Chris Gardner: Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period. All right?
Rachel Sarah Bilson (born August 25, 1981) is an American actress. Bilson grew up in a California show business family, and made her television debut in 2003, subsequently becoming well known for playing Summer Roberts on the prime time drama series The O.C. Bilson made her film debut in the 2006 film The Last Kiss and starred in the 2008 action/science fiction film Jumper. She is currently starring as the Dr Zoe Hart on The CW's Hart of Dixie.
Early life
Bilson was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Janice (née Stango), a sex therapist, and Danny Bilson, a writer/director/producer. Her father is Jewish and her mother, a native of Philadelphia, is Italian American. Bilson's father comes from a show business family; her great-grandfather, George Bilson, (born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England) was the head of the trailer department at RKO Pictures, her Brooklyn-born great-grandmother, Hattie Bilson, was a screenwriter, and her grandfather, Bruce Bilson, is a film director.Bilson's parents divorced when she was nine years old, and in 1997, her father remarried Heather Medway, an actress and the mother of Bilson's half-sisters Hattie and Rosemary.
Bilson had what has been described as a "self-destructive, rebellious period" during her teen years. When she was 14, she and a group of her brother's friends were involved in a car accident, a head-on collision with another car. As a result, Bilson was unconscious for a few days, has a scar above her right eye, and sometimes suffers from migraines and memory loss. She has stated that the experience "changed" her, encouraging her to "stop... getting into trouble" and stopping her from "going down that road" and because of this experience she learned to play the piano. Bilson graduated from Walter Reed Middle School in 1995 and from Notre Dame High School in 1999. During her time at Notre Dame, she appeared in productions of Bye Bye Birdie, Once Upon a Mattress and The Crucible.
Career
Bilson attended Grossmont College in a suburb of San Diego, but dropped out after one year taking her father's advice to pursue a professional acting career. She then made several appearances in commercials, including advertisements for Subway restaurants, Raisin Bran and Pepto-Bismol. She made her screen acting debut in early 2003, appearing in one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. Bilson was subsequently cast in The O.C., which debuted in August 2003. Her character, Summer Roberts, was initially intended to appear in only a few episodes, but became a series regular after a successful run, as Bilson's on-screen romance with Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) became a noted aspect of the series.
As a result of the success of The O.C., Bilson has become well known among teenage audiences. At the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, Bilson collected three awards: "Choice Hottie Female", "Choice TV Actress (Drama)" and "Best Onscreen TV Chemistry" (jointly won with Adam Brody). In 2005, Maxim magazine named her sixth in their annual "Hot 100 List"; in 2006, the publication awarded her #14. The UK edition of FHM Magazine named her 28th in the 2006 100 Sexiest Women in the World list, while the US Edition Ranked her 77th in 2005. Bilson was also named one of People magazine's "100 Most Beautiful People" in 2006. She was ranked #71 in TC Chandler's "Most Beautiful Faces 2008" list.
Bilson's first film role was in The Last Kiss, a romantic comedy-drama also starring Zach Braff. In the film, which opened in 2006, she plays a college student who seduces Braff's character. It was reported that she called for a body double during the sex scenes because she was uncomfortable being nude in front of the camera. She does appear in the scene for the final film, wearing a flesh-colored bra. "I was terrified!" she admitted. "But Zach really helped me through it, and we're friends, so he made it very comfortable, and Tony made it very comfortable, and it was actually a really nice setting. And I'm happy I did it, because I can say I did my first sex scene, and I never have to do that again!" One review of the film noted that Bilson played the role with "surprising depth", although another critic described her role as "Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction as an airhead valley girl with a hot bod".
Bilson has stated that she prefers acting in feature films to appearing on television, and that she would like the kind of roles "that Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson are offered". She has specified that though she is "grateful" for the success of The O.C., she feels that the show "is over" and that she is "ready to move on" to film roles. In September 2006 unconfirmed reports surfaced that Bilson was linked to star in a film version of the comic book character Wonder Woman; Bilson has stated that these reports were untrue.
In late 2006 Bilson was cast in the role of Millie in Doug Liman's thriller Jumper, as the replacement for actress Teresa Palmer; the film was released on February 14, 2008. She also appeared in a two-episode arc on The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz's NBC comedy, Chuck, and in the film New York, I Love You, and appeared in the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother ("Girls Versus Suits") as Ted Mosby's latest love interest.[26] In September 2008 she started shooting the indie romantic film Waiting For Forever, directed by James Keach. In September 2009 Rachel appeared as a celebrity guest judge in the third episode of Project Runway (season 6). She stars in the upcoming indie film BBF & Baby next to Krysten Ritter and Kate Bosworth. The film began production in Los Angeles in October 2010.
It was announced in 2011 that Bilson was set to star in a new The CW series called Hart of Dixie created by The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz. Bilson and Schwartz, who already had worked together on The O.C, were previously set to work again together on the NBC show Ghost Angeles, but the supernatural romantic comedy was dropped.
Personal life
Bilson and Adam Brody, her co-star on The O.C., dated for three years, ending in 2006. She met Hayden Christensen on the set of Jumper in 2007 and became engaged in 2008. In mid-2010 the couple split up, but were dating again a few months later.
Bilson has been recognized by several media sources as being a "fashion junkie".She has described herself as having a "vintage" sense of style, and has noted Kate Moss and Diane Keaton as inspirations. Her clothes often have a "boho" feel to them. She approached DKNY Jeans in late 2007 with a view to design a clothing line with the popular fashion brand. Together they created Edie Rose. The collection was launched in September 2008. It consisted of mainly black and white separates with a splash of yellow that could easily work with an existing wardrobe. Her idea was to keep fashionable items accessible to young women by keeping the prices of each piece under $100. An advertising image was released in July 2008 which featured Bilson modelling her Edie Rose collection. Of her line, she said in an interview with Teen Vogue that "I wanted to keep it as separate as possible from Rachel Bilson the actress. I'm hoping people will appreciate it for the clothes, not the person behind them." Much of her fashion collection was lost when her home was burgled in May 2009. Before appearing in Maxim, Bilson had turned down requests to appear seminude in men's magazines, specifying that she feels that her body "is sacred" and "not there for the whole world to see". Bilson's fashions and sense of style made her the unwitting target of the Bling Ring, who burgled her home on several occasions.
Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American computer entrepreneur and inventor. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer.
In the late 1970s, Jobs — along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula and others — designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985,Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011.
In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1 percent until its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in 2006. Consequently Jobs became Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7 percent and a member of Disney's Board of Directors. On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO.
On October 5, 2011, Jobs died in California at age 56 of Pancreatic cancer.
Early years
Jobs was born in San Francisco and was adopted by the Armenian family of Paul and Clara Jobs (née Hagopian) of Mountain View, California. Paul and Clara later adopted a daughter, Patti. Jobs' biological parents – Abdulfattah John Jandali, a Syrian Muslim immigrant to the U.S , who later became a political science professor, and Joanne Schieble (later Simpson), an American graduate student of German ancestry who went on to become a speech language pathologist – eventually married. The marriage produced Jobs' biological sister, novelist Mona Simpson. Jandali claims that he didn't want to put Jobs up for adoption but that Simpson's parents did not approve of her marrying an Arab. Jandali was estranged from Jobs and never contacted him, nor did Steve ever contact his biological father.
Jobs attended Cupertino Junior High and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California. He frequented after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California, and was later hired there, working with Steve Wozniak as a summer employee. Following high school graduation in 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Although he dropped out after only one semester, he continued auditing classes at Reed, while sleeping on the floor in friends' rooms, returning Coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple. Jobs later said, "If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts."
In Autumn 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Wozniak. He took a job as a technician at Atari, a manufacturer of popular video games, with the primary intent of saving money for a spiritual retreat to India.
Jobs then traveled to India to visit the Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi Ashram with a Reed College friend (and, later, the first Apple employee), Daniel Kottke, in search of spiritual enlightenment. He came back a Buddhist with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing.During this time, Jobs experimented with psychedelics, calling his LSD experiences "one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life". He later said that people around him who did not share his countercultural roots could not fully relate to his thinking.
Jobs returned to his previous job at Atari and was given the task of creating a circuit board for the game Breakout. According to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, Atari had offered $100 for each chip that was eliminated in the machine. Jobs had little interest in or knowledge of circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the bonus evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Much to the amazement of Atari, Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50, a design so tight that it was impossible to reproduce on an assembly line. According to Wozniak, Jobs told Wozniak that Atari had given them only $700 (instead of the actual $5,000) and that Wozniak's share was thus $350.
Career
Founding of Apple Computer
In 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, with later funding from a then-semi-retired Intel product-marketing manager and engineer A.C. "Mike" Markkula Jr., founded Apple. Prior to co-founding Apple, Wozniak was an electronics hacker. Jobs and Wozniak had been friends for several years, having met in 1971, when their mutual friend, Bill Fernandez, introduced 21-year-old Wozniak to 16-year-old Jobs. Steve Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a computer and selling it. As Apple continued to expand, the company began looking for an experienced executive to help manage its expansion.
In 1978, Apple recruited Mike Scott from National Semiconductor to serve as CEO for what turned out to be several turbulent years. In 1983, Steve Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple's CEO, asking, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?"The following year, Apple aired a Super Bowl television commercial titled "1984". At Apple's annual shareholders meeting on January 24, 1984, an emotional Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience; Andy Hertzfeld described the scene as "pandemonium". The Macintosh became the first commercially successful small computer with a graphical user interface. The development of the Mac was started by Jef Raskin, and eventually taken over by Jobs.
While Jobs was a persuasive and charismatic director for Apple, some of his employees from that time had described him as an erratic and temperamental manager. An industry-wide sales slump towards the end of 1984 caused a deterioration in Jobs's working relationship with Sculley, and at the end of May 1985 – following an internal power struggle and an announcement of significant layoffs because of disappointing sales at the time – Sculley relieved Jobs of his duties as head of the Macintosh division. Jobs later claimed that being fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to him; "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."
NeXT Computer
After leaving Apple, Jobs founded NeXT Computer in 1985 with $7 million. A year later, Jobs was running out of money, and with no product on the horizon, he appealed for venture capital. Eventually, he attracted the attention of billionaire Ross Perot who invested heavily in the company. NeXT workstations were first released in 1990, priced at $9,999. Like the Apple Lisa, the NeXT workstation was technologically advanced, but was largely dismissed as cost-prohibitive by the educational sector for which it was designed.The NeXT workstation was known for its technical strengths, chief among them its object-oriented software development system. Jobs marketed NeXT products to the financial, scientific, and academic community, highlighting its innovative, experimental new technologies, such as the Mach kernel, the digital signal processor chip, and the built-in Ethernet port.
The revised, second-generation NeXTcube was released in 1990 also. Jobs touted it as the first "interpersonal" computer which would replace the personal computer. With its innovative NeXTMail multimedia email system, NeXTcube could share voice, image, graphics, and video in email for the first time. "Interpersonal computing is going to revolutionise human communications and groupwork", Jobs told reporters. Jobs ran NeXT with an obsession for aesthetic perfection, as evidenced by the development of and attention to NeXTcube's magnesium case. This put considerable strain on NeXT's hardware division, and in 1993, after having sold only 50,000 machines, NeXT transitioned fully to software development with the release of NeXTSTEP/Intel. The company reported its first profit of $1.03 million in 1994. In 1996, NeXT Software, Inc. released WebObjects, a framework for web application development. After NeXT was acquired by Apple Inc. in 1997, WebObjects was used to build and run the Apple Store, MobileMe services, and the iTunes Store.
Pixar and Disney
In 1986, Jobs bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division for the price of $10 million, $5 million of which was given to the company as capital.
The new company, which was originally based at Lucasfilm's Kerner Studios in San Rafael, California, but has since relocated to Emeryville, California, was initially intended to be a high-end graphics hardware developer. After years of unprofitability selling the Pixar Image Computer, it contracted with Disney to produce a number of computer-animated feature films, which Disney would co-finance and distribute.
The first film produced by the partnership, Toy Story, brought fame and critical acclaim to the studio when it was released in 1995. Over the next 15 years, under Pixar's creative chief John Lasseter, the company would produce the box-office hits A Bug's Life (1998); Toy Story 2 (1999); Monsters, Inc. (2001); Finding Nemo (2003); The Incredibles (2004); Cars (2006); Ratatouille (2007); WALL-E (2008); Up (2009); and Toy Story 3 (2010). Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up and Toy Story 3 each received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, an award introduced in 2001.
In the years 2003 and 2004, as Pixar's contract with Disney was running out, Jobs and Disney chief executive Michael Eisner tried but failed to negotiate a new partnership, and in early 2004 Jobs announced that Pixar would seek a new partner to distribute its films once its contract with Disney expired.
In October 2005, Bob Iger replaced Eisner at Disney, and Iger quickly worked to patch up relations with Jobs and Pixar. On January 24, 2006, Jobs and Iger announced that Disney had agreed to purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. Once the deal closed, Jobs became The Walt Disney Company's largest single shareholder with approximately 7% of the company's stock. Jobs's holdings in Disney far exceed those of Eisner, who holds 1.7%, and of Disney family member Roy E. Disney, who until his 2009 death held about 1% of the company's stock and whose criticisms of Eisner – especially that he soured Disney's relationship with Pixar – accelerated Eisner's ousting. Jobs joined the company's board of directors upon completion of the merger. Jobs also helped oversee Disney and Pixar's combined animation businesses with a seat on a special six person steering committee.
