Contemporary Actors

Collection of Contemporary Actors

Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley

Ben Kingsley was born in 1943 in Scarborough, Yorkshire.   His mother was English and his father was from Kenya and of Indian origin.   His movie debut came in 1972 in “Fear Is The Key”.   Ten years later he made “Gandhi”.   His other movies include “Turtle Diary”, “Schindler’s List” and “Sexy Beast”.   He was made a Knight in 2002.

TCM overview:

Exuding an air of gravitas in whatever role he played, Academy Award winner Sir Ben Kingsley made a specialty of playing historical characters, ranging from Dmitri Shostakovich in “Testimony (1987) to mobster Meyer Lansky in “Bugsy” (1991). His most acclaimed performance, however, was in Sir Richard Attenborough’s epic biopic “Gandhi” (1982), in which he played the title role of one of the 20th Century’s most revered and influential figures. Thanks to that Oscar-winning performance, Kingsley went from being a relatively obscure character actor to an international star overnight. In the 1990s, Kingsley dramatically reinvented himself by taking on shadier, more morally ambiguous characters, such as the smarmy bad guy in “Sneakers” (1992), the trusted associate of Oskar Schindler in “Schindler’s List” (1993), and the physician-torturer of “Death and the Maiden” (1994). Kingsley later delivered one of the most explosive performances of his career as the uninhibitedly ferocious criminal Don Logan in the British gangster feature “Sexy Beast” (2001), a role that transformed his image while earning a ton of award buzz. He went on to a variety of roles in the dark character drama “House of Sand and Fog” (2003), Roman Polanski’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” (2005), the high-energy crime thriller “Lucky Number Slevin” (2006), and Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller “Shutter Island” (2010). By the time he co-starred in the fantastical “Hugo” (2011), Kingsley was long established as one of Hollywood’s most gifted and esteemed performers.

Born Krishna Bhanji in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England on Dec. 31, 1943, Kingsley was the son of English model-actress Anne Lyna Goodman and her husband, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, a Muslim Indian physician. Raised in Pendlebury, Salford, Kingsley attended Manchester Grammar School and later won admission to the University of Salford. Kingsley began his acting career in 1966, making his London stage debut as the narrator in “A Smashing Day,” a musical produced by Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles. Impressed with Kingsley’s voice and guitar playing, Epstein introduced the young actor to John Lennon and Ringo Starr, who both urged young Kingsley to pursue a career in music. He chose instead to remain with his first true love, acting. His decision proved to be a savvy one. Within a year, Kingsley was invited to join the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and a career was officially off and running. Though he continued to go by his birth name of Krishna Bhanji well into the 1970s, Kingsley eventually found his exotic name a liability. Fearful that he would be pigeonholed as a strictly “ethnic actor,” Bhanji officially adopted the far more Anglo-sounding “Ben Kingsley” as his stage name while in his mid-thirties. The name was, in part, a homage to his paternal grandfather, a Zanzibar spice trader whose nickname was “The Clove King.” Kingsley’s first film role was a supporting turn in the thriller “Fear Is the Key” (1972). Based on the 1961 novel by Alistair MacLean, Kingsley’s performance earned him positive reviews which opened the door to small television roles. For the most part, however, Kingsley’s career chugged along unremarkably and he seemed destined to be a bit player for the rest of his career.

All of that changed, however, in 1980, when acclaimed director Sir Richard Attenborough held a massive casting call for an unknown to play the lead in his sweeping over three-hour biopic of Mohandas Gandhi. Chosen partly for his ethnic background, Kingsley was, ironically enough, pressured by the filmmakers to go on a worldwide campaign to promote his Indian heritage after having spent years downplaying it. One of the most elaborate productions of its time, “Gandhi” was a relative bargain in terms of Hollywood dollars. Made for an extremely lean $22 million, the film’s superb production values suggested a budget at least twice that. Case in point: for the film’s climactic funeral scene, the movie employed close to 300,000 Indian extras, most of whom worked for free. Kingsley’s decades-spanning performance as the revered Indian leader proved a revelation. Despite its long running time, “Gandhi” lured enough audiences to become a worldwide hit, earning nearly $53 million in the U.S. alone. Critics were equally impressed. For his efforts, Kingsley was justly honored with the 1982 Academy Award for Best Actor.

Unfortunately, “Gandhi” also succeeded in typecasting Kingsley for years to come. Often called upon to carry the moral weight of his films, Kingsley’s post-“Gandhi” roles consisted mainly of playing effete intellectuals and non-threatening good guys in such mediocre films as “Turtle Diary” (1985), “Harem” (1985) and “Without a Clue” (1988). Fortunately, Kingsley would make a welcome return to the mainstream in 1991 with an excellent supporting turn in “Bugsy.” Cast as paternal mobster Meyer Lansky, Kingsley served as the film’s voice of reason to Warren Beatty’s mercurial, hot-headed Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. While his portrayal of Lansky would earn Kingsley his second Oscar nod – this time for Best Supporting Actor – his most impressive performance post-“Gandhi” came in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning Best Picture, “Schindler’s List” (1993). Disappearing with subtlety and strength into his role of Itzhak Stern, the clever Jewish accountant who was the brains behind the empire of industrialist, Oskar Schindler, Kingsley’s interplay with Liam Neeson as Schindler personified the warmth of a relationship that was a rare point of sanity in an insane world.

Later that year, Kingsley popped up as an ambitious vice president in the Ivan Reitman comedy, “Dave” (1993), and as the chess master Bruce Pandolfini in Steve Zaillian’s underrated “Searching for Bobby Fisher” (1993). Kingsley was especially potent the following year in director Roman Polanski’s atmospheric and absorbing film “Death and the Maiden” (1994). A three-character story set in an unspecified South American country, the film starred Sigourney Weaver as a former kidnap victim who encounters her torturer (Kingsley) a decade later after he innocently gives her stranded husband a lift home. After a forgettable stab at sci-fi in “Species” (1995), Kingsley returned to the classics as Feste in Trevor Nunn’s “Twelfth Night” (1996) before helping train Aidan Quinn to pursue Carlos the Jackal (also played by Quinn) in Christian Duguay’s “The Assignment” (1997). Unlike most actors of his caliber, Kingsley rarely shied away from the small screen. Calling television an excellent and nurturing environment for the serious British performer, Kingsley debuted on American screens as Armand’s crusty father in “Camille” (CBS, 1984) and followed with the acclaimed miniseries “Oxbridge Blues” (A&E, 1986). He also starred in the excellent British import “Silas Marner” which aired on the PBS series, “Great Performances” in 1987. Kingsley’s proudest small screen moment, however, was probably his outstanding portrayal of famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal in “Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story” (HBO, 1989).

Although his performances were always admired by critics, audiences, and especially his fellow actors, Kingsley’s turn as Don Logan in “Sexy Beast” reintroduced him to a whole new generation of moviegoers. Moving like a stealth panther through every one of his scenes, Kingsley imbued a sense of virile menace to his jewel thief character and especially shone in his scenes opposite co-star Ray Winstone. Kingsley would deliver yet another masterful, career-defining performance in “House of Sand and Fog” (2003), playing an expatriate Iranian colonel who is forced to battle his conscience and the ghosts of his past. The film’s tragic twists and turns provided Kingsley with one of his most complex and nuanced film appearances of his career, expertly essaying both the flawed and noble characteristics of his character. “House of Sand and Fog” earned Kingsley a wealth of critical acclaim and his second Academy Award nomination as Best Actor, along with Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations.

Few moviegoers turned out to see Kingsley’s embarrassing 2004 follow-up, a live-action adaptation of the puppet-driven sci-fi series from Britain, “Thunderbirds” (1964-66) with Sir Ben as the villainous The Hood. The actor admitted he took the role because he needed a sillier role after the heaviness of “House of Sand and Fog” and had fond memories of watching hours of the cult hit TV show with his children. Next the actor essayed the titular serial killer who murders serial killers in the mostly atmospheric thriller “Suspect Zero” (2004), with Kingsley’s performance providing the lion’s share of the film’s few pleasures. Kingsley was game for another over-the-top performance in “A Sound of Thunder” (2005), a futuristic thriller about the dangers of using time travel for fun and profit. He played a greedy businessman whose head of white hair is about the only thing more impressive than his successful venture, Time Safari, Inc., In the film, he ends up sending a team back into the past to make things right when “time waves” begin to ripple from Prehistoric days, after an expedition to hunt dinosaurs goes awry. In a more serious vein, Kingsley reunited with Roman Polanski to play the manipulative street urchin mentor Fagin in an adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, “Oliver Twist” (2005). Of note was the fact that Kingsley’s Fagin was a more dimensional depiction than usual; instead of portraying him solely as an out-and-out evil exploiter of homeless children, Kingsley and Polanski delivered a Fagin that, although he was profiting off of the his band of pickpockets, he was also somewhat kind to them and offered them at least some sort of purpose and community that they might otherwise not have known.

