British Actors Archives - Page 56 of 131

Noel Harrison

Noel Harrison was born in London in 1934 and is the son of actor Rex Harrison. He began his show business career as a singer. He went to the U.S. in 1965 and the year after he starred with Stefanie Powers in the TV series “The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”. He starred with Hayley Mills and Oliver Reed in the movie “Take A Girl Like You”. He had a hit with the song “The Windmills of Your Mind” from “The Thomas Crown Affair” which starred Steve McQueen.

Adam Sweeting’s obituary in “The Guardian”:

Noel Harrison, who has died aged 79 following a heart attack, was the son of the actor Sir Rex Harrison and followed his famous father into show business. He pursued a varied career on stage and in film and television, but it was as a musician that he achieved his moment in the spotlight. In 1968 he recorded the song The Windmills of Your Mind for the soundtrack of the Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway film The Thomas Crown Affair and it became a top 10 hit in the UK the following year.

“Recording Windmills wasn’t a very significant moment,” he recalled. “It was just a job that I got paid $500 for, no big deal. The composer, Michel Legrand, came to my home and helped me learn it, then we went into the studio and recorded it, and I thought no more about it.” It went on to win an Oscar for best original song. (Coincidentally, Talk to the Animals, the song sung by Rex Harrison in Doctor Dolittle, had won the Oscar the previous year.)

“People love [Windmills],” said Noel, “and it’s great to have a classic like that on my books.” His pleasure was marred only slightly by the fact that he could not perform it at the Oscar ceremony because he was in Britain filming Take a Girl Like You (1970).

Noel was born in London to Rex Harrison and his first wife, Collette Thomas; they divorced when he was eight. He attended private schools, including Radley college, Oxfordshire, and when he was 16 his mother invited him to live with her in Klosters, Switzerland. He jumped at the chance, which allowed him to develop his gifts as a skier. He became a member of the British ski team and competed at the Winter Olympics in Norway in 1952 and Italy in 1956.

After completing his national service in the army, Harrison concentrated on learning the guitar and in his 20s made a living travelling around Europe playing in bars and clubs. In 1958 he was given a slot on the BBC TV programme Tonight, on which he would sing calypso-style songs about current news events.

In 1965 he left for the US with his first wife, Sara, working on both coasts as a nightclub entertainer. He scored a minor hit with his version of the Charles Aznavour song A Young Girl (of Sixteen), which also featured on his first studio album, Noel Harrison, released in 1966. Then he landed a leading role in the TV series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., playing Mark Slate opposite Stefanie Powers as April Dancer, though the show lasted for only one season.

Harrison’s high profile earned him a recording deal with Reprise, for whom he made three albums, Collage (1967), Santa Monica Pier (1968) and The Great Electric Experiment is Over (1969), and notched another minor hit with Leonard Cohen’s song Suzanne. He also toured with Sonny & Cher and the Beach Boys. However, while his career flourished, his marriage was disintegrating, and Sara returned to Britain with their three children. In 1972 Harrison, beguiled by the back-to-the-land spirit of the era, left Los Angeles for Nova Scotia, Canada, with his second wife, Maggie. There they built their own house and lived on home-grown fruit and vegetables.

He now earned a living from hosting a music show on CBC, Take Time, and took several stage roles in touring musicals including Camelot, The Sound of Music and Man of La Mancha. He even played Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, which had been an Oscar-winning film role for his father. “I went to see my dad in New York and I said ‘I really need the money, so how do you feel about it?’ He said ‘Oh why not? Everybody else is doing it.'” In the 80s he also staged a one-man musical, Adieu Jacques, based on the songs of Jacques Brel.

He ventured into screenwriting, penning episodes of two “erotic” TV series, Emmanuelle, Queen of the Galaxy and The Adventures of Justine, before returning to Britain in 2003 with his third wife, Lori. They originally planned a short visit to his stepdaughter, Zoe, who was running a cafe in Ashburton, Devon, but liked it so much they decided to stay. Harrison played gigs in village halls across Devon and in 2011 performed at the Glastonbury festival. He released two new albums, Hold Back Time (2003) and From the Sublime to the Ridiculous (2010), and his three Reprise albums were reissued in 2011.

He is survived by Lori and five children from his first two marriages, which both ended in divorce.

