British Actors Archives - Page 58 of 137

Brenda Blethyn

Brenda Blethyn was born in 1946 in Ramsgate, Kent. She did not come into professional acting until her early thirties. However she soon gained a high profile reputation for her stage workj. She went on to star in the many films directed by Mike Leigh including “Secrets and Lies”. She made “A River Runs Through It” in the U.S. where she played Brad Pitt’s mother. She is currently starring in the very popular detective series “Vera” on British television, set in the North East of the UK.

TCM overview:

After decades of acclaimed performances on stage and British television, Brenda Blethyn expanded her audience to include international theatergoers during the 1990s. With her spry and feisty manner, she showed a flair for comedy with her acclaimed starring roles in “Little Voice” (1998), “Saving Grace” (2000) and several British sitcoms. But ultimately the stage veteran revealed herself to be one of her country’s most versatile character actors, bringing a down-to-earth accessibility to ubiquitous costume dramas like “Pride & Prejudice” (2005) as well as offering many portraits of contemporary women struggling to define themselves in “Secrets and Lies” (1996) and “Lovely and Amazing” (2001). Much in-demand in her native country and by filmmakers from the U.S. to Australia, Blethyn could always be counted to add her humorous touch to characters undergoing the most difficult of personal situations.

Born Brenda Anne Bottle on February 20, 1946, Blethyn was raised the youngest of nine in a working class home in Ramsgate, a seaside resort town in Kent, England. She attended Thanet Technical College in Kent and spent the following 10 years in an administrative career, while continuing to nurture her interest in acting by appearing in regional theatrical productions. The dissolution of her early marriage led her to reassess her life and enroll in the Guildford School of Acting. In a remarkably short period of time, she was performing with the Royal National Theater. Her many credits there included “Troilus and Cressida” in 1976 and “Mysteries” in 1979; in 1980, the newcomer hit movie screens in Mike Leigh’s “Grown-Ups” (1980). She earned her first critical acclaim in 1981 for “Steaming” at the Comedy Theater, for which she took home London Critics Circle and Society of West End Theatre Awards for Best Supporting Actress. The following year, she played in “The Double Dealer” at the Royal National Theatre and the modest number of guest TV spots she had already accrued led to a leading role as the long-suffering girlfriend of an unlucky man (Simon Callow) in the sitcom, “Chance in a Million” (Channel 4, 1984-86).

During the 1980s, Blethyn made countless British television appearances, ranging from BBC productions including “King Lear,” to the mystery miniseries “Death of an Expert Witness” (1985) to the NBC two-part TV movie “Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story” (1987). Her ongoing stage work included “A Doll’s House” and “Born Yesterday” at the Royal Exchange Theatre, and “The Benefactors,” which earned the actress an Olivier Award nomination. In 1989 Blethyn was well-cast as a single mum who vows to achieve a list of goals she made for herself as a teen – before her 40th birthday – in the sitcom, “The Labours of Erica.” Her first film role came the following year in Nicolas Roeg’s childhood fantasy, “The Witches” (1990). Blethyn continued to break new ground with her first American stage performance in the off-Broadway production of Alan Ayckbourn’s “Absent Friends” in 1991.

Blethyn earned a Theater World Award for Outstanding New Talent for “Absent Friends” and went on to make her first dent in Hollywood playing a minister’s wife and the mother of two very different sons (Brad Pitt and Craig Sheffer) in the Depression era film, “A River Runs Through It” (1992). While appearing in the leading role in the British miniseries “The Buddha of Suburbia” (1993) and scoring a British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actress for “Outside Edge” (1994-95), Blethyn stayed close to the stage in productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Theater Exchange in Manchester. Her career reached new heights in 1996 when she re-teamed with Mike Leigh for “Secrets & Lies” (1996), starring as a working class woman rediscovered by the black daughter she gave up for adoption at birth. Blethyn was both amusing and pitiable in a role that earned numerous accolades. For her tender mix of emotions and the talent she showed for improvisation in the film, she earned an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe and BAFTA wins, as well as the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Her international victory raised Blethyn’s profile significantly, and she landed back-to-back features for the next several years, first joining Julie Walters to play sisters-in-law and best pals who make a trip to Las Vegas in “Girls Night” (1997). Next she gave a tremendously moving portrait of a woman who has never fully recovered from the death of her child in the Australian produced “In the Winter Dark” (1998). And another Academy Award nomination was forthcoming for Blethyn’s turn as a blowzy, boozy, talkative widow raising a troubled daughter (Jane Horrocks) with a remarkable gift for vocal mimicry in “Little Voice” (1998). Blethyn gave an excellent portrayal of Louella Parsons in “RKO 281” (1999), the acclaimed HBO original about the making of Orson Welles’ masterpiece, “Citizen Kane” (1941). Back to proving she could carry a film lead with charm, humor and pluck, Blethyn offered a deft comic turn as a refined widow forced by financial straits into growing a bumper crop of marijuana in the surprise art house hit “Saving Grace” (2000), for which she earned another round of Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.

