title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: After God informs Moses of the Hebrews fallen into debauchery, the latter descends from the mountain with Joshua. Enraged at the sight of decadence he deems the Hebrews unworthy, and smashes the tablets at the golden calf, which explodes, killing the wicked revelers, and causing the others to wander in the wilderness for forty years. An elderly Moses later leads the Hebrews towards Canaan. However, he cannot enter the Promised land due to a mentioned previous disobedience to the Lord. He instead names Joshua as leader, and bids farewell to the Hebrews at Mount Nebo.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The final shooting script was written by Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse L. Lasky, Jr., Jack Gariss, and Fredric M. Frank. It also contained material from the books "Prince of Egypt" by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, "Pillar of Fire" by Joseph Holt Ingraham, and "On Eagle's Wings" by Arthur Eustace Southon. Henry Noerdlinger, the film's researcher, consulted ancient historical texts such as the Midrash Rabbah, Philo's "Life of Moses", and the writings of Josephus and Eusebius, in order to "fill in" the missing years of Moses' life, and, as the film's last opening title card states, "the Holy Scriptures".


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: During the early stages of pre-production, DeMille considered casting a middle-aged man in the role of Moses. He offered the part to quinquagenarian actor and Hopalong Cassidy star William Boyd, but Boyd turned it down because he felt his cowboy fame would interfere with his portrayal of Moses. Charlton Heston, who had previously worked with DeMille in "The Greatest Show on Earth", finally won the role after he impressed DeMille (at his audition) with his knowledge of ancient Egypt and his strong resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses. Heston was also chosen to be the voice of God in the form of a burning bush, toned down to a softer and lower register.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: DeMille described the role of Rameses II as "a part equal in dramatic strength to that of Moses". Rory Calhoun, Jeff Chandler, Anthony Dexter, Mel Ferrer, Stewart Granger, William Holden, and Michael Rennie were considered to play the film's leading antagonist. DeMille saw Yul Brynner in the Broadway musical "The King and I", and went backstage to meet him. He told Brynner the story of the film from Rameses' point of view, and offered him the role.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Columnist Louella Parsons regarded the part of Nefretiri as "the most sought-after role of the year". Ann Blyth, Vanessa Brown, Joan Evans, Rhonda Fleming, Coleen Gray, Jane Griffiths, Audrey Hepburn, Jean Marie, Vivien Leigh, Jane Russell, and Joan Taylor were considered to portray the film's leading female character. DeMille liked Audrey Hepburn, but ruled her out when he noticed her figure was not curvaceous enough for Nefretiri's extravagant costumes. Anne Baxter was cast in the role. "There was only one DeMille, and there wasn't an actor in the world who didn't want to work for him just once, however short the salary or tall the corn", she wrote in her memoir.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Many actors were considered for the role of the evil overseer Dathan, including Raymond Burr, Lee J. Cobb, Leo Genn, Victor Jory, Fredric March, Raymond Massey, Stephen McNally, Gary Merrill, Arnold Moss, Robert Newton, Hugh O'Brian, Jack Palance, Eric Pohlmann, Basil Rathbone, Dale Robertson, Robert Ryan, George Sanders, Everett Sloane, and Peter Ustinov. DeMille was enthusiastic about Jack Palance as Dathan, but Palance's agent angered DeMille when he stole a part of the script and demanded that the part be rewritten. Raymond Massey was signed for the role, but later turned it down. DeMille then chose Edward G. Robinson, who was blacklisted in Hollywood. In his autobiography, Robinson remembered, "Mr. DeMille ... felt I had been done an injustice, and told his people to offer me the part. Cecil B. DeMille returned me to films. Cecil B. DeMille restored my self-respect."


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The name of Moses' wife, Zipporah, was changed to "Sephora", the spelling that appears in the Douay–Rheims Bible. Judith Ames, Anne Bancroft, Anne Baxter, Shirley Booth, Diane Brewster, Peggie Castle, June Clayworth, Linda Darnell, Laura Elliot, Rhonda Fleming, Rita Gam, Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Green, Barbara Hale, Allison Hayes, Frances Lansing, Patricia Neal, Marie Palmer, Jean Peters, Ruth Roman, Barbara Rush, and Elizabeth Sellars were considered for the part. Grace Kelly, DeMille's first choice, was unavailable. DeMille was "very much impressed" with Yvonne De Carlo's performance as a "saintly type of woman" in MGM's "Sombrero". He "sensed in her a depth, an emotional power, a womanly strength which the part of Sephora needed and which she gave it".


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: DeMille considered Pier Angeli, Vanessa Brown, Pat Crowley, Piper Laurie, Irene Montwill, Lori Nelson, Cathy O'Donnell, Jean Peters, Donna Reed, Karen Sharpe, and Elaine Stewart for the part of the Hebrew water girl, Lilia. He wanted to cast Pier Angeli in the role, but MGM refused to loan their contract star to Paramount. Debra Paget was loaned from 20th Century-Fox.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Jeff Chandler, Tony Curtis, Vince Edwards, Eric Fleming, Arthur Franz, Rock Hudson, Brian Keith, Cameron Mitchell, George Nader, Jack Palance, Michael Pate, Richard Todd, Clint Walker, and Cornel Wilde were considered for the role of the stonecutter Joshua. DeMille's first choice was Wilde, who had worked with him in "The Greatest Show on Earth". Wilde's casting was widely mentioned in the press. DeMille later remarked, "Cornel Wilde declined the role ... thus giving John Derek his opportunity for a noteworthy performance."


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Claudette Colbert (the star of DeMille's "Cleopatra"), Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Rosemary DeCamp, Irene Dunne, Merle Oberon, and Alexis Smith were considered for the role of Bithiah, before DeMille chose Jayne Meadows (who declined) and finally cast Nina Foch, on the suggestion of Henry Wilcoxon, who had worked with her in "Scaramouche".


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: For the role of Memnet, Flora Robson was considered, and Bette Davis was interviewed (DeMille's casting journal also notes Marjorie Rambeau and Marie Windsor), but DeMille chose Judith Anderson after screening Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca".


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Heston's newborn son, Fraser (born February 12, 1955), was cast by DeMille (on the suggestion of Henry Wilcoxon, who said to him: "The timing's just right. If it's a boy, who better to play the Baby Moses?") as soon as Heston announced to DeMille that his wife Lydia was pregnant. Fraser Heston was three months old during filming.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: DeMille was reluctant to cast anyone who had appeared in 20th Century Fox's "The Egyptian", a rival production at the time. Several exceptions to this are the casting of John Carradine and Mimi Gibson (in credited supporting roles) and Michael Ansara and Peter Coe (in uncredited minor roles), who appeared in both films.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: For the large crowd shots, at least 14,000 extras and 15,000 animals were used while filming "The Ten Commandments".


