title: Denholm Elliott

text: His widow set up a charity, the Denholm Elliott Project, and collaborated on his biography. She worked closely with the UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS. Susan Robinson Elliott died on 12 April 2007, aged 65, in a fire in her flat in London.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Francesco Vincent Serpico (born April 14, 1936) is an American retired New York Police Department detective, best known for whistleblowing on police corruption. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan to expose vice racketeering. In 1967, he reported credible evidence of widespread police corruption, to no effect. In 1970, he contributed to a front-page story in "The New York Times" on widespread corruption in the NYPD, which drew national attention to the problem. Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed a five-member panel to investigate accusations of police corruption, which became the Knapp Commission.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Serpico was shot in the face during an arrest attempt on February 3, 1971, at 778 Driggs Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The bullet severed an auditory nerve, and left bullet fragments lodged in his brain. The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting were quickly called into question, raising the possibility that Serpico had been taken to the apartment by his colleagues to be murdered. There was no formal investigation, but Edgar Echevarria, who had shot Serpico, was subsequently convicted of attempted murder.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Much of Serpico's fame came after the release of the 1973 film "Serpico," in which he was portrayed by Al Pacino, based on the book of the same name by Peter Maas. On June 27, 2013, the USA Section of ANPS (National Association of Italian State Police) awarded him the "Saint Michael Archangel Prize". During the ceremony, he received his first Italian passport and gained Italian citizenship.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Serpico was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the youngest child of Vincenzo and Maria Giovanna Serpico, Italian immigrants from Marigliano, Naples, Campania. He holds both American and Italian citizenship. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Army and was stationed for two years in South Korea as an infantryman. He then worked as a part-time private investigator and a youth counselor while attending Brooklyn College. Serpico later received a Bachelor of Science degree from City College of New York.


title: Frank Serpico

text: On September 11, 1959, Serpico joined the New York City Police Department (NYPD) as a probationary patrolman, and became a full patrolman on March 5, 1960. He was assigned to the 81st precinct, then worked for the Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) for two years. He was then assigned to plainclothes undercover work, during which he eventually exposed widespread corruption.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Serpico was a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan to expose vice racketeering. In 1967, he reported credible evidence of widespread systematic police corruption, and saw no effect until he met another police officer, David Durk, who helped him. Serpico believed his partners knew about his secret meetings with police investigators. Finally, he contributed to an April 25, 1970 front-page story in "The New York Times" on widespread corruption in the NYPD, which drew national attention to the problem. Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed a five-member panel to investigate accusations of police corruption. The panel became the Knapp Commission, named after its chairman, Whitman Knapp.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Serpico was shot during a drug arrest attempt on February 3, 1971, at 778 Driggs Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Four officers from the Brooklyn North police command had received a tip that a drug deal was about to take place. Two policemen, Gary Roteman and Arthur Cesare, stayed outside, while the third, Paul Halley, stood in front of the apartment building. Serpico climbed up the fire escape, entered by the fire escape door, went downstairs, listened for the password, then followed two suspects outside.


title: Frank Serpico

text: The police arrested the young suspects, and found one had two bags of heroin. Halley stayed with the suspects, and Roteman told Serpico, who spoke Spanish, to make a fake purchase in attempt to get the drug dealers to open the door. The police went to the third-floor landing. Serpico knocked on the door, keeping his hand on his revolver. The door opened a few inches, just far enough to wedge his body in. Serpico called for help, but his fellow officers ignored him.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Serpico was then shot in the face by the suspect with a .22 LR pistol. The bullet struck just below the eye, lodging at the top of his jaw. He fired back, striking his assailant, fell to the floor, and began to bleed profusely. His police colleagues refused to make a "10-13" dispatch to police headquarters, indicating that an officer had been shot. An elderly man who lived in the next apartment called the emergency services, reporting that a man had been shot, and stayed with Serpico. When a police car arrived, aware that Serpico was a fellow officer, they transported him in the patrol car to Greenpoint Hospital.


title: Frank Serpico

text: The bullet had severed an auditory nerve, leaving him deaf in one ear, and he has since suffered from chronic pain from bullet fragments lodged in his brain. He was visited the day after the shooting by Mayor John V. Lindsay and Police Commissioner Patrick V. Murphy, and the police department harassed him with hourly bed checks. He later testified before the Knapp Commission.


title: Frank Serpico

text: The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting were quickly called into question. Serpico, who was armed during the drug raid, had been shot only after briefly turning away from the suspect, when he realized that the two officers who had accompanied him to the scene were not following him into the apartment, raising the question whether Serpico had actually been taken to the apartment by his colleagues to be murdered. There was no formal investigation. Edgar Echevarria, who had shot Serpico, was subsequently convicted of attempted murder.


title: Frank Serpico

text: On May 3, 1971, "New York Metro Magazine" published an article, "Portrait of an Honest Cop", about him, a week before he testified at the departmental trial of an NYPD lieutenant accused of taking bribes from gamblers.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Serpico was the first police officer in the history of the New York City Police Department to step forward to report, and subsequently testify openly about, widespread, systemic corruption payoffs amounting to millions of dollars.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Serpico retired on June 15, 1972, one month after receiving the New York City Police Department's highest honor, the Medal of Honor. There was no ceremony; according to Serpico, it was simply handed to him over the desk "like a pack of cigarettes". In 2014, Serpico said that the NYPD still had not issued him the certificate that normally would accompany the honor.


title: Frank Serpico

text: In December 2021, Eric Adams, the mayor-elect of New York City and a former NYPD officer, said "[Serpico's] bravery inspired my law enforcement career" and said that he would ensure that the commission was corrected. On February 3, 2022, Serpico received the certificate, which he greeted with an improvised "21-gun salute" made with the sound of popping bubble wrap.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Following his retirement in 1972, he went to Switzerland to recuperate, spending almost a decade living there and on a farm in the Netherlands, and traveling and studying.


title: Frank Serpico

text: When it was decided to make the movie about his life called "Serpico", Al Pacino invited the officer to stay with him at a house that Pacino had rented in Montauk, New York. Pacino asked him about why he had stepped forward, and Serpico replied, "Well, Al, I don't know. I guess I would have to say it would be because... if I didn't, who would I be when I listened to a piece of music?" He has credited his grandfather (who had once been assaulted and robbed), and his uncle (a respected policeman in Italy), for his own sense of justice.


title: Frank Serpico

text: He returned to the U.S. briefly in June 1974 to deliver a nomination speech for Ramsey Clark, candidate for United States Senator, at the New York State Democratic Party's convention in Niagara Falls. Clark was nominated but lost the general election to incumbent Republican Jacob Javits.


title: Frank Serpico

text: While travelling in Europe from 1979 to 1980, Serpico lived in Orissor College in Corwen, Wales; he was one of the founders and Director of Orissor (which had been known as the Old Union Work House and, more recently, as Corwen Manor: his signature appears on the deeds). He was well known in and around Corwen and frequently mixed in the town's pubs. After a disagreement with Orissor, he stayed for a few weeks in a B&B before returning to New York City in 1980.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Serpico still speaks out about police brutality, civil liberties, and police corruption, such as the attempted cover-ups following Abner Louima's torture in 1997 and Amadou Diallo's shooting in 1999. He provides support to "individuals who seek truth and justice even in the face of great personal risk", calling them "lamp lighters"; he prefers that term in place of the more conventional "whistleblower", which refers to alerting the public to danger, in the spirit of Paul Revere's midnight ride during the American Revolutionary War.


title: Frank Serpico

text: In an October 2014 interview published by "Politico" entitled "The Police Are Still Out of Control... I Should Know", Serpico addresses contemporary issues of police violence.


title: Frank Serpico

text: In 2015, Serpico ran for a seat on the town board of Stuyvesant, New York, where he lives, his first foray into politics. He lost the election.


title: Frank Serpico

text: Among police officers, his actions are still controversial, but Eugene O'Donnell, professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, states that "he becomes more of a heroic figure with every passing year."


title: Frank Serpico

text: On August 19, 2017, Serpico gave a speech which was broadcast live on Facebook as he stood with NYPD police officers in New York City on the bank of the East River at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in support of Colin Kaepernick, for his protests alleging a culture of police brutality. Serpico was quoted, "I am here to support anyone who has the courage to stand up against injustice and oppression anywhere in this country and the world."


title: Frank Serpico

text: As a result of Serpico's efforts, the NYPD was drastically changed. Michael Armstrong, who was counsel to the Knapp Commission and went on to become chairman of the city's Commission to Combat Police Corruption, observed in 2012 "the attitude throughout the department seems fundamentally hostile to the kind of systemized graft that had been a way of life almost 40 years ago." Also in the late 1970s and early 1980s, vice laws were generally not enforced to prevent police corruption. Consequently, bookmakers and drug dealers often operated openly out of storefronts, while prostitutes openly advertised and often plied their wares in various "red-light" sections of the city.


title: Frank Serpico

text: On June 15, 1972, Serpico left both the NYPD and U.S. to move to Europe. In 1973, he lived with a woman named Marianne (a native of the Netherlands), whom he wed in a "spiritual marriage"; she died from cancer in 1980. After her death he decided to return to the United States.


title: Frank Serpico

text: His only child, son Alexander, was born March 15, 1980. Serpico contested a child support order, claiming that the mother told him she was on the contraceptive pill (an allegation she denied, but her friend testified against her). He lost his case on appeal and a tribunal ruled he had to pay $945 per month. Serpico was represented in his suit by Karen DeCrow, former president of the National Organization for Women. Alexander died of a suspected drug overdose on May 12, 2021.


title: Frank Serpico

text: On June 27, 2013, the USA Section of ANPS (National Association of Italian State Police) assigned him the "Saint Michael Archangel Prize", an official award by the Italian State Police with the Sponsorship of the Italian Ministry of Interior. Francesco Serpico is now an Italian citizen: during the same ceremony, he received his first Italian passport after extended research by the president of ANPS USA, Chief Inspector Cirelli, who established the "Jus sanguinis", allowing him to gain Italian citizenship.


