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Itzhak Perlman

Itzhak Perlman (יִצְחָק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. He has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perlman has won 16 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Emmy Awards.

Early life
Perlman was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv. His parents, Chaim and Shoshana Perlman, were Jewish natives of Poland and had independently emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in the mid-1930s before they met and later married. Perlman contracted polio at age four and has walked using leg braces and crutches since then and plays the violin while seated. , he uses crutches or an electric scooter for mobility.

When Perlman was three years old, he sat and listened attentively to a violin recital on the radio, which inspired him to become a violinist. His mother soon bought him a toy violin, and he instantly taught himself to play melodies. His parents tried to enroll him at the Shulamit Conservatory, but he was denied admission for being too small to hold a violin. Despite his handicap, he began learning the violin a year later. His first teacher was a café violinist. At age five, Perlman was admitted to the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv (now the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music), where he studied for eight years with Rivka Goldgart, a violin teacher of Russian origin, and gave his first recital at age ten. He moved to the United States at age 13 to study at the Juilliard School and Meadowmount School of Music with the violin teacher Ivan Galamian and his assistant Dorothy DeLay.

Performing
Perlman gained national attention when he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show twice in 1958, and again in 1964, on the same show with the Rolling Stones. His performances on the show included pieces such as Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", Wieniawski's "Polonaise Brillante", and Mendelssohn's first violin concerto. In 1963 and 1964, Perlman made appearances with the National Orchestra Association in Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 1, the New York Youth Orchestra in Beethoven's Violin Concerto, and with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

With the Zionist Organization of America's sponsorship, Perlman began touring cities in the U.S. and Canada as a soloist, and quickly established himself as a leading virtuoso. He made his Carnegie Hall debut performing Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 1 in 1963 and won the Leventritt Competition in 1964. From 1964 to 1966, Perlman embarked on his first notable concert tour in the United States, performed in 30 cities, including Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Denver, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Haven, Seattle, and St. Louis. Perlman returned twice to the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. During the later part of 1964, Perlman gave several concerts in Israel, a tour that concluded with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv.

Perlman first appeared with the New York Philharmonic at the Philharmonic Hall as a soloist on May 9, 1965, playing Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 under William Steinberg. He debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic with the same concerto on February 17, 1966. In 1965, Perlman debuted with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concert under Louis Lane. He debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival on August 4, 1966, in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with conductor Thomas Schippers. Perlman made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on December 16, 1966, playing Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 under Erich Leinsdorf.

Starting in the late 1960s, Perlman began to tour Europe. He debuted with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968, performing Tchaikovky's violin concerto under the direction of André Previn. On May 25, 1972, Perlman debuted with the Berlin Philharmonic with the same concerto. This was shortly followed by his debut at the Salzburg Festival with a solo performance of Schubert's Rondo and Fantasy for Violin and Piano and Brahms's Violin Sonata No. 3 with Joseph Kalichstein on August 19, 1972. The next day, Perlman performed Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 with the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado. In the following years, Perlman toured as a soloist worldwide.

In addition to an extensive recording and performance career, Perlman has continued to make appearances on television shows such as The Tonight Show and Sesame Street as well as playing at a number of White House functions.

Although Perlman has never been billed or marketed as a singer, he sang the role of "Un carceriere" ("a jailer") on a 1981 EMI recording of Puccini's "Tosca" that featured Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo, and Renato Bruson, with James Levine conducting. He had earlier sung the role in an excerpt from the opera on a 1980 Pension Fund Benefit Concert telecast as part of the Live from Lincoln Center series with Luciano Pavarotti as Cavaradossi and Zubin Mehta conducting the New York Philharmonic.

On July 5, 1986, Perlman performed at the New York Philharmonic's tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, which was televised live on ABC. The orchestra, conducted by Mehta, performed in Central Park.

In 1987, Perlman joined the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) for its concerts in Warsaw and Budapest as well as other cities in Eastern bloc countries. He toured with the IPO in the spring of 1990 for its first-ever performance in the Soviet Union, with concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, and again in 1994, performing in China and India.

In 2015, on a classical music program titled The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center produced by WQXR in New York City, it was revealed that Perlman performed the uncredited violin solo on the 1989 Billy Joel song "The Downeaster Alexa".

While primarily a solo artist, Perlman has performed with a number of other musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman, Jessye Norman, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Isaac Stern, and Yuri Temirkanov at the 150th anniversary celebration of Tchaikovsky in Leningrad in December 1990.

As well as playing and recording the classical music for which he is best known, Perlman has also played jazz, including an album made with jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, klezmer, and bluegrass music. He has been a soloist in a number of film scores, such as the theme of the 1993 film Schindler's List by John Williams, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Score. More recently, he was the violin soloist in the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha along with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Perlman played selections from the musical scores of the movies nominated for "Best Original Score" at the 73rd Academy Awards with Ma and at the 78th Academy Awards.

Selected performances
Perlman played at the state dinner attended by Queen Elizabeth II on May 7, 2007, in the East Room at the White House.

He performed John Williams's "Air and Simple Gifts" at the 2009 inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama along with Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano), and Anthony McGill (clarinet). The quartet played live, but the music played simultaneously over speakers and on television was a recording made two days earlier due to concerns that the cold weather could damage the instruments. Perlman was quoted as saying: "It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way."

He made an appearance in Disney's Fantasia 2000 to introduce the segment Pines of Rome, along with Steve Martin.

On November 2, 2018, Perlman reprised the 60th anniversary of his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Teaching
In 1975, Perlman accepted a faculty post at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. In 2003, he was named the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair in Violin Studies at the Juilliard School, succeeding his teacher, Dorothy DeLay. He also teaches students one-on-one at the Perlman Music Program on Long Island, NY, rarely holding master classes.

The Perlman Music Program
The Perlman Music Program, founded in 1994 by Perlman's wife, Toby Perlman, and Suki Sandler, started as a summer camp for exceptional string musicians between the ages of 12 and 18. Over time, it expanded to a yearlong program. Students have the chance to have Perlman coach them before they play at venues such as the Sutton Place Synagogue and public schools. By introducing students to each other and requiring them to practice together, the program strives to have musicians who would otherwise practice alone develop a network of friends and colleagues. Rather than remain isolated, participants in the program find an area where they belong.

Conducting
At the beginning of the new millennium, Perlman began to conduct. He took the post of principal guest conductor at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He served as music advisor to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2004. In November 2007, the Westchester Philharmonic announced his appointment as artistic director and principal conductor. His first concert in these roles was on October 11, 2008, in an all-Beethoven program featuring pianist Leon Fleisher performing the Emperor Concerto.

Instruments
Perlman plays the Soil Stradivarius violin of 1714, formerly owned by Yehudi Menuhin and considered one of the finest violins made during Stradivari's "golden period." Perlman also plays the Guarneri del Gesù 1743 'Sauret' and the Carlo Bergonzi 1740 'ex-Kreisler'.

Personal life
Perlman lives in New York City with his wife, Toby, also a classically trained violinist. They have five children, including Navah Perlman, a concert pianist and chamber musician. Perlman is a distant cousin of the Canadian comic and television personality Howie Mandel. He has synesthesia and was interviewed for Tasting the Universe by Maureen Seaberg, which is about the condition.

