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1-50 of 273
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Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High Anglican priest. His surname came from a great-great-grandfather who was of French Huguenot origin.
One of Olivier's earliest successes as a Shakespearean actor on the London stage came in 1935 when he played "Romeo" and "Mercutio" in alternate performances of "Romeo and Juliet" with John Gielgud. A young Englishwoman just beginning her career on the stage fell in love with Olivier's Romeo. In 1937, she was "Ophelia" to his "Hamlet" in a special performance at Kronborg Castle, Elsinore (Helsingør), Denmark. In 1940, she became his second wife after both returned from making films in America that were major box office hits of 1939. His film was Wuthering Heights (1939), her film was Gone with the Wind (1939). Vivien Leigh and Olivier were screen lovers in Fire Over England (1937), 21 Days Together (1940) and That Hamilton Woman (1941).
There was almost a fourth film together in 1944 when Olivier and Leigh traveled to Scotland with Charles C. Bennett to research the real-life story of a Scottish girl accused of murdering her French lover. Bennett recalled that Olivier researched the story "with all the thoroughness of Sherlock Holmes" and "we unearthed evidence, never known or produced at the trial, that would most certainly have sent the young lady to the gallows". The film project was then abandoned. During their two-decade marriage, Olivier and Leigh appeared on the stage in England and America and made films whenever they really needed to make some money.
In 1951, Olivier was working on a screen adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel "Sister Carrie" (Carrie (1952)) while Leigh was completing work on the film version of the Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). She won her second Oscar for bringing "Blanche DuBois" to the screen. Carrie (1952) was a film that Olivier never talked about. George Hurstwood, a middle-aged married man from Chicago who tricked a young woman into leaving a younger man about to marry her, became a New York street person in the novel. Olivier played him as a somewhat nicer person who didn't fall quite as low. A PBS documentary on Olivier's career broadcast in 1987 covered his first sojourn in Hollywood in the early 1930s with his first wife, Jill Esmond, and noted that her star was higher than his at that time. On film, he was upstaged by his second wife, too, even though the list of films he made is four times as long as hers.
More than half of his film credits come after The Entertainer (1960), which started out as a play in London in 1957. When the play moved across the Atlantic to Broadway in 1958, the role of "Archie Rice"'s daughter was taken over by Joan Plowright, who was also in the film. They married soon after the release of The Entertainer (1960).- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Anita Pallenberg was a model and actress best known for her involvement with The Rolling Stones in the 1960s and 1970s. She was born in 1942 to Arnold Pallenberg, a descendant of a prominent family of furniture manufacturers from Cologne, Germany, and Elfriede Paula Wiederhold, a German secretary. She grew up in Rome, Italy, where her father owned a travel agency, and Germany, where she was sent to a boarding school at her father's request. After being expelled from school at sixteen, she lived in Munich, where she studied at an art school, hung out with the La Dolce Vita crowd in Rome and eventually traveled to New York where she connected with Andy Warhol's Factory. In 1965, Anita Pallenberg was working as a model all over Europe when she met The Rolling Stones backstage at a concert in Munich. She started a tumultuous relationship with guitarist Brian Jones that lasted until she left him for his band-mate Keith Richards in 1967. With Richards, she formed a relationship that lasted twelve years and produced three children. During her time with The Rolling Stones, Anita was considered to be a muse for the band and a huge influence on their style and music. She also became known as an actress in her own right in the late '60s and early '70s, working with directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, who directed her debut A Degree of Murder (1967) and Roger Vadim in Barbarella (1968). The end of her relationship with Richards in the late 1970s, personal struggles with addiction and the death of her youngest son shortly after his birth saw her drift from the public eye for many years. In the '90s, Anita Pallenberg returned to the spotlight. She got a degree in fashion design and would occasionally take up small roles in film and on television. Her status as a fashion icon, inspiring designers and celebrities, remains to the present day. Anita Pallenberg died in 2017 due to complications from hepatitis C.- Alexandra Bastedo was born on 9 March 1946 in Hove, East Sussex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Casino Royale (1967), Batman Begins (2005) and The Champions (1968). She was married to Patrick Garland. She died on 12 January 2014 in West Sussex, England, UK.
- Liz Smith found fame as an actress at an age when most people are considering retirement. It was a long road to eventual stardom, during which she struggled to raise a family after a broken marriage. She became best known for her roles in The Vicar of Dibley (1994) and The Royle Family but her talents encompassed serious drama too. And while she made something of a name playing slightly dotty old ladies, the real Liz Smith was far removed from these on-screen personas. She was born Betty Gleadle in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. Her early life was not happy. Her mother died in childbirth when she was just two years old and her father abandoned her when he remarried. "My father was a bit of a sod, really. He just went off with loads of women and then married one who said he had to cut off completely from his prior life and that meant me." She started going to the local cinema with her grandfather when she was four and she quickly gained a fascination for acting.
