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1-50 of 91
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
English actor, writer, and comedian Simon Pegg was born Simon John Beckingham in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, to Gillian Rosemary (Smith), a civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician. His parents divorced when he was seven. He later took his stepfather's surname "Pegg." He was educated at Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School in Gloucestershire and went on to Stratford-upon-Avon College to study English literature and performance studies. He then attended the University of Bristol, and earned a bachelor's degree in drama. In the early 2000s, Pegg moved to London and began forging a successful career in stand-up comedy. Television opportunities followed including roles in Six Pairs of Pants (1995), Asylum (1996), and We Know Where You Live (1997). In 1999, Pegg and Jessica Hynes teamed up to write and star in cult sitcom Spaced (1999), directed by Edgar Wright. The series also featured Pegg's best friend Nick Frost. Pegg's breakthrough in film came with the zom-rom-com Shaun of the Dead (2004), which he also co-wrote with director Edgar Wright. Again, the film featured Nick Frost. The trio also scored a hit with police comedy Hot Fuzz (2007). Further film successes followed for Pegg, notably in the iconic role of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in Star Trek (2009) and alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III (2006) and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011).- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
The original glamour ghoul herself, "Vampira", of late night 1950s television, was actually born Maila Syrjäniemi (later changed to the easier surname Nurmi) on December 11, 1922 in Gloucester, Massachusetts (not Finland as she often claimed). Her uncle was the multiple Olympic medal runner Paavo Nurmi.
It was director Howard Hawks, of all people, who discovered Maila while she was performing in Mike Todd's Grand Guignol midnight show "Spook Scandals". Hawks escorted the lovely blonde beauty to Hollywood with the hopes of grooming her into the next Lauren Bacall. Cast in the film version of the Russian novel "Dreadful Hollow", the project was put on hold so many times that Maila walked out of her contract in frustration. She became a cheesecake model and an Earl Carroll dancer for several years in his revues, sharing a chorus line at one time with future burlesque stripper Lili St. Cyr.
Married at the time to child actor-turned-screenwriter Dean Riesner, she came up with the idea of "Vampira" at a masquerade contest where she based her costume on Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. Heavily painted up with long fingernails, a mane of raven-colored hair, and slim-waisted black attire, the Morticia gimmick won the best costume award that night... and more. She caught the attention of local television and was placed under contract to Channel 7 in Hollywood to see if she could encourage late night viewers to stay up and watch its regular programming of cheapjack horror schlock. The macabre madam was a genuine hit (for one season, at least, in 1954-55), adding a sexy nuance and silly double entendres to her campy horror set.
She earned an Emmy Award nomination in 1954 for "Most Outstanding Female Personality". Fan clubs sprouted up all over the world. She appeared in "Life", "TV Guide" and "Newsweek" magazine articles, and could be seen around and about town and in Las Vegas judging contests and making variety special appearances. Songs were written about the "Queen of Horror". She even appeared with arms outstretched and ghoulishly attired in the worst cinematic failure of all time, Edward D. Wood Jr.'s Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), as Bela Lugosi's zombie-like mate, for which she is infamously associated. Lugosi actually was a huge fan of hers and had always wanted to work with her. Wood shot some footage of her years later as a tribute to Lugosi (he died in 1956 during filming) and added it before the film's release.
By the late 1950s, Maila's extended "15 minutes" of fame was over. With her career at stake (pun intended), she stretched things out with haphazard appearances in abysmal movies [The Beat Generation (1959); Sex Kittens Go to College (1960)] before closing the lid permanently on "Vampira". In later years, Maila divorced her writer/husband and became passionately involved in animal protection rights. A painter on the sly, she created some "Vampira" portraits that became a collector's item. Living very modestly in Southern California, she appeared in a small gag cameo in the film I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998). Malia Nurmi died at age 85 of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, California on January 10, 2008.- Yasmin Bannerman was born in 1972 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Killing Me Softly (2002), Life on Mars (2006) and Doctor Who (2005).
