Brittish Actors
Des McAleer is a terrific character actor who was born in Belfast in 1952. He seems to specialise in ‘hard’ men and is a welcome presence on film and in television.He made his film debut in “Anne Devlin” with Brid Brennan in 1984. Other movies include “Hidden Agenda” in 1990,”Poor Beast in the Rain” and “This Is the Sea”.
Cindy O’Callaghan was born in Ireland in 1956. In 1971 she was brought to Hollywood by Walt Disney studios to film “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” with Angela Lansbury. She returned to England to continue her studies. Her other film appearances include “Hanover Square” in 1979. In 1980 she starred in the television series about nursing entitled “Angels”.
“Wikipedia” entry:
O’Callaghan is probably most famous for her childhood role of ‘Carrie Rawlins’ in the Disney classic film Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), where she starred opposite Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson. She has commented “filming Bedknobs was an incredible adventure. There I was, a working class girl from West London suddenly living on a film set in Los Angeles. My mum, who came with me, would race to the studio canteen every morning and then shake with excitement when celebrities like Rock Hudson came in to get their breakfast. I was just as star struck. I had to go to school for two hours every morning before filming, and would often be sitting in class next toDonny Osmond, whom I had a big crush on. We lived in a council house in London, but in Hollywood we had a plush apartment with its own pool. I got the role after casting directors trawled schools looking for children with London accents. I was asked to attend an audition at Pinewood, where I had to stand up and tell a funny story. I talked about how horrible my older brothers were to me. I was a big fan of Mary Poppins and couldn’t believe I was going to be in a Disney film. When I returned to Britain, my school friends were massively jealous and stopped talking to me. It marred the premiere for me. After a few unhappy months, I decided to use my fee of £3,000 to attend a private school that specialised in drama.”[2]
O’Callaghan managed to maintain—in her own words—”an averagely successful career”, doing lots of theatre as well as television work.[2] She has appeared in numerous television programmes throughout the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s, including ITV‘s The Bill, Casualty, Specials, Boon, Rumpole of the Bailey, Woof! and as Linda Kennedy in the BBC soap opera Triangle, among others. She has also appeared in films, including Hanover Streetand I.D.
More recently she is known for her role as Andrea Price—the “boozy” mother of Natalie Evans (Lucy Speed)—in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (1994–1995; 1999).[3] This was O’Callaghan’s second role in the soap, having previously played Stella — the mistress of Ashraf Karim — from 1989-1990.
O’Callaghan attended university in 2000, and in 2004 it was reported that she had given up acting to become a child psychologist. She commented “Four years ago, I decided to go to university and am now training to be a child psychologist. I just wanted to do something that was more fulfilling.”[2] However, O’Callaghan has appeared on television since this time, in the 2005 documentary The 100 Greatest Family Films, where she discussed the movieBedknobs and Broomsticks, along with co-stars Angela Lansbury and Ian Weighill, who played Charlie Rawlins in the film.
The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.
Jason Merrells was born in 1968 in London. He starred in “Casualty” from 1994 until 1997. His films include “The Jealous God” in 2005.
“What’s On Stage” interview:
Prior to Stones in His Pockets, Campion’s many stage credits in his native Ireland includedWaiting for Godot, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Northern Star, Poor Superman, The Moon for Misbegotten, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Merchant of Venice, Good Evening Mr Collins, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Miss Julie, Equus, Bent and Translations.
Campion is currently appearing in Oxford Stage Company’s 50th anniversary revival of Brendan Behan’s modern Irish classic, The Quare Fellow, directed by Kathy Burke. After a regional tour, the production transfers for a limited season at the Tricycle Theatre, where, coincidentally,Stones in His Pockets also started its London life in 2000.
Date & place of birth
Born 20 December 1959 in Freshford, County Kilkenny in Ireland.
Trained at…
I trained at the Focus Theatre in Dublin with Deirdre O’Connell, who was a real mentor to me.
Lives now in…
Fulham Broadway, west London. I just moved there in December. I spent a year in London when we were doing Stones in His Pockets. We went on with the show to the States and so on, and after that finished, I decided to come back to London instead of Dublin. It’s easy to commute between one and the other. And now I’ve bought my place in Fulham, so I might well be here for a while.
What do you consider your first big break?
Now that’s really tricky, you could offend people, couldn’t you? For me, it was – and I don’t want this to sound corny – but it was the day I walked into Focus and met Deirdre. I came without any knowledge whatsoever, and she was my guiding light about what theatre and acting is all about. She taught me what you should bring to the profession. Also to work at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin at the time that I did, I can’t explain how excited I was about that. I spent two years as a member of company there. That gave me some great opportunities and exposure to a lot of work.