Discography

 * Prokofieff: Concerto No.2 in G Minor / Sibelius: Concerto in D Minor (RCA Victor, 1967)
 * Violin Concertos / Romance (RCA Red Seal 1968, BMG Classics, 2000)
 * Franck: Sonata for Violin & Piano (Vladimir Ashkenazy) in A Major / Brahms: Trio for Violin, Horn (Barry Tuckwell) and Piano in E flat Major (London Records, 1969)
 * Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole / Ravel: Tzigane (RCA Gold Seal, 1969)
 * Prokofiev: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, No. 1, Op.80 / No.2, Op. 94a (RCA Red Seal, 1969 & RCA Gold Seal, 1975)
 * The 24 Caprices, Op.1 by Paganini (Angel Records, 1972)
 * Bach: Double Concerto in D Minor, Violin Concerto No.2 in E, Violin Concerto in G Minor (Angel 1972)
 * Wieniawski: The Two Violin Concertos (Angel, 1973)
 * Bartok: Violin Concerto No.2 (Angel, 1974)
 * Perpetual Motion (Angel, 1974)
 * Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto / Dvořák: Romance (RCA Gold Seal, 1975)
 * Ravel; Saint-Saëns; Chausson (Angel, 1975)
 * Paganini; Giuliani: Duos for Violin & Guitar (John Williams) (CBS, 1976)
 * Sibelius Violin Concerto / Prokofieff Violin Concerto No.2 (RCA, 1976)
 * Itzhak Perlman plays Stravinsky (1976)
 * Itzhak Perlman plays Fritz Kreisler (1976)
 * Itzhak Perlman plays Fritz Kreisler, Volume 2 (1977)
 * Goldmark: Violin Concerto No.1 / Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen (Angel, 1977)
 * Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46 / Violin Concerto No.2 in D Minor, Op.44 (Angel, 1977)
 * Duets for Two Violins (Angel, 1977)
 * Beethoven: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Volume 4 (London Records, 1977)
 * Brahms: Violin Concerto (Angel, 1977)
 * Vieuxtemps: Violin Concertos No.4 in D Minor / No.5 in A Minor (Angel, 1978)
 * First Recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (Quintessence Records, 1978)
 * Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major & Serenade Melancolique (Angel, 1979)
 * Virtuoso Violinist (Angel, 1979)
 * Berg: Violin Concertos (Deutsche Grammophon, 1979)
 * Beethoven: Sonatas for Violin and Piano (London Records, 1979)
 * Encores (Angel, 1979)
 * Dohnanyi: Serenade / Beethoven: Serenade (Columbia Masterworks, 1979)
 * The Spanish Album (Angel, 1980)
 * Itzhak Perlman plays Fritz Kreisler, Volume 3 (1980)
 * Berg: Violin Concerto / Stravinsky: Violin Concerto (Deutsche Grammophon, 1980)
 * Itzhak Perlman & Pinchas Zukerman Play Music for Two Violins (1980)
 * Sibelius: Violin Concerto / Sinding: Suite in A Minor (Angel, 1980)
 * Bartok Duos For Two Violins (Angel, 1981)
 * Itzhak Perlman (Great Performers series, 1981)
 * The Great Romantic Violin Concertos (Angel, 1981)
 * Beethoven: Violin Concerto, Op.61 (EMI, 1981)
 * Korngold: Concerto in D / Conus: Concerto in E Minor (EMI, 1981)
 * Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole / Berlioz: Reverie Et Caprice (Deutsche Grammophon, 1981)
 * The Two Violin Concertos by Prokofiev (Angel, 1982)
 * Elgar: Violin Concerto (Deutsche Grammophon, 1982)
 * Beethoven: Violin Sonatas, Kreutzer - Spring (London Records, 1983)
 * Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 (Deutsche Grammophon, 1983)
 * Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No.3 / Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No.2 (Deutsche Grammophon, 1983)
 * Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole / Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No.3 (Deutsche Grammophon, 1983)
 * Bach: Double Concerto, with Isaac Stern (CBS Records, 1983)
 * Chausson: Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet (CBS Masterworks, 1983)
 * Kim: Violin Concerto / Starer: Violin Concerto (Angel, 1984)
 * Khatchaturian: Violin Concerto / Tchaikovsky: Meditation Op.42, No.1 (Angel, 1984)
 * Vivaldi: Four Violin Concertos (Angel, 1984)
 * Mozart: Violin Sonatas, K.301, 302, 303 & 304 (Deutsche Grammophon, 1984)
 * Mendelssohn: Concerto in E Minor / Concerto No.1 in G Minor (Angel, 1984)
 * Bach: Violin Concertos in D Minor & G Minor / Concerto for Violin & Oboe in C Minor (Angel, 1984)
 * Brahms: The Sonatas for Violin and Piano / Sonatensatz / Four Hungarian Dances (Angel, 1985)
 * Dvořák: Sonatine in G, Four Romantic Pieces; Smetana: From My Homeland (Angel, 1985)
 * Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante K.364 / Concertone K.190 (Deutsche Grammophon, 1985)
 * Violinkonzerte Nos. 3 & 4 by W.A. Mozart (1986)
 * Mozart: The 5 Violin Concertos (Deutsche Grammophon, 1986)
 * Mozart: Violin Concerto No.1, Adagio K.261, Rondo K.373, Rondo K.261a (Deutsche Grammophon, 1986)
 * Tradition: Itzhak Perlman Plays Jewish Melodies (1987)
 * Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A Minor, Op.50 (EMI, 1987)
 * My Favourite Kreisler (Angel, 1987)
 * Dvořák: Violin Concerto, Romance (EMI, 1987)
 * Bach: Sonatas and Partitas (EMI, 1988)
 * A Tribute To Jascha Heifetz (EMI, 1989)
 * Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (1990)
 * Saint-Saëns; Sarasate; Chausson / Ravel (Deutsche Grammophon, 1990)
 * Brahms: The 3 Violin Sonatas (Sony Classical, 1990)
 * Mozart: Sonatas for Piano and Violin, K.378, K.379 & K.380 (DG, 1990)
 * 24 Caprices: Paganini (EMI, 1991)
 * Paganini: Violin Concerto no.1 / Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy (EMI, 1991)
 * Mozart: Sonatas for Piano and Violin, K.526 & K.547 (DG, 1991)
 * Vivaldi: Four Violin Concertos (EMI, 1991)
 * Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (EMI, 1991)
 * Mozart: Duos for Violin & Viola / Leclair: Sonata for 2 Violins (RCA Victor, 1991)
 * Vivaldi: The Four Seasons / 3 Violin Concertos (1992)
 * Castelnuovo-Tedesco & Ben-Haim: Violin Concertos (EMI, 1992)
 * Brahms: Violin Concerto (EMI, 1992)
 * The Art of Itzhak Perlman (1993)
 * Prokofiev: Violin Sonatas / Concerto No.2 (1994)
 * Bits and Pieces (EMI, 1994)
 * The American Album (EMI, 1994)
 * Dvořák in Prague: A Celebration (Sony Classical, 1994, and Kultur Video, 2007)
 * The American Album (1995)
 * In the Fiddler's House (1995)
 * A La Carte (EMI, 1995)
 * Wieniawski by Itzhak Perlman (EMI, 1995)
 * Live In The Fiddler's House (Angel, 1996)
 * Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 (EMI, 1997)
 * Cinema Serenade (Sony Classical, 1997)
 * Stravinsky: Violin Concerto / Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No.2 (Teldec, 1997)
 * Brahms: Double Concerto / Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto (Teldec, 1997)
 * Holiday Tradition (1998)
 * Brahms: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-3 (EMI, 1998)
 * Itzhak Perlman's Greatest Hits (EMI, 1998)
 * Concertos from My Childhood (EMI, 1999)
 * Violin Concertos / Romance (BMG Classics, 2000)
 * Mozart: Violin Concerto No.3 (EMI, 2002)
 * Classic Perlman - Rhapsody (2002)
 * Beethoven: The Violin Sonatas (Decca, 2002)
 * The Perlman Edition: Tradition (EMI, 2003)
 * Perlman Rediscovered (2004)
 * The Essential Itzhak Perlman (Sony Classical, 2009)
 * Eternal Echoes: Songs and Dances for the Soul  (Sony Classical, 2012) with Yitzchak Meir Helfgot
 * Itzhak Perlman & Emanuel Ax: Fauré & Strauss Violin Sonatas (Universal Music Classics/Deutsche Grammophon, 2015)
 * The Perlman Sound (Warner Classics, 2015)
 * Schumann – Bach – Brahms (Warner Classics, 2016)
 * The Art of Itzhak Perlman (Sony Classical, 2016)

With Andre Previn
 * The Easy Winners (Angel Records, 1975 / EMI, 1986)
 * A Different Kind of Blues (EMI/Angel, 1980)
 * It's a Breeze (EMI/Angel, 1981)

With Placido Domingo
 * Together (EMI, 1991)

With Oscar Peterson
 * Side by Side (TELARC CD-83341 1994)

Honors and awards

 * The GENESIS Prize 2016 Press Event (27289506693).jpg: Leventritt Competition – Winner
 * 1977: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
 * 1978: Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:Beethoven: Sonatas for Violin and Piano (w/ Vladimir Ashkenazy)
 * 1978: Grammy Award for Best Classical Album: Brahms: Concerto for Violin in D
 * 1980: Grammy Award: Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra): The Spanish Album
 * 1980: Grammy Award: Best Chamber Music Performance: Music for Two Violins (w/ Pinchas Zukerman)
 * 1980: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Brahms Violin and Cello Concerto in A Minor (w/ Mstislav Rostropovich) (TIE)
 * 1980: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Berg: Violin Concerto/Stravinsky: Violin Concerto in D (TIE)
 * 1981: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Isaac Stern 60th Anniversary Celebration (w/ Isaac Stern & Pinchas Zukerman)
 * 1981: Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance: Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A Minor (w/ Lynn Harrell & Vladimir Ashkenazy)
 * 1982: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor
 * 1987: Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance: Beethoven: The Complete Piano Trios (w/ Lynn Harrell & Vladimir Ashkenazy)
 * 1987: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 2 and 4
 * 1990: Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance: Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (w/ Daniel Barenboim)
 * 1990: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.1 in A Minor/GlazunovL Violin Concerto in A Minor
 * 1995: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra): The American Album—Works of Bernstein, Barber, Foss
 * 1997: Elected member of the American Philosophical Society
 * 2003: Kennedy Center Honors
 * April 1980: Newsweek magazine featured Mr. Perlman with a cover story.
 * 1986: Honored with the Medal of Liberty by President Reagan.
 * 1992: Emmy Award: Outstanding Classical Program in the Performing Arts: Perlman in Russia
 * 1994: Emmy Award: Outstanding Individual Achievement: Cultural Programming
 * 1996: Emmy Award: Outstanding Cultural Music-Dance Program: Itzhak Perlman: In the Fiddler's House
 * 1999: Emmy Award: Outstanding Classical Music-Dance Program: Itzhak Perlman: Fiddling for the Future
 * 2000: Awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton
 * 2002: Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
 * 2005: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Elie Wiesel.
 * 2008: Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
 * 2015: Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama
 * 2016: Awarded the Genesis Prize by the Prime Minister of Israel.
 * 2017: Subject of the documentary Itzhak directed by Alison Chernick.

title: Itzhak Perlman


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Ben Kingsley

Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. Kingsley was appointed Knight Bachelor in 2002 for services to the British film industry. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and received the Britannia Award in 2013.

Born to an English mother and an Indian Gujarati father with roots in Jamnagar, Kingsley began his career in theatre, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 and spending the next 15 years appearing mainly on stage. His starring roles included productions of As You Like It (his West End debut for the company at the Aldwych Theatre in 1967), Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Also known for his television roles, he received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story (1989), Joseph (1995), Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), and Mrs. Harris (2006).

In film, Kingsley is known for his starring role as Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982), for which he subsequently won the Academy Award for Best Actor and BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. For his portrayal of Itzhak Stern in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993), he received a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination. He was Oscar-nominated for Bugsy (1990), Sexy Beast (2000), and House of Sand and Fog (2003). His other notable films include Maurice (1987), Sneakers (1992), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Death and the Maiden (1994), Twelfth Night (1996), Tuck Everlasting (2002), Elegy (2008), Shutter Island (2010), and Hugo (2011).

Kingsley played the character of Trevor Slattery in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Iron Man 3 (2013), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and the upcoming Disney+ series Wonder Man. He also acted in the blockbusters Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), and Ender's Game (2013). Kingsley lent his voice to the films The Boxtrolls (2014), and The Jungle Book (2016).

