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- Born in Beckenham, Kent, English character actor Maurice Denham first came to public notice in the 1940s on radio, appearing on many of the most popular comedy series of the day in a variety of characters. His debut in films came in 1947 with The Smugglers (1947). His talents came to the forefront in the animated feature Animal Farm (1954), in which he voiced all of the animal characters. A prolific actor, his familiar sharp features and bald head appeared in dozens of films over the following years, often as charming but slightly 'barmy' characters and well-bred cads, although he was more than capable of playing straight drama, as he did in the war picture Sink the Bismarck! (1960) as a naval officer helping to hunt down and sink the German battleship. He began appearing regularly in television in the 1970s and also worked steadily on the stage.
He died of natural causes at age 92 in London, England. - Kathy Staff was born on 12 July 1928 in Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Mary Reilly (1996), Last of the Summer Wine (1973) and Open All Hours (1976). She was married to John Staff. She died on 13 December 2008 in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England, UK.
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He was the third child of William Ernest Ball, a bank manager and Rosina whose other children were Marjorie, who died in 1980 and John, Thornton was his mother's maiden name and his middle name, He played the cello in his school's orchestra and was a corporal in the Officer's Training Corps which he left in1937 and became a clerk with the Guardian Insurance Company in London leaving to follow a colleague who'd left to be an actor and Frank thought he'd do the same and enrolled in the London School of Dramatic Art evening classes. In 1939 the school evacuated to Whitney in Oxfordshire. He went with them and still a student acted in the local repertory company which contained Peter Jones, In '1941 he was in the West End with Donald Wolfit and after that a year in The Scarlet #Pimpernel at Manchester Opera House where he met actress Beryl Evans, September '43 he was in the RAF and sent to Nova Scotia to train as a navigator, became a pilot officer and stayed on after the war in the entertainment unit with 3 corporals- Peter Sellers, Dick Emery and Tony Hancock. He was demobbed in 1947 and the same year in the musical The Dancing Years. Mid November 1950 he was compare on television's The Centre Show , a variety show in which Hugh Lloyd made his debut. Frank married Beryl on the 5th January 1945 and had a daughter, Jane in 1946 and lived in West Wickham in Kent- Phyllis Hannah Bickle was born in Chelsea in 1915 and studied dancing at the Margaret Morris school of dance, until an injury forced her to give up dancing and turn instead to acting. Her 70 year film career began with a bit part in The Arcadians (1927) when she was just 12 years old. Along with over 40 movies, she had a successful stage career, spanning 1925 ('Crossings' with Ellen Terry) to 1994 ('Bed') - appearing in such works as 'Blithe Spirit', 'The Heiress' and 'Peter Pan', as the title role of the boy who never grew up.
Phyllis' film breakthrough came in 1941 in the adaptation of the HG Wells story, The Remarkable Mr. Kipps (1941) in which she was cast as the servant girl, a part which had originally been turned down by Margaret Lockwood. In her next film, she was starring opposite international star Robert Donat, a far cry from the music hall comedians (George Formby, Arthur Askey) she had been acting with only a few years earlier. The Man in Grey (1943) truly catapulted her to stardom and from then on there was no looking back. Phyllis Calvert became one of the names most associated with the Gainsborough costume melodramas of the 1940s, usually as the sweet heroine, or the steadfast non-nonsense leader.
After a small trip to Hollywood in the late 1940s, Phyllis returned to England and earned her one BAFTA nomination for the role of the mother of a deaf girl in Crash of Silence (1952) but after that her film career slowed down, with family taking precedence. While shooting Indiscreet (1958), Phyllis was struck a cruel blow when her husband of 16 years, Peter Murray-Hill, passed away. Her stage career picked up markedly in the 1960s when she began taking more and more roles to better raise their two children solely. She gracefully slid into a niche of character roles, usually the kindly mother or aunt, and in 1970, had her own TV series, Kate (1970). In the 1980s she concentrated more on television, only appearing twice on stage. Her final play was in 1994, film in 1997, and TV appearance in 2000. - Actress
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The daughter of a clergyman, Anna Lee was born Joan Boniface Winnifrith and encouraged to pursue an acting career by her father. After training at London's Royal Albert Hall, she took to the boards and later began appearing in English films, first as an extra, then working her way up to featured roles and finally earning the unofficial title "The Queen of the Quota Quickies". Lee and her husband, director Robert Stevenson, relocated to Hollywood in the late 1930s, and Lee began starring in stateside productions as well as becoming a fixture of the John Ford stock company (she appeared in How Green Was My Valley (1941), Fort Apache (1948) and a half-dozen others). In 1970, she became the seventh wife of novelist, poet and playwright Robert Nathan (Portrait of Jennie (1948), The Bishop's Wife (1947)); they married three months after they met. Now widowed, Lee continued despite adversity, regularly playing wealthy Lila Quartermaine on the soap opera General Hospital (1963). She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire at the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to drama. On May 14, 2004, Anna Lee passed away from pneumonia at age 91 at her home in Beverly Hills, California.- This vibrant Scottish character actress managed in her seven-decade career trek to not only brighten up the Broadway stage during the 1950s and 1960s in roles ranging from the man-searching milliner Irene Malloy to Hamlet's mother Queen Gertrude, but conquered the TV market too, delighting daytime audiences for not only standing toe-to-toe against Susan Lucci's Erica Kane character (and later becoming her surrogate mom), but issuing in-your-face lessons on morality to other infamous Pine Valley characters on the classic soap opera All My Children (1970).
Eileen Herlie was born Eileen Herlihy on March 8, 1918, in Glasgow, Scotland, the daughter of a Catholic father and a Protestant mother. She studied and performed for many years with the Scottish National Players before transporting herself to England where she became professionally associated with the late and great director Tyrone Guthrie. Making her official stage debut with "Sweet Aloes" in 1938, she went on to advance in such plays as "Rebecca" (1942), "Peg o' My Heart (1943), "The Little Foxes" (1944), "John Gabriel Borkman" (1944), "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" (1944), "The School for Scandal" (1945) and "Anna Christie" (1945) before making a strong impression as Queen Gertrude in "Hamlet" in late 1945. Her film debut came in support of Margaret Lockwood and Dennis Price in the costume drama Hungry Hill (1947), but her huge breakthrough came about when Laurence Olivier cast her as his mother, Queen Gertrude, in his film adaptation of Hamlet (1948) -- this despite Eileen being 11 years younger than Olivier, who won the Oscar for his superb work in the title role. Years down the road Eileen would again earn acclaim playing Gertrude in the 1964 Broadway production of "Hamlet" starring Richard Burton and in its accompanying Hamlet (1964) film effort.
Surprisingly, Eileen was seen very infrequently on film after this initial success opposite Olivier. Instead she stayed true blue to her first love -- the theatre. Although she appeared to fine advantage on celluloid in The Angel with the Trumpet (1950), Gilbert and Sullivan (1953), Uncle Willie's Bicycle Shop (1953), Cocktails in the Kitchen (1954), She Didn't Say No (1958) and Freud (1962), she found even more rewarding roles under the theatre lights where she earned enviable notices for her work in "The Eagle Has Two Heads" (1946), "Medea" (1948) (title role), "The Way of the World" (1953) and "Venice Preserv'd" (1953).
The feisty, flaming red-haired Scot took her first Broadway bow in 1955 as hat shop owner Irene Molloy in the highly successful production of "The Matchmaker" with Ruth Gordon starring as Dolly Levi. Eileen also appeared in New York musicals, co-starring with Jackie Gleason in the nostalgic "Take Me Along" (1960), which merited her a Tony nomination, and Ray Bolger in "All-American" (1962). Elsewhere, she graced two of Peter Ustinov's plays ("Photo Finish (1963) and "Halfway Up the Tree" (1967)) and continued in classic regal fashion with her Queen Mary role opposite George Grizzard's Edward VIII in "Crown Matrimonial" (1973). She played the same role a year earlier in a TV film version opposite Richard Chamberlain as the abdicating King Edward and Faye Dunaway as paramour Wallis Simpson. Eileen's last stage role was in "The Great Sebastians" (1974) in Chicago co-starring Werner Klemperer, and her final film part came with a featured role in Chekhov's The Sea Gull (1968), directed by Sidney Lumet and surrounded by a superb cast that included Simone Signoret, Vanessa Redgrave, David Warner and James Mason.
In 1976, Herlie made a long and permanent switch to daytime soaps. As bawdy, plump-figured carny Myrtle Lum Fargate who later refined herself to a point and operated a frilly boutique store on All My Children (1970), audiences took a special liking to her down-to-earth character whose impulsive bluntness, staunch integrity, briny tongue and heart of gold made her one of Pine Valley's more beloved residents. She remained in town for over thirty years.
Divorced twice with no children, Eileen died at age 90 on October 8, 2008, due to complications from pneumonia. The stalwart actress continued to act almost to the end, last playing her "All My Children" character in June of 2008. - Faith Brook was born on 16 February 1922 in York, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Eye of the Needle (1981), North Sea Hijack (1980) and The Razor's Edge (1984). She was married to Michael Horowitz and Dr. Charles Moffett. She died on 11 March 2012 in London, England, UK.She was on my possible British dames in waiting list. She was never honored by the Queen.
- Joyce Redman was an Anglo-Irish actress. She was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, without ever winning the award.
Redman was born in an Anglo-Irish family in Northumberland. The family eventually moved back to County Mayo, Ireland, where Redman was raised. She and her three sisters were educated at home by a private governess. Redman later pursued an acting education, and was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. She graduated from the Academy in 1936, at the age of 21.
Redman remained primarily a theatrical actress for decades, though she also appeared in television films. She performed at both the Comédie-Française in Paris and The Old Vic in London. One for her theatrical hits was playing the role of Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536) in the play "Anne of the Thousand Days" (1948) by Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959). In 1949, she appeared in this role in New York City, to great success. In 1955, Redman in 1955, joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she primarily appeared in Shakespearean roles.
Redman made her film debut in the spiritualism-themed drama "Spellbound" (1941), where she played an unnamed maid. Her first credited role was that of Jet van Dieren in the war film "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing" (1942). The film was an unusually realist take on the war, and has been considered a classic of British cinema.
Redman's next film appearance was the role of Mrs. Waters (a.k.a. Jenny Jones) in "Tom Jones" (1963).. In the film, Mrs. Waters has a sexual affair with protagonist (played by Albert Finney) without being aware of his background; when the story later reveals that she is the long-lost Jenny Jones, who had claimed to be Tom's biological mother when he was a foundling, the impression is given that they unknowingly committed incest, which is played for comic effect when Mrs. Waters learns after the fact who Tom is (it ultimately turns out that Tom's biological mother was actually not Jenny but another character in the story, so there was no incest after all). For this role, Redman was first nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The award was instead won by rival actress Margaret Rutherford (1892-1972).
Redman next appeared in "Othello" (1965), an adaptation of the 1603 play by William Shakespeare. Redman played Emilia, Iago's wife and Desdemona's maidservant. In the play and its adaptations, Emilia steals Desdemona's handkerchief and hands it over to Iago. Iago then uses the stolen handkerchief to frame Desdemona for adultery. When Emilia denounces her husband's plan, Iago kills his wife in order to silence her. For this role Redman gained her second and last nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The award was instead won by rival actress Shelley Winters (1920-2006).
Redman's following film appearance was the comedy film "Prudence and the Pill" (1968), where five couples use contraceptive pills to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Her final film role was the drama film "A Different Kind of Love" (1985), playing the lead role of Mrs. Prior. In the film, Mrs. Prior urges her son to marry, despite the fact that her son is homosexual and has an ongoing relationship with another man.
Redman played an elderly Queen Victoria (1819-1901, reigned 1837-1901) in the mini-television series "Victoria & Albert" (2001). Afterwards she retired from acting. She died in May 2012 due to pneumonia. She was 96-years-old, one of the oldest living actresses.She was on my British Dames in waiting list. She was never awarded an honour by the Queen. - Cheerful-looking actress Dinah Sheridan was considered the quintessential English rose of late 30's and 40's British films. With an alertness, elegance and quiet beauty second to none, she won the hearts of war-torn England during WWII.
She was born Dinah Nadyejda Ginsburg in London on September 17, 1920. Her Russian father and German mother were photographers to the Royal Family, by appointment to both the Queen and Queen Mother. Dinah's first professional role was an understudy part of Rsoamund in "Where the Rainbow End." She subsequently went on tour as Wendy in "Peter Pan" starring Charles Laughton as Captain Hook and wife Elsa Lanchester in the title role, and appeared in repertory during the war years.
Dinah broke into films at the tender age of 16 with a starring role in a meek, lowbudget piece Landslide (1937). Her co-star was young Jimmy Hanley, in his first adult role, and the two would later marry in 1942, having three children (one died in childbirth). Dinah continued in both drama and light comedy as the youthful ingenue in such films as Behind Your Back (1937), Father Steps Out (1937), Merely Mr. Hawkins (1938) and Irish and Proud of It (1938). Jimmy and Dinah became a popular WWII-era film couple, appearing quite winningly together in Salute John Citizen (1942), The Facts of Love (1945) and The Huggetts Abroad (1949). One of their children, Jenny Hanley, followed in her parents' footsteps as an actress and TV presenter.
Dinah remained a lovely presence in a variety of post-war films, gracing such productions as the stark melodrama The Hills of Donegal (1947); in the whodunnit Calling Paul Temple (1948) opposite John Bentley as part of a husband/wife detective team; in the crime drama The Story of Shirley Yorke (1948) as the title nurse; the adventure drama Ivory Hunter (1951); and the romantic war piece The Sound Barrier (1952).
Divorced from Hanley in 1952, Dinah, following a secondary role in the biopic Gilbert and Sullivan (1953) and after starring role in one of Britain's most delightful 50's comedies, Genevieve (1953), co-starring John Gregson, Kenneth More and the sublime Kay Kendall, abruptly retired on a high note after marrying Sir John Davis, the President of the Rank Organization, in 1954. Following her second divorce, and after 11 years of obscurity, Dinah made a return to the stage in 1967 with the play "Let's All Go Down the Strand." She continued with prominent 70's roles in "A Boston Story," "A Touch of Purple, "Move Over Mrs. Markham" (title role), "The Card," "The Gentle Hook," "The Please of His Company," "A Murder Is Announced" and toured in the play "Half Life."
After impressing as the hard-luck mother who is forced to raise three children alone after her husband abandons the family in the drama The Railway Children (1970), Dinah chose to focus squarely on TV with roles in such programs as "Seasons of the Year," "Zodiac," "Crown Court," "Village Hall," "Whodunnit?," "Doctor Who," and her final TV appearance in a 1999 episode of "Jonathan Creek." She also appeared in the mini-series The Winning Streak (1985) and co-starred in two British comedy series Don't Wait Up (1983) and All Night Long (1994).
Dinah married for a third time to actor John Merivale in 1986, but he died four years later. Her fourth marriage, to American businessman Aubrey Ison, ended with his death in 2007. Dinah died in London at age 92 on November 25, 2012.She was on the possible British Dames in waiting list. She was never honored by the Queen sadly. - Marian McPartland was born on 20 March 1918 in Slough, Berkshire, England, UK. She was married to Jimmy McPartland. She died on 20 August 2013 in Port Washington, New York, USA.She was on the Kennedy Center Honors possible inductee list. She was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) shortly before her death.
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Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, in what was known as the International Settlement, to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her paternal grandfather's family was from Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Her father had a lucrative practice in Japan, but due to Joan and older sister Olivia de Havilland's recurring ailments the family moved to California in the hopes of improving their health. Mrs. de Havilland and the two girls settled in Saratoga while their father went back to his practice in Japan. Joan's parents did not get along well and divorced soon afterward. Mrs. de Havilland had a desire to be an actress but her dreams were curtailed when she married, but now she hoped to pass on her dream to Olivia and Joan. While Olivia pursued a stage career, Joan went back to Tokyo, where she attended the American School. In 1934 she came back to California, where her sister was already making a name for herself on the stage. Joan likewise joined a theater group in San Jose and then Los Angeles to try her luck there. After moving to L.A., Joan adopted the name of Joan Burfield because she didn't want to infringe upon Olivia, who was using the family surname.
She tested at MGM and gained a small role in No More Ladies (1935), but she was scarcely noticed and Joan was idle for a year and a half. During this time she roomed with Olivia, who was having much more success in films. In 1937, this time calling herself Joan Fontaine, she landed a better role as Trudy Olson in You Can't Beat Love (1937) and then an uncredited part in Quality Street (1937). Although the next two years saw her in better roles, she still yearned for something better. In 1940 she garnered her first Academy Award nomination for Rebecca (1940). Although she thought she should have won, (she lost out to Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle (1940)), she was now an established member of the Hollywood set. She would again be Oscar-nominated for her role as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth in Suspicion (1941), and this time she won. Joan was making one film a year but choosing her roles well. In 1942 she starred in the well-received This Above All (1942).
The following year she appeared in The Constant Nymph (1943). Once again she was nominated for the Oscar, she lost out to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette (1943). By now it was safe to say she was more famous than her older sister and more fine films followed. In 1948, she accepted second billing to Bing Crosby in The Emperor Waltz (1948). Joan took the year of 1949 off before coming back in 1950 with September Affair (1950) and Born to Be Bad (1950). In 1951 she starred in Paramount's Darling, How Could You! (1951), which turned out badly for both her and the studio and more weak productions followed.
Absent from the big screen for a while, she took parts in television and dinner theaters. She also starred in many well-produced Broadway plays such as Forty Carats and The Lion in Winter. Her last appearance on the big screen was The Witches (1966) and her final appearance before the cameras was Good King Wenceslas (1994). She is, without a doubt, a lasting movie icon.She was on my Kennedy center possible recipients list.- Actress
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A brash, sharp-tongued, incorrigible actress/singer who led a six decade career that contained many highs and lows, veteran Elaine Stritch's raucous six-decade career certainly lived up well to the Stephen Sondheim song lyrics "I'm Still Here." A popular, magnetic performer, she stole so many moments on stage she could have been convicted of grand larceny This tough old bird approached her octogenarian years with still-shapely legs, a puffy blonde hairdo, a deep, whiskey voice and enough sardonic bluster and bravado to convince anyone that she would be around forever.
