texts:
Lieutenant-General <mask>,  (26 December 1887 – 31 January 1966) was a senior British Army officer. He saw service in the First World War and built a successful military career during the interwar period but is most noted for his defeat in the Second World War, when he commanded British Commonwealth forces during the Japanese Malayan Campaign and the subsequent Battle of Singapore. <mask>'s surrender to the invading Imperial Japanese Army force, the largest surrender in British military history, undermined Britain's prestige as an imperial power in East Asia. His defenders, such as Sir John Smyth, have argued that under-funding of Malaya's defences and the inexperienced, under-equipped nature of the Commonwealth army, not Percival's leadership, were ultimately to blame. Early days

Childhood and employment
<mask> was born on 26 December 1887 in Aspenden Lodge, Aspenden near Buntingford in Hertfordshire, England, the second son of Alfred Reginald and <mask> (née Miller). His father was the Land Agent of the Hamel's Park estate and his mother came from a Lancashire cotton family. By 1891 the family was living in nearby Thundridge at "Sprangewell" on Poles Lane, his father being listed as "Land Agent" in the 1891 census, although it is unclear if this is still for Hamel's Park, or for E.S.Hanbury's Poles estate (now "Hanbury Manor"), which is adjacent to Sprangewell. <mask> was initially schooled locally in Bengeo. Then in 1901, he was sent to Rugby with his more academically successful brother, where he was a boarder in School House. A moderate pupil, he studied Greek and Latin but was described by a teacher as "not a good classic". <mask>'s only qualification on leaving in 1906 was a higher school certificate. He was a more successful sportsman, playing cricket and tennis and running cross country. He also rose to colour sergeant in the school's Volunteer Rifle Corps.However, his military career began at a comparatively late age: although a member of Youngsbury Rifle Club, he was still working as a clerk for the iron ore merchants Naylor, Benzon & Company Limited in London, which he had joined in 1914, when the World War I broke out. Enlistment and First World War
Percival enlisted on the first day of the war as a private in the Officer Training Corps of the Inns of Court, at the age of 26, and was promoted after five weeks' basic training to temporary second lieutenant. Nearly one third of his fellow recruits would be dead by the end of the war. By November Percival had been promoted to captain. The following year he was despatched to France with the newly formed 7th (Service) Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment, which became part of the 54th Brigade, 18th (Eastern) Division in February 1915. The first day of the Battle of the Somme (1 July 1916) left Percival unscathed, but in September he was badly wounded in four places by shrapnel, as he led his company in an assault on the Schwaben Redoubt, beyond the ruins of Thiepval village, and was awarded the Military Cross. Percival took a regular commission as a captain with the Essex Regiment in October 1916, whilst recovering from his injuries in hospital.He was appointed a temporary major in his original regiment. In 1917, he became battalion commander with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel. During Germany's Spring Offensive, Percival led a counter-attack that saved a unit of French artillery from capture, winning a Croix de Guerre. For a short period in May 1918, he acted as commander of the 54th Brigade. He was given brevet promotion to major, and awarded the Distinguished Service Order, with his citation noting his "power of command and knowledge of tactics". He ended the war as a respected soldier, described as "very efficient" and was recommended for the Staff College. Between the wars

Russia
<mask>'s studies were delayed in 1919 when he decided to volunteer for service with the Archangel Command of the British Military Mission during the North Russia Campaign of the Russian Civil War.Acting as second-in-command of the 45th Royal Fusiliers, he earned a bar to his DSO in August, when his attack in the Gorodok operation along the Dvina netted 400 Red Army prisoners. The citation reads:

He commanded the Gorodok column on 9–10 August 1919, with great gallantry and skill, and owing to the success of this column the forces on the right bank of the Dvina were able to capture all its objectives. During the enemy counter-attack from Selmenga on Gorodok he handled his men excellently. The enemy were repulsed with great loss, leaving 400 prisoners in our hands. Ireland
In 1920 Percival served in Ireland against the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Irish War of Independence, first as a company commander and later the intelligence officer of the 1st Battalion of the Essex Regiment, in Kinsale, County Cork. Percival proved himself an energetic counter-guerrilla, noted for his aptitude for intelligence-gathering and the establishment of bicycle-riding 'Mobile Columns'. He was accused of brutality towards prisoners, including the use of strikes of a rifle butt to the head, pincers to pull fingernails and burning cigarettes on the body.These accusations were substantiated by prisoners' testimony but the veracity of the accounts has been challenged by a journalist. Following the IRA killing of a Royal Irish Constabulary sergeant outside Bandon church in July 1920, Percival captured Tom Hales, commander of the IRA's 3rd Cork Brigade, and Patrick Harte, the brigade's quartermaster, for which he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Both prisoners later claimed to have been repeatedly beaten and tortured while in custody. Hales alleged that a pair of pliers had been used on his lower body and to extract his fingernails. Harte suffered brain injury and died in a mental hospital in 1925. Ormonde Winter, the head of British Intelligence in Dublin Castle, later named Hales as an informer who had invented the story as an excuse for providing the names of his fellow IRA members in return for a lesser sentence. IRA commandant Tom Barry later stated that <mask> was "easily the most vicious anti-Irish of all serving British officers".David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill met <mask> in 1921, when he was called as an expert witness during an inquiry into the Anglo-Irish War. <mask> would later deliver a series of lectures on his experiences in Ireland in which he stressed the importance of surprise and offensive action, intelligence-gathering, maintaining security and co-operation between the security forces. In his reports <mask> was scathing of the government's policy of repeatedly releasing IRA prisoners between 1916 and 1920, claiming that "these men immediately returned to their homes and organised the murder of those members of the RIC who had been instrumental in effecting their arrests". Historian J.B.E. Hittle wrote that of all the British officers in Ireland "Percival stood out for his violent, sadistic behaviour towards IRA prisoners, suspects and innocent civilians......He also participated in reprisals, burning farms and businesses in response to IRA attacks. However, Clifford Kinvig, <mask>'s biographer considers him to have been unfairly vilified by Republican propaganda due to him being "tireless in his attempt to destroy the spirit of the people and the organisation of the IRA". Staff officer
<mask> attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1923 to 1924, which had Major-General Edmund Ironside as its Commandant, where he was taught by J. F. C. Fuller, who was one of the few sympathetic reviewers of his book, The War in Malaya, twenty-five years later.He impressed his instructors, who picked him out as one of eight students for accelerated promotion, and his fellow students who admired his cricketing skills. Following an appointment as major with the Cheshire Regiment, he spent four years with the Nigeria Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force in West Africa as a staff officer. He was given brevet promotion to lieutenant-colonel in 1929. In 1930, <mask> spent a year studying at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. From 1931 to 1932, Percival was a General Staff Officer Grade 2, an instructor at the Staff College. The college's commandant was by now Major-General Sir John Dill, who became <mask>'s mentor over the next decade, helping to ensure his protégé's advancement. Dill regarded Percival as a promising officer and wrote that "he has an outstanding ability, wide military knowledge, good judgment and is a very quick and accurate worker" but added "he has not altogether an impressive presence and one may therefore fail, at first meeting him, to appreciate his sterling worth".With Dill's support, <mask> was appointed to command the 2nd Battalion, the Cheshire Regiment from 1932 to 1936, initially in Malta. In 1935, he attended the Imperial Defence College in London. <mask> was made a full colonel in March 1936, and until 1938 he was General Staff Officer Grade 1 in Malaya, the Chief of Staff to General Dobbie, the General Officer Commanding in Malaya. During this time, he recognised that Singapore was no longer an isolated fortress. He considered the possibility of the Japanese landing in Thailand to "burgle Malaya by the backdoor and conducted an appraisal of the possibility of an attack being launched on Singapore from the North, which was supplied to the War Office, and which Percival subsequently felt was similar to the plan followed by the Japanese in 1941. He also supported Dobbie's unexecuted plan for the construction of fixed defences in Southern Johore. In March 1938, Percival returned to Britain and was (temporarily) promoted to brigadier on the General Staff, Aldershot Command.Second World War

