1.
Ismail Merchant
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Ismail Merchant was an Indian-born film producer and director. He worked for years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their films won six Academy Awards, Merchant succeeded as an independent producer in Hollywood for more than 40 years. His strength lay in funding his projects, particularly in his ability to produce films for several million less than those of his contemporaries. Born Ismail hammad Abdul Rahman in Bombay, he was the son of Hazra and Noormohamed Rehman and he grew up bilingual in Gujarati and Urdu, and learned Arabic and English at school. When he was 11, he and his family were caught up in the 1947 partitioning of India and his father was president of the Muslim League, and refused to move to Pakistan. Merchant later said that he carried memories of the butchery and riots into adulthood. As a child at the age of 9, he delivered a riveting speech about partition, held at a political rally in front of a crowd of 10,000 people. It was she who inspired his ambitious rise to stardom and he studied higher education at St. Xaviers College, Bombay and it was here that he developed his love for film. When he was 22, he traveled to the United States to study at New York University and he supported himself by working as a messenger for the United Nations and used this opportunity to persuade Indian delegates to fund his film projects. He said of this experience I was not intimidated by anyone or anything, in 1961, he made a short film, The Creation of Woman. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and also received an Academy Award nomination, Merchant met director James Ivory, at a screening, in New York City, of Ivorys documentary The Sword and the Flute in 1959. In May 1961, Merchant and Ivory formed the production company Merchant Ivory Productions. Merchant and Ivory were long-term life partners and their professional and romantic partnership lasted 44 years, from 1961 until Merchants death in 2005. Their partnership has a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema history, until Merchants death in 2005, they produced nearly 40 films, including a number of award winners. Novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was the screenwriter for most of their productions, in 1963, MIP premiered its first production, The Householder, based upon a novel by Jhabvala. This feature became the first Indian-made film to be distributed internationally by a major American studio, however, it wasnt until the 1970s that the partnership hit on a successful formula for studied, slow-moving pieces. Merchant Ivory became known for their attention to detail and the opulence of their sets
2.
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
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Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, CBE was a German-born British and American Booker prize-winning novelist, short story writer and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter. She is perhaps best known for her collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, made up of director James Ivory. After moving to India in 1951, she married Cyrus S. H. Jhabvala, the couple lived in New Delhi, and had three daughters. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala began then to elaborate her experiences in India and wrote novels, Jhabvala wrote a dozen novels,23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories and was made a CBE in 1998 and granted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant. She is the person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar. Ruth Prawer was born in Cologne, Germany to Jewish parents Marcus, Marcus was a lawyer who moved to Germany from Poland to escape conscription and Eleanoras father was cantor of Colognes largest synagogue. Her father was accused of communist links, arrested and released, the family was among the last group of refugees to flee the Nazi regime in 1939, emigrating to Britain. Her elder brother, Siegbert Salomon, an expert on Heinrich Heine and horror films, was fellow of The Queens College and Taylor Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. During World War II, Prawer lived in Hendon in London, experienced the Blitz and she became a British citizen in 1948. The following year, her father committed suicide after discovering that 40 members of his family had died during the Holocaust, Prawer attended Hendon County School and then Queen Mary College, where she received an MA in English literature in 1951. Jhabvala lived in India for 24 years from 1951 and her first novel, To Whom She Will, was published in 1955. It was followed by Esmond in India, The Householder and Get Ready for the Battle, the Householder, with a screenplay by Jhabvala, was filmed in 1963 by Merchant and Ivory. During her years in India she wrote scripts for the Merchant-Ivory duo for The Guru and she collaborated with Ivory for the screenplays for Bombay Talkie and ABC After-school Specials, William - The Life and Times of William Shakespeare. In 1975, she won the Booker Prize for her novel Heat and that year, she moved to New York where she wrote The Place of Peace. Jhabvala remained ill at ease with India and all that it brought into her life and her early works in India dwell on the themes of romantic love and arranged marriages and are portraits of the social mores, idealism and chaos of the early decades of independent India. Jhabvala moved to New York in 1975 and lived there until her death in 2013, many of these works feature India as a setting where her characters go to in search of spiritual enlightenment only to emerge defrauded and exposed to the materialistic pursuits of the East. The New York Times Review of Books chose her Out of India as one of the best reads for that year. In 2005 she published My Nine Lives, Chapters of a Possible Past with illustrations by her husband, salman Rushdie described her as a rootless intellectual when he anthologised her in the Vintage Book of Indian Writing while John Updike described her an initiated outsider
3.
A Room with a View
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A Room with a View is a 1908 novel by English writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman in the restrained culture of Edwardian era England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century, merchant-Ivory produced an award-winning film adaptation in 1985. The Modern Library ranked A Room with a View 79th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Lucy Honeychurch is touring Italy with her older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett. Their primary concern is that although rooms with a view of the River Arno have been promised for each of them, a Mr. Emerson interrupts their peevish wrangling, offering to swap rooms as he and his son, George Emerson, look over the Arno. This behaviour causes Miss Bartlett some consternation, as it appears impolite, however, another guest at the pension, an Anglican clergyman named Mr. Beebe, persuades the pair to accept the offer, assuring Miss Bartlett that Mr. Emerson only meant to be kind. The older woman immediately takes away Lucys Baedeker guidebook, which, she says and she will show Lucy the true Italy. But on the way to Santa Croce, chattering away, the two take a turn and get lost. Inside the church, Lucy meets the Emersons again, although their manners are awkward and they are deemed socially unacceptable by the other guests, Lucy likes them and continues to run into them in Florence. One afternoon Lucy witnesses a murder in Florence, George Emerson happens to be nearby and catches her when she faints. Lucy asks George to retrieve photographs of hers that happen to be near the murder site. George, out of confusion, throws her photographs into the river because they were spotted with blood, Lucy observes how boyish George is. As they stop to look over the River Arno before making their way back to the hotel, Eager, that Mr. Emerson murdered his wife in the sight of God. Later on in the week, a party made up of Beebe, Eager, the Emersons, Miss Lavish, Miss Bartlett and Lucy Honeychurch make their way to Fiesole, in carriages driven by Italians. The driver is permitted to invite a woman he claims is his sister onto the box of the carriage, Mr. Emerson remarks how it is defeat rather than victory to part two people in love. In the fields, Lucy searches for Mr. Beebe, misunderstanding, he leads her to a field where George stands. George is overcome by Lucys beauty among a field of violets and kisses her, but they are interrupted by Lucys cousin, Lucy promises Miss Bartlett that she will not tell her mother of the insult George has paid her because Miss Bartlett fears she will be blamed. The two women leave for Rome the next day before Lucy is able to say goodbye to George, in Rome, Lucy spends time with Cecil Vyse, whom she knew in England
4.