Once again inexplicably reverting to schlocky fare, Kingsley played an evil vampire being hunted by a half-human, half-vampire (Kristanna Loken) after he raped and later killed her mother in Uwe Boll’s “BloodRayne” (2006). In the stylish noir thriller “Lucky Number Slevin” (2006), Kingsley was a New York City crime boss named The Rabbi engaging in a war with a rival, The Boss (Morgan Freeman), while simultaneously trying to hunt down an innocent man (Josh Hartnett) wrongly assumed to be his old and deeply indebted friend (Sam Jaeger). Returning to more highly regarded work, Kingsley starred in “Mrs. Harris” (HBO, 2006), playing the real-life Dr. Herman Tarnower, the famed cardiologist and creator of the Scarsdale Diet who was shot to death by his lover, Jean Harris (Annette Bening), an emotionally disturbed headmistress of The Madeira School who made the tabloid covers after the sensational 1980 murder. Kingsley earned himself a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television. Continuing his prolific streak in 2007, Kingsley appeared as a Polish-American gangster in “You Kill Me,” a mafia comedy-thriller directed by John Dahl. That same year, Kingsley played dual roles as Ambrosinus and Merlin in the little-seen Arthurian epic, “The Last Legion.”

In a refreshing change of pace, Kingsley’s next project had him tackling broad comedy as a wise sex guru named Maharishi Tugginmypudha in “The Love Guru” (2008), a much-maligned film from the mind of comedian Mike Meyers. After playing an inquisitive Russian narcotics officer in the international thriller “Transsiberian” (2008), Kingsley was the lead psychiatrist at a hospital for the criminally insane in Martin Scorsese’s creepy “Shutter Island” (2010), starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a U.S. Marshal investigating the disappearance of a patient. He next had a supporting role as the uncle of an adopted orphan (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the disappointing blockbuster “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” (2010), before portraying pioneering silent film director George Méliès in Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated family adventure, “Hugo” (2011). Kingsley followed that by co-starring with Sacha Baron Cohen in the critically derided comedy “The Dictator” (2012), where he played the traitorous uncle of Cohen’s titular head of state. The veteran actor clearly had fun playing a multifaceted villain in the superhero blockbuster “Iron Man 3” (2013), and starred in the straight-to-video action movie “A Common Man” (2013) before portraying half-Maori war veteran Mazer Rackham in the sci-fi film “Ender’s Game” (2013).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

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Clive Owen
Clive Owen
Clive Owen

Clive Owen was born in 1964 in Coventry.   He first came to prominence in the UK with his performance in the lead in the cult TV series “Chancer” in 1990 and 1991.   His cinema fame came with “Close My Eyes” in 1991.   He has since made films in Hollywood and on the international scene.   His movies include “Gosford Park”, “The Bourne Identity”, “Closer” and “Sin City”.

TCM overview:

After a decade of steady work on British television, actor Clive Owen broke out internationally with American art house success of the taut crime-thriller “Croupier” (2000). With his rugged good looks and low key charm, comparisons to the great Sean Connery seemed inevitable as he delivered a series of strong performances in such films as “Gosford Park” (2001) and “The Bourne Identity” (2002). Nearly unanimous praise was heaped on the actor for his wicked performance in Mike Nichols’ brutal relationship drama, “Closer” (2005) – in a role he had originated on the stages of London – followed by a stylistic about-face as part of Robert Rodriguez’s hyper-stylized neo-noir “Sin City” (2005), adapted from Frank Miller’s graphic novel. His work in the intelligent, affecting and ultimately terrifying look into the near-future “Children of Men” (2006) secured Owen’s status as one of Hollywood’s top talents. He showed exceptional comic timing opposite Julia Roberts in the sexy satire “Duplicity” (2009) in addition to a willingness to tackle historical icons in acclaimed work like “Hemingway & Gellhorn” (HBO, 2012). While harkening back to the leading men of film’s golden era, Owen also brought to the table an unmistakably 21st-Century artistic sensibility, making him both an actor’s actor and bona fide movie star.

Born on Oct. 3, 1964 in the small town of Coventry, England, Owen was raised in a fairly rough neighborhood by his country music singing father, who was divorced from his mom in 1968. Owen knew early on that he wanted to be an actor after playing the Artful Dodger in a school production of “Oliver!” When he was 13 years old, he joined a youth group run by the Coventry Theatre while a student at Binley Comprehensive. Accustomed to poverty and occasional violence, Owen spent two years after graduating high school on the dole while trying to jump-start his acting career. He previously tried applying to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), but decided instead to drop out of civil society and make it on his own terms. Two soul-sucking years later, Owen reapplied to RADA and got in. He was fortunate enough to be working with a group in school that was workshopping a Howard Barker play that had yet been put to market. The play later opened at the Royal Court, attracting agents wishing to represent young Owen before he had the chance to even graduate.

After graduation, he took to the stage at the Young Vic, playing Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet” – where he met his soon-to-be wife, Sarah-Jane Fenton, who played Juliet – and Claudio in “Measure for Measure.” Owen made his feature debut in “Vroom” (1988), a story about three people – Owen, David Thewlis and Diana Quick – who escape their dreary surroundings and go on a road trip that suddenly turns disastrous. That same year, he displayed his darker side as a psychopath in the BBC adaptation of “Precious Bane,” which aired in America on PBS’ “Mystery!” before turning roguishly heroic for the British TV series, “Chancer” (1990-91). Owen delivered a strong portrayal of an ambitious businessman who is seduced by his older sister (Saskia Reeves), then becomes obsessed when she tries to break the affair off in Stephen Poliakoff’s excellent drama “Close My Eyes” (1991). Owen was tapped again by Poliakoff, this time to play a Jewish doctor who clashes with the head of a medical center (Charles Dance) in the period piece “Century” (1993).

Owen crossed the Atlantic to appear in the ABC drama “Class of ’61” (1993), as an Irish graduate of West Point who goes off to fight in the Civil War. Owen received strong notices for his seductive hedonist in “The Return of the Native” (CBS, 1994) and as Halle Berry’s lover in “The Rich Man’s Wife” (1996). After starring as a British private investigator in the series “Sharman” (1996), Owen essayed his most challenging role to date, playing a concentration camp inmate in Sean Matthias’ film version of “Bent” (1997). As Max, the actor gave a powerful performance, skillfully negotiating the characters evolution from selfish and debonair decadent to caring individual. Owen and co-star Lothaire Bluteau worked off one another to great effect, with both delivering star-making performances.

After co-starring on the London stage in “Closer” (1997), the actor appeared opposite Alex Kingston in director Mike Hodges’ absorbing crime drama “The Croupier” (1999), the film that would provide his breakthrough role. As a hard-boiled dealer who conspires to defraud a casino, Owens’ performances prompted critic Roger Ebert to compare his steely reserve to that of Sean Connery, noting “he doesn’t give himself wholly to the action, but seems to be keeping a part of his mind outside of it, measuring and calculating.” Not surprisingly, Owen quickly began topping the lists of potential successors to the James Bond role after Pierce Brosnan. Meanwhile, the actor’s popularity increased when he starred in a series of four “Second Sight” telepics for the BBC, playing hot shot British detective Ross Tanner in 1999 and 2000, and he became an icon of cool as The Driver in a series of avant-garde action shorts sponsored by BMW and helmed by directors John Woo, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, Tony Scott, Joe Carnahan and John Frankenheimer.

On the big screen, Owen again impressed with his turn in “Gosford Park” (2001), director Robert Altman’s delightful ensemble riff on British drawing room murder mysteries, playing the brooding Robert Park, who emerges as a central figure in the storyline. Off that success, he was cast in the big budget studio adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s spy thriller “The Bourne Identity” (2002) as the ruthless, steel-nerved assassin, The Professor. Owen next starred opposite Angelina Jolie in the disappointing melodrama “Beyond Borders” (2003), the story of a disaster-relief worker who falls in love with a socially conscious wealthy woman. He rebounded strongly, however, when he reunited with Hodges for the noirish “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” (2004), playing a retired British gangster who emerges from his secluded countryside life to investigate the death of his brother.

Next up was Antoine Fuqua’s supposedly “demystified” retelling of the legend of “King Arthur” (2004), a big budget, action-oriented film that cast Owen as England’s once and future king, this time set in a more historically correct context, if indeed a King Arthur actually existed. Owen’s next role made him an overnight star in the States. The highly literate, often romantically brutal drama “Closer,” directed by Mike Nichols followed the complex relationships between two couples (Owen, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Jude Law) who become messily intertwined in a love/sex gender war. Despite such starpower, it was the relatively unknown Owen’s hard-edged performance that was the most heavily cited by critics and viewers. Not surprisingly, Owen took home the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor and was nominated for an Oscar in the same category.

Amid furious rumors that he was being courted to become the next James Bond – he later admitted he wasn’t interested in the role, which ultimately went to Daniel Craig – Owen appeared to splendid effect in director Robert Rodriguez and writer-artist Frank Miller’s co-venture “Sin City” (2005), a visceral, visually stunning adaptation of Miller’s crime noir comic book series. Headlining the segment drawn from Miller’s story arc “The Big Fat Kill,” Owen played the hard-edged but noble Dwight McCarthy, who becomes embroiled in a sudden, violent battle over control of Sin City’s Old Town, where prostitutes armed to the teeth reign. A portion of Owen’s storyline, the eerie sequence in which he drives the talking corpse of the corrupt cop Jackie Boy (Benicio del Toro) was also directed by Quentin Tarantino. Next was the thriller “Derailed” (2005), which cast Owen and Jennifer Aniston as two married business executives having an affair who are forced into violent and illicit acts by a sadistic criminal, and must turn the tables to save their families.

After the blackmail thriller came and went without much notice, Owen starred in Spike Lee’s impressive genre piece, “Inside Man” (2006), playing a brilliant and cool-headed thief who remains one step ahead of a smooth-talking hostage negotiator (Denzel Washington) in an effort to pull off the perfect heist. Owen rounded out the year on a high note, starring in Alfonso Cuarón’s multi-award nominated “Children of Men” (2006), a futuristic dystopian tale about a former political activist (Owen) turned down-and-out bureaucrat who is convinced by a former lover (Julianne Moore) to help transport a young woman pregnant (Clare-Hope Ashitey) with the infertile world’s only child to the fabled Human Project in order to save the future. He was next cast as Sir Walter Raleigh in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007), Shekhar Kapur’s follow up to “Elizabeth” (1998) in which the Virgin Queen (Cate Blanchett) becomes involved in a relationship with the famed poet and explorer during one of the British Empire’s many entanglements with Spain.

Proving himself comfortable in virtually any and all imaginable genres, Owen starred opposite a scenery-chewing Paul Giamatti in the cartoonishly violent “Shoot ‘Em Up” (2007), as a nameless, carrot-chomping gunslinger, united with a beautiful prostitute (Monica Bellucci) in the guardianship of an infant targeted by a ruthless criminal (Giamatti). Far more somber in its tone was the espionage thriller “The International” (2009), in which Owen played an Interpol agent investigating a global banking organization involved in money laundering, arms trading and murder. Also that year he demonstrated nearly irresistible chemistry with co-star Julie Roberts in the jaunty “Duplicity” (2009), a romantic comedy in which they played two corporate spies conning a pair of captains of industry, even as they alternately scammed and wooed each other. Working with actor-turned-director, David Schwimmer, Owen gave a heart-wrenching performance in the drama “Trust” (2010) as a father whose world is turned upside down after his teenage daughter (Liana Liberato) is stalked and later raped by a man she met on the Internet. Returning to pure action, he paired with Robert De Niro and Jason Statham for the thriller “Killer Elite” (2011), prior to working alongside actress Nicole Kidman in the lauded period biopic “Hemingway & Gellhorn” (HBO, 2012), which covered the great American writer’s (Owen) love affair with war correspondent Gellhorn (Kidman) during the Spanish Civil War. His performance as Hemingway earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie – the first such honor of his career. He also received a SAG nod in the same category.

 The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
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Russell Tovey
Russell Tovey
Russell Tovey

Simon Hattenstone’s “Guardian” article:

You want laddish? Russell Tovey‘s your man. In the beautifully observed TV sitcom Him & Her, he plays Steve, an unemployed procrastinator whose ambitions stretch to drinking, watching porn and shagging his girlfriend. As bewildered werewolf George Sands Junior in the supernatural drama Being Human, he makes his girlfriend pregnant but just wants to be one of the boys. In the new TV whodunnit What Remains, Tovey’s Michael is again preparing, reluctantly, to be a father. He tends to play boy-men who find themselves in grown-up situations against their better judgment. He often gets the girl, but you’re never sure why, or whether he’ll keep her. There are few actors who exude such irrepressible down-the-pub blokeishness. Tovey is also one of Britain’s few out gay actors.

We meet at a park in London’s Soho. Tovey is accompanied by his gorgeous French bulldog, Rocky, or the Rock if you know him well. There’s something instantly likable about both of them. Rocky introduces himself by giving me a thorough face wash, and Tovey starts telling me why he didn’t join his parents’ coach company (they own the Gatwick Flyer, which runs between Essex and Gatwick airport), how he got into trouble at school time and again, and how his ambition as a nine-year-old was to be a father by the time he was 14.

Tovey grew up in Billericay, Essex, to parents who worked all hours to build their business. He had one of the highest IQs in his year at school, but applied himself only to things that interested him. He was easily bored, and liked to make people laugh. That’s how he got into trouble. He never did anything really bad, just daft or disrespectful – like the time he called his French teacher sweetheart. “I got escorted by the head of PE and a security guard to the office of the deputy headmistress, Mrs Palmer.” Mrs Palmer asked if he would call her sweetheart, and he said, only if he knew her better. Tovey was suspended for two days. His next suspension was for eating cake. Well, if we’re being pedantic, for following girls into the toilet after they had refused to give him some of the cake they had made in Home Economics, and stealing it from them. “I turned round with a mouth full of victoria sponge and there was Mrs Palmer.”

Then there was the time he was thrown out of Barking & Dagenham College. He left school at 16, was doing a BTec in performing arts, and was due to be in the chorus of the college production of Rent when he was offered a part in a commercial. “They said, if you take this we’re not going to invite you back, and also if you leave you’ll never work again. Anyway, I left.” The college now cites him as one of its famous former students.

Tovey says he spent one school holiday just watching movies, and that was that. “Dead Poets Society was a big one, Home Alone, Stand By Me, Labyrinth, things like that. I thought the films were brilliant, but more than anything I wanted to be a part of them rather than just watching.”

His first part was as an extra in The Bill in the last year of junior school. He played a traveller who shouted “Oi” and threw a football at a police officer. It wasn’t much but he loved it. He started making money while at school, but says nobody noticed because most of the children had loaded parents anyway. Tovey’s mother always warned him not to show off about his work, so he kept quiet. “Mum said, if people ask you about it, it’s fine, but don’t boast, don’t talk about anything. So it’s always felt very private, what I do. If you’ve seen me, great, and if you want to talk about something, brilliant, but I’m not going to come in and say, ‘Did you see me on this, what did you think?’ That’s just not in my nature… Oh my God! Look at that, he’s trying to hump you!” His voice rises a couple of notches in shock. “Rocky! Don’t do that! What’s wrong with you?” He gives Rocky a severe talking to, apologises on his behalf, then tells me it’s not easy being a French bulldog. “If you’re human and you feel sexed up, you can do something about it. But if you’re a dog I don’t think you can, can you?” He looks at Rocky’s underbelly. “Rocky can’t reach his,” he says sympathetically.

A holidaying Brazilian family walk over and ask what breed Rocky is. It’s funny, Tovey says when they’ve gone, he worried that Rocky might make him more recognisable, but it’s worked the other way – strangers approach him all the time, ask about the dog, have a few strokes and toddle off without so much as a hint of, “Aren’t you …?”

From 11 onwards, Tovey acted regularly in professional productions. But it was only in his early 20s that he made his name with Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, alongside Dominic Cooper and James Corden. Tovey was already out, and Bennett could happily have cast him as Posner, an angsty gay boy infatuated with one of his fellow students. But somehow it didn’t seem right; Tovey was always going to be more convincing as sporty, plain-speaking Rudge, who is given the brilliant line: “How do I define history? It’s just one fuckin’ thing after another.”

In fact, Tovey auditioned for Dakin, the handsome smoothie eventually played by Cooper, even though he knew he was unlikely to get the part. “I had loads of spots, but I went in and said, look, I want to play this part. Dakin was meant to be the lead, lothario, sex object, and nobody was going to lust after me, this spotty, pasty, big-eared thing. But Alan Bennett really liked me and he thought, well, he obviously wants a bigger part, so he wrote up the part of Rudge for me.” Tovey’s skin problem almost led to him quitting the production. “My skin was so bad, I thought, I just want to leave. It was really affecting me psychologically. You go into makeup and they’d paint each spot. It was self-esteem-crushing. Horrible.”

Tovey has perfect skin today, but he has had to work at it with medication. “I still feel I’m going to wake up any moment and my skin’s going to break out all over. If I get one spot now, this absolute cloud comes over me.”

Despite this, he was never exactly lacking in confidence.”I thought I could charm people. I never felt I was attractive to women. I felt I was attractive to men when I was growing up. And even now, if a woman fancies me, I find that a bit alienating. A bit like, ‘You’re sure you’re not taking the piss?’ Because, having the skin, it always felt, I don’t know, not good enough. Whereas with men it was a bit like, it’s rough, it’s fine, don’t worry. Do you know what I mean? Growing up having sticky-out ears, pasty skin, then going through teenage years with spots.” Did he consider having his ears pinned back? He looks appalled. “No. I’ve never felt anything apart from love for my ears. My eldest nephew’s got them now, and he’s so proud of them because he’s got his uncle Russell’s ears. They’re my trademark.”

