Nicole Kidman Biography

Full Name: Nicole Mary Kidman
Popular Name: Nicole Kidman
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: June 20, 1967
Place of Birth: Honolulu, Hawaii

Nicole Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, June 20, 1967. She is the wife of country singer Keith Urban are to marry on June 25, 2006. Kidman’s ex-wife of Tom Cruise’s movie star, has won numerous awards in film, including Academy Award (Oscar) for best actress category through her role as Virginia Woolf in Nicole Kidman Biography Nicole Kidman Biographythe movie THE HOURS (2003). In addition, winning a Golden Globe Award, BAFTA and MTV Movie Awards.

She is fashion model, singer and humanitarian. Her father, Dr. Antony David Kidman, is a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author, with an office in Lane Cove, Sydney, Australia.Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edits her husband’s books and was a member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby. At the time of Kidman’s birth in 1967, her father was a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her parents now live on Sydney’s North Shore. Kidman has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, a journalist. She has known actress Naomi Watts since they were in their teens and the two remain best friends today.

Kidman attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls’ High School. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Nicole to temporarily halt her education and help provide for the family by working as a massage therapist at age 17. She studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, and at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, with Naomi Watts. This was followed by attending the Australian Theatre for Young People.

Kidman’s first appearance in film came as a teenager in the Pat Wilson music video for the song “Bop Girl”. By the end of 1983, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek and four film roles, including BMX Bandits and Bush Christmas. During the 1980s, she appeared in several Australian productions, including the soap opera A Country Practice, the mini-series Vietnam (1986), Emerald City (1988), and Bangkok Hilton (1989). She also made multiple guest appearances on Australian television programs and made-for-TV movies.

In 1989, Kidman starred in Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of naval officer John Ingram (Sam Neill), held captive on a Pacific yacht trip by the psychotic Hughie Warriner (Billy Zane). The thriller garnered strong reviews; Variety commented: “Throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy.” Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, “…Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together.”

In 1990, she appeared opposite Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder, playing a young doctor who falls in love with a racecar driver. This was Kidman’s American debut and was among the highest-grossing films of the year. That same year she auditioned for the role of Molly in the blockbuster film Ghost but lost the role to Demi Moore.

In 1991, she co-starred with Naomi Watts in the independent film Flirting, and received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Billy Bathgate opposite Dustin Hoffman. She and Cruise re-teamed for Ron Howard’s Irish epic Far and Away (1992), which was a modest critical and commercial success.

In 1993, she starred opposite Michael Keaton in My Life and Alec Baldwin in the thriller Malice, which also featured Gwyneth Paltrow, Bill Pullman, and Anne Bancroft. During an interview, Kidman revealed she refused to screen test for the role of Jenny in Forrest Gump (1994), a part that went to Robin Wright Penn.

In 1995, Kidman played Dr. Chase Meridian in Batman Forever opposite Val Kilmer and Jim Carrey. The movie was a blockbuster and became the second-highest grossing film of the year. As of 2010, it is also the highest-grossing film in which she has appeared. Kidman’s second film in 1995, To Die For, was a satirical comedy that earned her critical praise. For her portrayal of the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone Maretto, she won a Golden Globe Award and five other best actress awards.
Kidman at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival

Kidman continued to star in many films such as The Portrait of a Lady (1996) and The Peacemaker (1997) opposite George Clooney. In 1998, she appeared in the film Practical Magic alongside Sandra Bullock, and starred in the stage play The Blue Room, which opened in London. In 1999, Kidman and Cruise portrayed a married couple in Eyes Wide Shut, the final film of Stanley Kubrick. The film opened to generally positive reviews but was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes.

In 2002, Kidman received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in the 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge!, in which she played the courtesan Satine opposite Ewan McGregor. Consequently, Kidman received her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The same year, she also had a well-received starring role in the horror film The Others. While in Australia filming Moulin Rouge!, Kidman injured her ribs; as a result, Jodie Foster replaced her as leading actress in the film Panic Room. In that film, Kidman’s voice appears on the phone as the mistress of the husband of the lead character.

