title: Lizard (character)

text: In a prelude to the "Sinister War" storyline, Doctor Octopus coerced Curt Connors into using the Isotope Genome Accelerator on himself which separates him from his Lizard side. Kindred then completed the Sinister Six by having Mysterio join him as Kindred notes that his endgame with Spider-Man is approaching. Spider-Man found Connors in his wrecked lab as he was informed on what happened. Peter then took Connors home in the sewer to recover with his family. Spider-Man suspects that Doctor Octopus is forming his latest incarnation of the Sinister Six. Lizard's Isotope Genome Accelerator duplicate and the rest of the Sinister Six proceeded to compete with the other villains that Kindred enlisted to take out Spider-Man. Doctor Octopus managed to have all the villains subdued when he hacked into Black Ant's helmet by changing the setting to centipedes which affected the centipedes in every villains' head.


title: Lizard (character)

text: During the "Beyond" storyline, Maxine Danger of the Beyond Corporation sent Misty Knight and Colleen Wing into the sewers where they apprehended Lizards' Isotope Genome Accelerator duplicate. Upon being taken to Beyond Corporation's secret facility on Staten Island, the genetic template of Lizard's Isotope Genome Accelerator duplicate were used with the genetic template of Morbius the Living Vampire to create a binary clone called Creature Z which looks like a white version of Lizard with the fangs and wings of a vampire bat. After the facility was destroyed by Monica Rambeau and the Machine Man Imposter and Creature Z was overloaded with the blood it sucked out, Lizard's Isotope Genome Accelerator duplicate was rescued by Morbius. As Morbius planned to work with him in curing their conditions, he is unaware that the Lizard he rescued is an Istopte Genome accelerator duplicate.


title: Lizard (character)

text: Dr. Curtis Connors gave himself superhuman powers as a result of exposure to the Lizard Formula, allowing him to transform into the Lizard. In human form, he has none of his superhuman powers, but he is highly intelligent and a well known scientist in fields of genetics, physics, biochemistry and herpetology.


title: Lizard (character)

text: When Connors is transformed into the Lizard, his strength is increased to superhuman levels. Likewise, his speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes are also raised to a level equivalent to that of Spider-Man. He can also scale walls using a combination of his sharp claws and micro-scales on his hands and feet that create molecular friction like those of a gecko. He is highly resistant to injury due to his thick scaly hide, allowing him to resist punctures and lacerations from ordinary weapons and lower-caliber firearms. In addition, the Lizard has highly enhanced healing abilities which allow him to quickly recover from grievous wounds, including regenerating lost limbs. He also has a powerful tail which he can whip at high speeds. The Lizard has razor-sharp teeth set in muscular jaws that can deal a lethal bite (the latter is established in the Lizard's later appearances; in his earlier appearances he seems to have no teeth at all). Like a reptile, he has cold-blooded characteristics and is therefore sensitive to drops in temperature; a sufficiently cold environment will cause his metabolism to slow drastically and become dormant if he is exposed to cold temperatures for too long.


title: Lizard (character)

text: The Lizard can mentally communicate and command all reptiles within a mile of himself via limited telepathy. He has also on at least one occasion secreted powerful pheromones which caused nearby humans to behave violently. Post-"Brand New Day", a further enhancement of his telepathy granted him the power of telepathically compelling humans to act out their primal urges, by suppressing emotional control in their amygdala (the "lizard brain").


title: Lizard (character)

text: Based on various physiological and environmental factors, the Lizard's intelligence can range from bestial and animalistic to normal human intelligence. The Lizard personality has most often manifested with human intelligence, capable of speech and higher reasoning, although some versions have been more feral than others. During the "Secret Wars" in particular, he appeared less ruthless than his normal portrayal, showing concern for Volcana and the Wasp after they showed him kindness despite his usual disdain for humans. However, even when operating at the level of a human, the Lizard is rarely as intelligent as Dr. Connors, showing on many occasions an inability to understand his human self's work and use it to further his own ends despite his best efforts.


title: Lizard (character)

text: The Lizard has apparently "destroyed" the Curt Connors persona, but has subsequently begun to display some of Connors's human emotions. In contrast to his previously feral nature, he has also shown sufficient intellectual capabilities to replicate Connors' work for himself, although he is still hampered by his inability to fully comprehend human emotions.


title: Lizard (character)

text: In a 2004 story arc entitled "Lizard's Tale", written by Paul Jenkins in the "Spectacular Spider-Man" comic book, it was revealed that the Lizard persona was not a separate personality from Dr. Connors after all — Curt had been consciously controlling his reptilian alter ego all along. Furthermore, Connors was shown to know that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, despite the discovery of the secret identity never being explained or depicted. The story ended with Dr. Connors deliberately getting himself sent to prison and hoping the Lizard would not be unleashed again. The Lizard's next appearance after this was as a member of the Sinister Twelve, where he showed no indication of being controlled by the mind of Dr. Connors. Although the idea of Connors controlling the Lizard was subsequently ignored, when the Lizard's mind was briefly trapped in Connors' human form, he attempted to mutate the staff of Horizon Labs into lizard people like himself, with none of the other lizards demonstrating the same hostility to humans as the Lizard, prompting Spider-Man to speculate that the Lizard's anti-human traits came from Connors' anger at the world for his lost arm and family rather than the Lizard being completely separate from Connors.


title: Lizard (character)

text: Another continuity-related issue involves Connors' son Billy. Unlike many other Marvel Comics children, he has not appreciably grown up since the comics' stories of the 1960s. Billy's visible age also seems to waver back and forth between approximately eight and 13 years old, depending on the particular comic artist drawing the character.


title: Lizard (character)

text: In this , Billy used the Lizard serum on himself and is mutated like his father (though he is not as in control of himself as Curt). Curt and Billy try breaking into high tech facilities in an attempt to find Regent's tech to turn Billy back to normal, but are thwarted by Spider-Man and his daughter Spiderling. After defeating the reptilian father and son at Oscorp, Spider-Man contacts the Fantastic Four for help in curing Billy's condition.


title: Lizard (character)

text: The one comic storyline to date featuring the Ultimate Marvel universe version of Lizard appeared in "Ultimate Marvel Team-Up" #10. The character has appeared in a few subsequent issues of "Ultimate Spider-Man", but only in flashbacks and dream sequences. Lizard appears to be based on a basilisk lizard in design and has been presented as being less intelligent than the original Marvel iteration. Dr. Curt Conners is a noted geneticist who lost his right arm under unrevealed circumstances. He dedicated himself to finding a means of restoring lost limbs by studying the regenerative capabilities of reptiles. However, after five years without major breakthroughs, his sponsors were on the verge of cutting his funding. Drowning his disappointment with alcohol, a drunken Conners injected himself with an experimental serum in a desperate attempt to achieve results. The serum regenerated his right arm, but also transformed Conners into an inhuman reptilian creature. Seeking refuge in the sewers, he became an urban legend dubbed "the Lizard" by the press. Spider-Man sympathetically sought out Lizard who attacked the young hero until Man-Thing happened upon the scene and restored Conners to human form. Conners' restored right arm soon withered and died. However, his DNA remained irreparably damaged with dormant potential for further transformation. Conners cut himself off from his wife and son out of fear for their safety.


title: Lizard (character)

text: Dr. Conners also unintentionally created the Ultimate version of Carnage using DNA from Spider-Man and based on an analysis of his old friend Richard Parker's work on the Venom symbiote. Due to the ensuing chaos, he was arrested and Stark Industries canceled their financial support of his experiments, but his assistant Ben Reilly still had one sample of Spider-Man's DNA, setting the stage for the Clone Saga. He was last seen in "Ultimate Spider-Man" #127, where Dr. Conners was pardoned and recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. where he and Tony Stark are at when the Triskellion was blown apart by Norman Osborn during an escape.


title: Lizard (character)

text: Early details of the character's history match his 616 counterpart, with him studying reptiles to fix his arm (the cause of this has yet to be revealed), and the condition of him leaving his wife and son (Doris and Timmy) out of fear, thereby turning to alcoholism.


title: Lizard (character)

text: During the "Secret Wars" storyline, the Battleworld domain of New Quack City has a version of Curt Connors in it. This Curt Connors is a tough, anthropomorphic lizard who is a bartender at a place that Howard the Human frequently visits.


title: Lizard (character)

text: The reality-hopping heroic team, the Exiles, once found themselves on an alternate earth where Connors' experiment (in this world for a left arm rather than a right) had taken a different turn. Finding himself as the Lizard, Curt felt the need to "reproduce" by immediately injecting the Lizard formula into other people. He infected his family and they infected others, all feeling the urge to spread the transformation into lizard people. The forces of this particular world eventually managed to restrain the infected lizard people behind miles-long, man-made walls. When the Exiles visited this world, they discovered that Connors — having turned back into his human form a year ago — was intending to detonate a nuclear bomb in an abandoned submarine to wipe out the lizard people, but they were able to talk him down by arguing that the radioactive fallout would cause more damage, particularly since the lizard people were now mere herbivores (albeit partly because of the absence of other kinds of meat). Grief-stricken over what had become of his life, Connors subsequently killed himself.


title: Lizard (character)

text: In the "Marvel 1602" reality, Curtis Connors is a philosopher who was infected with the bubonic plague. He created an elixir that transformed him into a reptilian creature that resembled a "Velociraptor", but retained his mind. He worked with Baron Victor Octavius to capture the Spider.


title: Lizard (character)

text: In the Marvel Noir reality, Curt Connors is an assistant to Dr. Otto Octavius. They operated in an abandoned hospital building on Ellis Island, where they secretly used kidnapped African Americans as specimens by turning them into mindless slaves. It is unknown what happened to Connors after federal authorities raided the hospital, though he was presumably arrested along with Octavius' associates.


