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Unidentified Flying Oddball
''Unidentified Flying Oddball'' is a 1979 science fiction comedy film. It is based on Mark Twain's 1889 novel ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', directed by Russ Mayberry and produced by Walt Disney Productions. Released in the United Kingdom as ''The Spaceman and King Arthur'', then subsequently re-released in the United States as ''A Spaceman in King Arthur's Court'', the film stars Dennis Dugan as NASA employee Tom Trimble who unintentionally travels back in time with his look-alike android Hermes. Premise After Trimble's NASA spacecraft travels faster than the speed of light, it takes him and his android back to King Arthur's Camelot in the year 508 AD. They then use their 20th-century technology to help defeat a plot by the evil Sir Mordred and Merlin to oust King Arthur from his throne. Cast *Dennis Dugan as Tom Trimble/Hermes *Jim Dale as Sir Mordred *Ron Moody as Merlin *Kenneth More as King Arthur *John Le Mesurier as Sir Gawain *Rodney Bewes as Cla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russ Mayberry
Russell B. Mayberry (December 22, 1925 – July 27, 2012) was an American television director. Early life and career Mayberry was born on December 22, 1925, in Duluth, Minnesota. He later moved to Chicago, Illinois, after serving as a Navy aviator during World War II. He was educated at Northwestern University. Throughout a career that started in 1947, Mayberry amassed a number of credits in television. His credits include ''The Monkees'', ''Bewitched'', ''I Dream of Jeannie'', ''That Girl'', ''The Brady Bunch'', ''The Partridge Family'', ''The Andy Griffith Show'', ''Alias Smith and Jones'', '' McCloud'', ''Marcus Welby, M.D.'', ''The Rockford Files'', ''Kojak'', ''The Fall Guy'', '' Baa Baa Black Sheep'', ''Miami Vice'', ''Dallas'', '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' , '' In the Heat of the Night'', '' Matlock'', '' The Rebels'' and other series. Later career He directed '' Unidentified Flying Oddball'' (1979) starring Dennis Dugan for Walt Disney Productions. He also direct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film and it is derived from the classical comedy in theatre. Some of the earliest silent films were comedies, as slapstick comedy often relies on visual depictions, without requiring sound. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1930s, comedy films took another swing, as laughter could result from burlesque situations but also dialogue. Comedy, compared with other film genres, puts much more focus on individual stars, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity. In '' The Screenwriters Taxonomy'' (2017), Eric R. Williams contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character, and story. Therefore the labels "drama" and "comedy" are t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyril Shaps
Cyril Leonard Shaps (13 October 1923 – 1 January 2003) was an English actor of radio, television and film, with a career spanning over seven decades. Early radio Shaps was born in the East End of London to Polish-Jewish parents; his father was a tailor. Shaps was a child broadcaster, at the London School of Broadcasting providing voices for radio commercials from the age of 12. He was educated at Central Foundation Boys' School, then took an office job with the London Ambulance Service. Following service as a warrant officer in the Royal Army Educational Corps during World War II, he was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and then worked for two years as an announcer, producer and scriptwriter for Radio Netherlands. His short stature and round face then led to a steady flow of character roles in film and television in a career spanning nearly 50 years. Film Shaps's film appearances included bit parts in ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), as the officer's club ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Beatty
Robert Rutherford Beatty (19 October 1909 – 3 March 1992) was a Canadian actor who worked in film, television and radio for most of his career and was especially known in the UK. Early years Beatty was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, the son of Charles Thompson Beatty and Blanch Sarah Rutherford. He attended Delta Collegiate School and earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto.Aaker, Everett (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 35–38. He began his acting career in Britain in 1939. Career Stage Beatty joined the Players' Guild of Hamilton after graduation from the University of Toronto. He went to London, England, in 1936 and joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. It was with the RADA that he made his English stage debut. In 1939 he appeared in the West End theatre, West End in N.C. Hunter's comedy ''Grouse in June''. Film Beatty's film credits include: ''San Demetrio London'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheila White (actress)
Sheila Susan White (18 October 1948 – 7 September 2018) was an English film, television and stage actress. Early life and career Sheila White was born in London. She began her career at the age of 12 as a member of Terry's Juveniles in the pantomime ''Cinderella'' at the ''Golders Green Hippodrome'', starring Arthur Askey. This led to three years in the London production of ''The Sound of Music'' at the Palace Theatre, playing firstly Brigitta and then Louisa von Trapp. She then became a student at the Corona Stage School in Hammersmith, West London. White made her television debut at the age of sixteen in an episode of ''The Wednesday Play'' with Geraldine McEwan in 1965. A theatre tour of ''Counter Crime'' followed, then the musical tour of ''The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd'' starring Norman Wisdom and Willoughby Goddard, written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley in which she played one of the urchins alongside Elaine Paige, with choreography by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodney Bewes
