Flash Gordon 1980 premiere
Wednesday December 10th, ODEON Covent Garden 135 Shaftesbury Ave, Covent Garden, London WC2H 8AH, United Kingdom
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Actor Sam J. Jones was born in Chicago, Illinois but grew up in Sacramento, California. He was educated at Mira Loma High School in Sacramento and went on to serve as a United States Marine. Jones made his screen debut in Blake Edwards' comedy film 10 (1979). In 1980, he was cast in the iconic role of Flash Gordon in the cult classic of the same name, Flash Gordon (1980). A solid acting career in mostly television roles followed. Jones came back to moviegoers attention, making a cameo as a version of himself in the comedy film Ted (2012).- Melody Anderson was born on 3 December 1955 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is an actress, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Speed Zone (1989) and Dead & Buried (1981).
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was the son of Baroness Maria Margareta (Rappe), a teacher, and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, an ethnologist and folklore professor. His surname traces back to his partial German ancestry.
When he was in high school, he and a few fellow students, including Yvonne Lombard, started a theatre club which encouraged his interest in acting. After conscription, he began to study at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school (1948-1951), together with Lars Ekborg, Margaretha Krook and Ingrid Thulin. His first role was as Nils the crofter in Alf Sjöberg's Only a Mother (1949). After graduation, he worked at the city theatres in Norrköping and Malmö.
His work in the movies by Ingmar Bergman (especially The Seventh Seal (1957), including the iconic scenes in which he plays chess with Death) made him well-known internationally, and he started to get offers from abroad. His career abroad began with him playing Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Hawaii (1966) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966). Since then, his career includes very different kind of characters, like Karl Oskar Nilsson in The Emigrants (1971); Father Lankester Merrin in The Exorcist (1973); Joubert the assassin in Three Days of the Condor (1975), Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon (1980); the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the Never Say Never Again (1983); Liet-Kynes in Dune (1984) the artist Frederick in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); Lassefar in Pelle the Conqueror (1987), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination; Dr. Peter Ingham in Awakenings (1990); Lamar Burgess in Minority Report (2002) and The Renter in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), which earned him his second Academy Award nomination.
He became one of Sweden's most admired and professional actors, and is the only male Swedish actor to receive an Oscar nomination. He was nominated twice: for Pelle the Conqueror (1987) in 1988 and for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) in 2012. He received the Guldbagge Award for Best Director in his directing debut, the drama film Ved vejen (1988). In 2016, he joined the sixth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011) as the Three-eyed Raven, which earned him his Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
Max von Sydow died on March 8, 2020, in Provence, France, and was survived by his wife Catherine Brelet and four children. He was 90.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Topol was born on 9 September 1935 in Tel Aviv, Palestine [now Israel]. He was an actor and producer, known for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Flash Gordon (1980) and For Your Eyes Only (1981). He was married to Galia Topol. He died on 8 March 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Ornella Muti was born on 9 March 1955 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Oscar (1991) and The Most Beautiful Wife (1970). She was previously married to Federico Fachinetti and Alessio Orano.- Actor
- Soundtrack
At a consistently lean 6' 2", green-eyed Timothy Dalton may very well be one of the last of the dying breed of swashbuckling, classically trained Shakespearean actors who have forged simultaneous successful careers in theater, television and film. He has been comparison-shopped roundly for stepping into roles played by other actors, first following Sir Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights (1970), in Scarlett (1994).
Undaunted and good-natured, he has always stated that he likes the risk of challenges. He was born in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, the oldest of five children of Dorothy (Scholes) and Peter Dalton-Leggett. His father was stationed in Colwyn Bay during World War II, and moved the family to Manchester in the late 1940s, where he worked in advertising and raised the growing Dalton family, in an upper-class neighbourhood outside of Belper, Derbyshire. Timothy was enrolled in a school for bright children, where he excelled in sports and was interested in the sciences. He was fascinated with acting from a young age, perhaps due to the fact that both his grandfathers were vaudevillians, but it was when he saw a performance of "Macbeth" at age 16 that his destiny was clinched.
After leaving Herbert Strutt Grammar School at age 16, he toured as a leading member of Michael Croft's National Youth Theater. Between 1964-66, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Just before completing his two years, he quit and joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, playing the lead in many productions under the direction of Peter Dews while at the same time then as James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989), and even more brutally, recently, as Rhett Butler turning professional. Dalton later said of RADA in an interview with "Seventeen" magazine (December 1970), "It took a year to undo the psychological damage that was caused by the oppressive teachers.".
His talent and classic good looks immediately landed him professional work in television, guest-starring on an episode of the short-lived series, Judge Dee (1969), and as a regular on the 14-episode series Sat'day While Sunday (1967) with the young Malcolm McDowell. In late 1967, Peter O'Toole recommended him for the role of the young King Philip of France in The Lion in Winter (1968) (coincidentally, this was also Anthony Hopkins' big break). The following year, he starred in the Italian film Giuochi particolari (1970) with Marcello Mastroianni and Virna Lisi, although his voice was dubbed into Italian by another actor. Dalton also mixed in a healthy dose of BBC work during this time, including The Three Princes (1968), Five Finger Exercise (1970) and Candida (1973). Also during this time, he was approached and tested for the role of James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) which he turned down, feeling he was too young for the role. His next film was another costume drama, Cromwell (1970), working with director Ken Hughes, with whom he later made his first American film, Sextette (1977). He followed Cromwell (1970) with Wuthering Heights (1970) and Mary, Queen of Scots (1971).
He was already developing a pattern in his films that would follow him throughout his career: costume dramas where he played royalty, which he had done in three of his first four films (and ridden horses in three, and raised a sword in two). In 1972, he was contracted to play a role in Lady Caroline Lamb (1972). However, he was replaced at the last moment. Dalton sued the company and won, but the film went on without him. From the early to mid-1970s, he decided to further hone his skills by going back into the theater full time. He signed on with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the Prospect Theatre Company (PTC), and toured the world with both, playing the leads in "Romeo and Juliet", "King Lear", "Henry V", "Love's Labours Lost" and "Henry IV" - parts 1 and 2.
