British Knights in Waiting
Here is a list of potential British men who should be awarded Knighthood or some honor for their services and contributions to the arts. They need to be alive and willing to accept the honor.
The following men have declined the honours.
David Bowie declined a CBE and Knighthood.
Alan Bennett declined knighthood and CBE.
Michael Frayn declined knighthood and CBE.
Alan Rickman declined a CBE.
Albert Finney declined CBE and knighthood.
Ken Loach declined an OBE.
Keith Richards declined CBE.
John Cleese declined CBE and Life Peerage.
Malcolm McDowell declined a CBE.
Jim Broadbent declined an OBE.
Bill Nighy declined an OBE.
Ian McDiarmid declined an OBE.
Jonathan Kent declined an OBE.
Michael Bogdanov declined an OBE.
Passed Away
Keith Michell
Warren Mitchell
Charles Keating
Richard Johnson
Roger Rees
Brian Bedford
Tony Warren MBE
Peter Wood
Peter Vaughan
Roy Dotrice OBE
If you would like to nominate a gentleman here or anybody else, please feel free to do so at https://www.gov.uk/honours
The following men have declined the honours.
David Bowie declined a CBE and Knighthood.
Alan Bennett declined knighthood and CBE.
Michael Frayn declined knighthood and CBE.
Alan Rickman declined a CBE.
Albert Finney declined CBE and knighthood.
Ken Loach declined an OBE.
Keith Richards declined CBE.
John Cleese declined CBE and Life Peerage.
Malcolm McDowell declined a CBE.
Jim Broadbent declined an OBE.
Bill Nighy declined an OBE.
Ian McDiarmid declined an OBE.
Jonathan Kent declined an OBE.
Michael Bogdanov declined an OBE.
Passed Away
Keith Michell
Warren Mitchell
Charles Keating
Richard Johnson
Roger Rees
Brian Bedford
Tony Warren MBE
Peter Wood
Peter Vaughan
Roy Dotrice OBE
If you would like to nominate a gentleman here or anybody else, please feel free to do so at https://www.gov.uk/honours
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- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born in the Simonside area of South Shields, he left the North East when he was five, but went back for holidays with his grandparents. As he grew older he had it in his mind to be an actor, but had no idea how to go about it, so did various jobs before being called up for National Service in the RAF. On being demobbed he still wanted to be an actor, but was still unaware of how to become one, so worked for wool merchants for three years, during which he became a keen amateur actor. When the wool merchant went bankrupt, he managed to get a grant from Essex County Council to go to drama school. On completing the course his first job was with a company that traveled around in a bus doing shows at military camps. He then joined The Old Vic doing walk on parts and small speaking parts then spent 2 years in America and on his return joined the Bristol Old Vic. After about 12 years in the business he went to Newcastle to appear in 'Close the Coalhouse Door' at the Jesmond Playhouse - written by Alan Plater and also featuring fellow North East actors Colin Douglas and Alan Browning - which he considered made him a better actor. He appeared in the TV series 'Z Cars' as a Geordie police inspector but didn't enjoy it. There was then a 90 minute play for Granada Television which was done live.- Charles Kay was born on 31 August 1930 in Coventry, West Midlands, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Amadeus (1984), Henry V (1989) and Fall of Eagles (1974).
- Actor
- Soundtrack
William Patrick "Bill" Roache MBE is an English actor. He has played Ken Barlow in the soap opera Coronation Street since its first episode on 9 December 1960. He is listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving living television actor in a continuous role. First acting job with Unicorn Players at Princes Theatre Clacton in 1959 with John Kendall and Helen Blackwood among others. Summer season repertory.
Roache was born in Basford, Nottinghamshire, the son of Hester Vera (née Waddicor) and Joseph William Vincent Roache. He grew up in nearby Ilkeston, Derbyshire, where he attended a Steiner school set up by his grandfather in the garden of the family home. His Freemason grandfather was interested in such things as hypnotism, theosophy, spiritualism, homoeopathy and esotericism, and the teachings of philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner. Roache was later educated at Rydal School which was also attended by his son Linus.
Roache joined the British Army, and was commissioned into the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1953. A year later, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He left the British Army in 1956 with the rank of captain. Due to an exploding mortar round during his military service, Roache suffers from tinnitus.
After leaving the army, Roache turned to acting. He appeared in various stage productions, then had uncredited roles in several films, and later small parts in television serials including Knight Errant Limited and Skyport. He played the minor role of a space centre operator in the Norman Wisdom film The Bulldog Breed.
Shortly before joining Coronation Street at the beginning of the programme in 1960, Roache played the leading role in a Granada Television play called Marking Time, transmitted on ITV in 1961.
Roache is now the world's longest-serving television actor in a continuous role (as of July 2017) after the cancellation of the American soap opera As the World Turns in 2010, where Don Hastings had played Bob Hughes since October 1960 without a break.
On 16 October 1985, just weeks before the 25th anniversary of his debut on Coronation Street, he appeared as the special guest on the TV show This Is Your Life. With the departure of Pat Phoenix the previous year, he was the show's last remaining original cast member by this stage.
In 1999, Roache was the recipient of the British Soap Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for his role as Ken Barlow. In 2003, Roache appeared on Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes as Perry Como singing the song "Catch a Falling Star". In September and October 2005, he appeared as a celebrity contestant in Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon. He was the winner of The Golden Shot remake, progressing through to Bullseye where he was beaten by television presenter Vernon Kay. He later entered All Star Family Fortunes, hosted by Kay, but lost by two points to his competitors.
Roache's 2008 autobiography is entitled Soul on the Street. It focuses on many of his life experiences and contains a significant amount of philosophical content in which Roache affirms his belief in the afterlife. In October 2008, Roache revealed on BBC Breakfast that he had a two-year feud with fellow Coronation Street actress Pat Phoenix, during which they did not speak to one another. This was over her changing of a scene involving the two of them. However, they did reconcile and became good friends. On 13 April 2012, Piers Morgan interviewed Roache for his ITV series Piers Morgan's Life Stories. On 26 September 2012, Roache was featured on the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, researching his family history.
Roache lives in Wilmslow, Cheshire. His eldest son, by his first wife Anna Cropper (1938-2007), is actor Linus Roache (born 1964). The couple also had a daughter, Vanya (born 1967). The couple were married from 1961 until their divorce in 1974. Roache married his second wife, Sarah Mottram, in 1978. She died suddenly on 7 February 2009 at their home at the age of 58. With Sarah, he had a daughter named Verity (born 1981) and a younger son, the actor James Roache, christened William (born 1985). A second daughter, Edwina, died aged 18 months after her birth on 26 April 1983 from acute bronchial pneumonia on 16 November 1984.
In 1991, Roache won a libel action against The Sun, which had described him as boring and unpopular with his fellow Coronation Street stars. He was awarded £50,000 damages by the jury, the same amount that he had turned down in an out of court settlement offered by the newspaper before the case. As a result, he was liable for the £120,000 costs incurred. Roache sued his law firm for negligence in 1998, and was declared bankrupt in April 1999.
Roache is a supporter of the Conservative Party. In 2007, as a guest for Daily Politics, he championed Sir John Major as Britain's greatest post-war prime minister. He backed disgraced ex-Conservative MP Neil Hamilton in the 1997 election against Martin Bell. Roache became patron of the Ilkeston-based production company Sustained Magic Ltd in 2006.
Roache is a vegetarian because he "doesn't want animals being killed for him". He wrote about his interest in astrology in his biography, which he learned by taking a correspondence course from the Faculty of Astrological Studies. He said he had impressed members of the Coronation Street cast by the accuracy with which he read their astrological charts for them. Roache is a spiritualist and was photographed practising druid rituals in the 1970s. He predicted that the world would go through a fundamental change on 12 December 2012 and "move to a higher vibration".
During an investigation and trial, Roache's character Ken Barlow was written out of Coronation Street. However following Roache's acquittal he resumed filming on Coronation Street in June 2014, and returned to the screen on 4 August of that year.
Roache was awarded an MBE in the 2001 New Years Honours. In March 2007, he was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Chester in recognition of his contribution to television.He was awarded an MBE in 2000. As of December 2015, he has set a record as the longest running performance as Ken Barlow from December 1960 to present. He has surpassed Helen Wagner's record of 54 years. He was awarded an OBE in 2022.- Actor
- Writer
Alan Dobie was born on 2 June 1932 in Wombwell, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Disputation (1986), War & Peace (1972) and Mystery and Imagination (1966). He was previously married to Maureen Scott and Rachel Roberts.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born in London he was brought up in Nottingham where his father taught interior design at the College of Art. An early interest in the theatre found him taking part in the school dramatic society plays at High Pavement School in Nottingham and later with 3 Nottingham Dramatic Societies at the same time and spending all his evenings at one or other of them. This resulted in him winning a scholarship to RADA then to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford for a season then in 1953 he toured Australia and New Zealand in Shakespeare productions. In 1955 he joined Peter Brooks Hamlet company for a Russian and Moscow tour. He married a girl from Stratford upon Avon.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Edward James de Souza was born in Hull, Yorkshire, of British and Portuguese-Indian parentage to Annie Adeline Swift (née Calvert) and Edward Valentine De Souza Jr. He has appeared in numerous classical plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, the Globe and the Theatre Royal. A RADA graduate of 1957, de Souza made his screen debut that very same year in the role of Charles Darnay in an early BBC adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities (1957) (co-starring Peter Wyngarde, as Sydney Carton). On the airwaves, de Souza succeeded Valentine Dyall as BBC4's The Man in Black from 1988 to 1992.
On the big screen, he is perhaps best known for his role in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) as the Bedouin Sheikh Hosein, a friend and ally of Roger Moore's James Bond. Earlier in his career, he had starred back-to-back in two Hammer horror productions: as impresario Harry Hunter in The Phantom of the Opera (1962) and as the obligatory hero Gerald Harcourt in The Kiss of the Vampire (1963).
More consistently employed in television, de Souza had an early leading role alongside Richard Briers and Prunella Scales in the sitcom The Marriage Lines (1961). He also starred in the Doctor Who (1963) episode 'Mission to the Unknown' as Space Security Agent Marc Cory who endeavours to warn Earth of an impending Dalek attack. The episode is chiefly remembered for the complete absence of the Doctor (in this case, William Hartnell) and his companions.
Very much at home in period drama, De Souza has portrayed Maximilian Morrell, a valiant friend of The Count of Monte Cristo (1964), Napoleon's older brother Joseph Bonaparte, in the miniseries Napoleon and Love (1974) and Portuguese diplomat (and friend of the king) Marquês Luis de Soveral in Edward the King (1975). Between 2008 and 2009, he had a regular role on the soap Coronation Street (1960) as the rapacious gambler and womanizer Colin Grimshaw. He has also made guest appearances on The Saint (1962), The Avengers (1961), Department S (1969), Rumpole of the Bailey (1978) (as solicitor Bonny Bernard), Sapphire & Steel (1979), One Foot in the Grave (1990) and The Borgias (2011).
Edward de Souza has been married since 1960 to English actress and long-time Play School (1964) presenter Miranda Connell.- Christopher Guinee was born on 6 September 1932 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Les Misérables (1967), The Brothers Karamazov (1964) and ITV Play of the Week (1955). He died in 2001 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
In 1952 he did his National Service as an aircraftsman attaining 2nd class, Also in his company was Richard Briers. On being demobbed he joined RADA but after a year he had to leave as his money had run out. He then auditioned for Joan Littlewood in 1963 and was taken on for Oh! What a Lovely War in the West End then after the Lonon run went with the show to Broadway.- Actor
- Writer
One of Britain's most recognizable (and most larger-than-life) character actors, Tom Baker is best known for his record-setting seven-year stint as the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). He was born in 1934 in Liverpool, to Mary Jane (Fleming) and John Stewart Baker. His father was of English and Scottish descent, while his mother's family was originally from Ireland. Tom, along with his younger sister, Lulu, and younger brother, John, was raised in a poor Catholic community by his mother, a house-cleaner and barmaid, who was a devout Catholic, and his father, a sailor, who was rarely at home.
At age fifteen, Baker left school to become a monk with the Brothers of Ploermel on the island of Jersey. Six years later, he abandoned the monastic life and performed his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps., where he became interested in acting. Baker then served on the Queen Mary for seven months as a sailor in the Merchant Navy before attending Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent, England, on scholarship.
Baker acted in repertory theaters around Britain until the late 1960s when he joined up with the National Theatre, where he performed with such respected actors as Maggie Smith, Anthony Hopkins and Laurence Olivier, who helped him get his first prominent film role as Rasputin in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971). His performance in this film earned him two Golden Globe Award nominations, one for best actor in a supporting role and another for best new star of the year. A couple of years earlier, Baker had made his theatrical film debut in The Winter's Tale (1967).
Despite appearances in a spate of films, including The Canterbury Tales (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and The Mutations (1974), Baker found himself in a career lull and working as a labourer at a building site. However, the BBC's Head of Serials, William Slater, who had directed Baker in BBC Play of the Month (1965), recommended him to producer Barry Letts, who was looking for a replacement for Jon Pertwee as the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). Baker's performance in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) convinced Letts that he was right for it. It brought Baker international fame and popularity. He played the role for seven years, longer than any actor before or since.
After leaving Doctor Who (1963) in 1981, Baker returned to theatre and made occasional television and film appearances, playing Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982), Puddleglum in The Chronicles of Narnia story The Silver Chair (1990) and Hallvarth, Clan Leader of the Hunter Elves, in Dungeons & Dragons (2000).- Writer
- Director
Edward Bond was born on 18 July 1934 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and director, known for Blow-Up (1966), Walkabout (1971) and Laughter in the Dark (1969). He was married to Elisabeth Pablé. He died on 3 March 2024 in Cambridge, England, UK.- Actor
- Writer
- Composer
Jim Dale began his career as a stand-up comic. He sharpened his comedy skills during a stint in the army, where he organized and performed in camp shows. After his discharge he pursued a comedy career, and landed a job as the warm-up comic on a musical variety show. He did so well that the producers gave him a spot on the show as a singer, and he quickly became a recording star. He was signed for a small part in one of the "Carry On" films, Carry on Cabby (1963), but the audience reaction to him was so great the he was soon made a regular member of the cast. Unlike many comics, Dale insisted on performing his own stunts, and in fact injured his arm performing a stunt in Carry on Again Doctor (1969), his last film of the series until 1992.
After his departure from the series he returned to the stage, notably in Sir Laurence Olivier's National Theater. In the 1970s Dale moved to the US for film and stage work, achieving success in the Broadway show "Barnum" and in a string of film comedies for Disney.