By the age of nine, she was appearing in local dramatic productions, often playing the part of elderly ladies. World War Two thwarted her plans and she joined the WRNS because, as she later told the BBC's Desert Island Discs, she loved the cut of the naval uniform. She continued appearing in plays and entertainments while serving in the Royal Navy. She met her future husband Jack Thomas while she was stationed in India and the couple married at the end of the war. Her grandmother had left her enough money to buy a house in London. Smith later remembered that she had picked it at random from a magazine and bought it without crossing the threshold.
But what had been an idyllic marriage failed shortly after the family moved to Epping Forest in Essex and she was left to bring up her two children alone. With money tight, she worked in a number of jobs including delivering post and quality control in a plastic bag factory. But her love for acting remained and she began buying the theatrical magazine, The Stage, and sending her photograph to casting agents. Eventually she became part of a group studying method acting under a teacher who had come to the UK from America.
She performed at the Gate Theatre in west London and spent many years in repertory, as well as spells as an entertainer in Butlins holiday camps. In 1970, she was selling toys in London's Regent Street when she got a call from the director Mike Leigh to play the downtrodden mother in his film Bleak Moments. Leigh cast her again in Hard Labour, part of the BBC's Play for Today series, a role that allowed her to shine. She received critical acclaim as the middle-aged housewife who endures a life of domestic drudgery, constantly at the beck and call of her demanding husband and daughter.
It was the breakthrough she had sought for years and, as she later recalled: "I never went back to grotty jobs again." She was seldom off the screen over the next 20 years, with appearances in a number of TV programmes including Last of the Summer Wine, The Sweeney, The Duchess of Duke Street and The Gentle Touch. She was cast as Madame Balls in the 1976 film The Pink Panther Strikes Again, but her scenes were left on the cutting-room floor. However, she did appear in the role six years later in The Curse of the Pink Panther. In 1984 she received a Bafta for Best Supporting Actress when she played Maggie Smith's mother in the film A Private Function.
Two years later she appeared as Patricia Hodge's alcoholic mother in the BBC drama The Life and Loves Of A She Devil. It was a part, she said, that she really enjoyed as it gave her the chance to wear more glamorous outfits than her usual roles required. And she was able to dress up again for her next film appearance, this time in the role of Grace in Peter Greenaway's film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. She was still much in demand at the beginning of the 1990s, appearing in the sitcom 2point4 Children and in the series Lovejoy and Bottom.
In 1994 she became a household name with her portrayal of Letitia Cropley in the series The Vicar of Dibley (1994). The character was famous for her idiosyncratic recipes such as parsnip brownies and lard and fish paste pancakes, but was killed off in 1996. Two years later Liz Smith starred as Nana in The Royle Family, a sitcom that ran for nearly four years. She took the part again in 2006 in a special edition in which Nana died. Typically, she attributed her success to Caroline Aherne's scripts rather than her own talent.
"They were great roles," she later remembered. "I was so lucky that things did come my way then." Unlike some actors, she watched recordings of her own performances looking for ways in which she could improve her acting. She continued to appear in feature films, playing Grandma Georgina in Tim Burton's 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and she was the voice of Mrs Mulch in Wallace & Gromit -The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. In 2006 she published her autobiography Our Betty and moved into a retirement home in north London but continued acting. She appeared in the BBC's Lark Rise to Candleford, finally announcing her retirement in 2008 at the age of 87. It was a belief in her own talent that drove Liz Smith on when her life was at a low ebb. "All I wanted was a chance," she told the BBC. "It was wonderful when it did happen."
Smith died on Christmas Eve 2016. She was 95. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
John Forgeham was born on 14 May 1941 in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Mean Machine (2001), The Italian Job (1969) and Kiss of the Dragon (2001). He was married to Arlene Garciano, Fiesta Mei Ling and Georgina Hale. He died on 10 March 2017 in Worthing, West Sussex, England, UK.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Ewen MacIntosh was born on 25 December 1973 in Merioneth, Wales, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for The Lobster (2015), Big Fat Gypsy Gangster (2011) and Little Britain (2003). He died on 19 February 2024 in East Preston, West Sussex, England, UK.- Tony Steedman was born on 21 August 1927 in Warwickshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), Citizen Smith (1977) and Scrooged (1988). He was married to Judy Parfitt and Ann Steedman. He died on 4 February 2001 in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Ursula Howells was educated at St Paul's Girls' School in London, where her father Herbert Howells, a doyen of English church music taught music for 26 years. Following the death of her brother Michael from polio in 1935, her father composed his great choral masterpiece "Hymnus Paradisi".
