1.
Television in the United Kingdom
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Television in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most viewing, there are 27,000 hours of domestic content produced a year at a cost of £2.6 billion. Since 24 October 2012, all broadcasts in the United Kingdom are in a digital format. Digital content is delivered via terrestrial, satellite and cable as well as over IP, set-top boxes are generally used to receive these services, however integrated digital televisions can also be used to receive Freeview or Freesat. Most TVs sold in the UK come with a DVB-T tuner for Freeview – a rare thing in Europe, BT TV and TalkTalk Plus TV, both based on YouView, utilise hybrid boxes which receive Freeview as well as additional subscription services. Households viewing TV from the internet are not tracked by Ofcom, the UKs five most watched channels, BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, are available from all providers. Digital terrestrial television launched in 1998 as a service named ONdigital. Since October 2002, the broadcaster is Freeview, with BT TV providing additional subscription services. In all cases cable TV is a subscription service normally bundled with a phone line, smallworld Cable is available in south-west Scotland and north-west England. Pricing ranges from £10.50 to £80 per month, wightFibre is available in the Isle of Wight. Virgin Media is available to 55% of UK households, pricing ranges from £11 a month to £30.50 a month, with additional fees for premium services such as Sky Sports. Virgin also market V+, a video recorder and high-definition receiver. Virgin Media is the cable provider to supply high-definition television and video on demand. There are three distinctly marketed direct-broadcast satellite services, Sky is a subscription service owned by Sky plc. It is the satellite provider to offer premium channels with the largest total number of channels compared to all other television providers. As of January 2017, subscriptions starts at £22 per month for the basic package, there is an upfront cost of £15 on sign up. Sky TV markets SkyQ Silver & SkyQ boxes as well as SkyQmini boxes, Sky TV also provides video on demand branded as SkyTV On Demand. As of October 2016, Sky UK stopped offering there aging Sky+HD hardware, Freesat from Sky, is a free satellite service owned by Sky plc
2.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
3.
BBC One
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BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service and it was renamed BBC TV in 1960, using this name until the launch of sister channel BBC2 in 1964, whereupon the BBC TV channel became known as BBC1, with the current spelling adopted in 1997. The channels annual budget for 2012–13 is £1.14 billion, the channel is funded by the television licence fee together with the BBCs other domestic television stations, and therefore shows uninterrupted programming without commercial advertising. It is currently the most watched channel in the United Kingdom, ahead of its traditional rival for ratings leadership. As of June 2013 the channel controller for BBC One is Charlotte Moore, the BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932. BBC Television returned on 7 June 1946 at 15,00, Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement, saying, Good afternoon everybody. Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh, the Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939 was repeated twenty minutes later. The competition quickly forced the channel to change its identity and priorities following a reduction in its audience. The 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, and it therefore decided that Britains third television station should be awarded to the BBC. The station, renamed BBC TV in 1960, became BBC1 when BBC2 was launched on 20 April 1964 transmitting an incompatible 625-line image on UHF. The only way to all channels was to use a complex dual-standard 405- and 625-line, VHF and UHF, receiver. Old 405-line-only sets became obsolete in 1985, when transmission in the standard ended, although standards converters have become available for enthusiasts who collect, BBC1 was based at the purpose-built BBC Television Centre at White City, London between 1960 and 2013. In the weeks leading up to 15 November 1969, BBC1 unofficially transmitted the occasional programme in its new colour system, to test it. At midnight on 15 November, simultaneously with ITV and two years after BBC2, BBC1 officially began 625-line PAL colour programming on UHF with a broadcast of a concert by Petula Clark, colour transmissions could be received on monochrome 625-line sets until the end of analogue broadcasting. In terms of share, the most successful period for BBC1 was under Bryan Cowgill between 1973 and 1977, when the channel achieved an average audience share of 45%. On 30 December 1980, the BBC announced their intention to introduce a new breakfast television service to compete with TV-am. On 17 January 1983, the first edition of Breakfast Time was shown on BBC One, becoming the first UK wide breakfast television service and continued to lead in the rating until 1984. The first major overhaul was to axe the deeply unpopular Sixty Minutes current affairs programme and its replacement was the BBC Six OClock News, a straight new programme in a bid to shore up its failing early evening slot
4.
Play for Today
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Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration, a handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey and The Blackstuff, subsequently became television series in their own right. The strand was a successor to The Wednesday Play, the 1960s anthology series, popular works screened in anthology series on BBC2, like Willy Russells Our Day Out, were repeated on BBC1 in the series. The producers of The Wednesday Play, Graeme MacDonald and Irene Shubik, Shubik continued with the series until 1973 while MacDonald remained with the series until 1977 when he was promoted. Later producers included Margaret Matheson and Richard Eyre, in its time, Play for Today featured contemporary social realist dramas, historical pieces, fantasies, biopics and occasionally science-fiction. Most pieces were written directly for television, but there were also occasional adaptations from other forms, such as novels. Several prominent directors also featured, including Stephen Frears, Alan Clarke, Michael Apted, Mike Newell, Roland Joffe, Ken Loach, Lindsay Anderson, and Mike Leigh. Some of the best remembered plays broadcast in the strand include Edna, certain other well known plays, including Pendas Fen, Nuts in May, were commissioned by David Rose of the BBCs English Regions Drama department based in Birmingham. Some installments in the series were spun off into full-blown series, other offshoots were Gangsters, and a single series of science fiction-based plays styled as Play for Tomorrow. Towards the end of the run, three set in Northern Ireland were written by Graham Reid. Known as the Billy Plays, they starred Kenneth Branagh as Billy Martin in his first acting role following his graduation from RADA, scum and Brimstone and Treacle were eventually transmitted, although in the meantime both had circumvented their withdrawal by being re-made as cinema films. The series as a whole was viewed with suspicion by rightwing commentators, of particular note was the criticism of the public expenditure on the Queens Silver Jubilee in the plays The Price of Coal and The Spongers. The programme officially ended in 1984, although there was one further series not broadcast in its name but in its replacement name Screen One. The general trend in 1980s television production was away from one-off plays and towards a concentration on series. A new programme publicised as a return of Play for Today, but under the title of The Evening Play, was announced at the beginning of March 2006. Jan Moir in The Daily Telegraph wrote in support of Spacey, saying the British loved Play for Today once, a good piece of drama looks at the human condition, and tells us something we should know about ourselves. Armchair Theatre ITV Playhouse Play for Tomorrow Theatre 625 The Wednesday Play Evans, oxford University Press / British Film Institute
5.
Channel 4
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Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster that began transmission on 2 November 1982. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital on 31 March 2010, before Channel 4 and S4C, Britain had three terrestrial television services, BBC1, BBC2, and ITV. The Broadcasting Act 1980 began the process of adding a fourth, after some months of test broadcasts, it began scheduled transmissions on 2 November 1982. Indeed, television sets throughout the 1970s and early 1980s had a spare channel called ITV/IBA2. It was most likely politics which had the biggest impact in leading to a delay of almost three decades before the commercial channel became a reality. The campaign was taken so seriously by Gwynfor Evans, former president of Plaid Cymru, the result was that Channel 4 as seen by the rest of the United Kingdom would be replaced in Wales by Sianel Pedwar Cymru. Operated by a specially created authority, S4C would air programmes in Welsh made by HTV, since then, carriage on digital cable, satellite and digital terrestrial has introduced Channel 4 to Welsh homes where it is now universally available. The first programme to air on the channel was the game show Countdown. The first person to be seen on Channel 4 was Richard Whiteley with Ted Moult being the second, the first woman on the channel, contrary to popular belief, was not Carol Vorderman and was a lexicographer only ever identified as Mary. Whiteley opened the show with the words, On its first day, Channel 4 also broadcast controversial soap opera Brookside, which ran until 2003. On its launch, Channel 4 committed itself to providing an alternative to the existing channels, Channel 4 co-commissioned Robert Ashleys ground-breaking television opera Perfect Lives, which it premiered over several episodes in 1984. The channel often did not receive mass audiences for much of period, however. Channel 4 for many years had a poorer quality signal compared to other channels, Channel 4 also began the funding of independent films, such as the Merchant-Ivory docudrama The Courtesans of Bombay, during this time. In 1992, Channel 4 also faced its first libel case by Jani Allan, a South African journalist, who objected to her representation in the documentary The Leader, His Driver and the Drivers Wife. After control of the station passed from the Channel Four Television Company to the Channel Four Television Corporation in 1993, instead of aiming for the fringes of society, it began to focus on the edges of the mainstream, and the centre of the mass market itself. It began to show many US programmes in peak viewing time and it gave such shows as Friends and ER their UK premières. In the early 2000s, Channel 4 began broadcasting reality formats such as Big Brother and obtained the rights to broadcast mass appeal sporting events like cricket and this new direction increased ratings and revenues. In addition, the corporation launched a number of new channels through its new 4Ventures offshoot, including Film4, At the Races, E4
6.
