title: Warrant officer (United States)

text: The U.S. Maritime Service (USMS), established at 46 U.S. Code § 51701, falls under the authority of the Maritime Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation and is authorized to appoint warrant officers, although none have been so appointed. In accordance with the law, the USMS rank structure must be the same as that of the U.S. Coast Guard, while uniforms worn are those of the U.S. Navy, with distinctive USMS insignia and devices.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride is an inorganic compound with the formula NHCl and a white crystalline salt that is highly soluble in water. Solutions of ammonium chloride are mildly acidic. In its naturally occurring mineralogic form, it is known as sal ammoniac. The mineral is commonly formed on burning coal dumps from condensation of coal-derived gases. It is also found around some types of volcanic vents. It is mainly used as fertilizer and a flavouring agent in some types of liquorice. It is the product from the reaction of hydrochloric acid and ammonia.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Not only is that method the principal one for the manufacture of ammonium chloride, but also it is used to minimize ammonia release in some industrial operations.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride is prepared commercially by combining ammonia (NH) with either hydrogen chloride (gas) or hydrochloric acid (water solution):


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride occurs naturally in volcanic regions, forming on volcanic rocks near fume-releasing vents (fumaroles). The crystals deposit directly from the gaseous state and tend to be short-lived, as they dissolve easily in water.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride appears to sublime upon heating but actually reversibly decomposes into ammonia and hydrogen chloride gas:


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Similarly, ammonium chloride also reacts with alkali-metal carbonates at elevated temperatures, giving ammonia and alkali-metal chloride:


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Some of ammonium chloride's reactions with other chemicals are endothermic, like its reaction with barium hydroxide and its dissolving in water.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: The dominant application of ammonium chloride is as a nitrogen source in fertilizers (corresponding to 90% of the world production of ammonium chloride) such as chloroammonium phosphate. The main crops fertilized this way are rice and wheat in Asia.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride was used in pyrotechnics in the 18th century but was superseded by safer and less hygroscopic chemicals. Its purpose was to provide a chlorine donor to enhance the green and blue colours from copper ions in the flame.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: It had a secondary use to provide white smoke, but its ready double decomposition reaction with potassium chlorate producing the highly unstable ammonium chlorate made its use very dangerous.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride is used as a flux in preparing metals to be tin coated, galvanized or soldered. It works as a flux by cleaning the surface of workpieces by reacting with the metal oxides at the surface to form a volatile metal chloride. For that purpose, it is sold in blocks at hardware stores for use in cleaning the tip of a soldering iron, and it can also be included in solder as flux.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride is used as an expectorant in cough medicine. Its expectorant action is caused by irritative action on the bronchial mucosa, which causes the production of excess respiratory tract fluid, which presumably is easier to cough up. Ammonium salts are an irritant to the gastric mucosa and may induce nausea and vomiting.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride is used as a systemic acidifying agent in treatment of severe metabolic alkalosis, in oral acid loading test to diagnose distal renal tubular acidosis, to maintain the urine at an acid pH in the treatment of some urinary-tract disorders.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride, under the name "sal ammoniac" or "salmiak" is used as food additive under the E number E510, working as a yeast nutrient in breadmaking and as an acidifier. It is a feed supplement for cattle and an ingredient in nutritive media for yeasts and many microorganisms.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride is used to spice up dark sweets called salty liquorice (popular in the Nordic countries, Benelux and northern Germany), in baking to give cookies a very crisp texture, and in the liquor Salmiakki Koskenkorva for flavouring. In Iran, Tajikistan, India, Pakistan and Arab countries it is called "Noshader" and is used to improve the crispness of snacks such as "samosas" and "jalebi".


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride solutions with ammonia are used as buffer solutions including ACK (Ammonium-Chloride-Potassium) lysis buffer.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: In paleontology, ammonium chloride vapor is deposited on fossils, where the substance forms a brilliant white, easily removed and fairly harmless and inert layer of tiny crystals. That covers up any coloration the fossil may have, and if lighted at an angle highly enhances contrast in photographic documentation of three-dimensional specimens. The same technique is applied in archaeology to eliminate reflection on glass and similar specimens for photography.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Giant squid and some other large squid species maintain neutral buoyancy in seawater through an ammonium chloride solution which is found throughout their bodies and is less dense than seawater. This differs from the method of flotation used by most fish, which involves a gas-filled swim bladder.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Around the turn of the 20th century, ammonium chloride was used in aqueous solution as the electrolyte in Leclanché cells that found a commercial use as the "local battery" in subscribers' telephone installations. Those cells later evolved into zinc–carbon batteries still using ammonium chloride as electrolyte.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Ammonium chloride is used in a ~5% aqueous solution to work on oil wells with clay swelling problems. Other uses include in hair shampoo, in the glue that bonds plywood, and in cleaning products. In hair shampoo, it is used as a thickening agent in ammonium-based surfactant systems such as ammonium lauryl sulfate. Ammonium chloride is used in the textile and leather industry, in dyeing, tanning, textile printing and cotton clustering. In woodworking, a solution of ammonium chloride and water, when applied to unfinished wood, will burn when subjected to a heat gun resulting in a branding iron mark without use of a branding iron. The solution can be painted onto the wood or applied with a common rubber stamp.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: The earliest mention of ammonium chloride was in 554 A.D. in China. At that time, ammonium chloride came from two sources: (1) the vents of underground coal fires in Central Asia, specifically, in the Tian Shan mountains (which extend from Xinjiang province of northwestern China through Kyrgyzstan) as well as in the Alay (or Alai) mountains of southwestern Kyrgyzstan, and (2) the fumaroles of the volcano Mount Taftan in southeastern Iran. (Indeed, the word for ammonium chloride in several Asian languages derives from the Iranian phrase "anosh adur" (immortal fire), a reference to the underground fires.) Ammonium chloride was then transported along the Silk Road eastwards to China and westwards to the Muslim lands and Europe.


title: Ammonium chloride

text: Around 800 A.D. the Arabs of Egypt discovered ammonium chloride in the soot that resulted from burning camel dung, and this source became an alternative to those in Central Asia.


title: News of the World (film)

text: News of the World is a 2020 American Western film co-written and directed by Paul Greengrass, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Paulette Jiles, and starring Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel. The film follows an aging Civil War veteran who must return a young girl who was taken in by the Kiowa, and raised as one of them, to her last remaining family. She has lost both her birth and Kiowa families.


title: News of the World (film)

text: "News of the World" was released theatrically by Universal Pictures in the United States on December 25, 2020 and on DirecTV, and grossed $12 million. Internationally, the film was released by Netflix in other territories on February 10, 2021. It received positive reviews from critics who praised Hanks and Zengel's performances as well as the cinematography, musical score, and Greengrass's direction. At the 93rd Academy Awards, the film received nominations for Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Sound. Zengel received nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: News of the World (film)

text: In 1870, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former Confederate officer who served in the 3rd Texas Infantry, makes a meager living traveling from town to town in Texas and reading newspaper stories to local residents for an admission fee of ten cents. After departing Wichita Falls, Kidd comes across an overturned wagon on the road and finds the driver, a black freedman, had been lynched. He also finds a young white girl who calls herself Cicada and speaks Kiowa. Kidd learns from the girl's paperwork that she is Johanna Leonberger, who had been kidnapped and adopted by Kiowa six years earlier. Union Army troops discovered Johanna while dispersing a Kiowa camp and she was being taken to her living aunt and uncle by the freedman. A passing Union Army patrol instructs Kidd to take the girl to Union officials at an outpost in a town up the road. Kidd has little choice but to acquiesce.


title: News of the World (film)

text: At the town, Kidd is informed that the outpost's Bureau of Indian Affairs representative will be unavailable for three months. Kidd initially plans to leave Johanna in the care of friends Simon and Doris Boudlin, but accepts responsibility for returning the girl to her family in Castroville, some 400 miles away, after she recklessly tries to run away with a band of traveling Native Americans during a storm. In Dallas, Kidd stops at a local inn run by Ella Gannett, an old acquaintance who speaks Kiowa and learns that Johanna's adoptive Native American family was also killed, making her "an orphan twice-over." After reading the news the next night, Kidd and Johanna are accosted by three ex-Confederate soldiers who want to purchase Johanna from him. Kidd refuses and flees with the girl, but the men pursue him into the wilderness. Despite being outgunned, Kidd is able to kill the men after Johanna points out that the dimes Kidd earned from his work could be used as makeshift ammunition for his shotgun.


title: News of the World (film)

text: On the border of Erath County, Kidd and Johanna are detained by militiamen led by Farley, a racist cattle baron who took over the county and had all non-white residents violently expelled. Farley coerces Kidd into reading propaganda that glorifies him to his workers, but Kidd instead reads a story about a disaster in a Pennsylvania coal mine that whips Farley's workers into a rebellious fury. Kidd and Johanna make a run for it in the ensuing melee, but are surrounded by Farley and his men. Just as Farley is about to shoot Kidd, Johanna wounds Farley with Kidd's shotgun, and John Calley, one of Farley's henchmen who was inspired by Kidd's words, deals with the other henchmen and kills Farley.


title: News of the World (film)

text: As the pair continue their journey, their wagon is wrecked and their last horse fatally injured when Kidd loses control on a steep road. Kidd and Johanna proceed on foot. After enduring the heat and a blinding sandstorm, they encounter a traveling group of Kiowa who give Johanna a horse. Saved by that gift, Kidd and Johanna eventually reach the Leonberger farmstead. Kidd reluctantly leaves Johanna with her aunt and uncle. He then continues to San Antonio to visit the grave of his wife Maria, who had died of cholera while he was away serving in the Army, for the first time. As he bids farewell to Maria, Kidd realizes that Johanna had become family to him, and rides back to her and apologizes for leaving her behind. Johanna's aunt and uncle permit Kidd to raise Johanna. Later, Captain Kidd enthusiastically reads the news to an audience in a large hall with Johanna's assistance, and Kidd introduces her as his daughter, Johanna Kidd.


