title: Lawsuit

text: The conduct of a lawsuit is called litigation. The plaintiffs and defendants are called litigants and the attorneys representing them are called litigators. The term litigation may also refer to a criminal procedure.


title: Lawsuit

text: Rules of criminal or civil procedure govern the conduct of a lawsuit in the common law adversarial system of dispute resolution. Procedural rules are constrained and informed by separate statutory laws, case laws, and constitutional provisions that define the rights of the parties to a lawsuit (see especially due process), though the rules generally reflect this legal context on their face. The details of the procedure differ greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and often from court to court even within the same jurisdiction. These rules of the particular procedures are very important for litigants to know, because the litigants are the ones who dictate the timing and progression of the lawsuit. Litigants are responsible to obtain the suited result and the timing of reaching this result. Failure to comply with the procedural rules may result in serious limitations that can affect the ability of one to present claims or defenses at any subsequent trial, or even promote the dismissal of the lawsuit altogether.


title: Lawsuit

text: Though the majority of lawsuits are settled before ever reaching trial, they can still be very complicated to litigate. This is particularly true in federal systems, where a federal court may be applying state law (e.g. the "Erie" doctrine, for example in the United States), or vice versa. It is also possible for one state to apply the law of another in cases where additionally it may not be clear which level (or location) of court actually has jurisdiction over the claim or personal jurisdiction over the defendant, or whether the plaintiff has standing to participate in a lawsuit. About 98 percent of civil cases in the United States federal courts are resolved without a trial. Domestic courts are also often called upon to apply foreign law, or to act upon foreign defendants, over whom they may not even have the ability to even enforce a judgment if the defendant's assets are theoretically outside their reach.


title: Lawsuit

text: Lawsuits can become additionally complicated as more parties become involved (see joinder). Within a "single" lawsuit, there can be any number of claims and defenses (all based on numerous laws) between any number of plaintiffs or defendants. Each of these participants can bring any number of cross claims and counterclaims against each other, and even bring additional parties into the suit on either side after it progresses. In reality however, courts typically have some power to sever claims and parties into separate actions if it is more efficient to do so. A court can do this if there is not a sufficient overlap of factual issues between the various associates, separating the issues into different lawsuits.


title: Lawsuit

text: The official ruling of a lawsuit can be somewhat misleading because post-ruling outcomes are often not listed on the internet. For example, in the case of William J. Ralph Jr. v. Lind-Waldock & Company (September 1999), one would assume that Mr. Ralph lost the case when in fact, upon review of the evidence, it was found that Mr. Ralph was correct in his assertion that improper activity took place on the part of Lind-Waldock, and Mr. Ralph settled with Lind-Waldock.


title: Lawsuit

text: Cases such as this illustrate the need for more comprehensive information than mere internet searches when researching legal decisions. While online searches are appropriate for many legal situations, they are not appropriate for all.


title: Lawsuit

text: The following is a generalized description of how a lawsuit may proceed in a common law jurisdiction:


title: Lawsuit

text: A lawsuit begins when a complaint or petition, known as a pleading, is filed with the court. A complaint should explicitly state that one or more plaintiffs seek(s) damages or equitable relief from one or more stated defendants, and also should state the relevant factual allegations supporting the legal claims brought by the plaintiffs. As the initial pleading, a complaint is the most important step in a civil case because a complaint sets the factual and legal foundation for the entirety of a case. While complaints and other pleadings may ordinarily be amended by a motion with the court, the complaint sets the framework for the entire case and the claims that will be asserted throughout the entire lawsuit.


title: Lawsuit

text: It is likewise important that the plaintiff select the proper venue with the proper jurisdiction to bring the lawsuit. The clerk of a court signs or stamps the court seal upon a summons or citation, which is then served by the plaintiff upon the defendant, together with a copy of the complaint. This service notifies the defendants that they are being sued and that they are limited in the amount of time of a reply. The service provides a copy of the complaint in order to notify the defendants of the nature of the claims. Once the defendants are served with the summons and complaint, they are subject to a time limit to file an answer stating their defenses to the plaintiff's claims, which includes any challenges to the court's jurisdiction, and any counterclaims they wish to assert against the plaintiff.


title: Lawsuit

text: In a handful of jurisdictions (notably, the U.S. state of New York) a lawsuit begins when one or more plaintiffs properly serve a summons and complaint upon the defendants. In such jurisdictions, nothing must be filed with the court until a dispute develops requiring actual judicial intervention.


title: Lawsuit

text: If the defendant chooses to file an answer within the time permitted, the answer must address each of the plaintiffs' allegations. The defendant has three choices to make, which include either admitting to the allegation, denying it, or pleading a lack of sufficient information to admit or deny the allegation. Some jurisdictions, like California and Florida, still authorize general denials of each and every allegation in the complaint. At the time the defendant files an answer, the defendant also raises all "affirmative" defenses. The defendant may also assert counterclaims for damages or equitable relief against the plaintiff. For example, in the case of "compulsory counterclaims," the defendant must assert some form of counterclaim or risk having the counterclaim barred in any subsequent proceeding. In the case of making a counterclaim, the defendant is making a motion directed towards the plaintiff claiming that he/she was injured in some way or would like to sue the plaintiff. The plaintiff in this example would then receive some amount of time to make a reply to this counterclaim. The defendant may also file a "third party complaint", which is the defendant's privilege to join another party or parties in the action with the belief that those parties may be liable for some or all of the plaintiff's claimed damages. An answer from the defendant in response to the claims made against him/her, can also include additional facts or a so-called "excuse" for the plead. Filing an answer "joins the cause" and moves the case into the pre-trial phase.


title: Lawsuit

text: Instead of filing an answer within the time specified in the summons, the defendant can choose to dispute the validity of the complaint by filing a demurrer (in the handful of jurisdictions where that is still allowed) or one or more "pre-answer motions," such as a motion to dismiss. It is important that the motion be filed within the time period specified in the summons for an answer. If all of the above motions are denied by the trial court, and the defendant loses on all appeals from such denials (if that option is available), and finally the defendant "must" file an answer.


title: Lawsuit

text: Usually the pleadings are drafted by a lawyer, but in many courts persons can file papers and represent themselves, which is called appearing "pro se". Many courts have a "pro se" clerk to assist people without lawyers.


title: Lawsuit

text: A pretrial discovery can be defined as "the formal process of exchanging information between the parties about the witnesses and evidence they’ll present at trial" and allows for the evidence of the trial to be presented to the parties before the initial trial begins. The early stages of the lawsuit may involve initial disclosures of evidence by each party and discovery, which is the structured exchange of evidence and statements between the parties. Discovery is meant to eliminate surprises, clarify what the lawsuit is about, and also to make the parties decide if they should settle or drop frivolous claims and/or defenses. At this point the parties may also engage in pretrial motions to exclude or include particular legal or factual issues before trial.


title: Lawsuit

text: There is also the ability of one to make an under oath statement during the pretrial, also known as a deposition. The deposition can be used in the trial or just in the pretrial, but this allows for both parties to be aware of the arguments or claims that are going to be made by the other party in the trial. It is notable that the depositions can be written or oral.


title: Lawsuit

text: At the close of discovery, the parties may either pick a jury and then have a trial by jury or the case may proceed as a bench trial. A bench trial is only heard by the judge if the parties waive a jury trial or if the right to a jury trial is not guaranteed for their particular claim (such as those under equity in the U.S.) or for any lawsuits within their jurisdiction.


title: Lawsuit

text: Usually, lawsuits end in a settlement, with an empirical analysis finding that less than 2% of cases end with a trial. It is sometimes said that 95% of cases end in settlement; few jurisdictions report settlements, but empirical analysis suggests that the settlement rate varies by type of lawsuit, with torts settling around 90% of the time and overall civil cases settling 50% of the time; other cases end due to default judgment, lack of a valid claim, and other reasons.


title: Lawsuit

text: At trial, each person presents witnesses and the evidence collected is recorded. After this occurs, the judge or jury renders their decision. Generally speaking, the plaintiff has the burden of proof in making his claims, however, the defendant may have the burden of proof on other issues, such as affirmative defenses. The attorneys are held responsible in devising a trial strategy that ensures they meet the necessary elements of their case or (when the opposing party has the burden of proof) to ensure the opponent will not be able to meet his or her burden.


title: Lawsuit

text: There are numerous motions that either party can file throughout the lawsuit to terminate it "prematurely"—before submission to the judge or jury for final consideration. These motions attempt to persuade the judge, through legal argument and sometimes accompanying evidence, that there is no reasonable way that the other party could legally win and therefore there is no sense in continuing with the trial. Motions for summary judgment, for example, can usually be brought before, after, or during the actual presentation of the case. Motions can also be brought after the close of a trial to undo a jury verdict contrary to law or against the weight of the evidence, or to convince the judge to change the decision or grant a new trial.


title: Lawsuit

text: Also, at any time during this process from the filing of the complaint to the final judgment, the plaintiff may withdraw the complaint and end the whole matter, or the defendant may agree to a settlement. If the case settles, the parties might choose to enter into a stipulated judgment with the settlement agreement attached, or the plaintiff may simply file a voluntary dismissal, so that the settlement agreement is never entered into the court record.


title: Lawsuit

text: The decisions that the jury makes are not put into effect until the judge makes a judgment, which is the approval to have this trial information be filed in public records. In a civil case, the judge is allowed at this time to make changes to the verdict that the jury came up with by either adding on or reducing the punishment. In criminal cases the situation is a little different, because in this case the judge does not have the authority to change the jury decision.


