title: Paul Kaye

text: In 2014, Kaye played Brother Lucian in the movie "Dracula Untold". In 2015 he played a criminal in the BBC drama "The Interceptor".


title: Paul Kaye

text: In 2015, he featured as the drunken, haunted Naval Officer Harry Brewer in the National Theatre's revival of "Our Country's Good". He also appeared in "Doctor Who" as an alien funeral director. That same year, He played Vinculus in Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell".


title: Paul Kaye

text: Kaye's other television credits include "The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge", an episode of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's anthology series "Inside No. 9", Netflix's first original TV series "Lilyhammer", the BAFTA winning "Murder in Successville", BBC miniseries "Three Girls", Sky comedy "Zapped", "Drunk History", "The Windsors", "Urban Myths", "Terry Pratchett: Back in Black", and the adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's "Good Omens".


title: Paul Kaye

text: In 2017, Kaye appeared onstage as Chilean bomb maker Jose Miguel in "B", a new play by Guillermo Calderón at the Royal Court Theatre. He appears as Dr. Malcolm Donahue, the pathologist in ITV's "Vera". Kaye has appeared as Danno, who is a recovering alcoholic attending Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) meetings in Pete Jackson's BBC Radio 4 comedy drama series "Love in Recovery".


title: Paul Kaye

text: In 2019, Kaye debuted as hospital chaplain Daniel Booth in the ITV dramedy "Cold Feet", and played a psychiatrist in the Netflix comedy series "After Life".


title: Paul Kaye

text: In 2020, he appeared in the Netflix drama "The Stranger", as Patrick Katz, and portrayed "The Cowboy" in the HBO miniseries "The Third Day". In 2021, he played Guy Forks in a Bonfire Night special of Mackenzie Crook's re-working of "Worzel Gummidge" for the BBC.


title: Paul Kaye

text: In 1983, Kaye took a year out of university and lived on Israel's Gvar'am kibbutz, where he met an Israeli woman, Orly Katz. They were married in 1989. They have two sons and live in the Hendon area of London.


title: Paul Kaye

text: In January 2009, Kaye wrote an article for "The Guardian" in which he called for peace between Israel and Palestine after his mother-in-law was killed by a Hamas rocket strike on the Gvar'am kibbutz. He stated, "My eldest son has Israeli citizenship and in two years he will have to choose either to relinquish that citizenship or to fight in the Israeli army. It can be only his choice. But, unlike the Palestinians in Gaza, at least he has one."


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: Wissam Ben Yedder (born 12 August 1990) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker for Ligue 1 club Monaco, whom he captains, and the France national team.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: Having begun his career at amateurs UJA Alfortville, he joined Toulouse in 2010. He totalled 71 goals in 174 games for them, surpassing André-Pierre Gignac as their greatest league scorer of the 21st century. He moved to Sevilla for €10 million in 2016, and scored 70 goals in 138 games in three seasons. A €40 million transfer to Monaco followed in 2019, and he was Ligue 1 top scorer in his first season back.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: At international level, Ben Yedder represented France at under-21 level, and at futsal. He made his full international debut for France in March 2018.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: Ben Yedder was born in Sarcelles, Île-de-France, of Tunisian descent. Among his childhood friends was Riyad Mahrez. Ben Yedder began his career at local UJA Alfortville in the fourth-tier Championnat de France Amateur, before moving to Toulouse of Ligue 1 in 2010.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: On 16 October 2010, he made his professional debut in a 0–2 home loss to Paris Saint-Germain, replacing Yannis Tafer for the final 29 minutes. He made 13 substitute appearances across his first two seasons, and scored his first goal for Toulouse on 21 April 2012: ten minutes after coming on in place of Paulo Machado, he equalised in an eventual 2–1 loss at Evian.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: In the following three Ligue 1 campaigns, Ben Yedder recorded 15, 16 and 14 goals respectively. On 10 August 2012, in the first game of the season, he came on at half time for Pantxi Sirieix and equalised for a 1–1 draw at reigning champions and local rivals Montpellier. In the reverse fixture, the last of the campaign, on 26 May 2013, he scored both goals in a win over Montpellier.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: On 30 November 2013, Ben Yedder scored a hat-trick in a 5–1 home win over Sochaux. He recorded another treble on 17 May 2014 as Toulouse finished the season with a 3–1 win over Valenciennes.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: Ben Yedder scored a penalty in a 3–3 draw against Caen on 20 September 2014. In doing so, he reached 35 Ligue 1 goals for Toulouse, surpassing André-Pierre Gignac as their highest scorer in the league in the 21st century. He attained the milestone of 50 goals in the competition on 19 December 2015, when he put them ahead in a 1–1 home draw against Lille. The following 9 January, he scored another hat-trick in a 3–1 win at fellow strugglers Reims.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: On 30 July 2016, Ben Yedder signed a five-year contract with Spanish club Sevilla, for a reported €9 million fee. After being an unused substitute in their UEFA Super Cup loss to Real Madrid on 9 August, he made his debut five days later, replacing fellow new signing Luciano Vietto for the final 29 minutes of a 0–2 loss to Barcelona in the first leg of the year's domestic equivalent. On 20 August, he started in his first La Liga game and scored a goal in a 6–4 victory over Espanyol at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: Ben Yedder scored five goals across Sevilla's 14–2 aggregate Copa del Rey win over Tercera División club Formentera in December 2016, including a hat-trick in the 9–1 home victory in the second leg. This haul made him the tournament's top scorer that season, alongside Barcelona's Lionel Messi. On 7 January 2017, he registered a hat-trick in a 4–0 La Liga win at Real Sociedad.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: In Sevilla's UEFA Champions League campaign in 2017–18, Ben Yedder scored all three goals in a group stage victory over Slovenia's Maribor on 26 September, his first hat-trick in the competition. On 21 November, after scoring twice as Sevilla came from a 0–3 deficit at half time to draw with Liverpool, he taunted A.C. Milan – who lost the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final to Liverpool in a similar fashion – over Twitter. On 13 March 2018, in the second leg of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League round of 16 against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Ben Yedder came on as a substitute in the 72nd minute and scored two goals in the span of 4 minutes to help secure a 2–1 win and enable Sevilla to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 1958, and for the first time ever in the Champions League era.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: In September 2018, Ben Yedder scored five goals in the space of three days, with two in a 5–1 Europa League home win against Standard Liège and a hat-trick in a 6–2 La Liga away victory against Levante.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: On 14 August 2019, Ben Yedder signed with Monaco on a five-year contract after they activated his release clause of €40 million, a record sale for Sevilla. Rony Lopes transferred in the other direction. He made his debut three days later, starting alongside fellow debutant Henry Onyekuru and pushing Radamel Falcao to the substitutes' bench in a 3–0 loss away to Metz. On 25 August, he scored his first goal for the club in his first game at the Stade Louis II in a 2–2 draw with Nîmes.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: In December 2019, Ben Yedder won the UNFP Player of the Month award with four goals and two assists in four games, including two in a 5–1 home win over Lille on 21 December. His first season in the principality was curtailed in early March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but he finished as joint top scorer alongside PSG's Kylian Mbappé with 18 goals from 26 games, a new record for him in Ligue 1.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: In 2020–21, Ben Yedder helped Monaco finish as runners-up in the Coupe de France, scoring in wins over Lyon and Rumilly-Vallières in the quarter-final and semi-final. On 2 May 2021, he scored his 100th goal in Ligue 1 in a 2–3 home defeat against the former. He finished the season as second-highest scorer behind Mbappé's 27 goals, joint with Lyon's Memphis Depay on 20.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: Ben Yedder scored 25 league goals in 2021–22, runner-up to Mbappé's 28. This included a hat-trick in the penultimate game, a 4–2 comeback home win over Brest. He scored five goals in four games on a run to the Coupe de France semi-finals, before missing with the first attempt in a penalty shootout defeat to Nantes. He was Player of the Month with 56% of the votes in January 2022 for his three goals and one assist; he, Mbappé and Rennes' Martin Terrier were the three forwards chosen for the Team of the Year.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: Ben Yedder played two futsal matches for France, scoring once, and also represented the nation nine times at under-21 level.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: As Ben Yedder's parents' come from Tunisia and therefore he would qualify to represent that nation in international football under FIFA regulations, the Tunisian Football Federation made five attempts to get him to represent their team. In October 2017, after he turned down their offer to get him into the squad before the 2018 FIFA World Cup, they admitted defeat.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: In March 2018, after playing well for Sevilla, France manager Didier Deschamps included Ben Yedder in the squad for two friendly matches against Colombia and Russia. He made his debut in the 3–2 loss to the Colombians on 23 March at the Stade de France, replacing Olivier Giroud for the final 17 minutes. On 17 May, he was named on the standby list for the 23-man French squad for the World Cup.


title: Wissam Ben Yedder

text: On 11 June 2019, Ben Yedder made his first start for the France senior team and scored his first senior international goal, in the 4–0 away win over Andorra in a UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying match. In May 2021, he was selected for the delayed finals.


title: Omertà

text: Omertà (, ) is a Southern Italian code of silence and code of honor and conduct that places importance on silence in the face of questioning by authorities or outsiders; non-cooperation with authorities, the government, or outsiders, especially during criminal investigations; and willfully ignoring and generally avoiding interference with the illegal activities of others (i.e., not contacting law enforcement or the authorities when one is aware of, witness to, or even the victim of certain crimes). It originated and remains common in Southern Italy, where banditry or brigandage and Mafia-type criminal organizations (like the Camorra, Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita and Società foggiana) have long been strong. Similar codes are also deeply rooted in other areas of the Mediterranean, including Malta, Crete in Greece, and Corsica, all of which share a common or similar historic culture with Southern Italy.


title: Omertà

text: Retaliation against informers is common in criminal circles, where they are often described by terms such as "rats" or "snitches".


