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Awakenings
''Awakenings'' is a 1990 American drama film directed by Penny Marshall. It is written by Steven Zaillian, who based his screenplay on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir ''Awakenings''. It tells the story of neurologist Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams), who is based on Sacks, who discovers the beneficial effects of the drug L-Dopa in 1969. He administers it to catatonic patients who survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe ( Robert de Niro) and the rest of the patients are awakened after decades and have to deal with a new life in a new time. Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller, Peter Stormare, and Max von Sydow also star. ''Awakenings'' was produced by Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, who first encountered Sacks's book as undergraduates at Yale and optioned it a few years later. The film was a critical and commercial success, earning $108.7 million on a $29 million budget, and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Plot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the United States, where he spent most of his career. He interned at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco and completed his residency in neurology and neuropathology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After a fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he served as neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital's chronic-care facility in the Bronx, where he worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. His treatment of those patients became the basis of his 1973 book '' Awakenings'', which was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated feature film in 1990, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. His numerous other best-selling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Awakenings (book)
''Awakenings'' is a 1973 non-fiction book by Oliver Sacks. It recounts the life histories of those who had been victims of the 1920s encephalitis lethargica epidemic. Sacks chronicles his efforts in the late 1960s to help these patients at the Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing) in the Bronx, New York. The treatment used the new drug L-DOPA. In 1982, Sacks wrote: The 1976 edition of the book is dedicated to the memory of Sacks' close friend, poet W. H. Auden, and bears an extract from Auden's 1969 poem ''The Art of Healing'': Prior to his death in 1973, Auden wrote, "Have read the book and think it a masterpiece". In 1974 the book won the Hawthornden Prize. In popular culture The book inspired a play, two films, a ballet and an opera: * 1974: the documentary film ''Awakenings'', produced by Duncan Dallas for Yorkshire Television as the first episode and pilot of the British television programme ''Discovery''. The documentary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruth Nelson (actress)
Ruth Gloria Nelson (August 2, 1905 – September 12, 1992) was an American stage and film actress. She is known for her roles in films such as '' Wilson'', '' A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'', ''Humoresque'', '' 3 Women'', ''The Late Show'' and ''Awakenings''. She was the wife of John Cromwell, with whom she acted on multiple occasions. Early life Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Nelson was the daughter of Sanford Leroy Nelson and vaudeville actress Eva Mudge. She attended Immaculate Heart Convent School in Los Angeles, studying first with Daniel Frohman and then with Richard Boleslawski at the American Laboratory Theatre in New York City during the early 1920s. Career Nelson made her stage debut in New York on April 4, 1928 at the Laboratory Theatre under Boleslawski's direction, portraying the title character in Jean-Jacques Bernard's ''Martine''. Over the next two seasons, Nelson made two more appearances—in Checkhov's ''The Seagull'' and Vladimir Kirshon's ''Red Rust''—prior to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penny Marshall
Carole Penny MarshallBorn Carole Penny Marshall in 1943, as per ''My Mother Was Nuts, a Memoir'', p. 10; . Copyright 2012 (October 15, 1943 – December 17, 2018) was an American actress, director and producer. She is known for her role as Laverne DeFazio on the television sitcom ''Laverne & Shirley'' (1976–1983), receiving three nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for her portrayal. Marshall made her directorial debut with ''Jumpin' Jack Flash'' (1986) before directing ''Big'' (1988), which became the first film directed by a woman to gross more than $100 million at the U.S. box office. Her subsequent directing credits included ''Awakenings'' (1990), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, ''A League of Their Own'' (1992), ''Renaissance Man'' (1994), ''The Preacher's Wife'' (1996) and ''Riding in Cars with Boys'' (2001). She also produced '' Cinderella Man'' (2005) and ''Bewitched'' (2005), a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encephalitis Lethargica
Encephalitis lethargica is an atypical form of encephalitis. Also known as "sleeping sickness" or "sleepy sickness" (distinct from tsetse fly-transmitted sleeping sickness), it was first described in 1917 by neurologist Constantin von Economo and pathologist Jean-René Cruchet. The disease attacks the brain, leaving some victims in a statue-like condition, speechless and motionless. Between 1915 and 1926, an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica spread around the world. The exact number of people infected is unknown, but it is estimated that more than one million people contracted the disease during the epidemic, which directly caused more than 500,000 deaths. Most of those who survived never returned to their pre-morbid vigour. Signs and symptoms Encephalitis lethargica is characterized by high fever, sore throat, headache, lethargy, double vision, delayed physical and mental response, sleep inversion and catatonia. In severe cases, patients may enter a coma-like state ( akinet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julie Kavner
