Lorna Doone
1893 edition
Author(s)	R. D. Blackmore
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Publisher	Sampson Low, Son, & Marston
Publication date	1869

Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by Richard Doddridge Blackmore. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly around the East Lyn Valley area of Exmoor.

Introduction[link]

Blackmore experienced difficulty in finding a publisher, and the novel was first published anonymously in 1869, in a limited three-volume edition of just 500 copies, of which only 300 sold. The following year it was republished in an inexpensive one-volume edition and became a huge critical and financial success. It has never been out of print.

It received acclaim from Blackmore's contemporary, Margaret Oliphant, and as well from later Victorian writers including Robert Louis Stevenson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Thomas Hardy. A favourite among female readers,^[1] it is also popular among males, and was chosen by male students at Yale in 1906 as their favourite novel.^[2]

By his own account, Blackmore relied on a "phonologic" style for his characters' speech, emphasizing their accents and word formation.^[3] He expended great effort, in all of his novels, on his characters' dialogues and dialects, striving to recount realistically not only the ways, but also the tones and accents, in which thoughts and utterances were formed by the various sorts of people who lived in the Exmoor district in the 17th century.

Blackmore incorporated real events and places into the novel. The Great Winter described in chapters 41–45 was a real event.^[4] He himself attended Blundell's School in Tiverton which serves as the setting for the opening chapters. One of the inspirations behind the plot is said to be the shooting of a young woman at a church in Chagford, Devon, in the 17th century. Unlike the heroine of the novel, she did not survive, but is commemorated in the church. Apparently, Blackmore invented the name "Lorna," possibly drawing on a Scottish source.^[5]

According to the preface, the work is a romance and not a historical novel, because the author neither "dares, nor desires, to claim for it the dignity or cumber it with the difficulty of an historical novel." As such, it combines elements of traditional romance, of Sir Walter Scott's historical novel tradition, of the pastoral tradition, of traditional Victorian values, and of the contemporary sensation novel trend. The basis for Blackmore's historical understanding is Macaulay's History of England and its analysis of the Monmouth rebellion. Along with the historical aspects are folk traditions, such as the incorporation of Judge Jeffreys and the many legends based around both the Doones and Tom Faggus.

Plot summary[link]

Badgworthy water, Malmsmead

Jan Ridd learns to fire his father's gun – from an 1893 illustrated edition

The book is set in the 17th century in the Badgworthy Water region of Exmoor in Devon and Somerset, England. John (in West Country dialect, pronounced "Jan") Ridd is the son of a respectable farmer who was murdered in cold blood by one of the notorious Doone clan, a once noble family, now outlaws, in the isolated Doone Valley. Battling his desire for revenge, John also grows into a respectable farmer and takes good care of his mother and two sisters. He falls hopelessly in love with Lorna, a girl he meets by accident, who turns out to be not only (apparently) the granddaughter of Sir Ensor Doone (lord of the Doones), but destined to marry (against her will) the impetuous, menacing, and now jealous heir of the Doone Valley, Carver Doone. Carver will let nothing get in the way of his marriage to Lorna, which he plans to force upon her once Sir Ensor dies and he comes into his inheritance.

Sir Ensor dies, and Carver becomes lord of the Doones. John Ridd helps Lorna escape to his family's farm, Plover's Barrows. Since Lorna is a member of the hated Doone clan, feelings are mixed toward her in the Ridd household, but she is nonetheless defended against the enraged Carver's retaliatory attack on the farm. A member of the Ridd household notices Lorna's necklace, a jewel that she was told by Sir Ensor belonged to her mother. During a visit from the Counsellor, Carver's father and the wisest of the Doone family, the necklace is stolen from Plover's Barrows. Shortly after its disappearance, a family friend discovers Lorna's origins, learning that the necklace belonged to a Lady Dugal, who was robbed and murdered by a band of outlaws. Only her daughter survived the attack. It becomes apparent that Lorna, being evidently the long-lost girl in question, is in fact heiress to one of the largest fortunes in the country, and not a Doone after all (although the Doones are remotely related, being descended from a collateral branch of the Dugal family). She is required by law, but against her will, to return to London to become a ward in Chancery. Despite John and Lorna's love for one another, their marriage is out of the question.

