Brittish Actors
Jack Ellis was born in 1955 in London. He is the younger brother of the actor Robin Ellis. Jack Ellis is perhaps best remembered for his rtelevision oles as Jim Fenner the prison guard in “Bad Girls” and as Harry Mason the bookie in “Coronation Street”. His films include “Outlaw” with Danny Dyer and “It’s Alive”.
Frieda Inescourt was a patrician lady who appeared mainly in supporting roles in Hollywood films during the Golden Age of cinema. She was born in Edinburgh in 1901. She made her film debut in Hollywood in 1935 in “Dark Angel”. Other notable films included “Mary of Scotland”, “Pride and Prejudice”, “A Place in the Sun”, “The Eddy Duchin Story” and “The Crowded Sky” . She died in 1976.
Gary Brumburgh’s entry:
Tall, dark and regal Frieda Inescort’s placid loveliness and dignified patrician features bode her well in Hollywood during the late 30s and 40s. Born on June 29, 1901, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the stage-established actress didn’t arrive in Hollywood until age 34 (then considered too late for leading lady roles!) but managed to settle fairly comfortably on the supporting sidelines in chic melodrama and tearjerkers.
Her years growing up were unsettling. Born Frieda Wrightman, she was the daughter of Scots-born journalist John “Jock” Wrightman and actress Elaine Inescourt, who was of German and Polish descent. Her parents initially met when he came to review a play she was appearing in. They married in 1899 but eventually parted ways while Frieda was still young. Her impulsive mother, who had strong designs on a theater career and placed it high on her priority list, sent young Frieda off to live with other families and in boarding schools in England and Wales while she avidly pursued her dreams. Although her father divorced Elaine in 1911 charging his wife with abandonment and adultery, Frieda ended up moving to America with her mother. Again, when Elaine found occasional roles in touring shows, Frieda wound up being carted off to convents or boarding schools.
Mother and daughter eventually returned to London following World War I and the young girl, now solely on her own, managed to find employment as a personal secretary to British Member of Parliament Waldorf Astor (2nd Viscount Astor), who was then Parliamentary Secretary to British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George. She also assisted the American-born Lady (Nancy) Astor. While accompanying Lady Astor on a trip to the United States in July 1919, Frieda decided to stay in the States and terminated her position with the Astors. In New York she continued finding secretarial work that supported both her and her unemployed actress-mother. She worked at one point with the British consulate in New York.
Noticing a number of American actors cast in British parts on Broadway, Frieda was encouraged in the early 1920s to test the waters out as British actresses were in short supply. By chance, she was introduced to producer/director Winthrop Ames, who gave the unseasoned hopeful a small but showy role in his Broadway comedy “The Truth About Blayds” (1922). The play turned out to be a hit. Playwright Philip Barry caught her stage performance and offered her a starring role in his upcoming comedy production “You and I”. The show proved to be another winner and Frieda, a star on the horizon, finally saw the end of her days as part of a secretarial pool.
For the rest of the decade Frieda alternated between stage comedy and drama and became a vital force on Broadway with prominent roles in “The Woman on the Jury” (1923), “The Fake” (1924), “Hay Fever” (1925), “Mozart” (1926), “Trelawney of the Wells” (1926) and “Escape” (1927). Frieda’s happenstance into acting and her sudden surge of success triggered deep envy and jealousy within her mother, who was unemployed. This led to a bitter and long-term estrangement between the two that never managed to heal itself. Elaine died in 1964.
While working in the late 20s as an assistant for Putnam’s Publishing Company in New York, Frieda met assistant editor Ben Ray Redman. They married in 1926 and Redman later became a literary critic for the New York Herald Tribune. Frieda, in the meantime, continued to resonate on the New York and touring stage with such plays as “Springtime for Henry” and “When Ladies Meet”.
