British Actors Archives - Page 61 of 137

T.P. McKenna

T.P. McKenna was born in 1929 in Co Cavan, Ireland. He began his acting career in Dublin at the famed Abbey Theatre. In 1959 he made the film “Shake Hands With the Devil” with James Cagney, Dana Wynter and Glynis Johns. He made his career in England and acted in most of the major television series of their time e.g.”The Sweeney”. “Blake 7” etc. He died in 2011.

Michael Coveney’s “Guardian” obituary:

Before he became a familiar face on television and cinema screens, the outstanding Irish actor TP McKenna, who has died after a long illness aged 81, bridged the gap between the old and the new Abbey theatres in Dublin. He appeared with the company for eight years during the interim period at the Queen’s theatre; the old Abbey burned down in 1951, the new one opened by the Liffey in 1966.

During that time he made his reputation as a leading actor of great charm, vocal resource – with a fine singing voice – and versatility. He was equally adept at comedy and tragedy, a great exponent of the best Irish playwriting from JM Synge and Séan O’Casey to Hugh Leonard and Brian Friel. The elder son in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night was a favourite, much acclaimed role.

It was Stephen D, Leonard’s skilful conflation of two James Joyce books, for the rival Gate theatre that in 1963 brought McKenna to London, where he stayed for more or less the rest of his career, appearing regularly on West End stages while reaching wider audiences.

He played barristers and detectives, conmen, police officers and a pope. His default mode was an imposing, authoritative geniality, and when he played a Nazi engaging in the casual slaughter of Jews in the TV mini-series Holocaust (1978), it was as hard to watch as it was to credit that this was the same actor who was so delightful as Harold Skimpole (“no idea of time, no idea of money”) in Charles Dickens’s Bleak House (1985) on BBC television.

For an actor, McKenna was an unusually modest and self-effacing man, and this trait lent a profound transparency and poignancy to those performances that touched on failure and disappointment, notably in Chekhov. You never saw the joins.

His family had settled in Mullagh, County Cavan, in the north of Ireland, in the 18th century. His great-grandfather, Nicholas McKenna, was an auctioneer, tradesman and farmer; his uncle, Justin McKenna, a notable politician; and his father, Ralph, also an auctioneer and merchant. Thomas – generally known in later life as “TP” – was the eldest of 10 children. He was educated at Mullagh national school and St Patrick’s college, Cavan, where he studied literature and discovered his acting and singing talent in Gilbert and Sullivan. He played Gaelic football, representing St Patrick’s in the final of the All Ireland colleges competition in 1948.

As a schoolboy, he had seen the legendary Anew McMaster‘s touring company in Shakespeare and decided to go on the stage. But first he took his banking exams in Belfast, then worked for the Ulster Bank in Granard, Trim and Dublin, where he trained at the Abbey Theatre School. He made his debut at the Pyke in 1953, appeared with McMaster at the Gaiety in 1954 (playing Horatio in Hamlet and Albany in King Lear) before joining the Abbey.

McKenna played more than 70 roles for the Abbey at the Queen’s, a large, demanding theatre seating 900. One of the Gate theatre’s biggest modern successes was Stephen D at the Dublin Theatre festival of 1962. In the following year, McKenna came with it, and his fellow actor Norman Rodway, to London. Although he returned to Dublin in 1966 to play in the Abbey’s reopening production – Walter Macken’s Recall the Years, a curtain-raiser to a major revival of O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars – McKenna never liked the new theatre and revelled in the wider opportunities now open to him on British television and stage.

At the Royal Court in 1964, he played Cassius in Lindsay Anderson’s revival of Julius Caesar, then joined Stuart Burge and Jonathan Miller at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1968, playing the Bastard in King John, Joseph Surface in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal, Trigorin in Chekhov’s The Seagull and Macduff in Macbeth. At the end of an exhausting season, he directed his first and favourite play, Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World.

Back at the Court in 1969, he was one of the two Irish contractors in David Storey’s The Contractor, directed by Anderson, and this role with his compatriot Jim Norton led to both of them being hired by Sam Peckinpah to appear in Straw Dogs (1971), his fourth major film, following Joseph Strick‘s Ulysses (1967) – he was Buck Mulligan – Tony Richardson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), and Charles Jarrott’s Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). McKenna had a soft spot for Peter Hall’s Perfect Friday (1970), a comedy caper with Stanley Baker, Ursula Andress and David Warner, and he also popped up tellingly opposite Richard Burton in Michael Tuchner’s Villain (1971), the first movie “inspired” by the Kray twins.

