title: Chuck Grassley

text: On November 5, 2007, Grassley announced an investigation into the tax-exempt status of six ministries under the leadership of Benny Hinn, Paula White, Eddie L. Long, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, and Kenneth Copeland by the United States Senate Committee on Finance. In letters to each ministry, Grassley asked for the ministries to divulge specific financial information to the committee to determine whether or not funds collected by each organization were inappropriately utilized by ministry heads. By the December 6, 2007 deadline, only three of the ministries had shown compliance with the Finance Committee's request. On March 11, 2008, Grassley and Finance chairman Max Baucus sent follow-up letters to Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and Eddie Long, explaining that the Senate reserved the right to investigate the finances of their organizations under federal tax laws.


title: Chuck Grassley

text: Grassley also began an investigation about unreported payments to physicians by pharmaceutical companies. Grassley led a 2008 Congressional Investigation which found that well-known university psychiatrists, who had promoted psychoactive drugs, had violated federal and university regulations by secretly receiving large sums of money from the pharmaceutical companies which made the drugs. "The New York Times" reported that Joseph Biederman of Harvard University had failed to report over a million dollars of income that he had received from pharmaceutical companies. Weeks later, Business Week reported that Grassley alleged that Alan Schatzberg, chair of psychiatry at Stanford University, had underreported his investments in Corcept Therapeutics, a company he founded. Schatzberg had reported only $100,000 investments in Corcept, but Grassley stated that his investments actually totalled over $6 million. Schatzberg later stepped down from his grant which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).


title: Chuck Grassley

text: Similarly, Charles Nemeroff resigned as chair of the psychiatry department at Emory University after failing to report a third of the $2.8 million in consulting fees he received from GlaxoSmithKline. At the time he received these fees, Nemeroff had been principal investigator of a $3.9 million NIH grant evaluating five medications for depression manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.


title: Chuck Grassley

text: In 2008, for the first time, Grassley asked the American Psychiatric Association to disclose how much of its annual budget came from drug industry funds. The APA said that industry contributed 28% of its budget ($14 million at that time), mainly through paid advertising in APA journals and funds for continuing medical education.


title: Chuck Grassley

text: According to the nonpartisan OpenSecrets, in 2010, the industries that have been the largest contributors to Grassley during his political career are health professionals ($1 million in contributions), insurance industry ($997,674), lawyers/law firms ($625,543) and pharmaceuticals/health products ($538,680). His largest corporate donors have been Blue Cross Blue Shield (insurance), Amgen (biotech company) and Wells Fargo (bank).


title: Chuck Grassley

text: Grassley and Barbara Ann Speicher married on August 22, 1954. They have five children: Lee, Wendy, Robin, Michele, and Jay. Grassley is a member of the Family, the organization that organizes the National Prayer Breakfast. His grandson, Pat Grassley, is a member of the Iowa House of Representatives. Grassley is also known for his widely reported, long-running "feud" with the History channel; he has consistently accused the network of featuring little actual history programming.


title: Chuck Grassley

text: In 2003, Grassley's alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa, selected him for "honoris causa" membership in Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society. In 2009, the National Center for Health Research gave Grassley the Health Policy Hero award for his 2004 oversight of legislative reforms and accountability of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In 2010, "The Hill" named Grassley and Max Baucus the hardest-working members of Congress.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jerral Wayne Jones (born October 13, 1942) is an American businessman who has been the owner, president, and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) since February 1989.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones was born in Los Angeles, California, to John "Pat" and Armenita Jones. The family moved back to North Little Rock, Arkansas in 1945. His parents owned two branches of Pat's Super Market in the Rose City neighborhood of North Little Rock. Jones was a running back at North Little Rock High School, graduating in 1960.


title: Jerry Jones

text: After his graduation, Jones' parents moved to Springfield, Missouri, where Pat was president and chairman of Modern Security Life Insurance Co. The company, which an advertisement billed as a "one in a million" company, saw its assets increase from $440,299.76 in its first statement in 1961 to $6,230,607 in 1965. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, Jerral W. Jones was listed as an executive vice president. With the success of the company, the Joneses assembled the 5,500-acre Buena Vista Ranch east of Springfield in Rogersville, Missouri, in the Ozark Mountains. In 1971, after selling the insurance company, the couple carved out 400 acres of their ranch to start Buena Vista Animal Paradise, where tourists could visit exotic animals (now Wild Animal Safari in Strafford, Missouri, just south of Interstate 44).


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones attended the University of Arkansas, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He was co-captain of Arkansas' 1964 national championship football team. He was an offensive lineman for College Football Hall of Fame coach Frank Broyles and a teammate of college football and NFL coach Jimmy Johnson, whom Jones hired as his first head coach after purchasing the Cowboys.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Other notable teammates were Glen Ray Hines, a consensus All-American offensive tackle; Ken Hatfield, who went on to coach several major programs including Arkansas; Jim Lindsey; future Outland Trophy winner Loyd Phillips; and College Football Hall of Fame linebacker Ronnie Caveness. Several future head coaches were assistant coaches for Broyles on the Razorbacks' staff during Jones' college career in Fayetteville, including three more members of the College Football Hall of Fame: Hayden Fry (Southern Methodist University, North Texas State University, and the University of Iowa); Johnny Majors (Iowa State University, University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Tennessee), and Barry Switzer (University of Oklahoma, and later head coach of the Cowboys under Jones).


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones is one of a very small number of NFL owners who had a significant level of success as a football player.


title: Jerry Jones

text: According to an interview with Jones on HBO, after graduating from college in 1965, he borrowed a million dollars from Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters union to open up a string of Shakey's Pizza Parlor restaurants in Missouri. When that venture failed, Jones was given a job at his father's insurance company, Modern Security Life of Springfield, Missouri. He received his master's degree in business in 1970. After several other unsuccessful business ventures (including an attempt, again using Teamsters money, to purchase the American Football League's San Diego Chargers in 1967), he began an oil and gas exploration business in Arkansas, Jones Oil and Land Lease, which became successful. His privately held company currently does natural resource prospecting.


title: Jerry Jones

text: In 2008, Jones formed a partnership with Yankee Global Enterprises to create Legends Hospitality, a food, beverage, merchandise, retail, and stadium operations corporation serving entertainment venues.


title: Jerry Jones

text: On February 25, 1989, Jones purchased the Cowboys from H. R. "Bum" Bright for $140 million (equivalent to $292.5 million in 2020). Soon after the purchase, he fired longtime coach Tom Landry, to that point the only coach in the team's history, in favor of his old teammate at Arkansas, Jimmy Johnson. A few months later, he fired longtime general manager Tex Schramm, and assumed complete control over football matters.


title: Jerry Jones

text: After a slow start under Jones and Johnson (the first season under Jones, a 1–15 finish, remains second only to the team's inaugural season in terms of futility), Jones quickly built a team often considered the best NFL franchise of the 1990s. The Cowboys won Super Bowl XXVII in the 1992 season, as well as Super Bowl XXVIII the following year in the 1993 season. Johnson then departed and was replaced by Barry Switzer, who won Super Bowl XXX in the 1995 season.


title: Jerry Jones

text: At the time of the sale, the financially troubled Bright claimed to be losing $1 million per month on the franchise. During Jones' tenure, the Cowboys have appreciated in value to an estimated $5.5 billion, turning their owner into a billionaire in the process. Much of the league's financial success since 1989 has been credited to Jones himself. In particular, he was decisive in securing Fox as the NFC's primary broadcaster at a time when the traditional "Big Three" networks were trying to convince the league into accepting a rollback in television rights fees.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Increased television revenues have played a decisive role in securing the NFL's place as the world's richest sports league, with revenues of well over $10 billion per season.


title: Jerry Jones

text: The 2020 NFL season was Jones' 32nd as Cowboys owner, more than the combined tenures of his predecessors.


title: Jerry Jones

text: In an online poll from October 8, 2003, Jones was named the least-favorite sports personality by "Sports Illustrated", in three states (Virginia, Delaware, and Texas).


