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Sylvia Syms
Sylvia May Laura Syms (born 6 January 1934) is an English actress, best known for her roles in the films ''Woman in a Dressing Gown'' (1957), ''Ice Cold in Alex'' (1958), ''No Trees in the Street'' (1959), ''Victim'' (1961), and ''The Tamarind Seed'' (1974). In 2006 she portrayed The Queen Mother in the Stephen Frears movie ''The Queen'', about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and days leading up to Diana's funeral. She remains active in films, television and theatre. Personal life Syms was born in Woolwich, London, England, the daughter of Daisy (''née'' Hale) and Edwin Syms, a trade unionist and civil servant. She grew up in Well Hall, Eltham"Well Hall" entry of ''London Gazetteer'' by Russ Willey, (Chambers 2006) (online extrac and was educated at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, on whose council she later served. Her daughter Beatie Edney is also an actress, and she is the aunt of musicians Nick and Alex Webb. Caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of The British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V and comprises five classes across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were originally made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire (later Commonwealth) and the Viceroy of India. Nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most Commonwealth countries ceased recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire when they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senate House complex of the University of London and is a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. It is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, founded in 1904 by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. It moved to buildings on Gower Street in 1905. It was granted a Royal Charter in 1920 and a new theatre was built on Malet Street, behind the Gower Street buildings that was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1921. It received its first government subsidy in 1924. RADA currently has five theatres and a cinema. The school’s Principal Industry Partner is Warner Bros. Entertainment. RADA offers a number of foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Its higher education awards are validated by King's College London ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Hancock
Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ''Hancock's Half Hour'', first broadcast on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James, when it became known in early 1960, disappointed many at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best-remembered work (including " The Blood Donor" and "The Radio Ham"). After breaking with his scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career declined. Early life and career Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham (then in Warwickshire), but, from the age of three, he was brought up in Bournemouth (then in Hampshire), where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road, worked as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Quare Fellow
''The Quare Fellow'' is Brendan Behan's first play, first produced in 1954. The title is taken from a Hiberno-English pronunciation of ''queer''. Plot The play is set in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. The anti-hero of the play, The Quare Fellow, is never seen or heard; he functions as the play's central conceit. He is a man condemned to die on the following day, for killing his brother. It revolts his fellow inmates far less than that of The Other Fellow, a very camp, almost Wildean, gay man. There are three generations of prisoners in Mountjoy including boisterous youngsters who can irritate both other inmates and the audience and the weary old lags Neighbour and "methylated martyr" Dunlavin. The first act is played out in the cramped area outside five cells and is comedic. After the interval, the pace slows considerably and the play becomes much darker, as the time for the execution approaches. The focus moves to the exercise yard and to the workers who are digging the grave for the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan (; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television. Born in the United States to Irish emigrant parents, he was raised in Ireland and England. He began his career in England in the 1950s and rose to prominence for his role as secret agent John Drake in the ITC espionage programme ''Danger Man'' (1960–1968). He then produced and created ''The Prisoner'' (1967–1968), a surrealistic television series in which he starred as Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village. Beginning in the 1970s, McGoohan maintained a long-running association with ''Columbo'', writing, directing, producing and appearing in several episodes. His notable film roles include Dr. Paul Ruth in ''Scanners'' (1981) and King Edward I in '' Braveheart'' (1995). He was a BAFTA Award and two-time Primetime Emmy Award winner. Early life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and is the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart history, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Richard was originally marketed as a rebellious rock and roll singer in the style of Presley and Little Richard. With his backing group, the Shadows, he dominated the British popular music scene in the pre-Beatles period of the late 1950s to early 1960s. His 1958 hit single "Move It" is often described as Britain's first authentic rock and roll song. In the early 1960s, he had a prosperous screen career with films including '' The Young Ones'', '' Summer Holiday'' and '' Wonderful Life'' and his own television show at the BBC. Increased focus on his Christian faith and subsequent softening of his music led t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Expresso Bongo (film)