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Commentary for the film's DVD edition chronicles the historical research done by DeMille and associates.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The man who designed Moses' distinctive rust-white-and-black-striped robe used those colors because they looked impressive, and only later discovered that these are the actual colors of the Tribe of Levi. Arnold Friberg would later state that he was the one who designed Moses' costume. As a gift, after the production, DeMille gave Moses' robe to Friberg, who had it in his possession until his death in 2010. Moses' robe as worn by Charlton Heston was hand-woven by Dorothea Hulse, one of the world's finest weavers. She also created costumes for "The Robe", as well as textiles and costume fabrics for "Samson and Delilah", "David and Bathsheba", and others.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Jesse Lasky Jr., a co-writer on "The Ten Commandments", described how DeMille would customarily spread out prints of paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema to inform his set designers on the look he wanted to achieve. Arnold Friberg, in addition to designing sets and costumes, also contributed the manner in which Moses ordained Joshua to his mission at the end of the film: by the laying on of hands, placing his hands on Joshua's head. Friberg, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, demonstrated the LDS manner of performing such ordinations, and DeMille liked it.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The Pharaoh is usually shown wearing the red-and-white crown of Upper and Lower Egypt or the nemes royal headdress. For his pursuit of the Israelites, he wears the blue Khepresh helmet-crown, which the pharaohs wore for battle.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Sets, costumes and props from the film "The Egyptian" were bought and re-used for "The Ten Commandments"—including the red-and-white double crown. As the events in "The Egyptian" take place 70 years before the reign of Rameses II, an unintentional sense of continuity was created.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: An Egyptian wall painting was also the source for the lively dance performed by a circle of young women at Sethi's birthday gala. Their movements and costumes are based on art from the Tomb of the Sixth Dynasty Grand Vizier Mehu.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Some of the film's cast members, such as Baxter, Paget, Derek, and Foch, wore brown contact lenses, at the behest of DeMille, in order to conceal their light-colored eyes which were considered inadequate for their roles. Paget once said that, "If it hadn't been for the lenses I wouldn't have got the part." However, she also said that the lenses were "awful to work in because the kleig lights heat them up". When DeMille cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, she was worried about having to wear these contact lenses; she also believed that her gray eyes were her best feature. She asked DeMille to make an exception for her. He agreed, expressing the idea that De Carlo's role was special, and that Moses was to fall in love with her.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The Exodus set was a duplicated set from the 1923 film. It was built outside Cairo, Egypt, and was designed by Egyptian architect El Dine. Inside the set were a mess tent, a wardrobe department, and a stable for horses. The Golden Calf prop is also a duplicate from the film, likely on its kneeled position with a few modifications.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The special photographic effects in "The Ten Commandments" were created by John P. Fulton, A.S.C. (who received an Oscar for his effects in the film), head of the special effects department at Paramount Pictures, assisted by Paul Lerpae, A.S.C. in Optical Photography (blue screen "travelling matte" composites) and Farciot Edouart, A.S.C., in Process Photography (rear projection effects). Fulton's effects included the building of Seti's Jubilee treasure city, the Burning Bush, the fiery hail from a cloudless sky, the Angel of Death, the composites of the Exodus, the Pillar of Fire, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the tour de force, the parting of the Red Sea.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The parting of the Red Sea was considered the most difficult special effect ever performed up to that time. This effect took about six months of VistaVision filming, and combined scenes shot on the shores of the Red Sea in Egypt, with scenes filmed at Paramount Studios in Hollywood of a huge water tank split by a U-shaped trough, into which approximately 360,000 gallons of water were released from the sides, as well as the filming of a giant waterfall also built on the Paramount backlot to create the effect of the walls of the parted sea out of the turbulent backwash. All of the multiple elements of the shot were then combined in Paul Lerpae's optical printer, and matte paintings of rocks by Jan Domela concealed the matte lines between the real elements and the special effects elements. The parting of the Red Sea sequence is considered by many to be one of the greatest special effects of all time.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Unlike the technique used by ILM for "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and ""Poltergeist"" of injecting poster paints into a glass tank containing a salt water inversion layer, the cloud effects for "The Ten Commandments" were formed with white Britt smoke filmed against a translucent sky backing, and colors were added optically. Striking portraits of Charlton Heston as Moses and three women in front of menacing clouds were photographed by Wallace Kelly, A.S.C. in Farciot Edouart's process (rear projection) department, in what are still considered unforgettable scenes. DeMille used these scenes to break up the montage, framing his subjects like a Renaissance master.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: DeMille was reluctant to discuss technical details of how the film was made, especially the optical tricks used in the parting of the Red Sea. It was eventually revealed that footage of the Red Sea was spliced with film footage (run in reverse) of water pouring from large U-shaped trip-tanks set up in the studio backlot.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The voice of God in the burning bush scene was provided by Charlton Heston, but the voice of God in the tablet-giving scene was provided by a voice actor with a deep bass voice, Jesse Delos Jewkes, who was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Additionally, Jewkes' voice was enhanced by the use of the vox humana stop of the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ. De Mille, who was good friends with LDS church president David O. McKay, asked for and received permission to record the organ from President McKay.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The score for "The Ten Commandments" was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein. Initially, DeMille hired Bernstein, then a relatively unknown film composer, to write and record only the diegetic music required for the film's dance sequences and other onscreen musical passages, with the intention of employing frequent collaborator Victor Young to write the score proper. However, Young turned down the assignment due to his own failing health, causing DeMille to hire Bernstein to write the underscore as well.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: In total, Bernstein composed two and a half hours of music for the film, writing for a full symphony orchestra augmented with various ethnic and unusual instruments such as the shofar, the tiple, and the theremin. The score is written in a highly Romantic style, featuring unique musical leitmotifs for the film's characters (God, Moses, Rameses, Nefretiri, Dathan, Sephora, Lilia, Joshua, etc.) used in a manner inspired, at DeMille's direction, by the opera scores of Richard Wagner. Bernstein recorded both the diegetic music and the score at the Paramount Studios Recording Stage in sessions spread from April 1955 to August 1956.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: A double-LP monaural soundtrack album was released in 1957 by Dot Records, utilizing excerpts from the original film recordings. A stereo version of the 1957 album was released in 1960 containing new recordings conducted by Bernstein, as the original film recordings, while recorded in three-channel stereo, were not properly balanced for an LP stereo release, as the intent at the time of recording had been to mix the film masters to mono for the film soundtrack itself; this recording was later issued on CD by MCA Classics in 1989. For the film's tenth anniversary, United Artists Records released a second stereo re-recording in 1966, also conducted by Bernstein and employing different orchestral arrangements unique to this release.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: For the film's 60th anniversary, Intrada Records released a six-CD album of the score in 2016. The Intrada release contains the complete two and a half hour score as originally recorded by Bernstein, with much of it remixed in true stereo for the first time. In addition, the 2016 release contains all the diegetic music recorded for the film, the original 1957 Dot album (in mono), the 1960 Dot album (in stereo), and the 1966 United Artists album, as well a 12-minute recording of Bernstein auditioning his thematic ideas for DeMille on the piano. The box set won the IFMCA Award for Best New Archival Release – Re-Release or Re-Recording of an Existing Score.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Cecil B. DeMille promoted the film by placing Ten Commandment monuments as a publicity stunt for the film in cities across the United States. "The Ten Commandments" premiered at New York City's Criterion Theatre on November 8, 1956. Among those who attended the premiere were Cecil B. DeMille and his eldest child, Cecilia DeMille Harper; Charlton Heston and his wife, Lydia Clarke; Yul Brynner; Anne Baxter; Edward G. Robinson; Yvonne De Carlo and her husband, Bob Morgan; Martha Scott and her husband, Mel Powell, and son, Carleton Alsop; William Holden and his wife, Brenda Marshall; John Wayne and his wife, Pilar Pallete; Tony Curtis and his wife, Janet Leigh; and Paramount Pictures president Barney Balaban. It played on a roadshow basis with reserved seating until mid-1958, when it finally entered general release.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: "The Ten Commandments" was re-released in 1966 and 1972, and one more time in 1989. The 1972 and 1989 re-issues included 70mm and 35mm prints that reframed the picture's aspect ratio to 2.20:1 and 2.39:1, respectively, cropping the top and bottom of the picture's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. "The Ten Commandments" was released on DVD on March 30, 1999; March 9, 2004, as a Special Collector's Edition; and March 29, 2011, as a Special edition and Standard edition. The Ten Commandments received a 4K UHD Blu-Ray release on March 30, 2021.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: "The Ten Commandments" was the highest-grossing film of 1956, and the second most successful film of the decade. By April 1957, the film had earned an unprecedented $10 million from engagements at just eighty theaters, averaging about $1 million per week, with more than seven million people paying to watch it. It played for 70 weeks at the Criterion Theatre in New York, grossing $2.7 million. During its initial release, it earned theater rentals (the distributor's share of the box office gross) of $31.3 million in North America, and $23.9 million from the foreign markets, for a total of $55.2 million (equating to approximately $122.7 million in ticket sales). It was hugely profitable for its era, earning a net profit of $18,500,000, against a production budget of $13.27 million (the most a film had cost up to that point).


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: By the time of its withdrawal from distribution at the end of 1960, "The Ten Commandments" had overtaken "Gone with the Wind" at the box office in the North American territory, and mounted a serious challenge in the global market—the worldwide takings for "Gone with the Wind" were reported to stand at $59 million at the time. "Gone with the Wind" would be re-released the following year as part of the American Civil War Centennial, and re-asserted its supremacy at the box office by reclaiming the US record. Also at this time, "Ben-Hur"—another biblical epic starring Charlton Heston, released at the end of 1959—would go on to eclipse "The Ten Commandments" at the box office. A 1966 re-issue earned $6,000,000, and further re-releases brought the total American theater rentals to $43 million, equivalent to gross ticket sales of $89 million at the box office. Globally, it ultimately collected $90,066,230 in revenues up to 1979.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: It remains one of the most popular films ever made. Adjusted for inflation, it has earned a box office gross equivalent to $2 billion at 2011 prices, according to "Guinness World Records"; only "Gone with the Wind" (1939), "Avatar" (2009), "Star Wars" (1977), "Titanic" (1997), "The Sound of Music" (1965), and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) have generated higher grosses in constant dollars. "The Ten Commandments" is estimated to have sold 262million tickets at the worldwide box office.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: "The Ten Commandments" received generally positive reviews after its release, although some reviewers noted its divergence from the biblical text. Bosley Crowther for "The New York Times" was among those who lauded DeMille's work, acknowledging that "in its remarkable settings and décor, including an overwhelming facade of the Egyptian city from which the Exodus begins, and in the glowing Technicolor in which the picture is filmed—Mr. DeMille has worked photographic wonders". "Variety" described the "scenes of the greatness that was Egypt, and Hebrews by the thousands under the whip of the taskmasters" as "striking", and believed that the film "hits the peak of beauty with a sequence that is unelaborate, this being the Passover supper wherein Moses is shown with his family while the shadow of death falls on Egyptian first-borns".


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: James Powers of "The Hollywood Reporter" declared the film to be "the summit of screen achievement. It is not just a great and powerful motion picture, although it is that; it is also a new human experience. If there were but one print of this Paramount picture, the place of its showing would be the focus of a world-wide pilgrimage." Philip K. Scheuer, reviewing for the "Los Angeles Times", declared the film served as "almost as a religious experience as it is a theatrical one. C. B. remains, at 75, the ablest living director of spectacle in the grand manner. His production measures up to the best for which his admirers have hoped—and far from the worst that his detractors expected. That old-time religion has a new look."