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones is often vilified by fans who remain bitter at his unceremonious firings of longtime Cowboys personnel who were fan favorites, head coach Tom Landry and general manager Tex Schramm, even though the Cowboys had done poorly the last few seasons before Jones became owner. Jones stated he did not give consideration to retaining Landry for even a season, as he said he would not have purchased the team unless he could hire Johnson as coach. Jones did not discuss the matter with Landry before announcing the decision. This was denounced by football fans and media as lacking class and respect, as pride and tradition were part of the Cowboys, where great performance and loyal service were expected to be rewarded. Since the dismissal, Jones indicated that he regrets the process of Landry's firing and his role in it. It later emerged that Jones' predecessor, Bright, had been dissatisfied with Landry for years and offered to relieve Jones of the inevitable criticism by dismissing the longtime coach himself prior to selling the team. Bright had wanted to fire Landry as early as 1987, only to have Schramm tell him that there wasn't a suitable replacement available.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Some of the fan criticism is due to Jones' high visibility and involvement as the "face of the team", a contrast to both Bright and the Cowboys' original owner, Clint Murchison Jr. Jones' prominent role has led to fans expressing displeasure with Jones and the lack of success of the franchise, with particular criticism of Jones' serving as his own general manager. There was particular criticism of Jones over his conflict with head coach Jimmy Johnson, as Jones "wanted Cowboys fans to know he had helped build those Super Bowl-winning teams", while "Johnson insisted that he made all of the personnel moves" because he had the final say in football matters and refused to relinquish this power. Consequently, Jones ousted Johnson after the 1993 season despite two consecutive Super Bowl wins and refused to induct Johnson into the Cowboys Ring of Honor. Jones also initially promised head coach Bill Parcells complete control over football matters; however, their relationship broke down after Jones signed controversial wide receiver Terrell Owens. Parcells' successor, Wade Phillips, complained to friends about being "undermined and second-guessed, repeatedly" by Jones.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones is one of two owners in the league (the other being Cincinnati's Mike Brown) who have either the title or powers of general manager. In 2018, Jones told "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" reporter Mark Lane that serving as his own general manager helps streamline decision-making and communication lines with the coaching staff. Over Jones' tenure, Cowboys fans have organized a number of grassroots efforts to displace Jones from his position.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones is the subject of the 2008 book "Playing to Win" by David Magee. In the book, Jones admitted he handled the firing of Landry poorly and accepted some blame for the disintegration of his relationship with Landry's successor, Jimmy Johnson.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones became involved in the St. Louis Rams move back to Los Angeles with Stan Kroenke in 2016. He was instrumental in brokering a deal between Stan Kroenke, San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos, and Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis to ensure that Kroenke's SoFi Stadium plan passed, which it did via a 30–2 owners vote in favor. Jones' support and role in the negotiations was criticized by some fans and sports media in St. Louis. Jones was also a key proponent of the Oakland Raiders' move to Las Vegas to play at Allegiant Stadium.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones was fined $25,000 by the NFL for publicly criticizing referee Ed Hochuli after Hochuli made a call in a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos on September 14, 2008. Jones made comments both to the press and on his radio show, saying Hochuli was one of the most criticized officials in the NFL. This was Jones' first fine by the NFL.


title: Jerry Jones

text: In 2009, Jones was fined $100,000 for violating a gag order on labor issues, commenting that revenue sharing was "on its way out". Commissioner Roger Goodell had issued a gag order for all owners and team executives from discussing any aspect of the pending labor issues. Jones "crossed the line", drawing a "six-figure" fine, sources said, as the commissioner distributed a memo to all 32 owners, along with a reminder that the gag order remains in effect. Goodell did not disclose the specific amount of Jones' fine in the memo.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones was the inspiration for the character Baxter Cain (Robert Vaughn), owner of the Dallas Felons, in the 1998 film "BASEketball". He had a brief cameo appearance as himself in the 1998 made-for-television reunion movie "".


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones and Deion Sanders appeared together in several television commercials during Sanders' time with the Cowboys.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones also appeared as himself in a 1996 episode of the TV show "Coach" and in a 2007 television commercial for Diet Pepsi MAX, which also featured then Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips and quarterback Tony Romo.


title: Jerry Jones

text: He appeared as himself in the seventh season of the HBO series "Entourage" in 2010, in an episode of the TNT incarnation of "Dallas" titled "Truth and Consequences", which aired on July 4, 2012, in a series of commercials for the 2012 season of ESPN's "Monday Night Football", and in the season 4 premiere of "The League". In 2013, Jones narrated a documentary film on former teammate and business partner Jim Lindsey.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones also appears in a 2013 Pepsi commercial, walking into an elevator filled with three men wearing New York Giants apparel, who look at him with discontent.


title: Jerry Jones

text: He was parodied on the first episode, "Go Fund Yourself", of the eighteenth season of "South Park", along with several other NFL team owners. In one scene, Jones is depicted as having huge, bulging chameleon-like eyes, as a young woman's head pops up from his lap. He reappears in the season 21 episode "Moss Piglets."


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones is married and has three children. Stephen serves as the Cowboys' chief operating officer/executive vice president/director of player personnel. Charlotte serves as the Cowboys' executive vice president and chief brand officer. Jerry Jones Jr. is the Cowboys' chief sales and marketing officer/vice president. Jones owns a home in Destin, Florida.


title: Jerry Jones

text: Jones revealed in July 2015 at a press conference before Cowboys training camp that he had undergone hip replacement surgery, joking that he wouldn't start the season on the PUP list.


title: Jerry Jones

text: , Jones' net worth is reported by "Forbes" to be $8.5 billion, the majority of which can be accounted for as being his ownership stake in the Cowboys who are currently valued by the same publication to be the world's most valuable sports team at $5 billion.


title: Jerry Jones

text: In March 2022, Jones was served with legal action by a 25-year-old woman who claimed that he is her biological father. The woman is the daughter of a former airline employee that Jones met in Little Rock, Arkansas. Jones has paid nearly $3 million to the woman and her mother, which included the woman's full tuition at Southern Methodist University and a $70,000 Range Rover on her 16th birthday. Requests for money and other expenses exceeded the amount that Jones agreed to pay in the trust agreement between the parties by nearly $1 million over the years, including $33,000 for a "Sweet 16" birthday party, which was featured on the reality TV show "Big Rich Texas".


title: Jerry Jones

text: In November 2022, a 1957 photo surfaced depicting a 14-year-old Jerry Jones witnessing an argument where white students attempted to prevent six African-American students from entering North Little Rock High School in Arkansas. North Little Rock was beginning to integrate in 1957. Despite the school's head football coach ordering the team (which Jones was a part of) to stay away from such scenes, Jones said he was there as a curious bystander. Jones also stated: "I don't know that I or anybody anticipated or had a background of knowing what was involved. It was more a curious thing." Jones has expressed regret in not doing more to help the Black students feel more accepted at Little Rock.


title: George Wendt

text: George Robert Wendt Jr. (born October 17, 1948) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Norm Peterson on the television sitcom "Cheers" (1982–1993), which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He also played the role in the short-lived spin-off "The Tortellis" and in an episode of "Wings", which was made by the same creators. Wendt has also appeared in his own sitcom, "The George Wendt Show", following "Cheers," but it was cancelled after only a few episodes. His numerous film roles include "Fletch", "Gung Ho", "Dreamscape", "House", "Forever Young", "Hostage for a Day", "Man of the House", and "Lakeboat."


title: George Wendt

text: George Robert Wendt Jr. was born in the Beverly neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Loretta Mary (née Howard) and George Robert Wendt, an officer in the Navy and a realtor. He is one of nine children, with six sisters—Nancy, Karen, Mary Ann, Kathryn, Loretta, and Marti—as well as two brothers, Tom and Paul. His maternal grandfather was photographer Tom Howard. Wendt is of Irish and one quarter German descent.


title: George Wendt

text: He attended Campion High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He was expelled from the University of Notre Dame after he received a 0.00 GPA the first semester of his junior year. He later attended the Jesuit Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated with a B.A. in economics.


title: George Wendt

text: Wendt is a 1975 alumnus of The Second City, which he discovered shortly after college. A viewing had inspired him to join and on his first day of employment, he showed up promptly at 11:30 am as he was instructed. The woman working there handed him a broom and said "Welcome to the theater, kid"; thus, his first job in show business was sweeping the floors. Second City was also where he met his future wife, Bernadette Birkett, who played Cliff's Halloween date in the third season of "Cheers" and later in the series played the voice of Norm's never-seen wife, Vera.


title: George Wendt

text: Wendt appeared in the 1980 film "My Bodyguard", and had small roles in the TV series "Taxi", "Soap", and "M*A*S*H".


title: George Wendt

text: From 1982 to 1993, Wendt appeared as Norm Peterson in all 275 episodes of "Cheers". For his work on "Cheers", Wendt earned six Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He also played the role in the short-lived spin-off "The Tortellis" and in an episode of "Wings", which was made by the same creators.


title: George Wendt

text: His first appearance on "Saturday Night Live" was in a season 11 (1985–1986) episode where he shared hosting duties with director Francis Ford Coppola. In 1988 he played the part of "Witten" in the New Zealand-made film, "Never Say Die". In the early 1990s, Wendt made cameo appearances on several episodes of "SNL" as Bob Swerski, one of the Chicago Superfans (along with cast members Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Robert Smigel, and one-time host, Joe Mantegna). Having grown up as a lifelong fan of his hometown Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bears, Wendt's Bob Swerski character is said to be a "spot-on" characterization of Chicago's south-side citizens.


title: George Wendt

text: In 1989, Wendt appeared as the eponymous protagonist in a BBC TV dramatization of Ivan Goncharov's novel "Oblomov". He has also appeared twice on the original British edition of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" In 1991, Wendt played the father in Michael Jackson's music video "Black or White". He had roles opposite Robert De Niro in 1991's "Guilty by Suspicion" and with Mel Gibson in 1992's "Forever Young".


title: George Wendt

text: Following his success on "Cheers", Wendt starred in the short-lived "The George Wendt Show", which featured him as a garage mechanic with a radio show, based on the NPR radio show "Car Talk". "The George Wendt Show" aired from March through April, 1995.


title: George Wendt

text: Wendt starred as the killer in one of the last episodes of the TV series "Columbo", portraying a thoroughbred horse owner in the 1995 episode "Strange Bedfellows". Wendt appeared as himself on "Seinfeld" and has reprised the character Norm Peterson on "The Simpsons" episode "Fear of Flying", two episodes of "Family Guy", "Road to Rupert" and "Three Kings", as well as the "Frasier" episode "Cheerful Goodbyes". In the same year as his "Frasier" guest appearance, Wendt played the bartender to Ted Danson's character in "Becker" (the inverse of their relationship on "Cheers"). In 1994, he appeared in the film "Man of the House" as Chet Bronski, the stepfather of Norman (Zachary Browne), and starred with Chevy Chase, Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Farrah Fawcett. He also played the role of Old Man Dunphy's closeted homosexual friend Joey in the 1999 film "Outside Providence".


