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<mask> (born 17 August 1955) is a historian, university professor, and author, focusing on the art, literature, and religious culture of Italy from the late Medieval period to the Baroque. His principal publications have been on fifteenth-century preacher Bernardino of Siena and Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, with other notable contributions to the study of the artist Caravaggio and the bubonic plague. Early life and education
<mask> was born and raised in New York City, in Manhattan's Lower East Side, of Italian immigrant parents. His undergraduate education was at Columbia University, where he was a John Jay National Scholar, receiving his B.A. (1977) summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. At Columbia, he also received the Bigongiari Award for Excellence in Italian Studies. From Columbia, he went on to Harvard University, where he received both his M.A.(1979) and Ph.D. (1983) in Italian literature, with a dissertation on The Vernacular Sermons of Bernardino of Siena, OFM (1380-1444): A Literary Analysis. While at Harvard, he received the "Travel-Study Prize for Excellence in Teaching," from the Department of Romance Languages (May 1980) and the "Certificate of Distinction in Teaching" from the University Committee on Undergraduate Education" (December 1983). After graduating from Harvard, Mormando entered the Jesuit Order, where he furthered his education in the form of a two-year, non-degree study of philosophy (Biennio di Filosofia) at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, and a five-year program at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, California, receiving a Master's of Divinity (1992) and the S.T.L. (or Licentiate of Sacred Theology, a pontifical degree) in Church History (1994). Mormando was ordained a priest in the Jesuit order but left the Society and the priesthood in 2002. After his studies in Berkeley, Mormando obtained (July 1994) a full-time tenure-track position in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Boston College, where he has been since, now at the rank of full professor, and where he also serves as the department's chairperson. He also holds an affiliate position in the university's History Department.A popular lecturer on Italian art to general audiences, Mormando has made presentations at the Metropolitan Museum and Frick Museum of New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Galleria Borghese, Rome; the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; the Phoenix Art Museum; the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (San Francisco); the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C.; and Harvard and Yale Universities. On October 12, 2005, he was awarded the title of  Cavaliere (Knight) in the honorary Order of the Star of Italy, conferred by the President of Italy in recognition of achievement in the promotion of Italian language and culture. Scholarly life and work

Bernardino of Siena
Mormando's first scholarly publication was published in 1999 by the University of Chicago Press: The Preacher's Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy, an extensive study of the preaching campaigns of the popular Franciscan preacher Bernardino, "the voice most eagerly listened to" and "perhaps the most influential religious force" in Italy during his lifetime. A study of the preacher's vociferous and at time violent campaigns against witches, sodomites, and Jews, all seen as dangerous enemies of Christian society, Mormando's book singlehandedly overturned the prevailing image of Bernardino as a benevolent, reassuring, pacific presence in late medieval/early Renaissance Italy, in contrast to the later preacher Girolamo Savonarola. Cornell University historian Richard Trexler noted in his review of Mormando's monograph: "As is clearly shown in this well-written, thoroughly documented study, few historical figures of fifteenth-century Italy have come up smelling like roses at the hands of historians quite like the Observant Franciscan, Bernardino of Siena. But in fact, Bernardino was a rhetorical assassin, encouraging his listeners to denounce, and even to kill those who did not meet with his approval." The Preacher's Demons went on to win the prestigious Howard R. Marraro Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in Italian History, conferred (January 2001) by the American Catholic Historical Association.Caravaggio
In the same years that he was completing The Preacher's Demons, Mormando was busy organizing at Boston College's McMullen Museum of Art a major art exhibition of Italian Baroque art, conceived by him and entitled Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image] Opening in February 1999, Saints and Sinners had at its centerpiece the long-lost painting by Baroque artist, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ (Rome, 1602), discovered in a Jesuit residence in Dublin, Ireland, and subsequently given on indefinite loan to the National Gallery of Ireland. <mask>'s exhibition represented the first appearance of the newly-discovered painting in North America and, as such, garnered much attention from the world press and was visited by many thousands of people in its four-month run. In addition to introducing the North American public to the painting, the aim of Saints and Sinners was to place Caravaggio within the context of early modern conventions and the traditions of religious art; in other words, while acknowledging his at times unconventional manner and maverick ways, it stressed his direct connection to the familiar tradition of religious art. Edited by Mormando, the exhibition catalog featured original scholarship by leading experts in Baroque art and culture, including one by Sergio Benedetti (the Dublin conservator who rediscovered and restored the painting) and two essays by Mormando, "Teaching the Faithful to Fly: Mary Magdalene and Peter in Baroque Italy" and "Just as your lips approach the lips of your brothers: Judas Iscariot and the Kiss of Betrayal." Both essays represent surveys and analyses of extensive primary sources to discover what Caravaggio's original audience would have been taught about these three figures of New Testament history that are featured prominently in his art. The bubonic plague
Several years later, Mormando conceived and organized, with some of the same colleagues who put together the Saints and Sinners exhibition, another art exhibition of early modern Italian painting entitled [https://www.worcesterart.org/exhibitions/past/hope-and-healing/ Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500-1800 (Worcester Art Museum, April–September 2005). The exhibition aimed to illustrate the hitherto-unrecognized deep and wide presence of the bubonic plague in Old Master Italian painting, as well as the civic role of art in a time of the pandemic.The exhibition's catalog features essays by some of the leading scholars of the history of bubonic plague in Europe, including a long introduction by Mormando based on an extensive survey of primary sources, "Response to the Plague in Early Modern Italy: What the Primary Sources, Printed and Painted, Reveal." The exhibition was followed by a later companion volume, co-edited by <mask>, Piety and Plague: From Byzantium and the Baroque (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2007), which extended the chronological and thematic breadth of the exhibition. <mask>'s contribution to the volume was a seventy-five-page essay, "Pestilence, Apostasy, and Heresy in Seventeenth-Century Rome: Deciphering Michael Sweerts' Plague in an Ancient City," in which he offers for the first time in the scholarship on that Flemish painter an answer to the long-standing question: What is the real subject of Sweerts's mysterious painting? Gian Lorenzo Bernini
In the most recent phase of his evolving scholarly interests and publication, <mask> has turned his attention to the leading artist of Roman Baroque art and one of the most important influences on all of early modern European sculpture and architecture, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). His first work on Bernini was the first unabridged English translation and critical edition of one of the early biographical sources for the life of the artist, written by his youngest son: Domenico Bernini's Life of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011). Containing close to two hundred pages of source notes and a bibliography of over 600 titles, <mask>'s Domenico Bernini edition, as the publisher's dustjacket explains, "is, in effect, a one-volume encyclopedia on the artist's life and work. As such, it stands alone within the immense bibliography of Bernini scholarship."Months after the publication of the Domenico Bernini volume, <mask> produced his own biography of Gian Lorenzo, Bernini: His Life and His Rome. As English art historian Claire Ford-Wille emphasizes in her review of the work, "Bernini: His Life and His Rome is a biography for the general reader […]. Nonetheless, the biography is underpinned by <mask>’s immense and serious research and is packed with information […]." Drawing on many years of research in compiling his annotated Domenico Bernini volume, this subsequent work "can claim to be the first biography of Bernini to appear in the English and one of the very few to appear in any language since the artist's death in 1680;" it is also the first to make "the pursuit of 'Bernini himself,' the uncensored flesh-and-blood human being, one of its primary objectives." Departing in stark fashion from all of the previous, idealizing, hagiographic, uncritical portraits of Bernini of the preceding centuries, Bernini: His Life and His Rome has been criticized by a few readers for including so much unflattering, indeed, at times scandalous, information about Bernini and the people around him (including the popes and the cardinals who were his patrons), but, as the author himself points out in reply to these criticisms (in the online journal, Berfois of London, Oct. 11, 2012), all of the information in the book is documented in authentic primary sources. As <mask> further reports in the Berfois article, "[W]hen I first took up my Bernini biographical project [in 2000] and for a long time into it (it took eleven years to complete), I too simply accepted the conventional wisdom, the aforementioned clichés about Bernini, his religion and his art. Yet, the more I studied and uncovered the falsifications of Domenico’s biography, the more I discovered the skeletons in the life of Bernini, and the more I read of the darker side of his seventeenth-century contemporaries, be they pope, cardinals, or laymen, the more skeptical I became of the myth of Bernini and of his 'Roma Sancta.'Hence, the present call to a more critical approach to the study of Bernini and his art and of his ecclesiastical patrons." Describing the development of Bernini scholarship in modern times, author Loyd Grossman places <mask> in the same company as Rudolph Wittkower, John Pope-Hennessy and Irving Lavin, declaring: "Among today's scholars no one has done more to promote Bernini studies than [<mask><mask> as author of the only English language biography of Bernini and through his magnificent editing of Domenico Bernini's life of his father." Jesuit history
In addition to his book and articles on Franciscan topics, <mask> has also made Jesuit studies another one of his secondary specializations. In 2006, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Jesuit saint's death, <mask> organized an exhibition at the Burns Rare Book Library, Francis Xavier and the Jesuit Missions in the Far East, featuring the most important primary sources for the biography and canonization of 'the second Jesuit saint' (after Ignatius of Loyola), and contributing an article on "The Making of the Second Jesuit Saint: The Campaign for the Canonization of Francis Xavier, 1555-1622." <mask> also contributed to the planning of a 2018 art exhibition conceived and organized by Linda Wolk-Simon at the Fairfield University Art Museum devoted to Jesuit Baroque art, The Holy Name. Art of the Gesù: Bernini and His Age. His essay, "Gian Paolo Oliva: The Forgotten Celebrity of Baroque Rome," in the accompanying catalog (published by Saint Joseph University Press), presented the first major survey in English of the career of Jesuit Father General Oliva (1600-1681), a friend to and spiritual advisor to Gian Lorenzo Bernini.Most recently, Mormando has addressed the topic of "Ignatius the Franciscan: The Franciscan Roots of Jesuit Spirituality," overturning the received wisdom about the putative revolutionary, unique character of the spirituality and way of proceeding of the Jesuit order as founded by Ignatius of Loyola. References