He returned to Britain in 1992 for an appearance in the final "Carry On" film, Carry on Columbus (1992).- Writer
- Producer
Hugh Whitemore was born on 16 June 1936 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK. He was a writer and producer, known for 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), The Gathering Storm (2002) and The Boy in the Bush (1984). He was married to Rohan McCullough and Sheila Lemon. He died on 17 July 2018 in the UK.- Actor
- Director
- Art Department
Boisterous British actor Brian Blessed is known for his hearty, king-sized portrayals on film and television. A giant of a man accompanied by an eloquent wit and booming, operatic voice, Brian was born in 1936 and grew up in the mining village of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire. His father was a miner who wanted a better life for his son; Brian lost three uncles in the pit. At a young age, he displayed an acute talent for acting in school productions, but also had a penchant for boxing, a direction that would be short-lived.
Working various blue-collar jobs from undertaker's assistant to plasterer, Brian managed to attend the Bristol Old Vic and was off and running. He has lent his musical talents to several productions - from playing "Old Deuteronomy" in "Cats" to "The Baron" in the more recent "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". In the 1970s, he began appearing more and more on-camera with both classical and contemporary performances. In costumed television movies, he has played "Porthos" in The Three Musketeers (1966) and The Further Adventures of the Musketeers (1967), "Augustus" in I, Claudius (1976), and "Long John Silver" in Return to Treasure Island (1986) and has been a part of various reenactments including Catherine the Great (1995), Lady Chatterley (1993), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) and Kidnapped (1995).
On film, he has appeared in robust support in several William Shakespeare adaptations, including Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), Macbeth (1997) and the title role in King Lear (1999), which he also directed.
More recently, he appeared in Oliver Stone's epic-scale Alexander (2004) and in Kenneth Branagh's film version of William Shakespeare's As You Like It (2006).
In recent years, the octogenarian has been heard more than seen with voice work in video games, documentaries and such animated TV programs as Kika & Bob (2007) (as Bob); The Amazing World of Gumball (2011) (as Santa Claus); Wizards vs. Aliens (2012) (as the Necross King); Henry Hugglemonster (2013) (as Eduardo Enormomonster); and Peppa Pig (2004) as Grampy Rabbit.
He is married to British actress Hildegard Neil, who made an appearance with him in Macbeth (1997).- Actor
- Additional Crew
Alan Rothwell was born on 9 February 1937 in Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Alan Partridge (2013), Nothing But the Best (1964) and Coronation Street (1960). He was previously married to Maureen Haydon and Marjorie Ward.- 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. - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Kenneth Colley was born on 7 December 1937 in Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Firefox (1982) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). He has been married to Mary Dunne since 1962.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Stephen Moore was born on 11 December 1937 in Brixton, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Boat That Rocked (2009), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). He was married to Noelyn George, Beth Morris, Celestine Randall and Barbara Mognaz. He died on 4 October 2019.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Brian Cooke was born on 13 December 1937 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK. He is a writer, known for George & Mildred (1976), Man About the House (1973) and Starting from Scratch (1988).- Michael Culver was born on 16 June 1938 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), A Passage to India (1984) and Breakaway (1980). He was married to Amanda Ward and Lucinda Curtis. He died on 27 February 2024.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
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.- British leading actor, born Patrick Archibald Shaw, one of three siblings of Welsh and English parentage. A 1962 graduate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he was at the peak of his popularity in the late 60s and early 70s. On the London stage from 1963, he also began acting on television the following year. Mower did not achieve prominence until 1967, when he was given his first opportunity to shine as paranormal investigator Michael West in the miniseries Haunted (1967). Though briefly considered and auditioned for the part of James Bond in 1968, he was deemed as too young for the part.
Mower instead made his mark with featured roles in Hammer's The Devil Rides Out (1968) and AIP's Cry of the Banshee (1970), plus with guest spots in popular action series like Department S (1969), UFO (1970) and Paul Temple (1969). Between 1970 and 1973, he had a breakthrough --back-to-back-- as the unscrupulous assassin James Cross in Callan (1967) and as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Haggerty in the police drama Special Branch (1969). On the strength of the latter, he received first billing in another cop show, Target (1977), as Detective Superintendent Steve Hackett. Not wanting to be typecast, he was content to move on after Target's cancellation in the wake of season two. He also made an impact in a trio of miniseries: as Edmund, the main antagonist of King Lear (1974), as Brother Damian in Marco Polo (1982) and in the gripping BBC supernatural drama The Dark Side of the Sun (1983), in which the early death of his character on the island of Rhodes leads to the uncovering of a sinister conspiracy.
More recently, Mower has become a small screen favorite once again in the regular role of Rodney Blackstock in the soap opera Emmerdale Farm (1972), a character he has portrayed in over 1300 episodes (to date) since October 2000. On the stage, he has portrayed Mortimer in Edward II, Orsino in Twelfth Night, Richard Sherman in The Seven Year Itch (Tom Ewell's role in the classic Hollywood film) and Manderley's stern owner Maxim de Winter, in Rebecca (famously played on screen by Laurence Olivier). - Eminent English actor Oliver Ford Davies began his career in academia. The son of a teacher, he studied at Merton College, Oxford University, where he became president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society and performed on stage with the experimental Theatre Club at the age of twenty. After graduating with a PhD, he then lectured in history for two years at Edinburgh University, eventually coming to realize that he would rather spend his working life as an actor. This was, at least in part, inspired by witnessing Paul Scofield's commanding performance in Peter Brook's acclaimed production of King Lear in 1962.
Davies made his professional theatrical debut at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1967 and has since acted on diverse stages throughout England. He spent several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, beginning in 1975 with a role as Mountjoy in Henry V. The classical stage has seen him in productions of Henry IV, The Hollow Crown, As You Like It, Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet and Julius Caesar. Davies has regarded being cast as the lead in David Hare's Racing Devil at the National Theatre as his career breakthrough. This performance garnered him an Olivier Best Actor Award in 1990. Davies also headlined as King Lear at the Almeida in Islington, London, in 2001.
Since his first television appearance in 1968, Davies has often been typecast as clerics, doctors and academics, usually characters somewhat older than his years. He had a recurring role as barrister Peter Foxcott in Kavanagh QC (1995) and enjoyed guest spots on popular detective shows like Van der Valk (1972), Maigret (1992), Wycliffe (1993), Pie in the Sky (1994), Poirot (1989), Foyle's War (2002) and Father Brown (2013). He has also played portrait painter John Hunter Thompson in The Brontës of Haworth (1973), the infirm Mr. Wickfield, lawyer and employer of Uriah Heep, in BBC's David Copperfield (1999) and the Archbishop of Canterbury in the film Johnny English (2003). Since the 90s, Davies has become more familiar to international audiences for his role as Queen Amidala's councillor Sio Bibble in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and as Cressen, the maester of Dragonstone and servant of Stannis Baratheon in HBO's blockbuster series Game of Thrones (2011).
Davies published his memoir, "An Actor's Life in 12 Productions", in 2022. For his services to drama, he was awarded an OBE in the 2024 New Year Honours List. - Actor
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Peter Gill was born on 7 September 1939 in Cardiff, Wales, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Zulu (1964), Plays for Britain (1976) and As You Like It (1963).- Malcolm Hebden is an English television and stage actor known for his role as Norris Cole in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
Hebden was born in Chester before his family moved to Burnley, Lancashire, three weeks later. He was educated at West Gate High School and began his career as a window dresser in Burnley. He was involved in amateur dramatics groups, one of which included Richard Moore, called The Highcliffe Players. When aged 28, he attended the Rose Bruford Drama School in London before beginning a career in theatre.
Hebden first appeared in Coronation Street in 1974, as Mavis Riley's Spanish boyfriend Carlos.
He first appeared as Norris Cole in Coronation Street (1960) in 1994 and left in 1997, before returning to the role in December 1999 for his current stint in the show.
Hebden appeared as a shopkeeper in the film Lost for Words (1999) starring Thora Hird and Pete Postlethwaite.
Along with his on-screen business partner Barbara Knox (Rita Sullivan), Hebden won the 'Best Onscreen Partnership' award at the British Soap Awards in May 2006. Additionally he won the 'Funniest Character' title for two consecutive years at the 2001 and 2002 Inside Soap Awards. He also made an appearance in Last of the Summer Wine.
In April 2008, Malcolm Hebden suggested to Coronation Street producers that Andrew Sachs should have a guest role in the soap playing Norris's brother, an idea they accepted.No MBE yet. - Actor
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An English actor active in the theater since 1961, having made few theatrical movies, none of which particularly outstanding, with the exception of John Boorman's Zardoz (1974) and Nigel Cole's popular Calendar Girls (2003), John Alderton has become famous thanks to British television. Appearing in approximately two hundred TV series episodes, TV movies or specials, he is best remembered as the teacher facing the rowdy students in the series Please Sir! (1968), from 1968 to 1972, Thomas, the chauffeur, in Upstairs, Downstairs (1971), between 1971 and 1975, and the narrator and sole voice artist for the English dub of Fireman Sam (1987) from 1987 to 1994.- Writer
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Nick Ullett was born on 5 March 1941 in London, England, UK. He is a writer and actor, known for Hook (1991), Days of Our Lives (1965) and Music Scene (1969). He has been married to Jenny O'Hara since 20 July 1986. They have two children. He was previously married to Marcia Green, Catherine Ann Blum and Joan Agda Wood Schneider.- Actor
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Preferring contemporary over classical theatre (with nary a Shakespeare stage credit in sight), one of West End theatre's most enduring and popular faces of the past four decades has been that of Tom Conti.
He was born Thomas Antonio Conti on November 22, 1941, in Paisley, Scotland, to a pair of hairdressers. His father, Alfonso, was an Italian immigrant, and his mother, Mary (McGoldrick), was Scottish, though of Irish descent. A student at Hamilton Park Catholic School (for boys), he initially trained for a musical career as a classical pianist but switched gears while attending the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Conti's acting credits began with the Citizen's Theatre's 1959 production of "The Roving Boy" at age eighteen.
Throughout the 1960s he tried to make ends meet on the Glasgow and English repertory stages but gained little momentum despite some scattered TV appearances in between. Unable to find the break to sustain himself, he considered leaving the arts at one point for a steadier career in medicine. While performing in the 1972 play "The Black and White Minstrels" at the Traverse Theatre for the Edinburgh Festival, however, he was spotted and cast in the TV series Adam Smith (1972), thus beginning a more promising streak of work. He would return to the play in 1974 at the Hampstead Theatre, where he also performed in "Other People" (also 1974) and as the title role of "Don Juan" (1976). An earlier London stage debut in 1973 with the acclaimed Christopher Hampton play "Savages" also helped move things along.
Following a number of successful Engish mini-series roles, particularly his slothful Charles Bovary in Madame Bovary (1975), Jewish novelist Adam Morris in The Glittering Prizes (1976), and ever-conquesting Norman in "The Norman Conquest" trilogy by Alan Ayckbourn, Tom reaped huge career rewards under the theatre lights starring as a paralyzed sculptor in both the London and Broadway mountings of the right-to-die play "Whose Life is it Anyway?" in 1979. Among the reaps were the Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Laurence Olivier, and Variety Club Awards; among the rewards was a 1980s film career in starring roles. Despite losing out on recreating his "Whose Life..." role on film (Richard Dreyfuss was granted that opportunity in 1981), Tom absolutely wowed American audiences with his scene-stealing work in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983) and Reuben, Reuben (1983). He was given the National Board of Review award for his participation in both films, and earned a "leading actor" Oscar nomination for the latter in which he played an alcoholic Scottish writer. To date, he has not received another Oscar nomination or, arguably, been handed comparative film roles since.
Continuing in American films with the lesser-received American Dreamer (1984) and Saving Grace (1986), he failed to nab what seemed quite inevitable -- Hollywood screen stardom. He did, however, venture off to find other film projects to star or co-star in over the years -- both here and abroad. These have included Shirley Valentine (1989) opposite Pauline Collins, Someone Else's America (1995), Out of Control (1998), Paid (2006), O Jerusalem (2006), Blind Revenge (2009) with Daryl Hannah, a gender-bending version of The Tempest (2010) (as Gonzalo), City Slacker (2012), Paddington 2 (2017) and the sci-fi horror yarn Peripheral (2018).
Not one to frequent pubs himself, he nevertheless earned glowing reviews disappearing into the lives of two notorious celebrity tipplers -- columnist Jeffrey Bernard in "Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell" (1990, 2000, 2006) and bon vivant actor John Barrymore in "One Helluva Life" (2002) -- in separate one-man stage shows. A writer as well, the versatile Conti published the thriller novel "The Doctor" in 2004. He has long been married to Scottish actress Kara Wilson (since 1967), who has appeared with him on stage ("Present Laughter" and "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers", both of which he also directed) as well as TV and film. Daughter Nina is an actress and ventriloquist. The couple maintain residence in London.- John Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, the son of Norman and Myfanwy Shrapnel. He was brought up in Stockport and south London, attending City of London School and Cambridge University. He was an original member of the National Youth Theatre and had worked extensively in theatre, particularly the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. He lived in Suffolk and London.
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A natural at portraying complex villains, anti-heroes, and charming heavies, Ian McShane is the classically trained, award-winning actor who has grabbed attention and acclaim from audiences and critics around the world with his unforgettable gallery of scoundrels, kings, mobsters and thugs.
And, now, a god as well!
McShane just completed his third season (as star and executive producer) on the hit Starz series, "American Gods," the TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel. As Mr. Wednesday, a shifty, silver-tongued conman, he masks his true identity - that of the Norse god of war, Odin, who's assembling a team of elders to bring down the new false idols. A series McShane calls "like nothing else I've seen on television."
It's a comment that also befits McShane's critically-acclaimed role of the charismatic, menacing and lawless 19th century brothel-and-bar keep, Al Swearengen, in the profound and profane HBO western series "Deadwood," which ran for just 36 episodes over three seasons from 2004-06. For his work on the series' second season, McShane won the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama (in addition to Emmy and Screen Actors Guild nominations as Outstanding Lead Dramatic Actor). He also received the Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Drama for his work in the show's debut season (with a second nomination in 2005).
It is a role and performance the New York Times dubbed "one of the most interesting villains on television." And, a recent online poll called Swearengen a more compelling onscreen gangster over the likes of Tony Soprano and Michael Corleone. After a twelve-year hiatus from portraying maybe his most iconic character ("it was the most satisfyingly creative three years of my professional career" he says), McShane recently reprised the unforgettable rogue when HBO resurrected the 1870s western in a two-hour telefilm, "Deadwood: The Movie," nominated for the Outstanding Television Movie Emmy.
At an age when many successful thespians turn to cameo appearances and character parts, McShane's busy career (which dates back to 1962) also includes three very different starring roles on the big screen. He was seen alongside David Harbour in Neil Marshall's reimagined comic book epic, "Hellboy." McShane also co-starred with Gary Carr in the Dan Pritzker drama, "Bolden," the biopic of musician Buddy Bolden, the father of jazz and a key figure in the development of ragtime music (McShane portrays Bolden's nemesis, Judge Perry). And, he reprised his role (reuniting with Keanu Reeves) as Winston, the suave and charming owner of the assassins-only Tribeca hotel in the latest installment of director Chad Stahelski's action trilogy, "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum," which opened to enormous box office success.
