document_title: Ben-Hur (1959 film)

question_text: who played pontius pilate in ben hur 1959

text: Ben-Hur (1959 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: In AD 26, Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is a wealthy prince and merchant in Jerusalem, who lives with his mother, Miriam (Martha Scott); his sister, Tirzah (Cathy O'Donnell); their loyal slave, Simonides (Sam Jaffe); and Simonides' daughter, Esther (Haya Harareet). Esther loves Judah, but is committed to another. Judah's childhood friend, the Roman citizen Messala (Stephen Boyd), is now a tribune. After several years away from Jerusalem, Messala returns as the new commander of the Roman garrison. Messala believes in the glory of Rome and its imperial power, while Judah is devoted to his faith and the freedom of the Jewish people. This difference causes tension between the friends, and results in their split after Messala issues an ultimatum demanding that Judah deliver potential rebels amongst the populace to the Roman authorities.

text: During the parade for the new governor of Judea, Valerius Gratus, loose tiles fall from the roof of Judah's house. Gratus is thrown from his spooked horse and nearly killed. Although Messala knows this was an accident, he condemns Judah to the galleys and imprisons Miriam and Tirzah. By punishing a known friend and prominent citizen, he hopes to intimidate the Jewish populace. Judah swears to take revenge.

text: As he and other slaves are being marched to the galleys, they stop in Nazareth to water the Romans' horses. Desperate with thirst, Judah begs for water, but the commander of the Roman detachment denies it to him. He collapses, but is revived when Jesus Christ gives him water. After three years as a galley slave, Judah is assigned to the flagship of the Roman Consul Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins), who has been charged with destroying a fleet of Macedonian pirates. Arrius admires Judah's determination and self-discipline, and offers to train him as a gladiator or charioteer. Judah declines the offer, declaring that God will aid him in his quest for vengeance. When the Roman fleet encounters the Macedonians, Arrius orders all the rowers except Judah to be chained to their oars. Arrius' galley is rammed and sunk, but Judah unchains the other rowers, and rescues Arrius. In despair, Arrius wrongly believes the battle ended in defeat and attempts to atone in the Roman way by falling on his sword, but Judah stops him. They are rescued, and Arrius is credited with the Roman fleet's victory.

text: Arrius successfully petitions Emperor Tiberius (George Relph) to free Judah, and adopts him as his son. Another year passes. Wealthy again, Judah learns Roman ways and becomes a champion charioteer, but still longs for his family and homeland.

text: Judah returns to Judea. Along the way, he meets Balthasar (Finlay Currie) and an Arab, Sheik Ilderim (Hugh Griffith). After noting Judah's prowess as a charioteer, the sheik asks him to drive his quadriga in a race before the new Judean governor Pontius Pilate (Frank Thring). Judah declines, even after he learns that Messala will also compete.

text: Judah returns to his home in Jerusalem. He meets Esther, and learns her arranged marriage did not occur and that she is still in love with him. He visits Messala and demands his mother and sister's freedom. The Romans discover that Miriam and Tirzah contracted leprosy in prison, and expel them from the city. The women beg Esther to conceal their condition from Judah so that he may remember them as they were before, so she tells him that they died. This false revelation changes Judah's mind, and he decides to seek vengeance on Messala by competing against him in the chariot race.

text: During the chariot race, Messala drives a chariot with blades on the hubs to tear apart competing vehicles; he attempts to destroy Judah's chariot, but wrecks his own instead. Messala is fatally injured, while Judah wins the race. Before dying, Messala tells Judah that "the race is not over" and that he can find his family in the Valley of the Lepers. Judah visits the nearby leper colony, where he sees his mother and sister while remaining hidden from them.

text: Blaming Roman rule for his family's fate, Judah rejects his patrimony and Roman citizenship. Learning that Tirzah is dying, Judah and Esther take Miriam and her to see Jesus Christ (Claude Heater), but the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate has begun. As Jesus is being marched through the streets and collapses while carrying his cross, Judah recognizes him as the man who gave him water years before, and returns the gesture. Judah witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus, and Miriam and Tirzah are miraculously healed by Christ’s blood during the rainstorm following the crucifixion. Judah declares, "And I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand." He then sees the healed Miriam and Tirzah from the top of a staircase and joyfully embraces them in his arms. In the final scene, a shepherd is seen walking with his flock of sheep following suit, and the sun shines over the cross, indicating a new era for all of mankind.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur
Jack Hawkins as Quintus Arrius
Haya Harareet as Esther
Stephen Boyd as Messala
Hugh Griffith as Sheik Ilderim
Martha Scott as Miriam
Cathy O'Donnell as Tirzah
Sam Jaffe as Simonides
Finlay Currie as Balthasar and the narrator
Frank Thring as Pontius Pilate
Terence Longdon as Drusus
George Relph as Tiberius Caesar
André Morell as Sextus
Claude Heater as Jesus Christ (uncredited)
José Greci as Mary, mother of Jesus (uncredited)

text: Production[edit]

text: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) originally announced a remake of the 1925 silent film Ben-Hur in December 1952, ostensibly as a way to spend its Italian assets.[b][5] Stewart Granger and Robert Taylor were reported to be in the running for the lead.[5] Nine months later, MGM announced it would make the film in CinemaScope, with shooting beginning in 1954.[6] In November 1953, MGM announced it had assigned producer Sam Zimbalist to the picture and hired screenwriter Karl Tunberg to write it.[7] Sidney Franklin was scheduled to direct, with Marlon Brando intended for the lead.[8] In September 1955, Zimbalist, who continued to claim that Tunberg's script was complete, announced that a $7 million, six-to-seven month production would begin in April 1956 in either Israel or Egypt in MGM's new 65mm widescreen process, MGM Camera 65.[9] MGM, however, suspended production in early 1956, following Franklin's resignation.[10]

text: By the late 1950s, the consent decree of 1948 forcing film studios to divest themselves of theater chains[11] and the competitive pressure of television had caused significant financial distress at MGM.[12] In a gamble to save the studio, and inspired by the success of Paramount Pictures' 1956 Biblical epic The Ten Commandments,[12] studio head Joseph Vogel announced in 1957 that MGM would again move forward on a remake of Ben-Hur.[13] Filming started in May 1958 and wrapped in January 1959, and post-production took six months.[14] Although the budget for Ben-Hur was initially $7 million,[15] it was reported to be $10 million by February 1958,[16] reaching $15.175 million by the time shooting began—making it the costliest film ever produced up to that time.[17] When adjusted for inflation, the budget of Ben Hur was approximately $127 million in constant dollars.[18]

text: One notable change in the film involved the opening titles. Concerned that a roaring Leo the Lion (the MGM mascot) would create the wrong mood for the sensitive and sacred nativity scene, Wyler received permission to replace the traditional logo with one in which Leo the Lion is quiet.[19]

text: Development[edit]

text: Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, ran to about 550 pages. Zimbalist hired a number of screenwriters to cut the story down and turn the novel into a script. According to Gore Vidal, more than 12 versions of the script had been written by various writers by the spring of 1958.[20] Vidal himself had been asked to write a version of the script in 1957, refused, and been placed on suspension for his decision.[20] According to Vidal, Karl Tunberg was one of the last writers to work on the script. Other sources place Tunberg's initial involvement much earlier. Tunberg cut out everything in the book after the crucifixion of Jesus, omitted the sub-plot in which Ben-Hur fakes his death and raises a Jewish army to overthrow the Romans, and altered the manner in which the leperous women are healed.[c][21] According to Wyler, Vidal, their biographers (see bibliography below) and the sources that follow them, Zimbalist was unhappy with Tunberg's script, considering it to be "pedestrian"[21] and "unshootable".[22]

text: The writing effort changed direction when director Sidney Franklin fell ill and was removed from the production. Zimbalist offered the project to William Wyler, who had been one of 30 assistant directors on the 1925 film,[23] in early 1957.[24] Wyler initially rejected it, considering the quality of the script to be "very primitive, elementary" and no better than hack work.[25] Zimbalist showed Wyler some preliminary storyboards for the chariot race and informed him that MGM would be willing to spend up to $10 million, and as a result Wyler began to express an interest in the picture.[26] MGM permitted Wyler to start casting, and in April 1957, mainstream media outlets reported that Wyler was giving screen tests to Italian leading men, such as Cesare Danova.[27]

text: Wyler did not formally agree to direct the film until September 1957,[26] and MGM did not announce his hiring until January 3, 1958.[28] Even though he still lacked a leading man, Wyler took the assignment for many reasons: He was promised a base salary of $350,000 as well as 8 percent of the gross box office (or 3 percent of the net profits, whichever was greater),[29] and he wanted to work in Rome again (in Hollywood on the Tiber) where he had filmed Roman Holiday).[12][15] His base salary was, at the time, the largest ever paid to a director for a single film.[12] Professional competitive reasons also played a role in his decision to direct, and Wyler later admitted that he wished to outdo Cecil B. DeMille,[15] and make a "thinking man's" Biblical epic.[30] In later years, William Wyler would joke that it took a Jew to make a good film about Christ.[31]

text: Writing[edit]

text: Wyler felt Tunberg's draft was too much of a morality play overlaid with current Western political overtones, and that the dialogue was too modern-sounding.[32] Zimbalist brought in playwright S. N. Behrman (who also wrote the script for Quo Vadis) and then playwright Maxwell Anderson to write drafts.[15] Gore Vidal biographer Fred Kaplan states that British poet and playwright Christopher Fry was hired simultaneously with Vidal, although most sources (including Vidal himself) state that Vidal followed Anderson, and that Fry did not come aboard until Vidal was close to leaving the picture.[33] Vidal arrived in Rome in early March 1958 to meet with Wyler.[20][d] Vidal claimed that Wyler had not read the script, and that when he did so (at Vidal's urging) on his flight from the U.S. to Italy, he was upset with the modernist dialogue.[20][34] Vidal agreed to work on the script for three months so that he would come off suspension and fulfill his contract with MGM,[15][20] although Zimbalist pushed him to stay throughout the entire production.[33] Vidal was researching a book on the 4th century Roman emperor Julian and knew a great deal about ancient Rome.[35]