Early life and education
Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji on 31 December 1943, in Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire. His mother, Anna Lyna Mary (née Goodman) (1914–2010), was an English actress and model, and she later gave birth to a second son called Sadru Bhanji, who later worked as a psychiatrist in Devon. She was born out of wedlock and "was loath to speak of her background". His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji (1914–1968), was born in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) to a family originating from the Indian city of Jamnagar, of Khoja Gujarati descent. Kingsley's paternal grandfather, Harji Bhanji, was a successful spice trader who had moved from India to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, where Kingsley's father lived until moving to the United Kingdom at the age of 14. Kingsley's maternal grandfather was believed by the family to have been of Russian- or German-Jewish descent, while his maternal grandmother was English and worked in the garment district of London's East End. Kingsley stated in 1994, "I'm not Jewish, and though there might be some Russian-Jewish heritage way back on my mother's side, the thread is so fine there's no real evidence." In a 2016 interview, he indicated that his maternal grandmother was impregnated by a Russian-Jewish immigrant who later abandoned her, which led her to become a "vile anti-Semite."

Kingsley grew up in Pendlebury, Lancashire. Although his father was a Gujarati Khoja who practised Isma'ili Shia Islam, Kingsley was not raised in his father's faith, and identifies as a Quaker. He was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, where one of his classmates was actor Robert Powell. Kingsley went on to study at De La Salle College in Salford, which later became home to The Ben Kingsley Theatre. While at college, he became involved in amateur dramatics in Manchester, making his professional stage debut on graduation, aged 23.

1967–1981: Stage work and early career
After graduating, in 1966, Kingsley was approached by music producer and manager Dick James. James, who was the publisher of The Beatles, offered to mould Kingsley into a pop star. Kingsley declined James' offer, and instead chose to join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1967 after an audition before Trevor Nunn. Devoting himself almost exclusively to stage work for the next 15 years, he made his West End debut for the company at the Aldwych Theatre in 1967 in a production of As You Like It. Further productions for the RSC included Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream (starring in Peter Brook's acclaimed 1970 RSC production as Demetrius), Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

In the 1960s, Kingsley changed his name to Ben Kingsley, fearing that a foreign name would hamper his career. He told the Radio Times, "As soon as I changed my name, I got the jobs. I had one audition as Krishna Bhanji and they said, 'Beautiful audition but we don't quite know how to place you in our forthcoming season.' I changed my name, crossed the road, and they said when can you start?" In 1971 Kingsley made his Broadway debut playing Demetris in the revival of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream acting with Patrick Stewart, Frances de la Tour and Martin Best. He played Mosca in Peter Hall's 1977 production of Ben Jonson's Volpone for the Royal National Theatre. In 1981 he returned to Broadway playing the title role in the Raymund Fitzsimons play Edmund Kean (1983). He played Willy Loman in a 1982 Sydney production of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman opposite Mel Gibson.

Kingsley began his transition to film roles early on, making his feature film debut playing a supporting role in the British action thriller Fear Is the Key in 1972. Kingsley continued to play small roles in both film and television, including a role as Ron Jenkins on the soap opera Coronation Street from 1966 to 1967 and regular appearances as a defence counsel in the long-running British legal programme Crown Court. In 1974 he played Thidias in a taped performance of the William Shakespeare play Antony and Cleopatra with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He acted alongside Patrick Stewart and Tim Pigott-Smith. In 1975, he starred as Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the historical drama The Love School and appeared in the TV miniseries Dickens of London the following year.

1982–1998: Transition to film and television
A turning point in Kingsley's career came with the historical biographical epic drama film Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough, in which Kingsley played the titular role of the anti-colonialist activist and peacemaker Mahatma Gandhi. The film was a critical and financial success with film critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times praising the casting of Kingsley in the lead role writing, "makes the role so completely his own that there is a genuine feeling that the spirit of Gandhi is on the screen. Kingsley's performance is powerful without being loud or histrionic; he is almost always quiet, observant, and soft-spoken on the screen, and yet his performance comes across with such might that we realize, afterward, that the sheer moral force of Gandhi must have been behind the words." Kingsley went on to win numerous accolades for his performance including the Academy Award for Best Actor, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his performance. The following year he acted in the British drama film Betrayal (1983), an adaptation of the 1978 play of the same name by Harold Pinter. Kingsley starred opposite Jeremy Irons and Patricia Hodge. For his performance he won the Evening Standard British Film Awards.

Throughout the 1980s, Kingsley appeared in a variety of films, including a leading role in the John Irvin directed British drama Turtle Diary (1985) starring opposite Glenda Jackson. The film was based on the 1975 novel of the same name and was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter. Sheila Benson of The Los Angeles Times praised their performances writing, "No filmic cliches, no swelling musical score; these are no "littul peeple" who melt into each other's arms, but blessedly real people, who get exhausted and don't talk all the time." He acted in the Merchant-Ivory costume drama Maurice (1987). The film was adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by E. M. Forster. Kingsley acted alongside Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Simon Callow, and Denholm Elliott. He played the main character of Basil Pascali in Pascali's Island (1988), and went on to portray Dr. John Watson alongside Michael Caine's Sherlock Holmes in Without a Clue that year. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the organised crime figure Meyer Lansky in Bugsy (1991). Additional roles include the supporting character of Cosmo in the thriller film Sneakers (1992), Vice-President Gary Nance in Dave (1993), and the chess teacher Bruce Pandolfini in Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993).

In Steven Spielberg's historical drama film Schindler's List (1993), Kingsley portrayed the Holocaust survivor Itzhak Stern alongside Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler. The film was a critical and commercial success, and Kingsley received a nomination for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote of his performance, "Kingsley must act within much more rigid constraints as his trusted accountant Stern, a man who feels he must never make a misstep. Role is reminiscent of Alec Guinness' deluded Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai; in his compulsion to do a perfect job for Schindler, he often seems to forget that he's working for the enemy." Further roles include the BBC adaptation of Silas Marner (1985) as the titular character. Kingsley starred alongside Sigourney Weaver in Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden (1994), having previously acted with her in Dave.

In 1996 he portrayed Feste in Twelfth Night, a film adaptation of the William Shakespeare play. Kingsley starred alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Nigel Hawthorne, and Richard E. Grant. In a mixed review, Todd McCarthy of Variety noted his performance as a highlight writing, "Ben Kingsley brings some nice readings to his rather mysterious role of Feste, the commentator on the convoluted proceedings." The following film he provided a voice in the video game Ceremony of Innocence. In 1998, he was the head of the jury at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival and starred in the family film Spooky House, saying he had chosen a role in a lighter film after acting in roles that left him feeling traumatised.

1999–present: Further success
Kingsley took on the role of Don Logan, a violent psychopath and recruiter for London's underworld, in Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast (2000), a psychological black comedy crime film acting with Ray Winstone and Ian McShane. Critic Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised his performance writing, "The role of Don Logan is perfectly suited to Ben Kingsley's gifts for control and stillness. There is something a little baroque and stylised about his approach - it is arguably a little actorly and unlike the behaviour of any real villain. But it is a very funny, intelligent performance nonetheless, beautifully scripted and acted, and Kingsley tops it off with a bravura show of pure sociopathic cunning". Kingsley's role as Logan earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. A year later, he won a Crystal Globe award for having an outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In 2003 he portrayed Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani in the Vadim Perelman directed House of Sand and Fog acting opposite Jennifer Connelly and Shohreh Aghdashloo. Critic Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote of his performance, "Kingsley, carrying his body like armor, sculpting each line into a bitter dart of pride, plays fierceness with a powerful tug of sorrow." For his role he earned nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor. The following year he played a supporting role as Benjamin O'Ryan in the psychological thriller Suspect Zero (2004). Although the film received negative reviews from critics, reservations were made for Kingsley's performance.

In July 2006, Kingsley received an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nomination for his performance in the HBO television film Mrs. Harris (2005), in which he played famed cardiologist Herman Tarnower, who was murdered by his jilted lover, Jean Harris played by Annette Bening. Later that year, he made a cameo appearance in an episode of The Sopranos titled "Luxury Lounge". Kingsley plays himself in the episode as Chris and Little Carmine pitch him the role of a mob boss in the film Cleaver, which he turns down. In 2007, Kingsley appeared as a Polish American mobster in the Mafia comedy You Kill Me, and a hitman in War, Inc. The following year he acted in the romantic drama Elegy (2008) directed by Isabel Coixet. He starred alongside Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson, and Dennis Hopper. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of the film and his performance, "Ben Kingsley, who can play just about any role, seems to be especially effective playing slimy intellectuals. "Elegy" is a film that could have been made for him, although by the time it's over, Penelope Cruz has slipped away with it, and transformed Kingsley's character in the process. It's nicely done." Kingsley received a nomination for the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best British Actor of the Year.

The years 2010 and 2011 contained several big roles for Kingsley. In 2010, he worked voicing a character named Sabine in the Lionhead Studios game Fable III and starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island (2010), directed by Martin Scorsese. That same year, Kingsley made his Bollywood debut in the thriller Teen Patti (2010). The following year he appeared in Scorsese's next film, the children's adventure film Hugo (2011), playing the French illusionist Georges Méliès. Kingsley's portrayal of Méliès also earned him a Saturn Award for Best Actor. Kingsley also signed on to the sci-fi romance feature Broken Dream. The feature, by Neil Jordan and John Boorman, was later scrapped. In 2013, Kingsley appeared as the villain Trevor Slattery in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man 3, and as the hero Mazer Rackham in the science-fiction action adventure film Ender's Game. A year later he played the Hebrew slave Nun in Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings and Merenkahre, a simulacrum of an Egyptian pharaoh and father of Ahkmenrah, in Shawn Levy's Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb That same year, Kingsley would also reprise his role as Slattery in the direct-to-video short film All Hail the King.

In 2015, Kingsley portrayed a Sikh driving instructor in the film Learning to Drive. He voiced Bagheera in the live-action adaptation of Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book (2016), a remake of the original 1967 film. Kingsley also recorded Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi in book-on-tape format. In 2018, he narrated Amazon Prime's documentary All or Nothing: Manchester City which followed Manchester City's record breaking 2017–18 Premier League campaign. and served as the voice of General Woundwort in the BBC adaptation of Watership Down. Kingsley reprised his role as Trevor Slattery in the film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021). Kingsley acted in Wes Anderson's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023), a film adaptation of a short story by Roald Dahl, and starred opposite Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Benedict Cumberbatch. The film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Kingsley has been announced as playing Ibrahim Arif in the upcoming film of Richard Osman's multi-award winning Thursday Murder Club series. Filming is due to begin in summer 2024.

