Webber Douglas Academy of Music and Drama
Students and faculty from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts (London, England) which is now merged with Central School of Drama and Speech in London, England.
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- Experienced British actress and voice talent. Trained at the Webber Douglas Academy, London. Over 35 years in theatre, TV, radio, and films including "Calendar Girls" with Helen Mirren (2003 - Disney/Buena Vista International). UK and US Credits range from the 'Royal Shakespeare Company' to TV's "Coronation Street". Radio plays and series. Voiceovers for TV commercials, radio ads, company training films, corporate videos, Documentaries, TV hosting and presenting, virtual spokesperson, TelePrompter, audio books, educational recordings, Podcasting, telephone on hold messages, messages for voice-mail, etc.
Chosen by Rosetta Stone (the world's largest language-learning software company) to record the British-English product. Long list of clients includes IKEA, Diesel Fashions (Italy), the Barnardo's charity in the UK and the World Bank.
Other films include "Royal Faceoff", "Tortoise in Love", and "The Perfect Wedding". - Actress
- Producer
- Executive
Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 into a prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London. Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. Edgar served as Honorary Treasurer of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (term 1915), and Mayor of Poplar (term 1924-1925). He was the second Communist mayor in British history, the first being Joe Vaughan (1878-1938). Lansbury's mother was Irish film actress Moyna Macgill (1895-1975), originally from Belfast. During the first five years of Angela's life, the Lansbury family lived in a flat located in Poplar. In 1930, they moved to a house located in the Mill Hill neighborhood of north London. They spend their weekends vacationing in a farm located in Berrick Salome, a village in South Oxfordshire.
In 1935, Edgar Lansbury died from stomach cancer. Angela reportedly retreated into "playing characters", as a coping mechanism to deal with the loss. The widowed Moyna Macgill soon became engaged to Leckie Forbes, a Scottish colonel. Moyna moved into his house in Hampstead.
From 1934 to 1939, Angela was a student at South Hampstead High School. During these years, she became interested in films.. She regularly visited the local cinema, and imagined herself in various roles. Angela learned how to play the piano, and received a musical education at the Ritman School of Dancing.
In 1940, Lansbury started her acting education at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, located in Kensington, West London. She made her theatrical debut in the school's production of the play "Mary of Scotland" (1933) by Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959). The play depicted the life of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587, reigned 1542-1567), and Lansbury played one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting.
Also in 1940, Lansbury's paternal grandfather, George Lansbury, died from stomach cancer. When the Blitz started, Moyna Macgill had reasons to fear for the safety of her family and few remaining ties to England. Macgill moved to the United States to escape the Blitz, taking her three youngest children with her. Isolde was already a married adult, and was left behind in England.
Macgill secured financial sponsorship from American businessman Charles T. Smith. She and her children (including Angela) moved into Smith's house in Mahopac, New York, a hamlet in Putnam County. Lansbury was interested in continuing her studies, and secured a scholarship from the American Theatre Wing. From 1940 to 1942, Lansbury studied acting at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art, located in New York City. She appeared in performances organized by the school.
In 1942, Lansbury moved with her family to a flat located in Morton Street, Greenwich Village. She soon followed her mother in her theatrical tour of Canada. Lansbury secured her first paying job in Montreal, singing at the nightclub Samovar Club for a payment of 60 dollars per week. Lansbury was 16 years old at the time, but lied about her age and claimed to be 19 in order to be hired.
Lansbury returned to New York City in August, 1942, but Moyna Macgill soon moved herself and her family again. The family moved to Los Angeles, where Moyna was interested in resurrecting her film career. Their first home there was a bungalow in Laurel Canyon, a neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills.
Lansbury helped financially support her family by working for the Bullocks Wilshire department store in Los Angeles. Her weekly wages were only 28 dollars, but she had a secure income while her mother was unemployed. Through her mother, Lansbury was introduced to screenwriter John Van Druten (1901-1957), who had recently completed his script of "Gaslight" (1944). He suggested that young Lansbury would be perfect for the role of Nancy Oliver, the film's conniving cockney maid. This helped secure Lansbury's first film role at the age of 17, and a seven-year contract with the film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She earned 500 dollars per week, and chose to continue using her own name instead of a stage name.
In 1945, Lansbury married actor Richard Cromwell (1910-1960), who was 15 years older than she. The troubled marriage ended in a divorce in 1946. The former spouses remained friends until Cromwell's death.
In 1946, Lansbury started a romantic relationship with aspiring actor Peter Shaw (1918-2003), who was 7 years older than her. Shaw had recently ended his relationship with actress Joan Crawford (c. 1908-1977). The new couple started living together, while planning marriage. They wanted to be married in the United Kingdom, but the Church of England refused to marry two divorcees. They were married in 1949, in a Church of Scotland ceremony at St. Columba's Church, located in Knightsbridge, London. After their return to the United States, they settled into Lansbury's home in Rustic Canyon, Malibu. In 1951, both Lansbury and Shaw became naturalized citizens of the United States, while retaining their British citizenship.
Meanwhile, Lansbury continued appearing in MGM films. She appeared in 11 MGM films between 1945 and 1952. MGM at times loaned Lansbury to other film studios. She appeared in United Artists' "The Private Affairs of Bel Ami" (1947), and Paramount Pictures' "Samson and Delilah" (1949). In 1948, Lansbury made her debut in radio roles, followed by her television debut in 1950.
In 1952, Lansbury requested the termination of her contract with MGM, instead of its renewal. She felt unsatisfied with her film career as an MGM contract player. She then joined the East Coast touring productions of two former Broadway plays. By 1953, Lansbury had two children of her own and was also raising a stepson. She and her family moved into a larger house, located on San Vincente Boulevard in Santa Monica. In 1959, she and her family moved into a house in Malibu. The married couple were able to send their children to a local public school.
Meanwhile she continued her film career as a freelance actress, but continued to be cast in middle-aged roles. She regained her A-picture actress through well-received roles in the drama film "The Long, Hot Summer" (1958) and the comedy film "The Reluctant Debutante" (1958). She also appeared regularly in television roles, and became a regular on game show "Pantomime Quiz" (1947-1959).
In 1957, Lansbury made her Broadway debut in a performance of "Hotel Paradiso". The play was an adaptation of the 1894 "L'Hôtel du libre échange" ("Free Exchange Hotel"), written by Maurice Desvallières (1857-1926) and Georges Feydeau (1862-1921). Lansbury's role as "Marcel Cat" was critically well received. She continued appearing in Broadway over the next several years, most notably cast as the verbally abusive mother in "A Taste of Honey". She was cast as the mother of co-star Joan Plowright (1929-), who was only four years younger.
In the early 1960s, Lansbury was cast as an overbearing mother in "Blue Hawaii" (1961). The role of her son was played by Elvis Presley (1935-1977), who was only 10 years than her. The film was a box office hit, it finished as the 10th-top-grossing film of 1961 and 14th for 1962 on the "Variety" national box office survey. It gained Lansbury renewed fame, at a difficult point of her career.
Lansbury gained critical praise for a sympathetic role in the drama film "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (1960), and the role of a manipulative mother in the drama film "All Fall Down" (1962). Based on her success in "All Fall Down", she was cast in a similar role in the Cold War-themed thriller "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962). She was cast as Eleanor Iselin, the mother of her co-star Laurence Harvey (1928-1973), who was only 3 years younger than she. This turned out to be one of the most memorable roles in her career. She received critical acclaim and was nominated for a third time for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The award was instead won by Patty Duke (1946-2016).
Lansbury made a comeback in the starring role of Mame Dennis in the musical "Mame" (1966), by Jerome Lawrence (1915-2004) and Robert Edwin Lee (1918-1994). The play was an adaptation of the novel "Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade" (1955) by Patrick Dennis (1921-1976), and focused on the life and ideas of eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis. The musical received critical and popular praise, and Lansbury won her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Lansbury gained significant fame from her success, becoming a "superstar".
Her newfound fame led to other high-profile appearances by Lansbury. She starred in a musical performance at the 1968 Academy Awards ceremony, and co-hosted the 1968 Tony Awards. The Hasty Pudding Club, a social club for Harvard students. elected her "Woman of the Year" in 1968.
Lansbury's next theatrical success was in 1969 "The Madwoman of Chaillot" (1945) by Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944). The play concerns an eccentric Parisian woman's struggles with authority figures. Lansbury was cast in the starring role of 75-year-old Countess Aurelia, despite her actual age of 44. The show was well received and lasted for 132 performances. Lansbury won her second Tony Award for this role.
In 1970, Lansbury's Malibu home was destroyed in a brush fire. Lansbury and her husband decided to buy Knockmourne Glebe, an 1820s Irish farmhouse, located near the village of Conna in rural County Cork.
Her film career reached a new height. She was cast in the starring role of benevolent witch Eglantine Price in Disney's fantasy film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971). The film was a box-office hit; it was critically well received, and introduced Lansbury to a wider audience of children and families.
In 1972, Lansbury returned to the British stage, performing in London's West End with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1973, Lansbury appeared in the role of Rose in London performances of the musical "Gypsy" (1959) by Arthur Laurents. It was quite successful. In 1974, "Gypsy" went on tour in the United States. with the same cast. For her role, Lanbury won the Sarah Siddons Award and her third Tony Award. The musical had its second tour in 1975.
Tired from musicals. Lansbury next sought Shakespearean roles in the United Kingdom. From 1975 to 1976, she appeared as Queen Gertrude in the National Theatre Company's production of Hamlet. In November 1975, Lansbury's mother Moyna Macgill died at the age of 79. Lansbury arranged for her mother's remains to be cremated, and the ashes scattered near her own County Cork home.
In 1976, Lansbury returned to the American stage. In 1978, Lansbury temporarily replaced Constance Towers (1933-) in the starring role of Anna Leonowens (1831-1915) in The King and I. While Towers was on a break from the role, Lansbury appeared in 24 performances.
In 1978, Lansbury appeared in her first film role in seven years, as the novelist and murder victim Salome Otterbourne in the mystery film "Death on the Nile" (1978). The film was an adaptation of the 1937 novel by Agatha Christie (1890-1976); Otterbourne was loosely based on real-life novelist Elinor Glyn (1864-1943). The film was a modest box-office hit, and Lansbury befriended her co-star Bette Davis (1908-1989).
In 1979, Lansbury was cast in the role of meat pie seller Mrs. Lovett in the musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (1979), by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler (1912-1987). The musical was loosely based on the penny dreadful serial novel "The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance" (1846-1847), which first depicted fictional serial killer Sweeney Todd. Lansbury remained in the role for 14 months, and was then replaced by Dorothy Loudon (1925-2003). Lansbury won her fourth Tony Award for this role. She returned to the role for 10 months in 1980.
Lansbury's next prominent film role was that of Miss Froy in "The Lady Vanishes" (1979), a remake of the 1938 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). She was next cast in the role of amateur sleuth Miss Jane Marple in the mystery film "The Mirror Crack'd" (1980), an adaptation of the novel "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" (1962) by Agatha Christie. The novel was loosely inspired by the life of Gene Tierney (1920-1991). The film was a modest commercial success. There were plans for at least two sequels, but they ended in development hell.
In 1982, Lansbury was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame, She appeared at the time in the new play "A Little Family Business" and a revival of "Mame", but both shows were commercial failures. In film, Lansbury voiced the witch Mommy Fortuna in the animated fantasy film "The Last Unicorn" (1982). The film was critically well received, but was not a box-office hit.
Lansbury played Ruth in the musical comedy "The Pirates of Penzance" (1983), a film adaptation of the 1879 comic opera by William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) and Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900). The film was a box office bomb, earning about 695,000 dollars.
Lansbury's next film role was that of Granny in the gothic fantasy film "The Company of Wolves" (1984), based on a 1979 short story by Angela Carter (1940-1992). Lansbury was cast as the grandmother of protagonist Rosaleen (played by Sarah Patterson), in a tale featuring werewolves and shape-shifting. The film was critically well received, but barely broke even at the box office.
At about that time, Lansbury appeared regularly in television films and mini-series. Her most prominent television role was that of Jessica Fletcher in the detective series "Murder, She Wrote" (1984-1996). Jessica was depicted as a successful mystery novelist from Maine who encounters and solves many murders. The character was considered an American counterpart to Miss Marple. The series followed the "whodunit" format and mostly avoided depictions of violence or gore.
The series was considered a television landmark for having an older female character as the protagonist. It was aimed primarily at middle-aged audiences, but also attracted both younger viewers and senior citizen viewers. Ratings remained high for most of its run. Lansbury rejected pressure from network executives to put her character in a relationship, as she believed that Fletcher should remain a strong single female.
In 1989, Lansbury co-founded the production company Corymore Productions, which started co-producing the television series with Universal Television. This allowed Lansbury to have more creative input on the series. She was appointed an executive producer. By the time the series ended in 1996, it tied with the original "Hawaii Five-O" (1968-1980) as the longest-running detective drama series in television history.
Her popularity from "Murder, She Wrote" made Lansbury a much-sought figure for advertisers. She appeared in advertisements and infomercials for Bufferin, MasterCard and the Beatrix Potter Company.
Lansbury's highest-profile film role in decades was voicing the character of singing teapot Mrs. Potts in Disney's animated fantasy film "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Lansbury performed the film's title song, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, Lansbury lived most of the year in California. In 1991, she had Corymore House, a farmhouse at Ballywilliam, County Cork, built as her new family home. She spend Christmases and summers there.
