title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: On 5 December, having in effect been told that he could not keep the throne and marry Simpson, and having had his request to broadcast to the Empire to explain "his side of the story" blocked on constitutional grounds, Edward chose the third option.


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: Following Simpson's divorce hearing on 27 October 1936, her solicitor, John Theodore Goddard, became concerned that there would be a "patriotic" citizen's intervention (a legal device to block the divorce), and that such an intervention would be successful. The courts could not grant a collaborative divorce (a dissolution of marriage consented to by both parties), and so the case was being handled as if it were an undefended at-fault divorce brought against Ernest Simpson, with Wallis Simpson as the innocent, injured party. The divorce action would fail if the citizen's intervention showed that the Simpsons had colluded by, for example, conniving in or staging the appearance of his adultery so that she could marry someone else. On Monday 7 December 1936, the King heard that Goddard planned to fly to the south of France to see Wallis Simpson. The King summoned him and expressly forbade him to make the journey, fearing that the visit might put doubts in Simpson's mind. Goddard went straight to Downing Street to see Baldwin, as a result of which he was provided with an aeroplane to take him directly to Cannes.


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: Upon his arrival, Goddard warned his client that a citizen's intervention, should it arise, was likely to succeed. It was, according to Goddard, his duty to advise her to withdraw her divorce petition. Simpson refused, but they both telephoned the King to inform him that she was willing to give him up so that he could remain king. It was, however, too late; the King had already made up his mind to go, even if he could not marry Simpson. Indeed, as the belief that the abdication was inevitable gathered strength, Goddard stated that: "[his] client was ready to do anything to ease the situation but the other end of the wicket [Edward VIII] was determined".


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: Goddard had a weak heart and had never flown before, so he asked his doctor, William Kirkwood, to accompany him on the trip. As Kirkwood was a resident at a maternity hospital, his presence led to false speculation that Simpson was pregnant, and even that she was having an abortion. The press excitedly reported that the solicitor had flown to Simpson accompanied by a gynaecologist and an anaesthetist (who was actually the lawyer's clerk).


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: At Fort Belvedere, on 10 December, Edward signed his written abdication notices, witnessed by his three younger brothers: Prince Albert, Duke of York (who succeeded Edward as George VI); Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester; and Prince George, Duke of Kent. The following day, it was given effect by Act of Parliament: His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936. Under changes introduced in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster, a single Crown for the entire empire had been replaced by multiple crowns, one for each Dominion, worn by a single monarch in an organisation then known as the British Commonwealth. Though the British government, hoping for expediency and to avoid embarrassment, wished the Dominions to accept the actions of the "home" government, the Dominions held that Edward's abdication required the consent of each Commonwealth state. Under the Statute of Westminster, the act passed by the UK parliament could become law in other Dominions at their request. This was duly given by the Parliament of Australia, which was at the time in session, and by the governments of Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand, whose parliaments were in recess. The government of the Irish Free State, taking the opportunity presented by the crisis and in a major step towards its eventual transition to a republic, passed an amendment to its constitution on 11 December to remove references to the Crown and abolish the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State; the King's abdication was recognised a day later in the External Relations Act. In South Africa, His Majesty King Edward the Eighth's Abdication Act 1937 declared that the abdication took effect there on 10 December. Canada passed the Succession to the Throne Act 1937 to symbolically confirm the abdication.


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: Edward's supporters felt that he had "been hounded from the throne by that arch humbug Baldwin", but many members of the establishment were relieved by Edward's departure. Mackenzie King wrote in his diary on 8 December 1936 that Edward's "sense of right or wrong has been largely obliterated by the jazz of life he has led for years" and, upon receiving news of Edward's final decision to abdicate, "if that is the kind of man he is it is better he should not be longer on the Throne." Edward's own Assistant Private Secretary, Alan Lascelles, had told Baldwin as early as 1927: "I can't help thinking that the best thing that could happen to him, and to the country, would be for him to break his neck."


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: On 11 December 1936, Edward made a BBC radio broadcast from Windsor Castle; having abdicated, he was introduced by Sir John Reith as "His Royal Highness Prince Edward". The official address had been polished by Churchill and was moderate in tone, speaking about Edward's inability to do his job "as I would have wished" without the support of "the woman I love". Edward's reign had lasted 327 days, the shortest of any monarch in Britain since the disputed reign of Lady Jane Grey over 380 years earlier. The day following the broadcast he left Britain for Austria.


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: George VI granted his elder brother the title of Duke of Windsor with the style His Royal Highness on 12 December 1936. On 3 May the following year, the Simpsons' divorce was made final. The case was handled quietly and it barely featured in some newspapers. "The Times" printed a single sentence below a separate, and seemingly unconnected, report announcing the Duke's departure from Austria.


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: Edward married Wallis in France on 3 June 1937. She became the Duchess of Windsor, but, much to Edward's disgust, George VI issued letters patent that denied her the style of Her Royal Highness. The couple settled in France, and the Duke received a tax-free allowance from his brother, which Edward supplemented by writing his memoirs and by illegal currency trading. He also profited from the sale of Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House to George VI. Both estates are private property and not part of the Royal Estate, and were therefore inherited and owned by Edward, regardless of the abdication.


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: In October 1937, the Duke and Duchess visited Germany, against the advice of the British government, and met Hitler at his Obersalzberg retreat. The visit was much publicised by the German media. During the visit the Duke gave full Nazi salutes. In an article for the New York "Daily News" and "Chicago Tribune" of 13 December 1966 the Duke wrote that in 1937 Hitler persuaded him "it was in Britain's interest and in Europe's too, that Germany be encouraged to strike east and smash Communism forever ... I thought the rest of us could be fence-sitters while the Nazis and the Reds slogged it out."


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Edward was assigned to the British Military Mission in France. In February 1940, the German ambassador in The Hague, Count Julius von Zech-Burkersroda, claimed that Edward had leaked the Allied war plans for the defence of Belgium. When Germany invaded the north of France in May 1940, the Duke and Duchess fled to Lisbon.


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: Under the code name Operation Willi, Nazi agents, principally Walter Schellenberg, plotted unsuccessfully to persuade the Duke to leave Portugal, and contemplated kidnapping him. Lord Caldecote warned Churchill that the Duke "is well-known to be pro-Nazi and he may become a centre of intrigue". Churchill threatened the Duke with a court-martial if he did not return to British soil.


title: Abdication of Edward VIII

text: In July 1940, Edward was appointed Governor of the Bahamas. Edward reportedly told an acquaintance, "After the war is over and Hitler will crush the Americans ... we'll take over ... They [the British] don't want me as their king, but I'll be back as their leader." He was reported as saying that "it would be a tragic thing for the world if Hitler was overthrown". Comments like these reinforced the belief that the Duke and Duchess held Nazi sympathies and the effect of the abdication crisis of 1936 was to force off the throne a man with extreme political opinions. Claims that Edward would have been a threat or that he was removed by a political conspiracy to dethrone him remain speculative and "persist largely because since 1936 the contemporary public considerations have lost most of their force and so seem, wrongly, to provide insufficient explanation for the King's departure".


title: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (film)

text: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a 2019 horror film directed by André Øvredal, based on the children's book series of the same name by Alvin Schwartz. The screenplay was adapted by The Hageman Brothers, from a screen story by producer Guillermo del Toro, as well as Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. The film, an international co-production of the United States and Canada, stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Zajur, Natalie Ganzhorn, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, and Lorraine Toussaint.


text: In 2013, CBS Films acquired the rights to the book series from 1212 Entertainment with the intent of producing it as a feature film. By January 2016 it was announced that del Toro would develop and potentially direct the project for CBS Films. Øvredal was later set to direct the film, with del Toro, Daniel, Brown, and Grave being among the producers. Principal photography commenced on August 27, 2018, and ended on November 1, 2018, in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.


text: "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" was theatrically released on August 23, 2019, in the United States by Lionsgate. The film was well received by critics with praise for its depictions of the horror features from its source material, and went on to gross $106 million at the box office.


text: In 1968, on Halloween, in the fictional small town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, three teen friends, Stella, Auggie, and Chuck, prank bully Tommy Milner. When Tommy and his gang chase them in retaliation, a young drifter named Ramón Morales hides them in his car. They all go to explore a local "haunted house" that belonged to the wealthy Bellows family, who helped found Mill Valley. Inside, they find a book of horror stories written by Sarah Bellows, the Bellows' young daughter who was accused of witchcraft when the town's children mysteriously began to die; she allegedly committed suicide. Tommy locks the group inside along with Ruth, Chuck's sister. They escape, and Stella takes Sarah's book.


text: Back home, Stella discovers that a new story, entitled "Harold," has appeared on a page that was blank moments before. In a nearby cornfield, an inebriated Tommy is stalked by the titular Harold, his family's scarecrow, after it comes to life. He notices that Harold continuously moves towards his location. Harold starts walking towards him; Tommy bolts. But when he runs smack into Harold, the creature stabs him with a pitchfork, causing Tommy to vomit hay and undergo a violent transformation. Tommy is reported missing; Stella and Ramón find Harold dressed in Tommy's clothes. Stella is convinced that Tommy has been turned into a scarecrow.


text: A new story, "The Big Toe," appears with Auggie as the main character; it's about a corpse searching for its missing toe, which is inside a stew that Auggie unwittingly eats. The corpse then comes into his house, walking around and asking for its toe. He hides under the bed, but then disappears after the corpse drags him under his bed. Stella and Chuck upend the bed and find his nail marks. The remaining friends attempt to destroy the book; when this proves impossible, they research Sarah's life. A new story, "The Red Spot", is written. Ruth is sitting in the backstage room, getting her makeup ready for the play, starts poking at a swollen spider bite on her cheek, which explodes and releases hundreds of tiny spiders. Ruth is rescued but is traumatized, and the play is cancelled.