King Charles II dies, and the Duke of Monmouth (the late king's illegitimate son) challenges Charles's brother James for the throne. The Doones, abandoning their plan to marry Lorna to Carver and claim her wealth, side with Monmouth in the hope of reclaiming their ancestral lands. However, Monmouth is defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor, and his associates are sought for treason. John Ridd is captured during the revolution. Innocent of all charges, he is taken to London by an old friend to clear his name. There, he is reunited with Lorna (now Lorna Dugal), whose love for him has not diminished. When he thwarts an attack on Lorna's great-uncle and legal guardian Earl Brandir, John is granted a pardon, a title, and a coat of arms by the king and returns a free man to Exmoor.

In the meantime, the surrounding communities have grown tired of the Doones and their depredations. Knowing the Doones better than any other man, John leads the attack on their land. All the Doone men are killed, except the Counsellor (from whom John retrieves the stolen necklace) and his son Carver, who escapes, vowing revenge. When Earl Brandir dies and Judge Jeffreys is awarded guardianship of Lorna, she is granted her freedom to return to Exmoor and marry John. During their wedding, Carver bursts into the church at Oare. He shoots Lorna and flees. Distraught and filled with blinding rage, John pursues and confronts him. A struggle ensues in which Carver is left sinking in a mire. Exhausted and bloodied from the fight, John can only pant as he watches Carver slip away. He returns to discover that Lorna is not dead, and after a period of anxious uncertainty, she survives to live happily ever after.

Chronological key[link]

The narrator, John Ridd, says he was born on 29 November 1661; in Chapter 24, he mentions Queen Anne as the current monarch, so the time of narration is 1702–1714 making him 40–52 years old. Although he celebrates New Year's Day on 1 January, at that time in England the year in terms of A.D. "begins" Annunciation Style on 25 March, so 14 February 1676 would still be 1675 according to the old reckoning. Most of the dates below are given explicitly in the book.

Other versions and cultural references[link]

• The novel has inspired at least ten movies and broadcast mini-series.
• Lorna Doone is also a shortbread cookie made by Nabisco.^[6]
• Lorna Doone was said to be the favourite book of Australian bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly, who may have thought of the idea of his armour by reading of the outlaw Doones "with iron plates on breast and head."^[7]
• The phrase "Lorna Doone" is used in cockney slang for spoon.^[8]
• Lorna Doone is a name of a hotel room in The Cup of Silence (2005), an episode of the TV series Rosemary & Thyme.
• Lorna Doone is referenced in Michael Ondaatje's novel, The English Patient.
• The Musical Lorna Doone with music and lyrics by Kat Bond was premiered by the Newtown Musical Theatre Company in Mid Wales in October 2010.^[9]
• Another musical version, Loving Lorna Doone, will be premiered by the Rochester [Minnesota] Repertory Theatre Company in April and May 2011.^[10]
• English band Mystery Jets' closing track on their 2010 album Serotonin (album) is called Lorna Doone.
• Lorna Doone Park is in Orlando, Florida, on the shores of Lake Lorna Doone, and adjacent to the Citrus Bowl.
• Lorna Doone is one of the novels Nick Adams and his sister Littless take on their trip in Ernest Hemingway's unfinished novella The Last Good Country.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Delderfield, Eric (1965?) The Exmoor Country: [a] brief guide & gazetteer; 6th ed. Exmouth: The Raleigh Press
• Elliott-Cannon, A. (1969) The Lorna Doone Story. Minehead: The Cider Press

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Lorna Doone

• Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor at Project Gutenberg
• Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor at Project Gutenberg – a lavishly illustrated edition
• IMDb Listing of movies based on Lorna Doone
• HTML online text of Lorna Doone
• Lorna Doone at Silver Sirens

Clive Owen
Owen at the 2005 San Sebastian International Film Festival
Born	(1964-10-03) 3 October 1964 (age 47) Coventry, West Midlands, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Sarah-Jane Fenton (m. 1995) «start: (1995)»"Marriage: Sarah-Jane Fenton to Clive Owen" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Clive_Owen) 2 daughters

Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991. He then garnered critical acclaim for his work in the film Close My Eyes (1991) before getting international notice for his performance as a struggling writer in Croupier (1998). In 2005, Owen won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his appearance in the drama Closer (2004). He has since played leading roles in films such as Sin City (2005), Inside Man (2006), Children of Men (2006), and The International (2009).

