title: Ayelet Zurer

text: Ayelet Zurer was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a Jewish family. Her mother was born in Czechoslovakia and survived the Holocaust by hiding in a convent. She immigrated to Israel in the 1950s. Her Israeli-born father is of Russian-Jewish descent. She has described her parents as "working-class people".


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: During her service in the Israel Defense Forces, Zurer was a soldier in the military band of the Northern Command.


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: After finishing her military service, Zurer studied acting for three years at the Performing Arts Studio founded by Yoram Loewenstein. She moved to the United States and studied with George Morison at the Actor's Workshop in New York City.


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: In 2003, she married her former Israeli surfing instructor, Gilad Londovski. They have a son and reside in Los Angeles.


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: In 1991, Zurer moved back to Israel. In 1992, she starred in the television series "Inyan Shel Zman", and in 1993, she played Debbie in the Israeli comedy film "Nikmato shel Itzik Finkelstein" ("Revenge of Itzik Finkelstein"). During this time she also participated in the cable television show "Yetziat Hirum". In 1997, Zurer played the role of Shira Steinberg in the television show "Florentin" on Israeli "Channel 2". Several Israeli television series followed: in 2000, "Zinzana", and in 2002, "Shalva" and "Ha'Block".


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: In 2005, she starred in another Israeli television series, "Betipul", a drama about a psychologist and his patients' therapy process. She plays Na'ama Lerner, a patient who starts a romance with the doctor. The series won her a Best Actress award from the Israeli Television Academy and was remade as the HBO series "In Treatment". The following year Zurer participated in an Israeli sketch comedy television show called "Gomrot Holchot" that deals with the world of young women; relationships, marriage, sex, and career. The show is based on the British sketch comedy show "Smack the Pony".


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: In 2013, Zurer starred in the Israeli series "Shtisel" as an attractive widow, Elisheva Rotstein. In 2015, she starred in "Daredevil" as Vanessa Marianna, an art gallery owner. The series is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Zurer reprised her role in the third season (2018) of "Daredevil".


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: In November 2020, Zurer was cast in a recurring role on the third season of the Netflix psychological thriller series "You". She stars in the 2021 dramatic-thriller "Losing Alice" on Apple TV+.


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: In 1998 she played the lead in the film "Ahava Asura" (a.k.a. "The Dybbuk of the Holy Apple Field"). In 2001, she starred in the movies "Laila Lelo Lola" and "Kikar Ha'Halomot". In 2003, she starred in "Nina's Tragedies", portraying the title character, Nina, a young woman who has to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. She won an Israeli Academy Award for Best Actress for this role.


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: Zurer appeared in "Munich" (2005), where she played Avner Kaufman's wife. She played a terrorist in the American thriller "Vantage Point". In 2007, she starred in "Fugitive Pieces", in which a troubled young Holocaust survivor falls in love with her character. She played a nurse who falls in love with the title character in "Adam Resurrected" (2008).


title: Ayelet Zurer

text: In April 2008, Zurer was cast as the female lead, Vittoria Vetra, in "The Da Vinci Code" sequel, "Angels & Demons". She played the lead role in the 2011 film "Hide Away" (a.k.a. "A Year in Mooring"), and played Superman's mother, Lara Lor-Van, in the reboot of the Superman franchise, "Man of Steel" (2013).


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: The World Rugby Rankings (formerly the IRB Rankings) is a ranking system for national teams in rugby union, managed by World Rugby, the sport's governing body. There are separate men's and women's rankings. The teams of World Rugby's member nations are ranked based on their game results, with the most successful teams being ranked highest. A point system is used, with points being awarded on the basis of the results of World Rugby-recognized international matches. Rankings are based on the team's performance, with more recent results and more significant matches being more heavily weighted to help reflect the current competitive state of a team. The men's ranking system was introduced the month before the 2003 Rugby World Cup, with the first new rankings issued on 8 September 2003.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: When the system was introduced England were the top team and maintained that position following victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. New Zealand took the lead from 14 June 2004.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: After winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup final, South Africa became the third team to achieve first place. The first two fixtures of the 2008 Tri Nations resulted in the top two teams switching places: the All Blacks regained the top spot after defeating South Africa in the Tri-Nations opener on 5 July 2008 in Wellington; a week later the Springboks returned the favour in Dunedin, scoring their first win over the All Blacks in New Zealand since 1998, reclaiming the top spot, only for the All Blacks to defeat both Australia and South Africa in August 2008 to regain the top spot by a considerable margin. South Africa regained the lead in July 2009 after beating New Zealand in Bloemfontein and kept the lead until losing to France in November of that year, allowing the All Blacks to regain the top spot.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: A change at the top would not occur for a record period of 508 weeks (from 16 November 2009 to 19 August 2019), when Wales became the top ranked team for the first time after defeating England at Cardiff in a World Cup 2019 warm-up test in August, following on a streak in which they won 15 of 16 tests, including a Six Nations Grand Slam. Two weeks later New Zealand returned to the top of the summit following Ireland's victory over Wales in Cardiff in a World Cup 2019 warm-up test. However, on 7 September 2019, Ireland defeated Wales again, this time in Dublin, and they were installed as the number 1 team for the first time in their history, which they held entering the 2019 Rugby World Cup.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: The first round of matches in the 2019 Rugby World Cup saw a further change at the top, with New Zealand's pool stage victory over the Springboks seeing them regain the top spot. England's defeat of New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semi-finals saw them return to the top spot for the first time since 2004. A week later, South Africa reclaimed top spot after defeating England in the final.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: 2021 saw the ranking lead change several times with South Africa and New Zealand each holding the top spot at various points. In 2022, France replaced South Africa on top of the rankings following their victory over Japan in their summer tour and the Springboks' home defeat by a touring Wales team. A week later, Ireland claimed top spot following victory in their summer tour to New Zealand.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: Since the rankings began, the winners of every edition of the World Cup have held the number 1 spot at the end of the tournament.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: New Zealand have been the most consistently ranked #1 team since the introduction of the world rankings in 2003, having held the #1 ranking for 75% of the time during this period. South Africa is second with 20% of the time, with England, Wales, Ireland and France making up the remainder.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: To date, 2019 is the only calendar year in which more than three nations have held the number 1 spot - with five nations holding that title at some point during the year.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: Below is a list of the best and worst ranking positions for nations that have appeared in the Rugby World Cup:


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: According to World Rugby the "top side in the World will normally have a rating above 90", however, this is not always the case. New Zealand retained the number 1 position in August 2019 following defeat by Australia at Perth in the Rugby Championship, despite their ratings falling to 89.04. A week later, Wales increased their rating to 89.43 and claimed the top spot by beating England at Cardiff in a World Cup 2019 warm-up test. In contrast, some countries that have reached a rating of over 90 rating points, such as Australia (91.75) and Ireland (91.17), did not achieve the top spot, although Ireland would eventually reach the top of the summit with a rating of 89.47 following their victory over Wales in a World Cup 2019 warm-up test in Dublin, while Australia still to date have never attained the number 1 ranked position. This is due to the success of New Zealand who had been rated above 90 rating points for a record of 509 weeks and 6 days (from 2 November 2009 to 11 August 2019), which ended following the aforementioned defeat to Australia.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: New Zealand also holds the record for the highest rating points amassed by any team, which currently stands at 96.57. England first held the record at 93.99 on the 24 November 2003, following their World Cup win in Australia; however, New Zealand surpassed this on 28 August 2006 with a rating of 94.62, following their Tri Nations victory over South Africa in Pretoria. The All Blacks would go on to push this record further over the years, reaching 95.01 points on the 25 June 2007 after beating South Africa in Durban, 96.10 points after their 2015 World Cup win in England and 96.30 points on 22 August 2016, following their Rugby Championship victory over Australia in Sydney, to its current record of 96.57, which they attained on 10 October 2016 after defeating South Africa in Durban. New Zealand's defeat by Ireland at Soldier Field, Chicago as part of the Autumn International Test Series in November 2016 ended their record streak.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: Below is a list of the most and least accumulated rating points for each of the nations that have appeared in the Rugby World Cup since the ranking tables were first published on the 13 October 2003:


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: All World Rugby member countries have been given a rating that is in the range of 0 to 100 with the top side achieving a rating of about 90 points. The point system is calculated using a 'Points Exchange' system, in which sides receive points from each other on the basis of the match result – whatever one side gains, the other loses. The exchanges are based on the match result, the ranking of each team, and the margin of victory, with an allowance for home advantage. As the system aims to depict current team strengths, past successes or losses will fade and be superseded by more recent results. Thus, it is thought that it will produce an accurate picture depicting the actual current strength and thus rank of the nations. The rankings are responsive to results and it is possible to climb to the top from the bottom (and vice versa) in fewer than 20 matches. As all matches are worth a net of 0 points for the two teams combined, there is no particular advantage to playing more matches. A rating stays the same until the team plays again. Although matches often result in points exchanges, 'predictable' results lead to very minor changes, and may result in no change to either side's rating.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: The system ensures that it is representative of the teams' performance despite playing differing numbers of matches each year, and the differing strength of opposition that teams have to face. The factors taken into account are as follows:


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: For each match played points exchanges are awarded for the following five outcomes and was developed using results of international matches from 1871 to the present day:


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: Different matches have different importance to teams, and World Rugby has tried to reflect this by using a weighting system, where the most significant matches are in the Rugby World Cup Finals. Points exchanges are doubled during the World Cup Finals to recognise the unique importance of this event. All other full international matches are treated the same, to be as fair as possible to countries playing a different mix of friendly and competitive matches. Matches that do not have full international status do not count.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: A win against a very highly ranked opponent is a considerably greater achievement than a win against a low-rated opponent, so the strength of the opposing team is a factor. Thus match results are more important than margins of victory in producing accurate rankings. This is because when a highly ranked team plays a lowly ranked team and manages to beat them by over 50 points, it does not necessarily indicate how either team will perform in the future.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: When calculating points exchanges, the home side is handicapped by treating them as though they are three rating points better than their current rating. This results in the home side gaining fewer points for winning and losing more points for losing. Because of this, ideally, any advantage that a side may have by playing in front of their home crowd is cancelled out.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: [5] The team with the higher “Modified pre-match Points Ranking Score” may be termed the “Favourite”.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: [7] A team whose “Modified pre-match Points Ranking Score” is 10+ points lower than their opponents’ "Modified pre-match Points Ranking Score” may be termed the “Outsider”.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: [9] In the case of a draw, the points are transferred from the “Favourite” to the “Underdog” or “Outsider”. The transfer is capped at 1 (2 in a World Cup Match).