<mask> was appointed Brigadier, General Staff, of the I Corps, British Expeditionary Force, commanded by General Dill, from 1939 to 1940. He was then promoted to acting Major-General, and in February 1940 briefly became General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division. He was made Assistant Chief of the Imperial General Staff at the War Office in 1940 but asked for a transfer to an active command after the Dunkirk evacuation. Given command of the 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division, he spent 9 months organising the protection of  of the English coast from invasion. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1941 King's Birthday Honours. Percival's early assessment of the vulnerability of Singapore
In 1936, Major-General William Dobbie, then General Officer Commanding (Malaya), made an inquiry into whether more forces were required on mainland Malaya to prevent the Japanese from establishing forward bases to attack Singapore. <mask>, then his Chief Staff Officer, was tasked to draw up a tactical assessment of how the Japanese were most likely to attack.In late 1937, his analysis duly confirmed that north Malaya might become the critical battleground. The Japanese were likely to seize the east coast landing sites on Thailand and Malaya in order to capture aerodromes and achieve air superiority. This could serve as a prelude to further Japanese landings in Johore to disrupt communications northwards and enable the construction of another main base in North Borneo. From North Borneo, the final sea and air assault could be launched against eastern Singapore—in particular the Changi area. General Officer Commanding (Malaya)
In April 1941 <mask> was promoted to acting Lieutenant-General, and was appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) Malaya. This was a significant promotion for him as he had never commanded an army corps. He left Britain in a Sunderland flying boat and embarked on an arduous fortnight-long, multi-stage flight via Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria (where he was delayed by the Anglo-Iraqi War), Basra, Karachi, and Rangoon, where he was met by an RAF transport.<mask> had mixed feelings about his appointment, noting that "In going to Malaya I realised that there was the double danger either of being left in an inactive command for some years if war did not break out in the East or, if it did, of finding myself involved in a pretty sticky business with the inadequate forces which are usually to be found in the distant parts of our Empire in the early stages of a war." For much of the interwar period, Britain's defensive plan for Malaya had centred on the dispatch of a naval fleet to the newly built Singapore Naval Base. Accordingly, the army's role was to defend Singapore and Southern Johore. While this plan had seemed adequate when the nearest Japanese base had been  away, the outbreak of war in Europe, combined with the partial Japanese occupation of the northern part of French Indochina and the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, had underlined the difficulty of a sea-based defence. Instead it was proposed to use the RAF to defend Malaya, at least until reinforcements could be dispatched from Britain. This led to the building of airfields in northern Malaya and along its east coast and the dispersal of the available army units around the peninsula to protect them. On arrival, <mask> set about training his inexperienced army; his Indian troops were particularly raw, with most of their experienced officers having been withdrawn to support the formation of new units as the Indian army expanded.Relying upon commercial aircraft or the Volunteer air force to overcome the shortage of RAF planes, he toured the peninsula and encouraged the building of defensive works around Jitra. A training manual approved by Percival, Tactical Notes on Malaya, was distributed to all units. In July 1941 when the Japanese occupied southern Indochina, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands imposed economic sanctions, freezing Japanese financial assets and cutting Japan from its supplies of oil, tin and rubber. The sanctions were aimed at pressuring Japan to abandon its involvement in China; instead, the Japanese government planned to seize the resources of South-East Asia from the European nations by force. Both the Japanese navy and army were mobilised, but for the moment an uneasy state of cold war persisted. British Commonwealth reinforcements continued to trickle into Malaya. On 2 December, the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battle-cruiser HMS Repulse, escorted by four destroyers, arrived in Singapore, the first time a battle fleet had been based there.(They were to have been accompanied by the aircraft carrier  to provide air cover but she had run aground in the Caribbean en route.) The following day Rear-Admiral Spooner hosted a dinner attended by the newly arrived Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet, Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, and <mask>. Japanese attack

masks:
Arthur Ernest Percival
Percival
Arthur Ernest Percival
Edith Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival


type: original

texts:
 and British surrender

On 8 December 1941 the Japanese 25th Army under the command of Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita launched an amphibious assault on the Malay Peninsula (one hour before the attack on Pearl Harbor; the difference in date was because the two places lie on opposite sides of the international date line). That night the first Japanese invasion force arrived at Kota Bharu on Malaya's east coast. This was just a diversionary force, and the main landings took place the next day at Singora and Pattani on the south-eastern coast of Thailand, with troops rapidly deploying over the border into northern Malaya. On 10 December <mask> issued a stirring, if ultimately ineffective, Special Order of the Day:
In this hour of trial the General Officer Commanding calls upon all ranks Malaya Command for a determined and sustained effort to safeguard Malaya and the adjoining British territories. The eyes of the Empire are upon us.Our whole position in the Far East is at stake. The struggle may be long and grim but let us all resolve to stand fast come what may and to prove ourselves worthy of the great trust which has been placed in us. The Japanese advanced rapidly, and on 27 January 1942 Percival ordered a general retreat across the Johore Strait to the island of Singapore and organised a defence along the length of the island's  coast line. But the Japanese did not dawdle, and on 8 February Japanese troops landed on the northwest corner of Singapore island. After a week of fighting on the island, Percival held his final command conference at 9 am on 15 February in the Battle Box of Fort Canning. The Japanese had already occupied approximately half of Singapore and it was clear that the island would soon fall. Having been told that ammunition and water would both run out by the following day, Percival agreed to surrender.The Japanese at this point were running low on artillery shells, but <mask> did not know this. The Japanese insisted that <mask> himself march under a white flag to the Old Ford Motor Factory in Bukit Timah to negotiate the surrender. A Japanese officer present noted that he looked "pale, thin and tired". After a brief disagreement, when <mask> insisted that the British keep 1,000 men under arms in Singapore to preserve order, which Yamashita finally conceded, it was agreed at 6:10 pm that the British Empire troops would lay down their arms and cease resistance at 8:30 pm. This was in spite of instructions from Prime Minister Winston Churchill for prolonged resistance. A common view holds that 138,708 Allied personnel surrendered or were killed by fewer than 30,000 Japanese. However, the former figure includes nearly 50,000 troops captured or killed during the Battle of Malaya, and perhaps 15,000 base troops.Many of the other troops were tired and under-equipped following their retreat from the Malayan peninsula. Conversely, the latter number represents only the front-line troops available for the invasion of Singapore. British Empire battle casualties since 8 December amounted to 7,500 killed and 11,000 wounded. Japanese losses totalled around 3,500 killed and 6,100 wounded. Culpability for the fall of Singapore

Churchill viewed the fall of Singapore to be "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history." However, the British defence was that the Middle East and the Soviet Union had all received higher priorities in the allocation of men and material, so the desired air force strength of 300 to 500 aircraft was never reached, and whereas the Japanese invaded with over two hundred tanks, the British Army in Malaya did not have a single tank. In The War in Malaya Percival himself cites this as the major factor for the defeat stating that the 'war material which might have saved Singapore was sent to Russia and the Middle East'.However he also concedes that Britain was engaged in 'a life and death struggle in the West' and that 'this decision, however painful and regrettable, was inevitable and right'. In 1918, Percival had been described as "a slim, soft spoken man... with a proven reputation for bravery and organisational powers" but by 1945 this description had been turned on its head with even Percival's defenders describing him as "something of a damp squib". The fall of Singapore switched Percival's reputation to that of an ineffective "staff wallah", lacking ruthlessness and aggression, even though few doubted that he was a brave and determined officer. Over six feet in height and lanky, with a clipped moustache and two protruding teeth, and unphotogenic, Percival was an easy target for a caricaturist, being described as "tall, bucktoothed and lightly built". There was no doubt his presentation lacked impact as "his manner was low key and he was a poor public speaker with the cusp of a lisp". Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Far East Command, refused Percival permission to launch Operation Matador, a pre-emptive invasion of Thailand, in advance of the Japanese landings there; he did not wish to run any risk of provoking the coming war. Brooke-Popham was accused by his detractors of not arguing forcefully for air reinforcements required to defend Malaya.Peter Wykeham suggested that the government in London was more to blame than any of the British commanders in the Far East. Despite repeated requests, the British government did not provide the necessary reinforcements and they denied Brooke-Popham – and therefore Percival – permission to enter neutral Thailand before it was too late to put in place forward defences. Moreover, <mask> had difficulties with his subordinates Sir Lewis "Piggy" Heath, commanding Indian III Corps, and the independent-minded Gordon Bennett, commanding the Australian 8th Division. The former officer had been senior to Percival prior to his appointment as GOC (Malaya). Percival was ultimately responsible for the men who served under him, and with other officers – notably Major-General David Murray-Lyon, commander of the Indian 11th Infantry Division – he had shown a willingness to replace them when he felt their performance was not up to scratch. Perhaps his greatest mistake was to resist the building of fixed defences in either Johore or the north shore of Singapore, dismissing them in the face of repeated requests to start construction from his Chief Engineer, Brigadier Ivan Simson, with the comment "Defences are bad for morale – for both troops and civilians". Percival also insisted on defending the north-eastern shore of Singapore most heavily, against the advice of the Allied supreme commander in South East Asia, General Archibald Wavell.<mask> was perhaps fixed on his responsibilities for defending the Singapore Naval Base. He also spread his forces thinly around the island and kept few units as a strategic reserve. When the Japanese attack came in the west, the Australian 22nd Brigade took the brunt of the assault. <mask> refused to reinforce them as he continued to believe that the main assault would occur in the north east. In the post-war Percival Report (written in 1946, published in 1948) the "imminent collapse" of the water supply, estimated by David J. Murnane, the Municipal Water Engineer, on 14 February to occur within 24–48 hours, was highlighted as a direct cause for surrender. According to oral history records, quoted by Louis Allen (author of Singapore 1941–42), Murnane asked for and was promised by General Percival "ten lorries and a hundred Royal Engineers" so he could fix the water supply leaks caused by Japanese bombing and shelling. He never got what he needed: Louis Allen says Murnane got 'one lorry and ten frightened Sikhs'.When confronted again, all that <mask> delivered (on 14 February) was one lorry and ten Royal Engineers but it was too late. Captivity
<mask> himself was briefly held prisoner in Changi Prison, where "the defeated GOC could be seen sitting head in hands, outside the married quarters he now shared with seven brigadiers, a colonel, his ADC and cook-sergeant. He discussed feelings with few, spent hours walking around the extensive compound, ruminating on the reverse and what might have been". In the belief that it would improve discipline, he reconstituted a Malaya Command, complete with staff appointments, and helped occupy his fellow prisoners with lectures on the Battle of France. Along with the other senior British captives above the rank of colonel, <mask> was removed from Singapore in August 1942. First he was imprisoned in Formosa and then sent on to Manchuria, where he was held with several dozen other VIP captives, including the American General Jonathan Wainwright, in a prisoner-of-war camp near Hsian, about  to the north east of Mukden. As the war drew to an end, an OSS team removed the prisoners from Hsian.<mask> was then taken, along with Wainwright, to stand immediately behind General <mask> as he confirmed the terms of the Japanese surrender aboard  in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. Afterwards, <mask> gave <mask> a pen he had used to sign the treaty. <mask> and Wainwright then returned together to the Philippines to witness the surrender of the Japanese army there, which in a twist of fate was commanded by General Yamashita. Yamashita was momentarily surprised to see his former captive at the ceremony; on this occasion <mask> refused to shake Yamashita's hand, angered by the mistreatment of POWs in Singapore. The flag carried by Percival's party on the way to Bukit Timah was also a witness to this reversal of fortunes, being flown when the Japanese formally surrendered Singapore back to Lord Louis Mountbatten. Later life
<mask> returned to the United Kingdom in September 1945 to write his despatch at the War Office but this was revised by the UK Government and only published in 1948. He retired from the army in 1946 with the honorary rank of lieutenant-general but the pension of his substantive rank of major-general.Thereafter, he held appointments connected with the county of Hertfordshire, where he lived at Bullards in Widford: he was Honorary Colonel of 479th (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, (T.A.) from 1949 to 1954 and acted as one of the Deputy Lieutenants of Hertfordshire in 1951. He continued his relationship with the Cheshire Regiment being appointed Colonel of the Cheshire Regiment between 1950 and 1955; an association continued by his son, Brigadier <mask> who became Colonel of the Regiment between 1992 and 1999. Percival was respected for the time he had spent as a Japanese prisoner of war. Serving as life president of the Far East Prisoners of War Association (FEPOW), he pushed for compensation for his fellow captives, eventually helping to obtain a token £5 million of frozen Japanese assets for this cause. This was distributed by the FEPOW Welfare Trust, on which <mask> served as Chairman. He led protests against the film The Bridge on the River Kwai when it was released in 1957, obtaining the addition of an on-screen statement that the movie was a work of fiction.He also worked as President of the Hertfordshire British Red Cross and was made an Officer of the Venerable Order of Saint John in 1964. <mask> died at the age of 78 on 31 January 1966, in King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers, Beaumont Street in Westminster, and is buried in the churchyard at Widford in Hertfordshire. Family
On 27 July 1927 <mask> married Margaret Elizabeth "Betty" MacGregor Greer in Holy Trinity Church, Brompton. She was the daughter of Thomas MacGregor Greer of Tallylagan Manor, a Protestant linen merchant from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. They had met during his tour of duty in Ireland but it had taken Percival several years to propose. They had two children. A daughter, Dorinda Margery, was born in Greenwich and became Lady Dunleath.Alfred James MacGregor, their son, was born in Singapore and served in the British Army. See also
 Operation Krohcol
 Sir Shenton Thomas

