British Knights in Waiting
Here is a list of potential British men who should be awarded Knighthood or some honor for their services and contributions to the arts. They need to be alive and willing to accept the honor.
The following men have declined the honours.
David Bowie declined a CBE and Knighthood.
Alan Bennett declined knighthood and CBE.
Michael Frayn declined knighthood and CBE.
Alan Rickman declined a CBE.
Albert Finney declined CBE and knighthood.
Ken Loach declined an OBE.
Keith Richards declined CBE.
John Cleese declined CBE and Life Peerage.
Malcolm McDowell declined a CBE.
Jim Broadbent declined an OBE.
Bill Nighy declined an OBE.
Ian McDiarmid declined an OBE.
Jonathan Kent declined an OBE.
Michael Bogdanov declined an OBE.
Passed Away
Keith Michell
Warren Mitchell
Charles Keating
Richard Johnson
Roger Rees
Brian Bedford
Tony Warren MBE
Peter Wood
Peter Vaughan
Roy Dotrice OBE
If you would like to nominate a gentleman here or anybody else, please feel free to do so at https://www.gov.uk/honours
The following men have declined the honours.
David Bowie declined a CBE and Knighthood.
Alan Bennett declined knighthood and CBE.
Michael Frayn declined knighthood and CBE.
Alan Rickman declined a CBE.
Albert Finney declined CBE and knighthood.
Ken Loach declined an OBE.
Keith Richards declined CBE.
John Cleese declined CBE and Life Peerage.
Malcolm McDowell declined a CBE.
Jim Broadbent declined an OBE.
Bill Nighy declined an OBE.
Ian McDiarmid declined an OBE.
Jonathan Kent declined an OBE.
Michael Bogdanov declined an OBE.
Passed Away
Keith Michell
Warren Mitchell
Charles Keating
Richard Johnson
Roger Rees
Brian Bedford
Tony Warren MBE
Peter Wood
Peter Vaughan
Roy Dotrice OBE
If you would like to nominate a gentleman here or anybody else, please feel free to do so at https://www.gov.uk/honours
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- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born in the Simonside area of South Shields, he left the North East when he was five, but went back for holidays with his grandparents. As he grew older he had it in his mind to be an actor, but had no idea how to go about it, so did various jobs before being called up for National Service in the RAF. On being demobbed he still wanted to be an actor, but was still unaware of how to become one, so worked for wool merchants for three years, during which he became a keen amateur actor. When the wool merchant went bankrupt, he managed to get a grant from Essex County Council to go to drama school. On completing the course his first job was with a company that traveled around in a bus doing shows at military camps. He then joined The Old Vic doing walk on parts and small speaking parts then spent 2 years in America and on his return joined the Bristol Old Vic. After about 12 years in the business he went to Newcastle to appear in 'Close the Coalhouse Door' at the Jesmond Playhouse - written by Alan Plater and also featuring fellow North East actors Colin Douglas and Alan Browning - which he considered made him a better actor. He appeared in the TV series 'Z Cars' as a Geordie police inspector but didn't enjoy it. There was then a 90 minute play for Granada Television which was done live.- Charles Kay was born on 31 August 1930 in Coventry, West Midlands, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Amadeus (1984), Henry V (1989) and Fall of Eagles (1974).
- Actor
- Soundtrack
William Patrick "Bill" Roache MBE is an English actor. He has played Ken Barlow in the soap opera Coronation Street since its first episode on 9 December 1960. He is listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving living television actor in a continuous role. First acting job with Unicorn Players at Princes Theatre Clacton in 1959 with John Kendall and Helen Blackwood among others. Summer season repertory.
Roache was born in Basford, Nottinghamshire, the son of Hester Vera (née Waddicor) and Joseph William Vincent Roache. He grew up in nearby Ilkeston, Derbyshire, where he attended a Steiner school set up by his grandfather in the garden of the family home. His Freemason grandfather was interested in such things as hypnotism, theosophy, spiritualism, homoeopathy and esotericism, and the teachings of philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner. Roache was later educated at Rydal School which was also attended by his son Linus.