For over a decade, Frieda had resisted the cinema, having turned down several offers in silent and early talking films. When her husband was offered a job with Universal Studios as a literary adviser and author, however, and the couple had to relocate to Hollywood, she decided to take a difference stance. Discovered by a talent scout while performing in a Los Angeles play, Frieda was signed by The Samuel Goldwyn Company and made her debut supporting ‘Fredric March’ and Merle Oberon in the dewy-eyed drama The Dark Angel (1935) in which she received attractive notices and rare sympathy as blind author March’s secretary.
She did not stay long at Goldwyn, however, and went on to freelance for various other studios. During the course of her movie career, Frieda could be quite charming on the screen playing a wronged woman (as she did in Give Me Your Heart (1936)), but she specialized in haughtier hearts and played them older and colder than she really was off-camera. She soon gained a classy reputation for both her benign and haughty sophisticates. After Warner Bros. signed her up, she showed promise in Another Dawn(1937), Call It a Day (1937) and The Great O’Malley (1937), all 1937 releases. After this, however, Warner Bros. lost interest in her career and loaned her out more and more to other studios. Some of these films were leads — including the “B”-level Woman Doctor(1939) opposite Henry Wilcoxon, A Woman Is the Judge (1939) with Otto Kruger,Shadows on the Stairs (1941) co-starring Paul Cavanagh, and, in particular, the title role in Portia on Trial (1937). For MGM she played the irrepressibly snobbish Caroline Bingley who sets her sights on Darcy (Laurence Olivier) in the classic Jane Austen film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1940). Besides competing with (and losing out) to Greer Garson in that film, she also played the “other woman” in Beauty for the Asking (1939) starringLucille Ball.
When her career starting to lose steam, Frieda returned to New York and the Broadway stage with matronly parts in Soldier’s Wife” (1944), “The Mermaids Singing” (1945) andGeorge Bernard Shaw‘s successful revival of “You Never Can Tell” (1948). After the tour of the Shaw play folded, she returned to Hollywood. Finding it difficult to pick up where she left off in films, Frieda focused on the relatively new medium of TV in the early 1950s. She appeared as Mrs. Archer on the Meet Corliss Archer (1951) series (based on the popular bobbysoxer’s radio program) but was replaced by Irene Tedrow in its second and final season. She also graced a number of dramatic TV showcases. The films she did do later that decade, including The She-Creature (1956), Senior Prom (1958), Juke Box Rhythm (1959), were generally dismissed by the critics.
While filming her last picture, The Crowded Sky (1960), for Warner Bros., Frieda began experiencing health problems. She was quickly diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis. By the next year, she was forced to retire and had to walk with the aid of a cane. Things got worse that year when her husband, who had grown despondent over personal and financial issues, committed suicide with pills at their California home on August 2, 1961. By the mid-60s the former actress was virtually incapacitated and confined to a wheelchair but valiantly worked for the multiple sclerosis association when she could muster the strength. In 1973 Frieda finally had no choice but to move permanently into the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, where she died at age 74 on February 21, 1976.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
Carmel McSharry was born in Dublin in 1930. Her career has been spent mostly in the United Kingdom. She made her television acting debut in 1957 in episodes of “Emergency-Ward 10”. Her other television credits include “Gideon’s Way”, “No Hiding Place”,”Beryl’s Lot” and “The Liver Birds”. Her films include “The Day the Earth Caught Fire”, “The Leather Boys” and “Little Lord Fauntleroy”. Her stage appearances include a revival of “Oliver” with Jim Dale in the London Palladium in the mid 1990’s.
