British Actors Archives - Page 110 of 138

Moira Shearer

Moira Shearer obituary in “The Guardian” in 2006.

Moria Sharer was forever be remembered for her luminous performance in “The Red Shoes” in 1948. She was born in Scotland in 1926. She was leading dancer with the Sadler’s Ballet Company when she won the role of “Victoria Page” in “The Red Shoes”. After the film’s success, she was much sought after for movies but she curtailed her career after her marriage to the broadcaster and writer Ludovic Kennedy. She did make a trip to Hollywood to make “The Story of Three Loves” with James Mason in 1953. Moira Shearer died in 2006 at the age of 80.

Her “Guardian” obituary by Mary Clarke:

Moira Shearer, who has died at the age of 80, was a ballerina of the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet in its first years at Covent Garden over whom only Margot Fonteyn took precedence. By starring in the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger film The Red Shoes (1948), she became, for a while, the best known dancer in Britain, and certainly in the United States.

As a result, she was able to popularise ballet at that time more than any of her colleagues, Fonteyn included. Even today, people of all ages admit being drawn to the ballet “because I saw The Red Shoes”.

The success and enduring popularity of that film should not, however, overshadow a career that encompassed a comparatively brief, yet distinguished, sojourn in the world of classical ballet, as well as fine achievements as an actor, film star, lecturer, writer and speaker of poetry. Her other films were Powell and Pressburger’s The Tales Of Hoffmann (1950) in which the quality of her dancing, as the doll Olympia, is probably best preserved; The Story Of Three Loves (1952); The Man Who Loved Redheads (1954); Michael Powell’s controversial Peeping Tom (1960); and Terence Young’s ballet film 1-2-3-4 ou Les Collants noirs (Black Tights, 1961) with choreography by Roland Petit.

Born Moira Shearer King in Dunfermline, Fife, she was educated at Dunfermline high school, in Ndola, in what was then Northern Rhodesia, and at Bearsden Academy, in East Dunbartonshire. Although she had her first ballet lessons in Ndola, her training was essentially in Britain, first with Flora Fairbairn, then with the great pedagogue Nicholas Legat and, after his death in 1937, with his widow Nadine Nicolayeva.

She joined the Sadler’s Well School in 1940, and a year later made her professional debut with Mona Inglesby’s International Ballet. She was immediately noticed for her classic style and exceptional beauty – features of porcelain delicacy and flame-coloured hair. By 1942 she had joined the Sadler’s Wells Ballet (then, during wartime, based at the New, now Albery, Theatre) and promotion came quickly.

Frederick Ashton cast her as Pride in his 1943 ballet The Quest, and Ninette de Valois chose her to create the role of the girl in the sparkling pas de trois, a small gem in the ballet Promenade, the same year. By 1944 she was a principal of the company, dancing a wide variety of roles, both classic and demi-caractère

But it was the move of the company to the Royal Opera House in 1946 that set the seal on Shearer’s right to the ballerina title. In the opening production of The Sleeping Beauty, in the famous Oliver Messel designs, she followed Fonteyn and Pamela May in the role of Princess Aurora, and immediately won a huge following of her own. Among her admirers was Sacheverell Sitwell – her beauty and his unrequited passion is said to have inspired some of his Selected Poems of 1948.

Moira Shearer, 23, after her wedding to Ludovic Kennedy at the Royal Chapel of Hampton. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images)

Shearer’s first Aurora came early in March 1946, and in April she was to create, alongside Fonteyn and May, one of the three ballerina roles in Ashton’s sublime Symphonic Variations, that plotless masterpiece for six dancers which is a celebration of the English style of classic dance. She also created the role of Cinderella in Ashton’s version of the Prokofiev ballet, being chosen to replace the injured Fonteyn and thereby playing no small part in ensuring the success of Ashton’s first full-evening work.

In addition to dancing Ashton ballets and in the classics, Shearer also experienced the challenge of working with Léonide Massine, when he came to Sadler’s Wells in 1947 to stage or revive his most famous works. She was a can-can dancer with him in La Boutique Fantasque, a Jota dancer in The Three-cornered Hat, and created the role of the Aristocrat in his new version of Mam’zelle Angot.

An experience which left an even greater mark was working with George Balanchine when his Ballet Imperial, with the beautiful Eugene Berman designs, entered the Sadler’s Wells repertory in 1950. Fonteyn was cast first for the ballerina role but it was Shearer, who followed her, whose speed of footwork came nearest to capturing Balanchine’s virtuoso choreography. The short period of working with the choreographer left such lasting memories that, more than 30 years later, Shearer wrote Balletmaster: a Dancer’s View of George Balanchine (1986).

