UK film and TV - Supporting actors
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- An immaculate gent of sober appearance and cultivated presence, Bate was seemingly destined to play spymasters and senior civil servants. Lean, pale-eyed and of deceptively mild intonation, he was capable of unnervingly icy composure, never more effectively displayed than as the chameleon-like Soviet mole Kim Philby in ITV's telemovie Philby, Burgess and Maclean (1977). In similar vein, Bate played the enigmatic, debonair American-born spook, Bret Renssalaer, in Len Deighton's Game, Set, and Match (1988). Most famously, he added an authentic touch to the affable, officious Home Office security undersecretary, Sir Oliver Lacon -- "Whitehall's Head Prefect" - in John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979), and its sequel, Smiley's People (1982).
Anthony Bate began working life behind the bar of a hotel owned by his family on the Isle of Wight. After completing his national service with the Royal Navy Volunteers in 1947, he started dabbling in amateur dramatics and then took the next step to formal training at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating a gold medal winner. After the obligatory sojourn in repertory theatre, he made his West End debut in a 1960 dramatisation of the famous 1925 Scopes Trial, "Inherit the Wind", at St. Martin's Theatre. Over the next three decades, he drew many excellent notices for such classical roles as Don Pedro in "Much Ado About Nothing", for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In occasional films from 1957, Bate popped up as straight man in minor comedies, like Dentist in the Chair (1960). However, in due course, he found his niche to be on the small screen, where he was increasingly sought-after by producers for a wide variety of characters of, either, furtive, stern, starchy, supercilious or sinister disposition. Besides crime and espionage, Bate was a ubiquitous protagonist in screen adaptations from the classics: the obsessive Inspector Javert on the trail of Frank Finlay's Jean Valjeon, in a 1967 version of Victor Hugo's oft-filmed masterpiece; as the intrepid Dr. Livesey of Treasure Island (1977); and as the Knight's Templar, Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert, chief nemesis of Ivanhoe (1970). Another of his outright villains was treacherous London gangster Eddie Edwards, taking advantage of his boss's (Ray McAnally) incarceration to usurp his criminal empire. In Intimate Strangers (1974), Bate was given a rare starring role, as a middle-aged family man, re-evaluating his life after a heart attack. This introspective and nuanced performance was, arguably, one of his best. The cool, unflappable Mr. Bate also portrayed such historical personae as Joseph Stalin, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt and Eduard Shevardnadze -- all with equal vigour and conviction. One of the unsung heroes of British television, Anthony Bate passed away in June 2012 at the age of 84. - John Quentin was born in 1935 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Wittgenstein (1993), Gandhi (1982) and Poirot (1989).
- Haydn Gwynne was fluent in French and Italian. She studied Modern Languages at the University of Warwick before taking a five-year lectureship in Italy, where she taught English. She also drove across the United States before becoming an actress in her mid-twenties.
She first came to notice on television as starring in the David Lodge campus comedy/drama Nice Work (1989), before joining the sharp comedy series set in a television newsroom, Drop the Dead Donkey (1990). She was known for her roles in the medical series Peak Practice (1993) and the police drama Merseybeat (2001), but later played in the stage musicals 'Billy Elliot' and 'Ziegfeld'.
She lived in London with her partner Jason Phipps, a psychotherapist, and their two sons, Orlando and Harry. Offscreen, she volunteered for Sightsavers, a group committed to combating blindness in under-developed countries. - Actor
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Edward Petherbridge was born on 3 August 1936 in West Bowling, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Guardians (1971), The River Flows East (1962) and American Playhouse (1980). He has been married to Emily Richard since 1981. They have two children. He was previously married to Louise Petherbridge.- Anna Massey was born on 11 August 1937 in Thakeham, West Sussex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Peeping Tom (1960), Frenzy (1972) and The Machinist (2004). She was married to Dr. Uri Andres and Jeremy Brett. She died on 2 July 2011 in London, England, UK.
- Actress
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Clare Holman was born on 12 January 1964 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Blood Diamond (2006), Suite Française (2014) and Inspector Lewis (2006). She was previously married to Howard Davies.- Matthew Marsh lives in London and has been working in theatre film television & radio since 1977 - this versatile character actor often plays American Russian south African and German roles and many others along with his native UK ones - he has been lucky enough to work all over the world in film and TV and in theatre he loves working on new plays
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Ian McNeice went to Taunton School in Somerset and then had two years at the Salisbury Playhouse as an Acting A.S.M. before going to L.A.M.D.A. 1971-74. The next few years were spent in theatre, including four years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, ending with "Nicholas Nickleby" on Broadway. His TV breakthrough was as Harcourt in the B.A.F.T.A award-wining series Edge of Darkness (1985). His American screen breakthrough was playing opposite Jim Carrey as Fulton Greenwall in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995).- Actress
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Rachael Stirling was born on 30 May 1977 in St Marylebone, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), The Young Victoria (2009) and Tipping the Velvet (2002). She has been married to Guy Garvey since 3 June 2016. They have one child.- Actor
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David Ryall was born on 5 January 1935 in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Around the World in 80 Days (2004), Automata (2014) and City of Ember (2008). He was married to Penny England, Cathy Buchwald and Gillian Eddison. He died on 25 December 2014 in London, England, UK.- Actress
- Music Department
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Deborah Findlay was born in Surrey and studied English at Leeds University. She worked in Leeds with a theatre group touring plays, music, community theatre and cabaret before coming to London to work at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. She was in the original production of 'Top Girls' by Caryl Churchill (OBIE Award) and seasons at the RSC and National Theatre where she received an Olivier Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for 'Stanley'. She has an extensive career in theatre and was nominated for a Tony for the play 'The Children'. She had another Olivier nomination for 'The Cut'. She played in New York on Broadway and in the West End in London including prestigious theatre the Donmar with the play 'The Vortex'.- Frank Mills was born on 11 April 1927 in Peckham, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Oliver Twist (2005), Big Deal (1984) and Flambards (1979). He died on 11 February 2021 in Essex, England, UK.
- Diane Fletcher was born on 17 April 1944 in Derby, Derbyshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), House of Cards (1990) and Macbeth (1971).
- Actress
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Mary Wimbush was a stalwart actress of repertory and West End theatre, who played three separate roles in the long-running BBC Radio serial "The Archers".
She was born in Kenton, Middlesex in 1924. Her father was a schoolmaster and her mother trained at RADA, but did not pursue a career on the stage. Mary attended the Berkhamsted School for Girls and also boarded at the St Agnes and St Michael's, an Anglican convent at East Grinstead.
Mary trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, before joining Amersham rep.
Her wartime marriage to the actor Howard Marion-Crawford by whom she had a son, ended in divorce. Her partnership with the poet Louis MacNeice lasted from 1958 until his death in 1963.
She appeared regularly on film, radio and television in character roles until her sudden death in October 2005, following a recording of "The Archers" at the BBC's Birmingham studios. She was 81.- Actress
- Art Department
- Additional Crew
Samantha's early theatre work includes repertory seasons at Coventry, Edinburgh, Derby, and Bristol and 'Never in My Life 'at the Soho Poly in London. After appearing in Kenneth Branagh's production of 'Romeo and Juliet' she went on to West End productions of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses', 'Man of the Moment', 'Three Tall Women' and 'Much Ado About Nothing' which was directed by Judi Dench. As a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company she acted in 'A Winters Tale' and 'As You Like It' She made her film debut in 'Eric the Viking' Television work includes 'Inspector Morse', 'Rumpole of the Bailey', 'Under the Moon', 'Tears Before Bedtime' and 'The Ruby Ring'- Jonathan Coy was born on 24 April 1953 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999), Horatio Hornblower: The Fire Ship (1998) and Underworld (1997). He has been married to Emma Amos since 1998. They have one child. He was previously married to Louisa Rix.
- Edward Jewesbury was born on 6 August 1917 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Richard III (1995), Much Ado About Nothing (1993) and Henry V (1989). He was married to Christine Roberts. He died on 31 March 2001 in Esher, Surrey, England, UK.
- Robert Lang was born on 24 September 1934 in Bristol, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), The Dance of Death (1969) and 1990 (1977). He was married to Ann Bell. He died on 6 November 2004 in Sutton, Surrey, England, UK.