Bibliography
All of Mormando's scholarly articles and book reviews are available for download from Academia.edu

External links
Mormando's personal website
Mormando's Author Profile on Amazon.com
Mormando's Boston College Faculty Profile
Mormando's profile on Academia.edu

1955 births
American essayists
American historians
American male essayists
American writers of Italian descent
Boston College faculty
Harvard University alumni
Living people

masks:
Franco Mormando
Mormando
Mormando
Mormando
Mormando
Mormando
Mormando
Mormando
Mormando
Mormando
Mormando
Franco
] Mormando
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<mask> (born 1939) is an American novelist and poet. He is known for his novel Darconville's Cat (1981), which was selected by Anthony Burgess for his Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 – A Personal Choice in 1984 and by Larry McCaffery for 20th Century’s Greatest Hits. He was awarded the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction in 1991 and the Clifton Fadiman Medal for Fiction in 2002 by the Mercantile Library in New York City. He is the brother of novelist Paul Theroux and writer Peter Theroux as well as the uncle of documentarian <mask>, novelist Marcel Theroux, and actor Justin Theroux. Life and career

Early life
Theroux was born in Medford, Massachusetts, the first son of Catholic parents; his mother, Anne (born Dittami), was Italian American, and his father, Albert Eugene Theroux, was French Canadian. His mother was a grammar school teacher and his father was a salesman for the American Leather Oak company. Theroux graduated from Medford High School; he attended Boys State in Amherst, Massachusetts, was class president in 1956, and was a starting member of the Medford High School basketball team.He entered the Trappist Monastery at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts in 1958, and then the Franciscan Seminary at Callicoon, New York in 1960. He earned his bachelor of arts at St. Francis College in 1964. He earned a masters of arts in English literature in 1965, and his doctorate in English literature, 1968 at the University of Virginia, where he won the Schubert Playwrighting Fellowship in 1967. He belonged to both the Raven Society and the Society of the Purple Shadows. He spent a year on a Fulbright Grant in London in 1969. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974. He taught at the University of Virginia in 1968 and at Harvard University as Brigg-Copeland Lecturer from 1973 to 1979.He was writer-in-residence at Phillips Academy in Andover from 1979 to 1982. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1982 to 1987 and at Yale University from 1987 to 1991. He has also lived in England, Estonia, and France. Literary work
Three Wogs, his first novel, was written during a stay in London and was briefly considered by the actor Roy Dotrice for performance by BBC television. Darconville’s Cat, his second novel, was nominated for the National Book Award. He published the fable Master Snickup’s Cloak, which was illustrated by Brian Froud, in 1979. That followed two other fables, The Schinocephalic Waif and The Wragby Cars, with illustrations by Stan Washburn, in 1975.In 1987, he published An Adultery. Laura Warholic, his longest and most satirical novel, was published in 2007. His non-fiction books on color, The Primary Colors (1994) and The Secondary Colors (1996), were briefly on the best-seller lists in Los Angeles. As a writer, he is known for his encyclopedic, highly allusive style and learned wit. Critic Colin Marshall wrote “Defending of his prose, Theroux once likened it to 'a Victorian attic.' He delivers more inner life than outer, more desire for vengeance than for anything else, and more sheer stuff per page—stuff you don't expect—than in any other novels.”

Literary broadcaster Michael Silverblatt once questioned Theroux’s "perverse appreciation" at how inaccessible his books are thought to be.“Perhaps he sees his finely-wrought works of language and their lack of purchase on the culture as an apocalyptic indictment of that culture, of the intellectually (and especially verbally) careless society that could corrupt them. Were I him, I feel as if I’d want revenge: against lazy readers, against unengaged critics, against risk-averse publishers.But maybe, given what they’re all missing out on, he’s already taking it.”

Alex Kurtagić wrote on his blog in 2009:
“At my wedding, my cousin Pierre remarked upon the fact that when in my teens I used to enjoy reading dictionaries and collecting rare, antique, and obscure words (a criterion that defines my collecting in other areas as well). Several such dictionaries consisted purely of such words, and one of them helpfully illustrated their usage with quotes by modern authors. One of the authors most frequently mentioned was <mask>, who wrote Darconville's Cat (1981) and whose last novel, Laura Warholic, was published in 2007, following twenty years of silence. I presented my wife with a copy of the latter two days before our wedding, and, having only recently begun reading it, she has been sharing with me selected passages, where the author's contemptuous wit has iridesced with particular brilliance.”

Theroux’s work has been published in Esquire, The London Magazine, Antaeus, The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, Art & Antiques, Mississippi Review, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Chicago Tribune, and San Diego Reader. His poems have appeared in The Yale Review, The Paris Review, Poetry East, Conjunctions, Graham House Review, The San Diego Reader, Exquisite Corpse, Denver Quarterly, The Literary Quarterly, Urbanus Magazine, Boulevard, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Rain Taxi, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Image, Helicoptero, Seneca Review, The Recorder, The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society, 3rd Bed, Fence, Anomaly, Subdrive, Sahara Sahara, Nantucket Magazine, Gobshite Quarterly, Gargoyle Magazine, Italian-American, Bomb, Provincetown Arts, Green Mountains Review, and The Hopkins Review. Plagiarism controversy

In 1995, The New York Times reported that one of its readers had noted the similarity of six passages in Theroux's 1994 survey of The Primary Colors with a 1954 book Song of the Sky by Guy Murchie. Theroux attributed the matter to "stupidity and bad note taking," noting that he had read hundreds of books for The Primary Colors.Theroux's editor said that future editions would credit Murchie's work, or remove the passages. A few months later, Theroux published a lengthy defense in the San Diego Reader. Select awards
 Schubert Playwrighting Award (1967)
 Fulbright Grant (1969–1970)
 Guggenheim Grant (1974)
 National Book Award nominee (twice)
 Clifton Fadiman Medal from the Mercantile Library (2002)
 Lannan Foundation Grant (1991)

Selected works

Novels
Three Wogs (1972)
Darconville's Cat (1981)
An Adultery (1987)
Laura Warholic or, The Sexual Intellectual (2007)

Fables
The Schinocephalic Waif (1975)
The Great Wheadle Tragedy (1975)
Master Snickup's Cloak (1979)

Poetry
The Lollipop Trollops (1992)
Collected Poems (2015)

Short Fiction
Early Stories (2021)
Fables (2021)

Non-fiction
The Primary Colors (1994)
The Secondary Colors (1996)
The Enigma of Al Capp (1999)
The Strange Case of Edward Gorey (2000) (revised, updated edition 2011)
Estonia: A Ramble Through the Periphery (2011)
The Grammar of Rock: Art and Artlessness in 20th Century Pop Lyrics (2013)
Einstein's Beets: An Examination of Food Phobias (2017)

Critical studies
 Jo Allen Bradham, "The American Scholar: From Emerson to <mask>x's Darconville's Cat. Critique 24.4 (Summer 1983): 215-27. Larry McCaffery, "And Still They Smooch: Erotic Visions and Re-visions in Postmodern American Fiction." Revue Française d'Etudes Américaines 9.20 (May 1984): 275-87. Steven Moore, "<mask> Theroux's Darconville's Cat and the Tradition of Learned Wit."Contemporary Literature 27.2 (Summer 1986): 233–45. Michael Pinker, "Cupid and Vindice: The Novels of <mask>roux." Denver Quarterly 24.3 (Winter 1990): 101-24. "<mask>roux/Paul West Number", The Review of Contemporary Fiction 11.1 (Spring 1991): 7-139. Sam Endrigkeit. “‘Do Your Worst’: Maximalism and Intertextuality in <mask>’s Darconville’s Cat." Thesis, Universität Duisburg-Essen, 2015.Steven Moore. <mask>x: A Fan's Notes. Los Angeles: Zerogram Press, 2020. Greg Gerke, "An Adultery." In his See What I See. Los Angeles: Zerogram Press, 2021, 112-16. References

