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1-15 of 15
- Actress
- Soundtrack
For decades, British actress and comedienne Dame Julie Walters has served as a sturdy representation of the working class with her passionate, earthy portrayals on England's stage, screen and television. A bona fide talent, her infectious spirit and self-deprecating sense of humor eventually captured the hearts of international audiences. The small and slender actress with the prominent cheekbones has yet to give an uninteresting performance.
She was born Julia Mary Walters on February 22, 1950 in Edgbaston, England, the youngest of three children and only daughter of Mary Bridget (O'Brien), an Irish-born postal clerk from County Mayo, and Thomas Walters, an English-born builder, from Birmingham. Convent schooled in Birmingham, she expressed an early desire to act. However, her iron-willed mother had other ideas and geared her towards a nursing career. Dutifully applying at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, Julie eventually gave up nursing when the pull to be an actress proved too strong.
Studying English and Drama at Manchester Polytechnic, she subsequently joined a theatre company in Liverpool and apprenticed as a stand-up comic. A one-time company member of the Vanload improv troupe, she made her London stage debut in the aptly-titled comedy "Funny Peculiar" in 1975, and went on to develop a successfully bawdy act on the cabaret circuit. While at Manchester, Julie befriended aspiring writer/comedienne Victoria Wood and the twosome appeared together in sketch comedy. A couple of their works, "Talent" and "Nearly a Happy Ending", transferred to television and were accompanied by rave reviews. Eventually, they were handed their own television series, Wood and Walters (1981).
In 1980, Julie scored a huge solo success under the theatre lights when she made her London debut in Willy Russell's "Educating Rita". For her superlative performance, she won both the Variety Critic's and London Critic's Circle Awards as the young hairdresser who vows to up her station in life by enrolling in a university. She conquered film as well when Educating Rita (1983) transferred to the big screen opposite Michael Caine as her Henry Higgins-like college professor, collecting a Golden Globe Award and Oscar nomination. Reuniting with Victoria Wood in 1984, the pair continue to appear together frequently on television, most recently with the award-winning series dinnerladies (1998). On stage, Julie has impressed in a variety of roles ranging from the contemporary ("Fool for Love", "Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune") to the classics ("Macbeth", "The Rose Tattoo" and "All My Sons"), winning the Laurence Olivier Award for the last-mentioned play.
Following her success as Rita, she immediately rolled out a sterling succession of film femmes including her seedy waitress-turned successful brothel-owner in Personal Services (1987); the unsophisticated, small-town wife of Phil Collins in Buster (1988); a boozy, man-chasing mum in Killing Dad or How to Love Your Mother (1989); and Liza Minnelli's abrasive tap student in Stepping Out (1991). Playing a wide variety of ages, she also mustered up a very convincing role as the mother of Joe Orton in the critically-acclaimed Prick Up Your Ears (1987).
Julie capped her career in films as the abrasively stern but encouraging dance teacher in Billy Elliot (2000) which earned her a second Oscar nomination and a healthy helping of quirky character roles, including her charming, charity-driven widow who poses à la natural in Calendar Girls (2003), and the maternal witch-wife Molly Weasley in the J.K. Rowling "Harry Potter" series beginning with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and ending with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). For her work on film and television, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has honored Julie five times, including four awards in a row (2001-2004).
Married to Grant Roffey since 1997 after a 12-year relationship, the couple tend to a 70-acre organic farm they bought in Sussex. They have one daughter, Maisie Mae Roffey (born 1988). In 1999, Julie was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at the Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to drama, and in 2008, was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In 2017, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Other more recent millennium films for Dame Julie include Wah-Wah (2005), Becoming Jane (2007) (as Jane Austen's mother), Mamma Mia! (2008), Paddington (2014), Brooklyn (2015), Paddington 2 (2017), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), Mary Poppins Returns (2018) and The Secret Garden (2020) as Mrs. Medlock.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Annette Badland is an English actress known for a wide range of roles on TV, radio and film. She has played Margaret Blaine in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (2005), Doomsday Dora in The Sparticle Mystery (2011), Birdie Henshall in the drama series Cutting It (2002), Mavis in season 6 of Skins (2007), Ursula Crowe in children's science fiction/fantasy series Wizards vs. Aliens (2012), and Babe Smith in soap opera EastEnders (1985). Badland plays Hazel Woolley in BBC Radio The Archers.
