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David Letterman

David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late-night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC and ending with the May 20, 2015, broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of Late Night and Late Show, surpassing his friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history.

He is also a television and film producer. His company, Worldwide Pants, produced his shows as well as The Late Late Show and several primetime comedies, the most successful of which was the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. Several late-night hosts have cited Letterman's influence, including Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers (each of whom succeeded Letterman on Late Night), Stephen Colbert (his successor on The Late Show), Jimmy Kimmel, and Jon Stewart. Since 2018, he has hosted the Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.

Early life and career
Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 12, 1947, and he has two sisters, one older and one younger. His father, Harry Joseph Letterman (April 15, 1915 – February 13, 1973), was a florist. His mother, Dorothy Marie Letterman Mengering (née Hofert; July 18, 1921 – April 11, 2017), a church secretary for the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, was an occasional figure on Letterman's show, usually at holidays and birthdays.

Letterman grew up on the north side of Indianapolis, in the Broad Ripple area, about 12 mi from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He enjoyed collecting model cars, including racers. In 2000, he told an interviewer for Esquire that, while growing up, he admired his father's ability to tell jokes and be the life of the party. Harry Joseph Letterman survived a heart attack at the age of 36 when David was a young boy. The fear of losing his father was constantly with Letterman as he grew up. The elder Letterman died of a second heart attack in 1973 at the age of 57.

Letterman attended his hometown's Broad Ripple High School and worked as a stock boy at the local Atlas Supermarket. According to the Ball State Daily News, he originally wanted to attend Indiana University, but his grades were not good enough, so he instead attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, and graduated in 1969 from what was then the Department of Radio and Television. A self-described average student, Letterman later endowed a scholarship for what he called "C students" at Ball State. Though he registered for the draft and passed his physical after graduating from college, he was not drafted for service in Vietnam because he received a draft lottery number of 346 (out of 366).

Letterman began his broadcasting career as an announcer and newscaster at the college's student-run radio station—WBST—a 10-watt campus station that is now part of Indiana Public Radio. He was fired for treating classical music with irreverence. He then became involved with the founding of another campus station—WAGO-AM 570 (now WCRD, 91.3).

He credits Paul Dixon, host of the Paul Dixon Show, a Cincinnati-based talk show also shown in Indianapolis while he was growing up, for inspiring his choice of career: "I was just out of college [in 1969], and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And then all of a sudden I saw him doing it [on TV]. And I thought: That's really what I want to do!"

Weatherman
Soon after graduating from Ball State in 1969, Letterman began his career as a radio talk show host on WNTS and on Indianapolis television station WLWI (which changed its call sign to WTHR in 1976) as an anchor and weatherman. He received some attention for his novel on-air delivery, which included congratulating a tropical storm for being upgraded to a hurricane, as well as for predicting hailstones "the size of canned hams".

Letterman also occasionally reported the weather and the day's very high and low temps for fictitious cities ("Eight inches of snow in Bingree and surrounding areas"). On another occasion, he riffed that the state border between Indiana and Ohio had been erased, when a satellite map accidentally omitted it, jokingly attributing it to dirty political dealings: "The higher-ups have removed the border between Indiana and Ohio, making it one giant state. Personally, I'm against it. I don't know what to do about it."

Letterman also starred in a local kiddie show, made wisecracks as host of a late-night TV show called "Freeze-Dried Movies" (he once acted out a scene from Godzilla (1954) using plastic dinosaurs), and hosted a talk show that aired early on Saturday mornings called Clover Power, in which he interviewed 4-H members about their projects.

In 1971, Letterman appeared as a pit road reporter for ABC Sports' tape-delayed coverage of the Indianapolis 500, which was his first nationally telecast appearance (WLWI was the local ABC affiliate at the time). He was initially introduced as Chris Economaki, but this was corrected at the end of the interview (Jim McKay announced his name as Dave Letterman). Letterman interviewed Mario Andretti, who had just crashed out of the race.

Move to Los Angeles
In 1975, encouraged by his then-wife Michelle and several of his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers, Letterman moved to Los Angeles, California, with the hope of becoming a comedy writer. He and Michelle packed their belongings in his pickup truck and headed west. As of 2012, he still owned the truck. In Los Angeles, he began performing comedy at The Comedy Store. Jimmie Walker saw him on stage; with an endorsement from George Miller, Letterman joined a group of comedians whom Walker hired to write jokes for his stand-up act, a group that at various times also included Jay Leno, Paul Mooney, Robert Schimmel, Richard Jeni, Louie Anderson, Elayne Boosler, Byron Allen, Jack Handey, and Steve Oedekerk.

By the summer of 1977, Letterman was a writer and regular on the six-week summer series The Starland Vocal Band Show, broadcast on CBS. He hosted a 1977 pilot for a game show called The Riddlers (which was never picked up), and co-starred in the Barry Levinson-produced comedy special Peeping Times, which aired in January 1978. Later that year, Letterman was a cast member on Mary Tyler Moore's variety show, Mary. He made a guest appearance on Mork & Mindy (as a parody of EST leader Werner Erhard) and appearances on game shows such as The $20,000 Pyramid, The Gong Show, Hollywood Squares, Password Plus, and Liar's Club, as well as the Canadian cooking show Celebrity Cooks (November 1977), talk shows such as 90 Minutes Live (February 24 and April 14, 1978), and The Mike Douglas Show (April 3, 1979 and February 7, 1980). He was also screen tested for the lead role in the 1980 film Airplane!, a role that eventually went to Robert Hays.

Letterman's brand of dry, sarcastic humor caught the attention of scouts for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and he was soon a regular guest on the show. He became a favorite of Carson and was a regular guest host for the show beginning in 1978. Letterman credits Carson as the person who influenced his career the most.

Morning show
On June 23, 1980, Letterman was given his own morning comedy show on NBC, The David Letterman Show. It was originally 90 minutes long but was shortened to 60 minutes in August 1980. The show was a critical success, winning two Emmy Awards, but was a ratings disappointment and was canceled, the last show airing October 24, 1980.

Late Night with David Letterman
NBC kept Letterman on its payroll to try him in a different time slot. Late Night with David Letterman debuted February 1, 1982; the first guest was Bill Murray. Murray went on to become one of Letterman's most recurrent guests, guesting on his later CBS show's celebration of his 30th anniversary in late-night television, which aired January 31, 2012, and on the final CBS show, which aired May 20, 2015. The show ran Monday through Thursday nights at 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time, immediately following The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (a Friday night broadcast was added in June 1987). It was seen as edgy and unpredictable, and soon developed a cult following (particularly among college students). Letterman's reputation as an acerbic interviewer was borne out in verbal sparring matches with Cher (who even called him an "asshole" on the show), Shirley MacLaine, Charles Grodin, and Madonna. The show also featured comedy segments and running characters, in a style heavily influenced by the 1950s and 1960s programs of Steve Allen.

The show often featured quirky, genre-mocking regular features, including "Stupid Pet Tricks" (which had its origins on Letterman's morning show), Stupid Human Tricks, dropping various objects off the roof of a five-story building, demonstrations of unorthodox clothing (such as suits made of Alka-Seltzer, Velcro and suet), a recurring Top 10 list, the Monkey-Cam (and the Audience Cam), a facetious letter-answering segment, several "Film[s] by My Dog Bob" in which a camera was mounted on Letterman's own dog (often with comic results) and Small Town News, all of which moved with Letterman to CBS.

Other episodes included Letterman using a bullhorn to interrupt a live interview on The Today Show on August 19, 1985, announcing that he was the NBC News president Lawrence K. Grossman and that he was not wearing any pants; walking across the hall to Studio 6B, at the time the news studio for WNBC-TV, and interrupting Al Roker's weather segments during Live at Five; and staging "elevator races", complete with commentary by NBC Sports' Bob Costas. In one appearance, in 1982, Andy Kaufman (who was wearing a neck brace) appeared with professional wrestler Jerry Lawler, who slapped and knocked the comedian to the ground (Lawler and Kaufman's friend Bob Zmuda later revealed that the incident was staged).

Late Show with David Letterman
In 1992, Johnny Carson retired, and many fans, and Carson himself, believed that Letterman would become the new host of The Tonight Show. When NBC instead gave the job to Jay Leno, Letterman departed NBC to host his own late-night show on CBS, opposite The Tonight Show at 11:30 p.m., called the Late Show with David Letterman. The new show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was taped at the historic Ed Sullivan Theater, where Ed Sullivan broadcast his eponymous variety series from 1948 to 1971. For Letterman's arrival, CBS spent $8 million in renovations. CBS also signed Letterman to a three-year, $14 million/year contract, doubling his Late Night salary.

But while the expectation was that Letterman would retain his unique style and sense of humor with the move, Late Show was not an exact replica of his old NBC program. The monologue was lengthened. Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band followed Letterman to CBS, but they added a brass section and were rebranded the CBS Orchestra (at Shaffer's request); a small band had been mandated by Carson while Letterman occupied the 12:30 slot. Additionally, because of intellectual property disagreements, Letterman was unable to import many of his Late Night segments verbatim, but he sidestepped this problem by simply renaming them (the "Top Ten List" became the "Late Show Top Ten", "Viewer Mail" became the "CBS Mailbag", etc.). Time magazine wrote, "Letterman's innovation ... gained power from its rigorous formalism"; as his biographer Jason Zinoman puts it, he was "a fascinatingly disgruntled eccentric trapped inside a more traditional talk show."

