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Nile Rodgers

Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. The co-founder of Chic, he has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide.

Rodgers is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee. He has received six Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement/Special Merit Award. Known for his chucking guitar style, in 2014 Rolling Stone wrote that "the full scope of Nile Rodgers' career is still hard to fathom". In 2023, Rolling Stone placed Rodgers 7th on a list of the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, writing: "There's 'influential,' then there's 'massively influential', then there's Nile Rodgers... a true innovator who never slows down, still making history with his guitar."

Formed as the Big Apple Band in 1972 with bassist Bernard Edwards, Chic released their self-titled debut album in 1977; it featured the hit singles "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" and "Everybody Dance". The 1978 album C'est Chic included "I Want Your Love" and "Le Freak", with the latter selling more than seven million singles worldwide. The song "Good Times" from the 1979 album Risqué was a number one single on the pop and soul charts, and became one of the most-sampled songs of all time, predominantly in hip-hop, starting with the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight".

With Edwards, Rodgers wrote and produced music for other artists, including the songs "He's the Greatest Dancer" and "We Are Family" (for Sister Sledge) and "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down" (for Diana Ross). After Chic's breakup in 1983, Rodgers produced albums and singles for other artists, including David Bowie's Let's Dance; "Original Sin" by INXS; Duran Duran's "The Reflex" and "Notorious"; and Madonna's Like a Virgin. He worked with artists including The B-52s, Jeff Beck, Daft Punk, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, The Vaughan Brothers, Bryan Ferry, Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga. He won three Grammy Awards in 2014 for his work on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, and two in 2023 for his work with Beyoncé on her album Renaissance. In 2018, Rodgers co-founded Hipgnosis Songs Fund, a publicly traded music intellectual property investment company.

Early life
Rodgers was born on September 19, 1952, in the Lower East Side, New York City, to Beverly Goodman. She gave birth to Rodgers when she was 14. His biological father, Nile Rodgers Sr., was a travelling percussionist who specialized in Afro-Cuban beats and was rarely present as Rodgers grew up; although influential in his life, Rodgers saw his father only a "handful" of times prior to his death in 1970. In 1959, Goodman married Bobby Glanzrock. Rodgers described Glanzrock in his 2011 autobiography as a "beatnik PhD, whose observations had angles that would make Miles Davis contemplate his cool." Richard Pryor, Thelonious Monk, and Lenny Bruce often visited their home in Greenwich Village. Glanzrock and Goodman were addicted to heroin, and Rodgers began using drugs at 13.

Before learning to play the guitar at 16, Rodgers played the flute and the clarinet. As a teenager, he played guitar with African, Persian, Latin, jazz and Boogaloo bands. He became a subsection leader of the Lower Manhattan branch of the New York Black Panther Party. He was raised as a Catholic.

Rodgers' cousin, trumpeter Robert "Spike" Mickens, was a member of Kool and the Gang from 1964 to 1986.

1970s: Formation of Chic, "Le Freak", Sister Sledge
Rodgers met bassist Bernard Edwards in 1970 while working as a touring musician for the Sesame Street stage show. Together they formed The Big Apple Band and initially worked as back-up musicians for the vocal group New York City ("I'm Doin' Fine Now"). New York City's one hit allowed them to tour extensively, opening for The Jackson 5 on the American leg of their first world tour in 1973. The band dissolved after their second album failed to yield a hit.

Rodgers and Edwards subsequently joined forces with drummer Tony Thompson to form The Boys, playing gigs up and down the East Coast. Although there was label interest, record companies passed on the band after discovering its members were black, believing that black rock artists would be too hard to promote.

As the Big Apple Band, Rodgers and Edwards worked with Ashford & Simpson and Luther Vandross, among others. Since another New York artist, Walter Murphy, had a band called The Big Apple Band, in 1977 Rodgers and Edwards changed the band's name to Chic.

Inspired by Roxy Music, Chic developed a sound that was a fusion of jazz, soul, and funk grooves with melodies and lyrics with a European influence. Between gigs, they recorded the song "Dance, Dance, Dance", with then-boss Luther Vandross on vocals. Originally released by Buddah Records, it was a hit when it was re-released by Atlantic in the summer of 1977. Atlantic picked up an album option with Rodgers and Edwards, who quickly wrote more songs, and Chic's self-titled debut was released in November.

The band scored numerous top ten hits, including "Le Freak", "I Want Your Love", "Everybody Dance", "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)", "My Forbidden Lover", and "Good Times" becoming club/pop/R&B standards. "Le Freak" was Atlantic Records' only triple platinum selling single at the time, and "Good Times" shot to No. 1 in August 1979 despite that year's "Disco Sucks" campaign.

The success of Chic's first singles led Atlantic to offer Rodgers and Edwards the opportunity to produce any act on its roster. They chose Sister Sledge, whose 1979 album, We Are Family, hit #3 on the Billboard charts, charting well into 1980. The first two singles, "He's the Greatest Dancer" and the title cut "We Are Family" both reached No. 1 on the R&B chart, and No. 6 and No. 2, respectively on the pop chart. In April 2018, "We Are Family" was selected to be preserved in the Library of Congress.

1980s: Diana Ross, David Bowie, INXS, Madonna, Duran Duran
The 1979 disco backlash derailed Chic, and Edwards retreated from work, while Rodgers' drug use accelerated. Rodgers and Edwards delivered their final Atlantic album under contract, Believer, in 1982. They completed one of their last projects together in 1980, writing and producing the album Diana for Diana Ross, which yielded the hits "Upside Down" and "I'm Coming Out". They produced Deborah Harry's 1981 solo album Koo Koo, and produced the hit "Spacer" for the French disco act Sheila and B. Devotion. During the same time period, Chic's song "Good Times" was sampled on The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", the first multiple-platinum hip hop single. The song continued to influence the sounds of others, including Queen, with the 1980 hit "Another One Bites the Dust" and Blondie, who had a #1 hit with "Rapture". Following Chic's breakup, Rodgers released his first solo album, Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove.

With Chic no longer occupying most of his time, Rodgers was free to focus on working with other artists. He produced David Bowie's biggest selling album, Let's Dance, which yielded the hit singles "Let's Dance", "China Girl", and "Modern Love". He produced the single "Original Sin" by INXS, and in 1984, he produced Madonna's album Like a Virgin, which scored four hit singles including its title track, "Material Girl", and "Dress You Up". He worked extensively with Duran Duran, remixing their biggest-selling single, "The Reflex", producing "Wild Boys" on their 1984 live album, Arena, and co-producing the album Notorious.

In 1985, Rodgers produced albums for Sheena Easton, Jeff Beck, Thompson Twins, Mick Jagger, and others, and performed at Live Aid with Madonna and the Thompson Twins. He was named the #1 Singles Producer in the World by Billboard at the end of the year. At the end of the decade, he produced albums for Grace Jones, Al Jarreau (L is for Lover), Earth Wind and Fire's vocalist Philip Bailey, and performed on "Higher Love" with Steve Winwood, as well as on records for Cyndi Lauper, and others. In 1989, he co-produced the B-52's multi-platinum album Cosmic Thing; it reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and yielded the singles "Love Shack", and "Roam". He produced Workin' Overtime, Diana Ross' return to Motown, and the soundtracks for Alphabet City, Gremlins, White Nights, and The Fly. He later composed an orchestral soundtrack, his first, for the film Coming to America.

Rodgers formed the short-lived experimental band Outloud in 1987, with David Letterman's guitarist, composer, and vocalist Felicia Collins and French session musician, producer, composer, and keyboardist Philippe Saisse; the trio released a single album, Out Loud, on Warner Bros. Records.

1990s: Production, reformed Chic and death of Edwards, Sumthing Else
In September 1990, shortly after the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Rodgers-produced Vaughan Brothers album Family Style was released. He produced records for David Bowie, Eric Clapton, The B-52s, David Lee Roth, Ric Ocasek, The Stray Cats and others early in the decade, and worked on the soundtracks for Thelma and Louise, Cool World, and The Beavis and Butt-head Experience.

Rodgers and Edwards reformed Chic in 1992 and recorded new material for the album Chic-Ism. In 1996, they released a Japan-only album consisting of old Chic material rerecorded with guest vocalists, Chic Freak and More Treats. Edwards and Rodgers performed with Sister Sledge, Steve Winwood, and Slash in a series of commemorative concerts in Japan.

Edwards died following a concert on April 17, 1996. Rodgers discovered his body. He later said that he "cried like a baby and suffered intensely but eventually realised the best tribute to him would be to carry on and be the best I could be." A year later, Rodgers returned to Japan to pay homage to Edwards, and in 1999, Rodgers released Live at the Budokan, a live recording of Edwards' final performance. The album was not overdubbed or changed in order to keep the recording pure.

Rodgers started playing live concerts again while composing and producing music for the film soundtracks Beverly Hills Cop III, Blue Chips, The Flintstones and Feeling Minnesota, working with Bob Dylan, among others.

In 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. released "Mo Money Mo Problems" sampling Rodgers and Edwards' song "I'm Coming Out" from Diana Ross's platinum album Diana. "Mo Money, Mo Problems" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and was nominated for the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

In 1998, Rodgers founded Sumthing Else Music Works record label and Sumthing Distribution, an independent music label distributor. Sumthing focused on distributing video game soundtracks, and released the world's first 5.1 surround DVD game-soundtrack album. Its titles include the Halo, Resident Evil, Gears of War and Borderlands series.

2000s: Film and video game soundtracks, We Are Family Foundation
In the early 2000s, Rodgers worked extensively on film and video game soundtracks, including Halo 2, Rush Hour 2, Snow Dogs, and Semi-Pro starring Will Ferrell, who co-wrote the title song "Love Me Sexy" with Rodgers.

In 2002, Rodgers returned to work again with the original five members of Duran Duran when he co-produced Astronaut. The album rose to No. 3 in the UK.

