British Actors Archives - Page 137 of 138

Julia Lockwood

Julia Lockwood obituary in “The Scotsman”.

The daughter of one of Britain’s biggest stars, Julia Lockwood made her film debut at four, went to acting school at five, had played the title roles in BBC television adaptations of Heidi and Alice in Wonderland by her early teens and was bracketed alongside Jane Fonda as a second generation of film stars.

Her mother was Margaret Lockwood, raven-haired lead in the Gainsborough studio’s period melodramas of the 1940s, including The Wicked Lady. These films have not worn particularly well, but they were considered risqué at the time and were extremely popular. Young women rushed to imitate the famous beauty spot painted high on Lockwood’s left cheek.

Her daughter enjoyed considerable success as a child and juvenile actress, both on stage and screen, helped by the chance to appear on film with her mum. It looked at one time like she was all set to relocate to Hollywood, and she even had dental work and surgery on her nose in preparation for a screen test with Columbia Pictures.

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But, like so many other juvenile film stars, Lockwood never quite made the leap to regular starring adult roles and her big-screen career ended along with her teens.

She went on acting for another decade in theatre and television – starring in a shortlived sitcom with Richard Briers on the BBC, before retiring from showbusiness in the early 1970s to concentrate on family life with actor husband Ernest Clark.

She was born Margaret Julia Leon in the market town of Ringwood in Hampshire in 1941. Lockwood was her mother’s maiden name, which Julia would also adopt. Her mother was already a star when Lockwood was born, but The Man in Grey in 1943 elevated her to another level.

Her father, Rupert Leon, was a commodities clerk, serving in the Army at the time of her birth. Neither parent was around much. Lockwood was born into a life of wealth and privilege, but regretted that parental contact and affection was rationed.

“My parents parted when I was about five and were divorced when I was eight,” she said in an interview in 1960. “I spent a great deal of time being looked after by Nanny. I think a girl needs a father even more than she needs a mother.” She also lamented being an only child. “I’ve been pretty lonely at times,” she said.

Sometimes she had to settle for seeing her mother in the cinema rather than in the flesh. “My earliest memory is being carried out screaming in the middle of one of her films because I was frightened when I saw someone strike her on the screen,” she said in the same interview, when the Sydney Morning Herald ran a piece on Lockwood and Jane Fonda, daughter of Hollywood star Henry Fonda, hailing them as “new stars in the firmament”.

One way that Margaret managed to carve out some time with her daughter was to have her cast in her films. Margaret had moved to a new big money contract with Rank and Julia was only four when she played her mother’s character’s daughter in Hungry Hill, an expensive adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier novel about a feud between two families in Ireland that lasts for generations.

Mother nad daughter also appeared together in The White Unicorn in 1947, by which time Julia was at acting school. It would be a few more years before she landed the starring role in the BBC’s 1953 series Heidi, which was followed by a sequel, Heidi Grows Up, and Alice in Wonderland. She had played Alice in Wonderland on stage in 1953, with Peter Butterworth as the Mad Hatter.

In the early 1950s Margaret Lockwood was the best-paid actress in Britain, but then she had a few flops and by the middle of the decade she was considered box-office poison. Margaret turned to theatre and television, which gave her the chance to work with her daughter again.

They played a mother and daughter, working in an exclusive London hotel, in The Royalty (1957-58) and a belated sequel called The Flying Swan (1965). In between Julia Lockwood turned up occasionally in films and more often on television, with a starring role in the short-lived sitcom Don’t Tell Father and a recurring role as a secretary involved in illicit office romance in 73 episodes of Compact, a BBC soap opera set in the offices of a magazine.

In the 1950s and early 1960s she appeared in several stage productions of Peter Pan, initially playing Wendy when her mother played Peter. But Julia also played Peter regularly in Christmas productions at the Scala in London and she reprised the role at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow in 1960. She was back at the King’s at the end of the decade in George Axelrod’s play Goodbye Charlie.