title: Lawsuit

text: After a final decision has been made, either party or both may appeal from the judgment if they believe there had been a procedural error made by the trial court. It isn't necessarily an automatic appeal after every judgment has been made, however, if there is a legal basis for the appeal, then one has the right to do so. The prevailing party may appeal, for example, if they wanted a larger award than was granted. The appellate court (which may be structured as an intermediate appellate court) and/or a higher court then affirms the judgment, declines to hear it (which effectively affirms it), reverses—or vacates and remands. This process would then involve sending the lawsuit back to the lower trial court to address an unresolved issue, or possibly request for a whole new trial. Some lawsuits go up and down the appeals ladder repeatedly before final resolution.


title: Lawsuit

text: The appeal is a review for errors rather than a new trial, so the appellate court will defer to the discretion of the original trial court if an error is not clear. The initial step in making an appeal consists of the petitioner filing a notice of appeal and then sending in a brief, a written document stating reason for appeal, to the court. Decisions of the court can be made immediately after just reading the written brief, or there can also be oral arguments made by both parties involved in the appeal. The appellate court then makes the decision about what errors were made when the law was looked at more closely in the lower court. There were no errors made, the case would then end, but if the decision was reversed, the appellate court would then send the case back down to the lower court level. There, a new trial will be held and new information taken into account.


title: Lawsuit

text: Some jurisdictions, notably the United States, but prevalent in many other countries, prevent parties from relitigating the facts on appeal, due to a history of unscrupulous lawyers deliberately reserving such issues in order to ambush each other in the appellate courts (the "invited error" problem). The idea is that it is more efficient to force all parties to fully litigate all relevant issues of fact before the trial court. Thus, a party who does not raise an issue of fact at the trial court level generally cannot raise it on appeal.


title: Lawsuit

text: When the lawsuit is finally resolved, or the allotted time to appeal has expired, the matter is "res judicata", meaning the plaintiff may not bring another action based on the same claim again. In addition, other parties who later attempt to re-litigate a matter already ruled on in a previous lawsuit will be "estopped" from doing so.


title: Lawsuit

text: When a final judgment is entered, the plaintiff is usually barred under the doctrine of "res judicata" from relitigating any of the issues, even under different legal theories. Judgments are typically a monetary award. If the defendant fails to pay, the court has various powers to seize any of the defendant's assets located within its jurisdiction, such as:


title: Lawsuit

text: If all assets are located elsewhere, the plaintiff must file another suit in the appropriate court to seek enforcement of the other court's previous judgment. This can be a difficult task when crossing from a court in one state or nation to another, however, courts tend to grant each other respect when there is not a clear legal rule to the contrary. A defendant who has no assets in "any" jurisdiction is said to be "judgment-proof." The term is generally a colloquialism to describe an impecunious defendant.


title: Lawsuit

text: Indigent judgment-proof defendants are no longer imprisoned; debtor's prisons have been outlawed by statute, constitutional amendment, or international human rights treaties in the vast majority of common law jurisdictions.


title: Lawsuit

text: Scholars in law, economics and management have studied why firms involved in a dispute choose between private dispute resolution—such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration—and litigation.


title: Lawsuit

text: During the 18th and 19th centuries, it was common for lawyers to speak of bringing an "action" at law and a "suit" in equity. An example of that distinction survives today in the codified text of the Third Enforcement Act. The fusion of common law and equity in England in the Judicature Acts of 1873 and 1875 led to the collapse of that distinction, so it became possible to speak of a "lawsuit." In the United States, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (1938) abolished the distinction between actions at law and suits in equity in federal practice, in favor of a single form referred to as a "civil action."


title: Lawsuit

text: In England and Wales the term "claim" is far more common; the person initiating proceedings is called the claimant.


title: Lawsuit

text: American terminology is slightly different, in that the term "claim" refers only to a particular count or cause of action in a lawsuit. Americans also use "claim" to describe a demand filed with an insurer or administrative agency. If the claim is denied, then the claimant, policyholder, or applicant files a lawsuit with the courts to seek review of that decision, and from that point forward participates in the lawsuit as a plaintiff. In other words, the terms "claimant" and "plaintiff" carry substantially different connotations of formality in American English, in that only the latter risks an award of costs in favor of an adversary in a lawsuit.


title: Lawsuit

text: In medieval times, both "action" and "suit" had the approximate meaning of some kind of legal proceeding, but an action terminated when a judgment was rendered, while a suit also included the execution of the judgment.


title: Lawsuit

text: Particularly in the United States, plaintiffs and defendants who lack financial resources for litigation or other attorney's fees may be able to obtain legal financing. Legal financing companies can provide a cash advance to litigants in return for a share of the ultimate settlement or award. If the case ultimately loses, the litigant does not have to pay any of the money funded back. Legal financing is different from a typical bank loan in that the legal financing company does not look at credit history or employment history. Litigants do not have to repay the cash advance with monthly payments, but do have to fill out an application so that the legal financing company can review the merits of the case.


title: Lawsuit

text: Legal financing can be a practical means for litigants to obtain financing while they wait for a monetary settlement or an award in their personal injury, workers' compensation, or civil rights lawsuit. Often, plaintiffs who were injured or forced to leave their jobs still have mortgages, rent, medical expenses, or other bills to pay. Other times, litigants may simply need money to pay for the costs of litigation and attorneys' fees, and for this reason, many litigants turn to reputable legal financing companies to apply for a cash advance to help pay for bills.


title: Lawsuit

text: Defendants, civil rights organizations, public interest organizations, and government public officials can all set up an account to pay for litigation costs and legal expenses. These legal defense funds can have large membership counts where the members contribute to the fund. Unlike legal financing from legal financing companies, legal defense funds provide a separate account for litigation rather than a one-time cash advancement, nevertheless, both are used for purposes of financing litigation and legal costs.


title: Lawsuit

text: There was a study conducted in the "Supreme Court Economic Review" that shows why litigation financing can be practical and beneficial to the overall court system and lawsuits within the court. This study concluded that the new rules that were set for litigation financing actually did produce more settlements. Under conservative rules, there tended to be fewer settlements, however under the older rules they tended to be larger on average.


title: Lawsuit

text: Legal financing can become an issue in some cases, varying from case to case and person to person. It can be beneficial in many situations, however also detrimental in others.


title: Bill Moseley

text: William Moseley (born November 11, 1951) is an American actor, primarily known for his performances in horror films. His best-known roles include Chop Top in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" (1986), Otis B. Driftwood in Rob Zombie's "Firefly" trilogy, Luigi Largo in "Repo! The Genetic Opera" (2008), and The Magician in "Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival" (2015). He had a recurring role as camp cook Possum on the HBO TV series "Carnivàle" (2003-05). He has also released records with guitarist Buckethead in the band Cornbugs, as well as featuring on the guitarist's solo work.


title: Bill Moseley

text: Moseley was born in Stamford, Connecticut, and grew up in Barrington Hills, Illinois. He is the son of Virginia Gillette (Kleitz), a journalist, and S. D. Moseley (Spencer Dumaresq Moseley), who was a member of the Yale Corporation, All-American captain and center of the 1942 Yale football team, and chairman and chief executive of the Railway Express Agency. His grandfather, George Moseley, also played football at Yale and was an All-American. He is a graduate of Yale University.


title: Bill Moseley

text: For a period of time, Moseley operated as a journalist, writing for such magazines as "Omni", "National Lampoon" and "Psychology Today".


title: Bill Moseley

text: At the age of 29, Moseley got his first film role in Alan Rudolph's "Endangered Species" as a cab driver. In 1985's "Osa" he played a character named "Quilt Face." His third role has become one of his most well known; he appeared as Chop Top in Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2", after Tobe Hooper saw him in the independent short, "The Texas Chainsaw Manicure". In 2000 he reprised his role as Chop Top in "All American Massacre", which was directed by Tobe Hooper's son William, but the film was never released to the public.


title: Bill Moseley

text: Two years after "TCM 2", he played Frank in 1988's "Mamba". Also in 1988 appeared as a soldier in the remake of the Steve McQueen film "The Blob". He next played Darrell in the film "Pink Cadillac" starring Clint Eastwood. He then played the lead role of Ricky Caldwell in "".


title: Bill Moseley

text: In 1990, Moseley appeared in four films: "Crash and Burn", "The First Power", "The End of Innocence", and, playing Johnny, in Tom Savini's remake of George A. Romero's 1968 zombie film, "Night of the Living Dead". In 1993, he had a small role in the cult hit "Army of Darkness" as the Deadite Captain. A year later, he was featured in the video game "Corpse Killer". In 1995, he did voiceover work for Anders Jacobsson's horror comedy film "Evil Ed".


title: Bill Moseley

text: He would not, however, have another role as popular as Chop Top until 2003, when he starred as the maniacal Otis B. Driftwood (named after Groucho Marx's character from "A Night at the Opera") in Rob Zombie's directorial debut "House of 1000 Corpses". As Otis, he again became an icon in the horror community. In 2005, he reprised the role of Otis in the sequel "The Devil's Rejects" and in 2009 he played Otis in a voice cameo in Rob Zombie's animated film The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Moseley's performance in "Rejects" inspired an independent campaign for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, which failed. He played in other Rob Zombie films such as "Halloween" and the "Grindhouse" fake trailer segment "Werewolf Women of the SS".


title: Bill Moseley

text: In 2008, Moseley played the role of Luigi Largo in "Repo! The Genetic Opera". In this futuristic, genetic opera, he was able to network with Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy and ohGr, subsequently appearing on ohGr's new album "Devils in my Details". He mainly speaks at the beginning or ending of the songs in vivid, poetic rants. He appears on "Eyecandy", "Feelin' Chicken", "Psychoreal", "Timebomb", "Smogharp", and "Witness". Additionally, in 2008, Moseley appeared as a telemarketer in the music video for Combichrist's Sent to Destroy".


title: Bill Moseley

text: Moseley contributed songs to the 2008 soundtrack of "Vampira: The Movie", a documentary by Kevin Sean Michaels on Maila Nurmi, in which he also stars. It was released on Collectables Records, a division of Alpha Video.