text: Vidal's working style was to finish a scene and review it with Zimbalist. Once Vidal and Zimbalist had come to agreement, the scene would be passed to Wyler.[33] Vidal said he kept the structure of the Tunberg/Behrman/Anderson script, but rewrote nearly all the dialogue.[36] Vidal admitted to William Morris in March 1959 that Fry rewrote as much as a third of the dialogue which Vidal had added to the first half of the script. Vidal made one structural change which was not revised, however. The Tunberg script had Ben-Hur and Messala reuniting and falling out in a single scene. Vidal broke the scene in two, so that the men first reunite at the Castle Antonia and then later argue and end their friendship at Ben-Hur's home. Vidal also added small character touches to the script, such as Messala's purchase of a brooch for Tirzah and Ben-Hur's purchase of a horse for Messala.[36] Vidal claimed that he worked on the first half of the script (everything up to the chariot race), and scripted 10 versions of the scene where Ben-Hur confronts Messala and begs for his family's freedom.[31][37]

text: Vidal's claim about a homoerotic subtext is hotly debated. Vidal first made the claim in an interview in the 1995 documentary film The Celluloid Closet, and asserted that he persuaded Wyler to direct Stephen Boyd to play the role as if he were a spurned homosexual lover.[38] Vidal said that he believed that Messala's vindictiveness could only be motivated by the feeling of rejection that a lover would feel, and claimed to have suggested to Wyler that Stephen Boyd should play the role that way, and that Heston be kept in the dark about the Messala character's motivations.[31] Whether Vidal wrote the scene in question or had the acting conversation with Wyler, and whether Wyler shot what Vidal wrote, remain issues of debate.[21][31][39] Wyler himself said that he did not remember any conversation about this part of the script or Boyd's acting with Gore Vidal,[31] and that he discarded Vidal's draft in favor of Fry's.[15] Morgan Hudgens, publicity director for the film, however, wrote to Vidal in late May 1958 about the crucial scene, and implied there was a homosexual context: "... the big cornpone [the crew's nickname for Heston] really threw himself into your 'first meeting' scene yesterday. You should have seen those boys embrace!"[40] Film critic F. X. Feeney, in a comparison of script drafts, concludes that Vidal made significant and extensive contributions to the script.[41]

text: The final writer on the film was Christopher Fry. Charlton Heston has claimed that Fry was Wyler's first choice as screenwriter, but that Zimbalist forced him to use Vidal.[31] Whether Fry worked on the script before Vidal or not, sources agree that Fry arrived in Rome in early May 1958 and spent six days a week on the set, writing and rewriting lines of dialogue as well as entire scenes, until the picture was finished.[42] In particular, Fry gave the dialogue a slightly more formal and archaic tone without making it sound stilted and medieval.[42] A highly publicized bitter dispute later broke out over screenplay credits to the film, involving Wyler, Tunberg, Vidal, Fry and the Screen Writers' Guild.[e][43] In 1996, the Los Angeles Times published a brief letter from Charlton Heston taking issue with Vidal's claims which, he wrote, "irritates the hell out of me".[44] Three months later the paper published a 1,200 word response from Vidal, which included the statement that, with regard to the controversial scene's subtext, he had been delegated to inform Boyd (who was "delighted"), but that Wyler had warned "don't tell Chuck because he'll fall apart".[45]

text: The final script ran 230 pages.[46] The screenplay differed more from the original novel than did the 1925 silent film version. Some changes made the film's storyline more dramatic. Others inserted an admiration for Jewish people (who had founded the state of Israel by this time) and the more pluralistic society of 1950s America rather than the "Christian superiority" view of Wallace's novel.[47]

text: Casting[edit]

text: MGM opened a casting office in Rome in mid-1957 to select the 50,000 people who would act in minor roles and as extras in the film,[48] and a total of 365 actors had speaking parts in the film, although only 45 of them were considered "principal" performers.[49] In casting, Wyler placed heavy emphasis on characterization rather than looks or acting history.[50] He typically cast the Romans with British actors and the Jews with American actors to help underscore the divide between the two groups.[17][51] The Romans were the aristocrats in the film, and Wyler believed that American audiences would interpret British accents as patrician.[52]

text: Several actors were offered the role of Judah Ben-Hur before it was accepted by Charlton Heston. Burt Lancaster stated he turned down the role because he found the script boring[53] and belittling to Christianity.[f] Paul Newman turned it down because he said he didn't have the legs to wear a tunic.[54] Marlon Brando,[54] Rock Hudson,[g] Geoffrey Horne,[h] and Leslie Nielsen[55] were also offered the role, as were a number of muscular, handsome Italian actors (many of whom did not speak English).[56] Kirk Douglas was interested in the role, but was turned down in favor of Heston,[i] who was formally cast on January 22, 1958.[58] His salary was $250,000 for 30 weeks, a prorated salary for any time over 30 weeks, and travel expenses for his family.[34]

text: Stephen Boyd was cast as the antagonist, Messala, on April 13, 1958.[59] William Wyler originally wanted Heston for the role, but sought another actor after he moved Heston into the role of Judah Ben-Hur.[60] Because both Boyd and Heston had blue eyes, Wyler had Boyd outfitted with brown contact lenses as a way of contrasting the two men.[61] Marie Ney was originally cast as Miriam, but was fired after two days of work because she could not cry on cue.[52][62] Heston says that he was the one who suggested that Wyler cast Martha Scott as Miriam, and she was hired on July 17, 1958.[j][63][64] Cathy O'Donnell was Wyler's sister-in-law, and although her career was in decline, Wyler cast her as Tirzah.[50]

text: More than 30 actresses were considered for the role of Esther.[65] The Israeli actress Haya Harareet, a relative newcomer to film, was cast as Esther on May 16, 1958,[65] after providing a 30-second silent screen test.[66] Wyler had met her at the Cannes Film Festival, where she impressed him with her conversational skills and force of personality.[67] Sam Jaffe was cast as Simonides on April 3, 1958,[68] and Finlay Currie was cast as Balthasar on the same day.[68] Wyler had to persuade Jack Hawkins to appear in the film, because Hawkins was unwilling to act in another epic motion picture so soon after The Bridge on the River Kwai.[32] Hugh Griffith, who gained acclaim in the post-World War II era in Ealing Studios comedies, was cast as the colorful Sheik Ilderim.[69] The role of Jesus was played by Claude Heater (uncredited), an American opera singer performing with the Vienna State Opera in Rome when he was asked to do a screen test for the film.[70]

text: Cinematography[edit]

text: Robert L. Surtees, who had already filmed several of the most successful epics of the 1950s, was hired as cinematographer for the film.[71] Early on in the film's production, Zimbalist and other MGM executives made the decision to film the picture in a widescreen format. Wyler strongly disliked the widescreen format, commenting that "Nothing is out of the picture, and you can't fill it. You either have a lot of empty space, or you have two people talking and a flock of others surrounding them who have nothing to do with the scene. Your eye just wanders out of curiosity."[72] The cameras were also quite large, heavy, and difficult and time-consuming to move.[72] To overcome these difficulties, Surtees and Wyler collaborated on using the widescreen lenses, film stocks, and projection technologies to create highly detailed images for the film.[73] Wyler was best known for composition in depth, a visual technique in which people, props, and architecture are not merely composed horizontally but in depth of field as well. He also had a strong preference for long takes, during which his actors could move within this highly detailed space.[73]

text: The movie was filmed in a process known as "MGM Camera 65". 1957's Raintree County was the first MGM film to use the process.[74] The MGM Camera 65 used special 65mm Eastmancolor film stock with a 2.76:1 aspect ratio.[75] 70mm anamorphic camera lenses developed by the Mitchell Camera Company were manufactured to specifications submitted by MGM.[76] These lenses squeezed the image down 1.25 times to fit on the image area of the film stock.[77] Because the film could be adapted to the requirements of individual theaters, movie houses did not need to install special, expensive 70mm projection equipment.[78] Six of the 70mm lenses, each worth $100,000, were shipped to Rome for use by the production.[79][80][k]

text: Principal photography[edit]

text:
I spent sleepless nights trying to find a way to deal with the figure of Christ. It was a frightening thing when all the great painters of twenty centuries have painted events you have to deal with, events in the life of the best-known man who ever lived. Everyone already has his own concept of him. I wanted to be reverent, and yet realistic. Crucifixion is a bloody, awful, horrible thing, and a man does not go through it with a benign expression on his face. I had to deal with that. It is a very challenging thing to do that and get no complaints from anybody.