Her training took place at East 15 Acting School, London. She has appeared in many television roles including Bergerac (1981) (1981-1984), two episodes of the sitcom series 2point4 Children (1991), Making Out (1989), Summerhill (2008), Lace (1984), Jackanory (1965), Archer's Goon (1992), The Demon Headmaster (1996), A Little Princess (1986), The Worst Witch (1998), The Queen's Nose (1995) and Coronation Street (1960), as well as an early appearance in series one of Hale and Pace (1986) in a number of sketches. In 1989, Badland also appeared in The Rough and the Smooth (1989). She played the recurring villain Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen a.k.a. "Margaret Blaine" in the 2005 series of Doctor Who. She also provides commentary on the Doctor Who Complete Series One Box Set, on the episodes "World War Three" and "Boom Town" as a Slitheen.
In 2006 she put in an appearance at Larkhall Prison for the eighth series of ITV1 drama Bad Girls (1999). She played Angela Robbins, a disturbing inmate who was suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder.
She has also appeared in many films including Jabberwocky (1977), Out of Order (1987), Beyond Bedlam (1994), Captives (1994), Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets (1995), Little Voice (1998), Beautiful People (1999), Honest (2000), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and appeared in the TV adaptations of Gulliver's Travels (1996) as the farmer's wife, and A Christmas Carol (1999) as Mrs Fezziwig. Badland has performed in several radio dramas including BBC Radio 4's Rolling Home (2001), Smelling of Roses (2003) and an adaptation of George MacDonald's novel At the Back of the North Wind; lead role as DC Gwen Danbury in An Odd Body on BBC Radio 4 Extra. In 2005 she took over the role of Hazel Woolley, the "bad seed" adopted daughter of Jack Woolley in the long-running radio soap opera The Archers, and in 2008 appeared in the radio serial The Way We Live Right Now as Tilly Carbury.
Badland was also the presenter of BBC's You and Me in the early 1990s and appeared in the British comedy Three and Out released on 25 April 2008. She also played the sharply conservative Ethel Tonks in the BBC's All the Small Things (2009) (April/May 2009) alongside Sarah Lancashire, Neil Pearson, Sarah Alexander and Bryan Dick. In 2009 she appeared in Casualty (1986) as a disturbed mother who was always worrying about her daughters.
She has made her debut at the Royal Exchange Theatre, in Manchester, as Madame Arcarti in Blithe Spirit.
In 2010, Badland performed in Caryl Churchill's Far Away at the Bristol Old Vic.
On 5 July 2010 she appeared as a Verger in Doctors (2000). In 2012, Badland appeared as Ursula in the new CBBC science fiction series, Wizards vs Aliens. She was also in BBC's Cutting It, for 4 series.
In the CBBC hit show The Sparticle Mystery, Badland played DoomsDay Dora and HoloDora. She appeared in four episodes as DoomsDay Dora and eight episodes as HoloDora.
In August 2013 it was announced that Badland would play the role of Mrs FitzGibbons in the Starz television series Outlander (2014).
On 12 December 2013, it was announced that Badland would appear as a regular in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, playing Babe Smith. She made her first on-screen appearance in the episode broadcast on 31 January 2014. On 18 September 2016, it was announced that Badland had been axed from the serial by new executive producer, Sean O'Connor, with the character making her final appearance on 9 February 2017.- Though his number of film roles amount to a bit over 30, Paul Scofield has cast a giant shadow in the world of stage and film acting. He grew up in West Sussex, the son of a schoolmaster. He attended the Varndean School for Boys in Brighton. The love of acting came early. While still high school age, he began training as an actor at the Croydon Repertory Theatre School (1939) and then at the Mask Theatre School (1940) in London. He took on all the experience he could handle by joining touring companies and also entertained British troops during World War II. He joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and, from there in 1946, he moved to Stratford-upon-Avon. There, in the birthplace of William Shakespeare, he had his first great successes. He had the title role in "Henry V"; he was "Cloten" in "Cymbeline"; "Don Adriano de Armado" in "Love's Labour's Lost", "Lucio" in "Measure for Measure", and then "Hamlet". And there were many more as he honed himself into one the great Shakespearean actors of the 20th century. With a rich, sonorous voice compared to a Rolls Royce being started up, in one instance, and a great sound rumbling forth from an antique crypt in yet another, he was quickly compared to Laurence Olivier.