Profile from “Familiar Unknown”:
Of course, Carmel McSharry was born in Ireland, but she has graced a number of classic UK TV shows over the years. With her wary, alert eyes and anxiously disapproving expression, she’s made something of a speciality of the busybody business. She was Carol’s ‘mam’ in the later series of ‘The Liver Birds’ and played Mrs Hollingbery, the endearingly impervious foil to Alf Garnett’s rants in ‘In Sickness And In Health’ after Dandy Nichols passed away. She was in the ’60s Michael Medwin sitcom ‘For The Love Of Mike’, but her big break from playing servants and nosy parkers came in the early ’70s when she starred in ‘Beryl’s Lot’, the popular ITV comedy about a middle-aged housewife who decides to embark on an ambitious course of education and self-improvement. After that she went on to appear in wartime drama ‘Wish Me Luck’ and the usual ‘Ruth Rendell Mysteries’, ‘Casualty’,
Noel Purcell was a very popular and well-loved Irish actor who had a very prolific film career over many years. He was born in Dublin in 1900. He acted on the boards of Irish theatre and made his film debut in “Blarney” in 1926. His films included “The Blue Lagoon” in 1949, “Encore” in 1951, “The Seekers”, “Moby Dick”, “Lust for Life”, “Doctor at Large”, “Shake Hands with the Devil”, “Lord Jim” and “Flight of the Doves”. He died in Dublin in 1985.
“Wikipedia” entry:
Noel Purcell was the son of auctioneer Pierce Purcell and his second wife Catherine, née Hoban, of 4 Ashbrook Terrace, South Circular Road, Dublin. He was born on 23 December 1900 and baptised six days later at Harrington Street Church.[1] Within a few months, the Purcell family had moved to 12 Mercer St. Lower.[2] In 1911, the Purcells were living at the same address, but the household was headed by Noel’s maternal grandmother, Julia Hoban, a furniture dealer.
Purcell began his show business career at the age of 12 in Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre. Later, he toured Ireland in a vaudeville act with Jimmy O’Dea.[4]
Stage-trained in the classics in Dublin, Purcell moved into films in 1934. He appeared in Captain Boycott (1947) and as the elderly sailor whose death marooned the lovers-to-be in the firstsound film version of The Blue Lagoon (1949). Purcell played a member of Captain Ahab‘s crew in Moby Dick (1956), Dan O’Flaherty in episode one, The Majesty of the Law, of The Rising Of The Moon (1957), a gameskeeper in The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), and a barman in The Mackintosh Man (1973), these two films directed by John Huston.
In 1955, he was an off-and-on regular on the British filmed TV series The Buccaneers (released to American TV in 1956), and Purcell narrated a Hibernian documentary, Seven Wonders of Ireland (1959). In 1962, he portrayed the lusty William McCoy in Lewis Milestone’s Mutiny on the Bounty. He played a taciturn Irish in-law to Lebanese American entertainer Danny Thomas‘ character Danny Williams in a 1963 episode of The Danny Thomas Show. In 1971, he played the caring rabbi in the children’s musical drama Flight of the Doves.
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.
Purcell also gained some recognition as a singer. Shortly after World War II, songwriter Leo Maguire composed “The Dublin Saunter” for him. He performed the song live for many years and later recorded it for the Glenside label. However, the recording was not a hit. As Purcell recalled many years later, “I don’t think one person in the world bought it.” In 1981, he recorded a spoken word version of Pete St. John‘s “Dublin in the Rare Old Times“.[5]
In June 1984, Purcell was given the Freedom of the City of Dublin.[6] Nine months later, he died in his native city at the age of 84.
The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.
TCM Overview:
Noel Purcell was an actor who had a successful Hollywood career. In his early acting career, Purcell appeared in such films as the Stewart Granger historical drama “Captain Boycott” (1947), “Saints and Sinners” (1949) and the romance “The Blue Lagoon” (1949) with Jean Simmons. He also appeared in the adventure “The Crimson Pirate” (1952) with Burt Lancaster and “Grand National Night” (1953). His film career continued throughout the fifties in productions like “Svengali” (1955) with Donald Wolfit, the Gregory Peck dramatic adventure “Moby Dick” (1956) and “Lust For Life” (1956).