Following the end of "Murder, She Wrote", Lansbury returned to a career as a theatrical actress. She temporarily retired from the stage in 2001, to take care of her husband Peter Shaw, whose health was failing. Shaw died in 2003, from congestive heart failure at the couple's Brentwood, California home. Their marriage had lasted for 54 years (1949-2003).
Lansbury felt at the time that she could not take on any more major acting roles, but that she could still make cameos. She moved back to New York City in 2006, buying a condominium in Manhattan. Her first prominent film role in years was that of Aunt Adelaide in the fantasy film "Nanny McPhee" (2005). She credits her performance in the film with pulling her out of depression, a state of mind which had lasted since her husband's death.
Lansbury returned to performing on the Broadway stage in 2007, after an absence of 23 years. In 2009, she won her fifth Tony Award. She shared the record for most Tony Award victories with Julie Harris (1925-2013). In the 2010s, she continued regularly appearing in theatrical performances. In 2014, she returned to the London stage, after an absence of nearly 40 years.
In 2015, Lansbury received her first Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress. At age 89, she was among the oldest first-time winners. Also in 2015, November 2015 was awarded the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.
In 2017, she was cast as Aunt March in the mini-series "Little Women". The mini-series was an adaptation of the 1868-1869 novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). The series lasted for 3 episodes, and was critically well received.
In 2018, Lansbury gained her next film role in Disney's fantasy film "Mary Poppins Returns" (2018), a sequel to "Mary Poppins". Lansbury was cast in the role of the Balloon Lady, a kindly old woman who sells balloons at the park. The films was a commercial hit, earning about 350 million dollars at the worldwide box office.
In 2019, Lansbury performed at a one-night benefit staging of Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895). a farce satirizing Victorian morals. She was cast in the role of society lady Lady Bracknell, mother to Gwendolen Fairfax.
By 2020, Lansbury was 95 years old, one of the oldest-living actresses. She has never retired from acting, and remains a popular icon.- Actress
- Writer
Sweet-faced, gentle-voiced veteran British actress Dulcie Gray's demure career is often linked with that of her late actor/husband Michael Denison, with whom she appeared frequently on stage, TV and in films in over a hundred projects for nearly four decades.
She was born Dulcie Winifred Catherine Bailey in British Malaya (now Malaysia), on November 20, 1915, the daughter of a lawyer. She was sent off to boarding school in England at quite an early age. Originally interested in art and dance until the lure of the theatre, she worked at one time as a governess. Dulcie attended the Webber Douglas Drama School where she met future husband Denison, whom she married in 1939. Making her professional stage debut that same year in "Hay Fever," she gained repertory theatre experience between the years 1940 and 1941.
Dulcie made an insignificant film debut in an uncredited part in the Welwyn Studio comedy Banana Ridge (1942), but stayed focused on theatre, particularly in Shakespeare's plays -- "Twelfth Night" (as Maria), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (as Hermia) and "The Taming of the Shrew" (as Bianca). She won London stage stardom after making her West End debut as "Alexandra" in a production of "The Little Foxes" starring Richard Attenborough.
Dulcie earned a great stage success as waitress "Rose" in "Brighton Rock" (1943), which led to a film contract with Gainsborough Studios. Although she lost out playing the waitress role when "Brighton Rock" was transferred to film, she went on to grace a host of lady-like melodramas for the studio. She began with small roles in both Two Thousand Women (1944) and Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) supporting leading ladies Phyllis Calvert and Patricia Roc. She then went on to support Margaret Lockwood in A Place of One's Own (1945) before sharing the lead with Calvert and Anne Crawford in the meller They Were Sisters (1945) in which she played the passive sibling at the mercy of a cruel, sadistic husband James Mason.
Dulcie continued to rise gracefully in the film ranks with features such as the crime drama Wanted for Murder (1946) opposite Eric Portman and Derek Farr; the social drama A Man About the House (1947) as a concerned sister to Margaret Johnston; and the psychological drama Mine Own Executioner (1947) opposite Burgess Meredith. She also shared the screen with husband Michael in such vehicles as My Brother Jonathan (1948), The Glass Mountain (1949), The Franchise Affair (1951), Angels One Five (1952) and There Was a Young Lady (1953), usually to generous reviews.
In between times, the actress would remain royal to the stage, appearing in scores of plays, including "Dear Ruth" (title role), "Tea and Sympathy," "South Sea Bubble" and "The Seagull," With Michael she appeared in a host of theatre vehicles such as "Queen Elizabeth Slept Here," "The Four Poster," "Private Lives," "Alice Through the Looking Glass," "Let Them Eat Cake," "Candida," "Heartbreak House," "The Royal Gambit," "An Ideal Husband," "The Wild Duck," "The Clandestine Marriage," "The First Mrs. Fraser" and "The Clandestine Marriage."
In the mid 1950's, Dulcie began to focus on TV with roles in such anthologies as "BBC Sunday Night Theatre," "Somerset Maugham Hour" and "London Theatre." Like her husband, the theatre was her first love and true calling and she would remain committed to the stage for most of her career, making relatively few films in her later life. Dulcie later turned to writing, authoring 24 mystery books, most of which involved intrepid sleuth Inspector Cardiff.
She earned TV success back in England with Howards' Way (1985) (in which Michael had a recurring role) - a major hit in the late '80s. The couple was awarded Commander of the British Empire in 1983. Late in life, they made their Broadway debut together in "An Ideal Husband" in 1996. Following Michael's death from cancer two years later in 1998, Dulcie continued in the theatre playing delightfully sweet old ladies in such enjoyable fare as "The Ladykillers" (1999) and "The Lady Vanishes."
Dulcie would be the subject of the TV tribute program This Is Your Life (1955) on two separate occasions, in 1973 and 1995. She was a guest for other subjects four other times. She passed away from bronchial pneumonia just a few days before her 96th birthday on November 15, 2011.- One of the finest exponents of the art of light comedy acting, Michael Denison enjoyed a highly successful career both on stage and screen. He and his wife, actress Dulcie Gray, appeared in over 100 West End shows and their marriage, which lasted nearly sixty years, was regarded as one of the happiest in British show business.
Denison was born in Doncaster, the son of a paint manufacturer, and was brought up by aunt and her husband. He was educated at Harrow and Magdalen College, where he read modern languages. He trained for the stage at Webber Douglas School in London where he met and married Dulcie Gray in 1939.
During World War Two, he served in the Royal Intelligence Corps and, by the time he had returned to the theatre, his wife was already a major film star in Britain. She secured him a role in the 1947 film My Brother Jonathan (1948). The following year, they appeared together in The Glass Mountain (1949), which became an international hit.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the couple were rarely off the West End stage where they attracted a loyal following. Denison appeared solo with great success in the TV series Boyd Q.C. (1956) (1956-63).
He appeared on Broadway in Oscar Wilde's, "An Ideal Husband", and, shortly before he died, he and his wife appeared in a two-hander production "Curtain Up" in a London fringe theatre.
Denison published two volumes of memoirs, "Overture and Beginners" (1973) and "Double Act" (1985). He also contributed many entries to the Dictionary of National Biography. He and Dulcie Gray were appointed CBE in 1983. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Early in her career she worked in repertory in Manchester and while there obtained occasional television roles. When offered scripts she can usually tell within 5 pages if it is suitable for her. When it came to 'To the Manor Born' which was intended for a radio series, she considered it one of the best scripts that she'd read and asked to show it to BBC television light entertainment head John Howard Davis and the rest is history.- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Scott Edward Adkins was born on June 17, 1976 in Sutton Coldfield, England, into a family that for generations were butchers. Along with his elder brother Craig, he was raised by their parents, John and Janet (Sanders) Adkins, in a loving middle-class family. Scott attended Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield. Probably not the best of students, he used to sneak downstairs after his parents had gone to bed and watch films all night then fall asleep during lessons. A natural athlete, Scott enjoyed a variety of sports as he grew up, but when he was 10 years old, he accompanied his father and brother to the local Judo club. The attraction was instantaneous. Idolising stars such as Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott began to train everyday. He took over his Dad's garage and turned it into his own Dojo. He even had a shrine to Bruce Lee in there that he would bow to. He remembers being mugged on a bus when he was around 13 and that really kicked his training into overdrive. He wasn't ever going to let that happen again. At the age of 14, Scott went on to train in Tae Kwon Do under the instruction of Ron Sergiew with the T.A.G.B. After a few years, he moved on to Kickboxing under Anthony Jones. He is now a fully trained Kickboxing Instructor for the P. K. A. A self confessed "film junkie" Scott's attention was drawn to acting through the Hollywood Greats. He enrolled in a drama class at Sutton Coldfield College. Being a shy lad he initially found it difficult to be put on stage in front of an audience. Finally, at the age of 21, Scott was offered a place at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. However, as an impoverished student, he found it hard to make ends meet without a grant and was forced to leave without completing the course. Very dejected he thought that was the end.
His first break came when he was offered a role in a Hong Kong martial arts film called Extreme Challenge (2001) (aka Extreme Challenge). Spotted by Head of The Hong Kong Stuntmen Association and director Wei Tung and English-born Hong Kong movie expert Bey Logan, Adkins found himself in the East for the first time. Scott got the chance to work with some of Hong Kong cinema's leading action directors including Woo-Ping Yuen, Corey Yuen, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung and the legendary Jackie Chan. Acting roles started to come in and he was offered a guest role in BBC's Doctors (2000) filmed at Birmingham's Pebble Mill. A few episodes in BBC's EastEnders (1985) and City Central (1998), and a lead role in Sky One comedy drama Mile High (2003) followed by a regular role in BBC's Holby City (1999) as Bradley Hume, the assistant General Manager of Holby General.
Starring roles in feature films soon followed with his portrayal of Talbot in Special Forces (2003) and Yuri Boyka" in Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing (2006). It was this film that broke him into the mainstream with his villainous portrayal of a Russian MMA underground fighter Boyka in what has been hailed as one of the best American made Martial Arts films of recent times. Along with lead actor Michael Jai White, fight coordinator J.J. Perry and the slick direction of Isaac Florentine this movie has some unbelievably heart stopping fight scenes. After this Scott has had guest starring roles in bigger budget films like The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and The Tournament (2009), and played Jean-Claude Van Damme's main adversary in Sony Pictures The Shepherd (2008).- Actress
- Producer
The dark and classically beautiful British actress and social activist Julia (Karin) Ormond was born on January 4, 1965, in Surrey, into England, the second of five children. Born of privilege as the daughter of a well-to-do laboratory technician, her parents divorced when she was young. Julia attended Guildford High School and Cranleigh, a private school, where she showed interest in theatre at that time appearing in a couple of their musicals.
Julia's grandparents were artists, and she initially intended to be one herself but, after one year of art school, renewed her dedication to acting and transferred to Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where she graduated in 1988.
Appearing in the play "Wuthering Heights" as Catherine, she met and eventually married her Heathcliff (actor Rory Edwards) in real life. In 1989 she won the London Drama Critic's Award for her performance in "Faith, Hope and Charity" as "best newcomer." Julia also made an immediate impression on TV with her debuting role as a young drug addict in the series Traffik (1989)
She earned star-making attention in the TV-movie Young Catherine (1991), in which she portrayed Catherine the Great (also featuring husband Edwards). She then portrayed wife Nadya in the TV movie Stalin (1992) starring Robert Duvall in the title role. She made the jump into feature films scoring a top-billed debut opposite Ralph Fiennes in The Baby of Mâcon (1993), a drama about a woman giving an "immaculate birth." She followed this this with lead or second lead roles in such films as the European biopic Nostradamus (1994); the romantic drama Captives (1994) co-starring Tim Roth; and the period war drama Legends of the Fall (1994) as the object of affection for both Brad Pitt and Aidan Quinn. It was around the time of this career rise (1994) that her marriage ended.
With Hollywood now taking a firm notice, Julia was given the fetching role of Queen Guinevere alongside Sean Connery's King Arthur and Richard Gere's Lancelot in First Knight (1995) and, more importantly, was entrusted with Audrey Hepburn's title role in the revival of Sabrina (1995), her radiant presence nearly stealing the picture away from handsome co-stars Harrison Ford and Greg Kinnear.
Strangely, Julia's major rise led her in a different direction. From there she instead went on to grace a number of independents and foreign features. She played the title role in the Danish/German/Swedish co-production Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997) as a woman who gets involved with a strange murder mystery; the Russian period drama The Barber of Siberia (1998) as a lovely American who gets dangerously involved with a young Russian cadet; and involved herself in another messy affair with Vince Vaughn in the indie drama The Prime Gig (2000). On stage, she appeared in David Hare's "My Zinc Bed," for which she received a 2001 Olivier Award nomination for "Best Actress."
Into the millennium, Julia found herself busy film-wise with the political drama Resistance (2003), cult filmmaker David Lynch's thoroughly offbeat Inland Empire (2006), I Know Who Killed Me (2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Music Never Stopped (2011), Albatross (2011), My Week with Marilyn (2011) (as Vivien Leigh), Chained (2012), Ladies in Black (2018) and Son of the South (2020). On TV she appeared in the mini-series Beach Girls (2005), and had recurring roles on CSI: NY (2004), Nurse Jackie (2009), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001), Mad Men (2007), Gold Digger (2019), plus a series starring role as one of Witches of East End (2013). She also co-starred in the short-lived series Incorporated (2016).