Early life[link]

The fourth of five brothers, Owen was born in Coventry, in the English Midlands, a son of Pamela (née Cotton) and Jess Owen, a country and western singer of Welsh descent. His father left the family when Owen was three years old, and despite a brief reconciliation when Owen was nineteen, the two have remained estranged.^[1] Raised by his mother and stepfather, a railway ticket clerk,^[2] he has described his childhood as "rough."^[1] While initially opposed to drama school, he changed his mind in 1984, after a long and fruitless period of searching for work. Owen graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1987^[3] with a class that included Rebecca Pidgeon, Serena Harragin, Mark Womack, and Liza Tarbuck. After graduation, he won a position at the Young Vic, performing in several Shakespearean plays.^[4]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Initially, Owen carved out a career in television. In 1988 Owen starred as Gideon Sarn in a BBC production of Precious Bane and the Channel 4 film Vroom before the 1990s saw him become a regular on stage and television in the UK, notably his lead role in the ITV series Chancer, followed by an appearance in the Thames Television production of Lorna Doone.

He won critical acclaim for his performances in the 1991 Stephen Poliakoff film Close My Eyes – in which he has a full frontal nude scene – about a brother and sister who embark on an incestuous love affair. He subsequently appeared in The Magician, Class of '61, Century, Nobody's Children, An Evening with Gary Lineker, Doomsday Gun, Return of the Native and then a Carlton production called Sharman, about a private detective. In 1996, he appeared in his first major Hollywood film The Rich Man's Wife alongside Halle Berry before finding international acclaim in a Channel 4 film directed by Mike Hodges called Croupier (1998). In Croupier, he played the title role of a struggling writer who takes a job in a London casino as inspiration for his work, only to get caught up in a robbery scheme. In 1999, he appeared as an accident-prone driver in Split Second, his first BBC production in a decade.

Clive Owen at the Berlin Film Festival, 2009

He then starred in The Echo, a BBC1 drama. He starred in a film called Greenfingers about a criminal who goes to work in a garden, before appearing in the BBC1 mystery series Second Sight. In 2001, he provided the voice-over for a BBC2 documentary about popular music through the years called Walk On By, as well as starring in a highly-acclaimed theatre production called A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, about a couple with a severely handicapped daughter.

He became well known to North American audiences in the summer of 2001 after starring as The Driver in The Hire, a series of short films sponsored by BMW and made by prominent directors. He then appeared in Robert Altman's Gosford Park, alongside an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ryan Phillippe. He appeared in the 2002 hit The Bourne Identity. In 2003, he teamed up with Hodges again to make I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. He starred in Beyond Borders and took on the title role in King Arthur, for which he took riding lessons.

Recognition and acclaim[link]

Owen appeared in the West End and Broadway hit play Closer, by Patrick Marber, which was produced as a film, and was released in 2005. He played "Dan" in the play, but was "Larry" the dermatologist in the film version. His portrayal of Larry in the film version earned him a lot of recognition and acclaim as well as the Golden Globe and BAFTA award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He noted that the expectations of him since the Oscar nomination have not changed the way he approaches film-making, stating "I try, every film I do, to be as good as I can and that's all I can do."^[5]

Clive Owen at the Toronto Film Festival, 2011

After Closer, he appeared in Derailed alongside Jennifer Aniston, the comic book thriller Sin City as the noir antihero Dwight McCarthy and as a mysterious bank robber in Inside Man. Despite public denials, Owen had long been rumoured to be a possible successor to Pierce Brosnan in the role of James Bond. A public opinion poll in the United Kingdom in October 2005 (SkyNews) found that he was the public's number one choice to star in the next installment of the series. In that same month, however, it was announced that fellow British actor Daniel Craig would become the next James Bond. In an interview in the September 2007 issue of Details, he claimed that he was never offered or even approached concerning the role.^[6] In 2006, Owen spoofed the Bond connection by making an appearance in the remake of The Pink Panther in which he plays a character named "Nigel Boswell, Agent 006" (when he introduces himself to Inspector Clouseau, he quips that Owen's character is "one short of the big time").

