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 "primitive" emphasis on sharing, citing Dorothy Lee's work on the Trobriand Islanders in support, before constructing a narrative of the rise of number through cumulative stages of state domination, starting with the desire of Egyptian kings to measure what they ruled. This approach is repeated in relation to time, gender inequality, work, technology, art and ritual, agriculture and globalization.<mask> also writes more general texts on anarchist, primitivist theory, and critiques of "postmodernism". <mask> was one of the editors of Green Anarchy, a controversial journal of anarcho-primitivist and insurrectionary anarchist thought. He is also the host of Anarchy Radio in Eugene on the University of Oregon's radio station KWVA. He has also served as a contributing editor at Anarchy Magazine and has been published in magazines such as AdBusters. He does extensive speaking tours around the world, and is married to an independent consultant to museums and other nonprofit organizations. Criticism

In his essay "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm", Murray Bookchin directed criticism from an anarchist point of view at <mask>'s anti-civilizational and anti-technological perspective. He argued that <mask>'s representation of hunter-gatherers was flawed, selective and often patronisingly racist, that his analysis was superficial, and that his practical proposals were nonsensical.Aside from Bookchin, several other anarchist critiques of <mask>'s primitivist philosophies exist. The pamphlet, "Anarchism vs. Primitivism" by Brian Oliver Sheppard criticizes many aspects of the primitivist philosophy. It specifically rejects the claim that primitivism is a form of anarchism. Some authors such as Andrew Flood have argued that destroying civilization would lead to the death of a significant majority of the population, mainly in poor countries. <mask> responded to such claims by suggesting a gradual decrease in

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type: original

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 population size, with the possibility of people having the need to seek means of sustainability more close to nature. Flood suggests this contradicts Zerzan's claims elsewhere, and adds that, since it is certain that most people will strongly reject Zerzan's supposed utopia, it can only be implemented by authoritarian means, against the will of billions. In his essay "Listen Anarchist!", Chaz Bufe criticized the primitivist position from an anarchist perspective, pointing out that primitivists are extremely vague about exactly which technologies they advocate keeping and which they seek to abolish, noting that smallpox had been eradicated thanks to medical technology. Selected works

Books and pamphlets
 When We Are Human: Notes From The Age Of Pandemics, July 2021. A People's History of Civilization, April 20, 2018
 Time and Time Again. Detritus Books, 2018. Why hope? The Stand Against Civilization. Feral House, 2015.Future Primitive Revisited. Feral House, May 2012. Origins of the 1%: The Bronze Age pamphlet. Left Bank Books, 2012. Origins: A <mask> Reader. Joint publication of FC Press and Black and Green Press, 2010. Twilight of the Machines.Feral House, 2008. Running On Emptiness. Feral House, 2002. Against Civilization (editor). Uncivilized Books, 1999; Expanded edition, Feral House, 2005. Future Primitive. Autonomedia, 1994.Questioning Technology (co-edited with Alice Carnes). Freedom Press, 1988; 2d edition, New Society, 1991,
 Elements of Refusal. Left Bank Books, 1988; 2d edition, C.A.L. Press, 1999. Articles
 Telos 141, Second-Best Life: Real Virtuality. New York: Telos Press Ltd., Winter 2007. Telos 137, Breaking the Spell: A Civilization Critique Perspective.New York: Telos Press Ltd., Winter 2006. Telos 124, Why Primitivism?. New York: Telos Press Ltd., Summer 2002. Telos 60, Taylorism and Unionism: The Origins of a Partnership. New York: Telos Press Ltd., Summer 1984. Telos 50, Anti-Work and the Struggle for


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 Control. New York: Telos Press Ltd., Winter 1981–1982.Telos 49, Origins and Meaning of World War I. New York: Telos Press Ltd., Fall 1981. Telos 28, Unionism and the Labor Front. New York: Telos Press Ltd., Summer 1978. Telos 27, Unionization in America. New York: Telos Press Ltd., Spring 1976. Telos 21, Organized Labor versus The Revolt Against Work: The Critical Contest.New York: Telos Press Ltd., Fall 1974. See also
 Neotribalism
 Species Traitor, publication where <mask> regularly contributes
 Surplus, a Swedish movie (atmo, 2003) which contains an interview with <mask>

References

Further reading
 "Radical rethinking" by Sena Christian. (April 17, 2008)

External links

 Guide to <mask>'s papers at the University of Oregon

1943 births
20th-century essayists
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American philosophers
21st-century essayists
21st-century American male writers
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Analytic philosophers
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University of Southern California alumni
Writers about activism and social change
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Writers from

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<mask> (13 June 196111 March 2014) was an English trade union leader who served as the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from 2002 until his death. He was also a member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). A self-described "communist/socialist", he was a leading figure in the No to EU – Yes to Democracy campaign. <mask> joined London Transport in 1977 and soon became involved in trade unionism. He was regarded as part of the Awkward Squad, a loose grouping of left-wing union leaders who came to power in a series of electoral victories beginning in 2002. After he became leader, the RMT's membership increased from around 57,000 in 2002 to more than 80,000 in 2008, making it one of Britain's fastest-growing trade unions. <mask> was a polarising figure in British politics.Supporters praised him as a champion of the working class and a successful trade unionist; critics argued that he held London to ransom with strikes. Early life
Born at 162 Burrow Road, Epping, Essex to Lillian (née Hutton) and <mask>; his background was working-class, a fact of which he remained proud throughout his life. <mask>'s father was a docker who taught him to read both the Morning Star and the Financial Times, but to disbelieve everything in the latter. His father also was a lifelong member of the Transport and General Workers Union. His family subsequently moved to Hainault. He left school at 16 and joined London Transport, there becoming involved in union politics. His first job was making the tea, then he worked as part of a tree-felling group in 1977, before moving onto heavy track repairing.In 1983, he was elected as a local representative to the

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 National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and in 1985 became NUR national officer for track workers. During his formative years, the British trade union movement was dominated by such prominent figures as Jack Jones, Hugh Scanlon, Joe Gormley, and Len Murray. As a result, he commented that "Starting my career with these people in charge of unions, and working in a nationalised industry with people who had put in 30 or even 40 years of service helped shape my views." Trade union career and politics
In 1990 the National Union of Railwaymen merged with the National Union of Seamen to form the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), and the following year <mask> became the London Underground representative on the National Executive. In 1991, he became assistant general secretary, and on 14 February 2002 <mask> was elected by the membership to succeed Jimmy Knapp as general secretary. He received 12,051 votes in the election – nearly twice as many as the other two candidates put together (Phil Bialyk received 4,512 votes and Ray Spry-Shute received 1,997). Six weeks earlier on 1 January 2002, <mask> was attacked outside his home by two men wielding an iron bar.He speculated that he was the victim of hired employer muscle, although it is possible that the culprits were members of far right activist groups who were active in Dagenham at the time. <mask> was a member of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress. From 2006 until his death he was a member of the Executive Board of the International Transport Workers Federation, the global trade union for transport workers. Under <mask>'s leadership, the RMT affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions and he was regularly invited to

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 attend, in his capacity as general secretary of the RMT, the presidential council of the WFTU. At the time he became general secretary, he had a strong negotiating position as the industry was booming, and was the leader of one of the only British trade unions which still wielded industrial strength. Communist Party and Socialist Labour Party
<mask> identified as a "communist/socialist", and between 1983 and 1997, was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and then the Communist Party of Britain. He described his political philosophy with a quote from Argentine Marxist–Leninist revolutionary Che Guevara: "Hasta la victoria siempre!"("Forever onwards until the victory!"). He kept a bust of communist leader Vladimir Lenin in his office. He described the aims of a trade-unionist as to secure "Job security, being safe, best possible pay, best possible conditions, decent pensions, and a world that lives in peace." In 1997 he briefly joined Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party (SLP), and was always a strong supporter of Scargill for his commitment to trade unionism. <mask> rejected the argument that Scargill was responsible for the defeats of the miners and the union movement more generally. <mask> was a founding member of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition for several years up until his death. Previously he gave his support to the now disbanded Socialist Alliance, and believed all socialist parties should unite.In the 2005 general election, he endorsed Robert Griffiths, the Communist Party of Britain candidate in Pontypridd, calling him "a champion of workers' rights". Griffiths went on to win 233 votes (0.6%), coming last out of the six candidates. In the 2010 Local Election, he

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 publicly supported the directly elected Mayoral candidate in the London Borough of Hackney Monty Goldman and the candidate for Leabridge Ward Mick Carty. Campaign for a New Workers' Party
Crow was an outspoken critic of Tony Blair, who "squandered a massive landslide from an electorate hungry for change, poured billions of public pounds into private pockets and accelerated the growing gap between rich and poor". He deemed the policies implemented by Blair's New Labour project to be "near enough identical" to those of the Conservatives. Speaking at the founding conference of the National Shop Stewards Network in July 2007, <mask> called for a new party for the working class. RMT industrial action
After Transport for London offered workers an inflation-adjusted pay rise, <mask> described TfL's approach to pay as "confrontational".In response to the RMT declaring a 48-hour strike on 10 June 2009, <mask> wrote in The Guardian Comment is free section the purpose of the move: "On London Underground, bosses are threatening to tear up an agreement aimed at safeguarding jobs, and have refused to rule out compulsory redundancies. Up to 4,000 jobs are at risk as part of a multibillion-pound cuts package that can be traced directly back to the collapse of Metronet and the failure of the PPP." "RMT have made it clear we expect managers to abide by the existing job security agreements and we would simply not be doing our job as a union if we allowed the tube to treat our members as cannon fodder who can be hired and fired at will", adding that "It wasn't our members who created the downturn and we will not be bullied into accepting that they should be forced to pay for an economic crisis that was cooked up by the


texts:
 bankers and the politicians." Rail managers recognised <mask> as a moderate within the RMT; he faced calls from figures to the left of him who were more eager to use industrial action. He was also criticised by RMT members on the right of his position; <mask> repeatedly championed the cause of the lowest-paid workers, such as cleaners, whose jobs were often outsourced to separate companies. Sectors of the more highly-paid RMT membership were critical of <mask> for this support, believing it inefficient. No to EU – Yes to Democracy
In March 2009, <mask> announced that the RMT would be fronting the No to EU – Yes to Democracy platform with an array of socialist organisations and individuals for the 2009 European Parliament elections.No2EU – Yes to Democracy stood for a Europe of "independent, democratic states that value its public services and does not offer them to profiteers; a Europe that guarantees the rights of workers and does not put the interests of big business above that of ordinary people". As the party leader and lead candidate in London, <mask> was "not against workers coming into the country", unlike other Eurosceptic groupings, but he was against "two workers from different countries competing against each other on different rates of pay" and added that "Our main role will be out there among working people, giving them our support and helping to save their industries from privatisation". No2EU secured 153,236 votes, compared to an RMT membership of 80,000. The party achieved 1% of the popular vote in Britain, giving them the 12th largest share of the vote, behind Scargill's Socialist Labour Party and the far-right British National Party. This was insufficient for a seat in the European