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The film's cast was also complimented. "Variety" called Charlton Heston an "adaptable performer" who, as Moses, reveals "inner glow as he is called by God to remove the chains of slavery that hold his people". Powers felt that Heston was "splendid, handsome, and princely (and human) in the scenes dealing with him as a young man, and majestic and terrible as his role demands it. He is the great Michelangelo conception of Moses, but rather as the inspiration for the sculptor might have been than as a derivation." "Variety" also considered Yul Brynner to be an "expert" as Rameses, too. Anne Baxter's performance as Nefretiri was criticized by "Variety" as leaning "close to old-school siren histrionics", but Crowther believed that it, along with Brynner's, is "unquestionably apt and complementary to a lusty and melodramatic romance". The performances of Yvonne De Carlo and John Derek were acclaimed by Crowther as "notably good". He also commended the film's "large cast of characters" as "very good, from Sir Cedric Hardwicke as a droll and urbane Pharaoh to Edward G. Robinson as a treacherous overlord".


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Leonard Maltin, a contemporary film critic, gave the film four out of four stars, and described it as "vivid storytelling at its best... Parting of the Red Sea, writing of the holy tablets are unforgettable highlights." The critic Camille Paglia has called "The Ten Commandments" one of the ten greatest films of all time.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected 44 reviews, and reported that 84% of critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Bombastic and occasionally silly, but extravagantly entertaining, Cecil B. DeMille's all-star spectacular is a muscular retelling of the great Bible story."


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: "The Ten Commandments" was included in three lists of the American Film Institute's AFI 100 Years... series:


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Critics have argued that considerable liberties were taken with the biblical story of Exodus, compromising the film's claim to authenticity, but neither this nor its nearly four-hour length has had any effect on its popularity. In fact, many of the supposed inaccuracies were actually adopted by DeMille from extra-biblical ancient sources, such as Josephus, the Sepher ha-Yashar, and the Chronicle of Moses. Moses's career in Ethiopia, for instance, is based on ancient midrashim. For decades, a showing of "The Ten Commandments" was a popular fundraiser among revivalist Christian Churches, while the film was equally treasured by film buffs for DeMille's "cast of thousands" approach and the heroic acting.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: I like De Mille: his theatricality, his images. I've seen The Ten Commandments maybe forty or fifty times. Forget the story - you've got to - and concentrate on the special effects, and the texture, and the color. For example: The figure of God, killing the first-born child, is a green smoke; then on the terrace, while they're talking, a green dry ice just touches the heel of George Reeves or somebody, and he dies. Then there's the reel Red Sea, and the lamb's blood of the Passover. De Mille presented a fantasy, dream-like quality on film that was so real, if you saw his movies as a child, they stuck with you for life.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: "The Ten Commandments" has been released on DVD in the United States on four occasions: the first edition (Widescreen Collection) was released on March 30, 1999, as a two-disc set, the second edition (Special Collector's Edition) was released on March 9, 2004, as a two-disc set with commentary by Katherine Orrison, the third edition (50th Anniversary Collection) was released on March 21, 2006, as a three-disc set with the 1923 version and special features, and the fourth edition (55th Anniversary Edition) was released on DVD again in a two-disc set on March 29, 2011, and for the first time on Blu-ray in a two-disc set and a six-disc limited edition gift set with the 1923 version and DVD copies. In 2012, the limited edition gift set won the Home Media Award for Best Packaging (Paramount Pictures and Johns Byrne). In March 2021, a UHD Blu-ray was released. Using the 2010 6K scans, Paramount spent over 150 hours on new color work and clean-up.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: "The Ten Commandments" was first broadcast on the ABC network on February 18, 1973, and has aired annually on the network since then, with the exception of 1999, traditionally during the Passover and Easter holidays. Since 2006 the network has typically aired "The Ten Commandments" on the Saturday night prior to Easter, with the broadcast starting at 7:00 p.m. in the Eastern and Pacific Time Zones and 6:00 p.m. in the Central, Mountain, Alaska and Hawaii Time Zones. (Exceptions occurred in 2020 when the film aired prior to Palm Sunday, which that year was April 4, due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and in 2022, when the film aired on April 9, the Saturday before Palm Sunday, due to an NBA game telecast scheduled on the night before Easter the following week.) The film is one of only two pre-scheduled "ABC Saturday Movies of the Week" every year, the other being "The Sound of Music".


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Unlike many lengthy films of the day, which were usually broken up into separate airings over at least two nights, ABC elected to show "The Ten Commandments" in one night and has done so every year it has carried the film, with one exception; in 1997, ABC elected to split the movie in two and aired half of it in its normal Easter Sunday slot, which that year was March 30, with the second half airing on Monday, March 31 as counterprogramming to the other networks' offerings, which included CBS' coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: The length of the film combined with the necessary advertisement breaks has caused its broadcast window to vary over the years; today, ABC's total run time for "The Ten Commandments" stands at four hours and 44 minutes, just above one hour longer than its three-hour and 39-minute length. This requires the network to overrun into the 11:00 p.m./10:00 p.m. timeslot that belongs to the local affiliates, thus delaying their late local news and any other programming they may air in the overnight hours. Affiliates may also delay the film to the usual start of prime time at 8:00 p.m./7:00 p.m. to keep their schedules in line for early evening, at the cost of further delaying their local newscasts or forgoing them entirely.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: In 2010, the film was broadcast in high definition for the first time, which allowed the television audience to see it in its original 1.66:1 VistaVision aspect ratio. It is also broadcast with its original Spanish language dub over the second audio program channel. In 2015, for the first time in several years, the network undertook a one-off airing of the film on Easter Sunday night, which fell on April 5.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: Many of ABC's telecasts omit Cecil B. DeMille's opening prologue, objectionable scenes, and musical elements (Overture, Entr’acte, and Exit Music) seen in the theatrical release.