title: Omertà

text: According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", the phonology of the word indicates that it is not of Sicilian origin; it may derive from the now rare Spanish word , meaning "manliness", after the Sicilian word "omu" "man". It has also been suggested that the word comes from Latin (humility), which became "umiltà" and then finally "omertà" in some southern Italian dialects; this suggestion is not well supported by the geographical distribution of the word. The first Antimafia Commission of the Italian parliament in the 1970s accepted the origin based on "omu" on the authority of Antonio Cutrera, with no reference to Spanish.


title: Omertà

text: The basic principle of "omertà" is that one must not seek aid from legally constituted authorities to settle personal grievances. The suspicion of being a (an informant) constitutes the blackest mark against manhood, according to Cutrera. A person who has been wronged is obligated to look out for their own interests by avenging the wrong himself, or finding a patron—not the state—to avenge him.


title: Omertà

text: Omertà implies "the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime." A person should absolutely avoid interfering in the business of others and should not inform the authorities of a crime under any circumstances, but if it is justified, he may personally avenge a physical attack on himself or on his family by vendetta, literally a taking of revenge, a feud. Even if somebody is convicted of a crime that he has not committed, he is supposed to serve the sentence rather than give the police information about the real criminal, even if the criminal has nothing to do with the Mafia. Within Mafia culture, breaking "omertà" is punishable by death.


title: Omertà

text: "Omertà" is an extreme form of loyalty and solidarity in the face of authority. One of its absolute tenets is that it is deeply demeaning and shameful to betray even one's deadliest enemy to the authorities. For that reason, many Mafia-related crimes go unsolved. Observers of the Mafia debate whether omertà should best be understood as an expression of social consensus for the Mafia or whether it is instead a pragmatic response based primarily on fear, as implied by a popular Sicilian proverb: ""Cu è surdu, orbu e taci, campa cent'anni 'mpaci"" ("He who is deaf, blind and silent will live a hundred years in peace").


title: Omertà

text: It has also been described as follows: "Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without police protection is both. It is as cowardly to betray an offender to justice, even though his offences be against yourself, as it is not to avenge an injury by violence. It is dastardly and contemptible in a wounded man to betray the name of his assailant, because if he recovers, he must naturally expect to take vengeance himself."


title: Omertà

text: Omertà is a code of silence, according to one of the first Mafia researchers Antonio Cutrera, a former officer of public security. It seals lips of men even in their own defense and even when the accused is innocent of charged crimes. Cutrera quoted a native saying which was first uttered (as goes the legend) by a wounded man to his assailant: "If I live, I'll kill you. If I die, I forgive you."


title: Omertà

text: Sicilians adopted the code long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra, and it may have been heavily influenced by centuries of state oppression and foreign domination. It has been observed at least as far back as the 16th century as a way of opposing Spanish rule.


title: Omertà

text: The Italian-American mafioso Joseph Valachi famously broke the "omertà" code in 1963, when he publicly spoke out about the existence of the Mafia and testified before a United States Senate committee. He became the first in the modern history of the Italian-American Mafia to break his blood oath. In Sicily, the phenomenon of "pentito" (Italian "he who has repented") broke omertà.


title: Omertà

text: Among the most famous Mafia "pentiti" is Tommaso Buscetta, the first important witness in Italy, who both helped prosecutor Giovanni Falcone to understand the inner workings of Cosa Nostra and described the Sicilian Mafia Commission or "Cupola", the leadership of the Sicilian Mafia. A predecessor, Leonardo Vitale, who gave himself up to the police in 1973, was judged mentally ill and so his testimony led to the conviction of only himself and his uncle.


title: Omertà

text: Omertà is widely reported in sport in relation to use of prohibited substances by athletes. The Cycling Independent Reform Commission report of 2015 contains the word "omerta" no fewer than 17 times, and stated:


title: Omertà

text: Mario Puzo wrote novels based on the principles of omertà and the Cosa Nostra. His best known works in that vein are the trilogy "The Godfather" (1969), "The Sicilian" (1984), and "Omertà" (2000).


title: Omertà

text: The 2010 videogame "" features a tribe of gangsters called the Omertas. The 2002 videogame "Mafia" names its campaign's tenth chapter "Omerta".


title: Omertà

text: The American heavy metal band Lamb of God released the song "Omerta" from their third studio album "Ashes of the Wake" (2004), which begins with lead singer Randy Blythe performing a spoken word description of omertà.


title: Omertà

text: In 2019, Canadian rapper Drake released a song called "Omertà" in the extended play "The Best in the World Pack".


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby; December 8, 1911February 11, 1976) was an American actor, known both for film roles and his work on the Broadway stage. He often played arrogant, intimidating and abrasive characters, but he also acted as respectable figures such as judges and police officers. Cobb originated the role of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's 1949 play "Death of a Salesman" under the direction of Elia Kazan, and was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for "On the Waterfront" (1954) and "The Brothers Karamazov" (1958).


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: His film performances included Juror #3 in "12 Angry Men" (1957), Dock Tobin in "Man of the West" (1958), Barak Ben Canaan in "Exodus" (1960), Marshall Lou Ramsey in "How the West Was Won" (1962), Cramden in "Our Man Flint" (1966), and Lt. William Kinderman in "The Exorcist" (1973).


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: On television, Cobb starred in the Western series "The Virginian" as Judge Henry Garth and the ABC legal drama "The Young Lawyers" as David Barrett, and nominated for an Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor Emmy Award three separate times. In 1981, Cobb was posthumously inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Cobb was born in New York City, to a Jewish family of Russian and Romanian origin. He grew up in the Bronx, New York, on Wilkins Avenue, near Crotona Park. His parents were Benjamin (Benzion) Jacob, a compositor for a foreign-language newspaper, and Kate (Neilecht).


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Interested in acting from a young age, Cobb ran away from home at 16 to try and make it in Hollywood. He joined Borrah Minevitch's Harmonica Rascals as a musician and had a bit part in a short film featuring the group, but failed to find steady work and eventually moved back to New York.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Cobb studied accounting at New York University while working as a radio salesman. Still interested in showbusiness, he went back to California and studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. He finally made his film debut at 23 in two episodes of the film serial "The Vanishing Shadow" (1934). He joined the Manhattan-based Group Theatre in 1935.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Cobb performed summer stock with the Group Theatre in 1936, when it summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut. He made his Broadway debut as a saloonkeeper in a dramatization of "Crime and Punishment" that closed after 15 nights. He starred opposite Elia Kazan in Group Theatre's productions of Clifford Odets' "Waiting for Lefty" and "Golden Boy". He also acted in Ernest Hemingway's only ever full-length play, "The Fifth Column", and "Clash by Night."


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Cobb gained widespread recognition for his portrayal of Willy Loman in the original production of Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" under the direction of Elia Kazan. Miller praised Cobb as "the greatest dramatic actor I ever saw" and, upon his casting, changed a line referring to the physical appearance of the title character, whom the author had originally conceived of as a small man, from "shrimp" to "walrus". Cobb played through the play's entire initial run at the Morosco Theatre between February 1949 and November 1950. The play won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Miller later offered Cobb the part of Eddie Carbone in "A View from the Bridge", but Cobb turned it down.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: During World War II, Cobb joined the US Army Air Forces in the hopes of becoming pilot. Instead, he was assigned to a radio unit. He was later transferred to the First Motion Picture Unit, where he appeared in Moss Hart Army Emergency Relief fundraiser productions like "This is the Army" and "Winged Victory".


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: In 1968, his performance as King Lear with Stacy Keach as Edmund, René Auberjonois as the Fool, and Philip Bosco as Kent achieved the longest run (72 performances) for the play in Broadway history.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Cobb entered films in the 1930s, successfully playing middle-aged and even older characters while he was still a youth. His first credited role was in the 1937 Hopalong Cassidy oater "Rustlers' Valley", where he was billed using the stage name 'Lee Colt.' In all subsequent films, he used Lee Cobb and later Lee J. Cobb.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: He was cast as the Kralahome in the 1946 film "Anna and the King of Siam", upon which the musical play "The King and I" was later partially based. He also played the sympathetic doctor in "The Song of Bernadette" and appeared as Derek Flint's (James Coburn) supervisor in the James Bond spy spoofs "Our Man Flint" and "In Like Flint".


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: In August 1955, while filming "The Houston Story", Cobb suffered a heart attack and was replaced by Gene Barry. Later that year, he picked up a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of corrupt union boss Johnny Friendly in Elia Kazan’s "On the Waterfront". He was nominated a second time for playing Fyodor in Richard Brooks’ movie adaptation of "The Brothers Karamazov".


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: In 1957, he appeared in Sidney Lumet's "12 Angry Men" as the abrasive Juror #3. The role earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor, one of two in the same category. He was nominated again for the Frank Sinatra comedy "Come Blow Your Horn" (1963).


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: One of his final film roles was that of Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police homicide detective Lt. Kinderman in the 1973 horror film "The Exorcist", about a demonic possession of a teen-age girl (Linda Blair) in Georgetown, D. C. In the same decade, Cobb travelled to Europe to work in Italian films, primarily "poliziotteschi" (crime thrillers). His final films, "Cross Shot" and "Nick the Sting", were both released posthumously, nearly two months after Cobb died.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: In 1959, on CBS' "DuPont Show of the Month", he starred in the dual roles of Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote in the play "I, Don Quixote", which years later became the musical "Man of La Mancha". Cobb also appeared as the Medicine Bow, Wyoming owner of the Shiloh Ranch, Judge Henry Garth in the first four seasons (1962–1966), of the long-running NBC Western television series "The Virginian" (1962–1971).