In 1975, he returned to movies in the British/Austrian production of The Executioner (1975). It was followed in 1976 by the Spanish religious historical film about the inquisition, El hombre que supo amar (1976), which was never widely released. After this, he took another break from film, mixing in a healthy dose of theater, returning for his first American film, Sextette (1977), and the lengthy miniseries Centennial (1978), his first American television appearance, in which Lynn Redgrave played his wife. Because of his broad exposure to American audiences in this series, he began to get more frequent film and television work in the United States, including the Charlie's Angels (1976) episode "Fallen Angel" -- which, ironically, had several references to his character being like James Bond -- and the TV movie The Flame Is Love (1979). Although he did a few features, including playing Vanessa Redgrave's husband in Agatha (1979), most of his work until 1985 consisted of TV movies and miniseries. He played Prince Barin in the science fiction classic Flash Gordon (1980). He followed this with a small film, Chanel Solitaire (1981) and also filmed a staged production of Antony and Cleopatra (1984) opposite Lynn Redgrave, with Anthony Geary, as well as Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig of the original Star Trek (1966) series.
The years 1983-1987 have so far been the most prolific of his career. In 1983, he starred as Rochester in what he considers one of his best works, the popular BBC miniseries Jane Eyre (1983). Also, during this time, Roger Moore was considering leaving Bond, and Dalton was again approached, but due to his full schedule, he had to decline. In 1984, he did one of his many narrations in the Faerie Tale Theatre (1982) production of The Emperor's New Clothes (1987). That same year also saw him in the Hallmark Hall of Fame piece The Master of Ballantrae (1984) opposite Michael York and Richard Thomas, and another miniseries, Mistral's Daughter (1984), opposite Stefanie Powers and Stacy Keach. The next year was also a very busy one. He starred in another miniseries, Sins (1986), playing the brother of Joan Collins, and also starred in and narrated the four-hour miniseries Florence Nightingale (1985), opposite Jaclyn Smith. He also starred in The Doctor and the Devils (1985) as Dr. Thomas Rock, with Stephen Rea, Jonathan Pryce and Patrick Stewart.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, Dalton narrated many nature documentaries, most notably several episodes of the UK series Wildlife Chronicles (1987). In the spring of 1986, he teamed with Vanessa Redgrave for another revival of a Shakespeare production, The Taming of the Shrew (1988) and his interpretation of Petrucchio received uniformly high praise. Simultaneously, the world was playing a guessing game as to who would succeed Roger Moore as James Bond. Dalton was approached but was committed to the theater, and so Pierce Brosnan was offered the role. When Brosnan was unable to get out of his Remington Steele (1982) contract at the last minute, Dalton was again approached. Able now to work it into his tight schedule, he agreed. Although his first outing as Bond, The Living Daylights (1987), did reasonably well at the box-office, Licence to Kill (1989) suffered from a lack of marketing that appeared to harm its chances of big box-office success. However, Dalton's interpretation of "Bond" in this film received critical acclaim in some quarters as being the closest to author Ian Fleming's literary "Bond". Back in the theater, he teamed again with Vanessa Redgrave for a revival of Eugene O'Neill's seldom performed play, "A Touch of the Poet", which is considered by some to be his and Redgrave's finest professional collaboration. Although there were talks of bringing the play to Broadway, this never materialized.
Following Licence to Kill (1989), he immediately returned to one of his strengths, costume drama, in The King's Whore (1990). It was followed by his excellent performance in the Disney action adventure The Rocketeer (1991), where he played an Errol Flynn type Nazi agent. In August 1991, he teamed with Whoopi Goldberg for the first biracial interpretation of "Love Letters" for the final sold-out performances of the play in Los Angeles. When he had signed on to do Bond, it was for three pictures, but the rights to the Bond films became entangled in lengthy litigation, delaying production of the third. During this wait, he was set to star in the title role of another historical epic, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992). However, the film was doomed from the start due to the competition with the Gérard Depardieu "Columbus" picture, which was racked with its own problems. When the director was replaced, Dalton backed out and was followed by his co-star, Isabella Rossellini.
In 1992, he starred in the A&E production Framed (1992), which won a bronze medal in the 1993 New York Film Festival. The next year, he journeyed to northern Alaska and Minnesota to make a documentary on one of his favorite subjects, wolves. In the Company of Whales (1991) went on to win a silver medal in the 1994 New York Film Festival. He kept busy in television through 1993 and 1994. He made Red Eagle (1994), Scarlett (1994) and managed to squeeze in a guest appearance on Tales from the Crypt (1989) in the episode "Werewolf Concerto". In 1994, he took on the role of Rhett Butler in the eight-hour miniseries Scarlett (1994), produced by Robert Halmi Sr. for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. In April of that year, believing he needed to move on to fresh challenges, he officially resigned the role of James Bond, a move which was much regretted by the producers, though they understood his reasons. After two months of negotiations, the role went to Pierce Brosnan.
In September 1994, Dalton was called upon for two readings of "Peter and the Wolf" at the Hollywood Bowl. He played to full-capacity crowds. In November, Scarlett (1994) premiered and, though given only a lukewarm response by critics, it was a ratings success not only in the United States but all over the world, breaking records in many European countries. As always after a major work, Dalton again withdrew quietly and without fanfare to search for his next project, a small, personal film. In the summer of 1995, he journeyed to Canada to shoot Salt Water Moose (1996). The film was made by Canada's Norstar Entertainment and was sold to Halmi to be the first video release in his new line of Hallmark family films. It premiered on Showtime in June 1996.
During the spring of 1996, he made the IRA drama The Informant (1997) in Ireland and, in May, he traveled to Prague to shoot Passion's Way (1999), opposite Sela Ward. On February 7, 1997, the comedy The Beautician and the Beast (1997) co-starring Fran Drescher opened in the United States. He also gleefully parodied his swashbuckling/James Bond image in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) as a spy playing an actor playing a spy.
In 1995, Dalton began a relationship with Oksana Grigorieva which produced a child in 1997, Dalton's son Alexander. Over the following years, Dalton has been a caring and loving father of his son. Very much a private man, Dalton's pastimes include fishing, reading, jazz, opera, antique fairs and auctions and, of course, movies.- Actor
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- Art Department
Boisterous British actor Brian Blessed is known for his hearty, king-sized portrayals on film and television. A giant of a man accompanied by an eloquent wit and booming, operatic voice, Brian was born in 1936 and grew up in the mining village of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire. His father was a miner who wanted a better life for his son; Brian lost three uncles in the pit. At a young age, he displayed an acute talent for acting in school productions, but also had a penchant for boxing, a direction that would be short-lived.
Working various blue-collar jobs from undertaker's assistant to plasterer, Brian managed to attend the Bristol Old Vic and was off and running. He has lent his musical talents to several productions - from playing "Old Deuteronomy" in "Cats" to "The Baron" in the more recent "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". In the 1970s, he began appearing more and more on-camera with both classical and contemporary performances. In costumed television movies, he has played "Porthos" in The Three Musketeers (1966) and The Further Adventures of the Musketeers (1967), "Augustus" in I, Claudius (1976), and "Long John Silver" in Return to Treasure Island (1986) and has been a part of various reenactments including Catherine the Great (1995), Lady Chatterley (1993), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) and Kidnapped (1995).