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 Parliament. In London, where <mask> was a candidate, the party secured 17,758 votes, equating to the tenth largest share of the vote. In this region, No2EU secured a larger share of the popular vote than the Socialist Labour Party.Accusations of cronyism
Critics within his own union suggested he was filling posts with "henchmen". <mask> insisted that the appointment of his wife as chief executive of the RMT credit union was legitimate as she was the only applicant for the position, and he had interviewed her for the role. Accusations of champagne socialism

Political opponents and sections of the press frequently offered criticism of <mask> for what they described as a lavish lifestyle which they considered to be inconsistent with his socialist credentials. The total employment costs figure of £145k was frequently mentioned by the press as "wages" or "salary". It was pointed out by a journalist for the Independent that the correct figure for salary was around £96,000, and this was also mentioned by <mask> in interview. According to the latest figures available from the Trades Union Certification Officer, as of 2012 <mask>'s basic salary at the RMT was £89,805. The union also paid £10,313 of National Insurance contributions to the state and £34,429 into his pension pot in 2012.No car or chauffeur was provided. <mask> responded to the criticisms by claiming "I'm worth it". In an article commenting on his contribution to the RMT union, the Telegraph agreed that it was a merited figure for <mask> who "represented the interests of his members with a single-minded determination". The newspaper concluded <mask> "wanted the best deal for the people who paid his salary – and they continued to reward him

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 because he delivered it.". Final years: 2010–14
<mask> faced increasing media scrutiny. He was criticised in April 2013 after the death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when he stated: "As far as I'm concerned she can rot in Hell." In January 2014 <mask> went on a three-week luxury cruise holiday from Bermuda to Brazil.Paparazzi photographed him on Copacabana Beach, although in his response to press he asked "What do you want me to do? Sit under a tree and read Karl Marx all day?". When a Daily Mirror reporter asked him if he felt sorry for commuters, he responded: "Course I feel sorry for them. But they know our fight isn't with them. It's with Transport for London. And what do they expect a trade union to do? If you join one you expect it to fight for your rights and your job – and that's what I'm doing."<mask> died in the early hours of 11 March 2014 at Whipps Cross University Hospital after suffering an aneurysm and heart attack. Personal life
On one hand, <mask> was known for his robust political views and macho interests: described by George Eaton of the New Statesman as "an apologist for Stalinism", he also wished the UK to withdraw from the European Union. Since childhood, he had supported Millwall Football Club, and as RMT leader he kept a photograph of the club on the wall of his office. He was known to be a fan of boxing, and in an interview from 2011, claimed to work out six days a week, and be able to bench-press . He also had a pet Staffordshire bull terrier whom he named Castro after the Cuban Marxist–Leninist leader Fidel Castro. On the other hand, those who got to know <mask> saw much more subtle aspects to his character: The Guardian described <mask> as having "a very keen

masks: Crow Crow Crow Crow Crow Crow


texts: brain and strong emotional intelligence", while The New York Times deemed him to be both "confrontational and charismatic" and "sharp and shrewd". <mask> took a keen interest in the weather and owned a barometer, informing press that if he had not become a trade unionist then he would have liked to have become a weather man.Despite the many portrayals as a radical socialist <mask> was rather seen to be very pragmatic in outlook, and was described as "too shrewd for doctrine". Although believing that it was morally right to punish murder by capital punishment, he did not support the death penalty in practice, claiming too little faith in the criminal justice system. Similarly, he claimed that he would happily support the Conservative Party if by doing so he could achieve the renationalisation of the railways. <mask>'s marriage to Geraldine Horan, on 12 June 1982, by whom he had a daughter, Kerrie-Anne, and two grandsons, Daniel and Jamie Atlee, ended in divorce. He later entered a long-term relationship with Nicola Hoarau, with whom he had another daughter, Tanya. Writing in the New Statesman, George Eaton thought <mask> to have been "more hurt than most realise by the press intrusion into his private life". <mask> had a distinctive south-east accent described variously as Cockney or soft-spoken Essex.In later life, he lived in a three-bedroom council house in Woodford Green, eastern Greater London, but some newspapers criticised him for doing so whilst receiving a high salary. He defended his actions, asserting that "I was born in a council house, as far as I'm concerned I will die in one." Although <mask> frequently played up to the extreme leftist caricature of himself created by the press, in


texts:
 particular describing bankers as greedy "spivs", he was once asked by a journalist from the Financial Times how he would feel if his children had chosen careers in banking: in response he pointed out that he was happy for them to live their lives, and revealed that his brother was a stockbroker but that he was more concerned about the fact his brother supported Arsenal F.C. In 2011, lawyers acting for <mask> wrote to the Metropolitan Police asking for any evidence or information that they may have uncovered in respect of the News International phone hacking scandal. <mask> had suspicions that "journalists may have had access to private information about my movements and my union's activities that date back to the year 2000". Legacy

<mask> had a polarising effect in British politics, becoming "the left's favourite firebrand and the right's favourite villain." To supporters, he was a working-class hero who successfully stood up for the rights of RMT members.Deemed highly successful in his job, during his leadership of the RMT, membership rose from 59,000 to 78,000, while London tube drivers' pay rose to £52,000, nearly twice the national average wage. Discussing <mask>'s contribution, former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone noted that "The only working-class people who still have well-paid jobs in London are [RMT] members". The Guardian asserted that he "managed to popularise the cause of trade unions at a time of declining membership and increasing hostility". BBC News commented that he had managed to become "one of the UK's best-known characters at a time when the rest of the nation's trade union movement had faded into comparative obscurity". However, <mask> was regularly criticised by both the right


texts: and the centre-left. Critics saw him as a bully who improved the status of RMT workers at the expense of commuters. The Daily Express deemed him a "champagne socialist" for his lavish lifestyle.Following <mask>'s death, tributes were offered by figures from the trade union movement. TUC Secretary-General Frances O'Grady called him "an outstanding trade unionist, who tirelessly fought for his members, his industry and the wider trade union movement". Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, stated that <mask> "was admired by his members and feared by employers, which is exactly how he liked it... It was a privilege to campaign and fight alongside him because he never gave an inch." Tributes were also offered by politicians on the political left. Livingstone asserted that the RMT leader was "broadly right on most key issues" and that "He fought really hard for his members." Leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband commented that "I didn't always agree with him politically but I always respected his tireless commitment to fighting for the men and women in his union.He did what he was elected to do, was not afraid of controversy and was always out supporting his members across the country." His death also drew responses from the political right. Conservative Mayor of London Boris Johnson stated: "I'm shocked. <mask> was a fighter and a man of character... Whatever our political differences, and there were many, this is tragic news... <mask> fought tirelessly for his beliefs and for his members. There can be absolutely no doubt that he played a big part in the success of the Tube, and he shared my goal to make transport in London an even greater success." A spokesman speaking for Conservative Prime

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 Minister David Cameron commented that "The Prime Minister expresses his sincere condolences to Mr <mask>'s family and friends." Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, tweeted to express his sadness at <mask>'s death, commenting that "I liked him" and that he had found common ground over their mutual anti-EU sentiment.On his death, management at Transport for London placed posters marking his death at tube stations throughout London as a mark of respect. Bob Crow Brigade
The Bob Crow Brigade is a group of volunteers from the UK and the Republic of Ireland fighting as part of the International Freedom Battalion (IFB). The IFB consists of leftist foreign volunteers fighting alongside the People's Protection Units in the Syrian Civil War in support of the Rojava Revolution and against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The group has expressed solidarity with the RMT and striking rail workers in the UK. Steve Hedley, senior assistant general secretary of the RMT, said: "<mask> would have been honoured that young people from Britain would fight the forces of evil in his name. A great admirer of the international brigades that fought in Spain, <mask> would of course have drawn the parallels with the new international brigades fighting clerical fascism and defending Yazhidi, Muslim and Christian workers from slavery and persecution." References

External links

 BBC profile
 The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)
 "Rail union leader praises communist 'workers' champion'"
Obituary of <mask> in Socialist Worker
  Biography of <mask> by Gregor Gall – <mask>: Socialist, leader, fighter – A political biography

News items
 <mask>: You Ask The Questions The

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 Independent, 29 June 2009
 Independent article September 2007

