title: Eternals (film)

text: In May 2021, a Chinese state media report excluded "Eternals", as well as "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings", from its list of upcoming MCU films releasing, which "Variety" noted "added to rumors" that the films would not be released in China, especially since Zhao had become "an unexpected "persona non grata"" in the country after she was scrutinized by Chinese netizens over her remarks in a 2013 interview with "Filmmaker" magazine in which she described China as "a place where there are lies everywhere". By September 2021, "Deadline Hollywood" reported it remained "an open question" if the Chinese government or Zhao would attempt to "rehabilitate" the situation, but it "seems likely" the film would not be released in China following the country's response to "Nomadland" as well as "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" likely not being released in the country either following backlash to comments made by star Simu Liu in 2017.


title: Eternals (film)

text: The film was not released in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman due to the depiction of a gay couple. Theaters in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt were set to show an edited version of the film which is missing all the love scenes. Angelina Jolie criticized the countries' decision to ban the film, saying: "I'm sad for [those audiences]. And I'm proud of Marvel for refusing to cut those scenes out. I still don't understand how we live in a world today where there's still [people who] would not see the family Phastos has and the beauty of that relationship and that love. How anybody is angry about it, threatened by it, doesn't approve or appreciate it is ignorant." Lebanese actor Haaz Sleiman, who played Phastos' husband Ben in the film, also voiced the same reaction towards the matter: "They stood their ground and said, 'Nope, we are not going to compromise the integrity of our film.' It made these Arab countries looks so ignorant and pathetic. I have no respect for those governments. They have displayed to the world that they are not only a disgrace to humanity, but to God. Hopefully this will inspire the Saudi people, the Kuwaiti people and the people in Qatar to fight back." Marvel later agreed to cut any kind of love scenes, including the gay couple kiss for the film's release in Indonesia, which received praise by the Indonesian Film Censorship Board (LSF).


title: Eternals (film)

text: "Eternals" began streaming on Disney+ on January 12, 2022, with the option to view the theatrical version of the film or an IMAX Enhanced version. Audio commentary and additional bonus features for the film were added to Disney+ in March 2022. It was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on February 15. The home media includes audio commentary, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and various behind-the-scenes featurettes.


title: Eternals (film)

text: According to Samba TV, "Eternals" was watched by 2 million U.S. households during its first five days on Disney+. "Eternals" was also the top streaming film for viewers in the United States for the week ending January 16, 2022, according to Whip Media's TV Time.


title: Eternals (film)

text: "Eternals" grossed $164.9million in the United States and Canada, and $237.2million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $402.1million. The film's opening weekend earned $162 million globally, which was the second-largest worldwide opening weekend in the COVID-19 pandemic for a Hollywood film, of which IMAX contributed to over $13.6 million.


title: Eternals (film)

text: Advanced ticket sales for "Eternals" were estimated to be $2.6 million in its first 24 hours, outpacing those for "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" ($1.4 million) and "Black Widow" ($2 million) during the same time frame, while AMC Theatres had the largest first day sales of 2021 for the film. In November, Fandango reported that pre-sales for "Eternals" were second-largest of 2021, behind "Black Widow". In October, "Boxoffice Pro" initially projected that the film would earn $82–102 million within its opening weekend, and around $210–280 million in total domestic box office. At the end of the month, "Boxoffice Pro" modified their projections to $67–92 million for the film's opening weekend, and around $165–215 million in total domestic box office, due to mixed early critical reception. According to "Deadline Hollywood", "Eternals" was expected to earn $75 million within its domestic opening weekend, and around $150 million globally.


title: Eternals (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, "Eternals" earned $30.7 million in its opening day, which included $9.5 million from Thursday night previews, marking the third-largest opening day of the pandemic, behind "Black Widow" and "". Its opening weekend earned $71.3 million from 5.5 million theater admissions, making it the top film of the weekend. IMAX accounted for over $7.6 million of the weekend. This marked the fourth-largest opening weekend of the pandemic. The domestic opening weekend gross was lower than various pre-release projections. "Deadline" attributed this to the film's overall mixed reception from critics and audiences. In its second weekend, "Eternals" remained the top film, grossing over $27.5 million. In its third weekend, the film earned $10.8 million, finishing second behind "". In its fourth weekend, "Eternals" was fourth, with $11.5 million earned over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. "Eternals" became the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2021 in the United States.


title: Eternals (film)

text: Outside of North America, "Eternals" earned over $90.7 million within its opening weekend from 46 markets. It was number-one in nearly all of these markets. The international opening weekend gross had exceeded various pre-release projections. IMAX contributed to $6 million of the opening gross, from 58 countries. The film scored the largest opening of the pandemic in Italy, Brazil, and Hong Kong. In South Korea, "Eternals" earned $14.4 million, marking the largest debut for a Hollywood film amid the pandemic. In Russia, the film earned an opening of $5.4 million through six days. In its second weekend, "Eternals" earned $48 million from 49 markets, a drop of 49%. It remained number one in many of these territories. The following weekend, the film earned $22.7 million. It was the top film of the weekend internationally, remaining the top film in many territories, including all markets across Latin America, except for Mexico. In the film's fourth weekend, "Eternals" accumulated $10.2 million, while surpassing "No Time to Die" to become the highest-grossing film of the pandemic in Italy. As of November 28, 2021, the film's largest markets are South Korea ($26.4 million), the United Kingdom ($18.7 million), France ($14.9 million), Mexico ($14.3 million), and Brazil ($11.1 million).


title: Eternals (film)

text: The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 47% based on 401 reviews, with an average rating of 5.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "An ambitious superhero epic that soars as often as it strains, "Eternals" takes the MCU in intriguing—and occasionally confounding—new directions." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 62 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". It is the lowest-rated MCU film on both websites and the first installment to be classified as "rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, the lowest grade for an MCU film, and PostTrak reported 78% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 60% saying they would definitely recommend it.


title: Eternals (film)

text: Charlotte O'Sullivan of the "Evening Standard" described the film as "lavish" and "ambitious", and praised the fight sequences as "astounding, beautifully paced and crammed with detail". Robert Abele of "TheWrap" commended the cinematography and felt "an earnestness to the operatic stakes". Oliver Jones of the "Observer" called it "full of wonder and romance and fueled by an agenda and audacity all its own". Owen Gleiberman was disappointed over Zhao's missing filmmaking style that shaped her films "The Rider" (2017) and "Nomadland" (2020) to "embrace the straight-up expository conventionality of Marvel filmmaking", but felt that the film was a "squarely fun and gratifying watch". Moira Macdonald of "The Seattle Times" thought "it's got some pretty slow spots midfilm and it's desperately in need of a bit more wit ... what it does have is a palpable, artful mood; this is a movie full of superheroes who spend time thinking and feeling, and of special effects that aren't just zippy but often delicately elegant".


title: Eternals (film)

text: Linda Marric of "The Jewish Chronicle" described it as "a mishmash of well-meaning, yet jarringly verbose and bafflingly incoherent nonsense which is only just about saved by some half decent performances"; Nicholas Barber of "BBC Culture" called Zhao's direction "workmanlike"; and Clarisse Loughrey of "The Independent" said that it "strives for the same expansive soulfulness" as "Nomadland" "but discovers there's room enough only for the occasional burst of it". Brian Truitt of "USA Today" praised Zhao's "penchant for naturalistic environments", but wrote that the narrative "struggles to juggle its many subplots and tries to do too much". Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press criticized the dialogue and fight scenes, but praised the visual effects and Nanjiani's performance. Shirley Li of "The Atlantic" felt that "Zhao's delicate examination of her characters outshines "Eternals" duller and more convoluted moments".


title: Eternals (film)

text: Robbie Collin wrote the film was "constantly engaged in a kind of grit-toothed authenticity theatre, going out of its way to show you it's doing all the things proper cinema does, even though none of them bring any discernible benefit"; Kevin Maher felt "a strange self-sabotaging energy at the heart"; and Steve Rose of "The Guardian" missed "the breezy wit of Marvel's best movies ... like coming into "" cold without having seen any of the preceding installments". K. Austin Collins of "Rolling Stone" felt that the film was "good at telling us where to look, at impressing us with its manufactured sense of grandeur", but lacked "any credible sense of what's actually worth seeing". Justin Chang of the "Los Angeles Times" had a "depressing realization that you've just seen one of the more interesting movies Marvel will ever make, and hopefully the least interesting one Chloé Zhao will ever make". Brian Lowry of CNN thought "the movie's structural flaws offset its stunning visuals and strong performances". Kyle Smith of "National Review" was harsher, describing it as "one of the dumbest, cheesiest, most trite, and least human" of the MCU films.


title: Eternals (film)

text: The mixed reception surprised some commentators, given the MCU's positive track record and the acclaim of Zhao's previous work. Richard Newby of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that "much of the criticism of Kirby's work", which was divisive for its subject matter and relationship to the wider Marvel Universe, "has followed Zhao in her adaptation." He compared the divisive response to that of Zack Snyder's DC Extended Universe films "Man of Steel" and "" (2016), writing that they and "Eternals" share "a deconstructive approach to superheroes and force them to question their purpose in the world, through meditative and melancholy narrative beats, and a tragic yet hopeful ending." This approach, he felt, subverted critics and audiences' expectations, which made them review the film more harshly. Zhao addressed some of the criticisms of the film, believing some of the divisiveness came from everyone "having an existential crisis" because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the film being an "existential crisis, both for humanity and God". She also felt the reactions to how the film incorporated her filmmaking sensibilities with Marvel's were "a testament to how much we had merged with each other; how uncomfortable that might make people feel".