–Wyler on the difficulty of shooting the crucifixion scene.[81]

tag: div

text: Pre-production began at Cinecittà Studios around October 1957.[16] The MGM Art Department produced more than 15,000 sketches and drawings of costumes, sets, props, and other items needed for the film (8,000 alone for the costumes); photostatted each item; and cross-referenced and catalogued them for use by the production design team and fabricators.[82] More than a million props were ultimately manufactured.[83] Construction of miniatures for the entrance of Quintus Arrius into Rome and for the sea battle were under way by the end of November 1957.[84] MGM location scouts arrived in Rome to identify shooting locations in August 1957.[85] Location shooting in Africa was actively under consideration, and in mid-January 1958, MGM said that filming in North Africa (later revealed to be Libya) would begin on March 1, 1958, and that 200 camels and 2,500 horses had already been procured for the studio's use there.[86] The production was then scheduled to move to Rome on April 1, where Andrew Marton had been hired as second unit director and 72 horses were being trained for the chariot race sequence.[86] However, the Libyan government canceled the production's film permit for religious reasons on March 11, 1958, just a week before filming was to have begun.[l][87][88] It is unclear whether any second unit filming took place in Israel. A June 8, 1958, reported in The New York Times said second unit director Andrew Martin had roamed "up and down the countryside" filming footage.[89] However, the American Film Institute claims the filming permit was revoked in Israel for religious reasons as well (although when is not clear), and no footage from the planned location shooting near Jerusalem appeared in the film.[84]

text: Principal photography began in Rome on May 18, 1958.[90] The script was still unfinished when cinematography began, so that Wyler had only read the first 10 to 12 pages of it.[91] Shooting lasted for 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week. On Sundays, Wyler would meet with Fry and Zimbalist for story conferences. The pace of the film was so grueling that a doctor was brought onto the set to give a vitamin B complex injection to anyone who requested it (shots which Wyler and his family later suspected may have contained amphetamines).[92] To speed things up, Wyler often kept principal actors on stand-by, in full costume and make-up, so that he could shoot pick-up scenes if the first unit slowed down. Actresses Martha Scott and Cathy O'Donnell spent almost the entire month of November 1958 in full leprosy make-up and costumes so that Wyler could shoot "leper scenes" when other shots didn't go well.[93] Wyler was unhappy with Heston's performances, feeling they did not make Judah Ben-Hur a plausible character, and Heston had to reshoot "I'm a Jew" 16 times.[94] Shooting took nine months, which included three months for the chariot race scene alone.[95] Principal photography ended on January 7, 1959, with filming of the crucifixion scene, which took four days to shoot.[14][81]

text: Production design[edit]

text: Italy was MGM's top choice for hosting the production. However, a number of countries—including France, Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom—were also considered.[96] Cinecittà Studios, a very large motion picture production facility constructed in 1937 on the outskirts of Rome, was identified early on as the primary shooting location.[16] Zimbalist hired Wyler's long-term production supervisor, Henry Henigson, to oversee the film, and art directors William A. Horning and Edward Carfagno created the overall look of the film, relying on the more than five years of research which had already been completed for the production.[97] A skeleton crew of studio technicians arrived in the summer of 1956 to begin preparing the Cinecittà soundstages and back lot.[96]

text: The Ben-Hur production utilized 300 sets scattered over 148 acres (60 ha) and nine sound stages.[98] Several sets still standing from Quo Vadis in 1951 were refurbished and used for Ben-Hur.[98] By the end of the production more than 1,000,000 pounds (450,000 kg) of plaster and 40,000 cubic feet (1,100 m3) of lumber were used.[49][99] The budget called for more than 100,000 costumes and 1,000 suits of armor to be made, for the hiring of 10,000 extras, and the procurement of hundreds of camels, donkeys, horses, and sheep.[17][46] Costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden oversaw a staff of 100 wardrobe fabricators who began manufacturing the costumes for the film a year before filming began. Special silk was imported from Thailand, the armor manufactured in West Germany, and the woolens made and embroidered in the United Kingdom and various countries of South America. Many leather goods were hand-tooled in the United Kingdom as well, while Italian shoemakers manufactured the boots and shoes. The lace for costumes came from France, while costume jewelry was purchased in Switzerland.[100] More than 400 pounds (180 kg) of hair were donated by women in the Piedmont region of Italy to make wigs and beards for the production,[101] and 1,000 feet (300 m) of track laid down for the camera dollies.[49] A workshop employing 200 artists and workmen provided the hundreds of friezes and statues needed.[46] The mountain village of Arcinazzo Romano,[101] 40 miles (64 km) from Rome, served as a stand-in for the town of Nazareth.[42] Beaches near Anzio were also used,[83] and caves just south of the city served as the leper colony.[93] Some additional desert panoramas were shot in Arizona, and some close-up inserts taken at the MGM Studios, with the final images photographed on February 3, 1958.[90]

text: The sea battle was one of the first sequences created for the film,[102] filmed using miniatures in a huge tank on the back lot at the MGM Studios in Culver City, California, in November and December 1957.[58][98] More than 40 miniature ships[83] and two 175-foot (53 m) long Roman galleys, each of them seaworthy, were built for the live-action segment.[46] The ships were constructed based on plans found in Italian museums for actual ancient Roman galleys.[97] An artificial lake with equipment capable of generating sea-sized waves was built at the Cinecittà studios to accommodate the galleys.[49] A massive backdrop, 200 feet (61 m) wide by 50 feet (15 m) high, was painted and erected to hide the city and hills in the background.[49] To make the scene bloodier, Dunning sought out Italian extras who had missing limbs, then had the makeup crews rig them with fake bone and blood to make it appear as if they had lost a hand or leg during the battle.[102] When Dunning edited his own footage later, he made sure that these men were not on screen for long so that audiences would be upset.[102][m] The above-decks footage was integrated with the miniature work using process shots and traveling mattes.[104]

text: One of the most lavish sets was the villa of Quintus Arrius, which included 45 working fountains and 8.9 miles (14.3 km) of pipes.[97] Wealthy citizens and nobles of Rome, who wanted to portray their ancient selves, acted as extras in the villa scenes.[48][98] To recreate the ancient city streets of Jerusalem, a vast set covering 0.5-square-mile (1.3 km2) was built,[12] which included a 75-foot (23 m) high Joppa Gate.[98] The sets were so vast and visually exciting that they became a tourist attraction, and various film stars visited during production.[12][105] The huge sets could be seen from the outskirts of Rome, and MGM estimated that more than 5,000 people were given tours of the sets.[49]

text: Dismantling the sets cost $125,000.[49] Almost all the filmmaking equipment was turned over to the Italian government, which sold and exported it.[49] MGM turned title to the artificial lake over to Cinecittà.[49] MGM retained control over the costumes and the artificial lake background, which went back to the United States.[49] The chariots were also returned to the U.S., where they were used as promotional props.[49] The life-size galleys and pirate ships were dismantled to prevent them from being used by competing studios.[49] Some of the horses were adopted by the men who trained them, while others were sold.[49] Many of the camels, donkeys, and other exotic animals were sold to circuses and zoos in Europe.[49]

text: Editing[edit]

text: A total of 1,100,000 feet (340,000 m) was shot for the film.[90] According to editor John D. Dunning, the first cut of the film was four and one-half hours long.[102][n] William Wyler stated that his goal was to bring the running time down to three and a half hours.[106] The most difficult editing decisions, according to Dunning, came during scenes which involved Jesus Christ, as these contained almost no dialogue and most of the footage was purely reaction shots by actors.[107] Dunning also believed that in the final cut the leper scene was too long and needed trimming. Editing was also complicated by the 70mm footage being printed. Because no editing equipment (such as the Moviola) existed which could handle the 70mm print, the 70mm footage would be reduced to 35mm and then cut. This caused much of the image to be lost.[108] When the film was edited into its final form, it ran 213 minutes and included just 19,000 feet (5,800 m) of film.[90] It was the third-longest motion picture ever made at the time, behind Gone With The Wind and The Ten Commandments.[90]

text: Musical score[edit]

text: The film score was composed and conducted by Miklós Rózsa, who scored most of MGM's epics,[109] although Zimbalist had previously commissioned and then set aside a score from William Walton.[110] Rózsa researched Greek and Roman music, incorporating this work into his score for authenticity. Rózsa himself directed the 100-piece MGM Symphony Orchestra during the 12 recording sessions (which stretched over 72 hours). The soundtrack was recorded in six-channel stereo.[100] More than three hours of music were composed for the film,[111] and two-and-a-half hours of it were finally used, making it (as of 2001[update]) the longest score ever composed for a motion picture.[112] The score contains no leitmotifs for the main characters. While not a leitmotif, the score does transition from full orchestra to pipe organ whenever Jesus Christ appears.[100]

text: Rózsa won his third Academy Award for his score. As of 2001[update], it is the only musical score in the ancient and medieval epic genre of film to win an Oscar.[112] Like most film musical soundtracks, it was issued as an album for the public to enjoy as a distinct piece of music. The score was so lengthy that it had to be released in 1959 on three LP records, although a one-LP version with Carlo Savina conducting the Symphony Orchestra of Rome was also issued. In addition, to provide a more "listenable" album, Rózsa arranged his score into a "Ben-Hur Suite", which was released on Lion Records (an MGM subsidiary which issued low-priced records) in 1959.[111][113] This made the Ben-Hur film musical score the first to be released not only in its entirety but also as a separate album.[112]

text: The Ben-Hur score has been considered the best of Rózsa's career.[114] The musical soundtrack to Ben-Hur remained deeply influential into the mid 1970s, when film music composed by John Williams for films such as Jaws, Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark became more popular among composers and film-goers.[115] Rózsa's score has since seen several notable re-releases, including by the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra on Capitol Records in 1967, several of the tracks by the United Kingdom's National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus on Decca Records in 1977 and a Sony Music reissue as a two-CD set in 1991.[116] In 2012, Film Score Monthly and WaterTower Music issued a limited edition five-CD set of music from the film.[116]

text: Chariot race sequence[edit]

text: The chariot race in Ben-Hur was directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt,[117] filmmakers who often acted as second unit directors on other people's films. Each man had an assistant director, who shot additional footage.[118] Among these were Sergio Leone,[119] who was senior assistant director in the second unit and responsible for retakes.[120] William Wyler shot the "pageantry" sequence that occurs before the race, scenes of the jubilant crowd, and the victory scenes after the race concludes.[121] The "pageantry" sequence before the race begins is a shot-by-shot remake of the same sequence from the 1925 silent film version.[122] Knowing that the chariot race would be primarily composed of close-up and medium shots, Wyler added the parade in formation (even though it was not historically accurate) to impress the audience with the grandeur of the arena.[52]

text: Set design[edit]

text: The chariot arena was modeled on a historic circus in Jerusalem.[98] Covering 18 acres (7.3 ha), it was the largest film set ever built at that time.[123] Constructed at a cost of $1 million, it took a thousand workmen more than a year to carve the oval out of a rock quarry.[97][98] The racetrack featured 1,500-foot (460 m) long straights and five-story-high grandstands.[98] Over 250 miles (400 km) of metal tubing were used to erect the grandstands.[49] Matte paintings created the illusion of upper stories of the grandstands and the background mountains.[124] More than 40,000 short tons (36,000 t) of sand were brought in from beaches on the Mediterranean to cover the track.[125] Other elements of the circus were also historically accurate. Imperial Roman racecourses featured a raised 10-foot (3.0 m) high spina (the center section), metae (columnar goalposts at each end of the spina), dolphin-shaped lap counters, and carceres (the columned building in the rear which housed the cells where horses waited prior to the race).[124][126] The four statues atop the spina were 30 feet (9.1 m) high.[46] A chariot track identical in size was constructed next to the set and used to train the horses and lay out camera shots.[126]

