1.
Robert Altman
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Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema and his style of filmmaking was unique among directors, in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a subversive twist that typically relies on satire and humor to express his personal vision. Altman developed a reputation for being anti-Hollywood and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style, however, actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity. He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He also used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activity taking place on the screen, critic Pauline Kael, writing about his directing style, said that Altman could make film fireworks out of next to nothing. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Altmans body of work with an Academy Honorary Award and he never won a competitive Oscar despite five nominations. His films MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Altman is one of the few filmmakers whose films have won the Golden Bear at Berlin, the Golden Lion at Venice, and the Golden Palm at Cannes. Altmans ancestry was German, English and Irish, his grandfather, Frank Altman. Altman had a Catholic upbringing, but he did not continue to follow or practice the religion as an adult, although he has referred to as a sort of Catholic. He was educated at Jesuit schools, including Rockhurst High School and he graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri in 1943. In 1943 Altman joined the United States Army Air Forces at the age of 18, during World War II, Altman flew more than 50 bombing missions as a crewman on a B-24 Liberator with the 307th Bomb Group in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. Upon his discharge in 1946, Altman moved to California and he worked in publicity for a company that had invented a tattooing machine to identify dogs. He entered filmmaking on a whim, selling a script to RKO for the 1948 picture Bodyguard, Altmans immediate success encouraged him to move to New York City, where he attempted to forge a career as a writer. Having enjoyed little success, in 1949 he returned to Kansas City, in February 2012, an early Calvin film directed by Altman, Modern Football, was found by filmmaker Gary Huggins. Altman directed some 65 industrial films and documentaries before being hired by a businessman in 1956 to write. The film, titled The Delinquents, made for $60,000, was purchased by United Artists for $150,000, while primitive, this teen exploitation film contained the foundations of Altmans later work in its use of casual, naturalistic dialogue
2.
Bob Balaban
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Robert Elmer Bob Balaban is an American actor, author, producer, and director. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Gosford Park, Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television. His mother acted under the name Eleanor Barry and his uncles were dominant forces in the theatre business, they founded the Balaban and Katz Theatre circuit in Chicago, a chain which included the Chicago and Uptown Theatres. Balabans father, Elmer, and uncle, Harry, founded the H & E Balaban Corporation in Chicago and they later owned a powerful group of television stations and cable television franchises. His uncle Barney Balaban was president of Paramount Pictures for nearly 30 years from 1936-64 and his maternal grandmothers second husband, Sam Katz, was a vice president at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer beginning in 1936. Sam had been partners with Bobs uncles Abe, Barney, John. Sam served as President of the Publix theatre division of Paramount Pictures, Balaban began his college career at Colgate University where he joined Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity and then transferred to New York University. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his family and his paternal grandparents emigrated from Russia to Chicago, while his mothers family was from Germany, Russia, and Romania. One of his earliest appearances in film was in Midnight Cowboy, prior to that, he filled the role of Linus in the original off-Broadway production of Youre A Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1967. In 1979 he received a Tony Award nomination for his role in The Inspector General, during the 1980s he appeared in films such as Altered States and 2010. He directed the Randy Quaid picture Parents, and the Armin Mueller-Stahl picture The Last Good Time, Balaban appeared in Miami Vice as reporter Ira Stone. In the 1990s, Balaban had a role on the fourth season of Seinfeld as Russell Dalrymple. He also played Warren Littlefield, a real-world NBC executive, in The Late Shift and he continued his ties to Littlefield in 2012 with his performance of Littlefields autobiography, Top of the Rock, Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV. In 1999, Balaban made a guest appearance in the sitcom Friends as Phoebe Buffays father Frank in The One With Joeys Bag. In 2010, Balaban appeared as Judge Clayton Horn, the judge who presided over the obscenity trial of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. In 2001, Balaban produced Gosford Park, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and he also appeared in the movie as Morris Weissman, a Hollywood producer. He appeared in an episode of Entourage as a known for writing prescriptions for medical marijuana. He directed the film Bernard and Doris, starring Susan Sarandon and he has directed several episodes of the Showtime series Nurse Jackie
3.
Julian Fellowes
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Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford DL, is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, and a Conservative peer of the House of Lords. Fellowes was born in Cairo, Egypt, the youngest son of Canadian-born Peregrine Edward Launcelot Fellowes and his father was a diplomat and Arabist who campaigned to have Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, restored to his throne during World War II. Fellowes has three brothers, Nicholas Peregrine James, wordsmith David Andrew, and playwright Roderick Oliver. The house in Chiddingly, which had been owned by the whodunit writer Clifford Kitchin, was within reach of London where his father. Fellowes has described his father as one of that last generation of men who lived in a pat of butter without knowing it and my mother put him on a train on Monday mornings and drove up to London in the afternoon. At the flat shed be waiting in a snappy little cocktail dress with a delicious dinner, a decided influence to arise from this place was the friendship that developed with another family in the village, the Kingsleys. David Kingsley was head of British Lion Films, the responsible for many Peter Sellers comedies. Sometimes glamorous figures would visit the Kingsleys house, Fellowes said that he thinks he learnt from David Kingsley that you could actually make a living in the film business. Fellowes was educated at private schools in Britain including Wetherby School, St Philips School, and Ampleforth College. He read English Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was a member of Footlights and he studied further at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Fellowes moved to Los Angeles in 1981 and played a number of small TV roles for the two years. Played a part in one of the Tales of the Unexpected and he believed that his breakthrough had come when he was considered to replace Hervé Villechaize as the butler on the TV series Fantasy Island, but the role went to actor Christopher Hewett instead. He was unable to get an audition for the Disney film Baby, Secret of the Lost Legend in Los Angeles, but was offered the role when he was visiting England. When he asked the director why he was not able to get an interview in Los Angeles. After this, Fellowes decided to back to England to further his career. Other notable acting roles included the part of Claud Seabrook in the acclaimed 1996 BBC drama serial Our Friends in the North and the 2nd Duke of Richmond in the BBC drama serial Aristocrats. He portrayed George IV as the Prince Regent for the time in the 1996 adaptation of Bernard Cornwells novel Sharpes Regiment. He also played the part of Kilwillie on Monarch of the Glen and he appeared as the leader of The Hullabaloos in the television adaptation of Arthur Ransomes Coot Club, called Swallows and Amazons Forever
4.
Alan Bates
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In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson. He also continued to appear on the stage, notably in the plays of Simon Gray, such as Butley, the family briefly moved to Mickleover, then returned to Allestree. He also saw productions at Derbys Little Theatre, batess stage debut was in 1955, in You and Your Wife, in Coventry. In 1956 he made his West End debut as Cliff in Look Back in Anger, a role he had originated at the Royal Court and he also played the role on television and on Broadway. In the late 1950s Bates appeared in plays for television in Britain. In 1960 he appeared in The Entertainer opposite Laurence Olivier, his first film role, Bates worked for the Padded Wagon Moving Company in the early 1960s while acting at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City. In 1969 he starred in Women in Love, Bates was handpicked by director John Schlesinger to star in the film Sunday Bloody Sunday to play Dr. Daniel Hirsh. Bates was held up filming The Go-Between for director Joseph Losey, and had become a father around that time. Around this time he appeared as Col. Vershinin in the National Theatres film of Three Sisters, directed by and he later worked with Olivier for television in the Laurence Olivier Presents version of Harold Pinters The Collection and A Voyage Round My Father. Bates starred in international films as An Unmarried Woman and Nijinsky. On television, his parts included Michael Henchard, the lead in The Mayor of Casterbridge - which he described as his favourite role - in the serial adaptation by Dennis Potter. He continued working in film and television in the 1990s, including the role of Claudius in Mel Gibsons version of Hamlet, in 2001 Bates joined an all-star cast in Robert Altmans critically acclaimed period drama Gosford Park, in which he played the butler Jennings. He later played Antonius Agrippa in the 2004 TV film Spartacus, the film was dedicated to his memory and that of writer Howard Fast, who wrote the original novel that inspired the film Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick. In Otherwise Engaged, his co-star was Ian Charleson, who became a friend, Bates was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, and was knighted in 2003. He was an Associate Member of RADA and was a patron of the Actors Centre, Covent Garden, London, Bates was married to Victoria Ward from 1970 until her death in 1992, although they had separated many years earlier. They had twin sons, born in November 1970, the actors Benedick Bates, Tristan died following an asthma attack in Tokyo in 1990. Other sources report Tristan died of an overdose in a public toilet. Bates had numerous homosexual relationships throughout his life, including those with actors Nickolas Grace and Peter Wyngarde, in 1994 Curry died from AIDS in Bates arms
5.
