text: In addition to being tested on their comedy skills in improv games, the performers are also tested on other skills, such as singing, dancing, or impressions, as "Whose Line" features a number of musical games, with one or more of the show's resident musicians playing live backing music for them, except on a few occasions when pre-recorded music was also used. Although they had no bad feelings about these sort of games, many of the performers disliked them. While Wayne Brady turned out to be well suited to them, having Chip Esten, Jeff Davis, Brad Sherwood and Gary Anthony Williams making frequent appearances as his duet partner, Stiles frequently expressed open disdain towards the "Hoedown" game, which became a bit of a running gag, while Mochrie, who cannot sing, mainly preferred to deliver his lines in a spoken word fashion, much like in the UK original.


title: Whose Line Is It Anyway? (American TV series)

text: "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" was created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson in 1988 as a radio show on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom. This early incarnation of the show is notable as being the origin of its tradition of having the performers read the credits in an amusing style; as it was a radio show, it was necessary for somebody to read the credits, and it was decided that it might as well be done as part of the program, rather than being done by a traditional BBC Radio announcer. This approach to reading credits was pioneered by the earlier BBC radio show "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again". Indeed, the title of the show itself is a comedic riposte to another radio show, "What's My Line", merged with the title of a 1972 teleplay (and eventual theatrical play) "Whose Life Is It Anyway?".


text: The radio series lasted for six episodes, after which Channel 4 developed the franchise for television.


text: The British television version lasted for a total of 10 seasons, with 136 episodes, all of which were hosted by Clive Anderson. Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles, who would later star in the U.S. version, became regular cast members in the seventh and eighth seasons.


text: The format of the American version was very similar to the British program. A major difference was Carey's use of the game-show facade, explicitly stating at the start of each episode that "the points don't matter," and sometimes emphasizing this throughout the episodes. The difference in standards in the UK compared to U.S. prime time meant stricter censoring of both language and content on the U.S. series.


text: Production of the American version was canceled by ABC in 2003 because of low ratings, with already-produced episodes airing first-run into 2004. The ABC Family cable channel, which had been airing repeats of the show since 2002, also showed "new" episodes from January 2005 to December 2007, formed from previously filmed but unaired performances.


text: Following the cancellation, Drew Carey went on to create the short-lived "Drew Carey's Green Screen Show", which premiered in 2004 on the WB. The series was very similar to "Whose Line?", and featured many of the same cast. The major gimmick on that series was that the acting was done in front of a green screen, and animators later added cartoon imagery to the scenes.


text: Carey and several cast members also started touring North America with a live-action show called "(Drew Carey's) Improv All-Stars." The show was a live stage show similar to "Whose Line?", and featuring many of the same games, though also with some new ones. The live shows started in 2003, and since 2006, are only seen on occasion, mostly due to Carey's current television obligations. Colin Mochrie, Brad Sherwood and Drew Carey performed at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal as "Improv All-Stars" in 2003 and 2004. Since 2005, Mochrie and Sherwood have toured semi-regularly as "An Evening With Colin and Brad".


text: Greg Proops and Ryan Stiles presented "Stiles & Proops Unplanned", a live improv comedy show based on the successful "Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned" format that took place at Centaur Theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in July 2008. They also tour with former co-star Jeff Davis under the name "Whose Live Anyway?" doing live improv. Proops appeared as Max Madigan on Nickelodeon's "True Jackson, VP", and is currently hosting "Head Games" on The Science Channel and was the host of "Odd News" segments for Yahoo! (now called Broken News Daily) while Esten has made multiple appearances in various TV series including "The Office", "ER" (also produced by Warner Bros.) and "Big Love" and guest-starred in "Enlightened". In 2007, Mochrie was host of a five-episode run of "Are You Smarter Than a Canadian 5th Grader?" on Global TV in Canada.


text: Carey, Stiles, Brady, and Esten were all later employed by American television network CBS; Carey succeeded Bob Barker as the host of the long-running game show "The Price Is Right" (after a short stint as host of another game show, "Power of 10"). In addition, Sherwood and Davis served as guest announcers for the 2010–11 season of "The Price Is Right", after the departure of Rich Fields, who was eventually replaced by George Gray. Stiles appeared as a supporting character on the sitcom "Two and a Half Men". Esten had a recurring role on "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and made a guest appearance in "", before moving to star in the ABC drama "Nashville".


text: Brady had a summer variety show on ABC in 2001, "The Wayne Brady Show" and then hosted a daytime talk show of the same name for two seasons, starting in September 2002. He also was the host of Fox's "Don't Forget the Lyrics". In 2007, he made a guest appearance in one episode of "30 Rock", and has made several appearances on "How I Met Your Mother" as Barney Stinson's brother. He also had a couple of guest appearances on "Chappelle's Show". Since October 5, 2009, Brady has been the host of CBS' revival of the classic game show "Let's Make a Deal". Featuring Jonathan Mangum as announcer and co-host, this new iteration utilized some classic elements of improv from "Whose Line", most notably Brady's singing and comedic abilities, occasionally breaking out into spontaneous musical improv in front of or involving contestants, and not being a stipulated aspect of the particular game to be played. As of 2009, every main "Whose Line" participant has hosted at least one game show except Ryan Stiles.


text: On November 18, 2010, "Variety" announced that Drew Carey would host a primetime improv show on GSN. The series, entitled "Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza", debuted on April 11, 2011, and featured most of the "Whose Line" regular cast before ending in June 2011; Rich Fields was the announcer for the series. It lasted one season.


text: On July 10, 2012, ABC premiered a new improv comedy series featuring several of the "Whose Line" alumni called "Trust Us With Your Life". The players included Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady, Greg Proops, Jonathan Mangum, and Nicole Parker. On July 30, however, after only six episodes had aired, ABC pulled the remaining episodes after its host Fred Willard was arrested on a lewd-conduct charge at the Tiki Theater, an adult movie theater in Hollywood, California.


text: In February 2013, Ryan Stiles revealed in an interview that he would be returning to Los Angeles in April for a new season of "Whose Line", hosted by Aisha Tyler and featuring the original cast of the U.S. version. The revival was later officially announced on March 1, 2013.


text: "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" returned to television, this time on The CW, with Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, and Wayne Brady all returning, with Aisha Tyler taking the role of the host (Brady also continued to host "Let's Make a Deal" at the time). In addition to the traditional rotating fourth improv player (often drawn from same pool of regulars that appeared on the original show), a new feature was that of a "special guest". This fifth player would not necessarily have an improv background, but would still participate in some of the improv games.


text: The initial 2013 summer run was made up of twelve half-hour episodes with the three veteran players joined by a featured player, along with a different special guest for each episode who would play in some of the games.


text: On July 29, 2013, The CW announced that it had renewed the show for a 24-episode season, airing Fridays at 8 ET/PT starting March 21, 2014, due to solid ratings. Illness prevented Stiles from appearing in two season 10 episodes, the first "Whose Line" shows he had missed in nearly 20 years, dating back to the original British series. Frequent guest Greg Proops filled in for Stiles on these occasions.


text: On July 18, 2014, The CW announced that the show would be returning for a 24-episode eleventh season (and third season on The CW) that started airing on April 17, 2015. On August 11, 2015, the series was renewed for a twelfth season (fourth on The CW) to start airing May 23, 2016. On October 24, 2016, The CW renewed the show for a thirteenth season (fifth season on The CW) to start airing May 29, 2017. On October 26, 2017, The CW renewed the show for a fourteenth season (sixth on the CW). The first two episodes aired June 4, 2018. On October 9, 2018, The CW renewed the show for a fifteenth season (seventh on the CW) that began airing June 17, 2019. The CW renewed the show for a 16th season, with new episodes airing since March 30, 2020 in order to fill the void left by TV series affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 14, 2020, The CW renewed the series for a seventeenth season that began airing in January 2021. On May 25, 2021, The CW renewed the series for an eighteenth season, which premiered on October 9, 2021. On May 19, 2022, it was announced that the series was renewed for a nineteenth season, set to premiere in fall 2022.


text: On November 4, 2022, regular performer Mochrie announced that the show will film its final season in January 2023.


text: Several of the performers, including the three regulars Brady, Mochrie and Stiles, had previously appeared in the original UK run of "Whose Line"; other performers who had made appearances in the British version are Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Chip Esten, Karen Maruyama and Josie Lawrence, as well as musician Laura Hall. Mochrie and Stiles have been regulars since the show started airing in the States, whilst Brady became a regular from season two to seven, and from season nine onwards, appearing as a recurring performer in seasons 1 and 8. Mochrie is the only performer to have appeared in every episode of the U.S. series of "Whose Line?", with Stiles having missed two recordings due to illness. Greg Proops is the most prolific recurring performer, having appeared in 76 episodes, with Brad Sherwood not far behind with 71 appearances.


text: The show also included occasional guest fourth chairs during the first 8 seasons, each appearing in only one or two episodes, such as Stephen Colbert, Drew Carey Show performer Kathy Kinney, Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. After the 2013 revival on the CW, celebrity guests appeared far more frequently, although only generally as an alternative to audience members in games such as Helping Hands or Living Scenery; such special guest stars have included Verne Troyer, Penn & Teller, Bill Nye and Alfonso Ribeiro. Occasionally more musically inclined guests, like Christopher Jackson, and David Hasselhoff, also partook in singing games.


text: The original host of the U.S. show was Drew Carey, who appeared in every episode of seasons one through eight. Carey notably took more of an active role in the show than his predecessor Clive Anderson, as following the announcement of the "winner" of each show, Carey would perform a game with the other performers. After the CW revival in 2013, Aisha Tyler took over as host, as Carey was the host of "The Price is Right", which ran at the same time as "Whose Line"; Carey is mentioned numerous times by Tyler and the other performers, however. Unlike Carey, Tyler does not perform full games with the other performers; nonetheless, she does occasionally interject in quick fire games such as "Scenes from a Hat" with her own suggestions or to help another performer with their scene. Tyler has also surpassed Carey in tenure, although Carey hosted more episodes of the show.