Lockwood’s Samantha had designs on Richard Briers, and his money, in the BBC sitcom Birds on the Wing. It ran for six episodes in 1971 and was to be her last screen credit. In 1972 she married Ernest Clark, who played the grumpy Professor Loftus in the Doctor in the House sitcom and its sequels and who was almost 30 years older than her.

Lockwood already had a child from a previous relationship and they would have three more children together. This was Clark’s third marriage. He died in 1994. Lockwood is survived by her four children.

Sandie Shaw (Wikipedia)

Sandie Shaw is an English singer. One of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s, she had three UK number one singles with “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” (1964), “Long Live Love” (1965) and “Puppet on a String” (1967). With “Puppet on a String”, she became the first British entry to win the Eurovision Song Contest. She returned to the UK top 40, for the first time in 15 years, with her 1984 cover of the Smiths song “Hand in Glove“. Shaw announced her retirement from the music industry in 2013.

On 6 March 1968, Shaw married fashion designer Jeff Banks at the Greenwich Register Office in London. Their daughter Gracie was born in February 1971. Her marriage to Banks ended in 1978.

In 1982, she married Nik Powell, co-founder of the Virgin Group and chairman of the European Film Academy. They had two children together. She is currently married to her third husband, Tony Bedford.

In August 2007, Shaw revealed that she had had “corrective” surgery on her iconic feet, which she described as “ugly”; the surgery left her unable to walk until October 2007.

In April 2012 Shaw joined an Amnesty International campaign to end human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, host country of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, after the journalist Khadija Ismayilova was blackmailed and sex taped. Shaw stated: “That anyone would stoop so low in an attempt to silence an independent journalist is sickening. The people behind this appalling blackmail and smear campaign must be brought to justice. And the persecution of independent journalists in Azerbaijan must stop.”

In August 2014, Shaw was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September’s referendum on that issue.

Michael Petrovitch & Susan Hampshire

Michael Petrovitch’s first television was in an episode of the British TV series “Jason King” in 1972. That same year he had the leading role opposite Susan Hampshire in “Neither the Sea nor the Sand”. Most of his acting career was concentrated on television and he seems to have stopped acting in 1986. Forum about Michael Petrovitch here.

Mark Lester was born in 1958 in Oxford. He is forever associated with one film the musical “Oliver” where he played the title part of the angelic child at the mercy of Bill Sykes and Fagin but helped by the Artful Dodger and Nancy. He had a few small parts in films such as “Allez France” with Diana Dors and “Fahrenheit 451! with Julie Christie. He made a few films such as “The Prince and the Pauper” after “Oliver” but retired from acting at the age of 19. He studied to become an osteopath, Interview on “Express” online here.

TCM Overview:

At the age of eight, Mark Lester kickstarted his acting career. Lester’s career in acting began with his roles in various films like the Oskar Werner adaptation “Fahrenheit 451” (1966), “Our Mother’s House” (1967) and the dramatic adaptation “Oliver!” (1968) with Ron Moody. He also appeared in “Philip” (1969) and “Eyewitness” (1970). His passion for acting continued to his roles in projects like “Black Beauty” (1971), “Melody” (1971) and “Who Slew Auntie Roo?” (1971). He also appeared in “Senza Ragione” (1972). During the latter half of his career, he tackled roles in “Scalawag” (1973), “La Prima volta sull’Erba” (1975) and the Oliver Reed historical feature “Crossed Swords” (1978). Lester most recently worked on “Michael Jackson & Bubbles: The Untold Story” (Animal Planet, 2009-2010).

Dudley Sutton, Tony Garnett, Ronald Lacey and Jess Conrad

Jess Conrad was born in 1936 in Brixton, London. From the late 1950’s until the mid 1960’s he appeared in films that have now become cult classics including “Serious Charge” with Cliff Richard, “The Boys”, “Ragdoll” and “Konga”. He continues to perform as a singer in concerts all over the U.K. Jess Conrad’s website here. Interview in “Mallorca Life & Style” here.