title: Dylan Baker

text: Dylan Baker (born October 7, 1959) is an American actor. He gained recognition for his roles in the films such as "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (1987), "Happiness" (1998), "Thirteen Days" (2000), "Road to Perdition" (2002), "Spider-Man 2" (2004) and "Spider-Man 3" (2007) and on the television series "Murder One" (1995–1996) and "The Good Wife", the latter of which earned him three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.


title: Dylan Baker

text: In 1991, Baker was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in the original production of "La Bête". In 2013, he made his directorial debut with the film "23 Blast".


title: Dylan Baker

text: Baker was born in Syracuse, New York, but was raised in Lynchburg, Virginia. He began his acting career as a teenager in regional theater productions. He attended Holy Cross Regional Catholic School, went on to attend Darlington School, and graduated from the Georgetown Preparatory School in 1976.


title: Dylan Baker

text: Baker attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia and later graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1980. Baker then received a Master's in Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama, where he studied alongside Chris Noth and Patricia Clarkson.


title: Dylan Baker

text: Baker's Broadway theatre credits include "Eastern Standard", "La Bête" (for which he received a Tony Award nomination), "Mauritius", and "God of Carnage". He won an Obie Award in 1986 for his performance in the off-Broadway play "Not About Heroes". The next year, he made his motion picture debut in the feature film "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (1987).


title: Dylan Baker

text: Baker's first recurring TV role was on Steven Bochco's highly acclaimed "Murder One" (1995). Since then, he has appeared in such TV series as "Northern Exposure", "Law & Order", "", "Without a Trace", "", "The West Wing", and the short-lived sitcom "The Pitts".


title: Dylan Baker

text: He garnered major critical attention with his performance as a tormented pedophile in Todd Solondz's "Happiness" (1998). In 2000, he portrayed Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in "Thirteen Days", a historical drama about the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also held a small role in "Requiem for a Dream", where he played a doctor who sees Jared Leto's character with a severely infected, rotting arm. In 2002 he portrayed Alexander Rance, an accountant for the Chicago Outfit, in "Road to Perdition". He played Dr. Curt Connors in "Spider-Man 2" (2004) and "Spider-Man 3" (2007).


title: Dylan Baker

text: During the short-lived 2007 series "Drive", Baker played the role of John Trimble, a father with a terminal illness. In 2009, Baker played William Cross in NBC's "Kings", in which his wife Becky Ann Baker played Jessie Shepherd, the mother of protagonist David Shepherd. Baker also guest starred in an episode of "Monk", playing a theater critic in "Mr. Monk and the Critic". Baker guest starred in the November 2010 "House" episode "A Pox on Our House". Baker guest starred in the season four finale of "Burn Notice" as Raines, an old spy friend of Michael's. He reprised the role in the season five premiere, and also permitted his likeness to be used in the "Burn Notice" graphic novel "A New Day". In 2010, Baker played Hollis B. Chenery in "Secretariat".


title: Dylan Baker

text: Baker played Pashto-speaking CIA agent Jerry Boorman in season 4 of the TV series "Damages". He guest-starred in "Upper West Side Story" (2012), an episode of the TV series "White Collar". He had a recurring role as the father of Katharine McPhee's character Karen Cartwright on the NBC TV series "Smash". He appeared in the USA Network miniseries "Political Animals" (2012). For his performance as Colin Sweeney on "The Good Wife", he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2010, 2012, and 2014.


title: Dylan Baker

text: Baker performed with Helen Mirren on Broadway in "The Audience", a play that depicted meetings between Queen Elizabeth II and important historical figures. Baker played former Prime Minister John Major. The play opened on March 8, 2015.


title: Dylan Baker

text: In 2016, Baker had a memorable recurring role as deep-cover KGB agent William Crandall, a morally conflicted biological weapons expert, on Season 4 of FX series "The Americans".


title: Dylan Baker

text: In September 2017, it was announced that Baker would be joining the cast of the Showtime drama "Homeland" for the show's 7th season, as Sen. Sam Paley, a 'maverick' that is leading an excessive investigation of the administration of new President Elizabeth Keane.


title: Dylan Baker

text: Baker is a prolific narrator of audiobooks, having narrated a wide range of books, from fiction ("The Grapes of Wrath", "The Corrections") to biographies ("Steve Jobs") to "Argo".


title: Dylan Baker

text: He garnered the 2002 Audie Award for Abridged Fiction for his reading of "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen. Baker has also recorded Franzen's 2015 novel, "Purity".


title: Dylan Baker

text: In 1990, he married actress Becky Gelke, now known professionally as Becky Ann Baker. They have a daughter and reside in New York City.


title: Dylan Baker

text: On September 1, 2015, Baker tried to save the life of his neighbor, Broadway and movie actress and dancer Vivien Eng, in the high-rise where he lives in New York City when her apartment caught fire, but was driven back by smoke and fire. Firefighters eventually got the seriously injured woman out of the apartment and rushed her to the hospital. However, her injuries were too severe and she died two days later.


title: Jim Ross

text: James William Ross (born January 3, 1952) is an American professional wrestling commentator currently signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator, analyst, and senior advisor. Ross is best known for a long and distinguished career as a play-by-play commentator for the WWE. He is known affectionately as JR or Good Ol' JR. Ross has been labeled as one of the greatest wrestling commentators of all time.


title: Jim Ross

text: After years of working various jobs in the professional wrestling industry, Ross became the primary play-by-play announcer for Mid-South Wrestling in the early 1980s. He went on to do commentary for the National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling, before jumping to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), making his first appearance for the promotion at WrestleMania IX in 1993. During his tenure with WWE, Ross was widely regarded as the voice of the company, particularly during the Attitude Era of the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was also the lead announcer for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) on AXS TV from 2015 to 2018 and occasionally does play-by-play for boxing and mixed martial arts. He has been inducted into the WWE, NWA and "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" halls of fame, and has been honored by the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame twice.


title: Jim Ross

text: Outside of wrestling, Ross is known for his barbecue sauce and beef jerky brand, J.R.'s Family BBQ. He also hosts his own weekly podcast, "Grilling JR".


title: Jim Ross

text: James William Ross was born on January 3, 1952, in Fort Bragg, California. While attending Westville High School, Ross played first base on the Westville baseball team. Ross was a two-time all-conference football player for the Westville Yellowjackets in 1968–69. His maternal grandparents owned a general store in Westville, Oklahoma and his paternal grandfather, Dee Ross, owned an off-sale beer store and was a carpenter. Ross was also President of the Student Body, a 4-year letterman in basketball, and State Vice President of the Future Farmers of America (FFA). He was the FFA Oklahoma Speech Champion in 1968 and 1969 and runner up for the FFA National Speech Championship in 1969. He was awarded the FFA State Degree in 1970, the organization's second highest award. He ran for and was elected vice president of the FFA Northeast District in 1970. Ross was also named Honorable Mention on the 1969 High School All-State Football team by the Tulsa World as a center.


title: Jim Ross

text: In high school, Ross did well academically, reaching the National Honor Society his sophomore year. He received an award for maintaining a 3.6 grade point average his junior year. In 1969, Ross was nominated by Representative Wiley Sparkman to serve as a page for the Oklahoma House of Representatives. That year, Ross served as the treasurer for Oklahoma Boys State. For 18 years, Ross officiated high school and college baseball, football and basketball games in Oklahoma.


title: Jim Ross

text: During his tenure at Northeastern State University, Ross had spent some time commentating on college radio. With this experience, Ross was given the opportunity to fill a broadcast position in the local NWA Tri-State territory, after an announcer was unable to appear at one of the territory's events. After his arrival in the promotion, Ross first worked as a referee starting in 1974. Ross remained as a referee until 1977 when he then transitioned to the promotion's broadcast team. After Bill Watts' purchase of NWA Tri-State in 1982 and the subsequent re-branding to Mid-South Wrestling (MSW), Ross was promoted to the promotion's lead play-by-play position and also became Mid-South Vice President of Marketing. During this time, Ross was able to call his very first NWA World Heavyweight Championship match which featured Ric Flair and Ted DiBiase.


title: Jim Ross

text: When Jim Crockett, Jr. bought the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) and merged it with his Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) group, Ross joined JCP and began doing color commentary alongside David Crockett and Tony Schiavone. With his new position, Ross became the head play-by-play man for the National Wrestling Alliance. Ross continued to hone his skills as JCP became World Championship Wrestling (WCW), following the purchase of the regional promotion by Ted Turner. In 1991, WCW left the NWA and Ross was teamed with former NWA broadcaster Bob Caudle. In 1992, he also spent one season as a commentator on the Atlanta Falcons radio broadcasts.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross worked his way up the WCW ladder to become head of broadcasting, but had a contentious relationship with WCW's newest commentator and future executive Eric Bischoff. According to Ross, Bischoff, who reported to him, did a really good job of "selling himself" to executives of WCW's owner Turner Broadcasting. According to Bischoff, Ross mistreated him and others (mostly in deference to Ross's then-supervisor Bill Watts), and when Bischoff was promoted to executive producer in 1993, Ross demanded and received his release.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross had a three-year contract with Turner Broadcasting, but he took an immediate buy-out for fear that he would not get work elsewhere due to being taken off television for a long period of time. Mick Foley claims that Ross resigned from WCW's booking committee. Ross left WCW after being taken off the air by Bischoff.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross was hired by the World Wrestling Federation and made his on-screen debut at WrestleMania IX at a specially constructed outdoor venue at Caesar's Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. He took over for Gorilla Monsoon on "WWE Wrestling Challenge" the following weekend. Ross worked alongside Bobby Heenan on the show until Heenan left the WWE in December 1993. Ross was originally the main voice of the WWE's pay-per-view events when he was first brought in, calling both WrestleMania IX and the King of the Ring with Heenan and Randy Savage in 1993. Vince McMahon took over his position at pay-per-views starting with SummerSlam 1993.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross suggested the idea of Radio WWF to McMahon, the idea was given a try and Ross was made host alongside Monsoon. In this role, Ross was joined by co-hosts such as Johnny Polo, and talked to various WWF wrestlers and fans. Ross and Monsoon called SummerSlam and Survivor Series at the end of 1993 and the Royal Rumble for Radio WWF.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross was fired on February 11, 1994, two weeks after suffering his first attack of Bell's palsy on January 30, 1994, as stated by Ross on the September 23, 1996 episode of Raw. He subsequently became an announcer for Smoky Mountain Wrestling and the NFL's Atlanta Falcons (the second time he was with the Falcons as an announcer). In Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Ross was reunited with former NWA/WCW announcer Bob Caudle. The promotion was owned by longtime NWA Manager Jim Cornette and featured many former NWA/WCW wrestlers such as The Rock 'n' Roll Express, Eddie Gilbert, and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams.