Owen at the Children of Men Premiere in Mexico City, 2006

In 2006, Owen starred in the highly acclaimed Children of Men,^[7] for which he received widespread praise. The film was nominated for various awards, including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; Owen worked on the screenplay, although he was uncredited.^[8] The next year he starred alongside Paul Giamatti in the film Shoot 'Em Up and appeared as Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth I of England in the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age. He appeared in the Christmas special of the Ricky Gervais show Extras, as revealed in the video podcast teaser. Owen starred in The International (2009), a film which he described as a "paranoid political thriller".^[9] He then played the lead in The Boys Are Back,^[10] an Australian adaptation of the book The Boys Are Back In Town by Simon Carr.

In April 2010, he was cast as the lead in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's horror-thriller Intruders.^[11]

In June 2010 it was announced that Owen and Nicole Kidman will star in an HBO film about Ernest Hemingway and his relationship with Martha Gellhorn entitled Hemingway & Gellhorn. James Gandolfini served as executive producer to the film, written by Barbara Turner and Jerry Stahl. The film was directed by Philip Kaufman.^[12]

Owen shot Shadow Dancer^[13], joint Irish UK production about a young mother who is heavily involved with the Irish republican Movement. She is arrested in London following an aborted bombing attempt and must either choose to inform on her family or spend the rest of her life behind bars. The film also stars Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson and Aidan Gillen and is being directed by James Marsh.

Personal life[link]

In an incident he later described as "very schmaltzy", Owen met his future wife, actress Sarah-Jane Fenton, when they performed the leads in Romeo and Juliet at the Young Vic.^[14] The couple married on 6 March 1995 and live in Highgate, London and Wrabness, north Essex, with their two daughters – Hannah and Eve.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2006,^[15] he became patron of the Electric Palace Cinema in Harwich, Essex, England and launched an appeal for funds to repair deteriorating elements of the fabric.^[16][17]

He enjoys the music of indie rock band Hard-Fi and has been seen at two of their concerts, Brixton Academy, 15 May 2006^[18] and Wembley Arena, 18 December 2007. He is also an avid Liverpool F.C fan.^[19]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Clive Owen

• Clive Owen at the Internet Movie Database
• Clive Owen at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Clive Owen on Charlie Rose (15 December 2006) at Google Videos (Adobe Flash video)

Sean Bean
Bean at the 2009 Empire Film Awards
Born	Shaun Mark Bean (1959-04-17) 17 April 1959 (age 53) Handsworth, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986–present
Spouse	Debra James (1981-88) Melanie Hill (1990-97) Abigail Cruttenden (1997-2000) Georgina Sutcliffe (2008-10)

Shaun Mark "Sean" Bean (born 17 April 1959) is an English actor of stage and screen. Bean is known for playing Boromir in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and, previously, British Colonel Richard Sharpe in the ITV television series Sharpe. He is also known for his film work playing such roles as Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye, Jason Locke in Essex Boys, Odysseus in Troy, Ian Howe in National Treasure and Andy McNab in Bravo Two Zero. Bean has also acted in a number of television productions and character roles such as playing Robert Aske in Henry VIII and Eddard Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones. He has also performed voice work for computer games, including Martin Septim in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Early life and family[link]

Bean was born Shaun Mark Bean in the Handsworth district of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, the son of Rita (née Tuckwood) and Brian Bean.^[1] Bean's father owned a fabrication shop, which he had set up with a colleague. The business employed 50 people, including Bean's mother, who worked as a secretary. He has a younger sister named Lorraine. Despite becoming relatively wealthy (his father owned a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow), the family never moved away from the council estate, because they preferred to remain close to friends and family.^[2]

As a child, Bean smashed a glass door due to an argument over scissors. It left a piece of glass embedded in his leg that briefly impeded his walking and left a large scar.^[1] This accident prevented him from pursuing his dream of playing football professionally. In 1975, Bean left Brook Comprehensive School with two O Levels in Art and English.^[3] After a job at a supermarket and another for the council, Bean started working for his father's firm with a day release at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology to take a welding course. While at Rotherham he stumbled into an arts class and decided to pursue his interest in art. After attending courses at two other colleges, one for half a day and the other for less than a week, he returned to Rotherham College, where he came across a drama course for which he subsequently enrolled. After some college plays and one at Rotherham Civic Theatre, he applied for and received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), starting a seven term course in January 1981.^[1]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