At school he always had girlfriends. It was only when he got into his mid-teens that he realised they didn’t do that much for him, that he was attracted to boys. “Looking back, I always knew. But you don’t reallyknow till you get to a point where you go, oh, that’s what makes me happier.” At 18, he came out to his family and his father tried to talk him out of it. “My dad was of that generation where it’s changeable if you get it early enough.”

How would he have changed you?

“Hormone therapy or shock treatment, all of these horror things that you watch. You see, they had all this Aids thing. It was all, ‘Don’t die of ignorance.’ My nan thought being gay was a disease. It’s just a generational, educational thing. And Dad was like, ‘I wish you would have told us sooner because we would have done something about it.'”

Were you surprised by the reaction?

“No, I was prepared for it.”

Was it based on prejudice or fear?

“Not knowing. Not knowing anybody else who is gay, not experiencing it, hearing of people dying of Aids and seeing, say, Larry Grayson on TV and thinking, that’s it. Seeing gay men appear in stories in which they were miserable and sad. And I think he felt sad and worried for me, that I’d have a terrible life if I made this choice. And he thought it was a choice, because being straight is so natural, why would you want to be anything different from that?”

It’s touching how determined Tovey is to understand his family’s fears of his sexuality.

“You want your kids to be perfect and at that time it felt like it was an imperfection. Whereas now a lot of people are like [enthusiastic voice], ‘Are you? Cool! Well, make sure you look after yourself.’ It seems like it’s a different time. I sense that with younger generations, when they have after-school clubs where they talk about being gay. I meet a lot of kids who’ve come out at school, and I’m like, ‘What! You came out at school! Did you get bullied?’ ‘No!'”

He smiles. He’s just remembered something that amuses him. “My mum used to think it was the pill that made you gay. There was too much oestrogen in the water, and people started taking the pill in the 60s and it made everybody gay.”

On screen, Tovey is forever snogging girlfriends or flashing his bum. Does he enjoy his sex scenes? “I have quite enjoyed my sex scenes.” Hurrah! He’s the first actor I’ve ever heard admit that.

“I don’t get embarrassed by sexual parts. I want to protect the girl. Nine times out of 10, girls are more embarrassed.” He thinks about it. “You know what? Actually, if I was doing a gay sex scene, I’d probably feel really embarrassed.”

Do women playing his love interest see him as a challenge? “No, because most of my leading ladies are in relationships, and their partners are thrilled when I get cast with them in these intimate roles because I’m not a threat. I think if I’d been straight I would have slept with a lot of actresses by now and there’d be a lot of broken relationships.”

Really? He laughs. “Is that quite an egotistical thing to say? It’s just the leading man/leading lady thing, which happens again and again. You’re playing being in love and you fall in love.”

Tovey says he’s looking forward to his next part in What Remains because his character is a bit darker than normal. There’s also a new series of Him & Her coming up, which he loves. (“It feels very Pinteresque to me. If I wasn’t in it, I’d watch it religiously.”) And he’s busy writing: he’s written three plays so far, which have been read at the Soho theatre and National theatre studio but have yet to be performed. He describes them as being “about people in the margins”.

I ask Tovey if there was one thing he could change in the world, what it would be? “Right now? I feel, as a taxpayer who’s self-employed, I hate the fact that you have to pay on your projected earnings for the following year. Can’t we get rid of that? Let me earn it, then I’ll pay it back to you. Don’t say, well, you owe us half of what you might earn next year. That’s it. Haha!” Blimey, he sounds like a proper Tory Essex boy. “Tory? No, absolutely not. I was in the House of Lords recently for the whole debate about gay marriage. It was incredible, just sitting there watching all these really old white, middle-class, crusty men talking about how they thought it was wrong. They feel very removed from what is happening in the real world outside.”

It’s interesting that Tovey says it’s so much easier to come out today than when he was a boy. If anything, among actors, the opposite appears to be true. Whereas years ago the likes of Ian McKellen, Anthony Sher and Rupert Everett came out (admittedly in middle age or when already established), there are few openly gay stars of Tovey’s generation. “Well, there’s the guy who plays Spock in the new Star Trek film, Zachary Quinto.” He tries to think of others, but fails.

The fact that you can name only one gay actor in Hollywood suggests there is still a taboo, I say. What about well-known young British actors? He racks his brain. No, no one he can name – not publicly, anyway. “I assume there are a few. Whether they are out or not is not for me to say.” That is crazy, I say. “Well, I hope it’s changing… I’ve found out over the years that the conversation about casting me has come up: would it affect the show and the audience if I’m a gay man playing a straight character? These conversations are being had still.” Everett has said that coming out crippled his career, that now he’s largely restricted to playing gay. Perhaps the difference for Tovey is that he was out from the start, and because he didn’t make much fuss about it, nor did anybody else. As for the viewing public, he says they couldn’t care less. “You’ve got to remember that of the millions who watch TV, most people don’t give a fuck about your private life or know who you are.”

Tovey says he is keen to play a gay man, but there are very few good parts. “I really want to do it properly, with something that is clever and moving everything forward rather than covering old ground. Not someone who’s gay and miserable, dying of Aids, secluded, a bit weird. I want to play someone who’s normal and just happens to be gay.”

Shortly after I meet Tovey, the actor Ben Whishaw issues a statement saying he is gay and happily married. I contact Tovey to ask what he thinks. “I’m just happy he is a well-adjusted dude and out now, another good role model who isn’t defined professionally by who he wants to share his personal life with.”

Tovey has been with his boyfriend for four years. They live together, are very happy, and that’s all he wants to say because it’s private. He’s wearing a couple of rings. I ask about their history. The one on his middle finger, he says, is his father’s old ring and he never takes it off. And the other? He blushes. “It’s just another ring. It’s on that finger… which means something. I’m not married or anything. It’s just a symbol of commitment, I suppose.” Yes, he says, he would like to get married, and still fancies being a father.

Tovey says he always knew it was important for him to be open about his sexuality. Why? Simple, he says. “I love my personal life and having a social life. And I didn’t ever want to have to compromise. I could imagine being at this stage now and having skeletons in the closet, and you sitting here going, ‘So have you got a girlfriend?’ and me saying, ‘I’ve not got a girlfriend at the moment, I’ve not met the right girl, there’s a few people around.’ And in my head going, I’m going back home to my boyfriend in five minutes.” He pauses. “D’you know what I mean? I just can’t be arsed with that.”

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

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Charlene McKenna
Charlene McKenna
Charlene McKenna
Charlene McKenna
Charlene McKenna

Article from “Entertainment.ie”:

Charlene McKenna has told of her disappointment that Raw has been binned.

RTE bosses scrapped the racy kitchen drama last week after five seasons to save cash and ensure Love/Hate’s survival.

But the actress, 28, admitted it will be tough to bid farewell to her co-stars and straight-talking Jojo Harte.

Speaking for the first time since the decision, she said: “We were such a family for five years. And Jojo was a rare one.

“It’s not often you get such a young, strong character.

“There was Jojo making a balls of everything and yet it was all OK in the end.

“She kept her humour and never gave up.”

But Charlene has not been left without a show and revealed she will be going to Hollywood after filming a second series of the BBC’s Ripper Street.

The Monaghan star has met production firms in the US who showed huge interest in her. And Charlene plans another trip when she’s free.

She added: “I didn’t even know what Hollywood looked like. I wanted to go if only to make it real in my head.

“I wanted to meet people and shake their hands and tick all the boxes.

“It was fruitful in one way but when they asked whether I was available I had to say no. They said come back when you are.”

But Charlene admitted she doesn’t love being around screen stars as they are too touchy.

She told the RTE Guide: “Actors are the most sensitive creatures I have ever met.

“It’s about believing you’ re the best without being arrogant.

“You’ve to walk that tightrope. Many are the tears I have shed down the years.

“But I have been blessed in that I have rarely been out of work for very long.”

Charlene revealed she never expected to become an actor but learned everything she needed for the challenging job while working in a pub.

She explained: “You get to really know people working behind a bar.

“Whatever way my head works, I was sponging it in – all the different characters and what made them tick.

“Looking back now, that was me in training.”

Charlene has gone back to university and is studying French and she recently spent time at a college in Paris.

She said: “I sometimes think what else would I do? What else could I do?

“I have started studying French and spent a week at a French school in Paris.

“Why French? I don’t know.

“But I really admire Kristin Scott Thomas – and the fact she moved to France and got into French film. That would be my dream.”