- Actress
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English character actress with a penchant for genteel aristocrats and kindly mothers. The daughter of teachers, she "spent some time selling shoes in Reading" before entering the acting profession. Aged eighteen, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her debut in repertory theatre at Amersham in 1955. Rosemary Leach enjoyed a prolific and varied career in both supporting and leading roles on the screen (though, by her own account, preferred radio and the stage). She became a familiar presence, most notably in television period dramas and sitcoms. Her roles have included Queen Victoria in Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic (1978) (she also played Queen Elizabeth II on at least four occasions on both stage and screen),scatterbrained Aunt Fenny in The Jewel in the Crown (1984) (which fostered her fascination with India and resulted in several subsequent visits) , the swindled widow Joan Plumleigh-Bruce -- victim of 1930's social climbing con man Ralph Ernest Gorse -- in The Charmer (1987), one of three nannies working for wealthy families in Edwardian London's exclusive Berkeley Square (1998),the verger's wife, Mrs. Tope, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1993) and Zoë Wanamaker's habitually Martini-imbibing mother Grace in My Family (2000). She was twice nominated for BAFTA awards, latterly as Best Supporting Actress for her role as the kindly Mrs. Honeychurch in A Room with a View (1985). Her own personal favourite roles have included Miss Adelaide in a 1973 Birmingham Repertory Theatre production of "Guys and Dolls" and that of eccentric real life author Helene Hanff in "84 Charing Cross Road" (1981, Ambassador Theatre, London) for which she received an Olivier Award as Best Actress.- Actor
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Barry Jackson was born on 29 March 1938 in Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Wimbledon (2004), Barry Lyndon (1975) and Midsomer Murders (1997). He was married to Denise. He died on 5 December 2013 in London, England, UK.- Actor
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Michael was born in Nottingham where he was educated at Becket Roman Catholic Grammar School, West Bridgeford in Nottingham where he was known as Jimmy - his real name is Michael James - and where he was caned some 130 times. While that might have been a record, the one that went into the record books was scoring 60 of the under-13 football team's 120 goals in a season. In between canings and scoring goals, he acquired a great love of literature and the English language from a teacher at Becket Grammar School which he left at 17 with an A level in philosophy and became an accountant with the coal board. Before he took his accountancy finals, he left the Coal Board and went to work in the Nottingham Fish Market where the language he learned was a revelation to him.- Actor
- Producer
James Faulkner is an English actor best known for his roles as Pope Sixtus IV in the historical fantasy series Da Vinci's Demons, and as Randyll Tarly in the HBO series, Game of Thrones.
When at school, Faulkner was never deemed as an academically minded student, however compensated by immersing himself into the arts, training as a chorister and taking part in every house play, school play and choral society concert available. Accepted into the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Faulkner studied exhaustively for three years, and won the lead role in the final graduation production of Kiss Me Kate. A promising start to the industry saw his stage presence transform dramatically, being cast in productions including Much Ado About Nothing, Dear Antoine, and The Bacchae, until it became clear that it was his time to enter the film industry.
In 1972, Faulkner made his big screen debut, being cast as Josef Strauss in MGM's musical, The Great Waltz. Without question, a cavalcade of roles soon followed, appearing in films such as Whispering Death, Murder on the Orient Express, and Priest of Love. In 1988, he appeared opposite Jeremy Brett as one of the biggest enemies of Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Some of his more notable appearances include roles in I Claudius, Underworld: Blood Wars, The Three Investigators, and the Bridget Jones films.
Over a long career in front on the lens, Faulkner has also lent his voice to a number of video games, including Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, voicing Severus Snape, and additional voices in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Most recently, he voices Swain in the world-renowned League of Legends.
Announced in 2016, Faulkner joined the cast of the HBO series Game of Thrones, portraying Randyll Tarly, a character mentioned frequently throughout the duration of the show. His lifespan, though short, is one of the more memorable, as it was his harsh and ruthless ways that led him to his untimely death.
Most recently, James Faulkner has appeared in the films Atomic Blonde and Final Portrait, and as Saint Paul in Paul, Apostle of Christ, as well as voicing Frith in the BBC-Netflix adaptation of Watership Down.- Moray Watson was born on 25 June 1928 in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Quatermass Experiment (1953), No Wreath for the General (1960) and Nobody's Perfect (1980). He was married to Pam Marmont. He died on 2 May 2017 in Hillingdon, London, England, UK.
- Cuthbertson arrived in Britain in 1947, and appeared shortly thereafter as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet at the Boltons. In London's West End, he appeared as Laertes in Hamlet, Aimwell in The Beaux Stratagem, and Octavius Robinson in Man & Superman, among many other roles.
- Paul Brooke was born on 22 November 1944 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and Alfie (2004).
- John Ringham was born on 10 February 1928 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for V for Vendetta (2005), Just Good Friends (1983) and The River Flows East (1962). He was married to Hedwig Felizitas Nowacki and Elizabeth Shepherd. He died on 20 October 2008 in England, UK.
- Ubiquitous Welsh actor who has excelled as deceptively mild-mannered characters in 1960s and 70s BBC literary adaptations. His first foray of note into this genre was as the unprincipled, hedonistic cad George Wickham in Pride and Prejudice (1958). A particular favorite for Dickensian parts, Jeavons was value-for-money as Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1959), as the feckless Jarndyce ward Richard Carstone in Bleak House (1959), the ever so 'umble' Uriah Heep in David Copperfield (1966) (often regarded as the definitive portrayal of one of literature's most insidious characters) and as the disreputable attorney Sampson Brass in The Old Curiosity Shop (1979). Jeavons returned in later iterations of Great Expectations (1981) and Masterpiece Theatre: Bleak House (1985), this time, respectively, as the dour, but kind-hearted legal clerk Wemmick and as the austere, manipulative solicitor Vhol, representing Richard Carstone in Chancery.
Other endeavours on the classical scene saw Jeavons as Henry V in BBC's The Life and Death of Sir John Falstaff (1959), the Tudor noble Robert Clifford in The Shadow of the Tower (1972), lawyer Briggs in Jane Eyre (1983) and as the master criminal Professor Moriarty in The Baker Street Boys (1983). He also made a very lively (and considerably less obtuse) Inspector Lestrade in several episodes of Granada's acclaimed series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984). Novelist and Holmes expert David Stuart Davies extolled Jeavons' performance, saying "Lestrade was played with great panache throughout the Granada series by Colin Jeavons, who humanised and enhanced Doyle's sketchy portrait of the Inspector."
Elsewhere, Jeavons has played fashion designers, undertakers, shop owners, civil servants, military officers, policemen and an unending array of clerics (including on the big screen in films like The Oblong Box (1969), Bartleby (1970) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)). For the stage, he portrayed the Reverend Tooker in a 1988 National Theatre production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
One of the most versatile of character players, able to change his features from immobile to expressive and from doleful to amiable, Jeavons has branched out into diverse genres, including science fiction (for instance, as the comedian Max Quordlepleen, host of the 'Restaurant at the End of the Universe' in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) and as the Atlantean surgeon Damon in the early Doctor Who (1963) instalment The Underwater Menace). His performance as the ill-fated child Donald in Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hills (an episode of the anthology series Play for Today (1970)), has often been singled out by critics and reviewers as his best. Jeavons also stood out in the role of Tim Stamper in the original British version of House of Cards (1990), a role he reprised for the sequel To Play the King (1993). He has performed in various capacities --either as a character or as storyteller-- in multiple episodes of the long-running children's series Jackanory (1965).
Colin Abel Jeavons began on stage in a 1946 Birmingham production of Twelfth Night. From 1956 to 1957, he appeared in several plays for the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company. He has also performed with the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He was married to the ballet dancer Rosie Jeavons who passed away in 2018. Jeavons has been retired from acting since 1993. - Michael Culver was born on 16 June 1938 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), A Passage to India (1984) and Breakaway (1980). He was married to Amanda Ward and Lucinda Curtis. He died on 27 February 2024.
- Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
Selina Cadell was born on 12 August 1953 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Wild Child (2008), Match Point (2005) and Doc Martin (2004). She was previously married to Michael Thomas.- Frederick Treves was born on March 29, 1925 in Cliftonville, Margate, Kent, England as Frederick William Treves. He was an actor, known for The Big Pull (1962) (1962), The Elephant Man (1980) (1980), St. Ives (1960) (1960) and the TV adaptation of Len Deighton's Game, Set, and Match (1988) (1988). He was married to Margaret Jean Stott. He died on January 30, 2012 in Mitcham, Surrey, England.
- Margaret Tyzack was born on 9 September 1931 in Plaistow, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for A Clockwork Orange (1971), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Match Point (2005). She was married to Alan R. Stephenson. She died on 25 June 2011 in Blackheath, London, England, UK.
- Simon Chandler was born on 4 June 1953 in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997), The Bounty (1984) and The Lord of the Rings (1978).