External links
 Short Biography

 Audio of Theroux reading from Laura Warholic
 Radio Interview with Michael Silverblatt, KCRW's Bookworm
 An interview with <mask>x on The Marketplace of Ideas
 Interview from the Review of Contemporary Fiction
 Archives at Harry Ransom Center
 Checklist of Theroux's Writings

20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American male novelists
Harvard University faculty
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American poets
21st-century American poets
American male poets
American male essayists
<mask>
21st-century essayists
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
Novelists from Massachusetts
20th-century American essayists
21st-century American non-fiction writers

masks:
Alexander Louis Theroux
Louis Theroux
Alexander Theroux
Alexander Therou
Alexander
Alexander The
Alexander The
Alexander Theroux
Alexander Therou
Alexander Therou
Alexander


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<mask>, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, <mask> was one of the fathers of cinematic neorealism, but later moved towards luxurious, sweeping epics dealing with themes of beauty, decadence, death and European history – especially the decay of the nobility and the bourgeoisie was repeated several times in his films. He was the recipient of many accolades, including the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, and many of his works are regarded as highly-influential to future generations of filmmakers. Born to a noble Milanese family, <mask> explored artistic proclivities from an early age, working as an assistant director to Jean Renoir. His 1943 directorial debut, Ossessione, was condemned by the Fascist regime for its unvarnished depictions of working-class characters resorting to criminality, but is today renowned as a pioneering work of Italian cinema. His best-known films include Senso (1954) and The Leopard (1963), both historical melodramas based on Italian literary classics, the gritty drama Rocco and His Brothers (1960), and his "German Trilogy" – The Damned (1969), Death in Venice (1971) and Ludwig (1972). He was also an accomplished stage director of plays and opera, both in Italy and abroad.Early life

<mask> <mask> was born into a prominent noble family in Milan, one of seven children of <mask> di Modrone, Duke of Grazzano Visconti and Count of Lonate Pozzolo, and his wife Carla (née Erba, heiress to Erba Pharmaceuticals). He was formally known as Count don <mask> <mask> di Modrone, and his family is a branch of the Visconti of Milan where they ruled from 1277 to 1447, initially as lords then as dukes. He grew up in the Milanese family seat, the Palazzo Visconti di Modrone in Via Cerva, as well as on the family estate, Grazzano Visconti Castle near Vigolzone. He was baptized and raised in the Roman Catholic church. After his parents separated in the early 1920s, his mother moved with her younger children, including him, to her own house in Milan, as well as to her summer residence, Villa Erba in Cernobbio on Lake Como. The father, as chamberlain of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, also owned a villa in Rome that <mask> later inherited and lived in for decades. In his early years, he was exposed to art, music and theatre: The Palazzo Visconti di Modrone in Milan, where he grew up, had its own small private theater and the children participated in its performances.The family also had their own box in the La Scala opera house. <mask> studied cello with the Italian cellist and composer Lorenzo de Paolis (1890–1965) and met the composer Giacomo Puccini, the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. <mask> found literature by reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time, later a lifelong film project that he never realized. Before he started his film career, he was passionate about training racehorses in his own stable. An engagement concluded in 1935 with Princess Irma of Windisch-Graetz raised concerns with her father, Prince Hugo, whereupon <mask> broke it off. Wartime resistance activity
During World War II, <mask> joined the Italian Communist Party, which he considered to be the only effective opponent of Italian Fascism. While in his early years, at least the aesthetic aspects of the solemn parades of the National Fascist Party, marching in columns in boots and uniform, had impressed him, he had now come to hate the Mussolini regime.He accused the bourgeoisie of treason to tyranny, and following the Badoglio Proclamation, began working with the Italian resistance. He supported the communists' partisan fight at risk of death; his villa in Rome became a meeting place for oppositional artists. After the king's flight in autumn 1943 and the intervention of the Germans, he went into hiding in the mountains, at Settefrati, under the nom de guerre Alfredo Guidi. <mask> helped English and American prisoners of war hide after they had escaped, and also gave shelter to partisans in his house in Rome, with the help of actress María Denis. After the German occupation of Rome in April 1944, <mask> was arrested and detained by the anti-partisan Pietro Koch and sentenced to execution by firing squad. He was only saved from death by Denis' last-minute intervention. After the war, <mask> testified against Koch, who was himself convicted and executed.Career

Films
He began his film-making career as an set dresser on Jean Renoir's Partie de campagne (1936) through the intercession of their common friend Coco Chanel. After a short tour of the United States, where he visited Hollywood, he returned to Italy to be Renoir's assistant again, this time for Tosca (1941), a production that was interrupted and later completed by German director Karl Koch. Together with Roberto Rossellini, <mask> joined the salotto of Vittorio Mussolini (the son of Benito, who was then the national arbitrator for cinema and other arts). Here he presumably also met Federico Fellini. With Gianni Puccini, Antonio Pietrangeli and Giuseppe De Santis, he wrote the screenplay for his first film as director: Ossessione (Obsession, 1943), one of the first neorealist movies and an unofficial adaptation of the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. In 1948, he wrote and directed La terra trema (The Earth Trembles), based on the novel I Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga. <mask> continued working throughout the 1950s, but he veered away from the neorealist path with his 1954 film, Senso, shot in colour.Based on the novella by Camillo Boito, it is set in Austrian-occupied Venice in 1866. In this film, <mask> combines realism and romanticism as a way to break away from neorealism. However, as one biographer notes, "Visconti without neorealism is like Lang without expressionism and Eisenstein without formalism". He describes the film as the "most Viscontian" of all <mask>'s films. <mask> returned to neorealism once more with Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960), the story of Southern Italians who migrate to Milan hoping to find financial stability. In 1961, he was a member of the jury at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival. Throughout the 1960s, <mask>'s films became more personal.Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963) is based on Lampedusa's novel of the same name about the decline of the Sicilian aristocracy at the time of the Risorgimento, where the change of times becomes visible in two of the main characters: Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina (Burt Lancaster) appears patriarchal but humane, while Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa), a shrewd entrepreneur and social climber from the village, appears submissive, but foxy and brutal at the same time, a mafia-like type of the future. The tension arises from the marriage of their relatives of the next generation, combined with the fall of the old Bourbon rule and the rise of a united Italy. This film was distributed in America and Britain by Twentieth-Century Fox, which deleted important scenes. <mask> repudiated the Twentieth-Century Fox version. It was not until The Damned (1969) that <mask> received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film, one of <mask>'s better-known works, concerns a German industrialist's family which begins to disintegrate during the Nazi consolidation of power in the 1930s. The film opened to widespread critical acclaim, but also faced controversy from ratings boards for its sexual content, including depictions of homosexuality, pedophilia, rape, and incest.In the United States, the film was given an X rating. The avant-garde filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder praised it as his favorite movie. Its decadence and lavish beauty are characteristic of <mask>'s aesthetic − very visible also in the movie Death in Venice (1971) that processed the daring novella Death in Venice published in 1912 by Thomas Mann. <mask>'s final film was The Innocent (1976), in which he returns to his recurring interest in infidelity and betrayal. Theatre