She was evacuated to Scotland during the Second World War and made her stage debut in 1940 with Dundee rep. She made her London debut at the Embassy Theatre in Swiss Cottage in 1945. Her broadcasting debut came in 1946 with Sweet Lavender and she made her screen debut in 1950, with Flesh and Blood (1951).
Although she continued to make West End appearances during the following thirty years, she remained in demand as a television and film actress. Her successes included Marriage a la Mode (1955), The Third Key (1956), Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and Girly (1970).
She made an impression as Frances Forsyte (the first of Young Jo's three wives) in the BBC's 1967 television adaptation of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga (1967). She became a regular feature in television comedy and drama, ranging from Father, Dear Father (1968) and A Rather English Marriage (1998) to The Cazalets (2001).
Her television credits also included playing a psychopath Lettie Blacklock in Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced (1985). She also appeared in Sins of the Fathers (1985) and Warriors (1991), Somewhere - Over the Rainbow? (1994), Vigilante (1995) and The Electric Vendetta (2001).
She instigated the "Herbert Howells Society" following her father's death in 1983 and became a standard bearer for the promotion of his work. She financially supported the recording of his compositions and did much to encourage the publishing and promotion of church music.
She was married twice. Following a brief first marriage to Davy Dodd in 1949, she remarried in 1968 to the theatre director Anthony Pelissier . She was widowed in 1988 and moved to Petworth in Sussex. Although she had no children of her own, she was a loving stepmother to her husband's son and three daughters who survived her. - Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a musical conductor, fair-haired, matronly Brenda de Banzie appeared in around 40 films. As the result of two outstanding performances she became an unexpected star when well into her middle age. Brenda first came to public notice as a sixteen year old chorus girl on the London stage in "Du Barry Was a Lady" in 1942. By that time, she had already been treading the boards in repertory for some seven years. The theatre was, first and foremost, her preferred medium. In the early 1950s, she had an excellent run of top-billed performances at the West End which included "Venus Observed" with Laurence Olivier, and "Murder Mistaken", in which she played a wealthy hotel owner whose husband is plotting to bump her off for her money. For this, she won the coveted Clarence Derwent Award as Best Supporting Actress.
Critical plaudits tempted her to try her luck on screen, so Brenda eventually made her celluloid debut in Anthony Bushell's murder mystery The Long Dark Hall (1951). Her performance -- as a rather vulgar and dowdy boarding house landlady -- drew good notices, including one from Bosley Crowther of The New York Times. In 1954, director David Lean cast Brenda in her defining role as Maggie Hobson, an ambitious spinster, opposite Charles Laughton and John Mills in Hobson's Choice (1954). As it turned out, she pretty much stole every scene from her illustrious co-stars. Rather surprisingly, a BAFTA eluded her. In 1958, Brenda landed the prize role of Phoebe Rice, the bitter, alcoholic wife of a second-rate music hall performer (played superbly by Olivier) in John Osborne's The Entertainer (1960). She recreated her performance for Broadway and for the film version in 1960 and received a Tony Award nomination. Sadly, despite such promise her stock did not improve thereafter and she was relegated for the remainder of her career to matronly character roles. Brenda passed away on the operating table during surgery for a non-malignant brain tumor in March 1981.- Anna Cropper was born on 13 May 1938 in Brierfield, Lancashire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Silas Marner (1964), The Odd Man (1960) and The Moonstone (1972). She was married to William Roache. She died on 22 January 2007 in Tangmere, West Sussex, England, UK.
- The daughter of an American Army Officer and a British mother, Virginia Anne Northrop spent her childhood travelling and growing up in whatever country her father happened to be posted. By the age of twenty, she settled in London and became a fashion model with Europe's leading agency, Models 1. Despite having little or no acting experience, her exquisite looks caught the ever-roving eye of scouts at the Rank Organisation. For the first three years, her career remained static. This changed when she was cast as a Bond girl in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), playing Olympe, the chess-playing companion of crime boss Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti). Her most fondly remembered -- and, sadly, final -- role was that of the ethereal silent assassin Vulnavia, devotedly serving The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) (Vincent Price). By 1974, Virginia had left the film world behind and wed the industrialist Gordon White (1923-1996), a former governor of the British Film Institute and chairman of the noted corporate raider Hanson plc. She became 'Lady Virginia' upon her husband's elevation to knighthood in 1979. The marriage lasted until 1991, White subsequently marrying a younger model (literally), forty years his junior. Virginia died prematurely of cancer in 2004 at the age of just 58.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dame Dorothy Tutin's esteemed company of peers included other remarkable dames, including Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Unlike these others, Dorothy had limited screen time over the years and would develop the respect but not the stardom afforded the other two outside the realm of the theatre. Dorothy was born in London on April 8, 1930, the daughter of John and Adie Evelyne (Fryers) Tutin. Educated at St. Catherine's, she studied for the stage at PARADA and RADA, making her debut performance as "Princess Margaret" in "The Thistle and the Rose" on September 6, 1949. In the early 1950s, she joined both the Bristol and London Old Vic companies where she rose in stature with secondary roles in "As You Like It", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "Henry V" and "Much Ado About Nothing". She later demonstrated her versatility outside the classics when she originated the role of "Sally Bowles" in "I Am a Camera" in 1954 and later played "Jean Rice" in "The Entertainer" in 1957.