McKenna had married May White, literally the girl next door, who worked for Radio Éireann, in 1955, but he did not bring the family over to settle in London until 1972. Notable stage roles over the next two decades included Robert Hand in James Joyce’s only play, Exiles, directed byHarold Pinter at the Mermaid in 1970; a straitlaced puritan preacher inGeorge Bernard Shaw‘s The Devil’s Disciple for the RSC in 1976, a performance of coruscating charm opposite Tom Conti, John Wood, Zoë Wanamaker and Bob Hoskins; a beautifully modulated doctor in Max Stafford-Clark’s production of Thomas Kilroy’s take on The Seagull at the Royal Court in 1980; and the Duke of Florence, an acid-voiced, bleakly ruthless intelligencer, in Philip Prowse’s gorgeous staging of John Webster’s The White Devil at the National in 1991.

He returned to the Gate several times. The artistic director Michael Colgan said that his Uncle Vanya there in 1987 was the most moving performance of his tenure, while his Serebryakov in the same Chekhov play, a few years later, fitted equally well. His whiskey-sodden, disenchanted ophthalmologist in Friel’s Molly Sweeney (1994), a play about regaining sight but losing faith, was just as potent and memorable, and he played a wonderful double act with Niall Buggy in Pinter’s No Man’s Land in 1997.

And there seemed hardly a major television series he did not adorn, as a maverick Russian agent in Callan, or as various villains in Lovejoy, Minder and The Sweeney. He was the final suspect ever interviewed byJohn Thaw as Inspector Morse. His last major movie was Lawrence Dunmore’s The Libertine (2004), starring Johnny Depp in Stephen Jeffreys’s screenplay from his own theatre piece, and he last appeared on the London stage in 2005, as the disabled father in a National Theatre revival by Tom Cairns of Friel’s elegiac Aristocrats.

But with a fine, black-humoured Irish flourish, he saved his last gasp for a short, low-budget movie called Death’s Door (2009), in which he played a dying man in a grand old house confronted by a junkie career criminal played by one of the Irish theatre’s rising stars, Karl Sheils.

May died in 2007. McKenna is survived by four sons and a daughter, three brothers and five sisters.

• Thomas Patrick McKenna, actor, born 7 September 1929; died 13 February 2011

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

T.P. McKenna obituary in “The Guardian”.

Michael Coveney’s “Guardian” obituary:

May died in 2007. McKenna is survived by four sons and a daughter, three brothers and five sisters.

• Thomas Patrick McKenna, actor, born 7 September 1929; died 13 February 2011

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online

Rhydian was born James Roberts in 1983. He came to fame in “The X Factor” in 1983.

“Classic FM” article:

We asked the Welsh singer, who shot to fame in X Factor in 2007, why he thought Wales produces so many great singers and whether he misses his homeland when he’s away.

Next month, Rhydian is embarking on a tour of UK arenas in Jeff Wayne’s musical The War of the Worlds, in which he plays Parson Nathaniel. He tells us about the role, for which he’s losing his trademark white hair.

Asked what it’s like performing in such large venues as the O2, and whether it requires different skills, Rhydian said “I’ve always been a larger than life character when I’m on stage and I think that helps.”

The above “Classic FM” article can also be accessed online here.

IMDB entry:

Born in Pontypridd, South Wales, in 1940 to a traditional coal-mining family, he began singing at an early age in church and in the school choir. Left school at 16 and was married, having a son a year later. He brought in money for his family from an assortment of jobs, singing in pubs at night. By 1963, he was playing regularly with his own group in the demanding atmosphere of working mens clubs. Gordon Mills, a performer who had branched out into songwriting and management went to see him. He became his manager and landed him a record contract in 1964. They made a great team and had huge international success with their second single, a song penned by Mr Mills — “It’s Not Unusual.” An avalanche of gold singles and albums followed. Mr Jones, a vocal powerhouse, has sustained his popularity for over three decades, and his recordings have spanned the spectrum of musical styles. Now lives with his wife Melinda in homes in Wales and California.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: BlackKnight1(vanessawhistler@ntlworld.com

Andrea Riseborough was born in Whitley Bay in 1981. She is one of Britain’s best young actresses with sterling performances in such films as “Made in Dagenham”. “Never Let Me Go”, the remake of “Brighton Rock” and “the Belfast set “Shadow Dancer”.