Following the September 11 attacks, Rodgers brought together more than 200 musicians and celebrities to record "We Are Family". It was recorded in New York at Avatar Studios (previously The Power Station, where the original recording of "We Are Family" took place in 1978), and in Los Angeles at the Record Plant. The accompanying music video was directed by Spike Lee. An 80-minute documentary, The Making and Meaning of We Are Family, directed by Danny Schechter, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002. In a collaboration between Disney, Nickelodeon and PBS, more than 100 children's television characters participated in a "We Are Family" children's music video, and on March 11, 2002, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and PBS aired the video to promote tolerance and diversity on the 6-month anniversary of 9/11. In July 2002, Rodgers co-founded the We Are Family Foundation with his life partner, Nancy Hunt. A non-profit organization that promotes "cultural diversity while nurturing and mentoring the vision, talents, and ideas of young people who are positively changing the world", it is dedicated to the vision of a global family.

2010s: Autobiography, Daft Punk, Songwriters Hall of Fame, It's About Time
In 2010, Rhino Records released a four-CD box set, Nile Rodgers Presents The Chic Organization, Volume 1: Savoir Faire, which for the first time collected tracks from all of the acts produced by The Chic Organization up to their original break-up in 1983. Rodgers provided liner notes for the set, which was also reissued in 2013.

Rodgers' critically acclaimed autobiography, Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny was published by Spiegel & Grau, a Random House imprint, in late 2011. It was named one of the top 10 of the 25 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time by Rolling Stone.

In February 2012, Rodgers announced that he was collaborating with electronic band Daft Punk for their latest album, "teasing out their R&B influences". The record, Random Access Memories was released in 2013. Rodgers co-wrote and played guitar on three tracks: "Give Life Back to Music", "Lose Yourself to Dance", and "Get Lucky". In April, "Get Lucky" entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 3, only 24 hours after its release, and two weeks later rose to No. 1. In an interview with Official Charts Company, Rodgers said, "I've had big records and Number 1s; I have had records that were Number 1 in the United States but nowhere else ... I've had records which have done well [in the UK], but not in the States. But to have this ubiquitous record, that is a hit everywhere ... It's amazing to me! I'm out on the road and I can hear it wherever I go. I'm flabbergasted!" "Get Lucky" became one of the UK's biggest-selling singles of all time.

Rhino Records released Nile Rodgers Presents The Chic Organization Up All Night (The Greatest Hits), a compilation album featuring songs written, played or produced by Rodgers and Bernard Edwards for Chic and various artists, including Diana Ross, Sister Sledge, Carly Simon, Debbie Harry, Johnny Mathis, Sheila & B. Devotion and Norma Jean Wright. Up All Night reached No. 2 on the UK Compilation Album Chart for the week ending July 13, 2013. In October 2013, Rhino released Nile Rodgers Presents The Chic Organization Up All Night (The Greatest Hits Disco Edition), which included a medley taken from Chic ft. Nile Rodgers' live performance at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival.

Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were nominated to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in October 2013. In January 2014, Rodgers performed "Get Lucky" with Daft Punk on the Grammy Awards, along with Pharrell Williams and Stevie Wonder, with a medley including elements of Chic's "Le Freak" and Wonder's "Another Star". Rodgers won three Grammy Awards for his work with Daft Punk on Random Access Memories, including Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Record of the Year and Album of the Year. In March, Rolling Stone named Rodgers one of the 50 Most Important People in EDM, stating, "The full scope of Nile Rodgers' career is still hard to fathom, and it's not just ongoing, it's in overdrive." In December, NARAS announced that "Le Freak" would be inducted into The Grammy Hall of Fame.

Rodgers' solo single "Do What You Wanna Do (IMS Anthem)" was released on August 10, 2014 to benefit the We Are Family Foundation. A year later, in March 2015, Rodgers released Chic's first single in more than 23 years, "I'll Be There", with a live streamed concert from The Roundhouse in London. The song was produced using original Chic outtake tapes from the 70s, with Bernard Edwards, Tony Thompson, and vocalists Alfa Anderson and Luci Martin. The song went to #1 on Billboard's Dance Music Chart on June 20, 2015. In August, Rodgers launched FOLD Festival (FreakOut! Let's Dance), a multi-day event with a diverse line-up of artists including Beck, Duran Duran, Chaka Khan, Keith Urban, Janelle Monáe, Ginger Minj, Chic and others.

Rodgers collaborated with Lady Gaga to remake Chic's hit, "I Want Your Love" for Tom Ford's Spring/Summer 2016 collection video in lieu of a fashion show.

Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 9, 2016. In 2017, after 11 nominations for Chic, Rodgers was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with an award for Musical Excellence. "It's sort of bittersweet," says Rodgers. "I'm quite flattered that they believed that I was worthy, but my band Chic didn't win. They plucked me out of the band and said, 'You're better than Chic.' That's wacky to me ... I am flattered and I think it's cool, but I feel like somebody put me in the lifeboat and told my family they can't get in."

On the evening of 25 June 2017, Rodgers and Chic returned to the Glastonbury Festival, as headliners on the Pyramid Stage, for an audience of close to 100,000. In September of the same year, a version of George Michael's song "Fantasy" was released, credited to "George Michael featuring Nile Rodgers." The track, released as a B-side by Michael's label in 1990, was reworked by Rodgers and featured him prominently on guitar. It was Michael's only posthumous release.

In June 2018, "Till the World Falls", the first single from Nile Rodgers & Chic's first album since 1992, It's About Time, was released. The song featured Mura Masa, Cosha and Vic Mensa. The album was released in September 2018, and hit the Top 10 in the UK. It was the first Chic record to hit the Top 10 in 25 years. Two singles from the album were subsequently released: "Sober" featuring Craig David and Stefflon Don, and "Do You Wanna Party" featuring LunchMoney Lewis. In December 2018, Nile Rodgers & Chic began their first UK arena tour. They were nominated for a Brit Award in the "Best International Group Category", in January 2019.

In July 2018, Rodgers co-founded Hipgnosis Songs Fund with Merck Mercuriadis. An IP investment and song management company, Hipgnosis Songs Fund went public later that year.

In November 2018, to mark the 40th anniversary of "Le Freak", Rhino/Atlantic released The Chic Organisation 1977-79, a 6-CD box set containing Chic's first three albums, Sister Sledge's We Are Family and a collection of rarities, including a facsimile of Chic's first single – a 12″ promo for "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" released by Buddah Records in 1977.

In January 2019, Rodgers offered 600 free tickets to furloughed US Federal workers during the US Government Shutdown to the Nile Rodgers & Chic concert at the MGM National Harbor in Washington, DC. He played at Cardiff Castle on July 12, 2019, and on February 17, 2020, he participated in Eric Clapton's tribute concert for Ginger Baker.

2020s: Keith Urban, Beyoncé, Grammys
Rodgers has hosted a podcast on Apple Music since August 2020. Titled Deep Hidden Meaning, he has interviewed guests including David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager, Bryan Adams, Timbaland, and Paul McCartney.

On November 13, 2020, Rodgers was featured on "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" as part of the BBC Radio 2's Allstars' Children in Need charity single. The single debuted at number 7 on the Official UK Singles Chart and number 1 on both the Official UK Singles Sales Chart and the Official UK Singles Download Chart.

Among other artists, in 2021, Rodgers worked with Jack Savoretti (for his album Europiana) and Keith Urban. In April 2021 he teamed with Urban and Breland on the music video for "The Cage", a track from Urban's 2020 album The Speed of Now Part 1.

In the summer of 2021, Rodgers, with Constellation Immersive, launched DiscOasis, an ongoing 1970s-themed disco and roller skating pop-up party at the South Coast Botanic Garden in Rancho Palos Verdes. Developed in part to provide an outside experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, DJs select music from crates of records that Rodgers hand picked from his personal collection.

In July 2022, Hipgnosis Songs Fund was valued at US $2.69 billion.

An asteroid approximately 300 million miles away from Earth was named nilerodgers (191911) in honor of Rodgers' 70th birthday in 2022. Rodgers donated $1 million to the We Are Family Foundation, the organization he co-founded, to mark both his birthday and the foundation's 20th anniversary.

Rodgers performed "Modern Love" and "Let's Dance" with Josh Homme, Omar Hakim and Gaz Coombes at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium on September 3, 2022.

Rodgers won two Grammy Awards, Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best R&B Song ("Cuff It"), for his work with Beyonce on her 2022 album Renaissance in 2023. He also received the Lifetime Achievement/Special Merit Grammy Award.

Rodgers worked with South Korean girl group Le Sserafim on their album Unforgiven in February 2023. He was featured on the album's title track. He collaborated with Duran Duran on their September 2023 single "Black Moonlight", one of three original songs on Duran Duran's Halloween-inspired album Danse Macabre. In October 2023, he re-united with Chic for a live performance at NPR's Tiny Desk Concert: the half-hour set included "Le Freak". "Let's Dance", "Get Lucky" and "Soul Glo", a fake commercial jingle Rodgers wrote for the 1988 film Coming to America.

In January 2024, the World Economic Forum announced that Rodgers would receive its 2024 Crystal Award. Presented during the opening session of the event, the announcement stated that Rodgers would be honored for his "efforts to make the world a more peaceful, equal and inclusive place through his music, his commitment to fighting systemic racism, inequality and injustice, and by championing innovative youth voices." In March, he was named Polar Music Prize Laureate, together with Esa-Pekka Salonen. During the same year, Rodgers played the guitar on a re-release of Mark Knopfler's song "Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero", released in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust He also worked with Alfie Templeman on his second studio album, Radiosoul, featuring on the track "Just A Dance".

Soundtracks and scores
In 1982, Rodgers and Edwards produced the soundtrack for the movie Soup for One. As Chic, they wrote and performed three songs, including the film's title track. Edwards and Rodgers also wrote and produced Carly Simon's "Why", a top 10 hit in the UK that helped resurrect Simon's career. The soundtrack, which also featured Sister Sledge, Debbie Harry, and Teddy Pendergrass, was a bigger hit than the film.

