- published: 28 Oct 2012
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- author: GrahamNortonFan
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![Skyfall : Judi Dench - M Interview [HD]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121219171708im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IQF-3teMAjM/default.jpg "Partner your channel with the VISO Network: viso.tv Become a VISO Affiliate: viso.tv Become a VISO Recruiter: viso.tv Subscribe ow.ly | Facebook ow.ly | Twitter ow.ly Release Date: 9 November 2012 Genre: Action | Adventure | Thriller Cast: Daniel Craig, Helen McCrory, Javier Bardem Directors: Sam Mendes Writer: Ian Fleming, John Logan Studio: Sony Pictures Plot: Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.")
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Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana (Tswana: Lefatshe la Botswana), is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are properly referred to as "Batswana" (singular: Motswana), but many English-language sources use "Botswanan". Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966. It has held free and fair democratic elections since independence.
Botswana is flat, and up to 70% is covered by the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. Its border with Zambia to the north near Kazungula, Zambia is poorly defined but at most is a few hundred meters long.
A mid-sized country of just over two million people, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Botswana was one of the poorest countries in Africa when it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966, with a GDP per capita of about US$70. Botswana has since transformed itself, becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in the world to a GDP (purchasing power parity) per capita of about $14,000. The country also has a strong tradition as a representative democracy.
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Brighton
Coordinates: 50°50′35″N 0°07′53″W / 50.842941°N 0.1313120°W / 50.842941; -0.1313120
Brighton
i/ˈbraɪtən/ is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove (formed from the previous towns of Brighton, Hove, Portslade and several other villages) in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain. For administrative purposes, Brighton and Hove is not part of the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex, but remains part of the ceremonial county of East Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex.
The ancient settlement of Brighthelmstone dates from before Domesday Book (1086), but it emerged as a health resort featuring sea bathing during the 18th century and became a destination for day-trippers from London after the arrival of the railway in 1841. Brighton experienced rapid population growth, reaching a peak of over 160,000 by 1961. Modern Brighton forms part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation stretching along the coast, with a population of around 480,000.
Brighton has two universities and a medical school (which is operated jointly by both universities).
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Cambridge
The city of Cambridge (i/ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ/ KAYM-brij) is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia, on the River Cam, about 50 miles (80 km) north of London. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, its population was 108,863 (including 22,153 students), and was estimated to be 125,717 in mid-2010. There is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area in bronze age and Roman times, and under Viking rule Cambridge became an important trading centre. The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although city status was not conferred until 1951.
Cambridge is most widely known as the home of the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209 and consistently ranked one of the top five universities in the world. The university includes the renowned Cavendish Laboratory, King's College Chapel, and the Cambridge University Library. The Cambridge skyline is dominated by the last two buildings, along with the chimney of Addenbrooke's Hospital in the far south of the city and St John's College Chapel tower.
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Canada
Canada (
/ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
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Colombia
Colombia (
/kəˈlʌmbiə/ kə-LUM-biə, or /kəˈlɒmbiə/ kə-LOM-biə), officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia [reˈpuβlika ðe koˈlombja]), is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the northwest by Panama; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia has maritime borders with Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Colombia is the 26th largest country by area and the fourth largest in South America after Brazil, Argentina and Peru. With over 46 million people, Colombia is the 27th largest country in the world by population and has the second largest population of any Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico. Colombia is a middle power, with the fourth largest economy in Latin America, and the third largest in South America. Colombia is famous for the production of coffee, flowers, emeralds, coal, and oil. All of these products make up the primary sector of economy.
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County Waterford
County Waterford (Irish: Contae Phort Láirge) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Waterford which is derived from the Old Norse name Veðrafjǫrðr or Vedrarfjord. There is an Irish-speaking area in the south of the county. Waterford County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county at large, including the city, is 113,707 according to the 2011 census.
County Waterford has two mountain ranges, the Knockmealdown Mountains and the Comeragh Mountains. The highest point in the county is Knockmealdown, at 794m. It also has many rivers, including Ireland's third longest river, the River Suir (184 km); and Ireland's fourth longest river, the Munster Blackwater (168 km). There are over 30[citation needed] beaches along Waterford's volcanic[citation needed] coast line. A large stretch of this coastline, known as the Copper Coast has been designated as a UNESCO Geopark, a place of great geological importance. The area around Ring (An Rinn) is a Gaeltacht, an Irish-speaking area.
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Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.
Under the artistic leadership of Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and now Josie Rourke the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical acclaim at home and abroad. The theatre has a diverse artistic policy that includes new writing, contemporary reappraisals of European classics, British and American drama and small-scale musical theatre.
Over the past 20 years the theatre has created a reputation associated with artistic excellence: it has showcased the talent of some of the industry’s premier creative artists, and built an unparalleled catalogue of work. As well as presenting at least six productions a year at its home in Covent Garden, the Donmar presents work nationally and internationally. Every year the Donmar tours one in-house production in the UK.
Theatrical producer Donald Albery formed the Donmar company in 1953, the name reputedly formed from the first three letters of the names Donald Albery and Dame Margot Fonteyn, the prima ballerina and a friend.
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Dublin
Dublin ( /ˈdʌblɨn/; locally /ˈdʊbᵊlən/; Irish: Baile Átha Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford", pronounced [blʲaˈklʲiə] or Áth Cliath, [aː klʲiə], occasionally Duibhlinn) is the capital and most populous city of Ireland. The English name for the city is derived from the Irish name Dubhlinn, meaning "black pool". Dublin is situated near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and the centre of the Dublin Region.
Originally founded as a Viking settlement, it evolved into the Kingdom of Dublin and became the island's principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century; it was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire and the fifth largest in Europe. Dublin entered a period of stagnation following the Act of Union of 1800, but it remained the economic centre for most of the island. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, the new parliament, the Oireachtas, was located in Leinster House. Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State and later the Republic of Ireland.
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Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a public research university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837. It was one of the first universities to open in England for more than 600 years and has a claim towards being the third oldest university in England.
Durham is a collegiate university, with its main functions divided between the academic departments of the university and 16 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide lectures to students, while the colleges are responsible for the domestic arrangements and welfare of undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and some university staff.
The university is considered very prestigious and has been included as part of an unofficial British "Ivy League" of elite universities by both The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times. It is currently ranked between 3rd and 7th places by the latest league tables of the British universities. "Long established as the leading alternative to Oxford and Cambridge", the university attracts "a largely middle class student body" according to The Times Good University Guide. Durham has the second highest proportion of privately educated students in the country. The university was named Sunday Times University of the Year in 2005, having previously been shortlisted for the award in 2004.
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Ealing
Coordinates: 51°30′40″N 0°18′21″W / 51.5111°N 0.3058°W / 51.5111; -0.3058
Ealing is a suburban area of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is located 7.9 miles (12.7 km) west of Charing Cross and around 12 miles (19.3 km) from the City of London. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a rural village in the county of Middlesex and formed an ancient parish. Improvement in communications with London, culminating with the opening of the railway station in 1838, shifted the local economy to market garden supply and eventually to suburban development. As part of the growth of London in the 20th century, Ealing significantly expanded and increased in population, becoming a municipal borough in 1901 and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. It now forms a significant commercial and retail centre with a developed night time economy.
The Saxon name for Ealing was recorded c.700 as 'Gillingas', meaning 'place of the people associated with Gilla', from the personal name Gilla and the Old English suffix '-ingas', meaning 'people of'. Over the centuries, the name has changed, and has been known as 'Illing', 1130; 'Gilling', 1243; and 'Ylling', 1254, until 'Ealing' became the standard spelling in the 19th century.
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Edinburgh
Edinburgh (i/ˈɛdɪnbʌrə/ ED-in-burr-ə; Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Èideann) is the capital city of Scotland and the seat of the Scottish Parliament. It is the second largest city in Scotland and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a 30 square miles (78 km2) rural area. Located in the south-east of Scotland, Edinburgh lies on the east coast of the Central Belt, along the Firth of Forth, near the North Sea.
The city was one of the historical major centres of the Enlightenment, led by the University of Edinburgh, helping to earn it the nickname Athens of the North. The Old Town and New Town districts of Edinburgh were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 in recognition of the unique character of the Medieval Old Town and the planned Georgian New Town. It covers both the Old and New Towns together with the Dean Village and the Calton Hill areas. There are over 4,500 listed buildings within the city. In May 2010, it had a total of 40 conservation areas covering 23% of the building stock and 23% of the population, the highest such ratios of any major city in the UK. In the 2011 mid-year population estimates, Edinburgh had a total resident population of 495,360.
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Epcot
Epcot is a theme park in the Walt Disney World Resort, located near Orlando, Florida. The park is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, namely international culture and technological innovation. The second park built at the resort, it opened on October 1, 1982 and was initially named EPCOT Center. In 1994, the "Center" was dropped from the park's name, and by 1996, the park was simply named Epcot. In 2010, Epcot hosted approximately 10.83 million guests, ranking it the third most visited theme park in the United States, and fifth most visited theme park in the world.
EPCOT is an acronym of Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, which was the name originally given by Walt Disney to a conceptual Utopian city of the future that he had wanted to build on the site that is now Walt Disney World. Disney's original vision of EPCOT was for a model community, home to twenty thousand residents, which would be a test bed for city planning and organization. Disney's vision was not realized as funding and permission to start work on his Florida property would not be granted until he agreed to build the Magic Kingdom first. Disney died before the Magic Kingdom opened and the Walt Disney Company decided that it did not want to be in the business of running a city.
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Harvard University
Harvard University is an American private Ivy League research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation (officially The President and Fellows of Harvard College) chartered in the country. Harvard's history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Harvard was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard. Although never formally affiliated with a church, the college primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Harvard's curriculum and students became secular throughout the 18th century and by the 19th century had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's forty year tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a centralized research university, and Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College. Drew Gilpin Faust was elected the 28th president in 2007 and is the first woman to lead the university. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $32 billion as of September 2011.
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Heworth, York
Coordinates: 53°58′12″N 1°03′23″W / 53.969920°N 1.056500°W / 53.969920; -1.056500
Heworth is part of the city of York in North Yorkshire, England, about 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of the centre. It is sometimes referred to as Heworth Village. The name "Heworth" is Anglo-Saxon and means a "high enclosure".
The area ranges from terraced houses along East Parade towards Layerthorpe, via large Victorian Villas (the Heworth Green Villas) on Heworth Green to older houses along Heworth Village and the 1830s Elmfield Villa, home to Elmfield College, and 1930s semi-detached houses on Stockton Lane.
Much modern suburban development has taken place, particularly in the outlying area of Heworth Without. The area is split into two wards for the purposes of local elections—Heworth (including all land within the old city boundary) and Heworth Without (outside the old city boundary). Heworth Holme is a popular open space near Heworth Village.
In recent years there has been an increasing tendency for estate agents to describe properties in the less desirable areas of Layerthorpe, Burnholme and Tang Hall as being in the more desirable Heworth causing some confusion about the extent of the area.[citation needed]
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Horley
Coordinates: 51°10′25″N 0°10′20″W / 51.1736°N 0.1721°W / 51.1736; -0.1721
Horley is a town in Surrey, England, situated south of the twin towns of Reigate and Redhill, and north of Gatwick Airport and Crawley.
With fast links by train to London from Horley railway station, it has grown popular with commuters in recent years. The Horley Master Plan, which was approved by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council in February 2005, will see almost 2,600 new homes, built by Wates and Martin Grant Homes. This has caused much controversy as the area as with most of non-metropolitan Surrey, i.e. since its reduction in 1974, is green-belt and any development had to be in pursuant to such a local plan, sustainable, and various requirements protecting character of existing localities.
In the past the Weald was a densely forested and marshy area. During Saxon times, the Manor of Horley came under the control of the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter at Chertsey. The Manor passed to Henry VIII on the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 and changed hands several times during the next sixty years.
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Kingston upon Thames
Coordinates: 51°24′37″N 0°17′58″W / 51.4103°N 0.2995°W / 51.4103; -0.2995
Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated 10 miles (16.1 km) south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan.
In 838, it was styled Kyningestun famosa illa locus. In Old English, tun, ton or don meant farmstead – so the name Kingston may have meant farmstead of the kings. Seven Saxon kings are traditionally said to have been crowned at Kingston, while seated on a large stone – The Coronation Stone – that stands outside the Guildhall. There is a local tradition that these Saxon coronations gave Kingston its name, but the records of the 838 council disprove this. Kingston upon Thames appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Chingestone and Chingetun(e).
For much of the 20th century, Kingston was a major military aircraft manufacturing centre specialising in fighter aircraft – first with Sopwith Aviation, H G Hawker Engineering, later Hawker Aircraft, Hawker Siddeley and eventually British Aerospace. The legendary Sopwith Camel, Hawker Fury, Hurricane, Hunter and Harrier were all designed and built in the town and examples of all of these aircraft can be seen today at the nearby Brooklands Museum in Weybridge. Well known aviation personalities Sydney Camm, Harry Hawker and Tommy Sopwith were responsible for much of Kingston's achievements in aviation. British Aerospace finally closed its Lower Ham Road factory in 1992 part of the site was subsequently redeveloped for housing, the river side part of the site remains as a community centre and sports complex. The growth and development of Kingston Polytechnic and its transformation into Kingston University has made Kingston a university town.
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Lancashire
Lancashire ( /ˈlæŋkəʃər/ or, less commonly, /ˈlæŋkəʃɪər/) is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston. Lancashire is sometimes referred to by the abbreviation Lancs, as originally used by the Royal Mail. The population of the county is 1,449,700. People from the county are known as Lancastrians.
The history of Lancashire is thought to have begun with its founding in the 12th century. In the Domesday Book (1086), some of its lands had been treated as part of Yorkshire. The land that lay Inter Ripam et Mersam, "between the Ribble and Mersey", formed part of the returns for Cheshire. Once its initial boundaries were established, it bordered Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire and Cheshire.
Lancashire emerged during the Industrial Revolution as a major commercial and industrial region. The county encompassed several hundred mill towns and collieries. By the 1830s, approximately 85% of all cotton manufactured worldwide was processed in Lancashire.Preston, Accrington, Blackburn, Bolton, Rochdale, Oldham, Chorley, Darwen, Nelson, Colne and Burnley were major cotton mill towns during this time. Blackpool was a major centre for tourism for the inhabitants of Lancashire's mill towns, particularly during wakes week.
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Liverpool
Liverpool ( /ˈlɪvəpuːl/) is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Liverpool was 445,200 and was part of a larger urban area of 816,216.
Historically a part of Lancashire, the urbanisation and expansion of Liverpool were both largely brought about by the city's status as a major port. By the 18th century, trade from the West Indies, Ireland and mainland Europe coupled with close links with the Atlantic Slave Trade furthered the economic expansion of Liverpool. By the early 19th century, 40% of the world's trade passed through Liverpool's docks, contributing to Liverpool's rise as a major city.
Inhabitants of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians but are also colloquially known as "Scousers", in reference to the local dish known as "scouse", a form of stew. The word "Scouse" has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Liverpool's status as a port city has contributed to its diverse population, which, historically, were drawn from a wide range of peoples, cultures, and religions, particularly those from Ireland. The city is also home to the oldest Black African community in the country and the oldest Chinese community in Europe.
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Massachusetts
Massachusetts (i/ˌmæsəˈtʃuːsɨts/), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Massachusetts is the 7th least extensive, but the 14th most populous and the 3rd most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state features two separate metropolitan areas – the eastern Boston metropolitan area and the western Springfield metropolitan area. Approximately two thirds of the state's population lives in Greater Boston, most of which is either urban or suburban. Western Massachusetts features one urban area – the Knowledge Corridor along the Connecticut River – and a mix of college towns and rural areas. Massachusetts is the most populous of the six New England states and has the US's sixth highest GDP per capita.
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Nottingham
Nottingham (i/ˈnɒtɪŋəm/ NOT-ing-əm) is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and is one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group.
Nottingham is famed for its links with the legend of Robin Hood and, during the Industrial Revolution, obtained worldwide recognition for its lace-making, bicycle and tobacco industries. With origins tracable back to 600 AD, Nottingham was granted its city charter as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria in 1897 and has since been officially titled the City of Nottingham. The city has historically been nicknamed The Queen of the Midlands, being the smaller yet less industrialised regional neighbour to the Midlands biggest city, Birmingham. Nottingham is considered the primary centre of England's East Midlands region, being home to numerous regional headquarters and media stations including the BBC East Midlands and the Regional Government Office.
Whilst Nottingham has always had a tightly-drawn authority boundary, accounting for its relatively small population of 306,700, Nottingham's Urban Area has a population of approximately 670,000; in the 2001 census, it was the eighth largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Eurostat's concept of the Larger Urban Zone listed the area's population at 825,600 as of 2004.
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Oxford
Oxfordi/ˈɒksfəd/ is a city in central southern England, the home of the University of Oxford. The city is the county town of Oxfordshire, and forms a district within the county. It has a population of just under 165,000, of whom 153,900 live within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames (also sometimes known as the Isis locally) run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre.
Oxford has a diverse economic base. Its industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing and a large number of information technology and science-based businesses.
Buildings in Oxford demonstrate an example of every English architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons, including the iconic, mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera. Oxford is known as the "city of dreaming spires", a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold in reference to the harmonious architecture of Oxford's university buildings. The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
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Oxford Playhouse
The Oxford Playhouse (often just known as the Playhouse by locals) is an independent theatre in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum.
The Playhouse was originally founded as The Red Barn at 12 Woodstock Road, North Oxford, in 1923 by J. B. Fagan. The early history of the theatre is documented by the theatre director, Norman Marshall in his 1947 book, The Other Theatre. Don Chapman has also provided a comprehensive study of the theatre in his 2008 book, Oxford Playhouse: High and Low Drama in a University City.
The current theatre building on the south side of Beaumont Street was designed by Sir Edward Maufe and was completed in 1938. It is faced with stone, in keeping with other early 19th century Regency buildings in the street.
Well-known actors who have appeared on the stage at the Playhouse include Rowan Atkinson, Ronnie Barker, Dirk Bogarde, Judi Dench, John Gielgud, Ian McKellen, Dudley Moore, Bill Hicks and Maggie Smith. Susannah York gave her final performance at The Playhouse in August 2010 in Ronald Harwood's Quartet.
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Rose Theatre
Rose Theatre may refer to:
In Canada:
In the United Kingdom:
In the United States:
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Stratford-upon-Avon
Coordinates: 52°11′24″N 1°42′36″W / 52.19°N 1.710°W / 52.19; -1.710
Stratford-upon-Avon ( /ˌstrætfəd əpɒn ˈeɪvən/) is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, 22 miles (35 km) south east of Birmingham and 8 miles (13 km) south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers a much larger area than the town itself. Four electoral wards make up the urban town of Stratford; Alveston, Avenue and New Town, Mount Pleasant and Guild and Hathaway. The estimated total population for those wards in 2007 was 25,505.
The town is a popular tourist destination owing to its status as birthplace of the playwright and poet William Shakespeare, receiving about three million visitors a year from all over the world. The Royal Shakespeare Company resides in Stratford's Royal Shakespeare Theatre, one of Britain's most important cultural venues.
Stratford has Anglo-Saxon origins, and grew up as a market town in medieval times. The original charters of the town were granted in 1196, making Stratford officially over 800 years old. The name is a fusion of the Old English strǣt, meaning "street", and ford, meaning that a Roman road forded the River Avon at the site of the town.
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Surrey
Surrey /ˈsʌri/ is a county in the South East of England, and one of the home counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford.Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of Greater London since 1965. The London boroughs of Lambeth, Wandsworth and Southwark were considered part of Surrey until 1889; and Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Sutton, Barnes and Richmond - all now reclassified as part of Greater London - were part of Surrey until 1965.
Surrey is divided into 11 boroughs and districts: Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Tandridge, Waverley, Woking. After the elections of 1 May 2008, the Conservatives are in control of 10 out of 11 councils in Surrey, with Epsom and Ewell in Residents Association control. The Conservatives hold all 11 Parliamentary constituencies within the county borders.
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Tyldesley
Coordinates: 53°31′00″N 2°28′00″W / 53.5166°N 2.4668°W / 53.5166; -2.4668
Tyldesley ( /ˈtɪlzliː/ or /ˈtɪlsliː/) is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. It occupies an area north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, 7.7 miles (12.4 km) east-southeast of Wigan and 8.9 miles (14.3 km) west-northwest of the city of Manchester. At the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001, Tyldesley, which includes the outlying areas of Astley, Shakerley, Mosley Common and New Manchester, had a population of 34,000.
Historically a part of Lancashire, Tyldesley and its surroundings have provided evidence for the remains of a Roman road passing through the area on the ancient course between Coccium (Wigan) and Mamucium (Manchester). Following the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, Tyldesley was part of the manor of Warrington, until the Norman conquest of England, when Tyldesley constituted a township by the name of Tyldesley-with-Shakerley in the ancient parish of Leigh.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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York
York (locali/ˈjɔːk/) is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth of historic attractions, of which York Minster is the most prominent, and a variety of cultural and sporting activities.
The city was founded by the Romans in 71 AD, under the name of Eboracum. It became in turn the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jorvik. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a major wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England, a role it has retained.
In the 19th century York became a hub of the railway network and a confectionery manufacturing centre. In recent decades, the economy of York has moved from being dominated by its confectionery and railway-related industries to one that provides services. The University of York and health services have become major employers, whilst tourism has become an important element of the local economy.
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York Museum Gardens
The York Museum Gardens are botanic gardens in the centre of York, England, beside the River Ouse. They cover an area of 10 acres (4.0 ha) of the former grounds of St Mary's Abbey, and were created in the 1830s by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society along with the Yorkshire Museum which they contain.
The gardens are held in trust by the City of York Council and are managed by the York Museums Trust. They were designed in a gardenesque style by landscape architect Sir John Murray Naysmith, and contain a variety of species of plants, trees and birds. Admission is free. A variety of events take place in the gardens, such as open-air theatre performances and festival activities.
There are several historic buildings in the gardens. They contain the remains of the west corner of the Roman fort of Eboracum, including the Multangular Tower and parts of the Roman walls. In the same area there is also the Anglian Tower, which probably dates from the late Roman period. During the Middle Ages, the tower was expanded and the Roman walls were incorporated into York's city walls. Most of the other buildings dating from the Middle Ages are associated with St Mary's Abbey, including the ruins of the abbey church, the Hospitium, the lodge and part of the surviving precinct wall. The remains of St. Leonard's Hospital chapel and undercroft are on the east side of the gardens. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society constructed several buildings in the gardens during the 19th and early 20th century, including the Yorkshire Museum and its octagonal observatory. The museum houses four permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology and astronomy.
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Yorkshire
Yorkshire (/ˈjɔːkʃə/) is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Due to its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographical territory and cultural region. The name is familiar and well understood across the United Kingdom and is in common use in the media and the military, and also features in the titles of current areas of civil administration, such as North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire. The county's name is commonly abbreviated as Yorks.
Within the borders of the historic county of Yorkshire are areas which are widely considered to be among the greenest in England, due to the vast stretches of unspoiled countryside in the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors and to the open aspect of some of the major cities. Yorkshire has sometimes been nicknamed God's Own County. The emblem of Yorkshire is the white rose of the English royal House of York, and the most commonly used flag representative of Yorkshire is the White Rose on a dark blue background, which after years of use, was recognised by the Flag Institute on 29 July 2008.Yorkshire Day, held on 1 August, is a celebration of the general culture of Yorkshire, ranging from its history to its own dialect.
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Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Macedonian: Jugoslavija; Cyrillic: Југославија) was a country in the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century which was established three times under differing forms of government.
The first country to be known by this name was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which before 3 October 1929 was known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was established on 1 December 1918 by the union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia (the Kingdom of Montenegro was annexed on 13 November 1918, and the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris gave international recognition to the union on 13 July 1922). The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers in 1941, and because of the events that followed, was officially abolished in 1943 and 1945.
The second country with this name was the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, proclaimed in 1943 by the Yugoslav Partisans resistance movement during World War II. It was renamed to the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946, when a communist government was established. In 1963, it was renamed again to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). This was the largest Yugoslav state, as Istria, Rijeka and Zadar were added to the new Yugoslavia after the end of World War II.
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Aidan Higgins
Aidan Higgins (born 3 March 1927) is an Irish writer. He has written short stories, travel pieces, radio drama and novels. He is notable for such titles as 'Langrishe, Go Down'(1966), 'Balcony of Europe'(1972) and more recent biographical work 'Dog Days'(1998). He currently lives in Kinsale, County Cork, and is a Saoi of prominent Irish literary group Aosdána.
His upbringing in a landed Catholic family in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, provided material for his first experimental novel, Langrishe, Go Down (1966). The book was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and was later adapted as a BBC television film by British playwright Harold Pinter, in association with RTÉ.
During the 1960's, Higgins traveled to South Africa with founder of the Little Angel Theatre John Wright. There he met his first wife Jill Anders, of whom he went on to have three children with. After South Africa he again joined the puppet theater travelling to Berlin. These broad cultural exchanges helped shape many of his works. After travelling with the theater he settled near Nerja in Andalusia where he stayed until the early 1970's.
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Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. More than 40 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company since his first hit Relatively Speaking opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967.
Major successes include Absurd Person Singular (1975), The Norman Conquests trilogy (1973), Bedroom Farce (1975), Just Between Ourselves (1976), A Chorus of Disapproval (1984), Woman in Mind (1985), A Small Family Business (1987), Man Of The Moment (1988), House & Garden (1999) and Private Fears in Public Places (2004). His plays have won numerous awards, including seven London Evening Standard Awards. They have been translated into over 35 languages and are performed on stage and television throughout the world. Ten of his plays have been staged on Broadway, attracting two Tony nominations, and one Tony award.
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Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research medieval history at the university for several years. His collaboration as writer and performer with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame. He gave up academia, and turned to writing full time, his first stage play Forty Years On being produced in 1968.
His output includes The Madness of George III and its film incarnation The Madness of King George, the series of monologues Talking Heads, the play The History Boys, and popular audio books, including his readings of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Winnie-the-Pooh.
Bennett was born in Armley in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. The son of a co-op butcher, Walter and his wife Lilian Mary (nee Peel), Bennett attended Christ Church, Upper Armley, Church of England School (in the same class as Barbara Taylor Bradford) and then Leeds Modern School (now Lawnswood School), learned Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists during his national service and gained a place at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. However, having spent time in Cambridge during national service, and partly wishing to follow the object of his unrequited love, he decided to apply for a scholarship at Oxford University. He was accepted by Exeter College, Oxford from which he graduated with a first-class degree in history. While at Oxford he performed comedy with a number of eventually successful actors in the Oxford Revue. He was to remain at the university for several years, where he researched and taught Medieval History, before deciding he was not cut out to be an academic.
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Albert Finney
Albert Finney (born 9 May 1936) is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television.
A recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards, Finney has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984); and was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Erin Brockovich (2000).
Finney is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His career began in the theatre; he made his first appearance on the London stage in 1958 in Jane Arden's The Party, directed by Charles Laughton, who starred in the production along with his wife, Elsa Lanchester. Then in 1959 he appeared at Stratford in Coriolanus opposite Laurence Olivier (as Coriolanus), Edith Evans and Vanessa Redgrave.
His first film appearance was a role in Tony Richardson's The Entertainer (1960), with Laurence Olivier, but he made his breakthrough with his portrayal of a disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film version of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. This led to a series of "Angry Young Man" roles in kitchen sink dramas, before he starred in the Academy Award-winning 1963 film Tom Jones. Prior to this, Finney had been chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's production of Lawrence of Arabia, but the actor quit after four days of shooting.
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Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman OBE (born 26 August 1946) is an English actress. She established her career with roles such as Beverley in Abigail's Party and Candice Marie in Nuts in May for the director Mike Leigh, to whom she was once married. In addition to her stage and radio work, she has had lead roles in The Singing Detective, Pride and Prejudice and Gavin & Stacey. In 1992 she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.
Steadman was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, the youngest of three sisters, the daughter of Marjorie (née Evans), who died of cancer, and George Percival Steadman, who worked for Plessey, an electronics firm, as a production controller.
Steadman was educated at Childwall Valley High School for Girls, a state grammar school in the Liverpool suburb of Childwall, followed by East 15 Acting School, to which she secured a place in the autumn of 1966, where she first met Mike Leigh, during her second year.
Having left the East 15 Acting School in Loughton, Steadman worked in various regional repertory theatres, starting at Lincoln, where her first role was that of the seductive schoolgirl Sandy in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She created the role of the monstrous Beverly in Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, which she reprised with the original cast on television. Steadman also appeared in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Hotel Paradiso, and others in locations as diverse as the Royal Court, the Theatre Royal,[disambiguation needed
] the Old Vic, the Hampstead Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse, the Everyman Liverpool and the National Theatre. She starred as Elmire in the 1983 RSC production of Molière's Tartuffe, which was adapted for BBC television.[citation needed] In 2010, Steadman was cast as Madame Arcati in a revival of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, which was scheduled for a national tour from November 2010 to March 2011.
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Allison Janney
Allison Brooks Janney (born November 19, 1959) is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.
Janney was born in Dayton, Ohio, the daughter of Macy Brooks (née Putnam), a former actress and homemaker, and Jervis Spencer Janney, Jr., a real estate developer and jazz musician. She has an older brother, Jay, and a younger brother, Hal. She attended The Miami Valley School in Dayton, where she was named a distinguished alumna in 2004, and the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. She then attended Kenyon College. At Kenyon, Janney studied under another Kenyon alum, Paul Newman.[citation needed] She went on to study drama at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.[citation needed] She attended The Neighborhood Playhouse the same years as actor Dylan McDermott.[citation needed]
Janney's first roles on television were as comedic foils on soap operas: she first played Vi Kaminski for a short time on As the World Turns, following up with a two-year stint as one of the Spaulding maids, Ginger on Guiding Light. In the spring of 1994, she appeared in the season finale of Law & Order, as a reluctant witness against a member of the Russian mob.
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Anamaria Marinca
Anamaria Marinca (born 1 April 1978) is a Romanian actress. She made her screen debut with the Channel 4 film Sex Traffic, for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Marinca is also known for her performance in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, while she herself earned several awards for her performance, and was nominated for the Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress, European Film Award for Best Actress, London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress. In 2008, at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, she was one of ten young European actors that were presented the Shooting Stars Award by the European Film Promotion.
Marinca graduated from the University of Fine Arts, Music and Drama "George Enescu" in Iaşi. She speaks Romanian, English and French.
In 2005, she won three Best Actress Awards (the BAFTA Television Awards, the Royal Television Society Award and the 'Golden Nymph' at 45th Festival de Télévision de Monte Carlo) for her role in Sex Traffic, a CBC/Channel 4 drama about human trafficking. As well as appearing on stage in Romanian theatre productions, she also acted in Measure for Measure at the National Theatre in London.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber Kt. (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre.
Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.
Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals, notably "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" and "You Must Love Me" from Evita, "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and "Memory" from Cats.
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Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie ( /dʒoʊˈliː/ joh-LEE, born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress and director. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie promotes humanitarian causes, and is noted for her work with refugees as a Special Envoy and former Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has been cited as the world's "most beautiful" woman, a title for which she has received substantial media attention.
Jolie made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in Lookin' to Get Out (1982), but her film career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in the cyber-thriller Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical television films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999).
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Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston /ˈhjuːstən/ (born July 8, 1951) is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in Enemies, a Love Story and The Grifters respectively. Among her roles, she starred as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), receiving Golden Globe nominations for both. Huston also played the Grand High Witch in the children's movie Witches, TheThe Witches in 1990 and is, more recently, known for her frequent collaborations with director Wes Anderson. She currently stars on the NBC musical drama, Smash.
Anjelica Huston was born in Santa Monica, California, and is the daughter of director and actor John Huston and Italian–American prima ballerina Enrica 'Ricki' (née Soma), from New York. Huston spent most of her childhood in Ireland and England. She grew up in Saint Clerans House near Craughwell, County Galway. In 1969, she began taking a few small roles in her father's movies. In that same year, her mother, who was 39 years old, died in a car accident, and Huston relocated to the US, where she modeled for several years. While she modeled, she worked with photographers such as Richard Avedon and Bob Richardson.
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Anna Maxwell Martin
Anna Maxwell Martin (born 10 May 1977), sometimes credited as Anna Maxwell-Martin, is a twice BAFTA award-winning English actress who has won acclaim for her performances as Lyra in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre, as Esther Summerson in the BBC's 2005 adaptation of Bleak House, and as N in Channel 4's 2008 adaptation of Poppy Shakespeare.
Anna Charlotte Martin was born in Beverley, near Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England in May 1977 and attended Beverley High School where she appeared in school plays. She added the name Maxwell (her grandfather's name) to her surname to distinguish her from another member with the same name when she joined Equity. Her father was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company and her mother was a research scientist. Her mother gave up her job to bring up Anna and her elder brother Adam. After she left school Martin studied history at Liverpool University, specialising in the First World War. She joined the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) after completing her studies at Liverpool. In her final year at LAMDA her father was diagnosed with cancer, although he lived long enough to see her stage performance as Alexandra in The Little Foxes at the Donmar Warehouse (he died when she was 24).