<mask> was also a celebrated theatre and opera director. During the years 1946 to 1960 he directed many performances of the Rina Morelli-Paolo Stoppa Company with actor Vittorio Gassman as well as many celebrated productions of operas. <mask>'s love of opera is evident in the 1954 Senso, where the beginning of the film shows scenes from the fourth act of Il trovatore, which were filmed at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.Beginning when he directed a production at Milan's Teatro alla Scala of La vestale in December 1954, his career included a famous revival of La traviata at La Scala in 1955 with Maria Callas and an equally famous Anna Bolena (also at La Scala) in 1957 with Callas. A significant 1958 Royal Opera House (London) production of Verdi's five-act Italian version of Don Carlos (with Jon Vickers) followed, along with a Macbeth in Spoleto in 1958 and a famous black-and-white Il trovatore with scenery and costumes by Filippo Sanjust at the Royal Opera House in 1964. In 1966 <mask>'s luscious Falstaff for the Vienna State Opera conducted by Leonard Bernstein was critically acclaimed. On the other hand, his austere 1969 Simon Boccanegra with the singers clothed in geometrical costumes provoked controversy. Filmmaking style and themes
In the aftermath of World War II he became one of the founding fathers of the Italian neorealistic film movement that focused on challenging economic and conditions, and how it affected the psyche of the underclass. <mask> himself came from nobility, highly educated and never in financial lack. His films thusly reflected that tension.In fact <mask> said he felt he came from a world long ago, that of the previous (19th) century. In the film The Leopard, he addressed the decline of an old social order and the rise of “modern times”. He did not see his opulent flashbacks as an escape into imaginary, lost worlds, but saw them as the deciphering of signs. He wanted to put his finger on the signs of profound historical changes that will only become visible later. He searched world literature for relevant works to show the discrepancies between generations and their world views, as a task of realism in art. When he was accused of decadence, he recalled Thomas Mann and his way of creating art. Personal life
In later years, <mask> made no secret of his homosexuality, though he remained a devout Catholic throughout his life."I am a Catholic," he commented in 1971. "I was born a Catholic, I was baptized a Catholic. I cannot change what I am, I cannot easily become a Protestant. My ideas may be unorthodox, but I am still a Catholic." While his first 3-years-relationship from 1936, with the photographer
Horst P. Horst, remained discreet because of the circumstances of the time, he later showed up openly in the company of his lovers, among them the director and producer Franco Zeffirelli and the actor Udo Kier. His last lover was the Austrian actor Helmut Berger, who played Martin in <mask>'s film The Damned. Berger also appeared in <mask>'s Ludwig in 1973 and Conversation Piece in 1974, along with Burt Lancaster.Zeffirelli also worked as part of the crew in production design, as assistant director, and other roles in a number of <mask>'s films, operas, and theatrical productions. According to <mask>'s autobiography, he and Umberto II of Italy had a romantic relationship during their youth in the 1920s. <mask> was hostile to the Protests of 1968 and didn't even try to follow the movement and adopt the airs of a youth, like Alberto Moravia or Pier Paolo Pasolini did. In his view the protesters sought change for the sake of destruction without building something new. Disgusted, he looked at the young people in their enthusiasm, outbursts of anger, parties and tumults, their abstract speeches, their confused juggling with Mao, Marx and Che Guevara. They saw him as a symbol of reaction, a member of the mandarin caste. The emerging radical-left terrorism in Italy frightened him and made him fear the rise of a new fascism.Health issues and death

<mask> smoked 120 cigarettes a day. He suffered a heavy stroke in 1972, but continued to smoke heavily. He died in Rome of another stroke at the age of sixty-nine on 17 March 1976. There is a museum dedicated to the director's work in Ischia where he had his summer residence La Colombaia. Work

Filmography

Feature films

Other films
 , documentary, 1945
 Appunti su un fatto di cronaca, short film, 1951
 Siamo donne (We, the Women), 1953, episode Anna Magnani
 Boccaccio '70, 1962, based on the episode Il lavoro in Boccaccio's Decameron
 Le streghe (The Witches), 1967, episode La strega bruciata viva
 , TV movie, 1970

Opera

References
Notes

Sources
 Ardoin, John, The Callas Legacy, London: Duckworth, 1977
 Bacon, Henry, Visconti: Explorations of Beauty and Decay, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998
 Düttmann, Alexander García, Visconti: Insights into Flesh and Blood, translated by Robert Savage, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009
 Glasenapp, Jörg (ed. ): <mask> <mask> (= Film-Konzepte, vol. 48).Munich: edition text + kritik 2017. Iannello, Silvia, Le immagini e le parole dei Malavoglia Roma: Sovera, 2008 (in Italian)
 Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey, <mask> <mask>. London: British Film Institute, 2003. Visconti bibliography, University of California Library, Berkeley. Retrieved 7 November 2011. Schifano, Laurence: <mask> <mask> (biography, in French), Paris 1987 (German translation: <mask> <mask>, Fürst des Films, Gernsbach 1988)
 Viscontiana: <mask> Visconti e il melodramma verdiano, Milan: Edizioni Gabriele Mazzotta, 2001. A catalog for an exhibition in Parma of artifacts relating to Visconti's productions of operas by Verdi, curated by Caterina d'Amico de Carvalho, in Italian.External links

Biography, Filmography and More on <mask> <mask>
British Film Institute: "<mask> <mask>": filmography
Hutchison, Alexander, "<mask> <mask>'s Death in Venice", Literature/Film Quarterly, v. 2, 1974. (In-Depth Analysis of Death in Venice). 1906 births
1976 deaths
Bisexual men
Bisexual artists
Directors of Palme d'Or winners
Directors of Golden Lion winners
Giallo film directors
Luchino 2
Italian nobility
Italian film directors
Italian communists
Italian Marxists
Italian Roman Catholics
Italian opera directors
LGBT Roman Catholics
LGBT theatre directors
LGBT writers from Italy
David di Donatello winners
Nastro d'Argento winners
Deaths from cerebrovascular disease
Theatre people from Milan
LGBT film directors

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<mask> (born 3 May 1986) is an English professional snooker player. In October 2018, <mask> won his first ranking title at the 2018 European Masters, defeating Joe Perry 9–6 in the final, despite never previously having gone beyond the quarter-finals of a ranking event. <mask> also holds the record for the most points scored in a frame in professional competition, scoring 178 against Lee Walker at the 2021 Scottish Open. Career

2002–2011
He was on the main tour for 2002–03 where he was the youngest player on the tour. He qualified for the main tour again in 2007–08, by becoming the number One Ranked English Amateur, through winning the EASB (English Governing Body) pro-Ticket Tour Rankings. <mask> also won the EASB Pro-Ticket tour for a second time in April 2009, to finish as England's Number one Amateur for the second time, which guaranteed him a place on the World Snookers main Professional tour for the third time for the 2009/10 season. He also added the English Amateur Championships to his portfolio of victories, by beating David Craggs 9–8.His third return to the professional main tour ranks in 2009/10, saw him rise up the ranks, to number 63 in the world. He got off to a terrific start in the first event, the Shanghai Masters, where he won his first three qualifiers, and then faced former world champion Graeme Dott. Despite taking a 4–1 lead, <mask> lost 4–5. In the 2010/11, <mask> continued to rise up the rankings. He also qualified for the main draw of a ranking event for the first time, at the 2011 World Snooker Championship. He defeated Xiao Guodong, Tony Drago, and former world champion Ken Doherty to qualify for his Crucible debut. He won the first frame of his first round match against Mark Selby only to lose the match 10–1.2011–12 season
<mask> qualified for one ranking event in the 2011–12 season, the World Open, thanks to wins over Andrew Norman, Ken Doherty and Rory McLeod, before seeing off amateur Zhou Yuelong in the wildcard round at the event in Haikou, China. In the first round of the event proper he played Mark Allen and was beaten 1–5, with the Northern Irishman later going on to win the tournament. <mask> reached the semi-finals of Event 7 of the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship series, where he lost 0–4 to Matthew Stevens. He played in 11 out of 12 of these events, also picking up a last 16 finish in Event 4 to be placed 31st on the PTC Order of Merit, just outside the top 24 who made the Finals. <mask> finished the season ranked world number 55, inside the top 64 who automatically retained their places for the 2012–13 season. 2012–13 season
<mask> qualified for two ranking events during the 2012/2013 season. The first of these was the Shanghai Masters by beating Tian Pengfei, Jack Lisowski and Anthony Hamilton, but he was defeated 4–5 by Jin Long in the wildcard round in Shanghai.His second appearance at a ranking event was at the China Open by seeing off Robbie Williams and Joe Perry in qualifying and this time came through the wildcard round with a 5–1 defeat of Wang Yuchen, compiling his highest competitive break of 142 in the process He faced <mask> in the last 32 and was whitewashed 0–5. <mask> had a consistent season in the ten Players Tour Championship events, with his best result being a last 16 loss to Andrew Higginson in the Scottish Open, to finish 45th on the PTC Order of Merit. <mask>'s season ended when he was beaten 3–10 by Liang Wenbo in the third round of World Championship Qualifying, to be placed world number 52 in the rankings. 2013–14 season
He began the 2013–14 season by qualifying for the Wuxi Classic and whitewashed Graeme Dott 5–0 in the first round, before losing 5–4 to Scott Donaldson in the last 32. <mask> lost in the last 64 of four other ranking events during the season. He had a very good season in the European Tour events as he reached the quarter-finals of the Bulgarian Open where he was beaten 4–2 by <mask>. <mask> had a very eventful tournament at the Bluebell Wood Open as Stuart Bingham made a 72 break in the deciding frame of their second round match, before <mask> cleared the table with a 73 break to win.In the last 16 he came back from 3–0 against Vinnie Calabrese to triumph 4–3 and reach another quarter-final, where Ding Junhui defeated him 4–1. <mask> finished 20th on the Order of Merit which saw him qualify for the Finals for the first time in his career, but he lost 4–2 to John Higgins in the opening round. 2014–15 season
<mask> played at the venue stage of eight ranking tournaments this year, the most he has reached in any one season. However, he was unable to win past the last 32 in any of them. He had another good season in the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship events, losing in the semi-finals of the Asian Tour's Haining City Open 4–3 to Oliver Lines which saw him finish eighth on the Order of Merit. His other semi-final came on the European Tour at the Gdynia Open where he was whitewashed 4–0 by Mark Williams. <mask> was ranked 15th on their Order of Merit.He qualified for his second World Championship by edging Xiao Guodong 10–9 on the final pink. <mask> made a 106 break to level his first round tie with Marco Fu at 5–5, but would go on to lose 10–6. His ranking of 41st in the world was the highest <mask> had finished a season at that point in his career. 2015–16 season
At the Haining Open, <mask> reached the semi-finals by knocking out Xiao Guodong and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh from the fourth round stage, but he lost 4–2 to Ding Junhui. He reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time in his career by beating Darryl Hill 6–2 and Barry Hawkins 6–4 at the International Championship and then lost 6–3 to Marco Fu. <mask> saw off Michael Wild 4–3 and Michael Holt 4–1 in reaching the third round of the Welsh Open, where he was thrashed 4–0 by Ronnie O'Sullivan. He lost 5–1 to Judd Trump in the second round of the China Open and 10–2 to Alan McManus in the last round of World Championship qualifying.<mask>'s end of season ranking of 34 is the highest he has ever finished a year in his career. 2016–17 season
<mask> reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the second time by beating Dechawat Poomjaeng 4–0 and Martin O'Donnell 4–3 at the Riga Masters and was defeated 4–1 by John Astley. He also recorded the event's high break of 138. <mask> was thrashed 5–0 by Shaun Murphy in the second round of the World Open after he had eliminated Wang Yuchen 5–1 in the opener. He won through to the third round of both the UK Championship and Welsh Open, but failed to pick up a frame in losses to Oliver Lines and Scott Donaldson respectively. <mask> defeated Cao Yupeng 10–8, Oliver Lines 10–4 and Rod Lawler 10–6 to qualify for the World Championship and played Mark Allen in the opening round. In a close match he was edged out 10–8.2017–18 season
With his partner Hayley due to give birth to their second child, <mask> withdrew from the 2017 Riga Masters. He also spoke about how he had been frustrated with his performances in big matches and had been working with a sports psychologist during the World Championship to help him prepare for the season ahead. His best performance in the first half of the season was reaching the last 16 of the 2017 World Open, where he lost 5–1 to Mark Williams. However he did reach the quarter-finals of a ranking event for the first time at the 2018 German Masters. After qualifying victories over Rhys Clark and Peter Lines, he defeated defending champion Anthony Hamilton 5–1 in the last 32 and Gary Wilson 5-3 in the last 16 before losing out to Williams 5–3. After losing in the opening round of the next five ranking events, he once again came through qualifying for the World Championship, defeating Alex Borg 10–2, Sam Baird 10–7 and Michael White 10–7. Making his fourth Crucible appearance, it was eventual tournament winner Williams who defeated him with a 10–5 victory in the first round.2018–19 season: first ranking title

