Brittish Actors
Ian Shaw was born in 1969 in London. He is the son of the late Mary Ure and Robert Shaw whom he strongly resembles. His film credits include “Moondance” in 1995, “The Boys from County Clare” and “The Contract”. On televsion he has starred in “Sharpe” with Sean Bean.
Although Tsai Chin was born in China in 1936, virtually all her career has been in the UK and more recently in the USA. She studied at RADA in 1951. She played the part of “Liat” in a West End production of “South Pacific” and had the title part on stage in “The World of Suzie Wong” opposite Gary Raymond. On film she played Lin Tang the eveil daughter of Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) in the Fu Manchu films. She also featured in “You Only Live Twice” and “The Virgin Soldiers”. In Hollywood she had a leading role in “The Joy Luck Club” with other Asian actresses such as France Nuyen and Lisa Lu. Her most recent film is “Year of the Fish” released in 2007.
TCM Overview:
Daughter of a famous actor long with the Peking Opera, Tsai Chin was educated at England’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and soon thereafter played the title role in the West End production of “The World of Suzie Wong.” She also made an auspicious film debut as Ingrid Bergman’s adopted daughter in the touching biopic, “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” (1958). Through the 1960s, she was cast in decorative, small roles in films ranging from “Blow Up” (1966) to “You Only Live Twice” (1967), achieving her greatest recognition for the five films she made with Christopher Lee in which she played the villainous and inscrutable daughter of his equally treacherous Fu Manchu, beginning with 1965’s “The Face of Fu Manchu.” Tsai Chin did better onstage during the 70s and 80s and even returned to her native land to considerable acclaim when she taught and directed at Beijing’s Central Academy of Dramatic Art. She returned to feature films after a long absence to play one of four mothers who bond with their daughters over mah-jongg in Wayne Wang’s “The Joy Luck Club” (1993).
Her IMDB entry:
Tsai Chin, pinyin Zhou Caiqin is an actor, director, teacher and author, best known in America for her film role as Auntie Lindo in The Joy Luck Club. The third daughter of Zhou Xinfang, China’s great actor in the last century, she was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art London (first Chinese student) and later earned a Master Degree at Tufts University, Boston. Her career spans more than five decades working in UK, USA and recently in China. She starred on stage on both sides of the atlantic, (a first for a Chinese actor) in London’s West End,The World of Susie Wong and on Broadway, Golden Child; played the two most powerful women of 20th century China; for television, in The Subject of Struggle; for stage Memories of Madame Mao; was twice in Bond films, as Bond girl in You Only Live Twice, and later in Casino Royale. Her single The Ding Dong Song recorded for Decca was top of the charts in Asia. She was the first to be invited to teach acting in China after the Cultural Revolution when universities re-opened. She is now celebrated in China for her portrayal of Jia Mu in the recent TV drama series, The Dream of The Red Chamber. Her international best-selling autobiography, Daughter of Shanghai is to be a stage play by David Henry Hwang which will be produced by the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Perfoming Arts in Beverly Hills.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Tsai Chin (submitted by Donald Spradlin, Manager)
Jean Gillie is beloved of film noir buffs for one film “Decoy”. She was born in 1915 in London. She began her career in quota quickies in the UK during the 1930’s. Jack Buchanan cast her in the 1936 film “This’ll Make You Whistle”. In 1943 she was featured in “The Gentle Sex”. During the Second World War she met the American film director Jack Bernhard in London and at War’s end went back to the United States with him. “Decoy” in 1946 was her penultimate film. It is rightly regarded as a classic and thankfully it is now available on DVD. In 1947 she made “The Macomber Affair” with Greyory Peck and Joan Bennett. After the breakdown of her marriage she returned to England. She died of pneumonia at the age of 33 in 1949.
Gary Brumburgh’s entry:
Great Britain’s killer answer to Hollywood’s femme fatale Ann Savage, sultry-eyed, long-maned beauty Jean Gillie had a modest, lightweight career in her homeland before coming to the States and impressing American audiences in one classic film noir. Had the film been released by a major studio, her career might have turned out differently. But, like Savage, it wasn’t and she make it out of the “B” class tier and quickly lost favor. With her early death, it pretty much clinched her almost total anonymity today.
