title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the Heavens for the third time as the laughing stock among all three realms. On his first task as a god thrice ascended, he meets a mysterious ghost who rules the ghosts and terrifies the Heavens, yet, unbeknownst to Xie Lian, this ghost king has been paying attention to him for a very, very long time.


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Though not chronologically, the novel follows the life of Xie Lian, a once human crown prince of the Kingdom of Xianle in the east who ascends to godhood at seventeen after dedicating himself to cultivation and martial training. During the inaugural years of his divinity, his kingdom experiences upheaval and war, due in part to drought and a terrifying new disease. Going against the edicts of both the heavenly realm and of fate, Xie Lian involves himself in the affairs of the mortals who have always loved and supported him, hoping to achieve peace and relieve suffering in his kingdom. Unfortunately, his appearance in the mortal world only amplifies the conflicts between his people, and their desperation leads to the dramatic and abrupt downfall of Xianle, as well as the downfall of Xie Lian. The people destroy his temples, statues, and shrines, abandoning him as their most respected religious figure and earning him the reputation of a God of Misfortune.


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Much later in his immortal life, after being banished twice by the Emperor of the Heavenly Realm, Xie Lian again ascends to the heavens to work as a godly official. Now known as a peculiar, peripatetic scrap-collector with perennially bad luck, Xie Lian is ridiculed or ignored by most other heavenly officials. Nevertheless, he retains his good-hearted nature and only wishes to fulfill his duties as a god.


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: For Xie Lian's first assignment of his third ascension, he is tasked with solving the mystery of a number of brides who have disappeared during their wedding processions through Mount Yujun in the mortal world. During his investigation, he is unexpectedly greeted by a ghost whose form resembles that of a young man wearing maple-red robes and silver vambraces, with black boots and attached silver chains. Silver butterflies and a rain of blood also accompany the first appearance of the youthful ghost. He interacts with Xie Lian only to briefly guide him in his mission, by taking his hand and walking with him through Mount Yujun, simultaneously breaking an enchantment array on the mountain that was preventing Xie Lian from detecting the culprit of the disappearances. After his completion of the assignment, bemused by an encounter he describes as "oddly charming to the extreme," Xie Lian learns from heaven that he had encountered Hua Cheng, or Crimson Rain Sought Flower (血雨探花), one of four fearsome ghost kings known as the Four Great Calamities.


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Heedless of warnings to stay away from Hua Cheng, Xie Lian continues to cross paths with the nonchalant and intelligent ghost king as he becomes increasingly enveloped in the affairs of the three realms of heaven, earth, and ghost. Their interactions gradually lead to the building of a close, mutually protective relationship. As he unravels his feelings for Hua Cheng, and as Hua Cheng establishes himself as a steady fixture in his life, Xie Lian is yet to realize just how long their pasts have been entwined.


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: The novels are being officially translated into English by Seven Seas Entertainment with eight volumes in total. The first was released on December 14, 2021 and volume 4 on September 27, 2022.


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: The donghua was released on Bilibili and Funimation in October 2020. The production of a second season was confirmed by Bilibili in January 2021. A special episode was released on February 16, 2021. Netflix also began streaming the series (including the special episode) as of April 9, 2021.


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Xie Lian 谢怜 (The Crown Prince, God-Pleasing Crown Prince, Flower-Crowned Martial God, Scrap Immortal)


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Voiced by: Jiang Guangtao (donghua), Hiroshi Kamiya (Japanese dub), Park Yohan (Korean dub), Howard Wang (English dub), Non Sepho (Thai Dub)


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Voiced by: Ma Zhengyang (donghua), Jun Fukuyama (Japanese dub), Jeong Joo-won (Korean dub), James Cheek (English dub), Sakarach Amsom (Thai Dub)


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Voiced by: Huang Ying (donghua), Yoko Hikasa (Japanese dub), Kim Bo-na (Korean dub), Wendee Lee (English dub)


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Voiced by (female form): Qiu Qiu (donghua), Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese dub), Anjali Kunapaneni (English dub)


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Voiced by: Wen Sen (donghua), Makoto Furukawa (Japanese dub), Choi Seung-hun (Korean dub), Phil Song (English dub)


title: Heaven Official's Blessing

text: Voiced by: Hu Liangwei (donghua), Chiaki Kobayashi (Japanese dub), Nam Doh-hyeong (Korean dub), Lucien Dodge (English dub)


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Live and Let Die is a 1973 spy film. It is the eighth film in the "James Bond" series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by Guy Hamilton and produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, while Tom Mankiewicz wrote the script. Although the producers had approached Sean Connery to return after "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971), he declined and a search for a new actor led to Moore being signed.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1954 novel of the same name. The storyline involves a Harlem drug lord known as Mr. Big who plans to distribute two tons of heroin for free to put rival drug barons out of business and then become a monopoly supplier. Mr. Big is revealed to be the alter ego of Dr. Kananga, a corrupt Caribbean dictator, who rules San Monique, a fictional island where opium poppies are secretly farmed. Bond is investigating the deaths of three British agents, leading him to Kananga, and he is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to the drug baron's scheme.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: "Live and Let Die" was released during the height of the blaxploitation era, and many blaxploitation archetypes and clichés are depicted in the film, including derogatory racial epithets ("honky"), black gangsters, and pimpmobiles. It departs from the former plots of the James Bond films about megalomaniac super-villains, and instead focuses on drug trafficking, a common theme of blaxploitation films of the period. It is set in African-American cultural centres such as Harlem and New Orleans, as well as the Caribbean Islands. It was also the first James Bond film featuring an African-American Bond girl romantically involved with 007, Rosie Carver, who was played by Gloria Hendry.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: The film was a box-office success and received generally positive reviews from critics. Its title song, written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by their band Wings, was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Three MI6 agents are killed under mysterious circumstances within 24 hours in the United Nations headquarters in New York City, in New Orleans, and the small Caribbean nation of San Monique, while monitoring the operations of the island's dictator, Dr. Kananga. James Bond, Agent 007, is sent to New York to investigate. Kananga is also in New York, visiting the United Nations. After Bond arrives, his driver is shot dead by Whisper, one of Kananga's men, while taking Bond to Felix Leiter of the CIA. Bond is nearly killed in the ensuing car crash.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: The killer's licence plate leads Bond to Harlem where he meets Mr. Big, a mob boss who runs a chain of restaurants throughout the United States, but he and the CIA do not understand why the most powerful black gangster in New York works with an unimportant island's leader. Bond meets Solitaire, a beautiful tarot reader who has the power of the Obeah and can see both the future and remote events in the present. Mr. Big demands that his henchmen kill Bond, but Bond overpowers them and escapes with the help of CIA agent Strutter. Bond flies to San Monique, where he meets Rosie Carver, a local CIA agent. They meet up with Bond's ally, Quarrel Jr., who takes them by boat near Solitaire's home. When Bond suspects Rosie of being a double agent for Kananga, Rosie tries to escape but is killed remotely by Kananga. Bond then uses a stacked deck of tarot cards that show only "The Lovers" to trick Solitaire into thinking that fate is meant for them; Bond then seduces her. Having lost her virginity and thus her ability to foretell the future, Solitaire realizes she would be killed by Kananga, so she agrees to cooperate with Bond.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Bond and Solitaire escape by boat and fly to New Orleans. There, Bond is captured by Mr. Big, who removes his prosthetic face and reveals himself to be Kananga. He has been producing heroin and is protecting the poppy fields by exploiting the San Monique locals' fear of voodoo priest Baron Samedi, as well as the occult. As Mr. Big, Kananga plans to distribute the heroin free of charge at his restaurants, which will increase the number of addicts. He intends to bankrupt other drug dealers with his giveaway, then charge high prices for his heroin later in order to capitalise on the huge drug dependencies he has cultivated.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Angry at her for having sex with Bond and that her ability to read tarot cards is now gone, Kananga turns Solitaire over to Baron Samedi to be sacrificed. Kananga's henchmen, one-armed Tee Hee and tweed-jacketed Adam, leave Bond to be eaten by crocodilians at his farm in the Deep South backwoods. Bond escapes by running along the animals' backs to safety. After setting the drug laboratory on fire, he steals a speedboat and escapes, pursued by Kananga's men under Adam's order, as well as Sheriff J.W. Pepper and the Louisiana State Police. Most pursuers get wrecked or left behind, and Adam is killed in a boat crash by Bond.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Bond travels to San Monique and sets timed explosives throughout the poppy fields. He rescues Solitaire from the voodoo sacrifice and throws Samedi into a coffin of venomous snakes. Bond and Solitaire escape below ground into Kananga's lair. Kananga captures them both and proceeds to lower them into a shark tank. However, Bond escapes and forces Kananga to swallow a compressed-gas pellet used in shark guns, causing his body to inflate and explode.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Leiter puts Bond and Solitaire on a train leaving the country. Tee Hee sneaks aboard and attempts to kill Bond, but Bond cuts the wires of his prosthetic arm and throws him out the window. As the film ends, a laughing Samedi is revealed to be perching at the front of the train.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: While filming "Diamonds Are Forever", "Live and Let Die" was chosen as the next Ian Fleming novel to be adapted because screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz had thought it would be daring to use black villains, as the Black Panthers and other racial movements were active at this time.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Guy Hamilton was again chosen to direct and, since he was a jazz fan, Mankiewicz suggested he film in New Orleans. Hamilton did not want to use Mardi Gras since "Thunderball" (1965) featured Junkanoo, a similar festivity, so after more discussions with the writer and location scouting with helicopters, he decided to use two well-known features of the city, the jazz funerals and the canals.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: To develop a better feel of how Voodoo was practised, Saltzman and Broccoli escorted Hamilton, Mankiewicz, and production designer Syd Cain to scout New Orleans further and then the islands of the West Indies. Haiti was an important destination of the tour and not only did Fleming connect it with the religion, there were many practitioners available to witness. Despite viewing actual demonstrations, due to political unrest in the country at the time, it was decided not to film in Haiti. Instead, they chose to film in Jamaica.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: While searching for locations in Jamaica, the crew discovered a crocodile farm owned by Ross Kananga, after passing a sign warning that "trespassers will be eaten". The farm was put into the script and also inspired Mankiewicz to name the film's villain after Kananga.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Richard Maibaum later claimed he was asked to write the film, but declined, because he was too busy. He disliked the completed film, saying, "to process drugs in the middle of the jungle is not a Bond caper."