title: Eternals (film)

text: The film was given the Seal of Authentic Representation from the Ruderman Family Foundation for Ridloff's role as Makkari. The seal is given to films and series that feature actors with disabilities who have at least five lines of dialogue. "Eternals" was also one of 28 films that received the ReFrame Stamp for 2021, awarded by the gender equity coalition ReFrame for films that are proven to have gender-balanced hiring.


title: Eternals (film)

text: In February 2021, the documentary series "Marvel Studios: Assembled" was announced. The special on this film, "Assembled: The Making of Eternals", was released on Disney+ on February 16, 2022.


title: Eternals (film)

text: In October 2021, Zhao said she was open to making a sequel. The next month, Kaz and Ryan Firpo expressed interest in a prequel series for Disney+ that would follow an Eternal in a different time period each episode, such as an episode about Thena in Greece and one about Kingo "in 1890s Mumbai where he is juggling his life as a movie star, dealing with Gandhi's peaceful dissolution of the British empire in India". They also felt there were opportunities to continue the film's story by exploring Dane Whitman and showing the Eternals confronting the Celestials. Chan said in January 2022 that she would reprise the role of Sersi in the future. Feige was asked about Styles's future in the MCU that July and said Marvel Studios was excited to further explore the characters Eros and Pip as part of the MCU's more cosmic stories. A month later, Oswalt said a sequel had been confirmed by Marvel Studios and Zhao was returning to direct.


title: Robin Williams

text: Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike, he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s, and rose to fame playing the alien Mork in the ABC sitcom "Mork & Mindy" (1978–1982). After his first leading film role in "Popeye" (1980), he starred in several critically and commercially successful films, including "The World According to Garp" (1982), "Moscow on the Hudson" (1984), "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987), "Dead Poets Society" (1989), "Awakenings" (1990), "The Fisher King" (1991), "Patch Adams" (1998), "One Hour Photo" (2002), and "World's Greatest Dad" (2009). He also starred in box office successes such as "Hook" (1991), "Aladdin" (1992), "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993), "Jumanji" (1995), "The Birdcage" (1996), "Good Will Hunting" (1997), and the "Night at the Museum" trilogy (2006–2014). He was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Supporting Actor for "Good Will Hunting". He also received two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Grammy Awards.


title: Robin Williams

text: On August 11, 2014, at age 63, Williams died by suicide at his home in Paradise Cay, California. His autopsy revealed undiagnosed Lewy body disease.


title: Robin Williams

text: Robin McLaurin Williams was born at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1951. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a senior executive in Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division. His mother, Laurie McLaurin, was a former model from Jackson, Mississippi, whose great-grandfather was Mississippi senator and governor Anselm J. McLaurin. Williams had two older half-brothers: a paternal half-brother, Robert (also known as Todd), and a maternal half-brother, McLaurin. While his mother was a practitioner of Christian Science, Williams was raised in his father's Episcopal faith. During a television interview on "Inside the Actors Studio" in 2001, Williams credited his mother as an important early influence on his humor, and he tried to make her laugh to gain attention.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams attended public elementary school in Lake Forest at Gorton Elementary School and middle school at Deer Path Junior High School. He described himself as a quiet child who did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high school drama department. His friends recall him as very funny. In late 1963, when Williams was 12, his father was transferred to Detroit. The family lived in a 40-room farmhouse on 20 acres in suburban Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he was a student at the private Detroit Country Day School. He excelled in school, where he was on the school's wrestling team and was elected class president.


title: Robin Williams

text: As both his parents worked, Williams was partially raised by the family's maid, who was his main companion. When he was 16, his father took early retirement and the family moved to Tiburon, California. Following their move, Williams attended Redwood High School in nearby Larkspur. At the time of his graduation in 1969, he was voted "Most Likely Not to Succeed" and "Funniest" by his classmates. After high school graduation, Williams enrolled at Claremont Men's College in Claremont, California, to study political science; he dropped out to pursue acting. Williams studied theatre for three years at the College of Marin, a community college in Kentfield, California. According to the College of Marin's drama professor, James Dunn, the depth of the young actor's talent became evident when he was cast in the musical "Oliver!" as Fagin. Williams often improvised during his time in the drama program, leaving cast members in hysterics. Dunn called his wife after one late rehearsal to tell her Williams "was going to be something special".


title: Robin Williams

text: In 1973, Williams attained a full scholarship to the Juilliard School (Group 6, 1973–1976) in New York City. He was one of 20 students accepted into the freshman class, and he and Christopher Reeve were the only two accepted by John Houseman into the Advanced Program at the school that year. William Hurt and Mandy Patinkin were also classmates. According to biographer Jean Dorsinville, Franklyn Seales and Williams were roommates at Juilliard. Reeve remembered his first impression of Williams when they were new students at Juilliard: "He wore tie-dyed shirts with tracksuit bottoms and talked a mile a minute. I'd never seen so much energy contained in one person. He was like an untied balloon that had been inflated and immediately released. I watched in awe as he virtually caromed off the walls of the classrooms and hallways. To say that he was 'on' would be a major understatement."


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams and Reeve had a class in dialects taught by Edith Skinner, who Reeve said was one of the world's leading voice and speech teachers; according to Reeve, Skinner was bewildered by Williams and his ability to instantly perform in many different accents. Their primary acting teacher was Michael Kahn, who was "equally baffled by this human dynamo". Williams already had a reputation for being funny, but Kahn criticized his antics as simple stand-up comedy. In a later production, Williams silenced his critics with his well-received performance as an old man in Tennessee Williams's "Night of the Iguana". Reeve wrote, "He simply "was" the old man. I was astonished by his work and very grateful that fate had thrown us together." The two remained close friends until Reeve's death in 2004. Their friendship was like "brothers from another mother", according to Williams's son Zak.


title: Robin Williams

text: During the summers of 1974, 1975, and 1976, Williams worked as a busboy at The Trident in Sausalito, California. He left Juilliard during his junior year in 1976 at the suggestion of Houseman, who said there was nothing more Juilliard could teach him. Gerald Freedman, another of his teachers at Juilliard, said Williams was a "genius" and that the school's conservative and classical style of training did not suit him; no one was surprised that he left.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams began performing stand-up comedy in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976. He gave his first performance at the Holy City Zoo, a comedy club in San Francisco, where he worked his way up from tending bar. In the 1960s, San Francisco was a center for a rock music renaissance, hippies, drugs, and a sexual revolution, and in the late 1970s, Williams helped lead its "comedy renaissance", writes critic Gerald Nachman. Williams says he found out about "drugs and happiness" during that period, adding that he saw "the best brains of my time turned to mud".


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams moved to Los Angeles and continued performing stand-up at clubs, including The Comedy Store. There, in 1977, he was seen by TV producer George Schlatter, who asked him to appear on a revival of his show "Laugh-In". The show aired in late 1977 and was his debut TV appearance. That year, Williams also performed a show at the L.A. Improv for Home Box Office. While the "Laugh-In" revival failed, it led Williams into his television career; he continued performing stand-up at comedy clubs such as the Roxy to help keep his improvisational skills sharp. In England, Williams performed at The Fighting Cocks.


title: Robin Williams

text: With his success on "Mork & Mindy", Williams began to reach a wider audience with his stand-up comedy, starting in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, including three HBO comedy specials: "Off The Wall" (1978), "An Evening with Robin Williams" (1983), and "A Night at the Met" (1986). Williams won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for the recording of his 1979 live show at the Copacabana in New York City, "Reality... What a Concept".


title: Robin Williams

text: David Letterman, who knew Williams for nearly 40 years, recalls seeing him first perform as a new comedian at The Comedy Store in Hollywood, where Letterman and other comedians had already been doing stand-up. "He came in like a hurricane", said Letterman, who said he then thought to himself, "Holy crap, there goes my chance in show business."


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams said that, partly due to the stress of performing stand-up, he started using drugs and alcohol early in his career. He further said that he neither drank nor took drugs while on stage, but occasionally performed when hung over from the previous day. During the period he was using cocaine, he said it made him paranoid when performing on stage.


title: Robin Williams

text: Some, such as the critic Vincent Canby, were concerned that his monologues were so intense that it seemed as though at any minute his "creative process could reverse into a complete meltdown". His biographer, Emily Herbert, described his "intense, utterly manic style of stand-up [which sometimes] defies analysis... [going] beyond energetic, beyond frenetic... [and sometimes] dangerous... because of what it said about the creator's own mental state".