A Question of Attribution
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A Question of Attribution is a 1988 one-act stage play, written by Alan Bennett. It was premièred at the National Theatre, London in December 1988, the two plays are collectively called Single Spies. The one-act play formed the basis of a 1991 television film of the same name broadcast as part of the BBCs Screen One series. The film was directed by John Schlesinger and stars James Fox as Anthony Blunt, David Calder as Chubb, an MI5 officer, the film was produced by long-time Bennett collaborator Innes Lloyd, and is dedicated to his memory. The New York Times called the film a razor-sharp psychological melodrama, Prunella Scales was nominated for Best Actress. The play and subsequent film is based on Anthony Blunts role in the Cambridge Spy Ring and, as Surveyor of the Queens Pictures, personal art advisor to Queen Elizabeth II. It portrays his interrogation by MI5 officers, his work researching and conserving art works, his work at the Courtauld Institute, Bennett described the piece as an inquiry in which the circumstances are imaginary but the pictures are real. As Blunts public exposure as a spy in 1979 draws near, at the end of the film, the time of Blunts exposure, Blunt tells Chubb that X-rays had revealed the presence of a fourth and fifth man. One of the sub-texts in the scene with the Queen is whether or not Her Majesty knew that Blunt was a former Soviet spy. They briefly discuss the Dutch Vermeer forger Han van Meegeren, and how his paintings now look like fakes, but were accepted as genuine in the 1940s, after she has left and an assistant asks what they were talking about, Blunt replies I was talking about art. Im not sure that she was, James Fox - Sir Anthony Blunt David Calder - Chubb Geoffrey Palmer - Donleavy Prunella Scales - H. M. Q. Cambridge Spies, a 2003 BBC TV play about the Cambridge Ring, a Question of Attribution at the Internet Movie Database BBC profile of John Schlesinger, retrieved 17 January 2006
7.
Alan Bennett
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Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. He was born in Leeds and attended Oxford University where he studied history and he stayed to teach and research medieval history at the university for several years. His collaboration as writer and performer with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame. He gave up academia, and turned to writing full-time, his first stage play Forty Years On being produced in 1968, Bennett was born in Armley in Leeds. The youngest son of a butcher, Walter, and his wife Lilian Mary, Bennett attended Christ Church, Upper Armley, Church of England School. He learned Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists during his service before applying for a scholarship at Oxford University. He was accepted by Exeter College, Oxford, from which he graduated with a degree in history. While at Oxford he performed comedy with a number of successful actors in the Oxford Revue. He was to remain at the university for several years, where he researched and taught Medieval History, in August 1960 Bennett, along with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook, achieved instant fame by appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe. After the festival, the show continued in London and New York and he also appeared in My Father Knew Lloyd George. His highly regarded television comedy sketch series On the Margin was unfortunately erased, however, in 2014 it was announced that copies of the entire series had been found. Bennetts first stage play Forty Years On, directed by Patrick Garland, was produced in 1968, many television, stage and radio plays followed, with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose, and broadcasting and many appearances as an actor. Bennetts distinctive, expressive voice and the humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his work very popular. Bennetts readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are widely enjoyed. Many of Bennetts characters are unfortunate and downtrodden, life has brought them to an impasse or else passed them by. In many cases they have met with disappointment in the realm of sex and intimate relationships, largely through tentativeness and a failure to connect with others. Despite a long history both the National Theatre and the BBC - Bennett never writes on commission, declaring I dont work on commission. If people dont want it then its too bad, Bennett is both unsparing and compassionate in laying bare his characters frailties
8.
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image – film, television and game in the United Kingdom. David Lean was the founding Chairman of the Academy, the first Film Awards ceremony took place in May 1949 and honouring the films The Best Years of Our Lives, Odd Man Out and The World Is Rich. In 2005, it placed a cap on worldwide voting membership which now stands at approximately 6,500. BAFTA has offices in Scotland and Wales in the UK, in Los Angeles and New York in the United States and runs events in Hong Kong, amanda Berry OBE has been chief executive of the organisation since December 2000. Many of these events are free to online at BAFTA Guru. BAFTA runs a number of programmes across the UK, US. Launched in 2012, the UK programme enables talented British citizens who are in need of support to take an industry-recognised course in film. Each BAFTA Scholar receives up to £12,000 towards their annual course fees, since 2013, three students every year have received one of the Prince William Scholarships in Film, Television and Games, supported by BAFTA and Warner Bros. These scholarships are awarded in the name of in his role as President of BAFTA, since 2015, BAFTA has been offering scholarships for British citizens to study in China, vice versa. BAFTA presents awards for film, television and games, including entertainment, at a number of annual ceremonies across the UK and in Los Angeles. The BAFTA award trophy is a mask, designed by American sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe. Todays BAFTA award – including the mask and marble base – weighs 3.7 kg and measures 27 cm x 14 cm x 8 cm. BAFTAs annual film awards ceremony is known as the British Academy Film Awards, or the BAFTAs, in 1949 the British Film Academy, as it was then known, presented the first awards for films made in 1947 and 1948. Since 2008 the ceremony has held at the Royal Opera House in Londons Covent Garden. It had been held in the Odeon cinema on Leicester Square since 2000, the ceremony had been performed during April or May of each year, but since 2002 it has been held in February to precede the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Awards, or Oscars. They have been awarded annually since 1954, the first ever ceremony consisted of six categories. Until 1958, they were awarded by the Guild of Television Producers and Directors, from 1968 until 1997, BAFTAs Film and Television Awards were presented together, but from 1998 onwards they were presented at two separate ceremonies. The Television Craft Awards celebrate the talent behind the programmes, such as working in visual effects, production
9.
Prunella Scales
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Scales was born in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, the daughter of Catherine, an actress, and John Richardson Illingworth, a cotton salesman. She attended Moira House Girls School, Eastbourne, Scales parents moved their family to Bucks Mill near Bideford in Devon in 1939 during World War II. Scales started her career in 1951 as an assistant stage manager at the Bristol Old Vic, throughout her career, Scales has often been cast in comic roles. Her early work included the second UK adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Hobsons Choice, Room at the Top and her career break came with the early 1960s sitcom Marriage Lines starring opposite Richard Briers. She played Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennetts A Question of Attribution, in 1973, Scales was cast with Ronnie Barker in One Mans Meat which formed part of Barkers Seven of One series, also for the BBC. For ten years, Prunella appeared with Jane Horrocks in advertisements for UK supermarket chain Tesco, in 1996, Scales starred in the television film, Lord of Misrule, alongside Richard Wilson, Emily Mortimer and Stephen Moyer. The film was directed by Guy Jenkins and filming took place in Fowey in Cornwall, in 1997, Scales starred in Chris Barfoots science-fiction film short Phoenix which was first aired in 1999 by NBC Universals Sci Fi Channel. Scales played The Client, a government minister funding inter-genetic time travel experiments. The same year she played Dr. Minny Stinkler in the comedy film Mad Cows, in 2000 she appeared in the film The Ghost of Greville Lodge as Sarah. In 2003, she appeared as Hilda, she who must be obeyed, wife of Horace Rumpole in four BBC Radio 4 plays, Scales and West toured Australia at the same time in different productions. Scales appeared in a show called An Evening with Queen Victoria. Also in 2003, she voiced the role of Magpie. In 2006, she appeared alongside Academy Award winners Vanessa Redgrave, on 16 November 2007, Scales appeared in Children in Need, reprising her role as Sybil Fawlty, the new manager who wants to take over Hotel Babylon. She appeared in the audio play The Youth of Old Age, produced in 2008 by the Wireless Theatre Company and she appeared in a production of Carries War, the Nina Bawden novel, at the Apollo Theatre in 2009. John Cleese said in an interview on 8 May 2009 that the role of Sybil Fawlty was originally offered to Bridget Turner and she starred in the 2011 British live-action 3D family comedy film Horrid Henry, The Movie as the titular characters Great Aunt Greta. Prunella Scales appeared in an audio story, Dandruff Hits the Turtleneck, written by John Mayfield. She starred in a Virgin Short Stranger Danger alongside Roderick Cowie in 2012, in 2013 she made a guest appearance in the popular BBC radio comedy Cabin Pressure as Wendy Crieff, the mother of Captain Martin Crieff. Alongside West, she has appeared in Great Canal Journeys for Channel 4, stuart Heritage, writing for The Guardian in November 2016, commented that it is ultimately a work about a devoted couple facing something huge together
10.