Popularity
The Late Show 's main competitor was NBC's The Tonight Show, which Jay Leno hosted for 22 years from 1992 to 2014, except from June 1, 2009, to January 22, 2010, when Conan O'Brien hosted. In 1993 and 1994, the Late Show consistently gained higher ratings than The Tonight Show. But in 1995, ratings dipped and Leno's show consistently beat Letterman's in the ratings from the time that Hugh Grant came on Leno's show after Grant's arrest for soliciting a prostitute.

Leno typically attracted about five million nightly viewers between 1999 and 2009. The Late Show lost nearly half its audience during its competition with Leno, attracting 7.1 million viewers nightly in its 1993–94 season and about 3.8 million per night as of Leno's departure in 2009. In the final months of his first stint as host of The Tonight Show, Leno beat Letterman in the ratings by a 1.3 million-viewer margin (5.2 million to 3.9 million), and Nightline and the Late Show were virtually tied. Once O'Brien took over Tonight, Letterman closed the gap in the ratings. O'Brien initially drove the median age of Tonight Show viewers from 55 to 45, with most older viewers opting to watch the Late Show instead. After Leno returned to The Tonight Show, Leno regained his lead.

Letterman's shows have garnered both critical and industry praise, receiving 67 Emmy Award nominations, winning 12 times in his first 20 years in late night television. From 1993 to 2009, Letterman ranked higher than Leno in the annual Harris Poll of Nation's Favorite TV Personality 12 times. For example, in 2003 and 2004 Letterman ranked second in that poll, behind only Oprah Winfrey, a year that Leno was ranked fifth. Leno was higher than Letterman on that poll three times during the same period, in 1998, 2007, and 2008.

Hosting the Academy Awards
On March 27, 1995, Letterman hosted the 67th Academy Awards ceremony. Critics blasted what they deemed his poor performance, noting that his irreverent style undermined the traditional importance and glamor of the event. In a joke about their unusual names (inspired by a celebrated comic essay in The New Yorker, "Yma Dream" by Thomas Meehan), he started off by introducing Uma Thurman to Oprah Winfrey, and then both of them to Keanu Reeves: "Oprah...Uma. Uma...Oprah," "Have you kids met Keanu?" This and many of his other jokes fell flat. Although Letterman attracted the highest ratings to the annual telecast since 1983, many felt that the bad publicity he generated caused a decline in the Late Show ratings.

Letterman recycled the apparent debacle into a long-running gag. On his first show after the Oscars, he joked, "Looking back, I had no idea that thing was being televised." He lampooned his stint two years later, during Billy Crystal's opening Oscar skit, which also parodied the plane-crashing scenes from that year's chief nominated film, The English Patient.

For years afterward, Letterman recounted his hosting the Oscars, although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continued to hold Letterman in high regard and invited him to host the Oscars again. On September 7, 2010, he made an appearance on the premiere of the 14th season of The View, and confirmed that he had been considered for hosting again.

Heart surgery hiatus
On January 14, 2000, a routine checkup revealed that an artery in Letterman's heart was severely obstructed. He was rushed to New York Presbyterian Hospital for emergency quintuple bypass surgery. During the first weeks of his recovery, reruns of the Late Show were shown and introduced by friends of Letterman, including Norm Macdonald, Drew Barrymore, Ray Romano, Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Megan Mullally, Bill Murray, Regis Philbin, Charles Grodin, Nathan Lane, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Jerry Seinfeld, Martin Short, Steven Seagal, Hillary Clinton, Danny DeVito, Steve Martin, and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Later, while still recovering from surgery, Letterman revived the late-night talk show tradition of "guest hosts" that had virtually disappeared on network television during the 1990s, allowing Bill Cosby, Kathie Lee Gifford, Dana Carvey, Janeane Garofalo, and others to host new episodes of the Late Show. Upon his return to the show on February 21, 2000, Letterman brought all but one of the doctors and nurses on stage who had participated in his surgery and recovery (with extra teasing of a nurse who had given him bed baths—"This woman gave me a bath!"), including Drs. O. Wayne Isom and Louis Aronne, who frequently appeared on the show.

For a number of episodes, Letterman continued to crack jokes about his bypass, including saying: "Bypass surgery: it's when doctors surgically create new blood flow to your heart. A bypass is what happened to me when I didn't get The Tonight Show! It's a whole different thing." In a later running gag, he lobbied Indiana to rename the freeway circling Indianapolis (I-465) "The David Letterman Bypass". He also featured a montage of faux news coverage of his bypass surgery, including a clip of Letterman's heart for sale on the Home Shopping Network. Letterman became friends with his doctors and nurses. In 2008, Rolling Stone wrote: "He hosted a doctor and nurse who'd helped perform the emergency quintuple-bypass heart surgery that saved his life in 2000. 'These are people who were complete strangers when they opened my chest,' he says. 'And now, eight years later, they're among my best friends.'" Additionally, Letterman invited the band Foo Fighters to play "Everlong", introducing them as "my favorite band, playing my favorite song." During Letterman's last show, on which Foo Fighters appeared, Letterman said that Foo Fighters had been in the middle of a South American tour that they canceled to play on his comeback episode.

In February 2003, Letterman again handed the reins of the show to several guest hosts (including Bill Cosby, Brad Garrett, Whoopi Goldberg, Elvis Costello, John McEnroe, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Bonnie Hunt, Luke Wilson, and bandleader Paul Shaffer) when he was diagnosed with a severe case of shingles. Later that year, Letterman made regular use of guest hosts—including Tom Arnold and Kelsey Grammer—for shows broadcast on Fridays. In March 2007, Adam Sandler, who had been scheduled to be the lead guest, served as a guest host while Letterman was ill with a stomach virus.

Second signing with CBS
In March 2002, as Letterman's contract with CBS neared expiration, ABC offered him the time slot for long-running news program Nightline with Ted Koppel. Letterman was interested, as he believed he could never match Leno's ratings at CBS due to Letterman's complaint of weaker lead-ins from the network's late local news programs, but was reluctant to replace Koppel. He addressed his decision to re-sign on the air, stating that he was content at CBS and that he had great respect for Koppel.

On December 4, 2006, CBS revealed that Letterman signed a new contract to host Late Show with David Letterman through the fall of 2010. "I'm thrilled to be continuing on at CBS," said Letterman. "At my age you really don't want to have to learn a new commute." Letterman further joked about the subject by pulling up his right pants leg, revealing a tattoo, presumably temporary, of the ABC logo.

"Thirteen years ago, David Letterman put CBS late night on the map and in the process became one of the defining icons of our network," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation. "His presence on our air is an ongoing source of pride, and the creativity and imagination that the Late Show puts forth every night is an ongoing display of the highest quality entertainment. We are truly honored that one of the most revered and talented entertainers of our time will continue to call CBS 'home.'"

According to a 2007 article in Forbes magazine, Letterman earned $40 million a year. A 2009 article in The New York Times, however, said his salary was estimated at $32 million. In June 2009, Letterman's Worldwide Pants and CBS reached an agreement to continue the Late Show until at least August 2012. The previous contract had been set to expire in 2010, and the two-year extension was shorter than the typical three-year contract period negotiated in the past. Worldwide Pants agreed to lower its fee for the show, though it had remained a "solid moneymaker for CBS" under the previous contract.

On the February 3, 2011 edition of the Late Show, during an interview with Howard Stern, Letterman said he would continue to do his talk show for "maybe two years, I think." In April 2012, CBS announced it had extended its contract with Letterman through 2014. His contract was subsequently extended to 2015.

Retirement from Late Show
During the taping of his show on April 3, 2014, Letterman announced that he had informed CBS president Leslie Moonves that he would retire from hosting Late Show by May 20, 2015. Later in his retirement Letterman occasionally stated, in jest, that he had been fired. It was announced soon after that comedian and political satirist Stephen Colbert would succeed Letterman. Letterman's last episode aired on May 20, 2015, and opened with a presidential sendoff featuring four of the five living American presidents, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, each mimicking the late president Gerald Ford's statement "Our long national nightmare is over." It also featured cameos from The Simpsons and Wheel of Fortune (the latter with a puzzle saying "Good riddance to David Letterman"), a Top Ten List of "things I wish I could have said to David Letterman" performed by regular guests including Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and Bill Murray, and closed with a montage of scenes from both his CBS and NBC series set to a live performance of "Everlong" by Foo Fighters.

The final episode of Late Show with David Letterman was watched by 13.76 million viewers in the United States with an audience share of 9.3/24, earning the show its highest ratings since following the 1994 Winter Olympics on February 25, 1994, and the show's highest demo numbers (4.1 in adults 25–54 and 3.1 in adults 18–49) since Oprah Winfrey's first Late Show appearance following the ending of her feud with Letterman on December 1, 2005. Bill Murray, who had been his first guest on Late Night, was his final guest on Late Show. In a rarity for a late-night show, it was also the highest-rated program on network television that night, beating out all prime-time shows. In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of Late Night and Late Show, surpassing friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in U.S. television history.

Post-Late Show
In the months following the end of Late Show, Letterman was seen occasionally at sports events such as the Indianapolis 500, during which he submitted to an interview with a local publication. He made a surprise appearance on stage in San Antonio, Texas when he was invited up for an extended segment during Steve Martin's and Martin Short's A Very Stupid Conversation show, saying "I retired, and...I have no regrets," Letterman told the crowd after walking on stage. "I was happy. I'll make actual friends. I was complacent. I was satisfied. I was content, and then a couple of days ago Donald Trump said he was running for president. I have made the biggest mistake of my life, ladies and gentlemen" and then delivering a Top Ten List roasting Trump's presidential campaign followed by an onstage conversation with Martin and Short. Cellphone recordings of the appearance were posted on YouTube by audience members and widely reported in the media.

