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The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.

Events[link]

• February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946.
• The second instalment of Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible is officially released, having previously been shelved for political reasons. It would be the last of Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible trilogy as the director died during production on part III.

Top grossing films (U.S.)[link]

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)

Awards[link]

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Gigi – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Best Director: Vincente Minnelli – Gigi

Best Actor: David Niven – Separate Tables

Best Actress: Susan Hayward – I Want to Live!

Best Supporting Actor: Burl Ives – The Big Country

Best Supporting Actress: Wendy Hiller – Separate Tables

Best Foreign Language Film: Mon Oncle (My Uncle), directed by Jacques Tati, France

Golden Globe Awards:

Drama:

Best Picture: The Defiant Ones

Best Actor: David Niven – Separate Tables

Best Actress: Susan Hayward – I Want to Live!

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: Gigi

Best Actor: Danny Kaye – Me and the Colonel

Best Actress: Rosalind Russell – Auntie Mame

Other

Best Director: Vincente Minnelli – Gigi

Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):

The Cranes Are Flying (Летят журавли, Letyat zhuravli), directed by Mikheil Kalatozishvili, Soviet Union

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival):

The Rickshaw Man (Muhomatsu no issho), directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, Japan

Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):

Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället), directed by Ingmar Bergman, Sweden

Films released in 1958[link]

U.S.A. unless stated

A

• Amar Deep, remake of Amara Deepam, starring Dev Anand, Vyjayanthimala and Padmini - (India)
• And Quiet Flows the Don - (U.S.S.R.)
• Andy Hardy Comes Home
• Another Time, Another Place, starring Lana Turner and Sean Connery - (U.K.)
• Apache Territory
• Arms and the Man - (West Germany)
• Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament), directed by Andrzej Wajda, starring Zbigniew Cybulski - (Poland)
• Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
• Attack of the Puppet People
• Auntie Mame, starring Rosalind Russell

B

• The Ballad of Narayama (Narayama Bushiko) - (Japan)
• Le Beau Serge, directed by Claude Chabrol - (France)
• Bell, Book and Candle, starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon
• The Big Country, starring Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Burl Ives
• Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti), starring Vittorio Gassman, Claudia Cardinale, Marcello Mastroianni - (Italy)
• The Black Orchid
• The Blob, starring Steve McQueen
• Bonjour Tristesse, starring David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Jean Seberg
• The Bonnie Parker Story
• The Bravados, starring Gregory Peck and Joan Collins
• Brink of Life, directed by Ingmar Bergman - (Sweden)
• The Brothers Karamazov, starring Yul Brynner
• The Buccaneer, starring Yul Brynner
• Buchanan Rides Alone, starring Randolph Scott and Craig Stevens

C

• Carry On Sergeant, the first in the Carry On film series, directed by Gerald Thomas, starring William Hartnell, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor - (U.K.)
• Carve Her Name with Pride, starring Virginia McKenna and Paul Schofield - (U.K.)
• The Castle of the Monsters (El Castillo de los Monstruos) - (Mexico)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Richard Brooks, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
• Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi - (India)
• Cowboy, starring Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon
• The Cry Baby Killer featuring Jack Nicholson in his film debut

D-F

• Damn Yankees, starring Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon
• The Defiant Ones, starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier
• Desire Under the Elms, starring Sophia Loren, Anthony Perkins, Burl Ives
• The Doctor's Dilemma, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Dirk Bogarde (U.K.)
• Dunkirk, starring John Mills and Richard Attenborough - (U.K.)
• Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud), directed by Louis Malle, starring Jeanne Moreau - (France)
• Equinox Flower (Higanbana), directed by Yasujiro Ozu - (Japan)
• The Fabulous World of Jules Verne - (Czechoslovakia)
• The Fly, starring Vincent Price
• From the Earth to the Moon

G-H

• The Geisha Boy, starring Jerry Lewis
• Giants and Toys (巨人と玩具) - (Japan)
• Gigi, directed by Vincente Minelli, starring Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier
• Girl on the Run
• God's Little Acre, starring Robert Ryan and Tina Louise
• The Goddess, starring Kim Stanley
• Goha, starring Omar Sharif - (France/Tunisia)
• H8 - (Yugoslavia)
• The H-Man, directed by Ishirō Honda - (Japan)
• Hercules (Le fatiche di Ercole), starring Steve Reeves - (Italy)
• The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi toride no san akunin), directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshirō Mifune - (Japan)
• High School Confidential, starring Russ Tamblyn and Mamie Van Doren
• The Horror of Dracula, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing - (U.K.)
• The Horse's Mouth, starring Alec Guinness - (U.K.)
• Houseboat, starring Cary Grant and Sophia Loren
• The Hunters, starring Robert Mitchum