The Detroit-born (February 2, 1925) Elaine Stritch was the daughter of a B.F. Goodrich executive, of Irish/Welsh heritage, and the youngest of three sisters. Educated locally at Sacred Heart Convent and Duschesne Residence Finishing School, she prepared for the stage at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School where fellow "school mates" included Marlon Brando. She made her first appearance at the New School as a tiger and a cow in a 1944 children's production entitled "Babino," then followed it the following year with the part of a parlor maid in "The Private Life of the Master Race."
Elaine made it to Broadway in October 1946 as "Pamela Brewster" in "Loco" at the Biltmore Theatre. Taking over the part of "Miss Crowder" in "Made in Heaven" after that, she finished off the decade appearing in such theatre productions as "Three Indelicate Ladies," "The Little Foxes" (as Regina), the revue "Angel in the Wings" and "Yes M'Lord."
From the 1950's on, Elaine would become the toast of both Broadway and (later) London's West End, earning award-worthy acclaim on both continents over the years. Starting with a tour of "Pal Joey" (as Melba) in 1952, she followed this success with such shows as "Call Me Madam" (as Sally); "On Your Toes" (as Peggy); "Bus Stop" (Tony nom: as waitress Grace), "The Sin of Pat Muldoon" (as Gertrude); "Goldilocks" (as Maggie); "Sail Away!" (Tony nom, and also London debut as Mimi); "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (as Martha); "The King and I" (as Anna); "The Grass Harp" (as Babylove); "Wonderful Town" (as Ruth); "Private Lives" (as Amanda); "Mame" (as Vera, then Mame); "Company" (Tony-nom: as Joanne); "Small Craft Warnings" (as Leona); "The Gingerbread Lady" (as Evy); "Show Boat" (Drama Desk Award: as Parthy); and "A Delcate Balance" (Tony-nom, Drama Desk Award: as Claire). Through sheer personality alone, her cacophonous singing voice miraculously took classic songs from, among others, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart to Noël Coward and Stephen Sondheim and put her own indelibly raucous stamp on them.
Oddly, Elaine never made the same kind of impact on film. Nevertheless, she appeared in an armful of supports over the years, growing increasingly abrasive, in such movies as The Scarlet Hour (1956), Three Violent People (1956), A Farewell to Arms (1957), The Perfect Furlough (1958), Kiss Her Goodbye (1959), Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965), Too Many Thieves (1966), The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker (1970), The Spiral Staircase (1975), Providence (1977), September (1987), Cocoon: The Return (1988), Cadillac Man (1990), Out to Sea (1997), Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), Screwed (2000), Small Time Crooks (2000); Autumn in New York (2000), Monster-in-Law (2005), ParaNorman (2012) and River of Fundament (2014)
The actress fared somewhat better on early TV. She appeared as one of the Paynes in the early Dumont family comedy series The Growing Paynes (1948), and made appearances on several anthology series ("Kraft Theatre," "Goodyear Playhouse," "The Alcoa Hour," "The Dupont Show of the Month"). A few guest spots also decorated her small screen resume, including "Mister Peepers," "Adventures in Paradise" and "Wagon Train". In the 60's, Elaine returned to the series format, but only enjoyed single season life on three: My Sister Eileen (1960), as Ruth Sherwood; the acclaimed The Trials of O'Brien (1965) as lawyer Peter Falk's secretary "Miss G."; and as Ellen Burstyn's derisive mother on The Ellen Burstyn Show (1986).
In 1973, Elaine married English actor John Bay and moved to London. While there she appeared in a number of plays/musicals and then played an American authoress in the British comedy series Two's Company (1975) co-starring Donald Sinden as the butler. When she returned to America in the early 80's, she returned alone.
At age 76, a razor-sharp Elaine captivated audiences in a candid one woman musical stage memoir that would win her the Tony, Drama Desk, Obie, Outer Circle Critics and New York Drama Critics awards. Elaine Stritch at Liberty (2002) show also chronicled her notorious private life, combative nature, which included a long bout with the bottle (to curb her stage fright), and a destructive relationship with fellow alcoholic Gig Young. Add to that a fair share of Hollywood gossip all cleverly packaged up with raw wit and show-stopping patter songs and you had quintessential Elaine Stritch. Truly one of a kind, she would eventually be inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.
Other memorable TV appearances included her Aunt Polly in the mini-series Pollyanna (1973); a 1984 continuing role on the daytime soaper The Edge of Night (1956); the role of Ouisar in the TV movie version of Steel Magnolias (1990); and three Emmy Award-winning portrayals -- as a guest on "Law & Order," for the 2004 TV documentary of her one-woman triumph, and for a recurring character on the hit sitcom 30 Rock (2006).
A diabetic, it took stomach cancer to finally slow this woman down at the end, dying at age 89 on July 17, 2014, at her Michigan home.An American iconic actress, comedienne, and stage presence on Broadway and the West End in London, England where she appeared in her own hit sitcom. She has plenty of accolades and awards already but she's still going strong, doing theatre, cabaret, television, and even film. She was on the Kennedy Center Honors inductees list.- Actress
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Dora Bryan was born on 7 February 1923 in Parbold, Lancashire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for A Taste of Honey (1961), The Fallen Idol (1948) and Last of the Summer Wine (1973). She was married to Bill Lawton. She died on 23 July 2014 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK.An OBE recipient in 1996. She still has led a very active life in theatre, film and television most notably and recently in "Last of the Summer Wine" as Edie's sister. She was in the British Dames in waiting list.- Elspet Gray was born on 12 April 1929 in Inverness, Inverness Shire, Scotland, UK. She was an actress, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Six with Rix (1972) and Doctor Who (1963). She was married to Brian Rix. She died on 18 February 2013 in London, England, UK.A British dame in waiting who was never honored.
- Charles Keating was born on 22 October 1941 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Another World (1964), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) and The Bodyguard (1992). He was married to Mary Ellen Cudbody. He died on 8 August 2014 in Weston, Connecticut, USA.One of my favorite British actors and one of the best on daytime television. His Carl Hutchings was supposed to be villainous but was sympathetic character. I would have loved to have seen Charles get honored by the Queen while he was alive. He was on my British Knights in waiting.
- Edna Doré was born on 31 May 1921 in Bromley, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Les Misérables (1998), High Hopes (1988) and Another Year (2010). She was married to Alexander Doré. She died on 11 April 2014 in Sussex, England, UK.A great British actress of stage, film and television. She was never honored by the Queen.
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Stella Tanner was born on 1 January 1925 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and producer, known for Armchair Theatre (1956), Nicholas Nickleby (1968) and Take Three Girls (1969). She was married to David Bauer. She died on 26 March 2012 in London, England, UK.British dame in waiting list. She was never honored by the Queen.- Lila Kaye was born on 7 November 1929 in Middlesex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for An American Werewolf in London (1981), The Invisible Man (1984) and See No Evil (1971). She died on 10 January 2012 in England, UK.British dames in waiting list. She was also never honored by the Queen.
- A beautiful and durable actress of screen, stage and television, Asherson was born Renée Ascherson in London (dropping the "c" early in her acting career), the younger daughter of Charles Ascherson, a businessman and bibliophile of German-Jewish extraction, and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman, who wed on 14 December 1910. (Her older sister was Janet Elizabeth Ascherson, born 22 May 1914).
Asherson's parents narrowly avoided being passengers on the fateful maiden voyage of the Titanic in 1912, after Charles Ascherson reportedly canceled the passage due to suffering from appendicitis.
She played the bride of Laurence Olivier's title character in Henry V (1944) (Henry V (1944)). She later appeared in Maniacs on Wheels (1949), a speedway drama with Dirk Bogarde. A frequent co-star of the actor Robert Donat, whom she married in 1953. The couple separated in 1956, but were due to reconcile at the time of his untimely death in London on 9th June 1958, aged 53.On the British dames in waiting list. She was also never honored by the Queen. - Actress
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Billie Whitelaw first appeared on the radio aged 11. She made her theatrical debut in 1950 and in films from 1953. She has made a speciality of playing intense, single-purposed women. Also, (on stage), she has appeared in many of the stranger plays by Samuel Beckett.On my Dame in waiting list, she was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1991.- Anne Kirkbride was born on 21 June 1954 in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Coronation Street (1960), ITV Saturday Night Theatre (1969) and Coronation Street: Tram Crash (2010). She was married to David Beckett. She died on 19 January 2015 in Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, UK.Best known for Deirdre on the Street since the 1970s. She's still great and loved by fans alike. Sadly she was never awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) like her costars.
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Born in Upminster, Essex, England in 1927, Richard Johnson attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and then performed in John Gielgud's repertory company until joining the navy in 1945 until 1948. After the war, he appeared successfully in the West End and made his film debut in the early 1950s. The debonair and handsome Johnson was a natural to portray playboy type characters, perhaps the most memorable being "Bulldog Drummond" in Deadlier Than the Male (1967) and Some Girls Do (1969). Later in his career, he turned to more serious roles, such as "Marc Antony" in Antony and Cleopatra (1974), and also tried his hand at producing in the late 1980s.On my British Knights in waiting list, he was also never honored by the Queen.- Actress
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Cilla Black was born on 27 May 1943 in Liverpool, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Last Night in Soho (2021), Hellboy (2019) and Cilla (1968). She was married to Bobby Willis. She died on 1 August 2015 in Estepona, Spain.OBE in 1997: on my British Dames in waiting list.- Actress
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Jackie Collins was born on 4 October 1937 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Danger Man (1960), The Saint (1962) and The Stud (1978). She was married to Oscar Lerman and Wallace Austin. She died on 19 September 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.One of the most prolific writers mostly about Hollywood life. She's a best-selling writer even if her writings aren't necessarily studied by literary scholars.
She should have been awarded Damehood like her sister Dame Joan Collins. She was on my British Dames in Waiting.- Actor
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Like a number of British actors of the same generation (John Hurt and Alan Rickman, to name two), Roger Rees originally trained for the visual arts. He was born on May 5 1944 in Aberystwyth, Wales, and acted in church and Boy Scouts stage productions while growing up in South London, but studied painting and lithography at the Slade School of Art. He had to quit his studies, however, when his father died and he had to help support the family. His first paying jobs in show business were as a scenery painter. He was painting scenery, in fact, when he was asked to sub in for a part and made his acting debut. He put away his brushes for good after this.
He turned to acting on a full-time basis in the mid-1960s and appeared on both the London and Scottish stages. After his fourth audition, the Royal Shakespeare Company finally hired him as a walk-on, sword carrier and bit player in 1968. He then worked his way up through the RSC's ranks, finally achieving stardom in the early 1980s in the 8-1/2 hour stage adaptation of "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby", which had a cast of 40 actors, and for which he won both an Olivier Award and a Tony Award. Rees was also nominated for an Emmy Award for the television version of the play. By this time, he had several TV movies to his name, but he did not make his big-screen debut until Star 80 (1983).
Living in the United States since 1989, Roger made a name for himself in America when he joined the cast of the TV hit comedy Cheers (1982) as the priggish Britisher Robin Colcord and later the glib British ambassador Lord John Marbury on the series The West Wing (1999). More recently, he appeared as a frequent guest in several British and American television series and in a number of independent films.
However, Roger Rees remained primarily a man of the theatre with secondary careers as a playwright and stage director. Married to theatre collaborator Rick Elice since 2011, Roger was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. Performing on Broadway in the musical "The Visit" starring Chita Rivera, he was forced to quit the show in late May of 2015. The 71-year-old actor died on July 10, 2015.He was on my British Knights in waiting list. After his death this summer, he was awarded induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame for his services and contributions to the stage in New York City and England. He will be inducted posthumously.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Keith Michell was an Emmy Award-winning Australian stage, television, and film actor. Born 1 December 1926 in Adelaide, South Australia, he was brought up some 150 miles away, in Warnertown, on the Augusta Highway between Crystal Brook and Port Pirie. He taught art until he made his debut on the Adelaide stage in 1947, following that up with his first appearance in London in 1951.
Michell was a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company. From 1974-77, he was the artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre. He has starred in several musicals, including the first London production of Man of La Mancha (1972). In addition to his stage work, he appeared extensively in film and television in Australia and the UK, most notably as King Henry VIII in the six-part 1970 BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), for which he won an Emmy Award. A movie version was made in 1972. On US television, he appeared in various episodes of Murder, She Wrote (1984). In addition to acting, he wrote a musical adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 'Peer Gynt', called "Pete McGynty and the Dreamtime". He also paints and illustrates books, as well as written and illustrated cookbooks.
Michell married the Anglo-Czech actress Jeanette Sterke in 1957; they had two children: actor Paul Michell and actress Helena Michell. He died on 20 November 2015, aged 88, in Hampstead, London, England. A theater in Port Pirie, the Keith Mitchell Theatre-Northern Festival Centre, was founded in his honor.On my British Knights in Waiting list.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Warren Mitchell was born on 14 January 1926 in Stamford Hill, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Jabberwocky (1977), The Crawling Eye (1958) and In Sickness and in Health (1985). He was married to Constance Wake. He died on 14 November 2015 in Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London, England, UK.On my British Knights in Waiting List.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Brian Bedford was born on 16 February 1935 in Morley, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for Nixon (1995), Robin Hood (1973) and Grand Prix (1966). He was married to Tim MacDonald. He died on 13 January 2016 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.- Meg Mundy was born on 4 January 1915 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Fatal Attraction (1987), The Doctors (1963) and Ordinary People (1980). She was married to Konstantinos "Dino" Yannopoulos. She died on 12 January 2016 in The Bronx, New York, USA.British born but American raised character actress.
- Writer
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Tony Warren was born on 8 July 1937 in Eccles, Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Coronation Street (1960), Ferry Cross the Mersey (1964) and The War of Darkie Pilbeam (1968). He died on 1 March 2016 in England, UK.The father of Coronation Street.- Actress
- Writer
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From the mid-1980s right up until her premature death in April 2016, Victoria Wood's appearances on stage and television were always eagerly anticipated, whether it was laugh-a-minute stand-up, a beautifully judged dramatic performance in the TV film Housewife, 49 (2005) or the canteen sitcom dinnerladies (1998). The incredible care and craft she lavished on each look and line of dialogue was as meticulous as it was matchless.
A shy, isolated child, Victoria Wood was born in Prestwich, Lancashire, in May 1953, the youngest of four siblings. Her insurance salesman father Stanley Wood was a frustrated writer who made up songs for his office parties and eventually went on to write scripts for Coronation Street (1960). Largely ignored by her parents ("Our house looked like an explosion in an Oxfam shop"), Wood stayed in her bedroom and sought attention as a performer, joining a youth theatre group in Rochdale and teaching herself to play the piano. She also learnt to play the trumpet.
Having been considered exceptionally bright at her primary school, Wood lost her way at Bury Grammar School, intimidated by the competition and envious of the more outgoing girls who appeared to be "having a wonderful time".
While studying drama at Birmingham University she auditioned for the ITV talent show New Faces (1973), performing a song about a woman contemplating marriage to a man who washes his Cortina more than his neck. Though eliminated in the second round, she was talent-spotted by poet Roger McGough for a revue he took up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1976.
Her first big break was the TV show That's Life! (1986), writing and performing satirical songs loosely inspired by topical events. Her lifelong friendship and collaboration with Julie Walters began in the 1970s when they both appeared in a revue, 'In at the Death', at London's tiny Bush Theatre, for which Wood wrote a sketch. Its success led to the commissioning of Talent, Wood's first full-length play, by the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. Talent was later filmed by Granada TV, starring Julie Walters as a disillusioned talent-show contestant. The stage version won her the Evening Standard's most promising new playwright award.
Granada commissioned two more plays from Wood, and urged her to write a sketch show for herself and Julie Walters, which became Wood and Walters (1981) and also featured Roger Brierley with who she would go on to work with again in her later productions in the 1980s and 1990s.
In the mid-1980s she was poached by the BBC for her own series, Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV (1985), for which she assembled her own mini-repertory company consisting of Julie Walters, Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston. It was for this show that she also launched the much-loved Acorn Antiques, a low-budget TV soap of such ineptitude it made Crossroads (1986) look slick.
The spoof was held in such affection that Wood, along with the original cast, was able to sell out the Theatre Royal Haymarket 20 years later with Acorn Antiques: The Musical (2006), for which she wrote the score. Despite generally favourable reviews and Olivier nominations for best new musical, best actress in a musical, Julie Walters and best performance in a supporting role in a musical Celia Imrie, Wood later claimed that the show was a bad idea because she felt it had undermined her credibility as a playwright. Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV (1985) ran for two series and also featured Patricia Routledge, Sue Wallace, Deborah Grant, Peter Lorenzelli, Jim Broadbent, Peter Martin, Jim Broadbent and Susie Blake.
Victoria Wood and Julie Walters worked together again with Celia Imrie, Anne Reid, Susie Blake and Lill Roughley in 1989 in a series of six playlets for the series named simply Victoria Wood (1989) which included an appearance from Joan Sims as well as appearances from Jim Broadbent, Peter Martin, Patricia Hodge, Philip Lowrie, William Osborne and Maureen Lipman.
Then again on television in 1992, Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast (1992) starred Celia Imrie, Julie Walters, Susie Blake, Anne Reid and also featured Duncan Preston, William Osborne and Philip Lowrie.
And yet again in 1994 in Wood's TV film Pat and Margaret (1994) which also starred Julie Walters, Duncan Preston, Anne Reid, Deborah Grant, Peter Lorenzelli, Sue Wallace, Roger Brierley, Philip Lowrie and Angela Curran as well as a special appearance from Dame Thora Hird, about the strained reunion of two estranged sisters, one the star of an American TV soap, the other a waitress in a motorway service station in northern England. Wood cast herself as the dowdy Margaret, while acknowledging in an interview that she probably had more in common with Pat, a woman "so determined to get on there's no room for anything else".