Born Jean Mabel Coomber, on October 14, 1915, in Kensington, England, she initially appeared on stage in 1932 before debuting on film in the musical comedy His Majesty and Co (1935). Musical hall star Jack Buchanan was impressed by her smoldering beauty and comedic flair and cast her in a small role in his movie Brewster’s Millions (1935), then brought her a couple of years later for his a few of his other showcases — This’ll Make You Whistle (1936) Sweet Devil (1938) and The Middle Watch (1940).
In between time Jean continued to work in a comedic vein with leads roles School for Stars (1935), While Parents Sleep (1935), The Live Wire (1937), opposite musical comedy revue star Bobby Howes in Sweet Devil (1938); and, the title role in Tilly of Bloomsbury (1940). After a slight lull in the early 1940s she returned to films in change-of-pace dramatic roles opposite Leslie Howard WWII propaganda film The Gentle Sex(1943); as supersleuth Simon Templar’s love interest in The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943) opposite star Hugh Sinclair. She returned to lighter fare with Tawny Pipit (1944) and ; and Flight from Folly (1945) before meeting associate producer Jack Bernhard, who would forever change the course of her career.
She met Bernhard while he was stationed in England during WWII and married him in May of 1944. After his discharge, he took her back to his native America with the idea of shaping her into a Hollywood star. He produced and directed Decoy (1946) and cast her as vile Margot Shelby who, before the last reel, runs a car over Edward Norris, stealsHerbert Rudley from his lady love in order to save her just-executed boy friend; and nearly does in Sheldon Leonard before getting her just desserts.
Had this cult film noir been released by a major studio instead of “Poverty Row” Pathe, Jean could have rivaled Barbara Stanwyck in later years. Following Decoy (1946), Jean won a second femme role in the film The Macomber Affair (1947) starring Gregory Peckand Joan Bennett but it was Bennett who earned the accolades playing the “bad girl” in this dramatic romantic triangle that included Robert Preston.
By this time Jean’s marriage to Bernhard fell apart and the couple divorced in 1947. Gillie decided to return to England a year later but, before she had the time to revive her British stage/film career, died of pneumonia at age 33 on February 19, 1949.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
Brian Aherne was born in Kings Norton, England in 1902. He made his talkie debut in 1931 in the British film “Madame Guillotine”. By 1935 he was in Hollywood where he made such films as “Sylvia Scarlet”, “Jurez”, “Vigil in the Night” and “My Son, My Son”. He graudated into character parts in the 50’s and made such films as “Titanic”, “The Swan” with Grace Kelly and “The Best of Everything”. In the 60’s he was in “”Susan Slade” with Troy Donahue and Dorothy McGuire and “Rosie” with Rosalind Russell and Sandra Dee. He died in 1986 at the age of 64.
TCM overview:
British born Brian Aherne possessed the attributes that all but guaranteed him a career in motion pictures, in that he was a polished stage performer, came across as a cultured gentleman and was also quite handsome. He first made his name in America as one of the stars of Broadway’s “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” (1931) and was soon gracing such notable features as “Sylvia Scarlett” (1935), “Beloved Enemy” (1936), “The Great Garrick” (1937), and “Juarez” (1939). While he did not generate the same degree of publicity as the major stars of the time, Aherne was a respected actor and reliable box office draw who earned a great deal of money from his film assignments. He continued to appear in gems like “A Night to Remember” (1942), “The Locket” (1946), “I, Confess” (1953), and “The Best of Everything” (1959), but also took breaks to do stage work. These detours usually found him either back on the Great White Way or in touring productions of old standbys like “My Fair Lady,” where his interpretation of Professor Henry Higgins proved a hit with audiences. Following his retirement in 1967, he penned sharp and amusing books about his life and that of longtime friend and colleague, George Sanders. While he only starred in a handful of classic movies, Aherne was welcomed by audiences of the era for the touches of charm and sophistication that he could be counted on to display in most any role.
