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Ringo Lam

Ringo Lam Ling-Tung (, 8 December 1955 – 29 December 2018) was a Hong Kong film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was known for his action and crime films produced during the Hong Kong New Wave, many of them comprising entries in the heroic bloodshed subgenre. He was nominated for six Hong Kong Film Awards, winning Best Director for his 1987 film City on Fire, which he followed with other similar films that shared a dark view of Hong Kong society, collectively known as the "On Fire" cycle.

Lam's other notable films include Aces Go Places IV (1986), Prison on Fire (1987), Undeclared War (1990), Twin Dragons (1992, co-directed with Tsui Hark), and Full Contact (1992). Many of his films starred Chow Yun-fat. He also directed several films in the United States, beginning with 1996's Maximum Risk, with Jean-Claude Van Damme. He would continue working on film productions in both Hong Kong and two more American productions with Damme until 2003.

In 2016, he won the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award for Best Director for his Wild City, his first film in 8 years. His final film, a segment in the omnibus Septet: The Story of Hong Kong, was released posthumously in 2020, two years after his death.

Early life and background
Ringo Lam was born in British Hong Kong in 8 December 1955. Lam started his career by enrolling in the TVB Actors Training Program in 1973. At the program, he met Chow Yun Fat with whom he would later collaborate on several films. He graduated from the training program in 1974 alongside Chow. After taking a few acting roles, Lam went to Canada and studied film at York University in Toronto. Lam returned to Hong Kong in 1981.

1980s
Lam's first four films were not written by him. Lam took over as director for Po-Chih Leong after he had finished about one-third of the film Esprit d'amour as the film's producer Karl Maka needed a cheap replacement and hired him. Lam explained that he had "no choice, I need food, so I do the best I can ..." Lam received sole directing credit for the film. The film was released on 15 December 1983 in Hong Kong. Lam's next feature film was The Other Side of Gentleman, which was released 28 June 1984 in Hong Kong. Lam followed this with the romantic comedy film Cupid One released 1985. The film grossed HK$6,382,935, which was less than his previous two films which both grossed over ten million Hong Kong dollars. Lam's next film was the fourth film in the Aces Go Places film series, Aces Go Places IV. Lam stated in interviews that he directed the film as a favor to Karl Maka, who helped give Lam his start. The film was very successful at the box office grossing HK$27,012,748 in Hong Kong.

After Aces Go Places IV, Karl Maka allowed Lam to make whatever type of film he wanted. Lam's had two films released in 1987. one of which was the first of his On Fire films, City on Fire. The film is a gangster movie which was made in Hong Kong in the footsteps of A Better Tomorrow (1986) which re-invented the gangster film genre in Hong Kong. The film was released on 13 February 1987 and earned $19,723,505 in Hong Kong. Lam won the award for Best Director award at the 1987 Hong Kong Film Awards for City on Fire. Lam's next film that year was Prison on Fire which had a script that was written in nine days while the film was shot in 20 days.

In 1988, along with Karl Maka, Lam had a brief acting role in the film The Eighth Happiness. Lam then continued his On Fire series with School on Fire which was released in Hong Kong on 20 August 1988. School on Fire was edited with many scenes censored on its release in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Lam's final film of the 1980s was Wild Search released in 1989. It grossed a total of HK$15,944,333 in Hong Kong.

1990s
Lam's first film of the 1990s was Undeclared War released in 1990. The film contained an international cast including Olivia Hussey, Peter Lapis, Danny Lee and Vernon Wells. The film was not as popular as Lam's previous films in Hong Kong, grossing HK$5,523,958. Lam's next film Touch and Go was released on 16 May 1991 in Hong Kong. The film was a comedy starring Sammo Hung. Lam stated in interviews that Touch and Go was an assignment took for hire in order to keep himself in the film business. The film grossed less than Undeclared War in Hong Kong. Lam released a second film in 1991 titled Prison on Fire II. The film was very popular with Hong Kong audiences where it grossed $24,367,261. Lam's next film Twin Dragons had him partnered with Tsui Hark as a director. According to Hark, Lam handled most of the action scenes in the film. Lam also briefly appears in the film as a car mechanic. Lam's next film Full Contact was released in Hong Kong on 23 July 1992. It grossed a total of HK$16,793,011. Lam followed it up with Burning Paradise which differed from his previous films by being a period film featuring the Chinese folk hero Fong Sai-yuk opposed a film set in an urban environ. The film was poorly received at the box office in Hong Kong, being the 145th highest-grossing film of the year. In 1995, Lam directed another period film set in 1975 starring Andy Lau titled The Adventurers. The film was shot partially in the Philippines and the United States and grossed HK$14,839,584 in Hong Kong.

In 1996, Lam made his American debut with the film Maximum Risk starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was not a big draw at the box office. Lam returned to Hong Kong where he shot his next film Full Alert which was budgeted at $13 million. The film was shown at film festivals in 1997 including Rotterdam and Berlin. Full Alert was nominated for five awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards and won the award for best film and best actor (Lau Ching-wan) at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards. Lam followed up Full Alert the next year with The Suspect which was shot in the Philippines. The Suspect was not as financially successful as Full Alert, grossing around ten million less. In 1998, Variety announced that Lam would direct the film Simon Sez with Kevin Elders. Lam later only contributed to the film as a producer. Lam directed a Hong Kong production titled Victim. The film featured a supernatural storyline and had its ending changed on its Hong Kong theatrical release. Half of the release prints contained a scene stating whether or not the actor was possessed by a ghost. The other half of the movie reflected the original script and did not reveal this.

21st century
Lam's second U.S.-based production, Replicant, was released in 2001. The film was screened theatrically in France on 11 July 2001. The film was released direct-to-video in the United States. Lam directed two more films in 2003: the Hong Kong production Looking for Mister Perfect and the American direct-to-video release In Hell starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Lam next took a break from filmmaking after finding dissatisfaction with the filming environment in Hong Kong after Finding Mr. Perfect did poorly in the box office. Lam also stated that he wanted to spend more time with his family and "above all, to observe people and learn more about them. I wanted to seek resources, material, and subjects that were worth making into films."

In 2007, Lam co-directed a section of the portmanteau film Triangle with Tsui Hark and Johnnie To. Lam stated that his story in the film represented "a metaphor of my attitude towards filmmaking: It is always a love-hate process." The film was screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2014, the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily reported that Lam would return to directing with a film with funding from Mei Ah Entertainment with a cast to include Daniel Wu and Shawn Yue. The film began production in June 2014. The film marked Lam's first feature-length film in over a decade Lam's new film was titled Wild City. Lam stated that he returned to filming after his son had graduated from college and that he would "like to make films that allow me to express myself. It's a device for me to unburden myself, to get things off my chest, and also a mirror to learn more about myself through the film I made. I don't make films for money anymore." Lam attended the New York Asian Film Festival in 2015 where he was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lam's last film, Sky on Fire, was released in 2016; it is the last installment in his "On Fire" series.

On 29 December 2018, Lam was confirmed dead at his Hong Kong residence at age 63, after his wife found him unresponsive in his bed. Lam had been working on a film "Eight and a Half" with Milkyway Image with Ann Hui, John Woo, Tsui Hark, Patrick Tam, Johnnie To, Sammo Hung and Yuen Woo-Ping. Each director was to create a segment based on Hong Kong history. Without Woo's segment, the film's title was changed to Septet: The Story of Hong Kong and the film was originally set for a release at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. The film was screened at the Busan International Film Festival on 21 October 2020.

Style
Lam's first four films were comedies not written by Lam. When Lam began to shoot the films he wanted to make after the success of Aces Go Places IV, he began his On Fire series. Lam chose the English titles for these films stating that it gave them "a sense of energy, of action". The films City on Fire, Prison on Fire and School on Fire do not share any characters or situations, but all have a common bleak view on Hong Kong society. In these films, Lam looks at controversial issues such as street violence and the abuse of street, prison and school systems.

Lam rarely employed Cantopop in his films. Lam's films often have Western music, such as City on Fire, which features a blues-oriented saxophone score, and Full Contact, which uses American rock music.

title: Ringo Lam


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Aranyani

Aranyani (अरण्यानि) is the goddess of forests and the wild animals that dwell within them in Hinduism.

Literature
Aranyani has the distinction of having one of the most descriptive hymns in the Rigveda dedicated to her. The Aranyani Suktam (Hymn 146 in the 10th mandala of the Rigveda) describes her as being elusive, fond of quiet glades in the jungle, and fearless of remote places. In the hymn, the supplicant entreats her to explain how she wanders so far from the fringe of civilisation without becoming afraid or lonely. She wears anklets with bells, and though seldom seen, she can be heard by the tinkling of her anklets. She is also described as a dancer. Her ability to feed both man and animals though she 'tills no lands' is what the supplicant finds most marvellous. The hymn is repeated in Taittiriya Brahmana and interpreted by the commentator of that work.

Aranyani bears resemblance to latter day forest deities like Banbibi in West Bengal, Vanadevata in Goa and Konkan region, Vanadurga in parts of South India. Her worship has declined in modern-day Hinduism, and it is rare to find a temple dedicated to Aranyani. However, there is one in Arrah, Bihar known as the Aranya Devi Temple.

She is sometimes regarded to be the owner of Kalpavriksha, the divine tree.

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

title: Aranyani


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Sammo Hung

Samuel "Sammo" Hung Kam-bo (born 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreographer for other actors such as Jackie Chan.

Hung is one of the pivotal figures who spearheaded the Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre and started the zombie-like jiangshi genre. He is widely credited with assisting many of his compatriots, giving them their starts in the Hong Kong film industry, by casting them in the films he produced, or giving them roles in the production crew.

Both Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan were often addressed as "Dai Goh", meaning "Big Brother", until the filming of Project A, which featured both actors. As Hung was the eldest of the kung fu "brothers", and the first to make a mark on the industry, he was given the nickname "Dai Goh Dai", meaning "Big, Big Brother", or "Biggest Big Brother".

Early years
Born in Hong Kong, both of his parents worked as wardrobe artists in the local film industry and guardianship was thrust upon his grandparents. His grandmother was archetypal martial art actress Chin Tsi-ang and his grandfather was film director Hung Chung-ho.