title: George Wendt

text: In 1998, he was one of the three characters in a London West End production of "'Art'" with David Dukes and Stacy Keach. He would later join the Broadway production of the play, starring alongside Judd Hirsch and Joe Morton.


title: George Wendt

text: In 2003, Wendt appeared as a celebrity fisherman in the music video for Cobra Verde's "Riot Industry" along with Rudy Ray Moore (of "Dolemite" fame) and The Minutemen's Mike Watt. He appeared in several episodes of The WB's "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" in 2001 as the title character's boss. He also was the host of the A&E reality show "House of Dreams" in 2004. In January 2006, Wendt was seen again on television screens as part of the cast of "Modern Men".


title: George Wendt

text: He has also appeared on "The Larry Sanders Show" as a guest on the show. In 2006, Wendt made several appearances on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" where he performed short skits. His appearances on "Late Night" were in all likelihood because the show was having a week-long event in his home town of Chicago. He starred in a 2006 episode of "Masters of Horror" entitled "Family", directed by John Landis, and played Santa Claus in the ABC Family original film "Santa Baby". Wendt performed alongside Richard Thomas in "Twelve Angry Men" in October 2006 in the Eisenhower Theatre in Washington, D.C.. After the show opened, Wendt was interviewed by local film critic Arch Campbell for a piece on the NBC Washington affiliate WRC. Wendt was asked, "What should people do when they see you around town?" After hesitating for a moment, Wendt held his thumbs up and replied, "If their impulse is to buy me a beer, then by all means, follow that impulse." In spring 2007, Wendt performed in "12 Angry Men" in Los Angeles. Wendt appeared as an American GI in the 2007 Christmas Special episode of British sitcom "The Green Green Grass".


title: George Wendt

text: George starred in the Broadway musical "Hairspray" as the character of Edna Turnblad until November 2008. He appeared with his former "Cheers" co-star John Ratzenberger as a talent scout on "Last Comic Standing" during Season 6. He briefly appeared as Santa Claus in "". He also appeared in the 2008 horror film "Bryan Loves You" directed by Seth Landau.


title: George Wendt

text: On October 1, 2009, Wendt appeared on "The Colbert Report" the day before the IOC announced which city will host the 2016 Summer Olympics. In their way of supporting Chicago's bid for the games, Wendt and Stephen Colbert humorously insulted the three other bidding cities, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, and Tokyo, all while drinking Chicago's favorite Old Style Beer. In 2009, Wendt starred as Santa Claus in "Santa Buddies" and also had a small role in the film "Opposite Day".


title: George Wendt

text: Wendt appeared in a production of "Hairspray", reprising his role as Edna Turnblad, from September 8 to October 9, 2010, at the Charlottetown Festival in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Wendt played Santa in "Elf the Musical" on Broadway. The show opened November 14, 2010, and ran through January 2, 2011. Wendt starred in a production of "Hairspray" as Edna Turnblad at Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, from August 2, 2011, to August 21, 2011. Wendt also guest-starred in the TV series "Hot In Cleveland" as Yoder, based on his character Norm in "Cheers". His first of two scenes took place in an Amish bar, where everyone in the bar yelled "Yoder!", referencing what the cast of "Cheers" would yell whenever he walked in.


title: George Wendt

text: Wendt is among the thespians who participated in a poster campaign touting live theatre in Chicago. Other celebrities included John Mahoney, John Malkovich, Terry Kinney, and Martha Plimpton. Wendt has a cameo as a newspaper reporter on "Portlandia" on January 25, 2013. Wendt was set to play the role of Pap in the Hank Williams bio musical "Lost Highway" at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, New York.


title: George Wendt

text: Beginning in the fall of 2013, Wendt appeared in a television commercial for State Farm Insurance. Wendt and Robert Smigel reprise their roles from "SNL" as the Chicago Superfans, who encounter quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The commercial continued the theme of State Farm commercials featuring Rodgers, using the "discount doublecheck" slogan.


title: George Wendt

text: From November 6, 2013, to January 19, 2014, Wendt starred in "Never Too Late," a comedy with his wife, actress Bernadette Birkett, at New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas. In this play, Wendt plays a successful lumber yard owner who is king of his castle and whose life is going exactly the way he wants until his wife comes back from a doctor appointment with some big news.


title: George Wendt

text: In 2015, Wendt starred opposite his former Second City co-star Tim Kazurinsky in Bruce Graham's new comedy "Funnyman" at Northlight Theatre. The same year, Wendt appeared in the TBS sitcom "Clipped", which aired for one season.


title: George Wendt

text: Wendt appeared as Tracy Turnblad's mother in a production of "Hairspray" featuring John Waters and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore in June 2016.


title: George Wendt

text: Wendt starred in "The Fabulous Lipitones" at New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas from November 30, 2016, to February 12, 2017.


title: George Wendt

text: Wendt starred as Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" at St. Jacob's Country Playhouse in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, from October 18 to November 4, 2017.


title: Herb Alpert

text: Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the "Billboard" 200 chart, five of which became No. 1 albums; he has had 14 platinum albums and 15 gold albums. Alpert is the only musician to hit No. 1 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 as both a vocalist ("This Guy's in Love with You", 1968) and an instrumentalist ("Rise", 1979).


title: Herb Alpert

text: Alpert has reportedly sold 72 million records worldwide. He has received many accolades, including a Tony Award, and eight Grammy Awards, as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Alpert was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Barack Obama in 2013.


title: Herb Alpert

text: Herb Alpert was born and raised in the Boyle Heights section of Eastside Los Angeles, California, the younger child (both sons) of Tillie (née Goldberg) and Louis Leib (or


title: Herb Alpert

text: Louis Bentsion-Leib) Alpert. His parents were Jewish immigrants to the U.S. from Radomyshl (in present-day Ukraine) and Romania.


title: Herb Alpert

text: Alpert was born into a family of musicians. His father, although a tailor by trade, was also a talented mandolin player. His mother taught violin at a young age, and his older brother, David, was a talented young drummer. Herb began to play trumpet at eight years old.


title: Herb Alpert

text: While attending the University of Southern California in the 1950s, he was a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band for two years. In 1956, he appeared in an uncredited role as "Drummer on Mt. Sinai" in "The Ten Commandments".


title: Herb Alpert

text: In 1957, Alpert teamed up with Rob Weerts, another burgeoning lyricist, as a songwriter for Keen Records. A number of songs written or co-written by Alpert during the following two years became Top 20 hits, including "Baby Talk" by Jan and Dean and "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke. In 1960, he began his recording career as a vocalist at RCA Records under the name of Dore Alpert.


title: Herb Alpert

text: The song that jump-started Alpert's performing career was originally titled "Twinkle Star," written by Sol Lake (who would write many Tijuana Brass songs over the next decade). Alpert was dissatisfied with his first efforts to record the song, then took a break to visit a bullfight in Tijuana, Mexico. As Alpert later recounted, "That's when it hit me! Something in the excitement of the crowd, the traditional mariachi music, the trumpet call heralding the start of the fight, the yelling, the snorting of the bulls, it all clicked." Alpert adapted the trumpet style to the tune, mixed in crowd cheers and other noises for ambience, and renamed the song "The Lonely Bull".


title: Herb Alpert

text: He personally funded the production of the record as a single, and it spread through radio DJs until it caught on and became a Top 10 hit in the Fall of 1962. He followed up quickly with his debut album, "The Lonely Bull" by "Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass". Originally the Tijuana Brass was just Alpert overdubbing his own trumpet, slightly out of sync.


title: Herb Alpert

text: It was A&M's first album (with the original release number being #101), although it was recorded for Conway Records. The title cut reached No. 6 on the "Billboard" pop chart. For this album and subsequent releases, Alpert recorded with the group of L.A. session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, whom he holds in high regard.


title: Herb Alpert

text: Alpert’s 1965 album "Whipped Cream & Other Delights" proved so popular – it was the number one album of the year, outselling The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and The Rolling Stones – that Alpert had to turn the Tijuana Brass into an actual touring ensemble rather than a studio band. Some of that popularity might be attributable to the album’s notoriously racy cover, which featured model Dolores Erickson seemingly clothed only in whipped cream. However, as writer Bruce Handy pointed out in a "Billboard" article, two other Brass albums, "Going Places" (1965) and "What Now My Love" (1966), “held the third and fifth spots on the 1966 year-end chart despite pleasant yet far more anodyne covers.” Another measure of the band’s popularity is that a number of Tijuana Brass songs were used as theme music for years by the ABC TV game show, "The Dating Game".


title: Herb Alpert

text: In 1966, a short animated film by John and Faith Hubley called "A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature" was released; it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1967. The film featured two songs by the band, "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea."


title: Herb Alpert

text: Also in 1967, the Tijuana Brass performed Burt Bacharach's title cut to the first movie version of "Casino Royale".


title: Herb Alpert

text: Alpert's only No. 1 single during this period, and the first No. 1 hit for his A&M label, was a solo effort: "This Guy's in Love with You", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, featuring a rare vocal. Alpert sang it to his first wife in a 1968 CBS Television special titled "Beat of the Brass". The sequence was filmed on the beach in Malibu. The song was not intended to be released, but after it was used in the television special, allegedly thousands of telephone calls to CBS asking about it convinced Alpert to release it as a single, two days after the show aired. Although Alpert's vocal skills and range were limited, the song's technical demands suited him.