• Noel Harrison, actor, musician and writer, born 29 January 1934; died 19 October 2013

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

He is most remembered, in the UK, for his 1985 performance in Levi’s “Launderette” television commercial,^[3] where he gets to stone-wash his blue jeans in a 1950s style public laundromat which was one of a series of Bartle Bogle Hegarty advertisements that dramatically increased the popularity of Levi 501s. The commercial, directed by Roger Lyons, was selected for, and came fourth in, The 100 Greatest TV Ads in 2000.^[4]

Extract from “Wikipedia” entry:

Kamen attended St Marks RC Comprehensive School in Harlow along with his brother Chester.^{[citation needed]} Kamen was first brought to the public’s attention in 1984 when Ray Petri featured him on the front cover of The Face.^[2] The cover showed him wearing a ski-hat, orange roll-neck sweater and aviator sunglasses.

He is most remembered, in the UK, for his 1985 beefcake performance in Levi’s “Launderette” television commercial,^[3] where he strips down in order to stone-wash his blue jeansin a 1950s style public laundromat while he waits clad only in his boxer shorts, which was one of a series of Bartle Bogle Hegarty advertisements that dramatically increased thepopularity of Levi 501s. The commercial, directed by Roger Lyons, was selected for, and came fourth in, The 100 Greatest TV Ads in 2000.^[4]

His first single was the 1986 UK number five hit “Each Time You Break My Heart” from his eponymous début album.^[5] Written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray, it also cracked both the U.S. dance chart (remix by Shep Pettibone) and the Top 50 in Canada. Madonna also sang the backing vocals. Her original demo remains one of manyunreleased Madonna songs. Kamen also had a #16 follow-up in the UK with the second single, “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever” (a cover of the Four Tops‘ 1966 hit), although his later singles were less-commercially successful in the UK^[5] but more so in the rest of Europe, particularly Italy, France, Germany and Spain.

Kamen’s second album Us (1988) was produced by Patrick Leonard. Madonna again made an appearance as a backing vocalist on the song “Tell Me”, this time without contributing to the songwriting or production. In 1989 Kamen performed the song “Turn It Up” on the soundtrack to Walt Disney‘s film, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. 1990 saw the release of one of his biggest hits. The single “I Promised Myself“, from the album Move Until We Fly, reached Number 1 in eight European countries and was the fourth most played record in Europe in 1990. The song was later covered by Dead or Alive (1999), A-Teens (2004), Basshunter (2009) and most recently German punk rockers Maggers United (2013).

Nick Kamen appeared on UK television, singing, on Top of the Pops (12 March 1987 and 18 October 1990), This Morning (9 April 1990), Night Network (15 April 1987, 19 August 1987 and 1988) and The Tube (31 October 1986 and 21 November 1986). In 1992 Kamen released what would be his last album to date, Whatever, Whenever.

The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.

Anita Carey was born in 1948 in Halifax. She featured as ‘Joyce Smedley’ in “Coronation Street” and as ‘Violet’ in “Doctors”. Her films include “Ordeal By Innocence”.

Anita Carey died in 2023.

Guardian obituary in August 2023:

Anita Carey obituary

Actor known for her roles in television comedies, the epic drama The Spoils of War and Coronation Street

Anthony HaywardSun 6 Aug 2023 17.35 BST

At one time in the mid-1970s, the actor Anita Carey, who has died of breast cancer aged 75, seemed ever present in television comedy. But she switched to soap in 1978 when offered a short run in Coronation Street as Brenda Summers, a victim of domestic violence, who was befriended by Emily Bishop (played by Eileen Derbyshire).

“I’ve done so much comedy on television that I was anxious to get a really meaty dramatic role,” said Carey, who researched the subject by talking to women at a Manchester refuge. “The social relevance of the part was a big challenge. It made me think hard about battered wives.”

She was back in Coronation Street two decades later to play a woman with very different problems. As Joyce Smedley, the debt-laden mother of Judy Mallett (Gaynor Faye) for a year from 1996 to 1997, she was a cleaner at the Rovers Return pub and Sunliners travel agency – sacked from the second job by her boss, Alec Gilroy, after stealing money.

