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Augustus John

Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sargent and Charles Wellington Furse "... was over. The age of Augustus John was dawning." He was the younger brother of the painter Gwen John.

Early life
Born in Tenby, at 11, 12 or 13 The Esplanade, now known as The Belgrave Hotel, Pembrokeshire, John was the younger son and third of four children. His father was Edwin William John, a Welsh solicitor; his mother, Augusta Smith (1848–1884), from a long line of Sussex master plumbers, died when he was six, but not before inculcating a love of drawing in both Augustus and his older sister Gwen. At the age of seventeen he briefly attended the Tenby School of Art, then left Wales for London, studying at the Slade School of Art, University College London. He became the star pupil of drawing teacher Henry Tonks and even before his graduation he was considered the most talented draughtsman of his generation. His sister, Gwen was with him at the Slade and became an important artist in her own right. In the 1890s, John lodged in studios at Tite Street, Chelsea.

In 1897, John hit submerged rocks diving into the sea at Tenby, suffering a serious head injury; the lengthy convalescence that followed seems to have stimulated his adventurous spirit and accelerated his artistic growth. In 1898, he won the Slade Prize with Moses and the Brazen Serpent. John afterward studied independently in Paris where he seems to have been influenced by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. The need to support Ida Nettleship (1877–1907), whom he married in 1901, led him to accept a post teaching art at the University of Liverpool.

North Wales
Over a period of two years from around 1910 Augustus John and his friend James Dickson Innes painted in the Arenig valley, in particular one of Innes's favourite subjects, the mountain Arenig Fawr. In 2011 this period was made the subject of a BBC documentary titled The Mountain That Had to Be Painted.

Alderney Manor
Alderney Manor, Dorset, was sited on the Poole to Ringwood road between Knighton Bottom and Howe Corner from the early 19th century. John established an artists' colony there in 1911. Faye Hammill relates how he lived there with "his five legitimate children, his mistress Dorelia McNeill, and his two children by her; and they remained there until 1927, in the company of numerous long-term guests". One frequent visitor was fellow artist Henry Lamb. Aspects of John's life during this period were used as background by Margaret Kennedy in her novel The Constant Nymph (1924). A housing estate now occupies the site.

Provence
In February 1910, John visited and fell in love with the town of Martigues, in Provence, located halfway between Arles and Marseilles, and first seen from a train en route to Italy. John wrote that Provence "had been for years the goal of my dreams" and Martigues was the town for which he felt the greatest affection. "With a feeling that I was going to find what I was seeking, an anchorage at last, I returned from Marseilles, and, changing at Pas des Lanciers, took the little railway which leads to Martigues. On arriving my premonition proved correct: there was no need to seek further." The connection with Provence continued until 1928, by which time John felt the town had lost its simple charm, and he sold his home there.

John was, throughout his life, particularly interested in the Romani people (whom he referred to as "Gypsies"), and sought them out on his frequent travels around the United Kingdom and Europe, learning to speak various versions of their language. For a time, shortly after his marriage, he and his family, which included his wife Ida, mistress Dorothy (Dorelia) McNeill, and John's children by both women, travelled in a caravan, in gypsy fashion. Later on he became the President of the Gypsy Lore Society, a position he held from 1937 until his death in 1961.

By 1913, John was successful enough to commission a new home and studio at Mallord Street, Chelsea, from architect Robert van 't Hoff.

War
In December 1917 John was attached to the Canadian forces as a war artist and made a number of memorable portraits of Canadian infantrymen. The result was to have been a huge mural for Lord Beaverbrook and the sketches and cartoon for this suggest that it might have become his greatest large-scale work. However, like so many of his monumental conceptions, it was never completed. As a war artist, John was allowed to keep his beard; according to Wyndham Lewis, John was "the only officer in the British Army, except the King, who wore a beard." After two months in France he was sent home in disgrace after taking part in a brawl. Lord Beaverbrook, whose intervention saved John from a court-martial, sent him back to France where he produced studies for a proposed Canadian War Memorial picture, although the only major work to result from the experience was Fraternity. In 2011, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge finally unveiled this mural at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. This unfinished painting, The Canadians Opposite Lens, is 12 feet high by 40 feet long.

Portraits

Although known early in the century for his drawings and etchings, the bulk of John's later work consisted of portraits. Those of his two wives and his children were regarded as among his best. He was known for the psychological insight of his portraits, many of which were considered "cruel" for the truth of the depiction. Lord Leverhulme was so upset with his portrait that he cut out the head (since only that part of the image could easily be hidden in his vault) but when the remainder of the picture was returned by error to John there was an international outcry over the desecration.

By the 1920s John was Britain's leading portrait painter. John painted many distinguished contemporaries, including T. E. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, W. B. Yeats, Aleister Crowley, Lady Gregory, Tallulah Bankhead, George Bernard Shaw, the cellist Guilhermina Suggia, the Marchesa Casati and Elizabeth Bibesco. Perhaps his most famous portrait is of his fellow-countryman, Dylan Thomas, whom he introduced to Caitlin Macnamara, his sometime lover who later became Thomas's wife. Portraits of Dylan Thomas by John are held at National Museum Cardiff and the National Portrait Gallery.

It was said that after the war his powers diminished as his bravura technique became sketchier. One critic has claimed that "the painterly brilliance of his early work degenerated into flashiness and bombast, and the second half of his long career added little to his achievement." However, from time to time his inspiration returned, as it did on a trip to Jamaica in 1937. The works done in Jamaica between March and May 1937 evidence a resurgence of his powers, and amounted to "the St. Martin's summer of his creative genius". In 1944, Sir Bernard Montgomery commissioned a portrait of himself, but rejected the completed work "because it was not like me"; it was subsequently purchased by the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow.

Of his method for painting portraits John explained: Make a puddle of paint on your palette consisting of the predominant colour of your model's face and ranging from dark to light. Having sketched the features, being most careful of the proportions, apply a skin of paint from your preparation, only varying the mixture with enough red for the lips and cheeks and grey for the eyeballs. The latter will need touches of white and probably some blue, black, brown, or green. If you stick to your puddle (assuming that it was correctly prepared), your portrait should be finished in an hour or so, and be ready for obliteration before the paint dries, when you start afresh.

Family
On 24 January 1901, John married Ida Nettleship (1877–1907), daughter of the artist John Trivett Nettleship, and a fellow student at the Slade. The couple had five sons: David John (1902–1974)., Caspar John (1903–1984), Robin John (1904–1988), Edwin John (1905–1978), and Henry John (1907–1935). Despite the fact that Nettleship was John's wife, housekeeper, and the mother of five of his children, there is not a single mention of her in Chiaroscuro, his 1952 memoir. From 1905 until her death in 1907, Ida lived in Paris with John's mistress Dorothy "Dorelia" McNeill; a Bohemian style icon, she lived with John for the rest of their lives, having four children together, though they never married. One of his sons (by his wife Ida) was the prominent British Admiral and First Sea Lord Sir Caspar John. His daughter with Dorelia, Vivien John (1915–1994), was a notable painter.

By Ian Fleming's widowed mother, Evelyn Ste Croix Fleming, Rose, he had a daughter, Amaryllis Fleming (1925–1999), who became a noted cellist. Another of his sons, by Mavis de Vere Cole, wife of the prankster Horace de Vere Cole, is the television director Tristan de Vere Cole. His son Romilly (1906–1986) was in the RAF, briefly a civil servant, then a poet, author and an amateur physicist. Poppet (1912–1997), John's daughter by Dorothy, married the Dutch painter Willem Jilts Pol (1905–1988). Willem Pol's daughter Talitha (1940–1971) by an earlier marriage (i.e. step-granddaughter of both Augustus and Dorothy), a fashion icon of 1960s London, married John Paul Getty Jr. His daughter Gwyneth Johnstone (1915–2010), by musician Nora Brownsword, was an artist. Augustus John's promiscuity gave rise to rumours that he had fathered as many as 100 children.

In a 1977 interview, Caitlin Thomas was asked about her family's friendship with Augustus John and the rumors surrounding his promiscuity. When asked if John "pounced on" her, she replied, "Oh yes, constantly, and on his daughters."

Later life
In later life, John wrote two volumes of autobiography, Chiaroscuro (1952) and Finishing Touches (1964). In old age, although John had ceased to be a moving force in British art, he was still greatly revered, as was demonstrated by the huge show of his work mounted by the Royal Academy in 1954. He continued to work up until his death in Fordingbridge, Hampshire in 1961, his last work being a studio mural in three parts, the left hand of which showed a Falstaffian figure of a French peasant in a yellow waistcoat playing a hurdy-gurdy while coming down a village street. It was Augustus John's final wave goodbye.

He joined the Peace Pledge Union as a pacifist in the 1950s, and was a founder member of the Committee of 100. On 17 September 1961, just over a month before his death, he joined the Committee of 100's's anti-nuclear weapons demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London. At the time, his son, Admiral Sir Caspar John was First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff. He died at Fordingbridge, aged 83.

He is said to have been the model for the bohemian painter depicted in Joyce Cary's novel The Horse's Mouth, which was later made into a 1958 film of the same name with Alec Guinness in the lead role.