Charles Dance
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Walter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter, and film director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains, Charles Dance was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, the son of Eleanor, a cook, and Walter Dance, an engineer. Growing up in Plymouth, he attended Widey Technical School for Boys in Crownhill, Dance was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during the mid-to-late-1970s and was in many of their productions in London and Stratford-upon-Avon. Later he returned to the RSC to take the role in Coriolanus at Stratford-upon-Avon and Newcastle in 1989. He received rave reviews and a Critics Circle Best Actor award for his performance as the Oxford don C. S. Lewis in William Nicholsons Shadowlands, in the 2007 stage revival. He has also starred in many other British television dramas such as Edward the Seventh, Murder Rooms, Randall and Hopkirk, Rebecca, The Phantom of the Opera, Fingersmith and Bleak House. He also played Guy Spencer, the pro-Hitler propagandist, in the installment of Foyles War. Dance made a guest appearance on the BBC drama series Merlin as the Witchfinder Aredian and he played Havelock Vetinari in the 2010 Sky adaptation of Terry Pratchetts Going Postal. He played the role of Tywin Lannister in HBOs Game of Thrones, based on the Song of Ice, Dance was wooed for the role by the producers whilst filming Your Highness in Belfast. Dance also played Conrad Knox on the British television series Strike Back and he appeared in Paris Connections as the Russian oligarch Aleksandr Borinski. Dance made one of his earliest big screen appearances in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as evil henchman Claus. Though he turned down the opportunity to screen test for the James Bond role, in 1989 he played Bond creator Ian Fleming in Anglia Televisions dramatised biography, Goldeneye. On 30 June 2013, Dance appeared amongst other celebrities in an episode of the BBCs Top Gear as a Star in a Reasonably Priced Car for the debut of the Vauxhall Astra. Dances debut film as a writer and director was Ladies in Lavender, in 2009, he directed his own adaptation of Alice Thomas Elliss The Inn at the Edge of the World. Dance married Joanna Haythorn in 1970 and he became engaged to sculptor Eleanor Boorman in September 2010. They have a daughter, Rose, born in March 2012, Dance was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 17 June 2006. He lives in Kentish Town in north London
6.
Stephen Fry
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Stephen John Fry is an English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist. While at university, he involved with the Cambridge Footlights. As half of the double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie and also took the role of Jeeves in Jeeves. He was also the long-time host of the BBC television quiz show QI and he has also filmed commercials, including an advertisement where he explains the essence of British culture to foreigners arriving at Londons Heathrow Airport. Fry was born in Hampstead, London, on 24 August 1957, the son of Marianne Eve Fry and Alan John Fry, a British physicist and inventor. The Fry family originates in Dorset, at Shillingstone and Blandford, in the early 1800s, Samuel Fry settled in Surrey, Frys mother is Jewish, but he was not brought up in a religious family. His maternal grandparents, Martin and Rosa Neumann, were Hungarian Jews, rosas parents, who originally lived in Vienna, Austria, were sent to a concentration camp in Riga, Latvia, where they were murdered. His mothers aunt and cousins were sent to Auschwitz and Stutthof, Frys father is English, and his paternal grandmother had roots in Kent and Cheshire. Fry grew up in the village of Booton near Reepham, Norfolk, having moved from Chesham, Buckinghamshire and he has an elder brother, Roger, and a younger sister, Joanna. He was expelled from Uppingham when he was 15 and subsequently from the Paston School, at 17, after leaving Norfolk College of Arts and Technology, Fry absconded with a credit card stolen from a family friend. He had taken a coat when leaving a pub, planning to spend the night sleeping rough and he was arrested in Swindon, and, as a result, spent three months in Pucklechurch Prison on remand. While Fry was in Pucklechurch, his mother had cut out the crossword from every copy of The Times since he had been away, Fry later stated that these crosswords were the only thing that got him through the ordeal. Following his release, he resumed his education at City College Norwich and he scored well enough to gain a scholarship to Queens College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, Fry joined the Cambridge Footlights, appeared on University Challenge, Fry also met his future comedy collaborator Hugh Laurie at Cambridge and starred alongside him in the Footlights Club. Frys career in television began with the 1982 broadcasting of The Cellar Tapes, a second series, retitled Alfresco, was broadcast in 1983, and a third in 1984, it established Fry and Lauries reputation as a comedy double act. In 1983, the BBC offered Fry, Laurie and Thompson their own show, which became The Crystal Cube, undeterred, Fry and Laurie appeared in an episode of The Young Ones in 1984, and Fry also appeared in Ben Eltons 1985 Happy Families series. In 1986 and 1987 Fry and Laurie performed sketches on the LWT/Channel 4 show Saturday Live, forgiving Fry and Laurie for The Crystal Cube, the BBC commissioned, in 1986, a sketch show that was to become A Bit of Fry & Laurie. The programme ran for 26 episodes spanning four series between 1986 and 1995, and was very successful, in a 1988 television special, Blackadders Christmas Carol, he played the roles of Lord Melchett and Lord Frondo
7.
Michael Gambon
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Sir Michael John Gambon CBE is an Irish-born English actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. He has won four BAFTA TV Awards and three Olivier Awards, Gambon was born in Cabra, Dublin, during World War II. His father, Edward Gambon, was an engineer, and his mother and his father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London, and so the family moved to Mornington Crescent in north London, when Gambon was five. His father had him made a British citizen, a decision that would later allow Gambon to receive a substantive, rather than honorary, knighthood, brought up as a strict Roman Catholic, he attended St Aloysius Boys School in Somers Town and served at the altar. He then moved to St Aloysius College in Hornsey Lane, Highgate, London and he later moved to North End, Kent, and attended Crayford Secondary School, before leaving with no qualifications at fifteen. He then gained an apprenticeship with Vickers Armstrong as a toolmaker, by the time he was 21, he was a qualified engineer. He kept the job for a year, acquiring a fascination and passion for collecting antique guns, clocks, watches. At age 24, Gambon wrote a letter to Micheál Mac Liammóir and it was accompanied by a CV describing a rich and wholly imaginary theatre career – and he was taken on. Gambon made his professional stage début in the Gate Theatre Dublins 1962 production of Othello, playing Second Gentleman, followed by a European tour. Gambon, along with Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi and Frank Finlay, was hired as one of the to be renowned and played any number of small roles, appearing on cast lists as Mike Gambon. The company initially performed at the Old Vic, their first production being Hamlet, directed by Olivier and starring Peter OToole. Gambon played for four years in many NT productions, including named roles in The Recruiting Officer and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, working with directors William Gaskill, after three years at the Old Vic, Olivier advised Gambon to gain experience in provincial rep. In 1967, he left the NT for the Birmingham Repertory Company, Gambon was suggested for the role of James Bond in On Her Majestys Secret Service, although he was dismissed for being even less known than George Lazenby who was cast. His rise to fame began in 1974 when Eric Thompson cast him as the vet in Alan Ayckbourns The Norman Conquests at Greenwich. A speedy transfer to the West End established him as a actor, squatting at a crowded dining table on a tiny chair. He is also one of the few actors to have mastered the demands of the vast Olivier Theatre, as Simon Callow once said, Gambons iron lungs and overwhelming charisma are able to command a sort of operatic full-throatedness which triumphs over hard walls and long distances. This was to him in good stead in John Dexters masterly staging of The Life of Galileo in 1980. Hall called him unsentimental, dangerous and immensely powerful, and The Sunday Times called his performance a decisive step in the direction of great tragedy, Great acting, while fellow actors paid him the rare compliment of applauding him in the dressing room on the first night
8.
