title: Charlie Chaplin

text: As a filmmaker, Chaplin is considered a pioneer and one of the most influential figures of the early twentieth century. He is often credited as one of the medium's first artists. Film historian Mark Cousins has written that Chaplin "changed not only the imagery of cinema, but also its sociology and grammar" and claims that Chaplin was as important to the development of comedy as a genre as D.W. Griffith was to drama. He was the first to popularise feature-length comedy and to slow down the pace of action, adding pathos and subtlety to it. Although his work is mostly classified as slapstick, Chaplin's drama "A Woman of Paris" (1923) was a major influence on Ernst Lubitsch's film "The Marriage Circle" (1924) and thus played a part in the development of "sophisticated comedy". According to David Robinson, Chaplin's innovations were "rapidly assimilated to become part of the common practice of film craft". Filmmakers who cited Chaplin as an influence include Federico Fellini (who called Chaplin "a sort of Adam, from whom we are all descended"), Jacques Tati ("Without him I would never have made a film"), René Clair ("He inspired practically every filmmaker"), François Truffaut ("My religion is cinema. I believe in Charlie Chaplin…"), Michael Powell, Billy Wilder, Vittorio De Sica, and Richard Attenborough. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky praised Chaplin as "the only person to have gone down into cinematic history without any shadow of a doubt. The films he left behind can never grow old." Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray said about Chaplin "If there is any name which can be said to symbolize cinema—it is Charlie Chaplin… I am sure Chaplin's name will survive even if the cinema ceases to exist as a medium of artistic expression. Chaplin is truly immortal." French auteur Jean Renoir's favourite filmmaker was Chaplin.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Chaplin also strongly influenced the work of later comedians. Marcel Marceau said he was inspired to become a mime artist after watching Chaplin, while the actor Raj Kapoor based his screen persona on the Tramp. Mark Cousins has also detected Chaplin's comedic style in the French character Monsieur Hulot and the Italian character Totò. In other fields, Chaplin helped inspire the cartoon characters Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, and was an influence on the Dada art movement. As one of the founding members of United Artists, Chaplin also had a role in the development of the film industry. Gerald Mast has written that although UA never became a major company like MGM or Paramount Pictures, the idea that directors could produce their own films was "years ahead of its time".


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: In 1992, the "Sight & Sound" Critics' Top Ten Poll ranked Chaplin at No. 5 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time. In the 21st century, several of Chaplin's films are still regarded as classics and among the greatest ever made. The 2012 "Sight & Sound" poll, which compiles "top ten" ballots from film critics and directors to determine each group's most acclaimed films,


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: saw "City Lights" rank among the critics' top 50, "Modern Times" inside the top 100, and "The Great Dictator" and "The Gold Rush" placed in the top 250. The top 100 films as voted on by directors included "Modern Times" at number 22, "City Lights" at number 30, and "The Gold Rush" at number 91. Every one of Chaplin's features received a vote. Chaplin was ranked at No. 35 on "Empire" magazine's "Top 40 Greatest Directors of All-Time" list in 2005. In 2007, the American Film Institute named "City Lights" the 11th greatest American film of all time, while "The Gold Rush" and "Modern Times" again ranked in the top 100. Books about Chaplin continue to be published regularly, and he is a popular subject for media scholars and film archivists. Many of Chaplin's film have had a DVD and Blu-ray release.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Chaplin's legacy is managed on behalf of his children by the Chaplin office, located in Paris. The office represents Association Chaplin, founded by some of his children "to protect the name, image and moral rights" to his body of work, Roy Export SAS, which owns the copyright to most of his films made after 1918, and Bubbles Incorporated S.A., which owns the copyrights to his image and name. Their central archive is held at the archives of Montreux, Switzerland and scanned versions of its contents, including 83,630 images, 118 scripts, 976 manuscripts, 7,756 letters, and thousands of other documents, are available for research purposes at the Chaplin Research Centre at the Cineteca di Bologna. The photographic archive, which includes approximately 10,000 photographs from Chaplin's life and career, is kept at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland. The British Film Institute has also established the Charles Chaplin Research Foundation, and the first international Charles Chaplin Conference was held in London in July 2005. Elements for many of Chaplin's films are held by the Academy Film Archive as part of the Roy Export Chaplin Collection.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Chaplin's final home, Manoir de Ban in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, has been converted into a museum named "Chaplin's World". It opened on 17 April 2016 after fifteen years of development, and is described by Reuters as "an interactive museum showcasing the life and works of Charlie Chaplin". On the 128th anniversary of his birth, a record-setting 662 people dressed as the Tramp in an event organised by the museum. Previously, the Museum of the Moving Image in London held a permanent display on Chaplin, and hosted a dedicated exhibition to his life and career in 1988. The London Film Museum hosted an exhibition called "Charlie ChaplinThe Great Londoner", from 2010 until 2013.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: In London, a statue of Chaplin as the Tramp, sculpted by John Doubleday and unveiled in 1981, is located in Leicester Square. The city also includes a road named after him in central London, "Charlie Chaplin Walk", which is the location of the BFI IMAX. There are nine blue plaques memorialising Chaplin in London, Hampshire, and Yorkshire. In Canning Town, East London, the Gandhi Chaplin Memorial Garden, opened by Chaplin's granddaughter Oona Chaplin in 2015, commemorates the meeting between Chaplin and Mahatma Gandhi at a local house in 1931. The Swiss town of Vevey named a park in his honour in 1980 and erected a statue there in 1982. In 2011, two large murals depicting Chaplin on two 14-storey buildings were also unveiled in Vevey. Chaplin has also been honoured by the Irish town of Waterville, where he spent several summers with his family in the 1960s. A statue was erected in 1998; since 2011, the town has been host to the annual Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival, which was founded to celebrate Chaplin's legacy and to showcase new comic talent.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: In other tributes, a minor planet, 3623 Chaplin (discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina in 1981) is named after Charlie. Throughout the 1980s, the Tramp image was used by IBM to advertise their personal computers. Chaplin's 100th birthday anniversary in 1989 was marked with several events around the world, and on 15 April 2011, a day before his 122nd birthday, Google celebrated him with a special Google Doodle video on its global and other country-wide homepages. Many countries, spanning six continents, have honoured Chaplin with a postal stamp.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Chaplin is the subject of a biographical film, "Chaplin" (1992) directed by Richard Attenborough, and starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and Geraldine Chaplin playing Hannah Chaplin. He is also a character in the historical drama film "The Cat's Meow" (2001), played by Eddie Izzard, and in the made-for-television movie "The Scarlett O'Hara War" (1980), played by Clive Revill. A television series about Chaplin's childhood, "Young Charlie Chaplin", ran on PBS in 1989, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program. The French film "The Price of Fame" (2014) is a fictionalised account of the robbery of Chaplin's grave.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Chaplin's life has also been the subject of several stage productions. Two musicals, "Little Tramp" and "Chaplin", were produced in the early 1990s. In 2006, Thomas Meehan and Christopher Curtis created another musical, "Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin", which was first performed at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2010. It was adapted for Broadway two years later, re-titled "ChaplinA Musical". Chaplin was portrayed by Robert McClure in both productions. In 2013, two plays about Chaplin premiered in Finland: "Chaplin" at the Svenska Teatern, and "Kulkuri" ("The Tramp") at the Tampere Workers' Theatre.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Chaplin has also been characterised in literary fiction. He is the protagonist of Robert Coover's short story "Charlie in the House of Rue" (1980; reprinted in Coover's 1987 collection "A Night at the Movies"), and of Glen David Gold's "Sunnyside" (2009), a historical novel set in the First World War period. A day in Chaplin's life in 1909 is dramatised in the chapter titled "Modern Times" in Alan Moore's "Jerusalem" (2016), a novel set in the author's home town of Northampton, England.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Chaplin was brought to life in a comic strip bearing his name that ran for 30 years in the British pre-war humorous comic "Funny Wonder". Begun in 1915, the strip was drawn primarily by Bertie Brown; it was one of the earliest comic strips inspired by the popularity of a celebrity. A similar strip, "Charlie Chaplin's Comic Capers", by Stuart Carothers and later Elzie C. Segar, was syndicated in the United States from 29 March 1915, until 16 September 1917. In France in 1922, Raoul Thomen created the comic strip "Les Aventures Acrobatiques de Charlot" ("Charlot's Acrobatic Adventures"). Thomen's strip ran in French children's magazines for nearly 20 years. Charlot's comic strip adventures were continued by other artists, lasting until 1963. The strip was collected in many albums.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Chaplin received many awards and honours, especially later in life. In the 1975 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). He was also awarded honorary Doctor of Letters degrees by the University of Oxford and the University of Durham in 1962. In 1965, he and Ingmar Bergman were joint winners of the Erasmus Prize and, in 1971, he was appointed a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French government.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: From the film industry, Chaplin received a special Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1972, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lincoln Center Film Society the same year. The latter has since been presented annually to filmmakers as The Chaplin Award. Chaplin was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1972, having been previously excluded because of his political beliefs.


