Robert Downey Jr

• Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor. His career has included critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, and a resurgence of commercial success in middle age. For three consecutive years from 2012 to 2015, Downey has topped the Forbes list of Hollywood's highest-paid actors, making an estimated $80 million in earnings between June 2014 and June 2015.

• Making his acting debut at the age of five, appearing in his father's film Pound (1970), Downey Jr. appeared in roles associated with the Brat Pack, such as the teen sci-fi comedy Weird Science (1985) and the drama Less Than Zero (1987). He starred as the title character in the 1992 film Chaplin, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won him the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. After being released in 2000 from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison where he was on drug charges, Downey joined the cast of the TV series Ally McBeal playing Calista Flockhart's love interest. This earned him a Golden Globe Award. His character was written out when Downey was fired after two drug arrests in late 2000 and early 2001. After his last stay in a court-ordered drug treatment program, Downey achieved sobriety.

• Downey Jr.'s career prospects improved when he featured in the mystery thriller Zodiac (2007), and the satirical action comedy Tropic Thunder (2008); for the latter he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Beginning in 2008, Downey began portraying the role of Marvel Comics superhero Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in several films as either the lead role, member of an ensemble cast, or in a cameo. Each of these films has grossed over $500 million at the box office worldwide; four of these—The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3 and Captain America: Civil War—earned over $1 billion. Downey Jr. has also played the title character in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (2009) and its sequel (2011).

Early life and family

• Downey was born in Manhattan, New York, the younger of two children. His father, Robert Downey Sr., is an actor and filmmaker, while his mother, Elsie Ann, was an actress who appeared in Downey Sr.'s films. Downey's father is of half Lithuanian Jewish, one-quarter Hungarian Jewish, and one-quarter Irish descent, while Downey's mother had Scottish, German, and Swiss ancestry. Downey and his older sister Allyson grew up in Greenwich Village.

• As a child, Downey was "surrounded by drugs". His father, a drug addict, allowed Downey to use marijuana at age six, an incident which his father has said he now regrets. Downey later stated that drug use became an emotional bond between him and his father: "When my dad and I would do drugs together, it was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew how." Eventually, Downey began spending every night abusing alcohol and "making a thousand phone calls in pursuit of drugs".

• During his childhood Downey had minor roles in his father's films. He made his acting debut at the age of five, playing a sick puppy in the absurdist comedy Pound (1970), and then at seven appeared in the surrealist Greaser's Palace (1972). At the age of ten, he was living in England and studied classical ballet as part of a larger curriculum. He attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York as a teenager. When his parents divorced in 1978, Downey moved to California with his father, but in 1982 he dropped out of Santa Monica High School and moved back to New York to pursue an acting career full-time.

• Downey and Kiefer Sutherland, who shared the screen in the 1988 drama 1969, were roommates for three years when he first moved to Hollywood to pursue his career in acting.

CareerBeginnings and critical acclaim

• Downey began building upon theater roles, including in the short-lived off-Broadway musical American Passion at the Joyce Theater in 1983, produced by Norman Lear. In 1985, he was part of the new, younger cast hired for Saturday Night Live, but following a year of poor ratings and criticism of the new cast's comedic talents, he and most of the new crew were replaced. Rolling Stone magazine named Downey the worst SNL cast member in its entire run, stating that the "Downey Fail sums up everything that makes SNL great." That same year, Downey had a dramatic acting breakthrough when he played James Spader's sidekick in Tuff Turf and then a bully in John Hughes' Weird Science. He was considered for the role of Duckie in John Hughes' film Pretty in Pink (1986), but his first lead role was with Molly Ringwald in The Pick-up Artist (1987). Because of these and other coming-of-age films Downey did during the 1980s, he is sometimes named as a member of the Brat Pack.

• In 1987, Downey played Julian Wells, a drug-addicted rich boy whose life rapidly spirals out of his control, in the film version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero. His performance, described by Janet Maslin in The New York Times as "desperately moving", was widely praised, though Downey has said that for him "the role was like the ghost of Christmas Future" since his drug habit resulted in his becoming an "exaggeration of the character" in real life. Zero drove Downey into films with bigger budgets and names, such as Chances Are (1989) with Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O'Neal, Air America (1990) with Mel Gibson, and Soapdish (1991) with Sally Field, Kevin Kline, and Whoopi Goldberg.

• In 1992, he starred as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, a role for which he prepared extensively, learning how to play the violin and tennis left-handed. He had a personal coach in order to help him imitate Chaplin's posture and way of carrying himself. The role garnered Downey an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor at the Academy Awards 65th ceremony, losing to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.

• In 1993, he appeared in the films Heart and Souls with Alfre Woodard and Kyra Sedgwick and Short Cuts with Matthew Modine and Julianne Moore, along with a documentary that he wrote about the 1992 presidential campaigns titled The Last Party (1993). He starred in the 1994 films, Only You with Marisa Tomei, and Natural Born Killers with Woody Harrelson. He then subsequently appeared in Restoration (1995), Richard III (1995), Two Girls and a Guy (1998), as Special Agent John Royce in U.S. Marshals (1998), and in Black and White (1999).

Career troubles (1996–2001)

• Downey at the premiere of Air America,1990. From 1996 through 2001, Downey was arrested numerous times on drug-related charges including cocaine, heroin and marijuana and went several times through drug treatment programs unsuccessfully, explaining in 1999 to a judge: "It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth, and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal." He explained his relapses by claiming to have been addicted to drugs since the age of eight, due to the fact that his father, also an addict, had been giving them to him.

• In April 1996, Downey was arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded .357 Magnum handgun while he was speeding down Sunset Boulevard. A month later, while on parole, he trespassed into a neighbor's home while under the influence of a controlled substance and fell asleep in one of the beds. He was sentenced to three years of probation and required to undergo compulsory drug testing. In 1997, he missed one of the court-ordered drug tests and had to spend six months in the Los Angeles County jail.

• After Downey missed another required drug test in 1999, he was arrested once more. Despite Downey's lawyer, John Stewart Holden, assembling for his client's 1999 defense the same team of lawyers that successfully defended O.J. Simpson during his criminal trial for murder, Downey was sentenced to a three-year prison term at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California (a.k.a. "Corcoran II"). At the time of the 1999 arrest, all of Downey's film projects had wrapped and were close to release, with the exception of In Dreams, which he was allowed to complete filming. He had also been hired for voicing the devil on the NBC animated television series God, the Devil and Bob, but was fired when he failed to show up for rehearsals.

• After spending nearly a year in California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California, Downey, on condition of posting $5,000 bail, was unexpectedly freed when a judge ruled that his collective time in incarceration facilities (spawned from the initial 1996 arrests) had qualified him for early release. A week after his 2000 release, Downey joined the cast of the hit television series Ally McBeal, playing the new love interest of Calista Flockhart's title character. His performance was praised and the following year he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a mini-series or television film. He also appeared as a writer and singer on Vonda Shepard's Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life album, and he sang with Sting a duet of "Every Breath You Take" in an episode of the series. Despite the apparent success, Downey claims that his performance on the series was overrated and said, "It was my lowest point in terms of addictions. At that stage, I didn't give a fuck whether I ever acted again." In January 2001, Downey was scheduled to play the role of Hamlet in a Los Angeles stage production directed by Mel Gibson.

• Before the end of his first season on Ally McBeal, over the Thanksgiving 2000 holiday, Downey was arrested when his room at Merv Griffin's Hotel and Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs, California was searched by the police, who were responding to an anonymous 911 call. Downey was under the influence of a controlled substance and in possession of cocaine and Valium. Despite the fact that, if convicted, he could face a prison sentence of up to four years and eight months, he signed on to appear in at least eight more Ally McBeal episodes.

• In April 2001, while he was on parole, a Los Angeles police officer found him wandering barefoot in Culver City, just outside Los Angeles. He was arrested for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, but was released a few hours later, even though tests showed he had cocaine in his system. After this last arrest, producer David E. Kelley and other Ally McBeal executives ordered last-minute rewrites and reshoots and dismissed Downey from the show, despite the fact that Downey's character had resuscitated Ally McBeal's ratings. The Culver City arrest also cost him a role in the high-profile film America's Sweethearts, and the subsequent incarceration forced Mel Gibson to shut down his planned stage production of Hamlet, as well. In July 2001, Downey pleaded no contest to the Palm Springs charges, avoiding jail time. Instead, he was sent into drug rehabilitation and put on a three-year probation, benefiting from the California Proposition 36, which had been passed the year before with the aim of helping nonviolent drug offenders overcome their addictions instead of sending them to jail.

• The book Conversations with Woody Allen reports that director Woody Allen wanted to cast Downey and Winona Ryder in his film Melinda and Melinda in 2005, but was unable to do so because he could not get insurance on them, stating, "We couldn't get bonded. The completion bonding companies would not bond the picture unless we could insure them. We were heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before [on Celebrity] and thought she was perfect for this and wanted to work with her again. And I had always wanted to work with Bob Downey and always thought he was a huge talent."

