title: Stepan Bandera

text: In 1946, agents of the US Army intelligence agency Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) and NKVD entered into extradition negotiations based on the intra-Allied cooperation wartime agreement made at the Yalta Conference. The CIC wanted Frederick Wilhelm Kaltenbach, who would turn out to be deceased, and in return the Soviet Union proposed Bandera. Bandera and many Ukrainian nationalists had ended up in the American zone after the war. The Soviet Union regarded all Ukrainians as Soviet citizens and demanded their repatriation under the intra-Alied agreement. The US thought Bandera was too valuable to give up due to his knowledge of the Soviet Union, so the US started blocking his extradition under an operation called "Anyface". From the perspective of the US, the Soviet Union and Poland were issuing extradition attempts of these Ukrainians to prevent the US from getting sources of intelligence, so this became one of the factors in the breakdown of the cooperation agreement. However, the CIC still considered Bandera untrustworthy and were concerned about the impact of his activities on Soviet-American relations, and in mid-1947 conducted an extensive and aggressive search to locate him. It failed, having described their quarry as "extremely dangerous" and "constantly en route, frequently in disguise". Some American intelligence reported that he even was guarded by former SS men.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: The Bavarian state government initiated a crackdown on Bandera's organization for crimes such as counterfeiting and kidnapping. Gerhard von Mende, a West German government official, provided protection to Bandera who in turn provided him with political reports, which were relayed to the West German Foreign Office. Bandera reached an agreement with the BND, offering them his service, despite the CIA warning the West Germans against cooperating with him. Following the war Bandera also visited Ukrainian communities in Canada, Austria, Italy, Spain, Belgium, UK and Holland.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: According to Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe "Bandera's worldview was shaped by numerous far-right values and concepts including ultranationalism, fascism, racism, and antisemitism; by fascination with violence; by the belief that only war could establish a Ukrainian state; and by hostility to democracy, communism, and socialism. Like other young Ukrainian nationalists, he combined extremism with religion and used religion to sacralize politics and violence."


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Swedish-American historian Per Anders Rudling said that Bandera and his followers "advocated the selective breeding to create a 'pure' Ukrainian race and that "the OUN shared the fascist attributes of anti-liberalism, anti-conservatism, and anti-communism, an armed party, totalitarianism, anti-Semitism, , and adoption of fascist greetings. Its leaders eagerly emphasized to Hitler and Ribbentrop that they shared the Nazi and a commitment to a fascist New Europe."


title: Stepan Bandera

text: American historian Timothy Snyder has described Bandera as a fascist. Political scientist Andreas Umland characterized Bandera as a "Ukrainian ultranationalist", and also told Deutsche Welle that he was not a "nazi", noting Ukrainian nationalism then was "not a copy of Nazism".


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Historian David Marples described Bandera’s views as "not untypical of his generation", but as holding "an extreme political stance that rejected any form of cooperation with the rulers of Ukrainian territories: the Poles and the Soviet authorities". For Bandera, Russia was the chief adversary, but he also lacked tolerance for Poles and Jews. Marples also described Bandera as "neither an orator nor a theoretician" and wrote that he had minimal importance as a thinker. Marples considered Rossolinski-Liebe to place too much importance on Bandera's views, writing that Rossolinski-Liebe struggled to find anything of note written by Bandera, and had assumed he was influenced by OUN publicist Dmytro Dontsov and OUN journals.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Ukrainian historian Andrii Portnov writes that Bandera remained a proponent of authoritarian and violent politics until his death.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: In late 1942, when Bandera was in a German concentration camp, his organization, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was involved in a massacre of Poles in Volhynia and, in early 1944, ethnic cleansing also spread to Eastern Galicia. It is estimated that more than 35,000 and up to 60,000 Poles, mostly women and children along with unarmed men, were killed during the spring and summer campaign of 1943 in Volhynia, and up to 133,000 if other regions, such as Eastern Galicia, are included.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Despite the central role played by Bandera's followers in the massacre of Poles in western Ukraine, Bandera himself was interned in a German concentration camp when the concrete decision to massacre the Poles was made and when the Poles were killed. According to Yaroslav Hrytsak, Bandera was not completely aware of events in Ukraine during his internment from the summer of 1941 and had serious differences of opinion with Mykola Lebed, the OUN-B leader who remained in Ukraine and who was one of the chief architects of the massacres of Poles.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Bandera held anti-semitic views. Speaking about Bandera and his men, political scientist Alexander John Motyl told "Tablet" that antisemitism was not a core part of Ukrainian nationalism in the way it was for Nazism, and the Soviet Union and Poland were considered to be the primary enemies of the OUN. According to him, the attitude of the Ukrainian nationalists towards Jews depended on political circumstances, and they considered Jews to be a "problem" because they were "implicated, or believed to be implicated" in aiding the Soviets take Ukrainian territory, as well as not being Ukrainian. Norman Goda wrote that "Historian Karel Berkhoff, among others, has shown that Bandera, his deputies, and the Nazis shared a key obsession, namely the notion that the Jews in Ukraine were behind Communism and Stalinist imperialism and must be destroyed."


title: Stepan Bandera

text: On 10 August 1940 Bandera wrote a letter to Andriy Melnyk saying that he would accept Melnyk's leadership of the OUN, provided he expelled "traitors" in the leadership. One of these was Mykola Stsibors'kyi, who Bandera accused of an absence of "morality and ethics in family life" due to having married a Jewish woman, and especially, a "suspicious" Russian Jewish woman.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: In June 1941, Yaroslav Stetsko sent Bandera a report in which he stated "We are creating a militia which will help to remove the Jews and protect the population."


title: Stepan Bandera

text: However, Rossolinski-Liebe and Umland both note that Bandera personally had no part in the murders of Jews; Rossolinksi-Liebe said: "he had found no evidence that Bandera supported or condemned 'ethnic cleansing' or killing Jews and other minorities. It was, however, important that people from OUN and UPA 'identified with him. Similarly, Portnov notes that "Bandera did not participate personally in the underground war conducted by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which included the organized ethnic cleansing of the Polish population of Volhynia in north-western Ukraine and killings of the Jews, but he also never condemned them."


title: Stepan Bandera

text: The MGB, and from 1954, the Soviet KGB, multiple times attempted to kidnap or assassinate Bandera. On 15 October 1959, Bandera collapsed outside of Kreittmayrstrasse 7 in Munich and died shortly thereafter. A medical examination established that the cause of his death was poison by cyanide gas. On 20 October 1959, Bandera was buried in the Waldfriedhof Cemetery in Munich. His wife and three children moved to Toronto, Canada.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Two years after his death, on 17 November 1961, the German judicial bodies announced that Bandera's murderer had been a KGB agent named Bohdan Stashynsky who used a cyanide dust spraying gun to murder Bandera acting on the orders of Soviet KGB head Alexander Shelepin and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. After a detailed investigation against Stashynsky, who by then had defected from the KGB and confessed the killing, a trial took place from 8 to 15 October 1962. Stashynsky was convicted, and on 19 October he was sentenced to eight years in prison.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Bandera's brothers, Oleksandr and Vasyl, were arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp where they were allegedly killed by Polish inmates in 1942.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: His father Andriy was arrested by the Soviets in late May 1941 for harboring an OUN member and transferred to Kyiv. On 8 July he was sentenced to death and executed on the 10th. His sisters Oksana and Marta–Maria were arrested by the NKVD in 1941 and sent to a gulag in Siberia. Both were released in 1960 without the right to return to Ukraine. Marta–Maria died in Siberia in 1982, and Oksana returned to Ukraine in 1989 where she died in 2004. Another sister, Volodymyra, was sentenced to a term in Soviet labor camps from 1946 to 1956. She returned to Ukraine in 1956.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: According to "The Guardian", "Post-war Soviet history propagated the image of Bandera and the UPA as exclusively fascist collaborators and xenophobes." On the other hand, with the rise of nationalism in Ukraine, his memory there has been elevated.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: In late 2006, the Lviv city administration announced the future transference of the tombs of Stepan Bandera, Andriy Melnyk, Yevhen Konovalets and other key leaders of OUN/UPA to a new area of Lychakiv Cemetery specifically dedicated to victims of the repressions of the Ukrainian national liberation struggle.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: In October 2007, the city of Lviv erected a statue dedicated to Bandera. The appearance of the statue has engendered a far-reaching debate about the role of Stepan Bandera and UPA in Ukrainian history. The two previously erected statues were blown up by unknown perpetrators; the current is guarded by a militia detachment 24/7. On 18 October 2007, the Lviv City Council adopted a resolution establishing the Award of Stepan Bandera.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: On 1 January 2009, his 100th birthday was celebrated in several Ukrainian centres and a postage stamp with his portrait was issued the same day. On 1 January 2014, Bandera's 105th birthday was celebrated by a torchlight procession of 15,000 people in the centre of Kyiv and thousands more rallied near his statue in Lviv. The march was supported by the far-right Svoboda party and some members of the center-right Batkivshchyna.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: In 2018, the Ukrainian Parliament designated 1 January, Bandera's birthday, as a national holiday. The decision was criticized by the Jewish organization Simon Wiesenthal Center.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Bandera continues to be a divisive figure in Ukraine. Although Bandera is venerated in certain parts of western Ukraine, and 33% of Lviv's residents consider themselves to be followers of Bandera, he, along with Joseph Stalin and Mikhail Gorbachev, is considered in surveys of Ukraine as a whole among the three historical figures who produce the most negative attitudes.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: A national survey conducted in Ukraine in 2009 inquired about attitudes by region towards Bandera's faction of the OUN. It produced the following results:


title: Stepan Bandera

text: A poll conducted in early May 2021 by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation together with the Razumkov Centre's sociological service showed that 32% of citizens consider Stepan Bandera's activity as a historical figure to be positive for Ukraine, as many consider his activity negative; another 21% consider Bandera's activities as positive as they are negative. According to the poll, a positive attitude prevails in the western region of Ukraine (70%); in the central region of the state, 27% of respondents consider his activity positive, 27% consider his activity negative and 27% consider his activity both positive and negative; negative attitude prevails in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine (54% and 48% of respondents consider his activity negative for Ukraine, respectively).


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, where references to Bandera and "Banderites" featured in Russian propaganda, Bandera's favorability appeared to shoot up rapidly, with 74% of Ukrainians viewing him favorably, according to an April 2022 poll from a Ukrainian research organization. Bandera continued to cause friction with countries such as Poland and Israel.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Historian Vyacheslav Likhachev told "Haaretz" that for public consciousness in Ukraine the only important thing about Bandera was that he fought for Ukrainian independence, and that other details are not important, especially in the context of events from 2014 onwards, where the struggle for Ukrainian independence became more prominent.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: Political scientist Andreas Umland wrote in 2017 that issues of remembrance in Ukraine are complicated by its history of existing between and being terrorized by two totalitarian regimes, where millions of Ukrainians were killed, but some collaborated, and the extensive exploitation and manipulation of this history by an aggressive neighbor, Russia. According to him, public debate on these issues is also "spoiled" by biased narratives about the OUN and especially Bandera perpetuated by the Kremlin or "Western dilettante commentaries" featuring "frequent factual imprecisions and indiscriminate historical accusations". He wrote that these inaccuracies are deconstructed with "relish" by OUN apologists within Ukraine, and this has perpetuated a view within Ukraine that the Western public is not well informed about recent Ukrainian history, and even brainwashed by Soviet and Russian propaganda. However, he wrote, research from well regarded universities over the last decade was showing in greater detail where Ukrainians connected to the OUN did, and did not, take part in the Holocaust.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: During the 2014 Crimean crisis and unrest in Ukraine, pro-Russian Ukrainians, Russians (in Russia), and some Western authors alluded to the bad influence of Bandera on Euromaidan protesters and pro-Ukrainian Unity supporters in justifying their actions. According to The Guardian, "The term 'Banderite' to describe his followers gained a recent new and malign life when Russian media used it to demonise Maidan protesters in Kiev, telling people in Crimea and east Ukraine that gangs of Banderites were coming to carry out ethnic cleansing of Russians." Russian media used this to justify Russia's actions. Putin welcomed the annexation of Crimea by declaring that he "was saving them from the new Ukrainian leaders who are the ideological heirs of Bandera, Hitler's accomplice during World War II." Pro-Russian activists claimed: "Those people in Kyiv are Bandera-following Nazi collaborators." Ukrainians living in Russia complained of being labelled a "Banderite", even when they were from parts of Ukraine where Bandera has no popular support. Groups who idolize Bandera took part in the Euromaidan protests but were a minority element.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: References to Bandera and "Banderites" in Russian propaganda featured during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Vladimir Putin making references to "Banderites" in his speeches. Russia heavily promoted the theme of "denazification", and used rhetoric that was similar to Soviet era policy of equating the development of Ukrainian national identity with Nazism due to Bandera's collaboration, which has a particular resonance in Russia. "The Washington Post" reported on Russian soldiers rounding up villagers who were deemed to be "Nazis" or "Banderites". Deutsche Welle revealed that media in Ukraine included many eyewitness accounts of Russian soldiers pursuing Bandera supporters, and wrote that "whoever is deemed to be a supporter faces torture or death".


title: Stepan Bandera

text: On 22 January 2010, on the "Day of Unity of Ukraine", the then-President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko awarded to Bandera the title of Hero of Ukraine (posthumously) for "defending national ideas and battling for an independent Ukrainian state". A grandson of Bandera, also named Stepan, accepted the award that day from the Ukrainian President during the state ceremony to commemorate the "Day of Unity of Ukraine" at the National Opera House of Ukraine.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: This award was condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. On 25 February 2010, the European Parliament criticized the decision by then president of Ukraine, Yushchenko to award Bandera the title of Hero of Ukraine and expressed hope it would be reconsidered. On 14 May 2010, in a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said about the award: "that the event is so odious that it could no doubt cause a negative reaction in the first place in Ukraine. Already it is known a position on this issue of a number of Ukrainian politicians, who believe that solutions of this kind do not contribute to the consolidation of Ukrainian public opinion". On the other hand, the decree was applauded by Ukrainian nationalists in western Ukraine and by a small portion of Ukrainian Americans.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: On 5 March 2010, President Viktor Yanukovych stated that he would make a decision to repeal the decrees to honor the title of Heroes of Ukraine to Bandera and fellow nationalist Roman Shukhevych before the next Victory Day, although the Hero of Ukraine decrees do not stipulate the possibility that a decree on awarding this title can be annulled. On 2 April 2010, an administrative Donetsk region court ruled the presidential decree awarding the title to be illegal. According to the court's decision, Bandera was not a citizen of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (vis-à-vis Ukraine). On 5 April 2010, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine refused to start constitutional proceedings on the constitutionality of the President Yushchenko decree the award was based on. A ruling by the court was submitted by the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on 20 January 2010. In January 2011, the presidential press service informed that the award was officially annulled. This was done after a cassation appeal filed against the ruling by Donetsk District Administrative Court was rejected by the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine on 12 January 2011. Former President Yushchenko called the annulment "a gross error".


title: Stepan Bandera

text: In December 2018, the Ukrainian parliament considered a motion to again confer the award on Bandera, but the proposal was rejected in August 2019.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: There are Stepan Bandera museums in Dubliany, Volia-Zaderevatska, Staryi Uhryniv, and Yahilnytsia. There is a Stepan Bandera Museum of Liberation Struggle in London, part of the OUN Archive, and The Bandera Family Museum () in Stryi. There are also Stepan Bandera streets in Lviv (formerly vulytsia Myru, "Peace street"), Lutsk (formerly Suvorovska street), Rivne (formerly Moskovska street), Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chervonohrad (formerly Nad Buhom street), Berezhany (formerly Cherniakhovskoho street), Drohobych (formerly Sliusarska street), Stryi, Kalush, Kovel, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Horodenka, Dubrovytsia, Kolomyia, Dolyna, Iziaslav, Skole, Shepetivka, Brovary, and Boryspil, and a Stepan Bandera Avenue in Ternopil (part of the former Lenin Avenue). On 16 January 2017, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance stated that of the 51,493 streets, squares and "other facilities" that had been renamed (since 2015) due to decommunization 34 streets were named after Stepan Bandera. Due to "association with the communist totalitarian regime", the Kyiv City Council on 7 July 2016 voted 87 to 10 in favor of supporting renaming Moscow Avenue to Stepan Bandera Avenue.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: In September 2022 a street that was named after Otto Schmidt in Dnipro was renamed to honor Bandera. (This street had originally been the Gymnasium Street until it was renamed to Otto Schmidt Street by Soviet authorities in 1934.) In December 2022 recently liberated Izium decided to rename Pushkin Street to Stepana Bandera Street.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: After the fall of the Soviet Union, monuments dedicated to Stepan Bandera have been constructed in a number of western Ukrainian cities and villages, including a statue in Lviv. Bandera was also named an honorary citizen of a number of western Ukrainian cities.


title: Stepan Bandera

text: In late 2018, the Lviv Oblast Council decided to declare the year of 2019 to be the year of Stepan Bandera, sparking protests by Israel. Two feature films have been made about Bandera, among them are "Assassination: An October Murder in Munich" (1995) and "The Undefeated" (2000), both directed by Oles Yanchuk, along with a number of documentary films. In 2021, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory under the authority of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, included Bandera, among other Ukrainian nationalist figures, in Virtual Necropolis, a project intended to commemorate historical figures important for Ukraine.