The following year, Kidman won critical praise for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours, in which the prosthetics applied to her made her almost unrecognisable. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role, along with a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and numerous critics awards. Kidman became the first Australian actress to win an Academy Award. During her Academy Award acceptance speech, Kidman made a teary statement about the importance of art, even during times of war: “Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld.”[17]

In the same year, Kidman starred in three very different films. The first film, Dogville, by Danish director Lars von Trier, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. In the second film, she co-starred with Anthony Hopkins in the film adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel The Human Stain. The third film, Cold Mountain, a love story of two Southerners separated by the Civil War, garnered her a Golden Globe Award nomination. Kidman’s 2004 film Birth was nominated for the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, and Kidman was nominated for another Golden Globe Award.

Kidman’s two movies in 2005 were The Interpreter and Bewitched. The Interpreter, directed by Sydney Pollack, received mixed reviews, while Bewitched, co-starring Will Ferrell and based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name, was generally panned by critics. Neither film fared well in the United States, their box office sales falling well short of the production costs, but both films fared well internationally.

In conjunction with her success in the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann to promote the fragrance during the holiday season in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008. The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5 perfume made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12million for the 3 minute advert. During this time, Kidman was also listed as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005 Forbes Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million in 2004-2005. On People magazine’s list of 2005′s highest paid actresses, Kidman was second behind Julia Roberts with a US$16 million to US$17 million per-film price tag. She has since passed Roberts as the highest paid actress.

Kidman appeared in the Diane Arbus bio-pic Fur. She also lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which quickly garnered critical and commercial success; the film grossed over US$384 million dollars worldwide. In 2007, she starred in the science fiction movie The Invasion directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel where it was reported that she received $26 million dollars for her performance. Although it was a critical and commercial failure, Kidman said that she has no control over the success of her films. She also played opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding. She also starred in the film adaptation of the first part of the planned His Dark Materials trilogy of films, playing the villainous Marisa Coulter. However, The Golden Compass”s failure to meet expectations at the North American box office has reduced the likelihood of a sequel.

On 25 June 2007, Nintendo announced that Kidman would be the new face of Nintendo’s advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market.In 2008, she starred Baz Luhrmann’s Australian period film titled Australia, which is set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II. Kidman played opposite Hugh Jackman as an English woman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. The film was a box office success worldwide. Kidman was originally set to star in The Reader, a post-war Germany drama, but due to her pregnancy she had to back out of the film.

Kidman appears in the 2009 Rob Marshall musical, Nine, portraying the character of Claudia Jenssen. She stars with Aaron Eckhart in the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Rabbit Hole, for which she vacated her role in the forthcoming Woody Allen picture, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger.

Also, in 2009, Kidman has been the front face of an international spread Schweppes commercial. Meanwhile, Nicole Kidman is also known as a social activist, ambassador of UNICEF and PBB.

Film for Nicole Kidman:

BMX Bandits
Bush Christmas
Five Mile Creek
Skin Deep
Chase Through the Night

Matthew and Son
Wills & Burke
A Country Practice
Archer’s Adventure
Winners

Windrider
Watch the Shadows Dance
The Bit Part
Room to Move
An Australian in Rome

Vietnam
Emerald City
Dead Calm
Bangkok Hilton
Days of Thunder

Flirting
Billy Bathgate
Far and Away
Malice
My Life

To Die For
Batman Forever
The Portrait of a Lady
Shine
The Leading Man

The Peacemaker
Practical Magic
Eyes Wide Shut
Moulin Rouge!
The Others

Birthday Girl
The Hours
Dogville
The Human Stain
Cold Mountain

The Stepford Wives
Birth
The Interpreter
Bewitched
Fur

Happy Feet
The Invasion
Margot at the Wedding
The Golden Compass
Australia

Nine
Rabbit Hole
Just Go With It
Trespass

Article Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Kidman

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Barack Obama Biography

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He spent two years at Occidental College before he transferred to Columbia University. He majored in political science with an emphasis on international relations. After he graduated, he spent a year working at Business International, which is a newsletter publisher. Then he moved to Chicago where he was a community organizer on the south side. That was when he joined the Trinity United Church of Christ.