• In a December 18, 2000 article for People magazine entitled "Bad to Worse", Downey's stepmother Rosemary told author Alex Tresnlowski that Downey had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder "a few years ago" and added that his bipolar disorder was "the reason he has a hard time staying sober. What hasn't been tried is medication and intensive psychotherapy." In the same article, Dr. Manijeh Nikakhtar, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and co-author of Addiction or Self-Medication: The Truth (ISBN 978-1883819576), says she received a letter from Downey in 1999, during his time at Corcoran II, asking for advice on his condition. She discovered that "no one had done a complete [psychiatric] evaluation [on him]...I asked him flat out if he thought he was bipolar, and he said, 'Oh yeah. There are times I spend a lot of money and I'm hyperactive, and there are other times I'm down.' In an article for the March 2007 issue of Esquire, Downey told author Scott Raab that he wanted to address "this whole thing about the bipolar" after receiving a phone call from "the Bipolar Association" asking him about being bipolar. When Downey denied he had ever said he was bipolar, the caller quoted the People article, to which Downey replied, "'No! Dr. Malibusian said [I said I was bipolar]...', and they go, 'Well, it's been written, so we're going to quote it.'" Downey flatly denied being "depressed or manic" and that previous attempts to diagnose him with any kind of psychiatric or mood disorder have always been skewed because "the guy I was seeing didn't know I was smokin' crack in his bathroom. You can't make a diagnosis until somebody's sober.

Career comeback (2001–2008)

• Downey at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con International promoting Iron Man.After five years of substance abuse, arrests, rehab, and relapse, Downey was finally ready to work toward a full recovery from drugs and a return to his career. In discussing his failed attempts to control his own addictive behavior in the past, Downey told Oprah Winfrey in November 2004 that "when someone says, 'I really wonder if maybe I should go to rehab?' Well, uh, you're a wreck, you just lost your job, and your wife left you. Uh, you might want to give it a shot." He added that after his last arrest in April 2001, when he knew he would likely be facing another stint in prison or another form of incarceration such as court-ordered rehab, "I said, 'You know what? I don't think I can continue doing this.' And I reached out for help, and I ran with it. You can reach out for help in kind of a half-assed way and you'll get it and you won't take advantage of it. It's not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems...what's hard is to decide to do it."

• Downey got his first post-rehab acting job in August 2001, lip-syncing in the video for Elton John's single "I Want Love". Video director Sam Taylor-Wood shot 16 takes of the video and used the last one because, according to John, Downey looked completely relaxed, and, "The way he underplays it is fantastic."

• Downey was able to return to the big screen only after Mel Gibson, who had been a close friend to Downey since both had co-starred in Air America, paid Downey's insurance bond for the 2003 film The Singing Detective. Gibson's gamble paved the way for Downey's comeback and Downey returned to mainstream films in the mid-2000s with Gothika, for which producer Joel Silver withheld 40 percent of his salary until after production wrapped as insurance against his addictive behavior. Similar clauses have become standard in his contracts since then. Silver, who was getting closer to Downey as he dated his assistant Susan Levin, also got the actor the leading role in the comedy thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the directorial debut of screenwriter Shane Black.

• After Gothika, Downey was cast in a number of leading and supporting roles, including well-received work in a number of semi-independent films: A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Good Night, and Good Luck, Richard Linklater's dystopian, rotoscoped A Scanner Darkly (in which Downey plays the role of a drug addict), and Steven Shainberg's fictional biographical film of Diane Arbus, Fur, where Downey's character represented the two biggest influences on Arbus' professional life, Lisette Model and Marvin Israel.[60] Downey also received great notice for his roles in more mainstream fare such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Disney's poorly received The Shaggy Dog.

• On November 23, 2004, Downey released his debut musical album, The Futurist, on Sony Classical, for which he designed the cover art and designed the track listing label on the CD with his son Indio. The album received mixed reviews, but Downey stated in 2006 that he probably will not do another album, as he felt that the energy he put into doing the album was not compensated.

• In 2006, Downey returned to his television roots when he guest-starred on Family Guy in the episode "The Fat Guy Strangler". Downey had previously telephoned the show's production staff and asked if he could produce or assist in an episode creation, as his son Indio is a fan of the show. The producers of the show accepted the offer and created the character of Patrick Pewterschmidt, Lois Griffin's long lost, mentally disturbed brother, for Downey.

• Downey signed on with publishers HarperCollins to write a memoir, which in 2006 was already being billed as a "candid look at the highs and lows of his life and career". In 2008, however, Downey returned his advance to the publishers and canceled the book without further comment.

• In 2007, Downey appeared in David Fincher's mystery thriller Zodiac, which was based on a true story. He played the role of San Francisco Chronicle journalist Paul Avery, who was reporting the Zodiac Killer case.

Summer 2008 blockbusters

• Downey promoting Iron Man in Mexico City in 2008. With all of the critical success Downey had experienced throughout his career, he had never appeared in a "blockbuster" film. That changed in the middle of 2008 when Downey starred in two critically and commercially successful films, Iron Man and Tropic Thunder. In the article Ben Stiller wrote for Downey's entry in the 2008 edition of The Time 100, he offered an observation on Downey's commercially successful summer at the box office:

• Yes, Downey is Iron Man, but he really is Actor Man. In the realm where box office is irrelevant and talent is king, the realm that actually means something, he has always ruled, and finally this summer he gets to have his cake and let us eat him up all the way to the multiplex, where his mastery is in full effect.

• Ben Stiller, The 2008 Time 100, entry No. 60, "Robert Downey Jr." In 2007, Downey was cast as the title character in the film Iron Man, with director Jon Favreau explaining the choice by stating: "Downey wasn't the most obvious choice, but he understood what makes the character tick. He found a lot of his own life experience in 'Tony Stark'." Favreau insisted on having Downey as he repeatedly claimed that Downey would be to Iron Man what Johnny Depp is to the Pirates of the Caribbean series, a lead actor that could both elevate the quality of the film and increase the public's interest in it. For the role Downey had to gain more than 20 pounds of muscle in five months to look like he "had the power to forge iron."

• Iron Man was globally released between April 30 and May 3, 2008, grossing over $585 million worldwide and receiving rave reviews which cited Downey's performance as a highlight of the film. As a result, both Downey and Favreau stated their interest in making an Iron Man trilogy. By October 2008, Downey had agreed to appear as Iron Man in two Iron Man sequels and The Avengers, featuring the superhero team that Stark joins, based on Marvel's comic book series The Avengers.[80] He also made a small appearance as Iron Man's alter ego Tony Stark in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk, as a part of Marvel Studios' attempt to depict the same Marvel Universe on film by providing continuity among the movies. Downey reprised the role again in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Captain America: Civil War (2016).

• After Iron Man, Downey appeared alongside Ben Stiller and Jack Black in another 2008 summer film, the Stiller-directed Tropic Thunder. The three stars each play a Hollywood archetype with Downey playing a self-absorbed multi-Oscar-winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus as they star in an extremely expensive Vietnam-era film called Tropic Thunder. Lazarus undergoes a "controversial skin pigmentation procedure" in order to take on the role of African American platoon sergeant Lincoln Osiris, which required Downey to wear dark makeup and a wig. Both Stiller and Downey feared Downey's portrayal of the character could become controversial:

• Stiller says that he and Downey always stayed focused on the fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African Americans. "I was trying to push it as far as you can within reality," Stiller explains. "I had no idea how people would respond to it." Stiller screened a rough cut of the film [in March 2008] and it scored high with African Americans. He was relieved at the reaction. "It seems people really embrace it," he said.

• When asked by Harry Smith on CBS's The Early Show who his model was for Lazarus, Downey laughed before responding, "Sadly, my sorry-ass self."

• Released in the United States on August 13, 2008, Tropic Thunder received good reviews with 83% of reviews positive and an average normalized score of 71, according to the review aggregator websites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, respectively. It earned US$26 million in its North American opening weekend and retained the number one position for its first three weekends of release. The film grossed $180 million in theaters before its release on home video on November 18, 2008. Downey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Lazarus.

2009–present

• Downey with Rachel McAdams at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International. Opening in late April 2009 was a film Downey finished in mid-2008, The Soloist. The film was pushed out from a November 2008 release by Paramount Pictures due to the studio's tight end-of-year release schedule. Critics who had seen the film in 2008 were mentioning it as a possible Academy Award candidate. Downey picked up an Academy Award nomination for the 2008 release year for his role in Tropic Thunder.

• The first role Downey accepted after Iron Man was the title character in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. Warner Bros. released on December 25, 2009. The film set several box office records in the United States for a Christmas Day release, beating the previous record holder, 2008's Marley & Me, by nearly $10M, and finished second only to Avatar in a record-setting Christmas weekend box office. Sherlock Holmes ended up being the 8th highest-grossing film of 2009. When Downey won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his role as Sherlock Holmes, he noted in his acceptance speech that he had prepared no remarks because "Susan Downey (his wife and Sherlock Holmes producer) told me that Matt Damon (nominated for his role in The Informant!) was going to win so don't bother preparing a speech."

• Following the tremendous success of 2008's Iron Man, Downey agreed to reprise his role as Tony Stark in two more Iron Man films as well as the superhero team put together by S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers. After appearing in a connecting cameo scene at the end of the 2008 version of The Incredible Hulk, Downey returned as Tony Stark in the first of two planned sequels to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, opened in May 2010. It grossed over $623M worldwide, becoming the 7th highest-grossing film of 2010.

• Downey's other commercial film release of 2010 was the comedy road film Due Date. The movie, co-starring Zach Galifianakis, was released in November 2010 and grossed over $211M worldwide, making it the 36th highest-grossing movie of 2010.Downey's sole 2011 film credit was the sequel to the 2009 version of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which opened worldwide on December 16, 2011.

• In 2012, Downey reprised the role of Tony Stark in The Avengers. The film received positive reviews and was highly successful at the box office, becoming the third highest-grossing film of all time both in the United States and worldwide.[99] Downey played Tony Stark again in Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and will again in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). His film, the David Dobkin-directed dramedy The Judge, a project co-produced by his production company Team Downey, was the opening film at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014.

• Downey is scheduled to star in an upcoming Pinocchio film, as well as Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled sequel.

Music

• Robert Downey Jr. has sung on several soundtracks in his films such as Chaplin, Too Much Sun, Two Girls and a Guy, Friends and Lovers, The Singing Detective and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He released a CD in 2004 called The Futurist, and while promoting his film Tropic Thunder, he and his co-stars Ben Stiller and Jack Black were back-up singers "The Pips" to Gladys Knight singing "Midnight Train to Georgia".

• Downey's most commercially successful recording venture to date (combining sales and radio airplay) has been his remake of the 1973 Joni Mitchell Christmas song "River", which was included on the Ally McBeal tie-in album Ally McBeal: A Very Ally Christmas, released in 2000; Downey's character Larry Paul performs the song in the Ally McBeal episode "Tis the Season".

Production company

• On June 14, 2010, Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan, opened their own production company called Team Downey. Their first project was The Judge.

Relationships and family

• Downey started dating actress Sarah Jessica Parker after meeting her on the set of Firstborn. The couple later separated due to his drug addiction.

• He married actress/singer Deborah Falconer on May 29, 1992, after a 42-day courtship, their son, Indio Falconer Downey, was born in September 1993. The strain on their marriage from Downey's repeated trips to rehab and jail finally reached a breaking point; in 2001, in the midst of Downey's last arrest and sentencing to an extended stay in rehab, Falconer left Downey and took their son with her. Downey and Falconer finalized their divorce on April 26, 2004.

• Downey and his wife Susan at the 2010 Academy Awards. In 2003, Downey met producer Susan Levin, an Executive Vice President of Production at Joel Silver's film company, Silver Pictures on the set of Gothika. Downey and Susan quietly struck up a romance during production, though Susan turned down his romantic advances twice. Despite Susan's worries that the romance would not last after the completion of shooting because "he's an actor; I have a real job", the couple's relationship continued after production wrapped on Gothika, and Downey proposed to Susan on the night before her thirtieth birthday. The couple were married in August 2005, in a Jewish ceremony at Amagansett, New York. A tattoo on one of his biceps reads "Suzie Q" in tribute to her. Their first child, a son, was born in February 2012, their second child, a daughter, was born in November 2014.

• Downey has been a close friend of Mel Gibson since they starred in Air America. Downey defended Gibson during the controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ, and said "nobody's perfect" in reference to Gibson's DUI. Gibson said of Downey: "He was one of the first people to call and offer the hand of friendship. He just said, 'Hey, welcome to the club. Let's go see what we can do to work on ourselves.'" In October 2011, Downey was being honored at the 25th American Cinematheque Awards; Downey chose Gibson to present him with his award for his life's work, and used his air time to say a few kind words about Gibson and explain why he chose him to present the award.

Religious beliefs

• Downey has described his religious beliefs as "Jewish-Buddhist" and studies astrology. In the past, Downey has been interested in Christianity and the Hare Krishna ideology.

Work ethic

• In a panel discussion, Rachel McAdams, who co-starred with Downey in Sherlock Holmes, called him a "superhero" for his "committed" work ethic. On the same panel, Downey described how he worked long hours and many weekends to ensure the accuracy of his portrayal of Holmes so as to help make the film a success.

Movies & Television 

• Robert Downey Jr acted on 78 Films up to Spider man Home Coming, TV series acted on Five Serial and one Iron man game will be released.              

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Alexander Graham Bell

• Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.

• Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.

• Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. Although Bell was not one of the 33 founders. of the National Geographic Society, he had a strong influence on the magazine while serving as the second president from January 7, 1898, until 1903.

Early life

• Alexander Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. The family home was at 16 South Charlotte Street, and has a stone inscription marking it as Alexander Graham Bell's birthplace. He had two brothers: Melville James Bell (1845–70) and Edward Charles Bell (1848–67), both of whom would die of tuberculosis. His father was Professor Alexander Melville Bell, a phonetician, and his mother was Eliza Grace (née Symonds).Born as just "Alexander Bell", at age 10, he made a plea to his father to have a middle name like his two brothers. For his 11th birthday, his father acquiesced and allowed him to adopt the name "Graham", chosen out of respect for Alexander Graham, a Canadian being treated by his father who had become a family friend. To close relatives and friends he remained "Aleck"

First invention

• As a child, young Bell displayed a natural curiosity about his world, resulting in gathering botanical specimens as well as experimenting even at an early age. His best friend was Ben Herdman, a neighbour whose family operated a flour mill, the scene of many forays. Young Bell asked what needed to be done at the mill. He was told wheat had to be dehusked through a laborious process and at the age of 12, Bell built a homemade device that combined rotating paddles with sets of nail brushes, creating a simple dehusking machine that was put into operation and used steadily for a number of years. In return, Ben's father John Herdman gave both boys the run of a small workshop in which to "invent".

• From his early years, Bell showed a sensitive nature and a talent for art, poetry, and music that was encouraged by his mother. With no formal training, he mastered the piano and became the family's pianist. Despite being normally quiet and introspective, he revelled in mimicry and "voice tricks" akin to ventriloquism that continually entertained family guests during their occasional visits. Bell was also deeply affected by his mother's gradual deafness (she began to lose her hearing when he was 12), and learned a manual finger language so he could sit at her side and tap out silently the conversations swirling around the family parlour. He also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mother's forehead wherein she would hear him with reasonable clarity. Bell's preoccupation with his mother's deafness led him to study acoustics.

• His family was long associated with the teaching of elocution: his grandfather, Alexander Bell, in London, his uncle in Dublin, and his father, in Edinburgh, were all elocutionists. His father published a variety of works on the subject, several of which are still well known, especially his The Standard Elocutionist (1860), which appeared in Edinburgh in 1868. The Standard Elocutionist appeared in 168 British editions and sold over a quarter of a million copies in the United States alone. In this treatise, his father explains his methods of how to instruct deaf-mutes (as they were then known) to articulate words and read other people's lip movements to decipher meaning. Bell's father taught him and his brothers not only to write Visible Speech but to identify any symbol and its accompanying sound. Bell became so proficient that he became a part of his father's public demonstrations and astounded audiences with his abilities. He could decipher Visible Speech representing virtually every language, including Latin, Scottish Gaelic, and even Sanskrit, accurately reciting written tracts without any prior knowledge of their pronunciation.

Education

• As a young child, Bell, like his brothers, received his early schooling at home from his father. At an early age, he was enrolled at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, Scotland, which he left at the age of 15, having completed only the first four forms His school record was undistinguished, marked by absenteeism and lacklustre grades. His main interest remained in the sciences, especially biology while he treated other school subjects with indifference, to the dismay of his demanding father. Upon leaving school, Bell travelled to London to live with his grandfather, Alexander Bell. During the year he spent with his grandfather, a love of learning was born, with long hours spent in serious discussion and study. The elder Bell took great efforts to have his young pupil learn to speak clearly and with conviction, the attributes that his pupil would need to become a teacher himself. At the age of 16, Bell secured a position as a "pupil-teacher" of elocution and music, in Weston House Academy at Elgin, Moray, Scotland. Although he was enrolled as a student in Latin and Greek, he instructed classes himself in return for board and £10 per session. The following year, he attended the University of Edinburgh; joining his older brother Melville who had enrolled there the previous year. In 1868, not long before he departed for Canada with his family, Bell completed his matriculation exams and was accepted for admission to University College London.

First experiments with sound

• His father encouraged Bell's interest in speech and, in 1863, took his sons to see a unique automaton developed by Sir Charles Wheatstone based on the earlier work of Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen. The rudimentary "mechanical man" simulated a human voice. Bell was fascinated by the machine and after he obtained a copy of von Kempelen's book, published in German, and had laboriously translated it, he and his older brother Melville built their own automaton head. Their father, highly interested in their project, offered to pay for any supplies and spurred the boys on with the enticement of a "big prize" if they were successful. While his brother constructed the throat and larynx, Bell tackled the more difficult task of recreating a realistic skull. His efforts resulted in a remarkably lifelike head that could "speak", albeit only a few words. The boys would carefully adjust the "lips" and when a bellows forced air through the windpipe, a very recognizable "Mama" ensued, to the delight of neighbours who came to see the Bell invention.

• Intrigued by the results of the automaton, Bell continued to experiment with a live subject, the family's Skye Terrier, "Trouve". After he taught it to growl continuously, Bell would reach into its mouth and manipulate the dog's lips and vocal cords to produce a crude-sounding "Ow ah oo ga ma ma". With little convincing, visitors believed his dog could articulate "How are you, grandma?" Indicative of his playful nature, his experiments convinced onlookers that they saw a "talking dog". These initial forays into experimentation with sound led Bell to undertake his first serious work on the transmission of sound, using tuning forks to explore resonance.

• At age 19, Bell wrote a report on his work and sent it to philologist Alexander Ellis, a colleague of his father (who would later be portrayed as Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion). Ellis immediately wrote back indicating that the experiments were similar to existing work in Germany, and also lent Bell a copy of Hermann von Helmholtz's work, The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music.

• Dismayed to find that groundbreaking work had already been undertaken by Helmholtz who had conveyed vowel sounds by means of a similar tuning fork "contraption", Bell pored over the German scientist's book. Working from his own erroneous mistranslation of a French edition, Bell fortuitously then made a deduction that would be the underpinning of all his future work on transmitting sound, reporting: "Without knowing much about the subject, it seemed to me that if vowel sounds could be produced by electrical means, so could consonants, so could articulate speech." He also later remarked: "I thought that Helmholtz had done it ... and that my failure was due only to my ignorance of electricity. It was a valuable blunder ... If I had been able to read German in those days, I might never have commenced my experiments.

Family tragedy

• In 1865, when the Bell family moved to London, Bell returned to Weston House as an assistant master and, in his spare hours, continued experiments on sound using a minimum of laboratory equipment. Bell concentrated on experimenting with electricity to convey sound and later installed a telegraph wire from his room in Somerset College to that of a friend. Throughout late 1867, his health faltered mainly through exhaustion. His younger brother, Edward "Ted," was similarly bed-ridden, suffering from tuberculosis. While Bell recovered (by then referring to himself in correspondence as "A. G. Bell") and served the next year as an instructor at Somerset College, Bath, England, his brother's condition deteriorated. Edward would never recover. Upon his brother's death, Bell returned home in 1867. His older brother Melville had married and moved out. With aspirations to obtain a degree at University College London, Bell considered his next years as preparation for the degree examinations, devoting his spare time at his family's residence to studying.

• Helping his father in Visible Speech demonstrations and lectures brought Bell to Susanna E. Hull's private school for the deaf in South Kensington, London. His first two pupils were deaf-mute girls who made remarkable progress under his tutelage. While his older brother seemed to achieve success on many fronts including opening his own elocution school, applying for a patent on an invention, and starting a family, Bell continued as a teacher. However, in May 1870, Melville died from complications due to tuberculosis, causing a family crisis. His father had also suffered a debilitating illness earlier in life and had been restored to health by a convalescence in Newfoundland. Bell's parents embarked upon a long-planned move when they realized that their remaining son was also sickly. Acting decisively, Alexander Melville Bell asked Bell to arrange for the sale of all the family property, conclude all of his brother's affairs (Bell took over his last student, curing a pronounced lisp), and join his father and mother in setting out for the "New World". Reluctantly, Bell also had to conclude a relationship with Marie Eccleston, who, as he had surmised, was not prepared to leave England with him.

Telephone

• By 1874, Bell's initial work on the harmonic telegraph had entered a formative stage, with progress made both at his new Boston "laboratory" (a rented facility) and at his family home in Canada a big success. While working that summer in Brantford, Bell experimented with a "phonautograph", a pen-like machine that could draw shapes of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing their vibrations. Bell thought it might be possible to generate undulating electrical currents that corresponded to sound waves. Bell also thought that multiple metal reeds tuned to different frequencies like a harp would be able to convert the undulating currents back into sound. But he had no working model to demonstrate the feasibility of these ideas.

• In 1874, telegraph message traffic was rapidly expanding and in the words of Western Union President William Orton, had become "the nervous system of commerce". Orton had contracted with inventors Thomas Edison and Elisha Gray to find a way to send multiple telegraph messages on each telegraph line to avoid the great cost of constructing new lines. When Bell mentioned to Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders that he was working on a method of sending multiple tones on a telegraph wire using a multi-reed device, the two wealthy patrons began to financially support Bell's experiments. Patent matters would be handled by Hubbard's patent attorney, Anthony Pollok.

• In March 1875, Bell and Pollok visited the famous scientist Joseph Henry, who was then director of the Smithsonian Institution, and asked Henry's advice on the electrical multi-reed apparatus that Bell hoped would transmit the human voice by telegraph. Henry replied that Bell had "the germ of a great invention". When Bell said that he did not have the necessary knowledge, Henry replied, "Get it!" That declaration greatly encouraged Bell to keep trying, even though he did not have the equipment needed to continue his experiments, nor the ability to create a working model of his ideas. However, a chance meeting in 1874 between Bell and Thomas A. Watson, an experienced electrical designer and mechanic at the electrical machine shop of Charles Williams, changed all that.

• With financial support from Sanders and Hubbard, Bell hired Thomas Watson as his assistant, and the two of them experimented with acoustic telegraphy. On June 2, 1875, Watson accidentally plucked one of the reeds and Bell, at the receiving end of the wire, heard the overtones of the reed; overtones that would be necessary for transmitting speech. That demonstrated to Bell that only one reed or armature was necessary, not multiple reeds. This led to the "gallows" sound-powered telephone, which could transmit indistinct, voice-like sounds, but not clear speech.

Later developments

• Continuing his experiments in Brantford, Bell brought home a working model of his telephone. On August 3, 1876, from the telegraph office in Mount Pleasant five miles (eight km) away from Brantford, Bell sent a tentative telegram indicating that he was ready. With curious onlookers packed into the office as witnesses, faint voices were heard replying. The following night, he amazed guests as well as his family when a message was received at the Bell home from Brantford, four miles (six km) distant, along an improvised wire strung up along telegraph lines and fences, and laid through a tunnel. This time, guests at the household distinctly heard people in Brantford reading and singing. These experiments clearly proved that the telephone could work over long distances.

• Bell at the opening of the long-distance line from New York to Chicago in 1892. Bell and his partners, Hubbard and Sanders, offered to sell the patent outright to Western Union for $100,000. The president of Western Union balked, countering that the telephone was nothing but a toy. Two years later, he told colleagues that if he could get the patent for $25 million he would consider it a bargain. By then, the Bell company no longer wanted to sell the patent. Bell's investors would become millionaires while he fared well from residuals and at one point had assets of nearly one million dollars.

• Bell began a series of public demonstrations and lectures to introduce the new invention to the scientific community as well as the general public. A short time later, his demonstration of an early telephone prototype at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia brought the telephone to international attention. Influential visitors to the exhibition included Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. Later, Bell had the opportunity to demonstrate the invention personally to Sir William Thomson (later, Lord Kelvin), a renowned Scottish scientist, as well as to Queen Victoria, who had requested a private audience at Osborne House, her Isle of Wight home. She called the demonstration "most extraordinary". The enthusiasm surrounding Bell's public displays laid the groundwork for universal acceptance of the revolutionary device.

• The Bell Telephone Company was created in 1877, and by 1886, more than 150,000 people in the U.S. owned telephones. Bell Company engineers made numerous other improvements to the telephone, which emerged as one of the most successful products ever. In 1879, the Bell company acquired Edison's patents for the carbon microphone from Western Union. This made the telephone practical for longer distances, and it was no longer necessary to shout to be heard at the receiving telephone.

• In January 1915, Bell made the first ceremonial transcontinental telephone call. Calling from the AT&T head office at 15 Dey Street in New York City, Bell was heard by Thomas Watson at 333 Grant Avenue in San Francisco. The New York Times reported:

• On October 9, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson talked by telephone to each other over a two-mile wire stretched between Cambridge and Boston. It was the first wire conversation ever held. Yesterday afternoon [on January 25, 1915], the same two men talked by telephone to each other over a 3,400-mile wire between New York and San Francisco. Dr. Bell, the veteran inventor of the telephone, was in New York, and Mr. Watson, his former associate, was on the other side of the continent.

Later inventions

• Alexander Graham Bell in his later years. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bell's many inventions. Although Alexander Graham Bell is most often associated with the invention of the telephone, his interests were extremely varied. According to one of his biographers, Charlotte Gray, Bell's work ranged "unfettered across the scientific landscape" and he often went to bed voraciously reading the Encyclopædia Britannica, scouring it for new areas of interest. The range of Bell's inventive genius is represented only in part by the 18 patents granted in his name alone and the 12 he shared with his collaborators. These included 14 for the telephone and telegraph, four for the photophone, one for the phonograph, five for aerial vehicles, four for "hydroairplanes", and two for selenium cells. Bell's inventions spanned a wide range of interests and included a metal jacket to assist in breathing, the audiometer to detect minor hearing problems, a device to locate icebergs, investigations on how to separate salt from seawater, and work on finding alternative fuels.

• Bell worked extensively in medical research and invented techniques for teaching speech to the deaf. During his Volta Laboratory period, Bell and his associates considered impressing a magnetic field on a record as a means of reproducing sound. Although the trio briefly experimented with the concept, they could not develop a workable prototype. They abandoned the idea, never realizing they had glimpsed a basic principle which would one day find its application in the tape recorder, the hard disc and floppy disc drive, and other magnetic media.

• Bell's own home used a primitive form of air conditioning, in which fans blew currents of air across great blocks of ice. He also anticipated modern concerns with fuel shortages and industrial pollution. Methane gas, he reasoned, could be produced from the waste of farms and factories. At his Canadian estate in Nova Scotia, he experimented with composting toilets and devices to capture water from the atmosphere. In a magazine interview published shortly before his death, he reflected on the possibility of using solar panels to heat houses.

Photophone

• Photophone receiver, one half of Bell's wireless optical communication system, ca. 1880. Bell and his assistant Charles Sumner Tainter jointly invented a wireless telephone, named a photophone, which allowed for the transmission of both sounds and normal human conversations on a beam of light. Both men later became full associates in the Volta Laboratory Association.

• On June 21, 1880, Bell's assistant transmitted a wireless voice telephone message a considerable distance, from the roof of the Franklin School in Washington, D.C., to Bell at the window of his laboratory, some 213 metres (700 ft) away, 19 years before the first voice radio transmissions.

• Bell believed the photophone's principles were his life's "greatest achievement", telling a reporter shortly before his death that the photophone was "the greatest invention [I have] ever made, greater than the telephone". The photophone was a precursor to the fiber-optic communication systems which achieved popular worldwide usage in the 1980s. Its master patent was issued in December 1880, many decades before the photophone's principles came into popular use.

• Graham Bell also Created and Developing the Metal detector, Hydrofoils, Aeronautics.

Legacy and honors

• Bell statue by A. E. Cleeve Horne, similar in style to the Lincoln Memorial, in the front portico of the Bell Telephone Building of Brantford, Ontario, The Telephone City. (Courtesy: Brantford Heritage Inventory, City of Brantford, Ontario, Canada). Honors and tributes flowed to Bell in increasing numbers as his most famous invention became ubiquitous and his personal fame grew. Bell received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities to the point that the requests almost became burdensome.During his life, he also received dozens of major awards, medals, and other tributes. These included statuary monuments to both him and the new form of communication his telephone created, notably the Bell Telephone Memorial erected in his honor in Alexander Graham Bell Gardens in Brantford, Ontario, in 1917.

• A large number of Bell's writings, personal correspondence, notebooks, papers, and other documents reside in both the United States Library of Congress Manuscript Division (as the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers), and at the Alexander Graham Bell Institute, Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia; major portions of which are available for online viewing.

Innovators awarded in his name

• Aegis Graham Bell Award are consistuted to recognise good work by innovators in India. Since 2010 awards are being given to innovators in IT and Telecom sector. Companies like Mahendra Tech, Data Infosys, CDOT, Infosys etc. have been awarded for the same.

Death

• Bell died of complications arising from diabetes on August 2, 1922, at his private estate in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, at age 75. Bell had also been afflicted with pernicious anemia. His last view of the land he had inhabited was by moonlight on his mountain estate at 2:00 a.m. While tending to him after his long illness, Mabel, his wife, whispered, "Don't leave me." By way of reply, Bell signed "no...", lost consciousness, and died shortly after.

• On learning of Bell's death, the Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, cabled Mrs. Bell, saying:

• My colleagues in the Government join with me in expressing to you our sense of the world's loss in the death of your distinguished husband. It will ever be a source of pride to our country that the great invention, with which his name is immortally associated, is a part of its history. On the behalf of the citizens of Canada, may I extend to you an expression of our combined gratitude and sympathy.

• Bell's coffin was constructed of Beinn Bhreagh pine by his laboratory staff, lined with the same red silk fabric used in his tetrahedral kite experiments. To help celebrate his life, his wife asked guests not to wear black (the traditional funeral color) while attending his service, during which soloist Jean MacDonald sang a verse of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Requiem":

• Under a wide and starry sky,
• Dig the grave and let me lie.
• Glad did I live and gladly die
• And I laid me down with a will.
• Upon the conclusion of Bell's funeral, "every phone on the continent of North America was silenced in honor of the man who had given to mankind the means for direct communication at a distance".

• Dr. Alexander Graham Bell was buried atop Beinn Bhreagh mountain, on his estate where he had resided increasingly for the last 35 years of his life, overlooking Bras d'Or Lake. He was survived by his wife Mabel, his two daughters, Elsie May and Marian, and nine of his grandchildren.

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Joseph Vijay

• Vijay (born Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar on 22 June 1974) is an Indian film actor, playback singer and philanthropist who works in the Tamil film industry. He is popularly known by his fans as Ilayathalapathy (junior commander-in-chief) or Thalapathy (commander-in-chief) and is one of the most popular and influential actors of Tamil cinema.

• The son of S. A. Chandrasekhar and Shoba Chandrasekhar, Vijay initially appeared as a child actor in a number of his father's films, starting with Vetri (1984). He made his debut as a lead actor in Naalaya Theerpu (1992), which was also directed by his father. He received his breakthrough with Poove Unakkaga (1996) and Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997). He went on to act in other commercially successful films such as Thulladha Manamum Thullum (1999), Kushi (2000), Friends (2001), Thirumalai (2003), Ghilli (2004), Pokkiri (2007), Nanban (2012), Thuppakki (2012), Kaththi (2014) and Theri (2016), which rank among the highest-grossing Tamil films. To date, he has acted in 60 movies as a lead actor and has won three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, seven Vijay Awards and two Edison Awards. Vijay is also a playback singer and has sung a couple of songs for his movies.   

Personal life

• Vijay was born on 22 June 1974 in Madras (now Chennai). His father, S. A. Chandrasekhar, is a popular Tamil film director and his mother, Shoba Chandrasekhar, is a reputed playback singer and carnatic vocalist. He had a sister, Vidhya, who died when she was two years old. Vidhya's death affected Vijay very much. It has been said by his mother that Vijay, who was very talkative, naughty and hyperactive as a child, became silent after Vidhya's death. Vidhya Chandrasekhar's story is depicted in the 2005 film Sukran, where Vijay played an extended cameo. He currently engages in social service in the name of Vidhya. His cousin, Vikranth, is also a film actor, while his uncle, S. N. Surendar, is a playback singer and voice actor.

• Vijay spent his entire childhood in Chennai. He did his schooling at Balalok Matriculation Higher Secondary School at Virugambakkam and went on to pursue a degree in Visual Communications from Loyola College, though he would eventually drop out as he was more interested in pursuing acting. He also had a craze for cars, learning to drive at the age of 13.

• Vijay married a London-based Sri Lankan Tamil, Sangeetha Sornalingam, on 25 August 1999. They have two children, a son Sanjay born in 2000 in London, and a daughter Divya born in 2005 in Chennai. Jason Sanjay made a cameo appearance with his father in Vettaikaaran (2009) and Divya portrayed a small role as her father's pre-teen daughter in Theri (2016).

Career

Period of 1992–1996

• After appearing as child artist in the films directed by his father, Vijay made his acting debut as lead actor under the age of eighteen with Naalaya Theerpu (1992). Vijay appeared alongside Vijayakanth in Sendhoorapandi (1993) which did well at the box-office. In 1994, he appeared in Rasigan which became a successful venture He had lead roles in films like Deva, and Rajavin Parvaiyile where he co-starred with another actor Ajith Kumar, who played a supporting role. He then acted in the romantic comedy Vishnu and romantic tragedy Chandralekha later. In early 1995, he starred in Coimbatore Mappillai a romantic comedy film.