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Broccoli and Saltzman tried to convince Sean Connery to return as James Bond, but he declined. At the same time, United Artists considered Steve McQueen and Paul Newman for the role. Hamilton also recommended Burt Reynolds after watching him on television. Broccoli subsequently approached Reynolds for the role, but Reynolds felt Bond should be played by a British actor and turned the offer down. Among the actors to test for the part of Bond were Julian Glover (who would portray Aristotle Kristatos in "For Your Eyes Only" (1981)), John Gavin, Jeremy Brett, Simon Oates, John Ronane, and William Gaunt. The main frontrunner for the role was Michael Billington. Broccoli met with Anthony Hopkins about playing the role, but Hopkins did not think that he was right for the part.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Meanwhile, United Artists was still pushing to cast an American to play Bond, but Broccoli insisted that the part should be played by a British actor and put forward Roger Moore. Moore, who had been considered for the role in "Dr. No" (1962) and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969), was ultimately hired. After Moore was chosen, Billington remained on the top of the list in the event that Moore declined to come back for the next film. Billington played a brief role in the pre-credit sequence of "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977). Moore tried not to imitate either Connery's or his own prior performance as Simon Templar in "The Saint", and Mankiewicz fitted the screenplay into Moore's persona by giving more comedic scenes and a light-hearted approach to Bond.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Mankiewicz had thought of turning Solitaire into a Black woman, and Diana Ross was his first choice. Broccoli and Saltzman decided to stick to Fleming's description of a white woman and, after considering Catherine Deneuve, cast Jane Seymour, who was in the television series "The Onedin Line". After Solitaire was cast with a white actress, the character of Rosie Carver was switched to be a Black woman and cast with Gloria Hendry. Yaphet Kotto was cast while doing another movie for United Artists, "Across 110th Street" (1972). Kotto reported one of the things he liked in the role was Kananga's interest in the occult, "feeling like he can control past, present and future".


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Mankiewicz created the character Sheriff J. W. Pepper to add comic relief. Portrayed by Clifton James, Pepper reprised the role in "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974). "Live and Let Die" is also the first of two films featuring David Hedison as Felix Leiter, who reprised the role in "Licence to Kill" (1989). Hedison had said, "I was sure that would be my first and last" appearance as the character, before being cast again.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Madeline Smith, who played Miss Caruso, sharing Bond's bed in the film's opening, was recommended for the part by Roger Moore after he had appeared with her on television. Smith said that Moore was polite and pleasant to work with, but she felt very uncomfortable being clad in only blue bikini panties while Moore's wife was on set overseeing the scene.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: "Live and Let Die" was the only Bond film until "Casino Royale" (2006) not to feature the character Q, portrayed by Desmond Llewelyn. He was then appearing in the television series "Follyfoot", but was written out of three episodes to appear in the film. By then, Saltzman and Broccoli decided not to include the character, feeling that "too much was being made of the films' gadgets", and decided to downplay this aspect of the series, much to Llewelyn's annoyance.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Bernard Lee considered not reprising his role as M due to the death of his wife Gladys Merredew, and was nearly recast with Kenneth More. However, he ultimately returned to the role.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Lois Maxwell had only been included in "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) during filming as a late addition, as she had asked for a pay increase. For "Live and Let Die", she returned for the same fee, but due to a technical error, the filming of her scenes in Bond's home at the start of the movie extended to two days, costing the production more than if they had paid the increase she requested. Moore later wrote that Maxwell celebrated the double-pay-day by purchasing a fur coat.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Principal photography began on 13 October 1972 in New Orleans, Louisiana. For a while, only the second unit was shooting after Moore was diagnosed with kidney stones. Hamilton initially wanted to film in Haiti, which the fictional San Monique was modeled after, but could not because of the political instability under the regime of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. In November, the production moved to Jamaica, which represented San Monique. In December, production was divided between interiors in Pinewood Studios in the UK and location shooting in Harlem in New York City. The producers were reportedly required to pay protection money to a local Harlem gang to ensure the crew's safety. When the money ran out, they were forced to leave. Some exteriors were in fact shot in Manhattan's Upper East Side as a result of the difficulties of using real Harlem locations. The street chase was shot at FDR Drive.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Ross Kananga suggested the stunt of Bond jumping on crocodiles, and was enlisted by the producers to perform it. The scene took five takes to be completed, including one in which the last crocodile snapped at Kananga's heel, tearing his trousers. The production also had trouble with snakes during the voodoo ceremony scene in Jamaica. The script supervisor was so afraid that she refused to be on set with them, an actor fainted while filming a scene where he is killed by a snake, Jane Seymour became terrified as a snake was held up to her face, and Geoffrey Holder only agreed to fall into the snake-filled casket because Princess Alexandra was visiting the set. Another notable incident was when during filming of this scene a dancer who held a snake was bitten, and he dropped the snake, and this grabbed everyone's attention. Meanwhile Seymour was tied up to a stake for this scene, and the loose snake then set its sights on Seymour, who was saved by the film's snake handler, who grabbed it when it was mere inches from Seymour's feet.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: The boat chase was filmed in Louisiana around the Irish Bayou area, with some interruption caused by flooding. 26 boats were built by the Glastron boat company for the film. 17 were destroyed during rehearsals. The speedboat jump scene over the bayou, filmed with the assistance of a specially-constructed ramp, unintentionally set a Guinness World Record at the time with cleared. The waves created by the impact caused the following boat to flip over.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: The chase involving the double-decker bus was filmed with a former London bus adapted by having a top section removed, and then placed back in situ running on ball bearings to allow it to slide off on impact. The stunts involving the bus were performed by Maurice Patchett, a London Transport bus driving instructor.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Salvador Dalí was approached in 1973 to design a Surrealist tarot deck for the film. However, his fee was too expensive for the film budget. At the end, the deck used in the film was designed by Fergus Hall. Dalí kept working at the deck and released it in 1984.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: John Barry, who had worked on the previous seven films, was unavailable during production as he was working on the stage musical "Billy". Broccoli and Saltzman instead asked Paul McCartney to write the theme song. Saltzman, mindful of his decision not to produce "A Hard Day's Night" (1964), was especially eager to work with McCartney. Since McCartney's salary was high and another composer could not be hired with the remainder of the music budget, George Martin, who had been McCartney's producer while with The Beatles, was chosen to write the score for the film.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: "Live and Let Die", written by McCartney along with his wife Linda and performed by their group Wings, was the first true rock and roll song used to open a Bond film, and became a major success in the United Kingdom (where it reached number nine in the charts) and the US (where it reached number 2, for three weeks). It was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to "The Way We Were". Saltzman and Broccoli hired B. J. Arnau to record and perform the title song, not realising McCartney intended to perform it. Arnau's version was featured in the film, when the singer performs it in a night club that Bond visits.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: In the pre-titles sequence, the Olympia Brass Band performed a funeral march observed by a MI6 agent. The first musical piece at the beginning of the funeral march is "Just a Closer Walk with Thee". Trumpeter Alvin Alcorn portrayed the knife-wielding assassin. After the agent is fatally stabbed, the band starts playing the more lively "New Second Line" (also known as "Joe Avery's Piece") penned by Milton Batiste.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: The film was released in the United States on 27 June 1973. The world premiere was at Odeon Leicester Square in London on 6 July 1973, with general release in the United Kingdom on the same day. From a budget of around $7 million, ($ million in dollars) the film grossed $161.8 million ($ million in dollars) worldwide.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: The film holds the record for the most viewed broadcast film on television in the United Kingdom by attracting 23.5 million viewers when premiered on ITV on 20 January 1980.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" stated that Moore "has the superficial attributes for the job: The urbanity, the quizzically raised eyebrow, the calm under fire and in bed". However, he felt that Moore wasn't satisfactory in living up to the legacy left by Sean Connery in the preceding films. He rated the villains "a little banal", adding that the film "doesn't have a Bond villain worthy of the Goldfingers, Dr. Nos and Oddjobs of the past." Richard Schickel, reviewing for "Time" magazine, described the film as "the most vulgar addition to a series that has long since outlived its brief historical moment — if not, alas, its profitability." He also criticized the action sequences as excessive, but noted that "aside an allright speedboat spectacular over land and water, the film is both perfunctory and predictable—leaving the mind free to wander into the question of its overall taste. Or lack of it."


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Roger Greenspun of "The New York Times" praised Moore as "a handsome, suave, somewhat phlegmatic James Bond—with a tendency to throw away his throwaway quips as the minor embarrassments that, alas, they usually are." He was critical of Jane Seymour and Yaphet Kotto, the latter of whom he felt "does not project evil." In summary, he remarked the film was "especially well photographed and edited, and it makes clever and extensive use of its good title song, by Paul and Linda McCartney." Charles Champlin of the "Los Angeles Times" likened Moore as "a handsome and smoothly likable successor to Sean Connery as James Bond." He further noted that the script "uses only the bare bones of Fleming's story about evil doings which link Harlem with a mysterious Caribbean island. The level of invention is high, but now and again you do sense the strain of always having to try harder because you're No. 1. If one menacing viper is good, three or a coffinful full are not inevitably better. But the action never slumps, and the series never seemed more like a real cartoon."


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Arthur D. Murphy of "Variety" wrote that Moore was "an okay replacement for Sean Connery. The Tom Mankiewicz script, faced with a real-world crisis in the villain sector, reveals that plot lines have descended further to the level of the old Saturday afternoon serial, and the treatment is more than ever like a cartoon. Unchanged are the always-dubious moral values and the action set pieces. Guy Hamilton's direction is good."


