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1-50 of 93
- Actress
- Production Manager
Victoria Hamilton is an English actress. After training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Hamilton began her career in classical theatre, appearing in productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. In 2002, she appeared in the London stage play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg alongside Clive Owen and later Eddie Izzard. She made her Broadway debut in 2003 when the production moved to New York, where she earned a Tony Award nomination. She won the Critics' Circle Theatre Award and Evening Standard Theatre Award for her performance in the play Suddenly, Last Summer, held in 2004 at the Lyceum Theatre.
Hamilton has often worked in the costume drama genre. During the 1990s, she had supporting roles in three Jane Austen adaptations: the 1995 serial Pride and Prejudice, the 1995 film Persuasion, and the 1999 film Mansfield Park.Hamilton won the role of Queen Victoria in the 2001 television production, Victoria & Albert, portraying the monarch in her early years. From 2008 to 2011, Hamilton was a cast member in the BBC1 series Lark Rise to Candleford. From 2016-17, she portrayed Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in the Netflix historical drama series The Crown.- Actress
- Writer
Dakota Blue Richards, was born at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in South Kensington, London but grew up in Brighton with her mother. She is of Prussian heritage on her Grandmother's side, and Irish on her father's. The name Dakota Blue was inspired by her mother's time spent with Native Americans while studying and traveling in USA. At school, she enjoyed drama, dance and the arts, was an active participant in school plays and attended a local amateur dramatics group in her spare time.
She made her professional acting debut age 12, starring alongside Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig as Lyra Belaqua in the film adaptation of Phillip Pullman's The Northern Lights (The Golden Compass). Ten thousand girls turned up for open auditions in Cambridge, Oxford, Exeter and Kendal for the role; Richards was awarded the part after the casting directors Lucy Bevan and Fiona Weir took a shine to her at the Cambridge auditions. Richards, who was a fan of the books from an early age and had seen the stage adaptation at The National Theatre, said of her character 'I feel like I can relate to her. I like to think I'm quite brave. I stand up for myself. And I don't let other people tell me what to do. Well, unless it's my mum.'
She has been nominated for two best actress awards for her portrayal of popular character Franky Fitzgerald in E4's BAFTA-winning drama Skins, and a multitude of awards, including a Saturn award, for her role in The Golden Compass.
Richards took up screenwriting during her time as WPC Shirley Trewlove in ITV's Endeavour and has since completed a short and a feature length film. She described the experience of writing her first piece as 'In many ways more personal than acting. It was quite cathartic.'
Richards was photographed by RANKIN as part of Ocean 2012, a campaign to prevent over fishing, alongside the likes of Sir Ben Kingsley, Terry Gilliam and Lily Loveless. In 2013 she modelled for fashion designer SORAPOL's AW13 campaign 'Immortal'. She has also been photographed by noted fashion photographer Kate Bellm and was the first woman to appear on the cover of 7th Man magazine.
In her personal life, Richards takes a keen interest in politics and global issues. In 2008, she attended a two-week camp in the Lake District organised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission which aimed to bring together teenagers from different backgrounds to discuss discrimination. Since 2010, she has supported Action for Children, a charity in the United Kingdom helping vulnerable young people overcome injustice and deprivation. In 2011, she fronted an advertising campaign to promote the charity's new project. She is a long time supporter of Good Gifts. Richards is also a vegan.- Actor
- Director
- Music Department
Martin Clunes was born the son of the noted Shakespearean actor Alec Clunes. He was educated at the Royal Russell School in Surrey and the Arts Educational School in Chiswick, London. He made his television debut playing an alien prince opposite Peter Davison in Snakedance: Part One (1983) (director Fiona Cumming later said she cast him because she was struck by his unusual looks and "Mick Jagger lips"). He then won a regular role in No Place Like Home (1983), a fairly traditional middle-class BBC sitcom starring William Gaunt.
