A Prayer For The Dying
''A Prayer for the Dying'' is a 1987 thriller film about a former IRA member trying to escape his past. The film was directed by Mike Hodges, and stars Mickey Rourke, Liam Neeson, Bob Hoskins, and Alan Bates. The film is based on the 1973 Jack Higgins novel of the same name. Plot The film begins with a small IRA team, including Martin Fallon (Mickey Rourke) and Liam Docherty (Liam Neeson), watching as two British Army Land Rovers approach the roadside bomb they have set for them. At the last minute, a school bus overtakes the army vehicles and detonates the bomb as it passes, killing the children. After most of the team escape the scene pursued by the soldiers, Fallon travels to London in a bid to escape the past. In London, he is approached by a contact who asks him to take on one last job on behalf of local gangster Jack Meehan (Alan Bates) and his brother Billy Meehan (Christopher Fulford). They offer Fallon money, a passport and passage to the US if he kills a rival gangste ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Mike Hodges
Michael Tommy Hodges (29 July 1932 – 17 December 2022) was a British screenwriter, film and television director, playwright and novelist. His films as writer/director include ''Get Carter'' (1971), ''Pulp'' (1972), ''The Terminal Man'' (1974) and '' Black Rainbow'' (1989). He co-wrote and was the original director on '' Damien: Omen II''. As director, his films include ''Flash Gordon'' (1980) and ''Croupier'' (1998). Early life Hodges was born in Bristol on 29 July 1932, and was raised in Salisbury and Bath. He qualified as a chartered accountant and spent two years of national service on the lower deck of a Royal Navy minesweeper. Career Hodges found a job in British television as a teleprompter operator. The job allowed him to observe the workings of the studios, and gave him time to start writing scripts. One of these scripts was ''Some Will Cry Murder'', written for ABC's ''Armchair Theatre'' series. Although never performed, it served to get him enough writing com ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Alison Doody
Alison Doody (born March 9, 1966) is an Irish actress and model. After making her feature film debut as Bond girl Jenny Flex in ''A View to a Kill'' (1985), she went on to play Elsa Schneider in '' Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989). Other roles include Siobhan Donavan in ''A Prayer for the Dying'' (1987), Charlotte in '' Taffin'' (1988), Rebecca Flannery in ''Major League II'' (1994) and Catherine Buxton in ''RRR'' (2022). She also played Pam in '' Beaver Falls'' (2011–2012). Early life The youngest of three children, Doody was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her mother, Joan, was a beauty therapist, and her father Patrick, worked in the property business and farmed. Doody attended Mount Anville Secondary School. Career Approached by a photographer, Doody took up modelling, which turned into a career in commercial modelling. Doody stringently avoided glamour and nude work, a clause which she extended to her acting career. Having come to the attention of the casting dire ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 – July 1, 1999) was an American film director. He was known for his 1940s films noir, noir films and received an Academy Award for Best Director, Oscar nomination for Best Director for ''Crossfire (film), Crossfire'' (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their investigations during the McCarthy era, McCarthy-era Second Red Scare, Red Scare. They all served time in prison for contempt of Congress. In 1951, however, Dmytryk testified to the HUAC and named individuals, including Arnold Manoff, whose careers were then destroyed for many years, to rehabilitate his own career. First hired again by independent producer Stanley Kramer in 1952, Dmytryk is likely best known for directing ''The Caine Mutiny (film), The Caine Mutiny'' (1954), a critical and commercial success. The second-highest-grossing fil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin (born Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr.; February 19, 1924August 29, 1987) was an American film and television actor. Known for his bass voice and premature white hair, he is best remembered for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters. Although initially typecasting, typecast as the "heavy" (i.e. villainous character), he later gained prominence for portraying anti-hero, anti-heroes, such as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger on the television series ''M Squad'' (1957–1960). Marvin's notable roles in film included Charlie Strom in ''The Killers (1964 film), The Killers'' (1964), Rico Fardan in ''The Professionals (1966 film), The Professionals'' (1966), Major John Reisman in ''The Dirty Dozen'' (1967), Ben Rumson in ''Paint Your Wagon (film), Paint Your Wagon'' (1969), Walker in ''Point Blank (1967 film), Point Blank'' (1967), and the Sergeant in ''The Big Red One'' (1980). Marvin achieved numerous accolades when he portrayed both gunfighter Kid Shelleen and criminal Tim ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by population) in England, after London and Birmingham. The city was a small manorial borough in the 13th century and a market town in the 16th century. It expanded by becoming a major production centre, including of carbonated water where it was invented in the 1760s, and trading centre (mainly with wool) for the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a major mill town during the Industrial Revolution. It was also known for its flax industry, iron foundries, engineering and printing, as well as shopping, with several surviving Victorian era arcades, such as Kirkgate Market. City status was awarded in 1893, a populous urban centre formed in the following century which absorbed surrounding villages and overtook the nearby York population. It is locate ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
John Scott (composer)