title: News of the World (film)

text: In May 2017, Fox 2000 Pictures bought distribution rights to an adaptation of the Paulette Jiles novel with Luke Davies writing the screenplay and Tom Hanks set to star. In February 2019, Paul Greengrass was announced as director. As a result of the Disney/Fox merger, the film was transferred to Universal Pictures. In August, Helena Zengel, Michael Covino, and Fred Hechinger were added to the cast, and Thomas Francis Murphy joined in September. Filming commenced on September 2, 2019, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kiowa Tribe member Dorothy WhiteHorse coached Zengel in the Kiowa language and other details of Native American life and behavior, while Tribal Chairman Matthew Komalty praised the film's crew for their attention to accuracy.


title: News of the World (film)

text: In November 2020, Netflix bought the international distribution rights to the film (excluding the United States). Helena Zengel dubbed herself in the Italian, German, French and Spanish versions; the dubbing is limited to the lines she spoke in English.


title: News of the World (film)

text: "News of the World" was theatrically released by Universal Pictures in the United States on December 25, 2020 and on DirecTV, which was followed by a Premium video on demand (PVOD) release in the United States on January 15, 2021. It originally was going to be released by Fox 2000 Pictures. In November 2020, it was announced that Netflix had acquired international distribution rights, except for the United States and China, and released it digitally on its streaming service on February 10, 2021. On March 2, 2021, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment officially announced that the release date for "News of the World" to physical media, including Blu-ray Disc, 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc, and DVD, would be March 23, 2021. In the United States, the film was released on HBO/HBO Max on September 4, 2021.


title: News of the World (film)

text: In the United States, "News of the World," released alongside "Wonder Woman 1984", "Promising Young Woman", and "Pinocchio", was projected to gross around $4 million from 1,900 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $1.05 million on its first day, and went on to debut to $2.3 million, finishing second at the box office behind "Wonder Woman 1984"; 70% of the audience was over the age of 35.


title: News of the World (film)

text: The film fell 25% in its second weekend, grossing $1.7 million, then made $1.24 million in its third weekend.


title: News of the World (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, of reviews of the film were positive, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: ""News of the World" takes a slow but absorbing ride down a comfortingly familiar Western trail, guided by Tom Hanks in peak paternal mode." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: News of the World (film)

text: Writing for "IndieWire", David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of B and said, "If Greengrass' broadly entertaining (if gallingly relevant) film is a bit too soft and spread thin to hit with the emotional force that it could, so much of its simple power is owed to the grounded nature of the director's approach, which allows these desperate characters to feel as if they're trying to escape the very genre that threatens to define them forever."


title: News of the World (film)

text: A.A. Dowd of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a "B−" and wrote: "Ultimately, "News Of The World" lives and dies on the presence of its iconic headliner, on the Hanks of it all. That's the most old-fashioned thing about it: It's a true star vehicle, practically a tribute to his enduring appeal. Yet for as comforting as Hanks is in the role, and for as much as he sells the poignancy of the film's bittersweet final stretch, the film feels almost too built around his signature nobility to ever gain much in the way of actual drama."


title: News of the World (film)

text: Mark Kermode of "The Observer" awarded the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Having emerged from news documentaries to become a peerless director of vivid real-life dramas ("Bloody Sunday", "United 93") and frenetically visceral adventures ("The Bourne" franchise), Greengrass relishes the opportunity to take a more languorous attitude to character development and location, a quality that seems to have confounded some fans of the director’s more urgent fare. Yet I found this a rewarding and entertaining drama, heavy with the weight of the past, yet buoyed up by the possibilities of the future."


title: News of the World (film)

text: Contrasting views display the comments on the movie by Philipp Emberger, the critic of ORF, the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation: under the title "Helena Zengel Overpowering Tom Hanks", he describes her scenes as the highlights of the film, compared to Tom Hanks's solos that seem "arduously one-dimensional", concluding that "Tom Hanks delivers a lot of forgivingness, besides the Dad-vibes", which makes the film "a quiet and steady Western with elements of road-movie, beautiful pictures of landscapes, a relevant topic, lots of heart, and a star named Helena Zengel." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, writing that although Hanks's "persona here is equable and easy-going, qualities which are of course necessary to his sympathetic brand identity, he doesn’t plausibly change in any dramatic way", and describing the film as a "handsomely shot but stolid and blandly self-satisfied western".


title: News of the World (film)

text: A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" gave a mixed review, writing that "this isn't a bad movie. The problem is that it's too nice a movie, too careful and compromised, as if its makers didn't trust the audience to handle the real news of the world."


title: Neil Simon

text: Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received more combined Oscar and Tony Award nominations than any other writer.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon grew up in New York City during the Great Depression. His parents' financial difficulties affected their marriage, giving him a mostly unhappy and unstable childhood. He often took refuge in movie theaters, where he enjoyed watching early comedians like Charlie Chaplin. After graduating from high school and serving a few years in the Army Air Force Reserve, he began writing comedy scripts for radio programs and popular early television shows. Among the latter were Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" (where in 1950 he worked alongside other young writers including Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart and Selma Diamond), and "The Phil Silvers Show", which ran from 1955 to 1959.


title: Neil Simon

text: His first produced play was "Come Blow Your Horn" (1961). It took him three years to complete and ran for 678 performances on Broadway. It was followed by two more successes, "Barefoot in the Park" (1963) and "The Odd Couple" (1965). He won a Tony Award for the latter. It made him a national celebrity and "the hottest new playwright on Broadway". From the 1960s to the 1980s he wrote for stage and screen; some of his screenplays were based on his own works for the stage. His style ranged from farce to romantic comedy to more serious dramatic comedy. Overall, he garnered 17 Tony nominations and won three awards. In 1966, he had four successful productions running on Broadway at the same time, and in 1983 he became the only living playwright to have a New York theatre, the Neil Simon Theatre, named in his honor.


title: Neil Simon

text: Neil Simon was born on July 4, 1927, in The Bronx, New York City, to Jewish parents. His father, Irving Simon, was a garment salesman, and his mother, Mamie (Levy) Simon, was mostly a homemaker. Neil had one brother, eight years his senior, television writer and comedy teacher Danny Simon. He grew up in Washington Heights, Manhattan, and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School when he was sixteen. He was nicknamed 'Doc', and the school yearbook described him as extremely shy.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon's childhood was marked by his parents' "tempestuous marriage" and the financial hardship caused by the Depression. Sometimes at night he blocked out their arguments by putting a pillow over his ears. His father often abandoned the family for months at a time, causing them further financial and emotional suffering. As a result, the family took in boarders, and Simon and his brother Danny were sometimes forced to live with different relatives.


title: Neil Simon

text: During an interview with writer Lawrence Grobel, Simon said: "To this day I never really knew what the reason for all the fights and battles were about between the two of them ... She'd hate him and be very angry, but he would come back and she would take him back. She really loved him." Simon has said that one of the reasons he became a writer was to fulfill a need to be independent of such emotional family issues, a need he recognized when he was seven or eight: "I'd better start taking care of myself somehow ... It made me strong as an independent person.


title: Neil Simon

text: He was able to do that at the movies, in the work of stars like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy. "I was constantly being dragged out of movies for laughing too loud." Simon acknowledged these childhood films as his inspiration: "I wanted to make a whole audience fall onto the floor, writhing and laughing so hard that some of them pass out." He made writing comedy his long-term goal, and also saw it as a way to connect with people. "I was never going to be an athlete or a doctor." He began writing for pay while still in high school: At the age of fifteen, Simon and his brother created a series of comedy sketches for employees at an annual department store event. To help develop his writing skill, he often spent three days a week at the library reading books by famous humorists such as Mark Twain, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and S. J. Perelman.


title: Neil Simon

text: Soon after graduating from high school, he signed up with the Army Air Force Reserve at New York University. He attained the rank of corporal and was eventually sent to Colorado. During those years in the Reserve, Simon wrote professionally, starting as a sports editor. He was assigned to Lowry Air Force Base during 1945 and attended the University of Denver from 1945 to 1946.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon quit his job as a mailroom clerk in the Warner Brothers offices in Manhattan to write radio and television scripts with his brother Danny Simon, under the tutelage of radio humorist Goodman Ace, who ran a short-lived writing workshop for CBS. Their work for the radio series "The Robert Q. Lewis Show" led to other writing jobs. Max Liebman hired the duo for the writing team of his popular television comedy series "Your Show of Shows." The program received Emmy Award nominations for Best Variety Show in 1951, 1952, 1953, and 1954, and won in 1952 and 1953. Simon later wrote scripts for "The Phil Silvers Show", for episodes broadcast during 1958 and 1959.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon later recalled the importance of these two writing jobs to his career: "Between the two of them, I spent five years and learned more about what I was eventually going to do than in any other previous experience." "I knew when I walked into "Your Show of Shows", that this was the most talented group of writers that up until that time had ever been assembled together."