Years before his triumphant role in "Deadwood," McShane had compiled a long and diverse career on both British and American television. He produced and starred in the acclaimed series "Lovejoy" for the BBC (and A&E in the U.S.), directing several episodes during the show's lengthy run. The popular Sunday night drama (which attracted 18 million viewers weekly during its run from 1990-94) saw McShane in the title role of an irresistible, roguish Suffolk antiques dealer. He would reunite with the BBC by producing and starring in the darker and more serious drama, Madson.
He collected a second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Miniseries for his portrayal of the scheming Waleran Bigod in Starz's Emmy-nominated "Pillars of the Earth." The production, which originated on the U.K.'s Channel 4, was based on Ken Follett's bestselling historic novel about the building of a 12th-century cathedral during the time known as "the Anarchy" after King Henry I had lost his only son in the White Ship disaster of 1120. It's a character McShane says "would fit into the Vatican."
He is also well-known to TV audiences for his roles in FX's "American Horror Story," Showtime's "Ray Donovan" and, more recently, Amazon's "Dr. Thorne" and HBO's juggernaut, "Game of Thrones" ("I loved the character and did it because my three grandkids, big fans of the show, wouldn't have forgiven me if I hadn't"). And, he first worked with "American Gods" producer Michael Green on the short-lived NBC drama, "Kings," a show (inspired by The Book Of Samuel) he calls "far too revolutionary for network television."
Other notable small screen roles include his appearance in David Wolper's landmark miniseries "Roots" (as the British cockfighting aficionado), "Whose Life Is it Anyway?," Heathcliff in the 1967 miniseries "Wuthering Heights" and Harold Pinter's Emmy-winning "The Caretaker." McShane has also played a variety of real-life subjects like Sejanus in the miniseries "A.D.," the title role of Masterpiece Theater's "Disraeli: Portrait of A Romantic" and Judas in NBC's "Jesus of Nazareth" (directed by Franco Zeffirelli).
McShane, who shows no signs of slowing down in a career now entrenched in its sixth decade ("acting is the only business where the older you get, the parts and the pay get better"), began his career during Britain's New Wave Cinema of the early 1960s. He landed his first lead role in the 1962 English feature "The Wild and the Willing," which also starred another acting upstart and fellow Brit - McShane's lifelong friend, the late John Hurt. McShane later revealed that he had ditched class at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to audition for the role.
Since that 1962 motion picture debut, McShane has enjoyed a fabulous run of character roles such as the sinister Cockney mobster, Teddy Bass, opposite Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast"; the infamous pirate, Blackbeard, alongside Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides"; and Richard Burton's bi-sexual partner, Wolfie, in the 1971 heist film, "Villain." He gave Hayley Mills her first onscreen kiss as a smoldering gypsy in 1965's "Sky West and Crooked," was part of the stellar ensemble cast (James Mason, James Coburn, Dyan Cannon) in the Stephen Sondheim-Anthony Perkins scripted big screen mystery, "The Last of Sheila," and played a retired sheriff with a violent past opposite Patrick Wilson in the gritty drama, "The Hollow Point."
Other film credits include Guy Hamilton's all-star WWII epic, "The Battle of Britain," the romantic comedy "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium," "Pottersville," "Hercules," "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "Jawbone" (reuniting with fellow Brit Ray Winstone in both), "Jack the Giant Slayer," Woody Allen's "Scoop," Rodrigo Garcia's indie drama "Nine Lives" (Gotham Award nominee for Best Ensemble Performance) and the darkly perverse crime drama, "44 Inch Chest," a film in which McShane not only starred, but also produced.
While also making his professional theatre debut in 1962 ("Infanticide in the House of Fred August," Arts Theatre, London), McShane appeared onstage in the original 1965 production of Joe Orton's "Loot." Two years later, he starred alongside Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in the hit stage play, "The Promise," a production which transferred to Broadway in 1967 (with Eileen Atkins replacing Dench). He would return to Broadway one more time forty years later (2008), starring in the 40th anniversary staging of Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming," for which he shared a Drama Desk Award as Best Cast Ensemble.
McShane also returned to the West End boards in 2000, charming audiences as the seductive, sex-obsessed Darryl Van Horne while making his musical stage debut in Cameron Mackintosh's "The Witches of Eastwick," an adaptation of the 1987 film. At the esteemed Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles, he appeared in Harold Pinter's "Betrayal," and John Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence," earning a pair of Los Angeles Drama Critics' Awards for Lead Performance in the process. He also starred in the world premiere of Larry Atlas' "Yield of the Long Bond."
In addition to his work in front of the camera, McShane is also well-known for his voiceover work, with his low, distinctive baritone on display in a variety of projects. He voiced the eccentric magician, Mr. Bobinsky, in Henry Selick's award nominated "Coraline" (scripted by "American Gods" author Neil Gaiman), lent a sinister air to Tai Lung, the snow leopard adept at martial arts, in "Kung Fu Panda" (Annie Award nominee), and created the notorious Captain Hook in "Shrek the Third." He also narrated Grace Jones' 1985 album, Slave to the Rhythm, succumbing to producer Trevor Horn's request to take the job because, per Horn," Orson Welles was dead, and I needed a voice." The album sold over a million copies worldwide. In the virtual reality domain, he recently lent his voice to the award- winning VR animated short "Age of Sail" in the role of the elderly sailor, William Avery, adrift alone in the North Atlantic.
After almost sixty years entertaining audiences across the performance spectrum, McShane admits he did not set out for a career in the footlights while growing up in Manchester, England (he was actually born in Blackburn). It was by unexpected circumstances after McShane broke his leg playing soccer that he ended up performing in the school play production of Cyrano De Bergerac where he met his life-long friend and teacher, Leslie Ryder. Before he knew it, he auditioned for the Royal Academy of Arts where he was accepted and then left a term early to appear in the film, "The Wild and The Willing".
McShane never looked back.- Howard Brenton was born on 13 December 1942 in Portsmouth, England, UK. He is a writer, known for MI-5 (2002), Dead Head (1986) and Plays for Britain (1976). He has been married to Jane Margaret Fry since 31 January 1970. They have two children.
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Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, playwright, director, and songwriter. co-creator of Monty Python on TV, stage, and five films, including The Life of Brian and The Holy Grail, which he later adapted for the stage with John Du Prez as Monty Python's Spamalot, winning the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2005, a Grammy, a Drama Desk Award, and playing for almost five years on Broadway. They also wrote the comic oratorio Not the Messiah, He's a Very Naughty Boy, in 2007, which played round the world and at The Hollywood Bowl and was filmed live at The Royal Albert Hall, and a musical play What About Dick? available soon on iTunes. He created and directed the first mockumentary The Rutles for NBC, starred as Ko-Ko in the English National Opera version of The Mikado in London and Houston, and appeared last year in The Pirates of Penzance in Central Park and in Not the Messiah at Carnegie Hall. He is also one of the conceivers of the musical Seussical. In 2012 he appeared live in front of a billion people worldwide singing his song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life at the Closing Ceremony of the London Olympics. Last year he created, directed, and appeared in the sold-out final Monty Python reunion show One Down Five to Go at London's O2 Arena for 10 nights, whose final performance was broadcast live round the world.
He has also acted in several movies, including Nuns on the Run, Splitting Heirs, Casper, Shrek the Third, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; and written two novels, The Greedy Bastard Diary and Pass the Butler, a West End play.- Composer
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Vangelis was a composer and performer who worked almost exclusively with electronic instruments. With Jean-Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield in the 1970s, Vangelis was a pioneer in the instrumental music and a main influence in the creation of the musical genre "new age," a style related to spiritual, meditation, relaxing ambient sounds as well as sounds from outer space. He was probably most well known for his Chariots of Fire (1981), Blade Runner (1982), The Bounty (1984) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) soundtracks or for the tracks used in the documentary TV series Cosmos (1980) created, produced and hosted by scientist Carl Sagan. Vangelis was involved in many musical collaborations, most famously with British progressive rock band Yes's founding member Jon Anderson.- Actor
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Michael Pennington was born on 7 June 1943 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), The Iron Lady (2011) and Hamlet (1969). He was previously married to Katharine Barker.- Robert East was born on 7 July 1943 in Porthcawl, Wales, UK. He is an actor, known for Jojo Rabbit (2019), MI-5 (2002) and Emma (1972).
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Roger Waters was born on 6 September 1943 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He is a music artist and composer, known for Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982), The Squid and the Whale (2005) and The Big Boss (1971). He was previously married to Laurie Durning, Pricilla Phillips, Carolyn Christie and Judy Trim.- Composer
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Jimmy Page was born on 9 January 1944 in Heston, Middlesex, England, UK. He is a composer and actor, known for The Song Remains the Same (1976), Godzilla (1998) and The Adam Project (2022). He was previously married to Jimena Gomez-Paratcha, Patricia Ecker and Charlotte Martin.- Brian Protheroe was born on 16 June 1944 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Superman (1978), North & South (2004) and MI-5 (2002). He is married to Gilly Nash.
- Nick (for Nicholas) Brimble is one of three brothers, all actors. The other two, twins, are Ian Brimble and Vincent Brimble. Their father, Roy Brimble, was a school teacher, which freed him in summers to travel around with and sometimes manage groups of performers. He acted with WEA and Bristol Arts Society and the sons grew up taking him through his lines and going to see him in plays.
When Roy did TV and radio from Bristol, the three children played parts in productions such as 'Children Of The New Forest'. Nick applied to the Italia Conti stage school when he was about ten, but wasn't allowed to go. Instead, he passed his scholarship to Bristol Grammar school, and his reward was a season ticket to Bristol Old Vic Theatre where he saw every show until he went to University in '62.
Nick graduated with a 2.1 degree (read "two-one" or Second Class Honours, Upper Division), which roughly equates to the American high 'B' range (3.0 - 3.3) as the minimum standard for entry into graduate school in England and Wales. He taught for a while after graduation. When he began acting, it was with a group of mostly young actors who learned and evaluated each other as they performed.
Nick's strong features enable him to adopt a forbidding appearance in so many of his tough-guy roles. However, he's an utterly charming, somewhat reserved gentleman with a wonderful smile and electrifying blue eyes. - Actor
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Dunfermline-born character actor Kenneth Cranham has specialised in playing abrasive characters, reprobates and rough diamonds on stage, on radio, in films and in one-off dramas or guest roles on TV. The son of Ronald Cranham, an English civil servant and former army staff sergeant and his Scottish wife Margaret McKay Cranham (née Ferguson), he spent the first four years of his life in Scotland. The family then moved to London where Kenneth attended Tulse Hill Comprehensive School. At the age of nineteen, while working at a bookshop, he was discovered by the playwright Joe Orton who cast him in his radio play 'The Ruffian on the Stair'. This marked the beginning of his career.
Cranham trained for acting at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and then studied at RADA, graduating in 1966. His association with Orton continued that year with a role in 'Loot' at the Royal Court (and, subsequently, at the Criterion Theatre). The actor later remarked that this role set him up "for all the hoodies in Softly, Softly, Z Cars and New Scotland Yard." With his craggy features and gruff voice, it is hardly surprising that Cranham has often been cast in tough or villainous roles. On screen from 1964, he first came to notice as Noah Claypole, one of Fagin's gang of pickpockets, in Oliver! (1968). His first starring turn was in the comedy series Shine on Harvey Moon (1982) as the titular character, a demobbed RAF corporal. Other notable roles across diverse genres have included the callous Gratiano in The Merchant of Venice (1980), Lenin in Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983), a wealthy, despotic landowner in Heart of the High Country (1985) (set in 1880s New Zealand), the comically over-zealous Pastor Finch in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1989), British gangster Gus Mercer in El C.I.D. (1990), cunning magician Aulfric in Merlin (2008), a scurrilous newspaper editor who gets his comeuppance in Hustle (2004) and Caesar's rival Pompey in Rome (2005). A more recent TV guest spot saw Cranham as an ailing patient in India, attempting to rediscover a lost love in season three of The Good Karma Hospital (2017). He has also essayed real life barristers Michael Mansfield Q.C. (The Murder of Stephen Lawrence (1999)) and George Carmen Q.C. (Justice in Wonderland (2000)).
For the big screen, Cranham has been notable as the maniacal Dr. Channard in Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), double-dealing mob boss Jimmy Price in Layer Cake (2004), another elder statesman of the London underworld in Gangster No. 1 (2000), farmer James Reaper in the buddy-cop comedy Hot Fuzz (2007) and as the tyrannical King Henry, a main antagonist in Disney's Maleficent (2014).
The actor has been equally prolific on stage where he has headlined as the amoral title character in Orton's play Entertaining Mr. Sloane. He was much acclaimed for his role as Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls at the National Theatre (an Olivier Award-nominated performance, which transferred to Broadway in 1994-95). He played the avuncular detective Rough in Gaslight at the Old Vic in 2007 and finally won the coveted Olivier Award in 2016 for his performance as an elderly man with dementia in Florian Zeller's play The Father. For services to drama, Cranham received a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2023.- Actor
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Instantly recognisable, often bearded Liverpudlian character actor who regularly featured on stage and screen in period productions, police dramas, sitcoms and soaps during a career that spanned five decades. Extremely prolific and versatile, he took on just about any type of role, merrily alternating between bellicose, shifty, dependable, bucolic, curmudgeonly or avuncular types. His most prominent headliners included PC Wilmot in the Yorkshire-based sitcom Rosie (1977) and the titular character of the sci-fi comedy Kinvig (1981) penned by Nigel Kneale. Occasional scene-stealing turns in support included the deliriously mad Milo Renfield in Dracula (1979). Among innumerable other worthy supporting roles a list of standouts might include Gridley, the ruined chancery appellant in Bleak House (2005) ; Vic Snow in Where the Heart Is (1997) ; nouveau-riche timber merchant Melbury in The Woodlanders (1997) and the slightly seedy consular chauffeur Fidel Sanchez in Farrington of the F.O. (1986). He also voiced the slow-witted, mercilessly hen-pecked antagonist Mr. Tweedy in Aardman's animated feature Chicken Run (2000).