References

Bibliography

 Barry, Tom, Guerilla Days in Ireland, Dublin, 1949
 Bose, Romen, "SECRETS OF THE BATTLEBOX: The role and history of Britain's Command HQ during the Malayan Campaign", Marshall Cavendish, Singapore, 2005
 Coogan, Tim Pat. "Michael Collins". Dixon, Norman F, On the Psychology of Military Incompetence, London, 1976
 Hack, Karl and Blackburn, Kevin, Did Singapore Have to Fall? : Churchill and the Impregnable Fortress, RoutledgeCurzon, 2003,
 Keegan, John (editor), Churchill's Generals, Abacus History, 1999,
 Kinvig, Clifford, General Percival and the Fall of Singapore, in 60 Years On: the Fall of Singapore Revisited, Eastern University Press, Singapore, 2003
 Kinvig, Clifford, Scapegoat: General <mask> of Singapore, London, 1996. London Gazette
 <mask>, Brian, Surviving the Sword: Prisoners of the Japanese 1942–45, Abacus,
 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 43, available at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website
 Morris, James Farewell the Trumpets, Penguin Books, 1979
 Percival, <mask> The War in Malaya, London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1949. Extracts from the report used as the basis of this book are at  accessed 2 February 2006 and the references here are to this report
 Ryan, Meda.Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter, Cork, 2003
 Smith, Colin, Singapore Burning: Heroism and Surrender in World War II, Penguin Books,
 Smyth, John George, Percival and the Tragedy of Singapore, MacDonald and Company, 1971. ASIN B0006CDC1Q
 Taylor, A. J. P. English History 1914–1945, Oxford University Press, 1975

 Warren, Alan, Singapore 1942: Britain's Greatest Defeat, Hambledon Continuum, 2001,

References

External links

British Army Officers 1939–1945
Generals of World War II

|-

|-

|-

|-

1887 births
1966 deaths
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment officers
British Army personnel of the Russian Civil War
British Army personnel of World War I
British Army generals of World War II
People of British Malaya
British military personnel of the Irish War of Independence
British World War II prisoners of war
Cheshire Regiment officers
Essex Regiment officers
Graduates of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich
Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley
Alumni of the Royal College of Defence Studies
Military of Singapore under British rule
People from Widford, Hertfordshire
People educated at Rugby School
Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)
Recipients of the Military Cross
Royal West African Frontier Force officers
World War II prisoners of war held by Japan
Military history of Malaya during World War II
People of colonial Nigeria
British expatriates in Nigeria
Deputy Lieutenants of Hertfordshire
British Army generals
Academics of the Staff College, Camberley
Military personnel from

masks:
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Douglas MacArthur
MacArthur
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
James Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
Percival
MacArthur
Arthur Ernest


texts:
<mask> (; born 29 March 1971), also sometimes known as Void, is a Hungarian extreme metal vocalist, best known for his vocal work in Norwegian black metal band Mayhem and American drone-doom project Sunn O))). Author Ian Christe describes his vocals as "operatic." Biography

His music career began in 1985 with the Hungarian metal band Tormentor, which reached cult status in black metal circles with their first album, Anno Domini (1988). Tormentor performed 50-100 live shows between 1986–1990 and became one of the most infamous bands in Hungary. After Tormentor he started his dark electro industrial band Plasma Pool (1990–1994). On the strength of his work in Tormentor, he was invited to perform vocals on the De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album by Norwegian black metal band Mayhem after lead singer Dead committed suicide. His groundbreaking new way of singing added a special character to Mayhem's sound.Ultimately <mask> did not perform any live concerts with the band until his second tenure in 2004. After Mayhem, <mask> continued to work in various bands, such as  Plasma Pool, Aborym, and Korog; he also performed as Caiaphas in the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar in Hungary. He stated during an interview for Hungarian Metal Hammer that he felt honoured to sing "This Jesus Must Die". He performed in Keep of Kalessin as well on their returning EP Reclaim together with drummer Frost from Satyricon. He is a "shadow" member of the American doom/drone metal band Sunn O))). His first live performance with the band happened on 24 March 2003 at Stadtwerkstatt in Linz, Austria. His first recorded collaboration with the band was in 2004 when he sang in Sanskrit language on the tracks "Decay2 [Nihil's Maw]" and "Decay (The Symptoms of Kali Yuga)" on their album White2.He has recorded five full-length albums with the group, including the very successful Monoliths & Dimensions, and performed live with the band on their worldwide tours hundreds of shows. In 2004, <mask> rejoined Mayhem after the departure of Maniac, the band's previous vocalist. Their 2007 album, Ordo ad Chao, won the Spellemannprisen (also known as the Norwegian Grammy). Since then the band has embarked upon intense international touring. In 2008 he also joined another project, Gravetemple with Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))) and Oren Ambarchi. <mask> started his solo act in November 2008, called Void ov Voices. His live performances have been in support of artists like Ulver on their first European tour, Bohren & der Club of Gore, Lustmord, Ruin and Diamanda Galas.He performed at "The Grand Reincarnation" Of Paul Booth's Last Rites Gallery & Tattoo Theatre. He also toured in Japan and performed during the Mofo festival in Tasmania. He has collaborated with artists such as Current 93, Jarboe, Dissection, Emperor, Taake, Ulver, and Banks Violette. Between 2016 and 2018, <mask> joined blackened death metal supergroup Sinsaenum. He would perform lead vocals alongside Sean Zatorsky of Dååth, with DragonForce bassist and group founder Frédéric Leclercq and Loudblast guitarist Stéphane Buriez on guitars, Seth guitarist Heimoth on bass, and former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison on drums. The band released its debut album Echoes of the Tortured on 29 July 2016 via earMUSIC. In 2019 he formed an esoteric noise project called Hiedelem with drummer/percussionist Balázs Pándi (Merzbow, Keiji Haino).Outside of music, <mask> graduated as an electrical engineer from a technical college, and used to be a private teacher of math and physics. He worked in film production, most notably on Tony Scott's Spy Game, where he was the first assistant of production designer Norris Spencer. In 2018 he was portrayed in the film Lords of Chaos, which depicted the early 90s Norwegian black metal scene (in particular Mayhem). He was portrayed by his son Arion. Although Mayhem have often displayed dead animals and blood at their live events, <mask> is a vegetarian in his personal life. Discography

Tormentor
 The Seventh Day of Doom (1987)
 Anno Domini (1988)
 Recipe Ferrum! (1999)

Mayhem
 De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)
 Mediolanum Capta Est (1998, guest performance)
 Ordo Ad Chao (2007)
 Esoteric Warfare (2014)
 De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive (2017)
 Daemon (2019)
Atavistic Black Disorder/Kommando (2021)

Plasma Pool
 I (1991–1994)
 II – Drowning (1991–1993)
 III – Sinking (unreleased album)

Aborym
 Kali Yuga Bizarre (1998, guest performance)
 Fire Walk with Us!(2000)
 With No Human Intervention (2003)
 Generator (guest vocals on "Man Bites God", 2006)

Limbonic Art
 The Ultimate Death Worship (guest vocals on "From the Shades of Hatred", 2001)

Korog
 Korog (2005)

Attila Csihar
 The Beast of Attila Csihar (2003, compilation album)

Void of Voices

 777 (2012, live album, Japan Tour exclusive)

Anaal Nathrakh
 When Fire Rains Down from the Sky, Mankind Will Reap As It Has Sown (guest vocals on "Atavism", 2003)
 Eschaton (guest vocals on "Regression to the Mean", 2006)

 Keep of Kalessin
 Reclaim (2003)

 Emperor
 Scattered Ashes (guest vocals on "Funeral Fog", Mayhem cover, 2003)

 Sear Bliss
 Glory and Perdition (additional vocals in "Birth of Eternity" and "Shores of Death", 2003)

 Sunn O)))
 White2 (2004)
 Oracle (2007)
 Dømkirke (2008)
 Monoliths & Dimensions (2009)
 Kannon (2015)

 Astarte
 Demonized (guest vocals on "Lycon", 2007)