text: Preparation[edit]

text: Planning for the chariot race took nearly a year to complete.[98] Seventy-eight horses were bought and imported from Yugoslavia and Sicily in November 1957, exercised into peak physical condition, and trained by Hollywood animal handler Glenn Randall to pull the quadriga (a Roman Empire chariot drawn by four horses abreast).[83][98] Andalusian horses played Ben-Hur's Arabians, while the others in the chariot race were primarily Lipizzans.[127] A veterinarian, a harness maker, and 20 stable boys were employed to care for the horses and ensure they were outfitted for racing each day.[83] The firm of Danesi Brothers[128] built 18 chariots,[129] nine of which were used for practice,[128] each weighing 900 pounds (410 kg).[17] Principal cast members, stand-ins, and stunt people made 100 practice laps of the arena in preparation for shooting.[95]

text: Heston and Boyd both had to learn how to drive a chariot. Heston, an experienced horseman, took daily three-hour lessons in chariot driving after he arrived in Rome and picked up the skill quickly.[o][42][131] Heston was outfitted with special contact lenses to prevent the grit kicked up during the race from injuring his eyes.[131] For the other charioteers, six actors with extensive experience with horses were flown in from Hollywood, including Giuseppe Tosi, who had once been a bodyguard for Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.[48]

text: Filming[edit]

text: The chariot scene took five weeks (spread over three months) to film at a total cost of $1 million[132] and required more than 200 miles (320 km) of racing to complete.[123] Marton and Yakima Canutt filmed the entire chariot sequence with stunt doubles in long shot, edited the footage together, and showed the footage to Zimbalist, Wyler, and Heston to show them what the race should look like and to indicate where close-up shots with Heston and Boyd should go.[132] Seven thousand extras were hired to cheer in the stands.[12][123][p] Economic conditions in Italy were poor at the time, and as shooting for the chariot scene wound down only 1,500 extras were needed on any given day. On June 6, more than 3,000 people seeking work were turned away. The crowd rioted, throwing stones and assaulting the set's gates until police arrived and dispersed them.[133] Dynamite charges were used to show the chariot wheels and axles splintering from the effects of Messala's barbed-wheel attacks.[124] Three lifelike dummies were placed at key points in the race to give the appearance of men being run over by chariots.[134]

text: The cameras used during the chariot race also presented problems. The 70mm lenses had a minimum focusing distance of 50 feet (15 m), and the camera was mounted on a small Italian-made car so the camera crew could keep in front of the chariots. The horses, however, accelerated down the 1,500-foot (460 m) straight much faster than the car could, and the long focal length left Marton and Canutt with too little time to get their shots. The production company purchased a more powerful American car, but the horses were still too fast, and even with a head start, the filmmakers only had a few more seconds of shot time. As filming progressed, vast amounts of footage were shot for this sequence. The ratio of footage shot to footage used was 263:1, one of the highest ratios ever for a film.[134]

text: One of the most notable moments in the race came from a near-fatal accident when stunt man Joe Canutt, Yakima Canutt's son, was tossed into the air by accident; he incurred a minor chin injury.[135] Marton wanted to keep the shot, but Zimbalist felt the footage was unusable. Marton conceived the idea of showing that Ben-Hur was able to land on and cling to the front of his chariot, then scramble back into the quadriga while the horses kept going.[136] The long shot of Canutt's accident was cut together with a close-up of Heston climbing back aboard, resulting in one of the race's most memorable moments.[137] Boyd did all but two of his own stunts.[14] For the sequence where Messala is dragged beneath a chariot's horses and trampled, Boyd wore steel armor under his costume and acted out the close-up shot and the shot of him on his back, attempting to climb up into the horses' harness to escape injury. A dummy was used to obtain the trampling shot in this sequence.[135]

text: Several urban legends exist regarding the chariot sequence. One claims that a stuntman died during filming, which Nosher Powell claims in his autobiography,[138] and another states that a red Ferrari can be seen during the chariot race. The book Movie Mistakes claims this is a myth.[139] Heston, in a DVD commentary track for the film, mentions that a third urban legend claims that he wore a wristwatch during the chariot race, but points out that he wore leather bracers up to the elbow.[140]

text: Release[edit]

text: A massive $14.7 million marketing effort helped promote Ben-Hur.[141] MGM established a special "Ben-Hur Research Department" which surveyed more than 2,000 high schools in 47 American cities to gauge teenage interest in the film.[142] A high school study guide was also created and distributed.[142] Sindlinger and Company was hired to conduct a nationwide survey to gauge the impact of the marketing campaign.[143] In 1959 and 1960, more than $20 million in candy; children's tricycles in the shape of chariots; gowns; hair barrettes; items of jewelry; men's ties; bottles of perfume; "Ben-Her" and "Ben-His" towels; toy armor, helmets, and swords; umbrellas; and hardback and paperback versions of the novel (tied to the film with cover art) were sold.[95][109]

text: Ben-Hur premiered at Loew's State Theatre in New York City on November 18, 1959. Present at the premiere were William Wyler, Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet, Martha Scott, Ramon Novarro (who played Judah Ben-Hur in the 1925 silent film version), Spyros Skouras (president of the 20th Century Fox), Barney Balaban (president of Paramount Pictures), Jack L. Warner (president of Warner Bros.), Leonard Goldenson (president of the American Broadcasting Company), Moss Hart (playwright), Robert Kintner (an ABC Television executive), Sidney Kingsley (playwright), and Adolph Zukor (founder of Paramount Pictures).[144]

text: Box office[edit]

text: During its initial release the film earned $33.6 million in North American theater rentals (the distributor's share of the box office), generating approximately $74.7 million in box office sales. Outside of North America, it earned $32.5 million in rentals (about $72.2 million at the box office) for a worldwide total of $66.1 million in rental earnings, roughly equivalent to $146.9 million in box office receipts.[141] It was the fastest-grossing film[12] as well as the highest-grossing film of 1959,[145] in the process becoming the second-highest-grossing film of all-time (at that time) behind Gone with the Wind.[146][147] Ben-Hur saved MGM from financial disaster,[148] making a profit of $20,409,000 on its initial release,[4] and another $10.1 million in profits when re-released in 1969.[12] By 1989, Ben-Hur had earned $90 million in worldwide theatrical rentals.[149]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: Ben-Hur received overwhelmingly positive reviews upon its release.[150] Bosley Crowther, writing for The New York Times, called Ben-Hur "a remarkably intelligent and engrossing human drama".[151] While praising the acting and William Wyler's "close-to" direction, he also had high praise for the chariot race: "There has seldom been anything in movies to compare with this picture's chariot race. It is a stunning complex of mighty setting, thrilling action by horses and men, panoramic observation and overwhelming use of dramatic sound."[151] Jack Gaver, writing for United Press International, also had praise for the acting, calling it full of "genuine warmth and fervor and finely acted intimate scenes".[152] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called it "magnificent, inspiring, awesome, enthralling, and all the other adjectives you have been reading about it."[153] He also called the editing "generally expert" although at times abrupt.[153] Ronald Holloway, writing for Variety, called Ben-Hur "a majestic achievement, representing a superb blending of the motion picture arts by master craftsmen," and concluded that "Gone With the Wind, Metro's own champion all-time top grosser, will eventually have to take a back seat."[154] The chariot race "will probably be preserved in film archives as the finest example of the use of the motion picture camera to record an action sequence. The race, directed by Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt, represents some 40 minutes of the most hair-raising excitement that film audiences have ever witnessed."[154]

text: There was some criticism, however. Crowther felt the film was too long.[151] Scheuer, whilst mostly praising the film, felt that its biggest fault was "overstatement", and that it hammered home at points long after they had been made. He singled out the galley rowing sequence, Jesus' journey to the place of crucifixion, and nearly all the sequences involving the lepers. He also lightly criticized Charlton Heston for being more physically than emotionally compelling.[153] John McCarten of The New Yorker was more critical of Heston, writing that he "speaks English as if he'd learned it from records."[155] Even William Wyler later privately admitted he was disappointed with Heston's acting.[14] Film critic Dwight Macdonald also was largely negative.[150] He found the film so uninvolving and lengthy that he said, "I felt like a motorist trapped at a railroad crossing while a long freight train slowly trundles by."[156] British film critic John Pym, writing for Time Out, was equally dismissive, calling the film a "four-hour Sunday school lesson".[157] Many French and American film critics who believed in the auteur theory of filmmaking saw the film as confirmation of their belief that William Wyler was "merely a commercial craftsman" rather than a serious artist.[25]

text: The film currently has an 88% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 44 critic reviews collected with an average score of 7.8/10. The consensus reads, "Uneven, but in terms of epic scope and grand spectacle, Ben-Hur still ranks among Hollywood's finest examples of pure entertainment."[158]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
32nd Academy Awards

1. Best Picture – Sam Zimbalist (posthumous award)

2. Best Director – William Wyler

3. Best Actor in a Leading Role – Charlton Heston

4. Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Hugh Griffith

5. Best Art Direction-Set Decoration – Color – Edward C. Carfagno and William A. Horning (posthumous award) (art direction); Hugh Hunt (set decoration)