While developing as a dramatist, she continued to do stand-up, nailing the hypocrisies and absurdities of everyday life with stinging wit and whiplash delivery. Her targets were often "people who think a lot of themselves" in whatever field of endeavour. With her cropped hair and androgynous dress sense, Wood cleverly bypassed any gender preference - an unthreatening, even comforting stage presence to the majority.
Fellow comedian Simon Fanshawe wrote of her: "The point about Wood is that she makes you feel comfortable and then slips spiky material in under your guard."
The commentator Judith Woods wrote in 2007: "Quite simply, Victoria Wood is a performer for grown-ups. She has an everywoman appeal to female viewers, but none of the stridency that traditionally puts off male audiences. She isn't preoccupied with pastiche and celebrity. Real life is her forte, in all its peculiarities."
An assiduous student of vintage comedy, Wood was keenly aware of her predecessors, both male and female. She saw what she did in a historical context, citing the likes of Vesta Victoria, Gracie Fields, Max Miller, Hetty King and Ken Dodd, the greats of music hall and variety, as her inspiration.
She had no interest in reflecting the often racist, sexist stand-up style of the 1980s. Her more enlightened and sophisticated take on the changes taking place in society prevailed while the unreconstructed male chauvinists withered on the vine. In a Guardian interview in 1984, she said: "I just assume that everyone believes the sexes are equal. When I go out there and make them laugh, I'm saying, 'This is my personality, I hope you like it.'"
In 1998 came the sitcom dinnerladies (1998), again collaborating with 'Anne Reid', Duncan Preston and Celia Imrie with Julie Walters also making appearances, with Angela Curran, Graham Seed, Thora Hird (then aged 87 and in a wheelchair), Richenda Carey, Lill Roughley, Andrew Livingston (2 uncredited appearances in the first series), Dora Bryan, Henry Kelly, Peter Martin, Peter Lorenzelli, Sue Wallace, Kay Adshead and Bernard Wrigley (all of whom she had worked with previously) all making appearances in one or more episodes. The series also featured three actresses who appeared in every single episode, namely Thelma Barlow, Shobna Gulati and essentially launching the career of the actress Maxine Peake. Other regular cast members would also go on to star in Coronation Street (1960) such as Sue Cleaver and Andrew Dunn. The award-winning sitcom ran for two series and consisted of a total of sixteen episodes including Christmas and millennium specials.
December 2000 saw the Christmas sketch show special Victoria Wood: With All the Trimmings (2000), featuring her regular troupe of actors including Celia Imrie, Julie Walters and Anne Reid, with further appearances from Richenda Carey, Maxine Peake and Shobna Gulati as well as a string of special guest stars such as Angela Rippon, Bob Monkhouse and Roger Moore.
Such a prodigious talent always comes at a cost, and for Wood it was her 20-year marriage to the magician Geoffrey Durham, with whom she had two children. After the breakdown of their marriage in 2002, divorcing in 2003, she withdrew from the limelight for a couple of years and went into therapy, saying it was too painful to appear in public while her private life was in turmoil.
She continued nevertheless to produce one-off specials including Victoria Wood's Sketch Show Story (2002) and Victoria Wood's Big Fat Documentary (2004). During this period Wood tended to move away from comedy to focus on drama,notably in her award-winning 2006 TV film Housewife, 49 (2005), an adaptation of the real-life wartime diaries of a Lancashire woman, Nella Last, whose life is unexpectedly turned around by the knock-on effects of war. Her beautifully judged script - and performance in the lead - deservedly won her a best actress BAFTA, as well as a best single drama award. On this occasion Wood chose to mainly work with a different set of actors and actresses including for example Stephanie Cole, Sylvestra Le Touzel and Wendy Nottingham, though Sue Wallace with whom she had worked with on at least three separate occasions previously also featured.
In 2007 Wood appeared in a three-part BBC travel documentary Victoria's Empire (2007), in which she travelled around the world in search of the history, cultural impact and customs the British Empire placed on the parts of the world it ruled. She departed Victoria Station, London, for Calcutta, Hong Kong and Borneo in the first programme. In programme two she visited Ghana, Jamaica and Newfoundland and in the final programme, New Zealand, Australia and Zambia, finishing at the Victoria Falls.
On Boxing Day 2007 she appeared as "Nana" in the Granada dramatisation of Noel Streatfeild's novel Ballet Shoes (2007).
2009 saw Wood reunite with Julie Walters to produce a Christmas special for the BBC Mid Life Christmas (2009). She again selected actors and actresses with who she had already worked with to fill complementary roles, on this occasion working with Sylvestra Le Touzel, Wendy Nottingham, Jason Watkins, Lorraine Ashbourne and Marcia Warren, who had all featured in Housewife, 49 (2005) a few years previous.
On New Year's Day 2011 Wood appeared in a BBC drama Eric & Ernie (2011) as Eric Morecambe's mother, Sadie Bartholomew.
In 2011, Wood's last major stage work, 'That Day We Sang', again based on a true story, garnered rave reviews at the Manchester International Festival, and was revived three years later at the Royal Exchange. The Stage called it "an entirely original and authentically British musical that's the best of its kind about childhood aspiration since Billy Elliot". Lyn Gardner, writing in The Guardian, said: "Music runs through the show like an unstoppable river of emotion, and Wood's script is both tart as a plum, and unashamedly sentimental."
On 23 December 2012 BBC One screened Loving Miss Hatto (2012), a drama written by Wood about the life of concert pianist Joyce Hatto, the centre of a scandal over the authenticity of her recordings and her role in the hoax.
On 26 December 2014, a television adaptation of That Day We Sang (2014), starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, was shown on BBC TV.
In early 2015, Wood took part in a celebrity version of The Great Comic Relief Bake Off (2013) and was crowned Star Baker in her episode.
She co-starred with Timothy Spall in Sky television's three-part television adaptation of Fungus the Bogeyman (2015), which was first broadcast over three days in December 2015, The miniseries was filmed in the summer of 2015. This was to be her last acting project and her final role and she was notably absent from the screening of the series in late autumn that year.
Sadly in fact in the autumn of 2015 Wood fell ill with terminal cancer and withdrew from public life entirely, she was later hospitalized but she was subsequently released to be allowed to die at home with her two children at her bedside.
Victoria Wood died on 20 April 2016 at her home in Highgate, North London.
She had been appointed OBE in 1997 and had subsequently advanced to CBE in 2008.
The writer and critic Clive James said Wood "changed the field for women and indeed for everybody, because very few of the men were trying hard enough as writers before she came on the scene and showed them what penetrating social humour should actually sound like."
She was survived by her daughter Grace Durham who is an accomplished concert singer and recitalist and her son Henry Durham.Already an OBE and CBE recipient, she's a television presence that is unforgettable.- Director
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Peter Wood was born on 8 October 1925 in Colyton, Devon, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for In Search of Gregory (1969), ITV Television Playhouse (1955) and ITV Saturday Night Theatre (1969). He died on 11 February 2016 in England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jean Margaret Hodgkinson, known by the stage name Jean Alexander, was a British television actress. She was best known to British television viewers as Hilda Ogden in the soap opera Coronation Street (1960), a role she played from 1964 until 1987, and also as Auntie Wainwright in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010. For her role in Coronation Street (1960), she won the 1985 Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance, and received a 1988 BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actress.
Alexander was born at 18 Rhiwlas Street Toxteth, Liverpool, in 1926, to Nell and Archie Hodgkinson; her father worked as an electrician and the family lived in a terraced house with no indoor lavatory. Alexander had an elder brother, Kenneth. She aspired to become an actress from an early age, and later said that she was inspired by variety acts she saw at the Pavilion theatre in her home city. She attended St Edmund's College for Girls in Princes Park, Toxteth and as a teenager, she joined an amateur theatre group and took elocution lessons.
Alexander spent five years as a library assistant in Liverpool before she began her acting career in 1949 at the Adelphi Guild Theatre in Macclesfield. She first appeared as Florrie in Sheppey by Somerset Maugham. She later worked in rep in Oldham, Stockport and York. Most of her parts were minor, and she also worked as a wardrobe mistress and stage manager. Her television debut is variously given as in the police series Z-Cars or in Deadline Midnight.
Alexander first appeared in Coronation Street in 1962 in a minor role as a landlady. Two years later, she returned to the programme as Hilda Ogden. She started playing the role on 8 July 1964, finally leaving on 25 December 1987. Ogden became highly popular with viewers and Alexander was often identified with her character.
The British League for Hilda Ogden was established in 1979 by Sir John Betjeman, Willis Hall, Russell Harty, Laurence Olivier and Michael Parkinson, among others. In 1984, hundreds of fans sent her condolence cards after the death of her on-screen husband Stan Ogden, played by Bernard Youens, who had died a few months before his character was killed off. In 1985 she received the Royal Television Society Award for her performance on Coronation Street. When she decided to leave the show in 1987, fans started "Save Hilda!" campaigns; however, many did not realise that she had made her own decision to depart. Her final scenes in the programme were aired on 25 December 1987, attracting nearly 27 million viewers, the highest number in the show's history.
In 2005 the UK TV Times poll voted her as the "Greatest Soap Opera Star of All Time".Best known for Hilda Ogden on Coronation Street for over 20 years and playing stingy Auntie Wainwright on The Last of the Summer Wine. She's commanded the attention and audiences of Lord Laurence Olivier along the way. That's an accomplishment in it's own. Her Hilda Ogden is still one of the best and most beloved female characters ever to grace on British television.- Actor
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A true character actor in the best sense of the word, offbeat British thespian Peter Vaughan's hefty frame could appear intimidating or benevolent; his mere presence menacing or avuncular. Adept at playing both sides of the law, his characters usually possessed a strange, somewhat wary countenance that seemed to keep his audience slightly off balance. This veteran actor has been a stalwart presence for nearly fifty years. Born Peter Ohm in 1923, he began on the stage and didn't enter films until 1959, well into his thirties.
Married in 1952 to rising actress Billie Whitelaw, Peter was primarily in the background at first, offering a cheapjack gallery of thugs, unsmiling cops, and foreign agents in movies. An easily unsympathetic bloke, he played unbilled policemen in his first two films, then slowly gravitated up the credits list. He appeared as the chief of police in the spy drama The Devil's Agent (1962), which also featured his wife, and then gained a bit more attention in a prime part as an offbeat insurance investigator in the B movie Smokescreen (1964), a role that propelled him into the higher ranks. Noticeably shady roles came with playing Tallulah Bankhead's seedy handyman who meets a fatal end in the Gothic horror Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) [aka Die! Die! My Darling!]; his villainous roles in the spy thrillers The Naked Runner (1967) opposite Frank Sinatra and The Man Outside (1967); a German thug in A Twist of Sand (1968); and Sgt. Walker in The Bofors Gun (1968).
Divorced from Whitelaw in 1966, he later married actress Lillias Walker, who had roles in a couple of his pictures: Malachi's Cove (1973) and Intimate Reflections (1975). TV became a large source of income for Vaughan in the 1970s, particularly in his role of Grouty in Porridge (1974) on both the large and small screen, and his quirky demeanor fitted like a glove for bizarre director Terry Gilliam, who cast him as the Ogre in Time Bandits (1981) and then as Mr. Helpman in Brazil (1985). For the past few decades he has maintained a healthy balance between film (including standout roles in Zulu Dawn (1979), The Remains of the Day (1993) and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)) and TV mini-movies, both contemporary and period. He was still performing into his 90s: his final role was Maester Aemon Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011).
He died at age 93 on December 6, 2016, in Sussex, England.- Liz Smith found fame as an actress at an age when most people are considering retirement. It was a long road to eventual stardom, during which she struggled to raise a family after a broken marriage. She became best known for her roles in The Vicar of Dibley (1994) and The Royle Family but her talents encompassed serious drama too. And while she made something of a name playing slightly dotty old ladies, the real Liz Smith was far removed from these on-screen personas. She was born Betty Gleadle in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. Her early life was not happy. Her mother died in childbirth when she was just two years old and her father abandoned her when he remarried. "My father was a bit of a sod, really. He just went off with loads of women and then married one who said he had to cut off completely from his prior life and that meant me." She started going to the local cinema with her grandfather when she was four and she quickly gained a fascination for acting.
By the age of nine, she was appearing in local dramatic productions, often playing the part of elderly ladies. World War Two thwarted her plans and she joined the WRNS because, as she later told the BBC's Desert Island Discs, she loved the cut of the naval uniform. She continued appearing in plays and entertainments while serving in the Royal Navy. She met her future husband Jack Thomas while she was stationed in India and the couple married at the end of the war. Her grandmother had left her enough money to buy a house in London. Smith later remembered that she had picked it at random from a magazine and bought it without crossing the threshold.
But what had been an idyllic marriage failed shortly after the family moved to Epping Forest in Essex and she was left to bring up her two children alone. With money tight, she worked in a number of jobs including delivering post and quality control in a plastic bag factory. But her love for acting remained and she began buying the theatrical magazine, The Stage, and sending her photograph to casting agents. Eventually she became part of a group studying method acting under a teacher who had come to the UK from America.
She performed at the Gate Theatre in west London and spent many years in repertory, as well as spells as an entertainer in Butlins holiday camps. In 1970, she was selling toys in London's Regent Street when she got a call from the director Mike Leigh to play the downtrodden mother in his film Bleak Moments. Leigh cast her again in Hard Labour, part of the BBC's Play for Today series, a role that allowed her to shine. She received critical acclaim as the middle-aged housewife who endures a life of domestic drudgery, constantly at the beck and call of her demanding husband and daughter.
It was the breakthrough she had sought for years and, as she later recalled: "I never went back to grotty jobs again." She was seldom off the screen over the next 20 years, with appearances in a number of TV programmes including Last of the Summer Wine, The Sweeney, The Duchess of Duke Street and The Gentle Touch. She was cast as Madame Balls in the 1976 film The Pink Panther Strikes Again, but her scenes were left on the cutting-room floor. However, she did appear in the role six years later in The Curse of the Pink Panther. In 1984 she received a Bafta for Best Supporting Actress when she played Maggie Smith's mother in the film A Private Function.
Two years later she appeared as Patricia Hodge's alcoholic mother in the BBC drama The Life and Loves Of A She Devil. It was a part, she said, that she really enjoyed as it gave her the chance to wear more glamorous outfits than her usual roles required. And she was able to dress up again for her next film appearance, this time in the role of Grace in Peter Greenaway's film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. She was still much in demand at the beginning of the 1990s, appearing in the sitcom 2point4 Children and in the series Lovejoy and Bottom.
In 1994 she became a household name with her portrayal of Letitia Cropley in the series The Vicar of Dibley (1994). The character was famous for her idiosyncratic recipes such as parsnip brownies and lard and fish paste pancakes, but was killed off in 1996. Two years later Liz Smith starred as Nana in The Royle Family, a sitcom that ran for nearly four years. She took the part again in 2006 in a special edition in which Nana died. Typically, she attributed her success to Caroline Aherne's scripts rather than her own talent.
"They were great roles," she later remembered. "I was so lucky that things did come my way then." Unlike some actors, she watched recordings of her own performances looking for ways in which she could improve her acting. She continued to appear in feature films, playing Grandma Georgina in Tim Burton's 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and she was the voice of Mrs Mulch in Wallace & Gromit -The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. In 2006 she published her autobiography Our Betty and moved into a retirement home in north London but continued acting. She appeared in the BBC's Lark Rise to Candleford, finally announcing her retirement in 2008 at the age of 87. It was a belief in her own talent that drove Liz Smith on when her life was at a low ebb. "All I wanted was a chance," she told the BBC. "It was wonderful when it did happen."
Smith died on Christmas Eve 2016. She was 95.An MBE recipient. This 90 year old actress has stopped acting due to health reasons but I still like her on this list anyway. - Although Jane Freeman will forever be associated with the redoubtable cafe owner Ivy in Roy Clarke's long-running Last of the Summer Wine - appearing in 274 episodes over a 37-year run and a 1983 stage version - she was also an actor of considerable resources who remained steadfastly committed to the theatre.
If Clarke's BBC hit comedy overshadowed Freeman's later career, she was at pains not to be confined by it, appearing in regional rep, national tours and pantomimes throughout its long television life.
Born in Brentford, near London, she moved to Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, when her mother remarried, her father having died in an accident when she was nine. There she developed an early interest in performing at school. After graduating from the City of Cardiff [now Royal Welsh] College of Music and Drama in 1955, she moved to London before joining the Gloucestershire-based all-female Osiris Repertory Theatre touring company.
In 1958 she joined the Arena Theatre, Sutton Coldfield, where she began to attract attention, and was seen as Margaret More in the inaugural production of the Welsh Theatre Company, Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, at the New Theatre, Cardiff in 1962.
As a member of Birmingham Rep between 1968 and 1973, she toured to Chicago and made notable appearances in Edward Bond's Saved and the musical Guys and Dolls, and as Maggie Hobson in Harold Brighouse's Hobson's Choice.
When television filming commitments allowed, she could be found playing a number of strong, usually northern, matriarchs in Billy Liar (Nottingham Playhouse, 1980), touring productions of JB Priestley's When We Are Married and Michael Frayn's Noises Off (1987) and Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke's Situation Comedy (1989).
She scored a personal success as the sharp-tongued Emma Hornett in Philip King and Falkland Carey's Sailor Beware! at the Lyric, Hammersmith (1991), subsequently touring with it in 1992 and 1993.
Later theatre appearances included Pam Gems' Deborah's Daughter (Library Theatre, Manchester, 1994) and tours of William Ash's adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights in 1995 and again in 1998.
She made her television debut in Troy Kennedy-Martin and John McGrath's Marriage, directed by Ken Loach, in 1964. Her Play for Today appearances included Peter Terson's The Fishing Party (1972) and Alan Bleasdale's Scully's New Year's Eve (1978). Other notable credits included Roy Clarke's Of Funerals and Fish (1973), Blackadder (1982) and Mrs Kimble in Silas Marner (1985).