Hung joined the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School in Hong Kong, in 1961. He was enrolled for a period of seven years, beginning at the age of 9, after his grandparents heard about the school from their friends. The opera school was run by Master Yu Jim Yuen and as was customary for all students, Hung adopted the given name of his sifu as his family name whilst attending. Going by the name Yuen Lung (元龍), Hung became the foremost member of the Seven Little Fortunes (七小福) performing group, and would establish a friendly rivalry with one of the younger students, Yuen Lo. Yuen Lo would go on to become international superstar Jackie Chan. At the age of 14, Hung was selected by a teacher who had connections to the Hong Kong film industry to perform stunts on a movie. This brief foray into the industry piqued his interest in film and he took particular interest in the operation of film cameras. As the eldest of the troupe, Hung would give his opera school brothers pocket money from his earnings, endearing him greatly to his young friends. Shortly before leaving the Academy at the age of 16, Hung suffered an injury that left him bedridden for an extended period, during which time his weight ballooned. After finding work in the film industry as a stuntman, he was given a nickname after a well-known Chinese cartoon character, Sam-mo (三毛; Three Hairs).

Many years later, in 1988, Hung starred in Alex Law's Painted Faces, a dramatic re-telling of his experiences at the China Drama Academy. Among the exercises featured in the film are numerous acrobatic backflips, and hours of handstands performed against a wall. Despite some of the more brutal exercises and physical punishments shown in Painted Faces, Hung and the rest of the Seven Little Fortunes consider the film a toned-down version of their actual experiences.

1960s and 1970s
Hung appeared as a child actor in several films for Cathay Asia and Bo Bo Films during the early 1960s. His film debut was in the 1961 film Education of Love. In 1962, he made his first appearance alongside Jackie Chan in the film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar, followed by a role in The Birth of Yue Fei, in which he played the ten-year-old Yue Fei, the historical figure from the Song Dynasty who would go on to become a famous Chinese general and martyr. The majority of Hung's performance was alongside another actor portraying Zhou Tong, Yue's elderly military arts tutor. In 1966, at the age of just 14, Hung began working for Shaw Brothers Studio, assisting the action director Han Yingjie, on King Hu's film Come Drink with Me. Between 1966 and 1974, Hung worked on over 30 wuxia films for Shaw Brothers, progressing through the roles of extra, stuntman, stunt co-ordinator and ultimately, action director.

In 1970, Hung began working for Raymond Chow and the Golden Harvest film company. He was initially hired to choreograph the action scenes for the very first Golden Harvest film, The Angry River (1970). His popularity soon began to grow, and due to the quality of his choreography and disciplined approach to his work, he again caught the eye of celebrated Taiwanese director, King Hu. Hung choreographed Hu's The Fate of Lee Khan (1973).

In the same year, Hung went to South Korea to study hapkido under master Ji Han-jae.

Also in 1973, he was seen in the Bruce Lee classic, Enter the Dragon. Hung was the Shaolin student Lee faces in the opening sequence.

In 1975, Hung appeared in The Man from Hong Kong, billed as the first Australian martial arts film.

Toward the late 1970s, Hong Kong cinema began to shift away from the Mandarin-language, epic martial art films popularized by directors such as Chang Cheh. In a series of films, Hung, along with Jackie Chan, began reinterpreting the genre by making comedic Cantonese kungfu. While these films still strongly featured martial arts, it was mixed with a liberal dose of humour.

In 1977, Hung was given his first lead role in a Golden Harvest production, in the film Shaolin Plot. His next film, released the same year, was also his directorial debut, The Iron-Fisted Monk, one of the earliest martial art comedies.

In 1978, Raymond Chow gave Hung the task of completing the fight co-ordination for the re-shoot of Game of Death, the film Bruce Lee was unable to complete before his death in 1973.

In 1978, Hung directed his second film, the comedy Enter the Fat Dragon, for H.K. Fong Ming Motion Picture Company, also playing the lead role Ah Lung; a character who idolises and impersonates Bruce Lee. Hung has impersonated Lee on film twice more - in the final fight scene against Cynthia Rothrock in Millionaire's Express (1986), and throughout the 1990 Lau Kar-wing film Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon.

After Jackie Chan's success with Drunken Master (1978), Hung was scheduled to make a similar film featuring Drunken Master's "Beggar So" character played by Yuen Siu Tien (aka Simon Yuen). As his elder, Sammo's films were expected to surpass Chan's in popularity. The film was The Magnificent Butcher (1979), which Hung co-directed with Yuen Woo-ping. However, during filming Yuen Siu Tien died of a heart attack. He was replaced by Fan Mei Sheng and Yuen's absence may have led to low ticket sales.

1980s
As Hung's fame grew, he used his newly found influence to assist his former China Drama Academy classmates, as well as the former students of "rival" school, The Spring and Autumn Drama School. Aside from regular collaborations with Chan, others such as Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-ying and Mang Hoi also began to make regular appearances in his films.

In 1978 and 1981, Hung made two films that contain fine examples of the Wing Chun style. The first, Warriors Two was the most significant role to date for South Korean super kicker Casanova Wong, who teamed up with Hung in the final fight. The second film was The Prodigal Son, in which the Wing Chun fighting was performed by Lam Ching-Ying. The release of The Prodigal Son, along with another film directed by and co-starring Hung, Knockabout (1979) also shot his fellow Opera schoolmate Yuen Biao to stardom.

Hung's martial arts films of the 1980s helped reconfigure how martial arts were presented on screen. While the martial arts films of the 1970s generally featured highly stylised fighting sequences in period or fantasy settings, Hung's choreography, set in modern urban areas, was more realistic and frenetic - featuring long one-on-one fight scenes. The fight sequences from several of these films, such as those in Winners and Sinners (1982) and Wheels on Meals (1985) came to define 1980s martial arts movies.

In 1983, the collaboration between the triumvirate of Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao began with Chan's Project A. Hung, Chan and Yuen were known as the 'Three Dragons' and their alliance lasted for 5 years. Although Yuen continued to appear in the films of Hung and Chan, the final film to date starring all three was 1988's Dragons Forever.

Hung was also responsible for the Lucky Stars comedy film series in the 1980s. He directed and co-starred in the original trilogy, Winners and Sinners (1983), My Lucky Stars (1985) and Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars (1985). These first three films featured Chan and Biao in supporting roles. Hung also produced and played a supporting role in the fourth film, Lucky Stars Go Places (1986), and made a cameo appearance in the sixth and final film, How to Meet the Lucky Stars (1996).

During the 1980s, Hung was instrumental in the creating the jiangshi genre—a "jiangshi" being hopping re-animated corpses - a Chinese equivalent to Western vampires. Two landmark films, Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980) and The Dead and the Deadly (1983) featured jiangshi who move in standing jumps towards their victims, as well as Taoist priests with the ability to quell these vampires (and at times, each other) through magical spells and charms. Hung's jiangshi films would pave the way for films such as the popular Mr. Vampire (1985), which he also produced, and its sequels. He revitalised the subgenre of female-led martial art films, producing cop films such as Yes, Madam a.k.a. Police Assassins (1985), which introduced stars Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock.

Film
After some relatively poor performances at the domestic box-office, Hung had a dispute with studio head, Raymond Chow. Hung had produced the thriller Into the Fire (1989), but Hung felt Golden Harvest had withdrawn the film from cinemas too soon. The disagreement led to Hung parting company with Golden Harvest in 1991, after 21 years with the company.

Whilst continuing to produce films through his own company Bojon Films Company Ltd, Hung failed to equal his early successes. His fortunes improved somewhat as the helmer of Mr. Nice Guy (1997), a long-awaited reunion with Chan.

In 1994, Hung coordinated the fight sequences in Wong Kar-wai's wuxia epic, Ashes of Time.

Television
In 1998, US television network CBS began to broadcast Martial Law (1998–2000) on Saturday nights, an action-drama built around Hung. The hour-long shows were a surprise success and installed Hung as the only East Asian headlining a prime time network series. The television series was executive produced and occasionally directed by Stanley Tong, and co-starred Arsenio Hall. Hung reportedly recited some of his English dialogue phonetically.

Film
During 2000–2001, Hung expressed interest in creating a film adaptation of the video game Soulcalibur. The production agreement for the film was made around April 2001 with an estimated budget of $50 million. Hung had the idea of producing a martial arts epic with Chen Lung Jackie Chan in the lead role, but the film was never made. Hung's plans were detailed on his website, but after a year the announcement was removed. The film rights have since been acquired by Warren Zide, the producer of American Pie and Final Destination. No film ever materialized.

Hung found renewed success in the Hong Kong film industry in the 2000s, beginning with The Legend of Zu (2001), the long-awaited sequel to the 1983 hit Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain. In 2004, Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle was released. Though Yuen Woo-ping was credited for the martial arts choreography on Kung Fu Hustle, Hung actually did the preliminary work but left the film midway through, and Yuen filled in to complete it. Because of his departure from the film, there was tabloid speculation that he and Chow had strong differences over the film, resulting in their separation. Chow has since responded that Hung left for personal reasons and not because of speculated tensions. In 2004, Hung again worked with Jackie Chan, in a brief but notable appearance in Disney's Around the World in 80 Days as the legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hung, a character played by Chan in the Drunken Master series.

In 2005, Hung was involved in Daniel Lee's Dragon Squad and Wilson Yip's SPL: Sha Po Lang (aka Kill Zone). In the latter, Hung played a villain for the first time in over 25 years, and had his first ever fight scene against Donnie Yen. One of the key relationships in SPL had been Hung's role as the adoptive father of Wu Jing's character. However, these scenes were dropped from the final film as the director couldn't find a way to fit them into the film. In response to this, a prequel film was planned. Hung appeared alongside Wu Jing again in 2007's Twins Mission with stars, the Twins. In early 2008, Hung starred in Fatal Move, in which he and Ken Lo played a pair of rival triad gang leaders. He also starred in, and performed action choreography for, Daniel Lee's Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, with Andy Lau and Maggie Q. The film, was based on the book Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Antony Szeto's film, Wushu, which stars Hung premiered in Beijing in October 2008. The film was unveiled by Golden Network at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Jackie Chan was the film's executive producer, and worked on the film in an advisory capacity, assisting with marketing and casting. Hung then worked again with director Wilson Yip and star Donnie Yen, as the action director for the 2008 film Ip Man.