1961 births
2014 deaths
Communist Party of Britain members
Communist Party of Great Britain members
English communists
English trade unionists
General Secretaries of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers
Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress
People from Hainault
People from Shadwell
Socialist Labour Party (UK) members
British Eurosceptics
British political party


texts: <mask> (born <mask> on 11 January 1962) is an English theatre actor, writer and comedian. He was born in Oxford, England, and has a twin sister, Miranda, and an older brother, Jonathan. Educated at Park Hall Secondary Modern in Castle Bromwich, Warwickshire, and at Sutton Coldfield College of Further Education, he went on to gain a Degree in Drama and Theatre Studies at the Royal Holloway College, University of London. From 1985 he lived in Edinburgh, but moved to New York in 1993 where he spent much of the following four years. He changed his surname in 1996 on joining Equity, the actors' trade union. In 2001 he moved permanently to London, where he currently resides. Primarily a stage performer, he initially became known for his one-man stage show, entitled Think No Evil of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams, about the life and career of the actor, for which he won the Scotsman's Fringe First award in 1996; and for his television role as Noël Coward in the 1990s BBC comedy series Goodnight Sweetheart.His theatrical repertoire includes many of Coward's songs, performed in-character as Coward. When not touring in the theatre he worked on BBC radio, including playing the character parts in the science fiction comedy series The Scarifyers. He has a dozen one-man shows in his theatrical repertoire, with which he tours. He also sings: performing a wide range of the songs of Noël Coward, amongst others, in a flamboyant cabaret style, performed in-character as Coward. He has also written and directed professional stage productions for other performers. His theatrical, television and radio work has mainly revolved around comedy. His most famous roles, impersonating comic

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 actor Kenneth Williams, comedian Frankie Howerd, and playwright and composer Noël Coward, have all used his talent for mimicking well-known stars of stage and screen.Television

In 1975, at the age of 13, <mask> wrote a story called "The Rag-and-Bone Man" for a contest on the BBC1 children's series Jackanory. His entry won, and was performed by Kenneth Williams on the show. It was this initial writing credit, which only by chance was performed by Williams (<mask> had written the piece with Spike Milligan in mind), that later influenced him when he was trying to decide on a subject for his first one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 1998 and 1999 <mask> played Noël Coward in the BBC television series Goodnight Sweetheart for its final two series
. He also lent his voice to the 1998 Reputations documentary on the life and career of Kenneth Williams, reading excerpts from Williams's published diaries. Both engagements came about due to the fame of his one-man show, in which he had performed in-character impressions of Williams and Coward. Stage

After leaving college, <mask> moved to Edinburgh where he held down various jobs, including working as a "skivvy" in a restaurant kitchen and as an assistant in Scotland's first gay and lesbian bookshop.Between 1990 and 1996 he worked in the Edinburgh-based Grassmarket Project Theatre Company, performing in a series of award-winning semi-documentary dramas, often improvised, ranging from homeless men (Glad, 1990–92) to pensioners (One Moment, 1993), and a young lady whose brother was killed in police custody (20/52, 1995). These productions gave him his first taste of theatrical success, when One Moment, an improvised drama

masks: Benson Benson Benson Benson


texts: devised by Jeremy Weller, won a Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993. It was at the Edinburgh Fringe, in 1996, that he premiered his first one-man show, Think No Evil of Us: My Life With Kenneth Williams, a semi-autobiographical production based around the life and career of English comedy actor Kenneth Williams, performed mainly in character as Williams; and which, as with his subsequent Edinburgh shows (with the exception of Star Struck) was entirely written by himself. The show was an immediate hit with audiences, winning a Scotsman Fringe First award. In 1997 the production began a national tour of the UK, culminating in a three-week West End run at the Vaudeville Theatre during 1998. He revived it in 2001 and continued to tour it for the following ten years: he once claimed he would continue touring the show "'till I drop". In 1998 he premiered his second one-man show, at the Assembly Rooms, during the Edinburgh Fringe.Titled Nothing But Pleasure, it was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and consisted mainly of a detailed description of the events at her funeral. Nothing But Pleasure was subsequently invited to the Sydney Festival, where <mask> and pianist/arranger <mask> Jones performed it in The Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House in January 1999. The show then ran at the Jermyn Street Theatre London during 2000, under the revised title Mourning Glory. After a brief interlude of theatrical inactivity, he returned to the Fringe and to touring in 2001, writing and performing a sequel to Think No Evil Of Us, and in the process breaking a vow he had made in 1998 never to play another dead, camp

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texts: comic ("As if I intended to spend the rest of my life impersonating dead, camp comedians! "), turning his attention to the late Frankie Howerd. To Be Frank played The Pleasance, Edinburgh at the 2001 Festival. As well as being an examination of the life and career of Howerd, the show, like all of <mask>'s work, had a strong autobiographical element: he gave an uncompromising account of his "period of theatrical inactivity" in a sequence which culminated in the uproarious "slaughter" of a collection of "irritating television personalities".The production is one he was still touring with in 2011, subtitled Frankie Howerd and the Secret of Happiness (an ironic comment on the fact that Frankie never seemed to find that secret). In January 2002 <mask> appeared, for the first time, in a play. He stepped into the breach to take a role in the Peepolykus production of Eugène Ionesco's absurdist classic Rhinoceros, which toured the UK for the first half of the year, before returning for a season at the Lyric Hammersmith and Battersea Arts Centre. During the long drives to and from these shows, Benson and Peepolykus founder <mask> discussed the possibility of working on a new show together. The result, in 2003, was Star Struck, his fourth one-man show, in which he appeared in character as, amongst other stars, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Noël Coward and even Judy Garland – which he premiered, once again, at that year's Edinburgh Fringe. During 2003 he also appeared in a production of Joe Orton's Loot directed by Cal McCrystal, at the Derby Playhouse, in which he took the role Kenneth Williams had played in the original 1966 West End production. <mask> has directed for the

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texts: stage.In 2003 he directed (and co-created) All the Rage, the first solo stage show by the media personality Janet Street-Porter, which premiered at that year's Edinburgh Fringe. In pantomime he starred in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Newbury Corn Exchange, once again directed by Cal McCrystal, during Christmas 2004. He subsequently wrote two pantomimes, Cinderella and Dick Whittington, both of which were directed by McCrystal at Newbury. Between 2005 and 2007 he developed and wrote three further one-man shows, premiering each in turn at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. These were, respectively, <mask>'s Haunted Stage ; It's A Plot: <mask>'s Conspiracy Cabaret ; and Why Pay More. He continued touring in his earlier shows, as well as making Christmas appearances in pantomime. In 2006 his appearance at the Fringe also included the 10th anniversary production of Think No Evil Of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams.Additionally in 2006, during a busy year he appeared in a play at the Theatre Royal Winchester, directed by James Barry, starring in the comedy Same Time, Next Year, in which he took the Alan Alda role from the film. In August 2008 he again premiered a one-man show at the Fringe, turning his attention to Noël Coward once more, with <mask> Sings Noel Coward. This show originated as a cameo impression of Coward in <mask>'s original 1996 stage production of Think No Evil Of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams, a cameo which led to his being offered a continuing role as Noël Coward in the BBC television series Goodnight Sweetheart. This in turn led to his performing a number of Coward's monologues and songs on stage, as part of the "Hollywood Party" sequence in his

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Benson


texts: one-man show Star Struck which premiered at the Fringe in 2003, built around the Coward monologue Mad Dogs and Englishmen. He continued to direct. At the 2008 Fringe he directed – as well as writing – the First World War drama My Grandfather's Great War, starring Cameron Stewart, based upon the experiences of Stewart's grandfather in the 1914–18 War as recorded in his war diaries. After premiering it at the Fringe, the production toured in spring 2009 and enjoyed a London run in November 2010.In his on-line blog <mask> talked about his role in the London production of the revival of the black comedy Future Me by Stephen Brown, originally produced in 2007, in which he toured during February and March 2009, which then played London's Only Connect until 26 April. As usual, he appeared throughout August at the Edinburgh Fringe in a new one-man show written by himself: in 2009 he was premiering Dr Whom? My Search for Samuel Johnson, giving a definitive account of the life of Dr Johnson, the man who, in the 18th century, wrote the world's first dictionary of the English language. During 2009 he also appeared in a play, with author Clayton Littlewood and singer Alexis Gerred, portraying a number of character roles in an adaptation of Littlewood's best-selling book Dirty White Boy (a book which became a favourite of Elton John), about the crazy Soho characters, all played by <mask>, who the author came to know during his time running a clothes shop in London's Old Compton Street. Having done initial performances in July 2009, <mask> returned in a longer version of the play for a month's run in 2010, appearing at London's Trafalgar Studios until 26 May. He appeared at the

masks: Benson Benson Benson


texts: Edinburgh Festival Fringe during August 2010 premiering two new productions, previewed in Eastbourne, in Highgate, London and in Oxford during July. The first of these, presented at the Gilded Balloon, continued his singing career.In a show entitled The Singalong Glee Club, he picked up where his Noël Coward song spiel had left off, with a musical evening featuring well-known songs from his 20th Century songbook: but, on this occasion, not exclusively by Coward. His repertoire included "Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars" (Irving Berlin, 1915), "All the Things You Are" (Kern/Hammerstein, 1939), and "Collegiate" (Jaffe/Bonx, 1925). His pianist was once again Stewart Nicholls. The other show which he premiered at the 2010 Fringe was a drama, written by himself, titled Lockerbie – Unfinished Business, telling the story of Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. This production which garnered him international notices, including in the New York Times and as far afield as Hollywood, as well as winning him a Scotsman Fringe First award, and for which he was nominated for an Amnesty International Freedom of Expression award. He ultimately had a dozen one-man shows in his theatrical repertoire, with which he was regularly touring, including Think No Evil Of Us: My Life With Kenneth Williams; Nothing But Pleasure (a.k.a. Mourning Glory);  To Be Frank: Frankie Howerd and the Secret of Happiness; Star Struck: A Fantasy Celebrity Party;  <mask>'s Haunted Stage;  It's A Plot: <mask>'s Conspiracy Cabaret ;  Why Pay More ;  <mask>'s Christmas Party ;  Doctor Whom: My Search for Samuel Johnson;  <mask> sings Noel Coward; and the two

masks:
David Benson
David Benson
David Benson
David Benson


texts: productions which he premiered at Edinburgh in 2010, The Singalong Glee Club and Lockerbie: Unfinished Business.For Easter 2011 he did a London season at the Warehouse, Croydon from 6 to 17 April, presenting Lockerbie: Unfinished Business and his two most enduring shows: Think No Evil of Us – My Life With Kenneth Williams and To Be Frank – Frankie Howerd and the Secret of Happiness. In 2011 he also appeared in the National Theatre production of Richard Bean's comedy One Man, Two Guvnors, starring television actor James Corden, adapted from Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters, which was presented at the Lyttelton Theatre on London's South Bank for a ten-week season from 17 May to 26 July, directed by Nicholas Hytner with Cal McCrystal. <mask> had previously worked with McCrystal in Loot (Derby Playhouse, 2003) and Jack and The Beanstalk (Newbury Corn Exchange, Christmas 2004), both productions which McCrystal directed; and, in addition, <mask> wrote two pantomimes (Cinderella and Dick Whittington) which were directed by McCrystal at Newbury. In One Man, Two Guvnors he played the waiter, Gareth, whilst also understudying two of the main parts, including the lead, Charlie. He ultimately appeared in over 1,000 performances at the NT and in the West End. The production toured the UK throughout September and October, including Cardiff and Edinburgh. Subsequently he starred as Boris Johnson, at a point when Johnson was still London Mayor, in a new one-man show presented at the 2015 and 2016 Edinburgh Fringe festivals, a satire entitled Boris: World King.From 2017 to 2020 he co-starred with actor Jack Lane in a two-hander stage comedy, entitled Dad's Army Radio Show, in which