title: Bill Moseley

text: He appears as Kozlowski in Robert Lieberman's 2009 thriller film "The Tortured", and in 2012 played as The Magician in "The Devil's Carnival".


title: Bill Moseley

text: Moseley has also provided voice-over recordings for the Florida-based heavy metal band – Generichrist and also British goth-metal band Sinnergod on the track "Overture" which features on their 2013 debut album "Seven Deadly Sinphonies".


title: Bill Moseley

text: In 2019, Moseley appeared in "Gothic Harvest" with Lin Shaye and Sofia Mattsson, directed by Ashley Hamilton. He also reprised his role as Otis B. Driftwood in "3 From Hell". "Horror Fuel" magazine reports that Moseley will star in the horror film "Jasper" alongside Michael Berryman, Kane Hodder and Bill Oberst in 2022.


title: Bill Moseley

text: Moseley (as Chop Top) was the lead singer of Cornbugs, a three-man band he had between 1999 and 2007 with avant-garde rock/metal guitarist Buckethead and Deli Creeps' drummer, Pinchface. He also contributed vocal parts to the songs "I Come in Peace" (as a news reporter) and "Onions Unleashed" (as Onions) from Buckethead's album "Giant Robot" (1994) and "Jowls" from Buckethead's album "Monsters and Robots" (1999), also as Chop Top.


title: Bill Moseley

text: Moseley, along with Rani Sharone, released the album "No Way Down", calling themselves Spider Mountain.


title: Bill Moseley

text: Moseley is married to actress Lucinda Jenney. He previously dated model Lisa Lindsay-Hogg. Moseley and Lindsay-Hogg have two daughters: Marion Moseley, an actress, and Jane Moseley, a model, painter and sculptor based in Los Angeles.


title: Bill Moseley

text: A sample of Moseley shouting "dog will hunt!" in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" is used in the hit Primus song "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver".


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefix similar to an area code. The specific service access varies by country.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: The features of toll-free services have evolved as telephone networks have evolved from electro-mechanical call switching to computerized stored program controlled networks.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Originally, a call billed to the called party had to be placed through a telephone company operator as a collect call, often long-distance. The operator had to secure acceptance of the charges at the remote number, or even transfer that decision to a long-distance operator, before manually completing the call.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Some large businesses and government offices received large numbers of collect calls, which proved time-consuming for operators and the callers.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Prior to the development of customer-dialed toll-free service many telephone companies provided the service by operator assistance for telephone subscribers without dial telephones ("manual service").


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Operator-assisted toll-free calling included the Zenith number service introduced in the 1950s in the U.S. and Canada, as well as the original manual 'Freephone' service introduced by the British Post Office in 1960.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Both systems were similar in concept. The calling party would ring the operator (now '100' in the UK, '0' in Canada/U.S.) and ask for a specific free number. In the U.S., the caller would ask for a number like "Zenith 12345" (some areas used "Enterprise" or "WX" instead of "Zenith", but in the same pattern of a free service name and a five-digit number). In the UK, the caller would ask the operator to ring "Freephone" and a name or number (such as "Freephone Crimebusters" to pass on tips about a crime to the constabulary).


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: In either case, the operator would look up the corresponding geographic number from a list and place the call with charges reversed.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: A Zenith number was typically available from a predefined area, anything from a few nearby cities to a province or state, and was listed in local directories in each community from which the subscriber was willing to accept the charges for inbound calls.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Until the introduction of InWATS toll-free service by the Bell System on May 2, 1967 and the Linkline (later "Freefone") 0800 services by British Telecom on 12 November 1985, manually ringing the operator was the standard means to place a toll-free call. More than a few established manual "Freephone" or "Zenith" numbers remained in use for many years after competing automated systems (0800 in UK, 1800 in U.S.) were deployed in parallel for new toll-free numbers.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: An automated toll-free service was introduced by AT&T in 1966 (US intrastate) and 1967 (US interstate) as an alternative to operator-assisted collect calling and manual "Zenith" or "Enterprise" numbers. This Inward Wide Area Telephone Service (InWATS) allowed calls to be made directly from anywhere in a predefined area by dialling the prefix 1800- and a seven-digit number.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: The system initially provided no support for Automatic Number Identification and no itemised record of calls, instead requiring subscribers to obtain expensive fixed-rate lines which included some number of hours of inbound calling from a "band" of one or several U.S. states or Canadian provinces. Early InWATS 800 calling lacked the complex routing features offered with modern toll-free service. After competitive carriers were allowed to compete with AT&T in establishing toll-free service, the three digit exchange following the 800 prefix was linked to a specific destination carrier and area code; the number itself corresponded to specific telephone switching offices and trunk groups. All calls went to one central destination; there was no means to place a toll-free call to another country.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Despite its limitations (and the relatively high cost of long distance in that era), the system was adequate for the needs of large volume users such as hotel chains, airlines and hire car firms which used it to build a truly national presence.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: For small regional businesses who received few long-distance calls, the original InWATS was prohibitively expensive. As a fixed-rate bulk service requiring special trunks, it was suited only to large volume users.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Modern toll-free service became possible when telephone companies replaced their electro-mechanical switching systems with computerized switching systems. This allowed toll-free calls to be routed based on instructions located in central databases.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: In the United States, AT&T engineer Roy P. Weber from Bridgewater, New Jersey patented a 'Data Base Communication Call Processing Method' which was deployed by AT&T in 1982. The called number was an index into a database, allowing a 'Toll-Free Call' or '800 Call' to be directed anywhere. This feature and other advances that made it possible were what led to AT&T marketing analyst Dodge Cepeda from Bedminster, New Jersey to propose the introduction of providing 800 Toll-Free Service to small and medium-size business customers on a nationwide basis. Once this service was implemented, it became possible for the very smallest of business operations to have potential customers contact them free of charge at a time when long-distance calling was expensive. Until this time, 800 Service was only available to major Fortune 500 companies.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: In the United Kingdom, BT introduced "Linkline" on 12 November 1985. No more need to manually ring the operator, two new prefixes 0800 (an automated toll-free service which became "Freefone") and 0345 (a shared-cost service marketed as "Lo-Call" because initially its rates resembled those of local calls) could be reached by direct dial. Cable and Wireless used 0500 and 0645, in much the same way, just a few years later.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: A toll-free vanity number, custom toll-free number, or mnemonic is easy to remember; it spells and means something or it contains an easily recognized numeric pattern. An easily remembered number is valued as a branding and direct response tool in business advertising.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: In the United States, Federal Communications Commission regulations mandate that numbers be allocated on a first come, first served basis; this gives vanity number operators who register as RespOrgs a strong advantage in obtaining the most valuable phonewords, as they have first access to newly disconnected numbers and to newly introduced toll-free area codes. In Australia, premium numbers, such as the 13-series or the vanity phone words, are distributed by auction separately from the administrative procedure to assign random, generic numbers from the available pool.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: In toll-free telephony, a shared-use number is a vanity number (usually a valuable generic phone word), which is rented to multiple local companies in the same line of business in different cities. These appear in Australia (1300 and 1800) and North America (1800, etc.); in the U.S., the RespOrg infrastructure is used to direct calls for the same number to different vendors based on the area code of the calling number.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: As one example, a taxi company could rent shared use of 1800TAXICAB in one city. The number belongs to a company in Van Nuys, California, but is redirected to local cab companies on a city-by-city basis and promoted by being printed on everything from individual taxi cab hub caps to campaigns against drunk driving. Another example is Mark Russell's 1800GREATRATE, a shared-use number rented to lenders in various cities nationwide for a monthly fee.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: One former Mercedes dealer obtained 1800MERCEDES, charging other dealers to receive calls to that number from their local areas. The automaker unsuccessfully sued MBZ Communications of Owatonna, Minnesota, operated by former Mercedes dealer Donald Bloom, alleging deception and trademark infringement. Mercedes was ultimately forced to obtain a different number, 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: A company renting 1800REDCROSS at a premium price to individual local Red Cross chapters as "shared use" was less fortunate; the Federal Communications Commission reassigned that number to the American Red Cross as an emergency response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Shared use can be used as a means to circumvent FCC regulations against "warehousing, hoarding and brokering" toll-free numbers as technically the number is not being sold, only rented one city or region at a time. The practice is nonetheless potentially problematic as it leaves local businesses advertising numbers which they do not own and for which they therefore have no number portability. The cost per minute and per month is typically far higher for a shared-use number than for a standard toll-free vanity number which a local business controls outright, and there is little protection if the shared use company fails to meet its obligations or ceases operation.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: There are also technical limitations; voice over IP users in particular are difficult to geolocate as their calls may be gated to the public switched telephone network at a point hundreds or thousands of miles away from their actual location. A roaming mobile or Internet telephone user is effectively (like the user of a foreign exchange line) attached to a distant rate centre far from their physical address.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: If a program like Crime Stoppers is inherently regional or local, but its national 1800222TIPS number is shared between multiple exchanges, the exchange accepting the call must determine whether the call belongs to some other region.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: The implementation of toll-free calling by assigning special telephone numbers for charging a destination party is implemented in many countries by various dialing prefixes in the local number plan.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: A system similar to 1800 numbering exists where 6 or 10 digit numbers prefixed with 13 (one-three), 1300 or 1301 (colloquially one-three-hundred) can be called at local call rates regardless of the caller's location.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: In addition to NANP toll-free numbers, carriers Bell Canada and Telus offer 310- numbers that can be accessed at local-call prices as shared-cost service (free from landlines, incurs local airtime charge from mobiles and local price from payphones). There are a few special mobile-only numbers (like *CAA to call the Canadian Automobile Association) which are free from cell phones, these are actually vertical service codes.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: The introduction of 0800/0900 numbers in the Netherlands in 1986 has led to significant growth of call centres and an increase in outsourcing.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Originally, free telephone numbers in the Netherlands started with either the 06-0, 06-4 or 06-3000 prefix. Most 0800-numbers cannot be called from abroad, and only few can be called from the Caribbean Netherlands (by dialing 0031800). 088-numbers are shared-cost; from landlines, the caller pays only the costs for a local call, whereas the receiver pays the rest.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: In the United Kingdom, toll-free telephone numbers are generally known as "freephone" numbers (British Telecom numbers are officially "Freefone") and begin with the prefixes 0800 or 0808. The most commonly used prefix is 0800, first used in November 1985. Additionally, numbers in the range are reserved for not-for-profit helplines, through a scheme negotiated by the Helplines Partnership (now known as the Helplines Association).