In 1952, at the absurdly young age of 26, she became a guest artist with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, a prelude to her (almost) complete retirement from dancing. By now married to Ludovic Kennedy, and with a young child, she wanted to make a new career as an actor.

She toured as Sally Bowles in I Am A Camera and appeared as Titania (to Robert Helpmann’s Oberon) in an Old Vic production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, first at the 1954 Edinburgh festival and then on tour in north America. In 1955 she joined the Bristol Old Vic, where she appeared, notably, as Shaw’s Major Barbara. At the 1957 Edinburgh festival, and in a subsequent tour, she played opposite Anton Walbrook in Walter Hasenclever’s A Man of Distinction, a collaboration remembered in theatrical memoirs for the total lack of sympathy, even of communication, between those two stars.

In 1977 she was back in the theatre as Madame Ranevskaya, in The Cherry Orchard at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, and a year later was Judith Bliss in Hay Fever. In 1994 she played Juliana Bordereau in The Aspern Papers at the Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow. In 1987 she had returned to the ballet to create the role of Lowry’s mother in Gillian Lynne’s A Simple Man, made for BBC television to mark the centenary of the artist (played by Christopher Gable), which subsequently entered the repertory of Northern Ballet Theatre.

In 1973 she lectured on ballet history and Sergei Diaghilev in the US, as she also did regularly in England and Wales – and three times on the Queen Elizabeth II liner – and gave poetry and prose recitals, often with her husband. During the last years of her life, Shearer wrote book reviews (not just of dance books) for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, which were immensely readable though not celebrated for their generosity towards authors. In 1998 she published a biography of Ellen Terry.

· She is survived by her husband, three daughters and a son. Moira Shearer King (Lady Kennedy), ballerina and actor, born January 17 1926; died January 31 2006

Her “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed on-line here.

Keith Drinkel was born in 1944 in York. His films include “A Bridge Too Far” in 1977 and “Ghandi” in 1982. He has been featured in many television dramras including a stint in “Coronation Street”.

Richard Wyler (also known as Richard Stapley) was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex in 1923. He began his career on the London sstage but in the late 1940’s he went to Hollywood with a Hollywood contract. He was featured in “The Three Musketeers” in 1948, “Little Women” “King of the Khyber Rifles” with Tyrone Power and “D-Day 6th of June” with Robert Taylor and Dana Wynter. Richard Wyler died in 2010 at the age of 86.

His “Independent” obituary:

Richard Stapley belonged to a generation of movie actors who plied their trade during the halcyon days of Hollywood – when stars were great and dalliances were discreet. Although predominantly an actor, he had polymath qualities ranging from writer and motorcycle racer to courier.

lamorous world of Hollywood. Born on 20 June 1923 in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, he was the son of a bank manager. He grew up in Brighton and from an early age fell in love with the silver screen. Stapley attended Varndean College in Brighton; one of his contemporaries there was Paul Scofield, with whom he remained friends.

Stapley remembered spending a lot of time at Varndean practising his autograph; destiny would make him a movie actor. However, he did also have a love of writing which would endure throughout his career; he had his first novel published at the age of 17.

After serving in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, Stapley got into repertory theatre and decided at an early age that if he was going to make it in movies he would have to go to the US. Slim, charming, and graced with diamond blue eyes and a deep, educated English accent, Stapley soon caught the eye of the movie-makers – and a number of actresses as well.

Gloria Swanson rented a temporary house in Palm Springs which she shared with Stapley while she was filming the musical Sunset Blvd (1950). Whether it was a practical arrangement or something more was not revealed by Stapley when he reminisced about his days in Hollywood.

The movie breaks soon came, including in 1948 The Three Musketeers, starring Gene Kelly and Lana Turner, Little Women, where he starred alongside Elizabeth Taylor, King of the Khyber Rifles, appearing with Tyrone Power, and the 1956 film D-Day the Sixth of June, playing David Archer alongside Richard Todd and Robert Taylor. Stapley had an uncredited role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s; another small part was in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1972 film Frenzy.

The early 1960s saw him in the TV series Man from Interpol, playing Agent Anthony Smith; for this role he adopted the name Richard Wyler. Some of the scripts for Man from Interpol were penned by Brian Clemens, later the doyen of The Avengers and The Professionals. Man from Interpol ran for 39 episodes between 1960 and 1961; after it ended, Stapley never quite made it back to Hollywood films.