In 2016, Letterman joined the climate change documentary show Years of Living Dangerously as one of its celebrity correspondents. In season two's premiere episode, Letterman traveled to India to investigate the country's efforts to expand its inadequate energy grid, power its booming economy, and bring electricity to 300 million citizens for the first time. He also interviewed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and traveled to rural villages where power is a scarce luxury and explored the United States' role in India's energy future.

On April 7, 2017, Letterman gave the induction speech for the band Pearl Jam into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame at a ceremony held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City. Also in 2017, Letterman and Alec Baldwin co-hosted The Essentials on Turner Classic Movies. Letterman and Baldwin introduced seven films for the series.

Netflix
In 2018, Letterman began hosting a six-episode monthly series of hour-long programs on Netflix consisting of long-form interviews and field segments. The show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, premiered January 12, 2018 with Barack Obama as its first guest. The second season premiered on May 31, 2019. Season 3 premiered on October 21, 2020, and includes Kim Kardashian West, Robert Downey Jr., Dave Chappelle and Lizzo as guests. Season 4 premiered on May 20, 2022, with Billie Eilish as the first guest. In October 2022, Letterman traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine, to film a special standalone episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, interviewing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

NBC and Johnny Carson
In spite of Johnny Carson's clear intention to pass his title to Letterman, NBC selected Jay Leno to host The Tonight Show after Carson's departure. Letterman maintained a close relationship with Carson through his break with NBC. Three years after he left for CBS, HBO produced a made-for-television movie called The Late Shift, based on a book by The New York Times reporter Bill Carter, chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for the Tonight Show hosting spot.

Carson later made a few cameo appearances as a guest on Letterman's show. Carson's final television appearance was on May 13, 1994, on a Late Show episode taped in Los Angeles, when he made a surprise appearance during a Top 10 list segment. In early 2005, it was revealed that Carson occasionally sent jokes to Letterman, who used them in his monologue; according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally (a onetime producer for both men), Carson got "a big kick out of it." Letterman would do a characteristic Carson golf swing after delivering one of his jokes. In a tribute to Carson, all the opening monologue jokes during the first show after Carson's death were by Carson.

Lassally also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor". During the early years of the Late Show's run, Letterman occasionally used some of Carson's trademark bits, including "Carnac the Magnificent" (with Paul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band", and the "Week in Review".

Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey appeared on Letterman's show when he was hosting NBC's Late Night on May 2, 1989. After that appearance, the two had a 16-year feud that arose, as Winfrey explained to Letterman after it had been resolved, as a result of the acerbic tone of their 1989 interview, of which she said that it "felt so uncomfortable to me that I didn't want to have that experience again". The feud apparently ended on December 2, 2005, when Winfrey appeared on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman in an event Letterman jokingly called "the Super Bowl of Love".

Winfrey and Letterman also appeared together in a Late Show promo aired during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLI in February 2007, with the two sitting next to each other on a couch watching the game. Since the game was played between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, the Indianapolis-born Letterman wore a Peyton Manning jersey, while Winfrey, whose show was taped in Chicago, wore a Brian Urlacher jersey. On September 10, 2007, Letterman made his first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Three years later, during CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLIV between the Colts and the New Orleans Saints, the two appeared again in a Late Show promo, this time with Winfrey sitting on a couch between Letterman and Leno. Letterman wore the retired No. 70 jersey of Art Donovan, a member of the Colts' Hall of Fame and a regular Letterman guest. The appearance was Letterman's idea: Leno flew to New York City on an NBC corporate jet, sneaking into the Ed Sullivan Theater during the Late Show's February 4 taping wearing a disguise and meeting Winfrey and Letterman at a living room set created in the theater's balcony, where they taped their promo.

Winfrey interviewed Letterman in January 2013 on Oprah's Next Chapter. They discussed their feud and Winfrey revealed that she had had a "terrible experience" while appearing on Letterman's show years earlier. Letterman could not recall the incident but apologized.

2007–2008 writers' strike
Late Show went off air for eight weeks in 2007 during November and December because of the Writers Guild of America strike. Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, was the first company to make an individual agreement with the WGA, allowing his show to come back on the air on January 2, 2008. In his first episode back, he surprised the audience with a newly grown beard, which signified solidarity with the strike. His beard was shaved off during the show on January 7, 2008.

Palin joke
On June 8 and 9, 2009, Letterman told two sexually themed jokes about a daughter (never named) of Sarah Palin on his TV show. These included a statutory rape joke about Palin's then 14-year-old daughter, Willow, and MLB player Alex Rodriguez. Palin was in New York City at the time with Willow, and none of her other children were at the game.

In a statement posted on the Internet, Palin said, "I doubt [Letterman would] ever dare make such comments about anyone else's daughter" and that "laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is disgusting." On his June 10 show, Letterman responded to the controversy, saying the jokes were meant to be about Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, whose pregnancy as an unmarried teenager had caused some controversy during the United States presidential election of 2008. "These are not jokes made about [Palin's] 14-year-old daughter ... I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl."

His remarks did not end public criticism. The National Organization for Women (NOW) released a statement supporting Palin, noting that Letterman had made "[only] something of an apology." When the controversy failed to subside, Letterman addressed the issue again on his June 15 show, faulting himself for the error and apologizing "especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke." Rodriguez demanded an apology for implying that he was a child molester. Letterman never specifically apologized to Rodriguez.

Al-Qaeda death threat
On August 17, 2011, it was reported that an Islamist militant had posted a death threat against Letterman on a website frequented by Al-Qaeda supporters, calling on American Muslims to kill him for making a joke about the death of Ilyas Kashmiri, an Al-Qaeda leader who was killed in a June 2011 drone strike in Pakistan. In his August 22 show, Letterman joked about the threat, saying "State Department authorities are looking into this. They're not taking this lightly. They're looking into it. They're questioning, they're interrogating, there's an electronic trail—but everybody knows it's Leno."

Appearances in other media
Letterman appeared in the pilot episode of the short-lived 1986 series Coach Toast, and appears with a bag over his head as a guest on Bonnie Hunt's 1990s sitcom The Building. He appeared in The Simpsons as himself in a couch gag when the Simpsons find themselves (and the couch) in Late Night with David Letterman. He had a cameo in the feature film Cabin Boy, with Chris Elliott, who worked as a writer for Letterman. In this and other appearances, Letterman is listed in the credits as "Earl Hofert", the name of Letterman's maternal grandfather. He also appeared as himself in the Howard Stern biographical film Private Parts and the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, in a few episodes of Garry Shandling's 1990s TV series The Larry Sanders Show, and in "The Abstinence", a 1996 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld.

Letterman provided vocals for the Warren Zevon song "Hit Somebody" from My Ride's Here, and provided the voice for Butt-head's father in the 1996 animated film Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, again credited as Earl Hofert.

Letterman was the focus of The Avengers on "Late Night with David Letterman", issue 239 (January 1984) of the Marvel comic book series The Avengers, in which the title characters (specifically Hawkeye, Wonder Man, Black Widow, Beast, and Black Panther) are guests on Late Night. A parody of Letterman named David Endochrine is gassed to death along with his bandleader, Paul, and their audience in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. In SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, Letterman was parodied as "David Litterbin". Letterman appears in issues 13–14 and 18 of Harvey Pekar's autobiographical comic book American Splendor. Those issues show Pekar's accounts of appearances on Late Night.

In 2010, a documentary directed by Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina, Dying to do Letterman, was released, featuring Steve Mazan, a standup comic, who has cancer and wants to appear on Letterman's show. The film won best documentary and jury awards at the Cinequest Film Festival. Mazan published a book of the same name (full title Dying to Do Letterman: Turning Someday into Today) about his own saga.

Letterman appeared as a guest on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight on May 29, 2012, when he was interviewed by Regis Philbin, the guest host and Letterman's longtime friend. Philbin again interviewed Letterman (and Shaffer) while guest-hosting CBS's The Late Late Show (between the tenures of Craig Ferguson and James Corden) on January 27, 2015. In June 2013, Letterman appeared in the second episode of season two of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. On November 5, 2013, he and Bruce McCall published a fiction satire book, This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me), ISBN 0-399-16368-9.

In Week 13 of the 2021 NFL season, Letterman joined Peyton and Eli Manning on their Manningcast feed of the Monday Night Football game between the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills. Letterman mocked Bill Belichick after he was caught on camera wiping his nose with his shirt, and was in the middle of recalling being with Roger Goodell when Goodell was booed at the unveiling of Peyton Manning's statue in Indianapolis when ESPN suddenly cut to commercials.

On February 1, 2022, Letterman was the guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers, marking the 40th anniversary of the franchise's debut.

On November 20, 2023, Letterman returned to the Ed Sullivan theater on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Business ventures
Letterman started his production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated, which produced his show and several others, in 1991. The company also produces feature films and documentaries and founded its own record label, Clear Entertainment. Worldwide Pants received significant attention in December 2007 after it was announced that it had independently negotiated its own contract with the Writers Guild of America, East, thus allowing Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and their writers to return to work, while the union continued its strike against production companies, networks, and studios with whom it had not yet reached agreements.

Letterman, Bobby Rahal, and Mike Lanigan co-own Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, an auto racing team competing in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and NTT IndyCar series. The team has twice won the Indianapolis 500: in 2004 with driver Buddy Rice, and in 2020 with Takuma Sato.

The Letterman Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming is a private foundation through which Letterman has donated millions of dollars to charities and other nonprofit organizations in Indiana and Montana, celebrity-affiliated organizations such as Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, Ball State University, the American Cancer Society, the Salvation Army, and Médecins Sans Frontières.