text: The group's investigation takes them to the elderly Lou Lou Baptiste and they learn that Sarah did not die in the Bellows' House, like many believed, she hanged herself in the hospital where her brother, Dr. Ephraim Bellows, was her doctor. They head to a local hospital, where they discover that Sarah's brother performed electroshock therapy on her as part of a cover-up and to get Sarah to confess to killing the children. The family's mill had been poisoning the town's water with mercury, leading to the deaths of the town's children and Sarah was tortured by her family for trying to reveal the truth. To avoid suspicion, they blamed her for the deed. Chuck, while trying to evade hospital security, accidentally turns an alarm on, bathing the hallways red. As Stella and Ramon listen to Stella, she begins to narrate a story with Chuck as the main character. Chuck is then attacked and cornered by the Pale Lady, a phantom from his nightmares, who absorbs him.


text: Stella and Ramón are arrested for trespassing by Police Chief Turner, who reveals that Ramón is a Vietnam War draft dodger. Ramón reveals that it was out of fear after his brother enlisted and his dead body was returned to them in pieces. A head falls down the chimney; more body parts follow. Ramón realizes that the next creature is called the Jangly Man, a monster from a story called Me-Tai-Do-Tee-Walker that frightened him as a child. The Jangly Man snaps Turner's neck; Ramón and Stella escape and run to the Bellows house for answers. Stella is taken back in time while Ramón tries to evade the Jangly Man. Living out Sarah's experience of the torture, Stella promises Sarah that she will tell the truth of her innocence if she stops harming people. Stella writes down the true story in blood, and Sarah and all of her monsters vanish.


text: Stella writes the truth about Sarah's life in the papers, keeping her promise. Ramón accepts his enlistment and shares an emotional goodbye with Stella before he leaves for the war. With Ruth recovered, Stella states that she will find a way to rescue Chuck and Auggie.


text: In 2013, CBS Films acquired the rights to the Alvin Schwartz's children's book series "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" from 1212 Entertainment, with the intent of producing it as a potential feature film. It was announced in 2014 that writer John August had been set to pen a film version.


text: On January 14, 2016, it was announced that Guillermo del Toro would develop the film, as well as possibly direct, and that he would also produce along with Sean Daniel, Jason Brown, and Elizabeth Grave, with Roberto Grande and Joshua Long executive producing. In February 2016, CBS Films hired screenwriting brothers duo Dan and Kevin Hageman to polish the draft written by August. In December 2017, it was reported that André Øvredal would direct the film. The Hagemans received final screenplay credit, with del Toro, Patrick Melton, and Marcus Dunstan receiving "story by" credit. CBS Films co-financed with Entertainment One.


text: In August 2018, Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Abrams, Gabriel Rush, Austin Zajur, and Natalie Ganzhorn joined the cast. In September 2018, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, Lorraine Toussaint, and Javier Botet were added as well. Principal photography commenced on August 27, 2018, and ended on November 1, 2018, in Hamilton, Ontario.


text: In July 2019, at the San Diego Comic-Con, del Toro explained why "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" was not produced as an anthology film:


text: The film features an original score by composers Marco Beltrami and Anna Drubich. In addition to the original music, period songs from the 60s are heard in the film, such as "Season of the Witch" by Donovan, which plays during the film's opening.


text: A cover of "Season of the Witch" by musician Lana Del Rey is heard in the closing credits to the film and was featured in a trailer for the film. While talking about his choice to have Del Rey sing the cover for the film, del Toro stated, "I have admired Lana's music for a while now and felt in my gut that she would run with 'Season of the Witch' – that she would use her alchemy to transform it. She is a great artist and has been an amazing partner with us in this adventure. It is an honor for me to have met her." Del Rey's version of the song was released for digital download and streaming on August 9, the same day as the film's premiere. Mirko Parlevliet of Vital Thrills praised the pairing of Del Rey's sound and the film's vintage aesthetic. Savannah Sicurella of Paste stated, "Del Rey managed to capture the prickly, macabre feeling of the popular Alvin Schwartz stories on which the film was based."


text: The first footage of the film premiered during Super Bowl LIII. The first trailer was released on March 28, 2019, and the second on June 3, 2019. On August 5, 2019, a third trailer was released, featuring a cover version of the Donovan song "Season of the Witch", by Lana Del Rey, performed for the film's soundtrack. All-in-all, the studio spent over $20 million promoting the film.


text: The film was originally set to be theatrically released in the United States on August 9, 2019, by CBS Films via Lionsgate, but the film was pushed back two weeks later, to August 23.


text: "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" was released in the US on digital download by Lionsgate Home Entertainment on October 22, 2019, and also on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on November 5.


text: "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" grossed $68.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $35.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $104.5 million.


text: In the United States and Canada, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" was released alongside "The Kitchen", "Dora and the Lost City of Gold", "The Art of Racing in the Rain", and "Brian Banks", and was projected to gross $15–17 million from 3,000 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $8.8 million on its first day, including $2.33 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $20.8 million, finishing second, behind holdover "Hobbs & Shaw". It dropped 52% in its second weekend to $10.1 million, finishing fifth.


text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Like the bestselling series of books that inspired it, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" opens a creepy gateway into horror for younger genre enthusiasts." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 3 out of 5 stars and a 53% "definite recommend."


text: Owen Gleiberman of "Variety" wrote that "the movie faithfully re-creates the peak moments of half a dozen of Schwartz' most popular stories," but "doesn't totally embrace the Gammell vision," referring to the infamy of the illustrations in the original book series. Ben Kenigsberg of "The New York Times" called the film "an agreeable bit of fan service."


text: Keith Uhlich of "The Hollywood Reporter" conversely termed it a "lackluster adaptation," adding that the monsters depicted in the film are "scary," though "they'd be much more so if they felt less like franchisable IP and more like fervent expressions of the ills of the eras on which the film aims to comment." William Bibbiani of Bloody Disgusting wrote that the film "often works very well for several, breathless minutes at a time. But in between those excellent scares there's a lot of filler, a lot of perfunctory plotting and a lot of mediocre character development." Alan Jacques of "Limerick Post" gave the film two points out of five and stated "This movie is definitely not meant for a pre-teen audience. There are one or two genuinely creepy moments that would leave your precious nippers sleeping with the lights on until they finish college... For a young audience coming to horror for the first time, this isn’t a bad place to start, but for anyone with a real appreciation of the genre this might feel rather dull and unoriginal." In his review for "The Verge", Noah Berlatsky stated "..."Scary Stories" is remarkably insightful and sober in its assessment of the way stories control people, rather than the other way around. Quentin Tarantino’s "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" was supposed to be the summer’s virtuoso meta-fiction, but its rewritten happy ending, musing on the impotence of writing, seems a lot less bleak than "Scary Stories"’ acknowledgment that some scripts will take you far away where you'll never be seen again."


text: Tomris Laffly of "RogerEbert.com" gave the movie three stars out of four, stating "Still, "Scary Stories" is a strangely uplifting throwback to old-fashioned clans of investigative teens. While it doesn’t break any new ground, there is plenty of vintage fun to be had with kids who feel their way through life’s impending fears and live to tell the tale." Writing for "The Guardian", Simran Hans gave the film three stars out of five, noting "Producer and co-writer Guillermo del Toro brings Alvin Schwartz’s much-loved children’s book series to the big screen, but this uneven film can’t decide who it’s trying to scare." "The New Yorker"s Richard Brody mentioned "There’s authentic charm to the fine-grained didacticism of the plot of “Scary Stories,” which embodies the very virtues that it promotes. In the process of displaying the redemptive power of factual knowledge, however, the movie flattens and tames the power of imagination." David Ehrlich of IndieWire added "André Øvredal’s film adaptation, as clever and well-crafted as it is, can’t help but invert the formula that the source material relied upon for its success. Here is an R-rated concept that’s been watered down until it passed for a PG-13 movie; it’s plenty harrowing and full of gruesome effects, but it never feels dangerous." "The Atlantic"s Julie Beck noted "The best scary stories do that—they get under your skin and emerge again and again. ("The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out.") "Scary Stories" the movie just bounces right off."


text: David Fear of "Rolling Stone" gave the movie three stars out of five, commenting "It’s all a lot of chain-rattling, black-cat-screeching fun, though not such a blast that you don’t notice how generic and ramshackle the whole endeavor feels... The pity is that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will mostly be seen by jaded genre completists and nostalgic fortysomethings. Wrong demographic. You owe it to your kids to take them to this. It’s training-wheels horror done right." Aja Romano of "Vox" gave the film three and half points out of five and wrote "...the film leans all the way into the chance to tell a story beset with cultural anxieties of the past that strongly mirror those of the present. It’s far more like a classic piece of young adult fiction than the juvenile fiction it’s adapting; its focus isn’t on kids, but on teens who are coming of age in a turbulent, complicated, and often maliciously unjust world. Their supernatural monsters, in contrast, are culled from juvenile fears and fantasies. The resulting folkloric aesthetic makes "Scary Stories"’ brand of fantasy all the more effective as fun visual horror. But on a thematic level, it creates a discordance with the film's more adult social horrors, and the two elements never quite unify." A.A. Dowd of "The A.V. Club" gave the film B grade and wrote "Like scouts huddled around a campfire, each trying to send a bigger chill down the others’ spines, "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark" keeps coming up with new gruesome attractions, piling one on top of the next. Yet as gross and spooky and, yes, occasionally frightening as these terror tactics get, they never quite cross over into the deep end of truly grown-up horror." "The Times of India"'s Neil Soans gave the film three stars out of five, noting "The screenplay ends up as a jumble of unexplored ideas onscreen rather than a cohesive narrative. However, if you only enjoy horror films for creepy monsters, you’ll manage to get a kick or two."


text: On April 23, 2020, it was announced that a sequel to the film is officially in development, with Øvredal returning to direct and Paramount Pictures (who absorbed CBS Films as part of the Viacom/CBS re-merger) distributing. Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Natalie Ganzhorn, and Dean Norris are set to reprise their roles with Dan and Kevin Hageman returning as writers and Guillermo del Toro returning as producer.


