In films and television from 1960, Ronay’s numerous TV roles included The Avengers, No Hiding Place, Special Branch, The Champions and Jason King. She retired from acting in the mid-1970s to take up fashion design, specializing in knitwear; she eventually formed her own company in 1984. Her films include “He Who Rides A Tiger”.
Tamara Desni was born in 1910 in Berlin. She began her film career in German movies in 1931. By 1934 she was in the UK where she spent the bulk of her career. Her films include “Fire Over England” in 1937, “The Squeaker” and “The Hills of Donegal” in 1947. She died at the age of 97 in Grenoble, France.
Tom Vallance’s “Independent” obituary:
Tamara Desni was an exotic, brunette actress, singer and dancer of Russian descent, who had a measure of success on stage and in films. Her peak year as a movie star was 1937, when she was romanced by Laurence Olivier in the historical epic Fire Over England, and sang and danced as the lover of a small-time crook in The Squeaker.
Playing a cabaret performer named Tamara in The Squeaker, she sang two songs, “He’s Gone” and “I Don’t Get Along Without You”, in a light, sub-Dietrich voice, and performed some lithe steps and high-kicks wearing a see-through evening gown. In Fire Over England she played a Spanish aristocrat fiercely opposed to her father’s assisting an English spy – until she sets eyes on him.
When the spy (Laurence Olivier) returns years later she is now married to a Spanish nobleman, but has to fight the conflicting passions of patriotism and passion. She and Olivier also had a song together, a folk ballad entitled “The Spanish Lady’s Love”. Though her performance is fine, it tends to be forgotten because of the film’s notoriety: it was the movie that brought together Olivier and Vivien Leigh, who began a torrid affair while making it.
The daughter of the singer Xenia Desni (also known as Dada), who appeared in several German movies, she was born Tamara Brodsky in Berlin in 1911. She was only a child when her father abandoned the family to live in the United States. Tamara married her first husband, a dentist, while still in her teens. She made her film début in 1931 in Der Schrecken der Garnison (“Terror of the Garrison”), the same year she made a triumphant London stage début in the operetta White Horse Inn at the Coliseum Theatre. For this spectacular production, credited with saving the Coliseum, which was faltering as a music hall, the entire theatre was transformed into the Tyrol. “You have not time to breathe watching this wonderful spectacle,” stated the News Chronicle, and Tamara Desni was also featured in the next Coliseum show, Casanova (1932).
Desni made her first British film, Falling for You, in 1933, supporting the popular musical comedy team of Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert, who played reporters searching for a missing heiress (Desni), with whom Hulbert falls in love. She made an elegant dancing partner for Hulbert, who introduced several new songs by Vivien Ellis and Douglas Furber. The teaming was successful enough for Hulbert to cast her with him in another hit movie, Jack Ahoy, in which Hulbert introduced his famous number “My Hat’s on the Side of My Head”.
Her other films included Forbidden Territory (1934), adapted from a Dennis Wheatley novel, in which she was one of two Russian girls who assist in the rescue of a British nobleman from the secret police; a sprightly musical comedy, How’s Chances? (1934), in which she played the sweetheart of Harold French; and an excellent psychological thriller, Bernard Vorhaus’s Dark World (1935), in which Desni played a dancer loved by two brothers. Blue Smoke (1935), a story of gypsy life in which she again came between two rivals in love, is notable only because she and her co-star, Bruce Seton – best remembered for his television series Fabian of the Yard – fell in love. In 1937 he became the second of her five husbands.
Desni sang again when she played Olga, a gold-digging vamp who also brings tragedy to two brothers, this time in Roy William Neill’s His Brother’s Keeper (1939). Reportedly grim but gripping, this film is one of several made by Warner-First National at Teddington Studios that are now considered lost. Desni was then off the screen until 1945, when she returned in a supporting role in the musical Flight from Folly, a vehicle for Pat Kirkwood. Having divorced Seton in 1940, she was briefly married to a naval flyer during the Second World War, then in 1947 she wed one of the British screen’s most memorable villains, Canadian-born Raymond Lovell.
Her last three films were “B” movies – Send for Paul Temple (1946), the musical drama The Hills of Donegal (1947) and Dick Barton at Bay (1950). The radio show Dick Barton – Special Agent (1946) had built an audience of 15 million within a year, and was the third most popular radio show of its time after Radio Forfeits and Woman’s Hour, but the investigator’s screen adventures were lamentably low-budget, poorly written and weakly acted. Desni was second billed to its star Dick Stannard in Dick Barton at Bay, but as Madame Anna, one of the leaders of a gang out to steal a death-ray, she had little to do but accept compliments for her beauty and make observations about her cohorts (“You’re getting jumpy, Fingers”).
