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Jenny Agutter was born on December 20, 1952, in Taunton, Somerset, England, UK. The daughter of an army officer, she spent her childhood traveling and living in different countries. Her film career began at the age of 12 in East of Sudan (1964), which was quickly followed by Ballerina: Part 1 (1966) and Ballerina: Part 2 (1966), and A Man Could Get Killed (1966). Other films and television appearances in her early career include Gates to Paradise (1968), Long After Summer (1967), Star! (1968), I Start Counting (1970), The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens (1970), and The Wild Duck (1971).
In 1970, she appeared in what was her real big break as a child star: The Railway Children (1970), as "Bobbie". The next year, Hollywood called and she spent several years there, appearing in such works as The Cherry Orchard (1971), Walkabout (1971), and The Snow Goose (1971) with Richard Harris, for which she received an Emmy Award. She also appeared in the critically acclaimed A War of Children (1972) and Shelley (1972).
In 1976, Jenny really came to the attention of US film audiences with her starring role in the science-fiction classic Logan's Run (1976) with Michael York. Though not a critical favorite, it was a huge box-office success and spawned a television series. She also starred alongside Richard Chamberlain in a well-received made-for-TV version of the famous Dumas tale The Man in the Iron Mask (1977) and turned in a solid performance in the WW II thriller The Eagle Has Landed (1976) with Michael Caine and Donald Sutherland. The next year, she starred in Peter Shaffer's weighty Equus (1977) as "Jill Mason", alongside Richard Burton. Among her other TV and film work during the 1970s were Dominique (1979), School Play (1979), and The Riddle of the Sands (1979).
In 1981, she played "Desdemona" opposite William Marshall in The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice (1981). Other Shakespeare performances include "King Lear", Love's Labour's Lost (1985) as "Rosaline" for the BBC and Romeo & Juliet (1993) as "Lady Capulet". During this time, she was in numerous films and television series, including Sweet William (1980), Beulah Land (1980), The Survivor (1981), Amy (1981), and one of the films for which she is most fondly remembered, An American Werewolf in London (1981). She also appeared in This Office Life (1984), Secret Places (1984), Silas Marner (1985), Dark Tower (1987), Miss Right (1982), and King of the Wind (1990).
In the 1990s, she concentrated mainly on television, with roles in TECX (1990); Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1990); Red Dwarf (1988); The All New Alexei Sayle Show (1994); The Buccaneers (1995); And the Beat Goes On (1996); September (1996) with Edward Fox, Michael York, Virginia McKenna, and Jacqueline Bisset; A Respectable Trade (1998) with Warren Clarke, Anna Massey, and Richard Briers. Her theatrical films during this period included Darkman (1990) with Liam Neeson; and Blue Juice (1995) with Sean Pertwee, Ewan McGregor, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. She also appeared as "Mrs. Bruce" in two feature-length episodes of the popular ITV series Bramwell (1995) in which she starred with Jemma Redgrave. She has also made several guest appearances in TV shows such as The Red Dwarf (1998); Boon (1986); The Equalizer (1985) with Edward Woodward; The Twilight Zone (1985); Magnum, P.I. (1980) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974).
Jenny married to Johan Tham in August 1990. They have one son Jonathan, born in December 1990 and live in Cornwall, England, UK. Her particular love is charity work for The Diabetic Association and NCH Action for Children - a charity which provides home and other help for homeless children - with which she has been involved for many years.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High Anglican priest. His surname came from a great-great-grandfather who was of French Huguenot origin.
One of Olivier's earliest successes as a Shakespearean actor on the London stage came in 1935 when he played "Romeo" and "Mercutio" in alternate performances of "Romeo and Juliet" with John Gielgud. A young Englishwoman just beginning her career on the stage fell in love with Olivier's Romeo. In 1937, she was "Ophelia" to his "Hamlet" in a special performance at Kronborg Castle, Elsinore (Helsingør), Denmark. In 1940, she became his second wife after both returned from making films in America that were major box office hits of 1939. His film was Wuthering Heights (1939), her film was Gone with the Wind (1939). Vivien Leigh and Olivier were screen lovers in Fire Over England (1937), 21 Days Together (1940) and That Hamilton Woman (1941).
There was almost a fourth film together in 1944 when Olivier and Leigh traveled to Scotland with Charles C. Bennett to research the real-life story of a Scottish girl accused of murdering her French lover. Bennett recalled that Olivier researched the story "with all the thoroughness of Sherlock Holmes" and "we unearthed evidence, never known or produced at the trial, that would most certainly have sent the young lady to the gallows". The film project was then abandoned. During their two-decade marriage, Olivier and Leigh appeared on the stage in England and America and made films whenever they really needed to make some money.
In 1951, Olivier was working on a screen adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's novel "Sister Carrie" (Carrie (1952)) while Leigh was completing work on the film version of the Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). She won her second Oscar for bringing "Blanche DuBois" to the screen. Carrie (1952) was a film that Olivier never talked about. George Hurstwood, a middle-aged married man from Chicago who tricked a young woman into leaving a younger man about to marry her, became a New York street person in the novel. Olivier played him as a somewhat nicer person who didn't fall quite as low. A PBS documentary on Olivier's career broadcast in 1987 covered his first sojourn in Hollywood in the early 1930s with his first wife, Jill Esmond, and noted that her star was higher than his at that time. On film, he was upstaged by his second wife, too, even though the list of films he made is four times as long as hers.