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon incorporated some of these experiences into his play "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" (1993). A 2001 TV adaptation of the play won him two Emmy Award nominations.


title: Neil Simon

text: His first Broadway experience was on "Catch a Star!" (1955); he collaborated on sketches with his brother, Danny.


title: Neil Simon

text: In 1961, Simon's first Broadway play, "Come Blow Your Horn", ran for 678 performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Simon took three years to create that first play, partly because he was also working on television scripts. He rewrote it at least twenty times from beginning to end: "It was the lack of belief in myself", he recalled. "I said, 'This isn't good enough. It's not right.' ... It was the equivalent of three years of college." Besides being a "monumental effort" for Simon, that play was a turning point in his career: "The theater and I discovered each other."


title: Neil Simon

text: "Barefoot in the Park" (1963) and "The Odd Couple" (1965), for which he won a Tony Award, brought him national celebrity, and he was considered "the hottest new playwright on Broadway", according to Susan Koprince. Those successes were followed by others. During 1966, Simon had four shows playing simultaneously at Broadway theatres: "Sweet Charity", "The Star-Spangled Girl", "The Odd Couple" and "Barefoot in the Park". These earned him royalties of $1 million a year. His professional association with producer Emanuel Azenberg began with "The Sunshine Boys" and continued with "The Good Doctor", "God's Favorite", "Chapter Two", "They're Playing Our Song", "I Ought to Be in Pictures", "Brighton Beach Memoirs", "Biloxi Blues", "Broadway Bound", "Jake's Women", "The Goodbye Girl" and "Laughter on the 23rd Floor", among others. His work ranged from romantic comedies to serious drama. Overall, he received seventeen Tony nominations and won three awards.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon also adapted material originated by others, such as the musical "Little Me" (1962), based on the novel by Patrick Dennis; "Sweet Charity" (1966) from the screenplay for the film "Nights of Cabiria ("1957), written by Federico Fellini and others; and "Promises, Promises" (1968) a musical version of Billy Wilder's film, "The Apartment". By the time of "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" in 1969, Simon was reputedly earning $45,000 a week from his shows (excluding sale of rights), making him the most financially successful Broadway writer ever. Simon also served as an uncredited "script doctor", helping to hone the books of Broadway-bound plays or musicals under development, as he did for "A Chorus Line" (1975). During the 1970s, he wrote a string of successful plays; sometimes more than one was playing at the same time, to standing room only audiences. Although he was, by then, recognized as one of the country's leading playwrights, his inner drive kept him writing:


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon drew "extensively on his own life and experience" for his stories. His settings are typically working-class New York City neighborhoods, similar to the ones in which he grew up. In 1983, he began writing the first of three autobiographical plays, "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1983), which would be followed by "Biloxi Blues" (1985) and "Broadway Bound" (1986). He received his greatest critical acclaim for this trilogy. He received a Pulitzer Prize for his follow-up play, "Lost in Yonkers" (1991), which starred Mercedes Ruehl and was a success on Broadway.


title: Neil Simon

text: Following "Lost in Yonkers", Simon's next several plays did not meet with commercial success. "The Dinner Party" (2000), which starred Henry Winkler and John Ritter, was "a modest hit". Simon's final play, "Rose's Dilemma", premiered in 2003 and received poor reviews.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon chose not to write the screenplay for the first film adaptation of his work, "Come Blow Your Horn" (1963), preferring to focus on his playwriting. However, he was disappointed with the picture, and thereafter tried to control the conversion of his works. Simon wrote screenplays for more than twenty films and received four Academy Award nominations—for "The Odd Couple" (1969), "The Sunshine Boys" (1975), "The Goodbye Girl" (1977) and "California Suite" (1978). Other movies include "The Out-of-Towners" (1970) and "Murder by Death" (1976). Although most of his films were successful, movies were always of secondary importance to his plays:


title: Neil Simon

text: Many of his earlier adaptations of his own work were very similar to the original plays. Simon observed in hindsight: "I really didn't have an interest in films then. I was mainly interested in continuing writing for the theater ... The plays never became cinematic". "The Odd Couple" (1968), was one highly successful early adaptation, faithful to the stage play but also opened out, with more scenic variety.


title: Neil Simon

text: The key aspect most consistent in Simon's writing style is comedy, situational and verbal, and presents serious subjects in a way that makes audiences "laugh to avoid weeping". He achieved this with rapid-fire jokes and wisecracks, in a wide variety of urban settings and stories. This creates a "sophisticated, urban humor", says editor Kimball King, and results in plays that represent "middle America". Simon created everyday, apparently simple conflicts with his stories, which became comical premises for problems which needed be solved.


title: Neil Simon

text: Another feature of his writing is his adherence to traditional values regarding marriage and family. McGovern states that this thread of the monogamous family runs through most of Simon's work, and is one he feels is necessary to give stability to society. Some critics have therefore described his stories as somewhat old fashioned, although Johnson points out that most members of his audiences "are delighted to find Simon upholding their own beliefs". And where infidelity is the theme in a Simon play, rarely, if ever, do those characters gain happiness: "In Simon's eyes, adds Johnson, "divorce is never a victory."


title: Neil Simon

text: Another aspect of Simon's style is his ability to combine both comedy and drama. "Barefoot in the Park", for example, is a light romantic comedy, while portions of "Plaza Suite" were written as "farce", and portions of "California Suite" are "high comedy".


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon was willing to experiment and take risks, often moving his plays in new and unexpected directions. In "The Gingerbread Lady", he combined comedy with tragedy; "Rumors" (1988) is a full-length farce; in "Jake's Women" and "Brighton Beach Memoirs" he used dramatic narration; in "The Good Doctor", he created a "pastiche of sketches" around various stories by Chekhov; and "Fools" (1981), was written as a fairy-tale romance similar to stories by Sholem Aleichem. Although some of these efforts failed to win approval from many critics, Koprince claims that they nonetheless demonstrate Simon's "seriousness as a playwright and his interest in breaking new ground."


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon's characters are typically "imperfect, unheroic figures who are at heart decent human beings", according to Koprince, and she traces Simon's style of comedy back to that of Menander, a playwright of ancient Greece. Menander, like Simon, also used average people in domestic life settings, and also blended humor and tragedy into his themes. Many of Simon's most memorable plays are built around two-character scenes, as in segments of "California Suite" and "Plaza Suite".


title: Neil Simon

text: Before writing, Simon tried to create an image of his characters. He said that the play "Star Spangled Girl", which was a box-office failure, was "the only play I ever wrote where I did not have a clear visual image of the characters in my mind as I sat down at the typewriter." Simon considered "character building" an obligation, stating that the "trick is to do it skillfully". While other writers have created vivid characters, they have not created nearly as many as Simon did: "Simon has no peers among contemporary comedy playwrights", stated biographer Robert Johnson.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon's characters often amuse the audience with sparkling "zingers", made believable by Simon's skillful writing of dialogue. He reproduces speech so "adroitly" that his characters are usually plausible and easy for audiences to identify with and laugh at. His characters may also express "serious and continuing concerns of mankind ... rather than purely topical material". McGovern notes that his characters are always impatient "with phoniness, with shallowness, with amorality", adding that they sometimes express "implicit and explicit criticism of modern urban life with its stress, its vacuity, and its materialism." However, Simon's characters are never seen thumbing their noses at society."


title: Neil Simon

text: Theater critic John Lahr believes that Simon's primary theme is "the silent majority", many of whom are "frustrated, edgy, and insecure". Simon's characters are "likable" and easy for audiences to identify with. They often have difficult relationships in marriage, friendship or business, as they "struggle to find a sense of belonging". According to biographer Edythe McGovern, there is always "an implied seeking for solutions to human problems through relationships with other people, [and] Simon is able to deal with serious topics of universal and enduring concern", while still making people laugh.


title: Neil Simon

text: McGovern adds that one of Simon's hallmarks is his "great compassion for his fellow human beings", an opinion shared by author Alan Cooper, who observes that Simon's plays "are essentially about friendships, even when they are about marriage or siblings or crazy aunts ..."


title: Neil Simon

text: Many of Simon's plays are set in New York City, with a resulting urban flavor. Within that setting, Simon's themes include marital conflict, infidelity, sibling rivalry, adolescence, bereavement and fear of aging. Despite the serious nature of these ideas, Simon always manages to tell the stories with humor, embracing both realism and comedy. Simon would tell aspiring comedy playwrights "not to try to make it funny ... try and make it real and then the comedy will come."


title: Neil Simon

text: "When I was writing plays", he said, "I was almost always (with some exceptions) writing a drama that was funny ... I wanted to tell a story about real people." Simon explained how he managed this combination:


title: Neil Simon

text: His comedies often portray struggles with marital difficulties or fading love, sometimes leading to separation, divorce and child custody issues. After many twists in the plot, the endings typically show renewal of the relationships.


title: Neil Simon

text: Politics seldom plays in Simon's stories, and his characters avoid confronting society as a whole, despite their personal problems. "Simon is simply interested in showing human beings as they are—with their foibles, eccentricities, and absurdities." Drama critic Richard Eder noted that Simon's popularity relies on his ability to portray a "painful comedy", where characters say and do funny things in extreme contrast to the unhappiness they are feeling.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon's plays are generally semi-autobiographical, often portraying aspects of his troubled childhood and first marriages. According to Koprince, Simon's plays also "invariably depict the plight of white middle-class Americans, most of whom are New Yorkers and many of whom are Jewish, like himself." He has said, "I suppose you could practically trace my life through my plays." In "Lost in Yonkers", Simon suggests the necessity of a loving marriage (as opposed to his parents'), and how children who are deprived of it in their home, "end up emotionally damaged and lost".


title: Neil Simon

text: According to Koprince, Simon's Jewish heritage is a key influence on his work, although he is unaware of it when writing. For example, in the "Brighton Beach" trilogy, she explains, the lead character is a "master of self-deprecating humor, cleverly poking fun at himself and at his Jewish culture as a whole." Simon himself has said that his characters are people who are "often self-deprecating and [who] usually see life from the grimmest point of view", explaining, "I see humor in even the grimmest of situations. And I think it's possible to write a play so moving it can tear you apart and still have humor in it." This theme in writing, notes Koprince, "belongs to a tradition of Jewish humor ... a tradition which values laughter as a defense mechanism and which sees humor as a healing, life-giving force."


title: Neil Simon

text: During most of his career, Simon's work received mixed reviews, with many critics admiring his comedy skills, much of it a blend of "humor and pathos". Other critics were less complimentary, noting that much of his dramatic structure was weak and sometimes relied too heavily on gags and one-liners. As a result, notes Kopince, "literary scholars had generally ignored Simon's early work, regarding him as a commercially successful playwright rather than a serious dramatist." Clive Barnes, theater critic for "The New York Times", wrote that like his British counterpart Noël Coward, Simon was "destined to spend most of his career underestimated", but nonetheless very "popular".