title: Herb Alpert

text: After years of success, Alpert had a personal crisis in 1969, declaring “the trumpet is my enemy.” He disbanded the Tijuana Brass, and stopped performing in public. Eventually he sought out teacher Carmine Caruso, “who never played trumpet a day in his life, (but) he was a great trumpet teacher.” "What I found," Alpert told "The New York Times", "is that the thing in my hands is just a piece of plumbing. The real instrument is me, the emotions, not my lip, not my technique, but feelings I learned to stuff away -- as a kid who came from a very unvocal household. Since then, I've been continually working it out, practicing religiously and now, playing better than ever." The results were noticeable; as Richard S. Ginell wrote in an AllMusic review of Alpert's comeback album, "You Smile - The Song Begins", "His four-year sabbatical over, Herb Alpert returned to the studio creatively refreshed, his trumpet sounding more soulful and thoughtful, his ears attuned more than ever to jazz."


title: Herb Alpert

text: In 1979, five years after his last chart hit with the Tijuana Brass, Alpert tried to record a disco album of rearranged Brass hits. “It just sounded awful to me,” Alpert was quoted later. “I didn’t want any part of it.” But because the musicians were already booked, Alpert recorded other material, including the instrumental “Rise,” co-written by his cousin, Randy Badazz. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 after it was used repeatedly on the soap opera "General Hospital". The song also became a hit in the UK, but in a speeded-up version, due to British DJs not realizing that the American 12” single was recorded at 33 rpm instead of 45 rpm.


title: Herb Alpert

text: Alpert and A&M Records partner Jerry Moss sold A&M to PolyGram Records for a reported $500 million in around 1987; they later received an extra $200 million payment for PolyGram's breach of the terms of the deal.


title: Herb Alpert

text: Alpert has a second career as an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor with group and solo exhibitions around the United States and Europe. The sculpture exhibition "Herb Alpert: Black Totems", on display at ACE Gallery, Beverly Hills, February through September 2010, brought media attention to his visual work. His 2013 exhibition in exhibition Santa Monica, California included both abstract paintings and large totemlike sculptures.


title: Herb Alpert

text: For his contribution to the recording industry, Alpert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6929 Hollywood Blvd in 1977. Moss also has a star on the Walk of Fame. Alpert and Moss were also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006, as non-performer lifetime achievers for their work at A&M. Alpert received the "El Premio "Billboard"" for his contributions to Latin music at the 1997 "Billboard" Latin Music Awards.


title: Herb Alpert

text: Alpert was awarded one of the 2012 National Medal of Arts awards by Barack and Michelle Obama on Wednesday, July 10, 2013, in the White House's East Room.


title: Herb Alpert

text: In the 1980s Alpert created the Herb Alpert Foundation and the Alpert Awards in the Arts with the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).


title: Herb Alpert

text: The Foundation supports youth and arts education as well as environmental issues and helps fund the PBS series "Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason" and later "Moyers & Company". Alpert and his wife donated $30 million to University of California, Los Angeles in 2007, to form and endow the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as part of the restructured UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. He gave $24 million, which included $15 million from April 2008, to CalArts for its music curricula, and provided funding for the culture jamming activists The Yes Men.


title: Herb Alpert

text: In 2012, the Foundation gave a grant of more than $5 million to the Harlem School of the Arts, which allowed the school to retire its debt, restore its endowment, and create a scholarship program for needy students; in 2013, the school's building was renamed the Herb Alpert Center. In 2016, his foundation also made a $10.1 million donation to Los Angeles City College that will provide all music majors at the school with a tuition-free education, beginning in fall of 2017. This was the largest gift to an individual community college in the history of Southern California, and the second-largest gift in the history of the state. In 2020, Alpert bestowed an additional $9.7 million on the Harlem School of the Arts to upgrade its facility.


title: Herb Alpert

text: He founded the Louis and Tillie Alpert Music Center in Jerusalem, which brings together both Arab and Jewish students.


title: Herb Alpert

text: In the late 1980s, Alpert started H. Alpert and Co., a short-lived perfume company, which sold through higher-end department stores like Nordstrom. The company launched with two scents, Listen and Listen for Men. Alpert compared perfume to music, with high and low notes.


title: Herb Alpert

text: On September 17, 2010, the TV documentary "Legends: Herb Alpert – Tijuana Brass and Other Delights" premiered on BBC4.


title: Herb Alpert

text: Alpert married Sharon Mae Lubin, at Presidio of San Francisco, in 1956.<ref name="newspapers/77172652"></ref> They had two children, Dore (born 1960) and Eden (born 1966). The couple divorced in 1971. Two years later, Alpert married Lani Hall, once the lead singer of A&M group Brasil ’66. Alpert and Hall have a daughter, Aria, born in 1976. Hall and Alpert recorded a live album, "Anything Goes", in 2009; a studio album, "I Feel You", in 2011; and another studio album, "Steppin' Out", in 2013. As Matt Collar wrote in AllMusic, "Ultimately, "Steppin' Out" represents not just the third album in a trilogy, but a loving creative partnership that, for Alpert and Hall, spans a lifetime."


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and forms a community of disciples, of how he taught the people through such events as the Sermon on the Mount and its Beatitudes, and how Israel becomes divided and how Jesus condemns this hostile Israel. This culminates in his departure from the Temple and his execution. At this point many people reject Jesus, and on his resurrection he sends the disciples to the gentiles.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: Matthew seems to emphasize that the Jewish tradition should not be lost in a church that was increasingly becoming gentile. The gospel reflects the struggles and conflicts between the evangelist's community and the other Jews, particularly with its sharp criticism of the scribes and Pharisees with the position that through their rejection of Christ, the Kingdom of God has been taken away from them and given instead to the church. The divine nature of Jesus was a major issue for the Matthaean community, the crucial element separating the early Christians from their Jewish neighbors; while Mark begins with Jesus' baptism and temptations, Matthew goes back to Jesus' origins, showing him as the Son of God from his birth, the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The title Son of David identifies Jesus as the healing and miracle-working Messiah of Israel (it is used exclusively in relation to miracles), sent to Israel alone. As Son of Man he will return to judge the world, an expectation which his disciples recognize but of which his enemies are unaware. As Son of God, God is revealing himself through his son, and Jesus proving his sonship through his obedience and example.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: Most scholars believe the gospel was composed between AD 80 and 90, with a range of possibility between AD 70 to 110; a pre-70 date remains a minority view. The work does not identify its author, and the early tradition attributing it to the apostle Matthew is rejected by modern scholars. He was probably a male Jew, standing on the margin between traditional and non-traditional Jewish values, and familiar with technical legal aspects of scripture being debated in his time. Writing in a polished Semitic "synagogue Greek", he drew on the Gospel of Mark as a source, plus a hypothetical collection of sayings known as the Q source (material shared with Luke but not with Mark) and hypothetical material unique to his own community, called the M source or "Special Matthew".


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The traditional attribution to the apostle Matthew, first attested by Papias of Hierapolis (attestation dated c. 125 AD), is rejected by modern scholars, and the majority view today is that the author was an anonymous male Jew writing in the last quarter of the 1st century familiar with technical legal aspects of scripture, and standing on the margin between traditional and non-traditional Jewish values. The majority also believe that Mark was the first gospel to be composed and that Matthew (who includes some 600 of Mark's 661 verses) and Luke both drew upon it as a major source for their works. The author of Matthew did not, however, simply copy Mark, but used it as a base, emphasizing Jesus' place in the Jewish tradition and including details not found in Mark.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: There are an additional 220 (approximately) verses, shared by Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark, from a second source, a hypothetical collection of sayings to which scholars give the name "Quelle" ("source" in the German language), or the Q source. This view, known as the two-source hypothesis (Mark and Q), allows for a further body of tradition known as "Special Matthew", or the M source, meaning material unique to Matthew; this may represent a separate source, or it may come from the author's church, or he may have composed these verses himself. The author also had the Greek scriptures at his disposal, both as book-scrolls (Greek translations of Isaiah, the Psalms etc.) and in the form of "testimony collections" (collections of excerpts), and the oral stories of his community.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The gospel of Matthew is a work of the second generation of Christians, for whom the defining event was the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in AD 70 in the course of the First Jewish–Roman War (AD 66–73); from this point on, what had begun with Jesus of Nazareth as a Jewish messianic movement became an increasingly gentile phenomenon evolving in time into a separate religion. The community to which Matthew belonged, like many 1st-century Christians, was still part of the larger Jewish community: hence the designation Jewish Christian to describe them. The relationship of Matthew to this wider world of Judaism remains a subject of study and contention, the principal question being to what extent, if any, Matthew's community had cut itself off from its Jewish roots. Certainly there was conflict between Matthew's group and other Jewish groups, and it is generally agreed that the root of the conflict was the Matthew community's belief in Jesus as the Messiah and authoritative interpreter of the law, as one risen from the dead and uniquely endowed with divine authority.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The author wrote for a community of Greek-speaking Jewish Christians located probably in Syria (Antioch, the largest city in Roman Syria and the third-largest in the empire, is often mentioned). Unlike Mark, Matthew never bothers to explain Jewish customs, since his intended audience was a Jewish one; unlike Luke, who traces Jesus' ancestry back to Adam, father of the human race, he traces it only to Abraham, father of the Jews; of his three presumed sources only "M", the material from his own community, refers to a "church" ("ecclesia"), an organised group with rules for keeping order; and the content of "M" suggests that this community was strict in keeping the Jewish law, holding that they must exceed the scribes and the Pharisees in "righteousness" (adherence to Jewish law). Writing from within a Jewish-Christian community growing increasingly distant from other Jews and becoming increasingly gentile in its membership and outlook, Matthew put down in his gospel his vision "of an assembly or church in which both Jew and Gentile would flourish together".