Period of 1996–2003

• Vijay's next film was the Vikraman directed Poove Unakkaga which was his first commercial success and made him a recognizable star. Vijay's tenth film Vasantha Vasal was followed by the action movies Maanbumigu Maanavan and Selva and the romantic film Kaalamellam Kaathiruppen. In 1997 Vijay acted in Love Today and Once More, where he co-starred with the Tamil film actor Sivaji Ganesan and actress Simran, and in the Mani Ratnam produced movie Nerukku Ner, directed by Vasanth. Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, directed by Fazil, earned Vijay a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor. In 1998, Vijay worked in the movies Ninaithen Vandhai and Priyamudan and Nilaave Vaa. In 1999 Vijay acted in Thulladha Manamum Thullum with Simran, which earned Vijay a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film. This was followed by Endrendrum Kadhal, Nenjinile and the K.S.Ravikumar directed Minsara Kanna.

• From the start of the new millennium Vijay began to commit to entertaining and commercial ventures, which marked a change in trend. In 2000 he performed in Kannukkul Nilavu, and two romantic movies Kushi and Priyamanavale. His 2001 comedy-drama film Friends was directed by Siddique and featured him in the leading role alongside Suriya. Vijay also worked in Badri, an action film remake of the Telugu film Thammudu, and the romantic movie Shahjahan. In 2002, he starred in the action film Thamizhan alongside Priyanka Chopra, making her acting debut before establishing herself as a leading Bollywood actress. The movie was a box office hit. Later, he featured in the romantic film Youth and action film Bagavathi. Vijay began 2003 with the films Vaseegara and Pudhiya Geethai.

Period of 2003–2007

• In late 2003, Vijay transformed from a romantic hero to an action hero with the action-romance flick,Thirumalai, co-starring Jyothika, directed by debutant Ramana and produced by K.Balachander's Kavithalaya Productions, which featured him in a different way. Thirumalai was considered a turning point in Vijay's career. Udhaya, which began filming in 2002 but as delayed, was finally released in early 2004. Ghilli, a remake of the Telugu film Okkadu was released next in 2004, and completed 200 days in theatres in Tamil Nadu. Directed by S. Dharani and produced by A. M. Rathnam, it co-starred Trisha and Prakash Raj.

• It was followed by Madhurey, directed by Ramana Madhesh. In 2005, he starred in the Perarasu directed action film Thirupaachi, followed by a guest appearance in Sukran, the romantic comedy Sachien co-starring Genelia D'Souza directed by John Mahendran, and Sivakasi starring Asin, again directed by Perarasu. Vijay's next film, Aadhi, was produced by his father S. A. Chandrasekhar and directed by Ramana, released in 2006. In early 2007, Vijay starred in the gangster film Pokkiri, a remake of the Telugu film of the same name. Directed by Prabhu Deva, it became the third highest grossing Tamil film of 2007. Vijay's character in the film, a reprisal of Mahesh Babu's role in the original, was well received by critics.

Period of 2007–2010

• In late 2007, Vijay starred in the romantic psychological thriller film Azhagiya Tamil Magan directed by Bharathan in which he played the roles as both the antagonist and protagonist. The film was only a moderate success at the box office. In 2008, he starred in the action film Kuruvi, again under Dharani's direction, and produced by Red Giant Movies. The year 2009 commenced with the action film Villu, in which Vijay teamed up with Prabhu Deva (from Pokkiri). His next film Vettaikaaran, directed by Babusivan and produced by AVM Productions and distributed by Sun Pictures became one of the highest grossing Tamil film of 2009. In 2010, he acted in his 50th film,Sura, also distributed by Sun Pictures.

2011–present

• In early 2011 Vijay joined up with director Siddique again, for the romantic comedy Kaavalan, a Tamil remake of the Malayalam film Bodyguard (also co-starring Asin). It received positive responses from both viewers and critics. The movie was screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival in China. During Diwali the same year, his next film, the action film Velayudham directed by M. Raja and produced by Venu Ravichandran was released. Velayudham became one of the top-grossing films of 2011.

• Vijay's next release was Nanban, the Tamil remake of the Bollywood film 3 Idiots, where he played the role which was played by Aamir Khan in the original. Directed by S. Shankar, it was released during the Pongal weekend of 2012 and emerged a major financial success. Vijay's performance in the film was praised by critics, including leading Indian actor Kamal Haasan. Nanban went on to complete 100 days theatrical run. He made a special appearance in the 2012 Bollywood film Rowdy Rathore starring Akshay Kumar, directed by Prabhu Deva.

• Vijay's next film, the action thriller Thuppakki, directed by A. R. Murugadoss and produced by S. Dhanu, was released at Diwali 2012 to mostly positive reviews. The film became the third Tamil film to enter the ₹1 billion (US$16 million) club after Sivaji (2007), Enthiran (2010). His next film Thalaivaa, directed by A. L. Vijay, was released on 9 August 2013 worldwide to positive reviews from critics and audience. His next film, Jilla, co-starring Kajal Aggarwal and Mohanlal, and directed by R. T. Neason, was released on a Pongal weekend in 2014 to positive reviews from critics and audience and end up as box office hit due to popularity of both stars.

• Vijay again worked with AR Murugadoss in the action drama Kaththi, co-starring Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Neil Nitin Mukesh and produced by Ayngaran International, which was released on Diwali 2014 to mostly positive reviews. It was the highest grossing Tamil film of 2014. In 2015, the fantasy film Puli was released. His next film, the action thriller film Theri directed by Atlee,co-starring Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Amy Jackson and Produced by S. Dhanu got released in April 2016 to positive reviews and became one of the highest grossing Tamil film of 2016. His next film,Bairavaa, directed by Bharathan co-starring Keerthi Suresh and produced by Vijaya Productions got released in January 2017 to positive reviews and became one of the highest grossing Tamil film of 2017. He is currently acting on his next movie which is currently referred as Vijay 61 has been announced on 17 November 2016 which will be directed by Atlee ,co-starring Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Kajal Aggarwal and Produced by Sri Thenandal Films and music is composed by A. R. Rahman.

In the media

• In 2012 and 2013, Vijay held 28th and 49th place, respectively, on the Indian edition of Forbes' "Celebrity 100" lists, based on the income and popularity of Indian celebrities. He was the highest ranked among actors from Tamil cinema.

Brand endorsement

•  In 2002, Vijay appeared as Coca-Cola's brand ambassador in Tamil Nadu. He acted in a variety of South Indian Coca Cola advertisements, along with Katrina Kaif. He has been the ambassador for Sunfeast since 2005. In 2008, Vijay was signed up as an ambassador for the Indian Premier League cricket team Chennai Super Kings, along with actress Nayanthara. In January 2009, Vijay was approached as the brand ambassador for Coca Cola products. As of August 2010, Vijay was signed by Jos Alukkas as their brand ambassador for Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The Jos Alukkas advertisement featuring Vijay and his mother Shoba is an extremely famous one in Tamil Nadu. Vijay signed for Tata Docomo.

Philanthropy

• Vijay started a social welfare organisation Vijay Makkal Iyakkam which was officially launched at Pudukottai on 26 July 2009. It is responsible for much of his philanthropic work. After Cyclone Thane his Makkal Mandram administrators arranged for a relief camp at Kammiyampettai, Cuddalore where the star provided rice to the affected people. Cuddalore was the worst affected area in floods and Vijay reached out to help these people out by rendering some assistance. The area in which the camp happened soon wore a festive look with thousands of people gathering to catch a glimpse of their favorite star.Vijay has appeared along with Suriya, R. Madhavan and Jyothika in a short commercial video about child poverty, labour and lack of education, titled Herova? Zerova? produced by Surya in an effort to eliminate children who drop out of school at an early age, made in association with Vishnuvardhan Induri the founder of CCL and the Ministry of Education of Tamil Nadu. The Ilayathalapathy Vijay Educational Awards 2012 was conducted at JS Kalyana Mandapam in Chennai on 8 July 2012 by his Vijay Makkal Iyakkam to honour the students topped in 2012 SSLC and 12th board exams and the awards were distributed by Vijay himself. On his birthday,[when?] Vijay presented golden rings to the new born babies at the Egmore Government General Hospital.

Filmography

• Vijay's most critically and commercially successful films include:

• Poove Unakkaga (1996)
• Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997)
• Thulladha Manamum Thullum (1999)
• Kushi (2000)
• Priyamaanavale (2000)
• Friends (2001)
• Thirumalai (2003)
• Ghilli (2004)
• Thirupaachi (2005)
• Sivakasi (2005)
• Pokkiri (2007)
• Kaavalan (2011)
• Nanban (2012)
• Thuppakki (2012)
• Kaththi (2014)
• Theri (2016)

Bairavaa (2017)

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Ajith Kumar

• Ajith Kumar (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian film actor best known by his mononym Ajith or the name his fans gave him Thala and Ultimate Star known for his work in Tamil cinema. In addition to his acting, Ajith Kumar in a sabbatical, participated in the 2004 British Formula 3 season as a Formula Two racing driver and was ranked the third best motor car driver in India at his peak.