Before claimed by the stage, Haygarth briefly tried his luck at other fields of employment, including a period as a lifeguard in Torquay and a psychiatric nurse at Sefton Hospital in Liverpool. Having found his chosen vocation in repertory theatre he went from there to more distinguished roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Old Vic and the National Theatre. He won the Clarence Derwent Award in 1996 for his part in the play "Simpatico" and in 2003 appeared with Zoë Wanamaker in "His Girl Friday" and alongside Kenneth Branagh in "Edmond". Starting in 2007, he appeared as Alfred Doolittle in Peter Hall's production of "Pygmalion", a performance described by the reviewer of The Daily Telegraph as "delightfully funny" and "scene-stealing". Haygarth was an author writng plays and a book of poetry entitled "God wore Clogs". In 2014, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia which sadly claimed his life three years later at the age of 72.- Music Artist
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Born in Chiswick, London just ten days after the German surrender in 1945, Townshend grows up in a typical middle-class home. His parents, Cliff and Betty Townshend, are both musicians, and as a child he accompanies them on dance band tours. Townshend starts playing guitar at 12. He goes to art school and, after several stints in local semi-professional bands, forms the rock group The Who in 1963 with singer Roger Daltrey, bass player John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. The Who start out as the ultimate, violent anti-establishment band; they soon gain notoriety for ear-splitting live performances, smashing their equipment on stage and wrecking hotel rooms, leaving havoc everywhere they go. As the group's mastermind and main songwriter, Townshend later establishes himself as an eminent musical auteur and the thinking man's rock guitarist after penning such now legendary concept albums as "Tommy", the abandoned "Lifehouse" and "Quadrophenia", which combine the energy of rock'n'roll with the orchestral and thematic ambitions of opera. After Keith Moon's accidental death in 1978 and a few unconvincing farewell tours with new drummer Kenney Jones, The Who break up. The 80's find Townshend struggling with his identity as an aging rock godfather, fighting drug problems and increasing hearing troubles. In 1989, he roars back with a 25th anniversary tour of The Who, later a Broadway revival of "Tommy" (an eventual Tony winner) and several other ambitious musical, theater and film projects. Widely known as the windmilling, leaping about guitarist for The Who, Townshend is also a premier songwriter, accurately self-reflective lyricist and inspired multi-media entrepreneur. Both "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia" were made into energetic films. The Kids Are Alright (1979), the band's biography movie, is interesting not only for The Who fans, but also from a filmmaker's point of view. Townsend's haunting songs have been used on the soundtrack of countless pictures. He stands out as one of rock music's most gifted and influential artists who has, despite being forever tied to the rebellious image of his youth, decided to somehow grow old with dignity.- David Horovitch was born on 11 August 1945 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Young Victoria (2009), Mr. Turner (2014) and 102 Dalmatians (2000). He was previously married to Jane Elizabeth Gwynn Roberts.
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John Paul Jones was born on 3 January 1946 in Sidcup, Kent, England, UK. He is a composer and actor, known for The Song Remains the Same (1976), The Adam Project (2022) and Small Soldiers (1998). He has been married to Maureen Jones since 1967. They have three children.- Tom Chadbon was born on 27 February 1946 in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Casino Royale (2006), Rebecca (1997) and Tess (1979). He has been married to Jane Hennessy since 20 July 1977. They have one child. He was previously married to Deborah Leathers.
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At a consistently lean 6' 2", green-eyed Timothy Dalton may very well be one of the last of the dying breed of swashbuckling, classically trained Shakespearean actors who have forged simultaneous successful careers in theater, television and film. He has been comparison-shopped roundly for stepping into roles played by other actors, first following Sir Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights (1970), in Scarlett (1994).
Undaunted and good-natured, he has always stated that he likes the risk of challenges. He was born in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, the oldest of five children of Dorothy (Scholes) and Peter Dalton-Leggett. His father was stationed in Colwyn Bay during World War II, and moved the family to Manchester in the late 1940s, where he worked in advertising and raised the growing Dalton family, in an upper-class neighbourhood outside of Belper, Derbyshire. Timothy was enrolled in a school for bright children, where he excelled in sports and was interested in the sciences. He was fascinated with acting from a young age, perhaps due to the fact that both his grandfathers were vaudevillians, but it was when he saw a performance of "Macbeth" at age 16 that his destiny was clinched.
After leaving Herbert Strutt Grammar School at age 16, he toured as a leading member of Michael Croft's National Youth Theater. Between 1964-66, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Just before completing his two years, he quit and joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, playing the lead in many productions under the direction of Peter Dews while at the same time then as James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989), and even more brutally, recently, as Rhett Butler turning professional. Dalton later said of RADA in an interview with "Seventeen" magazine (December 1970), "It took a year to undo the psychological damage that was caused by the oppressive teachers.".
His talent and classic good looks immediately landed him professional work in television, guest-starring on an episode of the short-lived series, Judge Dee (1969), and as a regular on the 14-episode series Sat'day While Sunday (1967) with the young Malcolm McDowell. In late 1967, Peter O'Toole recommended him for the role of the young King Philip of France in The Lion in Winter (1968) (coincidentally, this was also Anthony Hopkins' big break). The following year, he starred in the Italian film Giuochi particolari (1970) with Marcello Mastroianni and Virna Lisi, although his voice was dubbed into Italian by another actor. Dalton also mixed in a healthy dose of BBC work during this time, including The Three Princes (1968), Five Finger Exercise (1970) and Candida (1973). Also during this time, he was approached and tested for the role of James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) which he turned down, feeling he was too young for the role. His next film was another costume drama, Cromwell (1970), working with director Ken Hughes, with whom he later made his first American film, Sextette (1977). He followed Cromwell (1970) with Wuthering Heights (1970) and Mary, Queen of Scots (1971).
He was already developing a pattern in his films that would follow him throughout his career: costume dramas where he played royalty, which he had done in three of his first four films (and ridden horses in three, and raised a sword in two). In 1972, he was contracted to play a role in Lady Caroline Lamb (1972). However, he was replaced at the last moment. Dalton sued the company and won, but the film went on without him. From the early to mid-1970s, he decided to further hone his skills by going back into the theater full time. He signed on with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the Prospect Theatre Company (PTC), and toured the world with both, playing the leads in "Romeo and Juliet", "King Lear", "Henry V", "Love's Labours Lost" and "Henry IV" - parts 1 and 2.
In 1975, he returned to movies in the British/Austrian production of The Executioner (1975). It was followed in 1976 by the Spanish religious historical film about the inquisition, El hombre que supo amar (1976), which was never widely released. After this, he took another break from film, mixing in a healthy dose of theater, returning for his first American film, Sextette (1977), and the lengthy miniseries Centennial (1978), his first American television appearance, in which Lynn Redgrave played his wife. Because of his broad exposure to American audiences in this series, he began to get more frequent film and television work in the United States, including the Charlie's Angels (1976) episode "Fallen Angel" -- which, ironically, had several references to his character being like James Bond -- and the TV movie The Flame Is Love (1979). Although he did a few features, including playing Vanessa Redgrave's husband in Agatha (1979), most of his work until 1985 consisted of TV movies and miniseries. He played Prince Barin in the science fiction classic Flash Gordon (1980). He followed this with a small film, Chanel Solitaire (1981) and also filmed a staged production of Antony and Cleopatra (1984) opposite Lynn Redgrave, with Anthony Geary, as well as Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig of the original Star Trek (1966) series.
The years 1983-1987 have so far been the most prolific of his career. In 1983, he starred as Rochester in what he considers one of his best works, the popular BBC miniseries Jane Eyre (1983). Also, during this time, Roger Moore was considering leaving Bond, and Dalton was again approached, but due to his full schedule, he had to decline. In 1984, he did one of his many narrations in the Faerie Tale Theatre (1982) production of The Emperor's New Clothes (1987). That same year also saw him in the Hallmark Hall of Fame piece The Master of Ballantrae (1984) opposite Michael York and Richard Thomas, and another miniseries, Mistral's Daughter (1984), opposite Stefanie Powers and Stacy Keach. The next year was also a very busy one. He starred in another miniseries, Sins (1986), playing the brother of Joan Collins, and also starred in and narrated the four-hour miniseries Florence Nightingale (1985), opposite Jaclyn Smith. He also starred in The Doctor and the Devils (1985) as Dr. Thomas Rock, with Stephen Rea, Jonathan Pryce and Patrick Stewart.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, Dalton narrated many nature documentaries, most notably several episodes of the UK series Wildlife Chronicles (1987). In the spring of 1986, he teamed with Vanessa Redgrave for another revival of a Shakespeare production, The Taming of the Shrew (1988) and his interpretation of Petrucchio received uniformly high praise. Simultaneously, the world was playing a guessing game as to who would succeed Roger Moore as James Bond. Dalton was approached but was committed to the theater, and so Pierce Brosnan was offered the role. When Brosnan was unable to get out of his Remington Steele (1982) contract at the last minute, Dalton was again approached. Able now to work it into his tight schedule, he agreed. Although his first outing as Bond, The Living Daylights (1987), did reasonably well at the box-office, Licence to Kill (1989) suffered from a lack of marketing that appeared to harm its chances of big box-office success. However, Dalton's interpretation of "Bond" in this film received critical acclaim in some quarters as being the closest to author Ian Fleming's literary "Bond". Back in the theater, he teamed again with Vanessa Redgrave for a revival of Eugene O'Neill's seldom performed play, "A Touch of the Poet", which is considered by some to be his and Redgrave's finest professional collaboration. Although there were talks of bringing the play to Broadway, this never materialized.
Following Licence to Kill (1989), he immediately returned to one of his strengths, costume drama, in The King's Whore (1990). It was followed by his excellent performance in the Disney action adventure The Rocketeer (1991), where he played an Errol Flynn type Nazi agent. In August 1991, he teamed with Whoopi Goldberg for the first biracial interpretation of "Love Letters" for the final sold-out performances of the play in Los Angeles. When he had signed on to do Bond, it was for three pictures, but the rights to the Bond films became entangled in lengthy litigation, delaying production of the third. During this wait, he was set to star in the title role of another historical epic, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992). However, the film was doomed from the start due to the competition with the Gérard Depardieu "Columbus" picture, which was racked with its own problems. When the director was replaced, Dalton backed out and was followed by his co-star, Isabella Rossellini.
In 1992, he starred in the A&E production Framed (1992), which won a bronze medal in the 1993 New York Film Festival. The next year, he journeyed to northern Alaska and Minnesota to make a documentary on one of his favorite subjects, wolves. In the Company of Whales (1991) went on to win a silver medal in the 1994 New York Film Festival. He kept busy in television through 1993 and 1994. He made Red Eagle (1994), Scarlett (1994) and managed to squeeze in a guest appearance on Tales from the Crypt (1989) in the episode "Werewolf Concerto". In 1994, he took on the role of Rhett Butler in the eight-hour miniseries Scarlett (1994), produced by Robert Halmi Sr. for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. In April of that year, believing he needed to move on to fresh challenges, he officially resigned the role of James Bond, a move which was much regretted by the producers, though they understood his reasons. After two months of negotiations, the role went to Pierce Brosnan.
In September 1994, Dalton was called upon for two readings of "Peter and the Wolf" at the Hollywood Bowl. He played to full-capacity crowds. In November, Scarlett (1994) premiered and, though given only a lukewarm response by critics, it was a ratings success not only in the United States but all over the world, breaking records in many European countries. As always after a major work, Dalton again withdrew quietly and without fanfare to search for his next project, a small, personal film. In the summer of 1995, he journeyed to Canada to shoot Salt Water Moose (1996). The film was made by Canada's Norstar Entertainment and was sold to Halmi to be the first video release in his new line of Hallmark family films. It premiered on Showtime in June 1996.
During the spring of 1996, he made the IRA drama The Informant (1997) in Ireland and, in May, he traveled to Prague to shoot Passion's Way (1999), opposite Sela Ward. On February 7, 1997, the comedy The Beautician and the Beast (1997) co-starring Fran Drescher opened in the United States. He also gleefully parodied his swashbuckling/James Bond image in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) as a spy playing an actor playing a spy.
In 1995, Dalton began a relationship with Oksana Grigorieva which produced a child in 1997, Dalton's son Alexander. Over the following years, Dalton has been a caring and loving father of his son. Very much a private man, Dalton's pastimes include fishing, reading, jazz, opera, antique fairs and auctions and, of course, movies.- Actor
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Timothy James Curry was born on April 19, 1946 in Grappenhall, Cheshire, England. His mother, Maura Patricia (Langmead), was a school secretary, and his father, James Curry, was a Methodist Royal Navy chaplain. Curry studied Drama and English at Birmingham University, from which he graduated with Combined Honors. His first professional success was in the London production of "Hair", followed by more work in the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Glasgow Citizens Repertory Company, and the Royal Court Theatre where he created the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show". He recreated the role in the Los Angeles and Broadway productions and starred in the screen version entitled The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Curry continued his career on the New York and London stages with starring roles in "Travesties", "Amadeus", "The Pirates of Penzance", "The Rivals", "Love for Love", "Dalliance", "The Threepenny Opera", "The Art of Success" and "My Favorite Year". He also starred in the United States tour of "Me and My Girl". He has received two Tony Award nominations for best actor and won the Royal Variety Club Award as "Stage Actor of the Year".
A composer and a singer, Tim Curry toured the United States and Europe with his own band and released four albums on A&M Records. In addition to an active movie and television career, he is a sought-after actor for CD-ROM productions. His distinctive voice can be heard on more than a dozen audio books, and in countless animated television series and videos. He lives in Los Angeles, California.- David Yelland was born in 1947 in the UK. He is an actor, known for Chariots of Fire (1981), Coriolanus (2011) and Hunter Killer (2018).
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Ronald David Wood is an English rock musician, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, artist, author, and radio personality best known as a member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, as well as a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. Wood began his career in 1964, when he joined the Birds on guitar.He then joined the mod group the Creation, but remained with the group only for a short time and appeared on only a few of their singles. He joined the Jeff Beck Group in 1967 as a bass guitarist. Their two albums, Truth and Beck-Ola, are both highly praised.- Music Artist
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Mick Fleetwood was born on 24 June 1947 in Redruth, Cornwall, England, UK. He is a music artist and actor, known for The Running Man (1987), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and Triple Frontier (2019). He was previously married to Lynn Frankel, Sara Recor and Jenny Boyd.- Writer
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Willy Russell was born on 23 August 1947 in Whiston, Lancashire, England, UK. He is a writer, known for Shirley Valentine (1989), Educating Rita (1983) and A Time to Die (1982).- Music Artist
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Prior to Hobbstweedle (a pickup blues band formed to honour a gig at West Midlands College Of Education) Robert was the frontman for The Band of Joy - featuring Percy, John Bonham, Paul Lockey (bass), Chris Brown (keyboards) and Kevyn Gammond (guitar). The BOJ were on verge of making a record deal when they split a little acrinmoniously. This led to Rob eventually joining Led Zeppelin after a few blind alleys. The rest is history.- Actor
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British actor Jeremy Irons was born in Cowes, Isle of Wight, a small island off the south coast of England. He is the son of Barbara Anne Brereton (Sharpe) and Paul Dugan Irons, an accountant. Young Jeremy didn't prove very fond of figures. He visited mainland England only once a year. He wound up being grounded when his family settled down in Hertfordshire. At the age of 13 he enrolled in Sherborne School, Dorset, where he could practice his favorite sport, horse-riding. Before becoming an actor, he had considered a veterinarian surgeon's career.
He trained at the Bristol Old Vic School for two years, then joined Bristol Old Vic repertory company where he gained experience working in everything from Shakespeare to contemporary dramas. He moved to London in 1971 and had a number of jobs before landing the role of "John the Baptist" in the hit musical "Godspell". He went on to have a successful early career in the West End theatre and on TV, and debuted on-screen in Nijinsky (1980). In the early 80s, he gained international attention with his starring role in the Granada Television serial adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel Brideshead Revisited (1981), after which he was much in demand as a romantic leading man. He went on to a steady film career. In 1984, he debuted on Broadway opposite: Glenn Close in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" and, in the mid-80s, he appeared in three lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Once described as 'the thinking woman's pin up', he has made his name in thought provoking films such as David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers (1988), for which he won the New York Critics Best Actor Award. He gained a Golden Globe Award in addition to an Oscar for Best Actor in 1990 for his role as Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune (1990) alongside Glenn Close. Among his many achievements, his role as Professor Higgins in Loewe-Lerner's famous musical "My Fair Lady" mustn't be forgotten. It was in London, back in 1987.