Shortly after the Barton film, Desni moved to France, where she and Albert Lavagna, a builder, successfully opened an inn and restaurant in the Alpes Maritimes: L’Auberge Chez Tamara, in Grasse. Though she was wary of taking another husband, when Desni discovered in 1955 that she was pregnant, she and Lavagna decided to marry. The first of two daughters was born in 1956, and the marriage lasted for 50 years until Lavagna’s death.
Tom Vallance
Tamara Brodsky (Tamara Desni), actress, singer and dancer: born Berlin 22 October 1911; married first Hans Wilhelm (marriage dissolved), secondly Roland Gillet (marriage dissolved), thirdly Bruce Seton (marriage dissolved), fourthly Raymond Lovell (marriage dissolved), fifthly 1955 Albert Lavagna (deceased; two daughters); died Valence d’Agen, France 7 February 2008.
The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.
David Caves is from Ballymena in the North of Ireland and has made an excellent foil to Emilia Fox in his role as Jack Hodgson in the BBC drama series “Silent Witness”
Caves originally planned to become a teacher before training at LAMDA and, prior to his addition to the Silent Witness cast, was known only as a stage actor, having made an impact as Petruchio in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2012 touring production of “The Taming of the Shrew”.
“The Stage” interview from 2013:
It’s the morning after the first episode of Silent Witness’ 16th series, and the morning after David Caves’ small screen debut. The actor has just begun appearing in the popular crime series as forensic scientist Jack Hodgson, having already built up a reputation as a stage actor, notably in productions such as theRoyal Shakespeare Company’s The Taming of the Shrew. And while other performers might, by this time, have flicked through the papers looking for a review, or jumped on Twitter to see what people have been saying about their turn, Caves has been avoiding reading anything.
“Sometimes the curiosity gets the better of me,” he admits. “But usually I try not to read anything, as I think, good or bad, it should not change anything. With a show like this, where such a loved character [Harry Cunningham, played by Tom Ward] has gone, people are going to be disappointed, of course, and always wary of a new guy coming in, and could be quite critical. But there is nothing you can do. Some people will like it, others won’t. All you can do is the best job you can do.”
Caves graduated from LAMDA in 2005 and has since then appeared in a variety of stage productions, including The Beggar’s Opera at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and The Changeling at the Southwark Playhouse, a performance which Janie Dee called the best she’s ever seen.
Following his stint in this production, he went on to appear in the aforementioned The Taming of the Shrew playing Petruchio, which again earned him rave reviews. However, it was while appearing in this production that Caves decided he wanted to branch out from theatre work, and try his hand at something new.
“I really wanted to do some television but my theatre schedule up to then had been pretty hectic,” he explains. “I was extremely fortunate to be working as I did, and with some incredible people along the way. I absolutely love theatre and my heart will always be there, as that is where I started. But I did feel, coming to the end of that job [The Taming of the Shrew] that I would like to try something else, some TV or film work. And as luck would have it, along came Silent Witness. It was great timing.”
Caves’ character, Jack Hodgson, is described as “straight-talking and quick witted” and as someone who is “confident in his own ability”. Playing Petruchio helped, Caves says, in preparing him for his audition.
The actor describes Jack as “confident, brash and a little cheeky” and explains: “I thought some of those are similar to Petruchio. Auditions are pretty nerve-wracking, particularly for something like Silent Witness. I was nervous, so I thought, if I can take in the energy of the part I am playing now, that will be helpful and hopefully it will get me through.”
He adds that being in work at the time of his audition helped with his own self-belief.
I made it daunting in my own head but in real life everyone was so generous [on Silent Witness]
“I was in good shape, I suppose, as it always helps when you are working,” he says. “You are riding high on that, and are confident, so carry yourself better in auditions.”
Caves says he was given an “in-depth character analysis” of Jack, and admits he was “intimidated” when he first started digesting the information he had been given.
“There was a lot of information about who he was,” he recalls. “Too much information can kill things a bit, take the life away, because you just try to play exactly what the author has written, which does not leave you any room to bring something yourself. Having said that, once we were up and running, it was up to me what I wanted to try and do, and the more touches of lightness I could bring to the role the better.”
