Guildhall School of Drama & Music
Students, past and present, who studied at the Guildhall School of Drama and Music in Barbican, London, England. Also, any faculty who has taught there past and present.
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Rolf was born at Fort Belvoir in Alexandria, Virginia. After his father served in the Armed Forces the family moved to California, eventually settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating from American Conservatory Theatre's Young Conservatory, he was a founding member of both the California Shakespeare Theatre (aka "Cal Shakes"), as well as the Berkeley Mime Troupe. He was also a regular performer in the Renaissance and Dickens Fairs where he learned to walk a tight rope, juggle and blow fire.
For classical training he auditioned and was accepted into the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. While there, he joined the Omphalos Street Theatre Company as an actor and director, performing throughout the UK including the City of London Festival and the Edinburgh Festival, where they were nominated for a Fringe First Award. Upon graduating, Rolf was awarded the Gold Medal, Guildhall's highest honor for graduating students.
After graduation, Rolf decided to stay in the UK and went straight to work in television, film and theatre. His TV credits include starring roles in three UK television series (Pulaski, Capital City, Love Hurts), as well as guest starring roles in numerous sitcoms, dramas (including Poirot) and TV movies (including MGM's Dirty Dozen: Next Mission, and HBO's The Affair).
His stage credits include two seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company and starring roles in the West End, including Chicago, The Seven Year Itch, The Graduate, the British/European premieres of Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers and Laughter on the 23rd Floor, and Donald Margulies' Dinner With Friends. He also had leading roles with numerous UK repertory companies and on several tours, including title roles in Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune and Jerry Springer - The Opera. Some of his more recent theatre work includes a UK tour of Chichester's production of Mack and Mable directed by Jonathan Church, and the world premieres of Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector (Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, Ca.) and Remains To Be Seen by Kate Hawley (Jewel Theatre in Santa Cruz, Ca.).
In the late 90's his voice landed him the Narrator job for the widely known show Teletubbies. His voice can also be heard in the award-winning video game series Broken Sword as George Stobbart.
Rolf has appeared in over 20 major films, his start being Little Lord Fauntleroy and Paramount's The Lords of Discipline alongside Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn and David Keith. Subsequent films include the first Mission Impossible (as C.I.A. Analyst William Donloe) and Woman in Gold with Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Katie Holmes and Daniel Bruhl. In 2024, Rolf will return to the MI franchise in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part Two reprising his character William Donloe- Actor
- Producer
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Rhys Ifans was born and raised in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the son of teacher parents, Beti Wyn (Davies) and Eirwyn Evans. He was educated in two Welsh language schools - Ysgol Pentrecelyn, where his mother taught, and Ysgol Maes Garmon. During his childhood, Ifans showed an interest in performing and attended youth acting school. He went on to train at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Ifans made his small screen debut as the host of Welsh children's TV show, Stwnsh. Various roles in theater and Welsh language television also followed. His breakthrough on the big screen came in the British hit Twin Town (1997), where he acting alongside his younger brother Llyr Ifans. More film success followed, notably as Hugh Grant's scruffy housemate in Notting Hill (1999). Other projects include Dancing at Lughnasa (1998) , Little Nicky (2000), Enduring Love (2004), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).
In 2004, he played iconic British comedian Peter Cook in the TV film Not Only But Always (2004). His performance earned him an Emmy nomination and a BAFTA award for Best Actor.- Actor
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Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on March 31, 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, to Carol Diane (Lawson) and James Charles McGregor, both teachers. His uncle is actor Denis Lawson. He was raised in Crieff. At age 16, he left Morrison Academy to join the Perth Repertory Theatre. His parents encouraged him to leave school and pursue his acting goals rather than be unhappy. McGregor studied drama for a year at Kirkcaldly in Fife, then enrolled at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama for a three-year course. He studied alongside Daniel Craig and Alistair McGowan, among others, and left right before graduating after snagging the role of Private Mick Hopper in Dennis Potter's six-part Channel 4 series Lipstick on Your Collar (1993). His first notable role was that of Alex Law in Shallow Grave (1994), directed by Danny Boyle, written by John Hodge and produced by Andrew Macdonald. This was followed by The Pillow Book (1995) and Trainspotting (1996), the latter of which brought him to the public's attention.
He is now one of the most critically acclaimed actors of his generation, and portrays Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first three Star Wars episodes. McGregor is married to French production designer Eve Mavrakis, whom he met while working on the television series Kavanagh QC (1995). They married in France in the summer of 1995, and have four daughters. McGregor formed a production company, with friends Jonny Lee Miller, Sean Pertwee, Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Damon Bryant, Bradley Adams and Geoff Deehan, called "Natural Nylon", and hoped it would make innovative films that do not conform to Hollywood standards. McGregor and Bryant left the company in 2002. He was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to drama and charity.
Ewan made his directorial debut with American Pastoral (2016), an adaptation of Philip Roth's book, in which Ewan also starred.
In 2018 McGregor won an Golden Globe for his work in the TV Series Fargo.- Actor
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One of the British theatre's most famous faces, Daniel Craig, who waited tables as a struggling teenage actor with the National Youth Theatre, has gone on to star as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).
He was born Daniel Wroughton Craig on March 2, 1968, at 41 Liverpool Road, Chester, Cheshire, England. His father, Timothy John Wroughton Craig, was a merchant seaman turned steel erector, and then became landlord of the "Ring O'Bells" pub in Frodsham, Cheshire. His mother, Carol Olivia (Williams), was an art teacher. Craig has English, as well as Irish, Scottish and Welsh, ancestry. His parents split up in 1972, and young Daniel was raised with his older sister, Lea, in Liverpool, then in Hoylake, Wirral, in the home of his mother. His interest in acting was encouraged by visits to the Liverpool Everyman Theatre arranged by his mother. From the age of six, Craig started acting in school plays, making his debut in the Frodsham Primary School production of "Oliver!", and his mother was the driving force behind his artistic aspirations. The first Bond movie he ever saw at the cinema was Roger Moore's Live and Let Die (1973); young Daniel Craig saw it with his father, so it took a special place in his heart. He was also a good athlete and was a rugby player at Hoylake Rugby Club.
At age 14, Craig played roles in "Oliver", "Romeo and Juliet" and "Cinderella" at Hilbre High School in West Kirby, Wirral. He left Hilbre High School at age 16 to audition at the National Youth Theatre's (NYT) troupe on their tour in Manchester in 1984. He was accepted and moved down to London. There, his mother and father watched his stage debut as Agamemnon in Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida". As a struggling actor with the NYT, he was toiling in restaurant kitchens and as a waiter. Craig performed with NYT on tours to Valencia, Spain, and to Moscow, Russia, under the leadership of director Edward Wilson. He failed at repeated auditions at the Guildhall, but eventually his persistence paid off, and in 1988, he entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican. There, he studied alongside Ewan McGregor and Alistair McGowan, then later Damian Lewis and Joseph Fiennes, among others. He graduated in 1991, after a three-year course under the tutelage of Colin McCormack, the actor from the Royal Shakespeare Company. From 1992-1994, he was married to Scottish actress Fiona Loudon, their daughter, named Ella Craig (born 1992).
Craig made his film debut in The Power of One (1992). His film career continued on television, notably the BBC2 serial Our Friends in the North (1996). He shot to international fame after playing supporting roles in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Road to Perdition (2002). He was nominated for his performances in the leading role in Layer Cake (2004), and received other awards and nominations. Craig was named as the sixth actor to portray James Bond, in October 2005, weeks after he finished his work in Munich (2005), where he co-starred with Eric Bana under the directorship of Steven Spielberg. Craig's reserved demeanor and his avoidance of the showbiz-party-red-carpet milieu makes him a cool 007. He is the first blond actor to play Bond, and also the first to be born after the start of the film series, and also the first to be born after the death of author Ian Fleming in 1964. Four of the past Bond actors: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan have indicated that Craig is a good choice as Bond.
He was appointed Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) by Queen Elizabeth II at the 2022 Queen's New Years Honours for his services to Film and Theatre.- Actor
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Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Copeland Bloom was born on January 13, 1977 in Canterbury, Kent, England. His mother, Sonia Constance Josephine Bloom (née Copeland), was born in Kolkata, India, to an English family then-resident there. The man he first knew as his father, Harry Bloom, was a legendary political activist who fought for civil rights in South Africa. But Harry died of a stroke when Orlando was only four years old. After that, Orlando and his older sister, Samantha Bloom, were raised by their mother and family friend, Colin Stone. When Orlando was 13, Sonia revealed to him that Colin is actually the biological father of Orlando and his sister; the two were conceived after an agreement by his parents, since Harry, who suffered a stroke in 1975, was unable to have children.
Orlando attended St. Edmund's School in Canterbury but struggled in many courses because of dyslexia. He did embrace the arts, however, and enjoyed pottery, photography and sculpturing. He also participated in school plays and was active at his local theater. As a teen, Orlando landed his first job: he was a clay trapper at a pigeon shooting range. Encouraged by his mother, he and his sister began studying poetry and prose, eventually giving readings at Kent Festival. Orlando and Samantha won many poetry and Bible reciting competitions. Then Orlando, who always idolized larger-than-life characters, gravitated towards serious acting. At the age of 16, he moved to London and joined the National Youth Theatre, spending two seasons there and gaining a scholarship to train with the British American Drama Academy. Like many young actors, he also auditioned for a number of television roles to further his career, landing bit parts in British television shows Casualty (1986), Midsomer Murders (1997) and Smack the Pony (1999). He also appeared in the critically acclaimed movie Wilde (1997).
He then attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. It was there, in 1998, that Orlando fell three stories from a rooftop terrace and broke his back. Despite fears that he would be permanently paralyzed, he quickly recovered and returned to the stage. As fate would have it, seated in the audience one night in 1999 was a director named Peter Jackson. After the show, he met with Orlando and asked him to audition for his new set of movies. After graduating from Guildhall, Orlando began work on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, spending 18 months in New Zealand bringing to life "Legolas", a part which made him a household name. Today, he is one of the busiest and most sought-after actors in the industry.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in London, England, Hayley Elizabeth Atwell has dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and the United States. An only child, Hayley was named after actress Hayley Mills. Her parents, Alison (Cain) and Grant Atwell, both motivational speakers, met at a London workshop of Dale Carnegie's self-help bible "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Her mother is English (with Irish ancestry) and her father is American; he was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and is partly of Native-American descent (his Native American name is Star Touches Earth). Her parents divorced when she was age two. Her father returned to America and Hayley remained with her mother in London, but she spent her summers in Missouri with her father. Hayley's mother saw theater as an important communal experience, so she was introduced to theater from a young age. At age 11, she had memorable trip to see Ralph Fiennes playing Hamlet. She would later work with him on The Duchess (2008).
She went to Sion-Manning Roman Catholic Girl's School in West London where she excelled academically. She took her A-levels at the London Oratory School. She took two years out of her education, traveling with her father and working for a casting director. In 2005, she graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a degree in Acting. Hayley began her career with parts on a few BBC television productions. Her first big break came in the television miniseries, The Line of Beauty (2006). The following year, she got her first film role in How About You (2007). She followed this with Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream (2007). Her breakthrough role came four years later as British agent Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).- Actor
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Damian Lewis was born on February 11, 1971, in St. John's Wood, London, England, to Charlotte Mary (Bowater), from an upper-class background, and J. Watcyn Lewis, a city broker whose own parents were Welsh. He was raised on Abbey Road in London until the age of 8 with his siblings Gareth, William, and Amanda. In 1979, he was sent to Ashdown House boarding school, then was educated at Eton College. At age 16, he formed his own theater company, then worked in South London, then traveled around Africa. From 1990 to 1993, he studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, alongside Daniel Craig and Joseph Fiennes. Among his teachers was RSC stalwart Colin McCormack. Lewis graduated in 1993, and worked on the stage, particularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company. There he was seen by director Steven Spielberg, who subsequently cast him as Richard Winters in the HBO/BBC miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other awards. Lewis continues his career in films, TV, and theater.- Born Naveen William Sidney Andrews in London on January 17, 1969. His parents were both Indian immigrants from Kerala, India. In high school, he auditioned for drama school and was accepted at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Two of his classmates were Ewan McGregor and David Thewlis. His studies paid off when he won a role in Hanif Kureshi's film, London Kills Me (1991). He is best known for his role as that 'Sikh bloke' in The English Patient (1996) and as Sayid in the popular television series Lost (2004). He splits his time between homes in Los Angeles and Hawaii, where Lost (2004) was filmed.
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Lennie James was born in Nottingham to Trinidadian parents, and grew up in South London. His mother, Phyllis Mary James, died when he was 12. Lennie and his older brother went into a council children's home. When he was 16 he was fostered with a social worker who had two older children, and they remain very close. Within a year Lennie began writing plays (Storm Damage was broadcast by the BBC in 2000 and won a Royal Television Society (RTS) award in 2001). Lennie received his training at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama from which he graduated in 1988.- Actor
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Alfred Molina was born in 1953 in London, England. His mother, Giovanna (Bonelli), was an Italian-born cook and cleaner, and his father, Esteban Molina, was a Spanish-born waiter and chauffeur. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. His stage work includes two major Royal National Theatre productions, Tennessee Williams' "The Night of the Iguana" (as Shannon) and David Mamet's "Speed the Plow" (as Fox), plus a splendid performance in Yasmina Reza's "Art" (his Broadway debut), for which he received a Tony Award nomination in 1998. He made his film debut in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and got a good part in Letter to Brezhnev (1985) (as a Soviet sailor who spends a night in Liverpool), but his movie breakthrough came two years later when he played--superbly--Kenneth Halliwell, the tragic lover of playwright Joe Orton, in Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears (1987). He was also outstanding in Enchanted April (1991), The Perez Family (1995) (as a Cuban immigrant), Anna Karenina (1997) (as Levin) and Chocolat (2000) (as the narrow-minded mayor of a small French town circa 1950s, who tries to shut down a chocolate shop).- Actor
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Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, to Jennifer Anne Mary Alleyne (Lash), a novelist, and Mark Fiennes, a photographer. He is one of six children. Four of his siblings are also in the arts: Ralph Fiennes, an actor; Martha Fiennes, a director; Magnus Fiennes, a musician; and Sophie Fiennes, a producer. He is of English, Irish, and Scottish origin.