John Scott (born Patrick John O'Hara Scott, 1 November 1930), also known as Johnny Scott and Patrick John Scott, is an English film composer and music conductor. Scott has collaborated with well-known directors and producers, including Mark Damon, Richard Donner, Charlton Heston, Mike Hodges, Hugh Hudson, Norman Jewison, Irvin Kershner, Ilaiyaraaja, Daniel Petrie, Roger Spottiswoode, and Norman J. Warren. Life and career Scott was born in Bishopston, Bristol, England. His father, a musician in the Bristol Police Band, gave him his first music lessons. At the age of 14, he enrolled in the British Army (in the Royal Artillery Band, Woolwich) as a Boy Musician in order to continue his musical studies of the clarinet, harp and saxophone. Later, Scott toured with some of the best-known British bands of the era. He was hired by EMI to arrange and conduct some of its most popular artists and, during this time, worked with Beatles producer George Martin (playing flute in the band' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Guarantee (filmmaking)
In filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ..., a guarantee, or informally a "pay-or-play" contract, is a term in a contract of an actor, director, or other participant that guarantees pay if the participant is released from the contract with various exceptions. Studios are reluctant to agree to guarantees but accept them as part of the deal for signing major talent. They also have the advantage of enabling a studio to remove a participant under such a contract, with few legal complications. As Appleton writes, "''Memoirs of a Geisha'' is an example of a film on which the provision came into play... several actors were hired by the studio under pay-or-play deals. When the contracted start date came and went, those actors began receiving their full salary as if they ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the sixth-highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017. In the 1850s, under Joseph Medill, the ''Chicago Tribune'' became closely associated with the Illinois politician Abraham Lincoln, and the Republican Party's progressive wing. In the 20th century under Medill's grandson, Robert R. McCormick, it achieved a reputation as a crusading paper with a decidedly more American-conservative anti-New Deal outlook, and its writing reached other markets through family and corporate relationships at the ''New York Daily News'' and the ''Washington Times-Herald.'' The 1960s saw its corporate parent owner, Tribune Company, rea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Franc Roddam
Francis George "Franc" Roddam (born 29 April 1946) is an English film director, businessman, screenwriter, television producer and publisher, best known as the creator of ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' and the director of ''Quadrophenia'' (1979). He is a graduate of the London Film School. Career Roddam's films include ''Quadrophenia'', '' K2'', ''Aria'', ''The Lords of Discipline'' and '' War Party''. He created the worldwide TV franchise, ''MasterChef'', which is shown in 200 countries worldwide and there are 47 locally produced versions. He also produced formats for ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'', ''Making Out'', and ''Harry'', all of which were highly successful TV dramas. He directed the award-winning TV drama ''Dummy'', which won the prestigious Prix Italia Drama Prize. He directed the Grammy-nominated/Golden Globe nominated US mini-series ''Moby Dick'' and ''Cleopatra''. He won awards for his BBC documentaries, ''Mini'' and ''The Family''. He is the founder and Chairman of Ziji Pub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Through 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the conflicting moral and political issues of the modern world. He was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize. He converted to Catholicism in 1926 after meeting his future wife, Vivien Dayrell-Browning. Later in life he took to calling himself a "Catholic agnostic". He died in 1991, at age 86, of leukemia, and was buried in Corseaux cemetery. Early years (1904–1922) Henry Graham Greene was born in 1904 in St John's House, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Ian Bartholomew
Ian Bartholomew (born 23 August 1954) is a British actor and musician from Portsmouth, England who has worked widely in both theatre and television. In March 2018, Bartholomew joined the cast of ITV soap opera, ''Coronation Street'', as Geoff Metcalfe. He also played Chitterlow in the revival cast of Half A Sixpence alongside Charlie Stemp, who played Arthur Kipps. Career Bartholomew was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and brought up in Gosport. In television Bartholomew's work has ranged from '' The Darling Buds of May'', ''Rumpole of the Bailey'', ''Minder'', and more recently, '' Making Waves'', '' Spooks'' and ''Marcella''. On stage he has been in productions such as '' A Man for All Seasons'' at the Redgrave Theatre in Farnham, ''Mirandolina'' and ''Assassins''. In 2005 he was in the acclaimed production of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf'' by Edward Albee in the starring role of George at the Liverpool Playhouse and in that same year also at the playhouse he appeared ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Karl Johnson (actor)
Karl Johnson (born 1 March 1948) is a Welsh actor, who has worked on stage, film and television. His notable roles to date include the title role in Derek Jarman's 1993 film ''Wittgenstein'', and those of Cato the Younger in the television drama series ''Rome'' and of Twister Turrill in the BBC costume drama ''Lark Rise to Candleford''. Filmography Film * ''Jubilee'' (1978) - Sphinx * '' The Tempest'' (1979) - Ariel, an airy spirit * ''Prick Up Your Ears'' (1987) - Douglas Orton * ''A Prayer for the Dying'' (1987) - Fitzgerald * '' Close My Eyes'' (1991) - Colin * ''Let Him Have It'' (1991) - Parris * ''Wittgenstein'' (1993) - Ludwig Wittgenstein * '' Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon'' (1998) - John Deakin * '' Tomorrow La Scala'' (2002) - Sydney * ''Pure'' (2002) - Grandad * '' Frozen'' (2005) - Coastguard Bill * ''Heidi'' (2005) - Old Man * '' The Illusionist'' (2006) - Doctor / Old Man * '' Copying Beethoven'' (2006) - Stefan Holtz * ''Four Last Song ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |