File:Preferred_official_head-shot_from_James_Randi_Educational_Foundation.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
James Randi
Sign in to saveAlso known as Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, The Amazing Randi
Canadian-American stage magician and skeptical movement adherent
OverviewAI-generated
James Randi was a figure recognized in the Macarthur Fellows collection. His professional activity began in 1946 and concluded in 2015.
He was born on August 7, 1928, and died on October 20, 2020.
Synthesized by Vinony from 9 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Firecrawl, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
In the Vinony graph
James Randi is indexed among the 1,138 entries in Vinony's MacArthur Fellows collection.
Vinony's link graph records 676 inbound references to James Randi, and connects out to pseudoscience, Harry Houdini and skepticism.
It sits within the topics 1928 births, 2020 deaths and 20th-century American LGBTQ people.
Vinony links it to 49 Wikipedia language editions.
Film & TV
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
James Randi was a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. He was the co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation.
Known for
- The Mother of all Science Scandals — Self (Archive Footage)2026
- Messiah — James Randi2020
- Going to Hell — Self2019
- Gambler's Ballad: The Legend of Johnny Thompson — Self2018
- An Honest Liar — Self2014
- The Unbelievers — Self2013
- The Reality of Me — Self2012
- Penn & Teller: Bull!2003
- Beyond Desire1994
- James Randi: Psychic Investigator — Himself1991
via TMDB
Official website
JREF - Home
randi.org →Link to the official site · 5,424 chars · not written by Vinony
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- James
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Toronto
- Place of death
- Plantation
- Occupation
- illusionist
- Educated at
- Sunday school
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- skepticism
- Movement
- atheism
- Official website
- www.randi.org
- Image
- Preferred official head-shot from James Randi Educational Foundation.jpg
Show 14 more facts
- Commons gallery
- James Randi
- Commons category
- James Randi
- date of birth
- 1928-08-07
- sexual orientation
- homosexuality
- start of work period
- 1946-00-00
- date of death
- 2020-10-20
- end of work period
- 2015-00-00
- name in native language
- James Randi
- birth name
- Randall James Hamilton Zwinge
- described at URL
- www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/obituaries/james-randi-dead.html
- manner of death
- natural causes
- cause of death
- old age
- member of
- Brights movement
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- WikiProject Skepticism
Sources (9)
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author, and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. He was the co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician under the stage name The Amazing Randi and later chose to devote most of his time to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims. Randi retired from practicing magic at age 60, and from his foundation at 87.
Although often referred to as a "debunker", Randi said he disliked the term's connotations and preferred to describe himself as an "investigator". He wrote about paranormal phenomena, skepticism, and the history of magic. He was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, famously exposing fraudulent faith healer Peter Popoff, and was occasionally featured on the television program Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “James Randi” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.