Michael Holroyd published a biography of John in 1975 and it is a mark of the public's continued interest in the painter that Holroyd published a new version of the biography in 1996. A major exhibition, 'Gwen John and Augustus John,' was held at Tate Britain over the winter of 2004/5. According to the gallery's publicity, this exhibition revealed 'that although Augustus described himself and his sister as "the same thing, really," their art developed in different directions. Augustus' work seems wildly exuberant against Gwen's more introverted approach, but both artists indicate a similar flight from the modern world into a realm of fantasy. The exhibition went on to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff later in 2005. In 2018 Poole Museum in Dorset hosted the exhibition 'Augustus John: Drawn from Life,' which then went on to Salisbury Museum in 2019.

Honours and reputation
Early in his career John became a leading figure in the New English Art Club, where he frequently exhibited in the years up to the First World War. With his vivid manner of portraiture and his ability to catch unerringly some striking and usually unfamiliar aspect of his subject, he superseded Sargent as England's fashionable portrait painter. In 1921, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy and elected a full R.A. in 1928. He was named to the Order of Merit by George VI in 1942. He was a trustee of the Tate Gallery from 1933 to 1941, and President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters from 1948 to 1953. He was awarded the Freedom of the Town of Tenby on 30 October 1959. On his death in 1961, an obituary in The New York Times observed, 'He was regarded as the grand old man of British painting, and as one of the greatest in British history.'

John's granddaughter Rebecca John, the leading authority on her grandfather, said in 2024, while praising his earlier work, that "most [paintings since the 1930s] should have been burned. My grandfather went down the drain from the 1930s onwards, drank too much, lost his judgment, and took every opportunity to earn money from portraits of society ladies and the wives of notable men".

Collections
His work is held in the permanent collections of many museums worldwide, including the Museum of New Zealand, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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Ray Milland

Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. He is often remembered for his portrayal of an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend (1945), which won him Best Actor at Cannes, a Golden Globe Award, and ultimately an Academy Award—the first such accolades for any Welsh actor.

Before becoming an actor, Milland served in the Household Cavalry of the British Army, becoming a proficient marksman, horseman and aeroplane pilot. He left the army to pursue a career in acting and appeared as an extra in several British productions before getting his first major role in The Flying Scotsman (1929). This led to a nine-month contract with MGM, and he moved to the United States, where he worked as a stock actor. After his MGM contract ended, Milland was picked up by Paramount, which used him in a range of lesser speaking parts, usually as an English character. He was loaned to Universal for the Deanna Durbin musical Three Smart Girls (1936), and its success led to Milland's playing the lead role in The Jungle Princess (also 1936) alongside new starlet Dorothy Lamour. The film was quite successful, and raised both to stardom. Milland remained with Paramount for almost 20 years.

Milland appeared in many other notable films, including Easy Living (1937), Beau Geste (1939), Billy Wilder's The Major and the Minor (1942), opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind (1942), The Uninvited (1944), Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear (1944), The Big Clock (1948), and The Thief (1952)—for which he was nominated for his second Golden Globe. Two standout films later in his career include Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (1954) and Love Story (1970). After leaving Paramount, he began directing and moved into television acting. Once Paramount Pictures' highest-paid actor, Milland co-starred alongside many of the most popular actresses of the time, including Gene Tierney, Jean Arthur, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Marlene Dietrich, Maureen O'Hara, Ginger Rogers, Jane Wyman, Loretta Young, and Veronica Lake.

Early life
Milland was born Alfred Reginald Jones on 3 January 1907 in Neath, Wales, the son of Elizabeth Annie (née Truscott) and steel mill superintendent Alfred Jones. He was schooled independently before attending the private King's College School in Cardiff. He also worked at his uncle's horse-breeding farm before leaving home at age 21. Of his parents, he wrote in his 1974 autobiography:

My father was not a cruel or harsh man. Just a very quiet one. I think he was an incurable romantic and consequently a little afraid of his emotions and perhaps ashamed of them ... he had been a young hussar in the Boer War and had been present at the relief of Mafeking. He never held long conversations with anyone, except perhaps with me, possibly because I was the only other male in our family. The household consisted of my mother, a rather flighty and coquettish woman much concerned with propriety and what the neighbours thought.

Household Cavalry
Prior to becoming an actor, Milland served in the Household Cavalry, in 1925. An expert shot, he became a member of his squadron’s rifle team, winning many prestigious competitions, including the Bisley Match in England. He won the British Army Championship in both pistol and rifle marksmanship.

While stationed in London, Milland met dancer Margot St. Leger, and through her was introduced to American actress Estelle Brody. Brody queried Milland's commitment to an army career, which led him into buying himself out of the forces in 1928 with the hope of becoming an actor. (According to one account, he was able to support himself with a $17,000 inheritance from his aunt. Another said he was forced to drop out when his father refused to continue subsidising him. )

Early appearances
His first appearance on film was as an uncredited extra on the E.A. Dupont film Piccadilly (1929). After some unproductive extra work, which never reached the screen, he signed with a talent agent named Frank Zeitlin on the recommendation of fellow actor Jack Raine.

His prowess as a marksman earned him work as an extra at the British International Pictures studio in Arthur Robison's production of The Informer (1929), the first screen version of the Liam O'Flaherty novel. While he was working on The Informer, he was asked to test for a production being shot on a neighbouring stage. Milland made a favourable impression on director Castleton Knight, and was hired for his first acting role as Jim Edwards in The Flying Scotsman (also 1929). In his autobiography, Milland recalls that on this film set, it was suggested that he adopt a stage name; he chose Milland from the "mill lands" area of his Welsh hometown of Neath.

His work on The Flying Scotsman resulted in him being granted a six-month contract over the course of which Milland starred in two more Knight-directed films, The Lady from the Sea and The Plaything (both 1929). Believing that his acting was poor, and that he had won his film roles through his looks alone, Milland decided to gain some stage experience to improve his ability. After hearing that club owner Bobby Page was financing a touring company, Milland approached him in hopes of work. He was given the role of second lead in a production of Sam Shipman and Max Marcin's The Woman in Room 13. Despite being released from the play after five weeks, Milland felt that he had gained valuable acting experience.

Move to the US, 1930–1932
In between plays, Milland was approached by MGM vice-president Robert Rubin, who had seen the film The Flying Scotsman. MGM offered Milland a nine-month contract at $175 a week, based in Hollywood. He accepted, leaving the United Kingdom in August 1930. MGM used Milland as a 'stock' player, selecting him for small speaking parts in mainstream productions.

Milland's first experience in making a Hollywood film resulted in a humiliating scene on the set of Son of India (1931), when the film's director Jacques Feyder berated Milland's acting in front of the entire crew. Despite this setback, the studio executives talked Milland into staying in Hollywood, and in 1930, he appeared in his first US film Passion Flower. Over the next two years, Milland appeared in minor parts for MGM and a few films for which he was lent to Warner Bros; he was often uncredited. His largest role during this period was as Charles Laughton's nephew in Payment Deferred (1932).

While in this first period working in the United States, Milland met Muriel Frances Weber, whom he always called "Mal", a student at the University of Southern California. Within eight months of first meeting, the two were married. The ceremony took place on 30 September 1932 at the Riverside Mission Inn. The couple had a son, Daniel, and adopted a daughter, Victoria.

Shortly after making Payment Deferred, Milland found himself out of work when MGM failed to renew his contract. He spent five months in the US attempting to find further acting work, but after little success and a strained relationship with his father-in-law, he decided to head back to Britain, hoping that two years spent in Hollywood would lead to roles in British films. Milland cashed in his contracted first-class return ticket to Britain and found an alternative, cheaper way back home. Muriel remained in the States to finish her studies, and Milland found temporary accommodation in Earl's Court in London.

Return to Britain
Milland found life in Britain difficult, receiving little regular work, although he finally found parts in two British films, This Is the Life and Orders Is Orders (both 1933). Neither was a breakthrough role.

Back in the US and Bolero
Then, in 1933, Roosevelt's reforms to the U.S. banking sector led to a temporary weakness in the dollar, allowing Milland to afford a return to the United States. He returned to California, and found a small flat on Sunset Boulevard, promising Muriel that he would buy a home once he was financially stable.

With little prospect of finding acting work, Milland took on menial jobs, including working for a bookie. He decided to find regular employment and through connections made during his time in the UK, he was offered the job of assistant manager of a Shell gas station on Sunset and Clark.

On his return from his successful Shell interview, he passed by the gates of Paramount Pictures, where he was approached by casting director Joe Egli. Paramount was filming the George Raft picture Bolero (released in February 1934), but an injury to another British actor had left the studio looking for an urgent replacement. Egli offered Milland a two-week contract, at ten times the salary the assistant job would pay. Milland took the acting role.

After completing Bolero, Milland was offered a five-week guarantee by Benjamin Glazer to work on an upcoming screwball comedy starring Bing Crosby and Carole Lombard entitled We're Not Dressing (also 1934). During filming, he appeared in a scene with George Burns and Gracie Allen, which Milland recalls as falling into an "ad-libbed shambles" that he felt was better than the original script. The film's director Norman Taurog was so impressed, he rang the chief production executive and suggested that Milland be placed on a long-term contract. After a short meeting, Milland was offered a seven-year deal with Paramount starting at $175 a week. The contract gave Milland a secure income, and Muriel and he moved into an apartment on Fountain Avenue.

Milland later said "It all happened by luck and I was just there at the right place at the right time."

Paramount and The Jungle Princess
During his first contract with Paramount, Milland was used as part of the speaking cast, but never as a top-of-the-bill actor. He had a supporting role, for instance, in the original The Glass Key (1935) with George Raft.