<mask> had an up and down start to the 2018–19 snooker season, failing to qualify for the Riga Masters, World Open and China Championship, but reached the last 16 at the Paul Hunter Classic where he lost 4–0 to Jack Lisowski. At the European Masters, <mask> unexpectedly won the tournament and his first ranking title. After defeating Andy Lee 4–3 in qualifying, at the main stages of the tournament in Lommel, Belgium, his first three matches were also won in a deciding frame (4–3 victories against Zhang Yong, Zhou Yuelong and Anthony McGill respectively). He defeated Mark Allen 4–2 in the quarter-finals and Mark King 6–4 in the semi-finals to set up a final against Joe Perry, who had won one ranking event previously. In the first session <mask> raced into a 5–0 lead before Perry recovered to 5–3. In the second session <mask> went 7–3 ahead before Perry once again won three frames in a row to close the gap to 7–6. <mask> then managed to win the remaining two frames (with a century in the last frame) to win the match 9–6.Due to his victory, <mask> received an entry to the Champion of Champions for the first time. Drawn against Shaun Murphy in the opening round, he lost 4–2. The boost to his seasons's ranking points also helped him to qualify for the Players Championship for the first time in its current format; he was whitewashed 6–0 by reigning world champion Judd Trump in the first round. In the first round of qualifying for the World Championship, <mask> recorded a rare whitewash of his own with a 10–0 victory over Chen Feilong; he then lost in the second round of qualifying 9–10 to Joe O'Connor. 2019–20 season
Despite starting the season ranked 24th in the world, <mask> could not build on his success of the previous season during 2019–20 as he failed to advance beyond the last 32 of a ranking event in the first half of the season until the 2019 Scottish Open, where he reached the last 16 before losing 4–0 to eventual tournament winner Mark Selby. The furthest he advanced in a ranking tournament that season was at the 2020 Gibraltar Open where he was defeated in the quarter-finals 4–3 by Xiao Guodong in a tournament seriously effected by the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. At the re-scheduled qualifying for the World Championship, <mask> lost 6–4 to Ashley Carty in the first round.2020–21 season
During the 2020–21 season which was played almost entirely behind closed doors, <mask> endured a nightmare run of results, losing in the opening round on five occasions and leaving his place on the tour in jeopardy; his best finish was at the 2020 English Open where he reached the last 32 before losing 4–1 to John Higgins. After reaching a career high ranking of 21st in March 2019, <mask> was ranked 61st before entering qualifying for the World Championship, and failure to win and results going against him could have resulted in <mask> dropping out of the top 64 in the rankings and being relegated from the tour. He faced Zhao Jianbo in the first round of qualifying and after trailing 3–0, won 6–5. Despite losing by the same scoreline to Lu Ning in the next round, the win was enough to narrowly maintain his place on the tour, finishing the season ranked 63rd. <mask> later revealed that working with a mind coach on his mental approach had helped him to get over the line in his decisive match and that he had "belief" in his ability going forward. 2021–22 season
<mask> began the season with advancing to the second group phase of the Championship League. He then reached the second ranking semi-final of his career at the 2021 British Open where he lost 4–1 to eventual winner Mark Williams.After a narrow 4–3 defeat to Judd Trump at the 2021 Northern Ireland Open in the last 16, he reached the quarter-final of the 2021 World Grand Prix where he was defeated 5–2 by Ronnie O'Sullivan. Personal life
<mask> has two children with his partner Hayley and owns O'Sullivan's Snooker & Pool Club in his hometown of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex. He is a close friend and practice partner of fellow professional Mark Davis. Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Ranking finals: 1 (1 title)

Amateur finals: 1 (1 title)

