Brittish Actors
Suzan Farmer was born in Kent in 1942. Her first film was “The Supreme Secret” in 1958. Her other films include “The Wild and the Willing” with Ian McShane to whom she was married from 1965 until 1968. She featured in several Hammer productions such as “The Scarlet Blade” and “Devil Ship Pirates”. Thread on Suzan Farmer on “Britmovie” website here.
James MacPherson is best known for his role as D.I. Jardine in the long running television series “Taggart”. He was born in Hamilton, Scotland in 1960. He first appeared on “Taggart” and featured in 48 episodes of the series. In 2002 he starred in a number of episodes of “The Bill” and in 2005 was in the film “Summer Solstice”.
IMDB mini biography:
James MacPherson was born on March 18, 1960 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He is an actor, known for Taggart (1983), The Scots Detective (2000) and Hurricanes (1993). He has been married to Jacqueline since 1986. They have three children.
George Baker was born in 1931 in Varna, Bulgaria. He trained at the Old Vic. He made his film debut in 1953 in “The Intruder”. He made his breakthrough in “The Ship that Died of Shame”. Other film highlights include “The Dam Busters”, “The Moonraker”, “A Hill in Korea” and “Goodbye Mr Chips”. He is of course most famous for his long running television series “Inspector Wexford”.
George Baker’s “Independent” obituary:
In 1987, two detectives from contemporary literature were transferred to television and their screen lives ran in parallel for 14 years.
While John Thaw stepped into the opera-loving shoes of Colin Dexter’s Oxford sleuth Inspector Morse, George Baker had his first outing as Ruth Rendell’s Shakespeare-quoting Detective Chief Inspector Wexford in “Wolf to the Slaughter”.
The 6ft 4in Baker traded his crisp vowels for a regional burr in the roleof the affable, fatherly figure investigating crimes in the fictional south of England market town Kingsmarkham. With his dour sidekick, Detective Inspector Mike Burden (Christopher Ravenscroft), he plodded thoughtfully through an alarmingly high number of murder cases.
Reg Wexford was also a dependable husband and doting father, and Rendell revealed that the character traits were taken from her own father. She was so enamoured with Baker’s portrayal that she admitted to writing The Veiled One, the first new Wexford novel published after the television adaptations began, with him in mind.
Following the stand-alone first mini-series, the programmes – featuring 23 stories in all and running until 2000 – were screened as The Ruth Rendell Mysteries and, occasionally, The Ruth Rendell Mystery Movie. Location filming was done in and around the Hampshire town of Romsey, not far from Baker’s own home in Wiltshire.
In 1992, his second wife, the actress Sally Home, died after a three-year fight against cancer. The following year, he married Louie Ramsay – who played his screen wife, Dora, in the Wexford dramas and was a long-time friend of the couple – calling her his “soulmate” and adding: “Sally was the love of my life. With Louie, the love is quite different, but it’s almost as strong.” Ramsay died last March.
Baker was born at the British Embassy in Varna, Bulgaria, where his father, Frank – originally from Wetherby, West Yorkshire – was the honorary British vice-consul. A literate, cultured individual who was a writer and expert wine-taster, Baker was at pains to point out that, according to diplomatic etiquette, he was born on British soil.
When the Second World War broke out, he, his Irish mother Eva and four brothers and sisters moved to Yorkshire. Baker attended Lancing College, West Sussex, before joining Deal repertory company, in Kent, when he was just 15. During national service in Hong Kong he served with the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment. As a horse rider he was made regimental equitation officer but returned to Britain after contracting the intestinal disease sprue, and finished his Army service on a training range in Pembrokeshire.