TCM overview:

It is alright if the name Andrea Riseborough seems a little unfamiliar. Though the actress has been a rising star in her native England for years, beginning with her role as an ambitious Labour Party researcher on the political satire “Party Animals” (BBC Two, 2007), the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate has only appeared on American audiences’ radars since 2011, when she portrayed American divorcee and future Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson in Madonna’s divisive “W.E.” But those intervening four years found the preternaturally observant Riseborough pack in several memorable performances: she earned a BAFTA nomination for her nuanced turn as a young Margaret Thatcher in the made-for-TV movie “Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley” (BBC 4, 2008); was cast as a strong-willed factory machinist in the union drama “Made in Dagenham” (2010); and found the strong heart of a naively trusting wife in the 2010 remake of Graham Greene’s “Brighton Rock.” Her affinity for portraying determined women matched up perfectly with her role as Wallis Simpson, whose romance with King Edward VIII caused him to abdicate his throne in 1936 so they could marry. The film’s controversial reception did nothing to slow the thoughtful actress’ burgeoning career, however, and in 2012 she earned critical acclaim for her role as an IRA-member-turned-informant in “Shadow Dancer,” set in ’90s Belfast. Her next role, as a mysterious drone supervisor opposite Tom Cruise in the big-budget “Oblivion” (2013), highlighted her ability to shift from intense period piece to glossy Hollywood sci-fi. With a startling intensity and wise-beyond-her years talent, Andrea Riseborough is one to watch.

Born in 1981 in northern England a few days shy of Halloween, Riseborough was an inveterate people watcher from a young age. Keenly aware of her socio-economic status — her father worked as a car salesman, and her mother was employed as both a secretary and beautician — the young Riseborough closely observed those around her. Though she did well in the private school her parents placed her in, which they were able to afford thanks to the economic boom England enjoyed in the 1980s, she eventually dropped out and worked a number of odd jobs, including managing a Chinese restaurant, as a way to gain experience outside school walls. Her family lost everything in the early ’90s recession, and their resulting hardship supplied another experience for her to draw from.

Her interest in acting led her to enroll at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and after graduating from the internationally-renowned school in 2005, she quickly jumped from stage to screen with supporting roles in everything from the BBC made-for-TV movie “A Very Social Secretary” (2005) to the feature film “Venus” (2006), starring Peter O’Toole as a nearly-forgotten actor who becomes a mentor to his wild-child granddaughter. In 2006 she won a prestigious young actor’s award for her work in the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of the Swedish “Miss Julie” and “Measure for Measure,” one of Shakespeare’s not-quite-comedy, not-quite-drama “problem plays.” A year later she was cast in a breakout role on “Party Animals” as Kirsty, a political researcher not above using her feminine charms to rise to the top. It was that mix of dogged ambition and steely calculating that led to her being cast as a young Margaret Thatcher in the BAFTA-nominated “The Long Walk to Finchley,” which chronicled the future Prime Minister’s decade-long battle to win a Parliamentary seat. Her intense preparation and commitment to the character has since proved to be one of Riseborough’s greatest strengths.

The film, which skirted controversy by avoiding Thatcher’s politics and focusing on feminist ideals, also marked a stretch of challenging performances for Riseborough. In 2010 she was featured as a sewing factory machinist in “Made in Dagenham,” based on the 1968 female employee-led protests that shut down a Ford sewing factory and led to the Equal Pay Act of 1970. That same year she turned in a harrowing performance as a naive waitress in “Brighton Rock,” which could not have been farther from her confident turn as Simpson in the critically dismissed “W.E.” She next portrayed a defiant housewife in the alternate-reality World War II drama “Resistance” (2011), and appeared opposite Clive Owen in the critically-acclaimed “Shadow Dancer” as an IRA member whose attempt to leave the deadly organization leaves her paralyzed with fear. In 2013 she appeared in the cat-and-mouse thriller “Welcome to the Punch,” and later made her U.S. debut with her role as Tom Cruise’s aloof supervisor in the aptly named “Oblivion.”

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Laurence Fox is best known for his portrayal of ‘James Hathaway’ in the popular television series “Lewis”. He was born in 1978 and is the son of acor James Fox. His movies include “Becoming Jane” in 2007 and “The King’s Speech”.