I-K

• I Accuse!, directed by and starring José Ferrer - (U.K.)
• I Want to Live!, starring Susan Hayward (winner of Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actress)
• Ice Cold in Alex, directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring John Mills and Sylvia Sims - (U.K.)
• In Case of Adversity (En Cas de Malheur), starring Jean Gabin and Brigitte Bardot - (France)
• In the Money
• Indiscreet, starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman - (U.K.)
• The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman
• The Iron Gate (Bab el Hadid), directed by Youssef Chahine - (Egypt)
• Ivan the Terrible, Part Two (Ivan Grozniy), directed by Sergei Eisenstein, starring Nikolai Cherkasov - (U.S.S.R.)
• Jalsaghar (The Music Room), directed by Satyajit Ray - (India)
• Kala Pani, starring Dev Anand and Madhubala - (India)
• The Key, based on Jan de Hartog novel - (U.K.)
• King Creole, starring Elvis Presley, Dean Jagger, Vic Morrow, Walter Matthau

L

• Lafayette Escadrille, World War I film starring Tab Hunter, with an early appearance by Clint Eastwood
• The Last Hurrah, starring Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien, Basil Rathbone
• The Left Handed Gun, starring Paul Newman
• The Light in the Forest
• The Lineup, starring Eli Wallach
• Lonelyhearts, starring Montgomery Clift
• The Long, Hot Summer, starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles
• The Lovers (Les amants), directed by Louis Malle, starring Jeanne Moreau and Alain Cuny - (France)
• The Lovers of Montparnasse (Les Amants de Montparnasse) - (France)

M

• Machine-Gun Kelly, starring Charles Bronson, Susan Cabot and Morey Amsterdam
• Mädchen in Uniform, starring Lilli Palmer and Romy Schneider (West Germany)
• Madhumati, directed by Bimal Roy, starring Vyjayanthimala in triple role and Dilip Kumar - (India)
• The Magician (Ansiktet), directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Max von Sydow - (Sweden)
• The Man Inside - (U.K.)
• Man of the West, directed by Anthony Mann, starring Gary Cooper, Lee J. Cobb, Julie London
• Marjorie Morningstar, starring Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly
• The Matchmaker, starring Shirley MacLaine
• Me and the Colonel, starring Danny Kaye
• Merry Andrew, starring Danny Kaye
• Les miserables, starring Jean Gabin - (France)
• Mon Oncle, directed by and starring Jacques Tati - (France)
• Monster on the Campus
• Murder by Contract

N-Q

• The Naked Maja - (Italy/France/U.S.)
• The Night Heaven Fell (Les Bijoutiers du Clair de Lune), directed by Roger Vadim, starring Brigitte Bardot - (France)
• A Night to Remember, directed by Roy Baker, starring Kenneth More - (U.K.)
• No Time for Sergeants, starring Andy Griffith, Myron McCormick, Nick Adams
• The Old Man and the Sea – based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, starring Spencer Tracy
• Party Girl
• Orders to Kill, directed by Anthony Asquith (U.K.)
• The Quiet American, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Audie Murphy and Michael Redgrave

R

• Raj Tilak, remake of Vanjikottai Valiban, starring Gemini Ganesan, Vyjayanthimala and Padmini - (India)
• Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!, starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Joan Collins
• The Reluctant Debutante
• The Revenge of Frankenstein - (U.K.)
• The Rickshaw Man (Muhomatsu no issho) (aka The Rikisha-Man) - (Japan)
• Ride a Crooked Trail, starring Audie Murphy and Walter Matthau
• Rock-A-Bye Baby, starring Jerry Lewis
• Run Silent, Run Deep, starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster

S

• Sadhna, starring Vyjayanthimala and Sunil Dutt - (India)
• Screaming Mimi, starring Anita Ekberg
• Separate Tables, starring Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster, David Niven
• The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
• The Sheepman, starring Glenn Ford and Shirley MacLaine
• The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, starring Jayne Mansfield and Kenneth More - (U.K.)
• Solva Saal, starring Dev Anand - (India)
• Some Came Running, starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine
• South Pacific, starring Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor
• St. Louis Blues, featuring Nat King Cole, Eartha Kitt, Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald

T

• A Tale of Two Cities, starring Dirk Bogarde - (U.K.)
• The Tarnished Angels, starring Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone
• Teacher's Pet, starring Clark Gable, Doris Day, Gig Young, Mamie Van Doren
• Ten North Frederick, starring Gary Cooper and Suzy Parker
• The Thing That Couldn't Die
• A Time to Love and a Time to Die, starring John Gavin
• tom thumb - (U.K./U.S.)
• Torpedo Run
• Touch of Evil, directed by and starring Orson Welles with Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich
• Tread Softly Stranger, starring Diana Dors - (U.K.)
• Twilight for the Gods

U-Z

• Vanjikottai Valiban, starring Gemini Ganesan, Vyjayanthimala and Padmini - (India)
• Varan the Unbelievable - (Japan)
• Vengeance, directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, starring Raf Vallone - (Spain)
• Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak
• The Vikings, starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis
• White Wilderness, a Disney nature film
• The Young Lions, starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin

film series[link]

Carry On series (1958–1992)

Short film series[link]

• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Terrytoons (1930–1969)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• The Three Stooges (1934–1959)
• Bugs Bunny (1940–1962)
• Yosemite Sam (1945–1963)
• Speedy Gonzales (1953–1968)

Ending this year

• Droopy (1943-1958)
• Tom and Jerry (1940-1958)

Births[link]

• January 4 – Julian Sands, English actor
• January 25 – Dinah Manoff, actress and director
• February 13 – Pernilla August, Swedish actress
• March 3 – Miranda Richardson, English actress
• March 7 – Donna Murphy, actress & singer
• March 10 – Sharon Stone, actress & producer
• March 20 – Holly Hunter, actress
• March 21 – Gary Oldman, English actor & filmmaker
• April 3 – Alec Baldwin, actor
• April 21 – Andie MacDowell, actress
• April 29 – Michelle Pfeiffer, actress
• May 29 – Annette Bening, actress
• June 22 – Bruce Campbell, actor & director
• July 8 – Kevin Bacon, actor
• August 16 – Madonna, pop singer & actress
• August 16 – Angela Bassett, actress
• August 18 – Madeleine Stowe, actress
• August 24 – Steve Guttenberg, actor & comedian
• August 25 – Tim Burton, director, producer & screenwriter
• September 10 – Chris Columbus, director, producer & screenwriter
• September 16 – Jennifer Tilly, Canadian-American actress
• October 9 – Michael Pare, actor
• October 16 – Tim Robbins, actor, screenwriter, producer & director
• October 20 – Viggo Mortensen, actor
• October 26 – Rita Wilson, actress & producer
• November 16 – Marg Helgenberger, actress
• November 17 – Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, actress & singer
• November 22 – Jamie Lee Curtis, actress

Deaths[link]

• January 11 – Edna Purviance, actress
• January 13 – Jesse L. Lasky, film producer
• February 27 – Harry Cohn, Co-Founder of CBS Sales Association (Columbia Pictures)
• March 22 – Mike Todd, producer
• April 15 – Estelle Taylor, actress
• May 19 – Ronald Colman, actor
• October 4 – Ida Wüst, actress
• November 15 – Tyrone Power, actor

Film Debuts[link]

• Claudia Cardinale
• Jack Nicholson
• Suzanne Pleshette
• Christopher Plummer
• Vanessa Redgrave
• Oliver Reed
• Maggie Smith

Jean Rouch (31 May 1917, Paris – 18 February 2004, Niger) was a French filmmaker and anthropologist.

He is considered to be one of the founders of the cinéma vérité in France, which shared the aesthetics of the direct cinema spearheaded by Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert and David Maysles. Rouch's practice as a filmmaker for over sixty years in Africa, was characterized by the idea of shared anthropology. Influenced by his discovery of surrealism in his early twenties, many of his films blur the line between fiction and documentary, creating a new style of ethnofiction. He was also hailed by the French New Wave as one of theirs. His seminal film Me a Black (Moi, un noir) pioneered the technique of jump cut popularized by Jean-Luc Godard. Godard said of Rouch in the Cahiers du Cinéma (Notebooks on Cinema) n°94 April 1959, "In charge of research for the Musée de l'Homme (French, "Museum of Man") Is there a better definition for a filmmaker?" Along his career, Rouch was no stranger to controversy. He would often repeat, "Glory to he who brings dispute."