A Foreign Field
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A Foreign Field is a 1993 British made-for-television film about British and American Second World War veterans returning to the beaches of Normandy as old men. It is more a drama than a comedy, although it combines aspects of both and it was directed by Charles Sturridge and featured an ensemble cast of American, Australian, British, and French actors and actresses. The title evokes the Rupert Brooke poem The Soldier, the film was driven into production by Alec Guinness who used his influence with the BBC to make it and with the various famous actors to appear in it. Clarke won much acclaim for A Foreign Field on account of his return to drama, Cyril and Waldo, who are British and American, respectively, have both returned to France in search of the same woman with whom they each had a rendezvous in 1944. Cyril is accompanied by fellow veteran Amos, while Waldo has his petty daughter Beverly, Amos is childlike and carries an empty jam jar as if it is a favored toy. The two groups encounter one another, and after some conflict find common ground in old sorrows, along the way they meet the recently widowed Lisa, who has come in search of her brothers grave. Eventually it is revealed that Amos saved Cyrils life during the battle of Normandy in 1944, the wound has left Amos permanently brain-damaged and Cyril has been his carer ever since. Waldo has come to France for a reason, to visit the grave of a close buddy who was killed on D-Day. The trip helps put Beverlys problems into perspective and gives a new lease of life to her marriage, the frame is completed via Amos jam jar with the final image of the jar holding a handful of wildflowers and placed in front of Briggs gravestone on Omaha Beach. What makes this film truly timeless is the concept of guilt, why one soldier was killed. A Foreign Field at the Internet Movie Database
11.
Alec Guinness
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Sir Alec Guinness CH CBE was an English actor. After an early career on the stage, he was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including The Ladykillers and he is also known for his portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucass original Star Wars trilogy, receiving a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also won a BAFTA Award, Golden Globe and a Tony Award, in 1959, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1980, Guinness was born at 155 Lauderdale Mansions South, Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale, as Alec Guinness de Cuffe. His mothers maiden name was Agnes Cuff and she was born 8 December 1890 to Edward Cuff and Mary Ann Benfield. On Guinnesss birth certificate, the space for the name shows Agnes de Cuffe. The space for the name says Alec Guinness. The column for name and surname of father is blank, the identity of Guinnesss father has never been officially confirmed. From 1875, under English law, when the birth of a child was registered. Guinness himself believed that his father was a Scottish banker, Andrew Geddes, Geddes occasionally visited Guinness and his mother, posing as an uncle. Guinnesss mother later had a marriage to a British soldier who had survived the Irish War of Independence. His behaviour was erratic or even violent. Guinness first worked writing advertising copy and he appeared at the Albery Theatre in 1936 at the age of 22, playing the role of Osric in John Gielguds successful production of Hamlet. Also in 1936, Guinness signed on with the Old Vic, in 1939, he took over for Michael Redgrave as Charleston in a road-show production of Robert Ardreys Thunder Rock. An early influence from afar was Stan Laurel, whom Guinness admired, Guinness continued playing Shakespearean roles throughout his career. In 1937, he played Aumerle in Richard II and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice under the direction of John Gielgud and he starred in a 1938 production of Hamlet which won him acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1939, he adapted Great Expectations for the stage, playing Herbert Pocket, one of its viewers was a young British film editor, David Lean, who would later have Guinness reprise his role in Leans 1946 film adaptation of the play. Guinness served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War, initially as a seaman in 1941 and he commanded a landing craft at the Allied invasion of Sicily, and later ferried supplies and agents to the Yugoslav partisans in the eastern Mediterranean theatre
12.
Lauren Bacall
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Lauren Bacall was an American actress and singer known for her distinctive voice and sultry looks. Bacall began her career as a model, before making her debut as a lady with Humphrey Bogart in the film To Have and Have Not in 1944. She co-starred with John Wayne in his film, The Shootist. Bacall also worked on Broadway in musicals, earning Tony Awards for Applause and her performance in The Mirror Has Two Faces earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination. A month before her 90th birthday, Bacall died in New York City after a stroke, soon after her birth, Bacalls family moved to Brooklyns Ocean Parkway. Through her father, she was a relative of Shimon Peres, Peres has stated, In 1952 or 1953 I came to New York. Lauren Bacall called me, said that she wanted to meet and we sat and talked about where our families came from, and discovered that we were from the same family. But Im not exactly sure what our relation is and it was she who later said that she was my cousin, I didnt say that. Her parents divorced when she was five, she took the Romanian form of her mothers last name. She no longer saw her father and formed a close bond with her mother. In 1941 Bacall took lessons at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and she made her acting debut on Broadway in 1942, at age 17, as a walk-on in Johnny 2 X4. By then, she lived with her mother on Bank Street, Greenwich Village, as a teenage fashion model she appeared on the cover of Harpers Bazaar, as well as in magazines such as Vogue. She was noted for her grace, tawny blonde hair. Though Diana Vreeland is often credited with discovering Bacall for Harpers Bazaar and he had first met Bacall at Tonys, a club in the East 50s. De Gunzburg suggested that Bacall stop by his Bazaar office the next day and he then turned over his find to Vreeland, who arranged for Louise Dahl-Wolfe to shoot Bacall in Kodachrome for the March 1943 cover. The Harpers Bazaar cover caught the attention of Hollywood producer and director Howard Hawks wife Slim, Hawks asked his secretary to find out more about her, but the secretary misunderstood and sent Bacall a ticket to come to Hollywood for the audition. After meeting Bacall in Hollywood, Hawks immediately signed her to a contract with a weekly salary of $100. He changed her first name to Lauren, and she chose Bacall as her screen surname, Slim Hawks also took Bacall under her wing, dressing Bacall stylishly and guiding her in matters of elegance, manners and taste
13.
Jeanne Moreau
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Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director. She won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for Seven Days, Seven Nights, the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for Viva Maria. and the César Award for Best Actress for The Old Lady Who Walked in the Sea. She has also been the recipient of several awards, including a BAFTA Fellowship in 1996. Moreau made her debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. She began playing roles in films in 1949, impressing in a Fernandel vehicle Meutres. in 1950. She achieved prominence as the star of Elevator to the Gallows, directed by Louis Malle, most prolific during the 1960s, Moreau continued to appear in films into her eighties. Moreau was born in Paris the daughter of Katherine, a dancer who performed at the Folies Bergère, and Anatole-Désiré Moreau, moreaus father was French, her mother was English, a native of Lancashire in England, and of part-Irish descent. Moreaus father was Catholic and her mother, originally a Protestant, when a young girl, the family moved south to Vichy, spending vacations at the ancestral village of Mazirat, a town of 30 houses in a valley in the Allier. It was wonderful there, Moreau said, every tombstone in the cemetery was for a Moreau. During the war, the family was split and Moreau lived with her mother in Paris, Moreau ultimately lost interest in school at age 16 and, after attending Jean Anouilhs Antigone, found her calling as an actor. She later studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and her parents separated permanently while Moreau was at the conservatory and her mother, after 24 difficult years in France, returned to England with Jeannes younger sister, Michelle. In 1947, Moreau made her debut at the Avignon Festival. She debuted at the Comédie-Française in Ivan Turgenevs A Month in the Country and, from the late 1950s, after appearing in several successful films, she began to work with the emerging generation of French film-makers. Elevator to the Gallows with first-time director Louis Malle was followed by Malles The Lovers, the latter film, controversial in its day, led the media to tag her The New Bardot. Largely thanks to those films, Moreau went on to work many of the best known New Wave. François Truffauts New Wave film Jules et Jim, her biggest success internationally, is centred on her starring role. In 1983 she was head of the jury at the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival, in 2005, she was awarded with the Stanislavsky Award at the 27th Moscow International Film Festival. Moreau has had success as a vocalist and she has released several albums and once performed with Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall
14.
Wide-Eyed and Legless
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Wide-Eyed and Legless is a 1993 made-for-TV British drama film directed by Richard Loncraine. It is known in the US as The Wedding Gift and it is based on the 1989 book Dianas Story by Deric Longden, who co-wrote the script with Jack Rosenthal. It tells the story of his marriage to his wife, Diana, as Dianas health faltered, she secretly set him up with another woman to help ease his pain over her eventual death. A sequel, Lost for Words dealing with Longdens mothers decline into dementia after his second marriage, Lost for Words Wide-Eyed and Legless at the Internet Movie Database
15.