The following year, Blethyn garnered her first Emmy nomination for her affecting portrayal of Auguste Van Pels in the acclaimed ABC miniseries, “Anne Frank.” Her next string of films were little-seen, with the possible exception of Nicole Holofcener’s modest indie hit “Lovely and Amazing” (2001), a smart female ensemble in which Blethyn anchored as the matriarch of a family of women (Catherine Keener, Emily Mortimer, Raven Goodwin). After lending her voice to the Nickelodeon animated feature “The Wild Thornberry’s Movie” (2002), she appeared in the dark psychological drama, “Sonny” (2002), directed by first-timer Nicholas Cage. Often criticized for overplaying a working-class British accent, Blethyn affected an American tone in playing the mother of Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank Harris) in the satirical look at fraternity life in Southern California, “Pumpkin” (2002).

In a third box office flop, Blethyn was cast as the showtune-singing mother of Bobby Darin in Kevin Spacey’s labor-of-love, “Beyond the Sea” (2004). She fared better when she hit Broadway that year in Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “‘Night Mother,” starring opposite Edie Falco as the mother of a woman who has decided to commit suicide. In 2005, Blethyn starred in the Scottish film production “On a Clear Day” (2005), playing the wife of a laid-off Glasgow shipbuilder who takes the family’s finances into her own hands and secretly trains to start her own career. From this modest art house film, Blethyn hit mainstream movie theaters in a lively adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice” (2005), where her performance as Mrs. Bennett, the forever-nattering matriarch constantly trying to marry off her daughters to save the family’s future, was a comedic gem. The timeless classic went on to earn over $120 million at the box office, securing Blethyn’s place as one of the most versatile British actresses around, equally appealing in costume dramas or as cheeky working class mums.

Further stretching her range, Blethyn starred as a raucous Australian comedienne in “Clubland” (2007), and was nominated for an American Film Institute Award while the film was popular at the Australian Film Institute Awards that year. Blethyn followed up with a small supporting role in the blockbuster drama “Atonement” (2007). Blethyn took a break from her non-stop film shooting schedule over the next couple of years, guesting on American TV as the neurotic mother of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character on “The New Adventures of Old Christine” (CBS, 2006- ) and earning another Emmy nomination for a guest spot on “Law & Order: SVU” (NBC, 1999- ) as a woman who helps seek justice for an abused neighbor.

Rhe above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Clive Wood was born in 1957 in Herfordshire. He played ‘Little John’ in the early 1980’s British TV series “Robin of Sherwood”. He has also acted in “Casualty” and “Holby City”. His film work includes “Alien 3” and “The Darkest Light”.

IMDB entry:

Clive Mantle was born in Barnet, London. He was a chorister in St. John’s choir, Cambridge for four years, and a member of the National Youth Theatre for five years, appearing in a total of eleven productions. He trained at R.A.D.A. and has worked steadily in films, plays and television. He is best known for playing Little John in Robin Of Sherwood and Mike Barratt in Casualty and Holby City.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Christine Haire <ChrisRHood@aol.com>

Ian Richardson was born in Edinburgh in 1934. Long a stage actor, he is best remembered for his performance as’ Francis Urquant’, the cunning, devious Prime Minister in the British television series “House of Cards”, “To Play the King” and “The Final Cut”. These series ran between 1990 and 1995 and were both critical and popular successes. His film work includes “Man of La Mancha”, “Brazil” and “M Butterfly”. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 2007.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

A classical actor (and founding member in 1960 of the Royal Shakespeare Company), Richardson earned international fame as the villainous Francis Urquart in the BBC television trilogy, “House of Cards.” Uttered in a cut-glass accent, the Machiavellian Prime Minister’s sly “You might well think that … I couldn’t possibly comment” became a catchphrase when the series was broadcast in the 1990s. Richardson’s contributions to his art were honored in 1989 when he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE.) Fittingly, his family had his ashes buried beneath the auditorium of the new Royal Shakespeare theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Born the son of John and Margaret (Drummond) Richardson on April 7, 1934, he was educated at Tynecastle School in Edinburgh, and studied for the stage at the College of Dramatic Art in Glasgow, where he was awarded the James Bridie Gold Medal in 1957. He joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company a year later where he played Hamlet as well as John Worthing in “The Importance of being Earnest.” In 1960 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (then called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) and drew excellent notices for his work in “The Merchant of Venice,” “Twelfth Night,” “The Winter’s Tale,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” “The Comedy of Errors” and “King Lear”, among others. In 1964 Richardson played the role of the Herald before advancing to the title role of Jean-Paul Marat in the stunning, avant-garde RSC production of “Marat-Sade”. In addition, he made his Broadway debut in said role at the very end of 1965, and recreated it to critical acclaim in Peter Brooks‘ film adaptation with Glenda Jackson as murderess Charlotte Corday. Richardson also went on to replay Oberon in a lukewarm film version of RSC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968) that nevertheless bore an elite company of Britain’s finest pre-Dames — Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Diana Rigg. One of his lower film points during that time period, however, was appearing in the huge musical movie misfire Man of La Mancha (1972) in the role of the Padre opposite Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren.