Baker then acted in repertory theatre across Britain before making his London début as Arthur Wells in a revival of the Frederick Lonsdale drawing-room comedy Aren’t We All? (Haymarket Theatre, 1953). Many roles followed in the West End, and with the Old Vic company (1959-60) and the RSC (1975). He also directed some plays himself, including The Sleeping Prince (St Martin’s Theatre, 1968) and The Lady’s Not for Burning (Old Vic Theatre, 1978). As artistic director, Baker launched his own provincial touring company, Candida Plays (named after his eldest daughter), in 1966.
Film casting directors spotted his matinee-idol looks early on. His first screen appearance, alongside Jack Hawkins, was in The Intruder (1953) and he followed it with a role in theSecond World War drama The Dam Busters (1955). Then came star billing in another war film, A Hill in Korea (1956), and the Civil War adventure The Moonraker (1958).
Baker’s six-week affair with Brigitte Bardot while he was at Pinewood Studios filming The Woman for Joe (1955) and she was making Doctor at Sea put a strain on his marriage to the costume designer Julia Squire, which also suffered from the constant pressure of being in debt. He lived with Sally Home for 10 years before she became his second wife. His confidence was knocked by the film director Tony Richardson’s description of him as the worst actor in England and another disappointment was the James Bond author Ian Fleming’s assertion that Baker would make the perfect 007, before the part went to Sean Connery.
However, Baker appeared in three Bond films: as a Nasa engineer in You Only Live Twice (1967), Captain Benson in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Sir Hilary Bray in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), in which he also dubbed the voice of George Lazenby – in that actor’s one screen appearance as the secret agent – for a scene in which 007 impersonates his character.
Television began to play a bigger part in Baker’s career, with dramatic roles such as the second Number Two in The Prisoner (1967), Tiberius in I, Claudius (1976) and Detective Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn in four feature-length adaptations of Ngaio Marsh’s novels, made in New Zealand in 1977.
He also had some success in sitcoms. After playing Peter Craven’s boss in The Fenn Street Gang (1972), Baker was spun off into his own series, Bowler (1973), in which he was seen as a spiv and petty villain trying to exude class but failing abysmally. Later, alongside Penelope Keith in the first two series of No Job for a Lady (1990-91), he played the Conservative MP Godfrey Eagan, sparring with the newly elected Labour MP Jean Price.
As a writer, Baker adapted four of the Ruth Rendell stories himself and scripted many radio dramas and the television play The Fatal Spring (1980), about the First World War poets Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, which won the United Nations Media Prize Award of Merit.
In 1999, Baker underwent surgery to remove his prostate gland after being diagnosed with cancer. His autobiography, The Way to Wexford, was published three years later. He also collected together recipes from his own culinary exploits in A Cook for All Seasons (1989). In 2007, Baker was made an MBE for youth club fund-raising activities in his then home village of West Lavington, Wiltshire.
This obituary can also be accessed online here.
Anne Shelton was after Vera Lynn, the most popular female vocalist in Britain during World War Two. She was born in 1923 in Dulwich in London. She began singing in military bases in 1942. She sang with Glenn Miller and his orchestra in Europe. Among her more popular songs were “I’ll be Seeing You”, “Galway Bay”, “Isle of Innisfree” and “Lay Down Your Arms”. Anne Shelton made some films including “Jeannie” in 1941 followed by “King Arthur Was A Gentleman” and “Bees in Paradise”. Anne Shelton died in 1994 at the age of 70.
Her “Independent” obituary:
ANNE SHELTON was, with Vera Lynn, one of Britain’s best-loved popular singers of her generation. She is chiefly remembered as a ‘Forces sweetheart’, who regularly entertained the troops during the Second World War, and who sustained a loyal following that continued well into peacetime. Although she never achieved Lynn’s prominence and popularity, Shelton became a well-loved icon of the period, a promoter of wartime comradeship and tenacity.