Eileen Derbyshire (as Emily Bishop), left, and Anita Carey (as Brenda Summers) in Coronation Street, 1978. Photograph: ITV/Shutterstock

Joyce met an untimely end when her dog, Scamper, slipped his lead and she was knocked down by a car while rushing across the road after him. Carey was one of the victims of a headline-hitting cast cull by a new Coronation Street producer, Brian Park.

Her talent for comedy had previously shone in the first two series (1973 and 1974) of I Didn’t Know You Cared. As Pat Partington, she was the girlfriend, then wife, of Carter Brandon (Stephen Rea) in Peter Tinniswood’s sitcom about a dour, miserable north of England working-class family. Pat, a women’s libber firmly against parenthood underwent an about-turn that saw her with one baby and another on the way before Carey left halfway through the programme’s four-series run.

“I opted out after a while because I couldn’t develop the character,” she explained. “Now, I want to concentrate on heavy dramatic parts.”

In The Spoils of War (1980-81), an epic drama from the pen of the Family at War creator John Finch, she played Martha Blaze, marrying into one of the two families facing the hopes and fears of the post-1945 world. “Anita Carey lit up all the scenes in which she appeared with her customary sharpness and intelligence,” wrote the Stage’s critic.

Anita Carey, Richard Griffiths, centre, and Tim Healy in the ITV comedy A Kind of Living, 1989.Photograph: ITV/Shutterstock

The drama became political in ITV’s 1986 adaptation of Jeffrey Archer’s novel First Among Equals. Carey played Joyce Gould, devoted wife of the northern Labour MP Raymond (Tom Wilkinson), who feels mildly ashamed of her after leaving his working-class roots behind as he aspires to top office.

She returned to sitcom in the third series (1990) of A Kind of Living as Linda, an unmarried mother moving in with her brother Brian (Tim Healy), owner of a fish and chip shop, and falling for his friend Trevor (Richard Griffiths).

Later, she was in soap again as Vivien March (2007-09), receptionist at the Mill Health Centre, for almost 400 episodes of the afternoon serial Doctors. Her portrayal of Vivien coping with the ordeal of being raped by a burglar brought the actor a British Soap award for best dramatic performance.

Anita was born in Halifax, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to Sidney Carey, a postal worker, and Louisa Crowther. She was brought up in Brighouse and, on leaving Holmfirth secondary modern school at 14, worked as a typist for a carpet firm. At the same time, she took drama classes at the Bradford Playhouse.

Aged 19, Carey and her then fiance, Steve Hodson – who went on to star in the children’s TV series Follyfoot – successfully auditioned to train at Central School of Speech and Drama in London (1967-70). She gained her first professional experience with the rep company at the Lyceum theatre, Crewe (1970-71). Then, in 1973, a tour of Butley – in which she played Miss Heasman – visited the Crucible theatre, Sheffield, where she met the actor Mark Wing-Davey, a member of the rep company there.

The two began living together the following year after they both took part in a Crucible production of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Alongside appearances in the provinces and on tour with roles including Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest (1975) and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1998), Carey was in the West End as Alice Hobson in Hobson’s Choice (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 1982).

She established herself in television comedy by playing Susan Chambers, whose sister Thelma (Brigit Forsyth) marries Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes), in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (1973-74).

Then came appearances in One-Upmanship (1974-76), a sketch show based on Stephen Potter’s spoof self-help books, and in the second and third series (1975 and 1977) of the comedy-drama Beryl’s Lot, playing Babs Humphries, one of the children of the cleaner (Carmel McSharry) looking to improve her life by signing up for an evening course in philosophy.

Carey took dozens of other character roles on television until moving to New York after Wing-Davey – by then a successful director in the US – became chair of the graduate acting programme at New York University in 2008.

Even after her cancer diagnosis two years later, she continued to act on stage in Berkeley, Washington and New York.

She is survived by Wing-Davey, whom she married in 2002, and their daughters, Zanna and Isabella.

Anita Eileen Carey, actor, born 16 April 1948; died 19 July 2023

Mark Burns was born in 1936. He made his film debut in 1960 in “Tunes of Glory”. His other movies include “The Charge of the Light Brigade” in 1968, “A Day At The Beach”, “Death in Venice” and “The Stud”. He died in 2007,

Peter Evan’s obituary in “The Guardian”:

Mark Burns, who has died aged 71 from cancer, was one of the most admired young actors of the 1960s. Although it was the decade of the working-class hero – Albert Finney, Michael Caine, Terence Stamp and Tom Courtenay – his English upper-crust image and blond good looks quickly attracted attention.

Tony Richardson cast him as the dashing Captain Morris in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968). He had seen Burns as Saki’s amoral and effete antihero Clovis Sangrail in a 1960 Granada television series, and remarked that “it was an unexpected bonus when I discovered that he had, in fact, been a cavalry officer”.

Burns’ friend Charles Wood, writer of the screenplay, said: “Mark was a typically brave cavalry officer. A beautiful, kind man, he had the courage of a lion. He licked prostate cancer, bladder cancer; he licked booze, and he fought the final lung cancer all the way.”

Born in Worcestershire, Burns was educated at Ampleforth college, north Yorkshire, and planned to enter the priesthood. But after a short-service commission in the 15th/19th The Kings Royal Hussars (1955-57), in which he served in Malaya and Northern Ireland, he became an actor. Early television appearances included roles in Z Cars, Probation Officer, and No Hiding Place.

In 1971, Luchino Visconti cast him in the small but crucial role of the composer’s friend in Death in Venice. Burns’ scene, in which he accuses the dying Aschenbach, played by Dirk Bogarde, of avoiding emotional issues in his private life, was at the heart of the film: Bogarde called it “one of the finest acting vignettes I’ve ever seen”.

Shortly after the Falklands conflict in 1982, Burns read about Robert Lawrence, an officer who lost almost half his brain when he was shot by an Argentinian sniper. Facing a lifetime of paralysis, Lawrence felt abandoned by the army. Burns took the idea to Wood, who wrote the television drama, Tumbledown. Although Burns never took a producer’s credit for the production, eventually made by the BBC in 1988, it was one of his proudest achievements.

But Burns never took himself seriously: his performances opposite Joan Collins in The Stud (1978) and The Bitch (1979) pointed to his sense of humour. His loyalty to his friends was legendary. When director Michael Winner could not afford to pay him even the minimum fee for a role in his remake of The Wicked Lady in 1983, Burns told him to make a donation to his Police Memorial Trust Fund. Later, when Burns was charged with speeding, Winner told the bench that the actor had given “his entire fee” for a major film to the fund. Burns was discharged.

His first wife was the actor Jane How, with whom he had a son, Jack. His second was the former model, Paulene Stone. All three survive him.

· Mark Burns, actor, born March 30 1936; died May 8 2007

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Article on Mark Burns in “Tina Aumont’s Eyes” website:

Perhaps mostly recognized from his lesser supporting roles in such movies as ‘The Stud’(1978), and its follow-up ‘The Bitch’ (1979), it’s a shame that the very talented Mark Burns never achieved the recognition that he truly deserved. A busy supporting player and occasional lead, he seems to have been largely forgotten, yet he acted steadily for over 45 years.

Born on March 30th 1936, Burns had originally planned to enter into priesthood, until he served two years with the British Cavalry from 1955 to 1957. Turning to acting in 1960, he spent his early days working mainly in television, guesting in many acclaimed British series including ‘Z Cars’, ‘The Saint’ and ‘The Prisoner’. One of Mark’s first film roles of note was as Captain William Morris, in Tony Richardson’s historical drama ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1968).

In 1969 Mark began work on the one movie which could have made him a star. Roman Polanski’s bleak but brilliant ‘A Day at the Beach’(1970) had Burns in the lead role of boozy Uncle Bernie. This unrelenting movie tells the harrowing story of the last day in the life of an alcoholic, whilst looking after his young niece. Adapted by Polanski and directed by Simon Hesera, the movie would undoubtedly have received far more recognition had it been released at the time it was made. Polanski left production shortly before filming had finished, upon receiving the awful news of his heavily pregnant wife Sharon Tate’s tragic murder, at the hands of the Manson family. Out of respect for Polanski, the distributors shelved the movie with the intention to show it at a later date. Mark was hypnotic in a demanding role, and it’s a shame that he sadly passed away before the movies long-awaited DVD release in 2007, as he never got to see his excellent performance.

In 1970, Burns was praised for his portrayal of Major Eastwood in Christopher Miles’ version of D.H Lawrence’s ‘The Virgin and the Gypsy’. Mark followed this with roles in two movies for Luchino Visconti, 1971’s ‘Death in Venice’, and a small part in the biopic ‘Ludwig’, in 1972. Burns did get some recognition however, in 1974, albeit for a pretty obscure euro horror flick. Ray Austin’s ‘Curse of the Dead’, saw Mark playing a mad scientist, a role for which he won the Best Actor award at the Sitges International Film Festival.
After parts in a couple of big budget movies (1974’s Juggernaut, and Otto Preminger’s ‘Rosebud’-1975), Burns had a rare romantic lead in the obscure, yet pretty good, Spanish drama ‘A Long Return’(1975).

Mark had a long association with maverick director Michael Winner, appearing in many of his movies. His first was in 1964 with a minor part in ‘The System’, alongside another Winner regular, Oliver Reed. Winner would continue to use Mark’s services for ‘The Jokers’ and ‘I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname’ (both 1967), and much later in ‘The Wicked Lady’(1983), ‘Bullseye!’ (1990), and ‘Dirty Weekend’ (1993).

Mark continued to keep fairly busy in between films, with a number of television roles, including ‘Bergerac’, ‘Remington Steele’ and ‘Heartbeat’. Burns final movie role was that of a bishop in Matthew Vaughn’s big-budget fantasy ‘Stardust’ in 2007.

Married twice, with one son, Mark Burns sadly died from lung cancer on May 8th 2007, aged 71. A great and valued talent, and one who narrowly missed out on the acclaim he genuinely deserved.

Favourite Movie: A Long Returning
Favourite Performance: A Day At The Beach

The above article can also be accessed online here.

Peggy Mount obituary in “The Guardian” in 2001.

Peggy Mount was born in 1915 in Leigh-On-Sea, Essex. She came to fame in Britain in the 1950’s with a series of films in which she played battleaxes and bossy mother-in-laws such as “Sailor Beware”. She appeared on many television programmes such as “Inspector Morse” and had her own TV show “The Larkins”. She died in 2001.

Dennis Barker’s obituary in “The Guardian”:

Peggy Mount, who has died in a nursing home after a long illness, aged 86, was the last of the time-honoured British battleaxes, equally at home in the broadest of farces or in Brecht. Her professional stock-in-trade as a stage and television actress was a voice that could have made a regimental sergeant major tremble and a figure, suggesting an ample corsage filled with concrete, that wordlessly and hilariously forbade the taking of liberties.

Behind this facade, which caused her no little personal unhappiness, was a kind, down-to-earth woman who never severed her links with Southend, near where she was born, never forgot old friends (her Southend costume maker served her for over a generation) and sometimes made new ones as she did her shopping around Islington, north London, where latterly she lived.

To an older generation, she will be most vividly recalled as the overwhelmingly raucous Emma Hornett, iron-fisted ruler of a nominally military household in both the stage and film versions of Sailor Beware. Falling back on the attitudes of a “poor little woman” only when it suited her, Emma Hornett, in fact, hardly allowed the menfolk in her menage to get a word in edgeways. The conception and execution was explosively funny in the seaside postcard tradition.

Yet producers were slow to see her star quality. When she first appeared in Philip King’s play in 1955, after labouring hard and inconspicuously in repertory in the Midlands and the north of England for many years, she was asked her age at a press lunch. She pointed to the press release. “It says on that bit of paper 35, but really I’m 38,” she said briskly. She had learned by then not to back off from unpleasant facts – such as that, in her view, she was fat and ugly, something that her not very clever family had dunned into her.

Peggy Mount was born in Leigh-on-Sea, the daughter of an invalid father who died when she was 10, leaving her in the sole care of a mother who had litle time for her. Wanting to help the stretched family finances, she became a secretary, devoting rare threepences to buying “late doors” tickets sold five minutes before curtain-up at local theatres. She also visited London theatres when she could, vowing to have her name up there in lights one day, though not really believing it possible for someone as unattractive as she felt herself to be.

She hung around one Southend theatre when Harry Hanson’s Hanson Players were there for a season. A member of the company suggested to the director that he see the stage-struck girl in a local amateur production (she was then known as the Amateur Queen of Southend). Her first job with the Hanson Players was at Keighley in 1944. At Worthing, she played the part of an eccentric guest, created by Martita Hunt, in The Sleeping Prince. She stayed with the company for three years and then stepped into the part of Emma Hornett at Worthing.