In 1999, she married a second time to political activist Jon Rubin. They had one daughter, Sophie, before their divorce. On a political front, Julia has been involved fighting human trafficking since the mid-1990s. In 2005, she was appointed United Nations Goodwill Ambassador with a focus on anti-human-trafficking initiatives and awareness.- Jenette Goldstein is a true chameleon. She is so effective as an actress, it is nearly impossible to recognize her from role to role. Jenette spent most of her childhood in Los Angeles. Born to theater-loving parents, she attended fine arts-oriented schools, and was the young star of the drama classes. She often competed in citywide drama competitions with soon-to-be famous peers Val Kilmer, Gina Gershon, Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham. To hone her craft after high school, Jenette studied at London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, and at Circle in the Square Theater in New York City, mastering drama theory, physicality, dialects and the classics. It was in London, while performing in local theater productions, where Jenette answered an audition request for American actors with British Equity cards. Thinking it was another play or a small film, she read for a tough, macho Latina character, named 'Vasquez' And shot to fame in James Cameron's iconic film Aliens (1986). Cameron was so pleased with Jenette's creativity and strong work ethic, he recast her as 'Janelle' in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and a cameo role as the loving 'Irish Mother' in the epic Titanic (1997).
Her resume is testament to her range and versatility: Vampy killer Diamondback in Near Dark (1987), good cop Meagan Shapiro in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Patti Jean Lynch in The Presidio (1988), Alice the Maid in a one-scene role in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), etc.
In addition to film, Jenette has made several appearances on the small screen. She guest-starred on such award-winning shows as Six Feet Under (2001), L.A. Law (1986), Strong Medicine (2000) and ER (1994) - where she guest-starred on the 100th anniversary show as a grieving mother, and in a separate episode opposite Anthony Edwards, as a heroic flight nurse. It was only after Jenette was hired for the second role that the show's producers realized she had done the show before.
Jenette has continued working in theater throughout her career, appearing in plays in New York, London and Los Angeles. She has performed the classics, William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," to more contemporary pieces, such as Arthur Miller's "After The Fall," which won the 2002 Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Production. Currently, Jenette is excited about her latest creation: a one-woman show she is writing herself. - Belinda Stewart-Wilson is an English actress, born in London, England, U.K. She is best known for her role in the popular TV sitcom The Inbetweeners as Polly McKenzie. Her father is a British Army officer Sir Blair Stewart-Wilson.During childhood she grew up on various military postings in the UK, Germany, and Austria before her family finally settled in London. She was educated at Hurst Lodge School in Ascot, Berkshire, before training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, in London.Stewart-Wilson worked on a number of television shows, making mostly one-time appearances. Her most notable credits during this time period were the roles of Victoria Reynholm, the presumed dead wife of Douglas Reynholm in The IT Crowd, and Nikki in the TV series Jekyll alongside James Nesbitt and Gina Bellman. She also made an appearance in the commercially successful mockumentary feature film Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance. Belinda also played a cameo role in Stephen Poliakoff's Joe's Palace in a scene with Michael Gambon.
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Miranda grew up in Burnham Thorpe on the North Norfolk coast and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Her father, Nick, is a jazz pianist and her mother, Caroline, read the news for Anglia television. In 2011, she played the title role in 'Anne Boleyn' at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to great critical acclaim.- Stewart Granger was born James Lablache Stewart in London, the great grandson of the opera singer Luigi Lablache. He attended Epsom College but left after deciding not to pursue a medical degree. He decided to try acting and attended Webber-Douglas School of Dramatic Art, London. By 1935, he made his stage debut in "The Cardinal" at the Little Theatre Hull . He was with the Birmingham Repertory Company between 1936 and 1937 and, in 1938, he made his debut in the West End, London in "The Sun Never Sets". He joined the Old Vic company in 1939, appearing in 'Tony Draws a Horse' at the Criterion and 'A House in the Square' at the St Martins He had been gradually rising through the ranks of better stage roles when World War II began, and he joined the British Army in 1940. However, he developed an ulcer (1942) which brought his release from military service.
With a dearth of leading men for British movies he quickly landed his first film opportunity The Man in Grey (1943) for Gainsborough Pictures. This was the first installment of the company's successful series of romance films. Not to be confused with American actor James Stewart, James Lablanche Stewart became Stewart Granger (though he was "Jimmy" to his off-screen friends). But the film work was unsatisfying. He was forever cast as the dashing hero type, while fellow up-and-coming actor James Mason always garnered the more substantial Gainsborough part. When Mason got the nod from Hollywood, Granger inherited better parts and, in some star company in one case, the sophisticated Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) with Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh and a very young bit player already being noticed, Jean Simmons. Granger's lead roles to the end of the decade were substantial, but Simmons was unwittingly moving on into British film history with small but memorable roles for David Lean, Michael Powell, and, in a big way, Laurence Olivier, as "Ophelia" in his historic Hamlet (1948) for which she received an Oscar nomination. Granger and she were brought together as co-stars in the comedy Adam and Evalyn (1949). This time around, the chemistry off-camera was there as well, and they became engaged. About the same time, Granger's hope of interesting Hollywood was realized for him and his bride-to-be. He married Simmons and signed with MGM in 1950. Once in Hollywood, he was getting star billing leads in romantic roles that the audiences loved, but he found them still unsatisfying. He also found himself heir apparent to Errol Flynn as a swashbuckler in two popular films: the remake of The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) and Scaramouche (1952). He and Simmons were paired in Young Bess (1953), where Granger had the romantic lead, but Simmons was the focus of the movie.
Through the 50s, the films of each might have fairly equal production values, but as the fortunes of Hollywood go, Simmons was the more memorable star in films that were more popular-some very big hits, the later Elmer Gantry (1960) and Spartacus (1960). That sort of undeclared competition for a married Hollywood couple was poison to the marriage. In 1960, they divorced. Granger did a lot of work in Germany, along with some in Italy and Spain in the 60s. Interestingly, in the same period Simmons was finding the same lack of challenging roles in the US. In the 70s and 80s, Granger was relegated to small screen subsistence with regular TV roles along with a few movies and a stint on the New York stage. And ironically, Simmons was in the same boat during that period. Granger's typecasting was nothing new, but certainly his often scathing criticism of Hollywood and its denizens that came out in his autobiography "Sparks Fly Upward" was understandable and rang true with so many other stories dealing with illusive stardom. Though he was candid in his disgust with his whole career - and admittedly he did not have the depth for the range of roles allotted to bigger named actors - nonetheless he always turned in solid performances in the roles that became his legacy. - Actor
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British actor Patrick Macnee was born on February 6, 1922 in London, England into a wealthy and eccentric family. His father, Daniel Macnee, was a race horse trainer, who drank and gambled away the family fortune, leaving young Patrick to be raised by his lesbian mother, Dorothea Mary, and her partner. Shortly after graduating from Eton (from which he was almost expelled for running a gambling ring), Macnee first appeared on stage and made his film debut as an extra in Pygmalion (1938). His career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Royal Navy. After military service, Macnee attended the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art in London on scholarship. He also resumed his stage and film career, with bit parts such as Young Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol (1951). Disappointed with his limited roles, Macnee left England for Canada and the United States.
In 1954, he went to Broadway with an Old Vic troupe and later moved on to Hollywood, where he made occasional television and film appearances until returning to England in 1959. Once back home, he took advantage of his producing experience in Canada to become co-producer of the British television series Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years (1960). Shortly thereafter, Macnee landed the role that brought him worldwide fame and popularity in the part of John Steed, in the classic British television series The Avengers (1961). His close identification with this character limited his career choices after the cancellation of the series in 1969, prompting him to reprise the role in The New Avengers (1976), which, though popular, failed to recapture the magic of the original series. During the 1980s and 1990s, Macnee became a familiar face on American television in such series as Gavilan (1982), Empire (1984), Thunder in Paradise (1994) and NightMan (1997). In the past decade, Macnee has also made several audio recordings of book fiction.- Actor
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Having graduated from Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, Rupert Evans started his career working mainly in television. Notably in British costume dramas such as 'Sons & Lovers' starring Sarah Lancashire and Hugo Speer, North and South, 'Crime and Punishment' and 'Fingersmith' with Imelda Staunton and Charles Dance. Added to that he has played major roles in TV series; including Rockface, Paradise Heights and 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'. 2004 was when he starred in his first studio movie, 'Hellboy', directed by 'Guillermo Del Toro', starring Selma Blair, John Hurt and Ron Perlman. Since then his focus has moved to theatre and independent film. In 2007 he starred in the indie film Arritmia, released in Europe, with Derek Jacobi and Natalia Verbeke playing two roles. In the theatre he's been seen as 'Romeo' and 'The Dauphin' in 'King John' at The Royal Shakespeare Company; and in the London, at The Donmar Warehouse Theatre, he played 'Valentin' in 'Kiss Of The Spider Woman'. Other theatre credits include 'Breathing Corpses' at The Royal Court Theatre and 'Sweet Panic' again in London's West End. Before his present film, Agora, he recently completed filming The Palace, a new mini series for TV in the UK, playing the title role of King of England.- Actor
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Shane was born on the south coast of England, although his family line is also Scottish and American. He attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and received the Cameron Mackintosh Scholarship Award.
Shane's extensive screen credits include the regular role of Cpl. Eugene "Doc" Roe in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's commercially and critically acclaimed Band Of Brothers. He played Osman in The Day Of The Triffids alongside Dougray Scott, Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson; and Craig Hanson, a season regular alongside Philip Winchester, Sullivan Stapleton and Charles Dance in Strike Back: Vengeance.
Shane also played the character of Andy Stafford alongside Gabriel Byrne and Michael Gambon in Quirke for the BBC; and as Captain Thomas Preston, in the History Channel's Sons Of Liberty, starring Ben Barnes, Henry Thomas, Rafe Spall and Dean Norris.
Shane's film credits include the award winning independent, Bomber; Devil's Playground; Walking With The Enemy alongside Ben Kingsley; and Hunter Killer with Gerard Butler, Linda Cardellini and Gary Oldman.- Actor
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Ross Kemp was born on July 21, 1964 in Barking, Essex, England. His mother, Jean, was a hairdresser and his father, John, was a policeman with the Metropolitan Police force. He has a brother named Darren who is a documentary producer for the BBC.
Ross attended Shenfield High School, where he is remembered as an excellent athlete. He wanted to be an actor from a young age and went on to study drama at the Webber Douglas Academy. He has rarely been out of work since leaving the academy in 1985, appearing on stage, in films, on television and in various adverts.
His first credited television appearance was in 1986, playing Graham Lodsworth in "Emmerdale Farm" (now "Emmerdale"). His most famous role to date was his award-winning portrayal of hardman Grant Mitchell in the popular BBC series "EastEnders".- Actor
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Nigel Lindsay was born on 17th January 1969 and entered into the world of acting comparatively late. For three years he was a financial analyst in the City in his native London but, on his own admission, hated it and applied almost simultaneously for the law and the stage. He had a place at bar school beginning on the same day as the start of his three year course at the Webber Douglas Academy - but the lure of the stage prevailed and he chose the academy,where he won the Amherst Webber Scholarship. His finals role was in 'Charley's Aunt' directed by Michael Fry,for whom he first worked professionally with the Lincolnshire touring company Great Eastern Stage playing an assassin in 'Shoot the Archduke'. Since then he has appeared on many stages,the Royal Court,the National,the Old Vic and on Broadway in Tom Stoppard's 'The Real Thing'. With a range extending from Pinter to musicals - most notably under layers of green make-up in the title role of 'Shrek - the Musical - he also took the Whatsonstage award as best supporting actor in 2011 for 'Broken Glass'. On television he has been nice,as Sally Phillips' kindly boyfriend in comedy 'Jam and Jerusalem', and nasty,as a sinister policeman investigating one of the 'Midsomer Murders' and on film as a fervent white Muslim in the black farce 'Four Lions'.- Actor
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Guy is known the world over for his portrayal of Lieutenant Gruber, one of the original and enduring characters of over 90 episodes of 'Allo 'Allo! which is one of the most successful comedy series the B.B.C. has ever produced and is still shown in more than 80 countries.
Guy was born in Manhattan to an American father and an English mother. He was educated in England and trained for the stage at the Webber Douglas Academy in London where he won the Rodney Millington Award for his performance as The Emcee in Cabaret. In a career of some 50 years he has become a household name in the U.K. both in theatre and television. In recent years he has spent much of his time working in the film industry in Los Angeles but is now based in London where he juggles two careers - actor and writer/producer. With his producing partner David Mansell he runs Einstein Films, with several movies in development.
Guy made his first London appearance in the highly acclaimed Cowardy Custard at the Mermaid Theatre. Other London credits include Off the Peg, Nickleby and Me, Toad of Toad Hall, The Frogs, Wealth, The Biograph Girl and Don't Dress for Dinner. He has also appeared several times in cabaret at The Ritz. He has worked with many of the leading English repertory companies including Coventry, Leicester, Brighton, Windsor, Oxford and The Bristol Old Vic, and did six major tours with Jonathan Lynn's Cambridge Theatre Company in a repertoire mainly of the classics including The Master Builder, The Relapse, An Inspector Calls and Uncle Vanya. He twice toured Australia with the stage show of 'Allo 'Allo which also enjoyed a record-breaking U.K. tour and long West End runs both at the Prince of Wales and the London Palladium.