On film, he has appeared in robust support in several William Shakespeare adaptations, including Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), Macbeth (1997) and the title role in King Lear (1999), which he also directed.
More recently, he appeared in Oliver Stone's epic-scale Alexander (2004) and in Kenneth Branagh's film version of William Shakespeare's As You Like It (2006).
In recent years, the octogenarian has been heard more than seen with voice work in video games, documentaries and such animated TV programs as Kika & Bob (2007) (as Bob); The Amazing World of Gumball (2011) (as Santa Claus); Wizards vs. Aliens (2012) (as the Necross King); Henry Hugglemonster (2013) (as Eduardo Enormomonster); and Peppa Pig (2004) as Grampy Rabbit.
He is married to British actress Hildegard Neil, who made an appearance with him in Macbeth (1997).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Peter Paul Wyngarde was born at the home of an aunt in Marseille, Southern France, and is the son of an English father and French mother. Owing to his father's work as a member of the British Diplomatic Service, Peter spent much of his early childhood moving from one country to another, and was educated in a number of different schools.
One city which left a lasting impression on him was Shanghai, where he had been temporarily left in the care of a Swiss family whilst his father was away in India on business. The year was 1941, and amid a mass of turmoil and confusion, news broke that the Japanese had captured the city, and before long, Peter and his surrogate family found themselves in Lunghua concentration camp.
Confined in these desperately brutal conditions for four years, Peter struggled to prevent his family and friends from dying at the hands of the cruel and barbaric soldiers who governed the camp, and on one occasion while running errands between accommodation huts, he was discovered and punished by having both his feet broken with a rifle butt, and then put into solitary confinement for two weeks.
During better times however, the young Mr. Wyngarde worked in the camp laundry and gardens, and began to write and appear in plays staged by, and for, his fellow inmates, making his acting debut in his own production of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. When the camp was finally liberated in 1945 Peter, who was then suffering from malnutrition, beriberi and malaria, was taken to a sanatorium in the Swiss mountains where he remained for the next two years.
After completing his education in Switzerland, France and England, Peter reluctantly honored his parents' wishes, and entered university, where he began studying law, but soon dropped the idea in favor of a career in advertising. After a brief spell with an agency in London, he walked into an audition, read the part, and was cast as the understudy for the lead in a play in Brighton.
His first role on the London stage, however, was with the Nottingham Repertory Company at the Embassy Theatre as Cassio in Othello. From there, he moved to the world famous Old Vic in Bristol, where he not only took the lead role in such classics as Cyrano de Bergerac and Taming of the Shrew, but also tried his hand at directing, most notably with Long Day's Journey Into Night.
In 1956, Peter was invited over to the United States to take a screen test for the part of Pausanius in Robert Rosen's epic feature film, Alexander the Great opposite Richard Burton and Fredric March, but after almost a year's work on location in Spain, he watched in horror as his role was cut almost out of existence.
Disillusioned with Hollywood, Peter returned to his first love - the British stage, where he took the role of Yang Sun, a Chinese fighter pilot, in Bertold Brecht's, The Good Woman of Setzuan, at the Royal Court Theatre in London's West End. It was here that he first made the acquaintance of the Oliviers - Laurence and his wife, Vivien Leigh, the latter of whom he later played opposite in the critically acclaimed Duel of Angels.
Following the plays hugely successful run at the Apollo Theatre in London in 1958 Ms Leigh, who had since become a close friend of Peter's, begged her leading man to join her in the New York production of the play. Although reluctant at first, Peter was at last persuaded to reprise his role as Count Marcellus, and he made his Broadway debut at the Helen Hayes Theatre in 1959, taking the coveted award for Best Actor in a Foreign Play.
On his triumphant return to Britain in 1960, he was almost immediately cast as the enigmatic Peter the Painter in Monty Barman's production of The Siege of Sidney Street - a film which was based on the true story of the British Governments legendary battle with a notorious gang of Slavonic anarchist, whose reputation throughout Europe for robbery and murder lead to one of the bloodiest confrontations in British criminal history.
Between numerous starring roles in television productions such as Independent Televisions popular Armchair Theatre and Play of the Week, Peter made two more big screen appearances - both Albert Fennell productions.
The first, in 1961, was The Innocents - a feature-length adaptation of the Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw, which was followed in 1962 by the classic supernatural thriller, Night of the Eagle (aka Burn, Witch, Burn) which was once again based on a novel - this time Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife.
Between July of 1960 and March of 1969, Peter appeared in no less than thirty television plays, and guest starred in such classic series as The Avengers, I Love Lucy, The Baron, The Saint, The Champions and The Prisoner. In 1969, Peter was cast in what was undoubtedly his most famous role as the legendary author-cum-investigator, Jason King, in the ITC action series, Department S, and soon became the idol of thousands of women the world over. So overwhelming was his effect on television viewers that in 1971, a brand new series - Jason King - was devised, which allowed the handsome novelist to go adventuring without restriction.
Following the cancellation of the series at the end of 1972, Peter decided to return to the theatre, and after being greeted at Melbourne Airport by more than 30,000 screaming fans, he took the city by storm in the world premiere of Butley before packed houses every night. Once back in London, Peter took the lead role in Charles Dyers Mother Adam at the Hampstead Theatre, and then went on to tour Britain in the lead role of the King in Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opposite Sally Ann Howes. The following year, he once again took up the mantle of actor/director with Present Laughter, stopping off along the way to host the 1974 Miss Television Contest.
In 1975, Peter headed out to Austria to work at the English Theatre in Vienna, to both act in and direct productions of The Merchant of Venice and Big Toys, before returning to the big screen in an Austrian film (Himmel, Scheich Und Wolkenbrunch) in the role of a latter-day Rudolph Valentino. The following year, he returned to the British stage in the Lawrence Parnes production of Anastasia, and then on to the big screen courtesy of Dino De Laurentiis' lavish 1980s sci-fi blockbuster, Flash Gordon, in which he was cast in the role of General Klytus. It was then back to the stage for a nine-months' tour of South Africa in Deathtrap.
In 1984, after an absence of almost 12 years, Peter returned to the small screen with a rare television appearance in the four-part Doctor Who installment, Planet of Fire, which was followed in short succession by the Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense story, And The Wall Came Tumbling Down, and a memorable guest-starring role in Granada Television's Bulman.