Great promise was held for Dorothy after an auspicious film debut as "Cecily Cardew" in the classic Oscar Wilde play The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). Despite sterling film portrayals of "Polly Peachum" opposite Laurence Olivier's "Macheath" in The Beggar's Opera (1953) and "Lucie Manette" in a remake of A Tale of Two Cities (1958) with Dirk Bogarde, Dorothy abruptly left the cinema to return to the comforts of a live stage. She continued to play all the illustrious Shakespearean femmes (Juliet, Desdemona, Rosalind, Ophelia, Portia, Cressida) during her excursions with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and Royal Shakespeare companies, and won the coveted Evening Standard award for her "Viola" in "Twelfth Night" in 1960. During this time, she returned to the role of "Polly Peachum", this time on stage, in 1963, and won acclaim for her "Queen Victoria" in "Portrait of a Queen" in 1965. She took the role to Broadway in 1968 and won a Tony nomination. In the 1970s, she appeared in everything from Harold Pinter plays to "Peter Pan".
Though her film and TV output was limited, the performances Dorothy gave during these sporadic occasions were nothing less than astonishing. Included among these triumphs has to be her "Anne Boleyn" opposite Keith Michell as one of The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), and "Goneril" in Laurence Olivier's heralded adaptation of King Lear (1983). In a rare and rather bizarre moment on film, she top-lined one of Ken Russell's quirky biopics of the 1970s, the flop-turned-cult classic Savage Messiah (1972), in which she played a Polish noblewoman married to the much younger sculptor, "Henri Gaudier-Brzeska".
In later years, Dorothy enhanced several costumed TV movies with an always fascinating grande dame eloquence. An intriguing "Desiree Armfeldt" in "A Little Night Music" in 1989 and both an Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier Award winner for her superlative work in "A Month in the Country", Dorothy took her final curtain in a revival of "The Gin Game" opposite Joss Ackland in 1999. Honored with the title "Commander of the British Empire" in 1967, she was made a "Dame" for her services to the theatre in the 2000 New Year Honors.
Diagnosed with leukemia, Dame Dorothy died on August 6, 2001, at the Edward VII Hospital in London. She was survived by her actor husband (since 1963) Derek Waring and their two children, Amanda Waring and Nick Waring, both of whom are actors. Daughter Amanda, in fact, occasionally appeared as younger versions of her mother on TV during the 1990s and went on to gain a bit of fame for herself as a musical "Gigi". Her husband died in 2007.- Actor
- Writer
- Casting Department
Twice BAFTA award-winning English satirist, writer and director, the son of chemist shopkeeper Horace Bird and his wife, Dorothy (née Haubitz). Born in Bulwell, Nottingham, Bird was a graduate of the Cambridge Footlights troupe. He was best known for his lengthy association with fellow Cambridge alumnus John Fortune, with whom he appeared in the trailblazing BBC satire That Was the Week That Was (1962), in addition to contributing scripts. His greatest success came later as support for Rory Bremner in the long-running improvisational political sketch comedy Bremner, Bird and Fortune (1997). Bird was particularly noted for his lampooning of political leaders, such as Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
Other prominent roles saw him as a private detective in 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968), a university vice-chancellor in A Very Peculiar Practice (1986), a feckless civil servant in If It Moves, File It (1970), pompous barrister John Fuller-Carp in Chambers (2000) and Professor Peter Plum in season 4 of the game show Cluedo (1990). He also made guest appearances in episodes of popular TV shows like Armchair Thriller (1978), Yes, Prime Minister (1986), One Foot in the Grave (1990), Jonathan Creek (1997) and Midsomer Murders (1997). Bird admitted to drug and alcohol dependency at some point in the mid- to late 70s, which for some time seriously affected both his physical and mental health.
Bird was married and divorced from Ann Stockdale, the daughter of a US ambassador to Ireland, and to television presenter Bridget Simpson. His third wife, concert pianist Libby Crandon, predeceased him in 2012.- He could have been described as the "British Vincent Price". This distinguished actor was probably best known for his voice work. His low, resonant and mellifluous tones were employed to chill and excite for at least half a century. His most famous radio role was as "The Man In Black", back in the late 1940s, but he was making radio appearances as late as 1980 in "The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy", and undoubtedly later, and was in the BBC Television Shakespeare in the year of his death, at 77.