Her few film appearances included Scrubbers (1982), directed by Mai Zetterling.
She was married to Michael Simpson, the former artistic director of Birmingham Rep, from 1971 until his death in December 2007.
Jane Freeman died of lung cancer on March 9, 2017, aged 81.Best known for her role of "Ivy" in the "Last of the Summer Wine." A wonderful actress and national treasure as Nora Batty's friend. - Actress
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When people gave Louis Malle credit for making a star of Jeanne Moreau in Elevator to the Gallows (1958) immediately followed by The Lovers (1958), he would point out that Moreau by that time had already been "recognized as the prime stage actress of her generation." She had made it to the Comédie Française in her 20s. She had appeared in B-movie thrillers with Jean Gabin and Ascenseur was in that genre. The technicians at the film lab went to the producer after seeing the first week of dailies for Ascenseur and said: "You must not let Malle destroy Jeanne Moreau". Malle explained: "She was lit only by the windows of the Champs Elysées. That had never been done. Cameramen would have forced her to wear a lot of make-up and they would put a lot of light on her, because, supposedly, her face was not photogenic". This lack of artifice revealed Moreau's "essential qualities: she could be almost ugly and then ten seconds later she would turn her face and would be incredibly attractive. But she would be herself".
Moreau has told interviewers that the characters she played were not her. But even the most famous film critic of his generation, Roger Ebert, thinks that she is a lot like her most enduring role, Catherine in François Truffaut's Jules and Jim (1962). Behind those eyes and that enigmatic smile is a woman with a mind. In a review of The Clothes in the Wardrobe (1993) Ebert wrote: "Jeanne Moreau has been a treasure of the movies for 35 years... Here, playing a flamboyant woman who nevertheless keeps her real thoughts closely guarded, she brings about a final scene of poetic justice as perfect as it is unexpected".
Moreau made her debut as a director in Lumiere (1976) -- also writing the script and playing Sarah, an actress the same age as Moreau whose romances are often with directors for the duration of making a film. She made several films with Malle.
Still active in international cinema, Moreau presided over the jury of the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.Since her mother was British, I believe she's eligible for this honour whether honorary and worthy of it. She's one of the world's greatest film actresses whether in French or English.- Sylvia Butterfield MBE, known professionally as Elizabeth Dawn or Liz Dawn, was an English actress, best known for her role as Vera Duckworth in the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street. First starting on the serial in 1974, she had more of a recurring role as a factory worker until her husband Jack (played by William Tarmey) first appeared in 1979, and later a more concrete role in 1983. For her role as Vera, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 British Soap Awards. She was made an MBE in the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours.
Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Dawn started her show business career as a nightclub singer. By the late 1960s she had ventured into acting, often taking small parts in television programmes as well as advertisements. During the 1970s she appeared in a variety of programmes including All Creatures Great and Small and Colin Welland's play Leeds United, as well as an early appearance in Crown Court as a non-speaking background artist.
In January 1990, Dawn was featured on This is Your Life. She published her autobiography, Vera Duckworth - My Story, in 1993.
In 2000, Dawn was chosen as the Lady Mayoress of Leeds and was awarded an MBE in October of that year for her services to charity, having helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for hospitals in the Manchester and Leeds areas.
On 12 October 2010, Dawn appeared in a wheelchair at the naming ceremony of the new Cunard cruise ship, MS Queen Elizabeth in Southampton.
She appeared at the 2011 British Soap Awards giving the Lifetime Achievement Award to her former co-star Bill Tarmey.
On 12 June 2014, Dawn was the subject of one of five celebrity specials of The Jeremy Kyle Show. She appeared on the show, talking about her career and health.
On 11 November 2015, it was announced that Dawn was to briefly come out of retirement and make a guest appearance in Emmerdale over Christmas 2015, in the role of Mrs Winterbottom.An MBE Recipient. She's best known for Vera Duckworth on Coronation Street. - Actress
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English character actress with a penchant for genteel aristocrats and kindly mothers. The daughter of teachers, she "spent some time selling shoes in Reading" before entering the acting profession. Aged eighteen, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her debut in repertory theatre at Amersham in 1955. Rosemary Leach enjoyed a prolific and varied career in both supporting and leading roles on the screen (though, by her own account, preferred radio and the stage). She became a familiar presence, most notably in television period dramas and sitcoms. Her roles have included Queen Victoria in Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic (1978) (she also played Queen Elizabeth II on at least four occasions on both stage and screen),scatterbrained Aunt Fenny in The Jewel in the Crown (1984) (which fostered her fascination with India and resulted in several subsequent visits) , the swindled widow Joan Plumleigh-Bruce -- victim of 1930's social climbing con man Ralph Ernest Gorse -- in The Charmer (1987), one of three nannies working for wealthy families in Edwardian London's exclusive Berkeley Square (1998),the verger's wife, Mrs. Tope, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1993) and Zoë Wanamaker's habitually Martini-imbibing mother Grace in My Family (2000). She was twice nominated for BAFTA awards, latterly as Best Supporting Actress for her role as the kindly Mrs. Honeychurch in A Room with a View (1985). Her own personal favourite roles have included Miss Adelaide in a 1973 Birmingham Repertory Theatre production of "Guys and Dolls" and that of eccentric real life author Helene Hanff in "84 Charing Cross Road" (1981, Ambassador Theatre, London) for which she received an Olivier Award as Best Actress.- Actress
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Fenella Fielding was born on 17 November 1927 in Hackney, London, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Guest House Paradiso (1999), Carry on Screaming! (1966) and The Avengers (1961). She died on 11 September 2018 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK.- Actress
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Best known for playing the perpetually-ditzy blonde bimbo in several installments of the "Carry On" franchise, buxom Liz Fraser (born Elizabeth Joan Winch above a corner shop in south London) studied at RADA on a scholarship and first acted in repertory theatre and television before breaking into films. Her first role of note was Cynthia, the daughter of radical left-wing shop steward Fred Kite in The Boulting Brothers comedy I'm All Right Jack (1959) (the film which made Peter Sellers a star). In a second outing with Sellers, (Two Way Stretch (1960), she played his girlfriend Ethel; up next were eight guest appearances on Hancock's Half Hour (1956). By that time, her screen personae were firmly established as scatterbrained blondes or feisty gum-chewing working-class Cockneys. Though she often managed to rise above her material, the typecasting sadly continued through a series of dreadful low-brow '70s sex comedies in the 'Adventures' and 'Confessions' series, which represented a significant step-down from the "Carry Ons" and did nothing for her reputation.
Liz attempted to change her image by playing straight dramatic roles in The Family Way (1966) and Up the Junction (1968) (as the mother) and her later career prospered as a fine character actress with guest spots on The Professionals (1977), Minder (1979), Foyle's War (2002), and Midsomer Murders (1997), along with a string of successes on the West End stage. In her private life, she was known to be fond of animals, and she loved to play bridge and ladies' bowls at the exclusive Hurlingham club in Fulham. Her financial astuteness brought substantial gains at the stock market, which she in turn developed into a healthy property portfolio. She always spoke fondly of her co-stars, many of whom she regarded as her close 'mates' during the sixties, in particular Sidney James, Joan Sims, Tony Hancock and Tommy Cooper.- Actress
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Though English-born, Carole Shelley spent almost her entire award-winning career in the theatre in America, becoming one of Broadway's mainstays and a true pioneer of the American theatre.
Shelley was born in London, England, to Deborah (Bloomstein), an opera singer, and Curtis Shelley, a composer. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Carole stayed busy on all fronts in the entertainment industry in films, television and, of course, the live stage. Her Broadway credits include "The Odd Couple" (her Broadway debut) playing the hilarious Gwendolyn Pigeon, the intended blind date for the hapless Felix, a role she reprised for the film The Odd Couple (1968) and in the later television series (The Odd Couple (1970). Also on Broadway, she starred in "The Miser", "Stepping Out" (Tony nomination), "The Elephant Man" (Tony Award, Best Actress), "Hay Fever", "The Norman Conquests" (LADCC Award), "Absurd Person Singular" (Tony nomination) and "Loot".
Her national tours include "Broadway Bound", "The Royal Family" and "Noises Off". She also worked off-Broadway, in plays including "The Film Society", "London Suite", "The Destiny of Me", "Richard II" (New York Shakespeare Festival), "Later Life" (Drama Desk nomination), "Cabaret Verboten", "What the Butler Saw", "Little Murders", "Twelve Dreams" (Obie award), "Tartuffe".
Returning to London, she replaced Maggie Smith in "Lettuce and Lovage" (she had gone to America to star in the Broadway run of the play) in the West End. Always interested in remaining busy, she never turned down a good opportunity for work and acquitted herself admirably, stepping into such long running hits as "Cabaret", "Show Boat", "The Last Night of Ballyhoo" and "Noises Off".
She kept busy in films, too, appearing in Quiz Show (1994), The Road to Wellville (1994), Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), The Super (1991), and provided some delightful vocal characterizations for many Disney animated features: Hercules (1997), The Aristocats (1970), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and Robin Hood (1973).
Carole Shelley died on August 31, 2018, in Manhattan, New York City.
In honor of Shelley's work on Broadway the marquee lights of The Gershwin Theatre, The Walter Kerr Theatre, The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, and The Imperial Theatre were dimmed on September 5, 2018 at 6:45 PM for one minute in her memory.She is British born and has done plenty of shows in England and in America. She's the original Madame Morrible in Broadway's Wicked and has acted in plenty of stage productions.- Actor
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Clive Swift was born on 9 February 1936 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Excalibur (1981), Frenzy (1972) and Keeping Up Appearances (1990). He was married to Margaret Drabble. He died on 1 February 2019 in London, England, UK.- Actor
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Robin Leach was born on 29 August 1941 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for The Ridiculous 6 (2015), I.M. Caravaggio (2010) and Sledge Hammer! (1986). He was married to Judith Desser. He died on 24 August 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.His services to the culinary world in Las Vegas are unmatched by anybody else. He is also quite a charitable philanthropist.- Lovely, delicate-looking actress Muriel Pavlow belongs firmly to the British cinema of the 1950s and often provided a nice counterbalance to the hectic goings-on in many comedies. Born in 1921 in Leigh, Kent, England, she was a dominant stage actress despite her petite frame and made her theatrical debut at age 15 with a production of "The Old Maid" (1936). Other sprightly teen roles on stage followed including "Oedipus Rex" (1936), "Victoria Regina" (1937), "Dear Octopus" (1938), "Dear Brutus" (1940) and "Old Acquaintance" before she began to get a strong foothold in films.
Muriel started out with a bit role in a 1934 Gracie Fields musical comedy film, but wouldn't come into her own for nearly two decades. Perennially radiant and youthful, she often times played ingénue roles much younger than her actual age. She appeared in the film Quiet Wedding (1941) starring Margaret Lockwood and Derek Farr and was prominently seen in the war-time film Night Boat to Dublin (1946). While making a beguiling Ophelia on a live, early TV version of Hamlet Part 1 (1947), for the most part she tried to build up her theatrical credits.
A comely heroine in thrillers, light comedies and war-themed pictures she was usually cast as an altruistic bride, wife or girlfriend. In 1947 she married actor Farr and went on to appear with him in such British-made films as The Shop at Sly Corner (1947) and Doctor at Large (1957). Peaking in mid-50s films opposite such established British actors as Dirk Bogarde, Peter Finch, John Gregson, Kenneth More and Donald Sinden, Muriel also continued to perform theater roles, notably in Shakespeare pieces -- "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Othello", "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Troilus and Cressida".
Her film career waned in the early 60s and she and her husband worked for the most part on stage and in television. The couple appeared together in such plays as "Wolf's Clothing" (1959) and "Mary, Mary" (1963). Following Farr's death in 1986, she resumed her career and was spotted in the late 80s and 90s in a number of matronly roles. Some of her last roles were in TV movies -- Daisies in December (1995), Heaven on Earth (1998) and Belonging (2004), the last in which she was in the company of such elites as Brenda Blethyn, Rosemary Harris and Anna Massey.
She made a brief appearance in her final movie, Glorious 39 (2009). She died in England, at age 97 on January 19, 2019. - Bridget Turner was born on 22 February 1939 in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Pride and Prejudice (1995), Under Milk Wood (1971) and Resurrection (1968). She was married to Frank Cox. She died on 27 December 2014 in Dorchester, Dorset, England, UK.One of England's best beloved stage actresses who has done it all on television and film as well. Her theatre history alone deserves attention.
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After training at LAMDA, Irene traveled widely with the Bristol Old Vic Company, including Europe, America and the Middle East. She worked in rep at Liverpool, Leatherhead, Worthing and Wolverhampton and did seasons at Stratford-on-Avon and Chichester and toured with a Shakespearean Company. She worked with Laurence Olivier's company and appeared in Olivier's film version of "Richard the Third". In addition, she worked extensively on the West End stage, including a year in "The Mousetrap", and acted in numerous radio and television plays before joining Coronation Street (1960) in 1968.More known for her stage presence than film and television but still one of the best British actresses in her 80s.- As a testament to her remarkable talent, Broadway honored esteemed Australian stage actress Zoe Caldwell four times with Tony Awards: for "Slapstick Tragedy" (1966), for her title role in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1968), for her searing title performance as "Medea" (1982), and as opera diva Maria Callas in "Master Class" (1995). The classical stage legend's fervent dedication to the theatre, however, came at the expense of filmgoers everywhere as she made only three rather insignificant movies during her lifetime.
Zoe Ada Caldwell was born in Hawthorn, Australia, on September 14, 1933, and began her professional career at the tender age of 9 in a production of"Peter Pan." Finding radio work in her teens, her parents provided her with the necessary foundation with lessons in dance, elocution and music. She left school at age 15 and began an early career teaching speech and performing on a children's radio program.
Attending the Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne, she was one of the original members of Melbourne's Union Theatre Repertory Company (1953) and with the Elizabeth Theatre Trust (1954-1957). Years of repertory work followed in which she built up quite a formidable resume. Appearing for two seasons with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company in productions of "Pericles" and "Much Ado About Nothing." She also toured Russia with the latter company in "Hamlet," "Twelfth Night" and "Romeo and Juliet."
For the next few years she built up her classical resume as Biance in "Othello," "Helena in "All's Well That Ends Well," a Fairy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Cordelia in "King Lear," Rosaline in "Love's Labour's Lost," Ismene in "Antigone," Pegeen in "Playboy of the Western World" and the title role in "Saint Joan."
In America, Zoe helped launch Minneapolis' Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in 1963, with roles in "The Miser" and "The Three Sisters." Elsewhere she appeared as the title role of "Mother Courage," as well as "The Mad Woman of Chaillot," "The Way of the World" and "The Caucasian Chalk Circle," ". Broadway finally opened its curtains for her in 1965 when she briefly replaced Anne Bancroft in "The Devils." She continued her round of Broadway standing ovations with extraordinary performances as Eve in "The Creation of the World and Other Business" (1972: produced by the renown Robert Whitehead, her husband from 1968 on), "Dance of Death" (1974) and as Lillian Hellman in "Lillian" (1986), in addition to her Tony-winning perfs.
As a now-prestigious stage director, she helmed or assisted in productions of "An Almost Perfect Person" (1977, her debut), "Othello" (1982) starring James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer, "Macbeth" (1988) starring Plummer and Glenda Jackson and "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard" (1991) starring Judith Ivey and Jason Robards. She also directed Eileen Atkins and Vanessa Redgrave in the 1994 off-Broadway romantic drama "Vita and Virginia."
To the dismay of film-winning audiences, Ms. Caldwell avoided the silver screen almost completely. She appeared briefly as the Countess in the Woody Allen romantic comedy The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), a featured role (Mrs. Hill) in the fantasy mystery Birth (2004) starring Nicole Kidman, and her final role as the Grandmother in the Tom Hanks/Sandra Bullock adventure drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011).
Television appearances would also be comparatively few but she did display from time to time her classical brilliance in such roles ask the Fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959); Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1961) opposite Sean Connery; legendary actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell in Dear Liar (1964); another early legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt in Great Performances (1971) and Catherine the Great in Witness to Yesterday (1973). More notably, she recreated her Tony-winning role of Medea (1983)
She and producer/husband Whitehead maintained a long and successful private and professional partnership. The couple had two children: William "Sam" and Charles, the latter taking the role of producer of "The Play What I Wrote" which briefly featured his mother in New York in 2003. Suffering from Parkinson's disease, the 80-year-old actress died of complications on February 16, 2020.An OBE Recipient: This Australian born actress has lived in New York City, London, and Melbourne. She's worked onstage ever since she could. She's most at home on the stage in a theatre wherever. Her dedication to the theatre is paramount in understanding her. Most people are unaware of her brilliance as an actress. We only get her now in some films and television but too bad, audiences don't know her for playing Maria Callas on Broadway in Master Class. - Actress
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Juliette Kaplan was born on 2 October 1939 in Bournemouth, Dorset, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Last of the Summer Wine (1973), Don't Let Go (2013) and A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (1958). She was married to Harold Hoser. She died on 10 October 2019 in Kent, England, UK.Best known as the long-suffering Pearl on "Last of the Summer Wine."- Actress
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Gwen Cherrell was born on 12 March 1926 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for One Wild Oat (1951), Thursday Theatre (1964) and Angels (1975). She died on 24 April 2019 in Grayshott, Hampshire, England, UK.- Actress
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Sheila Steafel was born on 26 May 1935 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was an actress, known for The 10th Kingdom (2000), Parting Shots (1998) and The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (1968). She was married to Harry H. Corbett. She died on 23 August 2019 in London, England, UK.A great stage, film, and television actress- Frances Cuka was born in 1936 in London, to Joseph and Letitia Cuka. The family eventually moved to Hove, where Frances was educated at Brighton and Hove High School. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, then made her stage debut in 1955 in 'Meet Mr. Callaghan' in Warrington. Following work with several repertory companies, she joined the Theatre Workshop and appeared with them at the Zurich Festival and the Moscow Art Theatre in 1957. She then played the part of Jo in 'A Taste of Honey' in 1958 at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London, transferring with it to the West End then Broadway, followed by an American tour. Her further West End appearances included 'Vanity Fair', 'Sweet Bird of Youth', 'Waters of the Moon', 'The Wild Duck' and a number with the R.S.C. in 'Days in Trees', 'Travesties,' and 'Nicholas Nickelby.' She made her television debut in 1964 in Twelve Good Men (1964) of The Hidden Truth (1964) series, which was followed by episodes of Adam Adamant Lives! (1966), The Informer (1966), The Champions (1968), Within These Walls (1974), Crown Court (1972), Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987), The Bill (1984), Doctors (2000), and Casualty (1986) amongst others. She made her film debut in the little-known comedy Over the Odds (1961) in 1961 and didn't appear on screen again until 1970, when she played Bob Cratchit's wife in the musical version of Scrooge (1970). The best known of her films is Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972), in which she played Catherine of Aragon.
