Beatty Vbat-e\, (Henry) War¬ ren orig. Henry Warren Beaty
(b. March 30, 1937, Richmond, Va.,
U.S.) U.S. film actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He stud¬ ied acting with famed coach Stella Adler in New York and made his film
debut in Splendor in the Grass (1961). He later starred in and produced the influential film Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Often cowriting, directing, or producing his own films, he later starred in Shampoo (1975), Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981, Academy Award for direction), and Bul- worth (1998).
Beaubourg Center See Pompidou Center
Beaufort Sea \'bo-fort \ Part of the Arctic Ocean northeast of Alaska, northwest of Canada, and west of Banks Island in the Arctic Archipelago. Its surface area is about 184,000 sq mi (476,000 sq km), its average depth is 3,239 ft (1,004 m), and its greatest depth is 15,360 ft (4,680 m). It is frozen over almost year-round; only in August and September does the ice break up. The Mackenzie River flows into the sea; the chief settlement is Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
Beauharnais \bo-ar-'ne\, Alexandre, viscount de (b. May 28,
1760, Martinique—d. June 23, 1794, Paris, France) French politician and general, first husband of Josephine. A liberal noble, he became a promi¬ nent figure during the French Revolution. He presided over the Constitu¬ ent Assembly in 1791, served with gallantry in the army, and was named general in chief of the Army of the Rhine in 1793. He was guillotined during the Reign of Terror, largely because he was a noble. He was the father of Eugene and Hortense de Beauharnais and the grandfather of Napo¬ leon III.
Beauharnais, Eugene de (b. Sept. 3, 1781, Paris, France—d. Feb. 21, 1824, Munich, Bavaria) French administrator and general. Son of Josephine and Alexandre, viscount de Beauharnais, he became a useful mili¬ tary aide to his stepfather, Napoleon. In 1804 he received the title of prince and was appointed archchancellor of state. He was named Napoleon’s viceroy in Italy (1805), where he reorganized public finances, built roads, and introduced the French legal system. As commander of the Italian army, he fought admirably in various conflicts. In 1814 he held out in Italy against the Austrians and the Neapolitans but was forced to con¬ clude an armistice. He retired to the Bavarian court of his wife’s family.
Beauharnais, (Eugenie-) Hortense de (b. April 10, 1783, Paris, France—d. Oct. 5, 1837, Arenenberg, Switz.) French-bom queen of Hol¬ land (1806-10). Daughter of Josephine and Alexandre, viscount de Beauhar¬ nais, and stepdaughter of Napoleon, Hortense married Napoleon’s brother, Louis Bonaparte. When he became king of Holland, she was named queen. The marriage was unhappy but produced three children, including the future Napoleon III. When Napoleon was exiled in 1814, Hortense became the centre of Bonapartist intrigue, and her support of Napoleon during his return led to her banishment from France in 1815, after which she settled in Switzerland.
Beaujolais X.bo-zho-'laX Region in northern Rhone and northeastern Loire departments, east-central France. It is located east of the Massif Central and west of the Saone River. The region is wooded and supports local forestry; its highest point is Mount Saint-Rigaud, elevation 3,310 ft (1,009 m). East of the mountain are the limestone escarpments of the Cote Beaujolaise, which support a world-famous red wine industry.
Beaujoyeulx \bozh-wa-'yce\, Balthazar de orig. Baltazarini di Belgioioso (b. 16th century, Piedmont region—d. 1587, Paris, Fr.) Italian-born French composer and choreographer. In 1555 he left Italy for Paris and joined the court of Catherine de Medicis as a violinist. There he organized unofficial court fetes and became valet de chambre to the royal family. In 1581 he staged the lavish Ballet comique de la reine\ consid¬ ered the first ballet, it was emulated by other European courts and was the precursor of developments in ballet for the next century.
Beaumarchais X.bo-mar-'shaX, Pierre-Augustin Caron de (b.