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken of the 22 scheduled languages of India. With approximately 300 million native speakers and another 37 million as second language speakers, Bengali is the fifth most-spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by total number of speakers in the world. Bengali is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language.


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali is the official and national language of Bangladesh, with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. Within India, Bengali is the official language of the states of West Bengal, Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam. It is also a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha and Uttarakhand. Bengali is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas (Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and other countries.


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali has developed over the course of more than 1,300 years. Bengali literature, with its millennium-old literary history, extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding Bengali to be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement.


title: Bengali language

text: The first native name for Bengali was "Gauda-bhasa" in 16th century. In the 19th century, it was known as "Vanga-bhasa" or "Bangala-bhasa". In the 21st century, it is known as "Bangla-bhasa".


title: Bengali language

text: Although Sanskrit was practised by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the first millennium BC, the local Buddhist population were speaking in some varieties of the Prakrit. These varieties generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji, as the Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal was a part of the Magadhan realm.


title: Bengali language

text: The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire, and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam, and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi. Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what is known as Apabhraṃśa, by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time.


title: Bengali language

text: Though some archeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of the eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages, the Bihari languages, and the Odia language. The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around the 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty.


title: Bengali language

text: During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of word-final " ô", the spread of compound verbs, which is originate from Sanskrit Schwa. Slowly word-final "ô" was disappeared from many words as influenced from the Arabic, Persian and Turkic languages. The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist-ruling Pala Empire, from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, the subsequent Muslim expeditions to Bengal greatly encouraged the migratory movements of Arab Muslims and Turco-Persians, who heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population.


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian, which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on the language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century.


title: Bengali language

text: The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the dialect spoken in the Nadia region, a west-central Bengali dialect. Bengali presents a strong case of diglossia, with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. The modern Bengali vocabulary contains the vocabulary base from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, also tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and other major borrowings from Persian, Arabic, Austroasiatic languages and other languages in contact with.


title: Bengali language

text: In 1948, the Government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, starting the Bengali language movement. The Bengali Language Movement was a popular ethno-linguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh), which was a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis to gain and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as a state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan. On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka, whom were the first ever Martyrs to die for their rights on speaking their mother language. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. The day has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and is also commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000.


title: Bengali language

text: In 2010, the parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language, though no further action was taken on this matter.


title: Bengali language

text: The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal, which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.


title: Bengali language

text: Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura, southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Bengali is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Odisha, Bihar, and Jharkhand, and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi, Mumbai, Thane, Varanasi, and Vrindavan. There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Italy.


title: Bengali language

text: The 3rd article of the Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the "de facto" national language of the country.


title: Bengali language

text: In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages. It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam. Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011.


title: Bengali language

text: In Pakistan, Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi. The Department of Bengali in the University of Karachi also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature.


title: Bengali language

text: The national anthems of both Bangladesh ("Amar Sonar Bangla") and India ("Jana Gana Mana") were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Additionally, the first two verses of "Vande Mataram", a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka Matha) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore, while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala.


title: Bengali language

text: After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, the government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002.


title: Bengali language

text: In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations.


title: Bengali language

text: Regional variation in spoken Bengali constitutes a dialect continuum. Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters- Rarhi, Vangiya, Kamrupi and Varendri; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects (Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form the basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh (Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal are pronounced as fricatives. Western alveolo-palatal affricates , , correspond to eastern , , . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on the phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of West Bengal). Some variants of Bengali, particularly Chittagonian and Chakma, have contrastive tone; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects.


title: Bengali language

text: During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata, a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia District, located next to the border of Bangladesh and 76 miles north of Kolkata. There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use a different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is "nun" in the west which corresponds to "lôbôṇ" in the east.


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali exhibits diglossia, though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax:


title: Bengali language

text: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However, a majority in Bangladesh speak in dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in "Cholitobhasha" (SCB) and one or more regional dialects.


title: Bengali language

text: Even in SCB, the vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit (tadbhava), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example:


title: Bengali language

text: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels. The inventory is set out below in the (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme).


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs, combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable. Two of these, and , are the only ones with representation in script, as and respectively. may all form the glide part of a diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following:


title: Bengali language

text: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in shô-hô-jo-gi-ta "cooperation", where the boldface represents primary and secondary stress.


title: Bengali language

text: Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e. one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as "geram" (CV.CVC) for "gram" (CCVC) "village" or "iskul" (VC.CVC) for "skul" (CCVC) "school".


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali-Assamese script is an abugida, a script with letters for consonants, diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ "ô") is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs, and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words. Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called "matra".


title: Bengali language

text: Since the Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments, but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel, either as in "opinion" or , as in "mind", with variants like the more open . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it, a special diacritic, called the "hôsôntô" , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ). This diacritic, however, is not common, and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a "hôsôntô", may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in the final in or the medial in ).


title: Bengali language

text: A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures. These allographs, called "kar", are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example, the graph represents the consonant followed by the vowel , where is represented as the diacritical allograph (called "i-kar") and is placed "before" the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs , , , , , , , and represent the same consonant combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures, the so-called "inherent" vowel is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign .


title: Bengali language

text: The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent a vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in "ladder" and in "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel is used (cf. the dependent form. A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form.


title: Bengali language

text: In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing "hôsôntô", three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are the superposed "chôndrôbindu" , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in "moon"), the postposed "ônusbar" indicating the velar nasal (as in "Bengali") and the postposed "bisôrgô" indicating the voiceless glottal fricative (as in "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in "sorrow").


title: Bengali language

text: The Bengali consonant clusters ( "juktôbênjôn") are usually realised as ligatures, where the consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in a bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from the graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden.


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke "daṛi" – the Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from western scripts and their usage is similar.


title: Bengali language

text: Unlike in western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter-forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called "matra". The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example, the letter "tô" and the numeral "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the "matra", as is the case between the consonant cluster "trô" and the independent vowel "e", also the letter "hô" and Bengali Ôbogroho "(~ô)" and letter "o" and consonant cluster "ttô". The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between the visible matra and an invisible baseline).


title: Bengali language

text: There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem.


title: Bengali language

text: Throughout history there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on a large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore, which borders Odisha, have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar, some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari, Kaithi and Tirhuta.


title: Bengali language

text: In Sylhet and Bankura, modified versions of the Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing "matra". Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in .


title: Bengali language

text: Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in the east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam, composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet. After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement.


title: Bengali language

text: In the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese-standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly relating to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of the Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist. Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali has continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda and Muhammad Enamul Haq. The Digital Revolution has also played a part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali.


title: Bengali language

text: The Bengali script in general has a comparatively shallow orthography, i.e., in most cases there is a one-to-one correspondence between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes) of Bengali. But grapheme-phoneme inconsistencies do occur in certain cases.


title: Bengali language

text: One kind of inconsistency is due to the presence of several letters in the script for the same sound. In spite of some modifications in the 19th century, the Bengali spelling system continues to be based on the one used for Sanskrit, and thus does not take into account some sound mergers that have occurred in the spoken language. For example, there are three letters (, , and ) for the voiceless postalveolar fricative , although the letter retains the voiceless alveolar sibilant sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in "fall", "beat", etc. The letter also retains the voiceless retroflex sibilant sound when used in certain consonant conjuncts as in "suffering", "clan", etc. Similarly, there are two letters ( and ) for the voiced postalveolar affricate . Moreover, what was once pronounced and written as a retroflex nasal is now pronounced as an alveolar when in conversation (the difference is heard when reading) (unless conjoined with another retroflex consonant such as , , and ), although the spelling does not reflect this change. The near-open front unrounded vowel is orthographically realised by multiple means, as seen in the following examples: "so much", "academy", "amoeba", "to see", "busy", "grammar".