She was born Patricia Sibley in Dulwich, south London, in 1923. When only 12 she sang ‘Let the Curtain Come Down’ on the BBC radio evening show Monday Night at Eight. The dance-band leader Albert Ambrose heard her performance, and persuaded her to sing with his prestigious and popular ‘Ambrose Orchestra’. Instead of becoming a child evacuee with her friends, Shelton was given a regular spot (still in her school uniform) in Ambrose’s radio shows. She continued to work for Ambrose during the war, but also enjoyed considerable success in her own right, and with other major bands. On the occasions that Glenn Miller visited Britain she regularly appeared with his band.
Introducing Anne, her own radio show, became highly popular amongst troops. The programme was primarily devised for soldiers serving in the North African desert and ran for over four years. She also presented, with Ronald Shiner, Calling Malta, a show that was a lifeline to troops serving on the island, particularly during the 1942 air bombardment and siege. As with many of her other shows and material, Calling Malta, served as a perfect platform for a style of music that captured the pathos and tone at the time. She had a strong melodious voice which had a dynamic presence. The sentiments and subject-matter of her songs became a ‘bonding’ medium which carried with it its own special nostalgia.
This ‘nostalgic’ quality carried over into her recordings. She had adopted ‘Lili Marlene’ as a signature piece (previously only heard on the radio). An English lyric was added by Tommy Connor and her recording, released in 1944, became an immediate success. She was constantly in demand by this time and appeared in a crop of films which were mainly a fixture of musicals and comedy: King Arthur was a Gentleman (starring the comedian Arthur Askey), Miss London Ltd (1943) and Bees in Paradise (1943).
Immediately after the war, Shelton capitalised on her success as a wartime radio personality, touring Britain extensively. She made numerous guest appearances, including singing alongside Bing Crosby. My parents, who performed in variety, toured with Shelton on many occasions. These included appearances at the London Palladium and with the Royal Commission (which had previously been ENSA). My mother danced with Anne Shelton’s show and remembers her appearance for the army of occupation at the Garrison Theatre, Hamburg. Shelton’s show-stopping number was a little-known song, ‘My Tenement Symphony’, which never failed to evoke audience reaction, usually with the entire front stalls of soldiers cheering and stamping.
In 1949 she recorded an updated version of ‘Lili Marlene’ with ‘The Wedding of Lili Marlene’ and subsequently became the first British artist to cover the entire United States, coast to coast with a tour that lasted a year. Shelton had a degree of early success as a recording artist in America, which was unique for a British artist, recording versions of ‘Galway Bay’ and ‘Be Mine’. Back in Britain in the early Fifties she continued to court the sentimental and nostalgic with ‘My Yiddisha Momma’, ‘I Remember the Cornfields’, ‘Arriverderci Darling’ and ‘Seven Days’. However, in the later Fifties, finding the right material became increasingly difficult for her. It was still the military association which worked best and a Swedish song with English lyrics by Paddy Roberts topped the British charts in 1959 – ‘Lay Down Your Arms’. Her last British success was a cover version of Petula Clark’s hit ‘Sailor’ in 1961 (again – an armed forces connection). She sang ‘You’ll Never Know’ for the Queen Mother (reputedly her favourite song) on her 80th birthday. In the same year 1980, Shelton performed ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ in Yanks, John Schlesinger’s film about GIs in wartime Britain.
Anne Shelton toured extensively, appearing in cabaret, television and world-wide variety. She devoted an increasing amount of her time to charity work and reunion projects for the British Legion and the British Services organisations. In 1990 she was appointed OBE for services to the Not Forgotten Association, a charity which provides care and support for disabled ex-service personnel. Her husband Lieutenant- Commander David Reid died in the same year.
Last November Anne Shelton was invited to record a commemorative album for EMI, Wartime Memories, which was released in April. This was recorded with Dennis Lotis and the Royal Airforce Squadronaires – the band which emerged from Albert Ambrose’s Orchestra in 1939, her first backing.
The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.
Angela Down was born in 1946 in Hampstead, North London. Her movies include “Mahler” made in 1974 and “Emma” in 1996 directed by Ken Russell. She and her husband have two daughters, Daisy (born 1978) and Emilia (born 1981). Turned down a major cameo in Doctor Who: Attack Of The Cybermen.