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Octavia Spencer
Octavia Spencer
Octavia Spencer

TCM overview:

Possessing the talent to make even the most minor of roles memorable, Octavia Spencer was a fixture for years on both the small and big screens in supporting roles that called for either a caring nurse or a mouthy blue-collar worker. After making her feature film debut in the crime drama “A Time to Kill” (1996), Spencer went on to appear on such popular programs as “Chicago Hope” (CBS, 1994-2000), “The X-Files” (Fox, 1993-2002), and the hit comedy “Ugly Betty” (ABC, 2006-2010). Spencer’s perfect timing and natural sass also helped her land roles in feature comedies such as “Big Momma’s House” (2000) and “Beauty Shop” (2005), as well as a breakout role on Comedy Central’s “Halfway Home” (2007), appearing as a loudmouthed ex-con who is always picking fights with her housemates. After many years of paying her dues as background or supporting players, Spencer garnered much-deserved praise and an Oscar for her glowing performance in “The Help” (2011), based on Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel of the same name. She was pitch-perfect as Minny Jackson, a determined and sharp-tongued maid who secretly helps an aspiring writer accurately chronicle the lives of African-American domestics in racially-charged 1960s Mississippi. The high-profile role finally thrust Spencer’s talents into the forefront, earning her recognition as a truly multifaceted actress.

Octavia Spencer was born on May 25, 1972 in Montgomery, AL. The sixth of seven siblings, the future star always knew that she would pursue a career in the film industry, but never thought that it would be as an actress. She attended Auburn University in Auburn, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts. In 1996, Spencer made her film-acting debut in the crime drama “A Time to Kill,” based on the best-selling 1989 novel by John Grisham. In the popular film starring Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey, she played a nurse who tended to Ellen Roark (Bullock) after her assault by members of a Ku Klux Klan chapter in a rural town in Mississippi. Adding to her résumé, Spencer appeared on a number of sitcoms such as “Moesha” (UPN, 1996-2001), and guest starred countless times as a nurse on dramas like “Chicago Hope” (CBS, 1994-2000), “Roswell” (The WB, 1999-2001; UPN, 2001-02) and “The X-Files” (Fox, 1993-2002). Spencer also landed small parts in feature comedies such as “Big Momma’s House” (2000) starring Martin Lawrence and “Beauty Shop” (2005) as one of the opinionated clients who frequent a new salon run by its equally sassy owner (Queen Latifah). Aside from her film and TV projects, Spencer was also a talented stage actress. She received accolades for her performance in the Los Angeles production of “The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife” (2003) opposite veteran stage performers Beth Grant, Dale Dickey and David Steen.

In 2007, Spencer became one of the most buzzed about stars of the comedy series “Halfway Home,” an improvised show about the daily adventures and mishaps of five ex-cons living together in a rehab facility. Her character, Serenity Johnson, served time for armed robbery and was, ironically, the most aggressive in the group. She had delusions of fame after landing an interview for a reality show about criminals, only to find out later that the show was titled “America’s Stupidest Criminals.” On a definite career roll, Spencer next had a recurring role on the hit ABC series “Ugly Betty,” as an immigration agent who stalked the father of Betty Suarez (America Ferrera). In 2008, Spencer delivered an emotionally charged performance in “Seven Pounds,” playing the caretaker of Rosario Dawson’s character, a terminally ill patient who receives the heart of a man (Will Smith) who seeks redemption by donating his vital organs to seven people.

After appearing in countless films and shows as a memorable supporting player, Spencer scored a major part in the highly anticipated film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel “The Help,” as one of the African-American servants persuaded by an aspiring writer (Emma Stone) to secretly write a book about their lives in service to white families in 1960s Mississippi. Spencer played the feisty and defiant Minny Jackson, a great cook whose sharp tongue always landed her in trouble with her employers. Stockett apparently wrote the character Minny with Spencer with mind. The two women met for the first time while Stockett was in the midst of writing her novel, and incorporated Spencer’s physicality and mannerisms as she developed Minny. Prior to the film’s release, Spencer spoke out against controversy, mostly from the African-American community, regarding her role as a “maid” in the film. In interviews, she noted that critics should focus on the characters’ breadth of emotions rather than just their occupation. Her hard work paid off when she won both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

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Tom Burke
Tom Burke
Tom Burke

Tom Burke was born in Kent in 1981.   He is the son of actors Anna Calder-Marshall and David Burke.   He starred in the television mini-series “State of Play” and stars in BBC’s “The Three Musketeers”.

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Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matt Damon

TCM overview:

Despite his all-American persona, actor Matt Damon has thrived in roles that ran counter to his mom-and-apple-pie image. Whether playing a combative mathematics genius, a serial killer hunting the rich and famous or a lethal spy unable to recall his identity, Damon built a strong and respected career tackling characters against type. After appearing in several supporting roles, Damon forged his own path with best friend Ben Affleck by writing and starring in “Good Will Hunting” (1997), which earned the duo an Academy Award for Best Screenplay while opening numerous doors. From there, he delivered a brief but acclaimed performance as the titular soldier in “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), followed by a more devious part as a social-climbing killer in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999). Though he stalled a bit with “The Legend of Bagger Vance” (2000) and “All the Pretty Horses” (2000), Damon became a bona fide star by aptly trading one-liners with the likes of George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the stylish action comedy “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001) and its sequels. But Damon became his own man with “The Bourne Identity” (2002), which allowed him to solo drive a successful action franchise that earned big box-office dollars and critical acclaim across the board. By the time he landed a meaty leading role in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning thriller, “The Departed” (2006), Damon was one of the biggest stars working in Hollywood.

Damon was born on Oct. 8, 1970 in Cambridge, MA and raised in nearby Newton. His father, Kent, was a stockbroker and his mother, Nancy, a professor of early childhood education at Lesley College. When Damon was two years old, his parents divorced, leaving him to be reared by his mother in a commune-style home back in Cambridge. Because of the open and creative environment, Damon developed a taste for artistic endeavors at an early age. Although he acted onstage in school plays and declared his intention to pursue that career when he enrolled at Harvard University, Damon found it difficult at first. He made his feature debut screen with a one-line role of Adam Storke’s younger brother in “Mystic Pizza” (1988). In 1991, Damon ditched Harvard 12 credits shy of his bachelor’s degree in English, choosing instead to co-star opposite Brian Dennehy as a medical school dropout in the made-for-cable movie, “Rising Son” (TNT, 1990).

With his acting career on the rise, he excelled as an anti-Semitic preppie in “School Ties” (1992), but later stated that the competition for the roles in his age range was fierce. Nearly all the young men in “School Ties” had auditioned for the co-starring role in “Scent of a Woman” (also 1992), but that plum role opposite an Oscar-winning Al Pacino went to Chris O’Donnell. In fact, Damon and O’Donnell often competed for roles, with the latter generally winning out. Meanwhile, Damon proved adequate as the narrator of Walter Hill’s revisionist Western “Geronimo: An American Legend” (1993), only to be overshadowed by more seasoned actors, notably Gene Hackman and Wes Studi. On the other hand, he all but pulled the rug out from under Denzel Washington in “Courage Under Fire” (1996), offering a vivid turn as a guilt-ridden veteran of the Persian Gulf War tormented by an incident in battle. He even lost 40 pounds to achieve the gaunt, haunted look of the character.

When he was at Harvard, Damon began writing a script about a troubled mathematics genius with childhood buddy Affleck. They fashioned a screenplay that soon became the talk of Hollywood, with studios bidding competitively for the project. Old friend and director Kevin Smith did his best to get it noticed by the Weinstein brothers at Miramax, going to bat for his two buddies. In 1994, Castle Rock initially purchased the rights for over a half-million dollars in a pay-or-play deal. The story then focused on Will, a South Boston resident with superior intelligence whom the government attempts to recruit. A year later, with the project in turnaround, Miramax purchased the rights and the script evolved to focus more strongly on the emotional difficulties of the leading character. Before “Good Will Hunting” went before the cameras, however, Damon landed his first screen lead as a newly-minted crusading attorney in Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of “John Grisham’s ‘The Rainmaker'” (1997). The one-two punch of the two leading roles – undoubtedly assisted by the resulting mythology building for Damon and Affleck as writers and actors – solidified the actor’s status as the so-called “It” boy of 1997, along with Affleck. Earning a Best Actor Academy Award nomination and sharing an Oscar win for Best Screenplay with Affleck only upped his profile and provided Academy Award history with one of its most fairy tale-like moments when, as their respective mothers sat in the audience, the two young men ran cheering to the stage, breathlessly thanking everyone in funny, quick succession. The twosome came off as simply normal guys who had struggled to make it in showbiz and finally hit the big time – something many people could relate to, thus making their win that much sweeter.

Director Stephen Spielberg tapped Damon to play the title role in the World War II epic “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), a film worthy of critical praise for its showy camerawork and impressively staged battle set pieces. As the soldier whose three brothers have been killed in action, the all-American looking Damon was in only the last third of the film, but still managed to make a significant impression. He fared less well as the poker hustler-turned-law student who agrees to help his ex-con best friend in “Rounders” (1998). In this redux of Martin Scorsese’s “Mean Streets” (1974), Damon relied on his winning personality, warm smile and good looks than on his acting ability, giving more of a movie star portrayal than a real performance. Repaying writer-producer-director Kevin Smith for his assistance on “Good Will Hunting,” he joined Affleck to play a pair of fallen angels trying to get back into heaven in the oddly dark comedy, “Dogma” (1999). Damon followed by undertaking the more challenging title role of an American who decides to murder his traveling companion (Jude Law) and assume his identity in Anthony Minghella’s well-crafted “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999), resulting in one of the actor’s most intense performance. Newcomer Law received the lion’s share of the spotlight after giving a charming performance, but it was Damon’s obsessive, bespectacled killer who was the glue that held the beautifully shot film together.