Jess Conrad. Wikipedia.

Jess Conrad was born in 1936 and is an English actor and singer from Brixton, South London. As a boy he was nicknamed “Jesse” after American outlaw Jesse James; as there was already an actor named “Gerald James” in Actors’ Equity, a drama teacher who was a fan of Joseph Conrad suggested the stage name of “Jess Conrad”.

Having started his career as a repertory actor and film extra, Conrad was cast in a television play Bye, Bye Barney as a pop singer.^[2] He was noticed by Jack Good who included him in his TV series Oh, Boy,^[2] and then was signed to Decca Records and had a number of chart hits, including “Cherry Pie“, “This Pullover”, “Mystery Girl” and “Pretty Jenny”; also recording for Columbia, Pye President and EMI.

Between the late 1950s and mid-1960s Conrad appeared in a number of films such as Serious Charge (uncredited), The Boys, Rag Doll, (filmed in 1960, and released in 1961); K.I.L. 1 and Konga as well as Michael Powell‘s The Queen’s Guards. Conrad played Danny Pace in an episode of The Human Jungle called ‘The Flip Side Man’ in 1963.

During the 1970s he spent some time in the stage shows Godspell and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and also featured in a cameo role in the Sex Pistols film The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. In 1977 no fewer than seven of Conrad’s singles were included in the ‘World’s Worst Record’ list, chosen by listeners to Capital FM DJ Kenny Everett‘s show, and “This Pullover”, voted 6th worst song ever, later featured on The World’s Worst Record Show, a 1978 LP dedicated to the songs voted for, together with two other Conrad recordings “Cherry Pie” and “Why Am I Living?” He also made an appearance in “Are You Being Served” as Mr Walpole head of sporting equipment in episode “Memories Are Made Of This” along with John Inman, Molly Sugden & Wendy Richards.

Conrad also appeared in the 1984 TV series of Miss Marple, in the episode entitled The Body in the Library as Raymond Starr. He also starred in the 1993 film The Punk and the Princess.

In the 1990s Conrad made regular cameo appearances on Jim Davidson‘s revived version of The Generation Game on BBC1. Also in 1992 Conrad appeared in the Christmas Special of Big Break, also presented by Davidson and John Virgo. He was the “booby” prize of the show presented to Hi-de-Hi! actress Ruth Madoc. Contestants who failed to make the final of Big Break were often nearly given a box set of Conrad’s hit singles.

Conrad is married to Renee and has two daughters, Sasha and Natalie.

Robert Newton was born in Dorset, England in 1905. He began acting at 16 with Birmingham Repertory Company. His first film was “Farewell Again” in 1937. His major films include “Jamaica Inn”, “Oliver Twist”, “The High and the Mighty”, “The Beachcomber”, “This Happy Breed” and his last film “Around the World in 8o Days”. His film career and indeed life was cut short by chronic alcoholism which led to his death from a heart attack in 1956 aged just fifty. His best remembered role is as the definite Long John Silver in Walt Disney’s “Treasure Island”.

TCM Profile:

To a generation of moviegoers, English actor Robert Newton is the personification of Long John Silver; he played the pirate in the Disney classic Treasure Island (1950), its sequelLong John Silver (1954) as well as in a 1950s TV series The Adventures of Long John Silver. But Newton’s career wasn’t limited to swashbucklers. He appeared in classic works by Shakespeare and Shaw and Dickens. He co-starred with British acting greats such as Charles Laughton and Laurence Olivier and he worked with a talented list of directors from Alfred Hitchcock to David Lean. For an actor best remembered as a pirate, Newton enjoys an extremely impressive filmography.