text: Improvisational musician Laura Hall, who appeared in the final season of the UK original, joined the original U.S. format for its entire run, and performed piano, keyboards and other instruments in games featuring improvisational singing by the cast members, such as Hoedown, Greatest Hits and Songstyles.


text: The U.S. version of "Whose Line?" has been broadcast in the UK, originally on Channel 4. Challenge was the first non-terrestrial channel to broadcast the show for a brief period in 2005. From 2007 to 2012, 5USA aired the show. Since February 2021, Dave has also broadcast the show. It is also available on its on-demand service UKTV Play starting from season eleven onwards, marketed as series three of the revival. Several series of the show are also available on Amazon Prime Video.


text: In Canada, the show also ran on the CTV network from 1998 to 2003, and then on The Comedy Network from 2003 onwards.


text: The show's original run in Australia was on the Nine Network in an early morning time slot; One repeated the program from 2011. It also airs on The Comedy Channel. ABC has also aired the CW revival of the show on ABC Comedy.


text: The first DVD, Season 1, Volume 1, of the U.S. version of "Whose Line?" was released on September 26, 2006. It comes in "censored" or "uncensored" versions. Both releases include the first ten episodes of the first season, with the episodes being the same on either version. The first seven episodes have had their original theme music (including all credits and ad bumpers) replaced with the version used for the rest of the episodes. Warner Home Video released Season 1, Volume 2 on October 9, 2007, but only in an "uncensored" version.


text: Warner Home Video released a two-disc "best of" compilation with ten episodes on June 9, 2009. Featured in this release were celebrity guest episodes including appearances by David Hasselhoff, Florence Henderson, Jerry Springer, Richard Simmons and bodybuilder Jayne Trcka, along with the hour-long "Best of Whose Line" compilation episode aired at the beginning of season three.


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: Shawn Robert Ashmore (born October 7, 1979) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles as Bobby Drake / Iceman in the "X-Men" film series, Jake Berenson in the television series "Animorphs", Agent Mike Weston in the television drama series "The Following", Eric in the horror film "The Ruins", Sam Spencer in the ABC series "Conviction", Wesley Evers in the ABC series "The Rookie", and Lamplighter in the Amazon Prime Video superhero series "The Boys". Ashmore also plays the main character, Jack Joyce, in the 2016 video game "Quantum Break", as well as Conrad in 2019's "". He is the identical twin brother of actor Aaron Ashmore.


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: Ashmore was born in Richmond, British Columbia, the son of Linda (née Davis), a homemaker, and Rick Ashmore, a manufacturing engineer. He was raised in St. Albert, Alberta and Brampton, Ontario, where he attended Earnscliffe Senior Public School and Turner Fenton Secondary School. His twin brother, Aaron Ashmore, is also an actor. Aaron and Shawn have played twins in several movies, but have also pursued roles independently. Aaron is slightly taller than Shawn and, according to Aaron, Shawn often gets cast as the nice guy while Aaron himself is cast as the bully. They have a "GMA" tattoo on their wrists that stands for "Good Man Ashmore"; their grandfather had a similar tattoo.


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: One of Ashmore's notable roles was as Iceman in "X-Men" and its sequels "X2" and "". Ashmore also reprised his role as Iceman in the animated series "The Super Hero Squad Show", as well as voicing the role for "".


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: Ashmore starred as Cadet Major Brad Rigby in "Cadet Kelly", a Disney Channel original film which aired in 2002 and he guest-starred as Eric Summers in two episodes of "Smallville", a series on which his brother was later cast in the role of Jimmy Olsen. Ashmore had starring roles on "Animorphs" as Jake Berenson and "In a Heartbeat" as Tyler Connell.


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: In December 2004, Ashmore was cast in the lead role in the SciFi Channel mini series "Legend of Earthsea", based on the novels by Ursula K. Le Guin. He played the role of Ged, a young wizard-in-training, who takes advice from a Magus (Danny Glover) and falls in love with Tenar (Kristin Kreuk), the protege of the High Priestess of the Tombs of Atuan (Isabella Rossellini).


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: In 2005, Ashmore starred in a CTV TV movie about Terry Fox's historic run across Canada, which aired in September of that year. In 2008, he starred as one of the leads in the 2008 horror film "The Ruins". Ashmore was cast in Adam Green's 2010 dramatic thriller "Frozen" as Joe Lynch.


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: Ashmore starred in the apocalyptic siege warfare film "The Day" with Dominic Monaghan, Michael Eklund, Shannyn Sossamon, and Ashley Bell. Ashmore also starred in the television drama series "The Following", starring Kevin Bacon. He reprised his role as Iceman in the 2014 film "".


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: In April 2016, Shawn appeared in "Quantum Break", a singleplayer third-person shooter video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios, that features high budget live action TV show-like cut scenes where Shawn plays the main character, Jack Joyce. He also did the motion capture and voice acting for the character.


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: From October 2016 to January 2017, he played the role of Sam Spencer on the U.S. legal drama "Conviction". The series was filmed in Toronto.


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: In 2020, Ashmore recurred in the second season of the Amazon Prime Video superhero series "The Boys" as Lamplighter, a former member of the superhero group the Seven.


title: Shawn Ashmore

text: On July 27, 2012, Ashmore married film executive Dana Renee Wasdin, whom he met while filming "Frozen". The couple has one son, born in 2017.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft system; in modern armed forces, missiles have replaced most other forms of dedicated anti-aircraft weapons, with anti-aircraft guns pushed into specialized roles.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The first attempt at SAM development took place during World War II, but no operational systems were introduced. Further development in the 1940s and 1950s led to operational systems being introduced by most major forces during the second half of the 1950s. Smaller systems, suitable for close-range work, evolved through the 1960s and 1970s, to modern systems that are man-portable. Shipborne systems followed the evolution of land-based models, starting with long-range weapons and steadily evolving toward smaller designs to provide a layered defence. This evolution of design increasingly pushed gun-based systems into the shortest-range roles.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The American Nike Ajax was the first operational guided missile SAM system, and the Soviet Union's S-75 Dvina was the most-produced SAM. Widely used modern examples include the Patriot and S-300 wide-area systems, SM-6 and


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: MBDA Aster Missile naval missiles, and short-range man-portable systems like the Stinger and Strela-3.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The first known idea for a guided surface-to-air missile was in 1925, when a beam riding system was proposed whereby a rocket would follow a searchlight beam onto a target. A selenium cell was mounted on the tip of each of the rocket's four tail fins, with the cells facing backwards. When one selenium cell was no longer in the light beam, it would be steered in the opposite direction back into the beam. The first historical mention of a concept and design of a surface-to-air missile in which a drawing was presented, was by inventor Gustav Rasmus in 1931, who proposed a design that would home in on the sound of an aircraft's engines.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: During World War II, efforts were started to develop surface-to-air missiles as it was generally considered that flak was of little use against bombers of ever-increasing performance. The lethal radius of a flak shell is fairly small, and the chance of delivering a "hit" is essentially a fixed percentage per round. In order to attack a target, guns fire continually while the aircraft are in range in order to launch as many shells as possible, increasing the chance that one of these will end up within the lethal range. Against the Boeing B-17, which operated just within the range of the numerous German eighty-eights, an average of 2,805 rounds had to be fired per bomber destroyed.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Bombers flying at higher altitudes require larger guns and shells to reach them. This greatly increases the cost of the system, and (generally) slows the rate of fire. Faster aircraft fly out of range more quickly, reducing the number of rounds fired against them. Against late-war designs like the Boeing B-29 Superfortress or jet-powered designs like the Arado Ar 234, flak would be essentially useless. This potential was already obvious by 1942, when Walther von Axthelm outlined the growing problems with flak defences that he predicted would soon be dealing with "aircraft speeds and flight altitudes [that] will gradually reach and between ." This was seen generally; in November 1943 the Director of Gunnery Division of the Royal Navy concluded that guns would be useless against jets, stating "No projectile of which control is lost when it leaves the ship can be of any use to us in this matter."