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 the two performers played 25 characters between them. They adapted a total of nine classic Dad's Army scripts, based on popular episodes from the BBC-tv show written by Jimmy Perry and <mask>, to mark the 50th Anniversary of the show, which began in 1968. After premiering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017 the production went on to play over 250 performances on many nationwide tours. To the relief of <mask> and Lane the show was very much enjoyed by Michael Knowles and Harold Snoad who originally adapted the scripts for radio. The 2020 tour was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the last performance before the nationwide lockdown was at the West Cliff Theatre at Clacton-on-Sea. Edinburgh Fringe 2019 – <mask> returned to the one-man show format with a new show called Cato Street 1820. After four years research and study of the Cato Street conspiracy and discovery of forgotten music in the British Library, the new production is detailed on its own website: http://www.catostreet1820.co.uk

In December 2019 <mask> again starred alongside Jack Lane in a two man show of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at The Capitol Theatre, Horsham.<mask> played the character of Ebenezer Scrooge while his co-star played the rest. The show was a success and went ahead again at the Theatre for December 2020, except the show ended early due to new COVID-19 restrictions in the area. Radio

<mask> has been interviewed on many BBC and ILR radio shows, including Mavis Nicholson (in December 1996), Michael Parkinson’s Sunday Supplement, Ned Sherrin's Loose Ends (in February 2003 and again in December 2007), Kaleidoscope, and Midweek. In December 2002 he appeared in Ruth Draper and

masks:
David Croft
Benson
Benson
Benson
Benson
David Benson


texts: Her Company of Characters on BBC Radio 4, which was an appreciation of the life and career of an actress whom he cites as one of the most important influences on his stage work, for her ability to portray many distinct characters without the benefit of electronic special effects or a supporting cast. <mask> has an unusual facility with accents and as a mimic and impressionist. In November 2003 he performed The Private World of Kenneth Williams, a three-part series for BBC Radio 4, in which he read extracts from The Kenneth Williams Diaries in character as Williams. Subsequently he appeared in-character as Williams in Horne of Plenty, a 3-hour special for BBC radio, broadcast on Radio 7 in December 2005 (repeated in 2008 and 2011), celebrating the radio shows of Kenneth Horne, in all of which Williams had appeared.In February 2006 he narrated the documentary Carry On Filming for BBC Radio 4, a retrospective of the Carry On films, in which Williams had appeared more often than any other member of the team. All of his radio work connected with Kenneth Williams was commissioned by BBC producer Jonathan James Moore, who died in November 2005, aged 59, without whose support this type of work has dried up. More recently, his facility with accents and as a voice artist have led him into character parts in radio drama. In the first of these, in July 2006, he narrated the BBC Radio 1 documentary Waiting for Superman, a history of the DC Comics character, which he performed in an authentic American accent. He then played various character roles in a selection of independent drama productions broadcast on BBC Radio 7 and BBC Radio 4 Extra: firstly in a four-part Paul McGann


texts: Doctor Who radio serial titled Invaders from Mars, set in 1938 (broadcast at Halloween 2005), in which (amongst other parts) he made use of his facility for impersonating famous Hollywood stars by playing Orson Welles; and subsequently in seven science fiction radio productions in The Scarifyers series, made by the independent producer Cosmic Hobo, where he was playing comedy parts in character alongside former Doctor Who actors Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) and Terry Molloy (Davros), in the spoofs The Nazad Conspiracy and The Devil of Denge Marsh (both were three part serials broadcast during 2007, and repeated in 2009, 2010 and 2012), For King and Country (a four-part serial broadcast in February 2009, repeated in 2010, 2011 and 2012), The Curse of the Black Comet (a four-part serial broadcast in October 2010, repeated in May 2011, which also featured Brian Blessed), and The Secret Weapon of Doom (with Leslie Phillips) (a four-part serial broadcast in January 2012, repeated in January 2013). Despite the death in 2011 of co-star Nicholas Courtney, 'The Scarifyers' series has continued. <mask> and Philip Madoc have recorded further serials alongside Terry Molloy, in which <mask> once again played the character parts.The first of these, The Magic Circle, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in January and February 2012 (and repeated in February 2013). The next, The Horror of Loch Ness, aired in 2014. He played the recurring role of Panda in the Iris Wildthyme series, a collection of humorous audio dramas made by Big Finish Productions, released exclusively on CD. These starred another former Doctor Who companion, Katy Manning (Jo Grant), as Miss

masks:
David Warner
Benson


texts: Wildthyme. In December 2007 he appeared in another character role for radio, in a Saturday Play broadcast on BBC Radio 4, written by Pamela Branch. This was a comedy set in 1951, entitled The Wooden Overcoat, in which he was cast as an extremely camp character (even more so than his role as Aleister Crowley in the Scarifyers serials), a characterisation which he based in part on the character known as 'Snide' created by Kenneth Williams on radio in Hancock's Half Hour and in the film Carry On Spying. These comedy productions involved him in character parts, portraying not only American accents but also sundry East European and Russian accents when cast as various mad scientists in the Dr Frankenstein mould.The Scarifyers serials also cast him in one highly camp role, as psychic investigator Aleister Crowley: a part with strongly emphasised similarities to his high-camp comedic style on stage, when portraying Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howerd in his one-man show. In the various Scarifyers comedies, he has typically played half a dozen character roles in each, filling up the cast by supplying those parts not played by stars Nicholas Courtney and Terry Molloy, including – amidst sundry sinister East Europeans – lampooning a varied collection of eccentric upper class Englishmen. His performance as Frankie Howerd in Martyn Hesford's BBC Radio 4 drama Frankie Takes A Trip gained him a Best Actor nomination in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. Comedy has been the recurring theme in his career, which began with his stage act impersonating two famous camp comedians, Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howerd, then progressed to his role in the television situation comedy Goodnight


texts:
 Sweetheart camping it up as Noël Coward, and came full circle with his radio work, playing comedy roles that owe much to the high-camp style popularised by Kenneth Williams. He cites the radio shows of Jack Benny and Spike Milligan as his earliest comedy influences. Film

He played a Liberace hologram in the feature film Blade Runner 2049. This was another engagement, as with his 1990s television work, which he obtained as a result of his one-man stage show, Think No Evil of Us – My Life with Kenneth Williams: Liberace being one of the American stars of whom he did impressions in the Hollywood Party sequence.References

External links

 Cato Street 1820

1962 births
Living people
English male stage actors
English male comedians
Male actors from Oxfordshire
People from Oxford
People from Castle Bromwich
Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London
English male radio


texts:
<mask> (; Ukrainian: Мілена Марківна Куніс; Russian: Милена Марковна Кунис; born ) is an American actress. In 1991, at the age of seven, she and her Jewish family fled from Soviet Ukraine to the United States. At age 14, <mask> began playing Jackie Burkhart on the Fox television series That '70s Show (1998–2006). Since 1999, she has voiced Meg Griffin on the Fox animated series Family Guy. <mask>'s breakout film role came in 2008, playing Rachel in the romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She gained further critical acclaim and accolades for her performance in the psychological thriller Black Swan (2010), for which she received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress, and nominations for the SAG Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other major films include the action films Max Payne (2008) and The Book of Eli (2010), the romantic comedy Friends with Benefits (2011), the fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) as the Wicked Witch of the West, and the comedies Ted (2012), Bad Moms (2016) and its sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas (2017).Early life
Milena Markovna <mask> was born on August 14, 1983, in Chernivtsi, Ukrainian SSR, in the Soviet Union. Her mother, Elvira, is a physics teacher who runs a pharmacy, and her father, <mask>, is a mechanical engineer who works as a cab driver. <mask> has an elder brother, Michael. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Her mother tongue and the common language within her family is Russian. She stated in 2011 that her parents had "amazing jobs", and that she "was very lucky" and the family was "not poor"; they had decided to leave the USSR because they saw "no future" there for <mask> and her brother. In 1991, when

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Milena Markovna Kunis
Kunis
Kunis
Kunis
Mark Kunis
Kunis
Mila


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 she was 7 years old, her family moved to Los Angeles, California, with $250."That was all we were allowed to take with us. My parents had given up good jobs and degrees, which were not transferable. We arrived in New York on a Wednesday and by Friday morning my brother and I were at school in L.A."