Career highlights to date
Being a part of the production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme which was performed at the Abbey Theatre as a way of acknowledging the ceasefire in Northern Ireland at the time. It’s an extraordinary piece of writing by Frank McGuinness and Patrick Mason, then the Abbey artistic director, was directing. On opening night, we had Unionist and Sinn Fein members sitting side by side in the theatre. It was an extraordinary evening.
Also in terms of highlights, I can’t not mention Stones in His Pockets. That was an incredible journey for Conleth Hill and me. It was only meant to be a few weeks in Belfast, but for some reason, we ended up in the West End and then on Broadway. You run out of adjectives very quickly – how do I explain? I loved every moment of it.
How did you find working on Broadway?
Neither Conleth nor I had ever even stepped foot in the US before. The evening we arrived, we went down to Times Square and found it so overpowering, we had to duck out because we couldn’t cope. What I really loved about Broadway is that everybody wanted to celebrate your success with you. There was also a wonderful feeling of camaraderie amongst all of the Broadway companies. We were brought together regularly, for baseball tournaments, charity fundraisers and the like. I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of that theatrical community.
Favourite productions you’ve ever worked on
Certainly those two and many more: Brian Friel’s Translations, one of the most beautiful plays that has ever come out of the Ireland; Bent, which I did with a young company to a phenomenal audience response; Waiting for Godot, for a lot of different reasons. There’s such a list.
Favourite co-stars
I can’t do that! (laughs) I’ve had a kick with just about everybody I’ve worked with. I wouldn’t want to leave anyone out.
Favourite directors
Again, I wouldn’t want to leave anyone out. I will say, though, that I’m having a grand time withKathy Burke now on The Quare Fellow. I’ve always been a great admirer of her acting talent. She can do hysterical comedy but then also has the ability to show that much darker side of life – it’s mind-blowing. As an actor herself, she understands how we work and what we need, and as the director of this play, her understanding of Brendan Behan and what she wants from the piece is very impressive. She’s terrific. Okay, I’ll also just mention the Abbey’s Patrick Mason. The breadth of work he’s covered is phenomenal and his love of theatre is unequalled. To be in a rehearsal room with Patrick is always an education.
Favourite playwrights
Of those whose plays I’ve appeared in, I’d say Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, Samuel Beckett and, of course, Marie Jones. Also Shakespeare, if only for King Lear alone. I could go on forever. As for playwrights I haven’t worked with, Marina Carr comes to mind. She’s a young Irish playwright with a very distinctive voice.
What roles would you most like to play still?
I have no idea on that, it’s just too broad. The phone could ring tomorrow and you could say yes or no. That’s how it goes.
What was the last thing you saw on stage that you really enjoyed?
Can I say two or three things? Michael Frayn’s Democracy definitely – I want to go back and see it again – and Conleth is terrific in it. Also, a few months back, just as an exercise, I went to see first the Icelandic Theatre Vosturport’s Romeo and Juliet at the Young Vic and Shakespeare’s R & J in the West End. What I loved was that they were both using the possibilities of the stage and what it can do. I loved the imagination and the risk involved. That’s what theatre is about.
What would you advise the government to secure the future of British theatre?
Where does one begin? I think I’d say, wake up and realise that theatre is not a luxury and it does need to be subsidised properly. I’m completely convinced that theatre can affect change, but also entertain and educate. It does have a place. At the moment, it seems to be perceived as a luxury with only token gestures made towards it.
Favourite holiday destinations
I have never been to Australia but I’d really like to go, all around. It’s a country I’m intrigued by. I love the notion of this outdoor culture, a small population living in such a vast country with so many types of landscapes. It’s the difference in the cultural mentality that appeals, too. I went to Japan a few years ago with a production of Othello, and I’ll never forget stepping off the plane and thinking, I know nothing about this. It could have been a different planet.
Favourite books
I’m a fan of William Kennedy’s novels, most of which are set in Albany in upstate New York.
Favourite after-show haunts
During the year we spent with Stones in His Pockets on and off St Martin’s Lane, we became regulars at the Harp Bar just off Trafalgar Square. They’re great in there.
Favourite websites
Yahoo, because I can never remember how to find anything on the web!
If you hadn’t become an actor, what would you have done professionally?
I thought I wanted to be a hotel manager – that was going to be the life for me. But then I spent a couple of years in a hotel and realised it was certainly not the life – I had no patience with the public.