title: Lizard (character)

text: In "Marvel Zombies", the Lizard, like almost every other hero and villain, has become a zombie. This particular incarnation of the Lizard is apparently destroyed when he is blasted apart by several cosmic-powered heroes while fighting (and eating) Galactus.


title: Lizard (character)

text: The Connors family appear in the first story of the "Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man" series, set in the MC2 universe. Mary Jane comforts a distraught Martha when Curt goes missing again, whilst Peter, now a parent to his infant daughter May ("Mayday"), is more hesitant than before to become Spider-Man. He is eventually encouraged by his wife to track down and prevent the Lizard's latest rampage.


title: Lizard (character)

text: During the "Old Man Logan" storyline taking place on Earth-807128, Lizard is revealed to have claimed territory in Florida where he has taken the name of Lizard King.


title: Lizard (character)

text: In the pages of "Dead Man Logan" that takes place on Earth-21923, it is shown that Joseph Manfredi and his gang work for Lizard where one of his men has been transformed with the Lizard formula. After Logan slices off one man's arm and another man's leg while claiming their truck as his transportation, Manfredi arranges for them to be taken to Lizard so that he can treat them. Lizard was shown to have patched up the one who lost his leg and use the Lizard formula on the one who lost his arm.


title: Lizard (character)

text: On Earth-65 where Gwen Stacy became Spider-Woman after being bitten by the spider, Peter Parker attempts to exact revenge on those who bullied him, becoming this universe's version of the Lizard. Gwen subdues him, but Peter ended up dying towards the end of the battle due to his use of the chemicals that transformed him. Spider-Woman is blamed for his death, causing an uproar for her arrest, led by J. Jonah Jameson, with Peter essentially becoming Gwen's Uncle Ben, serving as inspiration of the need to use her powers to help others.


title: Lizard (character)

text: It is later revealed that Curt Connors was a teacher at Gwen's high school and was studying Lizard genetics, possibly being involved in Peter's transformation into the Lizard and the recent sightings of multiple Lizard-people wreaking havoc in the city.


title: Lizard (character)

text: Lizard's history is the same in this reality. Spider-Man went to Florida to investigate the "Lizard Man" sightings. Spider-Man meets Martha Connors and learns that Lizard is her husband Dr. Curt Connors. After making an antidote, Spider-Man ensnares Lizard and uses the antidote to restore him to Curt Connors. Peter Parker later told J. Jonah Jameson that the "Lizard Man" was a hoax.


title: Lizard (character)

text: A version of Lizard who wore the tentacles of Doctor Octopus, was brainwashed by Vennema Multiversal, but was freed and joined the battle against them.


title: Lachlan Watson

text: Lachlan Watson (born April 12, 2001) is an American actor, best known for playing trans boy Theo Putnam in the Netflix original series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina", and non-binary twins Glen and Glenda Tilly in the second season of the Syfy/USA Network original series "Chucky".


title: Lachlan Watson

text: Watson was born on April 12, 2001, and was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. Watson received their high school diploma through a homeschooling program in 2018.


title: Lachlan Watson

text: In November 2018, Watson was featured on a Netflix-produced talk segment titled "What I Wish You Knew: About Being Nonbinary", where they discussed gender identity with other non-binary celebrities Jacob Tobia, Liv Hewson, and Shiva Raichandani.


title: Lachlan Watson

text: Watson began acting as a child at the Burning Coal Theatre, where their mother worked. They became active in the Triangle theatre scene and landed small roles on the television shows "Nashville" and "Drop Dead Diva". In 2015, they performed in the Raleigh Little Theatre's production of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing".


title: Lachlan Watson

text: In 2018, Watson landed a regular role in the Netflix original series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" after a nationwide casting call where they sent in a taped audition. Watson plays a transgender boy named Theo Putnam (previously "Susie"). Watson stated that they used their own personal experience to shape the character and to influence the way the character's story line is written in order to resonate with genderqueer viewers. At the time of their debut in "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina", Watson was one of the youngest self-identified non-binary actors in Hollywood.


title: Lachlan Watson

text: At Sony Interactive Entertainment's "Future of Gaming" online event for the PlayStation 5 in June 2020, it was revealed that Watson would voice the anthropomorphic protagonist, Fang, of their upcoming 2022 video game "Goodbye Volcano High". In June 2022, it was revealed they would be portraying non-binary twins Glen and Glenda Tilly in the second season of "Chucky", later reviving the characters in a series of sketches on their TikTok channel.


title: Julia Lennon

text: Julia Lennon ("née" Stanley; 12 March 1914 – 15 July 1958) was the mother of English musician John Lennon, who was born during her marriage to Alfred Lennon. After complaints to Liverpool's Social Services by her eldest sister, Mimi Smith (née Stanley), she handed over the care of her son to her sister Mimi. She later had one daughter after an affair with a Welsh soldier, but the baby was given up for adoption after pressure from her family. She then had two daughters, Julia and Jackie, with John "Bobby" Dykins. She never divorced her husband, preferring to live as the common-law wife of Dykins for the rest of her life.


title: Julia Lennon

text: She was known as being high-spirited and impulsive, musical, and having a strong sense of humour. She taught her son how to play the banjo and ukulele. She kept in almost daily contact with John, and when he was in his teens he often stayed overnight at her and Dykins' house. On 15 July 1958, she was knocked down and killed by a car driven by an off-duty policeman, close to her sister's house at 251 Menlove Avenue. John was traumatised by her death and wrote several songs about her, including "Julia" and "Mother". Biographer Ian MacDonald wrote that she was, "to a great extent ... her son's muse".


title: Julia Lennon

text: Julia Stanley, later known by the family as Judy, was born at 8 Head Street, Toxteth, South Liverpool in 1914, and was the fourth of five sisters. Her mother, Annie Jane (née Millward), gave birth to a boy and then a girl, both of whom died shortly after birth. She then had Mary, known as "Mimi" (1906–1991), Elizabeth "Mater" (1908–1976), Anne "Nanny" (1911–1988), Julia "Judy" (1914–1958), and Harriet "Harrie" (1916–1972). John Lennon would later comment that the Stanley girls were "five, fantastic, strong, beautiful, and intelligent women". Their father, George Ernest Stanley, retired from the Merchant Navy and found a job with the Liverpool & Glasgow Salvage Association as an insurance investigator. He moved his family to the suburb of Wavertree, where they lived in a small terraced house at 9 Newcastle Road near to Penny Lane. Her mother died in 1945, and Julia had to take care of her father with help from her oldest sister.


title: Julia Lennon

text: Alfred Lennon—always called "Alf" by his family—was always joking but never held a job for very long, preferring to visit Liverpool's many vaudeville theatres and cinemas, where he knew the usherettes by name. At the Trocadero club, a converted cinema on Camden Street, Liverpool, he first saw an "auburn-haired girl with a bright smile and high cheekbones"; Julia Stanley. He saw her again in Sefton Park, where he had gone with a friend to meet girls. Lennon, who was dressed in a bowler hat and with a cigarette holder in hand, saw "this little waif" sitting on a wrought-iron bench. Julia (14 years old) said that his hat looked "silly", to which the 15-year-old Alf replied that she looked "lovely", and sat down next to her. She asked him to take off his hat, so he promptly threw it straight into the Sefton Park lake.


title: Julia Lennon

text: Despite standing only tall in heels, she often caught the gaze of men in the street, being attractive and full-figured. She was always well-dressed and even went to bed with make-up on so as to "look beautiful when she woke up". A nephew later said that she could "make a joke out of nothing", and could have "walked out of a burning house with a smile and a joke". She frequented Liverpool's dance halls and clubs where she was often asked to dance in jitterbug competitions with dockers, soldiers, sailors, and waiters. It was remarked that she could be as humorous as any man and would sing the popular songs of the day at any time of day or night. Her voice sounded similar to Vera Lynn's, whilst Lennon specialised in impersonating Louis Armstrong and Al Jolson. She played the ukulele, the piano accordion, and the banjo (as did Lennon), although neither pursued music professionally. They spent their days together walking around Liverpool and talking of what they would do in the future: opening a shop, a pub, a cafe, or a club.


title: Julia Lennon

text: On 3 December 1938, 11 years after they had first met, she married Alf Lennon after she had proposed to him. They were married in the Bolton Street Registry office, although none of her family were present as she had not informed them of the wedding. She wrote 'cinema usherette' as her occupation on the marriage certificate, even though she had never been one. They spent their honeymoon eating at Reece's restaurant in Clayton Square (which is where their son would later dine after his marriage to Cynthia Powell), and then went to a cinema. She walked into 9 Newcastle Road waving the marriage licence and said to her family, "There!—I've married him." It was an act of defiance against her father, who had threatened to disown her if she ever cohabitated with a lover. On their wedding night, she stayed at her parents' house, and Lennon went back to his boarding house. The next day, he went back to sea for three months, on a ship bound for the West Indies.


title: Julia Lennon

text: The Stanley family completely ignored her husband at first, believing him to be of "no use to anyone—certainly not our Julia". Her father demanded that he present something concrete to show that he could financially support his daughter, but Alf signed on as a Merchant Navy steward on a ship bound for the Mediterranean. He returned after a few months at sea and moved into the Stanley home. He auditioned for local theatre managers as an entertainer but had no success. Julia found out that she was pregnant (with John) in January 1940, but as the war had started her husband continued to serve as a merchant seaman during World War II, sending money home regularly. The payments stopped after Alf deserted in 1943.