Jan. 24, 1732, Paris, France—d. May 18, 1799, Paris) French playwright. Son of a watchmaker, he invented a clockwork mechanism and became embroiled in lawsuits over its patent; a series of witty pamphlets he wrote in his defense established his reputation as a writer. His comedy The Bar¬ ber of Seville (1772) was kept off the stage for three years because it criti¬ cized the aristocracy. His Marriage of Figaro (1784) similarly censured the nobility and it, too, was initially banned. The plays became famous operas by Gioacchino Rossini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, respec¬ tively. He founded the Societe des Auteurs (1777) to enable playwrights to obtain royalty payments. His wealth led, ironically, to his temporary imprisonment during the French Revolution, an event his plays were sometimes said to have sparked.
Beatrix of The Netherlands.
COURTESY OF THE ROYAL NETHERLANDS EMBASSY; PHOTOGRAPH, MAX KOOT
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Beaumont ► Beccafumi I 185
Beaumont Vbo-.mantA City (pop., 2000: 113,866), southeastern Texas, U.S. Lying at the head of navigation on the Neches River, it is connected to the Gulf of Mexico by the Sabine-Neches Canal and is a major port of entry. It was founded in 1835. When Spindletop, the first major oil field in Texas, was discovered in 1901, the city grew rapidly. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the “Golden Triangle” petrochemical and industrial complex.
Beaumont \'bo- 1 mant\, Francis (b. c. 1585, Grace-Dieu, Leicester¬ shire, Eng.—d. March 6, 1616, London) British playwright. He is known chiefly for the 10 very popular plays on which he collaborated with John Fletcher (1579-1625) c. 1606—13. These included the tragicomedies The Maides Tragedy, Phylaster, and A King and No King. Forty other plays attributed to them were later found to have been written by others. Their independent work includes Beaumont’s poetry and his parody The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607) and Fletcher’s pastoral The Faithful Shep¬ herdess (1608). After Beaumont retired in 1613, Fletcher collaborated with other playwrights, possibly including William Shakespeare, with whom he may have written King Henry the Eighth and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
Beaumont, William (b. Nov. 21, 1785, Lebanon, Conn., U.S.—d. April 25, 1853, St. Louis, Mo.) U.S. surgeon. He served many years as an army surgeon. When treating a trapper whose abdomen had been perfo¬ rated by a shotgun blast, Beaumont collected gastric juice for analysis and showed that it contained hydrochloric acid, which supported his belief that digestion was a chemical process. He also reported on the effects of dif¬ ferent foods on the stomach and established alcohol as a cause of gastritis.
Beauregard Vbo-r9-,gard\, P(ierre) G(ustave) T(outant) (b. May
28, 1818, near New Orleans, La., U.S.—d. Feb. 20, 1893, New Orleans) U.S. military leader. He graduated from West Point in 1838 and served in the Mexican War. After Louisiana seceded in 1861, he resigned his commission and became a general in the Confederate army. He com¬ manded the forces that bombarded Fort Sumter, S.C., was on the field at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861), and assumed command at the Battle of Shiloh after the death of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston (1862). He con¬ ducted the defenses of Charleston, S.C., and Richmond, Va. Though a capable commander, his penchant for questioning orders sometimes bor¬ dered on insubordination. After the war he quarreled with other generals’ accounts of his role.
Beauvoir Vbo-.vwarV, Simone (Lucie-Ernestine-Marie- Bertrand) de (b. Jan. 9, 1908, Paris, France—d. April 14, 1986, Paris) French writer and feminist. As a student at the Sorbonne, she met Jean- Paul Sartre, with whom she formed a lifelong intellectual and romantic bond. She is known primarily for her treatise The Second Sex (1949), a scholarly and passionate plea for the abolition of what she called the myth of the “eternal feminine”; the book became a classic of feminist literature. She also wrote four admired volumes of autobiography (1958-72), philo¬ sophical works that explore themes of existentialism, and fiction, notably The Mandarins (1954, Prix Goncourt). The Coming of Age (1970) is a bitter reflection on society’s indifference to the elderly.