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The first serious consideration of a SAM development project was a series of conversations that took place in Germany during 1941. In February, Friederich Halder proposed a "flak rocket" concept, which led Walter Dornberger to ask Wernher von Braun to prepare a study on a guided missile able to reach between altitude. Von Braun became convinced a better solution was a manned rocket interceptor, and said as much to the director of the T-Amt, Roluf Lucht, in July. The directors of the "Luftwaffe" flak arm were not interested in manned aircraft, and the resulting disagreements between the teams delayed serious consideration of a SAM for two years.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Von Axthelm published his concerns in 1942, and the subject saw serious consideration for the first time; initial development programs for liquid- and solid-fuel rockets became part of the Flak Development Program of 1942. By this point serious studies by the Peenemünde team had been prepared, and several rocket designs had been proposed, including 1940's "Feuerlilie", and 1941's "Wasserfall" and Henschel Hs 117 "Schmetterling". None of these projects saw any real development until 1943, when the first large-scale raids by the Allied air forces started. As the urgency of the problem grew, new designs were added, including "Enzian" and "Rheintochter", as well as the unguided "Taifun" which was designed to be launched in waves.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: In general, these designs could be split into two groups. One set of designs would be boosted to altitude in front of the bombers and then flown towards them on a head-on approach at low speeds comparable to manned aircraft. These designs included the Feuerlilie, Schmetterling and Enzian. The second group were high-speed missiles, typically supersonic, that flew directly towards their targets from below. These included Wasserfall and Rheintochter. Both types used radio control for guidance, either by eye, or by comparing the returns of the missile and target on a single radar screen. Development of all these systems was carried out at the same time, and the war ended before any of them was ready for combat use. The infighting between various groups in the military also delayed development. Some extreme fighter designs, like the "Komet" and "Natter", also overlapped with SAMs in their intended uses.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Albert Speer was especially supportive of missile development. In his opinion, had they been consistently developed from the start, the large scale bomber raids of 1944 would have been impossible.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The British developed unguided antiaircraft rockets (operated under the name Z Battery) close to the start of World War II, but the air superiority usually held by the Allies meant that the demand for similar weapons was not as acute.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: When several Allied ships were sunk in 1943 by Henschel Hs 293 and Fritz X glide bombs, Allied interest changed. These weapons were released from stand-off distances, with the bomber remaining outside the range of the ship's antiaircraft guns, and the missiles themselves were too small and fast to be attacked effectively.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: To combat this threat, the U.S. Navy launched Operation Bumblebee to develop a ramjet-powered missile to destroy the launching aircraft at long range. The initial performance goal was to target an intercept at a horizontal range of and altitude, with a warhead for a 30 to 60 percent kill probability. This weapon did not emerge for 16 years, when it entered operation as the RIM-8 Talos.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Heavy shipping losses to "kamikaze" attacks during the Liberation of the Philippines and the Battle of Okinawa provided additional incentive for guided missile development. This led to the British "Fairey Stooge" and "Brakemine" efforts, and the U.S. Navy's SAM-N-2 Lark. The "Lark" ran into considerable difficulty and it never entered operational use. The end of the war led to the British efforts being used strictly for research and development throughout their lifetime.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: In the immediate post-war era, SAM developments were under way around the world, with several of these entering service in the early- and mid-1950s.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Coming to the same conclusions as the Germans regarding flak, the U.S. Army started its Project Nike developments in 1944. Led by Bell Labs, the Nike Ajax was tested in production form in 1952, becoming the first operational SAM system when it was activated in March 1954. Concerns about Ajax's ability to deal with formations of aircraft led to greatly updated version of the same basic design entering service in 1958 as the Nike Hercules, the first nuclear-armed SAM. The U.S. Army Air Forces had also considered collision-course weapons (like the German radio-controlled concepts) and launched Project Thumper in 1946. This was merged with another project, Wizard, and emerged as the CIM-10 Bomarc in 1959. The "Bomarc" had a range of over 500 km, but it was quite expensive and somewhat unreliable.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Development of Oerlikon's RSD 58 started in 1947, and was a closely held secret until 1955. Early versions of the missile were available for purchase as early as 1952, but never entered operational service. The RSD 58 used beam riding guidance, which has limited performance against high-speed aircraft, as the missile is unable to "lead" the target to a collision point. Examples were purchased by several nations for testing and training purposes, but no operational sales were made.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The Soviet Union began development of a SAM system in earnest with the opening of the Cold War. Joseph Stalin was worried that Moscow would be subjected to American and British air raids, like those against Berlin, and, in 1951, he demanded that a missile system to counter a 900 bomber raid be built as quickly as possible. This led to the S-25 Berkut system (SA-1 in NATO terminology), which was designed, developed and deployed in a rush program. Early units entered operational service on 7 May 1955, and the entire system ringing Moscow was completely activated by June 1956. The S-25 was a static system, but efforts were also put into a smaller design that would be much more mobile. This emerged in 1957 as the famous S-75 Dvina (SA-2), a portable system, with very high performance, that remained in operation into the 2000s. The Soviet Union remained at the forefront of SAM development throughout its history; and Russia has followed suit.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The early British developments with "Stooge" and "Brakemine" were successful, but further development was curtailed in the post-war era. These efforts picked up again with the opening of the cold war, following the "Stage Plan" of improving UK air defences with new radars, fighters and missiles. Two competing designs were proposed for "Stage 1", based on common radar and control units, and these emerged as the RAF's Bristol Bloodhound in 1958, and the Army's English Electric Thunderbird in 1959. A third design followed the American "Bumblebee" efforts in terms of role and timeline, and entered service in 1961 as the Sea Slug.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The Vietnam War was the first modern war in which guided antiaircraft missiles seriously challenged highly advanced supersonic jet aircraft. It would also be the first and only time that the latest and most modern air defense technologies of the Soviet Union and the most modern jet fighter planes and bombers of the United States confronted each other in combat (if one does not count the Yom Kippur war wherein IAF was challenged by Syrian SA-3s). Nearly 17,000 Soviet missile technicians and operator/instructors deployed to North Vietnam in 1965 to help defend Hanoi against American bombers, while North Vietnamese missilemen completed their six to nine months of SAM training in the Soviet Union.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: From 1965 through all of 1966, nearly all of the 48 U.S. jet aircraft shot down by SA-2s over North Vietnam were downed by Soviet missile men. During the course of the air defense of North Vietnam in 1966–1967, one Russian SAM operator, Lieutenant Vadim Petrovich Shcherbakov, was credited with destroying 12 U.S. aircraft from 20 engagements.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The USAF responded to this threat with increasingly effective means. Early efforts to directly attack the missiles sites as part of Operation Spring High and Operation Iron Hand were generally unsuccessful, but the introduction of Wild Weasel aircraft carrying "Shrike" missiles and the Standard ARM missile changed the situation dramatically. Feint and counterfeint followed as each side introduced new tactics to try to gain the upper hand. By the time of Operation Linebacker II in 1972, the Americans had gained critical information about the performance and operations of the S-75 (via Arab S-75 systems captured by Israel), and used these missions as a way to demonstrate the capability of strategic bombers to operate in a SAM saturated environment. Their first missions appeared to demonstrate the exact opposite, with the loss of three B-52s and several others damaged in a single mission. Dramatic changes followed, and by the end of the series missions were carried out with additional chaff, ECM, Iron Hand, and other changes dramatically changed the score. By the conclusion of the Linebacker II campaign, the shootdown rate of the S-75 against the B-52s was 7.52% (15 B-52s were shot down, 5 B-52s were heavily damaged for 266 missiles)


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: During the war, The Soviet Union supplied 7,658 SAMs to North Vietnam, and their defense forces conducted about 5,800 launches, usually in multiples of three. By the war's end, the U.S lost a total of 3,374 aircraft in combat operations; however, the U.S states only 205 of those aircraft were lost to North Vietnamese surface-to-air missiles.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: All of these early systems were "heavyweight" designs with limited mobility and requiring considerable set-up time. However, they were also increasingly effective. By the early 1960s, the deployment of SAMs had rendered high-speed high-altitude flight in combat practically suicidal. The way to avoid this was to fly lower, below the line-of-sight of missile's radar systems. This demanded very different aircraft, like the F-111, TSR-2, and Panavia Tornado.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Consequently, SAMs evolved rapidly in the 1960s. As their targets were now being forced to fly lower due to the presence of the larger missiles, engagements would necessarily be at short ranges, and occur quickly. Shorter ranges meant the missiles could be much smaller, which aided them in terms of mobility. By the mid-1960s, almost all modern armed forces had short-range missiles mounted on trucks or light armour that could move with the armed forces they protected. Examples include the 2K12 Kub (SA-6) and 9K33 Osa (SA-8), MIM-23 Hawk, Rapier, Roland and Crotale.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: The introduction of sea-skimming missiles in the late 1960s and 1970s led to additional mid- and short-range designs for defence against these targets. The UK's Sea Cat was an early example that was designed specifically to replace the Bofors 40 mm gun on its mount, and became the first operational point-defense SAM. The American RIM-7 Sea Sparrow quickly proliferated into a wide variety of designs fielded by most navies. Many of these are adapted from earlier mobile designs, but the special needs of the naval role has resulted in the continued existence of many custom missiles.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: As aircraft moved ever lower, and missile performance continued to improve, eventually it became possible to build an effective man-portable anti-aircraft missile. Known as MANPADS, the first example was a Royal Navy system known as the Holman Projector, used as a last-ditch weapon on smaller ships. The Germans also produced a similar short-range weapon known as Fliegerfaust, but it entered operation only on a very limited scale. The performance gap between this weapon and jet fighters of the post-war era was so great that such designs would not be effective.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: By the 1960s, technology had closed this gap to a degree, leading to the introduction of the FIM-43 Redeye, SA-7 Grail and Blowpipe. Rapid improvement in the 1980s led to second generation designs, like the FIM-92 Stinger, 9K34 Strela-3 (SA-14) and Starstreak, with dramatically improved performance. By the 1990s to the 2010s, the Chinese had developed designs drawing influence from these, notably the FN-6.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Through the evolution of SAMs, improvements were also being made to anti-aircraft artillery, but the missiles pushed them into ever shorter-range roles. By the 1980s, the only remaining widespread use was point-defense of airfields and ships, especially against cruise missiles. By the 1990s, even these roles were being encroached on by new MANPADS and similar short-range weapons, like the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Missiles able to fly longer distances are generally heavier, and therefore less mobile. This leads to three "natural" classes of SAM systems; heavy long-range systems that are fixed or semi-mobile, medium-range vehicle-mounted systems that can fire on the move, and short-range man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS).


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Modern long-range weapons include the MIM-104 Patriot and S-300 (missile) systems, which have effective ranges on the order of and offer relatively good mobility and short unlimbering times. These compare with older systems with similar or less range, like the MIM-14 Nike Hercules or S-75 Dvina, which required fixed sites of considerable size. Much of this performance increase is due to improved rocket fuels and ever-smaller electronics in the guidance systems. Some very long-range systems remain, notably the Russian S-400, which has a range of .