Damon’s career hit a brief but worrisome slump with the release of three creative and box office duds in a row: director Robert Redford’s lethargic “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” with Damon as a washed up golf pro opposite wise caddy Will Smith; “All the Pretty Horses,” director Billy Bob Thornton’s failed adaptation of novelist Cormac McCarthy’s romantic Western; and a small supporting turn in Van Sant’s by-the-numbers “Finding Forrester” (2000). The actor recaptured his A-list caché when he joined the all-star cast of Steven Soderbergh’s remake of “Ocean’s Eleven,” playing pick-pocket and aspiring big-time thief, Linus Caldwell, in the popular hit – a role he returned to for the sequels “Ocean’s Twelve” (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen” (2007). His next film was a complete about-face from a polished crowd-pleaser: Damon and Casey Affleck starred (and co-wrote) the largely improvised drama “Gerry” (2002), a little-seen effort directed by Van Sant about two men named Gerry who are stranded in the desert during a hiking mishap. Although an intriguing experiment, it proved to be unfit for mainstream audiences.

Over the years, Damon cultivated a reputation as one of the most affable movie actors in Hollywood and frequently collaborated with friends to give their projects a boost. His desire to help others get their careers off the ground led he and Affleck to create the HBO reality series, “Project: Greenlight” (2001-02), which documented and bankrolled untried aspiring filmmakers’ attempts to create a motion picture to be released by Miramax; the show resulted in the films “Stolen Summer” (2002) and “The Battle of Shaker Heights” (2003), both executive produced by Affleck and Damon. The duo also created and produced the short-lived “Push, Nevada” (ABC, 2002-03), an interactive mystery show that gave viewers the chance to solve the crime and win $1 million. Damon also had a cameo in films by his friend, Kevin Smith, including “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001) and “Jersey Girl” (2004); and in films from his “Ocean’s Eleven” collaborators, including “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (2002); and up-and-coming filmmaker pals, such as the creators of the comedy “Eurotrip” (2004). As a voice actor, Damon lend his distinctive vocals to the films “Titan A.E.” (2000), “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron” (2002), “The Majestic” (2001), and “Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train” (2004).

Demonstrating his increasing diversity and believability, Damon took on the role of the amnesiac über-spy Jason Bourne in the film adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s sprawling espionage novel, “The Bourne Identity” (2002), a crackerjack thriller that did solid box office business and became a mega-hit on home video. The actor would reprise the role for the equally well-crafted but ultimately unsatisfying sequel “The Bourne Supremacy” (2004). Demonstrating a flair for goofball comedy, Damon delivered a wickedly funny turn on the small screen as Jack’s scheming rival to join the gay men’s chorus in a 2002 episode of the hit NBC sitcom “Will & Grace;” a role he reprised the following season. Damon next literallyjoined Greg Kinnear to play one-half of a pair of conjoined twins in the flawed but still winning comedy, “Stuck On You” (2003), a silly romp from the Farrelly Brothers that proved to be a rare miss for the filmmaking duo.

His next film cast him opposite Heath Ledger as a fictionalized version of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, the Bavarian fairy tale spinners known as “The Brothers Grimm” (2005), reimagined by director Terry Gilliam as a pair of curse-removing con artists who are suddenly tasked with solving a genuine mystery that will ultimately inspire their famous stories. Damon showed a great deal of panache and charisma as practical scoundrel Wilhelm, but the story ultimately left him too little to do; the film itself lacked the spark and imagination expected of a Gilliam project. Behind the scenes, Damon was credited with frequently playing peacemaker between the embattled Gilliam and the films’ producers, the Weinstein brothers. At the end of that year Damon delivered a fine turn in the complex potboiler, “Syriana” (2005), playing an oil industry analyst living a comfortable life in Geneva until the death of his son while visiting an oil-rich country, drives him to obsession with helping the country’s benevolent prince (Alexander Siddig) raise his nation with sound business dealings.

Damon next joined an all-star cast that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg and Jack Nicholson for “The Departed” (2006), playing a hardened criminal employed by a crime syndicate who infiltrates the police while his counterpart (DiCaprio) on the force g s undercover in the mob. Based on the excellent Hong Kong action thriller, “Infernal Affairs” (2002) and directed by Martin Scorsese, “The Departed” earned a huge helping critical kudos prior to its release as well as several Academy Award wins. In “The Good Shepherd” (2006), a historical look at the beginnings of the CIA, Damon played Edward Wilson, a bright, idealistic Yale student recruited by the OSS to work intelligence during World War II. While later helping to form the CIA, he becomes disenfranchised during the heightened suspicions and deep-rooted paranoia of the Cold War. In 2007, Damon revived two favorite characters for a second time, appearing as Linus Caldwell in the much-improved “Ocean’s Thirteen” (2007), and Jason Bourne for “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007), who comes out of retirement to defeat arch rival, The Jackal, in a once-and-for-all showdown.

In 2009, Damon made a cameo appearance on the hit Hollywood sitcom, “Entourage” (HBO, 2004-2011), playing a hyper-real version of himself in an effort to pressure Vince Chase (Adrian Grenier) into donating money to his real-life charity, OneXOne, only to grow more and more angry as Vince continues to avoid him. Back in features, he reunited with Steven Soderbergh to star in “The Informant!” (2009), a dark political comedy in which he portrayed Mark Whitacre, a former high-ranking executive at Archer Daniels Midland who blew the whistle on the company’s illegal price-fixing scheme, only to find himself in trouble with the FBI himself when they discover he has embezzled $9 million. The role earned Damon a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in Musical or Comedy. He next starred in “Invictus” (2009), director Clint Eastwood’s compelling sports drama about how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with South African rugby star Francois Pienaar (Damon) to unite their country. Damon earned his second Golden Globe nomination that year, this time for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, as well as Screen Actors Guild and Oscar nominations in the supporting category.

After reteaming with Greengrass for the war thriller “Green Zone” (2010), Damon played a factory worker who communicates with the dead in Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter” (2010). Also that year, he delivered a fine performance as Texas Ranger La Boeuf, who joins a determined 14-year-old (Hailee Steinfeld) and a gruff bounty hunter (Jeff Bridges) in tracking down a notorious gunman (Josh Brolin) in the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-nominated Western, “True Grit” (2010). In a rare small screen turn, Damon played the pilot boyfriend of Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) in episodes of “30 Rock” (NBC, 2006-2013), which earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. He also served as the narrator for “Inside Job” (2010), the Academy Award-winning documentary that explored the root causes and high-level players involved in the 2008 economic crisis that revealed widespread corruption by U.S. financial services. The following year, Damon starred in “The Adjustment Bureau” (2011), a romantic thriller about a man fighting for his own destiny that was loosely based on the Philip K. Dick short story “The Adjustment Team.” The film proved to be a moderate hit with both critics and audiences.

Not done by a long shot, Damon had much more to offer that year. He reteamed with Soderbergh once more for a 21st-century update of the disaster movie with “Contagion” (2011), in which he played a father desperately trying to save what remains of his family after a deadly pandemic rapidly depopulates the earth. On a lighter note, he lent his voice to the microbial Bill the Krill, who embarks on a journey of self-discovery with his pal Will (Pitt) in director George Miller’s animated sequel “Happy Feet Two” (2011). The industrious actor then capped off the year by starring in director Cameron Crowe’s endearing comedy-drama “We Bought a Zoo” (2011), the story about a man and his family whose recently purchased home contains a fully stocked zoo that has fallen into disrepair. Clearly catching his breath, Damon had a relatively quiet 2012, with his only feature release of the year being “Promising Land,” another thoughtful collaboration with Van Sant-this time focusing on the issue of fracking in a script that he co-wrote with fellow star John Krasinski. In 2013, Damon portrayed the gay lover of Liberace (Michael Douglas) in Soderbergh’s esteemed HBO TV movie, “Behind the Candelabra.” Shifting gears radically, he next endured futuristic slum life and being turned into a weapon of class warfare in the high-concept film “Elysium” (2013), remarkably the actor’s first live-action outing to fall unquestionalbly into clear-cut science-fiction territory.