Having been cast as the somewhat unsavory character of Sir Robert Knights in the stylish, yet overtly violent British thriller, Tank Malling in 1989 Peter, who scarcely ever agrees to be interviewed, consented to appear on SKY TV's Jameson Show, plus a hearing on Channel 4s Right To Reply and the BBC's daytime magazine, Pebble Mill. More recently, Peter appeared in 1994 in Granada Televisions popular Sherlock Holmes series opposite Jeremy Brett, playing the newspaper gossip-columnist, Langdale Pike, in The Three Gables.
The long-overdue release of both Department S and Jason King on video in 1993 helped rekindle huge interest in the debonair Mr Wyngarde, with repeats of the series being shown on satellite and cable channels, and public pressure resulting in the re-release of his infamous 1970 album on CD.
In recent years, Peter has made numerous TV appearances, which include Astleys Way, Dee Time, 100 Greatest TV Characters, Don't Knock Yourself Out and narrated the acclaimed Timeshift documentary, The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes in 2014.
Peter remains one of the most popular British actors of the past 50 years, with a thriving fan club and devoted worldwide following. His appearances at TV and Sci-Fi conventions have drawn thousands of attendees, eager to meet him and to shake the hand of a true acting legend.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Mariangela Melato was born on 19 September 1941 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. She was an actress and writer, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Swept Away (1974) and Love & Anarchy (1973). She died on 11 January 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Born in Cheltenham, England, Richard Smith's family moved to Tauranga, New Zealand, in 1951 when his father, an accountant, decided to become a sheep farmer. Watching horror and science-fiction double features in nearby Hamilton, Smith added an interest in acting to his love of rock and roll. He moved back to England in 1964, tried singing, then became a movie stuntman and fringe theater actor. He changed his name to O'Brien (his beloved maternal grandmother's name) one day while on the phone to British Actors Equity, to avoid confusion with another Richard Smith. He met director Jim Sharman in 1972, when Sharman cast him in the dual roles of Apostle and Leper for the London stage production (transferred from Sharman's native Australia) of "Jesus Christ Superstar". Working again with Sharman on a production of Sam Shepard's "The Unseen Hand", O'Brien mentioned a new rock musical he'd been writing called "Rock Horror." The play went into rehearsals as "They Came from Denton High," and at Sharman's suggestion, was retitled "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" before opening in June 1973.- Writer
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The Oscar-winning screenwriter John Osborne, better known as one of the most important British playwrights of the 1950s generation that revolutionized English-speaking theater, was born on December 12, 1929 in London, England. His father, Thomas Godfrey Osborne, a native of Newport, Monmouthshire, was a copywriter, and his mother, Nellie, was a Cockney barmaid. John's father died in 1941 when he was 11 years old. The insurance settlement allowed him to go to Belmont College, Devon.
After completing school, Osborne did not go on to university but returned to London to live with his mother, where he tried to make it as a journalist. He was introduced to the theater through a job tutoring a touring company of junior actors. Smitten by the theater, he became a stage manager and actor, eventually becoming a member of Anthony Creighton's provincial touring company. Osborne wrote his second play, "Personal Enemy", in collaboration with Anthony Creighton (their "Epitaph for George Dillon" would be staged at the Royal Court in 1958, after Osborne had broken through as a solo artist with the watershed production of "Look Back in Anger", also at the Royal Court).
Look Back in Anger (1959), which opened on May 8, 1956 at the Royal Court, the 11th anniversary of V-E Day (the surrender of Germany and the cessation of hostilities in the European theater of World War II), was revolutionary, as it gave voice to the working class. A press agent came up with the phrase "Angry Young Man" that would stick to Osborne and his compatriots, who created a new type of theater rooted in Bertolt Brecht and class consciousness. Though it initially received mix reviews, the play was a smash in London,and it made the transfer to Broadway, where it ran for a year. "Look Back in Anger" was nominated for a 1958 Tony Award for Best Play (Osborne and producer David Merrick, Best Actress in a Play (Mary Ure, whom Osborne made his second wife), and Best Costume Design (The Motley). It eventually was made into a movie starring Richard Burton and directed by Tony Richardson.
Laurence Olivier had taken Arthur Miller and his wife Marilyn Monroe to see the play when Olivier was shooting The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) in London with MM. Olivier was abashed by the play, but Miller convinced him of its greatness as a theatrical work. Olivier, sensing a sea-change in culture that could make actors of his ilk obsolete, engaged Osborne to write a play for him, and the playwright followed up "Anger" with another brilliant work, The Entertainer (1960). Olivier reinvented himself as well as realigned himself with the new youth movement shaking the theater, giving a tour de force performance as Archie Rice, a down-at-the-heels, third-rate music hall entertainer facing emigration to Canada or oblivion. Osborne used the decline of the music hall, once the premier venue of British entertainment, as a metaphor for the post-war decline of the British Empire in light of the recent debacle in Suez, when the U.K., France and Israel were rebuffed by Egypt and the U.S. when the three countries invaded Egypt to seize the recently nationalized Suez Canal.
Osborne's career continued strong in the 1960s. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Tony Richarson's movie version of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1963), which won Richardson an Oscar as Best Director and was named Best Picture of 1963. He followed this success up with his last great play Luther (1974), in which the cinematic Tom Jones, Albert Finney, won raves playing Osborne's take on Martin Luther, the man who revolutionized Christianity 1,500 years after The Christ. Fitting, that the rebel, the protester Osborne would take on the father of Protestantism. The play, first performed in England in 1961 and transferred to Broadway in 1963, won Osborne a 1964 Tony Award for Best Play, as well as a Tony Award nomination for Albert Finney. (Laurence Olivier had received his sole Tony nomination for "The Entertainer" when he had brought his legendary performance to Broadway.)
Other important plays followed. "Inadmissible Evidence", first performed in 1964, made Nicol Williamson a star (both Osborne and Williamson were nominated for Tony Awards in 1966 after the show transferred to Broadway). His other major play, "A Patriot for Me" (London debut 1965), dealt with the blackmailing of the Austro-Hungarian officer Colonel Redl (also dramatized in István Szabó's Colonel Redl (1985)), who was a homosexual and possibly a Jew in a pre-World War One society that was virulently anti-gay and anti-semitic. The production of the play helped erode theatrical censorship in Britain. The Lord Chamberlain, the theatrical censor in Britian, was opposed to the play and denied it the exhibition license the theater needed to put on public shows due to its frank depiction of homosexuality.
In exchange for an exhibition license, The Lord Chamberlain demanded multiple cuts, which would have resulted in the excision of half the play, according to Alan Bates in a B.B.C. interview during a 1983 revival of the play. Osborne and The Royal Court refused, and -- denied a license -- the theater had to be turned into a private club in order to produce the play in London as to produce it legitimately would have been impossible as half the play would have been censored. "A Patriot for Me" won "The Evening Standard" Best Play of the Year award (as would one of his latter plays, "The Hotel in Amsterdam" in 1968), though it was a succes d'estime, the theater taking a heavy loss on the production.
