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Peggy Ramsay
Margaret Francesca Ramsay (27 May 1908 - 4 September 1991) was an Australian-born British theatrical agent.Christopher Stevens ''Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams'', London: John Murray, 2010, p.409 Early life Peggy Ramsay was born to English parents in Molong, New South Wales, Australia. Her father's name was originally Vilenski, but her mother believed this Jewish name was a social drawback so had it changed to Venniker. Her family had settled in South Africa by the end of the Great War, in which her father served in the South African Medical Corps. During a brief and unhappy marriage, she came to England in 1929; her husband Norman Ramsay was under investigation in South Africa. After touring with an opera company, and a spell as an actress, she began reading scripts for theatrical managers including Peter Daubeny, who was later known for organising annual World Theatre Seasons. Theatrical agent As she was gaining no financial return from scripts she was fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molong
Molong is a small town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Cabonne Shire. History The name Molong comes from the Aboriginal word for 'all rocks'. William Lee of Kelso is said to have had cattle in the area by 1819. He later held property just north of present Molong, around Larras Lee. In 1826, a military and police outpost was established at Molong, on Governor Darling's orders, as a step in opening up the government stock reserve west of the Macquarie River for settlement. For its first twenty years the settlement was at a site approximately east of the current location. The present village of Molong was officially gazetted in March 1849. In 1845, Copper was discovered at Copper Hill, just north of the town. The Historical Museum is housed in a former hotel (1856), built by rubble-mason James Mortal, who sold it in 1861 to John Smith of Gamboola. Smith let the building to a series of publicans and it later became the residence and surgery for a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Orton
John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brief period he shocked, outraged, and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies. The adjective ''Ortonesque'' refers to work characterised by a similarly dark yet farcical cynicism. Early life Orton was born on 1 January 1933 at Causeway Lane Maternity Hospital, Leicester, to William Arthur Orton and Elsie Mary Orton (née Bentley). William worked for Leicester County Borough Council as a gardener and Elsie worked in the local footwear industry until tuberculosis cost her a lung. At the time of Joe's birth William and Mary were living with William's family at 261 Avenue Road Extension in Clarendon Park, Leicester. The same year that Joe's younger brother Douglas was born, 1935, the Ortons moved to 9 Fayrhurst Road on the Saffron Lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Callow
Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English film, television and voice actor, director, narrator and writer. He was twice nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his roles in ''A Room with a View (1985 film), A Room with a View'' (1985), and ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' (1994). He has also starred in ''Amadeus (film), Amadeus'' (1984), ''Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls'' (1995), ''Shakespeare in Love'' (1998) and ''Victoria & Abdul'' (2017). His television work includes ''Chance in a Million'' (1984) and ''Outlander (TV series), Outlander'' (2014). Early years Callow was born on 15 June 1949 in Streatham, south London, the son of Yvonne Mary (née Guise), a secretary, and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman. His father was of French descent and his mother was of Danish and German ancestry. He was raised as a Roman Catholic. Callow was a student at the London Oratory School in west Brompton, and then went on to study briefly at Queen's U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington OBE (born 16 November 1939) is a British author and arts critic. He writes for ''The Guardian'', and was the paper's chief drama critic from 1971 to 2019. Billington is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts. He is the authorised biographer of the playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008). Early life and education Billington was born on 16 November 1939, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, and attended Warwick School, an independent boys' school in Warwick. He attended St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 1958 to 1961, where he studied English and was appointed theatre critic of '' Cherwell''. He graduated with a BA degree. As a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), in 1959, Billington played the Priest in '' The Birds'', by Aristophanes, his only appearance as an actor, and, in 1960, he directed a production of Eugène Ionesco's ''The Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Plater
Alan Frederick Plater (15 April 1935 – 25 June 2010) was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s. Career Plater was born in Jarrow, County Durham, although his family moved to Hull in 1938. He attended Kingston High School. Jarrow was much publicised as a severely economically depressed area before the Second World War (Plater joked that his family left Jarrow just after the Great Depression to catch Hull just before the Blitz). He trained as an architect at King's College, Newcastle (later the Newcastle University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape), but only practised in the profession briefly, at a junior level. He later stated that it was shortly after he was forced to fend off a herd of pigs from eating his tape measure while he was surveying a field that he left to pursue writing full-time. Plater stayed in the north of England for many years after he became prominent as a writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vanessa Redgrave
Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, two Golden Globe Awards, two Cannes Film Festival Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Volpi Cup and a Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. She has also received various honorary awards, including the BAFTA Fellowship Award, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and an induction into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Redgrave made her acting debut on stage with the production of ' in 1958. She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in the Shakespearean comedy ''As You Like It'' with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since starred in more than 35 productions in London's West End and on Broadway, winning the 1984 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Rev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prick Up Your Ears
''Prick Up Your Ears'' is a 1987 British film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the 1978 biography by John Lahr. The film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr, and Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay. Plot Islington, 9 August 1967. Literary agent Peggy Ramsay knocks on the door of playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell, but nobody opens. She calls the police. They find the corpses of the two men. A decade later theatre critic John Lahr visits Peggy Ramsey because he wants to write Orton's biography. They find Orton's diaries, and Peggy tells Lahr about Orton's life. Orton and Halliwell's relationship began at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Orton started out as the uneducated youth to Halliwell's older faux-sophisticate. As the relationship progressed, however, Orton grew increasingly confident in his talent whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Ramsay - Blue Plaque
Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular throughout the Middle Ages. It became less popular between the 16th century and 18th century, but became more common again after this period, becoming the second-most popular female name in the United States in 1903. Since this time, it has become less common, but was still the ninth-most common name for women of all ages in the United States as of the 1990 census. Margaret has many diminutive forms in many different languages, including Maggie, Madge, Daisy, Margarete, Marge, Margo, Margie, Marjorie, Meg, Megan, Rita, Greta, Gretchen, and Peggy. Name variants Full name * (Irish) * (Irish) * (Dutch), (German), (Swedish) * (English) Diminutives * (English) * (English) First half * ( French) * (Welsh) Second half * (English), (G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods. The ancient settlement of "Brighthelmstone" was documented in the ''Domesday Book'' (1086). The town's importance grew in the Middle Ages as the Old Town developed, but it languished in the early modern period, affected by foreign attacks, storms, a suffering economy and a declining population. Brighton began to attract more visitors following improved road transport to London and becoming a boarding point for boats travelling to France. The town also developed in popularity as a health resort for sea bathing as a purported cure for illnesses. In the Georgian era, Brighton developed as a highly fashionable seaside resort, encouraged by the patronage of the Prince Regent, later King George IV, who spent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK. The Library is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The British Library is a major research library, with items in many languages and in many formats, both print and digital: books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, videos, play-scripts, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings. The Library's collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial holdings of manuscripts and items dating as far back as 2000 BC. The library maintains a programme for content acquis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term memory, remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include primary progressive aphasia, problems with language, Orientation (mental), disorientation (including easily getting lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, self-neglect, and challenging behaviour, behavioral issues. As a person's condition declines, they often withdraw from family and society. Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death. Although the speed of progression can vary, the typical life expectancy following diagnosis is three to nine years. The cause of Alzheimer's disease is poorly understood. There are many environmental and genetic risk factors associated with its development. The strongest genetic risk factor is from an alle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Lahr
John Henry Lahr (born July 12, 1941) is an American theater critic and writer. From 1992 to 2013, he was a staff writer and the senior drama critic at ''The New Yorker''. He has written more than twenty books related to theater. Lahr has been called "one of the greatest biographers writing today". Early life Lahr was born in Los Angeles, California to a Jewish family. He is the son of Mildred "Millie" Schroeder, a Ziegfeld girl, and Bert Lahr, an actor and comedian most famous for portraying the Cowardly Lion in ''The Wizard of Oz (1939 film), The Wizard of Oz''. When his father left movies for the stage, the family moved from their home in Coldwater Canyon to Manhattan. Until his father was on the cover of ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine when Lahr was in grade school, he did not know what his father did for a living. Lahr wrote:On stage, Dad was sensational; in private he was sensationally taciturn: a brooding absent presence, to be encountered mostly in his bedroom chair at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