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Chaplin received three Academy Awards: an Honorary Award for "versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing, and producing "The Circus"" in 1929, a second Honorary Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, and a Best Score award in 1973 for "Limelight" (shared with Ray Rasch and Larry Russell). He was further nominated in the Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture (as producer) categories for "The Great Dictator", and received another Best Original Screenplay nomination for "Monsieur Verdoux". In 1976, Chaplin was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).


title: Charlie Chaplin

text: Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: "The Immigrant" (1917), "The Kid" (1921), "The Gold Rush" (1925), "City Lights" (1931), "Modern Times" (1936), and "The Great Dictator" (1940).


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Obi-Wan Kenobi is an American television miniseries created for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the "Star Wars" franchise and stars Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, reprising his role from the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy. Set ten years after the events of "" (2005), the series follows Kenobi as he sets out to rescue the kidnapped Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) from the Galactic Empire, leading to a confrontation with his former apprentice, Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen).


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: The project originated as a spin-off film written by Hossein Amini and directed by Stephen Daldry, but it was reworked as a limited series following the commercial failure of "" (2018). McGregor was confirmed to be starring in August 2019, and Deborah Chow was hired to direct a month later. Production was scheduled to begin in July 2020, but the series was put on hold in January 2020 because Lucasfilm was unsatisfied with the scripts. Joby Harold was hired to rewrite the series and serve as showrunner in April 2020, executive producing with Chow, McGregor, Kathleen Kennedy, and Michelle Rejwan. Additional casting took place in March 2021, with co-stars such as Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Jimmy Smits, James Earl Jones, and Christensen reprising their prequel trilogy roles. Filming began by May 2021 in Los Angeles, using StageCraft video wall technology, and wrapped by September. Natalie Holt composed the score, while "Star Wars" film composer John Williams wrote the "Obi-Wan Theme", which was adapted by William Ross.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: The first two episodes of "Obi-Wan Kenobi" premiered on May 27, 2022. The subsequent four episodes were released weekly until June 22. The series received generally positive reviews, with critics praising McGregor's performance.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Ten years after the events of "" (2005)—in which the Jedi were destroyed by Order 66 and Obi-Wan Kenobi's apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, became the Sith Lord Darth Vader—Kenobi is in hiding on the planet Tatooine, watching over Anakin's son, Luke, when he is called on a mission to rescue Anakin's daughter, Leia, after she is kidnapped by the Galactic Empire's Jedi-hunting Inquisitors in a plot to draw Kenobi out. This leads to a confrontation between Kenobi and Vader.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Additionally, Ming Qiu, a stunt performer from the "Star Wars" series "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett", portrays Jedi Master Minas Velti during the Order 66 flashback, Grant Feely appears as Luke Skywalker, Anakin's son, and Anthony Daniels reprises his franchise role as C-3PO while Temuera Morrison appears as a homeless veteran clone trooper after playing the clones in previous "Star Wars" media. Ewan McGregor's daughter Esther-Rose McGregor plays Tetha Grig, a spice dealer that Kenobi encounters on the streets of Daiyu. Dustin Ceithamer portrays the droid NED-B. Liam Neeson reprises his role as Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi Wan's deceased master, in an uncredited cameo appearance.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the development of several "Star Wars" standalone spin-off films in February 2013. Obi-Wan Kenobi was the overwhelming winner of a poll by "The Hollywood Reporter" in August 2016 that asked which "Star Wars" character deserved a spin-off film. Ewan McGregor, who portrayed Kenobi in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, had informally expressed willingness to reprise the role, which led to a formal meeting with Lucasfilm so the company could gauge his interest in returning to the character for a spin-off film. Development on such a film soon began, with Stephen Daldry entering talks to direct the project in August 2017. McGregor was set as a producer on the project. Daldry was expected to oversee the development and writing with Lucasfilm, and contacted Hossein Amini about writing the film. Amini joined the project in late 2017.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: In May 2018, the film was reportedly titled "Obi-Wan: A Star Wars Story", with a plot involving Kenobi protecting a young Luke Skywalker on the planet Tatooine during tensions between local farmers and Tusken Raiders. Production on the film was expected to take place in Northern Ireland under the working title "Joshua Tree", beginning in 2019 at Paint Hall Studios in Belfast once production on the final season of "Game of Thrones" ended in late 2018. However, Disney cancelled their planned "Star Wars" spin-off films, including the Kenobi film, following the financial failure of "" (2018). Lucasfilm's focus changed to making series for the streaming service Disney+, such as "The Mandalorian". In August 2018, McGregor said he had been asked about a Kenobi spin-off for "years and years" and was happy to be involved but said there were no plans for such a film at that time. He was interested in exploring the character in the time between his portrayal in the prequel films and that of Alec Guinness in the original trilogy, and wanted to see the story of "a man who's lost his faith" that could show how his version, who "always has a funny line to say or always seems to be calm and is a good warrior", becomes a "broken man" and has to get "back together again" to match Guinness's portrayal.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: McGregor entered negotiations to star in a television series for Disney+ centered on Obi-Wan Kenobi by mid-August 2019. Later that month, at Disney's D23 event, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and McGregor officially announced that the actor would be reprising his role as Kenobi in a new series for Disney+, set eight years after the events of "" (2005). Filming was scheduled to begin in July 2020, and scripts for the six-episode limited series had already been written by Amini at the time of the announcement. McGregor said the announcement was a relief, explaining that he had been lying about his involvement in a Kenobi spin-off for four years. A month later, Kennedy announced that Deborah Chow would direct the Kenobi series after impressing Kennedy with her work directing episodes of "The Mandalorian".


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: In November 2019, Amini said the series' time period was fascinating since Kenobi is dealing with the loss of his friends and the Jedi Order, which allowed Amini to explore aspects of the "Star Wars" franchise other than action, such as its spiritual side. He took inspiration from the sources that "Star Wars" creator George Lucas was originally inspired by, including Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", Samurai history and culture, and Buddhism. Comparing the series' scripts to his original film plans, Amini said he was able to explore the character, politics, and history more in the series than in a two-hour film where "there is always an imperative for the action and the plot to move particularly fast". Chow felt her work on "The Mandalorian" was the best training she could have for the Kenobi series, learning from that series' executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Pre-production on the series was underway at Pinewood Studios in London by January 2020, and screen tests were taking place with potential actors opposite McGregor. By the end of the month, rumors began circulating that the series had been cancelled due to production problems. While this was not the case, the series was put on indefinite hold and the assembled crew was sent home. Kennedy was said to be unhappy with the series' scripts, which reportedly featured a storyline similar to the story of "The Mandalorian", in which the title character protects "The Child", with Kenobi protecting a young Skywalker from various threats. Chow had shown these scripts to Favreau and Filoni, who expressed concern over the similarities to "The Mandalorian" and encouraged Chow and the series to "go bigger". Lucasfilm began looking for a new writer for the series to start over on the scripts, with Chow still expected to direct. Kennedy explained that they were hoping to have a "hopeful, uplifting story", and said executing that would be tricky given the state that Kenobi is in after "Revenge of the Sith". She added, "You can't just wave the magic wand with any writer and arrive at a story that necessarily reflects what you want to feel". The goal was for pre-production to begin again in mid-2020 once the scripts had been rewritten. The series was also reportedly being reworked from six episodes to four, but McGregor said he did not believe this was the case. He added that Lucasfilm had decided to spend more time working on the scripts following the release of "" (2019), and filming had been postponed until January 2021, but he did not think this would impact the series' planned release schedule.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Joby Harold was hired to take over as writer from Amini in April 2020, and serve as showrunner. That October, filming was delayed until March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At Disney's Investor Day event on December 10, Kennedy announced that the series was officially titled "Obi-Wan Kenobi", and confirmed that Chow was directing. In February 2021, McGregor revealed that filming for the series would take place in Los Angeles rather than London and Boston, Lincolnshire, England, as had previously been reported. The series is executive-produced by Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Chow, McGregor, and Harold, and consists of six episodes.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was conceived as a limited series, with Chow describing it as "one big story with a beginning, middle, and end". Despite this, Kennedy said there was a chance that more of the series could be made due to the enjoyable time the cast and crew had creating it, as long as there was a compelling story reason to return to the character, with both McGregor and Christensen expressing interest in making another season.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: According to Chow, the story went through "significant changes" after Harold's hiring, though some story elements conceived by Amini are included in the first three episodes and the finale, with Amini and Stuart Beattie receiving writing credits for those. Hannah Friedman and Andrew Stanton were additional writers on the series. Harold wanted to explore what happened between McGregor's portrayal of Kenobi and that of Alec Guinness in the original trilogy, and noted that the series takes place when the Empire is "in the ascendancy" and the Jedi have been wiped out, with any remaining survivors being on the run and in hiding. He stated that Kenobi's past, particularly his relationship with Anakin, makes him a "man who's very much defined by that history, whether he wants to be or not". He added that a crucial part of Kenobi's journey will involve "reconciling that past and coming to understand it and coming to understand his place in it", and also the "places he has to go emotionally as well as physically, and some of those battles he has to fight", which ultimately have "to do with facing that past and understanding who he was, his part in his own history, in the history of others". Harold also chose to include Leia in the series as he felt that Kenobi would also look over Leia. In writing her dialogue, he wanted her to come across as “spirited and not just a grown-up writing for a kid”, and used the films "Paper Moon" (1973) and "Midnight Run" (1988) as inspiration for her interactions with Kenobi. He also noted that the series recontextualizes moments in future chronological installments of the franchise, such as providing additional context behind Leia's message to Kenobi in "A New Hope" (1977), and as such, he “completely focused on ["Obi-Wan Kenobi"] being Episode 3.5, between the original trilogy and the prequels, as it had to marry the storytelling choices between those two trilogies”, and wanted it to feel like a “natural link” between the original and prequel trilogies. Harold also clarified that the series would not break canon after speculation arose that it would deviate from it due to Reva stabbing the Grand Inquisitor in "Part II", with many fans presuming he was dead, thus contradicting the events of "Star Wars Rebels".