Influences
Letterman's biggest influence and mentor was Johnny Carson. Other comedians who influenced Letterman were Paul Dixon, Steve Allen, Jonathan Winters, Garry Moore, Jack Paar, Don Rickles, and David Brenner. Although Ernie Kovacs has also been mentioned as an influence, Letterman has denied this.

Comedians influenced by Letterman include Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Ray Romano, Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, Larry Wilmore, Seth Meyers, Norm Macdonald, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and James Corden.

Personal life
Letterman has tinnitus, a symptom of hearing loss. On the Late Show in 1996, he talked about his experience with tinnitus during an interview with William Shatner, who has severe tinnitus caused by an on-set explosion. Letterman has said that he was initially unable to pinpoint the noise inside his head and that he hears a constant ringing in his ears.

Letterman no longer drinks alcohol. On more than one occasion, he said that he had once been a "horrible alcoholic" and had begun drinking around the age of 11 or 13 and continued until 1981 when he was 34. He has said that in 1981, "I was drunk 80% of the time ... I loved it. I was one of those guys, I looked around, and everyone else had stopped drinking and I couldn't understand why." When he was shown drinking what appears to be alcohol on Late Night or the Late Show, it was actually apple juice.

In 2015, Letterman said of his anxiety: "For years and years and years—30, 40 years—I was anxious and hypochondriacal and an alcoholic, and many, many other things that made me different from other people." He became calmer through a combination of Transcendental Meditation and low doses of medication. Letterman is a Presbyterian, a religious tradition he was originally brought up in by his mother, though he once said he was motivated by "Lutheran, Midwestern guilt".

In August 2021, Letterman was hospitalized in Providence, Rhode Island, after hitting his head on the sidewalk and falling unconscious. He favorably recalled the care he received at Rhode Island Hospital in a video released by the hospital's owner.

Marriages, relationships, and family
On July 2, 1968, Letterman married his college sweetheart, Michelle Cook, in Muncie, Indiana; they divorced by October 1977. He also had a long-term cohabiting relationship with the former head writer and producer on Late Night, Merrill Markoe, from 1978 to 1988. Markoe created several Late Night staples, such as "Stupid Pet/Human Tricks". Time magazine wrote that theirs was the defining relationship of Letterman's career, with Markoe also acting as his writing partner. She "put the surrealism in Letterman's comedy."

Letterman and Regina Lasko started dating in February 1986, while he was still living with Markoe. Lasko gave birth to their son, Harry Joseph Letterman, on November 3, 2003. Harry is named after Letterman's father. In 2005, police discovered a plot to kidnap Letterman's son and demand a $5 million ransom. Kelly Frank, a house painter who had worked for Letterman, was charged in the conspiracy.

Letterman and Lasko wed on March 19, 2009, in a quiet courthouse civil ceremony in Choteau, Montana, where he had purchased a ranch in 1999. Letterman announced the marriage during the taping of his show of March 23, shortly after congratulating Bruce Willis on his marriage the week before. Letterman told the audience he nearly missed the ceremony because his truck became stuck in mud two miles from their house. The family resides in North Salem, New York, on a 108 acre estate.

Friendship with Foo Fighters
Letterman has had a close relationship with the rock band Foo Fighters since its appearance on his first show upon his return from heart surgery. The band appeared many times on the Late Show, including a week-long stint in October 2014. While introducing the band's performance of "Miracle" on the October 17, 2014, show, Letterman told the story of how a souvenir video of himself and his four-year-old son learning to ski used the song as background music, unbeknownst to Letterman until he saw it. He said: "This is the second song of theirs that will always have great, great meaning for me for the rest of my life". This was the first time the band had heard this story. Worldwide Pants co-produced Dave Grohl's Sonic Highways TV series. "Letterman was the first person to get behind this project", Grohl said.

Extortion attempt and revelation of affairs
On October 1, 2009, Letterman announced on his show that he had been the victim of a blackmail attempt by a person threatening to reveal his sexual relationships with several of his female employees—a fact Letterman immediately thereafter confirmed. He said that someone had left a package in his car with material he said he would write into a screenplay and a book if Letterman did not pay him $2 million. Letterman said that he contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's office and partook in a sting operation that involved the handover of a fake check to the extortionist.

Joe Halderman, a producer of the CBS news magazine television series 48 Hours, was arrested around noon (EST) on October 1, 2009, after trying to deposit the check. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury following testimony from Letterman and pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted grand larceny on October 2, 2009. Halderman pleaded guilty in March 2010 and was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by probation and community service.

A central figure in the case and one of the women with whom Letterman had had a sexual relationship was his longtime personal assistant Stephanie Birkitt, who often appeared on the show. She had also worked for 48 Hours. Until a month before the revelations, she had shared a residence with Halderman, who allegedly had copied her personal diary and used it, along with private emails, in the blackmail package.

In the days following the initial announcement of the affairs and the arrest, several prominent women, including Kathie Lee Gifford, co-host of NBC's Today Show, and NBC news anchor Ann Curry, questioned whether Letterman's affairs with subordinates created an unfair working environment. A spokesman for Worldwide Pants said that the company's sexual harassment policy did not prohibit sexual relationships between managers and employees. According to business news reporter Eve Tahmincioglu, "CBS suppliers are supposed to follow the company's business conduct policies" and the CBS 2008 Business Conduct Statement states that "If a consenting romantic or sexual relationship between a supervisor and a direct or indirect subordinate should develop, CBS requires the supervisor to disclose this information to his or her Company's Human Resources Department".

On October 3, 2009, TMZ reported that a former CBS employee, Holly Hester, had had a yearlong secret affair with Letterman in the early 1990s while she was his intern and a student at New York University. On October 5, 2009, Letterman devoted a segment of his show to a public apology to his wife and staff. Three days later, Worldwide Pants announced that Birkitt had been placed on a "paid leave of absence" from the Late Show.

Stalking incidents
Beginning in May 1988, Letterman was stalked by Margaret Mary Ray, a woman with schizophrenia. She stole his Porsche, camped out on his tennis court, and repeatedly broke into his house. Her exploits drew national attention, with Letterman occasionally joking about her on his show, though he never named her. After she died by suicide at age 46 in October 1998, Letterman told The New York Times that he had great compassion for her. A spokesperson for Letterman said: "This is a sad ending to a confused life."

In 2005, a woman was able to obtain a restraining order from a New Mexico judge, prohibiting Letterman from contacting her. She claimed he had sent her coded messages via his television program, causing her bankruptcy and emotional distress. Law professor Eugene Volokh called the case "patently frivolous".

Interests
Letterman is a car enthusiast and owns an extensive collection. In 2012, it was reported that the collection consisted of ten Ferraris, eight Porsches, four Austin-Healeys, two Honda motorcycles, a Chevy pickup, and one car each from automakers Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, MG, Volvo, Cadillac and Pontiac. He often drives two electric vehicles, a Tesla S and a Mercedes.

In his 2013 appearance on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, part of Jerry Seinfeld's conversation with Letterman was filmed in Letterman's 1995 Volvo 960 station wagon, which is powered by a 380-horsepower racing engine. Paul Newman had the car built for Letterman.

Awards, honors and legacy
David Letterman Communication and Media Building

In 1996, Letterman was ranked 45th on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. In 2002, The Late Show with David Letterman was ranked seventh on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

On September 7, 2007, Letterman visited his alma mater, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, for the dedication of a communications facility named in his honor for his dedication to the university. The $21 million, 75000 sqft David Letterman Communication and Media Building opened for the 2007 fall semester. Thousands of Ball State students, faculty, and local residents welcomed Letterman back to Indiana. Letterman's emotional speech touched on his struggles as a college student and his late father, and also included the "top ten good things about having your name on a building", finishing with "if reasonable people can put my name on a $21 million building, anything is possible." Over many years Letterman "has provided substantial assistance to [Ball State's] Department of Telecommunications, including an annual scholarship that bears his name."

At the same time, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels gave Letterman a Sagamore of the Wabash award, which recognizes distinguished service to the state of Indiana.

Awards and nominations

In his capacities as a performer, producer, or as part of a writing team, Letterman is among the most nominated people in the history of the Emmy Awards, with 52 nominations, winning two Daytime Emmys and ten Primetime Emmys since 1981. He won four American Comedy Awards and in 2011 became the first recipient of the Johnny Carson Award for Comedic Excellence at The Comedy Awards.

Letterman was a recipient of the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors, where he was called "one of the most influential personalities in the history of television, entertaining an entire generation of late-night viewers with his unconventional wit and charm." On May 16, 2017, Letterman was named the next recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the award granted annually by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He received the prize in a ceremony on October 22, 2017.

title: David Letterman


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Delroy Lindo

Delroy George Lindo (born 18 November 1952) is an English-American actor. He is the recipient of such accolades as a NAACP Image Award, a Satellite Award, and nominations for a Drama Desk Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a Tony Award, two Critics' Choice Television Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

He moved with his mother to San Francisco in the United States when he was 16, after they had left London and lived in Canada for a few years. Here he completed his education and entered acting. Lindo has played prominent roles in four Spike Lee films: West Indian Archie in Malcolm X (1992), Woody Carmichael in Crooklyn (1994), Rodney Little in Clockers (1995), and Paul in Da 5 Bloods (2020). He was praised for his performance in Da 5 Bloods as a Vietnam War veteran, winning the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor.