Biography[link]

He began his long association with African subjects in 1941 after working as civil engineer supervising a construction project in Niger. However, shortly afterwards he returned to France to participate in the Resistance. After the war, he did a brief stint as a journalist with Agence France-Presse before returning to Africa where he become an influential anthropologist and sometimes controversial filmmaker.

Jean Rouch is generally considered the father of Nigerien cinema.^[1] Despite arriving as a colonialist in 1941, Rouch remained in Niger after independence, and mentored a generation of Nigerien filmmakers and actors, including Damouré Zika and Oumarou Ganda.

Arriving in Niamey as a French colonial hydrology engineer in 1941, Rouch became interested in Zarma and Songhai ethnology and began to film local people and their rituals. In the 1940s he met Damouré Zika the son of a Songhai/Sorko traditional healer and fisherman, near the town of Ayorou on the Niger River. After ten Sorko workers in a construction depot which Rouch supervised were killed by a lightning strike, Zika's grandmother, a famous possession medium and spiritual advisor, presided over a ritual for the men, which Rouch later claimed sparked his desire to make ethnographic film.^[2]

By 1950, Rouch had made the first films set in Niger with au pays des mages noirs (1947), l'initiation à la danse des possédés (1948) and Les magiciens de Wanzarbé (1949), all of which documented the spirit possession rituals of the Songhai, Zarma, and Sorko peoples living along the Niger river.^[1]

Damouré Zika and Rouch became friends, and Rouch began in 1950 to use Zika as the focus of his films demonstrating the traditions, culture, and ecology of the people of the Niger River valley. The first of 150 in which Zika appeared was "Bataille sur le grand fleuve" (1950–52), portraying the lives, ceremonies and hunting of Sorko fishermen. Rouch spent four months traveling with Sorko fishermen in a traditional Pirogue filming the piece.^[3][4]

During the 1950s, Rouch began to produce longer, narrative films. In 1954 he filmed Damouré Zika in "Jaguar", as a young Songhai man traveling for work to the Gold Coast.^[5] Filmed as a silent ethnographic piece, Zika helped re-edit the film into a feature length movie which stood somewhere between documentary and fiction, and provided dialog and commentary for a 1969 release. In 1957 Rouch directed in Côte d'Ivoire "Moi un noir" with the young Nigerien filmmaker Oumarou Ganda, who had recently returned from French military service in Indochina. Ganda went on to become the first great Nigerien film director and actor. By the early 1970s, Rouch, with cast, crew, and cowriting from his Nigerien collaborators, was producing full length dramatic films in Niger, such as Petit à petit ("Little by Little" : 1971) and Cocorico Monsieur Poulet ("Cocka-doodle-doo Mr. Chicken": 1974).^[1]

Still, many of the ethnographic films produced in the colonial era by Jean Rouch and others were rejected by African film makers because in their view they distorted African realities.^[1]

He is considered as one the pioneers of Nouvelle Vague, of visual anthropology and the father of ethnofiction. Rouch's films mostly belonged to the cinéma vérité school – a term that Edgar Morin used in a 1960 France-Observateur article referring to Dziga Vertov's Kinopravda. His best known film, one of the central works of the Nouvelle Vague, is Chronique d'un été (1961) which he filmed with sociologist Edgar Morin and in which he portrays the social life of contemporary France. Throughout his career, he used his camera to report on life in Africa. Over the course of five decades, he made almost 120 films.

With Jean-Michel Arnold he founded the international documentary film festival, the Cinéma du Réel at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 1978.^[6]

He died in an automobile accident in February 2004, some 16 kilometres from the town of Birni-N'Konni, Niger.

Main films[link]

• 1949: Initiation à la danse des possédés
• 1950: Cimetière dans la falaise
• 1953: Les Fils de l'eau
• 1955: Les Maîtres Fous (The Mad Masters)
• 1955: Jaguar
• 1955: Mammy Water
• 1958: Moi, un noir
• 1959: La pyramide humaine
• 1960: Chronique d'un été (Chronicle of a Summer)
• 1965: La chasse au lion à l'arc
• 1966: Sigui année zero
• 1967: Sigui: l'enclume de Yougo
• 1968: Sigui 1968: Les danseurs de Tyogou
• 1969: Sigui 1969: La caverne de Bongo
• 1970: Sigui 1970: Les clameurs d'Amani
• 1971: Sigui 1971: La dune d'Idyeli
• 1972: Sigui 1972: Les pagnes de lame
• 1973: Sigui 1973: L'auvent de la circonsion
• 1974: Cocorico M. Poulet
• 1976: Babatu
• 1977: Ciné-portrait de Margaret Mead
• 1979: Bougo, les funérailles du vieil Anaï
• 1984: Dionysos
• 2002: Le rêve plus fort que la mort co-directed with Bernard Surugue