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Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin (/ˈpækwɪn/; born 24 July 1982) is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1993 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history. Her acting career took off almost half a decade later when she appeared in a string of successful films including She's All That, Almost Famous and the X-Men franchise.
Paquin has received critical acclaim for her role as Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood, for which she won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama.
Paquin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the daughter of Mary Paquin (née Brophy), an English teacher and native of Wellington, New Zealand, and Brian Paquin, a high school physical education teacher, native Canadian. Paquin is the youngest of three children; she has two older siblings: a brother, Andrew, a director, born in 1977, and a sister, Katya, born in 1980, who is the partner of Green Party co-leader Russel Norman. Paquin's family moved to New Zealand when she was four. She attended the Raphael House Rudolf Steiner School until she was eight or nine. Her musical childhood hobbies in New Zealand included playing the viola, cello, and piano. She also participated in gymnastics, ballet, swimming and downhill skiing, though she did not have any hobbies related to acting.
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Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft (September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress associated with the method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft was often acknowledged for her work in film, theatre and television. She won one Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globes, two Tony Awards and two Emmy Awards, and several other awards and nominations.
She made her film debut in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and, following a string of supporting film roles during the 1950s, won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Miracle Worker (1962), receiving subsequent nominations for her roles in The Pumpkin Eater (1964), The Graduate (1967), The Turning Point (1977), and Agnes of God (1985). Bancroft's other acclaimed movies as a lead actress include Young Winston (1972), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), To Be or Not to Be (1983), and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987).
Later in her career, she made the transition back to supporting roles in theatrical films such as Point of No Return (1993), Home for the Holidays (1995), Great Expectations (1998), Antz (1998), Keeping the Faith (2000), and Heartbreakers (2001). She also starred in seven television films, the last of which was The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003) for which she received Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
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Annette Bening
Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films. Bening is married to actor Warren Beatty, with whom she has four children.
Bening was born in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her mother, Shirley (née Ashley), was a church singer and soloist, and her father, Arnett Grant Bening, was a sales training consultant and insurance salesman. Her parents, natives of Iowa, were practicing Episcopalians and conservative Republicans. Her sister and two brothers are Jane, Bradley and Byron. The family moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1959, where she spent her early childhood. In 1965, her father took a job with a company in San Diego, California, and they moved there. She began acting in junior high school, playing the lead in The Sound of Music. She graduated in 1975, from Patrick Henry High School where she studied drama.
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Annette Crosbie
Annette Crosbie, OBE (born 12 February 1934) is a Scottish character actor.
Crosbie was born in Gorebridge, Midlothian, Scotland, to Presbyterian parents who disapproved of her becoming an actor. Nevertheless, she joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School while still in her teens. Her big break came in 1970, when she was in her mid-thirties. She was cast as Catherine of Aragon in the BBC television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, for which she won the 1971 BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress. In 1973, she starred alongside Vanessa Redgrave in the BBC serial, A Picture of Katherine Mansfield.
A few years later, Crosbie made a similar impact as another Queen, Victoria, in the ITV period drama Edward the Seventh (1975), for which she won the 1976 BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress. She played Cinderella's fairy godmother in The Slipper and the Rose, which was chosen as the Royal Film Première for 1976. In that film, Crosbie sang the Sherman Brothers' song, "Suddenly It Happens". In Ralph Bakshi's animated movie The Lord of the Rings, filmed in 1978, Crosbie voiced the character of Galadriel, Lady of the Elves. In 1980, she played the abbess in Hawk the Slayer. In 1986, she appeared as the vicar's wife in Paradise Postponed and Julia Wilson in Farrington (1987).
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Antony Sher
Sir Antony Sher, KBE (born 14 June 1949) is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.
Sher was born into a Lithuanian Jewish family in Cape Town, South Africa, the son of Margery and Emmanuel Sher, who worked in business. He grew up in the suburb of Sea Point and is a cousin of the playwright Ronald Harwood. Sher, however, has worked mainly in the United Kingdom and is now a British citizen.
In 1968, after completing his compulsory military service, he left for London to audition at the Central School of Speech and Drama and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art from 1969 to 1971. After training, and some early performances with the theatre group Gay Sweatshop, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982.
In the 1970s Sher was part of an astonishing group of young actors and writers working at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. It consisted of the likes of writers Willy Russell and Alan Bleasdale and fellow actors Bernard Hill, Julie Walters, Trevor Eve and Jonathan Pryce. Sher summed up the work of the company with the phrase "Anarchy ruled." At the Royal Shakespeare Company he took the title role in Tartuffe and played the Fool in King Lear before his big breakthrough in 1984, when he played the title role in Shakespeare's Richard III. This won him the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award. Since then he has played the lead in such productions as Tamburlaine, Cyrano de Bergerac, Stanley and Macbeth. He also played Johnnie in Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye, Iago in Othello, Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
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Arhuaco
The Arhuaco people are an indigenous people of Colombia. They are Chibchan-speaking people and descendents of the Tairona culture, concentrated in northern Colombia in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
The Arhuaco are also known as the Aruaco, Bintucua, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Ica, Ijca, Ijka, Ika, and Ike people.
The Arhuacos live in the upper valleys of the Piedras River, San Sebastian River, Chichicua River, Ariguani River, and Guatapuri River, in an Indigenous Territory in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains. Their traditional territory before the Spanish colonization, was larger than today's boundaries which exclude many of their sacred sites that they continue to visit today, to pay offerings. These lost territories are the lower parts by the steps of the mountains, lost to colonization and farming.
The Arhuacos are distributed into 22 sections.
The population is dispersed, but gets together in these towns for reunions and ceremonies, with Nabusimake being the most important of them and with an especial significance: it's composed of fifty squared shaped houses and circular temples named Kankura, for men and women.
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Belinda Lang
Belinda Lang (born 23 December 1953) is an English actress, best known in the United Kingdom for her role as Bill Porter in the long running BBC sitcom 2point4 children (1991–1999).
Lang is perhaps best known for her starring role as Bill Porter, alongside Gary Olsen as husband Ben, in the BBC TV comedy 2point4 children. She is also known for her role in Second Thoughts as Liza Ferrari.
After a small part as 'Girl in Bath' in Play for Today in 1980 she appeared in the 1980 miniseries To Serve Them All My Days, following this she had several one off appearances and small parts until she took the role of 'Kate' in both series of the sitcom Dear John (1986–1987).
Following Dear John she played Martha in The Bretts (1987–88) during which she acted alongside her future husband, Hugh Fraser and during the same period also appeared as Sheila Walsh in Bust.
Lang also had a lead part in the television series Inspector Alleyn Mysteries in which she played the artist Agatha Troy between 1990–1994.
In 1991 she took a lead role in 2point4 children alongside Gary Olsen. The sitcom would run for 8 series until it ended in 1999 due to the illness of Olsen leading to his death in 2000.
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Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic (2000). He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual Suspects (1995), Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Franky Four Fingers in Snatch (2000), Jackie Boy in Sin City (2005), and Che Guevara in Che (2008). He is the third Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.
Benicio del Toro was born in San German, on the southwest side of the island of Puerto Rico, and grew up in Santurce, a district of San Juan. He is the son of Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermúdez and Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera, who were both lawyers, and deeply respected and beloved in Puerto Rico for their commitment to their community. Gustavo Del Toro was affectionately called the "lawyer of the poor". Many of Del Toro's relatives are involved in the island's legal system. He has an older brother, Gustavo, who was a pediatric oncologist at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He is of Spanish descent through a Catalan paternal great-grandfather and a Basque maternal great-grandmother, he has Italian and Amerindian ancestry as well. The surname del Toro (Touro) is of Sephardic origin. Benicio del Toro is related to Puerto Rican basketball player Carlos Arroyo, his father Gustavo is a cousin of Arroyo's mother, Gloria Bermudez. Del Toro is also related to Spanish Euro-pop singer Rebeca Pous Del Toro, whose grandfather is Puerto Rican, and Puerto Rican singer Eliseo del Toro.
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Benjamin Bratt
Benjamin Bratt (born December 16, 1963) is an American actor. He is most famous for his role as Rey Curtis on the TV series Law & Order; and his appearances in the movies Miss Congeniality, Demolition Man, Blood in Blood Out, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Traffic, and Piñero.
Bratt was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Eldy (née Banda), a nurse, and Peter Bratt, Sr., a sheet metal worker. Bratt's mother is a Peruvian Indigenous activist of the Quechua ethnic group; born in Peru, she moved to the U.S. at age nine. His father was an American of German and English descent. They married December 30, 1960, in San Francisco, but divorced in September 1967. Bratt's paternal grandfather, George Cleveland Bratt (March 5, 1893 – March 29, 1984), was a Broadway actor who married his grandmother Wiltrude Hildner on August 6, 1920, in Detroit, Michigan.
As a child, Bratt went with his mother and siblings to participate in the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz. Today Bratt is an active supporter of such Native American causes as the American Indian College Fund and We Shall Remain, a mini-series and multi-media project, narrated by Bratt, that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history from PBS' acclaimed series American Experience.
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Bernard Levin
Henry Bernard Levin CBE (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics, graduating in 1952. After a short spell in a lowly job at the BBC selecting press cuttings for use in programmes, he secured a post as a junior member of the editorial staff of a weekly periodical, Truth, in 1953.
Levin reviewed television for The Manchester Guardian and wrote a weekly political column in The Spectator noted for its irreverence. During the 1960s he wrote five columns a week for The Daily Mail on any subject that he chose. After a disagreement with the proprietor of the paper over attempted censorship of his column in 1970, Levin moved to The Times where, with one break of just over a year in 1981–82, he remained as resident columnist until his retirement, covering a wide range of topics, both serious and comic.
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Beryl Reid
Beryl Elizabeth Reid, OBE (17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996) was a British actress of stage and screen.
Born in Hereford, England in 1919, Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester where she attended Withington and Levenshulme High Schools.
Leaving school at 16, she made her debut in 1936 as a music hall performer at the Floral Hall, Bridlington. Before and during World War II, she took part in variety shows and pantomimes. She had no formal training but later appeared at the Royal National Theatre in London as a comedy actress. Her first big success came in the BBC radio show Educating Archie as naughty schoolgirl Monica and later as the Brummie, "Marlene".
Her many film and television roles as a character actor were usually well-received. She reprised her Tony Award-winning performance of a lesbian soap opera star in The Killing of Sister George for the screen version and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama. The former tour of the play was not a success, people in shops refused to serve her and other performers due to the gay characters in the play.
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Bill Paxton
William "Bill" Paxton (born May 17, 1955) is an American actor and film director. He gained popularity after starring roles in the films Apollo 13, Twister, Aliens, True Lies, and Titanic. Paxton starred in the HBO series Big Love (2006–2011).
Paxton was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, the son of Mary Lou (née Gray) and John Lane Paxton, a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive, and occasional actor. He was raised Roman Catholic, his mother's religion. He attended St. Anne's Catholic School, Arlington Heights High School (Fort Worth, Texas), and Southwest Texas State University (San Marcos, Texas).[citation needed]
Paxton has appeared in such films as Weird Science, Aliens, Apollo 13, Near Dark, Twister, Titanic and True Lies. Four years after appearing in Titanic, he joined James Cameron on an expedition to the actual Titanic. A film about this trip, Ghosts of the Abyss, was released in 2003.
Paxton has also directed a number of short films, including Fish Heads, which aired during Saturday Night Live's low-rated 1980-1981 season. He directed the feature films Frailty and The Greatest Game Ever Played.
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Billie Whitelaw
Billie Honor Whitelaw, CBE (born 6 June 1932) is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works. She is also known for her portrayal of Mrs Baylock, the demonic nanny in The Omen.
In 1991, Whitelaw was awarded the CBE.
Whitelaw was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, the daughter of Frances Mary (née Williams) and Gerry Whitelaw. She grew up in a working class part of the city and later attended Thornton Grammar School in Bradford. At age 11, she began performing as a child actress on radio programmes and later worked as an assistant stage manager at a provincial theatre.
After training at RADA, Whitelaw made her stage debut at age 18 in London 1950. She made her film debut in The Sleeping Tiger (1954), followed by roles in Carve Her Name With Pride (1958) and Hell Is a City (1960). Whitelaw soon became a regular in British films of the 1950s and early 1960s. In her early film work she specialized in blousy blondes and secretaries, but her dramatic range began to emerge by the late 1960s. She starred alongside Albert Finney in Charlie Bubbles (1967), a performance which won her a BAFTA award as Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She would win her second BAFTA as the sensuous mother of college student Hayley Mills in the psychological study Twisted Nerve (1969). She continued in film roles including Leo the Last (1970), Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), Gumshoe (1971) and the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Frenzy (1972).
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Brenda Blethyn
Brenda Anne Blethyn, OBE (born Brenda Anne Bottle; 20 February 1946) is an English actress who has worked in theatre, television and film. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations, two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one. In addition, she has won a BAFTA, an Empire Award and a Golden Lion, and has earned a Theatre World Award and both a Critics' Circle Theatre Award and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for her theatrical work.
Born into a working class home, Blethyn pursued an administrative career until her early 30s before enrolling in the Guildford School of Acting after the dissolution of her marriage in 1973. She subsequently joined the Royal National Theatre and received credits for her performances in Troilus and Cressida (1976) and Mysteries (1979). In 1981, Blethyn earned her first critical acclaim for Steaming.
In 1980, Blethyn made her television debut in Mike Leigh's film Grown-Ups; then, after a modest number of guest spots in several productions, in the mid-1980s she garnered leading roles in the short-living sitcoms Chance in a Million and The Labours of Erica. Having followed her big screen debut with smaller supporting roles in films such as The Witches (1990) and A River Runs Through It (1992), she made her real cinema breakthrough with her role in the 1996 dramedy Secrets & Lies, for which she received rave reviews.
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Brenda Bruce
Brenda Bruce (7 July 1918 – 19 February 1996) was a British actress. She had a long and successful career in the theatre, radio, film and television.
Brenda Bruce was born in Manchester, Lancashire. Bruce started her acting career as a teenager on stage as a chorus girl.
She was with the Birmingham Repertory Company (1936–39) and a long-time actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). She was the RSC's resident Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, playing the role in 1964, 1968, 1975 and 1995. She also appeared as Irma in the RSC's production of Jean Genet's The Balcony in 1971.
In the 1950s she appeared on television in many dramas, and in a chat show Rich and Rich with her husband. She starred as Winnie in the 1962 British premiere of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, and in 1977 as Lucilla Edith Cavell Teatime in "Murder Most English".
Brenda Bruce played P.G. Wodehouse's character Aunt Dahlia in the 1990s production of Jeeves and Wooster with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Other roles include Tilda in the Doctor Who story "Paradise Towers", Bea in the rag trade drama Connie and in the The Riff Raff Element. In 1964, she also had the important role of Mary Lewis in Nightmare. In 1994, she starred in Honey for Tea, a short-lived sitcom.
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Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten,OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist; and one of the central figures of 20th century British classical music. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to international fame. For the next fifteen years he devoted much of his compositional attention to writing operas, establishing him as one of the leading 20th century figures in this genre.
Britten's interests as a composer were wide-ranging; he produced important music in such varied genres as orchestral, choral, solo vocal (much of it written for his life partner, tenor Peter Pears), chamber and instrumental, as well as film music. He also took a great interest in writing music for children and amateur performers, and was an outstanding pianist and conductor.
Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on 22 November 1913, the youngest of four children. His father, Robert, was a dentist, and his mother Edith, a talented amateur musician who gave Britten his first lessons in piano and notation. He showed musical gifts very early in life, making his first attempts at composition aged five, and thereafter composing prolifically as a child. He started piano lessons with a teacher from his pre-prep school when aged 7, and viola lessons with Audrey Alston when 10 years old.
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Bruce Jones (actor)
Ian Roy Jones (born 24 January 1953) is an English actor, best known for his role as cab driver Les Battersby-Brown in Coronation Street. He left the role in 2007. His real name is Ian Roy Jones, but he took the name of his father for professional purposes.
Jones was born to Bruce and Irene Jones in Collyhurst, Manchester. He was brought up in a typical working class household before he went to live with his grandmother in Wales where he joined his school drama group at the age of eleven and dreamt of becoming an actor.
On the morning of 9 October 1977, Jones made a gruesome discovery that would have a profound effect on his life. Whilst working with a friend on an allotment in Moss Side, Manchester, Jones discovered the mutilated body of 20 year old prostitute Jean Jordan - a victim of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.
Jones' first introduction into show business was when he formed a comedy duo with a friend and went on to work the club circuit as Clarke and Jones for many years.
It was during this time that Bruce decided he would like to try his hand at acting and his first big break came in 1993 when he was cast as the lead of Bob Williams in the feature film Raining Stones by director Ken Loach; the film went on to receive great critical acclaim and won the Evening Standard Awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay. Bruce was presented with the European Actors Award.
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Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe. The word Bushmen is sometimes associated with a negative meaning & they prefer to be called the San people. These people were traditionally hunter-gatherers, part of the Khoisan group and are related to the traditionally pastoral Khoikhoi. Starting in the 1950s, and lasting through the 1990s, they switched to farming as a result of government-mandated modernization programs as well as the increased risks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle in the face of technological development. There is a significant linguistic difference between the northern Bushmen living between Okavango (Botswana) and Etosha (Namibia), extending into southern Angola on the one hand and the southern group in the central Kalahari towards the Molopo, who are the last remnant of the extensive autochthonous San of South Africa.
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Carey Mulligan
Carey Hannah Mulligan (born 28 May 1985) is an English actress. She made her film debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice (2005). She had roles in numerous British programmes and, in 2007, made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim.
In 2009, she gained widespread recognition for playing the lead role of Jenny in An Education, winning a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and also being nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for her performance. She went on to star in dramatic films such as The Greatest, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Never Let Me Go, Drive and Shame.
Mulligan was born in Westminster, London, England. Her father, Stephen, was originally from Liverpool, and her mother, Nano (née Booth), a college lecturer, came from Llandeilo in West Wales. Her paternal great-grandfather emigrated from Ireland. Mulligan has one sibling, an elder brother. At the age of 3, she moved with her family from England to Germany after her father accepted the job of managing the European arm of Intercontinental Hotels. Due to her father's job, her family lived in expensive hotels for 8 years. She was "quite shy" during her childhood and a tomboy until the age of 15. She was also "quite straight-laced" and very academic until age 14, having then become more interested in acting. She was educated at Woldingham School, a girls' boarding school.
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Carlin Glynn
Carlin Glynn (born February 19, 1940) is a retired American actress. She is the mother of actress Mary Stuart Masterson.
Glynn made her Broadway debut as "Mona Stangley" in the original cast of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.[citation needed] She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role, which she reprised in the 1982 revival.[citation needed]
Glynn's first movie appearance was as Mae Barber in Three Days of the Condor. She is also known for her role as mother to Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles, and as daughter-in-law to Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful.
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Carole Shelley
Carole Shelley (born 16 August 1939) is an English actress. Among her many stage roles are the character of Madame Morrible in the original Broadway cast of the musical Wicked.
Shelley was born in London, England, the daughter of Deborah (née Bloomstein), a singer, and Curtis Shelley, a composer. On stage, Shelley made her Broadway debut as Gwendolyn Pigeon in the original 1965 production of The Odd Couple (starring Art Carney and Walter Matthau). She reprised the role for the 1967 film version (starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau), and for (the first part of) the first season of the subsequent television series (starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman). Along with Monica Evans, her co-star as her sister Cecily Pigeon, they have the honor of being the only two performers to be in all three of "The Odd Couple" versions: stage, then movie, then first TV adaptation -- and in the same roles.
She appeared in several plays throughout the 1970s and '80s, was acclaimed as Rosalind in As You Like It at the 1972 Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, and earned her first Tony Award nomination in 1975 for her performance as "Jane" in Absurd Person Singular. Shelley won the 1979 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Mrs. Kendal in The Elephant Man, and was nominated again in 1987 for her performance in Stepping Out as "Maxine." In 1982 she won an Obie Award in 1982 for her performance Twelve Dreams. Shelley also began appearing in musicals in the late 1990s, with the revivals of Show Boat and Cabaret.
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Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey (6 May 1904, London - 23 September 1979, London) was an English actress who made her film debut in 1938 as the secretive nun who wears high heels in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes (1938). She was an established stage character player before she was 30. Her film roles were as neurotics or eccentrics, usually playing spinsters or unpleasant spouses.
Lacey had roles in major films like I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), The October Man (1947) and The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966) in which she played Queen Elizabeth I. At the end of her career, she played in horror films opposite Boris Karloff in Michael Reeves's The Sorcerers and as the mysterious Haiti in The Mummy's Shroud, both in 1967. She was married to and divorced from the British actors Roy Emerton and Geoffrey Clark.
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Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones, CBE, ( /ˈziːtə/; born Catherine Zeta Jones; 25 September 1969) is a Welsh actress. She began her career on stage at an early age. After starring in a number of United Kingdom and United States television films and small roles in films, she came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as the 1998 action film The Mask of Zorro and the 1999 crime thriller film Entrapment. Her breakthrough role was in the 2000 film Traffic, for which she earned her first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.
Zeta-Jones subsequently starred as Velma Kelly in the 2002 film adaptation of the musical Chicago, a critical and commercial success, and received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Later, she appeared in the 2003 romantic comedy film Intolerable Cruelty and 2004 crime comedy film Ocean's Twelve. Zeta-Jones starred in the 2005 sequel of the 1998 film, The Legend of Zorro. She also starred in the 2008 biopic romantic thriller Death Defying Acts. In 2010, she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Desiree in A Little Night Music.
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Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom (born Patricia Claire Blume; 15 February 1931) is an English film and stage actress.
Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Grew) and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales. Her paternal grandparents, originally named Blumenthal, as well as her maternal grandparents, originally named Gravitzky, were Jewish immigrants from Byten, In the Grodno region of Russia, now in Belarus, Eastern Europe. Bloom attended secondary school at the independent Badminton School in Bristol, Gloucestershire.
After training at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Central School of Speech and Drama, Bloom made her debut on BBC radio programmes. She made her stage debut in 1946, when she was 15, with the Oxford Repertory Theatre. Her London stage debut was in 1947 in the hit Christopher Fry play The Lady's Not For Burning, which also featured the young Richard Burton, starred John Gielgud and Pamela Brown and which, subsequently, was produced, with the aforementioned four, on Broadway in New York. The following year, she received great acclaim for her portrayal of Ophelia in Hamlet, the first of many works by William Shakespeare in which Bloom would appear.
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Claire Danes
Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American television, stage and film actress. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in the HBO TV film Temple Grandin. She portrays Carrie Mathison in the Showtime series Homeland.
Danes was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Her mother, Carla (née Hall), is a day-care provider, painter, and textile designer who later served as her daughter's manager, and her father, Christopher Danes (b. May 6, 1944 in Austin, Texas), is a computer consultant and former architectural photographer. Danes has described her background as being "as WASPy as you can get"; her paternal grandfather, Gibson Andrew Danes (1910–1992 in Litchfield, Connecticut), was the dean of the art and architecture school at Yale University. She has an older brother, Asa (b. 1973).
Danes attended the Dalton School in New York City, the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, the Professional Performing Arts School, and the Lycée Français de Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. In 1998, Danes went to Yale University, her father's alma mater. Director Oliver Stone wrote her letter of recommendation to Yale. After studying for two years as a psychology major, she dropped out of Yale to focus on her film career.
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Clare Higgins
Clare Frances Elizabeth Higgins (born 10 November 1955) is an award-winning English actress.
Higgins, the second of five children, was born in Bradford, England to Paula Cecilia (née Murphy) and James Stephen Higgins. Her parents were from working-class Irish Catholic backgrounds. and worked as teachers. Higgins was interested in acting since her childhood. After being expelled from a convent school, she ran away from home at seventeen. At 19, she gave birth to a boy but gave him to adoption because she was unable to raise him.
At 23, she achieved her dream of becoming an actress, graduating from LAMDA. Through the '80s, she became a dynamic stage actress, both in London and on Broadway, including the premiere of The Secret Rapture, and won the first of her three Olivier Awards in 1995. In 1983, she starred with Ben Cross in the BBC production of A. J. Cronin's The Citadel, playing the role of Christine Manson. For the big screen, Clare gave a landmark performance as Julia Cotton in the violent, harrowing Clive Barker directed Hellraiser. The film was made in 1987 and was based on Barker's original novel The Hellbound Heart.
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Clifton Collins, Jr.
Clifton Craig Collins, Jr. (born June 16, 1970) is an American actor.
Clifton Craig Collins, Jr. was born in Los Angeles, of half Mexican descent and the grandson of actor Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez. He has sometimes been credited as Clifton Gonzalez-Gonzalez to honor his grandfather. He first broke through the mainstream in 1997 with a performance as gang thug César Sánchez in the film One Eight Seven. In 1998, he enchanted and amused small screen audiences in Ray Bradbury's cult film The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. He next portrayed a gay hitman, named Frankie Flowers, for the Mexican drug cartels in the 2000 ensemble drama Traffic. In 2002 he played the role of Buddy in the film Confessions of an American Girl. In 2005, Collins, Jr. won rave reviews for his subtle portrayal of killer Perry Smith in the fact-based film Capote. He starred in the 2005 film Dirty alongside Oscar winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. Collins, Jr. starred on FX Networks' show Thief. Collins, Jr. also played a supporting role on FX Networks' show The Shield, as undercover ICE agent Hernan. He also has a small role in 2006's Babel, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.
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Constance Cummings
Constance Cummings, CBE (May 15, 1910 – November 23, 2005) was an American-born British actress, known for her work on both screen and stage.
Born Constance Halverstadt in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of Dallas Vernon Halverstadt, a lawyer, and his wife, Kate Logan Cummings, a concert soprano. she began as a stage actress, landing her first role on Broadway by the age of 18. While appearing on Broadway, she was discovered by Samuel Goldwyn, who brought her to Hollywood in 1931. Between 1931 and 1934, Cummings appeared in more than twenty films, including the Harold Lloyd films Movie Crazy and American Madness, directed by Frank Capra.
She was married to the playwright and screenwriter Benn Levy (MBE) from 1933 until his death in 1973. Cummings was uncomfortable in Hollywood and moved to England, where she continued acting, both in movies and on the stage. Few of her films were hits in the U.S., although Blithe Spirit, adapted from the Noël Coward play, was popular. Levy went on to write and direct films for Cummings, such as The Jealous God (1939); he also served in the United Kingdom Parliament from 1945-50 as the Labour MP for Eton and Slough. They had a son and a daughter.
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D. W. Moffett
Donald Warren "D. W." Moffett (born October 26, 1954) is an American actor known for the recurring role of Joe McCoy on the NBC series Friday Night Lights since 2008, and as Dean Winston on The WB series, For Your Love.
Moffett was born in Highland Park, Illinois, and raised in nearby Wilmette. He took the stage name of "D.W." to avoid confusion with British actor Donald Moffat. The Moffetts are able to trace their ancestry to Jean de Mophet. de Mophet was a Norman knight who invaded England with William the Conqueror in 1066 CE. Mophet was anglicized to Moffat and later Moffett. The town of Moffat, Scotland, in the borderlands of Scotland and England is the Moffetts’ ancestral home.[citation needed]
In the years 1969-1974, Moffett attended a private secondary school in Germany, (Schule Schloss Neubeuern). After attending Stanford University, where he majored in political science, he found himself back in Chicago working as an investment banker. He was lured by a friend to the St. Nicholas Theater Company on a whim, where he began studying with William H. Macy. Shortly thereafter, he started his own theater company, called Remains Theater.
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Dan Futterman
Daniel Futterman (born June 8, 1967) is an American actor and screenwriter. Although he is known for several high-profile acting roles, including Val Goldman in the film The Birdcage, and Vincent Gray on the CBS television series Judging Amy, he is also a screenwriter. In 2005, he wrote the screenplay for the film Capote for which he received an Academy Award nomination and an Independent Spirit Award, Boston Society of Film Critics award, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association award.
Futterman, one of three siblings, was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a lawyer father and a psychoanalyst mother. He was raised in Conservative Judaism and grew up in an "intellectual family". Futterman grew up in Larchmont, New York, and graduated from Mamaroneck High School in 1985 and Columbia University in 1989.
Futterman is married to television writer Anya Epstein (sister of former Boston Red Sox General Manager and Executive Vice President and current President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs Theo Epstein), with whom he has two daughters: Sylvie (b. 2001) and Eve (b. 2005).
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Daniela Nardini
Daniela Nardini (born 26 April 1968, Largs) is a Scottish actress of Italian ancestry, best known for playing Anna Forbes in the BBC Two television series This Life. The role earned her a BAFTA Best Actress award in 1998 and also earned her a Scottish BAFTA. She won a second Scottish BAFTA in 2009 for her role in Annie Griffin's New Town.
Nardini trained as an actress at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. Her parents managed Nardini's, a well-known ice cream parlour and restaurant in Largs. This was mentioned on the popular BBC lexicographical programme Balderdash & Piffle. Daniela spoke about her family in the context of the mysterious history of the 99 Flake ice cream.
When she was 16, her elder brother was killed in a car accident. She was on the point of giving up acting and training to become a drama teacher when she was offered the part of Anna in This Life.
She was most recently seen as the ruthless estate agent, Meredith McIlvanney, in the Annie Griffin comedy-drama New Town, shown on BBC Four in February 2009, for which she won a Scottish BAFTA. Other television appearances include Reckless (1997); Big Women (1998); Undercover Heart (1998); Love in the 21st Century (1999); Tube Tales (1999); Rough Treatment (2000); Sirens (2002); Outside the Rules (2002) and Quite Ugly One Morning (2004).
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Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder. Some of his notable credits include Jaws 3-D, The Right Stuff, Enemy Mine, Great Balls of Fire!, The Big Easy, Far from Heaven, The Rookie, The Day After Tomorrow, Vantage Point, Footloose, The Parent Trap, Soul Surfer and Innerspace.
Quaid was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Juanita Bonniedale "Nita" (née Jordan), a real estate agent, and William Rudy Quaid (November 21, 1923 – February 8, 1987), an electrician and a third cousin of performer Gene Autry. He is the younger brother of actor Randy Quaid. The Quaid brothers grew up in Bellaire, Texas, which is a small city surrounded by Houston, and in southwest Houston. Quaid has English, Irish, and Cajun (French) ancestry. He attended Paul W. Horn Elementary School in Bellaire and Pershing Middle School in Houston. He studied Mandarin and dance at Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas, and later in college, at the University of Houston, under drama coach Cecil Pickett, who had previously taught at Bellaire High and whose daughter is actress Cindy Pickett. It was during his time at Bellaire High School that he developed the nickname 'Dennis Quand', (a combination of 'Quaid' and 'Bond') in relation to his obsession with the 007 movie character and was regularly referred to by this name.
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Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE (born 20 July 1938) is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. She is considered a sex symbol and an icon of 1960s feminism.
Rigg was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire to Louis Rigg and Beryl Hilda Helliwell (1908–1981); her father was a railway engineer who had been born in Yorkshire. Between the ages of two months and eight years Rigg lived in Bikaner, India, where her father was employed as a railway executive. Rigg speaks fluent Hindi. She was then sent to a boarding school, the Moravian School in Fulneck, near Pudsey. She disliked her boarding school, where she felt like a fish out of water, but she believes that Yorkshire played a greater part in shaping her character than India did. She trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Her career in film, television and the theatre has been wide-ranging, including roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1959 and 1964. Her professional debut was in The Caucasian Chalk Circle in 1955, aged 17.
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Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered States in 1980. Afterwards, she starred in her breakout role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She quickly became one of Hollywood's most recognized child actresses, going on to establish herself in mainly comic roles.
Following a turbulent childhood which was marked by drug and alcohol abuse and two stints in rehab, Barrymore wrote the 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. She successfully made the transition from child star to adult actress with a number of films including Poison Ivy, Bad Girls, Boys on the Side, and Everyone Says I Love You. Subsequently, she established herself in romantic comedies such as The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates.
In 1995, she and business partner Nancy Juvonen formed the production company Flower Films, with its first production the 1999 Barrymore film Never Been Kissed. Flower Films has gone on to produce the Barrymore vehicle films Charlie's Angels, 50 First Dates, and Music and Lyrics, as well as the cult film Donnie Darko. Barrymore's more recent projects include He's Just Not That into You, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Everybody's Fine and Going the Distance. A recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Barrymore appeared on the cover of the 2007 People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful issue.
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Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE (born 16 June 1934) is an English actress and occasional screenwriter. Born in 1934 she has worked in the theatre, film, and television consistently since 1953. She has been nominated for and received many professional awards and was created a CBE in 1990 and later a DBE in 2001.
Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London. Her mother, Annie Ellen (née Elkins), was a barmaid who was 46 when Eileen was born, and her father, Arthur Thomas Atkins, was a gas meter reader who was previously under-chauffeur to the Portuguese Ambassador. She was the third child in the family and when she was born the family moved to a council home in Tottenham. Her father did not, in fact, know how to drive and was responsible, as under-chauffeur, mainly for cleaning the car. At the time Eileen was born, her mother worked in a factory the whole day and then as a barmaid in the Elephant & Castle at night. When Eileen was three, a Gypsy woman came to their door selling lucky heather and clothes pegs. She saw little Eileen and told her mother that her daughter would be a famous dancer. Her mother promptly enrolled her in a dance class. Although she hated it, she studied dancing from age 3 to 15 or 16. From age 7 to 15, which covered the last four years of the Second World War (1941–45), she danced in working men's club circuits for 15 shillings a pop as "Baby Eileen". During the war, she performed as well at London's Stage Door canteen for American troops and sang songs like "Yankee Doodle." At one time she was attending dance class four or five times a week.
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Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige OBE (née Bickerstaff; born 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, North London, Paige attended the Aida Foster stage school, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16. Her appearance in the 1968 production of Hair marked her West End debut.
Following a number of roles over the next decade, Paige was selected to play Eva Perón in the first production of Evita in 1978, which brought her to the attention of the broader public. For this role, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a Musical. She went on to originate the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with "Memory", a song from the show. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well" with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess, which remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo. She then appeared in the original stage production of Chess, followed by a starring role in Anything Goes which she also co-produced. Paige made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard in 1996, playing the lead role of Norma Desmond, to critical acclaim. She appeared in The King and I from 2000 to 2001, and six years later she returned to the West End stage in The Drowsy Chaperone. She has also worked sporadically in television.
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Emily Watson
Emily Watson (born 14 January 1967) is an English actress who gave an acclaimed debut film performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves. She has won a number of awards for acting throughout her career, which has encompassed theatre, motion picture and television; most recently a BAFTA award for her role in ITV's Appropriate Adult.
Watson was born in Islington, London, England. Her father was an architect and her mother was an English teacher at St David's Girls' School, West London. She was brought up as an Anglican. Watson describes her childhood self as a "Nice middle class English girl ... I'd love to say I was a rebellious teenager but I wasn't".
Watson was educated at St James Independent Schools, in west London, which she has described as a 'progressive' school. She attended the University of Bristol, where she obtained a B.A. (1988, English).[citation needed] Following university, she trained at Drama Studio London,[citation needed] and later received a M.A. (2003, honorary) from Bristol University.[citation needed]
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Emily Woof
Emily Woof (born 1967), is an English actress and author, best known for film roles including The Full Monty, The Woodlanders, Velvet Goldmine, Wondrous Oblivion, Silent Cry and The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse.
Her father was Wordsworth Trust Director Dr Robert Woof.
Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Woof studied at Oxford University. Her first stage work was a trilogy of one-man plays: Sex, Sex 2, and Sex 3. Sections of these plays were written to be performed on a trapeze, which Woof had trained to use in Bristol after completing her degree.
Parts in The Full Monty (1997), Photographing Fairies (1997), Velvet Goldmine (1998) and The Woodlanders (1998) established Emily Woof as one of Britain's leading young actresses.
She has also appeared in several television roles, ranging from period dramas (Middlemarch, Oliver Twist) to contemporary drams (Killer Net) and comedy (The Ronni Ancona Show).
For theatre she has written the Sex, Sex II, Sex III, and Revolver.[citation needed] For radio, Pianoman, Baby Love, and Home to The Black Sea. She has written and directed two short films, Between The Wars, and Meeting Helen.[citation needed]
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Erika Christensen
Erika Jane Christensen (born August 19, 1982) is an American actress whose film appearances include Traffic (2000), Swimfan (2002), How to Rob a Bank (2007), and The Perfect Score (2004), among others. She also co-starred in the short-lived drama Six Degrees on ABC. She is currently co-starring in the 2010 television series Parenthood as Julia Braverman-Graham.
Christensen was born in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of Kathy, a construction manager, and Steven, an insurance worker/human-resources executive. She has an older half-brother, Nick, and two younger twin brothers, Dane (who appeared in the film The Upside of Anger) and Brando. She has Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Welsh, and Irish ancestry. Christensen was raised in Los Angeles, California and started out on television in commercials for McDonald's.
Christensen is a member of the Church of Scientology. Her parents became Scientologists in their 20s and raised her to be a Scientologist as well as home-schooling her.
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Esmonde and Larbey
John Gilbert Esmonde (21 March 1937 – 10 August 2008) and Bob Larbey (born Robert Edward John Larbey on 26 June 1934) were a British television comedy scriptwriting duo from the 1960s to the 1990s, creating popular situation comedies such as Please Sir! and The Good Life.
Larbey was born in Clapham, South London in 1934 and made his writing debut for BBC radio, before contributing a film adaptation — Mrs Silly, starring Maggie Smith. Larbey met his future writing partner when they were pupils at the Henry Thornton School.
Esmonde, born in Battersea, South West London in 1937, served a couple of years in the Royal Air Force in Air Ambulance before realising that his budding writing partnership with Larbey might prove more fruitful. They began to have sketches accepted on shows such as I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and The Dick Emery Show. Esmonde was married to Georgina Barton from 1960 until his death in August 2008, aged 71.
Their first sitcom as a writing team came in 1966 with Room At The Bottom for the BBC. This followed the exploits of a group of maintenance men working for Saracens Manufacturing Company. Starting out as a pilot in the BBC's Comedy Playhouse programme, it lasted for one series the next year, starring Kenneth Connor, Deryck Guyler and Francis Matthews.
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Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (German pronunciation: [ˈjaːkɔp ˈluːtvɪç ˈfeːlɪks ˈmɛndl̩szoːn baʁˈtɔldi]), born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.
The grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family, although initially he was raised without religion and was later baptised as a Lutheran Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent.
Early success in Germany, where he also revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, was followed by travel throughout Europe. Mendelssohn was particularly well received in Britain as a composer, conductor and soloist, and his ten visits there – during which many of his major works were premiered – form an important part of his adult career. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatoire (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig), which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook.
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Finty Williams
Tara Cressida Frances "Finty" Williams (born 24 September 1972) is an English actress.
Born in London, Williams trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama there, graduating in 1994. She has appeared in a number of British films, frequently alongside her mother, Dame Judi Dench. Her picture appears in the opening credits of As Time Goes By (1992).
She had a recurring role in the TV series Born and Bred, and voices the title character in the animated children's series Angelina Ballerina. She has also worked in the theatre in plays such as Party Piece with Richard Harris, and in audio book narration, such as Sophie Kinsella's "I've Got Your Number".
She is the daughter of actors Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Williams is a single parent to her son Sam.
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Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw, CBE (born Fiona Mary Wilson on 10 July 1958) is an Irish actress and theatre director. Although to international audiences she is probably most familiar for her role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films, she is an accomplished classical actress. Shaw was awarded an honorary CBE in 2001.
Shaw was born in County Cork, Ireland to a mixed-religious couple, and was raised Roman Catholic. Her father was an optic surgeon and her mother was a physicist.[citation needed]
She attended secondary school at Scoil Mhuire in Cork City. She received her degree in University College Cork. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and was part of 'new wave’ of actors to emerge from the Academy. She received much acclaim as Julia in the National Theatre production of Richard Sheridan's The Rivals (1983).[citation needed]
Her notable theatrical roles include Young Woman in Machinal, Celia in As You Like It (1984), Madame de Volanges in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1985), Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew (1987), Winnie in Happy Days (2007), and the title roles in Electra (1988), The Good Person of Sechuan (1989), Hedda Gabler (1991), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1998) and Medea (2000). She performed T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land as a one-person show at the Liberty Theatre in New York to great acclaim in 1996, winning the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show for her performance.
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Francesca Annis
Francesca Annis (born 14 May 1945) is an English actress, known for her film and television appearances in such series as Wives and Daughters (1999), Cranford (2007), and Deceit (2000).
Annis was born in Kensington, London in 1945 to an English father, Lester William Anthony Annis (1914–2001) and a Brazilian-French mother, Mariquita Purcell (1913–2009). She has two brothers, Quenton D. and Tony P. Annis. Her family moved to Brazil when Annis was a year old, spending six years there before returning to England when she was 7. There she was educated at a convent school. She trained as a ballet dancer and then studied drama at the Corona Theatre School.
Francesca Annis began acting professionally in her teens, and made her film debut in The Cat Gang (1959). In 1967 she played Estella in a television adaptation of Great Expectations. She also presented children's television programmes[citation needed].
Annis gained attention for her performance as Lady Macbeth in Roman Polanski's film version of Macbeth (1971) in which she performs the sleepwalking soliloquy in the nude. The critic Kenneth Tynan was present when the scene was shot:
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Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli, KBE (born 12 February 1923) is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator (1994–2001) for the Italian centre-right Forza Italia party.
He is principally known for his 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, although his 1967 version of The Taming of the Shrew (with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) remains the most popular production of that play as well. His mini-series Jesus of Nazareth won acclaim and is still shown on Easter weekend in many countries.
He was the first Italian national to receive an honorary knighthood from the British government when he was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
He was awarded the Premio Colosseo in 2009 by the city of Rome.
Zeffirelli was born in Florence as Gianfranco Corsi, the illegitimate son of a mercer, Ottorino Corsi, and his mistress, Adelaide Garosi, a dressmaker. When he was six years old, his mother died and he subsequently grew up under the auspices of the British expatriate community and was particularly involved with the so-called Scorpioni, who inspired his semi-autobiographical 1999 film Tea With Mussolini.
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Frank Marcus
Frank Marcus (30 June 1928 – 5 August 1996) was a British playwright, best known for The Killing of Sister George.
Frank Ulrich Marcus was born 30 June 1928 into a Jewish family in Breslau (then in Germany). They came to England as refugees in 1939. Until 1943 he attended Bunce Court School at Otterden, near Faversham in Kent, (a school founded by Anna Essinger, a German Jewish-Quaker who had started Landschulheim Herrlingen, a private school in southern Germany, which was relocated to England in 1933). He then spent a year at Saint Martins School of Art.
He started as an actor and playwright with the International Theatre Group and the Unity Theatre. In 1951 he married actress Jacqueline Sylvester, who collaborated with him on some of his plays. His plays were noted for their strong parts for female actors, such as in his one big success, The Killing of Sister George, starring Beryl Reid, which was later made into a film. As well as his own plays he made several translations and adaptations from his native German. He worked as Theatre Critic for The Sunday Telegraph between 1968 and 1978. After a long struggle with Parkinson's disease he died in London, 5 August 1996.
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Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise ( /səˈniːs/; born March 17, 1955) is an American actor, film director and musician. During his career, Sinise has won various awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1992, Sinise directed, and played the role of George Milton in the successful film adaptation of Of Mice and Men. Sinise was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1994 for his role as Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump. He won a Golden Globe Award for his role in Truman, as Harry S. Truman. In 1996, he played a corrupt police officer in the dramatic hit Ransom, Detective Jimmy Shaker. In 1998, Sinise was awarded an Emmy Award for the television film George Wallace, a portrayal of the late George C. Wallace. Since 2004, Sinise has starred in CBS's CSI: NY as Detective Mac Taylor.
Sinise was born in Blue Island, Illinois, the son of Mylles S. (née Alsip; b. 1932) and Robert L. Sinise (b. 1931), the latter of whom was a film editor. He is of part Italian ancestry (from his paternal grandfather). He attended Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois. In 1974, Sinise and two friends, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry, founded the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Since its founding, Steppenwolf has showcased the talents of such notable actors as Joan Allen, Kevin Anderson, Gary Cole, Ethan Hawke, Glenne Headly, John Mahoney, John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf, Martha Plimpton, Jim True-Frost and most recently William Petersen. At Steppenwolf, Sinise honed his acting and directing skills, received a Joseph Jefferson Award for his direction of Lyle Kessler's play Orphans, that took him from Chicago, to New York City to London's West End, and worked on more than thirty of the company's productions.
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Geena Davis
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist. She is known for her roles in Stuart Little,The Fly, Beetlejuice, Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own, The Long Kiss Goodnight and The Accidental Tourist, for which she won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2005, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for her role in Commander in Chief.
Davis was born in Wareham, Massachusetts. Her mother, Lucille (née Cook), was a teacher's assistant, and her father, William F. Davis, was a civil engineer and church deacon; her parents had both been from small towns in Vermont. She has a brother named Danforth ("Dan"). At an early age, she became interested in music. She learned piano and flute and played organ well enough as a teenager to serve as an organist at her Congregationalist church in Wareham. Davis attended Wareham High School and was an exchange student in Sandviken, Sweden, becoming fluent in Swedish. Enrolling at New England College, she eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from Boston University in 1979. Davis is a member of Mensa, a social organization whose members are in the top 2% of intelligence as measured by an IQ test entrance exam.
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Gemma Craven
Gemma Craven (born 1 June 1950) is an award-winning Irish actress.
She is possibly best known for her role in the Irish TV drama The Clinic (2006–08) as Dr. Julia Brady.
Gemma Craven's family moved from Dublin to England in 1960, and she attended the same school as Helen Mirren, St Bernard's Convent High School for Girls in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex.
She appeared as Cinderella in the film The Slipper and the Rose (1976) opposite Richard Chamberlain. Cast as an unknown, she was spotted by one of the producers while doing a stage play. The local press touted the event as her own "Cinderella" story. The musical gave Craven an opportunity to shine with her impressive singing talents.
In London's West End, she starred opposite Tom Conti in the musical They're Playing Our Song for which she who won a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance, the lead role in South Pacific and in Noël Coward's Private Lives opposite Marc Sinden, Tony Anholt and his wife Tracey Childs which toured throughout 1991 and into 1992. She also played Josie in Boy George's Taboo and features on the OCR singing "Independent Woman".
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Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is a retired American actor and novelist.
Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde. His major subsequent films include The French Connection (1971), in which he played Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle; The Poseidon Adventure (1972); The Conversation (1974); Superman (1978), in which he played arch-villain Lex Luthor; Hoosiers (1986); Mississippi Burning (1987); Unforgiven (1992); The Firm (1993); Crimson Tide (1995); Get Shorty (1995); The Birdcage (1996); Enemy of the State (1998); and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Lyda (née Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman. He has a brother, Richard. His family moved frequently, finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English-born maternal grandmother, Beatrice. Hackman's father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local paper. Hackman's parents divorced in 1943 and his father subsequently left the family.
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Geraldine McEwan
Geraldine McEwan (born Geraldine McKeown on 9 May 1932) is an English actor with a diverse history in theatre, film and television. From 2004 to 2009 she appeared as Miss Marple, the Agatha Christie sleuth, for the series Marple.
She was born Geraldine McKeown on 9 May 1932 in Old Windsor, Berkshire, England, the daughter of Donald McKeown and his wife, Nora (Burns). She was married to the former principal of RADA, Hugh Cruttwell, who died in 2002.
McEwan attended Windsor County Girls' School, and her extensive theatrical career began at 14 as assistant stage manager at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. She made her first appearance on the Windsor stage in October 1946 as an attendant of Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream and played many parts with the Windsor Repertory Company from March 1949 to March 1951, including a role in the Ruth Gordon bio play Years Ago opposite guest player John Clark. She made her first West End appearance at the Vaudeville Theatre on 4 April 1951 as Christina Deed in Who Goes There!, in which she had a marked success.
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Gina McKee
Georgina "Gina" McKee (born 14 April 1964) is an English actor known for her television roles in Our Friends in the North (1996), The Lost Prince (2003) and The Forsyte Saga (2002); and her portrayal of Bella in the film Notting Hill (1999); and her portrayal of Caterina Sforza in the Showtime series The Borgias.
The daughter of a coal miner, McKee came from an "industrial white working class background", growing up in Peterlee and Easington in County Durham and Sunderland. Her first experience of acting occurred in her final year at primary school as Mrs Hall, her teacher at Dene House Juniors, finished the school week off with improvisations, which she remembers as "the best time for me. Fantastic." Seeing a poster in a shoeshop window for a new youth drama group, McKee and her friends decided to attend for a laugh. The group — set up and run by Ros and Graeme Rigby — managed to engage the sceptical teenagers, who reluctantly became enthusiastic. It led to McKee's first professional appearance, working on Tyne Tees children's series, Quest of Eagles.
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Glenn Close
Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American film, television and stage actress. She is best known for her roles as a femme fatale—the scheming Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and deranged stalker Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction (1987)—as well as Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians (1996), and its sequel 102 Dalmatians (2000). She has been more recently known for her Emmy and Golden Globe winning role as Patty Hewes in the FX TV series Damages.
Consistently acclaimed for her versatility, she has been nominated six times for an Oscar (five times throughout the 1980's), three times for a Grammy Award and once for a BAFTA Film Award, and has won three Tonys, an Obie, three Emmys, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Close was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the daughter of Bettine (née Moore) and William Taliaferro Close, a doctor who operated a clinic in the Belgian Congo and served as a personal physician to Congo/Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko. Her parents came from prominent families. Her father was a descendant of the Taliaferros of Virginia; her paternal grandfather, Edward Bennett Close, a stockbroker and director of the American Hospital Association, was first married to Post Cereals' heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. Close is also a second cousin once-removed of actress Brooke Shields (Shields's great-grandmother Mary Elsie Moore was a sister of Close's maternal grandfather, Charles Arthur Moore, Jr.).
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Gloria Stuart
Gloria Frances Stuart (July 4, 1910 – September 26, 2010) was an American actress, activist, painter, bonsai artist, and fine art printer and printmaker. Over a Hollywood career which spanned, with a long break in the middle, from 1932 until 2004, she appeared on stage, television, and film, for which she was best-known. She appeared as Claude Rains' sweetheart in The Invisible Man, and as the elderly Rose Dawson Calvert in an Academy Award-nominated role in the film Titanic. She was the oldest person to be nominated for a competitive Oscar, at the age of 87, for that role.
Stuart was born Gloria Frances Stewart in Santa Monica, California, a third-generation Californian. Her mother, Alice Vaughan Deidrick Stewart, was born in Angels Camp, California. Her father, Frank Stewart, was an attorney representing many Tongs in San Francisco. Gloria's brother, Frank, came 11 months later. A second brother, Thomas, died in infancy. When Gloria was nine years old, her father, who had been appointed a judge and was about to take the bench, was hit by a car and died. Her mother got a job in the Ocean Park, California, Post Office to support her children. Alice Stewart remarried, to Fred J. Finch, a native of Kentucky, who owned a local funeral parlor and held oil leases in Texas. A half-sister, Patsy — Patricia Marie Finch — was born in 1924. Gloria's younger brother Frank took the surname Finch, later becoming a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times.
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Gwen Watford
Gwendoline "Gwen" Watford (10 September 1927 — 6 February 1994) was an English film, stage and television actress. She married actor Richard Bebb in 1952.
Born in London, Watford attended an independent school in Hastings where her father, a retired army officer ran a public house. She trained at the Embassy Theatre and the Old Vic. She made her film debut playing Lady Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher (1949). Other films include Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960), The Very Edge (1962), Cleopatra (1963), and Cry Freedom (1987).
She died from cancer, aged 66, in 1994.
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Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow ( /ˈɡwɪnɨθ ˈpæltroʊ/; born September 27, 1972) is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Seven (1995) and Emma (1996) (in which she played the title role). Following the films Sliding Doors (1998) and A Perfect Murder (1998), Paltrow garnered worldwide recognition through her performance in Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, for Outstanding Lead Actress and as a member of the Outstanding Cast. She also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011 for her role as Holly Holliday on the Fox hit TV show Glee in the episode "The Substitute".
Paltrow has portrayed supporting as well as lead roles in films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Shallow Hal (2001), and Proof (2005), for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in Motion Picture Drama. Since 2008, she has portrayed Pepper Potts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring in Iron Man and its sequel, Iron Man 2 (2010), and also appearing in The Avengers (2012). Paltrow has been the face of Estée Lauder's Pleasures perfume since 2005. She is married to Chris Martin, the lead vocalist of Coldplay. They have two children together, Apple and Moses. She is also the face of American fashion brand Coach, owner of the lifestyle company Goop.com and author of the cookbook My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness.
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Hank Azaria
Henry Albert "Hank" Azaria ( /əˈzɛəriə/ ə-ZAIR-ee-ə; born April 25, 1964) is an American film, television and stage actor, director, voice actor, and comedian. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons (1989–present), on which he performs the voices of Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Carl Carlson and numerous others. Azaria, who attended Tufts University, joined the show with little voice acting experience, but became a regular in its second season. Many of his performances on the show are based on famous actors and characters; Moe's voice, for example, is based on actor Al Pacino.
Alongside his continued voice acting on The Simpsons, Azaria became more widely known through his live-action appearances in films such as The Birdcage (1996) and Godzilla (1998). He has continued to star in numerous films including Mystery Men (1999), America's Sweethearts (2001), Shattered Glass (2003), Along Came Polly (2004), Run Fatboy Run (2007), Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) and The Smurfs (2011). He also had recurring roles on the television series Mad About You and Friends, and starred in the drama Huff (2004–2006), playing the titular character, as well as appearing in the popular stage musical Spamalot. Originally primarily a comic actor, in recent years Azaria has taken on more dramatic roles including the TV films Tuesdays With Morrie (1999) and Uprising (2001). He has won four Emmys and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Azaria was married to actress Helen Hunt from 1999 to 2000.
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Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted to film. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1970), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others' works.
Pinter was born and raised in Hackney, east London, and educated at Hackney Downs School. He was a sprinter and a keen cricket player, acting in school plays and writing poetry. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but did not complete the course. He was fined for refusing National Service as a conscientious objector. Subsequently, he continued training at the Central School of Speech and Drama and worked in repertory theatre in Ireland and England. In 1956 he married actress Vivien Merchant and had a son, Daniel born in 1958. He left Merchant in 1975 and married author Antonia Fraser in 1980.
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Hecuba
Hecuba (also Hekábe, Hecabe, Hécube; Ancient Greek: Ἑκάβη) was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy during the Trojan War, with whom she had 19 children. These children included several major characters of Homer's Iliad such as the warriors Hector and Paris and the prophetess Cassandra.
Ancient sources vary as to the parentage of Hecuba. According to Homer, Hecuba was the daughter of King Dymas of Phrygia, but Euripides and Virgil write of her as the daughter of the Thracian king Cisseus. The mythographers Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus leave open the question which of the two was her father, with Pseudo-Apollodorus adding a third alternate option: Hecuba's parents could as well be the river god Sangarius and Metope. Some versions from non-extant works are summarized by a scholiast on Euripides' Hecuba: according to those, she was a daughter of Dymas or Sangarius by the Naiad Euagora, or by Glaucippe the daughter of Xanthus (Scamander?); the possibility of her being a daughter of Cisseus is also discussed. A scholiast on Homer relates that Hecuba's parents were either Dymas and the nymph Eunoe or Cisseus and Telecleia; the latter option would make her a full sister of Theano, which is also noted by the scholiast on Euripides cited above.
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Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; 26 July 1945) is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.
Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff in Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Chiswick, West London. Her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov (1913–1980), was of Russian origin, and her mother, Kitty (née Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda Rogers; 1909–1996), was English. Mirren's paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Tsarist Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat, and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain, when he and his family were stranded during the Russian Revolution. The former diplomat became a London cab driver to support his family.
His son, Helen Mirren's father, changed the family name to the Scottish-sounding Mirren in the 1950s and became known as Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, and later drove a cab and was a driving-test examiner, before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport. Mirren's mother was from West Ham, East London, and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been "very anti-monarchist".
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Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American film actress. She has won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, as Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry (1999) and as struggling waitress-turned-boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby (2004). She also put in a notable performance in Insomnia, working alongside Al Pacino. Since 2003, Swank has also worked as an executive producer.
Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her mother, Judy Kay (née Clough), was a secretary and dancer, and her father, Stephen Michael Swank, was an officer in the Air National Guard and later a traveling salesman. She has a brother, Daniel, who is eight years her senior. Her surname, originally Schwenk, is of German origin. Many of Swank's family members hail from Ringgold County, Iowa, and her maternal grandmother was of Spanish and Shoshone (Native American) ancestry. After having lived in Spokane, Washington, Swank's family moved to a trailer park near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington, when Swank was six.
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Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter (born March 20, 1958) is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen. Hunter has also won two Emmy Awards with seven nominations and has won a Golden Globe Award with another six nominations.
Holly Hunter was born in Conyers, Georgia, the daughter of Opal Marguerite (née Catledge), a housewife, and Charles Edwin Hunter, a farmer and sporting-goods manufacturer's representative. Hunter earned a degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and for a while performed in the theatre scene there, playing ingenue roles at City Theatre, then named the City Players. She eventually moved to New York City and roomed with fellow actress Frances McDormand. Hunter, in 2008, described living in The Bronx "at the end of the D [subway] train, just off 205th Street, on Bainbridge Avenue and Hull Avenue. It was very Irish, and then you could go just a few blocks away and hit major Italian". A chance encounter with playwright Beth Henley, when the two were trapped alone in an elevator, led to Hunter's being cast in Henley's plays Crimes of the Heart (succeeding Mary Beth Hurt on Broadway), and Off-Broadway's The Miss Firecracker Contest. "It was like the beginning of 1982. It was on 49th Street between Broadway and Eighth [Avenue] [...] on the south side of the street", Hunter recalled in an interview. "[We were trapped] 10 minutes; not long. We actually had a nice conversation. It was just the two of us".
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Hugo Speer
Hugo Speer (born 17 March 1969) is an English actor.
He was born in Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at Harrogate Grammar School. He studied acting at the Arts Educational School.
He began his acting career appearing in TV series The Bill and Heartbeat, and played a minor role in the film Bhaji on the Beach before his first notable appearance as "Guy" in the film The Full Monty. He has gone on to appear in several films including Swing (1999), Deathwatch and The Interpreter (playing Nicole Kidman's brother). However, most of his work has been on TV, including sitcoms Men Behaving Badly, dramas Clocking Off, The Last Detective, Boudica (2003) and The Rotters' Club (2005), as well as the 2005 BBC adaptation of Dickens' Bleak House. In 2006, he appeared in the postal worker drama Sorted. In 2008, he appeared alongside Martine McCutcheon in Echo Beach. In 2011 he played a repairman whose repairs "come to life" in Haven. Speer also provides narration for ITV1 series, Cops with Cameras, and the BBC series Seaside Rescue. He appears as John Foster in the penultimate and final episodes of the fourth series of Skins.
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Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH CBE (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has won multiple Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known for film roles such as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Magneto in the X-Men films, and as Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code.
McKellen was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979, was knighted in 1991 for services to the performing arts, and was made a Companion of Honour for services to drama and to equality, in the 2008 New Year Honours.
McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England, though he spent most of his early life in Wigan. Born shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the experience had some lasting impact on him. In response to an interview question when an interviewer remarked that he seemed quite calm in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, he said: "Well, darling, you forget — I slept under a steel plate until I was four years old."
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Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE (born 9 January 1956) is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path, the Harry Potter film series (in which she plays Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge) and Vera Drake. She drew critical acclaim as Vera Drake, earning her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a number of wins including the BAFTA and Venice Film Festival Awards for best actress in a leading role.
Staunton was born in Archway, North London, the only child of Bridie (née McNicholas), a hairdresser, and Joseph Staunton, a road-worker and labourer. The family lived over Staunton's mother's hair dressing salon while Staunton’s father worked on the roads. Both of her parents were first-generation Catholic immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland, with her father coming from Ballyvary and her mother from Bohola. Staunton's mother was a musician who could not read music, but could master almost any tune by ear on the accordion or fiddle and had played in Irish showbands.
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Irene Worth
Irene Worth, CBE (June 23, 1916 – March 9, 2002) was an American stage and screen actress who became one of the leading stars of the English and American theatre. (She pronounced her given name with three syllables: "I-REE-nee".)
Harriet Elizabeth Abrams was born in Fairbury, Nebraska to a Mennonite family. Her parents, Agnes Thiessen and Henry Abrams, were educators. They moved from Nebraska to California in 1920. She was educated at Newport Harbor High School, Newport Beach, California, Santa Ana Junior College, Santa Ana, California and UCLA.
She joined the Old Vic company in 1951, worked with Tyrone Guthrie and there played Desdemona, Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Portia in The Merchant of Venice and her first Lady Macbeth. The company went off to South Africa with Worth as one of the leading ladies.
In 1953, she joined the fledgling Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario for its inaugural season. There she was the principal leading lady, performing under an enormous tent with Alec Guinness in All's Well That Ends Well and Richard III. "Binkie" Beaumont brought her back to London in N. C. Hunter's "Chekhovian" drama, A Day by the Sea, with a cast that included John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. She joined the Midland Theatre Company in Coventry for Ugo Betti's The Queen and the Rebels. Her transformation from "a rejected slut cowering at her lover's feet into a redemption of regal poise" ensured a transfer to London, where Kenneth Tynan wrote of her technique: "It is grandiose, heartfelt, marvellously controlled, clear as crystal and totally unmoving."
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Iris Murdoch
Dame Iris Murdoch DBE (15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about political and social questions of good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her first published novel, Under the Net, was selected in 2001 by the editorial board as one of Modern Library's 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 1987, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 2008, The Times named Murdoch among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Jean Iris Murdoch was born in Phibsborough, Dublin, Ireland, on 15 July 1919. Her father, Wills John Hughes Murdoch, came from a mainly Presbyterian sheep farming family from Hillhall, County Down, and her mother, Irene Alice Richardson, who had trained as a singer until Iris was born, was from a middle class, Church of Ireland (Anglican) family from Dublin. When Iris was very young, her parents moved to London, where her father worked in the Civil Service.
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Jacob Vargas
Jacob Vargas (born August 18, 1971) is a Mexican-born American actor.
Vargas was born in Michoacán, Mexico, and raised in Pacoima, Los Angeles, California, since 1971. He was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family.
Vargas’ break into acting came when he was cast as a street dancer on Diff'rent Strokes, and his career has continued successfully including films such as Traffic and Jarhead. He was also in the horror movie The Hills Have Eyes 2. But he is most known for his role as Joker from the Joker Brothers in the 2000 film Next Friday and as Abraham Quintanilla, the brother of the late Tejano singer Selena in the biopic film of the same name.
He is married to Sylvia Arzate. They have a daughter named Rose, born in 2004.
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James Brolin
James Brolin /ˈbroʊlɨn/; born July 18, 1940) is an American actor, producer and director, best known for his roles in soap operas, movies, sitcoms, and television. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin and husband of singer/actress Barbra Streisand.
Brolin was born Craig Kenneth Bruderlin in Los Angeles, California. The eldest of two brothers and two sisters, he was the son of Helen Sue (née Mansur), a homemaker, and Henry Hurst Bruderlin, a building contractor. The family settled in Westwood after his birth. As a young child, he was apparently more interested in animals and airplanes than in acting. When Brolin was 10 in 1950, he began building and flying model airplanes. As a teenaged moviegoer in the mid-1950s he was particularly fascinated with actor James Dean. When his parents invited a director over to his family's house for dinner before auditioning, he met another fellow actor and classmate, Ryan O'Neal, who was about a year younger than Brolin. The two clicked and later enrolled in Los Angeles's renowned University High School. However, Bruderlin's own acting exposed his stifling shyness. His assurance grew when O'Neal invited him to a casting agency. Brolin graduated from high school in 1958, and his family was already encouraging him to become an actor like O'Neal.
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Jane Lapotaire
Jane Lapotaire (born 26 December 1944, Ipswich, Suffolk) is a British actress.
She studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the 1960s. Her performance in the title role of Marie Curie (1977) first brought her to wide attention. In 1978 she performed the title role Édith Piaf for Pam Gems's play Piaf, directed by Howard Davies for the Royal Shakespeare Company, in Stratford-upon-Avon and in London at the Warehouse Theatre, Covent Garden in 1979. In 1981 the show moved to New York's Plymouth Theatre on Broadway. Lapotaire won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
She was married to director Roland Joffé from 1974 to 1980; they had one son, screenwriter and director Rowan Joffé (born 1973).
She wrote an autobiography, Everybody's Daughter, Nobody's Child, which includes an account of her childhood growing up in Levington Road, Ipswich. In 2000 while working in France, Lapotaire suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. She writes about her recovery in Time Out of Mind.
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Janet McTeer
Janet McTeer, OBE (born 5 August 1961)Dubious: Discuss is an English actress.
McTeer was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the daughter of Jean (née Morris) and Alan McTeer, and spent her childhood in York. She attended the now defunct Queen Anne Grammar School for Girls, and worked at the Old Starre Inn, at York Minster and at the Theatre Royal. She then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, beginning a successful theatrical career with the Royal Exchange Theatre after graduating.