E. M. Forster
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Edward Morgan Forster OM CH, known as E. M. Forster, was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. Many of his novels examined class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society and his novel A Passage to India brought him his greatest success. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 16 different years, Forster was born into an Anglo-Irish and Welsh middle-class family at 6 Melcombe Place, Dorset Square, London NW1, in a building that no longer exists. He was the child of Alice Clara Lily and Edward Morgan Llewellyn Forster. His name was registered as Henry Morgan Forster, but at his baptism he was accidentally named Edward Morgan Forster. To distinguish him from his father, he was always called Morgan and his father died of tuberculosis on 30 October 1880, before Morgans second birthday. In 1883, Forster and his moved to Rooksnest, near Stevenage. This house served as a model for Howards End, because he had fond memories of his childhood there, among Forsters ancestors were members of the Clapham Sect, a social reform group within the Church of England. He inherited £8,000 from his paternal great-aunt Marianne Thornton, the money was enough to live on and enabled him to become a writer. He attended Tonbridge School in Kent, as a day boy, the theatre at the school has been named in his honour. At Kings College, Cambridge, between 1897 and 1901, he became a member of a society known as the Apostles. They met in secret, and discussed their work on, many of its members went on to constitute what came to be known as the Bloomsbury Group, of which Forster was a peripheral member in the 1910s and 1920s. There is a recreation of Forsters Cambridge at the beginning of The Longest Journey. The Schlegel sisters of Howards End are based to some degree on Vanessa, after leaving university, he travelled in continental Europe with his mother. They moved to Weybridge, Surrey where he wrote all six of his novels, in 1914, he visited Egypt, Germany and India with the classicist Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, by which time he had written all but one of his novels. In the First World War, as an objector, Forster volunteered for the International Red Cross. Forster spent a spell in India in the early 1920s as the private secretary to Tukojirao III. The Hill of Devi is his account of this period
5.
Maggie Smith
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Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, CH, DBE, known as Maggie Smith, is an English actress. She has had an extensive, varied career in stage, film, Smith has appeared in over 50 films and is one of Britains most recognisable actresses. Smith began her career on stage at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952 and she received Tony Award nominations for Private Lives and Night and Day, before winning the 1990 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage. Other stage roles include Stratford Shakespeare Festival productions of Antony and Cleopatra and Macbeth, on screen, Smith first drew praise for the crime film Nowhere to Go, for which she received her first BAFTA Award nomination. She has won two Academy Awards, winning Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite and she is one of only six actresses to have won in both categories. She has won a record four BAFTA Awards for Best Actress, a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, a six-time Oscar nominee, her other nominations were for Othello, Travels with My Aunt, A Room with a View, and Gosford Park. Smith played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series and her honorary awards include the BAFTA Special Award, the BAFTA Fellowship, and the Special Olivier Award. She received the Stratford Shakespeare Festivals Legacy Award in 2012, Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, but moved with her family to Oxford when she was four years old. She is the daughter of Nathaniel Smith, a Newcastle-born public health pathologist who worked at Oxford University, and Margaret, as a child, her parents used to tell Smith the romantic story of how they had met on the train from Glasgow to London via Newcastle. She has older twin brothers, Alistair and Ian, who went to architecture school and she attended Oxford High School until age sixteen, when she left to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse. In 1952, aged 17, under the auspices of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, in 1954, she appeared in the television programme Oxford Accents produced by Ned Sherrin. In 1957, she starred opposite Kenneth Williams in the musical comedy Share My Lettuce, in 1958, she received the first of her 18 BAFTA Film and TV nominations for her role in the film Nowhere to Go. In 1962, Smith won the first of a record five Best Actress Evening Standard Awards for her roles in Peter Shaffers plays The Private Ear and The Public Eye, again opposite Kenneth Williams. She appeared opposite Olivier in Ibsens The Master Builder and played roles in The Recruiting Officer. Her other films at this time included Go to Blazes, The V. I. P. s, The Pumpkin Eater, Hot Millions and Oh. Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the role of the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Vanessa Redgrave had originated the role on stage in London and Zoe Caldwell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, the role also won Smith her first BAFTA Award. In 1970, she played the role in Ingmar Bergmans London production of the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler
6.
Denholm Elliott
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Denholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE was an English film, television and theatre actor with more than 120 film and television credits. His well-known roles included Dr Marcus Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones, Elliott earned critical acclaim in his later career. Film critic Roger Ebert described him as the most dependable of all British character actors, the New York Times called him a star among supporting players and an accomplished scene-stealer. Elliott was born in London, the son of Nina and Myles Laymen Farr Elliott and his elder brother Neil was land agent to Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck. Myles was a barrister who had read Law and Arabic at Cambridge before fighting with the Glosters at Gallipoli, in 1930 Myles Elliott was appointed Solicitor-General to the Mandatory Government in Palestine. Three years later, following a series of government prosecutions, he was assassinated outside the King David Hotel. Denholm Elliott attended Malvern College and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and he was asked to leave RADA after one term. As Elliott later recalled, They wrote to my mother and said, Much as we like the fellow, hes wasting your money. In the Second World War, he joined the Royal Air Force, training as a sergeant wireless operator/ air gunner, on the night of 23/24 September 1942, his Handley Page Halifax DT508 bomber took part in an air raid on the U-boat pens at Flensburg, Germany. The aircraft was hit by flak and subsequently ditched in the North Sea near Sylt, Elliott and two other crew members survived and he spent the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp in Silesia. While imprisoned he became involved in amateur dramatics, after making his film debut in Dear Mr. Elliott and Natasha Parry played the main roles in the 1955 television play, The Apollo of Bellac. Elliott made many appearances, notably in plays by Dennis Potter, including Follow the Yellow Brick Road, Brimstone and Treacle. He took over for an ill Michael Aldridge for one season of The Man in Room 17 and he also became familiar to a wider audience as the well-meaning but addlepated Dr. Marcus Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A photograph of his character appears in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, there is also a statue dedicated to Marcus outside of Marshall College, the school where Indy teaches. In 1988, Elliott was the Russian mole Povin, around whom the plot revolves, in the television miniseries Codename. But curiously, I never, ever saw any of the crew twice. Elliott had worked with Sindens father, Sir Donald Sinden, in the film The Cruel Sea and he co-starred with Katharine Hepburn and Harold Gould in the television film, Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry and with Nicole Kidman in Bangkok Hilton. In 1988, Elliott was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to acting and his career included many stage performances, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and a well acclaimed turn as the twin brothers in Jean Anouilhs Ring Round the Moon
7.
Judi Dench
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Dame Judith Olivia Dench CH DBE FRSA, known as Judi Dench, is an English actress and author. Dench made her debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she performed in several of Shakespeares plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. Although most of her work during this period was in theatre, she branched into film work. She drew strong reviews for her role in the musical Cabaret in 1968. Over the next two decades, Dench established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She achieved success in television during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and she has also received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Special Olivier Award. In June 2011, she received a fellowship from the British Film Institute, Dench is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Dench was born in Heworth, North Riding of Yorkshire and her mother, Eleanora Olive, was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her father, Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor, was born in Dorset, England, and later moved to Dublin and he met Denchs mother while he was studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. Dench attended The Mount School, a Quaker independent secondary school in York and her brothers, one of whom was actor Jeffery Dench, were born in Tyldesley, Lancashire. Her niece, Emma Dench, is a Roman historian and professor previously at Birkbeck, University of London, and currently at Harvard University. In Britain, Dench has developed a reputation as one of the greatest actresses of the period, primarily through her work in theatre. She has more than once been named one in polls for Britains best actor. Through her parents, Dench had regular contact with the theatre and her father, a physician, was also the GP for the York theatre, and her mother was its wardrobe mistress. Actors often stayed in the Dench household, during these years, Judi Dench was involved on a non-professional basis in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays in the 1950s. In 1957, in one of the last productions in which she appeared during this period, she played the role of the Virgin Mary, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens. Though she initially trained as a set designer, she became interested in school as her brother Jeff attended the Central School of Speech
8.