Richardson was never far from the Shakespearean stage after his induction into films with majestic portraits of Coriolanus, Pericles, Richard II, Richard III, Cassius (“Julius Caesar”), Malcolm (“Macbeth”), Angelo (“Measure for Measure”), Prospero (“The Tempest”) and Mercutio (“Romeo and “Juliet”) paving the way. Elsewhere on Broadway he received a Drama Desk Award and Tony nomination for his splendid Henry Higgins in a revival of “My Fair Lady” in 1976, and was part of the cast of the short-lived (12 performances) production of “Lolita” (1981), written by Edward Albee and starring Donald Sutherland as Humbert Humbert.

Customary of many talented Scots, Richardson would find his best on-camera roles in plush, intelligent TV mini-series. On the Shakespearean front he appeared in TV adaptations of As You Like It (1963), All’s Well That Ends Well (1968) and Much Ado About Nothing (1978). After delivering highly capable performances as Field-Marshal Montgomery in both Churchill and the Generals (1981) and Ike: The War Years (1979), Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983), and Indian Prime Minister Nehru in Masterpiece Theatre: Lord Mountbatten – The Last Viceroy (1986), he capped his small-screen career in the role of the immoral politician Francis Urquhart in a trio of dramatic satires: House of Cards (1990), To Play the King (1993) and The Final Cut(1996). His impeccably finely-tuned villain became one his best remembered roles.

Filmwise, Richardson’s stature did not grow despite polished work in Brazil (1985), Cry Freedom (1987), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), M. Butterfly (1993), Dark City (1998), and the lightweight mainstream fare B*A*P*S (1997) and 102 Dalmatians(2000). He appeared less and less on stage in his later years. He took his final stage bows in 2006 with West End productions of “The Creeper” and “The Alchemist”.

The urbane 72-year-old actor died unexpectedly in his sleep at his London abode on February 9, 2007, survived by his widow Maroussia Frank (his wife from 1961 and an RSC actress who played an asylum inmate alongside him in “Marat-Sade”) and two sons, one of whom, Miles Richardson, has been a resident performer with the RSC.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Noel Harrison was born in London in 1934 and is the son of actor Rex Harrison. He began his show business career as a singer. He went to the U.S. in 1965 and the year after he starred with Stefanie Powers in the TV series “The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”. He starred with Hayley Mills and Oliver Reed in the movie “Take A Girl Like You”. He had a hit with the song “The Windmills of Your Mind” from “The Thomas Crown Affair” which starred Steve McQueen.

Adam Sweeting’s obituary in “The Guardian”:

Noel Harrison, who has died aged 79 following a heart attack, was the son of the actor Sir Rex Harrison and followed his famous father into show business. He pursued a varied career on stage and in film and television, but it was as a musician that he achieved his moment in the spotlight. In 1968 he recorded the song The Windmills of Your Mind for the soundtrack of the Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway film The Thomas Crown Affair and it became a top 10 hit in the UK the following year.

“Recording Windmills wasn’t a very significant moment,” he recalled. “It was just a job that I got paid $500 for, no big deal. The composer, Michel Legrand, came to my home and helped me learn it, then we went into the studio and recorded it, and I thought no more about it.” It went on to win an Oscar for best original song. (Coincidentally, Talk to the Animals, the song sung by Rex Harrison in Doctor Dolittle, had won the Oscar the previous year.)

“People love [Windmills],” said Noel, “and it’s great to have a classic like that on my books.” His pleasure was marred only slightly by the fact that he could not perform it at the Oscar ceremony because he was in Britain filming Take a Girl Like You (1970).

Noel was born in London to Rex Harrison and his first wife, Collette Thomas; they divorced when he was eight. He attended private schools, including Radley college, Oxfordshire, and when he was 16 his mother invited him to live with her in Klosters, Switzerland. He jumped at the chance, which allowed him to develop his gifts as a skier. He became a member of the British ski team and competed at the Winter Olympics in Norway in 1952 and Italy in 1956.