Why did you want to join this production of The Quare Fellow?
I wasn’t aware of the play before. The only Behan I was familiar with was The Hostage and Borstal Boy. So I was curious. When I read it, I was taken by surprise. The play is set in an Irish prison on the night before a hanging, and it looks at how that’s affecting the prisoners and the warders. When Joan Littlewood did it at Stratford East, she used lots of songs and exposition, but beyond all that, there’s an extraordinary piece of writing about humanity and the notion of capital punishment, writing with a lot of humour but that’s not afraid to go to the darker side. Then I met Kathy and she explained that her intention was to lose a lot of the vaudeville, take the ‘Oirishness’ out of it and just go for the meat. Having spoken to her, I knew I wanted to be there.
How would you describe your character?
Regan is the moral centre of the play. He’s a warder who’s been working in the prison for 20 years. He understands that the system doesn’t necessarily have to be cruel – there’s a way of dealing with people that has benefits for everybody. Because of that attitude, he’s also the person people ask for at the end, but he’s got to a point where he can’t deal with that anymore. He’s got his own demons to deal with, in relation to all those years of hangings.
What’s your view on capital punishment?
I’m totally against it. I don’t believe anybody has the right to take someone else’s life. It seems so hopeless. I hate to think there’s no chance of rehabilitation or some element of redemption. I’m probably overly idealistic. I do suffer from idealism occasionally.
What’s it like working with a 17-strong all-male cast?
It would be great if I could say it’s a nightmare, but it’s not. One or two of the other actors I knew before. We’re a group that’s bonded so well – the generosity is remarkable – and we’re having great fun on the road together. It’s not exclusively male, of course. In the rehearsal room, Kathy, her assistant Ro McBrinn and Maggie Tully were a force amongst themselves. They’re the three sisters keeping these boys in check.
– Sean Campion was speaking to Terri Paddock
The above “What’s On Stage” interview can also be accessed online here.
The “Agency” page:
His theatre work includes The Importance of Being Earnest, Macbeth, Big Maggie, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Silver Tassie, Sive and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme – all at the Abbey Theatre and Good Evening Mr Collins, Hubert Murray’s Widow, Antigone, Calvary/Resurrection, Cuirt An Mhean Oiche – at the Peacock Theatre. Most recently, Sean has appeared in The Quare Fellow at The Tricylce Theatre, directed by Cathy Burke.
Other work includes Transalations, Bent (Red Kettle Theatre Co); Equus, Canaries(Gaiety Theatre); Mutabilitie, Tarry Flynn (Royal National Theatre); A Moon for the Misbegotten (Dubbeljoint Theatre Co.); Miss Julie (Everyman Palace); Poor Superman(Muted Cupid Theatre Co.); Northern Star (Tinderbox/Field Day Theatre Co.); The Mayor of Casterbridge (Storytellers Theatre Co.), Waiting for Godot (Lyric Theatre) and most recently The Dead School (Livin’ Dred Theatre Co.).
Film/TV work includes Glenroe, Fair City (RTE); Echoes (Channel 4); Most Important(Parzival Productions), Saving Grace (Independent), Eastenders (BBC 1) Holby City(BBC), RAW (RTE), Borgia (Atlantique Productions), and Identity (ITV). Most recently he has reprised his role as Virginio Orsini in Borgia.
2013 has seen Sean has cast as the Earl of Kent in the Abbey Theatre’s production ofKing Lear, directed by Selina Cartmell, and United Passions a feature directed by Frédéric Aubertin in which he plays the role of Werner Lutzi.
Sean is based in London.
Joyce Carey was born in 1898. She was the daughter of actress Lilian Braithwaite. She is mostly associated with her performances in the works of Noel Coward. Her films include “In Which We Serve” in 1942, “Brief Encounter”, “Blithe Spirit” and “Cry, the Beloved Country”. She died in 1993.
Adam Benedick’s obituary in “The Independent”:Joyce Carey, actress, born London 30 March 1898, OBE 1982, died London 28 February 1993.
JOYCE CAREY was the last authoritative and closely human link with the world of Noel Coward and Binkie Beaumont in its pre-war heyday and wartime triumphs.