More than half of his film credits come after The Entertainer (1960), which started out as a play in London in 1957. When the play moved across the Atlantic to Broadway in 1958, the role of "Archie Rice"'s daughter was taken over by Joan Plowright, who was also in the film. They married soon after the release of The Entertainer (1960).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills in London in 1946, she is the daughter of the great actor Sir John Mills and the well-known novelist-playwright Mary Hayley Bell. Her sister is the actress Juliet Mills. She grew up in her parents' home, an outgoing, funny child, and, because she spent so much time with her parents and their friends, very intelligent. When she went to boarding school at age nine, however, she became very shy around kids her own age. She found solace in theater productions at her school. She was noticed playing at her parent's home in 1958 by director J. Lee Thompson, who immediately cast her opposite her father in the thriller Tiger Bay (1959). Her debut performance turned heads around the world, from Germany, where she won an award at the Berlin Film Festival, to Hollywood, when Walt Disney came knocking at her door. He signed her to a five-year contract. For her first film for the studio, Pollyanna (1960), she won critical raves, box-office success, and a special Juvenile Academy Award. Her second Disney film, The Parent Trap (1961), in which she played twins, was even more popular. She continued to appear in routine Disney films like In Search of the Castaways (1962) and Summer Magic (1963), as well as films outside the studio like Whistle Down the Wind (1961), based on her mother's novel, and The Chalk Garden (1964), again co-starring with her father. Though Disney gave her a somewhat more adult role in the mystery film The Moon-Spinners (1964), she had begun to tire of her sunny, innocent Pollyanna image. After completing That Darn Cat! (1965), she left the studio for good. That Darn Cat! (1965) was still a success, as was her first post-Disney film, Columbia's The Trouble with Angels (1966). Then, she shocked her fans by appearing in the comedy The Family Way (1966) with her father. There was an even bigger surprise in store when she fell in love with the film's director, Roy Boulting, who was 33 years her senior. She lived with Boulting for five years after he divorced his wife. They married in 1971 and had a son, Crispian Mills, in 1973. By this time, he'd taken control of her career, and, as a result, she made many bad film choices that left critics and audiences cold. By 1975, her film career had pretty much tanked. She separated from Boulting that year and moved in with actor Leigh Lawson, with whom she had a son, Jason, in 1976. They split up in 1984. She appeared in three TV-movie sequels to The Parent Trap (1961) in the 1980s, and also appeared in the BBC miniseries The Flame Trees of Thika (1981) and the TV series Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987), later re-titled Saved by the Bell (1989). She hasn't done much film work in several years, preferring to concentrate on her burgeoning career in theater. Her greatest success in theater, so far, has been the role of Anna in "The King and I", which she has played in many touring stage productions throughout the 1990s.- Actress
- Producer
- Music Department
Susan George was born on 26 July 1950 in Surbiton, Surrey, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Straw Dogs (1971), Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974) and Mandingo (1975). She was previously married to Simon MacCorkindale.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
In a career of over 30 years this Lancashire-born former art teacher has achieved great success in acting, both in television and film and writing, for television, film and stage.
His first film appearance is perhaps still his best-loved, the sympathetic Mr Farthing in Kes (1969), for which he won a BAFTA. Welland started in television in 1962 with his role of Constable David Graham in the long-running police serial Z Cars (1962). With its groundbreaking grittiness the series introduced a new realism to the genre. Welland stayed with the show until 1965, by which time he was a household name.
In the 70s, Welland combined careers as an actor and writer. On the film side he put in a nice turn as a laconic policeman in Villain (1971) and featured in the controversial Straw Dogs (1971) and in an episode of the popular TV series Faces (1975) and its big-screen adaptation Sweeney! (1977). In this time he had also been writing and appearing (sometimes both) in several plays and TV movies - he was voted Best TV Playwright in Britain in 1970, 1973 and 1974. In 1972 he won a BAFTA for Kisses at Fifty (1973). His plays were known for their earthy humour and working-class themes.
He reappeared with the other stars from the early years of Z Cars in the show's finale in 1978. In 1979 he put in one of his most memorable TV performances in Dennis Potter's award-winning play Blue Remembered Hills (1979) which recalled the days of the author's childhood. Playing the role of a child, Welland cavorted gleefully around woods and fields crammed into a pair of boy's shorts.
His first film as a writer was the successful John Schlesinger wartime culture clash drama Yanks (1979) and after this he decided to focus on his writing. He followed Yanks up with the multi award-winning, box office smash Chariots of Fire (1981), for which he won the Best Screenplay Oscar.
If his heralded arrival of the Brits didn't quite materialise, Welland did write some other worthy films - Twice in a Lifetime (1985) was an effective blue-collar drama starring Gene Hackman, A Dry White Season (1989) starred Donald Sutherland and dealt with the cruelties imposed by apartheid in South Africa (co-written with Euzhan Palcy) and War of the Buttons (1994) was an offbeat and entertaining tale of warring children.
He has put in occasional acting appearances over the years and was last seen in Our Brave Boys (1998) and Loose Women (1998) in 1998.
In 1962 he married Patricia Sweeney, they have 4 children. Genevieve, Catherine, Caroline and Christie.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A true character actor in the best sense of the word, offbeat British thespian Peter Vaughan's hefty frame could appear intimidating or benevolent; his mere presence menacing or avuncular. Adept at playing both sides of the law, his characters usually possessed a strange, somewhat wary countenance that seemed to keep his audience slightly off balance. This veteran actor has been a stalwart presence for nearly fifty years. Born Peter Ohm in 1923, he began on the stage and didn't enter films until 1959, well into his thirties.
Married in 1952 to rising actress Billie Whitelaw, Peter was primarily in the background at first, offering a cheapjack gallery of thugs, unsmiling cops, and foreign agents in movies. An easily unsympathetic bloke, he played unbilled policemen in his first two films, then slowly gravitated up the credits list. He appeared as the chief of police in the spy drama The Devil's Agent (1962), which also featured his wife, and then gained a bit more attention in a prime part as an offbeat insurance investigator in the B movie Smokescreen (1964), a role that propelled him into the higher ranks. Noticeably shady roles came with playing Tallulah Bankhead's seedy handyman who meets a fatal end in the Gothic horror Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) [aka Die! Die! My Darling!]; his villainous roles in the spy thrillers The Naked Runner (1967) opposite Frank Sinatra and The Man Outside (1967); a German thug in A Twist of Sand (1968); and Sgt. Walker in The Bofors Gun (1968).
Divorced from Whitelaw in 1966, he later married actress Lillias Walker, who had roles in a couple of his pictures: Malachi's Cove (1973) and Intimate Reflections (1975). TV became a large source of income for Vaughan in the 1970s, particularly in his role of Grouty in Porridge (1974) on both the large and small screen, and his quirky demeanor fitted like a glove for bizarre director Terry Gilliam, who cast him as the Ogre in Time Bandits (1981) and then as Mr. Helpman in Brazil (1985). For the past few decades he has maintained a healthy balance between film (including standout roles in Zulu Dawn (1979), The Remains of the Day (1993) and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)) and TV mini-movies, both contemporary and period. He was still performing into his 90s: his final role was Maester Aemon Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011).