References

External links

<mask> at worldsnooker.com
Player profile on Global Snooker

1986 births
Living people
English snooker players
People from Bexhill-on-Sea

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Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as <mask>nt, is an American rapper, actor and entrepreneur. Known for his impact in the hip hop industry, he has been described as a "master of the nuanced art of lyrical brevity". Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began selling drugs at age 12 during the 1980s crack epidemic. He later began pursuing a musical career and in 2000 he produced Power of the Dollar for Columbia Records, but days before the planned release he was shot and the album was never released. In 2002, after <mask>m and signed to Shady Records, under the aegis of Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. With the aid of Eminem and Dr. Dre (who produced his first major-label album Get Rich or Die Tryin'), <mask>nt became one of the world's best selling rappers and rose to prominence as de facto leader of East Coast hip hop group G-Unit. In 2003, he founded G-Unit Records, signing his G-Unit associates Young Buck, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo.<mask> had similar commercial and critical success with his second album, The Massacre, which was released in 2005. He underwent musical changes by his fifth album, Animal Ambition (2014), and is currently working on his sixth studio album. He executive-produced and starred in the television series Power (2014–2020) and is slated to produce its spin-offs. <mask>nt has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and won several awards, including a Grammy Award, thirteen Billboard Music Awards, six World Music Awards, three American Music Awards and four BET Awards. As an actor, Jackson appeared in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), the war film Home of the Brave (2006), and the crime thriller film Righteous Kill (2008). <mask> was ranked the sixth-best artist of the 2000s and the third-best rapper (behind Eminem and Nelly) by Billboard. Rolling Stone ranked Get Rich or Die Tryin and "In da Club" in its lists of the "100 Best Albums of the 2000s" and "100 Best Songs of the 2000s" at numbers 37 and 13, respectively.Early life
Jackson was born in the borough of Queens, New York City, and raised in its South Jamaica neighborhood by his mother Sabrina. A drug dealer, Sabrina raised Jackson until she died in a fire when Jackson was 8. (online is excerpt only) Jackson revealed in an interview that his mother was a lesbian. After his mother's death and his father's departure, Jackson was raised by his grandmother. He began boxing at about age 11, and when he was 14, a neighbor opened a boxing gym for local youth. "When I wasn't killing time in school, I was sparring in the gym or selling crack on the strip," Jackson remembered. He sold crack during primary school."I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too ... I think rappers condition themselves like boxers, so they all kind of feel like they're the champ." At age 12, Jackson began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs and brought guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School: "I was embarrassed that I got arrested like that ... After I got arrested I stopped hiding it. I was telling my grandmother [openly], 'I sell drugs.'" On June 29, 1994, Jackson was arrested for selling four vials of cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was arrested again three weeks later, when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine, and a starting pistol.Although Jackson was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, he served six months in a boot camp and earned his GED. He has said that he did not use cocaine himself.The Smoking Gun: 50 Cent . The Smoking Gun (February 27, 2003). Accessed May 22, 2007. Jackson adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change. The name was inspired by Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent"; Jackson chose it "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was.I provide for myself by any means." Career
1996–2002: Rise to fame, shooting, and early mixtapes
Jackson began rapping in a friend's basement, where he used turntables to record over instrumentals. In 1996, a friend introduced him to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, who was establishing Jam Master Jay Records. Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and make records.Tarek, Shams (May 16, 2003). Jamaica's 'Own Bad Guy' 50 Cent Making Good in the Music Biz . Queens Press. Accessed May 22, 2007.Jackson's first appearance was on "React" with Onyx, for their 1998 album Shut 'Em Down. He credited Jam Master Jay for improving his ability to write hooks, and Jay produced Jackson's first (unreleased) album. In 1999, after Jackson left Jam Master Jay, the platinum-selling producers Trackmasters signed him to Columbia Records. They sent him to an upstate New York studio, where he produced thirty-six songs in two weeks; eighteen were included on his 2000 album, Power of the Dollar. Jackson founded Hollow Point Entertainment with former G-Unit member Bang 'Em Smurf.Williams, Houston (February 2004). Bang'em Smurf: Life after G-Unit. AllHipHop.Retrieved July 20, 2007. Jackson's popularity began to grow after the successful, controversial underground single "How to Rob", which he wrote in a half-hour car ride to a studio.50 Cent. From Pieces to Weight Part 5 . MTV. Accessed May 22, 2007. The track comically describes how he would rob famous artists. Jackson explained the song's rationale: "There's a hundred artists on that label, you gotta separate yourself from that group and make yourself relevant".Rappers Jay-Z, Kurupt, Sticky Fingaz, Big Pun, DMX, Wyclef Jean, and the Wu-Tang Clan responded to the track, and Nas invited Jackson to join him on his Nastradamus tour. Although "How to Rob" was intended to be released with "Thug Love" (with Destiny's Child), two days before he was scheduled to film the "Thug Love" music video, Jackson was shot and hospitalized. On May 24, 2000, Jackson was attacked by a gunman outside his grandmother's former home in South Jamaica. After getting into a friend's car, he was asked to return to the house to get some jewelry; his son was in the house, and his grandmother was in the front yard. Jackson returned to the back seat of the car, and another car pulled up nearby; an assailant walked up and fired nine shots at close range with a 9mm handgun. Jackson was shot in the hand, arm, hip, both legs, chest, and left cheek. His facial wound resulted in a swollen tongue, the loss of a wisdom tooth and a slightly slurred voice; his friend was wounded in the hand.They were driven to a hospital, where Jackson spent thirteen days. The alleged attacker, Darryl Baum, Mike Tyson's close friend and bodyguard, was killed three weeks later. Jackson recalled the shooting: "It happens so fast that you don't even get a chance to shoot back .... I was scared the whole time ... I was looking in the rear-view mirror like, 'Oh shit, somebody shot me in the face! It burns, burns, burns.'" In his autobiography, From Pieces to Weight: Once upon a Time in Southside Queens, he wrote: "After I got shot nine times at close range and didn't die, I started to think that I must have a purpose in life ... How much more damage could that shell have done?Give me an inch in this direction or that one, and I'm gone". Jackson used a walker for six weeks and fully recovered after five months. When he left the hospital he stayed in the Poconos with his girlfriend and son, and his workout regime helped him develop a muscular physique. In the hospital Jackson signed a publishing deal with Columbia Records before he was dropped from the label and blacklisted by the recording industry because of his song, "Ghetto Qu'ran". Unable to work in a U.S. studio, he went to Canada.Weiner, Jonah (April 2005). Dear Superstar: 50 Cent . Blender.Accessed May 22, 2007. With business partner Sha Money XL, Jackson recorded over thirty songs for mixtapes to build a reputation. In a HitQuarters interview, Marc Labelle of Shady Records A&R said that Jackson used the mixtape circuit to his advantage: "He took all the hottest beats from every artist and flipped them with better hooks. They then got into all the markets on the mixtapes and all the mixtape DJs were messing with them." Jackson's popularity increased, and in 2002 he released the mixtape Guess Who's Back?. He then released 50 Cent Is the Future backed by G-Unit, a mixtape revisiting material by Jay-Z and Raphael Saadiq. ===2002–2007: Mainstream breakthrough, Get Rich or Die Tryin''', and The Massacre===

In 2002, Eminem heard Jackson's Guess Who's Back?CD, received from Jackson's attorney (who was working with Eminem's manager, Paul Rosenberg). Impressed, Eminem invited Jackson to fly to Los Angeles and introduced him to Dr. Dre. After signing a $1 million record deal, Jackson released No Mercy, No Fear. The mixtape featured one new track, "Wanksta", which appeared on Eminem's 8 Mile soundtrack. Jackson was also signed by Chris Lighty's Violator Management and Sha Money XL's Money Management Group. <mask> Cent released his debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (described by AllMusic as "probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade"), in February 2003. Rolling Stone noted its "dark synth grooves, buzzy keyboards and a persistently funky bounce", with Jackson complementing the production in "an unflappable, laid-back flow".It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 872,000 copies in its first four days. The lead single, "In da Club" (noted by The Source for its "blaring horns, funky organs, guitar riffs and sparse hand claps"), set a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week. Interscope gave Jackson his own label, G-Unit Records, in 2003. He signed Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck as members of G-Unit, and The Game was later signed in a joint venture with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. In March 2005, 50 Cent's second commercial album, The Massacre, sold 1.14 million copies in its first four days (the highest in an abbreviated sales cycle) and was number one on the Billboard 200 for six weeks. He was the first solo artist with three singles in the Billboard top five in the same week with "Candy Shop", "Disco Inferno" and "How We Do". According to Rolling Stone, "50's secret weapon is his singing voice - the deceptively amateur-sounding tenor croon that he deploys on almost every chorus".After The Game's departure Jackson signed Olivia and rap veterans Mobb Deep to G-Unit Records, with Spider Loc, M.O.P., 40 Glocc and Young Hot Rod later joining the label, who all eventually departed the label.Chery, Carl (May 27, 2005). Pulse Report: M.O.P. Signs to G-Unit . SOHH. Retrieved June 22, 2007. Jackson expressed an interest in working with rappers other than G-Unit, such as Lil' Scrappy of BME, LL Cool J of Def Jam, Mase of Bad Boy and Freeway of Roc-A-Fella, and recorded with several. 2007–2010: Curtis, sales battle with Kanye West, and Before I Self Destruct
In September 2007, <mask> Cent released his third album, Curtis, which was inspired by his life before Get Rich or Die Tryin.It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 691,000 copies during its first week. It sold behind Kanye West's Graduation, released the same day; the outcome of this highly-publicized sales battle between Jackson and West has been accredited to the commercial decline of the gangsta rap and "bling era" style that previously dominated mainstream hip-hop. On the September 10, 2008 episode of Total Request Live, Jackson said his fourth studio album, Before I Self Destruct, would be "done and released in November". He released "Ok, You're Right", produced by Dr. Dre for Before I Self Destruct, on May 18, 2009 and was scheduled to appear in a fall 2009 episode of VH1's Behind the Music. On September 3, 2009, Jackson posted a video  for the Soundkillers' Phoenix- produced track, "Flight 187", introducing his mixtape and book (The 50th Law). The song, with lyrics inspiring speculation about tension between Jackson and Jay-Z, was a bonus track on the iTunes version of Before I Self Destruct. Before I Self Destruct was released on November 9, 2009.2010–2015: New musical directions, new business ventures, and Animal Ambition