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Medium-range designs, like the Rapier and 2K12 Kub, are specifically designed to be highly mobile with very fast, or zero, setup times. Many of these designs were mounted on armoured vehicles, allowing them to keep pace with mobile operations in a conventional war. Once a major group unto itself, medium-range designs have seen less development since the 1990s, as the focus has changed to unconventional warfare.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Developments have also been made in onboard maneuverability. Israel's David's Sling Stunner missile is designed to intercept the newest generation of tactical ballistic missiles at low altitude. The multi-stage interceptor consists of a solid-fuel, rocket motor booster, followed by an asymmetrical kill vehicle with advanced steering for super-maneuverability during the kill-stage. A three-pulse motor provides additional acceleration and maneuverability during the terminal phase.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: MANPAD systems first developed in the 1960s and proved themselves in battle during the 1970s. MANPADS normally have ranges on the order of and are effective against attack helicopters and aircraft making ground attacks. Against fixed wing aircraft, they can be very effective, forcing them to fly outside the missile's envelope and thereby greatly reducing their effectiveness in ground-attack roles. MANPAD systems are sometimes used with vehicle mounts to improve maneuverability, like the Avenger system. These systems have encroached on the performance niche formerly filled by dedicated mid-range systems.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Ship-based anti-aircraft missiles are also considered to be SAMs, although in practice it is expected that they would be more widely used against sea skimming missiles rather than aircraft. Virtually all surface warships can be armed with SAMs, and naval SAMs are a necessity for all front-line surface warships. Some warship types specialize in anti-air warfare e.g. cruisers equipped with the Aegis combat system or cruisers with the S-300PMU "Favorite" missile system. Modern Warships may carry all three types (from long-range to short-range) of SAMs as a part of their multi-layered air defence.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: SAM systems generally fall into two broad groups based on their guidance systems, those using radar and those using some other means.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Longer range missiles generally use radar for early detection and guidance. Early SAM systems generally used tracking radars and fed guidance information to the missile using radio control concepts, referred to in the field as command guidance. Through the 1960s, the semi-active radar homing (SARH) concept became much more common. In SARH, the reflections of the tracking radar's broadcasts are picked up by a receiver in the missile, which homes in on this signal. SARH has the advantage of leaving most of the equipment on the ground, while also eliminating the need for the ground station to communicate with the missile after launch.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Smaller missiles, especially MANPADS, generally use infrared homing guidance systems. These have the advantage of being "fire-and-forget", once launched they will home on the target on their own with no external signals needed. In comparison, SARH systems require the tracking radar to illuminate the target, which may require them to be exposed through the attack. Systems combining an infrared seeker as a terminal guidance system on a missile using SARH are also known, like the MIM-46 Mauler, but these are generally rare.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Some newer short-range systems use a variation of the SARH technique, but based on laser illumination instead of radar. These have the advantage of being small and very fast acting, as well as highly accurate. A few older designs use purely optical tracking and command guidance, perhaps the best known example of this is the British "Rapier" system, which was initially an all-optical system with high accuracy.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: All SAM systems from the smallest to the largest generally include identified as friend or foe (IFF) systems to help identify the target before being engaged. While IFF is not as important with MANPADs, as the target is almost always visually identified prior to launch, most modern MANPADs do include it.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Long-range systems generally use radar systems for target detection, and depending on the generation of system, may "hand off" to a separate tracking radar for attack. Short range systems are more likely to be entirely visual for detection.


title: Surface-to-air missile

text: Hybrid systems are also common. The MIM-72 Chaparral was fired optically, but normally operated with a short range early warning radar that displayed targets to the operator. This radar, the FAAR, was taken into the field with a Gama Goat and set up behind the lines. Information was passed to the "Chaparral" via a data link. Likewise, the UK's Rapier system included a simple radar that displayed the rough direction of a target on a series of lamps arranged in a circle. The missile operator would point his telescope in that rough direction and then hunt for the target visually.


title: Ray Donovan

text: Ray Donovan is an American crime drama television series created by Ann Biderman for Showtime. The twelve-episode first season premiered on June 30, 2013.


title: Ray Donovan

text: The pilot episode broke viewership records, becoming the biggest premiere of all time on Showtime. In February 2020, the series was cancelled after seven seasons. The show's storyline concluded with the feature-length "", which premiered on January 14, 2022, on Showtime.


title: Ray Donovan

text: The drama, starring Liev Schreiber in the title role, is set primarily in Los Angeles (during seasons 1–5) and in New York City (during seasons 6–7). The main character, Ray Donovan, is a professional "fixer" who arranges bribes, payoffs, threats, crime-scene clean-up, and other illegal activities to protect his (usually) celebrity clients. Good at his job, he is also normally devoted to his children and brothers but has a complicated relationship with his wife. He encounters problems when his menacing father, Mickey Donovan (Jon Voight), is unexpectedly released from prison. The FBI attempts to bring down Mickey and his associates, and Donovan struggles to escape the undertow.


title: Ray Donovan

text: The series was cancelled without any advance warning, leaving fans and showrunner, David Hollander, in shock. Season 8 was supposed to have been the final season, and Hollander already had a plan in place creatively for the story.


title: Ray Donovan

text: A week later, Liev Schreiber wrote on his Instagram account that due to fans' support and activity in media, there was a possibility for Ray Donovan to return. The decision to cancel the series was reportedly for political reasons amid the recent merger between CBS, which owns Showtime, and Viacom, which "did not recognize the power of the fan base and social media".


title: Ray Donovan

text: On February 24, 2021, Showtime announced a feature-length film to conclude the storyline, to premiere in 2022, with David Hollander directing it and co-writing with Schreiber. The network brought them the idea of a film after fans' outrage. The two-hour format gave them an ability "to work in very cinematic language". Beside the original cast returning, Chris Petrovski, AJ Michalka, David Patrick Kelly and Chris Gray had joined the film.


title: Ray Donovan

text: On November 22, the official trailer and poster for the film, titled "" were released, with a premiere date of January 14, 2022 and tagline "You can't outrun your legacy".


title: Ray Donovan

text: The first season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 10, 2014. The second season was released on both media on May 26, 2015 and the third season released on December 29, 2015. Further seasons were released only on DVD. The fourth season saw a release on December 27, 2016, the fifth season on January 30, 2018, the sixth season came out on April 9, 2019, and the seventh season on May 5, 2020.


title: Ray Donovan

text: In 2021, Netflix India announced that it will broadcast a remake of the series, titled "Rana Naidu" with starring Rana Daggubati and his uncle Venkatesh. The series will be produced by Locomotive Global and the format rights are licensed by ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group (now Paramount Global Content Licensing), with Karan Anshuman as showrunner and director and Suparn Verma as co-director.


title: Ray Donovan

text: "Ray Donovan" has received positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the first season a rating of 77% based on reviews from 43 critics, with the site's consensus stating: ""Ray Donovan" moves quickly between genres and tones, with Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight's performances making the whiplash worth it". Metacritic gives the first season a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".


title: Ray Donovan

text: Tim Goodman, writing for "The Hollywood Reporter", said that ""Showtime" has another gem on their hands" and the casting of Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight was "gold".


title: Avenue 5

text: Avenue 5 is a science fiction comedy television series created by Armando Iannucci that premiered on HBO in the United States on January 19, 2020. It stars Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad in lead roles as captain and owner of a fictional interplanetary cruise ship "Avenue 5". The series was produced by HBO in the United States and Sky UK in the United Kingdom. In February 2020, just days before the COVID-19 pandemic led to worldwide lockdowns, the series was renewed for a second season; filming moved forward in late 2021, with a release date of October 10, 2022.


title: Avenue 5

text: "Avenue 5" has been described as "set in the future, mostly in space." On board the interplanetary cruise ship, the "Avenue 5", a momentary loss of artificial gravity and accidental death of its chief engineer sends the titular vessel a few degrees off course. It's estimated it will take the ship three years to return to Earth, and with only enough supplies to sustain her many passengers for the intended eight-week long cruise, the crew of the "Avenue 5" must struggle to maintain order and return the craft safely.


title: Avenue 5

text: On September 25, 2017, it was announced that HBO had given a pilot order to a new comedy series created by Armando Iannucci, who was also set to serve as writer and executive producer. In addition to the pilot order, the network also reportedly ordered backup scripts. In April 2019, a series pickup was commissioned by HBO for nine episodes. On February 13, 2020, the series was renewed for a second season, which would also consist of nine episodes. In October 2022, Iannucci told EW.com that there are plans for a third season, saying that HBO was "very keen".


title: Avenue 5

text: In August 2018, it was announced that Hugh Laurie and Suzy Nakamura had been cast in the pilot's lead roles as Captain Ryan Clark and Iris Kimura. On November 7, 2018, it was reported that Rebecca Front had joined the pilot's cast in another leading role as Karen Kelly. In February 2019, Zach Woods, Josh Gad, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Lenora Crichlow were cast as series regulars Matt Spencer, Herman Judd, Rav Mulclair, and Billie McEvoy. Himesh Patel was added in June as comedian on the ship Jordan Hatwal. The main cast members were returned for the second season by the time of its announcement.


title: Avenue 5

text: By July 2021, the first six episodes of the second season were plotted out, leaving only the final three to be outlined "next month". Iannucci added, "It's basically about people in isolation. So, we're just waiting to see what the mood might be as to how we pitch. Is it going to be bleak despair, or is it going to be very, very silly? Or maybe silly despair? I don't know. We tried to make season one as silly as possible, but it seems to have strangely become a kind of documentary about present-day conditions."


title: Avenue 5

text: Principal photography for the pilot took place in 2018 in London, England. While filming was taking place at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in July 2019, a fire damaged one of the show's sets. Production for the second season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2021, creator Armando Iannucci confirmed on Twitter that season two would begin filming, "in a matter of days." A post by Josh Gad confirmed the start of filming in August. Another post by Gad also confirmed the end of filming in late November 2021.


title: Avenue 5

text: The series premiered on January 19, 2020, on HBO. In New Zealand, the series is distributed by Sky satellite television provider's SOHO2 channel and Neon streaming service. The second season premiered on October 10, 2022, on HBO.


title: Avenue 5

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 67% based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's critical consensus states, "If "Avenue 5" maiden voyage isn't as smooth as its creative clout implies, it's still a hilarious step in a completely new—while still enjoyably caustic—direction for creator Armando Iannucci." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Lex Luger

text: Lawrence Wendell Pfohl (born June 2, 1958), better known by the ring name Lex Luger, is an American retired professional wrestler, bodybuilder, and football player. In 2011 he began working with WWE on its wellness policy. He is best known for his work with Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE).