6. Best Cinematography – Color – Robert L. Surtees

7. Best Costume Design – Color – Elizabeth Haffenden

8. Best Special Effects – A. Arnold Gillespie, Robert MacDonald, and Milo Lory

9. Best Film Editing – John D. Dunning and Ralph E. Winters

10. Best Music – Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture – Miklós Rózsa

11. Best Sound Recording – Franklin Milton, MGM Studio Sound Department

17th Golden Globe Awards

1. Best Motion Picture – Drama

2. Best Director – William Wyler

3. Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture – Stephen Boyd

text: Ben-Hur was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won an unprecedented 11. As of 2016[update], only Titanic in 1998 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004 have matched the film's wins.[159][160] The lone category where Ben-Hur did not win was for Best Adapted Screenplay (losing to Room at the Top), and most observers attributed this to the controversy over the writing credit.[14][161] MGM and Panavision shared a special technical Oscar in March 1960 for developing the Camera 65 photographic process.[162]

text: Ben-Hur also won three Golden Globe Awards – Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Stephen Boyd – and received a Special Achievement Award (which went to Andrew Marton for directing the chariot race sequence).[163] Heston was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama category, but did not win. The picture also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film,[164] the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film,[165] and the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Motion Picture for William Wyler's masterful direction.[166]

text: Ben-Hur also appears on several "best of" lists generated by the American Film Institute, an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1967. The "AFI 100 Years... series" were created by juries consisting of over 1,500 artists, scholars, critics, and historians, with movies selected based on the film's popularity over time, historical significance, and cultural impact. Ben-Hur appeared at #72 on the 100 Movies, #49 on the 100 Thrills, #21 on the Film Scores, #56 on the 100 Cheers and #2 on the AFI's 10 Top 10 Epic film lists. In 2004, the National Film Preservation Board selected Ben-Hur for preservation by the National Film Registry for being a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" motion picture.[167] It was listed as number 491 on Empire's 500 Greatest films of all time.[168]

text: Broadcast and home video releases[edit]

text: The film's first telecast took place on Sunday, February 14, 1971.[169] In what was then a television first for a Hollywood film, it was broadcast over five hours (including commercials) during a single evening by CBS,[170][q] preempting all of that network's regular programming for that one evening. It was watched by 85.82 million people for a 37.1 average rating.[171] It was one of the highest rated movies ever screened on television at the time (behind the broadcast premiere of Bridge on the River Kwai).[172]

text: Ben-Hur has been released on home video on several occasions. Recent releases have all been on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. A two-sided single disc widescreen release occurred in the United States on March 13, 2001.[140] This release included several featurettes, including a commentary by Charlton Heston, a making-of documentary (made for a laserdisc release in 1993), screen tests, and a photo gallery.[140] This edition was released soon thereafter as a two-disc set in other countries. The film saw another DVD release on September 13, 2005.[173] This four-disc edition included remastered images and audio, an additional commentary, two additional featurettes, and a complete version of the 1925 silent version of Ben-Hur.[173] A boxed "Deluxe Edition", issued in the U.S. in 2002, included postcard-sized reprints of lobby cards, postcard-sized black-and-white stills with machine-reproduced autographs of cast members, a matte-framed color image from the film with a 35mm film frame mounted below it, and a 27-by-40-inch (69 by 102 cm) reproduction film poster.[174]

text: In 2011, Warner Home Video released a 50th anniversary edition on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, making it the first home video release where the film is present on its original aspect ratio.[175] For this release, the film was completely restored frame by frame from an 8K scan of the original 65mm negative. The restoration cost $1 million, and was one of the highest resolution restorations ever made by Warner Bros.[176] A new musical soundtrack-only option and six new featurettes (one of which was an hour long) were also included.[177]

text: Comic book adaptation[edit]

text: Dell Four Color #1052 (November 1959)[178][179]


document_title: Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

question_text: who owns the welcome to las vegas sign

question_tokens: who owns the welcome to las vegas sign

root

text: Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

text: Design[edit]

text: The sign is a 25-foot-tall (7.6 m) classic roadside pole design, mounted offset on two flat poles which are joined by a cross piece at the top. The poles extend above the top of the sign. The sign is a horizontally stretched diamond shape, with the top and bottom angles pointed while the side angles are rounded. It is double-backed, internally lit, with a border of flashing and chasing yellow incandescent bulbs outside around the perimeter. In a nod to Nevada's nickname as "the Silver State," across the top of the sign are white neon circles, designed to represent silver dollars. The circles each contain a red painted letter, outlined in neon, which together form the word "Welcome." Crowning the sign, located between the two poles and just under the crosspiece is an eight-pointed, red-painted metal star outlined with yellow neon.

tag: p

text: The intersecting vertical and horizontal lines of the star extend over and wrap around the frame that is created by the two poles and the cross piece, which give the star a dynamic, explosive appearance. The cabinet is faced with translucent white plastic and covered with blue and red painted text. The south side of the sign reads "Welcome" inside the silver dollars, with "to Fabulous" in blue, in a 1950s-style cursive, underneath. The words "Las Vegas" are on the next line in red, all capitalized, and large, almost filling the width of the sign. Under "Las Vegas" is the word "Nevada" in blue, all capitalized, in a much smaller font. On the back or north side, which is less frequently photographed and thus is lesser known, the sign reads "Drive" on the top line and "Carefully" on the second in red capital letters, with "Come Back" in blue on the third line, in script, and "Soon" all capitalized in blue on the fourth line. The design is characteristic of the Googie architecture movement.

text: History[edit]

text: Betty Willis intended to design a sign that was unique in its shape, style and content. Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO) currently owns the sign, which leases it to Clark County, while the design itself is in the public domain. The design of the sign was never copyrighted since Willis considered this her gift to the city and wanted it to be in the public domain.[2] This has resulted in the image being ubiquitous on Las Vegas souvenirs.

text: In 2007, Clark County installed decorative artificial turf inlaid with four playing cards underneath the sign.

text: In late 2008, Clark County employees sought to have the sign listed on the National Register of Historic Places;[3] the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office officially nominated it, and the National Park Service approved the designation on May 1, 2009.[1]

text: On December 6, 2013, the State Historic Preservation Office for the State of Nevada announced that the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign had been added to the State Register of Historic Places.[4]

text: On April 19, 2015, the designer of the sign, Betty Willis, died in her home in Overton, Nevada. She was 91 years old.[2] On May 5, 2015, Clark County commissioners declared May 5 "Betty Willis Day" honoring the designer of the sign. Commissioners issued a proclamation to her daughter Marjorie Holland.[5]

text: Site improvements[edit]

text: Prior to 2008, access to the iconic sign for photo opportunities was risky. There was no legal place for visitors to park, and visitors had to cross travel lanes of Las Vegas Boulevard and hop up onto a median to reach the sign. Although there had been no known traffic fatalities involving pedestrians attempting to access the sign, rising traffic at the south end of the Strip presented an increasingly dangerous situation.[6]

text: After control of Las Vegas Boulevard was transferred from the state to Clark County, county officials decided to improve access and increase safety around the sign for photo-seekers. On December 8, 2008, site improvements were completed in the median allowing official public access to the welcome sign for the first time. The $400,000 project included a parking lot with 12 parking spaces and two loading areas for buses and limousines, as well as a paved walkway leading from the parking to the sign viewing area.[6]

text: The improvements were successful, and the small parking lot was soon completely overwhelmed by an ever-increasing number of visitors to the sign. In April 2012, the Clark County Commission authorized the expenditure of $500,000 to add 20 more spaces to accommodate visitor traffic.[7]

text: On April 23, 2015, a second site enhancement project was completed at a cost of $900,000. This project added 21 additional parking spaces to the parking lot and completed additional cosmetic and safety improvements, including new marked crosswalks with traffic signals to allow safer pedestrian access to the sign.[8]

text: Notable events involving the sign[edit]

text: On October 4, 1999, the sign went dark for about a month when the company that had been paying the power bill was bought by another company who did not pay the bill. When the problem was discovered, payment of the past due amount, under $60, was made, and power was turned back on.[citation needed]

text: On January 31, 2008, the sign turned red in support of National Wear Red Day. The American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign sought to educate the public on women's risk of cardiovascular disease and promote the importance of women getting screened for heart disease.[9]

text: On March 28, 2009 the sign along with much of the Las Vegas Strip was darkened for one hour as the city took part in Earth Hour.[10]

text: On May 14, 2009, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and the Playboy personality Holly Madison coincided the start of summer with the sign's 50th anniversary. Part of the celebration was making it in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest bikini parade, followed by pool parties throughout the city. The event kicked off in front of the sign with a runway-style retrospective featuring bathing suits from the 1950s to today.[11]

text: April 28, 2010, marked the first time the text of the sign has ever been changed. Mayor Oscar Goodman unveiled the new marketing campaign "Camp Vegas." The sign was adorned with a cover that read "Welcome to Fabulous Camp Vegas." The event was hosted by Holly Madison, Wayne Newton, Oscar Goodman, and a slew of showgirls and skydivers. The Camp Vegas cover remained over the sign for 36 hours.[12]

text: Replica signs[edit]

text: The welcome sign is not located within the City of Las Vegas proper, but is actually approximately four miles (6.4 km) south of the city limits.

text: In 2002, the Las Vegas City Council erected a sign reading "Welcome to Fabulous Downtown Las Vegas" at Las Vegas Boulevard and 4th Street, just within the city limits of the City of Las Vegas.[13] This sign was destroyed in 2016 when a pickup truck crashed into it.[14]

text: On March 6, 2007, another replica of the sign was installed on Boulder Highway just north of Tropicana Avenue, the result of casinos along the "Boulder Strip" uniting to have their own welcome sign.[13] Like the original, it does not mark the border with Las Vegas; instead, it "represents the understood gateway from the Boulder Highway to Las Vegas." This is according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

text: Use in souvenirs[edit]

text: The lights from the sign are removed and offered as a commemorative souvenir. OfficialLasVegasLight.com donates a portion of the proceeds from the sales to local charities.[15]

text: In 2004, souvenir replicas of the sign that light up were sold to benefit the Nevada Cancer Institute.[16]

text: In 2005, the image of the sign was featured on the Nevada license plate that was issued to commemorate the centennial of the City of Las Vegas.[17]

text: On March 1, 2012, a business selling photos in front of a replica of the sign opened at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. This features an actual, physical sign located in the airport.[18]


document_title: Completed-contract method

question_text: when is revenue recognized under the completed-contract method

text: Completed-contract method

text: General description[edit]

text: Accounting for long term contracts can be done in two ways: through the completed-contract method and the percentage of completion method. The choice between the two depends on the provisions of SOP 81-1 from the AICPA. The completed-contract method recognizes income only when the contract is completed or substantially completed.[1]

text: When to use[edit]

text: The completed-contract method is used when costs are difficult to estimate, there are many ongoing small jobs (one time work), and projects are of short duration. This method can be used only when the job will be completed within two years from inception of a contract. [2]

text: Balance sheet presentation[edit]

text:
In current assets is shown excess of costs over billings: the current asset accounts are "due on accounts", a receivable account, and "construction in progress" ("CIP" - or "costs in excess of billings").
In current liabilities is shown the excess of billings over costs ("progress billings"): these are progress billings on uncompleted contracts in excess of costs.

