title: Striped skunk

text: Like all skunks, the striped skunk possesses two highly developed scent glands, one on each side of the anus, containing about 15 milliliters of musk each, which provides a chemical defense against predation. This oily, yellow-colored musk consists of a mixture of powerfully odorous thiols (sulfur analogues of alcohols, in older sources called "mercaptans"), which can be sprayed at a distance of several meters. The odor of this musk was likened by Ernest Thompson Seton to a mixture of perfume musk, essence of garlic, burning sulfur and sewer gas "magnified a thousand times", though Clinton Hart Merriam claimed that it isn't "one tenth" as offensive as that produced by minks and weasels. It can be sprayed at a distance of several meters. If sprayed on the eyes, this compound can cause a temporary burning sensation.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk is polygamous, and normally breeds once a year, though yearling females who have failed to mate may enter a second estrous cycle a month after the first. The mating season usually occurs between mid-February to mid-April, though it is delayed at higher latitudes. Prior to copulating, the males' testicles swell during the January–February period, with maximum size being attained in March. Males during this period will cover much ground in their search for females, sometimes covering per night.


title: Striped skunk

text: When a male locates a female, he will approach her from the rear and lick her genitals, then bite her on the nape before copulating. A single male may have a harem of several females, which he mates with and defends against other males for a period of about 35 days. Once the mating period has finished, the impregnated females confine themselves to their dens, while the males attempt to rebuild their fat reserves.


title: Striped skunk

text: The gestation period lasts around 59–77 days, with kits being born at about mid-May to early June. Litters generally consist of 2–12 kits, with the average being five or six, though a litter of 18 is known from Pennsylvania. Kits are born blind and sparsely furred, weighing 25–40 grams. The eyes open after around three weeks, and are weaned after 42–56 days. Although their musk is still undeveloped, kits of this age will instinctively assume the defensive stand position when threatened. At this point, the kits may accompany their mother outside the den, becoming independent after 2½ months.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk may dig its own dens, though it will appropriate those abandoned by other animals should the opportunity present itself. These dens are normally used only in late fall, winter, and early spring, while females with unweaned kits make use of them in late spring and summer. In cultivated areas, striped skunks will dig their dens in fencerows, likely because they are less likely to be disturbed by machinery or livestock. In winter it is common for a single den to be occupied by multiple females and a single male. During this period, the striped skunk saves its energy by lowering its body temperature from 38 °C to 32 °C. Although it will forage for short periods in winter, it primarily depends on its fat reserves in cold weather, and can lose as much as 50% of its body weight.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk inhabits a wide variety of habitats, particularly mixed woodlands, brushy corners and open fields interspersed with wooded ravines and rocky outcrops. Some populations, particularly in northwestern Illinois, prefer cultivated areas over uncultivated ones.


title: Striped skunk

text: While primarily an insectivore, the striped skunk is adaptable enough to incorporate other animals and even vegetable matter into its diet. The most frequently consumed insects include grasshoppers, beetles, crickets, caterpillars, other insect larvae and bees. Other invertebrates may include worms, crayfish and other non-insect arthropods. In the winter and spring months, the striped skunk will supplement its diet with vertebrates such as white-footed mice, voles, eggs and the chicks of ground nesting birds. The striped skunk is also known to consume amphibians, reptiles, carrion and fish. Striped skunks inhabiting California's coastal areas will feed on crabs and beached fish. While not adapted for chasing fleet-footed prey, at least one specimen was observed pursuing gray cottontails into their burrows. The skunk will also consume vegetable matter, such as apples, blueberries, black cherries, ground cherries, corn and nightshade when in season.


title: Striped skunk

text: Striped skunks are known to use their sharp claws to tear apart rotting logs to find grubs, dig in the soil for insects, and pin down prey. Their practice of digging leaves small-but-noticeable pits in the ground, which can provide evidence of their presence in an area.


title: Striped skunk

text: Because of its formidable defensive capability, the striped skunk has few natural enemies. Mammalian predators typically avoid skunks, unless they are starving. Such predators include cougars, coyotes, bobcats, badgers, and red and gray foxes. Predatory birds, including golden and bald eagles, and great horned owls tend to have greater success in hunting skunks, though they still risk being blinded by their prey's musk.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk is one of the major carriers of the rabies virus, second only to raccoons in the US where skunks are 25% of annual cases. Skunks are the primary hosts in the north- and south-central United States as well as in Canada. Cases of rabies in this species are generally epizootic and recurrent. They are also host for the canine parvovirus and may also suffer from leptospirosis.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk is commonly featured in the myths and oral traditions of Native Americans. Some stories try to explain its striped pattern or how it got its smell. Skunks fill various roles in legends and may be featured as heroes, villains, tricksters, or monsters. For the Muscogee people, the skunk represented family loyalty and defense of loved ones. The Winnebago people used the skunk to symbolize vanity, being beautiful on the outside but ugly on the inside.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk was once called the "emblem of America" by Ernest Thompson Seton. It has been prevalent in modern popular culture, being the subject of various jazz and funk songs like Cab Calloway's "Skunk Song" and the Brecker Brothers' "Some Skunk Funk". The skunk connection in these genres may be due to the term "funk" being a term for strong odor. The novelty song "Dead Skunk" by Loudon Wainwright III was popular in the early 1970s. Skunks are also popular characters in children's stories, comics and cartoons, most notably the Warner Bros character Pepé Le Pew and the Disney character Flower of the 1942 animated film "Bambi", their musky odor making them a source of fear and ostracization.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk is one of North America's most sought-after furbearers, and was once the second most harvested after the muskrat. Its fur is intrinsically valuable, being durable and having rich luster, though this trait decreases with wear and exposure to sunlight. Skunk pelts are divided into four grades, with the most prized being the ones with a greater amount of black. These grades are further subdivided in value according to their locality, with the most valuable occurring in northern regions, where the fur is finer and darker. Skunks are notable for being easy to trap, even approaching traps they had been previously caught in. Because skunks are difficult to kill without having them discharge their musk (and thus ruin their fur) they were typically dispatched with a paralyzing blow to the lower back or drowned if caught in a box trap.


title: Striped skunk

text: Skunk farming largely began during the late 1890s, when there was much foreign demand for their skins, and intensive trapping had largely extirpated the more valuable mostly black-colored specimens. Captive breeding of skunks proved relatively simple when compared to mink and marten farming, as skunks are easier to tame and have less specialized dietary needs. Emphasis was placed on selectively breeding the tamest and darkest colored skunks. Prior to the First World War, skunk pelts were primarily shipped to Europe until better methods of deodorizing and processing the skins lead to increased interest in selling them for North American consumption. Despite being easy to breed and manage, skunk farming was not overly profitable, as the relatively low price of the pelts did not compensate for the costs in maintaining them. Nevertheless, raising skunks was considered good practice for amateur fur farmers wishing to later move on to more valuable furbearers like martens, sable, mink and silver foxes.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk is easily tamed and was often kept in barns to kill rats and mice during the 19th century. Selective breeding has resulted in the emergence of various color mutations, including black, chocolate-brown or smokey gray and white, apricot, albino, white, lavender, champagne and mahogany.


title: Striped skunk

text: The striped skunk was regularly eaten by trappers and indigenous peoples, provided the animal was not too old or had not sprayed before being killed. American zoologist Clinton Hart Merriam described skunk meat as white, tender, sweet and more delicate than chicken. The meat was prized by Chinese immigrants, who also bought skunk gall bladders for medicinal purposes.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: Kevin Antoine Dodson (born June 27, 1984) is an American Internet celebrity, singer, and actor. In 2010, while a resident of the Lincoln Park housing project in Huntsville, Alabama, he gave an interview on local television news prompted by the report of an alleged home invasion and attempted rape of his sister. The interview became an Internet sensation and resulted in the "Bed Intruder Song," an Auto-Tuned song by The Gregory Brothers that sold thousands of copies on iTunes and appeared on the "Billboard" Hot 100 list.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: Dodson was interviewed on July 28, 2010, by Elizabeth Gentle, a reporter for NBC affiliate WAFF-48 News, after an alleged intruder attempted to rape his sister in her second-story bedroom, in Huntsville's Lincoln Park housing projects. The account was later contradicted by the now-named "rapist", Rashaad Cooper, who at the time was never identified to the police by the Dodsons or charged for the incident.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: The video of the interview caught attention because of the passionate and flamboyant style of his delivery, speaking directly to the camera, in which he directly addressed his neighborhood's residents as well as the attempted rapist, and his use of vernacular. The reactions were mixed. Some local viewers phoned the television station to complain that interviews with people such as Dodson reflected poorly on the community, whereupon the station defended broadcasting the interview by stating that censoring such people is far worse. Jonathan Capehart, editorial page writer for "The Washington Post", wrote that Dodson became an instant Internet sensation because "in this age of fake reality TV, he puts the real in reality", to which he later added that Dodson "is one of the strongest people we’ve seen in a while".


title: Antoine Dodson

text: The video of Dodson's television interview gained sudden popularity and then inspired several musical remixes, including a video by musical group The Gregory Brothers, known as the "Bed Intruder Song". The song was a huge success and eventually reached number 89 on "Billboard"'s Hot 100 list. The popularity of the song inspired many covers and remixes, including a punk rock version by a team formed by Hayley Williams of Paramore, Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory, and Ethan Luck of Relient K and musician Tony Lucca.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: Dodson was interviewed for the "Today Show" on NBC on August 31, 2010, about his newfound Web superstardom. On the program, Dodson's YouTube video was called "one of the most watched online videos ever", with the hosts noting it had already been viewed more than 16 million times as of that date. Dodson has appeared on radio shows in Australia, has fans in London and is widely recognized in his hometown of Huntsville.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: Dodson had launched a website in which he asks for donations to assist his family in moving "out of the hood". The money, as well as money from sales of "Bed Intruder Song" on iTunes and merchandise such as T-shirts, went to helping his family buy a new home and setting up a foundation for Type 1 diabetes, a disease that has afflicted both his sister and his mother.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: In August 2010, Dodson noted the irony of having "a hit on iTunes, but we're still in the projects"; one month later, "Us Weekly" reported that Dodson had made enough money from the song to move his family out of the projects to a better house. In September 2010, the Gregory Brothers reported that they had sold more than 250,000 copies of "Bed Intruder Song" on iTunes.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: In October 2010, Dodson performed "Bed Intruder Song" with Michael Gregory of The Gregory Brothers at the 2010 BET Hip Hop Awards.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: Excluding major label music videos, Dodson's song was the most viewed YouTube video of 2010. It was chosen as the "Meme of the Year" in the 2010 Urlies – both as the People's Choice and the Editors' Choice – while the original video of Dodson's television interview was the "Video of the Year" – People's Choice.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: He was also featured in a segment on "Lopez Tonight" singing a "Chimney Intruder" song about Santa Claus, and on "Tosh.0" for a "Web Redemption".