Milland was lent to Universal for Next Time We Love (1936), with Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart. Back at Paramount he was in The Return of Sophie Lang  (1936) and The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936).

He was contacted by Joe Pasternak, who was looking for an 'English' actor for the lead in his new picture, Three Smart Girls (1936). Although Pasternak worked for Universal Studios, Paramount had agreed to lend Milland out for the film.

On returning to Paramount after Three Smart Girls was wrapped, Milland was used as a test actor to find a new starlet for The Jungle Princess (1936). When the studio chose Dorothy Lamour for the lead, Milland wrote in his autobiography that Lamour was confused to find that he was not to be her male lead and she requested Milland to be her co-star. Paramount was not keen, but when Three Smart Girls was pre-released to rave reviews, they gave Milland the role. By the end of 1936, Milland was being considered for leading roles, and Paramount rewrote his contract, resulting in the tripling of his salary.

As leading man 1937–1939
After taking a break in Europe, Milland was cast as Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond in Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937).

Milland was then in Wings over Honolulu (1937) with Wendy Barrie, and then in Easy Living (1937), a classic comedy with Jean Arthur directed by Mitchell Leisen.

Milland did Ebb Tide (1937) with Frances Farmer and was then loaned to RKO for Wise Girl (1937) with Miriam Hopkins.

Back at Paramount, Milland was reunited with Lamour in Her Jungle Love (1938) and Tropic Holiday (1938). He then did a military drama for William Wellman, Men with Wings (1938), co-starring Fred MacMurray.

Milland did a comedy, Say It in French (1938), and then Hotel Imperial (1939) with Marlene Dietrich, during the production of which Milland suffered a near-fatal accident on the set. One scene called for him to lead a cavalry charge through a small village. An accomplished horseman, Milland insisted upon doing this scene himself. As he was making a scripted jump on the horse, his saddle came loose, sending him flying straight into a pile of broken masonry. Milland awoke in hospital, where he remained for a week with a badly damaged left hand, a three-inch gash to his head, and a concussion.

After recovering, he appeared as John Geste in Beau Geste (1939), alongside Gary Cooper and Robert Preston and directed by Wellman. The film was a huge hit. 20th Century Fox then borrowed him for Everything Happens at Night (1939) opposite Sonja Henie.

According to Milland, a second injury to his left hand occurred in 1939. As well as horse-riding, Milland enjoyed piloting aircraft and in his early career would lease single-seater planes. As a contracted starring actor, Paramount had insisted he give up this hobby. Instead, Milland took up woodworking and outfitted a machine shop at the back of his newly built house. While operating a circular saw, he slipped, catching one of his hands on the saw. The injury resulted in Milland losing a part of his thumb and severely damaging his tendons.

Milland believed that the injury left him with only 50% usage of his hand, but within weeks of the incident, he flew to Britain to star in French Without Tears. By the time he returned to America, war was declared in Europe. The year finished with the news that Muriel was pregnant with their son Daniel.

World War II
In 1940, Milland appeared in a selection of romantic comedies and dramas alongside some of the leading ladies of the time. These included Irene opposite Anna Neagle, The Doctor Takes a Wife opposite Loretta Young at Columbia, Arise, My Love opposite Claudette Colbert, and Untamed opposite Patricia Morison. He was a last minute replacement for Joel McCrea on Arise which meant he had to drop out of another film, Virginia.

When the United States entered World War II, Milland tried to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Forces, but was rejected because of his impaired left hand. He worked as a civilian flight instructor for the Army, and toured with a United Service Organisation South Pacific troupe in 1944.

As the Second World War continued, Milland found himself now appearing in more action pictures. He starred as a wannabe pilot in I Wanted Wings (1941) with Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake, and William Holden. This was followed by Skylark (1942) with Claudette Colbert, and two films with Paulette Goddard: The Lady Has Plans (1942) and Cecil B. DeMille's Reap the Wild Wind (1942) alongside John Wayne, in which he was top billed above Wayne.

Milland starred in Are Husbands Necessary? (1942) and subsequently Billy Wilder's directorial debut, The Major and the Minor (1942) opposite Ginger Rogers.

Milland appeared in the all-star musical Star Spangled Rhythm (1943), in which he appeared as himself, singing "If Men Played Cards as Women Do," alongside Fred MacMurray, Franchot Tone, and Lynne Overman. He also made an appearance in the collaborative drama, Forever and a Day (1943).

He and Goddard then made The Crystal Ball (1943); thereafter, he was Ginger Rogers' leading man in Lady in the Dark (1944).

In 1944, Milland starred in the supernatural horror film, The Uninvited, which was notable for its serious treatment of ghosts and haunting main theme, and for making a star of Gail Russell. He then starred in Fritz Lang's film noir production of Graham Greene's Ministry of Fear (also 1944).

He also toured war theatres with USO Shows. At one performance a soldier heckled him, asking why he was not in the army. Milland replied, "With a war on? Are you crazy?"

The Lost Weekend, 1945
The pinnacle of Milland's career and acknowledgment of his serious dramatic abilities came when he starred in The Lost Weekend (1945). Milland recalled how after returning from an emcee engagement in Peru, he found a book delivered to his home, with a note from Paramount's head of production Buddy DeSylva that read, "Read it. Study it. You're going to play it." Milland found the book unsettling and felt its subject matter, that of an alcoholic writer, to be challenging and alien to him. He was also concerned that it would require 'serious acting', something that he believed he had not undertaken up to that point in his career. The film was to be produced by Charles Brackett and directed by Billy Wilder; the pair were also collaborating to write the screenplay. Milland had already worked with both men, having starred in the comedy The Major and the Minor (1942), and he was excited by their involvement.

Milland's main concern with taking on the role of Don Birnam in The Lost Weekend was that he might overact and look amateurish. After a shambolic attempt to act parts of the script while actually drunk, Milland quickly realized that he needed to understand alcoholism. After the cast and crew had arrived on location in New York, Milland was allowed to spend a night in a psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital, where the patients were suffering from alcoholism and delirium tremens. He found the experience extremely disturbing and left at three in the morning. Milland lost eight pounds for the role and spoke with the book's author, Charles R. Jackson, to gain insight into the illness. After the external shots in New York were complete, in which hidden cameras were used to capture Milland walking the streets, the crew returned to Hollywood. Milland found the set work far more challenging, knowing that the close-ups would give his acting no place to hide. Between the strain of acting and the morbidity of the subject, Milland's home life deteriorated and he left for a period of two weeks. When the shoot was over, Muriel and he left for a vacation in Canada. He later said that his role in The Lost Weekend "was the only part [he was] really proud of."

Returning to filming, Milland was assigned to a Mitchell Leisen-directed historical drama called Kitty (1945), opposite Paulette Goddard. He was meant to follow it with Olympia.

Instead, he did a romantic comedy, The Well-Groomed Bride opposite Olivia de Havilland. Many of the crew members on The Well-Groomed Bride had also worked on The Lost Weekend, and Milland recalled an encounter with a sound mixer, who told him that he had seen a rough cut of Weekend and thought Milland was not only sure to be nominated for an Academy Award, but that he would probably win. Milland had not considered himself worthy of an award, but over the next few months, he thought of little else, and was desperate to be nominated. After the first preview, reaction was mixed, but Brackett stated that they had produced "something really worthwhile". Milland found the initial feedback to his role congratulatory but hushed, leading him to feel that the film would bomb as a piece of cinema and would be seen as a social document. When the film was released in New York, the favourable reviews took both Milland and the studio by surprise. Milland was lauded, and he not only won that year's Academy Award for Best Actor, but also the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor–Drama, the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor. He was the first Welsh actor to win an Oscar, and when he collected the award from Ingrid Bergman, he gave one of the shortest acceptance speeches of any Oscar winner. His performance was so convincing, Milland was beleaguered for years by rumours that he actually was an alcoholic. He steadfastly asserted that he was not.

Milland's success in The Lost Weekend resulted in his contract being rewritten, and he became Paramount's highest-salaried actor. When the film was premiered across Europe, Milland was sent to attend each opening. When he appeared in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, he was given the keys to the city.

1945–1950
Milland continued working as a leading man after his Oscar win, and stayed contracted to Paramount until the early 1950s. He was teamed with Teresa Wright in The Imperfect Lady (1946), directed by Lewis Allen. He replaced Alan Ladd in a Western with Barbara Stanwyck, California (1947), directed by John Farrow, which was a big hit.

Milland was reunited with Wright in The Trouble with Women (1947) and then starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in Golden Earrings (1947). He was one of many Paramount stars who made a cameo in Variety Girl (1947) then went to England to make So Evil My Love (1948), produced by Hal Wallis for director Lewis Allen.

Milland made a second film for Farrow, The Big Clock (1948), which has become one of his most highly regarded films. He then did his third film with Allen, Sealed Verdict (1948), and a third with Farrow, Alias Nick Beal (1949), which Milland later said was his favourite film.

In July 1948, Paramount suspended him for refusing a part in The Mark of Lucretia (which became The Bride of Vengeance). Milland commented, "it is a part that is out of my normal natural range as an actor."

Milland then went to Fox for the comedy, It Happens Every Spring (1949), and then made a fourth film with Farrow, Copper Canyon (1950). After this, Milland increasingly freelanced.