Marriage and family
Kingsley has been married four times and has four children: Thomas Bhanji and artist Jasmin Bhanji, with first wife, actress Angela Morant, and Edmund Kingsley and Ferdinand Kingsley, both of whom became actors, with second wife, theatrical director Alison Sutcliffe. He divorced his third wife Alexandra Christmann in 2005, having been "deeply, deeply shocked" after pictures of her kissing another man surfaced on the internet. On 3 September 2007, Kingsley married Brazilian actress Daniela Lavender at Eynsham Hall in North Leigh, Oxfordshire.

Charity
Kingsley appeared in a production of The Children's Monologues in 2010 on stage in London alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Gemma Arterton, and Eddie Redmayne. It was performed on behalf of Dramatic Need, a charity that sends international arts professionals (such as musicians, artists, and actors) to host workshops in underprivileged and rural communities in Africa.

Filmography
• Gandhi (1982)

• Betrayal (1983)

• Maurice (1987)

• Pascali's Island (1988)

• The Children (1990)

• Bugsy (1991)

• Sneakers (1992)

• Schindler's List (1993)

• Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

• Dave (1993)

• Death and the Maiden (1994)

• Species (1995)

• Twelfth Night (1996)

• The Confession (1999)

• Parting Shots (1999)

• Rules of Engagement (2000)

• The Triumph of Love (2001)

• Sexy Beast (2001)

• A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

• Tuck Everlasting (2002)

• House of Sand and Fog (2003)

• Thunderbirds (2004)

• Suspect Zero (2004)

• Oliver Twist  (2005)

• BloodRayne (2005)

• A Sound of Thunder (2005)

• Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

• You Kill Me (2007)

• The Last Legion (2007)

• The Wackness (2008)

• The Love Guru (2008)

• Elegy (2008)

• Shutter Island (2010)

• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

• Hugo (2011)

• The Dictator  (2012)

• Iron Man 3  (2013)

• The Physician (2013)

• Ender's Game (2013)

• Stonehearst Asylum (2014)

• Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)

• Learning to Drive (2014)

• Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

• The Walk  (2015)

• Jungle Book  (2016)

• Night Hunter (2018)

• The Red Sea Diving Resort (2019)

• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings  (2021)

• Locked Down (2021)

• Daliland (2022)

• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar  (2023)

Awards and nominations
Kingsley won an Academy Award in the Best Actor category for Gandhi, and has been nominated three more times: Best Supporting Actor for Bugsy and Sexy Beast, and Best Actor for House of Sand and Fog (2003). In 1984, Kingsley won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Nonmusical Recording for The Words of Gandhi, received an honorary degree from the University of Salford, and was awarded the Indian civilian honour Padma Shri.

He was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2002 New Year Honours for services to the British film industry. The award was announced on 31 December 2001, which happened to be Kingsley's 58th birthday. After being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, Kingsley stated:I told the Queen that winning an Oscar pales into insignificancethis is insurmountable. I'm fascinated by the ancient, by mythology, by these islands and their tradition of story telling. I feel that I am a story teller and to receive a knighthood is really recognition of that.

His demand to be called 'Sir' in film and TV show credits was documented by the BBC, to some criticism. Co-star Penélope Cruz was reportedly unsure what to call him during the filming of Elegy as someone had told her she needed to refer to him as "Sir Ben". One day it slipped out as such, and she called him that for the remainder of the shoot. Kingsley has denied accusations that he prefers to be referred to by his title, saying, "If I've ever insisted on being called 'Sir' by colleagues on a film set then I am profoundly sorry. I don't remember ever doing that and I tend not to forget." In May 2010, Kingsley was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In April 2013, Kingsley was honoured with the Fellowship Award at The Asian Awards in London.

title: Ben Kingsley


text:
Green Party of British Columbia

The Green Party of British Columbia, or simply the BC Greens, is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1983 and is based in Victoria. The party won its first seat in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2013 provincial election.

Principles
The Green Party of BC promotes the principles of participatory democracy, sustainability, social justice, respect for diversity, ecological wisdom, and nonviolence.

Founding and early years (1983–1992)
The first Green Party in North America was formed in British Columbia, Canada on February 6, 1983. It registered as a provincial society and a political party shortly before the 1983 provincial election. It fielded four candidates and received 0.19% of the vote under the leadership of Adriane Carr. In a federal by-election in the riding of Mission—Port Moody the same year, Betty Nickerson was the Green Party of Canada's first federal candidate, but the party's status was not yet recognized by Elections Canada. She appears in electoral records as an "independent" candidate.

Carr stepped back from active involvement in the party in 1985, and the party abolished the position of leader. Thereafter, it was represented in the media by three spokespersons. In the 1986 provincial election, the party won 0.23% of the vote and fielded nine candidates. In 1988, in response to a proposal to field only female candidates in the following election, Carr and her husband Paul George returned briefly to active involvement to defeat the proposal. From 1988 to 1992, the party was deeply divided between supporters of Carr and Greenpeace founder Jim Bohlen and its Ecofeminist Caucus. During this period, its internal politics were dominated by a compromise faction led by electoral reform activist Steve Kisby.

However, this period of relative stability ended with the party's failure to make a breakthrough in the 1991 provincial election, despite increasing its province-wide vote share to 0.86% and fielding a slate of 42 candidates.

Parker years (1993–1999)
In 1993, the party elected a new leader, 21-year-old Stuart Parker, who revitalized the party with youthful new members. He managed to take the party to running close to a full slate in the 1996 election, but was only able to garner only 2% support province-wide, despite receiving the endorsement of prominent environmentalist David Suzuki. Green hopes for a breakthrough in the Kootenay riding of Nelson-Creston with candidate Andy Shadrack yielded a result of only 11%. Parker's first term (1993–96) was characterized by near-continuous touring of rural BC which had, up to that point, negligible or highly intermittent organization outside of the Okanagan and Comox Valleys. This touring paid off in yielding on-going organization throughout the province, enabling the party to come just four candidates short of a full slate.

The direction of the party under Parker was set by many disgruntled ex–British Columbia New Democratic Party members, and the policies of the party under Parker were notably leftist. During Parker's second term as leader, the party rose to a peak of 11% in public opinion polls between 1996 and 1999, almost exclusively at the NDP's expense. Although he was arrested in logging road blockades in 1993 and 1997, Parker's Greens actually invested more resources in opposing the BC Benefits package of welfare reforms and working on other social issues than it did on any significant environmental issue.

While remaining sharply critical of Glen Clark's NDP government, Parker spearheaded highly controversial negotiations to form municipal electoral alliances with NDP-affiliated parties in 1998 after vote-splitting all but wiped out leftist representation at the local level in Vancouver and Victoria in 1996. These negotiations, approved by Clark, yielded tripartite agreements between local labour councils, Greens and New Democrats in Vancouver and Victoria, leading to Red-Green coalitions contesting the 1999 municipal elections in both cities with the support of organized labour. Neither coalition formed government but both made substantial gains, resulting in the election in Victoria, BC, of Art Vanden Berg, the first person in Canadian history to run as a Green and be elected to City Council. In Vancouver, the coalition effort also elected Parks Commissioner Roslyn Cassells.

Carr years (2000–2006)

The party's increased poll standing, new position on collaboration with its longtime rivals and impending electoral success attracted the attention of a number of prominent environmentalists, led by Carr, who began a campaign in 1999 to remove the party's then leadership. The group conducted a bitter year-long public campaign that included an unsuccessful lawsuit against the party and later-disproven allegations against the party's leader and board of directors including fraud, vote-rigging and even theft. Although the group was defeated at the party's 1999 convention, it triumphed in 2000. Shortly thereafter, the party elected Carr as its new leader; since 2001, the party leader has ceased to be subject to annual review votes, the process by which Parker was removed. Following the 2000 convention, all of the party's elected municipal representatives and some other members resigned.

With the high-profile changes at the top, the party was able to improve on its 9% poll standing at the beginning of 2000 and reached 12% of the popular vote in the May 2001 provincial election. In spite of that significant support, it won no seats in the provincial legislature – a fact which has been cited as an argument against the first-past-the-post voting system used in BC elections.

Although she had sponsored a series of resolutions at the party's 2000 convention condemning what many saw as the party's distraction with social and governance policy at the expense of work on environmental issues, electoral reform moved to the top of Carr's agenda as leader. Disagreeing with Fair Voting BC's decision to devote the movement's energies to backing the new BC Liberal government's plan to move forward with the Citizens' Assembly process it had developed in 1997, Carr founded a rival electoral reform organization called Free Your Vote to utilize the province's citizen initiative legislation (which technically allows citizens to force referendums on legislation if they gather a sufficient number of signatures).

Despite facing public condemnation from FVBC's Loenen, Free Your Vote recruited hundreds of volunteers for the province-wide effort, building a far larger citizen organization than either ECCO or FVBC. It also gained the support of many leftists, including the official endorsement of the BC Nurses' and other unions. The campaign also faced its share of difficulties, such as leaked internal memos from the party's organizing chair explaining that organizers knew the petition drive would fail, but were simply using it to build the party's organizational base. Although the campaign only submitted enough signatures in four of the province's 79 ridings, Free Your Vote was successful in mobilizing new support for reform. But it also appears to have hardened the party's support for a single model of proportional representation (mixed-member, closed-list) and public condemnation of others.

Following the failure of her preferred Free Your Vote, Carr focused her energy on a lively province-wide campaign opposing the 2010 Winter Olympic Games bid. But once the games were awarded to BC, the party was unable to find province-wide issues that resonated strongly with voters. Between 2003 and 2005, the party's presence was notably low key as Carr returned to the constant touring mode that had characterized Parker's first term.

In the 2005 provincial election, the GPBC's vote declined to 9% province-wide from 12% four years previously. Despite being rated highly for her debate performance by media commentators, Carr's performance was poorly rated by the public and her own vote share declined to 25% in her home constituency of Powell River-Sunshine Coast, 17% behind the victorious NDP candidate. Only in the constituencies of Vancouver-Burrard, West Vancouver-Garibaldi and Kelowna-Mission did the party's popularity increase.

These measures seemed insufficient to quiet increasing internal dissatisfaction with her leadership. Prior to the first annual convention following the reinstitution of the practice of requiring leaders to step down and run to succeed themselves each electoral cycle (this policy, along with annual confidence votes, had been previously repealed in 2001), Carr announced her resignation on September 24, 2006. As predicted by those familiar with Carr's long-standing relationship with the newly elected Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May, Carr accepted the paid position of deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada. She then ran as a federal candidate in the riding of Vancouver Centre but did not win.

Sterk and Weaver (2007–2020)
The Green Party of British Columbia held a leadership election on October 21, 2007, after the resignation of Carr in September 2006. Christopher Bennett was appointed interim leader until the leadership election was held. Former Vancouver-Hastings candidate Ian Gregson was the first to announce his candidacy.

Jane Sterk, a municipal councillor, university professor and small business owner, was elected leader of the BC Greens at their 2007 Convention at Royal Roads University in Victoria. She assumed the role from interim leader Christopher Ian Bennett.

The Greens maintain they receive support from all over the political spectrum. In the federal election of 2004, former Social Credit Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and media personality Rafe Mair confounded many by openly supporting the Green Party. The Greens have often been labelled as right-wing at the same time as being labelled left-wing by opponents.

The Greens' strength is concentrated on Southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, The Okanagan, Sea-to-Sky region and in high density areas of Vancouver. In 1991, the party's strongest showing was 4.4% in Rossland-Trail; in 1996, 11% in Nelson-Creston, in 2001 and 2005, in Carr's riding of Powell River-Sunshine Coast where she received 27% and 25% respectively, and in 2009 in West Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky with 22%.

The Greens won their first ever seat with Andrew Weaver winning in Oak Bay-Gordon Head in the May 2013 general election. Despite a slight drop in overall popular vote, the party climbed to 11.15% in the 61 ridings where they ran candidates. Weaver won 40% of the vote in his riding, and the party also surpassed 20% of the vote in Esquimalt-Royal Roads, Nelson-Creston, Saanich North and the Islands, Victoria-Beacon Hill, and Victoria-Swan Lake.

On August 13, 2013, Sterk announced she would retire from politics after the 2013 Annual General Meeting, held on August 24, 2013. Adam Olsen, former candidate in Saanich North and the Islands served as interim leader until December 9, 2015, when Weaver was acclaimed to the full-time position.

On May 9, 2017 in the May 2017 general election Weaver, Adam Olsen and Sonia Furstenau were elected to the provincial legislature, with the party winning 16.84% of the popular vote. The Green Party signed a confidence and supply agreement with the NDP in exchange for policy concessions on environmental and social issues. The NDP and Greens then defeated the incumbent Liberal government by one vote in a no confidence vote, with the NDP then being invited to form government.

On October 7, 2019, Andrew Weaver announced he would step down as party leader once a new leader had been chosen and would not run in the next British Columbia election anticipated to take place in 2021. On December 20, 2019, Olsen was named interim leader, effective January 6, 2020. On January 16, 2020, Weaver resigned from caucus to sit as an independent member of the legislature.

The party was scheduled to hold a leadership election from June 15 to 26, 2020, but the election was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia. It had been planned that the winner would be announced at the party's convention in Nanaimo. The leadership contest was relaunched on June 15, 2020. Sonia Furstenau was elected as leader on September 14, 2020.

Furstenau (2020–present)
Sonia Furstenau was elected as leader on September 14, 2020. A week after her selection as leader, the 2020 general election was called. Furstenau and Adam Olsen were returned to the Legislature. The electoral district of West Vancouver-Sea to Sky was originally called for Green candidate Jeremy Valeriote; the winning margin was small enough to trigger an automatic judicial recount. After the recount, it was determined that Liberal Jordan Sturdy had held the seat.

In 2024, Furstenau announced that she would run in Victoria-Beacon Hill during the provincial general election later that year.

MLAs
The following Green Party MLAs have represented electoral districts in British Columbia:

title: Green Party of British Columbia


text:
My Favorite Year

My Favorite Year is a 1982 American comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo from a story written by Palumbo. The film tells the story of a young comedy writer and stars Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, and Joseph Bologna. O'Toole was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was adapted into an unsuccessful 1992 Broadway musical of the same name.

Plot
Through narration, Benjy Stone recalls the week (in his "favorite year" of 1954) when he met his idol: film actor Alan Swann, known for appearing in swashbuckler films during the 1930s and 1940s.

During television's early days, Benjy works as a junior comedy writer for a variety show called Comedy Cavalcade starring Stan "King" Kaiser that is broadcast live from the NBC studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Swann, well past his prime, is booked as a guest star and arrives at the studio drunk. Kaiser nearly removes Swann from the show until Benjy intervenes, promising to keep Swann sober during the week preceding his scheduled appearance. With help from Swann's chauffeur Alfie, Benjy continuously monitors Swann. They learn much about each other, finding out that they each have family whom they want to remain out of the spotlight. Benjy's mother is married to Filipino former bantamweight boxer Rookie Carroca, and Benjy has many other relatives who embarrass him. Swann's young daughter Tess has been raised entirely by her mother, one of his many ex-wives. He rarely visits but secretly keeps tabs on her, unable to muster the courage to reconnect with her. During the week of rehearsals, Kaiser is threatened by gangster Karl Rojeck, a corrupt union boss who objects to being parodied on the show. Disruptive events, ambiguous between real sabotage and random accidents, are noted after Kaiser belligerently insists on performing the "Boss Hijack" sketch.

Benjy clumsily and enthusiastically courts K.C. Downing, a pretty assistant to producer Leo Silver. Swann mentors Benjy, and Benjy is unable to prevent the drunken star from crashing a party at the home of K.C.'s affluent parents as they find themselves in the wrong apartment. The night of the show, Swann suffers a panic attack after Benjy informs him that the program is broadcast live, not filmed as Swann had expected. Swann gets drunk and flees the studio. Benjy angrily confronts him, telling Swann that he always believed that he was the swashbuckling hero whom he had watched on the silver screen and that deep down, Swann possesses those qualities. As the "Boss Hijack" sketch gets under way, Rojeck's men appear backstage and attack Kaiser. The fight spills onto the stage during the broadcast, and the audience believes it's part of the sketch. Swann and Benjy observe the melee from the balcony. Swann, dressed for a musketeer skit, grabs a rope and swings onto the stage and into action. He and Kaiser defeat the thugs together before the unwitting audience. Benjy narrates the epilogue, relating that Swann, his confidence bolstered, visited his daughter the next day, enjoying a heartfelt reunion.

Cast
The girl in the Old Gold cigarette box was played (uncredited) by Lana Clarkson, who was murdered years later by Phil Spector. Gloria Stuart appears in a non-speaking role as Mrs. Horn.

Relationship to real life
Executive producer Mel Brooks was a writer for the Sid Caesar variety program Your Show of Shows early in his career. Swashbuckler Errol Flynn was a guest on one episode, and his appearance inspired Dennis Palumbo's mostly fictional screenplay. The character of Swann was based on Flynn, and Benjy Stone is based on both Brooks and Woody Allen, who also wrote for Caesar.

According to Brooks, the character Rookie Carroca was based on a Filipino sailor in the U.S. Navy who was his neighbor in Brooklyn. The name of the King Kaiser character is based on that of Sid Caesar ("Kaiser" is the German equivalent of the Roman title Caesar). Selma Diamond, another former Your Show of Shows writer (who inspired Rose Marie's character on The Dick Van Dyke Show), appears in the film as a wardrobe mistress.

The character of Herb, one of Kaiser's writers who whispers rather than speaks, is based on Neil Simon, another of Caesar's staff writers, who, according to Carl Reiner, whispered ideas to colleagues rather than trying to shout to be heard above the din of the noisy writers' room. Brooks acknowledges that most of the film's plot is fictional. He said that Flynn's appearance on Your Show of Shows was uneventful and that none of the writers had much interaction with Flynn, socialized with him or took him home to dinner.

Production
The film was based on an original script by Norman Steinberg.

My Favorite Year was the first film directed by actor Richard Benjamin, who worked as an NBC page at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in 1956.

Cameron Mitchell recalled that he met Mel Brooks when both were having lunch at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer commissary. Brooks told him that Gorilla at Large (which starred Mitchell and Brooks' wife Anne Bancroft) was his favorite film and asked him if he wanted to play a Jimmy Hoffa-type character in a film that he was producing at MGM. Mitchell accepted and was cast in My Favorite Year as Karl "Boss" Rojeck.

Reception
My Favorite Year opened in theaters on October 1, 1982, to $2,400,696 (#3, behind An Officer and a Gentlemens 11th weekend and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrials 18th).

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Janet Maslin called My Favorite Year "a funny and good-natured comedy" and wrote that director Richard Benjamin "works in a steady, affable style that is occasionally inspired, always snappy and never less than amusing." On their movie review television program movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave praise to My Favorite Year. Siskel called it "A wonderful little film full of big laughs and great nostalgia for TV's golden age" while Ebert, in agreement added, " It was directed by Richard Benjamin, and it was directed well. It was a very, very funny movie. The physical comedy in this movie is just as good as the verbal comedy. It's good from beginning to end." Michael Sragow of Rolling Stone had praise for the movie's director Richard Benjamin, and its cast, saying, "Director Richard Benjamin gets the most out of the script and the actors in almost every instance; it’s refreshing to see a small-scale movie that’s full to the brim with funny people."

The film holds a 97% "fresh" rating with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 29 reviews with the consensus: "My Favorite Year is a joyful ode to the early days of television, carried with a deft touch and Peter O'Toole's uproariously funny performance." The film received a rating of 62 on Metacritic.