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Kennedy and Chow cautioned the writers against making any overt connections to "The Mandalorian" and its spin-off series, with Chow stating that the strongest connections between "Obi-Wan Kenobi" and the rest of the "Star Wars" franchise were to the prequel films. Chow wanted to be faithful to George Lucas's original vision for the franchise and worked to connect elements from the original trilogy and prequel trilogy. She researched the Extended Universe in preparation for the series, citing John Jackson Miller's novel "Star Wars: Kenobi" (2013) as inspiration for establishing the "tone", but was not influenced by its plot, and a Sideshow statue of Kenobi, which served as a visual reference for Chow. She also worked to make it a character-driven story, comparing this to films such as "Logan" (2017) and "Joker" (2019), saying that it was "where you take one character out of a big franchise and then you really have the time and you go a lot deeper with the character". Additional inspirations included "gritty, poetic westerns" such as "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (2007) and "The Proposition" (2005), as well as the works of Akira Kurosawa. She felt that there was a "strong correlation" between the Jedi and the Ronin with their "ethical code that goes along with it, in a world that's vastly changed". A new planet introduced for the series is Daiyu, which Harold compared to Hong Kong with a "graffiti-ridden nightlife"; it serves as a contrast to the desert planet Tatooine, where much of the series takes place.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Long discussions were held before it was decided to include Darth Vader in the series, and Chow said this decision was "not made lightly... Anakin and Vader are a huge and very profound part of [Kenobi's] life. We ended up feeling that he made sense in telling this story." Chow had championed the idea of including Vader in the series when executives at Lucasfilm were unsure whether they should. Similar to Kenobi's character in the show, Chow stated that Vader's character "isn't quite as fully formed as "A New Hope"", and she added that Vader's appearance in the series re-contextualizes the character's scene with Kenobi in "A New Hope". The series also features the live-action introduction of Vader's Inquisitors, who are tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi, after appearing in other "Star Wars" media. The way that Vader appears in the series and the idea to introduce the Inquisitors were both suggested by Filoni. The original scripts featured different villains, including Darth Maul, but Chow decided not to use him as she felt it would be "a little bit much" to have both Maul and Vader due to the large impact that the latter has on the story. She also acknowledged that Filoni had already told the story of Kenobi and Maul in this time period in the animated series "Star Wars Rebels".


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Along with the series' announcement at D23 in August 2019 came confirmation that McGregor would star in the series, reprising his role as Kenobi from the prequel trilogy. By the time the production shut down in January 2020, Ray Park was preparing to reprise his role as Darth Maul and an actor had been cast to portray a young Luke Skywalker. Both left the series after Maul was written out of the new scripts and production was delayed.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Kennedy announced in December 2020 that Hayden Christensen would reprise his role from the prequel trilogy as Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader in the series. Chow had met with Christensen at his farm in Canada in late 2019 to provide him an in-person pitch for the series. McGregor said reuniting with Christensen on the series was "the most beautiful thing of all", while Kennedy described it as the "rematch of the century". James Earl Jones was announced as reprising his franchise role as the voice of Darth Vader, though his voice was generated by an AI program called Respeecher based on previous recordings of Jones' voice. In March 2021, Moses Ingram, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie joined the cast, with Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse reprising their roles as Owen Lars and Beru Whitesun Lars, respectively, from the prequel films. Ingram was reported to be playing a "very important role" for the series. A month later, Maya Erskine was cast in a supporting role, reportedly for at least three episodes, while Rory Ross revealed his involvement in January 2022.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: In March 2022, Ingram, Friend, and Kang were revealed to be portraying the Inquisitors Reva / the Third Sister, the Grand Inquisitor, and the Fifth Brother, respectively. The Grand Inquisitor and the Fifth Brother previously appeared in "Star Wars Rebels", voiced by Jason Isaacs and Philip Anthony-Rodriguez, respectively. Isaacs had previously expressed interest in reprising his role in live-action. Varma was confirmed to be playing an Imperial officer, and Grant Feely was revealed to have been cast as the new actor for young Luke Skywalker. The series' premiere in May 2022 revealed that Jimmy Smits was reprising his role from the prequel films as Senator Bail Organa. Kessell portrays his wife, Queen Breha, replacing Rebecca Jackson Mendoza who briefly portrayed the character in "Revenge of the Sith". Vivien Lyra Blair was revealed to be cast as a young Leia Organa.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Ian McDiarmid and Liam Neeson reprise their roles as Palpatine and Qui-Gon Jinn in the series finale in cameo appearances. Although Neeson had previously expressed hesitation to reprise the role in a TV series because he prefers films, he agreed to appear out of respect for Lucas and because he did not want Qui-Gon to be recast.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Doug Chiang and Todd Cherniawsky were the production designers for the series, with Suttirat Anne Larlarb as costume designer. Chiang, who is the vice president and executive creative director of Lucasfilm overseeing the designs of all the projects, said the biggest challenge of the series was bridging the designs of the prequel and original trilogies together and remaining faithful to the films while adding new elements. For instance, the designs of Tatooine remain consistent with the films but they were able to bring new elements to the series for the town of Anchorhead, which had first been referenced in "Star Wars" (1977) but had never been portrayed on screen before. Chiang and Cherniawsky collaborated to create a design and achieve the "balance" that Chow desired.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Propmaster Brad Elliott rewatched all the films in the prequel trilogy to prepare for his work on the series. He was influenced by resources Pablo Hidalgo brought for the creative team, Ralph McQuarrie's work on the original trilogy, and techniques prop builders used in the original trilogy. He chose to keep some of Kenobi's belongings, such as his macrobinoculars, holoprojectors, and datapad from the prequel trilogy. He felt "It made sense that Kenobi would take a few items with him to watch over Luke" and explained that he kept the holoprojector in case Bail Organa had contacted him. Creating Kenobi's lightsaber was challenging for the prop builders, as prop designers from the prequel and original trilogies did not use the same hilt designs, requiring the prop team on the series to merge the two iterations together "into something new that still felt authentic". He further explained that the hilt's visual aesthetic was primarily inspired from the prequel trilogy, but the team had upgraded the emitter to imitate Guinness's lightsaber in "Star Wars". When creating the lightsabers for the Inquisitors, Filoni advised they imagined that the animated version was an "exaggerated version" of the live-action. Elliot says this helped the team keep the overall form of the lightsabers from "Rebels", in which the Inquisitors first appeared, but change the proportions for human contact. The team customized the diameter of the lightsabers to accommodate the actors.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Filming was expected to begin in April 2021, in Los Angeles, California, with Deborah Chow directing; Filming began on May 4, 2021. Chung-hoon Chung served as cinematographer for the series, and the series uses the StageCraft video wall technology, which was previously for "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett". The series also filmed in The Volume set, the stoundstage on which StageCraft is implemented, at the Manhattan Beach Studios in Los Angeles. Chow chose Chung as the cinematographer as she liked his visual style, and felt that "he had done things that were smaller, that were emotionally intense with a strong visual identity, but he also had done huge commercial projects". McGregor did costume tests for "Obi-Wan Kenobi" on the set of "The Mandalorian", and said the StageCraft technology allowed him to enjoy working on the series more than he did on the prequel films due to the latter's extensive use of blue and green screen. Chow also stated that her experience in directing episodes for "The Mandalorian" helped the production team to utilize the technology better. Filming had wrapped by September 19. Nicholas De Toth, Kelley Dixon, and Josh Earl served as editors on the series.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Natalie Holt was hired to compose the series' score, making her the first woman to score a live-action "Star Wars" project. Recording for her music was reported to have been taking place for several months by mid-February 2022, when John Williams recorded the main theme for the series with an orchestra in Los Angeles. Williams previously composed the scores for the main "Star Wars" films, and originally wrote a theme for Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars" (1977) which later became associated with the Force in general. Williams approached Kennedy about composing a new theme for the series because Kenobi was the only major character from the original film that he had not written a standalone theme for, and Holt said the new theme was reflective, wistful, and had an "element of hope" which "embodies the spirit of the show entirely". This was the second time Williams had written a theme for a "Star Wars" project for which he was not the main composer, following "Solo", and was the first weekly television series for which he composed the theme since "Amazing Stories" in 1985.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Chow flew to London to meet with Holt and do a "two day intensive immersion" into the unfinished footage for the series. Holt then developed themes for the new characters and wrote an original score that she said had its "roots in the "Star Wars" tradition" more than Ludwig Göransson's "Mandalorian" music did. As with previous "Star Wars" scores, Holt took influence from real-world cultural music to represent different planets in the series, including using Latin music for one planet and more "Eastern" sounds from Thailand and Hong Kong for another. Holt used a hunting horn and some unusual percussion instruments played by Brian Kilgore to create the sound of the Inquisitors, which she said "stirs your guts. It's so haunting... It's that jarring, rhythmic texture". Göransson's recording engineer, Chris Fogel, worked with Holt on engineering the score for "Obi-Wan Kenobi" at Göransson's studio. Holt completed her work for the series by late April 2022. Williams' "The Imperial March", "Force Theme", and "Princess Leia's Theme" are quoted in the score for "Part VI".