Other studios
At Columbia, Milland starred opposite Rosalind Russell in A Woman of Distinction (1950). Then, at MGM, he was directed by George Cukor in A Life of Her Own (1950) alongside Lana Turner, replacing Wendell Corey, who had quit the film just three days into filming.

Milland was directed by Jacques Tourneur in RKO's Circle of Danger (1951); set in the United Kingdom, it was the only time he filmed in his home country of Wales. At MGM he was in Night Into Morning (1951) and then a comedy, Rhubarb (1951).

Milland gave a strong performance in Close to My Heart (1951) at Warner Bros, in which he and Gene Tierney starred as a couple trying to adopt a child. His next film, Bugles in the Afternoon (1952), also at Warners, was a Western. He played in Something to Live For (1952), another study of alcoholism at Paramount, with Joan Fontaine.

Milland had a contract to make one film a year with Paramount (who released Pine-Thomas films). He was wanted by producer Harold Popkin to make The Thief but Paramount insisted he make Jamaica Run under their contract instead. The impasse was resolved by the intervention of Milland's agents at MCA and filming for Jamaica Run was pushed back. For The Thief (1952), his role was without dialogue, and he was nominated for a second Golden Globe. He later remarked that he was proud of the film.

After Jamaica Run (1953), Milland went to Columbia for Let's Do It Again (1953) with Jane Wyman.

He then starred opposite Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (1954), originally shot in three dimensions. Although never admitted by either, rumours were rife at the time that Kelly and Milland were engaged in an affair, fuelled by notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.

He starred with Phyllis Avery and Lloyd Corrigan in the CBS sitcom, Meet Mr. McNutley, from 1953 to 1955. He appeared in the role of an English and Drama professor at the fictitious Lynnhaven College. The sitcom was renamed The Ray Milland Show in its second season. Milland directed some episodes, and he soon had ambitions to direct features.

At Fox, Milland starred in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955).

Director
After leaving Paramount, Milland concentrated on directing. In his first directorial effort, a Western entitled A Man Alone (1955), Milland cast himself in the leading role. His co-stars included Mary Murphy and Ward Bond. The story depicts the aftermath of a stagecoach robbery. He did the film for a lesser fee in exchange for a chance to direct and a percentage of the profits

Milland starred in a TV adaptation of Markheim (1956) directed by Fred Zinnemann then starred in and directed Lisbon (1956), alongside Maureen O'Hara and Claude Rains. Like A Man Alone, it was distributed by Republic Pictures.

He directed episodes of The Ford Television Theatre and Schlitz Playhouse and starred in the features Three Brave Men (1956), The River's Edge (1957), a Western directed by Allan Dwan for Benedict Bogeaus, and High Flight (1957), an air force melodrama for Warwick Pictures in England.

He appeared in episodes of Suspicion and General Electric Theater, directing episodes of both. His third feature as director was The Safecracker (1958), which was shot in England.

Retirement and Markham
Milland then retired for six months before deciding to go back to work, commenting, "my wife told me I'd better get a job of some kind because I was making her a nervous wreck ... hanging around the house."

From 1958 to 1960, Milland starred in the CBS detective series, Markham, originally called Crisis.

During the making of the show Milland remarked, "it's becoming more and more of an effort to go on acting. I know it's a wonderful way to make a living but any job you don't like becomes difficult and I just don't like acting. I never have. I do it because I can't make a living any other way. Standing in front of a crew playing love scenes embarasses me. I'm as self conscious as hell and I want to get it over with. You get up too early and you finish too late and you feel like a lackey."

The show failed to capture the expected significant audience, even though it followed the western Gunsmoke.

He retired again, this time to the French Riviera in 1960. However, he soon became bored and started acting again.

AIP
Milland appeared in two Roger Corman AIP pictures. The first was The Premature Burial (1962) – the third of Corman's 'Poe Cycle'. He then portrayed Dr. Xavier in the well-received X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963).

Also for AIP, he starred in the self-directed, apocalyptic science-fiction drama, Panic in Year Zero! (1962).

He continued to guest star on shows like The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and he appeared in Quick, Let's Get Married (1964).

Broadway
Milland decided to return to the stage and appeared in a touring version of My Fair Lady. He enjoyed the experience, and in 1966, he took the lead role as Simon Crawford QC in the Broadway play, Hostile Witness, directed by Reginald Denham.

The play ran in New York from February until July of that year, after which Milland took the play on the road. In 1968, he reprised the role in a film of the same title, which he also directed. It was the last feature film he directed.

Character actor
He returned as a character actor in the late 1960s and the 1970s, appearing in such films as Daughter of the Mind (1969), a television film which reunited him with Gene Tierney.

In the late 1960s, Milland hosted rebroadcasts of certain episodes of the syndicated Western anthology series, Death Valley Days, under the title Trails West; the series' original host had been Ronald Reagan. He also guest-starred on Bracken's World and The Name of the Game as well as in TV movies like Company of Killers (1970), River of Gold (1971) and Black Noon (1971).

Milland had his biggest box office success in many years when he played Oliver Barrett III in Love Story (1970). In 1978 Milland reprised his role as Oliver Barrett III in Oliver's Story, also written by Erich Segal.

He was then in Embassy (1972), a British spy thriller.

In 1970, he said he worked only two to three months a year acting and spent the rest of the year relaxing, although he admitted that he had suffered some financial troubles since the sale of his yacht in 1964.

Horror and action movies; focus on television
In 1972, Milland starred in two horror films. One was Frogs, co-starring Sam Elliott and Joan Van Ark, in which Milland played a wealthy, cantankerous plantation owner who dumps waste materials in a swamp, causing an enormous disruption of nature. The second, The Thing with Two Heads, a blaxploitation film directed by Lee Frost, is considered a cult classic; Milland plays a brain surgeon with a terminal illness who transplants his head onto the healthy body of an American prisoner. The following year he was in The House in Nightmare Park (1973), a comedy chiller, and had the lead in the TV movie, Terror in the Wax Museum (1973).

He also turned in an appearance as a hand surgeon in the Night Gallery episode, "The Hand of Borgus Weems". He guest-starred in two episodes of Columbo, as a grieving widower in "Death Lends a Hand" (1971) and as a suspect in "The Greenhouse Jungle" (1972).

Milland was in such action films as: The Big Game (1974), The Student Connection (1974), and Gold opposite Roger Moore (1974). Then he did another TV horror film, The Dead Don't Die (1975). He appeared in Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) for Disney and guest starred on shows like Cool Million and Ellery Queen.

Around this time, Milland said that he planned on moving to Europe and that he accepted "the parts I figure I can get some enjoyment out of."

In 1975, Milland was the subject of an episode of the British biographical TV series, This Is Your Life.

Milland had a significant success with the TV miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), receiving an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

He also had roles in The Swiss Conspiracy (1976), Aces High (1976), Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (1976), Mayday at 40,000 Feet! (1976), The Last Tycoon (1976), Seventh Avenue (1976), Oil (1977), Testimony of Two Men (1977), The Uncanny (1977), Slavers (1977), and The Pyjama Girl Case (1978), an Italian giallo set in Australia.

He starred in Cruise Into Terror (1978), The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Blackout (1978), and The Darker Side of Terror (1979).

He guest-starred as Sire Uri in Saga of a Star World (1978), the pilot episode of the original Battlestar Galactica television series. He reprised his role as Ryan O'Neal's father in Oliver's Story (1978) and appeared in some action films, including Spree (1979) and Game for Vultures (1979).

Milland guest-starred on several Aaron Spelling-produced shows such as Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Charlie's Angels and Hart to Hart. In the latter, he appeared twice as Jennifer Hart's father.

He was top billed in The Attic (1980), but usually had supporting roles in TV movies like The Dream Merchants (1980), Our Family Business (1981), The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (1982), Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (1983), Cave In! (1983), and The Masks of Death (1984), a Sherlock Holmes adventure starring Peter Cushing and John Mills.

His last appearances were in The Sea Serpent (1985) and The Gold Key (1985). The latter was a mystery made specifically for video.

Personal life
Milland was married to Muriel Frances Weber from 30 September 1932 until his death on 10 March 1986. They had one biological son and one adopted daughter. Their son, Daniel, appeared in several minor acting roles in the 1960s and died of an apparent suicide in March 1981, at the age of 41.

Milland became a naturalised American citizen in the 1940s. He supported the Republican Party and publicly backed Thomas E. Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election as well as Richard Nixon in the 1968 presidential election.

Death
Milland died of lung cancer at the Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, California, on 10 March 1986. He was 79 years old. In line with his instructions, no funeral was held. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Redondo Beach, California.

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

title: Ray Milland


text:
Edmond Rostand

Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (,, ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century. Another of Rostand's works, Les Romanesques (1894), was adapted to the 1960 musical comedy The Fantasticks.

Early life
Rostand was born in Marseille, France, into a wealthy and cultured Provençal family. His father was an economist, a poet who translated and edited the works of Catullus, and a member of the Marseille Academy and the Institut de France. Rostand studied literature, history, and philosophy at the Collège Stanislas in Paris, France.

Career
When Rostand was twenty years old, his first play, a one-act comedy, Le Gant rouge, was performed at the Cluny Theatre, 24 August 1888, but it was almost unnoticed.

He and his fiancée Rosemonde Gérard became friends with Emmanuel Chabrier in 1889, and the composer quickly set three of his poems (and two of hers) to music; the following year the two collaborated on À la musique for the house-warming of a mutual friend. In 1890, Rostand published a volume of poems called Les Musardises. The same year he offered a one-act Pierrot play in verse to the director of the Théâtre François. This gave him the opportunity to write for the state theatre a three-act play, also in verse, as are all Rostand's plays. He considered himself a poet, whether writing plays or poetry.

