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1-24 of 24
- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Rik Mayall, one of the first and foremost alternative comedians in the UK, was born in Matching Tye, a village just outside Harlow in Essex. His parents, John and Gillian, were both drama teachers. His acting debut was at the age of seven when he appeared in one of his father's stage plays. He met his comedy partner and best friend Adrian "Ade" Edmondson at Manchester University in 1975. Soon, the duo began performing together as a comedy act called "Twentieth Century Coyote" at the now legendary Comedy Store in London. They later moved their act to a venue called "The Comic Strip" and it was there that they were discovered by producer Paul Jackson. Rik and his friends, including Adrian Edmondson, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Alexei Sayle, Peter Richardson, and Nigel Planer were boomed onto television screens with immense success. He wrote The Young Ones (1982) with Ben Elton and Lise Mayer. You loved it or hated it, but you can't deny the impact it had on British sitcoms.
His career was launched, and, aged 24, he became one of the most popular comedians in Britain. He wrote and starred in various other television programmes and films over the years such as The New Statesman (1987); his role in it as Alan B'Stard earned him a BAFTA. He had his brief touch of Hollywood in 1991 when he starred as the title role in Drop Dead Fred (1991), but he soon returned to the British TV screens with Bottom (1991) a show which only ran for 3 seasons from 1991 to 1995 but was so popular that he and "Ade" toured with live shows based on the series around Britain every two years or so up until 2014.
In 1998, he suffered a severe accident and ended up in a coma after he crashed with his quad-bike at his farm in Devon. Luckily, he recovered and starred in films and shows such as Guest House Paradiso (1999) and Day of the Sirens (2002). In 2002, he proved that he was back and ready for action in the comedy series Believe Nothing (2002), which reunited him with Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the writers of "The New Statesman". In 2003, he toured the UK alongside "Ade" with the fifth Bottom Live show.- Actor
- Soundtrack
He was the third child of William Ernest Ball, a bank manager and Rosina whose other children were Marjorie, who died in 1980 and John, Thornton was his mother's maiden name and his middle name, He played the cello in his school's orchestra and was a corporal in the Officer's Training Corps which he left in1937 and became a clerk with the Guardian Insurance Company in London leaving to follow a colleague who'd left to be an actor and Frank thought he'd do the same and enrolled in the London School of Dramatic Art evening classes. In 1939 the school evacuated to Whitney in Oxfordshire. He went with them and still a student acted in the local repertory company which contained Peter Jones, In '1941 he was in the West End with Donald Wolfit and after that a year in The Scarlet #Pimpernel at Manchester Opera House where he met actress Beryl Evans, September '43 he was in the RAF and sent to Nova Scotia to train as a navigator, became a pilot officer and stayed on after the war in the entertainment unit with 3 corporals- Peter Sellers, Dick Emery and Tony Hancock. He was demobbed in 1947 and the same year in the musical The Dancing Years. Mid November 1950 he was compare on television's The Centre Show , a variety show in which Hugh Lloyd made his debut. Frank married Beryl on the 5th January 1945 and had a daughter, Jane in 1946 and lived in West Wickham in Kent- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
He was born in Peckham, South London after his family arrived from Cork, in Ireland, He was educated in Leo Street School, Peckham then Walworth Central. At 15 he left school and became an office boy with a railway wagon repair firm then a year later he became a steward in a business mens club in Bishopsgate which ended abruptly when he quarrelled with a barmaid and she squirted soda in his face, Too frightened to tell his parents he ran away to Brighton but being just after Winter there were no jobs and he was forced to return home to a job in a silk warehouse in Cheapside. At 17 he left home and went into lodgings in New Cross,, For the first time he started going to the cinema and the theatre and finding it exciting took up amateur dramatics with a local group and went to Morley College where he won a scholarship to RADA in 1937, He eventually met and married Barbara, an actress, who was originally training to be a singer and they had 2 sets of twins, Jacob and Harriet and Kelly and Louisa, all musically inclined. Alfred became well known when he played private eye Frank Marker in the TV series Public Eye,- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Born on September 30, 1947 in London, England, Mark Bolan was always destined to be a star. Even as a teenager, he was already seeking fame. Well known as a sharp dresser, he was employed by a modeling agency and became a "John Temple Boy", wearing John Temple suits in their catalogs as well as becoming a cardboard cutout displayed in their shop windows. Many initial attempts to get into the music business failed, and so he turned to acting, landing several character roles in some television series including a juvenile delinquent on the Sam Kydd series Orlando (1965). His