Rodgers became increasingly in-demand as a producer and composer for film and television following the success of the Soup for One soundtrack. In 1984, he produced Al Jarreau's theme for the television series Moonlighting; he wrote, produced and scored the soundtrack for Alphabet City, and in 1986 and worked with Laurie Anderson on her concert film, Home of the Brave. In 1988, in addition to producing the soundtrack for Earth Girls Are Easy, he composed the orchestral score for Eddie Murphy's Coming to America. He also served as film's music supervisor, and wrote and produced its title track, a hit for The System,  and wrote the jingle for the Soul Glo commercial,  "the most iconic fake ad in cinematic history."

In 1999, he executive produced, scored, music-supervised and appeared in Public Enemy, a documentary about the Black Panthers. In a review of the soundtrack, critic Maria Blandford wrote: "The disc realistically supports the conflicting and controversial nature of this historical period, and opens the arena for present-day discussion and evaluation...this recording is an examination of the American conscience."

Between the mid-1980s and the late 2000s, songs written, produced or performed by Rodgers (and/or Chic) were included in the films or on the soundtracks for Shrek 2 ("Le Freak"), Thelma and Louise, Rush Hour 2, Cool World, Beavis and Butthead Do America, The Flintstones (in collaboration with the B-52s), Summer of Sam, Space Jam (with Seal), Feeling Minnesota (with Bob Dylan), Curdled, Bowie's Cool World, Snow Dogs, White Hot,  Gremlins, That's Dancing! and  The Fly, among others. He scored the film Blue Chips, and reunited with Murphy to score Beverly Hills Cop III. He also produced a  remake of "Axel F", from the first Beverly Hills Cop,   which he performed with Richard Hilton. In 2008, he cowrote Semi-Pro's  "Love Me Sexy" with Will Ferrell, who starred in the movie.

In the 2010s, music by Rodgers was featured in movies including Arctic Tale, Trolls and Bridget Jones's Baby, as well as on the TV shows  Vinyl,  The Get Down, and  Horrid Henry, among others. In 2019, he collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the soundtrack for the film Cats.  In 2023 it was announced that he and The-Dream were co-writing music for the Mark Anthony Green horror film, Opus.

Television and film appearances
Since his 1978 debut with Chic on American Bandstand, Rodgers has performed on more than 150 television programs. He has been the subject of documentaries including the BBC's Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker,  Front and Center: Songwriters Hall of Fame: Nile Rodgers on PBS, Arte France's Nile Rodgers: Secrets of a Hitmaker, and the short film Composing America: The Musical Talents of Nile Rodgers. The BBC also broadcast Nile Rodgers: How To Make It in the Music Business, a three-hour, three part special. In 2018, Once in a Lifetime Sessions with Nile Rodgers premiered on Netflix.

Rodgers has appeared in documentaries about David Bowie, Diana Ross, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Rick James, George Michael, Duran Duran, Daft Punk, Public Enemy, Madonna, Avicii, Studio 54, the Seventies, the Eighties, the Nineties, recorded music, girl groups, the disco era, disco, house music, funk, and soul music. He was featured in the 2023 BBC documentary about Little Richard, Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock’n’Roll.

Rodgers most frequently plays Fender Stratocasters, as well as Gibson Les Pauls and archtop guitars such as the Gibson ES-300 and D'Angelico New Yorker. He auctioned more than 100 guitars and bass guitars from his personal collection to benefit We Are Family Foundation in December 2021.

The Hitmaker
Rodgers plays a 1960 Fender Stratocaster with a 1959 neck, nicknamed The Hitmaker, which he acquired as a trade-in at a shop in Miami Beach, Florida. Exceptionally light, it has a maple fingerboard and a worn white finish. Rodgers claims it has a unique sound. After Rodgers purchased the guitar, Edwards taught him how to play it in a chop chord style, which he called "chucking". In his autobiography, Rodgers wrote: "He fingered the chords with his left hand, and his right hand would continuously play sixteen notes to the bar while accenting the main parts of the rhythm ... One lesson was all I needed. For the next few nights straight, while my roommate pursued all manner of trysts, I was having a love affair in the bathroom with my new ax. In just a few days, I'd emerge as a chucking funk guitarist who knew more jazz chord inversions than most of my R&B counterparts."

The Fender Custom Shop introduced a limited edition Nile Rodgers Hitmaker Stratocaster, a recreation of Rodgers' guitar, in January 2014.

Personal life
In the early 1990s, Rodgers woke up in the hospital to learn that his heart had stopped eight times, and he was alive due only to the actions of the doctor who was filling out his death certificate. He stopped using drugs and alcohol in 1994 after a friend showed him a tape of a performance during which he was inebriated.

Rodgers was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in October 2010. He documented his illness on a blog called Walking on Planet C. He was given the all-clear in 2013. In 2017, a growth on his right kidney was diagnosed as two different cancers within one mass. The mass was surgically removed in November 2017. He said he expected a 100% recovery. At his performance at the Hollywood Bowl, on July 4, 2019, Rodgers announced that he was "100% cancer-free."

Rodgers lived in Westport, Connecticut until July 2021 when he moved to Miami, Florida with his life partner, Nancy Hunt.

Selected discography
Chic
 * Chic (1977)
 * C'est Chic (1978)
 * Risqué (1979)
 * Real People (1980)
 * Take It Off (1981)
 * Soup for One (soundtrack, Chic/various artists) (1982)
 * Tongue in Chic (1982)
 * Believer (1983)
 * Chic-ism (1992)
 * It's About Time (2018 )

Solo
 * Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove (1983)
 * B-Movie Matinee (1985)
 * Chic Freak and More Treats (1996)

Outloud
 * Outloud (1987)

Soundtracks
 * Soup for One (1982)
 * Alphabet City (1984)
 * Coming to America (1988)
 * Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
 * White Hot (1989)
 * Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
 * Blue Chips (1994)
 * Curdled (1996)
 * Public Enemy (1999)
 * Rise of Nations (2003) Game
 * Halo 2 Soundtrack (2004) Game
 * Conker: Live & Reloaded (2005) Game
 * Perfect Dark Zero (2005) Game
 * Halo 3 Soundtrack (2007) Game

Live albums
 * Live at the Budokan (1999)
 * Up All Night (Chic, various artists) (2013)

Selected production discography

 * Norma Jean, Norma Jean Wright (1978)
 * We Are Family, Sister Sledge (1979)
 * King of the World, Sheila B. Devotion (1980)
 * Love Somebody Today, Sister Sledge (1980)
 * diana, Diana Ross (1980)
 * I Love My Lady, Johnny Mathis (1981, released in 2017)
 * KooKoo, Debbie Harry (1981)
 * Let's Dance, David Bowie (1983)
 * Talkback, Spoons (1983)
 * "Original Sin", INXS (1984)
 * Like a Virgin, Madonna (1984)
 * "The Reflex", "The Wild Boys", Duran Duran (1984)
 * "Out Out'", Peter Gabriel (1984)
 * Flash, Jeff Beck (1985)
 * She's the Boss, Mick Jagger (1985)
 * Here's to Future Days, Thompson Twins, (1985)
 * Do You, Sheena Easton (1985)
 * When The Boys Meet The Girls, Sister Sledge (1985)
 * Home of the Brave, Laurie Anderson (1986)
 * Notorious, Duran Duran (1986)
 * Inside Story, Grace Jones (1986)
 * Cosmic Thing, The B-52's (1989)
 * Workin' Overtime, Diana Ross (1989)
 * Family Style, Vaughan Brothers (1990)
 * "Real Cool World", David Bowie (1992)
 * Good Stuff, The B-52's (1992)
 * Black Tie White Noise, David Bowie (1993)
 * Your Filthy Little Mouth, David Lee Roth (1994)
 * "We Are Family", Nile Rodgers All Stars (We Are Family Foundation) (2001)
 * Only a Woman Like You, Michael Bolton	(2002)
 * Astronaut, Duran Duran (2004)
 * "Hotel Room Service" (Songwriter for Pitbull) (2009)
 * "Shady", Adam Lambert ft. Sam Sparro and Nile Rodgers (2012)
 * "Get Lucky" ft. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, Random Access Memories, Daft Punk (2013)
 * "Give Life Back to Music", Random Access Memories, Daft Punk (2013)
 * "Lose Yourself to Dance" ft. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, Random Access Memories, Daft Punk (2013)
 * "Lay Me Down", Avicii featuring Adam Lambert and Nile Rodgers True, (2013)
 * "The Other Boys", NERVO ft. Kylie Minogue, Jake Shears and Nile Rodgers, Collateral (2015)
 * "Pressure Off", Duran Duran ft. Janelle Monáe and Nile Rodgers, Paper Gods (2015)
 * "Sun Don't Let Me Down", Keith Urban ft. Nile Rodgers & Pitbull (2016)
 * "Telepathy", Christina Aguilera ft. Nile Rodgers (2016)
 * "Fantasy", George Michael ft. Nile Rodgers (2017)
 * "Le Canzoni alla Radio", Max Pezzali ft. Nile Rodgers (2017)
 * "Till the World Falls", Nile Rodgers, Chic, Mura Masa ft. Cosha & Vic Mensa (2018)
 * "Sober", Nile Rodgers, Chic, ft. Craig David & Stefflon Don (2018)
 * "Do You Wanna Party", Nile Rodgers, Chic, ft. LunchMoney Lewis (2018)
 * "Emotional", Michelle Treacy (2019)
 * "Summer Lover", Oliver Heldens ft. Devin & Nile Rodgers (2019)
 * "Roses", Adam Lambert ft. Nile Rodgers (2020)
 * "Cielo", Manuel Medrano ft. Nile Rodgers (2020)
 * "One More", Times, SG Lewis (2020)
 * "Agua", Daddy Yankee ft. Rauw Alejandro & Nile Rodgers (2022)
 * "Unforgiven", Le Sserafim ft. Nile Rodgers (2023)
 * "Freak 54 (Freak Out)", Pitbull with Nile Rodgers (2023)
 * "lock / unlock", j-hope of BTS with Benny Blanco & Nile Rodgers (2024)