In a Contactmusic.com interview, Jackson said he was working on a Eurodance album, Black Magic, inspired by European nightclubs: "First they played hip-hop which suddenly changed to uptempo songs, known as Eurodance". He later said he had changed his next album to The Return of the Heartless Monster after writing different material when he returned home from the Invitation Tour in 2010, shelving Black Magic. On September 3, Jackson supported Eminem on his and Jay-Z's The Home & Home Tour, performing "Crack A Bottle" with Eminem and Dr. Dre amid rumors of tension between Jackson and Dre. He "recorded 20 songs to a whole different album concept" before putting them aside, wanting his new album to have the "aggression" of Get Rich or Die Tryin. Jackson tweeted that the album was "80 percent done" and fans could expect it in the summer of 2011. It was ultimately delayed a year due to disagreements with Interscope Records, with Jackson saying that he would release it in November 2011 with a different title than Black Magic. Eminem would appear on the album, and Jackson said he was working with new producers such as Boi-1da and Alex da Kid.Cardiak, who produced Lloyd Banks' "Start It Up", confirmed that he produced a song for the upcoming album. Jackson released a song, "Outlaw", from his fifth album on the Internet on June 16, 2011. The single, produced by Cardiak, was released on iTunes on July 19 (although Jackson tweeted that it was not the album's first single). The rapper planned to write a semi-autobiographical young-adult novel about bullying, different from his previous books which focused on his life and the rules of power. According to the book's publisher, the first-person novel (about a 13-year-old schoolyard bully "who finds redemption as he faces what he's done") was scheduled for publication in January 2012. In a series of tweets, Jackson said that the delay of his fifth album was due to disagreements with Interscope Records, later suggesting that it would be released in November 2011 with his headphone line (SMS by 50). He speculated to MTV News about not renewing his five-album contract with Interscope: "I don't know ...It will all be clear in the negotiations following me turning this actual album in. And, of course, the performance and how they actually treat the work will determine whether you still want to stay in that position or not." On June 20, 2011, Jackson announced the release of Before I Self Destruct II after his fifth album. Although he planned to shoot a music video for the fifth album's lead single, "I'm On It", on June 26 the video was never filmed. Jackson told Shade45, "I did four songs in Detroit with Eminem. I did two with Just Blaze, a Boi-1da joint, and I did something with Alex da Kid. We made two that are definite singles and the other two are the kinds of records that we been making, more aimed at my core audience, more aggressive, more of a different kind of energy to it."He released "Street King Energy Track #7" in September 2011 to promote Street King, his charity-based energy drink. An announcement that Jackson was shooting a music video for "Girls Go Wild", the fifth-album lead single featuring Jeremih, was made on September 28, 2011.Music Video News: IN PRODUCTION: 50 Cent f/ Jeremih – Colin Tilley . Video Static (September 28, 2011). Retrieved on October 25, 2011. Jackson's fifth album, Street King Immortal, was initially scheduled for a summer 2012 release and postponed until November 13. Disagreements with Interscope Records about its release and promotion led to its temporary cancellation. Its first promo single, "New Day" with Dr. Dre and Alicia Keys, was released on July 27.The song was produced by Dr. Dre, mixed by Eminem and written by <mask>nt, Alicia Keys, Royce da 5'9" and Dr. Dre. A solo version by Keys was leaked by her husband, Swizz Beatz. "My Life", the album's second promo single (with Eminem and Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine), was released on November 26, 2012. In January 2014, Jackson said he planned to release Animal Ambition in the first quarter of the year, followed by Street King Immortal. On February 20, he left Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope, signing with Caroline and Capitol Music Group. According to Jackson, although he owed Interscope another album, he was released from his contract because of his friendship with Eminem and Dr. Dre: "I'm a special case and situation. It's also because of the leverage of having

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 the strong relationships with Eminem and Dr. Dre.They don't want me to be uncomfortable. They value our friendship to the point that they would never want [to jeopardize] it over that little bit of money." That day, he announced that Animal Ambition would be released on June 3 and released its first track. The song, "Funeral", was released with a video on Forbes.com. Produced by Jake One, it is a continuation of "50 Bars" from a previous album; two more tracks were scheduled for release on March 18. At South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, Jackson performed "Hold On" from the new album. That song and "Don't Worry 'Bout It" were released with accompanying videos on March 18.According to Jackson, prosperity would be a theme of the album: "This project, I had to search for a concept, a really good concept, in my perspective, and that was prosperity. I outlined all the things that would be a part of prosperity, positive and negative [for Animal Ambition]." 2015–present: Street King Immortal, bankruptcy, and departure from Interscope

On May 14, 2015, Jackson revealed in an interview that the first single from Street King Immortal, would be previewed Memorial Day weekend and would likely be released in June. Jackson released "Get Low" on May 20, 2015, as the intended first single from his sixth studio album, Street King Immortal. The song, produced by Remo the Hitmaker, features vocals from fellow American rappers 2 Chainz and T.I., as well as American singer Jeremih. He announced bankruptcy on July 13, 2015. On March 31, 2017, Interscope Records released <mask> Cent's final album for the label, a greatest hits album titled Best Of.<mask> Cent was among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. In 2020, Jackson led the executive-producer duties for late rapper Pop Smoke's debut album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, having been one of Pop Smoke's biggest inspirations. The album was released on July 3, 2020. Jackson curated the album, desiring to finish it after Pop had died. He contacted many of the artists involved, and also features on one of the album tracks, "The Woo", which became a top ten single. In 2020, it was reported that Jackson was producing two television series for Starz, an anthology about hip hop and a biographical drama about sports agent Nicole Lynn. In 2021, he became one of the headliners of the music festival Golden Sand in Riviera Maya.In a July 2021 interview with The Independent, <mask>nt confirmed that he had officially decided to shelve his Street King Immortal album after it spent a decade in development hell. He even confirmed that he plans to release a completely new project. In August 2021, he was confirmed to be starring in the upcoming The Expendables film. On February 13, 2022, <mask>nt was a surprise performer in the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show. Awards