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Chris Nashawaty, reviewing for BBC, argues that Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big is the worst villain of the Roger Moore James Bond films. Also from BBC, William Mager praised the use of locations, but said that the plot was "convoluted". He stated that "Connery and Lazenby had an air of concealed thuggishness, clenched fists at the ready, but in Moore's case a sardonic quip and a raised eyebrow are his deadliest weapons".


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Danny Peary, in his book "Guide for the Film Fanatic", noted that Jane Seymour portrays "one of the Bond series' most beautiful heroines", but had little praise for Moore, whom he described as making "an unimpressive debut as James Bond in Tom Mankiewicz's unimaginative adaptation of Ian Fleming's second novel ... The movie stumbles along most of the way. It's hard to remember Moore is playing Bond at times — in fact, if he and Seymour were black, the picture could pass as one of the black exploitation films of the day. There are few interesting action sequences — a motorboat chase is trite enough to begin with, but the filmmakers make it worse by throwing in some stupid Louisiana cops, including pot-bellied Sheriff Pepper."


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: Ian Nathan of "Empire" wrote "This is good quality Bond, managing to reinterpret the classic moves — action, deduction, seduction — for a more modern idiom without breaking the mould. On one side we get the use of alligators as stepping stones and the pompous pitbull of rootin' tootin' Sheriff Pepper caught up in the thrilling boat chase. On the other, the genuine aura of threat through weird voodoo henchman Tee Hee and the leaning toward — what's this? — realism in Mr Big's plot to take over the drug trade from the Mafia." He concluded that "Moore had got his feet under the table." IGN ranked Solitaire as 10th in a Top 10 Bond Babes list. In November 2006, "Entertainment Weekly" listed "Live and Let Die" as the third-best Bond film. MSN chose it as the thirteenth best Bond film and IGN listed it as twelfth-best.


title: Live and Let Die (film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 65% from 51 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "While not one of the highest-rated Bond films, "Live and Let Die" finds Roger Moore adding his stamp to the series with flashes of style and an improved sense of humor." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 55 based on 9 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: U

text: U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is "u" (pronounced ), plural "ues".


title: U

text: U derives from the Semitic waw, as does F, and later, Y, W, and V. Its oldest ancestor goes to Egyptian hieroglyphics, and is probably from a hieroglyph of a mace or fowl, representing the sound [v] or the sound [w]. This was borrowed to Phoenician, where it represented the sound [w], and seldom the vowel [u].


title: U

text: In Greek, two letters were adapted from the Phoenician waw. The letter was adapted, but split in two, with the first one of the same name (Ϝ) being adapted to represent [w], and the second one being Upsilon (), which was originally adapted to represent [u], later fronted, becoming [y].


title: U

text: In Latin, a stemless variant shape of the upsilon was borrowed in early times as U, taking the form of modern-day V — either directly from the Western Greek alphabet or from the Etruscan alphabet as an intermediary — to represent the same sound, as well as the consonantal , "num" — originally spelled "" — was pronounced and "via" was pronounced . From the 1st century AD on, depending on Vulgar Latin dialect, consonantal developed into (kept in Spanish), then later to .


title: U

text: During the late Middle Ages, two forms of U developed, which were both used for /v/ or the vowel /u/. The pointed form 'V' was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form 'U' was used in the middle or end, regardless of sound. So whereas 'valour' and 'excuse' appeared as in modern printing, 'have' and 'upon' were printed 'haue' and 'vpon', respectively. The first recorded use of 'U' and 'V' as distinct letters is in a Gothic alphabet from 1386, where 'V' preceded 'U'. Printers eschewed capital 'V' and 'U' into the 17th century and the distinction between the two letters was not fully accepted by the French Academy until 1762. The rounded variant became the modern-day version of U and its former pointed form became V.


title: U

text: In English, the letter has four main pronunciations. There are "long" and "short" pronunciations. Short , found originally in closed syllables, most commonly represents (as in 'duck'), though it retains its old pronunciation after labial consonants in some words (as in 'put') and occasionally elsewhere (as in 'sugar'). Long , found originally in words of French origin (the descendant of Old English long u was respelled as ), most commonly represents (as in 'mule'), reducing to after (as in 'rule'), (as in 'June') and sometimes (or optionally) after (as in 'lute'), and after additional consonants in American English (see do–dew merger). (After , have assimilated to in some words) In a few words, short represents other sounds, such as in 'business' and in 'bury'.


title: U

text: The letter is used in the digraphs , (various pronunciations, but usually /aʊ/), and with the value of "long u" in , , and in a few words (as in 'fruit'). It often has the sound before a vowel in the sequences (as in 'quick'), (as in 'anguish'), and (as in 'suave'), though it is silent in final "-que" (as in 'unique') and in many words with (as in 'guard').


title: U

text: Additionally, the letter is used in text messaging, Internet and other written slang to denote 'you', by virtue of both being pronounced .


title: U

text: One thing to note is that certain varieties of the English language (i.e. British English, Canadian English, etc.) use the letter U in words such as "colour", "labour", "valour", etc.; however, in American English the letter is not used and said words mentioned are spelled as "color" and so on. It is the thirteenth most frequently used letter in the English language, with a frequency of about 2.8% in words.


title: U

text: In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, represents the close back rounded vowel or a similar vowel.


title: U

text: In French orthography the letter represents the close front rounded vowel (); is represented by . In Dutch and Afrikaans, it represents either , or a near-close near-front rounded vowel (); likewise the phoneme is represented by . In Welsh orthography the letter can represent a long close front unrounded vowel () or short near-close near-front unrounded vowel () in Southern dialects. In Northern dialects, the corresponding long and short vowels are a long close central unrounded vowel () and a short lowered close central unrounded vowel (), respectively. and are represented by .


title: U

text: U is also the source of the mathematical symbol ∪, representing a union. It is used mainly for Venn diagrams and geometry.


title: U

text: It is used as for "micro-" in metric measurements as a replacement for the Greek letter μ (mu), of which it is a graphic approximation when that Greek letter is not available, as in "codice_1" for μm (micrometer).


title: U

text: Some universities, such as the University of Miami and the University of Utah, are locally known as "The U".


title: Humayun

text: Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad () (; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humāyūn; (), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern India, and Bangladesh from 1530 to 1540 and again from 1555 to 1556. Like his father, Babur, he lost his empire early but regained it with the aid of the Safavid dynasty of Persia, with additional territory. At the time of his death in 1556, the Mughal Empire spanned almost one million square kilometres.


title: Humayun

text: In December 1530, Humayun succeeded his father to the throne of Delhi as ruler of the Mughal territories in the Indian subcontinent. Humayun was an inexperienced ruler when he came to power, at the age of 22. His half-brother Kamran Mirza inherited Kabul and Kandahar, the northernmost parts of their father's empire. The two half-brothers would become bitter rivals.


title: Humayun

text: Humayun lost Mughal territories to Sher Shah Suri, but regained them 15 years later with Safavid aid. His return from Persia was accompanied by a large retinue of Persian noblemen and signaled an important change in Mughal court culture. The Central Asian origins of the dynasty were largely overshadowed by the influences of Persian art, architecture, language, and literature. There are many stone carvings and thousands of Persian manuscripts in India dating from the time of Humayun.


title: Humayun

text: Subsequently, Humayun further expanded the Empire in a very short time, leaving a substantial legacy for his son, Akbar.


title: Humayun

text: In 1535, When Humayun was Governor of Gujarat, he encamped near Cambay (Khambhat). Humayun and his army was robbed and plundered by Kolis of Gujarat.


title: Humayun

text: Humayun was born as Nasir-ud-din Muhammad to Babur's favourite wife Māham Begum on the Tuesday of 6th March 1508 . According to Abu Fazal Allami, Māham was actually related to the noble family of Sultan Hussain Mirza of Khorasan. She was also related to Sheikh Ahmād Jan.


title: Humayun

text: The decision of Babur to divide the territories of his empire between two of his sons was unusual in India, although it had been a common Central Asian practice since the time of Genghis Khan. Unlike most monarchies, which practiced primogeniture, the Timurids followed the example of Genghis and did not leave an entire kingdom to the eldest son. Although under that system only a Chingissid could claim sovereignty and Khanal authority, any male Chinggisid within a given sub-branch had an equal right to the throne (though the Timurids were not Chinggisid in their paternal ancestry). While Genghis Khan's Empire had been peacefully divided between his sons upon his death, almost every Chinggisid succession since had resulted in fratricide.


title: Humayun

text: Timur himself had divided his territories among Pir Muhammad, Miran Shah, Khalil Sultan and Shah Rukh, which resulted in inter-family warfare. Upon Babur's death, Humayun's territories were the least secure. He had ruled only four years, and not all "umarah" (nobles) viewed Humayun as the rightful ruler. Indeed, earlier, when Babur had become ill, some of the nobles had tried to install his Brother-in-law, Mahdi Khwaja, as ruler. Although this attempt failed, it was a sign of problems to come.


title: Humayun

text: When Humayun came to the throne of the Mughal Empire, several of his brothers revolted against him. Another brother Khalil Mirza (1509–1530) supported Humayun but was assassinated. The Emperor commenced construction of a tomb for his brother in 1538, but this was not yet finished when he was forced to flee to Persia. Sher Shah destroyed the structure and no further work was done on it after Humayun's restoration.


title: Humayun

text: Humayun had two major rivals for his lands: Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat to the southwest and Sher Shah Suri (Sher Khan) settled along the river Ganges in Bihar to the east. Humayun's first campaign was to confront Sher Shah Suri. Halfway through this offensive Humayun had to abandon it and concentrate on Gujarat, where a threat from Ahmed Shah had to be met. Humayun was victorious annexing Gujarat, Malwa, Champaner and the great fort of Mandu.


title: Humayun

text: During the first five years of Humayun's reign, Bahadur and Sher Khan extended their rule, although Sultan Bahadur faced pressure in the east from sporadic conflicts with the Portuguese. While the Mughals had obtained firearms via the Ottoman Empire, Bahadur's Gujarat had acquired them through a series of contracts drawn up with the Portuguese, allowing the Portuguese to establish a strategic foothold in north western India.