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger is a two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and one-time WWA World Heavyweight Champion. He is also a five-time NWA/WCW United States Heavyweight Champion who holds the records for consecutive days and total days as champion. He is the second WCW Triple Crown Champion. Although he never won a championship in the WWF, he challenged for every title in the organization (including WWF World Heavyweight Championship matches at SummerSlam in 1993 and WrestleMania X in 1994) and was the 1994 Royal Rumble co-winner with Bret Hart. "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" readers voted Luger the Most Popular Wrestler of the Year in 1993.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger attended high school and played football in Orchard Park, New York. He then attended Pennsylvania State University on a football scholarship, but transferred to the University of Miami after his freshman year when the Penn State coaches thought he should move to linebacker or defensive end. Luger was an avid basketball player in his youth, and though he rarely played soccer, is a fan of English soccer club Manchester United. He eventually decided his skills would be better suited to football. He sat out the 1977 season as a redshirt transfer student in Coral Gables.


title: Lex Luger

text: In 1978, Luger played for the Miami Hurricanes, which featured future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, Jim Burt, Mitch Guittar, Fred Marion, and Mark Richt. He was kicked off the team for what Luger referred to as "off-the-field incidents". On the team's road trip to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech, Luger, who was suffering from cabin fever and disappointed at not being named a starter by coach Lou Saban by the 5th game of the season, snapped and trashed his hotel room.


title: Lex Luger

text: Upon leaving Miami, he played professional football for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League where he played in the 67th Grey Cup against the Edmonton Eskimos. He then signed with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League, but never played in a game and thus is not listed on their all-time roster, though he did spend the entire 1982 season on the team's injured reserve list with a groin problem incurred during training camp. He returned to the Packers training camp in 1983, but he was released before the regular season began. Luger wore number 66 for the Packers, the last player to do so before it was retired for Ray Nitschke. Luger said in a 2018 interview with the Green Bay Press-Gazette his wrestling career might have never happened had it worked out with the Packers. “I would have loved to have had a long-term career with the Packers; are you kidding me?” Pfohl said. "If I did, I probably wouldn’t have become a wrestler. So, in the big picture, it worked out for me in that regard ... Had it worked out in Green Bay, I seriously doubt I would have become a pro wrestler."


title: Lex Luger

text: In 1984, Luger finished his football career playing in the United States Football League for the Tampa Bay Bandits, Memphis Showboats and Jacksonville Bulls. He was a teammate of future WCW rival Ron Simmons while playing for the Tampa Bay Bandits.


title: Lex Luger

text: In 1985, Luger walked into the Championship Wrestling Florida office where he met Hiro Matsuda, who had previously trained Hulk Hogan and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff. Luger adopted the ring name "Lex Luger", being a fan of the comic book villain Lex Luthor, which helped cast himself as a typical wrestling heel which he would continue to be throughout most of his early years in wrestling. Luger made his in-ring debut in September 1985. He was featured alongside other notorious heels, Percy Pringle and Rick Rude.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger began wrestling for CWF, gaining his first victory on October 31, 1985, against Cocoa Samoa and later won the Southern Heavyweight Championship from Wahoo McDaniel the next month. For a short time, he feuded with Barry Windham before they began teaming up against Sir Oliver Humperdink and his team of Ed "The Bull" Gantner, Kareem Muhammed, and The White Ninja. On September 1, 1986, he fought NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair for the title at a show "Battle of the Belts III", which resulted in a 60-minute draw. As a result, Flair retained the title. Towards the end of his run in Florida, Luger was involved in angles with Kevin Sullivan and Bad News Allen. He was also in a steel cage match with Bruiser Brody, where Brody stopped cooperating, leading to Luger climbing over the cage and leaving the match.


title: Lex Luger

text: In 1987, Luger went to work for Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), which was under the NWA banner, with the nickname "The Total Package" and began using "The Human Torture Rack", an Argentine backbreaker rack, as his finisher. He was first booked as an associate to Ric Flair's "Four Horsemen" stable until Ole Anderson was kicked out and he became an official member of the group. His first big feud was with Nikita Koloff, whom he defeated for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship on July 11, 1987. Manager J. J. Dillon threw a chair over the top of the cage while the referee, Earl Hebner, was down. Luger knocked Koloff unconscious with it and then lifted up Koloff in the Torture Rack. A revived Hebner then dropped Koloff's arm three times with no response and awarded Luger a submission victory.


title: Lex Luger

text: He held the title until JCP's first pay-per-view event Starrcade in November, when he dropped it to Dusty Rhodes in a steel cage. This loss set the stage for Luger leaving the Four Horsemen, as manager Dillon's interference cost Luger the match. A steel chair thrown in by Dillon was dropped by Luger and Rhodes DDT'd Luger on it prior to pinning him for the win. Luger left the Four Horsemen on December 2, 1987 at the Knight Centre in Miami, Florida, after he and his stablemates (Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, and Dillon) were the sole wrestlers left in a Bunkhouse Stampede battle royal and Dillon asked the other wrestlers to eliminate themselves so he could win. Although Blanchard and Anderson complied, Luger refused and eliminated Dillon, leaving the Horsemen in the process.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger then befriended Barry Windham, his former Florida ally, and together they formed a tag team, dubbed The Twin Towers. Their first match as a team was on February 3, 1988 at a TV taping at WTBS Studios in Atlanta. On March 27, 1988 at "Clash of the Champions I" they defeated Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson for the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Only a few weeks after the title win, Windham suddenly turned on Luger during a title defense (against Blanchard and Anderson, who regained the title as a result) and joining Luger's former stable, The Four Horsemen. Days later, the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament was held with its first night in Greenville, South Carolina. A partner-less Luger was teamed with Sting (whose partner Ronnie Garvin had been kayfabe injured) and the impromptu team won the entire tournament, defeating Blanchard and Anderson in the finals.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger continued his feud with the Four Horsemen and Windham. At the June 8 "", it was announced that Luger would challenge Horsemen leader Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at The Great American Bash on July 10 in Baltimore. As Luger arrived at "The Clash" in a limousine he was attacked by The Four Horsemen, leaving him (kayfabe) injured and bleeding in the parking lot on live television. While Luger had Flair in the "Torture Rack" and Flair was about to submit, the match was abruptly stopped by the referee who cited (kayfabe) "Maryland State Athletic Commission" rules about a cut that had opened up on Luger's forehead "bleeding excessively". In November 1988, Jim Crockett Jr. sold JCP to Turner Broadcasting System, ultimately the promotion was renamed to World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The feud with Flair came to an end after December's Starrcade 1988: True Gritt where Flair pinned Luger in a rematch main event for the NWA title by illegally using the ropes.


title: Lex Luger

text: He was then matched up against old foe Barry Windham at Chi-Town Rumble winning his second NWA United States Heavyweight Championship from him. He teamed up with Michael P.S. Hayes against Barry and Kendall Windham in a match, televised on March 18, 1989, which saw Hayes turn on Luger, setting himself as a contender to the U.S. Title. Hayes defeated Luger for the US title at WrestleWar 1989: Music City Showdown when a surprise appearance by Hayes's ex-Freebird teammate Terry Gordy helped cost Luger the match. Luger regained the U.S. Title from Hayes in a rematch a couple of weeks later when he broke the rules by pulling Hayes's tights while pinning Hayes to win the match. On the June 14 "", Luger attacked the popular Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat after Steamboat had defeated Terry Funk by disqualification. Luger and Steamboat faced each other at The Great American Bash in July with Luger winning by disqualification after Luger refused to wrestle Steamboat until the match's no-disqualification clause had been waived.


title: Lex Luger

text: Flyin' Brian Pillman challenged Luger at Halloween Havoc 1989: Settling the Score for the US Title, which Luger won. He also defeated Pillman in a rematch on the November 15 "" to retain the title and end the feud. After the main event of the card, which saw Ric Flair and Terry Funk in an "I Quit" match, Luger made a surprise run in, attacking both Flair and Sting, who had come out to save Flair from a post match attack by The Great Muta. December's Starrcade featured an "Ironman" tournament between Flair, Sting, Luger, and Muta.


title: Lex Luger

text: Though Sting eventually won the tournament, Luger was the only participant to go undefeated (Sting got pinfall victories over Muta and Flair, giving him the most points to win the tournament). This elevated Sting to the status of No.1 contender for Flair's world title. With Sting and Flair set to square off at WrestleWar in February, Luger was booked to defend the U.S. Title against "Dr. Death" Steve Williams on the card. A legitimate injury to Sting, however, caused the entire booking of the card to get changed. Luger was elevated to face Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. An injured Sting appeared in Luger's corner during the match, eventually being attacked by Ole and Arn Anderson. When Luger left the ring to help Sting he was counted out, giving the match to Flair. The idea here was to build Luger up as a "changed man" who had "gained self-respect" by saving Sting. In the final match of the feud, a few months later at the Capital Combat event in Washington, DC, Luger won by disqualification against Flair in a steel cage match when the cage rose up from the ground and outside interference marred the match.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger eventually dropped the title to Stan Hansen at Halloween Havoc, though he won it back at Starrcade 1990: Collision Course beginning his fourth NWA United States Heavyweight Championship reign. Luger's third title reign lasted a total of 523 days, making him the longest reigning United States Champion in history. During this reign, WCW rebranded the championships they owned and controlled, and the title was renamed the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. Luger started a feud with Dan Spivey, whom he defeated at WrestleWar to retain the U.S. Title. Following their match, Nikita Koloff was due to present a new championship belt to Luger, but during the ceremony he suddenly attacked the champion, reigniting their feud from 1987. It did not last long, however, as Koloff found himself being pushed into an angle with Sting instead of Luger, which began at SuperBrawl I: Return of the Rising Sun when Sting and Luger challenged The Steiner Brothers for the WCW World Tag Team Championship. During the match, Koloff interfered and hit Sting with a chain, which was intended for Luger.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger again began to challenge Ric Flair for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship after becoming No.1 contender by defeating The Great Muta on the June 14, 1991 "". Luger's title match against Flair was set to be contested at The Great American Bash in a steel cage match with the added stipulation that, should Flair get disqualified he would lose the title. The match never occurred, however, as Flair began to have disagreements with Jim Herd, the head of WCW, over his future and salary. He eventually quit the company (being "stripped" of the title in the process) and took the world title belt with him.