- Anna Calder-Marshall was born on 11 January 1947 in Kensington, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Wuthering Heights (1970), Male of the Species (1969) and Last Christmas (2019). She has been married to David Burke since 20 March 1971. They have one child.
- Tom Chadbon was born on 27 February 1946 in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Casino Royale (2006), Rebecca (1997) and Tess (1979). He has been married to Jane Hennessy since 20 July 1977. They have one child. He was previously married to Deborah Leathers.
- Malcolm Storry was born on 13 January 1948 in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Princess Bride (1987), The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) and The Last of the Mohicans (1992).
- Gabrielle Lloyd is known for The Great Train Robbery (1978), Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Mystery!: Campion (1989).
- Malcolm Terris was born on 11 January 1941 in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Great Train Robbery (1978), The Bounty (1984) and Chaplin (1992). He died on 6 June 2020 in the UK.
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Michael Culkin is an Irish actor who grew up in Newfoundland. He recently appeared in Culprits and popped up on Gogglebox, and appeared in season 4 of Dalgleish opposite Bertie Carvel as the eponymous Inspector. He has written the WW2 spy series BlitzBoyz which is currently in development 2024. He appeared in the BBC 2 series, Witchfinder, and the film Surprised by Oxford. He appears in Sean Durkin's 'The Nest', opposite Jude Law and Carrie Coon. He appears in Bridgerton as Lord Rutledge, and appeared as Rab Butler in both seasons of The Crown (2016), in The Iron Lady (2011) with Meryl Streep, opposite Johnny Depp in Mortdecai (2015) and with Hugh Grant in A Very English Scandal (2018) playing the Conservative politician Reginald Maudling. He appeared in two seasons of Poldark (2015) as Horace Treneglos. His performance as Judge Buller in all three series of Garrow's Law was well received. He appeared in The Long Song (2018) with Jack Lowden and Hayley Atwell for the BBC. Alongside his work in film and television he has worked at the National Theatre and in the West End where he starred with Maggie Smith in Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Van. He is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the Society of Artists Potters & Poets.- The daughter of actors Cyril Cusack and Maureen Cusack, she along with her two brothers and two sisters were raised in Dalkey, a seaside village south of Dublin, Ireland. She is an actress known for Hereafter (2010), In Love with Alma Cogan (2012) and Paris by Night (1988). She won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied the flute and performed professionally with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra in Ireland before taking up acting and joining the Royal Shakespeare Company at 23. She came to more public prominence when she was cast in the popular television series Heartbeat (1992) as Dr Kate Rowan, leaving in 1995. She is married to the actor Finbar Lynch and have one son, Calam Lynch, who is also an actor.
- Rupert Nicholas Vansittart is an English character actor. He has appeared in a variety of roles in film, television, stage and radio, often playing comic characters. He is best known for his role as Lord Ashfordly in the ITV drama Heartbeat and for playing Lord Yohn Royce in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2014-2019).
- Actor
- Writer
Hugh Walters was born on 2 March 1939 in Mexborough, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for 1984 (1984), The Train Now Standing (1972) and Miss Marple: The Body in the Library (1984). He died on 13 February 2015 in London, England, UK.- Actor
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Philip Locke was born on 29 March 1928 in St. Marylebone, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Thunderball (1965), Doing Time (1979) and Oliver Twist (1982). He died on 19 April 2004 in Dedham, Essex, England, UK.- Actress
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Although a prolific television character actress for almost half a century, Hilary Mason will be best remembered on screen as the blind, psychic Heather in the macabre supernatural thriller Don't Look Now (1973). The 1973 film starred Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland as John and Laura Baxter, a grieving couple holidaying in a wintry Venice after the death of their daughter, Christine, who was drowned in the garden pond while wearing a shiny, red mackintosh. When Laura meets the two spinster sisters in a restaurant toilet, she is shocked to be told that Heather has seen her daughter. "I've seen her and she wants you to know that she's happy," says the old woman:
I've seen your little girl, sitting between you and your husband, and she was laughing. Yes, oh, yes, she's with you, my dear, and she's laughing. She's wearing a shiny little mac. She's laughing, she's laughing - she's happy as can be.
Later, Laura attends a seance with the sisters and - when Heather gets what she claims to be a message from Christine - is disturbed to be told that her husband, John (Sutherland), is in danger. A skeptical John fails to heed the warning and in the final scenes of the film is murdered by a female dwarf in a red, hooded coat. Throughout this eerie film, based on a Daphne du Maurier short story, the director, Nicolas Roeg, leaves us unsure whether Mason's chilling character really is a psychic or a con artist, particularly in a scene showing the sisters laughing after convincing Laura that they have contacted her daughter.
Born in Birmingham in 1917, Mason won a scholarship to the London School of Dramatic Art before gaining repertory theater experience in Preston, Southport, York and Guildford. During the Second World War she performed with the troops entertainment organization Ensa.
Mason made her television debut as Mrs Drummond in the drama series Thunder in the West (1957), and played Mrs Yapp in the Midlands-based local council serial Swizzlewick (1964) and Mrs Timothy in the soccer soap United! (1965). She as well took two roles in Coronation Street (1960); following a bit-part as Mrs Ainsworth (1965), she was then Derek Wilton's mother (1976), who disapproved of her son's relationship with the dithering Mavis Riley and insisted it must end - to no avail.
Adept at character roles, Mason took eight different parts in Z Cars (1962), and another three in Dixon of Dock Green (1955), before playing Lady Boleyn in the acclaimed, six-part drama The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) (starring Keith Michell in the title role), Mrs Nickleby in Nicholas Nickleby (1977), Mrs Gummidge in David Copperfield (1986), and Mrs Fagge in Great Expectations (1989).
In comedy, she acted Mrs Booth, exasperated mother to the chalk-and-cheese twin brothers, in My Brother's Keeper (1975) and Gladys in Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (1989), the children's series written by Tony Robinson - with Mason's real-life husband, the actor Roger Ostime, taking the role of Gladys's father in one episode. She also played Michael Palin's mother in the Ripping Yarns (1976) episode The Curse of the Claw (1977).
After her part in "Don't Look Now", Mason was cast in the horror films Sharon's Baby (1975) (acting Mrs Hyde, alongside Joan Collins as a stripper who gives birth to a "possessed" baby, 1975), Dolls (1986), Afraid of the Dark (1991), and Haunted (1995).
Mason also appeared twice in One Foot in the Grave (1990) during the 1990s.
She died in 2006 in Milton Keynes, England and left a husband of 50 years, Roger Ostime; they had married in 1955 in Surrey.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Phyllis Logan was born on 11 January 1956 in Paisley, Scotland, UK. She is an actress, known for Secrets & Lies (1996), Another Time, Another Place (1983) and Downton Abbey (2010). She has been married to Kevin McNally since 15 August 2011. They have one child.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
A distinguished-looking, latterly white-haired actor of considerable presence, Oliver Cotton has been prolific on both stage and screen and has also been making his mark as a playwright. Born in London to Norman Cotton and his Danish wife Ester, he trained for acting at the now defunct Drama Centre in King's Cross. Cotton made his theatrical debut in 1965 at Stage 73 in New York. He subsequently appeared in many productions for the National Theatre during the second tenure of Laurence Olivier as its artistic director. Often cast in leading roles, he has performed in Hamlet, Julius Cesar (as Brutus), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It. With the ensemble of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, he portrayed the Earl of Suffolk in Henry VI and the Duke of Buckingham in Edward IV and Richard III on several occasions. One of his personal favorite roles with the RSC was that of 15th century rebel leader Jack Cade in Henry VI. Cotton has also made frequent appearances for the Royal Court Theatre and at the West End.
A self-confessed history buff and avid traveler, Cotton has portrayed many a historical or literary persona on the screen. Due to his dignified comportment and gravitas, he tended to be most often cast as aristocrats, senior government officials, politicians, barristers and military men. Cotton remains best known for his portrayal of Cesare Borgia in the 1981 BBC 2 dramatization The Borgias (1981). Other television roles of note have included Fagin's confederate Monks in Oliver Twist (1982), the austere and cruel Mr. Murdstone in David Copperfield (1986), the villainous Lord Owen of Clun in Robin Hood (1984), the imperialist statesman Joseph Chamberlain in Rhodes (1996) and Alexandre D'Artagnan in The Musketeers (2014). He has made numerous guest appearances in popular British TV shows across diverse genres. Those have ranged from Space: 1999 (1975) to Z Cars (1962), Killing Eve (2018) and Dalziel and Pascoe (1996), and from Ripper Street (2012) to Penny Dreadful (2014).