- Jean Fergusson was born on 30 December 1944 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Last of the Summer Wine (1973), Run for Your Wife (2012) and Coronation Street (1960). She died on 14 November 2019.
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British character actor Freddie Jones came to the acting profession after ten years of working as a laboratory assistant and acting in amateur theater on the side. To kick off his mid-life career change, Jones attended Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent, England, on a scholarship. He then worked in repertory theater, later joining up with the Royal Shakespeare Company and gaining recognition as an actor of exceptional cleverness, intelligence and perception.
His theatrical film debut came in 1967 in Peter Brook's critically acclaimed, Marat/Sade (1967). Two years later, Jones made his mark on the acting world playing "Claudius" in the six-part television miniseries, The Caesars (1968). Based on this performance, he was named "The World's Best Television Actor of the Year" at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival in 1969. Also, around this time, Jones gave one of his most touching film performances, that of the "monster" in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), in which he displayed pathos reminiscent of Boris Karloff's monster.
Critical acclaim led him into more prominent roles in television, e.g., The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976), Children of the Stones (1977), and Pennies from Heaven (1978), as well as in film, e.g., The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), Antony and Cleopatra (1972), All Creatures Great and Small (1975) and Zulu Dawn (1979). He achieved international recognition as a film actor after appearing in such Hollywood films as Clint Eastwood's Firefox (1982) and David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980), Dune (1984) and Wild at Heart (1990).
Arguably one of his most endearing roles was the frequently drunk reporter "Orlando" in Federico Fellini's The Ship Sails On (1983). His theatrical acting also went well as he was well suited for literary dramas, e.g., Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Nicholas Nickleby (1977), Silas Marner (1985), Adam Bede (1992), David Copperfield (2000) and The Count of Monte Cristo (2002).- Well-known British classical stage star Tony Britton was born Anthony Edward Lowry Britton in Birmingham, England, on June 9, 1924, the son of Edward Leslie and Doris (Jones) Britton in 1924. He took his first professional curtain call at age 18 in "Quiet Weekend" with a company in Weston-Super-Mare just before joining the Army in November of 1942. Serving with the Royal Artillery for 4 1/2 years, he eventually returned to the theater after the war, at first in the capacity of an assistant stage manager at the Manchester Library Theatre.
Making his London debut in "The Rising Wind" at the Embassy Theatre, Tony began elevating his name in repertory at Edinburgh and the Bristol Old Vic during the 1951 season, but major attention came after being cast as Rameses in Christopher Fry's "The Firstborn" at London's Winter Garden Theatre in 1952. This success led to the leading role and excellent critical notices in "The Player King" later that year at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. Glen Byam Shaw, director of the Memorial Theatre, witnessed this performance and invited him join his company. He remained there for two seasons playing Bassiano opposite Peggy Ashcroft in "The Merchant of Venice," as well as essaying the roles of Cassio in "Othello", Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet" and Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", among others.
Other London stage roles came with "The Night of the Ball" opposite Wendy Hiller and Gladys Cooper, and "Gigi" starring Leslie Caron. At the Old Vic he played Trigorin in "The Seagull" and Hotspur in "Henry IV" before settling in for an over two-year run as Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady". He would return to this part more than once over a decade later.
A renaissance man of the theatre, Tony didn't pursue film roles with equal zest, yet his infrequent offerings reliably enhanced any project he was involved in. The highlights of his 20 or so movies include both lead and supporting parts in The Birthday Present (1957) (co-starring Sylvia Syms, Behind the Mask (1958) with Michael Redgrave, The Risk (1960) opposite Virginia Maskell, Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and The Day of the Jackal (1973); his last film to date was released decades ago -- Agatha (1979) starring Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave.
On TV Tony has portrayed assorted men of distinction -- lords, sirs, captains ,and the like in TV movies. He lightened up considerably in his numerous comedy series, including the popular Robin's Nest (1977) and Don't Wait Up (1983), both of which ran for several seasons. His last decade or so were spent primarily on TV with prime roles on the British series Don't Tell Father (1992), the mini-series The Way We Live Now (2001) and episodes of "My Dad's the Prime Minister," "Doctors," "The Royal" and "Holby City." He made his last appearance with a brief bit in the rollicking film comedy Run for Your Wife (2012).
He has contributed his mellifluous voice to books on tape as well. Divorced from Ruth Hawkins, who bore him two children, he later was long married to Danish sculptor Eve Birkefeldt until her death in 2008. His three children -- classical actor Jasper Britton, writer Cherry Britton, and correspondent Fern Britton -- have all been involved one way or another in the entertainment field. Tony died on December 22, 2019, at age 95. - Writer
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John Barton was born on 26 November 1928 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and director, known for The Wars of the Roses (1965), All's Well That Ends Well (1968) and ITV Saturday Night Theatre (1969). He was married to Anne Righter. He died on 18 January 2018 in London, England, UK.- Born in Marylebone, London, versatile character actress Rosalind Marie Knight was born to theatrical parentage. Her father was the accomplished thespian Esmond Knight. Her mother, the comedienne Frances Clare, often featured in Ivor Novello operettas. Rosalind's interest in theatre was first kindled at the age of six when she and her mother attended a staging of Novello's "The Dancing Years" at Drury Lane. Rosalind was evacuated to the countryside with her nanny during the war years. In 1949, she accompanied her father to the Old Vic Theatre and became enthralled by a production of "The Snow Queen", primarily performed by drama school novices. The following year she won an audition and spent two years at the Old Vic Theatre School. This was succeeded by a lengthy apprenticeship in repertory which led to her gaining further experience as assistant stage manager for the West of England Theatre Company, the Midland Theatre Company in Coventry and the Piccolo Theatre Company in Manchester.
In 1955, she made her first impact on screen as a lady-in-waiting in Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955), which also featured her father in the cast. A year later, having come to the attention of a movie producer, she played Annabel, one of the schoolgirls, in Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1957) (decades later, she would return as a teacher in the sequel The Wildcats of St. Trinian's (1980)). This set the tone for a number of subsequent comedic roles which included a couple of early Carry On's and the Tony Richardson-directed Tom Jones (1963), in which she played the giddy Mrs. Harriet Fitzpatrick. While doing the Carry On films she was not under any form of contract and was paid a mere $50 a week. In 1957, Rosalind joined her father in an early BBC adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby (1957) as the spiteful Fanny Squeers. In a later miniseries based on Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit (1964), she was a splendidly shrewish Charity Pecksniff.
During her prolific career, Rosalind relished every opportunity to portray a diverse range of characters, good and bad, from servants to princesses (Alice of Battenberg in The Crown (2016)) to old maids (Aspasia Fitzgibbon in The Pallisers (1974)) to wealthy socialites (Margot Asquith in Nancy Astor (1982)) and unpleasant aristocratic dowagers (Daphne Winkworth in Jeeves and Wooster (1990)). She even essayed a retired prostitute turned landlady in the sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme (1999). In addition to a staple of period dramas she guested in numerous episodic TV dramas, including Poirot (1989), Dalziel and Pascoe (1996), Heartbeat (1992), Marple (2004), Midsomer Murders (1997) and Sherlock (2010). All the while, she remained heavily engaged in theatrical work with the Old Vic, The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court Theatre, her last appearance being the strict, incorruptible governess Mrs. Prism in Shaw's "The Importance of Being Earnest".
Rosalind was married to director/producer Michael Elliott from 1959. In 1976, she helped rebuild and re-open the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, of which her husband was involved as one of five artistic directors. She was also a patron of the Actor's Centre in London and the Ladies' Theatrical Guild (a charity founded in 1891). Rosalind Knight continued to perform as an actress right up to her death on December 19 2020, at the age of 87. - Paula Tilbrook was born on 16 January 1930 in Salford, Lancashire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Emmerdale Farm (1972), Wetherby (1985) and Andy Capp (1988). She was married to Leslie Hall. She died on 1 December 2019 in England, UK.
- Distinguished Devon-born British actress, acclaimed for her commanding performances on the classical stage. Jefford did her initial training at the Hartly-Hodder School of Speech and Drama and graduated from RADA in 1949. Following her professional acting debut that same year, she spent a year on the repertory stage before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon where her roles included Calpurnia in "Julius Caesar", Desdemona in "Othello" (both opposite Anthony Quayle) and Kate in "The Taming of the Shrew" (opposite Keith Michell as Petruchio). In 1956, Jefford moved to the Old Vic and put her extensive repertoire to good use, headlining in a one-woman show entitled "Heroines of Shakespeare". In the course of her lengthy theatrical career, the charismatic actress relished every opportunity to tackle diverse and complex characters, from Cleopatra and Joan of Arc to Hedda Gabler and Gwendolen Fairfax. In 1965, she reputedly became the youngest recipient of an OBE for services to the theatre at the age of 35. As late as 2002, she appeared as Queen Margaret opposite Kenneth Branagh in Richard III at the Crucible in Sheffield, eliciting an appreciative review from The Guardian which described Jefford as "one of the greatest of Shakespearean actors" who played her part with "Grecian grandeur ".
Despite some early TV work, Jefford's film career did not rise to the same lofty heights and only began when she was already in her mid-thirties (then playing Molly Bloom in James Joyce's Ulysses (1967)). Her rather infrequent later big screen appearances tended to be in off-beat roles: a vampiric countess in Hammer's Lust for a Vampire (1971), Magda Goebbels in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973), the coldly self-righteous Mrs. Herriton in Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) and an eccentric, wheelchair-bound German baroness in Roman Polanski's thriller The Ninth Gate (1999). For the small screen, Jefford guested in episodes of The House of Eliott (1991), Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987) and Midsomer Murders (1997). Between 1950 and 2003, she also lent her voice to many BBC radio adaptations of classic plays.An OBE Recipient in 1965. She has done so much stage, film and television since then. - Writer
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Author, director, educator, educated at Oxford University (scholarship)(BA, Litt. B.); Yale University (Ph.D.); Guggenheim Fellowship. He taught literature and history in colleges throughout the USA and in Europe, 1948-1951. He directed plays and was assistant to Bertold Brecht. Between 1952 and 1956 he was Drama critic for The New Republic. From 1953 he was Brander Matthews professor of dramatic literature at Columbia University, and Norton professor of poetry at Harvard University between 1960-1961. He joined ASCAP in 1964, and adapted the operas "Orpheus in the Underworld" and "The Threepenny Opera".- Actress
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Nicola Pagett was born on 15 June 1945 in Cairo, Egypt. She was an actress, known for An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), There's a Girl in My Soup (1970) and Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). She was married to Graham Swannell. She died on 3 March 2021 in London, England, UK.A great television, film and stage actress- Actor
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John Mahoney was an award-winning American actor. He was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, the seventh of eight children of Margaret and Reg, a baker. His family was evacuated to the sea-side resort to avoid the Nazi bombing of their native Manchester. The Mancunian Mahoneys eventually returned to Manchester during the war. Visiting the States to see his older sister, a "war bride" who had married an American, the young Mahoney decided to emigrate and was sponsored by his sister. John eventually won his citizenship by serving in the U.S. Army.
Long interested in acting, Mahoney didn't make the transition to his craft until he was almost forty years old. Mahoney took acting classes at the St. Nicholas Theater and finally built up the courage to quit his day job and pursue acting full time. John Malkovich, one of the founders of the Second City's distinguished Steppenwolf Theatre, encouraged Mahoney to join Steppenwolf, and in 1986, Mahoney won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves (1987).
Mahoney made his feature film debut in 1980, but he was best known for playing the role of the father of the eponymous character Frasier (1993) from 1993 until 2004. He later concentrated on stage work back in Chicago, and appeared on Broadway in 2007 in a revival of Prelude to a Kiss (1992).
John died on February 4, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois.- Actress
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Annie Ross was born on 25 July 1930 in Mitcham, Surrey, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Short Cuts (1993), Superman III (1983) and Throw Momma from the Train (1987). She was married to Sean Lynch. She died on 21 July 2020 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actress
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Her dancing career started in Leicestershire where her father worked in an aircraft factory. She went into pantomime as a chorus girl and eventually became known when she did a chocolate commercial which led to work on television and films, Despite what other people say she doesn't think that shes a good dancer. She met actor Peter Gilmore and became engaged to him in 1953 and married in 1958 and live in Radlett, Hertfordshire. Her ambitions are to have a family, and to pass her advanced driving test. She makes some of her own clothes,- Ann Beach was born on 7 June 1938 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Notting Hill (1999), The City of the Dead (1960) and Under Milk Wood (1971). She was married to Francis Coleman. She died on 9 March 2017 in the UK.
- Actress
- Casting Department
Diminutive, sharp-featured English character actress, one of two daughters born Avril Williams at military barracks in West Yorkshire to an army officer and subsequent teacher. On stage in amateur dramatics from 1949, she was trained at the Old Vic school in London and made her debut at the Royal Court Theater eleven years later as the second witch in Macbeth. By that time, she had adopted her middle-name 'Elgar' as a surname. In the course of a lengthy career on the stage, Elgar was lauded for her versatility, her broad gallery of characters ranging from eccentric to waspish and from arch to timid. Noteworthy stage portrayals have included Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, the Duchess of York in Richard III and Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. On television from 1956, Elgar proved equally adept at both comedy and drama. Among few recurring appearances were the eponymous hero's dominating mother in the police sitcom Rosie (1977), followed by what was arguably Elgar's best known role, as Yootha Joyce's snobbish sister Ethel in George & Mildred (1976). Other interesting performances have included a BBC adaptation of Jean Anouilh's Joan of Arc (1964) (as Joan), busybody neighbour Betsy-Jane Duckworth in Spring and Port Wine (1970) and the austere matriarch of the Fenwick mining family in The Stars Look Down (1974).
Avril Elgar retired from acting in 2011 and died on September 17 2021 at the age of 89. Her husband of 43 years was the actor James Maxwell who predeceased her in 1995.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Charles Robert Watts (2 June 1941 - 24 August 2021) was an English musician who achieved international fame as the drummer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 until his death in 2021.
Originally trained as a graphic artist, Watts developed an interest in jazz at a young age and joined the band Blues Incorporated. He also started playing drums in London's rhythm and blues clubs, where he met future band-mates Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones. In January 1963, he left Blues Incorporated and joined the Rolling Stones as drummer, while doubling as designer of their record sleeves and tour stages. Watts's first public appearance as a permanent member was in February 1963, and he remained with the group for 58 years.
Nicknamed "The Wembley Whammer" by Jagger, Watts cited jazz as a major influence on his drumming style. At the time of Watts's death, Watts, Jagger and Richards were the only members of the band to have performed on every one of the band's studio albums. Aside from his career with the Rolling Stones, Watts toured with his own group, the Charlie Watts Quintet, and appeared in London at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club with the Charlie Watts Tentet.
In 1989, Watts was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame with the Rolling Stones. He is often regarded as one of the greatest drummers of all time.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
June Brown served in the Wrens and was classically trained at the Old Vic Drama School. She enjoyed a long career in the theatre, television and the cinema. The actor Nigel Hawthorne described her as "one of the most beautiful creatures I've seen on stage" after seeing her performance as Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler." Aside from her EastEnders (1985) fame as Dot Cotton, she appeared as "Lady Macbeth" opposite Albert Finney and directed "Double D" at the 1993 Edinburgh Festival.MBE and OBE recipient;- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Though he had a long and varied career on stage and screen, Peter Bowles achieved his greatest popular success on mainstream TV as the debonair nouveau riche tycoon Richard De Vere, head of a supermarket and catering chain, forever matching wits with Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith) in To the Manor Born (1979). From then on, the London-born actor's stock-in-trade tended to be charming, likeable rogues, rakish lotharios and flamboyant or snobbish posh types. While on screen the very ideal of style and cultivation, Bowles himself came from a relatively humble working class background, the son of Herbert Reginald Bowles (valet, chauffeur and, eventually, butler to English aristocracy) and Scottish-born Sarah Jane Harrison (who worked as a nanny for the Duke of Argyll). His parents met while employed by the family of Lord Beaverbrook. Both worked hard to send their 16 year-old son to drama school at RADA, his mother even taking on night time work at a hospital to pay for his fees. Considered a bright youngster, Bowles graduated with ease. Having made his theatrical debut at the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre in 1953, he joined the Old Vic company three years later to play small parts in Shakespearean plays.
Considered by casting directors to be either too tall or 'too swarthy' to play Englishmen on screen, Bowles spent much of the 60s as a minor TV villain, essaying an assortment of shady characters with names like Borowitsch, Mendez, Butros or Gamal. By the time he hit the jackpot with To the Manor Born, Bowles was in his 40s. At last, he was wisely employed on television, generally cast as characters who would walk that fine line between elegant heroics and raffish villainy. From the early 70s, he starred or co-starred in more than a few series, some dramas, some comedies, most of them gems: Napoleon and Love (1974) (as Murat), the hospital sitcom Only When I Laugh (1979) (Archie Glover), The Bounder (1982) (roguish ex-convict Howard Booth, a part specially written for Bowles by Eric Chappell), The Irish R.M. (1983) (Major Sinclair Yeates), Lytton's Diary (1985) (a series Bowles himself created, playing Fleet Street gossip columnist Neville Lytton) and Perfect Scoundrels (1990) (very much in character as the consummate grifter Guy Buchanan). He also played the ambitious Guthrie Featherstone Q.C. in 17 instalments of Rumpole of the Bailey (1978). His final recurring role of note was as the Duke of Wellington in the popular period drama Victoria (2016).