title: Lex Luger

text: With the WCW World Heavyweight Championship now vacant, Barry Windham was declared the No. 2 contender and was set to face Luger in the cage match at The Great American Bash. During the match, Harley Race and Mr. Hughes came to ringside. While Hughes kept Windham's attention, Race told Luger that "now is the time" to perform a piledriver on the distracted Windham. Luger did so and won the match, thereby winning his first WCW World Heavyweight Championship. As Flair still had the original championship belt and the new belt was not ready in time, Luger initially wore the NWA Western States Heritage Championship, which had been altered to resemble the world title.


title: Lex Luger

text: After Luger won the world title, his first major challenge came from Ron Simmons. At a signing ceremony for their title match at Halloween Havoc in a two out of three falls match, there was a controversial angle where Luger invited Simmons, once his challenge had been turned back, to join his entourage, but as a chauffeur. Luger went on to retain the championship in the match by two falls to one. Eventually, Luger began to have his own issues with WCW, and the contract he had seemed to have him wrestling less and less while still collecting money. After ending his feud with Simmons, Luger had a brief feud with Rick Steiner, defeating him on the November 19 "Clash of the Champions XVII". Luger's contract only required him to work a specific number of dates, and having fulfilled them he "sat out" the end of 1991 and beginning of 1992. Aside from one title defense against Masahiro Chono at WCW/New Japan Supershow II (Starrcade in Tokyo Dome), Luger did not wrestle a match until SuperBrawl II, where he lost his WCW title to Sting.


title: Lex Luger

text: After losing to Sting at SuperBrawl, Luger negotiated a departure from WCW and joined Vince McMahon's World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF), appearing regularly as a co-host on its Saturday morning program, "WBF BodyStars". He also made an appearance at WrestleMania VIII, taking part in an on-air interview with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon. Heenan and Luger formed an alliance in the WBF (similar to Heenan's alliance with Ric Flair in the WWF). He was slated to guest pose at a WBF pay-per-view event, but was injured in a motorcycle accident. By the time he recovered, the WBF was out of business.


title: Lex Luger

text: After his accident and the closure of the WBF, Luger joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Bobby "The Brain" Heenan unveiled him with the persona of "Narcissus" at Royal Rumble 1993. Shortly thereafter, his name was altered slightly to "The Narcissist". Luger posed before full-length mirrors before every match. In his debut, he defeated jobber Larry Lunden on January 25 on WWF Superstars of Wrestling (aired February 13). The WWF also incorporated his motorcycle accident into his gimmick, capitalizing on the fact that he had a "metal plate" inserted into his forearm which was said to cause more damage when it struck an opponent, often allowing Luger to pin them with only his little finger placed on their chest. This caused a number of his opponents to demand that he wear a cover over it during matches when he had a streak of knocking people out. This eventually led to WWF officials demanding that Luger wear an elbow pad, though he would often remove it. The Narcissist's one major feud was with Mr. Perfect. The feud was based on Heenan, his advisor, referring to him as being "Beyond Perfection", in a slight at Mr. Perfect, his former managerial client. The rivalry ended at WrestleMania IX when Luger defeated Perfect.


title: Lex Luger

text: In mid-1993, after Hulk Hogan's departure from the company, Luger was transformed into a fan-favorite character with the nicknames "Made in the USA" and "The All-American" also "American Original". On July 4, he took part in an event where he arrived by helicopter on the deck of the "USS Intrepid" and body slammed the near 600 pound (270 kg) WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna after a number of other athletes, both inside the WWF and out, attempted and failed. Following this, he began the "Lex Express" tour, traveling the country in a red, white, and blue painted bus to greet fans in preparation for his shot at the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam 1993. The match had the stipulation that this would be Luger's only shot at the title. Luger, with the use of the metal plate in his forearm, eventually won the match, but the countout victory meant that Yokozuna retained the title. According to Bruce Prichard, Vince McMahon didn't give the title to Luger despite his push because Luger wasn't getting over with audiences as expected.


title: Lex Luger

text: In late 1993, Luger began a feud with Ludvig Borga, another anti-American foreigner from Finland. At Survivor Series 1993, Luger captained a team dubbed "All-Americans" (Luger, The Undertaker, and The Steiner Brothers) against Yokozuna's team "Foreign Fanatics" (Crush, Yokozuna, Ludvig Borga, and Quebecer Jacques) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match. Luger's team won the match after he pinned Borga. At the Royal Rumble, Luger participated in the Royal Rumble match where he and Bret Hart were declared co-winners after both men went over the top rope and had their feet hit the ground simultaneously. As such, both received shots at the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania X. Luger was disqualified in his title match against Yokozuna, becoming the first man to win the Rumble but not win their title match, and later that night Hart won the title from Yokozuna. After WrestleMania X, Luger was to start another feud with Mr. Perfect, but Hennig was injured, so Luger instead feuded with Crush.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger then began feuding with his friend Tatanka due to a lack of trust between them, and a match between the two took place at SummerSlam. At the event, Tatanka defeated Luger and joined Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation. At Survivor Series, he was in a Survivor Series team "Guts & Glory" (himself, Mabel, Adam Bomb, and The Smoking Gunns) losing to the Corporate team of Tatanka, King Kong Bundy, Bam Bam Bigelow, and The Heavenly Bodies – with only King Kong Bundy and Bam Bam Bigelow surviving.


title: Lex Luger

text: In the beginning of 1995, Luger formed a tag team with Davey Boy Smith, dubbed The Allied Powers. They made their pay-per-view debut as a tag team at WrestleMania XI, defeating the Blu Brothers. They defeated jobbers on "Raw" and, after a victory over Men on a Mission (King Mabel and Sir Mo) in June 1995, earned a shot at the WWF Tag Team Championship against Owen Hart and Yokozuna at In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks, but failed to win the titles. Shortly after SummerSlam, Luger, whose contract had expired, left the WWF without letting McMahon know beforehand. Luger's last official WWF match was on September 3 in Saint John, New Brunswick at a house show teaming with Shawn Michaels defeating Owen Hart and Yokozuna by disqualification.


title: Lex Luger

text: In late August 1995, after expressing to Sting that he wanted to leave the WWF, Luger got a call from WCW Vice-President Eric Bischoff to set up a meeting about a contract and Luger possibly "jumping ship". Bischoff was initially reluctant to make the offer, as he did not care for Luger personally or professionally, but relented due to both Sting's urging, and the idea that his appearance would make a big splash. Bischoff offered Luger only $150,000 a year, 20% of what he was making when he left WCW three years earlier, in a deliberate attempt to have him turn down the offer (and, according to Bischoff, "at least tell Sting that I tried"), only to be surprised to see that Luger accepted the offer.


title: Lex Luger

text: Eight days after his appearance at SummerSlam and only one night after competing at a WWF house show in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Luger made his return to WCW on the premiere of "Nitro", coming out during the match for the United States Heavyweight Championship between champion Sting and Ric Flair. After Luger's return, he did not make his allegiances known acting as a tweener, except for that he still did have a long-time friendship with Sting. He merely claimed that he wanted to stake his claim at Hogan's WCW World Heavyweight Title, facing him on the September 11, 1995 episode of "Nitro", which Hogan won by disqualification. At Halloween Havoc, Luger attacked Hogan after his match with The Giant and joined Kevin Sullivan's Dungeon of Doom stable.


title: Lex Luger

text: At Starrcade, Luger participated in a WCW vs NJPW World Cup of Wrestling where he represented WCW in a winning effort against NJPW representative Masa Chono. Later that night, he participated in a triangle match with Sting and Ric Flair, with the winner to face Randy Savage for the WCW World Championship; Flair won after both Sting and Luger were counted out. The two men teamed up to defeat Harlem Heat for their first World Tag Team Championship on the January 22, 1996 episode of "Nitro", with Luger constantly threatening dissent due to his allegiance to the Dungeon of Doom, but always seeming to stay on the same path as his friend. He lost to Eddie Guerrero by disqualification on the February 3 episode of "Saturday Night". Luger also defeated Johnny B. Badd for the WCW World Television Championship on February 17, losing it back to him the next night. He regained the television title from Badd by beating him on March 6.


title: Lex Luger

text: The Dungeon of Doom aligned with the Four Horsemen to form the Alliance to End Hulkamania, which feuded with Hulk Hogan and Luger's former WWF ally, Randy Savage. At Uncensored, nine members from the Alliance participated in a "Tower of Doom Steel Cage match", but were unsuccessful in defeating the team of Hogan and Savage. Luger was blamed for the loss because he accidentally punched teammate Ric Flair and was kicked out of the stable.


title: Lex Luger

text: During the summer, Luger began a feud with The Giant for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, unsuccessfully challenging him at The Great American Bash. During this time, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, both former WWF superstars, began appearing on WCW television and claimed they were "taking over" the company. Randy Savage spearheaded the WCW wrestlers against them, with Luger and Sting by his side. Luger, along with Savage and Sting, took on Nash and Hall (who called themselves The Outsiders) and a third, mystery, partner that they claimed was an "insider" at Bash at the Beach. In the first few minutes of the match Luger went down to a kayfabe injury, leaving Sting and Savage on their own when the mystery partner revealed himself to be Hulk Hogan. With Luger no longer around, Savage and Sting were "easy prey" for the three who announced themselves as the New World Order (nWo).