References[link]

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2009)

• Biography by Ben Michaels
• Jean Rouch, filmmaker - article by Brenda Baugh
• "Verite Pioneer Jean Rouch" by Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE
• Jean Rouch: Cinematic Griot by Amie Karp at Journal of Undergraduate Research
• "Jean Rouch: Cinéma-vérité, Chronicle of a Summer and The Human Pyramid" by Barbara Bruni
• Jean Rouch - Article by Matt Losada at Senses of Cinema

Bibliography[link]

• Adams, John W. "Jean Rouch Talks About His Films to John Marshall and John W. Adams," American Anthropologist 80:4. December 1978.
• Beidelman, Thomas O. Review of Jaguar, American Anthropologist 76:3. September 1974.
• Fieschi, Jean-André, Jean Rouch, Cinema, A Critical Dictionary, Richard Roud (editor), Vol. 2, Secker & Warburg and Viking Press, 1980, P. 901-909.
• Georgakas, Dan and Udayan Gupta, Judy Janda. "The Politics of Visual Anthropology: An Interview with Jean Rouch," Cineaste 8:4. 1978.
• Muller, Jean Claude. Review of Les Maitres Fous, American Anthropologist 73: 1971.
• Rouch, Jean and Steven Feld. "Cine-Ethnography" University of Minnesota Press. March 2003
• Rouch, Jean. La Religion et la Magie Songhay. Presses Universitaires de France. 1960.
• Stoller, Paul "The Cinematic Griot: The Ethnography of Jean Rouch" University of Chicago Press, 1992.
• Vigo, Julian "Power, Knowledge and Discourse: Turning the Ethnographic Gaze around in Rouch's Chronique d’un été" Visual Sociology. 1995.
• Books referencing Jean Rouch

External links[link]

• The Jean Rouch Tribute Website: bio, tributes, complete filmography, audio, film clips
• Jean Rouch at The Complete Index To World Film since 1895
• Jean Rouch at the Internet Movie Database
• Jean Rouch's biography in French The website of the Comité du film ethnographique of which Jean Rouch was the founder at the Musée de l'Homme.
• International Jean Rouch SYMPOSIUM (Society of Visual Anthropology)
• A WEBSITE DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF JEAN ROUCH'S FILMS

Rudolf Johann Schock (September 4, 1915 – November 13, 1986) was a German tenor.

He sang a wide repertoire from operetta to Lohengrin, recording among others opera and lieder, doing television, radio and film work.^[1] Slim and handsome,^{[citation needed]} he made many films.

His voice fell almost into the heldentenor fach but was smaller and more "ingratiating" than many voices in that category.^[2] Colored distinctly with a rich baritonal quality,^{[citation needed]} Schock is described by Grove as a "lyric tenor" with a warm flexible voice, and a "strong top voice" which suited him to "heroic roles". However the same source feels that his acting left something to be desired.^[1]

When he was 18 and still continuing his musical studies that took him to Cologne, Hanover and Berlin, Schock joined the opera chorus at Theater Duisburg in the city of his birth. The Staatstheater Braunschweig cast Schock in solo roles in 1937, but his career was interrupted by his being enlisted into the army in 1940.^[3] It resumed after the war in 1945 in Hanover. In 1946, he appeared with two of the Berlin-based opera companies and in 1947 he joined the Hamburg State Opera where he was a member until 1956.^[1][3]

He was one of the first Germans to sing at Covent Garden in 1949. Appearing as Rudolfo, Alfredo, Pinkerton and Tamino in his first season. He sang the title role at Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival and took part in the premiere there of Rolf Liebermann's, Penelope and the Vienna State Opera's first staging of Lulu.^[1] Schock made repeat visits to the Edinburgh International Festival and sang Walther at Bayreuth in 1959.^[3]

In 1953 he played and sang the role of Richard Tauber in the film Du bist die Welt für mich (released in English-speaking countries as either You are the world for me or The Richard Tauber Story).^[3] He was often compared to the older tenor and was spoken of as his successor.^[1] He was also considered the most successful German film singer of his generation.^[3]

He sold over 3 million records and his German films made him almost a superstar of his day.^{[citation needed]} Schock's most impressive performances include the roles of Paul in Die Tote Stadt (Korngold), and multiple Puccini principals.^{[citation needed]}