A slight, diminutive, graceful actress with a dry sense of comedy who specialised in managing wives and confidential aunts, twittering spinsters and sympathetic mothers – frowning at the antics of modern actors in light comedy as she surely had a right to, having first acted for the prince of light comedians, George Alexander, at the St James’s – she almost spanned the century in her service to the stage. It was a service of some influence. Not only as one of the busiest and most attractive players of her generation – starting in 1916 and more or less stopping in 1990 – but also as one of Coward’s loyalest friends and most constant companions. She was an invaluable actress in most of his plays and many of his films, including an unforgettably genteel barmaid in the station buffet in Brief Encounter (1945), suffering with skilful tact the advances of Stanley Holloway’s robust ticket collector.
‘Now look at my Banburys all over the floor,’ she gasped, polishing a tumbler after he had set her confectionery flying with one of his advances.
She was also an invaluable adviser behind the scenes and in the playhouse, where her tact and theatrical judgement shaped many a choice of cast and director. Who can wonder if her taste was so trusty? She had been born into one of the most illustrious theatrical families. Her father, Gerald Lawrence, was a notable Shakespearean who had acted for Irving; and her mother was to become Dame Lilian Braithwaite, a grande dame of the West End theatre for as long as anyone could remember, whose career achieved monumental status as a comedienne in the 1940s in the long-running Arsenic and Old Lace.
But 20 years earlier Lilian Braithwaite had formed the connection with Coward as his leading lady in his first hit as the spokesman of his generation – Florence Lancaster in The Vortex (1924). Almost from that moment onwards her daughter and Coward became friends, and the following year Joyce Carey played in Coward’s next piece, Easy Virtue, both in New York and in London. After which she spent the next seven years on Broadway or touring in the United States: not always in light comedies, sometimes in Shakespeare.
Joyce Carey had seen to it (under the influence of her parents) that her training should not ignore the classics; and having done a stint at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1919, she was often picked for West End Shakespeare revivals – as Jessica, Miranda, the Princess Katharine, Perdita or Celia (to Fabia Drake’s Rosalind); and on Broadway she turned up in The Elektra of Sophocles as Chrysothemis.
Indeed, years later she surprised her admirers by almost eclipsing her two rivals Joan Miller and Flora Robson in Peter Cotes’s 1969 production of The Old Ladies with her powerful expression of fear as the gentle May Beringer.
In general, though, Joyce Carey’s art flourished in comedy and particularly in Noel Coward’s branch of it, from the one-act plays comprising Tonight at 8.30 (1936) through wartime tours as Ruth in Blithe Spirit both for ENSA and the West End – where she also twice played Coward’s wife Liz Essendine in Present Laughter (1942 and 1947), and Sylvia in This Happy Breed, both at the Haymarket – before returning to Blithe Spirit for the last two years of its record-breaking run.
If Coward’s post-war plays had not much to offer her apart from Quadrille (with the Lunts), South Sea Bubble and Nude With Violin, Carey played Liz Essendine again on Broadway in 1958 and remained an important member of his entourage until his death in 1973. The entourage included, of course, the indomitable Beaumont, for decades the most powerful personality in the British theatre, who had given Carey her first chance as a playwright in the 1930s, and was now getting more anxious every minute about the changes taking place in post-war public taste.
Carey was never fazed by such changes. If she had no truck with the kitchen-sink drama she could count on a regular need for her style of ladylike comedy; and there were still plenty of ladies in the old-fashioned sense to be acted in the plays of Wilde, Dodie Smith, Pinero and Agatha Christie in which she could quietly express her dignity, wit and social authority.
This may never have matched her mother’s but it assured playgoers who still had a taste for that sort of thing of the status of the West End drawing-room.
Her own play had been written under the pseudonym of J. Mallory, called Sweet Aloes, which had a year’s run at Wyndham’s in 1934 and was a well-crafted if novelettish weepie with aristocrats getting girls ‘into trouble’. Tyrone Guthrie directed it for Beaumont in London and in New York and she herself took on the role of Lady Farrington in both cities. In New York the play nudged Rex Harrison’s career forward.
Apart from Brief Encounter, where that brief encounter with Stanley Holloway so pleasingly offset the gravity of the principals, her films, which had begun with silents in 1921, again reflected her affinity for Coward, including In Which We Serve (1942), Blithe Spirit (1945) and The Astonished Heart (1949), The Way To The Stars (1945), London Belongs To Me (1948), The Chiltern Hundreds (1949) and The End of the Affair (1954) – all sound English stuff.
But what could have been sounder than her choice of authors for her last two appearances on the London stage at the age of 90? The first was in a forgotten (because censored) piece by Coward, Semi-Monde from the 1920s, and the second was a similarly neglected work by Terence Rattigan, A Tale of Two Cities.
The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.
