Jon Christopher Conkling (born March 31, 1949) is an American writer. He is best known as the co-writer of the screenplay for the animated version of Lord of the Rings, directed by Ralph Bakshi and produced by Saul Zaentz. He has also published articles in BYU Studies, the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies and the Ensign, and wrote the 1979 book A Joseph Smith Chronology and an award-winning article on Melville's "Bartleby The Scrivener."
He wrote six complete scripts in an attempt to find the right approach for Bakshi's version of Lord of the Rings—one covered only a third of the epic, one tried to fit the entire saga into a single film, one tried to cut it in half; one version even focused on a re-telling by Pippin and Merry.[1][2] There was a good deal of experimentation as to how to approach the enormous saga.[3] Eventually, popular science fiction novelist, Peter S. Beagle, was called in to do some revisions, although Conkling still retained first credit on the final version. Lord of the Rings was nominated for a Hugo Award.
He was also a story consultant for the 1977 BYU Film Studio film The Mailbox and wrote The Emmitt Smith Story for BYU. He also wrote several management videos which appeared on PBS, and was also a writer for ABC's television series The Hardy Boys.[4]
Conkling has taught a variety of courses at the American Jewish University in Bel-Air, California. Prior to this he worked in advertising and public relations for several oil companies and Pool/Sarraille Advertising of Beverly Hills. He also wrote a paper entitled "The Dark Ages: The L.D.S. Church and Japan, 1924-1948" which is held by the Church History Archives and has been used as a source for published work by R. Lanier Britsch.[5]
At AJU Chris Conkling created courses in literature of utopia and literature of evil, taught ancient Greek and Roman literature, and was faculty advisor for several years on the student newspaper. He currently works as a 12th grade English teacher and creative writing teacher at Sylmar High School's Math/Science Magnet, in Sylmar, Ca.[6]
Conkling and his wife Robin are the parents of six children. His mother was in the singing quartet The King Sisters, who had a weekly ABC television musical in the mid-sixties, called The King Family. His father, James Conkling, was a record executive, who became Capitol Record's first vice president, then president of Columbia Records, and founder and first president of Warner Bros. Records. He also helped to found the Grammy Awards where he became the Grammy's first national chairman.
Conkling's entire family is rather accomplished. One cousin was musical director for the Sonny and Cher show, another the voice of Leonardo on "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" for a decade, another was the female lead on the long-running TV program "My Three Sons" and yet another several created the "Signing Times" sign language videos. One sister, Jamie Miller, has published a half dozen books and another is married to a top Yankee Scout. One Uncle, big band leader and guitar virtuoso Alvino Rey, was the first inductee into the steel guitar hall of fame, another, Bob Clarke, produced and starred in such "B" monster movies as "The Hideous Sun Demon" and "Man from the Planet X," another, Bill Burch, was a Universal Studio executive and longtime protegee of Gene Autry. Among his second cousins is the wife of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and the founders of the alternative rock band "The Arcade Fire."
↑ Rateliff, John D. (2011). "Two Kinds of Absence: Elision and Exclusion in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings". In Bogstad, Janice M.; Kaveny, Philip E. (eds.). Picturing Tolkien: Essays on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy. McFarland. pp.54–70. ISBN978-0786484737.
The Lord of the Rings is a 1978 animated fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi from a screenplay by Chris Conkling and Peter S. Beagle. It is based on the novel of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien, adapting from the volumes The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Set in Middle-earth, the film follows a group of fantasy races—Hobbits, Men, an Elf, a Dwarf and a wizard—who form a fellowship to destroy a magical ring made by the Dark Lord Sauron, the main antagonist.
Boyd Kenneth Packer was an American religious leader and educator who served as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2008 until his death. He also served as the quorum's acting president from 1994 to 2008, and was an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1970 until his death. He served as a general authority of the church from 1961 until his death.
Howard William Hunter was an American lawyer and the 14th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1994 to 1995. His nine-month presidential tenure is the shortest in the church's history. Hunter was the first president of the LDS Church born in the 20th century and the last to die in it. He was sustained as an LDS apostle at the age of 51, and served as a general authority for over 35 years.
Leonard James Arrington was an American author, academic and the founder of the Mormon History Association. He is known as the "Dean of Mormon History" and "the Father of Mormon History" because of his many influential contributions to the field. Since 1842, he was the first non-general authority Church Historian for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 1972 to 1982, and was director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History from 1982 until 1986.