title: Neil Simon

text: This attitude changed after 1991, when he won a Pulitzer Prize for drama with "Lost in Yonkers". McGovern writes that "seldom has even the most astute critic recognized what depths really exist in the plays of Neil Simon." When "Lost in Yonkers" was considered by the Pulitzer Advisory Board, board member Douglas Watt noted that it was the only play nominated by all five jury members, and that they judged it "a mature work by an enduring (and often undervalued) American playwright."


title: Neil Simon

text: McGovern compares Simon with noted earlier playwrights, including Ben Jonson, Molière, and George Bernard Shaw, pointing out that those playwrights had "successfully raised fundamental and sometimes tragic issues of universal and therefore enduring interest without eschewing the comic mode." She concludes, "It is my firm conviction that Neil Simon should be considered a member of this company ... an invitation long overdue." McGovern attempts to explain the response of many critics:


title: Neil Simon

text: Similarly, literary critic Robert Johnson explains that Simon's plays have given us a "rich variety of entertaining, memorable characters" who portray the human experience, often with serious themes. Although his characters are "more lifelike, more complicated and more interesting" than most of the characters audiences see on stage, Simon has "not received as much critical attention as he deserves." Lawrence Grobel, in fact, calls him "the Shakespeare of his time", and possibly the "most successful playwright in history." He states:


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon was married five times. For 20 years (1953–73), he was married to Joan Baim, a Martha Graham dancer, and had two daughters, Nancy and Ellen, with her. Simon became a widower in 1973 when Baim died of bone cancer at age 41, Ellen being 16 and her sister Nancy just 10 at the time. Ellen's semi-autobiographical play, was filmed as Moonlight and Valentino. Simon married actress Marsha Mason (1973–1983), that same year. After his divorce from Mason, he married actress Diane Lander two separate times (1987–1988 and 1990–1998). His subsequent marriage to actress Elaine Joyce in 1999 lasted until his death. He was also the father of Bryn, Lander's daughter from a previous relationship, whom he adopted.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon's nephew is U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon and his niece-in-law is U.S. Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici.


title: Neil Simon

text: Neil Simon died from pneumonia at New York–Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on August 26, 2018, while hospitalized for kidney failure. He was 91, and also had Alzheimer's disease.


title: Neil Simon

text: Simon held three honorary degrees: a Doctor of Humane Letters from Hofstra University, a Doctor of Letters from Marquette University and a Doctor of Law from Williams College. In 1983 Simon became the only living playwright to have a New York City theatre named after him. The Alvin Theatre on Broadway was renamed the Neil Simon Theatre in his honor, and he was an honorary board of trustees member of the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, America's oldest theatre. Also in 1983, Simon was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.


title: Neil Simon

text: In 1965, he won the Tony Award for Best Playwright ("The Odd Couple"), and in 1975, a special Tony Award for his overall contribution to American theater. Simon won the 1978 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay for "The Goodbye Girl". For "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1983), he was awarded the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, followed by another Tony Award for Best Play of 1985, "Biloxi Blues". In 1991, he won the Pulitzer Prize along with the Tony Award for "Lost in Yonkers" (1991).


title: Neil Simon

text: The Neil Simon Festival is a professional summer repertory theatre devoted to preserving the works of Simon and his contemporaries. The Neil Simon Festival was founded by Richard Dean Bugg in 2003.


title: Neil Simon

text: The following made-for-TV movies were all written solely by Simon, and all based on his earlier plays or screenplays


title: Neil Simon

text: In addition to these plays and musicals, Simon has twice rewritten or updated his 1965 play "The Odd Couple". Both updated versions have run under new titles: "The Female Odd Couple" (1985) and "Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple" (2002).


title: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (video game)

text: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (often abbreviated KOTOR or KotOR) is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts. The first installment of the "" series, it was released for the Xbox on July 19, 2003, and for Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2003. It was ported to Mac OS X, iOS, and Android by Aspyr, and it is playable on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S via backward compatibility. A Nintendo Switch version was released on November 11, 2021.


text: The story takes place almost 4,000 years before the formation of the Galactic Empire, where Darth Malak, a Dark Lord of the Sith, has unleashed a Sith armada against the Galactic Republic. The player character, as a Jedi, must venture to different planets in the galaxy to defeat Malak. Players choose from three character classes (Scout, Soldier or Scoundrel) and customize their characters at the beginning of the game, and engage in round-based combat against enemies. Through interacting with other characters and making plot decisions, players earn Light Side and Dark Side Points, which determines whether their character aligns with the light or dark side of the Force.


text: "Knights of the Old Republic" was directed by Casey Hudson, designed by James Ohlen, and written by Drew Karpyshyn. LucasArts proposed a game tied to the film "", or a game set thousands of years before the prequels. The team chose the latter as they thought that they would have more creative freedom. Ed Asner, Ethan Phillips, and Jennifer Hale voiced the characters, while Jeremy Soule composed the soundtrack. Announced in 2000, the game was delayed several times before its release.


text: "Knights of the Old Republic" received critical acclaim for its characters, story, and sound. It was nominated for numerous awards and is often cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. A sequel, "", developed by Obsidian Entertainment at BioWare's suggestion, was released in 2004. The ' story continued with the 2011 release of "", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by BioWare. In September 2021, a remake was announced to be in development by Aspyr for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 5; Aspyr would later be replaced by Saber Interactive in August 2022.


text: Players choose from three basic character classes (Scout, Soldier or Scoundrel) at the beginning of the game and later choose from three Jedi subclasses (Guardian, Sentinel or Consular). Beyond class, a character has "skills" stats, tiered "feats," and later on, tiered Force powers, similar to magic spells in fantasy games. Feats and Force powers are generally unlocked upon level-up, while the player is given skill points to distribute among their skills every level.


text: Combat is round-based; time is divided into discrete rounds, and combatants attack and react simultaneously, although these actions are presented sequentially on-screen. The number of actions a combatant may perform each round is limited. While each round's duration is a fixed short interval of real time, the player can configure the combat system to pause at specific events or the end of each round, or set the combat system to never automatically pause, giving the illusion of real-time combat. Combat actions are calculated using Dungeons & Dragons rules, particularly the d20 System. While these are not displayed directly on the screen, the full breakdown for each action (including die rolls and modifiers) is accessible from a menu.


text: For much of the game, the player can have up to two companions in their party. These companions will participate in combat. They can be manually controlled by the player, or act autonomously if the player does not give them any input. Outside of combat, the companions will randomly engage the player or each other in dialogue, sometimes unlocking additional quests. They will also participate in conversations the player has with other non-player characters.


text: Non-combat interaction with other characters in the game world is based upon a dialogue menu system. Following each statement, the player can select from a list of menu responses. The dialogue varies based on the gender and skills of the main character.


text: The alignment system tracks actions and speech—from simple word choices to major plot decisions—to determine whether the player's character aligns with the light or dark side of the Force. Generosity and altruism lead to the light side, while selfish or violent actions will lead the player's character to the dark side, which will alter the character's appearance, turning their eyes yellow and their skin pale.


text: In addition to the standard role-playing gameplay, there are several minigame events that come up over the course of the game. The player can participate in swoop racing to earn money, and sometimes interplanetary travel will be interrupted by enemy starfighters, which begins a minigame where the player controls a turret to shoot down the opposing starcraft. The player can also engage in a card game known as pazaak, which is similar to the game of blackjack, to gamble money.


text: "Knights of the Old Republic" takes place approximately 4,000 years before the rise of the Galactic Empire, and covers the era following the conclusion of the "Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi" comics, during the early years of the Galactic Republic. The backstory of the game involves the Mandalorian warrior society invading the Republic in a pan-galactic conflict known as the Mandalorian Wars. The Jedi were hesitant to get involved, but a pair of renegade Jedi Knights, Revan and Malak, insist on leading a Republic force to war. After winning the war against the Mandalorians, Revan and Malak disappeared into the Unknown Regions, returning a year later with a Sith armada and launching an invasion against the Republic themselves. Malak, Revan's apprentice, eventually succeeded his former master as Dark Lord of the Sith after Revan was seemingly killed in an ambush by the Jedi. Malak's aggression has left the Jedi scattered and vulnerable; many Jedi Knights have fallen in battle, and others have sworn allegiance to Malak.


text: Playable locations in "Knights of the Old Republic" include the planets Tatooine, Dantooine, Kashyyyk, Korriban, Manaan, Rakata Prime, and Taris; aboard the Republic cruiser "Endar Spire" and Saul Karath's ship "Leviathan"; and on the Star Forge space station. A space station near Yavin is accessible to players in the PC, Mac OS X, and mobile versions of the game and is available to Xbox players via download from Xbox Live. Travel between these locations happens aboard the freighter "Ebon Hawk", which is also a playable location.


text: Joining the player character's quest are veteran Republic pilot Carth Onasi, the Twi'lek teenager Mission Vao and her Wookiee companion Zaalbar, the Jedi Bastila Shan, 'Grey' Jedi Jolee Bindo, utility droid T3-M4, Mandalorian mercenary Canderous Ordo, and assassin droid HK-47 if he is bought. Juhani, another Jedi, may also join the party if she is spared by the player. Republic soldier Trask Ulgo is also briefly playable during the game's opening sequence on the "Endar Spire".


text: The game's main antagonist is Darth Malak, the Dark Lord of the Sith. Other antagonistic characters include Black Vulkar gang leader Brejik, crime boss Davik Kang, bounty hunter Calo Nord, Zaalbar's brother Chuundar, Sith apprentice Darth Bandon, Admiral Saul Karath, Sith Overseer Uthar Wynn, and Rakatan tribe leader The One. Czerka Corporation, an unscrupulous corporation operating on several planets, is an ally of Darth Malak's Sith forces. Supporting characters who assist the player's party in some capacity are Hidden Bek gang leader Gadon Thek, Jedi Masters Vandar Tokare and Zhar Lestin, game hunter Komad Fortuna, Zaalbar and Chuundar's father Freyyr, Uthar's Sith apprentice Yuthura Ban, Republic representative Roland Wann, the Rakatan tribe "The Elders," and Republic Admiral Forn Dodonna.