He went to Harvard University to study law. While he was there, he was elected Harvard's first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated from Harvard with the distinction magna cum laude. After he got his degree, he returned to Chicago and got about a hundred thousand people registered to vote for the 1992 general election. He helped in getting Bill Clinton elected. Also, he helped to get Senator Carol Moseley Braun, who was the first African-American woman elected into the US Senate. He joined a civil rights firm and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago.

In 1996, Barack was elected to the Illinois State Senate. He was the chairman of the Public Health and Welfare Committee. That was when the Democrats got control of the chamber. He was regarded as the "most liberal" member of the Senate for his decisions, or lack thereof. Even though he was a liberal senator, he was known as a "bipartisan dealmaker". He also pushed for a form of universal healthcare. There are about 47 million Americans without healthcare and Barack's plan should lower that number dramatically. He also pushed forth legislation to fund AIDS research and prevention programs.

Barack has not always been successful in his political life. He was unsuccessful in Illinois' 1st Congressional District Democratic primary against Bobby Rush, the incumbent. Barack was thrust into the national spotlight thanks to John Kerry, the Democratic Nominee in 2004. He gave Barack a slot to speak and a star was born.

In 2005, Barack was listed as one of the top 100 most influential people in the whole world. In 2004, Barack ran for a US Senate seat. Obama went up against Jack Ryan but Ryan had to drop out. Alan Keyes was then chosen as Barack's new opponent. Obama won handily in the general election and received 70% to Keyes's 27%. When Barack was sworn in on January 4, 2005, he ranked next to last in terms of seniority. Obama had some official business to take care of when he got to the Senate. He had to decline to be the Senate co-sponsor of questioning Ohio's Electoral College votes after the 2004 election was over.

He came into the senate with a plan that greatly mirrored Hillary Clinton's. His plan stated that he wanted to focus on improving Illinois, his home state. He held 39 town hall meetings. Barack had to speak up sooner than he would have liked when Hurricane Katrina hit. On February 10, 2007 in Springfield, IL, Barack announced that he would seek the presidency in 2008, after saying previously that he wouldn't do such a thing.

Dan Shapiro announced that he would be Barack's political advisor and strategist. This was important because it went along with Barack's desire to deliver many speeches to emphasize his devotion to Israel. Twelve days after the general election, President Elect Barack Obama resigned from the US Senate. Governor Rod Blagojevich, of Illinois, will appoint somebody to replace Obama.   

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Abraham Lincoln Biography

Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, USA, where his father worked as a carpenter. He has lost his mother at an early age, then her father remarried. But Lincoln and his sister had loved his stepmother.

Lincoln's little boy grew into a tall and strapping. Her clothes always never seemed fitting. Always felt short-sleeve and pants always hang above the ankle. When observed, it seems he does not deserve to be big in the future, which turned out to be realized.

Lincoln Slavery was first seen, was when he was hired to carry the cargo transport ship bound for New Orleans in 1828. Then, when he visited the city for the second time, he vowed to himself that he must remove the practice of slavery.

Lincoln did not follow such education in general, but he was keen to learn reading and writing to successfully become a lawyer. Although sometimes he is regarded as a 'gay' by the neighbors because behavior and way of dresses, but he was flexible enough to local people. This is simply because he has an outstanding sense of humor and always make others happy. First fell in love with a woman named Anne Rutledge, a neighbor child innkeeper where he lived. Anne's father was the one who suggested that Lincoln entered politics.

At the beginning of his career, Lincoln was elected to Parliament for the area of Illinois in 1834. Then re-elected in 1838 and 1840. At that time, he met a man named Stephen Douglas, who later become rivals both in terms of love and political affairs. Mary Todd, the woman who they fighting, came from Kentucky, chose Lincoln as husband, but they are not happy pernikahn. In 1842, after a year of their marriage, Lincoln opened a firm with a friend named William H. Herndon. Friendship these two men apparently persisted until the end of Life of Lincoln. In later days, Herndon was the one who wrote a biography of Abraham Lincoln.