He died at age 93 on December 6, 2016, in Sussex, England.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Pam Grier was born in Winston-Salem, NC, one of four children of Gwendolyn Sylvia (Samuels), a nurse, and Clarence Ransom Grier Jr., an Air Force mechanic. Pam has been a major African-American star from the early 1970s. Her career started in 1971, when Roger Corman of New World Pictures launched her with The Big Doll House (1971), about a women's penitentiary, and The Big Bird Cage (1972). Her strong role put her into a five-year contract with Samuel Z. Arkoff of American-International Pictures, and she became a leading lady in action films such as Jack Hill's Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), the comic strip character Friday Foster (1975) and William Girdler's 'Sheba, Baby' (1975). She continued working with American-International, where she portrayed William Marshall's vampire victim in the Blacula (1972) sequel, Scream Blacula Scream (1973).
During the 1980s she became a regular on Miami Vice (1984) and played a supporting role as an evil witch in Ray Bradbury's and Walt Disney Pictures' Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), then returned to action as Steven Seagal's partner in Above the Law (1988). Her most famous role of the 1990s was probably Jackie Brown (1997), directed by Quentin Tarantino, which was an homage to her earlier 1970s action roles, She occasionally did supporting roles, as in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! (1996), In Too Deep (1999) and a funny performance in Jawbreaker (1999). She also appeared in John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001) and co-starred with Snoop Dogg in Bones (2001). Her entire career of over 30 years has brought only success for this beautiful and talented actress.
A sister of Grier's died from cancer in 1990 and the son of that sister committed suicide because of his mother's illness. Pam herself was diagnosed with cancer in 1988 and given 18 months to live, which has had an effect on how she has chosen to live. She has never been wed, although she has been romantically linked to Richard Pryor and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the past.- Producer
- Writer
- Actress
Jeanine Pirro was born on 2 June 1951 in Elmira, New York, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), Judge Jeanine Pirro (2008) and God's Not Dead: We the People (2021). She was previously married to Albert J. Pirro, Jr..- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Roy Fox was born on 25 October 1901 in Denver, Colorado, USA. He was an actor, known for The Dreamers (2003), The Water Horse (2007) and 31 (2016). He was married to Kerry Marsh. He died on 20 March 1982 in Brinsworth House, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Nat Gonella was born on 7 March 1908 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Swing Tease (1940), Variety (1936) and Jack Hylton Presents (1955). He died on 6 August 1998 in Gosport, Hampshire, England, UK.- Additional Crew
- Actor
- Writer
Maurice Winnick was born on 28 March 1902 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for His Lordship (1932), The 20 Questions Murder Mystery (1950) and Was bin ich? (1955). He died on 29 May 1962 in Westminster, London, England, UK.- Music Department
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Pianist (a child prodigy) and band leader, trained at London's Royal Academy of Music. The son of a master tailor, Geraldo began as a relief pianist at a cinema on the Old Kent Road and then played organ at a restaurant in London. He first fronted his 'Light Orchestra' -- under his real name, Gerald Bright -- at the Hotel Majestic at St. Anne's-on-Sea for a five-year residency. After touring South America to study Latin rhythms and collect arrangements, he created the 'Geraldo Tango Gaucho Band' and briefly became 'The Tango King' of England, based for ten years at the Savoy from where he made more than 2000 broadcasts. By 1933, he led a more conventional dance orchestra under the tag line 'Geraldo & His Sweet Music' with "Hello, Again" as his signature song. He revamped this organisation yet again in the 1940's and 50's, transforming it into one of the foremost American-styled swing bands in Britain, particularly after the inclusion of trumpeter Leslie Jiver Hutchinson, saxophonist/arranger George Evans, guitarist Ivor Mairants and saxophonist Harry Hayes.
In addition to his prolific broadcasts for BBC radio and numerous recordings for Decca and Parlophone, Geraldo also sidelined as musical director for Herbert Wilcox's British & Dominions film studio from 1935 to 1940. During World War II, he took on another job as Supervisor of Bands for ENSA and conducted several tours of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. After the war, he became involved with band management, supplying ensembles (popularly known as 'Geraldo's Navy') to perform on Cunard ocean liners. In the mid-1950's, he became musical director for Scottish television after retiring as a band leader.- Music Department
- Actor
- Composer
Ray Noble was born on 17 December 1903 in Brighton, Sussex, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for Spider-Man 2 (2004), The 39 Steps (1935) and Bicentennial Man (1999). He was married to Gladys . He died on 3 April 1978 in Camden, London, England, UK.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Ray Noble and His Orchestra is known for Snowpiercer (2013), Ready Player One (2018) and Doctor Sleep (2019).- Actress
- Soundtrack
A popular musical name noted on film for one delightfully feisty Cockney lass, Shani Wallis was born in 1933 in Tottenham (North London), England and initially studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a scholarship. On stage from age 4 and performing in repertory as a young teen, she became one of the brighter young singing voices of her day. She made her West End musical debut at 18 with "Call Me Madam" at the Coliseum in 1952, and immediately established herself in the role of Princess Maria, the leading ingénue. Following other starring roles in the mediocre musicals "Happy as a King" and "Wish You Were Here," she scored again in "Wonderful Town" (1955) playing a comic soubrette, and as another spirited ingénue in "Finian's Rainbow" (1958). In-between were a number of musical-revue shows. In 1960 she replaced Tony winner Elizabeth Seal in the title role of "Irma La Douce" at London's Lyric Theatre. After the show closed, few offers came her way, so she decided to try her luck in America.
She went about rebuilding her name on the cabaret, concert, and club circuits, and added more musical roles such as "South Pacific," "The King and I" and "Bells Are Ringing" to her credits. She finally made it to Broadway in 1966, co-starring with the legendary Tessie O'Shea in "A Time For Singing," a musical version of "How Green Was My Valley." Backed by three strong numbers, she had a chance to shine in the Maureen O'Hara colleen role, but the show closed after a disappointing run of 41 performances.
A few inconsequential film roles had come her way earlier in England, including The Extra Day (1956) and Ramsbottom Rides Again (1956), not to mention a minor singing bit in Charles Chaplin's A King in New York (1957). Other than assorted variety show appearances and a televised performance supporting Carol Burnett in Once Upon a Mattress (1964), she found only a modicum of on-camera work, so it was all the more astounding when she nabbed the role of a lifetime as the ill-fated Nancy in the Oscar-winning picture Oliver! (1968). Successfully replacing the seemingly-irreplaceable Georgia Brown, Shani made a durable marquee name for herself while giving her all in the rousing "Oom-pah-Pah" number and putting her own indelible stamp on the show-stopping "As Long as He Needs Me, which is now considered her signature song. She went on to perform Nancy on the theatre stage as well.
