title: Xi Jinping

text: In September 2015, Xi made his first state visit to the United States. In October 2015, he made a state visit to the United Kingdom, the first by a Chinese leader in a decade. This followed a visit to China in March 2015 by the Duke of Cambridge. During the state visit, Xi met Queen Elizabeth II, British prime minister David Cameron and other dignitaries. Increased customs, trade, and research collaborations between China and the U.K. were discussed, but more informal events also took place including a visit to Manchester City's football academy.


title: Xi Jinping

text: In March 2016, Xi visited the Czech Republic on his way to the United States. In Prague, he met with the Czech president, prime minister and other representatives to promote relations and economic cooperation between the Czech Republic and the PRC. His visit was met by a considerable number of protests by Czechs.


title: Xi Jinping

text: In January 2017, Xi became the first Chinese paramount leader to plan to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos. On 17 January, Xi addressed the forum in a high-profile keynote, addressing globalization, the global trade agenda, and China's rising place in the world's economy and international governance; he made a series of pledges about China's defense of "economic globalization" and climate change accords. Premier Li Keqiang attended the forum in 2015 and Vice-president Li Yuanchao did so in 2016. During the three-day state visit to the country in 2017 Xi also visited the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee.


title: Xi Jinping

text: On 20 June 2019, Xi visited Pyongyang, becoming the first Chinese leader to visit North Korea since his predecessor Hu Jintao's visit in 2004. On 27 June, he attended the G20 summit in Osaka. On 17 January 2020, Xi visited Myanmar, meeting president Win Myint, state councillor Aung San Suu Kyi and military leader Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Between 2020 and 2022, Xi paused foreign travel, speculated to be due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 14 February 2022, Xi visited Astana, Kazakhstan, his first trip overseas since the start of the pandemic, meeting president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. A day later, he visited Uzbekistan to attend the 2022 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. There he met with Central Asian leaders as well as Russian president Vladimir Putin, his first since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Between 15-16 November 2022, Xi attended the G20 Summit in Bali, meeting numerous world leaders including the US president Joe Biden, Australian prime minister Antony Albanese, French president Emmanuel Macron and South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol. Between 16-19 November, he attended the APEC Summit in Thailand, meeting leaders including Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, Thai prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and US vice president Kamala Harris. Between 7 and 10 December, he visited Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he met king Salman, and crown prince and prime minister Mohammed bin Salman. He also met with numerous Arab leaders, including members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. During the meeting, he signed numerous commercial deals with Saudi Arabia and formally elevated the relationship to comprehensive strategic partnership, highest level in China's formal ranking of relations with other countries.


title: Xi Jinping

text: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was unveiled by Xi in September and October 2013 during visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia, and was thereafter promoted by Premier Li Keqiang during state visits to Asia and Europe. Xi made the announcement for the initiative while in Astana, Kazakhstan, and called it a "golden opportunity". BRI has been called Xi's "signature project", involving numerous infrastructure development and investment projects throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. BRI was added to the CCP Constitution at the closing session of the 19th Party Congress on 24 October 2017, further elevating its importance. Since the BRI was launched, China became the world's largest lender, lending about $1 trillion dollars in a decade to almost 150 countries. However, by 2022, many BRI projects have stalled, and most of China's debt became held by countries in financial distress, leading the Chinese leaders to adopt a more conservative approach to BRI, dubbed as "Belt and Road Initiative 2.0".


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi has devoted a large amount of work towards national security, calling for a "holistic national security architecture" that encompasses "all aspects of the work of the party and the country". During a private talk with U.S. president Obama and vice president Biden, he said that China had been a target of "colour revolutions", foreshadowing his focus on national security. Since its creation by Xi, the National Security Commission has established local security committees, focusing on dissent. In the name of national security, Xi's government has passed numerous laws including a counterespionage law in 2014, national security and a counterterrorism law in 2015, a cybersecurity law and a law restricting foreign NGOs in 2016, a national intelligence law in 2017, and a data security law in 2021. Under Xi, China's mass surveillance network has dramatically grown, with comprehensive profiles being built for each citizen. Internal Chinese government documents leaked to the press in November 2019 showed that Xi repeatedly discussed about Islamic extremism in his speeches, likening it to a "virus" or a "drug" that could be only addressed by "a period of painful, interventionary treatment." However, he also warned against the discrimination against Uyghurs and rejected proposals to eradicate Islam in China, calling that kind of viewpoint "biased, even wrong".


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi has supported and pursued a greater economic integration of Hong Kong to mainland China through projects such as the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge. He has pushed for the Greater Bay Area project, which aims to integrate Hong Kong, Macau, and nine other cities in Guangdong. Xi's push for greater integration has created fears of decreasing freedoms in Hong Kong. Xi has supported the Hong Kong Government and chief executive Carrie Lam against the protesters in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. He has defended the Hong Kong police's use of force, saying that "We sternly support the Hong Kong police to take forceful actions in enforcing the law, and the Hong Kong judiciary to punish in accordance with the law those who have committed violent crimes." While visiting Macau on 20 December 2019 as part of the 20th anniversary of its return to China, Xi warned of foreign forces interfering in Hong Kong and Macau, while also hinting that Macau could be a model for Hong Kong to follow.


title: Xi Jinping

text: In 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) passed a national security law in Hong Kong that dramatically expanded government clampdown over the opposition in the city. This was seem as the culmination of a long-term project under Xi to further closely integrate Hong Kong with the mainland. Xi visited Hong Kong as president in 2017 and 2022, in the 20th and 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong respectively. In his 2022 visit, he swore in John Lee as chief executive, a former police officer that was backed by the Chinese government to expand control over the city. While in the city, he said Hong Kong had moved from "chaos" to "stability". Since John Lee became chief executive, Hong Kong government officials including Lee himself have shown public displays of loyalty towards Xi, similar to the mainland but previously unheard in the city.


title: Xi Jinping

text: According to the Human Rights Watch, Xi has "started a broad and sustained offensive on human rights" since he became leader in 2012. The HRW also said that repression in China is "at its worst level since the Tiananmen Square massacre." Since taking power, Xi has cracked down on grassroots activism, with hundreds being detained. He presided over the 709 crackdown on 9 July 2015, which saw more than 200 lawyers, legal assistants and human rights activists being detained. His term has seen the arrest and imprisonment of activists such as Xu Zhiyong, as well as numerous others who identified with the New Citizens' Movement. Prominent legal activist Pu Zhiqiang of the Weiquan movement was also arrested and detained.


title: Xi Jinping

text: In 2017, the local government of the Jiangxi province told Christians to replace their pictures of Jesus with Xi Jinping as part of a general campaign on unofficial churches in the country. According to local social media, officials "transformed them from believing in religion to believing in the party". According to activists, "Xi is waging the most severe systematic suppression of Christianity in the country since religious freedom was written into the Chinese constitution in 1982", and according to pastors and a group that monitors religion in China, has involved "destroying crosses, burning bibles, shutting churches and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith".


title: Xi Jinping

text: Following several terrorist attacks in Xinjiang in 2013 and 2014, Xi launched the Strike Hard Campaign Against Violent Terrorism in 2014, which involved mass detention, and surveillance of ethnic Uyghurs there. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang between 27 and 30 April in 2014. The program was massively expanded in 2017. As of 2020, China is holding 1.8 million people, mostly Uyghurs but also including other ethnic and religious minorities, in internment camps in Xinjiang. Various human rights groups and former inmates have described the camps as "concentration camps", where Uyghurs and other minorities have been forcibly assimilated into China's majority ethnic Han society. This program has been called a genocide by some observers, while a report by the UN Human Rights Office said they may amount to crimes against humanity. Internal Chinese government documents leaked to the press in November 2019 showed that Xi personally ordered a security crackdown in Xinjiang, saying that the party must show "absolutely no mercy" and that officials use all the "weapons of the people's democratic dictatorship" to suppress those "infected with the virus of extremism". Xi's exact role in the building of internment camps has not been publicly reported, though he's widely believed to be behind them and his words have been the source for major justifications in the crackdown in Xinjiang. In the Xinjiang Police Files leaked in 2022, a document quoting Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi suggested that Xi had been aware of the internment camps.


title: Xi Jinping

text: On 20 January 2020, Xi commented for the first time on the emerging COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, and ordered "efforts to curb the spread" of the virus. He gave premier Li Keqiang some responsibility over the COVID-19 response, in what has been suggested by "The Wall Street Journal" was an attempt to potentially insulate himself from criticism if the response failed. The government initially responded to the pandemic with a lockdown and censorship, with the initial response causing widespread backlash within China. He met with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), on 28 January. "Der Spiegel" reported that in January 2020 Xi pressured Tedros Adhanom to hold off on issuing a global warning about the outbreak of COVID-19 and hold back information on human-to-human transmission of the virus, allegations denied by the WHO. On 5 February, Xi met with Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen in Beijing, the first foreign leader allowed into China since the outbreak. After the COVID-19 outbreak got under control in Wuhan, Xi visited the city on 10 March.


title: Xi Jinping

text: After getting the outbreak in Wuhan under control, Xi has favoured what has officially been termed "dynamic zero-COVID policy" that aims to control and suppress the virus as much as possible within the country's borders. This has involved local lockdowns and mass-testing. While initially credited for China's suppression of the COVID-19 outbreak, the policy was later criticized by foreign and some domestic observers for being out of touch with the rest of the world and taking a heavy toll on the economy. This approach has especially come under criticism during a 2022 lockdown on Shanghai, which forced millions to their homes and damaged the city's economy, denting the image of Li Qiang, close Xi ally and Party secretary of the city. Conversely, Xi has said that the policy was designed to protect people's life safety. On 23 July 2022, the National Health Commission reported that Xi and other top leaders have taken the local COVID-19 vaccines.


