1.
Laurence Olivier
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Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM, was an English actor who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles, late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles. His family had no connections, but Oliviers father, a clergyman. After attending a school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Cowards Private Lives, in 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, there his most celebrated roles included Shakespeares Richard III and Sophocless Oedipus. From 1963 to 1973 he was the director of Britains National Theatre. His own parts there included the role in Othello and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Among Oliviers films are Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director, Henry V, Hamlet and his later films included Sleuth, Marathon Man, and The Boys from Brazil. His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence, Long Days Journey into Night, Love Among the Ruins, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Brideshead Revisited, Oliviers honours included a knighthood, a life peerage and the Order of Merit. For his on-screen work he received four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatres largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre. He was married three times, to the actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, the youngest of the three children of the Revd Gerard Kerr Olivier and his wife Agnes Louise, née Crookenden. Their elder children were Sybille and Gerard Dacres Dickie and his great-great-grandfather was of French Huguenot descent, and Olivier came from a long line of Protestant clergymen. Gerard Olivier had begun a career as a schoolmaster, but in his thirties he discovered a strong religious vocation and was ordained as a priest of the Church of England and he practised extremely high church, ritualist Anglicanism and liked to be addressed as Father Olivier. This made him unacceptable to most Anglican congregations, and the church posts he was offered were temporary. This meant a nomadic existence, and for Laurences first few years, in 1912, when Olivier was five, his father secured a permanent appointment as assistant priest at St Saviours, Pimlico. He held the post for six years, and a family life was at last possible
2.
Marlon Brando
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Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American actor, film director and activist. He is credited with bringing realism to film acting and he helped to popularize the Stanislavski system of acting, studying with Stella Adler in the 1940s. Julius Caesar, The Wild One, Reflections in a Golden Eye, Last Tango in Paris, Brando was also an activist for many causes, notably the Civil Rights Movement and various Native American movements. Brando received Academy Award nominations for playing Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata, Mark Antony in Joseph L. Mankiewiczs 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeares Julius Caesar, and Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver in Sayonara, an adaption of James Micheners 1954 novel. Brando was included in a list of Top Ten Money Making Stars three times in the 1950s, coming in at number 10 in 1954, number 6 in 1955, the 1960s proved to be a fallow decade for Brando. The Godfather was then one of the most commercially successful films of all time, Brando took a four-year hiatus before appearing in The Missouri Breaks. After this, he was content with being a highly paid actor in cameo roles, such as in Superman and The Formula. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Brando was paid a record $3.7 million and 11. 75% of the profits for 13 days work on Superman. Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fourth-greatest movie star among male movie stars whose screen debuts occurred in or before 1950. He was one of three professional actors, along with Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe, named in 1999 by Time magazine as one of its 100 Most Important People of the Century. He died of respiratory failure on July 1,2004, at age 80, Brando was born on April 3,1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Marlon Brando, Sr. a pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer, and Dorothy Julia. Brando had two sisters, Jocelyn Brando and Frances. His ancestry included German, Dutch, English, and Irish and his patrilineal immigrant ancestor, Johann Wilhelm Brandau, arrived in New York in the early 1700s from the Palatinate in Germany. Brando was raised a Christian Scientist, however, she was an alcoholic and often had to be brought home from Chicago bars by her husband. In his autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, Brando expressed sadness when writing about his mother, dodie and Brandos father eventually joined Alcoholics Anonymous. Brando harbored far more enmity for his father, stating, I was his namesake and he enjoyed telling me I couldnt do anything right. He had a habit of telling me I would never amount to anything, Brandos parents moved to Evanston, Illinois, when his fathers work took him to Chicago, but separated when Brando was 11 years old. His mother took the three children to Santa Ana, California, where they lived with her mother, in 1937, Brandos parents reconciled and moved together to Libertyville, Illinois, a small town north of Chicago
3.
