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Please see the discussion on the talk page. | Ferdinand Waldo Demara (1921- June 8, 1982), known as "the Great Impostor", masqueraded as many people from monks to surgeons to prison wardens. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ...
June 8 is the 159th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (160th in leap years), with 206 days remaining. ...
1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Demara was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1921. A Roman Catholic, he tried unsuccessfully to enter a Trappist monastery in 1935. Two attempts later it seemed that the cloistered life did not agree with him and he joined the U.S. Army in 1941. High Service Water Tower (1895), also called Tower Hill Water Tower, a notable eyecatcher or folly, named a Water Landmark in 1979 by the American Water Works Association. ...
The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...
Trappist can refer to: a religious order - see Trappists some of the products, made by the order - see Trappist beer This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
Monastery of St. ...
The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ...
The following year Demara began his new lives by borrowing the name of Anthony Ignolia, an army buddy, and went AWOL. After two more tries in monasteries he joined the Navy. He did not reach the position he wanted, faked his suicide and borrowed another name, Robert Linton French, and became a religiously oriented psychologist. Both Navy and Army caught him eventually and he served 18 months in prison - studying for his next job, of course. A string of pseudo-academic careers followed. AWOL (pronounced a-wall) is an acronym for the United States and other armed forces expression Absent WithOut Leave or Absence Without Official Leave. The United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy use the term Unauthorized Absence (UA) instead. ...
During his "careers", he was, among other things, a civil engineer, a sheriff's deputy, an assistant prison warden, a doctor of applied psychology, a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, an editor, a cancer researcher, and a teacher. One teaching job led to six months in prison. He never seemed to get much monetary gain in what he was doing - just temporary respectability. The term civil engineer refers to an individual who practices civil engineering. ...
Look up Sheriff in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
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The basic premise of applied psychology is the use of psychological principles and theories to overcome practical problems in other fields, such as business management, product design, ergonomics, nutrition, law and clinical medicine. ...
English barrister 16th century painting of a civil law notary, by Flemish painter Quentin Massys. ...
A Benedictine is a person who follows the Rule of St Benedict. ...
Trappist can refer to: a religious order - see Trappists some of the products, made by the order - see Trappist beer This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
Tony Curtis portrayed Demara in the 1961 film The Great Impostor, although Curtis bore little resemblance to the six-foot Demara, who weighed as much as 350 pounds. The Curtis film is entertaining but highly fictionalized: two of its episodes degenerate into crude slapstick. Roger Moore and Tony Curtis in The Persuaders! Tony Curtis (born June 3, 1925) is an American film actor. ...
Based on Robert Crichtons 1959 book by the same name, The Great Impostor is a 1961 movie based on the life of the con artist Ferdinand Waldo Demara. ...
Many of his unsuspecting employers, under other circumstances, would have been satisfied with him as an employee. He was apparently able to memorize necessary techniques from textbooks and worked on two cardinal rules: The burden of proof is on the accuser and When in danger, attack. He described his own motivation as "Rascality, pure rascality". In the common law, burden of proof is the obligation to prove allegations which are presented in a legal action. ...
His most famous exploit was to masquerade as surgeon Joseph Cyr aboard HMCS Cayuga, a Royal Canadian Navy destroyer, during the Korean War. He managed to improvise successful surgeries and fend off infection with generous amounts of penicillin. Apparent removal of a bullet from a wounded man ended up in Canadian newspapers. One person reading the reports was the mother of the real Dr. Joseph Cyr; her son at the time of 'his' service in Korea was actually practicing medicine in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. When news of the impostor reached the Cayuga, still on duty off Korea, Captain James Plomer at first refused to believe Demara was not a doctor (and not Joseph Cyr). The Canadian Navy chose to not press charges, and Demara returned to the United States. The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) was the navy of Canada from 1911 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Armed Forces. ...