The year 1968 was a watershed in Osborne's professional life. Not only is 1968 the year that the counterculture "won", sweeping away all before it (and whose effects, as well as detritus, has yet to be replaced by anything else), it was the year of his last successful play, "The Hotel in Amsterdam", and the year that Tony Richardson's masterful satire The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) -- based on a screenplay by Osborne -- was released. He would not enjoy the same success as he had in the 1950s and '60s in the latter part of his life. Starring Maximilian Schell, "A Patriot for Me" was not a success on Broadway, lasting but 49 performances in 1969, testifying to Osborne's decreasing commercial prowess in the theater, which once again was undergoing a revolution, but from the anarchist left with such productions as Tom O'Horgan's Hair (1979).
The five-times married Osborne died from complications of diabetes on December 24, 1994, two weeks after his 65th birthday. His last produced play was "Déjà Vu" (1991), a sequel to his first great success, "Look Back in Anger". His legacy was a transformed British theater, which had broken its links to the ossified D'Oly D'Carte of the former generation, in which the theater was more about elocution by actors playing toffs than it was about life as lived by most Britons. Osborne and the legions of playwrights he influenced made language important, as well as introduced an emotional intensity into the theater. Osborne and his brethren used the theater as a soapbox on which to attack class barriers (and a theater which reinforced those class distinctions).- Philip Stone was an English character actor, born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, in 1924. His first job was for an engineering company in Leeds and he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He was on stage at the West End in London from 1947. He also contracted tuberculosis that year and was forced to give up acting for several years to undergo treatment.
Stanley Kubrick noticed him during 1969 while acting in "The Contractor" at the Royal Court Theatre. Stone was the only actor to appear in three consecutive Kubrick films. He played the central character Alex's "P" (as in "M" and "P" for "Ma" and "Pa") in A Clockwork Orange (1971), and then subsequently played Graham, the Lyndon family lawyer, in Barry Lyndon (1975), and Delbert Grady, the original caretaker who murdered his family in The Shining (1980). The only other actor to be credited in three Kubrick films is Joe Turkel. Other film roles included Thunderball (1965), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Quest for Love (1971), Flash Gordon (1980) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). In the animated version of The Lord of the Rings (1978), he voiced the role of Theoden.
Stone was also a prolific stage and television actor, appearing in many popular TV series, including the very first episode of The Avengers (1961), as well as Dalziel and Pascoe (1996), A Touch of Frost (1992), Heartbeat (1992), Yes Minister (1980) and Coronation Street (1960). At one time he fronted his own production company, Philip Stone Productions. He died of a heart attack in London in 2003, aged 79. - Talented and diverse Northern Ireland born character actor whose career has embraced British institutions from Raffles to Dr Who.
After apprenticing in provincial theatre this commanding, actor appeared in two contrasting war films in 1968 - The Charge of the Light Brigade and Carry On up the Khyber. His next two roles were equally diverse - appearing in the unusual John Huston directed A Walk with Love and Death, then with cheeky Cockney Tommy Steele in Where's Jack? By this stage his career had gathered some momentum and in 1971 he worked with several luminaries - Peter O'Toole in Murphy's War, Michael Caine and Omar Sharif in The Last Valley and Richard Burton in Villain. In 1973 it was the hard-bitten crime drama The Offence with Sean Connery and he also worked with Joss Ackland and James Cossins in Hitler: The Last Ten Days. That year he also featured in bona fide classic The Wicker Man.
If film work wasn't hugely successful in the next few year, he kept himself working with a variety of roles in television in a diverse range of shows - Emmerdale Farm, Raffles, Return of the Saint. 1980 and 1981 saw roles in a couple of fantasy-spectaculars, Flash Gordon and special-effects bonanza Dragonslayer. It was 1991 before he returned to cinemas in any significant way, though, in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, then in 1997 in another fantasy adventure Kull the Conqueror. Meanwhile he appeared in popular soap opera Eastenders as 'Barnsey' Barnes for 2 years between 1988-90.
Often portrayed as a hardman or heavy onscreen, offscreen Hallam likes gardening! - Suzanne Danielle was born on 14 January 1957 in London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Carry on Emmannuelle (1978) and Doctor Who (1963). She has been married to Sam Torrance since 14 February 1995. They have three children.
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John Morton was born on 26 March 1947. He is an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Flash Gordon (1980) and Superman II (1980).- Actor
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William Michael Hootkins was born on July 5, 1948, in Dallas, Texas. He moved to London, England in the early '70s and lived there up until 2002. Hootkins was an actor at Theatre Intime while attending Princeton University where he learned how to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese. He also trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, and attended St. Marks, where he was in the same theater group as Tommy Lee Jones. The imposingly bulky and heavyset Hootkins first began acting in films and TV shows alike in the mid '70s. His more noteworthy parts include the first of the Rebel fighter pilots to get killed while attacking the Death Star in "Star Wars", scientist Topol's bumbling oaf assistant in "Flash Gordon", Major Eaton, sent by the US government in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", one of Rod Steiger's demented sons in "American Gothic", a corrupt police lieutenant in "Batman", a disgusting sleazy voyeur in "Hardware", a coarse South African police chief in "Dust Devil", the mysterious and duplicitous Mr. X in "Hear My Song", a haughty corporate executive in "Death Machine", Santa Claus in "Like Father, Like Santa", and an opera-singing vampire in "The Breed". Moreover, Hootkins had small parts in two "Pink Panther" pictures: he's a taxi driver in both "The Trail of the Pink Panther" and "Curse of the Pink Panther".
Among the TV shows he did guest spots on are "Yanks Go Home", "Agony", "Play for Today", "Tales of the Unexpected", "The Life and Times of David Lloyd George", "Brett Maverick", "Cagney and Lacey", "Taxi", "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense", "Poirot", "Chancer", "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", "The Tomorrow People", "The West Wing", and "Absolute Power". Hootkins received many accolades for his outstanding performance as Sir Alfred Hitchcock in Terry Johnson's hit play "Hitchcock Blonde". In addition to his substantial film and TV credits, Hootkins was also a popular and prolific voice artist who recorded dozens of plays for BBC Radio Drama; he supplied the voices for such iconic individuals as Orson Welles, J. Edgar Hoover, and Winston Churchill. William Hootkins died of pancreatic cancer on October 23, 2005.- Actor
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Robbie Coltrane, one of Britain's most popular comedians who was head of debating society at school and won prizes for his art, is now a film star who played in two James Bond films and in the "Harry Potter" franchise.