Alongside his work as a forensic scientist, Caves’ character also has a penchant for cage fighting, or mixed martial arts. Caves says he was unable to do much research for the forensic scientist part of his role, but he wanted to train as much as he could for the martial arts part.
“I was really looking forward to that bit,” he says. “I was impatient to start doing it. I asked if there was any way to have some weights brought in on set, so I could pop out between scenes and have a quick session. To my utter surprise they agreed. It was so great, as I would not have been able to train as much as I had wanted without that.”
Caves isn’t expecting all future jobs to be like that, but he clearly relished his time working on Silent Witness. His appearance makes for a pretty impressive television debut, too, especially given how he did not originally set out to be an actor.
Caves, who is from Northern Ireland, studied modern languages at St Andrews in Scotland, and initially thought he was going to be a teacher. He worked as a teacher in France as part of his university course, but when he returned to the UK, he found he had “lost the drive for the academic side of things” and found himself getting heavily involved in plays and musicals at the university.
“I found I loved this medium and wanted to look into it more, to see what was out there and what drama school was about,” he says. “So I did some research and decided to have a go, not really expecting anything to happen. I was naive and did not know how tough it was. I thought I was probably not good enough but something inside me told me I should have a go, so I did.”
Caves ended up being offered places at both LAMDA and Bristol Old Vic, opting for the former because of the lure of London. His training focused on theatre, and although this is where he has spent most of his career to date, he is now enjoying being on television, which he says has been a learning curve for him. He calls it “Alice in Wonderland stuff”.
“I made it daunting in my own head but in real life everyone was so generous [on Silent Witness],” he says. “I was very quickly put at ease. It was like a little family, like joining a theatre company. It was a really pleasurable experience.”
He goes on to explain that the differences between theatre and television are “mainly technical”, but says he tries not to get too bogged down with that side of things.
“You can go overboard and get so vain about how you look in a shot and then it becomes a vanity project,” he says. He misses the rehearsals that come with working in theatre, and adds that, while they do rehearse in television, “it’s quick and minimal”.
“They expect you to come having done the work and made some choices,” he continues. “If those choices don’t work, they tell you and you have to make quick decisions. But that is a really good thing.”
He adds: “Sometimes you can over think things and over rehearse. But sometimes great things come out of very quick decisions in the moment – just by listening and reacting.”
For “The Stage” interview with David Caves, please click here
April Olrich was born in 1933 in Zanzibar. She was featured in “Room At The Top”, “The Intelligence Men” and “The Skull”. She died in 2014.
“The Stage” obituary:
Although she trained as a classical ballerina, one of the favourite shows that April Olrich appeared in was the revue Wait a Minim!, which was staged at the Fortune in London from 1964 to 1966. Just before that, she appeared in a revival of the Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse, at Drury Lane alongside Denis Quilley and Bob Monkhouse.
The daughter of a communications expert, Olrich was born in Zanzibar, part of the east African state of Tanzania. She trained first in Argentina and later under George Balanchine in New York. In Paris, Margot Fonteyn joined private classes that Olrich attended.
When the Ballet Russes arrived in Covent Garden, Olrich was talent-spotted by the Royal Ballet founder Ninette de Valois, and joined its corps de ballet in 1949. She quickly became a soloist, dancing principal roles with the company for four years.
Wait a Minim! was a collection of original songs and international folk music. Olrich joined the American production in New York and won a Whitbread Anglo-American Theatre award. In San Francisco, she married her co-star from the show, Nigel Pegram.
Her cinema career embraced the adaptation of John Braine’s novel Room at the Top (1959), and the Morecambe and Wise flop The Intelligence Men (1965). On television, she was seen in Whodunnit? (1976), a game show in which panellists had to guess who had carried out dramatised murders, and Fresh Fields (1985), starring Julia McKenzie and Anton Rodgers.
April Olrich, who was born Edith April Oelrichs on July 17, 1933, died in London on April 15, at the age of 80.
The above “Stage” obituary can also be accessed online here.
Chesney Hawkes was born in 1971 in Windsor. His father Leonard was in the 60’s pop group The Tremeloes. In 1991 he had a huge hit with the song “My One and Only”. He starred in “Buddy’s Song” and “Prince Valiant”.
IMDB entry:
Chesney Hawkes born September 22, 1971 in Windsor, Berkshire, England Is the son of Len (Chip) Hawkes, the singer of The Tremeloes (known for their hit “Silence Is Golden”) and Carol Hawkes, who was a TV hostess and actress in the UK.