He starred in a number of European films, including El Precio de un Hombre, playing bounty hunter Luke Chilson. He also starred with Jack Palance in The Barbarians, and then in 1969 The Seven Secrets of Sumuru (aka The Girl from Rio) alongside Shirley Eaton and George Sanders. In 1970, Stapley co-starred with Bette Davis and Michael Redgrave in Connecting Rooms.

A follow-up series to Man from Interpol did not follow. Around the same time as he was filming that programme, Stapley had auditioned for the TV series of Ivanhoe, the part of which went to his comrade Sir Roger Moore. Stapley regaled the story of being driven by Roger Moore in his Rolls Royce. Stapley asked Moore what would have happened if he had got the part of Ivanhoe instead – and Moore responded by saying, “You’d be driving this Rolls Royce instead of me… “

Stapley had a steady stream of character parts in many of the mainstream TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, including The Baron, Z Cars, The Saint and Return of the Saint. His work also included appearing in a number of the legendary Imperial Leather soap TV adverts, exuding a sybaritic lifestyle and attaining what can only be described as a lifetime achievement of sharing a bath (on set) with his co-star, namely one Joanna Lumley.

If acting was a love, motorcycles were Stapley’s passion and it is no surprise that he counted among his friends the stunt rider from The Great Escape responsible for the death-defying jump made by Steve McQueen. Stapley himself partook in motorcycle stunts, although one went horrendously wrong and he severely broke his leg – but determined to ride again, he made an ultra-quick recovery.

Stapley rode motorcycles in professional races, including dices with the likes of Mike Hawthorn. He wrote a regular column for Motor Cycling magazine, Richard Wyler’s Coffee Bar Column, recounting tales of his acting exploits or thrills on the race track. He received praise from the Metropolitan Police for dissuading young motorcyclists at the famous Ace Café on London’s North Circular Road from indulging in the potentially lethal dare of “dropping the coin right into the slot” and racing to a given point and back before the record on the jukebox finished.

During the 1960s he also opened one of the first coffee bars near Streatham Ice Rink in south London.

Stapley, using his nom de plume, Richard Wyler, had his own dispatch riders company in London and used his race-track experience on one occasion to get a very important package from central London to Northolt Airfield through heavy traffic in about 30 minutes.

His acting career on slow burn, he tended to write. His work included a novel called Naked Legacy, co-written with Lester Cook III and published in 2004. The story tells of a young man inheriting a manuscript from the father he never knew, which then sends him on a voyage of discovery. He devoted much of his remaining days to working on film scripts that he was determined to see come to fruition, including Tomorrow Has Been Cancelled. Stapley was also completing his autobiography, To Slip and Fall in L.A.

Some unfortunate business deals meant that Stapley’s finances were not good and the last decade of his life was dependant on the generosity of acquaintances.

Stapley had enthusiasm and talent to spare, but the constant money worries and failing health at times shadowed the charming and heroic side of his character. He was married to Elizabeth Wyler; the two were estranged, but never divorced. He has one surviving sister.

The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Richard O’Callaghan.

Richard O’Callaghan was born in 1940 in London. He is the son of actress Patricia Hayes. He made his film debut in 1968 in “The Bofors Gun”. He made some Carry On films and became a staple in quality British television dramas. He is married to American actress Elizabeth Quinn.

John Cairney was born in Glasgow in 1930. He came to prominence in the late 50’s on British films. His films include “Ill Met by Moonlight” in 1957, “Miracle in Soho”, “Windom’s Way”, “A Night to Remember” and “Shake Hands With the Devil”. His website here.

His IMDB entry:

John Cairney made his stage debut at the Park Theatre, Glasgow, before enrolling at the RSAMD in Glasgow. After graduation, he joined the Wilson Barrett Company as Snake in “The School for Scandal”. A season at the Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre followed before going on to the Bristol Old Vic where he appeared in the British premiere of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”. He returned to the Citizens from time to time, most notably as Hamlet in 1960. He also appeared in the premiere of John Arden’s “Armstrong’s Last Goodnight” in 1964. Other stage work until 1991 included King Humanitie in “The Thrie Estaites” for Tyrone Guthrie at the Edinburgh Festival, Archie Rice in “The Entertainer” at Dundee (1972), Cyrano de Bergerac at Newcastle (1974), Becket in “Murder in the Cathedral” at the Edinburgh Festival of 1986 and Macbeth in the same Festival in 1989. He also wrote and appeared in his own productions of “An Edinburgh Salon”, “At Your Service”, “The Ivor Novello Story” and “A Mackintosh Experience” while continuing to tour the world in his solo “The Robert Burns Story”.