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: All new member nations start with 30.00 points, which is provisional until they have completed ten test matches. When countries merge, the new country inherits the higher rating of the two countries but when they split e.g., the 2010 breakup of the Arabian Gulf rugby union team into separate teams representing its current member countries, the new countries will inherit a rating at a fixed level below the rating of the original country.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: Countries that have not played a test for two years are removed from the ranking system and the list. If they become active again, they resume their previous rating.


title: World Rugby Rankings

text: <nowiki>***</nowiki>For a full explanation of how rankings are calculated, see the World Rugby rankings website.


title: Iceland national football team

text: The Iceland national football team (in ) represents Iceland in men's international football. The team is controlled by the Football Association of Iceland, and have been a FIFA member since 1947 and an UEFA member since 1957. The team's nickname is "Strákarnir okkar", which means "Our Boys" in Icelandic.


title: Iceland national football team

text: The team has enjoyed success in the second half of the 2010s. In the qualifying rounds for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Iceland reached the playoffs before losing to Croatia. Iceland reached its first major tournament, UEFA Euro 2016, after a qualification campaign which included home and away wins over the Netherlands. After advancing to the knockout stages of Euro 2016, Iceland defeated England in the Round of 16, advancing to the quarter-finals, where they lost to host nation France 5–2. They became the smallest nation by population to ever clinch a FIFA World Cup berth when they qualified for the 2018 tournament on 9 October 2017. They drew with Argentina in their opening match, but nonetheless still went out in the group stage.


title: Iceland national football team

text: Although Úrvalsdeild, the Icelandic Football League, was founded in 1912, the country's first international match was played on 29 July 1930, against the Faroe Islands. Although Iceland won 1–0 away, both teams were at the time unaffiliated with FIFA. The first match officially recognised by FIFA took place in Reykjavík on 17 July 1946, a 0–3 loss to their future rivals Denmark. The first international victory was against Finland in 1947. For the first 20 years of the Football Association of Iceland (KSÍ)'s existence, the team mostly did not participate in qualifying for the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA European Championship. In 1954, Iceland applied to take part in qualification for the 1954 World Cup, but the application was rejected. In qualification for the 1958 World Cup, Iceland finished last in their group with zero wins, conceding 26 goals!


title: Iceland national football team

text: Since 1974, the team has taken part in qualifying for every World Cup and European Championship. In 1994, the team reached their then best ever position in the FIFA World Rankings, 37th. This record stood until 2016 when they managed to reach 21st. In a friendly against Estonia on 24 April 1996 in Tallinn, Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen entered as a substitute for his father Arnór. This marked the first time that a father and son played in the same international match.


title: Iceland national football team

text: In qualification for Euro 2004, Iceland finished third in their group, one point behind Scotland. As a result, they failed to qualify for a playoff spot.


title: Iceland national football team

text: However, the following qualifying campaigns will be much more difficult for Iceland which will flirt with the last places of its respective groups, in particular during the Euro 2008 qualifiers where despite two unexpected successes against Northern Ireland (3–0 in the opening away, 2–1 at home in the return) and a heroic resistance in the first and second leg against the Spanish future winners of the competition (a 1–1 draw at home after having led the score and a short 0–1 defeat away), Our boys suffered several other heavy defeats, including two against Latvia, who had qualified for Euro 2004 as a surprise (0–4 away, 2–4 home), and one against Liechtenstein (0–3 away, after a 1–1 home draw).


title: Iceland national football team

text: The reasons for the lack of results of the selection were due to the absence of professionals on the island, the Icelanders played soccer for fun. Moreover, the hostile climate where winter lasts 8 months did not help the development of the sport, there were only two synthetic fields forcing the footballers to train on the gravel or in the snow. In the 2000s, Icelandic soccer will experience a real revolution. The economic boom will allow the authorities to create important structures with indoor pitches in synthetic turf, which results in the practice of soccer all year round without worrying about the weather conditions outside. These new structures encourage young people to turn to sports and even lead to a decrease in alcohol and tobacco consumption among teenagers.


title: Iceland national football team

text: In 2014, Iceland almost secured qualification for their first World Cup. Finishing second in Group D, they played Croatia in a two-leg playoff for qualification. After holding them to a 0–0 draw in the home leg, they lost 2–0 away.


title: Iceland national football team

text: Iceland qualified for a major tournament for the first time in 2015 after finishing second in Group A of qualification for Euro 2016, losing only two games, and beating the Netherlands – which had finished third in the 2014 World Cup – twice. During the qualification, they reached their then highest ranking in the FIFA World Rankings, 23rd. Iceland were drawn into a group with Portugal, Hungary and Austria for the final tournament.


title: Iceland national football team

text: At the tournament finals, Iceland recorded 1–1 draws in their first two group stage matches against Portugal and Hungary. They then advanced from their group with a 2–1 victory against Austria. Iceland qualified for the tournament's quarter-finals after a 2–1 upset win over England in the Round of 16, which led to England manager Roy Hodgson resigning in disgrace immediately after the final whistle. However, they were eliminated by host nation France in the quarter-finals, 5–2.


title: Iceland national football team

text: Iceland qualified for the 2018 World Cup, their first ever appearance in the world championship, securing qualification on 9 October 2017 after a 2–0 win against Kosovo. In doing so, they became the lowest-populated country ever to reach the finals. Iceland were drawn to play Croatia, Argentina and Nigeria in a group that was considered by many as the "group of death". Despite a challenging group, Iceland were tipped to advance from the group by several journalist websites, based on their impressive performance in Euro 2016. Their maiden match at the World Cup was against 2014 runners-up Argentina, with Iceland surprisingly holding Argentina to a 1–1 draw. However, their chances of advancing from the group were hurt following a 2–0 loss to Nigeria, with several missed opportunities in the first half and a penalty kick in the second half missed by Gylfi Sigurdsson, putting Iceland to play with full determination against already qualified Croatia. Iceland lost to Croatia in their final group game; and because Argentina won against Nigeria, Iceland finished bottom of the group with just a point.


title: Iceland national football team

text: After Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, Iceland was expected to play at Euro 2020. However, the team is playing just before the brand new Nations League, where they are in Group 2 of League A with Switzerland and Belgium. But the Strákarnir okkar are showing worrying signals: the post-World Cup period is difficult as Iceland concedes 4 defeats in 4 games, including a heavy initial setback in Switzerland (0–6) where they were dominated in all compartments of the game by the Helvetians. Many of Iceland's international matches were undermined by the repeated absence of some of their key players, often due to injury; while the Icelandic defense, often unbeatable in previous crucial matches, is showing more and more difficulty in replacing its usual key players with a new generation of younger defenders. Due to the change of rules finally decided by UEFA, Iceland is not relegated to League B for the 2020–2021 edition.


title: Iceland national football team

text: In group H of the Euro qualifiers with the world champions France, Turkey, Albania, Andorra and Moldova, Icelanders are reassuring on the accounting level and are not surprised by the most modest opponents (Moldova and Andorra). However, they have more difficulties away (like the 0–6 in Switzerland) and lost three games, including the two confrontations against "Les Bleus" (4–0 at the Stade de France and 1–0 at home on a penalty kick after the hour of play at the end of a tight game) and a scathing defeat away against Albania 4–2, However, they continue to outplay Turks by taking 4 points out of 6 possible and being the only undefeated team as well as the only team of the group to inflict a defeat against this team. Third behind Turkey and France, the Icelanders won 2–1 in the first playoff game against Romania thanks to a brace of Gylfi Sigurðsson in the first half (16th and 34th minute), despite the Romanian reduction of the score on penalty kick in the second half after consultation of the VAR and will have to negotiate a perilous trip to Hungary, which won at the Bulgarians (3–1) and made a good impression at home in group E of the Euro 2020 qualifiers by beating Croatia (2–1) and Wales (1–0). On November 12, 2020 in their playoff game against Hungary, Iceland came agonisingly close to qualifying for Euro 2020, as it led 1–0 for nearly the entire match, on a direct free kick by Gylfi Sigurðsson well helped by a blunder of the opponent's goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi (11th minute), until Hungary scored two goals in under five minutes, the first coming in the 88th minute by Loïc Nego to stun Iceland and the second in the second minute of added time by Dominik Szoboszlai, proving to be the winner; Hungary had beaten Iceland 2–1.