On the big screen, he has essayed, among others, Jack the Ripper in Shanghai Knights (2003), Danish king Hrothgar in Beowulf (1999), an Air Force General in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the scheming Arsenius in Pope Joan (2009) and the fierce French warrior knight and duellist Jean de Carrouges III in The Last Duel (2021).
Cotton has worked as writer and associate producer on the historical sports drama miniseries The English Game (2020) which he also helped to create. For the stage he has authored The Enoch Show (Royal Court), Scrabble (National Theatre), Wet Weather Cover (King's Head Theatre), Man Falling Down (Shakespeare's Globe) and Daytona (London's Park Theatre). He has described the difference between the disciplines of acting and writing by saying "Writing's like breathing in. Acting's like breathing out. One's the effort and the other's the action - ultimately inter-dependent but different in their process - something that only matters if you do both."- Actor
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Iain Cuthbertson was born on 4 January 1930 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Gorillas in the Mist (1988), Doctor Who (1963) and Scotch on the Rocks (1973). He was married to Janet Mary Smith and Anne Kristen. He died on 4 September 2009 in Ayr, South Ayrshire, Scotland, UK.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Angus Lennie was born on 18 April 1930 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for The Great Escape (1963), Doctor Who (1963) and Para Handy - Master Mariner (1959). He died on 14 September 2014 in Acton, London, England, UK.- Robert Brown was born on 23 July 1921 in Swanage, Dorset, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A View to a Kill (1985), Octopussy (1983) and Licence to Kill (1989). He was married to Rita Becker. He died on 11 November 2003 in Swanage, Dorset, England, UK.
- A tall, imposing character actor with a voice to match, John Phillips brought an authoritative manner and dignified military bearing to his many roles on stage and screen. A decorated veteran of the 1944 Normandy Campaign, Phillips frequently appeared on television as uniformed senior officers and police chief constables, from Frontier (1968) to Z Cars (1962). His piercing eyes and forthright manner made him equally suited to portraying magistrates, academics and clergymen.
After a long innings with the Birmingham Repertory prior to 1945, he appeared post-war in Bristol and at the Old Vic in London, playing anything from Henrik Ibsen to Shakespeare. He was critically acclaimed for his roles as Henry VIII and Timon of Athens, Prospero and Tamburlaine the Great (in Christopher Marlowe's play)). Acting on screen from the early 1950's, he was insidious as lawyer Tulkinghorn in Bleak House (1959), and lent gravitas to his Norfolk in Richard III (1955) and Grand Duke Nicholas in Fall of Eagles (1974). He was not beyond parodying his screen personae, being droll and stereotypically stiff-upper-lip, as Colonel Harcourt Badger Owen in the uproarious Ripping Yarns (1976) episode 'Escape from Stalag Luft 112 B'. Phillips retired from the stage in the 1980's and made his celluloid curtain call in the eccentric, off-beat comedy Leon the Pig Farmer (1992). - Actor
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David Ashton was born on 10 November 1941 in Greenock, Scotland, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Last King of Scotland (2006), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Eye of the Needle (1981).- Martin Cochrane was born in 1946 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015), Patriot Games (1992) and The Haggard Falcon (1974). He has been married to Adrienne Burgess since 1994. They have one child. He was previously married to Jan Wilson.
- Beth Goddard was born on 31 March 1969 in Colchester, Essex, England, UK. She is an actress, known for X-Men: First Class (2011), Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and Gimme Gimme Gimme (1999). She has been married to Philip Glenister since 2006. They have two children.
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She has worked extensively in the theatre since making her debut in Whose Life is it Anyway with Tom Conti. At the National Theatre she performed in Pravda with Anthony Hopkins and played Sheila Birling in Stephen Daldry's revision of An Inspector Calls. At the Royal Court in London she created the part of Jessica in Hysteria which won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 1994 and starred opposite Vanessa Redgrave in Three Sisters. Her film work includes Heart of Darkness (1993) directed by Nicholas Roeg, Maurice (1987), Ordeal by Innocence (1984), and The Elephant Man (1980). On television she was seen in Brideshead Revisited (1981) as Cordelia.- Actress
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Anne was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne but the family moved to Redcar when the WWII started. She was educated at White House School where she acted in a school play of Romeo and Juliet with June Laverick, who when older would also take to the stage. When Anne got older she was sent to a boarding school, Penrose College, in North Wales and at 11 was in a choir. Her father became a special correspondent for the Daily Telegraph following in the footsteps of her grandfather, an uncle and 3 brothers who were all journalists. Anne took elocution lessons and did bits in plays with a teacher who recognising her talent helped her to get into RADA after which she worked as as a stage manager and some work in repertory. Her first work in television involved sketches with Benny Hill but gave up acting in 1974 before returning in 1986 eventually making her name in the part of Valerie Barlow in the television soap Coronation Street.- Caroline Harker was born in 1966 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Madness of King George (1994), Middlemarch (1994) and A Touch of Frost (1992). She is married to Anthony Calf. They have three children.
- Christopher Ravenscroft was born in 1946. He is an actor, known for Henry V (1989), The Football Factory (2004) and The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015).
- Clive Morton worked for four years for the East India Dock Company, before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and entering the acting profession. He made his stage debut in 1920 and did not act on screen until 1932. He was regularly employed for the next four decades, except for wartime service in the British Army. He was usually cast in small roles as pompous upper-crust types, dignified aristocrats, officers or executives. He appeared in some of the greatest British films made during the post-war period, including Scott of the Antarctic (1948), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955). On television he appeared in classic serials such as The Forsyte Saga (1967) and Wives and Daughters (1971). He is also fondly remembered by cult television fans for giving an impeccable performance in one of his final roles as the decent, patriotic but gullible and ultimately doomed prison governor Colonel Trenchard, who falls under the spell of Roger Delgado's scheming Master, in the classic Doctor Who (1963) serial The Sea Devils: Episode One (1972).
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Tall, dignified-looking Bernard Hepton enjoyed a six-decade-long career on both stage and screen during which he particularly excelled at subtle, self-effacing, or introspective roles. An electrician's son, Hepton grew up in the West Yorkshire city of Bradford. Due to poor eyesight, he missed out on wartime service and instead trained as an aircraft engineer and draughtsman. A teenage 'fire watcher' during the war, he found his boredom relieved by a chance introduction to one-act amateur plays. Immediately fascinated by theatre, he joined the Bradford Civic Playhouse where he became a protégé of the director Esme Church. He then acted on stage in York for two years (in his own words tackling "anything from Agatha Christie to Shakespeare"), subsequently graduating as artistic director at the prestigious Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Liverpool Playhouse. In 1964, Hepton joined the fledgling BBC2 hoping to produce and direct. Before long, however, he ended up in front of the cameras. Specialising in the classics (especially period drama) his many diverse faces over the years included those of kindly clerk Wemmick in Great Expectations (1967), Pallas in I, Claudius (1976) , Hungarian émigré Toby Esterhase, head of the 'Circus' surveillance section, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and Smiley's People (1982), Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls (1982) (whose author, J.B. Priestley, incidentally grew up in the same street as Hepton), Sir Thomas Bertram in Mansfield Park (1983), and Mr. Woodhouse in Jane Austen's Emma (1996). In addition to numerous one-off guest spots, Hepton also had two notable leading roles in the 1970s: as the humane kommandant in Colditz (1972) and as the Belgian cafe owner/resistance fighter Albert Foriet, aiding the escape of downed Allied airmen from occupied territory in Secret Army (1977).- Actress
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Janine Drzewicki was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe to an English mother and a Polish father. She attended school in Nottingham and later moved to London to train as an actress at the E 15 theatre school. Shortly after leaving she was given a couple of small roles in television dramas but had no agent, and placed an advert in the 'Spotlight' agency catalogue with a photograph. As a result she was approached by the BBC to test for a play about incest, entitled Diane (1975). Although she was in her early 20s the part was that of a 13-year-old girl but her audition was sufficiently convincing to win her the role. The door thus opened to her for more TV and stage roles and, whilst she was appearing in 'Don Juan' at Hampstead Theatre, London, she was spotted by Mike Leigh who offered her the part of Angie in the stage production of Abigail's Party (1977), which she repeated in the television version. A familiar face in television comedy series, she has nonetheless been given very little of note in the cinema, playing typically small roles as mad women in Dracula (1979) and The Madness of King George (1994). Married to the actor Paul Bentall, she has two sons and two daughters, one being the actress Ruby Bentall, and lives in London.- Actor
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Peter Hawkins was born on 3 April 1924 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for The Big Spender (1965), Doctor Who (1963) and The Storyteller (1987). He was married to Rosemary Miller. He died on 8 July 2006 in London, England, UK.- Tony Melody played character parts in many of Britain's most popular TV shows, including Coronation Street (1960), Emmerdale Farm (1972) and Last of the Summer Wine (1973). For 15 years he played the neighbour, Mr. Higginbottom, in The Clitheroe Kid on BBC radio. Melody's long, hangdog face also earned him comedy cameos in Steptoe and Son (1962), Heartbeat (1992), City Central (1998), and Where the Heart Is (1997). Melody also worked in stage shows and films. His big break came with Yanks (1979) starring Richard Gere. Sudden fame came his way when he appeared in a TV McDonald's campaign in 2002. His broadcasting break came in the BBC's North Region in 1955 with What Makes A Star? - a showcase for new talent. His first network television was in 1957 in the Hylda Baker comedy series Be Soon (1957). In the 1980s he was regular on Bergerac (1981), Dalziel and Pascoe (1996). An unassuming man who was shy offscreen and rarely gave interviews. Melody's first marriage was dissolved and in 1972 he married Maggie, a former dancer he met in Skegness. They lived happily ever after.