title: The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

text: In the Philippines, the film is traditionally aired every Holy Week since it premiered on April 1, 2015, on GMA Network, either cut for time or in full, and dubbed in Filipino.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Patrick Joseph Leahy (; born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who is the senior United States senator from Vermont and serves as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, Leahy was first elected in 1974 and is in his eighth term. He is the chair of the Appropriations Committee, and served as president pro tempore from 2012 to 2015 and again since 2021.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Upon Representative Don Young's death in March 2022, he became the most senior member of Congress. Leahy is also the last of the Senate's "Watergate Babies"—Democrats first elected to Congress in the wave election of 1974 that followed President Richard Nixon's resignation over the Watergate scandal. , Leahy is one of three members of Congress to have served during Gerald Ford's presidency and one of eight to have served during Jimmy Carter's.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: The dean of his state's congressional delegation, Leahy is Vermont's longest-serving U.S. senator, as well as the first Democrat ever elected to the U.S. Senate from Vermont. He is the former chairman of the Agriculture and Judiciary committees. He served as the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee from 2017 to 2021 and became chairman in 2021. In 2001, Leahy, along with then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, was targeted by the anthrax attacks that killed five people. He was the presiding officer at Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, becoming the first senator to preside over a former president's impeachment trial.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: On November 15, 2021, Leahy announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022. He will be succeeded by fellow Democrat Peter Welch, who will become the second Democrat to represent Vermont in the Senate.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy was born in Montpelier, Vermont, the son of Alba (née Zambon) and Howard Francis Leahy. He has been legally blind in his left eye since birth. Leahy's maternal grandparents were Italian, and his father was of Irish ancestry; some of his ancestors came to Vermont in the 19th century to work at the granite quarries and manufacturing plants in Barre Town and Barre City. The Leahys ran a printing business across from the Vermont State House, and were also the publishers of the "Waterbury Record" newspaper. Leahy attended the parochial schools of Montpelier, and graduated from Montpelier's St. Michael's High School in 1957.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In 1961, Leahy graduated from Saint Michael's College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government. While attending college, Leahy was a member of the National Federation of Catholic College Students. He was also involved with the Knights of Columbus, the Saint Michael's College Glee Club, and the school's pre-law society and politics club. He was active with the Reserve Officers' Training Corps rifle team, and was a member of the varsity rifle team. He was also on the staff of "The Shield", the Saint Michael's College yearbook and WSSE, the school's AM radio station. In 1964, Leahy received his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center. While in law school, Leahy was active in the Phi Delta Phi legal honor society. In addition, Leahy participated in Georgetown Law's Legal Aid Society and Legal Argument Program. He was also a representative to the school's Student Bar Association.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy was admitted to the bar soon after his law school graduation and became an associate at the Burlington firm headed by Philip H. Hoff, then serving as governor of Vermont. In January 1965, Leahy was appointed as an assistant to Lewis E. Springer Jr., the legislative draftsman for the Vermont General Assembly. While working for Hoff's firm, Leahy was also appointed as Burlington's assistant city attorney.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In May 1966, Hoff appointed Leahy State's Attorney of Chittenden County after the incumbent resigned. Leahy was elected to a full term in 1966 and reelected in 1970. His service as state's attorney was notable for his participation in the sting operation that caught Paul Lawrence, an undercover police officer for numerous departments in Vermont. Lawrence falsely claimed to have purchased illegal drugs from several people, resulting in numerous convictions based on his perjury.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy originally aspired to the governorship, but in 1974 ran for the United States Senate. He ran in the wake of the Watergate scandal that had resulted in President Richard Nixon's resignation in August of that year, won a close race against Republican Congressman Richard W. Mallary, and succeeded the retiring George Aiken. At age 34, Leahy was the youngest U.S. senator in Vermont history and the first non-Republican senator from Vermont since 1856. He is the only Democrat ever elected to the Senate from Vermont, and one of only three Democrats to represent Vermont in either house of Congress since the end of the Civil War. In 1980, Leahy defeated Republican Stewart Ledbetter by only 2,700 votes amid Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in the presidential election. In 1986, he faced what was on paper an even stronger challenger in former Governor Richard Snelling, but Leahy turned it back, taking 63 percent of the vote. In 1992, Secretary of State of Vermont Jim Douglas held him to 54 percent of the vote. Since then, Leahy has not faced a strong Republican challenger.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In May 1981, Leahy and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts requested that the Senate reject John Crowell Jr.'s nomination as Assistant Agriculture Secretary. Leahy said his opposition was "because documents have been uncovered since his approval by the Agriculture Committee which suggest that he was aware of and involved in the anti-competitive and monopolistic practices of his former employer." Leahy and Kennedy contended that Crowell concealed his involvement with Louisiana-Pacific, Panhandle Logging Company, and Ketchikan Spruce Mills during the confirmation process. Crowell was confirmed by the Senate. Later in October 1981, Leahy introduced an amendment that would have increased the enforcement budget for the Energy Department by $13 million. He called the Reagan administration's cuts to the enforcement budget "de facto amnesty" for violations made by alleged increases in prices for oil companies. The amendment was defeated in the Senate on October 28 by a vote of 48 to 43. On December 2, 1981, Leahy voted for an amendment to Reagan's MX missiles proposal that would divert the silo system by $334 million, as well as earmark further research for other methods that would allow giant missiles to be based. The vote was seen as a rebuff of the Reagan administration. In March 1982, Leahy was named to the Senate Select Committee to Study Law Enforcement Undercover Activities of the Department of Justice, an eight-member select committee formed to investigate undercover operations. The resolution introducing the committee was the result of Harrison A. Williams's resignation for his involvement in the Abscam sting operation. On December 23, 1982, Leahy voted for a five-cent per gallon increase on gasoline taxes across the U.S. to finance highway repairs and mass transit. The bill passed on the last day of the 97th United States Congress. On October 19, 1983, Leahy voted for a bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Reagan signed the legislation the next month. In March 1984, Leahy voted against a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing periods in public school for silent prayer, and against Reagan's unsuccessful proposal for a constitutional amendment permitting organized school prayer in public schools.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy was appointed chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee on January 3, 1987. During his tenure as vice-chair of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 1987, Leahy showed a news reporter an unclassified draft report on the Iran–Contra affair. At a press conference afterward, Leahy said, "Even though it was declassified, I was way too careless about it" and accepted blame. Disclosure of that information was against Intelligence Committee rules; Leahy said he hastened his already planned departure from the committee because he was so angry at himself. Later that year, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy said that if Reagan could not produce an acceptable Supreme Court nominee to replace Lewis F. Powell Jr., after Robert Bork was rejected and Douglas Ginsburg withdrew, Senate Democrats would refuse hearings for any nominee until after the 1988 presidential election. In May 1989, Leahy urged the Agriculture Department to withdraw the proposals regarding the reduction of federal inspections. In May 1990, he and Representative Dan Glickman introduced the Consumer Seafood Safety Act, a bill that would have strengthened fish inspections. Leahy has been active in the international effort to ban the production, export, and use of anti-personnel land mines. In 1992, he penned a bill to prohibit the export of land mines, the first law of its kind.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 1992, the George H. W. Bush administration and Israeli officials struggled to strike a deal that would entice both sides to proceed with a loan guarantee package. After a meeting between Secretary of State James Baker and Zalman Shoval failed to generate a compromise, Baker informed Leahy of the meeting's contents and Leahy announced that he would introduce his own plan if the U.S. and Israel could not come to an agreement in the following weeks. Later that month, the Bush administration announced the U.S. would present Israel with loan guarantees only if the Israeli government halted settlement building. Leahy supported the measure and introduced his own proposal that retained the $10 billion in loan guarantees, but "disbursed at a pace up to $2 billion a year for five years". On November 20, 1993, Leahy voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement linked the U.S., Canada, and Mexico into a single free trade zone, and was signed into law on December 8 by President Bill Clinton. Clinton publicly weighed reducing funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) by half. In March 1994, during a news conference, Leahy pledged that he would preserve funding for TEFAP, noting his 1987 lawsuit against Agriculture Secretary Richard Edmund Lyng and declaring that TEFAP maintained the same level of significance as it did then. In August 1994, Leahy attended a news conference with the health advocacy group Public Voice, as it urged the federal government to take more ambitious steps to increase the healthiness of school lunches. He praised the 41 schools involved with Public Voice for setting a good example for the rest of the country and cited the importance of school lunches to education. The 1994 midterm elections resulted in a Republican majority in the House for the first time since the 1950s, and conversation arose of limiting feeding programs. Leahy remarked, "Not since the Great Depression has the possibility of millions of children lining up at soup kitchens been so real." He cosponsored legislation with Indiana Republican Richard Lugar that led to the downsizing of the Agriculture Department. In December 1994, the department announced it was closing 1,274 field offices around the US, a scaling back that was estimated to save over $3 billion over the next five years. Leahy said the Agriculture Department was the only federal agency to succeed in its downsizing efforts and called on other agencies to follow its example. In 1994, Leahy introduced legislation to encourage schools to ban soft drinks and other food items of "minimal nutritional value", saying, "These vending profits go for good causes. But when it comes to vending machine junk food, it would be better to put pupils ahead of vending profits." The bill overcame opposition from The Coca-Cola Company and other representatives of the beverage industry, as well as some education organizations, and was enacted. In October 1999, Leahy voted for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The treaty was designed to ban underground nuclear testing and was the first major international security pact to be defeated in the Senate since the Treaty of Versailles.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: The 1998 United States Senate election in Vermont was noteworthy, in that Republican candidate Fred Tuttle endorsed Leahy. Tuttle was a retired farmer and the lead actor in the mock documentary film "Man with a Plan", shot in Vermont, in which a farmer decides to run for Congress. After winning the Republican nomination in a campaign designed both to promote the movie and to mock ostensible GOP frontrunner Jack McMullen, who had only recently moved to Vermont from Massachusetts, Tuttle recommended that voters support Leahy. Leahy was touched by this gesture; he and Tuttle made several joint appearances during the campaign, and Leahy said of Tuttle that he was the "distilled essence of Vermonthood".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center shifted American foreign policy focus to terrorism. In December 2006, during an appearance at the law school of Georgetown University, Leahy said that after the September 11 attacks, "the White House accelerated its power plays at the expense of the other branches of government, all in the name of fighting terrorism." He added that the administration had declined to answer "the legitimate oversight questions of the public's duly elected representatives", as well as broken the law by wiretapping Americans without warrants. On September 13, 2002, Leahy said in a radio interview that an investigation should be launched into whether the West Nile virus was a biological terrorism effort. During a July 1, 2007 interview, Leahy said he was not against lawful eavesdropping and recommended a revision to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act, so potential terrorists could be investigated without question. Leahy added that the White House had been subpoenaed, so George W. Bush administration officials could explain "the legal justification they tried to follow when, for years, they wiretapped ordinary Americans and everyone else put out a warrant." Leahy was one of two senators targeted in the 2001 anthrax attacks. The anthrax letter meant for him was intercepted before it reached his office. In 2004, Leahy was awarded the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Champion of Freedom Award, for efforts in information privacy and open government. He is regarded as one of the leading privacy advocates in Congress. In 2000, Leahy cosigned a letter sent to Appropriations Committee conference members, requesting a delay in implementing Section 304 in H.R. 4392, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, until it could be fully considered by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The amendment would introduce new felony crime laws, concerning the unauthorized disclosure of information. Leahy and his colleagues indicated this would be in conflict with existing First Amendment rights and Whistleblower Protection Acts. On June 22, 2004, Leahy and Vice President Dick Cheney participated in the U.S. Senate class photo. After the vote, Cheney was talking to only Republicans. When Leahy asked him to come over and talk to the Democrats, Cheney upbraided Leahy for the Senator's recent excoriations of Halliburton's activities in Iraq. At the end of the exchange, Cheney told Leahy, "Go fuck yourself." Leahy joked about the incident in 2007, when he escorted Bernie Sanders, Vermont's newly elected senator, to the well of the Senate where he was sworn in by Cheney: "When it comes to the vice president, it's always better to be sworn in than to be sworn at."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and writes in his 2022 memoir that he found files with information that contradicted Dick Cheney's public statements about Iraq after mysterious joggers whose identities he did not know told him to request specific files.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In March 2004, Leahy and Senator Orrin Hatch introduced the Pirate Act, backed by the Recording Industry Association of America. In July 2004, Leahy and Hatch introduced the INDUCE Act. Both were aimed at combating copyright infringement. On November 2, 2004, Leahy easily defeated his opponent, businessman Jack McMullen, with 70.6 percent of the vote. On September 21, 2005, Leahy announced his support for John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. On January 19, 2006, Leahy announced that he would vote against Judge Samuel Alito, to be a justice of the Supreme Court. He has a mixed record on gun control, being one of the few Senate Democrats to vote against the Brady Bill. He voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and is in favor of phasing out farm subsidies. He voted against the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Leahy voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and was one of the few in his party to support the ban on intact dilation and extraction procedures. In 2005, Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog group, presented Leahy and Senator John Cornyn with its first ever Bi-Partisan Leadership Award, in honor of their cooperation on issues of government oversight and transparency, including their co-sponsorship of the OPEN Government Act of 2005, which prevented burying exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act in legislation. On March 2, 2006, Leahy was one of ten senators to vote against the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act, a bill to extend the USA PATRIOT Act. The Reauthorization Act changed the appointment process for interim United States attorneys, allowing the Attorney General of the United States to make interim appointments without term limit or Senatorial confirmation. This was an aspect of hearings in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy. In March 2007, both houses voted to overturn the interim appointment provision. On January 18, 2007, Leahy received widespread coverage for his cross-examination of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, about the Maher Arar affair and the extraordinary rendition of Arar to Syria.