title: Iceland national football team

text: Iceland had also suffered poor results in their UEFA Nations League campaign in League A, having lost all their group stage matches and failing to garner a single point, resulting in their relegation to League B the following season. Manager Erik Hamrén ultimately resigned, following their poor performance that year.


title: Iceland national football team

text: The start of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers was also totally missed by Iceland, which suffered two defeats at the beginning of the tournament, away against Germany (0–3) and more surprisingly in Armenia (0–2). However, the Strákarnir okkar are back in the race thanks to a 4–1 victory over Liechtenstein combined with concomitant defeats of Romania and Germany. The crucial preparation for the September games, where Iceland had the advantage of playing all three games at home after several away games and had played some encouraging friendlies in June, was disrupted by extra-sporting affairs involving both Kolbeinn Sigþórsson and Gylfi Sigurðsson accused of sexual offences and thus absent from the month's games. The cases also led to the resignation of several senior officials of the Icelandic Football Association, including its president. Against this backdrop, Romania took revenge for the Euro play-off they had lost almost a year earlier, beating Strákarnir okkar 2–0. The latter are then forced to draw (2–2 after being led 0–2) against North Macedonia before falling heavily against Germany (0–4) and pointing to the penultimate place in the group with 4 units on the counter with 4 days to go in the qualifiers, significantly reducing Iceland's chances of qualifying for the next World Cup. Then Iceland recovered in the two October games by holding Armenia (1–1) who had beaten them 2–0 in March and then by winning widely against Liechtenstein (4–0). Despite this, Iceland is still 5th in its group and is about to be eliminated. Against all odds, they resisted away against Romania despite a clear domination of the local team (0–0) but were mathematically eliminated with one day to go since the Strákarnir okkar had to win their last two games and hope for slip-ups from their direct competitors to finish 2nd in the group.


title: Iceland national football team

text: These distressing results are due to several factors, both sporting and extra-sporting: the late generational renewal of the usual ageing management team, a process partly hampered by a limited pool of footballers due to Iceland's demographics; the questionable tactical choices of the new, inexperienced coach, resulting in a lack of automatism among new players who are not used to playing together and the absence of a real standard team; and sexual assault scandals that have effectively sidelined some of the team's best players under investigation and have continued the negative spiral.


title: Iceland national football team

text: The national team uses a blue as the home colours and white as their second colours but their crest featuring stylized imagery of Iceland's four "guardian spirits" ("Landvættir") in local folklore; a giant, a dragon, a bull, and an eagle. The team's crest was adopted in 2020 and was designed by Reykjavík-based firm Bradenburg. Previously the team used a team crest which features a shield-type symbol which consist the abbreviation of the Football Association of Iceland in Icelandic (KSI), strips which derives colors from the Flag of Iceland, and a football.


title: Iceland national football team

text: Iceland's supporters became known for using Viking Thunder Clap chant in the mid-2010s, which involves fans clapping their hands above their heads and yelling "huh!" to the beat of a drum; the tradition originates from Scottish club Motherwell F.C. Iceland's Viking Clap first received wider international attention during the Euro 2016.


title: Iceland national football team

text: The official kit is produced by German sports manufacturing company Puma since 2020. Before that the kit providers were Umbro (1975), Adidas (1976–1992), ABM (1992–1996), Reusch (1996–2001) and Erreà (2002–2020)


title: Iceland national football team

text: The following players were called up for the friendly matches against Estonia and Sweden on 8 January 2023 and 12 January 2023 respectively.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: Roy Mitchell Kinnear (8 January 1934 – 20 September 1988) was a British character actor. He was known for his roles in films such as The Beatles' "Help!" (1965), Clapper in "How I Won the War" (1967) and Planchet in "The Three Musketeers" (1973). He reprised the role of Planchet in the 1974 and 1989 sequels, and died following an accident during filming of the latter.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: He played Private Monty Bartlett in "The Hill" (1965), Henry Salt in the 1974 film "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory", and cruise director Curtain in "Juggernaut" (1974), "The Dick Emery Show" (1979–1981), and in the sitcoms "Man About the House" (1974–1975), "George and Mildred" (1976–1979) and "Cowboys" (1980–1981).


title: Roy Kinnear

text: Kinnear was born on 8 January 1934 in Wigan, Lancashire, the son of Annie ("née" Durie, previously Smith) and Roy Kinnear. He had a sister, Marjory. His parents were Scottish, originally from Edinburgh. His father was an international in both rugby union and rugby league, having played for and Great Britain. He scored 81 tries in 184 games for Wigan; he collapsed and died while playing rugby union with the RAF in 1942, at the age of 38. Scotland Rugby League have named their Student Player of the Year Award after him.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: Kinnear was educated at George Heriot's School in Edinburgh. At the age of 17, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).


title: Roy Kinnear

text: Kinnear's acting career began in 1955, playing Albert in "The Young in Heart", at the repertory theatre, Newquay. In 1959 he joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, performing in both the 1960 play and 1963 film of "Sparrows Can't Sing".


title: Roy Kinnear

text: Kinnear's television debut was on the STV children's series, "Mr. Fixit" in 1959, before gaining national attention as a participant in the television show "That Was the Week That Was".


title: Roy Kinnear

text: Kinnear later appeared in many films and television shows, including "Help!", "Till Death Us Do Part", "Doctor at Large", "Man About the House", "George and Mildred", "The Dick Emery Show" (as Gaylord's long-suffering father) and four episodes of "The Avengers". He starred in "Cowboys", a sitcom about builders. His best-known films are those he made with director and close friend Richard Lester: "Help!", "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum", "How I Won the War", "The Bed Sitting Room", "Juggernaut" and the "Musketeer" series of the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: He appeared with Christopher Lee in the Hammer horror film "Taste the Blood of Dracula" (1970). Also in 1970 he played Mr. Perkins, Melody's father in Waris Hussein's "Melody", a puppy love story. He played the father of spoiled rich girl Veruca Salt in the film "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971), an adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's novel "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".


title: Roy Kinnear

text: He guest-starred in "The Goodies'" episode "Rome Antics" (1975) as the Roman Emperor, and in the BBC's "Ripping Yarns" episode "Escape From Stalag Luft 112B" (1977) as the fearsome German Sergeant Vogel.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: He narrated and provided voices for the stop-motion children's television show "Bertha". He appeared in two music videos for Mike and the Mechanics ("All I Need Is a Miracle" and "Taken In") as the band's manager; in the former, he was reunited with his "Help!" co-star Victor Spinetti.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: He narrated "Towser" and "Bertha", voiced Pipkin in the 1978 film "Watership Down" and voiced Texas Pete's henchman Bulk in "SuperTed" (also with Victor Spinetti, who voiced the evil Texas Pete). Kinnear appeared regularly on the stage. In later life he appeared in productions such as "The Travails of Sancho Panza" (playing the title role), and in "The Cherry Orchard", in 1985.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: His final completed roles were in "A Man for All Seasons" (1988) a made-for-television film directed by and starring Charlton Heston, John Gielgud and Vanessa Redgrave, as a patient in the BBC One hospital drama "Casualty", and a voice role as Mump in "The Princess and the Goblin", which was released in 1991, three years after his sudden death in September 1988. Following his death, the "Casualty" episode was postponed. It finally aired in August 1989.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: Kinnear was married to actress Carmel Cryan. They had three children, including actor Rory and casting director Kirsty. Their elder daughter, Karina, was quadriplegic and had learning difficulties; she died in May 2020.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: On 19 September 1988, Kinnear fell from a horse during the making of "The Return of the Musketeers" in Toledo, Spain, and sustained a broken pelvis and internal bleeding. He was taken to a hospital in Madrid, but died the next day from a heart attack, brought on by his injuries. He was 54 years old.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: He was buried in East Sheen Cemetery, London. Following his death, Kinnear's family sued the production company and the film's director, charging, from eyewitness testimonies, that the producer was cutting corners to save money and time, and that the rushed speed of filming contributed to the accident. In 1991, they received a £650,000 settlement.