Julie Walters
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Julia Mary Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and writer. She has won two BAFTA Film Awards, four BAFTA TV Awards and received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2014, Walters first came to international prominence in 1983, for playing the title role in Educating Rita. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it also won her a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. She received a second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in the 2000 film Billy Elliot and her other film roles include Personal Services, Prick Up Your Ears, Buster, Stepping Out, Calendar Girls, Mamma Mia. and Brave. She has also played Molly Weasley in seven of the eight Harry Potter films, on stage, she won an Olivier Award for Best Actress for the 2001 production of All My Sons. She has won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress four times, for My Beautiful Son, Murder, The Canterbury Tales and she also starred in A Short Stay in Switzerland in 2009, which won her an International Emmy for Best Actress. In 2006, she came fourth in ITVs poll of the publics 50 Greatest TV stars in Britain, in 2008, she released her autobiography titled Thats Another Story. Walters was born in St. Chads Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, the youngest of five children and the third to survive birth, Walters had an early education at a convent school and later at Holly Lodge Grammar School for Girls on Holly Lane in Smethwick. It was heaven when I went to a grammar school, she said in 2014. Her first job was in insurance at the age of 15, at 18 she trained as a nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, and worked on the ophthalmic, casualty and coronary care wards during the 18 months she spent there. Walters decided to leave nursing, and studied English and drama at Manchester Polytechnic, Walters first received notice as the occasional partner of comedian Victoria Wood, whom she had briefly met in Manchester. The two first worked together in the 1978 theatre revue In at the Death, followed by the adaptation of Woods play Talent. They went on to appear in their own Granada Television series, Wood and Walters and they continued to perform together frequently over the years. The BAFTA-winning BBC follow-up, Victoria Wood As Seen on TV, featured one of Walterss best-known roles, Mrs Overall, in Woods parodic soap opera, before making her London stage debut in Educating Rita, Walters had worked in regional theatre, stand-up comedy and cabaret. In 1985, she played Adrian Moles mother Pauline in the TV adaptation of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Walters appeared in the lead role of Cynthia Payne in the 1987 film Personal Services – a dramatic comedy about a British brothel owner. Then she played the characters wife, June, in the film Buster. She also appeared as Mrs. Peachum in the 1989 film version of The Threepenny Opera, in 1998 she starred as the Fairy Godmother in the ITV pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, alongside actors Neil Morrissey, Adrian Edmondson, Paul Merton, Denise van Outen and Julian Clary. The show was first broadcast 25 December 1998 on ITV1, in 2001 she won a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in Arthur Millers All My Sons
16.
Jim Broadbent
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James Jim Broadbent is an English actor. His early stage work included appearances as Patrick Barlows assistant in the mock National Theatre of Brent and he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Iris and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Moulin Rouge. He had a sister who died at birth. And All The Worlds A Globe and these were hits at the Edinburgh Fringe, in London, and on tour. Later stage work included the productions of Kafkas Dick and Our Countrys Good at the Royal Court Theatre. Work on the stage with Mike Leigh includes Goosepimples and Ecstasy and he had worked with Stephen Frears in The Hit and Terry Gilliam in Time Bandits and Brazil before establishing himself in Mike Leighs Life Is Sweet. He played The Shy Doctor in the 1999 Comic Relief parody Doctor Who sketch, Doctor Who, in 2001, Broadbent starred in three of the years most successful films, Bridget Joness Diary, Moulin Rouge. For which he won a BAFTA, and Iris, for which he won an Oscar for his portrayal of John Bayley, Broadbent voiced Madame Gasket in the 2005 film Robots. Broadbent also appeared as DCI Roy Slater, a character in the enormously popular sitcom Only Fools. The character appeared in three episodes over an eight-year period and he had originally been offered the lead role of Del Boy in the series, but he turned it down due to other commitments. He has also played a role in the Inspector Morse series, other comic roles include the lead role in the sitcom The Peter Principle and occasional guest appearances in Not The Nine OClock News, Only Fools and Horses, and Victoria Wood As Seen on TV. He portrayed Don Speekingleesh in The Queen of Spains Beard in the first series of The Black Adder in 1983 and he also played the role of Prince Albert in Blackadders Christmas Carol, first broadcast in 1988. He joined Rowan Atkinson in his Spider-Man spoof Spider-Plant Man, as a disgruntled Batman, Broadbent played the lead role of the TV film Wide-Eyed and Legless. Based on a story, the drama tells of Deric Longdens wife, Diana. It began as a type of flu but it grew progressively worse and she was subject to blackouts and became so debilitated that she could barely get out of her wheelchair. It led to years of pain and paralysis that ended in her death, Broadbent appeared as Inspector Frank Butterman in Hot Fuzz in 2007. He appeared in the radio production of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. He was also a regular in Stephen Frys radio comedy show Saturday Night Fry, in 2008, he starred as pro-Newtonian physicist Sir Oliver Lodge in the fact-based single drama Einstein and Eddington for the BBC
17.
Alfred Molina
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He starred as DDA / Detective Ricardo Morales on the NBC police/courtroom drama Law & Order, LA and as Roger opposite Dawn French in the BBC television sitcom Roger & Val Have Just Got In. Molina was born in Paddington, London and his father, Esteban Molina, was a Spaniard immigrant from Madrid who worked as a waiter and chauffeur. His mother, Giovanna, was an Italian house-keeper who cleaned rooms in a hotel, Molina grew up in a working class district in Notting Hill that was inhabited by many other immigrant families. Molina decided to become an actor after seeing Spartacus at the age of nine and he also auditioned and was accepted as a member of National Youth Theatre. Molina appeared with Leonard Rossiter in the sitcom The Losers, Molina made his film debut with a minor role in Raiders of the Lost Ark as Indiana Jones ill-fated guide, Satipo, during its iconic opening sequence. However, his big break came with Letter to Brezhnev, which he followed with a role in Prick Up Your Ears. He was originally cast as Arnold Rimmer in the TV sitcom Red Dwarf, in the early 1990s, Molina was a ubiquitous presence on British television, with his highest profile role being the lead in the first two series of El C. I. D. Subsequent film roles included Species, Dudley Do-Right, Chocolat, Not Without My Daughter, with a mid-western American accent, Molina starred alongside Betty White in the US television series Ladies Man, which ran from 1999–2001. He has worked twice with Paul Thomas Anderson, first in Boogie Nights, Molina gained wide recognition for his portrayal of Diego Rivera alongside Salma Hayek in the biopic Frida, a role for which he gained BAFTA and SAG award nominations. For the latter, Molina was nominated for a Satellite award as Best Supporting Actor and he reprised his role in the video game adaption. In 2006, Molina portrayed Touchstone in Kenneth Branaghs film version of Shakespeares As You Like It, Molina provided the voice of the villain Ares in the 2009 animated film Wonder Woman. Molinas stage work has included two major Royal National Theatre productions, Tennessee Williams The Night of the Iguana and David Mamets Speed-the-Plow, in his Broadway debut, Molina performed in Yasmina Rezas Tony Award-winning play Art, for which he received a Tony nomination in 1998. In 2004, Molina returned to the stage, starring as Tevye in the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, for his performance he once again received a Tony Award nomination, this time for Best Actor in a Musical. Molina received his third Tony Award nomination for Red in 2010, in 2007, Molina narrated a 17-part original audiobook for Audible. com called The Chopin Manuscript. This serialized novel was written by a team of 15 best-selling thriller writers, including Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, Joseph Finder, the novel won the 2008 Audiobook Of The Year Award form Audio Publishers Association. On 1 April 2010, he opened at Broadways John Golden Theatre in the role of artist Mark Rothko in John Logans drama Red opposite Eddie Redmayne for a limited engagement through 27 June. He had played the role to critical success at the Donmar Warehouse in London in December 2009. In 2010 he starred opposite Dawn French in the six-part BBC sitcom Roger & Val Have Just Got In, in July 2010, it was announced that Molina had joined the cast of Law & Order, LA as Deputy District Attorney Morales
18.
Sean Bean
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Shaun Mark Bean, known professionally as Sean Bean, is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his debut in a theatre production of Romeo. Retaining his distinctive Yorkshire accent, he first found success for his portrayal of Richard Sharpe in the ITV series Sharpe. His most prominent film role was Boromir in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as a voice actor, Bean has been featured in the video games The Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion, Sid Meiers Civilization VI, and the drama The Canterbury Tales, among several others. He has received awards during his career and won an International Emmy for Best Actor. He has also nominated for a BAFTA and Saturn Award. Bean was born in Handsworth, a suburb of Sheffield, which was part of West Riding of Yorkshire. He is the son of Rita and Brian Bean and he has a younger sister named Lorraine. His father owned a shop that employed 50 people, including Beans mother. Despite becoming relatively wealthy, the family never moved away from the estate as they preferred to remain close to friends. As a child, Bean smashed a door during an argument. This prevented him pursuing his dream of playing football professionally. In 1975, Bean left Brook Comprehensive School with O Levels in Art, after a job at a supermarket and another for the local council, he started working for his fathers firm with a day release at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology to take a welding course. While there, he stumbled into an art class and decided to pursue his interest in art. After attending courses at two colleges, one for half a day and the other for less than a week, he returned to Rotherham College. After some college plays and one at Rotherham Civic Theatre, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Bean graduated from RADA in 1983, making his professional acting debut later that year as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury. His early career involved a mixture of stage and screen work, as an actor, he adopted the Irish spelling of his first name. His first national exposure came in an advert for non-alcoholic lager, between 1986 and 1988, he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Fair Maid of the West, and A Midsummer Nights Dream
19.