title: Bengali language

text: Another kind of inconsistency is concerned with the incomplete coverage of phonological information in the script. The inherent vowel attached to every consonant can be either or depending on vowel harmony () with the preceding or following vowel or on the context, but this phonological information is not captured by the script, creating ambiguity for the reader. Furthermore, the inherent vowel is often not pronounced at the end of a syllable, as in "less", but this omission is not generally reflected in the script, making it difficult for the new reader.


title: Bengali language

text: Many consonant clusters have different sounds than their constituent consonants. For example, the combination of the consonants and is graphically realised as and is pronounced (as in "coarse"), (as in "capability") or even (as in "harm"), depending on the position of the cluster in a word. The Bengali writing system is, therefore, not always a true guide to pronunciation.


title: Bengali language

text: The script used for Bengali, Assamese and other languages is known as Bengali script. The script is known as the Bengali alphabet for Bengali and its dialects and the Assamese alphabet for Assamese language with some minor variations. Other related languages in the nearby region also make use of the Bengali script like the Meitei language in the Indian state of Manipur, where the Meitei language has been written in the Bengali script for centuries, though the Meitei script has been promoted in recent times.


title: Bengali language

text: There are various Romanisation systems used for Bengali created in recent years which have failed to represent the true Bengali phonetic sound. The Bengali alphabet has often been included with the group of Brahmic scripts for romanisation where the true phonetic value of Bengali is never represented. Some of them are the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, or IAST system (based on diacritics); "Indian languages Transliteration", or ITRANS (uses upper case letters suited for ASCII keyboards); and the National Library at Kolkata romanisation.


title: Bengali language

text: In the context of Bengali romanisation, it is important to distinguish transliteration from transcription. Transliteration is orthographically accurate (i.e. the original spelling can be recovered), whereas transcription is phonetically accurate (the pronunciation can be reproduced).


title: Bengali language

text: Although it might be desirable to use a transliteration scheme where the original Bengali orthography is recoverable from the Latin text, Bengali words are currently Romanized on Wikipedia using a phonemic transcription, where the true phonetic pronunciation of Bengali is represented with no reference to how it is written.


title: Bengali language

text: The most recent attempt has been by publishers Mitra and Ghosh with the launch of three popular children's books, "Abol Tabol", "Hasi Khusi" and "Sahoj Path" in Roman script at the Kolkata Book Fair 2018. Published under the imprint of Benglish Books, these are based on phonetic transliteration and closely follow spellings used in social media but for using an underline to describe soft consonants.


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali nouns are not assigned gender, which leads to minimal changing of adjectives (inflection). However, nouns and pronouns are moderately declined (altered depending on their function in a sentence) into four cases while verbs are heavily conjugated, and the verbs do not change form depending on the gender of the nouns.


title: Bengali language

text: As a head-final language, Bengali follows a subject–object–verb word order, although variations on this theme are common. Bengali makes use of postpositions, as opposed to the prepositions used in English and other European languages. Determiners follow the noun, while numerals, adjectives, and possessors precede the noun.


title: Bengali language

text: Yes-no questions do not require any change to the basic word order; instead, the low (L) tone of the final syllable in the utterance is replaced with a falling (HL) tone. Additionally, optional particles (e.g. "-ki", "-na", etc.) are often encliticised onto the first or last word of a yes-no question.


title: Bengali language

text: Wh-questions are formed by fronting the wh-word to focus position, which is typically the first or second word in the utterance.


title: Bengali language

text: Nouns and pronouns are inflected for case, including nominative, objective, genitive (possessive), and locative. The case marking pattern for each noun being inflected depends on the noun's degree of animacy. When a definite article such as "-ṭa" (singular) or "-gulo" (plural) is added, as in the tables below, nouns are also inflected for number.


title: Bengali language

text: In most of the Bengali grammar books, cases are divided into 6 categories and an additional possessive case (possessive form is not recognised as a type of case by Bengali grammarians). But in terms of usages, cases are generally grouped into only 4 categories.


title: Bengali language

text: When counted, nouns take one of a small set of measure words. Nouns in Bengali cannot be counted by adding the numeral directly adjacent to the noun. An appropriate measure word (MW), a classifier, must be used between the numeral and the noun (most languages of the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area are similar in this respect). Most nouns take the generic measure word "-ṭa", though other measure words indicate semantic classes (e.g. "-jôn" for humans). There is also the classifier "-khana," and its diminutive form "-khani", which attach only to nouns denoting something flat, long, square, or thin. These are the least common of the classifiers.


title: Bengali language

text: Measuring nouns in Bengali without their corresponding measure words (e.g. "aṭ biṛal" instead of "aṭ-ṭa biṛal" "eight cats") would typically be considered ungrammatical. However, when the semantic class of the noun is understood from the measure word, the noun is often omitted and only the measure word is used, e.g. "Shudhu êk-jôn thakbe." (lit. "Only one-MW will remain.") would be understood to mean "Only one person will remain.", given the semantic class implicit in "-jôn".


title: Bengali language

text: In this sense, all nouns in Bengali, unlike most other Indo-European languages, are similar to mass nouns.


title: Bengali language

text: There are two classes of verbs: finite and non-finite. Non-finite verbs have no inflection for tense or person, while finite verbs are fully inflected for person (first, second, third), tense (present, past, future), aspect (simple, perfect, progressive), and honour (intimate, familiar, and formal), but "not" for number. Conditional, imperative, and other special inflections for mood can replace the tense and aspect suffixes. The number of inflections on many verb roots can total more than 200.


title: Bengali language

text: Inflectional suffixes in the morphology of Bengali vary from region to region, along with minor differences in syntax.


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali differs from most Indo-Aryan Languages in the zero copula, where the copula or connective "be" is often missing in the present tense. Thus, "he is a teacher" is "se shikkhôk", (literally "he teacher"). In this respect, Bengali is similar to Russian and Hungarian. Romani grammar is also the closest to Bengali grammar.


title: Bengali language

text: Bengali has as many as 100,000 separate words, of which 50,000 are considered Tadbhavas, 21,100 are Tatsamas and the remainder loanwords from Austroasiatic and other foreign languages.


title: Bengali language

text: However, these figures do not take into account the large proportion of archaic or highly technical words that are very rarely used. Furthermore, different dialects use more Persian and Arabic vocabulary especially in different areas of Bangladesh and Muslim majority areas of West Bengal. Hindus, on the other hand, use more Sanskrit vocabulary than Muslims. Standard Bengali is based on the Nadia dialect spoken in the Hindu majority states of West Bengal and parts of Muslim majority division of Khulna in Bangladesh. About 90% of Bengalis in Bangladesh (ca. 148 million) and 27% of Bengalis in West Bengal and 10% in Assam (ca. 36 million) are Muslim and the Bangladeshi Muslims and some of the Indian Bengali Muslims speak a more "persio-arabised" version of Bengali instead of the more Sanskrit influenced Standard Nadia dialect although majority of the Indian Bengalis of West Bengal speaks in Rarhi dialect irrespective of religion. The productive vocabulary used in modern literary works, in fact, is made up mostly (67%) of tadbhavas, while tatsamas make up only 25% of the total. Loanwords from non-Indic languages account for the remaining 8% of the vocabulary used in modern Bengali literature.


title: Bengali language

text: According to Suniti Kumar Chatterji, dictionaries from the early 20th century attributed to a little more 50% of the Bengali vocabulary to native words (i.e., naturally modified Sanskrit words, corrupted forms of Sanskrit words, and loanwords non-Indo-European languages). About 45% percent of Bengali words are unmodified Sanskrit, and the remaining words are from foreign languages. Dominant in the last group was Persian, which was also the source of some grammatical forms. More recent studies suggest that the use of native and foreign words has been increasing, mainly because of the preference of Bengali speakers for the colloquial style. Because of centuries of contact with Europeans, Turkic peoples, and Persians, Bengali has absorbed numerous words from foreign languages, often totally integrating these borrowings into the core vocabulary.


title: Bengali language

text: The most common borrowings from foreign languages come from three different kinds of contact. After close contact with several indigenous Austroasiatic languages, and later the Mughal invasion whose court language was Persian, numerous Chagatai, Arabic, and Persian words were absorbed into the lexicon.


title: Bengali language

text: Later, East Asian travellers and lately European colonialism brought words from Portuguese, French, Dutch, and most significantly English during the colonial period.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: Shadow and Bone is an American fantasy streaming television series developed by Eric Heisserer for Netflix. It is based on two series of books in the Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo, the "Shadow and Bone" trilogy and the "Six of Crows" duology. All eight episodes of the first season premiered on April 23, 2021. In June 2021, the series was renewed for a second season, also consisting of eight episodes which is scheduled to premiere on March 16, 2023. The maturity rating will also shift from TV-14 to TV-MA.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: The series adapts the story of young Alina Starkov, an orphan and cartographer of the Ravka nation's First Army, as she discovers she is a Grisha, one with special gifts, and one long awaited to address a dire need in the universe. The first season adapts "Shadow and Bone" (2013), and adds an original storyline featuring the Crows, a criminal gang for which the eponymous duology is named. The second season will adapt "Siege and Storm" (2013), and another original storyline featuring the Crows.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: The Grisha universe consists of the nations of Ravka, Fjerda, the Shu Han, Kerch, Novyi Zem, and the Wandering Isle. Each adapts elements of language, culture and tradition from countries of the real world (drawn from different real time periods). Grisha are a people who have been described as "magic-users" but in their words, they are practitioners of "The Small Science" which reflects an individual gift each holds to manipulate matter at its smallest level, the "molecular level".