Lindo also played Bo Catlett in Get Shorty (1995), Arthur Rose in The Cider House Rules (1999), and Detective Castlebeck in Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). Lindo starred as Alderman Ronin Gibbons in the TV series The Chicago Code (2011), as Winter on the series Believe (2014), and as Adrian Boseman in The Good Fight (2017–2021).

Early life
Delroy Lindo was born in 1952 in Lewisham, south-east London, the son of Jamaican parents. His mother had immigrated to the UK in 1951 to work as a nurse, and his father worked in various jobs. Lindo grew up in nearby Eltham and attended Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys. He became interested in acting as a child when he appeared in a nativity play at school.

When he was a teenager, Lindo moved with his mother to Toronto, Ontario. When he was 16, they moved to San Francisco. At the age of 24, Lindo began his studies in acting at the American Conservatory Theater, graduating in 1979.

Career
Lindo made his film debut in 1976 with the Canadian John Candy comedy Find the Lady. He played an army sergeant in More American Graffiti (1979).

For a decade from the early 1980s, Lindo's career was more focused on theatre acting than film, although he has said this was not a conscious decision. In 1982 he debuted on Broadway in "Master Harold"...and the Boys, directed by the play's South African author Athol Fugard. By 1988, Lindo had earned a Tony nomination for his portrayal of Herald Loomis in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

Lindo returned to film in the science fiction film Salute of the Jugger (1990), which has become a cult classic. Although he had turned down Spike Lee for a role in Do the Right Thing, Lee cast him as Woody Carmichael in the drama Crooklyn (1994), which brought Lindo notice. His other roles with Lee include West Indian Archie, a psychotic gangster, in Malcolm X, and a starring role as a neighborhood drug dealer in Clockers.

Other films in which he has starring roles are Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty (1995), Ron Howard's Ransom (1996), and Soul of the Game (1996), as the baseball player Satchel Paige.

In 1998 Lindo co-starred as African-American explorer Matthew Henson, in the TV film Glory & Honor, directed by Kevin Hooks. It portrayed Henson's nearly 20-year partnership with Commander Robert Peary in Arctic exploration, and their effort to find the Geographic North Pole in 1909. Lindo received a Satellite Award for best actor for his portrayal of Henson. Lindo has continued to work in television, and in 2006 was seen on the short-lived NBC drama Kidnapped.

Lindo had a small role in the 1995 film Congo, playing the corrupt Captain Wanta. Lindo was not credited for the role. He played an angel in the comedy film A Life Less Ordinary (1997).

He guest-starred on The Simpsons in the episode "Brawl in the Family", playing a character named Gabriel.

In the British film Wondrous Oblivion (2003), directed by Paul Morrison, Lindo starred as Dennis Samuels, the father of a Jamaican immigrant family in London in the 1950s. Lindo said he made the film in honor of his parents, who had similarly moved to London in those years.

In 2007, Lindo began an association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California, when he directed Tanya Barfield's play The Blue Door. In the autumn of 2008, Lindo revisited August Wilson's play Joe Turner's Come and Gone, directing a production at the Berkeley Rep. In 2010, he played the role of elderly seer Bynum in David Lan's production of Joe Turner at the Young Vic Theatre in London.

Lindo was in the main cast of the Fox crime drama The Chicago Code (2011), the NBC fantasy series Believe, and the ABC soap Blood & Oil (2015). In 2017, Lindo began playing Adrian Boseman in the CBS legal drama The Good Fight, a role he would star in for the series' first four seasons and reprise as a guest star in its fifth season. Lindo was cast as the lead in an ABC drama pilot Harlem's Kitchen in March 2020.

In 2015, Lindo was expected to play Marcus Garvey in a biopic of the black nationalist historical figure that had been in pre-production for several years. Lindo appeared in the action film Point Break (2015), the horror film Malicious (2018), the drama Battlecreek, Da 5 Bloods (2020), another collaboration with Spike Lee, and The Harder They Fall (2021) as Bass Reeves.

For his role in Da 5 Bloods, Lindo received critical acclaim and a number of accolades.

Entertainment Weekly said of Hulu's comedy series Unprisoned (2023), "Delroy Lindo is so good it should be illegal."

Upcoming
It was announced in July 2021 that Lindo would star as Mr Nancy in the British Amazon Prime miniseries adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys alongside Malachi Kirby. In November, Lindo officially joined the cast of the upcoming Marvel Studios film Blade in an undisclosed role.

As of 2020, Lindo was developing a screenplay for his directorial debut about the Windrush generation.

Personal life
Lindo married his wife Nashormeh in 1990. They settled in Oakland, California, in 1996, having moved from New York City and preferring the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles. Their son Damiri was born in 2001.

Lindo is a football fan and supports Manchester United.

Upon learning more about the Windrush generation, both through his mother's account and his own role as a Jamaican immigrant in Wondrous Oblivion, Lindo became inspired to study the subject and history further. In 2014, he completed a master's thesis from New York University's Gallatin School.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate in Arts and Humanities from Virginia Union University.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Delroy Lindo


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Talk:Drug Mix

I don't know, which is why I'm asking: is "drug mix" the common term for this sort of thing? Why is there an article about it? (It isn't entirely clear from the article itself why there's an article about it, although it's quite possible I'm just being dense.) By the way, the article should be located at drug mix, if that's the proper term. Also, it's better to have full prose paragraphs, with sentences, rather than an outline like this (unless you think the outline actually serves some particularly useful format--but in that case, I imagine a table would be better). --LMS

Isnt it a blatant drug dealing advocacy ?

Should 'Taurin' be 'Taurine' here? -- The Anome

There is no proof that Taurine used together with alcohol may be lethal

title: Talk:Drug Mix


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David Janssen

David Janssen (born David Harold Meyer; March 27, 1931 – February 13, 1980) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963–1967). Janssen also had the title roles in three other series: Richard Diamond, Private Detective; O'Hara, U.S. Treasury; and Harry O.

In 1996 TV Guide ranked him number 36 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list.

Early life
David Janssen was born on March 27, 1931, in Naponee, a village in Franklin County in southern Nebraska, to Harold Edward Meyer, a banker, and Berniece Graf, a former Miss Nebraska and Ziegfeld girl. Following his parents' divorce in 1935, his mother moved with five-year-old David to Los Angeles, and married Eugene Janssen in 1940. David used his stepfather's name after he entered showbusiness as a child.

He attended Fairfax High School, where he excelled on the basketball court, setting a school scoring record that lasted over 20 years. His first film part was at the age of thirteen, and by the age of twenty-five he had appeared in twenty films and served two years as an enlisted man in the United States Army. During his Army days, Janssen became a friend of fellow enlistees Martin Milner and Clint Eastwood while posted at Fort Ord, California.

Acting career
Janssen starred in four television series of his own:
 * Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957–1960)
 * The Fugitive (1963–1967)
 * O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971–1972)
 * Harry O (1974–1976)

At the time of its airing in August 1967, the final episode of The Fugitive held the record for the greatest number of American homes to watch a series finale – 72 percent. In 1996 TV Guide ranked The Fugitive number 36 on its 50 Greatest Shows of All Time list.

His films include: To Hell and Back, the biography of Audie Murphy, who was the most decorated American soldier of World War II; Hell to Eternity, a 1960 American World War II biopic starring Jeffrey Hunter as a Hispanic boy who fought in the Battle of Saipan and who was raised by Japanese-American foster parents; John Wayne's Vietnam war film The Green Berets; opposite Gregory Peck, in the space story Marooned, in which Janssen played an astronaut sent to rescue three stranded men in space; and The Shoes of the Fisherman, as a television journalist in Rome reporting on the election of a new Pope (Anthony Quinn).

He also played pilot Harry Walker in the 1973 action movie Birds of Prey. He starred as a Los Angeles police detective trying to clear himself in the killing of an apparently innocent doctor in the 1967 film Warning Shot, which was shot during a break in the spring and summer of 1966 between the third and fourth seasons of The Fugitive.

Janssen played an alcoholic in the 1977 TV movie A Sensitive, Passionate Man, which co-starred Angie Dickinson, and played an engineer who devises an unbeatable system for blackjack in the 1978 made-for-TV movie Nowhere to Run, co-starring Stefanie Powers and Linda Evans. Janssen's impressively husky voice was used to good effect as the narrator for the TV mini-series Centennial (1978–79); he also appeared in the final episode. And in 1979 he starred in the made-for-TV mini series S.O.S. Titanic as John Jacob Astor, playing opposite Beverly Ross as his wife, Madeleine.

Though Janssen's scenes were cut from the final release, he also appeared as a journalist in the film Inchon, which he accepted to work with Laurence Olivier, who played General Douglas MacArthur. At the time of his death, Janssen had just begun filming a television movie playing the part of Father Damien, the priest who dedicated himself to the leper colony on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. The part was eventually reassigned to actor Ken Howard of the CBS series The White Shadow.

Personal life
Janssen was married twice. His first marriage was to model and interior decorator Ellie Graham, whom he married in Las Vegas on August 25, 1958. They divorced in 1968. In 1975, he married actress and model Dani Crayne Greco. They remained married until Janssen's death.

Death
Janssen was a heavy drinker, and a chain smoker who smoked up to four packs of cigarettes a day. He died from a sudden heart attack in the early morning of February 13, 1980, at his beachfront home in Malibu, California, at the age of 48. At the time of his death, Janssen was filming the television movie Father Damien. Janssen was buried at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. A non-denominational funeral was held at the Jewish chapel of the cemetery on February 17. Suzanne Pleshette delivered the eulogy at the request of Janssen's widow. Milton Berle, Johnny Carson, Tommy Gallagher, Richard Harris, Stan Herman, Rod Stewart and Gregory Peck were among Janssen's pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers included Jack Lemmon, George Peppard, James Stewart and Danny Thomas.