Collaborations

 * Diana — Diana Ross (1980)
 * King of the World — Sheila and B. Devotion (1980)
 * KooKoo — Debbie Harry (1981)
 * Let's Dance — David Bowie (1983)
 * Hearts and Bones — Paul Simon (1983)
 * Like a Virgin — Madonna (1984)
 * Do You — Sheena Easton (1985)
 * Boys and Girls — Bryan Ferry (1985)
 * She's the Boss — Mick Jagger (1985)
 * L Is for Lover — Al Jarreau (1986)
 * True Colors — Cyndi Lauper (1986)
 * So — Peter Gabriel (1986)
 * Inside Story — Grace Jones (1986)
 * Inside Out — Philip Bailey (1986)
 * Workin' Overtime — Diana Ross (1989)
 * Move to This — Cathy Dennis (1990)
 * Mariah Carey — Mariah Carey (1990)
 * Other Voices — Paul Young (1990)
 * Family Style — Vaughan Brothers (1990)
 * Fireball Zone — Ric Ocasek (1991)
 * Hat Full of Stars — Cyndi Lauper (1993)
 * Black Tie White Noise — David Bowie (1993)
 * Mamouna — Bryan Ferry (1994)
 * HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I — Michael Jackson (1995)
 * Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix — Michael Jackson (1997)
 * Mind Body & Soul — Joss Stone (2004)
 * Olympia — Bryan Ferry (2010)
 * Les chansons de l'innocence retrouvée — Etienne Daho (2013)
 * "Lay Me Down" — Avicii and Adam Lambert (2014)
 * Avonmore — Bryan Ferry (2014)
 * Velvet — Adam Lambert (2020) ("Roses")
 * "Out The Cage" — Keith Urban and Breland (2020)
 * "Nothing Left but Family" — Rebecca Ferguson (2020)
 * "No Words Needed" — Rebecca Ferguson (2021)
 * "Who's Hurting Who" — Jack Savoretti (2021)
 * "Cuff It" — Beyonce (2022)
 * Legendaddy — Daddy Yankee (2022)
 * "Passion'' — Roosevelt (2022)
 * Pre-Code Hollywood — Jonathan Bree (2023)
 * Unforgiven — LE SSERAFIM (2023)
 * Hope on the Street Vol. 1 — J-Hope (2024)
 * "For Life" — Kygo and Zak Abel (2024)
 * Radiosoul —Alfie Templeman (2024)
 * "Honey Boy" — Purple Disco Machine, Benjamin Ingrosso and Shenseea (2024)
 * This is the Moment (ft. Nile Rodgers) — Son Mieux (2024)

title: Nile Rodgers


text:
Antiochus XII Dionysus

Antiochus XII Dionysus Epiphanes Philopator Callinicus (Ἀντίοχος Διόνυσος Ἐπιφανής Φιλοπάτωρ Καλλίνικος; between 124 and 109 BC – 82 BC) was a Hellenistic Seleucid monarch who reigned as King of Syria between 87 and 82 BC. The youngest son of Antiochus VIII and, most likely, his Egyptian wife Tryphaena, Antiochus XII lived during a period of civil war between his father and his uncle Antiochus IX, which ended with the assassination of Antiochus VIII in 96 BC. Antiochus XII's four brothers laid claim to the throne, eliminated Antiochus IX as a claimant, and waged war against his heir Antiochus X.

By 87 BC, only two claimants remained, both brothers of Antiochus XII: Demetrius III and Philip I. The realm of Demetrius III was initially centered in Damascus but later extended over most of Syria. Demetrius III was defeated by Philip I and went into exile in Parthia, allowing Antiochus XII to gain control of Damascus while Philip I remained in the Syrian capital Antioch. Antiochus XII consolidated his territory within inner Syria and did not seek to expand into the territories of Philip I, who attempted to annex Damascus but was repulsed. Antiochus XII focused his attention on Syria's southern reaches into which the Judaeans and Nabataeans sought to expand.

Antiochus XII reinforced his southern frontier and warred with his neighbors, conducting two campaigns against Nabataea that included engagements with Judea. After several victories in his first campaign, Antiochus XII was killed towards the end of his second campaign against the Nabateans at the Battle of Cana in 82 BC. Damascus was captured by the forces of the Nabatean King Aretas III, and the Syrian throne was claimed by Antiochus X's widow Cleopatra Selene and her son Antiochus XIII.

Name and background
Antiochus, Greek for "resolute in contention", was a dynastic name borne by many Seleucid monarchs. The Seleucid dynasty's founder Seleucus I named the capital of Syria, Antioch, in honor of his father Antiochus. Antiochus XII was the fifth and youngest son of Antiochus VIII and his Ptolemaic Egyptian wife Tryphaena, who married in 124 BC. In 109 BC, Tryphaena was killed by Antiochus VIII's half-brother Antiochus IX, who fought with Antiochus VIII from 113 BC for the throne of Syria. Antiochus XII's brothers were Seleucus VI, Antiochus XI, Philip I and Demetrius III.

Following Antiochus VIII's assassination in 96 BC, his second wife, Tryphaena's sister Cleopatra Selene, married Antiochus IX and then his son Antiochus X, who fought with Antiochus XII's four brothers for the throne. By 88 BC, only Demetrius III and Philip I remained; Demetrius III was originally based in Damascus before extending his authority to most of Syria. He was defeated by Philip I and his Parthian allies in 87 BC and exiled to Parthia, where he died of an unknown illness. Philip I took control of the capital, while Cleopatra Selene, now a widow, took shelter in Ptolemais with her sons by Antiochus X.

Reign
The departure of Demetrius III left a power vacuum in Damascus that was filled by Antiochus XII. Coins minted during the reign of Demetrius III are dated to the Seleucid year (SE) 225 (88/87 BC), while the earliest coins minted during the reign of Antiochus XII have the date 226 SE (87/86 BC), suggesting there was a rapid assumption of power by Antiochus XII. Monarchs of the Hellenistic period did not use regnal numbers, which is a more modern practice, but instead used epithets to distinguish themselves from similarly named monarchs; Three of Antiochus XII's four epithets, Epiphanes (illustrious)–previously used by his father, Philopator (father-loving) and Callinicus (nobly victorious), served to emphasize the ancestry of his grandfather Demetrius II in contrast to the line of the latter's brother Antiochus VII, which was represented by Antiochus IX and his descendants; Callinicus may have been an echo of Demetrius II's epithet Nikator (victorious). He likely used his other epithet Dionysus to associate himself with the Greek god of wine in his role as conqueror of the East. Antiochus XII was depicted on coinage with an exaggerated hawked nose in the likeness of his father, as a means of strengthening the legitimacy of his succession.

Policies and territory
According to historian Alfred Bellinger, Antiochus XII may have received assistance from Ptolemaic Egypt to gain his throne. This view is reflected in Antiochus XII's policies, which were targeted at the south in Nabataea and Judaea, but not towards expansion within the kingdom of Syria. His dominion was limited to inner Syria, centered on Damascus, which served as his capital and primary mint. Antiochus XII also ruled over the town of Gadara, governed by an official named Philotas. In 100 BC, Gadara had been conquered by the Hasmonean king of Judea Alexander Jannaeus, who partially destroyed its walls, but it was recaptured by the Seleucids in 93 BC. Gadara held great strategic importance for Syria as it served as a major military hub for operations in the south. Controlling it was vital to the war effort against the Judaeans, which led Antiochus to rebuild the city's defenses in 228 SE (85/84 BC). Historian Aryeh Kasher suggested that Antiochus XII dug what the first-century historian Josephus called the "trench of Antiochus" (or valley of Antiochus) to protect Damascus from the Nabataeans; the trench was probably located in the Hula Valley.

Seleucid coins often had depictions of their Greek deities, but the silver coinage of Antiochus XII depicted the supreme Semitic god Hadad on the reverse, possibly in recognition of the shrinking borders of the kingdom, which convinced the monarch of the importance of the local cults. By promoting indigenous deities, Seleucid kings hoped to gain the support of their non-Greek subjects. According to Bellinger, the use of Hadad indicated that Antiochus XII placed focus on his "intention of being first and foremost king of Damascus". During his reign, Demetrius III had also depicted a Semitic deity, Atargatis, on his currency. In the view of historian Kay Ehling, the change of coin imagery from Atargatis to Hadad probably served two goals: to imply that Antiochus XII had a different policy focus than his predecessor, and to demonstrate his intention of maintaining a good relationship with the Semitic population of Damascus, who comprised the majority of the inhabitants, to avoid tension with Greek settlers. Seleucid kings presented themselves as protectors of Hellenism and patronized intellectuals and philosophers, but Antiochus XII may have adopted a different attitude; he ordered the expulsion of such scholars.

Military campaigns
Early in his reign, Antiochus XII attacked the Nabataeans and the Judaeans, whose territories both lay south of his own. This conflict was recorded by Josephus, although he made no mention of the name of the Nabataean king. Josephus mentioned two campaigns against the Nabataeans, but did not explain the motives leading the Syrian King to attack them. Modern scholars presented several theories. In the view of Israel Shatzman, Antiochus XII may have feared the growing power of the Nabataeans, who were expanding into southern Syria. Zayn Bilkadi suggested that Antiochus XII wanted to take control over the Nabataeans' crude oil industry, while Alexander Fantalkin and Oren Tal suggested that the Nabataeans actively supported Philip I in his attempts to take control over Antiochus XII's realm.

