Terry Gross

Fresh Air remembers the boxing legend who dies last week with this archival interview with David Remnick, author of the Ali biography, of King of the World. Originally broadcast in 1998

David Remnick is the author of the new book "King of the World" (Random House) about heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. Remnick was appointed editor of the New Yorker Magazine this year, and is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Lenin's Tomb."

Herzog's latest movie is a documentary, "Little Dieter Needs to Fly: Escape from Laos" the true story of Dieter Dengler, the only U.S. pilot to have sucessfully escaped from a North Vietnamese-controlled prison. Herzog's other works include the feature films "Aguirre: The Wrath of God," "Heart of Glass," "Fitzcarraldo," and "Nosferatu."

In light of the recent beating death of gay student Matthew Shepard, a discussion of anti-gay violence with documentary film maker Arthur Dong. In his 1997 film "Licensed to Kill," Dong interviews convicted murderers of gay men and asks them "Why did you do it?" Twenty years ago, Dong himself was the victim of a gay bashing. Dong is a Peabody Award winner and Oscar and Emmy nominated independent filmmaker. His other films include "Coming Out Under Fire," and "Forbidden City, U.S.A."

Hillis is one of the world's leading computer scientists and is the designer of the world's fastest computer. He's also Vice President and Disney Fellow at Walt Disney Imagineering. His new book is "The Pattern on the Stone: the simple ideas that make computers work" (Basic Books)

Youngman died earlier this year at the age of 91. Terry talked with him at the time he published his memoir, "Take My Life, Please." (REBROADCAST from 10/18/91)

Each week on her show "Tracy Takes On," Ullman features a gallery of characters talking about a topic, such as families, sex, money and crime. She also has a companion book "Tracey Takes On" (Hyperion), and there's an HBO home video release of her previous shows. Ullman is a native of England. She got her start in the U.S. with The Tracey Ullman Show, and has since won several Emmys and Cableace awards. She's also appeared in the films "Ready to Wear," "Bullets Over Broadway", and "Plenty." (REBROADCAST from 1/14/98)

This week, Pryor was the first recipient of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' award for humor, The Mark Twain Prize. (It will be broadcast on the Comedy Central cable channel Jan 20th). In 1995, he published his story, "Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences" A strong man who has overcome such ordeals as a drug addiction, self immolation, and six marriages, Pryor is now battling multiple sclerosis. (REBROADCAST from 5/22/95)

Lovitz played the pathological liar on Saturday Night Live, among many other characters, such as Annoying Man and Harry Chanukah. Now he's a regular on the sitcom "Newsradio." (REBROADCAST from 4/28/92)

Visotzky who last examined The Bible's Book of Genesis, now interprets Exodus. His new book is "The Road To Redemption: Lessons from Exodus on Leadership and Community." (Crown) Visotzky's work on Genesis, led a Cover story in Time Magazine and PBS' Genesis series. His work on Exodus caught the attention of Dream Works. The film studio hired him to be a consultant on the animated feature on Exodus, "The Prince of Egypt." Visotzky is chairman of Inter-religious studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary in America.