Roache joined the British Army, and was commissioned into the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1953. A year later, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He left the British Army in 1956 with the rank of captain. Due to an exploding mortar round during his military service, Roache suffers from tinnitus.
After leaving the army, Roache turned to acting. He appeared in various stage productions, then had uncredited roles in several films, and later small parts in television serials including Knight Errant Limited and Skyport. He played the minor role of a space centre operator in the Norman Wisdom film The Bulldog Breed.
Shortly before joining Coronation Street at the beginning of the programme in 1960, Roache played the leading role in a Granada Television play called Marking Time, transmitted on ITV in 1961.
Roache is now the world's longest-serving television actor in a continuous role (as of July 2017) after the cancellation of the American soap opera As the World Turns in 2010, where Don Hastings had played Bob Hughes since October 1960 without a break.
On 16 October 1985, just weeks before the 25th anniversary of his debut on Coronation Street, he appeared as the special guest on the TV show This Is Your Life. With the departure of Pat Phoenix the previous year, he was the show's last remaining original cast member by this stage.
In 1999, Roache was the recipient of the British Soap Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for his role as Ken Barlow. In 2003, Roache appeared on Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes as Perry Como singing the song "Catch a Falling Star". In September and October 2005, he appeared as a celebrity contestant in Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon. He was the winner of The Golden Shot remake, progressing through to Bullseye where he was beaten by television presenter Vernon Kay. He later entered All Star Family Fortunes, hosted by Kay, but lost by two points to his competitors.
Roache's 2008 autobiography is entitled Soul on the Street. It focuses on many of his life experiences and contains a significant amount of philosophical content in which Roache affirms his belief in the afterlife. In October 2008, Roache revealed on BBC Breakfast that he had a two-year feud with fellow Coronation Street actress Pat Phoenix, during which they did not speak to one another. This was over her changing of a scene involving the two of them. However, they did reconcile and became good friends. On 13 April 2012, Piers Morgan interviewed Roache for his ITV series Piers Morgan's Life Stories. On 26 September 2012, Roache was featured on the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, researching his family history.
Roache lives in Wilmslow, Cheshire. His eldest son, by his first wife Anna Cropper (1938-2007), is actor Linus Roache (born 1964). The couple also had a daughter, Vanya (born 1967). The couple were married from 1961 until their divorce in 1974. Roache married his second wife, Sarah Mottram, in 1978. She died suddenly on 7 February 2009 at their home at the age of 58. With Sarah, he had a daughter named Verity (born 1981) and a younger son, the actor James Roache, christened William (born 1985). A second daughter, Edwina, died aged 18 months after her birth on 26 April 1983 from acute bronchial pneumonia on 16 November 1984.
In 1991, Roache won a libel action against The Sun, which had described him as boring and unpopular with his fellow Coronation Street stars. He was awarded £50,000 damages by the jury, the same amount that he had turned down in an out of court settlement offered by the newspaper before the case. As a result, he was liable for the £120,000 costs incurred. Roache sued his law firm for negligence in 1998, and was declared bankrupt in April 1999.
Roache is a supporter of the Conservative Party. In 2007, as a guest for Daily Politics, he championed Sir John Major as Britain's greatest post-war prime minister. He backed disgraced ex-Conservative MP Neil Hamilton in the 1997 election against Martin Bell. Roache became patron of the Ilkeston-based production company Sustained Magic Ltd in 2006.
Roache is a vegetarian because he "doesn't want animals being killed for him". He wrote about his interest in astrology in his biography, which he learned by taking a correspondence course from the Faculty of Astrological Studies. He said he had impressed members of the Coronation Street cast by the accuracy with which he read their astrological charts for them. Roache is a spiritualist and was photographed practising druid rituals in the 1970s. He predicted that the world would go through a fundamental change on 12 December 2012 and "move to a higher vibration".
During an investigation and trial, Roache's character Ken Barlow was written out of Coronation Street. However following Roache's acquittal he resumed filming on Coronation Street in June 2014, and returned to the screen on 4 August of that year.