Donald Wolfit
Sir Donald Wolfit
Donald Wolfit was born in 1902 in Nottinghamshire. He became well known in Britian as a travelling actor/manager specialising in the works of Shakespeare. His films include “The Ringer” in 1952, “Room at the Top” in 1959 and “Laurence of Arabia”. He died in 1968.
IMDB entry:
One of the great British stage actors of his era Donald Wolfit was noted for his magnificent portrayals of King Lear and Tamburlaine. Yet no actor of his generation was surrounded by more controversy. He was tempermental and difficult to deal with, enraged by criticism and tyrannical with the companies he led.
Although his talent was never in any doubt, critics often condemned his companies’ poor supporting players and tasteless costumes. Even in death he had his critics. When Ned Sherrin, who organised a BBC television tribute to him, asked Sir John Gielgud to participate, he replied “I couldn’t. You see we always regarded him as something of a joke.”
Wolfit appeared in numerous theatre seasons at the Old Vic and Stratford-upon-Avon but preferred the life of a touring player and as the star of a vagabond troupe. He also appeared in many films and television plays. One of his most barnstorming performances was in the title role of the film Svengali (1954) in which, with his hypnotic real-life stare, he puts Hildegard Knef into a permanent trance.
The money from his film work helped to finance many of his stage productions. Wolfit is best remembered today as the inspiration for the film The Dresser (1983), in which Albert Finney plays a barnstorming actor-manager.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Patrick Newley
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Laurence Naismith was born in Surrey in 1908. He gave many terrific supporting performances in British films especially in the 1950’s and 60’s. His movies of note include “I Believe in You” in 1952, as Captain Smith in “A Night to Remember” in 1958, “The Angry Silence” and “Sink the Bismarck”. In 1966 he went to Hollywood where he made such films as “The Scorpio Letters” and “Camelot”. He died in Australia in 1992.
IMDB entry:
The British charactor actor Laurence Naismith was a Merchant Marine seaman before becoming an actor. He made his London stage debut in 1927 in the chorus of the musical “Oh, Boy.” Three years later, he joined the Bristol Repertory and remained with them until the outbreak of World War II. After serving nine years in the Royal Artillery (with the final rank of Acting Battery Commander), Naismith returned to the stage and also made his film debut. His seafaring background came in handy in a number of film roles, including the steamboat captain in Mogambo (1953), Dr. Hawkins in Boy on a Dolphin (1957), the captain of the Titanic in A Night to Remember (1958), and the First Sea Lord in Sink the Bismarck! (1960). Naismith also made numerous television appearances, including the recurring roles of Judge Fulton on “The Persuaders” (1971) and Father Harris on “Oh Father” (1973) .
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Lyn Hammond
Jon Whitleley was one of best of British child film actors. He was born in 1945 in Scotland. He came to national fame for his major role in the thriller “Hunted” with Dirk Bogarde in 1952. Jon died in May 2020.
The following year he gave another splendid performance in the gem “The Little Kidnappers”. In 1955 he went to Hollywood to make the Cornish smuggler tale “Moonfleet” directed by Fritz Lang and also starring Stewart Granger and Joan Greenwood.
Back in Europe he made “The Spanish Gardner” with Dirk Bogarde again and Maureen Swanson. His final film was “The Weapon” with Steve Cochran in 1957. He is an eminent art historian in Oxford.
Gary Brumburgh’s entry:Amazingly talented child star Jon Whiteley was born on February 19, 1945 in Monymusk, Scotland, and put together an enviable, albeit brief, career in 1950s film drama. This precocious talent started things off winningly by earning first prize for verse-speaking at the Aberdeen Music Festival when he was only 6.
This led to his indoctrination into films, making a highly auspicious debut but a year later with the suspenser The Stranger in Between (1952), co-starring as a young runaway abducted and subsequently befriended by fugitive Dirk Bogarde.
Although this intriguingly offbeat-looking, tousled blond appeared in only five films during his brief reign, he made an award-winning impression. His astonishingly natural performance as Harry in only his second film The Little Kidnappers (1953) so captivated critics that he, along with fellow child co-star Vincent Winter, was awarded an honorary, miniature “Juvenile Oscar” at the Academy Awards ceremony of 1954.
In this touching drama, the two boys play orphaned brothers who secretly adopt an abandoned baby after their grandfather’s refusal to allow them to keep a pet dog. Other superb portrayals came Jon’s way as Fritz Lang‘s young protagonist John Mohune in Moonfleet (1955) oppositeStewart Granger, and in The Weapon (1956) as a lad who accidentally shoots his friend with a gun used long ago in a murder.
