title: Ed O'Neill

text: In 1986, while playing the role of Lennie in a stage production of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" at the Hartford Theater in Hartford, Connecticut, he was seen by a casting agent from the Fox television network and was asked to audition for the role of Al Bundy in "Married... with Children", a proposed sitcom about a dysfunctional family living in Chicago. He won the part because, during the audition, he simply slumped his shoulders and sighed as he was about to walk through the front door of the home. "Married... with Children" led off the first night of Fox's primetime lineup on April 5, 1987, concluding after 11 seasons on June 9, 1997.


title: Ed O'Neill

text: During and following the success of "Married... with Children", O'Neill starred in several films, including "Dutch" and "Little Giants". He also had small parts in "The Bone Collector", "Wayne's World", and "Wayne's World 2", and appeared as Relish the Troll King in "The 10th Kingdom". O'Neill made a brief appearance on the comedy variety show "In Living Color", playing the "Dirty Dozens" champion who defeats the challenger, played by Jamie Foxx. He also made a cameo on the sitcom "8 Simple Rules" as the ex-boyfriend of Cate S. Hennessy (played by Katey Sagal, who portrayed O'Neill's wife Peggy Bundy on "Married... with Children"). He appeared in the movie "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane" with Andrew Dice Clay. During the mid-1990s, he had a string of appearances in commercials for 1-800-COLLECT.


title: Ed O'Neill

text: "Law & Order" franchise creator Dick Wolf cast O'Neill as Sgt. Joe Friday in his 2003 remake of Jack Webb's classic TV crime series "Dragnet". The series was canceled by ABC in its second season. O'Neill went on to appear as Governor Eric Baker, a recurring character on NBC's "The West Wing". O'Neill also played Bill on HBO's television series "John from Cincinnati".


title: Ed O'Neill

text: In 2008, O'Neill appeared in an advertisement for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama as "Al the Shoesalesman".


title: Ed O'Neill

text: In January 2009, O'Neill reunited with David Faustino (Bud Bundy from "Married... with Children") for two episodes of Faustino's show "Star-ving". O'Neill also appeared with the entire cast of "Married... with Children" again when they were honored at the 7th Annual "TV Land Award" show in 2009.


title: Ed O'Neill

text: From 2009 to 2020, O'Neill played the role of Jay Pritchett on the ABC sitcom "Modern Family", a role that earned him three Primetime Emmy Award nominations—in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Since 2012, O'Neill has done voice-overs in TV advertisements for the over-the-counter form of Zyrtec, along with Walmart's store-branded mobile phone service Straight Talk.


title: Ed O'Neill

text: In 2016, O'Neill starred as Hank the Octopus in the Pixar animated film "Finding Dory". According to O'Neill, he didn't realize at first that he had a starring role in the film. As his voice recording sessions continued and most of his interactions turned out to be with Dory, he began to suspect that Hank was a major character in the film.


title: Ed O'Neill

text: O'Neill is married to actress Catherine Rusoff. As of 2016, they were living in Los Angeles with their two daughters.


title: Ed O'Neill

text: After being introduced to Brazilian jiu-jitsu by his friend writer/director John Milius, O'Neill has trained for 22 years under the mentoring of Rorion Gracie. In December 2007, O'Neill received his black belt. In the 2012 TV documentary "I Am Bruce Lee", O'Neill states that he considers getting his black belt "the greatest achievement of my life, apart from my children."


title: Ed O'Neill

text: O'Neill received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 30, 2011, ironically located in front of a shoe store.


title: Ragnarök

text: In Norse mythology, (; ) is a series of events, including a great battle, foretelling the death of numerous great figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), natural disasters, and the submersion of the world in water. After these events, the world will rise again, cleansed and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors. is an important event in Norse mythology and has been the subject of scholarly discourse and theory in the history of Germanic studies.


title: Ragnarök

text: The event is attested primarily in the "Poetic Edda", compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the "Prose Edda", written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In the "Prose Edda" and in a single poem in the "Poetic Edda", the event is referred to as (), a usage popularised by 19th-century composer Richard Wagner with the title of the last of his "Der Ring des Nibelungen" operas, "" (1876), which is "Twilight of the Gods" in German.


title: Ragnarök

text: The Old Norse compound word has a long history of interpretation. Its first element, , is unproblematic, being the genitive plural of (n. pl.) "the ruling powers, gods." The second element is more problematic, as it occurs in two variants, and . Writing in the early 20th century, philologist Geir Zoëga treats the two forms as two separate compounds, glossing as "the doom or destruction of the gods" and as "the twilight of the gods." The plural noun has several meanings, including "development, origin, cause, relation, fate." The word as a whole is then usually interpreted as the "final destiny of the gods."


title: Ragnarök

text: The singular form is found in a stanza of the "Poetic Edda" poem "Lokasenna", and in the "Prose Edda". The noun means "twilight" (from the verb "to grow dark"), suggesting a translation "twilight of the gods." This reading was widely considered a result of folk etymology, or a learned reinterpretation of the original term due to the merger of (spelled ǫ) and (spelled ø) in Old Icelandic after c. 1200


title: Ragnarök

text: (nevertheless giving rise to the calque "" "Twilight of the Gods" in the German reception of Norse mythology).


title: Ragnarök

text: Other terms used to refer to the events surrounding in the "Poetic Edda" include ( means age, "end of an age") from a stanza of ', from two stanzas of ', ("when the gods die") from ', ("when the gods will be destroyed") from ', ', and ', ("destruction of the age") from ', ("end of the gods") from ', and, in the "Prose Edda", ("when the sons of Muspell move into battle") can be found in chapters 18 and 36 of "".


title: Ragnarök

text: In the "Poetic Edda" poem ", references to begin from stanza 40 until 58, with the rest of the poem describing the aftermath. In the poem, a (a female seer) recites information to Odin. In stanza 41, the says:


title: Ragnarök

text: The then describes three roosters crowing: In stanza 42, the herdsman Eggthér sits on a mound and cheerfully plays his harp while the crimson rooster Fjalar (Old Norse "hider, deceiver") crows in the forest Gálgviðr. The golden rooster Gullinkambi crows to the Æsir in Valhalla, and the third, unnamed soot-red rooster crows in the halls of the underworld location of Hel in stanza 43.


title: Ragnarök

text: After these stanzas, the further relates that the hound Garmr produces deep howls in front of the cave of Gnipahellir. Garmr's bindings break and he runs free. The describes the state of humanity:


title: Ragnarök

text: The "sons of Mím" are described as being "at play," though this reference is not further explained in surviving sources. Heimdall raises the Gjallarhorn into the air and blows deeply into it, and Odin converses with Mím's head. The world tree Yggdrasil shudders and groans. The Hrym comes from the east, his shield before him. The Midgard serpent Jörmungandr furiously writhes, causing waves to crash. "The eagle shrieks, pale-beaked he tears the corpse," and the ship Naglfar breaks free thanks to the waves made by Jormungandr and sets sail from the east. The fire inhabitants of Muspelheim come forth.


title: Ragnarök

text: The continues that Jötunheimr, the land of the , is aroar, and that the Æsir are in council. The dwarfs groan by their stone doors. Surtr advances from the south, his sword brighter than the sun. Rocky cliffs open and the women sink.


title: Ragnarök

text: The gods then do battle with the invaders: Odin is swallowed whole and alive fighting the wolf Fenrir, causing his wife Frigg her second great sorrow (the first being the death of her son, the god Baldr). Odin's son Víðarr avenges his father by rending Fenrir's jaws apart and stabbing it in the heart with his spear, thus killing the wolf. The serpent Jörmungandr opens its gaping maw, yawning widely in the air, and is met in combat by Thor. Thor, also a son of Odin and described here as protector of the earth, furiously fights the serpent, defeating it, but Thor is only able to take nine steps afterwards before collapsing dead from the Serpent's venom. The god Freyr fights Surtr and loses. After this, people flee their homes, and the sun becomes black while the earth sinks into the sea, the stars vanish, steam rises, and flames touch the heavens.


title: Ragnarök

text: The sees the earth reappearing from the water and an eagle over a waterfall hunting fish on a mountain. The surviving Æsir meet together at the field of Iðavöllr. They discuss Jörmungandr, great events of the past, and the runic alphabet. In stanza 61, in the grass, they find the golden game pieces that the gods are described as having once happily enjoyed playing games with long ago (attested earlier in the same poem). The reemerged fields grow without needing to be sown. The gods Höðr and Baldr return from Hel and live happily together.


title: Ragnarök

text: The says that the god Hœnir chooses wooden slips for divination and that the sons of two brothers will widely inhabit the windy world. She sees a hall thatched with gold in Gimlé, where nobility will live and spend their lives pleasurably. Stanzas 65, found in the " version of the poem, refers to a "powerful, mighty one" that "rules over everything" and who will arrive from above at the court of the gods (Old Norse ), which has been interpreted as a Christian addition to the poem. In stanza 66, the ends her account with a description of the dragon Níðhöggr, corpses in his jaws, flying through the air. The then "sinks down." It is unclear if stanza 66 indicates that the is referring to the present time or if this is an element of the post- world.


title: Ragnarök

text: The Vanir god Njörðr is mentioned in relation to in stanza 39 of the poem "Vafþrúðnismál". In the poem, Odin, disguised as Gagnráðr, faces off with the wise Vafþrúðnir in a battle of wits. Vafþrúðnismál references Njörðr's status as a hostage during the earlier Æsir–Vanir War, and that he will "come back home among the wise Vanir" at "the doom of men."


title: Ragnarök

text: In stanza 44, Odin poses the question to Vafþrúðnir as to who of mankind will survive the "famous" ("Mighty Winter"). Vafþrúðnir responds in stanza 45 that those survivors will be Líf and Lífþrasir and that they will hide in the forest of , that they will consume the morning dew, and will produce generations of offspring. In stanza 46, Odin asks what sun will come into the sky after Fenrir has consumed the sun that exists. Vafþrúðnir responds that Sól will bear a daughter before Fenrir assails her and that after this daughter will continue her mother's path.