He was brought up in West Cork, Ireland. He left art school, and began working with the Young Vic Youth Theatre, and then went on to train at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His first professional stage appearance was in the West End in The Woman In Black, followed by A Month In The Country. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for two seasons and performed roles in Dennis Potter's Son Of Man, Les Enfants Du Paradis, Troilus and Cressida, and Peter Whelan's The Herbal Bed.- Actor
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David Thewlis was born David Wheeler in 1963 in Blackpool, Lancashire, to Maureen (Thewlis) and Alec Raymond Wheeler, and lived with his parents above their combination wallpaper and toy shop during his childhood. Originally, he came to London with his band Door 66, however he changed his plans and entered Guildhall School of Drama.
He had minor roles in films and TV until he took the main role in Naked (1993). The film won him several awards including the New York Critics Award. He has since been in many other films including DragonHeart (1996), Restoration (1995), Black Beauty (1994) and he took the part of Professor Remus John Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and its sequels.
Recently, he starred in the third season of FX's Fargo (2014).
He lived with the British actress Anna Friel from 2001-2010. They have a daughter, Gracie Ellen Mary, born July 9, 2005.- Shirley Henderson was the eldest of three sisters born into a working-class family in the village of Kincardine in Fife, Scotland. As a teenager she sang locally and performed in school drama clubs. Her first break came when she watched a singer on the Opportunity Knocks (1956) TV talent program and decided she could do as well. She entered and won a talent competition at Butlins Holiday Camp and from there graduated to local music club gigs. She was later accepted by London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She performed on stage in England's National Theatre company, which led to a role on the British TV drama Hamish Macbeth (1995) with future Trainspotting (1996) co-star Robert Carlyle.
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One of four children, Blackman was born in London's East End, to Edith Eliza (Stokes), a homemaker, and Frederick Thomas Blackman, a statistician employed with the Civil Service. She received elocution lessons for her 16th birthday (at her own request), and later attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which she paid for by working as a clerical assistant in the Civil Service. She was also a dispatch rider for the Home Office during World War II, playing an important role in the war effort.
Blackman received her first acting work on stage in London's West End as an understudy in "The Guinea Pig". She continued with roles in "The Gleam" (1946) and "The Blind Goddess" (1947), before moving into film. She debuted with Fame Is the Spur (1947), starring Michael Redgrave.
Blackman suffered a nervous breakdown following her divorce from Bill Sankey, a man 12 years her senior, who's jealousy, fraudulent business practices, and emptying of her bank accounts took it's toll. After hospitalisation Blackman began counselling, which would last for years, and began rebuilding her career.
TV series work also came her way again, most notably the highly popular The Avengers (1961), co-starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed. As the leather-clad "Catherine Gale", Blackman showcased her incredible beauty, self-confidence, and athletic abilities. Her admirable qualities made her not only a catch for the men, but also an inspirational figure for the 1960s feminist movement.
Blackman took on the role of Greek goddess Hera in popular movie adventure Jason and the Argonauts (1963) with Ray Harryhausen and melodrama Life at the Top (1965) with Laurence Harvey. She then played "Pussy Galore" in the classic James Bond film Goldfinger (1964). Blackman went toe to toe with Sean Connery's womanizing "007" and created major sparks on screen.
Blackman continued to work consistently in films and tv, while also appearing on stage where she earned rave reviews as the blind heroine of the thriller "Wait Until Dark" as well as for her dual roles in "Mr. and Mrs.", a production based on two of Noël Coward's plays. She also enjoyed working with her second husband, actor Maurice Kaufmann, in the play "Move Over, Mrs. Markham" and the film thriller Fright (1971). She proved a sultry-voiced sensation in various musicals productions such as "A Little Night Music", "The Sound of Music", "On Your Toes", and "Nunsense."
In the new millennium, Honor was seen in such films as Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Color Me Kubrick (2005), Reuniting the Rubins (2010), I, Anna (2012) and Cockneys vs Zombies (2012), as well as the British TV serieses Water, Water, Everywhere (1920) The Royal (2003) Coronation Street (1960), long running series Casualty (1986) and finally You, Me & Them (2013), her last role after her retirement several years earlier.
Divorced from Kaufmann in 1975 (although they remained friends until his death, Blackman even cared for him during his 13 year battle with cancer), Blackman never remarried, revealing in an interview that she simply preferred single life, "Basically I'm a shy person and I like my own company". Unable to conceive, the couple adopted two children, Lottie and Barnaby, in '67 and '68 respectively.
The ever-lovely and eternally glamorous star continued to find regular work into her 90s, including co-starring in the long-running English hit comedy series The Upper Hand (1990) and performing her one-woman stage show, "Wayward Women"
Honor Blackman died on April 5, 2020, in Lewes, Sussex. She was 94.- Actor
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With charm to spare and dark, unassumingly handsome looks, British actor Ben Chaplin arrived on the Hollywood scene in smart and sexy fashion with the comedy The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996). While his habit for avoiding mainstream artificiality in favor of small, intense, independent vehicles is quite intact, in retrospect it looks as if he has purposely avoided glossy Hollywood stardom in search of quality work.
Chaplin was born Benedict John Greenwood in Windsor, England, where he was raised, the youngest of four children of Cynthia (Chaplin), a drama teacher, and Peter Greenwood, a civil engineer. He first developed an interest in acting while appearing in a school play. He attended London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but did not conform well to the school's program layout and left after his first year to scout out the local theatre scene. A one-time statistician for the London Transport Authority during his fledgling years as a young actor, he made his TV debut in 1990. His first role of note occurred with a co-starring role in the TV-movie Bye Bye Baby (1992). This led to an introduction to film-making with a small part as a footman in the Merchant Ivory period drama The Remains of the Day (1993) starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. After a breakthrough playing a social misfit in the film Feast of July (1995) and a show-stopping, offbeat role in the BBC TV series Game-On (1995), Hollywood quickly took notice and he was offered the role of the photographer who gets caught between two women in The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) co-starring Uma Thurman and Janeane Garofalo.
Just as in acting school, he was unwilling to conform to the Hollywood system and immediately sought out work on the London stage. Following theatre roles in "The Neighbour" (1993) and "Peaches" (1994), he earned winning reviews and an Olivier Award nomination for his compelling portrayal of Tom Wingfield opposite theatre legend Zoë Wanamaker in "The Glass Menagerie" on the London stage.
Quite in demand by this time for films he appeared alongside Jennifer Jason Leigh and Albert Finney in Washington Square (1997), Agnieszka Holland version of the Henry James novel that had previously appeared on screen as The Heiress (1949) starring Montgomery Clift and winning Olivia de Havilland the Academy Award for Best Actress of 1949. This period piece failed to achieve its predecessor's financial success or critical praise, but Ben did receive kudos for his touching performance in the role of Private Bell in Terrence Malick much-admired remake of The Thin Red Line (1998).
Since then Ben has concentrated on risk-taking and quality rather than on mainstream filming. In the exorcist-themed Lost Souls (2000) he played an atheistic crime writer deemed to become Satan himself; played a modest bank clerk who tangles with a Russian mail-order bride (Nicole Kidman) in Birthday Girl (2001); portrayed Sandra Bullock's rookie partner in the crimer Murder by Numbers (2002); and melded beautifully into a number of period pieces such as The Touch (2002), Stage Beauty (2004), The New World (2005) and Me and Orson Welles (2008).
The dark-eyed, thick-browed, soulful-eyed actor also showed off his transatlantic appeal on stage after making his 2003 Broadway debut in "The Retreat from Moscow" and earning a Tony nomination in the process. Recent filming has included a prime role in yet another portrait of Dorian Gray (2009).- Actor
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Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. At an early age, Cushing was attracted to acting, inspired by his favorite aunt, who was a stage actress. While at school, Cushing pursued his acting interest in acting and also drawing, a talent he put to good use later in his first job as a government surveyor's assistant in Surrey. At this time, he also dabbled in local amateur theater until moving to London to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on scholarship. He then performed in repertory theater in Worthing, deciding in 1939 to head for Hollywood, where he made his film debut in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939). Other Hollywood films included A Chump at Oxford (1940) with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Vigil in the Night (1940) and They Dare Not Love (1941). However, after a short stay, he returned to England by way of New York (making brief appearances on Broadway) and Canada. Back in his homeland, he contributed to the war effort during World War II by joining the Entertainment National Services Association.
After the war, he performed in the West End and had his big break appearing with Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing's future partner-in-horror Christopher Lee had a bit part. Both actors also appeared in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their later horror films. During the 1950s, Cushing became a familiar face on British television, appearing in numerous teleplays, such as 1984 (1954) and Beau Brummell (1954), until the end of the decade when he began his legendary association with Hammer Film Productions in its remakes of the 1930s Universal horror classics. His first Hammer roles included Dr. Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dr. Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958), and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959).
Cushing continued playing the roles of Drs. Frankenstein and Van Helsing, as well as taking on other horror characters, in Hammer films over the next 20 years. He also appeared in films for the other major horror producer of the time, Amicus Productions, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and its later horror anthologies, a couple of Dr. Who films (1965, 1966), I, Monster (1971), and others. By the mid-1970s, these companies had stopped production, but Cushing, firmly established as a horror star, continued in the genre for some time thereafter.
Perhaps his best-known appearance outside of horror films was as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' phenomenally successful science fiction film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986) was Cushing's last film before his retirement, during which he made a few television appearances, wrote two autobiographies and pursued his hobbies of bird watching and painting. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the acting profession in Britain and worldwide. Peter Cushing died at age 81 of prostate cancer on August 11, 1994.- Geraldine Somerville was born in Dublin. She lived in Co. Meath until she was six, when her parents moved to the Isle of Man. Geraldine went to dance classes from the age of 6 and, at the age of 8, she attended the Arts Educational School in Tring, Hertfordshire. There, she was taught ballet, music and drama. At sixteen, she left to continue her studies in London, where she gained a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Geraldine has, most recently, been seen in the film My Week with Marilyn (2011), directed by Simon Curtis, alongside Golden Globe-winner Michelle Williams, and has a leading role as "Louisa Manton" in the upcoming Julian Fellowes ITV Production of Titanic (2012), to be broadcast in March/April 2012.
Geraldine's acting career began in 1989, immediately after graduating from the Guildhall. She was cast as "Laura" opposite Linus Roache in "The Glass Menagerie", at The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, for which she was nominated for a Best Actress award by the Manchester Evening News.
Geraldine's numerous theatre credits include: "Three Birds Alighting on a Field", directed by Max Stafford-Clark, "A Jamaican Airman Foresees His Own Death", directed by Hettie Macdonald and "The Treatment", directed by Lindsay Posner, all at The Royal Court, "Juliet" in "Romeo and Juliet", directed by Andy Hay at Bristol Old Vic, "I Am Yours", directed by Nancy Meckler for Shared Experience, "A Doll's House", "Birmingham Rep", 'Blue Remembered Hills", with Steve Coogan and Nigel Lindsay, directed by Patrick Marber, and "Power" with Robert Lindsay and Rupert Penry-Jones, directed by Lindsey Posner for The National Theatre. More recently, Geraldine appeared at the Donmar Warehouse in "Serenading Louis", 2010, opposite Jason O'Mara, directed by Simon Curtis.
Geraldine has starred in a wide variety of television dramas, her breakout role being, "'Panhandle' Penhaligon", alongside Robbie Coltrane, in the ground-breaking, award-winning drama series, Cracker (1993) (1993-1995), by Jimmy McGovern, a much-imitated series still shown around the world. Geraldine was nominated for the Best Actress Bafta for her role as "Detective Penhaligon".
Other notable television dramas include: The Deep Blue Sea (1994) (1994), Aristocrats (1999), After Miss Julie (1995) (1995), Daylight Robbery (1999), Heaven on Earth (1998), The Safe House (2002), Daphne (2007) and The Children (2008).
Films include: My Week with Marilyn (2011), director Simon Curtis, Sixty Six (2006), director Paul Weiland, Gosford Park (2001), director Robert Altman, Jilting Joe (1998), director Dan Zeff.
Geraldine also played "Lily Potter", mother of "Harry Potter" in all the Harry Potter Films. - Age has not taken the flower off this Bloom. The well-known and highly respected stage, screen and television actress Claire Bloom continues to be in demand as an octogenarian actress and looks as beautiful as ever.
She was born Patricia Claire Blume on February 15, 1931, in Finchley, North London, to Elizabeth (Grew) and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales. Her parents were from Jewish families from Belarus. Educated at Badminton School in Bristol and Fern Hill Manor in New Milton, Claire expressed early interest in the arts and was stage trained as an adolescent at the Guildhall School, under the guidance of Eileen Thorndike, and then at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Marking her professional debut on BBC radio, she subsequently took her first curtain call with the Oxford Repertory Theatre in 1946 in the production of "It Depends What You Mean". She then received early critical accolades for her Shakespearean ingénues in "King John", "The Winter's Tale" and, notably, her Ophelia in "Hamlet" at age 17 at Stratford-on-Avon opposite alternating Hamlets Paul Scofield and Robert Helpmann. By 1949 Claire was making her West End debut with "The Lady's Not For Burning" with the up-and-coming stage actor Richard Burton.
A most becoming and beguiling dark-haired actress whose photogenic, slightly pinched beauty was accented by an effortless elegance and poise, Claire's inauspicious film debut came with a prime role in the British courtroom film drama The Blind Goddess (1948). It was her second film, when Charles Chaplin himself selected her specifically to be his young leading lady in the classic sentimental drama Limelight (1952), that propelled her to stardom. Her bravura turn as a young suicide-bent ballerina saved from despair by an aging music hall clown (Chaplin) was exquisitely touching and sparked an enviable but surprisingly sporadic career in films.
Despite the sudden film attention, Claire continued her formidable presence on the Shakespearean stage. Joining the Old Vic Company for the 1952-53 and 1953-54 seasons, she appeared as Helena, Viola, Juliet, Jessica, Miranda, Virgilia, Cordelia and (again) Ophelia in a highly successful tenure. Touring Canada and the United States as Juliet, she made her Broadway bow in the star-crossed-lover role in 1956, also playing the Queen in "Richard II". A strong presence on both the London and New York stages over the years, she gave other powerful performances with "The Trojan Women", "Vivat! Vivat! Regina!", "Hedda Gabler", "A Doll's House" and "A Streetcar Named Desire". Much later in life she performed in a superb one-woman show entitled "These Are Women: A Portrait of Shakespeare's Heroines" that included monologues from several of her acclaimed stage performances.
