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Berserk!
''Berserk!'' is a 1967 British horror-thriller film starring Joan Crawford, Ty Hardin, Diana Dors and Judy Geeson in a macabre mother-daughter tale about a circus plagued with murders. The screenplay was written by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel, and the film directed by Jim O'Connolly. ''Berserk!'' marks Crawford's penultimate big-screen appearance. Plot Monica Rivers (Joan Crawford) and Dorando (Michael Gough) co-own a travelling English circus. Monica acts as ringmistress and Dorando her business manager. When tightrope walker Gaspar the Great is strangled when his tightrope breaks, it appears that his rope might have been purposely weakened and police initiate an investigation, discovering no perpetrator. Monica's unemotional reaction to the tragedy alarms Dorando. When she suggests Gaspar's death will be good publicity, he asks her to buy him out, which she is unable to do. Monica hires a new tightrope walker, Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin). Not only is he handsome, but he is al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herman Cohen
Herman Cohen (August 27, 1925 – June 2, 2002) was an American producer of B-movies during the 1950s, and helped to popularize the teen horror movie genre with films like the cult classic ''I Was a Teenage Werewolf''. Career Born in Detroit, Michigan, Cohen began his career in show business as a gofer and later an usher at the Dexter Theater in Detroit, starting he was just 12. By 18, he was managing the Dexter. From there he went on to become assistant manager of the Fox Theatre (also in Detroit) — a theater featuring over 5,000 seats. After a tour of duty with the Marines, Cohen became sales manager for Columbia Pictures in the Detroit Area and moved to Hollywood to work for the publicity department of Columbia in the 1940s. In the 1950s he started producing films, first working as assistant (and later associate) producer for Jack Broder and Realart Pictures on such films as ''Bride of the Gorilla'', ''Battles of Chief Pontiac'' (featuring Lon Chaney, Jr.), ''Bela Lugos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Madoc
Philip Madoc (born Philip Arvon Jones; 5 July 1934 – 5 March 2012) was a Welsh actor. He performed many stage, television, radio and film roles, and was recognised for having a "rich, sonorous voice" and often playing villains and officers. On television, he starred as David Lloyd George in ''The Life and Times of David Lloyd George'' (1981) and DCI Noel Bain in the detective series ''A Mind to Kill'' (1994–2002). His guest roles included multiple appearances in the cult series '' The Avengers'' (1962–68) and ''Doctor Who'' (1968–1979), as well as playing the U-boat captain in the ''Dad's Army'' episode "The Deadly Attachment" (1973). He was also known to be an accomplished linguist. Early life Madoc was born near Merthyr Tydfil and attended Cyfarthfa Castle Grammar School, where he was a member of the cricket and rugby teams, and displayed talent as a linguist. He then studied languages at University College Cardiff and the University of Vienna. He eventually spok ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aben Kandel
Aben Kandel (15 August 1897 – 28 January 1993) was an American screenwriter, novelist, and (earlier in life) boxer. He was screenwriter on such classic B movies as ''I Was A Teenage Werewolf'', Joan Crawford's final movie ''Trog'', and one of Leonard Nimoy's first starring vehicles, ''Kid Monk Baroni''. He is the father of poetess Lenore Kandel and screenwriter Stephen Kandel. Biography Born in Berlad, Romania, Kandel came to the United States as a child and was educated at New York University and its law school. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and later enlisted in the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey. He began writing novels in 1927 and wrote two hit plays ''Hot Money'' (1931) that was filmed as ''High Pressure'' (1932) and ''Hot Money'' (1936), and translated a German play ''Die Wunderbar'' by Geza Herczeg and Karl Farkas together with Irving Caesar where the pair added their own songs calling at ''The Wonder Bar'' that was acquired by Al Jolson and filmed in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reginald Marsh (actor)
Reginald Albert Saltmarsh, known by the stage name Reginald Marsh (17 September 1926 – 9 February 2001), was an English actor who is best remembered for supporting roles in many British sitcoms from the 1970s onwards. Early life and career Marsh was born in London in 1926 and he grew up on the Sussex coast at Worthing. After he left school he worked in a bank. After realising how serious he was about acting, his father introduced him to a retired actress, who introduced him to an agent who got his first acting role, at the age of 16, as a juvenile in ''Eden End'' by J.B. Priestley. He then worked in rep. In 1958, he started working behind the scenes of Granada Television, but he soon went back to acting. From the 1960s he appeared in many films, including ''The Day the Earth Caught Fire'' (1961), '' Jigsaw'' (1962), ''Berserk!'' (1967), '' The Ragman's Daughter'' (1972), ''Young Winston'' (1972) and ''The Best Pair of Legs in the Business'' (1973), and on television, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ty Hardin
Ty Hardin (born Orison Whipple Hungerford Jr.; January 1, 1930August 3, 2017) was an American actor best known as the star of the 1958 to 1962 ABC/Warner Bros. Western television series ''Bronco''. Early life Hardin was born in New York City, but reared in Texas, after his family moved to the capital city of Austin when he was six months old. His father, an acoustical engineer, left the family four years later. Hardin graduated in 1949 from Lamar High School in Houston. A football scholarship enabled him to attend Blinn College in Brenham, Texas for one year, and then he went to the Dallas Bible Institute for one semester. He served in the United States Army during the Korean War. He was commissioned after attending Officer Candidate School in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and he became a pilot of Forward Observer O-1 Bird Dog liaison aircraft. He attained the rank of first lieutenant. After his return from service, he began taking courses at Texas A&M University in College Stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana Dors