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Since 1 July 2015, all 0800 and 0808 numbers have been free to call from landlines and mobile phones alike. Most mobile phone operators had charged for such calls previously, with Orange being the final major network to introduce such charges during December 2005. Certain helplines, such as those in the 0808 80x xxxx series had remained free from most networks on a voluntary basis and some niche operators, such as Giffgaff always offered freephone calls at no charge.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: The UK mobile operators offer an alternative product to organisations who wish to provide toll-free services - 5-digit voice short codes which are sold through mobile aggregators.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: 0500 numbers, introduced by Mercury Communications (later known as Cable & Wireless, now Vodafone) in 1982, were also freephone numbers (known as "FreeCall"), but were officially withdrawn by Ofcom on 3 June 2017. A three-year transition period prior to that had allowed existing subscribers to migrate to matching 080 85 numbers with the same final 6 digits as before. While the numbers had been portable, the 0500 range had been closed to new allocations since 1997/98.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: 0500 numbers had six more digits after the prefix. 0800 numbers can have six or seven digits after the prefix. 0808 numbers have seven digits after the prefix.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Toll-free numbers in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) are commonly called "800-numbers" after the first area code assigned for the service. Today, several prefixes are used: 800 (since January 1, 1966), 888 (since March 1, 1996), 877 (since April 4, 1998), 866 (since July 29, 2000), 855 (since October 9, 2010), 844 (since December 7, 2013), and 833 (since June 3, 2017).


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: The original Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) is obsolete. North American toll-free numbers are controlled by an intelligent network database (SMS/800) in which any toll-free number may be directed to any geographic telephone number under the control of any of various RespOrgs. Direct inward dialing and toll-free number portability are supported; various providers offer gateways which receive free phone calls on PRI lines and deliver them to voice over IP or pager users.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Toll free numbers usually capture the telephone number of the caller for billing purposes through automatic number identification, which is independent of caller ID data and functions even if caller ID is blocked.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: Universal International Freephone Service is an international service, assigned the country code 800 by the International Telecommunication Union. The intention is that any customer in the world can dial the same number to reach a business subscribing to a number, and at no charge to the calling party. However, only a limited number of countries participate. In order to participate, countries must agree on the amount of revenue they will retain (to cover their costs of network transport) while still forwarding sufficient revenue to cover the recipient's costs of subscribing.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: A Universal International Freephone Number (UIFN) is a worldwide toll-free "800 number" issued by the ITU. Like the 800 area code issued for the NANP in the U.S. and Canada and 0800 numbers in many other countries, the call is free for the caller while the receiver pays the charges. UIFN uses ITU country code 800 so that no matter where the caller is, only the international access code (IAC), the UIFN country code (800) and the 8-digit UIFN need to be dialed. As of March 2020, 144 carriers in 67 countries participate in the UIFN program; free access to the numbers (as international calls) from mobile and coin telephones is not universal. Registration of a +800 number incurs a 300 Swiss franc ITU fee (as of 2018) in addition to any charges levied by the individual carrier. The number must be activated for inbound calls from at least two telephone country codes within 180 days.


title: Toll-free telephone number

text: The +800 UIFN service is one of three ITU-administered non-geographic codes with a similar numbering scheme. The +808 Universal International Shared Cost Number (UISCN), billed at the price of a domestic call, shares the same eight-digit format; the +979 Universal International Premium Rate Number (UIPRN), billed at a high premium cost, carries one extra digit to indicate price range.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Ira Hamilton Hayes (January 12, 1923 – January 24, 1955) was an Akimel O'odham Native American and a United States Marine during World War II. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community, located in Pinal and Maricopa counties in Arizona. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1941, and, after recruit training, volunteered to become a Paramarine. He fought in the Bougainville and Iwo Jima campaigns in the Pacific War.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes was generally known as one of the six flag raisers immortalized in the iconic photograph "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" by photographer Joe Rosenthal. The first flag raised over Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945 at the south end of Iwo Jima, was deemed too small and replaced the same day by a larger flag. A photo of the second flag-raising, which included Hayes in it, became famous and was widely reproduced. After the battle, Hayes and two other men were identified as surviving second flag-raisers and were reassigned to help raise funds for the Seventh War Loan drive. In 1946, after his service in the Marine Corps, he was instrumental in revealing the correct identity of one of the Marines in the photograph.


title: Ira Hayes

text: After the war, Hayes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and descended into alcoholism. On November 10, 1954, he attended the dedication of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, which was modeled after the photograph of Hayes and five other Marines raising the second flag on Iwo Jima. After a night of heavy drinking on January 23–24, 1955, he died of exposure to cold and alcohol poisoning. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on February 2, 1955.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes was commemorated in art and film, before and after his death. In 1949, he portrayed himself raising the flag in the movie "Sands of Iwo Jima", starring John Wayne. He was the subject of an article by journalist William Bradford Huie, which was adapted for the feature film "The Outsider" (1961), starring Tony Curtis as Hayes. The movie inspired songwriter Peter La Farge to write "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," which became popular nationwide in 1964 after being recorded by Johnny Cash. In 2006, Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the World War II movie "Flags of Our Fathers," directed by Clint Eastwood.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Ira Hayes was born in Sacaton, Arizona, a town in the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County. He was the eldest of six children born to Nancy Whitaker (1901–1972) and Joseph Hayes (1901–1986). The Hayes children were: Ira (1923–1955), Harold (1924–1925), Leonard (1925–1962), Kenneth (1931–2019), Arlene (1933-1938) and Vernon (1937–1957). Joseph Hayes was a World War I veteran who supported his family by subsistence farming and its cotton harvesting. Nancy Hayes was a devout Presbyterian and a Sunday school teacher at the Assemblies of God church in Sacaton.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes was remembered by his family and friends as being a shy and sensitive child. Sara Bernal, his niece, said, "Ira Hayes was a very quiet man; he would go days without saying anything unless you spoke to him first. The other Hayes children would play and tease me, but not Ira. He was quiet, and somewhat distant. Ira didn't speak unless spoken to. He was just like his father." His boyhood friend Dana Norris said, "Even though I'm from the same culture, I could never get under his skin. Ira had the characteristic of not wanting to talk. But we Pimas are not prone to tooting our own horns. Ira was a quiet guy, such a quiet guy." Despite this, Hayes was a precocious child who displayed an impressive grasp of the English language, a language that many Pima never learned to speak. He learned to read and write by the age of four and was a voracious reader.


title: Ira Hayes

text: In 1932, the family settled in Bapchule, Arizona, approximately 12 miles northwest of Sacaton. The Hayes children attended grade school in Sacaton and high school at the Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Arizona.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Ira Hayes was working as a carpenter during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Hayes confided to his classmate Eleanor Pasquale after the Japanese attack that he was determined to serve in the United States Marine Corps. Pasquale said, "Every morning in school, [the students] would get a report on World War II. We would sing the anthems of the Army, Marines, and the Navy." Hayes completed two years at the Phoenix Indian School and served in the Civilian Conservation Corps in May and June 1942. He worked as a carpenter before enlisting in the military.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1942. He completed recruit training in Platoon 701 at Marine Corps Base, San Diego (renamed in 1948 to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego) and in October volunteered for Marine paratrooper (Paramarine) training at the Marine Parachute School at Camp Gillespie located east of San Diego. Ira Hayes became the first Pima in history to receive his paratrooper wings, to which he received the codename of "Chief Falling Cloud". On November 30, he graduated from the Parachute Training School and received his silver "jump wings". On December 1, he was promoted to private first class.


title: Ira Hayes

text: On December 2, 1942, he joined Company B, 3rd Parachute Battalion, Divisional Special Troops, 3rd Marine Division, at Camp Elliott, California. On March 14, 1943, Hayes sailed for New Caledonia with the 3rd Parachute Battalion, which was assigned to Camp Kiser there on March 25 until September 26; the unit was redesignated in April as Company K, 3rd Parachute Battalion, 1st Marine Parachute Regiment of the I Marine Amphibious Corps. The 3rd Parachute Battalion was shipped to Guadalcanal and remained there until it was sent to Vella Lavella, arriving on October 14 for occupational duty. On December 4, Hayes landed with the 3rd Parachute Battalion on Bougainville and fought against the Japanese as a platoon automatic rifleman (BAR man) with Company K during the Bougainville Campaign. The 3rd Parachute Battalion was shipped back to Guadalcanal, and he stayed there until sometime in February, when the Paramarines were sent back to California. The 1st Parachute Regiment was officially disbanded at Camp Pendleton, California, in February 1944.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes was transferred to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment of the newly activated 5th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton. Hayes sailed to Hawaii with his company in September for continued training with the 5th division at Camp Tarawa as it trained for the invasion and capture of Iwo Jima.


title: Ira Hayes

text: The 5th Marine Division landed on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. Easy Company, Second Battalion, 28th Marines, landed on the southern beach near Mount Suribachi off of after transferring from . The island was defended by over 20,000 Japanese soldiers who were entrenched in fortifications and willing to fight to the death. At the end, only 200 Japanese soldiers would survive the battle.