tag: ul


document_title: Income in the United Kingdom

question_text: what is the average wealth in the uk

question_tokens: what is the average wealth in the uk

text: Income in the United Kingdom

text: Data sources[edit]

text: There are a number of different sources of data on income which results in different estimates of income due to different sample sizes, population types (e.g. whether the population sample includes the self-employed, pensioners, individuals not liable to tax), definitions of income (e.g. gross earnings vs original income vs gross income vs net income vs post tax income).[6]

text: The Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) is a dataset from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) based on individuals who could be liable to tax. HMRC does not hold information on individuals whose income is below the personal allowance (£8,105 in 2012/13).[7] Furthermore, SPI does not include income from non taxable benefits such as housing benefits or job seekers allowance.[2][6]

text: The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is a dataset from an annual survey of approximately 50,000 businesses by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and covers annual earnings, public and private sector pay differential and the gender pay gap. ASHE does not cover individuals who are self-employed.[6][8]

text: The Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset is based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS) from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It includes information on equalised household disposable income and can be used to represent the distribution of household income and income inequality (Gini coefficient).[4][6]

text: Other data sources include Average Weekly Earnings, Labour Force Survey, Index of Labour Cost per Hour, Unit Labour Costs, Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income / Living Costs and Food Survey, European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, Pensioners Income Series, Wealth and Assets Survey, National Accounts Estimates of Gross Disposable Household Income, and Small Area Income Estimates.[6]

text: Taxable income[edit]

text: The most recent SPI report (2012/13) gave annual median income as £21,000 before tax and £18,700 after tax.[2] The 2013/14 HBAI report gave median household income (2 adults) as £23,556.[4] The provisional results from the April 2014 ASHE report gives median gross annual earnings of £22,044 for all employees and £27,195 for full-time employees.[8]

text: According to the OECD the average household net-adjusted disposable income per capita is $27,029 a year (in USD, ranked 14/36 OECD countries), the average household net financial wealth per capita is estimated at $60,778 (in USD, ranked 8/36), and the average net-adjusted disposable income of the top 20% of the population is an estimated $57,010 a year, whereas the bottom 20% live on an estimated $10,195 a year giving a ratio of 5.6 (in USD, ranked 25/36).[9]

text: The 2013/14 HBAI reported that 15% of people had a relative low income (below 60% of median threshold) before housing costs.[4]

text: Data from HMRC 2012-13; incomes are before tax for individuals. The personal allowance or income tax threshold was £8,105 (people with incomes below this level did not pay income tax).[7]

text: Income by location[edit]

text: Income can vary considerably by location. For example, the locations (local administrative unit) with the highest incomes were the City of London, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster with median annual incomes of £58,300, £37,800 and £35,200 respectively. The locations with the lowest incomes were Hyndburn, Torbay, and West Somerset with median annual incomes of £17,000, £16,900 and £16,000 respectively.

text: A 2017 report from Trust for London found that London has a poverty rate of 27%, compared to 21% in the rest of England.[10]

text: Income by age and gender[edit]

text: Data from the Survey of Personal Incomes 2012/13.

text: Income by occupation[edit]

text: The tables below shows the ten highest and ten lowest paid occupations in the UK respectively, as at April 2014.[11]

text:
Occupation
Median full-time gross weekly pay (£)

Aircraft pilots and flight engineers
1,746.6

Air traffic controllers
1,549.4

Chief executives and senior officials
1,533.3

Marketing and sales directors
1,298.7

Advertising and public relations directors
1,289.5

Information technology and telecommunications directors
1,226.7

Legal professionals (not included elsewhere)
1,217.3

Medical practitioners
1,167.1

Brokers
1,149.9

Financial managers and directors
1,143.0

tag: table

text:
Occupation
Median full-time gross weekly pay (£)

Cleaners and domestics
285.5

Nursery nurses and assistants
285.2

Other elementary services occupations (not included elsewhere)
279.9

Retail cashiers and check-out operators
278.7

Leisure and theme park attendants
272.7

Kitchen and catering assistants
268.4

Hairdressers and barbers
267.8

Launderers, dry cleaners and pressers
259.3

Waiters and waitresses
257.6

Bar staff
253.6

text: Post tax household income[edit]

text: Data from the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) report from the Department of Work and Pensions 2013/14:

text: Data from HMRC – Percentile points of the income distribution as estimated from the Survey of Personal Incomes, note this only includes individuals who pay some income tax:

text: Wealth[edit]

text: This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2015)

text: The net worth information is based on data from HMRC for 2004–2005[12] and includes marketable assets including house equity, cash, shares, bonds and investment trusts. These values do not include personal possessions.

text:
Percentile point
Wealth to qualify
Percentage of total wealth owned
by people at and above this level

Top 1%
£688,228
21% of total UK wealth

2%
£460,179
28% of total UK wealth

5%
£270,164
40% of total UK wealth

10%
£176,221
53% of total UK wealth

25%
£76,098
72% of total UK wealth

50%
£35,807
93% of total UK wealth

text: High income[edit]

text: The Institute for Fiscal Studies issued a report on the UK's highest earners in January 2008. There are 42 million adults in the UK of whom 29 million are income tax payers. (The remainder are pensioners, students, homemakers, the unemployed, those earning under the personal allowance, and other unwaged.) A summary of key findings is shown in the table below:

text:
All taxpayers
Top 10% to 1% (adults)
Top 1% to 0.1% (adults)
Top 0.1% (adults)

Number
29.5 million
4.21 million
421,000
42,000

Entry level for group
£5,093
£35,345
£99,727
£351,137

Mean value for group
£24,769
£49,960
£155,832
£780,043

Average income tax paid
£4,415
£10,550
£49,477
£274,482

Percentage of national personal income
100%
27.6%
8.6%
4.2%

text: The top 0.1% are 90% male and 50% of these people are in the 45 to 54 year age group. 31% of these people live in London and 21% in South East England. 33% of these people are company directors (as reported to HMRC). 30% work in finance and 38% in general business (includes law). The very richest rely on earnings (salary and bonuses) for 58% of income. Income from self-employment (such as partnerships in law or accountancy firms) accounts for 23% of income and about 18% from investment income (interest and share dividends).

text: Sources of income[edit]

text: The Family Resources Survey is a document produced by the Department for Work and Pensions. This details income amongst a representative sample of the British population. This report tabulates sources of income as a percentage of total income.[13]

text:
Region
Employment (salaries & wages)
Self employed
Investment income
Working tax credit
State pensions
Occupational pensions
Disability benefits
Other social security benefits
Other income sources

UK
64%
11%
2%
1%
6%
7%
2%
5%
2%

Northern Ireland
60%
11%
1%
2%
7%
5%
4%
7%
3%

Scotland
66%
7%
2%
2%
7%
7%
3%
5%
2%

Wales
60%
8%
2%
2%
8%
8%
4%
6%
1%

England
64%
11%
2%
1%
6%
7%
2%
5%
2%

North East England
64%
5%
2%
2%
8%
6%
4%
7%
2%

North West England
59%
13%
2%
2%
7%
7%
3%
6%
2%

Yorkshire
64%
7%
2%
2%
7%
7%
2%
5%
3%

East Midlands
65%
9%
2%
1%
7%
6%
2%
5%
3%

West Midlands
62%
8%
3%
2%
8%
6%
2%
5%
3%

Eastern England
56%
22%
2%
1%
5%
7%
1%
3%
2%

London
71%
10%
2%
1%
4%
4%
1%
5%
3%

South East
66%
9%
4%
1%
7%
8%
1%
4%
2%

South West England
60%
9%
4%
1%
7%
10%
2%
4%
2%

text: Other social security benefits include: Housing Benefit, Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance


document_title: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 8)

question_text: who plays darius on law and order svu

question_tokens: who plays darius on law and order svu

text: Production[edit]

text: The eighth season began filming when Mariska Hargitay was in the final stages of her pregnancy. As a result, two episodes "Informed" and "Scheherazade" made use of desks, folders, and headshots to disguise Benson's abdomen. "Informed" became the season premiere but "Scheherazade" was not incorporated into the plot until 2007.[1] The episode "Burned" was directed by Eriq LaSalle who worked with Neal Baer and Mariska Hargitay on ER. He described the episode as "a compelling story with edgy performances."[2]

text: When writing the episode "Responsible", Neal Baer stated that he referred to "an article about... how there's been leaps in terms of research about the effects of alcohol on teenage brains."[1] Judith McCreary stated that information she used to write "Confrontation" came from a Google search; "I ran across a story about women who were raped more than once by the same guy and that made me wonder if his biological clock was ticking."[3] Diane Neal joked about the writers' penchant for disturbing web searches saying "I'm sure a couple of the writers are on the feds' most wanted Internet predators list too, because they're doing all this research on pedophilia."[4]

text: Judith McCreary also wrote the season finale "Screwed" during which illegal activities involving the detectives are brought up in the courtroom. She said "I wanted to explore chickens coming home to roost. A lot of shit these cops have been doing they haven't paid for. Benson committed a felony; she should've been kicked off the force and gone to prison."[5]

text: Cast changes and returning characters[edit]

text: During a six episode absence by Mariska Hargitay, Connie Nielsen was cast to play Stabler's temporary partner, Detective Dani Beck. Dick Wolf said that he was "thrilled that we have someone of Connie's obvious talent, beauty and stature to come in for these episodes. It doesn't get any better than this."[6]

text: Chris "Ludacris" Bridges made his second appearance on SVU in "Screwed" which concludes the seventh season episode "Venom". Neal Baer explained that he saw this episode as an opportunity to have Adam Beach's character, Detective Chester Lake, become a longer term addition to the show; "Chris causes Ice-T's character Fin major, major, major problems that go back many years. While everything is in disarray, SVU needs some extra hands and Adam's character is brought in to help out."[7]

text: Three episodes in the second half of the season starred Michael Weston as Simon Marsden, Olivia's half brother. Hargitay described this storyline as "probably the biggest thing that's ever happened to Olivia."[8] The episode in which Marsden is introduced features an appearance by Mary Stuart Masterson in her recurring role of Dr. Rebecca Hendrix.