Scofield did not move on to commercial theater until 1949, when he took the lead role of "Alexander the Great", in playwright Terence Rattigan's unfortunately ill-received "Adventure Story". And as he continued theater work, he moved toward film very carefully. From his first in 1955, Scofield was always - as with any of his acting assignments - extremely picky about accepting a particular role. It was three years before his second film. Meanwhile, Scofield had the opportunity to play a great lead part in a new play by a schoolmaster-turned-new-playwright, Robert Bolt. The play was "A Man for All Seasons" and Scofield's choice role was that of "Sir Thomas More", the great English humanist and chancellor, who defied the ogre "King Henry VIII" in his wish to put aside his first wife for "Anne Bolyne". It was a once in a lifetime part, and Scofield debuted it in London in 1960. His only appearance on Broadway was the next year in that play, which ran into 1962. It was no surprise that the work began garnering awards for him (see Trivia below for details on theater and film awards).
He returned to Shakespeare in 1962 with Peter Brook, the noted British director and producer, directing him as "Lear" at the newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at Stratford. This was a pioneering minimalist production, one of the first "bare stage" efforts - though things were pretty bare stage in Shakespeare's day. Scofield then did "Coriolanus" and "Love's Labour's Lost" for the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario in 1963. His third film came six years after his second screen appearance (1958). This was his standout performance in The Train (1964), a production of his co-star, Burt Lancaster, that grew in size and budget with the entrance of Lancaster's second choice for director, John Frankenheimer. Some of the difficulties involved might have turned someone of Scofield's discipline back to the stage thereafter, but the filming of "Seasons" arrived, and he would hardly refuse. With Robert Bolt handling the screenplay and a superlative supporting cast, the film version of A Man for All Seasons (1966) collected some thirty-three international awards, including a three-statue sweep of prime-Oscar categories plus another three for good measure. Scofield was unforgettable as the incisive man of state, able to juggle the volatile politics of the time but always keep his honor and so brimming with faith as to endure the inevitably mounting tide against him.
It suited Scofield for a time to keep his screen-acting to adaptations of plays, books, and ensemble pieces fitted to the big screen. Peter Brook and he teamed again for a film version of the Brook-adapted play Tell Me Lies (1968). The adaptation of Herman Melville's Bartleby (1970), despite Scofield's efforts, did not wash as an attempt to update Melville's story in the late twentieth century. Then Brook was back again to finally attempt what he said had really never been done correctly -adapting Shakespeare to film. Scofield's 1962 "Lear" was held in high esteem, and Brook decided on a film version, King Lear (1970), an even more uncompromising, even uncomfortable, desolation staging and editing of the tragedy. Despite some oddball camera work and not wholly satisfying adapting of the play, Scofield was magnificent and got his chance to show that he is perhaps the best Lear of modern times. While still keeping a concerted interest in filmed play adaptations, Scofield could be lured into more typical screen drama. He joined former co-star, Burt Lancaster, for the spy thriller, Scorpio (1973), as a memorable Russian comrade of Lancaster from the days of World War II, caught in late-Cold War spy craft brutality.
Through the 1980s, Scofield did a mix of TV and film on both sides of the Atlantic. But he was drawn back to Shakespeare and filming efforts, though in humbler parts, first in the Henry V (1989) of ambitious Kenneth Branagh, as the French king, and, the next year, in the Franco Zeffirelli, Hamlet (1990), as "The Ghost" - with the real buzz being for Mel Gibson as the dour "Prince of Denmark". Both films were well-crafted with impressive supporting casts. And Scofield could be content that as with all his roles, he was remaining consistent with himself as his own best judge of how to challenge his acting gifts. Gibson was appropriately awed, saying that working with Scofield was like being "thrown into the ring with Mike Tyson" (that is, Mike Tyson then, not now). Through the 1990s, he enjoyed his continued sampling of all acting media, even radio narration and animation voice-over.