Shani was seen only sporadically in films following this breakthrough, including the horror opus Terror in the Wax Museum (1973), for the live stage was still her first love. Over the years she has gamely performed in a number of musical staples, including "42nd Street" and "Follies," and toured with Liberace for five years during the 1980s. In 1996, she returned to England to appear in the musical "Always" at the Victoria Palace Theatre.
Shani's most recent on-camera appearances were a 2004 recurring nanny-type role on the daytime soap The Young and the Restless (1973) and a small role in the film Mojave Phone Booth (2006).
Long is married to agent and former actor Bernard Rich; their daughter Rebecca Rich is a costume designer.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Al Bowlly was born on 7 January 1899 in Delagoa Bay, Portuguese East Africa [now Maputo Bay, Mozambique]. He was an actor, known for Ready Player One (2018), The Jacket (2005) and The Outsider (2018). He was married to Margaret Fairless and Freda Roberts. He died on 17 April 1941 in London, England, UK.- Actor
- Production Manager
Len Goodman was born on 25 April 1944 in Farnborough, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor and production manager, known for Dancing with the Stars (2005), The Sword of the Lord (1976) and Love/Loss (2010). He was married to Sue Barrett and Cherry Kingston. He died on 22 April 2023 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Tatyana Marisol Ali was born on January 24, 1979, in North Bellmore, New York, to Sonia, a nurse from Panama, and Sheriff Ali, a retired police officer from Trinidad. At the age of four, she started singing and got a taste of fame when she begged her mother to take her to an audition for Sesame Street (1969).
She went on to perform in many productions in her native New York, including the Broadway show "Fences"--with James Earl Jones and, later, Billy Dee Williams--and the off-Broadway show "Orfeo del Campo". When she was seven, she appeared on Star Search (1983) and won twice, receiving a four-star rating when she appeared for a second time. At age 11, Tatyana moved from New York to Los Angeles to establish her career and, not long afterwards, got her breakthrough role:Will Smith's cousin, "Ashley Banks," from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990).
While filming "The Fresh Prince," she also had exciting side projects, including guest roles in television shows such as The Cosby Show (1984), The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989) (aka "The Mickey Mouse Club"), Kyno's Storytime (1992), Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990) and Foster's Field Trip (1994).
The public saw her grow on "Fresh Prince" from an adorable little girl to a stunning young woman, and she sang in several episodes of the show, most notably her rendition of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and an original song, "Make Up Your Mind." Smith was so impressed with her singing that he asked if she would consider doing it professionally. Tatyana began preparing for her singing career during the last year of the show as she began training her vocal cords, recording demos and publicly performing on television and in various informal live concerts. Her performances on "The Fresh Prince" actually helped her build a fan base that anxiously waited for her first album launch. On August 25, she released her album "Kiss the Sky" (MJJ Music/Work/SME) and her single "Daydreamin'." The single was certified gold within weeks of its release, and it quickly rose on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles, where it reached #6 and stayed there for two weeks. She also contributed to major movies such as Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and Eddie Murphy: Raw (1987). Since then, she has had significant roles in two films, Fall Into Darkness (1996) and Fakin' Da Funk (1997). She has also guest-starred in several sitcoms, including In the House (1995), and had a cameo role in the film Kiss the Girls (1997). She also went to Harvard and graduated with a degree in Anthropology in June 2002. She is now working on a new album and starring in more movies.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Joey Ramone was born Jeffrey Ross Hyman and the lead singer of the four-member punk-rock band the Ramones. In 1974, the band began in Queens, New York, when as he said "The only thing that you heard on the radio was disco." By 1976, the band became a major force in the evolution of rock-n-roll; they have been lauded as the inventors of punk rock and are important influences in musical and popular culture. Joey began his musical career at age 13 playing the drums. By the age 19, he was playing in New York clubs, sometimes under the name Jeff Starship. Their big break came at the legendary CBGB, a where-it's-at club that also gave rise to the likes of Blondie and Talking Heads. The Ramones was one of the first acts signed to Seymour Stein's Sire Records. Twenty-one years later, and on another label, the group disbanded. In 1995, Joey Ramone was diagnosed with lymphoma. He died of the disease on April 15, 2001, a month before his 50th birthday.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Louis Diamond Phillips is an American actor and film director. His breakthrough came when he starred as Ritchie Valens in the biographical drama film La Bamba (1987). For Stand and Deliver (1988), Phillips was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won an Independent Spirit Award. Phillips made his Broadway debut with the 1996 revival of The King and I, earning a Tony Award nomination for his portrayal of King Mongkut of Siam. Phillips' other notable films include Young Guns (1988), Young Guns II (1990), Courage Under Fire (1996), The Big Hit (1998), Brokedown Palace (1999), Che (2008), and The 33 (2015). In the television series Longmire, he played a main character named Henry Standing Bear. He played New York City Police Lieutenant Gil Arroyo on Prodigal Son on FOX from 2019 to 2021.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Kiefer Sutherland was born in London, England, UK, to Canadian actors Shirley Douglas and Donald Sutherland, who moved to California shortly after his birth. His maternal grandfather, Tommy Douglas, was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who was a Premier of Saskatchewan for over 17 years and led the national NDP party for almost 10.
Kiefer got his first film role in the comedy drama Max Dugan Returns (1983). Sutherland's first major role was in the Canadian drama The Bay Boy (1984), which earned Sutherland and director Daniel Petrie, Genie award nominations for best actor and best director, respectively. Following his success in The Bay Boy, Sutherland eventually moved to Los Angeles and landed television appearances in "The Mission", an episode of Amazing Stories (1985) and in the telefilm Trapped in Silence (1986) with Marsha Mason.
In 1992, Sutherland starred opposite Ray Liotta and Forest Whitaker in Article 99 (1992) and in the military drama A Few Good Men (1992) also starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise. Later, in 1994, he starred with Jeff Bridges and Nancy Travis in the American version of The Vanishing (1993) for 20th Century Fox. In 1997, he co-starred with William Hurt and Rufus Sewell in Dark City (1998), directed by Alex Proyas, which was a special presentation at the Cannes Film Festival. Sutherland also added his second directorial credit and starred in Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997) alongside Kevin Pollak, Mykelti Williamson, Rod Steiger and Martin Sheen. He stars in the Fox drama series 24 (2001) as Jack Bauer for which he has earned a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Most recently, he has been seen in the movie Phone Booth (2002) as a man who calls up someone at a phone booth and threatens to kill them if they hang up.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Sean Pertwee was born into a famous British theatrical family. He is the son of Jon Pertwee, who was mainly a comedy actor and was known for his starring roles in Doctor Who (1963), Worzel Gummidge (1979), the radio comedy series "The Navy Lark" and appearances in several "Carry On" films. His uncle, Michael Pertwee, and grandfather, Roland Pertwee, were prolific screenwriters and playwrights, and his father's cousin, Bill Pertwee, was a regular cast member of one of Britain's most popular sitcoms, Dad's Army (1968). His sister, Dariel Pertwee, is an actress with several screen roles.