title: Antoine Dodson

text: In the episode "Dancing with the Stools" on "The Cleveland Show", Dodson is referenced when Roberta, Cleveland's stepdaughter, enters the kitchen wearing Antoine's famous bandana and says "Rallo, you are so dumb, you are really dumb, for real". Also, in episode "B.M.O.C.", Roberta states "Hide your kids, hide your wife didn't go to college" when listing famous people that didn't go to college.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: In episode 2 of "Jay Park TV", Korean-American singer Jay Park mimics Dodson while wearing a makeshift bandana.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: Dodson plays a cameo role in the Tyler Perry movie "A Madea Christmas" saying a part of his line from his television interview during an interview at the end of the movie.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: Dodson has capitalized on the success of "Bed Intruder Song". His first venture was a line of T-shirts and merchandise featuring the original album art from the iTunes release sold through zazzle.com. After a licensing dispute between the artist, the photographer, and his manager, he launched a storefront through districtlines.com with an unrelated line of merchandise. Since then he has authorized entrepreneur Fam Mirza for the creation and sale of a "Bed Intruder Costume" for Halloween 2010 and endorsed a "Sex Offender Tracker" smartphone application for the iPhone and Android platforms.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: On January 21, 2011, MSN announced that Dodson was filming a pilot episode for a reality show, featuring Dodson and his family as they move from Huntsville to Los Angeles, California.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: In November 2014, Dodson participated in a celebrity boxing match, hosted by Kato Kaelin, against "bedroom intruder" Cooper. Dodson won in the first round.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: On September 24, 2022, Dodson plans to launch his own beer called "Run N’ Tell That" in partnership with Hunstville brewery Straight to Ale.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: Dodson grew up in Chicago, and moved to Huntsville in 2004, where he attended Virginia College, working on an associate degree in business administration. He also worked as a hairstylist.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: Antoine Dodson is the oldest of nine children. In an online Q&A video with fans, he answered questions regarding his sexuality: "Am I bisexual? No. Gay? Yes." In an interview with CBS, Dodson told Shira Lazar that he had been a rape victim in the past.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: In May 2013, Dodson announced through Facebook that he has become a Black Hebrew Israelite, is "no longer into homosexuality" and that he wants "a wife and family". Dodson and his wife announced her pregnancy in September 2013. In May 2014, they had a son. Dodson drew criticism shortly after when discussing the possibility of his son being gay. Although professing unconditional support, he included the phrase "if he couldn't be fixed". In September 2015, in a video posted to his YouTube channel, Antoine apologized to the LGBT community for his statements.


title: Antoine Dodson

text: In an interview in April 2018 with BET, Dodson identified himself as a bisexual man, saying, "I don't know what the future will hold for me." Dodson also said he enjoyed working at Huntsville City Schools, where his nephews and nieces were enrolled, especially after having earned a license to become a substitute teacher.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Oleg Nikolaevich Taktarov (; born 26 August 1967) is a Russian actor and retired mixed martial artist. He was a practitioner of Sambo and Judo and competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Pride Fighting Championships. He won the UFC 6 tournament. He holds notable wins over Marco Ruas, Tank Abbott, Mark Kerr, and Anthony Macias. Taktarov is of Mari background.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Taktarov started his experience in martial arts at 12, when he took up both Judo and Sambo. He started competing in those disciplines during his obligatory military service, at one point also becoming a hand-to-hand instructor for the KGB, until he retired at 22 in order to become a businessman. However, according to Taktarov, in 1989 he would find himself attracted to a jacketed mixed martial arts event called Jujutsu Full Contact, whose four first editions he won in dominant fashion. He also trained in Jujutsu around this time, becoming a four time European champion. In October 1993, Taktarov and a training partner participated in the White Dragon MMA tournament in Latvia, but were forced to flee from the country due to political tensions. He would land in United States, as he planned to pursue a film acting career, though this would be delayed by his lack of fluency in English language.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Originally travelling to North America, the goal of Taktarov was originally to become an actor but he decided to become a professional fighter in order to gain a visa extension. In order to get in touch with Hollywood actors, and having watched the Ultimate Fighting Championship event UFC 2, Taktarov contacted the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in 1994, offering himself to train Royce Gracie in sambo leglocks. Although he was accepted as a training partner after proving his skill against several instructors, he was ultimately rejected due to his inability to pay the fee. Taktarov next contacted the UFC management in order to participate himself for the prize money, being advised that he was already familiar with that kind of competition and had a chance of winning. He was finally accepted into the UFC 5 tournament in April, and would later find out that the Gracie family had previously pressed to keep him out of the UFC. A week before the event, Taktarov dislocated his knee, but he decided not to pull out of the tournament.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Taktarov was billed in the event as "The Russian Bear," a stereotypical nickname invented by his manager, and hailed as a Sambo representative, as this was the most exotic martial art in Taktarov's background. However, he stood out for his friendly demeanor, showing an infectious smile to the camera while introducing himself instead of the intimidating faces and postures other fighters were striking. His first fight was against Kempo Karate expert Ernie Verdicia, whom Oleg quickly submitted by pulling guard, sweeping him between his strikes, and locking an arm triangle choke for the tapout. He advanced round to meet Greco-Roman wrestler Dan Severn, but Taktarov's injured knee limited his performance, already disadvantaged by 55 lbs. Severn took the Russian down, passed his guard and blocked him against the cage wall, where Taktarov was repeatedly hit with knee strikes and headbutts while he tried to look for submissions. As the strikes opened a deep cut on Oleg's face, the referee stopped the fight in Severn's favor.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: After the event, Taktarov went to train with Ken Shamrock in his Lion's Den fighting team. He described this time as: "For a month Ken and I fought together. The guys who later became good fighters, like Frank Shamrock or Guy Mezger, were not any competition for me at the time. The only guy I trained with was Ken, and we had battles behind closed doors. Nobody was allowed to watch them."


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Taktarov returned at UFC 6, whose first round saw him facing Wrestler and Judoka Dave Beneteau. Although Beneteau took Oleg down and stunned him momentarily with punches, Taktarov answered by scoring his own takedown and tapping him out with a guillotine choke in the scramble. His next bout was originally against Patrick Smith, but an injury forced the latter to be replaced by Anthony Macias, who shared promoter and training ground with Taktarov. The Russian submitted him in with another guillotine choke in nine seconds, becoming the fastest submission in UFC history in the process. The fighters were unusually booed by the crowd, who suspected the fight to be a work executed to ease Taktarov's way to the finals. In any case, Taktarov went to the main event of the night, being pitted against the much larger fighter Tank Abbott in what commentators called a "skill vs. strength" match. Both Taktarov and Abbott were already tired and dehydrated by the high altitude of Casper, Wyoming, where the event was taking place.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: The bout was hard-fought, with Abbott dominating the grappling exchanges and scoring punches while Taktarov remained patient and counterattacked with a variety of strikes and submission attempts. After 17 minutes of back and forth action, with both fighters looking devoid of energy, Taktarov locked a rear naked choke for the tournament victory. He had to be taken to the hospital right after with an oxygen mask on. He was later quoted as, "when I went to the hospital after the fight, they said I barely had enough water in my system, only about one gallon."