Television work in London includes: I Claudius, Dr. Who, Life at Stake, Z Cars, Softly Softly, The Secret Army, You Rang M'Lord?, The Brittas Empire, Doctors and of course 'Allo 'Allo! In LA: Seinfeld, Martial Law, Diagnosis Murder (with Dick van Dyke), Zoe, Babylon 5, When Billie Beat Bobbie (with Holly Hunter and Goldie Hawn), That's My Bush (with the writers of South Park), The Agency and Startrek: Enterprise.
Guy's experience and contacts in all aspects of film-making are widespread. Movies include: The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson, Great Harry and Jane, Lost Highway (written and directed by David Lynch), Leprechaun 4, Bug, Return to the Secret Garden, The Second Front (with Todd Field), Megiddo (with Michael York), Vlad (with Billy Zane), Provoked, The Loss Adjuster (with Luke Goss) and Pirates of the Caribbean (with Johnny Depp).- Jonathan Aris is the son of the late British character actor Ben Aris but, despite having a thespian as a father, acting was not his first choice. He studied painting at Camberwell School of Art and read Russian and Italian at Cambridge University before training as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Like his father, Jonathan has chiefly been seen in character roles, notably on television as the private secretary to the (female) Prime Minister in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006). He also does a great number of voice-overs for television commercials and narration for documentaries. He has made numerous stage appearances and was in the original London cast of "Fame - the Musical".
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Born in 1949, Antony Sher was raised in South Africa before going to London to study at the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art between 1969 and 1971. After performing for the Gay Sweatshop theatrical group in "Thinking Straight" (1975), "The Fork" (1976), and "Stone" (1976), he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982. Three years later, his performance in the title role of "Richard III" won him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and, in 1997, he won another Laurence Olivier Award for "Stanley".
Although he spent more time onstage, Sher appeared in a number of films and TV series, including The History Man (1981), Shadey (1985), The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995) and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (1996). He gave a charming performance as Benjamin Disraeli in Mrs. Brown (1997), and played "Dr. Moth" in Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Sher was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000.- Actress
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Jill Halfpenny was born on 15th July, 1975, in Newcastle, to Maureen and Colin Halfpenny. However, her father passed away when she was very young, and her mother married Jill's uncle, Derek.
She attended St Edmund Campion RC Comprehensive School, and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Although her native accent is Geordie, she can also do many more, from New York to Northern Irish.
Her hobbies include roller-skating, ice-skating, fencing, dancing and she enjoys traveling. She is also friends with her old co-star, Kacey Ainsworth.
Her first major acting role was at the age of 14, where she starred in Byker Grove (1989) as Nicola. She is probably best known for her TV role as Rebecca Hopkins in Coronation Street (1960), Kate Mitchell in EastEnders (1985), and, more recently, Izzie Redpath in Waterloo Road (2006). She has also had many minor roles in other well-known TV shows, such as The Catherine Tate Show (2004), The Bill (1984), and Shameless (2004).
In 2004, she participated in the BBC1 show Strictly Come Dancing (2004) with professional dancer Darren Bennett. They won the competition, and took part in the one off Christmas Special, winning the title 'Champion Of Champions'. They also made an appearance at the Royal Variety Performance. In December, it was then announced she would play the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago from January 2005.
Other theatre work includes The Bodies, in 2005, where she acted alongside her husband, Craig Conway, and pantomimes at the Theatre Royal in 2005 and 2006. She also starred as Julia in a performance of George Orwell's 1984 in 2002, which is where she and Craig first met. She also starred as Norma Farnes in Surviving Spike, alongside Michael Barrymore, in early 2008, when she was 5-6 months pregnant.- Actress
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Nicola Bryant was born the daughter of a heating engineer, in 1960, in Surrey, England. She began her training in dance and music at the age of three, studying classical ballet, then jazz and tap dance, the piano, flute and guitar, and finally acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Here, apart from developing her acting skills, she continued her hobbies of golf and music. It was also during her time at drama school, that Nicola married the Broadway singer, Scott Kennedy, although they later separated. Her final production at Webber Douglas was "No, No, Nanette", in which she played the lead.
Bryant was spotted by an agent, Terry Carney (William Hartnell's son-in-law), and asked to audition for the part of Peri in Doctor Who (1963), which she got. On leaving Doctor Who, Nicola appeared in Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988), Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993), which was a Doctor Who spoof and the highly successful three "Stranger" videos and The Airzone Solution" with Colin Baker.
In 1992, she went to Los Angeles for several months before returning to the UK. In 1995, she appeared as Martine in The Biz (1995), a children's series, which has run for three series so far. She also has sung with Colin Baker, Anthony Ainley, Nicholas Courtney and a number of British pop stars on the "Doctor In Distress" record. Nicola lives in Notting Hill, where her understanding neighbours allow her to write music at all hours of the day and night.- Nicholas Courtney was born in Egypt, the son of a British diplomat. His early years were spent in Kenya and France and he was called up for National Service at the age of 18. After 18 months of duty in the British forces, Courtney joined the Webber Douglas drama school. He spent two years there and then did repertory theatre in Northampton. His next move was to London.
During the 1960s, he played some roles in popular TV series. In 1965, he made an appearance on Doctor Who (1963), during the tenure of William Hartnell. The director, Douglas Camfield, remembered him and, in 1967, cast him as "Captain Knight" in "Doctor Who" episode "The Web of Fear". He took the part of "Lethbridge-Stewart", which was to become his most famous role, when the actor originally cast in the part had to drop out. At this time, Patrick Troughton was the star of the series.
Shortly after this, Courtney was offered the chance to play the role regularly and accepted. This guaranteed him work until 1975, when the character was written out of the series. He became a good friend of Jon Pertwee during his time on the programme, and returned in 1983, 1988 and 1989. His other television work has included a comedy with Frankie Howerd. Courtney has maintained a close association with "Doctor Who", narrating the documentary Doctor Who: Thirty Years in the TARDIS (1993) and attending conventions and appearing in spin-offs. - Paxton Whitehead was born on 17 October, 1937 in Kent, England, UK. He trained at London's Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts starting at the age of 17. After attending the academy for two years he went to work in stock companies starting with the "weekly rep", small touring companies that rehearsed and performed a new play each week. He made his professional debut in 1956, and within two years was signed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Whitehead produced with Doric Wilson, directed and starred in "And He Made A Her" (1961), a production at the off-off-Broadway venue Caffe Cino. He made his Broadway debut in "The Affair" (1962) after appearing in Canadian stage and TV productions. Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Paxton Whitehead provided vocals on the track "Some Thoughts From Aboard" from the comedy album "Beyond The Fringe '64". He went on to appear with the American Shakespeare Company to direct in regional repertory.
Whitehead was the Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival, the second-largest repertory theatre in North America. The Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake began as an amateur summer happening. It developed into a professional, international event, particularly under Paxton Whitehead, its dedicated artistic director from 1966 to 1977. Notable appearances there included Magnus in "The Apple Cart", Cusins in "Major Barbara", "The Philanderer", Sergius in "Arms and the Man", Lord Summerhays in "Misalliance", Fancourt Babberly in "Charley's Aunt", Tempest in the North American premiere of Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On" and Hector in "Heartbreak House" with Jessica Tandy and Tony Van Bridge, a role he repeated at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London with Rex Harrison and Diana Rigg. Whitehead was also the Artistic Director for The Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company from 1971 to 1973.
Whitehead appeared opposite Carol Channing in "The Bed Before Yesterday" (1976) at the Robert Morris University, Colonial Theatre, Pennsylvania. He received an honourary degree in arts from Trent University in 1978. At the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Main Stage July 11 - July 15, 1978, Whitehead played Leo in "Design for Living". Suzanne Grossman and Paxton Whitehead translated and adapted the plays by Georges Feydeau "The Chemmy Circle" in 1979 and "A Flea in her Ear" in 1982.
Whitehead earned a Tony Award nomination for his appearance in "Camelot" during 1980. He has appeared in numerous Broadway productions including "My Fair Lady", opposite Richard Chamberlain, "The Harlequin Studies" with Bill Irwin, Noël Coward's "Suite in Two Keys", "A Little Hotel on the Side", "Lettice and Lovage" (playing an emotionally shut-down police investigator), "Artist Descending A Staircase", "Run For Your Wife", "The Crucifer of Blood", "Habeas Corpus", "Candida", "Beyond the Fringe" (1964), "The Affair" and "London Suite" (a comedy by Neil Simon). Whitehead appeared in "Noises Off" (September 22 - November 27, 1983) with Linda Thorson, his Marblehead Manor (1987) co-star.
He moved to California in 1980 to rear his children and has been a resident of Irvine, California for many years. The Shaw Festival of Canada debuted at the Annenberg Centre with "Charley's Aunt" starring Paxton Whitehead. Whitehead has also appeared in the Los Angeles productions of "Woman in Mind" with Helen Mirren, "The Rocky Horror Show", "Pirates of Penzance", "How the Other Half Loves" and "Beyond The Fringe", as well as duplicating some of his Broadway roles. Paxton Whitehead directed the Seattle Repertory Theatre production of "The Real Thing" in 1986. He was nominated for Best Lead Performance at the 1988-1989 20th Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for "How the Other Half Loves".
Whitehead appeared in the June 1992 Tiffany Theatre production of "Woman in Mind". In 1996 Whitehead appeared in the Studio Arena Theatre production of "Springtime for Henry". From January 7 to February 15, 1997, Paxton Whitehead starred in Hugh Leonard's play "The Mask of Moriarty" at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Whitehead was the narrator for the February 1999 Tiffany Theater production of "The Rocky Horror Show".
In April 2000, Hayley Mills appeared with Whitehead in "Suite in 2 Keys", "Shadows of the Evening" and "A Song at Twilight". Whitehead played the celebrated British poet and Latin Professor A.E. Housman in "The Invention of Love" at Court Theatre, Chicago, Illinois (September 6 - October 21, 2000). On October 10, 2001, The UCLA Centre for the Performing Arts for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies sponsored "Lady Windermere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde, a staged reading by John Lithgow and friends with Lord Augustus Lorton played by Paxton Whitehead. In the Signature Theatre Company production of "The Harlequin Studies" (October 2003) featured Whitehead as Harlequin's master, Pantalone. Performances of Whitehead's are available on audio CDs of "The Doctor's Dilemma" (January 11, 2003), "Thank You, Jeeves" and "The Foreigner" (May 17, 2003) from L.A. Theatre Works.
Whitehead is an Associate Artist of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. His appearances there include "The Miser", "Richard III", "Sir Peter Teazle", "Sir Anthony Absolute" and "Benedick". In Costa Mesa he has been seen in "Heartbreak House", "How the Other Half Loves" and "The Circle". He has appeared as Lear in Manitoba and several Ray Cooney farces. He has recent regional credits that include "The Voysey Inheritance" (December 13, 2003), W. Somerset Maugham's "The Circle", A.E.H. in the Chicago production of Tom Stoppard's "The Invention of Love" and "Where's Charley?" (Williamstown Theatre Festival, June 19-30, 2002). Whitehead played Clive Champion-Cheney in "The Circle" by W. Somerset Maugham at South Coast Repertory. During the rehearsal of "The Circle" he played Malvolio in The Globe's "Twelfth Night". He appeared with John Lithgow, Melissa Errico, Roger Daltrey and Rosemary Harris and played Col. Pickering in a semi-staged production of Alan Jay Lerner and Enrique Loewe's Classic Musical "My Fair Lady" at the Hollywood Bowl on August 3, 2003. Paxton Whitehead headed the cast of The Huntington Theatre Company presentation of "What the Butler Saw" as Dr. Rance at the Boston University Theatre, March 5-April 4, 2004 for which he received the Norton Awards for Outstanding Actor, Large Company. He is co-author on the books "The Doctor's Dilemma" and "The Voysey Inheritance" published by L.A. Theatre Works. Whitehead appeared in "Don Juan in Hell" at 92nd Street Y on January 28, 2005. - Sally Rogers is an actor from the city of Manchester, who began her career on the stage in 1989. She trained at the Webber Douglas Academy. When Sally wasn't working on the stage she built a strong line of guest roles in various British series, which culminated with her current run on The Bill (1984-) as a brassy London detective with a big heart. Sally went AWOL from the series in 2006 to have her first child at the tender age of 41, but made a very welcome return to this series, just when the writers began to turn out stronger episodes.
Some stand out roles include The Lakes and Murphy's Law as well as cool turn in the idiosyncratic Little Britain. Although once training to be a nanny, acting has given her the chance to be a gay copper, comedienne and an escort in EastEnders...
And hopefully she won't be killed off any time soon from her role as Jo Masters in the Bill. - Brian was educated in primary and secondary modern schools until the age of 17. He worked as a window cleaner and a butcher's van driver while a member of the Oxford Youth Theatre. He then relocated to London where he enrolled at the Webber Douglas School and, upon graduation, he appeared in rep at Bristol, Coventry, Leicester, Soho Poly, Leeds, Edinburgh, Exeter and the Ludlow Festival. One of his earliest stage appearances was in a production of 'Curse of the Starving Class'. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis, squash, football and bridge. He also lists reading and gardening amongst his favourite pastimes.
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Geraldine O'Rawe was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was awarded The Prince's Trust scholarship to study in London at The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Upon leaving drama college she became a founding member of 'Moving Theatre Company' with Corin and Vanessa Redgrave.