David Thewlis
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David Thewlis is an English actor. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter film series and he has also done voice work in the films James and the Giant Peach, The Miracle Maker and Anomalisa. He is also known for the role of Cyrus Crabb in the TV mini series Dinotopia, Thewlis, the second of three children, was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, the son of Maureen and Alec Raymond Wheeler. Both parents worked at his fathers shop, as a teenager, he played in a rock band called QED, and played lead guitar with a punk rock band called Door 66. He was educated at Highfield High School, a secondary school in South Shore. Later, he enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Thewlis had a minor role in an episode of the 1980s sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle. He also appeared in an episode of popular sitcom Only Fools and his first professional role was in the play Buddy Holly at the Regal in Greenwich. That same year, he appeared on television as a sexual predator named James Jackson in Prime Suspect 3, opposite Helen Mirren, before that, his first television appearance was alongside Ken Jones in Valentine Park. He was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for Divorcing Jack, notable appearances also include Bernardo Bertoluccis Besieged and Paul McGuigans Gangster No. 1, opposite Paul Bettany and Malcolm McDowell and he auditioned for the role of Quirrell in the film Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, but the part went to Ian Hart. Despite missing out on the first film, he was cast in 2004 as Professor Lupin in Harry Potter and he did not have to audition as he was director Alfonso Cuaróns first choice for the role. Thewlis reprised the role in four films in the series. He appeared as an SS Commandant of a Nazi death camp and father of the character in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Other credits include Ridley Scotts Kingdom of Heaven, Terrence Malicks The New World and The Omen. Thewlis played the late Dr. Michael Aris, husband of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, with Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh as Suu Kyi, in the biopic The Lady directed by Luc Besson. He also starred in Regression, a released in autumn 2015, in which he was reunited with Harry Potter co-star Emma Watson. In September 2015, Thewlis starred as Inspector Goole in Helen Edmundsons BBC TV adaptation of J. B, priestleys An Inspector Calls, alongside Ken Stott and Miranda Richardson. In October 2015, he played King Duncan in the film Macbeth, with Michael Fassbender starring as Macbeth, Thewlis will reportedly be portraying Ares in Wonder Woman, the upcoming DC Comics film adaptation based on the character of the same name, set for release in 2017
20.
Ray Winstone
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Raymond Andrew Ray Winstone is an English film and television actor. He is mostly known for his hard man roles beginning with his role as Carlin in the 1979 film Scum and he has also become well known as a voice over actor, and has recently branched out into film production. Winstone was born in Homerton, Hackney, London, Winstone moved to Enfield when he was seven, and grew up on a council estate just off the A10 road. His father, Raymond J. Winstone, ran a fruit and vegetable business, while his mother, Winstone recalls playing with his friends on bomb sites, until Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were arrested for killing three children. Ray joined Brimsdown Primary School and then he was educated at Edmonton County School and he also attended Corona Theatre School. He did not take to school, eventually leaving with a single CSE in Drama, Winstone had an early affinity for acting, his father would take him to the cinema every Wednesday afternoon. Later, he viewed Albert Finney in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, other major influences included John Wayne, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson. After borrowing extra tuition money from a mother, a drama teacher, Winstone took to the stage, appearing as a Cockney newspaper seller in a production of Emil. Winstone was also a fan of boxing, known to his friends as Winnie, he was called Little Sugs at home. At the age of 12, Winstone joined the famous Repton Amateur Boxing Club, over the next 10 years, won 80 out of 88 bouts. At welterweight, he was London schoolboy champion on three occasions, fighting twice for England. The experience gave him a perspective on his career, If you can get in a ring with 2,000 people watching and be smacked around by another guy. Deciding to pursue drama, Winstone enrolled at the Corona Stage Academy in Hammersmith, at £900 a term, it was expensive, considering the average wage was then about £36 a week. He landed his first major role in What a Crazy World at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, London, Winstone was not popular with the establishment at his secondary school, who considered him a bad influence. After some 12 months, he found that he was the only pupil not invited to the Christmas party, hammering some pins through a piece of wood, he placed it under the wheel of his headmistresss car and blew out the tyre. As a joke, he went up to the BBC, where his schoolmates were involved in an audition, the play, written by Roy Minton and directed by Clarke, was a brutal depiction of a young offenders institution. Winstone was cast in the role of Carlin, a young offender who struggles against both his captors and his fellow cons to become the Daddy of the institution. Hard hitting and often violent the play was judged unsuitable for broadcast by the BBC, the banned television play was entirely re-filmed in 1979 for cinematic release with many of the original actors playing the same roles
21.
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
22.
Judi Dench
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Dame Judith Olivia Dench CH DBE FRSA, known as Judi Dench, is an English actress and author. Dench made her debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she performed in several of Shakespeares plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. Although most of her work during this period was in theatre, she branched into film work. She drew strong reviews for her role in the musical Cabaret in 1968. Over the next two decades, Dench established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She achieved success in television during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and she has also received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Special Olivier Award. In June 2011, she received a fellowship from the British Film Institute, Dench is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Dench was born in Heworth, North Riding of Yorkshire and her mother, Eleanora Olive, was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her father, Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor, was born in Dorset, England, and later moved to Dublin and he met Denchs mother while he was studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. Dench attended The Mount School, a Quaker independent secondary school in York and her brothers, one of whom was actor Jeffery Dench, were born in Tyldesley, Lancashire. Her niece, Emma Dench, is a Roman historian and professor previously at Birkbeck, University of London, and currently at Harvard University. In Britain, Dench has developed a reputation as one of the greatest actresses of the period, primarily through her work in theatre. She has more than once been named one in polls for Britains best actor. Through her parents, Dench had regular contact with the theatre and her father, a physician, was also the GP for the York theatre, and her mother was its wardrobe mistress. Actors often stayed in the Dench household, during these years, Judi Dench was involved on a non-professional basis in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays in the 1950s. In 1957, in one of the last productions in which she appeared during this period, she played the role of the Virgin Mary, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens. Though she initially trained as a set designer, she became interested in school as her brother Jeff attended the Central School of Speech
23.
James Fox
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William Fox, known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor. Fox was born in London, the son of theatrical agent Robin Fox and he is the brother of actor Edward Fox and the film producer Robert Fox. His maternal grandfather was playwright Frederick Lonsdale, like several members of the Fox family, he was educated at Harrow School. Like his brother Edward, after leaving Harrow, Fox took a short commission in the Coldstream Guards. Fox first appeared on film in The Miniver Story in 1950 and his other early film appearances were made under his birth name, William Fox. In 1962, Fox was working in a bank when Tony Richardson offered him a role in the film The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Foxs father attempted to forbid this, claiming that his son had no talent for acting and that it would disrupt his life for him to give up his job in the bank, during the 1960s, Fox gained popularity. In 1964, he won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his role in The Servant and his films included Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, King Rat, The Chase, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Isadora, and Performance. After finishing work on Performance, Fox suspended his acting career, in a 2008 interview, he said, It was just part of my journey. I think my journey was to spend a while away from acting. And I never lost contact with it - watching movies, reading about it, so I didnt feel I missed it. He became an evangelical Christian, working with the Navigators and devoting himself to the ministry. During this time, the film in which Fox appeared was No Longer Alone, the story of Joan Winmill Brown. He also portrayed the character of Colonel Ferguson in Farewell to the King and he appeared in the Doctor Who audio drama Shada, and in 2007, he guest-starred in the British television crime series Waking the Dead. He also appeared opposite his son Laurence Fox in Allegory of Love and he was part of the cast of Sherlock Holmes, as Sir Thomas, leading member of a freemason-like secret society. In 2010, he filmed Cleanskin, a terrorist thriller directed by Hadi Hajaig and he married Mary Elizabeth Piper in 1973, with whom he has five children, actors Laurence, Lydia, and Jack Fox, and sons Robin and Thomas. In 2007, Laurence and Lydia married actors Billie Piper and Richard Ayoade, Fox is grandfather to Laurences two sons with Piper and Lydias two daughters by Ayoade. His niece Emilia Fox is also an actress, both Emilia and James Fox have portrayed roles in BBCs hit TV series Merlin and Fox has guest-starred in his son Laurences television series Lewis. In her 2014 book A Story Lately Told, Anjelica Huston refers to a relationship with Fox when she was a teenager
24.
