Baker made a brief appearance in Only Fools and Horses, in the episode “The Second Time Around“, as Del Boy (David Jason)’s ex-fiance, Pauline Harris. She was married to actor Bob Peck from 1982 until his death in 1999. They had three children.
Article on May Hallatt from Tina Aumont’s Eyes” website:
Cheery and diminutive, the British actress May Hallatt only appeared in a handful of prominent movies in her thirty year career, but she managed to create some memorable characters along the way. A versatile actress with stage experience she could be spotted in some notable box office favourites as well as works by such eminent writers, including Dickens, Jane Austen and Mark Twain.
Born Marie Effie Hullatt in Scarborough, England, on May 1st 1876, May Hallatt made her screen debut in 1934, although her first role of note came five years later when she played the wife of Wilfred Hyde-White’s Lord Battersby in ‘The Lambeth Walk’ (’39). A jolly little musical based on the play ‘Me and My Girl’; it told the story of a lowly cockney (comedian Lupino Lane) who unwittingly inherits a title and castle. After playing a canal boat worker in Charles Crichton’s Ealing Studio quickie ‘Painted Boats’ (’45), Hallatt’s first memorable role was as the feisty caretaker Angu Ayah in Powell & Pressburger’s religious drama ‘Black Narcissus’ (47). Following bit parts in the music hall drama ‘Trottie True’ (’49) and the excellent ‘The Pickwick Papers’ (’52), May played an eccentric passenger on board a train packed with gold, in the mediocre ‘Lady Vanishes’ knock-off ‘The Gold Express’ (’55).
The role that Hallatt will forever be remembered for is her wonderful turn as the solitary Miss Meacham, in Delbert Mann’s Oscar-winning drama ‘Separate Tables’ (’58). A part she originated on stage, Hallatt was a joy to watch and stole every scene she was in as the shuffling, sports-loving spinster. Other notable movies at this time included Alec Guinness’s pet project ‘The Horses Mouth’ (’58), and Jack Clayton’s superb adult drama ‘Room at the Top’ (’59).
After playing chatty neighbour Mrs Bates in a 1960 television production of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’, Hallatt had a small yet funny part in the terrific Terry-Thomas comedy ‘Make Mine Mink’ (’60). Aged 87, Hallatt’s final movie appearance was as aunt Sarah in the entertaining drama ‘Bitter Harvest’ (’63), which starred the tragic Janet Munro as a young Welsh dreamer in search of happiness.
The mother of familiar Seventies actor Neil Hallett, May died in London on May 20th 1969, she was 93. Another of those wonderfully eccentric characters, May Hallatt only appeared in a couple of dozen features, but she brought so much to even the smallest of roles, and I think she would have made an ideal tweed-wearing Miss Marple.
Favourite Movie: Separate Tables Favourite Performance: Separate Tables
The above article can also be accessed online here.
Charlie Creed-Miles was born on March 24, 1972 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. He is an actor and writer, known for The Fifth Element (1997), Harry Brown(2009) and Wild Bill (2011).
Tom Ward was born on January 11, 1971 in Swansea, Wales. He is an actor, known forSilent Witness (1996), Quills (2000) and The Lost World (2001). He has been married to Emily Hohler since 2001. They have three children.
Carlo Giustini was born on May 4, 1923 in Viterbo, Lazio, Italy. He is an actor, known forEl Cid (1961), The Savage Innocents (1960) and Barabbas (1961).
Niall MacGinnis is not as well known outside of Europe, but he was a wonderful character actor whose variety of roles matched his great gift for characterization and the look beyond just makeup that he projected. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and Trinity College, Dublin. He obtained a basic medical education which qualified him as a house (resident) surgeon during World War II in the Royal Navy. But after the war he decided to pursue acting. He worked in stage repertoire and stock companies and moved on to do significant stage work at the Old Vic Theatre in London, where John Gielgud was director and Shakespeare has a particular focus. MacGinnis had the burly look of a farm hand with a large head and curly hair falling away from a progressively receding hairline. He could portray a broad enough accent – or little at all, as the case might be – which could entail any part of the British Isles.