Clunes' greatest breakthrough came with starring in British Men Behaving Badly (1992), an anarchic sitcom which proved to be one of the most popular series of the 1990s. He has since established himself as one of the UK's most consistently popular television actors, starring in the long-running Doc Martin (2004), recreating Leonard Rossiter's famous role in a new version of Reggie Perrin (2009) and playing Arthur Conan Doyle in Arthur & George (2015).- Lily Newmark is a British-American actor, born and raised in London. Her interest in performance began at 14, when she made costumes for the National Youth Theatre. After spending two years with the Albany Theatre Company in Deptford, she later joined the National Youth Theatre as an actor. She studied Acting and Contemporary Theatre at East 15 Acting school in Loughton, Essex, graduating in 2016.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in London, England, John Gielgud trained at Lady Benson's Acting School and RADA, London. Best known for his Shakespearean roles in the theater, he first played Hamlet at the age of 26. He worked under the tutelage of Lilian Bayliss with friend and fellow performer Laurence Olivier and other contemporaries of the National Theatre at the "Old Vic", London. He made his screen debut in 1924. Academy Award Best Supporting Actor, 1981, for Arthur (1981), Academy Award Nomination, 1964, for Becket (1964).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Despite being one of the finest actors of his generation, Peter Finch will be remembered as much for his reputation as a hard-drinking, hell-raising womanizer as for his performances on the screen. He was born in London in 1916 and went to live in Sydney, Australia, at the age of ten. There, he worked in a series of dead-end jobs before taking up acting, his film debut being in the mediocre comedy The Farmer Goes to Town (1938). He made his stage debut as a comedian's stooge in 1939. Laurence Olivier spotted him and persuaded him to return to Britain to perform classic roles on the stage. Finch then had an affair with Olivier's wife, Vivien Leigh. Despite being married three times, Finch also had highly-publicized affairs with actresses Kay Kendall and Mai Zetterling. Finch soon switched to film after suffering appalling stage fright. As a screen actor, he won five BAFTA awards and his talent was beyond doubt. His two finest roles, the only two for which he received Oscar nominations, were as the homosexual Jewish doctor in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and as the "mad prophet of the air-waves" in Network (1976). He died a couple of months before being awarded the Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in Network (1976) and was the first actor to have won the award posthumously.- Julie T. Wallace (born Julie Therese Keir) trained at LAMDA and made her stage debut as the mother/teacher in 'Billy the Kid' at the Upstream Theatre, followed by 'The House of Usher' in Aberystwyth, and 'Beauty and the Beast' in Bristol. She made her London debut in 'Anne of the Worlds' at the Royal Court. She was BAFTA nominated for her role of Ruth in the BBC television production of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1986).
- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Patricia Alma Hitchcock was the only child of Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville. Her upbringing was 'English' and strict. Two years of boarding school from the age of eight was followed by relocation to the U.S. a year later when Hitch was contracted by David O. Selznick to direct Rebecca (1940). Keen to join the acting fraternity, Pat appeared on stage by the early 40s. In 1944, she played the titular role in the short-lived Broadway play Violet at the Belasco Theater. Though she would have liked to go on to a college education, her father instead packed her off to London when she was 18 to study at RADA (among her classmates were Lionel Jeffries and Dorothy Tutin). She made several appearances on the London stage, followed by an inauspicious screen debut in 1949. In 1950, she had a small role in her father's thriller Stage Fright (1950) (as 'Chubby Bannister') which set the tone for her future roles, usually as the dowdy friend or sister of the heroine (Strangers on a Train (1951), Psycho (1960)). She was also featured in ten episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), whenever (in her own words) "they needed a maid with an English accent". In a 1984 Washington Post interview she bemoaned the fact that her father had not believed in nepotism, so that more work would have come her way. In 1951, Pat got married and -- barely a decade later -- decided to forsake show business to raise a family. Her father did not object. In 2003, Pat published a book of reminiscences and anecdotes (co-authored by film writer Laurent Bouzereau), entitled Alma Hitchcock: the Woman Behind the Man, asserting that "My mother had much more to do with the films than she has ever been given credit for - he depended on her for everything, absolutely everything".- Masali Baduza is a South African film, television and theatre actress, known for The Woman King (2022) and Noughts and Crosses (2020). She grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, then studied in Los Angeles, California. She was born 12 March 1996, in East London, South Africa. She is bilingual in English and isiXhosa.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Writer
Andrew Lloyd Webber is arguably the most successful composer of our time. He is best known for stage and film adaptations of his musicals Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Cats (1994), Evita (1996), and The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
He was born on March 22, 1948, in South Kensington in London, England, the first of two sons of William Lloyd Webber, an organist and composer. His mother, Jean Johnstone, was a pianist and violinist. Young Andrew Lloyd Webber learned to play various musical instruments at home and began composing at an early age. He continued his music studies at Westminster School, where his father was an organist. At the age of 9, young Andrew was able to play the organ and assisted his father during performances. In 1964 he went to Oxford University as a Queens Scholar of history.
In 1965 he met lyricist Tim Rice and dropped out of school to compose musicals and pop songs. In 1968 he had his first success with the West End production of 'Joseph and the Amasing Techicolor Dreamcoat'. From the 1960s to 2000s Lloyd Webber has been constantly updating his style as an eclectic blend of musical genres ranging from classical to rock, pop, and jazz, and with inclusion of electro-acoustic music and choral-like numbers in his musicals.