Charles Laughton
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Charles Laughton was an English stage and film character actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Laughton was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in 1927, he was cast in a play with his future wife Elsa Lanchester, with whom he lived and worked until his death, they had no children. He played a range of classical and modern parts, making an impact in Shakespeare at the Old Vic. His film career took him to Broadway and then Hollywood, but he collaborated with Alexander Korda on notable British films of the era. He portrayed everything from monsters and misfits to kings, among Laughtons biggest film hits were The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Mutiny on the Bounty, Ruggles of Red Gap, Jamaica Inn, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Big Clock. In his later career, he took up directing, notably in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He directed one film, the thriller The Night of the Hunter, Laughton has been seen by one actor as one of the greatest performers of his generation. Daniel Day-Lewis cited him as one of his inspirations, saying and his generosity as an actor, he fed himself into that work. As an actor, you take your eyes off him. Laughton was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, the son of Eliza and Robert Laughton, a blue plaque marks his birthplace. He started work in the hotel, though also participating in amateur theatricals in Scarborough. Allowed by his family to become a student at RADA in 1925. Laughton made his first professional appearance on 28 April 1926 at the Barnes Theatre, as Osip in the comedy The Government Inspector and he impressed audiences with his talent and had classical roles in two Chekov plays, The Cherry Orchard and The Three Sisters. Laughton played the role as Harry Hegan in the world premiere of Seán OCaseys The Silver Tassie in 1928 in London. He played the roles in Arnold Bennetts Mr Prohack and as Samuel Pickwick in Mr Pickwick at the Theatre Royal in London. He played Tony Perelli in Edgar Wallaces On the Spot and William Marble in Payment Deferred and he took the last role across the Atlantic and made his United States debut on 24 September 1931, at the Lyceum Theatre. Laughton commenced his career in Britain while still acting on the London stage. He made an appearance as a disgruntled diner in another silent film Piccadilly with Anna May Wong in 1929
4.
Jean Gabin
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Jean Gabin was a French actor and sometime singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in classic films including Pépé le Moko, La grande illusion, Le Quai des brumes, La bête humaine, Le jour se lève. Gabin was made a member of the Légion dhonneur in recognition of the important role he played in French cinema, Gabin was born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, the son of Madeleine Petit and Ferdinand Moncorgé, a cafe entertainer whose stage name was Gabin. He grew up in the village of Mériel in the Seine-et-Oise département, the son of cabaret entertainers, he attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly. Gabin left school early, and worked as a laborer until the age of 19 when he entered business with a bit part in a Folies Bergères production. He continued performing in a variety of roles before going into the military. He was part of a troupe that toured South America, and his performances started getting noticed, and better stage roles came along that led to parts in two silent films in 1928. Two years later Gabin easily made the transition to talkies, in a 1930 Pathé Frères production titled Chacun sa Chance, playing secondary roles, he made more than a dozen films over the next four years, including films directed by Maurice and Jacques Tourneur. However, he only gained recognition for his performance in Maria Chapdelaine. He was then cast as a hero in a 1936 war drama titled La Bandera. The following year he teamed up with Duvivier again, this time in the highly successful Pépé le Moko and that same year he starred in the Jean Renoir film La Grande Illusion, an anti-war film that ran at a New York City theatre for an unprecedented six months. He was divorced from his wife in 1939. In the late 1930s Gabin was flooded with offers from Hollywood, for a time he turned them all down, after the German occupation of France in 1940, he joined Jean Renoir and Julien Duvivier in the United States. During his time in Hollywood, Gabin began a romance with actress Marlene Dietrich which lasted until 1948. However, his films in America – Moontide and The Impostor, Gabin was a difficult personality, he did serious damage to his Hollywood career while working for RKO Pictures. Scheduled to star in an RKO film, at the last minute he demanded Dietrich be given the co-starring role, after Gabin remained steadfast in his demand, he was fired, and the film project was shelved. Undaunted, he joined General Charles de Gaulles Free French Forces and earned the Médaille militaire, following D-Day, Gabin was part of the military contingent that entered a liberated Paris. He was hired by Marcel Carné in 1946 to star in the film, Les Portes de la Nuit, but his conduct got him fired again
5.