<mask> comes from a Jewish family and has cited antisemitism in the former Soviet Union as one of several reasons for her family's move to the United States. She has stated that her parents "raised [her] Jewish as much as they could", although religion was suppressed in the Soviet Union. On her second day in Los Angeles, <mask> was enrolled at Rosewood Elementary School, not knowing a word of English. She later recalled: "I blocked out second grade completely. I have no recollection of it.I always talk to my mom and my grandma about it. It was because I cried every day. I didn't understand the culture. I didn't understand the people. I didn't understand the language. My first sentence of my essay to get into college was like, 'Imagine being blind and deaf at age seven.' And that's kind of what it felt like moving to the States."In Los Angeles, she attended Hubert Howe Bancroft Middle School. She used an on-set tutor for most of her high school years while filming That '70s Show. She briefly attended Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES), but when that school proved to be insufficiently flexible about her acting commitments, she transferred to Fairfax High School, from which she graduated in 2001. She briefly attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. In 2017, <mask> talked about her genealogical DNA test in an interview for ynet, and revealed that her

masks: Kunis Kunis Kunis


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 ethnicity is 96% Ashkenazi Jewish. Career

1994–2000: Career beginnings and television work
At age nine, <mask> was enrolled by her father in acting classes after school at the Beverly Hills Studios, where she met Susan Curtis, who would become her manager. On her first audition she landed the role for a Barbie commercial.Shortly after, she did a commercial for the Lisa Frank product line. Her first television roles took place in 1994, first appearing on Days of Our Lives, and a few months later doing her first of two appearances on Baywatch. She had a minor role on 7th Heaven and supporting roles in Santa with Muscles, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, and the Angelina Jolie film Gia, as the young Gia Carangi. At the age of 10, <mask> unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of a Russian Jewish girl who moves to America in the film Make a Wish, Molly. Instead, she was cast in the secondary role of a Mexican girl. In 1998, <mask> was cast as Jackie Burkhart in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show. All who auditioned were required to be at least 18 years old; <mask>, who was 14 at the time, told the casting directors she would be 18 but did not say when.Though they eventually figured it out, the producers still thought <mask> was the best fit for the role. That '70s Show ran for eight seasons. She won two consecutive Young Star Awards as Best Young Actress in a Comedy TV Series in 1999 and 2000 for her performances. In 1999, <mask> replaced Lacey Chabert in the role of Meg Griffin on the animated sitcom Family Guy, created by Seth MacFarlane for Fox. <mask> won the role after auditions and a slight rewrite of the character, in part due to her performance on That '70s Show. When <mask> auditioned for the role, she was called back

masks: Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis


texts:
 by MacFarlane, who instructed her to speak slower. He then told her to come back another time and enunciate more.Once she claimed that she had it under control, MacFarlane hired her. MacFarlane added: "What <mask> <mask> brought to it was in a lot of ways, I thought, almost more right for the character. I say that Lacey did a phenomenal job, but there was something about <mask> – something very natural about <mask>. She was 15 when she started, so you were listening to a 15-year-old. Oftentimes with animation they'll have adult actors doing the voices of teenagers and they always sound like Saturday morning voices. They sound oftentimes very forced. She had a very natural quality to Meg that really made what we did with that character kind of really work."<mask> was nominated for an Annie Award in the category of Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production in 2007. She also voiced Meg in Family Guy Video Game!, released in 2006. <mask> described her character as "the scapegoat." 2001–2008: Transition to film
In 2001, she appeared in Get Over It opposite Kirsten Dunst. She followed that up in 2002, by starring in the straight-to-DVD horror film American Psycho 2 alongside William Shatner, a sequel to the 2000 film American Psycho. American Psycho 2 was poorly reviewed by critics, and later, <mask> herself expressed embarrassment over the film. In 2004, <mask> starred in the film adaptation Tony n' Tina's Wedding.Although the film was shot in 2004, it did not have a theatrical release until 2007. Most critics did not like the film, which mustered a 25% approval from Rotten Tomatoes. DVD talk concluded that "fans would be much better off pretending the movie never happened in the first place". In 2005, <mask>

masks: Mila Kunis Mila Mila Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis


texts: co-starred with Jon Heder in Moving McAllister, which was not released theatrically until 2007. The film received generally poor reviews and had a limited two-week run in theaters. She followed up with After Sex starring alongside Zoe Saldana, who had also appeared in Get Over It. In October 2006, she began filming Boot Camp (originally titled Straight Edge).The film was not released in theaters in the United States, but was released on DVD on August 25, 2009. <mask> starred as Rachel Jansen in the 2008 comedy film, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, co-produced by Judd Apatow. The role, which she won after unsuccessfully auditioning for Knocked Up, entailed improvisation on her part. The film garnered positive reviews, and was a commercial success, grossing $105 million worldwide. <mask>'s performance was well-received; Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal praised her "fresh beauty and focused energy", while James Berardinelli wrote that she is "adept with her performance and understands the concept of comic timing". She was nominated for a Teen Choice Award. In an interview, <mask> credited Apatow with helping her to expand her career from That '70s Show.Also in 2008, <mask> portrayed Mona Sax, an assassin, alongside Mark Wahlberg in the action film Max Payne, based on the video game of the same name. <mask> underwent training in guns, boxing, and martial arts for her role. Max Payne was relatively successful at the box office, grossing $85 million worldwide but was poorly reviewed by critics, with several reviewers calling <mask> miscast. Travis Estvold of Boise Weekly wrote that she was "horribly miscast as some sort of undersized, warble-voiced crime boss". Director John Moore defended his choice of <mask>

masks: Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis


texts:
 saying, "<mask> just bowled us over..... She wasn't an obvious choice, but she just wears Mona so well. We needed someone who would not be just a fop or foil to Max; we needed somebody who had to be that character and convey her own agenda. I think Mila just knocked it out of the park."She was nominated for another Teen Choice Award for her role in the film. 2009–2012: Film breakthrough and acclaim

In 2009, she appeared in the comedy film Extract with Ben Affleck and Jason Bateman. The film received mostly positive reviews, and grossed $10.8 million at the box office. Roger Ebert, while critical of the film itself, wrote that <mask> "brings her role to within shouting distance of credibility." Director Mike Judge commented that part of what was surprising to learn about <mask> was her ability to make references to the cult animation film Rejected. Judge said: "As beautiful as <mask> is, you could believe that maybe she would cross paths with you in the real world." After seeing <mask> perform in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Judge wanted to cast her in the role of Cindy in Extract: "I just thought, 'Wow, this girl's perfect.'And she really wanted to do it, which was fantastic." <mask> herself stated that "I'm a huge fan of Mike Judge's from Office Space, so I was, like, 'Okay, this is a very easy decision.' I told them I would do anything needed to be in this production– like craft service, or, say, acting." In 2010, she starred alongside Denzel Washington in the action film The Book of Eli. Although the film received mixed reviews, it performed well at the box office, grossing over $157 million worldwide. Film critic Richard Roeper praised <mask>'s performance, calling it a "particularly strong piece of work".

masks: Mila Kunis Kunis Mila Kunis Kunis Kunis


texts: Several other reviews were equally positive, including that of Pete Hammond of Boxoffice magazine, who wrote that she's "ideally cast in the key female role" Even reviewers who didn't necessarily like the film complimented her performance, such as James Berardinelli, who wrote that "the demands of the role prove to be within her range, which is perhaps surprising considering she has been thus far pigeonholed into more lightweight parts", and Colin Covert of the Star Tribune, who wrote that she "generated a spark and brought a degree of determination to her character, developing an independent female character who's not always in need of rescuing."Other critics, such as Claudia Puig of USA Today felt she was miscast, noting that "she looked as if she dropped in from a Ray-Ban commercial". <mask> received another Teen Choice Award nomination for her performance. <mask> was also cast in a minor role in the 2010 comedy film Date Night, starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell. She garnered several positive reviews for her performance. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune concluded her performance with James Franco helped save the film and gave it "a shot in the arm." <mask> was nominated for multiple awards, including her first Golden Globe, for the 2010 film Black Swan. She played a rival ballet dancer to the main character, played by Natalie Portman.Director Darren Aronofsky cast <mask> in the film based on her performance in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and on the recommendation of co-star and close friend Natalie Portman. She underwent a training regimen that included cardiovascular exercise, a 1,200-calorie a day diet (she lost 20 pounds that she regained after filming ended), and ballet classes for four hours a day,

masks: Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis


texts: seven days a week. During the demanding production, she suffered injuries including a torn ligament and a dislocated shoulder. Black Swan received widespread acclaim from critics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film grossed over $106.9 million in the United States and Canada while grossing over $329 million worldwide. Reviews of <mask>'s performance were positive, with Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter stating, "<mask> makes a perfect alternate to Portman, equally as lithe and dark but a smirk of self-assurance in place of Portman's wide-eyed fearfulness." Guy Lodge of In Contention also praised Kunis, saying, "it's the cool, throaty-voiced Kunis who is the surprise package here, intelligently watching and reflecting her co-star in such a manner that we're as uncertain as Nina of her ingenuousness."<mask>'s performance won her the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, and earned her Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. At the 37th annual Saturn Awards, she was also honored with the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance. <mask> was cast alongside Justin Timberlake in the 2011 romantic comedy Friends with Benefits. Director Will Gluck stated that he wrote the story with <mask> and Timberlake in mind. Friends with Benefits achieved success at the box office, grossing over $149 million worldwide, and received mostly positive reviews with critics praising the chemistry between <mask> and Timberlake. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that "Ms. <mask> is fast proving that she's a gift that keeps giving to mainstream romantic comedy"