Coltrane was born Anthony Robert McMillan on March 30, 1950, in Rutherglen, a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. His mother, Jean Ross (Howie), was a teacher and pianist. His father, Ian Baxter McMillan, was a general surgeon who also worked for police pathology. Young Robbie was fond of art, music, films and cars. He was a voracious reader of his dad's books on medicine and crime. At age 12 he made his acting debut on stage at Glenalmond College, delivering rants from "Henry V". At that time he was fascinated with Marlon Brando and Orson Welles.
He attended Glasgow Art School, majoring in drawing, painting and film, then studied art at Edinburgh's Moray House College of Education for a year. In 1973 he made a documentary titled "Young Mental Health", which was voted Film Of The Year by the Scottish Education Council. At that time Robbie took the name Coltrane, due to his love of jazz, and began a career of a stand-up comedian at night clubs, at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as an actor with Edinburgh's renowned Traverse Theatre.
In 1980 Coltrane made his debut on television as "Border Guard" in BBC's mini-series The Lost Tribe (1980), then made his big screen debut as a limousine driver in Death Watch (1980). In 1981 he appeared in his first leading role as Detective Fritz Langley in Subway Riders (1981), by famed underground director Amos Poe.
He became a well-known face through appearances in The Comic Strip series, then in Alfresco (1983) and Comic Strip movies The Supergrass (1985) and The Pope Must Diet (1991), among other films. At that time Coltrane had a drinking problem, downing as much as a bottle of whiskey a day. In 1986 he flew to a clinic in Mexico and was treated for obesity. In 1987 his partner for 15 years, Robin Paine, left him for good, leaving her portrait in Coltrane's barn.
In 1988 Coltrane met then 18-year-old Rhona Gemmell in a pub. They married and had a son, Spencer, and a daughter, Alice. His career took off during the early 1990s with the leading role as Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, a forensic psychologist, in the popular TV series Cracker (1993).
He made such a good performance as Valentin Zukovsky, a KGB man turned St. Petersburg mafia lord, in GoldenEye (1995) the producers called him back for the same character in The World Is Not Enough (1999). Then Coltrane hit another lucrative franchise; he was personally selected by J.K. Rowling as her choice to play half-giant Rubeus Hagrid in the 'Harry Potter' films.
In early 1990s Coltrane wrote an autobiography, "Coltrane in a Cadillac", and also starred in the eponymous TV series, Coltrane in a Cadillac (1993), in which he indulges his passion for vintage cars and tells with great humor about his 4000-mile journey across America from Los Angeles to New York. In 2003 he separated from his wife. His interests outside of his acting profession had been reading books, and rebuilding and collecting vintage cars. Robbie Coltrane resided in a converted farmhouse in Stirlingshire, Scotland, UK.- Actor
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Actor, presenter, documentary maker, Peter Duncan, former Chief Scout and two time Blue Peter man has a TV, film and theatre career that spans four decades. A self confessed adventurer he is never happier than when in the thick of it such as competing last year in BBC1's acrobatic extravaganza Tumble or filming racing the rapids in the Balkans. He became best known for his daredevil approach to life when he joined the Blue Peter team in 1980 as their new action man. He ran the first London Marathon in just over three hours and his last one in 2012 only much slower. He fought a sumo wrestler in Japan, cleaned the clock face of Big Ben and escaped from a forest fire in Canada as well as a lot of cooking, gardening and fund raising. Peter began his career on stage joining Olivier's National Theatre and spent the 70's working exclusively as actor. After his Blue Peter days he began to appear in musical theatre roles such as Barnum, Bill Snibson in Me and my Girl and as Charlie Chaplin in The Little Tramp. In 1995 he was nominated for an Olivier award as Best Actor in a musical playing Denry Machin in The Card. Over the last few years he has played Charlie Peace at Nottingham Playhouse and Jack Firebrace in the tour of Birdsong. He took on the roles of Macduff in Macbeth and Fantastic Mr Fox at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park. Every year he writes and directs his own Pantomime following in his parents footsteps. Back in 1985 in his own series Duncan Dares he entertained with stunts such driving across the Irish Sea in a VW Beetle, walking the high wire and lying on a bed of nails with a tarantula and a python on his chest. In 2001 he produced a six part documentary series called Travel Bug for the BBC in which he, his partner Annie and their four children backpacked their way around the world. In the two follow up series their adventure travels took them to China and India. Other recent TV credits include the 26 part slapstick comedy series Demolition Dad for Five, Channel 4's The Games and Celebrity Total Wipeout in which he lost the final by one second. His work as an actor on TV has included The Childhood Friend, Sons and Lovers, Renoir My Father, Warship, Fathers and Families, Sam, Fallen Hero, Survivors, King Cinder, Oranges and Lemons, The Flockton Flyer, Space 1999. His feature film credits include Stardust, Quilp, and a famous cameo in Flash Gordon when he was bitten by a tree monster and died. He is patron of Neighbourhood Midwives - a social enterprise, Youth Music Theatre and Action for Children's Arts. He was awarded a Gold Blue Peter badge for his volunteer work as leader of the UK's half a million scouts.- John Hollis was born on 12 November 1927 in Fulham, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Flash Gordon (1980) and Superman II (1980). He was married to Sheila Forrester and Gabrielle Hamilton. He died on 18 October 2005 in Richmond upon Thames, London, England, UK.
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Leon Greene was born on 15 July 1931 in East Ham, Essex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Flash Gordon (1980), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and The Devil Rides Out (1968). He was married to Jean Percival. He died on 19 June 2021 in the UK.- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Tony Scannell was born on 14 August 1945 in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland. He was an actor, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Waking the Dead (2000) and Evil Never Dies (2014). He was married to Melanie Self. He died on 26 May 2020.- Bogdan Kominowski was born on 22 April 1945 in Germany. He is an actor, known for A View to a Kill (1985), Flash Gordon (1980) and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014).