 Burial Chamber Trio
 Burial Chamber Trio (2007)

 Grave Temple
 The Holy Down (2007?) Ambient/Ruin (2008)
 Impassable Fears (2017)

 YcosaHateRon
 La Nuit (2007)

 Stephen O'Malley
 6°Fskyquake (2008)

 Jarboe
 Mahakali (guest vocals on "The Soul Continues", 2008)

 Skitliv
 Skandinavisk Misantropi (additional vocals on "ScumDrug", 2009)

 Nader Sadek
 In the Flesh (guest vocals on two tracks, 2010)

 Ulver
 Wars of the Roses (guest vocals on "Providence", 2010)

 DivahaR
 Divarise  (guest vocals on "Blindness") 2014
Divahar is an all-female symphonic black metal band from Yerevan, Armenia that contains Dev on vocals and guitar, Urubani on guitar, Skadi on bass, and Belus on keyboards. Alien Vampires  Drag You to Hell (guest vocals on "The Divinity Of Solitude") 2015

 Sinsaenum
 Echoes of the Tortured (2016)
 Ashes (2017)
 Repulsion for Humanity (2018)

 Statiqbloom Beneath the Whelm (guest vocals on "The Second Coming") 2020

 The Mugshots Children of the Night / The Call'' (guest vocals on "The Call") 2021

References

External links

Attila Csihar at Southern Lord
Official Mayhem website

Mayhem (band) members
21st-century Hungarian male singers
Living people
1971 births
Black metal singers
Heavy metal singers
Southern Lord Records artists
Sunn O))) members
20th-century Hungarian male singers
Sinsaenum members
Aborym members

masks:
Attila Csihar
Csihar
Csihar
Csihar
Csihar
Csihar
Csihar
Csihar


texts:
<mask> (born 12 July 1985 in Marakwet District) is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner who specialises in road running competitions. He has a marathon best of 2:05:27 hours. He began competing internationally in 2005 and established himself with a number of circuit wins in his first three years of competition, including the Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale and America's Finest City Half Marathon. He managed podium finishes at the Granollers Half Marathon, Rotterdam Half Marathon and Delhi Half Marathon in 2008. He represented Kenya at the 2009 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships and helped win the team gold medal. <mask> began pacemaking in marathon races in 2009 and made his competitive debut over the distance in 2010. His clocking of two hours, 6:12 minutes to finish as runner-up at the Amsterdam Marathon was the second fastest debut run of all-time.In 2011, won both the Amsterdam and Rotterdam Marathons. He repeated as Amsterdam champion in 2012. His half marathon best of 59:15 minutes ranks among the top 15 fastest ever and he is in the top ten fastest ever over 20 km. Career

Early career
Running in Kenya, he began entering elite competitions as a teenager: he placed top-ten at the 2004 Tegla Loroupe Peace Race and he took second place in a 15K road race in January 2005 behind Clement Koech. He made his debut on the European circuit later that year, winning at the Route du Vin Half Marathon in September in 1:02:19 and then going on to finish tenth at the Paris 20K the following month. In January 2006 he returned to his native country and ran at the Discovery Kenya Cross Country and finished third in a long race won by Moses Masai. He ran a series of races in Spain from March to April, starting with a win at the Ribarroja del Turia Half Marathon, before taking third in the Azkoitia-Azpeitia race, second at the Málaga Half Marathon behind Silas Sang and ending with a podium finish at the Gran Fondo Nacional Villa de Massamagrell.His 2006 season peaked at road races in the United States: he won America's Finest City Half Marathon in San Diego with a time of 1:02:38 and later that month he ran at the Crim 10-Mile Race and was the runner-up Samuel Kosgei. Two months later he won the Medical Center 10K Classic in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He returned to the Route du Vin race in 2007 and took his second win, this time setting a course record of 1:00:13 (a personal best). He also won at the Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale in France – his time of 59:24 was the second fastest winning time for the course. In December that year he ran at the Lagos Half Marathon and finished runner-up to Dieudonné Disi. Half marathon specialist
He ran extensively in 2008, beginning with a second-place run at the Granollers Half Marathon behind then world record holder Samuel Wanjiru. Surprisingly, he ran in the Barcelona Half Marathon only seven days later and managed to finish as runner-up to Jacob Yator.This was followed by a fourth place at the Paris Half Marathon in March and a second victory at the Ribarroja Half Marathon in April. He ran under an hour for the half marathon in September, clocking a time of 59:33 for third place behind world medallists Evans Cheruiyot and Patrick Makau at the Rotterdam Half Marathon. Looking for a title defence, he returned to the Marseille-Cassis race and managed to fend off a challenge from Disi (his rival in Lagos) to increase his winning streak. He was among the leaders at the Delhi Half Marathon in September, his last major run of the year, and he was one second off his personal best with a third-place finish. He knocked a second off his best in a quick RAK Half Marathon in February 2009, where the winner Patrick Makau set the second fastest mark ever. He gained his first major win over 20 km in the Netherlands three weeks later at the 20 van Alphen race. He was employed as the pacemaker for the Rotterdam Marathon and excelled in the role, leading and keeping the pace strong among the racers – work which resulted in Duncan Kibet completing the third fastest ever time for the marathon.Following this, he managed half marathon wins at the Pardubice Wine Half-Marathon and Rabat International Half-Marathon. He ran at the tenth edition of the Bogota International Half Marathon in August, but was beaten to the finish line by Isaac Macharia. His best run of the year came at the Rotterdam Half Marathon as he set a new best of 59:15 for the event, which was the seventh fastest time by any athlete in 2009. However, such was the quality of the race, this fast time was only enough for fifth place in Rotterdam. The performance earned him his first international selection Kenya and he took sixth place in the men's race at the 2009 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Birmingham, a finish which earned him the team gold medal alongside Bernard Kiprop Kipyego and <mask> Kiprotich. The Zayed International Half Marathon was his first stop of 2010, but he only managed to finish in sixth. He set his sights on completing the Prague Half Marathon unbeaten: "Although I have run better than 60 minutes four times, I have not won.I need now to win one in under one hour". He left the race with his desire unfulfilled, however, as he finished in over an hour behind fellow countryman Joel Kemboi. After doing pacemaking duties at the Lake Biwa Marathon, he was present at Haile Gebrselassie's sports resort opening in May and won the inaugural Everyone Half Marathon in Addis Ababa. He returned to Europe that month to run at the Göteborgsvarvet half marathon and he was the second runner across the line after Sammy Kirui Kiprono. Marathons
Travelling to the United States in August, he entered the Beach to Beacon 10K in Cape Elizabeth, Maine but relinquished his lead in the final stages to end up third behind Gebregziabher Gebremariam and Alan Kiprono. <mask> and Gebre went head-to-head a week later at the Falmouth Road Race but again the Kenyan was beaten to the finish, finishing one second behind his Ethiopian counterpart. He took part in the Amsterdam Marathon in October and this time he left the pacemaking duties to Jamal Baligha as he marked his competitive debut over the full 42.195 km distance.Ethiopian Getu Feleke was running at course record pace, but <mask> was the only runner to challenge him. Although Getu eventually won the race almost half a minute ahead of him, <mask> finished the race with a time of 2:06:12 – the second fastest ever time for a marathon debut after Evans Rutto's debut winning run at the 2003 Chicago Marathon. Although victory had yet again evaded the Kenyan, he was pleased and confident with the result: "This is great making your debut with the second fastest (such time) ever. I’m happy. I know now what a marathon is and I think I can do faster." In April 2011, he won his first marathon, at Rotterdam, in the year's best time of 2:05:27 – six seconds ahead of his village mate Vincent Kipruto. He placed third in the Bogotá Half Marathon in August.He recorded a second consecutive win and sub-2:06 run at the 2011 Amsterdam Marathon, finishing just outside the course record with his time of 2:05:53 hours. His first major race of 2012 came at the Boston Marathon, where he came in fifth place. He was third at the lower profile Bogotá Half Marathon in July. In October he won the Amsterdam Marathon with a time of 2:05:41, a new course record. The following year he was fourth at the World's Best 10K and third at the Tilburg Ten Miles. He made a triumphant return at the Amsterdam Marathon, improving his own record to 2:05:36 hours. Major competition record

References

External links

1985 births
Living people
People from Elgeyo-Marakwet County
Kenyan male long-distance runners
Kenyan male marathon runners