- Distinguished Devon-born British actress, acclaimed for her commanding performances on the classical stage. Jefford did her initial training at the Hartly-Hodder School of Speech and Drama and graduated from RADA in 1949. Following her professional acting debut that same year, she spent a year on the repertory stage before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon where her roles included Calpurnia in "Julius Caesar", Desdemona in "Othello" (both opposite Anthony Quayle) and Kate in "The Taming of the Shrew" (opposite Keith Michell as Petruchio). In 1956, Jefford moved to the Old Vic and put her extensive repertoire to good use, headlining in a one-woman show entitled "Heroines of Shakespeare". In the course of her lengthy theatrical career, the charismatic actress relished every opportunity to tackle diverse and complex characters, from Cleopatra and Joan of Arc to Hedda Gabler and Gwendolen Fairfax. In 1965, she reputedly became the youngest recipient of an OBE for services to the theatre at the age of 35. As late as 2002, she appeared as Queen Margaret opposite Kenneth Branagh in Richard III at the Crucible in Sheffield, eliciting an appreciative review from The Guardian which described Jefford as "one of the greatest of Shakespearean actors" who played her part with "Grecian grandeur ".
Despite some early TV work, Jefford's film career did not rise to the same lofty heights and only began when she was already in her mid-thirties (then playing Molly Bloom in James Joyce's Ulysses (1967)). Her rather infrequent later big screen appearances tended to be in off-beat roles: a vampiric countess in Hammer's Lust for a Vampire (1971), Magda Goebbels in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973), the coldly self-righteous Mrs. Herriton in Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) and an eccentric, wheelchair-bound German baroness in Roman Polanski's thriller The Ninth Gate (1999). For the small screen, Jefford guested in episodes of The House of Eliott (1991), Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987) and Midsomer Murders (1997). Between 1950 and 2003, she also lent her voice to many BBC radio adaptations of classic plays. - Actor
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Derek Benfield was born on 11 March 1926 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Lifeforce (1985), The Brothers (1972) and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1996). He was married to Susan Lyall Grant. He died on 10 March 2009 in Esher, Surrey, England, UK.- Actress
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Patsy Byrne was born on 13 July 1933 in Ashford, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Les Misérables (1998), Blackadder Back & Forth (1999) and Watching (1987). She was married to Patrick John Francis Noel Seccombe. She died on 17 June 2014 in Denville Hall, Northwood, London, England, UK.- Actor
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T.R. Bowen was born in 1942 in Burma. He is an actor and writer, known for Run Fatboy Run (2007), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994) and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991).- Actor
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Dermot Crowley was born on 19 March 1947 in Cork, Ireland. He is an actor and producer, known for Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023), The Death of Stalin (2017) and The Foreigner (2017). He has been married to Suzanne Smith since 3 July 1982.- Julia St John was born on 3 August 1956 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Brittas Empire (1991), The Young Victoria (2009) and Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012). She has been married to Peter McEnery since 1997.
- David Ross is a British actor from Blackburn, Lancashire. He is most known for his work in television series, where he has enjoyed a lengthy career. He has also appeared stage productions and films.
David Ross' most famous role was that of Kryten during his first appearance on comedy series Red Dwarf (1988) and he was also the one who provided the voice for the Talkie Toaster on the same show. As a stage actor, David Ross is known for his part in the play Having a Ball, alongside Maggie Dence and Jacki Weaver.
David Ross' very first role was a small part in the drama Dixon of Dock Green (1955), in the episode The Mercenary. He then went on to appear on some of the iconic TV productions of the UK, such as the police procedural Midsomer Murders (1997) and the sitcom The Green Green Grass (2005). David Ross has also portrayed Mr. Sherwin in the historical drama Basil (1998), starring Jared Leto. - One of the UK's most prolific television actors for 50 years, Peter Halliday was the son of an auctioneer and estate agent. He was schooled in Shropshire. Halliday failed his exam as apprentice auctioneer, worked briefly for Rolls-Royce, then served in the British Army during the Second World War, based in Iraq, Palestine and Egypt, until 1947. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1949. He became a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, which later became the Royal Shakespeare Company. He achieved his greatest fame in the BBC's science-fiction television drama A for Andromeda (1961). He also gained further cult status for several appearances in Doctor Who (1963), which included providing monster voices for two serials and appearing under heavy makeup to play the alien Pletrac in Robert Holmes' witty parody of television and its viewers, Carnival of Monsters: Episode One (1973).
- Eminent English actor Oliver Ford Davies began his career in academia. The son of a teacher, he studied at Merton College, Oxford University, where he became president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society and performed on stage with the experimental Theatre Club at the age of twenty. After graduating with a PhD, he then lectured in history for two years at Edinburgh University, eventually coming to realize that he would rather spend his working life as an actor. This was, at least in part, inspired by witnessing Paul Scofield's commanding performance in Peter Brook's acclaimed production of King Lear in 1962.
Davies made his professional theatrical debut at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1967 and has since acted on diverse stages throughout England. He spent several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, beginning in 1975 with a role as Mountjoy in Henry V. The classical stage has seen him in productions of Henry IV, The Hollow Crown, As You Like It, Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet and Julius Caesar. Davies has regarded being cast as the lead in David Hare's Racing Devil at the National Theatre as his career breakthrough. This performance garnered him an Olivier Best Actor Award in 1990. Davies also headlined as King Lear at the Almeida in Islington, London, in 2001.
Since his first television appearance in 1968, Davies has often been typecast as clerics, doctors and academics, usually characters somewhat older than his years. He had a recurring role as barrister Peter Foxcott in Kavanagh QC (1995) and enjoyed guest spots on popular detective shows like Van der Valk (1972), Maigret (1992), Wycliffe (1993), Pie in the Sky (1994), Poirot (1989), Foyle's War (2002) and Father Brown (2013). He has also played portrait painter John Hunter Thompson in The Brontës of Haworth (1973), the infirm Mr. Wickfield, lawyer and employer of Uriah Heep, in BBC's David Copperfield (1999) and the Archbishop of Canterbury in the film Johnny English (2003). Since the 90s, Davies has become more familiar to international audiences for his role as Queen Amidala's councillor Sio Bibble in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and as Cressen, the maester of Dragonstone and servant of Stannis Baratheon in HBO's blockbuster series Game of Thrones (2011).
Davies published his memoir, "An Actor's Life in 12 Productions", in 2022. For his services to drama, he was awarded an OBE in the 2024 New Year Honours List. - Actor
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Adrian Lukis was born in 1958 in Birmingham, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Judy (2019), Pride and Prejudice (1995) and Back Home (2001). He has been married to Michele L Costa since November 1985. They have one child.- British character actor of prolific output, a RADA graduate of 1951 and first on the professional stage the following year in Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus'. Nettleton was for many years an ensemble member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He first graced the screen in 1956 and soon found his niche in the portrayal of magistrates, clerics, aristocrats, befuddled professors and stiff-upper-lip military officers. He was best known for his role as the bespectacled Sir Arnold Robinson, Cabinet Secretary in Yes Minister (1980), a consummate civil servant and frequent sounding board and advisor to Sir Humphrey Appleby (as played by the inimitable Nigel Hawthorne). In the sequel Yes, Prime Minister (1986), his character was later promoted to the position of President of the Campaign for Freedom of Information. Nettleton's other roles of note have included Sir Francis Bacon (both in Elizabeth R (1971) and in Churchill's People (1974)), Arthur Spender in the advertising sitcom The Happy Apple (1983) and Conservative MP Stephen Baxter in The New Statesman (1987). He made guest appearances in numerous episodic TV shows and miniseries, ranging from The Avengers (1961), Department S (1969) and Foyle's War (2002) to period dramas like The Edwardians (1972), The Flame Trees of Thika (1981) and Brideshead Revisited (1981).