Return to Apple
In 1996, Apple announced that it would buy NeXT for $429 million. The deal was finalized in late 1996, bringing Jobs back to the company he had co-founded. Jobs became de facto chief after then-CEO Gil Amelio was ousted in July. He was formally named interim chief executive in September 1997. In March 1998, to concentrate Apple's efforts on returning to profitability, Jobs terminated a number of projects, such as Newton, Cyberdog, and OpenDoc. In the coming months, many employees developed a fear of encountering Jobs while riding in the elevator, "afraid that they might not have a job when the doors opened. The reality was that Jobs' summary executions were rare, but a handful of victims was enough to terrorize a whole company."Jobs also changed the licensing program for Macintosh clones, making it too costly for the manufacturers to continue making machines.
With the purchase of NeXT, much of the company's technology found its way into Apple products, most notably NeXTSTEP, which evolved into Mac OS X. Under Jobs's guidance the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac and other new products; since then, appealing designs and powerful branding have worked well for Apple. At the 2000 Macworld Expo, Jobs officially dropped the "interim" modifier from his title at Apple and became permanent CEO. Jobs quipped at the time that he would be using the title 'iCEO.'
The company subsequently branched out, introducing and improving upon other digital appliances. With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store, the company made forays into consumer electronics and music distribution. On June 29, 2007, Apple entered the cellular phone business with the introduction of the iPhone, a multi-touch display cell phone, which also included the features of an iPod and, with its own mobile browser, revolutionized the mobile browsing scene. While stimulating innovation, Jobs also reminded his employees that "real artists ship", by which he meant that delivering working products on time is as important as innovation and attractive design.
Jobs was both admired and criticized for his consummate skill at persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the "reality distortion field" and was particularly evident during his keynote speeches (colloquially known as "Stevenotes") at Macworld Expos and at Apple's own Worldwide Developers Conferences.
In 2005, Jobs responded to criticism of Apple's poor recycling programs for e-waste in the U.S. by lashing out at environmental and other advocates at Apple's Annual Meeting in Cupertino in April. However, a few weeks later, Apple announced it would take back iPods for free at its retail stores. The Computer TakeBack Campaign responded by flying a banner from a plane over the Stanford University graduation at which Jobs was the commencement speaker.The banner read "Steve — Don't be a mini-player recycle all e-waste". In 2006, he further expanded Apple's recycling programs to any U.S. customer who buys a new Mac. This program includes shipping and "environmentally friendly disposal" of their old systems.
Resignation
In August 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple, but remained at the company as chairman of the company's board. Hours after the announcement, Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares dropped 5% in after-hour trading. The relatively small drop, when considering the importance of Jobs to Apple, was associated with the fact that Jobs' health had been in the news for several years, and he was on medical leave since January 2011. It was believed, according to Forbes, that the impact would be felt in a negative way beyond Apple, including at The Walt Disney Company where Jobs served as director. In after-hour trading on the day of the announcement, Walt Disney Co. (DIS) shares dropped 1.5%.
Business life
Wealth
Even though Jobs earned only $1 a year as CEO of Apple, he held 5.426 million Apple shares, as well as 138 million shares in Disney (which he had received in exchange for Disney's acquisition of Pixar). Forbes estimated his net wealth at $8.3 billion in 2010, making him the 42nd wealthiest American.
Stock options backdating issue
In 2001, Steve Jobs was granted stock options in the amount of 7.5 million shares of Apple with an exercise price of $18.30. It was alleged that the options had been backdated, and that the exercise price should have been $21.10. It was further alleged that Jobs had thereby incurred taxable income of $20,000,000 that he did not report, and that Apple overstated its earnings by that same amount. As a result, Jobs potentially faced a number of criminal charges and civil penalties. The case is the subject of active criminal and civil government investigations, though an independent internal Apple investigation completed on December 29, 2006, found that Jobs was unaware of these issues and that the options granted to him were returned without being exercised in 2003. On July 1, 2008, a $7 billion class action suit was filed against several members of the Apple Board of Directors for revenue lost due to the alleged securities fraud.
Management style
Much was made of Jobs' aggressive and demanding personality. Fortune wrote that he was "considered one of Silicon Valley's leading egomaniacs". Commentaries on his temperamental style can be found in Mike Moritz's The Little Kingdom, one of the few authorized biographies of Jobs; The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, by Alan Deutschman; and iCon: Steve Jobs, by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon. In 1993, Jobs made Fortune's list of America's Toughest Bosses in regard to his leadership of NeXT. Cofounder Dan'l Lewin was quoted in Fortune as saying of that period, "The highs were unbelievable ... But the lows were unimaginable", to which Jobs's office replied that his personality had changed since then.
Jef Raskin, a former colleague, once said that Jobs "would have made an excellent king of France," alluding to Jobs' compelling and larger-than-life persona.
Jobs always aspired to position Apple and its products at the forefront of the information technology industry by foreseeing and setting trends, at least in innovation and style. He summed up that self-concept at the end of his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference and Expo in January 2007 by quoting ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky:
There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.
Floyd Norman said that at Pixar, Jobs was a "mature, mellow individual" and never interfered with the creative process of the filmmakers.
In 2005, Steve Jobs banned all books published by John Wiley & Sons from Apple Stores in response to their publishing an unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs. In its 2010 annual earnings report, Wiley said it had "closed a deal ... to make its titles available for the iPad."
Inventions
Jobs is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in 338 US patents or patent applications related to a range of technologies from actual computer and portable devices to user interfaces (including touch-based), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards and packages.
Philanthropy
Bloomberg accidentally published Jobs' obituary in 2008. Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek magazine opined that "Jobs isn't widely known for his association with philanthropic causes", compared to Bill Gates' efforts.After resuming control of Apple in 1997, Jobs eliminated all corporate philanthropy programs.
Personal life
Jobs married Laurene Powell, on March 18, 1991. Presiding over the wedding was the Zen Buddhist monk Kobun Chino Otogawa. The couple have a son and two daughters. Jobs also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs (born 1978), from his relationship with Bay Area painter Chrisann Brennan. She briefly raised their daughter on welfare when Jobs denied paternity by claiming he was sterile; he later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter.
In the unauthorized biography, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, author Alan Deutschman reports that Jobs once dated Joan Baez. Deutschman quotes Elizabeth Holmes, a friend of Jobs from his time at Reed College, as saying she "believed that Steve became the lover of Joan Baez in large measure because Baez had been the lover of Bob Dylan." In another unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon, the authors suggest that Jobs might have married Baez, but her age at the time (41) meant it was unlikely the couple could have children.
Jobs was also a fan of The Beatles. He referred to them on multiple occasions at Keynotes and also was interviewed on a showing of a Paul McCartney concert. When asked about his business model on 60 Minutes, he replied:
My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people.
In 1982, Jobs bought an apartment in The San Remo, an apartment building in New York City with a politically progressive reputation, where Demi Moore, Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin, and Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, daughter of Rita Hayworth, also had apartments. With the help of I.M. Pei, Jobs spent years renovating his apartment in the top two floors of the building's north tower, only to sell it almost two decades later to U2 singer Bono. Jobs had never moved in.
In 1984, Jobs purchased a 17,000-square-foot (1,600 m2), 14-bedroom Spanish Colonial mansion, designed by George Washington Smith, in Woodside, California (also known as Jackling House). Although it reportedly remained in an almost unfurnished state, Jobs lived in the mansion for almost ten years. According to reports, he kept an old BMW motorcycle in the living room, and let Bill Clinton use it in 1998. From the early 1990s, Jobs lived in a house in the Old Palo Alto neighborhood of Palo Alto. President Clinton dined with Jobs and 14 Silicon Valley CEOs there on August 7, 1996 on a meal catered by Greens Restaurant. Clinton returned the favor and Jobs, who was a Democratic donor, slept in the Lincoln bedroom of the White House.
Jobs allowed Jackling House to fall into a state of disrepair, planning to demolish the house and build a smaller home on the property; but he met with complaints from local preservationists over his plans. In June 2004, the Woodside Town Council gave Jobs approval to demolish the mansion, on the condition that he advertise the property for a year to see if someone would move it to another location and restore it. A number of people expressed interest, including several with experience in restoring old property, but no agreements to that effect were reached. Later that same year, a local preservationist group began seeking legal action to prevent demolition. In January 2007 Jobs was denied the right to demolish the property, by a court decision. The court decision was overturned on appeal in March 2010 and the mansion was demolished beginning February 2011.
Jobs usually wore a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by St. Croix, Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers. He was a pescetarian, one whose diet includes fish but no other meat.
His car was a silver 2008 Mercedes SL 55 AMG, which does not display its license plates.
Jobs had a public war of words with Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, starting[when?] when Jobs first criticized Dell for making "un-innovative beige boxes". On October 6, 1997, in a Gartner Symposium, when Michael Dell was asked what he would do if he owned then-troubled Apple Computer, he said "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." In 2006, Steve Jobs sent an email to all employees when Apple's market capitalization rose above Dell's. The email read:
Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve.
Health
In mid-2004, Jobs announced to his employees that he had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his pancreas. The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is usually very poor; Jobs, however, stated that he had a rare, far less aggressive type known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. Jobs resisted his doctors' recommendations for evidence-based medical intervention for nine months, instead consuming a special alternative medicine diet to thwart the disease, before eventually undergoing a pancreaticoduodenectomy (or "Whipple procedure") in July 2004 that appeared to successfully remove the tumor. Jobs apparently did not require nor receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy. During Jobs' absence, Timothy D. Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company.
In early August 2006, Jobs delivered the keynote for Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. His "thin, almost gaunt" appearance and unusually "listless" delivery, together with his choice to delegate significant portions of his keynote to other presenters, inspired a flurry of media and Internet speculation about his health. In contrast, according to an Ars Technica journal report, WWDC attendees who saw Jobs in person said he "looked fine". Following the keynote, an Apple spokesperson said that "Steve's health is robust."
2008 development
Two years later, similar concerns followed Jobs' 2008 WWDC keynote address. Apple officials stated Jobs was victim to a "common bug" and was taking antibiotics, while others surmised his cachectic appearance was due to the Whipple procedure. During a July conference call discussing Apple earnings, participants responded to repeated questions about Steve Jobs' health by insisting that it was a "private matter". Others, however, voiced the opinion that shareholders had a right to know more, given Jobs' hands-on approach to running his company. The New York Times published an article based on an off-the-record phone conversation with Jobs, noting that "while his health issues have amounted to a good deal more than 'a common bug,' they weren't life-threatening and he doesn't have a recurrence of cancer."
On August 28, 2008, Bloomberg mistakenly published a 2500-word obituary of Jobs in its corporate news service, containing blank spaces for his age and cause of death. (News carriers customarily stockpile up-to-date obituaries to facilitate news delivery in the event of a well-known figure's untimely death.) Although the error was promptly rectified, many news carriers and blogs reported on it, intensifying rumors concerning Jobs' health. Jobs responded at Apple's September 2008 Let's Rock keynote by quoting Mark Twain: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." At a subsequent media event, Jobs concluded his presentation with a slide reading "110/70", referring to his blood pressure, stating he would not address further questions about his health.
On December 16, 2008, Apple announced that marketing vice-president Phil Schiller would deliver the company's final keynote address at the Macworld Conference and Expo 2009, again reviving questions about Jobs' health. In a statement given on January 5, 2009 on Apple.com, Jobs said that he had been suffering from a "hormone imbalance" for several months. On January 14, 2009, in an internal Apple memo, Jobs wrote that in the previous week he had "learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought" and announced a six-month leave of absence until the end of June 2009 to allow him to better focus on his health. Tim Cook, who had previously acted as CEO in Jobs' 2004 absence, became acting CEO of Apple, with Jobs still involved with "major strategic decisions."
In April 2009, Jobs underwent a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tennessee. Jobs' prognosis was "excellent".
2011 medical leave and resignation
On January 17, 2011, a year and a half after Jobs returned from his liver transplant, Apple announced that he had been granted a medical leave of absence. Jobs announced his leave in a letter to employees, stating his decision was made "so he could focus on his health". As during his 2009 medical leave, Apple announced that Tim Cook would run day-to-day operations and that Jobs would continue to be involved in major strategic decisions at the company. Despite the leave, he made appearances at the iPad 2 launch event (March 2), the WWDC keynote introducing iCloud (June 6), and before the Cupertino city council (June 7).
Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO on August 24, 2011. In his resignation letter, Jobs wrote that he could "no longer meet [his] duties and expectations as Apple's CEO".
Death
On October 5, 2011, Jobs' family made a statement that he "died peacefully today".
Apple released a separate statement saying that Jobs had died. The statement read "We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."
Also on October 5, 2011, Apple's corporate website greeted visitors with a simple page showing Jobs's name and lifespan next to his greyscale portrait. Clicking on Jobs's image led to an obituary that read "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple." An email address was also posted for the public to share their memories, condolences, and thoughts.
Jobs was survived by his wife, Laurene, to whom he was married for 20 years; their three children; and a fourth child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, from a previous relationship.
Statements on Jobs' death
Statements reacting to Jobs' death were released by notable people including U.S. President Barack Obama, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and The Walt Disney Company's Bob Iger. Wired collected reactions and posted them in tribute on their homepage.
Excerpts from President Barack Obama's statement:
Steve was among the greatest of American innovators — brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it. By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
Bill Gates released a statement saying:
I'm truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs' death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work. Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives. The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.
The Walt Disney Company's CEO Bob Iger said in regards to Jobs:
Steve Jobs was a great friend as well as a trusted advisor. His legacy will extend far beyond the products he created or the businesses he built. It will be the millions of people he inspired, the lives he changed, and the culture he defined. Steve was such an "original," with a thoroughly creative, imaginative mind that defined an era. Despite all he accomplished, it feels like he was just getting started. With his passing the world has lost a rare original, Disney has lost a member of our family, and I have lost a great friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Laurene and his children during this difficult time.
American director Steven Spielberg said: "Steve Jobs was the greatest inventor since Thomas Edison. He put the world at our fingertips."