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Being the reigning tournament champion, Taktarov was set up to fight reigning UFC Champion Ken Shamrock in UFC 7 for the UFC Superfight Championship. Due to his friendship with Shamrock, Taktarov accepted the fight reluctantly and tried to find a way to win without hurting him, although he was unsure whether Shamrock would do the same. As with the previous fight, Taktarov displayed an important amount of toughness while defending from the bottom, spending most of the match laying defensively on his guard while receiving punishment. The fight had a 30-minute time limit and went into three minutes of overtime, but the result was the same, with Shamrock scoring strikes both standing and through his guard. As there was no judges, the fight finished as a draw.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Taktarov then entered the UFC's Ultimate Ultimate 1995 tournament. He rematched Dave Beneteau, who according to Taktarov came to the match having greased himself to difficult the Russian's grip. Unable to throw him, Taktarov resorted to a flying kneebar, and promptly transitioned it into an ankle lock to submit Beneteau. He then went to face Luta Livre exponent and highly regarded UFC 7 champion Marco Ruas. The match was lengthy and slow, with Taktarov trying repeatedly to take Ruas to the ground while the Brazilian caused damage with strikes and made Oleg bleed. After the time went out, however, Taktarov won the decision for his superior aggression during the match. Controversy arose when Ruas's manager Frederico Lapenda complained about the decision. Despite Taktarov being tired after the bout, he advanced round and lastly met Dan Severn in the finals in a rematch of their fight at UFC 5. The Russian clamped another leglock combination in the first few minutes, which he claimed Severn was going to tap out to before Taktarov was forced to release it out of fatigue. The Wrestler then scored headbutts and knee strikes from dominant positions until the end of the bout, including an overtime controlled by way of Boxing, which granted him the decision.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Taktarov ended his UFC career after Ultimate Ultimate, according to him because the management was focused on Shamrock over any other fighter. However, on 21 November 2003, at UFC 45, the UFC conducted a poll amongst the fans to determine the most popular fighters in the history of the UFC. The fans voted Oleg as one of the top 10 most popular fighters in the history of the UFC.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: After his UFC tenure, Taktarov competed for Japanese promotion Pancrase, where he lost a decision by points to Ryushi Yanagisawa. He then moved to Brazil, where he defeated Joe Charles by submission in World Vale Tudo Championship. There were next talks about a rematch with Marco Ruas, which Taktarov accepted. He even entertained the idea to crash the match with a ringside brawl, which would attract attention by the news media and allow them both to host an anticipated rubber match back in UFC. Ruas's management seemed to get into the idea of setting up a third fight, with his manager Lapenda even making Taktarov promise to fight entirely standing, but Ruas himself fought to win. With one minute left in the clock, Taktarov finally took Ruas down, but he allowed the bout to end in a draw. However, interest was little and the rubber match never happened.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Taktarov returned from Brazil with a broken hand, only to find out his manager had put him on a fight against Renzo Gracie for Martial Arts Reality Superfighting in ten days notice. Come the match, Taktarov took Gracie down, but the anticipated grappling battle never took off. Taktarov's injured hand impeded him from grabbing an opportune leglock on Gracie, who capitalized on the lapse to fire an upkick that knocked down Taktarov. He tried to continue fighting, but the kick had opened a deep cut and the fight was stopped.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: In 1997, Taktarov traveled back to Brazil to fight decorated ADCC grappler Sean Alvarez in the Pentagon Combat event. Despite Alvarez's size advantage, Taktarov knocked him out with newly polished striking skills. However, he got sent to another match in short notice, this time to Japan in the first ever Pride 1 show on 11 October 1997, facing Canadian heavyweight and UFC veteran Gary Goodridge. Taktarov suffered a frightening knockout loss, receiving strikes even after having been rendered unconscious, and had to be carried out of the arena in a stretcher. In one of his recent interviews he attributed Goodridge's victory to the peak of the anabolic steroid cycle that Goodridge allegedly went through prior to the fight. Taktarov further asserted that Goodridge's following performances (i.e. a string of losses) clearly indicated the downtrend of the steroid cycle.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: In Russia, for a specialised event Oleg faced Dolph Lundgren in a celebrity Boxing match and won via unanimous decision.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: Taktarov announced in an online radio interview in November 2007 his plans to return to MMA with BodogFight. He won his debut match against John Marsh at 33 seconds into the 2nd round of the match by submission (kneebar). His last fight was against UFC 14 and UFC 15 heavyweight champion Mark Kerr, again winning by kneebar.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: In 1998 Taktarov, who was known as a strong grappler in mixed martial arts, competed in ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship. He had previously trained with Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners Wallid Ismail, Ricardo Liborio and Carlos Barreto. Taktarov fought a "superfight" with multiple champion Mário Sperry, who ultimately defeated Taktarov by points after passing his guard.


title: Oleg Taktarov

text: After temporarily retiring from mixed martial arts, Taktarov focused on his acting career and starred in the movies "Air Force One", "Righteous Kill", "Bad Boys II", "National Treasure", "15 Minutes", "" and the 2002 version of "Rollerball". He also appeared in the first episode of season 3 of "Alias" entitled "The Two" and in the "NCIS" season 5 finale "Judgement Day". He has also appeared in a few Russian productions, and was cast in a few releases from 2007, such as "We Own the Night". Taktarov also released several instructional Sambo videos and has made an instructional video with Vladimir Vasiliev entitled "Russian Mega Fighting". Taktarov more recently starred in "Den of Thieves" (as Alexi), Robert Rodriguez's franchise sequel, "Predators", directed by Nimród Antal.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Henricus Antonius "Han" van Meegeren (; 10 October 1889 – 30 December 1947) was a Dutch painter and portraitist, considered one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century. Van Meegeren became a national hero after World War II when it was revealed that he had sold a forged painting to "Reichsmarschall" Hermann Göring during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: As a child, Van Meegeren developed an enthusiasm for the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, and he set out to become an artist. Art critics, however, decried his work as tired and derivative, and Van Meegeren felt that they had destroyed his career. He decided to prove his talent by forging paintings by 17th-century artists including Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch and Johannes Vermeer. The best art critics and experts of the time accepted the paintings as genuine and sometimes exquisite. His most successful forgery was "Supper at Emmaus", created in 1937 while he was living in the south of France; the painting was hailed as a real Vermeer by leading experts of the day such as Dr Abraham Bredius.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: During World War II, Göring traded 137 paintings for one of Van Meegeren's false Vermeers, and it became one of his most prized possessions. Following the war, Van Meegeren was arrested, as officials believed that he had sold Dutch cultural property to the Nazis. Facing a possible death penalty, Van Meegeren confessed to the less serious charge of forgery. He was convicted on falsification and fraud charges on 12 November 1947, after a brief but highly publicised trial, and was sentenced to one year in prison. He did not serve out his sentence however; he died on 30 December 1947 in the Valerius Clinic in Amsterdam, after two heart attacks. A biography in 1967 estimated that Van Meegeren duped buyers out of the equivalent of more than US$30 million (approximately US$254 million in 2022); his victims included the government of the Netherlands.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Han (a diminutive version of Henri or Henricus) van Meegeren was born in 1889 as the third of five children of middle-class Roman Catholic parents in the provincial city of Deventer. He was the son of Augusta Louisa Henrietta Camps and Hendrikus Johannes van Meegeren, a French and history teacher at the Kweekschool (training college for schoolteachers) in the city of Deventer.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Early on, Han felt neglected and misunderstood by his father, as the elder Van Meegeren strictly forbade his artistic development and constantly derided him. His father often forced him to write a hundred times, "I know nothing, I am nothing, I am capable of nothing." While attending the Higher Burger School, he met teacher and painter Bartus Korteling (1853–1930) who became his mentor. Korteling had been inspired by Johannes Vermeer and showed Van Meegeren how Vermeer had manufactured and mixed his colours. Korteling had rejected the Impressionist movement and other modern trends as decadent, degenerate art, and his strong personal influence probably led van Meegeren to rebuff contemporary styles and paint exclusively in the style of the Dutch Golden Age.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren's father did not share his son's love of art; instead, he compelled him to study architecture at the Technische Hogeschool (Delft Technical College) in Delft in 1907, the hometown of Johannes Vermeer. He received drawing and painting lessons, as well. He easily passed his preliminary examinations but he never took the "Ingenieurs" (final) examination because he did not want to become an architect. He nevertheless proved to be an apt architect and designed the clubhouse for his rowing club in Delft which still exists (see image).


