British Actors Archives - Page 79 of 135

Gina McKee

Gina McKee was born in 1964 in Durham. She made her film debut in 1988 in “The Lair of the White Worm”. In 1996 she made a strong impression in the excellent television series “Our Friends From the North” with Mark Strong and Daniel Craig. Her other films include “Croupier”, “Notting Hill” and “The Blackwater Lightship” with Angela Lansbury. She played Irene in the re-make of the series “The Forsyte Saga”.

TCM Overview:

Actress Gina McKee lent an ethereal presence to dozens of British film and television projects over the course of a three-decade career, including the award-winning “Our Friends in the North” (BBC 1996), “Notting Hill” (1996), “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” (2002) and numerous episodic series. The daughter of a coal miner, McKee began acting on television, and proceeded directly into guest roles without any actual dramatic training. Her striking visage and thoughtful performances attracted the attention of major directors like Mike Leigh (“Naked,” 1993), Mike Hodges (“Croupier,” 1998), Michael Winterbottom (“Wonderland,” 1999) and writer Richard Curtis, who provided McKee with her biggest project to date in “Notting Hill.” McKee remained an in-demand presence on UK features and in television, which underscored her status as one of the British entertainment industry’s most respected if somewhat unsung talents.

Born Georgina McKee on April 14, 1964 in the English mining town of Peterlee, County Durham, Gina McKee was descended from a long line of coal miners, which included her father. A teacher who encouraged her students to experiment with improvisation introduced her to acting in primary school. Later, as a teenager, she joined a local drama group run by theater director Ros Rigby, which led to appearances in various plays. A talent scout of Tyne Tees, the ITV television franchise for North East England, spotted McKee during one of the group’s productions and cast her in a children’s adventure series called “Quest of Eagles” (Tyne Tees Television, 1979). From there, she spent three summers with the National Youth Theatre before applying to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama. Though all three schools rejected her, she had earned her Equity card from “Quest of Eagles” and began appearing on UK television and in features.

McKee worked steadily in bit and supporting roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most notably in Ken Russell’s psychedelic horror fantasy “The Lair of the White Worm” (1988) and Mike Leigh’s intense drama “Naked” (1993). Three years later, she earned her breakout role in the TV drama “Our Friends in the North,” which followed four friends over three decades of turbulent British history. The film established all four of its stars – McKee, Daniel Craig, Christopher Eccleston and Mark Strong – as major talents and earned McKee Best Actress Awards from both the BAFTAs and Royal Television Society Awards. She soon divided her time between television and feature efforts, earning strong critical praise for her performances in the satirical news program “Brass Eye” (Channel 4 1997-2001) and as Clive Owen’s neglected girlfriend in the noirish “Croupier” (1998) for director Mike Hodges. In 1999, McKee was introduced to international audiences as the paraplegic lawyer Bella in “Notting Hill.” Despite that film’s blockbuster status, McKee remained a fixture of English drama, enjoying character roles in such acclaimed efforts as an adaptation of “The Forsyte Saga” (ITV/WGBH 2002-03), the Oscar-nominated drama “Atonement” (2007), blackly comic satire “In the Loop” (2009) and “The Borgias” (Showtime 2011-2013) as the fierce Catherine Sforza. In 2012, she made a rare return foray to comedy in the series “Hebburn” (BBC Two 2012- ) as the mother of a young man who marries a middle-class Jewish girl during a drunken spree in Las Vegas.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Mark Wynter was born in 1943 in Woking, Surrey. He began his career as a pop singer and had a massive hit with the song “Venus in Blue Jeans” in 1962. He went on act in stage musicals . His films include “Just For You” in 1964 and “The Haunted House of Horror”.

“Saga” magazine article:

By Neil Davey , Tuesday 8 January 2013

There are many pop stars who’ve dabbled in acting. There aren’t many, however, who have a) have done it quite as successfully as Mark Wynter, or b) can claimMacbeth, Henry V and Phantom of the Opera. Mark is currently starring inDreamboats and Petticoats.

“It’s hell,” declares Mark Wynter. Fortunately he’s not talking about Dreamboats and Petticoats – that’s “wonderful” – or his colleagues – they’re “excellent” and “professional”. No, Mark is talking about trying to stage a musical in the winter. “Everybody’s ill,” he explains. “Everyone’s coughing and sneezing on the trains. I wish I could helicopter in but I’ve never quite made it that big.” He pauses. “Yet.”

Judging by the chuckle that accompanies it, the “yet” is clearly a joke, but if any man has had a life that illustrates the notion of ‘never say never’, or ‘expect the unexpected’ it’s Mark. From 1960s pop star at 17 to successful stage actor about to celebrate his 70th birthday, Mark has worked pretty much non-stop. Interestingly, the story ofDreamboats and Petticoats – schoolboy wants to be pop star, gets early break at a church youth club – has a lot in common with Mark’s own life.

“When I was about 13, I used to belong to a youth club at St John’s Church where I was lead choirboy. In the show, it’s St Mungo’s. I used to go to this club – ha! – religiously on a Tuesday. It’s a full turn of events really. Now I’m playing the father who runs the youth club and also singing songs of that period, and doing my own stuff. It’s a perfect framework for my own early career.

“There’s another coincidence. I started my career in 1960 when I was 17. My dressing room, uncannily enough, is number 17, which has always been my favourite number and is always in my Lottery numbers. Mind you,” Mark adds with a laugh, “I’ve not seen dressing room 1-16 anywhere…”

It’s the first time Mark has sung his own hits such as Venus In Blue Jeans and Go Away Little Girlon a West End stage for some 40 years.

“I did the West End in lots of other things but I never thought I’d be back singing my hits,” he admits, “but it’s the way the wind’s blown me, really. I wanted to be a singer, but after about four or five years the scene was changing, the groups were coming through. I’d been doing summer seasons and I was asked to go into a musical called The Golden Years, in Dublin in 1967. That came to London in 1969. From that I was offered a straight play, Conduct Unbecoming. That became hugely successful, and then I got offered films and musicals…”

Not to mention much more stage work, including Henry V. “I thought that was a mistake!” admits Mark. “I asked my agent and he said ‘no, no, they definitely want you.’ Mark admits to a certain amount of nerves in accepting that role but, as he philosophically adds, “like a lot of things in life, if someone gives you the opportunity… I thought I’ve got nothing to lose, it’s only a month’s run but it was very successful, and I got offered more things from it.”

Mark’s CV makes impressive reading – “I’ve always been astounded at what’s been offered to me” – with a three-year stint in Cats, a long run in Phantom of the Opera, the Chichester Festival, assorted Agatha Christie plays, some Noel Coward, shaving his head three times as Daddy Warbucks… and now the hugely successful Dreamboats and Petticoats. With, happily, a full head of hair this time.
“Nostalgia still rules, ok,” says Mark, discussing the show’s appeal (see photo, right). “That period, 1955 to about 1970 was a great time for music. And the 60s now… well, Dreamboats and Petticoats is a period piece really. There was an innocence then compared to the horrors of today.

“It’s a clever script, succinct with a good balance of comedy. Then there are the songs. It will always have an audience and not just people of a certain age. A lot of younger people come to see it. A girl in the other night has seen it over 100 times!” Mark laughs. “I think that’s a bit excessive but I can see the appeal. I think of a song and I immediately think of what I was doing at the time it came out. It’s a great passport to the memory.

“I don’t think many songs of today will survive. The 60s songs – as you see in the show – might have been put together with about four chords but simplicity is the essence of greatness. They’re instantly accessible. My eldest son, who’s 18, thinks all songs of the 60s sound the same but his cousin saw it the other night and was swept away. She’s coming back with her mates…”

Mark’s stint in Dreamboats and Petticoats finishes in January although there’s a possibility of a tour later in the year. Mark seems tempted but admits it’s hard to commit that far ahead. “I might be in Hollywood with Tom Cruise,” he says with a laugh.

“I’d love to do more Shakespeare,” Mark reveals, “but I think my time in those might have gone. I don’t know where I’ll go from this.” Mark laughs. “Actually, someone asked me last night ‘you’re singing so well, why aren’t you making records?’ I told her it’s because nobody’s asked me! If they do, I’ll be in the studio tomorrow.”

Dreamboats and Petticoats is at The Wyndhams Theatre until January 19th and will be touring the UK later in the year. Buy tickets at a discount from Saga.

The above “Saga” article can also be accessed online here.

Nicholas Jones was born in 1946 in London. He is the son of actor Griffith Jones and his older sister is actress Gemma Jones. He gained national prominence in the UK with his role opposite John Thaw in the television series “Kavanagh QC”. His films include “Daisy Miller” in 1974 and “Vera Drake” in 2004.

Peter Capaldi was born in Glasgow in 1958. He rose to prominence in 1983 with the success of the film “Local Hero”. Other movie credits include “Turtle Diary”, “Lair of the White Worm” and “December Bride” and of course “Dr Who”.

TCM overview:

Scottish actor Peter Capaldi was one of the United Kingdom’s best-kept secrets for decades until the summer of 2013, when he went from being “who?” to Doctor Who. A native Glaswegian, the wiry Capaldi gravitated towards performing in his youth, and initially gained notice for his supporting role in the beloved comedic drama “Local Hero” (1983). He went on to become a British television mainstay, while occasionally appearing in feature films. Following recurring roles or guest spots on various small-screen productions, he sidestepped into writing and directing with the short film “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life” (1995), which won both a BAFTA and Academy Award. Primarily sticking to on-screen work, Capaldi found his breakout role in 2005 as the fierce political mastermind Malcolm Tucker on the biting comedy “The Thick of It” (BBC, 2005-2012). In 2009, his international reputation grew when the series spun off into the acclaimed feature comedy “In the Loop” (2009), co-starring James Gandolfini. However, his profile was later raised considerably higher when it was announced that Capaldi would be the Twelfth Doctor on the venerable sci-fi series “Doctor Who” (BBC, 1963-1989, 1996, 2005- ), bringing him instant global attention.

Born in Glasgow and raised by a mother and father with Irish and Italian roots, respectively, Capaldi was naturally inclined to perform and appeared in theater productions as a teenager. While studying at the Glasgow School of Art, Capaldi fronted a punk band known as Dreamboys, which featured future comedian and talk-show host Craig Ferguson as its drummer. Capaldi turned to screen acting in the early 1980s, and landed a featured part in “Local Hero,” a charming Scottish-set tale starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert. Aside from a key role in Ken Russell’s eccentric horror film “The Lair of the White Worm” (1988) and a small part in the period drama “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988), Capaldi mainly stuck to British TV gigs and became the epitome of the working England-based actor. In 1993, he had a memorable part in the Helen Mirren-starring TV movie “Prime Suspect 3” (ITV, 1993), but he soon won acclaim behind the camera for his own playfully witty short, “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring Richard E. Grant, which won a 1995 Oscar, among other awards. After portraying an unlikely angel in the fantasy series “Neverwhere” (BBC, 1996), Capaldi once again donned his writer/director cap for the overlooked crime drama “Strictly Sinatra” (2001), featuring Ian Hart as a trouble-prone lounge singer.