Simon Callow
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Simon Phillip Hugh Callow, CBE is an English actor, musician, writer, and theatre director. Callow was born in Streatham, London, the son of Yvonne Mary, a secretary, and Neil Francis Callow and his father was of English and French descent and his mother was of Danish and German ancestry. He was brought up Roman Catholic and it was while watching actors rehearse that he realised he wanted to act. Callow made his debut in 1973, appearing in The Thrie Estates at the Assembly Rooms Theatre. In the early 1970s he joined the Gay Sweatshop theatre company, in 1977 he took various parts in the Joint Stock Theatre Companys production of Epsom Downs and in 1979 he starred in Snoo Wilsons The Soul of the White Ant at the Soho Poly. Callow appeared as Verlaine in Total Eclipse, Lord Foppington in The Relapse and the role in Faust at the Lyric Hammersmith. In 1985 he played Molina in The Kiss of the Spiderwoman at the Bush Theatre and he created the role of Mozart in the premiere of Peter Shaffers Amadeus at the National Theatre, also appearing in the 1983 BBC radio production with its original cast. He also appeared at the National Theatre as Orlando in As You Like It and he made his first film appearance, as Schikaneder, in Amadeus in 1984. His first television role was in Carry On Laughing episode Orgy and Bess, in 1975 and he starred in several series of the Channel 4 situation comedy Chance in a Million, as Tom Chance, an eccentric individual to whom coincidences happened regularly. Roles like this and his part in Four Weddings and a Funeral brought him an audience than his many critically acclaimed stage appearances. At the same time, Callow was successful both as a director and as a writer and his Being An Actor was a critique of director dominated theatre, in addition to containing autobiographical sections relating to his early career as an actor. At a time when subsidised theatre in the United Kingdom was under pressure from the Thatcher government. In 1992, he directed the play Shades by Sharman MacDonald, in 1995, he directed a stage version of the classic French film Les Enfants du Paradis for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The production was not a success and he also directed Carmen Jones at the Old Vic, London in 1991, with Wilhelmenia Fernandez in the title role. One of Callows best-known books is Love Is Where It Falls, a poignant analysis of his relationship with Peggy Ramsay. He returned to Doctor Who for the 2011 season finale, again taking the role of Dickens, Callow appeared with Saeed Jaffrey in 1994 British television series Little Napoleons. In 1996 Callow directed Cantabile in three pieces composed by his friend Stephen Oliver. Ricercare No.4 was commissioned by Callow especially for Cantabile and he voice-acted the sly and traitorous Wolfgang in Shoebox Zoo
9.
Helena Bonham Carter
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Helena Bonham Carter, CBE is an English actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove. For her role as Queen Elizabeth in The Kings Speech, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and she also won the 2010 International Emmy Award for Best Actress for her role as British author Enid Blyton in the TV film Enid. Bonham Carter began her career playing the title character in Lady Jane. Her other television films include A Pattern of Roses, Live from Baghdad, Toast, Bonham Carter was born in Islington, London. C. Her mother, Elena, is a psychotherapist who is of mostly Jewish background and her paternal grandmother was politician and feminist icon Violet Asquith, daughter of H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the first half of World War I. Bonham Carter is the youngest of three children, with two brothers, Edward and Thomas and they were brought up in Golders Green and she was educated at South Hampstead High School, and completed her A-levels at Westminster School. When Bonham Carter was five, her mother had a nervous breakdown. Five years after her mothers recovery, her father was diagnosed with acoustic neuroma and he suffered complications during an operation to remove the tumour which led to a stroke that left him half-paralysed and using a wheelchair. With her brothers at college, Bonham Carter was left to help her mother cope and she later studied her fathers movements and mannerisms for her role in The Theory of Flight. Bonham Carter, who has no formal acting training, entered the field winning a national writing contest and she made her professional acting début at the age of 16 in a television commercial. She also had a part in a minor TV film, A Pattern of Roses and her first lead film role was as Lady Jane Grey in Lady Jane, which was given mixed reviews by critics. Her breakthrough role was Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View, the role went to Emily Watson, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance. In 1994, Bonham Carter appeared in a sequence during the second series of the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, as Edina Monsoons daughter Saffron. Throughout the series, references were made to Saffrons resemblance to Bonham Carter and her early films led to her being typecast as a corset queen, and English rose, playing pre- and early 20th century characters, particularly in Merchant-Ivory films. She played Olivia in Trevor Nunns film version of Twelfth Night in 1996, Bonham Carter speaks French fluently, and starred in a 1996 French film Portraits chinois. In August 2001, she was featured in Maxim, Bonham Carter was a member of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival jury that unanimously selected The Wind That Shakes the Barley as best film. In May 2006, Bonham Carter launched her own line, The Pantaloonies
10.
Julian Sands
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Julian Richard Morley Sands is an English actor known for his roles in films such as The Killing Fields, A Room with a View, Warlock, Arachnophobia, and Vatel. On television, he is known for playing Vladimir Bierko in 24, julian Sands began his film career appearing in supporting roles in films, including Oxford Blues and The Killing Fields. He also had a cameo as a Greek soldier in the BBC adaptation of The Box of Delights in 1984 and he was cast as the romantic lead in the 1985 film A Room with a View. In 1985, following the success of A Room with a View and Ken Russells Gothic Sands decided to move to Hollywood and he appeared in several of them—both lower-tier and higher-budget. He played Erik, aka the Phantom in the 1998 horror-film version of The Phantom of the Opera and he starred opposite Jackie Chan in the action-comedy film The Medallion. And he played Lord Olivier in BBC Fours In Praise of Hardcore, in television work, he was the voice of Valmont in the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon. He played the Doci of the Ori in two episodes of Stargate SG-1—in its ninth and tenth seasons and he played a college professor in a Season One episode of The L Word. In 2001, he starred in Stephen Kings Rose Red, Sands portrayed Austrian ambassador Klemens von Metternich in the 2002 miniseries Napoléon. In the 2006 season of 24, he played terrorist Vladimir Bierko, Sands played Jor-El, Supermans biological father on Smallville, and reprised the role in the series final season. In 2009, he played Reg Hunt in Bollywood Hero, in 2012, he played Alistair Wesley in the seventh episode of the second season of Person of Interest. In August 2011, he appeared onstage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in A Celebration of Harold Pinter and his performance in A Celebration of Harold Pinter was well-received, one theatre, the Irish Repertory Theatre, added an extra three weeks to the shows run. Sands was nominated for Outstanding Solo Performance for the 58th Annual Drama Desk Awards, in 2011, Sands appeared in the mystery thriller film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, an English-language remake of the original version, as the younger version of Henrik Vanger. In 2012, Sands voiced the character of DeFalco in Call of Duty, on 26 April 2013, it was announced that Sands would appear as Miles Castner, a wealthy international businessman during the eighth season of Dexter. Sands was born in Otley, Yorkshire and educated at Lord Wandsworth College, Long Sutton and he has four brothers and one sister, one of whom, Quentin, was selected by She magazine as Britains Sexiest Man of 1998. Sands first marriage was to Sarah Harvey, a British journalist and they have one child, Henry Morley Sands, the couple divorced in 1987. In 1990, he wed Evgenia Citkowitz, a journalist and the daughter of the Anglo-Irish novelist and socialite Lady Caroline Blackwood, Sands and Citkowitz have two daughters Natalya and Imogen. Julian Sands at the Internet Movie Database The Guardian interview,19 August 2000
11.