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: A short sizzle reel was released on November 12, 2021, as part of the Disney+ Day celebration, which included concept art, and McGregor and Chow discussing the series. The first trailer for the series was released on March 9, 2022, during Disney's annual shareholder meeting. The use of Williams's score in the trailer was a notable highlight, with Zack Sharf of "Variety" saying the "most awe-inspiring moment" of the trailer was its use of "Duel of the Fates" since it is "one of Williams's most bombastic pieces of score music" and featuring it in the trailer "points to a reunion of friend [Kenobi] and foe [Anakin Skywalker] in the new series". Daniel Chin of "The Ringer" also praised the trailer, stating that it "delivers a rush of "Star Wars" prequel nostalgia" and also noted the use of "Duel of the Fates", which he felt set the tone and stakes of the series. A second trailer was released on May 4 to commemorate "Star Wars" Day, with "The Hollywood Reporter" Ryan Parker describing it as "intense". Many commentators highlighted the appearance of Darth Vader in the trailer. Michael McWhertor from "Polygon" felt it gave "a glimpse at the intensity of the Empire's hunt for one of the last remaining practitioners of the Force". Meanwhile, Joss Weiss of "Syfy" wrote that it depicts Kenobi dealing with "shameful mistakes of his own past". However, Angela Watercutter from "Wired" expressed skepticism based on the trailer, and opined "everything "Star Wars" just feels like it's on auto-pilot".


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: The series was promoted at "Star Wars" Celebration on May 26, including an advance screening of the first two episodes and a live performance of the main theme by the Pacific Symphony orchestra, conducted by Williams. In May 2022, Volkswagen released a commercial promoting the series and its electrical car model, ID. Buzz, featuring R2-D2, C-3PO, and McGregor. Two editions of the car, inspired by "Star Wars", were created in a collaboration between designers from Volkswagen and Lucasfilm, and later shown at the 2022 "Star Wars" Celebration. The "Obi-Wan Wednesdays" product program, which reveals toys, apparel, action figures, accessories, books, and comics related to the series following an episode's release, started on May 25 and concluded on June 29.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: "Obi-Wan Kenobi" premiered on Disney+ on May 26, 2022, with its first two episodes. They were released three hours earlier than expected, at 9 p.m. PDT, rather than at 12 a.m. PDT on May 27. A content warning was added to the first, fifth, and sixth episodes due to the similarities between scenes depicting violence involving children during Order 66 and the Robb Elementary School shooting from May 24. The series' other four episodes were released weekly on Wednesdays from June 1 until June 22. It was originally set to premiere on May 25, the 45th anniversary of the original "Star Wars" film in 1977.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: According to Whip Media, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was the most anticipated new television series of May 2022. Disney announced that "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was the most-watched series premiere for the streaming service in its opening weekend. According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was the most streamed TV show across all platforms in the United States, during the week ending May 29, 2022, as well as during the week of May 30, 2022 to June 5, 2022. According to the streaming aggregator Reelgood, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was the most streamed TV show across all platforms, during the week of June 11, 2022. According to Samba TV, "Part I" was viewed in 2.14 million U.S. households from May 27–30, surpassing the premieres for "The Mandalorian" second season (2.08 million) and "The Book of Boba Fett" (1.5 million). During June 22–26, the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" finale was watched in 1.8 million households, up 20% from "The" "Book of Boba Fett"s 1.5 million. According to the streaming aggregator Reelgood, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" was the 2nd most streamed television series and the 3rd most streamed program across all platforms, during the week of June 22, 2022.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 82% approval rating and an average score of 6.60/10, based on 297 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "This won't be the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" some viewers are looking for, but Ewan McGregor's soulful performance and some refreshing twists make this a satisfying – if circuitous – addition to the Star Wars saga." On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Matt Purslow of "IGN" gave the first two episodes an 8 out of 10, praising the storyline and Kenobi's character arc, but criticized the action sequences. He was hopeful for the rest of the series, calling it "a surprisingly emotional chapter in the larger Star Wars saga". "CNN" writer Brian Lowry commended McGregor's performance, writing that he "proves [to be] an enormous asset, perfectly capturing the legendary Jedi at this stage", while also feeling the show "concocts a more-than-plausible explanation" for Kenobi's actions during the time period. Writing for "The Hollywood Reporter", Angie Han also gave the series a positive review, praising McGregor's performance, Chow's direction, the visual aesthetic of Daiyu, and the overall tone of the series, which she felt was similar to "Rogue One" (2016), adding that it "has the potential to serve up one of the more complex character studies ever seen in the franchise".


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: Stuart Heritage from "The Guardian" criticized the slower pace of the first episode, but praised the action sequences of the second, comparing it to "John Wick". He rated the episodes 3 out of 5 stars. Both Brian Truitt from "USA Today" and Stephen Kelly from the "BBC" also compared the series to "John Wick". Truitt gave the first two episodes 3 out of 4 stars, while praising John Williams' score and character-driven narrative, in addition to stating that "Kenobi feels more like old-school "Star Wars" than its Disney+ predecessors." Kelly praised Harold's script on the first episode, but felt his script for the second was inferior. He also enjoyed Kenobi and Leia's dynamic in the second episode, along with the production values and cinematography, but said "scenes on Tatooine and Daiyu have a strange, artificial quality to them unbefitting of Obi-Wan's grand status". "The A.V. Club" Sam Barsanti gave the first two episodes a B- grade; he praised Blair's performance as Leia, but noted inconsistencies with the original film and called Reva's plan to lure Kenobi by kidnapping Leia "absurd". Dominic Patten of "Deadline Hollywood" gave the first two episodes a negative review, stating that it is "nearly all undiluted nostalgia with no wisdom to impart and not much of a story to tell".


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: By May 2022, Disney and Lucasfilm had decided not to submit the series for consideration at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards because to meet the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences's criteria they would have to make all of the series' episodes available to Academy voters by June 15, 2022, which would require the final two episodes of the series to be released early.


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: For her role as Reva Sevander, Moses Ingram received hundreds of direct messages on Instagram containing death threats and racist abuse which she revealed examples of on May 31, 2022. This prompted Disney and her colleagues, including Ewan McGregor, to defend her. McGregor, in a video posted to the official "Star Wars" social media accounts, called the abusive messages "horrendous" and said that "if you’re sending her bullying messages, you’re no "Star Wars" fan in my mind".


title: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

text: In August 2022, Disney announced the documentary special "Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return" which premiered on September 8, 2022, Disney+ Day. The documentary explores the making of the series, and the returns of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. It is the premier men's professional basketball league in the world.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). It changed its name to the National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League (NBL). In 1976, the NBA and the American Basketball Association (ABA) merged, adding four franchises to the NBA. The NBA's regular season runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. The league's playoff tournament extends into June. , NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The NBA is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices in Midtown Manhattan, while its NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, New Jersey. In North America, the NBA is the third wealthiest professional sport league after the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) by revenue, and among the top four in the world.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers are tied with the most NBA championships at 17 each. The Golden State Warriors, are the defending league champions, as they defeated the Boston Celtics 4–2 in the 2022 NBA Finals, to mark the end of the 2021–22 season.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada. On November 1, 1946, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, in a game the NBA now refers to as the first game played in NBA history. The first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers. Although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League and the NBL, the BAA was the first league to attempt to play primarily in large arenas in major cities. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not significantly better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that league's 1948 title, and the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers won the 1949 BAA title. Prior to the 1948–49 season, however, NBL teams from Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Rochester jumped to the BAA, which established the BAA as the league of choice for collegians looking to turn professional.