title: Humayun

text: In 1535 Humayun was made aware that the Sultan of Gujarat was planning an assault on the Mughal territories with Portuguese aid. Humayun gathered an army and marched on Bahadur. Within a month he had captured the forts of Mandu and Champaner. However, instead of pressing his attack, Humayun ceased the campaign and consolidated his newly conquered territory. Sultan Bahadur, meanwhile escaped and took up refuge with the Portuguese. Like his father, Humayun was a frequent user of opium.


title: Humayun

text: Shortly after Humayun had marched on Gujarat, Sher Shah Suri saw an opportunity to wrest control of Agra from the Mughals. He began to gather his army together hoping for a rapid and decisive siege of the Mughal capital. Upon hearing this alarming news, Humayun quickly marched his troops back to Agra allowing Bahadur to easily regain control of the territories Humayun had recently taken. In February 1537, however, Bahadur was killed when a botched plan to kidnap the Portuguese viceroy ended in a fire-fight that the Sultan lost.


title: Humayun

text: Whilst Humayun succeeded in protecting Agra from Sher Shah, the second city of the Empire, Gaur the capital of the "vilayat" of Bengal, was sacked. Humayun's troops had been delayed while trying to take Chunar, a fort occupied by Sher Shah's son, in order to protect his troops from an attack from the rear. The stores of grain at Gauri, the largest in the empire, were emptied, and Humayun arrived to see corpses littering the roads. The vast wealth of Bengal was depleted and brought East, giving Sher Shah a substantial war chest.


title: Humayun

text: Sher Shah withdrew to the east, but Humayun did not follow: instead he "shut himself up for a considerable time in his Harem, and indulged himself in every kind of luxury". Hindal, Humayun's 19-year-old brother, had agreed to aid him in this battle and protect the rear from attack, but he abandoned his position and withdrew to Agra, where he decreed himself acting emperor. When Humayun sent the grand "Mufti", Sheikh Buhlul, to reason with him; the Sheikh was killed. Further provoking the rebellion, Hindal ordered that the "Khutba", or sermon, in the main mosque be surrounded.


title: Humayun

text: Humayun's other brother, Kamran Mirza, marched from his territories in the Punjab, ostensibly to aid Humayun. However, his return home had treacherous motives as he intended to stake a claim for Humayun's apparently collapsing empire. He brokered a deal with Hindal providing that his brother would cease all acts of disloyalty in return for a share in the new empire, which Kamran would create once Humayun was deposed.


title: Humayun

text: In June 1539 Sher Shah met Humayun in the Battle of Chausa on the banks of the Ganges, near Buxar. This was to become an entrenched battle in which both sides spent a lot of time digging themselves into positions. The major part of the Mughal army, the artillery, was now immobile, and Humayun decided to engage in some diplomacy using Muhammad Aziz as ambassador. Humayun agreed to allow Sher Shah to rule over Bengal and Bihar, but only as provinces granted to him by his Emperor, Humayun, falling short of outright sovereignty. The two rulers also struck a bargain in order to save face: Humayun's troops would charge those of Sher Shah whose forces then retreat in feigned fear. Thus honour would, supposedly, be satisfied.


title: Humayun

text: Once the Army of Humayun had made its charge and Sher Shah's troops made their agreed-upon retreat, the Mughal troops relaxed their defensive preparations and returned to their entrenchments without posting a proper guard. Observing the Mughals' vulnerability, Sher Shah reneged on his earlier agreement. That very night, his army approached the Mughal camp and finding the Mughal troops unprepared with a majority asleep, they advanced and killed most of them. The Emperor survived by swimming across the Ganges using an air-filled "water skin", and quietly returned to Agra. Humayun was assisted across the Ganges by Shams al-Din Muhammad.


title: Humayun

text: When Humayun returned to Agra, he found that all three of his brothers were present. Humayun once again not only pardoned his brothers for plotting against him, but even forgave Hindal for his outright betrayal. With his armies travelling at a leisurely pace, Sher Shah was gradually drawing closer and closer to Agra. This was a serious threat to the entire family, but Humayun and Kamran squabbled over how to proceed. Kamran withdrew after Humayun refused to make a quick attack on the approaching enemy, instead opting to build a larger army under his own name.


title: Humayun

text: When Kamran returned to Lahore, Humayun, with his other brothers Askari and Hindal, marched to meet Sher Shah east of Agra at the battle of Kannauj on 17 May 1540. Humayun was soundly defeated. He retreated to Agra, pursued by Sher Shah, and thence through Delhi to Lahore. Sher Shah's founding of the short-lived Sur Empire, with its capital at Delhi, resulted in Humayun's exile for 15 years in the court of Shah Tahmasp I.


title: Humayun

text: The four brothers were united in Lahore, but every day they were informed that Sher Shah was getting closer and closer. When he reached Sirhind, Humayun sent an ambassador carrying the message "I have left you the whole of Hindustan [i.e. the lands to the East of Punjab, comprising most of the Ganges Valley]. Leave Lahore alone, and let Sirhind be a boundary between you and me." Sher Shah, however, replied "I have left you Kabul. You should go there." Kabul was the capital of the empire of Humayun's brother Kamran, who was far from willing to hand over any of his territories to his brother. Instead, Kamran approached Sher Shah and proposed that he actually revolt against his brother and side with Sher Shah in return for most of the Punjab. Sher Shah dismissed his help, believing it not to be required, though word soon spread to Lahore about the treacherous proposal, and Humayun was urged to make an example of Kamran and kill him. Humayun refused, citing the last words of his father, Babur, "Do nothing against your brothers, even though they may deserve it."


title: Humayun

text: Humayun decided it would be wise to withdraw still further. He and his army rode out through and across the Thar Desert, when the Hindu ruler Rao Maldeo Rathore allied with Sher Shah Suri against the Mughal Empire. In many accounts Humayun mentions how he and his pregnant wife had to trace their steps through the desert at the hottest time of year. Their rations were low, and they had little to eat; even drinking water was a major problem in the desert. When Hamida Bano's horse died, no one would lend the Queen (who was now eight months pregnant) a horse, so Humayun did so himself, resulting in him riding a camel for six kilometres (four miles), although Khaled Beg then offered him his mount. Humayun was later to describe this incident as the lowest point in his life. Humayun asked that his brothers join him as he fell back into Sindh. While the previously rebellious Hindal Mirza remained loyal and was ordered to join his brothers in Kandahar. Kamran Mirza and Askari Mirza instead decided to head to the relative peace of Kabul. This was to be a definitive schism in the family. Humayun headed for Sindh because he expected aid from the Emir of Sindh, Hussein Umrani, whom he had appointed and who owed him his allegiance. Also, his wife Hamida hailed from Sindh; she was the daughter of a prestigious "pir" family (a "pir" is an Islamic religious guide) of Persian heritage long settled in Sindh. En route to the Emir's court, Humayun had to break journey because his pregnant wife Hamida was unable to travel further. Humayun sought refuge with the Hindu ruler of the oasis town of Amarkot (now part of Sindh province).


title: Humayun

text: Rana Prasad Rao of Amarkot duly welcomed Humayun into his home and sheltered the refugees for several months. Here, in the household of a Hindu Rajput nobleman, Humayun's wife Hamida Bano, daughter of a Sindhi family, gave birth to the future Emperor Akbar on 15 October 1542. The date of birth is well established because Humayun consulted his astronomer to utilise the astrolabe and check the location of the planets. The infant was the long-awaited heir-apparent to the 34-year-old Humayun and the answer of many prayers. Shortly after the birth, Humayun and his party left Amarkot for Sindh, leaving Akbar behind, who was not ready for the grueling journey ahead in his infancy. He was later adopted by Askari Mirza.


title: Humayun

text: For a change, Humayun was not deceived in the character of the man on whom he has pinned his hopes. Emir Hussein Umrani, ruler of Sindh, welcomed Humayun's presence and was loyal to him, just as he had been loyal to Babur against the renegade Arghuns. While in Sindh, Humayun alongside Hussein Umrani, gathered horses and weapons and formed new alliances that helped regain lost territories. Until finally Humayun had gathered hundreds of Sindhi and Baloch tribesmen alongside his Mughals and then marched towards Kandahar and later Kabul, thousands more gathered by his side as Humayun continually declared himself the rightful Timurid heir of the first Mughal Emperor, Babur.


title: Humayun

text: After Humayun set out from his expedition in Sindh, along with 300 camels (mostly wild) and 2000 loads of grain, he set off to join his brothers in Kandahar after crossing the Indus River on 11 July 1543 along with the ambition to regain the Mughal Empire and overthrow the Suri dynasty. Among the tribes that had sworn allegiance to Humayun were the Leghari, Magsi, Rind and many others.


title: Humayun

text: In Kamran Mirza's territory, Hindal Mirza had been placed under house arrest in Kabul after refusing to have the "Khutba" recited in Kamran Mirza's name. His other brother, Askari Mirza, was now ordered to gather an army and march on Humayun. When Humayun received word of the approaching hostile army he decided against facing them, and instead sought refuge elsewhere. Akbar was left behind in camp close to Kandahar, as it was December, too cold and dangerous to include the 14-month-old toddler in the march through the mountains of the Hindu Kush. Askari Mirza took Akbar in, leaving the wives of Kamran and Askari Mirza to raise him. The "Akbarnama" specifies Kamran Mirza's wife, Sultan Begam.


title: Humayun

text: Once again Humayun turned toward Kandahar where his brother Kamran Mirza was in power, but he received no help and had to seek refuge with the Shah of Persia


title: Humayun

text: Humayun fled to the refuge of the Safavid Empire in Persia, marching with 40 men, his wife Bega Begum, and her companion through mountains and valleys. Among other trials the Imperial party were forced to live on horse meat boiled in the soldiers' helmets. These indignities continued during the month it took them to reach Herat, however after their arrival they were reintroduced to the finer things in life. Upon entering the city his army was greeted with an armed escort, and they were treated to lavish food and clothing. They were given fine accommodations and the roads were cleared and cleaned before them. The Shah, Tahmasp I, unlike Humayun's own family, actually welcomed the Mughal, and treated him as a royal visitor. Here Humayun went sightseeing and was amazed at the Persian artwork and architecture he saw: much of this was the work of the Timurid Sultan Husayn Bayqarah and his ancestor, princess Gauhar Shad, thus he was able to admire the work of his relatives and ancestors at first hand.