title: Julia Lennon

text: Lennon gave birth to John Winston Lennon on 9 October 1940, in the second-floor ward of the Oxford Street Maternity Hospital in Liverpool, during World War II. Her eldest sister, Mimi Smith, phoned the hospital and was told that she had given birth to a boy. Smith would later claim that she went straight to the hospital during the middle of an air raid and was forced to hide in doorways to avoid the shrapnel from falling bombs, but in actuality, there had been no attack on Liverpool that night. Alf was not present at their son's birth, as he was at sea.


title: Julia Lennon

text: John started at his first school in November 1945–Mosspits, on Mosspits Lane, Wavertree–so she found a part-time job at a café near the school. After numerous criticisms from the Stanley family about their (still-married) daughter "living in sin" with John Dykins, and considerable pressure from Smith–who twice contacted Liverpool's Social Services to complain about the infant John sleeping in the same bed as Julia and Dykins—she reluctantly handed the care of John over to Smith and her husband, George Smith. In July 1946, Alf visited the Smith house, Mendips, at 251 Menlove Avenue, and took John to Blackpool for a long holiday, but he was secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him. Julia and Dykins found out and followed them to Blackpool. Alf asked Julia to go with them both to New Zealand, but she refused. After a heated argument, Alf said their five-year-old child had to choose between his mother or him. He chose Alf (twice) so Julia walked away, but in the end her son (crying) followed her, although this story has been disputed. According to author Mark Lewisohn, Alf and Julia agreed that she should take John and give him a home as Alf left again. A witness who was there that day, Billy Hall, said the dramatic scene often portrayed with a young John Lennon having to make a decision between his parents never happened. Alf lost contact with the family until Beatlemania, when he and his son met again.


title: Julia Lennon

text: She took John back to her house and enrolled him in a local school, but after a few weeks she handed him back to Smith. Various reasons have been suggested for her decision, such as Dykins' unwillingness to raise the young boy, Julia's inability to cope with the responsibility, or a punishment forced on her by Smith and her father for "living in sin". John blamed himself, saying later, "My mother ... couldn't cope with me." He then lived continuously at Mendips, in the smallest bedroom above the front door, with Mimi determined to give him a "proper upbringing". Julia later bought John his first guitar for after he had pestered her incessantly for weeks, but insisted it had to be delivered to her house, not her sister's. As John had difficulty learning chords, she taught him banjo and ukulele chords, which were simpler, and later taught John how to play the piano accordion. Julia's banjo was the first instrument that John learned to play 'sitting there with endless patience until I managed to work out all the chords.' After Julia's untimely death, the instrument was never seen again and its whereabouts remains a mystery.


title: Julia Lennon

text: As Smith refused to have a record player in her house, John learned how to play his favourite songs by going to Julia's house. She played him Elvis Presley records and would dance around her kitchen with him. In 1957, when The Quarrymen played at St. Barnabas Hall, Penny Lane, Julia turned up to watch. After each song she would clap and whistle louder than everyone else and was seen "swaying and dancing" throughout the whole concert. John frequently visited her house during that period, detailing his anxieties and problems, where she gave him encouragement to continue with music over Smith's objections.


title: Julia Lennon

text: During 1942–1943, Lennon lived with her son at "The Dairy Cottage", 120a Allerton Road, Woolton. The cottage was owned by George Smith, and Mimi wanted Lennon to live there because they would be closer to her house and also out of the Stanley house. As Alf was often away at sea, Julia started going out to dance halls. In 1942, she met a Welsh soldier named 'Taffy' Williams who was stationed in the barracks at Mossley Hill. Alf later blamed himself for this, as he had written letters telling her that because there was a war on, she should go out and enjoy herself. After an evening out, she would often give her young son a piece of chocolate or shortcrust pastry the next morning for breakfast. She became pregnant by Williams in late 1944, though first claiming that she had been raped by an unknown soldier. Williams refused to live with Julia—who was still married to Alf—until she gave up John, which she refused to do. When Alf eventually came home in 1944, he offered to look after his wife, their son, and the expected baby, but she rejected the idea.


title: Julia Lennon

text: Alf took John to his brother Sydney's house, in the Liverpool suburb of Maghull, a few months before Julia came to term. Julia's daughter, Victoria Elizabeth, born in the Elmswood Nursing Home on 19 June 1945, was subsequently given up for adoption to a Norwegian Salvation Army Captain and his wife (Peder and Margaret Pedersen) after intense pressure from the Stanley family. John Lennon was informed by his aunt Harriet Birch of her existence in 1964. John was so overcome by emotion, wanting to find his sister, that he placed an ad in the paper, and hired detectives to look for her. They searched Norway for Victoria, and came up empty handed, and John died never having found or met her. Her adoptive name is Ingrid Pedersen.


title: Julia Lennon

text: Lennon started seeing Dykins a year after Victoria's birth (although they had known each other before) when she was working in the café near John's primary school, Mosspits. Dykins was a good-looking, well-dressed man who worked at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool as a wine steward. She later moved into a small flat in Gateacre with Dykins. He enjoyed luxuries, and had access to rationed goods like alcohol, chocolate, silk stockings and cigarettes, which was what initially attracted her. The Stanley sisters called him "Spiv", because of his pencil-thin moustache, margarine-coated hair, and pork-pie hat, and John called him "Twitchy" because of a physical tic/nervous cough. Julia's family and friends remembered that he also had a fiery temperament, which could result in his being violent when drunk. John remembered seeing his mother during a visit to Smith's, when her face was bleeding after being hit by Dykins.


title: Julia Lennon

text: Paul McCartney later stated that Julia living in sin with Dykins while she was still married was a point of social ostracization for John, as it was often used as a "cheap shot" against him. Although Julia never divorced Alf, she was considered to be the common-law wife of Dykins. She wanted John to live with them both, but he was passed between the Stanley sisters and often ran away to Mimi's, where she would open the door to find John standing there, "his face covered in tears". Julia was accused by the family of being frivolous and unreliable— she never enjoyed household chores— and was once seen sweeping the kitchen floor with a pair of knickers on her head. Her cooking methods were also haphazard, as she would mix things "like a mad scientist", and even put tea "or anything else that came to hand" in a stew. A favourite joke would be to wear a pair of spectacles that had no glass in them, and then to scratch her eye through the empty frame.


title: Julia Lennon

text: Dykins later managed several bars in Liverpool, which allowed Lennon to stay at home and look after their two daughters (Julia and Jackie) and John, who often visited and stayed overnight, at 1 Blomfield Road, Liverpool. John and McCartney would rehearse in the bathroom of the house where the acoustics "sounded like a recording studio". Dykins used to give John weekly pocket money (one shilling) for doing odd jobs, on top of the five shillings that Smith gave him. In December 1965, Dykins was killed in a car crash at the bottom of Penny Lane, but Lennon was not told about his death for months afterwards, as it was "not [Stanley] family business".


title: Julia Lennon

text: Julia had two daughters with Dykins: Julia (later Julia Baird – b. 5 March 1947) and Jacqueline ("Jackie" – b. 26 October 1949). As Jackie was born prematurely, her mother visited the hospital every day to see her.


title: Julia Lennon

text: When Lennon was 11 years old, he started to visit the Dykins' house, and often stayed overnight. Young Julia would give up her bed to him, then share her sister's bed. Baird remembered that after Lennon had visited them, their mother would often play a record called, "My Son John, To Me You Are So Wonderful", "by some old crooner, and sit and listen to it". (Baird probably meant "My Son John"—sung by David Whitfield—which was released in 1956.) After Julia's death, the two girls (aged eleven and eight) were sent to stay in Edinburgh at Aunt Mater's (Elizabeth) and were only told two months later, by their uncle Norman Birch, that their mother had died.


title: Julia Lennon

text: The commercial success of the Beatles allowed John to buy a four-bedroomed house in Gateacre Park Drive, Liverpool, for Julia and Jackie to live in with the Birches. They had previously been made legal guardians of the two girls; Dykins' parentage had been disregarded as he had never legally married Julia. After John's death, his widow, Yoko Ono, became the owner of the house and sought to sell it, later giving it to the Salvation Army on 2 November 1993, even though John had once written a letter, stating: "I always thought of the house he's in [Birch] as my contribution towards looking after Julia [Baird] and Jackie. I would prefer the girls to use it."


title: Julia Lennon

text: Julia and Jackie later met their half-sister, Ingrid Pedersen, when they were present at the ceremony to place a Blue Heritage plaque on Smith's house to commemorate that John had lived there. Their cousin Stanley Parkes was on the ladder fixing the plaque to the wall and said, "I think I can see Ingrid" [walking towards the house]. Baird and her sister were surprised, as it meant that Parkes had seen Pedersen before, even though Baird and Jackie never had. When all three finally met for the first time, Baird was shocked that Ingrid did not look anything like the Stanley family, as she had "pale blue eyes and fair hair".


title: Julia Lennon

text: Lennon visited Smith nearly every day, where they would chat over tea and cakes in the morning room or stand in the garden when it was warm. On the evening of 15 July 1958, Nigel Walley went to visit John and found Julia and Mimi talking by the front gate. John was not there, as he was at the Blomfield Road house. Walley accompanied Lennon to the bus stop further north along Menlove Avenue with her, telling jokes along the way. At about 9:30, Walley left her to walk up Vale Road and she crossed Menlove Avenue to the central reservation between two traffic lines, which was lined with hedges that covered disused tram tracks. Moments later, Walley heard "a loud thud", and turned to see her body "flying through the air"—which landed about from where she had been hit. He ran back to get Smith and they waited for the ambulance, with Smith crying hysterically.