Roache was awarded an MBE in the 2001 New Years Honours. In March 2007, he was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Chester in recognition of his contribution to television.He was awarded an MBE in 2000. As of December 2015, he has set a record as the longest running performance as Ken Barlow from December 1960 to present. He has surpassed Helen Wagner's record of 54 years. He was awarded an OBE in 2022.- Actor
- Writer
Alan Dobie was born on 2 June 1932 in Wombwell, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Disputation (1986), War & Peace (1972) and Mystery and Imagination (1966). He was previously married to Maureen Scott and Rachel Roberts.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born in London he was brought up in Nottingham where his father taught interior design at the College of Art. An early interest in the theatre found him taking part in the school dramatic society plays at High Pavement School in Nottingham and later with 3 Nottingham Dramatic Societies at the same time and spending all his evenings at one or other of them. This resulted in him winning a scholarship to RADA then to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford for a season then in 1953 he toured Australia and New Zealand in Shakespeare productions. In 1955 he joined Peter Brooks Hamlet company for a Russian and Moscow tour. He married a girl from Stratford upon Avon.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Edward James de Souza was born in Hull, Yorkshire, of British and Portuguese-Indian parentage to Annie Adeline Swift (née Calvert) and Edward Valentine De Souza Jr. He has appeared in numerous classical plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, the Globe and the Theatre Royal. A RADA graduate of 1957, de Souza made his screen debut that very same year in the role of Charles Darnay in an early BBC adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities (1957) (co-starring Peter Wyngarde, as Sydney Carton). On the airwaves, de Souza succeeded Valentine Dyall as BBC4's The Man in Black from 1988 to 1992.
On the big screen, he is perhaps best known for his role in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) as the Bedouin Sheikh Hosein, a friend and ally of Roger Moore's James Bond. Earlier in his career, he had starred back-to-back in two Hammer horror productions: as impresario Harry Hunter in The Phantom of the Opera (1962) and as the obligatory hero Gerald Harcourt in The Kiss of the Vampire (1963).
More consistently employed in television, de Souza had an early leading role alongside Richard Briers and Prunella Scales in the sitcom The Marriage Lines (1961). He also starred in the Doctor Who (1963) episode 'Mission to the Unknown' as Space Security Agent Marc Cory who endeavours to warn Earth of an impending Dalek attack. The episode is chiefly remembered for the complete absence of the Doctor (in this case, William Hartnell) and his companions.
Very much at home in period drama, De Souza has portrayed Maximilian Morrell, a valiant friend of The Count of Monte Cristo (1964), Napoleon's older brother Joseph Bonaparte, in the miniseries Napoleon and Love (1974) and Portuguese diplomat (and friend of the king) Marquês Luis de Soveral in Edward the King (1975). Between 2008 and 2009, he had a regular role on the soap Coronation Street (1960) as the rapacious gambler and womanizer Colin Grimshaw. He has also made guest appearances on The Saint (1962), The Avengers (1961), Department S (1969), Rumpole of the Bailey (1978) (as solicitor Bonny Bernard), Sapphire & Steel (1979), One Foot in the Grave (1990) and The Borgias (2011).
Edward de Souza has been married since 1960 to English actress and long-time Play School (1964) presenter Miranda Connell.- Christopher Guinee was born on 6 September 1932 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Les Misérables (1967), The Brothers Karamazov (1964) and ITV Play of the Week (1955). He died in 2001 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
In 1952 he did his National Service as an aircraftsman attaining 2nd class, Also in his company was Richard Briers. On being demobbed he joined RADA but after a year he had to leave as his money had run out. He then auditioned for Joan Littlewood in 1963 and was taken on for Oh! What a Lovely War in the West End then after the Lonon run went with the show to Broadway.- Actor
- Writer
One of Britain's most recognizable (and most larger-than-life) character actors, Tom Baker is best known for his record-setting seven-year stint as the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). He was born in 1934 in Liverpool, to Mary Jane (Fleming) and John Stewart Baker. His father was of English and Scottish descent, while his mother's family was originally from Ireland. Tom, along with his younger sister, Lulu, and younger brother, John, was raised in a poor Catholic community by his mother, a house-cleaner and barmaid, who was a devout Catholic, and his father, a sailor, who was rarely at home.