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen said: "We've lost a unique tech pioneer and auteur who knew how to make amazingly great products. Steve fought a long battle against tough odds in a very brave way. He kept doing amazing things in the face of all that adversity. As someone who has had his own medical challenges, I couldn't help but be encouraged by how he persevered."
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said: "People sometimes have goals in life. Steve Jobs exceeded every goal he set himself."
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has stated:
Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world.
Honors
Jobs was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 with Steve Wozniak (among the first people to ever receive the honor), and a Jefferson Award for Public Service in the category "Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under" (also known as the Samuel S. Beard Award) in 1987. On November 27, 2007, Jobs was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune Magazine. On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Jobs into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.
In August 2009, Jobs was selected as the most admired entrepreneur among teenagers in a survey by Junior Achievement. On November 5, 2009, Jobs was named the CEO of the decade by Fortune Magazine. In September 2011, Jobs was ranked No.17 on Forbes: The World's Most Powerful People. In December 2010, the Financial Times named Jobs its person of the year for 2010, ending its essay by stating, "In his autobiography, John Sculley, the former PepsiCo executive who once ran Apple, said this of the ambitions of the man he had pushed out: 'Apple was supposed to become a wonderful consumer products company. This was a lunatic plan. High-tech could not be designed and sold as a consumer product.' How wrong can you be".
In popular culture
Due to his youth, great wealth, and charisma, after Apple's founding Jobs became a symbol of his company and industry. When Time named the computer as the 1982 "Machine of the Year", it published a long profile of him as "the most famous maestro of the micro". In 2011 Jobs was voted Best Business Entrepreneur On Earth. Jobs was prominently featured in four productions about the history of the personal computing industry:
Triumph of the Nerds – a 1996 three-part documentary for PBS, about the rise of the home computer/personal computer.
Nerds 2.0.1 – a 1998 three-part documentary for PBS, (and sequel to Triumph of the Nerds) which chronicles the development of the Internet.
Pirates of Silicon Valley – a 1999 docudrama which chronicles the rise of Apple and Microsoft. He was portrayed by Noah Wyle.
The Machine that Changed the World (1992) – Part 3 of this 5 part documentary, called The Paperback Computer, prominently featured Jobs and his role in the early days of Apple.
After his resignation as Apple's CEO, Jobs was characterized as the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford of his time.
Mark Indelicato (born July 16, 1994) is an American actor and singer best known for his role in the ABC comedy series Ugly Betty, as Justin Suarez, the fashion-obsessed nephew of series protagonist Betty Suarez.
Life and career Indelicato was born in Philadelphia. He is of three-quarters Italian and one-quarter Puerto Rican descent. He was trained at The Actors Center in that city, and is a student at Dupree School of Music in Linwood, New Jersey. He began acting at age eight at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theater, and has appeared in national television commercials, the CBS television series Hack, Chappelle's Show, and was a regular cast member of Ugly Betty on ABC. He also attended the Professional Performing Arts School, before moving back to Los Angeles. On his Twitter page, Indelicato stated "I'm officially a pescetarian." Indelicato was featured in an episode of the Disney Channel Original Series The Suite Life of Zack and Cody in a special High School Musical-themed episode.
On October 27, 2008, Indelicato performed the part of Boq for "Wicked Day"'s 5th Anniversary Concert on Broadway in New York City as well. He performed again at the Gershwin Theatre on February 28, 2009 for the "Defying Inequality" benefit. Ugly Betty was canceled due to low ratings on January 27, 2010, and its final episode of Ugly Betty aired April 14, 2010. He also starred as the Artful Dodger in the CLO production of Oliver in Pittsburgh, PA.
Filmography
Madison High (TBA) as Harvey Flynn Hot in Cleveland (2010) as Zack ("The Play's The Thing") Ugly Betty (2006–2010) as Justin Suarez MTV Cribs (2009 Season 16, Episode 12) The Suite Life Of Zack and Cody (2007) as Antonio (Lip Synchin' in the Rain) Chappelle's Show (2004) as Kneehigh Park Kid Hack (2003) as Berge Disposal (2003) as Kid on Bike
Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963) is an American pop-R&B recording artist, producer, dancer, model, actress and showgirl. In 1983, she became the first woman of African-American descent to be crowned Miss America, but a scandal caused her to relinquish her title early. Williams rebounded by launching a career as an entertainer, earning multiple Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award nominations.
Williams released her debut album The Right Stuff in 1988, which spawned the hits "The Right Stuff" , a #1 on Hot Dance Songs, and "Dreamin'" a #1 on R&B and #8 on Billboard Hot 100. Her second studio album The Comfort Zone in 1991 topped the Billboard R&B Album Chart, which spawned the Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "Save the Best for Last".
In 1994 she debuted on Broadway in the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman. In 1995 she recorded "Colors of the Wind", the Oscar-winner for Best Original Song from the Disney animated feature film Pocahontas , which reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Williams's first film acting role was as the star of the feature film Eraser in 1996. She also starred in the movies Soul Food, Dance with Me, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, Shaft and Johnson Family Vacation.
From 2006 to 2010 she played the role of self-absorbed diva and former supermodel Wilhelmina Slater in the ABC comedy series Ugly Betty, for which she received three Emmy Awards nominations. In 2009, Williams released her eighth studio album, The Real Thing. In 2010 she joined the ensemble cast of the series Desperate Housewives as spoiled rich woman Renee Perry.
Along with Mario Frangoulis, she was the main host of the opening ceremony of the 2011 Special Olympics, held in Athens.
Early life
Williams was born in Millwood, New York, the daughter of music teachers Helen L. (née Tinch) and Milton Augustine Williams, Jr.According to DNA tests, Vanessa is of African American, Welsh, and Native American descent. Williams and her younger brother Chris, who is also an actor, grew up in Millwood, a predominantly white middle-class suburban area. Prophetically, her parents put "Here she is: Miss America" on her birth announcement.
Education
Williams studied piano and French horn growing up, but was most interested in singing and songwriting. She received a scholarship and attended Syracuse University as a Theatre Arts major from 1981 to 1983. She interrupted her education at Syracuse during her sophomore year to fulfill her duties as Miss America, and subsequently left the university to focus on her entertainment career. Twenty-five years later, she graduated from Syracuse by earning her remaining college credits through her life experience. Williams delivered the convocation address on May 10, 2008, to 480 other students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. She stated:
It's been 25 years since I was a student here. It just brought home what my message was, which is cherish the moment; these days are irreplaceable and are the beginning of the rest of your life.
Pageants and Miss America title
Williams competed in the Miss Syracuse (University) beauty pageant when a campus musical she was in was canceled in 1983. After winning the Miss Syracuse title, Williams won the Miss New York crown in 1983, and went to compete for the Miss America title at the national pageant in Atlantic City. Prior to the final night of competition, Williams won both Preliminary competitions - Talent and Swimsuit - earlier in the week (note: each day's Preliminary competitions have winners announced; therefore there can be as many as six "Prelim" winners; three each for Talent and Swimsuit. To win a "prelim" in both is a strong precursor to success in the finals.) She was crowned Miss America 1984 on September 17, 1983, becoming the first African American to win the title.
Williams' reign as Miss America was not without its challenges and controversies. For the first time in pageant history, a reigning Miss America was the target of death threats and hate mail.
Ten months into her reign as Miss America, she received an anonymous phone call stating that nude photos of her taken before her pageant days had surfaced. Williams believed the photographs were private and had been destroyed; she claims she never signed a release permitting the photos to be used.
The genesis of the photos dated back to 1982, when she worked as an assistant and makeup artist for Mount Kisco, New York photographer Tom Chiapel. According to Williams, Chiapel advised her that he wanted to try a "new concept of silhouettes with two models". He photographed Williams and another woman in several nude poses, including simulated lesbian sex.
Hugh Hefner, the publisher of Playboy, was initially offered the photos, but turned them down. Later, Hefner would explain why in People Weekly, "Vanessa Williams is a beautiful woman. There was never any question of our interest in the photos. But they clearly weren't authorized and because they would be the source of considerable embarrassment to her, we decided not to publish them. We were also mindful that she was the first black Miss America." Days later, Bob Guccione, the publisher of Penthouse, announced that his magazine would publish the photos in their September 1984 issue, and paid Chiapel for the rights to them without Williams' consent. According to the PBS documentary Miss America, Williams' issue of Penthouse would ultimately bring Guccione a $14 million windfall.
After days of media frenzy and sponsors threatening to pull out of the upcoming 1985 pageant, Williams felt pressured by Miss America Pageant officials to resign, and did so in a press conference on July 23, 1984. The title subsequently went to the first runner-up, Suzette Charles, also an African American. In early September 1984, Williams filed a $500 million lawsuit against Chiapel and Guccione.
Although she resigned from fulfilling the duties of a current Miss America, Williams was allowed to keep the bejeweled crown and scholarship money and is officially recognized by the Miss America Organization as "Miss America 1984"; Charles is recognized as "Miss America 1984b".
Music career
Williams released her debut album, The Right Stuff in 1988. The first single, "The Right Stuff", found success on the R&B chart, while the second single "He's Got the Look" found similar success on the same chart. The third single, "Dreamin'", was a pop hit, becoming Williams' first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #8, and her first number one single on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The album reached gold status in the U.S. and earned her three Grammy Award nominations, including one for Best New Artist.
Her second album The Comfort Zone became the biggest success in her music career. The lead single "Running Back to You" reached top twenty on the Hot 100, and the top position of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart on October 5, 1991. Other singles included "The Comfort Zone" (#2 R&B), "Just for Tonight" (#26 Pop), a cover of The Isley Brothers' "Work to Do" (#3 R&B), and the club-only hit "Freedom Dance (Get Free!)." The most successful single from the album, as well as her biggest hit to date, is "Save the Best for Last". It reached #1 in the United States, where it remained for five weeks, as well as #1 in Australia, the Netherlands, and Canada, and was in the top 5 in Japan, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The album sold 2.2 million copies in the U.S. at its time of release and has since been certified triple platinum in the United States by the RIAA, gold in Canada by the CRIA, and platinum in the United Kingdom by the BPI. The Comfort Zone earned Williams five Grammy Award nominations.
The Sweetest Days, her third album, was released in 1994 to highly-favorable reviews. The album saw Williams branch out and sample other styles of music that included jazz, hip hop, rock, and Latin-themed recordings such as "Betcha Never" and "You Can't Run", both written and produced by Babyface. Other singles from the album included the adult-contemporary and dance hit "The Way That You Love" and the title track "The Sweetest Days". The album was certified platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA and earned her two Grammy Award nominations.
Other releases include two Christmas albums, Star Bright, released in 1996, and Silver & Gold in 2004; Next in 1997, and Everlasting Love in 2005, along with a greatest-hits compilation released in 1998, and a host of other compilations released over the years.
Notable chart performances from subsequent albums, motion picture and television soundtracks have included the songs "Love Is", which was a duet with Brian McKnight, the Golden Globe- and Academy Award-winning "Colors of the Wind", "Where Do We Go from Here?", and "Oh How the Years Go By". In total, Williams has sold more than six million records and has received 15 Grammy Award nominations.
In May 2009 she performed two concerts at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City to sold out crowds.
On June 2, 2009, she released her 8th studio album on Concord Records titled The Real Thing. It features songs written and/or produced by Babyface, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Bebel Gilberto, and Rex Rideout. Williams described the album as "a hybrid of samba, bossa nova, some salsa and also some pop and R&B". The title song "The Real Thing", the fourth single released from the album, peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.
Williams announced plans for a new concert tour beginning in May 2011.
Acting career
Theatrical roles
Williams parlayed her ascendant music career into a theatrical role when she was cast in the Broadway production of Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1994. She was also featured in the Tony-nominated and Drama Desk Award nominated performance as the Witch in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods in a revival of the show in 2002, which included songs revised for her.
Other notable theatrical roles include her performances in Carmen Jones at the Kennedy Center, the off-Broadway productions of One Man Band and Checkmates, and the New York City Center's Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert, St. Louis Woman.
In 2010, Williams starred in a new Broadway musical revue along with Barbara Cook, Tom Wopat and Leslie Kritzer entitled, Sondheim on Sondheim, a look at Stephen Sondheim through his music, film and videotaped interviews. Directed by James Lapine, Sondheim ran from March 19 to June 13 at Studio 54 in New York City.
Feature film roles
Williams has appeared in several feature films. Her most prominent role was in the 1997 film Soul Food, for which she won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture. Williams appeared in the 1991 cult classic film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. She also co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Eraser and opposite Chayanne in Dance with Me.
In 2007, Williams returned to the big screen starring in two independent motion pictures. The first being My Brother, for which she won Best Actress honors at the Harlem International Film Festival, the African-American Women in Cinema Film Festival and at the Santa Barbara African Heritage Film Festival, and the second being And Then Came Love. In 2009, she starred alongside Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana: The Movie.
Television
Williams' first television appearance was on a 1984 episode of The Love Boat, playing herself. She subsequently made guest appearances on a number of shows, including T.J. Hooker, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, LateLine, MADtv, Ally McBeal and Boomtown.
Her appearances in television movies and miniseries include Perry Mason: The Case of the Silenced Singer and The Jacksons: An American Dream as Suzanne de Passe. In 1995, Williams starred as Rose Alvares in a television version of Bye Bye Birdie, a Broadway musical from the 1950s. She played the nymph Calypso in the 1997 Hallmark Entertainment miniseries The Odyssey, starring Armand Assante. She appeared as Ebony Scrooge the Ebenezer Scrooge character in an update of Charles Dickens' story A Christmas Carol called A Diva's Christmas Carol. In 2001, Williams starred in the Lifetime cable movie about the life of Henriette DeLille, The Courage to Love. In 2003, Williams read the narrative of Tempie Herndon Durham from the WPA slave narratives in the HBO documentary Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. In early 2006 she starred in the short lived UPN drama South Beach.