Richard E. Grant
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Richard E. Grant is a Swazi-English actor, screenwriter, director and perfumier. Grant was born Richard Grant Esterhuysen in Mbabane, Swaziland and his father, Henrik Esterhuysen, was head of education for the British government administration in the British Protectorate of Swaziland. His father had English and Dutch/Afrikaner ancestry and his mother was of English, as a boy, Grant went to primary school at St Marks, a local government school in Mbabane that had only recently become racially integrated. When Grant was ten years old, he witnessed his mother commit adultery on the seat of a car with his fathers best friend. This event inspired Grant to keep a diary, which he has continued to do ever since. Grant wears a watch on each wrist, one given to him by his dying father and he is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Swaziland. Grant attended secondary school at Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa, an independent school just outside Mbabane, Grant studied English and drama at the University of Cape Town. He adopted his name when he moved to Britain as an adult. Grant was a member of the Space Theatre Company in Cape Town before moving to London in 1982 and he later stated, I grew up in Swaziland when it was mired in a 1960s sensibility. The kind of English spoken where I grew up was a period English sound, charles Sturridge, who directed Brideshead Revisited for TV, said, you speak English like someone from the 1950s. Grants first film role was the perpetually inebriated title character in Withnail and I, in 1995, Grant starred as the titular character in Peter Capaldis short film Franz Kafkas Its a Wonderful Life. The film won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, Grant has twice portrayed the Doctor from Doctor Who, both outside the main continuity. In the comedy sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, he portrayed a version of the Tenth Doctor and he also voiced a version of the Ninth Doctor for the BBC original animated webcast Scream of the Shalka. The latter had intended to be the official Ninth Doctor prior the revival of the TV series, in August,2012, the BBC announced that Grant would join the cast of Doctor Who for The Snowmen, in which he plays a villain, Dr. Walter Simeon. Grant reprises the role in the series 7 finale, The Name of the Doctor, on 1 December 2006, Grant turned real life investigator when, with the help of BBC Newsnight, he exposed a $98 million scam to sell a bogus AIDS cure. Grant appeared as The Voice in 2+2+2 at American Nights at The Kings Head Theatre, from 3 to 29 July 2007, and in 2008 co-starred in the London-based comedy Filth and Wisdom. In 2008, he made his theatre debut with Opera Australia, playing the role of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, at the Theatre Royal. He played Alain Reille in Yasmina Rezas one-act play God of Carnage at the Theatre Royal, Bath, and subsequently at Cheltenham, Canterbury, Richmond, Brighton and Milton Keynes
9.
Derek Jacobi
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Sir Derek George Jacobi CBE is an English actor and stage director. A forceful, commanding presence, Jacobi has enjoyed a successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya. He has twice awarded a Laurence Olivier Award, first for his performance of the eponymous hero in Cyrano de Bergerac in 1983. He also received a Tony Award for his performance in Much Ado About Nothing in 1984 and his stage work includes playing Octavius Caesar, Edward II, Richard III and Thomas Becket. He holds a knighthood and has appointed a Knight First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog. His paternal great-grandfather had emigrated from Germany to England during the 19th century, Jacobi describes his childhood as happy. In his teens he went to the Leyton Sixth Form College and became a part of the drama club. While in the sixth-form, he starred in a production of Hamlet, at 18 he won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge, where he read history at St Johns College and earned his degree. Younger members of the university at the time included Ian McKellen, during his studies at Cambridge, Jacobi played many parts including Hamlet, which was taken on a tour to Switzerland, where he met Richard Burton. As a result of his performance of Edward II at Cambridge and he played Laertes in the National Theatres inaugural production of Hamlet opposite Peter OToole in 1963. Olivier cast him as Cassio in the successful National Theatre stage production of Othello and he played Andrei in the NT production and film of Three Sisters, both featuring Olivier. On 27 July 1965, Jacobi played Brindsley Miller in the first production of Peter Shaffers Black Comedy and it was presented by the National Theatre at Chichester and subsequently in London. After eight years at the National Theatre, Jacobi left in 1971 to pursue different roles, in 1972, he starred in the BBC serial Man of Straw an adaptation of Heinrich Manns book Der Untertan, directed by Herbert Wise. Jacobi was increasingly busy with stage and screen acting, but his big breakthrough came in 1976 when he played the role in the BBCs series I. He cemented his reputation with his performance as the stammering, twitching Emperor Claudius, in 1979, thanks to his international popularity, he took Hamlet on a theatrical world tour through England, Egypt, Greece, Sweden, Australia, Japan and China, playing Prince Hamlet. He was invited to perform the role at Kronborg Castle, Denmark, known as Elsinore Castle, in 1978 he appeared in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Richard II, with Sir John Gielgud and Dame Wendy Hiller. In 1980, Jacobi took the role in the BBCs Hamlet, made his Broadway debut in The Suicide. In 1986, he made his West End debut in Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore, starring in the role of Alan Turing, the play was taken to Broadway
10.
Kelly Macdonald
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Kelly Macdonald is a Scottish actress, known for her roles in the films Trainspotting, Gosford Park, Intermission, Nanny McPhee, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and Brave. For the 2005 TV film The Girl in the Cafe, she was nominated for a Golden Globe and she was part of the cast of the famous miniseries State of Play portraying the role of Della Smith. For her role in the 2007 film No Country for Old Men and she went on to star for five seasons in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire as Margaret Thompson, for which she received a 2011 Emmy Award nomination. Macdonalds career began while she was working as a barmaid in Glasgow and she saw a leaflet advertising an open casting session for Trainspotting and decided to audition, winning the part of Diane, the underage seductress to Ewan McGregors Renton. Other roles include Mary ONeary in Two Family House, and an actress playing Peter Pan in Finding Neverland and she had major roles in Robert Altmans British period piece Gosford Park, where she played an aristocrats maid, and in Intermission, as Deirdre. On radio, she portrayed Mary in the 1999 BBC radio drama Lifehouse, based on Pete Townshends abandoned rock opera, some of the songs for which were released on The Whos album Whos Next. On television, her highest profile roles have been in two BBC dramas, the Paul Abbott serial State of Play, and the one-off Richard Curtis piece The Girl in the Café, both of these were directed by David Yates, and both also starred Bill Nighy. Her agent was originally unsure she was right for the latter part and her persistence paid off, however, as she was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She played the lead in The Merry Gentleman, as Kate Frazier, in 2010, she played her first comedy role, in the British independent romantic comedy film The Decoy Bride. The Decoy Bride was released in 2012, in 2011, she played the Grey Lady in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the final instalment of the Harry Potter film franchise. She replaced Nina Young, the actress in the role. In 2012, she provided the voice of Merida, the heroine of the Disney/Pixar film Brave, from 2010 until its ending in 2014, she starred in the HBO crime drama Boardwalk Empire as Margaret Thompson, the wife of Prohibition-era Atlantic City crime boss Nucky Thompson. She appeared in all five seasons of the series, in 2011, she and the rest of the shows cast were awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. In 2016, she starred in Ricky Gervais Special Correspondents as Claire Maddox, in 2016, she played the lead role in Hated in the Nation, an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror for which she received critical acclaim. On 3 November 2016 Macdonald was featured in the trailer for Danny Boyles T2 Trainspotting confirming she will reprise her role as Diane from the original film and her mother was a garment industry sales executive. In August 2003 Macdonald married musician Dougie Payne, bassist of rock band Travis, the couple have two children, and moved back to their home town of Glasgow in 2014, after living in London and then New York City. Kelly Macdonald at the Internet Movie Database Kelly Macdonald at the TCM Movie Database Kelly Macdonald at the British Film Institutes Screenonline Kelly Macdonald in Skellig on Sky1, Easter 2009
11.
Helen Mirren
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren DBE is an English actor. The Audience was written by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen, Tingle, Gosford Park, Calendar Girls, The Last Station, Hitchcock, and The Hundred-Foot Journey. She played Victoria Winslow in the action-comedy films Red and Red 2, in 2003, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to the Performing Arts. In 2013, Mirren was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and she was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, west London, the daughter of Kathleen Kitty Alexandrina Eva Matilda and Vasily Petrovich Mironoff. Her mother was English and her father was Russian, originally from Kuryanovo, Mirrens paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat, and was negotiating a deal in Britain when he. The former diplomat became a London cab driver to support his family and his son, Helen Mirrens father, anglicised the family name to Mirren in the 1950s and changed his name to Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, Mirrens mother was a working-class Londoner from West Ham, East London, and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been very anti-monarchist, Mirren was the second of three children, she was born three years after her older sister, Katherine, and also had a younger brother, Peter Basil. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, aged eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and was accepted. By the time she was 20, she was playing Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, as a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, in 1970, the director/producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The film was made for ATV and shown on the ITV Network in the UK and she then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975. According to Beauman, there were no repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC. Her performance earned her the London critics Plays & Players Best Actress award, beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers new farce The Bed Before Yesterday. In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friels Faith Healer, – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983. On 15 February 2013, at the West Ends Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgans The Audience, the show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role, a further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenevs A Month in the Country
12.