After completing his national service in the army, Harrison concentrated on learning the guitar and in his 20s made a living travelling around Europe playing in bars and clubs. In 1958 he was given a slot on the BBC TV programme Tonight, on which he would sing calypso-style songs about current news events.

In 1965 he left for the US with his first wife, Sara, working on both coasts as a nightclub entertainer. He scored a minor hit with his version of the Charles Aznavour song A Young Girl (of Sixteen), which also featured on his first studio album, Noel Harrison, released in 1966. Then he landed a leading role in the TV series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., playing Mark Slate opposite Stefanie Powers as April Dancer, though the show lasted for only one season.

Harrison’s high profile earned him a recording deal with Reprise, for whom he made three albums, Collage (1967), Santa Monica Pier (1968) and The Great Electric Experiment is Over (1969), and notched another minor hit with Leonard Cohen’s song Suzanne. He also toured with Sonny & Cher and the Beach Boys. However, while his career flourished, his marriage was disintegrating, and Sara returned to Britain with their three children. In 1972 Harrison, beguiled by the back-to-the-land spirit of the era, left Los Angeles for Nova Scotia, Canada, with his second wife, Maggie. There they built their own house and lived on home-grown fruit and vegetables.

He now earned a living from hosting a music show on CBC, Take Time, and took several stage roles in touring musicals including Camelot, The Sound of Music and Man of La Mancha. He even played Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, which had been an Oscar-winning film role for his father. “I went to see my dad in New York and I said ‘I really need the money, so how do you feel about it?’ He said ‘Oh why not? Everybody else is doing it.'” In the 80s he also staged a one-man musical, Adieu Jacques, based on the songs of Jacques Brel.

He ventured into screenwriting, penning episodes of two “erotic” TV series, Emmanuelle, Queen of the Galaxy and The Adventures of Justine, before returning to Britain in 2003 with his third wife, Lori. They originally planned a short visit to his stepdaughter, Zoe, who was running a cafe in Ashburton, Devon, but liked it so much they decided to stay. Harrison played gigs in village halls across Devon and in 2011 performed at the Glastonbury festival. He released two new albums, Hold Back Time (2003) and From the Sublime to the Ridiculous (2010), and his three Reprise albums were reissued in 2011.

He is survived by Lori and five children from his first two marriages, which both ended in divorce.

• Noel Harrison, actor, musician and writer, born 29 January 1934; died 19 October 2013

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

He is most remembered, in the UK, for his 1985 performance in Levi’s “Launderette” television commercial,^[3] where he gets to stone-wash his blue jeans in a 1950s style public laundromat which was one of a series of Bartle Bogle Hegarty advertisements that dramatically increased the popularity of Levi 501s. The commercial, directed by Roger Lyons, was selected for, and came fourth in, The 100 Greatest TV Ads in 2000.^[4]

Extract from “Wikipedia” entry:

Kamen attended St Marks RC Comprehensive School in Harlow along with his brother Chester.^{[citation needed]} Kamen was first brought to the public’s attention in 1984 when Ray Petri featured him on the front cover of The Face.^[2] The cover showed him wearing a ski-hat, orange roll-neck sweater and aviator sunglasses.

He is most remembered, in the UK, for his 1985 beefcake performance in Levi’s “Launderette” television commercial,^[3] where he strips down in order to stone-wash his blue jeansin a 1950s style public laundromat while he waits clad only in his boxer shorts, which was one of a series of Bartle Bogle Hegarty advertisements that dramatically increased thepopularity of Levi 501s. The commercial, directed by Roger Lyons, was selected for, and came fourth in, The 100 Greatest TV Ads in 2000.^[4]

His first single was the 1986 UK number five hit “Each Time You Break My Heart” from his eponymous début album.^[5] Written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray, it also cracked both the U.S. dance chart (remix by Shep Pettibone) and the Top 50 in Canada. Madonna also sang the backing vocals. Her original demo remains one of manyunreleased Madonna songs. Kamen also had a #16 follow-up in the UK with the second single, “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever” (a cover of the Four Tops‘ 1966 hit), although his later singles were less-commercially successful in the UK^[5] but more so in the rest of Europe, particularly Italy, France, Germany and Spain.

Kamen’s second album Us (1988) was produced by Patrick Leonard. Madonna again made an appearance as a backing vocalist on the song “Tell Me”, this time without contributing to the songwriting or production. In 1989 Kamen performed the song “Turn It Up” on the soundtrack to Walt Disney‘s film, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. 1990 saw the release of one of his biggest hits. The single “I Promised Myself“, from the album Move Until We Fly, reached Number 1 in eight European countries and was the fourth most played record in Europe in 1990. The song was later covered by Dead or Alive (1999), A-Teens (2004), Basshunter (2009) and most recently German punk rockers Maggers United (2013).