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: Ravka is the nation home to most of the Grisha as they are "usually discovered as children by traveling Grisha testers and brought to... [train in that nation's] Second Army". It is one of few places they can live safely and when training for the Second Army, they are divided into three orders. Etherealki summon natural elements (wind, water, fire, and occasionally darkness or light), Materialki control materials such as metal and glass and Corporalki manipulate people's bodies. Ravka's Second Army is led by General Kirigan (known in the book series as the Darkling) who has spent his life searching for a Grisha who can summon light, the only person who could destroy the Shadow Fold (or "the Fold")—a region of engulfing darkness, created hundreds of years ago and divides Ravka in two, the east from the west. Since then, Ravka has been at war and is now on the brink of splitting in two as the west seeks independence.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: Alina Starkov turns out to be such a Grisha, and word spreads that a Sun Summoner has been found. In the Kerch capital and trading city of Ketterdam, Kaz Brekker, lieutenant of a gang called the Dregs and part of a smaller, more close-knit group called the Crows - him, Inej Ghafa, and Jesper Fahey in season one, though later expanded to include Nina Zenik, Matthias Helvar, and Wylan Hendriks, the original Crows are those who take part in their S1 heist - , is hired to kidnap her; Fjerdan witch hunters are sent to kill her; the people of Ravka venerate her as a Saint. Alina must come to terms with who she is and decide whom she can truly trust as she searches for the power that will allow her to destroy the Fold and save Ravka.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: In January 2019, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a series order for an eight-episode first season with Eric Heisserer as showrunner, creator, head-writer, and executive producer. The project falls under Netflix's deal with 21 Laps Entertainment with Shawn Levy executive producing. Leigh Bardugo, Pouya Shahbazian, Dan Levine, Dan Cohen, and Josh Barry acted as the executive producers as well. On October 2, 2019, Lee Toland Krieger was announced as the director of the pilot.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: In June 2021, the series was renewed for an 8-episode second season. It was confirmed in January 2022 that production on the second season had begun. In December 2022, it was reported that the second season will not only cover "Siege and Storm", but also "Ruin and Rising" of Leigh Bardugo's main Grishaverse trilogy.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: In a panel discussion led by Petra Mayer, NPR books editor, Leigh Bardugo disclosed to San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that David J. Peterson would be working on the Grishaverse's fictional languages. Christian Thalmann is also involved in this effort.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: Casting began in April 2019 with calls for Alina. On October 2, 2019, it was announced that Jessie Mei Li, Ben Barnes, Freddy Carter, Archie Renaux, Amita Suman, and Kit Young would be starring. Sujaya Dasgupta, Danielle Galligan, Daisy Head, and Simon Sears would also feature. The second round of casting was announced on December 18, 2019, with Calahan Skogman, Zoë Wanamaker, Kevin Eldon, Julian Kostov, Luke Pasqualino, Jasmine Blackborow, and Gabrielle Brooks in the recurring cast. Bardugo, the book series' author, was scheduled to cameo as a Materalki Durast in the third episode.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: Prominent book characters Nikolai Lantsov and Wylan Van Eck did not appear in the first season, but will be introduced in the second. On January 13, 2022, Lewis Tan, Patrick Gibson, Anna Leong Brophy and Jack Wolfe officially joined the cast while Daisy Head, Danielle Galligan, and Calahan Skogman were promoted to a series regulars for the second season. More new cast members were confirmed in November 2022, including Tommy Rodger, Rhoda Ofori-Attah, Alistair Nwachukwu, Tumi Fani-Kayode, and Seamus O'Hara.


title: Shadow and Bone (TV series)

text: Principal photography for the first season began on location in and around Budapest and Keszthely (Festetics Palace), Hungary in October 2019 and wrapped at the end of February 2020. Additional shoots took place in Vancouver. Filming for the second season began in early January 2022 and wrapped on June 6, 2022.<!--Have to check if this fact is in any of the three preceding citations. It it is, the sentence can be moved in front of them. If not, a citation/


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Elisha Ann Cuthbert Phaneuf (; born 30 November 1982) is a Canadian actress and model. As a child actress, she made her first televised appearance as an extra in the Canadian horror-themed series for children "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" and co-hosted "Popular Mechanics for Kids". She made her feature film debut in the 1997 Canadian family-drama "Dancing on the Moon". Her first major lead role came in the 1998 drama film "Airspeed (No Control)" alongside Joe Mantegna. In 2001, she starred in the movie "Lucky Girl", for which she received her first award, the Gemini Awards.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: After moving to Hollywood in 2001, she was cast as Kim Bauer in the series "24", her first big role in an American production, alongside Kiefer Sutherland. For this role, she was nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards twice. In 2003, she played Darcie Goldberg in the college comedy "Old School" and Carol-Anne in "Love Actually." Cuthbert received wide recognition for her breakout role as Danielle in the 2004 teen comedy film "The Girl Next Door", being nominated for Best Breakthrough Performance at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, and for her next role as Carly Jones in the 2005 "House of Wax", for which she received two nominations for the Teen Choice Awards, including Best Actress: Action/Adventure/Thriller. Subsequently, Cuthbert appeared in the lead role in the drama "The Quiet" (2005) and the horror "Captivity" (2007). This role, along with "Are You Afraid of the Dark?", "24" series and "House of Wax", established her as a scream queen.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: From 2011 to 2013, Cuthbert starred as Alex Kerkovich in the three seasons of the ABC comedy "Happy Endings". From 2016 to 2020, she had a recurring role as Abby Phillips on the Netflix series "The Ranch", before becoming a main cast member in the series' second season. She received praise for her performance on the Canadian comedy series "Jann" (2020), being nominated for the Canadian Screen Awards for Best Performance in a guest role.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Cuthbert is considered a sex symbol and has appeared in numerous magazines, such as "Maxim", "Complex", and "FHM". In 2013, "Maxim" magazine named her "TV's most beautiful woman".


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Elisha Ann Cuthbert was born in Calgary, Alberta, the daughter of Kevin, an automotive design engineer and Patricia, a housewife. She grew up in Greenfield Park, Quebec. In 2000, she graduated from Centennial Regional High School and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 17. As a child, she participated in Girl Guide programs as a member of Girl Guides of Canada.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: When she was nine, Cuthbert began modeling children's clothing whilst appearing as a foot model. She made her first televised appearance as an extra in "Are You Afraid of the Dark?", a horror-themed series for children; she later became a regular on the show. Cuthbert co-hosted "Popular Mechanics for Kids" with Jay Baruchel, filmed in Montreal. Her reporting captured the attention of Hillary Clinton, who invited her to the White House.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Cuthbert landed a role in a feature film in the family drama "Dancing on the Moon" (1997). She appeared in other Canadian family films and in an airplane thriller, "Airspeed". In 2000, Cuthbert co-starred in "Believe," a Canadian film with Ricky Mabe. The following year she starred in the Canadian television movie, "Lucky Girl", and was awarded a Gemini Award for her performance.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Soon after moving to Hollywood, she was cast as Kim Bauer, daughter of federal agent Jack Bauer, in the television series "24". She appeared in the show's first three seasons, but not in its fourth; she guest-starred in two episodes in the fifth season. She also reprised her role as Kim Bauer in "" and again guest-starred in five episodes of the seventh season and in two episodes of the eighth season.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: She began her Hollywood film career with small roles in "Old School", which grossed $87 million. Cuthbert next appeared in "Love Actually", which earned $246.4 million worldwide.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Her first break in a major film role was in 2004, "The Girl Next Door". She played an ex–porn star, Danielle, opposite Emile Hirsch. She had reservations about taking the part, but director Luke Greenfield persuaded her to accept the role. Cuthbert did research for the film speaking to adult actresses from Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment. The film was compared to "Risky Business" although Cuthbert said her character was not directly based on Rebecca De Mornay's. Critics were divided; some praised the film for boldness, while others, notably Roger Ebert, called it gimmicky and exploitative. Ebert wrote that he saw Cuthbert's character as "quite the most unpleasant character I have seen in some time."