title: Roy Kinnear

text: In May 1994, the "Roy Kinnear Trust", which was inspired by his daughter, Karina (1972–2020), was founded to help improve the life of young adults with physical and mental disabilities.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Dante's Inferno is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Portable in February 2010. The PlayStation Portable version was developed by Artificial Mind and Movement.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: The game's story is loosely based on "Inferno", the first canticle of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy". It follows Dante, imagined as a Templar knight from The Crusades, who, guided by the spirit of the poet Virgil, must fight through the nine Circles of Hell to rescue Beatrice from the clutches of Lucifer himself. In the game, players control Dante from a third-person perspective. His primary weapon is a scythe that can be used in a series of combination attacks and finishing moves. Many attack combinations and abilities can be unlocked in exchange for souls, an in-game currency that is collected upon defeating enemies. Some downloadable contents were subsequently released, including "Dark Forest", a prequel story, and "Trials of St. Lucia", which features St. Lucia as a playable character.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Before the game's release, "Dante's Inferno" underwent a prominent, elaborate, and at times controversial marketing campaign led by the game's publisher Electronic Arts. This included the release of a fake religious game called "Mass: We Pray", a motion controller-based game supposedly allowing players to engage in an interactive prayer and church sermon.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: The game received generally positive reviews by critics, with praise for the gameplay, art direction, voice acting, story, sound design, and depiction of Hell. It also spawned a comic book series and an animated movie, "", which was released direct-to-DVD simultaneously with it.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: "Dante's Inferno" is an action-adventure game. The player controls Dante, the game's protagonist, and engages in fast-paced combat, platforming and environment-based puzzles. In the game, Dante's primary weapon is a scythe that can be used in a series of combination attacks and finishing moves. He has a Holy Cross that fires a volley of energy as a projectile attack. In addition, Dante can use numerous magic based attacks and abilities channeled from a mana pool to help in combat, many of which are obtained as the game progresses. A quick time event system is used when attempting to discharge the demon of its master (unbind from host) and during boss fights, where players must press the highlighted button on screen in order to continue the chain of attacks, or be countered and wounded otherwise.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Many attack combinations and abilities can be unlocked in exchange for souls, an in-game currency that is collected upon defeating enemies or locating soul fountains. Each of these skills fall into the Holy (represented by blue orbs) skill tree. At the beginning of the game, the skill tree is equal in power, but as Dante gains more Holy experience, more abilities become available for purchase. Experience is collected through the game's "Absolve" system, where upon defeating enemies, Dante can absolve and save them with the Holy Cross. Much experience can also be accumulated in absolving the damned souls of many famous figures in history that appear in Dante Alighieri's original "The Divine Comedy" determining their fate, players enter a mini game where the characters' "sins" move towards the center of the screen, pressing required action symbols once the sin is in place. Players are rewarded with more souls and experience as the number of sins collected increases.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: The game involves large sections of platforming, including swinging between ropes and climbing walls, both of which can involve hazards such as fire or swinging blades. There is also a series of environment-based puzzle sequences that can impair the progress of Dante's quest, such as requiring the correct positioning of movable objects or pulling levers at the appropriate time. In addition, there are numerous hidden passages where Biblical relics can be found and equipped to improve Dante's abilities.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: The story follows Dante (Graham McTavish), a Templar knight from the Crusade who has committed numerous atrocities during the Third Crusade. Dante is entrusted to keep a group of prisoners safe so King Richard I could obtain a holy relic, the True Cross, from Saladin. But once he brutally slaughters them, Dante is ordered to take the holy relic. During the attack, Dante is stabbed in the back by an assassin, whereupon the grim reaper (Dee Bradley Baker) appears and condemns Dante for his sins, despite being promised by a bishop that his sins would be absolved. Dante refuses to accept his fate, vows to redeem himself, and defeats the grim reaper while taking his scythe. Dante leaves the Crusade, sewing a red holy cross-shaped tapestry into his torso, depicting every sin he has committed in the past. He returns to Florence, only to find his lover Beatrice Portinari (Vanessa Branch) and father Alighiero (JB Blanc) brutally murdered. Beatrice's soul appears before Dante, telling him that she knew he would come after her before a shadowy manifestation of Lucifer (John Vickery) drags her into darkness. After making it to a chapel, Dante blesses the holy cross that Beatrice gave him upon making their vows to be true to each other, to protect him against the evils that await. Upon doing so, a crack in the earth opens up, allowing Dante to descend to the Gates of Hell.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: At the Gates, he encounters Virgil (Bart McCarthy), who knows of Dante's past sins, yet agrees to guide him through the Nine Circles of Hell in exchange for Beatrice putting in a word for him in Heaven. Dante begins his descent at the shores of Hell where the newly damned souls are forced aboard the great ferry of Charon (Bart McCarthy), a massive living ship. Charon denies Dante passage due to not being truly dead, while commenting that Beatrice made "a very foolish wager", but Dante sneaks aboard in order to sail across. After this, Dante tears Charon's head off using a beast-mount and throws it away, causing the boat to crash, though Charon's head survives due to being made eternal by divine power. After arriving at Limbo, Dante confronts the serpentine Judge of the Damned, King Minos (Richard Moll). After Minos denies Dante passage deeper into Hell, Dante fights the Judge and kills him. Dante then enters the second circle, Lust, where he enters the Carnal Tower to find Beatrice, whose soul is slowly being corrupted into a succubus by Lucifer, who also reveals to her that Dante broke his vows to Beatrice, sleeping with a captive woman back in Acre, as the woman offered to have sex with him in exchange for sparing the life of her "brother". Reaching the top of the tower, Dante confronts and slays the gigantic Queen Cleopatra (Alison Lees-Taylor) and her lover Mark Antony (Lewis Macleod). Entering the third circle Gluttony, Dante slays its guardian the "Great Worm" Cerberus. It is here where Lucifer shows Dante how Beatrice and his father Alighiero met their demise, both being slain by the assassin from Acre, revealed to be the husband, not the brother as she claimed, of the captive Dante slept with.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: In the fourth circle; Greed, Dante encounters the greatly deformed soul of his father Alighiero. After overcoming the puzzles of the fallen God of Wealth Plutus, Dante defeats Alighiero and uses Beatrice's now-enchanted cross to absolve him. In the fifth circle, Anger, Dante begins to float across the vile River Styx on what appears to be a floating platform. Upon reaching the other side, however, the platform is in fact the top of the head of the gigantic fiery demon Phlegyas who attacks Dante. Overcoming this, Lucifer appears before Dante with Beatrice, revealing that she is damned because she made a bet with him that Dante would be faithful to her, and Dante's infidelity damned her soul to Lucifer. Beatrice, now broken-hearted by Dante's betrayals, willingly gives herself to Lucifer by eating three seeds of a pomegranate. Dante rides atop Phlegyas who he controls to smash down the walls of the City of Dis and into the sixth circle, Heresy. Beyond lies the seventh circle, Violence, including Phlegethon and the Wood of Suicides. Within the woods Dante encounters his mother Bella. He becomes deeply saddened and enraged, having been told as a child that she died of an illness but in fact hanged herself because of his father's cruelty. Absolving her of her sin, he continues beyond the woods to the Abominable Sands for those violent against God, where Dante also encounters his former comrade Crusader and future brother-in-law Francesco, who is now a horribly disfigured version of his former self and desires revenge against Dante for his state of being. Upon defeating Francesco, Dante absolves him and descends into the eighth circle, Fraud.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Before Dante can reach Lucifer, Beatrice puts him through the challenges of ten stages of the Malebolge, each depicting the fraudsters throughout history from simple thieves to the false popes. At the entrance of the ninth and last circle, Treachery, Dante insists to Beatrice that he has faced all of his sins. Beatrice reminds him that he slaughtered the Saracen prisoners out of anger and that Francesco died taking the blame for it. Realizing that he has sinned beyond redemption, Dante admits that his place is in Hell and asks Beatrice to forgive him. This act of supreme sacrifice undoes Beatrice's transformation and restores her to her former self. As Dante watches, the Archangel Gabriel carries Beatrice's soul away, promising Dante that he will see Beatrice again and that his redemption is close at hand.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Journeying through the icy realm of Treachery and fighting his way to Lake Cocytus, Dante finally confronts Lucifer himself, an enormous demon chained within the frozen lake. After defeating the giant demon, Lucifer reveals that several enormous chains Dante had destroyed to proceed were the Chains of Judecca, which kept him imprisoned in Lake Cocytus and inside the body of the giant demon. Lucifer reveals that he merely used Beatrice as bait to get Dante to break the chains and free him. Lucifer emerges from the giant monster in his true form, a horned, satyr-like monster, and battles Dante. Through great struggle, Dante is able to defeat Lucifer and impales him on the grim reaper's Scythe. Before Dante can attack again, Lucifer summons the vision of the assassin stabbing Dante in Acre; which shows him collapsing to the ground. Dante is horrified to realize that he was actually killed and thus cannot be free. Lucifer gleefully reveals that, now free, he will rise, overthrow God and eliminating all that is good from the universe forever. But Dante, with the aid of the souls he gained through his trials, absolves himself and re-imprisons Lucifer again by binding his hands in the ice lake.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Dante is then taken to Purgatory, where he sees himself near Mount Purgatory with Beatrice's soul awaiting him in Paradise. He then removes the tapestry from his chest and walks away with Beatrice's soul. As the removed tapestry disintegrates, it transforms into a snake and Lucifer's haunting laugh echoes for the final time, showing that Lucifer awaits his revenge and/or that he will only be destroyed until the Last Judgment.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: A playable demo was released for PlayStation 3 on December 10, 2009, and for Xbox 360 on December 24, 2009. "Dante's Inferno" was first released in Australasia on February 4, 2010, and later across Europe on February 5 and in North America on February 9, 2010.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: In addition to the standard retail copy of the game, a second limited special edition of the game for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was released alongside known as the ""Death Edition"". Along with the standard copy of the game, the Death Edition was packaged in a fold out card packaging depicting each circle of hell as well as a second bonus disc that featured a making-of documentary, the documentary "Dante in History", the full soundtrack, a documentary on the creation of the music and audio, a digital art book ("Barlowe's Inferno") edited by visual designer Wayne Barlowe, over 10 minutes of scenes from "", and a digital reprint of the complete original poem in English by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The edition also included a voucher containing an online activated code for an additional skin model for Dante: the space suit of Isaac Clarke, the main character from Visceral's previous game "Dead Space". UK retailer Gamestation also gave away miniature figurines of Dante to those who pre-ordered the game. The edition was originally released in Europe, and later also in Australia along with the standard copy on February 15, 2010, exclusive to EB Games.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: In North America, unlike the Europe and Australia release, a special version called the ""Divine Edition"" was released in place of the standard copy for the PlayStation 3 only. Similar to the Death Edition, the Divine Edition includes nearly all the same features except the Isaac Clarke costume and the animated scene but instead includes a code for the "Dark Forest" downloadable content, to be released later in March.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: On May 14, 2010, the ""St. Lucia Edition"" was released in Italy, containing the "Dark Forest" and "Trials of St Lucia" DLCs and St. Lucia as a playable character in the cooperative gameplay.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Upon its release, a series of downloadable content (DLC) game packs were released, each containing a number of souls, used for purchasing new abilities. The first contained 500 souls and was free of charge while the rest contained 1500, 3000 and 5000 souls and cost a relatively small amount and could only be downloaded once.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: The first traditional piece of downloadable content was released a month after release on March 4, entitled "Dark Forest", a prologue level loosely based on the opening of "The Divine Comedy", that sees Dante in a dark forest before meeting Virgil. The content includes two new enemies known as the "Forest Siren" and "Death Knight" and involves a series of puzzles to overcome. In addition to the level, the download also includes an additional "Disco Inferno" costume, a novelty piece in the style of polyester disco fashion wear.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Numerous alternative costumes have also been released, including "Florentine Dante" based on the real life poet Dante Alighieri released on February 18, 2010 and "Animated Film Dante", based on the appearance of the character from "Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic", released one week later.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: "Trials of St Lucia", released on April 29, 2010, features cooperative gameplay and a game-editor. Players are able to share their created maps and levels with others. The new playable character in this DLC is St. Lucia, a Christian martyr described as Dante's guardian angel.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Before the game's release, "Dante's Inferno" underwent a prominent, at times elaborate marketing campaign led by the game's publisher Electronic Arts. The numerous advertisements highlighted certain sins associated with the circles of hell, at times promoting fake services before accusing the viewer of the sin linked to it.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Electronic Arts partnered with GameStop for a one-day promotion of "Dante's Inferno" on September 9, 2009 (9/9/9). Those that pre-ordered the game were offered a $6.66 discount, the Number of the Beast. In addition, EA conducted an unsolicited mailing in which checks for $200 were sent to selected video game critics, with the following note: "In "Dante's Inferno", Greed is a two-headed beast. Hoarding wealth feeds one beast, and squandering it satiates the other. By cashing this check you succumb to avarice by hoarding filthy lucre, but by not cashing it, you waste it, and thereby surrender to prodigality. Make your choice and suffer the consequence for your sin. And scoff not, for consequences are imminent."