The resulting play, Les Romanesques, was produced at the Théâtre François on 21 May 1894. It was a great success and was the start of his career as a dramatist. This play would be adapted in 1960 by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt into the long-running American musical The Fantasticks.

Rostand's next play was written for Sarah Bernhardt. La Princesse Lointaine was based on the story of the 12th-century troubadour Jaufre Rudel and his love for Hodierna of Jerusalem (who is the archetypal princesse lointaine character). This idealistic play opened on 5 April 1895, at the Théâtre de la Renaissance. The part of Melisandre (based on Hodierna's daughter Melisende of Tripoli) was created by Sarah Bernhardt but the play was not particularly successful. When Bernhardt performed it in London later the same year, it received a bad review from George Bernard Shaw but this was not surprising considering Shaw's bias for realism. Rambaldo di Vaqueiras: I Monferrato, 1922 1922 verse drama by Nino Berrini$(it)$ is based on La Princesse Lointaine.

Bernhardt, undeterred, asked Rostand to write another play for her. She created the role of Photine in La Samaritaine (Theatre de la Renaissance, 14 April 1897), a Biblical drama in three scenes adapted from the gospel story of the woman of Samaria. This play was more successful and became part of Sarah Bernhardt's repertoire. Rostand felt satisfied that he had proven to the public that he was something more than a writer of comedies.

The production of his heroic comedy Cyrano de Bergerac (28 December 1897, Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin), with Benoît-Constant Coquelin in the title role, was a triumph. The first production lasted for more than 300 consecutive nights. No such enthusiasm for a drama in verse had been known since the time of Hugo's Hernani. The play was quickly translated into English, German, Russian and other European languages. Cyrano de Bergerac had been a boyhood hero of Rostand, who loved his idealism and courage. He had also thoroughly researched French 17th-century history.

The play L'Aiglon was written for Sarah Bernhardt to perform during the Exposition Universelle in Paris. A patriotic subject was required, and Rostand chose a subject from Napoleonic history, suggested probably by Henri Welschinger's Roi de Rome, 1811–32 (1897), which contained much new information about the unhappy life of the Duke of Reichstadt, son of Napoleon I, and Marie Louise, surveilled by agents of Metternich at the Schönbrunn Palace. L'Aiglon, a verse drama in six acts, was produced (15 March 1900) by Sarah Bernhardt at her own theatre, she herself performing the trouser role of the Duke of Reichstadt.

In 1901, Rostand became the youngest writer ever to be elected to the Académie française. He relocated to Cambo-les-bains, in the Basque Pyrenees, in 1903 for health reasons. Here he built himself a villa, Arnaga (now a Rostand museum) and worked on his next play, one for Constant Coquelin this time, Chantecler. Produced in February 1910, it was awaited with an interest, enhanced by considerable delay in the production, which affected the enthusiasm of its reception. Nor did the Parisian audience enjoy the caricature of salon life in the third act. Since Constant Coquelin had died during rehearsals, Lucien Guitry was in the title role and Mme. Simone played the part of the pheasant. Chantecler is a cockerel and the characters are birds and animals. "Chantecler" is the great play of Rostand's maturity, expressing Rostand's own deepest feelings as a poet and idealist.

The Romancers one act play is one of Edmond Rostand's most famous plays. This play is found to be read for study in the courses of many universities of the world.

When he died prematurely at fifty years old, Rostand was still writing plays. "La Dernière Nuit de Don Juan" was performed posthumously in 1922. There were two unfinished and unpublished plays – Yorick and Les Petites Manies.

Personal life
Rostand was married to the poet and playwright Rosemonde-Étiennette Gérard who, in 1890, published Les Pipeaux: a volume of verse commended by the Academy. The couple had two sons, Jean and Maurice.

During the 1900s, Rostand came to live in the Villa Arnaga in Cambo-les-Bains in the French Basque Country, seeking a cure for his pleurisy. The house is now a heritage site and a museum of Rostand's life and Basque architecture and crafts. Rostand died in 1918, a victim of the flu pandemic, and is buried in the Cimetière de Marseille.

Works

 * Le Gant rouge, 1888 (The Red Glove)
 * Les Musardises, 1890
 * Les Deux Pierrots, ou Le Souper blanc (The Two Pierrots, or The White Supper), 1891
 * Les Romanesques, 1894 (basis for the 1960 off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks)
 * La Princesse Lointaine (The Princess Far-Away), 1895
 * La Samaritaine (The Woman of Samaria), 1897
 * Cyrano de Bergerac, 1897
 * L'Aiglon: A Play in Six Acts. 1900
 * Chantecler: A Play in Four Acts, 1910
 * La Dernière Nuit de Don Juan (The Last Night of Don Juan, in Poetic Drama), 1921
 * Le Cantique de L'Aile, 1922
 * Le Vol de la Marseillaise, 1922

title: Edmond Rostand


text:
Group object

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, group objects are certain generalizations of groups that are built on more complicated structures than sets. A typical example of a group object is a topological group, a group whose underlying set is a topological space such that the group operations are continuous.

Definition
Formally, we start with a category C with finite products (i.e. C has a terminal object 1 and any two objects of C have a product). A group object in C is an object G of C together with morphisms such that the following properties (modeled on the group axioms – more precisely, on the definition of a group used in universal algebra) are satisfied
 * m : G × G → G (thought of as the "group multiplication")
 * e : 1 → G (thought of as the "inclusion of the identity element")
 * inv : G → G (thought of as the "inversion operation")
 * m is associative, i.e. m (m × idG) = m (idG × m) as morphisms G × G × G → G, and where e.g. m × idG : G × G × G → G × G; here we identify G × (G × G) in a canonical manner with (G × G) × G.
 * e is a two-sided unit of m, i.e. m (idG × e) = p1, where p1 : G × 1 → G is the canonical projection, and m (e × idG) = p2, where p2 : 1 × G → G is the canonical projection
 * inv is a two-sided inverse for m, i.e. if d : G → G × G is the diagonal map, and eG : G → G is the composition of the unique morphism G → 1 (also called the counit) with e, then m (idG × inv) d = eG and m (inv × idG) d = eG.

Note that this is stated in terms of maps – product and inverse must be maps in the category – and without any reference to underlying "elements" of the group object – categories in general do not have elements of their objects.

Another way to state the above is to say G is a group object in a category C if for every object X in C, there is a group structure on the morphisms Hom(X, G) from X to G such that the association of X to Hom(X, G) is a (contravariant) functor from C to the category of groups.

Examples

 * Each set G for which a group structure (G, m, u, −1) can be defined can be considered a group object in the category of sets. The map m is the group operation, the map e (whose domain is a singleton) picks out the identity element u of G, and the map inv assigns to every group element its inverse. eG : G → G is the map that sends every element of G to the identity element.
 * A topological group is a group object in the category of topological spaces with continuous functions.
 * A Lie group is a group object in the category of smooth manifolds with smooth maps.
 * A Lie supergroup is a group object in the category of supermanifolds.
 * An algebraic group is a group object in the category of algebraic varieties. In modern algebraic geometry, one considers the more general group schemes, group objects in the category of schemes.
 * A localic group is a group object in the category of locales.
 * The group objects in the category of groups (or monoids) are the abelian groups. The reason for this is that, if inv is assumed to be a homomorphism, then G must be abelian. More precisely: if A is an abelian group and we denote by m the group multiplication of A, by e the inclusion of the identity element, and by inv the inversion operation on A, then (A, m, e, inv) is a group object in the category of groups (or monoids). Conversely, if (A, m, e, inv) is a group object in one of those categories, then m necessarily coincides with the given operation on A, e is the inclusion of the given identity element on A, inv is the inversion operation and A with the given operation is an abelian group. See also Eckmann–Hilton argument.
 * The strict 2-group is the group object in the category of small categories.
 * Given a category C with finite coproducts, a cogroup object is an object G of C together with a "comultiplication" m: G → G $$\oplus$$ G, a "coidentity" e: G → 0, and a "coinversion" inv: G → G that satisfy the dual versions of the axioms for group objects. Here 0 is the initial object of C. Cogroup objects occur naturally in algebraic topology.

title: Group object


text:
Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practice subsistence agriculture and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church. In many cultures, towns and cities were few, with only a small proportion of the population living in them. The Industrial Revolution attracted people in larger numbers to work in mills and factories; the concentration of people caused many villages to grow into towns and cities. This also enabled specialization of labor and crafts and the development of many trades. The trend of urbanization continues but not always in connection with industrialization. Historically, homes were situated together for sociability and defence, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed. Traditional fishing villages were based on artisan fishing and located adjacent to fishing grounds.

In toponomastic terminology, the names of individual villages are called Comonyms (from Ancient Greek κώμη / village and ὄνυμα / name, [cf. ὄνομα]).

Etymology
From Middle English village, from Old French village, from Latin villāticus, ultimately from Latin villa (English villa).

Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, the village, or deh (Dari/Pashto: ده) is the mid-size settlement type in Afghan society, trumping the United States hamlet or qala (Dari: قلعه, Pashto: کلي), though smaller than the town, or shār (Dari: شهر, Pashto: ښار). In contrast to the qala, the deh is generally a bigger settlement which includes a commercial area, while the yet larger shār includes governmental buildings and services such as schools of higher education, basic health care, police stations etc.