Brian Aherne was born William Brian de Lacy Aherne in King’s Norton, Worcestershire, England on May 2, 1902. He began to log stage credits at the princely age of nine and continued to perform over the years that followed. Aherne became a member of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in his late teens and while he had studied architecture at Malvern College, it became clear that acting was his true calling. Engagements in such West End productions as “Paddy the Next Best Thing” (1923) and “White Cargo” (1924) soon followed, and he also toured Australia in several additional plays. Cinematic opportunities were also soon on the horizon. Aherne debuted in the silent crime drama “The Eleventh Commandment” (1924) and graced several other pictures before making his first sound feature, a spy thriller called “The W Plan,” in 1930. He was invited to America and his Broadway bow came in “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” (1931), the highly popular and acclaimed comedy that would enjoy many revivals. Aherne was quickly sought out by Hollywood producers and co-starred with Marlene Dietrich, whom he reportedly also dated for a time off the set, in the romantic drama “The Song of Songs” (1933). Additional lead engagements followed in such films as “The Fountain” (1934) and “I Live My Life” (1935), and he returned to the Great White Way to play Mercutio in a revival of “Romeo and Juliet” (1934-35) alongside such talented co-stars as Basil Rathbone and young up-and-comer Orson Welles.
Frederic March took over Aherne’s role in MGM’s pleasing adaptation of “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” (1934), but the debonair and cultured Aherne had plenty of other cinematic work to choose from. One character he did not want was the titular part of swashbuckler “Captain Blood” (1935) and Aherne’s refusal to sign on to the project inadvertently helped launch the career of Errol Flynn. He joined Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant in “Sylvia Scarlett” (1935) and co-starred with Merle Oberon in the Irish Rebellion drama “Beloved Enemy” (1936). Aherne also had a fine vehicle for his talents in “The Great Garrick” (1937), where he played a fictionalized version of the talented but decidedly egotistical 18th century stage star David Garrick. During this period, Aherne began to guest star on various radio programs and would play roles on “Lux Radio Theater” (WJZ/CBS/WABC/CBS/NBC, 1934-1955) at various times for the better part of almost two decades.
Aherne’s highest-profile credit of the time was the elaborate historical biopic “Juarez” (1939), in which he came off well as Emperor Maximilian opposite notorious firebrand Bette Davis, dominating the screen as unbalanced Empress Carlotta. He was also able to try his hand at the sort of adventure vehicle he had previously shunned as star of “Captain Fury” (1939). While the Australia-set adventure was shot entirely in California, the combination of Western-style plotting supplemented with a dash of Robin Hood-style derring-do made for diverting entertainment. On the personal front, Aherne wed his first wife, 22-year-old actress Joan Fontaine, who found fame that year in “The Women” (1939) and followed up with the superb Alfred Hitchcock efforts “Rebecca” (1940) and “Suspicion” (1941). Fifteen years apart in age, the two made for a highly photogenic couple, but their union proved to be less than smooth sailing.
Aherne was employed by several studios in the 1940s and proved adept at various genres. “Vigil in the Night” (1940) found him playing an empathetic doctor opposite Carole Lombard in a rare drama for the screwball comedienne about the nursing profession, while he and Loretta Young displayed excellent chemistry in the splendid mystery-comedy “A Night to Remember” (1942). He joined a number of fellow ex-patriots in “Forever and a Day” (1943), a drama produced to bolster the British war effort, and the romantic comedy “What a Woman!” (1943), which cast Aherne as a reporter with his eye on publishing executive Rosalind Russell. Movie work proved to be very lucrative for Aherne and a Security and Exchange Commission report revealed that he made $145,000 in 1942, only $5,000 less than Columbia studio chief Harry Cohn. That financial luxury allowed Aherne to occasionally step off the production treadmill and devote his time to other pursuits. In the wake of “What a Woman,” Aherne did not make another movie until “The Locket” (1946), in which he gave an excellent performance as a psychiatrist whose past includes a dangerously unbalanced woman (Laraine Day) who is about to marry anew. Aherne and Fontaine had ended their own union by that point, with the latter citing extreme cruelty as the cause. A few months after their separation was finalized, Aherne wed Eleanor de Liagre Labrot, with whom he would remain for the rest of his life.