IMDB entry:

RADA-trained Laurence Fox is the third son of the actor James Fox and his wife Mary. He is a rising British actor who has appeared in several important films, plays, and television programs. He comes from a theatrical family and promises to have an illustrious career ahead of him.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Huw Nathan

Smooth baritone voice Son of actor James Fox, and nephew of actor Edward Fox and producer Robert Fox. Attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He is great friends with Matthew Goode. Went to drama school with and was in the same year as fellow RADA actress Katherine Heath. Cousin of actress Emilia Fox and Freddie Fox. Married fellow actor Billie Piper at the Parish Church of St. Mary’s in Easebourne, West Sussex on New Year’s Eve. They met while starring in the West End play, “Treats”. Son-in-law of Paul Piper. David Tennant attended Fox’s wedding to former Doctor Who (2005) co-star Billie Piper(December 2007). First child, a boy named Winston James Fox, was born on October 21, 2008. He weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. Mother is Billie Piper. Brother of Thomas Fox, Jack Fox, Robin Fox and Lydia Fox. He played Prince Charles in Whatever Love Means (2005) and his maternal grandfatherKing George VI in W.E. (2011). His father James Fox played the latter’s father King George V in the same film. Furthermore, his cousin Emilia Fox played Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles’ mother and King George VI’s daughter, in The Queen (2009) whereas his uncle Edward Fox played the latter’s elder brother and predecessor King Edward VIII (theDuke of Windsor) in Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978). He played King George VI in W.E. (2011), in which his father James Fox played King George V. His uncle Edward Fox had previously played George VI’s elder brother and predecessor King Edward VIII (the Duke of Windsor) in Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978). His second child (with Billie Piper), a boy named Eugene Pip Fox, was born on April 5, 2012.

The magnificent Petula Clark has had an amazing career. She began her show business life as a girl singer on radio during World War Two. In the late 1940’s she was featured in British films such as “I Know Where I’m Going” with Wendy Hiller and ‘The Huggett’ series. In the 1950’s she had a very successful recording career with such hits as “In the Shoemaker’s Shop”. In the early 1960’s she moved to France and became a hue international singing star with “Downtown”. In 1967 she went to Hollywood to make “Finian’s Rainbow” with Fred Astaire followed in the U.K.by “Goodbye Mr Chips” with Peter O’Toole. In the 1970’s she had a very successful concert career and then in the late 1980’s starred on Broadway in “Bloodbrothers”. Just last year 2011 she recorded “Downtown” again with The Sawdoctors”. Long may she continue.

TCM overview:

Singer-actress Petula Clark’s soaring, often soulful vocals helped to grant her one of the longest-running and most successful music careers in the history of British pop music, with over 15 Top 40 singles in the United States alone and scores more in her native England and throughout the world. Though Clark’s signature song was the plaintive No. 1 single “Downtown” (1965), she had been a fixture on British radio and film since the early 1940s, before enjoying a modest career as a teen singer in the 1950s. A move to France in 1960 established her as a more versatile talent before she broke worldwide with “Downtown” in the midst of the British Invasion. A string of hit singles, including “I Know a Place” and “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” soon followed, as did her successful return to feature films with “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968) and “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1969). In the 1970s, Clark shifted her attention to television and theater, where she drew rave reviews for performances in “The Sound of Music” and the 1983 Broadway run of “Blood Brothers.” But her pop career continued to enchant and entertain new generations of listeners, as evidenced by new versions of “Downtown” in 1988 and 2011 that enjoyed placement in the U.K. Top 10. Clark’s ebullient personality and winning way with an upbeat song preserved her status as one of England’s most beloved pop performers.

Born Petula Sally Olwen Clark on Nov. 15, 1932 in the town of Epsom, Surrey, England, she was the daughter of hospital nurses Leslie Norman Clark and Doris Phillips. Though singing provided her with a pathway to fame, Clark desperately wanted to become an actress after seeing Flora Robson on stage in 1938. She made her public singing debut the following year at a department store in Kingston upon Thames, before bursting onto the scene with an impromptu rendition of the pop traditional “Mighty Lak’ a Rose” at a BBC radio show at a theater in 1942. An air raid was announced shortly before broadcast, prompting the program’s producers to request a song from the audience to calm the nerves of those in attendance. Nine-year-old Clark, who was at the show with her father, stepped up to sing for the assembled crowd, which gave an enthusiastic response. She was soon boosting public morale during wartime with her own radio program, “Pet’s Parlour,” while also singing for British troops alongside fellow child stars Julie Andrews and Anthony Newley.