text: The game opens with the player character, whose background, gender, appearance, and name are player determined, awakening aboard a Republic ship, the "Endar Spire", which is under attack by Malak's forces over the city world of Taris. Republic soldier Trask Ulgo soon arrives and informs them that they must abandon ship. Fighting their way to the escape pods, Trask and the player are soon confronted by Sith Lord Darth Bandon. With no other options, Trask sacrifices himself while the player continues to make their way to the escape pods. The player meets Carth Onasi, a skilled pilot and Republic war hero, and they escape the doomed warship.


text: Crashing on the surface of Taris, the player is knocked unconscious, and Carth pulls them away from the wreckage. After suffering a strange vision, the player character awakens in an abandoned apartment with Carth, who explains that Taris is under martial law by Malak's forces who are searching for the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan, known for her mastery of battle meditation, a Force technique that strengthens one's allies and weakens one's enemies during battle. Carth and the player search for her and meet new companions along the way, such as the Twi'lek street urchin Mission Vao and her Wookiee companion Zaalbar. The group finds and rescues Bastila from the Black Vulkar gang. With the help of utility droid T3-M4 and Mandalorian mercenary Canderous Ordo, the group escapes Taris aboard the star freighter "Ebon Hawk", moments before Malak's fleet decimates the planet's surface in a vain effort to kill Bastila.


text: While taking refuge at the Jedi Academy on Dantooine, the player trains to be a Jedi, discovers a "Star Map," and learns of the "Star Forge," the probable source of Malak's military resources. The player and their companions then search planets across the galaxy—Dantooine, Manaan, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, and Korriban—for more information about the Star Forge, gaining new companions along the way such as the Cathar Jedi Juhani, assassin droid HK-47, and 'Grey' Jedi Jolee Bindo. After discovering three more Star Maps, the player's party is captured by Darth Malak and brought aboard his flagship, where Malak reveals that the player's character is in truth an amnesiac Darth Revan; the Jedi Council wiped their memories after their presumed death at Malak's hands in the hopes that Bastila could lead them to the Star Forge through her bond with them. Bastila sacrifices herself so the player can escape, and is subsequently turned to the dark side by Malak.


text: On the light side route, the player kills or redeems Bastila, defeats Malak, destroys the Star Forge, and is hailed as a saviour and hero. On the dark side route, the player allies with Bastila, overthrows and kills Malak, takes control of the Star Forge for themselves, and reclaims their title as Dark Lord of the Sith.


text: In July 2000, BioWare announced that they were working with LucasArts to create a Star Wars role-playing video game for the PC and next-generation consoles. Joint BioWare CEO Greg Zeschuk commented that "The opportunity to create a richly detailed new chapter in the Star Wars universe is incredibly exciting for us. We are honored to be working with the extremely talented folks at Lucas Arts, developing a role-playing game based upon one of the most high-profile licenses in the world." The game was officially unveiled as "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" at E3 2001. At this point, the game had been in development for around six months. "Preproduction started in 2000, but the discussions started back in 1999," LucasArts' Mike Gallo said, "The first actual e-mails were in October or November of '99. That's when we first started talking to BioWare. But some really serious work finally started at the beginning of 2000."


text: The decision to set the game four thousand years before "" was one of the first details about the game made known. LucasArts gave BioWare a choice of settings for the game. "LucasArts came to us and said that we could do an game," BioWare CEO Raymond Muzyka said. "Or LucasArts said we could go 4,000 years back, which is a period that's hardly been covered before." BioWare chose to set the game four thousand years before the films as it gave them greater creative freedom. They aimed to create content similar to that from the films but different enough to be a definite precursor. Concept work had to be sent to "the ranch" to be approved for use. Muzyka noted that very little of their content was rejected: "It was more like, 'Can you just make his head like this rather than like that.' So it was all very feasible. There were good suggestions made and they made the game better, so we were happy to do them. It was a good process really and I think we were pleasantly surprised how easy LucasArts was to work with." Zeschuk said that "Overall, we were really happy with the results. We felt like we had enough freedom to truly create something wonderful."


text: Gallo said that BioWare and LucasArts were aiming for a gameplay time of around sixty hours: ""Baldur's Gate" was 100 hours of gameplay or more. "" was 200 hours, and the critical-path play through "Baldur's Gate 2" was 75 hours... We're talking smaller than that [for "Knights of the Old Republic"], dramatically, but even if it's 60 percent smaller, then it's still 100 hours. So our goal for gameplay time is 60 hours. We have so many areas that we're building--worlds, spaceships, things like that to explore--so we have a ton of gameplay."


text: Project director Casey Hudson said that one of the greatest achievements and one of the greatest risks was the combat system. "We wanted to create something that combined the strategic aspects of our "Baldur's Gate" series and "Neverwinter Nights" but which presented it through fast, cinematic 3D action," Hudson said. "That required us to make something that hadn't really been done before." Creating the system was a daunting task, because of the many factors to cover, which were difficult to visualize. The developers intended to make the game have more open-ended gameplay. Gallo compared some situations to "Deus Ex": "You have several ways to get through an area and you might need a character who has a specific skill to do that."


text: LucasArts and BioWare settled on developing "Knights of the Old Republic" for the PC and Xbox. The Xbox was chosen over other consoles because of BioWare's background of developing PC games and greater familiarity with the Xbox than other consoles: "We could do the things we wanted to do on the Xbox without as much effort as we'd need to do it on the PS2 or GameCube," Gallo said. Other factors included the console's recent success and the opportunity to release one of the Xbox's first RPGs. BioWare had previously developed "MDK2" for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2. Hudson said that "Having experience in developing for other consoles gave us the proper mindset for implementing this game on the Xbox, and, by comparison, the Xbox was relatively easy to develop for."


text: Hudson did, however, note that there were some challenges during development. One of the difficulties was in deciding how much graphical detail to provide. "Since our games generally have a lot of AI and scripting, numerous character models, and huge environments, we stress the hardware in a very different way than most games," Hudson said. This made it difficult to predict how well the game would run. The game uses the Odyssey Engine, based on the Aurora Engine (previously developed by BioWare for use in "Neverwinter Nights") but completely rewritten for "Knights of the Old Republic". It was highly detailed for its time: grass waves in the wind, dust blows across Tatooine and puffs of sand rise as the player walks across the seabed.


text: The choreography for the character animations was done using 3DS Max. Hudson noted that the differences between consoles and PCs mean that the graphics would have to be modified. "You typically play console games on a TV across the room while PC games are played on a monitor only inches away." Console games put effort into close-up action and overall render quality; PC games emphasize what can be done with high resolutions and super-sharp textures. Hudson also noted that the difference between a game controller and mouse-and-keyboard setup influenced some design decisions. The PC version features an additional location the player can visit and more NPCs, items, and weapons; these additions were later made available on the Xbox version through Xbox Live. The PC version supports higher display resolutions (up to 1600x1200) and has higher-resolution textures.


text: While the main game, graphics engine and story were developed by BioWare, LucasArts worked on the game's audio. "Knights of the Old Republic" contains three hundred different characters and fifteen thousand lines of speech. "One complete copy of the "Knights of the Old Republic" script fills up 10 5-inch binders," voice department manager Darragh O'Farrell noted. A cast of around a hundred voice actors, including Ed Asner, Raphael Sbarge, Ethan Phillips, Jennifer Hale, and Phil LaMarr was assembled. "Fortunately, with a game this size, it's easy to have an actor play a few different characters and scatter those parts throughout the game so you'll never notice it's the same actor you heard earlier," O'Farrell said.


text: Voice production started six months before the game's beta release. The voice production team were given the script 90% complete to work with. "There were a few changes made during recording, but most of the remaining 10 percent will be dealt with in our pickup session," O'Farrell said, "The pickup session is right at the end of the project, where we catch performance issues, tutorial lines, verbal hints, and anything else that we might have overlooked." A game the size of "Knights of the Old Republic" would typically take seven weeks to record; two weeks of recording all-day and all-night meant LucasArts was able to record all voices in five weeks. Actors were recorded one at a time, as the non-linear nature of the game meant it was too complicated and expensive to record more than one actor at a time.


text: Most of the dialogue recorded was spoken in Galactic Basic (represented by English); however, around a tenth of the script was written in Huttese. Mike Gallo used Ben Burtt's "Star Wars: Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide" to translate English into Huttese. "The key to recording alien dialogue is casting the right actor for the part," O'Farrell said, "Over the years I've had actors take to Huttese like a fish to water, but the opposite is also true. In the past I've had to line-read (when an actor copies my performance) 150-plus Huttese lines to an actor in order to make it work."


text: Award-winning composer Jeremy Soule was signed to compose the game's score. "It will be a "Star Wars" score, but it will all be original, and probably the things that will remain will be the Force themes and things like that," Gallo said. Soule was unable to write a full orchestral score for "Knights of the Old Republic" due to technical limitations: "At the time we only had an 8 megabit per second MIDI system. That was state of the art... I had to fool people into thinking they were hearing a full orchestra. I'd write woodwinds and drums, or woodwinds, horns and drums, or strings and drums and brass. I couldn't run the whole orchestra at once, it was impossible."


text: When announced at E3 2001, "Knights of the Old Republic" was initially scheduled for a late 2002 release. In August 2002 it was announced on the game's forums that its release had been delayed: the Xbox version was to be released in spring 2003 and the PC version in summer 2003. A further delay was announced in January 2003, with both versions of the game expected to be released in fall 2003. Zeschuk attributed the delay to BioWare's focus on quality: "Our goal is to always deliver a top-notch gameplay experience, and sometimes it can be very difficult to excel in all areas. We keep working on tackling each individual issue until we feel we've accomplished something special."