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: He reprised his role of Willy Loman in the 1966 CBS television adaptation of the famous play "Death of a Salesman", which included Gene Wilder, James Farentino, Bernie Kopell, and George Segal. Cobb was nominated for an Emmy Award for the performance. Mildred Dunnock, who had co-starred in both the original stage version and the 1951 film version, again repeated her role as Linda, Willy's devoted wife.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: One of his last television roles was as a stalwart overworked elderly physician still making house calls in urban Baltimore, in "Doctor Max", a TV pilot for a potential series that never materialized. His final aired television role was "Origins of the Mafia", a miniseries about the history of the Sicilian Mafia, filmed on-location in Italy. He subsequently appeared alongside British actor Kenneth Griffith in an ABC television documentary on the American Revolution called "Suddenly an Eagle", which was broadcast six months after his death.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Cobb was accused of being a Communist in 1951 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of the U.S. House of Representatives of the Congress, by Larry Parks, himself an admitted former Communist Party member. Cobb was called to testify before HUAC, but refused to do so for two years until his career was threatened by the blacklist. He relented in 1953 and gave testimony, naming 20 people as former members of the Communist Party USA.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: When the facilities of the government of the United States are drawn on an individual it can be terrifying. The blacklist is just the opening gambit—being deprived of work. Your passport is confiscated. That's minor. But not being able to move without being tailed is something else. After a certain point it grows to implied as well as articulated threats, and people succumb. My wife did, and she was institutionalized. The HUAC did a deal with me. I was pretty much worn down. I had no money. I couldn't borrow. I had the expenses of taking care of the children. Why am I subjecting my loved ones to this? If it's worth dying for, and I am just as idealistic as the next fellow. But I decided it wasn't worth dying for, and if this gesture was the way of getting out of the penitentiary I'd do it. I had to be employable again.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Following the hearing, he resumed his career and worked with Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg, two other HUAC "friendly witnesses", on the 1954 film "On the Waterfront", which is widely seen as an allegory and apologia for testifying.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Cobb married Yiddish theatre and film actress Helen Beverley in 1940. They had two children, including actress Julie Cobb, before divorcing in 1952. Cobb's second marriage was to school teacher Mary Hirsch, with whom he also had two children. Cobb supported Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace in the 1948 United States presidential election.


title: Lee J. Cobb

text: Cobb died of a heart attack in February 1976 in Woodland Hills, California at age 64, and was buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.


title: Jim Cornette

text: James Mark "Jim" Cornette (born September 17, 1961) is an American author and podcaster who has previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, promoter, trainer, and occasional professional wrestler. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest managers in wrestling history, due to his mic skills.


title: Jim Cornette

text: During his career, he has worked for the Continental Wrestling Association, Mid-South Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation (now called WWE), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (now called Impact Wrestling), and Ring of Honor. From 1991 to 1994, he was the owner and booker of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and from 1999 to 2005, was the co-owner, head booker, and head trainer of Ohio Valley Wrestling. During the later years of his career, Cornette focused primarily on backstage positions and transitioned away from his role as an on-screen manager.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In 2017, Cornette retired from managing. During a transitional period prior to the retirement, he worked as an on-screen "authority figure" character in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor, promotions where he also held backstage positions. Cornette has also had an extensive commentary career, most recently serving as a color commentator for Major League Wrestling, What Culture Pro Wrestling, and the National Wrestling Alliance. Cornette is a member of the NWA, "Wrestling Observer Newsletter", Memphis, and Professional Wrestling Hall of Fames. Cornette is also noted for his long-standing real-life feud with former professional wrestling booker Vince Russo; in June 2017, Russo filed a restraining order (EPO) against Cornette for stalking. The Cornette vs. Russo feud has been featured on two episodes of Viceland's "Dark Side of the Ring" series.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Outside of wrestling, Cornette is known for his left-wing political views – Cornette, an atheist and democratic socialist, has appeared on "The Young Turks" to document his criticisms of religious and right-wing causes.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette was born in Louisville, Kentucky on September 17, 1961 to Doug Cornette (1914–1968), an executive with "The Louisville Courier-Journal" and "The Louisville Times", and Thelma Cornette (1933–2002), a secretary for the Louisville Chamber of Commerce. His father died when he was seven years old. From the age of nine, Cornette had a love for wrestling, claiming that, as a child, he installed a ten-foot antenna on top of his house so he could watch as much regional wrestling as possible.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette began working at wrestling events at the age of 14, serving as a photographer, ring announcer, timekeeper, magazine correspondent, and public relations correspondent. During this time, from attending matches at the Louisville Gardens, Cornette got to know promoter Christine Jarrett, who was the mother of Jerry Jarrett, promoter of the Continental Wrestling Association (commonly known as the "Memphis territory").


title: Jim Cornette

text: By 1982, Cornette was now also writing programs for arena shows, having photos published in wrestling magazines, and contributing to the Championship Wrestling Magazine. In August, he traveled to Memphis to see the TV match between Jerry Lawler and Ric Flair. After the show ended, Cornette was offered a wrestling managerial role on television by promoter Jerry Jarrett. As Cornette has recalled, despite his presence being tolerated at shows and TV tapings for nearly a decade, the first time he was allowed into the locker room was only after he had become a manager.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Before making his managing debut, Cornette decided to adapt the ring name James E. Cornette in tribute to legendary wrestling promoter James E. Barnett. Cornette made his ringside debut on September 25, 1982, managing Sherri Martel, who herself would later become a wrestling manager. Cornette was given the gimmick of a rich kid turned inept manager whose clients kept firing him after one match. The most notable wrestlers in this angle were Dutch Mantell and Crusher Broomfield (who would later gain fame as One Man Gang and Akeem "The African Dream"). Over the next 14 months Cornette also managed Jesse Barr, Exotic Adrian Street, and a trio called the "Cornette Dynasty" consisting of Carl Fergie, Norman Frederick Charles III, and the Angel Frank Morrell. After a short-lived run in Georgia through a deal Jarrett had with Ole Anderson, Cornette returned to Memphis in July 1983, and worked as co-manager alongside Jimmy Hart.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In November 1983, Mid-South promoter Bill Watts recognized his business was down and was looking to reinvigorate his territory. Watts asked Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler to visit a TV taping and offer their opinions. Jarrett suggested a talent trade and invited Watts to Memphis to see who he liked. After watching a Memphis TV taping, Watts took singles performers Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton to create a new tag team, and also took the existing team of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson as The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Watts also noticed the brash young manager in Cornette, and in his own words, recalled "He was so obnoxious I wanted to slap him", and "I knew he was instant box office if he could get me that riled up".


title: Jim Cornette

text: As the more senior Jimmy Hart was still required by Jarrett, Watts took Cornette to manage his new team, who decided on the name The Midnight Express. Notable wrestlers in the trade who left Mid-South for Memphis included Rick Rude and Jim Neidhart.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Mid-South Wrestling had at that point been a territory featuring bigger wrestlers, and Cornette has stated that The Midnight Express, the Rock 'n' Roll Express, and himself were probably the five smallest members of the roster when he arrived. The influx of the new talent had an immediate impact, and business first rebounded and then skyrocketed. It was during this time that Cornette acquired his tennis racquet which became his trademark. He has stated he had seen a college movie at the time with an obnoxious rich kid carrying a badminton racquet with him (most likely the 1983 film "Screwballs"), so he decided on a tennis racquet. At times Cornette loaded the racquet with a horseshoe to guard against aggressive fans.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette and The Midnight Express debuted on Mid-South television on November 23, 1983. After the first few weeks in the territory the team faced the Mid-South tag team champions Magnum T. A. and Mr. Wrestling II. At a TV taping for a contract signing for an upcoming championship match, the Midnights and Cornette attacked Magnum T. A. and tarred and feathered him. The feud continued through to early March 1984, when The Midnight Express won the Mid-South tag team titles after Mr. Wrestling II walked out on his partner during a match.


title: Jim Cornette

text: At a TV taping on March 14, 1984, Cornette and the Midnights staged a celebration for winning the tag team titles, complete with champagne and birthday cake. While Cornette's back was turned, The Rock 'n' Roll Express ran in and shoved Cornette's face in the cake. Cornette was enraged afterwards when Bill Watts replayed the incident on TV as he thought it was funny. This led to a heated altercation between the two, which ended with Watts slapping Cornette. In following weeks, the Midnight Express and Cornette attacked and bloodied Watts leading him to come out of retirement.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In a series of matches termed "The Last Stampede", Watts and his masked teammate Stagger Lee (suspected to be Junkyard Dog under a mask) faced the Midnight Express and Cornette all through the territory. The stipulations were simple; if the Midnights won Cornette would run Mid-South Wrestling for 60 days; if they lost, Cornette would be stripped down and forced to wear either a diaper or a dress (the outfits varied by venue). Over 5 weeks, the Last Stampede series shattered box office records for Mid-South, with a record gate and attendance at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Texas, combined attendance of 20,000 people in Tulsa and Oklahoma City (on the same day), and a crowd of 23,000 people at the New Orleans Superdome.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette's time in Mid-South was also notable as it marked the beginning of the rivalry with the Rock 'n' Roll Express. Starting in May 1984 immediately following the Last Stampede series, the two teams feuded all through the remainder of the year to packed crowds all through the territory. In particular, the two teams set attendance records in Houston, Tulsa and Oklahoma City, making 1984 the most successful year in Mid-South history, and The Midnight Express and Cornette national stars.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette has consistently acknowledged that Bill Watts's philosophy of believable and credible wrestling, with an unwavering emphasis on toughness, athleticism and serious presentation, has had a major impact on how he thinks the business should be promoted. He has described the promotion as a military school for wrestling, where Watts' strict enforcement of kayfabe, exhausting travel schedule and passionate fans made it a learning experience like no other. Cornette maintains enormous respect for Watts as a promoter, citing his ability to attract huge TV ratings and consistently sold-out arenas in a low population area, and describing Watts as a genius. At the same time, he acknowledges the grind of constant matches, long drives, and fan riots was a grueling test of endurance. At one point, Cornette worked 103 days straight before being ordered by doctors to have two to four weeks' bed rest. As events transpired, he took six days off before returning to action.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In describing Mid-South Wrestling, Cornette has offered the following example: "Two weeks of our lives, fourteen days, we did two one hour TV shows, fifteen house shows, two all day promo sets, drove 4700 miles in a car while doing that, and I can't speak for anybody else, but I made—and I was only 22 years old, and just pleased as punch to be there—$5600 for two weeks. In 1984. Not bad."