Her acclaim in these stage roles quickly led her to be cast in Pat O'Connor's film 'Circle of Friends', alongside Minnie Driver, Saffron Burrows and Chris O'Donnell. Savoy Pictures introduced her to director John Bailey, who cast her as his lead in 'Mariette in Ecstasy'. Hans Jorg Gurn's 'The Harpist' , saw her learning to play the concert harp and Marc Evans' intense 'Resurrection Man', opposite Stewart Townsend, brought her back to her native Falls Road in Belfast. Some of her other films include working with acclaimed directors, Atom Egoyan in 'Adoration', Terry George in 'Some Mother's Son', and Michael Winterbottom in 'I Want You.'
On British television, O'Rawe has stared in such major dramas as Simon Shore's 'The English Wife' and Tom Cairns' award winning 'Amongst Women'.
After more than 20 years, Geraldine's most unusual and acclaimed role of "Mariette in Ecstasy" received its World Premier at Camerimage Film Festival in Poland, (Nov 2019) to rave reaction, calling her performance of a young nun experiencing stigmata and ecstasy, a rare and astounding performance. She lives in London, England and is married to director/cinematographer Paul Sarossy. They have a three children.- Actress
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Sophie Lorain is a big name in Quebec in the movie business and on the television screen. Strong and fragile, sexy and mischievous, intelligent and accessible, she brings to her interpretations a range of subtly nuanced emotions and expressions. Sophie studied at the prestigious Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in England, moving on to the Theatre Francais de Toronto. Since then she starred in some of Quebec television's most memorable series, playing in Scoop (1992), Omertà, la loi du silence (1996) - for which she won Meatrostar's prize for best actress and a Gemini for best support - and, finally, Fortier (2001), portraying a troubled criminal psychologist with a dark past. Perfectly bilingual, she acted in the 1998 thriller In Her Defense (1999) by old-school Hollywood director Sidney J. Furie, then two years later as an English madame - complete with perfectly accented London English - in the Sherlock Holmes period piece, The Sign of Four (2001) by Rodney Gibbons. In 2001, Sophie was offered her first starring role in a feature film when she played in Denise Filiatrault's Alice's L'odyssée d'Alice Tremblay (2002), a sweet and touching comedy that plunged the viewer into the enchanted world of fairytales and fairies. Sophie shows another side of her talents in her next film Mambo Italiano (2003); she plays Italian seductress setting her sights on a cop with a few ghosts in his closet.- Actor
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David Kennedy was born David Mallett in 1964 in London. As a child he lived in lived in Hornsey, North London before moving to South Devon aged 5 with his mother and step father. He attended King Edward VI Comprehensive School in Totnes. Aged 16 David and his family moved to Bristol and then Gloucester before he returned to London in 1990 to study acting at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Since graduating from Webber Douglas in 1992 David has worked extensively in theatre, television and film.- Producer
- Director
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Bart Ruspoli was born on 8 November 1976 in St Marylebone, London, England, UK. He is a producer and director, known for Boiling Point (2021), Villain (2020) and A Violent Man (2022).- Actress
- Additional Crew
Londoner Charlotte Elizabeth Cornwell was born on April 26 1949, the younger half-sister of novelist John le Carré -- whose real name was David Cornwell -- and his novel, 'The Little Drummer Girl', had a leading character based on her. Le Carré was disappointed that in the film version the star was not Charlotte but the more bankable Diane Keaton.
Charlotte studied drama at London's Webber Douglas School and made her professional debut at the Bristol Old Vic and has since performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre both in Britain and overseas. To many of a certain age, however, she will be affectionately associated with the television series of 'Rock Follies' in the late 1970s where she was an original member of singing group "The Little Ladies", performing on the accompanying soundtrack albums. She taught acting at the University of Southern California (USC) but later returned to England, where she died at age 71 in 2021, from cancer.- Actress
- Writer
Born to a British Veteran Father & Canadian Mother - she was raised in the small Indigenous village of Killarney (Shebahonaning) on Georgian Bay in Canada. She was home schooled during the winters aboard her family's sailboat in The Bahamas. After travelling solo around the world at 18, she moved to Britain to study acting at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts. She performs on stage and screen.- Producer
- Actor
- Music Department
Born in Beaconsfield, England, Ben was raised between Los Angeles and England where he attended Stowe School, with Henry Cavill. Later, having trained at Webber Douglas Academy in London with the likes of Matthew Goode and Rupert Evans, Joe Anderson and Natalie Dormer Ben left to film What A Girl Wants.- Actor Joplin Sibtain was born in Waltham Forest, London. He had early desires to be a pianist but, at age thirteen, went to a Community Centre in Hackney where he first learned about acting. After winning a scholarship to The Webber Douglas Academy of Drama, in London, he worked for several major theatrical companies including the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and several rep theatres throughout the country. His television credits include: Vera (2011), Hard Sun (2018) and Safe (2018).
- Susan studied acting at the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art and worked as a singer and dancer before going into rep at Edinburgh, Newcastle, Bristol Old Vic and the Mermaid Theatre in London. Susan appeared in the film, Having a Wild Weekend (1965), and acted on television in such programmes as Bruno (1967), Nearest and Dearest (1968) and Going for a Song (1965), before finding fame as "Miss Diane Parker" in Crossroads (1964), a role she played from 1965 until 1987. During her career, she has acted in stage productions of "Dick whittington" and "Cinderella". In her free time, Susan enjoys collecting Victorian dolls, interior design and travelling. She was married to singer Carl Wayne, formerly of The Move, for 30 years. The couple had a son called Jack.
- The youngest of three daughters born to iron and steel merchant William 'Copper' Hicks and Hester, She was educated at a girls school in Shrewsbury where she appeared as the Duke of Gloucester in Richard of Bordeaux and as Bottom in A Midsummer Nights Dream, She served as a land girl during WWII and trained for the theatre at the Webber Douglas School in London and graduated in 1947, She made her stage debut in Written For a Lady at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool which transferred to the Garrick Theatre in London followed by work at the repertory theatres at New Brighton and Hammersmith
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- Additional Crew
Jack Lee was born in London, England in 1956. He attended the Webber Douglas Acadamy of Dramatic Art in 1979 and worked in theatre and TV in the UK before moving to the US in 1997 with just a suitcase and guitar and $350 in cash.
He worked as a chimney sweep in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before moving to Austin, Texas, where he picked up his acting career again.
Apart from appearing in various films, he's also working on screenplays of his own, as well as writing about his experiences surviving in America, and producing the documentaries "Conversations with Sara Jane" and "Real Men".
He now divides his time between his home in Santa Fe with his wife, 2 cats, 2 dogs and 60 chickens, and Los Angeles.- Matthew was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. After graduating from Upper Canada College, he moved to London where he trained at LAMDA and then at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts. He then worked extensively in theatre in the UK, including playing leading parts in the West End productions of 'The Miracle Worker' and 'The Boys in the Band'. He also started landing film parts there, doing two films for Richard Attenborough as well as Saving Private Ryan (1998). He moved back to Toronto in 1998 where he immediately booked the sketch comedy TV series History Bites (1998) (for which he was nominated for a Gemini Television Award in 2000) as well as guest leads on 'Traders','The Associates' and 'Twice in a Lifetime'. He then landed the part of Henry Guyrich in X-Men (2000) in which he morphed into Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.
Matthew moved to Los Angeles in late 2001 and married Tove Limm on September 28, 2001 in Hualalai, Hawaii. - Actor
- Writer
Alexi Kaye Campbell was born in Athens in 1966 as Alexi Komondouros, to a Greek father and a British mother. Having spent his childhood in Greece, he went to America as a young man, graduating from Boston University in English and American Studies. He had a year in New York, waiting tables and taking acting lessons whilst working unpaid for an off-Broadway stage group, moving to London to graduate in acting from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts. For fifteen years, he was a jobbing actor including stage performances at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court and the Shared Experience Theatre Group, and TV work such as in Keys to the Car (1999) and Murder in Mesopotamia (2001). In 2008 his play "The Pride", reflecting gay themes, was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in London directed by Jamie Lloyd with Bertie Carvel, JJ Feild, Lyndsey Marshal and Tim Steed in the wonderful cast, to critical acclaim, also honored with a Laurence Olivier Award, before transferring to Broadway in January 2010 directed by Joe Mantello with Ben Whishaw, Andrea Riseborough, Hugh Dancy and Adam James in the brilliant cast. In 2009, his next play "Apologia" was also warmly received at The Bush Theatre directed by Josie Rourke following notable productions too at the MTC Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, with Robyn Nevin as Kristin and at the Bungakuza Theatre Company in Japan. His next play "The Faith Machine" premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in August 2011 directed by Jamie Lloyd with Hayley Atwell and Ian McDiarmid before its production at the Bungakuza Theatre in Tokyo, followed next by "Bracken Moor" which was premiered at the Tricycle Theatre, London in June 2013, directed by Polly Teale. His following notable play "Sunset at the Villa Thalia" premiered in London at the National Theatre of Great Britain in May 2016, directed by Simon Godwin in an acclaimed production with Ben Miles, Elizabeth McGovern, Sam Crane, Pippa Nixon, Christos Callow, Glykeria Dimou and Eve Polycarpou in the brilliant cast. Describing themselves as leading "not very theatre-y lives", Alexi has lived in London with his partner Dominic Cooke since 1997.- Writer
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Born and raised in south London, Leo won a scholarship to the famous Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where he studied acting for three years. Only two years later, SH*T-MIX, a play he'd written based on his experiences as a teenager growing up in the London suburbs, premiered in the West-end. It marked his West-end debut as a Playwright. A year later he adapted this for television, and it became BBC3's STANLEY PARK, starring Sharon Horgan. Leo is now married and lives between Los Angeles and London where he continues to write and create television.- Actress
- Producer
Kate was born in the UK, and grew up all over South East Asia. She was educated at the Sacred Heart Woldingham and has a BSc Honours Degree in Psychology from Bristol University. She was classically trained at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, London whose alumni include Terence Stamp, Minnie Driver, Eva Green, Angela Lansbury, Julian Fellowes.- Seelan Gunaseelan is an English actor from London, England and a performing arts graduate from the University Of Winchester.
He has trained at various institutions including Stage Coach Theatre Arts School, Chicken Shed Theatre Company, Webber Douglas Academy Of Dramatic Arts and Capital Screen Arts Actor Training Centre.
He has appeared in a variety of film and television roles. - 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.- Born in Bletchley, UK, Nicky spent her school and university years in Melbourne, Australia. She then returned to London to attend drama school. She attended the Webber Douglas Academy in Dramatic Art and graduated with honours.
From drama school she did many stage productions before landing her first film role. She played the lead in the feature film Baby Blues. From that she was cast in Family Affairs as the regular character Kelly Hurst. Nicky's character became very popular and she remained on the soap for 2 years.
She then played the lead in A Mind of Her Own. - Additional Crew
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David was born in Glasgow and grew up in Milngavie and in the Highlands before returning to Glasgow.
He appeared in various TV productions during his teens, but his first job was a play for Scottish Television at the age of 3 months.
He trained at the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art from 1987-89.
David spent many years with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow.
Nowadays, David is best known as a voiceover and owns his own recording studio. He has voiced many thousand TV and radio commercials as well as corporate narrations.- Actor
- Sound Department
Lived in Liverpool, UK, for most of his life. Graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in March of 2000 Mark Rice-Oxley's birthday is March 20th. He plays the guitar and writes his own music. Won the Lady Rothermere Award in the 1997 London Evening Standard Awards. Does a lot of stage work, appearing in plays such as "As You Like It", "Cressida", "Why Would She Not", "The Danny Crowe Story" and others. His uncle attended school with Paul McCartney and the late George Harrison. Currently resides in London, UK.- Sound Department
- Producer
- Editorial Department
Bayard Carey was born in Denver, Colorado, and was educated at private schools in Connecticut, Vermont, The Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art in London, England, as well as at the San Francisco Art Institute where he took a sound recording class from Oscar winner Walter Murch. He also attended the International Film Workshops in Camden, Maine. Mr. Carey was nominated for Emmy Awards two years in a row in 2006 and 2007. Bayard initially worked in the mountaineering business for over nine years. He worked for Eastern Mountain Sports in Boston, at Sierra Designs in Berkeley, California, and then co-managed a retail store for Marmot Mountain Works. In 1980 at the invitation of a film editor friend in New York, Bayard began work in the motion picture industry as an 'unofficial' apprentice film editor on They All Laughed (1981) directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and then on Ragtime (1981), a film directed by Milos Forman. He then returned to the West coast to be an assistant editor at Lucas Film on the Emmy Award winning documentary The Making of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (1981) (TV). One day, Mr. Carey visited the Marmot Mountain Works store in Berkeley, CA where members of the crew for the feature film Never Cry Wolf (1983) were purchasing cold weather gear. He was able to wrangle a job as personal assistant to the director, Carroll Ballard. Finally, Bayard moved to Los Angeles and began to work for Sam Peckinpah as his driver, location scout, set p.a., cable person, and then as the sound recordist on The Osterman Weekend (1983). Currently he resides in the creative film capital of Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has been recording motion picture sound around the world for over 30 years in distant locations: The Bahamas, Alaska, Antarctica, Arizona, Canada, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, India, Louisiana, Maine, Mexico, New York, Oregon, Panama, Russia, The San Blas Islands, Texas, Utah, & Washington. Bayard is a member of The Cinema Audio Society, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and IATSE Local 480 (founding member) & Local 695, and personally owns one of the largest sound equipment inventories in the USA. He is a former member of the Bay Area Post Production Workers, and The Editor's Guild.