Despite the steady flow of opportunities available to him in Hollywood, the stage remained Aherne’s first love and after the adventure “Angel on the Amazon” (1948), he decided to switch his emphasis for a time and acted in productions of plays like “She Stoops to Conquer” (1949-50) and “The Constant Wife” (1951-52). Their runs proved short, however, and he was soon back in features, including Alfred Hitchcock’s “I, Confess” (1953), “Titanic” (1953), and the colorful CinemaScope costumer “Prince Valiant” (1954), in which he portrayed King Arthur. In the wake of other films like Grace Kelly’s final film “The Swan” (1956) and “The Best of Everything” (1959), stage work again returned to the actor’s schedule. He enjoyed his longest run in sometime via a revival of “My Fair Lady” that found him on the road for more than a year as Professor Henry Higgins, the role countryman Rex Harrison had made famous. Aherne also found time for periodic small screen guest star outings during this period and made his best remembered television appearance on “The Trouble with Templeton,” an excellent episode of Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” (CBS, 1959-1964).
Aherne started off the 1960s by receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and took his final Broadway bow playing George Bernard Shaw in “Dear Liar” (1960). Now approaching his sixties, he began to slow down, taking supporting assignments in the glossy soap opera “Susan Slade” (1961) and the lower-budget outings “Sword of Lancelot” (1963) and “The Cavern” (1964). Following his work on the Jane Russell comedy “Rosie!” (1967), Aherne announced his retirement and penned the well-received A Proper Job: An Autobiography of an Actor’s Actor (1969). He followed up a decade later with A Dreadful Man: The Story of Hollywood’s Most Original Cad: George Sanders, a wry and entertaining tribute to Aherne’s troubled longtime friend and fellow thespian, who took his own life in 1972. In distinct contrast to Sanders, Aherne’s own final years were spent in quiet repose. He succumbed to heart failure at a hospital in Venice, FL on Feb. 10, 1986.
By John Charles
The above TCM overiew can also be accessed on line here.
Ann Sidney is from Poole in Dorset. She won the Miss World Beauty Contest in 1964. During her tenure she joined Bob Hope and his group touring the Far East visiting U.S. troops in Vietnam. She was featured in “You Only Live Twice” and “Sebastian” both released in 1967. Her website can be accessed here.
Ann Sidney recalls in “Flashbaack Telegraph UK:
This is the moment that I was crowned Miss World, and I think you can see from my face that I didn’t quite believe it. I was 19 years old, from Poole in Dorset, and before this my travel experience consisted of going to the Isle of Wight with my bicycle. I didn’t expect to win; I was meant to start a new job in a hairdressing salon in a John Lewis department store the Monday after the competition. The first thought that went through my mind was, ‘I’d better call John Lewis and tell them I won’t be at work.’
We had 10 days of rehearsals and going on trips, including one to the House of Commons to listen to a debate, and we were treated like royalty. In those days Miss World was the most-watched programme on television. One night we had a big ball with everyone from Sean Connery to Roger Moore among the guests. I got some flowers from Paul Getty with a card saying, ‘You’re my choice, good luck in the competition.’ After this photo was taken we were whisked away to Café de Paris for the coronation ball. By the end of the evening I realised that I hadn’t called my mum and dad, so I kept trying to call them from a phone booth in the lobby, but their phone was permanently engaged. I finally managed to speak to them about two in the morning when I was back in my room – they had had all the neighbours round to watch the show. As Miss World I was awarded a year’s contract as ambassadress for the International Wool Secretariat, which involved promoting the industry across the globe. That year was a blur. I travelled five times around the world in first class with my 15 suitcases, and a limousine always greeted me as soon as I stepped off a plane. I was on television shows everywhere and it was a great experience.
But at the end of the year suddenly I was the ex-Miss World, last year’s model. I had always wanted to be an actress so I joined a repertory theatre in Manchester, which paid me £12 a week. It was the best thing I could have done because it brought me straight back to earth. From then on I continued to act. I’m not saying I made a big break, I didn’t, bu I did have roles in television programmes including The Avengers, Are You Being Served? and in the Bond film You Only Live Twice, and I’ve been lucky enough to do a job I love ever since.
annsidney.com
This page can also be accessed online on “Telegraph” here.