Mr Michael Wilding, one of the most popular film stars of the late 1940s, died in hospital on July 9 after a fall at his home near Chichester. He was 66.
His fame rested principally on a series of romantic comedies — The Courtneys of Curzon Street, Spring in Park Lane and Maytime in Mayfair — which, set in an artificial world inhabited by earls and dukes, provided perfect escapism for British cinema-goers suffering the deprivations of rationing and austerity. Enormously successful at the box office, these films teamed Wilding, usually cast as the elegant aristocrat with Anna Neagle, and they were directed by her husband Herbert Wilcox.
In 1949 Wilding was voted the top British star and he was in the leading 10 each year from 1947 to 1950. His stay at the top however proved to be a brief one and he later confessed surprise that his limited talents had taken him so far and brought him the sort of adulation that was later reserved for pop singers. But while he never pretended to any great range or depth, he managed to radiate a certain romantic charm which for a time, at least, millions of film-goers found irresistible.
Wilding was born in West-cliff, Essex, on July 23, 1912, and educated at Christ’s Hospital School. He studied art, and it was as a designer that he first entered the cinema. He established himself in films in notable pictures of the early war period, such as Convoy, Kipps, Cottage to Let, the Big Blockade and Noel Coward‘s In Which We Serve. He married for the first time, in 1937, Miss Kay Young. The marriage was dissolved in 1952.
He joined the Neagle-Wilcox team in 1946 to make Piccadilly Incident, the story of a wartime romance, and though Maytime in Mayfair was the summit of the partnership it was to continue through until 1952 with The Lady with the Lamp — a biography of Florence Nightingale — and Derby Day. In between Wilding was in Sir Alexander Korda’s lush production of An Ideal Husband and made two films for Hitchcock, Under Capricorn and Stage Fright. In 1952 he gave his numerous fans the chance to share a real-life romance when at the age of 40 he married the 20-year-old Elizabeth Taylor. The marriage produced two sons but both it and Wilding’s film career foundered. The marriage was dissolved in 1957 and he spent an unhappy time trying to establish himself in Hollywood, returned to Britain for a succession of mostly undistinguished pictures, and in 1963 announced that he was giving up acting to become an agent.
He did this for three years, but later made a partial comeback in the cinema, playing General Ponsonby in the 1969 picture, Waterloo, and other supporting roles in Lady Caroline Lamb and Dr Frankenstein. He married, in 1958, Mrs Susan Nell. This marriage was dissolved.
Wilding’s fourth marriage, in 1964, was to the actress Margaret Leighton, who died in January, 1976.
Iain Gregory was in British films and television series in the 1960’s. His first film role was in “Konga” in 1961. Among his other films are “Lancelot and Guinevere” and “The System”. His last known credit was in “In the Shadow of the Tower” on television in 1972.
Paul Barber was born in Liverpool in 1951. He is best known for his part of Denzil in television’s “Only Fools and Horses” and as Horse in “The Full Monty” in 1997. Article on Paul Barber here.
It was thought that Anna Kashfi was from India but she was in fact born Joan O’Callaghan in 1934 in Cardiff in Wales. Her entire career was in movies and television shows in Hollywood. Her major films were “The Mountain” in 1955 with Spence Tracy and Robert Wagner, “Cowboy” with Jack Lemmon and Glenn Ford and “Battle Hymn” with Rock Hudson and Martha Hyer. Her career seemed to stall after her short lived marriage to Marlon Brando. She died in 2015 at tyhe age of 80.