He moved on to film work in 1935 when British sound cinema was hitting its stride. He met young but well experienced director Michael Powell, who was eager to sell his script for an intriguing film to be shot on the furthest island from the north coast of the UK, Foulda. Alexander Korda was impressed and optioned the production of this script forThe Edge of the World (1937), and MacGinnis got the nod as the central protagonist, Andrew Gray. Soon after in 1938, MacGinnis worked with Old Vic mentor and director Gielgud for a role in an early TV production of the play “Spring Meeting” (1938). As the war years ensued and before his own service, MacGinnis did several war effort films, most notably asked by Powell to take the role of a German U-boat cook in 49th Parallel(1941). The film sported a great ensemble cast, including Leslie Howard and Raymond Massey, and was shot in Canada where the drama unfolded, but it lacked the drive to keep the story vital. MacGinnis shone as the good-natured peasant who loved food and had no use for Nazi strictures and warring on the world. Luckily for Powell, the movie with its flag waving spirit was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
By the late 1940s, MacGinnis was donning historical garb for what would be some of his most familiar roles. Olivier remembered him and gave him small but standout roles in both his Henry V (1944) and Hamlet (1948). At about that time MacGinnis began associations with American film actors and production money coming over to Britain, the first being with Fredric March and his wife Florence Eldridge in Christopher Columbus(1949). He finally came to American shores with an appearance on Broadway in “Caesar and Cleopatra” in late 1951 through April of 1952. In 1952 back in England, he had a supporting role as the Herald in a screen version of the story of Thomas a’ Becket titledMurder in the Cathedral (1951). Interestingly, he was also in the much better known and Hollywood-financed Becket (1964), as one of the four murderous barons. When MGM came back to England to follow up its previous visit and subsequent huge hit, Ivanhoe(1952), with Knights of the Round Table (1953), MacGinnis had a brief but again noticeable role as the Green Knight, bound by loss of combat to Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe. The next year brought one of his rare lead roles, an exemplary one in every measure. As Luther in Martin Luther (1953), MacGinnis joined a mostly British cast in a US/West German co-production and American director Irving Pichel with West German and historical scenery topped with a first rate script with American and German co-writers. It received two Oscar nominations.
Into the later 1950s, MacGinnis held to a steady diet of sturdy movie roles, usually supporting but always memorable because of his great acting skill. Historically, he went further back in time with several films of epic Ancient Greece, first as King Menelaus inHelen of Troy (1956), an American/Italian co-production with Robert Wise directing. That same year he stayed on the continent for another epic, this time Alexander the Great(1956) with American director Robert Rossen in an US/Spanish co-production that enlisted another first tier British cast, centered on box office idol Richard Burton, along with former co-star Freddy March. MacGinnis finally made it to Mount Olympus – that is, playing Zeus – in the rousing US/UK co-production of Jason and the Argonauts (1963), certainly best remembered for the stop motion animation magic of Ray Harryhausen.
Yet, MacGinnis’ perhaps best remembered role – certainly to discriminating fans of horror/fantasy – was that of two-faced Dr. Julian Karswell, jocular magician – but deadly serious cult leader and demon conjurer (loosely based on the outrageous English social rebel and occultist Aleister Crowley). The film Curse of the Demon (1957) (the American cut was renamed “Curse of the Demon”) was a stylishly atmospheric and convincingly spooky outing directed by Val Lewton, the protégé of Hollywood veteran film directorJacques Tourneur, best known for Cat People (1942). Based on M.R. James‘ Edwardian ghost story, “Casting the Runes,” the film is now considered a classic of the genre with MacGinnis, sporting a devilish goatee, having fun with his split personality but also effectively betraying his inward fear of the powers he has unleashed. He easily stole the show from co-star Dana Andrews, as the stubborn American psychologist almost done in by the demon he does not believe exists.
Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, MacGinnis kept to up a fairly steady stream of varied historical and contemporary movie roles, always noticeable, and in some of the high profile films of the period, including: Billy Budd (1962), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), and the Cinerama adventure Krakatoa: East of Java (1968). There were some TV spots as well to showcase his character-molding talents into the year of his passing to round out a body of over 75 screen appearances.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: William McPeak
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Pleasingly pretty Barbara Lyon was the Hollywood-born daughter of popular film couple,Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels but, to millions of British radio listeners, she would forever symbolize the perennial, over-emotive teen — the “Judy Jetson” of the post-World War II set, as it were. Born on September 9, 1931, Barbara was 19 when “Life with the Lyons” first took to the radio waves on November 5, 1950, and was still playing the part, broaching age 30, when the TV version finally left the air. Cast along with real-life younger brother, Richard Lyons, as Ben and Bebe’s children, the opening lines remained the same throughout the show’s run: “I’m Richard Lyon! I’m Barbara Lyon! I’m Ben Lyon! And I’m Bebe Daniels Lyon! As the eternal teenager who suffered the slings and arrows of school-life misfortune, swooning Barbara’s famous catchphrase on the show became part of a teen lexicon of the 1950s: “I’ll die — I’ll just die!”
Barbara initially arrived in Europe, with her parents, when they made their British film debuts in 1933. Prompted by the popular radio success of the Nelson family in America, “Life with the Lyons” went on to become the very first situation comedy in Britain and the new concept was a sure-fire hit. Brother Richard had already become a seasoned young actor in a number of Hollywood films by the time he appeared on the show. The Lyon family was soon accepted and firmly established as part of the British entertainment scene. The success of the series spawned both a stage play and two feature films: Family Affair (1954) and The Lyons Abroad (1955). The radio series moved to BBC Television and Life with the Lyons (1955), then crossed over to the new Independent Television in 1957, the first series ever to do so. The series ended in 1960.
In her mid-20s, Barbara decided to venture outside her established mold and pursue work as a singer. She earned a Columbia Record Company contract in 1955, as well as a “Top Twenty” hit song with “Stowaway”. A second hit came with “Letter from a Soldier”, which made it to #27. Other popular numbers Barbara recorded for Columbia included such “boy songs” as “I’m Just Wild About Harry”, “Puppy Love” and “Johnny is the Boy for Me”. Her singing career, however, was brief and never matched her success on TV.
The dark-haired and glamorous Barbara was given her own short-lived TV series, “Dream Time With Barbara” (1955), in which she also sang and, the following year, she married the show’s producer, Russell Turner. The marriage did not last. In 1968, she married an accountant, Colin Burkitt, a union that produced one son. That, too, ended in divorce. Barbara faded from the scene following her 1962 TV guest appearances on McHale’s Navy (1962) and My Three Sons (1960). Her later years, unfortunately, were not happy ones. Forgotten and dogged by physical and financial ills, she died of a brain hemorrhage in West Middlesex, England, on July 10, 1995, at just 63.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Townsend was born and brought up in Dublin. After attending Wesley College, Dublin, he studied mathematics and civil engineering at Trinity College. While there he joined the Dublin University Players, the college’s Amateur Dramatic Society. He later co-founded co-operative theatre company Rough Magic with writer/director Declan Hughes and theatre director Lynne Parker, performing in numerous productions includingThe Country Wife, Nightshade, andSexual Perversity in Chicago. He subsequently went on to perform in several productions at The Gate and The Abbey Theatres in Dublin. In London, he has worked with such directors as Sam Mendes in The Plough and the Stars, Richard Eyre in Guys and Dolls and Rufus Norris in Under the Blue Sky. Theatre appearances at the Royal Court include The Alice Trilogy directed by Ian Rickson and Shining City directed by Conor McPherson, for which he won an Irish Theatre Award and was nominated for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor in 2004.[1]
Career
Townsend’s television work began on a number of shows for RTÉ in Dublin. Since moving to London, television appearances have included Spooks, The Commander, Hustle, Waking the Dead, and Omagh Bombing.