title: Ragnarök

text: In stanza 51, Vafþrúðnir states that, after Surtr's flames have been sated, Odin's sons Víðarr and Váli will live in the temples of the gods, and that Thor's sons Móði and Magni will possess the hammer Mjolnir. In stanza 52, the disguised Odin asks the about his fate. Vafþrúðnir responds that "the wolf" will consume Odin, and that Víðarr will avenge him by sundering its cold jaws in battle. Odin ends the duel with one final question: what did Odin say to his son before preparing his funeral pyre? With this, Vafþrúðnir realizes that he is dealing with none other than Odin, whom he refers to as "the wisest of beings," adding that Odin alone could know this. Odin's message has been interpreted as a promise of resurrection to Baldr after .


title: Ragnarök

text: Snorri Sturluson's "Prose Edda" quotes heavily from ' and elaborates extensively in prose on the information there, though some of this information conflicts with that provided in '.


title: Ragnarök

text: In the "Prose Edda" book "Gylfaginning", various references are made to . is first mentioned in chapter 26, where the throned figure of High, king of the hall, tells Gangleri (King Gylfi in disguise) some basic information about the goddess Iðunn, including that her apples will keep the gods young until .


title: Ragnarök

text: In chapter 34, High describes the binding of the wolf Fenrir by the gods, causing the god Týr to lose his right hand, and that Fenrir remains there until . Gangleri asks High why, since the gods could only expect destruction from Fenrir, they did not simply kill Fenrir once he was bound. High responds that "the gods hold their sacred places and sanctuaries in such respect that they chose not to defile them with the wolf's blood, even though the prophecies foretold that he would be the death of Odin."


title: Ragnarök

text: As a consequence of his role in the death of the god Baldr, Loki (described as father of Fenrir) is bound on top of three stones with the internal organs of his son Narfi (which are turned into iron) in three places. There, venom drops onto his face periodically from a snake placed by the Skaði. Loki's wife Sigyn collects the venom into a bucket, but whenever she leaves to empty it, the drops reach Loki's face, and the pain he experiences causes convulsions, resulting in earthquakes. Loki is further described as being bound this way until the onset of .


title: Ragnarök

text: Chapter 51 provides a detailed account of interspersed with various quotes from ', while chapters 52 and 53 describe the aftermath of these events. In Chapter 51, High states that the first sign of will be , during which time three winters will arrive without a summer, and the sun will be useless. High details that, before these winters, three earlier winters will have occurred, marked with great battles throughout the world. During this time, greed will cause brothers to kill brothers, and fathers and sons will suffer from the collapse of kinship bonds. High then quotes stanza 45 of '. Next, High describes that the wolf will swallow the sun, then his brother will swallow the moon, and mankind will consider the occurrence as a great disaster resulting in much ruin. The stars will disappear. The earth and mountains will shake so violently that the trees will come loose from the soil, the mountains will topple, and all restraints will break, causing Fenrir to break free from his bonds.


title: Ragnarök

text: High relates that the great serpent Jörmungandr, also described as a child of Loki in the same source, will breach land as the sea violently swells onto it. The ship Naglfar, described in the "Prose Edda" as being made from the human nails of the dead, is released from its mooring and sets sail on the surging sea, steered by a named Hrym. At the same time, Fenrir, eyes and nostrils spraying flames, charges forward with his mouth wide open, his upper jaw reaching to the heavens, and his lower jaw touching the earth. At Fenrir's side, Jörmungandr sprays venom throughout the air and the sea.


title: Ragnarök

text: During all of this, the sky splits into two. From the split, the "sons of Muspell" ride forth. Surtr rides first, surrounded by flames, his sword brighter than the sun. High says that "Muspell's sons" will ride across Bifröst, described in "" as a rainbow bridge, and that the bridge will then break. The sons of Muspell (and their shining battle troop) advance to the field of Vígríðr, described as an expanse that reaches "a hundred leagues in each direction," where Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Loki (followed by "Hel's own"), and Hrym (accompanied by all frost ) join them. While this occurs, Heimdallr stands and blows the Gjallarhorn with all his might. The gods awaken at the sound, and they meet. Odin rides to Mímisbrunnr in search of counsel from Mímir. Yggdrasil shakes, and everything, everywhere fears.


title: Ragnarök

text: High relates that the Æsir and the Einherjar dress for war and head to the field. Odin, wearing a gold helmet and an intricate coat of mail, carries his spear Gungnir and rides before them. Odin advances against Fenrir, while Thor moves at his side, though Thor is unable to assist Odin because he has engaged Jörmungandr in combat. According to High, Freyr fights fiercely with Surtr, but falls because he lacks the sword he once gave to his messenger, Skírnir. The hound Garmr (described here as the "worst of monsters") breaks free from his bonds in front of Gnipahellir, and fights the god Týr, resulting in both of their deaths.


title: Ragnarök

text: Thor kills Jörmungandr but is poisoned by the serpent, and manages to walk only nine steps before falling to the earth dead. Fenrir swallows Odin, though immediately afterwards his son Víðarr kicks his foot into Fenrir's lower jaw, grips the upper jaw, and rips apart Fenrir's mouth, killing the great wolf. Loki fights Heimdallr and the two kill each other. Surtr covers the earth in fire, causing the entire world to burn. High quotes stanzas 46 to 47 of ', and additionally stanza 18 of ' (the latter relating information about the battlefield Vígríðr).


title: Ragnarök

text: At the beginning of chapter 52, Gangleri asks "what will be after heaven and earth and the whole world are burned? All the gods will be dead, together with the Einherjar and the whole of mankind. Didn't you say earlier that each person will live in some world throughout all ages?"


title: Ragnarök

text: The figure of Third, seated on the highest throne in the hall, responds that there will be many good places to live, but also many bad ones. Third states that the best place to be is Gimlé in the heavens, where a place exists called Okolnir that houses a hall called Brimir—where one can find plenty to drink. Third describes a hall made of red gold located in Niðafjöll called Sindri, where "good and virtuous men will live." Third further relates an unnamed hall in Náströnd, the beaches of the dead, that he describes as a large repugnant hall facing north that is built from the spines of snakes, and resembles "a house with walls woven from branches"; the heads of the snakes face the inside of the house and spew so much venom that rivers of it flow throughout the hall, in which oath breakers and murderers must wade. Third here quotes ' stanzas 38 to 39, with the insertion of original prose stating that the worst place of all to be is in Hvergelmir, followed by a quote from ' to highlight that the dragon Níðhöggr harasses the corpses of the dead there.


title: Ragnarök

text: Chapter 53 begins with Gangleri asking if any of the gods will survive and if there will be anything left of the earth or the sky. High responds that the earth will appear once more from the sea, beautiful and green, where self-sown crops grow. The field Iðavöllr exists where Asgard once was, and, there, untouched by Surtr's flames, Víðarr and Váli reside. Now possessing their father's hammer Mjölnir, Thor's sons Móði and Magni will meet them there, and, coming from Hel, Baldr and Höðr also arrive. Together, they all sit and recount memories, later finding the gold game pieces the Æsir once owned. " stanza 51 is then quoted.


title: Ragnarök

text: High reveals that two humans, Líf and Lífþrasir, will have also survived the destruction by hiding in the wood Hoddmímis holt. These two survivors consume the morning dew for sustenance, and from their descendants, the world will be repopulated. ' stanza 45 is then quoted. The personified sun, Sól, will have a daughter at least as beautiful as she, and this daughter will follow the same path as her mother. ' stanza 47 is quoted, and so ends the foretelling of in ".


title: Ragnarök

text: , a partially surviving runestone erected at Kirk Andreas on the Isle of Man, depicts a bearded human holding a spear downward at a wolf, his right foot in its mouth, while a large bird sits at his shoulder. Rundata dates it to 940, while Pluskowski dates it to the 11th century. This depiction has been interpreted as Odin, with a raven or eagle at his shoulder, being consumed by Fenrir at . On the other side of the stone is a depiction of a large cross and another image parallel to the Odin figure that has been described as Christ triumphing over Satan. These combined elements have led to the cross as being described as "syncretic art," a mixture of pagan and Christian beliefs.


title: Ragnarök

text: The Gosforth Cross (920–950), in Cumbria, England, is a standing cross of a typical Anglo-Saxon form, carved on all sides of the long shaft, which is nearly square in section. Apart from panels of ornament, the scenes include a Christian crucifixion, and possibly another scene in Hell, but the other scenes are generally interpreted as narrative incidents from the story, even by a scholar as cautious of such interpretations as David M. Wilson. The battle itself may be depicted on the north side. The cross features various figures depicted in Borre style, including a man with a spear facing a monstrous head, with one foot thrust into the beast's forked tongue and on its lower jaw, and the other is against its upper jaw, a scene interpreted as Víðarr fighting Fenrir.


title: Ragnarök

text: The 11th-century Ledberg stone in Sweden, similarly to Thorwald's Cross, features a figure with his foot at the mouth of a four-legged beast, and this may also be a depiction of Odin being devoured by Fenrir at . Below the beast and the man is a depiction of a legless, helmeted man, with his arms in a prostrate position. The Younger Futhark inscription on the stone bears a commonly seen memorial dedication, but is followed by an encoded runic sequence that has been described as "mysterious," and "an interesting magic formula which is known from all over the ancient Norse world."


title: Ragnarök

text: On the early 11th-century Skarpåker Stone, from Södermanland, Sweden, a father grieving his dead son used the same verse form, , as in the "Poetic Edda" in the following engraving:


title: Ragnarök

text: Jansson (1987) notes that at the time of the inscription, everyone who read the lines would have thought of and the allusion that the father found fitting as an expression of his grief.