- Milton Parsons was born on 19 May 1904 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Hidden Hand (1942), The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947). He died on 15 May 1980 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jessie Ralph was a sailor's daughter, who first came to the stage at the age of 16, performing with a stock company in either Boston, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island (accounts differ). The year was 1880, and it took Jessie another 26 years to make her debut on the Great White Way in "The Kreutzer Sonata". Already a seasoned actress, she enjoying third billing. Her screen career started with one and two reelers as early as 1915, but her proper entry into Hollywood did not come about until 1933.
For more than 20 years, plump, down-to-earth Jessie made her reputation as a character actress on Broadway playing an assortment of nurses, maids and aunts. She was used in musicals by George M. Cohan and acted in Shakespearean roles, from "Twelfth Night" to "Romeo and Juliet". She was nurse to Jane Cowl's Juliet in the 1923 play which ran for an unprecedented 174 performances and co-starred Eva Le Gallienne and Katharine Cornell (amazing, when considering that the star was already 39 years old!). Like other successful actresses of the stage, Jessie was brought to Hollywood to reprise a Broadway hit role, in this case her Aunt Minnie in Child of Manhattan (1933).
After half a lifetime in the theatre, Jessie's sojourn in Hollywood was relatively brief but marked by a series of memorable performances. She was the definitive incarnation of the endearing nurse Peggotty in David Copperfield (1935) and played Greta Garbo's loyal maid Nanine in Camille (1936). She was the matriarch of the Whiteoaks of Jalna (1935), an adaptable society matron in San Francisco (1936) and harridan of a mother-in-law to W.C. Fields, Hermisillo Brunch, in The Bank Dick (1940). Whether in comedy or drama, as a Chinese aunt in both stage and screen versions of The Good Earth (1937), or a kindly sorceress in The Blue Bird (1940), Jessie gave consistently good value for money. The New York Times review of October 12, 1935, wrote of her performance in I Live My Life (1935): "Jessie Ralph as the tyrannical head of the family, proves again that she is the best of the screen grandmothers".
Jessie retired from acting in 1941 after having a leg amputated and died three years later.- Joseph Hindy was born on 13 May 1938 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor, known for The Insider (1999), Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) and Simpatico (1999). He has been married to Patricia McAneny since February 1966.
- Raymond Greenleaf was born on 27 November 1892 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for All the King's Men (1949), Storm Warning (1950) and Ten Tall Men (1951). He died on 29 October 1963 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Production Manager
Evan Hayes was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA. Evan is a producer and production manager, known for Free Solo (2018), Everest (2015) and The Way I See It (2020).- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
James Barton was born on 1 November 1890 in Gloucester City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950) and His Family Tree (1935). He was married to Kathryn M. Mullin and Ottilie Regina Kleinert. He died on 19 February 1962 in Mineola, Long Island, New York, USA.- Producer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Henry James Beach (born March 9, 1942 in Gloucester) is the long-time manager of the British rock band Queen and its individual members. He was nicknamed "Miami" by the band members, a play on his surname. He took over as manager of the band in 1978 after he had acted on their behalf as a lawyer.
Beach is co-founder of Transistor Project, a digital pump put together with Blur's Dave Rowntree.