After training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Pertwee began his acting career with the Royal Shakespeare Company, most notably starring in Titus Andronicus directed by Deborah Warner. After touring for three years, Pertwee continued his classical training by playing Julius Caesar for the BBC and Macbeth for Michael Bogdanov's production for C4 films. Since then, he has become instantly recognizable for both his film and television work.
On film, Pertwee began on the Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears (1987), then went on to appear in Paul W.S. Anderson's Shopping (1994), playing opposite Jude Law, followed by performances in Event Horizon (1997), Soldier (1998), Doomsday (2008), Love, Honor and Obey (2000) and the lead role in Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers (2002). Other notable film credits include Deadly Voyage (1996); Wild Bill (2011); Blue Juice (1995), in which Pertwee played opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones and Ewan McGregor; and Formula 51 (2001) with Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle. Pertwee played opposite Steve Coogan in Alan Partridge (2013).
Pertwee's extensive TV work saw him play the iconic role of Lestrade in the CBS show Elementary (2012) with Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes. He has also starred in The Musketeers (2014), Poirot (1989), the award-winning Luther (2010), and had a recurring role in the hugely popular Cold Feet (1997) with James Nesbitt. His other TV credits include Skins (2007), Bodyguards (1996), Jo (2013) with Jean Reno, Chancer (1990), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992), Clarissa (1991) with Sean Bean, and Camelot (2011) with Joseph Fiennes and Eva Green.
Pertwee appeared as Alfred Pennyworth, the unflappable butler, in the Warner Bros. series Gotham (2014), which follows the story behind Commissioner James Gordon's rise to prominence in Gotham City in the years before Batman's arrival. He is a popular voiceover artist and can frequently be heard voicing documentaries, animated films, commercials, TV series, and video games, including Fable, Killzone and Assassin's Creed.- Actor
- Soundtrack
In an interview in "Disc" magazine published in June 1959, following the release of his third (and ultimately unsuccessful) single, Adam Faith declared that his ambition was to become an actor/director--not a singer. Nine years, 35 singles, 24 chart entries, 15 EPs and seven albums later he finally decided to leave the record industry to concentrate fully on fulfilling his thespian dream. Over the next 34 years Faith was to achieve at least the major part of this long-held ambition by becoming one of Britain's most popular stars of stage and screen. However, during his singing career with EMI, he vied with Cliff Richard as the UK's most popular male singer and pop idol.
Adam Faith was born Terry Nelhams in Acton, London, on June 23, 1940, the third of five children. He attended John Perryn secondary modern school in Acton and from the age of 12 was able to demonstrate his entrepreneurial skills by means of a series of paper rounds, which enabled him to finance his own clothes budget. This was augmented further when he started selling papers from a pitch to enable him to pay for more than 100 pounds worth of other "gear", including a record player and an impressive bicycle, both costing around 28 pounds--a large sum indeed by 1950s standards. All this was achieved before he left school, at which point he embarked on his first full-time employment as an odd job boy for a silk screen printer close to his home.
After only a few weeks with this company he heard of a vacancy for a messenger boy at Rank Screen Services and was taken on at the princely sum of 3 pounds ten shillings per week, dedicating himself to the task of obtaining a transfer to the studios. However, after a year elapsed without any sign of his move, he left to join a company in Wardour Street, Soho, known as TV Advertising Ltd. This was a period when he, like many of his peers, was bitten by the skiffle bug which was then sweeping Britain. His first great idol was Lonnie Donegan, who inspired him to form his first group with colleagues from work. They called themselves "The Worried Men" after one of their most popular numbers, "Worried Man Blues". According to Nelhams, they played all the local Soho expresso coffee bars--Mars, The Cat's Whiskers, Orlando's, The Skiffle Cellar and, of course, the famous Two Is, where they eventually became resident.
Nelhams was becoming exhausted, which was not surprising in view of his extra-curricular activities. He had been promoted to assistant cutter at TV Advertising and not only did he combine evening performances with his day job, but he also decided to take managerial responsibility for the group's affairs. Jack Good's Six-Five Special (1957) TV program had a reputation for originality. One idea was to broadcast a show direct from the Two Is. Naturally, as the resident band, The Worried Men opened and closed the program--valuable exposure and, ultimately, Nelham's first big break.
Good was impressed with Nelhams' performance but not necessarily with the group as a whole. He invited Nelhams back on the show as a solo singer, convinced of his potential as Britain's answer to James Dean. Nelhams, encouraged by this optimism, gave up his job as a film cutter and turned professional. Good not only secured him a recording contract with EMI's HMV label on the strength of the TV appearance, but also helped him choose the now familiar name Adam Faith. Faith's debut disc combined "(Got a) Heartsick Feeling" with "Brother Heartache & Sister Tears", and was released in January 1958. It received very little publicity, either in the form of music press coverage or from EMI's own advertising department. Not surprisingly, it failed to make any impression on the charts. Despite all Good's confidence in him, Faith also failed to make any immediate impression on television, but Good gave him another opportunity when he booked him to appear in his stage show version of "Six Five Special" (The John Barry Seven were also on the bill and this brief first meeting with composer John Barry was later to prove of vital importance). However, the stage show wasn't the success Good envisaged, and after just four performances Faith found himself out of work.
Faith, ever the survivor, swallowed his pride and made the painful decision to abandon his show-biz career by returning to the film cutting world. Despite this, HMV released his second single in December of the same year, a cover of Jerry Lee Lewis' "High School Confidential", backed with "Country Music Holiday" Apart from scant attention in the music press, mainly to the effect that he was covering a Jerry Lee song, it attracted no publicity whatsoever. After a couple of temporary jobs back in the business, he found a job as a cutter at National Studios at Elstree. It was while he was there he received a phone call from John Barry in March of 1959, inviting him to audition for Drumbeat (1959). This new program was an attempt by BBC Television to counter ATV's popular Oh Boy! (1958) show. After sufficiently impressing producer Stewart Morris, Faith landed an initial contract for three shows, which was later extended to the full 22-week run.