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 and "her energy is so invigorating and expansive and her presence so vibrant that she fills the screen". In 2012, <mask> co-starred with Mark Wahlberg in Ted, her most commercially successful film to date.The film was directed and co-written by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. <mask> played the girlfriend of Wahlberg's character. When MacFarlane first conceived the project, he considered <mask> too young for the role. However, the film remained in development for several years and when it was finally ready to begin production, he ended up casting her. Ted has received generally positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing $549 million worldwide. Drew McWeeny of HitFix wrote that <mask> "brings some lovely subtle grace notes to a role that easily could have just been 'the pushy girlfriend. 2013–present: Comedic roles
In 2013, <mask> played Theodora, the youngest of three witches, opposite James Franco, in the Walt Disney Pictures' prequel, Oz the Great and Powerful.She dedicated her performance in the film to Margaret Hamilton, the original Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film. The film, and <mask>'s performance, received mixed reviews from critics. Kim Newman of Empire Magazine wrote that <mask> "walks away with the honours as the wavering witch Theodora, whose heartbreak brings another, less-expected depth to this 3D spectacle". In contrast, Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter found <mask>'s performance to be uncertain as her character seemed to be in a state of limbo. Oz the Great and Powerful was a commercial success, grossing over $493 million worldwide. Also in 2013, <mask> co-starred in the crime thriller Blood Ties with Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, and Marion Cotillard. The

masks: Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis Kunis


texts: film premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and had a limited release in the United States in 2014.Blood Ties received mixed reviews. <mask> was also cast in the comedy The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, alongside Robin Williams and Peter Dinklage. The film had a limited theatrical and VOD release and received poor reviews. The Paul Haggis-directed film Third Person co-starring with Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde and James Franco premiered at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival and had a limited release in 2014, but also received mostly negative reviews. <mask>'s performance was praised by some critics; Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that her role gives her "enormous room to express her talent" and she "gives her story a shot of raw intensity". In October 2014, it was announced <mask>, along with her partners, had launched a new production company called Orchard Farm Productions. The company has a first-look deal with ABC Studios, where the company is based.Under the agreement, the team will develop and produce TV projects for broadcast and cable. In 2015, <mask> co-starred with Channing Tatum in the science fiction film Jupiter Ascending, directed by the Wachowskis. While the film grossed over $183.9 million on a $176 million budget, it received mostly negative reviews, with a consensus that the production was "narratively befuddled" and a "visually thrilling misfire". <mask> co-starred with Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate in the comedy Bad Moms, which was released July 29, 2016. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the cast and humor, though did not feel it could "take full advantage of its assets". Chris Nashawaty from Entertainment Weekly wrote that "<mask> manages to be both

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 sympathetic and funny, and she has crack comedic timing". The film went on to earn more than $183.9 million with a budget of $20 million.Following the financial success of Bad Moms, STX Entertainment reunited <mask> with her co-stars Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn for a sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas, which was released on November 1, 2017. It went on to receive mixed reviews and gross over $130 million worldwide with a budget of $28 million. In 2018, <mask> co-starred with Kate McKinnon in the comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me. The film received mixed reviews and went on to gross over $75 million worldwide with a budget of $40 million. <mask> co-starred with Glenn Close in the film Four Good Days. Principal photography began in September 2019 in Los Angeles, and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020. The film received mixed reviews but <mask> was praised for her performance, with Pete Hammond from Deadline Hollywood stating <mask> was "a revelation" in the role, while Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times concluded her performance "represents the finest work she has done".In 2021, she co-starred with Allison Janney and Regina Hall in Breaking News in Yuba County, which was filmed in Mississippi. The film was released February 12, 2021, and received negative reviews from critics. <mask> is slated to produce and star in a Netflix film adaptation of Luckiest Girl Alive based on the Jessica Knoll novel of the same name. In the media

In 2007, <mask> participated in a video for the website Funny or Die appearing alongside James Franco. The video was a parody of the MTV show The Hills and was a huge success for the website, with 2.4 million views over the next ten years. Shawn Levy, director of Date


texts: Night, stated that part of what made him decide to cast <mask> with James Franco in the film was the chemistry he felt they had in the Funny or Die video. In December 2008, <mask> was featured in Gap's "Shine Your Own Star" Christmas campaign.In 2010, she was featured in the "Women We Love" segment in Esquire with an accompanied video. <mask> was among several female stars photographed by Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams in conjunction with the Calvin Klein Collections for a feature titled American Women 2010, with the proceeds from the photographs donated to the NYC AIDS foundation. During the summer of 2010 <mask> served with Randy Jackson as the Master of Ceremonies for the 9th Annual Chrysalis Foundation Benefit. The Chrysalis Foundation is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization formed to help economically disadvantaged and homeless individuals to become self-sufficient through employment opportunities. GQ magazine named <mask> the Knockout of the Year for 2011, with Men's Health naming her one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time". FHM magazine ranked her number 9 on its 2012 Hot 100 list, but she reached number 1 on their 2013 "100 Sexiest Women in the World" list, which brought to an end a four-year run by British women. Prior to this in 2008 <mask> stated, "You've got to base your career on something other than being FHM's top 100 number one girl.Your looks are going to die out, and then what's going to be left?" Maxim has consistently ranked <mask> on its Hot 100 list, reaching a ranking of number 5 in both 2009 and 2011 and number 3 in 2012. Esquire magazine named her 2012's Sexiest Woman Alive. She ranked No. 2 on AskMen's list of Top 99 Women for 2013, behind only Jennifer Lawrence. In


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 2013, she responded to those lists: "All I can say is, I feel honored to be considered sexy." Christian Dior signed <mask> in 2012 to be the face of its Spring fashion campaign.In February 2013, she was named Gemfields global brand ambassador and the face of their advertising campaign. Gemfields is a luxury company that produces emeralds, rubies, and amethysts. She visited Gemfields' mine in Zambia. <mask> appeared wearing Gemfields's Rubies for the world premiere of Jupiter Ascending. In 2013, she appeared in Forbes list of 100 powerful celebrities, ranking #89 on the basis of five criteria (Money, TV/Radio, Press, Social, and Marketability), with her highest ranking as #14 in marketability. She earned $11 million for the year ending in June 2013. In 2014, <mask> appeared in a range of global advertising for Beam, Inc. (makers of Jim Beam bourbon).Her announcement on Conan that she would donate to Planned Parenthood in Vice President Mike Pence's name received praise from supporters of abortion rights; conversely, several pro-life advocates criticized her and Beam, Inc. on Twitter, creating the hashtag #BoycottJimBeam. Personal life

<mask> began dating actor Macaulay Culkin in 2002. During their relationship, there were rumors of the couple getting married, but <mask> denied them. On January 3, 2011, <mask>'s publicist confirmed reports that <mask> and Culkin had ended their relationship, saying, "The split was amicable, and they remain close friends." <mask> began dating her former That '70s Show co-star Ashton Kutcher in April 2012. They became engaged in February 2014, and married during the first weekend of July 2015 in Oak Glen, California. The couple have two children: a daughter, Wyatt, born in October


texts: 2014 and a son, Dimitri, born in November 2016.The family resides in a sustainable farmhouse, designed by the couple and architect Howard Backen, in Beverly Hills. In January 2011, she revealed her struggle with chronic iritis that had caused temporary blindness in one eye. Some months earlier she had had surgery that corrected the problem. <mask> also has heterochromia iridum, a condition in which the irises are different colors. Her left eye is brown, while her right eye is green. On September 14, 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced it was investigating the alleged hacking of <mask>'s cellphone and email accounts, along with those of other celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson and Vanessa Hudgens. Christopher Chaney from Jacksonville, Florida, later pleaded guilty in federal court to nine counts of computer hacking.In November 2011, <mask> was escorted by Sgt. Scott Moore to a U.S. Marine Corps Ball in Greenville, North Carolina. She had accepted Moore's invitation in July after he posted it as a YouTube video while serving with the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, in Afghanistan's Helmand province. The event celebrated the Marine Corps' 236th anniversary. <mask> is a supporter of the Democratic Party. In a 2012 interview, she criticized the Republican Party, saying: "The way that Republicans attack women is so offensive to me. And the way they talk about religion is offensive.I may not be a practicing Jew, but why we gotta talk about Jesus all the time?" In 2017, <mask> disclosed that she had been making monthly donations to Planned Parenthood in Mike Pence's name. In April 2020, <mask> and Kutcher developed their own wine, named Quarantine Wine, with 100% of the proceeds going to aid


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 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year they launched Outside Wine, a blend of red wine, whose profits would benefit The Skate Park Project and Thorn.org. Acting credits and awards

According to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, <mask>'s most critically successful films are Gia (1998), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Extract (2009), Date Night (2010), Black Swan (2010), Friends with Benefits (2011), Ted (2012), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) and Bad Moms (2016). Her television projects include FOX sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2006) and animated series Family Guy (1999–present). <mask> has received one Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress and two Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Outstanding Performance by a Cast for her performance in Black Swan (2010).<mask> was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting for her work in Family Guy and has garnered two Critics' Choice Awards nominations for Best Supporting Actress in Black Swan (2010) and Best Actress in a Comedy in Ted (2012) respectively. References

External links

1983 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Los Angeles
American child actresses
American film actresses
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
Bukovina Jews
California Democrats
Jewish American actresses
People from Chernivtsi
People with acquired American citizenship
Soviet emigrants to the United States
Soviet Jews
Television producers from California
Marcello Mastroianni Award winners
American women television producers
Jewish Ukrainian actors
American


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<mask> (July 17, 1908 – July 26, 1987) was an American concert dancer and choreographer who creatively combined ballet arts and Spanish techniques. She excelled when before an audience with dance experience, receiving enthusiastic praise from performers and critics. Her stage career began in the mid-1920s. Her programs often were of her own design. From the 1950s she remained influential as a Los Angeles-based teacher. Origins
<mask> was born in Goldfield, Nevada, the daughter of Josephine Gauss and her second husband <mask>, a restaurateur and gambler. Her French German mother was a concert-level pianist.Her father, Italian and Spanish, had considered a career singing opera; his father was first cousin to Adelina Patti (1843-1919), a celebrated soprano. Hence the name <mask> <mask>. "Carmelita was brought up as Spanish." Her mother had told her that she was born in Montevideo, Uruguay; <mask> only learned differently much later from her husband. After the family moved to San Francisco her formal schooling began at a convent. Later in Fresno she continued her dance lessons, while attending a private school for girls. "Carmie was her mother's spoiled darling."On a nine-foot Steinway her mother played, music to which "Carmie danced, from the moment she could move--danced before she could walk," according to what choreographer Agnes de Mille later learned. In 1924, when sixteen, she relocated with her grandmother to Los Angeles, to widen her horizons and advance her dancing skills. She

masks:
Carmelita Maracci
Carmelita Maracci
Joseph Maracci
Carmelita
Patti Maracci
Maracci