Film continued to be his passion as he played roles in the dramatic period piece “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1962) with Marlon Brando, “The List of Adrian Messenger” (1963) with George C Scott and the Laurence Harvey crime drama “The Running Man” (1963). He also appeared in the Laurence Harvey dramatic adaptation “The Ceremony” (1963) and the Peter O’Toole dramatic adaptation “Lord Jim” (1965). Purcell last acted on “The Irish R.M. Part II” (PBS, 1985-86). Purcell was married to Eileen Marmion. Purcell passed away in March 1985 at the age of 85.
The above TCM Overview can also be accessed online here.
Contributed by
Purcell, Noel (1900–85), actor, was born Patrick Joseph Noel Purcell on 23 December 1900 at 11a Lower Mercer Street, Dublin, the elder of the two children of Pierce Purcell, auctioneer, and his second wife, Catherine Purcell (née Hoban), antique dealer. Educated at the Synge Street CBS, he worked after school backstage at the Gaiety Theatre and at Madame Rocke’s Theatre, O’Connell Street, where he became acquainted with John and Thomas MacDonagh and Countess Markievicz . He had periodic walk-on parts at the Gaiety and in 1915 he had a small role with the Irish Players, led by Edward Martyn (qv). He left school at sixteen, and was apprenticed as a joiner to A. H. Bex, shop fitters, but he continued to build a reputation among the city’s amateur dramatic companies, performing regularly at St Theresa’s Temperance Hall, Clarendon Street, Father Mathew Hall and the CYMS, Harrington Street.A seasoned pantomime performer, Purcell joined Tom Powell and Harry Byrne’s company in 1928. During one performance in 1929 he was noticed by Jimmy O’Dea (qv) and Harry O’Donovan (qv), who recruited him for their O’D production company. They toured Britain and Ireland throughout the 1930s, and he was a popular pantomime dame when the company made its annual return to the Olympia theatre. With the company he also made his first film appearances, in Jimmy Boy (1935) and Blarney (1938). Following a dispute over wages, he left the O’D Company in 1939. Inspired by a tour of Broadway, he returned to Ireland in late 1939 and after a spell as Max Wall’s stooge he brought the idea of a black and white minstrel show to Dublin and revolutionised the fortunes of the Theatre Royal. As the war curtailed the number of foreign acts, he was in constant demand throughout the early 1940s. With Eddie Byrne (d. 1981) he was popular in their ‘Nedser and Nuala’ sketches, and he also appeared as Joxer Daly in a 1941 production of Sean O’Casey‘s (qv) ‘Juno and the paycock’ at the Gaiety. He returned to O’Casey in the late 1940s, playing Brennan o’ the Moor in ‘Red roses for me’ and Sylvester Heegan in O’Casey’s ‘The silver tassie’, to great critical acclaim.
As film began to threaten the popularity of the variety revue, he adapted to the trend, and a small part in Carol Reed’s Odd man out in 1946 began a long film career. A character actor, he became, with his famed white beard, film’s archetypal sailor, in The blue lagoon (1949), The crimson pirate (1952), Moby Dick (1956), and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). After his performance in Merry Andrew in 1958 he was offered a seven-year contract by MGM. He turned it down, refusing to leave Ireland for such a lengthy period. Cast to play Balthazar in Ben Hur, he arranged a screen test for Tony O’Reilly, but O’Reilly preferred rugby to the prospect of acting, and Purcell lost the role of Balthazar owing to delays in production. In constant demand for his comic cameo performances, his part in Captain Boycott in 1947 made him a natural choice for many films with an Irish theme, including John Ford’s The rising of the moon (1957), Rooney (1958) and Shake hands with the devil (1959).
In 1957 he narrated Bord Fáilte’s promotional film Seven wonders of Ireland. Throughout his film career he supplemented his periodic stage appearances with television and radio work in Ireland, Britain and America. His most popular radio performance was in ‘The great Gilhooly’, made for the BBC Home Service in 1950. He claimed that he refused the role of Fagin in the 1960 musical Oliver, and was later disappointed that he was not offered a role in RTÉ’s 1980 production of Strumpet city. Retiring from film in 1973 after making The mackintosh man, his fifth film for John Huston, he became the quintessential Dublin raconteur and was soon identified with ‘The Dublin saunter’, a song composed for him by Leo Maguire (d. 1985). He still made occasional stage appearances: in 1976 in Noel Pearson’s production of ‘You ain’t heard nuttin’ yet’ and more unexpectedly after his recovery from throat cancer and pneumonia as the Cardinal in a 1982 production of ‘Tosca’.