India
"The soul of India lives in its villages," declared Mahatma Gandhi at the beginning of 20th century. According to the 2011 census of India, 69% of Indians (around 833 million people) live in villages. As per 2011 census of India, there are a total of 649,481 villages in India .The size of these villages varies considerably. 236,004 Indian villages have a population of fewer than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10,000+. Most of the villages have their own temple, mosque, or church, depending on the local religious following.

Pakistan
The majority of Pakistanis live in rural areas. According to the 2017 census, about 64% of the Pakistani population lives in rural areas. Most rural areas in Pakistan tend to be near cities, and are peri-urban areas. This is due to the definition of a rural area in Pakistan being an area that does not fall within an urban boundary. A village is called deh or gaaon in Urdu. Pakistani village life is marked by kinship and exchange relations.

Kazakhstan
Auyl (Ауыл) is a Kazakh word meaning "village" in Kazakhstan. According to the 2009 census of Kazakhstan, 42.7% of Kazakhstani citizens (7.5 million people) live in 8172 different villages. To refer to this concept along with the word "auyl" often used the Slavic word "selo" in Northern Kazakhstan.

People's Republic of China
In mainland China, villages 村 are divisions under township Zh:乡 or town Zh:镇.

Republic of China (Taiwan)
In the Republic of China (Taiwan), villages are divisions under townships or county-administered cities. The village is called a tsuen or cūn (村) under a rural township (鄉) and a li (里) under an urban township (鎮) or a county-controlled city. See also Li (unit).

Brunei
In Brunei, villages are officially the third- and lowest-level subdivisions of Brunei below districts and mukims. A village is locally known by the Malay word kampung (also spelt as kampong). They may be villages in the traditional or anthropological sense but may also comprise delineated residential settlements, both rural and urban. The community of a village is headed by a village head (ketua kampung). Communal infrastructure for the villagers may include a primary school, a religious school providing ugama or Islamic religious primary education which is compulsory for the Muslim pupils in the country, a mosque, and a community centre (balai raya or dewan kemasyarakatan).

Indonesia
In Indonesia, depending on the principles they are administered, villages are called kampung or desa (or kelurahan for those with urban functions). A desa (a term that derives from a Sanskrit word meaning "country" that is found in the name "Bangladesh"=bangla and desh/desha) is administered according to traditions and customary law (adat), while a kelurahan is administered along more "modern" principles. Desa are generally located in rural areas while kelurahan are generally urban subdivisions. A village head is respectively called kepala desa or lurah. Both are elected by the local community. A desa or kelurahan is the subdivision of a kecamatan (district), in turn the subdivision of a kabupaten (regency) or kota (city).

The same general concept applies all over Indonesia. However, there is some variation among the vast numbers of Austronesian ethnic groups. For instance, in Bali villages have been created by grouping traditional hamlets or banjar, which constitute the basis of Balinese social life. In the Minangkabau area in West Sumatra province, traditional villages are called nagari (a term deriving from another Sanskrit word meaning "city", which can be found in the name like "Srinagar"=sri and nagar/nagari). In some areas such as Tanah Toraja, elders take turns watching over the village at a command post. As a general rule, desa and kelurahan are groupings of hamlets (kampung in Indonesian, dusun in Javanese, banjar in Bali). a kampung is defined today as a village in Brunei and Indonesia.

Malaysia and Singapore
Kampung is a term used in Malaysia, (sometimes spelling kampong or kompong in the English language) for "a Malay hamlet or village in a Malay-speaking country". In Malaysia, a kampung is determined as a locality with 10,000 or fewer people. Since historical times, every Malay village came under the leadership of a penghulu (village chief), who has the power to hear civil matters in his village (see Courts of Malaysia for more details).

A Malay village typically contains a "masjid" (mosque) or "surau", paddy fields and Malay houses on stilts. Malay and Indonesian villagers practice the culture of helping one another as a community, which is better known as "joint bearing of burdens" (gotong royong). They are family-oriented (especially the concept of respecting one's family [particularly the parents and elders]), courtesy and practice belief in God ("Tuhan") as paramount to everything else. It is common to see a cemetery near the mosque. In Sarawak and East Kalimantan, some villages are called 'long', primarily inhabited by the Orang Ulu.

Malaysian kampung were once aplenty in Singapore but there are almost no remaining kampung villages; the very few to have survived until today are mostly on outlying islands surrounding mainland Singapore, such as Pulau Ubin. Mainland Singapore used to have many kampung villages but modern developments and rapid urbanisation works have seen them bulldozed away; Kampong Lorong Buangkok is the last surviving village on the country's mainland.

The term "kampung", sometimes spelled "kampong", is one of many Malay words to have entered common usage in Malaysia and Singapore. Locally, the term is frequently used to refer to either one's hometown or a rural village, depending on the intended context.

Philippines
In urban areas of the Philippines, the term "village" most commonly refers to private subdivisions, especially gated communities. These villages emerged in the mid-20th century and were initially the domain of elite urban dwellers. Those are common in major cities in the country and their residents have a wide range of income levels.

Such villages may or may not correspond to a barangay (the country's basic unit of government, also glossed as village), or be privately administered. Barangays correspond more to precolonial villages; the chairman (formerly the village datu) now settles administrative, intrapersonal, and political matters or polices the area though with much less authority and respect than in Indonesia or Malaysia.

Vietnam
Village, or "làng", is a basis of Vietnam society. Vietnam's village is the typical symbol of Asian agricultural production. Vietnam's village typically contains: a village gate, "lũy tre" (bamboo hedges), "đình làng" (communal house) where "thành hoàng" (tutelary god) is worshiped, a common well, "đồng lúa" (rice field), "chùa" (temple) and houses of all families in the village. All the people in Vietnam's villages usually have a blood relationship. They are farmers who grow rice and have the same traditional handicraft. Vietnam's villages have an important role in society (Vietnamese saying: "Custom rules the law" -"Phép vua thua lệ làng" [literally: the king's law yields to village customs]). It is common for Vietnamese villagers to prefer to be buried in their village upon death.

Slavic countries
Selo (Cyrillic: село; sioło) is a Slavic word meaning "village" in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. For example, there are numerous sela (села; plural of selo) called Novo Selo (Ново Село, "New Village") in Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia.

Another Slavic word for a village is ves (wieś, wioska; ves, vesnice; ves; vas; весь). In Slovenia, the word selo is used for very small villages (fewer than 100 people) and in dialects; the Slovene word vas is used all over Slovenia. In Russia and Bulgaria, the word ves is archaic, but remains in idioms and locality names, such as Vesyegonsk and Belevehchevo.

The most commonly used word for village in Slovak is dedina (dialectical also dzedzina). The word's etymology may be (or may not be) rooted in the verb dediť ("to inherit"), referencing the inheriting of whole villages or properties within villages by noblemen or wealthy landowners. Another etymology could be related to the Sanskrit word deśá (देश) similar to the Afghan deh, Bengal desh and Indonesian desa. The term ves appears in settlement names (mostly villages, but also some towns that evolved over time from villages). The dialect term for village in east Slovakia is also valal (or valala). Dedina is unrelated to the rarer east Slavic term derevna, which refers to a village with wooden (derevo) housing.

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, the different types of sela vary from a small selo of 5 to 30 families to one of several thousand people. According to a 2002 census, in that year there were 2,385,000 Bulgarian citizens living in settlements classified as villages. A 2004 Human Settlement Profile on Bulgaria conducted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs stated that: "The most intensive is the migration 'city – city'. Approximately 46% of all migrated people have changed their residence from one city to another. The share of the migration processes 'village – city' is significantly less – 23% and 'city – village' – 20%. The migration 'village – village' in 2002 is 11%."

It also stated that "the state of the environment in the small towns and villages is good apart from the low level of infrastructure."

In Bulgaria, it is popular to visit villages for the atmosphere, culture, crafts, hospitality of the people and the surrounding nature. This is called selski turizam (селски туризъм), meaning "village tourism".

Russia

In Russia, as of the 2010 Census, 26.3% of the country's population lives in rural localities; down from 26.7% recorded in the 2002 Census. Multiple types of rural localities exist, but the two most common are derevnya (деревня) and selo (село). Historically, the formal indication of status was religious: a city (gorod, город) had a cathedral, a selo had a church, while a derevnya had neither.

The lowest administrative unit of the Russian Empire, a volost, or its Soviet or modern Russian successor, a selsoviet, was typically headquartered in a selo and embraced a few neighboring villages.

In the 1960s–1970s, the depopulation of the smaller villages was driven by the central planners' drive in order to get the farm workers out of smaller, "prospectless" hamlets and into the collective or state farms' main villages or even larger towns and cities, with more amenities.

Most Russian rural residents are involved in agricultural work, and it is very common for villagers to produce their own food. As prosperous urbanites purchase village houses for their second homes, Russian villages sometimes are transformed into dacha settlements, used mostly for seasonal residence.

The historically Cossack regions of Southern Russia and parts of Ukraine, with their fertile soil and absence of serfdom, had a rather different pattern of settlement from central and northern Russia. While peasants of central Russia lived in a village around the lord's manor, a Cossack family often lived on its own farm, called khutor. A number of such khutors plus a central village made up the administrative unit with a center in a stanitsa (станица; станиця). Such stanitsas, often with a few thousand residents, were usually larger than a typical selo in central Russia.