title: Jim Ross

text: When Vince McMahon was indicted by the United States federal government in 1994, he was unable to continue commentating on "WWF Monday Night Raw". After a few weeks of Gorilla Monsoon on play-by-play, the WWF rehired Ross to fill in for McMahon alongside Randy Savage throughout that summer. After McMahon was acquitted, Ross was let go by the WWF for leaking inside information to journalists. Ross briefly returned to Smoky Mountain Wrestling. The WWF rehired him once again in December 1994. Relegated to the syndicated WWF programming for the majority of the next two years, Ross rejoined the primary announce team in the summer of 1996. In September 1996, Ross turned heel in WWF storylines for the first time in his career. Following Scott Hall and Kevin Nash's departure from the WWF for World Championship Wrestling and their debut there as The Outsiders, Ross began to proclaim on television that he was still in touch with Razor Ramon and Diesel (Hall and Nash's WWF personas, respectively) and claimed that he would be bringing them back to the WWF soon. Other announcers were skeptical, and WWF President Gorilla Monsoon said that Hall and Nash were under contract with "another organization", and ordered Ross to cease and desist mentioning them on the air. On the September 23, 1996 episode of "Monday Night Raw", Ross delivered a worked-shoot promo during which he ran down WWF Chairman Vince McMahon (outing him as chairman and not just a commentator for the first time in WWF storylines) and debuted his "new" Diesel and Razor, claiming that while working in the WWF "front office" he had been the man responsible for so many people leaving the company as part of his "revenge" against the WWF for how they treated him in the past. While he was kept on the air by McMahon, Ross portrayed himself to be bitter and spiteful, with repeated potshots at McMahon. However, the "New Diesel-New Razor" storyline was poorly received by fans, and Ross's heel turn was quickly dropped.


title: Jim Ross

text: After this angle, Ross went on to host various WWF programs such as "Superstars", "Action Zone", "Raw Is War", and "Shotgun Saturday Night". At the end of 1998, Ross took a break from "Raw Is War", due to another attack of Bell's Palsy he suffered whilst broadcasting a PPV (Capital Carnage) in London, England. Earlier in the day Ross had been informed his mother had died. On March 8, 1999, he returned to "Raw Is War" as part of a storyline alleging that McMahon fired him because of his condition, but that he would not go down quietly and enlisted the services of "Dr. Death" Steve Williams as his personal "enforcer". Ross confronted his replacement, Michael Cole, in the ring. Despite Cole's insistence that he was not trying to steal Ross's job, Ross kicked Cole in the crotch and attempted to return to the announce table, though Terry Taylor ended up commentating for the rest of the night. The narrative went as far as to have Ross set up his own announce table in front of the official announce table labeled "JR Is Raw". The storyline was soon dropped as the attempt to turn Ross heel failed (the fans ended up cheering Ross and booing Cole) and he took his seat back as "official" commentator of "Raw Is War" starting with the main event of WrestleMania XV. Ross's Bell's palsy proved fodder for ridicule by WWF's competitor, World Championship Wrestling, in late 1999. Ed Ferrara parodied Ross, including doing a full impression including mockery of his modified voice due to his medical condition. This was received negatively by fans and wrestlers alike. Ferrara ceased mocking the medical condition after the first week due to Turner Standards and Practices stepping in and overriding Vince Russo. The angle was soon dropped by WCW, but not before "Oklahoma", Ferrara's parody of JR, won the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Though Ross was offended over the gimmick, he doesn't fault Ferrara himself over the gimmick and Ross & Ferrara have since patched things up over the angle.


title: Jim Ross

text: During this time, Ross was commissioned to announce regional telecasts of the XFL, a professional football league co-owned by WWF. Ross, who had experience announcing for the Atlanta Falcons, was initially placed on the regional broadcasts, with his WWF partner Jerry Lawler as color commentator, even though Lawler admitted knowing and caring little about the sport, for the first regional telecast. After an incident in which the head play-by-play man on the national broadcast team, Matt Vasgersian, openly criticized the production on-air, Ross was hastily promoted to lead play-by-play, with Jesse Ventura as color commentator, for the next four weeks of broadcasts. Ross returned to the regional telecasts halfway through the XFL's Longhorns lone season, with Dick Butkus as his color commentator after Lawler left the company.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross was the "voice of "Raw Is War"" throughout the Monday Night Wars alongside Jerry Lawler and cemented his legacy as one of the great wrestling commentators as WWE became the sole major wrestling promotion in North America. After the WWE Brand Extension, Ross worked exclusively for the Raw brand, cutting down to doing play-by-play on "Raw"-only pay-per-views, while SmackDown!-only pay-per-views were announced by SmackDown!'s announce team.


title: Jim Ross

text: JR was involved in a lengthy feud with Eric Bischoff over the latter's mistreatment of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Also during this time, Ross served as an Executive Vice President of Talent Relations for the WWF/WWE, a codified extension of his long-time backstage role as a key individual in charge of hiring new talent. By 2005, Ross had stepped down from his executive and management roles. According to repeated statements on his official blog, the move away from management proved beneficial in terms of decreased work-load, giving him more time to focus on his health, his family, and his entrepreneurial endeavors.


title: Jim Ross

text: Still working as the voice of "Raw", Ross was again "fired" (kayfabe) from his play-by-play job by Vince and Linda McMahon on October 10, 2005. Doctors had discovered a serious issue with Ross's colon, and his storyline termination provided an explanation for his absence. While recovering from his colon surgery, Joey Styles (best known for his commentary work for Extreme Championship Wrestling) called the weekly "Raw". After recovering, Ross helped produce the "Raw" announcers from backstage, and was brought back for "Saturday Night's Main Event XXXII" in 2006, then the Raw-brand matches at WrestleMania 22 and Backlash before taking back his play-by-play job on "Raw" on May 8, 2006, after Styles quit "Raw" in the storyline, declaring his hatred for "sports entertainment".


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross's contract with WWE expired in October 2006. At that point, neither side had signed a new contract and instead worked week to week under the terms of the expired contract. In November 2006, Ross stated on his official blog that he had signed a new one-year contract with WWE and would continue to work year-to-year.


title: Jim Ross

text: On June 23, 2008, during the 2008 WWE Draft, Ross was drafted from Raw to the SmackDown brand while Michael Cole was drafted from SmackDown to Raw, trading positions as commentators on each brand. This ended Ross's position as "Monday Night Raw"'s play-by-play commentator after a nearly 12-year run. The following day Ross posted a blog on his official website saying initially he was not happy with the move and considered quitting the company since he was not told beforehand about the move, but that he would work "to make SmackDown the best program the WWE produces".


title: Jim Ross

text: On September 23, 2008, episode of "ECW on Syfy", Ross made an appearance on the ECW brand filling in for a sick Todd Grisham alongside Matt Striker.


title: Jim Ross

text: On April 8, 2009, Ross announced on his WWE Universe blog that with the departure of Tazz from World Wrestling Entertainment, he would assume the role of "SmackDown"'s color analyst, with ECW announcer Todd Grisham moving over to the brand as the play-by-play announcer. The Hell in a Cell PPV event on October 4, 2009 was his last PPV broadcast as a full-time announcer for WWE and the "SmackDown" tapings on October 6, 2009 was the final televised broadcast as the full-time announcer.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross missed the "SmackDown" tapings on October 13, 2009, as he asked for a day off due to an anniversary. Seven days later, on October 20, Ross suffered his third Bell's palsy episode en route to Columbia, South Carolina for a "SmackDown" taping. After initially planning on working the tapings and reuniting with Lawler, Ross instead flew back to Oklahoma, missing the show—Lawler and Cole commentated "SmackDown"—and leaving his plans for Bragging Rights in the air. On October 21, 2009, Jim Ross announced that he would not be commentating the WWE Bragging Rights pay-per-view, but Grisham mentioned that SmackDown would give Ross the Bragging Rights trophy as a "get well" gift.


title: Jim Ross

text: On the November 15, 2010 "Old School Raw" special, Ross made a guest appearance on commentary with Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole, calling a match between Daniel Bryan and Jack Swagger. Cole insulted Ross throughout the match, which resulted in Ross hitting Cole over the head with his hat after the match had finished. Ross returned on March 14, 2011, to confront Cole, who had entered into a feud with Lawler. After being insulted by Cole, he challenged him to a match but was attacked by Swagger. Ross called the final four matches at WrestleMania XXVII, including the Cole vs Lawler match. On the post-WrestleMania "Raw", Ross joined commentary, only to walk out later in the night after Cole squirted him with barbecue sauce. Ross and Lawler defeated Cole and Swagger on the April 11 and 25 episodes of "Raw" but were defeated by Cole and Swagger in a Country Whipping match at Extreme Rules. As Lawler's feud with Cole ended at Over the Limit, Ross showed up to gain revenge on Cole by squirting him with barbecue sauce.


title: Jim Ross

text: On July 25, 2011, the new COO of WWE, Triple H re-hired Ross to a full-time commentating position on "Raw". The new Raw Interim General Manager, John Laurinaitis, fired Ross on October 10 for walking out on Triple H a week earlier. Ross later revealed that he was given no prior notice that he was to be publicly fired. Ross returned on October 17, joining John Cena to defeat Michael Cole and Alberto Del Rio in a tag match. A week later, Cole challenged Ross to a "Michael Cole Challenge", with Ross's job on the line. The challenge took place on November 14; Ross won two of the three challenges, the first being an arm wrestling contest, and the second being a dance off, but lost the final challenge, which was who weighed less. Even though he lost the contest, he called the opening match of the night after Michael Cole was attacked by CM Punk.