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: "The View London" said: "Cuthbert is surprisingly good, too – aside from being drop dead gorgeous, she also proves herself a capable comic actress in the Cameron Diaz mould". Cuthbert won two nominations for the MTV Movie Awards for Best Kiss and Best Breakthrough Performance.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: In her next film, Cuthbert starred with Paris Hilton and Chad Michael Murray in the 2005 remake of the horror film "House of Wax". In one scene, her character attempted to open her mouth while her lips were sealed with glue. For realism, she used Superglue over prosthetics. "House of Wax" was largely panned, critics citing a range of flaws. It was called "notable for having some of the most moronic protagonists ever to populate a horror film," though of those characters, critics tended to think Cuthbert "did the best". Though it received negative reviews the film was a box office success, which grossed $70 million worldwide. "The Houston Chronicle" cited Cuthbert as an exception. Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" said of the film, "Elisha Cuthbert's matter-of-fact, likable quality helps. Seeing her turn into wax would be as bad as seeing that happen to Glenda Farrell (the star of the 1933 version)." "The Movie" said: "The performances are always professional and understated in their believable cogency, particularly Cuthbert, a talented, beautiful young actress who has proven time and again just what a multilayered and promising future she has ahead of her. Cuthbert digs into the role of Carly with strength, determination, and horrified realism; you believe as you watch her that she is going through these things and forget all about the actor playing the part, which is the biggest compliment of all. Brian Orndorf of "Filmjerk.com" said: "[Paris] Hilton ... only plays her known personality in the film. She's overshadowed by the strong work from the rest of the cast, notably Chad Michael Murray and especially Elisha Cuthbert, who gives the film a strong dose of enthusiasm with her Jamie Lee Curtis-esque performance." Cuthbert was nominated at Teen Choice Awards in two categories Choice Movie: Actress – Action / Adventure / "Thriller" and .


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Cuthbert's next film was the indie film "The Quiet". She was a co-star and co-producer. She played Nina, a 17-year-old cheerleader who is sexually abused by her father. Cuthbert looked to her younger cousin as her inspiration in portraying a teenager. "The Quiet", distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and received a limited release in Los Angeles and New York City on 25 August 2006 before expanding regionally in the US on September 1. Cuthbert initially wanted to play the part of the silent Dot, but director Jamie Babbit cast Camilla Belle in the role instead after Thora Birch pulled out. Babbit reasoned "To me, Dot has to be someone you could believe would be invisible in high school. You look at Elisha, this beautiful woman with the most perfect body you've ever seen, and you think, there's no high school in America where this girl could be invisible. No matter how much hair and makeup I do, it's not going to happen." "The Daily Californian" conceded that "Despite the plot's failings, Cuthbert does a convincing job in her role, exuding an outer shell so tough that when her inner, softer layers emerge, it's a natural change of character. "Empire Movies" agreed, commenting "this is Elisha Cuthbert's best film performance to date. Cuthbert's Nina has the majority of the most graphic and disturbing dialogue in the film, especially during one particular lunchroom scene where the camera is close up on Cuthbert and Belle's faces."


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Cuthbert appeared in the music video for Weezer's "Perfect Situation" in early 2006, playing the group's fictional original singer who threw a tantrum that led to Rivers Cuomo, the roadie, becoming the band's frontman. She also had a small role in Paris Hilton's music video for the song "Nothing in This World".


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: In 2007, Cuthbert appeared in "Captivity", a thriller centered on a fashion model taunted by a psychopath who imprisons her in a cellar. She was nominated for a Razzie award as Worst Actress and Teen Choice Awards for Choice Movie Actress: Horror/Thriller for the movie. The film grossed $10.9 million at the box office. The critic Stephen Whitty of the "Newark Star-Ledger" said, "When, in the last few minutes, Cuthbert finally slipped her bonds and began looking for her tormentors, I knew exactly how she felt." "The View London" said: "The worst Cuthbert struggles to make her character sympathetic because the script doesn't give her anything to work with, while Daniel Gillies is too creepy-looking to convince as a potential love interest."


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: In "He Was a Quiet Man", Cuthbert played Vanessa, a quadriplegic; she starred alongside Christian Slater. The film was in limited release in 2007, and it was released on DVD in early 2008. The critic Peter Bradshaw in his review for "The Guardian" praised Cuthbert's performance, writing that she "is very good". In 2008, Cuthbert appeared in "My Sassy Girl", a remake of a Korean film, starring with Jesse Bradford. Nikhat Kazmi of "The Times of India" said the "Elisha is cute and their zany affair keeps the reels rolling in an unusual love story with the usual heartbreak and happy home-comings". Although Lacey Mical (Callahan) Walker of "Christian Spotlight on Entertainment" was not impressed by Bradford performance, she praised Cuthbert's, saying, "Elisha Cuthbert's talent rises above the character she was given to play, and she almost saves the bitter first half with a stellar performance".


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Her next film was the family comedy, "The Six Wives of Henry Lefay" with Tim Allen, in which she played his daughter. She starred in the Canadian miniseries "Guns". She was a judge in season two, episode two of "Project Runway Canada. D"esigners were challenged to create a "party dress" for her. Cuthbert reprised her character Kim Bauer in the seventh season of "24" for five episodes. She was to star in the CBS drama pilot "Ny-Lon", playing a New York literacy teacher/record-store clerk who embarks on a transatlantic romance with a London stockbroker. The project, based on a British series starring Rashida Jones and Stephen Moyer, was cancelled.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: In December 2009, ABC said Cuthbert had joined the cast of "The Forgotten" in a recurring role as Maxine Denver, a Chicago professional. It was expected for Cuthbert to play the role of Trixie in sports action- comedy film "Speed Racer" (2008), but Christina Ricci was eventually chosen.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: From April 2011 to May 2013, Cuthbert starred as Alex Kerkovich for three seasons on the ABC ensemble comedy "Happy Endings" alongside Eliza Coupe, Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally, Damon Wayans Jr., and Casey Wilson. Despite critical acclaim and having a cult following, the show was canceled by ABC after the conclusion of its third season on 3 May 2013. Cuthbert was nominated for the Online Film & Television Association Award in 2012 and 2013 in the category of "Best Cast in a Comedy Series" and TV Guide Awards for Favorite Cast. The series was also nominated for 28 other awards including the Satellite Awards for Best Series comedy television or music. Cuthbert's performance received positive reviews from critics. In 2013, she was regarded as a promising contender for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category, however she was not nominated.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: In 2012, Cuthbert was host of the American Music Awards. In October 2012, she appeared in The Gaslight Anthem's music video "Here Comes My Man", playing the girlfriend of a man who mistreats her until she imagines a romantic relationship with a character in a film and chooses to end her real relationship.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: In February 2014, Cuthbert signed to play the female lead role in Liz Feldman and Ellen DeGeneres' NBC sitcom pilot "One Big Happy". Cuthbert stars as Lizzy, a lesbian who gets pregnant just as her straight male best friend Luke (played by Nick Zano) meets and marries the love of his life, Prudence. Six episodes of the show were ordered on 9 May 2014, and it debuted mid-season in early 2015. The series was canceled after one season.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: In 2015, Cuthbert joined Seann William Scott in a sequel to the 2011 comedy "Goon". "" began production in June in Toronto. Liev Schreiber and Alison Pill reprised their roles from the first film.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: In 2016, Cuthbert joined the cast of Netflix's "The Ranch", a comedy series. In 2020, she started the film "Eat Wheaties!". She is set to star the horror movie "The Cellar", "Bandit" and the comedy "Friday Afternoon in the Universe". For her performance in the comedy series "Jann" (2020), she was nominated for the Canadian Screen Awards for Best Guest Performance.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Since she began playing Kim Bauer, she has frequently been named to the magazines "FHM" and "Maxim's" annual lists of "hottest women". Her highest ranking was No. 4 in the 2008 UK Edition of "FHM's" 100 Sexiest Women in the World list. She was ranked No. 14 in 2003, No. 10 in 2004, No. 5 in 2005, No. 22 in 2006, No. 10 in 2007, and No. 7 in 2009. The U.S. Edition ranked her No. 53 in 2003, No. 63 in 2004, and No. 54 in 2006.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Cuthbert was ranked No. 10 by AskMen.com readers in the list "Top 99 Women of 2007." In "Maxim"s Hot 100 list, she was ranked No. 84 in 2002, No. 9 in 2003, No. 21 in 2004, No. 92 in 2006, No. 25 in 2007, No. 6 in 2008, No. 43 in 2009, No. 65 in 2011, No. 34 in 2012, and No. 10 in 2013. The magazine also featured her in its Girls of Maxim Gallery. In 2013, the magazine named her the Most Beautiful Woman in Television. BuddyTV ranked her No. 33 on its TV's 100 Sexiest Women of 2011 list, No. 13 in 2012, and No. 30 in 2015. She was included in the list of The 15 Best Comedy Supporting Actresses of the 2011–2012 TV Season and 2012–2013 TV Season. The "Canadian Business" named her one of the most powerful Canadians in Hollywood, and The "New York Daily News" listed her as one of the Sexiest Canadian celebrities of 2016.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: "Complex" has ranked her in The 25 Hottest Canadian Women, The 100 Hottest Women of the 2000s, The 25 Hottest Blonde Bombshell Actresses, and The 50 Hottest Celebrity Sports Fans. In 2013, "GQ" magazine listed her among The 100 Hottest Women of the 21st Century and The 100 Sexiest Women of Millennium.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Cuthbert has two younger siblings and enjoys painting. She is also an ice hockey fan. In 2005, she maintained a blog on the NHL website, though she did not post for most of the season.