In 2010, Hung was given a lifetime achievement award at the New York Asian Film Festival, where four of his films were shown. That year Hung appeared in Ip Man 2, which he also choreographed. His role is that of a Hung Gar master who challenges Ip Man. In the same year, Hung appeared in the movie The Legend Is Born: Ip Man as well. He acts as Chan Wah-shun, the martial arts teacher of Ip Man.

The annual and highly anticipated Hong Kong International Film Festival was held for its 45th edition in April 2021. Hung is one of the six veteran Hong Kong filmmakers who directed renowned local director Johnnie To Kei-fung's highly anticipated anthology series : "Septet: The Story of Hong Kong" (2022). The other filmmakers include Ringo Lam, Ann Hui On-wah, Patrick Tam Kar Ming, Tsui Hark, Yuen Woo-ping and Johnnie To. The short files were shot entirely on 35mm film with each of them touches on a nostalgic and moving story set across different time periods, with every one acting as an ode to the city.

Television
In between films and special appearances, Hung has appeared in several East Asian television series. In 2003 he was in two mainland Chinese series: Undercover Cop with Fan Bingbing, followed by The Valley of Lost Vengeance (aka End Enmity Hollow). More recently, he played a master con-artist in the Taiwanese series Coming Lies and Wing Chun master Wong Wah-bo in Wing Chun, reprising the role he played in The Prodigal Son over 20 years earlier. He co-starred in the series alongside Yuen Biao, Nicholas Tse and his youngest son, Sammy Hung.

Hung appeared as a guest judge on the China Beijing TV Station reality television series The Disciple, which aired in mainland China and was produced by, and featured, Jackie Chan. The aim of the program was to find a new star, skilled in acting and martial arts, to become Chan's "successor", the champion being awarded the lead role in a film. It concluded on 7 June 2008, with the series winner announced in Beijing.

In another mainland Chinese television series, The Shaolin Warriors, set during the Ming Dynasty, Hung played Big Foot, a Shaolin warrior monk joining General Qi Jiguang's marines to help defend the nation against Japanese pirates. Sammy Hung also has a role, as Big Foot's disciple.

Filmography
Hung has starred in 75 films, and worked on over 230, beginning as a child actor whilst still attending the China Drama Academy. Upon leaving the opera school, he worked as an extra and stuntman, and progressed through other roles including fight choreographer, stunt co-ordinator, action director, actor, writer, producer and director.

Most recently, Hung has starred in the 2017 historic action film God of War.

Gar Bo Motion Picture Company
In 1978 Sammo Hung formed Gar Bo Motion Picture Company, a subsidiary of Golden Harvest, with director Karl Maka and former actor-choreographer Lau Kar Wing (brother of actors Lau Kar-leung and Gordon Liu). The company's name consists of the "Gar" sound from Lau Kar Wing and Karl Maka (Mak Kar), and "Bo" from Hung Kam Bo.). The company disbanded in 1980, when Maka moved on to form Cinema City & Films Co. with Raymond Wong and Dean Shek. Gar Bo released two films, both starring Hung and Lau:

 * Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog (1978)
 * Odd Couple (1979)

Bo Ho Film Company Ltd.
1980 saw Raymond Chow pull one of Hung's films from local cinemas after just two weeks. Hung responded by starting his own production company, Bo Ho Film Company Ltd., allowing him to have greater control in producing Hong Kong films. While Bo Ho produced, Golden Harvest still operated as distributors. In all, 44 films were released by Bo Ho, several of which starred Hung:

D&B Films Company Ltd
In 1983, Hung co-founded another production company, D&B Films Company Ltd ("D&B" being short for "Duk-Bo"), with Dickson Poon and John Shum. The company operated until 1992 and produced a total of 68 Hong Kong films:

Bojon Films Company Ltd
In 1980, Hung formed a production company, Bojon Films Company Ltd. The company produced 12 films, 8 of which starred Hung:

 * Two Toothless Tigers (1980)
 * Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars (1985)
 * Spooky, Spooky (1988)
 * Pedicab Driver (1989)
 * Into the Fire (1989)
 * Encounters of the Spooky Kind II (1990)
 * Pantyhose Hero (1990)
 * License to Steal (1990)
 * Slickers vs. Killers (1991)
 * Banana Spirit (1992)
 * Lover's Tear (1992)
 * Don't Give a Damn (1995)

Personal life

 * Hung's grandmother was martial-arts actress Chin Tsi-ang who starred in almost 80 films between 1941 and 2002. His grandfather, a film director and writer, Hung Chung Ho, directed over 40 films between 1937 and 1950.
 * Hung's younger brother, Lee Chi-kit, has worked on almost 40 films, many of which Hung was also involved with. Lee also worked on Hung's Martial Law series. He works primarily as a supporting actor and action director.
 * In 1973, he married Jo Eun-ok (曹恩玉). Jo was his girlfriend whom he met during filming in Korea and later became his female assistant. They have three sons, Tin-Ming "Timmy" Hung (洪天明; born 1974), Tin Cheung "Jimmy" Hung (洪天祥; born 1977), Tin Chiu "Sammy" Hung (洪天照; born 1979), and a daughter, Chan Yu "Stephanie" Hung (洪煦榆; born 1983) with her. Hung divorced Jo in 1994. Hung admitted that the reason for this was that he often cheated on her and caused them to fight every day.
 * He married model and actress Joyce Godenzi in 1995. Godenzi appeared in several of his films including Eastern Condors (1986), Spooky, Spooky (1988), Paper Marriage (1988) and She Shoots Straight (1990) prior to the pair becoming a couple. She also appeared in Mr. Nice Guy (1997).
 * Timmy Hung has appeared alongside his father in SPL: Sha Po Lang, Legend of the Dragon, and Kung Fu Chefs, as well as having a recurring role in Sammo's series, Martial Law.
 * Sammy Hung appeared as the nemesis to Nicholas Tse's character in the 2007 television series Wing Chun, a remake of the original series broadcast in 1994, and the subsequent film Wing Chun. The series also starred Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. Sammy also appeared alongside his father in the film Choy Lee Fut.
 * Hung is one of the celebrities honoured on the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong.
 * Hung is known for his large frame. Despite this, he is a surprisingly agile and formidable martial artist.
 * He has a circular scar on the right side of his face, just above his lip. In the early days of his film career, Hung was involved in a street fight outside a Kowloon nightclub, and was stabbed with a broken cola bottle.
 * On 5 August 2009, Hung became ill during the filming of Ip Man 2 in the Guangdong province of Foshan. He was admitted to hospital and underwent a heart surgery operation. He was discharged and returned to work within days. He cited a combination of his weight, his love of cigars and long filming hours resulting in fatigue and irregular meals as the cause.

In popular culture

 * A pop band from Wales named themselves Sammo Hung after the actor.
 * Master Elehung Kinpo, from Juken Sentai Gekiranger, is named after him. Coincidentally, Yū Mizushima, the voice actor for Elehung Kinpo, did the dubbing for Sammo Hung.
 * A martial artist named Samohan Kinpou is frequently referred to in the anime Negima?!

title: Sammo Hung


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Madrid–Barajas Airport

 Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas ) is the main international airport serving Madrid, the capital city of Spain. At 3050 ha in area, it is the second-largest airport in Europe by physical size behind Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. In 2019, 61.8 million passengers travelled through Madrid–Barajas, making it the country's busiest airport as well as Europe's fifth-busiest.

The airport opened in 1931 and has grown to be one of Europe's most important aviation centres. Within the city limits of Madrid, it is 9 km from the city's financial district and 13 km northeast of the Puerta del Sol or Plaza Mayor de Madrid, Madrid's historic centre. The airport name derives from the adjacent district of Barajas, which has its own metro station on the same rail line serving the airport. Barajas serves as the gateway to the Iberian peninsula from the rest of Europe and the world and is a key link between Europe and Latin America. Following the death of former Spanish Prime Minister, Adolfo Suárez, in 2014, the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and Transport announced that the airport was to be renamed Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez, Madrid–Barajas. The airport is the primary hub and maintenance base for Iberia and Air Europa. Consequently, Iberia is responsible for more than 40% of Barajas's traffic. The airport has five passenger terminals: T1, T2, T3, T4 and T4S.

Early years
The airport was constructed in 1927, opening to domestic and international air traffic on 22 April 1931, although regular commercial operations began two years later. A small terminal was constructed with a capacity for 30,000 passengers a year, in addition to several hangars and the building of the Avión Club. The first regular flight was established by Lineas Aéreas Postales Españolas (LAPE) with its route to Barcelona. In the 1930s, flights started to serve some European and African destinations, the first international flights from the airport.

Originally, the flight field was a large circle bordered in white with the name of Madrid in its interior, unpaved, consisting of land covered with natural grass. It was not until the 1940s that the flight field was paved and new runways were designed. The first runway which started operation in 1944 was 1,400 metres long and 45 metres wide. By the end of the decade the airport had three runways, none of which exist today. In the late 1940s, scheduled flights to Latin America and the Philippines started.

In the 1950s, the airport supported over half a million passengers, increasing to five runways and scheduled flights to New York City began. The National Terminal, currently T2, began construction in 1954 and opened later that year. In the Plan of Airports of 1957, Barajas Airport is classified as a first-class international airport. By the 1970s, large jets were landing at Barajas, and the growth of traffic mainly as a result of tourism exceeded forecasts. At the beginning of the decade, the airport reached the 1.2 million passengers, double that envisaged in the Plan of Airports of 1957.

In the 1970s, with the boom in tourism and the arrival of the Boeing 747, the airport reached 4 million passengers and began the construction of the international terminal (current T1). In 1974, Iberia, L.A.E. introduced the shuttle service between Madrid and Barcelona, a service with multiple daily frequencies and available without prior reservation.

The 1982 FIFA World Cup brought significant expansion and modernisation of the airport's two existing terminals.