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George Harris was born on 20 October 1949 in Grenada, British West Indies [now Grenada]. He is an actor and producer, known for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and Layer Cake (2004).- Actor
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- Producer
Deep Roy was born on 26 January 1949 in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an actor and producer, known for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The NeverEnding Story (1984).- Actor
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Bob Goody was born on 16 April 1951 in Brighton, Sussex, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Lifeforce (1985), Flash Gordon (1980) and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989). He was married to Gina Donovan. He died on 5 March 2023 in the United Kingdom.- Actor
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Kenny Baker was born on 24 August 1934 in Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Time Bandits (1981), Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) and The Elephant Man (1980). He was married to Eileen Baker. He died on 13 August 2016 in Preston, Lancashire, England, UK.- Actor
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- Soundtrack
Malcolm Dixon was born on 1 September 1934 in Auckland, County Durham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Time Bandits (1981), Flash Gordon (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). He was married to Anita B. Senior. He died on 9 April 2020 in the UK.- Director
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Mike Hodges was born on 29 July 1932 in Bristol, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Get Carter (1971) and Black Rainbow (1989). He was married to Carol Laws and Jean Alexandrov. He died on 17 December 2022 in Dorset, England, UK.- Producer
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Dino De Laurentiis left home at age 17 to enrol in film school, supporting himself as an actor, extra, propman, or any other job he could get in the film industry. His persistence paid off, and by the time he reached his 20th birthday he already had one produced film under his belt. After serving in the Italian army during World War II, De Laurentiis went back into film production, and in 1946 scored a critical and commercial international hit with Bitter Rice (1949) ("Bitter Rice"). He later married its star, Silvana Mangano. De Laurentiis eventually formed a partnership with producer Carlo Ponti, and the team had a string of hits, including several by director Federico Fellini. After the partnership dissolved, De Laurentiis embarked on a plan to build his own studio facilities, which would enable him to make the kind of massive spectacles he wanted to make. The studio complex, called Dinocitta', eventually was forced to close down due to a combination of hard times in the Italian film industry and a string of flops by De Laurentiis himself. De Laurentiis eventually sold the property to the Italian government and moved his base of production to the United States. He again opened up a film production complex in Wilmington, North Carolina, called DEG Studios, but was eventually forced by economic conditions to sell that, too. De Laurentiis has had some critical successes since his move to the U.S. (Ragtime (1981)), but most of his U.S. productions have been critically lambasted, although several have been commercial successes.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
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Lorenzo Semple Jr. was born on 27 March 1923 in New Rochelle, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Three Days of the Condor (1975), Flash Gordon (1980) and Never Say Never Again (1983). He was married to Joyce Miller and Ann Somers. He died on 28 March 2014 in Brentwood, California, USA.- Michael Allin was born in 1944. He is a writer, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Enter the Dragon (1973) and Truck Turner (1974).
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Freddie Mercury was born on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, sent him off to a private school in India, from 1955 til 1963. In 1964, he and his family flew to England. In 1966 he started his education at the Ealing College of Art, where he graduated in 1969. He loved art, and because of that, he often went along with his friend Tim Staffell, who played in a band called Smile. Also in this band where Brian May and Roger Taylor.
When Staffell left the band in 1970, Mercury became their new singer. He changed the band's name into Queen, and they took on a new bass-player in February 1971, called John Deacon. Their first album, "Queen", came out in 1973. But their real breakthrough was "Killer Queen", on the album "Sheer Heart Attack", which was released in 1974. They became immortal with the single "Bohemian Rhapsody", on the 1975 album "A Night At The Opera".
After their biggest hit in the USA in 1980 with "Another One Bites The Dust", they had a bad period. Their album "Flash Gordon" went down the drain, because the movie Flash Gordon (1980) flunked. Their next, the disco-oriented "Hot Space", was hated not only by rock critics but also by many hardcore fans. Only the song "Under Pressure", which they sang together with David Bowie, made a difference. In 1983, they took a year off. But, in 1984 they came back with their new album called "The Works". The singles "Radio Ga Ga" and "I Want to Break Free" did very well in the UK but a controversy over the video of the latter in the USA meant it got little exposure and flopped. Plans to tour the USA were cancelled and the band would not recover their popularity there during Mercury's lifetime.
In April 1985, Mercury released his first solo album, the less rock-oriented and more dance-oriented "Mr. Bad Guy". The album is often considered now to have been a flop, but it actually wasn't. It peaked at number six in the UK and stayed on the chart for 23 weeks, making it the most successful Queen solo project. The band got back together again after their barnstorming performance at Live Aid (1985) in July 1985. At the end of the year, they started working on their new album, "A Kind Of Magic". They also held their biggest ever world tour, the "Magic Tour". They played Wembley Stadium twice and held their very last concert in Knebworth, in front of 125.000 people.
After 1986, it went silent around Queen. In 1987, he was diagnosed with AIDS but he kept working at a pace. He released a cover of the 1950s song "The Great Pretender", which went into the UK top ten. After that, he flew to Spain, where he made the magnificent album "Barcelona", together with Montserrat Caballé, whom he saw performing in 1983. Because Mercury loved opera, he became a huge fan of her. For him, this album was like a dream becoming reality. The single "Barcelona" went huge, and was also used as a theme song for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
After "Barcelona", he started working with the band again. They made "The Miracle", which was released in early 1989. It was another success, with hits such as "Breakthru", "I Want It All", "The Invisible Man" and the title track. At this point, Mercury told the band he had AIDS, meaning that a tour of the album was out of the question. After Mercury told the band, he refused to talk about it anymore. He was afraid that people would buy their records out of pity. He said he wanted to keep making music as long as possible. And he did. After "The Miracle", Mercury's health got worse. They wanted to do one more album, called "Innuendo." They worked on it in 1990 and early 1991. Every time when Mercury would feel well, he came over to the studio and sang. After "Innuendo" was released in January 1991, they made two video clips. The first one was the video clip of "I'm Going Slightly Mad", shot in March 1991. Because Mercury was very thin, and had little wounds all over his body, they used a lot of make-up. He wore a wig, and the clip was shot in black and white.
Mercury's final video clip was released in June 1991. The clip, "These Are The Days Of Our Lives", later turned out to be his goodbye song, the last time he appeared on film. You could clearly see he was ill, but he still hadn't told the world about his disease. Rumours went around that he some kind of terrible disease. This rumor was confirmed by Mercury himself, one day before he passed on. His death was seen as a great loss for the world of popular music.- Music Department
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Brian May is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential, innovative, technically gifted and recognisable guitarists in the history of rock. He is also a prolific songwriter, responsible for writing or co-writing many international hits with Queen. He was educated at Hampton Grammar School in London. He then graduated with a degree in Maths and Physics from one of Britain's top universities, Imperial College London.
As a child, May built his own guitar with his father, partly out of an old fireplace. Unusually, the guitar was designed to feedback. He formed the band Smile while at university with drummer Roger Taylor. They were later joined by flamboyant singer and pianist Freddie Mercury, who renamed the band Queen. The addition of bass player John Deacon completed the line-up of a band which would go on to become one of the most successful in the history of popular music. May's guitar playing would become an integral part of Queen's sound.