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams felt secure that he would not run out of ideas, as the constant change in world events would keep him supplied. He also explained that he often used free association of ideas while improvising in order to keep the audience interested. The competitive nature of the show made things difficult. For example, some comedians said that Williams had stolen their jokes, which Williams strongly denied. David Brenner claims that he confronted Williams's agent and threatened bodily harm if he heard Williams utter another one of his jokes. Whoopi Goldberg defended him, asserting that it is difficult for comedians not to reuse another comedian's material, and that it is done "all the time". He later avoided going to performances of other comedians to deter similar accusations.


title: Robin Williams

text: During a "Playboy" interview in 1992, Williams was asked whether he ever feared losing his balance between his work and his life. He replied, "There's that fear—if I felt like I was becoming not just dull but a rock, that I still couldn't speak, fire off or talk about things, if I'd start to worry or got too afraid to say something... If I stop trying, I get afraid." While he attributed the recent suicide of novelist Jerzy Kosiński to his fear of losing his creativity and sharpness, Williams felt he could overcome those risks. For that, he credited his father for strengthening his self-confidence, telling him to never be afraid of talking about subjects which were important to him.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams's stand-up work was a consistent thread throughout his career, as seen by the success of his one-man show (and subsequent DVD) "Robin Williams: Live on Broadway" (2002). In 2004, he was voted 13th on Comedy Central's list of "100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time". After a six-year hiatus, in August 2008, Williams announced a new 26-city tour, "Weapons of Self-Destruction". The tour began at the end of September 2009 and concluded in New York on December 3, and was the subject of an HBO Special on December 8, 2009.


title: Robin Williams

text: After the "Laugh-In" revival and appearing in the cast of "The Richard Pryor Show" on NBC, Williams was cast by Garry Marshall as the alien Mork in a 1978 episode of the TV series "Happy Days", "My Favorite Orkan". Sought after as a last-minute cast replacement for a departing actor, Williams impressed the producer with his quirky sense of humor when he sat on his head when asked to take a seat for the audition. As Mork, Williams improvised much of his dialogue and physical comedy, speaking in a high, nasal voice, and he made the most of the script. The cast and crew, as well as TV network executives, were deeply impressed with his performance. As such, the executives moved quickly to get the performer on contract just four days later before competitors could make their own offers.


title: Robin Williams

text: Mork's appearance proved so popular with viewers that it led to the spin-off television sitcom "Mork & Mindy", which co-starred Pam Dawber, and ran from 1978 to 1982; the show was written to accommodate his extreme improvisations in dialogue and behavior. Although he portrayed the same character as in "Happy Days", the series was set in the present in Boulder, Colorado, instead of the late 1950s in Milwaukee. "Mork & Mindy" at its peak had a weekly audience of sixty million and was credited with turning Williams into a "superstar". Among young people, the show was very popular because Williams became "a man and a child, buoyant, rubber-faced, an endless gusher of ideas," according to critic James Poniewozik.


title: Robin Williams

text: Mork became popular, featured on posters, coloring books, lunch-boxes, and other merchandise. "Mork & Mindy" was such a success in its first season that Williams appeared on the March 12, 1979, cover of "Time" magazine. The cover photo, taken by Michael Dressler in 1979, is said to have "[captured] his different sides: the funnyman mugging for the camera, and a sweet, more thoughtful pose that appears on a small TV he holds in his hands" according to Mary Forgione of the "Los Angeles Times". This photo was installed in the National Portrait Gallery in the Smithsonian Institution shortly after his death to allow visitors to pay their respects. Williams also appeared on the cover of the August 23, 1979, issue of "Rolling Stone", photographed by Richard Avedon.


title: Robin Williams

text: Starting in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Williams began to reach a wider audience with his stand-up comedy, including three HBO comedy specials, "Off the Wall" (1978), "An Evening with Robin Williams" (1983), and "A Night at the Met" (1986). In 1986, Williams co-hosted the 58th Academy Awards. Williams was also a regular guest on various talk shows, including "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" and "Late Night with David Letterman", on which he appeared 50 times.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams appeared with fellow comedian Billy Crystal in an unscripted cameo at the beginning of an episode of the third season of "Friends". His many television appearances included an episode of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", and he starred in an episode of "". In 2006, Williams was the Surprise Guest at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, and appeared on an episode of "" that aired on January 30. In 2010, he appeared in a sketch with Robert De Niro on "Saturday Night Live", and in 2012, he guest-starred as himself in two FX series, "Louie" and "Wilfred". In May 2013, CBS started a new series, "The Crazy Ones", starring Williams, but the show was canceled after one season.


title: Robin Williams

text: The first film role credited to Robin Williams is a small part in the 1977 low-budget comedy "Can I Do It... 'Til I Need Glasses?". His first starring performance, however, is as the title character in "Popeye" (1980), in which Williams showcased the acting skills previously demonstrated in his television work; accordingly, the film's commercial disappointment was not blamed on his performance. He went on to star as the leading character in "The World According to Garp" (1982), which Williams considered "may have lacked a certain madness onscreen, but it had a great core". He continued with other smaller roles in less successful films, such as "The Survivors" (1983) and "Club Paradise" (1986), though he said these roles did not help advance his film career.


title: Robin Williams

text: His first major break came from his starring role in director Barry Levinson's "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987), which earned Williams a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film is set in 1965 during the Vietnam War, with Williams playing the role of Adrian Cronauer, a radio shock jock who keeps the troops entertained with comedy and sarcasm. Williams was allowed to play the role without a script, improvising most of his lines. Over the microphone, he created voice impressions of people, including Walter Cronkite, Gomer Pyle, Elvis Presley, Mr. Ed, and Richard Nixon. "We just let the cameras roll", said producer Mark Johnson, and Williams "managed to create something new for every single take".


title: Robin Williams

text: Many of his subsequent roles were in comedies tinged with pathos. Looking over most of his filmography, one writer was "struck by the breadth" and radical diversity of most of the roles Williams portrayed. In 1989, Williams played a private-school English teacher in "Dead Poets Society", which included a final, emotional scene that some critics said "inspired a generation" and became a part of pop culture. Similarly, his performance as a therapist in "Good Will Hunting" (1997) deeply affected even some real therapists. In "Awakenings" (1990), Williams plays a doctor modeled after Oliver Sacks, who wrote the book on which the film is based. Sacks later said the way the actor's mind worked was a "form of genius". In 1991, he played an adult Peter Pan in the film "Hook", although he had said he would have to lose 25 pounds for the role. Terry Gilliam, who directed Williams in two of his films, "The Fisher King" (1991) and "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988), said in 1992 that Williams had the ability to "go from manic to mad to tender and vulnerable... [Williams had] the most unique mind on the planet. There's nobody like him out there."


title: Robin Williams

text: Other dramatic performances by Williams include "Moscow on the Hudson" (1984), "What Dreams May Come" (1998), and "Bicentennial Man" (1999). In "Insomnia" (2002), Williams portrayed a murderer on the run from a sleep-deprived Los Angeles police detective (played by Al Pacino) in rural Alaska. Also in 2002, in the psychological thriller "One Hour Photo", Williams portrayed an emotionally disturbed photo development technician who becomes obsessed with a family for whom he has developed pictures for a long time. "The Angriest Man in Brooklyn" was Williams' last movie to be released while he was alive. In the movie, Williams played Henry Altmann, an angry, bitter man who tries to change his life after being told he has a terminal illness.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams' performances garnered him various accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Good Will Hunting"; as well as two previous Academy Award nominations, for "Dead Poets Society", and as a troubled homeless man in "The Fisher King", respectively. Among the actors who helped him during his acting career, he credited Robert De Niro, from whom he learned the power of silence and economy of dialogue when acting. From Dustin Hoffman, with whom he co-starred in "Hook", he learned to take on totally different character types, and to transform his characters by extreme preparation. Mike Medavoy, producer of "Hook", told its director, Steven Spielberg, that he intentionally teamed up Hoffman and Williams for the film because he knew they wanted to work together, and that Williams welcomed the opportunity of working with Spielberg. Having Woody Allen, who directed him and Billy Crystal in "Deconstructing Harry" (1997), helped Williams. Allen knew that Crystal and Williams had often worked together on stage.


title: Robin Williams

text: While Williams voiced characters in several animated films, his voice role as the Genie in the animated musical "Aladdin" (1992) was written for him. The film's directors said they had taken a risk by writing the role. At first, Williams refused the role since it was a Disney movie, and he did not want the studio profiting by selling merchandise based on the movie. He accepted the role with certain conditions: "I'm doing it basically because I want to be part of this animation tradition. I want something for my children. One deal is, I just don't want to sell anything—as in Burger King, as in toys, as in stuff." Williams improvised much of his dialogue, recording approximately 30 hours of tape, and impersonated dozens of celebrities, including Ed Sullivan, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Groucho Marx, Rodney Dangerfield, William F. Buckley Jr., Peter Lorre, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arsenio Hall. His role in "Aladdin" became one of his most recognized and best-loved, and the film was the highest-grossing of 1992; it won numerous awards, including a Special Golden Globe Award for Vocal Work in a Motion Picture for Williams. His performance paved the way for other animated films to incorporate actors with more star power. He was named a Disney Legend in 2009.


title: Robin Williams

text: Due to Disney breaking an agreement with Williams regarding the use of the Genie in the advertising for "Aladdin", Williams refused to sign on for the direct-to-video sequel "The Return of Jafar" (1994), where the Genie was instead voiced by Dan Castellaneta. When Jeffrey Katzenberg was replaced by Joe Roth as Walt Disney Studios chairman, Roth organized a public apology to Williams. Williams would, in turn, reprise the role in the second sequel, "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" (1996).


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams continued to provide voices in other animated films, including "" (1992), "Robots" (2005), the "Happy Feet" film franchise (2006-2011), and an uncredited vocal performance in "Everyone's Hero" (2006). He also voiced the holographic character Dr. Know in the live-action film "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" (2001). He was the voice of The Timekeeper, a former attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort about a time-traveling robot who encounters Jules Verne and brings him to the future.


title: Robin Williams

text: Years after the films, Janet Hirshenson revealed in an interview that Williams had expressed interest in portraying Rubeus Hagrid in the "Harry Potter" film series, but was rejected by director Chris Columbus due to the "British-only edict". In 2006, he starred in five movies, including "Man of the Year", a political satire, and "The Night Listener", a thriller about a radio show host who realizes that a child with whom he has developed a friendship may not exist. Four films starring Williams were released after his death in 2014: "", "A Merry Friggin' Christmas", "Boulevard", and "Absolutely Anything".