He was honoured on many occasions throughout his career: he was made an honorary member of the American Loyal League of Yiddish Sons of Erin in 1963 and an honorary life member of the Order of the Knights of Columbanus in 1971. He had been received into the order in 1933. In 1971 he was also made a life member of the Irish Actors’ Equity, an organisation that he had been instrumental in founding in 1947. He had also contributed to the foundation of the Catholic Stage Guild in the late 1940s. The British Actors’ Equity awarded him life membership in 1984, the same year as he was made a freeman of Dublin city. In 1958 he was the subject of an episode of television’s This is your life, and in 1973 an RTÉ Late late show special marked his birthday. The Variety Club of Ireland honoured him in 1968 and 1984 and he received the Variety Artists’ Trust Society award in 1974. He married on 7 July 1941 Eileen Marmion, a one-time child actress with the O’D Company. They had four sons. He died 3 March 1985 after a short illness and was buried in Deansgrange cemetery.
Sources
William J. Feeney, Drama in Hardwicke Street – a history of the Irish theatre company (1984), 74–5; Irish Independent, 4–6 Mar. 1985; Irish Press, 4–6 Mar. 1985; Ir. Times, 4–6 Mar. 1985; Philip Bryan, Noel Purcell: a biography (1992); Kevin Rockett, The Irish filmography (1996); Boylan, 371
He was born in Worthing in 1934. His movie debut was in “Bachelor of Hearts” as a university student in 1958 with Hardy Kruger and Sylvia Syms.In 1965 he starred in “She” and in 1969 was in “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever”. His most recent film was “La Chiesa” in 1989. John Richardson was a very handsome leading man in British and European movies of the 1960’s. He had the good fortune to star opposite such leading ladies as Ursula Andress, Raquel Welch and the two Barbara’s – Steele and Streisand. John Richardson died in 2021 aged 86.
“IMDB” entry:
Classically handsome John Richardson began his career with small roles in British movies at the end of the 50s. His big success was Don Chaffey‘s One Million Years B.C. (1966) with Raquel Welch, produced by Hammer films. Later, following the steps of some other actors, he went on to appear in various Italian movies such as Umberto Lenzi‘s horrorEyeball (1975), Michele Soavi‘s The Church (1989) and many others. Richardson’s great passion was collecting automobiles and he sometimes appeared in films as long as a car was included in the contract. But his recent movies filmed in the 80s convinced him to quit acting completely. Now, he is a noteworthy photographer with no interest whatsoever in looking back on his career in cinema. He is now living in a small town somewhere in the United Kingdom.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Tzvetislav Samardjiev <tzvetislav@abv.bg> director
The above “IMDB” entry can also be accessed online here.
”Hollywood Reporter” obituary in 2021:
John Richardson, the British actor who starred opposite Ursula Andress in She and Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C., died Tuesday of COVID-19 complications. He was 86.
His death was reported by Cinema Retro writer Mark Mawston.
In Mario Bava’s credited feature directorial debut, Richardson portrayed a doctor’s assistant whose blood inadvertently brings a vampiric witch (Barbara Steele) back to life in the Italian horror classic Black Sunday (1960).
He screen-tested for James Bond after Sean Connery relinquished the role, but model George Lazenby was hired to play Agent 007 opposite Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
For Hammer Films and Seven Arts producer Ray Stark, Richardson played an archeologist who discovers a lost city ruled by the immortal queen Ayesha (Andress), who believes he is her reincarnated lover, in She (1965), also featuring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
He then donned a loincloth to star with Welch amid stop-motion dinosaurs animated by Ray Harryhausen in One Million Years B.C. (1966), another movie for Hammer.