title: National Basketball Association

text: On August 3, 1949, the remaining NBL teams–Syracuse, Anderson, Tri-Cities, Sheboygan, Denver, and Waterloo–merged into the BAA. In deference to the merger and to avoid possible legal complications, the league name was changed to the present National Basketball Association, even though the merged league retained the BAA's governing body, including Maurice Podoloff as president. To this day, the NBA claims the BAA's history as its own. It now reckons the arrival of the NBL teams as an expansion, not a merger, and does not recognize NBL records and statistics.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories. In 1950, the NBA consolidated to eleven franchises, a process that continued until 1954–55, when the league reached its smallest size of eight franchises: the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Pistons, Milwaukee Hawks, and Syracuse Nationals, all of which remain in the league today, although the latter six all did eventually relocate. The process of contraction saw the league's smaller-city franchises move to larger cities. The Hawks had shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, and later shifted to St. Louis in 1955. The Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati in 1957 and the Pistons moved from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Detroit in 1957.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks. He remained the only non-white player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter, signing with the Washington Capitols in 1950. Hunter was cut from the team during training camp, but several African-American players did play in the league later that year, including Chuck Cooper with the Celtics, Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton with the Knicks, and Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships and established themselves as the league's first dynasty. To encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954. If a team does not attempt to score a field goal (or the ball fails to make contact with the rim) within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped and the ball given to its opponent.


title: National Basketball Association

text: In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, which already featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, and went on to lead the franchise to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became a dominant individual star of the 1960s, setting new single-game records in scoring (100) and rebounding (55). Russell's rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The 1960s were dominated by the Celtics. Led by Russell, Cousy, and Auerbach, Boston won eight straight championships in the NBA from 1959 to 1966. This championship streak is the longest in NBA history. They did not win the title in 1966–67, but regained it in the 1967–68 season and repeated in 1969. The domination totaled nine of the ten championship banners of the 1960s.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Through this period, the NBA continued to evolve with the shift of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, the Syracuse Nationals to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers, and the St. Louis Hawks moving to Atlanta, as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises. The Chicago Packers (now Washington Wizards) became the ninth NBA team in 1961. From 1966 to 1968, the league expanded from 9 to 14 teams, introducing the Chicago Bulls, Seattle SuperSonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder), San Diego Rockets (who moved to Houston four years later), Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns.


title: National Basketball Association

text: In 1967, the league faced a new external threat with the formation of the American Basketball Association (ABA). The leagues engaged in a bidding war. The NBA landed the most important college star of the era, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor). However, the NBA's leading scorer, Rick Barry, jumped to the ABA, as did four veteran referees—Norm Drucker, Earl Strom, John Vanak, and Joe Gushue.


title: National Basketball Association

text: In 1969, Alan Siegel, who oversaw the design of Jerry Dior's Major League Baseball logo a year prior, created the modern NBA logo inspired by the MLB's. It incorporates the silhouette of Jerry West, based on a photo by Wen Roberts. The NBA would not confirm that a particular player was used because, according to Siegel, "They want to institutionalize it rather than individualize it. It's become such a ubiquitous, classic symbol and focal point of their identity and their licensing program that they don't necessarily want to identify it with one player." The iconic logo debuted in 1971 (with a small change to the typeface on the NBA wordmark in 2017) and would remain a fixture of the NBA brand.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The ABA succeeded in signing a number of major stars in the 1970s, including Julius Erving of the Virginia Squires, in part because it allowed teams to sign college undergraduates. The NBA expanded rapidly during this period. From 1966 to 1974, the NBA grew from nine franchises to 18. In 1970, the Portland Trail Blazers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers) all made their debuts expanding the league to 17. The New Orleans Jazz (now in Utah) came aboard in 1974 bringing the total to 18. Following the 1976 season, the leagues reached a settlement that provided for the addition of four ABA franchises to the NBA, raising the number of franchises in the league at that time to 22. The franchises added were the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and New York Nets (now the Brooklyn Nets). Some of the biggest stars of this era were Abdul-Jabbar, Barry, Dave Cowens, Erving, Elvin Hayes, Walt Frazier, Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, Dan Issel, and Pete Maravich. The end of the decade, however, saw declining TV ratings, low attendance and drug-related player issues – both perceived and real – that threatened to derail the league.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The league added the ABA's three-point field goal beginning in 1979. That same year, rookies Larry Bird and Magic Johnson joined the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers respectively, initiating a period of significant growth of fan interest in the NBA. The two had faced each other in the 1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, and they later played against each other in three NBA Finals (1984, 1985, and 1987). In the 10 seasons of the 1980s, Johnson led the Lakers to five titles while Bird led the Celtics to three titles. Also in the early 1980s, the NBA added one more expansion franchise, the Dallas Mavericks, bringing the total to 23 teams. Later on, Larry Bird won the first three three-point shooting contests. On February 1, 1984 David Stern became commissioner of the NBA. Stern has been recognized as playing a major role in the growth of the league during his career.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Michael Jordan entered the league in 1984 with the Chicago Bulls, spurring more interest in the league. In 1988 and 1989, four cities got their wishes as the Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, and Minnesota Timberwolves made their NBA debuts, bringing the total to 27 teams. The Detroit Pistons won the back-to-back NBA Championships in 1989 and 1990, led by coach Chuck Daly and guard Isiah Thomas. Jordan and Scottie Pippen led the Bulls to two three-peats in eight years during the 1991–1998 seasons. Hakeem Olajuwon won back-to-back titles with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The 1992 Olympic basketball Dream Team, the first to use current NBA stars, featured Michael Jordan as the anchor, along with Bird, Johnson, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Charles Barkley, and star NCAA amateur Christian Laettner. The team was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, while 11 of the 12 players (along with three out of four coaches) have been inducted as individuals in their own right.


title: National Basketball Association

text: In 1995, the NBA expanded to Canada with the addition of the Vancouver Grizzlies and the Toronto Raptors. In 1996, the NBA created a women's league, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).


title: National Basketball Association

text: In 1998, the NBA owners began a lockout that suspended all league business until a new labor agreement could be reached, which led to the season being shortened in half. The San Antonio Spurs won the championship at the end of the 1998–99 season, becoming the first former ABA team to win the NBA championship.


title: National Basketball Association

text: After the breakup of the Chicago Bulls championship roster in the summer of 1998, the Western Conference has dominated. The Los Angeles Lakers of coach Phil Jackson and the San Antonio Spurs of Gregg Popovich combined to make 13 Finals in 16 seasons, with 10 titles. Tim Duncan and David Robinson won the 1999 championship with the Spurs, and Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant started the 2000s with three consecutive championships for the Lakers. The Spurs reclaimed the title in 2003 against the Nets. In 2004, the Lakers returned to the Finals, only to lose in five games to the Detroit Pistons.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The league's image was marred by a violent incident between players and fans in a November 2004 game between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons. In response, players were suspended for a total of 146 games with $11 million total lost in salary, and the league tightened security and limited the sale of alcohol.


title: National Basketball Association

text: On May 19, 2005, Commissioner Stern testified before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Government Reform about the NBA's actions to combat the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. The NBA started its drug-testing program in 1983 and substantially improved it in 1999. In the 1999–2000 season, all players were randomly tested during training camp, and all rookies were additionally tested three more times during the regular season. Of the nearly 4,200 tests for steroids and performance-enhancing drugs conducted over six seasons, only three players were confirmed positive for NBA's drug program, all were immediately suspended, and as of the time of the testimony, none were playing with the NBA.


title: National Basketball Association

text: After the Spurs won the championship again in 2005, the 2006 Finals featured two franchises making their inaugural Finals appearances. The Miami Heat, led by their star shooting guard, Dwyane Wade, and Shaquille O'Neal, who had been traded from the Lakers during summer 2004, won the series over the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers/Spurs dominance continued in 2007 with a four-game sweep by the Spurs over the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers. The 2008 Finals saw a rematch of the league's highest profile rivalry, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, with the Celtics winning, for their 17th championship. The Lakers won back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010, against the Orlando Magic and the Celtics. The 2010 NBA All-Star Game was held at Cowboys Stadium in front of the largest crowd ever, 108,713.


title: National Basketball Association

text: A referee lockout began on September 1, 2009, when the contract between the NBA and its referees expired. The first preseason games were played on October 1, 2009, and replacement referees from the WNBA and NBA Development League were used, the first time replacement referees had been used since the beginning of the 1995–96 season. The NBA and the regular referees reached a deal on October 23, 2009.


title: National Basketball Association

text: At the start of the 2010–11 season, free agents LeBron James and Chris Bosh signed with the Miami Heat, joining Dwyane Wade to form the "Big Three". The Heat dominated the league, reaching the Finals for four straight years. In 2011, they faced a re-match with the Dallas Mavericks but lost to the Dirk Nowitzki-led team. They won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013 against the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Spurs, and lost a re-match to the Spurs in the 2014 Finals.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The 2011–12 season began with another lockout, the league's fourth. After the first few weeks of the season were canceled, the players and owners ratified a new collective bargaining agreement on December 8, 2011, setting up a shortened 66-game season. On February 1, 2014, commissioner David Stern retired after 30 years in the position, and was succeeded by his deputy, Adam Silver.


title: National Basketball Association

text: After four seasons with the Miami Heat, LeBron James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2014–15 season. He led the team to their second Finals appearance with the help of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The Golden State Warriors defeated the Cavaliers in six games, led by the "Splash Brothers" Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. The Cavaliers and the Warriors faced each other in the Finals a record four consecutive times. In the 2015–16 season, the Warriors finished the season 73–9, the best season record in NBA history. However, the Cavaliers overcame a 3–1 deficit in the Finals to win their first championship that season. In the 2016–17 season, the Warriors benefited from the recruitment of free agent Kevin Durant. The Warriors won the 2017 and 2018 Finals against the Cavaliers.