Returning his focus to acting, Capaldi appeared opposite Hugh Laurie on the sitcom “Fortysomething” (ITV, 2003), and two years later, he joined the cast of Armando Iannucci’s barbed comedy series “The Thick of It,” a satirical and politically themed show that allowed the actor to cut loose as the tightly wound, profanity-spewing communications director Malcolm Tucker. Capaldi also turned up in guest spots on various popular British programs, including the police procedurals “Midsomer Murders” (ITV, 1997- ) and “Waking the Dead” (BBC, 2000-2011) and the teen-oriented drama “Skins” (Channel 4, 2007- ). In 2008, he had a one-off appearance on an episode of “Doctor Who,” opposite the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, and he remained on in the Whoverse for a 2009 stint on “Torchwood” (BBC, 2006-2011) as bureaucrat John Frobisher. Around this time, Capaldi was able to shift his unforgettably ruthless character of Malcolm from “The Thick of It” to the big screen as part of Iannucci’s critically beloved feature “In the Loop,” which brought Gandolfini into the mix as an American general.

Returning to the director’s chair, Capaldi helmed numerous episodes of the hospital-set sitcom “Getting On” (BBC, 2009-2012) and appeared in a few installments as well. After bidding farewell to “The Thick of It” for its fourth and final season, he joined the ensemble of the period drama “The Hour” (BBC, 2011-12), only to help usher that series to its finale, too. After writing and directing the British mockumentary “The Cricklewood Greats” and playing a small role in the 2013 zombie epidemic epic “World War Z,” it was announced that Capaldi was taking over the role of the time-traveling Doctor from Matt Smith, following months of speculation. A fan of the intergalactic adventure series from his childhood, Capaldi seemed a fine fit for the role, with sci-fi devotees eagerly awaiting his first episode as the always-eccentric Doctor.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Irish born actress Peggy Marshall made her film debut in 1955 in “Tim Driscoll’s Donkey”. Her other films include “Woman of Straw” with Gina Lollobrigida, “The Fighting Prince of Donegal” with Peter McEnery and “The Jigsaw Man” in 1984.

William Franklyn was born in 1925 in Kensington, London. He made his acting debut in 1946 in “Arsenic and Old Lace” in Southend Pier. His films include “The Secret People” in 1952, “Out of the Clouds”, “Fury at Smuggler’s Bay” in 1961 and Polanski’s “Cul-de-sac” in 1966. He also had an extensive television career. He died in 2005.

Dennis Barker’s “Guardian” obituary:

The handsomely immobile face, commanding height and stiff manner of William Franklyn, who has died aged 81 of prostate cancer, was ideally suited to playing enigmatic intelligence officers on the large or small screen. One of his most enduring achievements was in the 1960s television series Top Secret, in which his spymaster was the epitome of steel-faced purpose. However, he achieved uncomfortable, if lucrative, fame as the suave man in the “Sch… you know who” TV commercials for Schweppes tonic water.His contribution wrapped an atmosphere of elegance and mystery around a product familiar to the point of banality. This was one of the most successful ad campaigns ever: it occupied him for three weeks a year, made him as much money as a star’s salary in the West End, and was dropped by Schweppes only because it was making Franklyn more prominent than the product. Between 1965 and 1973, he appeared on screen in 10 of the commercials and voiced 40.Born in London, he was the son of Leo Franklyn, a stalwart of the Whitehall farces. Franklyn Sr retired at 79 from No Sex Please, We’re British; he looked like a funny man, but William definitely did not. After an early childhood in Australia, he returned to the UK, and, small and sickly, he forced himself first into parachuting, which led to him becoming a paratrooper in the second world war, and then into acting, because, he said, it also made you conquer nervousness.

Unimpressed, Leo decided his son should be a journalist, but agreed to go and see him perform in the comedy Arsenic and Old Lace on the pier at Southsea. “You’re getting your laughs – you’d better stick to it,” was his verdict.

It was the beginning of the career of an intelligent if not intellectual actor, which was to diversify into films, television series and panel games. He was for a time a job-guessing panellist on the BBC’s What’s My Line? quiz programme, made notorious by the irascible Gilbert Harding, in which Franklyn always remained calm. He called it “an acting job until you get relaxed into it”.