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: Matthew, alone among the gospels, alternates five blocks of narrative with five of discourse, marking each off with the phrase "When Jesus had finished..." (see Five Discourses of Matthew). Some scholars see in this a deliberate plan to create a parallel to the first five books of the Old Testament; others see a three-part structure based around the idea of Jesus as Messiah; or a set of weekly readings spread out over the year; or no plan at all. Davies and Allison, in their widely used commentary, draw attention to the use of "triads" (the gospel groups things in threes), and R. T. France, in another influential commentary, notes the geographic movement from Galilee to Jerusalem and back, with the post-resurrection appearances in Galilee as the culmination of the whole story.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The Gospel of Matthew begins with the words "The Book of Genealogy [in Greek, "Genesis"] of Jesus Christ", deliberately echoing the words of Genesis 2:4 in the Old Testament in Greek. The genealogy tells of Jesus' descent from Abraham and King David and the miraculous events surrounding his virgin birth, and the infancy narrative tells of the massacre of the innocents, the flight into Egypt, and eventual journey to Nazareth.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The first narrative section begins. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, and the Holy Spirit descends upon him. Jesus prays and meditates in the wilderness for forty days, and is tempted by Satan. His early ministry by word and deed in Galilee meets with much success, and leads to the Sermon on the Mount, the first of the discourses. The sermon presents the ethics of the kingdom of God, introduced by the Beatitudes ("Blessed are..."). It concludes with a reminder that the response to the kingdom will have eternal consequences, and the crowd's amazed response leads into the next narrative block.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: From the authoritative words of Jesus, the gospel turns to three sets of three miracles interwoven with two sets of two discipleship stories (the second narrative), followed by a discourse on mission and suffering. Jesus commissions the Twelve Disciples and sends them to preach to the Jews, perform miracles, and prophesy the imminent coming of the Kingdom, commanding them to travel lightly, without staff or sandals.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: Opposition to Jesus comes to a head with accusations that his deeds are done through the power of Satan. Jesus in turn accuses his opponents of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The discourse is a set of parables emphasizing the sovereignty of God, and concluding with a challenge to the disciples to understand the teachings as scribes of the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew avoids using the holy word God in the expression "Kingdom of God"; instead he prefers the term "Kingdom of Heaven", reflecting the Jewish tradition of not speaking the name of God).


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The fourth narrative section reveals that the increasing opposition to Jesus will result in his crucifixion in Jerusalem, and that his disciples must therefore prepare for his absence. The instructions for the post-crucifixion church emphasize responsibility and humility. This section contains the two feedings of the multitude (Matthew 14:13–21 and 15:32–39) along with the narrative in which Simon, newly renamed Peter (Πέτρος, "Petros", meaning "stone"), calls Jesus "the Christ, the son of the living God", and Jesus states that on this "bedrock" (πέτρα, "petra") he will build his church (Matthew 16:13–19).


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: Jesus travels toward Jerusalem, and the opposition intensifies: he is tested by Pharisees as soon as he begins to move towards the city, and when he arrives he is soon in conflict with the Temple's traders and religious leaders. He teaches in the Temple, debating with the chief priests and religious leaders and speaking in parables about the Kingdom of God and the failings of the chief priests and the Pharisees. The Herodian caucus also become involved in a scheme to entangle Jesus, but Jesus' careful response to their enquiry, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's", leaves them marveling at his words.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The disciples ask about the future, and in his final discourse (the Olivet Discourse) Jesus speaks of the coming end. There will be false Messiahs, earthquakes, and persecutions, the sun, moon, and stars will fail, but "this generation" will not pass away before all the prophecies are fulfilled. The disciples must steel themselves for ministry to all the nations. At the end of the discourse, Matthew notes that Jesus has finished all his words, and attention turns to the crucifixion.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The events of Jesus' last week occupy a third of the content of all four gospels. Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph and drives the money changers from the temple, holds a last supper, prays to be spared the coming agony (but concludes "if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done"), and is betrayed. He is tried by the Jewish leaders (the Sanhedrin) and before Pontius Pilate, and Pilate washes his hands to indicate that he does not assume responsibility. Jesus is crucified as king of the Jews, mocked by all. On his death there is an earthquake, the veil of the Temple is rent, and saints rise from their tombs. Mary Magdalene and another Mary discover the empty tomb, guarded by an angel, and Jesus himself tells them to tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: After the resurrection the remaining disciples return to Galilee, "to the mountain that Jesus had appointed", where he comes to them and tells them that he has been given "all authority in heaven and on Earth." He gives the Great Commission: "Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you". Jesus will be with them "to the very end of the age".


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: Christology is the theological doctrine of Christ, "the affirmations and definitions of Christ's humanity and deity". There are a variety of Christologies in the New Testament, albeit with a single centre—Jesus is the figure in whom God has acted for mankind's salvation.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: Matthew has taken over his key Christological texts from Mark, but sometimes he has changed the stories he found in Mark, giving evidence of his own concerns. The title Son of David identifies Jesus as the healing and miracle-working Messiah of Israel (it is used exclusively in relation to miracles), and the Jewish messiah is sent to Israel alone. As Son of Man he will return to judge the world, a fact his disciples recognise but of which his enemies are unaware. As Son of God he is named Immanuel (God with us), God revealing himself through his son, and Jesus proving his sonship through his obedience and example.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: Matthew's prime concern was that the Jewish tradition should not be lost in a church that was increasingly becoming gentile. This concern lies behind the frequent citations of Jewish scripture, the evocation of Jesus as the new Moses along with other events from Jewish history, and the concern to present Jesus as fulfilling, not destroying, the Law. Matthew must have been aware of the tendency to distort Paul's teaching of the law no longer having power over the New Testament Christian into antinomianism, and addressed Christ's fulfilling of what the Israelites expected from the "Law and the Prophets" in an eschatological sense, in that he was all that the Old Testament had predicted in the Messiah.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The gospel has been interpreted as reflecting the struggles and conflicts between the evangelist's community and the other Jews, particularly with its sharp criticism of the scribes and Pharisees. It tells how Israel's Messiah, rejected and executed in Israel, pronounces judgment on Israel and its leaders and becomes the salvation of the gentiles. Prior to the crucifixion of Jesus, the Jews are referred to as Israelites — the honorific title of God's chosen people. After it, they are called "Ioudaios"(Jews), a sign that — due to their rejection of the Christ — the "Kingdom of Heaven" has been taken away from them and given instead to the church.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The divine nature of Jesus was a major issue for the community of Matthew, the crucial element marking them from their Jewish neighbors. Early understandings of this nature grew as the gospels were being written. Before the gospels, that understanding was focused on the revelation of Jesus as God in his resurrection, but the gospels reflect a broadened focus extended backwards in time.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: Matthew is a creative reinterpretation of Mark, stressing Jesus' teachings as much as his acts, and making subtle changes in order to stress his divine nature: for example, Mark's "young man" who appears at Jesus' tomb becomes "a radiant angel" in Matthew. The miracle stories in Mark do not demonstrate the divinity of Jesus, but rather confirm his status as an emissary of God (which was Mark's understanding of the Messiah).


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: There is a broad disagreement over chronology between Matthew, Mark and Luke on one hand and John on the other: all four agree that Jesus' public ministry began with an encounter with John the Baptist, but Matthew, Mark and Luke follow this with an account of teaching and healing in Galilee, then a trip to Jerusalem where there is an incident in the Temple, climaxing with the crucifixion on the day of the Passover holiday. John, by contrast, puts the Temple incident very early in Jesus' ministry, has several trips to Jerusalem, and puts the crucifixion immediately before the Passover holiday, on the day when the lambs for the Passover meal were being sacrificed in Temple.


title: Gospel of Matthew

text: The early patristic scholars regarded Matthew as the earliest of the gospels and placed it first in the canon, and the early Church mostly quoted from Matthew, secondarily from John, and only distantly from Mark.


title: Accounting

text: Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "language of business", measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys this information to a variety of stakeholders, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators. Practitioners of accounting are known as accountants. The terms "accounting" and "financial reporting" are often used as synonyms.


title: Accounting

text: Accounting can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management accounting, tax accounting and cost accounting. Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information, including the preparation of financial statements, to the external users of the information, such as investors, regulators and suppliers; and management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of information for internal use by management. The recording of financial transactions, so that summaries of the financials may be presented in financial reports, is known as bookkeeping, of which double-entry bookkeeping is the most common system. Accounting information systems are designed to support accounting functions and related activities.


title: Accounting

text: Accounting has existed in various forms and levels of sophistication throughout human history. The double-entry accounting system in use today was developed in medieval Europe, particularly in Venice, and is usually attributed to the Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli. Today, accounting is facilitated by such as standard-setters, accounting firms and professional bodies. Financial statements are usually audited by accounting firms, and are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). GAAP is set by various standard-setting organizations such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the United States and the Financial Reporting Council in the United Kingdom. As of 2012, "all major economies" have plans to converge towards or adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).


title: Accounting

text: Accounting is thousands of years old and can be traced to ancient civilizations. The early development of accounting dates back to ancient Mesopotamia, and is closely related to developments in writing, counting and money; there is also evidence of early forms of bookkeeping in ancient Iran, and early auditing systems by the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. By the time of Emperor Augustus, the Roman government had access to detailed financial information.


title: Accounting

text: Double-entry bookkeeping was pioneered in the Jewish community of the early-medieval Middle East and was further refined in medieval Europe. With the development of joint-stock companies, accounting split into financial accounting and management accounting.