title: Julia Lennon

text: Lennon was knocked down and killed by a Standard Vanguard car, driven by an off-duty constable, PC Eric Clague, who was a learner-driver. Clague was acquitted of all charges and given a short suspension from duty. When Smith heard the verdict she was so incensed that she shouted "Murderer!" at Clague. Clague later left the police force and became a postman.


title: Julia Lennon

text: John could not bring himself to look at his mother's body when he was taken to the Sefton General Hospital, and was so distraught that he put his head on Smith's lap throughout the funeral service. He refused to talk to Walley for months afterwards, and Walley felt that John somehow held him responsible. Lennon was buried in Allerton Cemetery, in Liverpool. Her gravesite was for some time unmarked, but it was later identified as "CE (Church of England) 38-805". The graveyard's location is approx. 1.19 miles east of 1 Blomfield Road. Baird said that the Stanley family hoped to finally put a headstone on her mother's grave, which she hoped "will be a private affair for the family and not for the public". A headstone was subsequently placed on Lennon's grave (replacing a wooden cross), with the words "Mummy, John, Victoria, Julia, Jackie" inscribed.


title: Julia Lennon

text: His mother's death traumatised the teenage John and, for the next two years, he drank heavily and frequently got into fights, consumed by a "blind rage". It contributed to the emotional difficulties that haunted him for much of his life, but also served to draw him closer to McCartney, who had also lost his mother at an early age. Her memory inspired songs such as the 1968 Beatles song "Julia", with its dreamlike imagery of "hair of floating sky glimmering", recalling John's boyhood memories of his mother. He remarked that the song "was sort of a combination of Yoko [Ono] and my mother blended into one". "Mother" and "My Mummy's Dead" were both written under the influence of Arthur Janov's "Primal Scream" therapy, and released on his solo album "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" in 1970. John's first son, Julian, born in 1963, was named after her.


title: Julia Lennon

text: When he inducted John Lennon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, Paul McCartney described Julia in his speech as a very beautiful woman with long red hair who played the ukulele. He commented that he had to teach John the guitar chords since John would just play the ukulele chords that his mother had taught him on guitar.


title: Julia Lennon

text: She was portrayed by Christine Kavanagh in "" (2000), and by Anne-Marie Duff in "Nowhere Boy" (2009).


title: Alex Russell (actor)

text: Alexander Andrew Russell (born 11 December 1987) is an Australian actor and director. He is known for starring in the films "Chronicle" (2012) and "Believe Me" (2014). Since 2017, Russell has portrayed Jim Street in the CBS crime action-drama series "S.W.A.T."


title: Alex Russell (actor)

text: Russell was born in Brisbane and grew up in Rockhampton, Queensland. He is the son of surgeon Dr. Andrew Russell and nurse Frances Russell. He has a younger brother, Dominic, and a younger sister, Georgiana. He finished studies at Rockhampton Grammar School in 2004 and afterward attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney.


title: Alex Russell (actor)

text: Russell made his debut in the 2010 film "Wasted on the Young". In 2011, he appeared in two short films, "The Best Man" and "Halloween Knight". He directed a short film as well, titled "Love and Dating in L.A.", which was featured on El Rey Network's "Peoples Showcase: Horror Edition".


title: Alex Russell (actor)

text: In 2012, Russell starred in Josh Trank's found footage science fiction film "Chronicle", which was a critical and commercial success. A year later, he featured in Kimberly Peirce's remake of Stephen King's "Carrie" as Billy Nolan, a role originated by John Travolta. In 2014, he starred in the independent film "Believe Me".


title: Alex Russell (actor)

text: Five years after his TV debut as a guest star on "", in 2012, Russell joined the main cast of the 2017 reboot of the 1975 series "S.W.A.T." as Officer Jim Street, the role originally played by Robert Urich.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Ventricular fibrillation (V-fib or VF) is an abnormal heart rhythm in which the ventricles of the heart quiver. It is due to disorganized electrical activity. Ventricular fibrillation results in cardiac arrest with loss of consciousness and no pulse. This is followed by sudden cardiac death in the absence of treatment. Ventricular fibrillation is initially found in about 10% of people with cardiac arrest.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Ventricular fibrillation can occur due to coronary heart disease, valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathy, Brugada syndrome, long QT syndrome, electric shock, or intracranial hemorrhage. Diagnosis is by an electrocardiogram (ECG) showing irregular unformed QRS complexes without any clear P waves. An important differential diagnosis is torsades de pointes.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Treatment is with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation. Biphasic defibrillation may be better than monophasic. The medication epinephrine or amiodarone may be given if initial treatments are not effective. Rates of survival among those who are out of hospital when the arrhythmia is detected is about 17% while in hospital it is about 46%.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Ventricular fibrillation is a cause of cardiac arrest. The ventricular muscle twitches randomly rather than contracting in a co-ordinated fashion (from the apex of the heart to the outflow of the ventricles), and so the ventricles fail to pump blood around the body – because of this, it is classified as a cardiac arrest rhythm, and patients in V-fib should be treated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and prompt defibrillation. Left untreated, ventricular fibrillation is rapidly fatal as the vital organs of the body, including the heart, are starved of oxygen, and as a result patients in this rhythm will not be conscious or responsive to stimuli. Prior to cardiac arrest, patients may complain of varying symptoms depending on the underlying cause. Patients may exhibit signs of agonal breathing, which to a layperson can look like normal spontaneous breathing, but is a sign of hypoperfusion of the brainstem.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: It has an appearance on electrocardiography of irregular electrical activity with no discernable pattern. It may be described as 'coarse' or 'fine' depending on its amplitude, or as progressing from coarse to fine V-fib. Coarse V-fib may be more responsive to defibrillation, while fine V-fib can mimic the appearance of asystole on a defibrillator or cardiac monitor set to a low gain. Some clinicians may attempt to defibrillate fine V-fib in the hope that it can be reverted to a cardiac rhythm compatible with life, whereas others will deliver CPR and sometimes drugs as described in the advanced cardiac life support protocols in an attempt to increase its amplitude and the odds of successful defibrillation.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Ventricular fibrillation has been described as "chaotic asynchronous fractionated activity of the heart" (Moe et al. 1964). A more complete definition is that ventricular fibrillation is a "turbulent, disorganized electrical activity of the heart in such a way that the recorded electrocardiographic deflections continuously change in shape, magnitude and direction".