- Michael Trubshawe was born on 7 December 1905 in Chichester, Sussex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Pink Panther (1963) and Brandy for the Parson (1952). He was married to Cecilia Tower and Margaret Louise McDougall. He died on 21 March 1985 in West Sussex, England, UK.
- Actor
- Art Department
Ronald Hines was born on 20 June 1929 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Deep Concern (1979), We'll Meet Again (1982) and This Year Next Year (1977). He died on 28 March 2017 in Midhurst, West Sussex, England, UK.- June Thorburn was born on 8 June 1931 in Karachi, India. She was an actress, known for The Pickwick Papers (1952), Orders Are Orders (1954) and Fast and Loose (1954). She was married to Morten Smith-Petersen and Aldon Richard Bryse-Harvey. She died on 4 November 1967 in West Sussex, England, UK.
- Peter Madden was born on 9 August 1904 in Ipoh, Malaysia. He was an actor, known for From Russia with Love (1963), The Message (1976) and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970). He was married to Marion Snelling and Mary Jordan. He died on 24 February 1976 in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Daphne Anderson was born on 27 April 1922 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Beggar's Opera (1953), Gideon C.I.D. (1964) and Hobson's Choice (1954). She was married to Lionel William Carter. She died on 15 January 2013 in Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK.- Stunts
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Bob Anderson was born on 15 September 1922 in Gosport, Hampshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Mask of Zorro (1998). He was married to Pearl Anderson. He died on 1 January 2012 in West Sussex, England, UK.- John Bentley was born on 2 December 1916 in Sparkhill, Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Calling Paul Temple (1948), Salute the Toff (1951) and Bombay Waterfront (1952). He was married to Joyce ? and Patricia Smith. He died on 13 August 2009 in Petworth, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Actor
- Stunts
Michael Brennan was born on 25 September 1912 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Thunderball (1965), The Onedin Line (1971) and Johnny Nobody (1961). He was married to Mary Hignett. He died on 29 June 1982 in Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK.- Marion Mathie was born on 6 February 1925 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Lolita (1962), An Honourable Murder (1960) and Department S (1969). She was married to John Humphry. She died on 20 January 2012 in Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Writer
- Actor
- Script and Continuity Department
Born in Cape Town, Union of South Africa in 1934, Ronald Harwood moved to London in 1951 to pursue a career in the theatre. After attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, he joined the Shakespeare Company of Sir Donald Wolfit, one of the last 'actor-manager' of Great-Britain. From 1953 to 1958, Harwood became the personal dresser of Sir Donald. He would later draw from this experience in his play 'The Dresser' and write a biography 'Sir Donald Wolfit CBE: His life and work in the Unfashionable Theatre'.
In 1960, he started a new career as a writer and would prove to be quite prolific, penning plays, novels and non-fiction books. He also worked often as a screenwriter but he seldom wrote original material directly for the screen, rather acting as an adapter sometimes of his own work.
One of the recurring themes in Harwood's work is his fascination for the stage, its artists and artisans as displayed in the aforementioned 'The Dresser', his plays 'After the Lions' (about Sarah Bernard) ,'Another time' (about a gifted piano player), 'Quartet' (about aging opera singers) and his non-fiction book 'All the world's a stage', a general history of theater. Harwood also has a strong interest in the WWII period, as highlighted by the films 'Operation daybreak', 'The Statement', 'The Pianist', and his play turned to film 'Taking sides'. Based on true stories, the two last films feature once again musicians as their main characters.
Made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1974 and Commander of the British Empire in 1999, Harwood was president of the international PEN Club from 1993 to 1997 after presiding the British section during the four previous years.- She was born Jean Vivra Gray in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England, the eldest of four children of Allan, a fish merchant, and his wife, Doris, and attended Thrunscoe girls' school. The family moved to Kingston upon Thames, in south-west London, in the 30s but was evacuated back to Cleethorpes in 1941 and finally resettled in New Malden, Surrey, after the second world war in 1945. As a young woman, Gray worked as a sales assistant, reporter, photographer and nurse, and during the war had served in the Women's Land Army, but always dreamed of becoming an actor.
In 1952, finding opportunities in Britain limited, she decided to emigrate to Australia to pursue her acting ambitions. She adopted the professional name Vivean Gray and appeared in Australian theatre and radio, as well as establishing herself on TV with small roles in cop shows such as Homicide (1964-77), Division Four (1969-75), Matlock Police (1971-76), Solo One (1976) and Bluey (1976), as well as the legal drama Carson's Law (1982-84) and the miniseries Anzacs (1985) and All the Rivers Run (1983).