title: National Basketball Association

text: After the departure of James in free agency in 2018, the Cavaliers' streak of playoff and Finals appearances ended. The Warriors returned for a fifth consecutive Finals appearance in 2019 but lost to the Toronto Raptors, who won their first championship after acquiring Kawhi Leonard in a trade.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The 2019–20 season was suspended indefinitely on March 11, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. On June 4, 2020, the NBA Board of Governors voted to resume the season in a 22-team format with 8 seeding games per team and a regular playoffs format, with all games played in a "bubble" in Walt Disney World without any fans present.


title: National Basketball Association

text: This era also saw the continuous near year-over-year decline in NBA viewership. Between 2012 and 2019, the league lost 40 to 45 percent of its viewership. While some of it can be attributed to "cable-cutting", other professional leagues, like the NFL and MLB have retained stable viewership demographics. The opening game of the 2020 Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat brought in only 7.41 million viewers to ABC, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That is reportedly the lowest viewership seen for the Finals since at least 1994, when total viewers began to be regularly recorded and is a 45 percent decline from game one between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors, which had 13.51 million viewers a year earlier. Some attribute this decline to the political stances the league and its players are taking, while others consider load management, the uneven talent distribution between the conferences and the cord-cutting of younger viewers as the main reason for the decline.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Following pioneers like Vlade Divac (Serbia) and Dražen Petrović (Croatia) who joined the NBA in the late 1980s, an increasing number of international players have moved directly from playing elsewhere in the world to starring in the NBA. Since 2006, the NBA has faced EuroLeague teams in exhibition matches in the NBA Europe Live Tour, and since 2009, in the EuroLeague American Tour. The 2013–14 season opened with a record 92 international players on the opening night rosters, representing 39 countries and comprising over 20% of the league. The beginning of the 2017–18 season saw a record 108 international players representing 42 countries marking 4 consecutive years of at least 100 international players and each team having at least one international player. In 2018, the Phoenix Suns hired Serbian coach Igor Kokoškov as their new head coach, replacing Canadian interim coach Jay Triano, making Kokoškov the first European coach to become a head coach for a team in the NBA.


title: National Basketball Association

text: In 2001, an affiliated minor league, the National Basketball Development League, now called the NBA G League, was created.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Two years after the Hornets' move to New Orleans, the NBA returned to North Carolina, as the Charlotte Bobcats were formed as an expansion team in 2004.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The Hornets temporarily moved to Oklahoma City in 2005 for two seasons because of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. The team returned to New Orleans in 2007.


title: National Basketball Association

text: A new official game ball was introduced on June 28, 2006, for the 2006–07 season, marking the first change to the ball in over 35 years and only the second ball in 60 seasons. Manufactured by Spalding, the new ball featured a new design and new synthetic material that Spalding claimed offered a better grip, feel, and consistency than the original ball. However, many players were vocal in their disdain for the new ball, saying that it was too sticky when dry, and too slippery when wet.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Commissioner Stern announced on December 11, 2006, that beginning January 1, 2007, the NBA would return to the traditional leather basketball in use prior to the 2006–07 season. The change was influenced by frequent player complaints and confirmed hand injuries (cuts) caused by the microfiber ball. The Players' Association had filed a suit on behalf of the players against the NBA over the new ball. , the NBA team jerseys are manufactured by Nike, replacing the previous supplier, Adidas. All teams will wear jerseys with the Nike logo except the Charlotte Hornets, whose jerseys will instead have the Jumpman logo associated with longtime Nike endorser Michael Jordan, who owns the Hornets.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began an investigation on July 19, 2007, over allegations that veteran NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on basketball games he officiated over the past two seasons and that he made calls affecting the point spread in those games. On August 15, 2007, Donaghy pleaded guilty to two federal charges related to the investigation. Donaghy claimed in 2008 that certain referees were friendly with players and "company men" for the NBA, and he alleged that referees influenced the outcome of certain playoff and finals games in 2002 and 2005. NBA commissioner David Stern denied the allegations and said Donaghy was a convicted felon and a "singing, cooperating witness". Donaghy served 15 months in prison and was released in November 2009. According to an independent study by Ronald Beech of Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings, although the refs increased the Lakers' chances of winning through foul calls during the game, there was no collusion to fix the game. On alleged "star treatment" during Game 6 by the referees toward certain players, Beech claimed, "there does seem to be issues with different standards and allowances for different players."


title: National Basketball Association

text: The NBA Board of Governors approved the request of the Seattle SuperSonics to move to Oklahoma City on April 18, 2008. The team, however, could not move until it had settled a lawsuit filed by the city of Seattle, which was intended to keep the SuperSonics in Seattle for the remaining two seasons of the team's lease at KeyArena. Following a court case, the city of Seattle settled with the ownership group of the SuperSonics on July 2, 2008, allowing the team to move to Oklahoma City immediately in exchange for terminating the final two seasons of the team's lease at KeyArena. The Oklahoma City Thunder began playing in the 2008–09 season.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The first outdoor game in the modern era of the league was played at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on October 11, 2008, between the Phoenix Suns and the Denver Nuggets.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The first official NBA league games on European ground took place in 2011. In two matchups, the New Jersey Nets faced the Toronto Raptors at the O2 Arena in London in front of over 20,000 fans.


title: National Basketball Association

text: After the 2012–13 season, the New Orleans Hornets were renamed the Pelicans. During the 2013–14 season, Stern retired as commissioner after 30 years, and deputy commissioner Adam Silver ascended to the position of commissioner. During that season's playoffs, the Bobcats officially reclaimed the Hornets name, and by agreement with the league and the Pelicans, also received sole ownership of all history, records, and statistics from the Pelicans' time in Charlotte. As a result, the Hornets are now officially considered to have been founded in 1988, suspended operations in 2002, and resumed in 2004 as the Bobcats, while the Pelicans are officially treated as a 2002 expansion team. (This is somewhat similar to the relationship between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens in the NFL.)


title: National Basketball Association

text: Donald Sterling, who was then-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, received a lifetime ban from the NBA on April 29, 2014, after racist remarks he made became public. Sterling was also fined US$2.5 million, the maximum allowed under the NBA Constitution.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Becky Hammon was hired by the San Antonio Spurs on August 5, 2014, as an assistant coach, becoming the second female coach in NBA history but the first full-time coach. This also makes her the first full-time female coach in any of the four major professional sports in North America.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The NBA announced on April 15, 2016, that it would allow all 30 of its teams to sell corporate sponsor advertisement patches on official game uniforms, beginning with the 2017–18 season. The sponsorship advertisement patches would appear on the left front of jerseys, opposite Nike's logo, marking the first time a manufacturer's logo would appear on NBA jerseys, and would measure approximately 2.5 by 2.5 inches. The NBA would become the first major North American professional sports league to allow corporate sponsorship logos on official team uniforms, and the last to have a uniform manufacturer logo appear on its team uniforms. The first team to announce a jersey sponsorship was the Philadelphia 76ers, who agreed to a deal with StubHub.


title: National Basketball Association

text: On July 6, 2017, the NBA unveiled an updated rendition of its logo; it was largely identical to the previous design, except with revised typography and a "richer" color scheme. The league began to phase in the updated logo across its properties during the 2017 NBA Summer League.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The NBA also officially released new Nike uniforms for all 30 teams beginning with the 2017–18 season. The league eliminated "home" and "away" uniform designations. Instead, each team would have four or six uniforms: the "Association" edition, which is the team's white uniform, the "Icon" edition, which is the team's color uniform, and the "Statement" and "City" uniforms, which most teams use as an alternate uniform. In 2018, the NBA also released the "Earned" uniform.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The NBA originated in 1946 with 11 teams, and through a sequence of team expansions, reductions and relocations currently consists of 30 teams. The United States is home to 29 teams; another is in Canada.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The current league organization divides 30 teams into two conferences of three divisions with five teams each. The current divisional alignment was introduced in the 2004–05 season. Reflecting the population distribution of the United States and Canada as a whole, most teams are in the eastern half of the country: 13 teams are in the Eastern Time Zone, nine in the Central, three in the Mountain, and five in the Pacific.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Following the summer break, teams begin training camps in late September. Training camps allow the coaching staff to evaluate players (especially rookies), scout the team's strengths and weaknesses, prepare the players for the rigorous regular season and determine the 12-man active roster (and a 3-man inactive list) with which they will begin the regular season. Teams have the ability to assign players with less than two years of experience to the NBA G League. After training camp, a series of preseason exhibition games are held. Preseason matches are sometimes held in non-NBA cities, both in the United States and overseas. The NBA regular season begins in the last week of October.