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Ventricular fibrillation most commonly occurs within diseased hearts, and, in the vast majority of cases, is a manifestation of underlying ischemic heart disease. Ventricular fibrillation is also seen in those with cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, and other heart pathologies. In addition, it is seen with electrolyte imbalance, overdoses of cardiotoxic drugs, and following near drowning or major trauma. It is also notable that ventricular fibrillation occurs where there is no discernible heart pathology or other evident cause, the so-called idiopathic ventricular fibrillation.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation occurs with a reputed incidence of approximately 1% of all cases of out-of-hospital arrest, as well as 3–9% of the cases of ventricular fibrillation unrelated to myocardial infarction, and 14% of all ventricular fibrillation resuscitations in patients under the age of 40. It follows then that, on the basis of the fact that ventricular fibrillation itself is common, idiopathic ventricular fibrillation accounts for an appreciable mortality. Recently described syndromes such as the Brugada Syndrome may give clues to the underlying mechanism of ventricular arrhythmias. In the Brugada syndrome, changes may be found in the resting ECG with evidence of right bundle branch block (RBBB) and ST elevation in the chest leads V1-V3, with an underlying propensity to sudden cardiac death.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: The relevance of this is that theories of the underlying pathophysiology and electrophysiology must account for the occurrence of fibrillation in the apparent "healthy" heart. It is evident that there are mechanisms at work that we do not fully appreciate and understand. Investigators are exploring new techniques of detecting and understanding the underlying mechanisms of sudden cardiac death in these patients without pathological evidence of underlying heart disease.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Familial conditions that predispose individuals to developing ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death are often the result of gene mutations that affect cellular transmembrane ion channels. For example, in Brugada Syndrome, sodium channels are affected. In certain forms of long QT syndrome, the potassium inward rectifier channel is affected.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: In 1899, it was also found that ventricular fibrillation was, typically, the ultimate cause of death when the electric chair was used.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Automaticity is a measure of the propensity of a fiber to initiate an impulse spontaneously. The product of a hypoxic myocardium can be hyperirritable myocardial cells. These may then act as pacemakers. The ventricles are then being stimulated by more than one pacemaker. Scar and dying tissue is inexcitable, but around these areas usually lies a penumbra of hypoxic tissue that is excitable. Ventricular excitability may generate re-entry ventricular arrhythmia.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Most myocardial cells with an associated increased propensity to arrhythmia development have an associated loss of membrane potential. That is, the maximum diastolic potential is less negative and therefore exists closer to the threshold potential. Cellular depolarisation can be due to a raised external concentration of potassium ions K, a decreased intracellular concentration of sodium ions Na, increased permeability to Na, or a decreased permeability to K. The ionic basic automaticity is the net gain of an intracellular positive charge during diastole in the presence of a voltage-dependent channel activated by potentials negative to –50 to –60 mV.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Myocardial cells are exposed to different environments. Normal cells may be exposed to hyperkalaemia; abnormal cells may be perfused by normal environment. For example, with a healed myocardial infarction, abnormal cells can be exposed to an abnormal environment such as with a myocardial infarction with myocardial ischaemia. In conditions such as myocardial ischaemia, possible mechanism of arrhythmia generation include the resulting decreased internal K concentration, the increased external K concentration, norepinephrine release and acidosis. When myocardial cell are exposed to hyperkalemia, the maximum diastolic potential is depolarized as a result of the alteration of Ik1 potassium current, whose intensity and direction is strictly dependent on intracellular and extracellular potassium concentrations. With Ik1 suppressed, an hyperpolarizing effect is lost and therefore there can be activation of funny current even in myocardial cells (which is normally suppressed by the hyperpolarizing effect of coexisting potassium currents). This can lead to the instauration of automaticity in ischemic tissue.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: The role of re-entry or circus motion was demonstrated separately by G. R. Mines and W. E. Garrey. Mines created a ring of excitable tissue by cutting the atria out of the ray fish. Garrey cut out a similar ring from the turtle ventricle. They were both able to show that, if a ring of excitable tissue was stimulated at a single point, the subsequent waves of depolarisation would pass around the ring. The waves eventually meet and cancel each other out, but, if an area of transient block occurred with a refractory period that blocked one wavefront and subsequently allowed the other to proceed retrogradely over the other path, then a self-sustaining circus movement phenomenon would result. For this to happen, however, it is necessary that there be some form of non-uniformity. In practice, this may be an area of ischemic or infarcted myocardium, or underlying scar tissue.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: It is possible to think of the advancing wave of depolarisation as a dipole with a head and a tail. The length of the refractory period and the time taken for the dipole to travel a certain distance—the propagation velocity—will determine whether such a circumstance will arise for re-entry to occur. Factors that promote re-entry would include a slow-propagation velocity, a short refractory period with a sufficient size of ring of conduction tissue. These would enable a dipole to reach an area that had been refractory and is now able to be depolarised with continuation of the wavefront.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: In clinical practice, therefore, factors that would lead to the right conditions to favour such re-entry mechanisms include increased heart size through hypertrophy or dilatation, drugs which alter the length of the refractory period and areas of cardiac disease. Therefore, the substrate of ventricular fibrillation is transient or permanent conduction block. Block due either to areas of damaged or refractory tissue leads to areas of myocardium for initiation and perpetuation of fibrillation through the phenomenon of re-entry.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Triggered activity can occur due to the presence of afterdepolarisations. These are depolarising oscillations in the membrane voltage induced by preceding action potentials. These can occur before or after full repolarisation of the fiber and as such are termed either early (EADs) or delayed afterdepolarisations (DADs). All afterdepolarisations may not reach threshold potential, but, if they do, they can trigger another afterdepolarisation, and thus self-perpetuate.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: The distribution of frequency and power of a waveform can be expressed as a power spectrum in which the contribution of different waveform frequencies to the waveform under analysis is measured. This can be expressed as either the dominant or peak frequency, i.e., the frequency with the greatest power or the median frequency, which divides the spectrum in two halves.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Frequency analysis has many other uses in medicine and in cardiology, including analysis of heart rate variability and assessment of cardiac function, as well as in imaging and acoustics.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Myofibre break-up, abbreviated MFB, is associated with ventricular fibrillation leading to death. Histomorphologically, MFB is characterized by fractures of the cardiac myofibres perpendicular to their long axis, with squaring of the myofibre nuclei.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Defibrillation is the definitive treatment of ventricular fibrillation, whereby an electrical current is applied to the ventricular mass either directly or externally through pads or paddles, with the aim of depolarising enough of the myocardium for coordinated contractions to occur again. The use of this is often dictated around the world by Advanced Cardiac Life Support or Advanced Life Support algorithms, which is taught to medical practitioners including doctors, nurses and paramedics and also advocates the use of drugs, predominantly epinephrine, after every second unsuccessful attempt at defibrillation, as well as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) between defibrillation attempts. Though ALS/ACLS algorithms encourage the use of drugs, they state first and foremost that defibrillation should not be delayed for any other intervention and that adequate cardiopulmonary resuscitation be delivered with minimal interruption.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: The precordial thump is a manoeuver promoted as a mechanical alternative to defibrillation. Some advanced life support algorithms advocate its use once and only in the case of witnessed and monitored V-fib arrests as the likelihood of it successfully cardioverting a patient are small and this diminishes quickly in the first minute of onset.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: People who survive a "V-fib arrest" and who make a good recovery are often considered for an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, which can quickly deliver this same life-saving defibrillation should another episode of ventricular fibrillation occur outside a hospital environment.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the industrialised world. It exacts a significant mortality with approximately 70,000 to 90,000 sudden cardiac deaths each year in the United Kingdom, and survival rates are only 2%. The majority of these deaths are due to ventricular fibrillation secondary to myocardial infarction, or "heart attack". During ventricular fibrillation, cardiac output drops to zero, and, unless remedied promptly, death usually ensues within minutes.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Lyman Brewer suggests that the first recorded account of ventricular fibrillation dates as far back as 1500 BC, and can be found in the Ebers papyrus of ancient Egypt. An extract, recorded 3500 years ago, states: "When the heart is diseased, its work is imperfectly performed: the vessels proceeding from the heart become inactive, so that you cannot feel them … if the heart trembles, has little power and sinks, the disease is advanced and death is near." A book authored by Jo Miles suggests that it may even go back farther. Tests done on frozen remains found in the Himalayas seemed fairly conclusive that the first known case of ventricular fibrillation dates back to at least 2500 BC.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Whether this is a description of ventricular fibrillation is debatable. The next recorded description occurs 3000 years later and is recorded by Vesalius, who described the appearance of "worm-like" movements of the heart in animals prior to death.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: The significance and clinical importance of these observations and descriptions possibly of ventricular fibrillation were not recognised until John Erichsen in 1842 described ventricular fibrillation following the ligation of a coronary artery (Erichsen JE 1842). Subsequent to this in 1850, fibrillation was described by Ludwig and Hoffa when they demonstrated the provocation of ventricular fibrillation in an animal by applying a "Faradic" (electrical) current to the heart.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: In 1874, Edmé Félix Alfred Vulpian coined the term "mouvement fibrillaire", a term that he seems to have used to describe both atrial and ventricular fibrillation. John A. MacWilliam, a physiologist who had trained under Ludwig and who subsequently became Professor of Physiology at the University of Aberdeen, gave an accurate description of the arrhythmia in 1887. This definition still holds today, and is interesting in the fact that his studies and description predate the use of electrocardiography. His description is as follows: "The ventricular muscle is thrown into a state of irregular arrhythmic contraction, whilst there is a great fall in the arterial blood pressure, the ventricles become dilated with blood as the rapid quivering movement of their walls is insufficient to expel their contents; the muscular action partakes of the nature of a rapid incoordinate twitching of the muscular tissue … The cardiac pump is thrown out of gear, and the last of its vital energy is dissipated in the violent and the prolonged turmoil of fruitless activity in the ventricular walls." MacWilliam spent many years working on ventricular fibrillation and was one of the first to show that ventricular fibrillation could be terminated by a series of induction shocks through the heart.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: The first electrocardiogram recording of ventricular fibrillation was by August Hoffman in a paper published in 1912. At this time, two other researchers, George Ralph Mines and Garrey, working separately, produced work demonstrating the phenomenon of circus movement and re-entry as possible substrates for the generation of arrhythmias. This work was also accompanied by Lewis, who performed further outstanding work into the concept of "circus movement."


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Later milestones include the work by W. J. Kerr and W. L. Bender in 1922, who produced an electrocardiogram showing ventricular tachycardia evolving into ventricular fibrillation. The re-entry mechanism was also advocated by DeBoer, who showed that ventricular fibrillation could be induced in late systole with a single shock to a frog heart. The concept of "R on T ectopics" was further brought out by Katz in 1928. This was called the "vulnerable period" by Wiggers and Wegria in 1940, who brought to attention the concept of the danger of premature ventricular beats occurring on a T wave.


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Another definition of VF was produced by Wiggers in 1940. He described ventricular fibrillation as "an incoordinate type of contraction which, despite a high metabolic rate of the myocardium, produces no useful beats. As a result, the arterial pressure falls abruptly to very low levels, and death results within six to eight minutes from anemia [ischemia] of the brain and spinal cord".


title: Ventricular fibrillation

text: Spontaneous conversion of ventricular fibrillation to a more benign rhythm is rare in all but small animals. Defibrillation is the process that converts ventricular fibrillation to a more benign rhythm. This is usually by application of an electric shock to the myocardium and is discussed in detail in the relevant article.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Todd Morgan Beamer (November 24, 1968 – September 11, 2001) was an American passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked and crashed as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001. He was one of the passengers who attempted to regain control of the aircraft from the hijackers. During the struggle, the Boeing 757 lost control and crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board, but saving the hijackers' intended target and additional victims.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Todd Beamer was born on November 24, 1968, in Flint, Michigan, to David Beamer, an IBM sales representative, and Peggy Jackson Beamer, a muralist, the middle child of three and only son. Beamer and his two sisters, Melissa and Michele, were raised "with a strong biblical value system and work ethic". The family relocated to Poughkeepsie, New York, and then to Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago, where David worked at Amdahl, a computer technology company.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Beamer attended Wheaton Christian Grammar School, where he played soccer, basketball, and baseball. He attended Wheaton Academy, a Christian high school, from 1983 to 1985, where he excelled in the same sports. He was elected class vice president in his junior year. After David was promoted to vice president of Amdahl's California headquarters, the family moved, and Beamer spent his senior year at Los Gatos High School, southwest of San Jose, California.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Beamer attended Fresno State University, where he majored in physical therapy and played baseball, in the hopes of playing professionally, but injuries he suffered in an automobile accident ended these plans. He returned home to Illinois and transferred to Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts college. At Wheaton College he majored initially in medicine before switching to business. He continued to play baseball and as a senior became captain of the basketball team. He graduated in 1991.