title: Jim Ross

text: At WrestleMania XXVIII, he returned to call the 'End of an Era' Hell in a Cell match between Triple H and The Undertaker. Prior to the start of the match, Ross shook hands with Michael Cole, effectively healing any old wounds they had between them. Ross also made an appearance at "Raw 1000", commentating the opening match. On June 20, 2012, Ross took over as a commentator on the revamped "NXT" alongside Byron Saxton and William Regal. Also during 2012, after Paul Levesque (Triple H) took control of Talent Relations he hired Jim Ross to work as an Adviser and Scout within the department. Following Jerry Lawler's heart attack on September 10, 2012, Ross returned to "Raw" to work as an interim commentator while Lawler recovered. Ross was honored on the October 1 edition of "Raw" as it was dedicated "JR Appreciation Night" and was held in his hometown of Oklahoma City. While CM Punk interrupted the segment as it aired, Ross was acknowledged by Vince McMahon and Triple H as well as local wrestling legends Bill Watts and Danny Hodge after "Raw" went off the air. Ross also served as presenter for the Match of the Year award at the 2012 Slammy Awards.


title: Jim Ross

text: In 2013, Ross began to coach and produce new announcers at the WWE Performance Center in Florida. He returned to television on the 20th Anniversary edition of "Raw" on January 14, 2013, where he called the steel cage main event between John Cena and Dolph Ziggler. On March 1, 2013, he appeared on "WWE Smackdown" to interview his long-time friend Jack Swagger, and Swagger's new advocate, Zeb Colter. During the segment, Swagger turned against Ross, ending their friendship.


title: Jim Ross

text: On August 16, 2013, while hosting a "WWE 2K14" roster announcement panel with guests, Ross was suspected of being intoxicated. He used profanity during several points and appeared to have little to no interest in the topics that were scheduled to be covered. He also put down one of the sponsors of the event and allowed Ric Flair, who was a member of the guest panel and was also suspected of being intoxicated, to share a slew of off-color remarks and stories, among them being a description of John Cena as a "hardcore drinker." On September 11, 2013, Ross officially announced his "retirement" from WWE as his contract had expired and was not to be renewed, however it was suspected that he was fired due to his actions at the roster announcement. In an interview in 2014, Ross claimed that an insult to the sponsor of the event was what led to his release. In the same interview he confirmed that he was not drunk, but rather fatigued due to Bell's palsy which was likely the reason he may have been perceived as being intoxicated. McMahon addressed the situation in a December 2014 interview, claiming that while he disapproved of Ross's behavior at the event, it was ultimately Ross's decision to leave WWE as he wanted to spend more time at home than working for WWE. McMahon stated that there is no heat between the two parties.


title: Jim Ross

text: On January 4, 2015, Ross and Matt Striker served as the English language commentators for Global Force Wrestling's presentation of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome pay-per-view.


title: Jim Ross

text: On January 19, 2016, it was announced that Ross had signed to become the new lead announcer for NJPW's weekly program on AXS TV along with Josh Barnett. Ross's contract was directly with AXS TV and not NJPW. It was revealed in November 2018 that Barnett and Ross would no longer be doing NJPW commentary. In 2019 the New Japan World commentary team took over broadcasting the AXS shows until the contract ended in December of that year.


title: Jim Ross

text: On October 8, 2016, Ross, along with Jim Cornette, provided commentary for What Culture Pro Wrestling's (WCPW) first iPPV, Refuse to Lose. On December 31, Ross was on commentary for the pilot episode of "World of Sport Wrestling" on ITV. On February 12, 2017, Ross returned to WCPW for commentary at the iPPV, True Destiny and for WCPW's "Loaded" tapings that same month.


title: Jim Ross

text: On April 2, 2017, at WrestleMania 33, Ross returned to WWE, providing commentary for the main event No Holds Barred match between The Undertaker and Roman Reigns. Shortly after the event, it was announced that Ross had signed a two-year deal with the company. During the summer, Ross would provide commentary, alongside Lita, for the Mae Young Classic. On the January 22, 2018, episode of "Raw 25 Years", Ross would reunite with Jerry Lawler as part of the commentary team that was at the Manhattan Center in which Ross was caught by several cameras sleeping. On April 8, 2018, at WrestleMania 34, Ross called the fifth annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the WrestleMania 34 pre-show, alongside Jerry Lawler and Byron Saxton. Ross's last televised appearance for WWE was part of the pre-show panel for the Greatest Royal Rumble on April 27, 2018.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross left the WWE on March 27, 2019, after electing not to renew his contract. Ross stated that the reason for his WWE departure was because, "I had two bookings in 2018 and they weren't using me very much". Ross also attributed that another factor in his departure was Ross stating himself that, "I still think I can do play-by-play even though others that may surround Vince think I can't ". In August 2019, Ross later revealed what he said to Vince McMahon before he left, stating "Vince, unlike you I still believe I can do it and there are other people who believe I can do it including some of your audience".


title: Jim Ross

text: On April 3, 2019, it was announced that Ross had signed a three-year deal with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator and senior advisor. Ross initially provided full-time commentary on the broadcast team on "AEW Dynamite" and occasionally part-time commentary on "AEW Rampage". On the January 5, 2022 episode of "Dynamite", Ross returned to TBS for the first time since 1993. In June 2022, Ross switched from full-time commentary on "Dynamite" to full-time commentary on "Rampage" in a commentary team rotation swap with Taz.


title: Jim Ross

text: In 1992, Ross joined the Atlanta Falcons radio broadcast team. However, he would leave after one season, but had a second stint with the Falcons in 1994.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross teamed up with MMA fighter and UFC veteran Chael Sonnen to commentate the Battlegrounds MMA one night tournament PPV on October 3, 2014.


title: Jim Ross

text: In February 2014 Ross began hosting his own podcast "The Ross Report" for PodcastOne. It was later relaunched as part of the Westwood One podcast network in 2018 as "The Jim Ross Report". In April 2019, Ross partnered with wrestling podcaster/mortgage lender Conrad Thompson to revamp his podcast as "Grilling JR", with a new format of reminiscences about Ross's history in wrestling, much in the same style as Thompson's podcasts with Bruce Prichard, Eric Bischoff, Tony Schiavone,


title: Jim Ross

text: Although Ross's career has predominantly been as a commentator, Ross has participated in matches, with some notable success, including a victory over Triple H in a no-disqualification match in 2005 (albeit with help from Batista).


title: Jim Ross

text: Another notable in-ring appearance by Ross was in a tag team match with broadcast partner Jerry "The King" Lawler against Al Snow and Jonathan Coachman at the 2003 Unforgiven pay-per-view, with their Raw broadcast jobs on the line. They lost the contest to Snow and Coachman due to interference by Chris Jericho, however two weeks later Ross and Lawler regained their jobs when Ross defeated Coachman in a Country Whippin' match, using a stunner as a finishing maneuver. Ross has participated in more matches alongside Lawler, including a few with hardcore stipulations. In 2011, Ross competed against Michael Cole on the April 25 episode of "Raw", where he defeated Cole by disqualification after Cole's manager for the match, Jack Swagger, attacked Ross while he had Cole mounted and was landing punches on him.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross has been involved in numerous other conflicts with other competitors as well such as Triple H, Val Venis, Jack Swagger, Vladimir Kozlov, Mankind, and Steve Austin, Ross has been bloodied in a match by then-Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff, and was even set on fire by Kane. Ross even main-evented the WWF's first-ever show from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, an episode of "Raw is War" that took place on October 11, 1999. Ross teamed with Steve Austin to take on WWF Champion Triple H and his partner Chyna.


title: Jim Ross

text: As part of storylines, Ross has been regularly targeted by Vince McMahon in rather harsh circumstances throughout his time with WWE: most notably in 2005 when Vince McMahon's character, Mr. McMahon, featured in a series of segments which made fun of Ross's legitimate colon surgery.


title: Jim Ross

text: In 2011, after his firing as an announcer by John Laurinaitis, he returned to team up with John Cena to face Michael Cole and Alberto Del Rio in a tag team match on "Raw" in a winning effort.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ric Flair claims he introduced Ross to his late wife, Jan. Ross writes in his autobiography that Ric Flair was present on an airplane when he first met Jan who was a flight attendant. He has two daughters from two previous marriages and two granddaughters. He cites Steve Austin and Jerry Lawler as his closest friends.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross lives with Bell's palsy, which sometimes temporarily paralyzes his facial muscles. The symptoms first occurred on January 30, 1994. In late 1998, following the death of his mother, Ross took a break from "WWE Raw" as the effects of his grief reportedly aggravated his palsy; Michael Cole filled in for him.


title: Jim Ross

text: In 2007, encouraged by sales of his line of barbecue sauces and beef products, Ross opened up J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q in Norman, Oklahoma. The restaurant was closed by May 2010. Ross is also a fan of Skyline Chili and has mentioned them in connection to Cincinnati numerous times on AEW programming.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross is an avid Oklahoma Sooners fan and a regular football season ticket holder. This is reflected in his entrance music, which is "Boomer Sooner" (the Sooners' fight song). He can be spotted at every Sooners home game, and when the Sooners play top teams around the country. In 2014, he became FoxSports.com's Contributor for NCAA Football and Oklahoma Sooners. On the February 23, 2021 episode of his YouTube series "Grilling J.R.", Ross stated that "The Sopranos" is his favorite TV show and that he still would occasionally watch it.


title: Jim Ross

text: On March 21, 2017, Ross's wife Jan was involved in a vehicle accident, suffering serious head injuries. She was put on life support, where she died two days later.


title: Jim Ross

text: On October 23, 2021, Ross tweeted that he had skin cancer as he was on his way to "AEW Dynamite". On December 29, 2021, Ross tweeted that he was cancer free.


title: Jim Ross

text: In the film "Man on the Moon", Ross played Lance Russell (Memphis weekly wrestling show's lead announcer) announcing the match between Andy Kaufman (played by Jim Carrey) and Jerry "The King" Lawler.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross has also provided his voice for many WWE video games, and is also a playable character in "WWE '12", "WWF WrestleMania 2000", "WWF No Mercy" and many more.


title: Jim Ross

text: In October 2014, he appeared in 'Brian and the Boz', a "30 for 30" documentary on fellow Oklahoman Brian Bosworth. Three years later, he appeared in another "30 for 30" documentary, this time about Ric Flair.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross has written two WWF/WWE themed cook books "Can You Take The Heat? The WWF Is Cooking" and "J.R's Cookbook" released in 2000 and 2003 respectively.