Keith Allen (actor)
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Keith Howell Charles Allen is a Welsh actor, comedian, musician, singer-songwriter, artist, author, and television presenter. He is the father of singer Lily Allen and actor Alfie Allen, Allen was born on 2 September 1953 in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales, the second of three children, the son of Edward Charles Owen, a Royal Navy submariner. His younger brother is actor Kevin Allen and he spent his early years near Swansea and in Malta, and most of his childhood in Gosport, Hampshire, while his father served in Portsmouth. At the age of 11 he was sent to Brentwood boarding school in Essex when his father was posted to Singapore and he was expelled from the school at the age of 13. At the age of 15 he was sent to a borstal after repeatedly being caught stealing and he appeared in a number of films in the series The Comic Strip Presents. On Channel 4 in the 1980s after becoming one of the acts of the Comedy Store in 1979. Notable episodes featuring Allen include The Bullshitters, and The Yob, Allen has done both straight and comedy acting. In 1992 he appeared in the revival Carry On film Carry On Columbus where Allen played Pepi The Poisoner, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers this was to be the final film in the Carry On franchise. In 1993 he appeared as the occultist John Peter Barrie, in the Inspector Morse episode The Day of the Devil and this episode of Granada Televisions long running drama series was written by Danny Boyle. This would prove to be the first of three projects either written or directed by Boyle that Allen would be involved in during the 1990s, in the same year, he was cast in a BBC adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit. He was used again by Boyle to play a drug dealer in Trainspotting, Danny Boyle has stated that Allens character from Trainspotting is the same one that moves into the shared flat in Shallow Grave – he wears the same clothes and carries the same bag. He also appeared disguised as a fictional hip-hop star Keithski to present Top of the Pops on 19 July 1996, in 2000, Allen appeared in two Harold Pinter plays at the Almeida Theatre, playing Lambert in Celebration and Mr Sands in The Room. These were performed again at The Lincoln Center Festival in July 2001, in 2001, he played the character of problem-solver Jim Napeworth in an episode of Murder in Mind, and in 2004 cameod in Black Books as poker-player Dave Mouse Ears Smith. In 2002 Allen played the London Records executive Roger Ames in 24 Hour Party People, a film about Factory Records, Allen cameoed in the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced in a short homage to the Stanley Kubrick film, The Shining. In 2005 he appeared in the Endemol-produced BBC Two television programme Art School alongside Ulrika Jonsson, John Humphrys, from 2006 to 2009, Allen appeared in the BBCs Robin Hood drama series, as the Sheriff of Nottingham. His documentary film about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Unlawful Killing, Allen said he refused to make 87 cuts asked for by lawyers to enable the film to be seen in Britain. He also told reporters that he thought the crash had been intended only as a warning, in September 2011 he appeared in the BBC six-part drama series The Body Farm as DI Hale. In 2013 he played Darren the farmer in episode 1.5 of the drama series Great Night Out
25.
Bob Peck
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Robert Peck was born into a working-class family in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 23 August 1945. He went to Leeds Modern School in Lawnswood, Peck was educated at the Leeds College of Art where he received a Diploma in Art and Design. Before breaking into film and television work, Peck was an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company alongside Ian McKellen, Donald Sinden. Between 1979–80 he played Iago alongside Donald Sinden in Othello, in both Stratford and London and he played the character of Macduff in the Trevor Nunns acclaimed 1976 stage and television versions of William Shakespeares Macbeth, and re-appeared in another production of Macbeth in 1982. According to Pecks fellow Royal Shakespeare Theatre performer and veteran actor Sir Ian McKellen, Pecks television career began in the 1970s, with his first television roles being in the BBCs Thirty-Minute Theatre anthology series in 1972, in which he appeared in the episode Bypass. He also appeared in other successful television productions such as Z-Cars. He also appeared in the films Royal Flash and Parker and this crime drama/political thriller follows Pecks character as he attempts to unravel the truth behind the brutal murder of his daughter, portrayed in the series by Joanne Whalley. Another of Pecks co-stars in the series was US actor Joe Don Baker, along with fellow UK actors Charles Kay, after the series ended, Peck had become a figure of popularity and a national favourite. After gaining popularity for his role in Edge of Darkness, Peck had become a national favourite. He also appeared in the 1987 film On the Black Hill, murray Abraham, Ben Kingsley and Robbie Coltrane. During the late-1980s he also appeared in shows including The Storyteller, The Jim Henson Hour. Peck also voiced all the characters in the childrens live action TV series combined with stop motion animation Forget Me Not Farm on the BBC in 1990. Pecks image and popularity increased with appearances in films including the 1990 film Lord of the Flies as the Marine Officer and he also appeared in the television shows Screen Two, Screenplay and A TV Dante. He also appeared in the television movies The Black Velvet Gown, after appearing in Jurassic Park, Peck appeared in the popular television show The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1993 playing General Targo in one episode. He also played Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi in a television movie documenting the life and he also appeared in the direct-to-TV film The Scolds Bridle. In 2000, a year after Pecks death from cancer, the animated film The Miracle Maker, was released. The film was dedicated to Pecks memory, Peck married actress Jill Baker in 1982, and they had three children Hannah, George and Milly. Peck and Baker shared a seventeen-year marriage until his death in 1999, in November 1994, Peck was diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer
26.
Alun Armstrong
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Alan Alun Armstrong is an English actor. Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England and he first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, I always play very colourful characters, often a bit crazy, despotic, psychotic. His numerous credits include several different Charles Dickens adaptations and the eccentric ex-detective Brian Lane in New Tricks, Armstrong is also an accomplished stage actor who spent nine years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He originated the role of Thénardier in the London production of Les Misérables, born Alan Armstrong in Annfield Plain, County Durham, his father was a coal miner and both his parents were Methodist lay preachers. He attended Annfield Plain Junior School and then went on to Consett Grammar School, in the lower sixth, he played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew – a role he would later perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He took part in the National Youth Theatre summer school in 1964, Armstrong auditioned for RADA but was not accepted. He instead studied fine art at Newcastle University and he found the course pretentious and felt that he did not fit in, and he was expelled after two years because he stopped attending classes. Armstrong had jobs with a bricklayer and as a gravedigger before he decided to try acting again and he started out by working as an assistant stage manager at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. He then went on to a Theatre in Education company affiliated with the Sheffield Repertory Theatre, Armstrong made his screen debut in the film Get Carter. He wrote a letter to MGM, the making the film, upon learning that they were making the film in Newcastle and was invited to meet director Mike Hodges. Armstrong has appeared in a number of films, although in this medium he has played supporting roles. In A Bridge Too Far, he had a role as one of the British troops at the Battle of Arnhem. He had a role as the bandit leader Torquil in the 1983 fantasy film Krull. In Patriot Games, Armstrong played an SO-13 officer, in Braveheart, he played the Scottish noble Mornay who betrayed William Wallace. He was the villainous Egyptian cult leader Baltus Hafez in The Mummy Returns and he also had small roles as the High Constable in Sleepy Hollow, Cardinal Jinette in Van Helsing, Magistrate Fang in Roman Polanskis Oliver Twist and Uncle Garrow in Eragon. Armstrong has played over 80 different roles in productions in the course of his career. During the 1970s, he appeared in various TV series, including episodes of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads and he was cast in two mini-series dealing with coal miners in North East England
27.
Marina Sirtis
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Marina Sirtis is a British-American actress. Marina Sirtis was born in the East End of London, the daughter of working-class Greek parents Despina, a tailors assistant and she was brought up in Harringay, North London. While still in school, Sirtis secretly auditioned for drama school, against her parents wishes, ultimately being accepted to the Guildhall School of Music. In 1976, at the age of 21, Sirtis graduated from Guildhall, in 1986, at the age of 31, Sirtis emigrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, to boost her career. She later became a naturalized US citizen, Sirtis started her career as a member of the repertory company at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing, West Sussex, in 1976. Directed by Nic Young, she appeared in Joe Ortons What the Butler Saw, before her role in Star Trek, Sirtis was featured in supporting roles in several films. In the 1983 Faye Dunaway film The Wicked Lady, she engaged in a fight with Dunaway. In the Charles Bronson sequel Death Wish 3, Sirtis character is a rape victim, in the film Blind Date, she appears as a prostitute who is murdered by a madman. Other early works include numerous guest-starring roles on British television series, Sirtis appeared in Raffles, Who Pays the Ferryman, Hazell, Minder, the Jim Davidson sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. She also played the stewardess in a 1979 Cinzano Bianco television commercial starring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, in 1986, Sirtis relocated to the US. Sirtis and Denise Crosby initially tried out for each others eventual roles on The Next Generation, Sirtis character was going to be named Lt. Macha Hernandez, the Security Chief. Gene Roddenberry decided to switch them, and Macha Hernandez became Natasha Yar, Sirtis recalls that on the day she received the call offering her the role of Deanna Troi, she was actually packing to return to Britain, because her six-month visa had expired. Deanna Troi is a half-human, half-Betazoid and her Betazoid abilities allow her to read the emotions of others. Her position on the Enterprise-D is ships counselor, looking after the crews well-being and serving as trusted advisor to Captain Picard, initially, the writers found it difficult to write for Troi and even left her out of four of the first-season episodes. Sirtis appeared in all seven seasons of Star Trek, The Next Generation and she has stated her favourite episode is season sixs Face of the Enemy, in which Troi is kidnapped and surgically altered to pose as a Romulan. So I got all my brains back and I was allowed to do things that I hadnt been allowed to do for five or six years. I went on away teams, I was in charge of staff, I had my pips back, I had phasers, I had all the equipment again, and it was fabulous. During her time on the show, she became friends with her co-stars Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn
28.