title: Todd Beamer

text: While at Wheaton College, he met Lisa Brosious, his future wife, during a senior seminar class. Their first date was November 2, 1991, the 10-year anniversary of which they had been planning to celebrate at the time of his death.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Beamer married Brosious on May 14, 1994, in Peekskill, New York, and they moved to Plainsboro, New Jersey, where Beamer began working with Oracle Corporation, selling systems applications and database software as a field marketing representative. Within months, Beamer was promoted to account manager.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Beamer and Lisa taught Sunday school at Princeton Alliance Church for six years, and worked in youth ministry. Beamer also played on the church softball team. He was a staunch fan of the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bulls and Chicago Bears. In 2000, the Beamers moved to Cranbury, New Jersey, with their two sons.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Beamer's work required him to travel up to four times a month, sometimes for as long as a week. In 2001, he earned a five-day trip to Italy with his wife for being a top sales performer. They returned home on Monday, September 10, at 5:00 pm EDT. Although Beamer could have left that night for a Tuesday business meeting in California, he opted instead to spend time with his pregnant wife, who was due with their third child the following January. He left home at 6:15 am the next morning, to take an early flight from Newark to San Francisco to meet with representatives of the Sony Corporation at 1:00 pm, planning to return on a red-eye flight that night.


title: Todd Beamer

text: United Flight 93 was scheduled to depart at 8:00 am, but the Boeing 757 did not depart until 42 minutes later due to runway traffic delays. Four minutes later, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower. 17 minutes later, at 9:03 am, as United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower, United 93 was climbing to cruising altitude, heading west over New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. At 9:25 am, Flight 93 was above eastern Ohio, and its pilot radioed Cleveland controllers to inquire about an alert that had been flashed on his cockpit computer screen to "beware of cockpit intrusion." Three minutes later, Cleveland controllers could hear screams over the cockpit's open microphone. Moments later, the hijackers, led by the Lebanese Ziad Samir Jarrah, took over the plane's controls, disengaged the autopilot, and told passengers, "Keep remaining sitting [sic]. We have a bomb on board." Beamer and the other passengers were herded into the back of the plane. Within six minutes, the plane changed course and was heading for Washington, D.C.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Several of the passengers made phone calls to loved ones, who informed them about the two planes that had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City and the third into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Beamer tried to place a credit card call through a phone located on the back of a plane seat, but was routed to a customer-service representative, who passed him on to GTE airphone supervisor Lisa Jefferson. With FBI agents listening in on their call, Beamer informed Jefferson that hijackers had taken over United 93, and that one passenger had been killed. He also stated that two of the hijackers had knives, and that one appeared to have a bomb strapped around his waist. When the hijackers veered the plane sharply south, Beamer exclaimed, "We're going down! We're going down!"


title: Todd Beamer

text: Following this, the passengers and flight crew decided to act. According to accounts of cell phone conversations, Beamer, along with Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, and Jeremy Glick, formed a plan to take the plane back from the hijackers. They were joined by other passengers, including Lou Nacke, Rich Guadagno, Alan Beaven, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, Linda Gronlund, and William Cashman, along with flight attendants Sandra Bradshaw and CeeCee Lyles, in discussing their options and voting on a course of action, ultimately deciding to storm the cockpit and take over the plane. Beamer told Jefferson that the group was planning to "jump on" the hijackers and fly the plane into the ground before the hijackers' plan could be followed through. Beamer recited the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm with Jefferson, prompting others to join in. Beamer requested of Jefferson, "If I don't make it, please call my family and let them know how much I love them." After this, Jefferson heard muffled voices and Beamer clearly answering, "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll." These were the last words spoken by Beamer heard by Lisa Jefferson.


title: Todd Beamer

text: According to the "9/11 Commission Report", after the plane's voice data recorder was recovered, it revealed pounding and crashing sounds against the cockpit door and shouts and screams in English. "Let's get them!" a passenger cries. A hijacker shouts, "Allahu akbar." Jarrah repeatedly pitched the plane to knock passengers off their feet, but the passengers continued their assault and at 10:02:17, a male passenger said, "Turn it up!" A second later, a hijacker said, "Pull it down! Pull it down!" At 10:02:33, Jarrah was heard to plead, "Hey! Hey! Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me." The plane crashed upside down into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 563 miles per hour, killing everyone on board. The plane was 20 minutes of flying time away from its suspected target, the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. According to Vice President Dick Cheney, President George W. Bush had given an order to shoot the plane down had it continued its path to Washington.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Beamer was survived by his wife, Lisa, their sons, David and Andrew (known as "Drew"), who were three and one at the time of Beamer's death, and their daughter Morgan. In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people on September 20, 2001, which Lisa Beamer attended, President Bush praised the courage of United 93's passengers, naming Beamer in particular, whom he called "an exceptional man." In a November 8 address from the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Bush would invoke Beamer's last-heard words, saying in his speech, "Some of our greatest moments have been acts of courage for which no one could have been prepared. But we have our marching orders. My fellow Americans, let's roll!" He would use them again in the 2002 State of the Union address: "For too long our culture has said, 'If it feels good, do it.' Now America is embracing a new ethic and a new creed: 'Let's roll.'"


title: Todd Beamer

text: Beamer's daughter, Morgan Kay, was born January 9, 2002, four months after Beamer's death. The President and First Lady Laura Bush were among those who sent letters to Morgan upon her birth.


title: Todd Beamer

text: A nonprofit foundation was founded in October 2001 to counsel traumatized children of 9/11 victims and survivors. Beamer's best friend, Doug Macmillan, quit his job to become the administrator of the Foundation.


title: Todd Beamer

text: In 2002, Beamer's widow, Lisa, wrote a book with coauthor Ken Abraham, "Let's Roll! Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage".


title: Todd Beamer

text: In 2002, the passengers of Flight 93, including Beamer, were posthumously awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.


title: Todd Beamer

text: The Cranbury, New Jersey post office was dedicated to Beamer on May 4, 2002, as a result of an Act of Congress authored by Congressman Rush D. Holt, Jr. The bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush.<ref name="9/11Encyclopedia">Atkins, Stephen E. (June 2, 2011). "The 9/11 Encyclopedia: Second Edition". ABC-CLIO. p. 66. Archived at Google Books. Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref>


title: Todd Beamer

text: In 2003, Wheaton College honored Beamer, an alumnus, by opening the Todd M. Beamer Center, which encompasses Anderson Commons, Coray Alumni Gym and the Student Center located on the lower level. That same year, Todd Beamer High School opened in Federal Way, Washington.


title: Todd Beamer

text: The Flight 93 National Memorial located at the crash site in Stonycreek Township includes a concrete and glass visitor center, and a white marble "Wall of Names"completed in 2011on which Beamer's name and those of his 32 fellow passengers and seven crewmembers are engraved on individual panels.


title: Todd Beamer

text: At the National 9/11 Memorial, Beamer and the other passengers and crew of Flight 93 are memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-68. An Oracle business card bearing Beamer's name and his two-tone Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust wristwatch, both of which were found damaged at the crash site, are on display inside the memorial museum.


title: Todd Beamer

text: On September 10, 2013, Wheaton Academy honored Beamer by unveiling a plaque dedicated to him on the grounds of the Academy, next to a plaque of a former student who was killed in Afghanistan.


title: Todd Beamer

text: To honor Beamer on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, fellow DePaul University alumnus Nicholas Hahn, III created the Todd M. Beamer Memorial Scholarship to educate and inspire DePaul students about Beamer's heroic example.


title: Todd Beamer

text: Beamer is portrayed by David Alan Basche in the film "United 93", and by Brennan Elliott in the TV film "Flight 93".


title: Todd Beamer

text: Beamer is featured in two panels within "The Amazing Spider-Man" volume 2#36, in which he ends his phone call with Lisa Jefferson before storming the cockpit. Spider-Man refers to the passengers of Flight 93 as "Ordinary men. Ordinary women. Refusing to surrender."


title: Todd Beamer

text: The Neil Young song "Let's Roll", written in the aftermath of the attacks, is a tribute to Beamer sung from his perspective.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: The Financial Action Task Force (on Money Laundering) (FATF), also known by its French name, Groupe d'action financière (GAFI), is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering and to maintain certain interest. In 2001, its mandate was expanded to include terrorism financing.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: The objectives of FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. FATF is a "policy-making body" that works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas. FATF monitors progress in implementing its Recommendations through "peer reviews" ("mutual evaluations") of member countries.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: Since 2000, FATF has maintained the FATF blacklist (formally called the "Call for action") and the FATF greylist (formally called the "Other monitored jurisdictions"). The blacklist has led financial institutions to shift resources and services away from the listed. This in turn has motivated domestic economic and political actors in the listed countries to pressure their governments to introduce regulations that are compliant with the FATF.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: FATF was formed by the 1989 G7 Summit in Paris to combat the growing problem of money laundering. The task force was charged with studying money laundering trends, monitoring legislative, financial and law enforcement activities taken at the national and international level, reporting on compliance, and issuing recommendations and standards to combat money laundering. At the time of its formation, FATF had 16 members, which by 2021 had grown to 39.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: In its first year, FATF issued a report containing forty recommendations to more effectively fight money laundering. These standards were revised in 2003 to reflect evolving patterns and techniques in money laundering.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: The mandate of the organisation was expanded in 2001 to include terrorist financing following the September 11 terror attacks.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: Together, the Forty Recommendations on Money Laundering and eight (now nine) Special Recommendations on Terrorism Financing set the international standard for anti-money laundering measures and combating the financing of terrorism and terrorist acts. They set out the principles for action and allow countries a measure of flexibility in implementing these principles according to their particular circumstances and constitutional frameworks. Both sets of FATF Recommendations are intended to be implemented at the national level through legislation and other legally binding measures. There are multiple groups to organise the Recommendations; AML/CFT Policies and Coordination, Money Laundering and Confiscation, Terrorist Financing and Financial of Proliferation, Preventive Measures, Transparency and Beneficial Ownership of Legal Persons and Arrangements, Powers and Responsibilities of Competent Authorities and other Institutional Measures, and International Cooperation.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: In February 2012, the FATF codified its recommendations and Interpretive Notes into one document that maintains SR VIII (renamed Recommendation 8), and also includes new rules on weapons of mass destruction, corruption and wire transfers (Recommendation 16, commonly known as the “travel rule”).