In the 1990s, the airport expanded further. In 1994, the first cargo terminal was constructed and the control tower was renovated. In 1997, it opened the North Dock, which is used as an exclusive terminal for Iberia's Schengen flights. In 1998, it inaugurated a new control tower, 71 m tall and then in 1999 the new South Dock opened, which implies an expansion of the international terminal. During this time, the distribution of the terminals changed: The south dock and most of the International Terminal were now called T1, the rest of the International Terminal and Domestic Terminal were now called T2 and the north dock was called T3.

In November 1998, the new runway 18R-36L started operations (replacing the previous 18–36), 4,400 m long, one of the largest in Europe under expansion plans called Major Barajas. In 2000, it began the construction of new terminals T4 and its satellite, T4S, designed by architects Antonio Lamela, Richard Rogers and Luis Vidal. Two parallel runways to the existing ones were also built.

Development since the 2000s
The new terminals and runways were completed in 2004, but were not in service until 5 February 2006.

Terminal 4, designed by Antonio Lamela, Richard Rogers and Luis Vidal, (winning team of the 2006 Stirling Prize) and TPS Engineers, (winning team of the 2006 IStructE Award for Commercial Structures) was built by Ferrovial and inaugurated on 5 February 2006. Terminal 4 is one of the world's largest airport terminals in terms of area, with 760,000 square meters (8,180,572 square feet) in separate landside and airside structures. It consists of a main building, T4 (470,000 m2) and a satellite building, T4S (290,000 m2), which are approximately 2 km apart. The new Terminal 4 is designed to give passengers a stress-free start to their journey. This is managed through careful use of illumination, with glass panes instead of walls and numerous skylights which allow natural light into the structure. With this new addition, Barajas is designed to handle 70 million passengers annually.

During the construction of Terminal 4, two more runways (15L/33R and 18L/36R) were constructed to aid in the flow of air traffic arriving and departing from Barajas. These runways were officially inaugurated on 5 February 2006 (together with the terminals), but had already been used on several occasions beforehand to test flight and air traffic manoeuvres. Thus, Barajas came to have four runways: two on a north–south axis and parallel to each other (separated by 1.3 km) and two on a northwest–southeast axis (and separated by 1.9 km). This allowed simultaneous takeoffs and landings into the airport, allowing 120 operations an hour (one takeoff or landing every 30 seconds).

Terminals 1, 2 and 3 are adjacent terminals that are home to SkyTeam and Star Alliance airlines. Terminal 4 is home to Iberia, its franchise Air Nostrum and all Oneworld partner airlines. Gate numbers are continuous in terminals 1, 2 and 3 (A1 to E89), but are separately numbered in terminal 4 (H, J, K and M, R, S, U in satellite building).

The Madrid–Barcelona air shuttle service, known as the "Puente Aéreo" (in Spanish), literally called "Air Bridge", used to be the busiest route between two EU airports with 55 daily flights in 2012. The schedule has been reduced since the February 2008 opening of the Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line which covers the distance in $2 1/2$ hours. Subsequently, the route has been overtaken by London-Dublin and Paris-Toulouse.

On the morning of 30 December 2006, an explosion took place in the carpark building module D attached to Terminal 4. Authorities received a bomb threat at approximately 8:15 local time (7:15 GMT), with the caller stating that a car bomb carried with 800 kg of explosive would explode at 9:00 local time (8:00 GMT). After receiving the warning, police were able to evacuate part of the airport. Later, an anonymous caller stated that ETA claims responsibility for the bombing. As a result of the explosion, two Ecuadorians who were sleeping in their cars died. The whole module D of the car park was levelled creating around 40,000 tonnes of debris. It took workers six days to recover the body of the second victim from the rubble. In 2007, the airport processed more than 52 million passengers. Barajas was voted "Best Airport" in the 2008 Condé Nast Traveller Reader Awards.

In December 2010, the Spanish government announced plans to tender Madrid–Barajas airport to companies in the private sector for a period of up to 40 years.

On 27 January 2012, Spanair suspended all flights affecting Madrid–Barajas as well as other domestic and international connections. On 20 September 2012, both runways 15/33 were renamed as 14R/32L (the longest) and 14L/32R (the shortest).

On 1 August 2015, the first scheduled Airbus A380 flight landed in Madrid-Barajas in a daily service to Dubai by Emirates.

Following the death of former Spanish Prime Minister, Adolfo Suárez, in 2014, the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and Transport announced that the airport would be renamed Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez, Madrid–Barajas. This renaming seeks recognition for Suárez's role as the first Prime Minister of Spain after the restoration of democracy and his key participation in the transition to democracy after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

In late 2018 and early 2019, Iberia renovated its two lounges in Terminal 4, the Dali and Velazquez lounges.

In December 2019, the airport's operator Aena announced plans to significantly expand and renovate the existing installations, increasing their yearly capacity from 70 to 80 million passengers and bridging the architectural gap between the original Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and the newer Terminal 4. The project has a budget of 750 million Euro and is set to be executed in the period from 2022 to 2026.

Passenger
The following airlines serve regular scheduled flights to and from Madrid:

Medical care
The airport is attached to the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid as a referral hospital for medical and surgical emergencies requiring hospital care.

In addition, the airport itself has medical rooms and medical personnel attached to the Airport Medical Service to cover transit passengers who need medical attention. It also has 75 Cardiac Rescue Points equipped with defibrillators in the event of cardiorespiratory arrest.

Taxi
All terminals have clearly signed taxi ranks outside the arrivals area. Official taxis are white with a red stripe and have the Madrid City Council coat-of-arms on their doors.

Rail
The Madrid Metro Line connects the airport with city centre station Nuevos Ministerios in Madrid's financial district. The Barajas Line 8 provides a fast route from the underground stations at Terminal 2 (access to T1 and T3) and Terminal 4 into central Madrid. The metro also provides links to stations on the Spanish railway network.

In October 2006, a bid was launched for the construction of a Cercanías link between Chamartín Station and Terminal 4. Now finished, this single Cercanías Line (C-1) links Madrid Barajas Terminal 4, with Chamartín Station and Atocha AVE high-speed train stations. In June 2011 a decision was made to equip this link with dual gauge which will allow AVE high-speed trains to reach the airport station.

The Nuevos Ministerios metro station opened a satellite check-in center in 2002 right by the AZCA business area in central Madrid; the satellite check-in center was permanently closed in 2006 due to security concerns.

Metropolitan Bus
EMT (Madrid Municipal Transport Company) runs regular public bus services between the airport and Madrid (Avenida de América station): bus 200 runs as a complete line – dropping passengers at departures of terminals 1, 2 and 4 before collecting passengers in the reverse order at arrivals. The EMT public night bus service N4 (nicknamed "Buho", Owl) also services from Madrid downtown (Plaza Cibeles) to Barajas (Plaza de los Hermanos Falcó y Alvarez de Toledo, 400m from the airport through a passageway above the highway). EMT also have an express bus linking Barajas airport to Renfe's Atocha Station, the main rail station in Madrid, during day and Plaza Cibeles during night. Unlike the two services mentioned above, this line runs 24 hours of the day during all the days of the year.

CRTM (Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid) runs four bus services between the airport and nearby cities in the metropolitan area:

 * 822: T1 – Coslada – San Fernando de Henares
 * 824: T2 – Torrejón de Ardoz – Alcalá de Henares
 * 827: Canillejas – T4 – Alcobendas – Universidad Autónoma de Madrid – Tres Cantos
 * 828: Canillejas – T4 – Alcobendas – Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Long distance coaches
From terminals T1 and T4 the bus company Avanzabus operates routes to Ávila, Castellón, Salamanca, Valencia and Zamora. From terminal T4 the Alsa bus company runs services to the cities of Zaragoza, Barcelona, Valladolid, León, Murcia, Alicante, Gijón, Oviedo, Lugo, Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Burgos, Vitoria, San Sebastián, Santander, Bilbao, Logroño and Pamplona. From terminal T1 the Socibus company runs services to the major cities in Andalusia: Huelva, Córdoba, Cadiz, Jerez and Seville.

Airport People Mover
In early 2006, the first driverless transit system in Spain and the longest airport people mover system in Europe began transporting passengers between the new terminal (T4) and a new satellite terminal (T4S). Deploying the CITYFLO 550 automatic train control technology, the system is the only mode of transportation for passengers between the two terminals, which are spaced two kilometres apart. Bombardier became the only contractor for the completely underground shuttle system, including the construction of the civil works, operation and maintenance of the system.

The route is 2 km in length and can carry up to 13,000 passengers per hour.

Airport parking
Long- and short-term car parking is provided at the airport with seven public parking areas. P1 is an outdoor car park located in front of the terminal building; P2 is an indoor car park with direct access to terminals T2 and T3. A Parking 'Express' facility, available for short periods only, is located at Terminal 2 and dedicated long-term parking is also available with 1,655 spaces; a free shuttle operates between the long-stay car park and all terminals. There are also VIP car parks.

Incidents and accidents

 * On 4 January 1951, a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar of Ejército del Aire crashed when an engine failed after takeoff. It was on a delivery flight to the Spanish Air Force. Both occupants were killed.
 * On 30 September 1972, a Douglas C-47B EC-AQE of Spantax crashed on takeoff. The aircraft was being used for training duties and the student pilot over-rotated and stalled. One of the six people on board was killed.
 * On 9 May 1976, a Boeing 747 of the Imperial Iranian Air Force was struck by lightning while on approach. This caused the left wing's fuel tank to explode and the wing itself to separate, resulting in the aircraft to crash and killing all 17 passengers and crew.
 * On 27 November 1983, Avianca Flight 011 crashed while attempting to land. Flight 011 struck a series of hills, causing the plane's right wing to break off. The 747 then cartwheeled, shattering into five pieces before coming to rest upside-down. Only 11 of the 169 passengers survived – there were no survivors among the 23 crew.
 * On 7 December 1983, an Iberia 727 operating as Iberia Flight 350 collided during takeoff with Aviaco Flight 134, a DC-9 The Aviaco DC-9 had accidentally entered the runway as the Iberia flight was taking off. Ninety-three people were killed, including 51 from the Iberia 727 and 42 from the Aviaco DC-9.
 * On 15 July 2006, the winglet of a Thai Airways International Boeing 747–400 HS-TGY operating flight TG943 from Madrid Barajas Airport in Spain to Rome Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport cut off the tail of an Air France ERJ-145 while taxiing to the runway for take-off. No injuries were reported.
 * On 20 August 2008, Spanair Flight 5022 which was travelling to Gran Canaria, veered off to the right and into the ground while climbing immediately after lifting off from runway 36L at 14:45 local time. The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 with registration "EC-HFP", was carrying 172 people, including 162 passengers. In the accident, 154 people were killed, two were seriously injured and 12 were slightly injured. Prime Minister Zapatero ordered three days of national mourning.

title: Madrid–Barajas Airport


text:
Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands

Willem-Alexander (Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born 27 April 1967) is King of the Netherlands.

Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht during the reign of his maternal grandmother, Queen Juliana, as the eldest child of Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus. He became Prince of Orange as heir apparent upon his mother's accession on 30 April 1980. He went to public primary and secondary schools in the Netherlands, and an international sixth-form college in Wales. He served in the Royal Netherlands Navy, and studied history at Leiden University. He married Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti in 2002, and they have three daughters: Catharina-Amalia, Alexia, and Ariane. Willem-Alexander succeeded his mother as monarch upon her abdication in 2013. He is the first man to hold this position since 1890.

Willem-Alexander is interested in sports and international water management issues. Until his accession to the throne, he was a member of the International Olympic Committee (1998–2013), chairman of the Advisory Committee on Water to the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment (2004–2013), and chairman of the Secretary-General of the United Nations' Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (2006–2013).

Early life and education
Prince Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand was born on 27 April 1967 at the Utrecht University Hospital (now known as the University Medical Center Utrecht) in Utrecht, Netherlands. He is the first child of Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus, and the first grandchild of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard. He was the first male Dutch royal baby since the birth of Prince Alexander in 1851, and the first immediate male heir since Alexander's death in 1884.

From birth, Willem-Alexander has held the titles Prince of the Netherlands (Prins der Nederlanden), Prince of Orange-Nassau (Dutch: Prins van Oranje-Nassau), and Jonkheer of Amsberg (Dutch: Jonkheer van Amsberg). He was baptised as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church on 2 September 1967 in Saint Jacob's Church in The Hague. His godparents are his maternal grandfather Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, his paternal grandmother Gösta Freiin von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen, Prince Ferdinand von Bismarck, former Prime Minister Jelle Zijlstra, Jonkvrouw Renée Röell, and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

He had two younger brothers: Prince Friso (1968–2013) and Prince Constantijn (b. 1969). He lived with his family at the castle Drakensteyn in the hamlet Lage Vuursche near Baarn from his birth until 1981, when they moved to the larger palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague. His mother, Beatrix, became Queen of the Netherlands in 1980, after his grandmother Juliana abdicated. He then received the title of Prince of Orange as heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the age of 13.

Willem-Alexander attended local state primary school Nieuwe Baarnse Elementary School in Baarn from 1973 to 1979. He went to two different state secondary schools (the Baarns Lyceum in Baarn from 1979 to 1981 and the Eerste Vrijzinnig Christelijk Lyceum in The Hague from 1981 to 1983) and the private sixth-form college United World College of the Atlantic in Wales (1983 to 1985), where he received his International Baccalaureate.

After his military service from 1985 to 1987, Willem-Alexander studied History at Leiden University from 1987 onwards and received his MA degree (doctorandus) in 1993. His final thesis was on the Dutch response to France's decision under President Charles de Gaulle to leave NATO's integrated command structure.

Willem-Alexander speaks English, Spanish, French and German (his father's native language) in addition to his native Dutch.

Military training and career
Between secondary school and his university education, Willem-Alexander performed military service in the Royal Netherlands Navy from August 1985 until January 1987. He received his training at the Royal Netherlands Naval College and in the frigates HNLMS Tromp and HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen, where he was an ensign. In 1988 he received additional training in the ship HNLMS Van Kinsbergen and became a lieutenant (junior grade) (wachtofficier).

As a reservist for the Royal Netherlands Navy, Willem-Alexander was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1995, commander in 1997, Captain at Sea in 2001, and commodore in 2005. As a reservist for the Royal Netherlands Army, he was made a major (Grenadiers' and Rifles Guard Regiment) in 1995, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1997, colonel in 2001, and brigadier general in 2005. As a reservist for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, he was made squadron leader in 1995 and promoted to air commodore in 2005. As a reservist for the Royal Marechaussee, he was made brigadier general in 2005.

Before his investiture as king in 2013, Willem-Alexander was honourably discharged from the armed forces. The government declared that the head of state cannot be a serving member of the armed forces, since the government itself holds supreme command over the armed forces. As king, Willem-Alexander may choose to wear a military uniform with royal insignia, but not with his former rank insignia.

Activities and social interests

Since 1985, when he became 18 years old, Willem-Alexander has been a member of the Council of State of the Netherlands. This is the highest council of the Dutch political system and is chaired by the head of state (then Queen Beatrix).

Willem-Alexander is interested in water management and sports issues. He was an honorary member of the World Commission on Water for the 21st century and patron of the Global Water Partnership, a body established by the World Bank, the UN, and the Swedish Ministry of Development. He was appointed as the Chairperson of the United Nations Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation on 12 December 2006.

On 10 October 2010, Willem-Alexander and Máxima went to the Netherlands Antilles' capital, Willemstad, to attend and represent his mother, the Queen, at the Antillean Dissolution ceremony.

He was a patron of the Dutch Olympic Games Committee until 1998 when he was made a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). After becoming King, he relinquished his membership and received the Gold Olympic Order at the 125th IOC Session. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1928 Summer Olympics held in Amsterdam, he had expressed support to bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics.

He was a member of the supervisory board of De Nederlandsche Bank (the Dutch central bank), a member of the Advisory Council of ECP (the information society forum for government, business and civil society), patron of Veterans' Day and held several other patronages and posts.

Reign
On 28 January 2013, Beatrix announced her intention to abdicate. On the morning of 30 April 2013 (Koninginnedag), Beatrix signed the instrument of abdication at the Moseszaal (Moses Hall) at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. Later that afternoon, Willem-Alexander was inaugurated as king before a joint session of the States General in a ceremony held at the Nieuwe Kerk.

As king, Willem-Alexander has weekly meetings with the prime minister and speaks regularly with ministers and state secretaries. He also signs all new Acts of Parliament and royal decrees. He represents the kingdom at home and abroad. At the State Opening of Parliament, he delivers the Speech from the Throne, which announces the plans of the government for the parliamentary year. The Constitution requires that the king appoint, dismiss and swear in all government ministers and state secretaries. As king, he is also the President of the Council of State, an advisory body that reviews proposed legislation. In modern practice, the monarch seldom chairs council meetings.

At his accession at age 46, he was Europe's youngest monarch. He is currently third-youngest after Frederik X of Denmark and Felipe VI of Spain. He is also the first male monarch of the Netherlands since the death of his great-great-grandfather William III in 1890. Willem-Alexander was one of four new sovereign monarchs in 2013 along with Pope Francis, Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar, and King Philippe of Belgium.

Other activities

Willem-Alexander is an avid pilot and has said that if he had not been a royal, he would have liked to be an airline pilot so he could fly internationally on large-sized aircraft such as the Boeing 747. During the reign of his mother, he regularly flew the Dutch royal aircraft on trips. However, in May 2017, Willem-Alexander revealed that he had served as a first officer on KLM flights for 21 years, flying KLM Cityhopper's Fokker 70s twice a month, even after his accession to the throne. Following KLM's phased retirement of the Fokker 70, he began training to fly Boeing 737s. Willem-Alexander was rarely recognized while in the KLM uniform and wearing the KLM cap, though a few passengers recognized his voice, even though he never gave his name and only welcomed passengers on behalf of the captain and crew.

Using the name "W. A. van Buren", one of the least-known titles of the House of Orange-Nassau, he participated in the 1986 Frisian Elfstedentocht, a 200 km distance ice skating tour. He ran the New York City Marathon under the same pseudonym in 1992. Willem-Alexander completed both events.

Marriage and children

On 2 February 2002, he married Máxima Zorreguieta  at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. The marriage triggered significant controversy due to the role the bride's father, Jorge Zorreguieta, had in the Argentinian military dictatorship. The couple have three daughters: The Princess of Orange, Princess Alexia, and Princess Ariane.

Privacy and the press
In an attempt to strike a balance between privacy for the royal family and availability to the press, the Netherlands Government Information Service (RVD) instituted a media code on 21 June 2005 which essentially states that:
 * Photographs of the members of the royal house while performing their duties are always permitted.
 * For other occasions (like holidays or vacations), the RVD will arrange a photo-op on condition that the press leave the family alone for the rest of the activity.

During a ski vacation in Argentina, several photographs were taken of the prince and his family during the private part of their holiday, including one by Associated Press staff photographer Natacha Pisarenko, in spite of the media code, and after a photo opportunity had been provided earlier. The Associated Press decided to publish some of the photos, which were subsequently republished by several Dutch media. Willem-Alexander and the RVD jointly filed suit against the Associated Press on 5 August 2009, and the trial started on 14 August 2009 at the district court in Amsterdam. On 28 August 2009, the district court ruled in favour of the prince and RVD, citing that the couple has a right to privacy, that the pictures in question add nothing to any public debate, and that they are not of any particular value to society since they are not photographs of his family "at work". Associated Press was sentenced to stop further publication of the photographs, on pain of a 1000 EUR fine per violation with a 50000 EUR maximum.

In October 2020, Willem-Alexander apologised for a family holiday trip to Greece which had taken place while his country was under partial lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. He and his family cut their trip short, and in a two-minute video he stated that it "hurts to have betrayed" people's trust. Earlier in August, he and his wife were photographed with a restaurant owner during another trip to Greece, which was a violation of social distancing rules at the time.

Properties
From 2003 until 2019, Willem-Alexander and his family lived in Villa Eikenhorst on the De Horsten Estate in Wassenaar. After his mother abdicated and became Princess Beatrix once again, she moved to the castle of Drakensteyn, after which the King and his family moved to the newly renovated monarch's palace of Huis ten Bosch in The Hague in 2019.

Willem-Alexander has a villa near Kranidi, Greece.