title: Jim Cornette

text: The Midnight Express with Cornette had a short stay in World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) in Texas where they feuded mainly with The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers). When opportunities in WCCW looked to go nowhere, The Midnight Express started to look elsewhere for employment and what they found would give the team national and international exposure. Cornette later reflected that they were willing to give Dallas a try, as they welcomed living in a modern city, as well as the easier travel schedule when compared to Mid-South. However, the inability to get any rivalry with the Von Erichs—and therefore main event money—made the decision to leave for Charlotte an easy one.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette and the Midnight Express spent five years at Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling. After Condrey left the company in early 1987, he was replaced with Stan Lane. With Cornette as manager, each version of the team were National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World tag team champions (Condrey and Eaton for six months in 1986, Eaton and Lane for a few weeks in late 1988). In addition, Eaton and Lane were three -time NWA United States tag team champions. As a manager, Cornette was known for both his loud mouth and for his ever-present tennis racket, which Cornette often used to ensure victory for his wrestlers, with the implication that the racket case was loaded. Cornette was at his best as a heel manager; fans loved to see the constantly yelling Cornette and his equally annoying charges beaten and humiliated. He and the Midnights were so hated, in fact, that they had to be escorted by police to and from the ring at the house shows and have a police escort to the city limits for fear of being attacked by overzealous fans.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Additionally, Cornette suffered a severe knee injury during a scaffold match between The Midnight Express and The Road Warriors at Starrcade '86. In a shoot interview, Cornette recounted that Dusty Rhodes convinced him to perform a dangerous stunt where he would fall off of the high scaffold, which Cornette estimated was twenty-five feet off the floor of the arena, but about five feet less when measured from the ring mat to the top of the scaffold. The idea was that Paul Ellering, the manager of The Road Warriors, would chase Cornette up the scaffold. Once he was there, he would be met by Road Warrior Animal, who would assist him in getting underneath the scaffold, where Cornette would hang and then drop when ready. Cornette, however, suffered from a severe case of acrophobia and decided that the drop, which he estimated was a total of fourteen feet when he factored in his total body length of eight feet (height plus extended arm length), was, as he put it, "way too goddamn far."


title: Jim Cornette

text: Condrey, Eaton, and Cornette discussed an alternative: Big Bubba Rogers, another wrestler of Cornette's, would catch the manager. However, as Rogers was wearing dark sunglasses inside the arena, he misjudged his position and Cornette actually landed flat on his feet, three feet away from Rogers. Cornette tore all the ligaments in one of his knees, broke a bone and damaged the cartilage. The injury was so extensive that when Cornette finally saw a doctor to have the knee drained, the amount of blood and fluid filled an entire bedpan. Cornette later said that he knew he might get seriously hurt when he was told he would have to fall off a scaffold, but that performing in front of such a large audience was more important than his own health.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In 1989, Cornette became the color commentator for Jim Crockett Promotions' nationally syndicated NWA television show, and later took over the same role on the Saturday night TBS broadcasts alongside play-by-play announcer Jim Ross.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In 1989, Cornette became a booker on WCW's creative team. As such, Cornette helped write storylines and shape the format of its television shows. Due to friction and animosity between himself and WCW head Jim Herd, Cornette quit the company after Halloween Havoc 1990.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In early 1993, Cornette briefly returned to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as part of a talent trade with Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW). WCW executive vice president Bill Watts had brought The Rock 'n' Roll Express back into the company and billed them as the Smoky Mountain tag team champions, which incensed Cornette since his team The Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane and Tom Prichard) were the reigning champions. On the February 6 episode of "WCW Saturday Night", Jim Cornette, the Bodies and Bobby Eaton confronted the Express during an interview. Bill Watts came out and suggested the Bodies should wrestle the Express. Cornette objected since he claimed that they weren't dressed for it, but the match still took place. The Express won the match by DQ when Eaton interfered in the match, and after the match while Lane held Morton, Cornette put his tennis racket over Morton while Eaton delivered his "Alabama jam" on Morton. Cornette then struck referee Nick Patrick, and then Cornette helped his men beat up the Express.


title: Jim Cornette

text: The following week on Main Event, Watts appeared with Smoky Mountain commissioner Bob Armstrong, who demanded Cornette make a public apology. Cornette then interrupted the interview along with Eaton and the Heavenly Bodies, refusing to apologise and insulting the fans, Watts and Armstrong. Watts confirmed the Rock 'n' Roll Express were scheduled to face the Wrecking Crew (Rage and Fury) at SuperBrawl III, but suggested they wrestle the Heavenly Bodies instead. Armstrong agreed and issued Cornette with an ultimatum: if the Bodies did not wrestle the Express at SuperBrawl III, they would be stripped of the titles and Cornette would be heavily fined and suspended. Cornette was furious and claimed that "he hated WCW" and wanted no part of Superbrawl or the company. Later in the show, Eaton and the Bodies attacked two jobbers after a match, one being Joey Maggs, who were saved when the Rock 'n' Roll Express ran out and attacked Cornette and his men.


title: Jim Cornette

text: During Cornette's second stint in WCW, his Heavenly Bodies teamed with Steve Austin and Brian Pillman in 8-man tag team matches against the Express and the Unified tag team champions Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas. The Bodies, Austin and Pillman lost two of those matches, one on a February 27 episode of "WCW WorldWide" by DQ when Cornette interfered, and one by pinfall.


title: Jim Cornette

text: The feud between the Bodies and the Express continued over in SMW, where Bobby Eaton would participate alongside Lane and Prichard in six-man tag team matches. In one memorable segment, the Express were accompanied by a mysterious individual who stood silently at ringside covered with a white sheet. During a post-match interview Morton dared Cornette to investigate and, after some light-hearted poking and pushing, Cornette finally removed the sheet to reveal Arn Anderson, Eaton's former tag team partner in The Dangerous Alliance. As Cornette recoiled in shock, Eaton went to shake Anderson's hand but was punched to the ground, triggering a brawl between both teams. Anderson justified his actions by stating that after he was injured by Erik Watts during a confrontation at a gas station, Eaton never once called to see how he was doing. When the Bodies finally faced off against the Express at SuperBrawl III, Eaton arrived with Cornette but was ordered back to the dressing room. Typically, Cornette then tried to interfere in the match by climbing onto the ring apron to argue with the referee, however the Express eventually won via pinfall when the returning Eaton accidentally hit Prichard instead of Morton.


title: Jim Cornette

text: A firm believer in "old-school" territorial wrestling, Cornette began the Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion in 1991. SMW promoted shows in Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas. By this point, however, the nature of wrestling in the U.S. had already changed irrevocably, leading Cornette to seek a working relationship with the World Wrestling Federation in 1993. This did not change the new national perception that regional promotions were "minor league". The move also did not help the federation's finances, and Cornette closed SMW's doors in November 1995 and sold all SMW rights and videos to the WWF. Cornette later said that he chose the wrong time to start a wrestling federation because the business as a whole was in a recession.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette went to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1993 while still serving as promoter of SMW. As he had done in other promotions, Cornette held several positions in the WWF, including manager, color commentator and member of the booking committee. Cornette's most notable managerial role in the WWF was as the "American spokesperson" of WWF Champion Yokozuna. Cornette joined the WWF full-time in 1996 after the demise of SMW and had a major role in scouting and developing new talent.


title: Jim Cornette

text: On screen, he led a top-heel stable of wrestlers referred to as "Camp Cornette". At any given time, Cornette's charges consisted of Yokozuna, Mantaur, Vader, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog. He also served as the manager of Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray during their brief stint in the WWF. In 1997, Cornette became a member of the WWF announce team where he served as a color commentator. It was during this time that he also began performing a series of controversial "worked shoots" where he would praise what he felt was right and condemn what he felt was wrong in professional wrestling. Although the segments were produced by the WWF, Cornette did not hesitate to give praise to WCW wrestlers that he felt deserved it. For several years Cornette also became active behind the scenes working within the booking committee, before being removed after frequently butting heads with writer Vince Russo.


title: Jim Cornette

text: He was also part of the television production staff during this time, but eventually left this position due in part to evolving conflicts with both Russo and producer Kevin Dunn. Cornette later recounted that things came to a head in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the summer of 1997. During a production meeting for "Raw" - which was to feature newly signed wrestler The Patriot - Cornette repeatedly tried to steer the discussion towards the treatment of what he thought was a new top-of-the-line heroic character. Dunn told Cornette that he found him "tiresome" for continuing to harp on about this issue, which enraged Cornette to the point where he mocked Dunn's buck teeth and threatened to assault him in front of everyone in the room. He was eventually forced to apologize to Dunn for his actions.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In June 1997, Cornette made a surprise appearance on the Extreme Championship Wrestling show Orgy of Violence, attacking Tommy Dreamer with his tennis racket as part of a WWF-ECW rivalry angle.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In 1998, Cornette led an NWA invasion based on the old Crockett Promotions territory, with a stable including Jeff Jarrett, Barry Windham and The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Later that year, Cornette managed Dan Severn and a new version of The Midnight Express before stepping back from management, and also provided some colour commentary (primarily on "Sunday Night Heat") before disappearing from television altogether. Cornette returned to WWF television for one night at WrestleMania X-Seven in Houston to participate in the Gimmick Battle Royal, but was quickly eliminated by Hillbilly Jim.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In 1999, Cornette became head booker and part-owner of WWE's lead developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, then being run by "Nightmare" Danny Davis. As a talent developer in Smoky Mountain, he had already been instrumental in the careers of current and former WWE stars Kane, D'Lo Brown, Sunny and Al Snow, and WWE also credits Cornette with helping foster other world-famous superstars, including John Cena, Dave Bautista, Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In May 2005, Cornette was suspended for several weeks by WWE after slapping OVW developmental wrestler Anthony Carelli backstage after Carelli had "no-sold" fellow wrestler The Boogeyman by laughing at him during a live OVW event. Shortly after Cornette returned from his suspension, a separate incident occurred and the WWE released him from his contract in July 2005. In the spring of 2007, Carelli, who had since been called up to the WWE as Santino Marella, appeared on a Canadian radio program where he publicly challenged Cornette to a match despite Cornette working for rival promotion TNA at the time.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In 2006, Cornette joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as the new face of TNA Management. He held the title of "Management Director" according to the press releases following his premiere at the Slammiversary PPV event on June 18, 2006 in Orlando, Florida. After a brief speech, he departed, but returned at the end of the show in light of the "Orlando Screwjob", taking the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt after Jeff Jarrett, Larry Zbyszko and Earl Hebner successfully executed a screwjob on Christian Cage and Sting.