Andrew Lloyd Webber shot to fame in 1971 with the opening of his rock opera 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. His next successful collaboration with Tim Rice was the musical biopic 'Evita', based on the true story of Eva Peron of Argentina. Andrew Lloyd Webber has been constantly updating the genre of musical theatre. In 1981 he delivered 'Cats', based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and other poems by T.S. Eliot. It was produced at New London Theatre, where stage was designed as a giant junkyard with large-scale bottles and cans scattered around a huge tire representing a playground for cats dressed in exotic costumes who would come and go through the aisles. The record-breaking production of 'Cats' was on stage for 21 seasons, from 1981 - 2002, and became one of the most popular musicals of all time. It played the total of 8,949 performances in London and 7,485 in New York.
In 1986 Andrew Lloyd Webber released his most successful musical, 'The Phantom of the Opera', based on the eponymous book by Gaston Leroux with the English lyrics by Charles Hart. 'The Phantom of the Opera' became the highest grossing entertainment event of all time, with total worldwide gross of 3,3 billion dollars and attendance of 80 million. It is also the longest running Broadway musical of all time and the most financially successful Broadway show in history. 'The Phantom of the Opera' was translated into several languages and was produced in more than twenty countries as "clones" of the original production, using similar staging, direction, costumes concept and sets design.
He was knighted Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1992, and was created an honorary life peer in 1997 as Baron Lloyd-Webber, of Syndmonton in the County of Hampshire. He won the 1996 Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song for Evita (1996), and received two more Oscar nominations. Among his other awards are seven Tonys and three Grammys, including his 1986 Grammy Award for Requiem in the category of best classical composition. In 2006 Andrew Lloyd Webber was Awarded Kennedy Center Honors. He owns seven London theatres, which he also restored. Outside of his entertainment career he developed a passion for collecting Pre-Raphaelite paintings and Victorian art. He was married three times and has five children. He is residing in England.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is currently working on his new opera titled 'Master and Margarita' based on the eponymous novel by Mikhail A. Bulgakov.- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Scot Cooper was born in East London, South Africa. A leading man with a great balance of American and English charm.
Scot has worked alongside actors such as Olga Kurylenko, James Purefoy, Rupert Friend, Gabriel Macht, and Aidan Gillen. He co-starred in the 4th season of the Emmy winning series Homeland, guest starred in the popular BBC series 'Jamillah and Aladdin', and the multi award winning film 'The World Unseen' which premiered at TIFF. With leading roles in the feature film Kecksburg, and due for release the Hallmark film A Taste of Romance, and a psychological thriller River of Ghosts. He also has a supporting role in the Box Office hit 'Maze Runner: The Death Cure.
In 2013 Scot won Best Actor at the Cape Town 48 Film Festival, with the film Five Minutes Till Noon which went on to win awards at Filmapalooza in New Orleans. Scot also won Best Actor at the 2015 Cape Town 48 Film Festival. And in 2009 Scot Cooper was part of the ensemble award at the South African Film and Television Awards for 'The World Unseen'.
Born in South Africa, and of English, Swedish, Norwegian, German and Scottish ancestry. He has trained under world renowned Meisner teacher William Esper at the Esper Studio in New York, also at the Ivan Chubbuck studio in Los Angeles, and under acclaimed South African actress Aletta Bezuidenhout. He also has a BA from his studies at AFDA.
A passion for film, and also theatre where he has received critical praise for his performance as Mr Darcy in 'Pride And Prejudice', the acclaimed American play 'Tape' by Stephen Belber, and his one man play 'Henry And The Sand' which he also wrote, and premiered at the world's 2nd largest theatre festival, the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Scot has also appeared in over 80 TV commercials for top brands, which have aired in countries such as the USA, France, Australia, Russia, Canada, Germany, Ireland and many others.
Scot Cooper is based in Los Angeles- Actress
- Soundtrack
Gillian Bailey was born on 14 June 1955 in Wimbledon, South London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Here Come the Double Deckers! (1970), Blake's 7 (1978) and Poldark (1975).- Writer
- Actress
- Sound Department
Sylvia Anderson is the co-creator of a string of hit TV shows through the late 1950s, 1960s and 70s. Her most memorable contribution as an actress is the voice of Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds - one of many series she co-created with former husband Gerry Anderson. Sylvia's talents are evident in the characterization throughout their various series. She was against Martin Landau and Barbara Bain being cast in Space: 1999 (1975) but was overruled by ITC chief Lew Grade.