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams appeared opposite Steve Martin at Lincoln Center in an off-Broadway production of "Waiting for Godot" in 1988. He headlined his own one-man show, "Robin Williams: Live on Broadway", which played at the Broadway theatre in July 2002. He made his Broadway acting debut in Rajiv Joseph's "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo", which opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on March 31, 2011.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams was the host of a talk show for Audible that aired in April 2000 and was only available on Audible's website.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams married his first wife, Valerie Velardi, in June 1978, following a live-in relationship with comedian Elayne Boosler. Velardi and Williams met in 1976 while he was working as a bartender at a tavern in San Francisco. Their son, Zachary Pym "Zak" Williams, was born in 1983. Velardi and Williams were divorced in 1988.


title: Robin Williams

text: While it was reported that Williams began an affair with Zachary's nanny, Marsha Garces in 1986, Velardi stated in the 2018 documentary "" that the relationship with Garces began after the two had separated. On April 30, 1989, Williams married Garces, who was six months pregnant with their child. They had two children, Zelda Rae Williams (born 1989) and Cody Alan Williams (born 1991). In March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalized in 2010.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams married his third wife, graphic designer Susan Schneider, on October 22, 2011, in St. Helena, California. The two lived at their house in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, California.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams said, "My children give me a great sense of wonder. Just to see them develop into these extraordinary human beings."


title: Robin Williams

text: In New York City, Williams was part of the West Side YMCA runners' running team and showed promising results with 34:21 minutes at a 10K run in Central Park in 1975.


title: Robin Williams

text: His favorite books were the "Foundation" trilogy by Isaac Asimov, and his favorite book as a child was "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", which he later shared with his children.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams was an enthusiast of both pen-and-paper role-playing games and video games. His daughter Zelda was named after the title character from "The Legend of Zelda", a family favorite video game series, and he sometimes performed at consumer entertainment trade shows.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams was a big fan of anime and collecting figures. His daughter described him as a "figurine hoarder"; one of his figures was the character Deunan Knute from the anime film "Appleseed", which he was a fan of. He also liked the film "", and received a DVD copy of "Paranoia Agent" signed by its director, Satoshi Kon.


title: Robin Williams

text: He also became a devoted cycling enthusiast, having taken up the sport partly as a substitute for drugs. Eventually, he accumulated a large bicycle collection and became a fan of professional road cycling, often traveling to racing events such as the Tour de France. In 2016, his children donated 87 of his bicycles in support of the Challenged Athletes Foundation and Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams was raised and sometimes identified himself as an Episcopalian. In a comedy routine, he described his denomination as "I have that idea of Chicago Protestant, Episcopal—Catholic light: half the religion, half the guilt." He also described himself as an "honorary Jew", and on Israel's 60th Independence Day in 2008, he appeared in Times Square, along with several other celebrities, to wish Israel a happy birthday.


title: Robin Williams

text: In 1986, Williams teamed up with Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal to found Comic Relief USA. This annual HBO television benefit devoted to the homeless raised $80million . Bob Zmuda, creator of Comic Relief, explains that Williams felt blessed because he came from a wealthy home, but wanted to do something to help those less fortunate. Williams made benefit appearances to support literacy and women's rights, along with appearing at benefits for veterans. He was a regular on the USO circuit, where he traveled to 13 countries and performed to approximately 90,000 troops. After his death, the USO thanked him "for all he did for the men and women of our armed forces".


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams and his second wife, Marsha, founded a philanthropic organization called the Windfall Foundation to raise money for many charities. In December 1999, he sang in French on the BBC-inspired music video of international celebrities doing a cover of The Rolling Stones single "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" for the charity Children's Promise.


title: Robin Williams

text: In response to the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, he donated all proceeds of his "Weapons of Self Destruction" Christchurch performance to help rebuild the New Zealand city. Half the proceeds were donated to the Red Cross and half to the mayoral building fund. Williams performed with the USO for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.


title: Robin Williams

text: During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams had an addiction to cocaine. He was a casual friend of John Belushi, and the "Saturday Night Live" comic's death in 1982 from a drug overdose, which happened the morning after the two had partied together, along with the birth of his own son Zak, prompted him to quit drugs and alcohol: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped, too." Williams later said of Belushi's death, "It sobered the shit out of me." Williams turned to exercise and cycling to help alleviate his depression shortly after Belushi's death; according to bicycle shop owner Tony Tom, Williams said, "cycling saved my life."


title: Robin Williams

text: In 2003, Williams started drinking again while working on the film "The Big White" (2005) in Alaska. In 2006, he checked himself in to a substance-abuse rehabilitation center in Newberg, Oregon, saying he was an alcoholic. Years afterward, Williams acknowledged his failure to maintain sobriety, but said he never returned to using cocaine, declaring in a 2010 interview:


title: Robin Williams

text: In mid-2014, Williams admitted himself into the Hazelden Foundation Addiction Treatment Center in Center City, Minnesota, for treatment for alcoholism.


title: Robin Williams

text: In March 2009, he was hospitalized due to heart problems. He postponed his one-man tour for surgery to replace his aortic valve, repair his mitral valve, and correct his irregular heartbeat. The surgery was completed on March 13, 2009, at the Cleveland Clinic.


title: Robin Williams

text: His publicist, Mara Buxbaum, commented that he had severe depression before his death. His wife, Susan Schneider, said that in the period before his death, Williams had been sober, but was diagnosed with early-stage Parkinson's disease, which was information he was "not yet ready to share publicly". An autopsy revealed that Williams had diffuse Lewy bodies (which had been misdiagnosed as Parkinson's) and this may have contributed to his depression.


title: Robin Williams

text: In an essay published in the journal "Neurology" two years after his death, Schneider revealed that the pathology of Lewy body disease in Williams was described by several doctors as among the worst pathologies they had seen. She described the early symptoms of his disease as beginning in October 2013. Williams's initial condition included a sudden and prolonged spike in fear and anxiety, stress and insomnia, which worsened in severity to include memory loss, paranoia, and delusions. According to Schneider, "Robin was losing his mind and he was aware of it... He kept saying, 'I just want to reboot my brain.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams was found dead in his home in Paradise Cay, California, on August 11, 2014. The final autopsy report, released in November 2014, concluded that Williams' death was a suicide resulting from "asphyxia due to hanging". Neither alcohol nor illegal drugs were involved, and prescription drugs present in his body were at therapeutic levels. The report also noted that Williams had depression and anxiety. An examination of his brain tissue suggested Williams had "diffuse Lewy body dementia". Describing the disease as "the terrorist inside my husband's brain", his widow Susan Schneider Williams said that "however you look at it—the presence of Lewy bodies took his life", referring to his previous diagnosis of Parkinson's. She also revealed that in the year before his death, Williams had experienced a sudden and prolonged spike in fear and anxiety, depression, and insomnia, which worsened in severity to include memory loss, paranoia, and delusions. She noted "how we as a culture don't have the vocabulary to discuss brain disease in the way we do about depression. Depression is a symptom of LBD and it's not about psychology – it's rooted in neurology. His brain was falling apart." Medical experts struggled to determine a cause, and eventually diagnosed him with Parkinson's disease.


title: Robin Williams

text: The Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) clarified the distinction between the term used in the autopsy report, "diffuse Lewy body dementia"—which is more commonly called "diffuse Lewy body disease" and refers to the underlying disease process—and the umbrella term "Lewy body dementia"—which encompasses both Parkinson's disease dementia (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). According to LBDA spokesperson Dennis Dickson, "The report confirms he experienced depression, anxiety, and paranoia, which may occur in either Parkinson's disease or dementia with Lewy bodies... In early PD, Lewy bodies are generally limited in distribution, but in DLB, the Lewy bodies are spread widely throughout the brain, as was the case with Robin Williams." Ian G. McKeith, professor and researcher of Lewy body dementias, commented that Williams's symptoms and autopsy findings were explained by DLB.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams' body was cremated at Monte's Chapel of the Hills in San Anselmo, and his ashes were scattered over San Francisco Bay on August 21, 2014.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams' death instantly became global news. The entertainment world, friends, and fans responded to his death through social and other media outlets. Schneider said: "I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken." His daughter Zelda Williams responded to his death by saying the "world is forever a little darker, less colorful and less full of laughter in his absence".