Fortune once again smiled on Faith when Barry introduced him to his own manager, the redoubtable Eve Taylor. Taylor, whose father was a show-business impresario of some renown, was steeped in the tradition and was herself part of a comedy and tap-dancing act during the 1930s. Since becoming an agent she had established a reputation for never accepting anything less than the best for her clients, and many an errant theater manager had experienced the lash of her biting tongue! She readily agreed to take him on, and immediately set about changing his image and appearance, securing him another recording contract, initially with Top Rank.
His only record for them ("Ah, Poor Little Baby" / "Runk Bunk") was released on June 6, with only the former side benefiting from an arrangement and accompaniment by John Barry. Both sides, incidentally, were produced by Tony Hatch, just prior to his appointment as A&R manager at Pye/Piccadilly Records. Unfortunately, this record also failed to attract the attention of pop pundits, but on this occasion Faith was clearly hindered by a total absence of publicity caused by the release date--unluckily coinciding with a national printing strike! Despite the failure of his first three records, Faith was becoming very well known and popular through his 'Drumbeat" appearances. Acting still had a hold on him, and in August he announced his intention to take drama and elocution classes in order to enhance his acting potential. It was about halfway through the "Drumbeat" series when Faith attracted the attention of film producer George Willoughby, who was searching for a young pop singer to appear in his new film, Wild for Kicks (1960), then in pre-production. Although Faith had little record success up 'til then, Willoughby was struck by the young man's stage presence and signed him on the strength of this. The script called for Faith to sing only a couple of songs. As Barry was by then arranging not only Faith's recordings but also his live "Drumbeat" material, it came as no surprise when the film company asked him to write the score to accompany Faith's big-screen debut--Barry's own very first steps into the world of film music composing.
Faith's success on "Drumbeat" enabled Eve Taylor to secure him another recording contract, this time with Parlophone. The quest for suitable material to launch the Parlophone debut began in earnest and was eventually resolved out of a friendship built up on "Drumbeat". A study of the "Drumbeat" scripts reveal how Faith had initially concentrated on singing a large proportion of cover versions; the majority, up-tempo slices of American rock 'n' roll. A significant turning point ensued when he asked to perform his own version of the current Cliff Richard hit "Living Doll". It became apparent to Barry that Faith's vocal delivery was more attractive in a gentler mode and, as a result of this discovery, he decided to concentrate on delivering this kind of material. Nevertheless, before this first Parlophone single was issued, Faith made his label debut on the live "Drumbeat" album, recorded on May 10 at Abbey Road Studios, London, and released two months later. On this LP, the rock 'n' roll influence remained. Faith sang three numbers--"Say Mama", "C'mon Everybody" and "Believe What You Say", all accompanied by John Barry.
The "Drumbeat" LP also showcased the performing talents of one Johnny Worth, a member of Jackie and The Raindrops vocal trio, better known as Johnny Worth (also known as Les Vandyke). Worth was to become the final piece in the Parlophone backroom jigsaw that catapulted Faith from contender to champion in the pop market place. Worth, born in Battersea, London, on June 21, 1931, began working as a draughtsman prior to his compulsory two-year hitch in the army. On returning to civvy life he was determined to stay out of office work and make his name as a singer. Like many singers, he also aspired towards song writing, although his first three attempts were rejected out of hand by music publishers. However, when Faith, striking up a friendship with him on the "Drumbeat" set, asked if he had any material suitable for recording, Worth approached JB7 pianist Les Reed to help him arrange a demo of one of these initial songs, "What Do You Want?". Barry has always been credited with the idea of using pizzicato strings (inspired by Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore") but according to Worth, this was entirely his own brainchild. Because he was still under contract to Oriole, Worth felt the need to adopt a pseudonym while writing songs, and so was born Les Vandyke. This was derived by combining Reed's own first name with Worth's London telephone exchange!
Barry was impressed enough with the demo to commence working on an arrangement for the song, using that same Buddy Holly-influenced pizzicato style. According to Faith, the singing style he adopted for this now legendary recording was based on coaching he received from Roy Young, another "Drumbeat" cast member. Having heard Faith rehearsing it during a shared car journey, Young made a number of suggestions, in particular persuading him to alter his pronunciation of "baby" to "bay-beh". "What Do You Want?" (b/w "From Now Until Forever") was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on September 25, 1959, a mere month after "Drumbeat" ended. At the same time Faith was also signed to appear in an episode of Rediffusion's No Hiding Place (1959) TV series. Norman Newell, Faith and Barry's A&R manager, was unable to produce the recording session. As a result, assistant John Burgess took the helm in his absence, and was to do so for the remainder of Faith's EMI career. According to Barry, on hearing the record, Newell publicly declared his disapproval, vowing that Barry would on no account ever be allowed to take part in any more sessions! After the recording Barry admitted that both he and Faith were despondent following previous commercial failures. This time they were determined to impose their own personal tastes far more emphatically than they had done previously, when the flavor of the day tended to override aesthetic considerations.
Despite favorable reviews of "What Do You Want?", on its October 24 release date in both The New Musical Express and Disc, manager Eve Taylor still insisted that Faith's future lay in acting. Keith Fordyce, writing in the former, praised Barry's arrangement and choice of instrumentation --Jack Good, columnist in its rival, applauded the production, tipping chart success on both sides of the Atlantic. EMI, perhaps scenting success, mounted a strong advertising campaign promoting the single far more vigorously than either of Faith's first two HMV releases.
In the following issue of "Disc", Eve Taylor, recognizing good copy when she saw it, claimed Faith had definitely made his last record to concentrate on acting, citing his appearance in a 90-minute drama for Rediffusion TV at the end of year as evidence. Despite this, "What Do You Want?" was given a considerable boost when it was played and voted a unanimous hit on BBC TV's Juke Box Jury (1959), and when Faith sang it live on an edition of ATV's "Boy Meets Girl".
On November 14 the first tangible sign of chart recognition was apparent when The Record Mirror's "British Only" chart listed "What Do You Want?" as a new entry at #9. Clearly, interest was growing, to a point when it entered the NME charts at #18 the following week. Adam Faith, singer, had clearly arrived. His mentor, Jack Good, while applauding his success, claimed his acting actually improved his singing. He also mentioned that the song was initially rejected by Johnny Kidd, although Worth denied this, maintaining that he had refused permission for Kidd to use it when the singer had wanted to give it a rock 'n' roll treatment. Another surprise arrived with the revelation that the orchestral backing consisted of just four strings, with two tenor saxes suggesting the sound of a cello.