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: A viral marketing campaign was also launched featuring a website and ad for a fake religious game called "Mass: We Pray", a motion controller-based game supposedly allowing players to engage in an interactive prayer and church sermon. When attempting to order the game, the website deems you a heretic and plays to a trailer for Dante's Inferno, as well as providing links to the related Facebook application called ""Go to Hell"". The application, created by Visceral Games lets users condemn their friends, groups, or photos to one of the nine circles of hell where they can then vote to punish or absolve them, or torment them with activities like "beast massage" or "succubus castration."


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Later in October 2009, EA sent a series of packages to Veronica Belmont at Qore, the "" offices and Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of the Escapist's Zero Punctuation column. The package contained a small wooden box which, when opened, played the Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up", thus "Rickrolling" the journalists that received it. The music could not be stopped through any means other than destroying the box using the hammer and goggles provided. After destroying the box, such as Veronica Belmont who posted the act on YouTube, a note read that they had given into Wrath as the note then found within the box predicted.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: EA produced a commercial for the game that was shown during Super Bowl XLIV, a fast-paced cinematic of Dante's descent into hell, overplayed by what was considered an unusual use of Bill Withers' song "Ain't No Sunshine". "Time" magazine reporter James Poniewozik referred to the ad as "something magical and funny." According to EA product manager Phil Marineu, the decision to air the ad was to concentrate on more solid titles that they believe can break through to the masses.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Another secretly fake commercial for the fictional company "Hawk Panther" encouraged viewers to visit the Hawk Panther website in order to be able to steal their best friend's girlfriend. If the link to find out more about the Hawk Panther systems is clicked on a message appears stating, "TREACHERY! Thou are condemned to the 9th Circle. Thou hast broken the bonds of trust with thy kindred. Even conspiring to stealeth thy best friend's soul mate is the worst kind of mortal offense imaginable. You shall pay for thy treachery by spending an eternity immersed up to your face, the place where shame shows itself, in the putrid, frozen waters of Hell." The site also shows a trailer of "Dante's Inferno" and a link to buy the game.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: The Facebook application developer Lolapps similarly adapted a Facebook role-playing game, "Battle of the Damned", that lets users fight through the nine circles of hell to rescue their murdered and damned wife. It rose nearly 1 million monthly active users in less than a year after launching.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Prior to "Dante's Inferno"s release, in June 2009, a protest began during E3 2009 in Los Angeles to oppose the game. Around 20 protesters, claiming to be from a church in Ventura County, held up signs that called the game sacrilegious and labeled it possibly insensitive to people's beliefs. Protesters even went as far as calling EA the anti-christ. This led to EA being accused by many people of staging the fiasco to use it as a marketing hoax. A few days later, it was officially confirmed by EA spokesman Tammy Scachter that they had hired people to protest the game and that there was no actual protest. However, in the aftermath of this revelation, several Christian bloggers protested to this, calling it an "anti-Christian" stunt.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: "Dante's Inferno" received "generally favorable reviews" for the PlayStation 3 version and "mixed or average reviews" for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation Portable versions from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. While there was substantial praise for the art style and level design, numerous critics drew unfavorable comparisons with Sony's popular "God of War" series, among other more fundamental criticisms, such as monotonous and repetitive gameplay in the latter half of the game.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: One of the most praised aspects was the game's depiction of Hell, considered creative yet graphic in nature. "GamePro" found the unique designs of the circles of Hell to be "impressively constructed", getting "a lot of mileage out of the unique setting". While some critics like IGN acknowledged the liberties taken with the original source material, they still observed that "much of what you see is appropriate for a game that tries to explore the extreme nature of Hell and its punishments", calling the overall style "visually impressive". Other critics like GameSpy even found some enemy and setting designs "shocking" yet still could "appreciate that this is Hell, and it's supposed to be disturbing".


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: However, some reviews felt the creativity waned towards the end of the game, such as GameSpot who felt "Dante's epic quest loses momentum long before you reach the end", praising earlier levels such as Lust and Gluttony yet criticizing the 10 stage challenge level of Fraud and the use of enemies outside of their respective circle. "PlayStation Official Magazine – UK" also echoed this view, saying that the game was "just going through motions for the last three or four hours", despite what it considered to have a "robust fighting system" and being "visually strong".


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: The most recurring comment over the gameplay of "Dante's Inferno" was its similarities to the "God of War" games. "Destructoid" felt that being similar to what is regarded as a great game is a positive by stating "You're not going to find a wholly original gameplay experience with Dante's Inferno, but that doesn't mean it's not a hell of an entertaining package - it's one that fans of action shouldn't miss." "Eurogamer" on the other hand felt the game was "a God of War clone at its core", that while "not a terrible game, it's just not an original one", a view GameTrailers echoed by stating "battles can be engaging, but lack some of the grace and refinement exhibited by games like God of War". While "Game Informer" also found the gameplay to be too familiar, they did find the additional elements such as the punish/absolve mechanic and usable relics to give "Dante's Inferno some individuality".


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: "Wired" gave the PS3 version a score of seven stars out of ten and called it "a ballsy take on literature that worships at the altar of "God of War"." However, Nick Cowen of "The Daily Telegraph" gave the same version six out of ten, saying that it was "by no means a terrible game, but it's not an essential title and I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it. If a sequel is on the cards – as is hinted by the ending – the developers would do well to institute a more consistent level of quality. Until then, one can't damn the players of "Dante's Inferno" for trading the nine circles of hell for a trip to Hades with Kratos." "The A.V. Club" gave the Xbox 360 version a C+, saying, "The game's rivers of blood, corpse-piles, and wailing souls make for a morbid, depression-inducing milieu. It's a relief to be shut out of the place once the final credits roll." In Japan, "Famitsu" gave the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions a score of all four eights for a total of 32 out of 40.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Regarding such similarities, in an interview for "PlayStation Official Magazine – UK", "God of War III" director Stig Asmussen instead praised the game, stating "We've been intrigued about Dante's Inferno. This is my favourite genre, and the more people that are making [these games] the better", going on to say "and this is a really rich story they're building on, it's very interesting. The day that the demo came out we were trying to download it on PSN at midnight. We all wanted to see it."


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Columbia University Professor Teodolinda Barolini, a former president of the Dante Society of America, criticized the game for its depiction of Beatrice, declaring, "Of all the things that are troubling, the sexualization and infantilization of Beatrice are the worst. Beatrice is the human girl who is dead and is now an agent of the divine. She is not to be saved by him, she is saving him. That's the whole point! Here, she has become the prototypical damsel in distress. She's this kind of bizarrely corrupted Barbie doll." Other reviews of the game include similar comments from professors regarding the characters: "Beatrice saves Dante... not the other way around," says Professor Arielle Saiber, an Italian literature professor at Bowdoin College.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: United States NPD Group sales data showed that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of "Dante's Inferno" sold 242,500 and 224,700 copies respectively on February 2010, its first month of release. The two editions also debuted together on the UK's top 10 games list for that month.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: The Xbox 360 version of the "Trials of St. Lucia" DLC received "favorable" reviews, while the PS3 version received "average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. GameTrailers said that the Xbox 360 version "may be a little steep [at 10 dollars], but it gives Dante a shot of much-needed replayability. With online co-op, a seemingly-enthusiastic community, and a suite of solid online features, the original game suddenly feels like it has some legs." However, GameSpot said that the PS3 version "does an admirable job of turning the worst idea from the original adventure into something entertaining, but it's still hampered by the same problems that made those initial trials such a drag. It's only entertaining to swing your blood-soaked scythe for so long because the combat is shallow and the objectives only offer a slight change to the core experience. However, the in-depth editor, extra playable character, and cooperative mode are different enough to lure back anyone anxious to be wrapped up in hell's clutches for a few more hours."