Ukraine
In Ukraine, a village, (село, ), is considered the lowest administrative unit. Villages are under the jurisdiction of a hromada administration.

There is another smaller type of rural settlement which is designated in Ukrainian as a selyshche (селище). This type of community is often referred to in English as a "settlement". In the new law about populated places in Ukraine the term "selyshche", has a specific meaning. In the past the word "selyshche" was more ambiguous and there were distinction between rural selyshche and selyshche miskoho typu (urban-type settlement), abbreviated smt in Ukrainian. There we also dacha, fisherman, etc. selyshches

The khutir (хутір) and stanytsia (станиця) are not part of the administrative division any longer, primarily due to collectivization. Khutirs were very small rural localities consisting of just few housing units and were sort of individual farms. They became really popular during the Stolypin reform in the early 20th century. During the collectivization, however, residents of such settlements were usually declared to be kulaks and had all their property confiscated and distributed to others (nationalized) without any compensation. The stanitsa likewise has not survived as an administrative term. The stanitsa was a type of a collective community that could include one or more settlements such as villages, khutirs, and others. Today, stanitsa-type formations have only survived in Kuban (Russian Federation) where Ukrainians were resettled during the time of the Russian Empire.

Ashkenazi Jewish culture
A shtetl (plural shtetlekh) was a small market town or village with a majority Jewish population in central and eastern Europe. The word shtetl is Yiddish, derived from the word shtot (town) with the suffix -l, a diminutive. Shtetlekh first began to appear in the 13th century, and were characteristic aspects of Jewish life in central and Eastern Europe until the 1940s. The shtetl occupies an important place in Jewish collective memory (particularly the history of Ashkenazi Jews) and has been depicted extensively in literature, visual art, theatre, and film, including such examples as the writing of Mendele Mocher Sforim, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Sholem Aleichem. Sholem Aleichem's Tevye the Dairyman stories, set in the fictional shtetl of Anatevka, were eventually adapted into the Fiddler on the Roof stage play (which itself was later adapted for film).

During the Holocaust, most shtetlekh were depopulated of their Jewish communities through mass deportations or liquidations. Many are memorialized in yizkor books, written testimonies that describe the histories of Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust.

France
The Insee classifies French communes into four groups according to population density:

 * 1) Communes with high population density
 * 2) Communes with intermediate population density
 * 3) Communes with low population density
 * 4) Communes with very low population density

A commune in Group 3 or 4 is considered as a village (commune rurale).

An independent association named Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (affiliated to the international association The Most Beautiful Villages in the World), was created in 1982 to promote assets of small and picturesque French villages of quality heritage. As of July 2023, 172 villages in France have been listed in "The Most Beautiful Villages of France".

Germany
In Germany a Dorf (village) usually consists of at least a few houses but can have up to a few thousand inhabitants. Larger villages can also be referred to as a Flecken or Markt depending on the region. Smaller villages usually do not have their own government. Instead, they are part (Ortsteil) of the municipality of a nearby town.

Italy

In Italy, villages are spread throughout the country. No legal definition of village exists in Italian law; nonetheless, a settlement inhabited by less than 2000 people is usually described as "village". More often, Italian villages that are a part of a municipality are called frazione, whereas the village that hosts the municipal seat is called paese (town) or capoluogo.

A non-profit private association of small Italian towns of strong historical and artistic interest named I Borghi più belli d'Italia (The most beautiful Villages of Italy) and affiliated to the international association The Most Beautiful Villages in the World, was created in 2001 on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the National Association of Italian Municipalities with the aim of preserving and maintaining villages of quality heritage. Its motto is Il fascino dell'Italia nascosta ("The charm of hidden Italy"). As of November 2023, 361 villages in Italy have been listed in "The Most Beautiful Villages of Italy".

Spain
In Spain, a village (pueblo) refers to a small population unit, smaller than a town (villa [an archaic term that survives only in official uses, such as the official name of Spain's capital, "la Villa de Madrid"]) and a city (ciudad), typically located in a rural environment. While commonly it is the smallest administrative unit (municipio), it is possible for a village to be legally composed of smaller population units in its territory. There is not a clear-cut distinction between villages, towns and cities in Spain, since they had been traditionally categorized according to their religious importance and their relationship with surrounding population units.

Portugal
Villages are more usual in the northern and central regions, Azores Islands and in the Alentejo. Most of them have a church and a "Casa do Povo" (people's house), where the village's summer romarias or religious festivities are usually held. Summer is also when many villages are host to a range of folk festivals and fairs, taking advantage of the fact that many of the locals who reside abroad tend to come back to their native village for the holidays.

Netherlands
In the flood-prone districts of the Netherlands, particularly in the northern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, villages were traditionally built on low man-made hills called terpen before the introduction of regional dyke-systems. In modern days, the term dorp (lit. "village") is usually applied to settlements no larger than 20,000, though there's no official law regarding status of settlements in the Netherlands.

United Kingdom
A village in the UK is a compact settlement of houses, smaller in size than a town, and generally based on agriculture or, in some areas, mining (such as Ouston, County Durham), quarrying or sea fishing. They are very similar to those in Ireland. The major factors in the type of settlement are: location of water sources, organization of agriculture and landholding, and likelihood of flooding. For example, in areas such as the Lincolnshire Wolds, the villages are often found along the spring line halfway down the hillsides, and originate as spring line settlements, with the original open field systems around the village. In northern Scotland, most villages are planned to a grid pattern located on or close to major roads, whereas in areas such as the Forest of Arden, woodland clearances produced small hamlets around village greens. Because of the topography of the Clent Hills the north Worcestershire village of Clent is an example of a village with no centre but instead consists of series of hamlets scattered on and around the Hills.

Some villages have disappeared (for example, deserted medieval villages), sometimes leaving behind a church or manor house and sometimes nothing but bumps in the fields. Some show archaeological evidence of settlement at three or four different layers, each distinct from the previous one. Clearances may have been to accommodate sheep or game estates, or enclosure, or may have resulted from depopulation, such as after the Black Death or following a move of the inhabitants to more prosperous districts. Other villages have grown and merged and often form hubs within the general mass of suburbia—such as Hampstead, London and Didsbury in Manchester. Many villages are now predominantly dormitory locations and have suffered the loss of shops, churches and other facilities.

For many British people, the village represents an ideal of Great Britain. Seen as being far from the bustle of modern life, it is represented as quiet and harmonious, if a little inward-looking. This concept of an unspoilt Arcadia is present in many popular representations of the village such as the radio serial The Archers or the best kept village competitions. Many villages in South Yorkshire, north Nottinghamshire, north east Derbyshire, County Durham, South Wales and Northumberland are known as pit villages. These (such as Murton, County Durham) grew from hamlets when the sinking of a colliery in the early 20th century resulted in a rapid growth in their population and the colliery owners built new housing, shops, pubs and churches. Some pit villages outgrew nearby towns by area and population; for example, Rossington in South Yorkshire came to have over four times more people than the nearby town of Bawtry. Some pit villages grew to become towns; for example, Maltby in South Yorkshire grew from 600 people in the 19th century to over 17,000 in 2007. Maltby was constructed under the auspices of the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Company and included ample open spaces and provision for gardens.

In the UK, the main historical distinction between a hamlet and a village was that the latter had a church, and so usually was the centre of worship for an ecclesiastical parish. However, some civil parishes may contain more than one village. The typical village had a pub or inn, shops, and a blacksmith. But many of these facilities are now gone, and many villages are dormitories for commuters. The population of such settlements ranges from a few hundred people to around five thousand. A village is distinguished from a town in that:
 * A village should not have a regular agricultural market, although today such markets are uncommon even in settlements which clearly are towns.
 * A village does not have a town hall nor a mayor.
 * If a village is the principal settlement of a civil parish, then any administrative body that administers it at parish level should be called a parish council or parish meeting, and not a town council or city council. However, some civil parishes have no functioning parish, town, or city council nor a functioning parish meeting. In Wales, where the equivalent of an English civil parish is called a Community, the body that administers it is called a Community Council. However, larger councils may elect to call themselves town councils. In Scotland, the equivalent is also a community council, however, despite being statutory bodies they have no executive powers.
 * There should be a clear green belt or open fields, as, for example, seen on aerial maps for Ouston surrounding its parish borders. However this may not be applicable to urbanised villages: although these may not be considered to be villages, they are often widely referred to as being so; an example of this is Horsforth in Leeds.

Lebanon
Like France, villages in Lebanon are usually located in remote mountainous areas. The majority of villages in Lebanon retain their Aramaic names or are derivative of the Aramaic names, and this is because Aramaic was still in use in Mount Lebanon up to the 18th century.

Many of the Lebanese villages are a part of districts, these districts are known as "kadaa" which includes the districts of Baabda (Baabda), Aley (Aley), Matn (Jdeideh), Keserwan (Jounieh), Chouf (Beiteddine), Jbeil (Byblos), Tripoli (Tripoli), Zgharta (Zgharta / Ehden), Bsharri (Bsharri), Batroun (Batroun), Koura (Amioun), Miniyeh-Danniyeh (Minyeh / Sir Ed-Danniyeh), Zahle (Zahle), Rashaya (Rashaya), Western Beqaa (Jebjennine / Saghbine), Sidon (Sidon), Jezzine (Jezzine), Tyre (Tyre), Nabatiyeh (Nabatiyeh), Marjeyoun (Marjeyoun), Hasbaya (Hasbaya), Bint Jbeil (Bint Jbeil), Baalbek (Baalbek), and Hermel (Hermel).