title: Jim Cornette

text: As the figurehead "Management Director" of TNA, Cornette did not usually take up more than ten minutes of the show, which could be attributed to both his quick tongue and TNA's lack of desire to create another Mr. McMahon. Matt Morgan had also become Cornette's on-screen bodyguard to prevent harm to his physical being, until leaving that post to become a full-time wrestler. Part of Cornette's gimmick was that when multiple situations build up at once, he often took care of them all swiftly by getting all the TNA wrestlers to come out to the Impact! Zone for a "company meeting" to hear his decisions, or exasperatedly deal swiftly with people who barge into his office. The clear impact of this feature was made evident right from the start, as the first "company meeting" (which aired on the edition of June 29, 2006 of "TNA Impact!"), where every wrestler was asked to come out and stand at either ramp, saw Cornette clear up several issues:


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette was released from TNA on September 15, 2009. He has said that he was released because he was not "100 percent" behind TNA's creative team, headed by Vince Russo.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In 2009, Cornette signed a contract with Ring of Honor to be their Executive Producer for the "Ring of Honor Wrestling" show on HDNet.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette made his surprise return to ROH at on September 26, announcing he was the new executive producer for the show. Cornette made his first appearance on "Ring of Honor Wrestling" on the December 7 episode and immediately made waves by putting ROH champion Austin Aries into a four-way title match later that night and created the Pick 6 contender series.


title: Jim Cornette

text: On September 8, 2010, Ohio Valley Wrestling announced that Cornette would resume his duties as the head booker of the promotion. Cornette left OVW in November 2011, when the promotion announced a working agreement with TNA. On the edition of January 21 of Ring of Honor television, Cornette announced that chairshots to the head were banned and anyone that did so would be fined $5,000. On the February 4 telecast, Cornette made another ban in which the piledriver — in any form — was banned.


title: Jim Cornette

text: On October 8, 2012, it was reported that ROH had replaced Cornette as the head booker with Hunter Johnston, a wrestler who performed under the name Delirious. ROH wrote Cornette off television by having him suffer storyline injuries at the hands of Jay Lethal. As of November 2012, it was revealed that Cornette had left the promotion. The reason for Cornette's absence stems from an outburst he had at the November 3 ROH television taping. At the taping, ROH talent Steve Corino suffered an injury, and no ROH officials were still at the venue to be able to pay for Corino's immediate medical attention or even arrange for an ambulance to be called. This left Corino in pain for hours and Cornette to be the only person there with enough power to handle the situation. Following his departure from Ring of Honor, Cornette decided to take an extended break from professional wrestling to focus on his health and work on personal projects.


title: Jim Cornette

text: On October 6, 2016, Cornette made his first appearance doing color commentary in two years, debuting for What Culture Pro Wrestling at their Refuse to Lose event in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He would be joined on the announce team by his long-time friend Jim Ross, who he had not done commentary with in over fifteen years. He then provided commentary for their next event True Legacy, which took place a few days later. Cornette returned to WCPW at their April 1, 2017 State of Emergency event. At the event, Cornette and Matt Striker provided commentary for the British promotion's debut in the United States.


title: Jim Cornette

text: On March 31, 2017, Jim Cornette made his first appearance with WWE in 12 years when he inducted The Rock 'n' Roll Express into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2017. Cornette was also featured in an episode of the WWE Network Original series "Table For 3" alongside Eric Bischoff and Michael Hayes. Since then, Cornette made another appearance for WWE, starring in an episode of the WWE Network Original Series "Photo Shoot" in March 2018.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette returned to Impact Wrestling, which had formerly been known as TNA, and was attempting to rebrand as Global Force Wrestling (GFW), on August 17, 2017, at Destination X and fired Bruce Prichard. Cornette stated that he was put in charge by Impact's parent company, Anthem Sports & Entertainment, to resolve the Unified GFW World Heavyweight Championship situation. Cornette made the decision to book Low Ki as the twentieth entrant in the GFW World Heavyweight Championship gauntlet match. On September 18, Cornette confirmed he was done with the company. He had been brought in by Jeff Jarrett and the original agreement only included one set of tapings. With Jarrett out of the company, the new creative team was said to be more focused on in-ring action and less on authority figures. According to Cornette, there was no "heat" between him and the company.


title: Jim Cornette

text: The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) chose Jim Cornette to be the color commentator for the NWA 70th Anniversary show that took place on October 21, 2018. This was the first pay-per-view promoted by the NWA in years. Cornette was joined on commentary by Tony Schiavone for the main event NWA World Heavyweight Championship match between Nick Aldis and Cody Rhodes.


title: Jim Cornette

text: He returned to the promotion for the NWA's Crockett Cup tournament on April 27, 2019. On September 12, Cornette was announced as part of the commentary team for the NWA's weekly studio series, "NWA Power". However, on the "NWA Power" episode broadcast on November 19 during a match between Nick Aldis and Trevor Murdoch, Cornette made the remark "[Trevor Murdoch] is the only man I've ever known that can strap a bucket of fried chicken on his back and ride a motor scooter across Ethiopia. Trevor Murdoch can take care of himself!" Later on the same day, the NWA apologized for the racist overtones of the comment and pulled down the episode to remove the remark. The next day, Cornette left the NWA. Cornette had previously made the same comment on commentary during the March 6, 1995 episode of "Monday Night Raw".


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette debuted for Major League Wrestling (MLW) as a color commentator for the March 2, 2019 event Intimidation Games in Chicago, Illinois. He then returned to the commentary desk for their April 2019 events, Rise of the Renegades and Battle Riot II. From the start, he would also work unofficially in an agent-like role for the company. This included coaching younger talent on their television presentation and promos. In March he confirmed he is not signed exclusively to the company, but is open to continually working with them. After immediately being uncertain of his future with them, Cornette continued to do commentary for them, working Fury Road in June and their following event in July. It was reported that following that show he was not signed on for any further shows, as Tony Schiavone had finished his sports commitments and returned to the MLW commentary table. Cornette announced on the December 13, 2019 episode of his "Experience" podcast that he was officially retired from announcing/commentary.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Journalist Justin Barrasso of "Sports Illustrated" wrote in 2019 that "Cornette remains one of wrestling's more controversial personalities, but his beliefs are rooted in more than four decades of wrestling experience." Cornette has been very vocal against other styles of wrestling, such as Paul Heyman's Extreme Championship Wrestling hardcore style, which he referred to as "hardcore bullshit". "Comedy wrestling" (that which is deemed silly or goofy as opposed to serious) has also been on the receiving end of his rants, with him routinely criticizing those he considers "comedy wrestlers" such as Orange Cassidy, Joey Ryan, Kenny Omega, and Chuck Taylor. He has also criticized the physical appearance of wrestlers; for example Marko Stunt's height or Kevin Steen and Joey Janela's weight. Cornette has garnered some support from industry personalities including former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis, who wrote an article for "Flagged Sports" defending Cornette and his position as NWA commentator after a separate article asked promoters to stop hiring him.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette worked with writer Vince Russo in the WWF during the 1990s and in TNA during the 2000s, and regularly conflicted with him due to his views on the business, which emphasize entertainment storylines over actual in-ring action to the point of intense hatred on Cornette's part. Cornette has criticized Russo publicly since his departure from TNA in 2009, which Cornette has stated was a result of his lack of support for Russo's creative direction in the company.


title: Jim Cornette

text: In March 2010, Cornette sent then-TNA official Terry Taylor an email in which he said: "I want Vince Russo to die. If I could figure out a way to murder him without going to prison, I would consider it the greatest accomplishment of my life." TNA sent the letter to a California law firm, who characterized his comments as a "terroristic threat" and said "any further threats to contact Vince Russo or any other TNA personnel (directly or indirectly) shall be viewed as acts in furtherance of such threats and shall be pursued and prosecuted accordingly."


title: Jim Cornette

text: During a 2017 podcast, Cornette challenged Russo to a fight. Russo responded by filing a restraining order (EPO) against Cornette for "stalking him across state lines since 1999." As a response, Cornette began selling autographed copies of the restraining order on his personal website, with all proceeds being donated to the Crusade for Children.


title: Jim Cornette

text: The Russo vs. Cornette rivalry was prominently featured in Viceland's "Dark Side of the Ring" episodes covering the Montreal Screwjob and WWF's Brawl for All, which aired in 2019 and 2020 respectively.