title: The Greatest Indian

text: The Greatest Indian was a poll sponsored by Reliance Mobile and conducted by "Outlook" magazine, in partnership with CNN-IBN and The History Channel. The poll was conducted from June to August 2012, with the winner, B. R. Ambedkar, announced on 11 August. A program associated with the poll aired from 4 June until 15 August.


title: The Greatest Indian

text: Unlike other editions of Greatest Britons spin-offs, "The Greatest Indian" did not include people from all time periods of history. Two reasons were given for this choice. The first was that "the pre-independence history of India is dominated by Mahatma Gandhi and it is impossible for anyone to come close to the Father of the Nation when it comes to Leadership, Impact and Contribution. [...] The panel of experts felt that if Gandhi were to be included in the list, there would be no competition for title of The Greatest Indian". Secondly, "The Greatest Indian" chose to focus on India as a modern nation: "India today is unrecognizable from the India that got independence in 1947. This nation has achieved this stature in the world thanks to contribution from millions of Indians. This is an effort to recognise one who has made the maximum contribution and impact in the surge of independent India".


title: The Greatest Indian

text: A list of 100 names was presented to and compiled by a 28-member jury composed of actors, writers, sportspersons, entrepreneurs, and men and women of distinction in their fields. This jury included N. Ram (former Editor-In-Chief of "The Hindu"), Vinod Mehta (Editor-in-Chief of "Outlook"), Soli Sorabjee (Former Attorney General of India), Sharmila Tagore (Bollywood actress and former Chairperson of the Censor Board of India), Harsha Bhogle (sports), Chetan Bhagat (author), Ramachandra Guha (historian), Shashi Tharoor (politician and author), Nandan Nilekani, Rajkumar Hirani, Shabana Azmi and Arun Jaitley. They finalized a list of the top 50 nominees, which was released to the public on 4 June 2012, by CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai. A three-way process was then used to assess a top ten, in which equal weight was given to the votes of the jury, an online poll, and a market survey conducted by the Nielsen Company. 7,129,050 people participated in this phase of the online poll. Public voting was conducted from 4 to 25 June, with the final top ten were announced on 3 July. A second round of voting followed, using the same method as the first, lasting from 1 July to 1 August. Individuals were able to cast votes either by visiting www.thegreatestindian.in or by calling a unique number given to each of the nominees. Nearly 20,000,000 people voted in this round of the survey. The announcement of the winner was made on 11 August, with a special finale, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan and featuring other Indian celebrities, airing on 14 and 15 August (Independence Day).


title: The Greatest Indian

text: The top 10 nominees have all received the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the Republic of India.


title: The Greatest Indian

text: Of 50 nominees, 15 have received the Bharat Ratna and 6 are women. The oldest living nominees at the time of the poll were Ravi Shankar (92), M. S. Swaminathan (87) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (88), while Sachin Tendulkar (39) was the youngest.


title: The Greatest Indian

text: Babasaheb Ambedkar was generally approved of as the greatest Indian, with several prominent scholars writing articles congratulating him, including Ramachandra Guha and S. Anand.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: For Your Eyes Only is a 1981 spy film directed by John Glen (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Albert R. Broccoli. The film stars Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, and co-stars Carole Bouquet, Chaim Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson, and Julian Glover.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The twelfth film in the "James Bond" franchise produced by Eon Productions, "For Your Eyes Only" was written by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson, based on two Ian Fleming short stories "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico". In the plot, Bond attempts to locate a missile command system while becoming tangled in a web of deception spun by rival Greek businessmen along with Melina Havelock, a woman seeking to avenge the murder of her parents. Some writing elements were inspired by the novels "Live and Let Die", "Goldfinger", and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: After the science fiction-focused "Moonraker", the producers wanted a return to the style of the early Bond films and the works of 007 creator Fleming. "For Your Eyes Only" followed a grittier, more realistic approach and a narrative theme of revenge and its consequences rather than the fantasy narrative of "Moonraker". Filming locations included Greece, Italy and England, while underwater footage was shot in The Bahamas. Scottish singer Sheena Easton performed the title theme song.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: "For Your Eyes Only" was released in the UK on 24 June 1981 and in the US two days later; it received a mixed to positive critical reception. The film's reputation has improved over time, with reviewers praising the more serious tone in comparison to previous entries in the series. The film was a financial success, generating $195.3 million worldwide. This was the final Bond film to be distributed solely by United Artists; the company was absorbed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer soon after this film's release.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The British information gathering vessel "St Georges", which holds the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), the system used by the Ministry of Defence to co-ordinate the Royal Navy's fleet of Polaris submarines, is sunk after accidentally trawling an old naval mine in the Ionian Sea. A marine archaeologist, Sir Timothy Havelock, is asked by the British to secretly locate the "St Georges". However, he and his wife are murdered by a Cuban hitman, Hector Gonzales. His daughter, Melina Havelock, witnesses the murder and vows revenge.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The head of the KGB, General Gogol, has also learned of the fate of the "St Georges" and already notified his contact in Greece. MI6 agent James Bond is ordered by the Minister of Defence, Sir Frederick Gray, and MI6 Chief of Staff Bill Tanner to retrieve the ATAC before the Soviets since the transmitter could order attacks by the submarines' Polaris ballistic missiles. Bond goes to Spain to find out who hired Gonzales.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: While spying on Gonzales's villa, Bond is captured by his men, but escapes as Gonzales is killed by a crossbow bolt. Outside, he finds the assassin was Melina and the two escape. With the help of Bond, Q uses computerised technology to identify the man Bond saw paying off Gonzales as Emile Leopold Locque, and then goes to Locque's possible base in Cortina, Italy. There Bond meets his contact, Luigi Ferrara, and a well-connected Greek businessman and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos, who tells Bond that Locque is employed by Milos Columbo, known as "the Dove" in the Greek underworld, Kristatos's former resistance partner during the Second World War. After Bond goes with Kristatos's protégée, figure skater Bibi Dahl, to a biathlon course, a group of three men, which includes East German biathlete Eric Kriegler, chases Bond, trying to kill him. Bond escapes and then goes with Ferrara to bid Bibi farewell in an ice rink, where he fends off another attempt on his life by men in ice hockey gear. Ferrara is killed in Bond's car, with a dove pin in his hand. Bond then travels to Corfu in pursuit of Columbo.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: There, at the casino, Bond meets Kristatos and asks how to meet Columbo, not knowing that Columbo's men are secretly recording their conversation. After Columbo and his mistress, Countess Lisl von Schlaf, argue, Bond offers to escort her home with Kristatos's car and driver. The two then spend the night together. In the morning, Lisl and Bond are ambushed by Locque and Lisl is killed. Bond is captured by Columbo's men before Locque can kill him; Columbo then tells Bond that Locque was actually hired by Kristatos, who is working for the KGB to retrieve the ATAC. Bond accompanies Columbo and his crew on a raid on one of Kristatos's opium-processing warehouses in Albania, where Bond uncovers naval mines similar to the one that sank the "St Georges", suggesting it was not an accident. After the base is destroyed, Bond chases Locque and kills him.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Afterwards, Bond meets Melina, and they recover the ATAC from the wreckage of the "St Georges", but Kristatos is waiting for them when they surface and he takes the ATAC. After the two escape an assassination attempt, they discover Kristatos's rendezvous point when Melina's parrot repeats the phrase "ATAC to St Cyril's". With the help of Columbo and his men, Bond and Melina break into St Cyril's, an abandoned mountaintop monastery. As Columbo confronts Kristatos, Bond kills Kriegler.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Bond retrieves the ATAC system and stops Melina from killing Kristatos after he surrenders. Kristatos tries to kill Bond with a hidden flick knife, but is killed by a knife thrown by Columbo; Gogol arrives by helicopter to collect the ATAC, but Bond throws it off the cliff. Bond and Melina later spend a romantic evening aboard her father's yacht while Melina's parrot fields a call from MI6 and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: John Hollis plays the bald villain in wheelchair, voiced by Robert Rietti. The character appears in the pre-credits sequence and is both unnamed and uncredited. The character contains a number of characteristics of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but could not be identified as such because of the legal reasons surrounding the "Thunderball" controversy with Kevin McClory claiming sole rights to the Blofeld character, a claim disputed by Eon. Bob Simmons, who previously portrayed Bond in the gun barrel sequences in the first three films and SPECTRE agent Colonel Jacques Bouvar in "Thunderball", cameos as another villain as Gonzales's henchman who falls victim to Bond's exploding Lotus. Victor Tourjansky, the assistant director, has his third cameo in the "Bond" films as a drinking tourist; he is credited as part of the Ski Team for Stunts.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Janet Brown plays Margaret Thatcher, who appears in the closing scene alongside John Wells as Denis Thatcher.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Ian Fleming wrote the original story "For Your Eyes Only" as an episode of a cancelled "James Bond" television series at CBS in 1958. Eon Productions originally intended to produce "For Your Eyes Only" after "The Spy Who Loved Me". However, after the success of "Star Wars" in 1977 the producers decided to produce "Moonraker" instead. "Moonraker" was successful yet was very expensive to produce, and shortly afterwards United Artists suffered a major financial flop with Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate". This, along with the early 1980s recession, required "For Your Eyes Only" to have a lower budget. "For Your Eyes Only" marked a change in the make up of the production crew. The previous series directors Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert, and Peter Hunt were unable to direct because the studio could not afford to hire them, and John Glen was promoted from his duties as a film editor to director, a position he would occupy for four subsequent films. Glen brought on much of his second-unit direction team from "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker", including cinematographer Alan Hume. The transition in directors and lower budget resulted in a harder-edged directorial style, with less emphasis on gadgetry and large action sequences in huge arenas as was favoured by Gilbert in the previous two films. Emphasis was placed on tension, plot and character in addition to a return to Bond's more serious roots, whilst "For Your Eyes Only" "showed a clear attempt to activate some lapsed and inactive parts of the Bond mythology."