May was influenced as a guitarist by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who had dazzled audiences with their technical skills and volume, but he was also an admirer of the melodic skills of George Harrison of The Beatles and the original British rock and roll guitar hero, Hank B. Marvin of The Shadows.
What made May stand out as a guitarist was his combination of virtuoso technique but also melodic awareness. Unlike some virtuosos, who only play to showcase their ability, May always played to serve the songs. If a song only required minimal soloing, that's all he would do. His multi-tracking of guitar solos has also made him one of the most unique sounding guitarists in the world. Nowhere was this better exemplified than on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", the song which came to define the band more than any other and has become one of the most celebrated recordings in the history of rock music. May's solos are a big part of what gives the track its enduring appeal and emotional power.
May's legacy in music history is assured. He will be remembered along with the likes of George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page as one of the most important and influential guitarists to come out of England. His songs for Queen were often their harder rock tracks, such as "We Will Rock You", "Tie Your Mother Down" and "Hammer to Fall", but he also wrote emotional songs such as "Save Me" and the symphonic "Who Wants to Live Forever", which proved his versatility as a songwriter.- Actor
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Roger Meddows Taylor (born 26 July 1949) is an English musician who performs as a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the drummer of the rock band Queen, but has also served as songwriter and occasional lead vocalist.
As a songwriter, Taylor contributed songs to Queen's albums from the very beginning, composing at least one track on every album, and often singing lead vocals on his own compositions. He wrote or co-wrote three UK number 1s ("These Are the Days of Our Lives", "Innuendo" and "Under Pressure") and contributed a further major hits ("Radio Ga Ga", "A Kind of Magic","One Vision", "Heaven for Everyone", "Breakthru", and "The Invisible Man"). In addition to his drum work, Taylor routinely played keyboards, guitars and bass on his own songs. During the 1980s, in addition to his work with Queen, he formed a parallel band known as The Cross, in which he was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist. Taylor is also well-known for his falsetto vocal range.
By the time Queen's album 'News of the World' was released in 1977, Taylor had met his future girlfriend, Dominique Beyrand, who was working for Richard Branson at the time, who was at the helm of Queen's free concert at Hyde Park. They lived together from 1980 to 1987, raising their two children: actor Felix Taylor and doctor Rory Eleanor Taylor. They decided to get married for reasons relating to his estate, to protect his children's interests in the future. At the time, Taylor was seeing another girl, model/actress Deborah Leng, the Cadbury's Flake girl also seen in Queen's "Breakthru" video; he moved in with her a month after his marriage of convenience to Beyrand. Before Freddie Mercury's death, Taylor and Leng had their first child, drummer Rufus Taylor, who was born in March 1991. He ended up having two more children with Leng: models Tigerlily Taylor (1994) and Lola Leng-Taylor (2000). In late 2002, they decided to break up.
Taylor remarried on 26 August 2010, to Sarina Taylor. He resides in Guildford, Surrey, but also has a home in Helford, Cornwall. Her younger half-sister is fashion model Genevieve Potgieter.- Actor
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John Deacon was born on 19 August 1951 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Grosse Pointe Blank (1997). He has been married to Veronica Tetzlaff since 18 January 1975. They have six children.- Composer
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Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians states that 'Howard Blake has achieved fame as pianist, conductor and composer.' He grew up in Brighton, at 18 winning a scholarship to The Royal Academy of Music where he studied piano and composition.
Over the course of an immensely busy musical career as composer, pianist and conductor he has created over 700 works in many genres and categories. His most famous score is undoubtedly that composed for the animated film 'The Snowman' with its iconic song 'Walking in the Air'. The orchestral concert version of 'The Snowman' is now performed world-wide whilst the stage show, in effect a full-length ballet choreographed by Robert North, has run for twenty years in the West End, courtesy of Sadlers Wells.
Concert works include the Piano Concerto commissioned by The Philharmonia for Princess Diana's thirtieth birthday, the Violin Concerto commissioned by the City of Leeds and The English Northern Philharmonia, the Clarinet Concerto for Thea King and the English Chamber Orchestra and large-scale choral/orchestral works such as 'The Passion of Mary' and 'Benedictus',which was championed and recorded by Sir David Willcocks and Robert Tear with The Royal Philharmonic. His catalog of CDs more recently added Sir Neville Marriner conducting his woodwind concertos with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and an album of his piano music recorded for Decca by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Amongst scores for feature films are 'A Month in the Country' which won him the BFI Anthony Asquith Award for musical excellence, Sir Ridley Scott's 'The Duellists' which won him the critics award at the Cannes Film Festival and his orchestral score for 'Flash Gordon' for which he was jointly nominated for a BAFTA award with the group Queen.
In 2010 a performance of Howard's 'Diversions' in Bratislava by the young cellist Benedict Kloeckner won him The European Broadcasting Union Award, which led to further collaborations, more compositions and a complete album of music for cello and piano, with Howard playing the piano himself. It was called 'Diversions'.
Howard is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and received the Order of the British Empire from the Queen for services to music.- Music Department
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Gilbert Taylor was born on 21 April 1914 in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Flash Gordon (1980) and The Omen (1976). He was married to Dee Vaughan and Eileen Donnelly. He died on 23 August 2013 in Newport, Isle of Wight, England, UK.- Editor
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Malcolm Cooke was born on 23 June 1929 in Willesden, Middlesex, England, UK. He was an editor, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Peeping Tom (1960) and Death on the Nile (1978). He died on 2 December 2008 in London, England, UK.- Music Artist
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Sir Elton John is one of pop music's great survivors. Born 25 March, 1947, as Reginald Kenneth Dwight, he started to play the piano at the early age of four. At the age of 11, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. His first band was called Bluesology. He later auditioned (unsuccessfully) as lead singer for the progressive rock bands King Crimson and Gentle Giant. Dwight teamed up with lyricist Bernie Taupin and changed his name to Elton John (merging the names of saxophonist Elton Dean and Long John Baldry). The duo wrote songs for Lulu and Roger Cook. In the early 1970s, he recorded the concept album "Tumbleweed Connection." He became the most successful pop artist of the 1970s, and he has survived many different pop fads including punk, the New Romantics and Britpop to remain one of Britain's most internationally acclaimed musicians.
Elton John announced he was a bisexual in 1976, and in 1984, he married Renate Blauel. The marriage lasted four years before he finally came to terms with the fact that he was actually homosexual. In the 1970s and 1980s, he suffered from drug and alcohol addiction and bulimia but came through it. He is well known as a campaigner for AIDS research and he keeps his finger on the pulse of modern music, enjoying artists such as Eminem, Radiohead, Coldplay and Robbie Williams. He was knighted in 1997.