Brenda Blethyn
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Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations, two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one. In addition, she has won a BAFTA, an Empire Award and has earned a Theatre World Award and both a Critics Circle Theatre Award and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for her theatrical work. Born into a working class home, Blethyn pursued a career until her early 30s before enrolling in the Guildford School of Acting after the dissolution of her marriage in 1973. She subsequently joined the Royal National Theatre and received credits for her performances in Troilus and Cressida, in 1981, Blethyn earned her first critical acclaim for Steaming. In 1980, Blethyn made her debut in Mike Leighs film Grown-Ups. After a modest number of guest spots in several productions, in the mid-1980s she garnered leading roles in the short-run sitcoms Chance in a Million and The Labours of Erica. In addition, Blethyn has appeared in productions including The Buddha of Suburbia, Anne Frank, The Whole Story, Belonging and War. Her most recent leading role in TV drama is the role in Vera. Born in Ramsgate, Kent, Blethyn was the youngest of the nine children in a Roman Catholic, working-class family. Her mother, Louisa Kathleen, was a housewife and former maid, Bottle had previously worked as a shepherd, and spent six years in British India with the Royal Field Artillery immediately prior to returning home to Broadstairs to become the familys chauffeur. Before WWII, he work as a mechanic at the Vauxhall car factory in Luton. The family lived in poor circumstances at their grandmothers home. It was, however, not until 1944, after an engagement of twenty years, by the time Blethyn was born in 1946, her three eldest siblings, Pam, Ted and Bernard, had already left home. Her parents were the first to introduce Blethyn to the cinema, Blethyn originally trained at technical college and worked as a stenographer and bookkeeper for a bank. At the end of a marriage, she opted to turn her hobby of amateur dramatics to her professional advantage, after studying at the Guildford School of Acting, she went onto the London stage in 1976, performing several seasons at the Royal National Theatre. After winning the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1980, Blethyn made her screen debut, directed by Mike Leigh, their first collaboration marked the start of a professional relationship which would later earn both of them huge acclaim. Blethyn followed this with roles in Shakespearean adaptations for the BBC, playing Cordelia in King Lear and Joan of Arc in Henry VI and she also appeared with Robert Bathurst and others in the popular BBC Radio 4 comedy series Dial M For Pizza. In the following years Blethyn expanded her status as a stage actress, appearing in productions including A Midsummers Night Dream, Dalliance, The Beaux Stratagem
29.
Ade Edmondson
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Adrian Charles Ade Edmondson is an English comedian, actor, writer, musician, television presenter and director. He came to prominence in the early 1980s and was part of the comedy boom. He is probably best known for his roles in the television series The Young Ones and Bottom. Edmondson also appeared in The Comic Strip Presents, Series of films throughout the 1980s and 1990s. For one episode of this he created the heavy metal band Bad News, and for another he played his nihilistic alter-ego Eddie Monsoon. He played the role in The Comic Strips 1985 feature film. Since 2006 Edmondson has concentrated increasingly on music instead of acting, forming a band, The Bad Shepherds, and performing and writing for the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. In 2011 he presented a series of shows for ITV, The Dales, which focused on working in the Yorkshire Dales. The series was so popular that a series aired in spring 2012. Edmondson has been married to fellow comedian Jennifer Saunders since 1985, Edmondson, the second of four children, was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire. As a child, he spent time living with his family in a variety of places including Cyprus, Bahrain, and Uganda, later, for a period in the mid-1980s, his father became the deputy headmaster at the former Drummond Middle School in Manningham, Bradford. Edmondson attended Pocklington School, East Riding of Yorkshire from 1968 to 1975, in an interview with the Times Educational Supplement, he stated that he did not enjoy his education at Pocklington. Edmondson calculated that during his time at Pocklington, he received a total of 66 strokes of the cane as well as frequent slipperings. By the time he was in form, with his parents working abroad, Edmondson began to enjoy himself. He made some friends at the school and had a favourite teacher. Aubrey taught English and encouraged Edmondson to pursue drama, casting him in a number of school plays, after Pocklington, Edmondson went to the University of Manchester to study drama, where he met his future comedy partner Rik Mayall, and graduated with a 2,1 degree. Edmondson and Mayall soon became best friends and before long found work on the alternative comedy scene. Under the name 20th Century Coyote, Edmondson and Mayall became one of the attractions at The Comedy Store
30.
Alison Steadman
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Alison Steadman, OBE is an English actor. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the 50 Greatest Actors voted for by other actors, Steadman made her professional stage debut in 1968 and went on to establish her career in Mike Leighs 1970s TV plays Nuts in May and Abigails Party. She received BAFTA TV Award nominations for the 1986 BBC serial The Singing Detective, other television roles include Pride and Prejudice, Gavin & Stacey and Orphan Black. Her other film appearances include A Private Function, Clockwise Shirley Valentine, Topsy Turvy and The Life, Steadman was born in Liverpool, the youngest of three sisters born to Marjorie and George Percival Steadman, who worked as a production controller for Plessey, an electronics firm. She created the role of the monstrous Beverly in Mike Leighs Abigails Party and she starred as Elmire in the 1983 RSC production of Molières Tartuffe, which was adapted for BBC television. In 2010, Steadman was cast as Madame Arcati in a revival of Noël Cowards Blithe Spirit, in 2014, Steadman appeared as Madame Raquin in Helen Edmundsons adaptation of Emile Zolas Therese Raquin. In 1991, she appeared as Edda Göring in Selling Hitler and as Lauren Patterson in Gone to the Dogs. Television productions directed by Leigh in which she has appeared include Nuts in May, Hard Labour and she also appeared in the BBC comedy The Worst Week of My Life. In 2007 she featured in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about her Welsh family history, with roots in Trefarclawdd, in October 2007, Steadman appeared in Fanny Hill on BBC Four. From May 2007 to January 2010, Steadman starred in the BBC comedy Gavin & Stacey as Pam Shipman, Steadman starred with Myra Frances in Girl, a 1974 BBC play in the Second City Firsts series, performing the first lesbian kiss on British television. In August 2014, Steadman first starred in Boomers as Joyce, the first series came to a end in September 2014. The show returned with a Christmas Special in 2015 and a series in 2016 which ran from March - April. More recently, since 2002, she has starred as Mrs Naughtie in the series Hamish, in December 2009, she starred in the late Mike Stotts My Mad Grandad on BBC Radio 4. In Manchester in 1972, shooting his television film Hard Labour and he asked Steadman to be in his film. During the preparation of the film, Mike and Alison, as they say, got together. They married in 1973 and had two sons, Toby and Leo, the couple separated in 1995 and divorced in 2001. Steadmans present partner is Michael Elwyn and the live in Highgate. Steadman and other celebrities, including Tom Hiddleston, Jo Brand, E. L. James and Rachel Riley, the campaign was launched by crafting company Stampin’ Up
31.
Timothy West
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Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor. West was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, the son of Olive and he was educated at the John Lyon School, Harrow on the Hill, at Bristol Grammar School, where he was a classmate of Julian Glover, and at Regent Street Polytechnic. West worked as a furniture salesman and as a recording technician. West played repertory seasons in Newquay, Hull, Northampton, Worthing, other screen roles have included Nicholas and Alexandra, The Day of the Jackal, The Thirty Nine Steps, Masada, Cry Freedom and Luc Bessons The Messenger, The Story of Joan of Arc. In Richard Eyres Iris he plays Maurice and his son Samuel West plays Maurice as a young man, West starred as patriarch Bradley Hardacre in Granada TVs satirical Northern super-soap Brass over three seasons. West appeared in the series Miss Marple in 1985, and made an appearance as Professor Furie in A Very Peculiar Practice in 1986. In 1997, he played Gloucester in the BBC television production of King Lear, from 2001 to 2003, he played the grumpy and frequently volatile Andrew in the BBC drama series Bedtime. At Christmas 2007, he joined Not Going Out as Geoffrey Adams and he reprised this role in two episodes of series three, Geoffrey Whitehead played the role in later seasons. In 2011, he appeared alongside John Simm and Jim Broadbent in BBC series Exile, in February 2013, West joined the cast of ITV soap Coronation Street, playing Eric Babbage. He joined the cast of EastEnders in 2013, playing Stan Carter from January 2014 and he filmed his final scenes for EastEnders in February 2015. He was co-artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre from 1980–81 and he was Director-in-Residence at the University of Western Australia in 1982. In 2004, he toured Australia with the Carl Rosa Opera Company as Director of the production of H. M. S, pinafore, also singing the role of Sir Joseph Porter. He was replaced in the role by Dennis Olsen for the Perth. West is married to the actress Prunella Scales, with whom he has two boys, one of their sons, Samuel West, is also an actor. The Guardian crossword setter Biggles referred to Wests 50th wedding anniversary in its prize crossword puzzle on 26 October 2013, West and Scales are both prominent supporters of the Labour Party. They are also patrons of the Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham, and of Conway Hall Sunday Concerts programme, West is an Ambassador of SOS Childrens Villages, an international orphan charity providing homes and mothers for orphaned and abandoned children. He currently supports the charitys annual World Orphan Week campaign which takes place each February, West is patron of the National Piers Society, a charity dedicated to preserving and promoting seaside piers. He and Prunella Scales are patrons of Avon Navigation Trust, the charity that runs the River Avon from Stratford-upon-Avon to Tewkesbury and they both support ANT by attending the Stratford River Festival every year
32.