Dora Bryan was one of the delights of British cinema of the 1950’s and 60’s. She was born in Southport, Lancashire in 1923. She entertained British troops in Italy with ENSA during World War Two. After the War she appeared on the London stage in theatrical revues. In 1948 she was featured in the classic “The Fallen Idol” and quickly became a notable character actress. She had a good role in the initial Carry On “Carry on Sargent” in 1958. She had a rare starring role in 1961 in “A Taste of Honey” with Rita Tushingham. In 1966 she succeeded Mary Martin on the London stage in “Hello Dolly”. On television more recently she was in “Absolutely Fabulous” and “Last of the Summer Wine”. She died in July 2014.
Dora Bryan, who has died aged 91, started out as a dancing and singing actress, making her first professional appearance at the age of 12 in Manchester with the 23 other girls of the Eileen Rogan Drury Lane Babes in Jack and the Beanstalk. She excelled as the plain-speaking young woman from the north, and the presence this gave her brought a wide range of work on stage and screen in the decades following the second world war. Her basic stage personality – bright, streetwise but unworldly – was squeezed into Restoration comedy, the Hello Dolly! lead in the West End (twice), JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls at the Chichester Festival theatre and Meg, the guesthouse keeper oblivious of the sexual and other power-play in Pinter’s The Birthday Party at the National Theatre. In 2001 she contributed to the mayhem in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous, and she continued in TV comedy until 2005, as Ros Utterthwaite in Last of the Summer Wine. Her most substantial film role came in A Taste of Honey (1961). But from the first, Bryan could make even makeweight characters come alive, as with the kindly streetwalker in the film of Graham Greene’s The Fallen Idol (1948), who gives a lost boy a touch of needed feminine warmth and understanding. A part that could have set the teeth on edge was redeemed by the catchy humour of the acting.
She was born Dora May Broadbent in Southport, Lancashire, and brought up in a village near Oldham. Her father, Albert Broadbent, owned a small mill that went bankrupt, forcing him to sell bobbins from door to door, sometimes taking Dora with him. Her mother, Georgina (nee Hill) encouraged her to perform in public. Dora saw her family background as happy, but was attracted by the potential extra attention that acting offered. The first live show she saw, Peter Pan, gave her the urge to play Peter. After seeing Ingrid Bergman in Intermezzo, she spoke with a Swedish accent until an adored elder brother told her not to be so silly. Though she won a place at grammar school she did not take it up, preferring to join the Drury Lane Babes and then, on leaving school, went into pantomime at Glasgow. The following year she was in Mother Goose in London with Max Wall. After the London Academy of Music and Manchester Repertory School, she joined Oldham Rep as an assistant stage manager. During the second world war she travelled to Italy with ENSA to entertain the troops.
She went to London to seek her stage fortune, and got her first big chance when she replaced a sick cast member in a London production of the celebrated thriller Gaslight. The Fallen Idol provided her first film role. While in Emlyn Williams’s play Accolade (1950), she entertained him offstage with some of her comedy routines: he invited her to one of his big parties, at which impresario Binkie Beaumont was present. She quickly became the star of The Lyric Revue. It took 14 curtains on the opening night and ran for two years. By the time she was 37, Bryan had appeared in 28 films without ever having her name above the title. This improved after Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey, in which she played the harridan mother, unsympathetic to the heroine’s emotional injuries. Theatrical recognition had come earlier, when after the first night of a 1955 production of AP Herbert’s The Water Gypsies, the billing outside was changed to “Dora Bryan in AP Herbert’s The Water Gipsies. The previous year she had married Bill Lawton, and they went on to run a hotel in Brighton. She had to leave the cast of The Water Gipsies when she became pregnant, but the child died after being born prematurely – the first of two such misfortunes. She insisted on going ahead with a Granada TV series, believing work would be a healer, but had a nervous breakdown and did not work again for nine months until the comedy actor Ronald Shiner asked her to play his wife in The Love Birds at the Adelphi (1957).
For a time Bryan was prone to depressive interludes. By the end of the 1970s she was attending Alcoholics Anonymous and pledging herself to Christ at the behest of Cliff Richard, who starred with her in a Billy Graham film production. However, Bryan was a great survivor, and her later years were some of the most productive of her career. In 1996 she was appointed OBE. In 1963 her single All I Want For Christmas Is a Beatle was voted Best Bad Record on Top of the Pops. She was delighted. In her 70s, she was proud that she could still do the splits.
Bill and her daughter, Georgina, predeceased her. She is survived by her sons, Daniel and William.