He has been privileged to work on films starring, featuring, produced, or directed by Robert Redford, Burt Lancaster, Orson Wells, Michael Douglas, Jacque Cousteau, The Dalai Lama, Cate Blanchette, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Steven Spielberg, Sidney Ganis, George Lucas, Amy Adams, Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Alton Walpole, Diane Kruger, Alan Arkin, Ben Kingsley, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Dern, Burt Reynolds, Robert Loggia, Aaron Eckhart, Dennis Hopper, Rutgar Hauer, Craig T. Nelson, Bill Murray, Peter Cook, Ray Liotta, Elliot Gould, John Carradine, Howard Duff, Henry Gibson, Ashley Judd, Stella Stevens, Donald Moffat, Rebecca DeMornay, Frank Langella, Burt Young, Martin Sheen, Whoopie Goldberg, Chuck Connors, Mark Hamill, Robert Mitchum, Robert Englund, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Melissa Leo, Julian Sands, Sherilyn Fenn, Bill Paxton, Art Garfunkel, Cloris Leachman, Patrick Swayze, Halle Berry, Diane Ladd, Stephen Baldwin, Lisa Bonet, Angelica Huston, Melanie Griffith, Bai Ling, Jennifer Lopez, Lolita Davidovich, Barbara Hershey, Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Billy Bob Thorton, Sam Shepard, Charlie Sheen, Louise Fletcher, Val Kilmer, Neve Campbell, Carrie Ann Moss, Colin Hanks, Charles Durning, Jessica Alba, Ruben Blades, Brian Geraghty, Joe Pantoliano, Dermot Mulroney, Meagan Fox, Mickey Rourke, Lucas Black, Clare Bowen, Miriam Colon, Joel Edgarton, Hanna Lawrence, and Jeremy Irvine.
Additionally, he is also proud to have worked along side the following legendary stunt people: Tommy Huff, Buddy Joe Hooker, Glen Wilder, Bobby Bass, Charlie Picerni, Ronnie Rondell, & Debbie Evans, Spike Silver, Jimmy Romano, and Ryan Happy.
Recent and notable films that he has worked on include: Woman Walks Ahead (2017) starring Jessica Chastain, Jane Got a Gun (2014) starring Natalie Portman & Ewan McGregor, The Identical (2014) starring Ashley Judd, The Company You Keep (2012) directed by Robert Redford, & Crazy Heart (2009) starring Jeff Bridges (Academy Award for Best Actor)
Bayard is a hammock designer on the side. His original hammock design was featured in the California Design Exhibition in Pasadena, CA. He will begin worldwide marketing of his newest very high tech design in 2017.
As a world traveler. . . other countries explored while not making films are Costa Rica, The Galapagos, The Orcas Islands, Bora Bora, Argentina, Ecuador, France, England, Spain, The British Virgin Islands, Austria, Switzerland, & Nova Scotia.
He is comfortable working in any environment from alpine peaks & arctic cold, to barren hot deserts, or on a fast paced river, to the high ocean, and tropical islands.
Finally Bayard is a screenwriter, and an advocate for independent women. He is currently completing a trilogy of screenplays led by powerful women as the lead characters.
Hobbies: Kayaking (both ocean & white water), Motorcycling, Mountain Biking, Tennis, Back Country Skiing, Mountaineering, Snorkeling, Photography, and Traveling.- Clara Perez was born in Caracas, Venezuela and raised there and in the USA and Britain. She is bi-lingual in Spanish and English.
Clara has an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy (now the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) in London.
Clara started her career with a series of critically acclaimed one-two person plays at the 78th Street Theatre Lab in New York. She also played 'Santiago' in the British stage version of Paolo Coelho's 'The Alchemist.' - Hugh Bonneville is a British actor, known for his stage work at the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company as well as the West End. His extensive film and television work includes Twenty Twelve, W1A, Downton Abbey, Paddington, The Gold and I Came By. See his website hughbonneville.uk for full biography.
- Matthew William Goode (born 3 April 1978) is an English actor. His films include Chasing Liberty (2004), Match Point (2005), Imagine Me and You (2006), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Watchmen (2009), A Single Man (2009), Leap Year (2010), Stoker (2013) and The Imitation Game (2014). Goode also starred in in the final season of Downton Abbey and in the CBS legal drama The Good Wife as Finley "Finn" Polmar from 2014 to 2015. Goode was born in Exeter, Devon. His father is a geologist and his mother, Jennifer, is a nurse and amateur theatre director. Goode is the youngest of five children with a brother, two half brothers, and a half sister, television presenter Sally Meen, from his mother's previous marriage. He grew up in the village of Clyst St. Mary, near Exeter.
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Minnie Driver was born January 31, 1970 in London and raised in Barbados until she was seven. Her mother, Gaynor Churchward, was a designer and former couture model. Her father, Charles Ronald "Ronnie" Driver, was a businessman. Minnie's mother was her father's mistress while he was still married to his wife. Minnie's sister, Kate Driver, is a manager and producer.
Her breakout role was in the 1995 film Circle of Friends. Minnie then appeared briefly in the James Bond picture Goldeneye. Since then, she has focused on working in a wide tonal range of films. These include several cult classics: Grosse Point Blank, Big Night, and Owning Mahowny; the painted romance of Good Will Hunting (earning an Oscar nomination for best actress in a supporting role); musicals like The Phantom of the Opera; period comedies like the Oscar Wilde classic An Ideal Husband; and Princess Mononoke, the seminal animated Japanese film by Hayao Miyazaki. Minnie has also starred in several family films such as Tarzan, Ella Enchanted, and the 2021 live action Cinderella.
Minnie has a wide-range of television work in place from FX's dark comedy classic The Riches, in which she co-starred with Eddie Izzard, to starring in two network sitcoms including NBC's About A Boy adaptation as well as ABC's Speechless. Both of which ran for several seasons. Minnie also pops up in key guest-starring roles such as her turn as Lorraine Finster on Will & Grace which lasted almost fifteen years and as Cath on the current BBC / HBO comedy Starstruck. Minnie is also starring in the Amazon anthology Modern Love which is on air now (2021).
On September 5, 2008, she gave birth to a boy named Henry Story Driver. She is in a long-term relationship with Addison O'Dea.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Julian Fellowes was born on 17 August 1949 in Cairo, Egypt. He is a writer and producer, known for Gosford Park (2001), Downton Abbey (2010) and From Time to Time (2009). He has been married to Emma Joy Kitchener-Fellowes since 28 April 1990. They have one child.- Actress
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Mala Ghedia was born in Leeton, New South Wales, Australia. Her father was a doctor and her mother worked as his receptionist and later as a child-carer.
Mala attended an open-audition when she was 16 years old with over 2000 other hopefuls at a shopping mall for popular Australian soap series "Home and Away" She won the role of new love interest, Monique.
She studied at university in Sydney and earned a BA in Communications. Later, she traveled to London where she trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts. She worked extensively within the UK theatre scene including work with the Royal Shakespeare Company on Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children". She also played naughty nurse Rabindra Shah on BBC's "Holby City".
She is based in Berlin, Germany.- Actor
- Writer
Andrew Mackintosh was born in Pennsylvania to English parents on August 9th 1960. He grew up in Scotland after the family moved back to the UK. His first love was music, but joining a local drama group spurred him into reading English and Drama at Bristol University in the South West of England, before going on to study acting at the Webber Douglas Drama Academy in London. He then worked as an actor and musical director with the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, in the northwest of England, which is a time of which he has fond memories. On television, he has played a music teacher in "Every Breath You Take" and an estate agent in "Coronation Street" as well as the more substantial roles listed below. He is often better known for his voice than his face, as he has provided voiceovers for various advertisements and promotional films throughout the United Kingdom.- Born in London, lived in Los Angeles and Singapore. she began her career in Theatre with companies such as Joint Stock. Since 2011 Catherine has appeared in an increasing number of films including feature 'Where I Belong' directed by Fritz Urshchitz and the recently nominated Kingsland directed by Jake Gabbay. Project in development with Japanese actress You-Ri Yamanaka for production in 2017.
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Jon Ivay was born on the Isle of Portland, Dorset.
He studied at the Oxford school of drama and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
Formed his own theatrical production company where he produced and directed many national and International tours of contemporary dramas and comedies,working with some of Britain's best known theatres. He has also written the stage plays Inside the Firm and Freebird. 2009 will see him working on both stage play and screenplay of JD & Coke the story of John Delorean's struggle to build the the cult Delorean sports car in Belfast Northern Ireland between 1978 and 1982.- Anthony Bekenn was born in East Africa, in the southern part of Tanzania during a cyclone. His father, Michael, was a district officer in the Tanganyika government, the result being that Anthony lived a peripatetic life up to the age of eight. Initially he was home schooled by his mother, Sheila, who had previously been a school teacher in Wolverhampton in the UK. He was subsequently educated in England, attending Tettenhall College, when his parents returned there in the early sixties. He completed high school in Canada, after the family emigrated to Vancouver B.C. in 1967. He completed a degree in History and English at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1974, and then decided to try his hand at acting. He attended the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England, which merged with Central School of Speech and Drama in 2006. Anthony's first professional stage appearance was in Victoria B.C. in "Equus". An extensive career has followed, working in television and numerous theatres across Canada, including the Stratford Festival (Taming of the Shrew, Comedy of Errors, Coriolanus, Misanthrope), and the Shaw Festival (1993-2013). His favourite roles include the title role in the CBC film "The Greening Of Ian Elliot", Bluntschli in "Arms and the Man", Gary in "Noises Off", The Archbishop of Rheims in "St Joan", Oxenby in "The Dresser", the Colonel in "Journey's End", Alfred Bridgenorth in "Getting Married", Giles Lacy in "Rebecca", Fancourt Babberley in "Charley's Aunt", and Jesus in the female "Odd Couple" with Sandy Dennis and Stella Stevens. Starting in 1993, Anthony was part of the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, appearing in thirty eight productions.
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Chris Hollis is a versatile stage and screen actor, equally at home with dramatic, emotional and comic performance. He trained at Webber Douglas Academy having read English at St Andrews University where he discovered a passion for acting and especially the classics and Shakespearean plays. He toured extensively in repertory theatre, working with directors like Sam Mendes, David Leveaux and Phyllida Lloyd, and has starred in the West End in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Much Ado About Nothing, Ivanov and latterly the hit musical Mamma Mia! in which he played Bill Austin. He worked with Kenneth Branagh on Twelfth Night which was later televised, and on the film Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He has guest starred in popular TV series such as Eastenders, The Bill, A Touch Of Frost, Brookside, Life Begins and Das Boot.- Composer
- Actor
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Peter Head is known for Strangers Lovers Killers (2010), The Nostradamus Kid (1993) and Burke & Wills (2006).- Additional Crew
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- Sound Department
John Gayford was born into an army family and brought up in India. He completed his education in England, studied Art at Oxford, served as an officer in the R.A.F. and then went to the Webber-Douglas School of Drama in London. He began his professional career playing the lead in a semi-documentary supporting feature ("Norwegian Holiday") then went into repertory theater, including seasons at Ashford, Aberdeen, Morecomb and Perth, gaining experience in a variety of roles such as the lead in "The Moon is Blue". He played the leading role in the official Scottish entry to the Edinburgh Festival ("The Flours o' Edinburgh"). Other stage experience came with a tour of "Seagulls Over Sorrento" and one of the leads in "The Night Life of a Virile Potato" which had a short London run after a successful tour of all the major cities in the U.K. John also understudied in "Not in the Book" at London's Criterion theater, during which time he appeared regularly in all the main British TV series of the period ("The Saint", "The Avengers", "Bootsie & Snudge", etc.) as well as plays for the BBC and ITV. He was part of the star-studded company of "The Oresteia" at the Old Vic after opening at the Playhouse, Oxford. He appeared in small parts in several important films, like "Exodus", "Suddenly Last Summer", "Kill Her Gently" and "Expresso Bongo", then guested in leading roles at round-London theaters such as Leatherhead, Richmond and Guildford in "The Grass is Greener", Noel Coward's "The Maquise", "Tea and Sympathy" and "A Man for All Seasons". This was a period when he appeared in many TV commercials. Then he went to Rome to join the cast of "Cleopatra", followed by "The Agony & the Ecstacy" and "Von Ryan's Express". After this he became involved in dubbing. He has written and directed the dubbing of over 300 Italian movies into English as well as adapted the dialog for many foreign movies shot in English, working with many Hollywood and European stars including Charlotte Rampling, Jane Birkin, Joe Mantegna, James Mason, Ben Kingsly, etc., often directing them in recording sessions. He still occasionally appears in small roles.- Executive
- Producer
Alice trained as a ballet dancer at The Northern Ballet School and worked as a teen actor in episodic TV before turning to producing. In 2012, she moved to Hollywood and assisted Alexander Payne at Ad Hominem Enterprises. Recently, she worked at Bend It TV for Gurinder Chadha. Prior to that, she was a studio executive at Sonar Entertainment where she worked on TV shows such as 'Taboo', 'The Shannarah Chronicles' and 'The Son'.- Kate Harrell was born in New York City to parents Linda Blandford (freelance journalist and writer) and Lynn Harrell (the famous classical cellist). She has spent her life between New York, Los Angeles, and London, where she now lives and works. Although she has been acting since she was nine years old (featured on the Disney Channel's "Twelfth Night" as Viola in 1990), her training was at Vassar College ('02) and Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, in London.