Daniel Day-Lewis
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Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor who holds both British and Irish citizenship. Born and raised in London, he excelled on stage at the National Youth Theatre, before being accepted at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which he attended for three years. Despite his traditional training at the Bristol Old Vic, he is considered to be a method actor, known for his constant devotion to. He often remains completely in character for the duration of the schedules of his films. He is one of the most selective actors in the industry, having starred in only five films since 1998. Protective of his life, he rarely gives interviews and makes very few public appearances. He starred in My Beautiful Laundrette, his first critically acclaimed role and he then assumed leading man status with The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He was also nominated in category for In the Name of the Father. He has also won four BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, in November 2012, Time named Day-Lewis the Worlds Greatest Actor. In June 2014, he received a knighthood at Buckingham Palace for services to drama, Day-Lewis was born in Kensington, London, the son of poet Cecil Day-Lewis and English actress Jill Balcon. Day-Lewiss mother was Jewish, and his maternal great-grandparents Jewish families emigrated to England from Latvia and his maternal grandfather, Sir Michael Balcon, was the head of Ealing Studios. Living in Greenwich, Day-Lewis found himself among tough South London children and he mastered the local accent and mannerisms and credits that as being his first convincing performance. Later in life, he has known to speak of himself as very much a disorderly character in his younger years, often in trouble for shoplifting. In 1968, Day-Lewiss parents, finding his behaviour to be too wild, at the school, he was introduced to his three most prominent interests, woodworking, acting, and fishing. The transfer led to his debut at the age of 14 in Sunday Bloody Sunday in which he played a vandal in an uncredited role. He described the experience as heaven, for getting paid £2 to vandalise expensive cars parked outside his local church, for a few weeks in 1972, he and his parents and sister lived at Lemmons, the north London home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard. Cecil Day-Lewis had cancer and Howard invited the family to Lemmons as a place they could use to rest, Cecil died there in May that year. Leaving Bedales in 1975, Day-Lewiss unruly attitude had diminished and he needed to make a career choice, although he had excelled on stage at the National Youth Theatre in London, he applied for a five-year apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker, but was rejected due to lack of experience
12.
Giacomo Puccini
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Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian opera composer who has been called the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi. Puccinis early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera, later, he successfully developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. Puccinis most renowned works are La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini in Lucca in Tuscany, in 1858. He was one of nine children of Michele Puccini and Albina Magi, the Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musical dynasty by Puccinis great-great grandfather – also named Giacomo. This first Giacomo Puccini was maestro di cappella of the Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca and he was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio Puccini, and then by Antonios son Domenico, and Domenicos son Michele. Each of these men studied music at Bologna, and some additional musical studies elsewhere. Domenico Puccini studied for a time under Giovanni Paisiello, each composed music for the church. In addition, Domenico composed several operas, and Michele composed one opera, Puccinis father Michele enjoyed a reputation throughout northern Italy, and his funeral was an occasion of public mourning, at which the then-famed composer Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem. However, when Michele Puccini died in 1864, his son Giacomo was only six years old, as a child, he nevertheless participated in the musical life of the Cattedrale di San Martino, as a member of the boys choir and later as a substitute organist. Puccini was given an education at the seminary of San Michele in Lucca. One of Puccinis uncles, Fortunato Magi, supervised his musical education, Puccini got a diploma from the Pacini School of Music in Lucca in 1880, having studied there with his uncle Fortunato, and later with Carlo Angeloni, who had also instructed Alfredo Catalani. Puccini studied at the conservatory for three years, sharing a room with Pietro Mascagni, in 1880, at the age of 21, Puccini composed his Mass, which marks the culmination of his familys long association with church music in his native Lucca. Puccini wrote a piece called the Capriccio sinfonica as a thesis composition for the Milan Conservatory. Puccinis teachers Ponchielli and Bazzini were impressed by the work, and it was performed at a student concert at the conservatory on 14 July 1883, conducted by Franco Faccio. Puccinis work was reviewed in the Milanese publication Perseveranza. After the premiere of the Capriccio sinfonica, Ponchielli and Puccini discussed the possibility that Puccinis next work might be an opera, Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini was introduced to another young man named Fernando Fontana. Puccini and Fontana agreed to collaborate on an opera, for which Fontana would provide the libretto, the work, Le Villi, was entered into a competition sponsored by the Sozogno music publishing company in 1883. Although it did not win, Le Villi was later staged at the Teatro Dal Verme, G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers assisted with the premier by printing the libretto without charge
13.
Kiri Te Kanawa
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Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa ONZ DBE AC is a New Zealand soprano who has had a successful international opera career since 1968. She possesses a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample. Te Kanawa has received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in languages from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Although she now only sings in operas, Te Kanawa still frequently performs in concert and recital, while giving masterclasses. Te Kanawa was born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne on New Zealands North Island. She has Māori and European ancestry, but little is known about her parents, as she was adopted as an infant by Thomas Te Kanawa, a Māori. She was educated at St Marys College, Auckland, and formally trained in singing by Dame Sister Mary Leo, DBE. Te Kanawa began her career as a mezzo-soprano, but later developed into a soprano. Her recording of the Nuns Chorus from the Strauss operetta Casanova was New Zealands first gold record, Te Kanawa met Desmond Park on a blind date in London in August 1967, and they married six weeks later at St Patricks Cathedral, Auckland. They adopted two children, Antonia and Thomas and she had never made any attempt to contact her natural parents, but around this time, her half-brother Jim Rawstron contacted her. Initially, she was not willing to meet him, but later agreed to and this episode ended in bitterness, and she has since reaffirmed her decision to have nothing to do with her birth family. In her teens and early 20s, Te Kanawa was a pop star and popular entertainer at clubs in New Zealand, in 1965 she won the Mobil Song Quest with her performance of Vissi darte from Puccinis Tosca. In 1963, she was runner-up to Malvina Major in the same competition, as the winner, she received a grant to study in London. In 1966, she won the prestigious Australian Melbourne Sun-Aria contest. Both students had been taught by Sister Mary Leo and she first appeared on stage as the Second Lady in Mozarts The Magic Flute, as well as in performances of Purcells Dido and Aeneas in December 1968 at the Sadlers Wells Theatre. She also sang the role in Donizettis Anna Bolena. Ive taken thousands of auditions, but it was such a beautiful voice. Under director John Copley, Te Kanawa was carefully groomed for the role of the Countess for a December 1971 opening
14.
Goldcrest Films
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Goldcrest Films is an independent British distribution, production, post production and finance company. Operating from London and New York, Goldcrest is a privately owned integrated filmed entertainment company, Goldcrest Films was founded by Jake Eberts in January 1977. It enjoyed great success in the 1980s with films such as Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Local Hero, The Killing Fields, Hope and Glory, All Dogs Go To Heaven, the company also benefited from the new investment of Channel 4 in film production. The company won two Academy Awards for Best Picture, for Chariots of Fire in 1981 and Gandhi in 1982. Goldcrest Films current slate includes Slumber, Come and Find Me, Stonewall directed by Roland Emmerich, BBCs EARTH, One Amazing Day directed by Peter Webber, Goldcrest Post Production opened in Soho, London in 1982 and in West Village, New York in 2000. Recent expansion and investment has culminated in the opening of central London’s largest purpose built Dolby ATMOS Premier sound mixing theatre at Goldcrest’s Dean Street, Goldcrest Films financing arms, Goldcrest Pictures and Goldcrest Capital Partners, structure transactions in the media sector. Goldcrest Capital also raises funds and provides services on UK independent feature films and this starred 16-time Oscar nominee Meryl Streep and was produced by Damian Jones for Pathé, Film4 and the UK Film Council with the participation of Canal+ and Cine Cinema. My Indecision Is Final, The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Goldcrest Films, accessed January 26,2008 Goldcrest Films at the Internet Movie Database Official website
15.
