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History Of The World, Part I
''History of the World, Part I'' is a 1981 American comedy film written, produced, and directed by Mel Brooks. Brooks also stars in the film, playing five roles: Moses, Comicus the stand-up philosopher, Tomás de Torquemada, King Louis XVI, and Jacques, ''le garçon de pisse''. The large ensemble cast also features Sid Caesar, Shecky Greene, Gregory Hines (in his film debut), Charlie Callas; and Brooks regulars Ron Carey, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Andreas Voutsinas, and Spike Milligan. The film also has cameo appearances by Royce D. Applegate, Bea Arthur, Nigel Hawthorne, Hugh Hefner, John Hurt, Phil Leeds, Barry Levinson, Jackie Mason, Paul Mazursky, Andrew Sachs and Henny Youngman, among others. Orson Welles narrates each story. Despite carrying the title Part I, there were originally no plans for a sequel. The title is a play on ''The History of the World, Volume 1'' by Sir Walter Raleigh, as detailed below. However, 40 years after the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954) alongside Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart. With Carl Reiner, he created the comic character The 2000 Year Old Man. He wrote, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series ''Get Smart'' (1965–1970). In middle age, Brooks became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with many of his films being among the top 10 moneymakers of their respective years of release. His best-known films include '' The Producers'' (1967), ''The Twelve Chairs'' (1970), '' Blazing Saddles'' (1974), ''Young Frankenstein'' (1974), '' Silent Movie'' (1976), '' High Anxiety'' (1977), ''History of the World, Part I'' (1981), '' Spaceba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ..., which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray began the site on August 7, 1998, making forecasts of the top-10 highest-grossing films in the United States for the following weekend. To compare his forecasts to the actual results, he started posting the weekend grosses and wrote a regular column with box-office analysis. In 1999, he started to post the Friday daily box-office grosses, sourced from Exhibitor Relations, so that they were publicly available online on Saturdays and posted the Sunday weekend estimates on Sundays. Along with th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Hawthorne
Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne (5 April 1929 – 26 December 2001) was an English actor. He is most known for his stage acting and his portrayal of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the permanent secretary in the 1980s sitcom '' Yes Minister'' and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, ''Yes, Prime Minister''. For this role, he won four BAFTA TV Awards for Best Light Entertainment Performance. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying King George III in '' The Madness of King George'' (1994). He later won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor, for the 1996 series '' The Fragile Heart''. He was also an Olivier Award and Tony Award winner for his work in theatre. Early life Hawthorne was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, the second of four children of Agnes Rosemary (née Rice) and Charles Barnard Hawthorne, a physician. When Nigel was three years old, the family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bea Arthur
Beatrice Arthur (born Bernice Frankel; May 13, 1922 – April 25, 2009) was an American actress and comedian. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, Arthur began her career on stage in 1947, attracting critical acclaim before achieving worldwide recognition for her work on television beginning in the 1970s as Maude Findlay in the popular sitcoms ''All in the Family'' (1971–1972) and '' Maude'' (1972–1978) and later in the 1980s and 1990s as Dorothy Zbornak on ''The Golden Girls'' (1985–1992). Arthur won several accolades throughout her career, beginning with the 1966 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for playing Vera Charles in ''Mame''. She won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1977 for ''Maude'' and 1988 for ''The Golden Girls''. Arthur has received the third most nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series with nine; only Julia Louis-Dreyfus (11) and Mary Tyler Moore ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royce D
Markus Bennett is an American hip-hop recording artist. People Surname * Ed Royce (born 1951), American politician * Elwyn E. Royce (1868–1960), American politician * Henry Royce (1863–1933), cofounder of the Rolls-Royce automobile company * Homer Elihu Royce (1820–1891), American lawyer, politician and jurist * Josiah Royce (1855–1916), historian and idealist philosopher * Kenneth W. Royce, American libertarian author * Lionel Royce (1891–1946), Austrian-American actor of stage and screen * Mike Royce (born 1964), American comedian, screenwriter and television producer * Ralph Royce (1890–1965), United States Army Air Forces general during World War II * Robert Royce (1914–2008), Australian botanist * Ruth Royce (1893–1971), American vaudeville performer and silent film actress * Simon Royce (born 1971), English footballer * Robert Royce, (born 1969), Court Mediator and Arbitrator, International Court of Arbitration and Mediation Center * Winston W. Royce (1929 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cameo Appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly either appearances in a work in which they hold some special significance (such as actors from an original movie appearing in its remake) or renowned people making uncredited appearances. Short appearances by celebrities, film directors, politicians, athletes or musicians are common. A crew member of the movie or show playing a minor role can be referred to as a cameo role as well, such as Alfred Hitchcock's frequent cameos. Concept Originally, in the 1920s, a "cameo role" meant "a small character part that stands out