title: Ira Hayes

text: On February 23, Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, the Second Battalion commander, ordered a combat patrol to climb, seize, and occupy the top of Mount Suribachi (an inactive volcano) and raise the battalion's flag if possible to signal it was secure. Captain Dave Severance, commander of E Company, organized a 40-man patrol taken from the remainder of his Third Platoon and the battalion. First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, the company's executive officer, was chosen by Lt. Col. Johnson to be in command of the patrol. After four days of fighting, the Marines finally made their way onto the slopes of the mountain. At 8:30 am, the patrol started to climb the east slope of Suribachi. The patrol included two Navy corpsmen and stretcher bearers. Less than an hour later, after receiving occasional Japanese sniper fire, the patrol reached the rim of the volcano. After a brief firefight there, Lt. Schrier and his men captured the summit. After finding a Japanese steel pipe and attaching the flag to it, the flagstaff was taken to the highest place on the crater. At about 10:30 a.m., Lt. Schrier, Platoon Sergeant Ernest Thomas, Sergeant Henry Hansen, and Corporal Charles Lindberg raised the flag. Seeing the raising of the national colors immediately caused loud cheering from the Marines, sailors, and Coast Guardsmen on the beach below and from the men on the ships docked at the beach. Due to the high winds on Mount Suribachi, Sgt. Hansen, Private Phil Ward, and Navy corpsman John Bradley pitched in to help make the flagstaff stay in a vertical position. The men at, around, and holding the flagstaff were photographed several times by Marine Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery, a photographer with "Leatherneck" magazine who accompanied the patrol up the mountain. Platoon Sgt. Thomas was killed on Iwo Jima on March 3 and Sgt. Hansen was killed on March 1.


title: Ira Hayes

text: The first flag flying over Mount Suribachi at the south end of Iwo Jima was regarded to be too small to be seen by the thousands of Marines fighting on the other side of Iwo Jima. The Marines in command and Lt. Col. Johnson decided that a larger flag should be taken on top and flown on the mountain. In the early afternoon, Capt. Severance ordered Sgt. Michael Strank a rifle squad leader from Second Platoon, E Company, to ascend Mount Suribachi with three Marines from his squad and raise the larger flag. Sgt. Strank then ordered Cpl. Harlon Block, Pfc. Hayes, and Pfc. Franklin Sousley to go with him up Suribachi with supplies (or communication wire). Pfc. Rene Gagnon the Second Battalion's runner (messenger) for E Company was ordered to take "walkie-talkie" batteries and the replacement flag up the mountain, and return the first flag to the battalion adjutant down below.


title: Ira Hayes

text: When all five Marines were on top, a Japanese steel pipe was found by Pfc. Hayes and Pfc. Sousley who carried the pipe to Sgt. Strank and Cpl. Block near the first flag. The second flag was attached to the pipe and, as Sgt. Strank and his three Marines were about to raise the flagstaff, he yelled out to two nearby Marines from Schrier's patrol to help them raise it. At approximately 1 p.m., Lt. Schrier ordered the raising of the second flag and the lowering of the original flag. The second flag was raised by Sgt. Strank, Cpl. Block, Pfc. Hayes, Pfc. Sousley, Pfc. Harold Schultz, and Pfc. Harold Keller. After the flag was raised, rocks were added at the bottom of the flagstaff by Pfc. Schultz and Pfc. Keller, which was then stabilized by three guy-ropes because of the high winds on top.


title: Ira Hayes

text: The raising of the second American flag on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945, was immortalized by Associated Press combat photographer Joe Rosenthal and became an icon of the world war.


title: Ira Hayes

text: On March 14, another American flag was officially raised up a flagpole by two Marines under the orders of Lieutenant General Holland Smith during a ceremony at the V Amphibious Corps command post on the other side of Mount Suribachi where the 3rd Marine Division troops were located to signal the Marines occupied Iwo Jima. The flag flying on top of Mount Suribachi that Hayes helped raise was taken down.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes fought on the island until it was secure on March 26. The same day, he attended the service for the American troops buried at the 5th Marine Division Cemetery. Hayes boarded the USS "Winged Arrow" and left Iwo Jima with his unit for Hawaii on March 27. Easy Company had many casualties, Hayes was one of five Marines remaining from his original platoon of forty-five men including their corpsmen. Sgt. Strank and Cpl. Block were killed on Iwo Jima on March 1, and Pfc. Sousley was killed on March 21.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Once he arrived in Hawaii, Hayes continued to train with E Company at Camp Tarawa. During the battle President Roosevelt had ordered that the flag raisers in Joe Rosenthal's photograph be sent immediately after the battle to Washington, D.C., to appear as a public morale factor. Pfc. Gagnon had returned with E Company to Camp Tarawa when he was ordered on April 3 to report to Marine Corps headquarters at Washington, D.C. He arrived on April 7, and was questioned by a lieutenant colonel at Marine Corps public information office concerning the identities of the flag raisers in the Rosenthal photo. Gagnon named Marines Michael Strank (KIA), Henry Hansen (KIA), Franklin Sousley (KIA), Ira Hayes, Navy corpsman John Bradley, and himself. On April 8, the Marine Corps gave a press release of the names of the six flag raisers in the Rosenthal photograph which had been given by Gagnon including Hayes'. Hayes and Bradley were ordered to report to Marine Corps headquarters; After the war, the Marine Corps determined that Hansen (1947), Bradley (2016), and Gagnon (2019) were not second flag-raisers.


title: Ira Hayes

text: President Roosevelt died on April 12, and Vice President Harry S. Truman was sworn in as President the same day. After Bradley was evacuated from Iwo Jima in March, he was recovering from his wounds at Oakland Naval Hospital in Oakland, California when he was ordered to Washington. He was transferred to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where he was shown Rosenthal's flag-raising photograph and was told he was in it. Bradley arrived in Washington D.C. on crutches on or about April 19. Hayes left Hawaii on April 15 and arrived in Washington on April 19 and was assigned to C Company, 1st Headquarters Battalion, Marine Corps Headquarters. Both men were questioned separately by the same Marine officer that Gagnon met with concerning the identities of the six flag-raisers in the Rosenthal photograph. Bradley agreed with all six names of the flag raisers in the photo given by Gagnon including his own. Hayes agreed with all the names including his own except he said that the man identified as Sgt. Hansen at the base of the flagstaff in the photo was really Cpl. Harlon Block. The Marine interviewer then told Hayes that a list of the names of the six flag-raisers in the photo were already released publicly; and besides Block and Hansen were both killed in action (during the Marine Corps investigation in 1946, the lieutenant colonel denied Hayes ever mentioned Block's name to him).


title: Ira Hayes

text: After the interview over, it was requested that Pfc. Gagnon, Pfc. Hayes, and Navy corpsman Bradley participate in the Seventh War Loan drive to help defray the massive war debt by selling war bonds. On April 20, Gagnon, Hayes, and Bradley met President Truman at the White House and each showed him their positions in the second flag raising poster that was on display there for the upcoming bond tour that they would participate in. A press conference was also held that day and Gagnon, Hayes, and Bradley were questioned about the flag raising.


title: Ira Hayes

text: On May 9, a flag-raising by Pfc. Hayes, Pfc. Gagnon, and PhM2c. Bradley during a ceremony at the nation's capital kicked off the bond-selling tour; the flag was the same one that had been raised on Mount Suribachi. The tour began on May 11 in New York City. On May 24, Pfc. Hayes was ordered to report to the 28th Marines in Hawaii. Pfc. Hayes left Washington on May 25 and arrived at Hilo, Hawaii on May 29 by plane and rejoined E Company at Camp Tarawa. Pfc. Gagnon and PhM2c. Bradley finished the tour in Washington D.C. on July 4. The bond tour was held in 33 American cities that raised over $26 billion to help pay for and win the war.


title: Ira Hayes

text: On June 19, Pfc. Hayes was promoted to corporal. He served on occupation duty in Japan with E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines from September 22 to October 26, 1945. He was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, California on December 1, 1945. On February 21, 1946, Hayes was awarded a Navy Commendation from the Marine Corps for meritorious service in combat during World War II.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes attempted to lead a normal civilian life after the war. "I kept getting hundreds of letters. And people would drive through the reservation, walk up to me and ask, 'Are you the Indian who raised the flag on Iwo Jima?'"


title: Ira Hayes

text: Although Hayes rarely spoke about the flag raising, he talked more generally about his service in the Marine Corps with great pride.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes seemed to be disturbed that Harlon Block was still being misrepresented publicly as "Hank" Hansen. In May 1946, Hayes walked and hitchhiked 1,300 miles from the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona to Edward Frederick Block, Sr.'s farm in Weslaco, Texas, to reveal the truth to Block's parents about their son Harlon being in Rosenthal's flag raising photograph. He was instrumental in having the mistaken second flag-raiser controversy resolved by the Marine Corps in January 1947. Block's family, especially his mother, was grateful to Hayes. She said that she had known from the time she first saw the famous picture in the newspaper that it was her son in the photo. Mrs. Block wrote Hayes about her son and he wrote her back in July 1946. She then contacted Texas Congressman Milton West about Hayes' letter which started a Marine Corps investigation in December.


title: Ira Hayes

text: John "Jack" Thurman, who appears at the far left of Rosenthal's "Gung Ho" photograph (below, right) recounted a story of his friendship with Ira who was at the far left of the photo next to Jack. Jack recounted at a breakfast meeting that, sometime after the war, Ira hitchhiked across the country to visit him at his home farm in Mitchell, South Dakota. Ira arrived while Jack was away from the farm and Jack's mother would not allow Ira to wait at the house and made him wait at the end of the driveway by the road. Jack noted his mother "did not like Indians". Once all was explained when Jack got home, Ira was welcomed into the house. Jack remained friends with Ira until his death.