By the midpoint of the decade, Clark had made her feature film debut as a lovable orphan girl in “Medal for the General” (1944), which led to juvenile roles in a number of minor British films, as well as one bona fide classic, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s drama “I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945). Two years later, she met musician Joe “Mr. Piano” Anderson, who would become a guiding force in her life and career. He was instrumental in introducing her to producer Alan A. Freeman, who would oversee many of her earliest hits. With Clark’s father, Freeman also created Polygon Records, which served as her personal label while also granting Leslie Clark greater control over his daughter’s career and finances. By 1954, Clark was scoring substantial hits on the U.K. pop singles chart, including “The Little Shoemaker,” which also granted her a No. 1 single in Australia, as well as “Suddenly There’s a Valley” and “With All My Heart.” In 1955, Polygon was sold to Pye Records, which would become her label for the next two decades. She continued to chart with innocuous pop hits for the next two years, but by the end of the decade, Clark had tired of her status as a teen pop star. She also felt hemmed in by intense public speculation about her relationship with Henderson, which had become a romantic partnership. However, Clark’s desire to take greater control of her career, combined with Henderson’s reluctance to be regarded as “Mr. Petula Clark,” led to the end of their personal relationship, though they continued to work together for several years.

In 1957, Clark traveled to France, where she met publicist Claude Woolf, who proposed that she record in French with the Vogue Records label. The move quickly established her as a star throughout Europe on the strength of more sophisticated pop songs like “Ya Ya Twist” and “Chariot,” which she sung in French and later Italian and German. As her profile began to rise on the Continent, so too did her profile in the U.K., where she scored her first No. 1 hit with the 1961 single “Sailor,” the same year she married Woolf in ceremonies in England and France. She soon added composing for film scores to her growing list of credits with the 1964 crime film “A Couteaux Tirés” (“Daggers Drawn”), but her greatest success would come that year when she teamed with composer-arranger Tony Hatch to record new material. He played her a fragment of an incomplete song that captured her attention, which, with the addition of Hatch’s lyrics, became “Downtown.” The song became an international smash, thanks in part to the rise of the British Invasion, which had overtaken the music industry throughout the world. Most importantly, it provided her with entry into the American pop market, where it reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in January of 1965 before capturing the Grammy for Best Rock and Roll Song that same year.

“Downtown” also became the first of 15 Top 40 hits for Clark in the U.S., including a second No. 1 with “My Love” (1965) and the Top 5 tunes “I Know a Place” (1965), which brought her a second Grammy, as well as “This is My Song” (1967) and “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” (1967). She also hosted her own short-lived variety series, “This is Petula Clark” (BBC, 1966) before landing a TV special called “Petula” (NBC) in America in 1968 that inadvertently landed her in the history books. While singing a duet with African-American performer Harry Belafonte, she took his arm in a move that upset its corporate sponsor, the Chrysler Corporation, which feared that the gesture would upset Southern viewers. Clark and Woolf, who served as executive producer for the show, not only refused to substitute a different take but also destroyed all of the alternate takes, forcing the network to accept the original footage. The special aired without controversy and to high ratings and critical acclaim. Clark also resumed her film career that year with Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of the stage musical “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination, while her next film, a musical version of “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1969), reaped two Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe for her co-star, Peter O’Toole.

Clark’s pop career in the United States began to wane in the 1970s, though singles like “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” (1972) from the hit musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “The Wedding Song (There Is Love)” (1972) continued to find placement on the U.K. pop chart as well as the American adult contemporary chart. She subsequently found greater exposure through television and radio ads for major corporations like Coca-Cola, Chrysler and Plymouth, as well as a second BBC series, “The Sound of Petula” (1972-74). Clark also found great acclaim as a theater actress, winning the praise of Maria von Trapp herself in a 1981 production of “The Sound of Music” in London’s West End. The show, which set the record for the largest advance ticket sales in British theater history, ran for over a year, and led to more high-profile stage roles, including a 1983 turn in the title role in George Bernard Shaw’s “Candida.” The end of the 1980s was also marked by Clark’s return to the U.K. singles charts for the first time since 1972 with a 1988 dance remix of “Downtown” with Dutch producer Eddy Ouwens.