For his contribution to the television industry, David Janssen has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located on the 7700 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

Selected filmography

 * It's a Pleasure (1945) as Davey / boy referee (uncredited)
 * Swamp Fire (1946) as Emile's Eldest Son (uncredited)
 * No Room for the Groom (1952) as Soldier (scenes deleted)
 * Francis Goes to West Point (1952) as Cpl. Thomas
 * Untamed Frontier (1952) as Lottie's Dance Partner (uncredited)
 * Bonzo Goes to College (1952) as Jack (uncredited)
 * Yankee Buccaneer (1952) as Beckett
 * Back at the Front (1952) as Soldier (uncredited)
 * Leave It to Harry (1954) as Quiz Show Host (short subject)
 * Chief Crazy Horse (1955) as Lt. Colin Cartwright
 * Cult of the Cobra (1955) as Rico Nardi
 * Francis in the Navy (1955) as Lt. Anders
 * The Private War of Major Benson (1955) as Young Lieutenant
 * To Hell and Back (1955) as Lieutenant Lee
 * All That Heaven Allows (1955) as Freddie Norton (uncredited)
 * The Square Jungle (1955) as Jack Lindsay
 * Never Say Goodbye (1956) as Dave Heller
 * The Toy Tiger (1956) as Larry Tripps
 * Francis in the Haunted House (1956) as Police Lieutenant Hopkins
 * Away All Boats (1956) as Talker (uncredited)
 * Mr. Black Magic (1956) as Master of Ceremonies (short subject)
 * Showdown at Abilene (1956) as Verne Ward
 * The Girl He Left Behind (1956) as Capt. Genaro
 * Lafayette Escadrille (1958) as Duke Sinclair
 * Hell to Eternity (1960) as Sgt. Bill Hazen
 * Dondi (1961) as Dealey
 * King of the Roaring 20s – The Story of Arnold Rothstein (1961) as Arnold Rothstein
 * Ring of Fire (1961) as Sergeant Steve Walsh
 * Twenty Plus Two (1961) as Tom Alder
 * Man-Trap (1961) as Vince Biskay
 * My Six Loves (1963) as Marty Bliss
 * Warning Shot (1967) as Sgt. Tom Valens
 * The Green Berets (1968) as George Beckworth
 * The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) as George Faber
 * Where It's At (1969) as A.C.
 * Marooned (1969) as Ted Dougherty
 * Generation (1969) as Jim Bolton
 * Macho Callahan (1970) as Diego Callahan
 * Once Is Not Enough (1975) as Tom Colt
 * The Swiss Conspiracy (1976) as David Christopher
 * Two-Minute Warning (1976) as Steve
 * Warhead (1977) as Tony Stevens
 * Golden Rendezvous (1977) as Charles Conway
 * Covert Action (1978) as Lester Horton
 * Inchon (1981) as David Feld (scenes deleted after premiere; final film role; filmed in 1979; released posthumously)

Television films

 * Belle Sommers (1962) as Danny Castle
 * Night Chase (1970) as Adrian Vico
 * The Longest Night (1972) as Alan Chambers
 * Moon of the Wolf (1972) as Sheriff Aaron Whitaker
 * Hijack (1973) as Jake Wilkenson
 * Birds of Prey (1973) as Harry Walker
 * Harry O – Such Dust As Dreams Are Made On (1973) as Harry Orwell
 * Pioneer Woman (1973) as Robert Douglas
 * Harry O – Smile Jenny, You're Dead (1974) as Harry Orwell
 * Don't Call the Police (1974) as Harry Orwell
 * Fer-de-Lance (1974) as Russ Bogan
 * Stalk the Wild Child (1976) as Dr. James Hazard
 * Mayday at 40,000 Feet! (1976) as Captain Pete Douglass
 * A Sensitive, Passionate Man (1977) as Michael Delaney
 * Superdome (1978) as Mike Shelley
 * Nowhere to Run (1978) as Harry Adams
 * S.O.S. Titanic (1979) as John Jacob Astor
 * The Golden Gate Murders (1979) as Det. Sgt. Paul Silver
 * High Ice (1980) as Glencoe MacDonald
 * City in Fear (1980) as Vince Perrino (released posthumously)
 * Father Damien: The Leper Priest – 1980 (Incomplete – Replaced by Ken Howard)

Television series

 * Boston Blackie (1 episode, 1951) as Armored Car Driver (uncredited)
 * Lux Video Theatre (3 episodes, 1955–1956) as Johnny Reynolds Jr. / Joe Davies / Ralph
 * Matinee Theatre (1 episode, 1956) as Paul Merrick
 * Sheriff of Cochise (1 episode, 1956) as Arnie Hix
 * Conflict (1 episode, 1957) as Sid Lukes
 * You Are There (1 episode, 1957) as Great Dalton
 * U.S. Marshal (1 episode )
 * Alcoa Theatre (2 episodes, 1957–1958) as Jim McCandless / Mike Harper
 * The Millionaire (2 episodes, 1957–1958) as David Barrett / Peter Miller
 * Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre (4 episodes, 1957–1959) as Dix Porter / Seth Larker / Tod Owen / Danny Ensign
 * Richard Diamond, Private Detective (77 episodes, 1957–1960) as Richard Diamond / Chuck Garrett
 * Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1 episode, 1959) as Ross Ingraham
 * Death Valley Days (1 episode, 1961) as Dr. Bill Breckenridge
 * Adventures in Paradise (1 episode, 1961) as Scotty Bell
 * Thriller (1 episode, 1962)
 * Target: The Corruptors (1 episode, 1962) as Robbie Wilson
 * General Electric Theater (1 episode, 1962) as Pat Howard
 * Follow the Sun (2 episodes, 1962) as Johnny Sadowsky
 * Checkmate (1 episode, 1962) as Len Kobalsky
 * Cain's Hundred (1 episode, 1962) as Dan Mullin
 * Kraft Mystery Theatre (1 episode, 1962)
 * Route 66 (1 episode, 1962) as Karno Starling
 * The Eleventh Hour (1 episode, 1962) as Hal Kincaid
 * The Dick Powell Show (1 episode, 1963) as Kenneth 'Ken' Morgan
 * Naked City (2 episodes, 1961–1963) as Carl Ashland / Blair Cameron
 * The Fugitive (120 episodes, 1963–1967) as Dr. Richard Kimble / varied aliases
 * The Hollywood Palace (1 episode, 1965)
 * O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (22 episodes, 1971–1972) as Jim O'Hara / James O'Hara
 * Cannon (1 episode, 1973) as Ian Kirk
 * Harry O (44 episodes, 1973–1976) as Harry Orwell
 * Police Story (1 episode, 1977) as Sgt. Joe Wilson
 * The Word (miniseries, all episodes, 1978) as Steve Randall
 * Centennial (1 episode, 1979, and narrator for all 12 episodes, 1978–1979) as Paul Garrett / Narrator
 * Biography (1979) as Host

title: David Janssen


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Docetism

In the history of Christianity, docetism (from the dokeĩn "to seem", dókēsis "apparition, phantom"  ) was the doctrine that the phenomenon of Jesus, his historical and bodily existence, and above all the human form of Jesus, was mere semblance without any true reality. Broadly it is taken as the belief that Jesus only seemed to be human, and that his human form was an illusion.

The word Δοκηταί Dokētaí ("Illusionists") referring to early groups who denied Jesus's humanity, first occurred in a letter by Bishop Serapion of Antioch (197–203), who discovered the doctrine in the Gospel of Peter, during a pastoral visit to a Christian community using it in Rhosus, and later condemned it as a forgery. It appears to have arisen over theological contentions concerning the meaning, figurative or literal, of a sentence from the Gospel of John: "the Word was made Flesh".

Docetism was unequivocally rejected at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and is regarded as heretical by the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Armenian Apostolic Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and many Protestant denominations that accept and hold to the statements of these early church councils, such as Reformed Baptists, Reformed Christians, and all Trinitarian Christians.

Definitions
Docetism is broadly defined as the heretical teaching that claims that Jesus' body was either absent or illusory. The term 'docetic' is rather nebulous. Two varieties were widely known. In one version, as in Marcionism, Christ was so divine that he could not have been human, since God lacked a material body, which therefore could not physically suffer. Jesus only appeared to be a flesh-and-blood man; his body was a phantasm. Other groups who were accused of docetism held that Jesus was a man in the flesh, but Christ was a separate entity who entered Jesus' body in the form of a dove at his baptism, empowered him to perform miracles, and abandoned him upon his death on the cross.

Christology and theological implications
Docetism's origin within Christianity is obscure. Ernst Käsemann controversially defined the Christology of the Gospel of John as "naïve docetism" in 1968. The ensuing debate reached an impasse as awareness grew that the very term "docetism", like "gnosticism", was difficult to define within the religio-historical framework of the debate. It has occasionally been argued that its origins were in heterodox Judaism or Oriental and Grecian philosophies. The alleged connection with Jewish Christianity would have reflected Jewish Christian concerns with the inviolability of (Jewish) monotheism. Docetic opinions seem to have circulated from very early times, 1 John 4:2 appearing explicitly to reject them. Some 1stcentury Christian groups developed docetic interpretations partly as a way to make Christian teachings more acceptable to non-Christian ways of thinking about divinity.