• Dora May Bryan, actor and singer, born 7 February 1923; died 23 July 2014
Anthony Valentine was born in 1939 in Blackburn, Lancashire. His first film role pf prominence was in 1962 in Joseph Losey’s “The Damned” as one of the thugs terrorising Shirley Anne Field. His other film appearances include “Performance” in 1970, “Tower of Evil” and “To the Devil A Daughter” in 1976. On television he has starred with Margaret Lockwood in “Justice” between 1971 and 1974. The following year he starred as the title character in “Raffles”. More recently he has appeared as George Wilson in “Coronation Street”. He died in 2015.
His “Independent” obituary:
Anthony Valentine exuded charm and sophistication but made his name on television as psychopathic Toby Meres in Callan and ruthless Nazi Major Mohn in Colditz. Both roles, which brought him fame in the 1970s, typecast him as a screen “nasty” for years. “There must be something in me that other people see,” the former child star once told me. “They must have a sixth sense that says, ‘He looks a bit dodgy,’ or, ‘I don’t like him.’ I find that strange because, inside, I feel just as warm and friendly as the next guy.”
Alongside Edward Woodward’s title character in Callan (1967-72), a brutal drama set in the world of intelligence and intended as an antidote to the James Bond films, Valentine chillingly portrayed fellow agent Meres as a cold-blooded licensed killer, an upper-class thug who enjoys his deadly work.
He brought the same sadistic qualities to menacing Luftwaffe security officer Horst Mohn in the final series of Colditz (1974), based on Major Pat Reid’s memoirs of his time in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Valentine also proved adept at depicting another side of Mohn’s personality with his pathetic attempts to get the PoWs to testify that he treated them well as the Third Reich’s imminent defeat becomes clear.
He played a more debonair character, albeit on the wrong side of the law, as the gentleman jewel thief in Raffles (1975-77), adapted from EW Hornung’s short stories. AJ (Arthur) Raffles was a cricketer and amateur cracksman and, unlike Valentine’s previous notorious characters, disapproved of violence.
He was born Tony Valentine in Blackburn, Lancashire, where his parents, Mary (née Walsh) and William, worked in a cotton mill. When he was six, the family moved to south London and Valentine’s mother, a fan of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly film musicals, enrolled him in dancing lessons.
At the age of nine he was spotted tap-dancing in a stage version of Robin Hood at Ealing Town Hall and chosen to act in the film thriller No Way Back (1949). Then, while training at the Valerie Glynne Stage School and attending Acton County Grammar School, he appeared in the film The Girl on the Pier (1953) and had various roles on television, including Trout in Emil and the Detectives (1952).
On leaving school, children’s TV kept Valentine busy, casting him as Humphrey Beverley in The Children of the New Forest (1955), JO Stagg in Rex Milligan (1956) and Lord Mauleverer (1955), then Harry Wharton (1956-57), in Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School. He also sang in the children’s magazine show Whirligig – accompanied by Steve Race on the piano – and for two seasons in operas at Sadler’s Wells Theatre.
Making the successful transition to adult acting, Valentine performed in repertory theatres around the country. He also enjoyed invaluable experience at the Royal Court Theatre in 1958 with roles in John Osborne’s Epitaph for George Dillon and Arnold Wesker’s Chicken Soup with Barley. Back on television, he played Gerald Quincey in the Francis Durbridge serial The Scarf (1959) and, switching to the classics, took a dozen parts in An Age of Kings (1960), the BBC’s Shakespeare anthology series.
Fame in Callan led Valentine to be cast in two other thriller series, playing Vickers in Scobie in September (1969) and Philip West in Codename (1970). He also acted barrister James Eliot (1974) in the final series of Justice, a popular legal drama starring Margaret Lockwood.
This celebrity made him a popular panellist in television game shows such as Call My Bluff (between 1974 and 1981), but he began to find good, strong starring roles hard. So he simply made guest appearances – as streetwise gambler Maurice Michaelson in Minder (three episodes, 1979-83), charming black marketeer Squadron-Leader Dickie Marlowe in Airline (1982) and evil sorcerer Baron Simon de Belleme in Robin of Sherwood (1984 and 1985).