Cary Grant
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Cary Grant was a British-American actor, known as one of classic Hollywoods definitive leading men. He began a career in Hollywood in the early 1930s, and became known for his accent, debonair demeanor. He became an American citizen in 1942, Born in Horfield, Bristol, Grant became attracted to theatre at a young age, and began performing with a troupe known as The Penders from the age of six. After attending Bishop Road Primary School and Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol, he toured the country as a stage performer and he established a name for himself in vaudeville in the 1920s and toured the United States before moving to Hollywood in the early 1930s. Along with the later Arsenic and Old Lace and I Was a Male War Bride, having established himself as a major Hollywood star, he was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Penny Serenade and None but the Lonely Heart. In the 1940s and 1950s, Grant forged a relationship with the director Alfred Hitchcock, appearing in films such as Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief. Hitchcock admired Grant and considered him to have been the actor that he had ever loved working with. His comic timing and delivery made Grant what Premiere magazine considers to have quite simply. Grant was married five times, three of his marriages were elopements with actresses—Virginia Cherrill, Betsy Drake and Dyan Cannon and he has one daughter with Cannon, Jennifer Grant. After his retirement from acting in 1966, Grant pursued numerous business interests, representing cosmetics firm Fabergé. He was presented with an Honorary Oscar by his friend Frank Sinatra at the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970, in 1999, the American Film Institute named Grant the second greatest male star of Golden Age Hollywood cinema, after Humphrey Bogart. Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18,1904 at 15 Hughenden Road in the northern Bristol suburb of Horfield and he was the second child of Elias James Leach and Elsie Maria Leach. Elias, the son of a potter, worked as a tailors presser at a factory, while Elsie. Grants elder brother, John William Elias Leach, died of tuberculous meningitis, Grant considered himself to have been partly Jewish. He had an upbringing, his father was an alcoholic. Wanting the best for her son, Elsie taught Grant song and dance when he was four and she would occasionally take him to the cinema where he enjoyed the performances of Charlie Chaplin, Chester Conklin, Fatty Arbuckle, Ford Sterling, Mack Swain and Broncho Billy Anderson. Grant entered education when he was four-and-a-half and was sent to the Bishop Road Primary School, Bristol, another biographer, Geoffrey Wansell, notes that Elsie blamed herself bitterly for the death of Grants older brother John, and never recovered from it. Grant later acknowledged that his experiences with his fiercely independent mother affected his relationships with women later in life
6.
North by Northwest
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North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The screenplay was by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures and this is one of several Hitchcock films that features a music score by Bernard Herrmann and a memorable opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass. This film is cited as the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits. North by Northwest is now numbered among the essential Hitchcock pictures and is listed as one of the greatest films of all time. It was selected in 1995 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress, as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Two thugs looking for a George Kaplan at a hotel bar see a calling out for him at the same time advertising executive Roger Thornhill summons the waiter. Thornhill, thus, is mistaken for George Kaplan, kidnapped by the thugs, he is brought to the Long Island estate of Lester Townsend, and interrogated by spy Phillip Vandamm. Thornhill vehemently denies he is Kaplan, Vandamm thinks he is lying and Vandamms henchman Leonard tries to arrange Thornhills death, but Thornhill manages to escape a staged drunken driving accident. Thornhill fails to convince his mother and the police that he had been kidnapped, journeying to the scene of the crime with police, a woman at Townsends home, presumed to be Mrs. Townsend, says he showed up drunk at her dinner party. She says Townsend is a United Nations diplomat, while searching Kaplans hotel room with his mother, Thornhill answers a phone call from the thugs who are in the hotel lobby. He escapes and visits the U. N. General Assembly building to meet Townsend and he discovers that Townsend is not the man he met on Long Island, and that Townsend is a widower. As Thornhill questions Townsend, one of the thugs throws a knife, hitting Townsend in the back, Thornhill catches Townsend as he falls and grabs the knife, giving the appearance that he murdered Townsend. Thornhill flees and attempts to find the real Kaplan, meanwhile, a government intelligence agency picks up the news and realizes Thornhill has been mistaken for George Kaplan, a fictional persona created by the agency to thwart Vandamm. However, Thornhill is not rescued for fear of compromising their operation, Thornhill sneaks onto the 20th Century Limited train. He meets Eve Kendall, who protects him from the police, in Chicago, Kendall tells Thornhill she has arranged a meeting with Kaplan at an isolated bus stop. Thornhill waits, but no one comes and he is attacked by a crop duster plane, but steps in front of a speeding tank truck, the airplane crashes into the truck, and Thornhill escapes. When he reaches Kaplans hotel in Chicago, he discovers that Kaplan had checked out, Thornhill goes to her room, but she leaves. He tracks her to an art auction, where he finds Vandamm, Vandamm purchases a Mexican Purépecha statue and departs
7.