He graduated from RADA in 1983. He made his professional acting début in 1983 at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, Berkshire as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet.^[1] His early work involved a mixture of stage and screen work. As an actor, he adopted the Irish spelling "Sean" of his first name. His first national exposure came in an advert for non-alcoholic lager.^[4] Between 1986 and 1988 he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company appearing in productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Fair Maid of the West, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[5][6] He appeared in his first film in 1986 when he played Ranuccio Tomassoni in Derek Jarman's film Caravaggio. He then reunited with the director on War Requiem in 1988, which also starred Laurence Olivier. In 1989 he starred as the evil Dominic O'Brien in Catherine Cookson's The Fifteen Streets where he gained a dedicated following.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he became an established actor on British television.^[7] He had notable performances in the BBC productions Clarissa and Lady Chatterley. His role in the latter became infamous for his sex scenes with Joely Richardson.^[8] In 1990, Bean co-starred with Richard Harris in Jim Sheridan's adaption of the John B. Keane play, The Field; also in 1990, his role as the journalist Anton in Windprints examined the difficult problems of apartheid in South Africa.

In 1996 he appeared in what became a famous Sky Sports commercial for the Premier League and, that year, he combined his love of football with his career, to finally achieve his childhood dream of playing for Sheffield United, albeit as Jimmy Muir in the film When Saturday Comes. Although the film was not critically acclaimed, Sean Bean received credit for a good performance.^[9]

[edit] Sharpe

His critical successes in Caravaggio and Lady Chatterley contributed to his emerging image as a sex symbol, but he became most closely associated with the character of Richard Sharpe, the maverick Napoleonic Wars rifleman. Bean was not the first actor to be chosen to play Sharpe, but Paul McGann, the first choice, was injured while playing football two days into filming. Initially, producers tried to work around McGann's injury, but it proved impossible and Bean received the call.^[10] The 16-episode Sharpe television series was based loosely on Bernard Cornwell's novels about the Peninsular War, and the fictional experiences of a band of soldiers in the famed 95th Rifles. Starting with Sharpe's Rifles, the series followed the fortunes and misfortunes of Richard Sharpe as he rose from the ranks as a Sergeant to Lieutenant Colonel by the time of the Battle of Waterloo. It ran from 1993 to 1997, with three episodes produced each year. The series was filmed under challenging conditions, first in Ukraine, and later in Portugal. After several years of rumours, more episodes were produced, called Sharpe's Challenge, which aired in April 2006, and Sharpe's Peril which aired on ITV in the autumn of 2008 and was later released on DVD.^[11]

Hollywood villain[link]

With a mini-series role as enigmatic Lord Richard Fenton in the TV miniseries Scarlett, loosely based on the sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, Bean made the transition to Hollywood feature films. His first notable Hollywood appearance was that of an Irish republican terrorist in the 1992 film adaptation of Patriot Games; in a fight scene, Harrison Ford hit him with a boat hook, giving him a permanent scar. Bean's rough-cut looks made him a patent choice for a villain, and this role in Patriot Games was the first of several villains that he would portray, all of whom come to sticky ends.^[12]

He played Alec Trevelyan (MI6's 006) and James Bond's nemesis in the 1995 film GoldenEye; the weak-stomached Spence (with Robert De Niro) in Ronin (1998); a wife-beating ex-con in Essex Boys (2000); the malevolent kidnapper-jewel thief in Don't Say a Word (2001). He was also widely recognised as villainous treasure hunter Ian Howe in the popular National Treasure opposite Nicolas Cage. He played a villainous scientist in The Island (2005) and a dedicated husband in Silent Hill. In the independent film, Far North, he played a Russian mercenary, lost in the tundra and rescued by an Inuit woman and her daughter; he ends up pitting his two female rescuers against one another.

[edit] The Lord of the Rings

Arguably, Bean's most prominent role was as Boromir in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. His major screen-time occurs in the first installment, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He appeared briefly in flashbacks in the theatre releases of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; he also appears in a scene from the extended edition of The Two Towers. Before casting finished, rumours circulated that Jackson had considered Bean for the role of Aragorn, but neither Bean nor Jackson confirmed this in subsequent interviews. Bean's well-known fear of flying, with helicopters, caused him difficulties in mountainous New Zealand, where the trilogy was filmed. After a particularly rough ride, he vowed not to fly to a location again. In one instance, he chose to take a ski lift into the mountains and then hike the final few miles, in full costume complete with shield, armour and sword.^[13]

Bean has a tattoo of the English word "nine" written using Tengwar on his shoulder, a reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings and the fact that his character was one of the original nine companions of the Fellowship of the Ring. The other actors of "The Fellowship"—Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan and Viggo Mortensen—acquired the same tattoo. John Rhys-Davies, whose character was Gimli, also one of the original nine companions, arranged for his stunt double to get the tattoo.^[14]

Later career[link]

Other roles gave more scope for his acting abilities. In 1999's Extremely Dangerous, his character walked a fine line between villain and hero, reminiscent of the 1960s American TV series, The Fugitive.^[15] He became a repentant, poetry-reading Grammaton cleric who succumbs to his emotions in 2002's Equilibrium; a quirky alien cowboy in 2003's The Big Empty, and a sympathetic and cunning Odysseus in the 2004 film Troy.

He cameoed with other Hollywood stars in Moby's music video "We Are All Made of Stars" in February 2002.^[16] In the same year, he returned to the stage in London performing in Macbeth alongside Samantha Bond.^[17] Due to popular demand, the production ran until March 2003.

Bean's high profile and recognisable voice have created opportunities for voice-over work, especially in the British advertising industry.^[18] He has featured in television adverts for O2, Morrisons and Barnardos as well as for Acuvue and the Sci-Fi Channel in the United States. He also does the voice over for the National Blood Service's television and radio campaign. For the role playing video game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, he voiced Martin Septim.^[19]

Bean has completed a one hour pilot, Faceless, for US television. He has also appeared in Outlaw, an independent British production, and a remake of 1986 horror film, The Hitcher (released in January 2007); here he used an American accent again. He also starred in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, playing the role of Zeus, the king of Mount Olympus and God of lightning, in February 2010. Also that year, Bean starred in CASH (CA$H), playing the lead role of Pyke Kubic, a dangerous man determined to recover his wealth in a bad economy. CASH (CA$H), which co-starred Chris Hemsworth, explored the role money plays in today's hard economic times. Bean also played the villain's twin brother, Reese. The film was directed and written by Stephen Milburn Anderson (South Central).

Bean stars in the first season of Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin, playing the part of Lord Eddard Stark.^[20] Bean and Peter Dinklage were the two actors whose inclusion show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss considered necessary for the show to become a success, and for whose roles no other actors were considered. His nuanced portrayal of what could have been a stereotypical "noble leader" character won him critical praise; as the A.V. Club's reviewer put it, he "portrayed Ned as a man who knew he lived in the muck but hoped for better and assumed everyone else would come along for the ride."^[21] HBO's promotional efforts focused on Bean as the show's leading man and best-known actor. The photograph of him as Ned sitting on the Iron Throne, holding his greatsword, was used for promotional posters and on the cover of the first season's DVD box set as well as the cover of a tie-in reedition of the novel A Game of Thrones. Also according to the A.V. Club, "he is the touchstone. In a series filled with people whose morals are a slippery slope, he’s the closest thing we have to a decent man ... Ned belongs to the kinds of stories we like to tell ourselves, and that means that in the grittier, darker world of Game Of Thrones, he has to die."^[21]

Bean will star in Soldiers of Fortune, alongside Ving Rhames and Christian Slater. Bean has completed filming Cleanskin, in which he plays a secret service agent faced with the task of pursuing and eliminating a suicide bomber and his terrorist cell. The film stars Charlotte Rampling, James Fox, Abhin Galeya, Tuppence Middleton and Michelle Ryan. The film was written, produced and directed by Hadi Hajaig and is being released by Warner Brothers in UK cinemas on 9 March 2012.

He appeared in Tarsem Singh's Snow White film, Mirror Mirror, which was released in the U.S. in March 2012.^[22]

Bean will reprise his role as Christopher Da Silva in the Silent Hill film sequel Silent Hill: Revelation 3D.^[23] He will co-star with Ashley Judd in the upcoming ABC drama series, Missing, which is slated to premiere in early 2012 ^[24]. Bean is slated to star with Aaron Eckhart, Anna Sophia Robb and Terence Stamp in Pan, a modern-day spin on J.M. Barrie's tale of Peter Pan, where Pan is a villain being hunted by a police captain named Hook.^[25]

Image[link]

Often described as down to earth, Sean Bean has retained his Sheffield accent, despite now living in London.^[8] Partly due to his role as Sharpe, he is also described as a sex symbol. He was voted the UK's second sexiest man in 2004; his Trilogy co-star Orlando Bloom received the highest votes.^[26] He admits he does not mind being considered as a "bit of rough" by women.^[27] Bean's first love was football and he has been a passionate Sheffield United supporter from a young age; he has a tattoo on his left shoulder that reads 100% Blade.^[28] He was a director of the club until December 2007, but decided to "go back to the terraces, where (he) truly belong(s)".^[29] He had some issues with Neil Warnock, former manager of Sheffield United, after Warnock claimed that Bean stormed into his office and shouted at him in front of his wife and daughter after the final game of the 2006–07 season, when the club had just been relegated from the Premier League. Bean denies it, calling Warnock "bitter" and "hypocritical".^[30] He also wrote the foreword and helped to promote a book of anecdotes called Sheffield United: The Biography.^[31] He also follows Yorkshire County Cricket Club.^[32]

In addition to his image as a sex symbol and an admitted "bit of rough", Bean has developed a reputation as a loner, a label he considers unfair.^[8] He has described himself instead as quiet, and interviewers confirm that he is a "man of few words";^[33] a recent interviewer even called him surprisingly shy.^[34] Although he admits he can be a workaholic, in his spare time he relaxes with a book or listens to music, and is a talented pianist. He is also a keen gardener, and does both welding and sketching.^[35]

Acting style[link]

Northern

Despite being professionally trained, Sean Bean adopts an instinctive style of acting that some say makes him especially well-suited to portraying his characters' depths.^[36] He has said in interviews that the most difficult part is at the start of filming when trying to understand the character.^[37] After achieving this he can snap in and out of character instantly. This ability to go from the quiet man on set to the warrior Boromir "amazed" Sean Astin during filming of The Fellowship of the Ring.^[38] Other fans include the directors Mike Figgis (Stormy Monday) and Wolfgang Petersen (Troy), who described working with Bean as a "beautiful thing".^[36]

Personal life[link]

Bean has been married and divorced four times. He married his secondary school sweetheart Debra James on 11 April 1981. The marriage ended in divorce in 1988. He met actress Melanie Hill at RADA, and they married on 27 February 1990. The couple's first daughter, Lorna, was born in October 1987; their second, Molly, was born in September 1991. Bean and Hill's marriage ended in divorce in August 1997.

During the filming of Sharpe, Bean met actress Abigail Cruttenden, and they married on 22 November 1997. Their daughter, Evie Natasha, was born in November 1998. Bean and Cruttenden divorced in July 2000. Bean began dating actress Georgina Sutcliffe in 2006. After cancelling their planned January 2008 wedding on the eve of the ceremony for "personal reasons", Bean married Sutcliffe at the Marylebone Register Office in London on 19 February 2008. Amid allegations that Bean physically abused Sutcliffe in 2009,^[34] domestic disturbances resulted in the police being called to their home in Belsize Park on three occasions. On 9 May 2012 Bean was reportedly arrested over claims he made harassing phone calls and sent abusive text messages to his former wife, actress Georgina Sutcliffe and was later released on bail.^[39][40] Bean and Sutcliffe's separation was announced^[41] on 6 August 2010,^[42] and the divorce was finalised on 21 December 2010.^[43]

Bean is a well known supporter of Sheffield United and was on the board for several years.

Awards and honours[link]

Bean has yet to receive a major individual award in the film industry. However he did receive three separate awards as part of the ensemble cast in The Return of the King:^[44] from the Screen Actors Guild, the National Board of Review and the Broadcast Film Critics Association all in 2004.

