Biography Channel Movies

This edition of Biography, the long running documentary series from A&E, explores the life of semi-legendary sixth century king of the Britons King Arthur. He may originally have been a Roman-British war leader in called Arturus; but he is represented as having united the British tribes against the invading Saxons, and as having been the champion of Christendom as well. He is said to have fought against the invaders in a series of momentous battles, starting with a victory at Mount Baden and ending with defeat and death at Camlan, after which he was buried at Glastonbury. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes no mention of him, however; he first appears in Welsh chronicles long after the event. The story of Arthur blossomed into a huge literature, interwoven with legends of the Holy Grail and courtly ideas of the Round Table of knights at Camelot, in such writers as Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, Layamon, and, most notably in English, Sir Thomas Malory. ~ John Patrick Sheehan, Rovi

The famed psychotherapist Carl Jung once observed that beneath the cultivated courtliness of Southern gentility lay a savage heart. Tennessee Williams exposed that underlying brutality in his plays, such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire. This program looks at the man and his work, both characterized by an attraction to the dark side of life. Archival clips and photographs show the playwright in New Orleans and in interviews. The personal recollections of family, friends, and colleagues give insight into Williams' troubled life, while literary critics discuss the merit of his work. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, Rovi

Part of the Biography television series from A&E, this documentary reviews the career and personal life of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Her tremendous participation in twentieth century politics, as a high-profile first lady, impacted widespread issues, including feminism and civil rights, public policy and social work, and international peace relationships with the United States. Eleanor's father was the younger brother of President Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1905 she married Franklin Roosevelt. She joined the Red Cross during World War I and visited wounded veterans in the hospital, a morale-boosting practice she continued throughout her life. In 1920, Eleanor joined the League of Women Voters, an organization devoted to the advancement of women's political initiatives, and for which Eleanor made her first public speeches. In 1922, she joined the Women's Trade Union League and the Women's Division of the Democratic State Committee, where she befriended numerous leading activists. Among the issues she pursued were expanding the role of women in politics, denouncing anti-segregation policy in the South and creating anti-lynching legislature in cooperation with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Following Franklin's death in 1945, and at the request of President Harry S. Truman, Eleanor became a U.S. delegate for the United Nations. She remained devoted to improving awareness and international policies towards civil and human rights issues.
~ John Patrick Sheehan, Rovi

This edition of Biography, the long running documentary series from A&E, explores the life of American patriot Paul Revere. Born in Boston, Mass, Revere was an excellent silversmith and an ardent patriot, but a mediocre military leader. A member of the Sons of Liberty, he became the primary express rider for the Boston Committee of Safety. His famous ride to Lexington in 1775 was only the best-known of the many courier services he performed. He later was court-martialed and acquitted for his leadership during the failed Penebscot Bay expedition of 1779. After the American Revolution, he continued his silversmith trade with great success. He provided materials for the U.S.S. Constitution and worked with Robert Fulton in developing copper boilers for steamboats. ~ John Patrick Sheehan, Rovi

This edition of Biography, the long running documentary series from A&E, explores the life of General Douglas MacArthur.

The son of a Union army hero during the Civil War (they are the only father and son to win the Congressional Medal of Honor) he graduated from West Point in 1903. In World War I he commanded a brigade in combat in France where he earned a reputation for bravery. In July 1941 he was named commander of U.S. forces in the Far East; overwhelmed by the Japanese after Pearl Harbor, he was ordered to leave his forces on Bataan peninsula and go to Australia. From 1942 to 1945, as commander of the Southwest Pacific area, MacArthur organized an island-hopping offensive that resulted in the return of U.S. forces to the Philippines in October 1944.

As supreme commander of the Allied powers, he presided over the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. As military governor of Japan. On the outbreak of the Korean War in July 1950, he became commander of United Nations forces in Korea. When Chinese forces began fighting alongside the North Koreans in November 1950, he forcefully advocated an extension of the war into China. This led to conflict with President Harry Truman, who relieved MacArthur from command on April 11, 1951.
~ John Patrick Sheehan, Rovi

This biography of the American writer Ernest Hemingway is aptly titled, since Hemingway was forever struggling with life. A mixture of outdoorsman and intellectual, Hemingway has become emblematic of a certain way of life in the 20th century. His personal style and his many written works have become intertwined in the public imagination. In this A&E portrait, both the man and the myth are examined in an illuminating way. ~ Cara Saposnik, Rovi

This biographical documentary examines the life of legendary physicist Albert Einstein. The film takes a look at his beginnings a an excited young scientist, his celebrated status in his adopted country of America, as well as his being the subject of a government investigation, and the modern opinion that he was one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

Part of the Biography television series from A&E, this documentary reviews the career and personal life of Frederick Douglas.

Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, he was the son of a slave woman and, probably, her white master. Upon his escape from slavery at age 20, he adopted the name of the hero of Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake. Douglass immortalized his years as a slave in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. This and two subsequent autobiographies, My Bondage and My Freedom and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, mark his greatest contributions to American culture. Written as antislavery propaganda and personal revelation, they are regarded as the finest examples of the slave narrative tradition and as classics of American autobiography.

Douglass saw the Civil War as a moral crusade against slavery. During the war he labored as a propagandist of the Union cause and emancipation, a recruiter of black troops, and, on two occasions, an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln. He viewed the Union victory as an apocalyptic rebirth of America as a nation rooted in a rewritten Constitution and the ideal of racial equality. Some of his hopes were dashed during Reconstruction, but he continued to travel widely and lecture on racial issues, national politics, and women's rights.
~ John Patrick Sheehan, Rovi

A&E reviews the life and career of America's most beloved comedian, Bob Hope. Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, England. Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Hope began performing in vaudeville in the 1920s. He made his Broadway debut in 1933 and appeared in the 1935 production of the Ziegfeld Follies.
He co-starred in the 1940 film Road to Singapore, the first of seven "Road to. . ." movies he would make with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. Hope was a huge hit in Hollywood, and remained one of the top 10 box office stars throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In the early 1950s, he appeared frequently on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and alongside Lucille Ball on her hit sitcom I Love Lucy. Beginning in 1953, Hope hosted an annual Christmas television special, many of which were broadcast internationally for the sake of U.S. troops stationed around the world. During World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
His annual Christmas specials aired every year from 1953 to 1994. He won the People's Choice Award for Favorite All-Around Male Entertainer from 1975 to 1979, and again in 1985. Also in 1985, he was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievement.


~ John Patrick Sheehan, Rovi