The district of Danniyeh consists of thirty-six small villages, which includes Almrah, Kfirchlan, Kfirhbab, Hakel al Azimah, Siir, Bakhoun, Miryata, Assoun, Sfiiri, Kharnoub, Katteen, Kfirhabou, Zghartegrein, Ein Qibil.

Danniyeh (known also as Addinniyeh, Al Dinniyeh, Al Danniyeh, Arabic: سير الضنية) is a region located in Miniyeh-Danniyeh District in the North Governorate of Lebanon. The region lies east of Tripoli, extends north as far as Akkar District, south to Bsharri District and Zgharta District and as far east as Baalbek and Hermel. Dinniyeh has an excellent ecological environment filled with woodlands, orchards and groves. Several villages are located in this mountainous area, the largest town being Sir Al Dinniyeh.

An example of a typical mountainous Lebanese village in Dannieh would be Hakel al Azimah which is a small village that belongs to the district of Danniyeh, situated between Bakhoun and Assoun's boundaries. It is in the centre of the valleys that lie between the Arbeen Mountains and the Khanzouh.

Syria
Syria contains a large number of villages that vary in size and importance, including the ancient, historical and religious villages, such as Ma'loula, Sednaya, and Brad (Mar Maroun's time). The diversity of the Syrian environments creates significant differences between the Syrian villages in terms of the economic activity and the method of adoption. Villages in the south of Syria (Hauran, Jabal al-Druze), the north-east (the Syrian island) and the Orontes River basin depend mostly on agriculture, mainly grain, vegetables, and fruits. Villages in the region of Damascus and Aleppo depend on trading. Some other villages, such as Marmarita depend heavily on tourist activity.

Mediterranean cities in Syria, such as Tartus and Latakia have similar types of villages. Mainly, villages were built in very good sites which had the fundamentals of the rural life, like water. An example of a Mediterranean Syrian village in Tartus would be al-Annazah, which is a small village that belongs to the area of al-Sauda. The area of al-Sauda is called a nahiya.

Oceania
Pacific Islands Communities on Pacific islands were historically called villages by English speakers who traveled and settled in the area. Some communities such as several Villages of Guam continue to be called villages despite having large populations that can exceed 40,000 residents.

New Zealand The traditional Māori village was the pā, a fortified hill-top settlement. Tree-fern logs and flax were the main building materials. As in Australia (see below) the term is now used mainly in respect of shopping or other planned areas.

Australia The term village often is used in reference to small planned communities such as retirement communities or shopping districts, and tourist areas such as ski resorts. Small rural communities are usually known as townships. Larger settlements are known as towns.

South America
Argentina Usually set in remote mountainous areas, some also cater to winter sports or tourism. See Uspallata, La Cumbrecita, Villa Traful and La Cumbre.

Guyana In various areas villages can still be found in Guyana. While many are now towns, there are several areas on river banks, and communities off central roads that are still locally considered villages.

Uruguay Village or "villa" is one of the three levels at which the government classifies urbanizations or "localidades", a "villa" is highest rank than a "pueblo" which is the lowest unit and lower than a city or "ciudad", which is the highest rank. This organization is more related with notability than size, since there is no official criteria to determine the level of urbanization. Every urbanization is a "pueblo" unless is elevated by decree to the next category. Historically this was a faculty of the executive power but more recently this faculty was transferred to the legislative. However colloquial speech still refers as "pueblo" to most "villas" and even cities and many names preceded by the word "villa" could represent other standard, such as "Villa del Cerro" or "Villa Serrana".

North America
In contrast to the Old World, the concept of village in Canada and the United States today is largely disconnected from its rural and communal origins. The situation is different in Mexico because of its large bulk of indigenous population living in traditional villages.

Canada
It is believed that the name Canada may be a transliteration of the Iroquoisan word for "village". Jacques Cartier was given directions to the Kanata of Kebec and it became the name of the French Colonial district before it was the nation's name.

Incorporated villages
In twenty U.S. states, the term "village" refers to a specific form of incorporated municipal government, similar to a city but with less authority and geographic scope. However, this is a generality; in many states, there are villages that are an order of magnitude larger than the smallest cities in the state. The distinction is not necessarily based on population, but on the relative powers granted to the different types of municipalities and correspondingly, different obligations to provide specific services to residents.

In some states such as New York and Michigan, a village is an incorporated municipality, within a single town or civil township. In some cases, the village may be coterminous with the town or township, in which case the two may have a consolidated government. There are also villages that span the boundaries of more than one town or township; some villages may straddle county borders.

There is no population limit to villages in New York. Hempstead, the largest village, has 55,000 residents, making it more populous than some of the state's cities. However, villages in the state may not exceed 5 sqmi in area. Michigan and Illinois also have no set population limit for villages and there are many villages that are larger than cities in those states. The village of Schaumburg, Illinois had 78,723 residents as of the 2020 census. A village also has no written figure against how small a population can be, with the United States' smallest incorporated village being Dering Harbor, NY, with a population of just over 10.

In Michigan, a village is always legally part of a township. Villages can incorporate land in multiple townships and even multiple counties. The largest village in the state is Beverly Hills in Southfield Township which had a population of 10,267 people as of the 2010 census.

In the state of Wisconsin, a village is always legally separate from the towns that it has been incorporated from. The largest village is Menomonee Falls, which has over 32,000 residents. In Pennsylvania law, the term borough is used to refer to the same type of entity. 80% of Pennsylvania's 956 boroughs have populations of less than 5,000 but about thirty have populations of over 10,000 with State College having more than 40,000 residents.

In Ohio villages are usually legally part of the township from which they were incorporated, although exceptions such as Hiram exist, in which the village is separate from the township. Villages become cities if they grow to a population of at least 5,000.

In Maryland, a locality designated "Village of ..." may be either an incorporated town or a special tax district. An example of the latter is the Village of Friendship Heights.

In North Carolina, the only difference between cities, towns, and villages is the term itself.

Unincorporated villages
In many states, the term "village" is used to refer to a relatively small unincorporated community, similar to a hamlet in New York state. This informal usage may be found even in states that have villages as an incorporated municipality, although such usage might be considered incorrect and confusing.

In most New England states, a "village" is a center of population or trade, including the town center, in an otherwise sparsely developed town or city — for instance, the village of Hyannis in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts. However, in Vermont and Connecticut, both incorporated and unincorporated villages exist.

Nigeria

Villages in Nigeria vary significantly because of cultural and geographical differences.

Northern Nigeria

In the North, villages were under traditional rulers long before the Jihad of Shaikh Uthman Bin Fodio and after the Holy War. At that time Traditional rulers used to have absolute power in their administrative regions. After Dan Fodio's Jihad in 1804, political structure of the North became Islamic where emirs were the political, administrative and spiritual leaders of their people. These emirs appointed a number of people to assist them in running the administration and that included villages.

Every Hausa village was reigned by Magaji (Village head) who was answerable to his Hakimi (mayor) at the town level. The Magaji also had his cabinet who assisted him in ruling his village efficiently, among whom was Mai-Unguwa (Ward Head).

With the creation of Native Authority in Nigerian provinces, the autocratic power of village heads along with all other traditional rulers was subdued hence they ruled 'under the guidance of colonial officials'.

Even though the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has not recognised the functions of traditional rulers, they still command respect in their villages and political office holders liaise with them almost every time to reach people.

In Hausa language, village is called ƙauye and every local government area is made up of several small and large ƙauyuka (villages). For instance, Girka is a village in Kaita town in Katsina state in Nigeria. They have mud houses with thatched roofing though, like in most of the villages in the North, zinc roofing has become a common sight.

Still in many villages in the North, people do not have access to potable water. So they fetch water from ponds and streams. Others are lucky to have wells within a walking distance. Women rush in the morning to fetch water in their clay pots from wells, boreholes and streams. However, the government is now providing them with water bore holes.

Electricity and GSM network are reaching more and more villages in the North almost every day. So bad feeder roads may lead to remote villages with electricity and unstable GSM network.

Southern Nigeria Village dwellers in the Southeastern region lived separately in "clusters of huts belonging to the patrilinage". As the rainforest region is dominated by Igbo speaking people, the villages are called ime obodo (inside town) in Igbo language. A typical large village might have a few thousand persons who shared the same market, meeting place and beliefs.

South Africa
In South Africa the majority of people in rural areas reside in villages. They vary in size from having a population of less than 500 to around 1000.

Settlement types

 * Dugout
 * Fishing village
 * Hamlet

Countries and localities

 * Dhani and villages
 * Dogon villages
 * Hakka architecture
 * Kampong (village)
 * Ksar
 * List of villages in Europe by country
 * Pueblo
 * Sołectwo (rough equivalent in Poland)
 * Ville
 * Developed environments
 * Developed environments
 * City
 * Exurban
 * Megalopolis
 * Pedestrian village
 * Rural
 * Suburban
 * Urban area

Associations

 * The Most Beautiful Villages in the World
 * Les Plus Beaux Villages de France
 * Les Plus Beaux Villages de Wallonie
 * Association of the Most Beautiful Villages of Quebec
 * I Borghi più belli d'Italia
 * The Most Beautiful Villages in Japan
 * The Most Beautiful Villages in Russia

title: Village