She also appeared in two films directed by Peter Weir. In Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), she played the maths teacher Miss McCraw, who, along with several of her students from a girls' boarding school, disappears during a Valentine's Day picnic, never to be seen again. In Weir's 1977 film The Last Wave she played Dr Whitburn, an expert on aboriginal history, which starred Richard Chamberlain.
In 1976, she starred as Ida Jessup in The Sullivans, a long-running drama about a Melbourne family and the effect that the war had on their lives. Playing Mrs Jessup, the Sullivans' gossipy English-born neighbour, during the show's 16-season run from 1976 to 1983 proved not only good preparation for her later role as Nell Mangel on Neighbours, but also led to her receiving two Logie awards honouring achievements on Australian TV.
In 1984, she was cast to play a genteel poisoner, Edna Pearson, in the long-running drama Prisoner Cell Block H (known simply as Prisoner in Australia). But after a woman who had been accused of poisoning her husband threatened to sue the show's producers Grundy Television, on the grounds that the character was based on her, material involving Gray's character was cut from subsequent episodes, and from DVD releases of already broadcast shows. In 2010, a DVD telling the dramatic story of Edna Pearson was released, but only in Britain.
Towards the end of her two-year stint on the Australian soap Neighbours as the local busybody Mrs Mangel, the British actor Vivean Gray, who has died aged 92, was presented with the script for an incredible new storyline. In it, she was to be knocked from a ladder by a Labrador called Bouncer and as a result would lose her memory of the past two years.
Her granddaughter Jane, trying to be kind, decides not to tell Mrs Mangel the truth that in the interim her husband Len (John Lee) has run off with another woman, but instead that he has died and his ashes have been scattered under the rosebushes in the front garden. In one later episode, Mrs Mangel is seen saying goodbye to the rosebushes, prompting her Ramsay Street neighbours to think she has lost her mind.
In any other TV soap, such a storyline might have produced a wave of sympathy for the character, but it did not for Nell Mangel. Between 1986 and 1988, millions around the world, particularly in Australia and Britain, would tune in every weekday afternoon to watch the cantankerous, interfering busybody at No 32 drive her neighbours to distraction. In one typical storyline, Mrs Mangel tries to destroy the relationship between her lodger Harold Bishop (Ian Smith) and her neighbour and nemesis Madge Ramsay (Anne Charleston). When she fails in that, she attempts to ruin their wedding by playing the church organ badly. In another storyline, many of her neighbours suspect her of murdering Len - until he turns up unexpectedly in a later episode announcing he plans to file for divorce.
In some respects, Mrs Mangel was a prototype for EastEnders' Dot Cotton: piously Christian, difficult and burdened with a disappointing son (Joe, played by Mark Little), who leaves the Mangel home after being accused of robbing a service station. But unlike Dot Cotton, Mrs Mangel proved unlikeable though captivating, becoming, as Neighbours' executive producer Jason Herbison "the ultimate busybody ... a true soap legend".
These were the glory days of Neighbours in terms of ratings. A 1988 episode featuring the wedding between Scott Robinson (Jason Donovan) and Charlene Mitchell (Kylie Minogue) was watched by 20 million in the UK alone. As a result, Gray's character became globally known, if not beloved.
Indeed, if Mrs Mangel made Gray famous, she was scarcely able to enjoy the celebrity. In 1988, she quit the show after nearly 300 episodes. The following year she explained why: "I loved Neighbours and the rest of the cast were marvellous. But because it was so successful, I could barely set foot outside my own door without someone screaming abuse at horrid old Mrs Mangel. People didn't seem to appreciate it was acting. So I decided to take a break."
For years afterwards, Vivean Gray topped opinion polls as the nastiest television "baddie" of all time, with some of the more dedicated viewers of Neighbours failing to distinguish between the actress and the fictional character.
The break from acting lasted for the rest of Gray's life - she never took another role. She left Australia in the mid-1990s and settled in Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, England, refusing requests for interviews or autographs from fans.
In 2005 Neighbours' producers tried to persuade her to return for its 20th anniversary episode, but she declined.
