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Clare Frances Elizabeth Higgins (born 10 November 1955) is an award-winning English actress.

Early life[link]

Higgins, the second of five children, was born in Bradford, England to Paula Cecilia (née Murphy) and James Stephen Higgins.^[1] Her parents were from working-class Irish Catholic backgrounds.^[2] 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.^[2] At 19, she gave birth to a boy but gave him to adoption because she was unable to raise him.^[2]

Career[link]

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.

Higgins reprised the role in 1988 for Tony Randel's Hellbound: Hellraiser II. A successful sequel to Hellraiser, Hellbound was considered a brutal horror film that shocked audiences around the world and, in general, collected good reviews.^[3] The landmark movie marked forever the careers of all involved — William Hope, who had the most difficult scene with Higgins, to this day claims that Hellbound: Hellraiser II was the finest film he has ever done to date.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, Higgins took the rôle of Ma Costa in Chris Weitz's The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Dakota Blue Richards.

Higgins recently appeared as Jocasta in the National Theatre's critically acclaimed production of Oedipus, opposite Ralph Fiennes in the title role. From April 2009 to May 2009, she appeared in Wallace Shawn's The Fever at the Royal Court Theatre.

From mid-May 2009 to September 2009, she is appearing as the Countess Rossillion in All's Well That Ends Well at the National Theatre (Olivier stage).

Acting awards and nominations[link]

Higgins was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1995 (1994 season) for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Sweet Bird of Youth at the Royal National Theatre. She won the same award in both 2002 and 2005: in 2002 for her performance in Vincent in Brixton performed at the Royal National Theatre Cottesloe and Wyndham Theatres, and in 2005 for her performance as Hecuba in the Euripides tragedy at the Donmar Warehouse. She was awarded the 2002 London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in Vincent in Brixton. Additionally, she was awarded the 1994 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre) for Best Actress for her performances in The Children's Hour and Sweet Bird of Youth. She was also awarded the 2002 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in Vincent in Brixton at the Donmar Warehouse in London. In 2003 she was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play for Vincent in Brixton on Broadway, and garnered the 2003 Theatre World Award for outstanding major Broadway debut.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Clare Higgins at the Internet Movie Database
• Clare Higgins.com
• Interview 07/2003 (The Independent)

Simon Pegg
Pegg at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010.
Born	Simon John Beckingham (1970-02-14) 14 February 1970 (age 42) Brockworth, Gloucestershire, England
Other names	The Fresh Pegg
Occupation	Actor, comedian, writer, producer, singer, director
Years active	1995–present
Spouse	Maureen McCann (2005–present)
Children	Daughter
Website
www.peggster.net

Simon Pegg (born Simon John Beckingham; 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and starred in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.

He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film, Benji Dunn in Mission: Impossible III and its sequel Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and Thompson in The Adventures of Tintin. Much of his major work has been in collaboration with some combination of Wright, Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, and Dylan Moran. He also starred in and co-wrote Paul (with Frost) and Run Fatboy Run (with Michael Ian Black).

Early life[link]

Pegg was born in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, England, the son of Gillian Rosemary (née Smith), a civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician and keyboard salesman.^[1] His parents divorced when he was seven and he took on the surname "Pegg" after his mother re-married.^[2][3] He attended many schools, including Castle Hill Primary School;^{[citation needed]} Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School;^{[citation needed]} The King's School, Gloucester;^[4] and later Stratford-upon-Avon College to study English literature and Theatre.^[5]He studied drama at the University of Bristol and wrote his undergraduate thesis on "A Marxist overview of popular 1970s cinema and hegemonic discourses".^[3] At Bristol he appeared in a Drama Society production of Howard Barker's Victory alongside Sarah Kane and David Greig.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Early appearances in TV series and films include Asylum, Six Pairs of Pants, Faith in the Future, Big Train and Hippies. Between 1998 and 2004, Pegg was regularly featured on BBC Radio 4's The 99p Challenge. In 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced with Jessica Stevenson. For this project Pegg brought in Nick Frost. For his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer. Pegg co-wrote (with Spaced director Edgar Wright) and starred in the "romantic zombie comedy" film Shaun of the Dead, released in April 2004. At George A. Romero's invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero's film, Land of the Dead. In 2004, Pegg also starred in a spin-off of the television show Danger! 50,000 Volts! called Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, in which he played a zombie hunter named Dr. Russel Fell.