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Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close

TCM overview:

Seemingly born atop the Hollywood A-list, actress Glenn Close established herself as one of the finest performers of her generation – or any other, for that matter – with her first film, “The World According to Garp” (1982), for which she earned the first of several Oscar nominations. For the rest of the 1980s, Close quickly became a top leading lady who eventually achieved infamy with her portrayal of a psychotic woman avenging a lost affair in one of the decade’s most notorious movies, “Fatal Attraction” (1987). Unlike most film stars, however, Close was more than happy to oscillate from the big screen to television to Broadway; often with even more critical and award success. She played Queen Gertrude to Mel Gibson’s “Hamlet” (1990) and voiced Cruella de Vil in the animated classic, “101 Dalmatians” (1996). Close earned critical acclaim as well as Tony Awards for her work on Broadway in “Death and the Maiden” (1992) and the musical “Sunset Boulevard” (1994). Following quality turns in “Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her” (2000) and “Nine Lives” (2005), Close was Emmy-nominated for her portrayal of Capt. Monica Rawling on season four of “The Shield” (FX, 2002-08). But it was her performances as high-stakes litigator Patty Hewes on “Damages” (FX/Audience Network, 2007- ) that proved to be her most significant small screen role. Regardless of the medium, Close remained one of Hollywood’s premier actresses.

Born on March 19, 1947 in tony Greenwich, CT, Close was raised one of four children in an upper-middle class family headed by William Close, a surgeon whose affiliation with the conservative salvation group Moral Re-Armament led him to relocate the family to the Belgian Congo where he ran several medical clinics. At the time, Close was 13 years old and subsequently received her education at boarding schools in Switzerland, followed by Choate Rosemary Hall back in Greenwich. During high school, she took an interest in theater, joining a repertory group called The Fingernails. After she graduated, Close spent several years touring with the folk-singing group Up With People, before leaving to attend the drama school at William and Mary in Virginia. Close graduated late from William and Mary – she was 27 years-old – but immediately found work in New York City with the Ph nix Theatre Company, appearing in “Love for Love” and “The Member of the Wedding.” Close was cast as Mary Tudor in the Richard Rodgers’ musical “Rex” (1976), then jumped to television, making her small screen debut as a homewrecker in the made for television movie, “Too Far to Go” (NBC, 1979).

Close made her breakthrough on Broadway with a supporting role in the musical “Barnum” (1980), playing the patient wife of the famed 19th century showman. Thanks to her performance, acclaimed director George Roy Hill became aware of Close – he was attracted to her sense of composure, the exact quality he was looking for in an actress to play Jenny Fields in “The World According to Garp” (1982). Though nervous about starring in her first feature after years on stage, Close nonetheless was spot-on in her performance as the prim, hard-nosed mother of an aspiring novelist (Robin Williams), whose own novel about her life raising a son as a single mother becomes a feminist rallying cry. Due to her impressive work, Close earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, triggering a run for several Oscar nods in the 1980s – including three consecutive – that ultimately netted zero wins. She next co-starred in the Baby Boomer ensemble comedy-drama “The Big Chill” (1983), earning her second Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as one of seven college friends gathered together to reminisce after the suicide of one of their own.

A third Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role followed her performance in “The Natural” (1984), starring as the childhood sweetheart of a former bush league ballplayer (Robert Redford) finally getting his chance to play in the big leagues. Returning to Broadway, Close won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Mike Nichols’ staging of Tom Stoppard’s romantic comedy, “The Real Thing.” With firm footing on stage, television and the silver screen, Close was able to alternate between the three throughout the 1980s, all the while attempting to undertake parts with depth on her path to becoming one of Hollywood’s top leading ladies. In the groundbreaking TV special “Something About Amelia” (ABC, 1984), Close played a woman who gradually comes to realize her husband (Ted Danson) has been having sex with their daughter (Roxanne Zal). She kept alive her award nomination streak, earning a nod for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Special. Her status as a lead actress was confirmed with a solid performance as a lawyer romantically entangled with a client in “Jagged Edge” (1985) and as a woman sharing her home and her body with a ghost of a silent film star (Ruth Gordon) in “Maxie” (1985).

While she steadily earned a reputation as an actress of the highest caliber, Close gained a great deal of notoriety for what became her most controversial role. In “Fatal Attraction” (1987), Adrian Lyne’s dynamic and enormously successful psychological thriller, Close achieved infamy playing Alex Forrest, an obsessive woman with whom a family man (Michael Douglas) engages in a one night stand when the wife and kids are away. When the married man tries to break off the affair, Alex starts to terrorize him and his family in a bizarre and psychotic attempt to win back his affections. For two-thirds of the film, “Fatal Attraction” was a compelling look at the cause and effect of infidelity, until the final third when it digressed into standard revenge thriller territory, complete with a double-scare death scene straight from the horror movie cliché handbook. It was later revealed that Lyne was forced to reshoot the original ending – which depicted Alex committing suicide and framing the cheating husband for murder – after test audiences rejected it. Close later expressed her disappointment with the reshoot, claiming that her portrayal of a damaged, but sympathetic character was undermined by the more fantastical redo. Nonetheless, Close earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role and a whole lot of notoriety, as people often acted afraid of her on the streets, so powerful and frightening was her portrayal.

Close followed her “Fatal Attraction” performance as a sexually manipulative aristocrat in the “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988), which again earned her a nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She brought surprising sympathy to the role of the pathetic, frivolous society matron Sunny von Bulow in the darkly humorous “Reversal of Fortune” (1990), then proved rather effective as a youthful Gertrude to Mel Gibson’s mature “Hamlet” (1990). In 1991, Close made her first foray into TV movie-producing with “Sarah, Plain and Tall” (CBS, 1991), a touching drama that depicted Close as a woman who answers a widowed farmer’s newspaper ad for a new wife and mother to his two children. Close earned two Emmy Award nominations; one for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special; the other, as a producer for Outstanding Drama or Comedy Special and Miniseries. Back on stage, she won her second Tony Award for her performance on Broadway in the politically charged “Death and the Maiden” (1992), though she subsequently lost out to Sigourney Weaver when the play was adapted to film.

Because of the popularity and success of “Sarah, Plain and Tall,” Close revived her role of replacement wife and mother in “Skylark” (CBS, 1993). On the big screen, Close seemed to be settling into a bit of a rut, starring in “House of the Spirits” (1993), a sweeping melodrama that tried in vain to mimic the sexual tensions of “Dangerous Liaisons” and “Reversal of Fortune.” She bounced back with “The Paper” (1984), playing the power-hungry publisher of a New York City tabloid that is host to an assorted cast of characters, including a beleaguered editor (Michael Keaton) struggling between family and career, an editor (Robert Duvall) with prostate cancer, and an alcoholic columnist (Randy Quaid) who winds up passing out on the couch. Attempting her first leading musical role, Close played silent screen star Norma Desmond in the Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway musical “Sunset Boulevard.” In reincarnating this larger-than-life character immortalized onscreen by Gloria Swanson in Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic, Close achieved a personal and creative triumph, though not without controversy. Patti LuPone, who originated the role in London, had been slated for the Broadway production. But Close received better reviews for her characterization in Los Angeles, leading to her taking over the New York production. Though some critics found fault with her singing and over-the-top acting, Close nonetheless won her third Tony Award for Best Actress.

On the heels of her Tony triumph, Close won her first Emmy for her nuanced portrayal of a real-life U.S. Army colonel who disclosed her lesbianism and fought to stay in the military in “Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story” (NBC, 1995). Perhaps as a nod to Norma Desmond, Close chewed the scenery as a Nancy Reagan-like first lady in Tim Burton’s ode to 1950s sci-fi B-movies, “Mars Attacks!” (1996). She carried the Desmond vibe over to her depiction of Cruella De Vil in Disney’s live action take on the cartoon classic, “101 Dalmatians” (1996), a role she also reprised in the sequel “102 Dalmatians” (2000). Close delivered an emotional performance as a mother whose AIDS-afflicted son has come home to die in “In the Gloaming” (HBO, 1997), a role that earned her a fifth Emmy Award nomination. After playing a female prisoner of war in “Paradise Road” (1997), she was a U.S. vice president coping with the kidnapping of the president in Wolfgang Petersen’s goofy action thriller, “Air Force One” (1997).

After a third go-round playing a fill-in wife and mother in “Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter’s Edge” (CBS, 1999), Close further proved her ability for depicting forceful women in Robert Altman’s sunny ensemble comedy “Cookie’s Fortune” (1999), playing the niece of a widowed family matriarch (Patricia Neal) who discovers her body after a suicide and rearranges the death scene to make it look like a murder. In “Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her” (2000), Rodrigo Garcia’s engaging anthology of loosely connected stories about five very different women dealing with various life problems, Close played a successful physician in the segment “This is Dr. Keener,” who cares for an ailing mother while contending with her own loneliness. When a remarkably accurate tarot card reader (Calista Flockhart) makes a house call, Dr. Keener begins to assess the true emptiness of her own condition.

Despite Close’s venerable career as a lead actress, she recognized that major roles were harder to come by for an actress her age. Further retreating into independent and low-budget films seemed to confirm that her time as a top box office draw was at an end. She did, however, experience a rebirth on television, where she once again found challenging roles. In “The Ballad of Lucy Whipple” (CBS, 2001), Close played a widowed mother of three who travels to California during the Gold Rush of 1850 to start a new life, clashing with her spirited 13-year-old daughter who d s not share her mother’s dream. Meanwhile, she tackled the role of Nelly Forbush in an adaptation of the famed musical “South Pacific” (ABC 2001); had a hilariously high camp guest spot as an eccentric photographer on “Will & Grace” (NBC, 1998-2006), which earned her yet another Emmy nod; and starred in “Brush with Fate” (CBS, 2003), an adaptation of Susan Vreelands’ collection of stories that trace the history and ownership of what may be an undiscovered painting by 17th century Dutch painter Jan Vermeer.