First Nabataean campaign and the incursions of Philip I
Antiochus XII's first Nabataean campaign was launched in 87 BC, and might have included a battle near Motho, modern Imtan in the region of Hauran, as proposed by the historian Hans Peter Roschinski, who drew on the writings of Stephanus of Byzantium. The Byzantine historian preserved in his book, Ethica, fragments from a lost work by the historian Uranius of Apamea, who wrote a book titled Arabica, which has been dated to 300 AD. In the account of Uranius, King Antigonus I ((r. 306 – 301)) is killed at Motho by a king of the Arabs named Rabbel. The name Motho could refer to a northern city in Hauran or a southern city in Moab. The name of Antigonus was regularly "corrected" to Antiochus by different scholars who believed that Uranius was referring to Antiochus XII. Roschinski considered it conceivable that Stephanus was conflating two events taking place during the reign of the Nabataean King Rabbel I: a battle of Antiochus XII's first Nabataean campaign at Motho in the north, and the battle from the second Nabataean campaign in which Antiochus XII was killed. Shatzman, on the other hand, noted that nowhere in his work did Stephanus indicate that the battle of Motho took place in the north.

Taking advantage of his brother's absence, Philip I seized Damascus, aided by the governor of the city's citadel, Milesius, who opened the gates to him. According to Josephus, Milesius received no reward from Philip I, who attributed the betrayal to the general's fear, leading Milesius to betray Philip I, who had left the city to attend an event in the nearby hippodrome. The general closed the gates, locking Philip I out, and awaited the return of Antiochus XII, who had hastily ended his campaign when he heard of his brother's occupation of the city. Modern scholars noted that Seleucid currency, struck during campaigns against a rival (or usurper), portrayed the King sporting a beard. During his first two years, Antiochus XII's visage appeared beardless, but this changed in 228 SE (85/84 BC). This is possibly related to Philip I's attack on Damascus, but this supposition has little support, as Antiochus XII failed to take any action against his brother. No coins were minted during the period that Philip I held Damascus, indicating only a brief occupation of the city.

Second Nabataean campaign, war in Judea and death
Although his territory directly abutted Nabataean territory, for his second Nabataean campaign Antiochus XII instead chose to march his forces through Judaea along the coast, probably to attack the Nabataean-dominated Negev, which would have cut off the port city of Gaza, threatened Nabataean Mediterranean trade, and curbed Nabataean ambitions in the Transjordan. This route would have allowed Antiochus XII to keep Alexander Jannaeus at bay. According to Josephus, the Judaean King feared Antiochus XII's intentions and ordered the "Yannai Line" to be built, which consisted of a trench that fronted a defensive wall dotted with wooden towers. The trench stretched 28 km from Caphersaba to the sea near Joppa. Antiochus XII leveled the trench, burned the fortifications, and continued his march into Nabataean territory.

The account of the campaign, written by Josephus, is subject to some debate; the historian wrote that Antiochus XII's forces defeated those of Alexander Jannaeus, but the eighth-century historian George Syncellus mentioned a defeat suffered by Antiochus XII at the hands of the Judaean king. The existence of the Yannai Line has been questioned by several historians, and Josephus's explanation of Alexander Jannaeus's attempt to stop the march of Antiochus XII, because of his fears of the latter's intentions, is unsatisfactory. Both the Nabataeans and Syrians were enemies of Judea and it would have been to Alexander Jannaeus's benefit if those two powers were in conflict. Syncellus may have been referring to an earlier confrontation between the Syrian king and Alexander Jannaeus. Thus the statement of Syncellus supports the notion that Antiochus XII's second Nabataean campaign was also aimed at Judea; perhaps Antiochus XII sought to annex the coastal cities of Alexander Jannaeus as retribution for the defeat mentioned by Syncellus. Another objective would be subduing the Judaeans to keep them from attacking Syria while Antiochus XII was busy in Nabataea.

The final engagement between the forces of Antiochus XII and the Nabataeans occurred near the village of Cana, the location of which is unknown, but is generally assumed by modern scholars to be southwest of the Dead Sea. Historian Siegfried Mittmann considered it to be synonymous with Qina, modern-day Horvat Uza, as mentioned by Josephus in Book 15 of his Antiquities. Details of the battle, as written by Josephus, spoke of the Nabataeans employing a feigned retreat, then counterattacking the Syrian forces before their ranks could be ordered. Antiochus XII managed to rally his troops and weathered the attack, but he fought in the front lines, jeopardizing his life, and he eventually fell. The year of Antiochus XII's death is debated, but his last coins struck in Damascus are dated to 230 SE (83/82 BC).

Aftermath and legacy
According to Josephus, the death of the King resulted in a rout of the Syrian forces, with many being killed in the field or during the retreat. Survivors of the rout sheltered in Cana, where most died of starvation. Antiochus XII was the last energetic Seleucid king. Little is recorded of Philip I after his attempt at annexing Damascus, which was left without a protector after the death of Antiochus XII. Fearing the Ituraean ruler Ptolemy, the people of Damascus invited Aretas III of Nabataea to take the city. The numismatist Oliver D. Hoover suggested that Aretas III did not hold Damascus for long before the city returned to Seleucid possession.

The identity of Antiochus XII's wife remains unknown, but according to the sixth-century historian John Malalas, whose work is considered generally unreliable by scholars, the King had two daughters, Cleopatra and Antiochis. Cleopatra Selene, who went into hiding after the death of Antiochus X in 224 SE (89/88 BC), took advantage of Antiochus XII's death and declared her son Antiochus XIII king with herself as queen regent and regnant. Coins struck during her regency show the marks of the Damascus mint. Archeologist Nicholas L. Wright suggested that Cleopatra Selene's takeover of Damascus took place after 80 BC. Josephus called Antiochus XII the last Seleucid king, and Malalas, according to the translation of the historian Glanville Downey, followed suit; the last Seleucid king was in fact Antiochus XIII, who was dethroned in 64 BC after Antioch was annexed by the Romans.

Family tree

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

title: Antiochus XII Dionysus


text:
Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. He has earned an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards. His films have grossed more than $1.6 billion in the United States alone. In 2003, he was voted Number 34 in Channel 4's countdown of the 100 greatest movie stars of all time.

Walken has appeared in supporting roles in films such as The Anderson Tapes (1971), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), Roseland (1977) and Annie Hall (1977), before coming to wider attention as the troubled Vietnam War veteran Nick Chevotarevich in The Deer Hunter (1978). His performance earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was nominated for the same award for portraying con artist Frank Abagnale's father in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002).

Since his breakthrough, Walken has appeared in films in various genres, both in lead and supporting roles. These include The Dogs of War (1980), Brainstorm (1983), The Dead Zone (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), At Close Range (1986), Biloxi Blues (1988), King of New York (1990), The Comfort of Strangers (1990), Batman Returns (1992), True Romance (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), The Prophecy (1995, and its two sequels), Suicide Kings (1997), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Man on Fire (2004), Wedding Crashers (2005), Hairspray (2007), Seven Psychopaths (2012), A Late Quartet (2012), Percy (2020), and Dune: Part Two (2024). He has also provided voice work for the animated films Antz (1998) and The Jungle Book (2016).

On television, Walken has appeared in films such as Who Am I This Time? (1982), and Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. More recently, he has starred in television series The Outlaws (2021–), and Severance (2022–), the latter of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series nomination. He has guest-hosted Saturday Night Live seven times. His roles on the show include record producer Bruce Dickinson in the "More Cowbell" sketch, the disgraced Confederate officer Colonel Angus, and multiple appearances as an aging, unsuccessful lothario in the Continental sketch.

As a stage actor, Walken starred with Irene Worth in a 1975 Broadway revival of "Sweet Bird of Youth." Walken has played the lead in the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Coriolanus. His performance in the original rendition of James Joyce's The Dead (2000), earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical nomination. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in Martin McDonagh's A Behanding in Spokane (2010). He also wrote and played the lead role in the 1995 play Him, about his idol Elvis Presley.

Early life
Walken was born Ronald Walken on March 31, 1943, in Astoria, Queens, New York City. His parents were Rosalie Russell, a Scottish immigrant from Glasgow, and Paul Wälken, a German immigrant from Gelsenkirchen who owned and operated Walken's Bakery in Astoria. Walken was named after actor Ronald Colman. He was raised Methodist. He and his brothers, Kenneth and Glenn, were child actors on television in the 1950s, influenced by their mother's dreams of stardom.

When he was 15, a girlfriend showed Walken a magazine photo of Elvis Presley and Walken later said, "This guy looked like a Greek god. Then I saw him on television. I loved everything about him." He changed his hairstyle to imitate Presley and has not changed it since. As a teenager, he worked as a lion tamer trainee for a short time in a circus.

Walken attended Hofstra University but dropped out after one year, having been cast in the role of Clayton Dutch Miller in an off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward alongside Liza Minnelli. Walken initially trained as a dancer at the Washington Dance Studio before moving on to dramatic stage roles and then film.

1950s–1960s
As a child, Walken appeared on screen as an extra in numerous anthology series and variety shows during the Golden Age of Television. After appearing in a sketch with Martin and Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour, Walken decided to become an actor. He landed a regular role in the 1953 television show Wonderful John Acton, playing the part of Kevin Acton. During this time, he was credited as Ronnie Walken.

Over the next two years, he appeared frequently on television, and had a thriving career in theater. From 1954 to 1956, Walken and his brother Glenn originated the role of Michael Bauer on the soap opera The Guiding Light. In 1963, he appeared as a character named Chris in an episode of Naked City, starring Paul Burke.

In 1964, he changed his first name to Christopher at the suggestion of Monique van Vooren, who had a nightclub act in which Walken was a dancer. She believed the name suited him better than Ronnie (a pet form of his given name, Ronald), which he was credited as until then. He prefers to be known informally as Chris instead of Christopher.

In 1966, Walken played the role of King Philip of France in the Broadway premiere of The Lion in Winter. In 1968, he played Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet at the Stratford Festival in Canada.

He appeared in the made-for-TV movies Barefoot in Athens (1966) and The Three Musketeers (1969), and made his feature film debut in Me and My Brother (1969), a low-budget production that also featured Sam Shepard. In 1969, Walken guest-starred in Hawaii Five-O as Navy SP Walt Kramer.

1970s
In 1970, Walken starred in the Off-Broadway production of Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky opposite Charles Durning and Bonnie Bartlett. Later that year Walken received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.