Though Peggy Mount was a smash hit in the role, the management wanted an established star to take it into the West End. It was only after they had failed to find one for a whole year that they settled on Peggy Mount. The play and she ran for more than three years. She became a star from its London first night at the Strand theatre in January 1955. From then on, she was in constant demand for battleaxe parts. She was Ada Larkin in the ITV series about the Larkin family, her playing only slightly toned down from Sailor Beware.

From 1960, she moved into classical parts on stage, the first fulfilling her ambition to play the nurse in Romeo and Juliet. Before this Franco Zeffirelli production at the Old Vic, she revealingly gave a potted estimate of Ma Larkin that could as easily have applied to herself: “She has aggressive common-sense; she sees life clearly.” But she also remarked gloomily that her Ma Larkin “may easily ruin us – the audience and critics may not accept that noisy woman in Shakespeare”. As usual her pessimism was proved wrong.

Through the 1970s and 1980s she continued with a mixture of prestigious stage classics and lucrative television series. Her Mrs Malaprop in Belgrade Theatre’s touring production of Sheridan’s The Rivals was hailed as “the play’s vociferous focal point”.

Her roles in the classics were rarely other than well received. With Kenneth Williams in the Feydeau farce Signed and Sealed, she did cause one critic to say that her coquettish flouncing as an eager bride was not as funny as Mount the awesome matriarch; but her first appearance at the National Theatre, in Goldini’s Il Campiello, was praised. And Her Mother Courage was exceptional. Her unsentimental view of the title role was perfectly Brechtian in showing Mother Courage not merely as a survivor of cruel misfortunes to be sympathised with, but also as an unseeing dupe of the greed and corruption of the political system.

Her successes in classic roles alone would have given many other actresses a self-satisfaction which always eluded her. Despite her few loyal friends (she once marooned three of them on a sand bank at low tide off Foulness when she took them out in her sailing boat, appropriately called Dragon), her jam-making and knitting for friends’ children and grandchildren, she saw herself as essentially alone. She never married, and though she sometimes said she wished she had, neither she nor her friends really thought it was for her. The wounds of her family background were too deep.

·Peggy Mount, actor, born May 2 1918; died November 13 2001.

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Billy Boyle was born in Dublin in 1945. His career has been based primarily in the U.K. His movies include “Barry Lyndon” and “Wild Geese 2”.

“Wikipedia” entry:

Billy Boyle is an Irish actor on British film, television and stage. He is a veteran of the West End stage having played leading roles in over 15 hit shows. In his first West End musical Maggie May he was nominated as best newcomer. Gower Champion then chose him to play Barnaby in Hello Dolly at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He appeared inCanterbury Tales at the Phoenix Theatre as The Clerk of Oxford. Harold Hobson, The Times critic said, “He was a breath of fresh air in the West-End”.^{[citation needed]} He then went on to play leading roles in No Sex Please, We’re British, Billy, What’s a Nice Country, The Rivals, Love, Lust, & Marriage, Some Like it Hot, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and lately Dirty Dancing. He has had his own very successful television series in Ireland It’s Billy Boyle as well as leading roles in Trail of Guilt, the award winning The Grass Arena, The Bretts, as well as many guest appearances in EastEnders, Coronation Street, Father Ted etc. He later presented a programme, Dance Crazy for ITV, on the history of dance. Lately he has been seen in Dirk Gently, for BBC Four, and the current series of Lead Balloon. His many films include Stanley Kubrick‘s Barry Lyndon, Groupie Girl, Side by Side,Shergar, The Scarlet and the Black, and Round Ireland with a Fridge.

The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.

Imelda Staunton was born in London in 1956. Her parents hailed from Co Mayo. When she was 18 she enrolled in RADA. Her work includes “Vera Drake”, “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. Her husband is the actor Jim Cater.

IMDB entry:

Imelda Staunton was born on January 9, 1956 in London, England as Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton. She is an actress, known for Vera Drake (2004), Chicken Run (2000) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993). She has been married to Jim Cartersince October 1983. They have one child.An only child, she attended La Sainte Union Convent, a convent school in the north of London.

She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1986 (1985 season) for Best Performance in a Supporting a Role for “A Chorus of Disapproval” and “The Corn is Green”.

She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1991 (1990 season) for Best Actress in a Musical for “Into the Woods”.