Charlton Heston
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Charlton Heston was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in 100 films over the course of 60 years and he played Moses in the epic film, The Ten Commandments, for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He also starred in Touch of Evil with Orson Welles, Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid and he also starred in the films The Greatest Show on Earth, Secret of the Incas, and The Big Country. A supporter of Democratic politicians and civil rights in the 1960s, Heston later became a Republican, founding a political action committee. Hestons most famous role in politics came as the president of the National Rifle Association. After being diagnosed with Alzheimers disease in 2003, he retired from acting and the NRA presidency. Heston died on April 5,2008, aged 84, from pneumonia, Charlton Heston was born on October 4,1923, to Russell Whitford Carter, a sawmill operator and Lilla. Many sources indicate he was born in Evanston, Illinois, Hestons autobiography, however, and some other sources, place his birth in No Mans Land, Illinois, which usually refers to a then-unincorporated area now part of Wilmette, a wealthy Chicago suburb. Heston said in a 1995 interview that he was not very good at remembering addresses or his early childhood, Heston was partially of Scottish descent, including from the Clan Fraser, but the majority of his ancestry was English. His earliest immigrant ancestors arrived in America from England in the 1600s and his maternal great-grandparents, William Charlton and Mary Drysdale Charlton, were English. They emigrated to Canada, where his grandmother, Marian Emily Charlton, was born in 1872, in his autobiography, Heston refers to his father participating in his familys construction business. When Heston was an infant, his fathers work moved the family to St. Helen and it was a rural, heavily forested part of the state, and Heston lived an isolated yet idyllic existence, spending much time hunting and fishing in the backwoods of the area. When Heston was 10 years old, his parents divorced, shortly thereafter, his mother remarried and the new family moved back to Wilmette. Heston attended New Trier High School and he recalled living there, All kids play pretend games, but I did it more than most. Even when we moved to Chicago, I was more or less a loner and we lived in a North Shore suburb, where I was a skinny hick from the woods, and all the other kids seemed to be rich and know about girls. Contradictions on paper and in an interview surround when Charlton became Hestons first name, the 1930 United States Census record for Richfield, Michigan, in Roscommon County, shows his name as being Charlton J. Carter at age six. Later accounts by sources and movie studio biographies say he was born John Charles Carter, interestingly, Charlton was his maternal grandmother Marians maiden name, not his mother Lillas. This is contrary to how 20th century references read and what Heston said, when Hestons maternal grandmother and his true maternal grandfather Charles Baines separated or divorced in the early 1900s, Marian Baines married William Henry Lawton in 1907
8.
Ben-Hur (1959 film)
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Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic historical drama film, directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Charlton Heston as the title character. A remake of the 1925 silent film with the name, Ben-Hur was adapted from Lew Wallaces 1880 novel Ben-Hur. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, Ben-Hur had the largest budget as well as the largest sets built of any film produced at the time. Filming commenced on May 18,1958, and wrapped on January 7,1959, with shooting lasting for 12 to 14 hours a day, pre-production began in Italy at Cinecittà around October 1957, and post-production took six months. Under cinematographer Robert L. Surtees, MGM executives made the decision to film the picture in a widescreen format, more than 200 camels and 2,500 horses were used in the shooting of the film, with some 10,000 extras. The sea battle was filmed using miniatures in a tank on the back lot at the MGM Studios in Culver City. Following a $14.7 million marketing effort, Ben-Hur premiered at Loews State Theatre in New York City on November 18,1959. It was the fastest-grossing as well as the film of 1959. Ben-Hur also won three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Stephen Boyd. In AD26, Judah Ben-Hur is a prince and merchant in Jerusalem. Esther loves Judah but is committed to another, Judahs childhood friend, the Roman citizen Messala, is now a tribune. After several years away from Jerusalem, Messala returns as the new commander of the Roman garrison, Messala believes in the glory of Rome and its imperial power, while Judah is devoted to his faith and the freedom of the Jewish people. This difference causes tension between the friends, and results in their split after Messala issues an ultimatum to Judah, during the parade for the new governor of Judea, Valerius Gratus, loose tiles fall from the roof of Judahs house. Gratus is thrown from his horse and nearly killed. Although Messala knows this was an accident, he condemns Judah to the galleys and imprisons Miriam, by punishing a known friend and prominent citizen, he hopes to intimidate the Jewish populace. After three years as a slave, Judah is assigned to the flagship of the Roman Consul Quintus Arrius. Arrius admires Judahs determination and self-discipline and offers to him as a gladiator or charioteer. Judah declines the offer, declaring that God will aid him in his quest for vengeance, when the Roman fleet encounters the Macedonians, Arrius orders all the rowers except Judah to be chained to their oars
9.