Walken's first major studio film was Sidney Lumet's The Anderson Tapes (1971) with Sean Connery and Dyan Cannon. In 1972's The Mind Snatchers a.k.a. The Happiness Cage, Walken played his first starring role. In this science fiction film, which deals with mind control and normalization, he plays a sociopathic U.S. soldier stationed in Germany.

Paul Mazursky's 1976 film Next Stop, Greenwich Village had Walken, under the name "Chris Walken", playing the charismatic and promiscuous fictional poet Robert Fulmer. In Woody Allen's 1977 film Annie Hall (in which his surname was misspelled "Wlaken" in the end credits), Walken played the borderline crazy brother of Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). Also in 1977, Walken had a minor role as Eli Wallach's partner in The Sentinel. In 1978, he appeared in Shoot the Sun Down, a western filmed in 1976 that costarred Margot Kidder. Along with Nick Nolte and Burt Reynolds, Walken was considered by George Lucas for the part of Han Solo in Star Wars; the part ultimately went to Harrison Ford.

In 1977, Walken also starred in an episode of Kojak as Ben Wiley, a robber.

Walken won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Michael Cimino's 1978 film The Deer Hunter. He plays a young Pennsylvania steelworker who is emotionally destroyed by the Vietnam War. To help achieve his character's gaunt appearance before the third act, Walken consumed only bananas, water and rice for a month.

1980s
Walken's first film of the 1980s was the controversial Heaven's Gate, also directed by Cimino. Walken also starred in the 1981 action adventure The Dogs of War, directed by John Irvin. He surprised many critics and filmgoers with his intricate tap-dancing striptease in Herbert Ross's musical Pennies from Heaven (1981). In 1982, he played a socially awkward but gifted theater actor in the film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's short story Who Am I This Time? opposite Susan Sarandon. Walken then played schoolteacher-turned-psychic Johnny Smith in David Cronenberg's 1983 adaptation of Stephen King's The Dead Zone. That same year, Walken also starred in Brainstorm alongside Natalie Wood and (in a minor role) his wife, Georgianne.

In 1985, Walken played a James Bond villain, Max Zorin, in A View to a Kill, Roger Moore's last appearance as Bond. Walken dyed his hair blond to befit Zorin's origins as a Nazi experiment.

At Close Range (1986) starred Walken as Brad Whitewood, a rural Pennsylvania crime boss who tries to bring his two sons into his empire; his character was mostly based on criminal Bruce Johnston.

In 1988, Walken played a memorable role as Sgt. Merwin J. Toomey in Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues, which was directed by Mike Nichols, and he played the role of Federal Agent Kyril Montana in The Milagro Beanfield War. He also played the leading role of Whitley Strieber in 1989's Communion, an autobiographical film written by Strieber. It was based on claims that he and his friends were subject to visitations by unknown, other-worldly entities variously identified as "aliens" or "visitors". That same year, Walken appeared in the film Homeboy, which was written by and featured Mickey Rourke in the titular role. In 1989, he played the lead role of "Puss" in the Cannon theater group's musical version of Puss in Boots.

1990s
The Comfort of Strangers, an art house film directed by Paul Schrader, features Walken as Robert, a decadent Italian aristocrat with extreme sexual tastes and murderous tendencies who lives with his wife (Helen Mirren) in Venice.

King of New York (1990), directed by Abel Ferrara, stars Walken as ruthless New York City drug dealer Frank White, a recently released prisoner set on reclaiming his criminal territory. In 1991, Walken starred in Sarah, Plain and Tall as Jacob Witting, a widowed farmer. In 1992, Walken played villain millionaire industrialist Max Shreck in Batman Returns. Also in 1992, Walken appeared in Madonna's controversial coffee table book SEX, and the music video for her hit single "Bad Girl", (directed by David Fincher). He also played Bobby, Cassandra's producer, in Wayne's World 2.

Walken's next major film role was opposite Dennis Hopper in True Romance, scripted by Quentin Tarantino. His so-called Sicilian scene has been hailed by critics as the best scene in the film, and is the subject of four commentaries on the DVD. Walken has a supporting role in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction as a Vietnam veteran named Captain Koons. He gives his dead comrade's son the family's prized possession—a gold watch—while explaining in graphic detail how he had hidden it from the Vietcong by smuggling it in his rectum after the boy's father, in whose rectum the watch had previously been concealed, had died of dysentery.

Later in 1994, Walken starred in A Business Affair, a rare leading role for him in a romantic comedy. Walken manages to once again feature his trademark dancing scene as he performs the tango. In 1995, he appeared in Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, Wild Side, The Prophecy and the modern vampire flick The Addiction, which was his second collaboration with director Abel Ferrara and writer Nicholas St. John. He also appeared in Nick of Time, which also stars Johnny Depp, and an art house film by David Salle titled Search and Destroy. In 1995, Walken acted in "Him," the first play written by Walken, and about his idol Elvis in the afterlife, featured in the New York Shakespeare Festival. The New York Times gave a somewhat positive review of his "most cheering and refreshingly absurd invention" of retelling Elvis' death as a disappearing act that enabled Elvis to flee to Morocco for a sex change to become "her" in a "woozily conceived, fantastical new play...in the sharpness and wit of writing and in the performances by Mr. Walken and Mr. Heyman."

In the 1996 film Last Man Standing, Walken plays a sadistic gangster named Hickey. That year, he played a prominent role in the video game Ripper, portraying Detective Vince Magnotta. Ripper made extensive use of real-time recorded scenes and a wide cast of celebrities in an interactive film. In 1996 Walken also appeared in the Italian film Celluloide as US Officer Rod Geiger and played the role of Ray in the Abel Ferrara crime-drama film The Funeral. In 1997, Walken starred in the comedy films Touch and Excess Baggage and had a minor role in the film Mouse Hunt. He also appeared in the drama/thriller film Suicide Kings, which was also filled with suspense and humor.

In 1998, Walken played an influential gay New York theater critic in John Turturro's film Illuminata. The same year he voiced Colonel/General Cutter in the animated film Antz.

In 1999, he played James Houston in Vendetta, an HBO original film based on the March 14, 1891 New Orleans lynchings. In the same year, Walken appeared in the romantic comedy Blast from the Past portraying Calvin Webber, a brilliant but eccentric Caltech nuclear physicist whose fears of a nuclear war lead him to build an enormous fallout shelter beneath his suburban home. The same year, he appeared as the Headless Horseman in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. He also appeared in Kiss Toledo Goodbye with Michael Rapaport and Nancy Allen.

Walken also starred in two music videos in the 1990s. His first video role was as the Angel of Death in Madonna's 1993 "Bad Girl". The second appearance was in Skid Row's "Breakin' Down" video.

2000s
In 2000, Walken was cast as the lead, along with Blair Brown, in James Joyce's The Dead on Broadway. A "play with music", The Dead featured music by Shaun Davey, conducted by Charles Prince, with music coordination and percussion by Tom Partington. James Joyce's The Dead won a Tony Award that year for Best Book for a Musical.

Walken had a music video performance in 2001 with Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice". Directed by Spike Jonze, it won six MTV awards in 2001 and—in a list of the top 100 videos of all time compiled from a survey of musicians, directors and music industry figures conducted by UK music TV channel VH1—won Best Video of All Time in April 2002. In the video, Walken dances and flies around the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles; Walken also helped choreograph the dance. Also in 2001, Walken played a gangster who was in the witness protection program in the David Spade comedy Joe Dirt and an eccentric film director in America's Sweethearts. Also in 2001, Walken played Lieutenant Macduff in Scotland, PA, a loose film adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

In 2002 Walken played Mike in the film Poolhall Junkies and played Frank Abagnale, Sr. in Catch Me If You Can, which is inspired by the story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a con artist who passed himself off as several identities and forged millions of dollars' worth of checks. His portrayal earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Walken also had a part in the 2003 action comedy film The Rundown, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Seann William Scott, in which he plays a ruthless despot. He was nominated for a Razzie (Worst Supporting Actor) in 2002's The Country Bears and in two 2003 films, Gigli and Kangaroo Jack. Walken also starred in Barry Levinson's Envy, in which he plays J-Man, a crazy guy who helps Ben Stiller's character and in his starring role in 2004's Around the Bend he again has a dancing scene as he portrays an absentee father who has fled prison to reunite with his father, his son and the grandson he never knew before dying. Walken played the role of Paul Rayburn in 2004's Man on Fire, where, when speaking about the imminent destructive actions of John Creasy (Denzel Washington), his character states: "A man can be an artist... in anything, food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasy's art is death. He's about to paint his masterpiece."

Also in 2004, Walken played Mike in the film The Stepford Wives.

In 2005, he played Mark Heiss in the film Domino and the role of Secretary Cleary in the film Wedding Crashers.

In 2006, he played Morty, a sympathetic inventor who is more than meets the eye, in the comedy/drama Click and also appeared in Man of the Year with Robin Williams and Lewis Black. He co-starred in the 2007 film adaptation Hairspray, wherein he is seen singing and dancing in a romantic duet with John Travolta and portrayed the eccentric but cruel crime lord and Ping-Pong enthusiast Feng in the 2007 comedy action film Balls of Fury opposite Dan Fogler.

Walken was in the film Five Dollars a Day (released in 2008), in which he plays a con man proud of living like a king on $5 a day.

The film The Maiden Heist, a comedy co-starring Morgan Freeman, William H. Macy and Walken about security guards in an art museum, debuted at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 25, 2009.

Walken also starred in Universal Studios Florida's "Disaster!" theme park attraction, which opened in 2008 and closed in 2015. He portrayed Frank Kincaid, the fictional CEO of "Disaster Studios" who encouraged guests to be extras in his latest film. In the attraction's pre-show, Walken was projected on a clear screen, much like a life-size hologram and interacted with the live-action talent.