Pegg at a premiere for Star Trek in April 2009

Pegg's other credits include the World War II mini-series Band of Brothers, guest appearances on Black Books, Brass Eye Special, I'm Alan Partridge, The Parole Officer and in the Factory Records story 24 Hour Party People. He also played the mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, in a series of Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the character from British comic 2000 AD and featured in Guest House Paradiso, a film based on the sitcom Bottom.

Pegg appeared in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio story Invaders From Mars as Don Chaney, and portrayed the Editor in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Long Game". He also narrated the first series of the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential.

Upon completion of Shaun of the Dead, Pegg was questioned on whether he would be abandoning the British film industry for bigger and better things, to which he replied "It's not like I'm going to run off and do Mission: Impossible III!" However, he then went on to play Benji Dunn, an I.M.F. technician who assists Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt.^[6] In 2006 he played an American character, Gus, in Big Nothing alongside David Schwimmer.

In 2006, Pegg and Wright completed their second film, Hot Fuzz, released in February 2007. The film is a police-action movie homage and also stars Nick Frost. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a London policeman who is transferred to rural Sandford, a fictional village situated in Pegg's home county of Gloucestershire, where grisly events take place.

In 2007, Pegg starred in The Good Night (directed by Jake Paltrow) and Run Fatboy Run directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.

In 2008, Pegg wrote the dialogue for an English language re-release of the cult 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy. Pegg received screenwriting credit for this, and Pegg also voiced one of the main characters in the English language version, which has an international range of actors including Woody Harrelson.

Pegg co-wrote and starred with Frost in the film Paul, about two young men who encounter a comedic extraterrestrial alien during a road trip across the US.^[7][8] The completed script appeared on the 2008 Black List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays. Paul received two votes.^[9]

Pegg also announced that he and Wright had the idea for "the concluding part in what we are calling 'The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy" (the first two being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). It is provisionally called The World Ends.^[10]

In those films and in Spaced, Pegg typically plays the leading hero while Frost plays the sidekick. However, he has revealed that Paul will reverse this dynamic.^[11]

Pegg in New York City

Pegg played engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the eleventh Star Trek film,^[12] released 8 May 2009. In 2010 he appeared as William Burke in Burke and Hare, a film directed by John Landis about the Ulster men who were notorious murderers and bodysnatchers in early 19th-century Edinburgh. His likeness was also used for the character of Wee Hughie in the comic book series The Boys; while this was done without Pegg's permission, he quickly became a fan of the title, and even wrote the introduction to the first bound volume.^[13] He also voiced Reepicheep, the heroic mouse in Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.^[14]

Pegg reprised the role of Benji Dunn in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, making him the third actor in the film series, after Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames, to appear in more than one of the films.^[15] Despite having a minor role in his first appareance, Pegg became a member of the main cast in this film.

Personal life[link]

Pegg married Maureen McCann on 23 July 2005.^[16] On 21 February 2009, Pegg announced his wife was five months pregnant with the couple's first child.^[16] Their daughter Matilda^[17] was born circa early July, 2009.^[18] Pegg has stated on his personal Twitter feed that he is an atheist.^[19]

Along with Jonny Buckland, Pegg is godfather to Apple, daughter of close friends Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow^[20] in return Martin is godfather to Pegg's daughter.^[21] Pegg's parents and sister briefly appeared in Spaced while his mother alone appeared in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Pegg was awarded an honorary fellowship by the University of Gloucestershire on 4 December 2008.^[22]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Film[link]

Video games[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Simon Pegg

• Official website
• Simon Pegg at the Internet Movie Database
• Simon Pegg at AllRovi
• Simon Pegg at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Simon Pegg in Gloucestershire
• BBC Radio Gloucestershire interview with Simon and John Beckingham (his father) – from the set of Run Fatboy Run