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: In June 2019, the FATF released its first guidance on the risk-based approach for virtual assets and virtual asset service providers. This guidance offers recommendations on how member jurisdictions should regulate cryptocurrency businesses, placing anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations on VAs and VASPs. It also extended Recommendation 16 to VASPs.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: The FATF's Forty Recommendations on money laundering of 1990 are the primary policies issued by FATF and the Nine Special Recommendations (SR) on Terrorism Financing (TF). The Recommendations are seen globally as the world standard in anti-money laundering as well many countries have made a commitment to put the Forty Recommendations in place. The Recommendations cover the criminal justice system and law enforcement, international co-operation, and the financial system and its regulation. The FATF completely revised the Forty Recommendations in 1996 and 2003. By 1996 the Recommendations had to be updated to include more than just drug-money laundering, as well as to keep up with changing techniques. The 2003 Forty Recommendations require states, among other things, to:


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: The FATF has issued Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing. In October 2001 the FATF issued the original eight Special Recommendations on Terrorism Financing, following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Among the measures, Special Recommendation VIII (SR VIII) specifically targeted non-profit organisations. This was followed by the International Best Practices Combating the Abuse of Non-Profit Organisations in 2002, released one month before the U.S. Department of Treasury's Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines, and the Interpretive Note for SR VIII in 2006. A ninth Special Recommendation was added later. In 2003 the Recommendations, as well as the 9 Special Recommendations were adjusted for the second time.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: In February 2004 (Updated as of February 2009) the FATF published a reference document Methodology for Assessing Compliance with the FATF 40 Recommendations and the FATF 9 Special Recommendations. The 2009 Handbook for Countries and Assessors outlines criteria for evaluating whether FATF standards are achieved in participating countries. FATF evaluates a country's performance based on its assessment methodology that covers: 1. technical compliance, which is about legal and institutional framework and the powers and procedures of the competent authorities, and 2. effectiveness assessment, which is about the extent to which the legal and institutional framework is producing the expected results.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: There are many differences between countries dealing with their legal and financial system, which is taking into consideration by the FATF. There is a set minimum of actions that meet a standard, that all countries can use regarding their own situation. This standard covers all actions that a nation should take within their regulatory systems and their criminal justice systems as well the preventive measures that should be taken by specified businesses, professions, and institutions.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: For non-profit organisations (NPOs) there has been a command for more financial transparency, to make sure that they do not become easier for terrorist organisations to launder money through the organisations. This hypothesis was thought of by intergovernmental organisations. These intergovernmental organisations include the World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Monetary Fund. NPOs are put under surveillance, especially when they are associated with "suspect communities" or if they are based or working in zones of conflict.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: FATF data is a key indicator of the quality of AML/CFT systems in the Basel AML Index, a money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment tool developed by the Basel Institute on Governance.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: There are still compliance issues in areas that might afford exploitative opportunities for transnational crime and terrorist networks. This can have detrimental effects on a country's national security through increasing risks of money laundering and financing of terrorism as well as wastage due to the implementation of inappropriate regulatory measures. The objective is to increase mitigation strategies that would enable scarce resources in fighting money laundering and terrorism financing threats.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: In addition to FATF's "Forty plus Nine" Recommendations, in 2000 FATF issued a list of "Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories" (NCCTs), commonly called the FATF Blacklist. This was a list of 15 jurisdictions that, for one reason or another, FATF members believed were uncooperative with other jurisdictions in international efforts against money laundering (and, later, terrorism financing). Typically, this lack of cooperation manifested itself as an unwillingness or inability (frequently, a legal inability) to provide foreign law enforcement officials with information relating to bank account and brokerage records, and customer identification and beneficial owner information relating to such bank and brokerage accounts, shell company, and other financial vehicles commonly used in money laundering. All remaining Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories in the NCCT initiative were delisted in October 2006, however FATF continues to maintain a "blacklist" of "High Risk" jurisdictions and a "greylist" of "Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring", and issues updates as countries on High-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions list have made significant improvements in standards and cooperation. The FATF also issues updates to identify additional jurisdictions that pose Money Laundering/Terrorist Financing risks.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: The FATF surveyed 26 jurisdictions to check their ability and willingness to co-operate with other countries in the international fight against money laundering. The review contained the summaries of these surveys. Fifteen jurisdictions were branded "non-cooperative countries or territories", because of the high number of harmful practices identified in these jurisdictions.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: , countries in the blacklist are Iran, Myanmar and North Korea. Countries and territories in the grey list are Albania, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gibraltar, Haiti, Jamaica, Jordan, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Panama, Philippines, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: , FATF has 37 countries as full members. However, through several associated regional bodies, the FATF network comprised 187 countries in total, . The FATF also works in close co-operation with a number of international and regional organisations. Countries are subjected to evaluation by FATF to see that they are upholding laws and regulations enforced by FATF.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: The FATF currently comprises 37 member jurisdictions and 2 regional organisations, representing most major financial centres in all parts of the globe:


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: Countries that are not full FATF members but are members of the FATF-style regional bodies are entitled to attend FATF meetings as individual member-delegates of the regional bodies and to intervene on policy and operational issues.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: , there is 1 country with the "FATF Observer" status, namely Indonesia, and 28 international organisations. These include the International Monetary Fund, the UN with six expert groups and the World Bank. All the observer organisations have anti-money laundering as one of their tasks. The observer organisations include:


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: The FATF has been characterized as effective in shifting laws and regulations to combat illicit financial flows. FATF incentivizes stricter regulations through its public noncomplier list, which leads financial institutions to shift resources and services away from the countries on the blacklist. This in turn motivates domestic economic and political actors in the listed countries to pressure their governments to introduce regulations that are compliant with the FATF.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: The effect of the FATF Blacklist has been significant, and arguably has proven more important in international efforts against money laundering than has the FATF Recommendations. While, under international law, the FATF Blacklist carries with it no formal sanction, in reality, jurisdictions placed on the FATF Blacklist often face intense financial pressure.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: FATF has made it difficult for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in countries to access funds to aid in relief situations due to strict FATF criteria. FATF criteria have mainly impacted NGOs that are located in Middle Eastern and terror-ridden countries. Some argue that the FATF Recommendations do not specifically set out restrictions for NGOs which often results in them going against FATF Recommendation.