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The film was also a deliberate effort to bring the series more back to reality, following the success of "Moonraker" in 1979. As co-writer Michael G. Wilson pointed out, "If we went through the path of "Moonraker" things would just get more outlandish, so we needed to get back to basics". To that end, the story that emerged was simpler, not one in which the world was at risk, but returning the series to that of a Cold War thriller; Bond would also rely more on his wits than gadgets to survive. Glen decided to symbolically represent it with a scene where Bond's Lotus blows itself up and forces 007 to rely on Melina's more humble Citroën 2CV. Since Ken Adam was busy with "Pennies from Heaven", Peter Lamont, who had worked in the art department since "Goldfinger", was promoted to production designer. Following a suggestion of Glen, Lamont created realistic scenery, instead of the elaborate set pieces for which the series had been known.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Before the project was postponed in favour of "Moonraker", Tom Mankiewicz had written a storyline and Christopher Wood submitted a first draft in January 1978. However, their screenplay did not influence the final film. Richard Maibaum was once again the scriptwriter for the story, assisted by Michael G. Wilson. According to Wilson, the ideas from stories could have come from anyone as the outlines were worked out in committee that could include Broccoli, Maibaum, Wilson and stunt coordinators. Much of the inspiration for the stories for the film came from two Ian Fleming short stories from the collection "For Your Eyes Only": "Risico" and "For Your Eyes Only". Another set-piece from the novel of "Live and Let Die" – the keelhauling – which was unused in the film of the same name, was also inserted into the plot. Other ideas from Fleming were also used in "For Your Eyes Only", such as the Identigraph which comes from the novel "Goldfinger", where it was originally called the "Identicast". These elements from Fleming's stories were mixed with a Cold War story centred on the MacGuffin of the ATAC. An initial treatment for this film was submitted by Ronald Hardy, an English novelist and screenwriter in 1979. Hardy's treatment included the involvement of a character named Julia Havelock whose parents were assassinated by a man named Gonzales.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The pre-title sequence of "For Your Eyes Only" has been described as either "out-of place and disappointing" or "roaringly enjoyable". The scene was shot to introduce a potential new Bond to audiences, thus linking the new actor to elements from previous Bond films (see casting, below).


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The sequence begins with Bond laying flowers at the grave of his wife Tracy Bond, before a Universal Exports helicopter picks him up for an emergency. Control of the helicopter is taken over by remote control by a bald man in a grey Nehru jacket with a white cat. This character is unnamed in either the film or the credits, although he looks and sounds like Ernst Stavro Blofeld as played by Donald Pleasence or Telly Savalas. Director John Glen referred to the identity of the villain obliquely: "We just let people use their imaginations and draw their own conclusions ... It's a legal thing". Originally the character was going to be explicitly identified as Blofeld, but was deliberately not named due to copyright restrictions with Kevin McClory, who owned the film rights to "Thunderball", which supposedly includes the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the organisation SPECTRE, and other material associated with the development of "Thunderball". Eon disputed McClory's ownership of the Blofeld character, but decided not to use him again: the scene was "a deliberate statement by Broccoli of his lack of need to use the character."


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Maibaum later said "We tried to return to the earlier films with "For Your Eyes Only" but we didn't have Sean to make it real. And I was very disappointed with the way the love story was handled. The whole idea was that the great lover James Bond can't get to first base with this woman because she was so obsessed with avenging her parents' death. Nothing was ever done with it. It was as if the director didn't feel there was a love story there at all."


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Roger Moore had originally signed a three-film contract with Eon Productions, which covered his first three appearances ("Live and Let Die" in 1973, "The Man with the Golden Gun" in 1974 and "The Spy Who Loved Me" in 1977). Subsequent to this, the actor negotiated contracts on a film-by-film basis starting with "Moonraker" in 1979. Uncertainty surrounding his involvement in "For Your Eyes Only", considering his age, led to other actors being considered to take over, including Lewis Collins, known in the UK for his portrayal of Bodie in "The Professionals"; Ian Ogilvy, known for role as Simon Templar in "Return of the Saint" (played by Moore in the original series); Michael Billington, who previously appeared in "The Spy Who Loved Me" as Agent XXX's ill-fated lover Sergei Barzov, (Billington's screen test for "For Your Eyes Only" was one of the five occasions he auditioned for the role of Bond) and Michael Jayston, who had appeared as the eponymous spy in the British TV series of "Quiller" (Jayston eventually played Bond in a BBC Radio production of "You Only Live Twice" in 1985). Timothy Dalton was strongly considered but Dalton declined, as he disliked the direction the series was taking at the time. When Moore discovered that Broccoli and Saltzman were screen-testing actors without his knowledge, he announced in the "Daily Mail" that he would not return to play Bond. However, the producers convinced him to return just two weeks later.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Bernard Lee died of cancer on 16 January 1981, after filming began on "For Your Eyes Only", but before he could film his scenes as M, the head of MI6, as he had done in the previous eleven films of the series. Out of respect, no new actor was hired to assume the role as Broccoli refused to have the character recast and, instead, the script was re-written so that the character is said to be on leave, letting Chief of Staff Bill Tanner take over the role as acting head of MI6 and briefing Bond alongside the Minister of Defence. This is only the second time M has been omitted from a Bond production, the first being the 1954 TV adaptation of "Casino Royale". Ironically, the original "For Your Eyes Only" short story dealt with Bond being given a personal mission by M, one of the few times in the Fleming canon that 007 did his superior a direct favour.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Chaim Topol was cast following a suggestion by Broccoli's wife Dana, while Julian Glover joined the cast as the producers felt he was stylish – Glover was even considered to play Bond at some point, but Michael G. Wilson stated that "when we first thought of him he was too young, and by the time of "For Your Eyes Only" he was too old". Carole Bouquet was a suggestion of United Artists publicist Jerry Juroe, and after Glen and Broccoli saw her in "That Obscure Object of Desire", they went to Rome to invite Bouquet for the role of Melina.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Production of "For Your Eyes Only" began on 2 September 1980 in the North Sea, with three days shooting exterior scenes with the "St Georges". Although the previous film had been shot almost entirely outside of the United Kingdom, the new Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's tax cuts allowed the shoot to return to Britain. The interiors were shot later in Pinewood Studios, as well as the ship's explosion, which was done with a miniature in Pinewood's tank on the 007 Stage. On 15 September principal photography started on Corfu at the Villa Sylva at Kanoni, above Corfu Town, which acted as the location of the Spanish villa. Many of the local houses were painted white for scenographic reasons. Glen opted to use the local slopes and olive trees for the chase scene between Melina's Citroën 2CV and Gonzales's men driving Peugeot 504s. The scene was shot across twelve days, with stunt driver Rémy Julienne – who would remain in the series up until "GoldenEye" – driving the Citroën. Four 2CVs were used, with modifications for the stunts – all had more powerful flat-four engines, and one received a special revolving plate on its roof so it could get turned upside down.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: In October filming moved to other Greek locations, including Meteora and the Achilleion. In November, the main unit moved to England, which included interior work in Pinewood, while the second unit shot underwater scenes in The Bahamas. On 1 January 1981, production moved to Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy, where filming wrapped in February. Since it was not snowing in Cortina d'Ampezzo by the time of filming, the producers had to pay for trucks to bring snow from nearby mountains, which was then dumped in the city's streets.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Many of the underwater scenes, especially involving close-ups of Bond and Melina, were faked on a dry soundstage. A combination of lighting effects, slow-motion photography, wind, and bubbles added in post-production, gave the illusion of the actors being underwater. Actress Carole Bouquet reportedly had a pre-existing health condition that prevented her from performing underwater stunt work. Aquatic scenes were done by a team led by Al Giddings, who had previously worked on "The Deep", and filmed in either Pinewood's tank on the 007 Stage or an underwater set built in the Bahamas. Production designer Peter Lamont and his team developed two working props for the submarine Neptune, as well as a mock-up with a fake bottom.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Roger Moore was reluctant to film the scene of Bond kicking a car, with Locque inside, over the edge of a cliff, saying that it "was Bond-like, but not Roger Moore Bond-like." Michael G. Wilson later said that Moore had to be persuaded to be more ruthless than he felt comfortable. Wilson also added that he and Richard Maibaum, along with John Glen, toyed with other ideas surrounding that scene, but ultimately everyone, even Moore, agreed to do the scene as originally written.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: For the Meteora shoots, a Greek bishop was paid to allow filming in the monasteries, but the uninformed Eastern Orthodox monks were mostly critical of production rolling in their installations. After a trial in the Greek Supreme Court, it was decided that the monks' only property were the interiors – the exteriors and surrounding landscapes were from the local government. In protest, the monks remained shut inside the monasteries during the shooting, and tried to sabotage production as much as possible, hanging their washing out of their windows and covering the principal monastery with plastic bunting and flags to spoil the shots, and placing oil drums to prevent the film crew from landing helicopters. The production team solved the problem with back lighting, matte paintings, and building both a similar scenographic monastery on a nearby unoccupied rock, and a monastery set in Pinewood.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Roger Moore said he had a great fear of heights, and to do the climbing in Greece, he resorted to moderate drinking to calm his nerves. Later in that same sequence, Rick Sylvester, a stuntman who had previously performed the pre-credits ski jump in "The Spy Who Loved Me", undertook the stunt of Bond falling off the side of the cliff. The stunt was dangerous, since the sudden rope jerk at the bottom could be fatal. Special effects supervisor Derek Meddings developed a system that would dampen the stop, but Sylvester recalled that his nerves nearly got the better of him: "From where we were [shooting], you could see the local cemetery; and the box [to stop my fall] looked like a casket. You didn't need to be an English major to connect the dots." The stunt went off without a problem.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Bond cameraman and professional skier Willy Bogner, Jr. was promoted to director of a second unit involving ski footage. Bogner designed the ski chase on the bobsleigh track of Cortina d'Ampezzo hoping to surpass his work in both "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "The Spy Who Loved Me". To allow better filming, Bogner developed both a system where he was attached to a bobsleigh, allowing to film the vehicle or behind it, and a set of skis that allowed him to ski forwards and backwards to get the best shots. In February 1981, on the final day of filming the bobsleigh chase, one of the stuntmen driving a sleigh, 23-year-old Paolo Rigon, was killed when he became trapped under the bob. The incident, which took place a week after the FIBT World Championships 1981 where USA-1 bobsled driver James Morgan was killed in a crash during the four-man sled competition, resulted in the shortening of the track for future FIBT events.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The pre-credits sequence used the churchyard of the Church of St Giles, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire as a cemetery, while the helicopter scenes were filmed at the abandoned Beckton Gas Works in London. The gas works were also the location for some of Stanley Kubrick's film, "Full Metal Jacket" (1987). Director John Glen gained the idea for the remote-controlled helicopter after seeing a child playing with an RC car. Since flying a helicopter through a warehouse was thought to be too dangerous, the scene was shot using forced perspective. A smaller mock-up was built by Derek Meddings' team closer to the camera that the stunt pilot Marc Wolff flew behind and this made it seem as if the helicopter was entering the warehouse. The footage inside the building was shot on location, though with a life-sized helicopter model which stood over a rail. Stuntman Martin Grace was a stand-in as Bond when the agent is dangling outside the flying helicopter, while Roger Moore himself was used in the scenes inside the model. The helicopter "G-BAKS", an Agusta-Bell 206B JetRanger II, crashed in fog on 14 November 1997, killing the pilot at Cocking, West Sussex; it was built on 28 December 1972 for Galliford Construction.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The score of "For Your Eyes Only" was written by Bill Conti, who retained some John Barry-influenced brass elements in the score, but also added elements of dance and funk music. While one reviewer observed that "Bill Conti's score is a constant source of annoyance", another claimed that "In the end, "For Your Eyes Only" stands as one of the best James Bond film scores of the 1980s."