The matter of British actors weighing upon the acceptance of knighthoods for their work began most publicly with Scofield. In 1956, after his tour of "Hamlet" with a triumph in Moscow, he gratefully accepted the appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), but thereafter he refused on three occasions the offer of knighthood. "If you want a title, what's wrong with Mr.? If you have always been that, then why lose your title? "I have a title, which is the same one that I have always had. But it's not political. I have a CBE, which I accepted very gratefully". He said this with great simplicity and charm. The matter of 'theatrical nobility' has prompted others to follow Scofield's example. One high profile example with a twist is actor Anthony Hopkins, now an American citizen, who quipped that he only accepted the knighthood because his wife wanted him to do so. In taking the oath of citizenship, Hopkins pledged to "renounce the title of nobility to which I have heretofore belonged". But Scofield's demeanor in his logically crafted refusals from the first so fit this man's very private life. Yet quite averse to being interviewed, he has always been considerate to the public for their patronage. Brilliant man and acting legacy, on and off the stage, Paul Scofield truly is a "Man for All Seasons". - Barbara Cartland was born on 9 July 1901 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, UK. She was a writer, known for Duel of Hearts (1991), The Lady and the Highwayman (1988) and The Flame Is Love (1979). She was married to Hugh Rowley McCorquodale and Alexander George McCorquodale. She died on 21 May 2000 in Camfield Place, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England, UK.
- William Hoyland was born on 10 November 1943 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Hellboy (2004), A Mighty Heart (2007) and For Your Eyes Only (1981). He was married to Carole De Jong. He died on 15 July 2017 in Camden, London, England, UK.
- Neville Chamberlain was born on 18 March 1869 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, UK. He was married to Anne de Vere Cole. He died on 9 November 1940 in Heckfield, Hampshire, England, UK.
- Peter Houghton was born on 30 August 1938 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. He was married to Diane Houghton. He died on 25 November 2007 in Birmingham, England, UK.
- Jillian Sand was born on 22 February 1906 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Are You There? (1930), Early to Bed (1933) and The Golden Cage (1933). She died on 3 January 1996 in Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, USA.
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Actor
James Hagger was born on 23 July 1973 in Edgbaston, England, UK. He is a producer and assistant director, known for The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), The Football Factory (2004) and Renaissance (2006).- Jeanne Ravel was born on 1 November 1911 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for The Eric Barker Half-Hour (1951), The Silk Noose (1948) and Lucky Jade (1937). She was married to Ronnie Bowyer. She died on 6 January 2004 in Eel Pie Island, Middlesex, England, UK.
- In her varied and unconventional life, Gwyneth Lloyd managed to combine three careers - film star in the 1930s, Women's Royal Air Force in the 1940s, and antique textiles expert in the last two decades - as well as two husbands and two families.
She was born in 1913 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, to a respectable Quaker family. Her grandfather, Howard Lloyd, had been managing director of Lloyds Bank from 1871 to 1902. Her mother, Florence (nee Armstrong), was a progressive woman for her time (it was said she owned one of the first washing machines).
Gwyneth trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where two important things happened to her. First, she met Diana Churchill, Winston's daughter, who became her best friend for many years. Gwyneth said later that it was in the Churchills' house, Chartwell, that she really learned to make intelligent conversation.
The second key event was a newspaper competition which won her a contract with Gaumont British Films. The company had decided to launch a counter-attack on Hollywood's monopoly of the stars and she was one of the few English beauties to selected to be 'Baby Film Stars'. Before long, Gwyneth became the first of these stars to get a leading role in a British feature film - in 1934 she starred opposite Sonnie Hale (then married to Jessie Matthews) in Wild Boy, directed by Albert de Courville. Her other co-star in that film was the famous greyhound Mick the Miller.