masks:
Wilson Kwambai Chebet
Chebet
Wilson Kiang
Chebet
Chebet
Chebet


texts:
<mask> (; 28 January 1913 – 27 April 2008) was an American classical soprano who had an active international career as a concert and opera singer during the 1940s through the 1960s. She had a long and fruitful association with the New York City Opera (NYCO) between 1948 and 1958, after which she joined the roster of principal sopranos at the Metropolitan Opera where she sang between 1961 and 1963. She also had an extensive concert career, particularly in the United States. By 1963 she had sung in more than 200 orchestral concerts in North American with major symphonies like the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra among others. Biography
Born <mask> in Vancouver, Washington, Yeend grew up in Portland, Oregon. She had very little musical training before entering Washington State University (then Washington State College) in Pullman, Washington where she studied singing. Following several years of college,  she worked as a music teacher for a few years, during which time she also sang as a recitalist and on the radio.She also made her professional opera début during this time as Nedda in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in Spokane, Washington, although it wasn't until much later that she would appear in operas frequently. <mask>'s first New York appearances were in 1943 as a member of the ensemble in the Broadway run of The Merry Widow at the Majestic Theatre with Jan Kiepura as Danilo and Marta Eggerth as Sonia. Around this time she also sang on network radio as an uncredited soloist with Phil Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra. She joined Columbia Artists Management (CAM) in 1944 and performed the role of Micaela in a U.S tour of Bizet's Carmen that autumn. In April 1946 Yeend made her first major concert appearance as the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky. The following summer she performed the role of Ellen Orford in the American premiere of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Yeend went on to become one of the members of CAM's Bel Canto Trio with Mario Lanza and George London.She toured North America with the group in 1947–1948. In 1948 <mask> was invited by Laszlo Halasz, then artistic director of the New York City Opera, to join the roster of principal sopranos at the NYCO. She accepted and made her debut with the company as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata on March 20, 1948. She portrayed many other roles with the NYCO over a span of eleven consecutive seasons. Her early parts with the company were from the lyric soprano repertoire, such as Nedda, Countess Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, and the three heroines in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. Later on in her career with the company she began portraying heavier roles from the dramatic soprano repertoire, including Amelia in Menotti's Amelia Goes to the Ball, Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger, the title role in Verdi's Aida, the title roles in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca and Turandot among others. She also notably sang Felice in the United States premiere of Wolf Ferrari's I quattro rusteghi with the NYCO in 1951.Her last appearance with the company was in November 1958 as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème. While busy singing with the NYCO, Yeend also sang in operas with other companies in both the United States and Europe. She made her debut with the Vienna Staatsoper in 1953 as Violetta. That same year she made her first appearance at London's Royal Opera House at Covent Garden as Mimi. In 1956 she toured North America with the NBC Opera Theatre portraying Cio-cio-san in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Another Puccini role, the ice princess Turandot, was a part with which Yeend became particularly associated, portraying the part with the San Antonio Grand Opera Festival, Cincinnati Opera, New Orleans Opera, San Francisco Opera, Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company (1958), Vienna State Opera (1958) and at the Arena di Verona Festival (1958). In 1959 Yeend sang her first Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser with Fort Worth Opera and portrayed her first Ariadne in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at the Empire State Music Festival.She appeared at the Houston Grand Opera in 1960 for her first portrayal of the role of Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre and that same year sang Abigaille in Verdi's Nabucco at the San Antonio Opera. In the summer of 1961 she portrayed Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni with the Zoo Opera in Cincinnati. Some of her other notable international appearances included Mimì in Bulawayo, Rhodesia, Violetta at the Bavarian State Opera, Eva at the Liceu, and the Israeli premiere of Verdi's Requiem in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (1954). Yeend made her Metropolitan Opera debut on February 13, 1961 as Chrysothemis in Strauss's Elektra in 1961 with Inge Borkh in the title role and Joseph Rosenstock conducting. She also portrayed Violetta at the Met in performances opposite both George Shirley and Charles Anthony in the role of Alfredo. Her last performance with the company was on December 4, 1963 as Gutrune in Wagner's Götterdämmerung with Birgit Nilsson as Brünnhilde, Hans Hopf as Siegfried, and Walter Cassel as Gunther. One of the last opera performances of her career was as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company opposite Mario Del Monaco in the title role in 1964.Yeend retired from the stage in 1966 when she joined the faculty of West Virginia University as Professor of Voice/Artist in Residence. She remained in that position until 1978 when she retired from teaching. She died thirty years later at the age of 95. She was married for fifty-four years to pianist James Benner who was her second husband. She had one son, <mask>, by her first marriage to <mask> which ended in divorce. Recordings
Yeend made a number of recordings during her career on the RCA Victor, Columbia, Mercury, MGM and DaVinci labels. Most of her recordings are of the concert repertoire, including of particular note her lauded recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic under Bruno Walter and her recording of Arthur Honegger's oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) with the Philadelphia Orchestra.Among a relatively small number of opera recordings is the spectacular 1956 concert performance of scenes from Elektra with the Chicago Symphony and Chorus under Fritz Reiner, where she sang Chrysotemis to Inge Borkh's Elektra. References

King records released two 78 rpm records by <mask> on their 15000 series. Reference below:

Singles Discography for King Records - 15000 series
These Things Shall Pass: 1951: King: 15148: <mask>: The Friendship Tree
globaldogproductions.info/k/king-15000-series.html

External links

1913 births
2008 deaths
American educational theorists
Voice teachers
American operatic sopranos
People from Vancouver, Washington
Washington State University alumni
West Virginia University faculty
20th-century American women opera singers
Women music educators
American women academics
21st-century American women

masks:
Frances Yeend
Frances Leone Lynch
Yeend
Yeend
Warren Yeend
Kenneth Yeend
Frances Yeend
Frances Yeend


texts:
<mask> (, ) originally a fakir (mystic) was a renowned magician of Saurashtra, Gujarat. <mask> was born in 1850 in Ningala, a small village and a railway junction in Gadhada Taluka of Bhavnagar district in Saurashtra, Gujarat (India). Basically he was a Pir of a known Dargah and was involved in benevolent works the entirety of his life. Said to have been blessed with supernatural powers, <mask> eventually turned magician but his character and nobility were those of a mystic. The message of life he wished to convey to people was that of himself serving society and helping the needy with his magnetic aura and miraculous acts, flavored by his sense of humor. <mask> had a definite sense and sensibility, a fine sense of humor and rare message of life to convey, all which mainly addressed people who were hardworking, honest, innocent villagers, peasants, countrymen and mass belonging to towns and countryside. <mask> became earnestly popular among train passengers as he frequently used to travel by train between countryside of Saurashtra and Gujarat.And eventually, his magic and acts became evident across Rail trips. People would unfailingly encounter an experience of <mask>'s magic and miracles if they were traveling by train and if their luck to strike to come across <mask> in the train or at the railway station. Ningala, yet a small town, still a railway junction became instrumental and medium for his train encounters earned him lasting fame. Due to his extraordinary persona and god gifted powers, <mask> occupied a distinct place other than the conventional and contemporary magicians, and successful tricksters may have in people's minds. He knowingly or unknowingly served as Psychiatrist and a respected mystic to be remembered for. Reason is it was more his healing than obvious amusement, shocking surprises, miracles and entertainment his acts provided. Popular incidents of <mask>

There are plenty of his acts, miracles and occasions which people still remember through their ancestors and in form of stories from locals.A few incidents such as, he could make a train ticket checker shocked by producing avalanche of tickets out of his chin! His unbelievable acts a number of times for he had decoupled a running train with only engine chugging away! Among the locals in the Gujarat, Saurashtra and Bhavnagar region, there are people whose ancestors have remained eye-witness of this act! Moneylender stuck and unstuck
One more incident, once a poor villager was in clutches of a moneylender after the peasant borrowed some money from the moneylender. Chhel freed the villager from the clutches of moneylender by casting a spell that did not allow him to get out of his own chair! The moneylender realized and confessed for his falsified account on the name of the peasant. He wrote off those debts and then Chhel let the moneylender go unstuck!Merchant's ailing wife
Another well known case, once a troubled merchant wanted to know about his ailing wife in Mumbai and it was not common to have telephones those days. Especially, telephone facility was rare in rural areas. The worried local merchant came to <mask>, knowing his miracles and powers. <mask> put his palm across the merchant's eyes and asked him if he could see his wife. The gentleman was amused and relieved to see his wife working in the kitchen, hale and hearty. Later the news of her well-being reached him, confirming the powers of <mask>. If not sweets, beware of Cobra
A sweet and cobra incident/story is also popular among the people.Once during a train ride, a rich man sitting across <mask> held a basket of sweets in his lap. Occasionally he looked around and popped a sweet into his mouth when nobody was looking. <mask> requested the man to share his goodies with fellow passengers who happened to be poor folk. But the man did not pay any heed to this. At this, <mask> told him to be careful when he picked up another round of sweets from his basket. Ignoring the warning, the man dipped his hand once moreinto the basket and pulled out a hissing cobra instead of a sweet! Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan's Staff
On December 20, 1893 Chhel came to Junagadh to meet Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan at a fairground outside Manjevdi, hoping to dazzle the Imam with his magical powers.Chhel approached the Imam’s entourage and Varas Kasam Bapoo asked what is it? Chhel asked: I’d like to meet Aga Sahib, “Main hoon jadoo Ghar <mask>, jiska agam nigamka khel, ghee ka banaau tel, aur bhe(n)s ko banaadu bel!”
Imam Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah appeared and asked, kya chaahiye toomko? (what do you want?) Chhel replied: Kuch nahi chaahihe, Janaab, kuchh nahin, mein to sirf mere jadoo ka parchha dikhaana chaahta hoon, Main hoon jadoo ghar <mask>, jiska agam nigam ka khel
(nothing Sir, nothing -- I just wish to show You my magic. I am <mask>, he who defies logic!) Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Happily said: Yes, very good, but I am a dervish, I have no interest in so-called magic
The Imam then instructed Varas Kassam Bapoo to give Chhel Rs. 200
Chhel did not accept it saying: no no Sahib, I just ask for Your blessings.The Imam asked if he wanted anything further, to that Chhel replied: I just wish to show you my magical powers -- I can penetrate a hammer in to my chest, I can make all the marine life and crustations abandon the sea, I can turn the seawater into wax, I can swallow a flame, - - Sahib, I am Jadoo Ghar <mask>! Aga Khan: okay, okay, what trick will you show me? Chhel: Aga Sahib, if I simply exhale, I can make this entire marquee fly away and disappear, or if I clap my hands, this entire mela (fairground) will disappear and the ground will become baren. Yes Sahib, Yes… no one as enchanting as me has ever been born in this universe,
Chhel continued to give a long lecture, saying what was to be said, but also saying what was not to be said. Chhel ended by saying, Aga Sahib, give me the command (hukam) of what you wish to see, and I will perform magic. At that time, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah let go of his staff and it fell to the ground, saying: okay, show me all the tricks you wish to; but first pick up my staff. Show me the magic of picking up this staff, pick it up and place it in my hand.Chhel: O Sahib, what is such a big deal about this task? This can be done simply by me hovering my left hand. Aga Khan: O really? Please pick up my staff, use both hands if you need to. Chell began reciting mantras and waving his hands, blowing vigorously, clapping, moving his fingers in choreographed motions – the staff would not move. When <mask> tried to lift it with his hands, using all his strength, dripping with perspiration, breathing heavily, he fell sideways, but the staff did not move,
The scene was reminiscent of the staff of Moses and that of the Pharaoh. Indeed Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan traces his ancestry back to Moses Himself.Chhel was totally confused and was turning red with grief! Sir <mask> Shah found great amusement in witnessing this, to his right was Varas Kassam Bapoo, to his left was Kul Kamadia Ibrahim Bhai, both of whom were astonished that this world-renowned magician could not even pick up a stick from the floor! Chhel fell to the Imams feet and begged “O Aga, O Pir Sahib, forgive me!” the Imam replied, I never tried to challenge you, I am a dervish, I do not take interest in such nonsense. He continued by saying, <mask>, why did you give up? This is such a simple task that even a child can do. In the distance there was an 8 or 9 year old boy who was seen playing, the Imam loved this child dearly, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah requested: “Beta, can you pick up my staff and hand it to Me?” right away this child picked up the staff with one hand, he wiped it clean and handed it to his Imam. Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah said to Chhel: see this is a task for a young child – but remember, I am the Imam, and without the blessing and blessing and command of God, nothing can be achieved in this world.Mischief, superiors and experiences
<mask>, because of his tricks, some times for his spontaneous acts and due to his fame, unknowingly made people cautious and at times made them frightened too. Although, his acts were purely for fun, entertainment and some message, he would not hesitate going extravagant at times. His mischievous stance and fame, while earned him reputation and admiration, it also questioned him for a few times. For example, a famous Jain Muni Shri Vijaynemisuriji Maharaj, to teach Chhel not to harass Sadhus and Saints, knowingly or otherwise if he would ever come across them. One more incidence is of one Ismaili Imam Saheb who would make <mask> wonder-struck in response to <mask>'s proposal for showing his own magic acts. Mission and message
<mask> attained, although he was already one, the honorable title of 'Pir', meaning a mystique, a fakir. He is often remembered as Pir <mask> among the people, across the region and in the provinces of Saurashtra and Gujarat.<mask>, became a name of reputation and respect in magician fraternity in Gujarat and India. Defying the routine 'magician' term, <mask>'s contribution was more than that of a magician. He would strive and spontaneously extend by his acts and tricks for the benefit of fellows and countrymen. Exact date of <mask>'s death is not known, albeit he died in 1925. Some still term a few incidents as stories that have been flowing for over a century with all authentic details and proof remaining verifiable, and many still who shared their eye-witness accounts among locals and in their families happen to attest, those were true. Reason could be those miracles and acts attained the rank of stories because <mask> and his real mystic - magical acts got woven in people heart and memory over the years and over the generations. See also
 Indian Magicians
 Magician (paranormal)
 Magician (illusion)
 Mysticism

