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1-21 of 21
- Althea Henley was born on 23 July 1911 in Egypt, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Phantom Broadcast (1933), Find the Lady (1936) and Hip Zip Hooray (1933). She was married to William Begg, Arthur Markham and Bud Ernest. She died on 25 April 1996 in Smith's Island, Bermuda.
- Michael Ebbin was born on 5 June 1945 in Pembroke, Bermuda. He was an actor, known for Live and Let Die (1973). He died on 27 April 1996 in Hamilton, Bermuda.
- Writer
- Actor
Terence Mervyn Rattigan was born in London on June 10, 1911, the son of a career diplomat and serial philanderer whose indiscretions resulted in his being cashiered by the Foreign Office. As a member of the lower upper-middle class in the inter-war period, the young Rattigan received a first-rate education at Harrow and Trinity College, Oxford. His was a privileged, intellectual background that is reflected in his plays. For a decade after the Second World War, he was one of England's leading playwrights, but the eruption of the "kitchen-sink" school of English drama in the mid-1950s scuttled his critical reputation.
Rattigan achieved his first success as a playwright at age 25 with the light comedy "French Without Tears" (1936), which was a smash in the West End. Determined to do more serious work, he wrote the satirical social drama "After the Dance" in 1939, which skewered the failure of the class of "Bright Young Things" to prevent another war. The advent of World War II truncated the play's run, but Rattigan would continue to taste sweet success for a full generation, alternating between comedies and dramas.
In the post-war period, he established himself as a major English dramatist with "The Winslow Boy", "The Browning Version", "The Deep Blue Sea", and "Separate Tables", all of which were made into successful motion pictures. A Rattigan play displayed keen craftsmanship and finely-structured plots; emotion was hidden in the best English middle-class tradition, but was lurking in the depths. The typical Rattigan play was a sympathetic, witty study of middle-class people in emotional distress. There was often a love triangle or a general conflict in which decent people found themselves embroiled. These characters sublimated their emotions and passions; the psychic cost of repression was a focus and theme of Rattigan's work.
Rattigan's themes were personal: the illogicality of love; the conflict between idealized love and love as realized in the here and now; the pain of lost promise; and the defeat of potential greatness by human weakness. The themes and leitmotifs in Rattigan's plays were found beneath the surface; nothing was worn on the sleeve. They were elucidated by the playwright's craft, through a well-constructed story and skillfully-observed characters.
According to Rattigan's biographer Geoffrey Wansell, he had learned how to mask his feelings from his father, whose multiple love affairs, carried on in secret behind his wife's back, appalled his son. Also, Terence was a homosexual in an era rife with anti-gay sentiment; the persecution of those suffering from what was once termed "inversion" was all too real.
Rattigan lived behind a mask (he was very discreet about his own same-sex affairs), as did the characters in his plays. Emotions were buried lest their display cause even more pain, or scandal. Wansell believes that his reticence stemmed from a deeply-rooted aversion to emotional engagement. "Behind the apparently carefree mask lived a man crying out to be loved and appreciated," Wansell wrote, "but a man who was also incapable of demonstrating that need."
For a run of almost five straight years in the 1940s, Rattigan had plays appearing simultaneously on the boards of three adjacent West End theaters. In 1956 the English stage was revolutionized by John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger," in which emotions were (in the parlance of a later generation) allowed to "all hang out." Overnight, Rattigan's dreams of emotional repression were deemed old-fashioned. Dramatists, directors, and actors who stuck with the old "well-crafted", more subtle paradigm of drama were also deemed "old-fashioned" and suffered a professional eclipse. (Laurence Olivier, who had starred in Rattigan plays and movies made from his work, kept himself relevant by offering himself to Osborne, who crafted "The Entertainer" for him. It would be many years before his contemporaries John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson would make it out of the woods, outside of Shakespeare, in terms of contemporary drama. They appeared together in Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land" 20 years after the changing of the guard).