Musical adaptation
Lainie Kazan was the only member of the cast to reprise her film role for the 1992 Broadway musical version of My Favorite Year, in which Alan Swann was portrayed by Tim Curry and Alice Miller by Andrea Martin. All three were nominated for Tony Awards for their performances, with Martin winning her category.

title: My Favorite Year


text:
British Columbia New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party of British Columbia (BC NDP) is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party espouses social democracy and sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. The NDP is one of the two major parties in British Columbia (BC); since the 1990s, its rival is the centre-right BC United (formerly known as the BC Liberals). The BC NDP is formally affiliated with the federal New Democratic Party and serves as its provincial branch.

The party was established in 1933 as the provincial wing of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation; the party adopted its current name in 1961 as part of the national party's re-foundation. The CCF quickly established itself as a major party in BC: for all but five years between 1933 and 1972, the CCF/NDP was the Official Opposition to the Liberal, Conservative and Social Credit governments. The NDP won its first election in 1972 under leader Dave Barrett, who governed until being defeated in the 1975 election. The party returned to office in 1991 and governed until 2001 under a succession of leaders. The NDP lost the 2001 election in a landslide and remained in opposition until the 2017 election, when it formed a minority government under John Horgan. In 2020 election, the party was re-elected with a majority government. In 2022, following health concerns, Horgan stepped down as party leader and premier and was succeeded by David Eby.

Seven leaders of the NDP have served as premier of British Columbia: Dave Barrett, Mike Harcourt, Glen Clark, Dan Miller, Ujjal Dosanjh, John Horgan and David Eby. Since 2022, the party leader is David Eby, who is also premier of British Columbia.

Foundation and early history: 1933–1951
The party was formed in 1933, during the Great Depression, as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (British Columbia Section) — allied to the national CCF — by a coalition of the Socialist Party of Canada (SPC), the League for Social Reconstruction, and affiliated organizations. In August 1933, the latter two organizations merged to become the Associated CCF Clubs. The new party won seven seats in the 1933 provincial election, enough to form the official opposition. A further merger with the British Columbia SPC took place in 1935.

In 1936, the party split as its moderate leader, Reverend Robert Connell, was expelled over doctrinal differences in what was called the "Connell Affair". Three other CCF members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in what had been a seven-member caucus quit and joined Connell in forming the Social Constructive Party, leaving only Harold Winch, Ernest Winch and Dorothy Steeves as CCF MLAs. The Constructivists nominated candidates in the 1937 election but failed to win a seat. The CCF regained their former contingent of seven MLAs but lost official opposition status to the reconstituted British Columbia Conservative Party.

Harold Winch succeeded Connell as CCF leader and guided the party until the 1950s.

The two-party system in Canada was challenged by the rise of the CCF and the Social Credit movement in western Canada during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The CCF first took power in 1944 in Saskatchewan under Premier Tommy Douglas. It also began to gain wider political support in British Columbia.

In order to block the rise of the CCF in BC, the provincial Liberal and Conservative parties formed a coalition government after the 1941 provincial election. That year neither party had enough seats to form a majority government on its own. For the ten years that the coalition held together, the CCF was the Official Opposition in the legislature.

Solidification as opposition party: 1951–1972
After the coalition fell apart in 1951, the government introduced the alternative vote electoral system, allowing voters to make two choices. They expected that Conservative voters would list the Liberals as their second choice and vice versa. The government hoped to prevent the CCF from winning in a three-party competition, but they did not realize that a new fourth party was on the rise: the BC Social Credit League.

In the 1952 election, the Liberals and Conservatives were decimated. The Social Credit League was the main beneficiary of the new voting system: many non-CCF voters chose Social Credit as either their first or second choices. Social Credit emerged as the largest party, with one seat more than Winch's CCF. The Social Credit party chose a new leader, W. A. C. Bennett.

When Social Credit lost a motion of no confidence in the legislature in March 1953, Winch argued that the CCF should be allowed to try to form a government rather than the house being dissolved for an early election. The Liberals, however, refused to support the CCF's bid to form a government, and new elections were called.

In the 1953 election, Bennett won a majority government, and both the Liberal and the Conservative parties were reduced to fringe parties. Throughout the 1950s, Bennett's new electoral movement was able to keep the CCF at bay. This period coincided with the height of the Cold War, and Bennett effectively used the scare tactic of the "Red Menace" against the CCF, referring to them as the "socialist hordes".

In 1960, the CCF joined with the Canadian Labour Congress nationally to create the New Party, which then in 1961 became the "New Democratic Party" (NDP). This reflected the formation of the national party from an alliance of the CCF and unions in the Canadian Labour Congress. Bennett managed to keep the CCF and the NDP out of power throughout the 1960s through four successive general elections. Each time, Bennett used the "Red Menace" tactic as a wedge issue against the NDP and its leaders: Robert Strachan and, in the 1969 general election, Thomas Berger.

Barrett government: 1972–1975
The NDP first won election in 1972 under Dave Barrett, who served as premier for three years. The NDP passed a considerable amount of legislation in a short time, including establishing the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and the Agricultural Land Reserve. A Question Period was added to the legislative process.

The NDP drove the small BC Liberal caucus to abandon their leader David Anderson for the Social Credit Party, as did one of the two Tories elected in 1972. The NDP introduced capital taxes and slashed funding to universities. It suffered for bringing clarity to the accounting by Social Credit, and revealing that BC was significantly in debt.

In the 1975 election, the Social Credit party, under W. A. C. Bennett's son Bill Bennett, won a snap election called by Barrett. The Barrett government had initiated a number of reforms in the areas of labour relations, the public service, and social programs. Most of these endured until the restraint budget of 1983.

Return to opposition: 1975–1991
The NDP hit a then-high in popular support in the 1979 election with 46 percent of the vote. And after a minor decline in the party's vote share in 1983, Barrett retired as leader.

Riding high in the polls, the NDP appeared poised to win the 1986 election against the unpopular Social Credit government, but its new leader Bob Skelly stumbled in a verbal gaffe during the campaign, and the Socreds' new leader William Vander Zalm attracted votes with his charisma and telegenic performance. The party failed to score its anticipated breakthrough.

Harcourt government: 1991–1996
The New Democratic Party governed BC for nine and a half years, winning two back-to-back general elections in 1991 and 1996 before being defeated in 2001. Although the party's majority was reduced in 1996, it triumphed over the divided remnants of the Social Credit Party. In 1991, due in part to Social Credit's scandals under Premier William Vander Zalm and in part to the stellar performance of British Columbia Liberal Party (BC Liberals) leader Gordon Wilson in debate, the old Social Credit vote split between the BC Liberals, which garnered 33 percent of the vote, and the Social Credit Party with 25 percent. The NDP, under the leadership of former Vancouver mayor Mike Harcourt, won with 41 percent of the popular vote, which was one percentage point lower than the share the party had lost with in 1986.

Harcourt's first two years in government were characterized by a notably social democratic policy agenda, which included increases in welfare spending and rates. In 1993, his government took a dramatic turn to the right with his televised address in which he lashed out against "welfare cheats, deadbeats and varmints". Broadcast province-wide, his speech inaugurated a set of welfare reforms enacted between 1993 and 1995; these were similar to those adopted by new Progressive Conservative provincial governments elected in Alberta and Ontario in the same time period.

The cutbacks were, in part, a reaction to a dramatic reduction in federal transfer payments by the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Parliament had repealed the Canada Assistance Plan bill of rights, which had included a right to food and a right to shelter. Unlike the reforms of the Harris and Klein governments in the other two provinces noted, the BC Benefits package of cutbacks and restrictions in social assistance eligibility was bundled with a childcare bonus paid to low- and medium-income families. The changes were unpopular with the province's anti-poverty movement and the BC Green Party; they were condemned by a motion at the NDP's 1997 convention.

Three months before BC Benefits was introduced by the Harcourt government, his government came into a protracted conflict with elements of the province's environmental movement. Harcourt's "Peace in the Woods" pact, which brought together traditionally warring environmental groups and forest workers' unions, began to collapse when Harcourt's cabinet exempted an environmentally sensitive area of Vancouver Island, Clayoquot Sound, from its province-wide mediation process for land-use conflicts, the Commission on Resources and the Environment (CORE). First Nations peoples led protests, including logging road blockades, which resulted in the arrests of more than 800 people. Some key environmental leaders, such as David Suzuki and Colleen McCrory, became alienated from the NDP and shifted their support to the Green Party in the 1996 provincial election.

Although low in the polls for much of his term in office, Harcourt and his newly appointed attorney general, Ujjal Dosanjh, succeeded in regaining substantial public support by taking a hard line against an aboriginal group's occupation of a farmer's field in the Cariboo region of the province. In what became known as the Gustafsen Lake standoff, Dosanjh led the largest-scale police operation in British Columbia history as the government tried to regain control. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) used armoured vehicles provided by the Canadian military for protection. The military strongly rejected attempts by the RCMP to have them take over control of the situation, and ultimately it remained a police operation. The RCMP used anti-vehicle mines and shot thousands of rounds of ammunition at protesters.

With less than 72 hours before a planned election call, and with the NDP high in the polls for its hard line against welfare recipients and aboriginal and environmental radicals, the party's provincial office was raided by RCMP officers as part of an ongoing investigation of illegal use of charity bingo money by former provincial cabinet minister and MP Dave Stupich (for which Stupich was later convicted on two counts). Media called the scandal "Bingogate". Although Harcourt was not implicated in either the raid or the probe, he resigned; he was later fully exonerated. The NDP was led into the 1996 provincial general election by Glen Clark.

Clark government: 1996–1999
Clark entered the 1996 election far back in the polls but proved an excellent campaigner. For the duration of the election, he re-unified the party's traditional coalition, using the slogan "On Your Side". He effectively portrayed the Liberals' new leader, former Vancouver mayor Gordon Campbell, as a pawn of big business and a dangerous right-wing extremist. Clark, for example, pointed to Campbell's promise to privatize BC Rail as an example of Campbell's pro big business policies. Clark was aided by Jack Weisgerber, leader of the BC Reform Party (the name taken by the majority of the Social Credit caucus), and Wilson, by then leader of the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA). Although the NDP won only 39 percent of the vote to Campbell's 42 percent, it secured 39 seats to Campbell's 33. This was partially explained by the vote splitting of the centre-right electorate following the collapse of the Social Credit party, with 9.29% and 5.74% of the popular vote going to the right wing Reform party and centrist Progressive Democrat parties respectively. This is possible because BC uses a first past the post electoral system.