At one point, any title with the word “spy” in it obliged producers to telephone his agent. In the late 1970s, after he had survived the Schweppes connection for two years – he was dropped because producers still thought him too close to that role to offer him anything else – he was offered the role of host, quizmaster and interrogator on Master Spy. This was an ITV series in which members of the public were asked to decypher coded messages, disguise themselves, talk their way out of situations, outsmart foreign agents and identify a visiting celebrity wearing disguise. There were also appearances in The Avengers and The Scarlet Pimpernel.

In Pit of Darkness (1962), one of the fairly few cinema films in which he took the starring role, Franklyn was a husband manipulated and compromised in a murder investigation by mysterious conspiracies. Mercilessly exposed as the central player on the big screen, and playing a distracted part for which audience sympathy was vital, he seemed undemonstrative, even wooden.

Later, as a change of gear, he appeared in another television series, Paradise Island (1977), in which he played the entertainments officer of an ocean liner, who shared, after the ship went down, a desert island with Bill Maynard’s puritanical cleric. Neither this nor Master Spy enjoyed the laurels conferred on Top Secret, but they confirmed his reputation as an actor who could get laughs, without being a natural funny man.

Then, after a run of such West End comedies as There’s A Girl In My Soup and Tunnel Of Love, plus many film roles, his acting hit a dead patch. He bought himself a barrow and went from house to house in fashionable areas of London asking for “junk”, which he then sold as antiques from a shop in the Portobello Road. He was proud to say that when he started he had a bank overdraft of £1,700, whereas, when he stopped, as acting work reappeared, he was double that amount in credit.

He was even prouder of his work as a director, beginning with There’s A Girl in My Soup with an Italian cast (who spoke no English) in Italy. Franklyn took a six-week Berlitz crash course in Italian and returned from the production with anecdotes, carefully polished over the years, about how as a director of Italian actors it did not matter whether you spoke Italian or not because they chatted among themselves and took no notice of the director.

Franklyn’s stiff-upper-lip English persona (he loved cricket, squash and tennis and once tried to play for Essex as a fast bowler) was a durable one. In 1991, after appearances in 66 television shows and an eight-year absence from TV, he appeared again, this time as a smooth Tory nastie in Alan Bleasdale’s social drama series GBH. He was a judge in The Courtroom (2004), and in 2004-05, he was the voice of the Book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on Radio 4. His image may have been limiting, but it commanded a definite niche.

He was married first in 1952 to Margo Johns, by whom he had a daughter, and then to Susanna Jupp, by whom he had two daughters. She and his daughters survive him.

· William Franklyn, actor, born September 22 1925; died October 31 2006

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

Mildred Mayne

Mildred Mayne was born in Dublin. She made her film debut in “Take Me Over” in 1963. She was featured in such series as “Z Cars” and “Crown Court”.

Margaretta Scott was born in 1912 in London. She made her film debut in 1934 in “The Private Life of Don Juan” which starred Douglas Fairbanks. Her other movies include “Peg of Old Drury”, “Things to Come”, “Fanny by Gaslight” in 1945, “A Woman Possessed” in 1958 and “Crescendo” in 1970. She was featured in the very popular television series “All Creatures Great and Small” as Mrs Pumphrey from 1978 until 1980. She died in 2005. Her daughter is the actress Susan Wooldridge.

Michael Coveney’s “Guardian” obituary:

Margaretta Scott, who has died aged 93, was often in her later years recognised by the public as Mrs Pumphrey in the television series All Creatures Great And Small. But her distinguished career spanned 70 years of theatre and film and, as the last surviving signatory of the document that established Equity, the British actors’ union, in 1934, she was highly regarded in her profession.She first appeared on stage at the age of 14 as Mercutio’s page in Romeo And Juliet, at the Strand Theatre, starring Jean Forbes Robertson and Robert Lorraine; she was Ophelia in 1931 to the Hamlets of Henry Ainley and Godfrey Tearle. She worked with Tyrone Guthrie and Alec Guinness at the Old Vic, and with Bernard Shaw on the premiere of Androcles And The Lion in 1934. She was the first woman to appear in Shakespeare on television (as Portia) and was Gertrude to Peter O’Toole’s first Hamlet at the Bristol Old Vic in 1958.