After Gray quit Neighbours in 1988, she may have effectively retired, but her fame lived on. In 1995 she was honoured with her image on an Australian postage stamp. As for Mrs Mangel, after finding out the truth about Len and divorcing him, the producers had her fall for a retired dentist John Worthington (Brian James) and move back to the old country, to St Albans, Hertfordshire. She continued to be occasionally mentioned in the show until her death in England in 2018 - granddaughter Jane Harris being touched to learn the Rebecchi's had named their daughter Nell after seeing Mrs Mangel in one of Harold Bishop's photo albums. Jane was presented with Helen Daniels' infamous 'giraffe' portrait of her grandmother by Paul Robinson. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Alvin Stardust was born on 27 September 1942 in Muswell Hill, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Love Serenade (1996), Somersault (2004) and Derrick (1974). He was married to Julie Paton, Liza Goddard and Iris Caldwell. He died on 23 October 2014 in Horsham, West Sussex, England, UK.- James Herbert was born on 8 April 1943 in East End, London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Unholy (2021), The Survivor (1981) and Deadly Eyes (1982). He was married to Eileen O'Donnell. He died on 20 March 2013 in Woodmancote, Henfield, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Mavis Pugh was born on 25 June 1914 in Croydon, Surrey, England, UK. She was an actress, known for You Rang, M'Lord? (1988), Fawlty Towers (1975) and Are You Being Served? (1972). She was married to John Clegg. She died on 6 December 2006 in Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Derek Waring was born on 26 April 1927 in Mill Hill, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Escape of R.D.7 (1961), Moody and Pegg (1974) and Killers (1976). He was married to Dorothy Tutin and Jeanne Cook. He died on 20 February 2007 in Petworth, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Janet Lees-Price was born on 19 April 1943 in Abersychan, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK. She was an actress, known for Blake's 7 (1978), Poirot (1989) and By the Sword Divided (1983). She was married to Paul Darrow. She died on 22 May 2012 in Horsham, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Stunts
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Chris Webb was born on 16 March 1937 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Lifeforce (1985), Brazil (1985) and Aliens (1986). He died on 27 November 2023 in Littlehampton, West Sussex, England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Elsie Randolph was born on 9 December 1904 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Frenzy (1972), This'll Make You Whistle (1936) and The Quatermass Conclusion (1979). She was married to Leopold Vernon Page. She died on 15 October 1982 in East Preston, West Sussex, England, UK.- Clare Sutcliffe was born on 5 August 1943 in the UK. She was an actress, known for Softly Softly (1966), I Start Counting (1970) and Thriller (1973). She died on 24 December 2018 in Horsham, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Camera and Electrical Department
Having worked as a rostrum cameraman in animated films in the 1970s and 1980s, Julian Holdaway changed careers and trained as a helicopter pilot, often flying on aerial filming jobs. Sadly he was killed in a helicopter crash on 14th November 1997 whilst flying alone in bad weather. He was 47.- Prolific and ubiquitous British bit player Aileen Lewis was born Aileen Mary Halsey on April 9, 1914 in Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. Nicknamed the Duchess because of her regal bearing, Lewis first began appearing in uncredited minor roles in films in the late 1940's and soon started working profusely from the early 1950's onward. Aileen could be frequently spotted looking elegant in a fancy evening gown as a guest at parties, dancing on the floor at a ballroom, or in the audience at either a concert or ballet. Moreover, her trademark aristocratic manner also led to Lewis being often cast as various upper-class ladies holding court with British royalty or as patrons in posh casinos, nightclubs, or restaurants. Her husband Lewis Alexander was a fairly prolific background player in his own right who occasionally popped up in movies with her. Aileen died at age 99 on February 12, 2014 in Felpham, West Sussex, England.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Andrew Tourell was born on 18 January 1946 in Islington, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Doctor Who (1963), Waiting for God (1990) and Dixon of Dock Green (1955). He died on 17 January 2004 in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, England, UK.- Raymond Young was born on 16 June 1918 in Stoke Newington, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Department S (1969), Emma (1960) and Starr and Company (1958). He was married to Diana Calderwood and Elsie Pamela Johnson. He died on 27 July 2011 in Littlehampton, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Patrick Moore was born on 4 March 1923 in Pinner, Middlesex, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Gamesmaster (1992), The Sky at Night (1957) and Doctor Who (2005). He died on 9 December 2012 in Selsey, West Sussex, England, UK.- British bit player Lewis Alexander was born Herbert Alexander Lewis on August 27, 1910 in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. Lewis first began popping up in both films and TV shows alike in uncredited minor parts in the mid-1960's. A distinguished looking gentleman with a noble bearing and a neatly trimmed mustache, Alexander was frequently cast as party guests, government officials, or patrons in either casinos or restaurants. Moreover, Lewis often appeared onscreen alongside his wife and fellow background player Aileen Lewis. Alexander died at age one hundred on October 23, 2010 in Felpham, West Sussex, England.