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In 1913, Van Meegeren gave up his architecture studies and concentrated on drawing and painting at the art school in The Hague. On 8 January 1913, he received the prestigious Gold Medal from the Technical University in Delft for his "Study of the Interior of the Church of Saint Lawrence" (Laurenskerk) in Rotterdam. The award was given every five years to an art student who created the best work, and was accompanied by a gold medal.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: On 18 April 1912, Van Meegeren married fellow art student Anna de Voogt who was expecting their first child. The couple initially lived with Anna's grandmother in Rijswijk, and their son Jacques Henri Emil was born there on 26 August 1912. Jacques van Meegeren also became a painter; he died on 26 October 1977 in Amsterdam.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In the summer of 1914, Van Meegeren moved his family to Scheveningen. That year, he completed the diploma examination at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. The diploma allowed him to teach, and he took a position as the assistant to Professor Gips, the Professor of Drawing and Art History, for the small monthly salary of 75 guldens. In March 1915, his daughter Pauline was born, later called Inez. To supplement his income, Han sketched posters and painted pictures for the commercial art trade, generally Christmas cards, still-life, landscapes, and portraits. Many of these paintings are quite valuable today.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren showed his first paintings publicly in The Hague, where they were exhibited from April to May 1917 at the Kunstzaal Pictura. In December 1919, he was accepted as a select member by the Haagse Kunstkring, an exclusive society of writers and painters who met weekly on the premises of the Ridderzaal. Although he had been accepted, he was ultimately denied the position of chairman. He painted the tame roe deer belonging to Princess Juliana in his studio at The Hague, opposite the Royal Palace "Huis ten Bosch". He made many sketches and drawings of the deer, and painted "Hertje" ("The fawn") in 1921, which became quite popular in the Netherlands. He undertook numerous journeys to Belgium, France, Italy, and England, and acquired a name for himself as a talented portraitist. He earned stately fees through commissions from English and American socialites who spent their winter vacations on the Côte d'Azur. His clients were impressed by his understanding of the 17th-century techniques of the Dutch masters. Throughout his life, Van Meegeren signed his own paintings with his own signature.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: By all accounts, infidelity was responsible for the breakup of Van Meegeren's marriage to Anna de Voogt; the couple were divorced on 19 July 1923. Anna left with the children and moved to Paris where Van Meegeren visited his children from time to time. He now dedicated himself to portraiture and began producing forgeries to increase his income.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: He married actress Johanna Theresia Oerlemans in Woerden in 1928, with whom he had been living for the past three years. Johanna was also known under her stage name of Jo van Walraven, and she had previously been married to art critic and journalist Dr. C H. de Boer (Carel de Boer). She brought their daughter Viola into the Van Meegeren household.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren had become a well-known painter in the Netherlands, and "Hertje" (1921) and "Straatzangers" (1928) were particularly popular. His first legitimate copies were painted in 1923, his "Laughing Cavalier" and "Happy Smoker", both in the style of Frans Hals. By 1928, the similarity of Van Meegeren's paintings to those of the Old Masters began to draw the reproach of Dutch art critics, who were more interested in Cubism, Surrealism, and other modern movements. It was said that his gift was an imitation and that his talent was limited outside of copying other artists' work.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: One critic wrote that he was "a gifted technician who has made a sort of composite facsimile of the Renaissance school, he has every virtue except originality". In response to these comments, Van Meegeren published a series of aggressive articles in his monthly magazine "De Kemphaan" ("The Ruff"). Jonathan Lopez writes in his book on the forger that in the magazine he "denounced modern painting as 'art-Bolshevism,' described its proponents as a 'slimy bunch of woman-haters and negro-lovers,' and invoked the image of 'a Jew with a handcart' as a symbol for the international art market". Along with journalist Jan Ubink, this periodical was published between April 1928 and March 1930.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren felt that his genius had been misjudged, and he set out to prove to the art critics that he could more than "copy" the Dutch Masters; he would produce a work so magnificent that it would rival theirs. He moved with Jo to the South of France and began preparations for this ultimate forgery, which took him from 1932 to 1937. In a series of early exercises, he forged works by Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard ter Borch, and Johannes Vermeer. Finally, he chose to forge a painting by Vermeer as his masterpiece. Vermeer had not been particularly well known until the beginning of the twentieth century; his works were both extremely valuable and scarce, as only about 35 had survived.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren delved into the biographies of the Old Masters, studying their lives, occupations, trademark techniques, and catalogues. In October 1932, art connoisseur and Rembrandt expert Dr. Abraham Bredius published an article about two recently discovered alleged Vermeer paintings, which he defined as "Landscape" and "Man and Woman at a Spinet". He claimed the former to be a fake, and described it as "a landscape of the eighteenth century into which had been imported scraps of the 'View of Delft'" (mostly the Delft New Church's tower). On the contrary, the "Man and Woman at a Spinet" not only was judged as an "authentic Vermeer", but also "very beautiful", and "one of the finest gems of the master's œuvre". The painting was later sold to Amsterdam banker Dr. Fritz Mannheimer.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In 1932, Van Meegeren moved to the village of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin with his wife. There he rented a furnished mansion called ""Primavera"" and set out to define the chemical and technical procedures that would be necessary to create his perfect forgeries. He bought authentic 17th century canvases and mixed his own paints from raw materials (such as lapis lazuli, white lead, indigo, and cinnabar) using old formulas to ensure that they could pass as authentic. In addition, he created his own badger-hair paintbrushes similar to those that Vermeer was known to have used. He came up with a scheme of using phenol formaldehyde (Bakelite) to cause the paints to harden after application, making the paintings appear as if they were 300 years old. Van Meegeren would first mix his paints with lilac oil, to stop the colours from fading or yellowing in heat. (This caused his studio to smell so strongly of lilacs that he kept a vase of fresh lilacs nearby so that visitors wouldn't be suspicious.) Then, after completing a painting, he would bake it at to to harden the paint, and then roll it over a cylinder to increase the cracks. Later, he would wash the painting in black India ink to fill in the cracks.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: It took Van Meegeren six years to work out his techniques, but ultimately he was pleased with his work on both artistic and deceptive levels. Two of these trial paintings were painted as if by Vermeer: "Lady Reading Music", after the genuine paintings "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; and "Lady Playing Music", after Vermeer's "Woman With a Lute Near a Window" hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Van Meegeren did not sell these paintings; both are now at the Rijksmuseum.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Following a journey to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Van Meegeren painted "The Supper at Emmaus" using the lapis lazuli (ultramarine blues) and yellows used by Johannes Vermeer and other Dutch Golden Age painters. In 1934 Van Meegeren had bought a seventeenth century mediocre Dutch painting, "The Awakening of Lazarus", and on this foundation he created his masterpiece "à la Vermeer". The experts assumed that Vermeer had studied in Italy, so Van Meegeren used the version of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus" located at Italy's Pinacoteca di Brera as a model. He had always wanted to walk in the steps of the masters, and he felt that his forgery was a fine work in its own right. He gave it to his friend, attorney C. A. Boon, telling him that it was a genuine Vermeer, and asked him to show it to Dr. Abraham Bredius, the art historian, in Monaco. Bredius examined the forgery in September 1937 and, writing in "The Burlington Magazine", he accepted it as a genuine Vermeer and praised it very highly as ""the" masterpiece of Johannes Vermeer of Delft".


title: Han van Meegeren

text: The usually required evidences, such as resilience of colours against chemical solutions, white lead analysis, x-rays images, micro-spectroscopy of the colouring substances, confirmed it to be an authentic Vermeer.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: The painting was purchased by The Rembrandt Society for fl.520,000 (€235,000 or about €4,640,000 today),<ref name="inflation calculator fl./€">To obtain the relative present value the amount in Dutch Guilders was given for the year 1938 at inflation calculator from/to Guilders or Euros .</ref> with the aid of wealthy shipowner Willem van der Vorm, and donated to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. In 1938, the piece was highlighted in a special exhibition in occasion of Queen Wilhelmina's Jubilee at a Rotterdam museum, along with 450 Dutch old masters dating from 1400 to 1800. A. Feulner wrote in the "Magazine for [the] History of Art", "In the rather isolated area in which the Vermeer picture hung, it was as quiet as in a chapel. The feeling of the consecration overflows on the visitors, although the picture has no ties to ritual or church", and despite the presence of masterpieces of Rembrandt and Grünewald, it was defined as "the spiritual centre" of the whole exhibition.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In the summer of 1938, Van Meegeren moved to Nice, using the proceeds from the sale of "The Supper at Emmaus" to buy a 12-bedroom estate at Les Arènes de Cimiez. On the walls of the estate hung several genuine Old Masters. Two of his better forgeries were made here, "Interior with Card Players" and "Interior with Drinkers", both displaying the signature of Pieter de Hooch. During his time in Nice, he painted his "Last Supper I" in the style of Vermeer.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: He returned to the Netherlands in September 1939 as the Second World War threatened. He remained at a hotel in Amsterdam for several months and moved to the village of Laren in 1940. Throughout 1941, Van Meegeren issued his designs, which he published in 1942 as a large and luxurious book entitled "Han van Meegeren: Teekeningen I (Drawings nr I)". He also created several forgeries during this time, including "The Head of Christ", "The Last Supper II", "The Blessing of Jacob", "The Adulteress", and "The Washing of the Feet"—all in the manner of Vermeer. On 18 December 1943, he divorced his wife, but this was only a formality; the couple remained together, but a large share of his capital was transferred to her accounts as a safeguard against the uncertainties of the war.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In December 1943, the Van Meegerens moved to Amsterdam where they took up residence in the exclusive Keizersgracht 321. His forgeries had earned him between 5.5 and 7.5 million guilders (or about US$25–30 million today). He used this money to purchase a large amount of real estate, jewellery, and works of art, and to further his luxurious lifestyle. In a 1946 interview, he told Marie Louise Doudart de la Grée that he owned 52 houses and 15 country houses around Laren, among them "grachtenhuizen", mansions along Amsterdam's canals.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In 1942, during the German occupation of the Netherlands, one of Van Meegeren's agents sold the Vermeer forgery "Christ with the Adulteress" to Nazi banker and art dealer Alois Miedl. Experts could probably have identified it as a forgery; as Van Meegeren's health declined, so did the quality of his work. He chain-smoked, drank heavily, and became addicted to morphine-laced sleeping pills. However, there were no genuine Vermeers available for comparison, since most museum collections were in protective storage as a prevention against war damage.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Nazi "Reichsmarschall" Hermann Göring traded 137 looted paintings for "Christ with the Adulteress", and showcased it at his residence in Carinhall (about 65 kilometers; 40 miles north of Berlin). On 25 August 1943, Göring hid his collection of looted artwork, including "Christ with the Adulteress", in an Austrian salt mine, along with 6,750 other pieces of artwork looted by the Nazis. On 17 May 1945, Allied forces entered the salt mine and Captain Harry Anderson discovered the painting.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In May 1945, the Allied forces questioned Miedl regarding the newly discovered Vermeer. Based on Miedl's confession, the painting was traced back to Van Meegeren. On 29 May 1945, he was arrested and charged with fraud and aiding and abetting the enemy. He was remanded to the Weteringschans prison as an alleged Nazi collaborator and plunderer of Dutch cultural property, threatened by the authorities with the death penalty. He labored over his predicament, but eventually confessed to forging paintings attributed to Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch. He exclaimed, "The painting in Göring's hands is not, as you assume, a Vermeer of Delft, but a Van Meegeren! I painted the picture!" It took some time to verify this and Van Meegeren was detained for several months in the Headquarters of the Military Command at Herengracht 458 in Amsterdam.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren painted his last forgery between July and December 1945 in the presence of reporters and court-appointed witnesses: "Jesus among the Doctors", also called "Young Christ in the Temple" in the style of Vermeer. After completing the painting, he was transferred to the fortress prison "Blauwkapel". Van Meegeren was released from prison in January or February 1946.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: The trial of Han van Meegeren began on 29 October 1947 in Room 4 of the Regional Court in Amsterdam. The collaboration charges had been dropped, since the expert panel had found that the supposed Vermeer sold to Hermann Göring had been a forgery and was, therefore, not the cultural property of the Netherlands. Public prosecutor H. A. Wassenbergh brought charges of forgery and fraud and demanded a sentence of two years in prison.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: The court commissioned an international group of experts to address the authenticity of Van Meegeren's paintings. The commission included curators, professors, and doctors from the Netherlands, Belgium, and England, and was led by the director of the chemical laboratory at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Paul B. Coremans. The commission examined the eight Vermeer and Frans Hals paintings which Van Meegeren had identified as forgeries. With the help of the commission, Dr Coremans was able to determine the chemical composition of van Meegeren's paints.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: He found that Van Meegeren had prepared the paints by using the phenolformaldehyde resins Bakelite and Albertol as paint hardeners. A bottle with exactly that ingredient had been found in Van Meegeren's studio. This chemical component was introduced and manufactured in the 20th century, proving that the alleged works by Vermeer and Frans Hals examined by the commission were in fact fabricated by Van Meegeren.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: The commission's other findings suggested that the dust in the craquelure was too homogeneous to be of natural origin. The matter found in the craquelure appeared to come from India ink, which had accumulated even in areas that natural dirt or dust would never have reached. The paint had become so hard that alcohol, strong acids, and bases did not attack the surface, a clear indication that the surface had not been formed in a natural manner. The craquelure on the surface did not always match that in the ground layer, which would certainly have been the case with a natural craquelure. Thus, the test results obtained by the commission appeared to confirm that the works were forgeries created by Van Meegeren, but their authenticity continued to be debated by some of the experts until 1967 and 1977, when new investigative techniques were used to analyze the paintings (see below).