Jeremy Northam
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Jeremy Philip Northam is an English actor. He has appeared in the films Gosford Park, Emma, Amistad, The Winslow Boy, Enigma, Martin and Lewis and he played Thomas More in the Showtime series The Tudors. He has recently played Anthony Eden in the Netflix series The Crown Northam was born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, the youngest of four siblings. His mother, Rachel, was a potter and professor of economics, Northam was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Bedford College, University of London now part of Royal Holloway, University of London, and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He married Canadian film/television make-up artist Liz Moro in April 2005 and he has appeared frequently in British films such as Carrington, Emma, The Winslow Boy, An Ideal Husband, Enigma and as Welsh actor and singer Ivor Novello in Gosford Park. He made his American film debut in The Net, in 2002 he starred in the film Cypher alongside Lucy Liu. That same year, he portrayed singer Dean Martin in the CBS film Martin and Lewis and golfer Walter Hagen in Bobby Jones, in 2007 and 2008, he portrayed Thomas More on the Showtime series, The Tudors. He played John Brodie Innes in the 2009 film Creation, based on the life of Charles Darwin and he plays British Prime Minister Anthony Eden in the Netflix drama series, The Crown. His audiobook work includes The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis for Harper Audio, for SilkSoundBooks, he recorded The Real Thing and Other Short Stories and The Aspern Papers, both written by Henry James. In 2007 he recorded Gerard Manley Hopkins poems for The Great Poets edition for Naxos Audiobooks. He recorded the audio book Dark Matter and it was released on 21 October 2010, by Orion. Edward Voysey, The Voysey Inheritance, National Theatre Company, Cottesloe Theatre, London,1989 Also appeared in productions of School for Scandal and The Shaughraun, National Theatre Company
13.
Clive Owen
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Clive Owen is an English actor who first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for playing the lead role in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991. He then received critical acclaim for his work in the film Close My Eyes before earning international attention for his performance as a writer in Croupier. In 2005, he won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the drama Closer. Owen has since played leading roles in such as Sin City, Derailed, Inside Man, Children of Men. In 2012, he earned his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his role in Hemingway & Gellhorn. Since 2014, Owen has played Dr. John W. Thackery on the Cinemax medical drama series The Knick, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination. The fourth of five brothers, Owen was born in Coventry, West Midlands, in the United Kingdom, to Pamela and Jess Owen, a country and western singer. His father left the family when Owen was three years old, and despite a brief reconciliation when Owen was nineteen, the two have remained estranged, raised by his mother and stepfather, a railway ticket clerk, he has described his childhood as rough. While initially opposed to drama school, he changed his mind in 1984, after a long, Owen graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After graduation, he won a position at the Young Vic, initially, Owen carved out a career in television. He won critical acclaim for his performances in the Stephen Poliakoff film Close My Eyes about a brother and sister who embark on a love affair. In 1996, he appeared in his first major Hollywood film The Rich Mans Wife alongside Halle Berry before finding international acclaim in a Channel 4 film directed by Mike Hodges called Croupier. In Croupier, he played the role of a struggling writer who takes a job in a London casino as inspiration for his work. In 1999, he appeared as a driver in Split Second. Owen starred in The Echo, a BBC1 drama, before starring in the film Greenfingers and he then appeared in the BBC1 mystery series Second Sight. Owen became well known to North American audiences in the summer of 2001 after starring as The Driver in The Hire and he then appeared in Robert Altmans Gosford Park. He appeared in the 2002 hit The Bourne Identity, in 2003, he reteamed with director Mike Hodges in Ill Sleep When Im Dead. He starred in Beyond Borders as well as King Arthur in King Arthur and he appeared in the Royal National Theatre debut of the hit play Closer, by Patrick Marber, which was produced as a film in 2004
14.
Ryan Phillippe
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Matthew Ryan Phillippe is an American actor, director, and writer. In the 2000s, he appeared in films, including Gosford Park, Crash, and war drama Flags of Our Fathers, Breach. In 2010, Phillippe starred as Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich in The Bang-Bang Club, currently, he stars in the lead role of Bob Lee Swagger in the USA Network thriller drama Shooter. He was married to actress Reese Witherspoon from 1999 to 2007, together, they have a daughter and he also has a daughter from a relationship with actress Alexis Knapp. Phillippe was born in New Castle, Delaware and his mother, Susan, ran a day care center in the familys house, and his father, Richard Phillippe, was a chemist. Phillippe is of part French descent and he attended New Castle Baptist Academy, where he played basketball and soccer, as well as earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, he was also the yearbook editor in his senior year. Phillippe also attended and graduated from Barbizon Modeling and Talent Agency in Wilmington, Phillippes acting career began after being signed to Cathy Parker Management in Voorhees, New Jersey. Shortly after he made an appearance in the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live and his character Billy Douglas, whom he played from 1992 to 1993, was the first gay teenager on a daytime soap opera. He was cast in the 1997 horror film, I Know What You Did Last Summer, which co-starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt. The film was a success, and led to Phillippe gaining wider renown and being cast in a few more films, including 54 in 1998 opposite Neve Campbell, Salma Hayek. It was a success among its intended audience, cementing Phillippes ability to play characters that require sex appeal. Phillippe can also be seen in the Marcy Playground music video Comin Up From Behind, subsequently, Phillippe had supporting parts in the films Igby Goes Down and Crash, which won the Oscar for Best Picture. His 2003 film The I Inside premiered on cable and his performance was positively received by film critic Richard Roeper, who thought it was Phillippes best performance to date. Phillippes next role was in the thriller Breach, in which he played FBI investigator Eric ONeill opposite Chris Cooper and he has since commented that he believes Cooper to be the best actor America has to offer. He then starred in Chaos, in which he plays an officer, Five Fingers, a drama set in Morocco, Kimberly Peirces Iraq war film Stop-Loss. Next up for Phillippe was a comedic role as Lt. Dixon Piper in MacGruber. It was released in the US and Canada on May 21,2010, as part of the films promotion, Phillippe made his SNL hosting debut on April 17,2010, along with first-time musical performer Kesha. Two days later, on April 19,2010, Phillippe co-hosted WWE Raw with Jonathan Swift and Charo, Phillippe stars as Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich
15.
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
16.
Kristin Scott Thomas
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Dame Kristin Ann Scott Thomas, DBE is an English actress. She won the Best Supporting Actress BAFTA Award for Four Weddings, for her work in the theatre, she has been nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress five times, winning in 2008 for the Royal Court revival of The Seagull. Scott Thomas made her debut in the Prince-directed Under the Cherry Moon in 1986, Further film roles include Bitter Moon, Mission, Impossible, The Horse Whisperer, Gosford Park. She has also worked in French cinema, winning the European Film Award for Best Actress for Philippe Claudels Ive Loved You So Long and her other French films include The Valet, Tell No One, Leaving and Sarahs Key. Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall, Scott Thomas was brought up as a Roman Catholic. Her childhood home was in Trent, Dorset, England and her mother remarried, to another Royal Navy pilot, who also died in a flying accident, six years after the death of her father. Scott Thomas was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College and St Antonys Leweston in Sherborne, Dorset, on leaving school she moved to Hampstead, London, and worked in a department store. She then began training to be a teacher at the Central School of Speech. On being told she would never be a good enough actress and her breakthrough role was in a 1988 adaptation of Evelyn Waughs A Handful of Dust, where she won an Evening Standard British Film Award for most promising newcomer. This was followed by roles opposite Hugh Grant in Bitter Moon and Four Weddings,1996 saw the release of her most famous role as Katharine Clifton in The English Patient, which gained her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations as well as critical acclaim. This was followed by a period working in Hollywood on films such as The Horse Whisperer with Robert Redford. However, growing disillusioned with Hollywood, she took a year off to give birth to her third child and she reprised the role in New York in September 2008. In summer 2011 Scott Thomas returned to Londons West End to star as Emma in Harold Pinters Betrayal at the Comedy Theatre, the revival was directed by Ian Rickson. Her husband was played by Ben Miles and the triangle was completed by Douglas Henshall. In January 2013, she starred in another Pinter play, Old Times, in 2014 she appeared at The Old Vic in the title role of Sophocless Electra. Scott Thomas also has acted in French films, in 2006, she played the role of Hélène, in French, in Ne le dis à personne, by French director Guillaume Canet. In 2008, Scott Thomas received many accolades for her performance in Il y a longtemps que je taime, including BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2003 Birthday Honours and she was named a Chevalier of the Légion dhonneur by the French Government in 2005
17.