title: Ira Hayes

text: In 1949, Hayes appeared briefly as himself in the film "Sands of Iwo Jima," starring John Wayne. In the movie, Wayne hands the American flag to Gagnon, Hayes, and Bradley, who at the time were considered the three surviving second flag-raisers (the second flag that was raised on Mount Suribachi is used in the film and is handed directly to Gagnon).


title: Ira Hayes

text: After this Hayes was unable to hold onto a steady job for a long period, as he had become an alcoholic. He was arrested 52 times for alcohol intoxication in public at various places in the country, including Chicago in October 1953. Hayes held a variety of jobs, including being a chauffeur to Elizabeth Martin, former wife of Dean Martin, where he lived in her Beverly Hills home for several months but couldn't stop drinking. Referring to his alcoholism, he once said: "I was sick. I guess I was about to crack up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better men than me and they're not coming back. Much less back to the White House, like me." Hayes was sober while attending the Marine Corps War Memorial dedication on November 10, 1954. Hayes met President Dwight D. Eisenhower who lauded him as a hero. A reporter there approached Hayes and asked him, "How do you like the pomp and circumstance?" Hayes hung his head and said, "I don't."


title: Ira Hayes

text: His disquiet about his unwanted fame and his subsequent post-war problems were first recounted in detail by the author William Bradford Huie in "The Outsider", published in 1959 as part of his collection "Wolf Whistle and Other Stories". "The Outsider", filmed in 1961, was directed by World War II veteran turned film director Delbert Mann and starred Tony Curtis as Hayes. The 2006 film "Flags of Our Fathers", directed by Clint Eastwood, suggests that Hayes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).


title: Ira Hayes

text: On the morning of January 24, 1955, Hayes was found dead lying near an abandoned adobe hut near where he lived in Sacaton, Arizona. He had been drinking and playing cards on the reservation with his friends and brothers Vernon and Kenneth. An altercation ensued between Hayes and a Pima Indian named Henry Setoyant, and all left except Hayes and Setoyant. The Pinal County coroner concluded that Hayes's death was caused by exposure and alcohol poisoning. However, his brother Kenneth, a Korean War veteran, believed that the death resulted from the altercation with Setoyant. The reservation police did not conduct an investigation into Hayes's death, and Setoyant denied any allegations of fighting with Hayes. There was no autopsy.


title: Ira Hayes

text: In the film "The Outsider", his death is dramatized for the screen. He is shown drunk and freezing on a mountain top and unable to climb down. He falls asleep and is shown frozen to death with his arm and hand reaching upwards, like the time he raised the flag on Mount Suribachi. In the song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", he was described as being drunk and drowning in two inches of water in a ditch, not noting the cold .


title: Ira Hayes

text: On February 2, 1955, Hayes was buried in Section 34, Grave 479A at Arlington National Cemetery. At the funeral, Rene Gagnon (incorrectly thought to be a flag raiser until 2019, when it was correctly identified as Harold Keller) said of him: "Let's say he had a little dream in his heart that someday the Indian would be like the white man — be able to walk all over the United States."


title: Ira Hayes

text: The Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) in Arlington, Virginia, was dedicated on November 10, 1954. The monument was sculptured by Felix de Weldon from the image of the second flag raising on Mount Suribachi. Ira Hayes is depicted as the sixth bronze figure from the base of the flagstaff on the memorial with the 32 foot (9.8 M) bronze figures of the other five flag-raisers depicted on the memorial.


title: Ira Hayes

text: President Dwight D. Eisenhower sat upfront during the dedication ceremony with Vice President Richard Nixon, Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Anderson, and General Lemuel C. Shepherd, the 20th Commandant of the Marine Corps. Hayes, one of the three surviving flag raisers depicted on the monument, was also seated upfront with John Bradley (incorrectly identified as a flag raiser until June 23, 2016), Rene Gagnon (incorrectly identified as a flag raiser until October 16, 2019), Mrs Martha Strank, Mrs. Ada Belle Block, and Mrs. Goldie Price (mother of Franklin Sousley). Those giving remarks at the dedication included Robert Anderson, Chairman of Day, Colonel J.W. Moreau, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), President, Marine Corps War Memorial Foundation, General Shepherd who presented the memorial to the American people, Felix de Weldon, and Richard Nixon who gave the dedication address. Inscribed on the memorial are the following words:


title: Ira Hayes

text: On November 10, 1993, the United States Marine Corps held a ceremony at the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, commemorating the 218th anniversary of the Marine Corps. Of Ira Hayes, USMC Commandant General Carl Mundy said:


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes' Navy Commendation Ribbon was updated to the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat "V" for meritorious service. He rates the Navy Combat Action Ribbon for combat participation in World War II. The " silver star on his Navy Presidential Unit Citation ribbon was a Marine Corps, World War II, campaign participation star (discontinued) for Iwo Jima, not a second Presidential Unit Citation award (" bronze star). Hayes did not meet the Marine Corps four-year (48 months) service requirement in World War II for the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Hayes's story was immortalized in the song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" by Peter LaFarge, which was subsequently covered by numerous artists including Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Pete Seeger, Townes Van Zandt, and Bob Dylan. In 1964, Cash took the song to number 3 on the Billboard country music chart.


title: Ira Hayes

text: Ira Hayes appeared as himself in the 1949 John Wayne film, "Sands of Iwo Jima". In the 1960 telefilm "The American", he was played by World War II Marine veteran Lee Marvin. Tony Curtis played Hayes in the 1961 film "The Outsider". Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the 2006 movie "Flags of Our Fathers", directed by Clint Eastwood. The movie was based on the 2000 bestselling book of the same name by James Bradley and Ron Powers.


title: Ira Hayes

text: The poet Ai dedicates her poem "I Can't Get Started" to Hayes. He is mentioned in the poem "Petroglyphs of Serena" by Adrian C. Louis. Hayes was also mentioned briefly in the book "Code Talker" by Joseph Bruchac and was mentioned multiple times in the book "Indian Killer" by Sherman Alexie.


title: Ali Abbas Zafar

text: Ali Abbas Zafar is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is known for directing "Mere Brother Ki Dulhan" (2011), "Gunday" (2014), "Sultan" (2016), "Tiger Zinda Hai" (2017) and "Bharat" (2019).


title: Ali Abbas Zafar

text: Zafar is a graduate of Kirori Mal College, New Delhi. He married Alicia Zafar, an Iranian based in France, on 4 January 2021.


title: Ali Abbas Zafar

text: Zafar entered the film industry as an assistant director, with multiple projects for the production company Yash Raj Films (YRF). He then made his own directorial and screen-writing debut with the romantic comedy "Mere Brother Ki Dulhan" (2011). The film revolved around a young man (Imran Khan) who finds a bride (Katrina Kaif) for his elder brother (Ali Zafar), but then finds that he himself has fallen in love with her.


title: Ali Abbas Zafar

text: His next film was the action drama "Gunday" (2014), set in Calcutta in the 1970s and 1980s. The film starred Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor as powerful bandits, Priyanka Chopra as a cabaret dancer whom they both fall in love with, and Irrfan Khan as a police officer pursuing them. Gunday received mostly positive reviews from critics.


title: Ali Abbas Zafar

text: Zafar's next film was the blockbuster sports drama "Sultan" (2016) starring Salman Khan as a wrestling champion from Haryana, with Anushka Sharma as a female wrestler who becomes a love interest for Khan's character. The film received positive reviews from critics and has emerged as one of the highest-grossing Indian films.


title: Ali Abbas Zafar

text: His next film is the action thriller "Tiger Zinda Hai" (2017) the sequel to YRF's "Ek Tha Tiger" (2012). The film stars Salman Khan as a RAW agent and Katrina Kaif as an ISI spy reprising their roles from the first film and is about the both of them accepting a rescue mission to free 40 nurses, 25 Indian and 15 Pakistani, from a ruthless militant. The film released in December 2017 and received generally positive reviews from critics, and became a major commercial success emerging as the highest-grossing films of the year and one of the highest-grossing Indian films.


title: Ali Abbas Zafar

text: In May 2018, he began pre-production of the film "Bharat", which is slated to be released on Eid, 2019. The trailer of this film was released on 22 April 2019 It stars Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Disha Patani, Sunil Grover and Tabu (actress), and is an official adaptation of the Korean film, Ode to My Father. It marks the third collaboration between Khan and Ali.


title: Ali Abbas Zafar

text: In 2020, Zafar made his debut as the producer for "Khaali Peeli", an action-comedy directed by debutante Maqbool Khan that starred Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Pandey in lead roles.