Schock also interested himself in the development of younger singers by judging vocal competitions. After discovering Karl Ridderbusch at one of these, Schock part-funded the bass's musical training.^[4]

Rudolf Schock continued making concert appearances into his sixties. Aged 71, he died suddenly of a heart attack in Gürzenich a district of the town of Düren where he had made his home.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rudolf Schock Website (German), (Dutch)
• History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration
• Rudolf Schock Blog (German)
• Rudolf Schock at Find a Grave

Kenneth Gilbert More CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was a highly successful English film actor^[1] during the post-World War II era and starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman. As More himself described it, "I seem fated to be either the stiff-upper-lip war hero or the hearty back-slapping idiot".^[2]

Early life[link]

Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the only son of Charles Gilbert More, a Royal Naval Air Service pilot, and Edith Winifred Watkins, the daughter of a Cardiff solicitor. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey. He spent part of his childhood in the Channel Islands, where his father was general manager of the Jersey Eastern Railway. After he left school, he followed the family tradition by training as a civil engineer. He gave up his training and worked for a while in Sainsbury's.

When More was 17 his father died, and he applied to join the RAF, but failed the medical test for equilibrium. He went to Canada, intending to work as a fur trapper, but was sent back for lacking immigration papers.

Acting career[link]

On his return, a family friend, Vivian Van Damm, took him on as assistant manager at the Windmill Theatre, where his job included spotting audience members misbehaving or using opera glasses to look at the nude players during its Revudeville variety shows.^[3] He was soon promoted to playing straight man in the Revudeville comedy routines, appearing in his first sketch in August 1935. He played there for a year, which then led to regular work in repertory, including Newcastle, performing in plays such as Burke and Hare and Dracula's Daughter. He continued this work until World War II, during which time he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, seeing active service aboard the cruiser HMS Aurora and the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, returning to acting in 1946.

Film career[link]

On demobilization he went to work for Wolverhampton repertory, then appeared on stage in the West End in And No Birds Sing (1946), then played Badger in a TV adaptation of Toad of Toad Hall. He was seen by Noël Coward playing a small role on stage in Power Without Glory (1947), which led to being cast in Peace In Our Time (1947).^[4]

Around this time, More began appearing in films, starting with a small role in Scott of the Antarctic (1948) for which he was paid ₤500. His parts grew bigger and he achieved a notable stage success in The Way Things Go (1950) with Ronald Squire, from whom More later claimed he learned his stage technique. ^[2] Roland Culver recommended More audition for a part in a new play by Terence Rattigan, The Deep Blue Sea (1952); he was successful and achieved tremendous critical acclaim in the role of Freddie.

Stardom[link]

Director Henry Cornelius approached More during the run of The Deep Blue Sea and offered him £3,500 to play one of the four leads in Genevieve (1953). The resulting movie was a massive hit at the British box office, as was Doctor in the House (1954), which earned More a BAFTA Award as best newcomer. The Deep Blue Sea was adapted for television and seen by an audience of 11 million. More signed a five year contract with Sir Alexander Korda at £10,000 a year.^[5] '

He was now established as one of Britain's biggest stars and Korda announced plans to feature him in two films based on true stories, one about the Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown in 1919 co-starring Denholm Elliot^[5], and the other Clifton James, the double for Field Marshall Montgomery.^[6] The first film was never made and the second done with another actor. Korda also wanted More to star in a new version of The Four Feathers, Storm Over the Nile (1956) but he turned it down. However More did accept Korda's offer to appear in a film adaptation of The Deep Blue Sea which saw him win Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.^[7]

More starred in Raising a Riot (1955), which was a hit. He then received an offer from David Lean to play the lead role in an adaptation of The Wind Cannot Read by Richard Mason. More was unsure about whether the public would accept him in the part and turned it down, a decision he later regarded as "the greatest mistake I ever made professionally."^[8] (Lean dropped the project and was not involved in the eventual 1958 film version which starred Dirk Bogarde).

However for the moment More's career continued to go from strength to strength. He played the Royal Air Force fighter ace, Douglas Bader, in Reach for the Sky (1956), which was the most popular British film of the year. By 1956 his asking price was £25,000 a film.^[9] He received offers to go to Hollywood but turned them down, unsure his persona would be effective there. However, he started using American co-stars and directors more often, and negotiated a deal with 20th Century-Fox in association with the Rank Organisation to make two films a year^[2]

He turned down an offer from Roy Ward Baker to play a German POW in The One That Got Away (1957) but agreed to play the lead in the Titanic film for the same director, A Night to Remember (1958). This was the first of a seven year contract with Rank at a fee of £40,000 a film.^[2]

More specialised in likeable, unflappable English heroes ("an air of hectoring confidence ... heroic in a cocky big-brotherly way"),^[10] a persona that could in some roles show darker aspects, as with the controlling Crichton in The Admirable Crichton and the brash Ambrose Claverhouse in Genevieve.