title: Humayun

text: The Mughal monarch was introduced to the work of the Persian miniaturists, and Kamaleddin Behzad had two of his pupils join Humayun in his court. Humayun was amazed at their work and asked if they would work for him if he were to regain the sovereignty of Hindustan: they agreed. With so much going on Humayun did not even meet Tahmasp until July, some six months after the former's arrival in Persia. After a lengthy journey from Herat the two met in Qazvin where a large feast and parties were held for the event. The meeting of the two emperors is depicted in a famous wall-painting in the Chehel Sotoun (Forty Columns) palace in Esfahan.


title: Humayun

text: Tahmasp urged that Humayun convert from Sunni to Shia Islam in order to keep himself and several hundred followers alive. Although the Mughals initially disagreed to their conversion they knew that with this outward acceptance of Shi'ism, Tahmasp was eventually prepared to offer Humayun more substantial support. When Humayun's brother, Kamran Mirza, offered to cede Kandahar to the Persians in exchange for Humayun, dead or alive, Tahmasp refused. Instead he staged a celebration, with 300 tents, an imperial Persian carpet, 12 musical bands and "meat of all kinds". Here the Shah announced that all this, and 12,000 elite cavalry were Humayun's to lead an attack on Kamran. All that Tahmasp asked for was that, if Humayun's forces were victorious, Kandahar would be his.


title: Humayun

text: With this Persian Safavid aid Humayun took Kandahar from Askari Mirza after a two-week siege. He noted how the nobles who had served Askari Mirza quickly flocked to serve him, "in very truth the greater part of the inhabitants of the world are like a flock of sheep, wherever one goes the others immediately follow". Kandahar was, as agreed, given to the Shah of Persia who sent his infant son, Murad, as the viceroy. However, the baby soon died and Humayun thought himself strong enough to assume power.


title: Humayun

text: Humayun now prepared to take Kabul, ruled by his brother Kamran Mirza. In the end, there was no actual siege. Kamran Mirza was detested as a leader and as Humayun's Persian army approached the city hundreds of the former's troops changed sides, flocking to join Humayun and swelling his ranks. Kamran Mirza absconded and began building an army outside the city. In November 1545, Hamida and Humayun were reunited with their son Akbar, and held a huge feast. They also held another feast in the child's honour when he was circumcised.


title: Humayun

text: However, while Humayun had a larger army than Kamran Mirza and had the upper hand, on two occasions his poor military judgement allowed the latter to retake Kabul and Kandahar, forcing Humayun to mount further campaigns for their recapture. He might have been aided in this by his reputation for leniency towards the troops who had defended the cities against him, as opposed to Kamran Mirza, whose brief periods of possession were marked by atrocities against the inhabitants who, he supposed, had helped his brother.


title: Humayun

text: His youngest brother, Hindal Mirza, formerly the most disloyal of his siblings, died fighting on his behalf. His brother Askari Mirza was shackled in chains at the behest of his nobles and aides. He was allowed go on Hajj, and died en route in the desert outside Damascus.


title: Humayun

text: Humayun's other brother, Kamran Mirza, had repeatedly sought to have him killed. In 1552 Kamran Mirza attempted to make a pact with Islam Shah, Sher Shah's successor, but was apprehended by a Gakhar. The Gakhars were one of the minority of tribal groups who had consistently remained loyal to their oath to the Mughals. Sultan Adam of the Gakhars handed Kamran Mirza over to Humayun. Humayun, though inclined to forgive Kamran Mirza, was warned that allowing his brother's repeated acts of treachery to go unpunished could foment rebellion amongst his own supporters. So, instead of killing Kamran Mirza, Humayun had him blinded, thereby ending any claim by the latter to the throne. He then sent Kamran Mirza on Hajj, as he hoped to see his brother thereby absolved of his offences. However Kamran Mirza died close to Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula in 1557.


title: Humayun

text: Sher Shah Suri had died in 1545; his son and successor Islam Shah died in 1554. These two deaths left the dynasty reeling and disintegrating. Three rivals for the throne all marched on Delhi, while in many cities leaders tried to stake a claim for independence. This was a perfect opportunity for the Mughals to march back to India.


title: Humayun

text: The Mughal Emperor Humayun gathered a vast army and attempted the challenging task of retaking the throne in Delhi. Due to the Safavid role in Humayun's army, the vast majority of the army of the Shi'a faith, as one Shaikh Ahmad described to Humayun, "My king, I see the whole of your army are Rafizi...Everywhere the names of your soldiers are of this kind. I find they are all Yar Ali or Kashfi Ali or Haider Ali and I have, not found a single man bearing the names of the other Companions." It also included the Baloch tribes of Leghari, Magsi and Rind. Humayun placed the army under the leadership of Bairam Khan, a wise move given Humayun's own record of military ineptitude, and it turned out to be prescient as Bairam proved himself a great tactician. At the Battle of Sirhind on 22 June 1555, the armies of Sikandar Shah Suri were decisively defeated and the Mughal Empire was re-established in India.


title: Humayun

text: Bairam Khan led the army through the Punjab virtually unopposed. The fort of Rohtas, which was built in 1541–1543 by Sher Shah Suri to crush the Gakhars who were loyal to Humayun, was surrendered without a shot by a treacherous commander. The walls of the Rohtas Fort measure up to 12.5 meters in thickness and up to 18.28 meters in height. They extend for 4 km and feature 68 semi-circular bastions. Its sandstone gates, both massive and ornate, are thought to have exerted a profound influence on Mughal military architecture.


title: Humayun

text: The only major battle faced by Humayun's armies was against Sikander Suri in Sirhind, where Bairam Khan employed a tactic whereby he engaged his enemy in open battle, but then retreated quickly in apparent fear. When the enemy followed after them they were surprised by entrenched defensive positions and were easily annihilated.


title: Humayun

text: After Sirhind, most towns and villages chose to welcome the invading army as it made its way to the capital. On 23 July 1555, Humayun once again sat on Babur's throne in Delhi.


title: Humayun

text: With all of Humayun's brothers now dead, there was no fear of another usurping his throne during his military campaigns. He was also now an established leader and could trust his generals. With this new-found strength Humayun embarked on a series of military campaigns aimed at extending his reign over areas in the east and west of the subcontinent. His sojourn in exile seems to have reduced his reliance on astrology, and his military leadership came to imitate the more effective methods that he had observed in Persia.


title: Humayun

text: Edward S. Holden writes; "He was uniformly kind and considerate to his dependents, devotedly attached to his son Akbar, to his friends, and to his turbulent brothers. The misfortunes of his reign arose in great part, from his failure to treat them with rigor." He further writes: "The very defects of his character, which render him less admirable as a successful ruler of nations, make us more fond of him as a man. His renown has suffered in that his reign came between the brilliant conquests of Babur and the beneficent statesmanship of Akbar; but he was not unworthy to be the son of the one and the father of the other." Stanley Lane-Poole writes in his book "Medieval India": "His name meant the winner (Lucky/Conqueror), there is no king in the history to be named as wrong as Humayun", he was of a forgiving nature. He further writes, "He was in fact unfortunate ... Scarcely had he enjoyed his throne for six months in Delhi when he slipped down from the polished steps of his palace and died in his forty-ninth year (Jan. 24, 1556). If there was a possibility of falling, Humayun was not the man to miss it. He tumbled through his life and tumbled out of it."


title: Humayun

text: Humayun ordered the crushing by elephant of an imam he mistakenly believed to be critical of his reign.


title: Humayun

text: On 24 January 1556, Humayun, with his arms full of books, was descending the staircase from his library Sher Mandal when the muezzin announced the Azaan (the call to prayer). It was his habit, wherever and whenever he heard the summons, to bow his knee in holy reverence. Trying to kneel, he caught his foot in his robe, slipped down several steps and hit his temple on a rugged stone edge. He died three days later. His body was laid to rest in Purana Quila initially, but, because of an attack by Hemu on Delhi and the capture of Purana Qila, Humayun's body was exhumed by the fleeing army and transferred to Kalanaur in Punjab where Akbar was crowned. After young Mughal emperor Akbar defeated and killed Hemu in the Second Battle of Panipat. Humayun's body was buried in Humayun's Tomb in Delhi the first very grand garden tomb in Mughal architecture, setting the precedent later followed by the Taj Mahal and many other Indian monuments. It was commissioned by his favourite and devoted chief wife, Bega Begum.


title: Humayun

text: Akbar later asked his paternal aunt, Gulbadan Begum, to write a biography of his father Humayun, the "Humayun nameh" (or "Humayun-nama"), and what she remembered of Babur.


title: Humayun

text: The full title is "Ahwal Humayun Padshah Jamah Kardom Gulbadan Begum bint Babur Padshah amma Akbar Padshah". She was only eight when Babur died, and was married at 17, and her work is in simple Persian style.


title: Humayun

text: Unlike other Mughal royal biographies (the "Zafarnama" of Timur, "Baburnama", and his own "Akbarnama") no richly illustrated copy has survived, and the work is only known from a single battered and slightly incomplete manuscript, now in the British Library, that emerged in the 1860s. Annette Beveridge published an English translation in 1901, and editions in English and Bengali have been published since 2000.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. Regarded as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, he is the recipient of three National Film Awards, six Filmfare Awards, and two Asia Pacific Screen Awards. In 2019, he was awarded India's fourth-highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri, for his contributions in art.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Born in Belwa, a small village near the city Bettiah in West Champaran district Bihar, Bajpayee aspired to become an actor since childhood. He relocated to Delhi at the age of seventeen, and applied for the National School of Drama, only to be rejected four times. He continued to do theatre while studying in college. Bajpayee made his feature film debut with a one-minute role in "Drohkaal" (1994), and a minor role of a dacoit in Shekhar Kapur's "Bandit Queen" (1994). After a few unnoticed roles, he played the gangster Bhiku Mhatre in Ram Gopal Varma's 1998 crime drama "Satya", which proved to be a breakthrough. Bajpayee received the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for the film. He then acted in films such as "Kaun?" (1999) and "Shool" (1999). For the latter, he won his second Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee won the Special Jury National Award for "Pinjar" (2003). This was followed by a series of brief, unnoticed roles in films that failed to propel his career forward. He then played a greedy politician in the political thriller "Raajneeti" (2010), which was highly appreciated. In 2012, Bajpayee played critically acclaimed lead character "Sardar Khan" in "Gangs of Wasseypur". His next roles were of a naxalite in "Chakravyuh" (2012), and a CBI officer in "Special 26" (2013). In 2016, he portrayed professor Ramchandra Siras, in Hansal Mehta's biographical drama "Aligarh", for which he won his third Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor and the Best Actor Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2016. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor at the 67th National Film Awards for his performance in the film "Bhonsle". He also won Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actor, for "The Family Man" (2021).