title: Ali Abbas Zafar

text: Zafar's first web series "Tandav", which is a political drama that stars Saif Ali Khan who will be portraying the role of a powerful politician will be streaming by 15 January 2021 on Amazon Prime Video. This 9-episode series will also star Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Kumud Misra, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Gauahar Khan, Sarah Jane Dias, Kritika Kamra, Dino Morea, Sandhya Mridul, Amyra Dastur, and Anup Soni. He has also announced "Bade Miyan Chote Miyan" with Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff, which will be produced by Jackky Bhagnani under Pooja Entertainment. It is intended to release in Christmas of 2023.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: "Kingdom Hearts II" is the third game in the "Kingdom Hearts" series. It picks up one year after the events of "". Sora, the protagonist of the first two games, returns to search for his lost friends while battling the sinister Organization XIII, a group of antagonists previously introduced in "Chain of Memories". Like the previous games, "Kingdom Hearts II" features a large cast of characters from Disney and Square Enix properties.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Concepts for "Kingdom Hearts II" began during the end of development of "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix", with the game entering full development in 2003 and being announced at Tokyo Game Show 2003. Most of the first game's development team returned, including director Tetsuya Nomura, with the game being developed concurrently with "Chain of Memories". In developing "Kingdom Hearts II", the development team sought to address user feedback from the first game, give the player more freedom and options in combat and present a deeper and more mature plot.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: The game received critical acclaim, as it earned several awards upon release, receiving critical praise for its story, gameplay, characters, graphical improvements, and has since been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. In both Japan and North America, it shipped more than one million copies within weeks of its release, with over four million worldwide by April 2007.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: The gameplay of "Kingdom Hearts II" is similar to the action RPG and hack and slash gameplay of the first "Kingdom Hearts" game, though developers made an effort to address some of the complaints of no map and camera bugs with the previous game. The player directly controls Sora from a third-person camera angle, though first-person perspective is available via Select button. Most of the gameplay occurs on interconnected field maps where battles take place. The game is driven by a linear progression from one story event to the next, usually told via cutscenes, though there are numerous side-quests available that provide bonuses to characters.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Like many traditional role-playing video games, "Kingdom Hearts II" features an experience point system which determines character development. As enemies are defeated, the player and allies culminate experience to "level up", in which the playable characters grow stronger and gain access to new abilities.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Combat in "Kingdom Hearts II" is in real-time and involves heavy hack and slash elements with button presses which initiate attacks by the on-screen character. A role-playing game menu on the screen's bottom left, similar to those found in "Final Fantasy" games, provides other combat options such as using magic or items, summoning beings to assist in battle, or executing combination attacks with other party members. A new feature is the "Reaction Command", special enemy-specific attacks that are triggered when the player presses the triangle button at the correct time during battle. Reaction Commands can be used to defeat regular enemies or avoid damage, and are sometimes necessary to complete a boss battle. In addition to the main character, two party members are usually present who also participate in combat. Although these characters are computer-controlled, the player is allowed to customize their behavior to a certain extent through the menu screen, such as attacking the same enemy Sora targets.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: In response to criticism, the "Gummi Ship" feature of the first game was re-imagined to be "more enjoyable". Although retaining its basic purpose of travel, the system was completely redone to resemble a combination of rail shooter and "Disney theme park ride". In the world map, the player must now control the Gummi Ship from a top-down view and fly to the world the player wishes to enter. Worlds are no longer open from the beginning—the player must unlock the routes to them by entering a new level, controlling the ship from a third-person point of view, and battling enemy ships. After the route is opened, travel to the world is unimpeded, unless it is blocked again due to a plot-related event. The player may also gain new Gummi Ships from completing routes, which is also a new feature from the first game.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: One of the new features is a meter known as the "Drive Gauge". The Drive Gauge has dual functions: to transform Sora into a "Drive Form" or to summon a special character. While in a Drive Form, Sora bonds with party members to become more powerful and acquire different attributes; all but two Forms also allow the use of two Keyblades. When a Drive is executed, Sora's combat statistics are heightened. Drive Forms also give Sora new abilities that can be used in normal form, called "Growth Abilities." Sora's first two Drive Forms only combine power with one party member; later-obtained Drive Forms require him to bond with both party members. When allies are used in a Drive, they are temporarily removed from battle for its duration. Unlike the HP and MP gauges, the Drive Gauge is not refilled at save points.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Like in the first game, Sora can summon a Disney character to aid him in battle. Summons will replace the two computer-controlled characters and fight alongside Sora for as long as the Drive Gauge allows, or until Sora's HP runs out. Instead of being limited to only one action, Summons now have a menu of their own and are capable of performing solo or cooperative actions with Sora. These actions are performed by pressing the triangle button. The Summon ability and each Drive Form are leveled up separately and by different criteria; obtaining higher levels allows for extended use and in the case of Drive Forms, access to new abilities.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: "Kingdom Hearts II" begins one year after the events of "Kingdom Hearts" and "Chain of Memories". The game's setting is a collection of various levels (referred to in-game as "worlds") that the player progresses through. As in the first game, the player can travel to various Disney-based locales, along with original worlds specifically created for the series. While Disney-based worlds were primarily derived from the Disney animated features canon in the first game, "Kingdom Hearts II" introduces worlds that are based on live-action franchise "Pirates of the Caribbean" as well. Each world varies in appearance and setting, depending on the Disney film on which it is based. The graphics of the world and characters are meant to resemble the artwork style of the environments and characters from their respective Disney films. Each world is disconnected from the others and exists separately; with few exceptions, players travel from one world to another via a Gummi Ship.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Some worlds featured in the previous games reappear, but with new and expanded areas. There are also new worlds that are introduced, including the Land of Dragons (based on "Mulan"), Beast's Castle ("Beauty and the Beast"), Timeless River ("Steamboat Willie"), Port Royal (""), Pride Lands ("The Lion King"), and Space Paranoids ("Tron"). Twilight Town, an original world first seen in "Chain of Memories", has a greater role as the introductory world. The World That Never Was is a new world that serves as the headquarters of Organization XIII.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: The three protagonists of the game are Sora, a 15-year-old boy chosen as a wielder of the Keyblade, a mystical key-shaped weapon that can combat darkness; Donald Duck, the court magician of Disney Castle; and Goofy, the captain of the Disney Castle guards. Both Donald and Goofy are under orders from their missing king, Mickey Mouse, to accompany Sora and his Keyblade. Other original characters include Riku, who is briefly playable at the game's climax, and Kairi, Sora's friends from his home world of Destiny Islands; Roxas, a boy who can also wield the Keyblade and is playable in the game's beginning sequence; Naminé, a girl with the power to manipulate memories; and DiZ, a man in red robes with a vendetta against Organization XIII, who is later revealed to be Ansem the Wise, the mentor of Xehanort.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: As in the previous games, there are numerous appearances of characters from both Disney and Square Enix works. While some make a return from "Kingdom Hearts", new characters from Disney fiction are also introduced, such as Scar from "The Lion King" and Scrooge McDuck. Pete appears as a persistent enemy who works with the resurrected Maleficent. Nearly twenty characters from "Final Fantasy" games appear, notably Auron of "Final Fantasy X", Tifa from "Final Fantasy VII", and the return of Squall Leonhart, Cloud, and Sephiroth. It was stated that although the first game strictly stuck to characters Tetsuya Nomura designed, this time around they were going to "take some risks", implying that characters not directly designed by Nomura might make an appearance. Other new characters to series are Vivi of "Final Fantasy IX", Seifer Almasy of "Final Fantasy VIII" and Setzer of "Final Fantasy VI".


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: The various worlds that Sora explores often have an optional party character from the film on which the world is based. Such party members include Fa Mulan, the woman who passes as a man in order to take her ailing father's place in the army; Jack Sparrow, a pirate who seeks to reclaim his ship, the Black Pearl; Simba, the self-exiled lion who is the rightful king of the Pride Land; and "Tron", a security program in Hollow Bastion's computer network who seeks to end the dictatorship of the Master Control Program.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Organization XIII, a group of powerful Nobodies—the "empty shells" left over when a strong-hearted person becomes a Heartless—introduced in "", is established as the primary group of antagonists early on. Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, serves as the main antagonist and final boss of the game. Villains unique to the worlds are still prevalent, and are often presented as challenges that Sora's group must overcome.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Sora, Donald, and Goofy have been in suspended animation for the past year to regain their lost memories. Roxas, Sora's Nobody, is trapped in a virtual simulation of Twilight Town created by DiZ to merge him with his original self to restore Sora's power. DiZ's plans are threatened when Nobodies led by Axel, Roxas's former friend in Organization XIII, infiltrate the virtual town to extract Roxas. However, Roxas is able to repel the Nobodies and finally merge with Sora. Sora, Donald, and Goofy awaken in the real Twilight Town and meet King Mickey and Yen Sid, who send them on another journey; their goal is to find Riku and uncover the Organization's plans. Afterward, Maleficent is resurrected and joins with Pete to continue her quest for power.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Sora travels to familiar and unfamiliar worlds, where he resolves several problems caused by Organization XIII, the Heartless, and various local villains. During a visit to Hollow Bastion, they reunite with Mickey, who explains that the Heartless "Ansem" they defeated is an imposter named Xehanort, whose Nobody, Xemnas, is the Organization's leader. The Organization also reveal that they seek the power of Kingdom Hearts, creating one from the hearts Sora has released from the Heartless with his Keyblade, to regain their lost hearts; in addition, Sora discovers that the Organization is holding Kairi hostage to force him to comply. Sora revisits the worlds to solve lingering problems and new complications while seeking a path to Organization XIII's base of operations in the World That Never Was. Throughout his endeavors, Sora is secretly aided by a hooded figure whom Sora believes to be Riku.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Following a lead, Sora, Donald, and Goofy enter a passageway to the World That Never Was through Twilight Town, where Axel sacrifices himself to give them safe passage. Sora finds Kairi and Riku, the latter of whose appearance has been changed to that of Xehanort's Heartless after using his power to capture Roxas. Mickey encounters DiZ, who reveals himself to be the true Ansem, Xehanort's mentor. Ansem uses a device that dissipates some of Kingdom Hearts' power, but a system overload causes the device to self-destruct, both engulfing Ansem and miraculously returning Riku to his original form. Atop of the Castle That Never Was, Sora and company battle Xemnas, who uses what remains of Kingdom Hearts to fight them. After Sora and Riku destroy Xemnas, the two become trapped in the realm of darkness, where they discover a portal to the realm of light in a bottled letter sent by Kairi, allowing them to return to the Destiny Islands and reunite with their friends. In a post-credits scene, Sora, Kairi, and Riku receive and read a letter from Mickey, the contents of which are hidden from the player.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Development plans for "Kingdom Hearts II" began around the completion of "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix", but specific details were undecided until July 2003. Nomura noted several obstacles to clear before development could begin on a sequel. One such obstacle was the development team's desire to showcase Mickey Mouse more, which required Disney's approval. The game was developed by Square Enix's Product Development Division-1, with most of the original staff from the first game. The game was originally supposed to have been released after "Kingdom Hearts". Nomura had planned for the sequel to take place a year after the first and originally intended for the events of that year to be left unexplained. To bridge the gap between the two games, "Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories" was developed. To explain the loss of all the abilities from the first game at the beginning of "Kingdom Hearts II", Nomura had Sora's memories scrambled in "Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories".