Robert Newton was born June 1, 1905 in Shaftesbury, Dorset, England. His mother was a writer and his father a painter. Newton began acting at an early age and made his stage debut at the age of 15. His first appearance was in Henry IV (Part One) for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Newton stayed with the company for three years, working as an assistant stage manager, and taking roles in Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet. He made his London debut at Drury Lane in 1924 in London Life. Newton’s star rose when he was cast in Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet in 1929. And just two years later, Newton made his Broadway debut, filling some pretty big shoes in the process Newton succeeded Laurence Olivier in another Coward production, Private Lives.

Newton made his first film in 1932 with the small British drama Reunion. He then returned to the stage for several years, appearing in Hamlet at the Old Vic and in other plays like Miss Julie. Newton’s next film came in 1937 when he played the Captain of Caligula’s Guard in I, Claudius. The film, which was never completed due to overwhelming production problems, was directed by Josef von Sternberg and starred Charles Laughton and Merle Oberon. Newton would make two more films with Laughton: Hitchcock’s last British film before immigrating to America, Jamaica Inn (1939), and Vessel of Wrath (AKA The Beachcomber) (1938). The latter film was based on a W. Somerset Maugham novel and, in 1954, Newton would star in a second film version of the story. This time, Newton took the role played by Laughton in the original.

In 1937, Newton had his first lead role in the film The Squeaker where he played a cat burglar. He also took a leading part in the original film version of Gaslight (1940) and he played husband to a pioneer aviatrix in Wings and the Woman (1942). Newton then returned to the theatre for a string of stage adaptations: he appeared in Shaw’s Major Barbara (1941) with Rex Harrison and Wendy Hiller; the family drama This Happy Breed (1944) by Noel Coward; and Shakespeare’s Henry V (1944), directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. Newton followed up his stage run with a turn in Carol Reed’s IRA suspense-drama Odd Man Out (1947).

Newton gave a memorably frightening performance as the villainous Bill Sikes in David Lean’s production ofOliver Twist (1948). He also played the merciless Inspector Javert in Les Miserables (1952) and, as previously noted, sailed under a pirate flag in Treasure Island, the film that marked the peak of his popularity. Newton was one of the top ten moneymakers in British cinema (as voted in the Motion Picture Herald-Fame Poll) from 1947 to 1951. After Treasure Island Newton played another pirate Blackbeard, in Blackbeard the Pirate(1952). In 1954, he returned to Treasure Island in a sequel called Long John Silver.

One of Newton’s last films was the high flying John Wayne suspense-adventure The High and the Mighty(1954). He made his final feature appearance in Around the World in 80 Days (1956); Newton lived just a month after shooting was complete. Officially, the cause of death was a heart attack, but Newton’s excessive drinking was certainly a factor. He died March 25, 1956.

by Stephanie Thames

The above TCM Profile by Stephanie Thames can also be accessed online here.

A tribute to Robert Newton here.

Terence Longdon was born in Newark-on-Trent in 1922. His film debut was in “Appointment in London” in 1952. In 1958 he had a leading role with Lana Turner, Sean Connery and Glynis Johns in “Another Time, Another Place” . He played Drusus, Messala’s personal aide in “Ben Hur”. He starred in the first Carry On which was “Carry on Sargent” and was featured in three more of the series. His last TV role seems to have been in 2003. He died in 2011.

His obituary in The Guardian” newspaper by Anthony Hayward:

Terence Longdon, who has died of cancer aged 88, was a character actor whose parted hair and thick-set face – though not his name – were familiar for several decades. Only once did he step into the spotlight at the top of the bill, when he starred as the title character in the television series Garry Halliday (1959-62). The almost-forgotten BBC children’s adventure programme, based on books by Justin Blake, perfectly fitted Longdon’s educated, smooth, well-mannered persona – and a man who had flown with the Fleet Air Arm during the second world war. The actor played a Biggles-like commercial airline pilot, with Terence Alexander as his co-pilot, Bill Dodds. Posing a constant threat to the Halliday Charter Company was “The Voice”, an arch-villain who sat behind a two-way mirror and shone a light into the faces of his gang members, keeping his own in darkness.