title: Xi Jinping

text: At the 20th CCP Congress, Xi confirmed the continuation of the zero-COVID policy, stating he would "unswervingly" carry out "dynamic zero-Covid" and promising to "resolutely win the battle," though China started a limited easing of the policies in the following weeks. In November 2022, protests broke out against China's COVID-19 policies, with a fire in a high rise in Ürümqi being the trigger. The protests were held in multiple major cities, with some of the protestors demanding the end of Xi's and CCP's rule. The protests were mostly suppressed by the government by December, while the government started further easing the COVID-19 controls after the protests. On 7 December 2022, China announced large changes to its COVID-19 policy, including allowing quarantine at home for mild infections, reducing of PCR testing, and decreasing the power of local officials to implement lockdowns.


title: Xi Jinping

text: In September 2020, Xi announced that China will "strengthen its 2030 climate target (NDC), peak emissions before 2030 and aim to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060". If accomplished, this would lower the expected rise in global temperature by 0.2–0.3 °C – "the biggest single reduction ever estimated by the Climate Action Tracker". Xi mentioned the link between the COVID-19 pandemic and nature destruction as one of the reasons for the decision, saying that "Humankind can no longer afford to ignore the repeated warnings of nature." On 27 September, Chinese scientists presented a detailed plan how to achieve the target. In September 2021, Xi announced that China will not build "coal-fired power projects abroad, which was said to be potentially "pivotal" in reducing emissions. The Belt and Road Initiative did not include financing such projects already in the first half of 2021.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi Jinping did not attend COP26 personally. However, a Chinese delegation led by climate change envoy Xie Zhenhua did attend. During the conference, the United States and China agreed on a framework to reduce GHG emission by co-operating on different measures.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Known as a very secretive leader, little is known publicly about how Xi makes political decisions, or how he came to power. Xi's speeches generally get released months or years after they are made. Xi has also never given a press conference since becoming paramount leader, except in rare joint press conferences with foreign leaders. "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Xi prefers micromanaging in governance, in contrast to previous leaders such as Hu Jintao who left details of major policies to lower-ranking officials. Reportedly, ministerial officials try to get Xi's attention in various ways, with some creating slide shows and audio reports. "The Wall Street Journal" also reported that Xi created a performance-review system in 2018 to give evaluations on officials on various measures, including loyalty. According to "The Economist", Xi's orders have generally been vague, leaving lower level officials to interpret his words. Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency said that Xi "personally reviews every draft of major policy documents" and "all reports submitted to him, no matter how late in the evening, were returned with instructions the following morning". Xi called for officials to practice self-criticism which, according to observers, is in order to appear less corrupt and more popular among the people.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi and CCP ideologues coined the phrase "Chinese Dream" to describe his overarching plans for China as its leader. Xi first used the phrase during a high-profile visit to the National Museum of China on 29 November 2012, where he and his Standing Committee colleagues were attending a "national revival" exhibition. Since then, the phrase has become the signature political slogan of the Xi era. The origin of the term "Chinese Dream" is unclear. While the phrase has been used before by journalists and scholars, some publications have posited the term likely drew its inspiration from the concept of the American Dream. "The Economist" noted the abstract and seemingly accessible nature of the concept with no specific overarching policy stipulations may be a deliberate departure from the jargon-heavy ideologies of his predecessors. Xi has linked the "Chinese Dream" with the phrase "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation".


title: Xi Jinping

text: In recent years, top political leaders of the CCP such as Xi have overseen the rehabilitation of ancient Chinese philosophical figures like Han Fei into the mainstream of Chinese thought alongside Confucianism. At a meeting with other officials in 2013, he quoted Confucius, saying "he who rules by virtue is like the Pole Star, it maintains its place, and the multitude of stars pay homage." While visiting Shandong, the birthplace of Confucius, in November, he told scholars that the Western world was "suffering a crisis of confidence" and that the CCP has been "the loyal inheritor and promoter of China's outstanding traditional culture."


title: Xi Jinping

text: According to several analysts, Xi's leadership has been characterised by a resurgence of the ancient political philosophy Legalism. Han Fei gained new prominence with favourable citations; one sentence of Han Fei's that Xi quoted appeared thousands of times in official Chinese media at the local, provincial, and national levels. Xi has additionally supported the Neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming, telling local leaders to promote him.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi has also overseen a revival of traditional Chinese culture, breaking apart from CCP's path, which had often attacked it. He has called traditional culture the "soul" of the nation and the "foundation" of the CCP's culture. Hanfu, the traditional dress of Han Chinese, has seen a revival under him, associated with the revival of traditional culture.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi has said that "only socialism can save China". Xi has also declared Deng Xiaoping's socialism with Chinese characteristics to be the "only correct path to realize national rejuvenation". According to BBC News, while the CCP was perceived to have abandoned its communist ideology since it initiated economic reforms in the 1970s, Xi is believed by some observers to be more believing in the "idea of a communist project", being described as a Marxist–Leninist by former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd. Subscribing to the view that socialism will eventually triumph over capitalism, he has said "Marx and Engels's analysis of the basic contradictions of capitalist society is not outdated, nor is the historical materialist view that capitalism is bound to die out and socialism bound to win". Xi has overseen the increase of "Socialist Political Economy With Chinese Characteristics" as a major study topic for academics in China, aiming to decrease the influence of Western-influenced economics. Though he has called a stop to what he considers to be "disorderly expansion of capital", he has also said that "it is necessary to stimulate the vitality of capital of all types, including nonpublic capital, and give full play to its positive role".


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi has supported greater CCP control over the PRC, saying "government, the military, society and schools, north, south, east and west – the party leads them all". During the 100th anniversary of the CCP in 2021, he said that "without the Communist Party of China, there would be no new China and no national rejuvenation", and that "the leadership of the Party is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and constitutes the greatest strength of this system". He has said that China, despite many setbacks, has achieved great progress under the CCP, saying that "socialism with Chinese characteristics has become the standard-bearer of 21st-century socialist development". However, he has also warned that it will take a long time for China under the CCP to complete its rejuvenation, and during this timeframe, party members must be vigilant to not let CCP rule collapse.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi has ruled out a multi-party system for China, saying that "constitutional monarchy, imperial restoration, parliamentarism, a multi-party system and a presidential system, we considered them, tried them, but none worked". However, Xi considers China to be a democracy, saying that "China’s socialist democracy is the most comprehensive, genuine and effective democracy". China's definition of democracy is different from liberal democracies and is rooted in Marxism–Leninism, and is based on the phrases "people's democratic dictatorship" and "democratic centralism". Xi has additionally coined the term "whole-process people's democracy" (), which he said was about having "the people as masters". Foreign analysts and observers have widely disputed that China is a democracy, saying that it is a one-party authoritarian state and Xi an authoritarian leader. Some observers have called Xi a dictator, citing the large centralisation of power around him unseen compared to his predecessors.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Document No. 9, officially the ″Communiqué on the Current State of the Ideological Sphere″, is a confidential internal document widely circulated within the CCP in 2013 by the party's General Office. It was published in July 2012. The document officially warns of promoting seven dangerous Western values:


title: Xi Jinping

text: Although it predates Xi Jinping's formal rise to the top party and state posts, the release of this internal document, which has introduced new topics that were previously not "off-limits", was being closely associated with Xi Jinping by "The New York Times".


title: Xi Jinping

text: In September 2017, the CCP Central Committee decided that Xi's political philosophies, generally referred to as "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era", would become part of the Party Constitution. Xi first made mention of the "Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" in his opening day speech delivered to the 19th Party Congress in October 2017. His Politburo Standing Committee colleagues, in their own reviews of Xi's keynote address at the Congress, prepended the name "Xi Jinping" in front of "Thought". On 24 October 2017, at its closing session, the 19th Party Congress approved the incorporation of Xi Jinping Thought into the Constitution of the CCP, while in March 2018, the National People's Congress changed the state constitution to include Xi Jinping Thought.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi himself has described the Thought as part of the broad framework created around Socialism with Chinese characteristics, a term coined by Deng Xiaoping that places China in the primary stage of socialism. In official party documentation and pronouncements by Xi's colleagues, the Thought is said to be a continuation of Marxism–Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development, as part of a series of guiding ideologies that embody "Marxism adopted to Chinese conditions" and contemporary considerations. It has additionally been described as the "21st century Marxism" by two professors in the Central Party School of the CCP. Wang Huning, a top political adviser and a close ally of Xi, has been described as pivotal to developing Xi Jinping Thought. The concepts and context behind Xi Jinping Thought are elaborated in Xi's "The Governance of China" book series, published by the Foreign Languages Press for an international audience. Volume one was published in September 2014, followed by volume two in November 2017.


