Sir Walter Raleigh, was a famed English writer, poet, courtier and explorer. He was responsible for establishing the first English colony in the New World, on June 4, 1584, at Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. When the third attempt at settlement failed, the ultimate fate of the colonists was never authoritatively ascertained, and it became known as "The Lost Colony".

Raleigh in culture

• The 1955 film, The Virgin Queen, starring Bette Davis, Richard Todd, and Joan Collins, dramatizes the relationships between Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh, and his wife.
• Sir Walter Raleigh appears as a secondary character (bass) in Benjamin Britten's 1953 opera Gloriana.
• Raleigh's name is quoted in The Beatles' White Album song I'm So Tired, where the lyrics chide him for bringing the tobacco plant to England - "Although I'm so tired, I'll have another cigarette. And curse Sir Walter Raleigh. He was such a stupid get!". (A northern English expression meaning idiot; variation of "git").
• Raleigh, North Carolina, takes its name from Sir Walter. The Hayes Barton neighborhood takes its name from his birthplace. There are other cities and towns in the New World named "Raleigh", and a misspelling of it in Rolla, Missouri In the namesake city, Raleigh, North Carolina, there is also a neighborhood called Budleigh.

• Raleigh County in southern West Virginia is named for Sir Walter Raleigh.
• There is a noted brand of American pipe tobacco called "Sir Walter Raleigh".
• Sir Walter Raleigh's fictional autobiography is the subject of Robert Nye's novel The Voyage of the Destiny.
• The name "Sir Walter Raleigh" is sometimes used in the odd 'Prince Albert in a can' joke.
• In February 2006, a bronze statue of Raleigh by sculptress Vivien Mallock was unveiled in the Devonshire village of East Budleigh. Costing some $60,000, it was a source of controversy as it had been part-funded by the British American Tobacco company.
• The title of his comedy History of the World, Part I by Mel Brooks is a reference to Raleigh having finished only the first volume of his Historie of the World at the time he was executed.
• Raleigh plays an important part in Anthony Burgess's novel A Dead Man in Deptford in which he is suggested as one of the persons who might have been responsible for the murder of Christopher Marlowe.
• In the second series of the television program Blackadder, Lord Blackadder tells Queen Elizabeth that he'll sail around the Cape of Good Hope to show up, as Blackadder calls him, Walter "Ooh What A Big Ship I've Got" Raleigh. Blackadder also refers to him as "Sir Walter Rather-a-Wally Raleigh". Raleigh is played by Simon Jones.
• One of Bob Newhart's stand-up comedy routines depicts one side of a telephone conversation between a skeptical businessman in London (played by Newhart) and "Nutty Walt" Raleigh who tries unsuccessfully to convince him of the merits of tobacco.
• Raleigh's relationship with Bess Throckmorton and Elizabeth I is the subject of a forthcoming film, The Golden Age starring Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I, and Clive Owen as Raleigh.
• Raleigh is the subject of a chapter in William Carlos Williams' historicist essay titled In the American Grain (1925). Other chapters in the book are devoted to Hernan Cortez, Juan Ponce de Leon, Hernando De Soto, Samuel de Champlain, and figures of American culture and politics.
• Raleigh's name is mentioned in the Brobdingnagian Bards song "If I Had a Million Ducats" (a parody of "If I Had A Million Dollars" by Barenaked Ladies).
• Raleigh is mentioned in Paul Auster's novel Mr Vertigo, whose main character is called "Walt Rawley."
• One of the four houses of Queen Elizabeth's High School, Gainsborough, is named after Raleigh.
• A chapter from V. S. Naipaul`s book, "A Way in the World," includes a literary account of Raleigh's San Thome adventure, partly from the perspective of a mestizo servant captured during the raid on the Spanish settlement.

From Wikipedia