Nick Kamen appeared on UK television, singing, on Top of the Pops (12 March 1987 and 18 October 1990), This Morning (9 April 1990), Night Network (15 April 1987, 19 August 1987 and 1988) and The Tube (31 October 1986 and 21 November 1986). In 1992 Kamen released what would be his last album to date, Whatever, Whenever.

The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.

Anita Carey was born in 1948 in Halifax. She featured as ‘Joyce Smedley’ in “Coronation Street” and as ‘Violet’ in “Doctors”. Her films include “Ordeal By Innocence”.

Anita Carey died in 2023.

Guardian obituary in August 2023:

Anita Carey obituary

Actor known for her roles in television comedies, the epic drama The Spoils of War and Coronation Street

Anthony HaywardSun 6 Aug 2023 17.35 BST

At one time in the mid-1970s, the actor Anita Carey, who has died of breast cancer aged 75, seemed ever present in television comedy. But she switched to soap in 1978 when offered a short run in Coronation Street as Brenda Summers, a victim of domestic violence, who was befriended by Emily Bishop (played by Eileen Derbyshire).

“I’ve done so much comedy on television that I was anxious to get a really meaty dramatic role,” said Carey, who researched the subject by talking to women at a Manchester refuge. “The social relevance of the part was a big challenge. It made me think hard about battered wives.”

She was back in Coronation Street two decades later to play a woman with very different problems. As Joyce Smedley, the debt-laden mother of Judy Mallett (Gaynor Faye) for a year from 1996 to 1997, she was a cleaner at the Rovers Return pub and Sunliners travel agency – sacked from the second job by her boss, Alec Gilroy, after stealing money.

Eileen Derbyshire (as Emily Bishop), left, and Anita Carey (as Brenda Summers) in Coronation Street, 1978. Photograph: ITV/Shutterstock

Joyce met an untimely end when her dog, Scamper, slipped his lead and she was knocked down by a car while rushing across the road after him. Carey was one of the victims of a headline-hitting cast cull by a new Coronation Street producer, Brian Park.

Her talent for comedy had previously shone in the first two series (1973 and 1974) of I Didn’t Know You Cared. As Pat Partington, she was the girlfriend, then wife, of Carter Brandon (Stephen Rea) in Peter Tinniswood’s sitcom about a dour, miserable north of England working-class family. Pat, a women’s libber firmly against parenthood underwent an about-turn that saw her with one baby and another on the way before Carey left halfway through the programme’s four-series run.

“I opted out after a while because I couldn’t develop the character,” she explained. “Now, I want to concentrate on heavy dramatic parts.”

In The Spoils of War (1980-81), an epic drama from the pen of the Family at War creator John Finch, she played Martha Blaze, marrying into one of the two families facing the hopes and fears of the post-1945 world. “Anita Carey lit up all the scenes in which she appeared with her customary sharpness and intelligence,” wrote the Stage’s critic.

Anita Carey, Richard Griffiths, centre, and Tim Healy in the ITV comedy A Kind of Living, 1989.Photograph: ITV/Shutterstock

The drama became political in ITV’s 1986 adaptation of Jeffrey Archer’s novel First Among Equals. Carey played Joyce Gould, devoted wife of the northern Labour MP Raymond (Tom Wilkinson), who feels mildly ashamed of her after leaving his working-class roots behind as he aspires to top office.

She returned to sitcom in the third series (1990) of A Kind of Living as Linda, an unmarried mother moving in with her brother Brian (Tim Healy), owner of a fish and chip shop, and falling for his friend Trevor (Richard Griffiths).

Later, she was in soap again as Vivien March (2007-09), receptionist at the Mill Health Centre, for almost 400 episodes of the afternoon serial Doctors. Her portrayal of Vivien coping with the ordeal of being raped by a burglar brought the actor a British Soap award for best dramatic performance.

Anita was born in Halifax, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to Sidney Carey, a postal worker, and Louisa Crowther. She was brought up in Brighouse and, on leaving Holmfirth secondary modern school at 14, worked as a typist for a carpet firm. At the same time, she took drama classes at the Bradford Playhouse.

Aged 19, Carey and her then fiance, Steve Hodson – who went on to star in the children’s TV series Follyfoot – successfully auditioned to train at Central School of Speech and Drama in London (1967-70). She gained her first professional experience with the rep company at the Lyceum theatre, Crewe (1970-71). Then, in 1973, a tour of Butley – in which she played Miss Heasman – visited the Crucible theatre, Sheffield, where she met the actor Mark Wing-Davey, a member of the rep company there.