- Michael Gover was born on 31 August 1913 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was an actor, known for A Clockwork Orange (1971), Superman (1978) and The Avengers (1961). He died on 2 May 1987 in Felpham, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Special Effects
Harry Waxman was born on 3 April 1912 in London, England, UK. He was a cinematographer, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Sapphire (1959) and The Wicker Man (1973). He died on 24 December 1984 in Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK.- Ella Hall was born on 2 May 1903 in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, UK. She was married to Charles Richard Hall and Robert Donat. She died on 13 July 1994 in Horsham, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Edward Scaife was born on 23 May 1912 in London, England, UK. He was a cinematographer, known for The African Queen (1951), The Third Man (1949) and The Dirty Dozen (1967). He died in November 1994 in Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK.- Producer
- Art Director
- Writer
British producer/director Michael Relph, the son of stage actor George Relph, graduated from Bembridge School and became apprenticed to Alfred Junge at Gaumont Pictures in 1932. He was also a stage designer and art director, often working for Michael Balcon. In 1942 he became the chief art director at Ealing Studios, and in 1946 became a producer and screenwriter. He began a productive partnership with director Basil Dearden at the studio, and the relationship continued after Ealing went out of business. He directed such pictures as Davy (1957), Mad Little Island (1958), but eventually gave up directing to concentrate solely on producing. Later in his career he became Chairman of the BFI Production Board.- Writer
- Music Department
- Script and Continuity Department
Christopher Fry was one of the most celebrated playwrights of the 20th century whose dazzling verbal invention led many to regard him as the Shakespeare of his time for his poetry and wit. Plays such as "The Lady's Not For Burning", "Venus Observed" and "The Dark Is Light Enough" have deservedly become modern classics. Laurence Olivier observed that Fry was a "dialogue sorcerer" and the critic Harold Hobson described him as "a master jeweler of words".
The list of actors and directors associated with Fry's work reads like a Who's Who of show-business: Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, Vivien Leigh, Alec Clunes and Peter Brook. Fry continued to write plays into his nineties.
In the original West End production of "The Lady's Not For Burning", two unknown actors appeared in supporting roles - Richard Burton and Claire Bloom. In 1958, Fry co-scripted the film Ben-Hur (1959). He had already written the screenplay for The Beggar's Opera (1953) for Peter Brook. On Ben-Hur (1959), he was asked to write the scenes from the crucifixion onwards but ended up rewriting most of the film. Only the MGM scriptwriter Karl Tunberg is actually credited, but besides Fry, Gore Vidal was also involved.
Christopher Fry died on 30th June 2005, aged 97.- Producer
- Director
Jack Barton was the producer of the UK soap opera, Crossroads (1964), during the 1970s. Barton was noted for tackling controversial subjects and during his tenure the soap covered subjects such as rape, racism, bigamy, test-tube pregnancies, physical handicap and Downs Syndrome.
Born in Manchester Fred Bernard 'Jack' Barton had an interest in showbusiness from an early age. At 15 he joined Bertram Mills' Circus and at 17 moved to London where he studied tap dancing. Later he toured with stars such as Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale in musical comedies.
During WW2 he served in the RAF and on being demobbed he moved to Scotland where he worked as a producer in variety shows.
In 1955 he joined the newley formed ATV in Birmingham as a producer on shows such as Lunch Box, hosted by Noele Gordon. Crossroads, a new soap that featured everyday events at a Midland hotel, was launched by ATV in 1964 and Barton became one of the regular directors of the show. Under his auspices celebrities queued up to appear in Crossroads: Max Wall, Ken Dodd and Larry Grayson were just a few who were guest stars.
One of the show's biggest storylines, directed by Barton, featured the 1975 wedding of Meg Richardson (Noele Gordon) to Hugh Mortimer (John Bentley) which brought the city of Birmingham to a standstill.
The programmes heavy workload was cut to four episodes a week in 1967, and then, on the instructions of the IBA, which was concerned about the shows quality, to three episodes a week in 1980. In 1984 Barton finally left the series and was replaced by the Australian Phillip Bowman. When the plug was finally pulled on the show in 1988, after 4,500 programmes there was a public outcry but Central Television refused to reconsider. It was revived as a new daily serial by ITV in 2001 but was axed in 2003.- Additional Crew
Nick Grace was born in 1936 in England, UK. He is known for Piece of Cake (1988) and Christabel (1988). He was married to Carolyn Grace. He died on 14 October 1988 in West Sussex, England, UK.- Peter Rutherford was born on 16 March 1937 in Cape Town, South Africa. He was an actor, known for Doctor Who (1963), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) and Highlander (1992). He died on 21 May 1995 in West Sussex, England, UK.
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Terry Gilbert was born on 11 September 1932 in Derbyshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Bounty (1984), Legionnaire (1998) and The Devils (1971). He was married to Selena Wylie. He died on 5 September 2001 in Henfield, West Sussex, England, UK.- Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Actor
Charles Knode was born on 14 July 1942 in Alcester, Warwickshire, England, UK. He was a costume designer and actor, known for Blade Runner (1982), Braveheart (1995) and Legend (1985). He died on 16 February 2023 in Littlehampton, West Sussex, England, UK.