Artistry
Jackson cites Boogie Down Productions, Big Daddy Kane, The Juice Crew, EPMD and KRS-One as his rapping influences, while citing LL Cool J as an inspiration behind his writing of "21 Questions". Jackson also states that he drew influences from Nas, Rakim and The Notorious B.I.G. while working on Animal Ambition.Business ventures
Jackson has had a highly successful business career. He is financially invested in a highly diversified variety of industries. Jackson is now involved in artist and talent management, record, television, and film production, footwear, apparel, fragrances, liquor, video games, mobile apps, book publishing, headphones, along with health drinks and dietary supplements. His broad business and investment portfolio contains investments in a variety of sectors including real estate, financial market investments, mining, boxing promotion, vodka, fragrances, consumer electronics and fashion. He established his own record label G-Unit Records in 2003 following his mainstream success. In November 2003, he signed a five-year deal with Reebok to distribute a G-Unit Sneakers line for his G-Unit Clothing Company.Leeds, Jeff (December 26, 2004). $50 Million for 50 Cent .The New York Times. Retrieved June 9, 2007. In an interview, Jackson said his businesses had a habit of doing well as he saw all of his ventures both past and present as revolving around his alter ego. Jackson has also started a book publishing imprint, G-Unit Books on January 4, 2007 at the Time Warner Building in New York. He has written a number of books including a memoir, From Pieces To Weight in 2005 where it sold 73,000 copies in hardcover and 14,000 copies in paperback; a crime novel and a book with Robert Greene titled The 50th Law, an urban take on The 48 Laws of Power. In November 2011, Jackson released 50 Cent's Playground, a young adult fiction novel about a bullied, violent boy and his gay mother. One of Jackson's first business ventures was a partnership with Glacéau to create an enhanced water drink called Formula 50.In October 2004, Jackson became a beverage investor when he was given a minority share in the company in exchange for becoming a spokesperson after learning that he was a fan of the beverage. The health conscious Jackson noted that he first learned of the product while at a gym in Los Angeles, and stated that "they do such a good job making water taste good." After becoming a minority shareholder and celebrity spokesperson, Jackson worked with the company to create a new grape flavored "Formula 50" variant of VitaminWater and mentioned the drinks in various songs and interviews. In 2007, Coca-Cola purchased Glacéau for $4.1 billion and, according to Forbes, Jackson, who was a minority shareholder, earned $100 million from the deal after taxes. Though he no longer has an equity stake in the company, Jackson continues to act as a spokesperson for VitaminWater, supporting the product including singing about it at the BET Awards and expressing his excitement over the company's continuing to allow his input on products. He joined Right Guard to introduce a body spray (Pure 50 RGX) and endorsed Magic Stick condoms, planning to donate part of their proceeds to increasing HIV awareness. Jackson signed a multi-year deal with Steiner Sports to sell his memorabilia, and announced plans for a dietary-supplement company in conjunction with his film Spectacular Regret in August 2007.Jokesta (August 21, 2007).50 Cent launches dietary supplement company. Def Sounds. Retrieved August 21, 2007. Jackson has founded two film production companies: G-Unit Films in 2003 and Cheetah Vision in 2008.For The Record: Quick News on Eminem, Ciara, Ludacris, Ne-Yo, Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Nas, Public Enemy & More . MTV (March 23, 2007). Accessed May 22, 2007. Cheetah Vision produces low budget action thrillers for foreign film markets across the world.When G-Unit Films folded, he focused on Cheetah Vision and the company obtained $200 million in funding in 2010. In 2010, Jackson revived G-Unit Films, renaming the company to G-Unit Films and Television Inc. The company has joint ventures with Will Packer's production company Will Packer Productions and Universal Television. In over 18 months, Jackson has sold projects to six different networks. Among them was Power, a STARZ drama in which he not only co-stars but also serves as co-creator and executive producer. Power debuted in June 2014 and was renewed for a second season after one episode. Jackson serves as a co‐star, co-creator and executive television producer of the STARZ network drama where he signed a 2-year contract with representation coming from the Agency for the Performing Arts.Ratings have been a success for Starz. with the second-season premiere being the highest-ever season with 1.43 million people tuning in live. In 2002, Jackson filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to register the term "50 Cent" as a trademark for clothing, sound recordings, and live performances. The application was published in 2003, and registration issued in 2004. He has since filed for additional trademark registrations. In July 2011, Jackson launched a philanthropic initiative to provide food for one billion starving people in Africa by 2016, joining Pure Growth Partners to introduce Street King. A portion of the proceeds from each Street King purchase would be used to provide a daily meal to an underprivileged child.The partnership coincides with Jackson's goal to feed a billion people in Africa during the next five years. "50 Cent and I share a common vision: to address the world's problems through smart and sustainable business models," said Chris Clarke, founder and CEO of Pure Growth Partners. "With the rampant starvation in Africa and hunger afflicting children worldwide, we need socially responsible businesses that affect real change now more than ever." Jackson said, "I'm inspired by Clarke's vision and innovative approaches to tackling serious issues. It's our mission with Street King to really change children's lives around the world. "Langhorne, Cyrus. (August 13, 2011) 50 Cent On "Street King" Global Takeover, "I Need Your Support" .Sohh.Com. Retrieved on October 25, 2011. In 2011, he founded SMS Audio, a consumer-electronics company selling Street by 50 headphones, pledging to donate a portion of their sales to charity. In April 2015, SMS announced new co-branding deals with Reebok and Marvel. It added those to existing partnerships with Walt Disney Parks, Lucasfilm's Star Wars, and Intel. In 2014, Jackson became a minority shareholder in Effen Vodka, a brand of vodka produced in the Netherlands, when he invested undisclosed amount in the company Sire Spirits LLC. He currently endorses the product via his live concert performances and social media.The rapper was asked to take part in two promotional bottle signings, one in Oak Creek and another in Sun Prairie. Jackson made an appearance at Liquor Warehouse in Syracuse, New York on April 25, 2015 where he reportedly sold 1,400 bottles (277 gallons) of Jackson's signature liquor brand. Liquor Warehouse's owner George Angeloro reportedly stocked 300 cases (1,800 bottles or 357 gallons) of Effen Vodka, which sells for $30 a bottle, prior to the event. In December 2014, Jackson signed a $78 million deal with FRIGO Revolution Wear, a luxury underwear brand. The joint venture is partnered between Jackson, basketball player Carmelo Anthony, baseball player Derek Jeter and Mathias Ingvarsson, the former president of mattress company Tempur-Pedic. Jackson became the chief fashion designer for the brands single pair of Frigo boxers. In April 2015, Jackson mulled investing in Jamaica, exploring foreign investment opportunities on the island when he met with some local officials and had ongoing discussions on investment opportunities in the Montego Bay resort area.Investments
Over the years, Jackson invested his earnings from music and celebrity endorsements in an array of privately controlled companies, real estate, and stocks and bonds. A portion of his investments lost value during the 2008 recession. In December 2008, he told the Canadian press that he had been affected by the recession, losing several million dollars in the stock market. Unable to sell his Connecticut mansion, Jackson postponed Before I Self-Destruct due to the severity of the economic downturn. His Farmington mansion located on 50 Poplar Hill Drive that he tried to sell for years filed for bankruptcy in Connecticut in 2015 listed an asking price for that property in 2012 at $10 million but was valued at $8.3 million in 2015. He first tried to sell the house in 2007 for $18.5 million, and dropped the price several times in the next five years, when it was on and off the market. In January 2011, Jackson reportedly made $10 million after using Twitter to promote a marketing company which he was part shareholder of.His endorsements company G Unit Brands Inc. revealed through a public SEC filing controls 12.9 per cent of H&H Imports, which is a parent company of TV Goods – the firm responsible for marketing his range of headphones, Sleek by 50 Cent. Jackson bought stock in the company on November 30, 2010, a week after it offered buyers 180 million shares at 17 cents each. Jackson later made a stock recommendation on Twitter, causing its share value to rise from four cents to nearly 50 cents (32p) each, closing on Monday at 39 cents (25p). Jackson was later investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for breaching securities laws following his tweet which may have constituted allegations of Insider trading via his Pump and dump stock investment strategy. In 2013, Jackson became a minority investor in Hang w/, a live video broadcasting mobile app used by dozens of celebrities to broadcast their daily activities and chat with fans. The app was downloaded more than 1 million times since its launch in March 2013 and had more than 1 million users . Other minority celebrity investors include former NFL player Terrell Owens and record producer Timbaland.Mining and heavy metals
In 2008, Jackson visited a platinum, palladium and iridium mine shaft in South Africa, and met with South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe in talks of purchasing an equity stake in the mine. After his meeting with Motsepe, Jackson considered purchasing equity in the mine and launching his own line of 50 Cent branded platinum. Boxing promotion
On July 21, 2012, Jackson became a licensed boxing promoter when he formed his new company, TMT (The Money Team). Licensed to promote in New York, he was in the process of being licensed in Nevada (where most major fights are held in the U.S.). A former amateur boxer, Jackson signed gold medalist and former featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa and middleweight Olympic medalist Andre Dirrell. On July 29, 2012, he and the boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr., signed IBF featherweight champion Billy Dib. They unveiled plans to challenge the box-office dominance of mixed martial arts and change the landscape of boxing with TMT Promotions.Boxer Zab Judah also expressed interest in making a deal with Jackson. In December 2012, Mayweather and Jackson parted company, with Jackson taking over the promotion company and founding SMS Promotions with Gamboa, Dirrell, Dib, James Kirkland, Luis Olivares and Donte Strayhorn in his stable. Bankruptcy
On July 13, 2015, Jackson filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut with a debt of $32,509,549.91. On July 17, 2015, the Court issued an order allowing a creditor to proceed with the punitive damages phase of a trial against Jackson in a New York state court, in connection with the alleged release of a private video. His assets were listed as between $10 million and $50 million in his bankruptcy petition, though he testified under oath that he is worth $4.4 million. Citing between $10 million and $50 million in debt, and the same amount in assets. Later in the week, Jackson's bankruptcy lawyers elucidated the court documents that legal fees and judgments exceeding $20 million over the past year were the primary cause of the filing.His filings listed 32 entities that he has a stake in. The bankruptcy came days after a jury ordered him to pay $5 million to rapper Rick Ross's ex-girlfriend Lastonia Leviston for invading her privacy by posting online a sex tape of her and another man. In addition, Jackson lost a dispute over a failed business deal to come to fruition to his Sleek headphones, where Jackson invested more than $2 million. An ex-partner accused Jackson of later stealing the design of the "Sleek by 50" headphones, prompting a judge to award the partner more than $17.2 million. His Connecticut bankruptcy filing states that he owns seven cars valued at more than $500,000, including a 2010 Rolls Royce and a 1966 Chevrolet Coupe. His expenses of $108,000 a month include $5,000 for gardening along with a monthly income of $185,000, mainly from royalties and income from his external businesses and investments. The court filing says he also owes money to his stylist, his barber, and his fitness coach.Other details in the bankruptcy documents included information about two deals that sold the right to collect royalties of on-air play of his music. Half the rights to his portfolio were sold to the British independent music publishing company Kobalt Music Group for $3 million and the other half for another $3 million with the sales of his albums allowing Jackson to own 100 percent of the rights to the master recordings while paying only for distribution. Zeisler & Zeisler, a Bridgeport law firm, represented 50 Cent in the bankruptcy, which later resulted in Jackson filing a $75 million lawsuit against his own lawyers. He stated that his lawyers did a terrible job of representing him, specifically citing the fallout of his failed venture with Sleek Audio headphones and