She was nominated for a 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards for Best Actress in a Musical of the 1996 season for her performance in “Guys and Dolls”.

She was awarded the 1985 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Supporting Actress for her performances in A Chorus of Disapproval and The Corn is Green.

Became an Associate Member of RADA.

Graduated from RADA.

She won the “Coppa Volpi” award for her performance in Vera Drake (2004) at the 2004 Venice Film Festvial. The movie “Vera Drake” also won the “Gold Lion” award for the best movie at the same event.

She said that her idols are Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh, and Maya Angelou.

Daughter, Bessie Carter, born in November 1993.

Her talent agent is the mother of Freddie Highmore.

One of 112 invitees to join AMPAS in 2005.

She was awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List for her services to drama.

Turned down a recurring role in Desperate Housewives (2004).

Offered a role in Bewitched (2005).

At 14, she played Polly Peachum in a school production of the musical “The Beggar’s Opera”.

Has a beautiful singing voice, heard in the film Peter’s Friends (1992).

Played an educational bureaucrat in two films in 2007: Freedom Writers (2007) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).

Appears with her husband Jim Carter in Cranford (2007).

Won the Olivier Award as Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in “Sweeney Todd” (2013).

Has just begun filming her role as “Dolores Jane Umbridge” in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). [February 2006]

Personal quotes:

I go up for a job, someone else gets it, what can I do about that? That might be in another league to me, people being competitive. But it’s not like running a race. I’m not against anyone. I think that’s a much more American thing, that.

We’re all unique as actors. To yourself, you are unique, you have to think, “I’m me, I’m not going to bunch myself with other people”. Agents and producers have to get you into a box, to accommodate their limited imaginations.

[on working with Mike Leigh in Vera Drake (2004)] He’s the nicest . . . because he works so hard, and I think he expects other people to work hard. And in my book, that’s enough. We don’t roll into rehearsal at 10:30 and have coffee. We start at 8:00 a.m., we finish at 8 o’clock at night. I mean, you don’t want to dither around him. And I think that’s fine. I think he’s entitled to say what he wants and what he doesn’t want. He knows a lot about it. He doesn’t have to be nice if he doesn’t want to, just to be charming.

Well, my parents were working people. You just worked. I’ve always wanted a long career, not an instant one. I left RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts], I worked in rep for six years, then I came to London and came to the National Theatre. What’s better than that? I don’t know what’s better than that. “Oh, but surely you wanted to be a big film star when you were 21?” No, because I would’ve been rubbish. Because I spent a lot of time in rep being OK, being very bad, and then being quite good. And I could practice my craft. You know, being exposed that early, to be brilliant in your first job, where do you go from there? It’s given me time, which is a luxury.

[on her view about abortion, something she’s been asked a lot after her role in Vera Drake (2004)] I’m not Susan Sarandon. I don’t want to bang a drum. I think I’m just going to say, “I’m pro-choice” and leave it at that.

I am a character actress, well, let’s say, I am a leading character actress who does interesting, odd parts.

You know you can be very famous without being a great actress, and that’s not good for me.

I reached the point now, where I have become as comfortable on a movie set as I am on stage. Before, I was trying to figure it out, how much should I emote, where should I stand? But now I know more about the camera, and what goes into the mix, technically. I’m much more comfortable doing film now.

[what she thinks about celebrities getting free gifts at award shows] It’s obscene, isn’t it? Just ridiculous. We don’t need any of these things! Give it to people who need it. I’ll never have to buy moisturizer again. I might start eating it soon.

All my heroes-Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville–are just so brilliant. And I thought, “Well, I’m not in that league”.

As Vera Drake, I feel Mike [director Mike Leigh] has used all of me as a dramatic actress, in a positive sense.

As you well know, we don’t have a script when we’re shooting. But after the film, the screenplay gets published and you can read the whole thing.

Agents and producers have to get you into a box to accommodate their limited imaginations.