Peter Soyer Beagle is an American novelist and screenwriter, especially of fantasy fiction. His best-known work is The Last Unicorn (1968) which Locus subscribers voted the number five "All-Time Best Fantasy Novel" in 1987. During the last twenty-five years he has won several literary awards, including a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2011. He was named Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master by SFWA in 2018.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was unofficially established in South Korea as early as World War II due to religious influence by LDS servicemen; however, Korean people did not begin to get baptized until the missionary efforts of LDS servicemen during the Korean War. Kim Ho Jik was the first Korean person to be baptized in the LDS Church on July 29, 1951 in New York. Two of his children were of the first four Korean people baptized in Korea on August 3, 1952. LDS Church presence and missionary work was officially established on April 20, 1956 with the arrival of two missionaries: Don G. Powell and Richard L. Detton. The Korean Mission opened on July 8, 1962 with Gail E. Carr as the first president of the mission. Successful missionary work led to the growth of the LDS Church in the 1960s and 1970s leading to the organization of the first stake in Korea in 1973 and the dedication of the first temple in Seoul on December 14, 1985.
Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
John Sears Tanner is a former president of Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYU-Hawaii). He was the 10th president of BYU-Hawaii, serving from 2015 to 2020. He previously served as first counselor in the General Sunday School Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as president of the church's Brazil São Paulo South Mission and as Academic Vice President of Brigham Young University (BYU). Tanner is married to Susan W. Tanner, a former general president of the LDS Church's Young Women organization.
Susan Evans McCloud is an American novelist, author, poet, hymnwriter, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Douglas James Martin was a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1987 to 1992. He was the first New Zealand resident to become a church general authority.
Waitea Abiuta was one of the first converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kiribati and was the first i-Kiribati leader in the LDS Church.
Daniel Hansen Ludlow was a professor of religion at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. He was also the chief editor of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published in 1992 by Macmillan.
Richard Lloyd Anderson was an American lawyer and theologist of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who was a professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University (BYU). His book Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses is widely considered the definitive work on this subject. Anderson was the brother of Karl Ricks Anderson.
Ralph Lanier Britsch was a history professor at Brigham Young University who specialized in the history of missionary work by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, particularly in the Pacific Islands and Asia.
Rhett S. James is a Latter-day Saint author and educator. He is also a playwright.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Australia began with the arrival of seventeen-year-old missionary William James Barratt in 1840. The LDS Church's first baptism in Australia was in 1842 when Barratt baptised Robert Beauchamp, who would later become an Australian mission president. However, official missionary work did not begin until John Murdock, who became the first official mission president in Australia, and Charles Wandell established a mission in Sydney, Australia, on 31 October 1851. The colonies of New Zealand and Tasmania were added to the Australian Mission in 1854, creating the Australasian Mission. In 1898, however, the Australasian Mission was divided into the New Zealand Mission and the Australian Mission.
Edward L. Clissold was a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in both Hawaii and Japan.
J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), set in Middle-earth, have been the subject of numerous motion picture adaptations, whether for film (cinema), television, or streaming. There were many early failed attempts to bring the fictional universe to life on screen, some even rejected by the author himself, who was skeptical of the prospects of an adaptation. While animated and live-action shorts were made in 1967 and 1971, the first commercial depiction of the book onscreen was in an animated TV special in 1977. In 1978 the first big screen adaptation of the fictional setting was introduced in the animated The Lord of the Rings.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in Japan in 1901 when the church's first missionaries arrived on August 12. Among them was Heber J. Grant, who was then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and later became the church's 7th president. Horace S. Ensign, Louis A. Kelsch, and Alma O. Taylor accompanied Grant. The LDS Church's first baptism in Japan was on March 8, 1902, when Grant baptized Hajime Nakazawa, a former Kannushi. The Book of Mormon was translated three times. The first translation, which took over six years, was completed by Taylor in 1909. It was then recommended that the Book of Mormon be translated into bunshō, a more elegant literary style, which was done by Chōkō Ikuta in 1909, shortly before it was published and distributed. The third translation in 1957 was done by Tatsui Sato. In 1995, the Book of Mormon was translated again into a more colloquial style.
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