text: Cast[edit]

text: Main cast[edit]

text:
Christopher Meloni as Det. Elliot Stabler
Mariska Hargitay as Det. Olivia Benson
Richard Belzer as Det. John Munch
Ice-T as Det. Fin Tutuola
Diane Neal as ADA Casey Novak
B. D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
Tamara Tunie as ME Dr. Melinda Warner
Dann Florek as Capt. Don Cragen

text: Recurring cast[edit]

text:
Mike Doyle as CSU Forensics Technician Ryan O'Halloran
Allison Siko as Kathleen Stabler
Isabel Gillies as Kathy Stabler
Joel de la Fuente as TARU Technician Ruben Morales
Judith Light as Judge Elizabeth Donnelly
Caren Browning as CSU Captain Judith Siper
Peter McRobbie as Judge Walter Bradley
Jill Marie Lawrence as Defense Attorney Cleo Conrad
Michael Weston as Simon Marsden
Vincent Spano as FBI Agent Dean Porter
Jeffrey Scaperrotta as Dickie Stabler
Patricia Cook as Elizabeth Stabler
Linda Powell as Lauren White
David Lipman as Judge Arthur Cohen
Karl Kenzler as Father Denis
Peter Gerety as Judge Peter Harrison
Anne James as Dr. Jane Larom
David Dollase as Agent Lockwood
Lisa Strum as Tonya Majeski
Ali Reza as Dr. Rohit Mehta
Kim Delaney as Capt. Julia Millfield
Joanna Merlin as Judge Lena Petrovsky
Ernest Waddell as Ken Randall
Erin Broderick as Maureen Stabler
Patricia Kalember as Judge Karen Taten
Connie Nielsen as Detective Dani Beck

text: Guest stars[edit]

text: The season premiere "Informed" saw Marcia Gay Harden reprise her role as Special Agent Dana Lewis, for which she received an Emmy nomination.[9] Acting opposite was Kristen Bush, who shaved her head for the role. After agreeing to do this, Bush said "It was a kind of tenuous connection as to why she was shaved. I probably should have investigated it more, but whatever."[10] The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series was won by Leslie Caron for her performance in the third episode "Recall".[9] Caron played Lorraine Delmas, a rape victim whose statute of limitations is long over. However, her testimony gets newer evidence admitted after her rapist strikes again. Caron's scene, which was spoken predominantly in French, was described as "a rare appearance in front of American cameras."[11]

text: Jerry Lewis guest starred in the fourth episode "Uncle". He played Andrew Munch, the uncle of Detective John Munch. Neal Baer promoted the episode by saying "He brings both depth and heart to this role and gives insight into how often older people with depression are misdiagnosed."[12] In the fifth episode "Confrontation", Elanor Hutchins played Elizabeth Hassenback, a woman who was raped and later murdered. Elizabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of The View, objected to the use of a name that was similar to her own and called for a boycott of SVU based on this.[13] With the sixth episode "Infiltrated", Vincent Spano began playing FBI Agent Dean Porter, the case agent for Detective Benson's undercover work. The character would go on to cross paths with SVU detectives again in later episodes. In the seventh episode "Underbelly", Diane Neal had a scene with her husband Marcus Fitzgerald who played an ADA.

text: In the eighth episode "Cage", Margo Martindale played Rita Gabler, a foster parent whose methods have a devastating effect on a young girl. Neal Baer continued to praise her performance and in 2011 said "I know how good she is because when I did SVU, she put Elle Fanning in a cage and told her to set Connie Nielsen on fire."[14] The ninth episode "Choreographed" marked the return of Mariska Hargitay's character to the Special Victims Unit. The episode starred Bob Saget as a suspicious husband. Hargitay expressed her excitement about working with Saget and called him "America's biggest secret."[15] The eleventh episode "Burned" starred Michael Michele as an alleged rape victim who gains the sympathy of Detective Benson but not Detective Stabler. This reunited her with Eriq LaSalle, Neal Baer and Mariska Hargitay from her time on ER. LaSalle, who directed the episode, joked that "It also gave [him] an excuse to boss Michael Michele around."[2]

text: The twelfth episode "Outsider" starred Kal Penn as a rapist following an unusual pattern. "Outsider" also introduced Adam Beach to the show; his character forms a temporary partnership with Detective Tutuola. Neal Baer described the guest stars as bringing "some funny moments to SVU" and also applauded the tension shown between Adam Beach and Ice-T. Kelli Giddish, who played one of the victims would later join the show as Det. Amanda Rollins beginning at Season 13.[16] Bill Goldberg appeared at the beginning of the thirteenth episode "Loophole". Wrestler Bill Goldberg is Neal Baer's cousin and was given a physically intimidating role.[17] The fourteenth episode "Dependent" featured guest star Cary Elwes as mafia lawyer Sidney Truex, who survives an attack in his home where his wife is murdered. It is later revealed that the boyfriend of Truex's 16-year-old daughter is the murderer. The sixteenth episode "Philadelphia" showed Detective Benson clashing with a New Jersey cop played by Kim Delaney. Delaney mentioned being an SVU fan especially because of the subject matter addressed in the show and said "It's what we read about in the paper, unfortunately too many times."[18]

text: The third last episode "Annihilated" was predicted to be an Emmy contender for Christopher Meloni in the Envelope section of The LA Times.[19] Dylan Walsh guest starred as Malcolm Royce, a family man involved in a murder suicide. Meloni described Walsh's character as "outwardly a family man like Elliot, who has everything going for him, but this guy's living a double life."[20] In the second last episode "Pretend", Misti Traya guest starred as a woman who had been posing as a teenager for years. Noting the similarities, Neal Baer said the writers were "stunned" to hear about the sex offender Neil Havens Rodreick who was caught disguising himself as a twelve-year-old shortly after the episode was written.[1] In the season finale "Screwed", Chris "Ludacris" Bridges concluded the storyline of his character Darius Parker by defending himself in court. Baer described his performance saying "He defends himself which is cool. So now he takes on the role of a lawyer with Steven Weber playing his lawyer as well."[7]

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
Prod.
code
U.S. viewers
(millions)

162
1
"Informed"
Peter Leto
Dawn DeNoon
September 19, 2006 (2006-09-19)
0801
14.55[21]

A young woman (Kristen Bush) shows up at a hospital emergency room beaten and with her head shaved. Despite signs of sexual assault, she demands only a morning-after pill and refuses a rape kit. Accosted on the street by Benson, she returns to her apartment and locks herself in the bathroom but leaves her underwear behind for Benson to steal as evidence. Benson and Stabler try to find out who assaulted the woman by talking to a friend of hers (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) at the cooperative where she works. When she goes missing, FBI Agent Dana Lewis (Marcia Gay Harden) reveals her vital role in a sting operation against an eco-terrorism group. Posing as a radical (Joanna Adler), Benson goes undercover to help prevent a terrorist bombing.

163
2
"Clock"
Jim Hayman
Allison Intrieri
September 26, 2006 (2006-09-26)
0803
14.41[22]

Stabler and Tutuola team up to investigate when a teenage boy (Daniel Farcher) and girl (Betsy Hogg) go missing on a school field trip. The case takes a different turn however, when they realize that the girl has Turner's syndrome making her look twelve when she is seventeen. The girl is found with her lover (Jason Butler Harner), an older man who has found a legal way to have sex with a girl who looks twelve. The girl's parents (Gregory Harrison and Deborah Raffin) and grandfather (Robert Vaughn) take the case to family court but there is nothing they can do since both parties are past the age of consent. When the court is adjourned, Stabler meets his new partner; Detective Dani Beck.

164
3
"Recall"
Juan J. Campanella
Jonathan Greene
October 3, 2006 (2006-10-03)
0805
14.30[23]

Stabler and Cragen have concerns about Beck's reputation as an overzealous investigator. She works with Stabler to help a woman (Lily Rabe) who was raped by a prominent lawyer (Charles Shaughnessy). The squad's credibility is damaged when another woman (Robin Weigert) comes forward, mistakenly claiming that she was raped by the same man. The people are unable to make the charges stick until a surprise witness (Leslie Caron) comes forward.

165
4
"Uncle"
David Platt
Dawn DeNoon
October 10, 2006 (2006-10-10)
0804
13.89[24]

When a mother and daughter are found raped and murdered, Stabler and Beck take in a homeless man who turns out to be Munch's uncle (Jerry Lewis). Although they question his dementia at first, Stabler and Beck find their way to a much more calculating suspect (Timothy Adams).

166
5
"Confrontation"
David Platt
Judith McCreary
October 17, 2006 (2006-10-17)
0806
12.98[25]

Stabler and Beck handle a case in which the attacker (Michael Kelly) seems to be coming back to rape his victims again and again. They disagree on how to help a woman (Marin Ireland) who is living in fear. The detectives soon discover that his plan is to impregnate selected women. In order to put him away, they compel a pregnant woman (Kerry O'Malley) to undergo chorionic villus sampling even though her husband (Matthew Arkin) wishes to remain ignorant to the fact that he is not the father.