[on Vera Drake (2004)] You don’t have a script, so we prepared that film for six months and then filmed it for three and a bit months. Nothing is improvised on film but for me I created with Mike [director Mike Leigh] that woman literally from the day she was born, so I know everything about her life. And of course we can’t do it in every job because there is not the time, because most films you literally get the script, you learn it immediately and you turn up and you just do it. Which, with a lot of the work I do, that’s plenty of preparation. But for something like that–and I’d never worked with him before–and it was a real eye-opener. And to have that happen to me in a time when–I hope–was the middle of my career, it was like going back to drama school and starting all over again. (On Vera Drake (2004))

[on her role of Alfred Hitchcock‘s wife Alma Reville in The Girl (2012)] Alma was very tolerant. She mothered Hitchcock, because he was like a bloody child. He was a bloody idiot with Tippi [Tippi Hedren. People should have told him, “Just make the bloody film and go home”.

[on Alfred Hitchcock] But he was delusional. People say he was vulnerable–oh, for goodness sake, don’t be mealy-mouthed about it! He just needed to grow up–that may sound unkind, but it’s realistic. There again, if he had grown up, he wouldn’t have been such a brilliant filmmaker. All his many flaws made him the great director he was.

We actors are like children–all you have to do is feed and encourage us, and we’ll be fine. That controlling animus has gone. No director treats us badly anymore. In fact, they should put that in the end credits of The Girl (2012): “No actor has been harmed in the making of this movie”.

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

James McManus featured in British films and television of the 1960’s and 70’s. His work includes on TV, “Softly, Softly”, “Z Cars” and “Dixon of Dock Green”. His fi;lms include “Legend of the Werewolf” in 1975.

Kathryn Hunter was born in 1957 in New York City of Greek parents. She was brought up in the UK and has pursued her career in Britain. She had appeared in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” and the TV series “Rome”.

Laura Barnett’s interview in “The Guardian” in 2013:

What first drew you to acting?

The inevitable school plays. I found doing them quite odd, but I was friends with a wonderful actor called Michele, who used to make me listen to her audition pieces. They all seemed to be about prostitutes; I found them fascinating. Later, my twin sister and I managed to avoid being married off at 18 – as was normal in my Greek family – and I got into Rada.

What was your big breakthrough?

Playing the main role, Clara Zachanassian, in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit [with Complicite in 1989]. I got an Olivier award – but, more importantly, it felt like the coming together of the traditional training I got at Rada with a more physical, visual form of theatre. I’ve tried to bridge the gap between those two worlds ever since.

What have you sacrificed for your art?

I left it too late to have children. That was very painful, not least for my partner. But I’ve come to think there are different ways of having children, if that doesn’t sound weird – working with young people, trying to feed them intellectually.

You’ve famously played several roles written for men. Should more directors be experimental with casting?

Yes, if there’s a good reason for it – something that might illuminate the play, rather than just for the sake of it. I love seeing men play women: it’s often very revealing, and not at all like caricature.

What’s the greatest threat to theatre?

Elitism. About 20 years ago, I had this fantasy that theatre was going to become as popular as football. Now, football has become something else – something outrageous – but in theatre, ticket prices still exclude a lot of people.

Which artists do you most admire?

Those working in unsung art forms, like synchronised diving andacrobalance. For me, their commitment and poetry of movement is every bit as articulate as “To be, or not to be”.

What work of art would you like to own?

If somebody insisted on giving me Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, I wouldn’t say no.

What’s the worst thing anyone ever said about you?

That I’m selfish. It’s a valid accusation, though I try to strike a balance. I’m with Margot Fonteyn, who said, “Take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously.” Those are good parameters of selfishness.

Is there anything about your career you regret?

I’m often hitting myself on the head going, “Why didn’t I leave a situation earlier, or get my shit together?” But I also believe in what [Samuel] Beckett famously said: “Fail again. Fail better.” That’s what’s glorious about theatre: you can always have another go.

In short

Born: New York, 1957.

Career: Film and TV include Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Rome. Has worked at most of the UK’s major theatres, and with companies such as Complicite and Told By an Idiot. She directs their latest show, My Perfect Mind, at the Theatre Royal Plymouth until Saturday; then touring.

High point: “Playing King Lear. I hope I get to do it again.”

Low point: “Some periods of depression early on.

The above “Guardian” interview can be accessed online here.

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

Noel Harrison

Nick Kamen

Anita Carey

Guardian obituary in August 2023:

Anita Carey obituary

Mark Burns

Peggy Mount

Peggy Mount obituary in “The Guardian” in 2001.

Billy Boyle

Imelda Staunton

James McManus

Kathryn Hunter

In short

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