The two began living together the following year after they both took part in a Crucible production of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Alongside appearances in the provinces and on tour with roles including Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest (1975) and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1998), Carey was in the West End as Alice Hobson in Hobson’s Choice (Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 1982).

She established herself in television comedy by playing Susan Chambers, whose sister Thelma (Brigit Forsyth) marries Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes), in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (1973-74).

Then came appearances in One-Upmanship (1974-76), a sketch show based on Stephen Potter’s spoof self-help books, and in the second and third series (1975 and 1977) of the comedy-drama Beryl’s Lot, playing Babs Humphries, one of the children of the cleaner (Carmel McSharry) looking to improve her life by signing up for an evening course in philosophy.

Carey took dozens of other character roles on television until moving to New York after Wing-Davey – by then a successful director in the US – became chair of the graduate acting programme at New York University in 2008.

Even after her cancer diagnosis two years later, she continued to act on stage in Berkeley, Washington and New York.

She is survived by Wing-Davey, whom she married in 2002, and their daughters, Zanna and Isabella.

Anita Eileen Carey, actor, born 16 April 1948; died 19 July 2023

Mark Burns was born in 1936. He made his film debut in 1960 in “Tunes of Glory”. His other movies include “The Charge of the Light Brigade” in 1968, “A Day At The Beach”, “Death in Venice” and “The Stud”. He died in 2007,

Peter Evan’s obituary in “The Guardian”:

Mark Burns, who has died aged 71 from cancer, was one of the most admired young actors of the 1960s. Although it was the decade of the working-class hero – Albert Finney, Michael Caine, Terence Stamp and Tom Courtenay – his English upper-crust image and blond good looks quickly attracted attention.

Tony Richardson cast him as the dashing Captain Morris in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968). He had seen Burns as Saki’s amoral and effete antihero Clovis Sangrail in a 1960 Granada television series, and remarked that “it was an unexpected bonus when I discovered that he had, in fact, been a cavalry officer”.

Burns’ friend Charles Wood, writer of the screenplay, said: “Mark was a typically brave cavalry officer. A beautiful, kind man, he had the courage of a lion. He licked prostate cancer, bladder cancer; he licked booze, and he fought the final lung cancer all the way.”

Born in Worcestershire, Burns was educated at Ampleforth college, north Yorkshire, and planned to enter the priesthood. But after a short-service commission in the 15th/19th The Kings Royal Hussars (1955-57), in which he served in Malaya and Northern Ireland, he became an actor. Early television appearances included roles in Z Cars, Probation Officer, and No Hiding Place.

In 1971, Luchino Visconti cast him in the small but crucial role of the composer’s friend in Death in Venice. Burns’ scene, in which he accuses the dying Aschenbach, played by Dirk Bogarde, of avoiding emotional issues in his private life, was at the heart of the film: Bogarde called it “one of the finest acting vignettes I’ve ever seen”.

Shortly after the Falklands conflict in 1982, Burns read about Robert Lawrence, an officer who lost almost half his brain when he was shot by an Argentinian sniper. Facing a lifetime of paralysis, Lawrence felt abandoned by the army. Burns took the idea to Wood, who wrote the television drama, Tumbledown. Although Burns never took a producer’s credit for the production, eventually made by the BBC in 1988, it was one of his proudest achievements.

But Burns never took himself seriously: his performances opposite Joan Collins in The Stud (1978) and The Bitch (1979) pointed to his sense of humour. His loyalty to his friends was legendary. When director Michael Winner could not afford to pay him even the minimum fee for a role in his remake of The Wicked Lady in 1983, Burns told him to make a donation to his Police Memorial Trust Fund. Later, when Burns was charged with speeding, Winner told the bench that the actor had given “his entire fee” for a major film to the fund. Burns was discharged.

His first wife was the actor Jane How, with whom he had a son, Jack. His second was the former model, Paulene Stone. All three survive him.

· Mark Burns, actor, born March 30 1936; died May 8 2007

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Article on Mark Burns in “Tina Aumont’s Eyes” website:

Perhaps mostly recognized from his lesser supporting roles in such movies as ‘The Stud’(1978), and its follow-up ‘The Bitch’ (1979), it’s a shame that the very talented Mark Burns never achieved the recognition that he truly deserved. A busy supporting player and occasional lead, he seems to have been largely forgotten, yet he acted steadily for over 45 years.

Born on March 30th 1936, Burns had originally planned to enter into priesthood, until he served two years with the British Cavalry from 1955 to 1957. Turning to acting in 1960, he spent his early days working mainly in television, guesting in many acclaimed British series including ‘Z Cars’, ‘The Saint’ and ‘The Prisoner’. One of Mark’s first film roles of note was as Captain William Morris, in Tony Richardson’s historical drama ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1968).