Claire's stylish and regal presence was simply ideal for mature period films, and she appeared opposite a roster of Hollywood's most talented leading men, including Laurence Olivier in the title role of Richard III (1955), Richard Burton and Fredric March in Alexander the Great (1956), Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958), and Brynner and Charlton Heston in the DeMille epic The Buccaneer (1958), in which she had a rare dressed-down role as a spirited pirate girl. On the more contemporary scene, she appeared with Burton in two classic film dramas: the stark "kitchen sink" British stage piece Look Back in Anger (1959) and the Cold War espionage thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965). In addition she courted tinges of controversy, playing a housewife gone bonkers in the offbeat sudser The Chapman Report (1962) and a lesbian in the supernatural chiller The Haunting (1963).
Claire met first husband Rod Steiger while performing with him on stage in 1959's "Rashomon". They married that year and in 1960 had a daughter, Anna, who grew up to become a well-regarded opera singer. Claire and Rod appeared in two lesser films together, The Illustrated Man (1969) and Three Into Two Won't Go (1969), in 1969. That same year, they divorced after 10 tumultuous years.
As with other maturing actresses during the 1970s, Claire looked toward classy film roles in TV movies for sustenance, appearing in Backstairs at the White House (1979) as First Lady Edith Wilson and in Brideshead Revisited (1981), for which she was nominated for an Emmy. Also lauded were the epic miniseries Ellis Island (1984); a remake of Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables (1983); The Ghost Writer (1984), an acclaimed adaption of Philip Roth's novel ; and Shadowlands (1986), the latter earning her a British Television Award. Claire married Roth the writer (her third marriage) in 1990 after a brief second marriage to producer Hillard Elkins (1969-1972). The union with Roth lasted five years.
Claire appeared in several Shakespearean teleplays over the decades while also portraying a choice selection of historical royals, including Czarina Alexandra and Katherine of Aragon. On daytime drama, she delightfully played matriarch and murderess Orlena Grimaldi on the daytime drama As the World Turns (1956) starting in 1993. She left the role in 1995 and was replaced.
Continuing sporadically in films from the 1970s on, Claire graced such films as the stylish British social comedy A Severed Head (1971), the tender coming-of-age drama Red Sky at Morning (1971) as Richard Thomas's mother, and one of that year's versions of Ibsen's A Doll's House (1973) (Jane Fonda starred as Nora in the other). She also movingly played George C. Scott's estranged wife in Islands in the Stream (1977) and had a very brief cameo as Hera in Clash of the Titans (1981), a small part as a manipulative mother in Déjà Vu (1985), and mature parts in the romantic dramedy Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987) and classic Woody Allen drama Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).
In the new millennium, Claire has been seen in such quality films as and The Book of Eve (2002), Imagining Argentina (2003), The King's Speech (2010) (as Queen Mary), And While We Were Here (2012), Max Rose (2013) starring a dramatic Jerry Lewis, and Miss Dalí (2018). She has also made appearances on such TV miniseries as The Ten Commandments (2005) and Summer of Rockets (2019).
Claire wrote two memoirs. The first was the more career-oriented "Limelight and After: The Education of an Actress," released in 1982. Her more controversial second book, "Leaving a Doll's House: A Memoir," published in 1996, focused on her personal life. - Actress
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Born in 1953, to a mother who had worked in television, Lesley Nicol was a shy 16-year-old at St. Elphin's Boarding School in Derbyshire when she expressed a desire to go out and see the world - not, she recalls, to be an actress but to kiss boys. She went to a technical college in Manchester to study for her 'A'-level examinations and, whilst there, she got involved with the Manchester Library Theatre. She was paid a pound a week to play a tiny role as a 12-year-old boy in Shaw's 'Androcles and the Lion'. It was her first and last role there but she was encouraged to apply for entry to London's Guildhall School of drama, from where she graduated in the early 1970s. For several years she was best known as a stage actress, particularly in musicals, appearing in 'Mama Mia', 'Our House', the show based on the hit songs of Madness, and as Little Buttercup in a revival, with Gary Wilmot ,of 'HMS Pinafore'. She was also the original stage neighbor, nosy Auntie Annie, in the play 'East Is East' at the Royal Court, reprising the role in the 1999 film version that was also her movie debut, surprising given her length of acting experience. She has appeared in guest roles in numerous television series and in the mid-2000s played a character called Aunt-Tea in a short series of commercials for Tetley tea. Since 2010 she has played no-nonsense cook Mrs Patmore in the successful period drama 'Downton Abbey'.- Actor
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Simon Russell Beale is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed talents in British theatre.
He spent his early years abroad as his father was Surgeon General to the British Army (his mother is also a doctor), but aged 8 was relocated to England and became a pupil at St Paul's Cathedral School. He then attended Clifton College in Bristol on a choral scholarship before studying English at the University of Cambridge (also on a music scholarship). He began a course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, initially as a singer, later switching to acting, but left unsatisfied. He was spotted in a student play at the Edinburgh Festival, which led to starting a professional acting career.
He was first noticed in comic roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he forged collaborations with Sam Mendes whom he has continued to work with. Since 1995 he has been a regular player at the National Theatre.
Beale is an associate of the National Theatre and the Almeida Theatre in London, and an associate artist at the RSC.- Susannah Fielding is an English actress. She grew up in Havant, Hampshire in a single parent family. She completed her A levels at Christ's Hospital school, a charity school in West Sussex where she found her love of acting.
She went on to train at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she graduated early to star in Tennesee Williams' 'The Rose Tattoo' alongside Zoe Wannamaker on the Oliver stage at the National Theatre, London. She was then cast as Hero in 'Much Ado About Nothing' alongside Simon Russell-Beale, and 'Philistines' with Ruth Wilson and Phil Davies which kick-started her highly acclaimed theatre career. She went on to star in 'Wallander' alongside Kenneth Branagh, followed by roles in numerous hit UK comedy series. She played Rafe Spall's long-suffering girlfriend Chloe in 'Pete Versus Life', and had roles in 'Catastrophe', 'Lovesick', and 'Black Mirror'.
She then played series regular Brooke, love interest to Joel McHale in 'The Great Indoors' for CBS in the US where she also starred alongside Stephen Fry. She returned to the UK to play Jennie Gresham in the highly acclaimed comedy series 'This Time with Alan Partridge' where she shone as Steve Coogan's co star in mock magazine show 'This Time'. She also played leading roles in TV dramas 'Sticks and Stones' and 'Life', both written by award-winning writer Mike Bartlett. - Actor
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Born in Cardiff, Peter trained as a doctor at Brasenose College, Oxford and St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, but chose an acting career just prior to graduation. Peter caught the acting bug as a teenager at the National Youth Theatre in Wales and his drama training was at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. On leaving drama school in 1990, Peter made his television debut in Beeban Kidron's Screen Two production of "Antonia and Jane" before going on to play lead roles in three television drama series: "Alex" in Granada TV's Medics; "Lt. Nick Pasco" in "Soldier Soldier" for Central TV; and "Tom Walton" in "The Men's Room" (1991), a five-part series directed by Antonia Bird for BBC TV.
For the next few years, Peter worked steadily in the UK doing several noteworthy productions, such as Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author", "Alun Lewis" in "Alun Lewis: Death and Beauty" for the BBC Wales and "Martin Chuzzlewit" for the BBC, as well as the movie "Uncovered", directed by Jim McBride. In 1995, Peter did a guest shot on "Highlander the Series" playing Methos, a 5000 year old Immortal, which led to a recurring role on the series and changed the theater of his work from the UK to America. He moved to Canada during the filming of "Highlander", then returned to the UK to play Tom Kirby in the Granada Television series "Noah's Ark." Back in Canada, he did two seasons of "Cold Squad" as Inspector Simon Ross and had roles in "X-Men 2- X-Men United" and "Catwoman". He received a Gemini Award nomination and a Christian TV Excellence nomination for best actor for his work in "The Miracle of the Cards". In 2006, Peter appeared on the BBC series, "Dalziel and Pascoe." Peter and his family relocated to Los Angeles in the fall of 2005 where he did guest shots on the series "Charmed," and "Medium" as well as "The Collector" for CTV in Canada. He revisited the character of Methos for the new Highlander movie, "The Source" and also played the title role in "The Last Sin Eater" directed by Michael Landon Jr. for Fox Faith Pictures. In the summer of 2006, Peter returned to the UK to join the cast of the popular medical drama "Holby City" for at least one year as Medical Consultant Daniel Clifford.
Peter holds an Advanced Level Stage fighting certificate, is a former National Trampoline Champion and his personal best time for running the London Marathon is 3 hours exactly. Peter is married and he and his wife have a son.
As of August, 2011, Peter has returned to medical school, attending the University of Vermont, to become a doctor. He graduated in May 2015.- Actress
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Natasha was born in Liverpool, England. Her mother (Mary) is a teacher and her father (Fred) is a NHS manager. For the first ten years of her life she lived in the Middle East where her father sent up immunisation clinics for the World Health Organisation, and her mother taught at an English Speaking school. Her family then moved back to the UK and settled in Loughton, in Essex, England. She attended the local comprehensive school, Epping Forest College. She was thinking of studying law, but a teacher told her to try drama school after seeing her in a school production of the musical Chicago. She then went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. On graduating her first job was the Tenth Man at the Hampstead Theatre. She was spotted performing a play at the Latchmere Pub Theatre and that is how she won the role of Jenny in London's Burning.- Born in Gibraltar, and educated in Ireland and England, Nicholas studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music And Drama in London. His extensive career has encompassed stage, screen, and radio. He has played leading and major supporting roles for many British stage productions including for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Almeida Theatre, and the Royal National Theatre. Winner of the BBC Radio Carleton Hobbs award in 1993 he is regularly heard in BBC Radio drama productions, with more than 100 credits to his name. He is also a well known voice in the world of video games - he is the voice of Garrett Hawke (lead) in Bioware's Dragon Age 2, and has featured strongly in such popular games as Star Wars Battlefront 2, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Final Fantasy XIV, Hitman, Little Big Planet, Fable, Killzone, and many more.
His other skills and interests include playing blues harmonica and slide-guitar, stilt-walking, scuba-diving, and skiing. Nicholas is a keen kite-surfer and a skilled horseman and swordsman. - British actress Aruna Shields performed in UK theatre and film before she was headhunted by Tips Industries (one of the largest studios in India) to play the female Bond in action thriller Prince (2010). When the film released worldwide she became the fastest rising star on Google and the first female action hero in Indian cinema. A trained Kung-Fu martial artist and former gymnast she performed all her own stunts including motorbike bungee jumps. Her hit song for the movie "Tere Liye" has over 200 million views.
Aruna then broke boundaries and crossed over into French cinema. After worldwide auditions UK Casting Director Des Hamilton chose Aruna for the gritty lead in the epic adventure Ao, le dernier Néandertal (2010). The film was produced by French studio and cinema chain UGC after their Oscar-nominated A Prophet (2009). Aruna learned a prehistoric language and body movement for the role. Other critically acclaimed lead roles include 'Nera', an artist's muse, in the avant-garde feature Mr. Singh/Mrs. Mehta (2010).
A descendant of Sage Mandavya, Aruna then took a sabbatical to follow her family lineage and became a meditation expert and modern spiritual teacher. She is returning to the film industry in 2023 and now based in Los Angeles. Aruna is the first female Sidha (highly advanced meditator) who is a film star. Other Sidha's include director David Lynch and Bill Duke.
Aruna has a Distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, a degree from Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London and has studied psychotherapy at masters level.
Earlier Aruna was ahead of her time. She was one of the first Anglo/Indian models to cross over into mainstream fashion, was asked to shoot for Vogue, won Miss India Talent for dancing, appeared on the cover of The Times of India and several magazines. She was also one of the first actresses of Indian origin to perform a sex scene in a feature film. - Michael Praed was born in Berkeley, England to Derrick and Kay Prince, but spent his early years in Iran because his father worked as an accountant for a petroleum company. Michael was sent back to England for a public school education, which he did not enjoy. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. As there was already a "Michael Prince" listed in Equity, Michael chose the surname "Praed" from the phone book. He began his career in repertory theatre before moving on to roles in London's West End.
Praed's first big break occurred in playing in Joseph Papp's 1982 revival of "The Pirates of Penzance" with Tim Curry in the West End. The producers of "Robin of Sherwood" spotted Praed and cast him as Robin Hood. The BAFTA winning 'Robin of Sherwood' was a huge hit. After two successful seasons as Robin, Praed was lured to Broadway to star in "The Three Musketeers" with Brent Spiner and Chuck Wagner. His Broadway adventure led to him being cast in 1985 as Prince Michael of Moldavia in Aaron Spelling's prime time soap "Dynasty".
After a stint on "Dynasty", Praed starred in the films "Nightflyers", "Writer's Block", and 'Son of Darkness: To Die For II' . Between films, Michael Praed worked on writing and recording music in his own studio.
At the end of 1991, Praed left Los Angeles for the lead in an Irish production of "Carousel". Immediately following the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, he found himself back in London playing the lead in the West End production of "Aspects of Love" by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The British televised mini-series, "Riders" followed, based on the best-selling novel by Jilly Cooper. His next stage endeavor was Harold Pinter's terse, tense drama "The Caretaker". In 1994 he starred opposite Susannah York in the drama "September Tide" in the West End.
Michael Praed then dived into the role of the devious, womanizing Gary in the comedy film "Staggered", Martin Clunes' first attempt at directing in 1994. Subsequently, he accepted the regular role in the British television series, 'Crown Prosecutor' as Marty James.
In 1995, he returned once again to the West End as a lead, this time opposite Rachel Weisz in Noel Coward's "Design for Living". The role was noteworthy in that Praed was brought as a replacement in the last two weeks of the run and learned the massive three act play over a single weekend.
The next year (spanning 1996 to 1997) was spent as the lead in Barry Manilow's "Copacabana: The Musical", on its first national tour of Britain.
He made a cameo as the Hitman in the film "Darkness Falls" with "Robin of Sherwood" comrade Ray Winstone before heading for North America. Once in the western hemisphere, Praed took the regular role of the Victorian aristocrat Phileas Fogg in the Canadian television series 'The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne' (2000). Like "Robin of Sherwood", this television series developed a devoted following.
An appearance as The Queen in "9 Dead Gay Guys" in 2002 marked another venture into film. The comedy has won both pans and fans. Shunned at Cannes, the film won the Montreal Comedy Festival Comedia Award, as well as the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Dublin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Switching gears, his next appearance was in Susan Stroman's Tony Award winning musical "Contact" with Leigh Zimmerman back in London's West End (2003). Praed and Zimmerman were teamed up again in Carl Djerassi's comedy "Three on a Couch" at the highly regarded fringe theatre, the King's Head, in 2004.