Richardson also starred in the spaghetti Westerns John the Bastard (1967), Execution (1968) and A Candidate for a Killing (1969) and had a supporting turn in Vincente Minnelli’s On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970), starring Barbra Streisand.
Born in Sussex on Jan. 19, 1934, Richardson started out with small roles in such notable films as A Night to Remember (1958), the Kenneth More-starring 1959 remake of The 39 Steps and The League of Gentlemen (1960).
Back in England after Black Sunday, he had uncredited roles in Tender Is the Night (1962) and Lord Jim (1965) before breaking out in She. (He later returned, minus Andress, for a 1968 sequel, The Vengeance of She.)
Richardson spent most of the ’70s working in Italy in such films as Frankenstein ’80 (1972), Torso(1973), Eyeball (1975), Reflections in Black (1975), Duck in Orange Sauce (1975), Nine Guests for a Crime (1977) and War of the Planets (1977).
Richardson, who last appeared onscreen in 1994 and focused on photography in his later years, was married to actress Martine Beswick (One Million Years B.C., From Russia With Love) from 1967 until their 1973 divorce
Tony Wright was born in 1925 in London.
He was a very popular actor in British films of the 1950’s.
He made his movie debut in “The Flanagan Boy” in 1953.
His other films of interest include “Jacqueline” in 1956, “Tiger in the Smoke”, “Seven Thunders” with Stephen Boyd in 1957.
Tony Wright died in 1986 at the age of 60’s ”
He is one of my favourite actors.
Article from Brian McFarlane’s “Encyclopedia of British Film”:
“Light-haired actor, briefly in starring roles in the 1950s playing men of action, portrayed by fan magazines as the ‘beefcake boy’ of British films.
With limited acting range (too lightweight for villains), he had a laid-back charm but was rarely given roles to display it.
After navy service, and reputedly, whaling in the Antarctic, was on stage from 1946.
He was married to Janet Munro from 1957 until 1959.”
Ben Thompson was born in 1992 in Radcliffe. He is best known for his part as Ryan Connor in “Coronation Street”.
Doran Godwin was born in Harrow in 1950. She is probably best known for her participation in two extremely popular television series, “Shoestring” with Trevor Eve in 1979 and 1980 and “The Irish RM” as the wife of Peter Bowles in 1983.
Interview with Doran Godwin regarding “Shoestring: Doran Godwin kindly agreed to share her thoughts with us on Shoestring, and acting. We’ve reproduced her answers to our questions below, and would like to thank Ms. Godwin for her enthusiasm and help
Colin Salmon was born in 1962 in London. He is perhaps probably best known for his participation as Charles Robinson in three of the James Bond movies, “Tomorrow Never Dies” in 1997″The World Is Not Enough” and “Die Another Day” in 2002, all of which starred Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Salmon has also starred in “Freeze Frame”, “Match Point” and “Clubbed”. He is a very striking looking actor with a magnificent voice.
IMDB entry:
Colin Salmon is one of Britain’s most renowned actors. With a bold voice and posture, Colin makes his characters a favorite among audiences for every role he plays. He made his feature debut as Sgt. Robert Oswald in the British mega-hit mini-series Prime Suspect 2 (1992), which gave him much acclaim among British audiences. He has a recurring role in the James Bond films as Charles Robinson, M’s Chief of Staff. He has also appeared as the Commander James “One” Shade in the video game-to-movieResident Evil (2002) and played Oonu, squad leader of the Skybax in the mini-seriesDinotopia (2002) . His other film credits include Captives (1994), The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998), Fanny and Elvis (1999), Mind Games (2001), and My Kingdom (2001). His theater credits include Ariadne at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Anyone who knows me are aware that I am a bit of a movie buff. Over the past few years I have been collecting signed photographs of my favourite actors. Since I like movies so much there are many actors whose work I like.