167
6
"Infiltrated"
David Platt
Dawn DeNoon
October 31, 2006 (2006-10-31)
0809
13.36[26]

Casey Novak is forced to get Olivia Benson, still undercover with the FBI, to come back to New York to testify on behalf of a woman who was raped in a bank. While undercover with an Oregon environmental group, she and her group members (Maria Thayer and Chris Bowers) are injured by an overzealous deputy sheriff (Steven Rishard) and charged with assault. She is eventually released but is questioned about her group's involvement with a murder. She then sets out to clear her group's name and investigates the murdered man. Despite the efforts of his widow (Debra Jo Rupp) trying to shield her daughter from the truth, Benson learns that he was a pedophile with a room under his garage that he used for kidnapping. The local sheriff (Charles Martin Smith) finds two sets of prints at the scene, the murdered man's and those of a ten-year-old girl (Molly Camp) who went missing seven years ago. Benson's case agent (Vincent Spano) tells her that she is indeed spending time with harmless activists and that her undercover work is no longer needed. As she is still unaware of the urgency of Novak's case, she decides to stay and help the FBI find the missing girl. In the end, Benson finds the girl, who had developed Stockholm syndrome and makes it back to New York just in time to testify.

168
7
"Underbelly"
Jonathan Kaplan
Amanda Green
November 14, 2006 (2006-11-14)
0807
14.76[27]

Three teenaged homicide victims with matching tattoos lead Detectives Stabler and Beck to an underage prostitution ring. With the victims' pimp (Michael K. Williams) as the prime suspect, detectives must rely on one of his young girls (Charlie Ray), to testify against him. Benson shows up at Cragen's office but decides not to go back to detective work just yet after seeing how Stabler and Beck are getting along.

169
8
"Cage"
David Platt
Patrick Harbinson
November 21, 2006 (2006-11-21)
0808
14.20[28]

Detectives Stabler and Beck investigate a car accident involving two foster children (Elle Fanning and Khaleel Carter) in which the driver (Marlyne Afflack) was fired from being a foster parent. The accident leads the detectives to foster parents (Margo Martindale and Leo Burmester), a doctor (Ken Howard) who advised them over the phone and some questionable medical practices involving controversial "rebirthing" therapy. As the detectives dig deeper into the case, they discover other gruesome secrets; one of the foster children sets a fire in Beck's living room attempting to commit suicide. This is too much for Dani to handle and she says goodbye to Stabler and the Special Victims Unit.

170
9
"Choreographed"
Peter Leto
Paul Grellong
November 28, 2006 (2006-11-28)
0810
14.64[29]

The body of a woman (Kristine Szabo) with a mysterious cause of death is discovered in Central Park. Detective Stabler begins the investigation by talking to the victim's husband (Chris Sarandon) as his friends (Bob Saget and Catherine Bell) pay a condolence visit. Stabler's investigation unravels a case of drugs, infidelity and an elaborate plot that impacts everyone involved in the troupe. Stabler also discovers that Detective Benson is back in town and she is assigned to be his partner once again.

171
10
"Scheherazade"
David Platt
Amanda Green
January 2, 2007 (2007-01-02)
0802
15.17[30]

Stabler agrees to hear the dying confession of a cancer patient (Brian Dennehy) but first, he and Benson do some digging into what possible crime he could have committed. This leads them to an unsolved case that goes back 47 years. The man is found to be responsible for 21 armed bank robberies, murder, and kidnapping. His daughter (Paget Brewster) refuses to see him in his last days, but as he lies dying she goes to his bedside.

172
11
"Burned"
Eriq La Salle
Judith McCreary
January 9, 2007 (2007-01-09)
0811
14.41[31]

A former drug addict (Blair Underwood) who only gets to see his daughter (Tiffany Evans) during short supervised visits is accused of rape by his wife (Michael Michele). Stabler and Benson are at odds over whom to believe in the ensuing "he said, she said" case because the parties are in the middle of a bitter divorce and child-custody dispute.

173
12
"Outsider"
Arthur W. Forney
Paul Grellong
January 16, 2007 (2007-01-16)
0816
14.17[32]

Fin looks into a string of similar assaults in which the victims (Tiffany Pao and Kelli Giddish) were raped, choked and beaten. Fin is joined in his investigation by a Brooklyn SVU detective (Adam Beach) working a similar case. This leads them to a successful family (Navid Negahban, Pooja Kumar and Sakina Jaffrey) who disowned their son (Kal Penn) for being an underachiever.

174
13
"Loophole"
David Platt
Jonathan Greene
February 6, 2007 (2007-02-06)
0812
13.45[35]

Stabler is injured by a drug-crazed suspect (Bill Goldberg) and Benson follows up on an anonymous letter which leads to an apparent child-pornography case and the testing of pesticides on unwitting apartment tenants. After arresting the landlord (Wayne Duvall), Olivia is exposed to the pesticide and develops medical symptoms similar to those exhibited by the victim (Marquis Rodriguez) and his mother (Karen Olivo). Despite the health risks, an official (Casey Siemaszko) informs the squad that this was done legally. Casey Novak eventually pursues the CEO (Ray Wise) of a pharmaceutical company and his lawyer (James Naughton) in order to challenge a controversial United States Environmental Protection Agency rule that allows intentional dosing of human beings in pesticide experiments.[33][34]

175
14
"Dependent"
Peter Leto
Ken Storer
February 13, 2007 (2007-02-13)
0815
12.94[36]

After an intruder attacks a mob lawyer (Cary Elwes), murders his wife, and spares his son (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), Benson and Stabler question their daughter (Emily VanCamp). However her wild night of drunken partying leaves her unable to recall her actions, even though her father insists she was at the scene of the crime. Stabler is charged with excessive force when the daughter's boyfriend (Justin Klosky) dies in his custody.

176
15
"Haystack"
Peter Leto
Amanda Green
February 20, 2007 (2007-02-20)
0813
11.94[37]

An overzealous reporter (Kali Rocha) accuses a new mother (Ashley Williams) on television of kidnapping and trying to kill her baby. This turns out to be the last straw for the despondent woman, who promptly commits suicide. Although everyone is under suspicion, including the mother and her ex-husband (Pablo Schreiber), the case takes an unusual emotional toll on Detective Stabler who is drawn into the line of fire by the kidnapper (Dana Ashbrook) and his mother (Marian Seldes).

177
16
"Philadelphia"
Peter Leto
Patrick Harbinson
February 27, 2007 (2007-02-27)
0817
11.73[38]

Benson finally unravels a part of her past when she finds her brother Simon Marsden (Michael Weston) who is suspected of being a rapist by a New Jersey captain (Kim Delaney). This distraction compromises a chase during which the squad tries to apprehend two male rapists (Michael Carbonaro and Roberto Purvis) who rape other men. Benson must meet with Dr. Rebecca Hendrix (Mary Stuart Masterson) to discuss her recent actions.

178
17
"Sin"
George Pattison
Patrick Harbinson
March 27, 2007 (2007-03-27)
0821
12.86[40]

A successful preacher (Tim Daly) is the prime suspect in the murder of a clandestine sexual partner (Kyle Bares),[39] until his wife (Kathy Baker) provides detectives with a taped conversation.

179
18
"Responsible"
Yelena Lanskaya & David Platt
Allison Intrieri
April 3, 2007 (2007-04-03)
0814
11.16[41]

Stabler and Benson are forced to dive into the world of underage drinking when a death leads to high school binge parties and a mother (Laura Leighton) who not only supplies booze to her daughter (Sarah Drew)'s friends but sleeps with one of those friends (Hunter Parrish) as well.

180
19
"Florida"
David Platt
Jonathan Greene
May 1, 2007 (2007-05-01)
0818
11.41[42]

When Detective Benson gets into the middle of an investigation of her brother Simon Marsden (Michael Weston), she takes out the stress on a suspect (Josh Casaubon) and gets suspended. Benson talks to Simon's mother (Maggie Burke), his father's coworker (Graham Winton) and a rape victim (Kathryn Hays) and begins to question whether or not she was the product of a rape in the first place. She digs deeper to discover that Simon was the victim of a frame-job by a police officer (Kim Delaney) who is in denial about sexual abuse in her own family.

181
20
"Annihilated"
Peter Leto
Amanda Green
May 8, 2007 (2007-05-08)
0819
10.94[43]

A woman's murder appears to be the result of a professional hit, when her fiancé (Dylan Walsh) receives death threats, apparently resulting from his CIA career. Elliot, investigating this, finds that the man may not be all that he seems; the case takes a shocking turn when the man's wife (Kelly Deadmon) and children (Lucas Delvasto, John D'Leo and Shelby Adamowsky) are all found dead. Meanwhile, Elliot continues to rebuild his relationship with his family.

182
21
"Pretend"
David Platt
Dawn DeNoon
May 15, 2007 (2007-05-15)
0820
12.75[44]

The team investigates the death of a partially clothed teenage boy (Dan Leonard) wearing a leather mask. The detectives discover that the victim's best friend (Michael Welch) is the killer and has a video, showing that the boy's death was the result of a backyard wrestling match gone wrong. The trial ends with the boy's conviction on a lesser charge but then the victim's girlfriend (Misti Traya) fails to show up at the sentencing hearing. When the girlfriend is injured in an attack instigated by the defendant, the case takes a bizarre turn when information surfaces that the girl is far older than she appears and has been defrauding the foster care system for over a decade.

183
22
"Screwed"
Arthur W. Forney
Judith McCreary
May 22, 2007 (2007-05-22)
0822
10.28[45]

Darius Parker (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges), goes on trial for the rape and murder of a woman with any mention of her fourteen-month-old child deemed inadmissible. The case brings Fin under fire from the media and even has Munch and Stabler at odds. Novak prosecutes the trial that brings Stabler and Tutuola, among others, to the stand. Many previous stories are brought into the trial, such as Stabler's daughter Kathleen's DUI, and Benson's illegal money-wiring to her half-brother, Simon Marsden (Michael Weston). It is also revealed that Kathy Stabler, Elliot's wife, is pregnant again.