Other stage roles have been as Bernard Kersal in Somerset Maugham's "The Constant Wife" (UK tour 2003), as F Scott Fitzgerald in the musical "Beautiful and Damned" (West End 2004), as Paul Sheldon in "Misery" with Susan Penhaligon (again at The King's Head Theatre, 2006), as hare-brained Tom Madison in Brian Stewart's "Killing Castro" (UK tour 2006), as cynical Neil in the debut of Derek Lister's "Blue on Blue" (2006), and as Milo Tindle with Simon MacCorkindale as Andrew in Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth" (UK tour 2008).
Periodically, Praed makes appearances on episodic television and talk shows.
Along with his acting, Praed has also recorded a number of narrations through the years, ranging from the erotic classic "Venus in Furs" by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (who gave "masochism" his name) to works of children's author Caroline Lawrence. In 2006, Praed became a co-narrator on the Oneword Radio series "Mills & Boon at the Weekend".
In 2007, Praed was a cast member of the Blake's 7 audio adventure 'Rebel' for B7 Media. The production was the result of a landmark agreement establishing performance rights and payment schedules for Equity members participating in internet podcasts.
The 2007 airing of a Hindenburg docudrama co-produced by the UK's Channel Four International, Germany's Zusammenarbeit and USA's Smithsonian Museum, marked Michael Praed's return to the television screen. He portrayed passenger Nelson Morris in a reexamination of the German zeppelin's spectacular explosion over New Jersey on the eve of World War II.
Michael Praed has also been the regular narrator of BBC TV's award winning "Timewatch" documentary series for the last several years (2003-08). - Actor
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Chris is an actor of mixed Ethnicity from London (UK). He is soon to be seen in all three episodes of the John Wick prequel TV series 'The Continental' streaming on Peacock and Amazon Prime from September 2023. Chris trained at the illustrious Guildhall School of Drama, whose alumni include Daniel Craig, Ewan McGregor, Joseph Fiennes as well as Chris's hero the great Peter Cushing. Chris is a versatile actor, equally at home with drama, comedy and action. He is a martial Artist going for his Black belt in the Fillipino martial art Kali/ Eskrima. The favoured style of action movies, such as the Jason Bourne series, Daniel Craig's 007 films and Wesley Snipes's 'Blade'. Chris also practices Thai Boxing(Muay Thai). A true lover of all aspects of film and a talented writer. Chris has recently completed the creation of a new TV series centering on the adventures of an Asian Occult Detective and is presently writing a feature film, which will go into development in 2024. Chris Ryman is a name to look out for.- Actor
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Fans of David Lynch will recognize Neil Dickson from his appearances in the new Twin Peaks and Inland Empire. The British-born Dickson has juggled a successful career in films, television and stage since graduating from London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After several seasons in repertory theatre throughout the U.K.. Dickson made his London West End debut opposite Dame Judi Dench in Lord Quex. He went on to create the role of 'Dean Rebel" in the Mermaid Theatre production of Trafford Tanzi. This led to his being cast as the lead opposite Susan Sarandon, Ian McShane, Ava Gardner and James Mason in NBC's 12-hour mini-series, A.D. Next up he played the title role of Biggles in the adventure film, Biggles: Adventures in Time. He starred in Universal's TV series She-Wolf of London. Since then Dickson has appeared in numerous movies and TV series including Mad Men, Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, an award-winning performance in Barking Mad, and The Orville. He recently triumphed on stage in London and Los Angeles in Stephen Wyatt's one-man show, The Standard Bearer, directed by Julian Sands. This spring, Dickson will be scaring audiences to death as the evil mastermind in The Quantum Devil. He and his wife, Lynda, split their time between London and Los Angeles.- Actress
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The daughter of a retired sea captain and his much-younger wife, actress Norma Varden was born and raised in turn-of-the-century London. A piano prodigy, she studied in Paris and appeared in concert in England during her teenage years. Acting, however, became her career of choice, studying at the Guildhall School of Music. She took her very first stage bow in a production of Peter Pan. In the adult role of Mrs. Darling, she was actually younger than the actors playing her children. In years to come, Norma would play a number of mature, lady-like roles that were much older than she was.
She performed Shakespeare in repertory and was at first cast in dramatic plays such as The Wandering Jew (1920-her West End debut) and Hamlet (1925) as the Player Queen. In various acting companies, she eventually found a flair for comedy and became the resident character comedienne for the famous Aldwych Theatre farce-ers from 1929 to 1933 à la Marx Bros. foil Margaret Dumont. Finding success there in the comedies A Night Like This and Turkey Time, she later recreated both roles on British film a couple of years later. She went on to prove herself a minor but avid scene-stealer in such movies as Evergreen (1934), The Iron Duke (1934), Stormy Weather (1935) and East Meets West (1936), quickly finding an amusing niche as a haughty society maven. She played both benevolent and supercilious with equal ease -- her height (5'7-1/2"), elongated oval face, vacant manner, plummy voice and slightly drowsy eyes adding immensely to the look and amusement of her characters.
In the early 1940s, the veteran actress visited California, accompanied by her ailing, widowed mother, for a take on the warmer climate and decided to permanently settle. Again, she found herself in demand as a now silvery-haired duchess, queen or Lady something, albeit in less meaty, sometimes even unbilled parts. Although she could dress down when called upon as a bar maid, nurse and landlady, she usually was asked to provide the requisite atmosphere for glossy, opulent settings. Her more noticeable roles came as lecherous Robert Benchley's wealthy, put-upon wife in The Major and the Minor (1942); the vile Lady Abbott in Forever Amber (1947); the giddy socialite nearly strangled by Robert Walker in Hitchcock's classic Strangers on a Train (1951); the impressively bejeweled wife of Charles Coburn, whom Marilyn Monroe fawns over in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953); and the Von Trapp housekeeper Frau Schmidt in The Sound of Music (1965).
Norma became a steadfast radio and TV comedy foil during the 40s, 50s and 60s, often at the mercy of a Lucille Ball or Jack Benny. Her longest radio part was as Basil Rathbone's housekeeper on his Sherlock Holmes radio series. On TV, she appeared in such shows as Mister Ed (1961), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Bewitched (1964) and Batman (1966) She had recurring roles as Betty Hutton's aunt on The Betty Hutton Show (1959) and as Shirley Booth's neighbor on Hazel (1961). Never married, Norma's mother passed away in 1969, and the actress retired shortly after. She died of heart failure in 1989, a day before her 91st birthday.- Actor
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Alistair McGowan, the master of mimicry, was born Alistair Charles McGowan in Evesham, Worcestershire, Great Britain. He is an actor, writer and producer. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican in London. There he studied alongside Ewan McGregor and Daniel Craig, among others. He graduated in 1989, after a three-year course under the tutelage of Colin McCormack, the actor from the Royal Shakespeare Company.
McGowan boasts a repertoire of over one hundred impersonations, including such celebrities as Tony Blair, Prince Charles, and many others. He is best known for his work with Jan Ravens and Ronni Ancona on the Big Impression (1999), formerly known as 'Alistair McGowan's Big Impression'. The show has been popular for impressions of such celebrities as David Beckham, Angus Deayton, Ross Geller (from Friends), Gary Lineker, and other well-known public figures and characters. The show won 5 awards and 10 nominations. He also appeared in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel 'Bleak House' and in the detective series 'Mayo' (2006).
In 2004 he launched 'the BIG recycle' national campaign urging public to reduce rubbish by recycling it. He continued a successful career of celebrity impersonator on the BBC Radio and also did re-voicing of video footages of 'The Sports Review of the Year' and 'Match of the Day' which has turned him into a sideline sporting celebrity. Two releases of 'Alistair McGowan's Football Backchat' were best sellers in both comedy and sports video charts.- Actor
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Mark was born in the UK but moved to New Zealand as a young boy. He returned to England in the early eighties to study as an actor at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He returned to New Zealand in 2002 after years in the UK running his own business. He resumed his acting carer in New Zealand and notably won Best Actor in 2011 for his role as Colin Bower in Screentime's feature film 'Bloodlines". He lives by the beach in Auckland and is married with two children.- Sydney Harrison is known for Musée haut, musée bas (2008), La galette du roi (1986) and Palace (1988).
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Known best as the record producer for The Beatles, George Martin had a long and varied musical career, and continues to enjoy a rare reputation as one of popular music's true "nice guys."
Martin was born into a working-class family in Drayton Park, England, on 3 January 1926. His classical music training didn't actually begin until his 20s; the only formal musical education Martin had as a child was eight piano lessons from an aunt. He kept up with the piano on his own, though, and by his teens led a small combo called The Four Tune-Tellers, along with his being able to play several classical pieces by ear. He'd also begun composing his own songs, with an eye toward someday writing film scores.
By this time World War II was underway, and at 17 Martin enlisted in the Fleet Air Arm, serving as an aircraft observer. While in the service, he both acquired a mentor in Sidney Harrison, who critiqued his early scores and encouraged him to follow a career in music, and appeared on a BBC radio show, playing an original piece. Returning to civilian life in early 1947, Martin found himself at a career crossroads, without much formal education or training. Sidney Harrison encouraged him to enter the Guildhall School of Music in London, where Harrison taught, and arranged an audition. Martin passed, and studied for three years at the Guildhall, paying for this with a veteran's grant, and studying oboe as a second instrument.
After graduation and a stint with the BBC Music Library, Martin was offered a job with EMI's Parlophone record label, as assistant to its chief Oscar Preuss. Preuss both signed the label's artists and produced most of their recordings, and it was these jobs that Martin gradually took over as Preuss retired, leaving Martin in charge of the label at age 29--the youngest label-head in England in the pre-rock era. Parlophone featured mostly classical and regional music, which Martin conducted and produced; he augmented these later with both highly-successful comedy records (including Peter Ustinov's "Mock Mozart" and several Goon Show recordings with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, who became close friends) and rock-n-roll when it reached Britain. Despite his triumphs, George Martin nearly went down in music history as "The Man Who Turned Down Tommy Steele," passing up his chance to produce Britain's first genuine rock star to instead sign up Steele's backing group, the Vipers. This mistake was luckily overshadowed by another signing of Martin's, a few years later...
Martin and Beatles' manager Brian Epstein learned of each other when Epstein decided to have acetate test-records made of a Beatles audition tape, during his make-or-break final visit to London to try to get the band a recording contract. Nearly every label in England had turned the band down, and while Martin wasn't bowled over by their demo, he was impressed enough to give them a studio audition. Martin came away from this satisfied with everything he'd heard, except for Pete Best's drumming, and when he offered the band a singles contract in the fall of 1962, it was with the understanding that Best would not play on the records. This was reason enough for the band to want to replace him completely, and Ringo Starr took his place, shortly before the Beatles recorded their first Parlophone single, "Love Me Do".
Martin's first collaboration with The Beatles wasn't a big hit, but their second single with him, "Please Please Me", made an immediate impact, and propelled the band to national stardom in Britain. The hits continued, and Martin's own name began to appear on the recordings he produced (both for The Beatles, and for other artists) a few months later, as the record-producer's role became more widely recognized in the industry. It was Martin's friendship with music publisher Dick James that resulted in the creation of Northern Songs as the Beatles' publishing company; however, Martin never profited directly from this, or even from their early hits--he turned down the chance to become a Northern Songs partner, and as an EMI staff producer, he was paid no royalties. In fact, EMI's antiquated pay-scale was one of the many factors that caused Martin and several other EMI staffers to resign in the mid-Sixties, and establish their own company AIR (Associated Independent Recording). EMI now had to hire Martin back as an independent producer for their artists, and he began receiving producer's royalties on AIR's behalf.
The story of George Martin's relationship with the Beatles has been told again and again, but perhaps best by the man himself, in both radio and television specials, and his own book "All You Need is Ears", which reads both as pop-history and a kind of record-producer's textbook. He has graciously answered questions about the band (sometimes as the only clean-n-sober participant at recording sessions) and his own experiences again and again, proving to be an ideal, well-balanced spokesman. Many of the Beatles' more elaborate productions, especially in their later "studio years," were shaped by George Martin, who arranged their songwriting into final scores and recordings.
Throughout the Beatles' career and beyond, Martin continued to record and produce other artists, including Shirley Bassey, Bernard Cribbins, Flanders and Swann, and later America and Seatrain. He was also able to realize his earlier dream of scoring movies, beginning with his original orchestral score for Yellow Submarine (1968),which he also produced for film and record. In the late 1970s, Martin was approached by RSO's Robert Stigwood to produce the soundtrack for the Bee Gees's Beatles homage Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978); despite his initial misgivings, he signed onto the project knowing nobody else had his insider's knowledge of their music... and the payment to come would erase a lot of earlier financial shortings from his EMI days.
While George Martin supervised parts of "The Beatles Anthology" in 1994 and 1995, the task of producing the new recordings included with the compilation was given to Jeff Lynne; Martin explained to the press, "I don't produce anymore, because I'm too old." Martin recently celebrated his retirement from the music business, with both a knighthood and the release of "In My Life", an all-star tribute album to the band who gave him his biggest success.- Producer
- Actor
- Director
An EMMY Nominated Producer, Sam Logan Khaleghi was raised in Detroit, Michigan.
As an actor he is known for his work on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and Approaching Midnight (2013) where he directed his co-star: Academy of Country Music Award winner, Platinum artist Jana Kramer (co-star of CW TV's One Tree Hill (2003)).
He holds a master's degree from Northwestern University (Evanston), and an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. Khaleghi also attended conservatory at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Tanroh Ishida, is a London based Japanese actor.
He is both a classically trained actor from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and a professionally trained Japanese Traditional Theatre actor.
Tanroh started training in Japanese Traditional Noh/Kyogen Theatre at the age of three. His father and his father's master were his own masters in Japan, during this period. With his theatre company he performed at a number of theatres nationally and internationally; including the Carnegie Hall and Shakespeare's Globe.
At the age of 15 Tanroh became interested in learning about the western style of theatre. He moved to England to study and audition for drama schools. He was accepted at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
After graduating from Guildhall, Tanroh formed his own theatre company to explore his rare experiences as an actor, having had the unique privilege of classical training in both the East and West.
This "Tea Leaf Theatre" company is based on his life time ambition of marrying Japanese and Western theatre and has received critical acclaim; such as 5 star reviews at the Edinburgh festival.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Patricia Amy Rowlands was born in Palmer's Green, north London on 19 January 1931 to Albert and Amy. She was educated at the Covent of the Sacred Heart in Whetstone. Her parents encouraged her to have elocution lessons to improve her employment prospects.
It was her elocution tutor who recognized her acting potential and encouraged her to apply to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She won a scholarship there at the age of fifteen, coming top in the whole of England.