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy endorsed Barack Obama, the Democratic junior senator from Illinois, in the 2008 presidential election, and recorded a radio advertisement for the Obama campaign to be aired in Vermont.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In May 2009, President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor received criticism for having said "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." In June, Leahy discussed the remark with Sotomayor, during their meeting, and secured her consent to recount the comment. According to Leahy, the comment meant she believed one's life experiences influence who they are, but that judges of all ethnic backgrounds are still required to follow the law, which is the same for every American. In August, on the day of Sotomayor's confirmation, Leahy defended her record against Republican critics: "Judge Sotomayor's career and judicial record demonstrates that she has always followed the rule of law. Attempts at distorting that record by suggesting that her ethnicity or heritage will be the driving force in her decisions as a justice of the Supreme Court are demeaning to women and all communities of color."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: On September 20, 2010, Leahy introduced the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, Senate Bill S. 3804, which would allow the court to issue a restraining order or injunction against Internet domain names which infringe upon copyright.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In May 2011, Leahy introduced the Protect IP Act (PIPA) to the Senate. The bill was drafted to give the U.S. government and copyright holders additional tools to fight copyright piracy and counterfeit goods trafficking by foreign rogue websites. Critics of the bill said it would be ineffective, impede free expression on the internet, and interfere with its infrastructure. Leahy subsequently indicated that he would favor further research into provisions that raised objections.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy chaired the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee from 1987 until 1995 the Judiciary Committee from 2001 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2015. He is one of the key Democratic leaders on Senate issues on rules for filling federal judgeships, via advise and consent. Leahy serves as second-highest Democrat on the Appropriations Committee and as Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs. In his position as the second-highest Democrat on the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, Leahy chairs the Agriculture Subcommittee on Research, Nutrition and General Legislation.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Upon the death of Senate President pro tempore Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, on December 17, 2012, Leahy became the most senior senator in the majority party, and was elected president pro tempore by unanimous consent. He was succeeded in this post by Orrin Hatch on January 3, 2015, and became president pro tempore emeritus.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2013, Leahy was one of 24 senators to sign a letter asserting that Sikh, Hindu and Arab Americans were often targets of violence because they were mistaken for radical Muslims and citing a need for the federal government to "begin tracking information about anti-Sikh, anti-Hindu and anti-Arab hate crimes as soon as possible so that law enforcement can more effectively respond to this threat".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In June 2013, Leahy filed three amendments to an immigration reform package, including one that proposed recognizing same-sex marriages when one spouse is an American. He said implementation of the amendment would end discrimination in the American immigration system and that seeking "equal protection under our laws for the LGBT community is the right thing to do."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: According to GovTrack, in 2013, Leahy was the senator who has sponsored the most bipartisan bills. Sixty-one percent of bills he sponsored had both Democratic and Republican co-sponsors.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In January 2015, Leahy headed a congressional delegation to Cuba, meant to "impress upon Cuban leaders the importance of concrete results and positive momentum". It was American officials' first visit to Cuba, since President Obama announced normalized relations between the US and Cuba the previous month.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In July 2015, after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was unveiled, an international agreement on the nuclear program of Iran, Leahy issued a statement saying it was preferable to war and calling it "unfortunate" that some members of Congress opposed the deal as the lack of deal would allow Iran to further develop nuclear weapons.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In January 2017, during a hearing, Leahy asked Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, whether he believed grabbing a woman by her genitals without consent was sexual assault, in reference to comments made by Trump on the "Access Hollywood" tape that had surfaced during the election cycle. Leahy also asked Sessions if he would be able to "prosecute and investigate" a president or elected official who had been accused of committing the aforementioned act.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In April 2017, Leahy was one of 11 senators to cosponsor a bill that would have restored a FCC rule requiring internet service providers to obtain permission from customers before selling data about them to advertisers that had been repealed earlier in the week.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: On June 1, 2017, weeks after the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Leahy and Senator Al Franken of Minnesota released a joint statement disclosing their prior request of Comey to investigate all contacts and communications Attorney General Sessions or his aides had with Russian government officials and raised the question of whether Sessions had committed perjury in his Senate testimony.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In September 2017, Leahy was one of eight senators to vote against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a defense policy bill that included $640 billion in base defense spending and $60 billion in war funds.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In November 2017, Leahy was one of ten Democratic senators to sign a letter urging Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the planned demolitions of Palestinian villages Khan al-Ahmar and Sussiya, on the grounds that such action would further impede efforts to seek a two-state solution and "endanger Israel's future as a Jewish democracy".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: On January 18, 2018, Leahy announced he would not support the stopgap measure for the fiscal year to avert a government shutdown, saying the House bill left "too much undone, and it is woefully inadequate". Leahy added that bipartisan support for the bill would only come from collaborating with Democrats and charged Republicans with "appealing for our support only after they've written a mishmash bill crafted behind closed doors". After the United States federal government shutdown of January 2018 commenced, Leahy was one of 18 senators to vote against temporary funding.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2018, Leahy was one of four senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis requesting that the Pentagon estimate the cost of and time needed to assemble President Trump's requested military parade, calling the parade seemingly "inappropriate and wasteful" at a time of war.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In March 2018, Leahy wrote a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley in which he expressed his fear that "the damage being done to the FBI, and to our nation's institutions more broadly, will far outlast any current crises unless we take decisive, bipartisan action" and requested an oversight hearing on the Trump administration's criticisms of the FBI and Justice Department.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In September 2018, as the Senate weighed the first spending package for the 2019 fiscal year, Leahy advocated for increasing the spending cap for a veterans' care program. When this proposal was not implemented in the final version of the package, which consisted of military construction and veterans' affairs, legislative branch, and energy and water, Leahy warned the decision would leave the VA choice program unfunded.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In October 2018, Leahy, along with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez, and Lindsey Graham, sent President Trump a letter requesting that he begin an investigation of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The letter asked Trump to report the findings within 120 days, along with a decision on whether to impose sanctions on those found responsible. Later that month, Leahy was one of eight senators to sign a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats requesting a classified briefing on what the American intelligence community knew about threats to Khashoggi, so that the senators may fulfill their "oversight obligation" as members of Congress. In March 2019, Leahy was one of nine Democratic senators to sign a letter to Salman of Saudi Arabia requesting the release of human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair and writer Raif Badawi, women's rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul and Samar Badawi, and Dr. Walid Fitaih. The senators wrote, "Not only have reputable international organizations detailed the arbitrary detention of peaceful activists and dissidents without trial for long periods, but the systematic discrimination against women, religious minorities and mistreatment of migrant workers and others has also been well-documented."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In December 2018, after United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the Trump administration would suspend its obligations in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 60 days, if Russia continued to violate the treaty, Leahy was one of 26 senators to sign a letter expressing concern over the administration's "now abandoning generations of bipartisan U.S. leadership around the paired goals of reducing the global role and number of nuclear weapons and ensuring strategic stability with America's nuclear-armed adversaries" and calling on President Trump to continue arms negotiations.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: After Minnesota Representative Rick Nolan retired from Congress in 2019, Leahy became the only remaining Watergate baby in Congress.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In May 2021, POLITICO reported that Leahy was "leaning toward [running for a ninth term]" and asking his Senate colleagues for support. On November 15, 2021, Leahy announced that he was not running for a ninth term.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Upon the death of Representative Don Young on March 18, 2022, Leahy became the longest-serving current member of Congress.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In September 2022, Leahy was nominated as a representative of the United States to the Seventy-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy has generally supported abortion rights, rejecting proposals to limit minors or those stationed on military bases from having the procedure performed. He voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 1995 and for it between 1997 and 2003.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: On March 11, 1982, Leahy voted against a measure sponsored by Orrin Hatch that sought to reverse "Roe v. Wade" and allow Congress and individual states to adopt laws banning abortions. Its passing was the first time a congressional committee supported an anti-abortion amendment.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In 2019, Leahy worked with Senators Sherrod Brown, Susan Collins, and David Perdue on a bipartisan effort to ensure students have access to local foods. The proposal would bolster the Farm to School Grant Program, administered by the Agriculture Department, and raise the program's authorized level from $5 million to $15 million, in addition to furthering the maximum grant award to $250,000.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In March 2019, Leahy was one of 38 senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue warning that dairy farmers "have continued to face market instability and are struggling to survive the fourth year of sustained low prices", and urging his department to "strongly encourage these farmers to consider the Dairy Margin Coverage program".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In May 2019, Leahy and eight other Democratic senators sent Perdue a letter that criticized the USDA for using farm bailout money to purchase pork from the Brazilian-owned JBS USA, writing that it was "counterproductive and contradictory" for foreign companies to receive "U.S. taxpayer dollars intended to help American farmers struggling with this administration's trade policy". The senators requested that the department "ensure these commodity purchases are carried out in a manner that most benefits the American farmer's bottom line — not the business interests of foreign corporations."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In June 2019, Leahy and 18 other Democratic senators sent USDA Inspector General (IG), Phyllis K. Fong, a letter requesting that she investigate USDA instances of retaliation and political decision-making, and arguing that to not conduct an investigation would mean these "actions could be perceived as a part of this administration's broader pattern of not only discounting the value of federal employees, but suppressing, undermining, discounting, and wholesale ignoring scientific data produced by their own qualified scientists."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In June 2019, Leahy was one of six Democrats, led by Amy Klobuchar, who signed letters to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice recounting that many of them had "called on both the FTC and the Justice Department to investigate potential anticompetitive activity in these markets, particularly following the significant enforcement actions taken by foreign competition enforcers against these same companies", and requesting that each agency confirm whether it had opened antitrust investigations into each of the companies and that each agency pledge to publicly release any such investigation's findings.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy supports states' rights to make their own cannabis laws. He proposed a companion to the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, which would extend protections to states that have legalized cannabis in some form. It became known as the Leahy Amendment, and prevents the federal government from spending federal tax dollars to prosecute people who are following their state's cannabis laws.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In 2019, Leahy and 34 other senators introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act, a bill that created 770,000 new child care jobs and ensured that families making less than 75 percent of the state median income did not pay for child care, with higher earning families having to pay "their fair share for care on a sliding scale, regardless of the number of children they have". The legislation also supported universal access to high-quality preschool programs for all three- and four-year-olds, changed compensation for the child care workforce, and provided training to aid both teachers and caregivers.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In a September 12, 2019, press release, Leahy condemned the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and contended that Falun Gong is a threat to the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. He also argued that the Chinese government should commit to ending the use of torture, organ harvesting of prisoners, and propaganda against minorities.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2016, Leahy introduced the "Restoring Statutory Rights Act", to "prevent companies from imposing forced arbitration in cases covered by consumer protection laws, as well as employment discrimination and other civil rights matters".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy has been supported by the NAACP and is outspoken in his support for affirmative action. He has supported the legalization of gay marriage and reducing discrimination against gays and lesbians. Leahy has called for the domestic partners of federal employees to receive the same benefits as heterosexual couples.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy is a lead sponsor of the Senate version of the Email Privacy Act, which would reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and enhance privacy protections for email. He sponsored this bipartisan bill with Republican Mike Lee of Utah.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy has called for a moratorium on the death penalty and for more DNA testing for death row inmates. He supports rehabilitation as the goal of prisons and providing treatment, instead of punishment, for first-time offenders.