title: Accounting

text: The first published work on a double-entry bookkeeping system was the "Summa de arithmetica", published in Italy in 1494 by Luca Pacioli (the "Father of Accounting"). Accounting began to transition into an organized profession in the nineteenth century, with local professional bodies in England merging to form the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1880.


title: Accounting

text: Both the words accounting and accountancy were in use in Great Britain by the mid-1800s, and are derived from the words "accompting" and "accountantship" used in the 18th century. In Middle English (used roughly between the 12th and the late 15th century) the verb "to account" had the form "accounten", which was derived from the Old French word "aconter", which is in turn related to the Vulgar Latin word "computare", meaning "to reckon". The base of "computare" is "putare", which "variously meant to prune, to purify, to correct an account, hence, to count or calculate, as well as to think".


title: Accounting

text: The word "accountant" is derived from the French word , which is also derived from the Italian and Latin word . The word was formerly written in English as "accomptant", but in process of time the word, which was always pronounced by dropping the "p", became gradually changed both in pronunciation and in orthography to its present form.


title: Accounting

text: Accounting has variously been defined as the keeping or preparation of the financial records of transactions of the firm, the analysis, verification and reporting of such records and "the principles and procedures of accounting"; it also refers to the job of being an accountant.


title: Accounting

text: Accountancy refers to the occupation or profession of an accountant, particularly in British English.


title: Accounting

text: Accounting has several subfields or subject areas, including financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, taxation and accounting information systems.


title: Accounting

text: Financial accounting focuses on the reporting of an organization's financial information to external users of the information, such as investors, potential investors and creditors. It calculates and records business transactions and prepares financial statements for the external users in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). GAAP, in turn, arises from the wide agreement between accounting theory and practice, and change over time to meet the needs of decision-makers.


title: Accounting

text: Financial accounting produces past-oriented reports—for example financial statements are often published six to ten months after the end of the accounting period—on an annual or quarterly basis, generally about the organization as a whole.


title: Accounting

text: Management accounting focuses on the measurement, analysis and reporting of information that can help managers in making decisions to fulfill the goals of an organization. In management accounting, internal measures and reports are based on cost-benefit analysis, and are not required to follow the generally accepted accounting principle (GAAP). In 2014 CIMA created the Global Management Accounting Principles (GMAPs). The result of research from across 20 countries in five continents, the principles aim to guide best practice in the discipline.


title: Accounting

text: Management accounting produces past-oriented reports with time spans that vary widely, but it also encompasses future-oriented reports such as budgets. Management accounting reports often include financial and non financial information, and may, for example, focus on specific products and departments.


title: Accounting

text: Auditing is the verification of assertions made by others regarding a payoff, and in the context of accounting it is the "unbiased examination and evaluation of the financial statements of an organization". Audit is a professional service that is systematic and conventional.


title: Accounting

text: An audit of financial statements aims to express or disclaim an independent opinion on the financial statements. The auditor expresses an independent opinion on the fairness with which the financial statements presents the financial position, results of operations, and cash flows of an entity, in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and "in all material respects". An auditor is also required to identify circumstances in which the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) have not been consistently observed.


title: Accounting

text: An accounting information system is a part of an organization's information system used for processing accounting data.


title: Accounting

text: Many corporations use artificial intelligence-based information systems. The banking and finance industry uses AI in fraud detection. The retail industry uses AI for customer services. AI is also used in the cybersecurity industry. It involves computer hardware and software systems using statistics and modeling.


title: Accounting

text: Many accounting practices have been simplified with the help of accounting computer-based software. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is commonly used for a large organisation and it provides a comprehensive, centralized, integrated source of information that companies can use to manage all major business processes, from purchasing to manufacturing to human resources. These systems can be cloud based and available on demand via application or browser, or available as software installed on specific computers or local servers, often referred to as on-premise.


title: Accounting

text: Tax accounting in the United States concentrates on the preparation, analysis and presentation of tax payments and tax returns. The U.S. tax system requires the use of specialised accounting principles for tax purposes which can differ from the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for financial reporting. U.S. tax law covers four basic forms of business ownership: sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and limited liability company. Corporate and personal income are taxed at different rates, both varying according to income levels and including varying marginal rates (taxed on each additional dollar of income) and average rates (set as a percentage of overall income).


title: Accounting

text: Forensic accounting is a specialty practice area of accounting that describes engagements that result from actual or anticipated disputes or litigation. "Forensic" means "suitable for use in a court of law", and it is to that standard and potential outcome that forensic accountants generally have to work.


title: Accounting

text: Political campaign accounting deals with the development and implementation of financial systems and the accounting of financial transactions in compliance with laws governing political campaign operations. This branch of accounting was first formally introduced in the March 1976 issue of "The Journal of Accountancy".


title: Accounting

text: Professional accounting bodies include the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the other 179 members of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), including Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP), CPA Australia, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Some countries have a single professional accounting body (e.g. Brazil) and, in some other countries, professional bodies for subfields of the accounting professions also exist, for example the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in the UK and Institute of management accountants in the United States. Many of these professional bodies offer education and training including qualification and administration for various accounting designations, such as certified public accountant (AICPA) and chartered accountant.


title: Accounting

text: Depending on its size, a company may be legally required to have their financial statements audited by a qualified auditor, and audits are usually carried out by accounting firms.


title: Accounting

text: Accounting firms grew in the United States and Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and through several mergers there were large international accounting firms by the mid-twentieth century. Further large mergers in the late twentieth century led to the dominance of the auditing market by the "Big Five" accounting firms: Arthur Andersen, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The demise of Arthur Andersen following the Enron scandal reduced the Big Five to the Big Four.


title: Accounting

text: Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are accounting standards issued by national regulatory bodies. In addition, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issues the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implemented by 147 countries. Standards for international audit and assurance, ethics, education, and public sector accounting are all set by independent standard settings boards supported by IFAC. The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board sets international standards for auditing, assurance, and quality control; the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) sets the internationally appropriate principles-based "Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants"; the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB) sets professional accounting education standards; and International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) sets accrual-based international public sector accounting standards.


title: Accounting

text: Organizations in individual countries may issue accounting standards unique to the countries. For example, in Australia, the Australian Accounting Standards Board manages the issuance of the accounting standards in line with IFRS. In the United States the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issues the Statements of Financial Accounting Standards, which form the basis of US GAAP, and in the United Kingdom the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) sets accounting standards. However, as of 2012 "all major economies" have plans to converge towards or adopt the IFRS.


title: Accounting

text: At least a bachelor's degree in accounting or a related field is required for most accountant and auditor job positions, and some employers prefer applicants with a master's degree. A degree in accounting may also be required for, or may be used to fulfill the requirements for, membership to professional accounting bodies. For example, the education during an accounting degree can be used to fulfill the American Institute of CPA's (AICPA) 150 semester hour requirement, and associate membership with the Certified Public Accountants Association of the UK is available after gaining a degree in finance or accounting.


title: Accounting

text: A doctorate is required in order to pursue a career in accounting academia, for example, to work as a university professor in accounting. The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) are the most popular degrees. The PhD is the most common degree for those wishing to pursue a career in academia, while DBA programs generally focus on equipping business executives for business or public careers requiring research skills and qualifications.


title: Accounting

text: Professional accounting qualifications include the Chartered Accountant designations and other qualifications including certificates and diplomas.


title: Accounting

text: In Scotland, chartered accountants of ICAS undergo Continuous Professional Development and abide by the ICAS code of ethics. In England and Wales, chartered accountants of the ICAEW undergo annual training, and are bound by the ICAEW's code of ethics and subject to its disciplinary procedures.


title: Accounting

text: In the United States, the requirements for joining the AICPA as a Certified Public Accountant are set by the Board of Accountancy of each state, and members agree to abide by the AICPA's Code of Professional Conduct and Bylaws.


title: Accounting

text: The ACCA is the largest global accountancy body with over 320,000 members, and the organisation provides an 'IFRS stream' and a 'UK stream'. Students must pass a total of 14 exams, which are arranged across three levels.


title: Accounting

text: Accounting research is research in the effects of economic events on the process of accounting, the effects of reported information on economic events, and the roles of accounting in organizations and society. It encompasses a broad range of research areas including financial accounting, management accounting, auditing and taxation.


title: Accounting

text: Accounting research is carried out both by academic researchers and practicing accountants. Methodologies in academic accounting research include archival research, which examines "objective data collected from repositories"; experimental research, which examines data "the researcher gathered by administering treatments to subjects"; analytical research, which is "based on the act of formally modeling theories or substantiating ideas in mathematical terms"; interpretive research, which emphasizes the role of language, interpretation and understanding in accounting practice, "highlighting the symbolic structures and taken-for-granted themes which pattern the world in distinct ways"; critical research, which emphasizes the role of power and conflict in accounting practice; case studies; computer simulation; and field research.


title: Accounting

text: Empirical studies document that leading accounting journals publish in total fewer research articles than comparable journals in economics and other business disciplines, and consequently, accounting scholars are relatively less successful in academic publishing than their business school peers. Due to different publication rates between accounting and other business disciplines, a recent study based on academic author rankings concludes that the competitive value of a single publication in a top-ranked journal is highest in accounting and lowest in marketing.


title: Accounting

text: The year 2001 witnessed a series of financial information frauds involving Enron, auditing firm Arthur Andersen, the telecommunications company WorldCom, Qwest and Sunbeam, among other well-known corporations. These problems highlighted the need to review the effectiveness of accounting standards, auditing regulations and corporate governance principles. In some cases, management manipulated the figures shown in financial reports to indicate a better economic performance. In others, tax and regulatory incentives encouraged over-leveraging of companies and decisions to bear extraordinary and unjustified risk.