He is married to actress Sinéad Cusack, with whom he appeared in Waterland (1992) and in the Royal Shakespeare Company plays. He appeared with his son Samuel Irons and his father-in-law Cyril Cusack in the film Danny the Champion of the World (1989). His son Max Irons is also an actor.- Director
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John Caird was born on 22 September 1948 in Canada. He is a director and writer, known for Les Misérables (2012), A Midsummer Night's Dream and Spirited Away: Live on Stage (2022). He was previously married to Frances Ruffelle.- Music Artist
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One of the pioneers of heavy metal and one of its most commercially successful and iconic artists, Ozzy Osbourne was born in Birmingham, England, as John Michael Osbourne. After leaving school and having many odd jobs, he ended up in a band with Geezer Butler. This group then split, leading Ozzy and Geezer to join Tony Iommi and Bill Ward in a new band that went under several names (including Earth) that ended up being called Black Sabbath after a song of the same name that appeared on their first album (released 1969/70). He recorded several more albums with Sabbath despite the decline of his relationship with Tony Iommi, which after several break ups led to him leaving/being fired from the band in 1979. After a short time he launched a solo career with a line up behind him that varied immensely from album to album and tour to tour. During the 80's he was treated several times for alcoholism and was sued twice for the suicides of some of his young fans (cleared completely). Following his No More Tears album he declared he would tour for the last time. In 1991, on his last date he reformed briefly on stage with Black Sabbath for three songs. However a much talked about reformation tour fell through and Ozzy seemed to go into retirement, his bassist (Mike Inez) joined Alice in Chains and the guitarist (Zakk Wylde) formed his own band, Pride and Glory. Now however he is recording a new album and has said he intends to tour again. The album should be out in the summer of 1995 and the tour should be shortly after. Geezer Butler has now quit Sabbath (again) and rejoined Ozzy (he played bass for him on tour during the mid to late 80's) and should play on the new album.- Writer
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Follett's parents belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, a Protestant sect similar to the Baptists. He was forbidden to watch television, radio or cinema. He showed a strong penchant for literature in his early youth, when he read the works of H.G. at the age of seven. Wells and Ian Flamming discovered for themselves. When he was ten years old, in 1959, his family moved to London, where he finished school. He then studied philosophy at the University of London. This subject was due to his critical curiosity about world religions, in which he hoped to find an explanation that he could understand. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Mary became pregnant, and the couple married at the end of his first semester in 1968.
In 1970 he completed his studies in London with a bachelor's degree (B.A.). He then began his professional life as a reporter and columnist for rock music for the "South Wales Echo"; and his interest in authorship was piqued. At the same time, he completed a three-month journalism course. From 1973 to 1974 he worked as a journalist for the London Evening News. His daughter Marie-Claire was born in the same year. At this time he also began his career as an author with his first short stories and novels. In 1974 he became editor-in-chief and deputy director of the publishing house "Everest Books" in London. At the same time he began to publish his first works, such as "The Big Needle" (1947) and the crime novel "The Modigliani Scandal" (1976). He used pseudonyms such as Simon Myles or Zachary Stone.
In 1978, his spy novel "The Needle" was published, which became a bestseller and brought him international popularity. The book sold around twelve million copies and was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award and made into a film starring Donald Sutherland. The proceeds enabled Follett to work exclusively as a writer from then on. Follett then moved into a villa in the south of France, where his next successful novel, "Triple" (Triple, 1980), was written. In 1983 Follett moved to Surrey with his family. There he stood out as a supporter of the Labor Party. Here he met Barbara Broer, a member of the British House of Commons, whom he married after his divorce in 1985. The couple settled in Hertfordshire and in Chelsea, London.
In addition to writing, he played bass guitar in the band Damn Right I've Got the Blues. There were more thrillers and in the following years Follett also took on social tasks in various clubs and associations. In 1990 his novel "The Pillars of the Earth" was published, which describes the construction of a cathedral in medieval England and which was made into a four-part television series by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan in 2010. Follett had discovered the genre of historical novels. Through intensive research, he tried to write them as historically correct and detailed as possible. This created detailed past worlds that illuminated all facets of an era and thus opened up well-founded historical impressions. The author himself became one of the most widely read writers of our time.
With the epoch-making trilogy of his "Saga of the Century," he underlined his reputation for research and historical observation. The historical novel "Fall of the Titans", published in 2010, marked the beginning of this. It's about the fate of three families in the 20th century. The aim was to capture the world historical whole and to draw a kind of global literature. "Winter of the World" followed in 2012 and the "Saga of the Century" entitled "Children of Freedom" was completed in 2014.- Actor
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An accomplished theatre actor, Mr. Bennett appeared on the British stage for fifteen years before moving to Canada in 1986. During this time, he starred in "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole" at the Wyndhams Theatre in London's West End. He also performed in "Ghosts", "Private Lives" and "Rookery Nook" at such theaters as the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester, the Crucible Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic and the King's Head Theatre Club, as well as many seasons on the stages of Canterbury, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield in England. From 1992-1996, he starred as the powerful and seductive "Lucien LaCroix" in the Gemini-nominated television series, Forever Knight (1992). In 1995, he received the prestigious Gemini Award for his role in the series, and it was on this show where he made his directorial debut.
His feature film work includes co-starring with Gene Hackman in Narrow Margin (1990), The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick (1988), a poignant drama that was voted Best New Film at both the Toronto Festival of Festivals and the Vancouver International Film Festival in 1988, Legends of the Fall (1994) starring Brad Pitt, Murder at 1600 (1997) starring Wesley Snipes, Top of the Food Chain (1999), a science fiction feature that premiered at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival and The Skulls (2000) starring Craig T. Nelson.- Actor
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Robert Lindsay was born on 13 December 1949 in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Fierce Creatures (1997), My Family (2000) and G.B.H. (1991). He has been married to Rosemarie Ford since 31 December 2006. They have two children. He was previously married to Cheryl Hall.- Music Artist
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Peter Gabriel was educated at Charterhouse School, Surrey, England. He was the lead singer of leading progressive rock band Genesis from its inception until he left in 1975 for a successful solo career as a singer-songwriter, soundtrack composer and innovator in visual presentation of music, music videos and digital methods of recording and distributing music. He also became well-known as an anti-apartheid activist, for his efforts to bring different styles of international music to the attention of the West by establishing the WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) Festival, his own Real World label and recording studios as well as the addition of world music performers and styles into his own music.
He has also worked extensively for Amnesty International as well as many other humanitarian efforts, such as founding his own human rights organization Witness and co-founding, with Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela, world human rights advocacy group The Elders in July 2007. His dedication to humanitarian causes was recognized with the Nobel Peace Laureates' Man of Peace Award in 2006 and Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience honour in 2008. His career in music has been cited as an inspiration by many artists, including U2, R.E.M., Kate Bush, Moby, Marillion, Simple Minds, It Bites, Elbow, Darren Hayes (of Savage Garden) and Michael Glabicki (of Rusted Root).
His greatest commercial success came with the "So" album in 1986, which was a worldwide smash and earned him the British Phonographic Industry Award for British Male Solo Artist the following year. His lasting impact on music has been recognized by the Music Industry Trusts' Award in 2004, the Frankfurt Music Prize, the first Pioneer Award at the BT Digital Music Awards, the Q Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, the BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) Icon Award in 2007, the MIDEM Personality of the Year in 2008 and the Polar Music Prize in 2009. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. In 2014, he became the first and so far only Genesis member to join it as a solo artist when Chris Martin from Coldplay inducted him.- Actor
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David Troughton was born in London on 9 June 1950, the son of noted Shakespearean actor Patrick Troughton, who is now best remembered as the Second Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). He started his own acting career at the Unicorn Theatre for Children. His stage career has included repertory at Leeds, Manchester and Bromley, roles at the Royal Court and the National Theatre.
He is a leading member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and is considered to be one of Britain's finest classical actors. He has brought his regal presence to the narration of the television series Diana: Story of a Princess (2001) and the portrayal of "King George V" in the acclaimed All the King's Men (1999). His son, Sam Troughton, is also an actor.- Additional Crew
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Adrian Noble was born on 19 July 1950. He is a director, known for Mrs Lowry & Son (2019), The Importance of Being Earnest on Stage (2015) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1996). He has been married to Joanne Pearce since June 1991. They have two children.- Actor
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If drummer and singer Phil Collins became the superstar of Genesis, it could be said that Mike Rutherford was the secret weapon on their way to fame, fortune and selling out the world's biggest venues. He wrote the lyrics for their first major international single, Follow You Follow Me, which became a UK top ten and a US top 30 hit. He wrote the lyrics to their second UK top ten single, Turn It On Again, two years later. In 1985, he formed another successful project, Mike and the Mechanics. In 1986, Genesis had their greatest success with Invisible Touch, which featured five international hits, two with lyrics by Rutherford, Land of Confusion and Throwing It All Away. In 1988, he created, with B.A. Robertson, the most critically acclaimed song of his career, The Living Years, which became a huge success for Mike and the Mechanics, earning an Ivor Novello Award and millions of plays on US radio.
Rutherford was from a distinguished family. His father was naval officer Captain William Rutherford. He was sent to one of England's top private schools, Charterhouse, where he met future Genesis bandmates Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks. Rutherford was the band's bass and rhythm guitarist, contributing important parts to the sound but taking a back seat to lead guitarist Anthony Phillips (who was soon replaced by Steve Hackett). The band became renowned throughout the 1970s for their elaborate, classically influenced progressive rock, which gained a growing cult fanbase. Gabriel left in 1975 but the band grew in commercial appeal. When Hackett left in 1977, the band decided not to replace him and Rutherford became their sole guitarist on subsequent studio albums. They would soon move away from their status as a cult band and into mainstream success, becoming one of Britain's biggest bands of the 1980s and early 1990s.
In 2014, Rutherford released his autobiography, The Living Years.- Ian Redford was born in 1951 in Carshalton, Surrey, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Remains of the Day (1993), Batman: Arkham VR (2016) and Three Men and a Little Lady (1990).
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Phil Collins was born in Chiswick, London, England, to Winifred (Strange), a theatrical agent, Greville Philip Austin Collins, an insurance agent. He spent most of his early entertainment life as a young actor and model. He played the "Artful Dodger" in the West End production of "Oliver!" alongside the future movie screen "Artful Dodger," Jack Wild. His interest in music and drumming began at school, where he drummed with a stage school band "The Real Thing," subsequently joining "Freehold" and "Flaming Youth." "Flaming Youth" recorded an album to some critical acclaim, although the group disbanded shortly afterward. Collins later successfully auditioned for Genesis, taking over vocals from Peter Gabriel when he left the band in 1975.
After separating from his first wife, Collins recorded his first solo album, "Face Value." The album was well received and Collins started to become a household name after the song "In the Air Tonight" was featured on the US TV show Miami Vice (1984). This instigated a guest appearance on the show playing a game show host. His third LP, "No Jacket Required," produced multiple chart hits and awards.
Collins is an active musician and entertainer, contributing and guesting regularly on many albums, ranging from Gary Brooker and Camel (Peter Barden's old band) to Eric Clapton. Collins also played as the drummer for the jazz fusion group Brand X and later formed his own big band to play swing and jazz music.
Collins was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. With over 200 million album sales (when his solo career and Genesis career are combined), Collins is one of the most successful musicians of all time, as well as probably the most successful British pop star to have been consistently overlooked for the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British music.
Actress Lily Collins is his daughter (her mother is his second wife, Jill Tavelman).Singer, musician, songwriter.- Actor
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Peter Davison was born as Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett on 13 April 1951 in Streatham, London. A decade later, he and his family - his parents, Sheila and Claude (an electrical engineer who hailed from British Guiana), and his sisters, Barbara, Pamela and Shirley, moved to Knaphill, Woking, Surrey, where Davison was educated at the Winston Churchill School. It was here that he first became interested in acting, taking parts in a number of school plays, and this eventually led to him joining an amateur dramatic society, the Byfleet Players.
Upon leaving school at the age of sixteen, having achieved only modest academic success with three O Levels of undistinguished grades, he took a variety of short-lived jobs ranging from hospital porter to Hoffman press operator. He was still keen to pursue an acting career, however, and so applied for a place at drama school.
Davison was accepted into the Central School of Speech and Drama and stayed there for three years. His first professional acting work came in 1972 when, after leaving drama school in the July of that year, he secured a small role in a run of "Love's Labour's Lost" at the Nottingham Playhouse. This marked the start of a three-year period in which he worked in a variety of different repertory companies around Great Britain, often in Shakespearean roles. He then made his television debut, playing a blond-wigged space cowboy character called Elmer in "A Man for Emily", a three-part story in the Thames TV children's series The Tomorrow People (1973) (April 1975). Appearing alongside him in this production was his future wife, American actress Sandra Dickinson, whom he had first met during a run of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Edinburgh. They married on 26 December 1978 in Dickinson's home town of Rockville, Maryland, USA.
Davison spent the following eighteen months working as a file clerk at Twickenham tax office. He also took the opportunity to pursue an interest in singing and songwriting, which led him to record several singles with his wife. He later provided the theme tunes for a number of TV series, including Mixed Blessings (1978) and Button Moon (1980). Davison played the romantic lead, Tom Holland in Love for Lydia (1977), a London Weekend Television (LWT) period drama serial transmitted in 1977.
Davison's greatest acting breakthrough came when he played Tristan in the BBC's All Creatures Great and Small (1978), based on the books of country vet James Herriot. It was a highly successful series, which ran initially for three seasons between 1978-1980. His success in All Creatures Great and Small (1978) brought him many other offers of TV work. Among those that he took up were lead roles in two sitcoms: LWT's Holding the Fort (1980), in which he played Russell Milburn, and the BBC's Sink or Swim (1980), in which he played Brian Webber. Three seasons of each were transmitted between 1980-82, consolidating Davison's position as a well-known and popular television actor.
In 1980, Doctor Who (1963) producer John Nathan-Turner, who had worked with Davison as the production unit manager on All Creatures Great and Small (1978), cast him as the Fifth Doctor in the series. Taking over from Tom Baker, who had been in the role for an unprecedented seven years, Davison was seen as a huge departure as he was by far the youngest actor to date. Davison announced he was taking the lead role in Doctor Who (1963) on the BBC's lunchtime magazine program Pebble Mill at One (1972) on 3 December 1980, when he discussed with the presenter a number of costume ideas sent in by viewers and was particularly impressed by a suggestion from one of a panel of young fans assembled in the studio that the new Doctor should be "like Tristan Farnon, but with bravery and intellect".