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2015, Leahy and Republican Rand Paul revived the Justice Safety Valve Act, legislation granting federal judges authority to bestow sentences lower than the mandatory punishment in certain cases, where the sentence violates standards for fair punishment as defined elsewhere in American law.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In October 2017, Leahy cosponsored a bill aimed at easing sentences for some nonviolent offenders, such as for drug crimes, while beefing up other tough-on-crime laws. The bill would have abolished the three-strike mandatory life sentence for some repeat drug offenders and authorized enhanced penalties for some individuals with previous convictions for serious violent and drug felonies.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: On July 31, 2019, after Attorney General William Barr announced that the federal government would resume carrying out the death penalty, for the first time in over 20 years, Leahy, Cory Booker, and Dick Durbin introduced a bill that would ban the death penalty. Leahy said capital punishment fails "by any objective measure", citing its finality and juries' propensity to mistakenly convict.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy was a longtime critic of the Iraq War, and spoke in favor of timetables for troop withdrawal, saying the country needs well-trained employees in both foreign service and private industry to help repair damage to its civilian structure. He has been critical of the PATRIOT Act, even though he has voted to reauthorize altered versions of it. In June 2013, following the disclosure of PRISM and other covert surveillance activities by the National Security Agency, Leahy introduced a bill that would tighten guidelines related to the acquisition of FISA warrants for domestic surveillance and shorten the current FISA authorization by two years.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy has always opposed the opening and operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and supported punishment of war profiteering.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: On taxation, Leahy has consistently supported progressive rates. He has rejected proposals to remove the Estate Tax and Alternative Minimum Tax, and he has spoken out strongly against cutting taxes for the wealthy. Leahy has strongly supported the rights of employees, and has voted to increase the minimum wage and allow for more union organization. He has voted against a free trade proposal, CAFTA, but supported normalizing trade relations with China.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy has been a strong supporter of environmental policy. He has supported bills that would increase hydrogen car production, uphold Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, set a goal of reducing oil consumption by 40 percent in 2025, and increase solar and wind power funding.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In 2011, Leahy voted against limiting EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. In 2013, he voted against a concurrent resolution creating a point of order which would make it harder for Congress to put a price on carbon. In 2015, he voted in support of Obama's Clean Power Plan. On his Climate Change page, he states that "human activity, since the Industrial Revolution, has contributed, in large part, to the changes in climate." He has supported the establishment of greenhouse gas tradeable allowances and has spoken out against the use of ethanol as a solution to rising gasoline prices.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In June 2017, after President Trump announced the US would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, Leahy called the move a "great leap backward", adding that pandering "to a handful of billionaires and special interests would impose huge harm upon our generation, upon future generations, and upon our fragile planet." He said he intended "to ensure that this stroke of the president's pen does not derail Vermonters' hard work and leadership to protect our communities from climate risk, and that it does not deter the entrepreneurs and innovators in Vermont and other states who are expanding the world markets for the clean green energy and conservation technologies that will shape our future."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2019, in response to reports that the EPA intended to decide against setting limits for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in drinking water, as part of an upcoming national strategy to manage the chemicals, Leahy was one of 20 senators to sign a letter to Acting EPA Administrator, Andrew R. Wheeler, calling on the agency "to develop enforceable federal drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS, as well as institute immediate actions to protect the public from contamination from additional per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In October 2016, Leahy was one of five senators to sign a letter to President Obama requesting that the administration halt work on the Dakota Access Pipeline, until the permitting process of the Army Corps could "be transparent and include public notice and participation, formal and meaningful tribal consultation, and adequate environmental review", and stating their support for the "tribes along the pipeline route in their fight against the Dakota Access pipeline project".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy spoke strongly against a proposed constitutional ban on flag burning and on its implications for freedom of speech and expression. He rejects school prayer initiatives.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy has generally supported gun control, including requiring background checks at gun shows and allowing for lawsuits against firearms manufacturers. He voted in favor of prohibiting foreign and UN aid that inhibits gun ownership.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In January 2019, Leahy was one of 40 senators to introduce the Background Check Expansion Act, a bill that would require background checks for either the sale or transfer of all firearms, including unlicensed sellers. Exceptions to the bill's background check requirement included transfers between members of law enforcement, loaning firearms for either hunting or sporting events on a temporary basis, giving firearms to members of one's immediate family, firearms being transferred as part of an inheritance, or giving a firearm to another person temporarily for immediate self-defense.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2019, Leahy was one of 38 senators to sign a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham calling on him to "hold a hearing" on universal background checks and noting Graham's statement in the press that he "intended to have the Committee work on 'red flag' legislation and potentially also background checks, both actions" the senators indicated their support for.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy has stated the importance of increasing the prevalence of public health care, during times of economic downturn. He voted to increase Medicare benefits and to allow this organization to negotiate lower-priced, bulk prescriptions from pharmaceutical manufacturers. Leahy has broken with Democratic leadership in supporting allowing states to make bulk drug purchases on their own, an idea he has characterized as an important short-term solution until Congress can agree on a similar proposal.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In a May 2012 speech on the Senate floor, Leahy advocated that Chief Justice John Roberts uphold the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act: "The conservative activism of recent years has not been good for the court. Given the ideological challenge to the Affordable Care Act and the extensive, supportive precedent, it would be extraordinary for the Supreme Court not to defer to Congress in this matter that so clearly affects interstate commerce."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In March 2017, after House Republicans withdrew the American Health Care Act, Leahy released a statement touting the accomplishments of the Affordable Care Act and charging Republicans with trying to undo the record with a bill that was really "a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In September 2017, Leahy was one of 16 senators to co-sponsor the Medicare for All Act, introduced by his fellow Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, which would establish a single-payer healthcare system in the United States.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In December 2018, Leahy was one of 42 senators to sign a letter to Trump administration officials Alex Azar, Seema Verma, and Steve Mnuchin arguing that the administration was improperly using Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act to authorize states to "increase health care costs for millions of consumers while weakening protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions". The senators requested the administration withdraw the policy and "re-engage with stakeholders, states, and Congress".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2019, Leahy and 22 other Democratic senators introduced the State Public Option Act, a bill that would authorize states to form a Medicaid buy-in program for all residents and thereby grant them the ability to buy into a state-driven Medicaid health insurance plan if they wished. Brian Schatz, a bill cosponsor, said the legislation would "unlock each state's Medicaid program to anyone who wants it, giving people a high-quality, low-cost public health insurance option" and that its goal was "to make sure that every single American has comprehensive health care coverage".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2018, after the Supreme Court declined to immediately consider the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Leahy said that Congress should have acted on immigration reform the previous year, and urged Congress to act, while admitting the Supreme Court decision had reduced pressure to pass legislation quickly.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In June 2018, Leahy, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Joni Ernst wrote a letter to United States Defense Secretary James Mattis saying they were "deeply troubled by the department's decision to send 21 active and reserve JAGs to the border on temporary orders to prosecute immigration cases", expressing the view that dispatching "twenty-one trial counsel from military courtrooms to prosecute immigration cases is an inappropriate misapplication of military personnel", and urging Mattis to maintain the military lawyers within the military justice system.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In August 2018, Leahy was one of 17 senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen demanding that the Trump administration take immediate action in attempting to reunite 539 migrant children with their families, citing each passing day of inaction as intensifying "trauma that this administration has needlessly caused for children and their families seeking humanitarian protection".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In September 2018, after nearly $10 million of the Federal Emergency Management Agency budget was transferred to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Leahy said in a statement, "I am hopeful that the administration will see the consequences of its actions and begin to work with Republicans AND Democrats to actually address the problems in our immigration system. Fomenting fears against immigrants is not governing — it's demagoguery on the taxpayer's dime. It needs to stop now."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In January 2019, Leahy was one of 20 senators to sponsor the Dreamer Confidentiality Act, a bill banning the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from passing information collected on DACA recipients to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Department of Justice, or any other law enforcement agency with exceptions in the case of fraudulent claims, national security issues, or non-immigration related felonies.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In July 2019, following reports that the Trump administration intended to cease protecting spouses, parents and children of active-duty service members from deportation, Leahy was one of 22 senators, led by Tammy Duckworth, to sign a letter arguing that the protection gave service members the ability "to fight for the United States overseas and not worry that their spouse, children, or parents will be deported while they are away" and that its termination would both cause service members personal hardship and negatively affect their combat performance.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In April 2017, after President Trump signed a law undoing a Federal Communications Commission rule requiring internet service providers to obtain their customers' permission to sell their data to advertisers, Leahy was one of 11 senators to sponsor legislation undoing the repeal and reinstating the regulations.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In May 2018, Leahy was one of 12 senators to sign a letter to Trump urging him not to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, on the grounds that "Iran could either remain in the agreement and seek to isolate the United States from our closest partners, or resume its nuclear activities" if the U.S. pulled out and that both possibilities "would be detrimental to our national security interests".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy has signed resolutions in support of Israel's right to self-defense, but has also been critical of alleged human rights violations in the region, especially after the 2008 Operation Cast Lead.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In 2011, Leahy initially promoted a bill to cut the military aid to three elite IDF units after reports of human rights violations during the Gaza flotilla raid and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2016, Leahy joined ten House of Representatives members asking the State Department to investigate suspected human rights violations by Egyptian and Israeli security forces, in particular citing claims of extrajudicial killings that could trigger the Leahy Law, which can cause the suspension of American military aid to countries guilty of such abuses.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In April 2019, after the Trump administration refused to distribute money to West Bank and Gaza "because of perceived intransigence on peace talks by the Palestinians and payments to the families of those who have attacked Israelis", Leahy was one of six Democratic senators to introduce a resolution restoring U.S. humanitarian aid to the West Bank and Gaza.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In May 2020, Leahy voiced his opposition to Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In March 2017, Leahy was one of 21 senators, led by Ed Markey, to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that said that 12% of adult Medicaid beneficiaries had some form of a substance abuse disorder, that one-third of treatment for opioid and other substance use disorders in the U.S. is financed by Medicaid, and that the American Health Care Act could "very literally translate into a death spiral for those with opioid use disorders" due to inadequate funding, often resulting in individuals abandoning substance use disorder treatment.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In October 2018, Leahy was one of 20 senators to sign a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to reverse the rolling back of a policy that granted visas to same-sex partners of LGBTQ diplomats who had unions that were not recognized by their home countries, writing that too many places around the world have seen LGBTQ individuals "subjected to discrimination and unspeakable violence, and receive little or no protection from the law or local authorities", and that refusing to let LGBTQ diplomats bring their partners to the US would be equivalent of upholding "the discriminatory policies of many countries around the world".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In June 2018, Leahy was one of seven Democrats to sign a letter cautioning Trump that they would not support lifting sanctions against North Korea unless a nuclear agreement between it and the US met five standards outlined in the letter. In a statement after the North Korea–United States summit, Leahy commended Trump "for beginning direct negotiations" but added that it was troubling that Trump "agreed to unilaterally halt military exercises with South Korea without verifiable commitments from North Korea to denuclearize, while giving Kim the recognition he has long craved."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In December 2010, Leahy voted for the ratification of New START, a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads and 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years, and providing for a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year. It was the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In February 2017, Leahy was one of 11 senators to sign a letter to United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions expressing their concern "about credible allegations that the Trump campaign, transition team, and Administration has colluded with the Russian government, including most recently the events leading to the resignation of Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as National Security Adviser". The senators requested the creation of "an independent Special Counsel to investigate collusion with the Russian government by General Flynn and other Trump campaign, transition and Administrative officials", in order to maintain "the confidence, credibility and impartiality of the Department of Justice".