An intelligent and versatile actor, Bowles disliked being labeled as a sitcom star and latterly lamented the fact that major classical roles on stage had eluded him, saying "... the classics are done by the big companies or by the directors from the big companies and for reasons best known to them I have never been asked." If not Shakespeare or Chekhov, Bowles nonetheless headlined in a number of prestigious plays, many of them produced by Peter Hall (including The Browning Version, Sleuth and Wait Until Dark). He also played the bogus Major Angus Pollock in a 1993 revival of Terence Rattigan 's Separate Tables, Professor Higgins in Pygmalion at the Chichester Festival Theatre and (in a special performance) George MacDonald Fraser 's colourful arch cad Harry Flashman.
Bowles was married for more than sixty years to the former actress Susan Bennett with whom he had three children. The iconic actor passed away from cancer on March 17 2022 at the age of 85.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mona Hammond was born Mavis Chin to a Chinese father and Jamaican mother. She came to Britain in 1959 on a scholarship to work with an architects firm but was soon involved in black theatre productions with contemporaries such as Lloyd and Barry Reckord and Charles Hyatt, under the name Mona Chin. In 1959 she won a scholarship to RADA. Initially known as a stage actress - she played Lady Macbeth in an all-black version of the Shakespeare play at London's Roundhouse in 1970 - she went to co-found the Talawa Theatre Group with fellow actresses Yvonne Brewster and Carmen Munroe. The group performs black versions of plays written for whites as well as staging original Afro-Caribbean productions. In 2005 she was awarded an O.B.E. for services to drama. Having played in the TV soap 'Eastenders' for some years she has a recurring occasional role as a white vicar's outspoken ex-mother-in-law in radio soap 'The Archers.'OBE recipient.- Actress
- Music Department
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Lilian Ridgway, known professionally as Lynda Baron, was an English actress, best known for playing Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the BBC comedy series Open All Hours (1976-1985) and its sequel, Still Open All Hours (2013-2016).
From 1993 to 1997, she played Auntie Mabel in BBC children's programme Come Outside and in 2006, she starred as Linda Clarke in EastEnders, before returning from 2008 to 2009 and again in 2016.
Baron was born in Urmston, Lancashire. She was originally trained as a dancer at the Royal Academy of Dance. Early in her career, she appeared in repertory theatre and several West End venues.
Baron's early television roles included small parts in Crossroads (1964), Up Pompeii (1970), Z-Cars (1971) and the British horror film Hands of the Ripper (1971). Baron appeared on television in BBC-3 (1965), a series in the vein of That Was The Week That Was, involving some of the same performers. She also alternated with Annie Ross as the resident singer on Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life (1965). Baron has taken part in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who three times. She was heard as a singer in the 1966 serial The Gunfighters. She appeared in front of the cameras as Captain Wrack in the 1983 serial Enlightenment, and again in 2011 in Closing Time as Val.
Baron is best known for playing Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the popular BBC comedy series Open All Hours with Ronnie Barker and David Jason which ran for four series in 1976, 1981 to 1982 and in 1985, and was subsequently voted eighth in Britain's Best Sitcom in 2004.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Baron co-starred in the ITV sitcom Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! and the forgotten BBC sitcom A Roof Over My Head. She had small parts in Minder and Last of the Summer Wine. In 1986, she acted in a party political broadcast for the SDP-Liberal Alliance.
Baron also appeared in the 1987 Christmas special of The Two Ronnies. Baron then went on to appear in the BBC Two comedy series KYTV.
In the 1990s, Baron played Auntie Pat in five episodes of the ITV sitcom The Upper Hand (1992-93). Baron then went on to star in the children's television series Come Outside (1993-97) playing Auntie Mabel, an everyday woman living in a bungalow, set in Denham flying round on various adventures in her spotted aeroplane with her dog Pippin.
In 1997, Baron played Renee Turnbull in Coronation Street and took guest roles in Dinnerladies (1998), The Mrs Bradley Mysteries (1998), Sunburn (1999), Nancherrow (1999) and Goodnight Sweetheart (1999).
Baron continued to work regularly on television and the stage in the 2000s, with credits including Fat Friends (2000-2005), The Bill (2000), Doctors (2000, 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2014), Peak Practice (2001), Holby City (2002 and 2006), Down to Earth (2005), Rome (2005) and Casualty (2009).
Baron briefly appeared in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders in 2006 as Linda Clarke, the mother of Jane Beale. In September 2008, it was announced that Baron would be returning to EastEnders.
She appeared regularly in the series from November 2008 to February 2009. On 8 April 2016, it was announced that Baron would return to the soap once again alongside John Partridge. She appeared on screen in May and June 2016.
In August 2010, Baron appeared in an episode of Agatha Christie's Marple on ITV. In September 2010, Baron appeared in a one-off television drama The Road to Coronation Street on BBC Four, a programme looking back at the early days of the British television soap opera Coronation Street. Baron portrayed actress Violet Carson who played Ena Sharples in the soap.
Baron was nominated for the 2011 British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role.
On 26 December 2013, Baron reprised her role in a special one-off episode of Open All Hours on BBC One, entitled Still Open All Hours.
In December 2016 Baron made a guest appearance in a Christmas special of Citizen Khan and in January 2017 she appeared in an episode of Father Brown.
In 1966, Baron married her husband, John M. Lee. They had two children, Sarah and Morgan.- Actress
- Soundtrack
An English stage and television actress. She was best known for her roles in British television sitcoms, such as Elizabeth in Keeping Up Appearances (1990) and Miss Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine.
Tewson was born in Hampstead, London, England in 1931. Her father, William, was a professional musician and played the double bass in the BBC Symphony Orchestra; her mother, Kate (née Morley, born 1908), was a nurse. After grammar school, Tewson studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from which she graduated in 1952. She was briefly married to actor Leonard Rossiter; they divorced in 1961.
A regular comedy performer in sketches featuring Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker on David Frost on Sunday and Hark at Barker (1970), she later appeared in Mostly Monkhouse, a BBC Radio comedy programme with David Jason supporting Bob Monkhouse. She also appeared a few times in Z-Cars (1963-69) and The Charlie Drake Show (1968). Tewson played Edna Hawkins (usually referred to as Mrs H by Shelley) in the first six series of the British sitcom Shelley (1979-82). Later, she played Jane Travers in Ronnie Barker's sitcom Clarence (1988), which he also wrote, and was his last starring television role before his retirement.
Tewson is best known for her role as Elizabeth, neighbour and confidant of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances. Tewson appeared in nearly every episode for the five series run, providing an often rattled but pragmatic counter to the scattered and clueless Mrs Bouquet.
Tewson starred with John Inman in Odd Man Out (1977), a sitcom, where they played half-brother/half-sister roles.
Tewson appeared semi-regularly as Miss Davenport in Last of the Summer Wine (2003-10), a series written by Roy Clarke who also wrote Keeping Up Appearances. She also appeared in two episodes of the documentary series Comedy Connections, talking about her work in Keeping Up Appearances (2004) and opposite The Two Ronnies (2005). In 2009, she played the role of Iris in the radio drama Leaves in Autumn written by Susan Casanove, produced by the Wireless Theatre Company.
Other television appearances were in an episode of Heartbeat ("Closing The Book", 2002) and as the competition judge, Samantha Johnstone, in an episode in the mystery drama Midsomer Murders ("Judgement Day", 2002). Later she was featured in two episodes of Doctors as kleptomaniac, Audrey Wilson, ("Now You See It...", 2009) and as Marjorie Page, a woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease ("The Bespectacled Bounder," 2012). She also appeared in an episode of Lewis.
In 2012 Tewson launched her one-woman show Still Keeping Up Appearances? touring the UK.
She died on 18th August 2022 of natural causes at the age of 91.A great actress on stage, film and television. She's best known for her role as nervous Elizabeth in Keeping Up Appearances.- Music Artist
- Actress
- Composer
English singer, keyboardist, and songwriter for British-American rock band, Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie was born Christine Anne Perfect on July 12th, 1943 in the Lake District village of Bouth, England (then Lancashire, now Cumbria), and grew up in the Bearwood area of Smethwick near Birmingham. Born into a musical family, McVie's father, Cyril Perfect, was an accomplished violinist and music lecturer at St Peter's College of Education, Saltley. He remained active in the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra into his mid-eighties. Her mother Beatrice ("Tee", née Reece) was a medium, psychic and faith healer. McVie's grandfather was an organist at Westminster Abbey. Introduced to the piano at the age of four, McVie did not study music until age 11, continuing her classical training until age 15. She then shifted her musical focus to Rock and Roll. It is said that she became addicted to Rock and Roll from the very first time she looked through a Fats Domino songbook.
While studying sculpture at Birmingham Art College, she got caught in the throes of the blues revival that was sweeping England. She made some duo appearances with Spencer Davis (before he teamed with Steve Winwood and Muff Windwood for the ignition of the Spencer Davis Group). Christine then met Stan Webb and Andy Silvester and joined them in the band, Sounds of Blue. By the time McVie graduated from college with a teaching degree, Sounds of Blue dismembered; McVie, unable to gather funds to find a place in the world of visual arts, took her teaching diploma to London where she worked briefly as a department store window dresser for Regent Street department store. However, after learning Webb and Silvester were scouting a pianist to join their band, Chicken Shack, she wrote them with request to join--they invited her to play keyboards/piano and to sing backing vocals. Chicken Shack debuted with "It's Okay With Me Baby", written by and featuring McVie. With two albums in, Chicken Shack found success with "I'd Rather Go Blind", a song originally recorded by Etta James in 1967. The song featured McVie on lead vocals. McVie earned a Melody Maker award for female vocalist of the year and lauded for having one of the "top 10 pairs of legs in all of Britain".
While touring with Chicken Shack, the band would often meet with Fleetwood Mac (they shared the same label at Blue Horizon). Fleetwood Mac asked her to play piano as a session musician for Peter Green's songs on the band's second album, Mr. Wonderful. McVie left Chicken Shack after marrying Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie. She continued her career with the recording of a solo album, Christine Perfect; following her success as a member of Fleetwood Mac, the album was reissued under the name of the Legendary Christine Perfect Album. By the time she had joined Fleetwood Mac full-time, she had already contributed backup vocals and painted the cover for Kiln House (the fourth studio album recorded by Fleetwood Mac). Peter Green had left the band, leaving Fleetwood Mac with reservations to perform live without him. Having been a huge fan of the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac; and versed in all the lyrics to their songs, she joined in.
In 1974, with the band, McVie reluctantly relocated to the United States in effort to make a fresh start. Within a year, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band. With a new lineup, their first album together, titled Fleetwood Mac, found success with McVie's songs "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me" both reaching Billboard's top-20 singles chart. The band sold 4 million copies of Fleetwood Mac and over 15 million of its follow-up, Rumours. From the album, McVie's "You Make Loving Fun" found a place on the top-10, and "Don't Stop" peaked to the #3, and years later became the song President Bill Clinton played for his Presidential campaign, and at his 1993 inaugural Gala (McVie and her band mates performed there, as well as as the Super Bowl a few days later). The success of Rumours earned the band many accolades; however, by the end of touring for the album, McVie divorced from John Mcvie. In 1979, the band released Tusk, the album was considered a disappointment, merely because it was impossible for any future releases to meet the success of Rumours. Three years later, the band reunited to record Mirage, which featured the top-5 hit "Hold Me"; McVie's inspiration for the song was her tumultuous relationship with Dennis Wilson, the drummer for the The Beach Boys. Wilson drowned in accident a few years later, leaving McVie heartbroken.
In 1984, McVie released her second solo album, simply titled, Christine McVie. The album featured the hit "Got a Hold on Me", positioning in the Top 10 pop, and #1 adult contemporary. She also met keyboardist Eddy Quintela (12 years her junior), they married two years later (October 1986). Although they divorced a decade later, they wrote several songs together, including "Little Lies" and "As Long as You Follow", two songs that became hits for Fleetwood Mac. The solo album also features McVie's cover of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling In Love", the song was featured in the Howie Mandel film A Fine Mess (1986). A year later, she reunited with Fleetwood Mac for the recording of the band's fourteenth studio album, Tango in the Night. The album went on to become the band's biggest success since Rumours, ten years earlier.
Always reluctant to tour, preferring to stay close to home and friends and family, and upon the death of her father, (while she was touring for Behind the Mask) (Fleetwood Mac's fifteenth studio album), McVie made the decision to retire from touring altogether. In 1998, she reunited with the band for the release of the live album, the Dance, which reached #1 on the US album charts. The same year, despite her reservations, she toured with the band for the group's 1998 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as the Grammy Awards show, and the BRIT Awards. McVie returned to England to be near her family and stayed out of public view until 2000, when she appeared to accept an Honorary Doctorate in music from the University of Greenwich. 2000 also saw the release of In the Meantime, McVie's third solo album. No tour was organized, but McVie delivered several press interviews in both Britain and the United States. In 2013, she appeared on stage in Maui, Hawaii performing with the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band (her first live appearance in 15 years). Later in September, McVie performed live with Fleetwood Mac in London (also, for the first time in 15 years) to perform "Don't Stop". Shortly after, Mick Fleetwood announced during a concert in Maui that McVie would be rejoining the band, it was officially announced two days later, she had rejoined. The original Rumours lineup (Nicks, Buckingham, Fleetwood, McVie, and McVie). In June, 2017, McVie teamed up with Lindsey Buckingham for the recording and release of Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie; the album sold over 22,000 units in the US in its first week and debuted within the top 20. More successful in the UK, where it debuted within the top 5. McVie continues to record and perform live with Fleetwood Mac.- Actress
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London-born Sylvia May Laura Syms hit major film appeal at a relatively young age. Born on January 6, 1934, she was educated at convent schools before receiving dramatic training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her stage debut in a production of "The Apple Cart" in 1954.
A repertory player by the time she was discovered for films by the British star Anna Neagle and her director/husband Herbert Wilcox, the lovely demure blonde started out auspiciously enough in the delinquent film Teenage Bad Girl (1956) in which she played Neagle's troubled daughter. This was followed by a second Neagle/Wilcox collaboration with No Time for Tears (1957).
Excelling whether cast in stark melodrama, spirited adventure or harmless comedy fluff, Syms' film list grew impressive in the late 1950s and early 1960s working alongside the likes of John Mills and Anthony Quayle in Ice Cold in Alex (1958), Curd Jürgens and Orson Welles in Ferry to Hong Kong (1959), Lilli Palmer and Yvonne Mitchell in Conspiracy of Hearts (1960), Laurence Harvey in Expresso Bongo (1959), William Holden in The World of Suzie Wong (1960), and Dirk Bogarde in the landmark gay-themed Victim (1961), playing the unsuspecting wife of Bogarde's closeted male. After nearly a decade's absence, Sylvia returned briefly to the London theatre lights in 1964 to play the title role in "Peter Pan."
Ably portraying innocent love interests throughout the years, she graced a number of pictures without ever nabbing that one role that would truly put her over the top. She was nominated, however, three times for British Film Academy Awards--twice for best actress in Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) and No Trees in the Street (1959) and once for supporting actress in The Tamarind Seed (1974) that starred Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif.
The 1970s saw quite a bit of TV series work and she played British prime minister Margaret Thatcher at one point on both stage and TV. She grew plumper with middle age and found herself immersed in character roles, offering support in such films as Absolute Beginners (1986), Shirley Valentine (1989) and Shining Through (1992).
The stage once again beckoned in the mid-to-late 1980's with touring performances, among many others, in "The Heiress," "The Beaux Stratagem," "The Ideal Husband," "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," "The Vortex," "Hamlet," "Anthony and Cleopatra" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" She portrayed the Queen and Margaret Thatcher in a production of "Ugly Rumours" and was among the cast in a musical presentation of "On the Town" in 2005.
Into the millennium, Sylvia has continued to have remarkable agility. American audiences have recently seen her as the dog-doting "Princess Charlotte" in the light teen comedy What a Girl Wants (2003) with Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth, and treading water as the Shelley Winters character in the TV-remake of The Poseidon Adventure (2005). Other movies have included the role of the Queen Mum in The Queen (2006) starring Oscar-winning Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, as well as featured roles in Is Anybody There? (2008) starring Michael Caine and Booked Out (2012). She also co-starred opposite Peter Bowles in the heart-warming senior character study Together (2018).
Married once and divorced in the 1980s from Alvin Edney, daughter Beatie Edney (aka Beatrice) is a highly prolific actress in her own right, and her son, Benjamin Edney, was briefly an actor while young and appeared with his mother as her son in the western The Desperados (1969). Ms. Syms is sometimes confused with Brooklyn-born jazz/cabaret performer and recording artist Sylvia Syms (1917-1992) (née Sylvia Blagman).An OBE Recipient. She was fantastic as the Queen Mother and is always welcome onscreen or stage.- Patti Love was born on 18 August 1947 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. She was an actress, known for The Long Good Friday (1980), Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005) and An Awfully Big Adventure (1995). She died on 17 February 2023 in London, England, UK.A British stage, television and film actress.
- Anne Perry was born on October 28, 1938, in London. She was first known as Juliet Marion Hulme, famed co-murderess of friend Pauline Parker's mother in 1954. After serving five years in Mount Eden Prison she moved overseas to be with her mother. In 1979 she published The Cater Street Hangman, the first in a series of successful mystery novels.