Combatants United Nations: Republic of Korea Australia Belgium Canada Colombia Ethiopia France Greece Netherlands New Zealand Philippines South Africa Thailand Turkey United Kingdom United States Medical staff: Denmark India Italy Norway Sweden Communist states: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea People’s Republic of China Soviet Union Commanders Syngman Rhee...
Penicillin nucleus Penicillin (sometimes abbreviated PCN) refers to a group of β-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms. ...
Motto: Spem reduxit (Hope restored) Official languages English, French Flower Purple Violet Tree Balsam Fir Bird Black-capped Chickadee Capital Fredericton Largest city Saint John Lieutenant-Governor Herménégilde Chiasson Premier Shawn Graham (Liberal) Parliamentary representation - House seats - Senate seats 10 10 Area Total - Land - Water (% of total) Ranked...
After this episode he sold his tale to Life magazine and worked in short-time jobs, since he was now widely known. He resorted to drinking. Only after he continued to use his old tricks and got fake credentials could he get another job at a prison in Huntsville, Texas. According to his biographer, Demara's past became known and his position untenable when an inmate found a copy of Life with an article about the impostor. A cover of Life Magazine from 1911 Life has been the name of two notable magazines published in the United States. ...
Huntsville is a city and also a newly designated micropolitan area located in the U.S. state of Texas within Walker County. ...
He continued to use new aliases but by then it was harder than before.
In 1960, as a publicity stunt, Demara was given a small acting role in the horror film The Hypnotic Eye. He appears briefly in the film as a (genuine) hospital surgeon. Ironically, the impostor who fooled so many people in real life reveals a total lack of acting ability in this brief role. By this point, Demara's girth was so notable that he could not avoid attracting attention.
In 1967 Demara received the Graduate Certificate in Bible from Multnomah Bible College in Portland, Oregon. Multnomah Bible College and Biblical Seminary is a Christian college and seminary located in Portland, Oregon. ...
Nickname: City of Roses, Stumptown, Bridgetown, PDX Location in Multnomah County and the state of Oregon Coordinates: Country United States State Oregon County Multnomah County Incorporated February 8, 1851 Mayor Tom Potter Area - City 376. ...
Demara died on June 8, 1982 due to heart failure. According to his obituary in the New York Times, he had been living in Orange County, California, for eight years. During that time he had worked as a Baptist minister, then as a visiting counselor at Good Samaritan Hospital in Anaheim until illness forced him to stop, in 1980. June 8 is the 159th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (160th in leap years), with 206 days remaining. ...
1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area Ranked 3rd - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²) - Width 250 miles (400 km) - Length 770 miles (1,240 km) - % water 4. ...
Books
- Robert Crichton, The Great Impostor (Random House, 2000), ISBN 0-394-42714-9.
- Robert Chichton, The Rascal and the Road, ISBN 1-05-851476-9.
Films Based on Robert Crichtons 1959 book by the same name, The Great Impostor is a 1961 movie based on the life of the con artist Ferdinand Waldo Demara. ...
Roger Moore and Tony Curtis in The Persuaders! Tony Curtis (born June 3, 1925) is an American film actor. ...
The Pretender is a television series that originally ran on NBC for four seasons between 1996 and 2000. ...
Trivia - In one episode of the TV comedy M*A*S*H {#18 Season 1}, Hawkeye Pierce discovers a visiting surgeon is an imposter and gives him an hour to leave before calling the MPs. The imposter later turns up as a chaplain. This was an extremely fictionalized version of Demara’s “service” in Korea; for example changing the location from the Canadian Navy ship to a US Army MASH hospital.
M*A*S*H is an American medical drama/black comedy produced by 20th Century Fox for CBS. M*A*S*H was created by Larry Gelbart, inspired by the 1961 novel Catch 22, the 1968 Richard Hooker novel MASH, and the 1970 film of the same name. ...
The Mobile Army Surgical hospital (MASH) refers to a United States Army medical unit serving as a fully functional hospital in a combat area of operations. ...
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