Patricia's first professional appearance was in the chorus for the touring version of 'Annie Get Your Gun' in 1950, featuring Lionel Blair. Venues included the King's Theatre, Portsmouth in August and the Theatre Royal, Dublin in November.
Now known as Patsy, she made her West End debut in 1958 as Doris Hare's granddaughter in 'Valmouth', Sandy Wilson's musical about a spa town where the aged residents enjoy a prolonged sex life. As Thetis Tooke, the country lass pining for her absent sailor boy, she gave a subtly mischievous performance.
Her persuasive soprano (preserved on the original cast album) indicates that she could have had a flourishing career in musicals, and few who saw the show's first incarnation will forget her underplayed, hilarious performance of her riverside song solo, 'I Loved a Man'. Director Vida Hope had given her some wickedly sly business with a twitching fish, the number ending with Patsy on her back with the fish between her toes, which had most of the audience convulsed, though probably not the critic who asked in his column "has the censor quit?"
Sandy Wilson, who remembers Patsy as "unique, sweet, funny and ridiculous" in the role, recalls that when Princess Margaret attended a performance at the Saville, one newspaper next day complained that she should not have been exposed to such a disgusting number. "It caused the censor to take another look at the show and he decided that she could still sing to the fish, but it had to be dead and not move!"
Patsy went on to combine serious drama with her work at the Players' Theatre in London, where traditional music hall shows had nurtured the careers of so many comic actors. It was at the Players' Theatre that she first worked with Hattie Jacques and also met composer Malcolm Sircom. Patsy married Malcolm in 1962.
As part of the theatre's New Wave of the early Sixties, Patsy appeared as Sylvia Groomkirby (her favorite role) in N.F. Simpson's surreal comedy, One Way Pendulum (1961), and as Avril Hadfield in David Turner's 'Semi- Detached' (1962), directed by Tony Richardson and starring Sir Laurence Olivier. Richardson, a particular champion of Patsy's versatile talents, gave her one of her first important screen roles, as a nubile young miss in his masterly, Oscar-winning version of Tom Jones (1963), scripted by Harold Pinter.
She had made her screen debut in On the Fiddle (1961), alongside Sean Connery, and followed it with an effective performance as the heroine's tenacious girl-friend in John Schlesinger's biting drama A Kind of Loving (1962), starring Alan Bates. The following year, she appeared in the Norman Wisdom film A Stitch in Time (1963) whilst pregnant with her son, Alan Sircom. Patsy and Malcolm were divorced just eighteen months after their son's birth.
Although she regarded herself primarily as a stage performer, when her wacky technique could be in full flower, Patsy was also a familiar face on television. Early television appearances included Tuppence in the Gods (1960) and The Actor (1961) with later credits including Love All (1969), a deliciously witty performance in the television play An Extra Bunch of Daffodils (1969) and starring as Roy Kinnear's wife in the sitcom Inside George Webley (1968). Her television work never dried up.
Directors soon got to know that she was so individual that she had to be cast selectively, but when she was right for a part she was very right, and her range stretched more broadly than some expected. She was part of the theaters "New Wave" of talent that invigorated both stage and screen in the Sixties. Despite prestigious credits and enormous respect within the profession, it is probably true to say that her talents were under-appreciated until she became part of the "Carry On" team.
Between 1969 and 1975 Patsy appeared in nine of the "Carry On" films, usually as the dowdy, put-upon wife - wives do not come much more put-upon than her queen who gets her head chopped off in Carry on Henry VIII (1971) to make way for the King's (Sidney James) latest wife. Or she would be the timid housekeeper or employee quietly lusting after a gloriously insensitive Kenneth Williams, just waiting for the right moment to throw off her drab cocoon and emerge in her true plumage, for example in Carry on Loving (1970). Patsy later confided that she found Kenneth Williams intimidating and it took quite some time for him to accepted her as one of the gang.
She tested the merchandise at Boggs Sanitary Ware in Carry on at Your Convenience (1971), complaining: "I've given my whole life to Boggs," and she was the worm that finally turns in Carry on Girls (1973), as the wife of the boring, self-important mayor (Kenneth Connor). She sabotages his beauty contest by burning her bra and joining Women's Lib. She was proud of the series, stating: "They had good, honest humor, sometimes naughty but never too rude - entertainment for all the family." Her last film in the series was Carry on Behind (1975).
The role of Betty, Sidney James's feckless neighbor in the sitcom Bless This House (1971), consolidated her success as a major comic screen actress. The series ran for six years and Patsy played the long-suffering neighbor with immense gusto. She and her co-stars, Sidney James and Diana Coupland, brought rude energy to the series. Despite the critics thinking it trite, the show won awards, the public loved it and it spawned a film version in 1972. Bless This House (1971) was followed by another hit sitcom The Squirrels (1974), set in the offices of a television rental company.
Serious films included Tony Richardson's Joseph Andrews (1977) and Roman Polanski's Tess (1979), and on stage she was directed by Lindsay Anderson in 'The Seagull' (1975) and as the archetypal housewife in 'Shut Your Eyes And Think Of England' (1977) alongside Donald Sinden. Other plays included Ronald Eyre's acclaimed production of J.B. Priestley's When We Are Married (1987) alongside Timothy West, Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge. Anderson also directed her in 'The March On Russia' (1989) at the National Theatre, where she appeared in 'The Pied Piper' (1987) as a very idiosyncratic Lady Mayoress, and in 'The Wind In The Willows' (1990).
Her musicals included the West End premiere of Stephen Sondheim's 'Into The Woods', at the Phoenix Theatre (1990), 'Me And My Girl' (1993), Sam Mendes' long-running revival of 'Oliver!' (1994) at the London Palladium and a delightful performance as Mrs. Pearce in Cameron Mackintosh's revival of 'My Fair Lady' (2001) at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She took Eliza Doolittle off to the bath and danced through 'I Think She's Got It' for a year and then was asked to return to the role when the show was recast for its third year.
By the eighties, she was well-established in television sitcom. She starred in Nigel Kneale's cult sci-fi comedy Kinvig (1981) and teamed up with Thora Hird in Hallelujah! (1983). They played an aunt and niece in the Salvation Army. Patsy also appeared alongside Thora in two episodes of the sitcom In Loving Memory (1969). In the nineties, she appeared as Mrs. Clapham in Get Well Soon (1997), set in a National Health Service hospital during the post-war period.
In sitcoms, Patsy was an ideal sparring partner, never hogging the limelight and generous to colleagues. Such stars as Les Dawson, Dick Emery and, in particular, Billy Connolly in Supergran and the Course of True Love (1985). All asked for her to play with them in important sketches. Les Dawson telephoned Patsy when she was in hospital after breaking her ankle on stage, in May 1993, asking her to be in a new show playing his wife. Tragically, he died of a heart attack just a couple of weeks later.
In addition to sitcoms, Patsy appeared children's shows, such as Rainbow (1972), and numerous television dramas. Her plump, rustic features were put to effective use in classic serials such as Vanity Fair (1998) and The Cazalets (2001), which narrated the problems of a wealthy family just before the Second World War. She played Miss Millament with relish.
Patsy completed three audio commentaries for the launch of the Carlton-distributed later "Carry On" DVDs in 2003, appearing alongside Jacki Piper, Valerie Leon, June Whitfield, Jack Douglas and Larry Dann. From the second half of the nineties onward, she had also appeared in numerous television documentaries about her late "Carry On" co-stars Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and Sidney James as well as Norman Wisdom.
Breast cancer was diagnosed while she was appearing as Mrs. Pearce in 'My Fair Lady' at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. But she carried on without telling any of her fellow actors. It was typical of the droll and hard-working actor that she still tried to convince her friends that she was about to "go back to the gym" and would soon be ready for work. She did it to spare their feelings.
While ill, she had continued to work until she abandoned plans to become a teacher of acting and publicly retired soon after 'My Fair Lady' closed on 30 August 2003. The following year, she moved to Martlets Hospice, Hove, East Sussex - just over a mile from her flat - where she spent her final days.
Her son, Alan Sircom, announced: "I think you should all know that my mother, Patsy Rowlands, passed away at 6:20 am, Saturday 22 January 2005. She was never very good with mornings. She died peacefully in her sleep." She died at Martlets Hospice at the age of 74 and three days (although newspapers mistakenly reported her age as 71).
Agent Simon Beresford said: "She was just an absolutely favorite client. She never complained about anything, particularly when she was ill, she was an old trouper. She was of the old school - she had skills from musical theatre and high drama, that is why she worked with the great and the good of directors. She didn't mind always being recognized for the "Carry On" films because she thoroughly enjoyed making them. She was a really lovely person and she will be much missed."
'My Fair Lady' director, Eleanor Fazan, remembered her with affection: "Patsy was always very unselfish and a delight to work with: full of energy and keen to try anything new. She was a joy."
One obituary summarized Patsy as "a character actress of much style and blessed with superb timing and charismatic charm. She was a refined comedienne who could switch from the bawdy to the subtle. Rowlands did put-upon characters wonderfully, but never overdid the comedy: it was always kept within the bounds of the role. She was expert at delivering a tag line."
Another obituary revealed she was an admirer of Claude Monet and an accomplished watercolor and pastel artist. She once had her work appear the Royal Academy summer show.
Following her private, family funeral, a public memorial service was held at midday on Friday 29 April 2005 at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, known more commonly as The Actors' Church. Attendees to the public service included Anna Wing, Carol Cleveland and Simon Beresford. Donations were collected for the Martlets Hospice charity, who cared for Patsy in her last days, with £350 raised.- Actress
- Music Department
Hannah Britland was born on February 2, 1990 in Preston, Lancashire, England. She attended the Cardinal Newman College and later went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she graduated in 2011.
Hannah is best known for her appearances in Fresh Meat (2011), Skins (2007), Lovesick (2014) and in the Australian soap opera Home and Away (1988). She is able to do many accents, including London, American and Northern Irish. Next to film and television acting, she is also a stage actress and a skilled singer with a soprano vocal range.- Jessica's first performance was as a 5 year old in the regional theatre where her father was Artistic Director and her mother was an actress and writer. Jessica - who goes by the name Jess - moved into a variety of roles in TV series before playing the part of Margot in the TV mini-series, Anne Frank - The Whole Story, a part that had particular resonance for her since her Jewish grandparents emigrated to England a few years before World War Two started. Jess returned to the UK to study classical acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and now works in the USA and UK in theatre, film and TV. She is also Artistic Director of the Listed Theatre Company - a site-specific theatre company aiming to reawaken awareness of the beautiful and unusual heritage sites that make up our landscape. The company commissions new innovative writing for specific heritage sites, so that the fusion of the two can bring the public's awareness to properties otherwise overlooked in their community.
- Gavin Stenhouse is a British-American actor, writer and musician.
Gavin was born in Hong Kong, where he spent his childhood before his family returned to the UK.
He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and, after graduating, worked in theatre, TV and independent film in the UK. He decided to emigrate to the US after performing in Richard III at BAM in New York, in 2012.
He worked on the Emmy winning episode of 'Black Mirror' - 'San Junipero'. He played 'Evan' in the CW series 'Kung Fu' and has worked on various independent movies.
Gavin is also a keen musician and multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, banjo, piano and other instruments - Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Canadian actor who was long resident in the UK. He worked as a recreational therapist in a mental hospital in his native country, and claimed he gained more knowledge about acting in that role than he would do later. He arrived in England in 1949 and studied at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After working in radio and theatre, he was given a seven year contract with ABC Television (the British company) after appearing in the prison drama The Last Mile in 1957. He later branched out into films, but was never to fulfill his early promise.- Mariah Gale attended Birmingham University and then trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She graduated from Guildhall in 2003, and made her professional debut in "Stealing Sweets and Punching People" at the Latchmere Theatre, London later that year.
In 2006 she won two awards for her stage work: the Ian Charleson Award which recognises exceptional classical performances from actors under 30, and the Critics Circle Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer. - Composer
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Jocelyn Pook is one of the UK's most versatile composers, having written extensively for stage, screen, opera house and concert hall. Often remembered for her film score to Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, which won her a Chicago Film Award and a Golden Globe nomination, she has worked with some of the world's leading directors, musicians and artists including Martin Scorsese, Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack, Laurie Anderson. Her first opera Ingerland was commissioned by ROH2 for the Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio in 2010, and The BBC Proms and The King's Singers commissioned her to collaborate with Poet Laureate Andrew Motion on a work entitled Mobile. Jocelyn won an Olivier Award for the National Theatre's production of St Joan, and a British Composer Award for her multi-media music-theatre piece Speaking in Tunes. She won a second British Composer Award for her soundtrack to Akram Khan's dance production DESH. In 2014 she composed the score for his dance piece Dust choreographed for English National Ballet to mark the centenary of the First World War, as well as the score for Mike Bartlett's play King Charles III which premiered at Almeida Theatre, London and transferred to West End and Broadway NY. Her most recent ballet for English National Ballet, M-Dao, choreographed by Yabin Wang, premiered in 2016 at Sadler's Wells. In 2018 Jocelyn won a BAFTA for her score for the 2017 TV film version of King Charles III. She composed the soundtracks for The Wife, acclaimed feature film starring Glenn Close, and for The Staircase, the extraordinary documentary series directed by Jean-Xavier Lestrade. This year Pook was commissioned by The Proms to compose a new piece for Prom 49: in The Lost Words:"You Need To Listen To Us" she sets words from speeches by environmental activist Greta Thunberg to music. She also composed the soundtrack for The Kingmaker, a documentary film about the controversial political career of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines, directed by Lauren Greenfield, to be released later this autumn.- Born in London, appeared on stage in the West End, Shakespeare's Globe, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The only actor to have portrayed Jesus on screen in the entirety of all four Gospels. Provided voice for video games Baldurs Gate III, Final Fantasy XVI and Watch Dogs: Legion. Trained at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
- Casting Department
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- Actress
Peter graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with a BA Hons Degree in Acting.
Mainly known as a voice-over actress, she has thousands of VO credits to her name. Her noted acting credits include recurring roles on NBC's DEADLINE (Dick Wolf), ABC's ALL MY CHILDREN, and lead roles at the ACTORS THEATER OF LOUISVILLE's Humana Festival and the CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK. In film, Peter Pamela played Oliver Platt's girlfriend in the cult hit FUNNY BONES, starring the late Jerry Lewis and, most recently, Patrick Bergin's ex-lover in Jason Figgis' THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE LANE (2023).
She is co-owner with her husband, Jason Harris, of the successful ADR Loop Group and Voice Casting Company, THE LOOPING DIVISION.