title: Xi Jinping

text: An app for teaching Xi Jinping Thought had become the most popular smartphone app in China in 2019, as the country's ruling CCP launched a new campaign that calls on its cadres to immerse themselves in the political doctrine every day. "Xuexi Qiangguo" is now the most downloaded item on Apple's domestic App Store, surpassing in demand social media apps such as WeChat and TikTok. In 2021, the government included Xi Jinping Thought in the curriculum including to students from primary schools to university, which created pushback from parents. For much of the preceding 30 years, political ideology and communist doctrine were not a standard taught in Chinese schools until middle school, and textbooks featured a wider set of Chinese leaders with less emphasis on a single leader like Xi.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi's first marriage was to Ke Lingling, the daughter of Ke Hua, China's ambassador to the United Kingdom in the early 1980s. They divorced within a few years. The two were said to fight "almost every day", and after the divorce Ke moved to England. In 1987, Xi married the prominent Chinese folk singer Peng Liyuan. Xi and Peng were introduced by friends as many Chinese couples were in the 1980s. Xi was reputedly academic during their courtship, inquiring about singing techniques. Peng Liyuan, a household name in China, was better known to the public than Xi until his political elevation. The couple frequently lived apart due largely to their separate professional lives. Peng has played a much more visible role as China's "first lady" compared to her predecessors; for example, Peng hosted U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama on her high-profile visit to China in March 2014.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi and Peng have a daughter named Xi Mingze, who graduated from Harvard University in the spring of 2015. While at Harvard, she used a pseudonym and studied Psychology and English. Xi's family has a home in Jade Spring Hill, a garden and residential area in north-western Beijing run by the CMC.


title: Xi Jinping

text: In June 2012, "Bloomberg News" reported that members of Xi's extended family have substantial business interests, although there was no evidence he had intervened to assist them. The "Bloomberg" website was blocked in mainland China in response to the article. Since Xi embarked on an anti-corruption campaign, "The New York Times" reported members of his family were selling their corporate and real estate investments beginning in 2012. Relatives of highly placed Chinese officials, including seven current and former senior leaders of the Politburo of the CCP, have been named in the Panama Papers, including Deng Jiagui, Xi's brother-in-law. Deng had two shell companies in the British Virgin Islands while Xi was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, but they were dormant by the time Xi became general secretary of the CCP in November 2012.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Peng described Xi as hardworking and down-to-earth: "When he comes home, I've never felt as if there's some leader in the house. In my eyes, he's just my husband." Xi was described in a 2011 "Washington Post" article by those who know him as "pragmatic, serious, cautious, hard-working, down to earth and low-key". He was described as a good hand at problem solving and "seemingly uninterested in the trappings of high office".


title: Xi Jinping

text: It is hard to gauge the opinion of the Chinese public on Xi, as no independent surveys exist in China and social media is heavily censored. However, he is believed to be widely popular in the country. According to a 2014 poll co-sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Xi ranked 9 out of 10 in domestic approval ratings. A YouGov poll released in July 2019 found that about 22% of people in mainland China list Xi as the person they admire the most, a plurality, although this figure was less than 5% for residents of Hong Kong. In the spring of 2019, the Pew Research Center made a survey on confidence on Xi Jinping among six-country medians based on Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and South Korea. The survey indicated that a median 29% have confidence in Xi Jinping to do the right thing regarding world affairs, meanwhile a median of 45% have no confidence. These numbers are slightly higher than those of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (23% confidence, 53% no confidence). A poll by Politico and Morning Consult in 2021 found that 5% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Xi, 38% unfavorable, 17% no opinion and 40%, a plurality, never hearing of him.


title: Xi Jinping

text: In 2017, "The Economist" named him the most powerful person in the world. In 2018, "Forbes" ranked him as the most powerful and influential person in the world, replacing Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had been ranked so for five consecutive years. In 2016 and 2021, Reporters Without Borders, an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information, included Xi among the list of press freedom predators.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Unlike previous Chinese leaders, Chinese state media has given a more encompassing view of Xi's private life, although still strictly controlled. According to Xinhua News Agency, Xi would swim one kilometer and walk every day as long as there was time, and is interested in foreign writers, especially Russian. He is known to love films and TV shows such as "Saving Private Ryan", "The Departed," "The Godfather" and "Game of Thrones," also praising the independent film-maker Jia Zhangke. The Chinese state media has also cast him as a fatherly figure and a man of the people, determined to stand up for Chinese interests.


title: Xi Jinping

text: Xi holds a "key to the city", an honor granted to attending guests to symbolize their significance, in:


title: Blake Lively

text: Blake Ellender Lively ( Brown; born August 25, 1987) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, Lively is the daughter of actor Ernie Lively, and made her professional debut in his directorial project "Sandman" (1998). She starred as Bridget Vreeland in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" (2005) alongside its sequel "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" (2008) to commercial success. She appeared opposite Justin Long in the comedy "Accepted" (2006) and gained notability and widespread recognition for her portrayal of Serena van der Woodsen in the CW teen drama television series "Gossip Girl" (2007–2012).


title: Blake Lively

text: She has starred in romantic comedies including "New York, I Love You" (2008) and "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" (2009). Lively starred opposite Ben Affleck in the crime thriller "The Town" (2010) and appeared with her future husband Ryan Reynolds in "Green Lantern" (2011). She was in the ensemble cast of "Savages" (2012) and garnered acclaim for portraying the titular character in romantic fantasy "The Age of Adaline" (2015). She appeared in survivor horror film "The Shallows" (2016) and psychological drama "All I See Is You" (2016). She starred opposite Anna Kendrick in the box-office hit "A Simple Favor" (2018), and in "The Rhythm Section" (2020), where she received critical praise.


title: Blake Lively

text: Lively was born Blake Ellender Brown on August 25, 1987, in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Elaine, worked as a talent scout, and her father, Ernie Lively, was an actor. Lively was named after her grandmother's brother. She has an older brother, Eric, and three half-siblings from her mother's previous marriage, Lori, Robyn, and Jason. Her parents and siblings have all worked in the entertainment industry.


title: Blake Lively

text: During her childhood, Lively accompanied her parents to the acting classes they taught, as they did not want to leave her with a babysitter. She said that watching her parents teach helped her learn the "drills" and gain confidence as she got older and began working in the industry. She made her professional debut at age 10, when she appeared in the 1998 film "Sandman", directed by Lively's father. She describes her role as a "bit part". She was initially not particularly interested in acting and wanted to attend Stanford University.


title: Blake Lively

text: She attended Burbank High School, where she was a cheerleader, a member of the championship choir, and class president. Her elder brother asked his talent agent to send her to several auditions in the summer months. She was subsequently cast as Bridget in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" (2005) and filmed her scenes between her junior and senior years of high school.


title: Blake Lively

text: "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" was released in 2005. Lively's performance earned her a nomination for a Teen Choice Award for "Choice Movie Breakout – Female. In 2006, Lively co-starred with Justin Long in "Accepted", and Lively had minor roles in the horror film, "Simon Says". "Accepted" was not well received by critics, but Lively's performance was, earning her a 'Breakthrough Award' from "Hollywood Life". Lively starred in "Elvis and Anabelle" (2007) as Anabelle, a bulimic girl who hoped to win a beauty pageant. Lively said of getting into character for the role that she had "shed serious weight" for her height. She stated that that process was difficult for her because food is "the No. 1 love of my life." MovieLine.com praised her performance in the film and credited it as having been her "breakthrough role".


title: Blake Lively

text: Lively was cast in The CW's series "Gossip Girl", based on the novel series of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar, which premiered in September 2007. Already having deferred college for a year, Lively intended to turn the role down and become a student, but was told that she could attend college part-time while filming the show (she later said "This is advice to anyone: when they say, 'We promise, but we can't put it in writing,' there's a reason they can't put it in writing"). She played the role of Serena van der Woodsen in the teen drama until 2012 when the show ended. Her first magazine cover was the November 2007 issue of "CosmoGirl", where she discussed her time in high school and her career prior to "Gossip Girl".


title: Blake Lively

text: In 2008, Lively reprised her role as Bridget in the sequel "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2". Similarly to the first film, Lively's performance was positively received by critics. As of November 2008, the film had earned over $44 million at the box office. In 2009, she appeared as Gabrielle DiMarco in the romantic comedy "New York, I Love You", a sequel to the 2006 film "Paris, je t'aime". Despite positive critical reception, the film failed at the box office.


title: Blake Lively

text: Lively portrayed the younger version of the titlular character in "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" (2009) to critical acclaim. Paul Byrnes, of the "Brisbane Times", described Lively's performance in the film as "sensational". In October 2009, Lively began filming her scenes for her role as Kristina "Kris" Coughlin in the 2010 film "The Town", based on Chuck Hogan's novel "Prince of Thieves". The film, which was directed by and starred Ben Affleck, was released in the United States on September 17, 2010. On her performance, "Variety" wrote that Lively was "almost unrecognizable [and] has fierce, pained moments as the moll and single mother .. tossed aside." In December of that year, Lively appeared in the music video for The Lonely Island's "I Just Had Sex" together with Jessica Alba. Lively played Carol Ferris, the female lead and love interest of Hal Jordan in the superhero film "Green Lantern", which was released in June 2011. The film grossed a worldwide total of $219,851,172. In 2011 she was featured in the annual "Time" magazine 100 influential people. Additionally, AskMen.com named her the most desirable woman of 2011 and "People" magazine named her one of 2012's Most Beautiful at Every Age.


title: Blake Lively

text: In 2012, she starred in Oliver Stone's "Savages" alongside Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, Salma Hayek, and John Travolta. Lively replaced Jennifer Lawrence as Ophelia, after the latter dropped out to do "The Hunger Games". "HitFix" film critic Drew McWeeny said Lively's performance was "smart and sad precisely because she plays O as such a broken, needy little soul". Also that year, she was selected as the face of the new Gucci fragrance, Gucci Premiere. She appeared in a short film ad directed by Nicolas Winding Refn for the fragrance.