first recording, "The Wizard", was released in 1965 and resulted in an appearance on the music show Ready, Steady, Go! (1963). He briefly became a member of the 1960s group John's Children before forming his own group, Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The group's first single was "Debora", also a track on the album "My People Were Fair", released in July 1968. Although not a hit the first time around, on its re-release in 1972, when Bolan was at his peak, "Debora" made the UK top 10. In July 1969, the group dropped its folksy, hippie sound to go electric with the single "King of the Rumbling Spires". Unfortunately, like his other singles, it failed to take off, only reaching #44. The group shortened its name to T. Rex and finally broke through with the single "Ride a White Swan" in 1970. This opened the door to a whole series of hit singles, including "Bang a Gong, Get It On"--on which Elton John played keyboards--which reached the US top 10 in 1971, as well a series of highly acclaimed albums.
At the height of his popularity, Bolan had a string of #1 hit singles in the United Kingdom and became a teen idol as well as a leader of the glam rock movement. He appeared in Ringo Starr's movie Born to Boogie (1972), a documentary showing a concert at Wembley Empire Pool. However by 1975, on account of the rise of 1970s soul music, Bolan's career was in decline, at least sales-wise. As a leading figure of the punk rock movement in the United Kingdom, he provided a forum for new acts to appear on television via his own music program. Just when he was on the rebound, Marc Bolan cruelly died in a car crash on September 16, 1977, two weeks before his 30th birthday.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Gretchen Franklin made her first screen appearance in the 1954 British suspense film Shadow of Fear (1955), directed by Albert S. Rogell, in which she acted alongside Mona Freeman, Jean Kent and Maxwell Reed. During the 1960s and 70s she made her name through guest roles on various sit-coms, such as Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973) which starred Michael Crawford. She also appeared on the BBC's The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968). It was, however, with the BBC's EastEnders (1985) that she became a household name, as Ethel Skinner, at the age of 75. As one of the original cast members in 1985, she stayed with the show until semi-retirement in 1993 - from then until 1997 she made three or four appearances in Christmas episodes or on special occasions. In June 2000, at the age of 88, she was asked back to EastEnders to reprise her role, and declared that she was glad to be free of the boredom of retirement. She once said of herself: "I can play the comedy scenes or the tearjerkers. The directors and producers have realised that." Off screen she devoted much of her time to charity work, giving away the royalties from international syndication of EastEnders to charities that are "all for animals or old people". She died aged 94 in 2005.- Actress
Margo Johns was born on 25 February 1919 in Romford, Essex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Konga (1961), International Detective (1959) and Meet Sexton Blake! (1945). She was married to William Franklyn. She died on 28 September 2009 in Barnes, London, England, UK.- Llewellyn Rees was born on 18 June 1901 in Charmouth, Dorset, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Withnail & I (1987), A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and The Way We Live Now (1969). He was married to Madeleine Newbury and Carol Rees. He died on 7 January 1994 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Ilario Bisi-Pedro was born in 1939 in Lagos, Nigeria. He was an actor, known for Children of Men (2006), Kinky Boots (2005) and Doctor Who (1963). He died on 28 May 2013 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Betty Cooper was born on 1 May 1910 in Bath, Somerset, England, UK. She was an actress, known for BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950), The Passionate Pilgrim (1949) and Blackmailed (1951). She was married to Gerald Andersen. She died on 3 February 1979 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Gerald Andersen was born on 28 April 1910 in Muswell Hill, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Black Tulip (1956), H.M. Tennent Globe Theatre (1956) and Theatre Night (1957). He was married to Betty Cooper. He died on 27 May 1964 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Manny Michael was born on 23 April 1918 in Sevenoaks, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for You Can't Win 'Em All (1970), Quatermass II (1955) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). He died on 26 June 2016 in Barnes, London, England, UK.- John Field was born on 22 October 1921 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Secret People (1952), The House of Cards (1953) and Music for You (1951). He was married to Anne Heaton. He died on 3 August 1991 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Additional Crew
- Actress
- Writer
It has been rightly suggested that Dame Ninette de Valois is one of the most important women of the century. It was due to her drive and ambition that the modern English ballet was created. In that respect she changed history single handed. Born in Ireland, young Ninette (her stage name was her mother's suggestion) came to England aged 7 to study dance.