In 2007, Williams received considerable media attention for her comic/villainess role as former model/magazine creative director turned editor-in-chief Wilhelmina Slater in the ABC comedy series Ugly Betty. Her performance on the series resulted in a nomination for outstanding supporting actress at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. She also provides the voice for the main character in the PBS Kids version of Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies. In 2008 and 2009, she was again nominated for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for Ugly Betty.
Williams joined the cast of Desperate Housewives for the seventh season. Williams portrays Renee Perry, an old college friend/rival of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), as the new vixen on Wisteria Lane, moving into the late Edie Britt's old house.
Other media appearances
Williams has appeared in advertisements for RadioShack. She is a spokesmodel for Proactiv Solution, and was the first African-American spokesmodel for L'Oréal cosmetics in the late 1990s. Her other media appearances include endorsing Crest Rejuvenating Effects Toothpaste, endorsing Disneyland and Universal Studios in a VisitCalifornia advertisement for British and Irish television in 2008, and hosting the 6th Annual 2008 TV Land Awards show.
She appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2000 as a contestant, and once again on 10 August 2009 as a celebrity guest during the show's 10th anniversary prime-time special editions, winning $50,000 for her charity.
Name conflict
Williams is most often referenced and publicly recognized simply as "Vanessa Williams". There is, however, occasional confusion with similarly named actress Vanessa A. Williams, who is just two months younger.
It has been reported that Williams first became aware of Vanessa A. in the 1980s when her New York University registrar told her that another, similarly aged student with the same name and from the same state had applied. When Williams appeared as Miss America in a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Vanessa A. accidentally received her check for the appearance, which she returned.
In the area of acting, the two ran into name conflict when Screen Actors Guild rules prohibited duplicate stage naming. Vanessa A. had registered the name "Vanessa Williams" first, so as a compromise, Williams was occasionally credited as "Vanessa L. Williams" in acting credits. To compound the confusion, both actresses starred in versions of the drama Soul Food (Williams in the film version, and Vanessa A. in its TV series adaptation). The Screen Actors Guild eventually took the issue to arbitration and decided that both actresses could use the professional name "Vanessa Williams". Today, Williams' prominence has led to a more prevailing association with the stage name "Vanessa Williams", so much so that it has widely become solely attributable to her. She is credited as such in the American television series Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. Williams is also the owner of the internet domain name vanessawilliams.com. Today, the younger Vanessa Williams is most often publicly and professionally referenced as "Vanessa A. Williams".
Personal life
She has been married twice. Her first marriage, to her then-manager Ramon Hervey II, was from 1987 to 1997. They have three children, Melanie born in 1987, Jillian - 1989, and Devin - 1993.
Her second marriage was to former NBA basketball player Rick Fox. They married in September 1999 and have a daughter, Sasha, born in May 2000. After The National Enquirer published pictures of Fox kissing and hugging another woman in mid-2004, Fox's representative announced that the couple had been "headed toward divorce" for over a year. A few months later in August 2004, Fox filed for divorce. Williams is currently single and resides in Chappaqua, New York. The two remain friendly. Fox acted alongside Williams in two episodes during the second season of Ugly Betty, playing the role of Dwayne, Wilhelmina's sexy bodyguard.
During an interview with Barbara Walters which aired on February 24, 2008, Williams not only admitted to using Botox but also called it "a miracle drug, no cutting, nothing, and I love it. But I also want to act so I don't do it to freeze my face."
Williams is Roman Catholic.
Discography
1988: The Right Stuff
1991: The Comfort Zone
1994: The Sweetest Days
1996: Star Bright
1997: Next
2004: Silver & Gold
2005: Everlasting Love
2009: The Real Thing
Filmography
Motion pictures
1987 The Pick-Up Artist Rae, Girl with Dog
1988 Under the Gun Samantha Richards
1991 Another You Gloria Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor's final film pairing.
1991 Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man Lulu Daniels
1996 Eraser Dr. Lee Cullen Nominated for Blockbuster Entertainment Award
1997 Hoodlum Francine Hughes
1997 Soul Food Teri Won Image Award, Nominated for American Black Film Festival Black Film Award
1998 Dance with Me Ruby Sinclair Nominated for ALMA Award, also starring Chayanne as Rafael Infante
1999 The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland Queen of Trash
1999 Light It Up Detective Audrey McDonald Nominated for Image Award
2000 Shaft Carmen Vasquez Nominated for Image Award
2004 Johnson Family Vacation Dorothy Johnson Nominated for BET Award for Comedy
2007 My Brother L'Tisha Morton Won Best Actress honors at the Harlem International Film Festival, the African-American Women in Cinema Film Festival and at the Santa Barbara African Heritage Film Festival
2007 And Then Came Love Julie Davidson Co-star Eartha Kitt's final film
2009 Hannah Montana: The Movie Vita (Hannah's Agent)
Television
1989 Full Exposure: The Sex Tapes Scandal Valantine
1990 The Kid Who Loved Christmas Lynette
1990 Perry Mason and The Case of the Silenced Singer Terri Knight
1992 The Jacksons - An American Dream Suzanne de Passe
1992 Stompin´ at the Savoy Pauline
1995 Nothing Lasts Forever Kat Hunter
1995 Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child - Beauty and the Beast Animated; Voice
1995 Bye Bye Birdie Rose Alvarez
1997 The Odyssey Calypso
1998 FutureSport Alex Torres
2000 The Courage To Love Henriette Delille
2000 Don Quixote Dulcinea/Aldonza
2000 A Diva´s Christmas Carol Ebony Scrooge
2001 WW3 M.J. Blake
2001 Santa Baby Alicia Animated; Voice
2002 Keep the Faith, Baby Hazel Scott
2003 Unchained Memories Reader
2006 South Beach Elizabeth Bauer One Season
2006–2010 Ugly Betty Wilhelmina Slater Main character
2007–present Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies Mama Animated; Voice
2010–present Desperate Housewives Renée Perry Season 7
Guest appearances
1984 Love Boat
1984 Partners in Crime
1986 T.J. Hooker
1992 The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
1996 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
1999 LateLine
1999 L.A. Doctors
2002 Ally McBeal
2003 Boomtown
2011 RuPaul's Drag Race
Plays and musicals
1985 One Man Band
1989 Checkmates
1994–1995 Kiss of the Spider Woman
1998 St. Louis Woman
2000 A Diva's Christmas Carol
2002 Carmen Jones
2002 Into the Woods
2010 Sondheim on Sondheim
Host
1994 The Essence Awards
1994 Carnegie Hall Salutes the Jazz Masters: Verve Records at 50
1998 29th NAACP Image Awards
2002 It's Black Entertainment
2008 The 6th Annual TV Land Awards
2009 The 36th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards
2009 Dreams Come True: A Celebration of Disney Animation
Awards and accolades
1989 Best New Artist "The Right Stuff" Nominated
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance "The Right Stuff" Nominated
1990 Best Female R&B Vocal Performance "Dreamin'" Nominated
1992 Best Female R&B Vocal Performance "Runnin' Back to You" Nominated
1993 Record of the Year Save the Best for Last Nominated
Song of the Year "Save the Best for Last" Nominated
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance "Save the Best for Last" Nominated
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance "The Comfort Zone" Nominated
Best Group Pop Vocal Performance "Love Is" Nominated
1995 Best Female Pop Vocal Performance "Colors Of The Wind" Nominated
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance "The Way That You Love" Nominated
Best R&B Song "You Can't Run" Nominated
Best Musical Show Album Kiss Of The Spider Woman Nominated - as part of cast
1997 Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album Star Bright Nominated
2002 Best Musical Show Album Into The Woods Nominated - as part of cast
2010 Best Musical Show Album Sondheim on Sondheim Nominated - as part of cast
Other awards/nominations
1983 Miss America N/A N/A Winner
1989 NAACP Image Award Outstanding New Artist "The Right Stuff" Winner
1993 American Music Award Favorite Female Artist - Pop / Rock "The Comfort Zone" Nominated
Favorite Female Artist - Soul / R&B "The Comfort Zone" Nominated
Favorite Album - Adult Contemporary "The Comfort Zone" Nominated
MTV Video Music Awards Best Female Video "Save the Best for Last" Nominated
Best Cinematography "Runnin' Back To You" Nominated
Billboard Music Award No. 1 Adult Contemporary Single "Love Is" Winner
Playboy Magazine Best Female R&B Vocalist. "The Comfort Zone" Winner
1994 Theatre World Award Best Debut Performance "Kiss Of The Spider Woman" Winner
NAACP Image Award Outstanding Female Artist "The Sweetest Days" Winner
Soul Train Music Award[30] Best R&B Single by Group, Band or Duo "Love Is" Nominated
1995 Academy Award Best Original Song "Colors Of The Wind" Winner
1996 Soul Train Music Award "Lady of Soul" Award Career Achievement Winner
NAACP Image Award Outstanding Female Artist "Where Do We Go From Here" Nominated
Blockbuster Entertainment Award Favorite Actress - Action Eraser Nominated
Lena Horne award For Outstanding Artistic Contribution
to the Entertainment Winner
1997 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture Soul Food Winner
Outstanding Album "Next" Nominated
Outstanding Actress in Mini-Series The Odyssey Nominated
Online Television Academy Awards Best Guest Actress - Syndicated Series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Nominated
Black Film Awards Best Actress - Motion Picture Soul Food Nominated
1999 ALMA Award Best Song from A Movie "You Are My Home" Nominated
2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Award Favorite Actress - Action Shaft Nominated
NAACP Image Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Light It Up Nominated
2001 Shaft Nominated
Drama League Award Most Distinguished Performance Into the Woods Nominated
2002 Satellite Awards Best Actress - Miniseries or Movie Keep the Faith, Baby Winner
NAACP Image Award Outstanding Actress in Mini-Series Nominated
Black Reel Awards Best Actress Nominated
Tony Award Best Performance By a Leading Actress In a Musical Into The Woods Nominated
2004 BET Comedy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Box Office Movie Johnson Family Vacation Nominated
2006 Satellite Awards Best Supporting Actress in a Series Ugly Betty Nominated
2007 Screen Actors Guild Awards Best Performance - Ensemble in a Comedy Series Nominated
NAACP Image Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Winner
Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Nominated
Teen Choice Awards Choice TV Villain Winner
Hollywood Walk of Fame Recording Career Achievement Awarded
2008 Human Rights Campaign "Ally For Equality" Award Humanitarian Work Awarded
Jacobi Children's Arts Award "Humanitarian/Charitable" Awarded
Satellite Awards Best Supporting Actress in a Series Ugly Betty Winner
Screen Actors Guild Awards Best Performance - Ensemble in a Comedy Series Nominated
Best Performance - Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Nominated
NAACP Image Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Winner
Teen Choice Awards Choice TV Villain Nominated
Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Nominated
2009 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Nominated
Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies Nominated
Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Ugly Betty Nominated
Satellite Awards Best Supporting Actress in a Series Nominated
2010 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Nominated
Outstanding Jazz Album The Real Thing Nominated
Mary Pickford Award For Outstanding Artistic Contribution to the Entertainment Industry Winner
2011 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series Desperate Housewives Winner
Yaya DaCosta (born Camara DaCosta Johnson; November 15, 1982) is an American actress and fashion model. She was the runner-up in Cycle 3 of America's Next Top Model.
Early life
DaCosta was born on November 15, 1982 in Harlem, New York. She comes from a multiethnic background and in addition to English can speak Portuguese, French, Spanish, and conversational Japanese. She is of Brazilian, West African, Native American/Cherokee and Irish heritage. She majored in African Studies and International Relations at Brown University.
Career
After finishing second on Cycle 3 of America's Next Top Model, DaCosta went on to have a successful career. DaCosta only appeared once in the bottom two during the competition. She has appeared in advertisements for Garnier Fructis, Lincoln Townhouse, Oil of Olay, Radioshack, Seda, Sephora and Dr. Scholl's.
DaCosta began acting in 2005 after having a guest role on an episode of the television show Eve. She then starred opposite Rob Brown, Antonio Banderas and Alfre Woodard in the 2006 dance film Take the Lead. Dacosta had supporting roles in the independent films Honeydripper (2007) and The Messenger (2009).
She appeared on All My Children in 2008 as Cassandra Foster, the daughter of Angie Hubbard. According to an interview with All My Children's new head writer, Charles Pratt, Jr., DaCosta exited the role some time in August 2008, less than four months after joining the show, to join the cast of "The First Breeze of Summer" on Broadway. "The First Breeze of Summer" was presented from 2008–2009 by the historic Negro Ensemble Company.
In 2009 she portrayed Nico Slater, the daughter of Wilhelmina Slater on the 4th season of the ABC series, Ugly Betty.
DaCosta had a supporting role in the film The Kids Are All Right, which starred Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson and was nominated for Best Picture at the 83rd Academy Awards. The film premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, where distribution rights were purchased. Also that year, she had a supporting role in the film Tron: Legacy. Due to featuring in those highly promoted movies, she has appeared in American Vogue, L'Officiel and on the cover of W.
Filmography
2006 Take the Lead LaRhette
2007 Honeydripper China Doll
2008 Racing for Time Vanessa
2009 The Messenger Monica Washington
2010 The Kids Are All Right Tanya
2010 Tron: Legacy Siren
2011 In Time Greta
2012 (in production) Whole Lotta Sole Sophie
Television
2005 Eve Ms.Jenkins 1 episode
2008 All My Children Cassandra Foster 44 episodes
2009 Ugly Betty Nico Slater 7 episodes
2009 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Audrina 1 episode
2010 Mercy Brooke Sullivan 1 episode
2010 Army Wives Amber 1 episode
2011 Body of Proof Holly Bennett 1 episode
Music videos
2006 Pullin' Me Back Chingy
2007 Roc Boys Jay-Z
2011 Good Man Raphael Saadiq
Born Camara DaCosta Johnson
November 15, 1982 (age 28)
Harlem, New York, U.S.