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams was scheduled to be the "Blackmail" special guest for the final night of Monty Python's ten-date stage shows in London one month before his death—with one of his friends, Monty Python's Eric Idle—but cancelled, stating he was "suffering from severe depression" at the time. When the show was released on video, it was dedicated to Williams.


title: Robin Williams

text: At the United Nations headquarters on August 12, 2014, Robin Williams was celebrated during the opening of the International Youth Day. In the presence of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Assistant Secretary General Thomas Gass paid tribute to Williams by standing on the pulpit of the ECOSOC Chamber and quoting Keating's lines from the 1989 film "Dead Poets Society": "Dare to look at things in a different way!" Several fans similarly paid tribute to Williams on social media with photo and video reenactments of "Dead Poets Society"s "O Captain! My Captain!" scene.


title: Robin Williams

text: Shortly after his death, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior all aired the original "Aladdin" commercial-free over the course of a week, with a dedicated drawing of the genie at the end of each airing before the credits. In honor of his theater work, the lights of Broadway were darkened for the evening of August 14, 2014. That night, the cast of the "Aladdin" musical honored Williams by having the audience join them in a sing-along of "Friend Like Me", an Oscar-nominated song originally sung by Williams in the 1992 film "Aladdin".


title: Robin Williams

text: Fans of Williams created makeshift memorials at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and at locations from his television and film career, such as the bench in Boston's Public Garden featured in "Good Will Hunting"; the Pacific Heights, San Francisco, home used in "Mrs. Doubtfire"; the sign for Parrish Shoes in Keene, New Hampshire, where parts of "Jumanji" were filmed; and the Boulder, Colorado, home used for "Mork & Mindy".


title: Robin Williams

text: During the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards on August 25, 2014, close friend and fellow comedian Billy Crystal presented a tribute to Williams, referring to him as "the brightest star in our comedy galaxy". Afterwards, some of Williams's best comedy moments were shown, including his first ever "The Tonight Show" appearance, indicating his great life in making people laugh. Talk show hosts including David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon paid tribute to Williams on their respective shows.


title: Robin Williams

text: On September 9, 2014, PBS aired a one-hour special devoted to his career, and on September 27, 2014, dozens of leading stars and celebrities held a tribute in San Francisco to celebrate his life and career.


title: Robin Williams

text: British heavy metal band Iron Maiden dedicated a song to Williams, titled "Tears of a Clown", on their 2015 album "The Book of Souls". The song looks into his depression and suicide and how he attempted to hide his condition from the public.


title: Robin Williams

text: A tunnel, painted with a rainbow, on Highway 101 north of the Golden Gate Bridge was officially named the "Robin Williams Tunnel" on February 29, 2016.


title: Robin Williams

text: In 2017, Sharon Meadow in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the home of the annual Comedy Day, was renamed Robin Williams Meadow.


title: Robin Williams

text: In 2018, HBO produced a documentary about his life and career. Directed by Marina Zenovich, the film, "", was also screened at the Sundance Film Festival. That same year, a mural of Robin Williams was created on Market Street, in San Francisco. Work on a book biography was begun by "New York Times" writer David Itzkoff in 2014, and was published in 2018, entitled simply "Robin".


title: Robin Williams

text: In August 2020, Vertical Entertainment released a trailer for a new documentary, "Robin's Wish", exploring Williams's battle with Lewy body dementia. The film, directed by Tylor Norwood, was digitally released on September 1, 2020.


title: Robin Williams

text: In a Netflix special released in May 2022, "" inducted Williams into the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams credited comedians including Jonathan Winters, Peter Sellers, Nichols and May, and Lenny Bruce as influences, admiring their ability to attract a more intellectual audience with a higher level of wit. He also liked Jay Leno for his quickness in ad-libbing comedy routines, and Sid Caesar, whose acts he felt were "precious".


title: Robin Williams

text: Jonathan Winters was his "idol" early in life; Williams, aged eight, first saw him on television and paid him homage in interviews throughout his career. Williams was inspired by Winters' ingenuity, realizing, he said, "that anything is possible, that anything is funny... He gave me the idea that it can be free-form, that you can go in and out of things pretty easily."


title: Robin Williams

text: During an interview in London in 2002, Williams told Michael Parkinson that Peter Sellers was an important influence, especially his multi-character roles in "Dr. Strangelove", stating, "It doesn't get better than that." British comedy actors Dudley Moore and Peter Cook were also among his influences, he told Parkinson.


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams was also influenced by Richard Pryor's fearless ability to talk about his personal life on stage, with subjects including his use of drugs and alcohol, and Williams added those kinds of topics during his own performances. By bringing up such personal matters as a form of comedy, he told Parkinson, it was "cheaper than therapy" and gave him a way to release his pent-up energy and emotions.


title: Robin Williams

text: Although Williams was first recognized as a stand-up comedian and television star, he later became known for acting in film roles of substance and serious drama. He was considered a "national treasure" by many in the entertainment industry and by the public.


title: Robin Williams

text: His on-stage energy and improvisational skill became a model for a new generation of stand-up comedians. Many comedians valued the way he worked highly personal issues into his comedy routines, especially his honesty about drug and alcohol addiction, along with depression. According to media scholar Derek A. Burrill, because of the openness with which Williams spoke about his own life, "probably the most important contribution he made to pop culture, across so many different media, was as Robin Williams the person."


title: Robin Williams

text: Williams created a signature free-form comedy persona so widely and uniquely identified that new comedians like Jim Carrey impersonated him, paving the way for the growing comedy scene which developed in San Francisco. Young comedians felt more liberated on stage by seeing his spontaneously diverse range: "one moment acting as a bright, mischievous child, then as a wise philosopher or alien from outer space". According to Judd Apatow, the eclectic performer's rapid-fire improvisational style was an inspiration as well as an influence for other comedians, but his talent was so extremely unusual no one else could possibly attempt to copy it.


title: Robin Williams

text: His film performances often influenced other actors, both in and out of the film industry. Director Chris Columbus, who directed Williams in "Mrs. Doubtfire", says watching him work "was a magical and special privilege. His performances were unlike anything any of us had ever seen, they came from some spiritual and otherworldly place." Looking over most of his filmography, Alyssa Rosenberg at "The Washington Post" was "struck by the breadth" and radical diversity of most of his roles, writing that "Williams helped us grow up."


title: Robin Williams

text: Throughout the course of his career Williams won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Good Will Hunting" (1997). He also won six Golden Globe Awards, including Best Actor—Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his roles in "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987), "The Fisher King" (1991) and "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993), along with the Special Golden Globe Award for Vocal Work in a Motion Picture for his role Genie in "Aladdin" (1992), and the Cecil B. DeMille award in 2005. He also received two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Grammy Awards.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Jennifer Shrader Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2015 and 2016, her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide to date. She appeared in "Time"s 100 most influential people in the world list in 2013 and the "Forbes" Celebrity 100 list from 2013 to 2016.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: During her childhood, Lawrence performed in church plays and school musicals. At age fourteen, she was spotted by a talent scout while vacationing in New York City with her family. She moved to Los Angeles and began her acting career with guest roles on television. Her first major role was as a main cast member on the sitcom "The Bill Engvall Show" (2007–2009). She made her film debut with a supporting role in the drama "Garden Party" (2008), and had her breakthrough playing a poverty-stricken teenager in the independent mystery drama "Winter's Bone" (2010). Lawrence's career progressed with starring roles as the mutant Mystique in the "X-Men" film series (2011–2019) and Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" film series (2012–2015). The latter made her the highest-grossing action heroine of all time.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence received various accolades for her three collaborations with filmmaker David O. Russell. Her performance as a troubled young widow in the romance film "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012) won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the second-youngest winner in the category at age 22. She won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing an unpredictable wife in the black comedy "American Hustle" (2013). Lawrence also received Golden Globe Awards for both of these films, and for her portrayal of businesswoman Joy Mangano in the biopic "Joy" (2015). A series of mixed reviewed films and the media scrutiny of her role choices led to a small break from acting. She returned with the streaming films "Don't Look Up" (2021) and "Causeway" (2022).