Beach lives in Montreux, Switzerland and is married to Claudia Beach, and has a daughter and a son, Ol Beach, who is the frontman for the band Yellowire and was formerly the keyboard player for the rock band Wire Daisies, discovered by Queen's Roger Taylor.- Marjorie Fielding was born on 17 February 1892 in Gloucester, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Franchise Affair (1951), Quiet Weekend (1946) and Yellow Canary (1943). She died on 28 December 1956 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Stunts
Félix-Antoine Duval was born on 4 February 1992 in Caraquet, Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada. He is an actor, known for Moonfall (2022), Midway (2019) and Le scaphandrier (2015).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Russell Arthur Benson Jr. was born to Cynthia Lattof and Russell Benson. Russell Benson Sr. was a union plumber who had come back from Vietnam. Cynthia Lattof was a student at Gloucester State College. They divorced in 1979. Cynthia had moved Russell and his infant brother out to Sacramento, California where she met future husband Frank Russo. Frank adopted the two boys and Russell Arthur Benson Jr. name changed legally to Russell Austin Russo. The family then moved to Phoenix, Arizona before settling for a cross country drive in December 1982 to Long Branch, New Jersey where Frank's family lived. The family rented homes and duplexes while having three more children. In April 1992, the Russo family moved to Rumson, New Jersey. Russ finished his senior year of high school at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional and graduated in 1994.He then moved with long time girlfriend Laura Wood to Clearwater, Florida in June 1996. The relationship dissolved and in November 1997, Russell moved back to Rumson, New Jersey. Russ was studying business-finance at Brookdale College. In February 1999, he stumbled upon the Jewelbox Theatre. Jade Greene, the director of the theatre, was offering internships for acting classes. In the months to follow, he studied Alexander, Meisner, Stella Adler, Lee Strausberg and Method acting. Russ worked as a utility actor in various plays during the internship before landing a lead role in Clifford Oddet's classic "Awake & Sing" playing Moe Axelrod, a role previously performed by Sanford Meisner. Russ began traveling to NYC to study at Tisch in various acting workshops as well as working with the NJ Theatre Exchange. In March 2002, he landed the lead role in the Independent film "Envy" portraying a character with multiple personality disorder. "Envy" won the Buzz award at the NY Independent Film Festival. Russ continues to act in various plays and films.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Douglas Blackwell was born on 17 May 1924 in Gloucester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1999) and The Ipcress File (1965). He was married to Brenda Mary Planner. He died on 17 October 2009 in Victoria, London, England, UK.- Music Department
Born June 16th. 1947 in Gloucester City England.
Ray Williams has been in the music and film business since the age of 16 when meeting Cathy McGowan, the presenter of legendary UK music show 'Ready Steady Go', who invited him to the show , he became a fixture as an unpaid assistant, Cathy realizing he needed 'a proper job' introduced him to Beatles publicist Brian Sommerville who needed a P.A., Ray took the job and worked with The Kinks, Sonny & Cher and Tommy Roe.
As head of A&R for Liberty Records he placed an advertisement in the NME looking for talent and discovered Elton John and introduced him to lyricist Bernie Taupin, forging one of the most prolific songwriting teams in rock history.
Ray became personal manager for Elton during his first five albums before going on to manage Gerry Rafferty's Stealers Wheel.
Ray has been the music supervisor on more than 70 films, television projects, including the multi Academy Award-winning film (1988) Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor that included Best Original Music Score (David Byrne,Ryuichi Sakamoto & Cong Su') and Bertolucci's 'The Sheltering Sky (1990) that won the Golden Globe Best Original Score composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto with additional music by Richard Horowitz and worked with many composers including Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat, Howard Shore, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Eric Serra.
His passion for helping new and emerging talent has lead him to develop a precleared music licensing rights, music supervision platform crumbsmusic.com based in Chapel Hill-Raleigh North Carolina where he now lives .- Charlie Stayt was born in June 1962 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Red Nose Day Actually (2017), Mohammed (2014) and Children in Need (2020). He has been married to Anne Frances Breckell since 1995. They have two children.
- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Samuel Victor is a British feature film and television actor, producer, director and writer, best known for playing Torius Chord (Blue Two) in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), and the title role in Captain Superb and the Angel of Destiny (2024). He has produced many feature films in the UK and USA, including The Last Scout (2017), LiveJustine (2015) and Night of the Living 3D Dead (2013). A member of RetroUnlim and the Ministry of Retrogaming he regularly works with top YouTube and Twitch personalities producing games industry documentaries, and was an executive producer on Digitiser the Show (2018). He is also an experienced animator, who trained with Don Bluth, Richard Williams and has worked as freelance in various capacities for the Walt Disney Corporation.