McTeer's television work includes the BBC production of Nigel Nicolson's book Portrait of a Marriage in which she played Vita Sackville-West and the popular ITV series The Governor written by Lynda La Plante. She made her screen debut in Half Moon Street, a 1986 film based on a novel by Paul Theroux. In 1991, she appeared in Catherine Cookson's The Black Velvet Gown, with Bob Peck and Geraldine Somerville; this won the International Emmy award for best drama. She appeared in the 1992 film version of Wuthering Heights (co-starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes) and the 1995 film Carrington (which starred Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce).
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Janie Dee
Janie Dee (born 1965) is an English actress and singer.
She is married to the actor Rupert Wickham.
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Jeffery Dench
Jeffery Dench (born 1928), is an actor who lives in Clifford Chambers near Stratford-upon-Avon. He is the older brother of actress Judi Dench.
Jeffery Dench was born in Manchester, Lancashire, the son of Eleanora Olave (née Jones), a native of Dublin, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor who met Jeffery's mother while studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. Jeff lived in Tyldesley, near Leigh, Lancashire, with his brother, Peter. Later, the family moved to York, where Judi was born.
Jeffery attended St Peter's, York, where he began acting with the role of Cleopatra in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. He spent his national service at an army theatre in Catterick before attending the Central School of Speech and Drama. It was here that he met his wife Betty, who was working as a speech therapist.
Jeffery moved to Clifford Chambers and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963, where he worked for many years.
With his wife Betty, Jeffery has three daughters: Sarah, a teacher who lives in Brailes; Clare, who lives in Shiplake; and Emma, a Roman historian previously at Birkbeck, University of London, and currently at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Jennifer Ehle
Jennifer Ehle ( /ˈiːliː/; born December 29, 1969) is an American actress of stage and screen. She is known for her BAFTA winning role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice.
Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to English actress Rosemary Harris and American author John Ehle, Ehle made her stage debut as a toddler in a 1973 Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which her mother played Blanche Dubois.[citation needed] She spent her childhood between the UK and US, attending 18 different schools including the Interlochen Arts Academy. She was raised largely in Asheville, North Carolina, which was close by her hometown. Her drama training was split between the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.[citation needed]
In 1992, Peter Hall cast her as Calypso in a television adaptation of Mary Wesley's novel The Camomile Lawn, in which she and her mother played the same character at different ages. This story, produced by UK's Channel 4, was a five part miniseries about the lives and loves of a family of cousins from 1939 to the present. The two would later reprise this different age portrayal of a character as Valerie in István Szabó's 1999 movie Sunshine.
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Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981) is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in 2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of American Idol, coming in seventh place. She made her film debut in the 2006 film Dreamgirls, which won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
She won a Grammy Award for her eponymous debut album, Jennifer Hudson, which was released in 2008 on Arista Records and was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over 800,000 copies in the US; sales exceeded 1 million copies worldwide. Additionally, it spawned the hit single Spotlight. Her second album, I Remember Me, was released in March 2011, and reached number two on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in its first week of release. The album was certified gold by the RIAA, for shipping over 500,000 copies in the US.
In late 2008, after Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were killed in a shooting, Hudson stepped out of the limelight for three months. Hudson resumed her public appearances in 2009, and has since performed at the Super Bowl XLIII, the Grammy Awards, American Idol, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Hudson has been described as a friend of President Barack Obama, who invited her to appear with him at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills in May 2009. She also performed at the White House at the "Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement" event. Her vocal range is mezzo-soprano. Hudson has sold 1,280,000 albums and 2,237,000 tracks in the United States as of February 2012.
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Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons (born 19 September 1948) is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Godspell and Richard II. In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and received a Tony Award for Best Actor.
Irons's first major film role came in the 1981 romantic drama The French Lieutenant's Woman, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. After starring in such films as Moonlighting (1982), Betrayal (1983), and The Mission (1986), he gained critical acclaim for portraying twin gynaecologists in David Cronenberg's psychological thriller Dead Ringers (1988). In 1990, Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune, and took home multiple awards including an Academy Award for Best Actor. Other notable films have included The House of the Spirits (1993), The Lion King (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Lolita (1997), The Merchant of Venice (2004), Being Julia (2004), Appaloosa (2008), and Margin Call (2011).
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Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange (born April 20, 1949) is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of multiple awards, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, one Emmy and one Screen Actors Guild Award, Lange is regarded as one of the première actors of her generation.
Lange was discovered by producer Dino De Laurentiis and made her professional film debut in 1976's King Kong. In 1982, she became the first actor in forty years to receive two Oscar nominations within the same year; she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a soap opera star in Tootsie and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the troubled actress Frances Farmer in Frances. Lange received three more nominations for Country (1984), Sweet Dreams (1985), and Music Box (1989) before being nominated a sixth time and winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as a manic depressive in Blue Sky (1994).
In addition to acting, Lange is a photographer with two published works, and is a humanitarian, holding a position as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, specializing in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Congo and Russia.
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Jessica Tandy
Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy (June 7, 1909 - September 11, 1994) was an English-American stage and film actress.
She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among other roles, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films. Following the end of her marriage to the British actor Jack Hawkins, she moved to New York, where she met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn. He became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen.
She won the Tony Award for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948, sharing the prize with Katherine Cornell (who won for the female lead in Antony and Cleopatra) and Judith Anderson (for the latter's portrayal of Medea). Over the following three decades, her career continued sporadically and included a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's horror film, The Birds (1963), and a Tony Award-winning performance in The Gin Game (1977, playing in the two-hander play opposite Hume Cronyn). Along with Cronyn, she was a member of the original acting company of the Guthrie Theater.
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Jim Carter (actor)
Jim Carter (born 19 August 1948) is an English actor.
Carter was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. His father worked for the Air Ministry and his mother was a land girl and later a school secretary. Carter attended Ashville College, Harrogate, where he was head boy in his final year, and the University of Sussex where he studied law and became a leading light of the fledgling Drama Society, playing Sgt Musgrave in the first student production at the newly built Gardner Arts Centre theatre. He dropped out of university after two years to join a fringe theatre group in Brighton.
Carter's film credits include Top Secret! (1984), A Month in the Country (1987), The Madness of King George (1994), Richard III (1995), Brassed Off (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Little Vampire (2000), Ella Enchanted (2004), and Detective Victor Getz in The Thief Lord (2006). He plays John Faa in The Golden Compass (2007), the first film in the adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy, and also stars in House Of 9 (2005) as The Watcher, and the executioner in "Alice in Wonderland".
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Joan Allen
Joan Allen (born August 20, 1956) is an American actress. She worked in theater, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.
She has received three Academy Award nominations; she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Nixon (1995) and The Crucible (1996), and for Best Actress for The Contender (2000).
Her other films include Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid (also known as Zeisters) (1986), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), In Country (1989), The Ice Storm (1996), Face/Off (1997), Pleasantville (1998), The Notebook (2004), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), and Death Race (2008).
Allen, the youngest of four children, was born in Rochelle, Illinois, the daughter of Dorothea Marie (née Wirth), a homemaker, and James Jefferson Allen, a gas station owner. She has an older brother, David, and two older sisters, Mary and Lynn. Allen attended Rochelle Township High School, and was voted most likely to succeed.[citation needed] She first attended Eastern Illinois University, performing in a few plays with John Malkovich, who was also a student, and then Northern Illinois University, where she graduated with a BFA in Theater.
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Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS (born 1 May 1946) is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive Skin. Her distinctive voice has been supplied for animated characters, film narration, and AOL's "You have email" notification in the UK. She has spoken out as a human rights activist for Survival International and the Gurkha Justice Campaign, and is now considered a "national treasure" of Nepal because of her support. She is an advocate for a number of charities and animal welfare groups such as CIWF and Viva! She has won three BAFTA awards and a British Comedy Award.
Joanna Lamond Lumley was born on 1 May 1946 in Srinagar, in the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu, which was then part of British India. Her parents were Major James Rutherford Lumley, who served in the 6th Gurkha Rifles, a regiment of the British Indian Army, and Beatrice Rose Weir. They married in 1941. After the independence of India in 1947, the Lumleys relocated back to their home country of England[citation needed]; county Kent. The family also spent time in Malaya (now Malaysia). Lumley was educated at St Mary's Convent School in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England, and afterwards attended the Lucie Clayton finishing school, after being turned down by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 16.
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Joanna Riding
Joanna Riding, (born Joanne Riding 9 November 1967) is an English actress. For her work in West End musicals, she has won two Laurence Olivier Awards, and has been nominated for two others.
Riding was born in Lancashire, England, growing up on a farm, where her father ran a successful cheese-making business. She received theatre training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 1985-1989.
After leaving school, she worked at Chichester Festival Theatre for a season, playing Anne Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. She met her former husband, actor Peter O'Brien, at Chichester. She was next cast as a replacement Sally in the West End production of Me and My Girl.
In 1993, Riding played the role of Julie Jordan in Nicholas Hytner's Royal National Theatre revival of Carousel and won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance. In 1995 she played Anne Egerman in A Little Night Music opposite Judi Dench, followed by Sarah Brown in Richard Eyre's acclaimed revival of Guys and Dolls, both at the National Theatre. She created the role of Jane Smart in The Witches of Eastwick in 2000, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and in 2003 played the role of Eliza Doolittle in Trevor Nunn's National Theatre revival of My Fair Lady, for which she won her second Olivier Award.
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Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster (born Alicia Christian Foster; November 19, 1962) is an American actress, film director, and producer.
Foster began acting in commercials at three years of age, and her first significant role came at age 13 in the 1976 film Taxi Driver as the preteen prostitute Iris, for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Also that year, she starred in the cult film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1989, for playing a rape victim in The Accused. In 1991, she starred in The Silence of the Lambs as Clarice Starling, a gifted FBI trainee, assisting in a hunt for a serial killer. This performance received international acclaim and her second Academy Award for Best Actress. She received her fourth Academy Award nomination for playing a hermit in Nell (1994). Other popular films include Bugsy Malone (1976); Freaky Friday (1976); Candleshoe (1977) Maverick (1994); Contact (1997); Panic Room (2002); Flightplan (2005); Inside Man (2006); The Brave One (2007); Nim's Island (2008) and Carnage (2011), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy.
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John Webster
John Webster (c.1580 – c.1634) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.
Webster's life is obscure, and the dates of his birth and death are not known. His father, a coach maker also named John Webster, married a blacksmith's daughter named Elizabeth Coates on 4 November 1577, and it is likely that Webster was born not long after in or near London. The family lived in St. Sepulchre's parish. Father John, and Uncle, Edward Webster, were Freemen of the Merchant Taylors' Company and Webster attended Merchant Taylors' School in Suffolk Lane, London. On 1 August 1598, "John Webster, lately of the New Inn" was admitted to the Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court; in view of the legal interests evident in his dramatic work; this is possibly the playwright. Webster married the 17-year-old Sara Peniall on 18 March 1606 at St Mary's Church, Islington. A special licence had to be obtained to permit a wedding in Lent, which was necessary as at the date of their marriage, Sara was seven months pregnant. Their first child, John, was baptised at the parish of St Dunstan-in-the-West on 8 March 1605 or 1606. Bequests in the will of a neighbour who died in 1617 indicate that other children were born to him.
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Joseph Fiennes
Joseph Twisleton Wykeham Fiennes ( /ˈfaɪnz/; b. 27 May 1970) is an English film and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Martin Luther in Luther, Merlin in Camelot, and his portrayal of Mark Benford in the 2009 TV series FlashForward.
Fiennes was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England in 1970, the son of photographer Mark Fiennes and novelist Jennifer Lash. The youngest of six siblings, his elder siblings are actor Ralph Fiennes, filmmakers Sophie Fiennes and Martha Fiennes, composer Magnus Fiennes, and conservationist Jacob Fiennes, his twin brother. His foster brother, Michael Emery, is an archaeologist.
Fiennes was briefly educated in the Republic of Ireland and then at Swan School For Boys (now known as Leehurst Swan School, following a merger with another school), an independent school in Salisbury, before passing his 11+ exam and continuing to Bishop Wordsworth's School, a voluntary-aided state day grammar school, in the Cathedral Close of the city. He then attended art school in Suffolk for a year, before joining the Young Vic Youth Theatre. Fiennes subsequently trained for three years at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1993.
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Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia “Judi” Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.
Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She branched into film work, and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer; however, most of her work during this period was in theatre. Not generally known as a singer, she drew strong reviews for her leading role in the musical Cabaret in 1968.
During the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In television, she achieved success during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television romantic comedy series As Time Goes By.
Her film appearances were infrequent until she was cast as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she has played in each James Bond film since. She received several notable film awards for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), and has since been acclaimed for her work in such films as Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2006), and the television production The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2001).
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Judy Davis
Judy Davis (born 23 April 1955) is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.
Davis first came to attention for her role as the fiery Sybylla Melvyn in the 1979 film My Brilliant Career. She has won many acting awards, including two Golden Globe Awards, three Emmy Awards, one BAFTA and seven AFI Awards. She has also been nominated twice for an Academy Award.
Davis was born in Perth and had a strict Catholic upbringing. She was educated at Loreto Convent and the Western Australian Institute of Technology, and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1977. She has been married to actor and fellow NIDA graduate Colin Friels since 1984. They have two children.
First coming to prominence for her role as Sybylla Melvyn in the coming-of-age saga My Brilliant Career (1979), for which she won BAFTA Awards for Best Actress and Best Newcomer, she also played the lead in such Australian New Wave classics as Winter of Our Dreams (1981) (as the waif-like heroin addict) and Heatwave (1982) (as the radical tenant organizer).
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Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie (born 17 February 1941) is an English actress, singer and theatre director. She is best known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she may be better known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple. McKenzie has also appeared on the stage in both the West End and on Broadway, including in several Stephen Sondheim musicals.
She was born Julia Kathleen McKenzie on 17 February 1941, in Enfield, Middlesex, England, the daughter of Kathleen Rowe and Albion McKenzie.
In London's West End her performing credits include Guys and Dolls as Miss Adelaide (1982) and Sweeney Todd as Mrs. Lovett (1994), winning the Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a Musical for each.
For her role in Woman in Mind, she received the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress. She has also appeared in Follies as Sally at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1987and Into the Woods as the Witch at the Phoenix Theatre in 1990. She appeared in Side By Side By Sondheim in the West End in 1976 and on Broadway in 1977,and was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for her performance.
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Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990), which grossed $464 million worldwide. After receiving Golden Globe Awards and Academy Award nominations for Steel Magnolias (1989) and Pretty Woman, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Erin Brockovich (2000). Her films My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Mystic Pizza (1988), Notting Hill (1999), Runaway Bride (1999), Valentine's Day (2010), The Pelican Brief (1993), Ocean's Eleven (2001), and Ocean's Twelve (2004) have collectively brought box office receipts of over $2.4 billion, making her one of the most successful actresses in terms of box office receipts.
Roberts had become one of the highest-paid actresses in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual "power list" of top-earning female stars from 2005 to 2006. Her fee for 1990's Pretty Woman was $300,000; in 2003, she was paid an unprecedented $25 million for her role in Mona Lisa Smile (2003). As of 2010, Roberts's net worth was estimated to be $140 million.
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Julie Harris
Julia Ann "Julie" Harris (born December 2, 1925) is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. She also received the 2002 Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.
Harris's screen debut was in 1952, repeating her Broadway success as the monumentally lonely teenage girl Frankie in Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. That film also preserves the original Broadway cast performances of Ethel Waters and Brandon DeWilde. That same year, she won her first Best Actress Tony for originating the role of insouciant Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera, the stage version of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin (later musicalized as Cabaret on Broadway in 1966 and, in the 1972 film, with Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles.) Harris repeated her stage role in the 1955 film version of I Am a Camera. She also appeared in such films as East of Eden (1955), with James Dean (with whom she became close friends), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), with Paul Newman in the private-detective film Harper in 1966, and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967).
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Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, CBE (born 30 October 1956) is an English actor of stage and screen.
Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth (née Marshall), a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer. Stevenson's father was in the army and was posted to a new place every two and a half years. When Stevenson was nine, she attended Berkshire's Hurst Lodge School, and she was later educated at the independent St Catherine's School in Bramley, near Guildford in Surrey, and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Stevenson was part of 'new wave’ of actors to emerge from the Academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Bruce Payne, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton and Fiona Shaw. This led to a stage career starting in the early 1980s with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Although she has gained fame through her television and film work, and has often undertaken roles for BBC Radio, she is best known as a stage actress. Significant stage roles include her lead performance as Anna in the UK premiere of Burn This in 1990, and as Paulina in Death and the Maiden in 1991. For the latter, she was awarded the 1992 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.
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Juliette Binoche
Juliette Binoche (French pronunciation: [ʒyljɛt binɔʃ]; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress, artist and dancer. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films, been recipient of numerous international accolades, is a published author and has appeared on stage across the world. Coming from an artistic background, she began taking acting lessons during adolescence. After performing in several stage productions, she was propelled into the world of auteurs Jean-Luc Godard (Hail Mary, 1985), Jacques Doillon (Family Life, 1985) and André Téchiné, who made her a star in France with the leading role in his 1985 drama Rendez-vous. Her sensual performance in her English-language debut The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), directed by Philip Kaufman, launched her international career.
She sparked the interest of Steven Spielberg, who offered her several parts including a role in Jurassic Park which she declined, choosing instead to join Krzysztof Kieślowski on the set of Three Colors: Blue (1993), a performance for which she won the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Actress and a César. Three years later Binoche gained further acclaim in Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996), for which she was awarded an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress in addition to the Best Actress Award at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival. For her performance in Lasse Hallström's romantic comedy Chocolat (2000) Binoche was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
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Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader (2008). She has won awards from the Screen Actors Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association among others, and has been nominated twice for an Emmy Award for television acting, winning once for her role as Mildred Pierce in the 2011 mini-series of the same name.
Brought up in Berkshire, Winslet studied drama from childhood, and began her career in British television in 1991. She made her film debut in Heavenly Creatures (1994), for which she received her first notable critical praise. She achieved recognition for her subsequent work in a supporting role in Sense and Sensibility (1995) and for her leading role in Titanic (1997), the highest grossing film at the time, and the highest grossing film of Winslet's career.
Since 2000, Winslet's performances have continued to draw positive comments from film critics, and she has been nominated for various awards for her work in such films as Quills (2000), Iris (2001), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Finding Neverland (2004), Little Children (2006), The Reader (2008) and Revolutionary Road (2008). Her performance in the last of these prompted New York magazine critic David Edelstein to describe her as "the best English-speaking film actress of her generation". The romantic comedy The Holiday and the animated film Flushed Away (both 2006) are among the biggest commercial successes of her career.
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Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress of film, stage, and television. Known for her headstrong independence and spirited personality, Hepburn's career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned more than 60 years. Her work came in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and she received four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. Hepburn's characters were often strong, sophisticated women with a hidden vulnerability.
Raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn began to act while studying at Bryn Mawr College. After four years in the theatre, favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Her early years in the film industry were marked with success, including an Academy Award for her third picture, Morning Glory (1933), but this was followed by a series of commercial failures. In 1938 she was labeled "box office poison". Hepburn masterminded her own comeback, buying out her contract with RKO Radio Pictures and acquiring the film rights to The Philadelphia Story, which she sold on the condition that she be the star. In the 1940s she was contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where her career focused on an alliance with Spencer Tracy. The screen-partnership spanned 25 years, and produced nine movies.
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Katherine Blake
The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street in 1993, by order of first appearance.
Rachel McKenna was the spoilt teenage daughter of CEO - Michael (Paul Gittins) and Alex McKenna (Liddy Holloway). She arrived in early 1993 as part of the McKenna family unit and has been portrayed by Angela Bloomfield for numerous stints.
Dr. Leonard Ralph Carlton Rossi-Dodds was the love interest and eventual husband to Gina Rossi (Josephine Davison). He arrived as the eccentric new doctor in early 1993 and soon started to date the equally eccentric - Gina. However Leonard soon left and when he returned, was shocked Gina had moved on to Hone Ropata (Temuera Morrison). The two reconciled and ended up getting married, something Leonard's best man - Lionel Skeggins (John Leigh) nearly put an end to. The couple bought a houseboat and after Leonard recovered from his sea sickness, the two tried for children. The attempts proved useless and the two moved to America. They returned later in the year as best man and bridesmaid to Lionel and Kirsty (Angela Dotchin) and ended up leaving in early 1995.
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Kathleen Quinlan
Kathleen Denise Quinlan (born November 19, 1954) is an American actress, mostly seen on television and in motion pictures.
Quinlan was born in Pasadena, California, the daughter of Josephine (née Zachry), a military supply supervisor, and Robert Quinlan, a television sports director. She was raised in Mill Valley, California, where she attended Tamalpais High School and began her acting career. She has been married to actor Bruce Abbott since April 12, 1994. They have a son, Tyler (born 1990).
Quinlan made her film debut in George Lucas' 1973 nostalgic look at the early sixties, American Graffiti, at the age of 19 (although she did appear in an uncredited role in 1972's One is a Lonely Number). As a young actress, she guest-starred in several 1970s television series including Police Woman, Ironside, Emergency! and Kojak.
She has appeared in over 50 films, but is perhaps best known for her roles as Deborah, a schizophrenic, in the film version of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Drama, and for a Golden Globe and Oscar nominated turn in the Best Supporting Actress category as an astronaut's wife, Marilyn Lovell, in the 1995 true story Apollo 13 opposite Tom Hanks.
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Kathryn Hunter
Kathryn Hunter (born Aikaterini Hadjipateras, 9 April 1957[citation needed]) is an award-winning English actress and theatre director.
Hunter was born in New York to Greek parents but brought up in the UK. She trained at RADA where she is now an associate, and regularly directs student productions.
In her stage work, Hunter is particularly associated with physical theatre and has worked with renowned companies in that field including Shared Experience and Complicite. She won an Olivier Award in 1990 for playing the millionairess in Friedrich Durrenmatt's The Visit.[citation needed] Hunter was the first British actress to play King Lear professionally and has played a number of other male characters including in The Bee, directed by Hideki Noda, which played at the Soho Theatre in June 2006.[citation needed] She has toured internationally in the first English-language production of Fragments a collection of short plays by Samuel Beckett, directed by Peter Brook.[citation needed]
In 2008, she was made an Artistic Associate at the Royal Shakespeare Company.[citation needed] In January to March 2009, she directed a touring RSC production of Othello at the Warwick Arts Centre, Hackney Empire, Northern Stage, Oxford Playhouse and Liverpool Playhouse.[citation needed] Her husband is movement director on the production and appeared in it as Roderigo - other cast included Michael Gould, Patrice Naiambana and Natalia Tena as Iago, Othello and Desdemona respectively. She also appeared at the Young Vic from March 2009 in the lead in Kafka's Monkey.
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Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an American actress and film director. After appearing in several minor roles in film and television during the 1970s and the 1980s, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery (1990), for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe. She followed this with major roles in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Dolores Claiborne (1995), before playing a featured role as Margaret "Molly" Brown in Titanic (1997). During this time, she began her directing career, primarily in television.
Bates received a Tony Award nomination for her 1983 performance in the Broadway play 'night, Mother. She won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in Primary Colors (1998), for which she also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for About Schmidt (2002). Her television work has resulted in nine Emmy Award nominations. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003, Bates has stated that she has made a full recovery.
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Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh (/ˈbrænə/ BRAN-ə; born 10 December 1960) is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V (1989) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Director), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Othello, Hamlet (1996) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay), Love's Labour's Lost (2000), and As You Like It (2006).
He has also starred in numerous other films and television series including Fortunes of War (1987), Wild Wild West (1999), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Conspiracy (TV) (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Warm Springs (TV) (2005), Valkyrie (2008), Wallander (TV series) (2008–present), and My Week with Marilyn (2011) as Laurence Olivier (Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor); and directed such notable films as Dead Again (1991) (also starring), Swan Song (1992) (Academy Award nominated for Best Live Action Short Film), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) (also starring), The Magic Flute (2006), Sleuth (2007), and the blockbuster action film Thor (2011).
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Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Hollow Man, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Friday the 13th, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, and X-Men: First Class.
Bacon has won Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, was nominated for an Emmy Award, and was named by The Guardian as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
In 2003, Bacon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bacon, one of six children, was born and raised in a close-knit family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Ruth Hilda (née Holmes; 1916–1991), taught at an elementary school and was a liberal activist, while his father, Edmund Norwood Bacon (May 2, 1910 – October 14, 2005), was a well-respected architect and a prominent Philadelphian who had been Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission for many years. At 16, in 1975, Bacon won a full scholarship to and attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts at Bucknell University, a state-funded five-week arts program where he studied Theatre under Dr. Glory Van Scott, which helped solidify Bacon's passion for the arts.
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Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, CBE (born Kevin Spacey Fowler; July 26, 1959) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s, culminating in his first Academy Award for The Usual Suspects (Best Supporting Actor), followed by a Best Actor Academy Award win for American Beauty (1999). His other starring roles in Hollywood include Seven, L.A. Confidential, Pay It Forward, K-PAX, and Superman Returns in a career which has earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Since 2003, he has been artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London.
Spacey was born in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of Kathleen Ann (née Knutson; December 5, 1931 – March 19, 2003), a secretary, and Thomas Geoffrey Fowler (June 4, 1924 – December 24, 1992), a technical writer and data consultant. He has two older siblings: a sister, Julie, and a brother, Randy. He attended Northridge Military Academy, Canoga Park High School (in tenth and eleventh grades), and then Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, where he graduated valedictorian of his class. At Chatsworth High, he starred in the school's senior production of The Sound of Music, playing the part of Captain Georg von Trapp, opposite Mare Winningham's character, Maria.
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Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger ( /ˈbeɪsɪŋər/ BAY-sing-ər, often mispronounced /ˈbæsɪndʒər/ BASS-in-jər; born December 8, 1953) is an American actress, singer, and former fashion model.
She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again (1983), and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman (1989). Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture nomination for her work in The Natural (1984). She won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in L.A. Confidential (1997). Basinger also acted in the movies 9½ Weeks (1986) and 8 Mile (2002).
Basinger was born in Athens, Georgia. Her father, Donald Wade Basinger, was a big band musician and loan manager who as a U.S. Army soldier landed in Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944). Her mother, Ann (née Cordell), was a model, an actress, and a swimmer who appeared in several Esther Williams films. The third of five children, she has two brothers, Mick and Skip, and two sisters, Ashley and Barbara. Basinger's ancestry includes German, Swedish, Irish and Native American, and she was raised a Methodist.
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Kim Medcalf
Kim Louise Medcalf (born 8 December 1973) is an English actress and occasional singer. She has made occasional appearances as a singer and is best known for playing the character Sam Mitchell in the long running BBC Soap Opera EastEnders from 2002 to 2005.
Kim Medcalf was born in Bromley, Kent, to parents Diane and Peter, where she grew up in a loving family with her 2 older brothers. Medcalf completed her A-level studies at Newstead Wood School for Girls and after eventually leaving, attended the University of Bristol to study Law.
On graduation, she became an account manager but while on holiday with friends, she decided this was no longer for her and she left to try something different. In 2010, Kim gave birth to a girl.
She enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama. After successfully completing the course, she took part in various theatre productions, including One Touch Of Venus at the King's Head in Islington. in which Sheridan Morley wrote "Playing Venus is Kim Medcalf, an actress here making her professional debut straight from drama school: It is the most impressive I have seen in a musical for many a long year"
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Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin A. Scott Thomas,OBE (born 24 May 1960) is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient.
Since the 1980s, she has also worked in French cinema in films such as the thriller Tell No One and Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long. She has lived in France since she was 19, has brought up her three children in Paris, and says she considers herself more French than British. She was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 2005.
Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall. Her mother, Deborah (née Hurlbatt), was brought up in Hong Kong and Africa, and studied drama before marrying Scott Thomas's father. Her father, Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas, was a pilot for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm who died in a flying accident in 1964. She is the elder sister of actress Serena Scott Thomas, the niece of Admiral Sir Richard Thomas (who was a Black Rod in the House of Lords), and a more distant great-great-niece of Captain Scott, the ill-fated explorer who lost the race to the South Pole.
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Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Macbeth (c.1603–1607). She is the wife to the play's protagonist, Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman. After goading him into committing regicide, she becomes Queen of Scotland, but later suffers pangs of guilt for her part in the crime. She dies off-stage in the last act, an apparent suicide.
The character's origins lie in the accounts of Kings Duff and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of Britain familiar to Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth appears to be a composite of two separate and distinct personages in Holinshed's work: Donwald's nagging, murderous wife in the account of King Duff, and Macbeth's ambitious wife in the account of King Duncan.
Lady Macbeth is a powerful presence in the play, most notably in the first two acts. Following the murder of King Duncan, however, her role in the plot diminishes. She becomes an uninvolved spectator to Macbeth's plotting, and a nervous hostess at a banquet dominated by her husband's hallucinations. Her fifth act sleepwalking scene is a turning point in the play, and her line, "Out, damned spot!," has become a phrase familiar to most speakers of the English language. The report of her death late in the fifth act provides the inspiration for Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech.
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Laura Henderson
Laura Henderson (6 December 1863 – 29 November 1944) rose to prominence in the 1930s when, as a wealthy and eccentric widow, she founded the Windmill Theatre in London's Great Windmill Street in partnership with Vivian van Damm; they went on to turn it into a British institution, famed for its pioneering tableaux vivants of motionless female nudity and for having "never closed" during the Blitz.
Laura Henderson was the well-traveled wife of a wealthy jute merchant and lost her only son in 1915 in France during the First World War. In 1931, she bought the Palais de Luxe building and hired architect Howard Jones to remodel the interior to a tiny, one-tier theatre. It was renamed the Windmill. It opened on 22 June 1931 as a playhouse but it was not profitable, soon returning to showing films. She then hired Vivian Van Damm and they produced "Revudeville", a programme of continuous variety with 18 entertainment acts. This also was a commercial failure, so they added the dimension of nudity to emulate the Folies Bergère and the Moulin Rouge. The key element was Van Damm's exploitation of a legal loophole (or zone of tolerance) that nude statues could not be banned on moral grounds, and this led to the legendary "Windmill Girls" who appeared completely nude but stood completely still, so as to emulate nude statuary.
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Laura Linney
Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award. She has garnered three nominations for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play.
She received a Golden Globe award for her portrayal of a suburban woman diagnosed with terminal cancer in The Big C.
Linney was born in Manhattan. Her mother, Miriam Anderson "Ann" Perse (née Leggett), is a nurse who worked at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and her father, Romulus Linney, was a well-known playwright and professor (he died on January 15, 2011). Linney's paternal great-great-grandfather was Republican U.S. Congressman Romulus Zachariah Linney. Despite her pedigree, Linney grew up under modest circumstances, living with her mother in a small one-bedroom apartment after her parents' divorce. She has a half-sister, Susan, from her father's second marriage.
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Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall ( /ˌlɔrən bəˈkɔːl/; born Betty Joan Perske, September 16, 1924) is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.
She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not (1944) and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in Bogart movies The Big Sleep (1946) and Dark Passage (1947), as well as a comedienne in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Designing Woman (1957) with Gregory Peck. Bacall has also worked on Broadway in musicals, gaining Tony Awards for Applause in 1970 and Woman of the Year in 1981. Her performance in the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.
In 1999, Bacall was ranked #20 of the 25 actresses on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list by the American Film Institute. In 2009, she was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Academy Honorary Award "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion pictures."
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Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM ( /ˈlɒrəns ɵˈlɪvi.eɪ/; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor, director, and producer. One of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, he was the youngest actor to be knighted and the first to be elevated to the peerage. He married three times, to actresses Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright. Actor Spencer Tracy said that Olivier was 'the greatest actor in the English-speaking world'.
Olivier played a wide variety of roles on stage and screen from Greek tragedy, Shakespeare and Restoration comedy to modern American and British drama. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. He is regarded by some to be the greatest actor of the 20th century, in the same category as David Garrick, Richard Burbage, Edmund Kean and Henry Irving in their own centuries. Olivier's AMPAS acknowledgments are considerable: twelve Oscar nominations, with two awards (for Best Actor and Best Picture for the 1948 film Hamlet), plus two honorary awards including a statuette and certificate. He was also awarded five Emmy awards from the nine nominations he received. Additionally, he was a three-time Golden Globe and BAFTA winner.
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Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga-Chien (born February 22, 1971) is a mezzo-soprano singer, actress, and Disney Legend from the Philippines well known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.
She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and Fantine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway. She also provided the singing voice of two official Disney Princesses: Jasmine in Aladdin (1992), and Fa Mulan in Mulan (1998) and Mulan II (2004). Salonga was named a Disney Legend in 2011 for her work with the company.
Salonga made her professional debut in 1978 at the age of seven in the musical The King and I by Repertory Philippines. She became the lead star of Annie and joined other productions such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fiddler on the Roof, The Rose Tattoo, The Sound of Music, The Goodbye Girl, Paper Moon and The Fantasticks.
She began her recording career at the age of ten with her first album, Small Voice, which received a gold certification. A song on the album, the duet "Happiness", marked her first recording collaboration with her younger brother Gerard Salonga, who would, years later, work with her as musical director or creative director in her concerts and recordings. Her second album, Lea, was released in 1988.