- David graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in 1975 and went on to perform in numerous theatres around the UK. He made his professional debut in 1975 when he appeared in a production of 'Cyrano De Bergerac' at the Chichester Festival Theatre. His West End debut was in 1985 at the Queens Theatre playing Urban, with Charlton Heston in "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial". His TV debut was in the comedy series "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em". Since then he has appeared in numerous single high-profile TV dramas as well as the top TV soaps "Coronation Street" and "Emmerdale", including playing the vicar in "Heartbeat". He made his film debut in 2006 in "Sparkle" with Stockard Channing and Bob Hoskins.
- After training at the Webber Douglas Academy, actress Clare Barry carved a strong background in theatre performances from the London fringe, across Britain to overseas. She ran co-ran a theatre company for ten years touring the UK, Ireland, Austria and Germany then onto the North American International Fringe Festival circuit performing at festivals in Tampa Bay, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton. After working with Producer Becky Finlay-Hall (Olive Branch Theatre Company), she joined the team at Broke But Making Films to work during the rehearsal period on Kapital (2007) as a deceased character. This relationship led her to being cast in SSDD (2010) where she created Lynn, the matriarchal landlady of the Magpie Pub, a tragic yet comical performance. Clare has also worked as actor and director, notably for Illyria Theatre, which gave her the opportunity to play "Jack Worthing" in The Importance of Being Earnest and to direct their adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, which led to further work with other companies. Her television work includes Coronation Street. Her most recent performance includes the self penned one-woman monologue Becoming Mum: A Cautionary Tale, most recently performed at the North Devon Fringe Festival.
- David Macmillan was privately educated and served as an army officer until 1955. He trained at the Webber-Douglas School of Dramatic Art between 1956 and 1958, where he received the Spotlight Award and the Margaret Rutherford Medal. He acted in radio, television and theatre between 1958 and 1967.
His theatrical experience included a very broad range of parts at theatres such as Birmingham Alex (two years), Edinburgh Gateway and Lyceum, Glasgow Citizens, Harrogate, St. Andrew's, Wimbledon, Richmond, Colchester, Salisbury, Belfast to name a few.
He appeared in radio productions such as "Children's Hour", "The Archers", plays and school broadcasts. In television, he made over fifty appearances between 1960 and 1967 including eighteen episodes of "Dr Finlay's Casebook" (as Constable Dickie), ten episodes of "The Flying Swan", eight episodes of "The George Kidd Show", "The Dark Number", "Compact", "The Saint", "William", "The Other Man", "North Flight", "Kipling", "No Thoroughfare", "Pack Up Your Troubles","The Big Pull" and "Gideon's Way".
He launched a successful senior management career in recruitment advertising and marketing in London between 1967 and his retirement in 1995.
He returned to acting in 1996 and has appeared on television as Martin Dawson in "Taggart" - 'Apocalypse' for STV (1996) (directed by Marcus White) and as Dobson in Rosamunde Pilcher's "Coming Home" (1997) for Portman Productions (directed by Giles Foster); at the Chichester Festival Theatre and the Theatre Royal Haymarket, as Lane in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" (directed by Christopher Morahan); and at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in 2001 as Lord Loam, in J.M.Barrie's "The Admirable Crichton" (directed by Clive Perry) and as Arthur Winslow, in Terence Rattigan's "The Winslow Boy"
He has also dealt in antiques, Scottish Pottery and Works of Art. He met his actress wife Morag, while they were appearing in pantomime. They have three children and reside in Crieff. - Actress
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Rare is the reference to Margaret Rutherford that doesn't characterize her as either jut-chinned, eccentric, or both. The combination of those most mundane of attributes has led some to suggest that she was made for the role of Agatha Christie's indomitable sleuth, Jane Marple, whom Rutherford portrayed in four films between 1961 and 1964 plus in an uncredited film cameo in The Alphabet Murders (1965). Rutherford began her acting career first as a student at London's Old Vic, debuting on stage in 1925. In 1933, she first appeared in the West End at the not-so-tender age of 41. She had made her screen debut in 1936 portraying Miss Butterby in the Twickenham-Wardour production of Hideout in the Alps (1936).
In summer 1941, Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit opened on the London stage, with Coward himself directing. Appearing as Madame Arcati, the genuine psychic, was Rutherford, in a role in which Coward had earlier envisaged her and which he then especially shaped for her. She would carry her portrayal of Madame Arcati to the screen adaptation, David Lean's Blithe Spirit (1945). Not only would this become one of Rutherford's most memorable screen performances - with her bicycling about the Kentish countryside, cape fluttering behind her - but it would establish the model for portraying that pseudo-soothsayer forever thereafter. Despite Rutherford's appearances in more than 40 films, it is as Madame Arcati and Miss Jane Marple that she will best be remembered.- Actor
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London based American actor. Born to a Greek mother and an American father and moved from the US to London in 1996. Studied at The University of Texas in Austin and at the Webber Douglas Academy, London. Recent winner of the Best Actor in a Male Role for "Jim" at the Iris Prize film festival. He was a long standing member of the comedy troupe The Reduced Shakespeare Company in London's West End.- A child actor, Paul Murthwaite appeared in such roles as Doctor Lucy Perry's wayward son in "Casualty" and French-Canadian step-son of Lynn Howard in "Howards Way". He is a former member of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. He trained at the Webber Douglas Academy from 1997-2000, where Kate Ford, Stacey Roca and Rupert Evans were among his peers. As well as his acting credits, he is a keen choreographer and has recently started writing and directing his own material. He lives in North London.
- Kate Ford was born on 29 December 1976 in Salford, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Coronation Street (1960), Club Le Monde (2002) and Blue Murder (2003).
- Born in Middlesbrough, Cleveland, UK in 1973. Attended Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, London in 1992. Has Lived in Edinburgh, Scotland, since 1999. Is a regular performer with Glasgow's dedicated Shakespeare company, Bard In The Botanics, roles including Richard III, Petruchio, Sir Toby Belch and Pericles. Kirk is also well known for his work in short films, radio and voiceover.
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Natalie Dormer born February 11, 1982 is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Anne Boleyn on the Showtime series The Tudors (2007-10), as Margaery Tyrell on the HBO series Game of Thrones (2012-14), Irene Adler on the CBS series Elementary (2013-15), and as Cressida in the science-fiction adventure films The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015). She has been nominated for Best Performance at the Gemini Awards for her work in The Tudors. She has also been nominated for a Screen Actor's Guild Award for her performance in Game of Thrones.- Actor
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Rupert William Anthony Friend is a British actor, screenwriter, director, and lyricist. He first gained recognition for his roles in The Libertine (2004) and Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005), both of which won him awards for best newcomer. He portrayed George Wickham in Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lieutenant Kurt Kotler in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008), Albert, Prince Consort in The Young Victoria (2009), psychologist Oliver Baumer in Starred Up (2013), CIA operative Peter Quinn in the political thriller series Homeland (2012-2017), Vasily Stalin in The Death of Stalin (2017), Theo van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate (2018), and Ernest Donovan in the series Strange Angel (2018-2019).
In the early 2020s, Friend began collaborating with director Wes Anderson, starting with a cameo in The French Dispatch (2021), followed by roles in Anderson's upcoming film Asteroid City and Netflix project The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. In 2022, he starred as disgraced British politician James Whitehouse in the series Anatomy of a Scandal and featured in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi as the Grand Inquisitor.- Actor
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Terence was born in London and spent his early years watching American films and dreamed of being like the stars on the screen, He was awarded a scholarship for the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art. In his second year, during an audition, Peter Ustinov signed him for the title role in Billy Budd (1962). This was not only his remarkable film debut but his performance earned him his first and only Oscar nomination too in 1962 and marked the start of his international stardom. He consolidated his career by working with some of the top directors such as William Wyler (The Collector (1965)), Joseph Losey (Modesty Blaise (1966)), John Schlesinger (Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)), Ken Loach (Poor Cow (1967)) and Pier Paolo Pasolini (Teorema (1968)). He then took a break from films and traveled around the world returning to cinema in a variety of films including, among others, Superman (1978), Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979), Superman II (1980), The Hit (1984) (for which he was awarded the Grand Medaille de Vermeil in Paris), Legal Eagles (1986), The Sicilian (1987), Wall Street (1987), Young Guns (1988), Alien Nation (1988), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Valkyrie (2008) and Unfinished Song (2012). He has also published the first two instalments of his autobiography, Stamp Album, which became a best seller.- Actress
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Sue Johnston was born on 7 December 1943 in Warrington, Cheshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Royle Family (1998), Imagine Me & You (2005) and Waking the Dead (2000). She was previously married to David Pammenter and Neil Johnston.- Actress
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Elizabeth Knowelden is a critically acclaimed English actress. Hailing from the theatre, she continues to garner respect in all areas of her career, epitomised by recognition from BAFTA.
After varying contemplations about life as a marine biologist, Knowelden auditioned for drama schools in the UK. At the age of 18, she was awarded a place at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy in London, where the Sir Laurence Olivier bursary singled her out as a unique talent. Alumni includes Angela Lansbury, Julia Ormond, Natalie Dormer, Steven Berkoff, Minnie Driver, Hugh Bonneville.
On graduating, she joined the New Voices at the Old Vic Theatre - artistic director Kevin Spacey - before working in London's West End with the Theatre Royal Haymarket, directed by Samuel West in Pinter's "Betrayal", as well as many other noted productions. Extensive theatre credits also include "Trainspotting" at the Elephant Theatre in LA and national tours of the UK ie. Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
As a voice over actress she works across the board, while as a singer she has performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London, as well as in various musicals.- Actor
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Joe Anderson was born on 26 March 1982 in England, UK. He is an actor, known for Across the Universe (2007), The Crazies (2010) and The Ruins (2008). He is married to Elle.- Actor
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Highly acclaimed English actor, playwright, author and director continues to set the benchmark in stunning, intense performances on both stage and screen. Berkoff was born in Stepney, London in August 1937 and received dramatic arts training in both Paris and London and then moved on to performing with several repertory companies, before he formed the London Theatre Group in 1968. Berkoff had actually been appearing in uncredited roles in UK cinema since 1959, and started to get noticed by casting agents with his performances in Hamlet at Elsinore (1964), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Barry Lyndon (1975).
Mainstream film fans are probably most familiar with Steven Berkoff via his portrayal of a trio of ice cold villains in several big budget Hollywood productions of the 1980s. Firstly, he played a rogue general plotting to launch a war in Europe in Octopussy (1983), then a drug smuggling art dealer out to kill Detroit narcotics officer Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop (1984), and thirdly as a sadistic Russian commando officer torturing Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
Berkoff continued to contribute scintillating performances and was quite memorable as Adolf Hitler in War and Remembrance (1988), The Krays (1990) and the haunting The Tell-Tale Heart (1991). Further villainous roles followed for the steely Berkoff in Fair Game (1995) and the Jean-Claude Van Damme kick flick Legionnaire (1998). He excelled in the camp comedy 9 Dead Gay Guys (2002), played UK crime figure Charlie Richardson Snr. in Charlie (2004) and then appeared in the passionate Greek film about mail order brides simply titled, Brides (2004) ("Brides").
His screen performances are but one part of the brilliance of Steven Berkoff, as he has additionally built a formidable reputation for his superb craftsmanship in the theatre. Berkoff has written and performed original plays including "Decadence", "Harry's Christmas Lunch" "Brighton Beach Scumbags" and "Sink the Belgrano", as well as appearing in productions of "Hamlet", "Macbeth" and "Coriolanus" to rapturous audiences right across the globe. Furthermore, he has authored several highly entertaining books on the theatre and his life including "The Theatre of Steven Berkoff", "Coriolanus in Deutscheland", "A Prisoner in Rio", "I am Hamlet" and "Meditations on Metamorphosis".- Actress
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Wendy Jane Crewson is a Canadian actress and producer. She began her career appearing on Canadian television, before her breakthrough role in 1991 dramatic film The Doctor. Crewson has appeared in many Hollywood films, including The Good Son (1993), The Santa Clause (1994) and its sequels The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), as well as Air Force One (1997), Bicentennial Man (1999), What Lies Beneath (2000), The 6th Day (2000), The Covenant (2006) and Eight Below (2006). She also starred in a number of independent movies, such as Better Than Chocolate (1999), Suddenly Naked (2001), Perfect Pie (2002), Away from Her (2006), Into the Forest (2015) and Room (2015). Crewson has won six Gemini Awards, two Canadian Screen Awards and ACTRA Award for her performances on television. She played leading roles in a number of television films, include playing Joanne Kilbourn in six movies based on novels by Gail Bowen. She had recurring roles on American television series 24 and Revenge, and the Canadian television series Frankie Drake Mysteries. From 2012 to 2017, Crewson co-starred in the CTV medical drama Saving Hope.- Actress
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Shelley Conn is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Dean Indira Shetty in Amazon's No.1 show, Gen V (2023), as Beelzebub in Good Omens 2 (2023), and as Lady Mary Sharma in the hugely successful Netflix series, Bridgerton (2022). Other notable appearances include Isabella in the film Love Sarah (2020), and as Dr Elizabeth Shannon in the Steven Spielberg series Terra Nova (2011). Shelley Conn was born in Barnet in north London to Anglo-Indian parents. As the daughter of a British Army Officer, she moved home and countries many times as a child, living in Germany and Gibraltar before settling in Hampshire. She is of mixed heritage, which includes Indian, Portuguese, Burmese and English. After being a student at Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke, she trained at Bretton Hall College of Performing Arts and Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. She began her career on London stages and in small roles on British television. After appearing in independent films and two seasons at the RSC including All's Well That Ends Well (2003/2004) with Judi Dench she landed a breakthrough role as Ashika Chandirimani in the BBC political drama Party Animals (2007) which has led to a long and varied career in theatre film and television, both in the UK and the US. She lives in London.- Actor
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JJ Feild was born on 1 April 1978 in Boulder, Colorado, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Centurion (2010) and Austenland (2013).- Actor
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English actor Tom Mison has established himself in the world of theater through his roles in Andrew Bovell's When the Rain Stops Falling at the Almeida Theatre, and Posh by Laura Wade at the Royal Court Theatre. Mison trained at the Webber-Douglas Academy and is also a writer who has penned for productions like Wood, Bounded and The Life Man of Portland Mews. On the small screen, he is credited for appearing on The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006), Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007), Lost in Austen (2008) and Parade's End (2012) .