title: National Basketball Association

text: During the regular season, each team plays 82 games, 41 each home and away. A team faces opponents in its own division four times a year (16 games). Each team plays six of the teams from the other two divisions in its conference four times (24 games), and the remaining four teams three times (12 games). Finally, each team plays all the teams in the other conference twice apiece (30 games). This asymmetrical structure means the strength of schedule will vary between teams (but not as significantly as the NFL or MLB). Over five seasons, each team will have played 80 games against their division (20 games against each opponent, 10 at home, 10 on the road), 180 games against the rest of their conference (18 games against each opponent, 9 at home, 9 on the road), and 150 games against the other conference (10 games against each team, 5 at home, 5 on the road).


title: National Basketball Association

text: The NBA is also the only league that regularly schedules games on Christmas Day. The league has been playing games regularly on the holiday since 1947, though the first Christmas Day games were not televised until . Games played on this day have featured some of the best teams and players. Christmas is also notable for NBA on television, as the holiday is when the first NBA games air on network television each season. Games played on this day have been some of the highest-rated games during a particular season.


title: National Basketball Association

text: In February, the regular season pauses to celebrate the annual NBA All-Star Game. Fans vote throughout the United States, Canada, and on the Internet, and the top vote-getters in each conference are named captains. Fan votes determine the rest of the allstar starters. Coaches vote to choose the remaining 14 All-Stars. Then, the top vote-getters in each conference draft their own team from a player pool of allstars. The top vote-getter in the league earns first pick and so forth. The player with the best performance during the game is rewarded with a Game MVP award. Other attractions of the All-Star break include the Rising Stars Challenge (originally Rookie Challenge), where the top rookies and second-year players in the NBA play in a 5-on-5 basketball game, with the current format pitting U.S. players against those from the rest of the world; the Skills Challenge, where players compete to finish an obstacle course consisting of shooting, passing, and dribbling in the fastest time; the Three Point Contest, where players compete to score the highest number of three-point field goals in a given time; and the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, where players compete to dunk the ball in the most entertaining way according to the judges. These other attractions have varying names which include the names of the various sponsors who have paid for naming rights.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Shortly after the All-Star break is the trade deadline, which is set to fall on the 16th Thursday of the season (usually in February) at 3 pm Eastern Time. After this date, teams are not allowed to exchange players with each other for the remainder of the season, although they may still sign and release players. Major trades are often completed right before the trading deadline, making that day a hectic time for general managers.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Around the middle of April, the regular season ends. It is during this time that voting begins for individual awards, as well as the selection of the honorary, league-wide, post-season teams. The Sixth Man of the Year Award is given to the best player coming off the bench (must have more games coming off the bench than actual games started). The Rookie of the Year Award is awarded to the most outstanding first-year player. The Most Improved Player Award is awarded to the player who is deemed to have shown the most improvement from the previous season. The Defensive Player of the Year Award is awarded to the league's best defender. The Coach of the Year Award is awarded to the coach that has made the most positive difference to a team. The Most Valuable Player Award is given to the player deemed the most valuable for (his team) that season. Additionally, "Sporting News" awards an unofficial (but widely recognized) Executive of the Year Award to the general manager who is adjudged to have performed the best job for the benefit of his franchise.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The post-season teams are the All-NBA Team, the All-Defensive Team, and the All-Rookie Team; each consists of five players. There are three All-NBA teams, consisting of the top players at each position, with first-team status being the most desirable. There are two All-Defensive teams, consisting of the top defenders at each position. There are also two All-Rookie teams, consisting of the top first-year players regardless of position.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The NBA playoffs begin in April after the conclusion of the regular season with the top eight teams in each conference, regardless of divisional alignment, competing for the league's championship title, the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. Seeds are awarded in strict order of regular season record (with a tiebreaker system used as needed).


title: National Basketball Association

text: Having a higher seed offers several advantages. Since the first seed begins the playoffs playing against the eighth seed, the second seed plays the seventh seed, the third seed plays the sixth seed, and the fourth seed plays the fifth seed, having a higher seed means a team faces a weaker team in the first round. The team in each series with the better record has home-court advantage, including the First Round. Before the league changed its playoff determination format for the 2006–07 season, this meant that, for example, if the team that received the sixth seed had a better record than the team with the third seed (by virtue of a divisional championship), the sixth seed would have home-court advantage, even though the other team had a higher seed. Therefore, the team with the best regular season record in the league is guaranteed home-court advantage in every series it plays. For example, in 2006, the Denver Nuggets won 44 games and captured the Northwest Division and the third seed. Their opponent was the sixth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, who won 47 games and finished second in the Pacific Division. Although Denver won its much weaker division, the Clippers had a home-court advantage and won the series in 5.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The playoffs follow a tournament format. Each team plays an opponent in a best-of-seven series, with the first team to win four games advancing into the next round, while the other team is eliminated from the playoffs. In the next round, the successful team plays against another advancing team of the same conference. All but one team in each conference are eliminated from the playoffs. Since the NBA does not re-seed teams, the playoff bracket in each conference uses a traditional design, with the winner of the series matching the first- and eighth-seeded teams playing the winner of the series matching the fourth- and fifth-seeded teams, and the winner of the series matching the second- and seventh-seeded teams playing the winner of the series matching the third- and sixth-seeded teams. In every round, the best-of-7 series follows a 2–2–1–1–1 home-court pattern, meaning that one team will have home court in games 1, 2, 5, and 7, while the other plays at home in games 3, 4, and 6. From 1985 to 2013, the NBA Finals followed a 2–3–2 pattern, meaning that one team had home court in games 1, 2, 6, and 7, while the other played at home in games 3, 4, and 5.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The final playoff round, a best-of-seven series between the victors of both conferences, is known as the NBA Finals and is held annually in June. The winner of the NBA Finals receives the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. Each player and major contributor—including coaches and the general manager—on the winning team receive a championship ring. In addition, the league awards the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award to the best performing player of the series.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The league began using its current format, with the top eight teams in each conference advancing regardless of divisional alignment, in the 2015–16 season. Previously, the top three seeds went to the division winners.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics have won the most championships with each having 17 NBA Finals wins. Followed by Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls with seven and six titles


title: National Basketball Association

text: As one of the major sports leagues in North America, the NBA has a long history of partnerships with television networks in the United States. The NBA signed a contract with DuMont Television Network in its eighth season, the 1953–54 season, marking the first year the NBA had a national television broadcaster. Similar to the National Football League, the lack of television stations led to NBC taking over the rights from the 1954–55 season until April 7, 1962–NBC's first tenure with the NBA. Currently in the U.S., the NBA has a contract with ESPN (and ABC) and TNT through the 2024–25 season. Games that are not broadcast nationally are usually aired over regional sports networks specific to the area where the teams are located.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The National Basketball Association has sporadically participated in international club competitions. From 1987 to 1999 an NBA team played against championship club teams from Asia, Europe and South America in the McDonald's Championship. This tournament was won by the NBA invitee every year it was held.


title: National Basketball Association

text: In 2022, an average ticket cost $77.75. Depending on the market and stage of the season—preseason, regular season, postseason—a ticket can range from $10 to $70,000.


title: National Basketball Association

text: In 2020, ticket prices for the NBA All Star Game became more expensive than ever before, averaging around $2,600, and even more on the secondary market.


title: National Basketball Association

text: According to Nielsen's survey, in 2013 the NBA had the youngest audience, with 45 percent of its viewers under 35, but the least likely, along with Major League Baseball, to be watched by women, who make up only 30% of the viewership. , 45 percent of its viewers were black, while 40 percent of viewers were white, making it the only top North American sport that does not have a white majority audience.


title: National Basketball Association

text: , the NBA's popularity further declined among White Americans, who during the 2016–17 season, made up only 34% of the viewership. At the same time, the black viewership increased to 47 percent, while Hispanic (of any race) stood at 11% and Asian viewership stood at 8%. According to the same poll, the NBA was favored more strongly by Democrats than Republicans.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Outside the U.S., the NBA's biggest international market is in China, where an estimated 800 million viewers watched the 2017–18 season. NBA China is worth approximately $4 billion.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The NBA has been involved in a number of controversies over the years and has received a significant amount of criticism.


title: National Basketball Association

text: Following pioneers like Vlade Divac (Serbia) and Dražen Petrović (Croatia) who joined the NBA in the late 1980s, an increasing number of international players have moved directly from playing elsewhere in the world to starring in the NBA. Below is a short list of foreign players who have won NBA awards or have been otherwise recognized for their contributions to basketball, either currently or formerly active in the league:


title: National Basketball Association

text: On some occasions, young players, most but not all from the English-speaking world, have attended U.S. colleges before playing in the NBA. Notable examples are:


title: National Basketball Association

text: Since 2006, the NBA has faced EuroLeague teams in exhibition matches in the NBA Europe Live Tour, and since 2009 in the EuroLeague American Tour.