Her obituary in the ” Telegraph”:
Anna Kashfi, who has died aged 80, was an actress of exotic appearance who was the first wife of Marlon Brando, and the mother of his first child, Christian; she played “foreigners” in several Hollywood films of the 1950s. Her origins were never clarified beyond doubt: when she was thrust into the spotlight there were suggestions that she had invented her Indian ancestry, with one newspaper offering the theory that she browned her skin by bathing in coffee. She insisted that she was Indian, the daughter of Devi Kashfi, an architect, and a woman called Selma Ghose. But the day after she married Marlon Brando in late 1957 – she wore a sari for the ceremony – one William O’Callaghan from Cardiff and his wife Phoebe emerged claiming to be her parents. Her real name, they said, was not Anna Kashfi but Joan O’Callaghan. The truth may be that, as the actress explained in her memoirs, she was the result of an “unregistered alliance” and was subsequently adopted by O’Callaghan.
Her films included, most notably, her debut The Mountain (1956), a thriller starring Spencer Tracy in which she played a Hindu woman who survives an aeroplane crash in the French Alps. Edward Dmytryk, the director, told reporters at the time that he was aware of Anna Kashfi’s “real” name, but assumed she was Anglo-Indian. It was during production that she met Marlon Brando in the Paramount studio commissary. Recalling the meeting years later, the actress wrote: “The face, with an incipient heaviness about the jawline, reflected a wistfulness, an open sensuality, and an ineffable indifference.” She was pregnant by the time she married the star and they were divorced within two years. Their relationship had been violent and tempestuous while they were together – Anna Kashfi was reported to have thrown a tricycle at Brando – and it remained difficult. For 15 years a painful dispute rumbled on over custody of their son Christian, whom Anna Kashfi preferred to call by his second name Devi. During legal proceedings it was claimed that she had been emotionally unstable and at times reliant on alcohol and barbiturates. Christian was also troubled: he dropped out of school, failed to make a career out of acting, and was sent to prison after shooting dead the boyfriend of his half-sister Cheyenne. He died at the age of 49 of pneumonia.
Anna Kashfi was born Joan O’Callaghan on September 30 1934 in Darjeeling, where her father was a traffic superintendent on Indian state railways; she was brought up there until she was 13, when the family moved to Cardiff, where William O’Callaghan worked in a factory producing steel. Anna attended St Joseph’s Convent School then the Cardiff School of Art. Early on she had jobs in a butcher’s shop in the city and in an ice cream parlour at Porthcawl. She soon started modelling and in 1952 was spotted by an MGM talent scout. Her flourishing as an actress was brief. After The Mountain she played a Korean woman in Battle Hymn (1957), opposite Rock Hudson as a Christian minister turned fighter pilot; then the daughter of an over-protective Mexican cattle baron whom Jack Lemmon has fallen for in Cowboy (1958); the next year she had a small part in Night of the Quarter Moon. Anna Kashfi published a “tell-all” memoir, Brando for Breakfast, in 1979.
Latterly she lived in California and then in Washington state. In 1974 she married James Hannaford, a salesman. He died in 1986.
The above “Telegraph” obituary can also be accessed online here.
IMDB mini biography:
Anna Kashfi has appeared in a number of films including The Mountain (1956) (withSpencer Tracy) and Battle Hymn (1957) (with Rock Hudson) but is best known for beingMarlon Brando‘s first wife. Kashfi is often thought of as being Indian but is, in fact, the daughter of a Welsh factory worker, William Callaghan, and simply reinvented herself to increase her screen appeal. She met Brando in 1955 in the Paramount commissary and after an on-off relationship (mainly due to Brando’s relentless womanizing) married him in 1957. (Brando claimed that he married her only because she had become pregnant.) She gave birth in May 1958 to their son, Christian, who became notorious in 1990 for shooting dead Dag Drollet, a crime that earned him a ten-year jail sentence. Kashfi divorced Brando in 1959.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Charles Lee < charleslee@tinyworld.co.uk
Anyone who knows me are aware that I am a bit of a movie buff. Over the past few years I have been collecting signed photographs of my favourite actors. Since I like movies so much there are many actors whose work I like.