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: In October 2009, it was announced that the game would include a PlayStation 3 trophy and an Xbox 360 achievement entitled "Bad Nanny", which is awarded to players for killing monsters resembling children, supposedly the lost souls of unbaptized infants. This sparked a conflict with the International Nanny Association (INA), in which they encouraged supporters to oppose the game. The INA claimed that the achievement is offensive to real nannies and that it also promotes real-life violence. The INA asked the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to omit the reward and elements of infant violence. The ESRB insisted that its role was merely to label products appropriately, not to censor them, so their request could not be met. "Dante's Inferno" was released with the "Bad Nanny" achievement intact.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Film Roman, the Starz Entertainment unit behind "", released an animated direct-to-DVD version of the story that was released simultaneously with the video game. The "Dante's Inferno" project had separate anime studios being tapped to create visuals of the nine levels of the Inferno. Starz Entertainment is looking to sell both animated films to international TV buyers at the MIP market. The animation studios that participated in the making of "Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic", in order, are Film Roman, Manglobe, Dong Woo, JM Animation, and Production I.G. The released movie shows a difference in storyline and has been divided into four different styles.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: WildStorm published a six-part comic book series based on the video game from December 2009 (two month before the video game release) through May 2010. The series was written by Christos Gage with art by Diego Latorre.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: In 2013 it was reported that Universal Studios is developing a live action film based on the video game with director Fede Álvarez to direct and produced by Eric Newman and Marc Abraham with EA Entertainment vice president Patrick O'Brien. However, no updates have been provided since the announcement. So it has likely been abdandoned.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: As of July 17, 2018, "Dante's Inferno" was playable on the Xbox One as a backwards compatible title. It was also added to the EA Play Vault on July 19, 2018, as well as Xbox Game Pass.


title: Dante's Inferno (video game)

text: Since the game ends in a cliffhanger with Dante reaching Mount Purgatory, it was widely speculated that a sequel, based on the second poem in "The Divine Comedy", "Purgatorio", would enter production. Despite this, it was announced that Visceral had no plans for a sequel. Zach Mumbach of the studio stated: "I'm sure that if enough people are like, 'I got 60 dollars for "Purgatory" or "Paradiso",' then we would make that game. But I don't know. I don't get to make those decisions". In November 2011, Joshua Rubin announced that he had been hired as a writer for a video game sequel that was heavily hinted to be a sequel to "Dante's Inferno". However, no further information regarding a sequel has been forthcoming. In 2016, though not officially confirmed, an industry insider stated that the sequel was cancelled, and that it would feature Dante through Purgatory and some bits of Hell, with angels as opponents. Visceral Games was eventually closed in October 2017.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of RTI Act, any citizen of India may request information from a "public authority" (a body of Government or "instrumentality of State") which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. In case of matter involving a petitioner's life and liberty, the information has to be provided within 48 hours. The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to proactively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: The RTI Bill was passed by Parliament of India on 15 June 2005 and came into force with effect from 12 October 2005. Every day on an average, over 4800 RTI applications are filed. In the first ten years of the commencement of the act, over 17,500,000 applications had been filed.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Although Right to Information is not included as a Fundamental Right in the Constitution of India, it protects the fundamental rights to Freedom of Expression and Speech under Article 19(1)(a) and Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 guaranteed by the Constitution. The authorities under RTI Act 2005 are called public authorities. The Public Information Officer (PIO) or the First Appellate Authority in the public authorities perform quasi judicial function of deciding on the application and appeal respectively. This act was enacted in order to consolidate the fundamental right in the Indian constitution 'freedom of speech'. Since RTI is implicit in the Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, it is an implied fundamental right.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Information disclosure in India had traditionally been restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special laws, which the new RTI Act overrides. Right to Information codifies a fundamental right of the citizens of India. RTI has proven to be very useful, but is counteracted by the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, seeks to amend Sections 13, 16, and 27 of the RTI Act. Section 13 of the original Act: It sets the term of the central Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners at five years (or until the age of 65, whichever is earlier).


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Finally in Ashwanee K. Singh's case on 20 September 2020, it is stabilised that right to information is a fundamental right.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: The Act extends to the whole of India. It covers all the constitutional authorities, including executive, legislature and judiciary; any institution or body established or constituted by an act of Parliament or a state legislature. It is also defined in the Act that bodies or authorities established or constituted by order or notification of appropriate government including bodies "owned, controlled or substantially financed" by government, or non-Government organizations "substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds".


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Private bodies are not within the act's In a decision of "Sarbjit Roy vs Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission", the Central Information Commission also reaffirmed that privatised public utility companies fall within the purview of RTI. As of 2014, private institutions and NGOs receiving over 95% of their infrastructure funds from the government come under the Act.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: The Central Information Commission (CIC) held that the political parties are public authorities and are answerable to citizens under the RTI Act. The CIC said that eight national parties - Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI(M), CPI, BSP, NPP and AITC - has been substantially funded indirectly by the Central Government and have the character of public authorities under the RTI Act as they perform public functions. But in August 2013 the government introduced a Right To Information (Amendment) Bill which would remove political parties from the scope of the law. Currently no parties are under the RTI Act and a case has been filed for bringing all political parties under it.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: The Right to Information Act 2019 passed on July 25, 2019 modified the terms and conditions of service of the CIC and Information Commissioners at the centre and in states. It had been criticized as watering down the independence of the information commissions.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Supreme Court of India on 13 November 2019, upheld the decision of the Delhi High Court bringing the office of Chief Justice of India under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: State and Central Information Commissions are independent bodies and Central Information Commission has no jurisdiction over the State Information Commission.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: A citizen who desires to seek some information from a public authority is required to send, along with the application (a Postal order or DD (Demand draft) or a bankers cheque) or a court stamp payable to the Accounts Officer of the public authority as fee prescribed for seeking information. If the person is from a disadvantaged community, he/she need not pay. The applicant may also be required to pay further fee towards the cost of providing the information, details of which shall be intimated to the applicant by the PIO (Public Information Officer) as prescribed by the RTI ACT.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: A digital portal has been set up, "RTI Portal", a gateway to the citizens for quick search of information on the details of first Appellate Authorities, PIOs etc. amongst others, besides access to RTI related information disclosures published on the web by various Public Authorities under the government of India as well as the State Governments. It is an initiative taken by Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: The Right to information in India has been mired with controversies ranging from their use in political battles, asking for educational degrees of political rivals, or cases of blatant refusals to provide information on high-profile projects to allegations of misuse by civil society. The backlash against RTI by the state hampered the citizen's right to know.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) data points to over 310 cases across India where people were either attacked, physically or mentally harassed or had their property damaged because of the information they sought under RTI. The data throws up over 50 alleged murders and two suicides that were directly linked with RTI applications filed. R.T.I. Act 2005 applies to both central as well as state governments. It also covers the acts and functionaries of the public authorities.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: There is a consensus felt that there is a need to amend the RTI Act to provide for the protection of those seeking information under the Act. The Asian Centre for Human Rights recommends that a separate chapter, "Protection of those seeking information under the (RTI) Act", be inserted into the Act.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Many civil society members have recently alleged the subversion of the right to information Act by the invocation of Intellectual Property rights argument by the government agencies from time to time.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Gujarat State Information Commission banned 10 people from filing RTI queries, citing that these people were "harassing government officials" by filing multiple queries. There are no provisions under which Commissions can ban people from filing RTIs. That's why the ban was criticized as “wholly unconstitutional”.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Scholars argue that the Right to Information Act's original intent to make government transparent and accountable is faltering as RTI requests are rejected and the bureaucratic systems are bogged down by millions of requests.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Many RTIs are rejected because the bureaucratic requirements (including the technocratic language used) of filing are too onerous and legalistic for ordinary citizens. Sixty percent of the RTI appeals made to Information Commissioners in Delhi are rejected for a variety of reasons, including that appeals are not typed or not written in English, or lack an index of the papers attached or a list of date. This bureaucratic barrier, worse for those without access to higher education or information, makes the right to information inaccessible. Many citizens have to seek out NGOs, RTI activists, or lawyers, to file their RTIs.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: The Indian Express reported on August 10, 2022 that the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has blacklisted and barred at least nine applicants from filing applications under the RTI Act in the past two years.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: Many activists view the Right to Information Act as a final liberation from British colonialism; they describe the RTI law as “a tool for empowering ordinary citizens and changing the culture of governance by making it transparent, less corrupt, participatory, and accountable". They also note that RTI requests provide strategy and substance for activists on a broad range of social issues, including "land and environmental rights, social security benefits, the working of financial institutions, political party financing reform, civic infrastructure, and even public-private partnerships”.


title: Right to Information Act, 2005

text: As per section 24 of the Act, intelligence and security organisations, both central and state, are exempted from the RTI Act except in cases of corruption or human rights violation. Such central organisations are listed in schedule 2 of the Act. The schedule has been amended four times, in September 2005, March 2008, October 2008 and May 2021.


title: Ardennes

text: The Ardennes ( ; ; ; ; ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geologically, the range is a western extension of the Eifel; both were raised during the Givetian age of the Devonian (382.7 to 387.7 million years ago), as were several other named ranges of the same greater range.