Back on the big screen, she essayed a couple of supporting roles, appearing as a dutiful mother obsessively tending to her comatose son in “The Safety of Objects” (2001), then as an American academic in Paris who quietly observes her naive assistant (Kate Hudson) have an affair with a married Frenchman in “Le Divorce” (2003). In 2005, Close tackled a role made famous by Katharine Hepburn, playing Eleanor of Aquitaine in “The Lion in Winter” (Showtime, 2004), the wife of King Henry II (Patrick Stewart) who is newly released from prison after staging a coup. Close earned her first Golden Globe Award for this dynamic portrayal, winning the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television. She also chalked up Best Actress wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Emmys. Close followed with a part in the ensemble “Strip Search” (HBO, 2004), a look at how crime and punishment had changed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Taking a rare foray into a full-blown comedy, Close grandly hit all the right notes as too-perfect Claire Wellington, the grand dame of the Stepford society of subservient spouses in the otherwise failed satirical remake of the thriller, “The Stepford Wives” (2004). The actress then took on her first regular role in a television series, joining the cast of the gritty crime drama “The Shield” (FX, 2002-08) in its fourth season, playing the shrewd new precinct commander Capt. Monica Rawling, who offered redemption to the series’ antihero Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis). Producers credited a 30 percent rise in viewers due to her presence, but the actress chose to depart at the conclusion of her first season so she could be closer to her East Coast family. Nonetheless, she earned heaps of critical praise, the admiration of the regular cast, and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2005. Stepping back into the more comfortable realm of character-driven drama, she appeared in the weighty “Heights” (2005), playing the mother of a New York City photographer (Elizabeth Banks) who begins to rethink her open marriage, while her daughter has second thoughts about her pending nuptials with her lawyer fiancé (James Marsden).

Comfortable shifting from television to film, as she had been throughout most of her career, Close gave a typically strong performance in the ensemble anthology “Nine Lives” (2005), playing a widowed mother whose life has been taken over by her precocious young daughter (Dakota Fanning). After matriarchal supporting roles in “The Chumscrubber” (2005) and “Evening” (2007), Close made a triumphant return to series television with “Damages” (FX, 2007- ), playing the simultaneously revered and reviled Patty Hewes, a high-stakes litigator in New York City who takes on a bright and ambitious protégé (Rose Byrne) during a major class action lawsuit targeting a ruthless corporate CEO (Ted Danson). Hewes shows her protégé exactly what it takes to win at all costs, making it clear that often fortunes – and lives – are at stake. Close’s gritty portrayal earned the actress a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Drama and an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, both in 2008. Close repeated the triumph when she won the Emmy in the same category the following year. While “Damages” found new life on the Audience Network after being let go by FX, Close found the time to return to movies. She starred in Rodrigo García’s indie drama, “Albert Nobbs” (2011), in which she played a 19th century woman who disguises herself as a man to gain employment in poverty-stricken Ireland, only spend the next 30 years growing increasingly confused about her own identity. The role earned Close a Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Actress.

Thed above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

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Tony Hadley
Tony Hadley
Tony Hadley
Tony Hadley
Tony Hadley

“Mirror” article on Tony Hadley from 2013:

The singer says that at the height of his fame the only way he could trust himself to stay faithful to his first wife Leonie was to go on bender

Eighties heartthrob Tony ­Hadley had so many offers from besotted fans he would drink himself into oblivion to resist the temptation of sleeping with them.

The Spandau Ballet singer says that at the height of his fame the only way he could trust himself to stay faithful to his first wife Leonie was to go on benders.

“There were always so many beautiful women throwing themselves at us,” he says. “One time we had 40 models in our hotel suite – someone had called an agency and invited them along.

“We were mobbed everywhere we went and it was tough to resist all that temptation, so the best thing to do was get so p***** I couldn’t have done anything anyway.”

He tells how at the time he had a young family and wanted to “uphold certain standards”.

Tony’s marriage to Leonie, mum of his three oldest children, eventually broke up – but he says he never strayed during the band’s heyday.

Now happily married to PR girl Alison Evers, the 53-year-old pop legend has two more children, Zara, six, and Genevieve, 17 months.

Despite having been in the business for 30 years now, he reveals how he is still faced with endless temptation.

“Charity ladies days are wild,” he says, laughing. “Me and Davina McCall both support Action Medical Research and during events we’re on the top table.

“It’s like a wedding except all the other tables are full of 250 housewives who like to lunch.

“They start off very demurely and they’re all dressed to the nines. But then all of a sudden the wine starts flowing and the volume levels become unbelievable. They’ve been known to raid the stage when I start singing.

“No one’s ever actually given me their keys, but I have had women say, ‘How about it?’ It’s definitely not my idea of fun.”

But while Tony has never enjoyed that aspect of rock ’n’ roll life, he does admit he wasn’t a total saint.

“I went over the edge when I was in the band,” he says. “I did a lot of crazy things when I’d been drinking. One time, in a hotel, I tried to jump off one balcony to another balcony and the guys had to catch me as I was about to leap off. I’d have died if I’d jumped.

“Another time I jumped, drunk of course, on to a ­moving sports car and rolled across the bonnet and dented it.

“I’m lucky the guy didn’t shoot me.”

He says he did manage to resist drugs though, adding: “I’ve been offered them loads of times but I’ve never touched them. I’m fascinated by what makes people want to take drugs.

“When you see someone snorting a line off a toilet seat, it’s gross. And I don’t get how you can tie a band around your arm and inject yourself.”

With fellow bandmates Gary and Martin Kemp, Steve Norman and John Keeble, Tony had 23 hit singles, including True, Gold and Through The Barricades. Spandau Ballet sold 20 million albums worldwide.

But the band split acrimoniously in 1990 and a huge battle over songwriting royalties ended up in the High Court in 1999. Tony and the Kemp brothers didn’t speak to each other for a decade. The band eventually reunited in 2009.

“Twenty years of harbouring grudges, and 10 of not even talking was weird,” says Tony. “Looking back I wish we’d never let it get to that stage. We were just 16 when we got together, and as you get older you become less confrontational. If I had my time again, I’d have handled things ­differently.”

The first time round for the band, Tony would get bras and knickers thrown at him. Now he says it’s red roses and, ­bizarrely, cookies.

“I said once I liked chocolate chip cookies and now I get full packets of them thrown at me on stage,” he reveals. “I wish I’d said it was Cartier watches.

“Fans used to write love letters to me, but I haven’t had any marriage ­proposals.”

That’s just as well or Ali might have had something to say about it.

“She keeps me in line,” he laughs. “And having children at my age keeps me young. Zara is bouncing off the walls and full of energy, and Genevieve is on the go from the minute she wakes up.

“When I met Ali I was torn about whether I wanted more kids or not, but then you fall in love and it happens and it’s great. Having five children is like, ‘Wow’.”

Being a dad to young kids at his age puts him in the perfect position to comment on Simon Cowell’s impending fatherhood. “Simon is a great guy and will be a fantastic dad,” he says. “He’s the same age as me, and he’ll have plenty of energy.

“I’ve met Simon a few times through the charity work he does, and he’s great with kids. Zara loves him.

“He has a fantastic rapport with children.

“People say 53 is too old to be a dad, but I don’t think so. It’s the input you have that counts, and you’re more experienced and worldly-wise.”

With plans to release a new solo album in the autumn and tour dates lined up for October, Tony still finds time to be a hands-on dad.

He admits things were different when his older kids – Tom, 29, Toni, 26, and Mackenzie, 22 – were little.

“I’m around a lot more now because I’ve stopped doing the block tours I did with Spandau,” he says.

“Although when the album comes out I’m going to be promoting that and I’ll be in Australia and New Zealand.

“But generally I have a lot more quality home time as I’m not going off for months and months. I want to appreciate every moment with the kids now as they’re only young for a finite amount of time.”

Tony’s fans these days aren’t the hysterical teens they once were. “The majority of my fans are 30-plus,” he says. “But I have some who are in their late 60s.

“On the other side, I also get kids who are 17 or 18 who are into the whole 80s thing and like tracks like Gold.

“The reaction was incredible after it was played at the Olympics last year, but even I was sick to death of it in the end.” Tony has made no secret of the fact that he’s a big fan himself of One Direction. “They should take advantage of the money, fame and girls, and fill their boots,” he says.

While he admits that watching Harry Styles and co makes him nostalgic, he says he is happier now than he was back in the early days of his career.

“Life has come good for me,” he says. “I have a beautiful family and a great career, and I’m actually earning more now than I was in the 80s.

“When I’m asked, ‘Do you have any regrets?’ I always say, ‘No, I don’t have any’.”

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

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ABOUT ME

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.

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