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger continued to be one of the leaders for the WCW's siege against the nWo, wrestling and feuding with a number of their members. At SuperBrawl VII, Luger and The Giant defeated the Outsiders to win the World Tag Team Championship. The title was returned to the Outsiders by nWo member and WCW President Eric Bischoff. Luger won a Four Corners match to become the No.1 contender for Hogan's WCW Title at Spring Stampede, and teamed with his new ally, The Giant, to defeat Hogan and basketball star Dennis Rodman at Bash at the Beach. On the August 4, 1997 episode of "Nitro", Luger defeated Hogan to win his second World Heavyweight Championship in an impromptu match, before dropping the title back to Hogan just five days later at Road Wild. His victory, however, marked the first time in a year that WCW had "won their world title back" from the nWo.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger began a program with Hall after both men pinned each other in tag team matches (Luger's partner was Diamond Dallas Page and Hall's partner was Randy Savage) before facing each other in a 1-on-1 match at Halloween Havoc which Luger won. He had a short feud with Buff Bagwell in the fall of 1997, culminating in a match at Starrcade, which Bagwell won. In the first half of 1998, Luger feuded with Savage and defeated him at Souled Out and SuperBrawl VIII. His final feud with the nWo was against Scott Steiner, whom Luger defeated at Uncensored. At Spring Stampede, he teamed with Scott's brother and former tag team partner Rick to defeat Scott and Bagwell.


title: Lex Luger

text: After a long war with the nWo, Luger joined nWo Wolfpac on May 25, 1998. Luger played a central role in the group's war with Hogan's nWo Hollywood, and even convinced the long-standing anti-nWo Sting to join. On the August 10, 1998 episode of "Nitro", he defeated Bret Hart to win his record-tying fifth, and final, United States Heavyweight Championship in an impromptu title match, before dropping the title back to Hart just one day later on "Thunder". He also took part in the incident in which both nWo factions united against the dominant Bill Goldberg in early 1999. He remained a member of the new nWo until he was sidelined with a (legitimate) biceps injury.


title: Lex Luger

text: In August 1999, Luger returned to "Nitro" during a Sting/Hogan angle for the World Heavyweight Championship. He eventually helped Sting win the World Title at Fall Brawl in September 1999. After Fall Brawl, Luger claimed that Lex Luger was now "dead" and he was going by the name "The Total Package". He debuted this gimmick on the September 27, 1999 episode of "Nitro" with a Terminator-style entrance symbolizing his "rebirth" and by bringing back Miss Elizabeth as his manager. During late November and into December 1999, The Total Package began to have some disagreements with Sting. He also began treating Elizabeth badly that prompted Sting to intervene. At Starrcade in December 1999, Sting and The Total Package had a match with Elizabeth eventually turning on Sting.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger continued his Total Package angle with Elizabeth through January 2000. He began a storyline where he would break the arms of his opponents by placing the arm inside a closed steel chair and stomping on it. In February 2000, he formed an alliance with Ric Flair to take out Hulk Hogan. They later formed a tag team under the name Team Package. The team feuded with Sting and Hogan until April 2000 when Vince Russo formed the New Blood causing Luger to join the Millionaires Club. He faced Booker T on the November 20, 2000 episode of "Nitro" for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and Goldberg at Mayhem and again at Starrcade 2000 with Goldberg's career on the line. He also formed a tag team with Buff Bagwell named "Totally Buff". They defeated Goldberg and DeWayne Bruce in a tag team match at Sin in January 2001. Luger stayed with the team until the WWF purchased WCW in March 2001. After WCW closed down, Bagwell went to the WWF although the company was not interested in Luger. He took a hiatus from wrestling.


title: Lex Luger

text: In November 2002, Luger returned to wrestling since WCW ended. He joined the European tour of World Wrestling All-Stars and debuted in Dublin, Ireland, teaming with Sting to defeat Buff Bagwell and Malice. At Retribution, Luger defeated Sting to win the vacant WWA World Heavyweight Championship after Jeff Jarrett interfered on his behalf. In Manchester, England on December 7, Luger and Sting faced Bagwell and Jarrett in a match in which both Luger's WWA World Heavyweight Championship and Jarrett's NWA World Heavyweight Championship were on the line, though neither title changed hands, as Sting pinned Bagwell. Luger made his final appearance with WWA on December 13, in Zürich, Switzerland, when he lost the WWA World Heavyweight Championship to Sting in a three-way dance that also featured Malice.


title: Lex Luger

text: In late 2003, Luger began working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA); he teamed with TNA co-founder Jeff Jarrett on November 12 in a loss to A.J. Styles and Sting. He returned on February 25, 2004 putting AJ Styles through a table during a tables match against Abyss.


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger returned to TNA in 2006, first appearing during the April 27 "Impact!" as the second of Sting's potential tag team partners for Sacrifice. Throughout September and October, he appeared on "Impact!" as one of the people (along with Buff Bagwell) helping Sting to "prepare" for his upcoming match against Jeff Jarrett at Bound for Glory.


title: Lex Luger

text: On October 13, 2012, Luger inducted Sting to the TNA Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in Phoenix, Arizona prior to the Bound for Glory pay-per-view.


title: Lex Luger

text: Throughout 2004 and 2005, Luger made sporadic appearances on the independent circuit. Luger's final match took place on August 26, 2006 in the main event of a United Wrestling Federation event in Oklahoma, in which Luger teamed with Buff Bagwell to defeat Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner. On September 22, 2007, Luger was inducted into the XWF (later Legend's Pro Wrestling)'s Hall of Fame.


title: Lex Luger

text: In 2011, Luger began working again with WWE on their Wellness Policy. In regards to this role he stated:


title: Lex Luger

text: Luger is of German and Scottish heritage. Luger is divorced from Peggy and has two children, a son, Brian (born January 1, 1986), and a daughter, Lauren Ashley (born September 24, 1990). Luger is a Christian.


title: Lex Luger

text: On April 19, 2003, Luger was involved in a domestic dispute with Miss Elizabeth (Elizabeth Hulette), then his live-in girlfriend, in the garage of their townhouse in Marietta, Georgia, during which Luger allegedly struck her. Cobb County police found Hulette with two bruised eyes, a bump on her head, and a cut lip. Luger was charged with a misdemeanor count of battery and released on $2,500 bond. Two days later on April 21, Luger was arrested for driving under the influence after rear-ending another car. According to the police report, Luger had slurred speech and bloodshot eyes, and could not locate his driver's license. Hulette was a passenger in the vehicle and was sent home in a taxi. Luger was also driving with a suspended license for not appearing in court on March 5, 2003 for a hearing on a previous offense of driving with expired tags and having no proof of insurance.


title: Lex Luger

text: On May 1, 2003, Hulette died in the Maritta townhouse she shared with Luger after mixing pills of hydrocodone and Alprazolam (Xanax) with vodka. Luger was arrested after a search of the residence revealed a number of illicit controlled substances, including anabolic steroids, oxycodone, synthetic growth hormone, testosterone, and alprazolam. He was charged with 13 felony counts of drug possession. He was released the following day on $27,500 bail. Miss Elizabeth's death was eventually ruled accidental. Luger pleaded guilty to the charges and was fined $1,000, sentenced to five years probation, and ordered to undergo periodic drug tests.


title: Lex Luger

text: In December 2005, Luger and fellow wrestlers Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell were removed from a flight to Winnipeg, Manitoba after committing acts of disturbance on board the plane, and were detained for several hours. Although Steiner and Bagwell were freed to resume their trip, Luger was charged with violating his probation by failing to obtain permission to leave the country. Luger was initially detained in the Hennepin County jail. He was tried in Georgia and sentenced to four months in Cobb County Jail, with a one-month credit for time served.


title: Lex Luger

text: On October 19, 2007, Luger suffered a nerve impingement in his neck that led to temporary paralysis. In an unconfirmed report it was stated that he underwent an intravenous antibiotic treatment and was expected to make a full recovery, though that was never an official prognosis. Nearly a month after his spinal stroke, Luger was still in a quadriplegic state, having no movement in either his arms or legs. In June 2008, Luger was said to be able to stand on his own for short periods and walk using a walker. In 2010, Luger stated in an interview that he was able to walk more comfortably, and was now able to drive. By 2014, Luger was using a wheelchair on a regular basis, though he was still able to walk short distances, and by 2021 became completely reliant on a wheelchair for mobility.


title: Lex Luger

text: On September 28, 2006, Luger appeared on "Praise the Lord", the flagship talk program of the Trinity Broadcasting Network and declared himself a born-again Christian. In an interview conducted by guest host, one-time wrestling tag-team partner, and longtime friend Sting, Luger emotionally discussed the downward turn of his career and personal life—including the events surrounding Miss Elizabeth's death—and how it led to his Christian conversion. Luger credits Steve Baskin, the pastor of Western Hills Baptist Church in Kennesaw, Georgia, with pulling him from a terminal tailspin. The jail chaplain met Luger in early 2006.


title: Lex Luger

text: In 1990, Luger was a featured guest-star in Season 3 of the "Superboy" series in the episode "Mindscape".


title: Lex Luger

text: On November 20, 2012, Luger appeared on season 6, episode 15 of "Hardcore Pawn", selling his ring robe for $3500 to Les Gold with the cash going to a charity. The Robe was later purchased by super fan Dave “Super Dave” Plaza.


title: Lex Luger

text: On August 13, 2013, Luger's memoir "Wrestling with the Devil: The True Story of a World Champion Professional Wrestler – His Reign, Ruin, and Redemption", was released with the foreword written by Sting.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include "Jesse James", "The Mark of Zorro", "Marie Antoinette", "Blood and Sand", "The Black Swan", "Prince of Foxes", "Witness for the Prosecution", "The Black Rose", and "Captain from Castile". Power's own favorite film among those that he starred in was "Nightmare Alley".


title: Tyrone Power

text: Though largely a matinee idol in the 1930s and early 1940s and known for his striking good looks, Power starred in films in a number of genres, from drama to light comedy. In the 1950s he began placing limits on the number of films he would make in order to devote more time to theater productions. He received his biggest accolades as a stage actor in "John Brown's Body" and "Mister Roberts". Power died from a heart attack at the age


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1914, the son of Helen Emma "Patia" (née Reaume) and the English-born American stage and screen actor Tyrone Power Sr., often known by his first name "Fred". Power was descended from a long Irish theatrical line going back to his great-grandfather, the Irish actor and comedian Tyrone Power (1797–1841). Tyrone Power's sister, Ann Power, was born in 1915, after the family moved to California. His mother was Roman Catholic, and her ancestry included the French-Canadian Reaume family and French from Alsace-Lorraine. Through his paternal great-grandmother, Anne Gilbert, Power was related to the actor Laurence Olivier; through his paternal grandmother, stage actress Ethel Lavenu, he was related by marriage to author Evelyn Waugh; and through his father's first cousin, Norah Emily Gorman Power, he was related to the theatrical director Sir (William) Tyrone Guthrie, the first Director of the Stratford Festival in Canada; and the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power went to Cincinnati-area Catholic schools and graduated from Purcell High School in 1931. Upon his graduation, he opted to join his father to learn what he could about acting from one of the stage's most respected actors.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power joined his father for the summer of 1931, after being separated from him for some years due to his parents' divorce. His father suffered a heart attack in December 1931, dying in his son's arms, while preparing to perform in "The Miracle Man". Tyrone Power Jr., as he was then known, decided to continue pursuing an acting career. He tried to find work as an actor, and, while many contacts knew his father well, they offered praise for his father but no work for his son. He appeared in a bit part in 1932 in "Tom Brown of Culver", a movie starring actor Tom Brown. Power's experience in that movie did not open any other doors, however, and, except for what amounted to little more than a job as an extra in "Flirtation Walk", he found himself frozen out of the movies but making some appearances in community theater. Discouraged, he took the advice of a friend, Arthur Caesar, to go to New York to gain experience as a stage actor. Among the Broadway plays in which he was cast are "Flowers of the Forest", "Saint Joan", and "Romeo and Juliet".