title: Ragnarök

text: Rudolf Simek theorizes that the survival of Líf and Lífþrasir at the end of is "a case of reduplication of the anthropogeny, understandable from the cyclic nature of the Eddic eschatology." Simek says that Hoddmímis holt "should not be understood literally as a wood or even a forest in which the two keep themselves hidden, but rather as an alternative name for the world-tree Yggdrasill. Thus, the creation of mankind from tree trunks (Askr, Embla) is repeated after the as well." Simek says that in Germanic regions, the concept of mankind originating from trees is ancient, and additionally points out legendary parallels in a Bavarian legend of a shepherd who lives inside a tree, whose descendants repopulate the land after life there has been wiped out by plague (citing a retelling by F. R. Schröder). In addition, Simek points to an Old Norse parallel in the figure of Örvar-Oddr, "who is rejuvenated after living as a tree-man ("Ǫrvar-Odds saga" 24–27)."


title: Ragnarök

text: Theories have been proposed about the relation between and the 9th-century Old High German epic poem "Muspilli" about the Christian Last Judgment, where the word appears, and the 9th-century Old Saxon epic poem " about the life of Christ, where various other forms of the word appear. In both sources, the word is used to signify the end of the world through fire. Old Norse forms of the term also appear throughout accounts of , where the world is also consumed in flames, and, though various theories exist about the meaning and origins of the term, its etymology has not been solved.


title: Ragnarök

text: Parallels have been pointed out between the of Norse religion and the beliefs of other related Indo-European peoples. Subsequently, theories have been put forth that represents a later evolution of a Proto-Indo-European belief along with other cultures descending from the Proto-Indo-Europeans. These parallels include comparisons of a cosmic winter motif between the Norse , the Iranian and . Víðarr's stride has been compared to the Vedic god Vishnu in that both have a "cosmic stride" with a special shoe used to tear apart a beastly wolf. Larger patterns have also been drawn between "final battle" events in Indo-European cultures, including the occurrence of a blind or semi-blind figure in "final battle" themes, and figures appearing suddenly with surprising skills.


title: Ragnarök

text: Hilda Ellis Davidson theorizes that the events in ' occurring after the death of the gods (the sun turning black, steam rising, flames touching the heavens, etc.) may be inspired by the volcanic eruptions on Iceland. Records of eruptions in Iceland bear strong similarities to the sequence of events described in ', especially the eruption at Laki that occurred in 1783. Bertha Phillpotts theorizes that the figure of Surtr was inspired by Icelandic eruptions and that he was a volcano demon. Surtr's name occurs in some Icelandic place names, among them the lava tube Surtshellir, a number of dark caverns in the volcanic central region of Iceland.


title: Ragnarök

text: Parallels have been pointed out between a poem spoken by a found in the 13th-century "" ("the tale of the mountain dweller"). In the tale, Thórd and his servant get lost while travelling to church in winter, and so take shelter for the night within a cave. Inside the cave they hear noises, witness a pair of immense burning eyes, and then the being with burning eyes recites a poem of 12 stanzas. The poem the being recites contains references to Norse mythology (including a mention of Thor) and also prophecies (including that "mountains will tumble, the earth will move, men will be scoured by hot water and burned by fire"). Surtr's fire receives a mention in stanza 10. John Lindow says that the poem may describe "a mix of the destruction of the race of giants and of humans, as in " but that "many of the predictions of disruption on earth could also fit the volcanic activity that is so common in Iceland."


title: Ragnarök

text: The events of Ragnarok are dramatized, albeit briefly, in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Marsh King's Daughter".


title: Ragnarök

text: In late 2013 and early 2014, English-language media outlets widely reported that was foretold to occur on 22 February 2014. Apparently patterned after the 2012 phenomenon, the claim was at times attributed to a "Viking Calendar". No such calendar is known to have existed, and the source was a "prediction" made to media outlets by the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, England, intended to draw attention to an event that the institution was to hold on that date. The Jorvik Viking Centre was criticized for misleading the public to promote the event. In a 2014 article on the claims, philologist Joseph S. Hopkins perceives the media response as an example of a broad revival of interest in the Viking Age and ancient Germanic topics.


title: Ragnarök

text: The Norwegian film "Gåten Ragnarok" was released in 2013 and centres on the discovery of the mythical serpent in contemporary Finnmark.


title: Ragnarök

text: The concept of is central to the 2017 Marvel Cinematic Universe film "", at whose climax the demon Surtur destroys Asgard as its people flee into space under the guidance of Thor, Valkyrie, Loki, Heimdall, Hulk, and Korg.


title: Ragnarök

text: The sequel to the 2018 video game "God of War", which is rooted in Norse mythology, is titled "God of War Ragnarök" and depicts the in-game universe's portrayal of Ragnarök.


title: Ragnarök

text: Norse mythology and climate change inspired the eponymous TV series "Ragnarok". The town of Edda in Western Norway is plagued by climate change and industrial pollution caused by the factories owned by the Jutul family, a group of . They are challenged by a teenage boy, Magne, the reincarnation of Thor. Thus begins the event Ragnarok ("twilight of the gods"), the fight against those who are destroying the planet.