Rodney Bewes (27 November 1937 – 21 November 2017) was an English television actor and writer who portrayed Bob Ferris in the BBC television sitcom ''The Likely Lads'' (1964–66) and its colour sequel ''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'' (1973–74). Bewes' later career was of a much lower profile, but he continued to work as a stage actor. Early life Bewes was born in Bingley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to Horace, an Eastern Electricity Board showroom clerk, and Bessie, who was a teacher of children with learning difficulties. His family lived for a few years in the Crossflatts district of Bingley, before they moved to Luton, where he attended Stopsley Secondary School. Because of his early ill-health (he suffered from asthma and bronchitis), one of the reasons the family moved, his mother tended to keep him off school. His illness receded, and the family eventually returned to the north. Having seen an advertisement in the '' Daily Herald'', Bewes auditioned for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gawain
Gawain (), also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest Welsh sources. He has subsequently appeared in many Arthurian stories in Welsh, Latin, French, English, Scottish, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian, notably as the protagonist of the famous Middle English poem ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''. Other tales featuring Gawain as the central character include '' De Ortu Waluuanii'', ''Diu Crône'', '' Ywain and Gawain'', '' Golagros and Gawane'', '' Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle'', '' L'âtre périlleux'', '' La Mule sans frein'', '' La Vengeance Raguidel'', '' Le Chevalier à l'épée'', '' The Awntyrs off Arthure'', '' The Greene Knight'', and '' The Weddynge of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnell''. In Arthurian chivalric romance literature, Gawain is usually depicted as King Arthur's clo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merlin
Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and legendary figures, was introduced by the 12th-century British author Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is believed that Geoffrey combined earlier tales of Myrddin and Ambrosius, two legendary Briton prophets with no connection to Arthur, to form the composite figure called Merlinus Ambrosius ( cy, Myrddin Emrys, br, Merzhin Ambroaz). Geoffrey's rendering of the character became immediately popular, especially in Wales. Later writers in France and elsewhere expanded the account to produce a fuller image, creating one of the most important figures in the imagination and literature of the Middle Ages. Merlin's traditional biography casts him as an often-mad being born of a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, from whom he inherits his supernatural powe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modred
Mordred or Modred (; Welsh: ''Medraut'' or ''Medrawt'') is a figure who is variously portrayed in the legend of King Arthur. The earliest known mention of a possibly historical Medraut is in the Welsh chronicle ''Annales Cambriae'', wherein he and Arthur are ambiguously associated with the Battle of Camlann in a brief entry for the year 537. Medraut's figure seemed to have been regarded positively in the early Welsh tradition and may have been related to that of Arthur's son. As Modredus, Mordred was depicted as Arthur's traitorous nephew and a legitimate son of King Lot in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-historical work ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' which then served as the basis for the following evolution of the legend from the 12th century. Later variants most often characterised him as Arthur's villainous bastard son, born of an incestuous relationship with his half-sister, the queen of Lothian or Orkney named either Anna, Orcades, or Morgause. The accounts presented in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camelot
Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world. The stories locate it somewhere in Great Britain and sometimes associate it with real cities, though more usually its precise location is not revealed. Most scholars regard it as being entirely fictional, its unspecified geography being perfect for chivalric romance writers. Nevertheless, arguments about the location of the "real Camelot" have occurred since the 15th century and continue today in popular works and for tourism purposes. Etymology The name's derivation is uncertain. It has numerous different spellings in medieval French Arthurian romances, including ''Camaalot'', ''Camalot'', ''Chamalot'', ''Camehelot'' (sometimes read as ''Camchilot''), ''Camaaloth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Arthur
King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a leader of the post-Roman Britons in battles against Saxon invaders of Britain in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. He appears in two early medieval historical sources, the ''Annales Cambriae'' and the ''Historia Brittonum'', but these date to 300 years after he is supposed to have lived, and most historians who study the period do not consider him a historical figure.Tom Shippey, "So Much Smoke", ''review'' of , ''London Review of Books'', 40:24:23 (20 December 2018) His name also occurs in early Welsh poetic sources such as ''Y Gododdin''. The character developed through Welsh mythology, appearing either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore, sometimes associated wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speed Of Light
The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit for the speed at which conventional matter or energy (and thus any signal carrying information) can travel through space. All forms of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, travel at the speed of light. For many practical purposes, light and other electromagnetic waves will appear to propagate instantaneously, but for long distances and very sensitive measurements, their finite speed has noticeable effects. Starlight viewed on Earth left the stars many years ago, allowing humans to study the history of the universe by viewing distant objects. When communicating with distant space probes, it can take minutes to hours for signals to travel from Earth to the spacecraft and vice versa. In computing, the speed of light fixes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