title: Jim Ross

text: His autobiography "Slobberknocker" was released on October 3, 2017. The foreword for the new autobiography was written by Vince McMahon. The book includes a letter from McMahon to Ross from when Ross was sick for the second time with Bell's Palsy.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross's second book and further autobiography "Under the Black Hat: My Life in the WWE and Beyond", co-written with Paul O'Brien, was published in March 2020.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross has also created a range of JR's BBQ sauces and mustard which have been inspired by his own culinary knowledge and that of his close family.


title: Jim Ross

text: Ross has been labeled as the greatest wrestling commentator of all time. Ryan Dilbert from the Bleacher Report has stated "Ross also brought searing passion and a love of the wrestling business to Mid-South Wrestling, WWE and World Championship Wrestling. To hear a match with Ross on the call was to watch wrestling morph into poetry, for the scripted action to feel real, meaningful and unforgettable. Debating the greatest pro wrestling commentator comes down to two men, Ross and Gordon Solie. As for the greatest in WWE history, there is no debate Ross stands alone".


title: Jim Ross

text: Professional wrestling booker and promoter and colleague, Eric Bischoff, has praised and been critical of Ross, stating, "Jim was in upper-management, had a lot of influence, was participating in the booking during WCW's worst days, and he still didn't have management of the company. So I'm not saying he wasn't capable, necessarily. But he certainly didn't have a track record that he could point to and say look, this is what I did over here." Bischoff also further reiterated that Ross, "worked very closely with Bill Watts, which is one of the biggest train wrecks in the history of professional wrestling. So it's not like Jim came in with a résumé that would make one think he would be the ideal candidate to run a wrestling company. Jim is the best announcer, probably on planet Earth. Jim had a tremendous amount of experience and had seen a lot, but he'd never done it."


title: Jim Ross

text: WWE Hall of Famer and Legend Stone Cold Steve Austin has praised Ross stating, "Jim Ross, to me, with his range, with his storytelling, he paid his dues. I mean, he learned from the ground up. And his inflection and his ability to watch a match, tell a story, get the talent over with the credibility that he had, he was the shining diamond on top of everyone, so always a good experience with Jim".


title: The Rockford Files

text: The Rockford Files is an American detective drama television series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network from September 13, 1974 to January 10, 1980, and remains in syndication. Garner portrays Los Angeles private investigator Jim Rockford, with Noah Beery Jr. in the supporting role of his father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, a retired truck driver. The show was created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell. Huggins had created the television show "Maverick" (1957–1962), which starred Garner, and he wanted to recapture that magic in a modern-day detective setting. In 2002, "The Rockford Files" was ranked No. 39 on "TV Guide"s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Producers Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell devised the Rockford character as a departure from typical television detectives, essentially Bret Maverick as a modern detective.


title: The Rockford Files

text: In the series storyline, James Scott "Jim" Rockford had served time in California's San Quentin Prison in the 1960s due to a wrongful conviction. After five years, he was pardoned (not paroled, a distinction frequently mentioned in plot points). His jobs as a private investigator barely allow him to maintain his weathered mobile home (which doubles as his office) in a parking lot on a beach in Malibu, California.


title: The Rockford Files

text: In early episodes of the first season, Rockford's trailer is located in a parking lot alongside the highway at 2354 Beach Boulevard (Pacific Coast Highway), Malibu, and near the ocean; for the rest of the series, the trailer is at Paradise Cove (address 29 Cove Road), adjacent to a pier and a restaurant ("The Sand Castle", now known as the "Paradise Cove Beach Cafe").


title: The Rockford Files

text: In the television movies from 1994 to 1999, Rockford is still living and working at the same Paradise Cove location, but in a much newer trailer that has been extensively enlarged and remodeled.


title: The Rockford Files

text: In contrast to sharp-dressed, pugnacious television private eyes of the time, Rockford wears casual, off-the-rack clothing and avoids physical altercations. He can hold his own in a one-on-one fistfight, but is frequently overpowered when ambushed or outnumbered.


title: The Rockford Files

text: He rarely carries his Colt Detective Special revolver, for which he has no permit, and prefers to talk his way out of trouble. He works on cold cases, missing persons investigations, and low-budget insurance scams, repeatedly stating that he does not handle "open cases" to avoid trouble with the police. (This self-imposed rule was relaxed in later seasons, after "trouble with the police" became a frequent plot device.)


title: The Rockford Files

text: Rockford has been a private investigator since 1968–69, and his fee, when he can collect it, is $200 per day plus expenses ($200 at the series' beginning in September 1974 was the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $ in ).


title: The Rockford Files

text: Dennis Becker: Rockford's pursuit of cases often leads to difficulties with his friend in the LAPD, Sgt. Dennis Becker (Joe Santos), a homicide detective struggling to advance in the department under a series of overbearing lieutenants. The two most notable are Alex/Thomas Diehl (Tom Atkins) during the first, second and fourth seasons and Doug Chapman (James Luisi) in the third to sixth seasons. Those higher-ups invariably dislike Rockford (and private investigators generally) because of their perception that either he is meddling in open cases or is trying to make the LAPD look incompetent in its handling of closed cases. Further, Rockford often calls Becker asking for favors, such as running license plates through the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) computer system, often annoying the already overworked cop. By the fifth season, Becker is promoted to lieutenant; it was stated in the episode where Becker is promoted that Becker's association with Rockford, considered by LAPD brass to be a shifty ex-con, had hampered Becker's chances for promotion. Chapman was irritated when Becker became his "equal". In season 6 episode "The Big Cheese", the third-to-last of the series, Rockford gets a degree of revenge when Chapman inadvertently makes incriminating statements about his tax evasion before an undercover IRS agent who is with Rockford. Becker appears in 89 of the 123 episodes.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Joseph "Rocky" Rockford: Rockford's father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, is an ex-Seabee, semi-retired, semi-truck driver who nags his son to find stable (and less dangerous) employment, often urging him to follow in his footsteps as a truck driver (especially in early seasons), and often wishing Jim would get married. The relationship of father and son was an integral part of the show. Rocky appears in 101 episodes, and usually becomes involved (like it or not) in his son's cases. Occasionally, he hires Jim himself. Jim Rockford's mother is never shown or named, and is very seldom referred to. Although never directly stated, the way Jim and Rocky talk about her would seem to indicate she had died (before the series' start).


title: The Rockford Files

text: Rocky was portrayed by Noah Beery, Jr. (nephew of actor Wallace Beery) except in the 1974 pilot film, where he was portrayed by Robert Donley. Although much of the character's backstory is the same, in the pilot Rocky is portrayed as more of a small-time grifter and operator — at one point, working with a partner, Rocky unsuccessfully tries to run a minor scam on Jim, his own son. This element of Rocky's character would largely be dropped as the series started. Beery's version of Rocky was generally honest and reliable, though not above working an unreported job 'under the table' to supplement his pension income, or eating the most expensive food in Jim's fridge if he dropped by while Jim was out.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Beth Davenport: Rockford has a close relationship with his attorney, the idealistic, tenacious Elizabeth "Beth" Davenport (Gretchen Corbett). In second-season episode "A Portrait of Elizabeth", it is explained that Beth and Rockford had dated for a time (prior to the beginning of the series), but she soon became aware of his emotional unavailability and lack of interest in a longterm relationship, and realized that they'd be better off as friends (although the two do seem to still casually date and sleep together on occasion during early seasons).


title: The Rockford Files

text: Angel Martin: Rockford's scheming former San Quentin cellmate, Evelyn "Angel" Martin was something of a comic relief character played by Stuart Margolin. Jim employs Angel as an operative from time to time, often to gather street-level information, or to help him access the files of the newspaper where Angel works as a low-level filing clerk. Keeping this job is a condition of Angel's parole; even so, it's doubtful that the ever-shifty Angel would be capable of doing so, except that his brother-in-law owns the paper. Jim also uses Angel on a few occasions to play a supporting role in the elaborate con games that he sets up to sting especially difficult adversaries.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Angel is himself forever running some sort of (usually very bottom-of-the-barrel) con game, and is consistently ready to sell anyone out at a moment's notice for his own benefit — and often does. In doing so, Angel almost always gets Rockford in trouble, usually by involving him in hare-brained scams ... often without Jim's knowledge, and never with his consent. As often as not, Angel's antics result in Angel's, Jim's and/or others' arrests, and/or being placed on somebody's hit list. In spite of this, Jim considers Angel as one of his best, if most exasperating, pals. Towards the very end of the series, there is a noticeable cooling in Jim's attitude toward Angel in their often fractious relationship; however, the rift seems to have been repaired by the time of the reunion movies.


title: The Rockford Files

text: After Corbett was dropped from the show following the fourth season (allegedly due to contract disputes between Universal, which owned her contract, and Cherokee Productions, Garner's company), John Cooper, a disbarred attorney, was added as a new adviser for the frequent legal problems in which Rockford would become entangled. A new romantic interest, Dr. Megan Dougherty (Kathryn Harrold), a blind but highly independent psychiatrist, appeared for two episodes in Seasons Five and Six.