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee was born in a brahmin family on 23 April 1969 in a small village called Belwa near the city Bettiah in West Champaran, Bihar. He is the second child among his five other siblings, and was named after actor Manoj Kumar. One of his younger sisters Poonam Dubey, is a fashion designer in the film industry. His father was a farmer and his mother was a housewife. As a son of a farmer, Bajpayee would do farming during their vacation. Since childhood, he wanted to become an actor.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: His father had difficulty collecting money for their education. He studied in a "hut school" till fourth standard, and later did his schooling at Khrist Raja High School, Bettiah. He completed his 12th class from Maharani Janaki Kunwar College in Bettiah.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: He moved to New Delhi at the age of seventeen and went to Satyawati, then to Ramjas College, Delhi University. Bajpayee had heard about the National School of Drama from actors such as Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah, so he applied. He was rejected three times and wanted to commit suicide afterward. He then attended director and acting coach Barry John's workshop after actor Raghubir Yadav's suggestion. Impressed by Bajpayee's acting, John hired him to assist him in his teaching. After that he applied at the National School of Drama for the fourth time, and they offered him a teaching position at the school instead.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee was married to a girl from Delhi, but got divorced during his period of struggle. He met actress Shabana Raza, who is also known as Neha, right after her debut film "Kareeb" (1998). The couple married in 2006 and they have a daughter.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Following his one-minute role in Govind Nihalani's "Drohkaal" (1994), Bajpayee acted in the biographical drama "Bandit Queen" (1994). Tigmanshu Dhulia, the casting director of the film suggested his name to its director Shekhar Kapur. Bajpai was considered for the role of dacoit Vikram Mallah in the film, which eventually went to Nirmal Pandey. Bajpayee got the role of dacoit Mann Singh in the film. During that time, he also did a television serial called "Kalakaar", directed by Hansal Mehta and Imtihaan (Doordarshan).


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee was a struggling actor when Mahesh Bhatt offered him the soap opera "Swabhimaan" (1995), which aired on Doordarshan. He agreed to do the serial at a low fee. Next, Bajpayee appeared in minor roles in films such as "Dastak" (1996) and "Tamanna" (1997). Director Ram Gopal Varma discovered Bajpayee when he was casting for "Daud" (1997), a comedy film, where he had a supporting role. Following completion of the filming, Varma expressed his regret for offering Bajpayee a minor role. He then promised Bajpayee a prominent role in his next film. "Satya" (1998), a crime drama, was their next film together. In the film, Bajpayee played gangster Bhiku Mhatre, who accompanies the title character to form their nexus in the Mumbai underworld.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: "Satya" was mostly shot in the real slums of Mumbai. It was screened at the 1998 International Film Festival of India and opened to mostly positive reviews. Anupama Chopra called Bajpayee and others' performances "[..] so good that you can almost smell the Mumbai grime on their sweaty bodies." The film was a commercial success, and Bajpayee won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for his performance. "Filmfare" later included his performance in the 2010 issue of Bollywood's "Top 80 Iconic Performances". Bajpayee then collaborated with Verma in the year 1999 with "Kaun?" and "Shool"; with Verma directing the former and producing the latter. "Kaun", was a whodunit with only three characters in a house, where Bajpayee played an annoying talkative stranger. The film was a box office disappointment. "Shool" saw him play the role of an honest police officer who finds himself in the politician-criminal nexus of the Motihari district in Bihar. "Sify" labelled Bajpayee's performance in the film as "truly amazing [..] especially the emotional scenes with Raveena Tandon." The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, with Bajpayee winning the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance. He also acted in the Telugu romantic film "Prema Katha" (1999).


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: The year 2000 started for Bajpayee with the comedy "Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!!" and the crime drama "Ghaath", both alongside Tabu. A dialogue from the former sparked controversy in some political parties. Bajpayee's first release in 2001 was Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's supernatural thriller "Aks". His negative portrayal of Raghavan Ghatge, a criminal who dies and is reincarnated in the body of Manu Verma (played by Amitabh Bachchan), garnered him the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role nomination. It was followed by Shyam Benegal's "Zubeidaa", co-starring Rekha and Karisma Kapoor. He played Maharaja Vijayendra Singh of Fatehpur, a polo enthusiast prince with two wives. His character was inspired by Hanwant Singh, the Maharaja of Jodhpur.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee's sole release of 2002 was the road thriller "Road". He played the antagonist in the film, a hitchhiker who turns out to be a psychopathic killer, after taking a lift from a couple (played by Vivek Oberoi and Antara Mali). Bajpayee received another Filmfare nomination for Best Performance in a Negative Role, for the film. "Pinjar" (2003), a period drama, set during the partition of India, was Bajpayee's first release of the year. Directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi, the film was based on a Punjabi novel of the same name. He received the National Film Special Jury Award for his performance in the film. He subsequently portrayed Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav in J. P. Dutta's ensemble war film "". It was based on the Kargil War, and Bajpayee was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for it. Both the films were commercially unsuccessful.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee's next roles were in "Jaago" (2004) opposite Raveena Tandon, Makarand Deshpande's "Hanan" and the thriller "Inteqam". In "Jaago", he played a police officer who takes the situation into his own hands, after his 10-year-old daughter is raped and killed. The same year, he appeared in a supporting role in Yash Chopra's romantic drama "Veer-Zaara" (2004). The film was screened at the 55th Berlin Film Festival, and grossed over globally, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year. In 2005, Bajpayee acted in Dharmesh Darshan's drama "Bewafaa", the thriller "Fareb", and the English language film "Return to Rajapur". He also acted in the Telugu romance "Happy" (2006).


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: In 2007, Bajpayee played Major Suraj Singh in "1971". The film tells the story of six Indian army soldiers, who escape from the Pakistani prison after they were captured during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN, criticised the film but wrote: "[Bajpayee] is in great form, he holds back mostly and in the process, constructs a character that says more with his eyes than with words." He next starred opposite Juhi Chawla in Ganesh Acharya's drama film "Swami". Bajpayee's final release of the year was the anthology film "Dus Kahaniyaan". He acted in the Sanjay Gupta – directed story "Zahir" alongside Dia Mirza. All of his 2007 releases were financial failures. Next year, he starred in the ensemble comedy "Money Hai Toh Honey Hai" (2008), which was also a box office disaster.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee's shoulder got injured while filming the Telugu film "Vedam", and was absent from the screen for nearly two years. He then returned in a major role with the comedy "Jugaad" (2009), which was based on the 2006 Delhi sealing drive incident. His next release was the mystery thriller "Acid Factory" (2009), which was a remake of the 2006 American film "Unknown". He played a comic role of one among the people who are kidnapped and locked in a factory with no memory of how they came there. The film did not do well at the box office. The string of financial failures continued with his next release. In Madhur Bhandarkar's "Jail" (2009), he played a convict serving life imprisonment. He called his role a "narrator" and "mentor" of its protagonist (played by Neil Nitin Mukesh).


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: In 2010, Bajpayee starred in Prakash Jha's big-budget ensemble political thriller "Raajneeti". Nikhat Kazmi of "The Times of India" in her review mentioned that Bajpayee "[..] grab[s] eyeballs in [his] scenes" and "brings back memories of his mesmeric performances." Indian trade journalists were apprehensive of "Raajneeti" recovering its investment. The film, however, proved to be a major commercial success, with worldwide earnings of over . Bajpayee received a Best Supporting Actor nomination at Filmfare for the film. He then acted in two Telugu films; "Vedam" (2010) and "Puli" (2010), followed by the comedy "Dus Tola" (2010). He also provided the voice of Rama in the animated film "", which was based on the Indian epic Ramayana.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: "Aarakshan" (2011), a socio-drama based on the issue of caste based reservations in Indian, was Bajpayee's next film. The film sparked controversy in some groups and was banned in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh before its theatrical release. Trade journalists had high expectations for the film, but it ultimately flopped at the box office. Bajpayee's followup was the thriller "Lanka" (2011).


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: In 2012, Bajpayee appeared in Anurag Kashyap's two-part crime film "Gangs of Wasseypur". His character Sardar Khan appeared in the first one. To prepare for his role, Bajpayee shaved his head and lost four kilogram of weight. It premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, Toronto film festival, and the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. "Gangs of Wasseypur" released in India on 22 June to positive response. Anupama Chopra called it his best performance since Bhiku Mhatre in "Satya". For his performance in the film, Bajpayee was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. His next film was the historical drama "Chittagong" (2012), based on the Chittagong armoury raid. Bajpai portrayed the Bengali independence fighter Surya Sen in it, for which he charged no money. His final release of the year was "Chakravyuh", where he played a Naxalite; a role which required him to lose 5 kilograms weight. Writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar called "Chakravyuh" "the best film of last 20 years". On the contrary, a review carried by "India Today" called it an "amateurish attempt", but praised Bajpayee's acting.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: In 2013, Bajpayee had five releases: "Samar", his Tamil debut film, was the first release. He appeared in a supporting role in the film. He then appeared in Neeraj Pandey's heist thriller "Special 26". Based on the 1987 Opera House heist, he portrayed a CBI officer in the film. It was followed by the crime film "Shootout at Wadala", where he played a character inspired by the gangster Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar. Bajpayee collaborated with Prakash Jha for the fourth time with "Satyagraha". The film was loosely inspired by social activist Anna Hazare's fight against corruption in 2011, featuring an ensemble cast, the film was highly anticipated by trade journalists due to its release coinciding with the Mumbai and Delhi gang rape public protests. "Satyagraha" earned domestically. Bajpayee then provided the voice of Yudhishthira for "Mahabharat", a 3D animation film based on the Indian epic of the same name. In 2014, Bajpayee played the antagonist in the Tamil action film "Anjaan".