Film4 Productions
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Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing a number of films made in the United Kingdom. The companys first production was Walter, directed by Stephen Frears and it is especially known for its gritty, kitchen sink-style films and period drama. Prior to 1998, the company was identified as Channel Four Films or FilmFour International, later, the outfit was re-branded as FilmFour, to coincide with the launch of a new Digital TV channel of the same name. The company cut its budget and staff significantly in 2002, due to mounting losses, the name Film4 Productions was introduced in 2006 to tie in with the relaunch of the FilmFour broadcast channel as Film4. Tessa Ross was head of both Film4 and Channel 4 drama from 2002 to 2014
16.
Royal Command Performance
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A Royal Command Performance in the United Kingdom is any performance by actors or musicians that occurs at the direction or request of a reigning monarch. From then on, command performances were staged, often calling upon the leading actors from the London theatres. There were no further performances until they recommenced in 1881. These included plays, revues, comic operas and other musical theatre, King Edward VII called for several performances per year. In 1911 a Great Gala performance was given by the profession at His Majestys Theatre in London in celebration of the coronation of King George V. In 1912, King George V and Queen Mary attended an all-star Royal Command Performance at Londons Palace Theatre in aid of the Variety Artistes Benevolent Fund and this was followed in 1919 by the first to be named the Royal Variety Performance. The reason for the change followed desire from Buckingham Palace that the show should clearly reflect all areas of show business popular amongst the masses of the time. As long as there has been a monarchy, kings and queens have maintained minstrels and jesters to entertain their courts, and these performances could be called command performances. The history of the performance as we recognise it today dates back at least to the time of Queen Elizabeth I. In addition, Elizabeth built her own theatre where she could watch plays performed by her own company of players and this was formed in 1583 by Edmund Tilney, the then Master of the Revels, and was known as Queen Elizabeths Men. The restoration of the following the death of Cromwell also resulted in the restoration of the relationship between the monarch and theatre. At the beginning of Queen Victorias reign in 1837 the command performance was a part of Britain’s theatrical life. The first Royal Command Performance as we know it today is accepted to have been that staged at Windsor Castle on 28 December 1848 by order of Queen Victoria. The play was The Merchant of Venice, and the cast included Mr and Mrs Charles Kean, Mr and Mrs Keeley, Henry Lowe, Leigh Murray, there were no further command performances until they recommenced on 4 October 1881 with a production of Burnands The Colonel. Queen Victoria called for a performance of W. S. Gilberts play Sweethearts on 1 February 1887, starring Mr. The great Shakespearean actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry performed for the Queen in 1889 and 1893, Performances of operas by the Royal Opera Company and the Carl Rosa Opera Company were given on several occasions in the 1890s for Victoria. On 21 July 1896 the first Royal Command Film Performance was held at Marlborough House, the film showed the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra visiting the Cardiff Exhibition. When Birt Acres, the cinematographer, requested permission to show the film to the public the Prince asked to see it himself before agreeing
17.
Pound sterling
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It is subdivided into 100 pence. A number of nations that do not use sterling also have called the pound. At various times, the sterling was commodity money or bank notes backed by silver or gold. The pound sterling is the worlds oldest currency still in use, the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey produce their own local issues of sterling, the Guernsey pound and the Jersey pound. The pound sterling is also used in the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, the Bank of England is the central bank for the pound sterling, issuing its own coins and banknotes, and regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sterling is the fourth most-traded currency in the exchange market, after the United States dollar, the euro. Together with those three currencies it forms the basket of currencies which calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights, Sterling is also the third most-held reserve currency in global reserves. The full, official name, pound sterling, is used mainly in formal contexts, otherwise the term pound is normally used. The abbreviations ster. or stg. are sometimes used, the term British pound is commonly used in less formal contexts, although it is not an official name of the currency. The pound sterling is also referred to as cable amongst forex traders, the origins of this term are attributed to the fact that in the 1800s, the dollar/pound sterling exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable. Forex brokers are sometimes referred to as cable dealers, as another established source notes, the compound expression was then derived, silver coins known as sterlings were issued in the Saxon kingdoms,240 of them being minted from a pound of silver. Hence, large payments came to be reckoned in pounds of sterlings, in 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection. And because the Leagues money was not frequently debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the Easterlings, and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was also called Easterlings Hall, or Esterlingeshalle. For further discussion of the etymology of sterling, see sterling silver, the currency sign for the pound sign is £, which is usually written with a single cross-bar, though a version with a double cross-bar is also sometimes seen. The ISO4217 currency code is GBP, occasionally, the abbreviation UKP is used but this is non-standard because the ISO3166 country code for the United Kingdom is GB. The Crown dependencies use their own codes, GGP, JEP, stocks are often traded in pence, so traders may refer to pence sterling, GBX, when listing stock prices. A common slang term for the pound sterling or pound is quid, since decimalisation in 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence. The symbol for the penny is p, hence an amount such as 50p properly pronounced fifty pence is more colloquially, quite often, pronounced fifty pee /fɪfti, pi and this also helped to distinguish between new and old pence amounts during the changeover to the decimal system
18.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
19.
Romance film
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Romance films make the romantic love story or the search for strong and pure love and romance the main plot focus. Occasionally, romance lovers face obstacles such as finances, physical illness, various forms of discrimination, as in all quite strong, deep, and close romantic relationships, tensions of day-to-day life, temptations, and differences in compatibility enter into the plots of romantic films. In romantic television series, the development of romantic relationships may play out over many episodes. Historical romance - A romantic story with a period setting and this includes films such as Gone with the Wind, Doctor Zhivago and Titanic. Romantic drama usually revolves around an obstacle which prevents deep and true love between two people. Music is often employed to indicate the mood, creating an atmosphere of greater insulation for the couple. The conclusion of a romantic drama typically does not indicate whether a final union between the two main characters will occur. Chick flick is a term associated with romance films as many are targeted to a female audience. As such, the terms cannot be used interchangeably, films of this genre include Dirty Dancing, The Notebook, Dear John, A Walk to Remember, and Romeo + Juliet. Romantic comedies are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as true love is able to surmount most obstacles. Humour in such films tends to be of a verbal, low-key variety or situational, films within this genre include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Moonstruck, As Good as It Gets, Somethings Gotta Give, It Happened One Night, When Harry Met Sally. Romantic fantasies describe fantasy stories using many of the elements and conventions of the romance genre, romantic action comedies are films that blend romantic comedy and action. Examples include Killers, Knight and Day, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, This Means War, romantic thriller is a genre of film which has a storyline combining elements of the romance film and the thriller genre. Some examples of romantic thriller films are The Adjustment Bureau, The Phantom of the Opera, The Tourist, The Bodyguard, Unfaithful, and Wicker Park
20.