title: Jim Cornette

text: All Elite Wrestling (AEW) executives The Young Bucks have accused Cornette of being a shock jock who says disparaging things about the company to get listeners for his podcast. Dave Meltzer of "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" agreed with the shock jock characterization, said Cornette had engaged in hate speech and had influenced a fan that tried to run into an AEW ring in July 2021. However, Meltzer also noted that Cornette condemned the fan for his actions. AEW commentator Jim Ross defended him and referred to him as a "Kentucky-fried Howard Stern" but said he had always had outspoken views and that he just has a bigger platform now. Ross said that some of these traits had made him "arguably the best manager ever". AEW promoter Tony Khan has said that much of Cornette's criticisms of the promotion are fair and he credits him as being a major influence on his booking career.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette and his longtime girlfriend Stacey Goff were married October 31, 2007. Goff had previously worked as a manager in Cornette's OVW promotion under the ring name "Synn." Goff, as Synn, was the OVW manager of future WWE Champion Batista.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette currently hosts two podcasts, "The Jim Cornette Experience" and "Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru". In early April 2020, Cornette's YouTube channel exceeded 100,000 subscribers, earning him a Silver Play Button. Both shows were among the most listened to wrestling podcasts in 2021.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette is a supporter of left-wing politics and has been described by Cenk Uygur as a "fire-breathing progressive." In September 2009, during a podcast interview on "Who's Slamming Who?", he voiced his support for President Barack Obama's health care reform plans. Cornette had previously described himself as a Democrat and acknowledged having voted for Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Cornette, inversely, is a fierce critic of right-wing politics, condemning what he considers "fearmongering" from the Republican Party as well as controversially labeling former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as "a useless twat." During the time that Donald Trump was President, Cornette frequently referred to Trump on his podcasts as "President Pigshit" and to Trump's wife Melania as "Melanoma" and "The First Cunt". His political beliefs and statements have earned him attention from the non-professional wrestling media, including an appearance on Internet news show "The Young Turks". On December 17, 2017, Cornette stated that he is a democratic socialist. In March 2018, Cornette voiced his support for the March for Our Lives rally; he made additional statements advocating for gun control and criticizing the NRA.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Cornette has a criminal record which includes a number of assaults, mostly stemming from incidents involving fights with fans who attacked him while he was a manager in the 1980s. The record has made it difficult for him to work in Canada, and he was turned away from the Canadian border in November 2010.


title: Jim Cornette

text: Then Knox County, Tennessee, mayor Tim Burchett declared November 17, 2014 "Jim Cornette Day" during a Southeastern Championship Wrestling taping in Knoxville.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: Cheryl Burke (born May 3, 1984) is an American dancer, model, and television host. She is best known for being a professional dancer on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars". She was the first female professional to win the show and the first professional to win twice and also consecutively. She has participated in 26 seasons. She came in second on the NBC series "I Can Do That." She replaced Abby Lee Miller on "Dance Moms" in 2017.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: Burke won her first mirror ball trophy with 98 Degrees member Drew Lachey in the second season. She won her second championship with retired football star Emmitt Smith in the third season. Burke returned on March 19, 2007, for Season 4, partnered with actor Ian Ziering. She and Ziering were eliminated in the semifinals on May 15, 2007.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: Burke participated in a 38-city "Dancing with the Stars" tour from December 19, 2006, to February 11, 2007. She also joined the second summer tour, which visited 24 cities between June 20, 2007, in Austin, Texas, and July 24, 2007, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Lachey was her celebrity partner for each tour. Burke competed on season 5 with Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton. They were the third couple eliminated from the competition, on October 9, 2007.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: Burke participated with both Lachey and Newton in the "Dancing with the Stars" winter tour that kicked off December 18, 2007 in Seattle, Washington. The tour wrapped in Philadelphia on February 10, 2008. Burke competed on season 6 with actor Cristián de la Fuente. They trained at Palm Beach, Florida's, Paramount Ballroom. They made it to the finals and on May 20, 2008, placed third.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: Burke returned to the show for season 7 with partner Maurice Greene. They were eliminated in Week 8 on November 11, 2008, and finished in fifth place. She returned to the show's eighth season with actor Gilles Marini. They finished as runners-up, losing to Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas. Burke competed on the ninth season with former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay. On October 6, 2009, they withdrew from the competition because DeLay had stress fractures in both feet.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: For "Toy Story 3", Burke choreographed the paso doble with Tony Dovolani and did a performance accompanied by the Gipsy Kings live. She also made a fitness video based on Latin dances with Maksim Chmerkovskiy as co-instructors.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: In season ten she was partnered with Chad Ochocinco. They were eliminated in the semi-finals and came in fourth place. Rick Fox was partnered with Burke in the show's eleventh season. They were voted off in the seventh week of the competition and came in sixth place. For the twelfth Season, she was partnered with wrestler Chris Jericho. They were voted off in the sixth week of the competition. In the thirteenth season, Burke was partnered with reality star Rob Kardashian. They came in second place, losing to J.R. Martinez & Karina Smirnoff. In the fourteenth season, Cheryl Burke was partnered with actor William Levy. The couple made it to the finals and finished in third place.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: In Season 15, Burke returned with former partner and Season 3 Champion, Emmitt Smith for a chance to win another mirrorball trophy. They were eliminated in the semi-finals. For season 16, Burke was partnered with comedian D.L. Hughley, finishing in ninth place after being eliminated in the fifth week of competition. During Week 8, she danced a Paso Doble with Jacoby Jones and Karina Smirnoff in the trio challenge. For season 17, she was partnered with media personality Jack Osbourne. Osbourne's struggle with multiple sclerosis was a source of inspiration to Burke. They made it to the finals and ended up receiving third place.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: For season 18, she was paired with game show host and actor Drew Carey. They were eliminated on Week 6 and ended in eighth place. For season 19, she was paired with soap star Antonio Sabàto Jr. The couple was eliminated on Week 7 and finished in eighth place. After Season 19, Burke chose to leave DWTS for some time after her contract expired to pursue other projects.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: On August 30, 2016, it was announced that Burke would be returning to the show to compete on season 23. She was partnered with Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte. After a season off, Burke again returned for season 25, her 20th season as a pro. She was paired with former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens


title: Cheryl Burke

text: Burke returned again for season 28 where she was partnered with former NFL linebacker Ray Lewis. However, on week 3, the couple withdrew from the competition due to Lewis suffering a torn tendon in his foot. For season 29, she was partnered with Backstreet Boys singer AJ McLean, coming in seventh place.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: On September 8, 2021, it was announced that Burke will be partnered with Cody Rigsby (fan favorite Peloton instructor) for the 30th season of DWTS. She was partnered with "Good Morning America" meteorologist Sam Champion for season 31. On November 20, 2022, it was announced that Burke would leave the show as a pro dancer after season 31 finale.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: The American public scored the dance in place of Goodman with the averaged score being counted alongside the three other judges.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: This week only, for "Partner Switch-Up" week, Sabàto Jr. performed with Allison Holker instead of Burke. Burke performed with Alfonso Ribeiro.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: Burke had a guest role on the Disney Channel series "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody", in the episode "Loosely Ballroom" along with fellow "Dancing" professionals Louis van Amstel, Ashly DelGrosso, and Lacey Schwimmer. She portrayed Shannon, a nurse attending to the ensemble cast during a dance contest at the series setting, The Tipton Hotel. In the final round of the competition, Burke's character volunteers to replace an ill competitor (Carey). She and her partner, Esteban, go on to win the competition.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: She finished in second pla on the first season of "I Can Do That", losing to Nicole Scherzinger on the final three-person-super-group performance, having led the competition since week 2. She replaced Abby Lee Miller on "Dance Moms" in 2017. She took over the ALDC Elite competition team while on the show. The team was then named “The Irreplaceable’s” via when Abby used to call them all “replaceable”.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: In 2011, Burke released her autobiography, "Dancing Lessons". She describes how at age 5 she was molested by a handyman who worked for her family; he repeatedly fondled her. Her sister was also abused by the same man, later identified as Gerry Depaula. At the time she believed it was wrong behavior but wanted to gain his affection. Burke testified against Depaula at age 6, leading to him being sentenced to 24 years in prison. He was released in 2008. Burke said that she is fearful of Depaula.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: Burke has done numerous promotions outside of "Dancing with the Stars" which include Depend Silhouette briefs, Impress Nails and Sargento Cheese. Her partnership with these companies has raised a lot of money including $50,000 that Depend is donating to Dress for Success. She opened her first dance studio in April 2008 and created her own line of activewear the next year.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: In 2017, "People" and "Us Weekly" reported Burke was dating actor Matthew Lawrence. The two first met in 2006, when Lawrence's brother, Joey, was cast on "DWTS". Burke and Lawrence previously dated from 2007 to 2008. Lawrence proposed to Burke on May 3, 2018 which was her 34th birthday. On May 23, 2019, she married Lawrence in San Diego, California. On February 23, 2022, it was reported that Burke filed for divorce. The divorce was finalized on September 19, 2022.