"Look Back in Anger" was a cultural broadside against everything the Establishment represented, and Rattigan was very much part of that Establishment. In the introduction to his collected plays, published in 1959, Rattigan wrote of an archetypal playgoer, "Aunt Edna," whom he characterized as a "nice, respectable, middle-class, middle-aged maiden lady" to whom playwrights had to be responsive as she was the person who spent her money to go to the theater. What Rattigan was trying to say is that the theater must be responsive to its audience; to the new Turks, many of whom would later thrive in non-commercial, state-subsidized theater. Rattigan was a shameless old fart, pandering to the very class of people, the Aunt Ednas and the Miss Grundys, whom they despised and whose tastes, and the drama and comedies written to suit those tastes, debased the theater as an art form.
Rattigan's reputation declined and, overnight, his plays were derided by the critics. A very sensitive man who had a terrible fear of failure, Rattigan's confidence declined along with his critical reputation. He retaliated the new kitchen-sink school in interviews and via dialogue in his new plays, with the result that he underscored the new generation's contempt of him. Rattigan transformed himself into a caricature of the kind of playwright the new English theater was rebelling against: conservative, staid, old-fashioned, valuing craft above feeling, with no empathy for the modern world or for the majority of Britons. To them, he represented the complacency of a moribund Tory- and toff-dominated Britain that was no longer relevant after the Suez debacle of 1956.
Truthfully, among the post-1956 Rattigan plays are some of his finest work, including "Ross," "Man and Boy," and "Cause Celebre," but it didn't matter to the critics: he was considered hopelessly passé. Like the post- "The Night of the Iguana" Tennessee Williams, he was cruelly discarded as a contemporary artist of any relevance. He was a phantom of a past that vanished with Britain's world-power status after Suez.
Rattigan was first diagnosed with leukemia in 1962; it went into remission in 1964, but he suffered a relapse in 1968. Despising the "Mod" Britain of the 1960s, he moved to Bermuda. In that decade he supported himself by writing screenplays, and for a while he enjoyed the status as the world's highest-paid screenwriter. He was knighted in 1972 and moved back to England. His critical reputation saw a minor revival shortly before his death from cancer in 1977, and a major revival in the early 21st century after Karel Reisz staged a revival of "The Deep Blue Sea." Although he was never as successful in the United States as he was in Britain, Rattigan is increasingly being viewed in his homeland as one of the 20th century's finest playwrights.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Arthur Rankin Jr. was born on 19 July 1924 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for The Last Unicorn (1982), Willy McBean and His Magic Machine (1965) and The Hobbit (1977). He was married to Olga Karlatos. He died on 30 January 2014 in Harrington Sound, Bermuda.- Gloria Marshall was born on 27 August 1930 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Roadracers (1959), Science Fiction Theatre (1955) and Sea Hunt (1958). She was married to Warren Gamble, Warren Lockwood Gamble, David O'Meara and Lynn Stalmaster. She died on 18 December 1994 in Bermuda Dunes, California, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
Handsome stage and screen actor Robin Irvine born in London in 1901. Educated at Aldenham School and Mill Hill School. His first appearance on stage as Captain D'Arcy in 'My Lady Frayle' in Ipswich on Boxing Day in 1918 made his London stage debut in 1923, most notable stage role was in 'Beau Geste' at His Majesty's Theatre. In 1925 he appeared in his first film role in Sinclair Hill's 'The Secret Kingdom' starring Matheson Lang at the Stoll Film Co, Robin his perhaps best remembered as Tm Wakely in 'Downhill' starring Ivor Novello in 1927 and as John Whittaker in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Easy Virtue' in 1928 and also as George Breese in 'The Rising Generation' with Alice Joyce in 1928. starred in talkies made in Germany and England, including 'Fraulen Lausbub' in 1930 and 'Keeping of Youth' with Ann Todd in 1931. His last screen appearance as Philip in 'Above Rubies' with Zoe Palmer in 1932. Since 1931 he had been general manager of St. George Film Productions and had devoted himself to productions before his death. Robin had been in Bermuda for a holiday after visiting America with his wife actress Ursula Jeans, there he developed a chill which turned to pleurisy which killed him, he was only 32. He his distantly related to Robert Louis Stevenson.- Don Gibson was born on 25 March 1917 in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Lost Lagoon (1957), Saturday's Hero (1951) and Adventures of the Sea Hawk (1958). He died in October 1987 in Hamilton, Bermuda.
- Zbigniew Mazurek was an actor, known for Rób swoje, ryzyko jest twoje (2002), Prostytutki (1998) and Zlote runo (1998). He died on 2 December 2008 in Bermuda.