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Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp (born 1960 in Liverpool, Lancashire) is an English stage, film and television actress, particularly well known for her variety of British television roles including Clocking Off, Bob & Rose and afterlife.
Adopted as the second daughter of mature Scottish parents, Sharp grew up in Formby, Merseyside. Childhood holidays were spent in Edinburgh, where "every fucking summer it rained". Sharp started acting because, as a child, she felt "invisible" and didn't "quite fit in." She has said that her inspiration to act came from watching Dick Emery on television. Her father worked for the Inland Revenue and was not keen on her taking up acting, preferring her to follow in his footsteps by becoming a civil servant. Her adoptive mother died of cancer when Sharp was 15. The adoption was never a secret in the family, but it was only after leaving home that she met her genetic mother — a working class woman unable to keep her because the father was a married man.
Sharp moved to London at 18 and, after initially failing to get into drama school, worked at the Department of Education and Science at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Responsible for filling in the warders' overtime sheets, her poor numeracy skills resulted in frequent mistakes before she was eventually asked "very nicely, but firmly" to leave.
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Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960s when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in. Her career has spanned television, comedy recordings, Broadway, and motion pictures, enjoying acclaimed success in each medium. She has won many awards including Tony Awards, Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award and has also been nominated for an Academy Award. Tomlin's humor is often sharp and insightful in the traditions of standup comedians, but also frequently endearing, slightly wacky, and generally quite "family friendly" in the tradition of television comediennes such as Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, and Eve Arden.
Tomlin was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Lillie Mae (née Ford), a housewife and nurse's aide, and Guy Tomlin, a factory worker. Tomlin's parents were Southern Baptists who moved to Detroit from Paducah, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. She is a 1957 graduate of Cass Technical High School. Tomlin attended Wayne State University, where her interest in the theater and performing arts began. After college, Tomlin began doing stand-up comedy in nightclubs in Detroit and later in New York City. Her first television appearance was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1965.
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Linda Hunt
Lydia Susanna Hunter (born April 2, 1945), better known by her stage name Linda Hunt, is an American film, stage and television actress. After making her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye (1980), Hunt portrayed Billy Kwan, her breakthrough performance, in The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Her role as Billy Kwan earned her an Academy Award, an Australian Film Institute Award, a Golden Globe nomination and various other awards.
She continued success in films such as The Bostonians (1984), Dune (1984), Silverado (1985), Eleni (1985), Waiting for the Moon (1987), She-Devil (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), If Looks Could Kill (1991), Rain Without Thunder (1992), Twenty Bucks (1993), Younger and Younger (1993), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Relic (1997), Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998), Dragonfly (2002), Yours Mine and Ours (2005) and Stranger Than Fiction (2006).
Hunt has also had a successful television career. She played Rose in the television movie Basements (1987) and narrated in the television movie The New Chimpanzees. She guest starred on Hallmark Hall of Fame in both 1978 and 1987, Space Rangers in 1993, Carnivale in both 2003 and 2005, Without a Trace in 2008, The Unit in 2008 and Nip Tuck in 2009. From 1997-2002 Hunt played the recurring role of Judge Zoey Hiller on The Practice. She currently plays Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange on the CBS television series NCIS Los Angeles, a role she has played since its debut in 2009. The role earned her a Teen Choice Award nomination in 2011. She is also the narrator in the God Of War video game franchise.
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Linda Lavin
Linda Lavin (born October 15, 1937) is an American singer and actress. She is known for playing the title character in the sitcom Alice and for her Broadway performances.
After acting as a child, Lavin joined the Compass Players in the late 1950s. She began acting on Broadway in the 1960s, earning notice in "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman" in 1966 and receiving her first Tony Award nomination in Last of the Red Hot Lovers in 1970. She moved to Hollywood in 1973 and began to work in television, making recurring appearances on Barney Miller before getting the title role in Alice, which ran from 1976 to 1985. She appeared in many telefilms and later in other TV work. She has also had roles in several feature films.
In 1987, she returned to Broadway, starring in Broadway Bound (winning a Tony Award), Gypsy (1990), The Sisters Rosensweig (1993), The Diary of Anne Frank (1997–1998) and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2000–2001), among others. In 2010, she appeared as Ruth Steiner in Collected Stories, garnering her fifth Tony nomination. Thrice married, Lavin spends time at her North Carolina home on charitable activities.
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Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Vere Duncan, CBE (born 7 November 1950) is a Scottish stage, television and film actress. On stage she has won two Olivier Awards, a Tony Award for her performance in Private Lives, and another Tony Award nomination for her role in Les Liaisons dangereuses. Lindsay has starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Her most famous roles on television include: Barbara Douglas in Alan Bleasdale's G.B.H. (1991), Servilia of the Junii in the HBO/BBC/RAI series Rome (2005–2007), and Adelaide Brooke in the Doctor Who special "The Waters of Mars" (2009). On film she voiced the android TC-14 in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), and she played Alice's mother in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010). She was awarded a CBE in 2009 for services to drama.
Duncan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in a working class family; her father had served in the army for 21 years before becoming a civil servant. Her parents moved to Leeds, then Birmingham when she was still a child. Duncan attended King Edwards VI High School for Girls in Birmingham through a scholarship. Despite her origins, she speaks with a Received Pronunciation accent. As of 2011, her only role with a Scottish accent is AfterLife (2003).
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Luis Guzmán
Luis Guzmán (born August 28, 1956) is a Puerto Rican-born American actor, who is known for his character work. For much of his Guzmán's career, he has played character roles largely as sidekicks, thugs, or policemen.
He is a favorite of director Steven Soderbergh, who cast him in Out of Sight, The Limey, and Traffic, and Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast him in Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love. He also voiced Ricardo Diaz in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. He recently starred in the HBO original series How to Make It in America.
Guzmán was born in Cayey, Puerto Rico and was raised in New York City's Greenwich Village and the surrounding Lower East Side neighborhood. His mother, Rosa, was a hospital worker, and his stepfather, Benjamin Cardona, was a TV repairman. A graduate of City College of New York, he began his career not as an actor but as a social worker and moonlighted as an actor, eventually becoming heavily involved in street theater and independent films.
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Madeline Kahn
Madeline Kahn (September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999) was an American actress. Kahn was known primarily for her comic roles in films such as Paper Moon, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, What's Up, Doc?, and Clue.
Kahn was born Madeline Gail Wolfson in Boston, the daughter of Paula Kahn and Bernard B. Wolfson, who was a garment manufacturer. She was raised in a non-observant Jewish family. Her parents divorced when Kahn was two, and she and her mother moved to New York City. Several years later her parents remarried others and gave Kahn two half-siblings: Jeffrey (from her mother) and Robyn (from her father).
In 1948, Kahn was sent to a progressive boarding school in Pennsylvania and stayed there until 1952. During that time, her mother pursued her acting dream. Kahn soon began acting herself and performed in a number of school productions. In 1960, she graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, where she earned a drama scholarship to Hofstra University on Long Island. At Hofstra, she studied drama, music, and speech therapy. After changing her major a number of times, Kahn graduated from Hofstra in 1964 with a degree in speech therapy. She was a member of a local sorority on campus, Delta Chi Delta.
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Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie "Maggie" Smith, DBE (born 28 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress. She has had an extensive career both on screen and in live theatre, and is known as one of Britain's pre-eminent actors. She made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 60 years. She has won numerous awards for acting, both for the stage and for film, including seven BAFTA Awards (five competitive awards and two special awards including the Bafta Fellowship in 1996), two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, two Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, two SAG Awards and a Tony Award. Dame Maggie is the only actor ever to win this collective of awards and is one of the most successful and acclaimed actors of the film era.
Her critically acclaimed films include Othello (1965), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), Travels with My Aunt (1972), California Suite (1978), Clash of the Titans (1981), A Room with a View (1985) and Gosford Park (2001). She has also appeared in a number of widely-popular films, including Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992) and as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series. She currently stars in the critically acclaimed drama Downton Abbey as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, for which she has won an Emmy.
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Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959) is an American film and theatre actress. Harden's breakthrough role was in Miller's Crossing (1990) and then The First Wives Club (1996) which was followed by several roles which gained her wider fame including the comedy Flubber (1997) and Meet Joe Black (1998). She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lee Krasner in Pollock (2000). She has starred in a string of successful mainstream and independent movies, such as Space Cowboys (2000), Into the Wild (2007), and The Mist (2007). Harden's recent credits include Lasse Hallström's film, The Hoax, opposite Richard Gere, and The Walt Disney Company's The Invisible, directed by David S Goyer. She was also recently seen in Lakeshore Entertainment's The Dead Girl, directed by Karen Moncrieff and starring Toni Colette, Kerry Washington, Mary Steenburgen, and Brittany Murphy. In 2009, Harden received a Tony Award for the Broadway play God of Carnage. She has been nominated for an Emmy Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award two times.
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Margaret Tyzack
Margaret Maud Tyzack, CBE (9 September 1931 – 25 June 2011) was a British actress.
Tyzack was born in Essex, England, the daughter of Doris (née Moseley) and Thomas Edward Tyzack. She grew up in West Ham (now Greater London). She attended the all-girls' St Angela's Ursuline School, Newham, and was a graduate of RADA.
Tyzack was noted for her classical stage roles, having joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962. In the late 1970s she spent three years on stage at Stratford, Ontario, where she played Mrs Alving in Ibsen's Ghosts, Queen Margaret in Richard III and the Countess of Roussillon in Alls Well That Ends Well.
She received an Olivier Award in 1982 for a revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in which she played Martha, replacing Joan Plowright who was ill, and a Tony award in 1991 for the play Lettice and Lovage, in which she appeared in both the London and Broadway productions opposite Dame Maggie Smith. The American Actors' Equity initially refused permission for Tyzack to join the New York production, but Smith refused to appear without Tyzack because of the "onstage chemistry" she believed the two women had created in their roles. In 2008, she was acclaimed for her portrayal of Mrs St Maugham in a revival of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden at the Donmar Warehouse, London, for which she won the Best Actress award in the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2009. In 2009, she appeared alongside Helen Mirren in Phedre at the Royal National Theatre.
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Maria Friedman
Maria Friedman (born 19 March 1960) is an English actress working in television, musical theatre, and concerts. She has won three Olivier Awards for her stage work.
Friedman was born Maria Freedman in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, the daughter of Clair (née Sims), a concert pianist, and Leonard Friedman, a violinist for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Her father is from a Russian Jewish immigrant family and her mother is English. She began her education in Germany, and by the age of five moved with her family to England after the divorce of her parents.
She first gained fame when she won an Olivier Award for her one-woman cabaret, Maria Friedman By Special Arrangement and another Olivier Award starring in Stephen Sondheim's Passion in 1996, and later became one of the main leading ladies on the London Stage. She would later star in Chicago and Ragtime, both on the West End.
In 2004 she originated the role of Marian Halcombe in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Woman in White in the West End and on Broadway in 2005. In the 1999 film of Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, she played the narrator.
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Marie Mullen
Marie Mullen (born 1953) is an Irish actress.
She was one of the founding members of the Druid Theatre Company and her husband has been associated with the company many times in the past. She acted in DruidSynge, a theatre production of the complete plays of John Millington Synge, performed in the same day, by the Druid Theatre Company in which she played parts in five of the six plays. Mullen won the 1998 Tony Award for Best Actress in a play for The Beauty Queen of Leenane. In 2007, she performed alongside James Cromwell in the Druid production of Long Days Journey into Night.
Mullen was married to Irish actor Sean McGinley and they have two children.
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Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard (French pronunciation: [maʁjɔ̃ kɔtijaʁ]; born 30 September 1975) is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants. She has also appeared in such films as Big Fish, A Good Year, Public Enemies, Nine, Inception, Midnight in Paris, and Contagion.
In 2007, Cotillard starred as the French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, for which she won the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, the César Award and the Golden Globe Award for best actress. She made film history by becoming the first person to win an Academy Award for a French language performance. In 2010, she received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the musical Nine.
Cotillard was born in Paris and grew up around Orléans, Loiret in an artistically inclined, "bustling, creative household". Her father, Jean-Claude Cotillard, is an actor, teacher, former mime, and 2006 Molière Award-winning director. Cotillard's mother, Monique (now known as Niseema) Theillaud, is also an actress and drama teacher. She has two younger twin brothers, Quentin and Guillaume. Guillaume is a screenwriter and director. She began acting during her childhood, appearing on stage in one of her father's plays.
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Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei (/məˈrɪsə toʊˈmeɪ/; born December 4, 1964) is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987. After appearing in a few films, her breakthrough came in 1992 with the comedy My Cousin Vinny, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Appearing in many films over the past fifteen years, her most commercially successful films to date are What Women Want (2000), Anger Management (2003), and Wild Hogs (2007). She received critical acclaim for her performances in Unhook the Stars (1996), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) and received subsequent Academy Award nominations for her performances in In the Bedroom (2001) and The Wrestler (2008).
Tomei, an Italian American, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Patricia Adelaide "Addie" (née Bianchi), an English teacher, and Gary A. Tomei, a trial lawyer. She has a younger brother, actor Adam Tomei, and was partly raised by her paternal grandparents, Rita and Romeo Tomei. Tomei grew up in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. While there, she became captivated by the Broadway shows that her theater-loving parents took her to, and became drawn to acting as a career. At Andries Hudde Junior High School, she played the part of Hedy LaRue in a school production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School in 1982, she attended Boston University for a year.
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Mark Addy
Mark Addy Johnson (born 14 January 1964) is an English actor, best known for his roles as Detective Constable Gary Boyle in the British sitcom The Thin Blue Line, Dave in the film The Full Monty, father Bill Miller in the U.S. sitcom Still Standing and most recently as King Robert Baratheon in the HBO medieval fantasy epic Game of Thrones.
Addy was born in Tang Hall, York, and was educated in the city. In 1982–84 he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He lives with his wife Kelly and three children (Ruby, born 2000; Charlie, born 2003; and Oscar, born 2005) in Rufforth, close to Upper Poppleton village, near York. Addy's ancestors have lived in York at least since 1910 when his great-grandfather was living there. His father Ian has spent his working life as a glazier at York Minster.
Addy made his first TV appearance in 1988 in A Very Peculiar Practice, followed by TV performances in shows such as Heartbeat, Band of Gold, Married with Children (one episode), Bruised Fruit, Peak Practice, The Thin Blue Line, Too Much Sun, Sunnyside Farm and most recently Trollied.
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Martin Clunes
Alexander Martin Clunes (born 28 November 1961) is an English actor and comedian. Clunes is perhaps best known for his roles as Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly, Doctor Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin and the title character in Reggie Perrin.
Clunes is the son of the classical actor Alec Clunes, who died of lung cancer when Clunes was eight and a half years old. He has an older sister, Amanda. His mother Daphne, later a board member of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, once worked for Orson Welles. Clunes was educated at two independent secondary schools, the Royal Russell School in Croydon and The Arts Educational Schools, in Chiswick, London.[citation needed]
Clunes served his first role in rep at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and his first television appearance came in the 1980s Doctor Who story Snakedance as the spoiled Lon. But a sporadic career led to his supplementing his income as a photo model for Gilbert and George, and he can be seen in their 1983 work World.[citation needed]
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Maureen Stapleton
Maureen Stapleton (June 21, 1925 – March 13, 2006) was an American actress in film, theater and television.
Stapleton was born Lois Maureen Stapleton in Troy, New York, the daughter of Irene (née Walsh) and John P. Stapleton, and grew up in a strict Irish American Catholic family. Her father was an alcoholic and her parents separated during her childhood.
Stapleton moved to New York City at the age of eighteen, and did modeling to pay the bills. She once said that it was her infatuation with the handsome Hollywood actor Joel McCrea which led her into acting. She made her Broadway debut in the production featuring Burgess Meredith of The Playboy of the Western World in 1946. That same year, she played the role of Iras in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" in a touring production by actress and producer Katharine Cornell. Stepping in because Anna Magnani refused the role due to her limited English, Stapleton won a Tony Award for her role in Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo in 1951. (Magnani's English improved, however, and she was able to play the role in the film version, winning an Oscar.) Stapleton played in other Williams' productions, including Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton and Orpheus Descending (and its film adaptation, The Fugitive Kind, co-starring her friend Marlon Brando), as well as Lillian Hellman's Toys in the Attic. She won a second Tony Award for Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady, which was written especially for her, in 1971. Later Broadway roles included "Birdie" in The Little Foxes opposite Elizabeth Taylor and as a replacement for Jessica Tandy in The Gin Game.
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Mena Suvari
Mena Alexandra Suvari (born February 13, 1979) is an American actress, fashion designer, and model. Shortly after beginning her career as a model, she appeared in guest roles on 1990's television shows such as Boy Meets World and High Incident. She made her film debut in the 1997 drama film Nowhere.
Her first major film roles were in American Beauty, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award, and American Pie (both released in 1999). Since then she has appeared in Loser (2000), with her American Pie co-star, Jason Biggs, and later played a main character in the comedy film Sugar & Spice (2001). She had appearances in the 2002 independent drama Spun, and the 2004 thriller feature Trauma. She also appeared in the HBO's drama series Six Feet Under in 2004, she received a nomination as a member of the Outstanding Cast at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2008, she was cast in a string of films, including Day of the Dead, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and the film adaptation of The Garden of Eden.
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Mercedes Ruehl
Mercedes J. Ruehl (born February 28, 1948) is an American theater, television, and film actor.
Ruehl was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, the daughter of Mercedes J., a school teacher, and Vincent Ruehl, an FBI agent. She was raised Catholic. Her father was of German and Irish descent and her mother was of Cuban and Irish ancestry. Ruehl attended College of New Rochelle and graduated in 1969. She is married to painter, David Geiser, with whom she adopted a son, Jake (born 1997). She had another son, Christopher, whom she placed in adoption in 1976; he later became Jake's godfather.
Her brother, Peter Ruehl, moved to Australia, where he became a popular newspaper columnist.
Ruehl began her career in regional theatre with the Denver Center Theatre Company, taking odd jobs between engagements. In the late 1970s, Ruehl began chalking up New York stage successes, notably in I'm Not Rappaport (1984). On the stage, she won the 1984 Obie Award for her performance in The Marriage of Bette and Boo and twenty years later, an Obie for Woman Before a Glass. She also received a 1991 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for Neil Simon'sLost in Yonkers. Her performances in two other plays earned her two other Tony nominations:
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Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. She is widely regarded as one of the most talented actors of all time.
Streep made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville (1971), before her screen debut in the television movie Deadliest Season (1977). In that same year, she made her film debut with Julia (1977). Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the former giving Streep her first Academy Award nomination and the latter her first win. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).
Streep has received 17 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and 26 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, five New York Film Critics Circle Awards, two BAFTA awards, an Australian Film Institute Award, five Grammy Award nominations, and a Tony Award nomination, amongst others. She was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004 and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2009 for her contribution to American culture through performing arts, the youngest actress in each award's history.
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Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2009. He is the eldest of actor Kirk Douglas's four sons.
Douglas was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the first child of actor Kirk Douglas and Bermudian-born actress Diana Dill. His paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Gomel in Belarus (at that time a part of the Russian Empire). His mother was from Devonshire Parish, Bermuda; Douglas's maternal grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Melville Dill, served as Attorney General of Bermuda and was commanding officer of the Bermuda Militia Artillery. Douglas has a younger brother, Joel Douglas (born 1947), and two paternal half-brothers, Peter Douglas (born 1955) and Eric Douglas (1958–2004), from stepmother Anne Buydens.
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Michael Grandage
Michael Grandage CBE (born 2 May 1962) is an award-winning British theatre director and producer. He is currently Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company. From 2002 to 2012 he was Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse in London.
Grandage was born in Yorkshire, England, and raised in Penzance, Cornwall where his parents ran a family business. He was educated at the Humphry Davy Grammar School before training as an actor at Central School of Speech and Drama through 1984. He spent twelve years working as an actor for companies such as the Royal Exchange and the Royal Shakespeare Company before turning to directing. He made his directorial debut in 1996 with a production of The Last Yankee at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester. In 1998 he was invited to Sheffield to direct Twelfth Night, his first Shakespeare production. He lives in London and Cornwall with his partner, the award-winning British theatre designer Christopher Oram.
From 1999 to 2005 he was Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres where his high-profile productions included Edward II with Joseph Fiennes, Richard III with Kenneth Branagh, Suddenly Last Summer with Diana Rigg and Victoria Hamilton, The Tempest with Derek Jacobi and Don Carlos with Derek Jacobi. He produced over forty plays with predominantly young directors and designers. The Crucible was awarded Theatrical Management Association Theatre of the Year in 2001.
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Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer ( /ˈfaɪfər/; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface (1983). Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work. She received six consecutive Golden Globe Award nominations, winning the Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama award in 1990 for The Fabulous Baker Boys. She also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Dangerous Liaisons, and the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Love Field, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards for the same films.
Pfeiffer rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s with critically acclaimed performances in the films Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Married to the Mob (1988), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Russia House (1990), Frankie and Johnny (1991), Love Field (1992), Batman Returns (1992), and The Age of Innocence (1993).
She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 6, 2007. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard and is recognised as STAR 2,345.
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Miguel Ferrer
Miguel José Ferrer (born February 7, 1955) is an American actor and voice actor who is often cast as a villain. His notable roles include Bob Morton, a supporting character in RoboCop (1987), the short-tempered FBI agent Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks, and Dr. Garret Macy on Crossing Jordan. His voice acting in Mulan (1998), as the villain Hun leader Shan Yu, is also especially memorable.
Ferrer was born in Santa Monica, California, the oldest of five children of Puerto Rican Academy Award-winner José Ferrer and American singer Rosemary Clooney. Ferrer's siblings are Maria, Gabriel, Monsita, and Rafael, also an actor. Ferrer was raised in Hollywood, and as a teenager his interests shifted toward music. Ferrer played the drums on Keith Moon's Two Sides of the Moon. Jenerators band mate Bill Mumy ("Will Robinson" on the television classic Lost In Space and later Lennier on the TV series Babylon 5) cast him as a drummer in his first television role, in the series Sunshine. He only took the role because Mumy talked him into it.
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Mira Sorvino
Mira Katherine Sorvino (born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite (1995) and is also known for her role as Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.
Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey. Her mother, Lorraine Ruth Davis, is a drama therapist for Alzheimer's disease patients and a former actress, and her father, Paul Sorvino, is a character actor and director. She has two siblings, Michael and Amanda. Sorvino is of Italian descent on her father's side.
At a young age, Sorvino wrote and acted in backyard plays with her childhood friend Hope Davis, in theater productions at Dwight-Englewood School, and at Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude in East Asian Studies in 1989. She also helped found the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, one of Harvard's co-ed a cappella groups in 1985. Her solo piece was Yazoo's "Only You".[citation needed]
Sorvino spent the next three years in New York City, trying to make a name for herself as an actress.[citation needed] When the 1993 film Amongst Friends entered pre-production, she was hired as third assistant director, then was promoted to casting director, then to assistant producer, and was finally offered a lead role. Positive reviews opened doors for her.[citation needed]
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Miranda Richardson
Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an English stage, film and television actor. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has won two Golden Globes (with seven nominations) and a BAFTA (with seven nominations) during her career.
Richardson was born in Southport, Lancashire, to Marian Georgina (née Townsend), a housewife, and William Alan Richardson, a marketing executive. The second daughter of a middle class family, she revealed a talent for acting as a girl.
Richardson enrolled at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she studied alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, having started out with juvenile performances in Cinderella and Lord Arthur Savile's Crime at the Southport Dramatic Club. Richardson enjoyed a successful and extensive theatre career, making her stage debut in Moving at the Queen's Theatre in 1981. Soon afterwards, she appeared in repertory theatre, until she found recognition in the West End for a series of stage performances, ultimately receiving an Olivier Award nomination for her performance in A Lie of the Mind, and in 1996, she is cited as "the greatest actress of our time in any medium" by one critic after she appeared in Orlando at the Edinburgh Festival. She returned to the London stage in May 2009 to play the lead role in Wallace Shawn's new play, Grasses of a Thousand Colours at the Royal Court Theatre.
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Miriam Margolyes
Miriam Margolyes, OBE (born 18 May 1941) is an English actress and voice artist. Her earliest roles were in theatre and after several supporting roles in film and television she won a BAFTA Award for her role in The Age of Innocence (1993).
Margolyes was born in Oxford, England, the daughter of Ruth (née Walters), a property investor, and Joseph Margolyes, a physician from Glasgow. She grew up in a Jewish family, a descendant of immigrants from Belarus. She attended the local Oxford High School, at which she also opened the new buildings in March 2011, and later Newnham College, Cambridge where she read English. There, she began acting in her twenties, and also appeared in productions of the comedy troupe Cambridge Footlights.
With her distinctive voice, Margolyes first gained recognition for her work as a voice artist. She recorded a soft-porn audio called Sexy Sonia: Leaves from my Schoolgirl Notebook. She performed most of the supporting female characters in the dubbed Japanese action TV series, Monkey. She also worked with the theatre company Gay Sweatshop and provided voiceovers in the Japanese TV series The Water Margin.
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Mo'Nique
Monique Angela Hicks (née Imes) (born December 11, 1967), known professionally as Mo'Nique, is an American comedienne and actress. Mo'Nique rose to fame in the UPN series The Parkers while making a name as a stand-up comedian hosting a variety of venues, including Showtime at the Apollo. Mo'Nique transitioned to film with roles in such films as Phat Girlz, and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins.
In 2009, she received critical praise for her villainous role in the film Precious. For this performance, she has won numerous awards including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award. She won almost 30 awards for her performance. She is the sixteenth African American actress to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the fourth to win. Overall, Mo'Nique is the twelfth individual African-American to win an Oscar for acting; and the seventh winner during the decade of the 2000s. She hosted The Mo'Nique Show, a late-night talk show that premiered in 2009 on BET. On July 28, 2011, BET announced that The Mo'Nique Show would not be picked up for another season.
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Monica Mason
Dame Monica Mason DBE (born 6 September 1941) is a ballet dancer and has been the director of The Royal Ballet, since 2002.
Monica Margaret Mason was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1941. A talented dancer, she moved to Britain at the age of 14 to join the Royal Ballet School.
At the age of 16 Mason joined the Royal Ballet as the Company's youngest member, and became a principal dancer in 1968. She worked closely with the choreographer Sir Kenneth MacMillan, who created the roles of Lescaut's Mistress in Manon, Calliope Rag in Elite Syncopations, Summer in The Four Seasons and the Midwife in Rituals for her.
Mason was also given the role of the Chosen Maiden in The Rite of Spring that had been originally created by Diaghilev for Lydia Sokolova in the 1920s. Her last leading role was as Nursey in Isadora by Kenneth MacMillan, in 1981, although she continued to appear in mime roles as a guest artist with the Royal Ballet for some time after that.
Following her retirement as a principal dancer, Mason continued to work for the Royal Ballet company and in 1984 she was appointed Principal Répétiteur to the company. In 1991 she became Assistant Director of the company under Sir Anthony Dowell. Following the company's move to its new headquarters at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, Mason replaced Dowell's successor, Ross Stretton, as Director in late 2002. She recently announced her retirement and will leave The Royal Ballet in August 2012
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Natalia Makarova
Natalia Romanovna Makarova (Russian: Наталья Романовна Макарова, born November 21, 1940) is the legendary Soviet-Russian-born prima ballerina. The History of Dance, published in 1981, notes that “Her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her as the finest ballerina of her generation in the West.” She has also won awards as an actress.
Makarova was born in 1940 in Leningrad in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the USSR. At the age of 12, she auditioned for the Leningrad Choreographic School (formerly the Imperial Ballet School), and was accepted although most students join the school at the age of 10.
Makarova was a permanent member of the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad from 1956 to 1970, achieving prima ballerina status during the 1960s. Soon after Makarova defected to the West in 1970, she began performing with the American Ballet Theatre in New York and the Royal Ballet in London.
When she first arrived in the West, Makarova was eager to expand her choreography by dancing ballets by modern choreographers. At the same time, she remained most identified with classical roles such as Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and Giselle. She was featured in the 1976 live American Ballet Theatre production of Swan Lake, simulcast from Lincoln Center on both PBS and NPR.
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Natalie Portman
Natalie Hershlag (Hebrew: נטלי הרשלג; born June 9, 1981), better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but mainstream success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (released in 1999, 2002 and 2005). In 1999, she enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology while still working as an actress. She completed her bachelor's degree in 2003.
In 2001, Portman opened in New York City's Public Theater production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. In 2005, Portman received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for the drama Closer. She won a Constellation Award for Best Female Performance, and a Saturn Award for Best Actress for her starring role in V for Vendetta (2006). She played leading roles in the historical dramas Goya's Ghosts (2006) and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). In May 2008, she served as the youngest member of the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival jury. Portman's directorial debut, Eve, opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival's shorts competition in 2008. Portman directed a segment of the collective film New York, I Love You.
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Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane (born February 3, 1956) is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and his voice work in The Lion King and Stuart Little. In 2006, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2008, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
Lane was born Joseph Lane in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Irish American Catholic parents. He was named after his uncle, a Jesuit priest. His father, Daniel, was a truck driver and an aspiring tenor who died from alcoholism when Lane was eleven; his mother, Nora, was a housewife and secretary who suffered from manic-depression, and died in 2000. He has two brothers, Robert and Daniel. Lane attended Roman Catholic schools in Jersey City, including Jesuit-run St. Peter's Preparatory High School, where he was selected Best Actor in 1974.[citation needed]
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Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian actress, singer, film producer, and humanitarian. Kidman began her career in 1983, starring in various Australian film and television productions until her breakthrough in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Following several films over the early 1990s, she came to worldwide recognition for her performances in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Batman Forever (1995). Kidman followed this with other successful films in the late 1990s. It was her performance in the musical, Moulin Rouge! (2001) which earned Kidman her second Golden Globe Award and first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her performance as Virginia Woolf the following year in the drama film The Hours (2002) received critical acclaim and earned Kidman the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Kidman's other notable films include To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), The Interpreter (2005), and Australia (2008). Her performance in 2010's Rabbit Hole (which she also produced) earned Kidman further accolades including a subsequent Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Kidman has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. Kidman's work has earned her a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, three Golden Globe Awards, one BAFTA, and an Academy Award. In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honor, and was also the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry. As a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship in Australia and the United States.
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Olympia Dukakis
Olympia Dukakis (born June 20, 1931) is an American actress. In 1987, she won an Academy Award, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for her performance in Moonstruck. She received another Golden Globe nomination for Sinatra, and Emmy nominations for Lucky Day, More Tales of the City and Joan of Arc.
Dukakis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Alexandra (née Christos) and Constantine S. Dukakis. Her parents were Greek immigrants to the United States, her father from Anatolia and her mother from the Peloponnese. She has a brother, Apollo, and is a cousin of Michael Dukakis, a former governor of Massachusetts and the Democratic nominee for president in 1988, for whom she was a delegate from New Jersey at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. She is an alumna of Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts, and was educated at Boston University.
Dukakis has been married to actor Louis Zorich since 1962. They have three children.
Dukakis has held a lengthy career in a diverse range of films, including Steel Magnolias, Mr. Holland's Opus, Jane Austen's Mafia!, The Thing About My Folks, and Moonstruck, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She also played the role of Anna Madrigal in the Tales of the City television mini-series, which garnered her an Emmy Award nomination, and appeared on Search for Tomorrow as Dr. Barbara Moreno, who romanced Stu Bergman. She appears as Dolly Sinatra (Frank's mother) in the mini-series of Frank Sinatra's life (1992). Her Broadway theatre credits include Who's Who in Hell, Social Security, and the one-woman play Rose. Her theater, film, and television work has also won her an Obie Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, and a Golden Globe.
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Patricia Routledge
Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE (born 17 February 1929) is an English character comedy actress and singer. She is best known for her role as character Hyacinth Bucket (supposedly pronounced "Bouquet") in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. In addition to her roles in British television, she has a long and successful career in musical theatre, as well as in film.
Katherine Patricia Routledge was born in Tranmere, Birkenhead to parents Catherine and Isaac Routledge. Her father was a haberdasher, and, during WWII, the family lived weeks at a time in the basement of her father's shop. She was educated at Mersey Park Primary School, Birkenhead High School, now a state-funded Academy school, and the University of Liverpool. At Liverpool she graduated with Honours in English Language and Literature and was not on a path to pursue an acting career. She was, however, involved in the school's Dramatic Society where she worked closely with the academic Edmund Colledge who both directed and acted in several of the society's productions. It was Colledge who persuaded her to pursue an acting career. After graduating from Liverpool, she trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and launched her acting career at the Liverpool Playhouse.
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Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performance as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les Misérables.
LuPone was born in Northport, New York, on Long Island, the daughter of Angela Louise (née Patti), a college library administrator, and Orlando Joseph LuPone, a school administrator. Her great-grand-aunt was the celebrated nineteenth-century opera singer Adelina Patti. Her brother Robert LuPone is an actor, dancer, and director who originated the role of Zach the choreographer in A Chorus Line. Her other brother William LuPone is a teacher. When they were young, they performed on Long Island as the LuPone Trio. She is of Italian/Abruzzese descent and a graduate of Northport High School, where she studied under the musical direction of voice coach Esther Scott.
LuPone was part of the first graduating class of Juilliard's Drama Division (1968-1972: Group 1), which also included actors Kevin Kline and David Ogden Stiers. She graduated from Juilliard in 1972 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
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Paul Barber (actor)
Paul Barber (born Patrick Barber; 18 March 1951) is an actor from Liverpool, Merseyside. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he is best known for playing Denzil in Only Fools and Horses and Horse in The Full Monty.
At the age of seven, following the death of his mother from tuberculosis, he entered the care system on Merseyside. His father, originally from Sierra Leone, died when Paul (or Paddy as he was then known) and his security guard brother Brian were very young.
Barber began on the stage in the musical Hair. His first major TV role was as Sam 'Lucky' Ubootu in the 1974 ITV Playhouse production Lucky set in Liverpool and made by Granada TV. He then played the flamboyant but vicious gang boss Malleson in the off-beat BBC Birmingham-based series Gangsters from 1975 to 1978. He played Louis St John in 4 episodes of I Didn't Know You Cared, 1976-78. A later starring role was alongside Philip Whitchurch in the mid-1980s ITV comedy series 'The Brothers McGregor'.
Barber has worked extensively in British TV, such as in To the Manor Born (1979) as a Jamaican steel band musician, Minder (1980) as Willie Reynolds in episode Don't Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here, Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003), Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), Malcolm in The Front Line, and Cracker and played Greg Salter in Brookside (1994). He made a guest appearance in the first episode of The Green Green Grass - a spin-off from Only Fools And Horses. Paul was best known for his time on Only Fools And Horses and still attends conventions for the show.
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Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE (22 December 1907 – 14 June 1991) was an English actress.
Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Surrey, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama. A prolific stage actress from a young age, she first gained notoriety playing Naemi in Jew Suss in 1929, and Desdemona opposite Paul Robeson's Othello two years later, during which time the two had a brief affair.
Stardom came in 1934 when she played Juliet in a legendary production of Romeo and Juliet, at the New Theatre, in which Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud alternated in the roles of Romeo and Mercutio. She and Gielgud would later be acclaimed as Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, which they played together a number of times, including a London engagement and European tour for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1955 (she also played Cordelia to his King Lear during that tour). When she first played Beatrice with him in 1950, Gielgud found her performance "a revelation - an impish, rather tactless girl with a curious resemblance to Bea Lillie," while a teenage Peter Hall observed in her "English containment and decency, contrasted with a wild passion." She stayed at the top of the British theatrical profession throughout her career, with some of the highlights Three Sisters (1937) in which she played Irina, The Heiress (1949), Antony and Cleopatra (1953), As You Like It and Cymbeline (as Imogen) (1957), The Taming of the Shrew (1960), and The War of the Roses, the Royal Shakespeare Company's massive landmark compendium of the three Henry VI plays and Richard III, directed by Peter Hall for the RSC in 1963. Her last appearances for the RSC were as the Countess of Rousillon in Trevor Nunn's 1981 All's Well That Ends Well, a "perfect…performance" according to Financial Times critic Bertram Young, and in a revival of The Hollow Crown for a gala performance at The Swan on 22 June 1986.
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Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez (Spanish pronunciation: [peˈnelope kruθ ˈsantʃeθ]) (born April 28, 1974) is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón (1992), to critical acclaim. Her subsequent roles in the 1990s and 2000s included Open Your Eyes (1997), The Hi-Lo Country (1999), The Girl of Your Dreams (2000) and Woman on Top (2000). Cruz achieved recognition for her lead roles in Vanilla Sky and Blow. Both films were released in 2001 and were commercially successful worldwide.
In the 2000s she has appeared in films from a wide range of genres, including the comedy Waking Up in Reno (2002), the thriller Gothika (2003), the Christmas movie Noel (2004), the action adventure Sahara (2005), the animated G-Force and the musical drama Nine. Her most notable films to date are Volver (2006), for which she earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), for which she received an Academy Award. She was the first Spanish actress in history to receive an Academy Award and the first Spanish actress to receive a star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Peter Bowles
Peter Bowles (born 16 October 1936) is an English actor.
Bowles was born in London, England, the son of Sarah Jane (née Harrison) and Herbert Reginald Bowles. His father was a chauffeur and butler at a stately home in Warwickshire but, upon the outbreak of World War II, he was seconded to work as an engineer at Rolls-Royce and moved the family to Nottingham. Bowles attended Nottingham High Pavement Grammar School and then trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he is still an associate.
Bowles had a long apprenticeship, beginning in the era of live television, including an episode of Armchair Theatre (Underground, 1958) during which another actor suffered a fatal heart attack. Having appeared in three episodes of The Avengers in the 1960s, he eventually became well known for portraying upper class characters typically caught in hilarious situations.
This led to what is probably still his best known role, in To the Manor Born, a show that received audiences of more than 20 million, in which he co-starred with Penelope Keith (1979–81, 2007), playing the apparently aristocratic (but in fact self-made immigrant) businessman Richard DeVere.
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Peter Riegert
Peter Riegert (born April 11, 1947) is an American actor, screenwriter, and film director, best known for his roles as Boon from Animal House, the fast talking ganster Aldo in Oscar, the tough Lt. Kellaway in The Mask, and crooked New Jersey State Assemblyman Ronald Zellman on the HBO original series The Sopranos.
Riegert was born in The Bronx, the son of Lucille, a piano teacher, and Milton Riegert, a food wholesaler. Riegert grew up in Hartsdale, New York, and was raised in a nonobservant Jewish household. He graduated from Ardsley High School in 1964 and later from the University at Buffalo. He worked at a number of jobs, including teaching, waiting tables, and social worker before settling on acting as a career.
He made his Broadway debut in the musical Dance with Me. Other Broadway credits include The Old Neighborhood, An American Daughter, The Nerd, and Censored Scenes From King Kong. Off-Broadway he has appeared in Road to Nirvana, The Birthday Party, Isn't It Romantic, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and A Rosen by Any Other Name.
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Phyllis Frelich
Phyllis Frelich (born February 29, 1944) is an American actress, and, with Marlee Matlin, one of the two pre-eminent deaf actresses in the United States. Frelich was born in Devils Lake, North Dakota to deaf parents and is the oldest of 9 children (all of whom are also deaf).
She attended North Dakota School for the Deaf, graduating in 1962, and then went on to study at Gallaudet College (now known as Gallaudet University), a school for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
Frelich originated the leading female role in the Broadway production of Children of a Lesser God, for which she won the 1980 Best Actress Tony Award. Marlee Matlin played Frelich's role in the film version, and won the Best Actress Academy Award.
She has been married to Robert Steinberg for many years, and they have two children (both of whom can hear and are fluent in American Sign Language).
She performed the ASL interpretation of Jewel's rendition of the national anthem at Super Bowl XXXII.
Renee, Payton
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Queen Latifah
Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy Award nomination and an Academy Award nomination.
Latifah was born, and primarily raised, in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Rita (née Bray), a teacher at Irvington High School (her daughter's alma mater), and Lancelot Owens, Sr., a police officer, her parents divorced when Latifah was ten. Latifah was raised in the Baptist church and attended Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey. Her stage name, Latifah (لطيفة laţīfa), meaning "delicate" and "very kind" in Arabic, she found in an Islamic book of names when she was eight. Always a tall girl, the 5'10" Latifah was a power forward on her high school basketball team. She performed the number "Home" from the musical The Wiz in a high school play. She is of African American and Native American ancestry.
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Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.
Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and the King died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died without surviving legitimate issue. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the Sovereign held relatively few direct political powers. Privately, she attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments. Publicly, she became a national icon, and was identified with strict standards of personal morality.
She married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children and 26 of their 34 grandchildren who survived childhood married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.
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Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976), better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower. In 1996, Witherspoon appeared in Freeway and followed that appearance with roles in three major 1998 films: Overnight Delivery, Pleasantville and Twilight. The following year, Witherspoon appeared in the critically acclaimed Election, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
2001 marked her career's turning point with the breakout role as Elle Woods in the box office hit Legally Blonde, and in 2002 she starred in Sweet Home Alabama, which became her biggest commercial film success to date. 2003 saw her return as lead actress and executive producer of Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. In 2005, Witherspoon received worldwide attention and praise for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line, which earned her an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
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Renée Zellweger
Renée Kathleen Zellweger (born April 25, 1969) is an American actress and producer. Zellweger first gained widespread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire (1996), and subsequently received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles as Bridget Jones in the comedy Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) (which she reprised in its sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)), and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago (2002). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Cold Mountain (2003).
She has won an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a BAFTA Award, was named Hasty Pudding's Woman of the Year in 2009, and established herself as one of the highest-paid Hollywood actresses as of 2007.
Zellweger was born in Katy, Texas. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is from Au in the canton of St. Gallen,Switzerland, and is a mechanical and electrical engineer who worked in the oil refining business. Her mother, Kjellfrid Irene (née Andreassen), is Norwegian; of part Sámi and Kven (Finnish) descent, Kjellfrid grew up in Kirkenes and Ekkerøy, and is a nurse and midwife who moved to the United States to work as a governess for a Norwegian family in Texas. Zellweger has described herself as being raised in a family of "lazy Catholics and Episcopalians".
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Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle, OBE (born 14 April 1961) is a Scottish actor. He is known for a variety of roles in films such as Trainspotting, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough, Angela's Ashes, The 51st State, and 28 Weeks Later. In addition to his film work, he is also known for his roles in the television shows Hamish Macbeth and Once Upon A Time.
Carlyle was born in Maryhill, Glasgow, the son of Elizabeth, a bus company employee, and Joseph Carlyle, a painter and decorator. He was brought up by his father after his mother left when Carlyle was four years old. He left school at the age of 16 without any qualifications and worked for his father as a painter and decorator; however, he continued his education by attending night classes at Cardonald College in Glasgow.
Carlyle became involved in drama at the Glasgow Arts Centre at the age of 21 (having been inspired by reading Arthur Miller's The Crucible), and subsequently graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. In 1991, he and four friends founded a theatre company, Raindog (which is now primarily involved in television and film work), and guest starred in The Bill. The same year he starred in his first movie, Riff-Raff, directed by Ken Loach.
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Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams (born July 21, 1951) is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork & Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. He has also won two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards.
Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Laura McLaurin (née Smith, 1922–2001), was a former model from New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams (September 10, 1906 – October 18, 1987), was a senior executive at Ford Motor Company in charge of the Midwest region. His maternal great-great-grandfather was senator and Mississippi governor Anselm J. McLaurin. Williams is of English, Welsh, Irish, and French ancestry. He was raised in the Episcopal Church (his mother practiced Christian Science). He grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he was a student at the Detroit Country Day School, and later moved to Woodacre, Marin County, California, where he attended the public Redwood High School. Williams studied at Claremont McKenna College (then called Claremont Men's College) for four years. He has two half-brothers: Todd (who died August 14, 2007) and McLaurin.
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Rosanna Arquette
Rosanna Lauren Arquette (born August 10, 1959) is an American actress, film director, and producer.
Arquette was born in New York City, the daughter of Brenda Olivia "Mardi" (née Nowak), an actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher, and therapist, and Lewis Arquette, an actor and director. Her paternal grandfather was comedian Cliff Arquette. Her mother was Jewish, the daughter of a Holocaust refugee from Poland. Her father was a convert to Islam and a descendant of explorer Meriwether Lewis. Her siblings Patricia, Alexis, Richmond, and David Arquette are also actors.
In 1963, Arquette's family moved to Chicago, where her father managed The Second City theater for several years. When she was eleven years old, her parents moved to a commune in Front Royal, Virginia. Arquette did not do well at school.[citation needed] In 1974, she hitchhiked across the country with three older teenagers, eventually going to San Francisco, where she worked at renaissance and Dickens fairs. Her professional theater debut was May 27, 1977, appearing in the Story Theatre Musical production of Ovid's The Metamorphoses at the Callboard Theatre on Melrose Place in Los Angeles.[citation needed]
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Ruthie Henshall
Valentine Ruth Henshall (born 7 March 1967), better known as Ruthie Henshall, is an English singer, dancer, and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Henshall attended the Laine Theatre Arts school in Epsom, Surrey before making her first professional appearance on stage in 1986. Her appearance in the 1987 production of Cats marked her West End debut.
Henshall was born in Bromley, South East London, England. Her father David was a journalist, later the editor of the East Anglian Daily Times, a Suffolk morning newspaper. Ruthie Henshall's early ambition was to be a ballet dancer, but she lacked the necessary physique. Her sister, Noel, died in 2007 of a drugs overdose while living in San Francisco, California.
Henshall dated Prince Edward "solidly" for two years, but "on and off for five years", before becoming engaged to actor John Gordon Sinclair. After she took the role of Velma Kelly in Chicago on Broadway, New York, they broke up, after which Henshall admitted going through a process of excessive drinking and considering suicide.
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S. Epatha Merkerson
S. Epatha Merkerson (born Sharon Epatha Merkerson, November 28, 1952) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has won a Golden Globe, Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Obie Award and four NAACP Image Awards. She has also received two Tony Award nominations. She is best known for her role as NYPD Lieutenant Anita Van Buren from 1993 to 2010 on the long-running NBC police procedural drama series, Law & Order. She appeared in 391 episodes of the series—more than any other cast member.
In 2012, Merkerson became the host of Find Our Missing, a reality-reenactment series on TV One which profiles missing people of color.
Merkerson, the youngest of five children, was born in Saginaw, Michigan, the daughter of Ann Merkerson, who at the time was the only female in the vehicles operation unit at the Detroit Post Office. Her father worked in a factory. Merkerson's parents separated in 1957.
Merkerson is often reticent about revealing what her first name really was (Sharon). On the June 11, 2005 episode of NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, she jokingly claimed that the initial "S," "stands for 'Sweet' [because] so many people have difficulty with Epatha, which is what I prefer to be called". She has legally changed her first name to S. During a segment on the January 31, 2012 episode of The Wendy Williams Show, when questioned about the origin of her name, Merkerson shared that "Epatha" was the name of "a grade-school teacher who was influential in keeping [her father] in school." She further went on to clarify that she prefers to be addressed as "Epatha" as opposed to "S. Epatha."
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Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget (1965–66) or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun (1967–70); in the 1970s, for Sybil (1976), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Norma Rae (1979); in the 1980s, for Absence of Malice (1981), Places in the Heart (1984) and Steel Magnolias (1989); in the 1990s, for Not Without My Daughter (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Forrest Gump (1994) and Eye for an Eye (1996); and in the 2000s, on the TV shows ER and Brothers & Sisters (2006–11). She has also performed in numerous other roles.
Field won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a leading role on two occasions, Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984). Field's professional achievements also include winning three Emmy Awards: for her role in the TV film Sybil (1976); her guest-starring role on ER in 2000; and for her starring role as Nora Holden Walker on ABC's series Brothers & Sisters in 2007. She has also won two Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. She also won the Best Female Performance Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, for Norma Rae (1979).
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Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland (born October 31, 1941) is an American film and television actress.
Kirkland was named after her mother, fashion editor Sally Kirkland, who was a fashion editor at Vogue and LIFE magazines, and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Frederic McMichael Kirkland, worked in the scrap metal business.
Kirkland began acting Off-Broadway in 1962.[citation needed] Then in 1969, she gave a widely acclaimed performance in the classic underground film Coming Apart. In the 1970s, she had small roles in popular films such as The Sting, The Way We Were, A Star Is Born and Private Benjamin. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1987 for Anna, for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama. Kirkland currently (as of 2010) hosts a show on the syndicated HealthyLife Radio Network.[citation needed]
Kirkland has had frequent television roles, including The Simple Life 5: Goes to Camp and the soap operas Valley of the Dolls and Days of Our Lives and Three's Company. Films in which she has appeared include: EDtv, JFK, Adam and Steve and Coffee Date.
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Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty (1999) and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1996) and Gypsy (2003). He is currently working on Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film. He has a child with his former wife Kate Winslet.
Mendes was born in Reading, Berkshire, the only child of Valerie Helene (née Barnett), an author of children's books, and Jameson Peter Mendes, a university professor. His father is from Trinidad of ethnic Portuguese descent, and his mother an English Jew. His grandfather is the Trinidadian writer Alfred Mendes.
Mendes' parents divorced when he was a child. He grew up in Oxfordshire and attended Magdalen College School and Peterhouse, Cambridge where he graduated with a first in English. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Marlowe Society and directed several plays, including a critically acclaimed production of Cyrano de Bergerac with Tom Hollander and Nick Clegg amongst the cast members.
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Samantha Bond
Samantha Bond (born 27 November 1961) is an English actress best known for her roles as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan years and her role as Auntie Angela in the BBC comedy Outnumbered. She is married to Alexander Hanson and has two children, Molly and Tom. Samantha Bond is the daughter of actor Philip Bond and TV producer Pat Sandys, and is the sister of the actress Abigail Bond and the journalist Matthew Bond. She attended the Godolphin and Latymer School, and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and is a resident of St Margarets, London.
She has appeared in many television series, notably the 1997 adaptation of Emma starring Kate Beckinsale. She is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and starred opposite Dame Judi Dench in David Hare's award-winning play Amy's View at the Royal National Theatre.
In 1983, she appeared in the original 1983 Southampton production of Daisy Pulls It Off before it moved to the West End. Also in 1983 she appeared in Mansfield Park and in the fourth series of Rumpole of the Bailey, where she played Rumpole's pupil 'Mizz' Liz Probert. In 1985, she appeared in the BBC's adaptation of A Murder is Announced, a Miss Marple novel by Agatha Christie.
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Seiji Ozawa
Seiji Ozawa (小澤 征爾, Ozawa Seiji?, born September 1, 1935) is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.
Seiji Ozawa was born on September 1, 1935 to Japanese parents in the city of Mukden, Manchukuo (now Shenyang, China). When his family returned to Japan in 1944, he began studying piano with Noboru Toyomasu, heavily studying the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. After graduating from the Seijo Junior High School in 1950, Ozawa sprained his finger in a rugby game. Unable to continue studying the piano, his teacher at the Toho Gakuen School of Music (Hideo Saito), brought Ozawa to a life-changing performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, which ultimately shifted his musical focus from piano performance to conducting.
Almost a decade after the sports injury, Ozawa won the first prize at the International Competition of Orchestra Conductors in Besançon, France. His success in France led to an invitation by Charles Münch, then the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to attend the Berkshire Music Center (now the Tanglewood Music Center). In 1960, shortly after his arrival, Ozawa won the Koussevitzky Prize for outstanding student conductor, Tanglewood's highest honor. Receiving a scholarship to study conducting with famous Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan, Ozawa moved to West Berlin. Under the tutelage of von Karajan, Ozawa caught the attention of prominent conductor Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein then appointed him as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic where he remained for the next four years. While with the New York Philharmonic, he made his first professional concert appearance with the San Francisco Symphony in 1962.
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Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 British-American romantic comedy-drama film directed by John Madden, written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard. The film depicts a love affair involving playwright William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) at the time that he was writing the play Romeo and Juliet. The story is fiction, though several of the characters are based on real people. In addition, many of the characters, lines, and plot devices are references to Shakespeare's plays.
Shakespeare in Love won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench).
William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is a poor playwright for Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush), owner of The Rose Theatre, in 1593 London. After learning that his love was cheating on him with his patron, Shakespeare burns his new comedy, Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter, rewriting it as the tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Suffering from writer's block, he is unable to complete the play, but begins auditions for Romeo. A young man named Thomas Kent is cast in the role after impressing Shakespeare with his performance and his love of Shakespeare's previous work. Kent is actually Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), the daughter of a wealthy merchant who desires to act but, since women are banned from the stage, she must disguise herself.
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Sharon Stone
Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress, film producer, and former fashion model. She achieved international recognition for her role in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her performance in Casino.
Stone was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania. The second of four children, she is the daughter of Dorothy (née Lawson), an accountant and homemaker, and Joseph William Stone II, a tool and die manufacturer and factory worker. Stone graduated in 1975 from Saegertown High School in Saegertown, Pennsylvania.
Stone won the title of Miss Crawford County in Meadville, and was a candidate for Miss Pennsylvania. One of the pageant judges said she should quit school and move to New York City to become a fashion model. In 1977, Stone left Meadville, moving in with an aunt in New Jersey. Within four days of her arrival in New Jersey, she was signed by Ford Modeling Agency in New York.
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Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley (5 December 1941, Ascot, Berkshire − 16 February 2007, London) was an English author, biographer, critic, director, actor and broadcaster. He was the eldest son of actor Robert Morley and grandson of actress Dame Gladys Cooper, and wrote biographies of both. Nicholas Kenyon called him a "cultural omnivore" who was "genuinely popular with people".
Sheridan Morley was born in Ascot, Berkshire, in a nursing home opposite Ascot Racecourse. He was named after Sheridan Whiteside, the title role his father was playing in a long-running production of The Man Who Came to Dinner at the Savoy Theatre in London.
He had close family connections with stars of the stage: in addition to his father and his maternal grandmother, his aunt married actor Robert Hardy, and Joanna Lumley was a cousin. His maternal grandfather, Herbert Buckmaster, founded the Buck's Club where his bartender McGarry invented the Buck's Fizz cocktail. His godparents were dramatist Sewell Stokes and actor Peter Bull; his son Hugo was one of Noël Coward's many godchildren.
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Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLean Beaty (born April 24, 1934), known professionally as Shirley MacLaine, is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well known for her beliefs in New Age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career. She was nominated for an Academy Award five times before winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1983 for her role in Terms of Endearment. Her younger brother is Warren Beatty.
Named after Shirley Temple, MacLaine was born in Richmond, Virginia. Her father, Ira Owens Beaty, was a professor of psychology, public school administrator, and real estate agent, and her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean), was a drama teacher originally from Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada; MacLaine's grandparents were also teachers.The family was devoutly Baptist. Her uncle (her mother's brother-in-law) was A.A. MacLeod, a Communist member of the Ontario legislature in the 1940s.
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Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver (born Susan Alexandra Weaver; October 8, 1949) is an American actress. She is known for her role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition.
Other notable roles include Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters and its sequel Ghostbusters II, Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, Working Girl, Death and the Maiden, The Ice Storm, Galaxy Quest, Snow Cake, Prayers for Bobby and Grace Augustine in Avatar.
Weaver has been nominated for three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards (one win), two Emmy Awards, six Saturn Awards (two wins) and six Golden Globe Awards, winning two in 1988 for Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, becoming the first person ever to have won two acting Golden Globe Awards in the same year. She was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award.
Her 1986 Academy Award nomination for Aliens is considered as a landmark in the recognition of science fiction, action, and horror genres, as well as a major step in challenging the gender role in cinema. Weaver progressively received notoriety for her numerous contributions to the science fiction film history (including minor roles in successful works such as Futurama, WALL-E and Paul) and gained the nickname of "The Sci-Fi Queen".
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Sir John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE (22 February 1908 – 23 April 2005), born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.
Mills was born at the Watts Naval School in North Elmham, Norfolk, England, and grew up in Belton, where his father was the headmaster of the village school and in Felixstowe, Suffolk, where he lived in a modest house in Ham's Road. He was educated at Norwich High School for Boys, where it is said that his initials can still be seen carved into the brickwork on the side of the building in Upper St. Giles Street. He made his acting debut on the stage of the Sir John Leman School in Beccles in a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream when he played the part of Puck.[citation needed] Upon leaving school he worked as a clerk at a corn merchants in Ipswich.
Mills took an early interest in acting, making his professional debut at the London Hippodrome in The Five O'Clock Girl in 1929. He also starred in the Noël Coward revue Words and Music. He made his film debut in The Midshipmaid (1932), and appeared as Colley in the 1939 film version of Goodbye, Mr Chips, opposite Robert Donat.
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Sophie Thompson
Sophie Thompson (born 20 January 1962) is an English actress, best known for playing evil Stella Crawford in EastEnders.
The second daughter born in 1962, to actress Phyllida Law and actor Eric Thompson, Sophie is the younger sister of twice Academy Award-winning actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson.
Sophie Thompson has worked in film, television, theatre and radio, and has narrated a number of audiobooks. She made her debut in 1978, at the age of 16, starring in A Traveller in Time, before going on to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.[citation needed]
Big-screen roles include Four Weddings and a Funeral, "Eat, Pray, Love", Emma, Dancing at Lughnasa, Gosford Park, Fat Slags, Relative Values and Morris: A Life with Bells On. Thompson appeared in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2010, as Mafalda Hopkirk and Hermione Granger disguised as Hopkirk.
Thompson starred alongside popular British comedians Alan Davies, in Jonathan Creek, and Lee Evans in So What Now? She has also appeared in Persuasion, Midsomer Murders, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, A Harlot's Progress and Magnolia. She played Miss Bartlett in Andrew Davies' 2007 adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Room with a View and also appeared in the last episode of series 4 of Doc Martin.
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Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim ( /ˈsɒnd.haɪm/) (born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist known for his contributions to musical theatre. He is the winner of an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer) including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award. Described by Frank Rich of the New York Times as "the greatest, and perhaps best-known artist working in musical theatre", his most famous works include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods. He also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy.
Sondheim has also written material for movies, including the 1981 Warren Beatty film Reds, contributing the song "Goodbye For Now". He also wrote five songs for the 1990 movie Dick Tracy, including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)", which won the Academy Award for Best Song.
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Steve Huison
Steve Huison (born 10 December 1963, Leeds), is a British actor, mostly on TV and occasional films. He trained at the Rose Bruford College in Sidcup. He is best known for his role as "Lomper" in the massively successful UK box-office and critical hit The Full Monty (1997). He also appeared in a Ken Loach film The Navigators, made in 2001. He has played character roles in such TV series as Casualty, Where the Heart Is, dinnerladies, Heartbeat and The Royle Family.
In January 2008, Huison took the role of porter Norman Dunstan in ITV1 daily hospital drama The Royal Today, a spin-off of popular Sunday night drama The Royal.
Huison appeared as Eddie Windass in Coronation Street.
He is also a co-founder of the Shoestring Theatre Company. Currently starring in CBBC's Television show "The 4 o'clock club".
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Stockard Channing
Stockard Channing (born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard; February 13, 1944) is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role as Ouisa Kittredge in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its later film version.
Channing was born in New York City, the daughter of Mary Alice (née English), who came from a large Brooklyn-based Irish Catholic family, and Lester Napier Stockard (died 1960), who was in the shipping business. She grew up on the Upper East Side. She is an alumna of The Madeira School, a Virginia boarding school for girls, after starting out at The Chapin School in New York City. She studied history and literature at Radcliffe College, and graduated in 1965.
Channing started her acting career with the experimental Theatre Company of Boston and eventually performed in the group's Off-Broadway 1969 production of the Elaine May play Adaptation/Next. She performed in a revival of Arsenic and Old Lace directed by Theodore Mann as part of the Circle in the Square at Ford's Theatre program in 1970. In 1971, she made her Broadway debut in Two Gentlemen of Verona — The Musical, working with playwright John Guare. She also appeared on Broadway in 1973 in a supporting role in No Hard Feelings at the Martin Beck Theatre
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Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon (born Susan Abigail Tomalin; October 4, 1946) is an American actress. She has worked in movies and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her work. She is also noted for her social and political activism for a variety of liberal causes.
Sarandon was born Susan Abigail Tomalin in New York City to a Roman Catholic family. She is the eldest of nine children of Lenora Marie (née Criscione) and Phillip Leslie Tomalin, who worked as an advertising executive, television producer, and nightclub singer during the big band era. Her father was of English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry, his English ancestors being from Hackney in London. On her mother's side, she is of Italian descent, with ancestors from the regions of Tuscany and Sicily. Sarandon attended Roman Catholic schools.[citation needed] She grew up in Edison, New Jersey, where she graduated from Edison High School in 1964. She then attended The Catholic University of America, from 1964 to 1968, where she began dating actor Chris Sarandon whom she married in 1967.
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Susan Wooldridge
Susan Wooldridge (born July 31, 1952), is the daughter of British actress Margaretta Scott and composer John Wooldridge. She is also the sister of Hugh Wooldridge.
She was born in London, England, and educated at convent schools.
Wooldridge has been acting since 1972. Her big break came in 1984 with The Jewel in the Crown, in which she played the pivotal character of Daphne Manners whose affection for the handsome Hari Kumar doomed him. For this role she received a BAFTA nomination and the ALVA Award for Best Actress. She has appeared in many British film productions, including Hope and Glory for which she won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress 1987.
She also appeared in many US/British TV productions, such as Dame Agatha Christie's mystery, Dead Man's Folly (1986) which starred Sir Peter Ustinov, Jean Stapleton, Tim Pigott-Smith, and Constance Cummings.
She has appeared on such British TV series as Preston Front, 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, Underworld, Poirot: Cat Among the Pigeons, Bad Company, Pinochet’s Progress, Underworld, Mrs Bradley Mysteries.
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Sybil Thorndike
Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike CH DBE (24 October 1882 – 9 June 1976) was a British actress.
She was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire to Arthur Thorndike and Agnes Macdonald. Her father was a Canon of Rochester Cathedral. She was educated at Rochester Grammar School for Girls, and first trained as a classical pianist, making weekly visits to London for music lessons at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
She gave her first public performance as a pianist at the age of 11, but in 1899 was forced to give up playing owing to piano cramp. At the instigation of her brother, the author Russell Thorndike, she then trained as an actress.
At the age of 21 she was offered her first professional contract: a tour of the United States with the actor-manager Ben Greet's company. She made her first stage appearance in Greet's 1904 production of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. She went on to tour the U.S. in Shakespearean repertory for four years, playing some 112 roles.
In 1908 Sybil was spotted by the playwright George Bernard Shaw when she understudied the leading role of Candida in a tour directed by Shaw himself. There she also met her future husband, Lewis Casson. They were married in December 1908, and had four children - John (1909–1999), Christopher (1912–1996), Mary (1914–2009) and Ann (1915–1990).
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Thandie Newton
Thandiwe Nashita "Thandie" Newton (born 6 November 1972) is a British actress. She has appeared in a number of British and American films, including The Pursuit of Happyness, Mission: Impossible II, Crash, Run, Fatboy, Run and W.
Newton was born in London, the daughter of Nyasha, a Zimbabwean health-care worker and Nick Newton, a laboratory technician and artist. Her birthplace has been incorrectly reported to be Zambia in some biographies, but she has confirmed in interviews that she was born in London, during a two-week trip by her parents. The name "Thandiwe" means "beloved" in Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa or Swazi, and "Thandie" is pronounced /ˈtændi/ TAN-dee in English. According to Newton, her mother is a Shona princess. Regarding her childhood, Newton remarked at a TED conference: "From about the age of 5, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly." Raised in London and Penzance, Cornwall, she studied dance at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts and at sixteen, while recovering from a back injury, she successfully auditioned for her first film role. She then went on to study social anthropology at Downing College, Cambridge, from 1992 to 1995, where she achieved a 2:1.
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Thora Birch
Thora Birch (born March 11, 1982) is an American actress. She was a child actor in the 1990s, starring in movies such as All I Want for Christmas (1991), Patriot Games (1992), Hocus Pocus (1993), Monkey Trouble (1994), Now and Then (1995), and Alaska (1996). She came to prominence in 1999 after earning worldwide attention and praise for her performance in American Beauty. She then starred in the well received film Ghost World (2001), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
Birch was born in Los Angeles, California, the eldest child of Jack Birch and Carol Connors. Her parents, who were her business managers from the start, are former adult film actors and both appeared in the pornographic film Deep Throat. Birch is of German Jewish, Nordic, and Italian ancestry . The family's original surname was Biersch, coming from her German Jewish ancestors. Her name Thora is derived from the name of the Norse God of thunder and lightning, Thor. She has a younger brother, Bolt.
Due to their own experience with acting, Birch's parents were reticent to encourage her in the profession, but were persuaded to show her photograph to agents by a babysitter who noticed her imitating commercials. She landed several parts in the late '80s, including advertisements for Burger King, California Raisins, Quaker Oats, and Vlasic Pickles. Her first acting job followed.
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Thora Hird
Dame Thora Hird DBE (28 May 1911 – 15 March 2003) was an English actress.
Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing. Her family background was largely theatrical: her mother, Marie Mayor, had been an actress, while her father managed a number of entertainment venues in Morecambe, including the Royalty Theatre where she made her first appearance, and the Central Pier. Thora often described her father as her sternest critic and attributed much of her talent as an actress and comedienne to his guidance. Although Hird left Morecambe in the late 1940s, she retained her affection for the town, referring to herself as a "sand grown'un", the colloquial term for anyone born in Morecambe.
Initially she made regular appearances in films, including the wartime propaganda film Went the Day Well? (1942, known as 48 Hours in the USA), in which she is shown wielding a rifle to defend a house from German paratroopers. She worked with the British film comedian Will Hay, and featured in The Entertainer (1960), which starred Laurence Olivier, and in A Kind of Loving (1962), with Alan Bates.
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Tilda Swinton
Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, The Chronicles of Narnia, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performances in The Deep End and We Need to Talk About Kevin. She won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton.
Swinton was born in London, England. Her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton, KCVO, OBE, DL, who was Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire (1989–2000), is Scottish, and her mother, Judith Balfour, Lady Swinton (née Killen), was Australian. Her paternal great-grandfather was Scottish politician and officer-of-arms George Swinton, and her maternal great-great-grandfather was Scottish botanist John Hutton Balfour. The Swinton family is an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the High Middle Ages.
Swinton attended three independent schools, Queen's Gate School in London, the West Heath Girls' School, and also Fettes College for a brief period.[citation needed] In 1983, she graduated from New Hall (now known as Murray Edwards College) at Cambridge University with a degree in Social and Political Sciences. While at Cambridge, she joined the Communist Party.
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Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks is known for his roles in Philadelphia and as the title character in Forrest Gump, roles which won him two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor. Hanks is also known for his Oscar nominated roles in Big, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away.
Hanks' other acting roles include Apollo 13 as Jim Lovell, The Green Mile as Paul Edgecomb, Toy Story as Woody and Charlie Wilson's War as Charlie Wilson.
Hanks was born in Concord, California. His father, Amos Mefford Hanks (born in Glenn County, California, on March 9, 1924 – died in Alameda, California, on January 31, 1992), was an itinerant cook. His mother, Janet Marylyn (née Frager; born in Alameda County, California, on January 18, 1932), was a hospital worker. Hanks' mother is of Portuguese ancestry, while two of his paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Britain. Hanks's parents divorced in 1960. The family's three oldest children, Sandra (now Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer)[citation needed], Larry (now Lawrence M. Hanks, PhD, an entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, now an actor and film maker, remained with his mother in Red Bluff, California.[citation needed]
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Tomás Milián
Tomás Milián (born March 3, 1932) is a Cuban-American actor best known for having worked extensively in Italian films from the late 1950s to the 1980s.
Tomás Milián was born in Havana as Tomás Quintín Rodríguez, the son of a Cuban general. His father was arrested and jailed after Fulgencio Batista took power in Cuba : he later committed suicide. Milián then decided to leave Cuba and pursue his wishes of being an actor. He settled in the United States to study at New York's Actor's Studio and later became an American citizen.
After starting a career in the United States, he went to Italy in 1958 to take part to a theater festival in Spoleto. He eventually decided to relocate to Italy, where he lived for over 25 years, gradually becoming a very successful performer. His first film part in Italy was in the 1959 picture La Notte brava. Although his voice was dubbed most of the time due to his accent, Milián performed his lines in Italian (or in English, depending on the film). He initially starred in arthouse movies and worked with directors such as Mauro Bolognini and Luchino Visconti.
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Topher Grace
Christopher John "Topher" Grace (pronounced /ˈtoʊfər/; born July 12, 1978) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Eric Forman on the Fox sitcom That '70s Show, Eddie Brock/Venom in the Sam Raimi film Spider-Man 3, and Edwin in the 2010 film Predators.
Grace was born in New York City, the son of Pat, an assistant to the schoolmaster of the New Canaan Country School, and John, a Madison Avenue executive.
Grace grew up in Darien, Connecticut, where he knew actress Kate Bosworth, as well as Opie & Anthony producer Nathaniel Bryan, and was sometimes babysat by actress Chloë Sevigny, who later appeared with him in high school stage plays. Grace chose the name Topher because he did not want his full name abbreviated to Chris at school.
Grace was cast as Eric Forman on Fox's That '70s Show, which debuted in 1998. The sitcom was successful and Grace became well known among television watchers; he played the role until the seventh season. The series was renewed for another season despite his absence before its ending in 2006. His character was written out and was replaced with a new character named Randy Pearson who was portrayed by Josh Meyers. Grace makes a very brief guest appearance in the final episode.
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Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE (born 14 January 1940) is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera. His well-known musicals are Cats (1981) and Les Misérables (1985). His dramas include Nicholas Nickleby and Macbeth. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, winning the Tony Award (Musical) for Les Misérables and the Olivier Award for Summerfolk / The Merchant of Venice / Troilus and Cressida; and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
Nunn was born in Ipswich, England, to Robert Alexander Nunn, a cabinetmaker, and Dorothy May Piper. He was educated at Northgate Grammar School, Ipswich and Downing College, Cambridge, where he began his stage career. He won a Director's Scholarship, becoming a trainee director at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in 1962.
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Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. She received an Academy Award nomination for the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction (1994) and she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Hysterical Blindness (2002).
Thurman was born in Boston to Nena von Schlebrügge and Robert Thurman, and grew up mostly in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she went to Amherst Regional Middle School, and then moved to Woodstock, New York. Her father gave his children a Buddhist upbringing, and she is named after an Dbuma Chenpo (in Tibetan, the "db" is silent; from Mahamadhyamaka in Sanskrit, meaning "Great Middle Way"). Regarding religion, she now calls herself agnostic. She has three brothers, Ganden (b. 1968), Dechen (b. 1973), and Mipam (b. 1978), and a half-sister named Taya (b. 1960), from her father's previous marriage. She and her siblings spent time in Almora, Uttarakhand, India, during childhood, and the Dalai Lama sometimes visited their home. She is described as having been an awkward and introverted girl who was teased for her tall frame, angular bone structure, enormous feet and unusual name (sometimes using the name “Uma Karen” instead of her birth name). When she was 10 years old, a friend's mother suggested a nose job. As a child, she suffered bouts of body dysmorphic disorder, which she discussed in an interview with Talk magazine in 2001. She attended Amherst Public Schools. In the 8th grade she discovered her love for acting. Talent scouts noticed her performance as Abigail in a production of The Crucible, and offered her the chance to act professionally. Thurman attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, an elite preparatory school in Massachusetts, before dropping out to pursue a career in acting.
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Ute Lemper
Ute Lemper (born 4 July 1963) is a German chanteuse and actress renowned for her interpretation of the work of Kurt Weill.
Born in Münster, Germany, Ute Gertrude Lemper was raised in a Roman Catholic family. She joined the punk music group known as the Panama Drive Band at the age of 16. Later, she graduated from the Dance Academy in Cologne and the Max Reinhardt Seminary Drama School in Vienna.
Her diverse credits include musicals, such as her breakthrough role in the original Viennese cast of Cats, the title role in Peter Pan, a recreation of the Marlene Dietrich-created Lola in The Blue Angel, the original European Sally Bowles in a Paris production of Cabaret, and Velma Kelly in Chicago (Lemper has played the role of Velma Kelly in Chicago in both London and New York. She won the Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in London). She also dubbed the singing voice of Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid for German-speaking audiences. The movie has since been redubbed for a second run in theaters in 1998, and was never released on DVD in its original German dub.
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Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.
She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning both the Tony and Olivier Awards. On screen, she has starred in more than 80 films; including Mary, Queen of Scots, Isadora, Julia, The Bostonians, Mission: Impossible and Atonement. Redgrave was proclaimed by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as "the greatest living actress of our times," and she remains the only British actress ever to win the Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Cannes, Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild awards. She was also the recipient of the 2010 BAFTA Fellowship "in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film."
A member of the Redgrave family of actors, she is the daughter of the late Sir Michael Redgrave and Lady Redgrave (the actress Rachel Kempson), the sister of the late Lynn Redgrave and the late Corin Redgrave, the mother of Hollywood actresses Joely Richardson and the late Natasha Richardson, and the aunt of British actress Jemma Redgrave.
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Vicky McClure
Vicky Lee McClure (born 8 May 1983) is a BAFTA-winning English actress best known for her work in the films of Shane Meadows. She played the title character's sister Ladine in A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), and featured in Meadows's most successful film to date, This Is England (2006). She was born in Nottingham.
In an April 2007 interview with Time Out, McClure spoke of Meadows approaching her for the role while she was in a pub with Andrew Shim. She described the making of the film as "constant laughing and jokes" and said, "We've been majorly involved, which has been fantastic. Even down to things like coming down to see Shane while he was doing the grades and the edit — we've watched so many different versions of the film!"
Much of the film was improvised — "Well, it's all improvised. When we're all having a laugh and pissing about, Shane will be like, 'Right just make each other laugh' and somebody will come out with some bizarre comment to start a conversation and we're all naturally laughing because it's funny. A lot of the time it just worked for a first take."
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Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood CBE (born 19 May 1953) is an English comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano. Much of her humour is grounded in everyday life, and includes references to popular British media and brand names of quintessentially British products. She is noted for her skills in observing culture, and in satirising social classes.
She started her career in 1974 by winning the ATV talent show New Faces. It wasn't until the 1980s that she began to establish herself as a comedy star, with the award-winning television series Victoria Wood As Seen On TV and became one of Britain's most popular stand-up comedians. In 1998, she wrote and starred in the (again, award-winning) sitcom dinnerladies. In 2006, she won two BAFTA awards for her one-off drama for ITV1, Housewife, 49. Wood frequently works with long-term collaborators Julie Walters, Duncan Preston and Celia Imrie.
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Vivien Merchant
Vivien Merchant (born Ada Thompson; 22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982) was a British actress.
Merchant performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie (1966) Accident (1967) Frenzy (1972) and The Offence (also 1972). Her performance in Alfie gained Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Merchant was the first wife of the playwright Harold Pinter, whom she met when working as a repertory actress and married in 1956. Their son, Daniel, was born in 1958.
Having performed the role of Rose in a production of his first play, The Room (1957) at the Hampstead Theatre in 1960, she appeared in many of Pinter's subsequent works, including as Ruth in The Homecoming (1964) on stage (1965) and screen (The Homecoming, 1973). The last of his plays in which she performed on stage was Old Times (1971) as Anna.
Their marriage began disintegrating in the mid-1960s. From 1962 to 1969, Harold Pinter had a clandestine affair with Joan Bakewell, which informs Pinter's play Betrayal. In 1975 Pinter began a serious affair with the historian Lady Antonia Fraser, the wife of Sir Hugh Fraser, which he confessed to his wife that March. At first, Merchant took it very well, saying positive things about Fraser, according to her friend artist Guy Vaesen (as cited by Michael Billington); but, Vaesen recalled, after "a female friend of Vivien's trotted round to her house and poisoned her mind against Antonia ... [L]ife in Hanover Terrace [where the Pinters then lived] gradually became impossible". Pinter left, and Vivien Merchant filed for divorce and gave interviews to the tabloid press, expressing her distress. The Frasers' divorce became final in 1977 and the Pinters' in 1980. In 1980 Pinter and Fraser married.
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Wendy Craig
Wendy Craig (born 20 June 1934) is a BAFTA Award winning English actress who is best known for her appearances in the sitcoms Butterflies, ...And Mother Makes Three and ...And Mother Makes Five. As of the 2010s, she plays the recurring role of Matron in the TV series The Royal.
She was born in Sacriston, County Durham and attended Durham High School for Girls,[citation needed] which she re-visited on 13 October 2007 when she opened a new building named after her. She began her career in British films at the end of the 1950s, and appeared in films such as The Servant (1963) and The Nanny (1965) with Bette Davis, but it was in British sitcoms of the late 1960s and 1970s which led to her becoming a household name, usually playing a scatty middle class housewife. She went from the BBC's Not in Front of the Children (1967) to ITV's ...And Mother Makes Three (1971) (in which she played a single parent), which later evolved into ...And Mother Makes Five. Then came Butterflies (1978), a comedy on BBC2, in which Craig's character was given more depth than in the earlier series.
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Wes Bentley
Wesley Cook "Wes" Bentley (born September 4, 1978) is an American film actor known for his roles of Ricky Fitts in American Beauty and Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games.
Bentley was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the son of Cherie and David Bentley, who are United Methodist ministers. In 1996, he graduated from Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood, Arkansas. Bentley then attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division (Group 29: 1996–2000) but left the school after one year to pursue his acting career.
Bentley has starred in several films, including the Oscar-winning film American Beauty, The Four Feathers, P2, and Ghost Rider. He starred in the thriller Dolan's Cadillac, based on the short story by Stephen King, and There Be Dragons by director Roland Joffé. Bentley is one of the main subjects in the documentary My Big Break, directed by Tony Zierra, which follows Bentley and three of his former roommates, Chad Lindberg, Brad Rowe and Greg Fawcett, as they pursue their dream to become successful actors in Hollywood.
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Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg ( /ˈhwʊpi/, born Caryn Elaine Johnson; November 13, 1955) is an American comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.
Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple (1985) playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award for her role in the film. In 1990, she starred as Oda Mae Brown, a psychic helping a slain man (Patrick Swayze) find his killer in the blockbuster film Ghost. This performance won her a second Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Notable later films include Sister Act and Sister Act 2, The Lion King, Made in America, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Girl, Interrupted and Rat Race. She is also acclaimed for her roles as the bartender Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation and as Terry Doolittle in Jumpin' Jack Flash. More recently, she had performed the voice of Stretch in Toy Story 3 and made an appearance in Glee as Carmen Tibideaux.
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William Snape
William Snape is an actor, perhaps most notable for playing Gaz's son Nathan in the British comedy The Full Monty.
Snape was born in Sheffield on 17 April 1985. He attended Dobcroft Junior School followed by Silverdale School.
He has more recently acted in ITV's Emmerdale as farmer Stephen Butler.
He made a guest appearance in the medical drama Holby City on 17 April 2007 as Tony Dunmore. He has also made guest appearances in one episode of Doctors and in two episodes of Heartbeat.
He underwent two operations after being hit by a car on 29 January 1999.
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Yukio Mishima
Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫, Mishima Yukio?) was the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡 公威, Hiraoka Kimitake?, January 14, 1925 – November 25, 1970), a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director. Nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Mishima was internationally famous and is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. His avant-garde work displayed a blending of modern and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death, and political change. He is also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état.
Mishima was born in the Yotsuya district of Tokyo (now part of Shinjuku). His father was Azusa Hiraoka, a government official, and his mother, Shizue, was the daughter of a school principal in Tokyo. His paternal grandparents were Jotarō and Natsuko Hiraoka. He had a younger sister, Mitsuko, who died of typhus, and a younger brother, Chiyuki.[citation needed]
Mishima's early childhood was dominated by the shadow of his grandmother, Natsu, who took the boy, separating him from his immediate family for several years. Natsu was the illegitimate granddaughter of Matsudaira Yoritaka, the daimyo of Shishido in Hitachi Province, and had been raised in the household of Prince Arisugawa Taruhito; she maintained considerable aristocratic pretensions even after marrying Mishima's grandfather, a bureaucrat who had made his fortune in the newly opened colonial frontier and who rose to become Governor-General of Karafuto. She was also prone to violence and morbid outbursts, which are occasionally alluded to in Mishima's works. It is to Natsu that some biographers have traced Mishima's fascination with death. Natsu did not allow Mishima to venture into the sunlight, to engage in any kind of sport or to play with other boys; he spent much of his time alone or with female cousins and their dolls.
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Yvonne Bryceland
Yvonne Bryceland (18 November 1925 – 13 January 1992) was a South African stage actress.
She was born Yvonne Heilbuth in Cape Town, South Africa.
Bryceland worked as a newspaper librarian before her theatrical début in Stage Door in 1947. Some of her best-known work was in the plays written by Athol Fugard.
Described as the first lady of South African theatre, Bryceland was a committed South African artist who, in 1972, defied racial segregation by co-founding, with her husband, South Africa's first non-racial theatre, the Space Theatre in Cape Town.
Yvonne Bryceland died of complications from cancer in 1992 at age 66 in London United Kingdom.
Her name has sometimes been misspelled as Yvonne Brayceland.
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Zoe Caldwell
Zoe Caldwell, OBE (born 14 September 1933) is an Australian-born actress.
She was born as Ada Caldwell in Melbourne, Australia and was raised in the suburb of Balwyn in Yongala Street. Her father, Edgar, was a plumber and her mother, Zoe, was a taxi dancer. Caldwell's mother, Zoe, had a Peugeot of 1950 vintage. She would often load some of the neighbourhood kids into it to take them to the Elizabethan Theatre in Richmond where they would go backstage and watch rehearsals and performances.
Caldwell has won four Tony Awards for her performances on Broadway in Tennessee Williams' Slapstick Tragedy, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Medea and Master Class. In the last she portrayed opera diva Maria Callas. In Stratford, Ontario she has worked often, including her role as Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra opposite Christopher Plummer's Mark Antony in 1967. She emigrated to England upon being invited to join the RSC at a time when Charles Laughton was attempting Lear, and Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins, Albert Finney were among the other newcomers in the company. She played Bianca in the 1959 production of Othello, starring Paul Robeson. Later she played the indomitable Helena opposite Dame Edith Evans in a production of "All's Well That Ends Well". It was in this last that Caldwell worked under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie whom she calls a "...pathfinder. He cut a path through the forest and all you had to do was follow it."[citation needed] Her career later brought her to America, where she was one of the original company of actors under Guthrie's direction at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. At the Guthrie, she played parts such as Ophelia in Hamlet and Natasha in Three Sisters.
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Zoë Wanamaker
Zoë Wanamaker, CBE (born 13 May 1949) is an American-born English actress. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company; in films, including the Harry Potter series; and in a number of television productions, including a long-time role as Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family. Wanamaker has been nominated for a BAFTA Film Award, two BAFTA TV Awards, Four Tony's and nine Olivier Awards, winning two.
Wanamaker was born in New York City, the daughter of Canadian-born actress and radio performer Charlotte Holland, and American-born actor, film director and radio producer Sam Wanamaker, who decided not to return to the United States after being blacklisted in 1952.
Wanamaker's parents were Jewish, though she had a non-religious and non-observant upbringing. Her family was of Ukrainian extraction. The BBC documentary Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast on 24 February 2009, revealed that Wanamaker's paternal grandfather Maurice Wanamaker (originally Manus Watmacher) was a tailor (born 1895) in Nikolaev in what is now Ukraine.
wn.com/Zoë_Wanamaker
Famous quotes by Judi Dench:
"I am so thrilled to be nominated for something I loved working on every single day."
"They wouldn't talk about that, when we met the girls who are still alive. They wouldn't engage into whether or not there was ever an affair between them. They said they were very close."
"It wasn't notorious and it wasn't sleazy. It was very fashionable to go there in the beginning, and then during the war it got to be a place where the soldiers and sailors and airmen all went."
"The Lord Chamberlain happened to be a friend of hers."
"I don't think about them very much. I think it's good luck if you get them. But I hope it won't affect the film if it doesn't get any. The film stands on its own merits."
"... I just had a quick look up and down, like you would."
"It's incredibly moving to hear some of our greatest actors performing Shakespeare."
"Sex and the City."
"I'm going to have a bit of a rest and come face-to-face with it all. I think I must do it, and it's time for me to do it now,"
"I am afraid it is a non-starter. I cannot even use a bicycle pump [let alone a computer]."
"I am so thrilled to be nominated for something I loved working on every single day."
"They wouldn't talk about that, when we met the girls who are still alive. They wouldn't engage into whether or not there was ever an affair between them. They said they were very close."
"It wasn't notorious and it wasn't sleazy. It was very fashionable to go there in the beginning, and then during the war it got to be a place where the soldiers and sailors and airmen all went."
"The Lord Chamberlain happened to be a friend of hers."
"I don't think about them very much. I think it's good luck if you get them. But I hope it won't affect the film if it doesn't get any. The film stands on its own merits."
"... I just had a quick look up and down, like you would."
"It's incredibly moving to hear some of our greatest actors performing Shakespeare."
"Sex and the City."
"I'm going to have a bit of a rest and come face-to-face with it all. I think I must do it, and it's time for me to do it now,"
"I am afraid it is a non-starter. I cannot even use a bicycle pump [let alone a computer]."
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The Graham Norton Show - S12x02 Part 1 - Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 15:18
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
The Graham Norton Show - S12x02 - Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Of Monsters and Men Part 1
http://wn.com/The_Graham_Norton_Show_S12x02_Part_1_Daniel_Craig,_Judi_Dench,_Javier_Bardem
The Graham Norton Show - S12x02 - Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Of Monsters and Men Part 1
The Graham Norton Show 2012 - S10x16 Dame Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Sue Perkins Part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:55
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
The Graham Norton Show 2012 - S10x16 Dame Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Sue Perkins, Will Young Part 1
http://wn.com/The_Graham_Norton_Show_2012_S10x16_Dame_Judi_Dench,_Dev_Patel,_Sue_Perkins_Part_1
The Graham Norton Show 2012 - S10x16 Dame Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Sue Perkins, Will Young Part 1
- published: 18 Feb 2012
- views: 130617
- author: GrahamNortonFan
Dame Judi Dench, The Cambridge Union Society
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 60:14
- Updated: 12 Dec 2012
Date recorded: 23/06/2011 Please note the video begins at 00:37! Dame Judi Dench made her professional debut with the Old Vic Company, and has starred in productions by the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Heralded as one of the greatest British actresses of the last century, she has won ten BAFTAs, seven Laurence Olivier awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award and a Tony Award. She has appeared as M in every James Bond film since Golden Eye; in period dramas including Pride and Prejudice, The Importance of Being Earnest and Cranford; and a wide range of other films including Chocolat and Shakespeare in Love. Normally reluctant to speak publicly, Dame Judi agreed to come to the Union to take part in a Q&A; session during a break from filming her next project.
http://wn.com/Dame_Judi_Dench,_The_Cambridge_Union_Society
Date recorded: 23/06/2011 Please note the video begins at 00:37! Dame Judi Dench made her professional debut with the Old Vic Company, and has starred in productions by the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Heralded as one of the greatest British actresses of the last century, she has won ten BAFTAs, seven Laurence Olivier awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award and a Tony Award. She has appeared as M in every James Bond film since Golden Eye; in period dramas including Pride and Prejudice, The Importance of Being Earnest and Cranford; and a wide range of other films including Chocolat and Shakespeare in Love. Normally reluctant to speak publicly, Dame Judi agreed to come to the Union to take part in a Q&A; session during a break from filming her next project.
- published: 19 Aug 2012
- views: 5666
- author: cambridgeunionsoc
Judi Dench winning Best Supporting Actress
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:09
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
Robin Williams presenting Judi Dench the Oscar® for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Shakespeare in Love" at the 71st Academy Awards® in 1999. Introduced by Whoopi Goldberg.
http://wn.com/Judi_Dench_winning_Best_Supporting_Actress
Robin Williams presenting Judi Dench the Oscar® for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Shakespeare in Love" at the 71st Academy Awards® in 1999. Introduced by Whoopi Goldberg.
- published: 28 Sep 2011
- views: 68118
- author: Oscars
SKYFALL Interviews: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Berenice Marlohe and Naomie Harris
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 16:05
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
Emmy winner Jake Hamilton sits down to talk with the stars of SKYFALL -- Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Berenice Marlohe and Naomie Harris -- only on JAKE'S TAKES! Follow Jake around the world at twitter.com/jakestakes
http://wn.com/SKYFALL_Interviews_Daniel_Craig,_Javier_Bardem,_Judi_Dench,_Berenice_Marlohe_and_Naomie_Harris
Emmy winner Jake Hamilton sits down to talk with the stars of SKYFALL -- Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Berenice Marlohe and Naomie Harris -- only on JAKE'S TAKES! Follow Jake around the world at twitter.com/jakestakes
- published: 15 Oct 2012
- views: 226944
- author: jakethemovieguy
Judi Dench interview - Part 1/2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:05
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Judi Dench interview - Part 1/2
http://wn.com/Judi_Dench_interview_Part_1_2
Judi Dench interview - Part 2/2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:36
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Judi Dench interview - Part 2/2
http://wn.com/Judi_Dench_interview_Part_2_2
Judi Dench talks about her challenges of her character in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:47
- Updated: 01 Dec 2012
BlackTree TV's Jamaal Finkley sits down with Judi Dench and speaks with her about challenges of playing a character so true to herself. THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is supposed to be India's answer for the UK's most elegant retirees -- a place where they can spend their golden years surrounded by lush amenities -- that is, until seven retirees who are in need of a transformation find themselves on the front steps of the not-quite-ready resort. Thus begins a comic, romantic and poignant adventure in a land full of unexpected pleasures, brought to life by some of the most honored and accomplished screen actors of our time. Arriving in sun-baked Jaipur, with only the hope to begin their life anew amidst their own personal baggage are: the bereaved and financially stranded Evelyn (Judi Dench), the disillusioned High Court Judge Graham (Tom Wilkinson), the quarrelsome couple Douglas and Jean (Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton), the die-hard love seekers Norman (Ronald Pickup) and Madge (Celia Imrie), and Muriel (Maggie Smith) -- who intends to have her hip replaced and immediately leave India for good. They are all at the mercy of the hotel's ambitiously naïve young owner, Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel), who inherited the once sophisticated building from his father hoping to turn it into a high end luxury hotel. So far, he might only have chaos to offer, but what Sonny lacks in resources, he makes up for in enthusiasm. Evelyn/Judi Dench Marital Status: Newly widowed Financial Status ...
http://wn.com/Judi_Dench_talks_about_her_challenges_of_her_character_in_The_Best_Exotic_Marigold_Hotel
BlackTree TV's Jamaal Finkley sits down with Judi Dench and speaks with her about challenges of playing a character so true to herself. THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is supposed to be India's answer for the UK's most elegant retirees -- a place where they can spend their golden years surrounded by lush amenities -- that is, until seven retirees who are in need of a transformation find themselves on the front steps of the not-quite-ready resort. Thus begins a comic, romantic and poignant adventure in a land full of unexpected pleasures, brought to life by some of the most honored and accomplished screen actors of our time. Arriving in sun-baked Jaipur, with only the hope to begin their life anew amidst their own personal baggage are: the bereaved and financially stranded Evelyn (Judi Dench), the disillusioned High Court Judge Graham (Tom Wilkinson), the quarrelsome couple Douglas and Jean (Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton), the die-hard love seekers Norman (Ronald Pickup) and Madge (Celia Imrie), and Muriel (Maggie Smith) -- who intends to have her hip replaced and immediately leave India for good. They are all at the mercy of the hotel's ambitiously naïve young owner, Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel), who inherited the once sophisticated building from his father hoping to turn it into a high end luxury hotel. So far, he might only have chaos to offer, but what Sonny lacks in resources, he makes up for in enthusiasm. Evelyn/Judi Dench Marital Status: Newly widowed Financial Status ...
- published: 25 Apr 2012
- views: 10909
- author: blacktreemedia
Dame Judi Dench sings "Send in the Clowns" - BBC Proms 2010
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:51
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
www.bbc.co.uk Dame Judi Dench sings "Send in the Clowns" from 'A Little Night Music' at the BBC Proms 2010, Sondheim's 80th Birthday Celebration.
http://wn.com/Dame_Judi_Dench_sings_Send_in_the_Clowns_BBC_Proms_2010
www.bbc.co.uk Dame Judi Dench sings "Send in the Clowns" from 'A Little Night Music' at the BBC Proms 2010, Sondheim's 80th Birthday Celebration.
- published: 05 Aug 2010
- views: 282477
- author: BBC
Skyfall : Judi Dench - M Interview [HD]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:44
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
Partner your channel with the VISO Network: viso.tv Become a VISO Affiliate: viso.tv Become a VISO Recruiter: viso.tv Subscribe ow.ly | Facebook ow.ly | Twitter ow.ly Release Date: 9 November 2012 Genre: Action | Adventure | Thriller Cast: Daniel Craig, Helen McCrory, Javier Bardem Directors: Sam Mendes Writer: Ian Fleming, John Logan Studio: Sony Pictures Plot: Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
http://wn.com/Skyfall_Judi_Dench_M_Interview_HD_
Partner your channel with the VISO Network: viso.tv Become a VISO Affiliate: viso.tv Become a VISO Recruiter: viso.tv Subscribe ow.ly | Facebook ow.ly | Twitter ow.ly Release Date: 9 November 2012 Genre: Action | Adventure | Thriller Cast: Daniel Craig, Helen McCrory, Javier Bardem Directors: Sam Mendes Writer: Ian Fleming, John Logan Studio: Sony Pictures Plot: Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
- published: 31 Oct 2012
- views: 13557
- author: VISO Trailers
Bond marks 50 years : Dame Judi Dench on her Bond 'responsibility'
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:35
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
"James Bond" "James Bond Day" "#007riday" "Judi Dench" "Dr No" "Bikini" "Bond girls" "007" "007 girls" "bond" "spy" "Lindy Hemming" "Bond Movies" "James bond movies" "Ian Fleming" "Skyfall" "Pierce brosnan" "James Bond Theme (Composition)" "James Bond (Literary Series)" "James Bond (character)" "Daniel Craig" The James Bond franchise is marking 50 years since the first film, Dr No, was released. Dame Judi Dench, who is set to return in her seventh 007 film as M in Skyfall, says James Bond is a "national hero". The actress told the BBC's Lizo Mzimba that she didn't realise the "responsibility" of playing M when she first took on the role in 1995.
http://wn.com/Bond_marks_50_years_Dame_Judi_Dench_on_her_Bond_'responsibility'
"James Bond" "James Bond Day" "#007riday" "Judi Dench" "Dr No" "Bikini" "Bond girls" "007" "007 girls" "bond" "spy" "Lindy Hemming" "Bond Movies" "James bond movies" "Ian Fleming" "Skyfall" "Pierce brosnan" "James Bond Theme (Composition)" "James Bond (Literary Series)" "James Bond (character)" "Daniel Craig" The James Bond franchise is marking 50 years since the first film, Dr No, was released. Dame Judi Dench, who is set to return in her seventh 007 film as M in Skyfall, says James Bond is a "national hero". The actress told the BBC's Lizo Mzimba that she didn't realise the "responsibility" of playing M when she first took on the role in 1995.
- published: 05 Oct 2012
- views: 3051
- author: Oscars2013
Judi Dench joking on Morecambe & Wise 1978
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:30
- Updated: 11 Dec 2012
Judi Dench
http://wn.com/Judi_Dench_joking_on_Morecambe_Wise_1978
The Graham Norton Show - S12x02 Part 2 - Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:30
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
The Graham Norton Show - S12x02 - Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Of Monsters and Men Part 2
http://wn.com/The_Graham_Norton_Show_S12x02_Part_2_Daniel_Craig,_Judi_Dench,_Javier_Bardem
The Graham Norton Show - S12x02 - Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Of Monsters and Men Part 2
- published: 28 Oct 2012
- views: 129263
- author: GrahamNortonFan
Dame Judi Dench interview - part one - Parkinson - BBC
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:06
- Updated: 27 Nov 2012
Dame Judi Dench tells the Parkinson audience about the dreadful reviews she received as a young actor. Free video clip from the popular british talk show 'Parkinson'.
http://wn.com/Dame_Judi_Dench_interview_part_one_Parkinson_BBC
Dame Judi Dench tells the Parkinson audience about the dreadful reviews she received as a young actor. Free video clip from the popular british talk show 'Parkinson'.
- published: 17 Sep 2007
- views: 227362
- author: BBCWorldwide
Judi Dench talking about STAY DENCH
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:27
- Updated: 17 Dec 2012
Dame Judi Dench talks about Stay Dench clothing & Lethal Bizzle on Radio 1 with Greg James- 24th Oct 2012 DENCHHHH!!!!
http://wn.com/Judi_Dench_talking_about_STAY_DENCH
Dame Judi Dench talks about Stay Dench clothing & Lethal Bizzle on Radio 1 with Greg James- 24th Oct 2012 DENCHHHH!!!!
- published: 26 Oct 2012
- views: 24640
- author: bizzlevideos
The Graham Norton Show - Bond Edition: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem part 1/3
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:56
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
The Graham Norton Show - Bond Edition: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem part 1/3
http://wn.com/The_Graham_Norton_Show_Bond_Edition_Daniel_Craig,_Judi_Dench_and_Javier_Bardem_part_1_3
The Graham Norton Show - Bond Edition: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem part 1/3
- published: 27 Oct 2012
- views: 67291
- author: Jan Vermeulen
Judi Dench -Shakespeare in Love scenes
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:17
- Updated: 14 Dec 2012
Judi Dench, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Simon Callow in Shakespeare in Love
http://wn.com/Judi_Dench_-Shakespeare_in_Love_scenes
Judi Dench, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Simon Callow in Shakespeare in Love
- published: 10 Nov 2012
- views: 437
- author: dogface48100
Judi Dench Discusses Eyesight
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:19
- Updated: 31 Oct 2012
Dame Judi Dench spoke to Anderson about being diagnosed with macular degeneration. "Millions of people have got it. It's not so good if you've got wet macular degeneration, most people have dry. Wet -- you have a series of injections in your eye, and it cleared mine, and now I've got dry, and stem cell work is being done on that." Tune in to "Anderson" to see the original broadcast on Tuesday, May 1.
http://wn.com/Judi_Dench_Discusses_Eyesight
Dame Judi Dench spoke to Anderson about being diagnosed with macular degeneration. "Millions of people have got it. It's not so good if you've got wet macular degeneration, most people have dry. Wet -- you have a series of injections in your eye, and it cleared mine, and now I've got dry, and stem cell work is being done on that." Tune in to "Anderson" to see the original broadcast on Tuesday, May 1.