Nettleton was married to the actress Deirdre Doone from 1954 until his death on July 14 2023 at the age of 94. - Donald Pickering was born on 15 November 1933 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and The Pallisers (1974). He died on 19 December 2009 in Gloucestershire, England, UK.
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Best known for his appearances on British television in the comedy series Father, Dear Father (1968), Patrick Cargill was also a distinguished stage actor and a brilliant farceur. His immaculate timing was known throughout the profession to the point that when directors were casting a certain type of leading role they would refer to it as a "Patrick Cargill part".
Cargill made his stage debut in Bexhill on Sea, Sussex, as a teenager before joining Anthony Hawtrey's company in London. Throughout the 1950s he was rarely off the West End stage in a string of farces and comedies, in many of which he played the leading role.
In 1967 he was offered the television series Father, Dear Father, written especially for him, in which he played a thriller writer, the inept father of two teenage daughters who were played by Natasha Pyne and Ann Holloway. The series ran until 1973 and in 1976 he returned to television in The Many Wives of Patrick (1976), in which he appeared as a middle-aged playboy trying to divorce his sixth wife in order to remarry his first.
In 1978 he appeared on the London stage in a revival of Anthony Shaffer's thriller, "Sleuth", which was not well received by the critics on the grounds that with all his charm, Cargill's leading role lacked menace.
In 1967 he was personally chosen by Charles Chaplin to play the role of Hudson, "a gentleman's gentleman", in the film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). The two actors struck up a close friendship. A superb light comedian, Cargill said: "Comedy is instinctive. You know it's there but the moment you consciously search for it you're completely lost. Timing is a skill that you develop over the years. It gives you the necessary courage to wait - to pause while the audience gathers in anticipation."- Geoffrey Freshwater was born in England, UK. He is known for Foyle's War (2002), Will (2017) and Sorry! (1981).
- Jonathan Newth was born on 6 March 1939 in Edmonton, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Day of the Triffids (1981), Pretenders (1972) and Doctor Who (1963). He has been married to Gay Wilde since 1979. They have four children. He was previously married to Joanna Brookes.
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Mary Healey was born in 1942 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Chaplin (1992), Line of Duty (2012) and Doctor Who (1963). She is married to Morgan Deare.- He may well be the only professional actor to have played both Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis, having interpreted the great detective in Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (1980) on TV and the 'Napoleon of Crime' Professor Moriarty in the burlesque spoof The Newly Discovered Casebook of Sherlock Holmes in front of a live audience on radio.
A RADA graduate of 1960, Geoffrey Whitehead has been prolific in classical roles on the stage with the Bristol Old Vic and during several seasons with the ensemble of the Royal Shakespeare Company. On television from 1962, he has made guest appearances in The Avengers (1961), The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1971), Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983), Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983) and Poirot (1989). During four seasons of the police series Z Cars (1962), he portrayed two separate characters: PC Ken Baker (season 4) and DS Wilf Miller (seasons 7, 8 and 10). Another regular role saw him as the managing director of a large property firm in the drama series Second Thoughts (1991), set in the dog-eat-dog world of high-powered business.
Whitehead has often played powerful or influential personae in period drama, those including the dour, austere suitor St. John Rivers in Jane Eyre (1973), Roman general Scipio Africanus in The Cleopatras (1983), Russian statesman Vasily Golitsyn in Peter the Great (1986), family lawyer to the famous Austrian family of composers in Strauss Dynasty (1991) and a doctor in BBC's excellent adaptation of Little Dorrit (2008).
Equally proficient in comedy, he co-starred on TV in Second Thoughts (1991) (as boss of a style magazine), Reggie Perrin (2009) (as Reggie's food-obsessed father-in-law), Still Open All Hours (2013) (Wilburn Newbold) and in the long-running sitcom Not Going Out (2006) (Geoffrey Adams). On BBC Radio 4's Bleak Expectations, he voiced assorted doomed members of five evil families (the Hardthrashers, Sternbeaters, Whackwallops, Grimpunches and Clampvultures) in a pastiche of the classic Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Whitehead also provided the voice for Death in radio adaptations of Terry Pratchett's novels Eric and Mort.
Whitehead has been married since 1962 to the Irish-born stage and screen actress Mary Hanefey. - Actress
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Ann Morrish was born on 15 June 1928 in Godstone, Surrey, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Encounter (1952), The Protectors (1964) and The Wednesday Play (1964).- Dominic Jephcott was born on 28 July 1957 in Coventry, West Midlands, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Emmerdale Farm (1972), Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (1987) and Paradise Postponed (1986).
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Elizabeth Spriggs was born on 18 September 1929 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Sense and Sensibility (1995), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Paradise Road (1997). She was married to Murray Manson, Marshall Jones and Kenneth Spriggs. She died on 2 July 2008 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK.- Actor
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Scottish-born Derek Bond was a leading man of post-war British films fondly remembered for his portrayal of the titular hero in Ealing Studios' The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947), an adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel.
The actor was born in Glasgow on January 26, 1920, the son of a commercial traveler and a beautician. Educated at the Haberdashers' Askes School in Hampstead, he originally sought out a career as a reporter/journalist. When that didn't pan out he turned to acting, training with the Finchley Amateur Dramatic Society and making his professional theatre debut with "As Husbands Go" in 1937. A member of the Colchester Repertory Company (where he met his first wife), he played a number of both comedic and dramatic roles until his burgeoning career was interrupted by WWII. Commissioned with the Grenadier Guards' 3rd Brigade, he was awarded the Military Cross after seeing action and suffering serious wounds in North Africa. Captured at one point, he served as a POW in Italy, where he produced and appeared in a number of army shows.
Following the war he returned to his acting career and was picked up by Ealing Studios. Life certainly imitated art when he made his film debut as a British POW in the stirring war drama The Captive Heart (1946) starring Michael Redgrave, Redgrave's wife Rachel Kempson and a virtual "Who's Who" supporting cast of British names. The film was set in a German WWII POW camp. Stardom was officially clinched when Ealing entrusted Bond, in only his second film role, to play the Nickleby lead opposite the renowned Cedric Hardwicke as his cruel Uncle Ralph. Bond also had a choice role portraying the doomed South Pole explorer Capt. Oates in Scott of the Antarctic (1948) opposite John Mills. Throughout the late 1940s the staid, classically good-looking actor played lead and second lead roles alongside a number of established or up-and-coming leading lovelies of the British cinema, including Jean Kent and Googie Withers in The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947), Jean Simmons in The Inheritance (1947), Phyllis Calvert in Broken Journey (1948), Ursula Jeans in The Weaker Sex (1948), Susan Shaw in Marry Me (1949) and Rona Anderson in Poet's Pub (1949).
Bond continued primarily in the "B" film ranks in the 1950s with a steady dose of light comedy (Tony Draws a Horse (1950), The Caretaker's Daughter (1952), Trouble in Store (1953)) and crime drama (The Quiet Woman (1951), The Hour of 13 (1952), Rogue's Yarn (1957), Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958)). He also was utilized on TV in the next decade as a co-presenter of Picture Parade (1956) for more than two years before joining "Tonight," an early-evening current-affairs program. Among his other series work included episodes of William Tell (1958) and The Saint (1962) and a notable recurring role on Callan (1967) starring Edward Woodward. A bright presence on the West End light comedy stage, his theatre resume included "A Scent of Flowers" (with a budding Ian McKellen), "Your Obedient Servant", "The Secretary Bird", "Murder at the Vicarage", "No Sex Please, We're British" and "The Mousetrap". He also wrote a number of plays for both TV and radio.
Bond was elected president of the British Actors' Equity Association during the 1970s. An outspoken, conservative leader, he resigned in 1986 amid political controversy and pressure from left-wing opponents, which prompted his amusing memoir, "Steady Old Man! Don't You Know There's a War On?" in 1990. Married three times, he passed away at age 86 on October 15, 2006, and was survived by his third wife, a son from his first marriage and a daughter from his second.- Michael Goodliffe was born on 1 October 1914 in Bebington, Cheshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Night to Remember (1958), Peeping Tom (1960) and The One That Got Away (1957). He was married to Dorothy Margaret Tyndale. He died on 20 March 1976 in Wimbledon, London, England, UK.