Villa in Machangulo
On 10 July 2008, the Prince of Orange and Princess Maxima announced that they had invested in a development project on the Mozambican peninsula of Machangulo. The development project was aimed at building an ecologically responsible vacation resort, including a hotel and several luxury holiday homes for investors. The project was to invest heavily in the local economy of the peninsula (building schools and a local clinic) with an eye both towards responsible sustainability and maintaining a local staff. After contacting Mozambican President Armando Guebuza to verify that the Mozambican government had no objections, the couple decided to invest in two villas. In 2009, controversy erupted in parliament and the press about the project and the prince's involvement. Politician Alexander Pechtold questioned the morality of building such a resort in a poor country like Mozambique. After public and parliamentary controversy, the royal couple announced that they had decided to sell the property in Machangulo once their house was completed. In January 2012, it was confirmed that the villa had been sold.

Titles and styles

 * 27 April 196730 April 1980: His Royal Highness Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, Jonkheer van Amsberg
 * 30 April 198030 April 2013: His Royal Highness The Prince of Orange
 * 30 April 2013present: His Majesty The King

Willem-Alexander's full title is: His Majesty King Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, etc., etc., etc.

Willem-Alexander is the first Dutch king since Willem III (d. 1890). Willem-Alexander had earlier indicated that when he became king, he would take the name Willem IV, but it was announced in January 2013 that his regnal name would be Willem-Alexander.

Military ranks

Royal Netherlands Navy – conscripted
 * Nl-marine-vloot-luitenant ter zee der 3e klasse.svg Lieutenant at sea, third class (Ensign) (August 1985January 1987)
 * Nl-marine-vloot-luitenant ter zee der 2e klasse.svg Lieutenant at sea, second class (Sub-lieutenant) (watch officer, 1988)

Royal Netherlands Navy – reserve
 * Nl-marine-vloot-luitenant ter zee der 2e klasse oudste categorie.svg Lieutenant at sea, second class (senior grade) (Lieutenant) (1988–1995)
 * Nl-marine-vloot-luitenant ter zee der 1e klasse.svg Lieutenant at sea, first class (Lieutenant Commander) (1995–1997)
 * Nl-marine-vloot-kapitein luitenant ter zee.svg Captain-lieutenant at sea (Commander) (1997–2001)
 * Nl-marine-vloot-kapitein ter zee.svg Captain at Sea (2001–2005)
 * Nl-marine-vloot-commandeur.svg Commodore (2005–2013)

'''Royal Netherlands Air Force – reserve
 * Nl-luchtmacht-majoor.svg Squadron Leader (1995–2005)
 * Nl-luchtmacht-commodore.svg Air Commodore (2005–2013)

Royal Netherlands Army – reserve
 * Nl-landmacht-majoor.svg Major, Grenadiers' and Rifles Guard Regiment (1995–1997)
 * Nl-landmacht-luitenant kolonel.svg Lieutenant colonel (1997–2001)
 * Nl-landmacht-kolonel.svg Colonel (2001–2005)
 * Nl-landmacht-brigade generaal.svg Brigadier general (2005–2013)

Royal Marechaussee – reserve
 * Nl-marechausee-brigade generaal.svg Brigadier general (2005–2013)

King's Insignia, all services
 * Koninklijk distinctief.jpg Royal insignia as King (2013–present)

Qualifications

 * Pilot Wings Royal Netherlands Airforce.png Military Pilot

National

 * NLD Military Order of William - Grand Cross BAR.png Grand Master of the Military William Order
 * Order of the Netherlands Lion ribbon - Knight Grand Cross.svg Grand Master and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
 * Order of Orange-Nassau ribbon - Knight Grand Cross.svg Grand Master of the Order of Orange-Nassau
 * Ordre du Lion d'Or de la Maison de Nassau ribbon.svg Co-Grand Master and Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau
 * NLD Order of the House of Orange - Grand Cross BAR.svg Grand Master and Grand Cross of the Order of the House of Orange
 * NED Kroonorde A1 BAR.png Grand Master of the Order of the Crown
 * Order of the House of Orange - Ribbon bar.svg Grand Master of the Order for Loyalty and Merit
 * Order of St John (UK) ribbon -vector.svg Honorary Commander of the Order of Saint John in the Netherlands
 * Order of the Golden Ark.png Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Ark
 * Baton Elfstedenkruis.jpg Recipient of the Eleven Cities Cross
 * Officer's cross for long service.png Recipient of the
 * Queen Beatrix Investiture Medal 1980.gif Recipient of the Queen Beatrix Inauguration Medal
 * Royal Wedding Medal 2002.gif Recipient of the Wedding Medal of Prince Willem-Alexander to Maxima Zorruigeta

Foreign

 * 🇦🇷 Argentina: Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
 * 🇦🇹 Austria: Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria
 * 🇧🇪 Belgium:
 * Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (2016)
 * Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (1993)
 * 🇧🇷 Brazil: Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross
 * Brunei: Member of the Family Order of Laila Utama
 * 🇨🇻 Cape Verde: Member 1st Class of the Amílcar Cabral Order (7 December 2018)
 * 🇨🇱 Chile: Grand Cross of the Order of the Merit
 * 🇩🇰 Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant (31 January 1998)
 * 🇪🇪 Estonia: Collar of the Cross of Terra Mariana (5 June 2018)
 * 🇫🇷 France:
 * Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honour (20 January 2014)
 * Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit
 * 🇩🇪 Germany:
 * Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
 * Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (5 July 2021)
 * 🇬🇷 Greece: Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer (31 October 2022)
 * 🇮🇩 Indonesia: Star of Mahaputera 1st Class
 * 🇮🇹 Italy: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (19 June 2017)
 * 🇯🇵 Japan: Grand Cordon and Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (24 October 2014)
 * 🇯🇴 Jordan: Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of al-Hussein bin Ali (20 March 2018)
 * 🇱🇻 Latvia: Commander Grand Cross with Chain 1st Class of the Order of the Three Stars (6 June 2018)
 * 🇱🇹 Lithuania: Grand Cross with Golden Chain of the Order of Vytautas the Great (13 June 2018)
 * 🇱🇺 Luxembourg:
 * Grand Cross of the Order of Adolphe of Nassau
 * Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown
 * 🇲🇽 Mexico: Sash of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (2009)
 * 🇳🇴 Norway: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St. Olav (1996) (2021)
 * 🇴🇲 Oman: Recipient of the Supreme Order of the Renaissance of Oman (10 January 2012)
 * 🇵🇱 Poland: Knight of the Order of the White Eagle (2014)
 * 🇵🇹 Portugal: Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (10 October 2017)
 * 🇸🇰 Slovakia: Grand Cross of the Order of the White Double Cross (7 March 2023)
 * 🇰🇷 South Korea: Recipient of the Grand Order of Mugunghwa (12 December 2023)
 * 🇪🇸 Spain:
 * Knight of the Collar of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III
 * Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic
 * 🇸🇪 Sweden: Knight with Collar of the Royal Order of the Seraphim (1993) (2022)
 * 🇹🇭 Thailand: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Chula Chom Klao
 * 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates: Grand Cross of the Order of Union
 * 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Stranger Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (23 October 2018)
 * 🇻🇪 Venezuela: Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator

Awards

 * International Olympic Committee: Recipient of the Gold Olympic Order (8 September 2013)

Honorary appointment

 * Aide-de-camp to Her Majesty The Queen (until 2013)

Ancestry
Through his father, a member of the House of Amsberg, he is descended from families of the lower German nobility, and through his mother, from several royal German–Dutch families such as the House of Lippe, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the House of Orange-Nassau, Waldeck and Pyrmont, and the House of Hohenzollern. He is descended from the first king of the Netherlands, William I of the Netherlands, who was also a ruler in Luxembourg and several German states, and all subsequent Dutch monarchs.

Through his mother, Willem-Alexander also descends from Paul I of Russia and thus from German princess Catherine the Great and Swedish King Gustav I. Through his father, he is also descended from several Dutch–Flemish families who left the Low Countries during Spanish rule, such as the Berenbergs. His paternal great-great-grandfather Gabriel von Amsberg, a major-general of Mecklenburg, was recognized as noble as late as 1891, the family having adopted the "von" in 1795.

Willem-Alexander is a descendant of King George II and, more relevant for his succession rights, of his granddaughter Princess Augusta of Great Britain. Under the British Act of Settlement, King Willem-Alexander temporarily forfeited his (distant) succession rights to the throne of the United Kingdom by marrying a Roman Catholic. This right has since been restored in 2015 under the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.

Finally, Willem-Alexander is also a distant descendent of William the Silent, who is held to be the Father of the Nation in the Netherlands, since John William Friso, a great-great-grandson of William the Silent, is known to be a common ancestor to all current European monarchs.

title: Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands


text:
Tsui Hark

Tsui Hark (, Từ Khắc, born 15 February 1950), born Tsui Man-kong (Từ Văn Quang), is a Hong Kong filmmaker. Tsui has directed several influential Hong Kong films such as Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), the Once Upon a Time in China film series (1991–1997) and The Blade (1995). Tsui also has been a prolific writer and producer; his productions include A Better Tomorrow (1986), A Better Tomorrow II (1987), A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), The Killer (1989), The Legend of the Swordsman (1992), The Wicked City (1992), Iron Monkey (1993) and Black Mask (1996). He is viewed as a major figure in the Golden Age of Hong Kong cinema and is regarded by critics as "one of the masters of Asian cinematography".

In the late 1990s, Tsui had a short-lived career in the United States, directing the Jean-Claude Van Damme–led films Double Team (1997) and Knock Off (1998). Both films were commercially unsuccessful and critically panned; Tsui himself was unsatisfied with his lack of creative control and returned to Hong Kong to continue his career, where he found commercial and critical success with blockbusters such as the Detective Dee film series, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011), and The Taking of Tiger Mountain (2014).

Early life
Tsui was born and raised in Saigon, Vietnam, to a large Chinese (Hoa) family with sixteen siblings. Tsui showed an early interest in show business and films; when he was 10, he and some friends rented an 8 mm camera to film a magic show they put on at school. He also drew comic books, an interest that would influence his cinematic style. By the age of 13, he and his family immigrated to Hong Kong.