Jon also scored in The Spanish Gardener (1956) as the lonely son of a British consul living in Madrid who finds solace with (again) Dirk Bogarde as the title character.
Following a tiny spat of TV appearances, his career ended as quickly as it began.
After abandoning the limelight, he became a respected art historian at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
Jon Whiteley, who has died aged 75, was a highly distinguished and exceptionally revered museum curator, whose career in the world of art was preceded by an entirely unexpected backstory as an Oscar-winning child star in the 1950s.
Jon James Lamont Whiteley was born on February 19 1945 in Monymusk, Aberdeenshire. His father, Archie, was a headmaster, with the result that Whiteley grew up with an unusual respect for education, which was to prove decisive in determining the course of his later life.
At the age of six, his rendition of “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” on a BBC radio broadcast from his school was heard by a talent scout, who grasped his potential, and over the next few years he made five feature films. Their casts alone make it clear that these were major productions.
Two – Hunted (1952) and The Spanish Gardener (1956) – saw him teamed up with Dirk Bogarde. In The Weapon (1956) he played opposite Herbert Marshall, while in Moonfleet (1955) he co-starred with Stewart Granger, George Sanders and Joan Greenwood. Most remarkably, the film brought him together with one of the greatest directors of all time, Fritz Lang, whose career stretched back to the birth of silent cinema in the 1910s.
However, Whiteley’s appearance in The Kidnappers (1953) was to have an even more spectacular aftermath, because at the Oscars for 1954 he and his fellow child star, Vincent Winter, received honorary awards for – in the words of the citation – their “outstanding juvenile performances”.
That year, On the Waterfront swept the board, winning Best Picture, Best Actor, and much else besides, but while Elia Kazan, Marlon Brando and others were basking in the applause at the ceremony, it was business as usual for Whiteley back in Scotland.
It was term-time and his parents saw no point in going all that way to collect the Oscar in person. It arrived through the post, and Whiteley was, above all, struck by its ugliness. In a recent interview he remarked: “It is at home somewhere, but I don’t think it is a particularly attractive object. It has no great charm.”
The opposite might be said of its recipient, although what is so remarkable about his beguiling screen presence in those five films is precisely that it seems to have nothing to do with acting. He seems to be quite unaware of the presence of the camera and just gets on with being himself, worlds removed from the stomach-churningly knowing cuteness which was, alas, all too common even among the best child stars.
Happily, courtesy of DVDs and the internet, these performances are now readily accessible in a way that could not even have been dreamt of in the 1950s.
Apart from a couple of television appearances – an episode of Robin Hood in 1957 and one of Jericho in 1966 – that was the end of the chapter. It had always been agreed that at the age of 11 his serious education should begin, and – apart from a mild regret at no longer having a chauffeur – he never looked back. The afterlives of child stars are often downhill all the way, but there are exceptions. What is certain is that few have achieved as much as Whiteley in their adult lives.
Whiteley was an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Oxford, and never left the dreaming spires. He stayed on and took a DPhil with Professor Francis Haskell on the 19th century painter Paul Delaroche, one of whose most famous paintings – The Princes in the Tower – could almost be a still from a Jon Whiteley movie.
After a brief spell as an assistant curator at the Christ Church Picture Gallery, from 1975 to 1978, he moved to the Ashmolean Museum as an assistant keeper in the Department of Western Art, remaining there until his retirement in 2014.
Nobody has ever known the Ashmolean’s collections the way Whiteley did, and he was the inevitable first port of call for numberless colleagues both within and beyond the museum. He was also a wonderfully welcoming presence in the print room; for novices, initial visits to such places can be intimidating, but Whiteley treated everyone with the same exquisite courtesy.
His other great achievement at the Ashmolean was in connection with his role in setting up the Education Department. A notoriously modest man, he did admit: “I am most proud of that.”
An old Oxford joke has a don answering the question “What is your field?” with the riposte “I do not have a field. I am not a cow.” For all that Whiteley was a great authority on his first love, French art, and was appointed a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2009, his scholarship was heroically wide-ranging both across space and time in an age of increasing specialisation.
In the context of France, as well as books on Ingres and Lucien Pissarro, he moved effortlessly beyond the 19th century, writing the catalogue of an important Claude Lorrain exhibition at the British Museum, cataloguing the French drawings at the Ashmolean in two volumes, the first being devoted to Étienne Delaune and the second covering the period from Poussin to Cézanne. A few months ago he just managed to complete his catalogue of the museum’s holdings of French paintings after 1800 before his final illness.