title: Ragnarök

text: In 2022, "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" released its third DLC titled "Dawn of Ragnarök", set in their universe as Ragnarök begins.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: How to Get Away with Murder is an American legal thriller television series that premiered on ABC on September 25, 2014, and concluded on May 14, 2020. The series was created by Peter Nowalk, and produced by Shonda Rhimes and ABC Studios. The series aired on ABC as part of a night of programming, all under Rhimes's Shondaland production company.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: Viola Davis stars as Annalise Keating, a defense attorney and law professor at a prestigious Philadelphia university who, along with five of her students, becomes entangled in a murder plot. The series features an ensemble cast with Alfred Enoch, Jack Falahee, Aja Naomi King, Matt McGorry, and Karla Souza as Annalise's students, Charlie Weber and Liza Weil as her employees, and Billy Brown as a detective with the Philadelphia Police Department who is Annalise's lover. From the third season onward, Conrad Ricamora was promoted to the main cast after recurring heavily in the first two seasons.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: For her performance, Davis received critical acclaim; she became the first black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, also winning two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, and the Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. Davis has also received nominations from the Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Television Series, the Critics' Choice Awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and the Television Critics Association at the TCA Awards for Individual Achievement in Drama.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: Other cast members also received recognition for their performances, with Enoch and King receiving nominations from the NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the 2014 NAACP Image Awards ceremony. The series also received a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: Annalise Keating is a prominent criminal defense attorney and law professor at Middleton University in Philadelphia. She selects five of her first year students to intern at her firm: Wes Gibbins, Connor Walsh, Michaela Pratt, Asher Millstone, and Laurel Castillo (The Keating 5). They work with Annalise's employees, Frank Delfino and Bonnie Winterbottom, an associate lawyer. As the first season introduces occasional clients for Keating, it explores two related murders through both flashback and flashforward sequences: Lila Stangard, mistress of Annalise's husband and a student at Middleton, and then Sam Keating, Annalise's husband, who was killed by Annalise's interns.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The first nine episodes alternate between the present-day timeline in medias res, depicting Wes, Connor, Michaela, and Laurel covering up Sam's murder by disposing of his body, and flashbacks detailing the course of events leading up to Sam's death, including Annalise's becoming involved in the Lila Stangard investigation, at Wes' urging, leading her to discover Sam's affair and creating suspicion that he killed Lila. The final six episodes explore Annalise's attempt to help her interns cover up Sam's murder and legally implicate Sam in Lila's death, and flashbacks to Lila's final moments before her murder.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The first nine episodes focus on Annalise's defense of Caleb and Catherine Hapstall, who are accused of torturing and murdering their adoptive parents. Wes, in the meantime, teams up with Rebecca's foster brother to try and find Rebecca. Connor struggles with his relationship with Oliver, while Asher works with assistant district attorney Emily Sinclair, in order to protect his secrets. In the mid-season finale, Sinclair is murdered by Asher, and Annalise helps cover it up, at the expense of her being shot in the stomach by Wes.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The second part of the season focuses on Wes's investigation of his mother's suicide ten years prior; flashbacks reveal Annalise's involvement with Wes's mother's suicide. The season ends with Annalise's finding out that Frank was responsible for the car accident that killed her baby, and Annalise sending him away. Michaela and Asher hook up, and Wes meets with his biological father right before the latter is shot dead by an unknown shooter.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: In the aftermath of Wallace Mahoney's death, all five of the students attempt to move on. A new mystery arises around the burning down of Annalise's house and who was found dead inside. The events leading up to it involve Annalise's starting a free legal clinic and struggling with alcoholism. Oliver starts working for Annalise, and he leaves Connor when becoming disgusted with himself for rejecting Connor's Stanford acceptance. Michaela and Asher's romantic relationship starts to progress, as does Wes and Laurel's, and Frank starts working to atone for the death of Annalise's child. Ultimately, it is revealed that it was Wes who died, and that he was killed before the fire. Annalise is arrested for Wes's death. Frank attempts to help Annalise by confessing to killing Wes. It is further revealed that Wes's death was commissioned by Laurel's father, who disapproved of their relationship.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: In the fourth season, Annalise works with a therapist, Dr. Isaac Roa, to see through her recovery from alcoholism. She initially cuts ties with Bonnie (who moves to the DA's office as an assistant district attorney reporting to DA Todd Denver) and the interns, gets a woman with a long rap sheet freed from jail, and then commits to a major class action against the state for miscarriages of justice caused by an underfunded public defender's office. Laurel deduces that her father, Jorge Castillo, is responsible for Wes's murder and hatches a scheme to steal incriminating evidence from his law firm with the help of Michaela, Oliver, Frank, and Asher. During the data heist, their classmate Simon (Behzad Dabu) accidentally shoots himself with Laurel's gun, leading to Asher's arrest, and Laurel goes into premature labor after being accidentally struck by Frank. Annalise successfully saves the baby. However, Jorge claims custody of his grandchild by submitting evidence of Laurel's past addictions and history of mental illness to a judge. Laurel's mother arrives unexpectedly to "help" Laurel fight against her father, and Frank and Bonnie uncover a mysterious link between Laurel's mother and both Wes and his killer, Dominic. Meanwhile, Annalise searches for alternative ways to win her class action lawsuit. On January 3, 2018, a crossover with "Scandal" was announced which aired on March 1, 2018.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: After Annalise's class-action victory in the Supreme Court, she and her associates seek to start a new chapter in their lives. Annalise starts working at Caplan & Gold so she can use their resources for her class-action cases, while also working back at Middleton. Connor, Michaela, Asher and Laurel begin their third year at law school, and a new student, Gabriel Maddox joins the group on Annalise's class. Meanwhile, Frank tries to find out the real reason Maddox came to Middleton in the first place, and Asher joins Bonnie at the DA's office as he gets an internship there. At the same time, Connor and Oliver also start planning their wedding, which is seen through new flashforwards that reveal a new murder committed. Governor Birkhead is behind the witch-hunt against Annalise.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: In May 2019 ABC ordered a sixth season of "How to Get Away with Murder". In July it was announced the sixth season would be the last. Season 6 premiered on September 26, 2019.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: Following Laurel and Christopher's disappearances and the death of Emmett Crawford at the previous season's end, Annalise goes on a bender and disappears into rehab out of guilt. After coming to terms with her past misdeeds, she returns just in time to help her remaining star students push through their final semester of law school and try and find Laurel and Christopher. Meanwhile, Michaela, Connor, and Asher continue to search for their friend and her son while preparing for graduation and the real world. However, everyone comes on high alert when the FBI, at behest of Governor Birkhead, open an investigation into Annalise, her students, and her associates, and every murder and misdeed over the last six seasons is put out in the open, forcing them to make drastic choices for survival that will change their lives, relationships, and futures forever.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: On August 19, 2013, ABC bought from Shondaland Productions the original concept, produced by Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers. The script for the pilot episode was written by "Grey's Anatomy" supervising producer Peter Nowalk. ABC ordered the pilot on December 19, 2013. On May 8, 2014, ABC picked up the pilot to series for the 2014–15 television season. At the Television Critics Association Press Tour in July 2014, it was announced that "How to Get Away with Murder" would be a limited series with only 15 or 16 episodes per season. The smaller size of episode count stems from the deal for the series star Viola Davis. On October 9, 2014, ABC picked up the series for a full season of 15 episodes.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The series was renewed for a second season on May 7, 2015, by ABC. The series was effectively confirmed as earning a second-season renewal for the 2015–16 season via a promo succeeding the first-season finale and an earlier statement by Viola Davis also confirming the renewal at the close of shooting for the first season. It would contain 15 episodes, like the previous season. Production began on May 21, 2015, with Shonda Rhimes announcing on Twitter that Peter Nowalk and his writers were in full swing mapping the second season. The table read for the premiere occurred on July 14, 2015, with the title of the episode being revealed at the same time. "Entertainment Weekly" reported on July 23, 2015, that the identity of Rebecca's killer would be revealed in the season premiere. A promotional poster was released over a month before the season premiere, on August 17, 2015.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The series was renewed for a third season on March 3, 2016, along with several other series by ABC. It was announced that the third season would premiere on September 22, 2016. Production began on May 27, 2016, when showrunner Peter Nowalk announced on Twitter that the writer staff were in full swing mapping and writing the third season. The table read for the premiere happened on July 6, 2016, with filming starting a week later. A promotional poster showcasing Viola Davis as Annalise Keating, was released on August 9, 2016. ABC released a promo for the third season on August 29, 2016.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The series was renewed for a fifth season on May 11, 2018, by ABC, which premiered on September 27, 2018.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: On May 10, 2019, the series was renewed for a sixth season which premiered on September 26, 2019. On July 11, 2019, it was reported that the sixth season would be the final season.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", showrunner Peter Nowalk talked about what would happen in the third season regarding Frank's disappearance; he commented: "Yes, I can see the three-piece suits and the hair product all falling apart. It's more what Frank feels about himself". When talking about the trust between Annalise and Frank, Nowalk said: "...Frank has two choices: To run away and hope she never catches him, just to cut bait; or he can try to win his way back. That's a long road". Charlie Weber commented on Frank's whereabouts as he said to "Entertainment Weekly" "I think he's hiding, and I think he's alone. If he does have a lifeline, I don't think it's Laurel".


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: Regarding Laurel, Nowalk said that Laurel's backstory with her family would be explored in the upcoming season, "I feel like it's very present. The promise of our show is that we won't dangle things out too long. The likelihood is yes. We've raised that question too many times not to answer it sooner than later". Michaela's backstory would also be explored as Nowalk said "We have so much to explore with her. Aja is so talented. I'm just excited to really delve into her personal life next year". Talking to "The Hollywood Reporter", Nowalk stated that the series would explore both Annalise and Nate's relationship and both their families.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: On January 21, 2014, Matt McGorry was the first to be announced as a regular cast member, playing a law student. Throughout February and March 2014, other roles were announced as cast: Aja Naomi King, Jack Falahee, Alfred Enoch and Karla Souza as law students; Katie Findlay as a drug-dealing student; Charlie Weber as a law associate to Professor Keating; Billy Brown as Professor Keating's extra-marital love interest; veteran actor and producer Tom Verica as Professor Keating's husband; and Liza Weil as one of the professor's two associates.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: On February 25, 2014, it was announced that Shonda Rhimes had cast Viola Davis in the series' leading role of Professor Annalise Keating. On August 11, 2014, it was announced that "Orange is the New Black" alum Alysia Reiner had joined the cast as a prosecutor who would be going up against Annalise. On November 4, 2014, it was announced that Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden had joined the cast in the second half of the first season for a recurring role. On December 15, 2014, it was announced that Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Cicely Tyson would appear in an episode in the second half of the season.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: It was announced on July 14, 2015, that the second season would introduce several new characters, including a family consisting of Caleb, Catherine and Helena Hapstall. Katie Findlay would return to play the character Rebecca Sutter, who was killed in the first-season finale. On July 22, 2015, it was announced that Kendrick Sampson, known from "The Vampire Diaries" would join the cast in the second season and be introduced in the season premiere. On July 31, 2015, it was announced that Famke Janssen had joined the cast as a brilliant, revered defense attorney for a multi-episode arc and would first appear in the season premiere.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: Matt Cohen was announced on August 11, 2015, to recur in the second season as Levi Wescott, who is described as a sexy, edgy working class guy. On August 31, 2015, "Variety" reported that Amy Okuda would play a recurring role, but details on Okuda's part were being kept under wraps. Sherri Saum was announced to have been cast as a guest star on September 30, 2015. On January 14, 2016, it was announced that Wilson Bethel, Adam Arkin, and Roxanne Hart would be joining the series to play the Mahoney family. Bethel would play Charles Mahoney, the Ivy League-educated son, with Arkin playing his father Wallace and Hart playing his mother Sylvia.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: After the second-season finale, it was announced that "Dexter" alum Lauren Vélez had joined the cast in a recurring role as the President of Middleton University. The role was described as "self-assured, friendly, warm and diplomatic". On August 6, 2016, it was announced that Esai Morales and Amy Madigan had joined the cast as guest stars for the third season. "Deadline" announced on August 31, 2016, that Mary J. Blige had landed a guest role in the third season.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: On June 7, 2018, it was announced that Rome Flynn, who made a cameo appearance as Gabriel Maddox at the end of the fourth-season finale, was promoted to regular status for the upcoming fifth season. On July 18, it was reported that Amirah Vann, who recurred as Tegan Price during the fourth season, would also join the regular cast for the fifth season. On July 30, 2018, it was announced that Timothy Hutton had joined the main cast for the fifth season.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The pilot episode was filmed in Los Angeles, California, at the University of Southern California; in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, at Bryn Mawr College; and in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, at Ursinus College. It was directed by Michael Offer. Production began on May 21, 2015, with Shonda Rhimes announcing on Twitter that Peter Nowalk and his writers were in full swing mapping the second season. The table read for the premiere occurred on July 14, 2015, with the title of the episode being revealed at the same time.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The first season of "How to Get Away with Murder" received positive reviews, with most praising Viola Davis' performance. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 85% based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 7.11/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""How to Get Away with Murder" isn't conceptually original, but it delivers thrills with melodramatic twists and a captivating lead". Metacritic gave the first season a score of 68 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: Mary McNamara from "Los Angeles Times" wrote about Viola Davis' performance: "...all eyes are on Davis, Tony winner and Oscar nominee. Magnetic and intimidating, Davis creates an implacable surface beneath which shimmers all manner of fleet and startled emotions. Desire and fear, certainty, self-doubt and resolve are conjured in an instant with the angle of a glance, the lowering of an eyelid and then released as if they were never there". "Entertainment Weekly"s Melissa Maerz described Davis' performance as "powerfully layered". David Hinckle, from "New York Daily News", said that the series does not serve up enough fun unlike Rhimes' other series, "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal". Frazier Moore, "Associated Press", wrote that the series "promises to be twisty, wicked, dark and fun. And it stars Viola Davis, who brings life to a character of endless calculations and mystery".


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The second season also received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 93% based on 87 reviews, with an average rating of 8.19/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Developing a stronger narrative this season, "How to Get Away with Murder" throws more improbable shocks and higher stakes into the mix, adding preposterous fuel to an addictive fire". Lesley Brock, "Paste Magazine", praised the second season writing: "I would not put it past "How to Get Away with Murder", which has turned all other ABC show plot lines upside down on their heads and shown that nothing is impossible, to throw incest into an already haphazard mix". Brock gave the season a score of 9 out of 10. Kyle Anderson, "Entertainment weekly", wrote that with Davis at the front the series can get away with anything.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The third season, once again, also received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 90% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 7.52/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Tense and taut, "How to Get Away with Murder" continues to step-up its game."


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The series pilot on September 25 set a record for DVR playback viewers with 6million, surpassing the January 27, 2014, record of 5.6million set by the pilot of "The Blacklist". The series premiere had more than 14million viewers on live broadcast, and over 20million with DVR.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The first season of the series was awarded Television Program of the Year by the American Film Institute and won Outstanding Drama Series at the 46th NAACP Image Awards and 26th GLAAD Media Awards. The series was also nominated for Favorite New TV Drama at the 41st People's Choice Awards and TV Drama of the Year at the GALECA awards. In 2016 the second season was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 47th NAACP Image Awards, Favorite Network TV Drama at the 42nd People's Choice Awards and Outstanding Drama Series at the 27th GLAAD Media Awards.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: Viola Davis became the first black woman to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, also winning two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance in a Drama Series and the NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. Davis also received nominations from the Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Television Series, the Critics' Choice Awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and the Television Critics Association at the TCA Awards for Individual Achievement in Drama. Other cast members have also received recognition for their performances, with Alfred Enoch and Aja Naomi King being nominated by the NAACP as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series at the NAACP Image Awards. Cicely Tyson was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress at the 2015 Primetime Emmy Awards. Glynn Turman was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor at the 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: "How to Get Away with Murder" airs on Thursdays at 10:00 p.m., Eastern Time. ABC pushed "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal" to 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., creating an all-night block of Shonda Rhimes–produced dramas airing on Thursdays, a rarity in American television. It was announced on July 14, 2014, that the series would debut September 25, 2014. In Canada, the series airs with sim-subbing of advertising in same timeslot on CTV, though it airs three hours earlier before the original ABC timeslot in the Atlantic Time Zone on CTV Atlantic in the Maritime Provinces.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: The series also began airing on TV2 in New Zealand, 13th Street in Denmark, and the Seven Network in Australia on February 10, 2015. In Australia, the series moved to 7flix from the second half of the second season onwards and like in the US, airs in a programming block dedicated to Shonda Rhimes-produced dramas including "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal".


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: In Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia the series airs on Sony Channel Asia within 12 hours of its original broadcast. In India, it airs on Star World Premiere.


title: How to Get Away with Murder

text: Seasons 1 and 2 have been released on DVD, and Netflix currently streams all six seasons where available (each season is added a month after its finale under their agreement with ABC Studios). The last five episodes aired on ABC are carried on Hulu the day after their premiere. Additionally, seasons, episodes and the entire series are purchasable from most online video retailers.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Travis Cordell Kalanick (; born August 6, 1976) is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Uber. Previously he worked for Scour, a peer-to-peer file sharing application company, and was the co-founder of Red Swoosh, a peer-to-peer content delivery network that was sold to Akamai Technologies in 2007.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Kalanick was CEO of Uber from 2010 to 2017. He resigned from Uber in 2017, after growing pressure resulting from public reports of the company's unethical corporate culture, including allegations that he ignored reports of sexual harassment at the company. Kalanick retained his seat on the board of directors until he resigned the seat on December 31, 2019. In the weeks leading up to the resignation, Kalanick sold off approximately 90% of his shares in Uber, for a profit of about $2.5 billion. Following the sale, in 2017, Kalanick was ranked 238th on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, with a net worth of $2.6 billion.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In 2018, Kalanick started a venture fund named 10100, intended to invest in e-commerce, innovation and real estate in emerging markets like China and India. That same year, Kalanick announced an investment of nearly $150 million in real estate redevelopment company City Storage Systems; he also announced that he would serve as its CEO. The company operates a ghost kitchen startup under the name CloudKitchens, which was valued at $15billion as of 2021.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Kalanick was born on August 6, 1976, and grew up in Northridge, California. Kalanick's parents are Bonnie Renée Horowitz Kalanick (née Bloom) and Donald Edward Kalanick. Bonnie, whose family were Viennese Jews who immigrated to the U.S. in the early 20th century, worked in retail advertising for the "Los Angeles Daily News". Donald, from a Slovak-Austrian Catholic family whose grandparents immigrated to the United States from the Austrian city of Graz, was a civil engineer for the city of Los Angeles. Kalanick has two half-sisters, one of whom is the mother of actress Allisyn Ashley Arm, and a brother who is a firefighter.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In middle and high school, Kalanick was known to be competitive and driven to win. As a teenager, Kalanick sold knives door-to-door for direct sales company Cutco. At 18, he started a test preparation company called "New Way Academy" with the father of a classmate. After graduating from Granada Hills Charter High School, Kalanick studied computer engineering and business economics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). While studying at UCLA, Kalanick was a member of Theta Xi fraternity. In 1998, he dropped out to work at the start-up Scour full-time.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In 1998, Kalanick, along with Michael Todd and Vince Busam, dropped out of UCLA to work for Dan Rodrigues, founder of Scour Inc., a multimedia search engine, and Scour Exchange, a peer-to-peer file sharing service. Kalanick handled sales and marketing for Scour. He has referred to himself as a co-founder of the company, but the other co-founders have disputed this.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: After months of growth, Scour was strapped for cash and sought funding from venture capitalist investors Ronald Burkle and Michael Ovitz. Negotiations were contentious and Ovitz eventually sued Scour for breach of contract. Scour was forced to accept unfavorable terms for the investment, and Ovitz acquired majority control over the company. The situation would sour Kalanick's view of investor-founder relations.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In 2000, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) brought a $250 billion lawsuit against Scour, alleging copyright infringement. In September 2000, Scour filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to protect itself from the lawsuit.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In 2001, with Michael Todd, Kalanick started Red Swoosh, another peer-to-peer file-sharing company. Kalanick called it his "revenge business" against the MPAA and RIAA for the lawsuit that killed Scour. Kalanick's business model was that media companies would pay Red Swoosh to provide legitimate copies of media files like music and videos to customers, and the company developed technology to make the transfer of such large files more efficient. Kalanick had difficulty securing funding as the company was launched right after the dot-com bubble burst. As a result, Red Swoosh ran with minimal month-to-month cash flow, and by August 2001, some employees had gone months without a paycheck.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In September 2001, Red Swoosh used approximately $110,000 of the company's payroll tax withholdings to fund day-to-day operations. There are differing accounts of what led to the decision and the fallout that ensued. In 2014, "Business Insider" reported that Kalanick publicly accused co-founder Michael Todd of making the decision without his knowledge, while Todd stated it was a decision they made together. The article noted that "an email sent by Kalanick at the time and obtained by Business Insider appears to demonstrate his participation in the tax plan." In a 2017 article for "The" "New York Times", Mike Isaac reported that Kalanick and Todd made the decision together, and that "friends and advisors" had warned Kalanick that using tax withholdings in this way could be considered tax fraud. In his 2019 book "Super Pumped", Isaac wrote that an unnamed employee made the decision, for which Kalanick was blamed following the employee's departure from the company. According to this version, it was only after the fact that he was advised it could be tax fraud. In the end, a second round of funding provided enough cash to repay the Internal Revenue Service, and no one was ever prosecuted.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: The incident caused significant tension between the co-founders, and Todd left the company by the end of September that year. Kalanick accused him of trying to solicit a hiring offer for himself and other Red Swoosh employees with Sony Ventures behind Kalanick's back. Shortly after Todd's departure, Kalanick moved back into his parents' house in a bid to save money, later complaining that "it sucked," because he "wasn't getting ladies". Kalanick apparently went without a salary while at Red Swoosh for over three years.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: By 2002, Red Swoosh was down to only two employees: Kalanick and former Scour engineer Evan Tsang. The company continued to have difficulty securing funding, surviving via a series of last-minute deals with various investors. In early 2005, Todd helped recruit Tsang to Google, resulting in public embarrassment for the already-struggling Red Swoosh and the loss of a potentially lucrative deal with AOL. After getting to know Kalanick during a contentious exchange on an internet forum later that year, American investor Mark Cuban invested $1.8 million into the company, leading to further investments from Cuban's contacts. Kalanick was able to hire more programmers, and around 2006, he moved to Thailand with his software team for two months. In 2007, competitor Akamai Technologies acquired Red Swoosh for approximately $19 million. Kalanick made $2 million on the deal after taxes and moved to San Francisco.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In San Francisco, Kalanick used the money he had made from the sale of Red Swoosh to make small investments in startups. He positioned himself as a "fixer" for startup problems such as talking to investors or hiring new staff. He primarily invested in tech startups like Expensify, Livefyre, Crowdflower, and Formspring. Unsatisfied with only being an investor, he began to treat his Castro District apartment – termed the "JamPad" – as an informal salon for young tech enthusiasts.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In 2009, Kalanick co-founded ridesharing company Uber with Canadian entrepreneur Garrett Camp, co-founder of StumbleUpon. Camp, a frequent guest at Kalanick's home, had become frustrated with taxi services in San Francisco, and had found hiring drivers with upscale black car services inconvenient and expensive. Eventually he developed the concept of a smartphone app that could hail luxury vehicles directly from the user's smartphone. He discussed the concept with Kalanick, who agreed to act as a "mega advisor" to the company, originally called UberCab. As neither Camp nor Kalanick wanted to run the company directly, Ryan Graves was brought on as chief executive officer (CEO) at launch. He held the position for ten months before being removed in favor of Kalanick. Camp and Graves each signed over a large portion of their shares to Kalanick when he took the CEO position, giving him a significant degree of control over the company.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In October 2010, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency served UberCab with a cease and desist order, warning that they were in breach of regulations in the city and could face significant fines if they continued to operate as a taxicab company without appropriate permits. Kalanick directed the company to ignore the order and continue operating, but changed the company's name from UberCab to Uber to prevent it from being accused of falsely advertising itself as a taxi company.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In February 2011, Kalanick met with Bill Gurley, an investor from venture capital firm Benchmark, and secured an $11 million investment for 20 percent of Uber (then valued at $50 million) for its Series A round of funding. The company embarked on its Series B round in late 2011, raising an additional $32 million. Kalanick's experiences with investors at Scour and Red Swoosh had made him wary of investors who might interfere with his control of Uber, so he ensured that the terms for these and future investments strongly favored himself and Uber. He strictly limited the amount of financial information investors could access, and the shares for new investors had a tenth of the voting power of the shares held by Kalanick, Camp, and Graves. In 2013, he obtained a $250 million investment from Google Ventures, with a valuation of $3.5 billion. Kalanick also made a point of undermining potential investments into competitor Lyft, poaching them for Uber.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: By 2014, Kalanick's reputation was beginning to suffer as a result of his ruthless attitude towards competitors, regulators, customers, employees, and Uber's drivers. By this time, Gurley, once a supporter of Kalanick's, had become frustrated with his reckless corporate spending and overriding of the chief financial officer and chief legal officer. Corporate culture at Uber under Kalanick was grueling. Employees were expected to work nights and weekends regularly without additional compensation, and conference calls were often scheduled at all times of the night. Kalanick favored employees who were willing to do anything to advance in the company, even if it resulted in chronic infighting. He authorized the use of industrial espionage tactics against competitors and regulators, including the Greyball blacklisting program, and encouraged the development and use of rider-surveillance programs. Throughout his tenure as CEO, Kalanick had tight control over the company's board of directors, once telling Tim Cook from Apple that he had intentionally structured the board and hand-picked its members to allow him to "do what I want." In 2016, he negotiated an option to appoint another three board members at his discretion.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Journalists and the public alike criticized Kalanick regularly for setting Uber up with a "bro culture" awash in toxic masculinity, bullying, and misogyny, which in turn influenced attitudes in Silicon Valley generally. In a 2014 interview with men's magazine "GQ", he joked that the company should be called "Boob-er" for all the female attention it was bringing him; the remark was frequently criticized in the press as an example of his toxic masculinity. Executives were known to expense strip club visits to corporate accounts, a practice jokingly referred to as "Tits on Travis". Surveys commissioned by Uber public relations personnel in late 2016 showed that customers appreciated Uber as a service, but had a strongly negative perception of Kalanick. Shortly after the survey results were first discussed at Uber in February 2017, "Bloomberg Businessweek" published a video of Kalanick berating an Uber driver at the end of a ride, following a disagreement about falling driver income. Kalanick apologized for the incident to company employees in an email that was later posted to the company blog, stating that he felt he needed to "grow up." Later that year, "Reuters" reported that Kalanick had developed "a reputation as an abrasive leader".