title: Han van Meegeren

text: On 12 November 1947, the Fourth Chamber of the Amsterdam Regional Court found Han van Meegeren guilty of forgery and fraud, and sentenced him to one year in prison.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: While waiting to be moved to prison, Van Meegeren returned to his house at 321 Keizersgracht, where his health continued to decline. During this last month of his life, he strolled freely around his neighbourhood.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren suffered a heart attack on 26 November 1947, the last day to appeal the ruling, and was rushed to the Valeriuskliniek, a hospital in Amsterdam. While at the hospital, he suffered a second heart attack on 29 December, and was pronounced dead at 5:00 pm on 30 December 1947 at the age of 58. Soon after his death, a plaster death mask was made, which was acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 2014. His family and several hundred of his friends attended his funeral at the Driehuis Westerveld Crematorium chapel. In 1948, his urn was buried in the general cemetery in the village of Diepenveen (municipality of Deventer).


title: Han van Meegeren

text: After his death, the court ruled that Van Meegeren's estate be auctioned and the proceeds from his property and the sale of his counterfeits be used to refund the buyers of his works and to pay income taxes on the sale of his paintings. Van Meegeren had filed for bankruptcy in December 1945. On 5 and 6 September 1950, the furniture and other possessions in his Amsterdam house at Keizersgracht 321 were auctioned by order of the court, along with 738 other pieces of furniture and works of art, including numerous paintings by old and new masters from his private collection. The house was auctioned separately on 4 September, estimated to be worth 65,000 guilders.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: The proceeds of the sale together with the house amounted to 123,000 guilders. Van Meegeren's unsigned "The Last Supper I" was bought for 2,300 guilders, while "Jesus among the Doctors" (which Van Meegeren had painted while in detention) sold for 3,000 guilders (about US$800 or about US$7,000 today.) Today the painting hangs in a Johannesburg church. The sale of the entire estate amounted to 242,000 guilders (US$60,000, or about US$500,000 today).


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Throughout his trial and bankruptcy, Van Meegeren maintained that his second wife Jo had nothing to do with the creation and sale of his forgeries. A large part of his considerable wealth, the estimated profits of his forgery having exceeded US$50 million in today's value, had been transferred to her when they were divorced during the war, and the money would have been confiscated if she had been ruled to be an accomplice. Van Meegeren told the same story to all authors, journalists, and biographers: "Jo didn't know", and apparently most believed him. Some biographers believe, however, that Jo must have known the truth. Her involvement was never proven and she was able to keep her substantial capital. Jo outlived her husband by many years, in luxury, until her death at the age of 91.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: M. Jean Decoen, a Brussels art expert and restorer, stated in his 1951 book he believed "The Supper at Emmaus" and "The Last Supper II" to be genuine Vermeers. Decoen went on to state that conclusions of Dr. Paul Coremans's panel of experts were wrong and that the paintings should again be examined. He also claimed in the book that Van Meegeren used these paintings as a model for his forgeries. Daniel George Van Beuningen was the buyer of "The Last Supper II", "Interior with Drinkers", and "The Head of Christ", and he demanded that Dr. Paul Coremans publicly admit that he had erred in his analysis. Coremans refused and van Beuningen sued him, alleging that Coremans's wrongful branding of "The Last Supper II" diminished the value of his "Vermeer" and asking for compensation of £500,000 (about US$1.3 million or about US$10 million today).


title: Han van Meegeren

text: The first trial in Brussels was won by Coremans just because the court adopted the same reasoning of the court ruling at the time of the Amsterdam trial against Van Meegeren. A second trial was set for 2 June 1955 but was delayed owing to Van Beuningen's death on 29 May 1955.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In 1958 the court heard the case on behalf of Van Beuningen's heirs. Coremans managed to give the definitive evidence of the forgeries by showing a photograph of a "Hunting Scene", attributed to A. Hondius, exactly the same scene which was visible with X-ray under the surface of the alleged Vermeer's "Last Supper". Moreover, Coremans brought a witness to the courtroom who confirmed that Van Meegeren bought the "Hunt scene" in 1940. The court found in favour of Coremans, and the findings of his commission were upheld.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In 1967, the Artists Material Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh examined several of the "Vermeers" in their collection, under the direction of Robert Feller and Bernard Keisch. The examination confirmed that several of their paintings were in fact created using materials invented in the 20th century. They concluded that the "Vermeers" in their possession were modern and could thus be Van Meegeren forgeries. This confirmed the findings of the 1946 Coremans commission, and refuted the claims made by M. Jean Decoen. The test results obtained by the Carnegie Mellon team are summarized below.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Han van Meegeren knew that white lead was used during Vermeer's time, but of course he had to obtain his stocks through the modern colour trade, which had changed significantly since the 17th century. During Vermeer's time, Dutch lead was mined from deposits located in the Low Countries; however, by the 19th century, most lead was imported from Australia and the Americas, and differed from the white lead that Vermeer would have used both in the isotope composition of the lead and in the content of trace elements found in the ores. Dutch white lead was extracted from ores containing high levels of trace elements of silver and antimony, while the modern white lead used by Van Meegeren contained neither silver nor antimony, as those elements are separated from the lead during the modern smelting process.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Forgeries in which modern lead or white lead pigment has been used can be recognized by using a technique called Pb(Lead)-210-Dating. Pb-210 is a naturally occurring radioactive isotope of lead that is part of the uranium-238 Radioactive decay series, and has a half-life of 22.3 years. To determine the amount of Pb-210, the alpha radiation emitted by another element, polonium-210 (Po-210), is measured. Thus it is possible to estimate the age of a painting, within a few years' span, by extrapolating the Pb-210 content present in the paint used to create the painting.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: The white lead in the painting "The Supper at Emmaus" had polonium-210 values of 8.5±1.4 and radium-226 (part of the uranium-238 radioactive decay series) values of 0.8±0.3. In contrast, the white lead found in Dutch paintings from 1600 to 1660 had polonium-210 values of 0.23±0.27 and radium-226 values of 0.40±0.47.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In 1977, another investigation was undertaken by the States forensic labs of the Netherlands using up-to-date techniques, including gas chromatography, to formally confirm the origin of six van Meegeren forgeries that had been alleged to be genuine Vermeers, including the "Emmaus" and the "Last Supper". The conclusions of the 1946 commission were again reaffirmed and upheld by the Dutch judicial system.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In 1998, A&E ran a program called "Scams, Schemes & Scoundrels" highlighting Van Meegeren's life and art forgeries, many of which had been confiscated as Nazi loot. The program was hosted by skeptic James Randi and also featured the stories of Victor Lustig and Soapy Smith.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In July 2011, the BBC TV programme "Fake or Fortune" investigated a copy of Dirck van Baburen's "The Procuress" owned by the Courtauld Institute. Opinion had been divided as to whether it was a 17th-century studio work or a Van Meegeren fake. The programme used chemical analysis of the paint to show that it contained bakelite and thus confirmed that the painting was a 20th-century fake.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren played different roles, some of which were shrouded in fraudulent intentions, as he sought to fulfill his goal of besting his critics. His father was said to have once told him, "You are a cheat and always will be." He sent a signed copy of his own art book to Adolf Hitler, which turned up in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin complete with an inscription (in German): "To my beloved Führer in grateful tribute, from H. van Meegeren, Laren, North Holland, 1942". He only admitted the signature was his own, although the entire inscription was by the same hand. (The book by Jonathan Lopez confirmed the accuracy of Jan Spierdijk's article in "De Waarheid" in which Spierdijk reported details about Van Meegeren's book "Tekeningen 1" being found in Hitler's library.) He bought up homes of several departed Jewish families in Amsterdam and held lavish parties while much of the country was hungry. On the other hand, his brothers and sisters perceived him as loyal, generous, and affectionate, and he was always loving and helpful to his own children.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: In 2008, Harvard-trained art historian Jonathan Lopez had become fluent in Dutch and published "The Man Who Made Vermeers, Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han Van Meegeren". His extensive research confirmed that Van Meegeren started to make forgeries, not so much by feeling misunderstood and undervalued by art critics as for the income that it generated, income which he needed to support his addictions and promiscuity.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren continued to paint after he was released from prison, signing his works with his own name. His new-found profile ensured quick sales of his new paintings, often selling at prices that were many times higher than before he had been unmasked as a forger. Van Meegeren also told the news media that he had "an offer from a Manhattan gallery to come to the U.S. and paint portraits 'in the 17th-century manner' at US$6,000 a throw".


title: Han van Meegeren

text: A Dutch opinion poll conducted in October 1947 placed Han van Meegeren's popularity second in the nation, behind only the Prime Minister's and slightly ahead of Prince Bernhard, the husband of Princess Juliana. The Dutch people viewed Van Meegeren as a cunning trickster who had successfully fooled the Dutch art experts and, more importantly, Hermann Göring himself. In fact, according to a contemporary account, Göring was informed that his "Vermeer" was actually a forgery and "[Göring] looked as if for the first time he had discovered there was evil in the world". Lopez, however, suggests Göring may never have known the painting was a fake.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Lopez indicates that Han van Meegeren's defence during his trial in Amsterdam was a masterpiece of trickery, forging his own personality into a true Dutchman eager to trick his critics and also the Dutch people by pretending that he sold "Christ and the Adulteress", a fake Vermeer, to Göring because he wanted to teach the Nazi a lesson. Van Meegeren remains one of the most ingenious art counterfeiters of the 20th century. After his trial, however, he declared, "My triumph as a counterfeiter was my defeat as [a] creative artist."


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Posthumously, Van Meegeren's forgeries have been shown in exhibitions around the world, including exhibitions in Amsterdam (1952), Basel (1953), Zurich (1953), Haarlem in the Kunsthandel de Boer (1958), London (1961), Rotterdam (1971), Minneapolis (1973), Essen (1976–1977), Berlin (1977), (1985), New York (1987), Berkeley, CA (1990), Munich (1991), Rotterdam (1996), The Hague (1996) and more recently at the Haagse Kunstkring, The Hague (2004) and Stockholm (2004), and have thus been made broadly accessible to the public.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: It is possible that other fakes hang in art collections all over the world, probably in the style of 17th-century Dutch masters, including works in the style of Frans Hals and the school of Hals, Pieter de Hooch, and Gerard ter Borch. Jacques van Meegeren suggested that his father had created a number of other forgeries, during interviews with journalists regarding discussions with his father. Some of these paintings include:


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren was a prolific artist and produced thousands of original paintings in a number of diverse styles. This wide range in painting and drawing styles often irritated art critics. Some of his typical works are classical still lifes in convincing 17th century manner, Impressionistic paintings of people frolicking on lakes or beaches, jocular drawings where the subject is drawn with rather odd features, Surrealistic paintings with combined fore- and backgrounds. Van Meegeren's portraits, however, are probably his finest works.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Among his original works is his famous "Deer", pictured above. Other works include his prize-winning "St. Laurens Cathedral"; a "Portrait of the actress Jo Oerlemans" (his second wife); his "Night Club"; from the Roaring Twenties; the cheerful watercolor "A Summer Day on the Beach" and many others.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Van Meegeren's own work rose in price after he had become known as a forger, and it consequently became worthwhile to fake his paintings, as well. Existing paintings obtained a signature "H. van Meegeren", or new pictures were made in his style and falsely signed. When Van Meegeren saw a fake like that, he ironically remarked that he would have adopted them if they had been good enough, but regrettably he had not yet seen one.


title: Han van Meegeren

text: Later on, however, his son Jacques van Meegeren started to fake his father's work. He made paintings in his father's style – although of much lower quality – and was able to place a perfect signature on these imitations. Many fakes – both by Jacques and by others – are still on the market. They can be recognized by their low pictorial quality, but are not always regarded as such.


title: Hans Speidel

text: Hans Speidel (28 October 1897 – 28 November 1984) was a German general, who was one of the major military leaders of West Germany during the early Cold War. The first full General in West Germany, he was a principal founder of the "Bundeswehr" and a major figure in German rearmament, integration into NATO and international negotiations on European and Western defence cooperation in the 1950s. He served as Commander of the Allied Land Forces Central Europe (COMLANDCENT) from 1957 to 1963 and then as President of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs from 1964.


title: Hans Speidel

text: Speidel joined the German Army in 1914, fought in the First World War, and stayed with the Army as a career soldier after the war. He served as chief of staff to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel during the Second World War and was promoted to lieutenant general in 1944. Speidel participated in the 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler, and he was tasked with recruiting Rommel for the resistance. After the plot failed he was arrested by the Gestapo. At the end of the war, he escaped from Nazi prison and went into hiding for 2-3 weeks. He was the only major player in the 20 July Plot to survive the war.


title: Hans Speidel

text: During the early Cold War, Speidel emerged as one of the major military leaders of West Germany, and played a key role in German rearmament, Western international negotiations on defence cooperation and West German integration into NATO. He is thus regarded as one of the founders of the "Bundeswehr". He was appointed as the military advisor of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1950 and joined the predecessor of the Federal Ministry of Defence in 1951, was the West German chief delegate to the conference on the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community from 1951 to 1954 and was a lead negotiator when West Germany joined NATO. In 1955 he became a director-general in the Federal Ministry of Defence with the military rank of lieutenant-general in the "Bundeswehr", and in 1957 he became the first officer to be promoted to full General in West Germany. He served as COMLANDCENT from 1957 to 1963, with headquarters at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris. Speidel was also a historian by training, taught at the University of Tübingen and wrote several books. He received the Grand Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1963. In 1964 he became President of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, the German government's main think tank in international relations.


title: Hans Speidel

text: He was the father of Brigadier General Hans Helmut Speidel and the father-in-law of European Commissioner and liberal politician Guido Brunner. A German Army military base, the General Dr Speidel Barracks, was named in his honour in 1997.


title: Hans Speidel

text: Speidel was born in Metzingen. He joined the German Army in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War and was quickly promoted to second lieutenant. During the war he was a company commander at the Battle of the Somme and an adjutant. He stayed in the German Army during the interwar period and also studied history and economics at different universities. In 1926 he received his Ph.D. degree in history "magna cum laude".


title: Hans Speidel

text: Speidel took part in the invasion of France of 1940 and in August became Chief of Staff of the military commander in France. In 1942 Speidel was sent to the Eastern Front where he served as Chief of Staff of the 5th Army Corps, and as Chief of Staff of 8th Army in 1943, where he was promoted to general.


title: Hans Speidel

text: In April 1944, Speidel was appointed Chief of Staff to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group B, stationed on the French Atlantic coast. When Rommel was wounded, Speidel continued as Chief of Staff for the new commander of Army Group B, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge.


title: Hans Speidel

text: On 26 August 1944, Speidel answered the phone when Alfred Jodl, the OKW chief of staff, called Field Marshal Walter Model, commander in chief of the western front, with Hitler's order to start targeting Paris immediately with V1 and V2 rockets. Model was not in. Speidel never did pass on the order to his superior.


title: Hans Speidel

text: Speidel, a professional soldier and nationalist conservative, agreed with those aspects of Hitler's policy that returned Germany to its place as a world power, but disagreed with the Nazis' racial policies. He was involved in the 20 July Plot to kill Hitler and had been delegated by anti-Hitler forces to recruit Rommel for the conspiracy, which he had cautiously begun to do prior to Rommel's injury in a British strafing attack on 17 July 1944. Speidel managed to become Rommel's confidant, purely by chance: Lucie Rommel, after having an argument with the wife of Alfred Gause (Rommel's then Chief-of-Staff) about who had the more honourable place at a wedding, decided to not only evict the Gause couple out of her house but to order her husband to dismiss Alfred Gause as well. Rommel chose Speidel, a fellow Swabian, as his new Chief-of-Staff.


title: Hans Speidel

text: Following the assassination attempt, the Gestapo rounded up, tortured and executed some five thousand Germans, including many high-ranking officers. Speidel's involvement was suspected by the Gestapo, and he was arrested on 7 September 1944. Rommel, in his final letter to Hitler of 1 October 1944, appealed for Speidel's release, but received no answer. Speidel appeared before an Army court of honour. According to an affidavit left by Heinz Guderian and Heinrich Kirchheim, during interrogation he blurted out Rommel's name. Maurice Remy comments that Speidel's testimony did not truly betray Rommel, although Speidel probably blamed himself until his death for his revered Field Marshal's fate afterwards. Unknown to Speidel though, his statement offered nothing new or startling to the interrogators, who had already obtained from other co-conspirators the information that Rommel not only knew about but agreed with the assassination. Gerd von Rundstedt, Heinz Guderian and Wilhelm Keitel refused to expel him from the German Army. Thus he was not compelled to appear before Roland Freisler's People's Court, which would have been a death sentence. He was jailed for seven months by the Gestapo. As Allied forces approached the location where he was held, he slipped from his captors and went into hiding for not longer than 3 weeks until 29 April 1945, when French troops entered the area.


title: Hans Speidel

text: In 1950, Speidel was one of the authors of the Himmerod memorandum which addressed the issue of rearmament ("Wiederbewaffnung") of the Federal Republic of Germany after World War II. As an important military adviser to the government of Konrad Adenauer, he was instrumental in the creation of the "Bundeswehr", and later as a four-star general (the first to be awarded this rank by the "Bundeswehr", together with Adolf Heusinger), he oversaw the smooth integration of the "Bundeswehr" into NATO.


title: Hans Speidel

text: According to an article in "Der Spiegel", which cited documents released by the "Bundesnachrichtendienst" in 2014, Speidel may have been part of the Schnez-Truppe, a secret illegal army that veterans of the "Wehrmacht" and "Waffen-SS" established up from 1949 in Germany in order to repel an attack either by the Soviet Union or by Soviet-controlled East German police units.


title: Hans Speidel

text: After the war Speidel served for some time as professor of modern history at Tübingen and in 1950 published his book "Invasion 1944: Rommel and the Normandy Campaign" before being involved in both the development and creation of the new German Army ("Bundeswehr") which he joined, reaching the NATO rank of full general. He was subsequently appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied NATO ground forces in Central Europe in April 1957, a command that he held until retirement in September 1963. His headquarters were at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris.


title: Hans Speidel

text: In 1960, Speidel took legal action against an East German film studio which portrayed him as having been privy to the assassinations of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in 1934, as well as having betrayed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to the Nazis after the 20 July Plot in 1944. He successfully claimed damages for libel.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Richard Keith Johnson (30 July 1927 – 5 June 2015) was an English stage and screen actor, writer and producer. Described by Michael Coveney as "a very 'still' actor – authoritative, calm and compelling," he was a staple performer in British films and television from the 1960s through the 2010s, often playing urbane sophisticates and authoritative characters. He had a distinguished theatrical career, notably as a cornerstone member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and was once acclaimed as "the finest romantic actor of his generation."


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson went to Felsted School, and wanted to act instead of going into the family paint business. He trained at RADA and due to the manpower shortage of wartime made his first professional appearance relatively quickly, on stage in Manchester with John Gielgud's company in a production of "Hamlet" in 1944.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson made his screen debut in an adaptation of "Tusitala" for "BBC Sunday-Night Theatre". He made his film debut with an uncredited part in "Captain Horatio Hornblower" (1951) and was also uncredited in "Calling Bulldog Drummond" (1951).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He was at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre from 1952 to 1957. "It was an electric time to be in that company", he later recalled.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson played Mr Wickham in a 1952 TV adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" (with Peter Cushing as Darcy) and was D'Artagnan in a TV adaptation of "The Three Musketeers" (1952). He could be seen in "Lady in the Fog" (1952), "The Mayor of Torontal" for "Wednesday Theatre" (1952), "The Heir of Skipton" (1953), "Saadia" (1953) for MGM, "A Party for Christmas" (1954), "The Queen Came By" (1954), "The Rescue" for "ITV Television Playhouse", "The Orderly" for "Theatre Royal", and "Plaintiff in a Pretty Hat" (1955).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He was Laertes to Paul Scofield's "Hamlet" in 1956. That was directed by Peter Brook who also directed Johnson in "Heaven and Earth" (1957).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He also appeared in episodes of "Assignment Foreign Legion", "The Buccaneers", "Armchair Theatre", and "Four Just Men", and had the lead in "Epilogue to Capricorn" (1960).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: In 1958 he appeared in Peter Hall's first production at the theatre, "Cymbeline", alongside Peggy Ashcroft. Reviews were strong, praising Johnson as "The finest romantic actor of his generation".


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson appeared in the title role in Tony Richardson's production of "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" in 1958. The same year he was in "Twelfth Night" (as Sir Andrew Aguecheek) for Peter Hall.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Hall took over the direction of the company in 1959 – it was renamed the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and he invited Johnson to be part of the first group of actors to be named an Associate Artist of the RSC, a position he retained until he died.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: After Johnson's stage performances had received excellent reviews, MGM offered him a long-term contract in June 1959. His first work for the studio was in "Never So Few" (1959) with Frank Sinatra.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: "I never took myself very seriously as a movie star", said Johnson later. "But it was thrilling to be among the idols I'd worshipped as a kid. I did a test with Gary Cooper, went to a party with Spencer Tracy, made a film with Frank Sinatra."


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson was director Terence Young's preferred choice for the role of James Bond in the first film in the series, but he had to turn the role down as he was under contract to MGM. Johnson said later, "Eventually they offered it to Sean Connery, who was completely wrong for the part. But in getting the wrong man they got the right man, because it turned the thing on its head and he made it funny. And that's what propelled it to success."


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson did "Ondine" on stage for the RSC with Leslie Caron and director Peter Hall (this was filmed in 1961). Also for TV he did productions of "Journey's End", "This Happy Breed", "Sword of Vengeance" and "The Sponge Room".


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: In 1961–62 he portrayed Clive Root on Broadway in Graham Greene's "The Complaisant Lover", which ran for 101 performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson was second-billed to George Sanders in "Cairo" (1963) for MGM British. He co-starred with Claire Bloom in "80,000 Suspects" (1963) for Val Guest.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He was then in "The Haunting" (1963) also featuring Claire Bloom and Julie Harris. It was directed by Robert Wise who said Johnson has "the attack of the young Gable" and predicted he would be a big star.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson wrote a play "The Golden Age", composed from poems, diaries and speeches from the age of Queen Elizabeth I. It had a short run on Broadway in 1963.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: In 1964 he did a Kingsley Amis script, "A Question of Happiness #1: A Question About Hell" for TV, followed by "A Question of Happiness #2: Another Port, Another Storm".


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson had a support role in "The Pumpkin Eater" (1964) and went to France for "The Other Woman" (1964). He did episodes of "Armchair Mystery Theatre", "The Human Jungle", and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour". He also portrayed Duncan Sandys in "Operation Crossbow" (1965).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson was second billed to Kim Novak in "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders" (1965), directed by Terence Young. When filming ended, Johnson and Novak were married. Around this time he expressed interest in writing and directing as well as acting.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He was top billed in the Italian horror film "The Witch" (1966) then was cast as Bulldog Drummond in "Deadlier Than the Male" (1967) with Elke Sommer for director Ralph Thomas, a James Bond-style adventure. Johnson said about playing Drummond "I consciously tried to use more of myself than in anything else I've done... I said, all right, if you want me, you'll get me, but this is a braver, more physical version of me."


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He supported Anthony Quinn and Rita Hayworth in "The Rover" (1967), again directed by Young. He starred in another James Bond-type spy film, "Danger Route" (1967) for director Seth Holt. He announced he had formed his own company and would star in "An Alibi for a Playboy" but it was not made.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson was Creon in "Oedipus the King" (1968) with Christopher Plummer, then starred in the spy film "A Twist of Sand" (1968).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He was a Roman officer in "Columna" (1968) and Horatio Nelson in "Emma Hamilton" (1968), with Michèle Mercier. He reprised his role as Drummond in "Some Girls Do" (1969).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson later recalled in 2000 that "It comes as a curious shock to me now to realise that I was making around £1m a year in today's money. And I managed to spend it all having a hell of a good time... I knew it wasn't going to last for ever, but I also knew I had to enjoy it while the time was right.'"


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson played Rembrandt for British TV in 1969 and was Cassius in Charlton Heston's version of "Julius Caesar" (1970).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He did "The Fifth Day of Peace" (1970) with Franco Nero, "Hamlet" (1970) with Richard Chamberlain, "The Beloved" (1971) with Raquel Welch, "A Man About a Dog" (1972), "A Marriage" (1972) and "I Want to Marry Your Son" (1973).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson returned to theatre in 1972, going to Stratford to play Antony, opposite Janet Suzman's Cleopatra, in one of Trevor Nunn's season of Roman plays. He continued to act on TV in such shows as "Thriller" (1973) and "Orson Welles' Great Mysteries", and filmed his "Antony and Cleopatra" (1974) for TV.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He did a horror film "Beyond the Door" (1974), and "Churchill's People", "The Night Child" (1975), and "Hennessy" (1975) for director Don Sharp; he provided the original story of the latter.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson was in episodes of "Quiller", "", and "Hart to Hart". He was in the films "Aces High" (1976), "Take All of Me" (1976) in Italy, "The Four Feathers" (1978) for Sharp, "The Comeback" (1978), "Screamers" (1979), "Zombi 2" (1979), "The Flame Is Love" (1979), "Island of the Fishmen" (1979) and "The Great Alligator" (1979). He had the lead in "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" (1979) directed by Thomas.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: In the 1980s Johnson could be seen in "Spy!", "" (1980), "Haywire" (1980), "The Marquise" (1980), "The Monster Club" (1981), "The Member for Chelsea" (1981), "The Kenny Everett Television Show", "Tales of the Unexpected" (several episodes), "Cymbeline" (1982) in the title role, "Magnum, P.I.", "The Aerodrome" (1983), and "Mr. Palfrey of Westminster" (1984).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: In 1982 Johnson helped set up United British Artists, the film and theatre-producing company, along with fellow actors Albert Finney, Maggie Smith and Glenda Jackson. Johnson said, "In this profession it is mighty irritating always to be in the hands of other people, waiting on the end of a telephone, unable to guide your ship. When I propounded the idea that we all get together to do high-quality work on a continuing commercial basis, they were very enthusiastic."


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: He acted in and was executive producer on "The Biko Inquest" (1984). Johnson acted in "What Waits Below" (1985) for Don Sharp, and acted in and produced "Turtle Diary" (1985). He worked as a producer on "Castaway" (1986) and "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne" (1987).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson says however that the company "didn't quite come off. Unfortunately we ran out of money. We didn't have enough to start with... One day I was in Hollywood with my old friend Angela Lansbury and she said, 'Anybody can be a producer. You've got talent and you're wasting it.' I decided to get back to what I've always wanted to do since I was seven: acting. I'd like to be on test. I need challenges."


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: As an actor only, he was in "Lady Jane" (1986), "Dempsey and Makepeace", "Murder, She Wrote", "A Man for All Seasons" (1988) with Heston, "Voice of the Heart" (1989), "Treasure Island" (1990) with Heston as Squire Trelawney, "The Secret Life of Ian Fleming" (1990), "Made in Heaven", "Diving In" (1990), "Duel of Hearts" (1991), "The Crucifer of Blood" (1991) with Heston as Sherlock Holmes and Johnson as Watson, "The Camomile Lawn" (1992), and "Anglo Saxon Attitudes" (1992). According to one reviewer, his performance in "Anglo Saxon" earned him "a sheaf of golden notices and put him at the top of the ratings for mature heart-throbs. The key attraction was his effortless screen technique in saying so little yet conveying so much. There was much virtuoso eyebrow work and a wonderful use of the crinkled tissue around the eyes." He did "Antony and Cleopatra" on stage again in 1991.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: In 1992 Johnson returned to the RSC after a 25-year absence under the direction of Peter Hall, appearing in a production of "All's Well that Ends Well". "It would have been nice to be able to afford to go back more often", he said. "Unfortunately, what my agent used to call the 'shit factor' comes into play: the better quality the work, the less the money."


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson appeared in "Heavy Weather" (1995), "Kavanagh QC", "Murder Most Horrid", "Tales from the Crypt", "Breaking the Code" (1996), "The Ruth Rendell Mysteries" (1996), "Supply & Demand", "The Echo", "Milk" (1999), and "Happy Days" (2000). He did the original story for "A Kind of Hush" (1999).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: A third divorce and the financial failure of a hotel he co owned meant he needed to work. In a 2000 interview he said "Now I'm constantly worried where the next job is coming from. At least at my age the opposition gets less and less because they keep dying."


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson's later career appearances included doing "The Seagull" at Stratford in 2000, plus "The Whistle-Blower" (2001), "" (2001), "The Royal", "The Robinsons", "Whatever Love Means" (2005) as Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, "Wallis & Edward" (2005) (as Stanley Baldwin), "Rebus", "Scoop" (2006), "Doc Martin", "Midsomer Murders", "Waking the Dead", "The Raven" (2007), "Two Families" (2007), and "Jump!" (2008) (which he also helped produce).


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: From 2007, he led the cast of the BBC's radio comedy series "Bleak Expectations" which ran until 2012. He also had a successful stage show with a revival of "On Golden Pond".


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Film-wise he was in "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" (2008), "Spooks", "Inspector Lewis", "The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff" (2011), and "Silent Witness". He had a good role in "Radiator" (2015), saying "Right from the off I felt it was a superior piece of writing for the screen."