Emily Watson
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Emily Margaret Watson, OBE is an English actress. She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress as Janet Leach for the 2011 ITV television film biopic Appropriate Adult, Watson began her career on stage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992. In 2002, she starred in productions of Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya at the Donmar Warehouse, Watson was born in Islington, London. Her father, Richard Watson, was an architect and her mother, Katharine, was an English teacher at St Davids Girls School and she was brought up as an Anglican. Watson has described her childhood self as a Nice middle class English girl, id love to say I was a rebellious teenager but I wasnt. Watson was educated at St James Independent Schools, in west London and she attended the University of Bristol, where she obtained a BA. Following university, she trained at the Drama Studio London and she later received an MA from Bristol University. Watsons career began on the stage and her theatre credits include The Childrens Hour, Three Sisters, Much Ado About Nothing and The Lady from the Sea. Watson has also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company in A Jovial Crew, The Taming of the Shrew, Alls Well That Ends Well and her performance was widely acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic and garnered her an Olivier Award nomination for Uncle Vanya. Watson was virtually unknown until director Lars von Trier chose her to star in his controversial Breaking the Waves after Helena Bonham Carter dropped out at the very last minute. She also played a role in Cradle Will Rock, a story of a theatre show in the 1930s. Though she won the role of Frank McCourts mother in the adaptation of his acclaimed memoir, Angelas Ashes. In 2001, she appeared alongside John Turturro in The Luzhin Defence, in 2004, Watson received a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Peter Sellerss first wife, Anne Howe, in the HBO film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. 2005 saw Watson starring in four films, Wah-Wah, Richard E, in 2007, she appeared in The Water Horse, Legend of the Deep, an adaptation of the Dick King-Smith childrens novel about the origin of the Loch Ness Monster. Watson considers Ginzburg to be her best recent role, however, in 2011, she played Janet Leach in the ITV two-part film Appropriate Adult, about serial killer Fred West, for which she won a BAFTA. She also received rave reviews for her portrayal of Julie Nicholson in the BBC Drama A Song for Jenny, Watson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to drama. In 2017, she starred in the BBC mini-series Apple Tree Yard, in 2007, Mood Indigo, a script written by Watson and her husband, was optioned by Capitol Films. The film is a story set during the Second World War
18.
Patrick Doyle
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Patrick Doyle is a Scottish film composer. Doyle was born on 6 April 1953 in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire and he is a classically trained composer who studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, of which he was made a Fellow in 2001. Doyle joined the Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987 as composer and musical director composing for such as Hamlet, As You Like It. The song Non Nobis, Domine from Henry V was subsequently awarded the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme, in October 1997, shortly after composing for Great Expectations, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Doyle was diagnosed with leukemia. He managed to complete his work for the animated fantasy Quest for Camelot in hospital whilst undergoing treatment, Patrick Doyle’s Music from the Movies concert, in aid of Leukaemia Research UK was staged at the Royal Albert Hall. It was directed by Kenneth Branagh and included appearances from Emma Thompson, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Judi Dench, Alan Rickman, Imelda Staunton, Richard E. Grant, Adrian Lester, and Robbie Coltrane. ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams observed, Patrick Doyles extensive body of work is some of the most compelling and his ability to flawlessly cross genres in film, TV and beyond is why he can successfully score everything from Carlitos Way to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In October 2015, Doyle received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Soundtrack Academy during the Gent Film Festival in Belgium, Harry Potter music Patrick Doyle at the Internet Movie Database 2013 interview at FilmScoreMonthly. com 2015 interview at FilmMusicSite. com
19.
Andrew Dunn (cinematographer)
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Andrew William Dunn, BSC, is a British cinematographer. He received the British Academy of Film and Television Arts best cameraman award three times in the 1980s, Andrew Dunn was born in London, England. He started making films in his teens and joined the BBC as a film editor. Dunn’s first film credit was in 1981 for cinematography on the BBC film Andrina,65, Thomson Gale, Detroit, ISBN 978-0-7876-9042-7 Andrew Dunn at the Internet Movie Database
20.
UK Film Council
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The UK Film Council was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. It was funded from various sources including the National Lottery, john Woodward was the Chief Executive Officer of the UKFC. As at 30 June 2008, the company had 90 full-time members of staff and it distributed more than £160m of lottery money to over 900 films. Lord Puttnam described the Council as a layer of glue thats helped bind the many parts of our disparate industry together. UKFC closed on 31 March 2011, with many of its functions passing to the British Film Institute, however the legal protections offered to English charities like the BFI, meant that its proposals were dismissed in a QCs report as being legally impossible. The UKFC had a mandate that spans cultural, social and economic priorities and this represented a significant change from the UKFCs objectives when it was first established, when it stated its purpose was to create a sustainable UK film industry. The UKFC administered and funded a range of different activities, including, The Development Fund aimed to broaden the quality, range, with £12 million of Lottery funding to invest over three years, the fund aimed to build a talent-driven home for writers, directors and producers. There were two funding programmes, one for first-time feature filmmakers and one for established filmmakers, Awards were made up to £25,000. The fund also offered Signature Awards to help further encourage ambitious and original filmmakers, the New Cinema Fund supported emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream, focusing on innovative writing and gifted directors. The fund had £15 million of Lottery money to invest over three years and funded eight to ten feature films each year and it also supported over 100 short films each year through its short film schemes. Four flagship short film schemes operated nationwide, Cinema Extreme, the Completion Fund, The Magic Hour, the remaining short film funding offered by the UK Film Council was administered by the regional screen agencies and the national screen agencies via the Digital Shorts Scheme and Digital Nation. Features produced by the UKFC New Cinema Fund had an average Metacritic score of over 65, the Office of the British Film Commissioner worked to ensure that the UK remained an attractive production base for international films. The programme also provided funds to YourLocalCinema, the Digital Screen Network – a £12 million investment to equip 240 screens in 210 cinemas across the UK with digital projection technology to give UK audiences much greater choice. As the first ever comprehensive training strategy for the British film industry, first Light, a digital short filmmaking scheme that offered children and young people more opportunities to participate in and learn about filmmaking. These were, EM Media, Film London, Northern Film & Media, North West Vision and Media, Screen East, Screen South, Screen West Midlands, Screen Yorkshire and South West Screen. The BFI was responsible for delivering that part of the UKFCs strategy to help UK audiences enjoy the best of British and world cinema. The move also led American actor and director Clint Eastwood to write to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in August 2010 to protest the decision to close the Council
21.
Entertainment Film Distributors
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Entertainment Film Distributors is a British distributor of independent films in the UK and Ireland for various production companies, currently run by Nigel and Trevor Green. Michael L. Green, their father, was a veteran producer/distributor involved in the industry since the 1930s when he was a teenager. In 1972 he formed Variety the prolific film distributor, in 1978 Green closed Variety and with his two sons Nigel and Trevor formed Entertainment Film Distributors, and was one of the leading forces in UK distribution. Michael L. Green died on 17 June 2003 aged 84 and their first big success was Teen Wolf starring Michael J. Fox. Entertainment also released films for Empire Pictures and New World Pictures, most notably, between 1990 and 2010, Entertainment distributed films made by New Line Cinema along with films from other independent production companies. One of the most notable series of films distributed to date is The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Entertainment Film Distributors have released many BAFTA- and Oscar-winning films including The Departed, Million Dollar Baby, Gosford Park, Brokeback Mountain and The Artist. List of films distributed include, Entertainment Film Distributors at the Internet Movie Database
22.
Focus Features
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Focus Features is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in the United States, Focus Features was formed from the 2002 divisional merger of USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine. USA Films was created by Barry Diller in 1999 when he purchased October Films and Gramercy Pictures from Seagram, Focus most successful release in North America to date is Brokeback Mountain, which earned $83 million at the North American box office. However, this is not counting the total of Traffic. Focus most successful release is Burn After Reading, which earned $163.7 million in worldwide gross revenue. The animated film Coraline was also highly profitable for the company and its DVD and movie rights revenues are boosted by cult classics including Wet Hot American Summer. In May 2015, Gramercy Pictures was revived by Focus as a label, that was on action, sci-fi. In February 2016, Focus merged with Universal Pictures International Productions as part of a new strategy to align the acquisition and production of specialty films in the global market. In August 2011, Focus Features launched Focus World, a label focusing on the video on demand market with plans to distribute 15 films per year. List of Focus Features films Rogue FilmDistrict Sony Pictures Entertainment Stage 6 Films Official website Focus Features at the Internet Movie Database
23.
