Nunavut is a territory in Canada. It is the newest, largest, and northernmost territory of Canada. It was founded in 1999 when many Inuit living in the Northwest Territories wanted to have an independent province and government. Its capital is named Iqaluit. It is in the north of Canada, and has a particularly cold climate for much of the year. It has many native people (mainly Inuit).
The main form of transportation is the snowmobile. For the first week of being a separate unit, it was the Province of Nunavut, but after a week it was renamed Nunavut Territory.
A symbol of the territory is the Eskimo Dog (""). Even today, some people still use these dogs.
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer and musician.
Martin was born in Waco, Texas to Glenn Vernon Martin, a real estate salesman and aspiring actor, and Mary Lee Stewart, a housewife. Martin was raised in Inglewood, California and Garden Grove, California. He is of English, French, German, Irish and Scottish descent.
As a teenager, Martin started out working at the Magic Shop at Disneyland. There he developed his talents for magic, juggling, playing the banjo and creating balloon animals. He teamed up with friend and Garden Grove High School classmate Kathy Westmoreland to do a musical comedy routine. They performed at local coffee houses and at the Bird Cage Theater in Knott's Berry Farm. Martin attended Santa Ana College at the same time as actress Diane Keaton.
Martin majored in philosophy at California State University, Long Beach, but dropped out. His time there changed his life:
"It changed what I believe and what I think about everything. I majored in philosophy. Something about non-sequiturs appealed to me. In philosophy, I started studying logic, and they were talking about cause and effect, and you start to realize, 'Hey, there is no cause and effect! There is no logic! There is no anything!' Then it gets real easy to write this stuff, because all you have to do is twist everything hard—you twist the punch line, you twist the non-sequitur so hard away from the things that set it up, that it's easy... and it's thrilling."
Martin's girlfriend in 1967 was a dancer on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour". She helped Martin get a writing job with the show by submitting his work to head writer Mason Williams. Williams initially paid Martin out of his own pocket. Along with the other writers for the show, Martin won an Emmy Award in 1969. Martin also wrote for John Denver (a neighbor of his in Aspen, Colorado at one point), The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. He also appeared on these shows and several others, in various comedy skits.
Martin also performed his own material, sometimes as an opening act for groups such as The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Carpenters. He appeared at San Francisco's The Boarding House among other places. He continued to write, earning an Emmy nomination for his work on Van Dyke and Company in 1976.
In the mid-1970s, he made appearances as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. That exposure, together with appearances on HBO's On Location and NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) led to his first of four comedy albums, "Let's Get Small". The album was a huge success.
His next album, "A Wild and Crazy Guy", was a bigger success. It reached the #2 spot on the sales chart in the United States. It created a catch phrase (the album's title). It was based on an SNL skit in which Martin and Dan Aykroyd played a couple of bumbling Czechoslovakian playboys. The album was a million seller.
Both albums won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording in 1977 and 1978 respectively.
Martin's first movie was a short, "The Absent-Minded Waiter" (1977). The seven-minute long movie, also featuring Buck Henry and Teri Garr, was written by and starred Martin. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Film, Live Action. His first feature movie appearance was in the musical "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". He sang the Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer".
In 1979, Martin wrote and starred in his first full-length movie, "The Jerk", directed by Carl Reiner. The movie was a huge success, grossing over $73 million. Martin was in three more Reiner-directed comedies after "The Jerk": "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" in 1982, "The Man with Two Brains" in 1983 and "All of Me" in 1984. In 1986, Martin joined fellow Saturday Night Live veterans Martin Short and Chevy Chase in "¡Three Amigos"!, directed by John Landis.
In 1986, Martin was in the musical movie version of the hit off-Broadway play "Little Shop of Horrors" as a sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello.
In 1987, Martin joined comedian John Candy in the John Hughes movie, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles". That same year, the Cyrano de Bergerac adaptation "Roxanne" won him a Writers Guild of America award. In 1988, he did "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" with Michael Caine and directed by Frank Oz.
In 2005, Martin wrote and starred in "Shopgirl". Martin played a wealthy businessman who strikes up a romance with a Saks 5th Avenue counter girl (Claire Danes). He also starred in "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" that year. Martin's latest work was in the 2006 remake of "The Pink Panther".
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, (; 29 August 1923 – 24 August 2014) was an English movie producer, director and actor.
He was born in Cambridge, England. Attenborough left his home when he was 17 to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. He earned his first West End theatre role, then went to national stardom in the play "Brighton Rock".
Attenborough later became a producer and director. He produced and directed the movie "Gandhi". Attenborough said that the movie "Gandhi" was his dream project and waited years to make it. "Gandhi" won 5 British Academy Awards and 8 American Oscars. In 1983 he won the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, a lifetime achievement award. In his movie roles, he is mostly known for his roles in "The Great Escape" and in "Jurassic Park". He was the older brother of naturalist David Attenborough.
Attenborough died on 24 August 2014 at the age of 90 in London of heart failure after years of poor health.
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He first became famous on the television show "Mork and Mindy". He starred in many movies.
On August 11, 2014, Williams was found dead in his home. His death was believed to have been a suicide by asphyxiation. He appeared to have hanged himself with his belt. Williams was also found with cuts on his wrist.
Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 21, 1951. His father Robert Fitzgerald Williams (September 10, 1906 – October 18, 1987) worked for Ford Motor Company. His mother Laura McLaurin (née Smith, September 24, 1922 – September 4, 2001) was a former model from New Orleans, Louisiana. His great-great-grandfather on his mother's side was Mississippi senator and governor Anselm J. McLaurin. Williams' ancestors were English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, German, and French.
When he was young, Williams lived in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and in Marin County, California. He studied at Redwood High School and at Claremont McKenna College. He studied to become an actor at the Julliard School in New York City and at the College of Marin.
After his family moved to Marin County, Williams began his career doing stand-up comedy shows in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-1970s. His first performance took place at the Holy City Zoo, a comedy club in San Francisco, where he worked his way up from tending bar to getting on stage.
Williams became famous for his role as Mork in the television series "Mork & Mindy" (1978–1982). His idol Jonathan Winters also appeared in the show. Williams went on to a successful career in both stand-up comedy and movie acting.