• He began his career with a small role in the 1990 Tamil film En Veedu En Kanavar. His first lead role was in the film Amaravathi. and first critical acclaimed appearance was in the thriller Aasai (1995). He subsequently established himself as a romantic hero with Kadhal Kottai (1996), Aval Varuvala (1998) and Kadhal Mannan (1998). Successful films like Vaali (1999), Mugavaree (2000), Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000) and Citizen (2001) followed. He established himself as an action hero with films like Amarkalam (1999), Dheena (2001), Villain (2002), Attahasam (2004), Varalaru (2006), Mankatha (2011), Arrambam (2013), Veeram (2014), Yennai Arindhaal (2015) and Vedalam (2015). In 2014, Ajith was listed in Forbes India's Top 100 Celebrities.

Early life

• Ajith was born on 1 May 1971, in Hyderabad, India. His mother Mohini is from Kolkata, West Bengal. Ajith created the non-profit organisation "Mohini-Mani Foundation", named after his parents, in order to promote self-hygiene and civic consciousness and to help ease the problems of urban sprawl. Ajith was the middle son out of three brothers, the others being Anoop Kumar, a stockbroker in New York, and Anil Kumar, an IIT Madras graduate working in Seattle. Ajith also had younger twin sisters, both of whom died young.

Acting career

Early career

• Ajith did not speak Tamil as a child, and mastered it only after becoming an actor. He dropped out of Asan Memorial Senior Secondary School in 1986 before completing his higher secondary. During his childhood he had been a fan of M. G. Ramachandran, Amitabh Bachchan & Rajesh Khanna. In his teenage, he became a fan of Tamil acting icons, Rajnikanth & Kamal Haasan. At 18, Ajith had to take up a job to support his career in racing. Joining as an apprentice, he rose to be a merchandiser with a garment export company, doing small-time press ads and TV commercials occasionally. He had put a lot of money into racing and would borrow tyres from his friends who used to help when the chains wore out, as there was no money in racing at that time. Following an accident, several business agencies pushed him into modelling for advertisements in print media. He had to make a choice between films and racing, and as the films were happening and generating him some money, he began concentrating on it. He debuted in En Veedu En Kanavar (1990) in a minor role as a school student.

• Aged 20, Ajith was selected by a Telugu film production company, Lakshmi Productions, to star in its film; however, shooting was stalled soon after filming began, following the death of the film's director. Ajith then started his film career at the age of 21 appearing in the low budget Telugu film, Prema Pustakam in 1992, which remains his last direct Telugu film to date. His first Tamil film Amaravathi, directed by then newcomer Selva, was a moderate success and his voice was rendered by fellow actor Vikram. After the release and while training for an amateur motor race, Ajith suffered a fall, injuring his back and underwent three major surgeries resulting in a bed rest for one and a half years.Following the injury in 1993, Ajith played a small role in the Arvind Swamy starrer, Paasamalargal, before appearing in a supporting lead role in the family drama, Pavithra, which featured him as an ailing patient shown maternal affection from Raadhika.

Period of 1995–99

• In 1995, after making a guest appearance in the Vijay starrer Rajavin Parvaiyile, Ajith appeared in his first major success Aasai. The film, directed by Vasanth and produced by Mani Ratnam, featured him in the lead role opposite Suvalakshmi, whose brother-in-law infatuates about her. The film became a big success and established Ajith as an upcoming actor in the Tamil film industry. He later played the lead in Kalloori Vaasal co-starring Prashanth and Pooja Bhatt. Ajith's second successful film came in the form of National Award winning Kadhal Kottai, in which Ajith reunited with Agathiyan, the director of the earlier project Vaanmathi, the film which told the tale of two people falling in unconditional love without seeing each other until the climax. The film paired him opposite Devayani, with Heera Rajgopal playing a supporting role. Heera, Ajith's then girlfriend, played a major role in shaping Ajith's career.

• After the success of his films in 1996, the following year saw a series of five classical success, one such being Amitabh Bachchan's Tamil production Ullaasam with Maheswari, in which he was paid a salary of ₹2 million (equivalent to ₹7.7 million or US$120,000 in 2016) for the first time. Ajith returned in 1998 with another bigest successful project in Saran's Kaadhal Mannan, a "masala film" setting the foundations for an expanding fan base. He also began acting in Vasanth's Nerukku Ner, and was later replaced by Suriya. Following films Aval Varuvala and Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen also became successes, with the latter featuring Ajith in a guest role. Except for Uyirodu Uyiraga which performed poorly, his other 3 films released in 1998 and 6 in 1999 were box-office hits. Ramesh Khanna's Thodarum, Sundar C's romantic drama Unnaithedi opposite Malavika set the tone for a series of big successes.

Period of 1999–2002

• S. J. Suryaah's thriller, Vaali, which portrayed him in dual roles for the first time opposite Simran, became one of his biggest hits during the time. The film told the story of a deaf and mute brother setting his eyes on his younger brother's wife, with Ajith's portrayal of the two brothers winning him his first of many awards for Filmfare's Best Actor. Furthermore, Ajith's portrayal of the brothers was also praised, with critics claiming that the film was an "instant classic" with Ajith showing that he is a "talented actor". The two following supporting roles in the drama films Anandha Poongatre and Nee Varuvai Ena also brought Ajith plaudits for his portrayals. His final film before the new millennium was Amarkalam, directed by Saran and featuring Shalini, whom he married shortly after the film. Amarkalam told the story of a negelected child who grew up and fails to show feelings of love or affection, becoming a gangster in the process, with Ajith's depiction of his rogue character appreciated by critics.

• His next, Mugavaree, won him commercial and critical praise. The film revolved around the life of a struggling music composer who faces sacrifices to proceed in his career. The film featured dual endings, one with Ajith succeeding in his career, the other with Ajith dejected. Ajith's performance was yet again praised with critics from Rediff, claiming that "Ajith is the real winner", drawing an allusion with the film's script, whilst adding that "it is amazing to see how Ajith has grown as an actor. He brilliantly portrays the vulnerable and sad Sridhar". He also appeared in A. R. Rahman's 2000 musical Kandukondain Kandukondain directed by Rajiv Menon. The film featured Ajith alongside prominent actor Mammooty and actresses Aishwarya Rai, Tabu and Srividya. In a similar role to his previous film, Ajith played a struggling film director facing an oscillating relationship with Tabu, with the pair being unanimously praised for their roles. After giving 6 straight hits in 1999 and having had Mugavaree and Kandukondain Kandukondain in 2000 as success, Ajith had an unsuccessful film, Unnai Kodu Ennai Tharuven co-starring Simran.

• In 2001, Ajith appeared in 3 commercially successful Tamil films. Dheena, A. R. Murugadoss's debut film co-starring Laila Mehdin and Suresh Gopi, indirectly marked the beginning of a new image of Ajith that of an action hero that would appeal to the masses. Furthermore, Ajith's nickname in the film, Thala, Tamil for Leader, became a new identity for the actor amongst his fans. In the same year, he was offered a role in Nandha, which he rejected. His next was the much-hyped thriller, Citizen, portraying him in ten different get-ups and it became a commercial success at the box office. A role in the family drama Poovellam Un Vasam followed opposite Jyothika and was a success commercially and critically earning a Special Best Actor Award from the Tamil Nadu State. The year ended off with an appearance in Santosh Sivan's Hindi project, Asoka, in which Ajith appeared in a brief negative role[clarification needed] alongside Shah Rukh Khan, which did not perform well. In 2002, Ajith appeared in three films, the first two, Red and Raja, being box office disappointments, the former further building up his image as an action hero. The third film, Villain, in which Ajith appeared in dual roles, one as a mentally ill person, became successful and earned his second Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award.

Period of 2003–05

• From 2003 through 2005, Ajith appeared in fewer films due to his career in motor racing becoming more prominent. 2003 saw the release of his long-delayed Ennai Thalatta Varuvala and the police drama Anjaneya, both failing commercially. In that period, four films, namely Saamy, Kaakha Kaakha and Ghajini, were turned away by the actor due to various reasons.

• His next film, Jana with Sneha, also became a big failure, with the Saran film, Attagasam, being his only hit in the period. The film, saw Ajith portray dual roles, with a song, "Thala Deepavali", penned to promote his action image. In 2005, the failure of the Linguswamy film Ji, despite garnering positive reviews and taking a strong opening, saw Ajith take a sabbatical from acting to re-work his image of the five films released between 2003 and 2005, his only box-office hit was Attagasam.