Edwardian era
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The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victorian era. The new king Edward VII was already the leader of an elite that set a style influenced by the art. The Liberals returned to power in 1906 and made significant reforms, below the upper class, the era was marked by significant shifts in politics among sections of society that had been largely excluded from wielding power in the past, such as common labourers. The Edwardian period is sometimes imagined as a golden age of long summer afternoons and garden parties. This perception was created in the 1920s and later by those who remembered the Edwardian age with nostalgia, the Edwardian age was also seen as a mediocre period of pleasure between the great achievements of the preceding Victorian age and the catastrophe of the following war. Recent assessments emphasise the differences between the wealthy and the poor during the Edwardian era and describe the age as heralding great changes in political and social life. Robert Tressells popular novel The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists is an example of the eras social critique. Despite this, this type of perception has been challenged more recently by modern historians, the British historian Lawrence James has argued that, during the early 20th century, the British felt increasingly threatened by rival powers such as Germany, Russia, and the United States. There was a political awareness of the working class, leading to a rise in trade unions. The aristocracy remained in control of top government offices, the Conservatives – at the time called Unionists – were dominant from the 1890s to 1906. The party had many strengths, appealing to voters supportive of imperialism, tariffs, the Church of England, a powerful Royal Navy, and traditional hierarchical society. There was a powerful leadership base in the aristocracy and landed gentry in rural England, plus strong support from the Church of England. Historians have used election returns to demonstrate that Conservatives did surprisingly well in working-class districts and they had an appeal as well to the better-off element of traditional working class Britons in the larger cities. Nevertheless, the weaknesses were accumulating, and proved so overwhelming in 1906 that they did not return to power until 1922. The Conservative Party was losing its drive and enthusiasm, especially after the retirement of the charismatic Joseph Chamberlain, there was a bitter split on tariff reform, that drove many of the free traders over to the Liberal camp. Tariff reform was an issue that the Conservative leadership inexplicably clung to. Support among the top tier of the class, and in lower middle class weakened. The 1906 election was a landslide for the opposition, which saw its total vote jump 25 percent, the Liberal Party lacked a unified ideological base in 1906
21.
59th Academy Awards
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During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 23 categories honoring films released in 1986. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. actors Chevy Chase, Paul Hogan, and Goldie Hawn co-hosted the show. Hawn hosted the gala for the time, having previously been a co-host of the 48th ceremony held in 1976. Meanwhile, this was Chase and Hogans first Oscars hosting stint, eight days earlier, in a ceremony held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on March 22, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Catherine Hicks. Platoon won four awards including Best Picture, platoon and A Room with a View led all nominees with eight each. The winners were announced during the ceremony on March 30,1987. Marlee Matlin was the first deaf performer to win an Oscar, artie Shaw, Time Is All Youve Got and Down and Out in Americas joint win in the Best Documentary Feature category marked the fourth occurrence of a tie in Oscar history. Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double dagger, ralph Bellamy Steven Spielberg The following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers. Determined to revive interest surrounding the awards and reverse declining ratings, actor Robin Williams was initially named a co-host, but he was forced to withdraw from emceeing duties due to his commitment toward his role in the upcoming film Good Morning, Vietnam. One of the biggest priorities for Goldwyn was to shorten the length of the show to at least three hours or less, in view of his goal, he told reporters regarding winners acceptance speeches, We are actually going to give them 45 seconds. The light will start blinking at 45 seconds and go red at 55 seconds, after one minute we will either cut to a commercial or go to something else. Weve also asked multiple winners to flip a coin and pick a spokesman, although Goldwyn attempted to move the Documentary and Short Film Categories to a separate ceremony from the broadcast, the AMPAS Board of Governors refused to do so. Several other people were involved with the production of the ceremony, oscar-winning costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge was hired as fashion consultant for the awards ceremony and supervised a fashion show segment showcasing the five nominees for Best Costume Design. Lionel Newman served as director and conductor for the ceremony. Actors Dom DeLuise, Pat Morita, and Telly Savalas performed the song Fugue for Tinhorns from the musical Guys and Dolls at the start of the ceremony. At the time of the announcement on February 11, the combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees at the US box office was $119 million with an average of $23.9 million. Platoon was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $39.3 million in the box office receipts. The film was followed by Hannah and Her Sisters, Children of a Lesser God, A Room with a View, of the 50 grossing movies of the year,55 nominations went to 18 films on the list
22.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
23.
British Academy Film Awards
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The British Academy Film Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to honour the best British and international contributions to film. Between 2008 and 2016, the ceremony was held in central London at the Royal Opera House, the 70th British Academy Film Awards were held on 12 February 2017 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. British Academy of Film and Television Arts was founded in 1947 as The British Film Academy, by David Lean, Alexander Korda, Carol Reed, Charles Laughton, Roger Manvell and others. BAFTA stated charitable purpose is to support, develop and promote the art forms of the image, by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners. In addition to awards ceremonies BAFTA runs a year-round programme of educational events including film screenings. BAFTA is supported by a membership of about 6,000 people from the film, television, the Academys awards are in the form of a theatrical mask designed by American sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe, which was commissioned by the Guild of Television Producers in 1955. The ceremony previously took place in April or May and since 2002 it takes place in February in order to precede the Oscars. The awards are open to all nationalities, though there is an award for Outstanding British Film. Only UK films are eligible for the categories of The British Short Film, the Awards ceremony is delayed broadcast on British television the same evening, and across the world for example its shown on BBC America in the United States. It has been broadcast in colour since 1970, the award ceremony is held in London. From 2000 to 2007 the ceremonies took place at the flagship Odeon cinema in Leicester Square, between 2008 and 2016, the ceremonies took place at the Royal Opera House. The 70th Awards in 2017 were held at the Royal Albert Hall, until 2012, the mobile network Orange sponsored the awards and starting in 2013 Oranges parent company, EE, began sponsorship. British Academy of Film and Television Arts British Academy Television Awards Official website BAFTA Awards database Museum of Broadcast Communications, BAFTA IMDB, BAFTA
24.
Golden Globe Award
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Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The annual ceremony at which the awards are presented is a part of the film industrys awards season. The 74th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film, the 1st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best achievements in 1943 filmmaking, was held in January 1944, at the 20th Century-Fox studios. Subsequent ceremonies were held at venues throughout the next decade, including the Beverly Hills Hotel. In 1950, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the decision to establish an honorary award to recognize outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Recognizing its subject as a figure within the entertainment industry. The official name of the award became the Cecil B. In 1963, the Miss Golden Globe concept was introduced, in its inaugural year, two Miss Golden Globes were named, one for film and one for television. The two Miss Golden Globes named that year were Eva Six and Donna Douglas, respectively, in 2009, the Golden Globe statuette was redesigned. It was unveiled at a conference at the Beverly Hilton prior to the show. The broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, telecast to 167 countries worldwide, generally ranks as the third most-watched awards show each year, behind only the Oscars, gervais returned to host the 68th and 69th Golden Globe Awards the next two years. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the 70th, 71st and 72nd Golden Globe Awards in 2015, the Golden Globe Awards theme song, which debuted in 2012, was written by Japanese musician and songwriter Yoshiki Hayashi. On January 7,2008, it was announced due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The ceremony was faced with a threat by striking writers to picket the event, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was forced to adopt another approach for the broadcast. In acting categories, Meryl Streep holds the record for the most competitive Golden Globe wins with eight, however, including honorary awards, such as the Henrietta Award, World Film Favorite Actor/Actress Award, or Cecil B. DeMille Award, Barbra Streisand leads with nine, additionally, Streisand won for composing the song Evergreen, producing the Best Picture, and directing Yentl in 1984. Jack Nicholson, Angela Lansbury, Alan Alda and Shirley MacLaine have six awards each, behind them are Rosalind Russell and Jessica Lange with five wins. Meryl Streep also holds the record for most nominations with thirty, at the 46th Golden Globe Awards an anomaly occurred, a three way-tie for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
25.