title: Accounting

text: The Enron scandal deeply influenced the development of new regulations to improve the reliability of financial reporting, and increased public awareness about the importance of having accounting standards that show the financial reality of companies and the objectivity and independence of auditing firms.


title: Accounting

text: In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history, the Enron scandal undoubtedly is the biggest audit failure causing the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which at the time was one of the five largest accounting firms in the world. After a series of revelations involving irregular accounting procedures conducted throughout the 1990s, Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2001.


title: Accounting

text: One consequence of these events was the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act in the United States in 2002, as a result of the first admissions of fraudulent behavior made by Enron. The act significantly raises criminal penalties for securities fraud, for destroying, altering or fabricating records in federal investigations or any scheme or attempt to defraud shareholders.


title: Accounting

text: Accounting fraud is an intentional misstatement or omission in the accounting records by management or employees which involves the use of deception. It is a criminal act and a breach of civil tort. It may involve collusion with third parties.


title: Accounting

text: An accounting error is an unintentional misstatement or omission in the accounting records, for example misinterpretation of facts, mistakes in processing data, or oversights leading to incorrect estimates. Acts leading to accounting errors are not criminal but may breach civil law, for example, the tort of negligence.


title: Accounting

text: The primary responsibility for the prevention and detection of fraud and errors rests with the entity's management.


title: Beetroot

text: The beetroot is the taproot portion of a beet plant, usually known in North America as beets while the vegetable is referred to as beetroot in British English, and also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet, dinner beet or golden beet.


title: Beetroot

text: It is one of several cultivated varieties of "Beta vulgaris" grown for their edible taproots and leaves (called beet greens); they have been classified as "B. vulgaris" subsp. "vulgaris" Conditiva Group.


title: Beetroot

text: Other cultivars of the same species include the sugar beet, the leaf vegetable known as chard or spinach beet, and mangelwurzel, which is a fodder crop. Three subspecies are typically recognized.


title: Beetroot

text: "Beta" is the ancient Latin name for beetroot, possibly of Celtic origin, becoming "bete" in Old English. "Root" derives from the late Old English "rōt", itself from Old Norse "rót".


title: Beetroot

text: The domestication of beetroot can be traced to the emergence of an allele which enables biennial harvesting of leaves and taproot. Beetroot was domesticated in the ancient Middle East, primarily for their greens, and were grown by the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. By the Roman era, it is thought that they were cultivated for their roots as well. From the Middle Ages, beetroot was used as a treatment for a variety of conditions, especially illnesses relating to digestion and the blood. Bartolomeo Platina recommended taking beetroot with garlic to nullify the effects of "garlic-breath".


title: Beetroot

text: Food shortages in Europe following World War I caused great hardships, including cases of "mangelwurzel" disease, as relief workers called it. It was symptomatic of eating only beetroot.


title: Beetroot

text: Usually the deep purple roots of beetroot are eaten boiled, roasted, or raw, and either alone or combined with any salad vegetable. The green, leafy portion of the beetroot is also edible. The young leaves can be added raw to salads, whilst the mature leaves are most commonly served boiled or steamed, in which case they have a taste and texture similar to spinach. Beetroot can be roasted, boiled or steamed, peeled, and then eaten warm with or without butter as a delicacy; cooked, pickled, and then eaten cold as a condiment; or peeled, shredded raw, and then eaten as a salad. Pickled beetroot is a traditional food in many countries.


title: Beetroot

text: In Eastern Europe, beetroot soup, such as borscht, is common. In Poland and Ukraine, beetroot is combined with horseradish to form "ćwikła" or "бурячки" (buryachky), which is traditionally used with cold cuts and sandwiches, but often also added to a meal consisting of meat and potatoes.


title: Beetroot

text: Similarly in Serbia beetroot (referred to by the local name "cvekla") is used as winter salad, seasoned with salt and vinegar, with meat dishes.


title: Beetroot

text: As an addition to horseradish, it is also used to produce the "red" variety of "chrain", a condiment in Ashkenazi Jewish, Hungarian, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, and Ukrainian cuisine.


title: Beetroot

text: , or svyokolnik, is yet another Russian beet-based soup, typically distinguished from borscht in that vegetables for svekolnik are cooked raw and not fried, whilst many types of borscht typically include fried carrots and other fried vegetables. Svekolnik got its name from "svekla" or "svyokla", which are two Russian words for "beet". Sometimes, various types of cold borscht are also called "svekolnik".


title: Beetroot

text: In Indian cuisine, chopped, cooked, spiced beetroot is a common side dish. Yellow-coloured beetroots are grown on a very small scale for home consumption.


title: Beetroot

text: Besides standard fruit and vegetable dishes, certain varieties of beets are sometimes used as a garnish to a tart.


title: Beetroot

text: A common dish in Sweden and elsewhere in the Nordic countries is Biff à la Lindström, a variant of meatballs or burgers, with chopped or grated beetroot added to the minced meat.


title: Beetroot

text: A large proportion of the commercial production is processed into boiled and sterilised beetroot or into pickles.


title: Beetroot

text: Betanin, obtained from the roots, is used industrially as red food colorant, to improve the color and flavor of tomato paste, sauces, desserts, jams and jellies, ice cream, candy, and breakfast cereals. When beetroot juice is used, it is most stable in foods with a low water content, such as frozen novelties and fruit fillings.


title: Beetroot

text: Raw beetroot is 88% water, 10% carbohydrates, 2% protein, and less than 1% fat (see table). In a amount providing of food energy, raw beetroot is a rich source (27% of the Daily Value - DV) of folate and a moderate source (16% DV) of manganese, with other nutrients having insignificant content (table).


title: Beetroot

text: A clinical trial review reported that consumption of beetroot juice modestly reduced systolic blood pressure but not diastolic blood pressure.


title: Beetroot

text: The red colour compound betanin is not broken down in the body, and in higher concentrations may temporarily cause urine or stools to assume a reddish color, in the case of urine a condition called beeturia.


title: Beetroot

text: Although harmless, this effect may cause initial concern due to the visual similarity to what appears to be blood in the stool, hematochezia (blood passing through the anus, usually in or with stool) or hematuria (blood in the urine).


title: Beetroot

text: Below is a list of several commonly available cultivars of beetroot. Generally, 55 to 65 days are needed from germination to harvest of the root. All cultivars can be harvested earlier for use as greens. Unless otherwise noted, the root colours are shades of red and dark red with different degrees of zoning noticeable in slices.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Klaus Kinski (, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski 18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991) was a German actor, equally renowned for his intense performance style and notorious for his volatile personality. He appeared in over 130 film roles in a career that spanned 40 years, from 1948 to 1988. He played leading parts in five films directed by Werner Herzog ("Aguirre, the Wrath of God", 1972; "Nosferatu the Vampyre", 1979; "Woyzeck", also 1979; "Fitzcarraldo", 1982; "Cobra Verde", 1987), who later chronicled their tumultuous relationship in the documentary "My Best Fiend" (1999).