Period of 2006–08

• During 2006, Ajith returned from his hiatus by appearing in P. Vasu's Paramasivan for which he had lost twenty kilograms to portray the lead role. The film enjoyed a moderate success, scoring over Vijay's Aadhi, which also released in the same week, at the box-office. Critics from The Hindu stated Ajith looked "trim and taut" in the film with "only his eyes seeming to have lost some of its sparkle", following the major weight loss. Furthermore, for Paramasivan and his two other projects in 2006, Ajith sported long hair, which was being grown for Bala's project, Naan Kadavul, which Ajith eventually opted out of. Similarly his next, AVM Productions's, Thirupathi directed by Perarasu performed above average business at the box-office, despite garnering poor reviews, with Rediff critics citing that the film is "anything but sensible" but that Ajith "salvages the situation with a spirited performance". Ajith summed up a successful comeback by the release of his long-delayed film Varalaru, which went on to become his biggest success til date. The K. S. Ravikumar film co-starring Asin, portrayed Ajith in three roles, including that of a classical dancer, with his portrayals being critically praised. Moreover, the film earned Ajith his third Filmfare Best Actor Award. In 2007, media reports hinted that the actor would do a project with Shankar. Ajith's first release in 2007, Aalwar, became a debacle at the box-office, with his previous film still continuing to run in theatres even after Aalwar had stopped its brief theatrical run. Kireedam, a remake of the 1989 National Award winning Malayalam film of the same name, was released to positive reviews, with the film also becoming a moderate success. During the shoot of the film, Ajith developed a further spinal injury, a recurrence of his problem earlier in his career.

• Ajith then starred in Billa, a remake of the 1980 Rajinikanth starrer of the same name. The Vishnuvardhan directorial fetched critical praise for Ajith, becoming a trend-setter for stylish art direction and cinematography in India. Billa, yet again, featured Ajith in dual roles, one of a notorious don whilst the other played an innocent person who had to act as the don, following the former's death. After Billa, Ajith appeared in the film Ayngaran International production Aegan, directed by the choreographer turned director Raju Sundaram. The film, a remake of the 2004 Hindi comedy Main Hoon Na, failed at the box office.

2010–present

• Following a year of production, Ajith's Aasal released in February 2010, taking a grand opening at the box office. The film, which also featured Ajith in dual roles, also failed at the box office despite its bigger expectations.

• After a second foray into motor racing, Ajith signed a film directed by Venkat Prabhu, titled Mankatha, which notably became his 50th project. The film featured him in a full-length negative role as Vinayak Mahadevan, a suspended police officer who lusts after money. His performance and his decision to portray a character with negative shades, breaking the stereotype hero image in Tamil cinema, were lauded by critics, with reviewers from Sify and Rediff terming the film as an "out and out Ajith film" that worked "only because of Ajith". Heaping praise on the actor's performance, the former noted that he "rocks as the man with ice in his veins as the mean and diabolic cop" and that he played "the emotionless bad man, to perfection", while the latter wrote that he had "carried practically the whole film on his capable shoulders". Mankatha became a financially successful venture.

• Ajith then starred in Billa II, a sequel to his 2007 film Billa, which released on 13 July 2012. Reviewers appreciated Ajith's screen presence and stunts and blamed him for the choice of story and the director  Eventually, the movie performed poorly at the box-office. He has starred in Vishnuvardhan's Arrambam alongside Arya, Nayantara and Rana, which was released on 31 October, and earned positive reviews from both critics and audience. His next film post Arrambam was Veeram directed by Siva co-starring Tamannaah, which was released on Pongal 2014, which also earned positive reviews from critics. Ajith's next film was Yennai Arindhaal, with Gautham Menon as director. Ajith's performance as Sathyadev IPS was widely praised with a critic calling it "Ajith's best since Kandukondain Kandukondain". Ajith was subsequently nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil in the 63rd Filmfare Awards South. Ajith worked with Siva again in Vedalam (2015), in which critics praised his performance.

Other works

• In 2004, Ajith was signed as Nescafe's brand ambassador in Tamil Nadu.  Later, he has limited his appearance to the silver screen by not appearing or promoting any commercials.

Racing career

• Ajith Kumar competing in the final round of the MRF racing series (2010) in Chennai. Ajith became a race car driver, competing in circuits around India in places such as Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi. He is one among very few Indians to race in International arena and in Formula championships. He has also been abroad for various races, including Germany and Malaysia. He drove in the 2003 Formula Asia BMW Championships. He raced in the 2010 Formula 2 Championship along with two other Indians, Armaan Ebrahim and Parthiva Sureshwaren.

Formula BMW Asia (2003)

• After a one-off race during the Formula Maruti Indian Championships in 2002, where he finished in fourth place, Ajith signed a contract with manager Akbar Ebrahim confirming his participation in the inaugural Formula BMW Asia Championship. Despite spinning out in the first lap of his first race, Ajith successfully completed the season by finishing twelfth.

Formula 2 (2010)

• After a six-year sabbatical, Ajith signed up for his third season of car racing by participating in the 2010 season of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The decision to be involved in the sport was made after Ajith's film directed by Gautham Menon was delayed, allowing him to participate in the whole season. Prior to signing up, he competed in the final round of the MRF racing series in Chennai in February 2010, but failed to finish the race due to mechanical problems. Further trials in Sepang, Malaysia followed suit as he practised for the season's beginning in April 2010 in his Formula Renault V6 car with Eurasian Racing, shedding 11 kilograms during training.

Personal life

• In 1999, during the shoot of Saran's Amarkalam, Ajith began to date his co-star Shalini. At that time, their involvement made him a regular subject of tabloid gossip, a role to which he was accustomed following his previous relationship. He proposed to Shalini in June 1999, and following consultations with her family, she agreed. They were married in April 2000 in Chennai. On 3 January 2008, their daughter, Anoushka, was born in Chennai. On 2 March 2015, their second child, a son Aadvik was born. Through his marriage to actress Shalini, he became brother-in-law to actor Richard Rishi, and actress Shamili, who appeared as his sister-in-law in Rajiv Menon's Kandukondain Kandukondain.

Ajith Kumar filmography

• Ajith Kumar is an Indian actor who works mainly in Tamil films. Apart from a small role in the 1990 Tamil film En Veedu En Kanavar, his professional career began three years later with the Telugu film Prema Pusthakam. He made his debut as a lead actor in Tamil cinema with Amaravathi (1993). Despite being a moderate success, the film helped him obtain more modelling assignments. After Amaravathi's release, Ajith opted against acting, and instead tried pursuing a career in auto racing. While training for an amateur race, he injured his back and underwent three major surgeries, leaving him bed-ridden for a year-and-a-half. After recovering from the injury, he played supporting roles in Paasamalargal (1994) and Pavithra (1994). The following year, he had his breakthrough with the romantic thriller Aasai. His performance earned him critical acclaim and established him as an up-and-coming actor in Tamil cinema. He was next seen as the main lead in Agathiyan's epistolary Kadhal Kottai (1996), a critical and commercial success. In 1997 he had five releases, all of which were commercial failures.

• Ajith's dual portrayal of twin brothers—where one is deaf-mute—in S. J. Surya's Vaali (1999) won him his first Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor. Impressed with his performance in that film, Rajiv Menon cast Ajith in the ensemble drama Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000). The following year, he collaborated with debutant director AR Murugadoss on the action film Dheena. The film was successful in establishing his reputation as an action hero and earning him the nickname "Thala" ("head"). He earned critical acclaim for his dual role performance in the vigilante film Citizen (2001), and a Best Actor nomination at Filmfare for the drama Poovellam Un Vasam (2001). His last release of the year was Santosh Sivan's Hindi film Aśoka, where he played a brief antagonistic role opposite Shah Rukh Khan. His performance as twin brothers in K. S. Ravikumar's 2002 film Villain won him a second Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor.

• Between 2003 and 2005 Ajith cut back on his acting career to focus on racing. During this time, he had his only commercial success with Attahasam (2004). Two years later he starred in Ravikumar's Varalaru, in which he played three different roles. It became the highest-grossing Tamil film of that year, and Ajith went on to receive his third Best Tamil Actor award at Filmfare for his performance. In 2007 he was seen in two remakes—Kireedam and Billa, both of which earned him critical acclaim. His next two releases, Aegan (2008) and Aasal (2010), were critical and commercial failures.

• Ajith played an antihero—as a money-minded, suspended police officer—in Venkat Prabhu's Mankatha (2011). It had the biggest opening of that year for a Tamil film,and became Ajith's biggest commercial success to that point. His next release, Billa II (2012), Tamil cinema's first prequel, opened to mixed reviews. He followed that with the multi-starrer Arrambam (2013) and Siva's masala film Veeram (2014), both of which were commercially successful. In 2015 he collaborated with Gautham Menon for the crime drama Yennai Arindhaal. His performance as an undercover police officer earned him a Best Tamil Actor nomination at the 63rd Filmfare Awards South. His second release of the year, Vedalam, had the biggest opening day in Tamil cinema and was among the highest grossing Tamil films of the year.

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