In the 1990s, Clark made her Broadway debut in “Blood Brothers” (1994), and then toured the world in a one-woman show she wrote about her life and career. Between starring roles in both the West End and American touring productions of “Sunset Boulevard,” Clark was also appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1998. She also continued to record in the decades that followed, including 2007’s Sunshine and Solitude, which featured all new songs written by Rod McKuen, while also giving concerts around the globe. Her association with “Downtown” continued in 2011 when the Saw Doctors released a version of the song with Clark that reached No. 2 on the Irish singles chart. In 2013, the 80-year-old singer enjoyed her biggest album chart placement in decades with Lost in You , which featured a new single, “Cut Copy Me,” which enjoyed a lengthy run on the Belgian singles chart, as well as a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” The album earned positive reviews and debuted at No. 24 on the U.K. albums chart in March of that year.

By Paul Gaita

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Doris Lloyd, was born in Walton Liverpool in 1896. She began her acting career on Broadway in 1925 and began making movies in 1929. She became a well known character actress. Her movies include “Tarzan, The Ape man” in 1932, “Back Street”, “The Letter”, “Shining Victory”, “Midnight Lace” and later “Rosie” and “The Sound of Music”. She died in California in 1968.

IMDB entry:

Doris Lloyd was born on July 3, 1896 in Liverpool, England as Hessy Doris Lloyd. She was an actress, known for The Sound of Music (1965), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and The Time Machine (1960). She died on May 21, 1968 in Santa Barbara, California, USA. British stage actress who came to Hollywood in 1925 and stayed playing domestic and/or dowager support roles in costumers. Was a very popular radio & television actress, appearing in over 150 movies. Versatile character actress, who first appeared on stage with the Liverpool Repertory Theatre Company in 1914. Intended to merely visit her sister in the United States, but ended up settling down in California. Her lengthy movie career began in 1925 and included countless small parts as (British) charwomen, landladies and, occasionally, society matrons. Notable as a spy in ‘Disraeli’ (1929) and Nancy Sykes in the Monogram version of ‘Oliver Twist’ (1933). On Broadway in ‘An Inspector Calls’ (1947-1948,as Sybil Birling).

Gary Oldman is one of the best actors in movies to-day. He came to fame with his brilliant performance as ‘Sid Vicious’ in “Sid & Nancy” in 1986. He has had a string of worthwhile movies, the best I think is “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”.

TCM overview:

From the start of his career, actor Gary Oldman displayed an edgy intensity that brought verve to his portrayals of ambiguous and obsessive personalities. Equally at home as either heroes or villains, Oldman gained a well-earned reputation as a brilliant chameleon who first staked his claim playing wayward Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in “Sid and Nancy” (1986). Following acclaimed turns as playwright Joe Orton in “Prick Up Your Ears” (1987) and a slick attorney in “Criminal Law” (1989), the actor was eerily indistinguishable as Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone’s conspiracy-driven “JFK” (1991). Oldman added to his vast array of characters by playing the famous Count in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), a dreadlocked drug dealer in “True Romance” (1993), Ludwig von Beethoven in “Immortal Beloved” (1994) and a terrorist leader in “Air Force One” (1997). In the new millennium, he was conservative senator who vigorously challenged the appointment of the first woman to the vice presidency in “The Contender” (2000) and was virtually unrecognizable as the mangled Mason Verger in “Hannibal” (2001). While sometimes associated with small films, Oldman excelled in blockbusters, playing the mysterious Sirius Black in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004) and several sequels, and Lieutenant Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins” (2005) and “The Dark Knight” (2008). Though virtually unrecognized by awards until 2010’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” Oldman nonetheless remained an actor held in high esteem among critics, audiences and fellow actors, thanks to scores of acclaimed roles under his belt.

The son of a welder and a housewife, Leonard Gary Oldman was born on Mar. 21, 1958 in New Cross, London, England. An academically indifferent student, Oldman dropped out of school at 16 and found a job as a store clerk. He soon discovered his métier on stage, becoming active in the Young People’s Theater in Greenwich, England. He later won a scholarship to attend the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent. Graduating in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts, Oldman quickly found regular gigs on stage. Oldman’s hard work and trademark intensity made him a favorite in Glasgow in the mid 1980s, culminating in the lead role in Edward Bond’s socially-conscious drama, “The Pope’s Wedding.” A huge hit with critics, the play earned Oldman’s two of the British stage’s top honors: the Time Out’s Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-86 and the British Theatre Association’s Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor of 1985.