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In 2013, Leahy received the annual U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official from the Jefferson Awards for Public Service.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: In 2014, the Congressional Management Foundation awarded Leahy a "Silver Mouse Award" for his website, and a "Gold Mouse Award" for his engagement on social media.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy married Marcelle Pomerleau in 1962. Her parents, Louis Philippe Pomerleau and Cecile Bouchard Pomerleau, emigrated to the United States from Quebec, and she is bilingual (English and French). The extended Pomerleau family established several successful Vermont businesses, and includes her uncle Antonio Pomerleau (d. 2018), a prominent real estate developer and philanthropist. Marcelle Leahy graduated from the nursing school at Burlington's former DeGoesbriand Hospital. She is a registered nurse and has worked at hospitals in Burlington, Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Virginia. The Leahys have resided in a farmhouse in Middlesex, Vermont, since moving from Burlington, and have three children. In 2012, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, with Leahy saying, "We hate it when we're apart from one another."


title: Patrick Leahy

text: On January 26, 2021, Leahy was hospitalized "out of an abundance of caution" after feeling ill. His hospitalization occurred hours after he had been sworn in as the presiding officer for Trump's second impeachment trial. He returned home later the same day.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: On June 29, 2022, Leahy fractured his hip after falling at his home in McLean, Virginia. He underwent hip replacement surgery the next day, and had a second operation related to his hip injury on July 19, 2022.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy was hospitalized again on October 13, 2022, after feeling unwell. He was kept overnight for "tests and observation" and discharged the following day.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy is a published photographer and author. He is a Roman Catholic and attends Saint Andrew's Church in Waterbury, Vermont. He also attends Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy is a fan of comic books, and in particular the character Batman. He wrote the foreword to "The Dark Knight Archives, Volume 1" (a 1992 collection of the first four "Batman" comic books), the preface essay for "" (a 1996 graphic novel about the horrors of landmines), and the introduction to "Green Arrow: The Archer's Quest" (a single-volume collection of a six-issue story arc).


title: Patrick Leahy

text: Leahy has also made several cameo appearances in Batman television episodes and films, beginning with an uncredited cameo in "Batman Forever" (1995). He voiced a territorial governor in the "" episode "Showdown" (1995), appeared as himself in the film "Batman & Robin" (1997), and appeared twice in Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" Trilogy as a Wayne Enterprises board member. In "The Dark Knight" (2008) he appeared as a fundraiser guest who confronts the Joker. In "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012), he defended the legacy of the Wayne family against attempts to usurp the company by industrialist John Daggett. Leahy also appeared in "", playing Senator Purrington, in a scene set during Superman's Senate hearing which is subsequently destroyed by an explosion.