Following the campaign, Clark's government struggled to exert leadership; the premier's scrappy style began to further alienate parts of the NDP coalition outside the core group of labour activists who helped to run Clark's campaign. Shortly after the election, it was discovered that the 1995–96 and 1996–97 fiscal years did not have the balanced budgets on which Clark had campaigned but small deficits of approximately $100million. This became a political scandal following a report by the BC Auditor General, which stated that the finance minister acted in a way "inconsistent with the principle of responsible and prudent fiscal planning" when drawing up the projected revenue numbers.

During these years, the NDP began to lose support and activists to the BC Greens, who reached 5 percent in the polls in the fourth quarter of 1997 and 11 percent by the fall of 1998. But most voters who left the NDP ultimately shifted to the Liberals, which was evident from the polling leading up to the 2001 BC election.

New scandals surfaced. Clark allegedly used his influence to win a casino licence for a neighbour, Dimitrios Pilarinos, who had helped him with some home renovations. Construction of the PacifiCat BC Ferries suffered cost over-runs and poor technical decisions. The new ferries were intended to speed transportation between Vancouver and Nanaimo but became part of the fast ferry scandal, ultimately costing the province $454million when the government sold them for scrap. Technical issues with the ferries included their inability to operate at all if wave heights exceeded 2.5 m and their reduced motor vehicle carrying capacity compared to traditional ferries.

By mid-1999, an obvious rift had appeared in the administration as Attorney General Dosanjh and Finance Minister Joy MacPhail challenged Clark's legitimacy. The party and province endured a few chaotic months of government with frequent cabinet shuffles following a police raid on Clark's home before he stepped down as premier. In 2002, Clark was acquitted of all charges in the Pilarinos case. Pilarinos himself was convicted on six charges and acquitted on three charges.

Dan Miller, the longest-serving member of the legislature, stepped in as premier and interim party leader during an acrimonious leadership race between Dosanjh, maverick West Kootenay MLA Corky Evans, and Wilson (who had been persuaded to fold his Progressive Democratic Alliance party into the NDP and join Glen Clark's cabinet in 1999). Despite clear favouritism from Clark, Wilson dropped out of the race less than one hour before the delegates voted due to a lack of support, throwing his support behind Evans. The final vote tally was 769 votes for Dosanjh and 549 votes for Evans, hence Dosanjh became party leader and the next premier.

Dosanjh government: 2000–2001
Having bottomed out at 15 percent in the polls, the Dosanjh government attempted to capitalize on the new premier's high personal approval rating with their remaining year in power. The government made a number of concessions to the party's anti-poverty and environmental wings in an attempt to reforge the coalition but the party would not budge in the polls.

Dosanjh waited as long as possible to call the next election, finally doing so in April 2001. By this time, the party had risen to 21 percent in opinion polling – a slight improvement from the nadir of a year earlier. Nonetheless, it became obvious that the NDP would not be re-elected. Midway through the campaign, Dosanjh conceded defeat in a pre-recorded message and asked the electorate to give the NDP a chance as a strong opposition party. De facto leadership passed to MacPhail, who managed to reinvigorate the campaign. The NDP's popular vote dropped to 22 percent, while its seat count dropped to only two – MacPhail and neighbouring Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan. They were also the only surviving members of the previous Cabinet; even Dosanjh lost his seat. All 77 other seats were captured by the Liberals who won 58 percent of the vote. It was the second-worst defeat of a sitting provincial government in Canada. Despite the severe defeat, MacPhail was credited for saving the party from being completely wiped off the electoral map. Shortly after the election, Dosanjh resigned as leader and MacPhail was appointed interim leader.

Opposition and recovery: 2001–2017
MacPhail and Kwan were initially not granted official party status by Campbell on the grounds that the legislature's rules stipulated a party must hold four seats. However, the Speaker of the Assembly, former Social Credit cabinet minister-turned BC Liberal Claude Richmond, recognized MacPhail as leader of the Opposition. Ultimately, Richmond's position gradually won out, and he was able to ensure that the remains of the NDP were provided the resources of an official party.

Given the high level of support within the party for her leadership, MacPhail surprised many by choosing not to seek the full-time leadership in 2003. The low-key leadership campaign was contested by establishment favourite and former Victoria School Board chair Carole James, Oak Bay City Councillor Nils Jensen, former MLAs Leonard Krog and Steve Orcherton, and a few minor candidates. First ballot results had James first followed by Jensen, Krog, and Orcherton. James won on the second ballot.

In late 2004, the party won an upset election victory in the constituency of Surrey-Panorama Ridge. Jagrup Brar became the third member of the party's caucus, winning a riding that had supported the NDP in 1991 before falling to the Liberals in 1996. Brar beat a locally popular BC Liberal candidate and Adriane Carr, the BC Green Party's leader, winning an absolute majority of the vote.

In the 2005 provincial election, James came closer to forming a government than even the NDP had predicted, winning 33 seats to Campbell's 45 and receiving a vote share 5 percent higher in suburban Vancouver than any pollster had predicted. The NDP also exceeded 40 percent of the vote for the first time since 1991.

In 2008, the NDP won two key by-elections in Vancouver-Fairview and Vancouver-Burrard.

In the 2009 provincial election, the NDP came a close second to the Liberals, with 42 percent of the popular vote and the Liberals receiving 45 percent. 35 New Democrats and 49 Liberals were elected. Despite the popular vote, only 3,500 votes separated the party from forming government.

The NDP under Adrian Dix was widely expected to win the May 2013 provincial election as the NDP enjoyed a 20-point lead in the polls prior to the election campaign. However, the Liberals gained four seats, while the NDP lost two, in an election that returned the Liberal government under Premier Christy Clark. In September 2013, Dix announced his intention to resign as party leader once a leadership election was held.

Following Dix's resignation, John Horgan, MLA for Langford-Juan de Fuca, was acclaimed as party leader in the 2014 party leadership election and subsequently became the leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

Horgan and Eby governments: since 2017
In the lead-up to the May 2017 provincial election, the NDP under Horgan occasionally led the Liberals in polls. The May 9 election returned 43 Liberal MLAs, 41 NDP MLAs and a record 3 Green MLAs. This was one of the closest elections in BC's history, exemplified by the popular vote breakdown: 40.36% for the Liberals, 40.28% for the NDP, and 16.84% for the Greens. The Liberals won the popular vote by a razor-thin margin of just 1,566 votes province-wide. Following the election, which resulted in a hung parliament, the Greens entered into negotiations with both the Liberals and NDP to decide which party they should support in the minority parliament. On May 29, Horgan and Green leader Andrew Weaver announced that the Greens would support an NDP minority government in a confidence and supply agreement. This meant the Greens are obliged to vote with the NDP in matters of confidence – keeping the government from falling – but were allowed to vote freely on legislation brought forward by the NDP government. On June 29, the minority Liberal government of Premier Christy Clark was defeated 44–42 by the NDP-Green alliance in a confidence vote, leading Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon to ask Horgan to form a government. On July 18, Horgan was sworn in as British Columbia's 36th premier, and first NDP premier in 16 years. The NDP formed a minority government, the first time the NDP has had such a government in provincial history.

On September 21, 2020, after only three years in government, Horgan called a snap election. The election call drew criticism, as it violated the agreement with the Green Party, and came during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic; journalists noted that Horgan and the NDP had been doing well in the polls at the time. In the 2020 election, the NDP won a majority government, securing a record 57 seats and receiving 47.7% of the overall popular vote — both record highs for the party.

After five years of being premier, Horgan announced in June 2022 that he would step down as party leader and as premier once a new leader had been chosen. The election for his successor was scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2022. David Eby was acclaimed as Horgan's successor on October 21, 2022, after the disqualification of the only other candidate, Anjali Appadurai, from the leadership contest. The next BC election must occur under BC Law no later than October 19, 2024, with election experts believing an early election call to be unlikely.

Leaders
"†" denotes acting or interim leader.

Election results
Results shown are for CCF from 1933 to 1960, NDP since 1963.

title: British Columbia New Democratic Party


text:
Tom Conti

Tommaso Antonio Conti (born 22 November 1941) is a Scottish actor. Conti has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and two Golden Globe Awards.

He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play in role in Whose Life Is It Anyway? which he performed on Broadway and the West End in 1978 and 1979. He also directed the Frank D. Gilroy play Last Licks (1979) on Broadway. Conti returned to the West End portraying Jeffrey Bernard in the Keith Waterhouse play Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (1989).

Conti received an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination for Reuben, Reuben (1983). Conti also acted in such films as The Duellists (1977), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), Saving Grace (1986), The Quick and the Dead (1987), Shirley Valentine (1989), The Tempest (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Paddington 2 (2017). He portrayed Albert Einstein in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023).

Early life
Tommaso Antonio Conti was born on 22 November 1941 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, the son of hairdressers Mary McGoldrick and Alfonso Conti. After being raised Roman Catholic, he described himself as antireligious in 2011. His father was Italian, while his mother was born and raised in Scotland to Irish parents. Conti was educated at independent Catholic boys' school Hamilton Park St Aloysius' College, Glasgow; and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Career
Conti is a theatre, film, and television actor. He began working with the Dundee Repertory in 1959. He appeared on Broadway in Whose Life Is It Anyway? in 1979, and in London, he played the lead in Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell at the Garrick Theatre. Besides taking the leading role in the TV versions of Frederic Raphael's The Glittering Prizes and Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests, Conti appeared in the "Princess and the Pea" episode of the family television series Faerie Tale Theatre, guest-starred on Friends and Cosby, and played opposite Nigel Hawthorne in a long-running series of Vauxhall Astra car advertisements in the United Kingdom from the early to the mid-1990s.