He then bounced back with several leading roles. After acting sinister Tony Slater, one of the partners in crime, in The Fear (1988), he was cast in Body & Soul (1993) as Stan Beattie, the stubborn manager of an ailing north of England mill coming into conflict with the young nun (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) who takes charge of it after the death of her brother. Then came the part of smuggler George Webster (1994-96) in the Customs & Excise drama The Knock.
Guest roles continued, including a 36-episode run in Coronation Street as George Wilson (2009-10), the grandfather of Simon Barlow (Alex Bain) and father of Lucy Richards (Katy Carmichael), who had died after splitting up with her bigamist husband, Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne). On discovering his newly found grandson, retired builder George spoiled him and offered to pay for a private education, to the annoyance of Simon’s other grandfather, Ken Barlow (William Roache).
Valentine’s occasional film appearances included Joey Maddocks, a bookmaker contending with James Fox’s east London gangster, in Performance (1970), SS Major Volkmann, the sadistic town commandant, in Escape to Athena (1979) and the British ambassador in Jefferson in Paris (1995). On the West End stage, Valentine acted in The Shifting Heart (Duke of York’s Theatre, 1959), Two Stars for Comfort (Garrick Theatre, 1962), Half a Sixpence (Cambridge Theatre, 1962), No Sex, Please – We’re British (Strand Theatre, 1971-72), as the assistant bank manager, Peter Hunter, Sleuth (St Martin’s Theatre, 1972) , Hans Andersen (London Palladium, 1977) and Art (Wyndham’s Theatre, 1999-2000).
Valentine, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012, was married to the actress Susan Skipper (née Cook), who met him when she guest-starred in Raffles. They also appeared on screen together in the 1979 television production of the Ivor Novello musical The Dancing Years.
The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.
David Yelland was born in 1947. He read English at Cambridge University. In 1981 he played “Edward 8th” in “Chariots of Fire”. He also played Leo McKern’s son Nicholas Rumpole in the series “Rumpole of the Bailey”. He continues to act regularly in many of the popular British television dramas. His daughter is the famed stage actress Hannah Yelland.
Vinnie Jones was born in 1965 in Watford. He was a reknowned footballer and played for Leeds United and Chelseaamong others. In 1998 he made his feature film debut in “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” directed by Guy Ritchie. Other films include “Snatch”, “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “X-Men”.
TCM Overview:
One of the toughest of England’s “hard men” of football, Vinnie Jones parlayed his notoriety as a talented if ruthless player for championship teams into a career as a supporting actor and occasional lead in films on both sides of the Atlantic. Jones’ movie roles rarely asked him to do more than provide a physically imposing presence, but from time to time – most notably in Guy Richie’s “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (1998) – he displayed a knack for comic delivery as well. He also successfully parodied his two-fisted soccer persona in a string of popular television ads in England, making him a bit of public treasure in his homeland.
Born Vincent Peter Jones in Watford, Hertfordshire, England on Jan. 5, 1965, Jones’ soccer career began with the semi-professional Wealdstone Football Club and the Swedish club IFK Holmsund, before joining the Wimbledon Football Club in 1986. Jones quickly earned a reputation as an aggressive player – he set a still-unbroken record of earning a yellow flag (which cites a second warning from an official and removal from the game) after only five seconds of play, and earned admirers and detractors alike for distracting an opposing player by grabbing his testicles. Despite these and numerous other offenses, Jones helped to earn the Wimbledon team the Football Association Cup – the highest honor in English football – in 1988.
Jones left Wimbledon in 1989 and played for several other teams, including Chelsea and Leeds, before returning to Wimbledon in 1992. During his tenure in Leeds, he proved that he was able to play at the top of his skill set without resorting to dirty tricks. However, after returning to Wimbledon, he solidified his image as a brawler by hosting “Soccer’s Hard Men,” a direct-to-video compilation of footage featuring Jones and other players getting tough on the field. The Football Association publicly excoriated Jones for his participation and fined him 20,000 pounds.
While completing his final stint with Wimbledon, Jones’s record of 384 games and 33 goals earned him a spot on the Wales International Team, for which he played from 1994 to 1997. He eventually brought his professional sports career to a close with a stint as player/coach for the Queens Park Rangers in 1998. He retired from the game a year later after being passed over as the team’s manager; instead focusing on the business of living up to his reputation.