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 made her debut, traveled to study in New York City, toured with a show, then came to California. In Hollywood during the mid-1930s Agnes and <mask> hung out together. De Mille described the situation and people:

"I found the atmosphere of the house, comforting. There was always a group of radicals, malcontents, and indigent writers, intermingled with painters and dancers, waiting to be recharged by Carmelita's personality, for she was great fun to be with." <mask>'s dancing was already special; it sparked "extravagant" rumors."It is no ordinary experience to discover one evening that an intimate, a known, well-loved, daily companion, has genius." In her studio, the night before <mask> left for a San Francisco concert, de Mille saw her dance for the first time. She writes, "my jaw dropped". Adding, "This girl worked with thunder." New styles of dancing

In 1926 at the Hollywood Bowl <mask> had performed as a soloist, by way of her dance teacher Ernest Belcher. In New York she studied several dance styles, among her teachers: Hippolita Mora and Helba Huara (Spanish dance), and Enrico Zanfretta and Luigi Albertieri (ballet). Again as a soloist she toured with a dance company; in San Francisco she joined a small troupe.<mask> then ceased performing. While in seclusion she created her new style of dancing. In 1930, she was ready to present for the first time "a program of her own works" to music by Ravel, de Falla, Granados, and Schumann, probably held at Trinity Auditorium. A similar

masks: Carmelita Maracci Maracci Maracci Maracci


texts: debut in New York City came in 1937. Her arrival in New York was troubled by her sponsor's sudden default. Yet undeterred she continued, first on stage at the 92nd Street Y, then at other theatrical venues. Her performances were well received."Camelita <mask>, the fiery and brilliantly talented West Coast dancer, who combined ballet and Spanish dance" first performed at the Y. "<mask> mesmerized New Yorkers with her smoldering passion and unique movement style. Here were wonderfully spiraling hands, a spine that arched proudly, and dazzling technical footwork. "Kuang (2005), at the 92nd Street Y Maracci danced before an audience of "artists and intellectuals". To ballet she added Spanish dance. Some techniques derived from baile flamenco. Inspired by flamenco Manuel de Falla, in his 1919 ballet El Sombrero de Tres Picos (French: Le Tricorne) delivered its music orchestrated.Choreographer Léonide Massine used elements from the two dance arts. In 1922 Falla and poet García Lorca with a coalition of artists produced Concurso de Cante Jondo, a flamenco song and dance festival in Granada. <mask>'s innovative fusions of ballet and baile were cutting-edge works. Whether solo or small group, some critics saw her shows as 'hybrid dance'. For her pas seul, with a subtlety both novel and smooth, she'd syncopate the castanets. Simply done with the eloquence of her dancer's art, her idiosyncratic solo designs worked to dazzle audiences. These rare shows were worth the wait, the long lines.Freely

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texts:
 she'd chosen from several traditions to create her works of art. From early neoclassical ballet she took, or from popular Spanish dance, not specifically flamenco yet with its moods and lines. In Los Angeles in the late 1920s she had brought together in her person the ingredients to craft one-of-a-kind performances. "<mask> began to experiment with choreography that was a blend of ballet and Spanish dance techniques." From her conjuring of the two styles emerged a singularity. John Martin, then dance critic at The New York Times, came to conclude: "Both styles are merely materials out of which she fashions an art that is altogether personal, purely subjective in its creative approach, and utterly unique." Later Agnes de Mille retold it:

Plainly and simply, Carmelita's best dances were the most passionate and powerfully devised solos I have ever seen.... ¶ Her line was visually flawless. ¶ She baffled criticism because her technique fell into two categories: ballet, which, although impeccably correct, was not classic in style, and Spanish, which was virtuoso in its range but highly unorthodox in form and flavor. She had no wish to perpetuate aesthetic traditions and used only those stock gestures so deeply imbued with emotion as to have become, under her manipulation, original." "The Nightingale and the Maiden from Enrique Granados's Goyescas" was a dance solo created by <mask>. De Mille writes, "Jerome Robbins described [it] to me as the most beautiful solo dance he had ever seen.

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 In this dance Carmie's castanets made the sound of the bird's song... ."

Fruits of her creation

After touring across America with other troupes, in the 1930s and 1940s she led her own company, nationwide. The distinctive performances that <mask> presented were "a repertory of her own dances".Between <mask>'s featured solos, the six other dancers took the stage. Her act was considered top rung by those in the business. In New York City she performed in 1939 at the St. James Theatre on Broadway and in 1946 at Carnegie Hall. In 1951 at the Metropolitan Opera House for Ballet Theatre she staged her choreographic work Circo de España.<ref>Carmelita <mask> Papers, the mixed reception re Circo de Espana'; see also "Mid-career" section below.</ref>

"<mask>'s dancing was deeply personal and an innovative art form. With fiery, passionate individuality and deep political and social convictions, she created dances inspired by Goya's war drawings, García Lorca's poetry, and Unamuno's philosophy. Her dances could be satirical, witty, or flirtatious; a passionate protest of inhumanity or a celebration of human spirit, a plunge to deepest sorrow or an expression of joy." Starting in the 1930s, she received press reviews that noted her extraordinary art, e.g., in The Times of London, the Paris-Soir, and the English monthly Dancing Times.In the 1940s John Martin of The New York Times wrote six-column reviews hailing <mask>, recognizing her as "a unique phenomenon". <mask> also worked as a

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texts: choreographer for Hollywood films, although with pause and an instinctive reluctance. In 1951 for Charlie Chaplin she contributed to the dance scenes in his Limelight, released in 1952. During the war she was a source for dances in the film Three Caballeros by Walt Disney released in 1944. While "commercially successful" it was for <mask> "personally unsatisfying. "Perlmutter (1985): when Herbert Ross asked to use her name in his 1977 film about the world of ballet in New York City The Turning Point she refused, but was included as "Carmelita". In later years, "her performances, though infrequent, drew lines around the block and enthralled the audiences."Yet "<mask> freely admits that her art was not for the masses." She began rehearsals, but ultimately declined to dance the lead role in the ballet Giselle. She clearly preferred her intimate solos, alternating with the 'individual voices' of her several dancers, accompanied by a chamber ensemble, rather than a large ballet company with a full orchestra. She refused to dance in a Spain ruled by  Franco. Throughout her career, <mask> excelled in fashioning and performing her singular dances, performed solo: Cante Jondo ("Deep Song"), Viva la Madre ("Live for the one who bore you"), Dance of Elegance (a satire, a "caricature of a ballet dancer preening"), La Pasionaria (a radio voice of civil-war Spain, a coal-miner's daughter), Another Goyesca (to a piano suite by Granados about painter Francisco Goya), Carlotta Grisi in Retrospect


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 (about the nineteenth century Italian ballet dancer), The Nightingale and the Maiden (inspired by a poem written in 1500, to music by Granados).Kuang (2005), her dances, the poem.Allegra Kent (2001), quotes from a Los Angeles program's description of The Nightingale and the Maiden: "The Maja, her gay frivolity gone, is portrayed in somber hues of sorrow, and finds through her castanets an affinity with the nightingale." "But unlike those who struggle for immortality, <mask> refused to compromise her sensibilities or her convictions. She turned away from the fame-makers and artist-merchants, often with just scant cause, and generally made herself inaccessible.By choice, she never connected with the major institutions nor lingered for long in the limelight." She was long acknowledged by admirers in the ballet world for her inner knowledge of the art. In 1985 Robert Joffrey of Joffrey Ballet said of her, "There was, and still is, no one like her. She had incredible strength and supreme delicacy. Her technique was astonishing, perfection itself... ." <mask> was known, according to dance writer Walter Terry, as "one of the major dance figures of our time."Cf. Carmeliita <mask> website: titles of her dances and choreography. Mid-career troubles

"Although regarded by her peers as one of the leading dancers in the United States... <mask> shrank from the concert stage after two experiences which devastated her."Dunning (1987), the two events. In 1946 a lone drunken heckler in St. Paul,

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texts: Minnesota, mocked her three dancers. They were on stage doing <mask>'s choreographed tribute to the republican loyalists of the  Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). She emerged from backstage quite angry, and ordered the curtain pulled down. It terminated the performance, outraged the local theater, and eventually ended the financial backing for her touring shows. The second event concerned the 1951 staging of her choreography Circo de España, for the Ballet Theatre in New York City. Its debut was not considered successful enough by the ballet company, concludeding that it needed work.de Mille (1990), pp.60–61 (1951 Circo event in NYC). De Mille writes that it was she who successfully suggested that "Ballet Theatre  produce a suite of Carmelita's dances" (p. 60). During the Spanish Civil War, <mask> had been greatly moved by La Pasionaria, an exceptional woman whose emotional radio oratory championed a Republican faction. <mask>'s political views were strongly held; she "wanted to change the world through theater." Yet she probably overreacted in St. Paul. At the theater manager, according to Agnes de Mille, <mask> "let loose... the full extent of her primal rage. She attacked the man personally and all the people of St.Paul." Forty years later, in a private letter, "she still referred to 'the drunken audience jeering at Spanish heroes'. "Carmelita <mask> Papers re 1946 event in St. Paul: "It was a traumatic experience for <mask>... , particularly after Agnes de Mille alluded to the


texts: incident in her [1962] book To a Young Dancer." About her Circo de España at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, <mask> "was told by the famed dancer Agnes de Mille that the ballet was 'no good'." So wrote Jack Jones, a journalist for The Los Angeles Times. According to de Mille, however, <mask>'s performances had fascinated everyone in the ballet company. Yet when staged her brilliant solo dances did not fit well into the larger piece.The New York audience was "puzzled and not a little put off by Carmelita's austere, sardonic personality" and was "tepid in response". Oliver Smith, the co-director of Ballet Theatre, told de Mille it needed work, and to give <mask> a "pep talk" to pull the piece together. In <mask>'s dressing room, the pep talk unexpectedly  "produced in no time a collapse. She had to be carried out of the theater." A contrary view was expressed in a speech by dance journalist Donna Perlmutter. Although de Mille harbored an "intense admiration" for <mask>, she also had a "burning... I guess you could call it...jealousy." About the 1951 incident with Ballet Theatre,  "Agnes had no small part in this." <mask> had expressly requested dance and theater conditions that were promised, but not delivered. Consequently, she felt that the Circo de España performance "wasn't a ballet but a disaster." Antony Tudor, a resident choreographer with Ballet Theatre, however, afterward made some puzzling remarks. Perlmutter continued. After "reflecting on that April night... " de Mille