2010s
Walken returned to Broadway in Martin McDonagh's play A Behanding in Spokane in 2010 and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. He had a small voice role in NBC sitcom 30 Rock, in the "Audition Day" episode. In 2011, he played the role of Jewish-American loan shark Alex "Shondor" Birns in the film based on the life of gangster Danny Greene, Kill the Irishman. In 2012, Walken reunited with McDonagh for the British-American crime comedy film Seven Psychopaths and also played the founder and leader of a string quartet in A Late Quartet.

Walken costarred with Al Pacino and Alan Arkin in the film Stand Up Guys, a story about aging gangsters out on the town for one last hoorah. He also appeared in The Power of Few.

In December 2012, Walken was selected as a "GQ" Man of the Year. ("Gentlemen's Quarterly." April 2018. p. 24)

In 2013, Walken became the protagonist in the campaign "Made From Cool" by Jack & Jones. In 2014, he appeared in Turks & Caicos. Walken appears as Gyp DeCarlo in the 2014 film Jersey Boys.

In 2014, Walken played Captain Hook in the NBC production Peter Pan Live!

In 2015, Walken starred in the film When I Live My Life Over Again and played the role of Clem for the second time in the David Spade comedy Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser.

In 2016, he voiced King Louie in the CGI-live action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book, directed by Jon Favreau. He also recorded a cover of Louie's song "I Wan'na Be Like You", which he sings in the film as well as on the soundtrack. Also that year, he appeared in Dexter Fletcher's Eddie the Eagle and Barry Sonnenfeld's Nine Lives. In 2017, Walken replaced Bill Irwin in the role of Walter Tinkler in the critically panned Father Figures. The following year, he played Myron in the Netflix film Irreplaceable You.

2020s
In 2021, Walken appeared as Frank in the BBC One/Amazon Prime Video comedy The Outlaws. and in the second series broadcast on BBC1 in 2022.

In 2022, he had a supporting role as Burt Goodman, the severed chief of the Optics and Design division in the Apple TV+ series Severance. For his performance, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Walken next portrayed Emperor Shaddam IV in the 2024 film, Dune: Part Two. The film received universal critical acclaim and SlashFilm wrote: "It's a treat to watch Walken work — he shows up, delivers his ominous lines with a whisper, and wipes the floor with anyone he's acting against. Show 'em how it's done, Christopher Walken."

Legacy and popularity
Described as "diverse and eccentric" and "one of the most respected actors of his generation", Walken has long established a cult following among film fans. He is known for his versatility and was named as one of Empire magazine's "Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time". Once dubbed a "cultural phenomenon", he has portrayed several iconic film characters including Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone, Max Shreck in Batman Returns, and Max Zorin in A View to a Kill, and was also considered for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars films. His Oscar-winning performance in The Deer Hunter was ranked as the 88th greatest film performance of all time by Premiere magazine and his performance in Pennies from Heaven made it into Entertainment Weekly's list of the "100 Greatest Performances that should have won Oscars but didn't." Sometimes regarded as "one of the kings of cameos", Walken has made several cameo appearances or appeared in a single scene of films including as Captain Koons in Pulp Fiction, Duane in Annie Hall, Hessian Horseman in Sleepy Hollow and Don Vincenzo in True Romance. Writer and director Quentin Tarantino declared that Walken's involvement in True Romance's "Sicilian scene" was one of the proudest moments in his career.

Benicio del Toro cited Walken as an influence and stated that the best advice he had ever been given regarding acting came from him: "When you're in a scene and you don't know what you're gonna do, don't do anything." Kat Dennings called him her favorite actor and said that he was the reason that she wanted to be an actress. Johnny Depp once said one of the main reasons he starred in Nick of Time was wanting to work with Walken. Jeffrey Wright, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Colin Farrell, Bradley Cooper, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mads Mikkelsen are among actors who spoke about their admiration for Walken. Prominent film critic Roger Ebert, who was particularly impressed by his villain and anti-hero portrayals, once stated, "when he is given the right role, there is nobody to touch him for his chilling ability to move between easy charm and pure evil" and called him "one of the few undeniably charismatic male villains."

Walken is noted for refusing film roles only rarely, having stated in interviews that he will decline a role only if he is too busy to accept. He regards each role as a learning experience. A rare example of a role Walken turned down was that of Ray Ruby in the film Go Go Tales (2007). According to film director Abel Ferrara, the character was originally written for Walken, who "didn't want to do it". The role was then given to Walken's New Rose Hotel (1998) co-star Willem Dafoe.

Walken's voice and speaking style have been compared to other entertainment figures with voices that create "a pleasing (or at least entertaining) aural experience," such as William Shatner and Garrison Keillor. Walken believes that the source of his speech stems from growing up with immigrant neighbors who came from everywhere, stating, "The neighborhood itself, you didn't hear a lot of English. Lots of Greek, Italian, Polish, German, Yiddish. I think I grew up listening to people who spoke English in a kind of broken way. I think maybe I talked that way." Walken inspired the stage show, All About Walken: The Impersonators of Christopher Walken, created by actor/comedian Patrick O'Sullivan in Hollywood in 2006.

Appearances on Saturday Night Live
Walken has hosted the comedy sketch and satire TV series Saturday Night Live (SNL) seven times.

One of Walken's SNL performances was a spoof of Behind the Music, featuring a recording session of Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) the Reaper". In the guise of record producer Bruce Dickinson (not to be confused with the real Bruce Dickinson, lead singer for Iron Maiden), Walken makes passionate and slightly unhinged speeches to the band and is obsessed with getting "More Cowbell" into the song. The phrase "I gotta have more cowbell" has since been adapted to merchandise. The producer who suggested the cowbell on the original BÖC recording is David Lucas.

Walken appeared in one of Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch's "The Luvahs" skits. His character brought a lady friend to meet The Luvahs and she is subjected to learning the history that Walken's character shares with The Luvahs. He also divulges private information about his sex life with his girlfriend, much to her horror ("She was willing to accept her lover's body in places no one had ever trespassed... specifically, the ear canal").

Walken spoofed his starring role from The Dead Zone (1983) in a sketch titled "Ed Glosser: Trivial Psychic" (1992). In the film, Walken's character can predict deaths and catastrophes, while Glosser can accurately predict meaningless, trivial future events but with the same emotional intensity as in the film: "You're going to get an ice cream headache. It's going to hurt real bad, right here, [touches forehead] for eight, nine seconds.").

His character in A View to a Kill was parodied in a sketch titled "Lease with an Option to Kill", in which he reprised his role as Max Zorin. Zorin, who had taken on some qualities of other Bond villains (Blofeld's cat and suit, Emilio Largo's eye patch), was upset that everything was going wrong for him. His lair was still under construction; his henchmen had jump suits that didn't fit; and his shark tank lacked sharks, having a giant sea sponge instead. A captive James Bond, portrayed by Phil Hartman, offered to get Zorin "a good deal" on the abandoned Blofeld volcanic lair if Zorin let him go, to which he reluctantly agreed.

He performed a song and dance rendition of the Irving Berlin standard, "Let's Face the Music and Dance". Finally, there was the "Colonel Angus" sketch, laden with ribald double entendres, in which Walken played a dishonored Confederate officer.

Until 2003, Walken had a recurring SNL sketch called "The Continental", in which Walken played a "suave ladies' man" who in reality cannot do anything to keep a woman (a neighbor in his apartment building) from giving him the cold shoulder. Though he is outwardly chivalrous, his more perverted tendencies inevitably drive away his date over his pleading objections. For instance, he invites the woman to wash up in his bathroom; once she is inside, it becomes obvious that the bathroom mirror is a two-way mirror when he is seen lighting up a cigarette. In "The Continental", only the hand of his neighbor is ever seen; the camera always shows her point of view.

The April 5, 2008 Saturday Night Live show was the first time an episode hosted by Walken did not have a "Continental" sketch or a monologue in which he sang and danced. This episode, however, did include one sketch titled "Walken Family Reunion", which spoofs many of Walken's idiosyncrasies. The sketch depicts a fictional Walken family reunion, where all of Christopher's relatives have his mannerisms and speech patterns and sport his trademark pompadour hairstyle. In order of appearance, the other Walkens are Christopher's cousin Stanley (Bill Hader); Stanley's brother John (Jason Sudeikis); John's son Scott (Andy Samberg) and daughter Maxine (Amy Poehler) (who carries a doll that also has a pompadour); Nathan (Fred Armisen), a gay relative for whom "flamboyance" means dressing all in black and running his finger around the rim of a cosmo glass; Uncle Richard (Darrell Hammond) and Aunt Martha (Kristen Wiig), who think that The Deer Hunter was hilarious and who are hosts of a Nigerian foreign exchange student named Oleki (Kenan Thompson). When he came to live with them, Oleki—who has absorbed all of the Walken Family traits—could not speak any English. But now (he says) he "talks like a normal teenaged American boy". The biggest laugh of the sketch occurs when Christopher expresses his sympathies for Scott's teenaged attitude: "I appreciate your situation. For a Walken, adolescence is a difficult time. You feel like you're the only normal person in a school full of nutjobs." Scott's response: "Wow! It's like you're lookin' right into my noggin!" (Will Forte also appears as a waiter at the beginning of the sketch, but does not do a Walken impression.)

In September 2004, SNL released a DVD titled The Best of Christopher Walken through Lionsgate.

Walken returned to the show for the first time in 15 years on October 28, 2023 in a cameo role as the “Spirit of Halloween” in which he gave advice to President Joe Biden (Mikey Day). Walken also introduced the musical guest Foo Fighters instead of host Nate Bargatze. Foo Fighters were the musical guest during his 2003 episode, during which Dave Grohl pranked Walken into speaking with the emphasis on “Fighters” instead of “Foo.” Clips of the introduction later became an internet meme and Walken pronounced the band’s name correctly in 2023.

Presidential candidacy hoax
Walken became the subject of a hoax controversy in 2006, when a fake website started in August of that year by members of Internet forum Genmay.com announced that he was running for President of the United States. Some believed it was authentic, until Walken's publicist dismissed the claims. When asked about the hoax in a September 2006 interview with Conan O'Brien, Walken said he was amused and when asked to come up with a campaign slogan, he replied, "What the Heck" and "No More Zoos!"