title: Ardennes

text: The Ardennes proper stretches well into Germany and France (lending its name to the Ardennes department and the former Champagne-Ardenne region) and geologically into the Eifel (the eastern extension of the Ardennes Forest into Bitburg-Prüm, Germany); most of it is in the southeast of Wallonia, the southern and more rural part of Belgium (away from the coastal plain but encompassing more than half of the country's total area). The eastern part of the Ardennes forms the northernmost third of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, also called "Oesling" (). On the southeast the Eifel region continues into the German state of the Rhineland-Palatinate.


title: Ardennes

text: The trees and rivers of the Ardennes provided the charcoal industry assets that enabled the great industrial period of Wallonia in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was arguably the second great industrial region of the world. The greater region maintained an industrial eminence into the 20th century, after coal replaced charcoal in metallurgy.


title: Ardennes

text: Much of the Ardennes is covered in dense forests, with the hills averaging around in height but rising to over in the boggy moors of the High Fens region of south-eastern Belgium. The region is typified by steep-sided valleys carved by swift-flowing rivers, the most prominent of which is the Meuse. Its most populous cities are Verviers in Belgium and Charleville-Mézières in France, both exceeding 50,000 inhabitants. The Ardennes is otherwise relatively sparsely populated, with few of the cities exceeding 10,000 inhabitants. (Exceptions include Belgium's Eupen and Bastogne.)


title: Ardennes

text: The Eifel range in Germany adjoins the Ardennes and is part of the same geological formation, although they are conventionally regarded as being two distinct areas.


title: Ardennes

text: The Ardennes are the remnants of a mountain range formed during the Hercynian orogeny; in France similar formations are the Armorican Massif, the Massif Central, and the Vosges. The low interior of such former mountains often contains coal, plus iron, zinc and other metals in the sub-soil. This geologic fact explains the greatest part of the geography of Wallonia and its history. In the North and West of the Ardennes lie the valleys of the Sambre and Meuse rivers, forming an arc (Sillon industriel) going across the most industrial provinces of Wallonia, for example Hainaut Province, along the river Haine (the etymology of Hainaut); the Borinage, the "Centre" and Charleroi along the river Sambre; Liège Province along the river Meuse.


title: Ardennes

text: The region was uplifted by a mantle plume during the last few hundred thousand years, as measured from the present elevation of old river terraces.


title: Ardennes

text: This geological region is important in the history of Wallonia because this former mountain is at the origin of the economy, the history, and the geography of Wallonia. "Wallonia presents a wide range of rocks of various ages. Some geological stages internationally recognized were defined from rock sites located in Wallonia: e.g. Frasnian (Frasnes-lez-Couvin), Famennian (Famenne), Tournaisian (Tournai), Visean (Visé), Dinantian (Dinant) and Namurian (Namur)". Except for the Tournaisian, all these rocks are within the Ardennes geological area.


title: Ardennes

text: The Ardennes includes the greatest part of Belgium's Luxembourg Province (number 4; not to be confused with the neighbouring Grand Duchy of Luxembourg), the south of Namur Province (number 5), and Liège Province (number 3), plus a very small part of Hainaut Province (number 2), as well as the northernmost third of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, called "Oesling" () and the main part of the French Ardennes department.


title: Ardennes

text: Before the 19th century industrialization, the first furnaces in these four Belgian provinces (all in the Wallonia region) and in the French Ardennes used charcoal for fuel, made from harvesting the Ardennes forest. This industry was also in the extreme south of present-day Luxembourg Province (which until 1839 was part of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg), in the region called Gaume. The most important part of the Walloon steel industry, using coal, was built around the coal mines, mainly in the region around the cities of Liège, Charleroi, La Louvière, the Borinage, and further in the Walloon Brabant (in Tubize). Wallonia became the second industrial power area of the world (after Great Britain) in proportion to its territory and to its population (see further).


title: Ardennes

text: The rugged terrain and the harsh climate of the Ardennes limits the scope for agriculture; arable and dairy farming in cleared areas form the mainstay of the agricultural economy. The region is rich in timber and minerals, and Liège and the city of Namur are both major industrial centres. The extensive forests have an abundant population of wild game. The scenic beauty of the region and its wide variety of outdoor activities, including hunting, cycling, walking and canoeing, make it a popular tourist destination.


title: Ardennes

text: The region takes its name from the vast ancient forest known as "Arduenna Silva" in the Roman Period. "Arduenna" probably derives from a Gaulish cognate of the Brythonic word "ardu-" as in the ("high") and the Latin "arduus" ("high", "steep"). The second element is less certain, but may be related to the Celtic element "*windo-" as in the Welsh wyn/wen ("fair", "blessed"), which tentatively suggests an original meaning of "The forest of blessed/fair heights".


title: Ardennes

text: The Ardennes likely shares this derivation with the numerous "Arden" place names in Britain, including the Forest of Arden.


title: Ardennes

text: A song about Charlemagne, the Old French 12th-century chanson de geste "Quatre Fils Aymon", mentions many of Wallonia's rivers, villages and other places. In Dinant the rock named "Bayard" takes its name for Bayard, the magic bay horse which, according to legend, jumped from the top of the rock to the other bank of the Meuse.


title: Ardennes

text: On their pillaging raids in the years 881 and 882, the Vikings used the old Roman roads in the Ardennes and attacked the abbeys of Malmedy and Stablo and destroyed Prüm Abbey in the Eifel.


title: Ardennes

text: The strategic position of the Ardennes has made it a battleground for European powers for centuries. Much of the Ardennes formed part of the Duchy (since 1815, the Grand Duchy) of Luxembourg, a member state of the Holy Roman Empire, which changed hands numerous times between the powerful dynasties of Europe. In 1793 revolutionary France annexed the whole area, together with all other territories west of the Rhine river. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna, which dealt with the political aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, restored the previous geographical situation, with most of the Ardennes becoming part of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After the revolution of 1830, which resulted in the establishment of the Kingdom of Belgium, the political future of the Ardennes became a matter of much dispute between Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, as well as involving the contemporary great powers of France, Prussia, and Great Britain. As a result, in 1839, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg ceded the westernmost 63% of its territory (being also the main part of the Ardennes) to the new Kingdom of Belgium, which is now its Luxembourg Province.


title: Ardennes

text: In the 20th century the Ardennes was widely thought by leading military strategists to be unsuitable for large-scale military operations, due to its difficult terrain and narrow lines of communications. However, in both World War I and World War II, Germany successfully gambled on making a rapid passage through the Ardennes to attack a relatively lightly defended part of France. The Ardennes became the site of three major battles during the world wars—the Battle of the Ardennes (August 1914) in World War I, and the Battle of France (1940) and the Battle of the Bulge (1944–1945) in World War II. Many of the towns of the region suffered severe damage during the two world wars.


title: Ardennes

text: Allied generals in World War II believed that the region was impenetrable to massed vehicular traffic and especially armor, so the area was effectively "all but undefended" during the war. The German Army twice used this region to invade northern France and southern Belgium, via Luxembourg in the Battle of France and the later Battle of the Bulge.


title: Ardennes

text: The military strategists of Nazi Germany in 1939 and 1940 selected the forest as the primary route of their mechanized forces in the Invasion of France. The forest's great size could conceal the armored divisions, and because the French did not suspect that the Germans would make such a risky move, they did not consider a breakthrough there, or considered that it would take at least 15 days for an army to pass through the forest. German forces, primarily under the command of Erich von Manstein, carried out the plan in two days, and managed to slip numerous divisions past the Maginot Line to attack France from the north, and rout the French forces.


title: Ardennes

text: In May 1940 the German army crossed the Meuse, despite the resistance of the French Army. Under the command of General Heinz Guderian, the German armoured divisions crossed the river at Dinant and at Sedan, France. This was a crucial step in the push towards Paris, and France fell on 25 June 1940.


title: Ardennes

text: At the other end of the war, the Ardennes area came to prominence again during the Battle of the Bulge. The German Army, which had been forced to retreat for some time, launched a surprise attack in December 1944 in an attempt to recapture Antwerp and to drive a wedge between the advancing British and American forces in northern France. After a fierce battle the Allied forces blocked the German advance on the river Meuse at Dinant.In the postwar period, the Ardennes has become a weekend retreat that is popular among both Belgians and the neighboring countries. The tourist industry is extensive and varied in range of activities and type of accommodations.


title: Charley Pride

text: Charley Frank Pride (March 18, 1934 – December 12, 2020) was an American singer, guitarist, and professional baseball player. His greatest musical success came in the early to mid-1970s, when he was the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. During the peak years of his recording career (1966–1987), he had 52 top-10 hits on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart, 30 of which made it to number one. He won the Entertainer of the Year award at the Country Music Association Awards in 1971 and was awarded a Grammy for “Best Country Vocal Performance, Male” in 1972.


title: Charley Pride

text: Pride is one of three African-American members of the Grand Ole Opry (the others being DeFord Bailey and Darius Rucker). He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.


title: Charley Pride

text: Pride was born on March 18, 1934, in Sledge, Mississippi, the fourth of eleven children of poor sharecroppers. His father intended to name him Charl Frank Pride, but owing to a clerical error on his birth certificate, his legal name was Charley Frank Pride. Eight boys and three girls were in the family. His elder brother, Mack Pride, played Negro league baseball before entering the ministry.