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 "says she immediately told <mask> the ballet was no good, and because <mask> was always on the emotional brink, Donald Saddler carried her from the theater shortly thereafter.""Yes, I was devastated," <mask> admitted. "Agnes can be unbearably cruel. She came to my dressing room like a matador, people on either side of her... . She came to deliver the verdict. She told me that Tudor always says what he doesn't mean, that he meant I'm no good... ."Some of Perlmutter's oral remarks at the 2008 Centenary celebration drew from her 1985 article. Beyond the dissimilar views as to how it happened, there are different commentaries on its significance. The journalist Jack Jones writing about it, quotes what later "<mask> said of herself":

"People tell me my unplanned oblivion was a tragedy. ...But I say no. Save that word for human suffering, for wars that kill innocent people, for the devastation of the poor and unwanted, for the corruption and cruelty that cause these things in the world. Mine is no tragedy. If art could relieve misery, I'd gladly sacrifice it. "According to Perlmutter (video at 6:10-7:00), <mask> 'gave' this quote to Agnes de Mille. Ambivalent reflections

Agnes de Mille, her former student, expressed admiration for <mask>. In her book, de Mille describes the paradox of <mask>'s career.The New York Times had early "predicted international glory." True, "Carmelita had imagination, verve, energy, and fascination. What she did not have was the ability to cope with the

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 practicalities of her career." At a setback in the late thirties in New York, she had "tongue-lashed all concerned". Collapses often are "contrived to hide flaws" yet her "talent was immaculate". Although managers want reliable clients, "anyone who prefers practical cooperation to genius is a fool." To build a great career, however, takes realistic courage, and a steadfast character; "those with a great gift generally have in their character a certain instinctive protection of the endowment."Here, "Carmie was a tragic exception. "de Mille wrote to <mask> that she and other dance professionals, Jerome Robbins and Martha Graham, had had psychiatric analysis and recommend it. <mask> was greatly offended, taking it as "wickedly mocking"; the fault was public taste and venal managers. She retired from the stage. de Mille, Portrait Gallery (1990), pp. 64–65, at 64 (quote). Donna Perlmutter, the Los Angeles journalist who carefully followed her career, quotes <mask> who here is musing on her own inner constellation, on her soul's passage through the arts:

"The terrain I've traveled led me into Goya's land of terror and blood soaked pits... ." Accordingly, "I could not be a dancer of fine dreams and graveyard decor.So I danced hard about what I saw and lived. I was not an absentee landlord. I was one of the dispossessed. "de Mille (1963), p. 165 (terrain quote of <mask>). "I was a gypsy joad," <mask> then said at the end, probably here referring to the Joad family in the 1939 novel The


texts:
 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Cf., <mask> (1961). After interviews, especially of her husband Lee Freeson, and years of research, Perlmutter comes to layered conclusions.Her fate had elements of tragedy. The great gifts in the dance arts that she possessed and crafted were enjoyed for the most part by a few hundreds, by knowledgeable people in the City of Los Angeles, rather than by multitudes of aficionados nationwide, worldwide. Yet her fate was born of her character, her compass of principles. Perlmutter from a podium said:

"In literal terms, she Carmelita knew only privilege and doting parents, and never encountered a land of terror and blood soaked pits. Hers was purely a case of identification with its victims, an overt rallying to their cause, an imaginative leap. At its most profound, she tapped a kinship based on interior terror and ravaged spirit." However hard and durable was her perfectionist spirit, and however vivid her anger at acts of intentional cruelty or political mayhem, she also possessed a corresponding sensitivity for the suffering of the victims of the world.Although this might fuel her artistic expression, it also seemed to cause her vulnerability, her surprising fragility. Perhaps it led her to become overly sensitive, apprehensive before an general audience that likely would be ill-prepared, unsuspecting of her intense emotional charge.Perlmutter video at youtube, 14:49–15:17. "She did live in those 'blood soaked pits,' in her, in her mind, in her


texts:
 heart, in her soul. She was ravaged with fear. ... That's why the whole world didn't know her." On the other hand, it was the very strength of her principles that guided her when she grew and nurtured her art, and appraised the various offers to perform.Perlmutter (1985), she avoided "fame-makers and artist-merchants." Carmelita wrote:

"The performing artist is in a difficult position because the buying public doesn't want people who have dissenting opinions to disturb the illusion.""Aridity is the price we pay for fear of listening to the human cry." After she died of a heart attack her husband had to identify her body at the mortuary. Later he told Agnes de Mille that when he saw her Carmelita
"lay like a little girl, at most thirteen or fourteen years old, absolutely pure, incorporeal, weightless, a spirit. He thought she would float from the room. He had seen nothing like it in his life. This was the essence of la Maracci, a born dancer, a great one who had concealed herself, hidden somehow until this moment... ."

Teaching the ballet arts
As a student of <mask>, Allegra Kent developed "a sense of mild rebellion--I became an original dance creature." "Her reputation attracted students" whether the young or the professional dancer.For <mask> "teaching gave her more autonomy." She had offered instruction in ballet since the 1930s, but it became her focus as she approached her fiftieth year. "Her teaching included politics, poetry, music, and cooking, as a way to nurture the art


texts: of dance as an integral part of the student's journey of life. "de Mille (1990),  pp. 54–55, 66. Among her talents: cooking, drawing, dress design. She "showed me how to enjoy a city when one had no money at all" (p. 55)."She lived in a world of people who came to sit at her feet." Over a teaching career spanning 50 years, among others <mask> taught John Clifford, Gerald Arpino, Joan Bayley, Erik Bruhn, Leslie Caron, William Carter, Charlie Chaplin,  Geraldine Chaplin, Joan Chodorow, Janet Collins, Carmen de Lavallade, Agnes de Mille, Paul Godkin, Cynthia Gregory, Allegra Kent, Julie Newmar, Ruth Page, Tommy Rall, Tina Ramirez, Jerome Robbins, Janice Rule, Donald Saddler, Laurie Sibbald, Christine Sarry, and Gwen Verdon.Dunning (1987), students.Joan Bayley website. <mask> "turned down a lot of movie stars who came to her school wanting to take private lessons, even though she was struggling and needed the money." She was a major influence on Los Angeles dance teacher, Irina Kosmovska. Cynthia Gregory remembers her teaching class "on pointe and wearing pink tights puffing a cigarette, flicking it out the window and dashing off a fast, furious  set of pirouettes." "I think that a technique should be subordinated to the idea," Carmelita wrote. Tina Ramirez, the founder and artistic director of Ballet Hispanico, called <mask> a "fabulous dancer" who could "dance ballet on pointe" as well as she could in a Spanish style.She sought in her teaching to "influence the overall well-being" of


texts: her students. In "imaginative ways" <mask> related "the history of dance to that of music." She might say, "And now do an arabesque as if you were standing on top of the world looking down." Joan Chodorow describes <mask>i as "a great artist and teacher". She writes that when she was a young teenager, circa the late 1950s, she began "intensive studies" with her in Los Angeles. "[<mask>'s] daily classes became the center of my life. She demanded utter dedication from her students and imparted an unusually strong classical ballet technique.But technique was never an end in itself, rather it was necessary to give form to powerful images, to express the heights and depths of human experience. Music, emotion and dance were inseparable. Carmelita's accompanists were usually pianists of concert caliber who played with great feeling. The beauty of the music moved many of her students to tears, so it was not unusual to dance and at the same time weep." Allegra Kent writes, "As a teacher Carmelita was able to impart and illuminate... the ineffable qualities as well as the technical points of ballet." She treated me as an imaginative child, celebrated my learning, and taught me "that dancing can be a profound experience for the performer and the audience alike." She was generous."Carmelita showed me that feelings and emotions had to be genuine, not put on like a spangled dress for a party." Dancers listened to the music. "Somewhat like an athlete but also as an artist, we had to paint sound


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 and sculpt rhythm." "Passionately opinionated, Miss <mask> taught classes with a Socratic tinge, including talk of politics and the other arts of the time. She continued teaching during her last illness by gathering students around her bedside to talk with them of the art of ballet," wrote dance journalist Jennifer Dunning. A longtime student remarked, "Every class of hers was really a performance." A centennial event celebrating <mask>'s birth was held on September 28, 2008, in Los Angeles.References

Bibliography
Primary
Agnes de Mille, "<mask> Maracci" chapter in Portrait Gallery. Artists, impresarios, intimates (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1990). Jennifer Dunning, "<mask> Maracci, a Ballet Instructor and Choreographer", Obituary, The New York Times, August 3, 1987. Jack Jones, "<mask> <mask>, the Dancers' Dancer, Dies", The Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1987. Allegra Kent, "Carmelita Maracci" in Dance Magazine, January 1, 2001, at The Free Library (website). Elspeth Kuang, "Carmelita Maracci" in Susan Ware and Stacy Braukman, editors, Notable American Women. A biographical dictionary.Completing the twentieth century, volume 5 (Harvard University 2005). <mask> <mask>, "The Portrait--the Individual Voice" in Impulse 1961. The Annual of Contemporary Dance. Donna Perlmutter, "A Legend's 'Unplanned Oblivion'," in The Los Angeles Times, April 21, 1985. Nancy Reynolds, "<mask> Maracci" in Selma Cohen, editor, The International Encyclopedia of Dance (Oxford University 1998). Jane Wollman

masks: Maracci Maracci Carmelita Carmelita Carmelita Maracci Carmelita Maracci Carmelita