In 2011, he appeared in the pivotal role of Emily Blunt 's love interest in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011). In 2013, he was cast as the lead on the FOX TV series Sleepy Hollow (2013) as Ichabod Crane.- Actor
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Hugh Fraser was born on 23 October 1945 in England, UK. He is an actor, known for Poirot (1989), 101 Dalmatians (1996) and Jack the Ripper (1988). He has been married to Belinda Lang since 15 October 1988. They have one child.- Actress
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Kellie started her career via The National Youth Theatre and trained at The BRIT School. She was selected for the BAFTA Elevate actors cohort 2020 - to support Working-Class talent progressing in their careers on screen.
Recent TV includes series regular 'Kirsty De La Croix' in Idris Elba's, award-winning, returning, comedy series 'In The Long Run' (Sky One, Now TV and Starz) and the Emmy-nominated and BAFTA-Winning mini series 'Joe All Alone' (BBC) as Stacey.
Her recent Film work includes; Paul Andrew Williams' feature 'Bull', Terence Davies' Benediction (Emu Films) King of Thieves (Studio Canal) Girl on a Bicycle (Warner Bros) & Everyone's Going to Die, (Dinard Awarded)
On stage Kellie has worked for: The National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Haymarket, West End, Royal Court, Soho Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith, The Menier Chocolate Factory, Park Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company. She appeared in over 700 performances of One Man, Two Guvnors (National Theatre/West End)
As a writer Kellie was shortlisted for the Script search award for Greenacre Films. She has written all 6 episodes of podcast drama ROAR for Spirit Studios.
Kellie is an ambassador for the charities Anthony Nolan & Mencap. She is Patron for Magpie Dance.- Actor
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Simon Farnaby was born on 2 April 1973 in Darlington, County Durham, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Paddington 2 (2017), Wonka (2023) and Your Highness (2011). He is married to Claire Keelan. They have one child.- Actress
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Ella Smith is an Emmy Award-winning British actress. She won Best Actress for her leading role in Ray & Liz in Buenos Aires International Festival. Ella had a musical upbringing, singing operatic Soprano and playing the flute and piano. As a filmmaker, Ella's debut award-winning short film Mdudu Boy (2016), filmed on location in Kenya in 2015, premiered at Palm Springs, Aesthetica and TIFF. Ella speaks Welsh and French.- Actor
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Julian Ovenden was born on 29 November 1976 in Sheffield, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Bridgerton (2020), Downton Abbey (2010) and Adult Material (2020). He has been married to Kate Royal since 20 December 2010. They have two children.- Actress
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Emma was born Emma Gwynedd Mary Chambers born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1964 to John, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, and Noelle (nee Strange). The family moved around and, while attending St Swithun's school, Winchester, Chambers acted in Winchester college productions - saying she "enjoyed showing off" - and played lacrosse for Hampshire. Her parents eventually split up and she trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where the former EastEnders actor Ross Kemp was one of her contemporaries.
Her best remembered film role, in Curtis's 1999 romcom Notting Hill, was the eccentric Honey Thacker, star-struck and overawed at meeting the Hollywood actor (played by Julia Roberts) who has fallen for her bookshop-owner brother (Hugh Grant). Honey explains her own difficulties in finding a partner: "I don't have hair - I've got feathers - and I've got funny, goggly eyes, and I'm attracted to cruel men and no one will ever marry me because my boosies have actually started shrinking." She eventually becomes engaged to her brother's slovenly housemate (Rhys Ifans).
Her sister, Sarah Doukas, and brother, Simon, went on to run Storm Model Management, which discovered Kate Moss at the age of 14.
Chambers made her television debut as Margaret, one of the young Brangwen children, in a 1988 BBC adaptation of the DH Lawrence novel The Rainbow. In between one-off roles on TV, she played Charity Pecksniff in a six-part serialisation of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, which began in the same week as The Vicar of Dibley (1994).
The popular BBC sitcom, written by Richard Curtis with Paul Mayhew-Archer, ran for two series, from 1994 to 1998, finishing with Alice's marriage to Hugo Horton (played by James Fleet), her second cousin once removed. Geraldine described both as having the intellectual capacity of a cactus and the wedding was notable for the two bridal attendants dressed as Teletubbies. Chambers won the 1998 British Comedy Award for best actress and returned as Alice in various Vicar of Dibley specials between 1999 and 2007.
She had significant supporting roles in the sitcom How Do You Want Me? (1998-99) as Helen Yardley, sister of the newlywed Lisa (Charlotte Coleman) returning from London to be near her family in the countryside, and Take a Girl Like You (2000), Andrew Davies's adaptation of Kingsley Amis's comic novel, as Martha Thompson, the bored housewife hostile to her beautiful, northern lodger.
Chambers' West End theatre debut came with the part of Geain, estranged daughter of Ian McKellen's composer Jerome, in Alan Ayckbourn's comedy Henceforward... (Vaudeville theatre, 1988-89) after appearing in the original 1987 production at the Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough. In his casting notes for Geain, Ayckbourn stipulated: "Not a child, please. Just a very small actress." Chambers lodged with McKellen for a while and said she regarded him as a father figure.
When, in 1989, she starred in the Scarborough premiere of Ayckbourn's Invisible Friends as another teenage daughter, Lucy Baines, who has an imaginary companion to relieve the awfulness of living with her family, the critic Harry Eyres praised Chambers' skill in "conveying Lucy's kaleidoscopic emotional states with startling immediacy" and negotiating the tricky device of also acting as the play's narrator. She reprised the role in London at the Cottesloe during two stints with the National Theatre company (1991-92) that included appearances in productions such as Franz Kafka's The Trial and Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III.
She gave a hilarious performance as Orgon's daughter Mariane in Tartuffe (Almeida theatre, 1996) and starred as Sheila in Michael Frayn's Benefactors (Albery theatre, 2002), a performance described by one critic as "a touching study in parasitic helplessness".
Chambers who suffered from asthma, attacks of which were often brought on by an acute allergy to animals, withdrew largely but not entirely from public life after the final episode of The Vicar of Dibley (1994) in 2007, which was also to remain her final television role. On the evening of 21st February 2018 Chambers suffered a heart attack and died at her home in Lymington, Hampshire, England at the age of just 53. Her death was announced three days later by her agent John Grant.
Chambers was survived by her husband, the actor Ian Dunn, whom she married in 1991, and by her siblings.- Actress
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Fiona Button is known for The Split (2018), Truelove (2024) and My Mother and Other Strangers (2016).- Alex Reid was born on 23 December 1980 in Penzance, Cornwall, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Descent (2005), The Descent: Part 2 (2009) and Misfits (2009).
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Kim Hartman was born on 11 January 1952 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for 'Allo 'Allo! (1982), Dunkirk (2017) and Grange Hill (1978). She has been married to John Nolan since 1975. They have two children.- Amber Sainsbury was born on 28 August 1978 in New Zealand. She is an actress, known for 30 Days of Night (2007), Hex (2004) and Fairy Tales (2008). She has been married to Jamie Campbell since 10 September 2011.
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Siobhán Kathleen Mary Hewlett.
Irish Actor, writer, producer, artist Siobhán hails from a theatrical dynasty stretching back to the 1800's. Her great grandparents 'Loch & Lomond' were renowned Variety and Vaudevillian performers, as were her grandparents who met whilst performing for the judges and diplomats at The Nuremberg war trials (introduced by their mutual agent and her godfather - the late Lord Lew Grade) . Siobhan's grandmother was the last remaining captain of the Bluebell girls - the high kicking can can troupe who danced her way from Ireland around Europe and South America in the 20's and 30's, working with Mistanguette, Josephine Baker, Maurice Chevalier, and Jaques Tati. Her Grandfather, was a celebrated knock about comic whose act involved multiple back flips off walls. Her Great Aunt's Karina and sister the world famous Eve - were renowned contortionists. Siobhan's late Father, Donald Hewlett was a famous TV star from Jimmy Perry & David Crofts hit shows 'It Ain't half Hot Mum' & 'You Rang M'Lord' . Siobhan's Mother, Thérèse McMurray was a child star and lead in the first live hospital show 'Emergency Ward 10'.
Hewlett was brought up between the West of Ireland (Lahinch) and the East Kent coast of England (Whitstable).
Educated in England, Hewlett attended Wellesley House School, Downe House School and The King's School, Canterbury on art scholarships. A period of family ill health during Siobhán's childhood meant that she became her family's main carer. Whilst at The King's School, Canterbury, she was spotted in a production by the theatrical agent Hamilton Hodell, turned down a place at Cambridge to read English and subsequently won a scholarship to study acting at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London for their 3 year classical acting diploma course.
Hewlett supported herself through drama school by waitressing, singing and playing her guitar in Jazz clubs around London.
Whilst still at drama school at 19, Hewlett was chosen by French film director Antoine de Caunes to play the leading role in Monsieur N a role that required she learn French.
Shortly afterwards Hewlett starred in the British comedy series 'Fortysomething' opposite Hugh Laurie, Benedict Cumberbatch and Peter Capaldi for ITV. Hewlett and Cumberbatch were old family friends - Wanda Ventham, Cumberbatch's mother and Hewlett's Father had starred opposite each in London's West End.
Hewlett made her professional stage debut at The Finborough Theatre in London - starring opposite Chis O' Dowd, Clarke Peters and Daniela Nardini in Etta Jenks. Directed by Che Walker.
Starring in multiple award winning shows after this, including - BBC BAFTA winning 'The Canterbury Tales' opposite Julie Walters and Bill Nighy. 'The Virgin Queen' opposite Tom Hardy and Anne Marie Duff.
To great acclaim Hewlett made her West end stage debut at the Donmar Warehouse in Christopher Hampton's hit play The Philanthropist. Where she starred opposite Simon Russel Beale, Simon Day and Danny Webb. "The luscious and accomplished Araminta was played by the luscious and accomplished Siobhan Hewlett, whose electrifying stage presence would have stolen any other show." -The independent "And can there have been a funnier seduction scene when Siobhan Hewlett, who gives the vamp the perfect amount of boisterous blankness, ruffles Simon Russell Beale's hair."- The Times Hewlett and Russel Beale won the South Bank show award for comedy.
Subsequently Hewlett continued to star in Film and TV roles including indie hit 'Irina Palm', opposite Marianne Faithful and Kevin Bishop which won the audience prize at The Berlin international Film Festival. Hewlett by then, was renting the apartment below her old friend Cumberbatch. They continued working together when Hewlett guest starred in the first episode of award winning ' Sherlock' and hit series 'Parades End'.
Hewlett took a significant career break and resumed her caring role to look after her dying Father and her Mother, subsequent to her Mother's stage four cancer diagnosis.
As her Mother's health stabilised, Hewlett spent some time in LA, attending Groundlings Improv school as well as performing with LA Theatre works opposite Jared Harris, Susan Sullivan, Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres. During this period Hewlett started working with legendary comic book writer Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta) and photographer/ director Mitch Jenkins. Hewlett starred as journalist Faith Harrington - a role created by Moore for her - in a series of occult noir films - the first of which, was 'Act of Faith'. Hewlett became exec producer on the series , 'Showpieces' and subsequent feature 'The Show' starring opposite old family friend Tom Burke as Fletcher Dennis. 'The Show' was to premiere at SXSW 2020.
Hewlett studied playwriting at The Royal Court Theatre's prestigious Young Writers program under acclaimed playwright Simon Stephens.
She splits her time between her home in the West of Ireland where she writes and surfs and London.
Hewlett has a production company with her brother, Director/Producer Patrick Hewlett as well as her own company Oyster Films.- Vinette Robinson was born on 4 March 1982 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Sherlock (2010), The A Word (2016) and Vera Drake (2004).
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- Susan Penhaligon was born on 3 July 1949 in Manila, Philippines. She is an actress, known for A Fine Romance (1981), Count Dracula (1977) and Patrick (1978). She was previously married to Duncan Preston, David Munro and Nicholas Loukes.
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Christian Brassington was born on 6 June 1983 in Wellington, Shropshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Poldark (2015), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and Tony Blair: Rock Star (2006). He has been married to Jennie Fava since 21 September 2013.- Actress
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Linda Henry was born on 24 August 1963 in West Ham, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Beautiful Thing (1996), EastEnders (1985) and Bad Girls (1999). She has been married to Stavros Valiris since July 1992. They have one child.- Kathleen King is known for In America (2002).
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Eva Pope was born on 16 November 1967. She is an actress and producer, known for Somewhere Boy (2022), Maternal (2023) and Waterloo Road (2006). She is married to Laurence Lassalle. They have one child. She was previously married to Laurence Lassalle.