title: Blake Lively

text: In October 2013, Lively was named the new face of L'Oreal, marking her first major makeup campaign. Lively starred in the film "The Age of Adaline" (2015), opposite Michiel Huisman and Harrison Ford, playing a woman who "stops aging after recovering from a near-fatal accident." The film was a modest commercial success, grossing $65.7 million from a production budget of $25 million. "The Atlantic" stated that Lively showed her "potential as a leading lady" primarily in the second half of the film, citing her "clipped delivery and coy restraint" as well as her "capable perform[ance]" within the emotional intensity of the film. In 2016, Lively starred in the survival horror film "The Shallows". It received positive reviews and Lively's performance was praised by critics. That year, Lively also starred in Woody Allen's romantic comedy film, "Café Society" which premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival and received critical acclaim. Lively enjoyed her experience working with Allen stating, "It's really cool to work with a director who's done so much, because he knows exactly what he wants", adding that he was "very empowering".


title: Blake Lively

text: Lively starred opposite Jason Clarke in psychological drama "All I See Is You" (2016), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to mixed reviews. In 2018, Lively starred in the mystery-thriller "A Simple Favor", alongside Anna Kendrick and Henry Golding, and directed by Paul Feig. The film was released on September 14 and Lively's performance was acclaimed. "Variety" wrote that "She has her moments .. many of them physical .. Lively's Emily is both repellent and irresistible." Lively next played the lead, a drug-addicted prostitute turned assassin, in "The Rhythm Section", the film adaptation of the Mark Burnell novel of the same name, produced by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, and directed by Reed Morano. The film was released by Paramount Pictures on January 31, 2020. "Variety" noted Lively's performance as "display[ing] a realistic near-incompetence in the face of danger [that] makes her relatable in ways very few cinematic assassins have ever been."


title: Blake Lively

text: In May 2021, it was announced that Lively will star in "Lady Killer" as the lead character, Josie Schuller. Lively made her directorial debut as the co-writer and director of the music video for Taylor Swift's song "I Bet You Think About Me" featuring American singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton, released on November 15, 2021, from Swift's re-recorded album "Red (Taylor's Version)" (2021). In April 2022, it was announced Lively would make her feature directing debut with an adaptation of the graphic novel "Seconds" by Bryan Lee O'Malley, with Edgar Wright writing the screenplay and producing.


title: Blake Lively

text: Lively describes herself as a "foodie and cook", and has said Martha Stewart is her "idol". She is also a fan of Nigella Lawson's work. In 2008, Lively baked a cake with Stewart during an episode of "The Martha Stewart Show". In 2009, Lively stated that she "hoped one day to have an interior decorating company", citing her love for antiques and fascination with "colors and textures and layering things". In 2010, she attended a tailor-made workshop at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and has spoken of her desire to return to the culinary school for further instruction.


title: Blake Lively

text: She has remarked that, when travelling, she always takes cookery classes to immerse herself in the local culture. In 2010 and again in 2011, Lively spoke publicly of her desire to become a restaurateur. In 2011, she created a s'mores cupcake to be sold at Sprinkles bakeries. In 2012, Lively's wedding reception was featured in "Martha Stewart Weddings"; food photography was the focal point of the picture spread. In 2013, she appeared in "Elle Decor" to recount her experiences designing a custom La Cornue oven for her newly purchased Bedford home. In 2013, she filmed a cooking segment for "Vogue" website, demonstrating how to make a brie pastry. In 2014, she launched "Preserve", a digital magazine and e-commerce website with hand-made one-of-a-kind items all selected by Lively; on October 9, 2015, Lively closed the site, stating that it had been launched before it was ready, and that she plans to rebuild and relaunch it properly.


title: Blake Lively

text: During the 2008 United States presidential election, Lively expressed her support for Barack Obama. Lively and Penn Badgley appeared in a pro-Obama commercial, as part of MoveOn.org's Youth Vote program. The commercial, directed by Doug Liman, aired during "Gossip Girl" on the CW, MTV and Comedy Central. In 2013, she appeared in a video clip for Gucci's "Chime for Change" campaign that aims to raise funds and awareness of women's issues in the areas of education, health, and justice. In addition, Lively has worked to heighten public awareness of missing and exploited children and on-going efforts of law enforcement on their behalf.


title: Blake Lively

text: Lively first met Ryan Reynolds in early 2010 while filming "Green Lantern", in which they co-starred. They began dating in October 2011 and married on September 9, 2012, at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The couple have three daughters: born December 2014, September 2016 and October 2019. As of 2022, she is pregnant with their fourth child. The family reside in Pound Ridge, New York.


title: Blake Lively

text: Lively and Reynolds are close friends with singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, who named the characters in her song "Betty" after their daughters.


title: The Godfather

text: The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, and Diane Keaton. It is the first installment in "The Godfather" trilogy, chronicling the Corleone family under patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando) from 1945 to 1955. It focuses on the transformation of his youngest son, Michael Corleone (Pacino), from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss.


title: The Godfather

text: Paramount Pictures obtained the rights to the novel for $80,000, before it gained popularity. Studio executives had trouble finding a director; the first few candidates turned down the position before Coppola signed on to direct the film but disagreement followed over casting several characters, in particular, Vito (Marlon Brando) and Michael (Al Pacino). Filming took place primarily on location around New York City and in Sicily, and was completed ahead of schedule. The musical score was composed principally by Nino Rota, with additional pieces by Carmine Coppola.


title: The Godfather

text: "The Godfather" premiered at the Loew's State Theatre on March 14, 1972, and was widely released in the United States on March 24, 1972. It was the highest-grossing film of 1972, and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever made, earning between $250 and $291 million at the box office. The film received universal acclaim from critics and audiences, with praise for the performances, particularly those of Brando and Pacino, direction, screenplay, cinematography, editing, score, and portrayal of the mafia. "The Godfather" acted as a catalyst for the successful careers of Coppola, Pacino, and other relative newcomers in the cast and crew. The film also revitalized Brando's career, which had declined in the 1960s, and he went on to star in films such as "Last Tango in Paris", "Superman", and "Apocalypse Now". At the 45th Academy Awards, the film won Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Puzo and Coppola). In addition, the seven other Oscar nominations included Pacino, Caan, and Duvall all for Best Supporting Actor, and Coppola for Best Director.


title: The Godfather

text: "The Godfather" is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, as well as a landmark of the gangster genre. It was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and is ranked the second-greatest film in American cinema (behind "Citizen Kane") by the American Film Institute. It was followed by sequels "The Godfather Part II" (1974) and "The Godfather Part III" (1990).


title: The Godfather

text: In 1945 New York City, Corleone crime family don Vito Corleone listens to requests during his daughter Connie's wedding to Carlo. Michael, Vito's youngest son and a former Marine, introduces his girlfriend, Kay Adams, to his family at the reception. Johnny Fontane, a popular singer and Vito's godson, seeks Vito's help in securing a movie role. Vito sends his consigliere, Tom Hagen, to persuade studio head Jack Woltz to offer Johnny the part. Woltz refuses Hagen's request, which he soon complies with after finding the severed head of his prized racing horse in his bed.


title: The Godfather

text: Near Christmas, drug baron Sollozzo asks Vito to invest in his narcotics business and for protection from the law. Vito declines, citing that involvement in narcotics would alienate his political connections. Suspicious of Sollozzo's partnership with the Tattaglia crime family, Vito sends his enforcer Luca Brasi to meet with the Tattaglias. Brasi is garroted to death during the meeting. Later, enforcers gun down Vito and kidnap Hagen. With Corleone's first-born Sonny now in command, Sollozzo pressures Hagen to persuade Sonny to accept the narcotics deal. Sonny retaliates for Brasi's death with a hit on Bruno Tattaglia. Vito survives the shooting and is visited in the hospital by Michael, who finds him unprotected after NYPD officers on Sollozzo's payroll cleared out Vito's guards. Michael thwarts another attempt on his father's life but is beaten by corrupt police captain Mark McCluskey. Sollozzo and McCluskey request to meet with Michael and settle the dispute. Michael feigns interest and agrees to meet, but hatches a plan with Sonny and Corleone capo Clemenza to kill them and go into hiding. Michael meets Sollozzo and McCluskey at a Bronx restaurant; after retrieving a handgun planted in the bathroom by Clemenza, he shoots both men dead.


title: The Godfather

text: Despite a clampdown by the authorities for the killing of a police captain, the Five Families erupt in open warfare. Michael takes refuge in Sicily and Fredo, Vito's second son, is sheltered by Moe Greene in Las Vegas. Sonny publicly attacks and threatens Carlo for physically abusing Connie. When he abuses her again, Sonny speeds to their home but is ambushed and murdered by gangsters at a highway toll booth. In Sicily, Michael meets and marries a local woman, Apollonia, but she is killed shortly thereafter by a car bomb intended for him.


title: The Godfather

text: Devastated by Sonny's death and tired of war, Vito sets a meeting with the Five Families. He assures them that he will withdraw his opposition to their narcotics business and forgo avenging Sonny's murder. His safety guaranteed, Michael returns home to enter the family business and marry Kay. Kay gives birth to two children in the early 1950s. With his father nearing the end of his life and Fredo not suited to lead, Michael assumes the position of head of the Corleone family. Vito reveals to Michael that it was Don Barzini who ordered the hit on Sonny and warns him that Barzini would try to kill him at a meeting organized by a traitorous Corleone capo. With Vito's support, Michael relegates Hagen to managing operations in Las Vegas as he is not a "wartime consigliere". Michael travels to Las Vegas to buy out Greene's stake in the family's casinos and is dismayed to see that Fredo is more loyal to Greene than to his own family.