In 1846, Lincoln was elected to Congress. However membership is not renewed because he was proposing legislation to end slavery in the District of Columbia. Disappointed, he returned to enable his firm. He stopped his political activities for some time, but then he is better known by the public as an honest lawyer.

In fact, Lincoln could not stop for too long from the political world. In 1854, the issue of slavery made him jump back into politics. Taampaknya he had to compete with Stephen Douglas, who tried to subdue the South Americans who supported slavery, while the North opposed it. Lincoln did not expect that half of the country maintained the practice of slavery as opposed to half-brother of fellow countrymen. He was thinking, no nation may consist of half slave half instead. However, Lincoln was hit in the first round against Douglas, in getting the U.S. Senate seat.

Although this time he lost, in May 1860, Lincoln was elected as a Republican presidential candidate. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party all-out attack, and they call it a 'lawyer beans', 'incompetent to speak English' and so forth. But ultimately, he was elected President of the United States. Four days after he became President, Southern states were out of the Federation of American States. Southern states were later formed a confederacy itself. Lincoln felt sad for him, and tried to seek an end to the separation. However, the conflict between North and South was even more heightened and became the Civil War. Lincoln continues to try to stop the conflict despite his best to no avail.

To understand the political background of the American Civil War, have described how the origin of America was formed. In the 17th century, migrants from the British, French, Spanish, Dutch and Germans came to North America, which they regard as a new uninhabited land they found. They came in search of prosperity, freedom of religion, as well as to expand the power of their home country and build a new empire. UK and then apply its laws there, so that new land they called New England. After the war of American independence, free territories were then formed a federation, which they call the United States. Each new federation was agreed to keep taking care of their own government, although they also have to deal with common interests. Because, things like Defense remains a common affair.

The southern part of the American who joined the federation, developing their agricultural workers who depend on slavery. The northern part more dependent on trade and industry, although agriculture remains important regard. Because there was no slavery in the north. Meanwhile, the issue of slavery became a hot issue for the new region to join the United, while the people in these states have not fully prepared with the issue of slavery. Meanwhile, American laws declared all men are equally entitled to the 'life and liberty to gain happiness', but also protects private property rights. Slaves are private. Opinion that the slave is private property are contrary to other opinions that the slave is Man who also owns the rights to independence. This is the basic problem for people all over the U.S. territory.

Actually, many aspects that can be seen from this issue. First, what is an enslaved human too right? Today, slavery is not justified in many other countries around the world. Everyone agrees that clearly is not justified to curb the freedom of others. But the southern people have been spending a lot of money to purchase slaves. Social life, economic, political and they walked on the basis of ownership of slaves. So, really not difficult to understand how important the practice of slavery for them.

There is also a political side in slave ownership problems for countries in the South. How to run a 'Union States' when some of the region consists of the 'people-free' while others are 'slaves'? Although, this is a desirable competitor Lincoln, Douglas. Clearly, countries in the South worry if more and more territory Federation of the 'so-free', then slavery would be abolished completely. They think if this happens, they will go bankrupt, both socially and politically. The only solution may have to form two separate federal. But even this proved impossible.

Shortly after Lincoln was elected President, the South withdrew from the federation. On April 12, 1861, the South attacked the North in the town of Fort Sunter. Civil War or the 'war between the states federation' has begun.

There are great differences between North and South. In the northern area of skin more white population. They are more advanced in the field of production of goods while the South is better in agriculture. In many cases, exceed the North South, Southern military although very skilled, real war occurs more frequently in the South. Although they are better in terms of fighting. War is not easy for them to win. As we know, after several assaults, the North won the war. As the war progresses, Lincoln, still urged the holding of another election at the end of the period he served as President, and it turns out he was re-elected for another term.