- published: 30 Apr 2012
- views: 2011
- author: Anderson
Dame Judi Dench Interview - SKYFALL (JoBlo.com)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:03
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
www.joblo.com - "Skyfall" - Dame Judi Dench Interview Daniel Craig is back as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 in Skyfall, the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time. In Skyfall, Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. Director Sam Mendes Cast: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Ben Whishaw, Helen McCrory, Rory Kinear, Albert Finney, Judi Dench Writers: John Logan, Neal Purvis , Robert Wade In theaters: November 9th, 2012
http://wn.com/Dame_Judi_Dench_Interview_SKYFALL_JoBlocom
www.joblo.com - "Skyfall" - Dame Judi Dench Interview Daniel Craig is back as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 in Skyfall, the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time. In Skyfall, Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. Director Sam Mendes Cast: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Ben Whishaw, Helen McCrory, Rory Kinear, Albert Finney, Judi Dench Writers: John Logan, Neal Purvis , Robert Wade In theaters: November 9th, 2012
- published: 04 Nov 2012
- views: 6976
- author: joblomovienetwork
Judi Dench recites the poem ULYSSES in Skyfall, Action 3, 2, 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:34
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
Judi Dench recites Ulysses in Skyfall, A poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson-We are not now that strength which in old days moved Earth and Heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.
http://wn.com/Judi_Dench_recites_the_poem_ULYSSES_in_Skyfall,_Action_3,_2,_1
Judi Dench recites Ulysses in Skyfall, A poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson-We are not now that strength which in old days moved Earth and Heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.
- published: 18 Nov 2012
- views: 7044
- author: dogface48100
'Skyfall' Judi Dench Interview HD
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:46
- Updated: 13 Dec 2012
www.hollywood.com Matt Patches interviews Judi Dench.
http://wn.com/'Skyfall'_Judi_Dench_Interview_HD
www.hollywood.com Matt Patches interviews Judi Dench.
- published: 05 Nov 2012
- views: 1925
- author: hollywoodstreams
Dame Judi Dench
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:51
- Updated: 11 Dec 2012
Discover why Dame Judi Dench loves Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn and the place where Henry VIII first wooed the doomed queen.
http://wn.com/Dame_Judi_Dench
Discover why Dame Judi Dench loves Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn and the place where Henry VIII first wooed the doomed queen.
- published: 20 Jun 2011
- views: 14564
- author: VisitBritainTV
The Graham Norton Show - 2012 - S10x16 Dame Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Sue Perkins, Will Young Part 2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:09
- Updated: 13 Dec 2012
The Graham Norton Show - 2012 - S10x16 Dame Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Sue Perkins, Will Young Part 2
http://wn.com/The_Graham_Norton_Show_2012_S10x16_Dame_Judi_Dench,_Dev_Patel,_Sue_Perkins,_Will_Young_Part_2
The Graham Norton Show - 2012 - S10x16 Dame Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Sue Perkins, Will Young Part 2
- published: 19 Feb 2012
- views: 126778
- author: GrahamNortonFan
photo: AP / Jason DeCrow
16 Dec 2012
NEWTOWN, Conn. — The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage committed suicide as first responders closed in, the governor said Sunday, raising the specter that Adam Lanza had planned an even more gruesome massacre and was stopped short. Lanza blasted his way into the building and used a high-power rifle to kill 20 children and six adults, including the principal who tried to stop him, authorities said ... Among the questions ... H ... The Rev....(size: 8.8Kb)
photo: AP / Charles Krupa
18 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. "Most people reason dramatically, not quantitatively." -Oliver Wendell Holmes. On the same day that a 20-year-old, described as brilliant but remote, walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and massacred 26 children and adults, the school where I teach went on "lock-down." Four students with a handgun were arrested ... That morning before school, he had posted on Twitter and Facebook....(size: 14.0Kb)
photo: AP / Manu Brabo
18 Dec 2012
The UN's humanitarian chief has called on Syria to urgently allow fuel imports for aid deliveries and give access to 10 more aid agencies. Valerie Amos met government officials in the capital, Damascus, to discuss the growing humanitarian crisis. UN workers also needed to freely move into opposition-controlled areas to step up their aid efforts, she said ... 'Greater rebel contact' ... The claim could not be independently verified ... ....(size: 2.6Kb)
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
19 Dec 2012
WASHINGTON. US President Barack Obama backs a new bill to revive an assault weapons ban and other new gun laws, the White House said Tuesday, fleshing out his nascent response to a shocking school massacre. Obama also called an ardently pro-gun senator who has shifted his position on firearms laws since Friday's carnage in Connecticut and has begun meeting top cabinet officials to consider his options, his spokesman Jay Carney said ... ....(size: 4.9Kb)
photo: AP / Jason DeCrow
18 Dec 2012
An increasing number of US congressmen have called for a national dialogue about measures to curb gun violence following the shooting last week at a primary school in Connecticut that killed 26 people, including 20 children and six adults. White House officials have said that President Barack Obama would make preventing gun-related violence a priority in his second term in office and stricter laws would be part of the effort. ... ....(size: 19.2Kb)
Belfast Telegraph
19 Dec 2012
Bryan Adams has joked that he started taking photos of other celebrities when the ones he took of his own "bare ass" didn't get a reaction ... "No one commented. My bare ass inside the album cover, and no one said anything ... Bryan's portraits cover famous faces from the entertainment, fashion and art industries, including Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, Louise Bourgeois, Lindsay Lohan, Morrissey, Ben Kingsley and Dame Judi Dench....(size: 2.2Kb)
Bloomberg
19 Dec 2012
Fans of Johnny Cash, the Beatles and Elvis Presley have their presents all taken care of -- at a price. The battle of the Christmas box sets is back, with each providing enough listening to last the holiday season ... Inside are 14 old-fashioned albums and a hardback book ... Bryan Ferry’s conventional song “For Your Pleasure” gradually gets more distorted over seven minutes as Eno introduces echo, feedback, and finally Judi Dench’s words ... **....(size: 5.0Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
19 Dec 2012
The British Comedy Awards' newly crowned King of Comedy Jack Whitehall discovered to his surprise that playing up his middle-class roots only made him more popular ... Much is made of the fact that his father used to be Judi Dench’s agent ... Downton Abbey will accept no imitations of Dan Stevens Airplane funniest film ever, research finds Dames Helen Mirren and Judi Dench battle for best actress award Strictly Come Dancing 2012 ... 1 ... 2 ... 3....(size: 19.6Kb)
Lexington Herald-Leader
19 Dec 2012
Ratings by the Motion Picture Association of America are ... OPENING IN HOLLYWOOD THIS WEEK. "Barbara" - In 1980 East Germany, a young doctor applies for an exit visa and is summarily banished from Berlin to a provincial town, where she must weigh her dedication to her patients and her own plans to escape. With Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld and Rainer Bock ... (1.45) PG-13 ... (1.31) PG ... With Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes ... ....(size: 10.3Kb)
Sacramento Bee
19 Dec 2012
Ratings by the Motion Picture Association of America are ... OPENING IN HOLLYWOOD THIS WEEK. "Barbara" - In 1980 East Germany, a young doctor applies for an exit visa and is summarily banished from Berlin to a provincial town, where she must weigh her dedication to her patients and her own plans to escape. With Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld and Rainer Bock ... (1.45) PG-13 ... (1.31) PG ... With Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes....(size: 10.2Kb)
The Independent
18 Dec 2012
Dame Helen Mirren will vie with Dame Judi Dench and Emily Blunt for best British actress at the London Critics' Circle Film Awards. Actress Dame Helen is nominated for her role as the filmmaker's wife in the movie Hitchcock, while Dame Judi is up for two films, as MI5 boss in Skyfall and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ... Dame Judi Dench - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel/Skyfall....(size: 3.2Kb)
Skynews
18 Dec 2012
Two British acting Dames - Helen Mirren and Judi Dench - come up against each other after being named among the contenders for best British actress at the London Critics' Circle Film Awards. ... Dame Judi Dench - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel/Skyfall....(size: 9.9Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
18 Dec 2012
Dame Helen Mirren will battle with Dame Judi Dench for best British actress at the London Critics' Circle Film Awards, as Daniel Craig gets nod for best actor for 007 role ... Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench ... Dame Helen Mirren will vie with Dame Judi Dench and Emily Blunt for best British actress at the London Critics' Circle Film Awards ... Dame Judi Dench - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel/Skyfall....(size: 14.4Kb)
Collider
18 Dec 2012
From director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) and screenwriter Ol Parker, the film stars Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton and Dev Patel ... We had to really suck to not be adequate because we had the Dame (Judi Dench) and Bill Nighy ... We had to doctor the scooter and teach him how to ride it, and he had Judi Dench perched sideways on the back, beaming and smiling out at the world....(size: 13.8Kb)
Screen Daily
18 Dec 2012
Skyfall becomes the most fêted Bond film at the awards with five nominations including the British Film Award, British Actor of the Year for Daniel Craig and Judi Dench, who is nominated in two categories ... The British Actress award will also be contested by Helen Mirren, Emily Blunt and Andrea Riseborough as well as Judi Dench ... London ... Judi Dench – Skyfall (Sony) ... Judi Dench – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox) and Skyfall (Sony) ... ....(size: 10.8Kb)
Belfast Telegraph
18 Dec 2012
Dame Helen Mirren will vie with Dame Judi Dench and Emily Blunt for best British actress at the London Critics' Circle Film Awards. Dame Helen is nominated for her role as the filmmaker's wife in the movie Hitchcock, while Dame Judi is up for two films, as MI5 boss in Skyfall and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ... supporting actress (Dame Judi)....(size: 1.7Kb)
The Hollywood Reporter
18 Dec 2012
Judi Dench is nominated in two categories both for supporting actress and British actress of the year, the latter of which is shared between her role in Bond and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ... Dench (Skyfall) and Huppert (Amour) ... Judi Dench – Skyfall (Sony) ... Judi Dench – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Fox) and Skyfall (Sony)....(size: 10.3Kb)
BBC News
18 Dec 2012
The latest James Bond film Skyfall has been nominated for five awards by the London Film Critics' Circle, with two nominations going to Dame Judi Dench ... Additional considerations go to Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem, while Skyfall itself is up for best British film ... Dame Judi's nomination in the British actress of the year category also recognises her work in ensemble comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ... ....(size: 2.0Kb)
| Dame Judi Dench | |
|---|---|
 Dench at the 2007 BAFTAs. |
|
| Born | Judith Olivia Dench (1934-12-09) 9 December 1934 (age 77)[1] York, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Actress, Author[2] |
| Years active | 1957–present |
| Spouse | Michael Williams (1971–2001; widowed) |
| Children | Finty Williams |
| Parents | Reginald Arthur Dench Eleanora Olave Jones |
Dame Judith Olivia “Judi” Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.
Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She branched into film work, and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer; however, most of her work during this period was in theatre. Not generally known as a singer, she drew strong reviews for her leading role in the musical Cabaret in 1968.
During the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In television, she achieved success during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television romantic comedy series As Time Goes By.
Her film appearances were infrequent until she was cast as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she has played in each James Bond film since. She received several notable film awards for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), and has since been acclaimed for her work in such films as Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2006), and the television production The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2001).
Dench has received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include ten BAFTAs, (including the Bafta Fellowship in 2001) seven Laurence Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. In June 2011, she received a fellowship from the British Film Institute (BFI).[3]
She was married to actor Michael Williams from 1971 until his death in 2001. They are the parents of actress Finty Williams.
Contents |
Personal life[link]
Dench was born in Heworth, York, England, the daughter of Eleanora Olave (née Jones), a native of Dublin, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor who met Judi's mother while studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin.[4] Dench attended the Mount School, a Quaker independent secondary school in York, and became a Quaker.[5][6] Her brothers, one of whom is actor Jeffery Dench, were born in Tyldesley, Lancashire.[5][6] Notable relatives also include her niece, Emma Dench, a Roman historian and professor previously at Birkbeck, University of London, and currently at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.[7]
In 1971, Dench married British actor Michael Williams and they had their only child, Tara Cressida Frances Williams, known professionally as Finty Williams, on 24 September 1972.
Dench and her husband starred together in several stage productions, and the Bob Larbey British television sitcom, A Fine Romance (1981–84). Michael Williams died from lung cancer in 2001, aged 65.
Macular degeneration[link]
In early 2012, Dench discussed her macular degeneration, with one eye "dry" and the other "wet", for which she has been treated with injections into the eye. She said that she was needing someone to read scripts to her.[8]
Career[link]
In Britain, Dench has developed a reputation as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, primarily through her work in theatre, which has been her forte throughout her career. She has more than once been named number one in polls for Britain's best actress.[9][10]
Early years[link]
Through her parents, Dench had regular contact with the theatre. Her father, a physician, was also the GP for the York theatre, and her mother was its wardrobe mistress.[11] Actors often stayed in the Dench household. During these years, Judi was involved on a non-professional basis in the first three productions of the modern revival of the York Mystery Plays in the 1950s. In 1957, in one of the last productions in which she appeared during this period, she played the role of the Virgin Mary, performed on a fixed stage in the Museum Gardens.[12] Though she initially trained as a set designer, she became interested in drama school as her brother Jeff attended the Central School of Speech and Drama.[11] She applied and was accepted, where she was a classmate of Vanessa Redgrave, graduating with a first class degree in drama and four acting prizes, one being the Gold Medal as Outstanding Student.[11]
In September 1957, she made her first professional stage appearance with the Old Vic Company, at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, as Ophelia in Hamlet, then her London debut in the same production at the Old Vic. She remained a member of the company for four seasons, 1957–1961, her roles including Katherine in Henry V in 1958 (which was also her New York debut), and as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in October 1960, directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli. During this period, she toured the United States and Canada, and appeared in Yugoslavia and at the Edinburgh Festival.
She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in December 1961 playing Anya in The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych Theatre in London, and made her Stratford-upon-Avon debut in April 1962 as Isabella in Measure for Measure. She subsequently spent seasons in repertory both with the Playhouse in Nottingham from January 1963 (including a West African tour as Lady Macbeth for the British Council), and with the Playhouse Company in Oxford from April 1964. That same year, she made her film debut in The Third Secret.
Prominence[link]
In 1968, she was offered the role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret. As Sheridan Morley later reported: "At first she thought they were joking. She had never done a musical and she has an unusual croaky voice which sounds as if she has a permanent cold. So frightened was she of singing in public that she auditioned from the wings, leaving the pianists alone on stage".[13] But when it opened at the Palace Theatre in February 1968, Frank Marcus, reviewing for Plays and Players, commented that: "She sings well. The title song in particular is projected with great feeling."
After a long run in Cabaret, she rejoined the RSC making numerous appearances with the company in Stratford and London for nearly twenty years, winning several best actress awards. Among her roles with the RSC, she was the Duchess in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi in 1971. In the Stratford 1976 season, and then at the Aldwych in 1977, she gave two comedy performances, first in Trevor Nunn's musical staging of The Comedy of Errors as Adriana, then partnered with Donald Sinden as Beatrice and Benedick in John Barton's "British Raj" revival of Much Ado About Nothing. As Bernard Levin wrote in The Sunday Times: "...demonstrating once more that she is a comic actress of consummate skill, perhaps the very best we have."[14]
One of her most notable achievements with the RSC was her performance as Lady Macbeth in 1976. Nunn's acclaimed production of Macbeth was first staged with a minimalist design at The Other Place theatre in Stratford. Its small round stage focused attention on the psychological dynamics of the characters, and both Ian McKellen in the title role, and Dench, received exceptionally favourable notices. "If this is not great acting I don't know what is", wrote Michael Billington in The Guardian. "It will astonish me if the performance is matched by any in this actress's generation", commented J C Trewin in The Lady. The production transferred to London, opening at the Donmar Warehouse in September 1977, and was adapted for television, later released on VHS and DVD. Dench won the SWET Best Actress Award in 1977.
Dench was nominated for a BAFTA for her role as Hazel Wiles in the 1979 BBC drama On Giant's Shoulders.[15] In 1989, she was cast as Pru Forrest, the long-time silent wife of Tom Forrest, in the BBC soap opera The Archers on its 10,000th edition.[16]
She had a romantic role in the BBC television film Langrishe, Go Down (1978), with Jeremy Irons and a screenplay by Harold Pinter from the Aidan Higgins novel, directed by David Jones, in which she played one of three spinster sisters living in a fading Irish mansion in the Waterford countryside.
Dench made her debut as a director in 1988 with the Renaissance Theatre Company's touring season, Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road, co-produced with the Birmingham Rep, and ending with a three month repertory programme at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Dench's contribution was a staging of Much Ado About Nothing, set in the Napoleonic era, which starred Kenneth Branagh and Samantha Bond as Benedick and Beatrice.
She has made numerous appearances in the West End including the role of Miss Trant in the 1974 musical version of The Good Companions at Her Majesty's Theatre. In 1981, Dench was due to play the title role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats, but was forced to pull out due to a torn Achilles tendon, leaving Elaine Paige to play the role.[17] She has acted with the National Theatre in London where, in September 1995, she played Desiree Armfeldt in a major revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, for which she won an Olivier Award.
Popular success[link]
In 1995, she took over the role of M (James Bond's boss) with the James Bond film series, starting with GoldenEye replacing Robert Brown. She has appeared in six James Bond films, including Die Another Day (2002),Casino Royale (2006) and its direct sequel Quantum of Solace (2008), making her the longest-running current cast member of the series. She is currently filming her seventh Bond film, Skyfall, to be released in 2012.
She has won multiple awards for performances on the London stage, including a record six Laurence Olivier Awards. She also won the Tony Award for her 1999 Broadway performance in the role of Esme Allen in David Hare's Amy's View. She has taken on the role of Director for a number of stage productions. Dench won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Elizabeth I in the film Shakespeare in Love.
Judi Dench has frequently appeared with her close friend Geoffrey Palmer. They co-starred in the series As Time Goes By, where she played Jean Pargetter, becoming Jean Hardcastle after she married Lionel Hardcastle. The programme spanned nine seasons. They also worked together on the films Mrs. Brown and Tomorrow Never Dies, both filmed in 1997. Dench has also lent her distinctive voice to many animated characters, narrations, and various other voice work. She plays the role of "Miss Lilly" in the children's animated series Angelina Ballerina (alongside her daughter, Finty Williams, as the voice of Angelina) and as Mrs. Calloway in the Disney animated film Home on the Range. She has narrated various classical music recordings (notably Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Britten's Canticles-The Heart of the Matter), and has appeared in numerous BBC Radio broadcasts as well as commercials. Her many television appearances include lead roles in the series A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By. In the United States, As Time Goes By has been repeated on PBS and on BBC America.
Recent years[link]
Dench returned to the West End stage in April 2006 in Hay Fever alongside Peter Bowles, Belinda Lang and Kim Medcalf. She finished off 2006 with the role of Mistress Quickly in the RSC's new musical The Merry Wives, a version of The Merry Wives of Windsor.[18]
Dench's more recent film career has garnered six Academy Award nominations in nine years for Mrs. Brown in 1997; her Oscar-winning turn as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love in 1998; for Chocolat in 2000; for the lead role of writer Iris Murdoch in Iris in 2001 (with Kate Winslet playing her as a younger woman); for Mrs Henderson Presents (a romanticised history of the Windmill Theatre) in 2005; and for 2006's Notes on a Scandal, a film for which she received critical acclaim, including Golden Globe, Academy Award, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild nominations.
In 2007, the BBC issued The Judi Dench Collection, DVDs of eight television dramas: Talking to a Stranger quartet (1966), Keep an Eye on Amélie (1973), The Cherry Orchard (1981), Going Gently (1981), Ghosts (with Kenneth Branagh, Natasha Richardson and Michael Gambon, 1987), Make and Break (with Robert Hardy, 1987), Can You Hear Me Thinking? (co-starring with her husband, Michael Williams, 1990) and Absolute Hell (1991).[19]
Dench, as Miss Matty Jenkins, co-starred with Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton and Francesca Annis, in the BBC One five-part series Cranford. The series began transmission in the UK in November 2007, and on the BBC's U.S. producing partner station WGBH (PBS Boston) in spring 2008.
Dench became the voice for the narration for the updated Walt Disney World Epcot attraction Spaceship Earth in February 2008.
In February 2008, she was named as the first official patron of the York Youth Mysteries 2008, a project to allow young people to explore the York Mystery Plays through dance, film-making and circus. This culminated on 21 June with a day of city centre performances in York.
She worked on the 22nd Bond adventure Quantum of Solace and reprised her role as M.
She is interested in horse racing and in partnership with her chauffeur Bryan Agar owns a four-year-old horse, "Smokey Oakey", who won the 2008 Brigadier Gerard Stakes.[20]
She returned to the West End from 13 March – 23 May 2009, playing Madame de Merteuil in Yukio Mishima's Madame De Sade, directed by Michael Grandage as part of the Donmar season at Wyndham's Theatre. A year later, Dench renewed her collaboration with Sir Peter Hall at the Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames in A Midsummer Night's Dream which opened in February 2010, when she played Titania as Queen Elizabeth I in her later years: Queen of the Forest of Arden. On 31 July 2010, Dame Judi performed Send in the Clowns at a special celebratory promenade concert from the Royal Albert Hall as part of the proms season, in honour of composer Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday, the entire concert in honour of his music.[21][22]
Public life[link]
Dench was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1970[23] and promoted to Dame Commander of the order in 1988.[24] She was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2005.[25] In June 2011, she became a fellow of the British Film Institute (BFI).[3]
Dench is a patron of the Leaveners, Friends School Saffron Walden and the Archway Theatre, Horley, Surrey. She became president of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 2006,[26] taking over from Sir John Mills, and is also president of the Questors Theatre, Ealing. In May 2006, she became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was also patron of Ovingdean Hall School, a special day and boarding school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Brighton, which closed in 2010,[27] and Vice President of The Little Foundation.
Dench is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. In 1996, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (D.Univ) from Surrey University[28] and in 2000–2001 she received an Honorary DLitt from Durham University.[29] In July 2000, she was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) by Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, where she actively supported their Drama School at the Gateway Theatre on Elm Row.[citation needed] On 24 June 2008, she was honoured by the University of St Andrews, receiving the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) at the university's graduation ceremony.[30]
Dench has worked with the non-governmental indigenous organisation, Survival International, campaigning in the defence of the tribal people, the Bushmen of Botswana and the Arhuaco of Colombia. She made a small supporting video saying the Bushmen are victims of tyranny, greed and racism.[31][32]
On 22 July 2010, Dench was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by Nottingham Trent University.[33]
The Dr. Hadwen Trust announced on 15 January 2011 that Dench had become a patron of the trust joining existing high profile personalities, Joanna Lumley and David Shepherd.[34]
On 19 March 2012 it was announced that Dench was to become honorary patron of the charity "Everton in the Community", the official charity of Everton F.C. in Everton, Liverpool. It was also revealed that Dench is a supporter of Everton.[35]
Filmography[link]
She has also lent her likeness and voice for the role of M in James Bond video games:
Theatre work[link]
 |
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (March 2009) |
Source: "Judi Dench: With a Crack in her Voice" by John Miller
As an actress[link]
|
St Mary's Abbey
Nottingham Playhouse Company
Nottingham Playhouse Company
Oxford Playhouse Company
|
RSC
No Company
West End
RSC
No Company
RSC
West End
|
National Theatre
RSC
National Theatre
Royal Shakespeare Company
National Theatre
West End and Broadway
RSC
West End
RSC
Donmar Warehouse
Rose Theatre, Kingston
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
|
As a director[link]
- 1988 – Much Ado About Nothing, Renaissance Theatre Company
- 1989 – Look Back in Anger – Renaissance Theatre Company
- 1989 – Macbeth – Central School of Speech and Drama
- 1991 – The Boy from Syracuse, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
- 1993 – Romeo and Juliet, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Discography[link]
- Cabaret (1968), Original London cast album CBS (1973)
- The Good Companions (1974), Original London cast recording (1974)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1995); from Felix Mendelssohn as Recitant. Conducted by Seiji Ozawa
- A Little Night Music (1995) by Stephen Sondheim, Royal National Theatre Cast
- Nine (2009) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Awards and nominations[link]
Theatre[link]
- Awards
- 1977: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival – Macbeth
- 1980: Evening Standard Award for Best Actress – Juno and the Paycock
- 1980: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival – Juno and the Paycock
- 1982: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress – The Importance of Being Earnest and A Kind of Alaska
- 1982: Evening Standard Award for Best Actress – The Importance of Being Earnest and A Kind of Alaska
- 1984: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a New Play – Pack of Lies
- 1987: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress – Antony and Cleopatra
- 1987: Evening Standard Award for Best Actress – Antony and Cleopatra
- 1987: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress – Antony and Cleopatra
- 1996: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress – Absolute Hell
- 1996: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Entertainment – A Little Night Music
- 1997: Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress – Amy's View
- 1999: Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play – Amy's View
- 2004: Laurence Olivier Award: Special Award for Outstanding Contributions to British Theatre
Television[link]
- Awards
- 1967: BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress – Talking to a Stranger[37]
- 1982: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – A Fine Romance, Going Gently and The Cherry Orchard
- 1982: Broadcast Press Guild Award for Best Actress – A Fine Romance
- 1985: British Academy Television Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance – A Fine Romance
- 2001: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
- 2001: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
- Nominations
- 1979 British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – On Giant's Shoulders
- 1983: British Television Academy Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance – A Fine Romance
- 1984: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – Saigon: Year of the Cat
- 1984: British Television Academy Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance – A Fine Romance
- 1990: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – Behaving Badly
- 1998: British Television Academy Award for Best Comedy Performance – As Time Goes By
- 2001: American Comedy Award for Funniest Female Performer in a TV Special – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
- 2001: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie[38] – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
- 2001: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie – The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
- 2008: British Academy Television Award for Best Actress – Cranford
- 2008: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie – Cranford
- 2008: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film – Cranford
- 2008: Satellite Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film – Cranford
- 2010: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie – Return to Cranford
References[link]
- ^ Entertainment | Hollywood's premier Dame. BBC News (24 February 2002). Retrieved on 13 January 2012.
- ^ "'And Furthermore' Description" at WHSmith web site
- ^ a b "Dame Judi Dench receives BFI fellowship" 23 June 2011, BBC News
- ^ Staff writers (6 September 2002). "The Importance of Dame Judi". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/2241129.stm. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
- ^ a b Michael Billington (12 September 2005). "Please God, not retirement". The Guardian (UK). http://film.guardian.co.uk/oscars2006/story/0,,1699880,00.html. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
- ^ a b Michael Billington (23 March 1998). "Judi Dench: Nothing like the Dame". The Guardian (UK). http://film.guardian.co.uk/Feature_Story/Guardian/0,,44053,00.html. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
- ^ "Emma Dench". Harvard Magazine. March–April 2010. http://harvardmagazine.com/2010/03/emma-dench. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
- ^ Judi Dench says she isn't going blind, Reuters per ABC Online, 21 February 2012
- ^ "Hopkins and Dench named best British actors". The Guardian (UK). 18 August 2005. http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1551503,00.html. Retrieved 29 December 2006.
- ^ "Connery and Dench Top Legend Poll". Time Out Group. 25 February 2005. http://www.timeout.com/film/news/303/connery-and-dench-top-legend-poll.html. Retrieved 29 December 2006.
- ^ a b c "Judy Dench bio at TalkTalk.com". http://www.talktalk.co.uk/entertainment/film/biography/artist/judi-dench/biography/61?page=1.
- ^ "Dame Judi speaks up for Mystery Plays". HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk. 18 September 2003. http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/CAMPAIGNS/2003/09sep/030918judi.shtml. Retrieved 29 December 2006.
- ^ Sheridan Morley (1986). The great stage stars: distinguished theatrical careers of the past and present. London: Angus & Robertson. ISBN 978-0-207-14970-2.
- ^ Robert Tanitch (2007). London stage in the 20th century. London: Haus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-904950-74-5.
- ^ "Dench's nomination for On Giant's Shoulders". BAFTA website. http://www.bafta.org/search.html?pageNo=38&q=actress&w=true. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
- ^ "The Archers Backstage". BBC Online. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/backstage/14000.shtml. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
- ^ Staff writers (15 January 2002). "Record-breaking Cats bows out". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/1761508.stm. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
- ^ "Merry Wives – The Musical". Royal Shakespeare Company. http://www.rsc.org.uk/WhatsOn/3537.aspx. Retrieved 29 December 2006.
- ^ Philip Fisher (2007). "Reviews: Absolute Hell". British Theatre Guide. http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/DVD-jdenchabshell-rev.htm.
- ^ "Dame Judi Dench lands Brigadier Gerard Stakes with Smokey Oakey". The Evening Standard. UK. 29 May 2008. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/sport/article-23488432-details/Dame+Judi+Dench+lands+Brigadier+Gerard+Stakes+with+Smokey+Oakey/article.do. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
- ^ White, Lesley (14 February 2010). "Peter and Judi play a Tug of Love". The Sunday Times (UK). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article7021949.ece.
- ^ "About the Rose". The Rose Theatre. http://www.rosetheatrekingston.org/about-us. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 45117. p. 6374. 5 June 1970.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 51171. p. 7. 31 December 1987.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 57665. p. 4. 11 June 2005.
- ^ "Dench is appointed Mountview president". The Stage (London): p. 6. 30 March 2006. ISSN 0038-9099.
- ^ home. Ovingdean Hall School. Retrieved on 13 January 2012.
- ^ "Doctor of the University". http://portal.surrey.ac.uk/calendar/hongrads/01doctor.jsp. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
- ^ "MINUTES of UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM SENATE, 15 May 2001", dur.ac.uk, 15 May 2001. Accessed 27 July 2011
- ^ "Distinguished actress to be honoured by University". University of St Andrews. 21 May 2008. http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news/Title,21556,en.html. Retrieved 16 February 2009.
- ^ "Journalists need to leave the Stone Age". The Independent (UK). 23 January 2006. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/journalists-need-to-leave-the-stone-age-524213.html. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
- ^ "News & Media". Survival International. http://www.survival-international.org/news/video. Retrieved 18 July 2009. [dead link]
- ^ "Stars of stage and screen among honorary graduates of Nottingham Trent University". Ntu.ac.uk. http://www.ntu.ac.uk/apps/news/98814-15/Stars_of_stage_and_screen_among_honorary_graduates_of_Nottingham_Trent_University.aspx. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ "Dame Judi Dench announced as Patron of the Dr Hadwen Trust". Drhadwentrust.org. 15 January 2011. http://www.drhadwentrust.org/smartweb/latest-news/news-and-views/post/26-dame-judi-dench-announced-as-patron-of-the-dr-hadwen-trust. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ http://community.evertonfc.com/news/dame-judi-dench-accepts-starring-role-for-everton/
- ^ Called Judy by her husband in the film, but imdb refers to the character by this name.
- ^ British Theatre Guide review
- ^ Dame Judi Dench Emmy Nominated. Emmys.com. Retrieved on 13 January 2012.
Further reading[link]
- Dench, Judi. And Furthermore. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010. ISBN 978-0-297-85967-3.
- Lavery, Alison (ed.). The Judi Dench Handbook. Emereo, 2010. ISBN 978-1-74244-659-2.
- Miller, John (ed.). Darling Judi: A Celebration of Judi Dench. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004. ISBN 0-297-84791-0.
- Trowbridge, Simon. The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Oxford: Editions Albert Creed, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9559830-2-3.
- Herbert, Ian; Christine Baxter and Robert E. Finlay (1981). Who's Who in the Theatre (17th ed.). Detroit: Gale. ISBN 0-273-01717-9.
- Billington, Michael (1993). One Night Stands: A critic's view of British theatre from 1971–1991. London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 1-85459-185-1.
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Judi Dench |
- Judi Dench Biography
- Judi Dench at the Internet Movie Database
- Judi Dench at the Internet Broadway Database
- Judi Dench at AllRovi
- Judi Dench at the Royal Shakespeare Company performance database
- As Time Goes By Central website
- Judi Dench on Acting Regal
- University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of Bristol
- The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the RSC: Online database
- Dame Judi Dench at Emmys.com
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Dench, Judi |
| Alternative names | Dench, Judith Olivia |
| Short description | English actress |
| Date of birth | 9 December 1934 |
| Place of birth | York, Yorkshire, England, UK |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
Dame Judith Olivia “Judi” Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.
Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She branched into film work, and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer; however, most of her work during this period was in theatre. Not generally known as a singer, she drew strong reviews for her leading role in the musical Cabaret in 1968.
During the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In television, she achieved success during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television romantic comedy series As Time Goes By.
Her film appearances were infrequent until she was cast as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she has played in each James Bond film since. She received several notable film awards for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), and has since been acclaimed for her work in such films as Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2006), and the television production The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2001).
