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1-15 of 15
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Rare is the reference to Margaret Rutherford that doesn't characterize her as either jut-chinned, eccentric, or both. The combination of those most mundane of attributes has led some to suggest that she was made for the role of Agatha Christie's indomitable sleuth, Jane Marple, whom Rutherford portrayed in four films between 1961 and 1964 plus in an uncredited film cameo in The Alphabet Murders (1965). Rutherford began her acting career first as a student at London's Old Vic, debuting on stage in 1925. In 1933, she first appeared in the West End at the not-so-tender age of 41. She had made her screen debut in 1936 portraying Miss Butterby in the Twickenham-Wardour production of Hideout in the Alps (1936).
In summer 1941, Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit opened on the London stage, with Coward himself directing. Appearing as Madame Arcati, the genuine psychic, was Rutherford, in a role in which Coward had earlier envisaged her and which he then especially shaped for her. She would carry her portrayal of Madame Arcati to the screen adaptation, David Lean's Blithe Spirit (1945). Not only would this become one of Rutherford's most memorable screen performances - with her bicycling about the Kentish countryside, cape fluttering behind her - but it would establish the model for portraying that pseudo-soothsayer forever thereafter. Despite Rutherford's appearances in more than 40 films, it is as Madame Arcati and Miss Jane Marple that she will best be remembered.- John Laurie was a Scotsman who would play many character roles in his long career - a lot of Scotsmen to be sure - but an enthusiastic and skilled actor in nearly 120 screen roles. He was the son of a mill worker, and studied for a career in architecture which he indeed began. But with World War I he left his position to join the British army. After the war he set his sights in a different direction, training to become an actor by attending the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. His first stage play was in 1921. He honed his skills thereafter (from 1922 to 1939) principally as a Shakespearian actor at the Old Vic in London or at Stratford-upon-Avon - and later the Open Air in Regent's Park. But by 1930 he was giving time to films as well. His first movie was the Sean O'Casey play Juno and the Paycock (1929), one of Alfred Hitchcock's early sound efforts. With his craggy profile and arcing bulbous nose, and rather stern visage (though it could as quickly break into a broad smile), he was right for many a memorable character. Hitchcock made sure of that first off by calling on him again to play the dour, suspicious, and miserly farmer, John Crofter, in The 39 Steps (1935). Laurie became a good friend of another Shakespearean, Laurence Olivier, and the two, Olivier as a lead, were in Hungarian director/producer Paul Czinner's As You Like It (1936). The year 1937 was a busy one, with six films, the most important giving him one of his few leading roles. This was director/screen writer Michael Powell's intriguing The Edge of the World (1937), doubly important in that it was the film that sold Powell to producers like Alexander Korda. The film was shot on location on the remote Shetland isle of Foula, the furthest point of Britain. It dealt with the impact of the modern world on the lives of the inhabitants of an economically decaying island. Into 1938 and 1939 Laurie was involved in British experimental TV movies, that medium to be revisit later frequently. In 1939 he was taped by Alexander Korda for his classic film production of The Four Feathers (1939) in which Laurie, who could fit his Scots voice to any part, played the zealous Mahdi (the Khalifa). He is hardly to be recognized in character.
During the war Olivier was planning one of the important morale movies of World War II; his Henry V (1944), and Laurie was asked to play a memorable Capt. Jamie. Olivier also called on him for his two other Shakespeare ventures: Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955). As any good character actor, Laurie could play comedy as well and set a number of roles to that end into the 1940s. He and Roger Livesey were cast in Emeric Pressburger and Powell's first color film, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). And Laurie was a jubilant John Campbell in the Powell/Pressburger wonderful and thoughtful comedy of more insular Scots life, I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) with a delightful young Wendy Hiller and worldly-wise Livesey.
Through the remainder of the decade and into the 1950s, Laurie's face showed up in a variety of films - with greater frequency as assorted Scotsmen-comedic and otherwise - and further down the credits list of supporting actors. He was familiar in the decade invasion to the UK of American co-productions, such as Disney's Treasure Island (1950) and Kidnapped (1960). And he even trod the uncertain path of a few sci-fi films - that shall remain nameless here. But he was certainly always busy - when all told - the actor's foremost blessing. Television drama and series gave him better opportunities for a veteran actor, beginning with a Henry V (1953) where he played the comic role of Pistol. Along with some BBC TV theater (more Shakespeare and some American playhouse as well) and sporadic serials, he had a stint on the long-running BBC children's reading program "Jackanory". And he is probably best remembered as the dour James Frazer on the popular "Dad's Army" series (1968-1977). But one of his last and most touching performance was simply being his good-natured self - 80 years old but still a vibrant man with his Scots burr - when he accompanied Powell back to dramatically isolated Foula for the director's short documentary Return to the Edge of the World (1978) (included with the 2003 DVD release of the 1937 movie). There was a bit of staging by Powell. But Laurie's animated face was a picture of profound humanity, as - with a shade of theatrics when appropriate - he remembered the shoot and with sincere joy renewed acquaintances with the inhabitants, as if he himself had returned once more to his native heath. A bonnie old actor indeed! - Sean Arnold was born on 30 April 1941 in Wickwar, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Bergerac (1981), Great Expectations (1989) and The Caesars (1968). He died on 15 April 2020 in St Peter, Jersey, Channel Islands.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Cyril Fletcher enjoyed something of a renaissance in his long comedy career in 1972 when TV producer and presenter Esther Rantzen asked him to join the consumer program That's Life and recite some of his 'Odd Odes'. He proved such a success with the audience that he became a fixture of the show for eight years. Fletcher had been composing and performing his comic odes as a child and throughout his career as a first class comedian and pantomime 'dame' they were a staple part of his act. He was part of British variety's heyday both as a producer and performer and once said of the genre: "Variety as a cradle for stardom was unsurpassed. It is an exciting and exacting science."