His appearance in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981), was recorded on 19 December 1980 and transmitted on 2 February 1981, by which time the viewing public were well aware that he would soon be taking over the lead role in Doctor Who. There was in fact only a month to go before he would make his on-screen debut in the series - albeit a brief one, in the regeneration sequence at the end of Logopolis: Part Four (1981).
His first full story was in Castrovalva: Part One (1982), the first story of season nineteen transmitted on 4 January 1982. Another significant change for the series was that it was taken off Saturdays for the first time, instead being broadcast on Mondays and Tuesdays. Davison was an immediate hit as the Doctor, with ratings picking up considerably from Tom Baker's final season. Several episodes from Davison's first season achieved over 10 million viewers, which would be the last time these numbers would be achieved in the original run of Doctor Who (1963). One particular success from Davison's first season was the stylish return of the Cybermen in Earthshock: Part One (1982), which became the most popular Cybermen story since the 1960s.
As the incumbent Doctor, Davison took part in the major celebrations of the 20th anniversary of Doctor Who (1963) in 1983, which included the multi-Doctor special The Five Doctors (1983). Nevertheless, Davison found himself dissatisfied with his second season on Doctor Who (1963), feeling that the writing, directing, budgets and tight recording schedules in the studio were frequently letting it down. With this in mind and fearing typecasting, he finished his tenure at the end of his third season in The Caves of Androzani: Part Four (1984). He left on a high, as it has been repeatedly voted one of the best stories ever by fans.
Davison became a father when, on December 25, 1984 (one day before the couple's sixth wedding anniversary), Dickinson gave birth to a daughter, Georgia Elizabeth, at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London. Ten years later, however, the marriage broke down and they separated and later divorced. Most of Davison's work since then has been in the medium for which he is best known: television.
His credits include regular stints as Henry Myers in Anna of the Five Towns (1985), as Dr. Stephen Daker in A Very Peculiar Practice (1986), as Albert Campion in Mystery!: Campion (1989) and as Clive Quigley in Ain't Misbehavin (1994) all for the BBC, and as Ralph in Yorkshire TV's Fiddlers Three (1991). In addition, he has reprized his popular role of Tristan Farnon on a number of occasions for one-off specials and revival seasons of All Creatures Great and Small (1978).
Davison has returned several times to the world of Doctor Who (1963). In 1993 he appeared as the Fifth Doctor in Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993), a brief two-part skit transmitted as part of the BBC's annual Children in Need Charity appeal, and in 1985 he narrated an abridged novelization of the season twenty-one story "Warriors of the Deep" for BBC Worldwide's Doctor Who audio book series. In addition, he has appeared in a number of video dramas produced by Bill Baggs Video. In 2003 and 2004 he appeared as quiet and unassuming detective "Dangerous Davies" in The Last Detective (2003), the Meridian TV adaptations of Leslie Thomas's novels.- Actor
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Alfred Molina was born in 1953 in London, England. His mother, Giovanna (Bonelli), was an Italian-born cook and cleaner, and his father, Esteban Molina, was a Spanish-born waiter and chauffeur. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. His stage work includes two major Royal National Theatre productions, Tennessee Williams' "The Night of the Iguana" (as Shannon) and David Mamet's "Speed the Plow" (as Fox), plus a splendid performance in Yasmina Reza's "Art" (his Broadway debut), for which he received a Tony Award nomination in 1998. He made his film debut in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and got a good part in Letter to Brezhnev (1985) (as a Soviet sailor who spends a night in Liverpool), but his movie breakthrough came two years later when he played--superbly--Kenneth Halliwell, the tragic lover of playwright Joe Orton, in Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears (1987). He was also outstanding in Enchanted April (1991), The Perez Family (1995) (as a Cuban immigrant), Anna Karenina (1997) (as Levin) and Chocolat (2000) (as the narrow-minded mayor of a small French town circa 1950s, who tries to shut down a chocolate shop).- Greg Hicks was born on 27 May 1953 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Son of God (2014) and The Knock (1994).
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Born October 26, 1953 in Bow, London, England as Roger William Allam, he is a British stage, television, film, and radio actor, best known for originating the role of Javert in the musical "Les Misérables", for playing Douglas Richardson in the radio series "Cabin Pressure" and for his roles as Lewis Prothero in V for Vendetta (2005), as Peter Mannion in The Thick of It (2005), and as Fred Thursday in Endeavour (2012). His father was a rector at the St Mary Woolnoth church in London. Allam attended Christ's Hospital and Manchester University and debuted in theatre in 1976 the play "Vinegar Tom". In 1985 he played Javert in the first English production of what became the hit musical "Les Misérables" and appeared on the album featuring a selection of songs from the original London production of the show. In 2002 Allam won his first Olivier Award for Best Actor for his role as Captain Terri Denis in "Privates on Parade". From 2007 to 2012 he appeared as Peter Mannion MP in the political satire series The Thick of It (2005). In 2011 he won another Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance as Falstaff in "Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2". Since 2012 he's been playing Fred Thursday on Endeavour (2012), a prequel to the popular show Inspector Morse (1987). Despite focusing mostly on theatre roles, he regularly appears in television, movies (most famously in V for Vendetta (2005)) and radio (including the popular comedy series "Cabin Pressure", in which he starred alongside John Finnemore, Stephanie Cole, and Benedict Cumberbatch). He is married to actress Rebecca Saire. They have two sons, William (who is also an actor) and Thomas.- Music Department
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Joe Jackson was born on 11 August 1954 in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK. He is a composer and actor, known for The Big Hit (1998), There's Something About Mary (1998) and This Means War (2012).- Music Artist
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Elvis Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus in London, England and raised in Liverpool. The son of British band leader Ross McManus, Costello took his pseudonym from Elvis Presley and his father's stage name (Day Costello). He began performing professionally in 1969 and was a musician and/or singer in many bands around London before forming a moderately successful pub-rock band called "Flip City" in the mid-1970s. Working full time as a computer operator, he landed his first record deal with Stiff Records in 1977 and recorded his first album "My Aim Is True" while on vacation. The album was a smash hit in England and landed Costello a worldwide distribution deal with Columbia records. Forming his backup group, "The Attractions", for his second album, Costello went on to record several popular and influential albums over the next decade. Today, he is regarded as one of the most influential and popular singer/songwriters in modern music. In 1998, he collaborated with legendary tune smith, Burt Bacharach, on a highly successful album of love songs "Painted From Memory".OBE recipient- Actor
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Ken Stott was born on 19 October 1954 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He is an actor, known for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014).- Actor
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Charles was born into a show business family. His father, Alfred Shaughnessy, was the principal writer for the popular London Weekend Television/ITV series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971) and his mother, Jean Lodge, was an actress. He started appearing in plays during school. He attended Eton College and read law at Magdalene College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he joined Footlights, a comedy revue. After graduating, he decided to return to acting and enrolled in a London drama school, which led to him to touring in a repertory company. Eventually moving to America to follow the actress he later married, he got his break on The Nanny (1993).- Actor
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Howard Jones was born on 23 February 1955 in Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Better Off Dead (1985), Bumblebee (2018) and Waitress (2007).- Music Artist
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Born William Michael Albert Broad in Middlesex, England, in 1955, the first child of Bill and Joan Broad. When he was 2, his father moved the family to Long Island, New York, in pursuit of the American dream. They returned 4 years later (now with a baby sister, Jane) to Dorking. America made a big impression on Billy; he loved the big cars and rock music. The family moved next to the Running Horses Public House in Mickleham, until 1963, while their home in Goring, Sussex, was being built.
The time in Goring would be a happy period for the Broads. Billy enjoyed a fairly normal childhood, hanging out with his pals and getting up to the usual mischief strong-willed boys are wont to. The Broads were a religious family who regularly attended church, Billy joined the Boy Scouts in Goring, though was reputedly asked to leave after getting caught kissing a girl. Idol was a bright student, and passed his 11 plus, but he was bored at school. When a teacher wrote "Billy is Idle" in the margin of one of his works, it stuck in his mind and later inspired his stage name. Nevertheless, Billy progressed well and, when the family moved to Bromley in Kent in 1971, he transferred to the Ravensbourne Grammar School.
The distractions of London, however, were not conducive to studying, and he failed to achieve the requirements for university entrance. His disappointed parents arranged for him to retake his exams at Orpington College of further education. Idol enjoyed the more relaxed environment here and, a year later, had secured his place at Sussex University. He began his course in English and Philosophy in September 1975. This coincided with the explosion of punk rock, which captured the imagination of Idol far more than his studies. He started hanging out with a group of like-minded friends at the in-venues in London, instantly recognizable by their Malcolm Mclaren SEX shop clothes and peg pants. They became known as the Bromley Contingent (the contingent included Susan Dallion (Siouxsie Sioux), later of Siouxsie and the Banshees) and began following the anarchic Sex Pistols to every gig. At this time, Bill Broad changed his name to Billy Idol and decided he wanted to be a real part of the musical revolution. This meant dropping out of university and forming his first band, The Rockettes, with his classmate, Steve Upstone. They played covers of various bands, The Animals, The Beatles and The Doors. They gigged in the campus cafeteria and did one gig outside the University at the local youth hall, though they never recorded. They also did an audition for famed music managers Malcolm McLaren and Bernie Rhodes, who told Steve that he was the real star. This and his father's doubt and disapproval only served to make Billy more determined.
When Billy met Tony James, a fellow student, and became Chelsea, then Generation X, they started to get noticed. The final Generation X lineup - Tony James on bass, John Towe on drums, Bob Andrews on guitar and Idol as lead vocals, played their first live show in November 1976 and began writing and recording original material. In 1977, Chrysalis Records offered them a contract. After 3 albums and with management problems, band discord and the decline of the punk movement, Billy decided it was time to go solo. He relocated to New York and hooked up with Kiss manager Bill Aucoin. In 1981, the EP "Don't Stop" (comprising a cover of Tommy James' 1960s hit "Mony Mony" and a pair of remixed Generation X tracks, including "Dancing With Myself") landed him a solo deal with Chrysalis. He found the perfect collaborator and partner in guitarist Steve Stevens and released the self-titled "Billy Idol" in 1982. Idol made full use of the MTV explosion - the hugely successful videos for "White Wedding" and "Dancing With Myself" showcased his peroxide spiky hair, sneer and leathers to great effect. The stage was set for the hugely successful "Rebel Yell" in 1984. These early years were wild with Billy's hell-raising antics generating as much (if not more) publicity than his music. An eight-track best-of, "Vital Idol", was released in 1985 and the popularity of the live video of "Mony Mony" on MTV kept him in the spotlight. 1986 saw a new release, "Whiplash Smile" - it sold well and saw him nominated for a second Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance (the first was for "Rebel Yell"), but some felt it failed to live up to expectations. Stevens left to form his own band shortly afterwords.
Idol was ready to try new things, moving to Los Angeles, taking on a new band and appearing in an all-star stage version of The Who's "Tommy". In 1990, however, around the time of the release of his new album, "Charmed Life", Idol was involved in a serious motorcycle accident when he ran a stop sign on his Harley. He almost lost a leg and was confined to bed for 6 months. He battled back bravely - the video for the first single, "Cradle of Love", showed him from the waist up - at the time, he was paralysed below. The album was a success, his fourth in a row to achieve, at least, platinum sales. Idol decided to take a break and try his hand at acting, making his screen debut in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991) in 1991. His next appearances before the camera were less auspicious, after pleading guilty to punching companion Amber Nevel outside a West Hollywood restaurant in 1992. He paid $2700 in fines and was required to appear in a series of anti-drug commercials.
The year 1993's "Cyberpunk" saw a new-look Idol, he had changed his famous peroxide spikes to dreadlocks, and his sound to synthesized techo beats. The album flopped, and Idol sank into drug addiction. He had another brush with death in 1994 when he overdosed and had to be treated in a Los Angeles hospital. Upon his discharge, he calmed down and began to focus more on fatherhood. Although he has never married, Idol has two children - a son from his long term relationship with former Hot Gossip Dancer Perri Lister, William Broad, born in June 1988, and a daughter, Bonnie Blue, from another relationship, born 1989. The next few years were quiet until 1998, when a cameo appearance in the hit movie, The Wedding Singer (1998), began an Idol revival. In 1999, his recognition was confirmed with his second wax model opening in Las Vegas. He teamed up with Stevens, once more, and found the old magic was still there. A more extensive "Greatest Hits" was released in 2001 and sold over half a million copies in the USA alone, 2002 saw two VH1 specials - Behind the Music and Storytellers.
Idol is currently working with Stevens on new material, some of which has featured in the most recent tours over the past four years. It may be some time since the hedonistic, hell-raising days but his unbridled passion for music and performing remain and the shows are still no-holds barred. Despite his bad-boy image, offstage Idol is said to be quite gentle and sensitive, knowledgeable with a good sense of humour and vegetarian.- Actor
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Paul Young was born on 17 January 1956 in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Sixteen Candles (1984), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Ruthless People (1986). He was previously married to Stacey Young.- Actor
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Born in Brooklyn, NY (December 8, 1956), this versatile and talented guitarist has had an eclectic career in the music industry. Joining Frank Zappa's band in 1978, he quickly became immortalized on the "Joe's Garage" album. In 1980 he founded the 80's new wave band Missing Persons with Dale and Terry Bozzio. After six years with that band, he joined Duran Duran, where he helped them update their sound in the 90's and co-wrote the hits "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone." He's also part of the composing/performing/producing team of TV Mania with Nick Rhodes. His solo albums range in sound from hard rock to ambient to ethnic music. An avid bodybuilder, Warren posed nude for the Brazilian magazine "G" in 2000, and in 2001 he joined a reunion of the original Missing Persons.- Actor
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Ray Winstone was born on February 19, 1957, in Hackney Hospital in London, England, to Margaret (Richardson) and Raymond J. Winstone. He moved to Enfield, at age seven, where his parents had a fruit and vegetable business. He started boxing at the age of twelve at the famous Repton Amateur Boxing Club, was three times London Schoolboy Champion and fought twice for England, UK. In ten years of boxing, he won over 80 medals and trophies.
Ray studied acting at the Corona School before being cast by director Alan Clarke as Carlin in the BBC Play production of Scum (1979). He has appeared in numerous TV series over the past 20 years including Robin Hood (1984), Palmer (1991), Birds of a Feather (1989), Between the Lines (1992), Ghostbusters of East Finchley (1995), Births, Marriages and Deaths (1999), and Vincent (2005). His film career has burgeoned since his award-winning role in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth (1997), and he has appeared in multiple films including Fanny and Elvis (1999), Tim Roth's The War Zone (1999), The Departed (2006), Hugo (2011), and Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). Known for his signature gritty voice, Winstone has also done a number of voiceover roles including Rango (2011), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), as well as the Beowulf (2007) film and video games.