title: Charley Pride

text: When Pride was 14, his mother purchased him his first guitar and he taught himself to play. Though he loved music, one of Pride's lifelong dreams was to become a professional baseball player. In 1952, he pitched for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League. In 1953, he signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees. During that season, an injury caused him to lose the "mustard" on his fastball, and he was sent to the Yankees' Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Later that season, while in the Negro leagues with the Louisville Clippers, two players – Pride and Jesse Mitchell – were traded to the Birmingham Black Barons for a team bus. "Jesse and I may have the distinction of being the only players in history to be traded for a used motor vehicle," Pride mused in his 1994 autobiography.


title: Charley Pride

text: Pride pitched for several other minor league teams, his hopes of making it to the big leagues still alive, but was drafted into the United States Army in 1956. After basic training, he was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, where he was a quartermaster and played on the Fort's baseball team. That team won the All Army Sports Championship. When discharged in 1958, he rejoined the Memphis Red Sox. He tried to return to baseball, though hindered by an injury to his throwing arm.


title: Charley Pride

text: Pride played three games for the Missoula Timberjacks of the Pioneer League (a farm club of the Cincinnati Reds) in 1960, and had tryouts with the California Angels (1961) and the New York Mets (1962) organizations, but was not picked up by either team.


title: Charley Pride

text: When he was laid off by the Timberjacks, he moved to work construction in Helena, Montana, in 1960. He was recruited to pitch for the local semipro baseball team, the East Helena Smelterites, and the team manager helped him get a job at the local Asarco lead smelter. The lead smelter kept 18 jobs open specifically for baseball players, and arranged their shifts so they could play as a team. Pride batted .444 his first year.


title: Charley Pride

text: Pride's singing ability soon came to the attention of the team manager, who also paid him to sing for 15 minutes before each game, which increased attendance and earned Pride another $10 on top of the $10 he earned for each game. He also played gigs in the local area, both solo and with a band called the Night Hawks, and Asarco asked him to sing at company picnics. His job at the smelter was dangerous and difficult; he once broke his ankle. He routinely unloaded coal from railroad cars, shoveling it into a 2,400-degree Fahrenheit furnace while keeping clear of slag, a task that frequently gave him burns. In a 2014 interview, Pride explained, "I would work at the smelter, work the swing shift and then play music," said Pride. "I'd work 11–7. Drive. Play Friday. Punch in. Drive. Polson. Philipsburg."


title: Charley Pride

text: Between his smelter job and his music, he made a good living in the Helena area. He moved his wife and son to join him and they lived in Helena until 1967, purchasing their first home there, and with their children Dion and Angela being born at the local hospital. The Pride family moved to Great Falls, Montana, in 1967, because Pride's music career was taking off and he required quicker access to an airport. The family ultimately left Montana and moved to Texas in 1969. In a 1967 interview with the Helena "Independent Record", his wife Rozene Pride commented that the family encountered minor racism in Montana, citing an incident where they were refused service in a restaurant and another time when a realtor refused to show them a home, but she felt that the family endured less racism than she saw leveled against local Native American people, whose treatment she compared to that given to black people in the South. Pride has generally spoken with fondness of the near-decade he spent there. "Montana is a very conservative state ... I stood out like a neon. But once they let you in, you become a Montanan. When the rumor was that I was leaving. They kept saying, 'we will let you in, you can't leave.'"


title: Charley Pride

text: On June 5, 2008, Pride and his brother Mack "The Knife" Pride and 28 other living former Negro league players were "drafted" by each of the 30 Major League Baseball teams in a recognition of the on-field achievements and historical relevance of 30 mostly-forgotten Negro league stars. Pride was picked by the Texas Rangers, with whom he has had a long affiliation, and the Colorado Rockies took his brother Mack.


title: Charley Pride

text: While he was active in baseball, Pride had been encouraged to join the music business by country stars such as Red Sovine and Red Foley, and was working towards this career. In 1958, in Memphis, Pride visited Sun Studio and recorded some songs.


title: Charley Pride

text: He performed his music solo at clubs and with a four-piece combo called the Night Hawks during the time he lived in Montana. His break came when Chet Atkins at RCA Records heard a demonstration tape and got Pride a contract. In 1966, he released his first RCA single, "The Snakes Crawl at Night". Nashville manager and agent Jack D. Johnson signed Pride. Atkins was the longtime producer at RCA who had made stars out of country singers such as Jim Reeves, Skeeter Davis, and others. Pride signed with RCA in 1965. "The Snakes Crawl at Night" did not chart. On the records of this song submitted to radio stations for airplay, the singer was listed as "Country Charley Pride". Pride disputes that the omission of a photo was deliberate; he stated that getting promoters to bring in a Black country singer was a bigger problem: "People didn't care if I was pink. RCA signed me ... they knew I was colored ... They decided to put the record out and let it speak for itself." While living in Montana, he continued to sing at local clubs, and in Great Falls had an additional boost to his career when he befriended local businessman Louis Allen "Al" Donohue, who owned radio stations, including KMON, the first stations to play Pride's records in Montana.


title: Charley Pride

text: Soon after the release of "The Snakes Crawl at Night", Pride released another single called "Before I Met You", which also did not chart. Not long afterwards, his third single, "Just Between You and Me", was released. This song finally brought Pride success on the country charts. The song reached number nine on Hot Country Songs on February 25, 1967.


title: Charley Pride

text: According to a news item by the Associated Press, Pride made this comment in a 1992 interview: "They used to ask me how it feels to be the 'first colored country singer' ... Then it was 'first Negro country singer;' then 'first black country singer.' Now I'm the 'first African-American country singer.' That's about the only thing that's changed".


title: Charley Pride

text: The success of "Just Between You and Me" was enormous. Pride was nominated for a Grammy Award for the song the next year. In the late summer of 1966, on the strength of his early releases, he was booked for his first large show, in Detroit's Olympia Stadium. Since no biographical information had been included with those singles, few of the 10,000 country fans who came to the show knew Pride was Black and discovered the fact only when he walked onto the stage, at which point the applause trickled off to silence. "I knew I'd have to get it over with sooner or later," Pride later remembered. "I told the audience: 'Friends, I realize it's a little unique, me coming out here — with a permanent suntan — to sing country and western to you. But that's the way it is.' "


title: Charley Pride

text: The show became the first of a long and active career playing to large audiences, his race soon becoming a minor detail compared to his success. In 1967, he became the first black performer to appear at the Grand Ole Opry since founding member DeFord Bailey, who had last appeared in 1941. Between 1969 and 1971, Pride had eight singles that reached number one on the US Country Hit Parade and also charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100: "All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)", "(I'm So) Afraid of Losing You Again", "I Can't Believe That You've Stopped Loving Me", "I'd Rather Love You", "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone", "Wonder Could I Live There Anymore", "I'm Just Me", and "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'". The pop success of these songs reflected the country/pop crossover sound that was reaching country music in the 1960s and early 1970s, known as "Countrypolitan". In 1969, his compilation album, "The Best of Charley Pride", sold more than one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Ultimately, Elvis Presley was the only artist who sold more records than Pride for RCA.


title: Charley Pride

text: Pride performed "All His Children", featured in the film "Sometimes a Great Notion" (1971). The film received two Oscar nominations in 1972, one for "All His Children".


title: Charley Pride

text: In 1971, Pride released what would become his biggest hit, "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'", a million-selling crossover single. The same year, he won the Country Music Association's entertainer of the year award, as well as its top male vocalist award in 1971 and 1972.


title: Charley Pride

text: "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" became Pride's signature tune. Besides being a five-week country number one in late 1971 and early 1972, the song was also his only pop top-40 hit, hitting number 21, and reaching the top 10 of the Adult Contemporary charts, as well.


title: Charley Pride

text: During the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s, Pride continued to rack up country music hits. Other Pride standards from this period include "Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town", "Someone Loves You, Honey", "When I Stop Leavin' (I'll Be Gone)", "Burgers and Fries", "I Don't Think She's in Love Anymore", "Roll On Mississippi", "Never Been So Loved (In All My Life)", and "You're So Good When You're Bad". Like many other country performers, Pride paid tribute to Hank Williams, with an album of songs that were all written by Hank titled "There's a Little Bit of Hank in Me", which included top-sellers of Williams' classics "Kaw-Liga", "Honky Tonk Blues", and "You Win Again". Pride sold more than 70 million records (singles, albums, and compilations included).


title: Charley Pride

text: In 1975, Pride's agent sold a 40-date tour package to a United Kingdom booking agent, who onward sold four dates to the Dublin-based Irish music promoter Jim Aiken. At the time, the Troubles were at their height, and few nonresident music and sports teams traveled there. Aiken subsequently traveled to Pride's winter 1975/'76 concert in Ohio, and persuaded Pride to play one of the concerts at Belfast's Ritz Cinema. Pride played the concert in November 1976, with his album song "Crystal Chandeliers" subsequently being released as a single in the UK and Ireland. Pride subsequently became a hero to both sides of the conflict for breaking the effective touring concert ban, his song "Crystal Chandeliers" was seen as a unity song, and the success of Pride's visit enabled Aiken to book further acts into Northern Ireland after his appearance.


title: Charley Pride

text: Pride performed the national anthem before game six of the 1980 World Series. He also performed the national anthem at Super Bowl VIII and again at game five of the 2010 World Series, accompanied both years by the Del Rio High School JROTC Color Guard.


title: Charley Pride

text: On May 1, 1993, Pride became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He celebrated his 25th anniversary of becoming a member with performances at the Opry on May 4 and 5, 2018.