Peter is a citizen of the Netherlands (EU) and the United States and lives with her husband and their beloved feline, Bowie, in New York City and Los Angeles.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Constanze started into the movies at an early age: as the German voice of "Jeff" from "Lassie." After "Gymnasium" (high school) the daughter of actress Alice Franz studied singing at the Richard-Strauss-Konservatorium in Munich, Germany, at Guildhall School in London, GB, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Actress Rosemarie Fendel gave her acting lesssons. Constanze's career took place in all areas, she worked on stage, in movies and on TV. In 1998 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, followed by a mastectomy. The cancer spread to the liver. After going through 20 chemotherapy treatments, she suffered a backlash in March 2000 when doctors found a brain tumor with 11 metastases spreading through her brain. She is survived by her 16-year old daughter Julie and her husband François Nocher, who had stayed with her on an extra bed in her hospital room for the last days of her life.- Sean Arnold was born on 30 April 1941 in Wickwar, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Bergerac (1981), Great Expectations (1989) and The Caesars (1968). He died on 15 April 2020 in St Peter, Jersey, Channel Islands.
- Colin McCormack was born on December 2, 1941, in Cardiff, Wales. His father was a railway worker. He was educated at King's College in Cardiff, then studied at the Cardiff Art College before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. There, he met his future wife, the actress Wendy Allnutt.
Mc Cormack began his professional career with the Bristol Old Vic and went on to perform in many of Britain's theatres. From 1967-2004, he was most closely associated with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He played many roles for the RSC, appearing in productions ranging from a 1967 Peter Hall production of "Macbeth" to Edward Hall's production of "Julius Ceasar". He was also a Royal Court stalwart, where he was known for his performances in more modern plays. His fellow professionals admired his striking presence and clarity on stage. He also tutored at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and his students included Ewan McGregor, Alistair McGowan, Damian Lewis, Joseph Fiennes, and Daniel Craig, among others.
His television career began in 1971, with his appearance in the Trial (1971) TV series, and included appearances in Martin Chuzzlewit (1994), Inspector Morse (1987) and other popular TV-series. He died of cancer on June 19, 2004, in Middlesex, England. He was survived by his wife, Wendy Allnutt, and their children Katherine McCormack Wherry and Andrew McCormack. - Actress
- Producer
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Alice is a London-born actress and producer with a diverse range of TV credits, including Riches (ITV), Messiah (BBC), Snuff Box (BBC), Banged Up Abroad (ITV), Footballers Wives: Extra Time (ITV), Casualty (BBC), and Push (Fiver). She has received three Best Actress awards for her leading roles in independent feature films, and her short film 'I'm in the corner with the bluebells', which she produced, co-wrote, starred in and edited, debuted at TIFF. She also co-produced and starred with Vinta Morgan in the feature film 'If it be love'.- Actor
- Stunts
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Will was always interested in Acting but some say he went round the houses to get there. After a Modelling career that took him all over the world, where he ended up working with such prestigious photographers such as Bruce Weber and Arthur Elgort. Eventually after living out of a suitcase for numerous years he decided to settle in New York, where he made the decision to end modelling and pursue another path. During this time he got married to a native New Yorker, which was a whole new experience. He began singing in a Rock band, which was always a dream of his to follow his idols Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder. They played all over New York including CBGB's. It was at this time that Will had some acting friends that said he should audition for an Acting class. So he did just that, he found himself in a Shakespeare Class. That was it, he was smitten with the language and poetry of it. Now it was time to see which class he wanted. He auditioned for the Summer Program at Stella Adler, where he was accepted to begin studying Shakespeare. Andrew Wade from the RSC was also going to be working with the Actors. It was at this time that Andrew said to Will he should get back to England and audition for some of the prestigious drama schools. The rest is history. Not to dither around he did just that. He auditioned for the likes of Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Lamda.
He also auditioned for RADA and Rose Bruford where he was accepted on an unconditional Scholarship. He moved back from New York to begin life as a Drama Student.- Actor
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Mario Frangoulis was born in 1967, in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to Greek parents from Corfu. The political situation in Rhodesia was explosive then and when he was four his mother sent him to live with her sister and his husband in Greece. His aunt encouraged his interest in music and he studied violin at the Athens Conservatorium, to graduate in 1984. In 1985, Frangoulis went to London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study acting.
At the Guildhall he became active on the musical theatre scene, and played Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. After the end of his studies he got the role of Marius in a West End production of Les Miserables. A Maria Callas Prize for opera enabled him to study with Bergonzi for six months in Busseto. In Italy continuing as a private pupil of tenor Alfredo Kraus. In 1991 Frangoulis was invited by Andrew Lloyd Webber to star as Raoul in Phantom of the Opera. In 1992 he received an Onassis Foundation Scholarship and moved to New York to study at the Julliard School to study with soprano Dodi Protero. In 1985 he returned to London to play Lun-Tha in "The King and I" and Jonathan in "Nosferatu" In 1997 his adopted mother's health made him come back to Greece, where he played in the theatre (Billy Cracker in "Happy End", Danny Zouko in "Grease") also starting a solo singing career with a vast range of repertoire spanning from Greek greats such as Hatdjidakis, Theodorakis and Markopoulos to Piovani,Cole Porter, Tosti,Neapolitan canzonettas and opera arias. At the same time, he explored ancient Greek tragedy, playing Dionysus in Euripides' "Bacchae" and Achilles in "Achilleis". He became hugely popular with Greek audiences and soon expanded to an international concert career. He has released a number of solo CDs and DVDs, most of whom with Sony International.- Composer
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After studying music with Israel's foremost composers-Paul Ben-Haim, Noam Sherrif and Isaac Sadai-as well as film and philosophy at the Tel Aviv University, Misha apprenticed under composer Dieter Schöhnbach in Germany; studied composition and conducting at the Guildhall School of music in London; then graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Misha also took composition seminars with Leon Kirchner at Harvard and studied one year at CUNY taking the Doctorate course in composition. As composer, songwriter, producer and recording artist, Misha helped redefine popular, theater and film music in Israel, garnering numerous #1 hits and awards. His classical compositions were performed by the Israeli Philharmonic and the Israel Chamber Ensemble. Although all of this occurred over a very short 5 years period, Misha's impact was so great that he became one of the leading figures in Israeli culture. IN 2008 he was nominated for the 'Israeli Oscar'(Ophir). Misha is also an Emmy award winner and an Emmy Nominee. His score for Phantom of the Opera won the Brit award. His score for Mooz-lum awarded him a Black Reel nomination. In the US Misha's career began in New York where he wrote, arranged, orchestrated or produced such artists as Luther Vandross, Maynard Ferguson, Phyllis Hyman and Dave Grusin. Upon moving to Los Angeles, he signed with Motown as composer/songwriter and scoring Berry Gordy's last movie - The Last Dragon. As a recording artist, Misha's first CD, Zambooka, was endorsed by Quincy Jones and Bob James and featured legendary artists Chick Corea and Freddy Hubbard. His next CD, Connected to the Unexpected, was picked up by most college stations in the US and enjoyed heavy rotation on the top NAC stations across the country. Don't Say It's Over, produced and co-written by Misha, features vocalist Randy Crawford. This CD spent three weeks at No. 1 on the NAC charts. When Misha isn't making music, he likes to cook and sample fine wines from around the world. He also enjoys flying single engine planes.- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Michael J Lewis, the award winning composer and producer was born in Aberystwyth, Wales. He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where he studied harmony, counterpoint and composition. His many film scores include Julius Caesar (1970) starring Charlton Heston, The Medusa Touch (1978) starring 'Richard Burton', 11 Harrowhouse (1974) starring James Mason, The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970) starring Roger Moore and The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) starring Katharine Hepburn for which he won the Ivor Novello Award. His 1973 Broadway show, 'Cyrano', earned the writers a Grammy nomination and the show's star, Christopher Plummer, a Tony Award. Michael's score for the 1979 TV animated adaptation of C.S. Lewis's _Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The (1979) (TV)_ won him a coveted Emmy Award. He moved from the UK to the USA in the 1980s and his first venture into American films, writing the score for The Rose and the Jackal (1990), starring Christopher Reeve, achieved an American Cable Excellence nomination. Michael J Lewis' last film score to date was for the 1994 martial arts thriller Deadly Target (1994). He currently divides his time composing, producing and recording between the USA and the UK. In the mid 1990s he formed his own company called Pen Dinas Productions, the first release in 1995 being the highly acclaimed double CD entitled 'Orchestral Film Music of Michael J Lewis', which received outstanding critical reviews.- Actor
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Graduating from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, Javier's first job came from Oscar winning director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech), to appear in his BBC adaptation of Love in a Cold Climate. From this point on, Javier's international career on Film, TV and Theatre has crossed paths with such talents as Sir Alan Bates, Sir Derek Jacobi, Rosamund Pyke, Tom Hardy, Timothy Spall and Sir Kenneth Branagh.
His theatre work includes roles like Mercutio (England), Socrates (Russia), or starring and directing The Woman in Black (China). He has worked on Television both in England and Spain, with recent feature films such as: Legenda No. 17 and the leading role in Love Unlimited.- Tessa Shaw is a direct descendant of the actor William Powell, protege of the great 18th Century Actor/Manager David Garrick. The Victorian folk heroine Grace Darling was also a family member. Tessa graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London , and earned an Honours Degree in Psychology from London University. She started her acting career in the theatre, moving into television, where she has had extensive experience. She is best known for her roles in Dr. Who, General Hospital, Jane Eyre (with Timothy Dalton), Diana: Her True Story - playing Countess Raine Spencer and James Cameron's Titanic Explorer. Other notables in Tessa's family are her World War II poet father, Oliver Shaw, who was one-time Attorney General of Sierra Leone, her maternal grandfather, who was Lord of Sowerby, Yorkshire, and her elder son Daniel Fathers who is also an actor and starred in Walt Disney's teen movie Camp Rock. Miss Shaw is now retired and resides in Hampshire, England with her husband, Entertainment Producer Chevalier Richard Winter-Stanbridge, GOTJ.
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Gareth Jones was born London 1951, son of BBC Foreign Correspondent Ivor Jones with whom he travelled to Germany, India and Lebanon. He studied at Westminster School, London, St John's College Cambridge and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before training as a theatre director with Prospect Theatre Company in the 70s, where he directed Shakespeare, Brecht, Strindberg and Chekov.
He was Director of Productions at bilingual Welsh/English touring company Theatr yr Ymylon and freelanced at the Royal Court Theatre, London, Swan Theatre Worcester and Theatr Clwyd, Mold, where he directed his own plays My People (based on the short stories of Caradoc Evans) and Solidarity.
He published two historical novels Lord Of Misrule (Gollancz/Penguin, serialized on BBC Radio 4) and Noble Savage (Weidenfeld/Sphere) both set in Wales near his family home.
He trained as a television director in 1980 with HTV Wales, moving later to Granada TV where he directed Coronation Street and award-winning comedy drama Brass (BPG Best comedy 1983), which he also produced. He was also the initiating producer of Granada twice-weekly series Albion Market.
From 1984-7 he wrote original television miniseries Fighting Back (BBC2) directed by Paul Seed, and award-winning Shalom Salaam (BBC 2) which he also directed. (Cannes FIPA Best Actress/SACD Best Screenplay 1988)
Other directing for the BBC/C4 includes The Trial Of Klaus Barbie (screened FIPA 1987) Watch With Mother, Seeing In The Dark, Seduction.
In 1990/1 he shot and co-wrote 3-hour documentary Au Nom Du Meme Pere/Born Of The One Father for C4 and TF1.
He has worked extensively as a screenwriter in Europe, credits include Verbotene Zone, Sonntags Geoeffnet, Un Cadeau La Vie, the award-winning Bonhoeffer - Agent Of Grace, Nicht Ohne Dich, Joseph, Mary Magdalen, Thomas and Saul Of Tarsus.
His feature film Desire (2009), nominated Best UK Feature at Raindance 2009, was the first of the D-trilogy of feature films produced by his own company Scenario Films. Delight (2013) premièred in competition at the Moscow International Film Festival in 2013 where it was nominated for Best Feature. Delirium (2017) also premièred in the official selection at Moscow IFF.- Actress
- Composer
- Music Department
Tania Davis was born on 4 July 1975 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She is an actress and composer, known for Johnny English (2003), Black Widow (2021) and BingoLotto (1989).- Producer
- Production Manager
- Director
Shannon McKinnon is known for Opening Soon (2001), Charmed to Death (2021) and All-Round Champion (2020).- Composer
- Music Department
Andrew lives in Los Angeles and holds the greencard. He combines lifelong passion for film with extensive classical training, recording and performance experience. Andrew orchestrates and conducts all his scores, fusing them with electronic textures at his home studio. He has accepted invitations to membership of the BAFTA and The World Soundtrack Academy.
Andrew trained classically in piano and voice from childhood in the choir of Westminster Abbey (with Distinctions in all final ABRSM performances, and the LAMDA Gold Medal), winning scholarships and full tuition awards to lead the National Youth Music Theatre, to read Music at Cambridge University, and to post-grad study at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Before composition he performed across America, Canada, Australia, the Far East, Europe, at the highest levels of concert, opera, and studio recording, in the most renowned classical ensembles - and also in the scores to Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Andrew was then BAFTA Nominated Best New Composer for Film and TV by the British Academy for his very first score, and after several years scoring tv, has scored feature films across the USA and UK.- Member of Tim Robbins' theatre company, The Actors' Gang, since 2004, Mary Eileen is a New Yorker trained in London at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After playing an extra in the movie Hair (1979) as a Central Park hippie, her first paid acting job on stage was with legendary mythologist Joseph Campbell and his dancer/choreographer wife, Jean Erdman. After years of repertory theatre in New York City with such companies as The Public Theatre, CSC and Soho Rep, Mary Eileen moved to Los Angeles where she has worked in film, television, commercials and theatre. She has toured around the world with The Actors' Gang for the past 10 years while appearing in film and television.
- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Ana Clavell has been writing, directing, producing and distributing for the Film and Television Industries for the last 20 years, her expertise being cross-cultural themes and international co-productions, and all technical aspects of production and post production. Her specialty in re-writing, directing and re-purposing intellectual properties has taken Ana to far-flung places such as New York, Paris, Madrid, London, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and Shanghai. She is constantly sought by both aspiring writers and established producers, all looking for ways to position and sell their creative efforts. An alumni of the University of London and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Ana started her career in London, working in the Classical Music and Stage Musical Industries as a stage manager. Her switch to Film and Television came naturally, having signed on to work as an AD and in Post Production for Paradiso Films in Puerto Rico. Recruited by a talent scout Ana moved to Los Angeles and began directing music videos and shorts in 1992. During her long VP stint at a Taurus Entertainment ( fifteen years), Ana has had her work broadcast domestically on SyFy Networks, Showtime Networks and HBO Video On Demand, among others. Her work has also been broadcast and exhibited all over the world. More recently Ana directed the critically acclaimed short film Pasaje for Scene 51 and the Ricky Martin Foundation, and has extended her efforts to help launch a new web-based platform for short format content, Zanzibaa, now in beta testing. As of 2011 Ana is co- developing a music-driven reality show for Asia and has a feature film lined up for co-production with the US, China and Latin America. Since the beginning of 2012 she is in talks to produce and direct a Latino paranormal-themed reality series. She continues to consult for various domestic and international companies on all aspects of Film and TV Production and Distribution.- Holly grew up in south Manchester and south London where she went to Alleyn's school. After leaving school she travelled for a year before going to the University of Edinburgh and then training for three years at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Holly lives in south London where she is very happy indeed.
- Actor
- Editorial Department
- Producer
Kris grew up in a small town in Kansas and went to University in the Midwest, studying theatre. He trained further as an actor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. As a drummer he played and recorded with the band Transforming Apollo. He currently lives in New York.- Actor
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Jake trained at Londons Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He worked as an actor at the Royal Shakespeare Company and in London's West End, and toured the world with the Tom Waits/William Burroughs Collaboration, The Black Rider.
Since moving to Los Angeles, he began a writing partnership with friend, Ben Lustig. They broke-in in 2014 with their spec script, Winter's Knight, an origin story of Santa Claus, which sold for $1M.
He is married to actress Siri Baruc, and has two children, Phoenix and Bodhi.- Director
- Producer
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Paddy Russell attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and started her career as an actress. She left acting to become a stage manager because it paid more money. She progressed from being director Rudolph Cartier's floor manager to becoming a director herself, becoming one of the first two women directors in BBC television. She finished her career having spent 40 successful years in television.- Director
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Early in his career, John was asked by Laurence Olivier to direct the National Theatre Company in the award-winning film of Chekhov's Three Sisters (1970) with Olivier, Joan Plowright and Alan Bates. He then went on to direct Olivier in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1976) and Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson in Twelfth Night (1970).
His experience as a commissioner and director of drama and drama-documentaries enabled him to work with some of the world's finest actors including Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery and Michael Caine. He has also worked as a director and trainer at several of the UK's leading theatres and institutions including the Young Vic, Guildhall School of Drama, RADA, Shaw Theatre, Italia Conti, London Film School, Edinburgh Festival. For the latter part of his career he established ARTTS Skillcentre, a training facility supporting artists in employment with the film and television industry.- Director
- Producer
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David is one of the UK's most prolific and respected directors, working extensively in both TV and features.
He won BAFTAs for his 6-part TV series, Takin' Over The Asylum, a show he commissioned - a first-starring role for David Tennant - and another for The Street, starring Timothy Spall. Along the way, his work has been rewarded with numerous BAFTA, RTS and International Emmy wins and nominations, as well as accolades across Europe; these include Donovan Quick starring Colin Firth, and Common with Sir Michael Gambon. Best Actor nods, under his stewardship, include those for Olivia Coleman, Jim Broadbent, Bob Hoskins and Christopher Eccleston.
He has worked with some of the greatest names in British and international cinema and TV, including John Hurt, David Soul, Mark Strong, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Gemma Arterton, Eddy Redmayne, Steve Coogan and Tim Roth, to name a few.
He also had a long, productive working relationship with the UK writer Jimmy McGovern, starting with the first serial of The Lakes in 1997, concluding with the TV movie, Care in 2018, both BAFTA nominated.
During 2021 David produced Crime, the 6-part serial by Irving Welsh, starring Dougray Scott whose performance won an International Emmy; he also directed three of the episodes. At the beginning of 2022, his serial Four Lives, about the Grind-r killer Stephen Port, starring Stephen Merchant, transmitted on the BBC, to great critical acclaim.
In development, David has collaborated with Tariq Ali on an adaptation of the latter's acclaimed novel Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree. Other projects pending, include Storm Witch a tale about the hunt and persecution of a putative witch, in 17th century Scotland. The Cairn, reigniting David's long-time collaboration with Donna Franceschild, about a woman coming to terms with a dark and complex past and The Gospel According to Billy McGee by Don McPherson, about two teenagers whose fight for a better world becomes a fight for survival.- Composer
- Music Department
The distinctive music of BAFTA winning composer Ben Bartlett can be heard on many award-winning TV drama and Film productions.
2021 will see the 10th anniversary of ITV's flagship female detective series Vera for which Ben has proudly delivered all the music. Alongside Vera, Ben continues to compose contemporary scores for noir thriller and psychological drama. His scores for Sky One's Lucky Man, ITV's The Loch and Sky Atlantic's The Tunnel saw Ben explore a huge range of musical approaches from solo violin, chamber voice and live aleatronic string orchestra, through to unique synth programming and solo piano.
Ben's approach to delivering a score is to collaborate with filmmakers to create, develop and hone a palette that captures the essence of the story and its characters.
When required, Ben's scores have offered a reflection of period, spanning the 1950's, 60's and 70's of He Kills Coppers, a similar epic range in his score for The Runaway, and the vast biographical journey in the feature documentary Kissinger.
Ivor Novello nominated for the music for Fiona's Story (Gina McGee, Jeremy Northam), Ben utilised the exquisite playing of solo violinist Adonis Alvanis, accompanied by some of the UK's finest string players.
Ben's sound is distinctive and its range is broad and he is equally at home with light drama and comedy, scoring Fairy Tales, Absolute Power (Stephen Fry), Secret World of Michael Fry (Ewen Bremner) and Mutual Friends (Marc Warren) for which he was nominated an RTS Award.- Actress
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Haylie Ecker was born on 9 October 1975 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. She is an actress and composer, known for Johnny English (2003), Homage (2010) and The Snowman and the Snowdog (2012).- Additional Crew
- Writer
Patsy Rodenburg was born on 2 September 1953 in London, England, UK. She is a writer, known for Closer (2004), Little Voice (1998) and The House of Mirth (2000).- Music Department
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James Galway was taught to play the flute by an uncle and he went on to join the Belfast Youth Orchestra. He attended the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and the Paris Conservatory. He was the principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for six years before beginning a career as a solo musician. In 1978 Galway and the National Philharmonic Orchestra had a number three hit in the UK singles chart with the beautiful "Annie's Song", which brought him to the attention of a much wider audience. He was knighted in 2001.- Clare Lawrence Moody is an English actress and producer. Born in Saddleworth, Yorkshire in 1975, she gained a first class masters degree in English at Cambridge University, before being cast in the BBC film This Could Be the Last Time (1998). She appeared in Charles Sturridge's millennial drama Longitude (2000) and as Amanda Hunt in the popular series Bad Girls (1999) before launching the West End theatre production company Out Of The Blue alongside producer and screenwriter Anna Waterhouse.
Together they produced numerous plays in the West End including Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth (Garrick Theatre) starring over four casts Jake Gyllenhaal, Hayden Christensen, Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Summer Phoenix, Kieran Culkin, Colin Hanks, Alison Lohman, Freddie Prinze Jr, Chris Klein and Heather Burns; David Mamet's Oleanna (Garrick Theatre) starring Julia Stiles and Aaron Eckhart; Mamet's A Life In The Theatre (Apollo Theatre) starring Patrick Stewart and Joshua Jackson; Neil Labute's Some Girl(s) (Gielgud Theatre) starring David Schwimmer, Saffron Burrows, Catherine Tate, Lesley Manville and Sara Powell; Sam Shepard's Fool For Love (Apollo Theatre) starring Juliette Lewis and Martin Henderson.
Since returning to acting in 2008, Clare has appeared in the West End and at the National Theatre, as well as on screen in Pride (2014) and numerous television dramas. - Actor
- Producer
Oliver began drama classes at the age of six with The Guildhall School of Speech & Drama and got accepted to join The National Youth Theatre aged thirteen.
Oliver gained a B.A. (Honours) degree at The University of South Florida & Middlesex University in Drama & Theatre Studies before training as an actor at The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
Film/TV work include: From Bard To Verse (BabyCow/BBC), The Mysti Show Series 1 and 2 (BBC Series Regular), Jam, EastEnders (BBC), Bin Weevils (Nickelodeon), Sinbad: The Persian Prince (SyFy), Untitled A Film (Truk Films), CTRL (Breaking Fourth), BroBots (Samsung Films) Lilybuds (Discovery), Red Dwarf (BabyCow/Dave), Time Rewind (Creation Box Films) & Halo (Amblin/Showtime).
West End credits include Bombitty of Errors & Twelfth Night. Oliver has also toured and performed in many regional theatres.
Voiceovers include: The Disney Channel, Santander, McDonald's, The Samaritans, BBC Worldwide, Virgin Media, eBay, Currys, Morissons, Nissan, Seat, T-Mobile, BT & Kellogs.
Oliver is very experienced in Radio Drama including: Dr Who, Torchwood, Bernice Summerfield and Cicero series. Oliver voices many computer games, including: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, Soul Sacrifice & The Inazuma series. Oliver has provided his voice for audio guides in many famous landmarks, including; Buckingham Palace, The Royal Mews, The Louvre Museum and Hever Castle.
Oliver lives in North London.- Composer
- Music Department
Film composer Rachel James graduated with her second Masters Degree in Composition for Screen from the Royal College of Music in London, where she studied with Joseph Horovitz and David Burnand. She gained her first degree in Music at the University of Surrey before taking her first Masters at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where she studied with composer Malcolm Singer. She works as a film composer, score programmer, orchestrator and copyist. She works in all areas of media from animation and commercials to films. Rachel recently scored an American feature film for Kovach Productions, 'Crash Down Hearts' and cinematic trailers for the National Trust, directed by Anthony Aurelius. She works as assistant to composer Guy Michelmore, as well as managing and tutoring on all the courses at ThinkSpace Education, which include orchestration and composing for media.- Michael Hughes is known for Snatch (2000).
- Hugh Mason is known for Last Call (2005).
- Christopher Snell was born in Hammersmith, London. His parents were Geoffrey Stuart Snell and Margaret Lonsdale Geary. He attended the King's School Canterbury, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and read Graduate Studies at the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama (London) and at the Banff School of Fine Art, (Banff, Canada).
His acting debut in London was in "The Yeomen of the Guard" at the Tower of London, starring Tommy Steele, later transferring to the Royal National Theatre for three productions. Notable performances include the role of Anthony Hope in the first ever Chamber Production of Steven Sondheim's 'Sweeney Todd' in London, and the role of the Beast in 'Beauty And The Beast' at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East.
An international career developed following episodes of The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997) for Warner Brothers International which transmits on Channel 5 (UK) and cable television worldwide. - Producer
- Actress
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Helen Lloyd was born in North Wales but moved to live in Nottinghamshire at the age of 5.
After training as an actor at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the late 1960s, she spent the next fourteen years 'treading the boards' in theatres across the UK. Memorable roles include Amanda in 'Private Lives', Eliza Doolittle in 'Pymalion', Julie in 'Miss Julie' at the Roundhouse Studio, Ruth in 'The Norman Conquests', Joanna in 'Present Laughter, 'Ellida in 'The Lady from the Sea', Elma in 'Canaries Sometimes Sing' at the Watermill Theatre, The Wicked Witch of the West in 'The Wizard of Oz' at Liverpool Playhouse and Mollie Ralston in the 29th year of 'The Mousetrap' at St Martin's Theatre in the West End.
Helen made the move into television in the early 1980s when she became one of the faces and voices of Central television when they were awarded the ITV franchise for the Midands. Helen became one of the team of continuity announcers. It was at this time that she also began doing corporate voice over work as well as being a regular voice on numerous Central programmes. As an announcer, she became particularly well known for her infamous 'Hyperdemic Nurdle' blooper, which featured in several 'It'll be Alright on the Night' programmes!
A lucky chance gave Helen the opportunity to move behind the cameras at Central in the late 1980s and she began as a researcher working on social action programmes and was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to Australia in 1988. On her return, she moved into the factual programme department at ITV Central where she produced programmes for three series of Waterworld with Timothy West, as well as programmes for two series of 'Top to Toe' with Denise Welch and Julia Carling, and programmes for two archive series '50 Years of. . .' and '50 Years of The Queen'. Her programme on the Silver Jubilee was awarded a Houston Filmfest special jury award.
Helen was also much in demand during this period as a freelance narrator, being the voice of a large number of documentaries for On Digital, ITV Central and Carlton.
After taking redundancy from ITV in 2003, Helen became a freelance producer and narrator. She is married to actor Ben Roberts and they have a grown up son.- Gillian came from Birkenhead and left school to work in an office at a print work before deciding to become an actress. She moved to London where she enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She never finished the course because she landed the part of Audrey Bright in "Coronation Street" in the middle of her second year. At the time, Gillian was 19 years old. She did not continue to act after leaving the series.
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Anna Frankl-Duval is a British actor, singer, and voiceover artist. Born in London, she moved to New York at the age of nineteen to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Since graduating Anna has worked in theatre, film, TV, and voiceover on both sides of the Atlantic.
Anna wrote and produced her first short film 'If Only' in 2017, also playing the leading role in the film.- Composer
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Composer, conductor, arranger and music director. Trained Cologne, Berlin and London (at the Guildhall school of Music and Drama). From the age of seventeen, earned a living as a jazz fiddler, pianist and arranger in, among others, Carroll Gibbons' Savoy Orpheans and Henry Hall's BBC Dance Orchestra. Entered films in 1934, ultimately working on over a hundred scores for cinema, theatre and television. Also worked as music director on shows of C.B.Cochrane and Noel Coward in London's West end. His works for the concert hall gained recognition toward the end of the War, with a string of fine chamber works and, in 1951, the Violin Concerto "In memory of the Six Million" who had perished in the Holocaust. His reputation as a serious composer was later affirmed by a series of eight symphonies and an opera, "Marching Song", from the play by John Whiting, all composed between 1958 and his death in 1973. His concert music during this period combined a late-romantic quality with the twelve-tone (serial) principles laid down by Arnold Schoenberg and his score for the 1960 film "Curse of the Werewolf" is believed to be the first in Britain have been based on upon them. Reputedly, he was the highest paid British composer of film music, during the 1950s.- Actor
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Born in London 1966 Andrew grew up in Bedford, moving back to London to take up an apprenticeship in Mechanical and Production Engineering with the Ministry of Defence. Completing his four years, he then took off around the world, settling for a time in Australia, eventually coming back to apply for drama school.