BFI London Film Festival
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The British Film Institute London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in the United Kingdom, running in the second half of October with cooperation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shorts from approximately 50 countries, in 1953 a group of critics including Dilys Powell of the The Sunday Times, raised the notion of a film festival for London. They reasoned that with Cannes and Venice, as did Edinburgh, had their own, however, the proposition was squared at the press - giving audience a chance to see movies that dont normally release in British cinemas. Originally to be a festival of festivals, it focused on screening a selection of titles from other European film festivals, including Cannes. The first London Film Festival was conceived by James Quinn, and it was launched after the inauguration of the new NFT on its current site under Waterloo Bridge. It screened only 15-20 films from a selection of directors, including Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Yasujirō Ozu, Luchino Visconti. While the programme still retains the feel, it also now shows new discoveries from important. Whilst it continues to be first and foremost a public festival, it is attended by large numbers of film professionals. Importantly, it offers opportunities for people to see films that may not otherwise get a UK screening along with films which will get a release in the near future. Previously a number of awards were presented at the Closing gala, but in 2009, with the aid of some funding from the UK Film Council. The 2009 Festival featured 15 world premieres including Wes Anderson’s first animated feature, in addition to Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up In The Air, George Clooney supported his role in The Men Who Stare At Goats. On August 2016, American distributor A24s Free Fire was chosen to close the 2016 London Film Festival, the Sutherland Trophy – for the most original and innovative first feature in the London Film Festival. Named after the BFI’s patron, this award boasts recipients as noteworthy as Bertolucci, Fassbinder, Godard, the Grierson Award – for the best feature-length documentary in the festival. This award is given jointly by the LFF and the Grierson Trust which commemorates the pioneering Scottish documentary-maker John Grierson, famous for Drifters, the Grierson Trust has a long-standing tradition of recognising outstanding films that demonstrate integrity, originality and technical excellence and social or cultural significance. From 2009, a new standalone awards ceremony was launched which included the awards, Best Film – celebrates creative, original, imaginative, intelligent. BFI Fellowships – the Festival showcases both the work of new film-makers and established ones, and presenting two Fellowships provides a fitting contrast to those Awards recognising new talent, jonathan Caouette 7th FIPRESCI International Critics Award Aaltra, dir. Gustave de Kervern and Benoit Delepine The Alfred Dunhill UK Film Talent Award A Way Of Life, amma Asante 9th Annual Satyajit Ray Award The Woodsman, dir. Nicole Kassell TCM Classic Shorts Award Nits, dir, harry Wootliff The Sutherland Trophy For the Living and the Dead, dir
24.
Mystery film
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Mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, investigation, suspense is often maintained as an important plot element. This can be done through the use of the soundtrack, camera angles, heavy shadows, Alfred Hitchcock used all of these techniques, but would sometimes allow the audience in on a pending threat then draw out the moment for dramatic effect. This genre has ranged from early mystery tales, fictional or literary detective stories, a related film subgenre is spy films. Mystery films mainly focus with solving a crime or a puzzle, the mystery generally revolves around a murder which must then be solved by policemen, private detectives, or amateur sleuths. At times the viewer is presented with information not available to the main character, the central character usually explores the unsolved crime, unmasks the perpetrator, and puts an end to the effects of the villainy. The successful mystery film adheres to one of two types, known as Open and Closed. Mystery novels have proven to be a medium for translation into film. The sleuth often forms a leading character, and the plots can include elements of drama, suspense, character development, uncertainty. The locales of the tale are often of a mundane variety. Successful mystery writers can produce a series of books based on the same sleuth character, until at least the 1980s, women in mystery films have often served a dual role, providing a relationship with the detective and frequently playing the part of woman-in-peril. The women in films are often resourceful individuals, being self-reliant, determined. They can provide the triggers for the events follow, or serve as an element of suspense as helpless victims. The earliest mystery films reach back to the silent era, the first detective film is often cited as Sherlock Holmes Baffled, a very short Mutoscope reel created between 1900 and 1903 by Arthur Marvin. It is the film to feature the character of detective Sherlock Holmes. In France, the popular Nick Carter detective novels inspired the first film serial, Nick Carter and this six-episode series was followed with Nouveaux aventures de Nick Carter in 1909. Louis Feuillade created the highly popular Fantômas serial based on the serial novel about Juve. Later detective serials by Feuillade include The Vampires, Judex, Tih Minh, feuillades films, which combined realism, poetic imagery, and pure fantasy, influenced the American The Perils of Pauline, directors such as René Clair, and Surrealists such as André Breton
25.
English country house
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An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are, frequently, the formal business of the counties was transacted in these country houses. With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for rural communities. In turn, until the agricultural depressions of the 1870s, the estates, of country houses were the hub. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the swansong of the traditional English country house lifestyle, increased taxation and the effects of World War I led to the demolition of hundreds of houses, those that remained had to adapt to survive. While a château or a schloss can be a fortified or unfortified building, if fortified, it is called a castle, but not all buildings with the name castle are fortified. The term stately home is subject to debate, and avoided by historians, as a description of a country house, the term was first used in a poem by Felicia Hemans, The Homes of England, originally published in Blackwoods Magazine in 1827. In the 20th century, the term was popularised in a song by Noël Coward. The books collection of homes also includes George IVs Brighton town palace. The country houses of England have evolved over the last five hundred years, before this time, larger houses were usually fortified, reflecting the position of their owners as feudal lords, de facto overlords of their manors. The Tudor period of stability in the saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses. Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries saw many former ecclesiastical properties granted to the Kings favourites, woburn Abbey, Forde Abbey and many other mansions with abbey or priory in their name became private houses during this period. Other terms used in the names of houses to describe their origin or importance include palace, castle, court, hall, mansion, park, house, manor, and place. Burghley House, Longleat House, and Hatfield House are among the best known examples of the prodigy house. Some of the best known of Englands country houses were built by one architect at one time, Montacute House, Chatsworth House. They finally ran out of funds in the early 20th century, an example of this is Brympton dEvercy in Somerset, a house of many periods that is unified architecturally by the continuing use of the same mellow, local Ham Hill stone
26.
Agatha Christie
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Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE was an English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot. She also wrote the worlds longest-running play, a mystery, The Mousetrap. In 1971 she was made a Dame for her contribution to literature, Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon. She served in a hospital during the First World War before marrying and starting a family in London and she was initially an unsuccessful writer, but The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in 1920 featuring Hercule Poirot. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time and her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the worlds most-widely published books, behind only Shakespeares works and the Bible. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages. And Then There Were None is Christies best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the worlds best-selling mystery ever, in 1955 Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of Americas highest honour, the Grand Master Award. Later the same year, Witness for the Prosecution received an Edgar Award by the MWA for Best Play, in 2013, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was voted the best crime novel ever by 600 fellow writers of the Crime Writers Association. Most of her books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born on 15 September 1890, into a wealthy upper middle-class family in Ashfield, Torquay, Devon. Her mother, Clara Boehmer, was an Englishwoman who was born in Belfast in 1854 to Captain Frederick Boehmer and Mary Ann West, Clara Boehmer had four brothers, one of whom died young. Captain Boehmer was killed in an accident while stationed on Jersey in April 1863. Under financial strain, she sent Clara to live with her aunt Margaret Miller, the couple lived in Prinsted, West Sussex. Clara stayed with Margaret, and there she met her husband, an American stockbroker named Frederick Alvah Miller. Christies father Frederick was a member of the American upper class and he was considered personable and friendly by those who knew him. He soon developed a relationship with Clara, and they were married in April 1878. Clara soon purchased a villa in Torquay named Ashfield in which to raise her family, Christie described her childhood as very happy. She was surrounded by a series of strong and independent women from an early age
27.