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination were rife at Uber corporate headquarters during Kalanick's tenure as CEO. The issues went unaddressed by the human resources department (HR), and Kalanick in particular was known to protect his favored employees from consequences for this type of behavior. Much of this behavior became public in early 2017. That February, it was reported that Kalanick had full knowledge of sexual harassment allegations at Uber and did nothing. After these reports emerged, Kalanick announced that Uber would "conduct an urgent investigation into these allegations." In the same week, following a report from "Recode," Kalanick asked his newly-hired direct report, SVP of Engineering Amit Singhal, to resign; Singhal had failed to disclose that he had resigned from Google following sexual harassment claims. In March 2017, it was reported that in 2014, Kalanick had been part of a group of Uber executives who visited a karaoke bar in Seoul that featured escorts. A female employee who was present made a complaint to HR, but little came of it. That summer, it emerged that Kalanick and other top Uber executives had accessed the private medical files of a woman who alleged she was raped by an Uber driver in India; Kalanick had made comments doubting her account as a result of information from the file.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Although many drivers and corporate employees had requested the addition of a tipping option in the app for years, Kalanick opposed it, believing it interfered with the otherwise "frictionless" payment process. Following a pair of class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts about the employment status of drivers, Uber was mandated to explain its position on tips, which it did via a blog post that argued that the "connection between tipping and quality of service can be weak. Many people tip because it’s expected." Kalanick's refusal to allow for in-app tipping "contributed to the perception of Uber as the unfeeling, win-at-all-costs player in ride-hailing, particularly compared to Lyft," which did allow tipping.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: In December 2016, it was announced that Kalanick would join several other high-profile CEOs as an economic advisor on for the Strategic and Policy Forum of President Donald Trump, organized by Stephen Schwarzman, a businessman with The Blackstone Group. Kalanick publicly opposed President Trump's executive order banning travel from select countries, but wrote in a news post on the Uber website that, as a member of the advisory council, he believed he would be able to directly address his concerns with the President and advocate for immigrants. After continued pressure, Kalanick announced in an email to Uber employees that he would step down from the council.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: At the end of May 2017, Kalanick's parents were involved in a boating accident that seriously injured his father and resulted in the death of his mother. On June 11, the final report of the independent investigation into Uber's sexual harassment issues was presented to Uber's top management. The scathing report was "hundreds of pages" long and included a dozen pages of recommendations, most prominently that Kalanick needed to take a leave of absence and reduce his level of control over Uber's operations. On June 13, 2017, it was announced that Kalanick would take an indefinite leave of absence from Uber, although he continued to work without the approval of the company's board. On June 20, 2017, Kalanick resigned as CEO after five major investors, including Benchmark Capital, demanded his resignation in a letter. Uber added an in-app tipping option a short time later.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Following his resignation, Kalanick retained his seat on Uber's board of directors. He continued to attempt to interfere with company operations by contacting employees and board members asking for internal company information and attempting to sway their voting regarding his replacement. The executive leadership threatened to quit "en masse"; Kalanick's access to company servers was stripped.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: On August 10, 2017, "Axios" reported that Benchmark was suing Kalanick for "fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty," in an attempt to remove Kalanick's residual right to name two further board members. Benchmark argued the agreement was invalid due to withholding of material information prior to the vote to allow him to do so. The lawsuit was controversial in Silicon Valley; it is unusual for an investor to sue a founder directly. The court ruled in the favor of Kalanick to move the case to arbitration on August 30. In a public statement responding to the ruling, Kalanick said that "Benchmark's false allegations are wholly without merit and have unnecessarily harmed Uber and its shareholders."


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Kalanick initially supported former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt as his successor. Immelt was open to allowing Kalanick to retain some role in Uber's operations, while the other major candidate, Meg Whitman of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, intended to shut Kalanick out of any operational role. However, Kalanick soured on Immelt after Immelt's presentation went badly. Immelt pulled out of the running after one director privately told him he had no chance at getting the job. Kalanick unexpectedly threw his support behind a "dark horse" candidate, Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, even though Khosrowshahi had strongly opposed any further operational role for Kalanick. During his presentation, Khosrowshahi included a slide entitled, "There cannot be two CEOs."


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Uber began to negotiate a tender offer with Japanese software conglomerate SoftBank in September 2017. The offer included an agreement to add six new seats to Uber's board, which would dilute Kalanick's influence over it. On September 29, Kalanick unilaterally appointed Ursula Burns and John Thain to the board. In January 2018, Benchmark dropped its lawsuit against Kalanick to allow the deal to proceed. The share purchase valued Uber at $48 billion.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: On December 24, 2019 Kalanick announced his resignation from the board effective December 31, 2019. In the weeks leading up to this announcement, Kalanick sold off more than $2.5 billion of Uber stock holding, which amounted to about 90% of his shares. Following the sale, in 2017, Kalanick was ranked 238th on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, with a net worth of $2.6 billion.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: On March 7, 2018, Kalanick announced via his Twitter account that he would start a venture fund, 10100 (pronounced 'ten-one-hundred'), focused on job growth in emerging markets like China and India.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Shortly after the announcement of his venture fund, Kalanick announced that his fund had invested $150 million in City Storage Systems (CSS), a company focused on the redevelopment of distressed real estate assets; he also announced that he would serve as its CEO. CSS subsidiary CloudKitchens, a ghost kitchen managing company, took a controlling interest in U.K.-based startup FoodStars in June 2018.<ref name="Companies House, 6/25/18"></ref><ref name="FT, Bradshaw 3/27/19"></ref> Kalanick personally invested $300 million in the startup, and in November 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund completed an agreement with CloudKitchens in January 2019 to invest $400 million in the company.<ref name="WSJ, Jones, Winkler 11/8/2019"></ref> In January 2022, Business Insider reported that the company had raised new funding valued at $15 billion.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Since 2018, Kalanick has served on an advisory board for Neom, Saudi Arabia’s plan to build a futuristic "mega city" in the desert.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Kalanick owns a townhouse in the upper hills of San Francisco's Castro District, which was nicknamed "the Jam Pad" and had its own Twitter account. In 2019, Kalanick purchased a penthouse in New York City for $36.4 million. In April 2020, he bought a home in Los Angeles for $43.3 million.


title: Travis Kalanick

text: Kalanick has been described as a passionate libertarian and a fan of author Ayn Rand. However, Kalanick supported Obamacare because it allows Uber drivers, as independent contractors, to maintain health insurance as they transition between jobs.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist.


title: Charlton Heston

text: As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film "The Ten Commandments" (1956), for which he received his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and the title role in "Ben-Hur" (1959), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He also starred in "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952), "Secret of the Incas" (1954), "Touch of Evil" (1958) with Orson Welles, "The Big Country" (1958), "El Cid" (1961), "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965), "Khartoum" (1966), "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "The Omega Man" (1971) and "Soylent Green" (1973).


title: Charlton Heston

text: In the 1950s and 1960s, he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the civil rights movement. Heston left the Democratic Party in 1987 to become a Republican, founding a conservative political action committee and supporting Ronald Reagan. Heston was a five-term president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), from 1998 to 2003. After announcing he had Alzheimer's disease in 2002, he retired from both acting and the NRA presidency.


title: Charlton Heston

text: John Charles Carter was born on October 4, 1923, in Wilmette, Illinois, to Lilla ("née" Baines; 1899–1994) and Russell Whitford Carter (1897–1966), a sawmill operator. Many sources indicate he was born in Evanston, Illinois. Heston's autobiography stated otherwise.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston said in a 1995 interview that he was not very good at remembering addresses or his early childhood. Heston was partially of Scottish descent, including from the Clan Fraser, but the majority of his ancestry was English. His earliest immigrant ancestors arrived in America from England in the 1600s. His maternal great-grandparents and namesakes were Englishman William Charlton from Sunderland and Scotswoman Mary Drysdale Charlton. They emigrated to Canada, where his grandmother, Marian Emily Charlton, was born in 1872.


title: Charlton Heston

text: In his autobiography, Heston refers to his father participating in his family's construction business. When Heston was an infant, his father's work moved the family to St. Helen, Michigan. It was a rural, heavily forested part of the state, and Heston lived an isolated yet idyllic existence, spending much time hunting and fishing in the backwoods of the area.


title: Charlton Heston

text: When Heston was 10 years old, his parents divorced after having three children. Shortly thereafter, his mother remarried and Charlton and his younger sister Lilla and brother Alan moved to Wilmette, Illinois. Heston (his and his siblings' new surname) attended New Trier High School. He recalled living there:


title: Charlton Heston

text: Contradictions on paper and in an interview surround when "Charlton" became Heston's first name. The 1930 United States Census record for Richfield, Michigan, in Roscommon County, shows his name as being Charlton J. Carter at age six. Later accounts and movie studio biographies say he was born John Charles Carter. When Russell Carter died in 1966, Charlton's brother and sister changed their legal surname to Heston the following year; Charlton did not.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Charlton was his maternal grandmother Marian's maiden name, not his mother Lilla's. This is contrary to how 20th-century references read and what Heston said. When Heston's maternal grandmother and his true maternal grandfather Charles Baines separated or divorced in the early 1900s, Marian ("née" Charlton) Baines married William Henry Lawton in 1907. Charlton Heston's mother, Lilla, and her sister May were adopted by their grandfather and changed their last name to Charlton in order to distance themselves from their biological father, Mr. Baines, who was an undesirable father figure. The Carters divorced in 1933 and Lilla Carter married Chester Heston. The newly married Mrs. Heston preferred her children use the same last name as she. It was thus as Charlton Heston that he appeared in his first film with younger brother Alan Carter (small role), an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt" (1941). His nickname was always Chuck.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston was an Episcopalian, and has been described as "a spiritual man" with an "earthy flair", who "respected religious traditions" and "particularly enjoyed the historical aspects of the Christian faith".


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston frequently recounted that while growing up in northern Michigan in a sparsely populated area, he often wandered in the forest, "acting" out characters from books he had read. Later, in high school, he enrolled in New Trier's drama program, playing the lead role in the amateur silent 16 mm film adaptation of "Peer Gynt", from the Ibsen play, by future film activist David Bradley released in 1941.


title: Charlton Heston

text: From the Winnetka Community Theatre (or the Winnetka Dramatist's Guild, as it was then known) in which he was active, he earned a drama scholarship to Northwestern University. He attended college from 1941 to 1943 and among his acting teachers was Alvina Krause. Several years later, Heston teamed up with Bradley to produce the first sound version of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", in which Heston played Mark Antony.


title: Charlton Heston

text: In March 1944 Heston married Northwestern University student Lydia Marie Clarke at Grace Methodist Church in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. That same year, he joined the military. Heston enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and served for two years as a radio operator and aerial gunner aboard a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands with the 77th Bombardment Squadron of the Eleventh Air Force. He reached the rank of staff sergeant.


title: Charlton Heston

text: After his rise to fame, Heston narrated for highly classified U.S. Armed Forces and Department of Energy instructional films, particularly relating to nuclear weapons, and "for six years Heston [held] the nation's highest security clearance" or Q clearance. The Q clearance is similar to a DoD or DIA clearance of top secret.


title: Charlton Heston

text: After the war, the Hestons lived in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, where they worked as artists' models. Seeking a way to make it in theatre, they decided to manage a playhouse in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1947, making $100 a week.


title: Charlton Heston

text: In 1948, they returned to New York, where Heston was offered a supporting role in a Broadway revival of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra", starring Katharine Cornell. In television, Heston played a number of roles in CBS's "Studio One", one of the most popular anthology dramas of the 1950s.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Film producer Hal B. Wallis of "Casablanca" spotted Heston in a 1950 television production of "Wuthering Heights" and offered him a contract. When his wife reminded Heston they had decided to pursue theater and television, he replied, "Well, maybe just for one film to see what it's like."


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston's first professional movie appearance was the leading role at age 26 in "Dark City", a 1950 film noir produced by Hal Wallis. His breakthrough came when Cecil B. DeMille cast him as a circus manager in "The Greatest Show on Earth", which was named by the Motion Picture Academy as the Best Picture of 1952. It was also the most popular movie of that year.


title: Charlton Heston

text: King Vidor used Heston in a melodrama with Jennifer Jones, "Ruby Gentry" (1952). He followed it with a Western at Paramount, "The Savage" (1952), playing a white man raised by Indians. 20th Century Fox used him to play Andrew Jackson in "The President's Lady" (1953) opposite Susan Hayward. Back at Paramount he was Buffalo Bill in "Pony Express" (1953). He followed this with another Western, "Arrowhead" (1953).


title: Charlton Heston

text: In 1953, Heston was Billy Wilder's first choice to play Sefton in "Stalag 17". However, the role was given to William Holden, who won an Oscar for it. Hal Wallis reunited Heston with Lizabeth Scott in a melodrama "Bad for Each Other" (1953).


title: Charlton Heston

text: In 1954, he made two adventure films for Paramount Pictures. "The Naked Jungle" had him battle a plague of killer ants. He played the lead in "Secret of the Incas", which was shot on location at the archeological site Machu Picchu and has numerous similarities to "Raiders of the Lost Ark", which appeared a quarter of a century later.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston played William Clark, the explorer, in "The Far Horizons" (1955) alongside Fred MacMurray as Meriwether Lewis. He tried a comedy "The Private War of Major Benson" (1955) at Universal, then supported Jane Wyman in a drama "Lucy Gallant" (1955).


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston became an icon for playing Moses in the hugely successful biblical epic "The Ten Commandments" (1956), selected by director Cecil B. DeMille, who thought Heston bore an uncanny resemblance to Michelangelo's statue of Moses. DeMille cast Heston's three-month-old son, Fraser Clarke Heston, as the infant Moses. "The Ten Commandments" became one of the greatest box office successes of all time and is the eighth highest-grossing film adjusted for inflation. His portrayal of the Hebrew prophet and deliverer was praised by film critics. "The Hollywood Reporter" described him as "splendid, handsome and princely (and human) in the scenes dealing with him as a young man, and majestic and terrible as his role demands it". The "New York Daily News" wrote that he "is remarkably effective as both the young, princely Moses and as the Patriarchal savior of his people". His performance as Moses earned him his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and Spain's Fotogramas de Plata Award for Best Foreign Performer. When the Egyptian Theater reopened in December 1998, it screened Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 original "The Ten Commandments", which had premiered there 75 years earlier. Charlton and Lydia Heston were honored guests at this opening showing and were seated with their longtime friends, brothers Charles Elias Disney and Daniel H. Disney.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston went back to Westerns with "Three Violent People" (1957). Universal tried to interest him in a thriller starring Orson Welles, "Touch of Evil"; Heston agreed to be in it if Welles directed. The film has come to be regarded as a classic masterpiece. He also played a rare supporting role in William Wyler's "The Big Country" opposite Gregory Peck and Burl Ives.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston got another chance to play Andrew Jackson in "The Buccaneer" (1958), produced by De Mille and starring Yul Brynner.


title: Charlton Heston

text: After Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster, and Rock Hudson turned down the title role in "Ben-Hur" (1959), Heston accepted the role, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor, one of the unprecedented 11 Oscars the film earned. After Moses and "Ben-Hur", Heston became more identified with Biblical epics than any other actor. He later voiced Ben-Hur in an animated television production of the Lew Wallace in 2003.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston followed it with "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" (1959) co-starring Gary Cooper, which was a box office disappointment.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston turned down the lead opposite Marilyn Monroe in "Let's Make Love" to appear in Benn W. Levy's play "The Tumbler", directed by Laurence Olivier. Called a "harrowingly pretentious verse drama" by "Time", the production went through a troubled out-of-town tryout period in Boston and closed after five performances on Broadway in February 1960. Heston, a great admirer of Olivier the actor, took on the play to work with him as a director. After the play flopped, Heston told columnist Joe Hyams, "I feel I am the only one who came out with a profit. ... I got out of it precisely what I went in for – a chance to work with Olivier. I learned from him in six weeks things I never would have learned otherwise. I think I've ended up a better actor."


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston enjoyed acting on stage, believing it revivified him as an actor. He never returned to Broadway but acted in regional theatres. His most frequent stage roles included the title role in "Macbeth", and Mark Antony in both "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra". Heston considered himself to be a Shakespearean actor and collected significant works by and about William Shakespeare.


title: Charlton Heston

text: He played Sir Thomas More in "A Man for All Seasons" in several regional productions in the 1970s and 1980s, eventually playing it in London's West End. The play was a success and the West End production was taken to Aberdeen, Scotland, for a week, where it was staged at His Majesty's Theatre.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Samuel Bronston pursued Heston to play the title role in an epic shot in Spain, "El Cid" (1961), which was a big success. He was in a war film for Paramount, "The Pigeon That Took Rome" (1962), and a melodrama shot in Hawaii, "Diamond Head" (1963). Bronston wanted him for another epic and the result was "55 Days at Peking" (1963), which was a box office disappointment.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston focused on epics: he was John the Baptist in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965); Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965) opposite Rex Harrison; the title role in "Major Dundee" (1965), directed by Sam Peckinpah. "The War Lord" (1965), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, was on a smaller scale and critically acclaimed, though commercially it fared poorly. In "Khartoum" (1966) Heston played General Charles Gordon.


title: Charlton Heston

text: From 1965 until 1971, Heston served as president of the Screen Actors Guild. The Guild had been created in 1933 for the benefit of actors, who had different interests from the producers and directors who controlled the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He was more conservative than most actors and publicly clashed with outspoken liberal actors such as Ed Asner.


title: Charlton Heston

text: "Counterpoint" (1968) was a war film that was not particularly successful at the box office. Neither was the Western "Will Penny" (1968), directed by Tom Gries; however, Heston received excellent reviews and it was one of his favorite films.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston had not been in a big hit for a number of years but in 1968 he starred in "Planet of the Apes", directed by Schaffner, which was hugely popular. Less so was a football drama, "Number One" (1969) directed by Gries. Heston had a smaller supporting role in "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970), which was popular. However, "The Hawaiians" (1970), directed by Gries, was not.


title: Charlton Heston

text: In 1970, he portrayed Mark Antony again in another film version of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". His co-stars included Jason Robards as Brutus, Richard Chamberlain as Octavius, Robert Vaughn as Casca, and English actors Richard Johnson as Cassius, John Gielgud as Caesar, and Diana Rigg as Portia.


title: Charlton Heston

text: In 1971, he starred in the post-apocalyptic science-fiction film "The Omega Man", which has received mixed critical reviews but was popular. During this time he became a gun rights advocate.


title: Charlton Heston

text: In 1972, Heston made his directorial debut and starred as Mark Antony in an adaptation of the William Shakespeare play he had performed earlier in his theater career, "Antony and Cleopatra". Hildegarde Neil was Cleopatra and English actor Eric Porter was Ahenobarbus. After receiving scathing reviews, the film was never released to theaters and is rarely seen on television. It was finally released on DVD in March 2011.


title: Charlton Heston

text: His next film, "Skyjacked" (1972) was a hit. However "The Call of the Wild" (1972) was a flop, one of Heston's least favorite films. He quickly recovered with a string of hits: "Soylent Green" (1973), another science fiction story; "The Three Musketeers" (1973), playing Cardinal Richelieu in an all-star cast; "Earthquake" (1974), a disaster film; "Airport 1975" (1975), another disaster film; "Midway" (1976) a war film.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston's good run at the box office ended with "Two-Minute Warning" (1976), a disaster film, and "The Last Hard Men" (1976), a Western. He played King Henry VIII for "The Prince and the Pauper" (1977), from the "Musketeers" team, then starred in a disaster film, "Gray Lady Down" (1978).


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston was in a Western written by his son, "The Mountain Men" (1980), and a horror film, "The Awakening" (1980). He made his second film as a director "Mother Lode" (1982) also written by his son; it was a commercial disappointment.


title: Charlton Heston

text: From 1985 until 1987, he starred in his only prime time stint on a television series in the soap, "The Colbys". With his son Fraser, he produced and starred in several TV movies, including remakes of "Treasure Island" and "A Man For All Seasons". In 1992, Heston appeared on the A&E cable network in a short series of videos, "Charlton Heston Presents the Bible", reading passages from the King James version.


title: Charlton Heston

text: In 1993, Heston teamed up with John Anthony West and Robert M. Schoch in an Emmy Award-winning NBC special, "The Mystery of the Sphinx". West and Schoch had proposed a much earlier date for the construction of the Great Sphinx than the one which is generally accepted. They had suggested that the main type of weathering evident on the Great Sphinx and surrounding enclosure walls could only have been caused by prolonged and extensive rainfall and that the whole structure was carved out of limestone bedrock by an ancient advanced culture (such as the Heavy Neolithic Qaraoun culture).


title: Charlton Heston

text: Never taking himself too seriously, he also made a few appearances as "Chuck" in Dame Edna Everage's shows, both on stage and on television. Heston appeared in 1993 in a cameo role in "Wayne's World 2", in a scene where Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) requests casting a better actor for a small role. After the scene is reshot with Heston, Campbell weeps in awe. That same year, Heston hosted "Saturday Night Live". He had cameos in the films "Hamlet", "Tombstone", and "True Lies".


title: Charlton Heston

text: He starred in many theatre productions at the Los Angeles Music Center, where he appeared in "Detective Story" and "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial", and as Sherlock Holmes in "The Crucifer of Blood", opposite Richard Johnson as Dr. Watson. In 2001, he made a cameo appearance as an elderly, dying chimpanzee in Tim Burton's remake of "Planet of the Apes". His last film role was as Josef Mengele in "", which had limited release (mainly to festivals) in 2003.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston's distinctive voice landed him roles as a film narrator, including "Armageddon" and Disney's "Hercules". He played the title role in "Mister Roberts" three times and cited it as one of his favorite roles. In the early 1990s, he tried unsuccessfully to revive and direct the show with Tom Selleck in the title role. In 1998, Heston had a cameo role playing himself in the American television series "Friends", in the episode "The One with Joey's Dirty Day". In 2000, he played Chief Justice Haden Wainwright in "The Outer Limits" episode "Final Appeal".


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston's political activism had four stages. In the first stage, 1955–61, he endorsed liberal Democratic candidates for president and signed on to petitions for liberal political causes. From 1961 until 1972, the second stage, he continued to endorse Democratic candidates for president. Moving beyond Hollywood, he became nationally visible in 1963 in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. From 1965 until 1971, he served as the elected President of the Screen Actors Guild and clashed with his liberal rival Ed Asner. In 1968, he helped publicize gun control measures when he joined fellow Hollywood stars in support of the Gun Control Act of 1968.


title: Charlton Heston

text: The third stage began in 1972. Heston rejected the liberalism of George McGovern and supported Republican Richard Nixon in 1972 for president. In the 1980s, he gave strong support to Ronald Reagan during his conservative presidency. In 1995, Heston entered his fourth stage by establishing his own political action fund-raising committee and jumped into the internal politics of the National Rifle Association. He gave numerous culture wars speeches and interviews upholding the conservative position, blaming media and academia for imposing affirmative action, which he saw as unfair reverse discrimination.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston campaigned for presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1956, although he was unable to campaign for John F. Kennedy in 1960 due to filming on "El Cid" in Spain. Reportedly, when in 1961 a segregated Oklahoma movie theater was showing his movie "El Cid" for the first time, he joined a picket line outside. Heston made no reference to this in his autobiography but describes traveling to Oklahoma City to picket segregated restaurants, to the chagrin of the producers of "El Cid", Allied Artists. During the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom held in Washington, DC, in 1963, he accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. In later speeches, he said he helped the civil rights cause "long before Hollywood found it fashionable".


title: Charlton Heston

text: In the 1964 election, he endorsed Lyndon B. Johnson, who had masterminded the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress over the vociferous opposition of southern Democrats. That year, Heston publicly opposed California Proposition 14 that rolled back the state's fair housing law, the Rumford Fair Housing Act.


title: Charlton Heston

text: In his 1995 autobiography, "In the Arena", written after he became a conservative Republican, Heston wrote that while driving back from the set of "The War Lord", he saw a "Barry Goldwater for President" billboard with his campaign slogan "In Your Heart You Know He's Right" and thought to himself, "Son of a bitch, he right." Heston later said that his support for Goldwater was the event that helped turn him against gun control laws. Following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Heston, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, and James Stewart issued a statement in support of President Johnson's Gun Control Act of 1968. The Johnson White House had solicited Heston's support. He endorsed Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 Presidential election.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston opposed the Vietnam War during its course (though he changed his opinion in the years following the war) and in 1969 was approached by the Democratic Party to run for the U.S. Senate against incumbent George Murphy. He agonized over the decision but ultimately determined he could never give up acting. He is reported to have voted for Richard Nixon in 1972, though Nixon is not mentioned in his autobiography.


title: Charlton Heston

text: By the 1980s, Heston supported gun rights and changed his political affiliation from Democratic to Republican. When asked why he changed political alliances, Heston replied "I didn't change. The Democratic Party changed." In 1987, he first registered as a Republican. He campaigned for Republicans and Republican presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush.


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston resigned in protest from Actors Equity, saying the union's refusal to allow a white actor to play a Eurasian role in "Miss Saigon" was "obscenely racist".


title: Charlton Heston

text: Heston charged that CNN's telecasts from Baghdad were "sowing doubts" about the allied effort in the 1990–91 Gulf War.


title: Charlton Heston

text: At a Time Warner stockholders' meeting, Heston castigated the company for releasing an Ice-T album which included a song "Cop Killer" about killing police officers. While filming "The Savage", Heston was initiated by blood into the Miniconjou Lakota Nation, saying that he had no natural American Indian heritage, but elected to be "Native American" to salvage the term from exclusively referring to American Indians.


title: Charlton Heston

text: In a 1997 speech called "Fighting the Culture War in America", Heston rhetorically deplored a culture war he said was being conducted by a generation of media people, educators, entertainers, and politicians against:the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle-class Protestant – or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern – or even worse, rural, apparently straight – or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun owning – or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff – or even worse, male working stiff – because, not only don't you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant; and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new America; and until you do, would you mind shutting up?