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Character actor Thomas Patrick McKenna was born in Mullagh, County Cavan, Ireland, in 1929. A prolific theatre actor throughout his career, he made his stage debut in "Summer and Smoke" by Tennessee Williams at the Pike Theatre in Dublin in 1954.
He made his film debut in the IRA-Nazi drama The Night Fighters (1960) and from this uncredited beginning he moved up to tenth billing in The Siege of Sidney Street (1960). His next major movie was in 1964's Girl with Green Eyes (1964), by which time he had started a successful television career.
He made his TV debut in Espionage (1963) and over the next few years appeared in several more TV shows. His versatility enabled him to play three characters in The Avengers (1961). He was also featured in such well-regarded shows as Adam Adamant Lives! (1966), Dixon of Dock Green (1955) and The Saint (1962).
Meanwhile, his film career was developing along literary lines, and he was featured in Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow (1962), the Sean O'Casey biopic Young Cassidy (1965) and James Joyce's Ulysses (1967). He took smaller parts in such epics as The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) and Anne of the Thousand Days (1969).
British films such as Perfect Friday (1970) and Villain (1971) allowed him to showcase his suave, urbane persona before trying something different in the controversial Straw Dogs (1971). He appeared alongside a young Anthony Hopkins in All Creatures Great and Small (1975) before starring with John Gielgud for the second time, this time in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1977). Over the next few years his co-stars were as diverse as Leonard Rossiter (Britannia Hospital (1982)), Timothy Dalton (The Doctor and the Devils (1985)), Ben Kingsley (Pascali's Island (1988)) and Dolph Lundgren (Red Scorpion (1988)). Not all of these films were successes, but McKenna always gave good value for the money and developed themes of his, such as an interest in Irish issues, in The Outsider (1979). His last released film was Valmont (1989), which was unfortunately completely overshadowed by Dangerous Liaisons (1988), which was based on the same novel.
Over the years he made numerous guest appearances in TV series such as Minder (1979), Casualty (1986), Lovejoy (1986), Inspector Morse (1987), Heartbeat (1992) and Ballykissangel (1996). McKenna has also been prominent in TV movies and series, featuring in Charles Dickens' Masterpiece Theatre: Bleak House (1985), Stendhal's Scarlet and Black (1993) and most recently an adaptation of Henry James' The American (1998).
McKenna is up there with the greats of character acting such as Lionel Jeffries, Dennis Price, Richard Wattis, Wilfrid Hyde-White and John Le Mesurier.- Actor
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Harry Towb was a Northern Ireland-born character actor on stage and in films and television. He was born in Larne, County Antrim, to Jewish parents. His father was a Russian emigrant. Harry Towb once claimed he was the only Jew ever born in Larne. He grew up in Belfast, making his stage debut at the Guildhall Theatre in Londonderry in 1946.
Towb began acting in England in the 1950s. Over the years he was affiliated with the National Theatre, the Abbey and Gate Theatres in Dublin, and with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). He was also a prolific performer on British television in a wide variety of roles. He appeared twice in Doctor Who (1963). His second appearance, in Terror of the Autons: Episode Two (1971), features one of the cult series' scariest scenes in which his character is suffocated by a plastic chair. In films, he often appeared as priests or law enforcement officers.
Towb died of cancer three days before his 84th birthday. He was survived by his wife, actress Diana Hoddinott, children Emily, Daniel and Joshua, and three granddaughters.- Dave Atkins was born on 11 October 1940 in Plymouth, Devon, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Hellraiser (1987), The Little World of Don Camillo (1981) and Prick Up Your Ears (1987). He died on 23 April 2008 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK.
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Richenda Carey (born in Bitton, South Gloucestershire, England) is an English theatre, television and film actress, who is mostly known for her roles in Monarch of the Glen, Jeeves and Wooster, Crush and later, Separate Lies and Criminal Justice. She appeared in an episode of the sitcom Chalk as well with Victoria Wood in an episode of dinnerladies (1998).
She was the third wife of British actor Nigel Stock before he died in 1986.
From July 2009 she appeared in Calendar Girls (2003) at the Noël Coward Theatre.
In 2015 she appeared in the film Colonia Dignidad alongside Emma Watson and Daniel Brühl.- Edward Lexy was born on 18 February 1897 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for South Riding (1938), The Terror (1938) and Family Affairs (1949). He died on 31 January 1970 in Dublin, Ireland.
- Actor
- Production Manager
John Welsh was born on 7 November 1914 in Wexford, Ireland. He was an actor and production manager, known for Krull (1983), To Serve Them All My Days (1980) and Tales from Soho (1956). He died on 21 April 1985 in Richmond, London, England, UK.- Cyril Luckham was born on 25 July 1907 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Man for All Seasons (1966), The Guardians (1971) and The Barchester Chronicles (1982). He was married to Violet Lamb. He died on 8 February 1989 in London, England, UK.
- Norman Bird was born on 30 October 1924 in Coalville, Leicestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Lord of the Rings (1978), The League of Gentlemen (1960) and Maniac (1963). He was married to Nona Blair. He died on 22 April 2005 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, UK.
- Richard Davies was born Dennis Wilfred Davies on January 25, 1926 in Dowlais, Wales.
In a television era unabashed at employing cultural and racial stereotypes for easy and often dubious humour, Richard Davies grew accustomed to finding himself typecast as irascible Welshmen perpetually bothered and bewildered by their English colleagues.
An accomplished character actor with a theatre background that included West End appearances and seasons at the Bristol Old Vic, he always managed to resist caricature and bring a flesh-and-blood reality to often undemanding roles.
He is best remembered as Mr Price, the sarcastic, long-suffering and world-weary science teacher in John Esmonde and Bob Larbey's Please Sir!, which, at its peak during its four-year run from 1968, attracted audiences of 20 million and spawned a 1971 film. Pitted against the puppy-dog enthusiasm of John Alderton's fresh-faced, newly graduated teacher, Davies provided a grittier perspective on the experience of teaching unruly students in a grimy inner-London suburb. His laconic, dyspeptic delivery regularly stole laughs and entire scenes from his fellow actors.
The son of a railway guard, born in the village of Dowlais in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, he began acting at school before going down the mines for a brief time. When war broke out, he enlisted in the military police and soon found himself seconded to the Combined Services Entertainment Unit.
Back on Civvy Street, he joined a touring theatre company and in 1947 made his West End debut in Little Lambs Eat Ivy at the Ambassadors Theatre. He spent the 1951-52 season touring Europe and South Africa with the Old Vic and in 1953 played the Welsh captain Fluellen in Henry V in Guildford.
That year also saw him return to the West End in Carrington VC at the Westminster Theatre. By then, he had made his first appearance in film (a bit part in 1951's The Lavender Hill Mob). At the end of the decade Davies was back in Bristol where he played Feste (Twelfth Night, 1957) and Grumio and Vincentio in The Taming of the Shrew (1959).
Although television increasingly came to dominate his career, in 1965 he appeared alongside Bob Monkhouse in Basil Ashmore's The Gulls at the Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre. Later theatre credits included Gwyn Thomas' The Keep (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, 1970) and several productions of Under Milk Wood, including Theatr Cymru's 25th anniversary revival (seen at London's Mayfair Theatre) in 1978. In the 1972 film version starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, he played Mr Pritchard.
In the late 1980s, Davies was a member of a co-operative theatre company formed by ex-Please Sir! cast members, with whom he appeared in stage versions of classic BBC radio comedies. The success of Please Sir! led to regular small-screen appearances, notably as Idris Hopkins in Coronation Street (1974-75), Taffy Evans in Rule Britannia! (1975) and Clive in Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt (1976-77). He also made memorable contributions to episodes of Fawlty Towers (1979), Yes, Minister (1980) and in particular One Foot in the Grave (1992).
His later film work never matched his iconic performance as Private 593 Jones in 1964's Zulu, alongside Michael Caine and Stanley Baker.
In his later years he had suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died on October 8 2015, aged 89. He is survived by his second wife, the actress Jill Britton, to whom he was married for nearly 60 years, their two children, and a son from his first marriage. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Julian Wyatt Glover was born on March 27, 1935 in Hampstead, London, England, to Honor Ellen Morgan (Wyatt), a BBC journalist, and Claude Gordon Glover, a BBC radio producer. He is of English, Scottish and Welsh ancestry. Primarily a classical stage actor, Glover trained at the National Youth Theatre, performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and became a familiar face to British television viewers by appearing in many popular series during the 1960s and 1970s. His talent for accents and cold expression made him an ideal choice for playing refined villains. Glover's guest appearances on television include series such as The Avengers (1961), Doctor Who (1963), Space: 1999 (1975), Blake's 7 (1978), Remington Steele (1982) and Merlin (2008). He also played the recurring role of Grand Master Pycelle on 31 episodes of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2011).