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Kinski's roles spanned multiple genres, languages, and nationalities, including many Spaghetti Westerns (such as "For a Few Dollars More", 1965; "A Bullet for the General", 1966; "The Great Silence", 1968; "And God Said to Cain", 1970), horror films, war movies, dramas, and Edgar Wallace "krimi" pictures. His infamy was elevated by a number of eccentric creative endeavors, including a one-man show based on the life of Jesus Christ, a self-directed biographical film of violinist Niccolò Paganini, and over 20 spoken word albums.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: During his lifetime, Kinski was a controversial and aggressive figure, prone to emotional and often violent outbursts directed at his directors and fellow cast members, issues further complicated by a history of mental illness. Herzog described him as "one of the greatest actors of the century, but also a monster and a great pestilence." Posthumously, his legacy has been further tangled by accusations of physical and sexual abuse of his daughters Pola and Nastassja, themselves actresses. His notoriety and prolific output has developed into a widespread cult following and a reputation as a popular icon.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski was born to German nationals in Zoppot, Free City of Danzig (now Sopot, Poland) in 1926. His father, Bruno Nakszynski, was a failed opera singer turned pharmacist; his mother, Susanne (née Lutze), was a nurse and the daughter of a local pastor. Klaus had three older siblings, Inge, Arne and Hans-Joachim.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Due to the Great Depression, the family was unable to make a living in Danzig and moved to Berlin in 1931, where they also struggled. They settled in a flat in the Wartburgstraße 3, in the district of Schöneberg, and took German citizenship. In 1936, Kinski attended the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium in Schöneberg.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: During the Second World War, Kinski was conscripted at the age of 17 into the German Wehrmacht some time in 1943, and served with the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) as an elite paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger). He saw no action until the winter of 1944, when his unit was transferred to the Netherlands. He was captured by the British on his second day of combat.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Kinski expanded upon this in his 1988 autobiography. He said that he made a conscious decision to desert; he had been captured by the Germans, court-martialed as a deserter and sentenced to death, but he escaped and hid in the woods. A British patrol opened fire on him, he was wounded in the arm and they took him captive. After being treated for his injuries and interrogated, Kinski was transferred to a prisoner of war camp in Britain. The ship transporting him was torpedoed by a German U-boat, but arrived safely. He was held at the prisoner of war Camp 186 in Berechurch Hall in Colchester, Essex.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Werner Herzog, in his 1999 documentary "My Best Fiend" about Kinski, claimed that Kinski had fabricated much of his autobiography, including claims of maternal sexual abuse, incest, and childhood poverty. According to Herzog, Kinski was actually raised in a financially-stable upper-middle-class family.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: While in Berechurch Hall, Kinski played his first roles on stage, taking part in variety shows intended to maintain morale among the prisoners. By May 1945, at the end of the war in Europe, the German POWs were anxious to return home. Kinski had heard that sick prisoners were to be returned first, and tried to qualify by standing outside naked at night, drinking urine and eating cigarettes. He remained healthy however, and was finally returned to Germany in 1946, after spending a year and four months in captivity.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Arriving in Berlin, he learned his father had died during the war, and his mother had been killed in an Allied air attack on the city.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: After his return to Germany, Kinski started out as an actor, first at a small touring company in Offenburg, where he used his newly adopted name of "Klaus Kinski". In 1946, he was hired by the renowned Schlosspark-Theater in Berlin. The next year, he was fired by the manager due to his unpredictable behavior. Other companies followed, but his unconventional and emotionally volatile behavior regularly got him into trouble.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: For three months in 1955, Kinski lived in the same boarding house as a 13-year-old Werner Herzog, who would later direct him in a number of films. In the 1999 documentary "My Best Fiend", Herzog described how Kinski locked himself in the communal bathroom for 48 hours and broke everything in the room to pieces.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: In March 1956, he made a single guest appearance at Vienna's Burgtheater in Goethe's "Torquato Tasso". Although respected by his colleagues, among them Judith Holzmeister, and cheered by the audience, Kinski did not gain a permanent contract. The Burgtheater's management became aware of the actor's earlier difficulties in Germany. He unsuccessfully tried to sue the company.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Living jobless in Vienna, Kinski reinvented himself as a monologist and spoken word artist. He presented the prose and verse of François Villon, William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, amongst others. He established himself as an actor touring Austria, Germany, and Switzerland with his shows.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Kinski's first film role was a small part in the 1948 film "Morituri". He appeared in several German Edgar Wallace movies, and had bit parts in the American war films "Decision Before Dawn" (1951), "A Time to Love and a Time to Die" (1958), and "The Counterfeit Traitor" (1962). In Alfred Vohrer's "Die toten Augen von London" (1961), his character refused any personal guilt for his evil deeds and claimed to have only followed the orders given to him. Kinski's performance reflected post-war Germany's reluctance to take responsibility for what had happened during World War II.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: During the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in various European exploitation film genres, as well as more acclaimed works such as "Doctor Zhivago" (1965), featured in a supporting role as an anarchist prisoner on his way to the Gulag.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: He relocated to Italy during the late 1960s, and had roles in numerous Spaghetti Westerns, including "For a Few Dollars More" (1965), "A Bullet for the General" (1966), "The Great Silence" (1968), "Twice A Judas" (1969), and "A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe" (1975). In 1977, he starred as the guerrillero Wilfried Böse in "Operation Thunderbolt", based on the events of the 1976 Operation Entebbe.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Kinski's work with director Werner Herzog brought him international recognition. They made five films together: "" (1972), "Woyzeck" (1978), "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979), "Fitzcarraldo" (1982) and "Cobra Verde" (1987). Despite their collaborations, Herzog had threatened, on occasion, to murder Kinski. In one incident, Kinski was said to have been saved by his dog who attacked Herzog as he crept up to supposedly burn down the actor's house. Herzog has refused to comment on his numerous other plans to kill Kinski. However, he did pull a gun on Kinski, or at least threatened to do so, on the set of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God," after the actor threatened to walk off the set.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: In 1980, Kinski refused the lead villain role of Major Arnold Toht in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", telling director Steven Spielberg, "This script is a yawn-making, boring pile of shit" and "moronically shitty". Kinski would go on to play Kurtz, an Israeli intelligence officer, in "The Little Drummer Girl", a feature film by George Roy Hill in 1984. It also starred Diane Keaton as Charlie.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Kinski co-starred as an evil killer from the future in a 1987 Sci-Fi based TV film "Timestalkers" with William Devane and Lauren Hutton. His last film (which he wrote and directed) was "Kinski Paganini" (1989), in which he played the legendary violinist Niccolò Paganini.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Kinski was married three times. He married his first wife, singer Gislinde Kühlbeck, in 1952. The couple had a daughter, Pola Kinski. They divorced in 1955. Five years later he married actress Ruth Brigitte Tocki. They divorced in 1971. Their daughter Nastassja Kinski was born in January 1961. He married his third and final wife, model Minhoi Geneviève Loanic, in 1971. Their son Nikolai Kinski was born in 1976. They divorced in 1979.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Kinski published his autobiography, "All I Need Is Love", in 1988 (reprinted in 1996 as "Kinski Uncut"). The book infuriated many and prompted his second daughter Nastassja Kinski to file a libel suit against him, which she afterward withdrew. Kinski's elder daughter Pola played with the original title of her fathers memoir when she published her own autobiography "Kindermund".


title: Klaus Kinski

text: In 1950, Kinski stayed in "Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik" , a psychiatric hospital, for three days because he stalked his theatrical sponsor and eventually tried to strangle her. Medical records from the period listed a preliminary diagnosis of schizophrenia but the conclusion was psychopathy (antisocial personality disorder). Around this time Kinski became unable to secure film roles, and in 1955 he attempted suicide twice according to one source.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: In 2013, more than 20 years after her father's death, Pola Kinski published an autobiography titled "Kindermund" (or "From a Child's Mouth"), in which she claimed her father had sexually abused her from age of 5 to 19.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: In an interview published by the German tabloid "Bild" on 13 January 2013, Kinski's younger daughter and Pola's half-sister, Nastassja, said their father would embrace her in a sexual manner when she was 4–5 years old but never had sex with her. Nastassja has expressed support for Pola and said that she was always afraid of their father, whom she described as an unpredictable tyrant.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Kinski died on 23 November 1991 of a sudden heart attack at his home in Lagunitas, California at age 65. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: Werner Herzog, in his 1999 documentary about Kinski titled "My Best Fiend", claimed that Kinski had fabricated much of his autobiography, and told of the difficulties in their working relationship. Director David Schmoeller released a short 1999 film titled "Please Kill Mr. Kinski", which examined the stories of Kinski's erratic and disruptive behavior on the set of his 1986 film "Crawlspace". The film features behind-the-scenes footage of Kinski's various confrontations with director and crewmembers, along with Schmoeller's account of the events, in which he claims a producer offered to murder Kinski for his life insurance money.


title: Klaus Kinski

text: In 2006, Christian David published the first comprehensive biography of Kinski, based on newly discovered archived material, personal letters and interviews with the actor's friends and colleagues. Peter Geyer published a paperback book of essays on Kinski's life and work.


title: Mercedes-Benz W124

text: The Mercedes-Benz W124 is a range of mid-size cars made by Daimler-Benz from 1984 to 1997. The range included numerous body configurations, and though collectively referred to as the W-124, official internal chassis designations varied by body style: saloon (W 124); estate (S 124); coupé (C 124); cabriolet (A 124); limousine (V 124); rolling chassis (F 124); and long-wheelbase rolling chassis (VF 124).


title: Mercedes-Benz W124

text: From 1993, the 124 series was officially marketed as the E-Class. The W 124 followed the 123 series from 1984 and was succeeded by the W 210 E-Class (saloons, estates, rolling chassis) after 1995, and the C 208 CLK-Class (coupés, and cabriolets) in 1997.


title: Mercedes-Benz W124

text: In North America, the W124 was launched in early November 1985 as a 1986 model and marketed through the 1995 model year. Series production began at the beginning of November 1984, with press presentation on Monday, 26 November 1984 in Seville, Spain, and customer deliveries and European market launch starting in January 1985.


title: Mercedes-Benz W124

text: The W124 was a mid-sized vehicle platform, which entered planning in the autumn of 1976 under development Hans Scherenberg. In July 1977, the W124 program officially began, with R&D commencing work under newly appointed Werner Breitschwerdt. In April 1978, decisions were made to base it on the Mercedes-Benz W201 model program. By April 1979, a package plan was completed for the program, laying out the guidelines of the project. During the winter of 1980–1981, the final exterior for the W124 program was completed, chosen as the leading proposal by design director Bruno Sacco, and approved by the board of management in early 1981. By mid-1982, the first prototypes reflective of the production design, were assembled and sent to testing. In March 1984, pilot production commenced and development of the sedan concluded with engineering sign-off.


title: Mercedes-Benz W124

text: Front suspension used a separate spring and damper with a rubber top mount. The rear suspension of the W124 featured the Mercedes multi-link axle introduced in 1982 with the Mercedes W201 and which is now standard on many modern cars. Estate cars (and optionally, saloons and coupés) had Citroën-like rear self-leveling suspension with suspension struts rather than shock absorbers, gas-filled suspension spheres to provide damping and an under bonnet pressurizing pump. Unlike the traditional Citroën application, the Mercedes suspension system had a fixed ride height and employed rear coil springs to maintain the static ride height when parked.


title: Mercedes-Benz W124

text: The W124 was the first Mercedes series to be fitted with the iconic 15-hole, flat-faced alloy wheels characteristic of Mercedes-Benz cars of the 1980s and 1990s. The alloy wheels were nicknamed 'gullideckel' or manhole covers, because they resemble manhole or drainage covers in Germany, which are consistently round in shape with a series of 15- or 16-holes around the outer edge, often within a concentric ring. Gullideckel wheels in a variety of diameter and offset specifications were later incorporated into the facelift versions of the W126 S-Class, R107 SL and W201 190E series, and were also the 'non-option' wheel on the R129 SL-Class roadster.