title: The Godfather

text: In 1955, Vito dies of a heart attack while playing with his grandchild. At Vito's funeral, Tessio asks Michael to meet with Barzini, signaling his betrayal. The meeting is set for the same day as the baptism of Connie's baby. While Michael stands at the altar as the child's godfather, Corleone hitmen murder the dons of the Five Families, plus Greene, and Tessio is executed (offscreen) for his treachery. Michael extracts Carlo's confession to playing a part in Sonny's murder, assuring Carlo he is only being exiled, not murdered; afterward, Clemenza garrotes Carlo to death. Connie confronts Michael about Carlo's death while Kay is in the room. Kay asks Michael if Connie is telling the truth and is relieved when he denies it. As Kay leaves, capos enter the office and pay reverence to Michael as "Don Corleone" before closing the door.


title: The Godfather

text: Other actors playing smaller roles in the Sicilian sequence are Simonetta Stefanelli as Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone, Angelo Infanti as Fabrizio, Corrado Gaipa as Don Tommasino, Franco Citti as Calò, Saro Urzì as Vitelli, and Joe Spinell as Willi Cicci.


title: The Godfather

text: The film is based on Mario Puzo's "The Godfather", which remained on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for 67 weeks and sold over nine million copies in two years. Published in 1969, it became the best selling published work in history for several years. Paramount Pictures originally found out about Puzo's novel in 1967 when a literary scout for the company contacted then Paramount Vice President of Production Peter Bart about Puzo's unfinished sixty-page manuscript. Bart believed the work was "much beyond a Mafia story" and offered Puzo a $12,500 option for the work, with an option for $80,000 if the finished work were to be made into a film. Despite Puzo's agent telling him to turn down the offer, Puzo was desperate for money and accepted the deal. Paramount's Robert Evans relates that, when they met in early 1968, he offered Puzo the $12,500 deal for the 60-page manuscript titled "Mafia" after the author confided in him that he urgently needed $10,000 to pay off gambling debts.


title: The Godfather

text: In March 1967, Paramount announced that they backed Puzo's upcoming work in the hopes of making a film. In 1969, Paramount confirmed their intentions to make a film out of the novel for the price of $80,000, with aims to have the film released on Christmas Day in 1971. On March 23, 1970, Albert S. Ruddy was officially announced as the film's producer, in part because studio executives were impressed with his interview and because he was known for bringing his films in under budget.


title: The Godfather

text: Evans wanted the picture to be directed by an Italian American to make the film "ethnic to the core". Paramount's latest mafia movie, "The Brotherhood", had done very poorly at the box office; Evans believed that the reason for its failure was its almost complete lack of cast members or creative personnel of Italian descent (the director Martin Ritt and star Kirk Douglas were not Italian). Sergio Leone was Paramount's first choice to direct the film. Leone turned down the option, in order to work on his own gangster film "Once Upon a Time in America". Peter Bogdanovich was then approached but he also declined the offer because he was not interested in the mafia. In addition, Peter Yates, Richard Brooks, Arthur Penn, Costa-Gavras, and Otto Preminger were all offered the position and declined. Evans' chief assistant Peter Bart suggested Francis Ford Coppola, as a director of Italian ancestry who would work for a low sum and budget after the poor reception of his latest film "The Rain People". Coppola initially turned down the job because he found Puzo's novel sleazy and sensationalist, describing it as "pretty cheap stuff". At the time Coppola's studio, American Zoetrope, owed over $400,000 to Warner Bros. for budget overruns with the film "THX 1138" and when coupled with his poor financial standing, along with advice from friends and family, Coppola reversed his initial decision and took the job. Coppola was officially announced as director of the film on September 28, 1970. Coppola agreed to receive $125,000 and six percent of the gross rentals. Coppola later found a deeper theme for the material and decided that the film should not be about organized crime but a family chronicle, a metaphor for capitalism in America.


title: The Godfather

text: Before "The Godfather" was in production, Paramount had been going through an unsuccessful period. In addition to the failure of "The Brotherhood", other recent films that were produced or co-produced by Paramount had greatly exceeded their budgets: "Darling Lili", "Paint Your Wagon", and "Waterloo". The budget for the film was originally $2.5 million but as the book grew in popularity Coppola argued for and ultimately received a larger budget. Paramount executives wanted the movie to be set in contemporary Kansas City and shot in the studio backlot in order to cut down on costs. Coppola objected and wanted to set the movie in the same time period as the novel, the 1940s and 1950s; Coppola's reasons included: Michael Corleone's Marine Corps stint, the emergence of corporate America, and America in the years after World War II. The novel was becoming increasingly successful and so Coppola's wishes were eventually agreed to. The studio heads subsequently let Coppola film on location in New York City and Sicily.


title: The Godfather

text: Gulf+Western executive Charles Bluhdorn was frustrated with Coppola over the number of screen tests he had performed without finding a person to play the various roles. Production quickly fell behind because of Coppola's indecisiveness and conflicts with Paramount, which led to costs being around $40,000 per day. With costs rising, Paramount had then-Vice President Jack Ballard keep a close eye on production expenses. While filming, Coppola stated that he felt he could be fired at any point as he knew Paramount executives were not happy with many of the decisions he had made. Coppola was aware that Evans had asked Elia Kazan to take over directing the film because he feared that Coppola was too inexperienced to cope with the increased size of the production. Coppola was also convinced that the film editor, Aram Avakian, and the assistant director, Steve Kestner, were conspiring to get him fired. Avakian complained to Evans that he could not edit the scenes correctly because Coppola was not shooting enough footage. Evans was satisfied with the footage being sent to the West Coast and authorized Coppola to fire them both. Coppola later explained: "Like the godfather, I fired people as a preemptory strike. The people who were angling the most to have me fired, I had fired." Brando threatened to quit if Coppola was fired.


title: The Godfather

text: Paramount wanted "The Godfather" to appeal to a wide audience and threatened Coppola with a "violence coach" to make the film more exciting. Coppola added a few more violent scenes to keep the studio happy. The scene in which Connie smashes crockery after finding out Carlo has been cheating was added for this reason.


title: The Godfather

text: On April 14, 1970, it was revealed that Puzo was hired by Paramount for $100,000, along with a percentage of the film's profits, to work on the screenplay for the film. Working from the book, Coppola wanted to have the themes of culture, character, power, and family at the forefront of the film, whereas Puzo wanted to retain aspects from his novel and his initial draft of 150 pages was finished on August 10, 1970. After Coppola was hired as director, both Puzo and Coppola worked on the screenplay, but separately. Puzo worked on his draft in Los Angeles, while Coppola wrote his version in San Francisco. Coppola created a book where he tore pages out of Puzo's book and pasted them into his book. There, he made notes about each of the book's fifty scenes, which related to major themes prevalent in the scene, whether the scene should be included in the film, along with ideas and concepts that could be used when filming to make the film true to Italian culture. The two remained in contact while they wrote their respective screenplays and made decisions on what to include and what to remove for the final version. A second draft was completed on March 1, 1971, and was 173 pages long. The final screenplay was finished on March 29, 1971, and wound up being 163 pages long, 40 pages over what Paramount had asked for. When filming, Coppola referred to the notebook he had created over the final draft of the screenplay. Screenwriter Robert Towne did uncredited work on the script, particularly on the Pacino-Brando garden scene. Despite finishing the third draft, some scenes in the film were still not written yet and were written during production.


title: The Godfather

text: The Italian-American Civil Rights League, led by mobster Joseph Colombo, maintained that the film emphasized stereotypes about Italian-Americans, and wanted all uses of the words "mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" to be removed from the script. The league also requested that all the money earned from the premiere be donated to the league's fund to build a new hospital. Coppola claimed that Puzo's screenplay only contained two instances of the word "mafia" being used, while "Cosa Nostra" was not used at all. They were removed and replaced with other terms, without compromising the story. The league eventually gave its support for the script. Earlier, the windows of producer Albert S. Ruddy's car had been shot out with a note left on the dashboard which essentially said, "shut down the movie—or else."


title: The Godfather

text: Puzo was first to show interest in having Marlon Brando portray Don Vito Corleone by sending a letter to Brando in which he stated Brando was the "only actor who can play the Godfather". Despite Puzo's wishes, the executives at Paramount were against having Brando, partly due to the poor performance of his recent films and also his short temper. Coppola favored Brando or Laurence Olivier for the role, but Olivier's agent refused the role claiming Olivier was sick; however, Olivier went on to star in "Sleuth" later that year. The studio mainly pushed for Ernest Borgnine to receive the part. Others considered were George C. Scott, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn and Orson Welles. Welles was Paramount's preferred choice for the role.


title: The Godfather

text: After months of debate between Coppola and Paramount over Brando, the two finalists for the role were Borgnine and Brando, the latter of whom Paramount president Stanley Jaffe required to perform a screen test. Coppola did not want to offend Brando and stated that he needed to test equipment in order to set up the screen test at Brando's California residence. For make-up, Brando stuck cotton balls in his cheeks, put shoe polish in his hair to darken it, and rolled his collar. Coppola placed Brando's audition tape in the middle of the videos of the audition tapes as the Paramount executives watched them. The executives were impressed with Brando's efforts and allowed Coppola to cast Brando for the role if Brando accepted a lower salary and put up a bond to ensure he would not cause any delays in production. Brando earned $1.6 million from a net participation deal.


title: The Godfather

text: From the start of production, Coppola wanted Robert Duvall to play the part of Tom Hagen. After screen testing several other actors, Coppola eventually got his wish and Duvall was awarded the part. Al Martino, a then famed singer in nightclubs, was notified of the character Johnny Fontane by a friend who read the novel and felt Martino represented the character of Johnny Fontane. Martino then contacted producer Albert S. Ruddy, who gave him the part. However, Martino was stripped of the part after Coppola became director and then awarded the role to singer Vic Damone. According to Martino, after being stripped of the role, he went to Russell Bufalino, his godfather and a crime boss, who then orchestrated the publication of various news articles that claimed Coppola was unaware of Ruddy giving Martino the part. Damone eventually dropped the role because he did not want to provoke the mob, in addition to being paid too little. Ultimately, the part of Johnny Fontane was given to Martino.