It was in early 1991 when Chesney, then 19, won the lead role in the film Buddy’s Song(1991) (also starring Roger Daltrey of The Who), and signed to sing the sound track but suddenly found himself one of the first teenagers in pop history ever to bag the Number One spot with a debut release. “The One And Only” stayed at the top for five weeks, going on to become one of the undisputed global teen anthems of 1991 as it crashed Top 10s world-wide, including the notoriously difficult markets of Japan and America. The song was also featured over the titles of the Michael J. Fox movie Doc Hollywood (1991).
Chesney and his band (featuring his brother Jodie on drums) rounded off 1991 with a sell-out tour, playing everything from small clubs to 10,000 seaters the length and breadth of Europe. Both fans and critics alike voted Chesney’s live show a spectacular success, with special honours going to the much remembered last night show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. This triumphant concert was to signify the symbolic end of that particular stage of Chesney’s career. Chesney had out-grown the confines of teen idol-dom and was eagerly looking forward to the challenge of establishing himself as a song writer in his own right.
So after gaining more valuable live experience supporting Huey Lewis and Bryan Adams in Europe, Chesney removed himself from the glare of the public eye and spent time in his studio writing and rehearsing for his next album. The hard work paid off and the album “Get The Picture” was as spirited, diverse and uncompromising as anything delivered by self-styled street credible types in recent years.
For the next few years and no longer signed to his original record label, Chesney decided that, rather than respond to numerous offerings of pantomime, store openings and West End roles which, although lucrative, would have taken him away from the music, it was time for him to pay his musical dues, albeit in reverse given that he had a No. 1 record behind him. He formed a new band, “ebb”, and spent 1997 living and working in New York from which base he played a series of East and West coast gigs to great critical acclaim, always continuing to write and demo new material.
Since this time Chesney has worked with numerous talented writers and producers, amongst them Mark Goldenberg who co-wrote The Eel’s “Novocain For The Soul”, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains Of Wayne, Jesse Vellenswealla of The Gin Blossoms, and Counting Crows producer Marvin Etzioni. Other collaborators include Howard Jones, the Police’s Stuart Copland, Nik Kershaw & Bijou Phillips.
English band “Hepburn”, covered “Next Life”, which Chesney co-wrote with Phil Thornally. (Phil co-wrote “Torn”, a hit for Natalie Imbruglia). Caprice charted in March 2001 with “Once Around The Sun” which Chesney co-wrote with Eric Pressley and he has also collaborated with Tricky on his “Mission Accomplished” EP. Another of Chesney’s songs, “Almost You”, was in the film Jawbreaker (1999) starring Rose McGowen and Marilyn Mansun and “Missing You Already” was in the film The Night We Never Met (1993), starring Matthew Broderick.
During the latter half of 2000, and the beginning of 2001, Chesney has been recording a batch of new songs in London and in Los Angeles with producer Charlton Pettus. A number of tracks have been mixed by Neil Dorfsman who has worked with Sting, Dire Straits and Paul McCartney. A single, “Stay Away Baby Jane”, from these sessions was scheduled for release in summer 2001. The video has been filmed in LA with director Rory Rooney.
During April, Chesney has been performing at student venues (Nottingham, Leeds, Lincoln, Hull, Middlesbrough). Such has been the overwhelming response that the, initially mini, tour has now been extended to take in dates throughout May and early June. The teen audience that discovered him in 1991 has now grown up and are, now in their early twenties, thrilled to see Chesney back and performing at the height of his ability.
Chesney has combined touring with appearing on ‘Top Ten Teen Idols’ (Channel 4), Banzai (Channel 4) and ‘Question of Pop’ (BBC1). Interviews in The Sunday Express and The Telegraph have centred on his writing and the tour, and his current media profile (the above plus Heat, Loaded, ILR interviews and sharing a Sunday Express {not the above} centre spread with The Beatles and The Spice Girls) is being watched by the media itself with Ally Ross recently (July) congratulating Chesney on his ubiquity in his News of The World column.
At present, Chesney is working on his new album. He now lives in West London with wife Kristina and his son, Casey George Hawkes who was born on August 29, 2001.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Damien Thomas was born in Egypt in 1942. He has featured in such movies as “Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger”, “The Message” and “Twins of Evil”. On television he gained great personal notices for his performance in “Shogun”.