Spencer Tracy
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Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American actor, noted for his natural style and versatility. One of the stars of Hollywoods Golden Age, Tracy was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor. Tracy first discovered his talent for acting while attending Ripon College and he spent seven years in the theatre, working in a succession of stock companies and intermittently on Broadway. Tracys breakthrough came in 1930, when his performance in The Last Mile caught the attention of Hollywood. After a successful debut in Up the River, Tracy was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. His five years with Fox were unremarkable, and he remained unknown to audiences after 25 films. In 1935 Tracy joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, at the time Hollywoods most prestigious studio and his career flourished with a series of hit films, and in 1937 and 1938 he won consecutive Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. By the 1940s, Tracy was one of the top stars. In 1942 he appeared with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, Tracy left MGM in 1955 and continued to work regularly as a freelance star, despite an increasing weariness as he aged. His personal life was troubled, with a struggle against alcoholism. Tracy became estranged from his wife in the 1930s, but never divorced, towards the end of his life, Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer. It was for Kramer that he made his last film, Guess Whos Coming to Dinner in 1967, during his career, Tracy appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screens greatest actors. In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema, Tracy was born on April 5,1900, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the son of Caroline and John Edward Tracy. His mother was a Presbyterian from a wealthy Midwestern family, and his one brother, Carroll, was four years older. Spencer was a difficult and hyperactive child with poor school attendance, raised as a Catholic, at nine years old he was placed in the care of Dominican nuns in the hope of transforming his behavior. Later in life he remarked, I never would have back to school if there had been any other way of learning to read the subtitles in the movies. He became fascinated with motion pictures, watching the same ones repeatedly and then re-enacting scenes to his friends, Tracy attended several Jesuit academies in his teenage years, which he claimed took the badness out of him and helped him improve his grades
10.
Gregory Peck
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Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor who was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck continued to major film roles until the late 1980s. His performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor and he had also been nominated for an Oscar for the same category for The Keys of the Kingdom, The Yearling, Gentlemans Agreement and Twelve OClock High. Other notable films he appeared in include Spellbound, Roman Holiday, Moby Dick, The Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear, How the West Was Won, The Omen, President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood cinema and he was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1983. His father was of English and Irish heritage and his mother of English and she converted to her husbands religion, Roman Catholicism, when she married his father, and Peck was raised as a Catholic. Pecks parents divorced when he was five and he was brought up by his maternal grandmother, at the age of 10 he was sent to a Catholic military school, St. Johns Military Academy in Los Angeles. While he was a student there, his grandmother died, at 14, he moved back to San Diego to live with his father, attended San Diego High School, and after graduating enrolled for one year at San Diego State Teachers College. While there he joined the team, took his first theatre and public-speaking courses. Peck however had ambitions to be a doctor and the following year gained admission to the University of California, Berkeley, as an English major, standing 6 ft 3 in, he rowed on the university crew. Although his tuition fee was only $26 per year, Peck still struggled to pay, at Berkeley, encouraged by the acting coach, who saw in him perfect material for university theatre, Peck became more and more interested in acting. He was recruited by Edwin Duerr, director of the universitys Little Theater, Peck would later say about Berkeley that, it was a very special experience for me and three of the greatest years of my life. It woke me up and made me a human being, in 1997, Peck donated $25,000 to the Berkeley rowing crew in honor of his coach, the renowned Ky Ebright. He was often broke and sometimes slept in Central Park and he worked at the 1939 Worlds Fair and as a tour guide for NBCs television broadcasting. In 1940, Peck learned more of the craft, working in exchange for food, at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, appearing in five plays including Family Portrait. His stage career began in 1941 when he played the secretary in a Katharine Cornell production of George Bernard Shaws play The Doctors Dilemma, unfortunately, the play opened in San Francisco just one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He made his Broadway debut as the lead in Emlyn Williams The Morning Star in 1942 and his second Broadway performance that year was in The Willow and I with Edward Pawley. Twentieth Century Fox claimed he had injured his back while rowing at university, ive been trying to straighten out that story for years
11.
T. E. Lawrence
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Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO was a British archaeologist, military officer, diplomat, and writer. He was renowned for his role during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Chapman had left his wife and first family in Ireland to live with Junner, in 1896, the Lawrences moved to Oxford, where Lawrence attended high school, then in 1907–1910 studied History at Jesus College. Between 1910 and 1914 he worked as an archaeologist, chiefly at Carchemish, soon after the outbreak of war he joined the British Army and was stationed in Egypt. In 1916, he was sent to Arabia on a mission and quickly became involved with the Arab Revolt, serving, along with other British officers. After the war, Lawrence served until 1922 as a diplomat, in 1922, he retreated from public life and spent the years until 1935 serving as an enlisted man, mostly in the Royal Air Force, with a brief stint in the Army. During this time, he wrote and published his work, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. He also translated books into English and completed The Mint, which was published posthumously and he corresponded extensively and was friendly with well-known artists, writers, and politicians. For the RAF, he participated in the design of rescue motorboats, Lawrences public image resulted in part from the sensationalised reporting of the Arab revolt by American journalist Lowell Thomas, as well as from Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In 1935, Lawrence was fatally injured in a accident in Dorset. Lawrence was born on 16 August 1888 in Tremadog, Carnarvonshire, Wales in a house named Gorphwysfa, now known as Snowdon Lodge. His Anglo-Irish father Thomas Chapman had left his wife Edith after he fell in love and had a son with Sarah Junner, a young Scotswoman who had been engaged as governess to his daughters. Sarah was the daughter of Elizabeth Junner and John Lawrence, who worked as a carpenter and was a son of the household in which Elizabeth had been a servant. She was dismissed four months before Sarah was born, Sarah and Thomas did not marry, but lived together under the name Lawrence. In 1914, Sir Thomas inherited the Chapman baronetcy based at Killua Castle, the family home in County Westmeath, Ireland. They had five sons, Thomas Edward was the second eldest, from Wales the family moved to Kirkcudbright, Galloway in southwestern Scotland, then Dinard in Brittany, then to Jersey. In 1894–96, the family lived at Langley Lodge, set in woods between the eastern borders of the New Forest and Southampton Water in Hampshire. The residence was isolated, and young Ned Lawrence had many opportunities for outdoor activities, in the summer of 1896, the Lawrences moved to 2, Polstead Road in Oxford, where they lived under the names of Mr and Mrs Lawrence until 1921
12.
Fredric March
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Fredric March was a distinguished stage actor and one of Hollywoods most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 40s. March is the actor to have won both the Academy Award and the Tony Award twice. March was born in Racine, Wisconsin, the son of Cora Brown Marcher, a schoolteacher, and John F. Bickel, March attended the Winslow Elementary School, Racine High School, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi. He appeared on Broadway in 1926, and by the end of the decade, March served in the United States Army during World War I as an artillery lieutenant. March received an Oscar nomination for the 4th Academy Awards in 1930 for The Royal Family of Broadway and he returned to Broadway after a ten-year absence in 1937 with a notable flop Yr. Obedient Husband, but after the success of Thornton Wilders The Skin of Our Teeth he focused as much on Broadway theatre as Hollywood. He also had successes in A Bell for Adano in 1944 and Gideon in 1961. He also starred in films as I Married a Witch and Another Part of the Forest during this period. On March 25,1954, March co-hosted the 26th Annual Academy Awards ceremony from New York City, marchs neighbor in Connecticut, playwright Arthur Miller, was thought to favor March to inaugurate the part of Willy Loman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman. In 1957, March was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. March co-starred with Spencer Tracy in the 1960 Stanley Kramer film Inherit the Wind, in which he played a version of famous orator. Marchs Bible-thumping character provided a rival for Tracys Clarence Darrow-inspired character, the recordings were narrated by Charles Collingwood, with March and his wife Florence Eldridge performing dramatic readings from historical documents and literature. Following surgery for cancer in 1970, it seemed his career was over, yet he managed to give one last performance in The Iceman Cometh, as the complicated Irish saloon keeper. March was married to actress Florence Eldridge from 1927 until his death in 1975 and he died from prostate cancer, at age 77, in Los Angeles, California, he was buried at his estate in New Milford, Connecticut. Throughout his life, he and his wife were supporters of the Democratic Party, biographies of March include Fredric March, Craftsman First, Star Second by Deborah C. Peterson, and Fredric March, A Consummate Actor by Charles Tranberg, Fredric March at the Internet Movie Database Fredric March at the Internet Broadway Database Photographs of Fredric March