title: Patrick Leahy

text: All royalties and fees from Leahy's roles are donated to charities, primarily the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Vermont, where he read comic books as a child.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Derrick James Lewis (born February 7, 1985) is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Heavyweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he currently holds the record for most knockouts in UFC history. A professional competitor since 2010, Lewis has also competed for Bellator MMA and Legacy FC, where he was the Heavyweight Champion. As of August 1, 2022, he is #7 in the UFC heavyweight rankings.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Born and raised as one of seven siblings, the second oldest, by a single mother in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lewis was troubled growing up and was often involved in street fighting. In 1998, Lewis and his family relocated to Houston, Texas. At the age of 17, Lewis began training in boxing and was preparing for his first amateur fight when the gym unexpectedly shut down. Two weeks after graduating from high school, Lewis was charged with aggravated assault, and was placed on probation. Two years later, while attending Kilgore College on a full scholarship for football, Lewis violated his probation and was sentenced to five years in prison, but ended up serving three and a half. A week after being released, Lewis was introduced to mixed martial arts by a friend and, while working as a tow-truck driver, continued with boxing under the tutelage of George Foreman. After dominating in his first professional mixed martial arts fight, Lewis decided to focus on mixed martial arts.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis began his journey in MMA in late 2009, when he made his debut as an amateur against Jay Ross at LSAMMA on October 16, 2009. He lost the fight via TKO (doctor stoppage). He then faced Tim Buchanan at the United States American Combat Association event on January 30, 2010. He won via TKO.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: After turning professional in 2010, Lewis would compile a fight record of 4–1 before signing with Bellator MMA in May 2010.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis was scheduled to make his promotional debut at Bellator 45 on May 21, 2011, against Brazilian Thiago Santos. However, the bout was canceled when Santos had to pull out due to an injury.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis compiled a record of 6–0 with one no-contest after leaving Bellator, most notably winning and successfully defending the Legacy FC Heavyweight Championship. He was then signed to the UFC.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis was scheduled to make his promotional debut against Nandor Guelmino at on August 28, 2013. However, the bout was canceled as Lewis had to pull out due to an injury.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis instead made his debut at on April 19, 2014, against Jack May. He won via TKO in the first round.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: In his second fight for the promotion, Lewis faced Guto Inocente at The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale on July 6, 2014. He won the fight via KO in the first round.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Matt Mitrione on September 5, 2014, at UFC Fight Night 50. Mitrione quickly defeated Lewis via first-round knockout.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Ruan Potts on February 28, 2015, at UFC 184. He won the fight via TKO in the second round.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis next had a rematch with Shawn Jordan on June 6, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 68. In their first encounter on the regional circuit in 2010, Lewis lost by unanimous decision. Lewis lost the fight via TKO.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis was expected to face Anthony Hamilton on October 3, 2015, at UFC 192. However, Hamilton was forced out of the bout with an injury and was replaced by Viktor Pešta. Lewis won the fight via TKO in the third round.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Damian Grabowski on February 6, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 82. Lewis dominated the fight, winning via TKO in the first round.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis next faced Gabriel Gonzaga on April 10, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 86. He won via KO in the first round. Subsequently, Lewis earned his first "Performance of the Night" bonus.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis was expected to face Marcin Tybura on October 15, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 97. However, the promotion announced on October 6 that they had canceled the event entirely.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Shamil Abdurakhimov on December 9, 2016, in the main event at UFC Fight Night 102. After losing the first three rounds, he won the fight via TKO in the fourth round.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Travis Browne on February 19, 2017, in the main event at UFC Fight Night 105. He won the fight via knockout in the second round. Both participants were awarded "Fight of the Night" for their performance.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Mark Hunt on June 11, 2017, in the main event at UFC Fight Night 110. He lost the fight via TKO in the fourth round. Despite the loss, the win earned Lewis his second consecutive "Fight of the Night" bonus award. After the loss, during his post-fight interview, Lewis announced that he was likely retiring from mixed martial arts. Later in the month, Lewis revealed that he ultimately decided to continue fighting.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis was expected to face Fabrício Werdum on October 7, 2017, at UFC 216. On the day of the fight, Lewis was forced out of the bout due to a back injury.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Marcin Tybura on February 18, 2018, at UFC Fight Night 126. He won the fight via technical knockout in the third round. This win earned him the Performance of the Night bonus.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Francis Ngannou on July 7, 2018, at UFC 226. He won the fight via unanimous decision, but the fight itself was heavily criticized for the lack of action in both fighters with Lewis only landing 20 strikes, and Ngannou landing 11.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Alexander Volkov on October 6, 2018, at UFC 229. After being behind on the judges' scorecards and visibly hurt multiple times, Lewis won the fight via knockout in the closing seconds of the third round. This win earned him the Performance of the Night award.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Daniel Cormier for the UFC Heavyweight Championship on November 3, 2018, at UFC 230. He lost the fight by rear-naked choke in the second round, marking the first submission loss of his professional MMA career.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis signed a new contract with the UFC after the title shot. As the first fight of his new contract, Lewis faced Junior dos Santos in the main event of UFC Fight Night 146 on March 9, 2019. He lost the fight via TKO in the second round. This fight earned him the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Aleksei Oleinik on August 8, 2020, at UFC Fight Night 174. He won the bout via TKO early in round two. Lewis also set the record for most knockouts by a heavyweight in UFC history.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis was scheduled to face Curtis Blaydes on November 28, 2020, at UFC on ESPN 18. However, the day before the fight, Blaydes tested positive for COVID-19 and the bout was scrapped from the card. The pair faced off at UFC Fight Night 185 on February 20, 2021. Lewis won the fight via knockout in the second round. This win earned him the "Performance of the Night" award.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Ciryl Gane on August 7, 2021, at UFC 265 for the Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship. Lewis lost the fight via technical knockout in round three.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Chris Daukaus on December 18, 2021, at UFC Fight Night 199. Lewis won the fight via knockout in the first round. With his knockout win over Daukaus, Lewis earned the record for the most knockouts in UFC history regardless of weight division, with 13 altogether. When asked by Michael Bisping in his Octagon interview, how he felt about achieving the record, Lewis replied "I’m feeling good, and I’m also happy that I’m the first fighter, clean fighter, to be number one in knockouts".


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Tai Tuivasa on February 12, 2022, at UFC 271 in Houston, Texas. Lewis lost the fight via knockout in the second round.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis faced Sergei Pavlovich on July 30, 2022 at UFC 277. He lost the fight via TKO, just 55 seconds into the first round, however there was controversy as the stoppage by referee Dan Miragliotta was considered premature by fighters and fans alike. Lewis received the Crypto.com "Fan Bonus of the Night" award paid in bitcoin of US$10,000 for third place.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis was next expected to face Sergey Spivak at UFC Fight Night 215 on November 19, 2022. However, Lewis was forced to pull out of the event due to non-COVID, non-weight cutting illness and the bout was canceled. The pair was rescheduled for UFC Fight Night 218 on February 4, 2023.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis has been characterized as a 'classic heavyweight' owing to his knockout power and physique. Former welterweight title contender and analyst Dan Hardy described him as a "wrecking ball", adding "Every time we've spoken about Derrick Lewis before, regardless of whether he's fighting Daniel Cormier, or whether he's fighting Volkov, or whether he's fighting Ciryl Gane, the same thing is always present. If he lands that right hand, it's game over."


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis greatly prefers stand-up fighting, which he refers to as "swangin' and banging", and has been noted by fans and commentators for his surprising ability to seemingly shrug off the grappling/wrestling offense of his opponents while in the bottom position, and simply 'stand up'. However, analysts have noted that when facing fighters with a background in folkstyle wrestling, such as Daniel Cormier, Lewis finds it more difficult to escape the bottom position. Nonetheless, Lewis appeared to simply 'standup' when threatened with a crucifix position by Roy Nelson, a fighter with a wrestling pedigree.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: Lewis married his long-time girlfriend in Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 17, 2017. They have two sons and one daughter.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: During the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Lewis pulled an estimated 100 people from the flood waters in Houston, Texas via his lifted truck.


title: Derrick Lewis

text: On May 18, 2021, Lewis was returning to his car after a workout when he discovered a man allegedly trying to open the door of his vehicle. Lewis reportedly struck the alleged thief and pinned him to the ground until the police arrived.


title: Primus (band)

text: Primus is an American rock band formed in El Sobrante, California in 1984. The band is currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde, and drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by drummer Jay Lane, though the latter two departed the band at the beginning of 1989, and were replaced by LaLonde and Alexander respectively.


title: Primus (band)

text: The "classic" lineup of Claypool, LaLonde and Alexander debuted with the live album "Suck on This", which was self-released in 1989 on Claypool's label Prawn Song and reissued a year later by Caroline Records. Caroline also released Primus' debut studio album "Frizzle Fry" (1990), which was critically well received and its underground success led to interest from major record labels. Their second studio album and major-label debut "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" (1991), released through Interscope Records, launched the band into mainstream exposure, supported by their first charting single "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" and receiving platinum certification within a decade after its release. Primus repeated its success with their next two albums, "Pork Soda" (1993) and "Tales from the Punchbowl" (1995), both charting in the top ten on the "Billboard" 200, and being certified platinum and gold respectively by the RIAA; the former album featured the band's top ten hit on the "Billboard" rock chart, "My Name Is Mud", while the latter's lead single "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" has the distinction of being their only song to chart anywhere outside of North America.