- Reg Grundy was born on 4 August 1923 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was a producer, known for Class of '74 (1974), Surprise Package (1961) and Say When (1962). He was married to Joy Chambers and Lola Powell. He died on 6 May 2016 in Bermuda.
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Teddy Tucker was born on 8 May 1925 in Paget, Bermuda. He was an actor, known for The Deep (1977), The Bermuda Depths (1978) and Titanica (1992). He died on 9 June 2014 in Somerset Village, Bermuda.- Molly Castle was born in 1903 in Wallasey, Cheshire, England, UK. She was a writer, known for Living in Hollywood (1939). She was married to William Tucker, Cedric Belfrage and Charles Castle. She died on 28 April 1987 in South Road, Paget, Bermuda Island, Bermuda.
- Francis Van Wyck Mason was born on 11 November 1901 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Francis was a writer, known for The Spy Ring (1938), The Barbarians (1960) and Orient Express (1952). Francis was married to Jeanne-Louise Hand. Francis died on 28 August 1978 in Bermuda.
- Charles Taylor was born on 25 October 1917 in Nueces County, Texas, USA. He died on 5 December 1945 in Bermuda Triangle, Atlantic Ocean.
- Johnny Barnes was born on 23 June 1923 in Bermuda. He was married to Belvina. He died on 9 July 2016 in Bermuda.
- Ernie Dunlevie was born on 3 August 1917 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 6 October 2013 in Bermuda Dunes, California, USA.
- Whitfield Fredrick Hayward was born on 22 January 1912 in Pembroke, Bermuda. He died on 27 June 1997 in Paget, Bermuda.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Errol Williams was a pioneer filmmaker who was introduced to filmmaking at the NB Film Co-op in the late 1980's. His dramatic and documentary films were screened at festivals around the world, and his international success helped shine a spotlight on the NB Film Co-op. He had a particular gift for documentary filmmaking and after his successful production of Echoes in the Rink: The Willie O'Ree Story (1997), he went on to produce two successful and influential documentary feature films in Bermuda When Voices Rise and Walking on a Sea of Glass. After his untimely death in 2007, a special award was set up in his honor and was presented to the winner of the Best low-budget NB Documentary film at the Silver Wave Film Festival. After the 2011 Silver Wave Awards, it was decided to use the award to help fund a short documentary project and hence the creation of this award.- Betty Betz was born on 28 March 1920 in Indiana, USA. She died on 17 April 2010 in Bermuda.
- Actor
- Editor
- Sound Department
Donny Valenti was born on 24 December 1965 in Thousand Oaks, California, USA. He was an actor and editor, known for Buffalo Heart (1996), Easyway Gourmet (2009) and Misfit Patrol (1996). He died on 24 May 2022 in Bermuda Dunes California, USA.- American newspaperman who briefly wrote titles for silent films. A native of New York State, Conway was raised by his mother, a schoolteacher, in The Bronx, New York. As a boy, he worked as a streetcar conductor. He had a short career in baseball, playing with the Brooklyn Federals. A friend who worked as an office boy for the entertainment trade paper Variety got Conway a job. A failure in his first position as advertising salesman, Conway was given an opportunity to review vaudeville shows. He seemed destined to fail in this as well, until he turned in a review written almost entirely in slang. The notion caught on and Conway used slang for all his future reviews in the paper, which became famous for its Variety-ese. Conway became a beloved figure on Broadway and in sports circles, writing not only reviews but features and columns on nightlife, baseball, and boxing. His reputation as a humorist and slang-artist was unsurpassed on the Great White Way. He was lured to Hollywood briefly to liven up the titles for a number of silent films, and it was there that he first developed indications of heart trouble. He returned to New York for treatment and was ordered by his doctor to take a trip to Bermuda for rest, on the theory that the absence of telephones in Bermuda would force Conway to forget his normal activities and concentrate on recovery. Four days after his arrival in Bermuda, Conway died, aged 40. His wife of one year survived him. He was buried in his family plot in Albany, New York.
- Derryl Cousins was born on 18 August 1946 in Fresno, California, USA. He died on 20 October 2020 in Bermuda Dunes, California, USA.