In 1969 Mark began work on the one movie which could have made him a star. Roman Polanski’s bleak but brilliant ‘A Day at the Beach’(1970) had Burns in the lead role of boozy Uncle Bernie. This unrelenting movie tells the harrowing story of the last day in the life of an alcoholic, whilst looking after his young niece. Adapted by Polanski and directed by Simon Hesera, the movie would undoubtedly have received far more recognition had it been released at the time it was made. Polanski left production shortly before filming had finished, upon receiving the awful news of his heavily pregnant wife Sharon Tate’s tragic murder, at the hands of the Manson family. Out of respect for Polanski, the distributors shelved the movie with the intention to show it at a later date. Mark was hypnotic in a demanding role, and it’s a shame that he sadly passed away before the movies long-awaited DVD release in 2007, as he never got to see his excellent performance.

In 1970, Burns was praised for his portrayal of Major Eastwood in Christopher Miles’ version of D.H Lawrence’s ‘The Virgin and the Gypsy’. Mark followed this with roles in two movies for Luchino Visconti, 1971’s ‘Death in Venice’, and a small part in the biopic ‘Ludwig’, in 1972. Burns did get some recognition however, in 1974, albeit for a pretty obscure euro horror flick. Ray Austin’s ‘Curse of the Dead’, saw Mark playing a mad scientist, a role for which he won the Best Actor award at the Sitges International Film Festival.
After parts in a couple of big budget movies (1974’s Juggernaut, and Otto Preminger’s ‘Rosebud’-1975), Burns had a rare romantic lead in the obscure, yet pretty good, Spanish drama ‘A Long Return’(1975).

Mark had a long association with maverick director Michael Winner, appearing in many of his movies. His first was in 1964 with a minor part in ‘The System’, alongside another Winner regular, Oliver Reed. Winner would continue to use Mark’s services for ‘The Jokers’ and ‘I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname’ (both 1967), and much later in ‘The Wicked Lady’(1983), ‘Bullseye!’ (1990), and ‘Dirty Weekend’ (1993).

Mark continued to keep fairly busy in between films, with a number of television roles, including ‘Bergerac’, ‘Remington Steele’ and ‘Heartbeat’. Burns final movie role was that of a bishop in Matthew Vaughn’s big-budget fantasy ‘Stardust’ in 2007.

Married twice, with one son, Mark Burns sadly died from lung cancer on May 8th 2007, aged 71. A great and valued talent, and one who narrowly missed out on the acclaim he genuinely deserved.

Favourite Movie: A Long Returning
Favourite Performance: A Day At The Beach

The above article can also be accessed online here.

Peggy Mount obituary in “The Guardian” in 2001.

Peggy Mount was born in 1915 in Leigh-On-Sea, Essex. She came to fame in Britain in the 1950’s with a series of films in which she played battleaxes and bossy mother-in-laws such as “Sailor Beware”. She appeared on many television programmes such as “Inspector Morse” and had her own TV show “The Larkins”. She died in 2001.

Dennis Barker’s obituary in “The Guardian”:

Peggy Mount, who has died in a nursing home after a long illness, aged 86, was the last of the time-honoured British battleaxes, equally at home in the broadest of farces or in Brecht. Her professional stock-in-trade as a stage and television actress was a voice that could have made a regimental sergeant major tremble and a figure, suggesting an ample corsage filled with concrete, that wordlessly and hilariously forbade the taking of liberties.

Behind this facade, which caused her no little personal unhappiness, was a kind, down-to-earth woman who never severed her links with Southend, near where she was born, never forgot old friends (her Southend costume maker served her for over a generation) and sometimes made new ones as she did her shopping around Islington, north London, where latterly she lived.

To an older generation, she will be most vividly recalled as the overwhelmingly raucous Emma Hornett, iron-fisted ruler of a nominally military household in both the stage and film versions of Sailor Beware. Falling back on the attitudes of a “poor little woman” only when it suited her, Emma Hornett, in fact, hardly allowed the menfolk in her menage to get a word in edgeways. The conception and execution was explosively funny in the seaside postcard tradition.

Yet producers were slow to see her star quality. When she first appeared in Philip King’s play in 1955, after labouring hard and inconspicuously in repertory in the Midlands and the north of England for many years, she was asked her age at a press lunch. She pointed to the press release. “It says on that bit of paper 35, but really I’m 38,” she said briskly. She had learned by then not to back off from unpleasant facts – such as that, in her view, she was fat and ugly, something that her not very clever family had dunned into her.