title: Financial Action Task Force

text: In a 2020 paper, Ronald Pol states that while the FATF has been very successful in getting its policies adopted worldwide, the actual impact of those policies is rather small: according to Pol's estimates, less than 1% of illegal profits are seized, with the costs of implementing the policies being at least one hundred times larger. Pol contends that industry and policymakers consistently ignore this, instead evaluating the policies based on success metrics that are largely irrelevant.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 American science fiction horror film, and the first sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 film "Frankenstein". As with the first film, "Bride of Frankenstein" was directed by James Whale starring Boris Karloff as the Monster and Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein. The sequel features Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of Mary Shelley and the titular character at the end of the film. Colin Clive reprises his role as Henry Frankenstein, and Ernest Thesiger plays the role of Doctor Septimus Pretorius.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Taking place immediately after the events of the earlier film, it is rooted in a subplot of the original Mary Shelley novel, "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" (1818). Its plot follows a chastened Henry Frankenstein as he attempts to abandon his plans to create life, only to be tempted and finally blackmailed by his old mentor Dr. Pretorius, along with threats from the Monster, into constructing a mate for the Monster.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: The preparation to film the sequel began shortly after the premiere of the first film, but script problems delayed the project. Principal photography began in January 1935, with creative personnel from the original returning in front of and behind the camera. "Bride of Frankenstein" was released to critical and popular acclaim, although it encountered difficulties with some state and national censorship boards. Since its release the film's reputation has grown, and it is now frequently considered one of the greatest sequels ever made; many fans and critics consider it to be an improvement on the original, and it has been hailed as Whale's masterpiece. In 1998, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, having been deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: In a castle on a stormy night, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron praise Mary Shelley for her story of Frankenstein and his Monster. She reminds them that her intention for writing the novel was to impart a moral lesson, the consequences of a mortal man who tries to play God. Mary says she has more of the story to tell. The scene shifts to the end of the 1931 "Frankenstein", in 1899.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Villagers gathered around the burning windmill cheer the apparent death of the Monster. Hans, the father of the girl the creature drowned in the previous film, wants to see the Monster's bones. He falls into a flooded pit underneath the mill, where the Monster—having survived the fire—strangles him. Hauling himself from the pit, the Monster casts Hans' wife to her death. He next encounters Frankenstein's servant Minnie, who flees in terror.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: The body of Henry Frankenstein, who is thought to have died at the windmill, is returned to his fiancée Elizabeth at his ancestral castle home. Minnie arrives to sound the alarm about the Monster, but her warning goes unheeded. Elizabeth, seeing Henry move, realizes he is still alive. Nursed back to health by Elizabeth, Henry has renounced his creation, but still believes he may be destined to unlock the secret of life and immortality. A hysterical Elizabeth cries that she foresees death.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Henry visits the lab of his former mentor Doctor Septimus Pretorius, where Pretorius shows Henry several homunculi he has created. Pretorius wishes to work with Henry to create a mate for the Monster, with the proposed venture involving Pretorius growing an artificial brain while Henry gathers parts for the mate.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: The Monster saves a young shepherdess from drowning. Her screams upon seeing him alert two hunters, who shoot and injure the Monster. The hunters raise a mob that sets out in pursuit. Captured and trussed to a pole, the Monster is hauled to a dungeon and chained. Left alone, he breaks his chains, overpowers the guards, and escapes into the woods.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: That night, following the sound of a violin playing "Ave Maria", the Monster encounters an old blind hermit who thanks God for sending him a friend. He teaches the monster words like "friend" and "good" and shares a meal with him. Two lost hunters stumble upon the cottage and recognize the Monster. He attacks them and accidentally burns down the cottage as the hunters lead the hermit away.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Taking refuge from another angry mob in a crypt, the Monster spies Pretorius and his cronies Karl and Ludwig breaking open a grave. The henchmen depart as Pretorius stays to enjoy a light supper. The Monster approaches Pretorius, eats some of his food, and learns that Pretorius plans to create a mate for him.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Henry and Elizabeth, now married, are visited by Pretorius. When Henry expresses his refusal to assist with Pretorius' plans, Pretorius calls in the Monster, who demands Henry's help. Henry again refuses, and Pretorius orders the Monster out, secretly signaling him to kidnap Elizabeth. Pretorius guarantees her safe return upon Henry's participation. Henry returns to his tower laboratory where, despite himself, he grows excited over his work. After being assured of Elizabeth's safety, Henry completes the Bride's body.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: A storm rages as final preparations are made to bring the Bride to life. Her bandage-wrapped body is raised through the roof, where electricity is harnessed from lightning to animate her. Henry and Pretorius lower her and, after realizing their success in bringing her to life, remove her bandages and help her to stand, as the Bride of Frankenstein is born.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: The Monster comes down the steps after killing Karl on the rooftop and sees his mate. The excited Monster reaches out to her and asks: "Friend?" The Bride, screaming, rejects him. The dejected Monster observes: "She hate me! Like others". As Elizabeth races to Henry's side, the Monster rampages through the laboratory. When Pretorius warns that the Monster's actions are about to destroy them all, the Monster pauses and tells Henry and Elizabeth: "Go! You live! Go!" To Pretorius and the Bride, he says: "You stay. We belong dead". While Henry and Elizabeth flee, the Monster looks at the Bride who hisses at him. Shedding a tear, he pulls a lever to trigger the laboratory and tower's destruction.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Universal considered making a sequel to "Frankenstein" as early as its 1931 preview screenings, following which the film's original ending was changed to allow for Henry Frankenstein's survival. James Whale initially refused to direct "Bride", believing he had "squeezed the idea dry" on the first film. Kurt Neumann was originally scheduled to replace Whale but decided to film "The Black Cat" instead. Following the success of Whale's "The Invisible Man", producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. realized that Whale was the only possible director for "Bride"; Whale took advantage of the situation in persuading the studio to let him make "One More River". Whale believed the sequel would not top the original, so he decided instead to make it a memorable "hoot". According to a studio publicist, Whale and Universal's studio psychiatrist decided "the Monster would have the mental age of a ten-year-old boy and the emotional age of a lad of fifteen".


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Screenwriter Robert Florey wrote a treatment entitled "The New Adventures of Frankenstein — The Monster Lives!", but it was rejected without comment early in 1932. Universal staff writer Tom Reed wrote a treatment under the title "The Return of Frankenstein", a title retained until filming began. Following its acceptance in 1933, Reed wrote a full script that was submitted to the Hays office for review. The script passed its review, but Whale, who by then had been contracted to direct, complained that "it stinks to heaven". L. G. Blochman and Philip MacDonald were the next writers assigned, but Whale also found their work unsatisfactory. In 1934, Whale set John L. Balderston to work on yet another version, and it was he who returned to an incident from the novel in which the creature demands a mate. In the novel Frankenstein creates a mate, but destroys it without bringing it to life. Balderston also created the Mary Shelley prologue. After several months Whale was still not satisfied with Balderston's work and handed the project to playwright William J. Hurlbut and Edmund Pearson. The final script, combining elements of a number of these versions, was submitted for Hays office review in November 1934. Kim Newman reports that Whale planned to make Elizabeth the heart donor for the bride, but film historian Scott MacQueen states that Whale never had such an intention.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Sources report that Bela Lugosi and Claude Rains were considered, with varying degrees of seriousness, for the role of Frankenstein's mentor, Pretorius; others report that the role was created specifically for Ernest Thesiger. Because of Mae Clarke's ill health, Valerie Hobson replaced her as Henry Frankenstein's love interest, Elizabeth. Early in production, Whale decided that the same actress cast to play the Bride should also play Mary Shelley in the film's prologue, to represent how the story — and horror in general — springs from the dark side of the imagination. He considered Brigitte Helm and Phyllis Brooks before deciding on Elsa Lanchester. Lanchester, who had accompanied husband Charles Laughton to Hollywood, had met with only moderate success while Laughton had made a strong impact with several films including "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (for which he had won an Oscar) and Whale's own "The Old Dark House". Lanchester had returned alone to London when Whale contacted her to offer her the dual role. Lanchester modeled the Bride's hissing on the hissing of swans. She gave herself a sore throat while filming the hissing sequence, which Whale shot from multiple angles.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Colin Clive and Boris Karloff reprised their roles from "Frankenstein" as creator and creation, respectively. Hobson recalled Clive's alcoholism had worsened since filming the original, but Whale did not recast the role because his "hysterical quality" was necessary for the film. Karloff strongly objected to the decision to allow the Monster to speak: "Speech! Stupid! My argument was that if the monster had any impact or charm, it was because he was inarticulate – this great, lumbering, inarticulate creature. The moment he spoke you might as well ... play it straight". This decision also meant that Karloff could not remove his dental plate, so now his cheeks did not have the sunken look of the original film. Whale and the studio psychiatrist selected 44 simple words for the Monster's vocabulary by looking at test papers of ten-year-olds working at the studio. Dwight Frye returned to play the doctor's assistant, Karl, having played the hunchback Fritz in the original. Frye also filmed a scene as an unnamed villager and the role of "Nephew Glutz", a man who murdered his uncle and blamed the death on the Monster. Boris Karloff is credited simply as KARLOFF, which was Universal's custom during the height of his career. Elsa Lanchester is credited for Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, but in a nod to the earlier film, the Monster's bride is credited only as "?" just as Boris Karloff had been in the opening credits of "Frankenstein".


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Universal makeup artist Jack Pierce paid special attention to the Monster's appearance in this film. He altered his 1931 design to display the after-effects of the mill fire, adding scars and shortening the Monster's hair. Over the course of filming, Pierce modified the Monster's makeup to indicate that the Monster's injuries were healing as the film progressed. Pierce co-created the Bride's makeup with strong input from Whale, especially regarding the Bride's iconic hair style, based on Nefertiti. Lanchester's hair was given a Marcel wave over a wire frame to achieve the style. Lanchester disliked working with Pierce, who she said "really did feel that he made these people, like he was a god ... in the morning he'd be dressed in white as if he were in hospital to perform an operation". To play Mary Shelley, Lanchester wore a white net dress embroidered with sequins of butterflies, stars, and moons, which the actress had heard required 17 women 12 weeks to make. Lanchester said of her bride costume: "I drank as little liquid as possible. It was too much of an ordeal to go to the bathroom--all those bandages--and having to be accompanied by my dresser".


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Kenneth Strickfaden created and maintained the laboratory equipment. Strickfaden recycled a number of the fancifully named machines he had created for the original "Frankenstein" for use in "Bride", including the "Cosmic Ray Diffuser", and the "Nebularium". A lightning bolt generated by Strickfaden's equipment has become a stock scene, appearing in any number of films and television shows. The man behind the film's special photographic effects was John P. Fulton, head of the special effects department at Universal Studios at the time. Fulton and David S. Horsley created the homunculi over the course of two days by shooting the actors in full-size jars against black velvet and aligning them with the perspective of the on-set jars. The foreground film plate was rotoscoped and matted onto the rear plate. Diminutive actor Billy Barty is briefly visible from the back in the finished film as a homunculus infant in a high chair, but Whale cut the infant's reveal before the film's release.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Whale met Franz Waxman at a party and asked him to score the picture. Whale told him: "Nothing will be resolved in this picture except the end destruction scene. Would you write an unresolved score for it?" Waxman created three distinctive themes: one for the Monster; one for the Bride; and one for Pretorius. The score closes, at Whale's suggestion, with a powerful dissonant chord, intended to convey the idea that the on-screen explosion was so powerful that the theater where the film was being screened was affected by it. Constantin Bakaleinikoff conducted 22 musicians to record the score in a single nine-hour session.


title: Bride of Frankenstein

text: Shooting began on January 2, 1935, with a projected budget of US$293,750 ($ as of ) – almost exactly the budget of the original – and an estimated 36-day shooting schedule. On the first day, Karloff waded in the water below the destroyed windmill wearing a rubber suit under his costume. Air got into the suit and expanded it like an "obscene water lilly". Later that day, Karloff broke his hip, necessitating a stunt double. Clive had also broken his leg. Shooting was completed on March 7. The film was ten days over schedule because Whale shut down the picture for ten days until Heggie became available to play the Hermit. With a final cost of $397,023 ($ as of ), "Bride" was more than $100,000 ($ as of ) over budget. As originally filmed, Henry died fleeing the exploding castle. Whale re-shot the ending to allow for their survival, although Clive is still visible on-screen in the collapsing laboratory. Whale completed his final cut, shortening the running time from about 90 to 75 minutes and re-shooting and re-editing the ending, only days before the film's scheduled premiere date.