At that time (1905) the only ballet seen in England was touring Russian or French companies. Inspired by a perfromance of the Ballets Russes under Diaghilev, she joined them in 1923. By the mid 1920's she was convinced that Britain needed and should be capable of producing it's own National Ballet and she set about working towards it with a single minded determination.
By 1926 she opened her first school in London, called the Academy of Choreographic Arts. By the early 1930s she had, with the help of Lillian Bayliss, the director of The Old Vic that the theater needed it's own ballet company and school. With help from Lillian Bayliss, Madame (as she was known by her pupils), bought the old Sadler's Wells Theatre and opened her new Ballet School there.
As well as starting the new theatre and ballet school she also found time to choreograph such works as The Rake's Pregress (based on the Hogarth prints) for the new company. She soon attracted quite a few talented people around her including the young Frederick Ashton.
By 1934 the new theatre and ballet school were in full operation and they produced full length ballets such as Giselle and Copellia (featuring Alicia Markova). That year a young dancer may have been found in the ranks by the name of Margot Fonteyn. de Valois had realised from the beginning that the only way to make a truly British Ballet was to have a complete system in place from school to stage.
She had developed what came to be known as the English Ballet style of narrative, lyrical ballet and this was taught in the school. She was also still an innovative choreograph such innovative works as Checkmate (1937). During the years of the second world war they toured extensively and became a major morale booster.
For all her work Ninette was created a Dame of the Order of the British Empire in 1951. In 1955 she started a new ballet school in White Lodge, Richmond Park, Surrey. Away from the busy metropolis the Royal Ballet (as they had become) had a perfect home here. Although retired since 1963, Dame Ninette is still a powerful force in the world of ballet.- Dorothy Batley was born on 18 January 1902 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Blue Lagoon (1949), The Sins of Youth (1919) and Boys of the Old Brigade (1916). She was married to Guy Newall. She died on 8 December 1983 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
William Blezard, was best known as piano accompanist for such leading stage figures as Joyce Grenfell, Marlene Dietrich and Honor Blackman. He was also a composer of note, particularly of theatre and film music. Born in Padiham, near Burnley, he was the son of mill workers, and his tenor father sang semi-professionally. William showed talent, initially on the harmonium, and subsequently on the piano, which he played in the local cinema. A mill owner, Teddy Higham, paid for William to have piano lessons until, in 1938, he won a Lancashire County scholarship, leaving Clitheroe Royal grammar school, where he had already performed Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, to go to the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London.
His studies were interrupted in 1940 by war service in the RAF as a Morse code operator in Wick, but he soon found access to a piano and continued to study and compose. On his return to the RCM in 1946, he studied piano with Arthur Benjamin and Frank Merrick, composition with Herbert Howells, and orchestration with Gordon Jacobs. He won the prestigious Cobbett Prize, for Fantasy String Quartet.
This resulted in Muir Mathieson inviting him to work at Denham Studios as a composer and arranger for documentaries. He arranged and orchestrated Noël Coward's music for the film of his play The Astonished Heart (1949).
Through his wife-to-be, the conductor and teacher Joan Kemp Potter, William met the pianist Donald Swann, and it was through Swann that he met Joyce Grenfell. His participation in Joyce Grenfell Requests The Pleasure started in 1954, and he remained her accompanist throughout her career, including several BBC broadcasts, four world tours and her last performance, for the royal family at Windsor Castle in June 1973. William contributed, with relish, The Battle March Of Delhi, a Victorian parlour song.