Segueing into television in the mid-to-late 1980s, Oldman brought some of his famous intensity to his small screen roles. An early example was evidenced in one of Oldman’s first screen performances as an explosive skinhead in director Mike Leigh’s telefilm “Meantime” (BBC, 1983). Oldman later consolidated his wild man persona with two very different, yet similarly doomed iconoclastic figures from English culture: punk rock legend Sid Vicious in the poignant and uncompromising cult classic “Sid and Nancy” (1986), and later the irreverent gay playwright Joe Orton in the finely tuned biopic “Prick up Your Ears” (1987). Though excellent in both roles, Oldman was more remembered for his turn as Vicious, portraying the heroin-addicted bassist in frighteningly accurate fashion. Meanwhile, Oldman continued his exploration of human darkness, traveling to North Carolina to play the mysterious long-lost son of Theresa Russell in Nicolas Roeg’s bizarre psychological drama “Track 29” (1987).

In the United States, Oldman displayed his remarkable talent for mimicking American accents and myriad regional dialects. The fruits of his labor resulted in Oldman giving convincing performances as a big-city attorney in “Criminal Law” (1988), a down-home Southern fried mental institution inmate in “Chattahoochee” (1990) and an Irish-American gangster in “State of Grace” (1990). But it was his dead-on impersonation of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone’s “JFK” (1991) that truly cemented his status as a human chameleon; few were able to distinguish the actor’s characterization from the stock footage of the real Oswald. Based on the strength of his performance in “JFK,” director Francis Ford Coppola offered him the lead in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992). As the titular bloodsucker, Oldman proved equally compelling in various incarnations – as a wizened old man, a dapper aristocrat and a snarling monster – standing out amid the lavish makeup and visually sumptuous costumes and sets. Oldman was predictably electrifying in his next outing, playing ruthless wannabe Rastafarian pimp Drexl Spivy in the Quentin Tarantino-scripted “True Romance” (1993). Though Oldman was onscreen for only a few minutes, his dominating performance echoed throughout the rest of the movie.

Like many actors, Oldman had his share of demons to battle – in his case, alcohol. Oldman’s off-screen binges led to occasional brushes with the law, including a 1991 arrest for driving under the influence. After he completed “The Scarlet Letter” (1995), Oldman checked into rehab and underwent treatment. Once sober, he returned to Hollywood to reactivate his career and raise money for “Nil By Mouth” (1997), a dream project he wanted to write and direct. Meanwhile, Oldman was seen in varying degrees of success, making villainous turns in “The Fifth Element” (1997), “Air Force One” (1997) and “Lost in Space” (1998). Finally, he managed to raise enough money – thanks to an assist from “Fifth Element” director Luc Besson – to make “Nil By Mouth,” a blistering semi-autobiographical examination of a working-class family torn apart by alcoholism. From its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it picked up the Best Actress trophy for Kathy Burke (as the abused wife), to its 1998 theatrical release, the film earned substantial critical praise for its unflinching writing, assured direction and stunning performances.

Oldman next lent his vocal talents to the animated feature “The Quest for Camelot” (1998), then made a rare excursion into television to play Pontius Pilate in the CBS miniseries “Jesus” (1999-2000). Later in 2000, he was back on the big screen as a conservative U.S. senator attempting to block the appointment of a female colleague as the first woman vice president in “The Contender,” written and directed by Rod Lurie. The timely material – which included a sex scandal and pointed references to embattled U.S. president Bill Clinton – marked the actor’s first time as an executive producer. Rumors of a tension-filled the set were rampant prior to the film’s release and disputes between Oldman and Lurie soon became fodder for public consumption. Not one to suffer fools, Oldman expressed his unhappiness with his character’s depiction as the villain. While his arguments with Lurie and the film’s distributor DreamWorks played out in the press, “The Contender” failed to make its mark with audiences.

Oldman found himself in another situation with his prominent follow-up role as the exorbitantly wealthy, but hideously disfigured Mason Verger in “Hannibal” (2001). Some reported that the actor originally wanted screen credit. But when he was relegated to third billing, he allegedly opted to take no credit at all. Other articles claimed that he did not want to be identified for the sake of surprise, since the character required prosthetics that would render whoever played the role unrecognizable. Producer Dino De Laurentiis clearly stated at a press conference, however, that Oldman was indeed playing the role, pointing out that an actor of that stature deserved to be recognized for his contribution to the film. Although he spent much of his career playing psychotics and sadistic characters, Oldman underwent a career makeover in the mid-2000s similar to that of Sir Ian McKellen. Eschewing his more typical adult-oriented fair, Oldman began accepting a string of roles that played to younger audiences.