Julie Deborah Kavner (born September 7, 1950) is an American actress. Best known for her voice role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', Kavner first attracted notice for her role as Brenda Morgenstern, the younger sister of Valerie Harper's title character in the sitcom ''Rhoda'', for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also voices other characters for ''The Simpsons'', including Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bouvier, and sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier. Known for her improvisation and distinctive "honeyed gravel voice", Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern in ''Rhoda'' in 1974. Starting in 1987, Kavner started appearing on ''The Tracey Ullman Show''. ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, and the producers asked Kavner to voice Marge. The shorts were spun off into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert De Niro
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2009, De Niro received the Kennedy Center Honor, and earned a Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016. Born in Manhattan in New York City, De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first major role was in ''Greetings'' (1968), and he gained early recognition with his role as a baseball player in the sports drama ''Bang the Drum Slowly'' (1973). De Niro's first collaboration with Scorsese was ''Mean Streets'' (1973), where he played small-time crook "Johnny Boy". Stardom followed with his role as young Vito Corleon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Zaillian
Steven Ernest Bernard Zaillian (born January 30, 1953) is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. He won an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for his screenplay ''Schindler's List'' (1993) and has earned Oscar nominations for the films ''Awakenings'', ''Gangs of New York'', ''Moneyball (film), Moneyball'' and ''The Irishman''. He was presented with the Distinguished Screenwriter Award at the 2009 Austin Film Festival and the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement from the Writers Guild of America in 2011. Zaillian is the founder of Film Rites, a film production company. In 2016, he created, wrote and directed the HBO limited series ''The Night Of''. Early life Steven Zaillian was born in Fresno, California, the son of Jim Zaillian, a radio news reporter. Zaillian is of Armenian American, Armenian descent. He attended Sonoma State University, graduated from San Francisco State University in 1975 with a degree in Cinema. Persona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert De Niro
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2009, De Niro received the Kennedy Center Honor, and earned a Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016. Born in Manhattan in New York City, De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first major role was in ''Greetings'' (1968), and he gained early recognition with his role as a baseball player in the sports drama ''Bang the Drum Slowly'' (1973). De Niro's first collaboration with Scorsese was ''Mean Streets'' (1973), where he played small-time crook "Johnny Boy". Stardom followed with his role as young Vito Corleon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Parkes
Walter F. Parkes (born April 15, 1951) is an American producer, screenwriter, and media executive. The producer of more than 50 films, including the ''Men in Black (film series), Men in Black'' series and ''Minority Report (film), Minority Report,'' he is the co-founder and co-chairman of Dreamscape Immersive. Parkes and his wife and business partner, producer Laurie MacDonald, helped to build DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks, with Parkes the head of its motion picture division, and the two later moved to Amblin Entertainment, where Parkes served as president. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards, receiving his first nomination as the director/ producer of the 1975 documentary ''The California Reich''; his second for co-writing the original screenplay for ''WarGames''; and his third as a producer of ''Awakenings''. Parkes and MacDonald created the Parkes + Macdonald production company (P+M, P+M Image Nation) in 2010, collaborating on the production costs of a number o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L-Dopa
-DOPA, also known as levodopa and -3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, is an amino acid that is made and used as part of the normal biology of some plants and animals, including humans. Humans, as well as a portion of the other animals that utilize -DOPA, make it via biosynthesis from the amino acid -tyrosine. -DOPA is the precursor to the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine (noradrenaline), and epinephrine (adrenaline), which are collectively known as catecholamines. Furthermore, -DOPA itself mediates neurotrophic factor release by the brain and CNS. -DOPA can be manufactured and in its pure form is sold as a psychoactive drug with the INN levodopa; trade names include Sinemet, Pharmacopa, Atamet, and Stalevo. As a drug, it is used in the clinical treatment of Parkinson's disease and dopamine-responsive dystonia. -DOPA has a counterpart with opposite chirality, -DOPA. As is true for many molecules, the human body produces only one of these isomers (the -DOPA form). The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penelope Ann Miller
Penelope Ann Miller (born Penelope Andrea Miller; January 13, 1964), sometimes credited as Penelope Miller, is an American actress. She began her career on Broadway in the 1985 original production of '' Biloxi Blues'' and received a Tony Award nomination for the 1989 revival of ''Our Town''. She has starred in several major Hollywood films, particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including ''Adventures in Babysitting'' (1987), '' Biloxi Blues'' (1988), ''Big Top Pee-wee'' (1988), '' The Freshman'' (1990), ''Awakenings'' (1990), ''Kindergarten Cop'' (1990), ''Other People's Money'' (1991), '' Year of the Comet'' (1992), and ''Carlito's Way'' (1993), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination. She returned to Broadway in the 1995 original stage production of ''On the Waterfront''. Her other films include a starring role in ''The Relic'' (1997) and supporting roles in ''Chaplin'' (1992), '' Along Came a Spider'' (2001), and '' The Artist'' (2011). Early life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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