title: Elisha Cuthbert

text: Cuthbert and hockey player Dion Phaneuf, then the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, announced their engagement in September 2012, They married on 6 July 2013 at St. James Catholic Church in Summerfield, Prince Edward Island. Living in Ottawa during the hockey season, Cuthbert and Phaneuf spend their summers at their waterfront estate outside New London, Prince Edward Island in his parents' home province. The couple have two children together, a daughter born in 2017 and a son in 2022.


title: Michael Gambon

text: Sir Michael John Gambon (; born 19 October 1940) is an Irish-English actor. Regarded as one of Ireland and Britain's most distinguished actors, he is known for his work on stage and screen. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six decade long career he's received three Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and four BAFTA Awards. In 1999 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.


title: Michael Gambon

text: Having begun his professional career in the theatre with Olivier at the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic, Gambon appeared in many productions of works by William Shakespeare such as "Othello", "Hamlet", "Macbeth" and "Coriolanus". Gambon has been nominated for thirteen Olivier Awards winning three times for "A Chorus of Disapproval" (1985), "A View from the Bridge" (1987), and "Man of the Moment" (1990). In 1997 Gambon made his Broadway debut in David Hare's "Skylight" earning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination.


title: Michael Gambon

text: Gambon made his film debut in "Othello" (1965). Other notable films include "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989), "The Wings of the Dove" (1997), "The Insider" (1999), "Gosford Park" (2001), "Amazing Grace" (2006), "The King's Speech" (2010), "Quartet" (2012), and "Victoria & Abdul" (2017). Gambon has also appeared in the Wes Anderson films "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004), and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (2009). Gambon gained stardom for his role of Albus Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" film series from 2004 to 2011, replacing the late Richard Harris.


title: Michael Gambon

text: For his work on television he received four BAFTA Awards for "The Singing Detective" (1986), "Wives and Daughters" (1999), "Longitude" (2000), and "Perfect Strangers" (2001). He also received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for "Path to War" (2002), and "Emma" (2009). Other notable projects include "Cranford" (2007), and "The Casual Vacancy" (2015). In 2017 he received the Irish Film & Television Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, he was listed at No. 28 on "The Irish Times" list of Ireland's greatest film actors.


title: Michael Gambon

text: Michael John Gambon was born in the Cabra suburb of Dublin on 19 October 1940. His mother, Mary (née Hoare), was a seamstress, while his father, Edward Gambon, was an engineering operative during World War II. His father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London, and moved the family to Mornington Crescent in London's Camden borough when Gambon was six. His father arranged for him to be made a British citizen, a decision that would later allow him to receive a substantive (rather than honorary) knighthood. Brought up as a strict Roman Catholic, he attended St Aloysius Boys' School in Somers Town and served at the altar. He then moved to St Aloysius' College in Highgate, whose former pupils include actor Peter Sellers. He later moved to North End, Kent, where he attended Crayford Secondary School but left with no qualifications at the age of 15. He then gained an apprenticeship as a toolmaker with Vickers-Armstrong. By the time he was 21, he was a qualified engineering technician. He kept the job for a further year, acquiring a lifelong passion for collecting antique guns, clocks, watches and classic cars.


title: Michael Gambon

text: At age 24, Gambon wrote a letter to Micheál Mac Liammóir, the Irish theatre impresario who ran Dublin's Gate Theatre, accompanied by a CV describing a rich and wholly imaginary theatre career: he was taken on.


title: Michael Gambon

text: Gambon made his professional stage debut in the Gate Theatre's 1962 production of "Othello", playing "Second Gentleman", followed by a European tour. A year later, auditioning with the opening soliloquy from "Richard III", he caught the eye of Laurence Olivier who was recruiting promising actors for his new National Theatre Company. Gambon, along with Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi and Frank Finlay, were hired as one of the "to be renowned" and played any number of small roles, appearing on cast lists as "Mike Gambon". The company initially performed at the Old Vic, their first production being "Hamlet", directed by Olivier and starring Peter O'Toole. Gambon played for four years in many NT productions, including named roles in "The Recruiting Officer" and "The Royal Hunt of the Sun", working with directors William Gaskill and John Dexter.


title: Michael Gambon

text: After three years at The Old Vic, Olivier advised Gambon to gain experience in provincial rep. In 1967, he left the National Theatre for the Birmingham Repertory Company, which was to give him his first crack at the title roles in "Othello" (his favourite), "Macbeth" and "Coriolanus".


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 1974, Eric Thompson cast him as the melancholy vet in Alan Ayckbourn's "The Norman Conquests" at Greenwich. A speedy transfer to the West End established him as a comic actor, squatting at a crowded dining table on a tiny chair and agonising over a choice between black or white coffee. Back at the National, now on the South Bank, his next turning point was Peter Hall's premiere staging of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal", a performance marked by subtlety – a production photograph shows him embracing Penelope Wilton with sensitive hands and long slim fingers (the touch of a master clock-maker). He is also one of the few actors to have mastered the demands of the vast Olivier Theatre. As Simon Callow once said: "Gambon's iron lungs and overwhelming charisma are able to command a sort of operatic full-throatedness which triumphs over hard walls and long distances".


title: Michael Gambon

text: Gambon's powerful voice and presence were to serve him in good stead in John Dexter's masterly staging of "The Life of Galileo" by Bertolt Brecht at the National Theatre in 1980, the first Brecht’s play to become a popular success. Hall called him "unsentimental, dangerous and immensely powerful," and "The Sunday Times" called his performance "a decisive step in the direction of great tragedy... great acting," while fellow actors paid him the rare compliment of applauding him in the dressing room on the first night.


title: Michael Gambon

text: The National Theatre staged revival "A View from the Bridge" in 1987 at the Cottesloe Theatre. It was directed by Alan Ayckbourn and Gambon gave an acclaimed performance as Eddie. "The Guardian" said "In the first place it shows Michael Gambon shaking hands with greatness."


title: Michael Gambon

text: Ralph Richardson dubbed him "The Great Gambon", an accolade which stuck, although Gambon dismisses it as a circus slogan. But as Sheridan Morley perceptively remarked in 2000, when reviewing Nicholas Wright's "Cressida": "Gambon's eccentricity on stage now begins to rival that of his great mentor Richardson". Also like Richardson, interviews are rarely given and raise more questions than they answer. Gambon is a very private person, a "non-starry star" as Ayckbourn has called him. Off-stage he prefers to stay out of the limelight. While he has won screen acclaim, his ravaged "King Lear" at Stratford, while he was still in his early forties, formed a double act with a red-nosed Antony Sher as the Fool sitting on his master's knee like a ventriloquist's doll.


title: Michael Gambon

text: There were also appearances in Harold Pinter's "Old Times" at the Haymarket Theatre and Ben Jonson's "Volpone" and the brutal sergeant in Pinter's "Mountain Language". In 1995, Gambon starred in David Hare's "Skylight", with Lia Williams, which opened to rave reviews at the National Theatre. The play transferred first to Wyndham's Theatre and then on to Broadway for a four-month run which left him in a state of advanced exhaustion. ""Skylight" was ten times as hard to play as anything I've ever done" he told Michael Owen in the "Evening Standard". "I had a great time in New York, but wanted to return." Gambon received his only Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play.