title: Cheryl Burke

text: Burke suffers from tendinitis. She says that Transcendental Meditation and therapy have helped her through a lot, including her recent divorce from Matthew Lawrence.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Glenda May Jackson (born 9 May 1936) is an English actress and politician. She has won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice: for her role as Gudrun Brangwen in the romantic drama "Women in Love" (1970); and again for her role as Vickie Allessio in the romantic comedy "A Touch of Class" (1973). She received praise for her performances as Alex Greville in the drama film "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (1971) and Elizabeth I in the BBC television serial "Elizabeth R" (1971), winning two Primetime Emmy Awards for the latter. In 2018, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in a revival of Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women", becoming one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in the US.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson took a hiatus from acting to take on a career in politics from 1992 to 2015, and was elected as the Labour Party MP for Hampstead and Highgate in the 1992 general election. She served as a junior transport minister from 1997 to 1999 during the government of Tony Blair, later becoming critical of Blair. After constituency boundary changes, she represented Hampstead and Kilburn from 2010. At the 2010 general election, her majority of 42 votes was one of the closest results of the election. Jackson stood down at the 2015 general election, and has since made a successful return to acting.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Glenda Jackson was born at 151 Market Street in Birkenhead, Cheshire on Saturday 9 May 1936. Her mother named her after the Hollywood film star Glenda Farrell. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Hoylake in the Wirral. Glenda's family were very poor, and lived in a two-up, two-down house at 21 Lake Place with an outside toilet. Her father Harry was a builder, while her mother Joan (née Pearce) worked on the local supermarket checkout, pulled pints in a pub, and was a domestic cleaner.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: The oldest of four daughters, Glenda was educated at Holy Trinity Church of England and Cathcart Street primary schools, followed by West Kirby County Grammar School for Girls in nearby West Kirby, and performed in the Townswomen's Guild drama group during her teens. Jackson made her first acting appearance in J. B. Priestley's "Mystery of Greenfingers" in 1952 for the YMCA Players in Hoylake. She worked for two years in Boots the Chemists, before winning a scholarship in 1954 to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. Jackson moved to the capital to begin the course in early 1955.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In January 1957, Jackson made her professional stage debut in Ted Willis's "Doctor in the House" at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing. This was followed by Terence Rattigan's "Separate Tables," while Jackson was still at RADA, and she began appearing in repertory theatre. She was also a stage manager at Crewe in repertory theatre.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: From 1958 to 1961, Jackson went through a period of two and a half years in which she was unable to find acting work. She unsuccessfully auditioned for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and undertook what she later described as "a series of soul-destroying jobs". This included waitressing at The 2i's Coffee Bar, clerical work for a large City of London firm, answering phones for a theatrical agent, and a role at British Home Stores. She also worked as a Bluecoat at Butlin's Pwllheli holiday resort on the Llŷn Peninsula in North West Wales, where her new husband and fellow actor Roy Hodges was a Redcoat. Jackson eventually returned to repertory theatre in Dundee, but worked in bars in between acting jobs.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson made her film debut in a bit part in the kitchen sink drama "This Sporting Life" (1963). A member of the RSC for four years from 1963, she originally joined for director Peter Brook's Theatre of Cruelty season, which included Peter Weiss' "Marat/Sade" (1965), where she played an inmate of an insane asylum portraying Charlotte Corday, the assassin of Jean-Paul Marat. The production ran on Broadway in 1965 and in Paris (Jackson also appeared in the 1967 film version). She appeared as Ophelia in Peter Hall's production of "Hamlet" the same year. Critic Penelope Gilliatt thought Jackson was the only Ophelia she had seen who was ready to play the Prince himself.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: The RSC's staging at the Aldwych Theatre of "US" (1966), a protest play against the Vietnam War, also featured Jackson, and she appeared in its film version, "Tell Me Lies". Later that year, she starred in the psychological drama "Negatives" (1968), which was not a huge financial success, but won her more good reviews.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson's starring role in Ken Russell's film adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's "Women in Love" (1969) led to her first Academy Award for Best Actress. Brian McFarlane, the main author of "The Encyclopedia of British Film", wrote: "Her blazing intelligence, sexual challenge and abrasiveness were at the service of a superbly written role in a film with a passion rare in the annals of British cinema."


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In the process of gaining funding for "The Music Lovers" (1970) from United Artists, Russell explained it as "the story of a homosexual who marries a nymphomaniac," the couple being the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) and Antonina Miliukova, played by Jackson. The film received mixed reviews in the U.S.; the anonymous reviewer in "Variety" wrote of the two principals, "Their performances are more dramatically bombastic than sympathetic, or sometimes even believable." "The Music Lovers" was a box-office success in Europe, reaching No. 1 in the UK's weekly rankings in March 1971. It was the first of four films starring Jackson which would top the box-office charts in her native country. Jackson was initially interested in the role of Sister Jeanne in "The Devils" (1971), Russell's next film, but turned it down after script rewrites and deciding that she did not wish to play a third neurotic character in a row.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson had her head shaved to play Queen Elizabeth I in the BBC's serial "Elizabeth R" (1971). After the series aired on PBS in the US, she received two Primetime Emmy Awards for her performance. She also played Queen Elizabeth in the film "Mary, Queen of Scots;" and gained an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA Award for her role in John Schlesinger's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (both 1971). In July, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" topped the UK box-office charts for two weeks. That year, British exhibitors voted her the 6th most popular star at the British box office. Jackson's popularity was such that 1971 saw her receive Best Film Actress awards from the Variety Club of Great Britain (who also awarded her similarly in 1975 and 1978), the New York Film Critics and the US National Society of Film Critics.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: "Mary, Queen of Scots" was premièred in December 1971 in Los Angeles and was the 1972 Royal Film Performance in Britain, attended by the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon. The film reached No. 1 in the UK box-office charts in April that year, a position it held for five consecutive weeks. Jackson made the first of several appearances with Morecambe and Wise in their 1971 Christmas special. Appearing in a comedy sketch as Cleopatra for the BBC "Morecambe and Wise Show," she delivered the line, "All men are fools and what makes them so is having beauty like what I have got." Her later appearances included a song-and-dance routine (where she was pushed offstage by Eric), a period drama about Queen Victoria, and another musical routine (in their Thames Television series) where she was elevated ten feet in the air by a misbehaving swivel chair. Jackson and Wise also appeared in a 1981 information film for the Blood Transfusion Service.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Filmmaker Melvin Frank saw Jackson's comedy skills on the "Morecambe and Wise Show" and offered her the lead female role in his romantic comedy "A Touch of Class" (1973), co-starring George Segal, which was a UK box-office No. 1 in June 1973. In February 1974, Jackson's role in the film won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She continued to work in the theatre, returning to the RSC for the lead in Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler". A later film version directed by Trevor Nunn was released as "Hedda" (1975), for which Jackson was nominated for an Oscar. In "The New York Times", Vincent Canby wrote: "This version of "Hedda Gabler" is all Miss Jackson's Hedda and, I must say, great fun to watch ... Miss Jackson's technical virtuosity is particularly suited to a character like Hedda. Her command of her voice and her body, as well as the Jackson mannerisms, have the effect of separating the actress from the character in a very curious way."


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In 1978, she scored box office success in the United States in the romantic comedy "House Calls," co-starring Walter Matthau, with the film spending two weeks at No. 1 in the US box-office rankings. House Calls was the biggest box-office hit of her career in the US. That year, she was awarded a CBE. In 1979, she reunited with her "A Touch of Class" colleagues Segal and Frank for the romantic comedy "Lost and Found". Jackson and Matthau teamed again in the comedy "Hopscotch" (1980), which debuted at No. 1 in its opening weekend at the US box office, also spending its second week in the top spot.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: For her 1980 appearance on "The Muppet Show", Jackson told the producers she would perform any material they liked. In her appearance, she has a delusion that she is a pirate captain who takes over the Muppet Theatre as her ship.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Fifteen years after the New York engagement of "Marat/Sade", Jackson returned to Broadway in Andrew Davies's "Rose" (1981) opposite Jessica Tandy; both actresses received Tony nominations for their roles.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In September 1983, The Glenda Jackson Theatre in Birkenhead was named in her honour. The theatre was attached to Wirral Metropolitan College, but demolished in 2005 following the establishment of a purpose-built site for students.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In 1985, she appeared as Nina Leeds in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude" at the Nederlander Theatre in a production which had originated in London the previous year and ran for eight weeks. John Beaufort for "The Christian Science Monitor" wrote: "Bravura is the inevitable word for Miss Jackson's display of feminine wiles and brilliant technique." Frank Rich in "The New York Times" thought Jackson, "with her helmet of hair and gashed features," when Leeds is a young woman, "looks like a cubist portrait of Louise Brooks," and later when the character has aged several decades, is "mesmerizing as a Zelda Fitzgeraldesque neurotic, a rotting and spiteful middle-aged matron and, finally, a spent, sphinx-like widow happily embracing extinction." Herbert Wise directed a British television version of O'Neill's drama which was first broadcast in the US as part of PBS's "American Playhouse" in January 1988.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In November 1984, Jackson appeared in the title role of Robert David MacDonald's English translation of Racine's "Phèdre", titled "Phedra", at The Old Vic. The play was designed and directed by Philip Prowse, and Robert Eddison played Theramenes. "The Daily Telegraph"'s John Barber wrote of her performance, "Wonderfully impressive... The actress finds a voice as jagged and hoarse as her torment". Benedict Nightingale in the "New Statesman" was intrigued that Jackson didn't go in for nobility, but played Racine's feverish queen as if to say that "being skewered in the guts by Cupid is an ugly, bitter, humiliating business". The costume which Prowse designed for Jackson's performance is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and iconic photographs of Jackson in the role can be found online.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In 1989, Jackson appeared in Ken Russell's "The Rainbow", playing Anna Brangwen, mother of Gudrun, the part for which she had won her first Academy Award twenty years earlier. The same year, she played Martha in a Los Angeles production of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at the Doolittle Theatre (now the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre). Directed by the playwright himself, this staging featured John Lithgow as George. Dan Sullivan in the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that Jackson and Lithgow performed "with the assurance of dedicated character assassins, not your hire-and-salary types" with the actors being able to display their character's capacity for antipathy. Albee was disappointed with this production, pointing to Jackson, who he thought "had retreated back to the thing she can do very well, that ice cold performance. I don't know whether she got scared, but in rehearsal she was being Martha, and the closer we got to opening the less Martha she was!"


title: Glenda Jackson

text: She performed the lead role in Howard Barker's "Scenes from an Execution" as Galactia, a sixteenth century female Venetian artist, at the Almeida Theatre in 1990. It was an adaptation of Barker's 1984 radio play in which Jackson had played the same role.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In 2015, Jackson returned to acting following a 23-year absence, having retired from politics. She took the role of Dide, the ancient matriarch, in a series of Radio 4 plays, "Blood, Sex and Money", based on a series of novels by Émile Zola. She returned to the stage at the end of 2016, playing the title role in William Shakespeare's "King Lear" at the Old Vic Theatre in London, in a production running from 25 October to 3 December. Jackson was nominated for Best Actress at the Olivier Awards for her role, but ultimately lost out to Billie Piper. She did, however, win the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress at the 2017 Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her performance. Dominic Cavendish of "The Telegraph" wrote, "Glenda Jackson is tremendous as King Lear. No ifs, no buts. In returning to the stage at the age of 80, 25 years after her last performance (as the Clytemnestra-like Christine in Eugene O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra" at the Glasgow Citizens), she has pulled off one of those 11th-hour feats of human endeavour that will surely be talked about for years to come by those who see it."