Personal life
In 1963, Walken met Georgianne Thon during a tour of West Side Story. They married in January 1969. The couple have no children and Walken has stated in interviews that not having children is one of the reasons that he has had such a prolific career.

Walken discussed his feelings on sexuality in a 1973 interview with After Dark promoting his appearance as Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice. "I suppose I think of the man I'm playing as bisexual, and I suppose that's how I think of myself too. I'd hate to think that I was harnessed to heterosexuality. I mean, my life is heterosexual, but I like to think that my head is bisexual, and I think it's a good idea for everybody to start getting used to that notion, because that way one becomes aware of a lot more things."

Walken was with Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner on Wagner's yacht the day in 1981 that Wood went missing and ultimately was found dead by drowning. Walken was not considered a suspect by authorities.

title: Christopher Walken


text:
Oviduct

The oviduct in vertebrates is the passageway from an ovary. In human females, this is more usually known as the fallopian tube. The eggs travel along the oviduct. These eggs will either be fertilized by spermatozoa to become a zygote, or will degenerate in the body. Normally, these are paired structures, but in birds and some cartilaginous fishes, one or the other side fails to develop (together with the corresponding ovary), and only one functional oviduct can be found.

Except in teleosts, the oviduct is not directly in contact with the ovary. Instead, the most anterior portion ends in a funnel-shaped structure called the infundibulum, which collects eggs as they are released by the ovary into the body cavity.

The only female vertebrates to lack oviducts are the jawless fishes. In these species, the single fused ovary releases eggs directly into the body cavity. The fish eventually extrudes the eggs through a small genital pore towards the rear of the body.

Fish and amphibians
In amphibians and lungfishes, the oviduct is a simple ciliated tube, lined with mucus-secreting glands that produce the jelly that surrounds the ovum. In all other vertebrates, there is normally some degree of specialisation of the tube, depending on the type of eggs produced.

In cartilaginous fishes, the middle portion of the tube develops as a shell gland. The first portion of this gland secretes the egg white, while the lower portion secretes a hard, horny, capsule to protect the developing egg. Distal to the shell gland is the ovisac, a distended region in which eggs are stored prior to laying. In ovoviviparous species, the egg remains within the ovisac until it hatches. Some cartilaginous fishes, however, are truly viviparous, giving birth to live young, and producing no egg shell. In these forms, the ovisac nurtures the developing embryo, often with the aid of vascular outgrowths similar to, but much simpler than, the mammalian placenta.

The most primitive ray finned fishes retain the simple structure also found in lungfishes. In teleosts, folds of peritoneum enclose the ovary and upper part of the tube, fusing them into a single structure. The ovary itself is hollow, with eggs being shed into the central cavity, and thence passing directly into the oviduct. The enclosed nature of the female reproductive system in these fishes makes it impossible for eggs to escape into the general body cavity; a necessary development, given that thousands or even millions of eggs may be released in a single spawning.

Amniotes
In amniotes – reptiles, birds, and mammals – the egg is enclosed with an outer layer, or amnion, which has led to further development of the oviduct. In reptiles, birds, and monotremes, the main part of the oviduct is a muscular tube, capable of considerable distension to transport the large eggs that are produced. This part of the oviduct is lined with glands that secrete the components of the egg white. The lower portion of the oviduct, or uterus, has a thicker layer of smooth muscle and contains the glands that secrete the egg shell.

In marsupials and placental mammals, the uterus becomes lined by an endometrium, and is more developed than in egg-laying amniotes. In many placental mammals, the uteri of each side become partially or wholly fused into a single organ, although in marsupials they remain completely separate.

For birds, the oviduct is composed of: (See matching numbers in the picture)
 * 1) Infundibulum (formation of chalazae, place of fertilisation)
 * 2) Magnum (formation of egg white)
 * 3) Isthmus (formation of the shell membrane)
 * 4) Shell gland (formation of egg shell)
 * 5) Vaginal homologue (formation of cuticle)

title: Oviduct


text:
Talk:Mall

London / Thailand
The Mall is also a street in London. There's something to do with queenie and her parades there -- Tarquin 00:07 Jan 11, 2003 (UTC)

 * I guess it's used as a generic word to name that kind of place. There may be more than two Malls in the world. --FvdP

 * the street name in L is "The Mall". -- t

 * Yet, there's also this: The Mall (in Thailand, but don't ask me where exactly, I can't read this page). --FvdP
 * The Thailand site is just a shopping complex, prolly not worth adding. --Qaz

 * I never meant to add it. It was just a little joke. I've found no significant 3rd Mall so far. (BTW, I've found an explanation for your remark on my talk page, see there). --FvdP

 * Ah, I did not think it was a joke cuz you said you could not read the page so I did not realize you were kidding. Sorry for being DENSE :) --Qaz

Dab
Made The Mall into a disambiguation page. Qaz

 * Might want to get a little more generic. I didn't know a mall could be a road like in London, but the term is used to describe many grassy areas in the USA (like The Mall in Washington, D.C., and an area on the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus).  Additionally, shopping malls are frequently called The Mall.  —Mulad

Merged The Mall dab into Mall dab, this is the talk from the former. --zippedmartin 15:50, 25 August 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Mall


text:
Freeman's Journal

The Freeman's Journal, which was published continuously in Dublin from 1763 to 1924, was in the nineteenth century Ireland's leading nationalist newspaper.

Patriot journal
It was founded in 1763 by Charles Lucas and was identified with radical 18th-century Protestant patriot politicians Henry Grattan and Henry Flood. This changed from 1784 when it passed to Francis Higgins (better known as the "Sham Squire") and took a more pro-British and pro-administration view. In fact Francis Higgins is mentioned in the Secret Service Money Book as having betrayed Lord Edward FitzGerald. Higgins was paid £1,000 for information on FitzGerald's capture.

Voice of constitutional nationalism
In the 19th century it became more nationalist in tone, particularly under the control and inspiration of Sir John Gray (1815–75).

The Journal, as it was widely known as, was the leading newspaper in Ireland throughout the 19th century. Contemporary sources record it being read to the largely illiterate population by priests and local teachers gathering in homes. It was mentioned in contemporary literature and was seen as symbolising Irish newspapers for most of its time. By the 1880s it had become the primary media supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell and the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP). The weekend edition of the paper was known as The Weekly Freeman, which began featuring large format political cartoons in the 1870s.

It was challenged on all sides by rivals. On the nationalist side some preferred The Nation founded by Thomas Davis while others, including radical supporters of Parnell, read the United Irishman. The Anglo-Irish establishment in contrast read the historically Irish unionist The Irish Times. With the split in the IPP over Parnell's relationship with Katherine O'Shea, its readership split too. While The Journal in September 1891 eventually went with the majority in opposing Parnell, a minority moved to read the Daily Irish Independent. It was also challenged from the turn of the century by William O'Brien's Irish People and the Cork Free Press. With Thomas Sexton becoming Chairman of the Board of Directors (1893–1911), the Journal languished under his spartanic management.

Superseded by the Irish Independent
The collapse of the IPP in 1918, and the electoral success of Sinn Féin, saw a more radical nationalism appear that increasingly was out of step with the moderation of the Journal. The Irish Independent, the successor to the Daily Irish Independent, was more aggressively marketed. Just prior to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in March 1922, the Freeman's Journal printing machinery was destroyed by Anti-Treaty IRA men under Rory O'Connor for its support of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It did not resume publication until after the outbreak of civil war, when the Irish Free State re-asserted its authority over the country.

The Freeman's Journal ceased publication in 1924, when it was merged with the Irish Independent. Until the 1990s, the Irish Independent included the words 'Incorporating the Freeman's Journal' in its mast-head over its editorials.

Offices
The newspaper's head office was located at 4-6 Prince Street North until its destruction during the Easter Rising of 1916.

After its destruction, the newspaper refurbished buildings at 6-8 Townsend Street incorporating the former Dublin Coffee Palace however these were ultimately ransacked by anti-treaty forces in March 1922.

It also developed other alternative offices at 27 Westmoreland Street in 1917 while carrying out extensive renovations there in 1921-22.

In fiction
James Joyce drew on his recollection of his visits to the Freeman’s office in 1909 in his novel Ulysses. As the place of Leopold Bloom's employment, the depiction of the paper's offices in the Aeolus chapter has been deemed "an authentic portrait" at a time when the newspaper was "moribund – the Irish Independent having supplanted it as the most popular daily newspaper in Dublin." Its decline is reflected in "the anxious question posed in Aeolus about the Freeman’s editor, WH Brayden: 'But can he save the circulation?'"

Leading proprietors, editors and contributors

 * Matthias McDonnell Bodkin
 * Henry Brooke
 * Edward 'Doc' Byrne
 * Wilson Gray
 * Sir John Gray
 * Charles Lucas
 * James Winder Good
 * William O'Brien
 * Thomas Sexton

title: Freeman's Journal


text:
Talk:Christie's

Price-fixing scandal
Does anyone know enough about the Christie's/Sotheby's price-fixing scandal to add information to the article? I remember hearing about it and that prison sentences ensued, but I don't know enough of the details to expand the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.9.26.141 (talk • contribs)

The link for James Christie links to a different James Christie than the one intended. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.9.26.141 (talk • contribs)

External links modified
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Why so many references to Sotheby's?
All of that bias could be significantly reduced if the article didn't treat Sotheby's as a 'rival'. Sure, they definitely are in real life, but I thought Wikipedia was neutral...

Rebestalic (talk) 04:01, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Rebestalic (talk • contribs) 03:59, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Ten kings of hell painting on cloth.
Can anyone please give me some info on these? I have two large pic of all the kings and devil.

5 kings on each pic. But I cannot find anything to match these. Just single king pics. 76.14.244.188 (talk) 08:27, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Christie's