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Many aspects of the gameplay were reworked for this sequel. Some changes were made due to user feedback and others were meant to be included in previous games but were omitted either because of time or technological constraints. The camera was switched to the right analog stick of the DualShock controller instead of the shoulder buttons and the Gummi Ship travel was reworked. The combat system was completely redone and did not use any animations from the first game. Because Sora had matured, Nomura wanted his fighting style to reflect that. Other changes included more integration between exploration and battles. The variations in combat styles associated with each Drive Form and the introduction of the Reaction Command were added to give players more choices in battles. The inclusion of worlds based on live-action Disney films was aided by technology that generated the character models from live-action pictures.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Like the first game, "Kingdom Hearts II" features music by Yoko Shimomura and Hikaru Utada. The Original Soundtrack for "Kingdom Hearts II" was composed by Shimomura and released on January 25, 2006. The opening orchestration and ending credits theme were arranged and orchestrated by Kaoru Wada and performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. The main vocal theme for the original Japanese release was "Passion", written and performed by Utada. The English version of "Passion", "Sanctuary", was used in the Western releases. Utada's involvement was announced on July 29, 2005. According to Nomura, the vocal theme ties in even more closely with the game's story than "Hikari" ("Simple and Clean") did with "Kingdom Hearts" and "Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories". The CD single for "Passion" was released on December 14, 2005 and "Sanctuary" was first previewed on MTV's official website in early 2006.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: "Kingdom Hearts II" features well-known voice actors for both the Japanese and English versions. Many of the original voice actors from the first "Kingdom Hearts" reprised their roles; Miyu Irino and Haley Joel Osment as Sora, Mamoru Miyano and David Gallagher as Riku, and Risa Uchida and Hayden Panettiere as Kairi. New voice actors included Kōki Uchiyama and Jesse McCartney as Roxas, Iku Nakahara and Brittany Snow as Naminé, and Genzō Wakayama and Christopher Lee as DiZ. A special effort was made to preserve the official voice actors from the Disney movies used in "Kingdom Hearts II". Many actors reprised their Disney roles for the game, including Ming-Na Wen as Mulan, James Woods as Hades, Bruce Boxleitner as Tron, Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington and Zach Braff as Chicken Little. Some voice actors from the related television series or direct-to-video sequels were chosen over original voice actors where applicable, such as Robert Costanzo as Philoctetes rather than Danny DeVito or Cam Clarke as Simba instead of Matthew Broderick. Some characters were given new voice actors in the English version; Ansem, Aerith, Leon, Sephiroth and Hercules, who were originally voiced by Billy Zane, Mandy Moore, David Boreanaz, Lance Bass, and Sean Astin respectively in the first game, were voiced by Richard Epcar, Mena Suvari, Doug Erholtz, George Newbern, and Tate Donovan (Hercules' original voice actor), and newcomer Tifa was voiced by Rachael Leigh Cook.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Besides English translation and localization, the international version of "Kingdom Hearts II" differs from the original Japanese version in the content of gameplay and several scenes. The Hydra boss in the "Hercules"-themed world Olympus Coliseum had its green blood from the original Japanese version (which was taken from the film) changed into black and purple smoke in the English version. In one cutscene, Hercules fights the Hydra and uses his sword on its head, which eventually releases green blood from its mouth in the Japanese version; this was later changed into drool in the English version. There is also a scene in Disney Castle where, after chasing Donald around for missing a date, Daisy Duck pounds him on the backside in the Japanese version, whereas she merely tells him off inaudibly in the English version.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Xigbar's telescopic sight was changed from a crosshair and black shading around the sides to three glowing circles. An attack animation was also altered; in the Japanese version, Xigbar combines his two hand-held guns to create a sniper rifle, which is used to shoot the player's party during the telescoping sight sequence. In the English version, Xigbar does not combine his guns, but twirls them around and shoots at Sora with a single gun. The death of Organization XIII member Axel was slightly edited; in the original, he bursts into flames during his suicide attack, while in the English version he simply fades away after using up all of his power.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Port Royal, based on "", contains the most content edits. Cutscenes were edited to remove some of the violence, such as William Turner threatening to commit suicide while aiming a gun at his neck, as in the film. Unlike the Japanese version, the undead pirates do not catch fire when affected by Fire magic, and their muskets were modified to resemble crossbows, though the crossbows still fire with an audible musket shot sound effect.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: An unlockable trailer in "Kingdom Hearts" and "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix" hinted at the possibility of a sequel. Rumors for a sequel on the PlayStation 2 were spurred in Japan when the video game website Quiter stated that "an internal (and anonymous source) at Square Japan" confirmed that development of "Kingdom Hearts II" had begun. It was not until "Kingdom Hearts II" was announced, along with "Chain of Memories", at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2003 that rumors were confirmed. Initial details were that it would take place some time after "Chain of Memories", which takes place directly after the first game. Other details included the return of Sora, Donald, and Goofy, as well as new costumes. Information about Mickey Mouse's involvement was kept to a minimum.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: At the 2004 Square Enix E3 Press conference, producer Shinji Hashimoto said that many mysteries of the first game would be answered. Square Enix launched the official Japanese website in May 2005, followed by the English website in December 2005. The websites featured videos and information regarding characters and worlds. Commercials were aired in Japan which highlighted the numerous Disney characters in the game. Although the game was announced in September 2003, a release date for the game was not set until two years later. Nomura admitted that the game was announced too early and information regarding the game was not released until a debut period was in sight.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Within a week of its Japanese release, "Kingdom Hearts II" shipped one million copies, selling almost 730,000 copies. The NPD Group reported that "Kingdom Hearts II" was the highest-selling console game in North America during March 2006 with 614,000 copies. In the month after its release in North America, "Kingdom Hearts II" sold an estimated one million copies. GameStop listed the game as their best-selling title for the first quarter of 2006. The game was also on IGN's "Top 10 Sellers in 2006". By December 2006, over 3.5 million copies of "Kingdom Hearts II" had been shipped worldwide with 700,000 in PAL regions, 1.1 million in Japan, and 1.7 million in North America. By March 31, 2007, Square Enix had shipped over 4 million units worldwide.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: "Kingdom Hearts II" received critical acclaim upon release, garnering positive reviews. The game received numerous awards and high ratings among reviews including a Satellite Award in 2006 for "Outstanding Game Based on Existing Medium". It tied with "Resident Evil 4" as "Famitsu"s "Game of the Year" 2005. "Famitsu"s readers ranked the game 29th on their "All Time Top 100" feature, ten places below "Kingdom Hearts". It was ranked number one on IGN's 2006 "Reader's Choice" for PlayStation 2 games. "Eurogamer" ranked it 34th on their "Top 50 Games of 2006" list. Video game magazine "Electronic Gaming Monthly" awarded it "Best Sequel" of 2006, and "Game Informer" listed it among the "Top 50 games of 2006". "VideoGamer.com" featured it 10th in their article "Top 10: Role playing games". "GamePro" named it the 25th best RPG title of all time. "Kingdom Hearts II" also received a near-perfect score, 39/40, from the Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu".


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Critics commended many aspects of the game. GameSpy praised the quality of the voice acting and cited the graphics as "on par with the best of Square's productions to date." They also commented on the realistic and accurate character models for the characters from "Pirates of the Caribbean". IGN rated the graphics a 9/10 and stated that the "worlds look very much like their filmed counterparts." Japanese gaming site Gpara.com also praised the look of the worlds. G4 awarded "Kingdom Hearts II" "Best Voice Over" and "Best Soundtrack" in their 2006 "G-Phoria" awards show.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: Like its predecessors, the gameplay received mixed reviews. Many compliments were directed at the new camera controls and combat interactions between party members. "GamePro" stated that the beginning was "sluggishly slow", but praised the action-oriented combat. GameSpot said that the fixed camera system and new gameplay dynamics improved the experience, but they felt the game was far too easy and that there was too much button-mashing. IGN also commented on the button-mashing aspect of the gameplay and criticized the party member's artificial intelligence, citing it as "absolutely terrible", but praised the story, presentation, and new battle features. Gpara.com had positive comments about the ease of combo attacks and complimented the steady pacing of the story and gameplay.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: The game was ranked the 16th greatest console video game of all time in a 2021 Japanese poll conducted by TV Asahi which surveyed over 50,000 respondents.


title: Kingdom Hearts II

text: "Kingdom Hearts II" has been released in four different versions. The first three are the normal regional releases in Japan, North America, and PAL regions, which only differ nominally in content editing and localization. The European and Australian PAL releases were reformatted to run at 50 Hz to fit the definition size of PAL encoding systems. The fourth version has additional content and was released under the title "Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix". Like the previous titles, both Square and Disney released numerous types of merchandise before and after the game came out. Merchandise ranged from toys and figurines to clothing items and books. The game has also been adapted into both manga and novel series. Prior to the game's release, an "Ultimania" book titled "Kingdom Hearts Series Ultimania α ~Introduction of Kingdom Hearts II~" came out. It provides extended information on the first two "Kingdom Hearts" games, as well as information on the unreleased "Kingdom Hearts II". After the release of the game, "Kingdom Hearts II Ultimania", which focuses on the game itself, came out. Another book, titled "Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ Ultimania", was released after the "Final Mix" version came out. Released along with "Final Mix", "Kingdom Hearts -Another Report-" was a hardback book which includes game information, visuals by Shiro Amano, and a director interview. In North America, BradyGames published two strategy guides—a standard guide and a limited edition version. The latter version was available in four different covers and included a copy of Jiminy's Journal along with 400 stickers.