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In 2018, Jackson returned to Broadway in a revival of Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women", winning the 2018 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Marilyn Stasio of "Variety" wrote, "Watching Glenda Jackson in theatrical flight is like looking straight into the sun. Her expressive face registers her thoughts while guarding her feelings. But it's the voice that really thrills. Deeply pitched and clarion clear, it's the commanding voice of stern authority. Don't mess with this household god or she'll turn you to stone."


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson returned to the role of King Lear on Broadway in a production that opened in April 2019. Director Sam Gold describes her portrayal of Lear in "The New York Times Magazine": "She is going to go through something most people don't go through. You're all invited. Glenda Jackson is going to endure this, and you're going to witness it."


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In 2019, after a 27-year absence, Jackson returned to television drama, portraying an elderly grandmother struggling with dementia in "Elizabeth Is Missing" on BBC One, based on the novel of the same name by Emma Healey, for which she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress and International Emmy Award for Best Actress.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: It was reported in February 2021 that Jackson would co-star with Michael Caine in "The Great Escaper", a film telling the true story of Bernard Jordan's escape from his care home to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France. Caine will play Jordan, with Jackson as his wife Irene. Caine and Jackson previously starred together in "The Romantic Englishwoman" (1976).


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In July 2022, the British Film Institute celebrated her film and television career with a month-long retrospective season at the BFI Southbank in London. As well as screenings of her work, the programme included "Glenda Jackson in Conversation", in which she was interviewed about her career live on stage by broadcaster John Wilson.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson joined the Labour Party in the early 1950s, at the age of 16. Her earlier campaigns were not party political, however. In 1978, she was one of the public figures who lent their name as a sponsor to the Anti-Nazi League. The same year, she appeared in a print advertisement for Oxfam. Jackson was on the executive of the National Association of Voluntary Hostels, and spoke at rallies for the housing charity Shelter. Human rights were also an area of interest, and she joined a demonstration outside the Indonesian Embassy to protest against the detention of political prisoners. She was involved in children's charities, as president of the Toy Libraries Association and narrating programmes for UNICEF. She also gave her time and money to a home for emotionally disturbed children in Berkshire run by former actress Coral Atkins.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson was a supporter of the National Abortion Campaign, and organised a benefit evening for them at the Cambridge Theatre, which raised over £3,000. She also supported Dr Una Kroll's Women's Rights candidacy for Sutton and Cheam at the October 1974 general election. In addition, Jackson made several appearances on BBC Radio 4's "Any Questions?" debate programme during this period of her career. She had considered becoming a social worker, and in 1979 began a social science degree at the Open University, but dropped out a few months later after falling behind with her essays. Jackson appeared in a number of charity films, including on behalf of International Year of the Child, Voluntary Service Overseas and Oxfam. Other such films featured her campaigning against polio and the arms trade.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson's name was linked to several parliamentary seats over the years; she was approached by a Constituency Labour Party in Bristol to stand at the 1979 general election, but this did not materialise. An approach was also made to her about the possibility of being a candidate for the marginal Welsh seat of Bridgend at the 1983 general election, which she turned down in order to pursue a humanities degree at Thames Polytechnic. However, she dropped out before starting the course. At that election, she supported Paul Boateng and Ian Wilson, Labour's candidates for Hertfordshire West and Watford, respectively. She was also a member of the Arts for Labour group.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In 1986, Jackson visited Ethiopia as part of Oxfam's efforts to help with the famine there, and in 1989 she approached VSO about the chance of working in Africa for a couple of years. She got involved in the African National Congress campaign against apartheid in South Africa, and in September 1988 chaired a United Nations committee on the cultural boycott. Jackson appeared in a party political broadcast for Labour in February 1987. In June that year, she was present at a campaign rally with Labour leader Neil Kinnock for the general election.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In December 1989, it was rumoured that Jackson had been approached by two branches of Leeds East CLP to succeed their Labour MP, Denis Healey. However, according to her biographer, Chris Bryant, she turned down this opportunity. In late 1989, two members of Hampstead and Highgate CLP got in touch with Jackson about the possibility of standing there. Despite having never been to a Labour ward meeting, she won over the local party, and triumphed in the ballot, which took place on 28 March 1990. Jackson defeated three candidates who were all politically to her left: Kate Allen (Ken Livingstone's partner and a Camden councillor), economic history lecturer Sarah Palmer (daughter of former Labour MP Arthur Palmer) and Maureen Robinson, a previous Mayor of Camden.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson has since stated that she felt Britain was being "destroyed" by the policies of the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative government, so that she was willing to do "anything that was legal" to oppose her. In November 1990, Thatcher stood down as prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party. She was replaced by John Major, who would lead the party into the next general election. At the time, Hampstead and Highgate was held by the Conservative Geoffrey Finsberg, who had announced his retirement as an MP. Finsberg had represented the constituency and its predecessor, Hampstead, since 1970, when he had gained it from the last Labour MP to be elected for the seat.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson retired from acting in 1991 in order to devote herself to politics full-time as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Highgate. Although her party did not win the 1992 general election, as had been speculated, there was an above average swing to Labour in her constituency, and she gained the seat, narrowly beating the Conservative candidate Oliver Letwin, a former adviser to prime minister Thatcher. Jackson, whose campaign had been sponsored by the train drivers' union, ASLEF, was the first of Labour's 1992 intake to join the front bench when she became shadow transport minister in July 1996.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Following Labour's landslide victory in the 1997 general election, which saw her comfortably re-elected, she was appointed as a junior minister in the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, with responsibility for transport in London. She resigned from the post in 1999 before an unsuccessful attempt to be nominated as the Labour candidate for the election of the first Mayor of London in 2000. In Labour's selection ballot, she came a distant third behind Frank Dobson and Ken Livingstone, being eliminated in the first round of voting with 4.4% of the total. Jackson was once again re-elected to represent her constituency at the 2001 general election.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: As a high-profile backbencher, Jackson became a regular critic of Blair over his plans to introduce higher education tuition fees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. She also called for him to resign following the Judicial Enquiry by Lord Hutton in 2003 surrounding the reasons for going to war in Iraq and the death of government adviser Dr. David Kelly. At the subsequent 2005 general election, she held her seat, albeit with a reduced majority and a swing to the Conservatives, who had selected local councillor Piers Wauchope.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: By October 2005, her disagreements with Blair's leadership swelled to a point where she threatened to challenge the prime minister as a stalking horse candidate in a leadership contest if he did not stand down within a reasonable amount of time. On 31 October 2006, Jackson was one of 12 Labour MPs to back Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the Iraq War.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Her constituency boundaries changed for the 2010 general election. The Gospel Oak and Highgate wards became part of Holborn and St Pancras, and the new Hampstead and Kilburn constituency took in territory from Brent to include Brondesbury, Kilburn and Queens Park wards (from the old Brent East and Brent South seats). On 6 May 2010, Jackson was elected as the MP for the new Hampstead and Kilburn constituency by a margin of 42 votes over Conservative Chris Philp, with the Liberal Democrat candidate Edward Fordham less than a thousand votes behind them. She had the closest result in England, and the second smallest majority of any MP at the 2010 election. Jackson's seat was marginal for most of her time in politics, with the 1997 election being the only occasion on which she received an absolute majority of votes cast in the constituency.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In June 2011, Jackson announced that, presuming the Parliament elected in 2010 lasted until 2015, she would not seek re-election. She stated: "I will be almost 80 and by then it will be time for someone else to have a turn." The eventual election was held two days before her 79th birthday, 23 years after she had first entered the House of Commons.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: In April 2013, Jackson gave a speech in parliament following the death of Margaret Thatcher. She accused Thatcher of treating "vices as virtues" and stated that, because of Thatcherism, the UK was susceptible to unprecedented unemployment rates and homelessness. Another speech of Jackson's went viral in June 2014 when she gave a scathing assessment of Iain Duncan Smith's tenure as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, telling him that he was responsible for the "destruction of the welfare state and the total and utter incompetence of his department".


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson is a socialist, and was generally considered to be a traditional left-winger during her political career, often disagreeing with the dominant Blairite governing Third Way faction in the Labour Party; she rebelled against her party in parliamentary votes on a number of occasions. However, she was also opposed to the left-wing politics of Arthur Scargill and Militant which dominated the party's battles in the 1980s. Jackson labelled Militant and Derek Hatton's politics as "self-indulgent crap", and she sent leader Neil Kinnock a congratulatory telegram after his high-profile 1985 Labour Party conference speech, in which he criticised the activities of Militant et al. In the 1992 Labour leadership election, she supported the successful candidate, John Smith, and two years later, backed Tony Blair, who won the contest, subsequently becoming prime minister.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson opposes the British monarchy, and is a republican. "The Guardian"'s Simon Hattenstone summed up Jackson's views as "traditional Labour, solidarity, feminism". Jackson has been an outspoken feminist, criticising the lack of gender equality for women.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Jackson voiced her support for Blair's successor as prime minister, Gordon Brown, in 2008. Brown appeared with Jackson on a campaign visit for the 2010 general election, with him describing her as "a very close friend". In the 2010 Labour leadership election, with Brown having stood down, Jackson voted for David Miliband, considered to be more of a political moderate than his older brother Ed (a figure on the party's soft left), who was ultimately elected as party leader.


title: Glenda Jackson

text: Following her departure from parliament, the Labour Party elected Jeremy Corbyn as its leader. Jackson has stated that she supported him "as a person", and would have nominated him in the 2015 leadership election. However, she qualified her support, adding, "Never in a million years would I have voted for him, though."