By December Faith was #1 in the NME charts. He confessed to being terrified of becoming just another overnight sensation and was therefore determined to continue to develop his acting skills by way of special training at the Royal Court Theatre. He admitted to enjoying Frank Sinatra, Peter Gunn (1958), Jean Sibelius' "1st Symphony" and playing golf--tastes considered rather esoteric and sophisticated for a typical teenager of the period! At this stage he still lived at home in Acton with his parents, an older sister, a twin brother & sister, another brother having already married and left the roost.
Any one-hit wonder will tell you of the problems associated with finding an equally memorable follow-up. Not surprisingly, the Faith management decided to rely on the Worth / Barry team for inspiration, and this proved a wise move. At the recording session John Burgess again took charge of production, since Norman Newell was afraid of upsetting a winning formula. On January 15 "Poor Me" was released with "WDYW" still at #2 on the charts! Faith had finished recording his "Beat Girl" songs just three days previously and had signed to appear in another film - "Moment Of Truth". The following day he received a silver disc for "What Do You Want", awarded for sales of 250,000, and appeared on BBC Radio's "Saturday Club", following this with a guest appearance on the Beverley Sisters' TV show on January 25, where he sang "Poor Me". This song, another originally rejected by several music publishers in its original incarnation as "Poor Man", shot to #1 on the UK charts.
After the success of "Poor Me", Faith--the "reluctant" pop-singer--revealed how much he wanted to sustain his chart success. His new film, now retitled Never Let Go (1960), commenced shooting on February 22, starring Peter Sellers and Richard Todd. With his newly acquired wealth generated from two #1 singles, Faith announced his plan to buy a new car, a new house for his parents and to invest the rest (a significant move in light of his subsequent financial success).
Although his next record, "Big Time" / "Someone Else's Baby", released on April 8 while "Poor Me" was still at #15 on the charts, just failed to become his third consecutive #1 (it was beaten by The Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown"), during the next few years Faith went on to score many more hits. His albums were successful, too. "Beat Girl", for example, issued at a time when the film had yet to surface in the cinema, attracted excellent reviews and reached the top ten in the UK album charts. Though this was in the main a John Barry instrumental album, three songs were sung by Faith and this fact alone could only have enhanced sales. One of these songs, "The Beat Girl Song", written by Barry and Trevor Peacock, failed to appear in the film itself.
December brought two more significant events in the ever-changing world of Adam Faith. First he bought a Hampton Court house for 6000 pounds, where he moved with the rest of his family from the Acton council house. Second, he was invited and agreed to appear on BBC TV's controversial yet prestigious Face to Face (1959)--a major coup for Faith. Transmitted live on December 11, Faith surprised many a viewer by dint of his resolution and alertness in the face of some tough questioning from presenter John Freeman.
Faith's third film, the comedy What a Whopper (1961), premiered during the summer, although the title song was not considered strong enough for single release. Instead, he chose a song from the film, entitled "The Time Has Come". written--as usual--by Johnny Worth. This reached #4 on the charts and fared better than the film, which opened at the Rialto, London, on September 28 to a terrible pasting from the press.
In March of 1962 Faith undertook an 11-day nature cure at a Surrey rest home. He had not stopped touring and recording for eight months and was completely fatigued. At the Surrey retreat he read the script for his next film project, Mix Me a Person (1962), which was due to start filming immediately after this short period of recuperation. August dawned with good reviews for the film, which opened in London. This, his fourth picture, was a thriller in which his character (Harry Jukes) spent a great deal of time behind bars. He did manage to sing a couple of songs, however, en route: the title song and a version of "La Bamba".
One of the biggest news items in the music industry that autumn stemmed from the surprise decision from the Barry and Faith camp to sever musical links--a purely amicable arrangement designed to enable both parties to develop alternative projects. Barry explained the motives behind this move more fully in an interview with Record Mirror's Peter Jones: "In the early days Johnny Worth, Adam and I were concentrating on one thing, Adam's records. We were after bread. We were all starting in the business and we were all ambitious. But towards one end only. We were all in the same boat but eventually you reach a climax in all that channeled activity. I'd say it is impossible for three people to stick together permanently in this way. You are bound to develop into different adult channels. We wanted financial gains. When you've got those, you can relax and choose your work. It's a matter of sitting back and considering precisely what you want to do in your career. Do you want to be tied by the boundaries of pop music? Do you want to include all kinds of music? Or all art forms? As an artist, a musician, you can learn something from all forms . . . From literature, films and comedy. So no, it wasn't a surprise I left. But you might say it was a surprise I stayed so long."
Initially the hits continued almost unabated, first with Johnny Keating taking over as arranger and accompanying Faith with his orchestra, and then accompanied by a new group, The Roulettes.
Faith flew to Australia in October with John Leyton for an 18-day tour that also encompassed New Zealand and Hong Kong, returning to his new home in Esher, Surrey, a "manor-type" house set in an acre of landscaped garden. The house itself included a ground floor-billiards room and a blue-carpeted bedroom housing a white, silk-covered king-sized bed--with an adjoining wardroom. What's more, he employed a butler, maid, gardener and valet! How times had changed from those childhood days in Acton.
However, the hits eventually began to dry up. In 1967 his biggest "hit" was his marriage to former dancer Jackie Irving. Quite possibly his biggest commercial coup was in persuading Sandie Shaw to perform and record "Puppet On A String", a decision she was later to regret. Not only did it become the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, but it also reached #1 in the UK and in many other European countries. Faith convinced her it was in her best interests to sing it, after she had fallen out with their mutual manager over its merits as a song. Her gratitude to Faith for his advice was somewhat tempered, however, when Taylor revealed much later that he had a financial interest in her and the song's publishers! Clearly Faith's aptitude for spotting an investment opportunity had not diminished.
Adam Faith released his last single for EMI in 1968, "You Make My Life Worthwhile". Arranged and conducted by Ken Woodman, it was an excellent recording that deserved a better fate than it got, but with Faith opting to make his stage debut playing Feste in William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", he was in no position to promote it. In view of this, both he and EMI decided to part company; Faith, the actor, was consigning Faith, the pop star, to the annals of music history.