British Film Institute
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The British Film Institute is a film and charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI maintains the worlds largest film archive, the BFI National Archive, previously called National Film Library, National Film Archive and National Film, the archive contains more than 50,000 fiction films, over 100,000 non-fiction titles and around 625,000 television programmes. The majority of the collection is British material but it also features internationally significant holdings from around the world, the Archive also collects films which feature key British actors and the work of British directors. The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and London IMAX cinema, both located on the bank of the River Thames in London. The IMAX has the largest cinema screen in the UK, and shows popular recent releases and short films showcasing its technology, BFI Southbank shows films from all over the world particularly critically acclaimed historical & specialised films that may not otherwise get a cinema showing. The BFI also distributes archival and cultural cinema to other venues – each year to more than 800 venues all across the UK, the BFI offers a range of education initiatives, in particular to support the teaching of film and media studies in schools. In late 2012, the BFI received money from the Department For Education to create the BFI Film Academy Network, the BFI runs the annual London Film Festival along with BFI Flare, London LGBT Film Festival and the youth-orientated Future Film Festival. The BFI publishes the monthly Sight & Sound magazine as well as films on Blu-ray, DVD, SIFT has a collection of about 7 million still frames from film and television. The institute was founded in 1933, the institute was restructured following the Radcliffe Report of 1948 which recommended that it should concentrate on developing the appreciation of filmic art, rather than creating film itself. Thus control of film production passed to the National Committee for Visual Aids in Education. From 1952-2000, the BFI provided funding for new and experimental filmmakers via the BFI Production Board, the institute received a Royal Charter in 1983. This was updated in 2000, and in the year the newly established UK Film Council took responsibility for providing the BFIs annual grant-in-aid. As an independent registered charity, the BFI is regulated by the Charity Commission, in 1988, the BFI opened the London Museum of the Moving Image on the South Bank. The Museum was temporarily closed in 1999 when the BFI stated that it would be re-sited and this did not happen, and MOMIs closure became permanent in 2002 when it was decided to redevelop the South Bank site. This redevelopment was itself then further delayed, the BFI is currently managed on a day-to-day basis by its chief executive, Amanda Nevill. Supreme decision-making authority rests with a chair and a board of up to 14 governors, the current chair is Josh Berger, who took up the post in February 2016. He succeeded Greg Dyke, who took office on 1 March 2008, Dyke succeeded the late Anthony Minghella, who was chair from 2003 until 31 December 2007. The chair of the board is appointed by the BFIs own Board of Governors but requires the consent of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, other Governors are co-opted by existing board members when required
26.
Surrey
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Surrey is a county in the south east of England. It shares borders with Kent to the east, East Sussex to the south-east, West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west and south-west, Surrey County Council sits extraterritorially at Kingston upon Thames, administered as part of Greater London since 1965. With a resident population of 1.1 million, Surrey is the most densely populated and third most populated county in the South East region, after Kent, the London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, and parts of Lewisham and Bromley were in Surrey until 1889. The boroughs of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton and Richmond upon Thames south of the River Thames were part of Surrey until 1965, when they too were absorbed into Greater London. In the same year, the county was extended north of the Thames by the addition of Spelthorne, due to this expansion, modern Surrey also borders on the London boroughs of Hounslow and Hillingdon. It has the highest GDP per capita of any English county, Surrey is divided in two by the chalk ridge of the North Downs, running east-west. To the north of the Downs the land is mostly flat, the geology of this area is dominated by London Clay in the east, Bagshot Sands in the west and alluvial deposits along the rivers. Much of Surrey is in the Metropolitan Green Belt and it contains a good deal of mature woodland. Among its many notable beauty spots are Box Hill, Leith Hill, Frensham Ponds, Newlands Corner and Puttenham & Crooksbury Commons. Surrey is the most wooded county in England, with 22. 4% coverage compared to an average of 11. 8%. Box Hill has the oldest untouched area of woodland in the UK. Surrey also contains Englands principal concentration of lowland heath, on soils in the west of the county. Agriculture not being intensive, there are many commons and access lands, together with a network of footpaths and bridleways including the North Downs Way. Accordingly, Surrey provides much in the way of leisure activities. The highest elevation in Surrey is Leith Hill near Dorking and it is either 293,294 or 295 metres above sea level and is the second highest point in southeastern England after Walbury Hill 297 metres in West Berkshire. Surrey has a population of approximately 1.1 million people and its largest town is Guildford, with a population of 66,773, Woking comes a close second with 62,796. They are followed by Ewell with 39,994 people and Camberley with 30,155, towns of between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants are Ashford, Epsom, Farnham, Staines and Redhill. Guildford is the county town, although the county administration was moved to Newington in 1791
27.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
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The Reverend
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The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries, the Reverend is correctly called a style but is often and in some dictionaries called a title, form of address or title of respect. The style is sometimes used by leaders in non-Christian religions such as Judaism and Buddhism. The term is an anglicisation of the Latin reverendus, the originally used in Latin documents in medieval Europe. It is the gerundive or future passive participle of the verb revereri, the Reverend is therefore equivalent to The Honourable or The Venerable. In traditional and formal English usage, both British and American, it is considered incorrect to drop the definite article, the. In practice, however, the is not used in both written and spoken English. When the style is used within a sentence, the is correctly in lower-case, the usual abbreviations for Reverend are Rev. Revd and Revd. The Reverend is traditionally used as a form with first names and surname. Use of the prefix with the surname alone is considered a solecism in traditional usage, in some countries, especially Britain, Anglican clergy are acceptably addressed by the title of their office, such as Vicar, Rector, or Archdeacon. This has traditionally been considered grammatically incorrect on the basis that it is equivalent to referring to a judge as being an honourable or a man as being a mister. It is likewise incorrect to form the plural Reverends, in some churches, especially Protestant churches in the United States, ordained ministers are often addressed as Pastor. Pastor, however, is considered correct in some churches when the minister in question is the head of a church or congregation. Male Christian priests are addressed as Father or, for example. However, in correspondence, such priests are not normally referred to as Father John, Father Smith, or Father John Smith. Father as a title is used for Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Old Catholic priests. In England, however, even Roman Catholic priests were often referred to as Mr until the 20th century except when members of a religious order, Mr is still not incorrect for priests of the Church of England. Some female Anglican or Old Catholic priests use the style The Reverend Mother and are addressed as Mother, the Reverend may be modified to reflect ecclesiastical standing and rank
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Fabia Drake
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Fabia Drake OBE was a British actress whose professional career spanned almost 73 years during the 20th century. Drake was born in Herne Bay, Kent and her first professional role, in a film, was in Fred Pauls Masks and Faces, and her last role was as the inimitable, irresistible Madame de Rosemonde in Miloš Formans Valmont. Drake was a friend of Laurence Olivier. Born not Drake, but Ethel McGlinchy, the actresss Irish father, a caterer, was an actor manqué, whose love was the theatre. She was small, was called the Shrimp, and played a wide range of parts - Richard II, Macbeth, Cardinal Richelieu in Bulwer Lyttons play. Her first paid work came when she was cast in a production of The Happy Family, also in the cast was a young man who had rather stick-out ears, and his name was Noël Coward. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. In the same year,1916, she met a heroine, Ellen Terry, one of the preachers at this church, Geoffrey Heald, produced each year the All Saints choirboys in scenes by Shakespeare, in the clergy house. At the age of sixteen she was sent to a school in France. It had been a lodge of Louis XIV and the sunken marble bath of Madame de Maintenon was still in place. Back in London in 1921 and unemployed she spent time with Meggie Albanesi and she did then sign with Vedrenne for 18 months, playing small parts, and understudying and was then sent to Basil Dean who was about to produce James Elroy Fleckers Hassan. Drake, an understudy, would play both of the two parts in the play, Yasmin and Pervaneh - Isabel Jeans and Laura Cowrie. The play ran for six months, directed by Gerald du Maurier, shortly after this Drake worked with Marie Tempest in a play by John Hastings Turner called The Scarlet Lady. In Marie Tempest she found artistic understanding, comradeship and succour, the play was a success when it opened and brought Drake some critical attention. Charles Langbridge Morgan, then critic of The Times, Fabia Drake. she has not been long on the professional stage and she has judgment and poise and a mind that lifts a trivial part out of its triviality. And James Agate in The Sunday Times, Miss Fabia Drake is probably the best ingénue on the present-day stage and she suggests health, physical, mental and moral. In the London theatre between the First and Second World Wars, Sunday play-producing societies flourished and these societies acted as shop windows for rising players and try-out theatres for new dramatists. RADA ex-students decided to have their own Sunday society, The RADA Players, in a play of Allan Monkhouses called Sons and Fathers, Drake played opposite John Gielgud
