Ron Moody was an English actor, singer and writer best known for his portrayal of Fagin in Oliver! and its 1983 Broadway revival. Moody earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for the film, as well as a Tony Award nomination for the stage production. Other notable projects include The Mouse on the Moon, Mel Brooks's The Twelve Chairs and Flight of the Doves, in which Moody shared the screen with Oliver! co-star Jack Wild. Moody holds the peculiar distinction of having portrayed the wizard Merlin in two Disney films, Unidentified Flying Oddball and A Kid in King Arthur's Court. Moody was born in Tottenham, the son of Kate and Bernard/Barnett Moodnick, a studio executive, his father was a Russian Jew and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He was a cousin of actress Clare Lawrence, his surname was changed to the more anglicised Moody in 1930. Moody was educated at Southgate County School, which at the time was a state grammar school, based in Palmers Green, followed by the London School of Economics in Central London, where he trained to become an economist.

During World War II he became a radar technician. Despite training to be an economist, Moody began appearing in theatrical shows and decided to become a professional actor. Moody worked in a variety of genres, but is best known for his starring role as Fagin in Lionel Bart's stage and film musical Oliver! based on Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. He created the role in the original West End production in 1960, reprised it in the 1984 Broadway revival, garnering a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. For his performance in the 1968 film Oliver!, he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, the Best Actor award at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. Reflecting on the role, Moody states: "Fate destined me to play Fagin, it was the part of a lifetime. That summer of 1967 was one of the happiest times of my life", he reprised his role as Fagin at the 1985 Royal Variety Performance in Theatre Royal, Drury Lane before Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Moody appeared in several children's television series, including the voice of Badger and Toad in the TV Adaptation of Colin Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood, Noah's Island and Into the Labyrinth. Among his better known roles was that of Prime Minister Rupert Mountjoy in the comedy The Mouse on the Moon, alongside Margaret Rutherford, with whom he appeared again the following year in Murder Most Foul, one of Rutherford's Miss Marple films, he played French entertainer and mime artist The Great Orlando in the 1963 Cliff Richard film Summer Holiday. He acted again with former Oliver! co-star Jack Wild in Flight of the Doves. In 1969, Moody was offered, but declined, the lead role in Doctor Who, following the departure of Patrick Troughton from the part, he told many people that declining the role was a decision he subsequently regretted. He played Ippolit Vorobyaninov alongside Frank Langella in Mel Brooks' version of The Twelve Chairs. In 2003, he starred in the black comedy Paradise Grove alongside Rula Lenska, played Edwin Caldecott, an old nemesis of Jim Branning on the BBC soap EastEnders.

In 2005, he acted in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio play Other Lives, playing the Duke of Wellington. He made several appearances in BBC TVs long running variety show, The Good Old Days, enacting pastiche/comic Victorian melodramas. In 2004, the British ITV1 nostalgia series After They Were Famous hosted a documentary of the surviving cast of the film Oliver! Several of the film's musical numbers were reenacted. Moody 80 but still spry, Jack Wild recreated their dance from the closing credits of the film. Moody appeared in an episode of BBC1's Casualty as a Scottish patient who had served with the Black Watch during the Second World War. On 30 June 2010, Moody appeared on stage at the end of a performance of Cameron Mackintosh's revival of Oliver! and made a humorous speech about the show's 50th anniversary. He reprised the "Pick a Pocket or Two" number with the cast. Moody was a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur FC. Moody married a Pilates teacher, Therese Blackbourn, in 1985; the couple had six children.

Moody died of natural causes whilst in a London hospital on 11 June 2015, aged 91. Following the death of Sheila White who played Bet left Shani Wallis, who played Nancy, Mark Lester, who played Oliver and Kenneth Cranham who played Noah Claypole as the last surviving cast members from Oliver! Ron Moody's Official Charitable Website Ron Moody on IMDb Ron Moody at the Internet Broadway Database Ron Moody at the BFI's Screenonline Ron Moody at Find a Grave