In his critique of the theology of Clement of Alexandria, Photius in his Myriobiblon held that Clement's views reflected a quasi-docetic view of the nature of Christ, writing that "[Clement] hallucinates that the Word was not incarnate but only seems to be." (ὀνειροπολεῖ καὶ μὴ σαρκωθῆναι τὸν λόγον ἀλλὰ δόξαι.) In Clement's time, some disputes contended over whether Christ assumed the "psychic" flesh of mankind as heirs to Adam, or the "spiritual" flesh of the resurrection. Docetism largely died out during the first millennium AD.

The opponents against whom Ignatius of Antioch inveighs are often taken to be Monophysite docetists. In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, 7:1, written around 110AD, he writes: "They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes." While these characteristics fit a Monophysite framework, a slight majority of scholars consider that Ignatius was waging a polemic on two distinct fronts, one Jewish, the other docetic; a minority holds that he was concerned with a group that commingled Judaism and docetism. Others, however, doubt that there was actual docetism threatening the churches, arguing that he was merely criticizing Christians who lived Jewishly or that his critical remarks were directed at an Ebionite or Cerinthian possessionist Christology, according to which Christ was a heavenly spirit that temporarily possessed Jesus.

Islam and docetism
Some commentators have attempted to make a connection between Islam and docetism using the following Quranic verse:

"And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah's messenger — they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain. But Allah took him up unto Himself. Allah was ever Mighty, Wise."

Some scholars theorise that Islam was influenced by Manichaeism (Docetism) in this view. However, the general consensus is that Manichaeism was not prevalent in Mecca in the 6th and 7th centuries, when Islam developed, and the influence can therefore not be proven.

Docetism and Christ myth theory
Since Arthur Drews published his The Christ Myth (Die Christusmythe) in 1909, occasional connections have been drawn between docetist theories and the modern idea that Christ was a myth. Shailer Mathews called Drews' theory a "modern docetism". Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare thought any connection to be based on a misunderstanding of docetism. The idea recurred in classicist Michael Grant's 1977 review of the evidence for Jesus, who compared modern scepticism about a historical Jesus to the ancient docetic idea that Jesus only seemed to come into the world "in the flesh". Modern supporters of the theory did away with "seeming".

Non-canonical Christian texts

 * Acts of John
 * Fundamental Epistle: In Against the Fundamental Epistle, Augustine of Hippo makes reference to Manichaeans believing that Jesus was docetic.
 * Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter
 * Gospel of Basilides
 * Gospel of Judas
 * Gospel of Peter
 * Gospel of Philip
 * Second Treatise of the Great Seth

title: Docetism


text:
Drachma

Drachma may refer to:

 * Ancient drachma, an ancient Greek currency
 * Modern drachma, a modern Greek currency
 * Cretan drachma, currency of the Cretan State
 * Drachma (moth), a moth genus

title: Drachma


text:
Talk:Drachma

Untitled
The author of the article mentions a 2000-drachmae bill at the time of the euro's introduction, which is patently incorrect, as you can see in the Bank of Greece link he provides. I assume this must have been a simple error on his part, so I edited it out.

I know that the article implies it, but shouldn't it be mentioned that Rome used Drachma too?

As for comparative values, perhaps a mention of a drachma's approximate value as a collector's item would be useful.

collector costs would - though then we get into state of the piece of money. The usual Roman coin was the denarius, though. Polybius is using drachmae to talk about Roman soldiers because he's writing in Greek for a Greek audience. aureus (gold), denarius (silver), sestertius (silver), and then I forget. I think the little money was called a quadrans (copper). --MichaelTinkler

---

What about the abbreviation, ₯?--Sonjaaa 05:02, Aug 18, 2004 (UTC)

Under Modern Drachma it states: "The drachma was subdivided into 100 lepton (λεπτά, singular lepton, λεπτόν)". Since this isn't my area, i will ask here, rather than edit the page, if the correct plural ("lepta") has been avoided for the sake of clarity. If the desire is to link directly to "lepton" then perhaps the link should be on the singular that follows in the bracket: "The drachma was subdivided into 100 lepta (λεπτά, singular lepton, λεπτόν)". Eco ant (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:25, 12 August 2009 (UTC).

I'm not really used to the talk pages, and I don't edit much so I'm not sure how to make this look right, but I feel like "Greek King Otto" implies that he was Greek rather than just the ruler of Greece. Would it be worthwhile to clarify? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Darthmenisis (talk • contribs) 06:49, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

Lepta image
The image : Lepta-coins.jpg (bottom right) should be changed as it contains also the greek 20 cents Euro coin !!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

 * I changed the caption to reflect that. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 07:26, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Split?
It seems to me that the ancient currency and the modern currencies are fundamentally different and deserve their own articles. With the ancient content at "Ancient Greek drachma" and modern content here. Does anyone object? Ingrid 20:57, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I should add that drachma currently redirects here. It could easily be made into a Disambig page containing the current introduction. Ingrid 20:58, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

 * This is parallel to Shekel v.s. Israeli new sheqel. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 22:40, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

 * Yeah, I agree on the split. But if these are the only drachmas, we should be able to use a see also such as on the shekel page.   Jo  e  I  04:44, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

 * Yes. I was thinking of 2 articles plus a dab page, but following the shekel pattern makes more sense. Ingrid 05:01, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

 * I'm for a split, but I would like to point out that the ancient article would ideally be split into Athenian drachma, Spartan drachma, etc. I guess we'll have to wait for an ancient numismatist to come along and write those articles, but if anyone feels they know enough to have a go, I'd be very interested to see the results. Dove1950 15:54, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

 * I love ancient coins, but am curently doing the coins of India article, the split is neccesarry as there is a difference in the two identified Drachmae. I think the regional differences between the city states isnt the great to concern ourselves with now. Enlil Ninlil 02:52, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Should I go ahead with the split? Blex areton (talk) 09:42, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

 * Although the proposal seems sensible, it is a bad tactic to follow up on a discussion from five years ago without another round of consultation, as consensus changes. Best begin a new discussion at the bottom of this page, and go over at WP:GREECE, WP:CGR, WP:NUMIS and ask around for people to come and share their opinions. Constantine  ✍  14:32, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

 * Wait - there might be a new new drachma around the corner...137.205.183.70 (talk) 13:46, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

1944 hyperinflation
I have corrected the text on the 100 billion note of 1944 because this is actually 100 million million. Also the conversion (nov 1944) mentioned in the subsequent paragraph may need revising! Heraldica (talk) 14:52, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

"Value of, Drakma of Antiquity" It states that it is difficult to compare the value of the coins over time. Yet, rationally, as the entire country is STILL a forest of olive-groves, and still sells wine by the glass. Then we have: 1 litre of olive oil in 3,400 BCE = X drakma 1 litre of olive oil the day -before- Euro introduction = X drakma We have unbroken amphorae from back then, so we know their volume of storage, use that if it is too "passe" useing the modern day metric standard of litre. proof equation: i glass of wine = ~1/6 wine bottle (3 glasses each for 2 people) = 'w' Drackma the day before Euro introcution Prove 'w' is the cost of a cup of wine in 3,400 BCE, using deductive logic only. Plot a line on an X-Y graph of time over value. 76.90.226.70 (talk) 23:37, 27 January 2011 (UTC) 20100-01-27 T15:36 Z-8

File:1000 drachma.jpg Nominated for Deletion
Remove Banknote gallery since banknote images are not allowed, and have already been deleted? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Scratchmarc (talk • contribs) 13:11, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

''Coins in denominations from 50 lepta to 20 drachmae carried a portrait of King Paul (reigned 1947–1964). New coins were introduced in 1966, ranging from 50 lepta to 10 drachmae, depicting King Constantine II (reigned 1964–1974).'' - something about this isn't very clear...did the coins 'reign' in this time period? I'm going to remove the word reigned now and leave someone else to make sense of it later. Goblins77 (talk) 03:12, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Drakmai : Talentai Ratio
"Six thousand drakma to the talent; one talent is equal to nine years worth of work." Except, 365 x 9 = 3,285. Even without a single day off for vacation, weekends, religious observance, sick days, invasion, etc, they are still seemingly making more than (ancient)GRD1.00/day. Any evidential support on how many work days in one year/month/week, and (yes I know about the variable hours via sundial, problem) roughly how many hours a day, including how much time off for lunch? The numbers don't add up; "one obol will get you into the gym", or "a chonix with chous of wine", "two is a prostitutes fee", and 3 will be jury daily pay which will "feed one person for 16 days, or a family of four for 4". Considering a drakma has six obols in it, and that one drakma was essentially minimum wage (using state mandated Parthenon builders pay per day regardless of Citizen/slave/metic status), and their homes were on average 291 square meters, and making ~2 drakma a day (@6k/9 years of work), they were fraking rich compared to us today! ... Or does the math regarding ancient Greek economy need to be as "OCD fine", as it is with all the Roman crap? 71.165.247.91 (talk) 23:56, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Drachma


text:
Denarius

The denarius (: dēnāriī, ) was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War c. 211 BC to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very small quantities, likely for ceremonial purposes, until and through the Tetrarchy (293–313).

The word dēnārius is derived from the Latin dēnī "containing ten", as its value was originally of 10 assēs. The word for "money" descends from it in Italian (denaro), Slovene (denar), Portuguese (dinheiro), and Spanish (dinero). Its name also survives in the dinar currency.

Its symbol is represented in Unicode as 𐆖 (U+10196), a numeral monogram that appeared on the obverse in the Republican period, denoting the 10 asses ("X") to 1 denarius ("I") conversion rate. However it can also be represented as X̶ (capital letter X with combining long stroke overlay).