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence identifies as a feminist and advocates for women's reproductive rights. In 2015, she founded the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation, which advocates for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Special Olympics. She formed the production company Excellent Cadaver in 2018. She is an active member of the nonpartisan nonprofit anti-corruption organization RepresentUs and has served as a spokesperson in its videos about protecting democracy.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Jennifer Shrader Lawrence was born on August 15, 1990, in Indian Hills, Kentucky to Gary, a construction company owner, and Karen (née Koch), a summer camp manager. She has two older brothers, Ben and Blaine. Her mother raised her to be "tough" like her brothers, and would not allow her to play with other girls in preschool, as she deemed her "too rough" with them. Lawrence was educated at the Kammerer Middle School in Louisville. She did not enjoy her childhood due to hyperactivity and social anxiety, and considered herself a misfit among her peers. She has said that her anxieties vanished when performing on stage and that acting gave her a sense of accomplishment. Her school activities included cheerleading, softball, field hockey and basketball, which she played on a boys' team coached by her father.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Growing up, Lawrence was fond of horseback riding and frequently visited a local horse farm. She has an injured tailbone as a result of being thrown from a horse. When her father worked from home, she performed for him, often dressing up as a clown or ballerina. She had her first acting assignment at age nine, playing a prostitute in a church play based on the Book of Jonah. For the next few years she continued taking parts in church plays and school musicals.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence was 14 and on a family vacation in New York City when she was spotted on the street by a talent scout, who arranged for her to audition for talent agents. Her mother was not keen on her pursuing an acting career, but she briefly moved her family to New York to let Lawrence read for roles. After her first cold reading, the agents said that hers was the best they had heard from someone so young; however, her mother convinced her that they were lying. Lawrence said her early experiences were difficult because she felt lonely and friendless. She signed with CESD Talent Agency, which convinced her parents to let her audition for roles in Los Angeles. While her mother encouraged her to go into modeling, she insisted on pursuing acting, which she considered a "natural fit" for her abilities, and turned down several modeling offers. She dropped out of school at 14 without receiving a General Educational Development (GED) or diploma. She has described herself as "self-educated" and said that her career was her priority. Between her acting jobs in the city, she made regular visits to Louisville, where she was an assistant nurse at her mother's camp.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence began her acting career with a minor role in the TV pilot "Company Town" (2006), which never aired and was never sold. She followed it with guest roles in several television shows, including "Monk" (2006) and "Medium" (2007). She received her first part as a series regular on the TBS sitcom "The Bill Engvall Show", in which she played Lauren, the rebellious teenage daughter of a family living in suburban Louisville, Colorado. The series premiered in 2007 and ran for three seasons. Tom Shales of "The Washington Post" considered her a scene stealer in her part, and David Hinckley of the "New York Daily News" wrote that she was successful in "deliver[ing] the perpetual exasperation of teenage girls". Lawrence won a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Performer in a TV Series for the role in 2009.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence made her film debut in the 2008 drama film "Garden Party", in which she played a troubled teenager named Tiff. She then appeared in director Guillermo Arriaga's feature film debut "The Burning Plain" (2008), a drama narrated in a hyperlink format. She was cast as the teenage daughter of Kim Basinger's character, who discovers her mother's extramarital affair. She shared the role with Charlize Theron, who played the older version of her character. Mark Feeney of "The Boston Globe" described her role as "a thankless task", but Derek Elley of "Variety" praised her as the production's prime asset. Her performance earned her the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Emerging Actress at the 2008 Venice Film Festival. The same year, she appeared in the music video for the song "The Mess I Made" by Parachute. In 2008, she starred in Lori Petty's drama "The Poker House" as the oldest of three sisters living with a drug-abusing mother. Stephen Farber of "The Hollywood Reporter" opined that Lawrence "has a touching poise on camera that conveys the resilience of children". She won an Outstanding Performance Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival for her performance in the film.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence's breakthrough role came in Debra Granik's independent drama "Winter's Bone" (2010), based on the novel of the same name by Daniel Woodrell. The film featured her as 17-year-old Ree Dolly, a poverty-stricken teenage girl in the Ozark Mountains who cares for her mentally ill mother and younger siblings while searching for her missing father. She traveled to the Ozarks a week before filming began to live with the family on whom the story was based, and in preparation for the role, she learned to fight, skin squirrels, and chop wood. David Denby of "The New Yorker" asserted that the film "would be unimaginable with anyone less charismatic", and Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote that "her performance is more than acting; it's a gathering storm. Lawrence's eyes are a roadmap to what's tearing Ree apart." The production won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. The actress was awarded the National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance, and received her first nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role as well as for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, becoming the second-youngest Best Actress nominee at the time.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: In 2011, Lawrence took on a supporting role in "Like Crazy", a romantic drama about long-distance relationships, starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones. Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" considered the film to be an "intensely wrought and immensely satisfying love story" and credited all three performers for "making their [characters'] yearning palpable". She then appeared again with Yelchin in Jodie Foster's "The Beaver", alongside Foster and Mel Gibson. Filmed in 2009, the production was delayed due to controversy concerning Gibson and earned less than half of its $21 million budget. After her dramatic role in "Winter's Bone", Lawrence looked for something less serious, and found it with her first high-profile release—Matthew Vaughn's superhero film "" (2011)—a prequel to the "X-Men" film series. She portrayed the shapeshifting mutant Mystique, a role played by Rebecca Romijn in the earlier films. Vaughn cast Lawrence, as he thought that she would be able to portray the weakness and strength involved in the character's transformation. For the part, Lawrence lost weight and practiced yoga. For Mystique's blue form, she had to undergo eight hours of makeup, where latex pieces and body paint were applied to her otherwise nude body, as Romijn had done on the other films. This process required Lawrence to report to set at 2 a.m. She was intimidated in the role as she admired Romijn. Writing for "USA Today", Claudia Puig considered the film to be a "classy re-boot" of the film series, and believed that her "high-spirited performance" empowered the film. With worldwide earnings of $350 million, "X-Men: First Class" became Lawrence's highest-grossing film at that point.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: In 2012, Lawrence starred as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games", an adaptation of the first book in author Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" trilogy. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the series tells the story of the teenage heroine Everdeen as she joins rebel forces against a totalitarian government after winning a brutal televised annual event. Despite being an admirer of the books, Lawrence was initially hesitant to accept the part, because of the grand scale of the film. She agreed to the project after her mother convinced her to take the part. She practiced archery, rock and tree climbing, and hand-to-hand combat techniques, and other physically demanding activities for the role. While training for the part, she injured herself running into a wall. "The Hunger Games" garnered positive reviews, with Lawrence's portrayal of Everdeen being particularly praised; Roger Ebert described the film as "an effective entertainment," and found Lawrence to be "strong and convincing in the central role." Similarly, Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" called her an "ideal screen actress", believing that she had embodied the Everdeen of the novel, and added that she "anchors [the film] with impressive gravity and presence". With worldwide revenues of over $690 million, "The Hunger Games" became a top-grossing film featuring a female lead, making Lawrence the highest-grossing action heroine of all time. The film's success established her as a global star.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Later in 2012, Lawrence played Tiffany Maxwell, a troubled young widow, in David O. Russell's romantic comedy-drama "Silver Linings Playbook". The film is an adaptation of Matthew Quick's novel of the same name, and follows her character as she finds companionship with Pat Solitano Jr. (played by Bradley Cooper), a man with bipolar disorder. Lawrence was drawn to her character's complex personality, explaining, "She was just kind of this mysterious enigma to me because she didn't really fit any basic kind of character profile. Somebody who is very forceful and bullheaded is normally very insecure, but she isn't." While Russell initially found her too young for the part, she convinced him to cast her via a Skype audition. She found herself challenged by Russell's spontaneity as a director, and described working on the project as the "best experience of [her] life". Richard Corliss of "Time" magazine wrote: "Just 21 when the movie was shot, Lawrence is that rare young actress who plays, who "is", grown-up. Sullen and sultry, she lends a mature intelligence to any role." Peter Travers opined that Lawrence "is some kind of miracle. She's rude, dirty, funny, foulmouthed, sloppy, sexy, vibrant, and vulnerable, sometimes all in the same scene, even in the same breath." She won the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance, becoming—at age 22—the second-youngest Best Actress winner. Her final film of the year was alongside Max Thieriot and Elisabeth Shue in Mark Tonderai's critically panned thriller "House at the End of the Street".


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: In January 2013, Lawrence hosted an episode of the NBC late-night sketch comedy "Saturday Night Live". "The Devil You Know", a small-scale production that she had filmed for in 2005, was her first release of 2013. She then reprised the role of Everdeen in "", the second installment in the "Hunger Games" series. While performing the film's underwater stunts, Lawrence suffered from an ear infection that resulted in a brief loss of hearing. Writing for "The Village Voice", Stephanie Zacharek believed that the actress' portrayal of Everdeen made her an ideal role model, stating that "there's no sanctimony or pretense of false modesty in the way Lawrence plays her." With box office earnings of $865 million, "Catching Fire" remains her highest-grossing film to date. In the same year, Lawrence took on a supporting role in David O. Russell's ensemble black comedy crime "American Hustle" as Rosalyn Rosenfeld, the neurotic wife of con man Irving Rosenfeld (played by Christian Bale). Inspired by the FBI's Abscam sting operation, the film is set against the backdrop of political corruption in 1970s New Jersey. She did little research for the role, and based her performance on knowledge of the era from films and television shows she had watched. Geoffrey Macnab of "The Independent" found Lawrence to be "brilliant", "funny and acerbic" in her part, and highlighted an improvised scene in which she aggressively kisses her husband's mistress (played by Amy Adams) on the lips. For her performance, she won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress, and received her third Screen Actors Guild Award and Academy Award nominations, her first in the supporting category. This made her the youngest actor to accrue three Oscar nominations.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence played Serena Pemberton in Susanne Bier's depression-era drama "Serena" (2014), based on the novel of the same name by Ron Rash. In the film, she and her husband George (played by Bradley Cooper) become involved in criminal activities after realizing that they cannot bear children. The project was filmed in 2012, and was released in 2014 to poor reviews. Lawrence then reprised the role of Mystique in "", which served as a sequel to both "" (2006) and "X-Men: First Class" (2011). The film received positive reviews and grossed $748.1 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film in the "X-Men" series to that point. Justin Chang of "Variety" praised her look in the film but thought she had little to do but "glower, snarl and let the f/x artists do their thing". Lawrence's next two releases were the final installments of "The Hunger Games" film series, "" (2014) and "" (2015). For the soundtrack of the former film, she recorded the song "The Hanging Tree", which charted on multiple international singles charts. In a review of the final installment in the series, Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" drew similarities between Everdeen's journey as a rebel leader and Lawrence's rise to stardom, stating that the actress "now inhabits the role as effortlessly as breathing, partly because, like all great stars, she seems to be playing a version of her 'real' self." Both films grossed over $650 million worldwide.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence worked with David O. Russell for the third time on the biopic "Joy" (2015), in which she played the eponymous character, a troubled single mother who becomes a successful businesswoman after inventing the Miracle Mop. During production in Boston, the press reported on a disagreement between Lawrence and Russell that resulted in a "screaming match". She said their friendship made it easier for them to disagree, because people fight when they really love each other. The film was not as well-received as their previous collaborations, but Lawrence's performance was unanimously praised; critic Richard Roeper found it to be her best work since "Winter's Bone", terming it "a wonderfully layered performance that carries the film through its rough spots and sometime dubious detours." She won her third Golden Globe for it, and was nominated for another Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the youngest actor in history to accrue four Oscar nominations.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence began 2016 by providing the narration for "A Beautiful Planet", a documentary film that explores Earth from the International Space Station. She played Mystique for the third time in "" (2016). The film received mixed reviews, with a consensus that it was overfilled with action that detracted from the story's themes and the cast's performances. Helen O'Hara of "Empire" deemed it a letdown from the previous installments of the series and criticized Lawrence for making her character too grim. Despite this, she was awarded Favorite Movie Actress at the 43rd People's Choice Awards. Lawrence was paid $20 million to star in the science fiction romance "Passengers" (2016), and received top billing over co-star Chris Pratt. The film featured Pratt and Lawrence as two individuals who wake up ninety years too soon from an induced hibernation on a spaceship bound for a new planet. She felt nervous performing her first sex scene and kissing a married man (Pratt) onscreen; she drank alcohol to prepare herself for filming those scenes. "Passengers" was met with underwhelming reviews, much to the surprise of its cast and crew, but Lawrence initially defended the film by calling it a "tainted, complicated love story." She later expressed regret over starring in the film.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Darren Aronofsky's psychological horror film "mother!" was Lawrence's sole release of 2017. She played a young wife who experiences trauma when her home is invaded by unexpected guests. Lawrence spent three months rehearsing the film in a warehouse in Brooklyn, despite her reluctance to rehearsals in her previous assignments. The intense role proved grueling for her; she was put on supplemental oxygen when she hyperventilated one day, and also dislocated a rib. "Mother!" polarized audiences and prompted mass walkouts. The film was better received by critics; Walter Addiego of the "San Francisco Chronicle" labeled it "assaultive" and a "deliberate test of audience endurance", and credited Lawrence for "never allow[ing] herself to be reduced simply to a howling victim." The following year, she starred as Dominika Egorova, a Russian spy who makes contact with a mysterious CIA agent (played by Joel Edgerton), in Francis Lawrence's espionage thriller "Red Sparrow", based on Jason Matthews' novel of the same name. In preparation for the part, she learned to speak in a Russian accent and trained in ballet for four months. Having been the victim of a nude photo hack, the actress found herself challenged by the sexuality in her role but said that performing the nude scenes made her feel empowered. Eric Kohn of IndieWire disliked the film's denouement, but praised the performances of Lawrence and Charlotte Rampling, remarking that "the considerable talent on display is [the film's] constant saving grace." In 2019, Lawrence made her fourth and final appearance as Mystique, in the superhero film "Dark Phoenix", which emerged as a critical and box-office failure.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Following roles in a series of mixed reviewed films, Lawrence took a small break from acting. She felt unsatisfied with her films, wanted to avoid media scrutiny, and focused on domestic activities during this period. Wanting to work with director Adam McKay since she was 19, Lawrence returned in 2021 in his film "Don't Look Up" for Netflix for a reported salary of $25 million. A "slapstick apocalypse", the film had her and costar Leonardo DiCaprio play two astronomers attempting to warn humanity about an extinction-level asteroid. For the role, Lawrence received a red dye job and an undercut; in an interview with "Vogue", she said that she extensively researched the typical look of aspiring astrophysicists. Reviews for the film were mixed, but critics mostly praised the performances of Lawrence and DiCaprio, who were described as "powerhouse" by Ian Sandwell of Digital Spy and "a delight to watch" by Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV. Lawrence earned a fifth Golden Globe nomination for the film. It broke the record for the most views (152 million hours) in a single week in Netflix history, and ranks as the platform's second most-watched film within 28 days of release.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence starred in Lila Neugebauer's independent drama "Causeway" (2022), playing a soldier suffering from a brain injury. She also produced the film under her company Excellent Cadaver, which she had formed in 2018. After starring in several big-budget films, she was drawn to the "slow melody of a character-driven story". Comparing it to her work in "Winter's Bone", Allison Wilmore of Vulture opined that the film "is a welcome reminder of how compelling Lawrence can be, as well as a promising indication that she's willing to seek out smaller projects and work with emerging directors".