Samuel entered the entertainment industry in 1997, starting in music after winning a national song-writing competition, and going on to win a world-wide competition to work with R. Kelly. After an appearance on BBC Radio 1, he met D12, and worked with them on several occasions, and went on to ghost-write and produce for several major label artists. After meeting Stormzy whilst working on Brotherhood (2016), he rapped with him on his SnapChat and was encouraged to release a single to promote the film, which amassed over a million views on VEVO.
Always interested in film, Samuel started making music videos and writing for film soundtracks, and from 2009 to 2010 he worked as an apprentice on over 100 film and television projects to (in his words) "learn the industry", and working uncredited as a supporting artist or runner on several major blockbuster franchises. He wrote and directed his first feature film The Perfect Love Song (2011) in 2009, which gained recognition from BAFTA, screened at the British Film Institute for Valentines Day, and was remastered for DVD release in 2013, and in HD for Streaming via Amazon Prime in 2017.
A lifelong Star Wars fan, Samuel has worked with the brand in many ways including being a Founder Member of Force for Change, organizing charity events at the famous Hamleys toy store, and running a half marathon with Paula Radcliffe at Disneyland Paris. After auditioning for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), he was offered the role of Torius Chord in the re-shoots of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), where his suggested re-write of "Just let the girl speak!" became a somewhat iconic line, leading to him founding a charity initiative through the Welsh Film Institute to help female writers and directors break into the industry by providing funding, training and equipment.
Samuel has been awarded two BAFTA bursaries, as a producer and screenwriter. He is the author of industry text books "The Filmmaker's Bible" and "The Filmmaker's Dictionary", and has taught filmmaking techniques in the "Four Hour Film School". After meeting Paul J. Franklin at The Guardian newspaper, they discussed developing his first "Hollywood Budget" film, which lead to him founding Victorious MCG, and writing and directing his first "Blockbuster", the forthcoming Captain Superb and the Angel of Destiny (2024).- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Casting Department
- Location Management
William Forsyth was born on 23 October 1900 in Gloucester, England. He was an assistant director, known for Thin Ice (1937), High Tide (1947) and Café Metropole (1937). He died on 27 December 1972 in Lawrence, Tennessee, USA.- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Helen is an award winning actress.
She was born in Gloucester, England and began training at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance in her 30s.
Stage credits include Blanche duBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire", Marlene in "Top Girls", Chorus in "Antigone", Janice in "Sex Cells", Miss Prism in "The Importance of Being Earnest" and featured as Molly in the premiere tour of "A Simple Tale of Love" by Sasha Ravencroft.- Edith Tolkien was the wife and muse of novelist J. R. R. Tolkien and the inspiration for his fictional characters Lúthien Tinúviel and Arwen Evenstar.
Edith Tolkien died on 29 November 1971 at the age of 82, and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. Tolkien was buried with her when he died twenty-one months later. Below the names on their grave are the names of the characters of Beren and Lúthien. - Heather West was born on 17 October 1970 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK. She died on 19 June 1987 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK.
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Matthew John was born on 10 June 1978 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He is a producer and director, known for You're Not You (2014), Hedda Gabler (2016) and The Time of Their Lives (2017).- Animation Department
- Director
- Visual Effects
Tony Guy was born in 1929 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK. Tony was a director, known for Watership Down (1978), When the Wind Blows (1986) and Habatales (1959). Tony died in 2014 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, UK.- Editor
- Director
- Writer
David Gladwell was born in 1935 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He is an editor and director, known for Memoirs of a Survivor (1981), Requiem for a Village (1975) and 28B Camden Street (1965).- James Artaius was born on 7 January 1981 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Chamber (2016), Galavant (2015) and Will (2017).