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The title song, written by Conti and Michael Leeson, was sung by Sheena Easton, who was the first title song artist to appear on screen in a Bond film, as designer Maurice Binder liked Easton's appearance and decided to add her to the opening credits. The producers of the film hired Debbie Harry to sing Conti and Leeson's song, but she quit when the producers refused to allow her band Blondie to write and perform an original song for the film. Blondie's rejected song, titled "For Your Eyes Only," can be found on their 1982 album, "The Hunter".


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: "For Your Eyes Only" was premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on , setting an all-time opening-day record for any film at any cinema in the UK with a gross of £14,998 (£ in pounds). The film entered general release in the UK the same day. It went on to gross £10.4 million in the UK.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: "For Your Eyes Only" had its North American premiere in Canada and the US on Friday 26 June, at approximately 1,100 cinemas.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The film grossed $54.8 million in the United States and Canada, (equivalent to $101.5 million at 2011 ticket prices or $ million in dollars, adjusted for general inflation) and $195.3 million worldwide, becoming the second highest grossing Bond film after its predecessor, "Moonraker". This was the last James Bond film to be solely released by United Artists, as by this time its owner, Transamerica Corporation, finalized the sale of the company to MGM. Following the MGM and United Artists merger, later runs including future entries were released under "MGM/UA Distribution Co".


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: The promotional cinema poster for the film featured a woman holding a crossbow; she was photographed from behind, and her outfit left the bottom half of her buttocks exposed. The effect was achieved by having the model wear a pair of bikini bottoms backwards, so that the part seen on her backside is the front of the suit. The poster caused some furor—largely in the US—with "The Boston Globe" and the "Los Angeles Times" considering the poster so unsuitable they edited out everything above the knee, whilst the "Pittsburgh Press" editors painted a pair of shorts over the legs. There was significant speculation as to the identity of the model before photographer Morgan Kane identified her as Joyce Bartle.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: A number of items of merchandising were issued to coincide with the film, including a 007 digital watch and a copy of Melina's Citroën 2CV by Corgi Toys. Citroën itself produced a special "007" edition of the 2CV, which even had decorative bullet holes on the door. Marvel Comics also did a comic book adaptation (see section below).


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Derek Malcolm in "The Guardian" disliked the film, saying it was "too long ... and pretty boring between the stunts", although he admitted that the stunts were of a high quality. According to Malcolm, Bond "inhabits a fantasy-land of more or less bloodless violence, groinless sex and naivety masked as superior sophistication", with Moore playing him as if in a "nicely lubricated daze". Although Malcolm tipped the film for international box office success, he observed that he "can't quite see why the series has lasted so long and so strong in people's affections." Writing in "The Observer", Philip French commented that "not for the first time the pre-credits sequence is the best thing about the film." French was dismissive of Moore's Bond, saying that Bond was "impersonated by Moore" and referred to Moore's advancing years.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: David Robinson, writing in "The Times" bemoaned the fact that the "dramatic bits between the set pieces don't count for much." Like other critics at the time his praise was more directed towards the stunt crews; they were "better than ever in this one." The film critic for the magazine "Time Out" was brief and pithy: "no plot and poor dialogue, and Moore really is old enough to be the uncle of those girls."


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: For the US press, Gary Arnold in "The Washington Post" thought the film was "undeniably easy on the eyes", and further added "maybe too easy to prevent the mind from wandering and the lids from drooping." Arnold was also critical of the large set pieces, calling them "more ponderous than sensational" and that there was "no equivalent of the classic action highlights that can be recalled readily from "From Russia with Love" or "You Only Live Twice" or "The Spy Who Loved Me" or "Moonraker". This is a Bond waiting for something inspired to push it over the top." "The New York Times" critic Vincent Canby said that ""For Your Eyes Only" is not the best of the series by a long shot" although he did say that the film is "slick entertainment" with a tone that is "consistently comic even when the material is not."


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Jack Kroll in "Newsweek" dismissed the film, saying it was "an anthology of action episodes held together by the thinnest of plot lines", although he did concede that these set pieces are "terrific in their exhilaratingly absurd energy." For "Time" magazine, Richard Corliss concentrated on the stunts, saying the team "have devised some splendid optional features for "For Your Eyes Only"" whilst also commenting on Roger Moore, saying that his "mannequin good looks and waxed-fruit insouciance" show him to be "the best-oiled cog in this perpetual motion machine." Jay Scott of "The Globe and Mail" included it on his list of the year's worst films, calling it "repellant" and "ambitiously bad".


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: French filmmaker Robert Bresson admired the film: "It filled me with wonder because of its cinematographic writing ... if I could have seen it twice in a row and again the next day, I would have done." Elsewhere Bresson said he also loved the film's ski chase.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Opinion on "For Your Eyes Only" has improved with the passing of time, though some reviews are still mixed to positive: , the film holds a 73% 'fresh' rating from Rotten Tomatoes, being ranked eleventh among the 24 Bond films. Ian Nathan of "Empire" gives the film only two of a possible five stars, observing that the film "still ranks as one of the most forgettable Bonds on record." In 2006, IGN chose "For Your Eyes Only" as the sixth best Bond film, claiming it is "a good old-fashioned espionage tale", a placement shared by Norman Wilner of MSN, who considered it "the one Moore film that seems to reach back to Connery's heyday", and "Entertainment Weekly" chose it as the tenth best in 2008, saying it was a "return to low-tech, low-key Bond [with] ... some of the best stunts since the early days". In October 2008 "Time Out" re-issued a review of "For Your Eyes Only" and observed that the film is "admirable in intent" but that it "feels a little spare", largely because the plot has been "divested of the bells and whistles that hallmark the franchise".


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: James Berardinelli wrote that the film was "a solid adventure, although it could have been better", while Danny Peary thought "There are exciting moments, but most of it is standard Bond fare," going on to describe "For Your Eyes Only" as "an attempt to mix spectacle with [the] tough, believable storylines of early Bond films ... [it] is enjoyable while you're watching it. Afterward, it's one of the most forgettable of the Bond series." Raymond Benson, the author of nine Bond novels, thought "For Your Eyes Only" was Roger Moore's best Bond film.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: Although Chris Nashawaty of "Entertainment Weekly" ranks Carole Bouquet playing Melina as the "worst babe" of the seven Roger Moore James Bond films, his colleague, Joshua Rich disagreed, putting her tenth in the overall 10 Best Bond Girls listing from the 21 films released up to that point. "Entertainment Weekly" also ranked Lynn-Holly Johnson as Bibi Dahl as ninth on their list of the 10 worst Bond girls from the 21 films that had been released. After 20 films had been released, IGN ranked Bouquet as fifth in their 'top 10 Bond Babes' list, and "The Times" thought she was sixth on their list of the Top 10 most fashionable Bond girls after 21 films had been released.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: In 2004 the American Film Institute nominated the song "For Your Eyes Only" from the film for AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: As part of the merchandising of "For Your Eyes Only", Marvel Comics published an adaptation of the movie as issue 19 of "Marvel Comics Super Special"; this was also repackaged as a two-issue comic book adaptation of the film. The first issue was released in October 1981 and was soon followed by the second issue in November of the same year. The adaptation was written by Larry Hama, pencilled by Howard Chaykin, inked by Vincent Colletta, and edited by Dennis O'Neil.