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Hair color Black
Eye color Brown
Measurements 32-23-35 (US)
Dress size 2 (US)
Agency Ford Models
The Gersh Agency
Models 1 Agency
Today, 13 September, 15 years after the death of Tupac.
This is the best rap artist of all ages!
Tupac is alive in our hearts
He is amazing!
R.I.P ♥
Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), known by his stage names 2Pac (or simply Pac) and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007,[1] making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time.
In addition to his career as a rap artist, he was also an actor. The themes of most of Tupac's songs are the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, other social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East Coast – West Coast hip hop rivalry. Shakur began his career as a roadie and backup dancer for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground.
On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in the Las Vegas metropolitan area of Nevada. He was taken to the University Medical Center, where he died 6 days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.
Early life
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. He was named after Túpac Amaru II, a Peruvian revolutionary who led an indigenous uprising against Spain and was subsequently executed.
His mother, Afeni Shakur, and his father, Billy Garland, were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s; he was born just one month after his mother's acquittal on more than 150 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York Panther 21 court case.
Although unconfirmed by the Shakur family, several sources (including the official coroner's report) list his birth name as "Lesane Parish Crooks". This name was supposedly entered on the birth certificate because Afeni feared her enemies would attack her son, and disguised his true identity using a different last name. She changed it later, following her separation from Garland and marriage to Mutulu Shakur.
Struggle and incarceration surrounded Shakur from an early age. His godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery, although his sentence was later overturned. His stepfather, Mutulu, spent four years at large on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982. Mutulu was wanted in part for having helped his sister Assata Shakur (also known as Joanne Chesimard) to escape from a penitentiary in New Jersey, where she had been incarcerated for shooting a state trooper to death in 1973. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and imprisoned for the robbery of a Brinks armored truck in which two police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur had a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior, and an older stepbrother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, who appeared on many of his recordings.
At the age of twelve, Shakur enrolled in Harlem's 127th Street Repertory Ensemble and was cast as the Travis Younger character in the play A Raisin in the Sun, which was performed at the Apollo Theater. In 1986, the family relocated to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his second year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays, and in the role of the Mouse King in The Nutcracker.Shakur, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana "Mouse" Smith, as his beatbox, won most of the many rap competitions that he participated in and was considered to be the best rapper in his school. He was remembered as one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix in with all crowds. He developed a close friendship with a young Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith) that lasted until his death. In the documentary Tupac: Resurrection, Shakur says, "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life," and Pinkett Smith calls him "one of my best friends. He was like a brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we had, you only get that once in a lifetime." A poem written by Shakur titled "Jada" appears in his book, The Rose That Grew From Concrete, which also includes a poem dedicated to Pinkett Smith called "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes". During his time in art school, Shakur began dating the daughter of the director of the Baltimore Communist Party USA.
In June 1988, Shakur and his family moved to Marin City, California, where he attended Tamalpais High School. He began attending the poetry classes of Leila Steinberg in 1989. That same year, Steinberg organized a concert with a former group of Shakur's, Strictly Dope; the concert led to him being signed with Atron Gregory who set him up as a roadie and backup dancer with the young rap group Digital Underground in 1990.
Career
Rapping career
Shakur's professional entertainment career began in the early 1990s, when he debuted his rapping skills in a vocal turn in Digital Underground's "Same Song" from the soundtrack to the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble and also appeared with the group in the film of the same name. The song was later released as the lead song of the Digital Underground EP This is an EP Release, the follow-up to their debut hit album Sex Packets. Shakur appeared in the accompanying music video. After his rap debut, he performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons of the P. Later, he released his first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now.
2Pacalypse Now did not do as well on the charts as future albums, spawning no top ten hits. His second record, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in 1993.
Thug Life
In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a number of his friends, including Big Syke, Macadoshis, his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, and Rated R. The group released their only album Thug Life: Volume 1 on September 26, 1994, which went gold. The album featured the single "Pour Out a Little Liquor" produced by Johnny "J" Jackson, who went on to produce a large part of Shakur's album All Eyez on Me. The group usually performed their concerts without Shakur.
Influences Shakur's music and philosophy is rooted in many American, African-American, and World entities, including the Black Panther Party, Black nationalism, egalitarianism, and liberty. His debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, revealed the socially conscious side of Shakur. On this album, Shakur attacked social injustice, poverty and police brutality on songs "Brenda's Got a Baby", "Trapped" and "Part Time Mutha". His style on this album was highly influenced by the social consciousness and Afrocentrism pervading hip hop in the late 1980s and early 1990s. On this initial release, Shakur helped extend the success of such rap groups as Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, X-Clan, and Grandmaster Flash, as he became one of the first major socially conscious rappers from the West Coast.
On his second record, Shakur continued to rap about the social ills facing African-Americans, with songs like "The Streetz R Deathrow" and "Last Wordz". He also showed his compassionate side with the anthem "Keep Ya Head Up", while simultaneously putting his legendary aggressiveness on display with the title track from the album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. he added a salute to his former group Digital Underground by including them on the playful track "I Get Around". Throughout his career, an increasingly aggressive attitude can be seen pervading Shakur's subsequent albums.
The contradictory themes of social inequality and injustice, unbridled aggression, compassion, playfulness, and hope all continued to shape Shakur's work, as witnessed with the release of his incendiary 1995 album Me Against the World. In 1996, Shakur released All Eyez on Me. Many of these tracks are considered by many critics to be classics, including "Ambitionz Az a Ridah", "I Ain't Mad at Cha", "California Love", "Life Goes On" and "Picture Me Rollin'".; All Eyez on Me was a change of style from his earlier works. While still containing socially conscious songs and themes, Shakur's album was heavily influenced by party tracks and tended to have a more "feel good" vibe than his first albums. Shakur described it as a celebration of life, and the record was critically and commercially successful.
Personal life
Shakur was a voracious reader. He was inspired by a wide variety of writers, including William Shakespeare, Niccolò Machiavelli, Donald Goines, Sun Tzu, Kurt Vonnegut, Mikhail Bakunin, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Khalil Gibran. In his book, Dyson describes the experience of visiting the home of Shakur's friend and promoter Leila Steinberg to find "the sea of books" once owned by Shakur.
Shakur never professed following a particular religion, but his lyrics in singles such as 'Only God Can Judge Me' and poems such as The Rose That Grew from Concrete suggests he believed in God. This means many analysts currently describe him as a deist. He believed in Karma, but rejected a literal afterlife and organized religion.
Legal issues
Even as he garnered attention as a rapper and actor, Shakur gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law:
In October 1991, he filed a $10 million civil suit against the law enforcement of the Oakland Police Department, alleging they brutally beat him for jaywalking.
In 1992, a Texas state trooper was killed by a teenager who was listening to 2Pacalypse Now which included songs about killing police. This caused a swirl of media controversy. Dan Quayle, the Vice President of the United States at the time, demanded that the album be withdrawn from music stores and media across the country; Interscope refused. Shakur claimed his first album was aimed at the problems facing young black males, but it was criticized for its graphic language and images of violence by and against law enforcement. Quayle publicly denounced the album as having "no place in our society."
On August 22, 1992, in Marin City, California, Shakur rapped at an outdoor festival, and stayed for an hour signing autographs and pictures. Some earlier negative remarks made by Shakur about Marin City had caught up and when arguments started, voices got loud; he pulled a Colt Mustang, cocked it, fumbled and it fell. Someone picked up the gun and a bullet discharged. Though nobody in the crowd was shot, about 100 yards away, 6-year-old Qa'id Walker-Teal rode a bicycle at a schoolyard and was hit in the forehead with a bullet that killed him. (Some sources reported that the child was the victim of a stray bullet in a shootout between Shakur's entourage and a rival group.) Shakur and Mopreme left in their car and were stopped by an angry mob, by chance, in front of a sheriff's substation. The police "rescued" them and took the two into custody, who were soon released without charge. In 1995, a wrongful death suit was brought against Shakur by Qa'id's mother. Ballistics tests proved the bullet that killed the boy was not from Shakur's or any members of his entourage's guns. No criminal charges were brought. Shakur's lawyer said that the festival was a "nasty situation," and Shakur was saddened by the death of the boy. Shakur's record company settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount, reportedly between $300,000 and $500,000.
In October 1993, in Atlanta, two brothers and off-duty police officers, Mark and Scott Whitwell, were with their wives celebrating Mrs. Whitwell's recent passing of the state bar examination. As they crossed the street, a car with Shakur inside passed by them or "almost struck them," after which the Whitwells began an altercation with the driver, Shakur and the other passengers, which was then joined by a second passing car. Shakur shot one officer in the buttocks, and the other in the leg, back, or abdomen, according to varying news reports. There were no other injuries, but Mark Whitwell was charged with firing at Shakur's car and later lying to the police during the investigation, and Shakur with the shooting, until prosecutors decided to drop all charges against all parties.
In November 1993, Shakur and others were charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room. According to the complaint, Shakur sodomized the woman and then encouraged his friends to sexually abuse her. Shakur denied the charges. According to Shakur, he had prior relations days earlier with the woman; she performed oral sex on him on a club dance floor and the two later had consensual sex in his hotel room. The complainant claimed sexual assault after her second visit to Shakur's hotel room; she alleged that Shakur and his entourage gang banged her, and she said to Shakur when she left, "Why you let them do this to me?"Shakur claimed that he fell asleep shortly after the woman arrived and later awoke to her accusations and legal threats. In the ensuing trial, Shakur was convicted of sexual abuse. In sentencing Shakur to 1½–4½ years in prison, the judge described the crime as "an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman. After serving part of his sentence, Shakur was released on bail pending appeal. On April 5, 1996, a judge sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail for violating terms of his release on bail.
November 1994 shooting
On the night of November 30, 1994, the day before the verdict in his sexual abuse trial was to be announced, Shakur was shot five times and robbed after entering the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan by two armed men in army fatigues. He would later accuse Sean Combs, Andre Harrell, and Biggie Smalls—whom he saw after the shooting—of setting him up. Shakur also suspected his close friend and associate, Randy "Stretch" Walker, of being involved in the attempt. According to the doctors at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted immediately following the incident, Shakur had received five bullet wounds; twice in the head, twice in the groin and once through the arm and thigh. He checked out of the hospital, against doctor's orders, three hours after surgery. In the day that followed, Shakur entered the courthouse in a wheelchair and was found guilty of three counts of molestation, but innocent of six others, including sodomy. On February 6, 1995, he was sentenced to one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years in prison on a sexual assault charge.
A year later on November 30, 1995, Stretch was killed after being shot twice in the back by three men who pulled up alongside his green minivan at 112th Ave. and 209th St. in Queens Village, while he was driving. His minivan smashed into a tree and hit a parked car before flipping over.
On March 27, 2008, the Los Angeles Times issued an apology to Combs for blaming him for having a role in the November 1994 shooting. The article stated that Shakur was led to the studio by Biggie's associates to gun him down to make favor with Biggie. The newspaper relied on forged documents that The Smoking Gun proved to be faked. Combs stated that he was disgusted with the LA Times for printing the story.
On June 15, 2011, an inmate admitted to this shooting and robbery, claiming to have been hired to do so by James Rosemond, owner of Czar Entertainment.
Prison sentence
Shakur began serving his prison sentence at Clinton Correctional Facility on February 14, 1995. Shortly afterwards, he released his multi-platinum album Me Against the World. Shakur became the first artist ever to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence: the only other artist to have achieved this feat is fellow rapper Lil Wayne, whose album I Am Not a Human Being reached number one in 2010 whilst he was serving a nine-month prison term for criminal possession of a weapon. Me Against the World made its debut on the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top of the charts for four weeks. The album sold 240,000 copies in its first week, setting a record for highest first week sales for a solo male rap artist at the time. While serving his sentence, he married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, on April 4, 1995; the couple later divorced in 1996. While imprisoned, Shakur read many books by Niccolò Machiavelli, Sun Tzu's The Art of War and other works of political philosophy and strategy.He also wrote a screenplay titled Live 2 Tell while incarcerated, a story about an adolescent who becomes a drug baron.
In October 1995, Shakur's case was on appeal but due to all of his legal fees he could not raise the $1.4 million bail. During his time in jail prisoners were telling Shakur about the illuminati. After serving eleven months of his one-and-a-half year to four-and-a-half year sentence, Shakur was released from the Attica Correctional Facility due in large part to the help and influence of Suge Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records, who posted a $1.4 million bail pending appeal of the conviction in exchange for Shakur to release three albums under the Death Row label.
Death Row Records
Upon his release from Clinton Correctional Facility, Shakur immediately went back to song recording. He began a new group called Outlaw Immortalz. Shakur began recording his first album with Death Row and released the single "California Love" soon after. On February 13, 1996, Shakur released his fourth solo album, All Eyez on Me. This double album was the first and second of his three-album commitment to Death Row Records. It sold over nine million copies. The record was a general departure from the introspective subject matter of Me Against the World, being more oriented toward a thug and gangsta mentality. Shakur continued his recordings despite increasing problems at the Death Row label. Dr. Dre left his post as house producer to form his own label, Aftermath. Shakur continued to produce hundreds of tracks during his time at Death Row, most of which would be released on his posthumous albums R U Still Down? (Remember Me), Still I Rise, Until the End of Time, Better Dayz, Loyal to the Game and Pac's Life. He also began the process of recording an album with the Boot Camp Clik and their label Duck Down Records, both New York–based, entitled One Nation.