His association with Burns began in 1965 with Tom Wright’s solo play “There Was A Man” at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, and at the Arts Theatre, London. The solo was televised twice nationally and was also an album recording for REL Records, Edinburgh, as well as a video for Green Place Productions, Glasgow. From Burns he moved on to other solos on William McGonagall, Robert Service and Robert Louis Stevenson until he worked with New Zealand actress, _Alannah O’Sullivan_, at the Edinburgh Festival of 1978. They married in 1980. As Two For A Theatre they toured the world for P&O Cruises and the British Council as well as the Keedick Lecture Bureau, New York, with programmes on Byron, Wilde and Dorothy Parker until 1986. Cairney’s first film was Night Ambush (1957) for the Rank Organisation, followed by Windom’s Way (1957), Shake Hands with the Devil (1959), Victim (1961)and many more including Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Cleopatra (1963), The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) and A Study in Terror(1965). His many television parts include Branwell Bronte, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert, the Bruce and he has featured in all the main series: _”Dr. Finlay’s Casebook” …. Tim O’Shea (1 episode, 1963)_, Secret Agent (1964),The Avengers (1961), “Jackanory” (1971)_, Elizabeth R (1971), _”Taggart”(1969)_ etc. He also starred in BBC2’s “This Man Craig” …. Ian Craig (52 episodes, 1966-1967) In addition, he wrote and recorded his own songs for EMI at Abbey Road.

As a writer, Cairney has published two autobiographies and a novel, “Worlds Apart” as well as “A Scottish Football Hall of Fame” and “Heroes Are Forever” for Mainstream Publishing (Edinburgh) and “A Year Out In New Zealand” for Tandem Press, NZ. He wrote three Burns books for Luath Press in Edinburgh as well as biographies of R.L. Stevenson and C.R. Mackintosh and a book of essays on Glasgow entitled “Glasgow by the way, but”. His second novel, “Flashback Forward”, was published for Random House, NZ, and his book on acting, “Greasepaint Monkey” is due for publication by Luath Press, Edinburgh in 2010.

Dr Cairney gained an M.Litt from Glasgow University for a “History of Solo Theatre” in 1988 and, in 1994, a PhD from Victoria University, Wellington, for his study of Stevenson and Theatre. Having spent the last seventeen years in New Zealand, John and Alannah have now returned to live again in Scotland.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: John Cairney

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Susan Stephen was born in 1931 in London. Her film debut was in 1952 in “His Excellency”. She starred with Diana Dors in “Value for Money” in 1955, “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” with Jennifer Jones and “Carry on Nurse” with Shirley Eaton in 1959. She was at one time married to the film director Nicholas Roeg. She died in 2000.

Her “Independent” obituary:

A WIDE-EYED beauty with a demure yet lively personality, Susan Stephen was a star of British cinema in the Fifties, appearing as leading lady to such stars as Alan Ladd and Dirk Bogarde. Though her career diminished towards the end of the decade, she provided a welcome dash of sparkle and vivacity to the films in which she appeared.

Born in London in 1931, she was the daughter of the civil engineer Major Frederick Stephen, MC, who built railroads in South America and bridges across the Blue Nile – he was given the Order of the Nile by King Farouk. Susan’s mother died when she was very young, and she was raised by her father (plus nannies and housekeepers). She spent much of her childhood in Egypt, where her father was working, and on their estate in Scotland, but returned to England to study at Moira House in Eastbourne.

She then trained at Rada in London, and when appearing in a graduate class show was discovered by Cecil Madden, then controller of BBC television. He cast her in a television adaptation of Little Women in 1950 (the Laurie was David Jacobs) and other television shows, which led to her being signed in 1951 to make a movie in Italy, Fanciulle di lusso (Luxury Girls), the story of four girls from different countries at a finishing school – Marina Vlady was the French girl. Also in the cast was the handsome actor Lawrence Ward, who became Stephen’s first husband. Later, he was successful (as Michael Ward) in a second career as a photographer for the Sunday Times.

Her first British film was His Excellency (1951), an adaptation of a West End hit starring Eric Portman as a former union leader who is appointed governor of a British island colony. Stephen played Portman’s daughter, and though the film was not very successful, she attracted favourable comment.

After supporting roles in the melodrama Stolen Face (1952) with two Hollywood stars, Paul Henried and Lizabeth Scott, and two more stage adaptations, Treasure Hunt (1952) and Father’s Doing Fine (1952), Stephen was given the part of a parachute-packer who provides romance for a paratrooper (Alan Ladd) in The Red Beret (1953). The film was produced by Irving Allen and Albert Broccoli, and Stephen used to laugh in later years about the advertising they devised which put the drawing of a voluptuous body underneath her face on the posters.