As composer and musical director, William had an illustrious career in the theatre. In 1957, he worked on two Royal Shakespeare Company productions with Peter Brook, Titus Andronicus and The Tempest. In the same year, he became musical director of John Osborne's The Entertainer, with Laurence Olivier as the failed music-hall artist Archie Rice. William fulfilled the same role for the Max Wall revival in 1974, and this led to William's involvement in the solo show Aspects Of Max Wall.
In 1965, William took over from Burt Bacharach as Marlene Dietrich's accompanist and musical director. With typical modesty, William always maintained that he landed the job because he had the correct zodiac sign. They gave three world tours, ending in 1975 when Dietrich broke her leg on stage in Sydney - it was her final performance.
William was also musical director for the show that Sheridan Morley wrote and narrated about Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, Noël And Gertie, and worked with Joanna Lumley, Ian Ogilvy, Patricia Hodge and Maria Aitken. In the 1980s, he started a long-running partnership with Honor Blackman, in her one-woman shows, Yvette and Dishonourable Ladies. In 1990, he played for the first of many performances of Tim Heath's Not Yet The Dodo, based on Coward's poem.
His gifts as an improviser were on display in the BBC television children's programme Play School from 1964 onwards. Often he was called on to provide, at the drop of a hat, what presenter Johnny Ball called "onomatopoeic music", music to evoke running water or splashing in puddles.
In later life, William was gratified to see several of his works performed. The Royal Ballet Sinfonia recorded his Battersea Park Suite, Caramba, The River and Duetto For Strings; the oboist Jill Crowther and the English Northern Philharmonia his Two Celtic Pieces; and Eric Parkin two CDs of his piano music. He was a Francophile who admired the music of Ravel, echoes of which can be heard in his own; he liked travelling abroad in general, and had an aptitude for languages.
Paradoxically, away from the piano, he was renowned for being clumsy and spatially unaware. He considered that inanimate objects conspired against him, and would often greet me at the door with a glum pronouncement of that day's score, "Inanimate objects three - Blezard nil."
Right up until his death William was performing, and could be seen bicycling around Barnes. His wife predeceased him in 2001, and he was survived by his son Paul and daughter Pookie.- Stanley Kirkby was born on 31 October 1878 in Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Jolly Farmers (1930). He died on 30 October 1949 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Eddie Espinosa was born on 22 June 1906 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Seaside Concert Parties (1947). He died on 13 October 1991 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Philip Renouf was born in 1886 in Southwark, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Brigadier Gerard (1915). He died on 11 July 1934 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Henry Worthington was born on 4 September 1912 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He was an actor, known for Brass Monkey (1948), Rheingold Theatre (1953) and The Long Christmas Dinner (1949). He died on 19 November 2001 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Stephen Dodgson was born on 17 March 1924 in Chelsea, London, England, UK. He was a composer, known for Depth Charge (1960) and Face the Music (1967). He was married to Jane Clark. He died on 13 April 2013 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Additional Crew
- Actor
- Production Manager
Patrick Wessel was born on 16 July 1985 in Arcadia Valley, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and production manager, known for Arranged (2007), Smash His Camera (2010) and Generation 9/11 (2010). He died on 24 October 2010 in Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.- F.G. Thurstans was born in 1865 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Romany Lass (1918) and Where's Watling? (1918). He died on 29 October 1934 in Barnes, London, England, UK.
- Writer
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Rutland Boughton was born on 23 January 1878 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. Rutland was a writer and composer, known for Lorna Doone (1934) and The Immortal Hour (1939). Rutland was married to Florence Hobley and Christina Anne Stansfield Walshe. Rutland died on 25 January 1960 in Barnes, London, England, UK.- Simone Rogers was born on 23 December 1900 in Armentières, Hauts-de-France, France. She died in 1966 in Barnes, London, England, UK.