On June 4, 1996, he and Outlawz released the diss track "Hit 'Em Up", a scathing lyrical assault on Biggie and others associated with him. In the track, Shakur claimed to have had sexual intercourse with Faith Evans, Biggie's wife at the time, and attacks Bad Boy's street credibility. Though no hard evidence suggests so, Shakur was convinced that some members associated with Bad Boy had known about the '94 attack on him beforehand due to their behavior that night and what his sources told him. Shakur aligned himself with Suge, Death Row's CEO, who was already bitter toward Combs over a 1995 incident at the Platinum Club in Atlanta, Georgia, which culminated in the death of Suge's friend and bodyguard, Jake Robles; Suge was adamant in voicing his suspicions of Combs' involvement. Shakur's signing with Suge and Death Row added fuel to building an East Coast-West Coast conflict. Both sides remained bitter enemies until Shakur's death. On July 4, 1996, he performed live at the House of Blues with Outlawz, Tha Dogg Pound, and Snoop Doggy Dogg also headlining. This was Shakur's very last live performance.
While incarcerated in Clinton Correctional Facility, Shakur read and studied Niccolò Machiavelli and other published works, which inspired his pseudonym "Makaveli" under which he released the album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. The album presents a stark contrast to previous works. Throughout the album, Shakur continues to focus on the themes of pain and aggression, making this album one of the emotionally darker works of his career. Shakur wrote and recorded all the lyrics in only three days and the production took another four days, combining for a total of seven days to complete the album (hence the name). The album title has the word killuminati because Tupac wanted to kill the illuminati with his songs (hence the name).
Outlawz
On forming the Outlawz, Tupac gave each of them a name of a dictator/military leader or an enemy of America.
Yaki Kadafi, after Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi
Hussein Fatal, after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein
Mussolini (formerly Big Syke), after Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
Komani (Shakur's half brother Mopreme), after Iranian Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Kastro, after Cuban leader Fidel Castro
E.D.I. Mean, after Ugandan dictator Idi Amin
Napoleon, after French strategist Napoleon Bonaparte
For himself, Tupac created the alias "Makaveli" from Renaissance Italian philosopher and strategist Niccolo Machiavelli, whose writings inspired Shakur in prison, but who also preached that a leader could eliminate his enemies by all means necessary.
He mentioned Makaveli Records a few times before his death. This was supposed to be a music label for up and coming artists that Shakur had an interest in developing or potentially signing, and his own future projects would have also been published through it as well.
September 1996 shooting and death
On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur attended the Mike Tyson–Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After leaving the match, one of Suge's associates spotted 21-year-old Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a member of the Southside Crips, in the MGM Grand lobby and informed Shakur, who then attacked Anderson. Shakur's entourage, as well as Suge and his followers, assisted in assaulting Anderson. The fight was captured on the hotel's video surveillance. Earlier that year, Anderson and a group of Crips had robbed a member of Death Row's entourage in a Foot Locker store, precipitating Shakur's attack. After the brawl, Shakur went to rendezvous with Suge to go to Death Row-owned Club 662 (now known as restaurant/club Seven). He rode in Suge's 1996 black BMW 750iL sedan as part of a larger convoy including many in Shakur's entourage. At 10:55 pm, while paused at a red light, Shakur rolled down his window and a photographer took his photograph. At around 11:00–11:05 pm, they were halted on Las Vegas Blvd. by Metro bicycle police for playing the car stereo too loud and not having license plates. The plates were then found in the trunk of Suge's car; they were released without being fined a few minutes later. At about 11:10 pm, while stopped at a red light at Flamingo Road near the intersection of Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle occupied by two women pulled up on their left side. Shakur, who was standing up through the sunroof, exchanged words with the two women, and invited them to go to Club 662. At approximately 11:15 pm, a white, four-door, late-model Cadillac with an unknown number of occupants pulled up to the sedan's right side, rolled down one of the windows, and rapidly fired a volley of gunshots at Shakur; bullets hit him in the chest, pelvis, and his right hand and thigh. One of the rounds apparently ricocheted into Shakur's right lung. Suge was hit in the head by fragmentation, though it is thought that a bullet grazed him. According to Suge, a bullet from the gunfire had been lodged in his skull, but medical reports later contradicted this statement. At the time of the drive-by Shakur's bodyguard was following behind in a vehicle belonging to Kidada Jones, Shakur's then-fiancée. The bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with the rapper in Suge's car, Shakur asked him to drive Kidada Jones' car instead just in case they were too drunk and needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to the hotel. Shortly after the assault, the bodyguard reported in his documentary, Before I Wake, that one of the convoy's cars drove off after the assailant but he never heard back from the occupants. After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Suge and a mortally wounded Shakur to the University Medical Center. According to an interview with one of Shakur's closest friends the music video director Gobi, while at the hospital, he received news from a Death Row marketing employee that the shooters had called the record label and were sending death threats aimed at Shakur, claiming that they were going there to "finish him off". Upon hearing this, Gobi immediately alerted the Las Vegas police, but the police claimed they were understaffed and no one could be sent. Nonetheless, the shooters never arrived. At the hospital, Shakur was in and out of consciousness, was heavily sedated, breathed through a ventilator and respirator, was placed on life support machines, and was ultimately put under a barbiturate-induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of the bed. Despite having been resuscitated in a trauma center and surviving a multitude of surgeries (as well as the removal of a failed right lung), Shakur had gotten through the critical phase of the medical therapy and was given a 50% chance of pulling through.Gobi left the medical center after being informed that Shakur made a 13% recovery on the sixth night. While in the critical care unit on the afternoon of September 13, 1996, Shakur died of internal bleeding; doctors attempted to revive him but could not impede his hemorrhaging. His mother, Afeni, made the decision to tell the doctors to stop.He was pronounced dead at 4:03 pm (PDT) The official cause of death was noted as respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest in connection with multiple gunshot wounds. Shakur's body was cremated and some of his ashes were later mixed with marijuana and smoked by members of the Outlawz.
Murder case
Due largely to a perceived lack of progress by law enforcement in the investigation of Shakur's murder, many independent investigations and theories emerged. Because of the acrimony between Shakur and Biggie (who was murdered in March 1997), there was speculation from the outset about the possibility of Biggie's involvement. Biggie, as well as his family, relatives, and associates, vehemently denied all such accusations. In 2002, the LA Times published a story by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Chuck Philips, who claimed to have uncovered evidence implicating Biggie, in addition to Anderson and the Southside Crips, in the attack. Philips quoted unnamed gang-member sources who claimed Biggie had ties to the Crips, often hiring them for security during West Coast appearances, and that Biggie colluded with the Crips to murder Shakur. In 2008, after The Smoking Gun reported that the documents relied upon by Philips for his story were fraudulent, the LA Times printed an official front-page retraction of Philips' story. Less than five months later, Philips accepted a buyout and left the LA Times.
In support of their claims, Biggie's family submitted documentation to MTV suggesting that he was working in a New York recording studio the night of the drive-by shooting. His manager Wayne Barrow and fellow rapper James "Lil' Cease" Lloyd made public announcements denying Biggie's partaking in the crime and claimed further that they were both with him in the recording studio during the night of the event.
The high profile nature of the killing and ensuing gang violence caught the attention of English filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made the documentary film Biggie & Tupac which examines the lack of progress in the case by speaking to those close to the two slain rappers and the investigation. Shakur's close childhood friend and member of Outlawz, Yafeu "Yaki Kadafi" Fula, was in the convoy when the drive-by occurred and indicated to police that he might be able to identify the assailants, however, he was shot and killed shortly thereafter in a housing project in Irvington.
A DVD titled Tupac: Assassination was released on October 23, 2007, more than eleven years after Shakur's murder. It explores aspects surrounding the event and provides fresh insights into the cold case with new details about the environment.
Legacy
At a Mobb Deep concert following the death of the famed icon and release of The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Cormega recalled in an interview that the fans were all shouting "Makaveli," and emphasized the influence of The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory and of Shakur himself even in New York at the height of the media-dubbed 'intercoastal rivalry'. Tupac Shakur was also one of the few rappers that were paid a tribute during the Up in Smoke Tour that featured many west coast hip-hop artists.
Shakur is held in high esteem by other MCs – in the book How to Rap, Bishop Lamont notes that Shakur “mastered every element, every aspect” of rapping and Fredro Starr of Onyx says Shakur, "was a master of the flow." "Every rapper who grew up in the Nineties owes something to Tupac," wrote 50 Cent. "He didn't sound like anyone who came before him." About.com for their part named Shakur the most influential rapper ever.
To preserve Shakur's legacy, his mother founded the Shakur Family Foundation (later re-named the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation or TASF) in 1997. The TASF's stated mission is to "provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents." The TASF sponsors essay contests, charity events, a performing arts day camp for teenagers and undergraduate scholarships. The Foundation officially opened the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts (TASCA) in Stone Mountain, Georgia, on June 11, 2005. On November 14, 2003, a documentary about Shakur entitled Tupac: Resurrection was released under the supervision of his mother and narrated entirely in his voice. It was nominated for Best Documentary in the 2005 Academy Awards. Proceeds will go to a charity set up by Shakur's mother Afeni. On April 17, 2003, Harvard University co-sponsored an academic symposium entitled "All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero." The speakers discussed a wide range of topics dealing with Shakur's impact on everything from entertainment to sociology.
Many of the speakers discussed Shakur's status and public persona, including State University of New York at Buffalo English professor Mark Anthony Neal who gave the talk "Thug Nigga Intellectual: Tupac as Celebrity Gramscian" in which he argued that Shakur was an example of the "organic intellectual" expressing the concerns of a larger group. Professor Neal has also indicated in his writings that the death of Shakur has left a "leadership void amongst hip-hop artists." Neal further describes him as a "walking contradiction", a status that allowed him to "make being an intellectual accessible to ordinary people."
Professor of Communications Murray Forman, of Northeastern University, spoke of the mythical status about Shakur's life and death. He addressed the symbolism and mythology surrounding Shakur's death in his talk entitled "Tupac Shakur: O.G. (Ostensibly Gone)". Among his findings were that Shakur's fans have "succeeded in resurrecting Tupac as an ethereal life force." In "From Thug Life to Legend: Realization of a Black Folk Hero", Professor of Music at Northeastern University, Emmett Price, compared Shakur's public image to that of the trickster-figures of African-American folklore which gave rise to the urban "bad-man" persona of the post-slavery period. He ultimately described Shakur as a "prolific artist" who was "driven by a terrible sense of urgency" in a quest to "unify mind, body, and spirit".
Michael Eric Dyson, University of Pennsylvania Avalon Professor of Humanities and African American Studies and author of the book Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur indicated that Shakur "spoke with brilliance and insight as someone who bears witness to the pain of those who would never have his platform. He told the truth, even as he struggled with the fragments of his identity." At one Harvard Conference the theme was Shakur's impact on entertainment, race relations, politics and the "hero/martyr". In late 1997, the University of California, Berkeley offered a student-led course entitled "History 98: Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur."
In late 2003, the Makaveli Branded Clothing line was launched by Afeni. In 2005, Death Row released Tupac: Live at the House of Blues. The DVD was the final recorded performance of Shakur's career, which took place on July 4, 1996, and features a plethora of Death Row artists. In August 2006, Tupac Shakur Legacy was released. The interactive biography was written by Jamal Joseph. It features unseen family photographs, intimate stories, and over 20 removable reproductions of his handwritten song lyrics, contracts, scripts, poetry, and other personal papers. Shakur's sixth posthumous studio album, Pac's Life, was released on November 21, 2006. It commemorates the 10th anniversary of Shakur's death. He is still considered one of the most popular artists in the music industry as of 2006.
According to Forbes, in 2008 Shakur's estate made $15 million. In 2002, they recognized him as a Top Earning Dead celebrity coming in on number ten on their list.
Library of Congress
Shakur's hit song "Dear Mama" is one of 25 songs that was added to the National Recording Registry in 2010. The Library of Congress has called "Dear Mama" "a moving and eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper's own mother and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference." This honor comes seven days after his birthday, where the rapper would have been 39. Shakur is the third rapper to enter the library, behind Grandmaster Flash and Public Enemy.
Honors
In a 2005 Rolling Stones Magazine Vote, Tupac was named No.6 of the '100 immortal artists of all time' behind the likes of Elvis and Lennon.
MTV ranked him at No.2 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time.
Shakur was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame in 2002.
Ranked No.3 on VH1's 50 Greatest Hip Hop Artists.
In 2003, MTV's "22 Greatest MCs" countdown listed Shakur as the "Number 1 MC", as voted by the viewers.
In 2004, at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors Shakur was honored along with DJ Hollywood, Kool DJ Herc, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., Rock Steady Crew, and Sugarhill Gang.
A Vibe magazine poll in 2004 rated Shakur "the greatest rapper of all time" as voted by fans
At the First Annual Turks & Caicos International Film Festival held on Tuesday, October 17, 2006, Shakur was honored for his undeniable voice and talent and as a performer who crossed racial, ethnic, cultural and medium lines; his mother accepted the award on his behalf.
In 2008, The National Association Of Recording Merchandisers in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognized him as a very influential artist and has added him in their Definitive 200 list.
On Wednesday, June 23, 2010, Shakur was inducted to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.
The seat of the Catholic Church released a list of 12 songs onto the social networking Web site's streaming music service. Among the artists included are Mozart, Muse and Dame Shirley Bassey; the list also includes Shakur's song "Changes", which was released two years after his shooting death on a greatest hits album in 1998.
His double album, All Eyez on Me, is one of the highest-selling rap albums of all time, with over 5 million copies of the album sold in the United States alone by April 1996; it was eventually certified 9x platinum in June 1998 by the RIAA
Discography
Studio albums
1991 2Pacalypse Now
1993 Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.