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence will next star in and produce the comedy film "No Hard Feelings", directed by Gene Stupnitsky. She will portray the mafia informant Arlyne Brickman and Hollywood talent agent Sue Mengers in Paolo Sorrentino's film adaptation of Teresa Carpenter's book "Mob Girl" and untitled biopic, respectively. Lawrence will additionally star in and produce Luca Guadagnino's film adaptation of the novel "Burial Rites", about the last woman to be executed for murder in Iceland.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: In 2012, the review website "IndieWire" described Lawrence's off-screen persona as "down-to-earth, self-deprecating, unaffected". Adam McKay, who directed Lawrence in "Don't Look Up", considered her "a strong, funny truth-teller" woman. "No one has more beautiful anger than Jen", Mckay said, "When she unleashes, it is a sight to behold." An IGN writer described her as a "sharp", "funny" and "quirky" actress who liked to "stay grounded" despite her considerable success. Lawrence has said she finds acting "stupid" in comparison to life-saving professions like doctors, and therefore does not believe in being "cocky" about her accomplishments.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: In 2012, "Rolling Stone" called Lawrence "the most talented young actress in America". Her "The Hunger Games" co-star Donald Sutherland found her an "exquisite and brilliant actor", and favorably compared her craft to that of Laurence Olivier. David O. Russell, who directed Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook", "American Hustle" and "Joy," has praised her effortless acting that makes her performances look easy. She has played roles in both high-profile, mainstream productions and low-budget independent films, and appeared in a range of film genres. She did not study acting and has not been involved in professional theater. She has said she bases her acting approach on her observations of people around her. She said in 2010 that she did not "invest any of [her] real emotions" or take home any of her characters' pain. She went on to say that "I don't even take it to craft services" and has never shared her characters' experiences, relying instead on her imagination: "I can't go around looking for roles that are exactly like my life… If it ever came down to the point where, to make a part better, I had to lose a little bit of my sanity, I wouldn't do it. I would just do comedies."


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence has become one of the world's highest-paid actresses. "The Daily Telegraph" reported in 2014 that she was earning $10 million per film. In 2013, "Time" magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, "Elle" labeled her the most powerful woman in the entertainment business, and "Forbes" ranked her as the second most powerful actress, behind only Angelina Jolie. In 2014, "Forbes" named her the second-highest-paid actress in the world with earnings of $34 million, and cited her as the most powerful actress, ranking at number 12 on the magazine's Celebrity 100 list; she appeared on the list again in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, Lawrence was named "Entertainer of the Year" by "Entertainment Weekly"—a title she also won in 2012—and was recognized as the highest-grossing action heroine in "Guinness World Records" for starring in the "Hunger Games" series. In 2015 and 2016, "Forbes" ranked her as the world's highest-paid actress, with annual earnings of $52 million and $46 million, respectively. In the following two years, it ranked her as the world's third and fourth highest-paid actress, with respective earnings of $24 million and $18 million. "The Hollywood Reporter" listed Lawrence among the 100 most powerful people in entertainment from 2016 to 2018. , her films have grossed over $6 billion worldwide.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence appeared on Victoria's Secret's listing of the "Sexiest Up-and-Coming Bombshell" in 2011, "People"s Most Beautiful People in 2011 and 2013, "Maxim"s Hot 100 from 2011 to 2014, and was placed at number one on "FHM"s 100 Sexiest Women list in 2014. From 2013 to 2015, she was featured on "Glamour"s annual listing of the best dressed women, topping the list in 2014. During Raf Simons's tenure at Dior, Lawrence became a celebrity ambassador for the brand, appearing in advertisement campaigns for its fashion and perfumes. She frequently wears Dior to red carpet events such as film premieres and award ceremonies. She wore a custom Dior bridal gown on her wedding day.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence identifies as a feminist, a concept she argues should not intimidate people "because it just means equality". She has promoted body positivity among women. In 2015, she wrote an essay for "Lenny Letter" criticizing the gender pay gap in Hollywood, describing her own experiences in the industry, such as the lesser pay she received for her work on "American Hustle" in comparison to her male co-stars. In a 2015 interview with "Vogue", she condemned Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis for her opposition to same-sex marriage. Lawrence was raised a Republican and voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, but has since been critical of the party. Lawrence strongly opposed Donald Trump's presidency, stating in 2015 that his election would "be the end of the world". She endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2011. She has lent her support to several charitable organizations, such as the World Food Programme, Feeding America, and the Thirst Project. Along with her "The Hunger Games" co-stars Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, she partnered with the United Nations to publicize poverty and hunger. She organized an early screening of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (2013) to benefit Saint Mary's Center, a disabilities organization in Louisville, and raised more than $40,000 for the cause. She partnered with the charity broadcast network Chideo to raise funds for the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games by screening her film "Serena" (2014). She also collaborated with Omaze to host a fundraising contest for the games as part of the premiere of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1" (2014).


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: In 2015, Lawrence teamed with Hutcherson and Hemsworth for "Prank It FWD", a charitable initiative to raise money for the nonprofit organization DoSomething. That year, she also launched the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation, which supports charities such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Special Olympics. In 2016, she donated $2 million to the Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville to set up a cardiac intensive care unit named after her foundation. She is a board member of RepresentUs, a nonprofit seeking to pass anti-corruption laws in the United States. In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination, and took part in the 2018 Women's March in Los Angeles. In 2018, Lawrence spoke out in support of retaining ranked-choice voting in Maine.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: During filming of "X-Men: First Class" in 2010, Lawrence began dating her co-star Nicholas Hoult. Their relationship ended around the time they wrapped filming "X-Men: Days of Future Past" in 2014. In September 2016, she began dating filmmaker Darren Aronofsky after they had met during filming of "Mother!" They broke up in November 2017.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: In 2018, she began a relationship with Cooke Maroney, an art gallery director. They became engaged in February 2019 and married that October in Rhode Island. , they reside in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City and in Beverly Hills, California. In February 2022, Lawrence gave birth to their son, Cy.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence was one of the victims of the 2014 celebrity nude photo leak, in which several private nude pictures of her were hacked and posted online. She emphasized that the photos were never meant to go public, calling the leak a "sex crime" and a "sexual violation", and added that viewers of the images should be ashamed of themselves for "perpetuating a sexual offense". Lawrence further said her pictures had been intended for Hoult during their relationship, and that unlike other victims of the incident, she did not plan to sue Apple Inc.


title: Jennifer Lawrence

text: Lawrence won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012). She has won three Golden Globe Awards; Best Actress – Comedy or Musical for "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012) and "Joy" (2015), and Best Supporting Actress for "American Hustle" (2013). She also won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for "American Hustle". Her other accolades include seven MTV Movie Awards (five for "The Hunger Games" series, two for "Silver Linings Playbook"), six People's Choice Awards (three for "The Hunger Games", three for the "X-Men" series), a Satellite Award for "Silver Linings Playbook", and a Saturn Award for "The Hunger Games".