Renowned for her poise, beauty, dark auburn hair and rich golden voice, Scott was busy in films and television throughout her career and was tireless in her support of charity organisations, including the Actors Charitable Trust. She enjoyed motoring and chess, but her real hobbies were her life and her family, although she was a widow for almost 50 years.

Her last stage appearances revealed that the romantic lead had grown into a grand dame. In 1985, she returned to the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park (where she had played Viola and Miranda in the 1930s) as Madame Desmortes in Jean Anouilh’s Ring Round The Moon, “a selfish old aristocrat in a wheelchair,” wrote BA Young in the Financial Times, “to whom Margaretta Scott gives all the breeding in France, and a little over”. In Harold Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1995, in a cast led by Leo McKern, Nichola McAuliffe and Graham Turner, her imperious, splendidly articulated Mrs Hepworth had an impeccable sense of middle-class authority in the Salford shoe shop.

She was the daughter of Bertha Eugene and the music critic Hugh Arthur Scott. She was born in London and educated at the Convent of the Holy Child in Cavendish Square and RADA, where she shared a scholarship with Celia Johnson and was awarded the Kendal prize. After a repertory season in Hull, her West End career began in The Lilies Of The Field at the Criterion in 1929.

She soon became known for Shakespeare, notably in Regent’s Park and then as Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Old Vic in 1936, directed by Guthrie. The cast included Guinness, Rachel Kempson, Ernest Milton and Alec Clunes. During the war, she did two seasons at Stratford-on-Avon, as Juliet, Viola, Portia, Lady Macbeth and Rosalind, and she toured with Ensa, the services entertainment organisation, in North Africa and Italy.

She married the composer John Wooldridge, a pupil of Sibelius and contemporary and friend of William Walton; he spent the war in Bomber Command. His promising career ended in a fatal car accident at the age of 39 in 1958. By then, Scott’s film work was almost complete and she concentrated on the stage and her busy London life, in an area bounded by Fitzroy Square, Molyneux Street (in the years of her marriage) and Marble Arch.

Her screen debut was an uncredited appearance in Alexander Korda’s The Private Life Of Don Juan (1934) starring Douglas Fairbanks and Merle Oberon; but she came into her own in Korda’s imaginative production of HG Wells’s Things To Come (1936), with Raymond Massey and Ralph Richardson. Other screen roles followed: as Judith Bentley in Carol Reed’s The Girl In The News (1940); Marcia Royd in Anthony Asquith’s attractive comedy Quiet Wedding (1940); and Alicia in Asquith’s stylish melodrama Fanny By Gaslight (1944). In this period, the British cinema was rich in acting talent – James Mason, Michael Redgrave and Peggy Ashcroft; Scott was part of this elite and continued in it to the 1960s.

Back in the West End, she appeared with Anthony Quayle in William Douglas Home’s The Right Honourable Gentleman (1963), and with Celia Johnson and Ralph Richardson in Angela Huth’s The Understanding (1982). She became a specialist in Oscar Wilde, appearing in London and on tour in the four major comedies. Her television work in the 1970s included leading roles in The Duchess Of Duke Street and Upstairs Downstairs.

She is survived by her daughter, the actor Susan Wooldridge, and her son, the director, Hugh Wooldridge.

· Margaretta Scott, actor, born February 13 1912; died April 15 2005

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

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

Gina McKee

Gina McKee

David McAlistair

Mark Wynter

Nicholas Jones

Peter Capaldi

Peggy Marshall

William Franklyn

Mildred Mayne

Margaretta Scott

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