Diana Dors (born Diana Mary Fluck; 23 October 19314 May 1984) was an English actress and singer. Dors came to public notice as a blonde bombshell, much in the style of Americans Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren. Dors was promoted by her first husband, Dennis Hamilton, mostly in sex film-comedies and risqué modelling. After it was revealed that Hamilton had been defrauding her, she continued to play up to her established image, and she made tabloid headlines with the parties reportedly held at her house. Later, she showed talent as a performer on TV, in recordings, and in cabaret, and gained new public popularity as a regular chat-show guest. She also gave well-regarded film performances at different points in her career. According to David Thomson, "Dors represented that period between the end of the war and the coming of Lady Chatterley in paperback, a time when sexuality was naughty, repressed and fit to burst." Early life Diana Mary Fluck was born in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judy Geeson
Judith Amanda Geeson (born 10 September 1948) is an English film, stage, and television actress. She began her career primarily working on British television series, with a leading role on '' The Newcomers'' from 1965 to 1967, before making her major film debut in ''To Sir, with Love'' (1967). She starred in a range of films throughout the 1970s, from crime pictures to thriller and horror films, including '' The Executioner'' (1970), '' Fear in the Night'' (1972), '' Brannigan'' (1975) and '' The Eagle Has Landed'' (1976). Geeson appeared in several stage productions in the 1980s, including two for the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as an Off-Broadway production of '' The Common Pursuit'' (1986). After relocating to the United States she returned to television, playing the recurring character of Maggie Conway in the American series ''Mad About You'' from 1992 until 1999, as well as a recurring role on ''Gilmore Girls'' in 2002. In 2012 and 2016, she appeared in Rob Zombie' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Claydon
George Claydon (4 September 1933 – 4 October 2001) was a British actor notable for his dwarfism. His television roles included that of Photographer George in The Beatles' ''Magical Mystery Tour'', a television film that initially aired on BBC1 on Boxing Day 1967, Ginaarbrik in the 1967 ITV adaptation of ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' (1967) (which he followed by playing Nikabrik many years later in the 1989 BBC adaptation of ''Prince Caspian''), and the miniseries ''The Last Days of Pompeii'' (1984). His film appearances included the Joan Crawford horror film '' Berserk!'' (1967), as one of the Oompa Loompas in ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' (1971), and as Hercules in ''I Don't Want to Be Born'' (1975). He was "World Cup Willie", the official mascot of the England Football Team in 1966. Death Claydon died on 4 October 2001 at the age of 68, at Charing Cross Hospital Charing Cross Hospital is an acute general teaching hospital located in Hammersmit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Hardy
Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy (29 October 1925 – 3 August 2017) was an English actor who had a long career in theatre, film and television. He began his career as a classical actor and later earned widespread recognition for roles such as Siegfried Farnon in the BBC television series '' All Creatures Great and Small'', Cornelius Fudge in the ''Harry Potter'' film series and Winston Churchill in several productions, beginning with the Southern Television series '' Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years''. He was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor for ''All Creatures Great and Small'' in 1980 and ''Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years'' in 1982. Aside from acting, Hardy was an acknowledged expert on the medieval English longbow and wrote two books on the subject. Early life Hardy was born in Cheltenham in 1925 to Henry Harrison Hardy, MBE, of Old Farm, Bishop's Cleeve, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, and Edith Jocelyn, daughter of Rev. Sydney Dugdale, rector of Whitchurch, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Keen
Geoffrey Keen (21 August 1916 – 3 November 2005) was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the ''James Bond'' films. Biography Early life Keen was born in Wallingford, Berkshire, England, the son of stage actor Malcolm Keen. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School. He then joined the Little Repertory Theatre in Bristol for whom he made his stage debut in 1932. After a year in repertory he stayed for a year in Cannes before being accepted for a place at the London School of Economics. In a last-minute change of mind, he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he won the Bancroft Gold Medal after only one year. He had just joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1939 when the war started. Keen enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, though also managed to appear in an Army instructional film for Carol Reed. Career Keen made his full film debut in 1946 in '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sydney Tafler
Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s. Personal life Tafler was born into a Jewish family, the son of Eva (née Kosky) and Mark Tafler, an antique dealer. His sister, Hylda, married the film director Lewis Gilbert. Another sister, Sheila, was also an actress. He was married to the actress Joy Shelton from 1941 until his death from cancer; they had three children – two sons, Jeremy and Jonathan, and a daughter, Jennifer, who became a child actress. Career After two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Tafler first appeared on stage in London's West End in 1936, with Sir Seymour Hicks in ''The Man in Dress Clothes''. His other stage roles included the menacing character of Nat Goldberg in a production of Harold Pinter's ''The Birthday Party'', directed by the playwright; a role he reprised in Will ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim O'Connolly
James Philip O'Connolly (23 February 1926, in Birmingham – December 1986, in Hythe) was an English actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known as the associate producer of many of the ''Edgar Wallace Mysteries'' b-films made at Merton Park Studios in the early 1960s, though he also directed a number of other low budget British movies, including '' The Hi-Jackers'' (1963), '' Smokescreen'' (1964), and ''Tower of Evil'' (1972), as well as several episodes of '' The Saint''. Credits *'' The Astonished Heart'' (1950) - 3rd AD *'' Trio'' (1950) - assistant director *''The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951) - 3rd AD *''The Man in the White Suit'' (1951) - 3rd AD *'' Secret People'' (1952) - 3rd AD *'' Mandy'' (1952) - assistant director *''I Believe in You'' (1952) - 3rd AD *''The Gentle Gunman'' (1952) - 2nd AD *''Laxdale Hall'' (1953) - 2nd AD *''Personal Affair'' (1953) - 2nd unit director *''The Blazing Caravan'' (1954) (short) - production assistant *''The Dark Stairwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