title: For Your Eyes Only (film)

text: It was the second film in the series to have a comic book tie-in, following a "Dr. No" comic in 1962. Marvel Comics would go on to publish an "Octopussy" comic book adaptation in 1983.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (27 September 1389 – 1 August 1464) was an Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth as a banker, and inter-marriage with other powerful and rich families. He was a patron of arts, learning and architecture. He spent over 600,000 gold florins (approx. $500 million inflation adjusted) on art and culture, including Donatello's David, the first freestanding nude male sculpture since antiquity. Despite his influence, his power was not absolute; Florence's legislative councils at times resisted his proposals throughout his life, and he was viewed as first among equals, rather than an autocrat.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Cosimo de' Medici was born in Florence to Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici and his wife Piccarda Bueri on 27 September 1389. At the time, it was customary to indicate the name of one's father in one's name for the purpose of distinguishing the identities of two like-named individuals; thus, Giovanni was the son of Bicci, and Cosimo's name was properly rendered Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici. He was born along with a twin brother Damiano, who survived only a short time. The twins were named after Saints Cosmas and Damian, whose feast day was then celebrated on 27 September; Cosimo would later celebrate his own birthday on that day, his "name day", rather than on the actual date of his birth. Cosimo also had a brother Lorenzo, known as "Lorenzo the Elder", who was some six years his junior and participated in the family's banking enterprise.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Cosimo inherited both his wealth and his expertise in banking from his father Giovanni, who had gone from being a moneylender to join the bank of his relative Vieri di Cambio de' Medici. Giovanni had been running Vieri's branch in Rome independently since the dissolution of the latter's bank into three separate and independent entities until 1397, when he left Rome to return to Florence to found his own bank, the Medici Bank. Over the next two decades, the Medici Bank opened branches in Rome, Geneva, Venice, and temporarily in Naples; the majority of profits was derived from Rome. The branch manager in Rome was a papal "depositario generale" who managed Church finances in return for a commission. Cosimo would later expand the bank throughout western Europe and opened offices in London, Pisa, Avignon, Bruges, Milan, and Lübeck. The far-flung branches of the Medici rendered it the best bank for the business of the papacy, since it enabled bishoprics in many parts of Europe to pay their fees into the nearest branch, whose manager would then issue a papal license, and the popes could more easily order a variety of wares – such as spices, textiles, and relics – through the bankers' wholesale trade. In fifteen years, Giovanni would make a profit of 290,791 florins.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: In 1415, Cosimo allegedly accompanied the Antipope John XXIII at the Council of Constance. In 1410, Giovanni lent John XXIII, then simply known as Baldassare Cossa, the money to buy himself the office of cardinal, which he repaid by making the Medici Bank head of all papal finances once he claimed the papacy. This gave the Medici family tremendous power, allowing them, for instance, to threaten defaulting debtors with excommunication. But misfortune hit the Medici Bank in 1415, when the Council of Constance unseated John XXIII, thus taking away the near monopoly they had held on the finances of the Roman Curia; thereafter, the Medici Bank had to compete with other banks. However, after the Spini Bank of Florence went insolvent in 1420, they again secured priority. John XXIII, facing the enmity of a church council at which he was accused of a large variety of offenses against the Church, was confined by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor to Heidelberg Castle until the Medici paid his ransom and granted him asylum.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: In the same year as John's dethronement (1415), Cosimo was named "Priore of the Republic [of Florence]". Later he acted frequently as an ambassador for Florence and demonstrated a prudence for which he became renowned.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: About 1415, Cosimo married Contessina de' Bardi (the daughter of Alessandro di Sozzo Bardi, count of Vernio, and Camilla Pannocchieschi). The wedding was arranged by his father as an effort to reaffirm relations with the long-standing noble Bardi family, who had operated one of the richest banks in Europe until its spectacular collapse in 1345; they nevertheless remained highly influential in the financial sphere. Only part of the Bardi family were involved in this marriage alliance, for some of the branches considered themselves the opponents of the Medici clan. The couple had two sons: Piero the Gouty (b. 1416) and Giovanni de' Medici (b. 1421). Cosimo also had an illegitimate son, Carlo, by a Circassian slave, who would go on to become a prelate.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Giovanni withdrew from the Medici Bank in 1420, leaving its leadership to both of his surviving sons. He left them 179,221 florins upon his death in 1429. Two-thirds of this came from the business in Rome, while only a tenth came from Florence; even Venice offered better returns than Florence. The brothers would earn two-thirds of the profits from the bank, with the other third going to a partner. Besides the bank, the family owned much land in the area surrounding Florence, including Mugello, the place from which the family originally came.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Cosimo's power over Florence stemmed from his wealth, which he used to control the votes of office holders in the municipal councils, most importantly the Signoria of Florence. As Florence was proud of its "democracy", he pretended to have little political ambition and did not often hold public office. Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Bishop of Siena and later Pope Pius II, said of him:


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: In 1433, Cosimo's power over Florence began to look like a menace to the anti-Medici party led by figures such as Palla Strozzi and the Albizzi family, headed by Rinaldo degli Albizzi. In September of that year, Cosimo was imprisoned in the Palazzo Vecchio for his part in a failure to conquer the Republic of Lucca, but he managed to turn the jail term into one of exile. Some prominent Florentines, such as Francesco Filelfo, demanded his execution, a fate that may have been almost certain without the intervention of the monk Ambrogio Traversari on his behalf. Cosimo traveled to Padua and then to Venice, taking his bank along with him and finding friends and sympathizers wherever he went for his willingness to accept exile rather than resume the bloody conflicts that had chronically afflicted the streets of Florence. Venice sent an envoy to Florence on his behalf and requested that they rescind the order of banishment. When they refused, Cosimo settled down in Venice, his brother Lorenzo accompanying him. However, prompted by his influence and his money, others followed him, such as the architect Michelozzo, whom Cosimo commissioned to design a library as a gift to the Venetian people. Within a year, the flight of capital from Florence was so great that the decree of exile had to be lifted. Cosimo returned a year later, in 1434, to influence the government of Florence (especially through the Pitti and Soderini families) for the last 30 years of his life of 75 years.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Cosimo's time in exile instilled in him the need to quash the factionalism that resulted in his exile in the first place. In order to do this, he instigated a series of constitutional changes with the help of favorable priors in the Signoria to secure his power through influence.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Following the death of Filippo Maria Visconti, who had ruled the Duchy of Milan from 1412 until his death in 1447, Cosimo sent Francesco I Sforza to establish himself in Milan to prevent an impending military advance from the Republic of Venice. Francesco Sforza was a "condottiere", a mercenary soldier who had stolen land from the papacy and proclaimed himself its lord. He had yearned to establish himself at Milan as well, an ambition that was aided by the fact that the current Visconti head lacked legitimate children save for a daughter, Bianca, whom Sforza ultimately married in November 1441 after a failed attempt at winning her hand from her father. The resultant balance of power with Milan and Florence on the one side and Venice and the Kingdom of Naples on the other created nearly half a century of peace that enabled the development of the Renaissance in Italy. However, despite the benefits to Florence from keeping Venice at bay, the intervention in Milan was unpopular among Cosimo's fellow citizens, primarily because they were called upon to finance the Sforza succession. The Milanese made a brief attempt at democracy before Sforza was finally acclaimed duke by the city in February 1450.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: In terms of foreign policy, Cosimo worked to create peace in northern Italy through the creation of a balance of power between Florence, Naples, Venice and Milan during the wars in Lombardy between 1423 and 1454 and the discouragement of outside powers (notably the French and the Holy Roman Empire) from interfering in Italian affairs. In 1439, he was instrumental in convincing Pope Eugene IV to move the Ecumenical Council of Ferrara to Florence. The arrival of many notable Byzantine figures from the Eastern Roman Empire, including Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, for this event further inspired the growing interest in ancient Greek arts and literature.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: On his death in 1464 at Careggi, Cosimo was succeeded by his son Piero, father of Lorenzo the Magnificent. After Cosimo's death, the Signoria awarded him the title "Pater Patriae", "Father of the Fatherland", an honour once awarded to Cicero, and had it carved upon his tomb in the Church of San Lorenzo.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Cosimo de' Medici used his personal fortune to control the Florentine political system and to sponsor orators, poets and philosophers, as well as a series of artistic accomplishments.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Cosimo was also noted for his patronage of culture and the arts during the Renaissance and spent the family fortune liberally to enrich the civic life of Florence. According to Salviati's "Zibaldone", Cosimo stated: "All those things have given me the greatest satisfaction and contentment because they are not only for the honor of God but are likewise for my own remembrance. For fifty years, I have done nothing else but earn money and spend money; and it became clear that spending money gives me greater pleasure than earning it."


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Additionally, his patronage of the arts both recognized and proclaimed the humanistic responsibility of the civic duty that came with wealth.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Cosimo hired the young Michelozzo Michelozzi to create what is today perhaps the prototypical Florentine palazzo, the austere and magnificent Palazzo Medici. The building still includes, as its only 15th-century interior that is largely intact, the Magi Chapel frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli, completed in 1461 with portraits of members of the Medici family parading through Tuscany in the guise of the Three Wise Men. He was a patron and confidante of Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, and Donatello, whose famed David and Judith Slaying Holofernes were Medici commissions. His patronage enabled the eccentric and bankrupt architect Brunelleschi to complete the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore (the "Duomo") in 1436.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: In 1444, Cosimo de' Medici founded the first public library in Florence, at San Marco, which was of central importance to the humanist movement in Florence during the Renaissance. It was designed by Michelozzo, a student of Lorenzo Ghiberti who later collaborated with Donatello and was also a good friend and patron to Cosimo. Cosimo contributed the funds necessary to repair the library and provide it with a book collection, which people were allowed to use at no charge. "That Cosimo de'Medici was able to finance the construction of such a site placed him in a privileged position of leadership in the city. He hand-selected those individuals who were given access to this laboratory of learning, and, through this social dynamic, he actively shaped the politics of the Republic." He also commissioned Michelozzo to design a library for his grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici. His first library, however, was designed by Michelozzo while the two were in Venice, where Cosimo had been temporarily exiled. In 1433, in gratitude for the hospitality of that city, he left it as a gift, his only such work outside Florence. His libraries were noted for their Renaissance style of architecture and distinguished artwork.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Cosimo had grown up with only three books, but by the time he was thirty, his collection had grown to 70 volumes. After being introduced to humanism by a group of literati who had asked for his help in preserving books, he grew to love the movement and gladly sponsored the effort to renew Greek and Roman civilization through literature, for which book collecting was a central activity. "Heartened by the romantic wanderlust of a true bibliophile, the austere banker even embarked on several journeys in the hunt for books, while guaranteeing just about any undertaking that involved books. He financed trips to nearly every European town as well as to Syria, Egypt, and Greece organized by Poggio Bracciolini, his chief book scout." He engaged 45 copyists under the bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci to transcribe manuscripts and paid off the debts of Niccolò de' Niccoli after his death in exchange for control over his collection of some 800 manuscripts valued at around 6,000 florins. These manuscripts that Cosimo acquired from Niccoli would later be the cornerstone of the Laurentian Library, a library in Florence founded by Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: In the realm of philosophy, Cosimo, influenced by the lectures of Gemistus Plethon, supported Marsilio Ficino and his attempts at reviving Neo-Platonism. Cosimo commissioned Ficino's Latin translation of the complete works of Plato (the first ever complete translation) and collected a vast library that he shared with intellectuals such as Niccolò de' Niccoli and Leonardo Bruni. He also established a Platonic Academy in Florence in 1445. He provided his grandson Lorenzo de' Medici with an education in the studia humanitatis. Cosimo certainly had an influence on Renaissance intellectual life, but it was Lorenzo who would later be deemed to have been the greatest patron.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Roberto Rossellini's three-part television miniseries "The Age of the Medici" (1973) has Cosimo as its central character (the original Italian title is "L'età di Cosimo de' Medici", meaning "The Age of Cosimo de' Medici"). The first part, "The Exile of Cosimo", and the second part, "The Power of Cosimo", focus on Cosimo's political struggles and on his patronage of the arts and sciences in Florence. Cosimo is portrayed by Italian actor Marcello Di Falco.


title: Cosimo de' Medici

text: Frank Spotnitz's eight-part television series "Medici: Masters of Florence" (2016) depicts the rise of the powerful banking family after the death of Giovanni (played by Dustin Hoffman), as his son Cosimo (Richard Madden) takes over as head of the family. The sixteen-part sequel, "Medici" (2019–2020), follows the career of Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent (Daniel Sharman).


title: Iwan Rheon

text: Iwan Rheon (, ; born 13 May 1985) is a Welsh actor, singer, and musician. He is best known for his roles as Simon Bellamy in the E4 series "Misfits", Ramsay Bolton in the HBO series "Game of Thrones", and Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars in the film " The Dirt". He has also appeared in the series "Vicious", "Riviera", and "Inhumans".


title: Iwan Rheon

text: Rheon was born in Carmarthen on 13 May 1985, the son of Einir and Rheon Tomos. When he was five years old, his family moved to Cardiff. His older brother, Aled, is a musician; the two performed together on the 2015 single "Rhodd". Rheon attended Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, a Welsh-speaking school, where he began acting in school drama productions at age 17. He was later spotted by a talent scout at a National Eisteddfod of Wales.


title: Iwan Rheon

text: At age 17, Rheon joined the Welsh language soap "Pobol Y Cwm", in which he originated the role of Macsen White, but later left to train at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His first notable stage part came in "Eight Miles High", which was staged in 2008 at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. Also in 2008, he was cast as the haunted Moritz Stiefel in the London production of the Tony Award-winning rock musical "Spring Awakening". He played this role from January 2009 at the Lyric Hammersmith and continued when the show was transferred to the Novello Theatre, until it closed in May 2009, five months earlier than planned. He earned a What's on Stage Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, which was eventually won by Oliver Thornton ("Priscilla Queen of the Desert"). For his performance he won the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical at the 2010 Olivier Awards.


title: Iwan Rheon

text: Immediately after "Spring Awakening", Rheon was cast in the E4 channel's "Misfits", a BAFTA winning programme that was described by 247 Magazine as "a mix of "Skins" and "Heroes"". He plays nervous, shy Simon Bellamy, who gains the superpower of invisibility and precognition in season 3. On 20 December 2011, Rheon announced via Twitter that he had left the show, along with fellow cast member Antonia Thomas.


title: Iwan Rheon

text: In 2011, he also appeared in the final episode of "Secret Diary of a Call Girl". In 2011, he was nominated for a Golden Nymph in the "Outstanding Actor – Drama Series" category for his role in "Misfits". Rheon also made two guest appearances as the character Ben Theodore in Simon Amstell's comedy "Grandma's House". In early 2012, Rheon filmed the crime heist drama "The Rise". In spring 2012, he began shooting "Libertador" in Venezuela and Spain. He plays Daniel O'Leary. In May 2012, it was announced that he had signed on to the gritty drama "Driven". In 2013, Rheon was cast as the villainous psychopath Ramsay Bolton in the HBO series "Game of Thrones". In the DVD commentary for the series' third season, producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss mentioned that Rheon previously auditioned for the role of Jon Snow, but lost to Kit Harington, with whom Rheon maintains a close friendship. He portrayed Ash Weston in the ITV sitcom "Vicious" from 2013 until 2016.


title: Iwan Rheon

text: In 2013, Rheon played a lead role in the philosophical radio play, "Darkside", based on the themes of Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" album. In September 2014, Rheon joined the cast of BBC One's "Our Girl" as Dylan "Smurf" Smith. In 2017, it was announced that Rheon had been cast in ABC's "Inhumans" series. Rheon played Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars in the 2019 film "The Dirt".


title: Iwan Rheon

text: Songwriting and singing since the age of 16, Rheon was lead singer in The Convictions until leaving the band to pursue his acting career. In 2010, he recorded his first solo work, "Tongue Tied EP", at RAK Studios in London, produced by Jonathan Quarmby and Kevin Bacon. The EP, a four track release with acoustic guitar and voice, was released digitally in June 2010.


title: Iwan Rheon

text: He returned to RAK Studios, in April 2011, to record his second EP "Changing Times", again produced by Quarmby and Bacon, with the addition of three backing musicians. "Changing Times" was released on 10 October 2011. On 7 April 2013, Rheon released his third EP "Bang! Bang!" and on 9 April 2013, released the music video for the title track.


title: Iwan Rheon

text: Rheon recorded his first album, "Dinard", at RAK Studios in London and Tŷ Cerdd Studios in Wales. The album was released in April 2015 and produced by James Clarke and Jim Unwin. A "self-funded collection of emotive folk-pop songs recorded over several years", the album's title refers to Dinard, a town in Brittany, France, where Rheon met his girlfriend Zoë Grisedale. Music journalist Neil McCormick described the album as "an absorbing collection of moody, introspective songs, all written by Rheon, who plays acoustic guitar with a deft touch and sings in an expressive, gritty voice".


title: Iwan Rheon

text: Rheon is fluent in both Welsh and English, with Welsh being his first language. He lives in Islington, London with his girlfriend, Zoë Grisedale; their first child was born in August 2018.


title: John Derek

text: John Derek (born Derek Delevan Harris; August 12, 1926 – May 22, 1998) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer and photographer. He appeared in such films as "Knock on Any Door", "All the King's Men" (both 1949), and "Rogues of Sherwood Forest" (1950).


title: John Derek

text: His good looks were soon noticed, and he was groomed for a movie career by both his agent Henry Willson (who gave him the temporary stage name of Dare Harris) and David O. Selznick with small roles in the Selznick pictures "Since You Went Away" (1944) and "I'll Be Seeing You" (1944).


title: John Derek

text: He was drafted in 1944 into the United States Army, and saw service in the Philippines during the last days of World War II.


title: John Derek

text: After the war, Derek had a small role in "A Double Life" (1947) when he was approached by Humphrey Bogart, who renamed him John Derek and cast him as Nick "Pretty Boy" Romano, an unrepentant killer, in "Knock on Any Door" (1949), a socially conscious melodrama directed by Nicholas Ray. Derek was recognized as a talented newcomer, "plainly an idol for the girls", as Bosley Crowther wrote in a review for "The New York Times". The "Los Angeles Times" called him "a handsome hot-eyed newcomer who makes the case for this product of the city's slums—'live fast, die young and have a good looking corpse'—all too fascinating for everybody's comfort."


title: John Derek

text: The film was made for Bogart's Santana company and released through Columbia Pictures, who signed Derek to a seven-year contract in April 1948. Derek followed it with a supporting role as the son of Broderick Crawford in "All the King's Men" (1949), the Best Picture Oscar winner for its year. In September 1950, he had his name formally changed to John Derek.


title: John Derek

text: Columbia promoted him to lead roles, as Robin Hood in "Rogues of Sherwood Forest" (1950) with Alan Hale; the "Los Angeles Times" called him a "slim and beautiful youth". He was meant to follow it with "The Gainesville Circus", but it was never made.


title: John Derek

text: Instead, Columbia put him in another swashbuckler, "Mask of the Avenger" (1951), then gave him a good dramatic role in a prestige film, "Saturday's Hero" (1951), as a college football player. The novel was bought specifically as a vehicle for Derek. He was in a crime noir, "The Family Secret" (1951), then reunited with Crawford in "Scandal Sheet" (1952).


title: John Derek

text: Derek was borrowed by Republic Pictures for a war film, "Thunderbirds" (1952). He went back to Columbia for "Prince of Pirates" (1953), a swashbuckler for Sam Katzman; two Westerns, "Ambush at Tomahawk Gap" (1953), with John Hodiak and "The Last Posse" (1953) with Crawford. He was back with Hodiak for "Mission Over Korea" (1953), a Korean War film, then was again borrowed by Republic for "Sea of Lost Ships" (1953). He left Columbia in July 1953.


title: John Derek

text: Derek made another film for Republic, "The Outcast" (1954), a Western. Walter Wanger used him for "The Adventures of Hajji Baba" (1954) released by 20th Century Fox, a surprise hit.


title: John Derek

text: He had a showy role as John Wilkes Booth in "Prince of Players" (1955) at Fox, then was in a drama "An Annapolis Story" (1955) at Allied Artists.


title: John Derek

text: In March 1954, Derek signed a long-term contract with Paramount. His first films for the studio were "Run for Cover" (1955), a Western with James Cagney and Nicholas Ray; and "The Leather Saint" (1956), a boxing film. He also appeared as Joshua in "The Ten Commandments" (1956). He wanted to make a film about Joaquin Murrieta but it was never made.


title: John Derek

text: Derek travelled to Italy to appear in "Pirate of the Half Moon" (1957). He made a Western "Fury at Showdown" (1957) and a movie in Britain "The Flesh Is Weak" (1957). He supported Cornel Wilde in "Omar Khayyam" (1957), and starred in "High Hell" (1958). In Europe he was in "Prisoner of the Volga" (1959) and he played an Arab in "Exodus" (1960). He was in a TV series, "Frontier Circus".


title: John Derek

text: Derek disliked acting. He later said he "was never into it. If they'd given me the greatest role in the world it wouldn't have helped. I used to go to the directors of my films and say: 'I'm not an actor but I'll turn up on time and know my words.' In the 13 films I made I only ever did one take per scene. Directors never went for a second because they knew it'd be no different from the first. I never liked acting. Or my films. Maybe one, a cheap little Western called "The Outcast". I liked that because I love horses. One of the troubles was I had a monotone voice which went even flatter when I tried to act. When I saw my first film "Knock On Any Door" in Italy I only liked it because my voice was dubbed by an Italian actor who had a lot of fire in his voice."


title: John Derek

text: Derek appeared with his second wife, Ursula Andress, in "Nightmare in the Sun" (1965), which he co-produced. He turned to directing with a war film, "Once Before I Die" (1966), also with Andress.


title: John Derek

text: He eventually quit acting. "In this town people think you must be nuts to do something like that. They can't believe you just didn't enjoy it."


title: John Derek

text: He directed "A Boy... a Girl" (1969) with Dean Paul Martin, and "Childish Things" (1969) with his third wife, Linda Evans.


title: John Derek

text: In 1973 he directed Bo Derek in "Fantasies", which was not released until 1981. He made "Love You" (1979), a hardcore pornographic film which Bo produced. When the feature film "10" (1979) made Bo a star, Derek was able to find backing for "Tarzan, the Ape Man" (1981), which received mostly negative reviews; Roger Ebert called it "completely ridiculous" but added that it had a "certain disarming charm."


title: John Derek

text: The Dereks intended to follow it with "Eve and That Damned Apple"; but when Universal delayed financing, they decided to make "Bolero" (1984) for Cannon, which was an unhappy experience for the Dereks. John's last film as director was "Ghosts Can't Do It" (1990).


title: John Derek

text: An accomplished photographer, Derek photographed the last three of his four wives (at different times) for nude spreads in "Playboy" magazine.


title: John Derek

text: Derek directed the music videos for Shania Twain's "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" and "Any Man of Mine".


title: John Derek

text: Derek married Turkish-born prima ballerina Pati Behrs Eristoff in 1948. They had a son, Russell Andre (1950–1999), who became paralyzed from the chest down in a 1969 motorcycle accident, and a daughter, Sean Catherine (born 1953), who later wrote a memoir titled "Cast of Characters" (1982) about her parents' dysfunctional relationship. Derek abandoned his wife and family in late summer 1955 after meeting 19-year-old aspiring Swiss actress Ursula Andress, who spoke almost no English when they met. He and Behrs were divorced in 1956.


title: John Derek

text: In 1957, Derek married Andress in a quick Las Vegas ceremony. Five years later, her role in the James Bond film "Dr. No" launched her career. Derek ejected Andress from his California home in 1964 over rumors that she had been seeing actor Ron Ely. Andress returned to Europe, engaging in public affairs with costars John Richardson and Marcello Mastroianni before officially leaving Derek for Jean-Paul Belmondo in 1965. The pair divorced in 1966.


title: John Derek

text: In September 1965, Derek became involved with American actress Linda Evans, at the time starring in television's "The Big Valley". Several years into their relationship, Evans reduced her appearances on the show to spend more time with Derek, and financed his alimony and child support payments to Behrs, as he had quit acting to pursue photography and directing. They eloped in Mexico in 1968, with his daughter Sean as a witness.


title: John Derek

text: In 1973 Derek, Evans and 16-year-old high school dropout Mary Cathleen Collins (who would later be known as Bo Derek) traveled to the Greek island of Mykonos to make the film "And Once Upon a Time" (unreleased until 1981, under the title "Fantasies"). During filming, Derek and Collins began an affair. Evans returned to the United States and filed for divorce in 1974, but Derek and Collins stayed in Europe until she turned 18 in November of that year so that Derek could avoid statutory rape charges.


title: John Derek

text: Collins became known to the public as Bo Derek following their marriage on June 10, 1976, and achieved international fame in 1979 with her role in the Blake Edwards film "10". They remained together until John died in 1998.


title: John Derek

text: Derek had one granddaughter, Alyce Derek (born 1969), from Russell's marriage to Lynette Berry. He became a great-grandfather in 1996.


title: John Derek

text: John Derek died on May 22, 1998 of cardiovascular disease in Santa Maria, California at the age of 71. His remains were cremated.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: Call of Duty is a 2003 first-person shooter game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the first installment in the "Call of Duty" franchise, released on October 29, 2003, for Microsoft Windows. The game simulates infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II using a modified version of the id Tech 3 engine. Much of its theme and gameplay is similar to the "Medal of Honor" series; however, "Call of Duty" showcases multiple viewpoints staged in the American, British, and Soviet theaters of World War II.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: The game introduced a new take on AI-controlled allies who support the player during missions and react to situational changes during gameplay. This led to a greater emphasis on squad-based play as opposed to the "lone wolf" approach often portrayed in earlier first-person shooter games. Much of Infinity Ward's development team consisted of members who helped develop "". The game received critical acclaim and won several Game of the Year awards from reviewers.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: In September 2004, an expansion pack called "", which was produced by Activision and developed by Gray Matter Studios and Pi Studios, was released. At the same time the N-Gage Version got an Arena Pack with 3 new Levels. An enhanced port of "Call of Duty" for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, titled Call of Duty Classic, developed by Aspyr, was released worldwide in November 2009 with the release of "", being available via redemption codes included with the "Hardened" and "Prestige" editions of the game.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: As a first-person shooter, "Call of Duty" places the player in control of an infantry soldier who makes use of various authentic World War II firearms in combat. Each mission features a series of objectives that are marked on the heads-up display's compass; the player must complete all objectives to advance to the next mission. The player can save and load at any time, rather than the checkpoint system utilized in later "Call of Duty" games.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: The player has two primary weapon slots, a handgun slot, and can carry up to ten grenades. Weapons may be exchanged with those found on the battlefield dropped by dead soldiers. Unlike later "Call of Duty" games, the first allows the player to toggle between different firing modes (single shot or automatic fire). "Call of Duty" was one of the early first-person shooters to feature iron sights in game play; by pressing the corresponding key the player aims down the gun's actual sights for increased accuracy. In addition to weapons carried by the player, mounted machine guns and other fixed weapon emplacements are controllable by the player.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: The game uses a standard health points system, with a limited amount of health reflected by a health bar. Medkits scattered throughout the levels or dropped by some foes are used to restore health when the player is injured.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: "Call of Duty" also featured "shellshock" (not to be confused with the psychological condition of the same name): when there is an explosion near the player, he momentarily experiences simulated tinnitus, appropriate sound "muffling" effects, blurred vision, and also results in the player slowing down, unable to sprint.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: As the focus of the game is on simulation of the actual battlefield, the gameplay differed from many single-player shooters of the time. The player moves in conjunction with allied soldiers rather than alone; allied soldiers will assist the player in defeating enemy soldiers and advancing; however, the player is given charge of completing certain objectives. The game places heavy emphasis on usage of cover, suppressive fire, and grenades. AI-controlled soldiers will take cover behind walls, barricades, and other obstacles when available.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: The American campaign begins in August 1942 with Private Martin, a newly enlisted member of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, completing basic training at Camp Toccoa. In June 1944, Martin establishes a landing zone for soldiers participating in Operation Overlord. The paratroopers are scattered, leaving Martin in a mixed unit formed from various companies led by his CO Cpt. Foley, who seize a nearby town from German forces. Martin and his unit are sent to force the remaining Germans from Sainte-Mère-Église and disable several Flakpanzers (anti-aircraft tanks) as D-Day begins. Martin's unit destroys German artillery positions attacking the landing force at Utah Beach. Afterwards, Martin learns that his unit has been assigned to participate in an attack on a Bavarian manor to rescue two British officers, Captain Price and Major Ingram. He learns from Price that Ingram had already been moved to a more secure POW camp for interrogation; Martin and Price infiltrate the camp and rescue Ingram. Martin's unit later takes part in the Battle of the Bulge, successfully securing top-secret documents and stopping an attempt by the Germans to call in tanks.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: The British campaign starts with Sergeant Jack Evans and a unit from 2nd Ox and Bucks of the 6th Airborne Division taking part in Operation Tonga. The unit is dropped in Horsa gliders near Pegasus Bridge, Bénouville. Led by Captain Price, Evans and his troops clear the bridge of German soldiers. The unit holds out against an attempt by a German battalion to retake the bridge with the help of the 7th Parachute Battalion.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: By September, Evans has been transferred to the SAS. He takes part in a mission to sabotage the Eder Dam, restored after being destroyed by the No. 617 Squadron RAF during Operation Chastise, destroying the anti-aircraft guns protecting it. Following extraction, Evans helps to cut off pursuing German troops. Reaching a German airport to escape, Evans uses an anti-air gun to cover Price and Waters from German Stuka dive-bombers as they procure and flee in a Fw.200. Evans and Price then pose as German naval officers to infiltrate the battleship Tirpitz, disable its defenses, and steals information for the RAF to attack the ship. Price sacrifices himself to buy time for Evans, who escapes with Waters by boat. Later, Evans, Waters and their squad arrive near Burgsteinfurt, Germany, to assist the impending Allied assault on the city. Discovering plans to launch V-2 rockets at the Allied forces, the unit destroys them before joining the rest of the army.