External links
  Story of <mask> by Tara Bose
  The Disappearing Trick
  The Street Juggler
  <mask>hel: The people's magician

References

1850 births
1925 deaths
Indian magicians
People from Gujarat
People from Bhavnagar district

masks:
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Chhel
Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Chhel
Sultan Mohammed
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Chhel
Mohammed Ch


texts:
<mask> (born 27 July 1967) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, and social activist. <mask> has appeared in Bengali films such as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Kalpurush, Anuranan, Antaheen, Laptop and The Japanese Wife. He has also appeared in Hindi films such as Pyaar Ke Side Effects, Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam, Jhankaar Beats, Kucch Luv Jaisaa,  Chameli and Shaurya. He also played the antagonist in the Tamil thriller Vishwaroopam (2013) and its sequel. Time magazine named him "the superstar of Indian arthouse cinema" while Maxim named him "the Sean Penn of Oriental cinema" for his work in parallel cinema films like English, August and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. He is also notable for his social activism: he participated in the relief efforts that followed the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and is also the founder of the anti-discrimination NGO, The Foundation. Early life

<mask> was born to father Rupen and mother <mask> on 27 July 1967.<mask>'s first acting role was at the age of six when he played the lead character in a school play, Tom, the Piper's Son. As a child he took an interest in sports after his mother introduced him to boxing and rugby union. He also played cricket and was coached by cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. He is an alumnus of the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai. After being rejected by a number of American universities, <mask> attended Sydenham College. While at the college he played on the school's rugby team and competed in the Western India Championships, winning a silver medal in boxing. After his mother's death in 1987, <mask> began working as a copywriter at Rediffusion and was later promoted to advertising creative director.<mask> left the job to become a full-time actor after the release of his first film, English, August. Stage and film career

Early career: 1993–2003

<mask> started his acting career on the Mumbai stage in <mask> D'Cunha's Topsy Turvey and Are There Tigers in the Congo?. D'Cunha's aunt was the casting director for director Dev Benegal's film English, August and suggested that <mask> should play the lead role. After filming a screen test, Benegal decided to cast him as civil servant Agastya Sen. Based on the novel of the same name by Upamanyu Chatterjee, English, August was one of the first Hinglish films and gained <mask> international recognition when it became the first Indian film to be purchased by 20th Century Fox and won several awards at international film festivals. After English, <mask> found work in television; he was offered a role in India's first English-language television serial, A Mouthful of Sky and also co-hosted BBC World's Style! with Laila Rouass. In 1998 he appeared in Kaizad Gustad's Bombay Boys with Naseeruddin Shah and starred in Dev Benegal's second film, Split Wide Open.To prepare for his role as a roving water vendor, <mask> lived in Mumbai's slums and observed a drug dealer for two weeks. He later cited this time—along with the 2002 Gujarat riots—as the beginning of the awakening of his social conscience. Although Split Wide Open was controversial in India because of its depictions of sexual abuse, <mask> received the Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Actor at the 2000 Singapore International Film Festival for his performance. He also performed abroad in the Leicester Haymarket in England where he starred in the English version of Tim Murari's play, The Square Circle. In 1997, <mask> was cast to play the role of Saleem Sinai in the BBC adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children. The project was eventually canceled after the Indian and Sri Lankan governments refused to allow filming. After seeing <mask> in English, August, director Govind Nihalani cast him in the villain role opposite Ajay Devgan in the mainstream film Thakshak.The film was not a financial success, although <mask> received positive reviews. <mask> also appeared as "Vikal" a villain in the 1998 Science fiction TV series Captain Vyom

In 2001, <mask> made his directorial debut with Everybody Says I'm Fine!. Starring Rehaan Engineer and Koel Purie and featuring <mask> in a supporting role, Everybody received mixed reviews from critics, but won <mask> the runner-up John Schlesinger Award for best directorial debut at the 2003 Palm Springs International Film Festival. In 2002, <mask> starred opposite Konkona Sen Sharma in Aparna Sen's art film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. The film, a critique of communal violence, was a critical success and won several awards at international film festivals as well as three National Film Awards. 2003–present
In 2003, <mask> entered mainstream Bollywood cinema with Jhankaar Beats in which he played one of two friends, R.D. Burman fans who are obsessed with winning a music competition.Boosted by a successful soundtrack, Jhankaar Beats was a surprise hit in urban multiplexes and went on to win several awards for its music. The same year, <mask> appeared in another Bollywood film, Mumbai Matinee which saw a UK release. He starred in Chameli opposite Kareena Kapoor, playing a wealthy chain-smoking Mumbai banker who is stranded in the monsoon rains with a prostitute. The film was not a box office success, but won several Filmfare and IIFA awards. He was the screenwriter of Hero Bhakti Hi Shakti Hai of Hungama TV in 2005. <mask>'s second film pairing with Konkona Sen Sharma, 15 Park Avenue released in January 2006. Directed by Aparna Sen and filmed in English, 15 Park Avenue won the 2006 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English.With his next effort, the romantic comedy Pyaar Ke Side Effects, <mask> moved once more into mainstream Bollywood cinema. The film follows the rocky relationship of <mask>'s commitment phobic Mumbai DJ Sid and his Punjabi girlfriend, Trisha played by Mallika Sherawat. Critics noted the freshness of <mask>'s narration style which involves breaking the fourth wall, a device not commonly used in Indian cinema. The film opened well in multiplexes and was a moderate financial success, eventually ranking among the top-grossing films of 2006. Both <mask> and Sherawat received positive reviews for their performances. Sherawat and <mask> also starred together in another Bollywood comedy, Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam (2008), which was a commercial and critical failure. In 2006, <mask> starred in the first of a trio of Bengali films, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's Anuranan.Anuranan was well received on the festival circuit and ran successfully for three months in Bengal. It was then dubbed into Hindi and released nationally. Kaalpurush, <mask>'s second Bengali film, was released commercially in April 2008. Kaalpurush details a father-son relationship and earned writer-director Buddhadeb Dasgupta a National Film Award for Best Feature Film. <mask> teamed with Chowdhury again in 2009 for Antaheen which tells the story of online relationships. Like Anuranan, Antaheen was released commercially in West Bengal and was screened at various film festivals, including the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival (MIACC) and the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Antaheen went on to win several National Awards including one for Best Film.<mask> continued working in a mix of mainstream and arthouse films in 2008, with the English-language film, Before the Rains. Before the Rains was released in the US and the UK and <mask>'s performance was praised by many critics, although the film received mixed reviews. <mask> also appeared in Shaurya, a military court room drama modelled on the American film A Few Good Men. <mask>'s performance was well-received; critic Taran Adarsh said his "performance easily ranks as one of his finest works". His appearance in Dil Kabaddi paired him with Konkona Sen Sharma for the third time, this time playing a husband and wife undergoing marital difficulties. The Japanese Wife, with Japanese actress Chigusa Takaku, the third Aparna Sen film in which he has appeared, released on 9 April 2010. He also appeared as a contestant in the reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi where he was eliminated in the 12th round.He hosted the second series of Bloomberg UTV reality show The Pitch. His role as a gay man harassed by the police in I Am was appreciated by critics. He appeared in Deepa Mehta's version of Midnight's Children where he played the role of General Zulfikar. He also played the villain in the 2013 Tamil film Vishwaroopam. Naren Weiss who was 19 years old at the time, acted opposite <mask> in all of his scenes for Vishwaroopam, and credited <mask> for working with him during filming. He was scheduled to begin shooting his adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's novel, Moth Smoke in early 2010, but the project was postponed after the film's financial backers pulled out. In 2013, he also played opposite Konkona Sen Sharma again in Suman Mukhopadhyay's Shesher Kabita.In 2017, he directed, produced and acted in the biopic Poorna about the youngest girl to climb Mount Everest. Filmography