In 1959, Rank's John Davis gave permission for More to work outside his contract to appear in The Guns of Navarone. More, however, made the mistake of heckling and swearing at Davis at a BAFTA dinner at the Dorchester, losing both the role (which went to David Niven) and his contract with Rank.^[3]

Decline[link]

For a number of years More remained a large star in Britain, enjoying noble success with Sink the Bismarck! (1960). However box office receipts started to decline for films such as Man In The Moon (1960) and Some People (1962). He tried to change his image with The Comedy Man (1963) which the public did not like, although it became his favourite role. His film parts got smaller in the 1960s, with some thinking his popularity declined when he left his wife to live with Angela Douglas.^[11] Film writer Andrew Spicer thought that "More's persona was so strongly associated with traditional middle-class values that his stardom could not survive the shift towards working-class iconoclasts" during that decade.^[12]

More appeared in a 35 minute prologue to The Collector (1965) which ended up being removed entirely from the final film, and his part in Dark of the Sun (1968) was also reduced.^[2] He made a number of cameos in such war films as The Longest Day (1962), Battle of Britain (1969), and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969).

Revival[link]

More's popularity recovered in the 1960s through West End stage performances and television roles, especially following his success in The Forsyte Saga, and as the title character in ATV's 1974 Father Brown.^[13] Critic David Shipman said his personal notices for his performance in The Secretary Bird (1968) "must be among the best accorded any light comedian during this century".^[14]He is also known for his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present in 1970's Scrooge.

More stood in the wings to replace Bernard Lee as M in the James Bond film Live and Let Die when it wasn't known if an ill Lee would be able to appear.

Personal life[link]

More was married three times. His first marriage in 1939 to actress Beryl Johnstone (one daughter, Susan, born 1941) ended in divorce in 1946. He married Mabel Edith "Bill" Barkby in 1952 (one daughter, Sarah, born 1954) but left her in 1968 for Angela Douglas, an actress 26 years his junior, causing considerable estrangement from friends and family. He was married to Douglas (whom he nicknamed "Shrimp")^[3] from 17 March 1968 until his death.

Kenneth More published two autobiographies, Happy Go Lucky in 1959 and More or Less in 1978. In the second book he related how he had had since childhood a recurrent dream of something akin to a huge wasp descending towards him. During the war he experienced a Nazi Stuka bomber descending in just such a manner. After that he claimed never to have had that dream again. Producer Danny Angel successfully sued More for libel over comments made in his second autobiography in 1980.^[15]

More and Douglas were separated for several years during the 1970s but reunited when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.^[15] He died of the disease on 12 July 1982, aged 67, and was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium.

The Kenneth More Theatre, named in his honour, is in Ilford, London.

Appraisal[link]

More's skill as a performer has been highly regarded by critics such as David Shipman. Regarding his performance in The Admirable Crichton, Shipman said that:

It wasn't just that he had superb comic timing: one could see absolutely why the family trusted their fates to him. No other British actor had come so close to that dependable, reliable quality of the great Hollywood stars - you would trust him through thick and thin. And he was more humorous than, say, Gary Cooper, more down-to-earth than, say, Cary Grant.^[14]

Filmography[link]

Select Theatre Credits[link]

• Windmill Theatre - 1935
• Do You Remember? - Barry O’Brien Touring Company, Aug-Nov 1937
• Stage Hands Never Lie by Olive Remple - Nov, 1937
• Stage Distinguished Gathering by James Parish - Wimbeldon Theatre, August 1937
• And No Birds Sing by Rev Arthur Platt - Aldwych Theatre, Nov 1946
• Power Without Glory - Feb-April 1947
• Peace In Our Time by Noël Coward - Lyric Theatre, July 1948
• The Way Things Go - Phoenix Theatre, May 1950
• The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan - Duchess Theatre, March 1952
• The Angry Deep - Brighton, January 1960 - Brighton - director only
• Out of the Crocodile - Phoenix Theatre, Oct 1963
• Our Man Crichton - Shaftesbury Theatre, Dec 1964 - ran six months
• The Secretary Bird - Savoy Theatre, Oct 1968
• The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan - New Theatre, Nov 1970 - ran nine months
• Getting On by Alan Bennett - Queen's Theatre, Oct 1971 - ran nine months
• Signs of the Times by Jeremy Kingston - Vaudeville Theatre, June 1973
• Kenneth More Requests the Pleasure of Your Company - Kenneth More Theatre, April 1977 - an evening of poetry, prose and music
• On Approval - Vaudeville Theatre, June 1977