Andrew attended The Guildhall School and thereafter worked mostly in television. A strong array of British fare ensued, with BAFTA award-winning dramas 'Loved Up' and 'Holding On', plus guest leads on 'Soldier, Soldier', 'The Bill' and 'EastEnders', among others.
Disillusioned with the stereotyped roles he was afforded, he began campaigning for more inclusion and representation, whilst turning his sights on creating work, making his first short film 'Losing Heart' in 1997 as Producer, Actor. 'Losing Heart' was directed by long-time Mike Leigh collaborator Marion Bailey and afforded Andrew the opportunity to learn how to utilise the Master Improvisation technique favoured by Mike Leigh.
On the back of this successful short, Andrew raised the finance for his first feature film 'Offending Angels' as Writer, Director, Producer, Actor, his ambition being to create worthwhile roles for non-white actors, making no mileage from their skin colour; something he wasn't seeing at all in the British industry.
This was followed by a role in Stephen Norrington's 'League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen' and the lead in the World Premier staged production of Hanif Kureishi's 'Intimacy', an 80-minute monologue.
Thereafter, he successfully applied to the National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield, completing his Masters in Screenwriting, whilst also making the controversial short, 'Opportunist', which was picked up by FoxTV.
As Writer, Director, Producer, he's since made two feature-length documentaries, 'Finding Fink at Fifty', about hedge-fund Supremo Stanley Fink and 'The Penthouse at St Pancras'. Andrew then made feature-drama 'Greys Inbetween', picked up by eight channels worldwide.
Andrew has contributed articles for The Guardian concerning #OscarsSoWhite and The Telegraph. He has been interviewed by BBC News Channel and Al Jazeera, as well as multiple radio channels, including BBC World At One and Five Live.
Juror for the Vevey Film Festival, the BAFTA's, The Sony Radio Awards and the RTA's. He has written four novels and several stageplays.
All of his work continues to explore the territory of identity and preconceptions to do with race and culture. His most recent appearance was in the Cannes-winning feature 'Little Joe', Directed by Jessica Hausner, starring Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw and Kerry Fox.- Trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. From 1979 to 1996 was writer and director for "La Bonne Crepe Cafe Theatre", London, for which he produced over 140 original works. From 1996 he has worked as an actor, director and writer, staging productions at the Riverside Studios, Jermyn Street Theatre and the Edinburgh Festival. In 2000 his musical, "Dusty" opened at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley and then toured the UK with Mairi Wilson in the lead role.
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Aeone (pronounced ay-own) was born in 1959 in Liss, Hampshire as Vikki Watson. Shortly after her birth the family moved to Emsworth - her family still runs an antique shop in Petworth, Sussex - , where she grew up. As a child she took song and dance lessons, and then went on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. At first, she wanted to become an opera singer, but soon realized that her voice was more suited to popular music.
Some very early success in the Eurovision Song Contest - winning fourth place in Gothenburg, Sweden performing the 1985 UK entry "Love Is" written with Jimmy Kaleth sent her packing to the United States and full circle returning to her Celtic roots. She did very well in terms of touring, television shows and live work, yet a difficult lifestyle coupled with the commercial direction of the material drove her to emigrate to the United States.
Initially teamed with writer/producer/engineer Jeff Silverman, in 1991 she released an 11-track debut album, entitled Window To A World, that pioneered a blend of Celtic sounding music with a pop feel combining fiddle, banjo and mandolin.
After releasing her debut album, she moved on to scoring for television shows, composing for Witchblade, "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" on Discovery, Santa Barbara and Team: Knight Rider. She also composed for several movie trailers, including The Messenger, John Q, Behind Enemy Lines, The Shipping News, Enough, Life Or Something Like It, Showtime (film), Rat Race, Finding Forrester, Saving Silverman, Lucky Numbers, Lovers Of The Arctic Circle, One Night At McCool's, At First Sight, Down To Earth, Instinct (film) and Disturbing Behavior.
Then, in 1999, she released a special mp3-album, called Aeone (album). Combining numbers from her debut album and several new ones, the album became quite popular on mp3.com. A few months later, her second studio album was released, The Woman's Touch. The album contains a broad range of song styles, each with clear ethereal vocals, at times rising above full ambient grooves. Ballads are offset by strong dance rhythms as well as several highly accessible tunes. After the release, Aeone picked up composing for a while before she started working on her third album. In between she found the time to sing one of the title songs for the TNT miniseries Mists Of Avalon, composing and writing the song I Will Remember You Still. A year later, the third album, Point Of Faith, was released.
Among the more remarkable happenings in her career, Aeone particularly recalls her debut in Zimbabwe, when she sung one song and the band played another, and a television appearance in which she was almost flattened by the American heavy-weight pop singer Meat Loaf.- Frank Cousins left the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London having gained the prestigious Acting Prize. He appeared extensively on British television and on the London Stage before founding his own fringe theater company, 'The Dark & Light Theatre' in South London.
At the time (1970s) this was the only Black theater in Britain to have its own Theatre building, Longfield Hall. As well as productions in its hone venue, the theater company toured extensively throughout the British Isles, showcasing Black actors in groundbreaking contemporary works by Black playwrights.
Frank's work with the Dark & Light Theatre has recently been recognized by Lambeth Council, South London, and now forms part of the innovative 'Black History Walk' around the Borough. Frank was selected by Great Britain to direct the UK's drama entry to FESTAC (Festival of Black & African Arts) held in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1977.
Currently he and his wife live in Spain, and Frank travels extensively in the USA and Caribbean. - Actor
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British operatic bass. Studied at the Guildhall School of Music 1931-35 under the tenor Walter Hyde. First appearance 1933 with the Halle Orchestra in Manchester. London debut: Verdi REQUIEM under Beecham. Sang at Glyndebourne Opera 1937-39. Sang King Marke opposite Kirsten Flagstad's Isolde in TRISTAN UND ISOLDE at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Sang there regularly 1947-53. Also sang for the Sadler's Wells Opera, and at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts 1936-54. He was considered the successor to the basses Robert Radford and Norman Allin. He made many notable recordings and broadcasts.- Composer
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Tamara earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Film Music Composition (MFA) in 2008 at University of North Carolina School of The Arts under the tuition of David McHugh (composer of 'Mystic Pizza', 'Moscow on the Hudson'). She received her Bachelor Of Music in Ethnomusicology at City University, London. Here she studied many instruments which influenced her musical writing, such as African drums, Balinese and Javanese Gamelan. From 1993 to 1998, Tamara attended Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Here she specialised in two main instruments, the cello (grade 7 and 8 with distinction) and the piano. Tamara also sang at The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in the 1993 production of Puccini's 'La Boheme'. Followed by Charles Gounod's 'Romeo and Juliet.'- Helen Welch is a songwriter, musician, actress and lead vocalist. She enjoys an exciting and varied career. A British transplant, she trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the heart of London Helen went straight into theatre and credits include Hello Dolly, Barnum, 42nd Street, Oliver Twist and Calamity Jane.
Helen regularly performs at top Cleveland area venues. As Rachel in Christmas at Maxwell's she plays the role of a close friend to Suzie and brings a wonderful dimension of understanding and love to this struggling family. - Composer
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Composer, conductor, songwriter and arranger, educated at New York University (with a Bachelor of Arts degree) and at the Guildhall School of Music and Art in London. He was an arranger for the Sammy Kaye, Blue Barron and Guy Lombardo orchestras between 1937 and 1943 and again between 1946 and 1948, as well as for ice shows and night clubs. Thereafter he wrote music for television and films. Joining ASCAP in 1961, his chief musical collaborators include Kermit Goell, and 'Jerry Gladstone', and his popular-song compositions include "Long May We Love" and "Qu'est Que C'est L'amour".- Music Department
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Hollingsworth studied at the Guildhall School of Music, and, by 1939, was conducting concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra. The following year, he joined the orchestra of the Royal Air Force as an associate conductor, at the same time orchestrating wartime documentaries made by the Crown Film Unit. After the war, Hollingsworth alternated working on feature films with conducting for ballet and classical music, frequently performing at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 1945, he joined Cineguild to work under Muir Mathieson as assistant musical director, notably involved in the Sergei Rachmaninoff score (the hugely popular Second Piano Concerto) for Brief Encounter (1945).
In 1954, he replaced Frank Spencer as musical director at Hammer Studios. As music supervisor, he worked on some of Hammer's best-known films, such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)and Horror of Dracula (1958). He also occasionally free-lanced for other studios, involved in such notable films as The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963), the Peter Sellers comedy Heavens Above! (1963) and Joseph Losey's The Damned (1962). Hollingsworth remained in his position at Hammer until his untimely death in 1963, aged just 47, of pneumonia.- Christian is an actor of stage, screen and television. Most notable works include playing lead for The Royal Shakespeare Company, featured work with The Old Vic Theatre, Royal Court Theatre,The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and work for BBC television.
Trained at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama Winner of The Sarah Churchill Memorial Award. - Music Department
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Arthur Dulay first played the piano in public when he was 6. He went on to study under Samuel Coleridge-Taylor at the Guildhall School of music in London and was a student alongside Thomas Beecham. He began a successful career as an accompanist of silent films at the age of 16, and played from a repertoire of over 7000 pieces at the Avenue Pavilion Cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue London, where he had his own orchestra and was musical director. On the arrival of talkies in the late 1920s he moved to BBC Radio, making over 2000 broadcasts until 1952 with his quintet and cameo orchestra. He then moved to the newly opened National Film Theatre in London as musical director, where he remained until his retirement, accompanying great silent films like Buster Keaton's The General (1926).- Writer
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Born the youngest of ten children of John Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (always called "Col") was bullied so viciously by his elder brother that he ran away from home at the age of seven. Though he was discovered and returned the next morning, the memory of that night would provide fodder for his later poetry. After his father's death, Col was sent to live with his hard-drinking Uncle John Bowden, who would often take his ten-year-old nephew with him to the taverns.
After the deaths of two of his siblings in the early 1790s, Col wrote "Monody," and in trying to conquer both his melancholy and an illness, he became addicted to laudanum opium. After unsuccessful attempts to handle both college and mounting debts, Col ran away and joined the army in 1793. As he was entirely unsuited to military service, his brother managed to arrange his discharge by reason of insanity and Col returned to college, where he became good friends with a political radical named Robert Southey. Col met and married Robert Southey's sister-in-law, Sara Fricker, and tried to be a respectable family man. Depressed by the death of his infant son and persistent illness, Col moved to Malta, where he spied for the British Crown. He separated from his wife, became estranged from his children, and despite numerous tries, was unable to break his opium habit. Samuel Taylor Coleridge died 25th of July, 1834.- Music Department
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Thomas Beecham was born on 29 April 1879 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, UK. He is known for The Red Shoes (1948), Atonement (2007) and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). He was married to Shirley Hudson, Betty Humby-Beecham and Utica Celestia Welles. He died on 8 March 1961 in London, England, UK.- Composer
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University: Birmingham. Post grad. certificate in advanced conducting: Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. Worked BBC 1965-1974, moved to Australia in 1974 and worked for Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1974-1992. Left ABC to work independently. Musical comedy: 'The Mace, book, lyrics and music by Gordon Gribbin, produced 1989 and 1991. Other plays include POMS I, II and III and 'Mrs Wilde'. Pianist, arranger, composer, musical director. Currently living in Melbourne, Australia. Address: 159 Station Street, Aspendale, Victoria, 3195, Australia. Telephone: 061 9580 0635. Internet: Gribbin@wire.net.au- Gabrielle Richardson, 21, is a pursuing a double major in Vocal and Piano Performance at Millsaps College; she is minoring in Anthropology, and upon graduation will receive a national certification for choral conducting. She plans to attend graduate school for the performing arts, either at UC Berkeley, or on study abroad in England at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, or King's College of Music.
A classically trained lyric coloratura soprano, she specializes in French chanson, German lied, and lyric/dramatic/soubrette operatic material such as Mozart, Verdi, Massenet. She has also developed a specialization in American art song, smooth jazz, and contemporary music theater, having sung material by Kirk Mechem, Kurt Weill, and Steven Sondheim. As a classical pianist, she has performed the standard works of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary masters, and has developed specializations in the virtuosity of Rachmaninov, the elegance of Bach and Haydn, and the lyricism of Chopin and Brahms.
Gabrielle has acted in many plays, musicals, and operas, performing works by the masters, from Shakespeare/Williams, to Jerome Kern/Leonard Bernstein, to Henry Purcell/Benjamin Britten. She has taken movement, drama, staging, set, makeup, and IPA classes, as well as private instruction on characterization and accents.
Gabrielle speaks French, Spanish, Arabic, and has had diction training in Italian, French, German, Czech, Russian, Japanese, and English. She is a certified equestrian, trained in English, Western, Natural, Bareback, and Sidesaddle styles; she has also competed in every event from Dressage and Jumping to Bull Riding and Calf Roping. She trains horses and provides seminars in the Natural Horsemanship method to beginners and professionals alike.
For complete details on acting, sung roles, keyboard repertoire, language proficiency, and horsemanship, please ask for resume. - Actor
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Nicholas Irons was born in 1970 in Hampshire, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Berkeley Square (1998), The Madness of King George (1994) and Sharpe (1993).- Actress
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Best remembered as 'Mrs. Slocombe' on the British comedy "Are You Being Served?" Mollie Sugden was born in Keighley, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. She attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Her first television role came in 1962 with the series "Hugh and I," which ran for four seasons. In 1972, she won the role of the head of the ladies department at Grace Brothers Department Store, 'Mrs. Betty Slocombe,' on "Are You Being Served." Her character was known for her change in hair color, as well as her affection for her cat. The series ran between 1972 and 1985. She reprised the role in the 1990s for the short live revival, "Grace & Favour." After the initial run of "Are You Being Served" ended in 1985 she continued to work on television including the series "My Husband and I," in which she starred with real-life husband, William Moore. In 2002, she was honoured on her 80th birthday with the "Celebrating Mollie Sugden: An Are You Being Served? Special" Mollie Sugden died after a long illness at age 86, just months after her "Are You Being Served? co-star Wendy Richard.- Actor
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Clive Rowe was born on 27 March 1964 in Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Beauty and the Beast (2017), Doctor Who (2005) and Paper Mask (1990).- Alice MacDonald is known for A Touch of Frost (1992), Keeping Up Appearances (1990) and Taggart (1983).