral system, which included the reduction of directly elected seats in the Legislative Council and the requirement that all candidates be vetted and approved by a Beijing-appointed Candidate Eligibility Review Committee.


title: Hong Kong

text: Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, with executive, legislative, and judicial powers devolved from the national government. The Sino-British Joint Declaration provided for economic and administrative continuity through the transfer of sovereignty, resulting in an executive-led governing system largely inherited from the territory's history as a British colony. Under these terms and the "one country, two systems" principle, the Basic Law of Hong Kong is the regional constitution. The regional government is composed of three branches:


title: Hong Kong

text: The chief executive is the head of government and serves for a maximum of two five-year terms. The State Council (led by the Premier of China) appoints the chief executive after nomination by the Election Committee, which is composed of 1,200 business, community, and government leaders.


title: Hong Kong

text: The Legislative Council has 90 members, each serving a four-year term. Twenty are directly elected from geographical constituencies, thirty-five represent functional constituencies (FC), and forty are chosen by an election committee consisting of representatives appointed by the Chinese central government. Thirty FC councillors are selected from limited electorates representing sectors of the economy or special interest groups, and the remaining five members are nominated from sitting district council members and selected in region-wide double direct elections. All popularly elected members are chosen by proportional representation. The 30 limited electorate functional constituencies fill their seats using first-past-the-post or instant-runoff voting.


title: Hong Kong

text: Twenty-two political parties had representatives elected to the Legislative Council in the 2016 election. These parties have aligned themselves into three ideological groups: the pro-Beijing camp (the current government), the pro-democracy camp, and localist groups. The Chinese Communist Party does not have an official political presence in Hong Kong, and its members do not run in local elections. Hong Kong is represented in the National People's Congress by 36 deputies chosen through an electoral college and 203 delegates in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference appointed by the central government.


title: Hong Kong

text: Chinese national law does not generally apply in the region, and Hong Kong is treated as a separate jurisdiction. Its judicial system is based on common law, continuing the legal tradition established during British rule. Local courts may refer to precedents set in English law and overseas jurisprudence. However, mainland criminal procedure law applies to cases investigated by the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the CPG in the HKSAR. Interpretative and amending power over the Basic Law and jurisdiction over acts of state lie with the central authority, making regional courts ultimately subordinate to the mainland's socialist civil law system. Decisions made by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress override any territorial judicial process.<ref name="HCAL185/2016"></ref> Furthermore, in circumstances where the Standing Committee declares a state of emergency in Hong Kong, the State Council may enforce national law in the region.


title: Hong Kong

text: The territory's jurisdictional independence is most apparent in its immigration and taxation policies. The Immigration Department issues passports for permanent residents which differ from those of the mainland or Macau, and the region maintains a regulated border with the rest of the country. All travellers between Hong Kong and China and Macau must pass through border controls, regardless of nationality. Mainland Chinese citizens do not have right of abode in Hong Kong and are subject to immigration controls. Public finances are handled separately from the national government; taxes levied in Hong Kong do not fund the central authority.


title: Hong Kong

text: The Hong Kong Garrison of the People's Liberation Army is responsible for the region's defence. Although the Chairman of the Central Military Commission is supreme commander of the armed forces, the regional government may request assistance from the garrison. Hong Kong residents are not required to perform military service, and current law has no provision for local enlistment, so its defence is composed entirely of non-Hongkongers.


title: Hong Kong

text: The central government and Ministry of Foreign Affairs handle diplomatic matters, but Hong Kong retains the ability to maintain separate economic and cultural relations with foreign nations. The territory actively participates in the World Trade Organization, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the International Olympic Committee, and many United Nations agencies. The regional government maintains trade offices in Greater China and other nations.


title: Hong Kong

text: The imposition of Hong Kong national security law by the central government in Beijing in June 2020 resulted in the suspension of bilateral extradition treaties by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, and Ireland. The United States ended its preferential economic and trade treatment of Hong Kong in July 2020 because it was no longer able to distinguish Hong Kong as a separate entity from the People's Republic of China.


title: Hong Kong

text: The territory is divided into 18 districts, each represented by a district council. These advise the government on local issues such as public facility provisioning, community programme maintenance, cultural promotion, and environmental policy. There are a total of 479 district council seats, 452 of which are directly elected. Rural committee chairmen, representing outlying villages and towns, fill the 27 non-elected seats.


title: Hong Kong

text: Hong Kong is governed by a hybrid regime that is not fully representative of the population. Legislative Council members elected by functional constituencies composed of professional and special interest groups are accountable to these narrow corporate electorates and not the general public. This electoral arrangement has guaranteed a pro-establishment majority in the legislature since the transfer of sovereignty. Similarly, the chief executive is selected by establishment politicians and corporate members of the Election Committee rather than directly elected. Although universal suffrage for the chief executive and all Legislative Council elections are defined goals of Basic Law Articles 45 and 68, the legislature is only partially directly elected, and the executive continues to be nominated by an unrepresentative body. The government has been repeatedly petitioned to introduce direct elections for these positions.