He married Elaine Winstone in 1979, and the couple have three children: Lois Winstone (born 1982), a singer with the London-based hip-hop group "Crack Village" who also played his on-screen daughter in Last Orders (2001) and got a part in four episodes of The Bill (1984), Jaime Winstone (born 1985) also an actress with ambitions to be a director, and Ellie Rae Winstone (born 2001).- Actor
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Alex Jennings was born on 10 May 1957 in Essex, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Lady in the Van (2015), The Queen (2006) and The Wings of the Dove (1997). He has been married to Lesley Moors since 2012. They have two children.- Buchanan was born June 16, 1957 in Hamilton, Scotland. He worked at a local hotel as a bellhop while still a teenager. By the time he turned 14 his parents, both of whom fought alcoholism, died suddenly. He and his five siblings were left alone and his dreams of moving to the U.S. were put on hold. Buchanan went on to work as a bartender and restaurant manager in Scotland. While vacationing in Spain, his exceptional good looks captured the attention of a photographer. He agreed to a photo session that went so well he quickly found regular modeling work. He moved to London where he soon became an international fashion model. When the prestigious Ford Agency signed Buchanan in the 1980s, he relocated to New York City. Buchanan studied acting at New York's Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. He was also coached by notable playwright and actress Marcia Haufrecht. His hard work paid off when he was offered the role of heartthrob Duke Lavery on General Hospital (1963) in 1986 who most notably sizzled with co-star Finola Hughes. The role became Buchanan's launchpad to other television opportunities. When he left the soap in 1989, he appeared on prime-time in It's Garry Shandling's Show. (1986) from 1988-1990. The recurring spot as Dick Tremayne on Twin Peaks (1990) followed from 1990-1991. In 1990, he played a wealthy Playboy-style magazine publisher who murders his partner in Columbo Cries Wolf (1990). Buchanan returned to daytime television in 1993 as the mysterious psychologist Dr. James Warwick on The Bold and the Beautiful (1987). He was the first ever actor on the show to receive a Daytime Emmy Award in 1997 and stayed with the show until 1999, returning on several occasions from 2004 to 2011. A string of guest-starring roles on various TV shows followed as well as some film work including playing Jodie Foster's Realtor on Panic Room (2002). Buchanan has since appeared on various soap operas: on the "General Hospital" spin-off Port Charles (1997) from 2002-2003, and as a vampire in the 1993 Halloween episode of Quantum Leap (1989), he played the devious fertility specialist Dr. Greg Madden on All My Children (1970) who had performed Erica Kane's (Susan Lucci) controversial abortion in the 1970s and had a short run as Ian McAllister on Days of Our Lives (1965) in 2012. Not long after Buchanan returned to "General Hospital" after a 23 year long absence where he was reunited with Finola Hughes.
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Writer, actor, comedian, doer of good works, excellent good friend to the famous and not, Fry lives in his London SW1 flat and his Norfolk house when not traveling. Famous for his public declaration of celibacy in the "Tatler" back in the 1980s, Emma Thompson has characterised her friend as "90 percent gay, 10 percent other."
Stephen Fry was born in Hampstead, London, to Marianne Eve (Newman) and Alan Fry, a physicist and inventor. His maternal grandparents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants, while his father's family was of English background. He grew up in Norfolk and attended Uppingham School and Stout's Hill. After his notorious three months in Pucklechurch prison for credit card fraud, he attended Queens College, Cambridge in 1979, finishing with a 2:1 in English in 1981/2. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Cherubs drinking club, and Footlights with Thompson, Tony Slattery, Martin Bergman, and Hugh Laurie (to whom he was introduced by E.T.). His prolific writing partnership with Laurie began in 1981 with resulting Footlights revues for (among others) Mayweek, Edinburgh Festival, and a three month tour of Australia. In 1984, Fry was engaged to do the rewrite of the Noel Gay musical "Me and My Girl," which made him a millionaire before the age of 30. It also earned him a nomination for a Tony award in 1987. (Sidenote: It was upon SF's suggestion that Emma Thompson landed a leading role in the London cast of this show.) Throughout the 1980s, Fry did a huge amount of television and radio work, as well as writing for newspapers (e.g. a weekly column in the "Daily Telegraph") and magazines (e.g. articles for "Arena"). He is probably best known for his television roles in Blackadder II (1986) and Jeeves and Wooster (1990).
His support of the Terence Higgins Trust through events such as the first "Hysteria" benefit, as well as numerous other charity efforts, are probably those works of which he is most proud. Fry's acting career has not been limited to films and television. He had successful runs in Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On," Simon Gray's "The Common Pursuit" with John Sessions, Rik Mayall, John Gordon Sinclair, and others. Michael Frayn's "Look Look" and Gray's "Cell Mates" were less successful for both Fry and their playwrights, the latter not helped by his walking out of the play after only a couple of weeks. Fry has published four novels as well as a collection of his radio and journalistic miscellanea. He has recorded audiotapes of his novels (an unabridged version of "The Liar" was released in 1995), as well as many other works for both adults and children.- Actor
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Phil Collen was born on 8 December 1957 in London, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Last Action Hero (1993), Encino Man (1992) and Rock of Ages (2012). He has been married to Helen L. Collen since 16 July 2010. He was previously married to Anita Thomas and Jacqueline Collen.- Actor
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Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Drexl in True Romance (1993), George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017), among many others. For much of his career, he was best-known for playing over-the-top antagonists, such as terrorist Egor Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster Air Force One (1997), though he has reached a new audience with heroic roles in the Harry Potter and Dark Knight franchises. He is also a filmmaker, musician, and author.
Gary Leonard Oldman was born on March 21, 1958 in New Cross, London, England, to Kathleen (Cheriton), a homemaker, and Leonard Bertram Oldman, a welder. He won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, in Sidcup, Kent, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early '80s, including "The Pope's Wedding," for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. Before fame, he was employed as a worker in assembly lines and as a porter in an operating theater. He also had jobs selling shoes and beheading pigs while supporting his early acting career.
His film debut was Remembrance (1982), though his most-memorable early role came when he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (1986) picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. He then received a Best Actor nomination from BAFTA for his portrayal of '60s playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987).
In the 1990s, Oldman brought to life a series of iconic real-world and fictional villains including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993), Stansfield in Léon: The Professional (1994), Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element (1997) and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One (1997). That decade also saw Oldman portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in biopic Immortal Beloved (1994).
Oldman played the coveted role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), giving him a key part in one of the highest-grossing franchises ever. He reprised that role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Oldman also took on the iconic role of Detective James Gordon in writer-director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), a role he played again in The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Prominent film critic Mark Kermode, in reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote, "the best performance in the film, by a mile, is Gary Oldman's ... it would be lovely to see him get a[n Academy Award] nomination because actually, he's the guy who gets kind of overlooked in all of this."
Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of A Christmas Carol in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn, released in 2009. In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli. He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2.
In 2011, Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and the role scored Oldman his first Academy Award nomination. In 2014, he played one of the lead humans in the science fiction action film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell. Also in 2014, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the remake of RoboCop (2014), as Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop.
Aside from acting, Oldman tried his hand at writing and directing for Nil by Mouth (1997). The movie opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize at the festival.
Oldman has three children, Alfie, with first wife, actress Lesley Manville, and Gulliver and Charlie with his third wife, Donya Fiorentino. In 2017, he married writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt.
In 2018 he won an Oscar for best actor for his work on Darkest Hour (2017).- Actor
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Simon Le Bon was born on 27 October 1958 in Bushey, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for The Saint (1997), Donnie Darko (2001) and Layer Cake (2004). He has been married to Yasmin Le Bon since 27 December 1985. They have three children.Lead singer for Duran Duran.- Actor
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Stylish Rupert James Hector Everett was born on May 29, 1959, in Burnham Deepdale, Norfolk, to Sara (Maclean) and Anthony Michael Everett, a Major in the British Army, who later worked in business. Of royal stock, he is of primarily English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry with a dash of German and Dutch thrown in for good measure.
Everett grew up in privileged circumstances, but the wry, sometimes arrogant intellectual was a rebel from the very beginning. At the age of seven, he was placed into the care of Benedictine monks at Ampleforth College where he trained classically on the piano. He was expelled from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London for clashing with his teachers and instead apprenticed himself at the avant-garde Glasgow Citizen's Theatre in Scotland, performing in such productions as "Don Juan" and "Heartbreak House." He moved from stage to British TV in 1982 with sophisticated appearances on such series as "Strangers" "Play for Today" and "The Agatha Christie Hour" and the more visibly seen mini-series Princess Daisy (1983) and The Far Pavilions (1984).
In 1984, Everett filmed a leading gay role in the acclaimed collegiate-themed picture Another Country (1984), which he had performed earlier on stage in 1981. Earning a BAFTA nomination and shooting to international attention, Rupert became one of England's hottest crossover stars. Top patrician roles in quality films came his way such as Dance with a Stranger (1985) opposite Miranda Richardson and Duet for One (1986) starring Julie Andrews and Alan Bates. The rebel went international instead of Hollywood, however, with top-billing in the Aussie feature The Right Hand Man (1987) with Hugo Weaving; the Italian-made Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987) and the French drama Tolérance (1989) opposite Ugo Tognazzi.
Again, however, the wickedly sharp and suave actor doused his own star fire by clashing with the press and even his own fans in the late 1980's. In 1989, Everett openly and proudly declared his homosexuality which put an initial damper on his status as a romantic leading man. Appearing sporadically in such featured roles as the Prince of Wales in the majestic drama The Madness of King George (1994) and Lord Rutledge in the family comedy Dunston Checks In (1996), Rupert's popularity was re-energized after playing Julia Roberts' gay confidante to droll effect in the box-office comedy hit My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), earning him both BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. He continued to impress thereafter, notably in such classical-styled pieces as Shakespeare in Love (1998) (as Christopher Marlowe), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) (as Oberon), and the Oscar Wilde plays An Ideal Husband (1999) (as Lord Goring, Golden Globe nominee) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) (as Algy). On the lighter, fun side, his predilection for mischief was demonstrated as the cartoonish villain Dr. Claw, the nemesis of Matthew Broderick's title character, in Inspector Gadget (1999).
Into the millennium, Rupert continued to be a vibrant presence on stage with a tour of "Private Lives" (in Italian) in 2008, a 2009 Broadway revival of "Blithe Spirit" (his New York debut) and as Henry Higgins in Shaw's "Pygmalion" in Munich the following year. He went on to play Oscar Wilde in "The Judas Kiss" in 2013 and was about to play George on Broadway in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" when the play closed before it officially opened due to the COVID pandemic in 2020. On TV, he played the effortlessly suave Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004), the Marquis de Feron in the British series The Musketeers (2014) and Carroll Quinn in a second British series Adult Material (2020).
On film, Everett enhanced the royal dramas To Kill a King (2003) and Stage Beauty (2004) as King Charles I and King Charles II, respectively. Known for his aloof handsomeness and often smug, piss-elegant characters, he engagingly portrayed a jet-setter in the contemporary film People (2004); provided the voice of the unprincely Prince Charming in the animated features Shrek 2 (2004) and Shrek the Third (2007); played a British defector opposite Sharon Stone in the romantic thriller A Different Loyalty (2004); a millionaire playboy involved in a hit-and-run in Separate Lies (2005); an eccentric tycoon in Hysteria (2011); King George VI (father of Queen Elizabeth) opposite Emily Watson's Queen Mum in the romantic dramedy A Royal Night Out (2015); a monsignor in If I Had a Heart (2013); and tortured gay playwright Oscar Wilde during his last days in The Happy Prince (2018), which he wrote and directed.
A novelist on the sly with Hello, Darling, Are You Working? (1989), Rupert has also published two volumes of memoirs: Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins (2006) and Vanished Years (2012), produced documentaries .- Actor
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Joe Elliott was born on 1 August 1959 in Sheffield, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Last Action Hero (1993), Encino Man (1992) and Rock of Ages (2012). He has been married to Kristine E. Wunschel since 1 September 2004. They have two children. He was previously married to Karla Rhamdani.the lead singer for Def Leppard.- Producer
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Simon Cowell was born in Lambeth, London and brought up in Elstree, Hertfordshire. He is the son of Julie Cowell (née Josie Dalglish), a ballet dancer, and Eric Selig Phillip Cowell, a music industry executive. Simon started his career in the music industry working in the mailroom at EMI Music Publishing. He worked as a record producer, talent scout and consultant within the music industry before becoming a judge on the hit British TV show Pop Idol (2001) and its U.S. counterpart, American Idol (2002). Cowell's scathing comments were famous during his 10 seasons as a judge on American Idol.- Actor
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Hugh Grant, one of Britain's best known faces, has been equally entertaining on-screen as well as in real life, and has had enough sense of humor to survive a media frenzy. He is known for his roles in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), with Andie MacDowell, Notting Hill (1999), opposite Julia Roberts, and Music and Lyrics (2007), opposite Drew Barrymore, among his other works.
He was born Hugh John Mungo Grant on September 9, 1960, in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom. His mother, Fyvola Susan (MacLean), was a teacher. His father, James Murray Grant, was an artist and carpet salesman, and his grandfather was in the British Army during WWII. He is of mostly Scottish and English descent, with many recent ancestors who were prominent in the military. Young Grant was fond of literature and acting. He won a scholarship to Oxford, going up to New College in 1979. There he was involved in student drama, and considered a career as an art historian. After Oxford, he turned down a scholarship to do postgraduate studies in Art History at the Courtauld Institute in London, and focused on his acting career. In 1982, while still a student, Grant made his big screen debut in Privileged (1982) by director Michael Hoffman.
Grant's breakthrough came with the leading role as Charles in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), opposite Andie MacDowell, a role which won him a Golden Globe Award, as well as a BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor. During the 1990s Grant established himself as a very original and resourceful actor. He played a string of characters projecting a positive mindset, showing how do you stay optimistic when you are actually worried about a cascade of troubles. Grant had his own experience as a survivor of an unfortunate episode in his private life, which he managed to overcome thanks to having a pretty damn good outlook on life.
His forte is playing characters projecting warmth and sincere happiness, with his hallmark stuttering, albeit some accused him of reprising the same character he has been playing for the past two decades. Grant's ability to show his character development within a limited screen time shines in Love Actually (2003), with his witty portrayal of a Prime Minister whose personal insecurities become intertwined with his country's international affairs, a performance that earned him a nomination for European Audience Award. His screen presence and skillful understatement takes his characters beyond the written script, thanks to his mastery of timing and effortless style.
Outside of his acting profession, Grant has been a good athlete, he played cricket and football in his younger years. He enjoys playing golf, frequently taking part in Pro-Am tournaments. He has been an avid art lover since his younger years, and has been collecting fine art, a passion he inherited from his father.- Actor
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Rick was born on December 2, 1960. Rick was with his high school girlfriend Joy Major until the Hysteria tour. He had a brief relationship with stylist Julianna Roberts during that tour. He started seeing Dara Corcoran in 1990 and married her on November 25, 1993. They separated in 1995. He filed for a divorce in 1996, but the divorce wasn't finalized until 2004. In 1996, he met and started seeing Paige Zelazney-Hannon (then married to someone else), whom he married on September 27, 2004. They had two sons, Tyler Kenneth (July 5, 2000), and Scott (December 2001).