title: The Godfather

text: Robert De Niro originally was given the part of Paulie Gatto. A spot in "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" opened up after Al Pacino quit the project in favor of "The Godfather", which led De Niro to audition for the role and leave "The Godfather" after receiving the part. De Niro also cast for the role of Sonny Corleone. After De Niro quit, Johnny Martino was given the role of Gatto. Coppola cast Diane Keaton for the role of Kay Adams due to her reputation for being eccentric. John Cazale was given the part of Fredo Corleone after Coppola saw him perform in an Off Broadway production. Gianni Russo was given the role of Carlo Rizzi after he was asked to perform a screen test in which he acted out the fight between Rizzi and Connie.


title: The Godfather

text: Nearing the start of filming on March 29, Michael Corleone had yet to be cast. Paramount executives wanted a popular actor, either Warren Beatty or Robert Redford. Producer Robert Evans wanted Ryan O'Neal to receive the role in part due to his recent success in "Love Story". Pacino was Coppola's favorite for the role as he could picture him roaming the Sicilian countryside, and wanted an unknown actor who looked like an Italian-American. However, Paramount executives found Pacino to be too short to play Michael. Dustin Hoffman, Martin Sheen, and James Caan also auditioned. Burt Reynolds was offered the role of Michael, but Marlon Brando threatened to quit if Reynolds was hired, so Reynolds turned down the role. Jack Nicholson was also offered the role, but turned it down as he felt that an Italian-American actor should play the role. Caan was well received by the Paramount executives and was given the part of Michael initially, while the role of Sonny Corleone was awarded to Carmine Caridi. Coppola still pushed for Pacino to play Michael after the fact and Evans eventually conceded, allowing Pacino to have the role of Michael as long as Caan played Sonny. Evans preferred Caan over Caridi because Caan was seven inches shorter than Caridi, which was much closer to Pacino's height. Despite agreeing to play Michael Corleone, Pacino was contracted to star in MGM's "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight", but the two studios agreed on a settlement and Pacino was signed by Paramount three weeks before shooting began.


title: The Godfather

text: Coppola gave several roles in the film to family members. He gave his sister, Talia Shire, the role of Connie Corleone. His daughter Sofia played Michael Francis Rizzi, Connie's and Carlo's newborn son. Carmine Coppola, his father, appeared in the film as an extra playing a piano during a scene. Coppola's wife, mother, and two sons all appeared as extras in the picture.


title: The Godfather

text: Before the filming began, the cast received a two-week period for rehearsal, which included a dinner where each actor and actress had to assume character for its duration. Filming was scheduled to begin on March 29, 1971, with the scene between Michael Corleone and Kay Adams as they leave Best & Co. in New York City after shopping for Christmas gifts. The weather on March 23 predicted snow flurries, which caused Ruddy to move the filming date forward; snow did not materialize and a snow machine was used. Principal filming in New York continued until July 2, 1971. Coppola asked for a three-week break before heading overseas to film in Sicily. Following the crew's departure for Sicily, Paramount announced that the release date would be moved to early 1972.


title: The Godfather

text: Cinematographer Gordon Willis initially turned down the opportunity to film "The Godfather" because the production seemed "chaotic" to him. After Willis later accepted the offer, he and Coppola agreed to not use any modern filming devices, helicopters, or zoom lenses. Willis and Coppola chose to use a "tableau format" of filming to make it seem as if it was viewed like a painting. He made use of shadows and low light levels throughout the film to showcase psychological developments. Willis and Coppola agreed to interplay light and dark scenes throughout the film. Willis underexposed the film in order to create a "yellow tone". The scenes in Sicily were shot to display the countryside and "display a more romantic land," giving these scenes a "softer, more romantic" feel than the New York scenes.


title: The Godfather

text: One of the film's most shocking moments involved an actual, severed, horse's head. This scene was filmed at Sands Point Preserve on Long Island. Coppola received some criticism for the scene, although the head was obtained from a dog-food company from a horse that was to be killed regardless of the film. On June 22, the scene where Sonny is killed was shot on a runway at Mitchel Field in Uniondale, where three tollbooths were built, along with guard rails, and billboards to set the scene. Sonny's car was a 1941 Lincoln Continental with holes drilled in it to resemble bullet holes. The scene took three days to film and cost over $100,000.


title: The Godfather

text: Coppola's request to film on location was observed; approximately 90 percent was shot in New York City and its surrounding suburbs, using over 120 distinct locations. Several scenes were filmed at Filmways in East Harlem. The remaining portions were filmed in California, or on-site in Sicily. The scenes set in Las Vegas were not shot on location because there were insufficient funds. Savoca and Forza d'Agrò were the Sicilian towns featured in the film. The opening wedding scene was shot in a Staten Island neighborhood using almost 750 locals as extras. The house used as the Corleone household and the wedding location was at 110 Longfellow Avenue in the Todt Hill neighborhood of Staten Island. The wall around the Corleone compound was made from styrofoam. Scenes set in and around the Corleone olive oil business were filmed on Mott Street.


title: The Godfather

text: After filming had ended on August 7, post-production efforts were focused on trimming the film to a manageable length. In addition, producers and director were still including and removing different scenes from the end product, along with trimming certain sequences. In September, the first rough cut of the film was viewed. Many of the scenes removed from the film were centered around Sonny, which did not advance the plot. By November, Coppola and Ruddy finished the semi-final cut. Debates over personnel involved with the final editing remained even 25 years after the release of the film. The film was shown to Paramount staff and exhibitors in late December 1971 and January 1972.


title: The Godfather

text: Coppola hired Italian composer Nino Rota to create the underscore for the film, including "Love Theme from "The Godfather"". For the score, Rota was to relate to the situations and characters in the film. Rota synthesized new music for the film and took some parts from his 1958 "Fortunella" film score, in order to create an Italian feel and evoke the tragedy within the film. Paramount executive Evans found the score to be too "highbrow" and did not want to use it; however, it was used after Coppola managed to get Evans to agree. Coppola believed that Rota's musical piece gave the film even more of an Italian feel. Coppola's father, Carmine, created some additional music for the film, particularly the music played by the band during the opening wedding scene.


title: The Godfather

text: Incidental music includes, "C'è la luna mezzo mare" and Cherubino's aria, "Non so più cosa son" from "Le Nozze di Figaro". There was a soundtrack released for the film in 1972 in vinyl form by Paramount Records, on CD in 1991 by Geffen Records, and digitally by Geffen on August 18, 2005. The album contains over 31 minutes of music that was used in the film, most of which was composed by Rota, along with a song from Coppola and one by Johnny Farrow and Marty Symes. AllMusic gave the album five out of five, with editor Zach Curd saying it is a "dark, looming, and elegant soundtrack". An editor for Filmtracks believed that Rota was successful in relating the music to the film's core aspects.


title: The Godfather

text: The world premiere for "The Godfather" took place at Loews's State Theatre in New York City on Tuesday, March 14, 1972, almost three months after the planned release date of Christmas Day in 1971, with profits from the premiere donated to The Boys Club of New York. Before the film premiered, the film had already made $15 million from advance rentals from over 400 theaters. The following day, the film opened in five theaters in New York (Loew's State I and II, Orpheum, Cine and Tower East). Next was the Imperial Theatre in Toronto on March 17 and then Los Angeles at two theaters on March 22. "The Godfather" was released on March 24, 1972 throughout the rest of the United States reaching 316 theaters five days later.


title: The Godfather

text: The television rights were sold for a record $10 million to NBC for one showing over two nights. The theatrical version of "The Godfather" debuted on American network television on NBC with only minor edits. The first half of the film aired on Saturday, November 16, 1974, and the second half two days later. The television airings attracted a large audience with an average Nielsen rating of 38.2 and audience share of 59% making it the eighth most-watched film on television, with the broadcast of the second half getting the third-best rating for a film on TV behind "Airport" and "Love Story" with a rating of 39.4 and 57% share. The broadcast helped generate anticipation for the upcoming sequel. The next year, Coppola created "The Godfather Saga" expressly for American television in a release that combined "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" with unused footage from those two films in a chronological telling that toned down the violent, sexual, and profane material for its NBC debut on November 18, 1977. In 1981, Paramount released the "Godfather Epic" boxed set, which also told the story of the first two films in chronological order, again with additional scenes, but not redacted for broadcast sensibilities. "The Godfather Trilogy" was released in 1992, in which the films are fundamentally in chronological order.


title: The Godfather

text: "The Godfather Family: A Look Inside" was a 73-minute documentary released in 1991. Directed by Jeff Warner, the film featured some behind the scenes content from all three films, interviews with the actors, and screen tests. "The Godfather DVD Collection" was released on October 9, 2001, in a package that contained all three films—each with a commentary track by Coppola—and a bonus disc containing "The Godfather Family: A Look Inside". The DVD also held a Corleone family tree, a "Godfather" timeline, and footage of the Academy Award acceptance speeches.