Shepperton Studios
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Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group, during its early existence the studio was branded as Sound City. Before Shepperton Studios was built, there was Littleton Park, which was built in the 17th century by local nobleman Thomas Wood, the old mansion still stands on the site. Scottish businessman Norman Loudon purchased Littleton Park in 1931 for use by his new company, Sound Film Producing & Recording Studios. The studios, which produced short and feature films, quickly became successful and expanded rapidly. The Ministry of Aircraft Production also took part of the studios for the production of Vickers Wellington bomber components early in the war. After re-opening in 1945, the studios changed hands, when Sir Alexander Korda purchased British Lion Films, he also acquired a controlling interest in Sound City and Shepperton Studios. In January 1955, a new company, British Lion Films Ltd, was formed and Roy and their comedies, such as Im All Right Jack, were produced there, as were dramas from other film-makers such as J. Lee Thompsons The Guns of Navarone. The studios other projects from the decade include Stanley Kubricks Dr Strangelove. Which won the Sound Departments Academy Award, despite the financial ups and downs of British Lion and the changing of hands, the studios remained active until the early 1970s. In 1969, the studios produced 27 films, by 1971 this number had fallen to seven, Production throughout the 1970s was erratic, reaching a low of two films by 1979. A compromise was proposed, and in 1973 the area of the studios was reduced from 60 acres to 20 acres. The studios 1970s credits include Kubricks A Clockwork Orange and Jimmy Perry and David Crofts Dads Army, Richard Attenboroughs Young Winston, in 1978, rock band The Who filmed live concert scenes at Shepperton especially for their documentary The Kids Are Alright. In 1995, the studios were purchased by a consortium headed by Ridley and Tony Scott, which led to an extensive renovation of the studios as well as the expansion and improvement of its grounds. Shepperton Studios has 15 stages, ranging in size from 3,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet, five of which are equipped with interior tanks for water and underwater filming. The childrens TV series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends was shot on the T Stage from 1984 to 2008, the nearby Little House and surrounding grounds have been used as a filming location for films such as The Omen and The Young Victoria. The studios also have two large backlots, which have recently used to create two castle compounds for the film 47 Ronin. Many films have used Shepperton Studios, including, Thomas & Friends TUGS Red Dwarf Rebecca Dancing on Ice The Crystal Maze Russell Howards Good News You Bet, official history Shepperton Studios Biography Shepperton Studios The Pinewood Studios Group
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Box office
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A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is used, especially in the context of the film industry, as a synonym for the amount of business a particular production, such as a film or theatre show. Box office business can be measured in terms of the number of tickets sold or the amount of money raised by ticket sales, the projection and analysis of these earnings is very important for the creative industries and often a source of interest for fans. This is predominant in the Hollywood movie industry, the term is attested since 1786, presumably from sales of boxes. The sense of total sales is attested from 1904, however, first attestation is about 200 years later, making this highly unlikely. Some complain that film industry focus on profit has diminished the attention given to film as an art form, however, analysis of the financial success of films is very influential for the production and funding of future works. In December 2009, with its acquisition of Nielsen EDI for $15 million, measurement company Rentrak became the provider of worldwide box office ticket sales revenue. There are numerous websites that monitor box-office receipts, such as Boxoffice, Box Office India, Box Office Mojo, Koimoi, ShowBIZ Data, for a list of films which are major box-office hits, see List of highest-grossing films. Films that are considered to have been unsuccessful at the box office are called box office bombs or box office flops. For a list of films, see List of box office bombs. To determine if a movie made a profit, it is not correct to directly compare the box office gross with the production budget, the split varies from movie to movie, and the percentage for the distributor is generally higher in early weeks. Usually the distributor gets a percentage of the revenue after first deducting a house allowance or house nut and it is also common that the distributor gets either a percentage of the gross revenue, or a higher percentage of the revenue after deducting the nut, whichever is larger. The following is film industry specific terminology as defined by Box Office Mojo, for films released in North America, box office figures are usually divided between domestic, meaning the United States and Canada, and foreign which includes all other countries. Weekly box office figures are taken to be from Friday through Thursday to allow for the fact that most films are released on a Friday, a large component of this is the weekend box office, defined as the box office receipts from Friday through Sunday. In particular, the box office for the initial week of release. Theaters is the number of theaters in which the movie is showing, since a single theater may show a movie on multiple screens, the total number of screens is used as another measure. The theaters measure is used to determine whether a film is in wide release, meaning at least 600 theaters, occasionally, a film may achieve wide release after an initial limited release, Little Miss Sunshine is an example of this
29.
MASH (film)
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MASH is a 1970 American satirical black comedy war film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr. based on Richard Hookers novel MASH, A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The picture is the feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise. The film depicts a unit of medical personnel stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, the film won Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, later named Palme dOr, at 1970 Cannes Film Festival. The film went on to receive five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, MASH was deemed culturally significant by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The Academy Film Archive preserved MASH in 2000, the film inspired the popular and critically acclaimed television series M*A*S*H, which ran from 1972 to 1983. The plot is told as a series of vignettes surrounding the life of the namesake Mobile Army Surgical Hospital where it is set. Set in 1951 in South Korea, the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is assigned two replacements, Captains Hawkeye Pierce and Duke Forrest, who arrive in a stolen Jeep and they are insubordinate, womanizing, mischievous rule-breakers, but they soon prove to be excellent combat surgeons. As the film progresses, further scenes introduce additional characters, other characters arrive after Hawkeye and Duke, and become integrated into camp life, such as surgeon Trapper John and Nurse Margaret Houlihan. After the characters are introduced, which forms the opening act and they are prone to pranks and heavy drinking. The other faction forms around the relationship between Majors Houlihan and Burns, who are both career military personnel. The two factions battle back and forth in a series of pranks and reprisals until Burns is goaded into punching Hawkeye, the removal of Burns changes the camp social dynamic and marks the transition to the third act. Trapper and Hawkeye are removed to Japan to operate on a congressmans son, upon returning to Korea, General Hammond and Colonel Blake organize a friendly football game, with some money thrown into a pot to make bets. Hawkeye and Blake arrange for a plan in order to assure victory, first, they get Henry to apply for a specific neurosurgeon, Dr. Oliver Harmon Jones, a former professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers. Then, they bet half their money up front and keep the ringer out of the first half of the game, during the game, Houlihan uncharacteristically participates as a cheerleader in an effort to fit in. Once the other team racks up some points and becomes confident enough to offer good odds to bet the rest of the money. The 325th has its own ringers, however, and the 4077th fights back with illegal injuries, the game comes down to the last play, in which the quarterback returns the ball to the center, SSgt. Vollmer, who hides the ball under his jersey and runs into the end zone for the winning touchdown, the screenplay, by Ring Lardner, Jr. is different from the original novel. In the DVD audio commentary, Altman describes the novel as pretty terrible and he claims that the screenplay was used only as a springboard
30.
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
31.
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
32.
Downton Abbey
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Downton Abbey is a historical period drama television series created by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece. It first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2010, the sixth and final series introduces the rise of the working class during the interwar period and hints towards the eventual decline of the British aristocracy. It was recognised by Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed English-language television series of 2011 and it earned the most nominations of any international television series in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, with twenty-seven in total. It was the most watched series on both ITV and PBS, and subsequently became the most successful British costume drama series since the 1981 television serial of Brideshead Revisited. By the third series, it had one of the most widely watched television drama shows in the world. On 26 March 2015, Carnival Films and ITV announced that the series would be the last. It aired on ITV between 20 September 2015 and 8 November 2015, the final episode, serving as the annual Christmas special, was broadcast on 25 December 2015. The storyline centres on the fee tail or entail governing the titled elite, as part of the backstory, the main character, Robert, Earl of Grantham, had resolved past financial difficulties by marrying Cora Levinson, an American heiress. Her considerable dowry is contractually incorporated into the comital entail in perpetuity, Robert and Cora have three daughters and no sons. As the eldest daughter, Lady Mary Crawley was to marry her second cousin, the first episode begins as news reaches Downton Abbey that both Grantham heirs perished in the sinking of the Titanic. A distant male cousin, solicitor Matthew Crawley, is from an upper-middle-class family - as his mother reminds him in one of series one. Matthew Crawley becomes the new heir, the plot centres on the relationship between Lady Mary and Matthew, who resists embracing an aristocratic lifestyle. A subplot involves John Bates, Lord Granthams new valet, and Thomas Barrow, Bates and Thomas remain at odds in subsequent series. Barrow works to sabotage Bates after learning he was released from jail for theft. In the story line, Barrow, a gay man in late Edwardian England, aided by Miss OBrien, Lady Granthams personal maid, Barrow is caught stealing, but he joins the British army as a medic. Matthew eventually falls in love with Lady Mary, but she rejects his proposal. Cora becomes pregnant, possibly with an heir, but falls and miscarries after OBrien, mistakenly believing she was to be fired. The series ends just after the Archduke Franz Ferdinands assassination and the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914, the second series comprises eight episodes and runs from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 to the 1918 flu pandemic
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Domestic worker
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A domestic worker or domestic helper or domestic servant is a person who works within the employers household. Other responsibilities may include cooking, laundry and ironing, shopping for food, such work has always needed to be done but before the Industrial Revolution and the advent of labour saving devices, it was physically much harder. Some domestic helpers live within their employers household, in some cases, the contribution and skill of servants whose work encompassed complex management tasks in large households have been highly valued. However, for the most part, domestic work, while necessary, is demanding, although legislation protecting domestic workers is in place in many countries, it is often not extensively enforced. In many jurisdictions, domestic work is regulated and domestic workers are subject to serious abuses. Servant is an older English word for domestic worker, though not all servants worked inside the home, Domestic service, or the employment of people for wages in their employers residence, was sometimes simply called service and has often been part of a hierarchical system. The United Kingdoms Master and Servant Act 1823 was the first of its kind and influenced the creation of domestic laws in other nations. However, before the passing of such Acts servants, and workers in general, had no protection in law, the only real advantage that domestic service provided was the provision of meals, accommodation, and sometimes clothes, in addition to a modest wage. Service was normally an apprentice system with room for advancement through the ranks, the conditions faced by domestic workers have varied considerably throughout history and in the contemporary world. In 2011, the International Labour Organization adopted the Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers. In July 2011, at the annual International Labour Conference, held by the ILO, conference delegates adopted the Convention on Domestic Workers by a vote of 396 to 16, the Convention recognized domestic workers as workers with the same rights as other workers. On 26 April 2012, Uruguay was the first country to ratify the convention, many domestic workers are live-in domestics. Though they often have their own quarters, their accommodations are not usually as comfortable as those reserved for the family members, in some cases, they sleep in the kitchen or small rooms, such as a box room, sometimes located in the basement or attic. Domestic workers may live in their own home, though often they are live-in domestics, meaning that they receive their room. The majority of workers in China, Mexico, India. Employers may require their domestic workers to wear a uniform, livery or other domestic workers clothes when in their employers residence, the uniform is usually simple, though aristocratic employers sometimes provided elaborate decorative liveries, especially for use on formal occasions. In traditional portrayals, the attire of domestic workers especially was typically more formal, on 30 March 2009, Peru adopted a law banning employers from requiring domestic workers to wear uniform at public places. However, it’s not explained which punishments will be given to employers violating the law, chile adopted a similar law in 2014, also banning employers to require domestic workers to wear uniform at public places
34.