title: The Rockford Files

text: The show's pilot was written by Cannell, who also wrote 36 episodes and was the show's co-creator. Juanita Bartlett, one of the show's producers and Garner's partner at Cherokee Productions, wrote 34 episodes. She also wrote for "Scarecrow and Mrs. King", "The Greatest American Hero", and "In the Heat of the Night". David Chase wrote 16 episodes; he later went on to "Northern Exposure" and "The Sopranos". The show's co-creator, Roy Huggins, also wrote for the show during the first season, always using pen name John Thomas James. However, Huggins' contributions to the show ended midway through the first season, after he submitted a script rewrite direct to set as the episode was shooting, without getting approval from any other writer or producer. Garner, trying to work with the material on set, felt the rewrite was unsatisfactory, and could not figure out why it had been approved for shooting. When he discovered that neither Cannell nor any of the other production staff members knew anything about the rewrite, Garner issued a directive that Cannell, not Huggins, had final say on all script material. Though Huggins was credited as a producer for the entire run of the series, this effectively ended his creative involvement with the show, as he submitted no further material to "The Rockford Files" and did not involve himself in the day-to-day running of the series.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Frequent directors included William Wiard (23 episodes), Lawrence Doheny (10 episodes), and Ivan Dixon (previously a regular on "Hogan's Heroes") (nine episodes). Veteran actor James Coburn directed an episode. Coburn had co-starred with Garner in the classic movies "The Great Escape" (1963) and "The Americanization of Emily" (1964). Other actors who directed episodes include Jackie Cooper (three episodes), as well as Richard Crenna and Dana Elcar (one episode each). Co-creator Stephen J. Cannell directed several episodes; executive producer Meta Rosenberg directed six episodes; series regular Stuart Margolin helmed two; and James Garner directed one episode in the second season, "The Girl in The Bay City Boys' Club". It was Garner's only directing credit in his entire fifty-plus-year film career; in his autobiography, "The Garner Files", Garner states he only took on the assignment because the scheduled director was unexpectedly unavailable at the last minute.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Familiar to viewers was Jim Rockford's gold Pontiac Firebird Esprit car. One oft-recurring element of the show was the famous "Jim Rockford turn-around" (also known as a J-turn or a "moonshiner's turn" - commonly employed as an evasive driving technique taught to Secret Service). Garner explained the move in his 2011 autobiography "The Garner Files": "When you are going straight in reverse about 35 miles an hour, you come off the gas pedal, go hard left, and pull on the emergency brake. That locks the wheels and throws the front end around. Then you release everything, hit the gas, and off you go in the opposite direction." Garner stated in a Season One DVD interview that he performed this stunt for the duration of the series. The car's license plate was 853 OKG, although the plate in some early episodes displayed the number 835 OKG. Garner writes in his autobiography that he believes that the letters OKG stood for "Oklahoma Garner" but that he does not know the origin of the number 853.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Starting with the 1974 model year, Rockford would get a new model-year Pontiac Firebird each year throughout the series. The Firebirds used had an identical "copper mist" color with the Esprit's exterior and interior. Although the Firebirds were badged as Esprits, they were actually the higher performance "Formula" model without the twin scoop hood. Garner needed Rockford's car to look like the lower tiered "Esprit" model, a car Rockford could afford, but have the performance necessary for the chase sequences in the show. To achieve this, the show featured Pontiac Firebird Formulas re-badged and re-hooded to look like the "Esprit" model. The "Formula" model was developed to provide the performance of the top-level "Trans Am" in a less ostentatious form. Formulas didn't have the Shaker hood scoop, side vents, graphics or lettering used on the Trans Am, but they had the same higher horsepower engines and drive trains, larger front and rear anti-roll bars, stiffer springs and shocks, and a twin scoop hood. (Sharp-eyed car connoisseurs can spot the twin exhausts and rear anti-roll bar on the cars used on the show, options that were not part of the "Esprit" package, as well as spot the different model year cars used in various chase scenes that differed from those in an actual episode, especially in later seasons.) Although the series ran until early 1980, no Firebird was used past the 1978 model year as Garner reportedly was displeased with the restyled front end of the 1979 and later Firebird models and as such did not wish them featured on the show (although an answering machine message in one episode in the final season indicated his car was a 1979 Firebird).


title: The Rockford Files

text: In the first TV movie, "I Still Love L.A." in 1994, the Firebird is shown, in ramshackle disrepair, parked next to Rockford's trailer. He mentions he plans to have it "fixed up," but drives other cars throughout the films.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Joseph "Rocky" Rockford drove a GMC Sierra Classic pickup truck throughout the series. In the course of the storylines Jim often borrowed Rocky's truck when his own Firebird was being repaired from its frequent major damage sustained during cases, or was too "hot" (i.e., the LAPD, which knew Jim well, was seeking to bring him in).


title: The Rockford Files

text: Rocky's truck had a 400-cubic-inch engine, Turbo 400 automatic transmission, and a four-wheel drive factory setup. The custom exterior paint was silver with maroon panels and orange pinstriping. Additionally, the truck sported various after-market accessories added by noted California customizer and off-road racer, Vic Hickey, including the winch, brush guard, hubcap covers, sidestep bed plates, auxiliary gas tanks, custom steering wheel, rear roll bar, Cibié headlamps mounted on the front bumper/rear roll bar, and Pace CB radio. In several Season 5-6 episodes, Rocky drives a candy-apple red 1980 GMC C-10 Short Box pickup when his original vehicle is said to be in the shop for repair of damage from one of Jim's earlier adventures.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Beth Davenport drove a yellow 1973 Porsche 914 in Season 1, before switching to an orange 1975 model in Season 2 (though in episode 202, "The Farnsworth Stratagem" she drove a 1972 Audi 100 C1) and using it through the first half of Season 3, last appearance in episode 311, "The Trouble With Warren". In Season 3, she switched to a Mercedes-Benz 450SL. Police cars used during the series were usually the 1972-1973 AMC Matador, in real-life use by the LAPD during the 1970s. From the third season, the 1974 second-series, "coffin nose" Matador was also used, which was also the last AMC model used by California law enforcement agencies.


title: The Rockford Files

text: The show's theme song titled "The Rockford Files" was written by noted theme music composers Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. It appears at the opening and ending of each episode with different arrangements. Throughout the show's tenure, the theme song went through numerous evolutions with later versions containing a distinct electric guitar-based bridge section played by session guitarist Dan Ferguson. The theme for #1.7 "This Case Is Closed II", also has the guitar section from later seasons, added when the episode was split into two parts for syndication.


title: The Rockford Files

text: The theme song was released as a single and spent two weeks at No. 10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, in August 1975. The B-side track (or "flip-side") titled "Dixie Lullabye" was also composed by Post and Carpenter. The single remained on the chart for 16 weeks and won a 1975 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement. In Canada, the song reached No. 8, and was No. 84 in the year-end chart.


title: The Rockford Files

text: For more than forty years, the British football team Tranmere Rovers have used the Rockford theme as walk-out music for most games. Occasionally it has been dropped, and then restored by popular demand.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Each episode began with the image of Rockford's answering machine, and the opening title sequence was accompanied by a message on a Dictaphone remote Ansafone 660. As the camera focuses on the telephone, whose number is 555-2368, it rings twice and then Rockford's recorded voice is heard providing the following greeting:


title: The Rockford Files

text: The messages were usually unrelated to the current episode, but were often related to previous events in earlier episodes. They were a humorous device that invited the viewer to return to the quirky, down-on-his-luck world of Jim Rockford. The messages usually had to do with creditors, deadbeat clients, or were just oddball vignettes. Though a distinctive and clever entry device, the messages became difficult for the writers to create. Suggestions from staffers and crew were welcome and often used.


title: The Rockford Files

text: In total, 122 different messages were created through the run of the original six seasons. The eight CBS TV movies (also referred to as season 8) feature a unique message. However episodes syndicated as "James Rockford, Private Investigator" use the same message; it was taken from episode 5-07, "A Three-Day Affair with a Thirty-Day Escrow".


title: The Rockford Files

text: Each message is a standalone gag that often provides a small amount of biographical detail about Rockford, the people he knows and the activities that occur in his life as a private investigator. Only extremely rarely (such as in episode No. 2-09, "Chicken Little is a Little Chicken", during which Rockford house- and cat-sits for an absent Beth) is the content of the answering machine message in any way connected to the plot or situations of the episode itself.


title: The Rockford Files

text: In "Guilt" although not connected to the plot it does get referenced during the opening scene. The recorded message is Angel giving a racing tip and when Jim gets back to the trailer he plays back another message from Angel asking why Jim ignored the tip.


title: The Rockford Files

text: The show went into hiatus late in 1979 when Garner was told by his doctors to recuperate from numerous knee injuries and back trouble, as well as an ulcer. He sustained the former conditions largely because of the daily grind of an extremely physically demanding show, performing most of his own stunts for realism, especially those involving fist fights or car chases. Because of the toll on his body, Garner was ordered by his doctor to immediately take time off some months later, and NBC abruptly cancelled the program in mid-season. It was alleged that "Rockford" had become very expensive to produce, mainly due to the location filming and use of high-end actors as guest stars. According to sources, NBC and Universal claimed the show was generating a deficit of several million dollars, a staggering amount for a nighttime show at the time, although Garner and his production team Cherokee Productions claimed the show turned a profit. Garner told a story to Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show" that the studio once paid a carpenter $700 to build a shipping crate for a shoot-out on a boat dock, though there were shipping crates on the dock. The script often called for Garner to damage his car, so the car could be sold, repaired, and repurchased for each episode.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Later in the 1980s, Garner became engaged in a legal dispute with Universal that lasted more than a decade, regarding the profits from "Rockford Files". The dispute caused significant ill will between Garner and the studio. The dispute was settled out of court in Garner's favor, but the conflict meant that the Rockford character would not re-emerge until 1994. Universal began syndicating the show in 1979 and aggressively marketed it to local stations well into the early and mid-1980s. This accounts for its near-ubiquity on afternoon and late-night schedules in those days. From those showings, "Rockford" developed a following with younger viewers, with the momentum continuing throughout the 1990s and 2000s on cable. (The Ben Folds Five song "Battle of Who Could Care Less", in which "The Rockford Files" is mentioned, is one example of the show's newfound youth following; furthermore, the "Rockford Files" theme song is played at the end of the band's concerts.)


title: The Rockford Files

text: In 2006, the show was broadcast for a few months on the national Chicago Superstation WGN. In 2007, the Retro Television Network began broadcasting the program nationwide, as did the digital cable channel Sleuth and Chicago TV station WWME-CA. ION Television has rights to the show and it is slated for future broadcast. In the fall of 2009, the show reappeared in Canada on Deja View. The series was broadcast in the UK on BBC1 and has since been repeated on BBC2 and ITV and also on Granada +Plus, which later became ITV3, although none of these channels repeated the later seasons. In Australia, the series runs Monday - Friday on cable and satellite channel Fox Classics and on 7Mate. The series aired in the United States on the MeTV digital subchannel network until September 2, 2016, the series was available on Netflix until January 1, 2017, with the first three seasons available on Hulu Plus. From 2016 to 2020, the series was available on IMDb TV. In late 2020, it became part of the catalog of the NBCUniversal Peacock (streaming service) but in 2022, moved to Tubi. The series had aired on Cozi TV. As of January 3, 2022, the series is airing on GetTV as part of their nightly lineup.