Tsui started his secondary education in Hong Kong in 1966. He proceeded to study film in Texas, first at Southern Methodist University and then at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1975. He claims to have told his parents he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps as a pharmacist, and that it was here he changed his given name to Hark ("overcoming").

After graduation, Tsui moved to New York City, where he worked on From Spikes to Spindles (1976), a noted documentary film by Christine Choy on the history of the city's Chinatown. He also worked as an editor for a Chinese newspaper, developed a community theatre group and worked in a Chinese cable TV station. He returned to Hong Kong in 1977.

New Wave period
Upon turning to feature filmmaking, Tsui was quickly typed as a member of the "New Wave" of young, iconoclastic directors. His debut film, The Butterfly Murders (1979), was a technically challenging blend of wuxia, murder mystery and science fiction / fantasy elements. His second film, We're Going to Eat You (1980), was a blend of cannibal horror, black comedy and martial arts.

Tsui's third film, Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980), was a nihilistic thriller about delinquent youths on a bombing spree. Heavily censored by the British colonial government, it was released in 1981 in a drastically altered version titled Dangerous Encounter – 1st Kind (or alternatively, Don't Play with Fire). It was not a financial success. However, it helped make Tsui a darling of film critics who had coined the New Wave label, and who were hopeful for a more aesthetically daring cinema more engaged with the realities of contemporary Hong Kong.

Cinema City
In 1981, Tsui joined Cinema City & Films Co., a production company founded by comedians Raymond Wong, Karl Maka and Dean Shek. Cinema City & Films Co. was instrumental in codifying the slick Hong Kong blockbuster films of the 1980s. Tsui played his part in the process with pictures like the crime farce All the Wrong Clues (1981), his first hit, and Aces Go Places 3 (1984), part of the studio's long-running spy spoof series.

In 1983, Tsui directed the wuxia fantasy film Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) for the studio Golden Harvest. Tsui imported Hollywood technicians to help create special effects whose number and complexity were unprecedented in Chinese-language cinema.

Mogul
In 1984, Tsui formed the production company Film Workshop with Nansun Shi. He also developed a reputation as a hands-on and even intrusive producer of other directors' work, fuelled by public breaks with major filmmakers like John Woo and King Hu. His most longstanding and fruitful collaboration has probably been with Ching Siu-tung. As action choreographer and/or director on many Film Workshop productions, Ching made a major contribution to the well-known Tsui style.

Film Workshop releases became consistent box office hits in Hong Kong and around Asia, drawing audiences with their visual adventurousness, their broad commercial appeal, and hectic camerawork and pace. With Tsui having been called the 'Steven Spielberg of Asia', Film Workshop became the 'Amblin of Hong Kong'. He produced John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986), which launched a craze for Heroic bloodshed movies, and Ching Siu-tung's A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), which did the same for period ghost fantasies. Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain and The Swordsman (1990) birthed the modern-day special effects industry in Hong Kong.

In fact, Tsui's "movie brat" nostalgia is one of the main ingredients in his work. He often resurrects and revises classic films and genres: the murder mystery in The Butterfly Murders (1979); the Shanghai musical comedy in Shanghai Blues (1985). Peking Opera Blues (1986) plays with and pays tribute to the traditions of the Peking opera that his mother took him to see as a small boy and which had such a strong influence on Hong Kong action cinema. The Lovers (1994) adapts a retold, cross-dressing period romance, best known from Li Han-hsiang's 1963 opera film The Love Eterne. A Chinese Ghost Story remakes Li's supernatural romance The Enchanting Shadow (1959) as a special effects action movie.

The pattern is also seen in perhaps Tsui's most successful work to date, the Once Upon a Time in China film series (1991–97). Jet Li played the role of Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung in the first three films and the sixth, Once Upon a Time in China and America. This series is the clearest expression in his oeuvre of Tsui's Chinese nationalism and his passionate engagement with the upheavals of Chinese history, particularly in the face of Western power and influence.

Tsui also dabbled in acting, mostly for other directors. Notable roles include one-third of the comic relief trio in Corey Yuen's film Yes, Madam! (1985) and a villain in Patrick Tam's darkly comic crime story Final Victory (1987), written by Wong Kar-wai. He also made frequent cameo appearances in his own productions, such as a music judge in A Better Tomorrow and a phony FBI agent in Aces Go Places II.

In the face of an industry downturn in the '90s, he produced two expensive movies. Green Snake (1993) was a poetic and lyric movie based on a favourite Chinese fairy tale. The Blade (1995) was a gory, deliberately rough-hewn revision of the 1967 wuxia classic The One-Armed Swordsman.

American films
In the mid-to-late '90s, Tsui tried Hollywood with two films starring Jean-Claude Van Damme: Double Team (1997) and Knock Off (1998). In 2002, he made Black Mask 2: City of Masks, an American market sequel to Jet Li's 1996 film. It was released direct-to-video in the United States in December of that year before being theatrically released the next month in Hong Kong.

2000s
Tsui returned to directing at home in 2000 after not having made a local film since 1996. Time and Tide (2000) and The Legend of Zu (2001) were action extravaganzas with lavish computer-generated imagery that gained cult admirers but no mass success.

Tsui continues to push technical boundaries and revise old favourites. Master Q 2001 was Hong Kong's first combination of live action and Pixar-style 3D computer animation. Era of Vampires (2002; US title, "Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters") reworked a subgenre popular in the '80s, hybrid martial arts / supernatural horror films featuring the "hopping corpses" of Chinese folk legend.

In 2005, Tsui launched the multimedia production Seven Swords, a film adaptation of Liang Yusheng's novels Saiwai Qixia Zhuan and Qijian Xia Tianshan. The film came with a television series counterpart (Seven Swordsmen), a comic book series, a cellphone game, clothing brand, and an online multi-player video game. The film was relatively successful, and in February 2006 Tsui announced plans to begin filming the second late in the year. As of 2008, Tsui continues to work on the script for Seven Swords 2 in between filming projects. In 2011 there has been no news nor plans about a Seven Swords 2. Rumors has it that due to lack of interest by the filmmakers of finishing the hexalogy lead the project into being cancelled.

In August 2008, Tsui provided art direction for the direct-to-video anime feature titled Kungfu Master (a.k.a. Wong Fei Hong vs Kungfu Panda), an apparent unofficial sequel to Kung Fu Panda, featuring Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung. Also in 2008 was the thriller Missing starring Angelica Lee. His latest comedy film All About Women features wonky sound editing and comic graphics.

2010s
Tsui's latest work in 2010 is Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, a rare but successful blend of wuxia, suspense-thriller, mystery, and comedy, which was in competition for the Golden Lion award and was also nominated and won numerous other awards.

In 2010 he announced his first 3-D film, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, which is a re-imagining of his 1992 film New Dragon Gate Inn starring Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Maggie Cheung and Brigitte Lin. In 2011 Huayi Brothers announced that Tsui will be making a prequel to Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame; shot in 3-D, it was released in 2013 as Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon.

In October 2011, Tsui received the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award at the 16th Busan International Film Festival for his contributions to Hong Kong cinema. He is the fifth Chinese filmmaker to receive this award at Busan.

His film The Taking of Tiger Mountain premiered in China in December 2014.

2020s
Tsui worked on a film with Milkyway Image alongside Ann Hui, Ringo Lam, Patrick Tam, Johnnie To, Sammo Hung and Yuen Woo-Ping. Each director created a segment based on Hong Kong history. The completed film, Septet: The Story of Hong Kong, was shown at the Busan International Film Festival on 21 October 2020 and at the annual Hong Kong International Film Festival in April 2021.

In 2021 Tsui co-directed The Battle at Lake Changjin with Chen Kaige and Dante Lam.

Cultural references
Tsui was featured on a track which bore his name on the 1994 Sparks album Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins. (Sparks also provided a song, "It's a Knockoff," for the closing credits of Knock Off.)

Filmography
Television

title: Tsui Hark


text:
Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau

Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau (Johan Friso Bernhard Christiaan David van Oranje-Nassau van Amsberg; 25 September 1968 – 12 August 2013) was the second son of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Claus von Amsberg, and younger brother of King Willem-Alexander. Friso was a member of the Dutch Royal Family, but because of his marriage without an Act of Consent in 2004, he lost his membership of the Dutch Royal House and was no longer in the line of succession to the throne.

On 17 February 2012, Prince Friso was buried under an avalanche in Lech, Austria, while skiing off piste. He was taken to a hospital in Innsbruck, where he was in a critical but stable condition. According to his doctor, Wolfgang Koller, even though he was trapped for a relatively short time and hopes had originally been higher, subsequent neurological tests showed that after fifty minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in moderate hypothermia, he suffered massive brain damage due to oxygen shortage. His initial coma later progressed to a minimally conscious state, and it was unclear whether he would ever regain full consciousness. On 12 August 2013, one and a half years after the accident, Prince Friso died from complications.

Early life and education
Johan Friso Bernhard Christiaan David was born on 25 September 1968 at the Utrecht University Hospital (now the University Medical Center Utrecht) in Utrecht, Netherlands. He was the second son of Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus, and grandson of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard. He had one older brother, current King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (b. 1967), and one younger brother, Prince Constantijn (b. 1969).

His titles at birth were Prince of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, and Jonkheer van Amsberg. Prince Friso was baptized on 28 December 1968 in the Dom Church in Utrecht. His godparents were Prince Harald of Norway, Johan Christian Baron von Jenisch, Herman van Roijen, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Christina von Amsberg.

In 1986, he graduated from the secondary school Eerste Vrijzinnig Christelijk Lyceum in The Hague. From 1986 until 1988, he studied mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1988 he studied at Delft University of Technology, where he obtained an engineer's degree in aeronautical engineering in 1994. From 1990 he also went to the Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he obtained an MSc degree in business economics in 1995. Subsequently, he attended INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France), where he received an MBA degree in 1997.

Work
Prince Friso worked from 1995 to 1996 at the Amsterdam branch of the international management consultancy McKinsey. After completing an MBA-programme at INSEAD, Prince Friso worked from 1998 to 2003 as a vice president at Goldman Sachs International in London. In 2004, he became part-time co-president of TNO Space in Delft. From October 2006, Prince Friso was managing director in the London office of a private investment and advisory firm, Wolfensohn & Company.

Prince Friso was a co-founder of the MRI Centre in Amsterdam and was also a founding shareholder of Wizzair, the largest low-cost airline in Eastern Europe. He was honorary chairman of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development (a position he held together with his younger brother, Prince Constantijn).

Prior to his accident, Prince Friso was working as a chief financial officer for URENCO, a uranium enrichment company.

Marriage and children

On 30 June 2003, it was announced that Prince Friso was to marry Mabel Wisse Smit. The Dutch cabinet, however, did not seek permission from parliament for this marriage, a constitutional requirement if Prince Friso was to remain a member of the Dutch Royal House and in line of succession for the throne; at the time, he was second in line after his older brother, Willem-Alexander.

The Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende explained that this was due to discussions with Mabel Wisse Smit in October 2003, when she had admitted that her previous statements about an alleged relationship with Klaas Bruinsma (1953–1991), a known Dutch drug baron, had not been complete and accurate. She had previously stated that she had contact for a few months with Bruinsma, but in a casual context, neither intimate nor relating to business, and that she had broken the contact on learning of Bruinsma's occupation.

This "breach of trust" was the reason the government did not seek parliamentary permission, respecting the wishes of the couple. They nevertheless married at Oude Kerk (Delft) on 24 April 2004, and Mabel Wisse Smit became a member of the Dutch Royal Family but not a member of the Dutch Royal House.

Considering that his elder brother King Willem-Alexander has three children, Prince Friso's exclusion from the succession was unlikely to have an effect on the monarchy in the Netherlands.

After their marriage, Prince Friso and his wife Princess Mabel set up home in London, in the suburb of Kew.

The couple's first child, Countess Emma Luana Ninette Sophie of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, was born on 26 March 2005 in London. Their younger daughter, Countess Joanna Zaria Nicoline Milou of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, was born on 18 June 2006, also in London.

Accident
On 17 February 2012, Prince Friso was buried under an avalanche in Lech, Austria, and he was taken to a hospital in Innsbruck. According to a formal statement of the Netherlands Government Information Service (RVD), a prognosis could be given only after some days. The prince's condition was described as "stable, but critical".

Resulting complications
The Dutch Royal Family issued a statement on 19 February saying "The Royal Family is very grateful and deeply touched by all expressions of support and sympathy after the ski accident of His Royal Highness Prince Friso. It was a great support for them during this difficult time."

A prognosis on his health situation was expected within a few days, but this was pushed back to 24 February, a week after his accident. The RVD's comment remained the same: stable, but critical. On 24 February, an Innsbruck medical team announced that the prince had been buried for 25 minutes, followed by a 50-minute CPR to treat his cardiac arrest. Wolfgang Koller stated that an MRI scan was performed a day earlier revealing little change, however other neurological tests indicated significant damage due to oxygen shortage. It remained unclear whether the prince would ever regain full consciousness. Koller said that the Prince's family might now look for a rehabilitation institution. On the same day the Dutch Royal Family issued a statement requesting that the privacy of the Prince's family be respected to enable them to come to terms with his condition.

On 1 March 2012, Prince Friso was transferred to the Wellington Hospital, in London where he and his wife had lived for many years.

On 19 November 2012, it was announced that the prince had started to show some signs of consciousness but it was still not certain whether he would ever wake up, and if he did, in what state.

On 9 July 2013, Prince Friso was moved back to Huis ten Bosch in the Netherlands. It was understood that his coma had then evolved into a minimally conscious state. As he was no longer in need of hospital-level medical care, he stayed with his family for the summer.

Death and funeral
On 12 August 2013, it was announced that Prince Friso had died in Huis ten Bosch due to complications from the accident. He was buried on 16 August in the Dutch Reformed Cemetery in the hamlet of Lage Vuursche near Drakesteijn Castle, where he had spent his childhood and where Princess Beatrix returned to live in February 2014. The funeral service, at Stulpkerk church, was strictly private. Members of the public and media could not attend, nor did members of other royal families attend, with the exception of Friso's godfather, King Harald V of Norway. A ceremony of commemoration was held on 2 November 2013 in the Oude Kerk in Delft.

Titles and styles

 * 25 September 1968 – 19 March 2004: His Royal Highness Prince Johan-Friso of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, Jonkheer van Amsberg
 * 19 March 2004 – 12 August 2013: His Royal Highness Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau, Count of Orange-Nassau, Jonkheer van Amsberg

Under the Act on the Membership of the Royal House (2002), Prince Friso lost the title 'Prince of the Netherlands' by entering into a marriage without an Act of Consent.

By a royal decree of 19 March 2004, Prince Friso was granted the surname 'Van Oranje-Nassau van Amsberg', the hereditary noble predicate 'Jonkheer (Jonkvrouw) van Amsberg and the hereditary title 'Count of Orange-Nassau', to take effect upon his marriage.

By the same decree, he was allowed to retain his title 'Prince of Orange-Nassau' as a personal and non-hereditary title and the style of 'Royal Highness'. According to the notification of this Royal Decree, any children born to the couple were to receive the surname 'van Oranje-Nassau van Amsberg' and become a 'Count (Countess) of Orange-Nassau' and also have the noble predicate 'Jonkheer (Jonkvrouw) van Amsberg'. So his children had the same titles and names as those of Prince Constantijn, and showing that they belong to the royal family descending from Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus. In social use, they are named with their comital title. His wife acquired the feminine version of her husband's style and titles as a courtesy title, since it is customary for wives of members of the royal family to take the titles of their husbands.

Referred to from birth as Prince Johan-Friso, in 2004, the royal court announced that he had requested that he would henceforth be called "Prince Friso".

National

 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands :
 * NLD Order of the Dutch Lion - Grand Cross BAR.png Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
 * Ordre du Lion d'Or de la Maison de Nassau ribbon.svg Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau (by birth)
 * Royal Wedding Medal 2002.gif Royal Wedding Medal 2002 (2 February 2002)

title: Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau


text:
Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands

Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands (Constantijn Christof Frederik Aschwin; born 11 October 1969) is the third and youngest son of the former Dutch queen, Beatrix, and her husband, Claus von Amsberg, and is the younger brother of the reigning Dutch king, Willem-Alexander. He is a member of the Dutch Royal House and currently fourth in the line of succession to the Dutch throne behind his nieces.

Life and career
Prince Constantijn was born on 11 October 1969 at Utrecht University Hospital (now the University Medical Center Utrecht) in Utrecht, following the births of his brothers, Willem-Alexander (b. 1967), and Johan Friso (1968–2013). He goes by the nickname Tijn. His godparents are former King Constantine II of Greece (1940–2023), Prince Aschwin of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst, Max Kohnstamm, and Corinne de Beaufort-Sickinghe.

Prince Constantijn studied law at Leiden University, becoming a lawyer, and then worked at the Brussels department of the (Dutch) European Union commissioner of foreign relations, Hans van den Broek. Later, he was hired by the EU and continued to work there in various capacities until the end of 1999. In December 2000, he was awarded a Master of Business Administration at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. He spent a summer working for the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank group in Washington, DC. He worked until late 2002 for strategic consultants Booz Allen Hamilton in London. Since 2003, he works for the RAND Corporation Europe in Brussels. Furthermore, he has a part-time position at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague.

Prince Constantijn rarely attends public events in his capacity as a member of the Dutch royal family. He is a keen sportsman and enjoys football, tennis, golf, and skiing. His other hobbies include drawing, cooking, and reading.

Marriage and family
The engagement of Prince Constantijn and Petra Laurentien Brinkhorst was announced on 16 December 2000. The civil marriage was conducted by the mayor of The Hague, Wim Deetman, in the Oude Raadzaal, Javastraat, The Hague, on 17 May 2001. The church wedding took place two days later on 19 May in the Grote of St Jacobskerk, with the Reverend Carel ter Linden officiating.

Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien have three children: Eloise (b. 2002), Claus-Casimir (b. 2004), and Leonore (b. 2006). The family then moved from Brussels to The Hague.

Upon the abdication of Queen Beatrix on 30 April 2013, the children of Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien ceased to be members of the Royal House, although they continue to be members of the royal family and remain in the line of succession.

Titles and styles
Constantijn's full title and style is: His Royal Highness Prince Constantijn Christof Frederik Aschwin of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, Jonkheer van Amsberg.

National honours

 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands : Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau (by birth )
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands : Queen Beatrix Investiture Medal (30 April 1980)
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands : Royal Wedding Medal 2002 (2 February 2002)
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands : King Willem-Alexander Investiture Medal (30 April 2013)

Foreign honours

 * 🇧🇪 Belgium: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (20 June 2006)
 * 🇫🇷 France: Grand Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honour (11 April 2023)
 * 🇯🇴 Jordan: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the Renaissance (30 October 2006)
 * 🇱🇺 Luxembourg: Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau (by birth)

title: Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands


text:
Harry Watson

Harry Watson may refer to:
 * Harry Watson (actor) (1921–2001), American actor, photographer and television journalist
 * Harry Watson (artist) (1871–1936), English landscape and portrait artist
 * Harry Watson (Australian footballer) (1896–1941), Australian rules footballer for Fitzroy
 * Harry Watson (cyclist) (1904–1996), New Zealand cyclist
 * Harry Watson (footballer, born 1908) (1908–1982), English footballer
 * Harry Watson (ice hockey, born 1898) (1898–1957), amateur ice hockey player fl. 1920s
 * Harry Watson (ice hockey, born 1923) (1923–2002), professional ice hockey player fl. 1940s and 1950s
 * Harry Watson Jr. (1876–1965), American actor and comedian
 * Harry Davis Watson (1866–1945), British Army officer
 * Harry L. Watson, American historian and author
 * Harry T. Watson (1882–?), American college football, basketball and baseball player and coach

title: Harry Watson


text:
Harry L. Watson

Harry L. Watson is an American historian of the antebellum American South, Jacksonian America, and the history of North Carolina. He is formerly the Director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. He also holds the title of the Atlanta Distinguished Professor in Southern Culture in the Department of History at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Watson is an alumnus of Brown University and received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1976.

title: Harry L. Watson