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee continued to play negative roles with his next film "Tevar" (2015). A remake of the 2003 Telugu film "Okkadu", the film opened to negative reviews and was a box office failure. The same year, he along with Raveena Tandon, appeared in the patriotic-themed short film "Jai Hind". With a run-time of 6 minutes, the film was released on YouTube by OYO Rooms, right before the Indian Independence Day. Bajpayee acted in another short film titled "Taandav" in 2016. Directed by Devashish Makhija, the film showcased the pressure and scenarios faced by an honest police constable, and was released on YouTube. The same year, he portrayed professor


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Ramchandra Siras, in Hansal Mehta's biographical drama "Aligarh". The story followed the life of a homosexual professor who was expelled from Aligarh Muslim University because of his sexuality. Bajpayee watched a few clippings of Siras to prepare for his role. The film was screened at the 20th Busan International Film Festival, and the 2015 Mumbai Film Festival. "Aligarh" was released on 26 February 2016 to positive reviews. Bajpayee won the Best Actor award at the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards and his third Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. He next played a traffic constable in Rajesh Pillai's swan song "Traffic" (2016). A remake of the Malayalam film of the same name, the film was released on 6 May 2016. His subsequent release of the year was the biographical sports film "Budhia Singh – Born to Run", where he played the coach of Budhia Singh; the world's youngest marathon runner.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: It was followed by the comedy film "Saat Uchakkey" (2016) and the short film "Ouch" directed by Neeraj Pandey.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee's first release of 2017 was the spy thriller "Naam Shabana", a spin-off to the 2015 film "Baby" with Taapsee Pannu reprising her role as Shabana. The same year, he reunited with Ram Gopal Varma for the crime drama "Sarkar 3". It was the third instalment in the Sarkar film series. In the film, his character was loosely based on Arvind Kejriwal. Later that year, Bajpayee appeared briefly in the drama film "Rukh".


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: In 2018, Bajpayee reunited with Neeraj Pandey with the crime thriller "Aiyaary", where he played Colonel Abhay Singh who is in pursuit of his protege Major Jai Bakshi (Sidharth Malhotra). Film critic Namrata Joshi criticised the film's plot and called Bajpayee and one song, the "film's only saving graces". He later appeared in Ahmed Khan's "Baaghi 2", alongside Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani. Later that year, Bajpayee acted and made his debut as a producer with the psychological thriller "Missing", co-starring Tabu. The film mostly received negative review from critics. Shubhra Gupta called it a "shoddy mess". He next appeared alongside John Abraham in the vigilante action film "Satyameva Jayate" (2018). The same year he appeared in the psychological drama "Gali Guleiyan", directed by debutant Dipesh Jain, where he played an electrician living in Old Delhi, who starts losing his grasp over reality. He won the Best Actor award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. The film premiered at the 22nd Busan International Film Festival and was also screened at the 2017 MAMI Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, Atlanta Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival and the Chicago International Film Festival. His final release of the year was Tabrez Noorani's ensemble drama "Love Sonia", a film about sex trafficking. It had its premiere at the 2018 London Indian Film Festival and was released in India on 14 September 2018.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: In Devashish Makhija's "Bhonsle", Bajpayee played a terminally ill retired Mumbai cop who befriends a North Indian girl when the locals are trying to get rid of the migrants in the city. The film and his performance met with positive response from critics with Namrata Joshi calling his acting "astounding in his internalisation of Bhonsle and acts with not just his face but by deploying his whole body." The role earned him his first National Film Award for Best Actor and second Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: In 2019, he was given India's fourth highest civilian honour Padma Shri for his contributions to art. The same year he portrayed dacoit Man Singh in Abhishek Chaubey's action film "Sonchiriya". Raja Sen in his review wrote that Bajpayee is "excellent as a rebel chief." Later, he appeared in the spy action drama web series "The Family Man", directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. Bajpayee played the role of a middle-class man who secretly works for an intelligence agency. The series and his performance received positive response from critics with Rohit Naahar of "Hindustan Times" writing: "Manoj Bajpayee is, as he usually tends to be, effortlessly excellent." He won the Critics Choice Best Actor, Drama Series Award at the 2020 Filmfare OTT Awards.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: In 2020, Bajpayee did a supporting role in Shirish Kunder's crime thriller film "Mrs. Serial Killer", co-starring Jacqueline Fernandez. The film, which was released on Netflix, met with a negative response. His final release of the year was the comedy flick "Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari" alongside Diljit Dosanjh and Fatima Sana Shaikh. It was the first film to release theatrically in India after nearly eight months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next year, he narrated the Discovery+ documentary show "Secrets of Sinauli", directed by Neeraj Pandey. Bajpayee also appeared as a cop trying to solve a murder case in the thriller "Silence... Can You Hear It?". The film was released on ZEE5 and met with mixed critical feedback.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee is a method actor and a director's actor, and is known for his unconventional roles in films. Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has cited Bajpayee's performance in "Aks" as the inspiration for his role as the antagonist in "Kick" (2014). Bajpayee has also been vocal about the disparity in the pay he commands, in comparison to the top actors in the film industry. He has cited Amitabh Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah and Raghubir Yadav as his inspirations.


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Director Ram Gopal Varma considers him to be "an education" for himself and said he is "simply the best actor I've ever worked with." Shekhar Kapur, who directed him in "Bandit Queen", recalls: "Manoj had the ability to portray a lot just by doing little. He never tried to overplay a scene and seemed totally comfortable with a minimalist statement." According to director Hansal Mehta, Manoj "has the ability to transform himself like few others."


title: Manoj Bajpayee

text: Bajpayee's performance as Bhiku Mhatre in "Satya" is considered to be one of the most memorable characters of Hindi cinema, along with his dialogue in it: "Mumbai ka king kaun? Bhiku Mhatre" (Who is the king of Mumbai? Bhiku Mhatre). Kay Kay Menon credits this character as a turning point for other method actors: "If it were not for Manoj's brilliant performance in "Satya", actors like Irrfan and me might still be waiting to be accepted. Manoj opened the doors for us." Writing about the character in his book "Popcorn Essayists", journalist-writer Jai Arjun Singh wrote that "the "earthiness" and the "authenticity" [of the character], was the subtle result of a persistence in Bajpai's performance."


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: John Richard Schneider (born April 8, 1960) is an American actor and country music singer. He is best known for his portrayal of Beauregard "Bo" Duke in the American television action/comedy series "The Dukes of Hazzard" (opposite Tom Wopat, Catherine Bach and James Best), Jonathan Kent in the 2001–11 TV series "Smallville", and James "Jim" Cryer on the television series "The Haves and the Have Nots", created by Tyler Perry.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: Alongside his acting career, Schneider has been a singer since the early 1980s, releasing nine studio albums and a greatest hits package, as well as eighteen singles. This total includes "I've Been Around Enough to Know", "Country Girls", "What's a Memory Like You", and "You're the Last Thing I Needed Tonight", all of which reached the top of the "Billboard" country singles charts.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: Schneider was born on April 8, 1960, in Mount Kisco, New York, the youngest of three boys for Shirley Conklin (1932-2016) and John "Jack" Schneider III (1930-2013), a pilot who had served in the U.S. Air Force. His mother is from Sanford, Florida. His family included an older brother Robert, an artist living in southern New York. His other brother (also called John) died of lung failure age 3, three years before John's birth. John's life as an entertainer began at the age of eight, when he put on magic shows for his peers and their families. This once got him into trouble, when he had himself chained up and tossed into a swimming pool with the intention of re-creating Harry Houdini's legendary escape act. When he was 14, he and his mother moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where his love for performing continued. He went to North Springs High School in Sandy Springs, Georgia.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: At the age of 18, he won the role of Bo Duke, working alongside another newcomer Tom Wopat and veteran actor James Best. For his audition, he "borrowed a dilapidated pickup truck, put on a big ol' country accent and funky hat. I hadn't shaved and went in toting a beer. I don't know whether they believed it or not, but they liked it." Schneider learned to drive the iconic Dodge Charger in the show, but to the disappointment of many fans, he admitted he never jumped the car due to the dangerous nature of the stunt.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: At the height of the series' popularity, he also became a recording artist and a face of merchandise. In 1982, a tangle of legal suits with the producers over the distribution of merchandising royalties caused Schneider and co-star Tom Wopat to leave the show for most of a season. They returned to their roles in February 1983 only after their claims were satisfied. The show was canceled in 1985, after seven seasons. Schneider directed the series finale, titled "Opening Night at the Boar's Nest", airing originally on CBS, February 8, 1985.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: In 2001, he portrayed Jonathan Kent, the adoptive father of Clark Kent on "Smallville", starring in 100 episodes. Schneider directed some episodes of "Smallville", including "Talisman". Some episodes contain references to Schneider's work in "The Dukes of Hazzard", e.g. the season five episode "Exposed" is notable for reuniting Schneider with his former "Dukes" co-star Tom Wopat. Schneider guest starred for the latter half of season five appearing in the episodes "Void" and "Oracle". Schneider returned for the season 10 premiere of "Smallville", reprising his role as Jonathan Kent in a recurring role.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: Schneider has appeared in many films and TV series, including five guest spots on "Hee Haw" and the miniseries "10.5". He had a recurring role on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and made guest appearances on such shows as "", "Touched by an Angel", "JAG" and "Walker, Texas Ranger".