from the other minor parts". The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' connects this with the meaning "a short literary sketch or portrait", which is based on the literal meaning of " cameo", a miniature carving on a gemstone. Mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Colonial India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. Disliking his first name, he began to call himself "Spike" after hearing the band Spike Jones and his City Slickers on Radio Luxembourg. Milligan was the co-creator, main writer, and a principal cast member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'', performing a range of roles including the characters Eccles and Minnie Bannister. He was the earliest-born and last surviving member of the Goons. He took his success with ''The Goon Show'' into television with '' Q5'', a surreal sketch show credited as a major influence on the members of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. He wrote and edited many books, including '' Puckoon' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andreas Voutsinas
Andreas Voutsinas ( el, Ανδρέας Βουτσινάς; 22 August 1930 – 8 June 2010) was a Sudanese-Greek actor and theater director. In the English-speaking world, he was best known for his roles in three Mel Brooks films, '' The Producers'' (1967), ''The Twelve Chairs'' (1970) and ''History of the World, Part I'' (1981). Life and career Voutsinas was born on 22 August 1932 in Khartoum, since there was a sizeable community of Greek settlers in Sudan at the time. His parents hailed from the Ionian Island of Kefalonia. They set up a pasta factory in the Anglo-Egyptian colony, "reputedly supplying spaghetti to Italian forces" during the Fascist invasion of Abyssinia. After the collapse of the business during WWII, Voutsinas moved with his mother to Athens. Voutsinas studied acting and costume design at the Old Vic School and drama and song at the Webber Douglas Academy in London, and, in 1957, joined the Actors Studio. Voutsinas directed more than 130 performances of clas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Callas
Charlie Callas (born Charles Callias; December 20, 1924 – January 27, 2011) was an American actor and comedian. He was most commonly known for his work with Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin, and his many stand-up appearances on television talk shows in the 1970s. He was also known for his role as Malcolm Argos, the restaurant owner and former con man, on the Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner television series ''Switch'' (1975–1978). Callas was also known as the voice of Elliott the Dragon in Disney's live-action/animated musical film '' Pete's Dragon'' (1977). Life and career Callas was born on December 20, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York, as Charles Callias, the son of a Greek father and German mother. He served in the United States Army during World War II. He began his career as a drummer playing in groups with Bernie Cummins, Tommy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, and Buddy Rich. He dropped a vowel from his legal name, Callias, when he took to the stage. Callas was known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ensemble Cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the popular model, which gives precedence to a sole protagonist, an ensemble cast leans more towards a sense of "collectivity and community". Cinema Ensemble casts in film were introduced as early as September 1916, with D. W. Griffith's silent epic film '' Intolerance'', featuring four separate though parallel plots. The film follows the lives of several characters over hundreds of years, across different cultures and time periods. The unification of different plot lines and character arcs is a key characteristic of ensemble casting in film; whether it's a location, event, or an overarching theme that ties the film and characters together. Films that feature ensembles tend to emphasize the interconnectivity of the characters, even wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis XVI Of France
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was executed by guillotine. He was the son of Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir-apparent of King Louis XV, and Maria Josepha of Saxony. When his father died in 1765, he became the new Dauphin. Upon his grandfather's death on 10 May 1774, he became King of France and Navarre, reigning as such until 4 September 1791, when he received the title of King of the French, continuing to reign as such until the monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792. The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform the French government in accordance with Enlightenment ideas. These included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the '' taille'' (land tax) and the ''corvée'' (labour tax), and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics as well as abo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tomás De Torquemada
Tomás de Torquemada (14 October 1420 – 16 September 1498), also anglicized as Thomas of Torquemada, was a Castilian Dominican friar and first Grand Inquisitor of the Tribunal of the Holy Office (otherwise known as the Spanish Inquisition). The Spanish Inquisition was a group of ecclesiastical prelates that was created in 1478, and which was charged with the somewhat ill-defined task of "upholding Catholic religious orthodoxy" within the lands of the newly formed union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon. The lands of this newly formed royal union are now known as the Kingdom of Spain. Mainly because of persecution, Muslims and Jews in Castile and Aragon at that time found it socially, politically, and economically expedient to convert to Catholicism (see ''Converso'', Morisco, and Marrano). The existence of superficial converts from Judaism (i.e., Crypto-Jews) was perceived by the Catholic Monarchs as a threat to the religious and social life in their realms. This led To ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
