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Smiley's People (TV Series)
''Smiley’s People'' is a 1982 British six-part spy drama by the BBC. Directed by Simon Langton and produced by Jonathan Powell, it is the television adaptation of the 1979 spy novel ''Smiley's People'' by John le Carré, and a sequel to ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' (missing out the second book in the trilogy, ''The Honourable Schoolboy'', which was not filmed for cost reasons). Starring Alec Guinness, Michael Byrne, Anthony Bate and Bernard Hepton, it was first shown in the United Kingdom from 20 September to 25 October 1982, and in the United States beginning on 25 October 1982. Plot George Smiley is called out of retirement when one of his former assets, an émigré general, is found murdered. In tidying up loose ends for the "Circus", his former employer, he discovers a clandestine operation run by his nemesis, Karla, for his own personal benefit. Smiley is able to use this irregularity against Karla, forcing him to defect to the West. Cast * Alec Guinness as Georg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smiley's People
''Smiley's People'' is a spy novel by British writer John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the " Karla Trilogy", following ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' and ''The Honourable Schoolboy''. George Smiley is called out of retirement to investigate the death of one of his old agents: a former Soviet general, the head of an Estonian émigré organisation based in London. Smiley learns the general had discovered information that will lead to a final confrontation with Smiley's nemesis, the Soviet spymaster Karla. Plot Maria Ostrakova, a Soviet émigrée in Paris, is told by a Soviet agent calling himself "Kursky" that her daughter Alexandra, whom she was forced to leave behind, may be permitted to join her. Maria applies for an exit permit for her daughter; then, hearing nothing more, writes to General Vladimir, a former Soviet general and British agent, for help. Vladimir realises that Maria was used to pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Honourable Schoolboy
''The Honourable Schoolboy'' (1977) is a spy novel by British writer John le Carré. George Smiley must reconstruct an intelligence service in order to run a successful offensive espionage operation to save the service from being dismantled by the government. In 1977, the book won the Gold Dagger award for the best crime novel of the year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. ''The Honourable Schoolboy'' is the second novel in the omnibus titled either ''Smiley Versus Karla'' or ''The Quest for Karla''. Chronology This is the sixth le Carré spy novel featuring George Smiley. ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', ''The Honourable Schoolboy'' and ''Smiley's People'' were later published as an omnibus edition titled ''Smiley Versus Karla'' in 1982. Plot In 1974 George Smiley, the chief of the British secret intelligence service referred to as The Circus, is repairing the damage done to their operations by double agent Bill Haydon and looking for opportunities to target Karla, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curd Jürgens
Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens (13 December 191518 June 1982) was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens. He was well known for playing Ernst Udet in ''Des Teufels General''. His English-language roles include ''James Bond'' villain Karl Stromberg in '' The Spy Who Loved Me'' (1977), Éric Carradine in '' And God Created Woman'' (1956), and Professor Immanuel Rath in ''The Blue Angel'' (1959). Early life Jürgens was born on 13 December 1915 in the Munich borough of Solln, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire. His father, Kurt, was a trader from Hamburg, and his mother, Marie-Albertine, was a French teacher. He had two elder twin sisters, Jeanette and Marguerite. He began his working career as a journalist before becoming an actor at the urging of his actress wife, Louise Basler. He spent much of his early acting career on the stage in Vienna. Due to serious injuries that he sustained in a car accident in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor who has a career spanning seven decades in various stage productions, television, film and video games. He has been nominated for Olivier, Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 16 December 1996. In 2010, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama. In 1966, Stewart became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Stewart made his Broadway theatre debut in 1971 in a production of '' A Midsummer Night's Dream''. In 1979, he received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in '' Antony and Cleopatra'' in the West End. His first television role was in the ITV series ''Coronation Street'' in 1967. His first major screen roles were in BBC-broadcast television productions ''Fall of Eagles'' (1974), ''I, Claudius'' (1976), and ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' (1979). In 2008 he played King Clau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mario Adorf
Mario Adorf (; born 8 September 1930) is a German actor, considered to be one of the great veteran character actors of European cinema. Since 1954, he has played both leading and supporting roles in over 200 film and television productions, among them the 1979 Oscar-winning film ''The Tin Drum''. He is also the author of several successful mostly autobiographical books. Biography Adorf was born in Zürich, Switzerland, the illegitimate child of Matteo Menniti, an Italian surgeon and Alice Adorf, a German medical assistant. He grew up in his maternal grandfather's hometown, Mayen, where he was raised by his unmarried mother. He rose to fame in Europe, and particularly Germany, and also made appearances in international films, including ''Ten Little Indians'' and '' Smilla's Sense of Snow''. He also played a small role in the BBC adaptation of John le Carré's ''Smiley's People'' as a German club owner. In Italy he also played in a number of movies. In the 1960s, he married Lis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siân Phillips
Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips (born 14 May 1933), known professionally as Siân Phillips ( ), is a Welsh actress. She has performed the title roles in Ibsen's ''Hedda Gabler'' and George Bernard Shaw's '' Saint Joan''. Early life Phillips was born on 14 May 1933 in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Glamorgan, Wales, the daughter of Sally (''née'' Thomas), a teacher, and David Phillips, a steelworker who became a policeman. She is a Welsh-speaker: in the first volume of her autobiography ''Private Faces'' (1999) she notes that she spoke only Welsh for much of her childhood, learning English by listening to the radio. Phillips attended Pontardawe Grammar School and originally was known there as Jane, but her Welsh teacher called her Siân, the Welsh form of Jane. Later she took up English and philosophy at University College Cardiff. Phillips graduated from the University of Wales in 1955. She entered the RADA with a scholarship in September 1955, the same year as Diana Rigg and Glen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Paterson (actor)
William Tulloch Paterson (born 3 June 1945) is a Scottish actor with a career in theatre, film, television and radio. Throughout his career he has appeared regularly in radio drama and provided the narration for a large number of documentaries. He has appeared in films and TV series including '' Comfort and Joy'' (1984), ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' (1986), ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'' (1990), ''Wives and Daughters'' (1999), ''Sea of Souls'' (2004–2007), ''Amazing Grace'' (2006), ''Miss Potter'' (2006), ''Little Dorrit'' (2008), ''Doctor Who'' (2010), '' Outlander'' (2014), ''Fleabag'' (2016–2019), ''Inside No. 9'' (2018), ''Good Omens'' (2019), and '' Brassic'' (2020). He is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Scottish BAFTAs. Early life William Tulloch Paterson was born in Glasgow on 3 June 1945. Paterson was raised in Dennistoun by his father, a plumber, and his mother, a hairdresser. He states that his interest in acting began with a school trip to the Citize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beryl Reid
Beryl Elizabeth Reid, (17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996), was a British actress of stage and screen. She won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for ''The Killing of Sister George'', the 1980 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for '' Born in the Gardens'', and the 1982 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for ''Smiley's People''. Her film appearances included '' The Belles of St. Trinian's'' (1954), ''The Killing of Sister George'' (1968), ''The Assassination Bureau'' (1969), and ''No Sex Please, We're British'' (1973). Early life Born in Hereford in 1919,Jonathan Cecil, "Reid, Beryl Elizabeth (1919–1996)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 200available online Retrieved 30 August 2020. Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester, where she attended Withington and Levenshulme High Schools. As a child, she established a lifelong friendship with Nancy Wrigley, the daughter of the prominent classica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Lonsdale
Michael Edward Lonsdale-Crouch (24 May 1931 – 21 September 2020), commonly known as Michael Lonsdale and sometimes named as Michel Lonsdale, was a French actor and author who appeared in over 180 films and television shows. He is best known in the English-speaking world for his roles as the villain Hugo Drax in the 1979 James Bond film '' Moonraker'', the detective Claude Lebel in ''The Day of the Jackal'', The Abbot in ''The Name of the Rose'' and Dupont d'Ivry in ''The Remains of the Day''. Early life and education Lonsdale was born in Paris, the son of British Army officer Edward Lonsdale-Crouch and his half-French, half-Irish wife Simone Béraud. He was brought up initially on the island of Guernsey, then in London from 1935, and later, during the Second World War, in Casablanca, Morocco. Career He returned to Paris to study painting in 1947, but was drawn into the world of acting instead, first appearing on stage at the age of 24. Lonsdale was bilingual, and appear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Foster (actor)
John Barry Foster (21 August 1927 – 11 February 2002) was an English actor who had an extensive career in film, radio, stage and television over almost 50 years. He was best known for portraying the title character in the British crime series ''Van der Valk'' (1972–1992) and Bob Rusk in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Frenzy'' (1972). Early life Foster was born on 21 August 1927 in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, the son of a toolsetter. His family moved to Hayes, Middlesex when he was a few months old. He received his formal education at Southall County School. After leaving school, Foster trained as a plastics organic chemist at the local EMI Central Research Laboratories, while unsuccessfully submitting ideas to advertising agencies. Having been "called to the Colours" under the National Service Act 1948, Foster served with the Royal Air Force. He subsequently trained as an actor, having won a scholarship to train at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. He arrived there ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, (born 16 June 1934), is an English actress and occasional screenwriter. She has worked in the theatre, film, and television consistently since 1953. In 2008, she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for '' Cranford''. She is also a three-time Olivier Award winner, winning Best Supporting Performance in 1988 (for Multiple roles) and Best Actress for ''The Unexpected Man'' (1999) and ''Honour'' (2004). She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2001. Atkins joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1957 and made her Broadway debut in the 1966 production of ''The Killing of Sister George'', for which she received the first of four Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Play in 1967. She received subsequent nominations for, '' Vivat! Vivat Regina!'' (1972), ''Indiscretions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western World
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.Western Civilization Our Tradition; James Kurth; accessed 30 August 2011 The Western world is also known as the Occident (from the Latin word ''occidēns'' "setting down, sunset, west") in contrast to the Eastern world known as the Orient (from the Latin word ''oriēns'' "origin, sunrise, east"). Following the Discovery of America in 1492, the West came to be known as the "world of business" and trade; and might also mean the Northern half of the North–South divide, the countries of the ''Global North'' (often equated with capitalist Developed country, developed countries). [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