Playback singing

Writer/director

Producer

Television

Stage

Awards

 2007 – "Artiste for Change" Karmaveer Puraskaar award
 2008 – IBN Eminent Citizen Journalist Award
 2009 – Youth Icon Award for Social Justice and Welfare
 2010 – Green Globe Foundation Award for Extraordinary Work by a Public Figure
2012 – Hakim Khan Sur Award for National Integration –  Maharana Mewar Charitable Foundation
2012 – Lt. Governor's Commendation Award for services to Andaman & Nicobar Islands
 2020 - Filmfare OTT Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Web Original Film for Bulbbul

Sports career

In 1998, <mask> was part of the first Indian national rugby team to play in an international event, the Asian Rugby Football Union Championship. He has played both scrum-half and right-winger positions. In an interview with Daily News & Analysis, <mask> announced that he would not return to the team for the 2009 season. Activism

<mask> assisted in the relief efforts in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. As a result of this work, <mask> launched the Andaman and Nicobar Scholarship Initiative through his NGO, The Foundation.The scholarship program provides for the education of underprivileged children from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. <mask> is associated with several charitable organizations such as Teach for India, Akshara Centre, Breakthrough, Citizens for Justice and Peace and the Spastics Society of India. He is closely associated with the Teach For India movement to eradicate inequity in education. In addition, he became the first Indian Oxfam global ambassador in 2007. He is the founder and chairman of The Group of Groups, an umbrella organisation for 51 Mumbai charitable organisations and NGOs. He is also an ambassador for the American India Foundation, the World Youth Peace Movement and Planet Alert. He was also a vocal proponent of Narmada Bachao Andolan and its efforts to halt the construction of the Narmada dam.He also recorded the Terre des hommes audio book Goodgoodi karna, gale lagana; Sparsh ke niyam sikhiye (English: Tickle and hugs: Learning the touching rules), which is designed to give children resources against sexual abuse. <mask> has given lectures on gender equality and human rights at Oxford and during the 2004 World Youth Peace Summit. In 2009, he toured Canada lecturing on global climate change under the auspices of Climate Action Network and demonstrated with protesters at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. In 2011, he worked in conjunction with Bhaichung Bhutia to raise funds for victims of the Sikkim earthquake. At the 8th convocation of BRAC University Bangladesh on 17 February 2013, <mask> delivered the convocation speech. Personal life

<mask> has one elder sister, Anuradha, who is married to Tariq Ansari, the owner and director of Mid-Day Multimedia. She had a cameo role in Everybody Says I'm Fine!.<mask> is single. In July 2019, <mask> complained of having been charged ₹442 for two bananas at JW Marriott, Chandigarh, and provoked an outcry on Twitter and other social media, where he gained much attention. References

External links

 <mask> <mask> environmental blog

1967 births
Living people
Indian rugby union players
Indian male journalists
Male actors from Mumbai
Activists from Maharashtra
Bengali people
Punjabi people
Marathi people
Male actors in Hindi cinema
University of Mumbai alumni
Rugby union wings
Cathedral and John Connon School alumni
Indian atheists
20th-century Indian male actors
Journalists from Maharashtra
Rugby players from Mumbai

masks:
Rahul Bose
Bose
Rahul Bose
Kumud Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Rahul
Bose
Bose
August Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Bose
Rahul
Bose


texts:
<mask> ( ; born October 4, 1988) is an American actress and singer. Her first major role was Marley Rose on the Fox musical comedy-drama Glee (2012–2014), where she was a series regular during the fifth season. She rose to widespread prominence for portraying the title character on the CBS / CW superhero series Supergirl (2015–2021), along with related media in the Arrowverse franchise. Benoist's film appearances include the psychological drama Whiplash (2014), the comedy-drama Danny Collins (2015), the romantic Western The Longest Ride (2015), the action thriller Patriots Day (2016), the drama Lowriders (2016), and the comedy-drama Sun Dogs (2017). She also portrayed the wife of cult leader David Koresh on the Paramount Network miniseries Waco (2018). On stage, Benoist made her Broadway debut in 2018 as Carole King in the jukebox musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Early life and education
Benoist was born in Houston, Texas, to Julie and <mask>, a physician.They divorced when she was thirteen years old. Her paternal great-grandfather was of French descent. She has two sisters: Jessica, a novelist, and Kristina, an ecological scientist, and five half-siblings from her father's remarriage. She was raised mostly by her mother in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, after her parents' separation. Growing up in Colorado, a large part of her childhood was spent exploring national parks and immersing herself in nature. She started dance classes at the age of three, focusing on jazz, ballet, and tap. When she was four years old, her aunt put her in a church play she was directing; after that, she began doing community children's theatre in her hometown.As a teenager, Benoist performed anonymously at Disneyland in various medleys of musical songs for three summers with the Academy of Theatre Arts, a musical theatre school she was attending, located in Littleton, Colorado, run by Paul Dwyer and Alann Worley. She performed locally in a number of theatrical productions, including A Month in the Country, Cinderella, A Chorus Line, and Bye Bye Birdie at the Town Hall Arts Center, a professional theatre located in the Denver metro area. Instead of attending high school graduation parties, she performed the play Evita with other cast members at the former Country Dinner Playhouse. In 2006, The Denver Post named Benoist one of Colorado's five "Can't Miss Kids". She graduated from Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, in 2007, and then moved to New York City to pursue a career in musical theatre. She initially attended Marymount Manhattan College for the BFA musical theatre program but in her sophomore year, she switched majors to theatre, due to her admiration for 19th-century Russian plays. She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts in 2011.While attending college, she played Millie Dilmount in an urban off-off-Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie and Rosalind in As You Like It at the Theresa Lang Theatre. Career

2008–2011: Early work
Benoist's first film was Tennessee in 2008 along with singer Mariah Carey. Afterwards, she made guest appearances on shows like Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Blue Bloods, Homeland, and The Good Wife, while attending college. She played Kelly in the 2011 Goodspeed Musicals theatrical production of The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown by Bree Lowdermilk and Kait Kerrigan at the Norma Terris Theatre. 2012–2014: Rise to prominence with Glee and film roles

In May 2012, she auditioned for the musical comedy-drama series Glee in New York at the Roundabout Theatre Company, singing a different song for each of her five auditions including: "Fidelity" by Regina Spektor, "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles, a Colbie Caillat song, and several musical theatre pieces. In July, she had two screen tests in California for series creator/writer, Ryan Murphy, the casting directors, and executive producers. She portrayed Marley Rose on the fourth and fifth seasons of Glee.Her first appearance as Marley Rose was in the first episode of season four, titled "The New Rachel". Because the creators had been looking for Marley for a long time, she started working the day she found out she got the job. Benoist's first performance was a duet of "New York State of Mind" with Lea Michele, during the first episode of season 4. The cover of the song reached twenty-four on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. She and Glee co-star Darren Criss appeared with Josh Duhamel in the opening of the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards. That same year, she was selected as an ambassador for Coca-Cola's new product, P10 300 mL Coke Mismo. In June 2013, they were flown to Manila, Philippines, to endorse the product by visiting various malls and meeting with fans.She, along with several other actors, was not called back for Glee in early 2014. In mid-2013, Benoist and Blake Jenner held a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the production of their feature film Billy Boy. The project reached its $100,000 goal. Benoist played Nicole in  Damien Chazelle's 2014 independent drama film Whiplash, which won top prizes (Grand Jury and Audience awards) at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. In June 2014, she joined Nicholas Sparks' film adaption The Longest Ride as Marcia. She had a role in the 2015 film Danny Collins. She played the part of Jamie, a desk clerk at a hotel frequented by one of Jamie's all-time favorite rock stars.That same year, Benoist also played Becky Thatcher in Band of Robbers, a modern-day retelling of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In May 2015, it was announced that Benoist would be playing Lorelai in the film Low Riders, replacing Lily Collins and Nicola Peltz, who were in talks for the role previously. In August of that year, she landed the leading role in the Screen Gems drama feature film Oxford. 2015–present: Supergirl and Broadway debut
In October 2015, the superhero adventure series Supergirl, with Benoist in the lead role of Kara Zor-El, premiered on CBS. She became the first woman to lead a prime time superhero TV series since Wonder Woman went off the air in 1979 and Lindsay Wagner’s The Bionic Woman in 1978. The premiere was watched by 12.96million viewers and received a full season order by CBS on November 30, 2015. She was reportedly the first actress looked at for the role.Benoist generally received positive reviews for her portrayal of Kara Zor-El.The series later moved to The CW before its second-season premiere. She reprised her role in The CW's Arrowverse crossovers "Invasion! ", "Crisis on Earth-X", "Elseworlds", and "Crisis on Infinite Earths" as well as The Flash musical episode "Duet". She reprised her role as Earth-X's Supergirl doppelgänger Overgirl in the CW Seed animated series Freedom Fighters: The Ray. The actress made her directorial debut for one episode during season five. For her portrayal of Supergirl, she received the Breakthrough Performance Award at The 42nd Saturn Awards and two Best Actress on a Television Series Award at the 44th and 45th Saturn Awards respectively. The series concluded on November 9, 2021, after six seasons and 126 episodes.In May 2016, Benoist was cast as Katherine Russell, the widow of deceased Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in Peter Berg's drama film Patriots Day. In June, it was announced that she was set to star in the comedy-drama film Sun Dogs. Also in that month, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting; in the video, Benoist and others told the stories of the people killed there. In April 2017, Benoist was cast as Rachel Koresh, the legal wife of Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh in Paramount Network's miniseries Waco. Benoist was featured in "The Super Duper Minecraft Musical!" which was made for Minecraft's Super Duper Graphics Pack in November. On May 7, 2018, it was announced that Benoist would be playing the titular character in the Broadway show Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, which marked her Broadway debut for a limited run from June 7 through August 4, 2018.Benoist stated that the run felt like “coming home” to her theater roots and a “manifestation of a lot of her childhood dreams,” as theater was her first passion. In February 2021, she started a production company, Three Things Productions, with an overall deal at Warner Bros. On October 26, 2021, she published her first book, Haven’s Secret, the first installment of The Powers series from Abrams Kids. The series is a middle grade fantasy and was co-written by Benoist with her sister Jessica Benoist and author Mariko Tamaki. Personal life
During her first semester in college, when she was learning to ride a bike, a cab backed into her and left a visible scar above her eyebrows. She also has a tattoo of a bicycle on her left foot. In 2015, it was announced that she and her Glee co-star Blake Jenner were married. Benoist commented that they had been married "longer than anybody knows", with some sources claiming that the couple actually wed the same year of their engagement in 2013.In late December 2016, she filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences". The divorce was finalized in December 2017. Also in 2015, Benoist suffered an injury that tore her iris. The incident caused one pupil to be enlarged. In November 2019, Benoist shared an Instagram video chronicling her experience as a survivor of domestic violence in order to raise awareness. She revealed that the injury to her iris was due to an iPhone being thrown at her during a domestic dispute, in a relationship marked by repeated abuse. Jenner and Benoist were married at the time.Previously, the injury had been said to have been caused when she tripped down stairs and fell into a potted plant. Benoist also stated in her video that she had experienced extreme control, manipulation, and cycles of severe violence including being slapped, punched, shoved into a wall, dragged by her hair, and choked during the relationship. In October 2020, Jenner wrote a lengthy Instagram post in which he admitted to causing the eye injury and confirmed the infliction of abuse throughout the relationship. He also stated that she had physically assaulted him at other times, resulting in injury. Benoist previously stated in her original video that she began fighting back in defense against Jenner's attacks during the relationship. Despite the implications of Jenner's post, as of February 2022, no proof or backing has been given that Benoist was an aggressor in the tumultuous relationship. In 2016, Benoist met Chris Wood when he was cast as Mon-El in season 2 of Supergirl and their romantic relationship was confirmed in 2017.On the relationship she recalls, “we met each other at the perfect time in our lives.” In October 2017, Benoist helped with Wood's launch of his campaign "IDONTMIND" which works to decrease stigma around mental health and provide resources and education. She discussed her own struggle with depression and anxiety attacks since she was 13 years old. She said that Wood's words encouraged her to share her own issues with depression with others. <mask> and Wood announced their engagement on February 10, 2019, and married in September 2019. On March 4, 2020, the couple announced on Instagram that they were expecting their first child. They announced the birth of their son on September 25, 2020. Filmography