Phyllis Logan was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1956. In 1983 she won plaudits for her performance in “Another Time, Another Place”. She has also starred in “Lovejoy” and is currently kindly ‘Mrs Hughes’ in “Downton Hall”. Her movies include “The Kitchen Toto” and “The Chain”.
TCM overview:
Whether playing a young woman who enters a disastrous wartime love affair or a strict disciplinarian in-charge of an entire household, Phyllis Logan always imbued her characters with authenticity and verve. After launching her career on stage, the Scottish actress made the jump to British television with feature roles in made-for-TV movies and on drama series like “Play for Today” (BBC, 1970-1984) and “Shoestring” (BBC, 1979-1980). Logan finally broke out in the war drama “Another Time, Another Place” (1983), as a young housewife who falls in love with a prisoner of war; a role that earned her accolades, a string of guest roles, and provided her with the perceived gravitas to land parts on popular series like “Holby City” (BBC, 1999- ), “Hope & Glory” (BBC, 1999-2000), and “Lovejoy” (BBC, 1986-1994), as an aristocrat who helps out a rogue but loveable antiques dealer. But it was the actress’ compelling portrayal of the resolute but compassionate housekeeper Mrs. Hughes on the critically-acclaimed “Downton Abbey” (ITV; PBS, 2011- ), a period drama series that highlighted the class divide between the upper-class and their servants, that made Logan a household name and gained her a slew of fans around the world.
Phyllis Logan was born on Jan. 11, 1956 in Paisley, Scotland. A graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, she started gaining acting experience as a member of the Dundee Repertory Theatre. After touring around Scotland and performing at various theaters, Logan relocated to London, where she launched her onscreen acting career with featured roles in made-for-TV movies such as “The White Bird Passes” (1980), and on BBC dramas like “Play for Today” and “Shoestring.” Logan’s first big break was landing a lead role in the 1983 film ” Another Time, Another Place,” a drama set in 1943 Scotland during World War II, in which she played a young housewife who falls in love with an Italian P.O.W. who works on their farm. Her role in the hit feature gained Logan acting accolades, including the BAFTA Award for the Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film in 1984. She continued to make inroads with appearances in a variety of genre projects, including the horror films “The Doctor and the Devils” (1985) and “The Inquiry” (1986), and “The Kitchen Toto” (1987), a drama set in 1950 Kenya about a British policeman who takes in a murdered black priest’s son to live with him and employ him as a houseboy.
In 1989, Logan starred in the made-for-TV biopic “Goldeneye” (ITV), which chronicled the life of British author Ian Fleming; Logan portrayed his wife, Ann. Her career continued to flourish with appearances on popular shows like the comedy “Screen One” (BBC, 1985-2002) and “The Play on One” (BBC, 1988-1991), as well as providing the voice of a friendly sea monster in the animated fantasy film “Freddie as F.R.O.7.” (1992). While she kept busy with film roles, Logan continued her role on the hit series “Lovejoy,” a dramedy based on the novels of British crime writer John Grant, which chronicled the adventures of a rogue yet charming antiques dealer named Lovejoy (Ian McShane), who had an uncanny ability to spot rare treasures as well as clever fakes. On the series, Logan played Lady Jane Felsham, an aristocrat who enjoys helping Lovejoy out on his deals.
Television provided the versatile actress with a string of guest roles on BBC shows like”MI-5″ (Spooks, 2002-2011) and “Heartbeat” (1992-2009), as well as recurring parts on dramas such as “Holby City,” “Hope & Glory”, and “Silent Witness” (1996- ), about a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations. In 2010, Logan appeared in the final storyline of the mystery program “A Touch of Frost” (ITV, 1992-2010), as Inspector Frost’s (David Jason) love interest who marries him at series’ end. That same year, Logan joined the cast of Julian Fellowes’ award-winning period drama “Downton Abbey,” which followed the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants. On the international smash series, Logan played Mrs. Hughes, the head housekeeper who ran her female staff with a no-nonsense attitude. While she was a strict disciplinarian, Logan’s character was not without compassion, and she often found herself helping out fellow servants when they were in distress.
By Candy Cuenco
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Niamh McGrady hails from the North of Ireland. She currently is playing ‘Nurse Mary-Claire Carter’ in the British TV series “Holby City”. Other work includes “Best: His Mother’s Son”. In 2008 she was on Broadway with Patrick Stewart in “Macbeth”.