Longdon was then happy to return to the shadows himself, rejecting the chance to become a regular in the long-running Carry On comedy films. In the first, Carry On Sergeant (1958), he played a woman-chasing layabout among the bunch of reprobates that an army sergeant (played by William Hartnell) tries to turn into a champion platoon. After being cast in Carry On Nurse (1959), Carry On Constable (1960) and Carry On Regardless (1961), he was offered a contract. “I discussed it with my agent for hours but eventually decided to turn it down because I didn’t want to be confined to one particular line of movies,” he said.

He was born Hubert Tuelly Longdon in Newark, Nottinghamshire, where his father owned businesses connected with the wool industry. He boarded at Minster school, Southwell, where he excelled as a choral scholar. On leaving, aged 17, Longdon planned to sit an entrance exam for the civil service, but war intervened, the exam was cancelled and he worked as a bank clerk and in other jobs until joining the Fleet Air Arm in 1940, becoming a pilot protecting Atlantic convoys during hostilities.

Later in the war, he moved to a naval base near Blackpool and was cast in a show that was staged there. Douglas Hurn, an actor, spotted his potential and encouraged him to take it further. Longdon successfully auditioned for Rada (1946-48) and made his first TV appearance with a walk-on part when the BBC screened the drama school’s live production of Stephen Phillips’s play Paolo and Francesca (1947).

He then joined the Lyceum, Sheffield, as an assistant stage manager and made his theatrical debut there as Robin in French for Love (1948), a light comedy by Marguerite Steen and Derek Patmore. After three months, Longdon was heading for London’s West End, taking up a contract with the theatre chain HM Tennent. He played a soldier carrying a spear for John Gielgud in Medea (Globe, 1948), then another Greek soldier, alongside Stanley Baker, and understudied Paul Scofield in Adventure Story (St James’s, 1949), before progressing to the lead juvenile role of Philip Ryall in Treasure Hunt (Apollo, 1949).

Later West End roles included the plotting Peter Marriott in The Sound of Murder (Aldwych, 1959), the illicit lover Colin in The Sacred Flame (Duke of York’s, 1967), more than 1,000 performances as John Brownlow in The Secretary Bird (Savoy, 1968-71) and Charles Straker in The Sack Race (Ambassadors, 1974). Longdon also consolidated his classical credentials during a three-year stint (1951-54) at the New Shakespeare Memorial theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, where his parts included Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part I, Oliver in As You Like It and Cassio in Othello.

By then, film roles were forthcoming and he became a staple of the B-movies that kept up the quota of domestically made productions in British cinemas. Many were war dramas, as was the main feature Angels One Five (1952), in which he played an RAF pilot. Then came the Carry On pictures and the roles of Patroclus, meeting an untimely death in a chariot, in Helen of Troy (1956), and Drusus in the epic Ben-Hur (1959).

Following his exposure in Garry Halliday, Longdon became more in demand on TV, taking character roles in the series No Hiding Place (1963), Danger Man (1964), The Avengers (1968), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1986) and Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV (1986 and 1987). There was also a short run in Coronation Street (1982) as Wilf Stockwell, a sales rep and business associate of Mike Baldwin who briefly left his wife for Elsie Tanner.

Longdon’s 1953 marriage to the actor Barbara Jefford was dissolved in 1960. He is survived by his second wife, Gillian Conyers, whom he married in 2004, after they had lived together for 16 years.

• Terence Longdon (Hubert Tuelly Longdon), actor, born 14 May 1922; died 23 April 2011

The Guardian obituary can be accessed on-line here.

Richard Warwick. Wiki

Richard Warwick was born in 1945 in Kent. Franco Zefferelli cast him as Gregory in his adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” in 1968. He worked for Lindsay Anderson in “If” and subsequently was in Derek Jarman’s “Sebastiane”. On television he starred with Judi Dench and Michael Williams in !A Fine Romance”. His last film was “Jane Eyre” in 1996. He died the following year at the age of 52.