title: The Rockford Files

text: The series pilot aired on NBC March 27, 1974, as a 90-minute made-for-television movie. In the pilot, Lindsay Wagner also starred and later made a return appearance. The pilot was titled "Backlash of the Hunter" for syndication.


title: The Rockford Files

text: After several long-running contractual disputes between Garner and Universal were resolved, eight "Rockford Files" reunion TV movies were made from 1994 to 1999, airing on the CBS network (whereas the original series aired on NBC) and reuniting most of the cast from the original show. Beery died on November 1, 1994, so the first of these films, which aired later that month, stated, "This picture is dedicated to the memory of Noah Beery, Jr. We love you and miss you, Pidge." ("Pidge" was Beery's nickname.)


title: The Rockford Files

text: The movies picked up nearly 15 years later from where the show ended. In the initial movies, Rocky is referenced as alive, but is off-screen; he dies (within the series continuity) sometime before the third movie.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Garner, Santos, and Margolin appear in every movie. Other "Rockford" regulars who appear in multiple movies include Luisi, Atkins, Corbett, and Jack Garner (as Capt. McEnroe). Recurring players from the series who are brought back for a single return appearance include Rita Moreno (as Rita Kapkovic); Kathryn Harrold (as Megan Daugherty); and Pat Finley (as Peggy Becker).


title: The Rockford Files

text: Also added to the cast (i.e., appearing only in the movies and in small, recurring roles) were Gerry Gibson as 'Critch' Critchland, the owner of the Sandcastle restaurant across from Jim's trailer; and Shirley Anthony as Sally, a friendly, cheerful grandmotherly type who frequented the precinct to (falsely) confess to crimes, and to knit sweaters while she waited. Anthony had previously been a frequent extra and occasional bit part player on "The Rockford Files" from 1976 to 1979.


title: The Rockford Files

text: The show was created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell. Huggins had created, written for and produced Garner's breakthrough series "Maverick" in 1957 and envisioned "The Rockford Files" as presenting a similar character as a modern private investigator rather than a gambler in the American Old West. Huggins teamed with Cannell, who had written for Jack Webb's Mark VII Productions such as "Adam-12" and "Chase" (1973–1974, NBC), to create "The Rockford Files". The show was credited as "A Public Arts/Roy Huggins Production" along with Cherokee Productions in association with Universal Television. Cherokee was owned by Garner, with partners Meta Rosenberg and Juanita Bartlett, who doubled as story editor during most of "The Rockford Files" run.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Universal Studios has released all six seasons of "The Rockford Files" on DVD in Region 1. On November 3, 2009, they released "The Rockford Files- Movie Collection, Volume 1", featuring the first four post-series telefilms. On May 26, 2015, they released "The Movie Collection, Volume 2", five-and-a-half years after the release of volume 1. They also released a 34-disc complete series collection on the same day.


title: The Rockford Files

text: On April 18, 2016, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series; they subsequently re-released the first two seasons on DVD in Region 1 on July 5, 2016. On June 13, 2017, Mill Creek re-released "The Rockford Files: The Complete Series" on DVD and also released the complete series on Blu-ray for the first time ever. This series is on NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service.


title: The Rockford Files

text: Universal Playback has released the first 5 seasons on DVD in Region 2. The pilot for "The Rockford Files" is in the season 2 set.


title: The Rockford Files

text: On June 27, 2017, Mill Creek Entertainment released "The Rockford Files: The Complete Series" on Blu-ray in Region A for the very first time.


title: The Rockford Files

text: In 2009, NBC, Universal Media Studios and Steve Carell's Carousel Television produced a revival of the show. David Shore, creator of "House", was hired to head the series. In February 2010, it was announced that Dermot Mulroney was cast as Jim Rockford, Alan Tudyk cast as Det. Dennis Becker, Melissa Sagemiller was cast as Beth Davenport, and Beau Bridges was cast as Rocky. A pilot was filmed but never broadcast. Early audiences indicated that the pilot was not directed well. On May 13, 2010, the "Rockford Files" remake was scrapped by NBC.


title: The Rockford Files

text: A feature adaptation was in production by Universal Pictures as of 2012, with Vince Vaughn associated with the project as producer and star. After the death of actor James Garner in 2014, the film adaptation was postponed, but Vaughn is hoping to get the film project made.


title: Kantō region

text: The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slightly more than 45 percent of the land area within its boundaries is the Kanto Plain. The rest consists of the hills and mountains that form land borders with other regions of Japan.


title: Kantō region

text: As the Kanto region contains Tokyo, the capital and largest city of Japan, the region is considered the center of Japan's politics and economy. According to the official census on October 1, 2010, by the Japan Statistics Bureau, the population was 42,607,376, amounting to approximately one third of the total population of Japan.


title: Kantō region

text: The Kantō regional governors' association (関東地方知事会, "Kantō chihō chijikai") assembles the prefectural governors of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka.


title: Kantō region

text: The Kantō Regional Development Bureau (関東地方整備局, "Kantō chihō seibi-kyoku") of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in the national government is responsible for eight prefectures generally (Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamanashi) and parts of the waterways in two others (Nagano and Shizuoka). The Kanto Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry (関東経済産業局, "Kantō keizai-sangyō-kyoku") is responsible for eleven prefectures: Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka.The Kantō regional governors' association (関東地方知事会, "Kantō chihō chijikai") assembles the prefectural governors of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka.


title: Kantō region

text: In the police organization of Japan, the National Police Agency's supervisory office for Kantō (関東管区警察局, "Kantō kanku keisatsu-kyoku") is responsible for the Prefectural police departments of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka. Tokyo is not part of Kantō or any NPA region, its police has a dedicated liaison office with the national agency of its own.


title: Kantō region

text: The Kantō Regional Development Bureau (関東地方整備局, "Kantō chihō seibi-kyoku") of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in the national government is responsible for eight prefectures generally (Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamanashi) and parts of the waterways in two others (Nagano and Shizuoka). The Kanto Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry (関東経済産業局, "Kantō keizai-sangyō-kyoku") is responsible for eleven prefectures: Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Niigata, Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka.


title: Kantō region

text: The surface geology of the Kanto Plain is the Quaternary alluvium and diluvium. The low mountain vegetation at an altitude of about 500 to 900 m in and around the plain is an evergreen broad-leaved forest zone. The distribution height range of laurel forests is 900m in Hakone, about 800m in Tanzawa and Takao, about 700m in Okutama, Oku Musashi and Oku Chichibu, about 600m in Nishijoshu, Akagiyama, Ashio Mountains and Tsukuba Mountains and about 500m in Kitage and Nasu Mountains.


title: Kantō region

text: Over the evergreen broad-leaved forest are deciduous broad-leaved forests such as beech, birch, and quercus crispula. In addition, coniferous forests such as Abies veitchii and Betula ermanii spread above the deciduous broad-leaved forest from an altitude of about 1100 m higher than the lower limit of the deciduous broad-leaved forest.


title: Kantō region

text: Mountains are spread out such as the Taishaku Mountains, Mt. Takahara, Mt. Nasu, Mt. Yamizo, and Mt. The Kanto Plain, which is the largest plain in Japan. Just north of the Enna Hills is Japan's largest alluvial fan Nasuno at the foot of Mt. The Kujukuri Plain. The southern part of Chiba prefecture is the Boso hills. The area around Kasumigaura in Ibaraki prefecture is the Joso plateau and Hitachi plateau. Gunma prefecture and the Chichibu region of Saitama prefecture are basins. Rivers such as the Arakawa and Edo rivers pour into Tokyo Bay, and the Kinugawa and Tone rivers flow into the Pacific Ocean in Inubōsaki.


title: Kantō region

text: Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Boso Peninsula and the Miura Peninsula, facing the west side of Chiba Prefecture, a part of Tokyo and the east side of Kanagawa Prefecture, and borders the Pacific Ocean from Uraga Suido. The coastal area is an industrial area. The south side of Kanagawa Prefecture faces Sagami Bay and Sagami Nada. The southern coast of Ibaraki Prefecture faces Kashima Nada. The Sagami Trough, which was the epicenter of the two Kanto earthquakes, passes through Sagami Bay. Efforts are being made to take safety measures against earthquakes in various places.


title: Kantō region

text: The highest point is the summit of Mt. Nikko-Shirane (Mt. Oku-Shirane) on the border between Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture and Katashina Village, Gunma Prefecture. It is the eighth highest point in Japan's prefectures. It is also the highest point north of Kanto (Kanto, Tohoku, Hokkaido). The highest points of the prefectures are Mt. Sanpo (2483m) in Saitama, Mt. Kumotori (2017m) in Tokyo, Mt. Hiru (1673m) in Kanagawa, Mt. Yamizo (1022m) in Ibaraki, and Mt. Atago (408m) in Chiba. Atagoyama in Chiba Prefecture is the lowest among the highest peaks in each prefecture.


title: Kantō region

text: The region experiences a humid subtropical climate with a summer to fall precipitation maximum ("Cfa/Cwa").


title: Kantō region

text: The heartland of feudal power during the Kamakura period and again in the Edo period, Kanto became the center of modern development. Within the Greater Tokyo Area and especially the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area, Kanto houses not only Japan's seat of government but also the nation's largest group of universities and cultural institutions, the greatest population and a large industrial zone. Although most of the Kanto plain is used for residential, commercial or industrial construction, it is still farmed. Rice is the principal crop, although the zone around Tokyo and Yokohama has been landscaped to grow garden produce for the metropolitan market.


title: Kantō region

text: A watershed moment of Japan's modern history took place in the late Taishō period: the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. The quake, which claimed more than 100,000 lives and ravaged the Tokyo and Yokohama areas, occurred at a time when Japan was still reeling from the economic recession in reaction to the high-flying years during World War I.


title: Kantō region

text: Operation Coronet, part of Operation Downfall, the proposed Allied invasion of Japan during World War II, was scheduled to land at the Kantō plain. Most of the United States military bases on the island of Honshu are situated on the Kantō plain. These include Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Yokota Air Base, Yokosuka Naval Base, and Camp Zama.