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: In 2009, Schneider made an appearance on "" in an episode titled "Kill Me If You Can". He appeared in the first season of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager", in which his real-life son Chasen Schneider had a recurring role. During the summer of 2008 and early 2009, John portrayed "Marshall Bowman". He declined to continue through the second season and his character was written off.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: In 2010, Schneider appeared in the series "Leverage" as a corrupt music executive in the season three episode "The Studio Job", and in several episodes of "Desperate Housewives" as a retired military man and father of Keith Watson (Brian Austin Green), the love interest of Bree Van de Kamp.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: In 2011, he starred in the film "Doonby", as a drifter who comes into a small town and makes it better. However, a menacing force stalks him. "It's "It's a Wonderful Life" without the wonderful part," Schneider explains. "'Reach down into the throat of "It's a Wonderful Life", pull it inside out and make a movie out of it."


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: He returned to the role of Bo Duke, alongside Tom Wopat as Luke Duke, in a 2014 commercial for Autotrader.com.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: In addition to acting, John Schneider owns and operates the John Schneider Studios (JSS) where he writes and produces independent films in Holden, Louisiana. John Schneider Studios (JSS) has created an infrastructure to give independent filmmakers all the tools they need to create their stories and films in one location.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: During Schneider's "Dukes of Hazzard" days, he also entered into music. In the early 80's Schneider signed with Scotti Brothers Label and released his debut full-length album, "Now or Never", which peaked at No. 8 on the US Country Billboard charts. The single "It's Now or Never," a remake of the Elvis Presley hit, peaked at number 4 on the US Country Billboard charts and peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1981 and is one of the highest charting Elvis covers of all time. Schneider continued to release albums, including "Quiet Man" and "If You Believe", and, in 1984, signed with MCA Nashville. Through MCA Nashville, Schneider released "Too Good to Stop Now" which included his first No. 1 hits, "I've Been Around Enough to Know" and "Country Girls," also peaking at No. 1 on the CAN Country music charts. The following year, Schneider unleashed "Tryin' To Outrun the Wind", followed by "A Memory Like You" which debuted at No. 1 on the US Country Billboard charts, a first for Schneider. The album "A Memory Like You" featured "What's a Memory Like You (Doing In A Love Like This)" and "You're The Last Thing I Needed Tonight," singles which both peaked at No. 1 on the US Country Billboard charts and CAN Country. In the late 80's, Schneider continued releasing albums including his Greatest Hits record. Taking some time off to pursue acting opportunities, Schneider returned with "Worth The Wait", "John's Acoustic Christmas", "The Promise" and "Home For Christmas", with "The Dukes of Hazzard" co-star Tom Wopat in 2014.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: In 2019, on January 29, LIVE, at a filming of the TV show "Good Rockin' Tonight," John Schneider was Inducted on the air into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: "I hadn't done music since 1990. People responded to that music, and one thing led to another," shares Schneider. "It's funny. Even though I had a bunch of No. 1 songs, people say, 'Oh, I love that Dukes of Hazzard song you sang!' Well, I didn't sing it, Waylon Jennings sang it. I'm famous for music by a song I never sang. Crazy."


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: More than a dozen artists are joining Schneider in recording songs for Odyssey, including Tanya Tucker, John Conlee, Steve Wariner, Collin Raye, Mark Wills, Jamie O'Neal, Heidi Newfield, Bobby Bare, Kelly Lang, Jim Brown, Danny Shirley, Doug Supernaw and Marty Raybon, among others. More information about Odyssey can be found by visiting Schneider's website.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: In November 2021, Schneider spoke and performed at Global Vision Bible Church in Wilson County, Tennessee.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: Schneider took part In the "Word Of Promise" Audio Bible series, which featured the voices of many famous actors and actresses. He voiced James in the Book of James.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: On September 12, 2018, Schneider was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on season 27 of "Dancing with the Stars". His professional partner was Emma Slater. They became the sixth couple to be eliminated from the competition on November 5, alongside DeMarcus Ware and his professional partner Lindsay Arnold.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: In 1982, Schneider co-founded the Children's Miracle Network with Marie Osmond and her brothers. In 1995, he founded FaithWorks Productions in order to produce family-oriented videos and recordings.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: In 1998, Schneider became a born-again Christian while living with Johnny and June Carter Cash for a short time, and speaking with Johnny about Christianity.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: Schneider was married to former Miss America Tawny Elaine Godin from 1983 to 1986. He married his second wife, Elly Castle, on July 11, 1993. On December 12, 2014, TMZ.com reported that Castle had filed for divorce, They have three children, Leah and Chasen (born 1991), both of whom are Castle's children from her first marriage, and their daughter Karis. Since April 2015 Schneider has been in a relationship with Alicia Allain, his producing partner and owner of Maven Entertainment. Alicia is also his personal and professional manager. They married in September 2019.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: Schneider was good friends with James Best, who played Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in "The Dukes of Hazzard", until his death on April 6, 2015, at age 88.


title: John Schneider (screen actor)

text: On June 12, 2018, Schneider spoke to Fox News regarding his upcoming three-day jail sentence for failing to pay alimony to his estranged wife Elvira Castle. He said he has had hard financial times and he has spent his money on repairing his studio in Louisiana which was destroyed in an August 2016 flood. He was arrested at 10:29 AM and released at 3:45 PM. The short imprisonment was due to the overcrowded prison. He contrasted the warm treatment of the corrections officers to the "guilty until proven innocent" treatment he received in the court system. However, he still has to do 240 hours of community service and pay the debt to Elvira, or else he faces an imprisonment of five years.


title: Haute couture

text: Haute couture (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became the centre of a growing industry that focused on making outfits from high-quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable of sewers—often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. "Couture" translates literally from French as "dressmaking", sewing, or needlework and is also used as a common abbreviation of "haute couture" and can often refer to the same thing in spirit. "Haute" translates literally to "high".


title: Haute couture

text: An haute couture garment is always made for an individual client, tailored specifically for the wearer's measurements and body stance. Considering the amount of time, money, and skill allotted to each completed piece, haute couture garments are also described as having no price tag: budget is not relevant. In modern France, "haute couture" is a protected name that may not be used except by firms that meet certain well-defined standards.


title: Haute couture

text: The term "haute couture" originally referred to Englishman Charles Frederick Worth's work, produced in Paris in the mid-19th century. "The Dapifer" notes that Worth would allow his clients to select colours, fabrics, and other details before ever beginning his design process, which was unheard of at the time. In France, the term "haute couture" is protected by law and is defined by the "Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris" based in Paris. The Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture is defined as "the regulating commission that determines which fashion houses are eligible to be true haute couture houses". Their rules state that only "those companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves" of the label "haute couture". The Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne is an association of Parisian couturiers founded in 1868 as an outgrowth of medieval guilds that regulate its members in regard to counterfeiting of styles, dates of openings for collections, number of models presented, relations with press, questions of law and taxes, and promotional activities. Formation of the organization was brought about by Charles Frederick Worth. An affiliated school was organized in 1930 called L'Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture. The school helps bring new designers to help the "couture" houses that are still present today. Since 1975, this organization has worked within the Federation Francaise, de couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Createurs de Mode.


title: Haute couture

text: More rigorous criteria for "haute couture" were established in 1945. To earn the right to call itself a couture house and to use the term "haute couture" in its advertising and any other way, members of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture must follow specific rules:


title: Haute couture

text: The term is also used loosely to describe all high-fashion, custom-fitted clothing, whether it is produced in the fashion capitals of New York City, Paris, and Milan. In either case, the term can refer to the fashion houses or fashion designers that create exclusive and often trend-setting fashions or to the fashions created. The term "haute couture" has also taken on further popular meanings referring to non-dressmaking activities, such as production of fine art and music.


title: Haute couture

text: Haute couture can be referenced back as early as the 17th century. Rose Bertin, the French fashion designer to Queen Marie Antoinette, can be credited for bringing fashion and haute couture to French culture. Visitors to Paris brought back clothing that was then copied by local dressmakers. Stylish women also ordered dresses in the latest Parisian fashion to serve as models.


title: Haute couture

text: As railroads and steamships made European travel easier, it was increasingly common for wealthy women to travel to Paris to shop for clothing and accessories. French fitters and dressmakers were commonly thought to be the best in Europe, and real Parisian garments were considered better than local imitations.


title: Haute couture

text: A () is an establishment or person involved in the clothing fashion industry who makes original garments to order for private clients. A couturier may make what is known as haute couture. Such a person usually hires patternmakers and machinists for garment production, and is either employed by exclusive boutiques or is self-employed.


title: Haute couture

text: The "couturier" Charles Frederick Worth is widely considered the father of "haute couture" as it is known today. Although born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England, Worth made his mark in the French fashion industry. Revolutionizing how dressmaking had been previously perceived, Worth made it so the dressmaker became the artist of garnishment: a fashion designer. While he created one-of-a-kind designs to please some of his titled or wealthy customers, he is best known for preparing a portfolio of designs that were shown on live models at the House of Worth. Clients selected one model, specified colours and fabrics, and had a duplicate garment tailor-made in Worth's workshop. Worth combined individual tailoring with a standardization more characteristic of the ready-to-wear clothing industry, which was also developing during this period.


title: Haute couture

text: Following in Worth's footsteps were Callot Soeurs, Patou, Poiret, Vionnet, Fortuny, Lanvin, Chanel, Mainbocher, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, and Dior. Some of these fashion houses still exist today, under the leadership of modern designers.


title: Haute couture

text: In the 1960s, a group of young protégés who had trained under more senior and established fashion designers including Dior and Balenciaga left these established "couture" houses and opened their own establishments. The most successful of these young designers were Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges, Ted Lapidus, and Emanuel Ungaro. Japanese native and Paris-based Hanae Mori was also successful in establishing her own line.


title: Haute couture

text: Lacroix is one of the fashion houses to have been started in the late 20th century. Other new houses have included Jean-Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler. Due to the high expenses of producing haute couture collections, Lacroix and Mugler have since ceased their haute couture activities.