title: The Godfather

text: During the film's original theatrical release, the original negatives were worn down due to the reel being printed so much to meet demand. In addition, the duplicate negative was lost in Paramount archives. In 2006 Coppola contacted Steven Spielberg—whose studio DreamWorks had recently been bought out by Paramount—about restoring "The Godfather". Robert A. Harris was hired to oversee the restoration of "The Godfather" and its two sequels, with the film's cinematographer Willis participating in the restoration. Work began in November 2006 by repairing the negatives so they could go through a digital scanner to produce high resolution 4K files. If a negative were damaged and discolored, work was done digitally to restore it to its original look. After a year and a half of working on the restoration, the project was complete. Paramount called the finished product "The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration" and released it to the public on September 23, 2008, on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Dave Kehr of "The New York Times" believed the restoration brought back the "golden glow of their original theatrical screenings". As a whole, the restoration of the film was well received by critics and Coppola. "The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration" contains several new special features that play in high definition, (including additional scenes, behind the scenes footage, etc).


title: The Godfather

text: Paramount Pictures restored and remastered "The Godfather", "The Godfather Part II", and "" (a re-edited cut of the third film) for a limited theatrical run and home media release on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the premiere of "The Godfather". The disc editions were released on March 22, 2022.


title: The Godfather

text: "The Godfather" was a blockbuster, breaking many box office records to become the highest grossing film of 1972. The film's opening day gross from five theaters was $57,829 with ticket prices increased from $3 to $3.50. Prices in New York increased further at the weekend to $4, and the number of showings increased from four times a day to seven times a day. The film grossed $61,615 in Toronto for the weekend and $240,780 in New York, for an opening weekend gross of $302,395. The film grossed $454,000 for the week in New York and $115,000 in Toronto for a first week gross of $568,800, which made it number one at the U.S. box office for the week. In its first five days of national release, it grossed $6.8 million, taking its gross up to $7,397,164. A week later its gross had reached $17,291,705 with the one week gross of around $10 million being an industry record. It grossed another $8.7 million by April 9 to take its gross to $26,000,815. After 18 weeks at number one in the United States, the film had grossed $101 million, the fastest film to reach that milestone. Some news articles at the time proclaimed it was the first film to gross $100 million in North America, but such accounts are erroneous; this record belongs to "The Sound of Music", released in 1965. It remained at number one in the US for another five weeks to bring its total to 23 consecutive weeks at number one before being unseated by "Butterflies Are Free" for one week before becoming number one for another three weeks.


title: The Godfather

text: The film eventually earned $81.5 million in theatrical rentals in the US and Canada during its initial release, increasing its earnings to $85.7 million through a reissue in 1973, and including a limited re-release in 1997, it ultimately earned an equivalent exhibition gross of $135 million, with a production cost of $6.5 million. It displaced "Gone with the Wind" to claim the record as the top rentals earner, a position it would retain until the release of "Jaws" in 1975. The film repeated its native success overseas, earning in total an unprecedented $142 million in worldwide theatrical rentals, to become the highest net earner. Profits were so high for "The Godfather" that earnings for Gulf & Western Industries, Inc., which owned Paramount, jumped from 77 cents per share to $3.30 a share for the year, according to a "Los Angeles Times" article, dated December 13, 1972. Re-released eight more times since 1997, it has grossed between $250 million and $291 million in worldwide box office receipts, and adjusted for ticket price inflation in North America, ranks among the top 25 highest-grossing films.


title: The Godfather

text: "The Godfather" has received overwhelming critical acclaim and is seen as one of the greatest and most influential films of all time, particularly of the gangster genre. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 97% approval rating based on 148 reviews, with an average rating of 9.40/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "One of Hollywood's greatest critical and commercial successes, "The Godfather" gets everything right; not only did the movie transcend expectations, it established new benchmarks for American cinema." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, has assigned the film a score of 100 out of 100 based on 16 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: The Godfather

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun Times" praised Coppola's efforts to follow the storyline of the novel, the choice to set the film in the same time as the novel, and the film's ability to "absorb" the viewer over its three-hour run time. Ebert named "The Godfather" "The best film of 1972". The "Chicago Tribune"s Gene Siskel gave the film four out of four, commenting that it was "very good".


title: The Godfather

text: "The Village Voice"s Andrew Sarris believed Brando portrayed Vito Corleone well and that his character dominated each scene it appeared in, but felt Puzo and Coppola had the character of Michael Corleone too focused on revenge. In addition, Sarris stated that Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, and James Caan were good in their respective roles. Pauline Kael of "The New Yorker" wrote "If ever there was a great example of how the best popular movies come out of a merger of commerce and art, “The Godfather” is it."


title: The Godfather

text: Desson Howe of "The Washington Post" called the film a "jewel" and wrote that Coppola deserves most of the credit for the film. Writing for "The New York Times", Vincent Canby felt that Coppola had created one of the "most brutal and moving chronicles of American life" and went on to say that it "transcends its immediate milieu and genre". Director Stanley Kubrick thought the film had the best cast ever and could be the best movie ever made. Stanley Kauffmann of "The New Republic" wrote negatively of the film in a contemporary review, claiming that Pacino "rattles around in a part too demanding for him," while also criticizing Brando's make-up and Rota's score.


title: The Godfather

text: Previous mafia films had looked at the gangs from the perspective of an outraged outsider. In contrast, "The Godfather" presents the gangster's perspective of the Mafia as a response to corrupt society. Although the Corleone family is presented as immensely rich and powerful, no scenes depict prostitution, gambling, loan sharking or other forms of racketeering. George De Stefano argues that the setting of a criminal counterculture allows for unapologetic gender stereotyping (such as when Vito tells a weepy Johnny Fontane to "act like a man") and is an important part of the film's appeal.


title: The Godfather

text: Remarking on the fortieth anniversary of the film's release, film critic John Podhoretz praised "The Godfather" as "arguably "the" great American work of popular art" and "the summa of all great moviemaking before it". Two years before, Roger Ebert had written in his journal that it "comes closest to being a film everyone agrees... is unquestionably great".


title: The Godfather

text: "The Godfather" was nominated for seven awards at the 30th Golden Globe Awards: Best Picture – Drama, James Caan for Best Supporting Actor, Al Pacino and Marlon Brando for Best Actor – Drama, Best Score, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. When the winners were announced on January 28, 1973, the film had won the categories for: Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor – Drama (Brando), Best Original Score, and Best Picture – Drama.


title: The Godfather

text: Rota's score was also nominated for Grammy Award for Best Original Score for a Motion Picture or TV Special at the 15th Grammy Awards. Rota was announced the winner of the category on March 3 at the Grammys' ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee.


title: The Godfather

text: When the nominations for the 45th Academy Awards were revealed on February 12, 1973, "The Godfather" was nominated for eleven awards. The nominations were for: Best Picture, Best Costume Design, Marlon Brando for Best Actor, Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola for Best Adapted Screenplay, Pacino, Caan, and Robert Duvall for Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Nino Rota for Best Original Score, Coppola for Best Director, and Best Sound. Upon further review of Rota's love theme from "The Godfather", the Academy found that Rota had used a similar score in Eduardo De Filippo's 1958 comedy "Fortunella". This led to re-balloting, where members of the music branch chose from six films: "The Godfather" and the five films that had been on the shortlist for best original dramatic score but did not get nominated. John Addison's score for "Sleuth" won this new vote, and thus replaced Rota's score on the official list of nominees. Going into the awards ceremony, "The Godfather" was seen as the favorite to take home the most awards. From the nominations that "The Godfather" had remaining, it only won three of the Academy Awards: Best Actor for Brando, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture.


title: The Godfather

text: Brando, who had also not attended the Golden Globes ceremony two months earlier, boycotted the Academy Awards ceremony and refused to accept the Oscar, becoming the second actor to refuse a Best Actor award after George C. Scott in 1970. Brando sent American Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place, to announce at the awards podium Brando's reasons for declining the award, which were based on his objection to the depiction of American Indians by Hollywood and television. Pacino also boycotted the ceremony; he was insulted at being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, when he had more screen time than his co-star and Best Actor-winner Brando, and thus should have received the nomination for Best Actor.


title: The Godfather

text: "The Godfather" had five nominations for awards at the 26th British Academy Film Awards. The nominees were: Pacino for Most Promising Newcomer, Rota for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, Duvall for Best Supporting Actor, and Brando for Best Actor, the film's costume designer Anna Hill Johnstone for Best Costume Design. The only nomination to win was that of Rota.


title: The Godfather

text: Although many films about gangsters preceded "The Godfather", Coppola steeped his film in Italian immigrant culture, and his portrayal of mobsters as persons of considerable psychological depth and complexity was unprecedented. Coppola took it further with "The Godfather Part II", and the success of those two films, critically, artistically and financially, was a catalyst for the production of numerous other depictions of Italian Americans as mobsters, including films such as Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" and TV series such as David Chase's "The Sopranos".


title: The Godfather

text: A comprehensive study of Italian-American culture in film from 1914 to 2014 was conducted by the Italic Institute of America showing the influence of "The Godfather". Over 81 percent of films, 430 films, featuring Italian Americans as mobsters (87 percent of which were fictional) had been produced since "The Godfather", an average of 10 per year, while only 98 films were produced preceding "The Godfather".


title: The Godfather

text: "The Godfather" epic, encompassing the original trilogy and the additional footage that Coppola incorporated later, has been thoroughly integrated into American life. Together with a succession of mob-theme imitators, it has resulted in a stereotyped concept of Italian-American culture biased toward the criminal networks. The first film had the largest effect. Unlike any film before it, its portrayal of the many poor Italians who immigrated to the United States in the early decades of the 20th century is perhaps attributable to Coppola and expresses his understanding of their experience. The films explore the integration of fictional Italian-American criminals into American society. Though set in the period of mass Italian immigration to America, the film explores the specific family of the Corleones, who live outside the law. Although some critics have considered the Corleone story to portray some universal elements of immigration, other critics have suggested that it resulted in viewers overly associating organized crime with Italian-American culture. Produced in a period of intense national cynicism and self-criticism, the film struck a chord about the dual identities felt by many descendants of immigrants. "The Godfather" has been cited as an influence in an increase in Hollywood's negative portrayals of immigrant Italians, and was a recruiting tool for organized crime.