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Throughout his career Johnson continued to teach young actors and students. He toured American universities and taught summer schools at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He was appointed to the Council of RADA in 2000, and served as a Council Member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in the 1970s. Johnson wrote the original story for the 1975 thriller, "Hennessy".


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: As well as founding the British production company United British Artists (UBA) in 1981, he also served as the company's CEO until 1990, when he resigned in order to resume his acting career. During his tenure at UBA he produced the films "Turtle Diary" (starring Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley, with a screenplay commissioned from Harold Pinter), and "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne". In London, he produced Pinter's "Old Times", a revival of "Serjeant Musgrave's Dance" (Old Vic), and for theatre and television, the docudrama "Biko", about the death of Stephen Biko.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson wrote travel articles regularly for the London mass-circulation newspaper "The Mail on Sunday". He kept a blog and teaching website called "The Shakespeare Masterclass".


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: By his first marriage, to Sheila Sweet, Johnson had two children, tabletop games designer Jervis Johnson (b. 1959) and actress Sorel Johnson. His second wife was American actress Kim Novak, with whom he appeared in the film "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders" (1965); the marriage didn't last long and they had no children, but they remained on friendly terms after the divorce. He also had another daughter, Jennifer Johnson, by his third wife, Marie-Louise Norlund, and a fourth child, Nicholas Johnson, by Françoise Pascal. Johnson then married Lynne Gurney on a beach in Goa, India, in 1989, following this with a discreet civil wedding at Kings Road, Chelsea in 2004.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson was the founder of "It's a Green Green World", a global listing of environmentally friendly hotels.


title: Richard Johnson (actor)

text: Richard Johnson died on 5 June 2015, aged 87, after a short illness at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, London.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: David Wayne Hoilett Jr. (born 5 June 1990), known as Junior Hoilett, is a Canadian professional football player who plays as a winger for EFL Championship club Reading and the Canada national team.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: After impressing in a youth tournament, Hoilett signed for English club Blackburn Rovers at the age of 13, and was loaned to SC Paderborn and FC St. Pauli in the German 2. Bundesliga due to work permit issues. He made his Rovers debut in 2009 and played three full Premier League seasons for them before a transfer to Queens Park Rangers in 2012. Hoilett spent four years at the Loftus Road club – alternately in the Premier League and Championship – before moving to Cardiff on the expiration of his contract. In his second season with Cardiff, he helped the side win promotion to the Premier League by finishing as Championship runners-up during the 2017–18 season.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett made his senior international debut for Canada in 2015. He was part of their squad at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2017, 2019 and 2021, reaching the semi-finals at the last of those tournaments.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett was born in Brampton, Ontario, one of four children to David and Ingrid Hoilett. Both of his parents are of Jamaican descent, with his father hailing from Ocho Rios. His father previously worked as a DJ and music promoter. He has described his upbringing as "a very sporty childhood", playing against his three siblings in numerous sports. Hoilett played both baseball and basketball at youth level before settling on association football at age 11. His younger brother Jaineil also became a footballer, playing in Germany at amateur level. He played youth soccer in Canada with Brampton Youth SC, CS Azzurri, and Oakville SC. He travelled the world with his club and gained attention at a tournament in Wales; he turned down an extended trial with Manchester United to join Blackburn Rovers as he believed he had more chance of breaking into the first team at the latter. After taking a year to make the decision to move to England, Hoilett signed for Rovers in 2003. After moving to England, he attended St Bede's Roman Catholic High School in Blackburn.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: He progressed through Blackburn's youth system before signing his first contract at the age of 16. However, he suffered a setback when he was initially unable to earn a work permit to play in the United Kingdom. In order to qualify for one in future, Blackburn looked to loan Hoilett to a club in another European country, with the player rejecting possible moves to Belgium and France.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett eventually agreed to a loan move to Germany, joining SC Paderborn. He made his senior debut for the club against Kickers Offenbach, coming on as a substitute for Sven Lintjens in a 3–2 victory on 3 February 2008, aged 17. Hoilett's first match in the starting eleven was against 1899 Hoffenheim on 9 March 2008.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett scored his only goal of his loan campaign on 18 May 2008, against Borussia Mönchengladbach in what would be his final game for the club. Paderborn were later relegated, ending the 2007–08 2. Bundesliga season in 17th position.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett was loaned to another German club in the 2. Bundesliga, FC St. Pauli, for the 2008–09 2. Bundesliga season. He made his debut for the Hamburg-based side against Greuther Fürth on 22 August 2008. He scored six times during his loan campaign with braces against Alemannia Aachen and Hansa Rostock, as well as individual goals against 1860 Munich and 1. FC Kaiserslautern. His final game would come in the form of a 1–0 loss against Rot Weiss Ahlen on 3 May 2009. St. Pauli finished the season in eighth place.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: In January 2009, Hoilett's home club Blackburn again applied for him to receive a work permit for him to play football in England. In the summer of 2009, Hoilett was granted a work permit on appeal, allowing him to continue his fledgling career in England at the Premier League level with Blackburn. Blackburn chose not to send him to a third loan spell in Germany, rejecting an approach from Mainz 05.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: After impressing during the club's pre-season schedule, Hoilett made his debut for Blackburn in the opening day of the 2009–10 season as a late substitute in place of El Hadji Diouf during a 2–0 defeat to Manchester City. He was named in the starting line-up for the team's following match and scored his first competitive goal for Rovers in a 3–1 League Cup win over Gillingham on 25 August 2009. His performances in the early stages of the campaign prompted the club to open talks over a contract extension as Hoilett was in the final year of his original deal. Hoilett was involved in Blackburn's dramatic League Cup win against Chelsea on 2 December 2009. Coming on as a second half substitution, he won a stoppage time penalty which Benni McCarthy converted to put Rovers 3–2 up, before Paulo Ferreira equalised in the 122nd minute. However, Hoilett converted the fifth penalty to help Rovers to a 4–3 shoot-out win and a place in the semi-finals. He then started his first league match on 12 December against Hull City, playing the full 90 minutes in a 0–0 draw at the KC Stadium. On 25 February 2010, with his contract due to expire in June 2010, Hoilett ended speculation regarding his future at the club, by signing a new two-and-a-half-year deal with Blackburn, keeping him at the club until the summer of 2012. He finished the season having made 27 appearances in all competitions, scoring once.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett made his first Premier League appearance of the 2010–11 season on 21 August 2010, coming on for Nikola Kalinić in the 84th minute in a 2–1 defeat at St Andrew's against Birmingham City.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett scored his first goal of the 2010–11 season in the 1–0 victory over Queens Park Rangers in the FA Cup third round.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett scored his first league goal on 23 January 2011, in a 2–0 home victory against West Bromwich Albion at Ewood Park, converting in the 47th minute from a Nikola Kalinić assist. On 12 February 2011, he made his fortieth Premier League appearance for Blackburn when he featured against Newcastle United in a goalless draw, and was replaced at half-time due to a slight hamstring strain by Morten Gamst Pedersen. On 5 March, he scored his third goal of the season in a 3–2 defeat against Fulham in the 65th minute, away at Craven Cottage. He was replaced by debutant Rubén Rochina after 82 minutes. Hoilett's next goal came in the following game, a last gasp equaliser from a header against Blackpool in a 2–2 home draw. On 9 April 2011, Hoilett scored in the 1–1 draw against Birmingham City before half time, but was unfortunately injured in the 68th minute, being replaced by Australian Brett Emerton.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett scored his fifth league goal of the campaign with an individual effort, coming in a 3–2 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux Stadium on the last day of the season. On 11 September 2011, in a game between Blackburn and Fulham, he was involved in a collision with Mark Schwarzer which resulted in a head injury for Hoilett. He was eventually stretchered off and Schwarzer received a yellow card.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett scored Blackburn's controversial second goal in their 3–3 draw with Wigan Athletic, after teammate Morten Gamst Pedersen seemed to dribble the ball straight from a corner before firing in a low cross for Hoilett to head home from two yards.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: In January 2012, Hoilett was named one of the thirteen players to watch in 2012 by world football governing body FIFA.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: After refusing a contract renewal with Blackburn Rovers, Hoilett joined Queens Park Rangers on 27 July 2012, for a fee decided by tribunal. He signed a four-year contract. He scored his first goal for QPR in a 2–3 League Cup defeat to Reading on 26 September 2012. On 2 March 2013, Hoilett set-up teammate Loïc Rémy and played a crucial part in a 2–1 win over Southampton. A combination of injuries and poor form meant that Hoilett had a frustrating first season at QPR, which resulted in relegation to the Championship.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Hoilett scored his first goal of the 2013–14 Championship season in a 1–1 draw with Huddersfield Town. Four months later, he scored his second goal of the season in a comfortable 3–0 win over AFC Bournemouth at Loftus Road. In QPR's 1–0 victory over Derby County at Wembley Stadium in the Championship play-off final, Hoilett grabbed an assist for the only goal of the game, when he crossed for Bobby Zamora to score in the 89th minute, as QPR gained promotion back to the Premier League after an absence of one season. After failing to agree a new contract with QPR at the end of the 2015–16 season, Hoilett left the club following the expiry of his current deal.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: Following the appointment of Neil Warnock as manager, Hoilett signed with Cardiff City on 6 October 2016, becoming Warnock's first signing at the club. His debut came on 14 October, against severnside rivals Bristol City. Hoilett scored his first goal for Cardiff during a 3–2 victory over Huddersfield Town on 19 November 2016. He went on to score one more goal before signing a one-year contract extension in May 2017.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: The 2017–18 season saw Hoilett's most productive campaign, finishing the season with twelve goals, including scoring against former club Queens Park Rangers, and notching a brace against Mansfield Town in the FA Cup, as Cardiff finished second, gaining promotion to the Premier League. Hoilett was offered a new contract following the club promotion.


title: Junior Hoilett

text: On 26 June 2018, Hoilett signed a three-year contract in the Welsh capital. He scored his first Premier League goal since 2012 in a 2–1 comeback win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on 30 November, which BBC Sport called a "fabulous first-time effort from 25 yards".