“Wikipedia” entry:

He was born Richard Carey Winter, the third of four sons, at Meopham, Kent and made his film debut in Franco Zeffirelli‘s 1968 production of Romeo and Juliet in the role of Gregory. Subsequent films included If…., Nicholas and Alexandra and the first film by Derek Jarman, Sebastiane. On television, he was best known for his roles in the sitcom Please Sir!, as one of the main character’s teaching colleagues, and in the London Weekend Television comedy A Fine Romance, as the brother-in-law of Judi Dench‘s character. He also played Uncas in the television series The Last of the Mohicans (1971). His last role before his AIDS-related death was as John (the servant) in Zeffirelli’s 1996 adaptation of Jane Eyre.

In an obituary, The Daily Telegraph quoted If… director Lindsay Anderson: “I never met a young actor like Richard! Without a touch of vanity, completely natural yet always concentrated, he illumines every frame of the film in which he appears.

An observation on a film forum on Derek Jarman:

RICHARD WARWICK: What about his working with Derek? I know they worked together first in “Sebastiane”, then in “The Tempest”. Why they wanted to work together? Are they also close friends or was their relationship only professional?
He was a nice good actor indeed, sweet and beautiful man, too much soon disappeared at 52 in 1997. I don’t knew he was dead, I found out that only later. In four decades, he made a lot of movies, with great directors.
I’m glad he started his career in Italy, with “Romeo and Juliet”, in 1968. Then, he returned to play “Sebastiane” in Sardinia in 1976 (as a Latin soldier, Justin)!!! How curious, he played another Italian character, Antonio, in Jarman’s “The Tempest”. But, it doesn’t matter. I like him even if he was never been related with Italy… of course!

Finally, I wonder what Richard had thought interpreting gay roles in “If…”, “Sebastiane” and “The lost language of cranes”. Who knows…? Warwick was a friend of Ian Charleson. I was touched by his contribution in book “For Ian Charleson: A Tribute”, where RW said how he loved Ian friendship and talent. I like specially the words: “Ian never had a partner…”, because he referred to gay couples. Such sensitiveness make me think he was gay, too.

The above article can be accessed online here.

Jaye Davidson was born in 1968 in Riverside, California. From the age of two he grew up in Britain. He is best known for his performance as Dil in the superb “The Crying Game” in 1992 with Stephen Rea directed by Neil Jordan. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance. He went to Hollywood to make “Stargate” with Kurt Russell and James Spader. However he returned to the U.K. and abandoned his acting career and returned to his previous occupation in fashion.

TCM Overview:

Poised, photogenic performer with strikingly delicate features, of British-African ancestry. Davidson was born in California but raised in the white middle-class surroundings of Hertfordshire, England. After being discovered at a London wrap party for Derek Jarman’s “Edward II”, this androgynous, light-complexioned beauty made a big splash with a screen debut in Neil Jordan’s “The Crying Game” (1992). Though untrained in acting, Davidson was riveting and fascinating as Dil, a mysterious London singer and hairdresser who confounded many a spectator’s expectations. His remarkable achievement was acknowledged with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Davidson next landed a starring role in the science fiction epic, “Stargate” (1994) playing the sun god Ra, a villainous force who rules a parallel universe that echoes the Egypt of Hollywood biblical movies. Though Janet Maslin of THE NEW YORK TIMES noted that the part didn’t involve much acting, she added that Davidson “makes the perfect Ra mannequin”.

The above TCM Ovewview can also be accessed online here.

Interview with Jaye Davidson here.

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

Julia Lockwood

Julia Lockwood obituary in “The Scotsman”.

Sandie Shaw

Sandie Shaw (Wikipedia)

Michael Petrovitch

Mark Lester

Jess Conrad

Jess Conrad. Wikipedia.

Robert Newton

Terence Longdon

Richard Warwick

Richard Warwick. Wiki

Jaye Davidson

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