Denis Papin FRS was a French physicist and inventor, best known for his pioneering invention of the steam digester, the forerunner of the pressure cooker and of the steam engine. Born in Chitenay, Papin attended a Jesuit school there, from 1661 attended University at Angers, from which he graduated with a medical degree in 1669. In 1673, while working with Christiaan Huygens and Gottfried Leibniz in Paris, he became interested in using a vacuum to generate motive power. Papin first visited London in 1675, worked with Robert Boyle from 1676 to 1679, publishing an account of his work in Continuation of New Experiments. During this period, Papin invented the steam digester, a type of pressure cooker with a safety valve, he first addressed the Royal Society in 1679 on the subject of his digester, remained in London until about 1687, when he left to take up an academic post in Germany. As a Huguenot, Papin found himself affected by the increasing restrictions placed on Protestants by Louis XIV of France and by the King's ultimate revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

In Germany he was able to live with fellow Huguenot exiles from France. In 1689, Papin suggested that a force pump or bellows could maintain the pressure and fresh air inside a diving bell. While in Marburg in 1690, having observed the mechanical power of atmospheric pressure on his'digester', Papin built a model of a piston steam engine, the first of its kind. Papin continued to work on steam engines for the next fifteen years. In 1695 he moved from Marburg to Kassel. In 1705 he developed a second steam engine with the help of Gottfried Leibniz, based on an invention by Thomas Savery, but this used steam pressure rather than atmospheric pressure. Details of the engine were published in 1707. During his stay in Kassel in Hesse, in 1704, he constructed a ship powered by his steam engine, mechanically linked to paddles; this made him the first to construct a steam-powered boat. At the iron foundry in Veckerhagen, he cast the world's first steam cylinder. Papin returned to London in 1707. Several of his papers were put before the Royal Society between 1707 and 1712 without acknowledging or paying him, about which he complained bitterly.

Papin's ideas included a description of his 1690 atmospheric steam engine, similar to that built and put into use by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, thought to be the year of Papin's death. The last surviving evidence of Papin's whereabouts came in a letter he wrote dated 23 January 1712. At the time he was destitute, it is believed he died that year and was buried in an unmarked grave in London. A record exists for the burial of a “Denys Papin” in an 18th-century Register of Marriages & Burials which came from St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, but, now stored in the London Metropolitan Archives; the record states that Denys Papin was buried at St Bride's on 26 August 1713 – just a few days after his 66th birthday – and that he was laid to rest in the Lower Ground, one of the two burial areas belonging to the church at the time. Boulevard Denis Papin in Carcassonne is named after him. There is a statue of Papin with his invention in Blois, at the top of the Escalier Denis Papin, a stairway. Nouvelle manière pour lever l'eau par la force du feu... par m. D. Papin.

A Cassel: pour. 1707. Quotations related to Denis Papin at Wikiquote Media related to Denis Papin at Wikimedia Commons O'Connor, John J.. Works written by or about Denis Papin at Wikisource Works by Denis Papin at Project Gutenberg Works by Denis Papin at Open Library

Elwyn Gwyther is a Welsh former rugby union and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. He played representative level rugby union for Wales XV, at club level for Llanelli RFC, as a prop, i.e. number 1 or 3, representative level rugby league for Great Britain and Wales, at club level for Belle Vue Rangers and Leeds, as a prop, i.e. number 8 or 10, during the era of contested scrums. Elwyn Gwyther's birth was registered in Wales. Elwyn Gwyther represented Wales XV while at Llanelli RFC in the'Victory International' non-Test match between December 1945 and April 1946, won caps for Wales while at Belle Vue Rangers, Leeds 1947–1953 15-caps, won caps for Great Britain while at Belle Vue Rangers in 1947 against New Zealand, in 1950 against Australia. Six rugby league footballers represented Wales XV. Gomer Hughes, Harold Thomas had won Wales caps, but the other footballers hadn't, having changed to the rugby league code they were unable to do so, but Tyssul Griffiths, Elwyn Gwyther, Leslie Thomas, did go on to win Wales caps.

Elwyn Gwyther right-prop, i.e. number 10, in Belle Vue Rangers' 7-10 defeat by Wigan in the 1947 Lancashire County Cup Final during the 1947–48 season at Wilderspool Stadium, Warrington on Saturday 1 November 1947.! Great Britain Statistics at englandrl.co.uk Elwyn Gwyther montage on YouTube Britain hold out Kiwis at Odsal Men of League - Robert L. Seddon Welsh stars still had a rugby ball in wartime Picture Elwyn Gwyther Elwyn Gwyther