During the 1980s, Glover achieved some fame in Hollywood with roles in popular films such as General Maximilian Veers in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the Greek villain Aristotle Kristatos in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981), Brian Harcourt-Smith in the Cold War thriller The Fourth Protocol (1987) and Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). In the film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), he provided the voice of the giant spider Aragog. He was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.- The ever-impressive, chameleon-like British character actor Roy Dotrice was born on the Island of Guernsey, which is part of the United Kingdom, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of France. He was the first-born child of Louis and Neva Dotrice who prospered as bakers. The Germans occupied the island in 1940 and he and his mother and brother escaped to England.
Advancing his real age, Roy joined the Royal Air Force at age 16 and was trained as a wireless operator and air gunner. In 1942 his plane was shot down and he was captured where he served out the remainder of WWII (over three years) as a prisoner of war in Germany. He was introduced to the idea of performing when he took part in various makeshift concerts in order to raise the spirits of his fellow captives.
Following WWII and his release, Roy decided to pursue his acting ambitions. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began appearing in English repertory where he met and married (1947) actress Kay Dotrice who at the time was performing under her given name of Katherine (Kay) Newman. Throughout the early post-war years, the couple performed together in repertory with Charles Denville and the Denville Players. At different times he was a member of the Liverpool, Manchester and Oldham repertory theatres. Also during this great time of productivity, Roy produced and directed some three hundred stage plays. He formed his own troupe, the Guernsey Theatre Company, in 1955. The highlight of his theatrical career, however, began in 1957 when Roy became a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford, England, (later the Royal Shakespeare Company). For the next nine years he performed in a lengthy succession of the Bard's works, first in small parts as various players, officers and gentlemen. He subsequently went on to become a notable Iago, Falstaff and Julius Caesar, among others. A popular performer, he had an uncanny ability to play much older than he was. He later went on to perform with the American Shakespearean Festival.
The notoriety he received from his abundant classical theatre experience led directly to radio, film, television and Broadway offers. Roy has appeared in a number of Broadway productions over the years, receiving a Tony nomination for his work in "A Life" and finally winning the trophy for his heralded performance in the 2000 revival of "A Moon for the Misbegotten" starring Cherry Jones and Gabriel Byrne. Known for his considerable success in one-man shows such as Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Will Rogers and Winston Churchill, his superb one-person show "Brief Lives", drawn from the Elizabethan diaries of John Aubrey, played for over 1,700 performances over a period of nearly a decade. At one time this set a record for a solo performance and was listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records".
Dotrice made his credited feature movie debut supporting Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris in The Heroes of Telemark (1965), and has since lent class and distinction to a spattering of films. Among his list of credits include the bawdy comedy Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969); the sumptuous biopic Nicholas and Alexandra (1971); the Oscar-winning Amadeus (1984), Milos Forman's adaptation of composer Mozart's life in which Roy portrayed Mozart's stern and domineering father Leopold; and The Cutting Edge (1992) as an Olympic skating coach.
Perhaps better remembered on the small screen, he appeared magnanimously as a host of monarchs including his Edward IV in The Wars of the Roses (1965) and King George IV in the syndicated miniseries Shaka Zulu (1986). To American audiences he is probably best known as Jacob Wells, the Beast's surrogate father, in the dramatic series Beauty and the Beast (1987). Dotrice was also cast in the recurring role of Father Barrett, a Catholic priest and confidante of Judge Henry Bone (played by Ray Walston), on the acclaimed Emmy-winning drama Picket Fences (1992).
Since the end of the 1970s he has lived and worked primarily in America. More recently he appeared on stage reviving his outstanding 1993 role as George Bernard Shaw in "The Best of Friends" in 2006. Millennium work included the films Alien Hunter (2003), These Foolish Things (2006), Played (2006), Go Go Tales (2007). Enjoying a recurring role on the British TV series Life Begins (2004), Roy made his last TV appearances on two 2012 episodes of "Game of Thrones" as Hallyne.
Roy's devoted wife Kay died on August 2, 2007, after 60 years of marriage. The couple has three daughters (Michele Dotrice, Karen Dotrice and Yvette Dotrice), all whom at one time or another were actresses. Karen, who is now primarily out of the business, became the best known perhaps for her childhood Disney portrayals, notably in Mary Poppins (1964). Combined, his daughters have presented him with seven grandchildren. Roy died on October 16, 2017. - Rowena Cooper was born in 1935 in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. She is an actress, known for Poirot (1989), Dentist in the Chair (1960) and Theatre Night (1985). She was previously married to Terrence Hardiman.
- Ann Bell was born on 29 April 1938 in Wallasey, Cheshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Tenko (1981), The Lost Boys (1978) and The Forsyte Saga (2002). She was previously married to Robert Lang.
- Actor
- Writer
Philip Bird is known for Love at First Sight (2023), Imagine Me & You (2005) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (2011).- Edward Hardwicke was born on 7 August 1932 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Elizabeth (1998), Oliver Twist (2005) and Oppenheimer (1980). He was married to Prim Cotton and Anne Iddon. He died on 16 May 2011 in Chichester, England, UK.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Looking back at his filmography, it isn't difficult to imagine Vladek Sheybal in a scene, lobbing Molotov cocktails at advancing German troops, against a backdrop of war-torn Warsaw. However, this part of his life played out for real. A member of the Polish underground, he was twice captured and interned in concentration camps. Both times he escaped. After the war, he was undecided about whether to become a doctor or an actor. His father, a painter and professor of Fine Arts, put pressure on him to become an architect. Acting won out, of course, and Vladek spent six months at the prestigious Stanislavsky School of Acting and a further four years to complete his training at the Drama Director's School. By the time he shared a dressing room with Roman Polanski on stage at the National Theatre in Warsaw, he had become one of Poland's leading actors. He was first acclaimed on screen in Andrzej Wajda's story of the Polish Resistance during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, Kanal (1957). Ironically, by his own admission, Vladek had 'not a drop of Polish blood' in him, his ethnic background being a mixture of Armenian, Scottish and Austrian. He spoke fluent French, Italian and German before ever learning English.
Taking advantage of a scholarship to perfect his craft, Vladek went to England in the early 1960's and decided to stay. His limited command of English and a lack of connections forced him to take on a number of menial jobs. With his last ten pounds in his pocket, he went to Oxford to study English literature. As his English improved, he began to teach drama. Before long, his successful staging of a Russian play at the Oxford University Opera Club led to a job with the BBC as actor/director. Prompted by Sean Connery (whose then-girlfriend Diane Cilento Vladek had directed on stage), he reluctantly took the part of chess grandmaster and SPECTRE agent Kronsteen in From Russia with Love (1963), emerging as one of the most memorable of the early James Bond villains.
With his cultured voice, sharp nose and piercing, hypnotic eyes, Vladek's became one of the most recognizable faces on screen in the 60's and 70's. For the most part, he was typecast in sardonic, sinister or eccentric roles, tailor-made as Central European or Soviet spies, in both episodic television (eg The Saint (1962), Secret Agent (1964)) and motion pictures (eg S*P*Y*S (1974)). Perfecting his trademark screen personae was partly down to advice from actress Bette Davis, who, according to a 1992 interview in FAB magazine, instructed him to 'narrow his eyes, lower his voice to a whisper and make long pauses'. Affecting these mannerisms served him well, even when he was not playing the bad guy. On several occasions, he appeared in films by Ken Russell, notably as the decadent sculptor Loerke, in Women in Love (1969), and as the Cecil B. DeMille caricature De Thrill, in The Boy Friend (1971). He was also the arcane, enigmatic psychiatrist Dr. Doug Jackson, in Gerry Anderson's cult sci-fi series UFO (1970) (a part he secured after having previously played a similar character in the movie Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969) for the same production team). In 1977, he was presented by The Dracula Society with the Hamilton Deane Award for his performance as a creepy innkeeper in an episode of the short-lived anthology series Supernatural (1977). The prize was presented to him by none other than Christopher Lee.
During the latter stages of his career, Vladek revisited the stage, appearing in fringe venues in London in the title role of "Mahler" (1973), as Shylock in "Variations on The Merchant of Venice" (1977) and as Friedrich Nietzsche in "The Eagle and the Serpent" (1988). He also taught acting classes at the London Academy of TV and made several forays into French cinema as middle-aged men obsessed with younger women. A consummate perfectionist at his craft and one of the great European character actors, Vladek died unexpectedly in October 1992 at his home in London, aged 69.