The following year Stephen had one of her best roles, as a young girl who marries a jobless university graduate (Dirk Bogarde) to the dismay of her parents (Cecil Parker and Eileen Herlie) in For Better, For Worse. It was a charming domestic comedy with accomplished performances from its fine cast (which also included Athene Seyler, Dennis Price and Thora Hird). Stephen and Bogarde became firm friends, and in later years she would be a frequent guest at his home in the South of France.

In As Long As They’re Happy (1955), a satire on the teenage hysteria for the “crying” singer Johnnie Ray, Stephen was one of Jack Buchanan’s three daughters who were all mad about an American crooner, and in Value For Money (1955) she was a North Country lass whose rag millionaire boy- friend (John Gregson) goes off for a fling in London after they quarrel.

Stephen’s last good starring role was in Pacific Destiny (1956), based on Sir Arthur Grimble’s book A Pattern of Islands, which recounted his early experiences of serving in the South Seas. Stephen played Grimble’s wife, who starts a baby clinic for the natives. One of her co-stars, Michael Hordern, later suggested that the book’s more specific title might have given the excellent film the popularity it deserved.

Shot in Samoa, it was later cited by Stephen as her favourite film, possibly because during its making she fell in love with the assistant cameraman, Nicholas Roeg, who later became a film director. In 1957 she and Roeg were married. Stephen and Roeg had four sons during their 20- year marriage, and though they divorced in 1977 because, said Roeg, of professional pressures and the long periods spent apart, they remained close friends and would usually spend Christmas together with their children.

After Pacific Destiny Stephen had good roles as the flirtatious Belle in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957) and as an enterprising nurse who makes audacious use of a daffodil in Carry On Nurse (1959), but they were supporting parts, and her leading roles were in B movies such as The Court Martial of Major Keller and Return of the Stranger (both 1961) produced by the low- budget specialists the Danziger Brothers. Stephen told the historian Jim Simpson, “That was about as low as you could go, so I decided to retire from films.”

Though she had a town house, she loved country life and spent most of her time in Sussex, where she raised her children, kept four dogs and indulged a passion for riding – she was a fine horsewoman. When I mentioned to Nicholas Roeg that Michael Hordern once confessed that during the shooting of Pacific Destiny, he had developed a hopeless passion for Stephen, Roeg commented, “Everybody fell in love with Susan. She was hugely popular within the profession and charmed everybody who came into contact with her.”

Susan Stephen, actress: born London 16 July 1931; married first Lawrence Ward (marriage dissolved), second 1957 Nicholas Roeg (fours sons; marriage dissolved 1977); died 24 May 2000.

Tom Vallance The Independent 29 May 2000

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Born 1931 in London, 50s film actress Susan Stephen made her film debut with His Excellency (1952). Her demure, slightly elfin loveliness seemed to coincide with the duteous daughters and/or faithful wives she played. Although mainly confined to “B” level films, Susan’s more noticeable co-star roles occurred with Cocktails in the Kitchen(1954) and Value for Money (1955). Her movie career took a back seat in 1957 following her marriage to director Nicolas Roeg in 1957, which gently phased itself out within a few years. The couple later divorced in 1977 and he subsequently married Hollywood actressTheresa Russell. Susan died in England in 2000.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Anthony Booth was born in 1931 in Liverpool. He is best known for his part in the iconic 60’s British television series “Till Death Do Us Part” as the layabout son of Alf Garnett. His film roles include “Confessions of a Driving Instructor” and in 1984 “Priest”. He is the father of Cherie Blair, wife of former British PM Tony Blair.

Anthony Forwood was born in 1915 in Weymouth. His movie debut came in 1949 in “Men in Black”. Other films include “Colonel March Investigates”, “The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men” and “Knights of the Round Table”. His son was the actor Gareth Forwood from his marriage to Glynis Johns. Anthony Forwood died in 1988.

Isla Blair was born in Bangalore, India in 1944. Her movie debut was in “Dr Terro’s House of Horrors” in 1965. Her other films include “A Flea in her Ear” and “Taste the Blood of Dracula”. She has guest starred in most of the major British television dramas over the years. She is married to actor Julian Glover.

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

Moira Shearer

Moira Shearer obituary in “The Guardian” in 2006.

Keith Drinkel

Richard Wyler

Richard O’Callaghan

John Cairney

Susan Stephen

Anthony Booth

Anthony Forwood

Isla Blair

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