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Jerry Springer was born on 13 February 1944 in Highgate, London, England, UK. He was a producer and writer, known for Domino (2005), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Ringmaster (1998). He was married to Margaret 'Micki' JoAnn Velten. He died on 27 April 2023 in Evanston, Illinois, USA.- Diminutive, red-haired London-born stage and screen character actress Maria Charles was born of Jewish ancestry as Maria Zena Schneider, the daughter of hairdresser David Schneider and his wife Celia (née Ashken - originally Ashkenaza). A RADA graduate of 1946, her career spanned more than six and a half decades, beginning in 1945. The following year, she made her debut on the West End stage in Pick-up Girl, a play penned by Russian-American dramatist Elsa Shelley. Her first lengthy theatrical run (April 1953 to February 1959) was in the role of Dulcie, one of the 'perfect young ladies', in Sandy Wilson's hit musical The Boy Friend.
Charles made her first screen appearance in 1947. She went on to amass numerous credits in miniseries and episodic television, in the course of which she acquired a solid reputation for roles as fussy or over-protective Jewish matriarchs (Bea Fisher in ITV's sitcom Agony (1979), Rita Green in Bar Mitzvah Boy (1976)), Dickensian characters ("The Infant Phenomenon" Miss Ninetta Crummles in Nicholas Nickleby (1957), Miss Havisham's fawning relative Sarah Pocket in Great Expectations (1974), workhouse matron Mrs. Corney in the Oliver Twist episode of The Wonderful World of Disney (1997)]) and (latterly) kindly old ladies and grandmothers. She had recurring roles on TV in Crown Court (1972), Secret Army (1977), Never the Twain (1981) (as the clumsy Mrs. Sadler) and Coronation Street (1960), as well as occasional supporting parts on the big screen, notably in Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), Cuba (1979), Savage Hearts (1995) and Hot Fuzz (2007) (as farmer Reaper's wife).
Between 1952 and 1966, Charles was married to English actor Robin Hunter. The union produced two daughters, one of whom is the award-winning actress Kelly Hunter.Another great actress of film, stage and television. - Actress
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Barbara Bryne was born on 1 April 1929 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Amadeus (1984), American Playhouse (1980) and The Bostonians (1984). She was married to Denny Spence. She died on 2 May 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Few in modern British history have come as far or achieved as much from humble beginnings as Glenda Jackson did. From acclaimed actress to respected MP (Member of Parliament), she was known for her high intelligence and meticulous approach to her work. She was born to a working-class household in Birkenhead, where her father was a bricklayer and her mother was a cleaning lady. When she was very young, her father was recruited into the Navy, where he worked aboard a minesweeper. She graduated from school at 16 and worked for a while in a pharmacy. However, she found this boring and dead-end and wanted better for herself. Her life changed forever when she was accepted into the prestigious Royal Acadamy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the age of 18. Her work impressed all who observed it. At age 22, she married Roy Hodges.
Her first work came on the stage, where she won a role in an adaptation of "Separate Tables", and made a positive impression on critics and audiences alike. This led to film roles, modest at first, but she approached them with great determination. She first came to the public's notice when she won a supporting role in the controversial film Marat/Sade (1967), and is acknowledged to have stolen the show. She quickly became a member of Britain's A-List. Her first starring role came in the offbeat drama Negatives (1968), in which she out-shone the oddball material. The following year, controversial director Ken Russell gave her a starring role in his adaptation of the 1920s romance Women in Love (1969), in which she co-starred with Oliver Reed. The film was a major success, and Jackson's performance won her an Academy Award for Best Actress. In the process, she became an international celebrity, known world-wide, yet she didn't place as much value on the status and fame as most do. She did, however, become a major admirer of Russell (who had great admiration for her in return) and acted in more of his films. She starred in the controversial The Music Lovers (1971), although it required her to do a nude scene, something that made her very uncomfortable. The film was not a success, but she agreed to do a cameo appearance in his next film, The Boy Friend (1971). Although her role as an obnoxious actress was very small, she once again performed with great aplomb.
1971 turned out to be a key year for her. She took a risk by appearing in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), as a divorced businesswoman in a dead-end affair with a shallow bisexual artist, but the film turned out to be another major success. She accepted the starring role in the British Broadcasting Corporation's much anticipated biography of Queen Elizabeth I, and her performance in the finished film, Elizabeth R (1971), was praised not only by critics and fans, but is cited by historians as the most accurate portrayal of the beloved former queen ever seen. The same year, she successfully played the role of Queen Elizabeth I again in the historical drama Mary, Queen of Scots (1971). That same year, she appeared in the popular comedy series The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968) in a skit as Queen Cleopatra, which is considered on of the funniest TV skits in British television, and also proof that she could do comedy just as well as costume melodrama. One who saw and raved about her performance was director Melvin Frank, who proceeded to cast her in the romantic comedy A Touch of Class (1973), co-starring George Segal. The two stars had a chemistry which brought out the best in each other, and the film was not only a major hit in both the United States and Great Britain, but won her a second Academy Award. She continued to impress by refusing obvious commercial roles and seeking out serious artistic work. She gave strong performances in The Romantic Englishwoman (1975) and The Incredible Sarah (1976), in which she portrayed the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt. However, some of her films didn't register with the public, like The Triple Echo (1972), The Maids (1975), and Nasty Habits (1977). In addition, her marriage fell apart in 1976. But her career remained at the top and in 1978 she was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire. That year, she made a comeback in the comedy House Calls (1978), co-starring Walter Matthau. The success of this film which led to a popular television spin-off in the United States the following year. In 1979, she and Segal re-teamed in Lost and Found (1979), but they were unable to overcome the routine script. She again co-starred with Oliver Reed in The Class of Miss MacMichael (1978), but the film was another disappointment.
During the 1980s, she appeared in Hopscotch (1980) also co-starring Walter Matthau, and HealtH (1980) with Lauren Bacall, with disappointing results, although Jackson herself was never blamed. Her performance in the TV biography Sakharov (1984), in which she played Yelena Bonner, devoted wife of imprisoned Russian nuclear scientist Andrei Sakharov opposite Jason Robards, won rave reviews. However, the next film Turtle Diary (1985), was only a modest success, and the ensemble comedy Beyond Therapy (1987) was a critical and box office disaster and Jackson herself got some of the worst reviews of her career.
As the 1980s ended, Jackson continued to act, but became more focused on public affairs. She grew up in a household that was staunchly supportive of the Labour Party. She had disliked the policies of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, even though she admired some of her personal attributes, and strongly disapproved of Thatcher's successor, John Major. She was unhappy with the direction of British government policies, and in 1992 ran for Parliament. Although running in an area (Hampstead and Highgate) which was not heavily supportive of her party, she won by a slim margin and immediately became its most famous newly elective member. However, those who expected that she would rest on her laurels and fame were mistaken. She immediately took an interest in transportation issues, and in 1997 was appointed Junior Transportation Minister by Prime Minister Tony Blair. However, she was critical of some of Blair's policies and is considered an inter-party opponent of Blair's moderate faction. She was considered a traditional Labour Party activist, but is not affiliated with the faction known as The Looney Left. In 2000, she ran for Mayor of London, but lost the Labour nomination to fellow MP Frank Dobson, an ally of Blair, who then lost the election to an independent candidate, Ken Livingstone.
In 2005, she ran again and won the nomination, but lost to Livingstone, winning 38% of the vote. When Blair announced he would not seek reelection as Prime Minister in 2006, Jackson's name was mentioned as a possible successor, although she didn't encourage this speculation. In 2010, she sought reelection to parliament and was almost defeated, winning by only 42 votes.
In 2013, she responded to the death of Margaret Thatcher by strongly denouncing her policies, which was condemned by many as graceless. In 2015, elections for parliament were called again but she didn't seek reelection. She was succeeded in Parliament by Christopher Philp, a Conservative Party member who had been Jackson's opponent in 2010.- Meg Johnson was born on 30 September 1936 in Manchester, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Emmerdale Farm (1972), The Good Companions (1980) and Coronation Street (1960). She was married to Charles Foster and (Arthur) Hibbert Johnson. She died on 1 July 2023 in Rochdale, Lancashire, England, UK.
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Jane Birkin was born on 14 December 1946 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and director, known for Evil Under the Sun (1982), Blow-Up (1966) and Death on the Nile (1978). She was married to John Barry. She died on 16 July 2023 in Paris, France.- Tom Owen was born on 8 April 1949 in Brighton, Sussex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018) and The Hello Goodbye Man (1984). He was married to Mary Bernadette Therese Moylan. He died on 8 November 2022 in England, UK.
- Shirley Stelfox was born on 11 April 1941 in Dukinfield, Cheshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for 1984 (1984), Emmerdale Farm (1972) and Making Out (1989). She was married to Don Henderson and Keith Edmundson. She died on 7 December 2015 in Nottinghamshire, England, UK.
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Geoffrey began his extensive stage career at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool. He then appeared in several West End productions, such as Say Goodnight to Grandma and Run for Your Wife. He appeared in numerous TV shows, including Coronation Street (1960) and Keeping Up Appearances (1990), where he played the slob Onslow. When not acting, Geoffrey enjoyed sailing, cricket, and music. He died on the Isle of Wight- Producer
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Peter Rogers was born in Rochester, Kent, on 20th February 1914. Educated at Kings School, Rochester, he began his career as a journalist on the "Kentish Express". Moving to the theatre in the late 1930s, he became Auriol Lee's assistant on such classic West End productions as J.B. Priestley's "People at Sea" and John Van Druten's "Gertie Maud". From the West End, he went to Fleet Street where he worked on "Picture Post". After hospitalisation during the war, Peter became a radio scriptwriter for the BBC. He entered the film industry as a scriptwriter in 1942 and was a member of the production executive committee of J. Arthur Rank's Religious Films Ltd. In 1946, he joined the Rank-controlled Gainsborough Studios, in Shepherds Bush, as an assistant scenario editor. At Gainsborough, he first met his future wife, Betty E. Box, O.B.E., herself one of Britain's most successful producers. Among the early films they co-produced were Marry Me (1949) and Don't Ever Leave Me (1949). Rank consolidated its interests in the late 1940's and moved all production to Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. Peter Rogers and Betty Box continued their successful partnership at Pinewood, producing such films as "Venetian Bird" and the Channel Islands wartime comedy Island Rescue (1951). Peter went on to produce children's films which enabled him to combine his entertainment flair with his love of animals. These included The Gay Dog (1954), Circus Friends (1956) and The Dog and the Diamonds (1953) which won the Venice Film Festival Award in 1953. In 1957, he wrote and produced the enormously successful suspense film Time Lock (1957). Peter Rogers produced a film called Carry on Sergeant (1958), little knowing it was laying the foundation stone of what was to become Britain's greatest laughter institution. As well as producing the 30 subsequent "Carry On" films, Peter took the "Carry On" humour to the stage in 1973 at the Victoria Palace. "Carry On London!" opened in October that year and ran for 18 months. He has produced over 100 films. Recently, Peter returned to writing and published several novels, including "Forbidden" (2001), as well as working on numerous screenplays for film and radio plays.- Actress
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Joan Sims, the "First Lady of Carry On", was born Irene Joan Marion Sims on 9 May 1930. The daughter of an Essex railway station master, Joan was interested in pursuing show-business, and soon became a familiar face in a growing number of amateur productions. In 1946, Joan first applied to RADA, her audition was unsuccessful. She did succeed in being admitted to the academy's preparatory school, and finally, on her fourth attempt, trained at RADA. She graduated in 1950 at the age of nineteen.
A cameo appearance in Doctor in the House (1954) as the sexually repressed Nurse Rigor Mortis led to Joan being first spotted by Peter Rogers; Rogers' wife Betty E. Box was the producer of the Doctor series, in which Joan herself became a regular.
A few years later, in 1958, Joan received another script from Peter Rogers, it was Carry on Nurse (1959). The film had been a huge success at the box office and in the autumn of that year Rogers and Gerald Thomas began planning a follow up. She went on to appear in 24 of the films, making her the longest serving female member of the team.
She first starred in the following three Carry On films: Carry on Teacher (1959), Carry on Constable (1960) and Carry on Regardless (1961), before taking a break from the next four films to concentrate on stage work. She rejoined the team with Carry on Cleo (1964) and remained all the way through to Carry on Emmannuelle (1978) in 1978.
Ironically, she was never proclaimed Queen of Carry On. This title went to saucy Barbara Windsor, even though she had only appeared in nine Carry On films.
One could argue that her final performances in the Carry On films were rather sentimental, as though she knew that the series was coming to an end and two scenes come to mind. The scene in which she plays cards with Peter Butterworth in Carry on Behind (1975) in his caravan late at night, and also in the launderette where she dances with an early Carry Oner Victor Maddern in Carry on Emmannuelle (1978). Both of these are memorable sentimental film scene stealers.
With the end of the Carry On series in 1978, Joan went on to become a familiar face on TV screens, with ongoing roles in a number of highly successful sitcoms On the Up (1990) and As Time Goes By (1992) and the BBC's prestigious classic drama adaptations such as Martin Chuzzlewit (1994).
Joan's autobiography, High Spirits, was released in 2000. She complains in the last few pages of her book at the lack of information on her on the IMDB trivia page, something that was only significantly expanded after her death.
In her later years she became a cult figure and something of a British National Institution as the only surviving major Carry On star from early days. However, years of heavy drinking took their toll and she suffered in her later years with ill health. She was admitted to Hospital in Chelsea in London in mid 2001 and slipped into a coma. She died on 28 June 2001, with her lifelong friend and Carry On Norah Holland holding her hand.
Following her death, surviving Carry On stars celebrated her achievement in the Carry On films. Barbara Windsor, said at the time of her death, "To me she was the last of the great Carry Ons, she was there at the beginning. Her talent was wonderful, she could do any accent, dialect, she could dance, sing, play dowdy and glam. We laughed all the time and giggled a lot. I will sorely miss her." That quote is so true, throughout her whole Carry On career she alone stands apart as the most versatile actress in the whole series. She was never typecast in the films like the other actors and actresses.
Others also paid tribute, even ex-Government Cabinet Ministers. Her agent Richard Hatton said, "It's wonderful to be able to say that she really did have all the qualities that her many fans would have wished. A great sense of humour, a sympathetic and endearing personality, terrific talent and consideration for others.
"Over and above this, she discovered a new side of herself when she wrote her autobiography last year, which was untypical for the genre - honest, frank and intelligent. Everyone who knew her is going to remember her forever."- Actress
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A raven-haired, sometimes blonde (particularly in the earlier years) pretty actress, Dilys Laye was capable of a wide range of roles, from straight drama to comedy. She began in the 1950s, like most other British screen actresses of the era, in studio-system-style films. One of her first films was Paper Gallows (1950) and she continued in popular movies like Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1957) and Doctor at Large (1957).
Today she is often remembered for her appearances in the "Carry On.." films. Her first "Carry On..." appearance was in Carry on Cruising (1962), where along with Esma Cannon she stole many of the best comedy scenes from the regular cast; the bar scene is an example of this. She took over the role at four days' notice when Joan Sims was unable to appear because of ill health. Her next 'Carry On...' appearance saw her take on a sinister and darker role in Carry on Spying (1964) as Lila. She even sang, in a café-bar scene. In Carry on Doctor (1967) she played patient Mavis Winkle, who is searching for love and finds it in the unusual place of the hospital ward, and in Carry on Camping (1969) she appeared alongside "Carry On..." legend Joan Sims. They were perfectly cast together and complement each other's performances throughout the movie.
After that time her work was mainly on the stage with some television and film appearances. She made appearances in soaps such as Coronation Street (1960) and EastEnders (1985). Other character parts included Holby City (1999) and Doctors (2000).
She played Queen Elizabeth II in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006).- Actress
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Carmen Silvera was a British comic actress of Spanish descent, primarily known for television roles. Her most memorable role was playing Edith Artois in the hit sitcom "'Allo 'Allo!" (1982-1992), which depicted multiple ongoing conspiracies in German-occupied France during World War II.
Edith was the antagonistic wife of the series' main character, the opportunist café owner Rene Artois. Husband and wife were reluctant members of the French Resistance, while also collaborating with corrupt German officers and being involved in several other conspiratorial schemes. Ongoing plot-lines involving Edith included her suspicions that Rene was cheating on her (while she appeared unaware that he was having extramarital affairs with all of their waitresses, and that he had an unrequited love for resistance leader Michelle Dubois), her regular attempts to perform as a cabaret singer (despite having an awful singing voice), her romantic relationships with undertaker Monsieur Alfonse and the Italian Captain Alberto Bertorelli, and Edith being far more patriotic and idealistic than her husband.
In 1922, Silvera was born in Toronto, Ontario to British expatriate parents. Her father was Roland Silvera (1895-1986), a well-known bowls player, and a member of the Stoke Bowling Club, Coventry. In the 1970s, Roland served as a president of the Warwickshire County Bowls Association. During his term, the association won the English Bowling Association Middleton Cup for the first time in its history.
The Silvera family emigrated back to England in 1924. They settled in Warwickshire, a county in the West Midlands region of England. Carmen was evacuated to Montreal, Canada during World War II. She originally aspired to follow a dancing career, taking lessons from a ballet company that served as one of several rival successors to the famed "Ballets Russes" (1909-1929). She appeared with the ballet company on stage, but only for a small number of performances.
Following the end of World War II, Silvera returned to England and decided to follow an acting career. She was trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and then started appearing repertory theatre. She had a brief marriage to theatrical actor John Cunliffe. In 1948, they were divorced after Silvera suffered a miscarriage. She never remarried, instead focusing o her career.
In the late 1950s, Silvera started appearing in television roles. Her first recurring role in a series was playing Camilla Hope in the soap opera "Compact" (1962-1965). The opera depicted the personal and professional lives of the employees of a magazine. It reportedly enjoyed high ratings throughout its run. Its demise was attributed to the dislike of its premise by BBC executives.
In 1966, Silvera played three different roles in the story arc "The Celestial Toymaker" of the hit science fiction series "Doctor Who" (1963-1989). One of her three roles was the Queen of Hearts in a set of living playing cards. The episodes were considered offbeat for featuring strong fantasy elements in a series that typically focused on science fiction and historical fiction. Silvera later returned to the series in the story arc "Invasion of the Dinosaurs", which featured dinosaurs transported to modern-age London. This story arc was noted for featuring villains who were well-intentioned extremists, firmly believing that the ends justify the means (in other words, that their crimes were justified by their righteous goal).