1994 Thug Life: Volume 1 (with Thug Life)
1995 Me Against the World
1996 All Eyez on Me
1996 The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
Posthumous albums
1997 R U Still Down? (Remember Me)
1998 Greatest Hits
1999 Still I Rise (with the Outlawz)
2001 Until the End of Time
2002 Better Dayz
2003 Tupac Resurrection
2004 Loyal to the Game
2006 Pac's Life
Film
Acting career
In addition to rapping and hip hop music, Shakur acted in films. He made his first film appearance in the motion picture Nothing But Trouble, as part of a cameo by the Digital Underground. His first starring role was in the film Juice. In this story, he played the character Bishop, a trigger happy teen, for which he was hailed by Rolling Stone's Peter Travers as "the film's most magnetic figure." He went on to star with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice (for which he was nominated outstanding actor in 1994, but did not win) and with Duane Martin in Above the Rim. After his death, three of Shakur's completed films, Bullet, Gridlock'd and Gang Related, were released.
He had also been slated to star in the Hughes brothers' film Menace II Society but was replaced by Larenz Tate after assaulting Allen Hughes as a result of a quarrel. Director John Singleton mentioned that he wrote the script for Baby Boy with Shakur in mind for the leading role. It was eventually filmed with Tyrese Gibson in his place and released in 2001, five years after Shakur's death. The film features a mural of Shakur in the protagonist's bedroom as well as featuring the song "Hail Mary" in the film's score.
Filmography
1991 Nothing But Trouble Himself (Brief appearance)
1992 Juice Bishop First starring role
1992 Drexell's Class Himself Season 1: "Cruisin'"
1993 A Different World Piccolo Season 6: "Homie, Don't You Know Me?"
1993 Poetic Justice Lucky Co-starred with Janet Jackson
1993 In Living Color Himself Season 5: "Ike Turner and Hooch"
1994 Above the Rim Birdie Co-starred with Duane Martin
1995 Murder Was the Case: The Movie Himself (Uncredited)
1996 Bullet Tank Released one month after Shakur's death
1997 Gridlock'd Ezekiel 'Spoon' Whitmore Released several months after Shakur's death
1997 Gang Related Detective Rodríguez Shakur's last performance in a film
2003 Tupac: Resurrection Himself Official documentary film
2009 Notorious Himself (archive footage) Portrayed by Anthony Mackie
2011/2012 Tupac Himself (archive footage) The official biographical motion picture of Tupac Shakur.
The film is currently being filmed.
20?? Live 2 Tell Screenwriter (Written in 1995)
Documentaries
Shakur's life has been recognized in big and small documentaries each trying capture the many different events during his short lifetime, most notably the Academy Award–nominated Tupac: Resurrection, released in 2003.
1997: Tupac Shakur: Thug Immortal
1997: Tupac Shakur: Words Never Die (TV)
2001: Tupac Shakur: Before I Wake...
2001: Welcome to Deathrow
2002: Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel
2002: Biggie & Tupac
2002: Tha Westside
2003: 2Pac 4 Ever
2003: Tupac: Resurrection
2004: Tupac vs.
2004: Tupac: The Hip Hop Genius (TV)
2006: So Many Years, So Many Tears
2007: Tupac: Assassination
2009: Tupac: Assassination II: Reckoning
Quotes from Speeches First, I wanna say 'Peace to my mother. She's not here but I gotta give a 'peace out' to her because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my mother.
second -Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Atlanta, 1992
It's not going to stop until "we" stop it. And it's not just white man that's doing this to Brenda. It's not just white man that's keeping us trapped. It's "black." And we have to find the new African in everybody... But before we can be African, we gotta be black first.
-Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Atlanta, 1992
What I want you to take seriously is what we have to do for the youth.
-Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Atlanta, 1992
You grew up, we grew up B.C. Before crack. That's just saying it all. You understand? You don't have parents... You have young kids, fourteen, coming home and their mama is smoking out, going to their best friend to get the product.
-Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Atlanta, 1992.
It's not just about you taking care of "your" child. It's about you taking care of these children.
-Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Atlanta, 1992 First, wanna say 'Peace to my mother. She's not here but I gotta give a 'peace out' to her because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my mother. And I look in the front of this thing and it says start from within to rebuild our original greatness. Right? Ok well that’s what my mother did. You know what im sayin. And im listen about freedom fighters and strugglers. Well you got to understand when it was 'in' to have a gun and be in the streets, my mother gave that up to be in a house and wash the dishes and feed us. You know what im sayin? And put the thoughts in our brain. We didn’t get any of that history from all of those soldiers that we lost. We got none of that. They all went to jail if you can remember that. They all went to penetentiaries. We didnt see none of that knowledge. If it was not for my mother that stayed home and didn’t go out and do all that. Then I wouldn’t have shit. Excuse my language. But I wouldn’t have been no were. So what I want to do hopefully is. I want to be.. not I want to be I am Tupac Shakur. I have to be a reminder that we cant chill out. No it not time cool out in banquets. its still on. Its on just like it was on when u were young and u wana say fuck dat. Just like u said fuck dat back then. So how come now that im 20 years old and ready to start some shit everybody telling me to calm down. don’t cursem go to school go to college. Well fuck dat. We have had colleges for awhile now. U know what im sayin? Their still Brenda’s out there and niggas are still trapped. You know what im sayin? And it gets me.. irked. U know what im sayin? Cuz I understand that its not going to stop. U know what im sayin? It's not going to stop until we stop it. And it's not just white man that's doing this to Brenda. It's not just white man that's keeping us trapped. It's "black." And we have to find the new African in everybody, in all of us... Cuz if we keep runnin around lookin for black and who got the most colors on or who got the baddest dashiki we still gonna excuse my language we still gonna get fucked. Because it hurts me my mother right now is going though um you know, she has to get clean. This is somebody I watched travel the whole country. U know what im sayin? During the time when our women were scared to speck up. But a black panther she spoke at Harvard, Yale, everywhere and now. I see my mother as whats really going on. U know what im sayin? I don’t see no big parade around my mother now. She got a dozen fuckin awards. And I don’t see nobody there. U understand what im sayin? So out of this I take that lightly I take all this lightly. What I want you to take seriously, is what we have to do for the youth. Because we coming up in a totally different world. This is not the same world that you had this is not 6th street its not. You grew up, we grew up B.C. Before crack. That's just saying it all. You understand? We did not grow up without parents. You had parents that told you this and that and told you what went on back in the day. You have young kids, fourteen, coming home and their mama is smoking out, going to their best friend to get the product. U understand what im sayin? So that means It's not just about you taking care of "your" child. It's about you taking care of "these children." It hurts that i gotta, um, it bothers me, not hurts, that i have to sidestep my youth to stand up and do some shit that somebody else suppose to be doin. U understand what im sayin? There's too many men out here for me to be doing this, cuz it aint my turn yet. Im suppose to be followin behind him gettin the knowledge. I dont even got a chance to get the fuckin knowledge. I cant go to college. There's too much problems out here. I don't got the money. Nobody do. U understand what im sayin? So what im sayin is it's not as easy as we mappin it out to be. We gotta stay real. Before we can be new african we gotta be black first. You understand, we gotta get our brothers from the streets like Harriett Tubman did. Why cant we look at that and see exactly what she was doing? Like Malcolm did, the real Malcolm, before the nation of Islam. You gotta remember, this was a pimp. You know what im sayin, we forgot about all that. In our strive to be enlightened we forgot about all our brothers in the street, about all our dope dealers, our pushers and our pimps, and thats whos teachin the new generation, cuz y'all not doin it, I'm sorry. But it's the pimps and pushers who's teachin us. So if you got a problem with how we was raised, its coz they was the only ones who could do it. They the only ones who did it, cuz everybody else wanted to go to college and you know, yeah everything's changed, they was the ones tellin you 'the white man aint shit, there you go, check this out young blood, you take this product, you switch it, you get money and thats how u beat the white man, you get money, you get the hell up out of here. nobody else did that. So i dont wanna hear shit about nobody tellin me who i cant love and respect until you start doin what they did. To me, this is Mecca. This is the black family. You know what im sayin? But what makes it that much sadder, what makes me wanna cry, is that when i leave this place, so does Mecca. You understand what im sayin? We goin back to the real deal. Right out there, you gon' see the same sisters and Brenda, they're right out there, and y'all gon' get in your cars and drive the fuck home."
Quotes from Interviews Everybody's at war with different things… I'm at war with my own heart sometimes.
—Vibe magazine interview (February 1996)
All good niggas, all the niggas who change the world, die in violence. They don't die in regular ways.
—'Details magazine interview (Spring 1996)
It's not like I idolize this one guy Machiavelli. I idolize that type of thinking where you do whatever's gonna make you achieve your goal.
—Vibe magazine (September 1996)
This new Makaveli album I got comin' out, I'm takin' on niggas. It's like, my dopest album ever.
—'Vibe magazine (September 1996)
I am the future of black America.
—Vibe magazine (September 1996)
Fuck it, I feel like I shine.
—Vibe magazine (September 1996)
On the whole, I don't have any friends. Friends come and go; I've lost my trust factor. I believe I have people who think they're my friend. And I believe that there are people probably in their heart who are friends toward me or are friends to me. But they're not my friends, because what I learned is that fear is stronger than love.
—'Vibe magazine (June 1996)
It says "I really got my ass beat. I really don't like police. -Policeman questioning Tupac
It doesn't say that. Where are you at? Right there... oh. I didn't say that. That's not what it says. -Tupac
Okay. -Policeman
It says, 'I'm a victim for real. Everything I talk is for real. I really got my ass beat. I really don't like them... I really don't like crooked police.
-Interrogation in prison (1995)
To dance with the naked [blow-up] doll, that was me! That's what I mean by I'm real, I'm truly hardcore, because I needed the money and I had to work. So if he told me that for me to get paid I had to go out there in bikini briefs and hop on top of this [blow-up] doll and that's how I gotta get paid, and I was homeless at the time, that's what I had to do. But What I did was not let him pimp me, you know what I'm saying. It wasn't like I just did that because that was my order. As soon as I got the check's to say what was on my mind, I said what was on my mind. And we have a platinum record now, you know what I'm saying.
-MTV Interview (1994)
You have to work from one point to go to another. So I admire work ethic, I think it should be re-inforced through out our neigbourhoods, that everybody should work hard, practice makes perfect, you have to be diligent with what you want, you have to apply your self, you have to motivate your self. You have to do for-self by your self, and then you can do things for other people. But that's what I had to do, I had to do for-self.
-MTV Interview (1994)
I want, when they see me, They know that everyday when I'm breathing is for us to go further. Everytime I speak I want the truth to come out. Everytime I speak I want a shiver. I don't want them to be like they know what I'm gonna say because it's polite. Im not saying I'm gonna rule the world or I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee you that I will spark the brain that will change the world. And that's our job, It's to spark somebody else whatching us. We might not be the one's, but let's not be selfish and because we not gonna change the world let's not talk about how we should change it. I don't know how to change it, but I know if I keep talking about how dirty it is out here, somebody's gonna clean it up.
-MTV Interview (1994)
I gotta big mouth, I can't help it, I talk from my heart, I'm real you know what im sayin whatever comes comes. But my controverse problems, It's not my fault, I try to find my way in the world you know, I try to be somebody instead of just, make money off of everybody. You know what im saying, so I go down paths that haven't been traveled before and I usually mess up, but I learn, you know what I'm saying, I come back stronger, I'm not talking ignorant, you know what I'm saying. So obviously put thought into what I do. So I think my mouth, my controverse, I have not been out of the paper since I joined Digital Underground, I've been in all, you know what I'm saying, my name has not been not uttered, you know what I'm saying, and that's good for me because I don't wanna be forgotten. If I'm forgotten then that means I'm comfortable and that means I think everything is okay.
-MTV Interview (1994)
It's like a battle tryin to find the right words to say at the right time.
-Ed Gordon Interview (1994)
It's a constant man-ego-check going on in the streets, in this world.
-Ed Gordon Interview (1994)
I believe honestly that I can talk. I believe that I have the ability to reason, I have logic, I have compassion, I have understanding. If we talk there's no problem you know what I'm saying. But that's not what happened. People used what they heard in media and that's how they come at me, and then you know we got a clash.
-Ed Gordon Interview (1994)
If your not cheering for me, for what I'm doing, don't cheer for me. Don't cheer cause you think I'm cute, you know what I'm saying, screw that. Cheer for me for what I'm doing, for what I stand for, and when I go to jail you should cheer louder.
-Ed Gordon Interview (1994)
I have no patience for anybody that doubts me, non at all.
-Ed Gordon Interview (1994)
I'm not thuggin' for me, I'm thuggin' for my family, I pay all the bills, I feed my whole family, wrong or right, I do and I can't stop.
-Ed Gordon Interview (1994)
The main thing for us to remember is that, the same crime element that white people are scared of, black people are scared of. The same crime element that white people fear, black people fear. So we defend our self from the same crime element that they are scared of, you know what I'm saying, while they are waiting for legislations to pass and everything, we're next door to the killer, we're next door to him you know. Because we up in the projects where it's 80 niggaz in the building. All them killers that they letting out, they're right there in that building. Just because we're black we get along with the killers or something? We get along with rapist's because we're black and from the same hood? What is that? We need protection too.
-Ed Gordon Interview (1994)
I made a metamorphose, I'm a new person today, because I used to strongly and honestly, honestly! I feel like I can represent my generation so much because I honestly did not care whether I lived or died. But now I can not die, with people thinking I'm a rapist or a criminal, I can not leave until this shit is straight, you know I'm not suicidal. I can't go until ya'll really know what time it is. And then after that, BOOM!, It's all over and we can see how this shit fall, but that's how it is, and the reason being is because if I can't live free, if I can't live with the same respect as the next man, I don't wanna be here, because god has cursed me to see what life should be like, If God wanted me to be this person and be happy here, he wouldn't let me feel so oppressed, he wouldn't let me feel so trampled on, you know what I'm saying, he wouldn't let me think the things I think. So I feel I'm doing Gods work, you know what I'm saying just because I don't have nothing to pass around for people to put money in a bucket don't mean I ain't doing Gods work.