History
A predecessor of the denarius was first struck in 269 or 268 BC, five years before the First Punic War, with an average weight of 6.81 grams, or $1/48$ of a Roman pound. Contact with the Greeks had prompted a need for silver coinage in addition to the bronze currency that the Romans were using at that time. This predecessor of the denarius was a Greek-styled silver coin of didrachm weight, which was struck in Neapolis and other Greek cities in southern Italy. These coins were inscribed with a legend that indicated that they were struck for Rome, but in style they closely resembled their Greek counterparts. They were rarely seen at Rome, to judge from finds and hoards, and were probably used either to buy supplies or to pay soldiers.

The first distinctively Roman silver coin appeared around 226 BC. Classical historians have sometimes called these coins "heavy denarii", but they are classified by modern numismatists as quadrigati, a term which survives in one or two ancient texts and is derived from the quadriga, or four-horse chariot, on the reverse. This, with a two-horse chariot or biga which was used as a reverse type for some early denarii, was the prototype for the most common designs used on Roman silver coins for a number of years.

Rome overhauled its coinage shortly before 211 BC, and introduced the denarius alongside a short-lived denomination called the victoriatus. The denarius contained an average 4.5 grams, or $1/72$ of a Roman pound, of silver, and was at first tariffed at ten asses, hence its name, which means 'tenner'. It formed the backbone of Roman currency throughout the Roman Republic and the early Empire.

The denarius began to undergo slow debasement toward the end of the republican period. Under the rule of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD) its weight fell to 3.9 grams (a theoretical weight of $1/84$ of a Roman pound). It remained at nearly this weight until the time of Nero (AD 37–68), when it was reduced to $1/96$ of a pound, or 3.4 grams. Debasement of the coin's silver content continued after Nero. Later Roman emperors also reduced its weight to 3 grams around the late 3rd century.

The value at its introduction was 10 asses, giving the denarius its name, which translates as "containing ten". In about 141 BC, it was re-tariffed at 16 asses, to reflect the decrease in weight of the as. The denarius continued to be the main coin of the Roman Empire until it was replaced by the antoninianus in the early 3rd century AD. The coin was last issued, in bronze, under Aurelian between 270 and 275 AD, and in the first years of the reign of Diocletian.

Value, comparisons and silver content

1 gold aureus = 2 gold quinarii = 25 silver denarii = 50 silver quinarii = 100 bronze sestertii = 200 bronze dupondii = 400 copper asses = 800 copper semisses = 1,600 copper quadrantes

It is difficult to give even rough comparative values for money from before the 20th century, as the range of products and services available for purchase was so different. During the republic (509 BC – 27 BC), a legionary earned 112.5 denarii per year (0.3 denarii per day). Under Julius Caesar, this was doubled to 225 denarii/yr, with soldiers having to pay for their own food and arms, while in the reign of Augustus a Centurion received at least 3,750 denarii per year, and for the highest rank, 15,000 denarii.

By the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire (c. 27 BC), a common soldier or unskilled laborer would be paid 1 denarius/day (with no tax deductions), around 300% inflation compared to the early period. Using the cost of bread as a baseline, this pay equates to around US$20 in 2013 terms. Expressed in terms of the price of silver, and assuming 0.999 purity, a $1/48$ troy ounce denarius had a precious metal value of around US$2.60 in 2021.

At the height of the Roman Empire a sextarius (546 ml or about 2$1/72$ American cups) of ordinary wine cost roughly one dupondius ($1/84$ of a denarius); after Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices was issued in 301 AD, the same item cost 8 debased common denarii – 6300% inflation.

Silver content plummeted across the lifespan of the denarius. Under the Roman Empire (after Nero) the denarius contained approximately 50 grains, 3.24 grams, or 0.105 ozt (about $1/84$ troy ounce). The fineness of the silver content varied with political and economic circumstances. From a purity of greater than 90% silver in the 1st century AD, the denarius fell to under 60% purity by 200 AD, and plummeted to 5% purity by 300 AD. By the reign of Gallienus, the antoninianus was a copper coin with a thin silver wash.

Influence
In the final years of the 1st century BC Tincomarus, a local ruler in southern Britain, started issuing coins that appear to have been made from melted down denarii. The coins of Eppillus, issued around Calleva Atrebatum around the same time, appear to have derived design elements from various denarii, such as those of Augustus and M. Volteius.

Even after the denarius was no longer regularly issued, it continued to be used as a unit of account, and the name was applied to later Roman coins in a way that is not understood. The Arabs who conquered large parts of the land that once belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire issued their own gold dinar. The lasting legacy of the denarius can be seen in the use of "d" as the abbreviation for the British penny until 1971. It also survived in France as the name of a coin, the denier. The denarius also survives in the common Arabic name for a currency unit, the dinar used from pre-Islamic times, and still used in several modern Arab nations. The major currency unit in former Principality of Serbia, Kingdom of Serbia and former Yugoslavia was dinar, and it is still used in present-day Serbia. The Macedonian currency denar is also derived from the Roman denarius. The Italian word denaro, the Spanish word dinero, the Portuguese word dinheiro, and the Slovene word denar, all meaning money, are also derived from Latin denarius. The pre-decimal currency of the United Kingdom until 1970 of pounds, shillings and pence was abbreviated as lsd, with "d" referring to denarius and standing for penny.

Use in the Bible
In the New Testament, the gospels refer to the denarius as a day's wage for a common laborer (Matthew 20:2, John 12:5). In the Book of Revelation, during the Third Seal: Black Horse, a choinix ("quart") of wheat and three quarts of barley were each valued at one denarius. Bible scholar Robert H. Mounce says the price of the wheat and barley as described in the vision appears to be ten to twelve times their normal cost in ancient times. Revelation thus describes a condition where basic goods are sold at greatly inflated prices. Thus, the black horse rider depicts times of deep scarcity or famine, but not of starvation. Apparently, a choinix of wheat was the daily ration of one adult. Thus, in the conditions pictured by Revelation 6, the normal income for a working-class family would buy enough food for only one person. The less costly barley would feed three people for one day's wages.

The denarius is also mentioned in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant & in Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37). The Render unto Caesar passage in Matthew 22:15–22 and Mark 12:13–17 uses the word (δηνάριον) to describe the coin held up by Jesus, translated in the King James Bible as "tribute penny". It is commonly thought to be a denarius with the head of Tiberius.

title: Denarius


text:
Della Rovere

The House of Della Rovere (literally "of the oak tree") was a powerful Italian noble family. It had humble origins in Savona, in Liguria, and acquired power and influence through nepotism and ambitious marriages arranged by two Della Rovere popes: Francesco Della Rovere, who ruled as Sixtus IV from 1471 to 1484 and his nephew Giuliano, who became Julius II in 1503. Sixtus IV built the Sistine Chapel, which was named after him. Julius II was patron to Michelangelo, Raphael and many other Renaissance artists and started the modern rebuilt of St. Peter's Basilica. Also the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome was the family church of the Della Rovere. Members of the family were influential in the Church of Rome, and as dukes of Urbino, dukes of Sora and lords of Senigallia; the title of Urbino was extinguished with the death of Francesco Maria II in 1631, and the family died out with the death of his granddaughter Vittoria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany.

History
Francesco Della Rovere was born into a poor family in Liguria in north-west Italy in 1414, the son of Leonardo della Rovere of Savona. A Franciscan who became Minister General of his order, then cardinal, he had a reptation for unworldliness until he was elected pope in 1471. As Sixtus IV he was both wealthy and powerful, and at once set about giving power and wealth to his nephews of the Della Rovere and Riario families. Within months of his election, he had made Giuliano della Rovere (the future pope Julius II) and Pietro Riario both cardinals and bishops; four other nephews were also made cardinals. He made Giovanni Della Rovere, who was not a priest, prefect of Rome, and arranged for him to marry into the da Montefeltro family, dukes of Urbino. Sixtus claimed descent from a noble Della Rovere family, the counts of Vinovo in Piemonte, and adopted their coat-of-arms.

Guidobaldo da Montefeltro adopted Francesco Maria I della Rovere, his sister's child and nephew of Pope Julius II. Guidobaldo I, who was heirless, called Francesco Maria at his court, and named him as heir of the Duchy of Urbino in 1504, this through the intercession of Julius II. In 1508, Francesco Maria inherited the duchy thereby starting the line of Rovere Dukes of Urbino. That dynasty ended in 1626 when Pope Urban VIII incorporated Urbino into the papal dominions. As compensation to the last sovereign duke, the title only could be continued by Francesco Maria II, and after his death by his heir, Federico Ubaldo.

Vittoria, last descendant of the della Rovere family (she was the only child of Federico Ubaldo), married Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. They had two children: Cosimo III, Tuscany's longest reigning monarch, and Francesco Maria de' Medici, a prince of the Church.

Della Rovere Dukes of Urbino (1508)

 * 1) Francesco Maria I della Rovere (1490–1538)
 * 2) Guidobaldo II della Rovere (1514–1574)
 * 3) Francesco Maria II della Rovere (1549–1631) - duchy abolished, title continued
 * 4) Federico Ubaldo della Rovere (1605–1623) - title became extinct with his death.

Other people with the same surname
Among the many people who did not belong to this family, but bore the same name, are: and various artists, including:
 * the Della Rovere family, counts of Vinovo, among them:
 * Domenico della Rovere of Vinovo, cardinal, who built the Castello Della Rovere (Vinovo) there
 * his brother Cristoforo della Rovere of Vinovo
 * the brothers Giovan Battista Della Rovere and Giovan Mauro Della Rovere, both known as "il Fiamminghino"
 * an unrelated Lombard family of painters and illuminators active in the seventeenth century.

title: Della Rovere