The forgotten heroine of Britain's famous TV shows, she's had to watch former husband Gerry take most of the limelight over the years. A fascinating woman with overwhelming talent, she now represents the American network HBO in Pinewood Studios in London, England.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Frank Rautenbach was born on 12 May 1972 in East London, South Africa. He is an actor and producer, known for Wild Is the Wind (2022), The Bang Bang Club (2010) and Warrior (2019). He has been married to Leigh Rautenbach since 24 February 1996.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Colette Brown was born in 1969 in Clapham, South London, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Popcorn (2007), EastEnders (1985) and A Touch of Frost (1992). She is married to Gary Love. They have one child.- Frankie Fitzgerald is a British actor best known for his roles in Eastenders (Ashley Cotton 2000-2001) and Dream Team (Jason Porter 2006-2007) He has worked extensively in television, film and theatre since his first role in Eastenders, recently completing filming on Legend, the story of notorious British Gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray with Tom Hardy.
- Johnny Shannon was born on 29 July 1932 in Lambeth, South London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Beryl's Lot (1973), Performance (1970) and Scotch on the Rocks (1973).
- Angel Adoree was born on 7 April 1978 in East London, South Africa. She is a producer, known for Escape to the Chateau (2016), Escape to the Chateau: Make Do and Mend (2020) and Escape to the Chateau DIY (2018). She has been married to Dick Strawbridge since 13 November 2015. They have two children.
- Writer
- Art Department
Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, mycologist and conservationist. She is famous for writing children's books with animal characters such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Potter was born in Kensington, London. Her family was quite rich. She was educated by governesses. She did not have many friends, but she had many pets, including Benjamin and Peter, two rabbits. She spent her holidays in Scotland and the Lake District. There, she began to learn to love nature, plants, and animals, which she carefully painted.
When she was around 30, Potter published The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It was very popular. She also became engaged to her publisher Norman Warne. Her parents became angry and separated with her because of this. They did not want her to marry someone who was socially lower than her. However, Warne died before he and Potter could marry.
Potter began writing and illustrating children's books full time. She did not have to ask her parents for money anymore because she had money from her books. In time, she bought Hill Top Farm and more land. In her forties, she married William Heelis, a local solicitor. She also began raising sheep and became a farmer, though she continued writing. She published 23 books.
Potter did not have any children. She died of heart disease and pneumonia in Near Sawrey, Lancashire on 22 December 1943. Almost all of her money was left to the National Trust. Her books continue to sell well around the world, in many different languages. Her widower died in August 1945.- Tommy Godfrey was born on 20 June 1916 in Lambeth, South London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Love Thy Neighbour (1972), Passport to Pimlico (1949) and The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975). He died on 24 June 1984 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
James Bannon was born in 1965 in Lambeth, South London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Running with the Firm, I.D. (1995) and Drop the Dead Donkey (1990).- Actor
- Writer
Eric Manaka was born on 9 December 1999 in South London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for How to Have Sex (2023), Action Point (2018) and Jackass Forever (2022).- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Actor
Robert Paynter was born on 12 March 1928 in South London, England, UK. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Superman III (1983) and Superman II (1980). He was married to Marjorie Mona Paynter. He died on 20 October 2010 in Isle of Wight, England, UK.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Born to Jamaican parents in London, on January 14, 1965, Slick Rick, born Ricky Martin Lloyd Walters, is the most successful British-American rapper in music history. Brilliant word play, the effort-less ability to bring life to the stories he rhymed about, dead on pop-culture references and hilarious one-liners make him the wittiest rapper of all time.
He began his career in the late 80s, where he released a series of acclaimed recordings such as, "Children's Story", "La Di Da Di" and "Hey Young World." Slick Rick is best known for his British accent and his story telling innovations. His music has been frequently sampled and interpolated by other artists such as TLC, Talib Kweli, Eminem, Mos Def, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys and many others; with many of these songs later becoming hit singles. Slick Rick is known as one of the architects of Hip-Hop.
These days, much of Slick Rick's story remains untold. The articles about his legal troubles may sell magazines, but they tend to overshadow the rapper's impressive and influential body of work. Rick has spent more than seven years in prison, three and a half paying his debt to society and over four years in a federal detention center while hassling with Immigrations Services over his residency in the US. Slick Rick has been in this country since his childhood and has become a productive member of our society.
Despite life's setbacks, Rick continues his commitment to his craft. Above all, Rick is very dedicated to his community. He regularly mentors the youth whenever he is given the opportunity to do so.- Dennis Wheatley was born on 8 January 1897 in South London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Forbidden Territory (1934), The Spy in White (1936) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976). He was married to Joan Younger. He died on 10 November 1977 in London, England, UK.