title: Kantō region

text: The name Kanto literally means "East of the Barrier". The name "Kanto" is nowadays generally considered to mean the region east (東) of the Hakone checkpoint (関所). An antonym of Kanto, "West of the Barrier" means Kansai region, which lies western Honshu and was the center of feudal Japan.


title: Kantō region

text: After the Great Kanto earthquake many people in Kanto started creating art with different varieties of colors. They made art of earthquake and small towns to symbolize the small towns destroyed in the quake.


title: Kantō region

text: The most often used subdivision of the region is dividing it to , consisting of Ibaraki, Tochigi, and Gunma Prefectures, and , consisting of Saitama (sometimes classified North), Chiba, the Tokyo Metropolis (sometimes singulated), and Kanagawa Prefectures. South Kantō is often regarded as synonymous with the Greater Tokyo Area. As part of Japan's attempts to predict earthquakes, an area roughly corresponding to South Kantō has been designated an 'Area of Intensified Observation' by the Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction.


title: Kantō region

text: The Japanese House of Representatives' divides it into the electorate which consists of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Saitama Prefectures, Tokyo electorate, and the electorate which consists of Chiba, Kanagawa and Yamanashi Prefectures. (Note that Yamanashi is out of Kantō region in the orthodox definition.)


title: Kantō region

text: This division is sometimes used in economics and geography. The border can be modified if the topography is taken for prefectural boundaries.


title: Kantō region

text: The Japanese national government defines the as Kantō region plus Yamanashi Prefecture. Japan's national public broadcaster NHK uses involving Yamanashi, Nagano and Niigata Prefectures for regional programming and administration.


title: Kantō region

text: The Kantō region is the most highly developed, urbanized, and industrialized part of Japan. Tokyo and Yokohama form a single industrial complex with a concentration of light and heavy industry along Tokyo Bay. Other major cities in the area include Kawasaki (in Kanagawa Prefecture); Saitama (in Saitama Prefecture); and Chiba (in Chiba Prefecture). Smaller cities, farther away from the coast, house substantial light and automotive industries. The average population density reached 1,192 persons per square kilometer in 1991.


title: Kantō region

text: The Kantō region largely corresponds to the Tokyo metropolitan area with the exception that it does not contain Yamanashi prefecture.


title: Kantō region

text: The Tokyo metropolitan area has the largest city economy in the world and is one of the major global center of trade and commerce along with New York City, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Paris, Seoul and London.


title: Kantō region

text: The agglomeration of Tokyo is the world's largest economy, with the largest gross metropolitan product at purchasing power parity (PPP) in the world according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.


title: Kantō region

text: The population of Kanto region is very similar to that of Greater Tokyo Area except that it does not contain Yamanashi Prefecture and contains the rural populations throughout the region.


title: Kantō region

text: Per Japanese census data, and Kanto region's data, population has continuously grown but the population growth rate has slowed since early 1992.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: The Baikonur Cosmodrome (, ; , ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to Russia. The Cosmodrome is the world's first spaceport for orbital and human launches and the largest (in area) operational space launch facility. All crewed Russian spaceflights are launched from Baikonur.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: The spaceport is in the desert steppe of Baikonur, about east of the Aral Sea and north of the river Syr Darya. It is near the Tyuratam railway station and is about above sea level. The spaceport is currently leased by the Kazakh Government to the Russian Federation until 2050 and is managed jointly by the Roscosmos and the Russian Aerospace Forces. The shape of the area leased is an ellipse, measuring east–west by north–south, with the cosmodrome at the centre.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Baikonur Cosmodrome was established on 2 June 1955 by the former Soviet Ministry of Defence. It was originally built as the base of operations for the Soviet space program. Both "Sputnik 1", the first artificial satellite, and Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight, were launched from Baikonur. The launch pad used for both missions was renamed Gagarin's Start, in honour of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, pilot of Vostok 1 and first human in space. Under the current Russian management, Baikonur remains a busy spaceport, with numerous commercial, military and scientific missions being launched annually.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: The Soviet government issued the decree for Scientific Research Test Range No. 5 (NIIP-5; ) on 12 February 1955. It was actually founded on 2 June 1955, originally a test center for the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the R-7 Semyorka. NIIP-5 was soon expanded to include launch facilities for space flights. The site was selected by a commission led by General Vasily Voznyuk, influenced by Sergey Korolyov, the Chief Designer of the R-7 ICBM, and soon the man behind the Soviet space program. It had to be surrounded by plains, as the radio control system of the rocket required (at the time) receiving uninterrupted signals from ground stations hundreds of kilometres away. Additionally, the missile trajectory had to be away from populated areas. Also, it is advantageous to place space launch sites closer to the equator, as the surface of the Earth has higher rotational speed in such areas. Taking these constraints into consideration, the commission chose Tyuratam, a village in the heart of the Kazakh Steppe. The expense of constructing the launch facilities and the several hundred kilometres of new road and train lines made the Cosmodrome one of the most costly infrastructure projects undertaken by the Soviet Union. A supporting town was built around the facility to provide housing, schools, and infrastructure for workers. It was raised to city status in 1966 and named Leninsk ().


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: The American U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane found and photographed the Tyuratam missile test range for the first time on 5 August 1957.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: There are conflicting sources about origins of the name "Baikonur". Some sources say that the name was deliberately chosen in 1961 (around the time of Gagarin's flight) to misdirect the Western Bloc to a place about northeast of the launch center, the small mining town of Baikonur near Jezkazgan.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Other sources state that "Baikonur" was the name of the Tyuratam region before the establishment of the cosmodrome. Leninsk, the closed city built to support the cosmodrome, was renamed Baikonur on 20 December 1995 by Boris Yeltsin.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Russian scientist Afanasiy Ilich Tobonov researched mass animal deaths in the 1990s and concluded that the mass deaths of birds and wildlife in the Sakha Republic were noted only along the flight paths of space rockets launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Dead wildlife and livestock were usually incinerated, and the participants in these incinerations, including Tobonov himself, his brothers and inhabitants of his native village of Eliptyan, commonly died from stroke or cancer. In 1997, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation changed the flight path and removed the ejected rocket stages near Nyurbinsky District, Russia.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Scientific literature collected data that indicated adverse effects of rockets on the environment and the health of the population. UDMH, a fuel used in Russian rocket engines, is highly toxic. It is one of the reasons for acid rains and cancers in the local population, near the cosmodrome. Valery Yakovlev, a head of the laboratory of ecosystem research of the State scientific-production union of applied ecology "Kazmechanobr", notes:


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: "Scientists have established the extreme character of the destructive influence of the "Baikonur" space center on environment and population of the region: 11 000 tons of space scrap metal, polluted by especially toxic UDMH is still laying on the falling grounds". Scrap recovery is part of the local economy.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Many historic flights lifted off from Baikonur: the first operational ICBM; the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957; the first spacecraft to travel close to the Moon, Luna 1, on 2 January 1959; the first crewed and orbital flight by Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961; and the flight of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963. 14 cosmonauts of 13 other nations, such as Czechoslovakia, East Germany, India and France, started their journeys from here as well under the Interkosmos program. In 1960, a prototype R-16 ICBM exploded before launch, killing over 100 people. Baikonur is also the site from which Venera 9 and Mars 3 were launched.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian space program continued to operate from Baikonur under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia wanted to sign a 99-year lease for Baikonur, but agreed to a US$115 million annual lease of the site for 20 years with an option for a 10-year extension. On 8 June 2005, the Russian Federation Council ratified an agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan extending Russia's rent term of the spaceport until 2050. The rent price—which remained fixed at per year – is the source of a long-running dispute between the two countries. In an attempt to reduce its dependency on Baikonur, Russia is constructing the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur Oblast.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Baikonur has been a major part of Russia's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), as it is the only spaceport from which Russian missions to the ISS are launched. It is primarily the border's position (but to a lesser extent Baikonur's position at about the 46th parallel north) that led to the 51.6° orbital inclination of the ISS; the lowest inclination that can be reached by Soyuz boosters launched from Baikonur without flying over China. With the conclusion of NASA's Space Shuttle program in 2011, Baikonur became the sole launch site used for crewed missions to the ISS until the launch of Crew Dragon Demo-2 in 2020.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: In 2019, Gagarin's Start hosted three crewed launches, in March, July and September, before being modernised for the new Soyuz-2 rocket with a planned first launch of 2023. The final launch from Gagarin's Start took place 25 September 2019.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Baikonur is fully equipped with facilities for launching both crewed and uncrewed spacecraft. It supports several generations of Russian spacecraft: Soyuz, Proton, Tsyklon, Dnepr, Zenit and Buran.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Downrange from the launchpad, spent launch equipment is dropped directly on the ground in the Russian far east where it is salvaged by the workers and the local population.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: As part of the Buran programme, several facilities were adapted or newly built for the Buran-class space shuttle orbiters:


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: All Baikonur's logistics are based on its own intra-site gauge railway network, which is the largest industrial railway on the planet. The railway is used for all stages of launch preparation, and all spacecraft are transported to the launchpads by the special Schnabel cars. Once part of the Soviet Railroad Troops, the Baikonur Railway is now served by a dedicated civilian state company. There are several rail links connecting the Baikonur Railway to the public railway of Kazakhstan and the rest of the world.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: The Baikonur Cosmodrome has two on-site multi-purpose airports, serving both the personnel transportation needs and the logistics of space launches (including the delivery of the spacecraft by planes). There are scheduled passenger services from Moscow to the smaller Krayniy Airport , which however are not accessible to the public. The larger Yubileyniy Airport (Юбилейный аэропорт) was where the Buran orbiter was transported to Baikonur on the back of the Antonov An-225 "Mriya" cargo aircraft.


title: Baikonur Cosmodrome

text: Although Baikonur has always been known around the world as the launch site of Soviet and Russian space missions, from its outset in 1955 and until the collapse of the USSR in 1991 the primary purpose of this center was to test liquid-fueled ballistic missiles. The official (and secret) name of the center was State Test Range No. 5 or 5 GIK. It remained under the control of the Soviet and Russian Ministry of Defense until the second half of the 1990s, when the Russian civilian space agency and its industrial contractors started taking over individual facilities.