Tom Hollander
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Thomas Anthony Hollander is an English actor. He began his career in theatre, winning the Ian Charleson Award in 1992 for his performance as Witwoud in The Way of the World at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. He is known for his roles in films such as Pirates of the Caribbean and In the Loop and drama films such as Enigma, Pride & Prejudice, Gosford Park. He played the role in the sitcom Rev. which won the British Academy Television Award for best sitcom in 2011. He also starred in the BBC series The Night Manager and ITVs Doctor Thorne and he is currently appearing as Henry Carr in a revival of Tom Stoppards play Travesties at the Apollo Theatre in London, directed by Patrick Marber. The play transferred to the West End, with the same cast, after its run at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Hollander has been nominated for an Olivier Award for Best actor for his role in Travesties and he will play Dr. Sorgh in the film Tulip Fever which is due for U. S. release in 2017. The screenplay, also by Stoppard, is an adaptation of Deborah Moggachs historical novel and he will also appear as Garin in Terry Georges historical drama The Promise, his third collaboration with George who also directed him in Some Mothers Son and Whole Lotta Sole. In January 2016, he became an Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Hollander was born in Bristol, the son of teachers, and was raised in Oxford. His father is descended from Czech Jews who converted to Catholicism and he attended the Dragon School and then Abingdon School, where he was chief chorister. As a youngster, he was a member of the National Youth Theatre, in 1981, at the age of 14, he won the lead role in a BBC dramatisation of Leon Garfields John Diamond. Hollander read English at Selwyn College, Cambridge and he was actively involved in stage productions as a member of the Footlights and was president of the Marlowe Society. Sam Mendes, a friend and fellow student, directed him in plays while they were at Cambridge. He has worked repeatedly with Michael Gambon and Bill Nighy and is a friend of James Purefoy. Although highly respected as an actor and the recipient of several awards. Hollander portrayed Lord Cutler Beckett, the heavy in Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Mans Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean and he also appeared in the TNT miniseries The Company as Kim Philby, having previously played Guy Burgess in the BBCs Cambridge Spies. He returned to the stage in 2007 with the premiere of Joe Penhalls play Landscape with Weapon at the Royal National Theatre. In 2008 he made a cameo appearance as King George III in the HBO mini-series John Adams
35.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
36.
Ivor Novello
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Ivor Novello, born David Ivor Davies, was a Welsh composer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. He was born into a family and his first successes were as a songwriter. His first big hit was Keep the Home Fires Burning, which was popular during the First World War. His 1917 show, Theodore & Co, was a wartime hit, after the war, Novello contributed numbers to several successful musical comedies and was eventually commissioned to write the scores of complete shows. He wrote his musicals in the style of operetta and often composed his music to the librettos of Christopher Hassall, in the 1920s, he turned to acting, first in British films and then on stage, with considerable success in both. He starred in two silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Lodger and Downhill, on stage, he played the title character in the first London production of Liliom. Novello briefly went to Hollywood, but he returned to Britain. The best known of these were Glamorous Night and The Dancing Years, from the 1930s, he often performed with Zena Dare, writing parts for her in his works. He continued to write for film, but he had his biggest late successes with stage musicals, Perchance to Dream, Kings Rhapsody and Gays the Word. Novello was born in Cardiff, Wales, to David Davies, a rent collector for the city council, and his wife, Clara Novello Davies, as a boy, Novello was a successful singer in the Welsh Eisteddfod. Another of his mothers associates was Clara Butt, who taught him to sing Abide with Me when he was a boy of six, Novello was educated privately in Cardiff and then in Gloucester, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Herbert Brewer, the cathedral organist. From there he won a scholarship to Magdalen College School in Oxford and he later said that this prolonged youthful exposure to early sacred choral music had turned his tastes, in reaction, to lush romantic music. Although Brewer had told him he would not have a career in music, Novello from his early youth showed a facility for writing songs, after leaving school, he gave piano lessons in Cardiff, and then moved to London in 1913 with his mother. They took a flat above the Strand Theatre, which became his London home for the rest of his life, in London he found a mentor in Sir Edward Marsh, a well-known patron of the arts. Marsh encouraged him to compose and introduced him to people who could help his career and he adopted part of his mothers maiden name, Novello as his professional surname, although he did not change it legally until 1927. In other respects, the war had less impact on Novello than on many men of his age. He avoided enlistment until June 1916, when he reported to a Royal Naval Air Service training depot as a probationary flight sub-lieutenant. After twice crashing an aeroplane, and with the influence of Marsh, Novello continued to write songs while serving in the RNAS
37.
Laurence Fox
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Laurence Paul Fox is an English actor, singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for his leading role as DS James Hathaway in the British TV drama series Lewis from 2006 to 2015. His debut album, Holding Patterns, was released in February 2016, Laurence Fox was born in 1978 in Yorkshire. At the age of thirteen he entered Harrow School where, according to him, he was shy around women, sensitive and a bit naïve. Although he made friends and liked the drama teacher, he hated the strict regimen and felt despised and out of place among pupils with titles. Constantly in trouble for smoking, fighting, going into town and seeing girls, according to him, It was something to do with a girl at a dance. I went back to take the exams, but I wasnt allowed to speak to anyone, with hindsight, Fox has said that his experience at Harrow enabled him to portray toffs – the upper-class boys looking down on him and whom he disliked – with much insight and cynicism. Despite doing well in his A-level examinations, because of his report from Harrow he was unable to obtain a place at any university. After working as a gardener for two years, and a stint as an office worker which he loathed, he discovered that he enjoyed acting, however, he was disappointed to find that he was treated like a nonce for being an Old Harrovian. He also made himself unpopular by being outspoken and taking on roles in his second. One of these was his first break into film – the 2001 horror-thriller The Hole, Fox feels that in landing the role his name probably helped – its a combination of timing, luck and contacts. Nonetheless, the name opens some doors, but then you have to show you can do the job, Fox, who graduated from RADA on 1 July 2001, followed up The Hole by appearing in Robert Altmans 2001 Academy Award-winning film Gosford Park. In the last made-for-television film, Fox played Capt, the next day, at a lunch meeting with all the powers that be regarding a new project, Whately mentioned that Fox would be worth taking a look at. The pilot of this spin-off from Inspector Morse, was ITVs highest rated drama of 2006, in addition, in that year Fox was seen on ITV as Cecil Vyse in Andrew Davies adaptation of A Room with a View based on E. M. Forsters 1908 novel. He has expressed a desire to appear in a western, on stage, Fox appeared in Mrs. Warrens Profession by George Bernard Shaw at the Strand Theatre in London in 2002, and John Fords 17th-century play Tis Pity Shes a Whore in 2005. Between 2006 and 2007 he starred in Treats by Christopher Hampton with his future wife, in April 2007, Fox lost his temper with a paparazzi photographer outside the Garrick Theatre in London where he was performing in Treats and was arrested for assault. He was later released after receiving a police caution, newspaper reports stated that the caution would remain on his record for three years and might prevent his obtaining a visa to perform in the US. In 2013, Fox played Guy Haines in Strangers on a Train at Londons Gielgud Theatre, on 9 May 2015 he portrayed a wartime soldier composing a letter at VE Day 70, A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London that was broadcast live on BBC1. When filming, Fox often plays the jester to amuse the cast and he has said, Id just rather have a good time than I would be Daniel Day-Lewis