Cyril Trevellian Fletcher was born in 1913. He began writing comic poetry when he was still at school and at an early age had ambitions to become a classical actor. His first job was as an insurance clerk but a chance meeting with the producer Greatorex Newman led to him appearing in the Fols De Rols Concert Party in 1936 at Hastings, Sussex.
Fletcher went on to appear at the Holborn Empire in London and was soon given his own radio series with the BBC. He topped bills in variety all over Britain and was one of the first comedians to appear on television at the BBC's new Alexandra Palace in the first pantomime ever televised, Dick Whittington.
After World War Two he and his wife Betty Astell presented summer shows and pantomimes throughout Britain.
On television Fletcher was a regular on What's My Line? and TV's first religious program Sunday Story but it was his lugubrious voice and cozy presence on That's Life that made him a household name in later years. Gardening was one of his great loves and for 14 years he was presenter of ATV's Gardening Time and in 1990 Cyril Fletcher's Lifestyle Garden.
He and his wife eventually retired to Guernsey in the Channel Islands but he still occasionally delighted audiences with his one man show After Dinner with Cyril Fletcher. He wrote an autobiography, Nice One, Cyril.- Michael Mulcaster was born on 3 October 1911 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and John of the Fair (1954). He was married to Joan Ellacott. He died on 10 August 1984 in Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
- E. Phillips Oppenheim was born on 22 October 1866 in London, England, UK. E. Phillips was a writer, known for The Golden Web (1926), The Black Box (1915) and Monte Carlo Nights (1934). E. Phillips died on 3 February 1946 in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK.
- Brian Walden was born on 8 July 1932 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The New Statesman (1987), Titmuss Regained (1991) and The London Programme (1975). He was married to Hazel Downes, Sybil Blackstone and Jane McKerron. He died on 9 May 2019 in St Peter Port, Guernsey, UK.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Born in 1921, Eric Rogers' interest in music began at an early age. A regular churchgoer, he was taught to play the church organ at the age of 13. His musical apprenticeship was a largely untutored one. During the Second World War, Rogers found himself playing the piano in return for free beer! Following the war, Rogers set up his own orchestra, playing in the Orchid Room at London's Trocadero. His reputation grew and he was gradually offered a series of jobs scripting incidental music for films. Later successes were writing the theme for the hugely popular Sunday Night at the Palladium, and transcribing Lionel Bart's notes for Oliver! (Bart himself couldn't read or write music).- Actress
- Writer
- Music Department
Betty Astell was born on 23 May 1912 in Brondesbury, London, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Strictly Illegal (1935), Magpie Masquerade (1949) and A Piece of Cake (1948). She was married to Cyril Fletcher. She died on 27 July 2005 in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, UK.- Composer
- Music Department
Doreen Carwithen was born on 15 November 1922 in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. She was a composer, known for Break in the Circle (1955), The Men of Sherwood Forest (1954) and Three Cases of Murder (1954). She was married to William Alwyn. She died on 5 January 2003 in Forncett St Peter, Norfolk, England, UK.- Camera and Electrical Department
- Cinematographer
Moray Grant was born on 13 November 1917 in Forres, Morayshire, Scotland, UK. He was a cinematographer, known for Quatermass and the Pit (1967), The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) and Journey to the Unknown (1968). He died on 17 September 1977 in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.- William F. Jury was born on 5 December 1870 in Bermondsey, Surrey, England, UK. William F. was a producer, known for Kitchener's Great Army in the Battle of the Somme (1916) and The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks (1917). William F. was married to Eliza Ellen Marsh. William F. died on 2 August 1944 in St Peters Hill, Caversham, Reading, Berkshire, England, UK.
- Arthur Morrison was born on 1 November 1863 in Poplar, London, England, UK. Arthur was a writer, known for The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1971), The Hole in the Wall (1972) and The Hole in the Wall (1955). Arthur was married to Elizabeth Thatcher. Arthur died on 4 December 1945 in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
- Rudolph Hans Bartsch was born on 11 February 1872 in Graz, Styria, Austria. He was a writer, known for Love Me and the World Is Mine (1927), The Treasure (1923) and Hannerl und ihre Liebhaber (1921). He was married to Grete von Noe and Berta Koscher. He died on 7 February 1952 in St. Peter, Graz, Styria, Austria.
- Ken Heintzelman was born on 14 October 1915 in Peruque, Missouri, USA. He died on 14 August 2000 in St. Peters, Missouri, USA.