As if all this were not enough, he produced memorable books on Oxford and the Pre-Raphaelites in 1989, and on the Ashmolean’s collection of stringed instruments in 2008.
Fittingly, since an initial ambition to be a painter had led him to his chosen métier, he wrote with all the flair and understanding one might hope for from an artist. A compelling and much-loved lecturer, he also won undying devotion from his undergraduate – and, perhaps especially, postgraduate – students.
Jon Whiteley first met his wife Linda, also an art historian, in a library when they found themselves reaching for the same book. Marrying in 1972, they gave the impression of remaining of one mind for evermore, and had a son and daughter.
Jon Whiteley, born February 19 1945, died May 16 2020
Mungo Jerry was formed by Ray Dorset in 1970. They have featured in many films wit their song “In the Summertime” including “Wedding Crashers” in 2005.
“Blues GR” interview with Mungo Jerry in 2013:
Mungo Jerry is a British rock group whose greatest success was in the early 1970s, though they have continued throughout the years with an ever-changing line-up, always fronted by Ray Dorset. They are remembered above all for their hit “In the Summertime”. Their name was inspired by the poem “Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer”, from T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. According to Joseph Murrell’s The Book of Golden Discs (1978), “Mungomania” was possibly the most startling and unpredicted pop phenomenon to hit Britain since The Beatles.
Mungo Jerry was awarded from Melody Maker the ‘best new band’ title in 1970, and as one of the five best live bands in the world in 1971. In time Dorset found the group’s good-time blues and jug band repertoire a little restricting, and in 1972 he released a solo album Cold Blue Excursion, with his songs backed by strings and brass and, in one instance, a jazz band. In 1983 Dorset was part of the blues super-group Katmandu, which recorded A Case For The Blues, with Peter Green and keyboard player Vincent Crane, formerly of Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
In 2003, with German musicians, Dorset recorded the Adults Only album under the name Mungo Jerry Blues Band. 2005 saw him performing with three Mungo Jerry line-ups: The British Mungo Jerry Band (pop/rock), the German Mungo Jerry Blues Band (blues/rock), and Mungo Jerry & the Goodtime Gamblers (jug/blues/skiffle). The Mungo Jerry Ray Dorset was part of the “British Blues-Allstars-Tour” as singer and guitar-player, performing together with Long John Baldry, Spencer Davis, Pete York and Colin Hodgkinson.
Mungo Jerry performs at various European blues and jazz festivals. Ray Dorset talks about the “Mungomania”, Peter Green, Hendrix, Blues & Jazz and the hit “In the Summertime”.
What do you learn about yourself from the BLUES ROCK and what does the BLUES mean to you?
When it comes to Blues Rock I find that through my long time and early experience of playing psychedelic and hippy type venues I am able to mentally conjure up and lock into the atmosphere and groove that I myself felt at those times, and convey it to my musicians and the audiences that I am performing to.
The Blues is a feeling that does not necessarily appertain to the twelve bar musical format but to the feeling of soulfully conveying the lyric, groove and dynamics of the song.
How do you describe Ray Dorset sound and progress, what characterize your music philosophy?
My music philosophy is not about technical ability, but about the emotional communication from the performers to the listeners and viewers. My sound and style does not conform to any set standards because I do not discriminate between musical genres or instrumentation, I either like it or I do not like it
Why did you think that Ray Dorset music and songs continued to generate such a devoted following?
Maybe it’s because I’m sincere about what I do and try to disassociate from musical and lyrical bullshit.
What experiences in your life make you a GOOD BLUES ROCK MUSICIAN and SONGWRITER?
I grew up in a very musical environment and was exposed to all kinds of music from a very early age, I absorbed just about everything, from Skiffle and Rock n Roll I read about the roots of this music and made it my business to go about and find the early pervayers of those roots, probably in a similar way to Bob Dylan, who I am a big admirer of, probably because he too was greatly influenced by the work of Woody Gutherie and his collaborators, for example, Leadbelley.
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians thinking of pursuing a career in the craft?
Get a good manager, a good accountant and most important a good lawyer, and EVEN MORE IMPORTANT, MAKE SURE THAT THEY ARE ALL HONEST.
What are your hopes and fears for the future of music?
I fear that the proliferation by the media of celebrity lifestyle and the dominance of the media and propaganda in encouraging the mass populace to believe that accumulation of material wealth is an indication of success, and the misuse of technology to create a mishmash mas of sounds that are unfortunately described in some circles as music, has made it more difficult for new and old comers alike to make a reasonable living from a musical career.