In his home city of Sheffield, he received an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 1997 and a second doctorate, a Doctor of Letters in English Literature from the University of Sheffield in July 2007.^[44][45] Afterward, Bean commented, "I did get a doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University about 11 or 12 years ago so now I'm a double doctor. But this was wonderful, especially from my home city."^[44][45] He was also selected as one of the inaugural members of Sheffield Legends, the Sheffield equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He now has a plaque in his honour placed in front of Sheffield Town Hall.^[46]

Filmography[link]

The 4th Reich- Sergeant Major Gordon - Pre Production - Coming Out 2013

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Trowbridge, Simon: The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Oxford: Editions Albert Creed (2010) ISBN 978-0-9559830-2-3

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sean Bean

• Sean Bean at the Internet Movie Database
• Sean Bean at Yahoo! Movies
• The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the RSC: Online database
• Works by or about Sean Bean in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Robert Alastair Addie (10 February 1960 – 20 November 2003) was an English actor who was best known for playing Sir Guy of Gisbourne in the television series Robin of Sherwood.

Career[link]

Addie was educated at Marlborough College, leaving at 16 to join the National Youth Theatre. He left there in 1978 to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), which, in turn, he left in 1980, to appear in John Boorman’s film Excalibur as Mordred. In 1989 Robert left acting, but returned to his acting career in 1995 both on the stage with Exiled Theatre and in film and television.

Addie's most acclaimed role (and the one for which he is most widely recognised and regarded) was as Sir Guy of Gisbourne in the 1980s series Robin of Sherwood.

Addie's stepfather was Jack Williams, a highly regarded British polo player, developer of the modern game and an individual very involved with both the British Royals and foreign polo players and teams including the Sultan of Brunei, and numerous American teams and individuals. Under Williams' tutelage, Addie became an accomplished horseman and polo player. (Williams' son and grandson are the polo players, Nick Williams Sr. and Nick Williams Jr.) Addie also spent time in Argentina, again with Williams. His family's house in Sapperton in the Cotswolds, near Cirencester meant that he was involved in polo every day through the season through much of the 1970s and early 1980s. He was a keen horseman and accomplished swordsman and former competitive archer.

Addie was married and divorced three times. He had three children: Alexander, Alastair and Caitlin. He died on 20 November 2003, aged 43, just three weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Filmography[link]

• Horse in the House (1978—ITV children drama)
• Absolution (1978)
• Stalky & Co. (1982) (miniseries)
• Barriers (1983—TV series)
• Andy Robson (1982/3—TV series)
• Excalibur (1981)
• All for Love (1983) (TV film)
• Another Country (1984)
• The Brief (1984—TV series)
• The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (1984) (TV film)
• Robin of Sherwood (1984–86) (TV series)
• Dutch Girls (1985)
• Ladies in Charge (1986) (TV series)
• Four Minuter: Off to the Wars (1986) (TV film)
• Lost Belongings (1987) (miniseries)
• A Hazard of Hearts (1987) (TV film)
• I’ll Take Manhattan (1987) (miniseries)
• Starlings (1988) (TV film)
• The Endless Game (1989) (miniseries)
• The New Adventures of Robin Hood 1997 (TV series, guest appearance)
• A Knight in Camelot (1998) (TV film)
• Merlin (1998) (TV film)
• Captain Jack (1999)
• Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999) (TV film) - Pontius Pilate
• Lorna Doone (2000) (TV film)
• Intimacy (2001)

Addie made guest appearances on a number of television series including:

• Smuggler (1981)
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1986)
• Pulaski (1987)
• Red Dwarf (Series III, no. 5 "Timeslides", 1989)
• Crossbow (1988/9)
• Noah’s Ark (1997)
• Bugs (TV series 4) (1998 )
• Family Affairs (1999)
• Monarch of the Glen (2000).

Addie also appeared in several shows with Exiled Theatre from 1995–96 Shades in Time - Gloucester (1995) The Tell-Tale Heart (1995) Acts of Revenge (Co-written by Robert Addie) (1995) Edmund Son of Gloucester (1996) Into the Mist (1996)

External links[link]

• Robert Addie at Find a Grave
• Robert Addie at the Internet Movie Database