title: National Basketball Association

text: The 2013–14 season opened with a record 92 international players on the opening night rosters, representing 39 countries and comprising over 20 percent of the league. The NBA defines "international" players as those born outside the 50 United States and Washington, D.C. This means that:


title: National Basketball Association

text: The league has a global social responsibility program, NBA Cares, that is responsible for the league's stated mission of addressing important social issues worldwide.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of King Charles III. Anne is 16th in the line of succession to the British throne and has been Princess Royal since 1987.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Born at Clarence House, Anne was educated at Benenden School and began undertaking royal duties upon reaching adulthood. She became a respected equestrian, winning one gold medal in 1971 and two silver medals in 1975 at the European Eventing Championships. In 1976, she became the first member of the British royal family to compete in the Olympic Games. In 1988, the Princess Royal became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: The Princess Royal performs official duties and engagements on behalf of her brother the King. She holds patronage in over 300 organisations, including WISE, Riders for Health, and Carers Trust. Her charity work revolves around sport, sciences, people with disabilities, and health in developing countries. She has been associated with Save the Children for over fifty years and has visited a number of their projects.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Anne married Captain Mark Phillips in 1973; they separated in 1989 and divorced in 1992. They have two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and five grandchildren. Within months of her divorce in 1992, Anne married Commander (later Vice Admiral) Sir Timothy Laurence, whom she had met while he served as her mother's equerry between 1986 and 1989.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Anne was born at Clarence House on 15 August 1950 at 11:50 am, during the reign of her maternal grandfather, King George VI, Anne is the second child and only daughter of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, later Queen Elizabeth II from 1952, and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. A 21-gun salute in Hyde Park signalled the birth. Anne was christened in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace on 21 October 1950, by the Archbishop of York, Cyril Garbett. At the time of her birth, she was third in the line of succession to the British throne, behind her mother – at that time Princess Elizabeth – and older brother, Charles. She rose to second after her mother's accession; she is currently 16th in line.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: A governess, Catherine Peebles, was appointed to look after Anne and her other siblings, Charles, Andrew, and Edward, and was responsible for her early education at Buckingham Palace. After the death of George VI in February 1952, Anne's mother ascended the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. Given her young age at the time, Anne did not attend the coronation in June 1953.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: A Girl Guides company, the 1st Buckingham Palace Company to include the Holy Trinity Brompton Brownie pack, was re-formed in May 1959, specifically so that, as her mother and aunt had done as children, Anne could socialise with girls her own age. The company was active until 1963, when Anne went to boarding school. Anne enrolled at Benenden School in 1963. In 1968, she left school with six GCE O-Levels and two A-Levels. She began to undertake royal engagements in 1969, at the age of 18.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: In 1970, she briefly had a relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles, who later married Camilla Shand. Shand much later married Anne's brother Charles as his second wife. Anne was also briefly linked to Olympic equestrian Richard Meade.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: In spring 1971, Princess Anne finished fourth at the Rushall Horse Trials. At age 21, Anne won the individual title at the European Eventing Championship and was voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971. She also rode winners in horse racing, competing in the Grand Military Steeplechase in Sandown Park Racecourse and Diamond Stakes at Royal Ascot.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: For more than five years, she also competed with the British eventing team, with her home-bred horse, Doublet suffering an injury during the 1972 Badminton Horse Trials, and winning a silver medal in both individual and team disciplines in the 1975 European Eventing Championship. The following year, Anne participated in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal as a member of the British team, riding the Queen's horse, Goodwill, in Eventing. Anne suffered a concussion halfway through the course but remounted and finished the event; she has stated she cannot remember making the rest of the jumps. The British team had to pull out of the competition after two horses were injured. She finished sixth at the Badminton Horse Trials in 1979. In 1985, she rode in a charity horse race at the Epsom Derby, finishing fourth.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Anne assumed the Presidency of the Fédération Équestre Internationale from 1986 until 1994. On 5 February 1987, she became the first member of the royal family to appear as a contestant on a television quiz show when she competed on the BBC panel game "A Question of Sport". The princess has been a patron of the Riding for the Disabled Association since 1971 and became its president in 1985, a position she still holds.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Anne met Mark Phillips, a lieutenant in the 1st Queen's Dragoon Guards, in 1968 at a party for horse lovers. Their engagement was announced on 29 May 1973. On 14 November 1973, the couple married at Westminster Abbey in a televised ceremony, with an estimated audience of 100 million. They subsequently took up residence at Gatcombe Park. As was customary for untitled men marrying into the royal family, Phillips was offered an earldom, which he declined; consequently their children were born without titles. Anne and her husband had two children: Peter (born 1977) and Zara Phillips (born 1981). Anne and Phillips have five grandchildren. On 31 August 1989, Anne and Phillips announced their intention to separate; the couple had been rarely seen in public together and both were romantically linked with other people. They shared custody of their children, and initially announced that "there were no plans for divorce." However, on 13 April 1992 the Palace announced that Anne had filed for divorce, which was finalised ten days later.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Anne met Timothy Laurence, a commander in the Royal Navy, while he was serving on the Royal Yacht "Britannia". Their relationship developed in early 1989, three years after he was appointed as an equerry to the Queen. In 1989, the existence of private letters from Laurence to the Princess was revealed by "The Sun" newspaper. The couple married at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral Castle in Scotland, on 12 December 1992. Approximately 30 guests were invited for the private marriage service. Unlike the Church of England at the time, the Church of Scotland considered marriage to be an ordinance of religion rather than a sacrament and permitted the remarriage of divorced persons under certain circumstances. Anne became the first royal divorcée to remarry since Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, granddaughter of Queen Victoria.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: For the wedding ceremony, Anne wore a white jacket over a "demure, cropped-to-the-knee dress" and a spray of white flowers in her hair. Her engagement ring was made of "a cabochon sapphire flanked by three small diamonds on each side". Following the marriage service, the couple and guests headed to Craigowan Lodge for a private reception. Laurence received no peerage.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: On 20 March 1974, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace from a charity event when a Ford Escort forced their Princess IV car to stop on the Mall. The driver of the Escort, Ian Ball, jumped out and began firing a pistol. Inspector James Beaton, Anne's personal police officer, exited the car to shield her and to try to disarm Ball. Beaton's firearm, a Walther PPK, jammed, and he was shot by Ball, as was Anne's chauffeur, Alex Callender, when he tried to disarm Ball. Brian McConnell, a nearby tabloid journalist, also intervened, and was shot in the chest. Ball approached Anne's car and told her that he intended to kidnap her and hold her for ransom, the sum given by varying sources as £2 million or £3 million, which he claimed he intended to give to the National Health Service. Ball told Anne to get out of the car, to which she replied, "Not bloody likely!" She reportedly briefly considered hitting Ball.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Eventually, she exited the other side of the limousine, as had her lady-in-waiting, Rowena Brassey. A passing pedestrian, a former boxer named Ron Russell, punched Ball and led Anne away from the scene. At that point, Police Constable Michael Hills happened upon the scene; he too was shot by Ball, but he had already called for police backup. Detective Constable Peter Edmonds answered, gave chase, and finally arrested Ball.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Beaton, Hills, Callender, and McConnell were hospitalised, and recovered from their wounds. For his defence of Princess Anne, Beaton was awarded the George Cross by the Queen, who was visiting Indonesia when the incident occurred; Hills and Russell were awarded the George Medal, and Callender, McConnell, and Edmonds were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal. It was widely reported that the Queen paid off Russell's mortgage, but this is not true: Russell said in 2020 that a police officer suggested it might happen, so he stopped paying his mortgage in anticipation and nearly had his house repossessed after four months. Anne visited Beaton in hospital and thanked him for his assistance. In 1983, she spoke about the event on "Parkinson", saying she was 'scrupulously polite' to Ball as she thought it would be 'silly to be too rude at that stage'.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Beaton, who had been Anne's sole bodyguard, later said about royal security "I had nothing… There was no back-up vehicle. The training was non-existent; but then again, [we thought] nothing was going to happen. They are highly specialised now, highly trained." Immediately after the attack the use of only a single protection officer was stopped, and the Walther PPK pistol was replaced.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Ball pleaded guilty to attempted murder and kidnapping. , he was still detained under the Mental Health Act at Broadmoor Hospital, having been diagnosed with schizophrenia.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: The attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne is the focus of the Granada Television-produced docudrama "To Kidnap a Princess" (2006) and inspired story lines in Tom Clancy's novel "Patriot Games".


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Anne undertakes a number of duties and engagements on behalf of the sovereign. Kevin S. MacLeod, the then Canadian Secretary to the Queen, said of Anne in 2014: "Her credo is, 'Keep me busy. I'm here to work. I'm here to do good things. I'm here to meet as many people as possible'." It was reported in December 2017 that the Princess Royal had undertaken the most official engagements that year out of all the royal family, her mother the Queen included. Among her royal visits, the Princess has toured Norway, Jamaica, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, and Australia.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Her first public engagement was at the opening of an educational and training centre in Shropshire in 1969. Anne travels abroad on behalf of the United Kingdom up to three times a year. She began to undertake overseas visits upon leaving secondary school, and accompanied her parents on a state visit to Austria in the same year.


title: Anne, Princess Royal

text: Her first tour of Australia was with her parents in 1970, since which she returned many times to undertake official engagements as a colonel-in-chief of an Australian regiment, or to attend memorials and services such as the National Memorial Service for victims of the Black Saturday bushfires in Melbourne on 22 February 2009. In 1990 she was the first member of the royal family to make an official visit to the Soviet Union when she went there as a guest of President Mikhail Gorbachev and his government.