In November 1863, in the battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered a speech, which is remembered throughout history. He said "... was born a new nation, founded on freedom that upholds the recognition that all men are created equal." The words of Lincoln at Gettysburg gives two principles of freedom and equality - which is the basis of the American establishment.

Lincoln died in a way that unexpected. We are witnessing the theater with his wife, he was shot by a fellow named John Wilkes Booth. Pick her death, when peace has come to America. Maybe it is the culmination of events that must occur as tumbal end slavery in America. After his death, Lincoln was known as a great man, and the ideals that have been established to uphold continue to be maintained by all Americans.

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Muhammad Ali Biography

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. The elder of two boys, he was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., who was named for the 19th century abolitionist and politician of the same name. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa Grady Clay, was a household domestic. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. He is a descendant of pre-Civil War era American slaves in the American South, and is predominantly of African-American descent with Irish and English ancestry.

Clay was first directed toward boxing by the white Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over the theft of his bicycle. However, without Martin's knowledge, Clay also began training with Fred Stoner, an African-American trainer working at the local community center. In this way, Clay could make $4 a week on Tomorrow's Champions, a local, weekly TV show that Martin hosted, while benefiting from the coaching of the more experienced Stoner, who continued working with Clay throughout his amateur career.

Under Stoner's guidance, Cassius Clay won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union National Title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses.

Ali states (in his 1975 autobiography) that he threw his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River after being refused service at a 'whites-only' restaurant, and fighting with a white gang. Whether this is true is still debated, although he was given a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer Biography

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a religious leader in Germany who was also very active in the resistance movement against the Nazis. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran leader, who was part of the plot that the Military Intelligence Office was hatching to assassinate Hitler. However, the assassination failed and Bonhoeffer was arrested and then hanged.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Biography was born in Breslau, Germany on February 4, 1946. Breslau is modern-day Wrawclaw located in Poland. His family was upper middle class; his father was a psychiatrist in Berlin, while his mother was a homemaker who homeschooled the children.

At an early age, Bonhoeffer showed interest in becoming a minister, and his parents supported him. He attended college at Tubingen and then went on to receive a doctorate in Theology from the University of Berlin. After that, he was ordained as a minister. However, he wanted to study further and spent a year in New York City at the Union Theological Seminary.

In 1931, he returned to Germany. He became a lecturer in Theology in Berlin and wrote many books. He was against Nazism, and he set up the Confessing Church along with Martin Niemoller, Karl Barth and other people with similar views.

Between 1933 and 1935, he went to London where he was a pastor for two German speaking Protestant churches. Thereafter, he returned to Germany to become the head of the seminary of Confessing Church. However, this was illegal and was closed down in 1937. In addition, the Gestapo banned Bonhoeffer from preaching, teaching and speaking in public. During this time, he was closely associated with people who were against Hitler and considered as his opponents.

During World War II, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was key leader for the Confessing Church, which was against the anti-semitic policies of Hitler. He called for other churches to unite and resist the treatment being meted out to Jews. Although Confessing Church was not big, it was still the major opposition by a Christian church to the policies of the Nazis in Germany.

In 1939, Bonhoeffer joined high ranking military officers from the Military Intelligence Office who were planning to overthrow the Nazis by killing Hitler. However, he was arrested in 1943 after the authorities managed to trace the money that was used to help Jews escape to him. He was imprisoned for a year and half in Berlin.

On July 20, 1944, the plot to assassinate Hitler failed, and the authorities managed to discover that Bonhoeffer had connections with the perpetrators of the plot. It was then Bonhoeffer was moved from one prison to another until he ended up in Flossenburg concentration camp. Here he was hanged just three weeks before the city was liberated by the allies. Besides Bonhoeffer, his brother Klaus, brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi and Rudiger Schleicher were executed for their parts in the plot.

In 1990s, the German government absolved Bonhoeffer of any crime. However, even today, there is a lot of debate as to why Bonhoeffer moved from Christian pacifism to planning the assassination of Hitler.

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