Peggy Mount was born in Leigh-on-Sea, the daughter of an invalid father who died when she was 10, leaving her in the sole care of a mother who had litle time for her. Wanting to help the stretched family finances, she became a secretary, devoting rare threepences to buying “late doors” tickets sold five minutes before curtain-up at local theatres. She also visited London theatres when she could, vowing to have her name up there in lights one day, though not really believing it possible for someone as unattractive as she felt herself to be.

She hung around one Southend theatre when Harry Hanson’s Hanson Players were there for a season. A member of the company suggested to the director that he see the stage-struck girl in a local amateur production (she was then known as the Amateur Queen of Southend). Her first job with the Hanson Players was at Keighley in 1944. At Worthing, she played the part of an eccentric guest, created by Martita Hunt, in The Sleeping Prince. She stayed with the company for three years and then stepped into the part of Emma Hornett at Worthing.

Though Peggy Mount was a smash hit in the role, the management wanted an established star to take it into the West End. It was only after they had failed to find one for a whole year that they settled on Peggy Mount. The play and she ran for more than three years. She became a star from its London first night at the Strand theatre in January 1955. From then on, she was in constant demand for battleaxe parts. She was Ada Larkin in the ITV series about the Larkin family, her playing only slightly toned down from Sailor Beware.

From 1960, she moved into classical parts on stage, the first fulfilling her ambition to play the nurse in Romeo and Juliet. Before this Franco Zeffirelli production at the Old Vic, she revealingly gave a potted estimate of Ma Larkin that could as easily have applied to herself: “She has aggressive common-sense; she sees life clearly.” But she also remarked gloomily that her Ma Larkin “may easily ruin us – the audience and critics may not accept that noisy woman in Shakespeare”. As usual her pessimism was proved wrong.

Through the 1970s and 1980s she continued with a mixture of prestigious stage classics and lucrative television series. Her Mrs Malaprop in Belgrade Theatre’s touring production of Sheridan’s The Rivals was hailed as “the play’s vociferous focal point”.

Her roles in the classics were rarely other than well received. With Kenneth Williams in the Feydeau farce Signed and Sealed, she did cause one critic to say that her coquettish flouncing as an eager bride was not as funny as Mount the awesome matriarch; but her first appearance at the National Theatre, in Goldini’s Il Campiello, was praised. And Her Mother Courage was exceptional. Her unsentimental view of the title role was perfectly Brechtian in showing Mother Courage not merely as a survivor of cruel misfortunes to be sympathised with, but also as an unseeing dupe of the greed and corruption of the political system.

Her successes in classic roles alone would have given many other actresses a self-satisfaction which always eluded her. Despite her few loyal friends (she once marooned three of them on a sand bank at low tide off Foulness when she took them out in her sailing boat, appropriately called Dragon), her jam-making and knitting for friends’ children and grandchildren, she saw herself as essentially alone. She never married, and though she sometimes said she wished she had, neither she nor her friends really thought it was for her. The wounds of her family background were too deep.

·Peggy Mount, actor, born May 2 1918; died November 13 2001.

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Billy Boyle was born in Dublin in 1945. His career has been based primarily in the U.K. His movies include “Barry Lyndon” and “Wild Geese 2”.

“Wikipedia” entry:

Billy Boyle is an Irish actor on British film, television and stage. He is a veteran of the West End stage having played leading roles in over 15 hit shows. In his first West End musical Maggie May he was nominated as best newcomer. Gower Champion then chose him to play Barnaby in Hello Dolly at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He appeared inCanterbury Tales at the Phoenix Theatre as The Clerk of Oxford. Harold Hobson, The Times critic said, “He was a breath of fresh air in the West-End”.^{[citation needed]} He then went on to play leading roles in No Sex Please, We’re British, Billy, What’s a Nice Country, The Rivals, Love, Lust, & Marriage, Some Like it Hot, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and lately Dirty Dancing. He has had his own very successful television series in Ireland It’s Billy Boyle as well as leading roles in Trail of Guilt, the award winning The Grass Arena, The Bretts, as well as many guest appearances in EastEnders, Coronation Street, Father Ted etc. He later presented a programme, Dance Crazy for ITV, on the history of dance. Lately he has been seen in Dirk Gently, for BBC Four, and the current series of Lead Balloon. His many films include Stanley Kubrick‘s Barry Lyndon, Groupie Girl, Side by Side,Shergar, The Scarlet and the Black, and Round Ireland with a Fridge.

The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

Brenda Blethyn

Clive Mantle

Ian Richardson

Noel Harrison

Nick Kamen

Anita Carey

Guardian obituary in August 2023:

Anita Carey obituary

Mark Burns

Peggy Mount

Peggy Mount obituary in “The Guardian” in 2001.

Billy Boyle

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