title: The Godfather

text: The concept of a mafia "Godfather" was a creation of Mario Puzo, and the film resulted in this term being added to the common language. Don Vito Corleone's line, "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse", was voted the second-most memorable line in cinema history in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes by the American Film Institute, in 2014. The concept was not unique to the film. French writer Honoré de Balzac, in his novel "Le Père Goriot" (1835), wrote that Vautrin told Eugène: "In that case I will make you an offer that no one would decline." An almost identical line was used in the John Wayne Western, "Riders of Destiny" (1933), where Forrest Taylor states, "I've made Denton an offer he can't refuse." In 2014, the film also was selected as the greatest film by 2,120 industry professionals in a Hollywood survey undertaken by "The Hollywood Reporter".


title: The Godfather

text: Gangsters reportedly responded enthusiastically to the film. Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the former underboss in the Gambino crime family, said: "I left the movie stunned ... I mean I floated out of the theater. Maybe it was fiction, but for me, then, that was our life. It was incredible. I remember talking to a multitude of guys, made guys, who felt exactly the same way." According to Anthony Fiato, after seeing the film, Patriarca crime family members Paulie Intiso and Nicky Giso altered their speech patterns to imitate that of Vito Corleone. Intiso was known to swear frequently and use poor grammar; but after seeing the movie, he began to improve his speech and philosophize more.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Susan Diane Wojcicki ( ; born July 5, 1968) is a Polish-American business executive who is the CEO of YouTube. She has been in the tech industry for over 20 years.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Wojcicki was involved in the founding of Google, and became Google's first marketing manager in 1999. She later led the company's online advertising business and was put in charge of Google's original video service. After observing the success of YouTube, Wojcicki proposed the acquisition of YouTube by Google in 2006, and has served as CEO of YouTube since 2014.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Susan Diane Wojcicki was born on July 5, 1968, to Esther Wojcicki, an educator of Jewish descent, and Stanley Wojcicki, a Polish-American physics professor at Stanford University. She has two sisters: Janet Wojcicki, (PhD, anthropologist and epidemiologist) and Anne Wojcicki, founder of 23andMe. She grew up on the Stanford campus with George Dantzig as a neighbor. She attended Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, and wrote for the school newspaper.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Wojcicki's first business was selling "spice ropes" door-to-door at age 11. A humanities major in college, she took her first computer science class as a senior.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Wojcicki studied history and literature at Harvard University and graduated with honors in 1990. She originally planned on getting a Ph.D. in economics and pursuing a career in academia but changed her plans when she discovered an interest in technology.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: She also received her Master's of Science in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1993 and a Master of Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1998.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: In September 1998, the same month that Google was incorporated, its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up office in Wojcicki's parents' garage in Menlo Park. Before becoming Google's first marketing manager in 1999, Wojcicki worked in marketing at Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, California, and was a management consultant at Bain & Company and R.B. Webber & Company. At Google, she worked on the initial viral marketing programs, helped create the company's longtime logo with designer Ruth Kedar, and spearheaded the first Google Doodles. She also co-developed and launched Google Image Search with engineer Huican Zhu.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: In 2003, Wojcicki was the first product manager of one of Google's seminal advertising products—AdSense. She earned the Google Founders' Award in recognition for this work. Wojcicki was subsequently promoted to Google's senior vice president of Advertising & Commerce, and oversaw the company's advertising and analytic products, including AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: YouTube, then a small start-up, was successfully competing with Google's Google Video service, overseen by Wojcicki. She recommended and subsequently managed the $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube in 2006, as well as the $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick in 2007.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: In February 2014, Wojcicki became the CEO of YouTube. She was named "the most important person in advertising", as well as named one of "Time"s 100 most influential people in 2015 and described in a later issue of "Time" as "the most powerful woman on the Internet".


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: After Wojcicki became the CEO of YouTube, the company reached 2 billion logged-in users a month and that users were watching one billion hours a day. By 2021, YouTube had paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies. There are localized versions of YouTube in 100 countries around the world across 80 languages. Since she became CEO, YouTube's percentage of female employees has risen from 24 to nearly 30 percent.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Wojcicki also emphasized new YouTube applications and experiences designed to cater to users interested in family gaming, and music content. While CEO, the company developed 10 forms of monetization for YouTube creators, including channel memberships, merchandise, BrandConnect, and paid digital goods like Super Chat. She also launched YouTube's advertisement-free subscription service, YouTube Premium (formerly known as YouTube Red), and its over-the-top (OTT) internet television service YouTube TV. In 2020, the company launched YouTube Shorts, its short-form video experience, which recently surpassed 15 billion daily views. In September 2021, YouTube publicized that the company had surpassed 50 million Music and Premium subscribers, including trialers. The company also reported over 100 billion hours of global gaming content watched on the platform in 2020.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Wojcicki tightened YouTube's policy on videos it regards as potentially violating its policies on hate speech and violent extremism. The more stringent policies came after "The Times" showed that "ads sponsored by the British government and several private sector companies had appeared ahead of YouTube videos supporting terrorist groups" and several large advertisers withdrew their ads from YouTube in response. The enforcement policies have been criticized as censorship. Some YouTubers argue that the demonetization system is too strict, causing any remotely "edgy" content to get demonetized and in some cases even resulting in the creator's channel being removed.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: During the controversy surrounding Logan Paul's YouTube video about a person that committed suicide, Wojcicki said that Paul did not violate YouTube's three-strike policy and did not meet the criteria for being banned from the platform.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Wojcicki has emphasized educational content as a priority for the company, and on July 20, 2018, announced the initiative YouTube Learning, which invests in grants and promotion to support education focused creator content.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: On October 22, 2018, Wojcicki wrote that Article 13, as written in the European Union Copyright Directive, would make YouTube directly liable for copyrighted content, and poses a threat to content creators' ability to share their work.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: On April 15, 2021, Wojcicki was presented the “Free Expression Award” by the Freedom Forum Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing First Amendment freedoms. The award ceremony was criticized for being sponsored by her own platform.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: In 2014, Wojcicki joined the board of Salesforce. She also serves on the board of Room to Read, an organization that focuses on literacy and gender equality in education, and is a board member of UCLA Anderson School of Management.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Wojcicki married Dennis Troper on August 23, 1998, in Belmont, California. They have five children. On December 16, 2014, ahead of taking her fifth maternity leave, Wojcicki wrote an op-ed in "The Wall Street Journal" about the importance of paid maternity leave. She is often quoted talking about the importance of finding balance between family and career.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: In addition to her U.S. citizenship, she is a Polish citizen. Her grandfather, Franciszek Wójcicki, was a People's Party and Polish People's Party politician who had been elected MP during the 1947 Polish legislative election. Her grandmother, Janina Wójcicka Hoskins, was a Polish-American librarian at the Library of Congress, responsible for building the largest collection of Polish material in the United States.


title: Susan Wojcicki

text: Wojcicki has been an advocate for several causes, including the expansion of paid family leave, the plight of Syrian refugees, countering gender discrimination at technology companies, and getting girls interested in computer science and prioritizing coding in schools.


title: Elton John

text: Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released 31 albums since 1969. Collaborating with lyricist Bernie Taupin since 1967, John is acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his work during the 1970s, and his lasting impact on the music industry. John's music and showmanship have had a significant impact on popular music. His songwriting partnership with Taupin is one of the most successful in history.


title: Elton John

text: John was raised in the Pinner suburb of London and learned to play piano at an early age, forming the blues band Bluesology in 1962. After leaving Bluesology in 1967 to embark on a solo career, John met Taupin after they both answered an advert for songwriters. For two years, they wrote songs for other artists, and John worked as a session musician for artists. John released his debut album "Empty Sky" in 1969, and a year later formed the Elton John Band and released his first hit single, "Your Song".


title: Elton John

text: John's critical success was at its peak in the 1970s, when he released a streak of chart-topping albums in the US and UK, which began with "Honky Château" (1972) and culminated with "Blue Moves" (1976)"." John continued his success in the 1980s and 1990s, having several hit singles and albums in both decades, and has continued to record new music since then. He has also had success in musical films and theatre, composing music for "The Lion King", "Aida," and "Billy Elliot the Musical". In 2018, John began his ongoing farewell tour Farewell Yellow Brick Road, which is scheduled to conclude in 2023. His life and music career were dramatised in the 2019 biopic "Rocketman."


title: Elton John

text: Outside of music, John is an HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser and has been involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. He established the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, which has raised over £300 million since its inception, and a year later he began hosting his annual Foundation Academy Awards Party, which has since become one of the biggest high-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. John was the chairman and director of Watford F.C, from 1976 to 1987, and again from 1997 to 2002, and is an honorary life president of the club. From the late 1970s to the late 1980s, John developed a severe addiction problem to drugs and alcohol, but has been sober since 1990. He entered into a civil partnership with Canadian filmmaker David Furnish in 2005; they married after same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales in 2014.


title: Elton John

text: John has sold over 300 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. He has more than fifty Top 40 hits in the UK Singles Chart and US "Billboard" Hot 100, including nine number ones in the UK and US, as well as seven consecutive number-one albums in the US. His tribute single "Candle in the Wind 1997", a rewritten version of his 1974 single in dedication to Princess Diana, sold over 33million copies worldwide and is the best-selling chart single of all time. In 2021, John became the first solo artist with UK Top 10 singles across six decades.