“I’m a very emotional person and seem do most things on a whim, I get touched by emotion everyday when I see the world news.”
What has made you laugh lately and what touched (emotionally) you?
What makes me laugh, but in a somewhat cynical way is the devotion of the mass media to reality TV programs and the misinformed public that appear to be so gullible in following them.
I’m a very emotional person and seem do most things on a whim, I get touched by emotion everyday when I see the world news.
It is very unfortunate that there are fewer and fewer real orchestras being used in film, theatre, TV and radio alike, not to mention the use of full playback by major international artists in their mega hyped shows.
From whom have you have learned the most secrets about the music? What is the best ever gave you?
I learned from every show, every artists that I have shared a bill with, in particular, early Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, B.B. King, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, just to mention a few.
One thing in mind that I think is important, when I was recording with iconic guitarist Peter Green, he said to me, “the magic of the first take”.
Which is the most interesting period in your life? Which was the best and worst moment of your career?
The most interesting was from the time that I formed my first band, aged eleven, until about three months after the Mungo gigs at the Hollywood Music Festival 23rd and 24th May 1970, this was also the best.
The worst was all of the litigation and troubles that followed this which still continues to this day.
“I fear that the proliferation by the media of celebrity lifestyle and the dominance of the media and propaganda in encouraging the mass populace to believe that accumulation of material wealth is an indication of success…”
Are there any memories from Hendrix, Canned Heat, and Grateful Dead which you’d like to share with us?
Before Mungo Jerry I had a band named The Sweet ‘n’ Sour Band, which later was re named Camino Real, the drummer of the band was Roger Earl who later became one of the founding members of Foghat, one day he said to me, “Hey man, I just did an audition for a black guy that plays guitar with his teeth!” We used to have a regular gig at the Speakeasy in London and I saw Hendrix there often, the last time that I saw him was on the Isle of Fehmarn in Germany, this was at breakfast time in the hotel where we were all staying, and it was the morning of the last proper gig that he was to play before he sadly passed away. Funny enough, when we arrived at the festival site, Canned Heat were onstage, they made some great records, I would have like to see “Blind” Al Wilson with the band, but he had already passed away, many years later, I caught up with a later incarnation of the band at the Bunde Club in Germany, we had a good talk together and I left them as they sung In the Summertime in their dressing room.
I never got to meet up with the Dead, but I saw their performance at the Hollywood Festival and immediately got into their idea of playing very long sets full of jamming and up and down dynamics and grooves, we were onstage a couple of hours or so after them and saw the BBC camera men staggering about onstage trying to film us, they were completely high on LSD, which the Dead had slipped into their drinks!
Which memory from Katmandu’s recording time with Peter Green makes you smile?
The fact that because of all the Indian and Chinese food that we consumed on the sessions, Vincent (Crane) thought that instead of Katmandu, we should call the band The Big Eaters!
Some music styles can be fads but the Blues/Jazz are always with us. Why do think that is?
I think that it is because this music is generally “real, no frill”, and honest, it has no age or demographic barriers.
“The original recording of “In the Summertime”, a no bullshit celebration of life.”
When we talk about Blues, Rock and Jazz, we usually refer to memories and moments of the past. What happens nowadays?
All over the world there are performers, writers, singers and musicians that carry on the tradition and learn and expand on what went before them in the realms of all musical genres, they are normally intelligent people who have seen through the vagaries and shallowness of manufactured “pop stars” and recordings.
What are you miss most nowadays from 60s and the beginning of Brit Blues Boom era?
It’s not really what I miss, but because of all the political correctness and fear of breaking health and safety issues, it’s the fact that so many live venues, that is the small ones that give the would be bands a platform to begin on, are not allowed to operate with an abundant audience in attendance, also, the no smoking policy in pubs, venues, restaurants etc. that is in operation does not add to the atmosphere of a hot sweaty club, plus the clampdown on volume levels.
What are the lines that connect the legacy of Woody Guthrie with Alexis Korner and continue to Ray Dorset?
Finding some kind of social or story content in the lyric, finding a strong but not “cheesy” melody that is accompanied by a non complicated chord sequence that most newcomers to the accompanying instrument can navigate
What from your memories and things (books, photos records etc.) you would put in a “capsule on time”?
The original recording of “In the Summertime”, a no bullshit celebration of life.
The above “Blues GR” interview can also be accessed online here.
Anyone who knows me are aware that I am a bit of a movie buff. Over the past few years I have been collecting signed photographs of my favourite actors. Since I like movies so much there are many actors whose work I like.