Film

Television

Web

Theatre

Soundtrack performances

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

1988 births
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women singers
Actresses from Colorado
Actresses from Houston
American child actresses
American expatriates in Canada
American film actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
Living people
Marymount Manhattan College alumni
People from Littleton, Colorado
21st-century American singers
American people of French descent

masks:
Melissa Marie Benoist
Jim Benoist
Benoist


texts:
<mask> (February 12, 1907 – February 17, 1962) was an American actor, who is best remembered for his role as George Wilson ("Mr. Wilson") on the CBS television series Dennis the Menace from 1959 until his death in 1962, and for providing the voice of the Doorknob in the 1951 animated Disney film, Alice in Wonderland. Early life
<mask> was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the only child of <mask>, a wool buyer, and Cordelia Marie Peterson, a concert pianist, from whom he derived his love of music. Kearns was 19 years old when his father died, at which time he and his mother moved to California. He and his family were devout Mormons, whose ancestors were Mormon pioneers. His first acting experience was in 1916 when he joined "The Rising Generation", a vaudeville troupe of eleven children that toured for 14 months. He studied at the University of Utah, teaching a course in theatrical make-up to fund his tuition. After graduating from college, he briefly tried his hand at wool buying and worked for his father for a year.<mask> traveled the West as a representative of Howell, Jones and Donnell of Boston. His wool-buying career came to an abrupt end when Kearns purchased five boxcars full of black wool from a breed called Karakul for $8,000. The problem was that black wool could not be dyed and no one knew how to use it in those days. After this fiasco, Kearns gladly gave up the wool business and pursued a show business career. Career

Radio
Kearns joined the staff of radio station KSL in Salt Lake City in 1930 remaining there until 1936 when he moved to Los Angeles. He began his acting career in radio in the 1930s (playing the Crazyquilt Dragon in the serial The Cinnamon Bear), becoming active during the 1940s, with appearances on the shows The Adventures of Sam Spade, Burns and Allen, The Whistler, and dozens of other shows. On Suspense, he was almost a mainstay, heard regularly as the host "The Man in Black" in the early years, announcing many episodes in the later run, and playing supporting and occasional lead roles in hundreds of shows throughout the series' tenure in Hollywood, from judges to kindly old-timers to cowards.He also appeared on The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, playing various different characters including Professor Moriarty and even Dr. Watson. <mask> played Ed, the security guard for Jack Benny's underground money vault, on The Jack Benny Program. The running gag was that Benny had kept Ed on duty at the vault's door so long that the guard was not conversant with current events. When Benny informed him that "The War" (World War II) had ended, Ed asked whether the "North" or the "South" had won, assuming that the American Civil War was the war to which Benny had referred. He played numerous parts on the Benny show, including an IRS Agent ("NO ONE yells at a tax collector, Mr. Benny!"). He appeared in regular roles on The Mel Blanc Show (as the cantankerous father of Mel's on-air girl friend, Betty, played by Mary Jane Croft) and The Harold Peary Show as Old Doc Yak-Yak.He also played numerous comedic parts on Judy Canova's radio show, including her "dumb boyfriend", Lukey. Film career
<mask> made his film debut in Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951). He was the voice of the Doorknob in Disney's animated film, Alice in Wonderland (1951). <mask> appeared in other movies, making his final film appearance as the crime photographer in Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Television

On television, <mask> reprised his radio roles on The Jack Benny Program and also appeared with Eve Arden and Richard Crenna in Our Miss Brooks (1953–55), first as Assistant Superintendent Michaels and later (in eight episodes) as Superintendent Stone, a role that he had played on radio. He appeared on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show a total of 11 times, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet a total of 16 times, I Love Lucy, My Little Margie, Perry Mason, I Married Joan, Willy, December Bride, It's a Great Life, Angel, Gunsmoke, and General Electric Theater. In 1959, he appeared as criminologist Edward Langley in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Perjured Parrot".Dennis the Menace
<mask>' final role was as George Wilson, the grouchy, cantankerous neighbor on CBS's Dennis the Menace based on the comic strip by Hank Ketcham. After his death, <mask> was replaced in the cast by Gale Gordon, who played George Wilson's brother John. <mask> and Gordon had worked together prior to Dennis the Menace, on the old radio show The Cinnamon Bear and in the 1956 film Our Miss Brooks. In the last episode that aired before <mask>' death, episode 89 entitled "Where There's a Will", the story dealt with Mr. Wilson making out a will and explaining that Dennis would inherit his gold watch when he dies. The last episode Kearns filmed was titled "The Man Next Door", episode 100, and shown on May 6, 1962, three months after his death. There were references to George being 'back east' in subsequent shows. Personal life
Kearns never married nor had any children.Describing himself as a night owl who hated to get up early in the morning, <mask> enjoyed cooking, reading novels, writing, traveling, going to the movies, and playing cards in his spare time. He was a member of the exclusive Société des Gentilhommes Chefs de Cuisine, a club for gentlemen chefs. The members traded original recipes with other club members. <mask> also wrote plays and scripts for his various radio shows. His favorite hobby was playing the organ. <mask>, who was musically trained by his mother, had played the pipe organ for a Los Angeles theatre in the 1930s. He purchased a Hammond organ and installed it in a studio apartment that he designed and built in the 1940s.He later purchased a larger 18-rank Wurlitzer organ that had been designed for Warner Brothers in 1929. He then designed and built a soundproof -story home around the organ. <mask> delighted in playing the organ for his guests. A Republican, he supported Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election. Death
<mask> suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on February 11, 1962, during the third season of Dennis the Menace, after being on the Metrecal diet for six weeks, forcing him to retire from his role. <mask> was hospitalized, but never regained consciousness and died on February 17, 1962, five days after his 55th birthday. He was buried at the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.Selected filmography
The Hucksters (1947) – Radio Voice (uncredited)
Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951) – J.R. Carpenter
Alice in Wonderland (1951) – Doorknob (voice)
Daddy Long Legs (1955) – Guide (uncredited)
Our Miss Brooks (1956) – Mr. Stone
Storm Center (1956) – Mr. Morrisey
The Girl Most Likely (1958) – Mr. Schlom, Bank Manager (uncredited)
The Gift of Love (1958) – Mr. Rynicker
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) – Lloyd Burke
How to Marry a Millionaire (1957–1959, TV series) –  Mr. Augustus P. Tobey

References

External links

External video links

1907 births
1962 deaths
Male actors from California
American male film actors
American male radio actors
American male voice actors
Male actors from Salt Lake City
University of Utah alumni
20th-century American male actors
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Latter Day Saints from Utah
Latter Day Saints from California
California Republicans
Utah Republicans

masks:
Joseph Sherrard Kearns
Joseph Sherrard Kearns
Joseph Albert Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns
Kearns