-Ed Gordon Interview (1994)
The only way I've been practicing my whole life, to live my life is to be responsible for what I do. I don't know how to be responsible for what every black male did, I don't know. And yes, I am gonna say that I'm a thug, that's because I came from the gutter and I'm still here.
I'm not saying I'm a thug because I wanna rob you or rape people and things. I'm a business man, I mean you know I'm a business man because you find me at my places of buisness.
-Interview outside of court (1994)
It's not my liking for guns, what about the N.R.A? We all have the rights to bare arms, I have that, I have that same right as you do. Just because I'm black doesn't mean I shouldn't have a gun. I legally own guns.
-Interview outside of court (1994)
Basically It's a hypocritical view, because what your saying is it's okay for us to live in the dirt, in the gutter, in less than human conditions, but it's not okay for us to tell people that we are living in these conditions.
-Interview inside of Deathrow office (1996)
I've always been an actor, the reason I've been successful in the rapgame I think is that I treat my albums like movies, and I treat writing it like I'm a character writing a story, you know, for each album whatever I'm going through, whatever stages I'm going through, and I do it vividly with vivid pitcures, with action and description, and an beginning and with an end, and conflict, and you know, redemption, things like that. So I feel like I always been an actor and acting is my first love.
-Interview on the set "Gridlock'd" (1996)
If you thought about it I'm hardly the villian, I'm hardly the one you should be scared of. It's the guy who can't talk, it's the guy without a job, it's the one with scares in his face, not the one clean cut, you know what I mean you should worry about a lot of other things, but not me.
-Interview on the set "Gridlock'd" (1996)
I can't explain why I shine and no one else shines. I think everybody shines in different things.
-Interview on the set "Bullet" (1996)
The reason I sell 6 million records, the reason I could go to jail and come out without a scratch, the reason I can walk around, the reason I am who I am today is because I can look directly in to my face and find my soul, it's there, it's not sold, i didn't sell it, it's still within me, I still feel it, my heart is still connected to my body.
-Interview on the set "Bullet" (1996)
I know how it's gonna be when I die, it's gonna be no noise, you ain't gonna hear people screamin, I'mma fade out.
-MTV Interview, by Tabitha Soren (1995)
Marlon Brando is not a gangsta' actor, he's an actor. Axl Rose and them are not gangsta' rock n rollers, they're rock n rollers right. So I'm a rapper, this is what I do, I'm an artist.
-MTV Interview, by Tabitha Soren (1995)
I think being humble is sexy.
-MTV Interview, by Tabitha Soren (1995)
I think that I'm really, I was a reactionary, and now I don't do that any more. Same person but I don't react, before I reacted, I didn't like the cameras, I spitt.
-MTV Interview, by Tabitha Soren (1995)
I'm known as a survivor now, I hope so, for the jail thing, bullets and everything, controversies and everything, I hope so. And I wanna be in the future known as somebody.. You know I want people to be talking about me like you know: " remember when he was real bad, remember when Tupac was real bad". You know what I mean, they do that about a lot of actors now, like John Travolta I read stories like "remember you were wild". And all these other people, and now they're like sweet hearts. We all should get that chance, I just want my chance.
-MTV Interview, by Tabitha Soren (1995)
Jail is big buisness, believe me I'm in jail I see the big buisness. You can feed a whole town off one jail, this jail is in the middle of a town that feeds everybody. Everybody works here, this is the main income. So if there were no criminals, nobody would work.
-Interview in jail (1995)
The guns are turning away from Europe and Russia and Iran and Iraq and there turning to us.
-Interview in jail (1995)
America is the biggest gang in the world.
-Interview in jail (1995)
Prison kills your spirit, straight up, it kills your spirit, there is no creativity, there's non of that.
-Interview in jail (1995)
Now if we do wanna live the thug life and the gangsta' life and all that, OK, so stop being cowards and let's have a revolution. But we don't wanna do that, dudes just wanna live "character", they wanna be "cartoons", but if they really wanted to do something, they was that tuff, alright, let's start our own country, let's start a revolution, let's get outta' here, let's do something. But they don't wanna do that, they wanna pimp our communities and portray this image that they know we all can't survive and make, and that's what I saw.
-Interview in jail (1995)
No matter what these people say about me, my music does not glorifie any image, my music is spiritual if you listen to it. It's all about emotion, it's all about life.
-Interview in jail (1995)
Watch people, because you can fake for a long time, but one day you're gonna show your self to be a fony.
-Interview in jail (1995)
Measure a man by his actions fully, from the beginning to the end. Don't take a piece out of my life or a song out of my music and say this is what I'm about, because you know better than that.
-Interview in jail (1995)
I don't feel like what I did was so evil, I just feel like the way I was living and my mentality was a part of my progression to be a man.
-Interview in jail (1995)
Don't support the fonys, support the real.
-Interview in jail (1995)
Listen to the words people say in their lyrics, and tell me, if that's some real shit, if that's real to you, you know what I mean. Listen to what they sayin', don't just bob your head to the beat, peep the game, and listen to what Im saying. Hold us accountable for it.
-Interview in jail (1995)
Trust nobody, TRUST NO BODY.
-Interview in jail (1995)
Fear is stronger than love, remember that. Fear is stronger than love, all that love I gave didn't mean nothing when it came to fear.
-Interview in jail (1995)
The only thing that can kill me is death, that's the only thing that can ever stop me, is death, and even then my music will live forever.
-Interview in jail (1995)
Tupac: Resurrection
Some people say I was a thug and a gangsta. Other people remember me as a poet and a born leader. But I'm saying to you measure a man by his actions fully, through his whole life, from the beginning to the end.
Remember, this country had a man named J. Edgar Hoover, whose job it was to destroy the credibility of any black man coming up.
My mother was pregnant with me while she was in prison. She was her own attorney, never been to law school. She was facing 300 and something odd years. One black woman, pregnant, beat the case. That just goes to show you the strength of a black woman and the strength of the oppressed.
When I was a little baby, I remember that one moment of calm peace, and three minutes after that, it was on.
But in my homeboys' high school, it's not like that. They don't have trips to go see this Broadway play, they don't read things we read. They didn't know when I was like: "Yo, Shakespeare's dope."
The same crime element that white people are scared of black people are scared of. While they waiting for legislation to pass, we next door to the killer. All them killers they let out, they're in that building. Just because we black, we get along with the killers? What is that? We need protection too.
You have to be logical. You know? If I know that in this hotel room they have food every day, and I'm knocking on the door every day to eat, and they open the door, let me see the party, let me see them throwing salami all over, I mean, just throwing food around, but they're telling me there's no food.
Every day, I'm standing outside trying to sing my way in:
We are hungry, please let us in We are hungry, please let us in
After about a week that song is gonna change to: We hungry, we need some food
After two, three weeks, it's like: Give me the food Or I'm breaking down the door
After a year you're just like: I'm picking the lock Coming through the door blasting
It's like, you hungry, you reached your level. We asked ten years ago. We was asking with the Panthers. We was asking with them, the Civil Rights Movement. We was asking. Those people that asked are dead and in jail. So now what do you think we're gonna do? Ask?
No, you don't wanna get me started. Jell-O with hair all in the mold. I'd be like, "Damn, man, how are you gonna mess up Jell-O?" Jell-O is so wholesome and family-like. It just ruins it for me. To have a hair in there, yeah. I mean, I'm like, "Come on, Bill Cosby pumps this, man!"
And you can't go, "There's a hair in my Jell-O. I'd like to send this back. Can I see the cook, please?" The cook is a big dude named Bubba Joe.
I got shot. I always felt like I'd be shot. Somebody was trying to do me some harm because a lot of people don't like me. But I didn't think it was gonna happen at that particular moment.
Niggers was the ones with the rope, hanging off trees; Niggas are the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs.
Measure a man by his actions fully, through his whole life, from the beginning to the end.
Coming to grips with my past, it was hard. I don't feel like what I did was so evil, I just feel like the way I was living, and my mentality, was part of my progression to be a man.
I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.
You grow, we all grow, we're made to grow. You either evolve or disappear.
Keep ya head up. Do what you gotta do. And then, inside of you, I will be reborn.
Sourced Lyrics
The real tragedy is that there are some ignorant brothers out here. That's why I'm not on this all-White or all Black shit. I'm on this all-real or all fake shit with people, whatever color you are. Because niggaz will do you. I mean, there's some [foul] niggaz out there [in the streets]; the same niggaz that did Malcolm X, the same niggaz that did Jesus Christ- every brother ain't a brother. They will do you. So just because it's Black, don't mean it's cool. And just because it's White don't mean it's evil. (From Interview with Tupac) Unsourced
When I speak, I want my words to mean something. I want my words to make people shiver.
—Interview (1994)
Can't nobody touch me right now. Maybe next month all of this will be over, but this month I'm takin' every moving target out.
—'two weeks before his death
Everybody that was involved knows what happened [...] and everything is there. [...] Just read everything over, and read my reply, read their reply, read what people say, watch people, cuz you can fake for a long time but one day you gonna show yourself to be a phony [...] think back, think of all the people that you've seen me put on stage, think of all the people I've put on, that I got into this game, that I show how to do this, and think about what they're saying now. That's not keeping it real.
—'in prison, 1995, on who shot him up
I believe that everything that you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer from it. But in my mind, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven.
I feel like our future is our confidence and self-esteem..
I swear, if they hadn't tried to ruin me, I never would have ended up being a rapper. I probably would have been a preacher or something.
I think the old should go through school again. I think that rich people should live like poor people, and poor people should live like rich people, and change every week.
(Tupac Ressurrection)
I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.
(Tupac Ressurection)
I'm one-hundred percent original, and that's what got me here. My rap music is more understandable, slower. It tells a story. You can write a book on each of my thoughts.
If I could patent "being real", I think I could own that.
If it don't make dollars it don't make sense.
In my death, people will understand what I was talking about.
June 16, 1971, mama gave birth to a Hell raising heavenly son.
(Cradle to the Grave, Thug Life Album)
My first words was thug for life and papa pass the mack.
(Cradle to the Grave, Thug Life Album)
My Mama used to tell me if you can't find something to live for, you best find something to die for.
(Some 2 Die 4, Stricly 4 my N.I.G.G.A.Z)
Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.
The reason why I could get into acting was because it takes nothing to get out of who I am and go into somebody else.
We look at death from the selfish side, like: "That guy died. Oh, it's so sad." Why is it sad? He's away from all of this bad stuff that's here on Earth. I mean, at the worst, he's just somewhere quiet, no nothing. At best, he's an angel… or he's a spirit somewhere. What is so bad about that?
(Tupac Ressurection)
We talk a lot about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., but it's time to be like them, as strong as them. They were mortal men like us and everyone of us can be like them. I don't want to be a role model. I just want to be someone who says, this is who I am, this is what I do. I say what's on my mind.
What is fame? Everybody knows your name: never again are you alone.
(The Rose that grew from the Concrete book)
Wars come and go, but my soldiers stay eternal.
The only crime I been convicted of is fighting; getting into a fight with my fears.
Dont get it twisted this is not my real life, this is not how my real life is suppose to be.
Look, I am selling records. This is what I do for a living. I am selling records. I never thought it was going to be a matter of life and death.
I'm not saying I'm gonna rule the world but if I keep talking about how dirty it is, someone will have to clean it up.
I live the life of a thug, Live it and Die for it!
But my nigga from the other side of the globe knows all my theories, i dedicate all this drama to you (Oumar Camara a.k.a Paparesta)
T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E stands for The Hate U Give Lil Infants Fucks Everybody
M.O.B. stands for Money Over Bitches, Member of Blood, or The Mob.
(M.O.B, Until The End of Time)
N.I.G.G.A stands for Never Ignorant about Getting Goals Accomplished or No Ignorance Got Goals Accomplished
(Words of Wisdom, 2pacalypse Now!)
During your life, never stop dreaming. No one can take away your dreams.
Everybody against me. Why? Why me? I have not brought violence to you. I have not brought Thug Life to America. I didn't create Thug Life. I diagnosed it.
I think I'm a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it's authority that I respect.
I don’t see myself being special; I just see myself having more responsibilities than the next man. People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.
I know what good morals are, but you're supposed to disregard good morals when you're living in a crazy, bad world. If you're in hell, how can you live like an angel? You're surrounded by devils,trying to be an angel? That's like suicide.
It seems like every time you come up something happens to bring you back down.
No matter what these people say about me, my music doesn't glorify any image. My music is spiritual when you listen to it. It's all about emotion, I tell my innermost, darkest secrets.
All I’m trying to do is survive and make good out of the dirty, nasty, unbelievable lifestyle that they gave me.
Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation comes action.
Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never surrender.
You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, would've happened... or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on.
(Someone else will have to move my unsourced edits to the right place)
Discography
2Pacalypse Now (1991)
Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z (1993)
Thug Life: Thug Life Vol. 1 (1994)
Me Against the World (1995)
All Eyez on Me (1996)
Makaveli: The Don Killuminati: 7 Day Theory (1996)
R U Still Down? (1997)
2Pac's Greatest Hits (1998)
Still I Rise (2Pac + Outlawz) (1999)
The Lost Tapes (1989/released 2000)
The Rose that Grew from Concrete (2000)
Until the End of Time (2001)
Better Dayz (2002)
Tupac Resurrection (2003)
Nu-Mixx Klazzics (2003)
2Pac Live (2004)
Loyal to the Game (2004)
The Rose Vol. 2 (2005)
Live At The House Of Blues (with Outlawz, Dogg Pound, Snoop Dogg, K-Ci & JoJo) (2005)
Pac's Life (2006)
Greatest Hits Vol 1:Thug and Vol 2:Life (2007)
Pac's Life 2 (2010)