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Turn of the century
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Turn of the century, in its broadest sense, refers to the transition from one century to another. The term is most often used to indicate a time period either before or after the beginning of a century or both before and after. Where no specific century is stated, the term refers to the most recent transition of centuries. The American view is not so clear cut, according to the Chicago Manual of Style, there is no common agreement as to the meaning of the phrase turn of the n-th century. As such, they recommend using only turn of the century, fin de siècle Gilded Age Information Age
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Victorian era
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The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victorias reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities, the era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. The end of the saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of political reform, industrial reform. Two especially important figures in period of British history are the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Disraeli, favoured by the queen, was a gregarious Conservative and his rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall legislative development of the era. The population of England and Wales almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, Scotlands population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. However, Irelands population decreased sharply, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. Between 1837 and 1901 about 15 million emigrants departed the UK permanently, in search of a life in the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia. During the early part of the era, politics in the House of Commons involved battles between the two parties, the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives. These parties were led by such prominent statesmen as Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was mainly a time of peace, Britain reached the zenith of its economic, political, diplomatic and cultural power. The era saw the expansion of the second British Empire, Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era as Britains Golden Years. There was prosperity, as the income per person grew by half. There was peace abroad, and social peace at home, opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a movement among the working class in 1848, its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions
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Rake (character)
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A rake, short for rakehell, is a historic term applied to a man who is habituated to immoral conduct, particularly womanising. Often, a rake was also prodigal, wasting his fortune on gambling, wine, women and song, comparable terms are libertine and debauchee. The Restoration rake was a carefree, witty, sexually irresistible aristocrat whose heyday was during the English Restoration period at the court of Charles II, at this time the rake featured as a stock character in Restoration comedy. After the reign of Charles II, and especially after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the rake became the butt of moralistic tales in which his typical fate was debtors prison, venereal disease, or, in the case of William Hogarths A Rakes Progress, insanity in Bedlam. The defining period of the rake was at the court of Charles II in the seventeenth century. Following the tone set by the monarch himself, these men distinguished themselves in drinking, womanising and witty conversation, many of them were inveterate gamblers, brawlers and some were also duelists but not to the approval of King Charles. In 1682 Thomas Wharton, 5th Baron Wharton, broke into a church at night and relieved himself against the communion table, a later group of aristocratic rakes were associated with the Hell Fire Club in the eighteenth century. These included Francis Dashwood and John Wilkes, other rakes include Colonel Charteris, Cagliostro, Lord Byron, John Mytton, Giacomo Casanova, Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun, the Marquis de Sade and Beauchamp Bagenal. On the whole, rakes may be subdivided into the penitent and persistent ones, the first being reformed by the heroine, the latter pursuing their immoral conduct. Libertinistic attitudes, such as licentiousness, alcoholism, scouring and gaming, however, only the degree of wit brings the rakish gentleman, the Truewit, closer to the satiric norm, whereas Falsewits are always exploded in the satiric scene. The motivation of a rake to change his libertinistic ways is either hypocritical or honest, another typology distinguishes between the polite rake and the debauch, using criteria of social class and style. In this case, the young, witty, and well-bred male character, who dominates the drawing rooms, is in sharp contrast to a contemptible debauch, who indulges in fornication, alcoholism, still other assessments of the libertine concentrate on the kind and intensity of libertinistic demeanour. Here, the falls into any one of three categories, extravagant libertine, vicious libertine, and philosophical libertine. The extravagant rake is characterised by anti-normative conduct throughout, even though he finally settles down in matrimony, between 1663 and 1668, examples are Wellbred in James Howards The English Mounsieur, Philidor in James Howards All Mistaken, and Celadon in Drydens Secret Love. In the 1690s, Sir Hary Wildair in George Farquhars The Constant Couple represents this kind of gentlemanly rake, the extravagant rake is as promiscuous and impulsive as he is wild and frivolous, and he finally finds his match in an equally extravagant and witty heroine. He is, above all, a character who is what he wants to be, who delights in those qualities with which he is endowed. Thus, the extravagant rake is a comic figure because his actions are exaggerated, but he is never a comic fool. The vicious rake is invariably presented as a despicable, if wealthy person and he is frequently married and abuses his wife
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Rupert Graves
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Rupert S. Graves is an English film, television, and theatre actor. He is known for his roles in A Room with a View, Maurice, The Madness of King George, since 2010 he has starred as DI Lestrade in the BBC television series Sherlock. Graves was born in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England, to Mary Lousilla Graves, a coordinator, and Richard Harding Graves. Graves was educated at Wyvern Community School, a comprehensive school in his home town of Weston-super-Mare. The school has closed and re-opened as the Hans Price Academy. Gravess first job after leaving school was as a circus clown and he has appeared in over twenty-five films and over thirty-five television productions, he has also appeared on stage. Graves first came to prominence in costume-drama adaptations of E. M. Gravess role in Intimate Relations won him the Best Actor award at the 1996 Montreal World Film Festival and he was also acclaimed for his portrayal of Young Jolyon Forsyte in the television miniseries The Forsyte Saga. In 1987 in his hometown of Weston-super-Mare, Graves met Yvonne and they lived together in Stoke Newington, and he helped her raise her two daughters, who were 10 and 14 years old when the relationship began. Graves and Yvonne were together for 13 years and they married, and have five children together, Joseph, Ella, Noah, Isaac, and Zoe. and primary archive sources. Official website Rupert Graves at the Internet Movie Database Rupert Graves at the Internet Broadway Database
34.
Peter Cellier
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Peter Cellier is an English actor who has appeared in film, stage and television. He is perhaps best known for his role as Sir Frank Gordon in Yes Minister and then Yes, Cellier was born into a family of actors including his father Frank and half-sister Antoinette. His grandfather was the Gilbert and Sullivan conductor François Cellier and he was educated at Harrow School. Cellier started his career at the Leatherhead Theatre in 1953 and his theatre work has included seasons at Stratford-on-Avon, the Old Vic and the Chichester Festival Theatre, and he was a founder-member of the National Theatre. Finache in Jacques Charons National Theatre production of Feydeaus A Flea in her Ear, Charles Blutham in Juno and the Paycock, Dr. He also appeared in the sitcoms It Aint Half Hot Mum, Yes Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister and Keeping Up Appearances, as the Major, among others. In the two Minister series, he played Sir Frank Gordon, the Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury and his most recent TV roles were as Roy Difford in the Casualty episode The Silence of Friends. And the Judge in BBC Fours Canoe Man, which recounted the John Darwin disappearance case, as Second Counsel, Young Winston, as Captain 35th Sikhs, Luther, as the Prior, Dont Just Lie There, Say Something. He played W. S. Gilbert in the 1983 film The Best of Gilbert and Sullivan, in which Gilbert, celliers grandfather, François Cellier, was the musical director for Gilbert and Sullivan. Peter Cellier at the Internet Movie Database Curriculum vitae
