|
The Company Of Youth
The Company of Youth was an acting school for young contract players for the Rank Organisation who were being groomed for stardom. It was commonly known as the Rank Charm School. History The Company of Youth was a conscious attempt by J. Arthur Rank to manufacture stars similar to the Hollywood studio system. He was also inspired by the success Gainsborough Pictures had in developing British stars such as Stewart Granger, James Mason, Patricia Roc, Margaret Lockwood, and Phyllis Calvert. Producer Sydney Box originally set up a Company of Youth at Riverside Studios in December 1945. Box put half a dozen young actors under contract and placed them in bit roles while they learnt their craft. Box transferred the company to Gainsborough in 1946 when he was recruited by the Rank Organisation. The school was based at the church hall next to Rank's "B picture" studio at Highbury in London. Students were given an allowance of around £10 a week and trained in breathing, deportment, moveme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities. It also diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs and photocopiers (as one of the owners of Rank Xerox). The company name lasted until February 1996, when the name and some of the remaining assets were absorbed into the newly structured Rank Group plc. The company itself became a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox and was renamed XRO Limited in 1997. The company logo, the Gongman, first used in 1935 by the group's distribution company General Film DistributorsThe Independent July 16, 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman (22 August 1925 – 5 April 2020) was an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in '' The Avengers''Aaker, Everett (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 58. (1962–1964), Bond girl Pussy Galore in '' Goldfinger'' (1964), Julia Daggett in ''Shalako'' (1968), and Hera in '' Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963). She is also known for her role as Laura West in the ITV sitcom ''The Upper Hand'' (1990–1996). Early life Honor Blackman was born on 22 August 1925 in Plaistow, the daughter of Edith Eliza (Stokes) and Frederick Blackman, a civil service statistician. She attended North Ealing Primary School and Ealing County Grammar School for Girls. For her 15th birthday, her parents gave her acting lessons and began her training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1940. While attending the Guildhall School, Blackman worked as a clerical assistant for the Home Office. Following graduation, she was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elspet Gray
Elspet Jean Gray, Baroness Rix (née Gray; 12 April 1929 – 18 February 2013) was a Scottish actress, who first became known for her partnership with her husband, Brian Rix, and later was cast in many television roles in the 1970s and 1980s. She played Lady Collingford in the television series ''Catweazle'' and Mrs. Palmer in the television series ''Solo'', alongside Felicity Kendal. Career Gray had a long stage career, particularly known for her appearances in the Whitehall farces, the company being managed by her husband Brian Rix, which were originally performed at the Whitehall Theatre and later at the Garrick. Gray appeared in many films and television programmes, her earliest being '' The Blind Goddess'' (1948). She had several roles in the 1970s including parts in ''Fawlty Towers'', as the paediatrician wife of a psychiatrist baffled by Basil Fawlty’s behaviour, ''The Crezz'', ''Catweazle'', and in the 1980s with ''Doctor Who'' story ''Arc of Infinity'' and the World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peggy Evans
Peggy Evans (10 January 1921 – 26 July 2015) was an English actress. She trained at the Rank Organisation's The Company of Youth (a "charm school"). Early years One of four children, Evans was born in Sheffield but grew up in Ealing, west London. As a teenager, her winning a creative writing contest earned her a screen test with the Rank Organization. Film After having bit parts in ''Lightning Conductor'' (1938) and ''Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt'' (1940), Evans entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for training. Her work in ''Penny and the Pownall Case'' (1948) was praised in ''Monthly Film Review'': "Peggy Evans ... is a sparkling heroine, who not only looks extremely attractive but acts with naturalness and charm as well." On stage she appeared in the 1953 West End play '' Four Winds''. Personal life Evans was married twice: to actor Michael Howard from 1949 to 1956; the union produced two children but ended in divorce. She married, secondly, to Peter Stevens in 1990; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shirley Eaton
Shirley Jean Eaton (born 12 January 1937) is an English actress, author and singer. Eaton appeared regularly in British films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and gained her highest profile for her iconic appearance as Bond Girl Jill Masterson in the James Bond film '' Goldfinger'' (1964), which gained her bombshell status. Eaton also had roles in the early ''Carry On'' films. Preferring to devote herself to bringing up a family, she retired from acting in 1969. Eaton came out of retirement in 1999 to release her autobiography titled ''Golden Girl'', which was a bestseller, and has released three more books throughout the 2000s. Early life Eaton was born on 12 January 1937 in Edgware General Hospital, Middlesex, and brought up in the suburb of Kingsbury. She attended Roe Green Primary School on Princes Avenue, and although living close to both Kingsbury County Grammar School and Tylers Croft Secondary Modern School, won a place at the Aida Foster Theatre School, a specialist d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patsy Drake
Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among Italian Americans, it is often used as a pet name for Pasquale. In older usage, Patsy was also a nickname for Martha or Matilda, following a common nicknaming pattern of changing an M to a P (such as in Margaret → Meg/Meggy → Peg/Peggy; and Molly → Polly) and adding a feminine suffix. President George Washington called his wife Martha "Patsy" in private correspondence. President Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter Martha was known by the nickname "Patsy", while his daughter Mary was called "Polly". People with the name Female * Patsy Biscoe (born 1946), Australian children's entertainer * Patricia Patsy Burt (1928–2001), British motor racing driver * Patricia Patsy Byrne (1933–2014), English actress * Patsy Chapman (born ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandra Dorne
Sandra Dorne (born Joan Smith; 19 June 1924 – 25 December 1992) was a British actress. Career Also known as Sandra Holt, Dorne was often known in the 1950s as the B-film Diana Dors. As a platinum blonde, she was a regular female lead in B-films in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She trained at the Rank Organisation's "charm school". Film roles dried up as she grew older, but she still found work and acted mainly in British television, appearing in such series as ''Z-Cars'', '' The Avengers'' and ''The Third Man''. Personal life Married to the actor Patrick Holt from 1954 until her death, Dorne died on Christmas Day 1992 at Paddington Community Hospital, Westminster, London. The cause of death was kidney cancer. Partial filmography * ''Eyes That Kill'' (1947) – Joan * ''Saraband for Dead Lovers'' (1948) – (uncredited) * '' A Piece of Cake'' (1948) – Minor Role (uncredited) * ''Once a Jolly Swagman'' (1949) – Kay Fox * ''All Over the Town'' (1949) – Marlene ... [...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] |
Patricia Dainton
Patricia Dainton (born 12 April 1930) is a Scottish actress who appeared in a number of film and television roles between 1947 and 1961. Early years Dainton was born Margaret Bryden Pate, in Hamilton, Scotland, the daughter of film and stage agent Vivienne Black. She left Scotland at age ten, moving to London. She attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London and the Cone school of dance. Stage After her stage debut at Stratford-upon-Avon, Dainton acted in the suburbs of London, with roles in ''Babette'', ''Watch on the Rhine'', ''Quiet Wedding'', and ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. Film Dainton's "dancing and acting debut in Technicolor" came in ''The Dancing Years'', with her screen debut in the 1947 film ''Dancing with Crime''. She trained at the Rank Organisation's "charm school". (Another source says that Dainton "made her first film debut in 1942 in ''The Bells Go Down''.") Her twin brother, George Bryden also made a couple of film and stage appearances ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hazel Court
Hazel Court (10 February 1926 – 15 April 2008) was an English actress. She is known for her roles in British and American horror films during the 1950s and early 1960s, including Terence Fisher's ''The Curse of Frankenstein'' (1957) and ''The Man Who Could Cheat Death'' (1959) for Hammer Film Productions, and three of Roger Corman's adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories for American International Pictures: ''The Premature Burial'' (1962), ''The Raven'' (1963) and ''The Masque of the Red Death'' (1964). Early life Court was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. Her father, G.W. Court, was a cricketer who played for Durham CCC. She attended Boldmere School and Highclare College, and later studied drama at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Alexandra Theatre. Career At the age of sixteen, Court met film director Anthony Asquith in London; the meeting gained her a brief part in '' Champagne Charlie'' (1944). Court won a British Critics Award for her role as a cripp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Collins
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 1983, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been recognised for her philanthropy, particularly her advocacy towards causes relating to children, which has earned her many honours. In 2015, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her charitable services. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Collins was born in Paddington, London and trained as an actress in her teens at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She signed to The Rank Organisation at the age of 17 and had small roles in the British films ''Lady Godiva Rides Again'' (1951) and ''The Woman's Angle'' (1952) before taking on a supporting role in ''Judgment Deferred'' (1952). Collins went unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