Conti has appeared in such films as Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Reuben, Reuben, American Dreamer, Shirley Valentine, Miracles, Saving Grace, Dangerous Parking, and Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase. Conti's novel The Doctor, about a former secret operations pilot for intelligence services, was published in 2004. According to the foreword, his friend Lynsey De Paul recommended the manuscript to publisher Jeremy Robson.

He appeared in the BBC sitcom Miranda alongside Miranda Hart and Patricia Hodge, as Miranda's father, in the 2010 seasonal episode "The Perfect Christmas". Most recently he portrayed Albert Einstein in Christopher Nolan's 2023 thriller-drama Oppenheimer. The film had one of the most successful opening weekends of 2023, and received wide critical acclaim.

Personal life
Conti has been married to Scottish actress Kara Wilson since 1967 and their daughter Nina is an actress and performs as a ventriloquist. According to Nina, her parents have an open marriage.

Conti is a resident of Hampstead in northwest London, having lived in the area for several decades. Conti was part of a campaign against the opening of a Tesco supermarket in nearby Belsize Park. Conti put his Hampstead house up for sale in 2015 for £17.5 million after his long-running opposition to the building plans of his neighbour, the footballer Thierry Henry. Conti had also opposed development plans for Hampstead's Grove Lodge, the 18th-century Grade II listed former home of novelist John Galsworthy.

Conti participated in a genetic-mapping project conducted by the company ScotlandsDNA (now called BritainsDNA). In 2012, Conti and the company announced that Conti shares a genetic marker with Napoléon Bonaparte. Conti has said that he "burst out laughing" when told he was related to Napoléon on his father's side.

Political views
Conti considered running as the Conservative candidate in the 2008 London mayoral election, but did not, and in the following election in 2012, he supported unsuccessful independent candidate Siobhan Benita. In the run up to the 2015 general election, Conti said in an interview published in several newspapers that he was once a Labour supporter but had come to view socialism as a “religion” with a "vicious, hostile spirit".

Film

 * Galileo (1975) as Andrea Sarti (man)
 * Slade in Flame (1975) as Robert Seymour
 * The Duellists (1977) as Dr. Jacquin
 * Full Circle (1977) as Mark Berkeley
 * Eclipse (1977) as Tom / Geoffrey
 * Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) as Col. John Lawrence
 * Reuben, Reuben (1983) as Gowan McGland
 * American Dreamer (1984) as Alan McMann
 * Miracles (1986) as Roger
 * Saving Grace (1985) as Pope Leo XIV
 * Heavenly Pursuits (1986) as Vic Mathews
 * The Quick and The Dead (1987) as Duncan McKaskel
 * Beyond Therapy (1987) as Stuart
 * Two Brothers Running (1988) as Moses Bornstein
 * That Summer of White Roses (1989) as Andrija Gavrilovic
 * Shirley Valentine (1989) as Costas
 * Caccia Alla Vedova (1991) as Conte Angelo di Bosconero
 * Someone Else's America (1995) as Alonso
 * Sub Down (1997) as Harry Rheinhartdt
 * Something to Believe In (1998) as Monsignor Calogero
 * Out of Control (1998) as Eddie
 * Don't Go Breaking My Heart (1999) as Dr. Fiedler
 * The Enemy (2001) as Insp. John Cregar
 * Derailed (2005) as Eliot Firth
 * Rabbit Fever (2006) as Prof Rosenberg
 * Paid (2006) as Rudi
 * Almost Heaven (2006) as Bert Gordon
 * O Jerusalem (2006) as Sir Cunningham
 * Dangerous Parking (2007) as Doc Baker
 * Deeply Irresponsible (2007) as Nate
 * A Closed Book (2009) as Sir Paul
 * The Tempest (2010) as Gonzalo
 * Rekindle (2011) as Dr. Monty Adams
 * Streetdance 2 (2012) as Manu
 * Run for Your Wife (2012)
 * The Dark Knight Rises (2012) as Prisoner
 * City Slacker (2012) as Ray
 * Paddington 2 (2017) as Judge Gerald Biggleswade
 * Oppenheimer (2023) as Albert Einstein

Television

 * Boy Meets Girl (1969) as Frank
 * Thirty-Minute Theatre - Revolutions: Fidel Castro (1970) as Che Guevara
 * Adam Smith (1972) as Dr. Calvi
 * Z Cars (1973) as Gordon Morley
 * Barlow at Large (1973) as Myers
 * Sam (1974) as David Ellis
 * Fall of Eagles (1974) as Glazkov
 * Thriller (1975) as Bruno Varella
 * Madame Bovary (1975, TV mini-series) as Charles Bovary
 * The Glittering Prizes (1976, TV mini-series) as Adam Morris
 * The Norman Conquests (1977, TV mini-series) as Norman
 * Blade on the Feather (1980, TV film) as Daniel Young
 * The Wall (1982, TV film) as Dolek Berson
 * Faerie Tale Theatre (1984, "Princess and the Pea") as Prince Richard
 * Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story (1986, TV film) as Serge Klarsfeld
 * The Dumb Waiter (1987)
 * The Quick and the Dead (1987, TV film) as Duncan McKaskel
 * Roman Holiday (1987, TV film) as Joe Bradley
 * Fatal Judgement (1988, TV film) as Pat Piscitelli
 * Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase (1990, TV film) as Doctor 'Stanley' Phillips
 * The Old Boy Network (1992) as Lucas Frye
 * The Wright Verdicts (1995) as Charles Wright
 * The Inheritance (1997, TV film) as Henry Hamilton
 * Friends (1998, "The One After Ross Says Rachel", and "The One with Ross's Wedding") as Stephen Waltham
 * Cosby (1999) as William Shakespeare
 * Deadline (2000–2001) as Si Beekman
 * I Was a Rat (2001, TV mini-series) as Bob Jones
 * Andy Pandy (2002) as Narrator (voice)
 * Four Seasons (2008–2009) as Charles Combe
 * Lark Rise to Candleford (2010) as William Bourne / Mr. Reppington
 * Miranda (2010) as Charles
 * Parents (2012) as Len Miller
 * Rosemary's Baby (2014)
 * Doc Martin (2019) as Dr Bernard Newton (Series 9 episode 8)

Stage

 * Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell
 * Whose Life is it Anyway?
 * Savages
 * The Devil's Disciple
 * They're Playing Our Song
 * The Real Thing
 * An Italian Straw Hat (1986)
 * The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
 * Chapter Two
 * Jesus, My Boy (1998–99, 2009)
 * Present Laughter
 * Romantic Comedy
 * Rough Justice (2012–13)
 * Twelve Angry Men (2014)

Stage directing

 * The Last of the Red Hot Lovers
 * Present Laughter
 * Otherwise Engaged

Awards

 * National Board of Review for Best Actor (Reuben, Reuben and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence)
 * Academy Award nomination as Best Actor (Reuben, Reuben)
 * Golden Globe nominations for Reuben, Reuben and Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story
 * Tony Award for Best Actor (Whose Life Is It Anyway?)
 * Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play (Whose Life is it Anyway?)
 * Variety Club Award for Best Actor (Whose Life is it Anyway?)

title: Tom Conti


text:
Ludwig Quidde

Ludwig Quidde (23 March 1858, Free City of Bremen – 4 March 1941, Geneva, Switzerland) was a German politician and pacifist who is mainly remembered today for his acerbic criticism of German Emperor Wilhelm II. Quidde's long career spanned four different eras of German history: Otto von Bismarck (until 1890), the Hohenzollern Empire under Wilhelm II (1888–1918), the Weimar Republic (1918–1933); and Nazi Germany. In 1927, Quidde was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Born into a wealthy bourgeois merchant family, Quidde grew up in Bremen, read history and got involved in the activities of the German Peace Society (Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft). In his younger years, he had already opposed Bismarck's policies. In 1881 he received his PhD at the University of Göttingen.

The fortune that Quidde inherited allowed him to devote himself entirely to politics. In 1893, he joined the German People's Party (DtVP), which was founded in 1868 and met his anti-militarist, anti-Prussian, democratic and pacifist expectations.

In 1894, Quidde published a 17-page pamphlet, ''Caligula. Eine Studie über römischen Caesarenwahnsinn (Caligula: A Study of Roman Imperial Insanity''). Containing 79 footnotes, the short essay is exclusively about the Roman Empire of the 1st century AD. However, Quidde drew an implicit parallel between the Roman Emperor Caligula and Wilhelm II and de facto accused both rulers of megalomania. The author had insisted on publishing his pamphlet under his real name, which effectively ended his academic career as a historian when a periodical had a short review, which explained the parallels that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. After he had made a derogatory comment on a new medal in honour of Wilhelm I, German Emperor from 1871 to 1888, he was criminally convicted of lèse majesté and sentenced to three months in prison, which he served in Stadelheim Prison.

After the end of the First World War, Quidde, like most other Germans, vehemently opposed the Treaty of Versailles but for different reasons from German militarists, who hated mainly the vast restrictions laid upon the German armed forces and the impending economic disaster that they stages would be caused by payment of the high reparations that the tretaty decreed. He and other German pacifists thought ahead and hoped that US President Woodrow Wilson would win the day by pointing out that such severe conditions would already sow the seeds of a new war:

"A humiliated and torn German nation condemned to economic misery would be a constant danger to world peace, just as a protected German nation whose inalienable rights and subsistence are safeguarded would be a strong pillar of such world peace.

May those who are in power today think beyond this day and consider the future of mankind. Their responsibility is enormous. Today, an altogether new order can be created for the benefit of all peoples. Short-sighted misuse of that power can ruin everything."

When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Quidde escaped to Switzerland and finally settled down in Geneva for the rest of his days. He remained an optimist throughout his life. Aged 76, he published his essay "Landfriede und Weltfriede" (1934) while militarism was again on the rise. He believed that modern technology might serve as a deterrent from war:

"[It is] today's technological development which has turned modern war into a suicidal nightmare and which will put an end to war. This was already predicted by Kant, who expected 'perpetual peace' to be established not due to the moral perfection of man but due to modern warfare, which would be so unbearable that mankind would see itself forced to guarantee everlasting peace."

Quidde died in his Swiss exile in 1941, aged 82.

title: Ludwig Quidde