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Margaret was born when her parents were the Duke and Duchess of York, and she spent much of her childhood with them and her elder sister. Her life changed at the age of six, when her father ascended the British throne following the abdication of his brother Edward VIII. Margaret's sister became heir presumptive, with Margaret second in line to the throne. Her position in the line of succession diminished over the following decades as Elizabeth's children and grandchildren were born. During the Second World War, the two sisters stayed at Windsor Castle despite suggestions to evacuate them to Canada. During the war years, Margaret was too young to perform official duties and continued her education, being nine years old when the war broke out and turning fifteen just after hostilities ended.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: From the 1950s onwards, Margaret became one of the world's most celebrated socialites, famed for her glamorous lifestyle and reputed romances. Most famously, she fell in love in the early 1950s with Peter Townsend, a married RAF officer in the royal household. In 1952, her father died, her sister became queen, and Townsend divorced his wife. He proposed to Margaret early in the following year. Many in the government believed that he would be an unsuitable husband for the Queen's 22-year-old sister, and the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to countenance her marriage to a divorced man. Margaret abandoned her plans with Townsend and married Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960; the Queen created him Earl of Snowdon. The couple had two children, David and Sarah, and divorced in 1978. Margaret did not remarry.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Margaret was a controversial member of the British royal family. Her divorce received much negative publicity, and her private life was for many years the subject of speculation by media and royal watchers. Her health deteriorated in the last twenty years of her life. She was a heavy smoker for most of her adult life and had a lung operation in 1985, a bout of pneumonia in 1993 as well as three strokes between 1998 and 2001. Margaret died in 2002 aged 71, after suffering her fourth and final stroke.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Princess Margaret was born at 9:22 p.m. on 21 August 1930 at Glamis Castle in Scotland, her mother's ancestral home, and was affectionately known as Margot within the royal family. She was the first member of the royal family in direct line of succession to be born in Scotland since the 1600s. She was delivered by Sir Henry Simson, the royal obstetrician. The Home Secretary, J. R. Clynes, was present to verify the birth. The registration of her birth was delayed for several days to avoid her being numbered thirteen in the parish register. Margaret was baptised in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 30 October 1930 by Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: At the time of her birth, Margaret was fourth in the line of succession to the British throne. Her father was the Duke of York (later King George VI), the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. Her mother was the Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother), the youngest daughter of the 14th Earl and the Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne. The Duchess of York originally wanted to name her second daughter Ann Margaret, as she explained to Queen Mary in a letter: "I am very anxious to call her Ann Margaret, as I think Ann of York sounds pretty, & Elizabeth and Ann go so well together." King George V disliked the name Ann but approved of the alternative, Margaret Rose.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Margaret's early life was spent primarily at the Yorks' residences at 145 Piccadilly (their town house in London) and Royal Lodge in Windsor. The Yorks were perceived by the public as an ideal family: father, mother and children, but unfounded rumours that Margaret was deaf and mute were not completely dispelled until her first main public appearance at her uncle Prince George's wedding in 1934.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Margaret was educated alongside her sister, Elizabeth, by their Scottish governess, Marion Crawford. Margaret's education was mainly supervised by her mother, who in the words of Randolph Churchill "never aimed at bringing her daughters up to be more than nicely behaved young ladies". When Queen Mary insisted upon the importance of education, the Duchess of York commented, "I don't know what she meant. After all I and my sisters only had governesses and we all married well — one of us "very" well". Margaret was resentful about her limited education, especially in later years, and aimed criticism at her mother. However, Margaret's mother told a friend that she "regretted" that her daughters did not go to school like other children, and the employment of a governess rather than sending the girls to school may have been done only at the insistence of King George V. J. M. Barrie, author of "Peter Pan", read stories to the sisters as children.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Margaret's grandfather, George V, died when she was five, and her uncle acceded as King Edward VIII. Less than a year later, on 11 December 1936, in the abdication crisis, he left the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American, whom neither the Church of England nor the Dominion governments would accept as queen. The Church would not recognise the marriage of a divorced woman with a living ex-husband as valid. Edward's abdication made a reluctant Duke of York the new king and Margaret became second in line to the throne with the title "The Princess Margaret" to indicate her status as a child of the sovereign. The family moved into Buckingham Palace; Margaret's room overlooked The Mall.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Margaret was a Brownie in the 1st Buckingham Palace Brownie Pack, formed in 1937. She was also a Girl Guide and later a Sea Ranger. She served as President of Girlguiding UK from 1965 until her death on February 9, 2002.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: At the outbreak of World War II, Margaret and her sister were at Birkhall, on the Balmoral Castle estate, where they stayed until Christmas 1939, enduring nights so cold that drinking water in carafes by their bedside froze. They spent Christmas at Sandringham House before moving to Windsor Castle, just outside London, for much of the remainder of the war. Viscount Hailsham wrote to Prime Minister Winston Churchill to advise the evacuation of the princesses to the greater safety of Canada, to which their mother famously replied, "The children won't go without me. I won't leave without the King. And the King will never leave." At Windsor, the princesses staged pantomimes at Christmas in aid of the Queen's Wool Fund, which bought yarn to knit into military garments. In 1940, Margaret sat next to Elizabeth during their radio broadcast for the BBC's "Children's Hour", addressing other children who had been evacuated from cities. Margaret spoke at the end by wishing all the children goodnight.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Unlike other members of the royal family, Margaret was not expected to undertake any public or official duties during the war. She developed her skills at singing and playing the piano, often show tunes from stage musicals. Her contemporaries thought she was spoiled by her parents, especially her father, who allowed her to take liberties not usually permissible, such as being allowed to stay up to dinner at the age of thirteen.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Crawford despaired at the attention Margaret was getting, writing to friends: "Could you this year only ask Princess Elizabeth to your party? ... Princess Margaret does draw all the attention and Princess Elizabeth lets her do that." Elizabeth, however, did not mind this, and commented, "Oh, it's so much easier when Margaret's there—everybody laughs at what Margaret says". King George described Elizabeth as his pride and Margaret as his joy.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: At the end of the war in 1945, Margaret appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace with her family and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Afterwards, both Elizabeth and Margaret joined the crowds outside the palace, incognito, chanting, "We want the King, we want the Queen!"


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: On 15 April 1946, Margaret was confirmed into the Church of England. On 1 February 1947, she, Elizabeth and their parents embarked on a state tour of Southern Africa. The three-month-long visit was Margaret's first visit abroad, and she later claimed that she remembered "every minute of it". Margaret's chaperone was Peter Townsend, the King's equerry and very firm toward Margaret, whom he apparently considered an indulged child. Later that year, Margaret was a bridesmaid at Elizabeth's wedding. In the next three years, Elizabeth had two children, Charles and Anne, whose births moved Margaret further down the line of succession.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: In 1950, the former royal governess, Marion Crawford, published an unauthorized biography of Elizabeth's and Margaret's childhood years, titled "The Little Princesses", in which she described Margaret's "light-hearted fun and frolics" and her "amusing and outrageous ... antics".


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Around the time of Princess Elizabeth's wedding in November 1947, the press started to follow the social life of "unconventional" Margaret and her reputation for vivacity and wit. As a beautiful young woman, with an 18-inch waist and "vivid blue eyes", Margaret enjoyed socialising with high society and young aristocrats, including Sharman Douglas, the daughter of the American ambassador, Lewis Williams Douglas. A celebrated beauty known for her glamour and fashion sense, Margaret was often featured in the press at balls, parties, and nightclubs with friends who became known as the "Margaret Set". The number of her official engagements increased (they included a tour of Italy, Switzerland, and France), and she joined a growing number of charitable organisations as president or patron.


title: Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon

text: Favoured haunts of the Margaret Set were The 400 Club, the Café de Paris and the Mirabelle restaurant. Anticipation of an engagement or romance between Margaret and a member of her set were often reported. In 1948, international news grew that her engagement to "Sunny", the Marquess of Blandford, would be announced on her 18th birthday. Similar speculation moved to the Hon. Peter Ward, then Billy Wallace and others. The set also mixed with celebrities, including Danny Kaye, whom she met after watching him perform at the London Palladium in February 1948. He was soon accepted by the royal social circle. In July 1949, at a fancy dress ball at the American Ambassador's residence, Margaret performed the can-can on stage, accompanied by Douglas and ten other costumed girls. A press commotion ensued, with Kaye denying he had taught Margaret the dance. Press interest could be intrusive. During a private visit to Paris in 1951, Margaret and Prince Nicholas of Yugoslavia were followed into a nightclub by a paparazzo who took photographs of them until British detectives physically removed him from the club.