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power went to Hollywood in 1936. The director Henry King was impressed with his looks and poise, and he insisted that Power be tested for the lead role in "Lloyd's of London", a role thought already to belong to Don Ameche. Despite his own reservations, Darryl F. Zanuck decided to give Power the role, once King and Fox film editor Barbara McLean convinced him that Power had a greater screen presence than Ameche. Power was billed fourth in the movie but he had by far the most screen time of any member of the cast. He walked into the premiere of the movie an unknown and he walked out a star, which he remained the rest of his career.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power racked up hit after hit from 1936 until 1943, when his career was interrupted by military service. In these years he starred in romantic comedies such as "Thin Ice" and "Day-Time Wife", in dramas such as "Suez", "Blood and Sand", "", "The Rains Came" and "In Old Chicago"; in musicals "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "Second Fiddle", and "Rose of Washington Square"; in the westerns "Jesse James" (1939) and "Brigham Young"; in the war films "A Yank in the R.A.F." and "This Above All"; and the swashbucklers "The Mark of Zorro" and "The Black Swan". "Jesse James" was a very big hit at the box office, but it did receive some criticism for fictionalizing and glamorizing the famous outlaw. The movie was shot in and around Pineville, Missouri, and was Power's first location shoot and his first Technicolor movie. (Before his career was over, he had filmed a total of 16 movies in color, including the movie he was filming when he died.) He was loaned out once, to MGM for "Marie Antoinette" (1938). Darryl F. Zanuck was angry that MGM used Fox's biggest star in what was, despite billing, a supporting role, and he vowed to never again loan him out, though Power's services were requested for the roles of Ashley Wilkes in "Gone with the Wind", Joe Bonaparte in "Golden Boy", and Parris in "Kings Row"; roles in several films produced by Harry Cohn; and the role of Monroe Stahr in a planned production by Norma Shearer of "The Last Tycoon".


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power was named the second biggest box-office draw in 1939, surpassed only by Mickey Rooney. His box office numbers are some of the best of all time.


title: Tyrone Power

text: In 1940, the direction of Power's career took a dramatic turn when his movie "The Mark of Zorro" was released. Power played the role of Don Diego Vega/Zorro, a fop by day, a bandit hero by night. The role had been performed by Douglas Fairbanks in the 1920 movie of the same title. The film was a hit, and 20th Century Fox often cast Power in other swashbucklers in the years that followed. Power was a talented swordsman in real life, and the dueling scene in "The Mark of Zorro" is highly regarded. The great Hollywood swordsman, Basil Rathbone, who starred with him in "The Mark of Zorro", commented, "Power was the most agile man with a sword I've ever faced before a camera. Tyrone could have fenced Errol Flynn into a cocked hat."


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power's career was interrupted in 1943 by military service. He reported to the United States Marine Corps for training in late 1942, but was sent back, at the request of 20th Century-Fox, to complete one more film, "Crash Dive", a patriotic war movie released in 1943. He was credited in the movie as Tyrone Power, U.S.M.C.R., and the movie served as a recruiting film.


title: Tyrone Power

text: In August 1942, Power enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He attended boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, then Officer's Candidate School at Marine Corps Base Quantico, where he was commissioned a second lieutenant on June 2, 1943. As he had already logged 180 solo hours as a pilot before enlisting, he was able to do a short, intense flight training program at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. The pass earned him his wings and a promotion to first lieutenant. The Marine Corps considered Power over the age limit for active combat flying, so he volunteered for piloting cargo planes that he felt would get him into active combat zones.


title: Tyrone Power

text: In July 1944, Power was assigned to Marine Transport Squadron (VMR)-352 as a R5C (Navy version of Army Curtiss Commando C-46) transport co-pilot at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. The squadron moved to Marine Corps Air Station El Centro in California in December 1944. Power was later reassigned to VMR-353, joining them on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in February 1945. From there, he flew missions carrying cargo in and wounded Marines out during the Battles of Iwo Jima (Feb-Mar 1945) and Okinawa (Apr-Jun 1945).


title: Tyrone Power

text: For his services in the Pacific War, Power was awarded the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two bronze stars, and the World War II Victory Medal.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power returned to the United States in November 1945 and was released from active duty in January 1946. He was promoted to the rank of captain in the reserves on May 8, 1951. He remained in the reserves the rest of his life and reached the rank of major in 1957.


title: Tyrone Power

text: In the June 2001 "Marine Air Transporter" newsletter, Jerry Taylor, a retired Marine Corps flight instructor, recalled training Power as a Marine pilot, saying, "He was an excellent student, never forgot a procedure I showed him or anything I told him." Others who served with him have also commented on how well Power was respected by those with whom he served.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Following the war, 20th Century Fox provided Power with a surplus DC-3 that he named "The Geek" that he frequently piloted.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Other than re-releases of his films, Power was not seen on screen again after his entry into the Marines until 1946, when he co-starred with Gene Tierney, John Payne and Anne Baxter in "The Razor's Edge", an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel of the same title.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Next up for release was a movie that Power had to fight hard to make, the film noir "Nightmare Alley" (1947). Darryl F. Zanuck was reluctant for Power to make the movie because his handsome appearance and charming manner had been marketable assets for the studio for many years. Zanuck feared that the dark role might damage Power's image. Zanuck eventually agreed, giving Power A-list production values for what normally would be a B film. The movie was directed by Edmund Goulding, and though it was a failure at the box-office, it was one of Power's favorite roles for which he received some of the best reviews of his career. However, Zanuck continued to disapprove of his "darling boy" being seen in such a film with a downward spiral. So, he did not publicize it and removed it from release after only a few weeks insisting that it was a flop. The film was released on DVD in 2005 after years of legal issues.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Zanuck quickly released another costume-clad movie, "Captain from Castile" (also 1947), directed by Henry King, who directed Power in eleven movies. After making a couple of light romantic comedies reuniting him with two actresses under contract to 20th Century Fox, "That Wonderful Urge" with Gene Tierney and "The Luck of the Irish" (both 1948) with Anne Baxter. After these films, Power once again found himself in two swashbucklers, "Prince of Foxes" (1949) and "The Black Rose" (1950).


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his costume roles, and he struggled between being a star and becoming a great actor. He was forced to take on assignments he found unappealing, such movies as "American Guerrilla in the Philippines" (1950) and "Pony Soldier" (1952). In 1950, he traveled to England to play the title role in "Mister Roberts" on stage at the London Coliseum, bringing in sellout crowds for twenty-three weeks.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Protesting being cast in one costume film after another, Power refused to star in "Lydia Bailey" with his role going to Dale Robertson; Power was placed under suspension. Power next appeared in "Diplomatic Courier" (1952), a cold war spy drama directed by Henry Hathaway which received very modest reviews. It took its place among several other American spy movies, released previously, with similar material.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Power's movies had been highly profitable for Fox in the past, and as an enticement to renew his contract a third time, Fox offered him the lead role in "The Robe" (1953). He turned it down (Richard Burton was cast instead) and on 1 November 1952, he left on a ten-week national tour with "John Brown's Body", a three-person dramatic reading of Stephen Vincent Benét's narrative poem, adapted and directed by Charles Laughton, featuring Power, Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey. The tour culminated in a run of 65 shows between February and April 1953 at the New Century Theatre on Broadway. A second national tour with the show began in October 1953, this time for four months, and with Raymond Massey and Anne Baxter. In the same year, Power filmed "King of The Khyber Rifles", a depiction of India in 1857, with Terry Moore and Michael Rennie.


title: Tyrone Power

text: Fox now gave Power permission to seek his own roles outside the studio, on the understanding that he would fulfill his fourteen-film commitment to them in between his other projects. He made "The Mississippi Gambler" (1953) for Universal-International, negotiating a deal entitling him to a percentage of the profits. He earned a million dollars from the movie. Also in 1953, actress and producer Katharine Cornell cast Power as her love interest in the play "The Dark is Light Enough", a verse drama by British dramatist Christopher Fry set in Austria in 1848. Between November 1954 and April 1955, Power toured the United States and Canada in the role, ending with 12 weeks at the ANTA Theater, New York, and two weeks at the Colonial Theater, Boston. His performance in Julian Claman's "A Quiet Place", staged at the National Theater, Washington, at the end of 1955 was warmly received by the critics.


title: Tyrone Power

text: "Untamed" (1955) was Tyrone Power's last movie made under his contract with 20th Century-Fox. The same year saw the release of "The Long Gray Line", a John Ford film for Columbia Pictures. In 1956, the year Columbia released "The Eddy Duchin Story", another great success for the star, he returned to England to play the rake Dick Dudgeon in a revival of Shaw's "The Devil's Disciple" for one week at the Opera House in Manchester, and nineteen weeks at the Winter Garden, London.