Rick suffered a bout of Bell's Palsy in January 1994 but later regained most of the feeling in the right side of his face.
Rick and Joe Elliot are the only remaining founding members of Def Leppard.- Actor
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Nigel John Taylor is most well-known for his bass work in the popular band, Duran Duran, which he also co-founded. As schoolboys, he and Nick would sit around and daydream about the band they would one day front. It was then that they finalized a timeline for the band: they were to play Hammersmith Odeon by 1982, Wembley Arena by 1983, and Madison Square Garden by 1984. They managed to accomplish their goal, and also became one of England's biggest acts worldwide. However, their success was short-lived as internal tensions drove the band to split in two. John, with guitarist Andy Taylor, formed the splinter group Power Station, with singer Robert Palmer and drummer Tony Thompson, most well-known for his drumming with Diana Ross, Chic and David Bowie. Power Station's music was more rock-oriented than what Duran Duran had been doing. Remaining members Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, and Roger Taylor (no relation to the drummer of Queen, or either Taylor in the band) formed the avant garde band, Arcadia. These two bands, in turn, splintered Durannies (the fanatical, at times obsessive Duran Duran fans) into two groups as well, not knowing whose side to be on. This was a short-term problem, however, as Andy and Roger Taylor separately left the group in the 1985-1986 period. The recording of their fourth studio album, "Notorious", became a nightmare with remaining members arguing, John threatening to leave the group too, and them having to resort to suing Andy to get him to come record. No one is now sure which guitarist appears on what song (aside from Andy, they also used Nile Rodgers on some songs, who also produced the album, and Warren Cuccurullo, formerly of Missing Persons and later to become a member of Duran Duran). By the release of their album, their popularity had waned, especially when fans heard a different, more mature sound. They were no longer just pop, and had ventured into a more funky territory. As their popularity waned and all but dried up into the rest of the 80s and early 90s, John met and eventually married hopeful actress Amanda De Cadenet. The two also had a daughter a couple months later, Atlanta Noo Taylor (Noo is short for Noodlehead, not Knew as the press reported). The marriage was short-lived, as arguments and rumours of infidelity caused the couple to file for separation in 1995. Their divorce was finalized in 1997.
Around this time, John's tensions with the band reached a head. With each album, John threatened more and more to leave the band and, in early 1997 at the DuranCon, he finally announced to everyone, including the band, that he was leaving. He'd already recorded and released some solo material, so he wasn't really leaving to go solo, at least not in terms of music. With his divorce and drug problems (since the early 90s, he'd tried to kick his coke habit), he felt he needed to be free of everything for once. In 1999, he finally regained some stability in his life and married Gela Nash, co-founder of the hugely successful "Juice Couture". Also, in 2001, things came full circle as he and the rest of the Taylors announced they would be rejoining Duran Duran.- Composer
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Drummer for British group Duran Duran from 1980 - 1984. Drummer for Arcadia 1985 which released one album. 1985 saw Duran Duran's last on'stage performance as the Fab 5 for quite some time for the Live Aid charity event. In 1986 Duran Duran reformed without Roger or guitarist Andy Taylor. Roger played some tracks for 1995 Duran Duran album Thankyou. He rejoined Duran Duran in 2001 and they released 2004 album Astronaut. In 2005 he played Rome Live 8 concert as a part of Duran Duran.- Actor
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Encouraged by his father, Andy Taylor took lessons in playing the guitar from a jazz guitarist who lived across the road from him and started to play the instrument seriously from the age of 11. He left school in 1976 and joined a punk band called The Gigolos. They became Motorway and released a single that didn't chart. He had played nearly 600 gigs in a variety of working men's clubs, strip joints and military bases before responding to an advert in Melody Maker placed by a band needing a guitarist. The band was Duran Duran, he successfully auditioned and the group went on to become one of the most successful acts of Britain's early 1980s' "New Romantic" movement, scoring many big hits, including two British number one singles, "Is There Something I Should Know?" and "The Reflex". They were also Princess Diana's favourite band.
Andy Taylor married Tracey Wilson, the band's hair stylist and opened a wine bar, Rio, in Whitley Bay. He left Duran Duran in 1985 and since then has worked with Robert Palmer in Power Station, Rod Stewart and Thunder.- Writer
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Ricky Dene Gervais was born in a suburb of Reading, Berkshire, to Eva Sophia (House) and Lawrence Raymond Gervais, who was a hod carrier and labourer. His father was born in Ontario, Canada, of French-Canadian descent, and his mother was English. He was educated at Ashmead Comprehensive School and went on to study at University College, London, where he gained a degree in Philosophy.
After university, Gervais attempted to pursue a pop career with Seona Dancing, a duo he formed with a fellow student. Similar to many groups in the early 1980s, they were a synth-pop act with a somewhat pretentious name and exhibiting a strong musical influence by David Bowie. Gervais adopted a vocal style that has often been compared to Bowie; comedian Paul Merton would later joke that Bowie nicked their music. Seona Dancing were briefly signed to a recording contract and released two singles, "More to Lose" and "Bitter Heart". The latter was slightly reminiscent of Queen's "Body Language" from a year earlier, featuring a similar synthesizer riff. The act failed to breach the UK top 75 and earn a place in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, but clips have survived and they have been frequently used to tease Gervais in interviews. Despite his own lack of success, Gervais stayed within the music industry for a while and even spent time as the manager of Suede.
Gervais had to wait a long time before achieving the fame he had hoped would come with a pop career. In the 1990s he formed a writing partnership with Stephen Merchant. In 2000, he landed his own comedy chat show on Channel 4, Meet Ricky Gervais (2000), which attracted legendary guests such as Jimmy Savile, Michael Winner, Paul Daniels, Peter Purves, Stefanie Powers, Jim Bowen and Midge Ure. The series only ran for six episodes but a year later greater stardom came for Gervais with the debut of BBC comedy The Office (2001). Although it was not initially received to great acclaim or viewing figures, it is now often cited as one of the greatest comedy series of all time and has been credited with reinventing the sitcom. Gervais starred as the obnoxious and embarrassing office manager David Brent, who has since been voted in various polls one of the greatest comic characters. It also prompted an American remake, The Office (2005). Gervais had further success with another sitcom, Extras (2005), which attracted a series of celebrity guests, including Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson and his musical idol David Bowie. It served as a satire on the entertainment industry and leading stars were happy to play along by performing exaggerated versions of themselves.
Gervais has become one of the most popular and omnipresent comedy performers of the 21st century, hosting the Golden Globe awards, lending his talent to films, becoming a voice artist and appearing on numerous talk shows. He has become one of the best known British comedy figures in America. He is also regularly the subject of controversy due to his dark comedy. Some critics have called him insensitive and outrageous. Gervais has responded by saying "offense is the collateral damage of free speech", he has said that he doesn't aim for a mass audience, he's just pleased he's managed to get one, and he has compared his style of comedy and the audience he has acquired with being Iggy Pop in preference to being Phil Collins.- Actor
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Best-known for her surreal and digressive stand-up, British comedian and actor Eddie Izzard was born on February 7, 1962, in Aden, Yemen, where her English parents -- Dorothy Ella, a nurse and midwife, and Harold John Izzard, an accountant -- worked for British Petroleum.
Izzard worked as a street performer and in smaller comedy venues throughout the mid-to-late 1980s; her big break came when she appeared in Hysteria III, a 1991 AIDS fundraiser held at the London Palladium, and did her now-famous "Raised by wolves" sketch. After that, she drew bigger and bigger audiences, and in 1993 hired the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End for the first of many successful solo shows. With Eddie Izzard: Live at the Ambassadors (1993), she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award (outstanding achievement) and won her first British Comedy Award for top stand-up comedian. She returned to the West End the next year with her second solo show, Eddie Izzard: Unrepeatable (1994), and soon thereafter made her West End debut in a drama, as the lead in the world premiere of David Mamet's "The Cryptogram" with Lindsay Duncan; her success led to her second starring role, in "900 Oneonta".
Izzard appeared in 1995 as the title character in Christopher Marlowe's groundbreaking "Edward II". In 1996, she made her big-screen debut alongside Bob Hoskins and Robin Williams in The Secret Agent (1996); she also staged another solo show, Eddie Izzard: Definite Article (1996), for which she received her second British Comedy Award. She then took "Definite Article" to major cities outside the UK, including New York, and returned to the West End with a new show, Eddie Izzard: Glorious (1997), which included a month in New York City at PS122.
In 1998, Izzard appeared in another film, Velvet Goldmine (1998), with Ewan McGregor, and also staged her breakthrough solo U.S. show, Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill (1998) which aired on HBO and earned Izzard two Emmy Awards. Izzard next took on the challenge of appearing as Lenny Bruce in Peter Hall's West End production of "Lenny."
Izzard started 2000 touring the world with Eddie Izzard: Circle (2002) and continued to act in films, among them The Criminal (1999); Shadow of the Vampire (2000) with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe; and Peter Bogdanovich's The Cat's Meow (2001), in which she played Charles Chaplin. She returned to the stage, in London and later in New York (her Broadway debut), with A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (2002), a version of which was televised.
In 2003, Izzard was seen on the big screen in Alex Cox's Revengers Tragedy (2002) and on the small screen in a BBC mini-series _40 (2002)(TV)_. Her other films include The Avengers (1998), Ocean's Twelve (2004), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), Ocean's Thirteen (2007) and Valkyrie (2008), and she has voiced roles in a handful of movies, including The Wild (2006), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) and Cars 2 (2011).
Izzard also has appeared in several television series, including a starring role in The Riches (2007), which lasted for two seasons on FX (from 2007-2008), and recurring roles in Hannibal (2013) and United States of Tara (2009).- Writer
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By August of 1994, Craig Ferguson was established as one of Great Britain's leading comedians - he had just had huge success at the Edinburgh Festival. In January 1995 he moved to Los Angeles where he now works as an actor-writer-director-producer-creator.- Actor
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Has been with the band since 1992 when the original guitarist, Steve Clark, died in early 1991. Has two daughters, Lily Rose and Una Marigold, with wife Jewels Has played guitar for the Rock 'n' Roll band 'White Snake' and other Rock 'n' Roll groups.- Actor
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Nick Rhodes was born in Mosley, a suburb of Birmingham, England, son of Sylvia and Roger Bates. Rhodes began playing guitar while still in school, sharing the aspiration of becoming a lead guitarist with neighbourhood friend, John Taylor. Soon after, Rhodes also began teaching himself to play keyboards on a WASP synthesiser. Rhodes left school at sixteen, his first and only occupation outside of a band being as the disc jockey for the Rum Runner dance club in Birmingham, where he and Taylor established the core that would evolve into Duran Duran. Aside of replacing occasional band members and early changes to the band's name, Duran Duran is the only group Rhodes had been a part of until 1985, when he and bandmates Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor took a sabbatical from Duran Duran to record an album as Arcadia. Rhodes, Le Bon, John Taylor, and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo returned to Duran Duran in 1986, recording seven more studio albums through 2000. The band still endures today, with the 2000 album Pop Trash, and work on a new album underway in 2001. Rhodes' long-time interest in film and music production has led to the start of his own UK-based production company, TV Mania, with Cuccurullo. Rhodes also possesses a love of and talent for photography. A collection of his abstract works, Interference, was published in 1984. Rhodes is a devout fan of art and animation, a personal friend to both South Park co-creator Trey Parker and the late Andy Warhol. Rhodes has participated in several charity events in his career, including the 1985 Live Aid concert, Sir Bob Geldof's BandAid project, and the Secret Policeman's Ball, a series of performances in the UK which benefit Amnesty International.- Actor
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Actor Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born on December 22, 1962 in Suffolk, England, to Jennifer Anne Mary Alleyne (Lash), a novelist, and Mark Fiennes, a photographer. He is the eldest of six children. Four of his siblings are also in the arts: Martha Fiennes, a director; Magnus Fiennes, a musician; Sophie Fiennes, a producer; and Joseph Fiennes, an actor. He is of English, Irish, and Scottish origin.
A noted Shakespeare interpreter, he first achieved success onstage at the Royal National Theatre. Fiennes first worked on screen in 1990 and then made his film debut in 1992 as Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1992), opposite Juliette Binoche. 1993 was his "breakout year". He had a major role in the controversial Peter Greenaway film The Baby of Mâcon (1993), with Julia Ormond, which was poorly received. Later that year he became known internationally for portraying the amoral Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993). For this he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. He did not win, but did win the Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for the role, as well as Best Supporting Actor honors from numerous critics groups, including the National Society of Film Critics, and the New York, Chicago, Boston, and London Film Critics associations. His portrayal as Göth also earned him a spot on the American Film Institute's list of Top 50 Film Villains. To look suitable to represent Goeth, Fiennes gained weight, but he managed to shed it afterwards. In 1994, he portrayed American academic Charles Van Doren in Quiz Show (1994). In 1996, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Count Almásy the World War II epic romance, and another Best Picture winner, Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996), in which he starred with Kristin Scott Thomas. He also received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, as well as two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations, one for Best Actor and another shared with the film's ensemble cast.
Since then, Fiennes has been in a number of notable films, including Strange Days (1995), Oscar and Lucinda (1997), the animated The Prince of Egypt (1998), István Szabó's Sunshine (1999), Neil Jordan-directed films The End of the Affair (1999) and The Good Thief (2002), Red Dragon (2002), Maid in Manhattan (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005), In Bruges (2008), The Reader (2008), co-starring Kate Winslet, Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar®-winning The Hurt Locker (2008), Clash of the Titans (2010), Mike Newell's screen adaptation of Charles Dickens'Great Expectations (2012), with Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine, and Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).
He is also known for his roles in major film franchises such as the Harry Potter film series (2005-2011), in which he played the evil Lord Voldemort. His nephew, Hero Fiennes Tiffin played Tom Riddle, the young Lord Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). Ralph also appears in the James Bond series, in which he has played M, starting with the 2012 film Skyfall (2012).
In 2011, Fiennes made his directorial debut with his film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy political thriller Coriolanus (2011), in which he also played the title character, opposite Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave. Fiennes has won a Tony Award for playing Prince Hamlet on Broadway.
In 2015, Fiennes played a music producer in Luca Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash (2015), starring opposite Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts, and in 2016, Fiennes starred in Joel and Ethan Coen's Hail, Caesar! (2016).
Since 1999, Fiennes has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK.- Actor
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Rick Allen was born on 1 November 1963 in Sheffield, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Rock of Ages (2012), Balls of Fury (2007) and That's My Boy (2012). He has been married to Lauren Monroe since 10 October 2003. They have one child. He was previously married to Stacy Gilbert.- 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.
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Steve Coogan was born on 14 October 1965 in Middleton, Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Philomena (2013), Alan Partridge (2013) and 24 Hour Party People (2002). He was previously married to Caroline Hickman.- Executive
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Col Needham was born on 26 January 1967 in Manchester, England, UK. He is an executive and actor. He has been married to Karen Needham since 22 July 1989. They have two children.