First on the docket was an autobiography, Vinnie, which was published in 1998. He quickly followed this with a string of television commercials which played up to his sports persona to great effect. His film career got off to a rollicking start with Guy Ritchie’s crime caper romp “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” in which he played Big Chris, the stone-faced and brutal debt collector for porn magnate “Hatchet” Harry Lonsdale (P.H. Moriarty). Jones’s dry delivery was perfect for the offbeat character, which brought his equally taciturn son with him on collection jobs, and it brought him the first of two Empire Awards; the second came for his reunion with Ritchie on the more star-studded (Brad Pitt, Benecio Del Toro) but less clever “Snatch” (2001).
Jones made his Hollywood debut as a taciturn car thief named “The Sphinx” in Dominic Sena’s overblown remake of “Gone in Sixty Seconds” (2000), and quickly settled into a string of roles in mediocre American product that emphasized his imposing figure, including “Swordfish” (2001) and “The Big Bounce” (2004). In his native England, however, Jones got his first chance to play a lead in “Mean Machine” (2001), a remake of “The Longest Yard” (1974), which cast him as an imprisoned former soccer champ who organizes a team from his fellow cons to play against the jail’s guards. Jones also cut an album of blues and soul covers titled Respect in 2002, and began a long and lucrative collaboration with Bacardi in spots for UK television. These came to an end in 2003 after Jones was convicted of assaulting a crew member on board a Virgin Atlantic flight.
Jones manfully handled the crooks and cronies he was assigned in a handful of bland action and comedy pictures for most of 2004 and 2005; his sole notable character during this period was, appropriately enough, a berserk soccer hooligan in the otherwise dim teen sex comedy “Eurotrip” (2004), which again gave Jones a showcase for his comic skills. He later proved that he could capably handle a lead role (and even a smattering of romance) in the little-seen Irish crime drama “Johnny Was” (2005), which cast him as a crook attempting to stay straight, despite the temptations of his former mentor (Patrick Bergin) and his girlfriend (Samantha Mumba).
Jones enjoyed another comic turn as a hard-nosed soccer coach in “She’s the Man” (2006), a likable teen comedy about a female soccer prodigy (Amanda Bynes) who must dress as a boy in order to play for a prestigious team. That same year, Jones was used to excellent effect as Cain Marko, the unstoppable and flippant mutant known as Juggernaut in “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006) who makes life difficult for Ellen Page’s Kitty Pride in one tense chase scene through walls. Jones reportedly made enough of an impression on the film’s producers that his character was spared in the film’s room-clearing final assault, and was signed to future related projects.
In 2006, Jones appeared in several UK television ads promoting greyhound racing for the bookmaker company Ladbrokes; Jones was a recognized figure in that sport as both a greyhound owner and racing enthusiast. On the film front, he remained remarkably busy, and if the projects rarely allowed him to show much range, he had established himself as a dependable “type,” capable of handling most genres. In his native country, he acquitted himself nicely opposite such acclaimed talents as Vanessa Redgrave and Derek Jacobi in “The Riddle” (2007), a mystery about a sports reporter (Jones) who sets out to solve a murder connected to an unpublished Charles Dickens manuscript. Hollywood, however, continued to cast Jones as pure muscle; he was the most villainous of a group of criminals dispatched to a private island to compete in a televised elimination match in “The Condemned” (2007), a lunkheaded if entertaining exploitation effort that featured World Wrestling Entertainment hero “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in his first starring role. Jones even took to American television to help Austin promote the movie at “No Way Out,” a 2007 pay-for-view wrestling event promoted by the WWE.
Jones’ schedule was booked solid for most of 2008 and 2009; he was cast as a subway serial killer in the gruesome horror film “The Midnight Meat Train” (2008), which was directed by Japanese cult filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura and based on a short story by acclaimed novelist Clive Barker. True to form, he then shifted gears to play a Biblical heavy in “Year One” (2009), a Judd Apatow-produced comedy set in ancient times that reunited “Superbad” (2007) stars Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse under director Harold Ramis.
Anyone who knows me are aware that I am a bit of a movie buff. Over the past few years I have been collecting signed photographs of my favourite actors. Since I like movies so much there are many actors whose work I like.