Clive Russell
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Clive Russell is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as, Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline in Ripper Street, Angus OConnor in Happiness and he also appeared in the Scottish sitcoms Still Game and Rab C Nesbitt as Big Innes and in teen drama Hollyoaks as Jack Osbornes brother Billy Brodie. Russell was born in Reeth, England but brought up in Fife, the reviews were good, and he reprised that role for television in 1983. After more TV roles and another film, Russell played Ralph Fiennes father in another critically acclaimed film, Oscar and Lucinda. Growing recognition of his acting skills then brought him major roles in four major TV miniseries, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, The Railway Children, Russell has also made appearances in Still Game, Happiness, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Cracker. From 2005 to 2006, Russell played Phil Nail in ITVs Coronation Street, Russell made an appearance in Waterloo Road as Lisa and Lenny Browns grandfather for one episode. He has appeared as Jock in the series of the BBCs Jam and Jerusalem, as Bayard. In 2012, he joined the cast of the HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones as Brynden The Blackfish Tully. In 2016, he joined the cast of Hollyoaks as Billy, brother of established character Jack Osborne In January 2017, he had a role in the BBC Three comedy Uncle, portraying Sam. In Margarets Museum, an acclaimed film, he starred opposite Helena Bonham Carter as the Gaelic-speaking Neil Currie. Russells other film credits include Festival, Ladies in Lavender, King Arthur, Made of Honour, Lecture 21, The 13th Warrior and The Wolfman. He made an appearance in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes as Captain Tanner and he appeared in the 2010 film The Wolfman as MacQueen. Russell also appeared in Robin Hardys The Wicker Tree which was released in the first quarter of 2012 and he currently plays Inspector Frederick Abberline in BBC Ones Ripper Street. He played Tyr in the live-action film Thor, The Dark World, in 2010, Russell made his debut one-man show Touching the Blue. Clive Russell at the Internet Movie Database
33.
Janet McTeer
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Janet McTeer, OBE is an English actress. In 1997, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, the Olivier Award for Best Actress and she was made an OBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours. McTeer made her stage debut in 1984, and was nominated for the 1986 Olivier Award for Best Newcomer for The Grace of Mary Traverse. Other theatre roles include Yelena in Uncle Vanya, Veronique in God of Carnage and the role in Mary Stuart. On television, she starred in the role of Lynda La Plantes The Governor, received an Emmy Award nomination for Into the Storm. She also appeared opposite Glenn Close in the season of the drama series Damages. McTeer was born in Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the daughter of Jean and Alan McTeer and she attended the now defunct Queen Anne Grammar School for Girls, and worked at the Old Starre Inn, at York Minster and at the citys Theatre Royal. She made her debut in Half Moon Street, a 1986 film based on a novel by Paul Theroux. In 1991, she appeared in Catherine Cooksons The Black Velvet Gown, with Bob Peck and Geraldine Somerville and she appeared in the 1992 film version of Wuthering Heights and the 1995 film Carrington as Vanessa Bell. The following year, the transferred to Broadway, and McTeer received a Tony Award, Theatre World Award. He was determined that she star in the film, when prospective backers balked at her relative anonymity in the US, he produced the film himself. McTeers screen credits include Songcatcher, Waking the Dead, the dogme film The King Is Alive, The Intended and she also starred in the dramatisation of Mary Webbs Precious Bane. She has appeared in such British television serials as The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Hunter, McTeer played Mary, Queen of Scots in Mary Stuart, a play by Friedrich Schiller in a new version by Peter Oswald, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. She acted opposite Harriet Walter as Queen Elizabeth I in Londons West End in 2005, McTeer received a Tony Award nomination for her role in Mary Stuart, and won the Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Actress in a Play. In 2008, she starred in God of Carnage in the West End alongside Tamsin Greig, Ken Stott and Ralph Fiennes and she reprised her role on Broadway opposite Jeff Daniels from March to June 2010. In 2009, she portrayed Clementine Churchill in the HBO feature, Into the Storm, in 2011, McTeer starred alongside Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs and with Daniel Radcliffe and Ciarán Hinds in The Woman in Black, based on the 1983 novel of the same name. Her role as Hubert Page in Albert Nobbs won McTeer critical acclaim and numerous award nominations and it was announced in November 2011 that McTeer had joined the cast of Damages for its fifth and final season, playing Kate Franklin. This was her first American television series and she played American novelist Mary McCarthy in Margarethe von Trottas feature Hannah Arendt
34.
Keira Knightley
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Keira Christina Knightley is an English actress. She began acting as a child on television and made her debut in 1995. She had a role as Sabé in Star Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In 2014, she was nominated for a Golden Globe, a SAG, a BAFTA Award, in October 2015, Knightley made her Broadway debut in the title role of Thérèse Raquin. Knightley was born in Teddington, London, England, the daughter of Sharman Macdonald, an actress turned playwright, and Will Knightley and her Scottish-born mother is of Scottish and Welsh descent, while her father is English. She was meant to be named Kiera, after the Russian ice skater, Kira Ivanova and she has an older brother, Caleb. Knightley lived in Richmond, attending Stanley Junior School, Teddington School and she requested an agent at the age of three. Knightley has noted that she was single-minded about acting during her childhood and she performed in a number of local amateur productions, which included After Juliet, written by her mother, and United States, written by her drama teacher, Ian McShane. She focused on art, history, and English literature while at Esher, after getting an agent at six, Knightley worked mostly in commercials and small TV roles. Her first role was Little Girl in Royal Celebration, a 1993 TV film, a year later, she had a small role in the film A Village Affair. She later starred in 1995s Innocent Lies and 1998s Coming Home and she was a princess in the 1996 film The Treasure Seekers. Later in 1999, she appeared as Rose in Oliver Twist, sabés dialogue was dubbed over with Natalie Portmans voice. This was to hide the fact that the handmaiden Padmé was actually disclosed as the real Queen Amidala at the end of the film. Knightley was cast in the role because of her resemblance to Portman. Knightleys first starring role was in 2001, when she played the daughter of Robin Hood in the made-for-television Walt Disney Productions feature Princess of Thieves and she trained for several weeks in archery, fencing and horse riding. During this time, Knightley also appeared in The Hole, a thriller that received a release in the United States. Its director Nick Hamm described her as a version of Julie Christie. She appeared in the adaptation of Doctor Zhivago as Lara, alongside Scottish actor Hans Matheson in the title role
35.
Denis Lawson
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Denis Stamper Lawson is a Scottish actor and director. He is the uncle of actor Ewan McGregor, Lawson was born in Crieff, Perthshire, the son of Phyllis Neno, a merchant, and Laurence Lawson, a watchmaker. Lawson was educated at Crieff Primary School and he then sold carpets and did amateur theatre work for a year in Dundee before auditioning again at RADA in London and successfully at RSAMD in Glasgow. In 2001, he reprised the role, in form, for the Nintendo GameCube game Star Wars Rogue Squadron II. He has appeared often on the West End stage, notably in the musical Mr. Cinders at the Fortune Theatre from 1983–84 and he appeared on an episode of Loose Ends hosted by Ned Sherrin on BBC Radio 4 on 10 December 2005. In 2005, he played the role of John Jarndyce in the critically acclaimed BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens Bleak House. Two years later he played Peter Syme in the BBC One drama serial Jekyll, Lawson also appeared as Captain Dreadnought Foster in ITVs dramatisations of C. S. Foresters Hornblower. He appeared in Robin Hood in which he played the Sheriff of Winchester and he also appeared in the West End playing the character of Georges in the revival of the musical hit La Cage Aux Folles. In July 2009 Lawson appeared as Alexander Fleming in a BBC Four drama called Breaking the Mould, Lawson played the part of Alices grandfather in ITV1s supernatural crime thriller Marchlands which was shown in February 2011. Lawson appeared at the Royal Court Theatre once more in The Acid Test by Anya Reiss in 2011, Lawson replaced James Bolam in the BBC One series New Tricks in its ninth series in 2012. Lawson has said that he was asked to reprise his role as Wedge in Star Wars, The Force Awakens but turned down the role because he believed it would have bored him. His sister, Carol Diane McGregor, a teacher who still lives in Perthshire, is the mother of actor Ewan McGregor who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. In 1979, Lawson fathered a child, Jamie Lawson, with actress Diane Fletcher and he met his wife, actress Sheila Gish, on the set of the 1985 film That Uncertain Feeling. They lived together for nearly 20 years before marrying in March 2004 in Antigua, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II, Rogue Leader Wedge Antilles Denis Lawson at the Internet Movie Database Denis Lawson Obsession – A large repository of information on his career and personal life