''Expresso Bongo'' is a 1959 British Drama (film and television), drama musical film directed by Val Guest, shot in uncredited black & white Dyaliscope and starring Laurence Harvey, Cliff Richard, and Yolande Donlan. It is adapted from the Expresso Bongo, stage musical of the same name, which was first produced on the stage at the Saville Theatre, London, on 23 April 1958. In the film, Cliff Richard and the Shadows made their second screen appearance in a film released during 1959, the first being the much darker ''Serious Charge''. The later film was made at Shepperton Studios, near London, with certain scenes shot on location in London's Soho district. Plot Laurence Harvey plays sleazy hustler Johnny Jackson, who is always on the lookout for fresh talent to exploit, while managing his hectic life with his stripper girlfriend, Maisie King. Maisie is looking to find a better life in singing. Jackson discovers a teenage singer named Bert Rudge, played by Cliff Richard, in an espre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Moonraker
''The Moonraker'' is a British swashbuckler film made in 1957 and released in 1958 and set in the English Civil War. It was directed by David MacDonald and starred George Baker, Sylvia Syms, Marius Goring, Gary Raymond, Peter Arne, John Le Mesurier and Patrick Troughton."Moonraker, The", ''Monthly Film Bulletin''; London Vol. 25, Iss. 288, (1 January 1958): 62. It is based on the 1952 play of the same title by Arthur Watkyn. It was shot at Elstree Studios with sets designed by the art director Robert Jones The film depicts a fictionalised account of the escape of Charles II, arranged by a foppish royalist nobleman, the Earl of Dawlish, who leads a double life as a roundhead-baiting highwayman called The Moonraker, who already has helped more than thirty royalists to escape to France. The film was one of the last productions made by the Robert Clarke regime at Associated British-Pathe. Synopsis After the Battle of Worcester at the end of the Second English Civil War, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of religious freedom. It was part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The first (1642–1646) and second (1648–1649) wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The wars also involved the Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates. The war ended with Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. Unlike other civil wars in England, which were mainly fought over who should rule, these conflicts were also concerned with how the three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland should be governed. The outcome was threefold: the trial of and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Andrews
Harry Stewart Fleetwood Andrews, CBE (10 November 1911 – 6 March 1989) was an English actor known for his film portrayals of tough military officers. His performance as Regimental Sergeant Major Wilson in '' The Hill'' (1965) alongside Sean Connery earned Andrews the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for the 1966 BAFTA Award for Best British Actor. The first of his more than 80 film appearances was in ''The Red Beret'' in 1953. Prior to his film career, Andrews was a theatre actor, appearing at such venues as the Queen's Theatre, the Lyceum Theatre, and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in the UK as well as theatres in New York City, Paris, Antwerp and Brussels. Andrews made his London theatre debut in 1935 at the St James's Theatre and his New York debut in 1936 at the Empire Theatre. He was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1966. Early life Harry Andrews was born on 10 November 1911, in Tonbri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Quayle
Sir John Anthony Quayle (7 September 1913 – 20 October 1989) was a British actor and theatre director. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role as Thomas Wolsey in the film ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' (1969). He also played important roles in such major studio productions as '' The Guns of Navarone'' (1961), ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), '' The Fall of the Roman Empire'' (1964), ''Operation Crossbow'' (1965), ''QB VII'' (1974) and '' The Eagle Has Landed'' (1976). Quayle was knighted in the 1985 New Years Honours List. Early life Quayle was born at 2, Delamere Road, Ainsdale, Southport, Lancashire, to solicitor Arthur Quayle, of a Manx family, and Esther Kate, née Overton. He was educated at the private Abberley Hall School and Rugby School and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. After appearing in music hall, he joined the Old Vic in 1932. During World War II, he was a British Army officer and was made one of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Mills
Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 190823 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portrayed guileless, wounded war heroes. In 1971, he received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''Ryan's Daughter''. For his work in film Mills was knighted by Elizabeth II in 1976. In 2002, he received a BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and was named a Disney Legend by The Walt Disney Company. Early life John Mills was born on 22 February 1908 in North Elmham, Norfolk, the son of Edith Mills (née Baker), a theatre box office manager, and Lewis Mills, a mathematics teacher. Mills was born at Watts Naval School, where his father was a master. He spent his early years in the village of Belton where his father was the headmaster of the village school. He first felt the thrill o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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