title: Michael Gambon

text: Gambon was not among the actors to grace Yasmina Reza's "'Art'" at Wyndham's. But together with Simon Russell Beale and Alan Bates, he gave a droll radio account of the role of Marc. And for the RSC he shared Reza's two-hander "The Unexpected Man" with Eileen Atkins, first at The Pit in the Barbican and then at the Duchess Theatre, a production also intended for New York, but finally delayed by other commitments.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2001, he played what he described as "'a physically repulsive" Davies in Patrick Marber's revival of Pinter's "The Caretaker", but he found the rehearsal period an unhappy experience, and felt that he had let down the author. A year later, playing opposite Daniel Craig, he portrayed the father of a series of cloned sons in Caryl Churchill's "A Number" at the Royal Court, remembered for a recumbent moment when he smoked a cigarette, the brightly lit spiral of smoke rising against a black backdrop, an effect which he dreamt up during rehearsals.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2004, Gambon played the lead role (Hamm) in Samuel Beckett's post-apocalyptic play "Endgame" at the Albery Theatre, London. In 2005, he finally achieved a lifelong ambition to play Falstaff, in Nicholas Hytner's National production of "Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2", co-starring with Matthew Macfadyen as Prince Hal.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2006, he performed as Joe in Beckett's "Eh Joe", giving two performances a night at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. That same year, he played Henry in Stephen Rea's play about Samuel Beckett's "Embers" for Radio 3. In 2007, he was Sam in Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming" for Radio 3.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2008, Gambon appeared in the role of Hirst in "No Man's Land" by Harold Pinter in the Gate Theatre, Dublin, opposite David Bradley as Spooner, in a production directed by Rupert Goold, which transferred to the London West End's Duke of York's Theatre, for which roles each received nominations for the 2009 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. After Pinter's death on 24 December 2008, Gambon read Hirst's monologue selected by the playwright for Gambon to read at his funeral, held on 31 December 2008, during the cast's memorial remarks from the stage as well as at the funeral and also in "Words and Music", transmitted on the BBC Radio 3 on 22 February 2009.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In late 2009, Gambon had to withdraw from his role of W. H. Auden in "The Habit of Art" (being replaced by Richard Griffiths) because of ill health. In April 2010, Gambon returned once again to the Gate Theatre Dublin to appear in Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape", which transferred to London's Duchess Theatre in October 2010.


title: Michael Gambon

text: Also in 2012, he starred with Eileen Atkins in an adaptation of Beckett's radio play, "All That Fall". The director, Trevor Nunn, staged the performance as a studio recording of a radio play so that the cast performed with script in hand. Its premiere was at the Jermyn Street Theatre and it later transferred to the Arts Theatre. In November 2013 the production transferred to 59E59 Theaters in New York. In 2013, Gambon took part in the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the National Theatre.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In early 2015, Gambon announced that due to the increasing length of time it was taking him to memorise his lines, he was giving up stage work. He had previously tried using an earpiece and being given prompts by theatre staff, but found this unsatisfactory.


title: Michael Gambon

text: He made his film debut in the Laurence Olivier's "Othello" alongside Maggie Smith and Derek Jacobi in 1965. After his film debut, Gambon was asked by James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli to audition for the role in 1970, to replace George Lazenby. He continued acting in the British horror films "Nothing But the Night" (1973), and "The Beast Must Die" (1974). In 1985, he appeared in the British drama film "Turtle Diary" directed by John Irvin with a screenplay adapted by Harold Pinter. The film starred Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 1989, Gambon starred in the Peter Greenaway film "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover", which also starred Helen Mirren. He later starred as Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the Hungarian director Károly Makk's film "The Gambler" (1997) about the writing of Dostoyevsky's novella "The Gambler". In the 1990s he appeared in films such as, Barry Levinson's fantasy comedy "Toys" (1992), the period drama "Dancing at Lughnasa" (1998), the action film "Plunkett & Macleane" (1998), Michael Mann's political drama "The Insider" (1999), and Tim Burton's gothic horror film "Sleepy Hollow" (1999).


title: Michael Gambon

text: During the 2000s, Gambon appeared in several films including Robert Altman's murder mystery ensemble "Gosford Park". In 2003, he appeared with Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner, playing the principal villain in the Western film "Open Range".


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2004, he appeared in five films, including Wes Anderson's cult comedy "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"; the British gangster film "Layer Cake"; and theatrical drama "Being Julia".


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2007, Gambon appeared in Michael Apted's historical drama "Amazing Grace" alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Romola Garai, Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Finney, Rufus Sewell. The film focuses on William Wilberforce who led the campaign against the slave trade in the British Empire. The film is Certified Fresh according to Rotten Tomatoes with critics consensus describing the film as "your quintessential historical biopic: stately, noble, and with plenty of electrifying performances." That same year, he played major roles the acclaimed BBC five-part adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's "Cranford" novels alongside Judi Dench, and Imelda Staunton and in Stephen Poliakoff's "Joe's Palace".


title: Michael Gambon

text: His best-known role is perhaps that of Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster in the third instalment of J. K. Rowling's franchise, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", taking over the role after the death of Richard Harris. (Harris had also played Maigret on television four years before Gambon took that role.) Gambon reprised the role of Dumbledore in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", which was released in November 2005 in the United Kingdom and the United States. He returned to the role again in the fifth film, 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", and the sixth film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". He appeared in the seventh and final film; "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2", released in two parts in 2010 and 2011. Gambon told an interviewer that, when playing Dumbledore, he does not "have to play anyone really. I just stick on a beard and play me, so it's no great feat. I never ease into a role—every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. I'm not really a character actor at all.'"


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2010, Gambon appeared in Tom Hooper's historical drama "The King's Speech" as King George V, alongside Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, and Guy Pearce. In 2011, the film received 12 Academy Awards nominations, more than any other film in that year. The film won four Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2012, he played a role in Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut with "Quartet", based on the same-titled play by Ronald Harwood and starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival to favourable reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 80% approval rating with the consensus reading, "It's sweet, gentle, and predictable to a fault, but Dustin Hoffman's affectionate direction and the talented cast's amiable charm make Quartet too difficult to resist."


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2016, Gambon was the narrator for the Coen Brothers' Hollywood comedy "Hail, Caesar!", which satirized the 1950s Hollywood film industry and featured an ensemble cast including Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Channing Tatum. The film was well received by critics, earning an approval rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus being, "Packed with period detail and perfectly cast, "Hail, Caesar!" finds the Coen brothers delivering an agreeably lightweight love letter to post-war Hollywood." The film also received an Academy Award nomination for its Production Design. He found the role opposite Bill Nighy, Toby Jones and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the war comedy film "Dad's Army" (2016), based on the television sitcom of the same name. Gambon has also provided voiceovers as Uncle Pastuzo in the "Paddington" films (2014, 2018). The films star Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Imelda Staunton, Brendan Gleeson, Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 2019, he appeared in the biographical film "Judy", about Judy Garland, starring Renée Zellweger, Rufus Sewell, Finn Wittrock and Jessie Buckley. That same year Gambon appeared in Adrian Shergold's period thriller "Cordelia", acting alongside Johnny Flynn and Catherine McCormack.


title: Michael Gambon

text: In 1967, he made his television debut in the BBC television adaptation of "Much Ado About Nothing" as Watchman No. 4. He also appeared in British programs such as "Softly, Softly" (1967), and "Public Eye" (1968). From 1968 to 1970, he featured in the BBC historical series "The Borderers" as Gavin Kerr. He also had a recurring role in the Canadian series "The Challengers" (1972). He also appeared in drama anthology series including "Play for Today", "Play of the Month", and "ITV Playhouse".


title: Michael Gambon

text: His craggy looks soon made him into a character actor. For his lead role in Dennis Potter's "The Singing Detective" (1986) he won his first British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. He starred as detective Inspector Jules Maigret in an ITV adaptation of twelve of Georges Simenon's books. In 1990, he played Jerry in Harold Pinter's "Betrayal" for BBC Radio 3. In 1991, he starred as Tommy Hanbury in an episode of the ITV series "Minder" called "Look Who's Coming To Pinner". He also appeared in the BBC serial "Wives and Daughters" (1999) based on the Victorian novel by the same name by Elizabeth Gaskell. He portrayed Squire Hamley and received his second BAFTA Award nomination and win for Best Actor.