In 1970, Silvera had a guest star role in an episode of the World War II-themed sitcom "Dad's Army" (1968-1977), which featured the misadventures of the Home Guard. She portrayed Fiona Gray, a middle-aged woman who wants to join the war effort. Her character served as a new love interest for the main character, the aging Captain George Mainwaring. The episode was unusual in having a tragic theme, and emphasizing Mainwaring's loneliness. It was directed by David Croft, who would later cast Silvera in "'Allo 'Allo!".
Silvera made her film debut in the erotic film "Clinic Exclusive" (1971), at the age of 49. She played the role of Elsa Farson, an aging, lonely lesbian who is in love with Julie Mason (played by Georgina Ward), not caring that Mason is a ruthless businesswoman with a side career as a blackmailer. The film was scripted and produced by Hazel Adair, who had previously worked with Silvera in "Compact". Most of the film's actors were veterans from Adair's television productions.
Throughout the 1970s, Silvera had a few more film roles in British productions. Her last film role in this decade was playing Lady Bottomley in the sex comedy "Keep It Up Downstairs" (1976). The film's plot focused on the efforts of two aging aristocrats to find a rich wife for their son, despite the young man's disinterest in anything outside his career as an inventor.
Silvera found success late in life, when cast in the role of Edith Artois in the sitcom "'Allo 'Allo!" (1982-1992). Initially conceived as a parody of the wartime drama series "Secret Army" (1977-1979), it became a much more popular and long-running series than the one it parodied. Unusual for a sitcom, "'Allo 'Allo!" had overarching plot-lines, rather than featuring simple stand-alone stories. Nearly every character took part in conspiracies and had agendas of his/her own, but their schemes often clashed and backfired. Besides the ongoing scheming, the film placed emphasis on the characters' romantic and sexual lives, with a large amount of sexual innuendo in each episode. The series lasted for 9 seasons, and 85 episodes. Much of the main cast of series gained enduring popularity with the British public.
During the 1990s, Silvera enjoyed a revival of her theatrical career. She appeared in stage musicals, such as "That's Showbiz" (1997) by Jimmy Perry. Her last film role was a small part in the drama film "La Passione" (1996). The film was partly based on the childhood experiences of screenwriter Chris Rea as a son of immigrants in the United Kingdom.
Silvera was a heavy smoker for much of her life, and she was eventually diagnosed with lung cancer. She spend her last years as a resident of Denville Hall, a retirement home for professional actors and their spouses. In August 2002, Silvera died there due to cancer. She was 80-years-old. Her popularity endures primarily due to her appearances in classic sitcoms.- Actor
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Gorden Kaye was born on 7 April 1941 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for 'Allo 'Allo! (1982), Brazil (1985) and Born and Bred (1978). He died on 23 January 2017 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England, UK.- Actress
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Actress of both the English and American stage and screen, Lynn Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, England, into one of the world's most famous acting dynasties. As the daughter of Rachel Kempson and Sir Michael Redgrave, sister of Vanessa Redgrave and Corin Redgrave, and granddaughter of Roy Redgrave and Margaret Scudamore, all of whom were actors, her early aspirations were surprisingly to become an equestrienne or a chef. It was not until the age of 15 that she became more and more involved in acting and her father's stage performances.
Attending London's Central School of Music and Drama, she made her stage debut in 1962 and began film work a year later. It wasn't until her lovable role as the ugly-duckling in Georgy Girl (1966), that she was taken notice and, as a result, won both the Golden Globe, New York Film Critics Circle Award and a nomination for the coveted Best Actress at the 1967 Academy Awards. Despite this promising performance, Lynn struggled to find promising follow-up work, she played the lead in the fluffy Smashing Time (1967) and The Virgin Soldiers (1969), low-key films that were relevant at the time of London's swinging 60s, but very quickly became largely forgotten. She married stage actor/director John Clark and her sister, Vanessa Redgrave, who was also Oscar-nominated the same year for Morgan! (1966), was also gaining exposure and critical success if not surpassing Lynn, on both the British stage and films and was largely considered the leading face of England's breakout actresses of the '60s, alongside Julie Christie and other high-profile actresses.
Becoming the label of Vanessa Redgrave's younger and chubbier sister "that did that film a few years ago" didn't sit well with Lynn and, as a result, she lost considerable weight and permanently settled in the U.S. in 1974 to distance herself from this. Primarily based in southern California, she regularly commuted to New York and became notable particularly on the Broadway stage, and had successful runs in "Black Comedy/White Lies" (1967), "My Fat Friend" (1974), "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (1976), "Knock Knock" (1976), "Saint Joan" (1977-1978), "Aren't We All" (1985) and "Sweet Sue" (1987). She was prolifically hired by major networks to appear on a variety of TV talk and game shows and held the position of co-host for a few seasons of Not for Women Only (1968), while acting on prime-time TV, whether it was guest spots, mini-series or short-lived TV series. For over 20 years, Redgrave's film career was infrequent and admittedly "terrible" by the actress herself, she notoriously played the title character in the critically-bashed, The Happy Hooker (1975), and the all-star cast misfire, The Big Bus (1976), and, in the 1980s, she focused in a different direction, becoming a spokesperson and commercial actress for "Weight Watchers". This coincided with the release of her well- received book: "This Is Living: How I Found Health and Happiness", that detailed her weight issues and eating binges, it was also revealed that for years she suffered bulimia. In the mid-to-late '90s, Redgrave had somewhat of a resurgence in her career, from 1993-1994, she spent over 8 months on Broadway, as well as touring across the world, performing her own personally written show of "Shakespeare for My Father", that explored the bisexuality, aloof persona and intimidating resume of her father. In 1996, Scott Hicks reignited her film career after many years of inactivity by casting her in the Australian Oscar-winning hit, Shine (1996), in which she gave a short yet tender performance as "Gillian", the woman Geoffrey Rush's character falls in love with. Another Golden Globe win/Oscar nomination followed (this time in the supporting category) for her role as the Hungarian housekeeper in Gods and Monsters (1998). Her marriage abruptly ended in 1999, when infidelity was discovered on her husband's behalf and a nasty divorced followed, they produced three children Benjamin, Kelly Clark and Annabel Clark.
Continually working her way through film, television and stage performances in the '00s, recently awarded the OBE, Lynn Redgrave was shocked to discover lumps on her body and was diagnosed with breast cancer. As a result, she took time to write "Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer" with her youngest daughter, Annabel Clark, in 2003 and tragically lost her 7-year battle on 2 May 2010 (aged 67) in her family home, surrounded by her loved ones. Her diagnosis led her to realize the beauty and simplicities of life, and she was quoted as saying: "there isn't any such thing as a bad day. Yes, bad things happen. But any day that I'm still here, able to feel and think and share things with people, then how could that possibly be a bad day?".- Actress
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Demure British beauty Jean Simmons was born January 31, 1929, in Crouch End, London. As a 14-year-old dance student, she was plucked from her school to play Margaret Lockwood's precocious sister in Give Us the Moon (1944). She had a small part as a harpist in the high-profile Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), produced by Gabriel Pascal, starring Vivien Leigh, and co-starring her future husband Stewart Granger. Pascal saw potential in Simmons, and in 1945 he signed her to a seven-year contract to the J. Arthur Rank Organization, and she went on to make a name for herself in such major British productions as Great Expectations (1946) (as the spoiled, selfish Estella), Black Narcissus (1947) (as a sultry native beauty), Hamlet (1948) (playing Ophelia to Laurence Olivier's great Dane and earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination), The Blue Lagoon (1949) and So Long at the Fair (1950), among others.
In 1950, she married Stewart Granger, and that same year, she moved to Hollywood. While Granger was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Rank sold her contract to Howard Hughes, who then owned RKO Pictures. Hughes was eager to start a sexual relationship with Simmons, but Granger put a stop to his advances. Her first Hollywood film was Androcles and the Lion (1952), produced by Pascal and co-starring Victor Mature. It was followed by Angel Face (1952), directed by Otto Preminger with Robert Mitchum. To further punish Simmons and Granger, Hughes refused to lend her to Paramount, where William Wyler wanted to cast her in the female lead for his film Roman Holiday (1953); the role made a star of Audrey Hepburn. A court case freed Simmons from the contract with Hughes in 1952. They settled out of court; part of the arrangement was that Simmons would do one more film for no additional money. Simmons also agreed to make three more movies under the auspices of RKO, but not actually at that studio - she would be lent out. MGM cast her in the lead of Young Bess (1953) playing a young Queen Elizabeth I with Granger. She went back to RKO to do the extra film under the settlement with Hughes, titled Affair with a Stranger (1953) with Mature; it flopped.
Simmons went over to 20th Century Fox to play the female lead in The Robe (1953), the first CinemaScope movie and an enormous financial success. Less popular was The Actress (1953) at MGM alongside Spencer Tracy, despite superb reviews; it was one of her personal favorites. Fox asked Simmons back for The Egyptian (1954), another epic, but it was not especially popular. She had the lead in Columbia's A Bullet Is Waiting (1954). More popular with moviegoers was Désirée (1954), where Simmons played Désirée Clary to Marlon Brando's Napoleon Bonaparte. Simmons and Granger returned to England to make the thriller Footsteps in the Fog (1955). She then starred in the musical Guys and Dolls (1955) with Brando and Frank Sinatra; she used her own singing voice and earned her first Golden Globe Award. Simmons played the title role in Hilda Crane (1956) at Fox, a commercial failure. So, too, were This Could Be the Night (1957) and Until They Sail (1957), both at MGM. Simmons had a big success, though, in The Big Country (1958), directed by Wyler. She starred in Home Before Dark (1958) at Warner Bros. and This Earth Is Mine (1959) with Rock Hudson at Universal.
Simmons divorced Granger in 1960 and almost immediately married writer-director Richard Brooks, who cast her as Sister Sharon opposite Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry (1960), a memorable adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel. That same year, she co-starred with Kirk Douglas in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) and played a would-be homewrecker opposite Cary Grant in The Grass Is Greener (1960).
Off the screen for a few years, Jean captivated moviegoers with a brilliant performance as the mother in All the Way Home (1963), a literate, tasteful adaptation of James Agee's "A Death in the Family". However, after that, she found quality projects somewhat harder to come by, and took work in Life at the Top (1965), Mister Buddwing (1966), Divorce American Style (1967), Rough Night in Jericho (1967), The Happy Ending (1969) (a Richard Brooks film for which she was again Oscar-nominated, this time as Best Actress).
Jean continued making films well into the 1970s. In the 1980s, she appeared mainly in television miniseries, such as North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985) and The Thorn Birds (1983). She made a comeback to films in 1995 in How to Make an American Quilt (1995) co-starring Winona Ryder and Anne Bancroft, and most recently voiced the elderly Sophie in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle (2004). She now resided in Santa Monica, California, with her dog, Mr. Gates, and her two cats, Adisson and Megan. Jean Simmons died of lung cancer on January 22, 2010, nine days before her 81st birthday.- Actor
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Nicolas Coster, a veteran actor or "Actor's Actor', his training began back in his teens at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, RADA. Nicolas learned his craft doing theatre, studying with Strasberg and Milton Katselas(He was later picked by Milton to substitute for him). Nicolas Coster has performed in many Broadway plays. "Happy Birthday Wanda June", "Twigs", "SeeSaw", "Harold Pinter's "Otherwise Engaged" and "The Little Foxes" with Elizabeth Taylor (with runs in the US and in London at the Victoria Palace Theatre)}. Nicolas was the only actor picked to substitute for Sir Laurence Olivier in "Beckett". These are just a few of his theatre credits. In the 70's and all through the 1980's there wasn't a channel you could not find Nicolas Coster appearing as a guest star on a popular TV series. He chased Jaclyn Smith around a football field in the series "Charlie's Angels", Nicolas wrestled in a fight with Sammy Davis Jr. in Tom Selleck's "Magnum PI", he had a stint in the series "Wonder Woman", "Incredible Hulk", Nicolas had a recurring role playing Blair's dad on the popular show "Facts of Life", He enjoyed playing opposite Bonnie Franklin in "One Day at a Time'. Earlier in his career, He even was in the "Green Hornet" with the legendary Bruce Lee and so many more guest starring roles ... Nicolas had a role on the series "Sheriff Lobo" with Nell Carter. Nicolas has a fan club called "Nick's Chicks" they are loyal fans of his time spent doing Soap Operas. "Secret Storm" was one of his first, his role later as Robert Delaney on "Another World" was hugely popular. He had stints on "All My Children"playing along side Susan Lucci and the patriarch Lionel Lockridge of "Santa Barbara" the soap which later aired in Europe as a night time series. In Russia, "Santa Barbara" was the first soap to be aired in that country it was a huge success and played as a night time series as well. His body of film includes many famous father roles, "How I got into College", "Betsey's Wedding", "Risky Business", "Just You and Me Kid". Playing different roles in film, Nicolas has been privileged to work with Robert Redford in "All The President's Men", with Gregory Peck in "MacArthur", "Reds" with Warren Beaty. Most recently, He has been on acclaimed shows like "The Young Pope" with Jude Law and popular Showtime and HBO projects. Nicolas has won a few Daytime Emmys with the drama "The Bay". Nicolas showed his comedy talents playing the lead in a Super Bowl Coke commercial and later the reprisal of his lead role but a new spin they made him British, in "Zero Sugar Coke" commercial which played internationally and highlighted his ability for a British accent. Nicolas Coster is continually working and is a true artist.- Actor
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Since David McCallum's father, David McCallum Sr., was first violinist for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and his mother, Dorothy Dorman, was a cellist, it's not surprising that David was originally headed for a career in music, playing oboe. He studied briefly at the Royal Academy of Music. He left that, however, for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and joined Actor's Equity in 1946, his first acting work being for BBC Radio. He made nearly a dozen movies in the United Kingdom before his critically acclaimed work as Lt. Wyatt in Billy Budd (1962).
To the older generation, he is perhaps best known for his portrayal of U.N.C.L.E. agent Illya Kuryakin in the hit TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). To younger audience, he is best known for his superlative portrayal of Dr. Donald "Duckie" Mallard on NCIS (2003).
McCallum was first married to actress Jill Ireland, whom he met while filming Hell Drivers (1957). In 1962 he introduced Ireland to Charles Bronson when both were filming The Great Escape (1963). She eventually left McCallum and married Bronson in 1968. McCallum and Ireland had three sons: Paul, Jason (an adopted son who died from an accidental drug overdose in 1989), and Val (short for Valentine).
He met fashion model Katherine Carpenter during a photo shoot for Glamour in 1965 and married her two years later. The couple had a son, Peter, and a daughter, Sophie. They were together for 58 years and were active with charitable organizations that support the The United States Marine Corps: Katherine's father was a Marine who served in the Battle of Iwo Jima, and her brother lost his life in the Vietnam War. McCallum had eight grandchildren.
David McCallum died on September 25 2023 in New York City from natural causes at the age of 90.- Actor
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Joss Ackland, the distinguished English actor who has appeared in over 100 movies, scores of plays and a plethora of television programs in his six-decade career, was born Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland on February 29, 1928, in North Kensington, London. After attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama, the 17-year-old Ackland made his professional stage debut in "The Hasty Heart" in 1945.
Although he first appeared on film in John Boulting's and Roy Boulting's Oscar-winning thriller Seven Days to Noon (1950) in an uncredited bit role, he made his credited debut in a supporting role in Vernon Sewell's Ghost Ship (1952). He would not again grace the big screen until the end of the decade. Instead, Ackland spent the latter half of the 1940s and the first half of the 1950s honing his craft in regional theatrical companies.
In 1955 he left the English stage behind and moved to Africa to manage a tea plantation, an experience that likely informed his heralded performance 20 years later in White Mischief (1987). In his two years in Africa he wrote plays and did service as a radio disc jockey. Upon his return to England in 1957, he joined the Old Vic company.
From 1962-64 he served as associate director of the Mermaid Theatre. Subsequently, his stage acting career primarily was in London's commercial West End theater, where he made a name for himself in musicals. He was distinguished as Captain Hook in the musical version of "Peter Pan" and as Juan Peron in "Evita". In the straight theater he was a memorable Falstaff in William Shakespeare's "Henry IV Parts 1 & 2" and as Captain Shotover in George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak House". In the 1960s Ackland began appearing more regularly in films, and his career as a movie character actor picked up rapidly in the 1970s and began to flourish in the 1980s. It has shown little sign of abating in the 21st century, even though he's well into his 70s.
In addition to his performance in "White Mischief", among his more notable turns as an actor before the camera came in the BBC-TV production of Shadowlands (1986), in which he played 'C.S. Lewis', and in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) as the ruthless South African heavy, Arjen Rudd.
He is the father of seven children, whom he listed as his "hobby" in a 1981 interview. On December 31, 2000, Joss Ackland was named a Commander of the British Empire on the New Year's Honours List for his 50 years of service to the English stage, cinema and television.- Actress
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Glynis Johns was the daughter of actor Mervyn Johns. Best known for her light comedy roles and often playful flirtation, Glynis was born in South Africa while her parents were on tour there (her mother was a concert pianist) but was always proud of her Welsh roots and took delight in playing the female lead (opposite Richard Burton) in the classic Under Milk Wood (1971). She was probably best known for her role as the suffragette mother in Mary Poppins (1964) although she is probably best loved for her fishy roles in Miranda (1948) and Mad About Men (1954). She had earlier showed she could take on the serious roles as well as in Frieda (1947). Most recently seen (at the time of writing) in Superstar (1999). Johns died in 2024, aged 100, having never received the damehood she had richly deserved for decades. Predeceased by her only son, she was survived by a grandson,Thomas Forwood, and three great-grandchildren.She is definitely worthy of a British honor. In her 80s, now is the time to honor her.