text: The Xbox version of "Knights of the Old Republic" went gold on July 9, 2003, with a release date of July 15. It sold 250,000 copies in the first four days of its release, making "Knights of the Old Republic" the fastest-selling Xbox game at the time of its release. Following the game's release, it was announced that free downloadable content would be available through Xbox Live at the end of the year. The PC version of the game went gold on November 11, 2003, and was released on November 18. It was re-released as part of the "" collection in 2006.


text: The game was ported to Mac OS X by Aspyr and released in North America on September 7, 2004, and re-released digitally on Steam on May 14, 2012, for Mac OS X and PC. The game was released for the iPad on May 30, 2013. The iPad version includes the Yavin Station DLC that was previously released for Xbox and PC. The game was released as DRM-free download on GoG.com in October 2014.


text: The game was launched on Android's Google Play Store on December 22, 2014. In October 2017, Microsoft made the Xbox One console backward compatible with the Xbox version of the game, as part of a 13-game curated catalogue. On November 11, 2021 a Nintendo Switch version was released.


text: In September 2021, "Knights of the Old Republic — Remake", a remake, was announced to be in development by Aspyr for Windows and PlayStation 5. It will be a timed console exclusive for PlayStation 5 before releasing on other platforms. On the remake's development, lead producer Ryan Treadwell wrote, "We’re rebuilding it from the ground up with the latest tech to match the groundbreaking standard of innovation established by the original, all while staying true to its revered story". Several individuals who worked on the original game are returning for the remake, such as former BioWare developers and Jennifer Hale (reprising her role of Bastila). However, Tom Kane will not be returning due to his retirement for medical reasons. John Cygan and Ed Asner will also not return due to their deaths in 2017 and 2021 respectively. In August 2022, Saber Interactive's European studios officially took over as leading the development of the game from Aspyr.


text: There has been speculation that the remake will actually include parts of both "KOTOR 1" and "2", and also establish some of the lore from those games in the official "Star Wars" canon, something Disney seems keen on as it spins "Star Wars" off into new books, TV shows, movies, and games.


text: The following month, "BuzzFeed News"s Kate Aurthur broke the news that Laeta Kalogridis is writing a script for an adaptation the 2003 video game. BuzzFeed identifies the project as a "potential trilogy".


text: After its release on July 15, 2003, the first Xbox shipment of "Knights of the Old Republic" sold out within four days on shelves, which amounted to 250,000 sales during that period. This made it the console's fastest-ever seller at the time of its launch. The game ultimately sold 270,000 copies in its initial two weeks and was ranked by The NPD Group as the #2 best-selling console game of its debut month across all platforms. It fell to the eighth position on NPD's sales chart for August and was absent by September. Worldwide sales reached 600,000 copies by October. In the United States alone, the Xbox version of "Knights of the Old Republic" sold 1.3 million copies and earned $44 million by July 2006. It also received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.


text: Following its launch in November 2003, the computer version of "Knights" became the third-best-selling computer game of its debut week, according to NPD. Although it dropped out of NPD's weekly top 10 by its third week, it claimed sixth place in computer game sales for November overall, and ninth for December. It returned to the weekly top 10 during the December 28 – January 3 period but was absent again on the next week's chart. NPD ultimately declared it the 17th-best-selling computer game of 2004. By August 2006, the computer version had sold 470,000 copies and earned $14.7 million in the United States alone. "Edge" ranked it as the country's 32nd-best-selling computer game released between January 2000 and August 2006.


text: Total sales of the game's Xbox and computer releases surpassed 2 million copies by February 2005 and 2.5 million by May and reached nearly 3 million by March 2006. As of 2007, "Knights of the Old Republic" had sold 3.2 million units.


text: "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic, and won numerous awards, including Game Developers Choice Awards' 2004 game of the year, BAFTA Games Awards' best Xbox game of the year, and Interactive Achievement Awards for best console RPG and best computer RPG. "GameSpot" named it the best Xbox game of July 2003, and best computer game of November 2003.


text: "Knights of the Old Republic" has seen success as the game of the year from many sources including "IGN", Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer, "GMR", The Game Developers Choice Awards, "Xbox Magazine", and G4. "Computer Games Magazine" named it the best computer game of 2003, and presented it with awards for "Best Original Music" and "Best Writing." The editors wrote, "The elegance and accessibility that BioWare made part-and-parcel of this game should be the future standard for this genre." According to the review aggregator Metacritic, the PC version received an average score of 93 based on 33 reviews. In total, the game has won over 40 game of the year awards from various publications. Interactive Achievement Awards awarded it for Best Story and Best Character Development. IGN gave "KotOR" additional awards in Best Sound (Xbox category), Best Story (PC category), Xbox RPG of the Year 2003, PC RPG of the Year 2003, Xbox Game of the Year 2003, PC Game of the Year 2003, and Overall Game of the Year 2003 across all platforms. In 2007, IGN listed it at #27 on its list of the Top 100 Games of All-Time. In 2010, "IGN" placed the game at #3 on its Best games of the Decade (2000–2009), beaten by "Shadow of the Colossus" and "Half-Life 2".


text: At the 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards, HK-47 won the category of "Original Game Character of the Year."


text: In 2007, the plot twist in "KotOR" was ranked number two in "Game Informer" list of the top ten video game plot twists of all time and number 10 on ScrewAttack's "Top 10 OMGWTF Moments." The game is also part of The Xbox Platinum Series/Classics for sales in excess of 1 million units.


text: The "Los Angeles Times" listed "Knights of the Old Republic" as one of the most influential works of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. In 2010, "Game Informer" named the game the 54th best game on their Top 200 Games of All Time list. In November 2012, "Time" named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time.


text: In early 2017, plot elements from the game were referenced in the animated TV series "Star Wars Rebels" such as the Mandalorian Wars and the ancient Sith planet Malachor. Additionally, Darth Revan was set to appear in the "Ghost of Mortis" arc in ""; while this was cut, the deleted scene of Darth Revan was later released.


text: In 2019, Kathleen Kennedy stated that Lucasfilm was looking into developing movies or television series in the "Knights of the Old Republic" era, but that no plans had yet been made. "BuzzFeed News" reports that Laeta Kalogridis would write a Star Wars movie that's based on the "Knights of the Old Republic" video game series.


text: "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary", a book guide to the 2019 film "", contained a reference in which one of the legions of Sith troopers of Palpatine's Final Order is named after Darth Revan.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre ( ), known locally as Akko (, "ʻAkō") or Akka (, "ʻAkkā"), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The city occupies an important location, sitting in a natural harbour at the extremity of Haifa Bay on the coast of the Mediterranean's Levantine Sea. Aside from coastal trading, it was also an important waypoint on the region's coastal road and the road cutting inland along the Jezreel Valley. The first settlement during the Early Bronze Age was abandoned after a few centuries but a large town was established during the Middle Bronze Age. Continuously inhabited since then, it is among the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth. It has, however, been subject to conquest and destruction several times and survived as little more than a large village for centuries at a time. Acre was an important city during the Crusades, and was the site of several battles. It was the last city held by the Crusaders in the Levant before it was captured in 1291.


title: Acre, Israel

text: In present-day Israel, the population was in , made up of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Baháʼís. In particular, Acre is the holiest city of the Baháʼí Faith in Israel and receives many pilgrims of that faith every year. Acre is one of Israel's mixed cities; thirty-two per cent of the city's population is Arab. The mayor is Shimon Lankri, who was re-elected in 2018 with 85% of the vote.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The etymology of the name is unknown, but apparently not Semitic. A folk etymology in Hebrew is that, when the ocean was created, it expanded until it reached Acre and then stopped, giving the city its name (in Hebrew, "ad koh" means "up to here" and no further).


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre seems to be recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs, possibly being the "Akka" in the execration texts from around 1800BC and the "Aak" in the tribute lists of (1479–1425BC). The Akkadian cuneiform Amarna letters also mention an "Akka" in the mid-14th centuryBC. On its native currency, Acre's name was written (). It appears in Assyrian and once in Biblical Hebrew. Other transcriptions of these names include Acco, Accho, Akke, and Ocina.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre was known to the Greeks as "Ákē" (), a homonym for Greek word meaning "cure". Greek legend then offered a folk etymology that Hercules had found curative herbs at the site after one of his many fights. This name was Latinized as Ace. Josephus's histories also transcribed the city into Greek as "Akre".


title: Acre, Israel

text: The city appears in the Babylonian Talmud with the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic name "Talbush" of uncertain etymology.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Under the Diadochi, the Ptolemaic Kingdom renamed the city Ptolemaïs (, "Ptolemaΐs") and the Seleucid Empire Antioch (, "Antiókheia") or Antiochenes. As both names were shared by a great many other towns, they were variously distinguished. The Syrians called it (, "Antiókheia tôs en Ptolemaΐdi"), and the Romans . Others knew it as "Antiochia Ptolemais" (, "Antiókheia Ptolemaΐs").


title: Acre, Israel

text: Under Claudius, it was also briefly known as Germanicia in Ptolemais (, "Germaníkeia tôs en Ptolemaΐdi"). As a Roman colony, it was notionally refounded and renamed ' or ' after its imperial sponsor Claudius; it was known as for short.


title: Acre, Israel

text: During the Crusades, it was officially known as Sainct-Jehan-d'Acre or more simply Acre (Modern French: ), after the Knights Hospitaller who had their headquarters there and whose patron saint was Saint John the Baptist. This name remained quite popular in the Christian world until modern times, often translated into the language being used: "Saint John of Acre" (in English), ' (in Spanish), ' (in Catalan), etc.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The remains of the oldest settlement at the site of modern Acre were found at a tell (archaeological mound) located east of the modern city of Acre. Known as Tel Akko in Hebrew and Tell el-Fukhar in Arabic, its remains date to about 3000BC, during the Early Bronze Age. This farming community endured for only a couple of centuries, after which the site was abandoned, possibly after being inundated by rising seawaters.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre was resettled as an urban centre during the Middle Bronze Age (–1550BC) and has been continuously inhabited since then.


title: Acre, Israel

text: During the Iron Age, Acre was politically and culturally affiliated with Phoenicia. In the biblical Book of Judges, Akko appears in a list of the places which the Israelites were not able to conquer from the Canaanites. It is later described in the territory of the tribe of Asher and, according to Josephus's later account, was reputed to have been ruled by one of Solomon's provincial governors. Around 725BC, Acre joined Sidon and Tyre in a revolt against the Neo-Assyrian emperor Shalmaneser V.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Strabo refers to the city as once a rendezvous for the Persians in their expeditions against Egypt. According to historians such as Diodurus Siculus and Strabo, King Cambyses II attacked Egypt after massing a huge army on the plains near the city of Acre. In December 2018 archaeologists digging at the site of Tell Keisan in Acre unearthed the remains of a Persian military outpost that might have played a role in the successful 525 BC Achaemenid invasion of Egypt. The Persian-period fortifications at Tell Keisan were later heavily damaged during Alexander's fourth-century BC campaign to drive the Achaemenids out of the Levant.


title: Acre, Israel

text: After Alexander's death, his main generals divided his empire among themselves. At first, the Egyptian Ptolemies held the land around Acre. PtolemyII renamed the city Ptolemais in his own and his father's honour in the 260sBC.


title: Acre, Israel

text: About 165BC Judas Maccabeus defeated the Seleucids in several battles in Galilee, and drove them into Ptolemais. About 153BC Alexander Balas, son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, contesting the Seleucid crown with Demetrius, seized the city, which opened its gates to him. Demetrius offered many bribes to the Maccabees to obtain Jewish support against his rival, including the revenues of Ptolemais for the benefit of the Temple in Jerusalem, but in vain. Jonathan Apphus threw in his lot with Alexander; Alexander and Demetrius met in battle and the latter was killed. In 150BC Jonathan was received by him with great honour in Ptolemais. Some years later, however, Tryphon, an officer of the Seleucid Empire, who had grown suspicious of the Maccabees, enticed Jonathan into Ptolemais and there treacherously took him prisoner.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The city was captured by Alexander Jannaeus (ruled –76BC), Cleopatra (r. 51–30BC) and Tigranes the Great (r. 95–55BC). Here Herod the Great (r. 37–4BC) built a gymnasium.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Around 37 BC, the Romans conquered the Hellenized Phoenician port-city called Akko. It became a colony in southern Roman Phoenicia, called "Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis". Ptolemais stayed Roman for nearly seven centuries until 636 AD, when was conquered by the Muslim Arabs. Under Augustus, a gymnasium was built in the city. In 4 BC, the Roman proconsul Publius Quinctilius Varus assembled his army there in order to suppress the revolts that broke out in the region following the death of Herod the Great.


title: Acre, Israel

text: During the rule of the emperor Claudius there was a building drive in Ptolemais and veterans of the legions settled here. The city was one of four colonies (with Berytus, Aelia Capitolina and Caesarea Maritima) created in ancient Levant by Roman emperors for veterans of their Roman legions.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The city was a center of Romanization in the region, but most of the population was made of local Phoenicians and Jews: as a consequence after the Hadrian times the descendants of the initial Roman colonists were no more speaking Latin and were fully assimilated in less than two centuries (however the local society's customs were Roman).


title: Acre, Israel

text: The Christian "Acts of the Apostles" reports that Luke the Evangelist, Paul the Apostle and their companions spent a day in Ptolemais with the Christian brethren there.


title: Acre, Israel

text: An important Roman colony ("") was established at the city, that greatly increased the control of the region by the Romans in the next century with Roman colonists translated there from Italy. The Romans enlarged the port and the city grew to more than 20000 inhabitants in the second century under emperor Hadrian. Ptolemais greatly flourished for two more centuries.


title: Acre, Israel

text: After the permanent division of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, Ptolemais was administered by the successor state, the Byzantine Empire. The city started to lose importance and in the seventh century was reduced to a small settlement of less than one thousand inhabitants.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Following the defeat of the Byzantine army of Heraclius by the Rashidun army of Khalid ibn al-Walid in the Battle of Yarmouk, and the capitulation of the Christian city of Jerusalem to the Caliph Umar, Acre came under the rule of the Rashidun Caliphate beginning in 638. According to the early Muslim chronicler al-Baladhuri, the actual conquest of Acre was led by Shurahbil ibn Hasana, and it likely surrendered without resistance. The Arab conquest brought a revival to the town of Acre, and it served as the main port of Palestine through the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates that followed, and through Crusader rule into the 13th century.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The first Umayyad caliph, Muawiyah I (r. 661–680), regarded the coastal towns of the Levant as strategically important. Thus, he strengthened Acre's fortifications and settled Persians from other parts of Muslim Syria to inhabit the city. From Acre, which became one of the region's most important dockyards along with Tyre, Mu'awiyah launched an attack against Byzantine-held Cyprus. The Byzantines assaulted the coastal cities in 669, prompting Mu'awiyah to assemble and send shipbuilders and carpenters to Acre. The city would continue to serve as the principal naval base of Jund al-Urdunn ("Military District of Jordan") until the reign of Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (723–743), who moved the bulk of the shipyards north to Tyre. Nonetheless, Acre remained militarily significant through the early Abbasid period, with Caliph al-Mutawakkil issuing an order to make Acre into a major naval base in 861, equipping the city with battleships and combat troops.


title: Acre, Israel

text: During the 10th century, Acre was still part of Jund al-Urdunn. Local Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi visited Acre during the early Fatimid Caliphate in 985, describing it as a fortified coastal city with a large mosque possessing a substantial olive grove. Fortifications had been previously built by the autonomous Emir Ibn Tulun of Egypt, who annexed the city in the 870s, and provided relative safety for merchant ships arriving at the city's port. When Persian traveller Nasir Khusraw visited Acre in 1047, he noted that the large Jama Masjid was built of marble, located in the centre of the city and just south of it lay the "tomb of the Prophet Salih." Khusraw provided a description of the city's size, which roughly translated as having a length of and a width of . This figure indicates that Acre at that time was larger than its current Old City area, most of which was built between the 18th and 19th centuries.


title: Acre, Israel

text: After four years, the siege of Acre was successfully completed in 1104, with the city capitulating to the forces of King Baldwin I of Jerusalem following the First Crusade. The Crusaders made the town their chief port in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On the first Crusade, Fulcher relates his travels with the Crusading armies of King Baldwin, including initially staying over in Acre before the army's advance to Jerusalem. This demonstrates that even from the beginning, Acre was an important link between the Crusaders and their advance into the Levant. Its function was to provide Crusaders with a foothold in the region and access to vibrant trade that made them prosperous, especially giving them access to the Asiatic spice trade. By the 1130s it had a population of around 25,000 and was only matched for size in the Crusader kingdom by the city of Jerusalem. Around 1170 it became the main port of the eastern Mediterranean, and the kingdom of Jerusalem was regarded in the west as enormously wealthy above all because of Acre. According to an English contemporary, it provided more for the Crusader crown than the total revenues of the king of England.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The Andalusian geographer Ibn Jubayr wrote that in 1185 there was still a Muslim community in the city who worshipped in a small mosque.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre, along with Beirut and Sidon, capitulated without a fight to the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187, after his decisive victory at Hattin and the subsequent Muslim capture of Jerusalem.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre remained in Muslim hands until it was unexpectedly besieged by King Guy of Lusignan—reinforced by Pisan naval and ground forces—in August 1189. The siege was unique in the history of the Crusades since the Frankish besiegers were themselves besieged, by Saladin's troops. It was not captured until July 1191 when the forces of the Third Crusade, led by King Richard I of England and King Philip II of France, came to King Guy's aid. Acre then served as the "de facto" capital of the remnant Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1192. During the siege, German merchants from Lübeck and Bremen had founded a field hospital, which became the nucleus of the chivalric Teutonic Order. Upon the Sixth Crusade, the city was placed under the administration of the Knights Hospitaller military order. Acre continued to prosper as major commercial hub of the eastern Mediterranean, but also underwent turbulent times due to the bitter infighting among the Crusader factions that occasionally resulted in civil wars.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The old part of the city, where the port and fortified city were located, protrudes from the coastline, exposing both sides of the narrow piece of land to the sea. This could maximize its efficiency as a port, and the narrow entrance to this protrusion served as a natural and easy defense to the city. Both the archaeological record and Crusader texts emphasize Acre's strategic importance—a city in which it was crucial to pass through, control, and, as evidenced by the massive walls, protect.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre was the final major stronghold of the Crusader states when much of the Levantine coastline was conquered by Mamluk forces. Acre itself fell to Sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil in 1291.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre, having been isolated and largely abandoned by Europe, was conquered by Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Khalil in a bloody siege in 1291. In line with Mamluk policy regarding the coastal cities (to prevent their future utilization by Crusader forces), Acre was entirely destroyed, with the exception of a few religious edifices considered sacred by the Muslims, namely the Nabi Salih tomb and the Ayn Bakar spring. The destruction of the city led to popular Arabic sayings in the region enshrining its past glory.


title: Acre, Israel

text: In 1321 the Syrian geographer Abu'l-Fida wrote that Acre was "a beautiful city" but still in ruins following its capture by the Mamluks. Nonetheless, the "spacious" port was still in use and the city was full of artisans. Throughout the Mamluk era (1260–1517), Acre was succeeded by Safed as the principal city of its province.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, it appeared in the census of 1596, located in the "Nahiya" of Acca of the "Liwa" of Safad. The population was 81 households and 15 bachelors, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, cotton, goats, and beehives, water buffaloes, in addition to occasional revenues and market toll, a total of 20,500 Akçe. Half of the revenue went to a Waqf. English academic Henry Maundrell in 1697 found it a ruin, save for a "khan" (caravanserai) built and occupied by French merchants for their use, a mosque and a few poor cottages. The "khan" was named Khan al-Ilfranj after its French founders.


title: Acre, Israel

text: During Ottoman rule, Acre continued to play an important role in the region via smaller autonomous sheikhdoms. Towards the end of the 18th century Acre revived under the rule of Zahir al-Umar, the Arab ruler of the Galilee, who made the city capital of his autonomous sheikhdom. Zahir rebuilt Acre's fortifications, using materials from the city's medieval ruins. He died outside its walls during an offensive against him by the Ottoman state in 1775. His successor, Jazzar Pasha, further fortified its walls when he virtually moved the capital of the Saida Eyelet ("Province of Sidon") to Acre where he resided. Jazzar's improvements were accomplished through heavy imposts secured for himself all the benefits derived from his improvements. About 1780, Jazzar peremptorily banished the French trading colony, in spite of protests from the French government, and refused to receive a consul. Both Zahir and Jazzar undertook ambitious architectural projects in the city, building several caravanserais, mosques, public baths and other structures. Some of the notable works included the Al-Jazzar Mosque, which was built out of stones from the ancient ruins of Caesarea and Atlit and the Khan al-Umdan, both built on Jazzar's orders.


title: Acre, Israel

text: In 1799 Napoleon, in pursuance of his scheme for raising a Syrian rebellion against Turkish domination, appeared before Acre, but after a siege of two months (March–May) was repulsed by the Turks, aided by Sir Sidney Smith and a force of British sailors. Having lost his siege cannons to Smith, Napoleon attempted to lay siege to the walled city defended by Ottoman troops on 20 March 1799, using only his infantry and small-calibre cannons, a strategy which failed, leading to his retreat two months later on 21 May.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Jazzar was succeeded on his death by his "mamluk", Sulayman Pasha al-Adil, under whose milder rule the town advanced in prosperity till his death in 1819. After his death, Haim Farhi, who was his adviser, paid a huge sum in bribes to assure that Abdullah Pasha (son of Ali Pasha, the deputy of Sulayman Pasha), whom he had known from youth, will be appointed as ruler—which didn't stop the new ruler from assassinating Farhi. Abdullah Pasha ruled Acre until 1831, when Ibrahim Pasha besieged and reduced the town and destroyed its buildings. During the Oriental Crisis of 1840 it was bombarded on 4 November 1840 by the allied British, Austrian and French squadrons, and in the following year restored to Turkish rule. It regained some of its former prosperity after linking with the Hejaz Railway by a branch line from Haifa in 1913. It was the capital of the Acre Sanjak in the Beirut Vilayet until the British captured the city on 23 September 1918 during World War I.


title: Acre, Israel

text: At the beginning of the Mandate period, in the 1922 census of Palestine, Acre had 6,420 residents: 4,883 of whom were Muslim; 1,344 Christian; 102 Baháʼí; 78 Jewish and 13 Druze. The 1931 census counted 7,897 people in Acre, 6,076 Muslims, 1,523 Christians, 237 Jews, 51 Baháʼí and 10 Druse. In the 1945 census Acre's population numbered 12,360; 9,890 Muslims, 2,330 Christians, 50 Jews and 90 classified as "other".


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre's fort was converted into a jail, where members of the Jewish underground were held during their struggle against the Mandate authorities, among them Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Shlomo Ben-Yosef, and Dov Gruner. Gruner and Ben-Yosef were executed there. Other Jewish inmates were freed by members of the Irgun, who broke into the jail on 4 May 1947 and succeeded in releasing Jewish underground movement activists. Over 200 Arab inmates also escaped.


title: Acre, Israel

text: In the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Acre was designated part of a future Arab state. On 18 March 4 technicians from the Palestine Electric Company and five British soldiers in their escort were killed while travelling to mend a cable in an RAF camp, when an Arab ambush exploded a mine on the route just outside the Moslem cemetery east of Acre The Haganah responded by blowing up a bridge outside the city and derailing a train. Before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War broke out, the Carmeli Brigade's 21 Battalion commander had repeatedly damaged the Al-Kabri aqueduct that furnished Acre with water, and when Arab repairs managed to restore water supply, then resorted to pouring flasks of typhoid and perhaps diphtheria bacteria into the aqueduct, mas part of a biological warfare programme. At some time in late April or early May 1948, - Jewish forces had cut the town's electricity supply responsible for pumping water - a typhoid epidemic broke out. Israeli officials later credited the facility with which they conquered the town in part to the effects of the demoralization induced by the epidemic.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Israel's Carmeli forces attacked on May 16th and, after an ultimatum was delivered that, unless the inhabitants surrendered, 'we will destroy you to the last man and utterly,' the town notables signed an instrument of surrender on the night between 17-18 May 1948. 60 bodies were found and about three-quarters of the Arab population of the city (13,510 of 17,395) were displaced.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Throughout the 1950s, many Jewish neighbourhoods were established at the northern and eastern parts of the city, as it became a development town, designated to absorb numerous Jewish immigrants, largely Jews from Morocco. The old city of Akko remained largely Arab Muslim (including several Bedouin families), with an Arab Christian neighbourhood in close proximity. The city also attracted worshippers of the Baháʼí Faith, some of whom became permanent residents in the city, where the Baháʼí Mansion of Bahjí is located. Acre has also served as a base for important events in Baháʼí history, including being the birthplace of Shoghi Effendi, and the short-lived schism between Baháʼís initiated by the attacks by Mírzá Muhammad ʻAlí against ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Baháʼís have since commemorated various events that have occurred in the city, including the imprisonment of Baháʼu'lláh.


title: Acre, Israel

text: In the 1990s, the city absorbed thousands of Jews who immigrated from the former Soviet Union. Within several years, however, the population balance between Jews and Arabs shifted backwards, as northern neighbourhoods were abandoned by many of its Jewish residents in favour of new housing projects in nearby Nahariya, while many Muslim Arabs moved in (largely coming from nearby Arab villages). Nevertheless, the city still has a clear Jewish majority; in 2011, the population of 46,000 included 30,000 Jews and 14,000 Arabs.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Ethnic tensions erupted in the city on 8 October 2008 after an Arab citizen drove through a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood during Yom Kippur, leading to five days of violence between Arabs and Jews.


title: Acre, Israel

text: In 2009, the population of Acre reached 46,300. In 2018 Shimon Lankri, was re-elected mayor with 85% of the vote.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Today there are roughly 48,000 people who live in Acre. Among Israeli cities, Acre has a relatively high proportion of non-Jewish residents, with 32% of the population being Arab. In 2000, 95% of the residents in the Old City were Arab. Only about 15% percent of the current Arab population in the city descends from families who lived there before 1948.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre is home to Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Baháʼís. In particular, Acre is the holiest city of the Baháʼí Faith and receives many pilgrims of that faith every year.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The Acre central bus station, served by Egged and Nateev Express, offers intra-city and inter-city bus routes to destinations all over Israel. Nateev Express is currently contracted to provide the intra-city bus routes within Acre. The city is also served by the Acre Railway Station, which is on the main Coastal railway line to Nahariya, with southerly trains to Beersheba and Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The Sir Charles Clore Jewish-Arab Community Centre in the Kiryat Wolfson neighbourhood runs youth clubs and programs for Jewish and Arab children. In 1990, Mohammed Faheli, an Arab resident of Acre, founded the Acre Jewish-Arab association, which originally operated out of two bomb shelters. In 1993, Dame Vivien Duffield of the Clore Foundation donated funds for a new building. Among the programs offered is Peace Child Israel, which employs theatre and the arts to teach coexistence. The participants, Jews and Arabs, spend two months studying conflict resolution and then work together to produce an original theatrical performance that addresses the issues they have explored. Another program is Patriots of Acre, a community responsibility and youth tourism program that teaches children to become ambassadors for their city. In the summer, the centre runs an Arab-Jewish summer camp for 120 disadvantaged children aged 5–11. Some 1,000 children take part in the Acre Centre's youth club and youth programming every week. Adult education programs have been developed for Arab women interested in completing their high school education and acquiring computer skills to prepare for joining the workforce. The centre also offers parenting courses, and music and dance classes.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre is an annual event that takes place in October, coinciding with the holiday of Sukkot. The festival, inaugurated in 1979, provides a forum for non-conventional theatre, attracting local and overseas theatre companies. Theatre performances by Jewish and Arab producers are staged at indoor and outdoor venues around the city.


title: Acre, Israel

text: The city's football team, Hapoel Acre F.C., is a member of the Israeli Premier League, the top tier of Israeli football. They play in the Acre Municipal Stadium which was opened in September 2011. At the end of the 2008–2009 season, the club finished in the top five, and was promoted to the top tier for a second time, after an absence of 31 years.


title: Acre, Israel

text: In the past the city was also home to Maccabi Acre. However, the club was relocated to nearby Kiryat Ata and was renamed Maccabi Ironi Kiryat Ata.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Other current active clubs are Ahi Acre and the newly formed Maccabi Ironi Acre, both playing in Liga Bet. Both club also host their matches in the Acre Municipal Stadium.


title: Acre, Israel

text: Acre's Old City has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Since the 1990s, large-scale archaeological excavations have been undertaken and efforts are being made to preserve ancient sites. In 2009, renovations were planned for Khan al-Umdan, the "Inn of the Columns," the largest of several Ottoman inns still standing in Acre. It was built near the port at the end of the 18th century by Jazzar Pasha. Merchants who arrived at the port would unload their wares on the first floor and sleep in lodgings on the second floor. In 1906, a clock tower was added over the main entrance marking the 25th anniversary of the reign of the Turkish sultan, Abdul Hamid II.


title: Acre, Israel

text: In 1750, Zahir al-Umar, the ruler of Acre, utilized the remnants of the Crusader walls as a foundation for his walls. Two gates were set in the wall, the "land gate" in the eastern wall, and the "sea gate" in the southern wall. The walls were reinforced between 1775 and 1799 by Jazzar Pasha and survived Napoleon's siege. The wall was thin, at only , and rose to a height of between and .