Among his likeable, more sympathetic characters was Sirius Black, a recurring character in the “Harry Potter” series. First introduced in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004), Oldman reprised his role for its two subsequent sequels, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005) and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2007). Around the same period, Oldman delighted comic-book fan boys around the world by taking the role of Gotham City Police Lieutenant (and later Commissioner) Jim Gordon in “Batman Begins” (2005), a reboot of the lucrative Batman film franchise. Oldman later reprised the role in “The Dark Knight” (2008). He next portrayed several characters in Disney’s 3-D animated take on the Charles Dickens classic, “A Christmas Carol” (2009), lending both voice and image to Jacob Marley, former business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey), Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim. Goldman also voiced General Grawl in “Planet 51” (2009), an animated spoof on alien culture and 1950s Americana.

The following year, Goldman embraced his villainous side as a post-apocalyptic powerbroker opposite Denzel Washington in “The Book of Eli” (2010) then voiced the foul peafowl Lord Shen in the hugely successful animated sequel “Kung Fu Panda 2” (2011). That same year, he played a vengeful werewolf slayer in the critically panned fantasy-thriller “Red Riding Hood” (2011) and reprised the role of Sirius Black for the final chapter of the blockbuster franchise “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” (2011). Capping off an exceptionally busy season, Oldman admirably filled the shoes of the great Sir Alec Guinness when he took on the role of semi-retired Cold War-era spy George Smiley in the feature adaptation of John le Carré’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (2011). While Guinness’ lauded interpretation for the BBC in the late-1970s had set the bar impossibly high, Goldman’s impressive run at the character was at the center of one of the U.K.’s highest grossing films of the year. Finally, after a long and versatile career filled with great performances, Oldman nabbed his first-ever Academy Award nomination with a Best Actor nod for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”

Sticking to a string of high-profile projects, Oldman returned for “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012), the emotive conclusion of Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and had a supporting part in John Hillcoat’s tense Prohibition-era drama “Lawless” (2012), both of which also featured fellow Brit Tom Hardy. After turning up with Marion Cotillard in a controversial religion-skewering video for David Bowie’s single “The Next Day,” Oldman went head-to-head with Harrison Ford in the poorly received corporate drama “Paranoia” (2013). Still in the midst of a hot streak, however, Oldman also filmed key roles in the sci-fi movies “RoboCop” (2014) and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (2014).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Rupert Everett came to film fame when he repeated his stage role in the film adaptation of “Another Country” in 1981. He also starred in “Dance With A Stranger” with Miranda Richardson and “My Best Freind’s Wedding” with Julia Roberts. A frequest stage performer is is currently starring on London’s West End in “The Judas Kiss” a play about Oscar Wilde.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

British-born Rupert Everett grew up in privileged circumstances but the wry, sometimes arrogant, intellectual was a rebel from the very beginning. At the age of 7 he was placed into the care of Benedictine monks at Ampleforth College where he trained classically on the piano. He was expelled from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London for clashing with his teachers and instead apprenticed himself at the avant-garde Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre in Scotland, performing in such productions as ‘Don Juan’ and ‘Heartbreak House’.

In 1984 Everett successfully filmed a lead role in Another Country (1984), which he had performed earlier on stage and shot to international attention, becoming one of England’s hottest new star. But again the wickedly sharp and suave rebel doused his own fire by clashing with the press and even with his own fans. In 1989 Everett openly declared his own homosexuality — an announcement that could have mortally wounded his film career. Instead, over time, it seems to have had the opposite effect. His career revitalized as Julia Roberts‘ gay confidante in My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), and he has continued to impress notably in the classics area with Shakespeare in Love (1998) (as Christopher Marlowe), An Ideal Husband (1999) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream(1999) (as Oberon). Lately he has enhanced both films with his royal portrayals in To Kill a King (2003) and Stage Beauty (2004), and television with his effortlessly suave Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004). His predilection for smug and smarmy villains of late such as the cartoonish Dr. Claw inInspector Gadget (1999) has extended into voice animation with his “unprincely” Prince Charming character in Shrek 2 (2004).

In making his landmark decision to “come out”, Rupert becomes a living testament disproving the theory that a truly talented and successful romantic leading man cannot survive the career-killing stigma of being openly gay.

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

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

T.P. McKenna

T.P. McKenna obituary in “The Guardian”.

Rhydian

Tom Jones

Andrea Riseborough

Laurence Fox

Petula Clark

Doris Lloyd

Gary Oldman

Rupert Everett

ABOUT ME

CATEGORIES

RECENT POSTS