(VIDEO) WHAT INSPIRES JOHN CULLUM

Emily Frankel, Cullum's wife says, "John, As you started out, whom did you want to be like as an actor?"

He explains when and how, back in Knoxville, Tennessee, films inspired him pursue a career in theater.

In this video that we made sometime ago, what John Cullum says about why he devoted his life to acting, is what he feels right now, today, stronger than ever.

TODAY'S GENIUSES

"Who's the Greatest Genius of All time?" Walter Isaacson asked some of the men and woman who are on Time's list of "The Most Influential People of  2017." Having written books on Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steven Jobs, and Leonardo Da Vinci, the question was certainly an appropriate question for Isaacson to ask the people on that list, who are pioneers, leaders, titans, artists and icons themselves.

George Church, 63, geneaologist who pioneered gene-editing technology, chose CARL BOSCH, the chemist who converted nitrogen gas into ammonia for fertilizer, and revolutionized the way human's grow food.

Patricia Bath, ophthalmologist, age 75, first African American doctor to receive a medical patent, chose MARIE CURIE, winner of Nobel Prizes in 1903 and 1911 who discovered radium, polonium,  and radioactivity. 


Ann Patchett, best selling author, age 54, winner of many major book awards for her novels -- "Bell Canto," "Commonwealth," and "State of Wonder," chose JANE GOODALL whose studies of Chimpanzees changed the world's attitude toward animals.

David Adjaye, age 51, award-winning architect, chose J. MAX BOND, whose many museums stores, and house developments make him one of the worlds most innovative, revolutionary architects. 

Christopher Edwards Nolan, 47, film director, acclaimed as one of best filmmakers of the 21st century, chose DAVID HOCKNEY, renown image maker -- photographer, researcher, authority on the development images and the use of optics in painting and in film down through the ages.

Rihanna, 20, award-winning singer, fashion designer, and entrepreneur, chose MICHAEL JORDAN, Chicago Bulls sports hero who transformed his sports career, what he accomplished in basketball, into a legend.

This is a photo of the award-winning innovators who expressed their opinions.

(Note Rihanna in the middle, who announced, "I'm 100% involved  creating and expanding "Fenty Beaty Makeup Collections."

Golly....who would I pick....?

I'd pick  Einstein, Newton, Pasteur, the names, the geniuses I heard about over and over as I was growing up, Also Mozart, and J.S. Bach who affected what I did, loved, and worked on in my world.

Walter Isaacson, putting together the Genius issue for Time, elevating Leonardo Da Vinci beyond the smartest of Leonard's peers, said, "Talent hits a target that no one else can hit--genius hits a target no one else can see..." And ends the article with: "Da Vinci was a genius. He was, more important, the epitome of the universal mind, the person most curious about more things than anyone else in history."

I bow to that.

So who would YOU select as the geniuses who profoundly affected your world?