Writings[link]

• Happy Go Lucky (1959)
• Kindly Leave the Stage (1965)
• More or Less (1978)

Box Office Popularity[link]

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, exhibitors consistently voted Moore one of the most popular stars at the British box office.

• 1954 - 5th most popular British star^[16]
• 1955 - 5th most popular British star^[17]
• 1956 - most popular star^[18]
• 1957 - 2nd most popular star^[19]
• 1958 - 3rd most popular star^[20]
• 1959 - most popular British star^[21]
• 1960 - most popular star^[22]
• 1961 - 3rd most popular star^[23]
• 1962 - 4th most popolar star^[24]

Awards[link]

• 1953 Nominated as Best British Actor (BAFTA) for Genevieve
• 1954 Won Best British Actor (BAFTA) for Doctor in the House
• 1955 Won Best Actor at Venice Film Festival for The Deep Blue Sea
• 1955 Won Most Promising International Star (Variety Club)
• 1955 Nominated Best British Actor (BAFTA) for The Deep Blue Sea
• 1956 Nominated Best British Actor for Reach for the Sky
• 1970 Awarded the CBE in the New Year’s Honours

See also[link]

• Cinema of the United Kingdom
• List of British actors and actresses

References[link]

Bibliography

• Sheridan Morley, "More, Kenneth Gilbert (1914–1982)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 12 Sept 2007

External links[link]

• Kenneth More at the Internet Movie Database
• Kenneth More at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Kenneth More at TCM
• Kenneth More Theatre

Ronald John Allen (16 December 1930 [some sources say 1934]^[1] – 18 June 1991) was an English character actor who achieved the status of a soap opera star.

Allen was born in Reading, Berkshire. He studied at Leighton Park School in Reading and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, worked in repertory theatre, had a season at the Old Vic, London and made several films, including the classic about the sinking of the Titanic A Night to Remember (1958).

After roles in the BBC soaps Compact (1963-64) and United! (1966-67) came his best remembered famous role, in the long-running Crossroads (1969-85). Allen played David Hunter, who was a shareholder of the Crossroads Motel with Meg Mortimer, Tish Hope and Bernard Booth. He also twice appeared as a lead actor in the science fiction programme Doctor Who, in the stories The Dominators (1968) and The Ambassadors of Death (1970).

Allen also made a number of guest appearances in The Comic Strip Presents. In the first episode, Five Go Mad in Dorset (1982), which spoofed Enid Blyton's The Famous Five stories, he makes a surprise appearance as Uncle Quentin; deliberately sending up his staid image, he most memorably told The Famous Five, "Your Aunt Fanny is an unrelenting nymphomaniac – and I am a screaming homosexual". (The show's TV Times entry had listed him as "Surprise Guest"). Allen reprised the role in the sequel Five Go Mad on Mescalin (1983), and also appeared in South Atlantic Raiders Part 2 (1990), The Strike (1988) and Oxford (1990), in addition to the feature film The Supergrass (1985). There was much comic mileage to be gained from Allen sending up his conservative image. In a 1987 interview, he said that he was approached by a very intimidating-looking punk. He shook his hand and said, "I thought you were really cool in The Supergrass". Then, as he was about to walk away, he turned back and said, almost apologetically, "I loved you in Crossroads too!"

Other roles included television's The Adventures of Robin Hood (1957), Danger Man (1960, 1961), Bergerac (1990) and The Avengers (1964).

Allen lived for many years with the actor Brian Hankins, who also appeared in Crossroads. He was also very close friends with his co-star and on-screen wife, Sue Lloyd. When the British media started to intrude into their private lives, they made it known they were a couple. After Allen was told that his cancer was terminal, they married. He died three months later, aged 56 or 60.

References[link]

1. ^ "Allen, Ronald". British Film Institute. http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/18201. Retrieved 2009-10-19. 

External links[link]

• Ronald Allen at the Internet Movie Database
• Ronald Allen at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ronald Allen at Find a Grave