Faith's success on stage and screen was hardly unexpected, given his thirst for knowledge and capacity for hard work. He decided to learn stagecraft from first principles in repertory theatre, out of which a number of small parts initially emanated. This stood him in good stead, when he was given a more substantial role in "Night Must Fall", playing opposite Dame Sybil Thorndike. In effect, this amounted to his big break; his stage equivalent of appearing on "Drumbeat"! In autumn of 1969 he took the lead in a touring version of "Billy Liar", and 18 months later found renewed television fame in the title role of Budgie (1971).
Apart from one comeback album for Warner Bros in 1974 (borne, one suspects, out of a desire to celebrate in song his full recovery from a near-fatal car crash a year earlier) and an original cast recording he made of the musical version of "Budgie" in 1988, Faith concentrated almost solely on acting and went a considerable way to achieving his ambition expressed so lucidly back in 1959, prior to his 19th birthday.
During the 1970s he impressed both moviegoers and critics alike with convincing performances in Stardust (1974), Foxes (1980) and McVicar (1980), and also found time to immerse himself in the management side of the rock industry. Budding agent and song-writer Dave Courtney (who Faith knew as a result of his association with The Roulettes) introduced him to former busker Leo Sayer. Instantly impressed by Sayer's vocal prowess and songwriting ability, Faith immediately set out a strategy for launching his protégée, and as a direct spin-off, also produced a solo album for The Who's Roger Daltrey, which contained a selection of Sayer/Courtney songs.
The 1980s saw Faith once again reinvent himself in the public eye, this time in the form of a self-appointed financial guru; he even wrote a column for "The Mail On Sunday", aptly titled "Faith In The City", which epitomized the "get-rich-quick" philosophy espoused in that Margaret Thatcher-drenched decade. It ended on something of a sour note when he was prevented from issuing a free fact sheet that promised to make its recipients millionaires! This was also a period when Faith was often heard to be scathing about his own recording legacy, holding it chiefly responsible for scuppering his attempts at securing a lasting acting career. As guest at a dinner party where his old hits were being played, he was chastised by the host for criticizing them so harshly, for rubbishing the very music he had enjoyed as a youth. Faith was rather taken aback by this accusation and was forced to re-appraise his feelings for his pop career.
Judging from subsequent comments made in the media, he has clearly done so. On the eve of the release of a brand-new album, "Midnight Postcards" (released in November '93), he told "The Daily Mail" that he was no longer dismissive about his pop star roots and saw no incongruency in combining an acting with a singing career. "I retired from singing 20 years ago so I could be an actor. I had begun to hate my pop association because I so wanted to act. In those days you couldn't really do both. Now I realize that the two things I do best are singing and acting. I'm only sorry that it has taken me so long to combine the two."
On stage for some years he performed the title role in "Alfie" around the provinces, played the narrator in "A Chorus Line" and toured the UK in "Love & Marriage". Often in demand for television, following his initial success with "Budgie", in the 1990s he starred in the highly successful BBC TV drama Love Hurts (1992), with Zoë Wanamaker; and in 2002 made the less popular The House That Jack Built (2002), also for the BBC.
He had a heart bypass operation in the mid-'80s, but had enjoyed reasonable health from then onwards. However, the failure of his cable TV channel, The Money Channel, a couple of years ago resulted in his bankruptcy, and may have taken a toll on his health. He was planning a one-man stage performance tour of Britain the next year, in which he would act out his career, including some of the songs that launched it. He died at the age of 62 from a heart attack, a few hours after finishing a performance of "Love & Marriage".- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Vera Farmiga is an American actress who has received an Academy Award nomination for her role in Up in the Air (2009) and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Bates Motel (2013) and When They See Us (2019).
She was born Vera Ann Farmiga, the second of seven children, on August 6, 1973, in Clifton, New Jersey, USA, to Ukrainian parents. She did not speak English until the age of six, and was raised in the Ukrainian Catholic home of her mother, Luba (Spas), a schoolteacher, and her father, Michael Farmiga, a computer systems analyst. Her younger sister is actress Taissa Farmiga, who is 21 years her junior. Young Vera was a shy, nearsighted girl, who played piano and folk danced with a Ukrainian touring company in her teens.
In 1991, she graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School. Farmiga initially dreamed of becoming an optometrist, but she later changed her mind and studied acting at Syracuse University's School of Performing Arts, graduating in 1995. The following year, she began her professional acting career, making her Broadway debut as an understudy in the play "Taking Sides". Her stage credits included performances in "The Tempest", "Good", "The Seagull", and in a well-reviewed off-Broadway production of "Second-Hand Smoke" (1997). That same year, she made her television debut as the female lead, opposite a then-unknown Heath Ledger, in Fox's adventure series Roar (1997).
In 1998, Farmiga made her big screen debut in the drama Return to Paradise (1998), then played the daughters of Christopher Walken in The Opportunists (1999) and Richard Gere in Autumn in New York (2000). She starred as a working-class mother struggling to keep her life and marriage together while hiding her drug addiction in Down to the Bone (2004), for which she was awarded Best Actress from the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Farmiga's acting talent shone in a range of characters, from her role as a senator's daughter in The Manchurian Candidate (2004), the wife of a mobster in Running Scared (2006), a humorous prostitute in Breaking and Entering (2006), and a police psychiatrist in The Departed (2006).
In 2010, Farmiga received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Up in the Air (2009). In 2011, she made her directorial debut with the drama Higher Ground (2011), in which she also appeared in the leading role. Although the film had a limited release, Farmiga's direction and performance received attention at several festivals. In 2013, she began starring in the drama thriller series Bates Motel (2013), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in the first season. In 2019, she received a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination, this time in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie category, for her role in the drama miniseries When They See Us (2019).
Farmiga was formerly married to actor Sebastian Roché, whom she met during production of Roar (1997). The two eloped to the Bahamas after the series ended in 1997. They separated and subsequently divorced in 2004. On September 13, 2008, she married musician Renn Hawkey, with whom she has two children, son Fynn McDonnell (b. 2009) and daughter Gytta Lubov Hawkey (b. 2010). Farmiga lives with her family in Hudson Valley, New York. Her other activities, outside her acting profession, include reading, playing piano, boxing, jujitsu, and spending time with her pet angora goats.- Andrew Paul was born on 17 March 1961 in Mile End, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Scum (1979), Bugsy Malone (1976) and Bellman and True (1987). He has been married to Laura Shad since 1985. They have three children.