In practice, her career was not to be a long one. John Heygate, recently divorced from Evelyn Waugh's first wife, Evelyn Gardner ('She-Evelyn'), saw Gwyneth in Wild Boy and was strongly attracted by his first glimpse of her extraordinary beauty (although he complained later with his typically dry wit that, 'he only went to see the dog'). Shortly afterwards he took the trouble to gatecrash her 21st birthday party, ambushed her in the kitchen and discovered a mutual liking for fine cheeses. Dinner at Quaglino's followed and the romance developed quickly.
During the early Thirties she met many artists and writers including Vyvyan Holland, Oscar Wilde's son. Her portrait by Tristram Hillier still hangs in her bedroom. The Cafe Royal and the Gargoyle, in Dean Street, were regular haunts. The Charleston, the foxtrot and later the quickstep were all the rage.
In 1935, Heygate, recently sacked from the BBC by Lord Reith because of the publicity surrounding the Waugh divorce, went to work for UFA films in Berlin, writing scripts for the trilingual films being produced there at the time with Lillian Harvey and other international stars. This was the era of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin and as Germany was slid towards dictatorship there was much to see for the now engaged couple, as they motored about the country in Heygate's MG.
Back in England, John and Gwyneth were married at St Ethelburga's (the only church in England that would marry divorced people), in the City, and then settled in a country house in Sussex. Although the period is given a rosy glow of nostalgia in one of Heygate's novels, A House for Joanna, the truth was less romantic. He preferred writing on the counters of smoke-filled, working men's pubs, rather than in his smart new study. The couple drifted back to London.
The war now intervened on a marriage already weakened by Heygate's drinking and unpredictable temper. While he was away in the army in Ceylon, Gwyneth joined the WRAF as an aircraft plotter. Here she met a handsome young fighter pilot, Arthur Donaldson, one of three brothers all of whom won the DSO in the air war, and consequently achieved almost 'pop star' status at the time.
After the war, Gwyneth and Arthur followed the transient lives of station families in Germany and England. Gwyneth produced three more children to add to the two boys from her first marriage and Arthur's daughter by his first marriage. In the 1950s, Arthur retired from the RAF and they settled in a large house in Buckinghamshire. Although the marriage lasted 18 years, it too finally ended in divorce in the mid-1960s.
But Gwyneth's independent mind and courage saw her through these difficult times. 'I refuse to be frightened of life,' she said. She built herself a new career as an antique dealer, textiles expert and member of LAPADA, the professional association of antique dealers. In the 1970s and 1980s she became a well-known figure in her shop in Belgravia and at antique fairs, where she would stand surrounded by beautiful old fabrics, engaging passers-by in conversation. She ran her own business until the last year of her life.
Gwyneth Lloyd was almost impossible to shock and she had a great sense of self-irony. She was highly amused when, in her late seventies, somebody said to her 'You're quite a relic, aren't you?' (Not long after, the invitation to her 80th birthday party announced a 'Relic's Rave-up'.)
Gwyneth was always active and on the move. As a young woman, she played at Junior Wimbledon. And she was a keen skier in the days when there were no ski-lifts and no package tours to the Alps. She spoke French and German and travelled to five continents during her life. All her life she was full of new ventures - when she inherited some money from her parents at the end of the 1950s, she bought a racehorse, a motor boat and some land in Portugal.
She retained a youthful spirit, and never fully accepted old age or the prospect of losing her independence. Even as an 80-year-old she had friends of every age, male and female. She loved good conversation, good food, parties and picnics. Everybody who visited her flat was dazzled by her distinctive taste and the atmosphere she created there. - Herbert William Workman was born in 1878 in Edgbaston, England, UK.
- Joy Seager was born on 20 September 1899 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. Joy was a writer, known for Shadows of the Heart (1990). Joy was married to Stanley Charles Henniker and Harold (Hal) William Hastings Seager. Joy died on 7 September 1991 in Mount Pleasant, South Australia, Australia.
- Gillian Sandlands was born on 22 February 1906 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Pyramus and Thisbe (1937). He died on 3 January 1996 in Concord, North Carolina, USA.
- Writer
- Producer
Kim L. Wheeler was born on 3 June 1960 in Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. She is a writer and producer, known for In Vino Veritas (2018), The Impact (2022) and In Vino Veritas. She has been married to Michael Antony Wheeler since 18 October 1986. They have two children.