At age fifteen, Baker left school to become a monk with the Brothers of Ploermel on the island of Jersey. Six years later, he abandoned the monastic life and performed his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps., where he became interested in acting. Baker then served on the Queen Mary for seven months as a sailor in the Merchant Navy before attending Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent, England, on scholarship.
Baker acted in repertory theaters around Britain until the late 1960s when he joined up with the National Theatre, where he performed with such respected actors as Maggie Smith, Anthony Hopkins and Laurence Olivier, who helped him get his first prominent film role as Rasputin in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971). His performance in this film earned him two Golden Globe Award nominations, one for best actor in a supporting role and another for best new star of the year. A couple of years earlier, Baker had made his theatrical film debut in The Winter's Tale (1967).
Despite appearances in a spate of films, including The Canterbury Tales (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and The Mutations (1974), Baker found himself in a career lull and working as a labourer at a building site. However, the BBC's Head of Serials, William Slater, who had directed Baker in BBC Play of the Month (1965), recommended him to producer Barry Letts, who was looking for a replacement for Jon Pertwee as the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). Baker's performance in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) convinced Letts that he was right for it. It brought Baker international fame and popularity. He played the role for seven years, longer than any actor before or since.
After leaving Doctor Who (1963) in 1981, Baker returned to theatre and made occasional television and film appearances, playing Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982), Puddleglum in The Chronicles of Narnia story The Silver Chair (1990) and Hallvarth, Clan Leader of the Hunter Elves, in Dungeons & Dragons (2000).- Writer
- Director
Edward Bond was born on 18 July 1934 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and director, known for Blow-Up (1966), Walkabout (1971) and Laughter in the Dark (1969). He was married to Elisabeth Pablé. He died on 3 March 2024 in Cambridge, England, UK.- Actor
- Writer
- Composer
Jim Dale began his career as a stand-up comic. He sharpened his comedy skills during a stint in the army, where he organized and performed in camp shows. After his discharge he pursued a comedy career, and landed a job as the warm-up comic on a musical variety show. He did so well that the producers gave him a spot on the show as a singer, and he quickly became a recording star. He was signed for a small part in one of the "Carry On" films, Carry on Cabby (1963), but the audience reaction to him was so great the he was soon made a regular member of the cast. Unlike many comics, Dale insisted on performing his own stunts, and in fact injured his arm performing a stunt in Carry on Again Doctor (1969), his last film of the series until 1992.
After his departure from the series he returned to the stage, notably in Sir Laurence Olivier's National Theater. In the 1970s Dale moved to the US for film and stage work, achieving success in the Broadway show "Barnum" and in a string of film comedies for Disney.
He returned to Britain in 1992 for an appearance in the final "Carry On" film, Carry on Columbus (1992).- Writer
- Producer
Hugh Whitemore was born on 16 June 1936 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK. He was a writer and producer, known for 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), The Gathering Storm (2002) and The Boy in the Bush (1984). He was married to Rohan McCullough and Sheila Lemon. He died on 17 July 2018 in the UK.- Actor
- Director
- Art Department
Boisterous British actor Brian Blessed is known for his hearty, king-sized portrayals on film and television. A giant of a man accompanied by an eloquent wit and booming, operatic voice, Brian was born in 1936 and grew up in the mining village of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire. His father was a miner who wanted a better life for his son; Brian lost three uncles in the pit. At a young age, he displayed an acute talent for acting in school productions, but also had a penchant for boxing, a direction that would be short-lived.
Working various blue-collar jobs from undertaker's assistant to plasterer, Brian managed to attend the Bristol Old Vic and was off and running. He has lent his musical talents to several productions - from playing "Old Deuteronomy" in "Cats" to "The Baron" in the more recent "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". In the 1970s, he began appearing more and more on-camera with both classical and contemporary performances. In costumed television movies, he has played "Porthos" in The Three Musketeers (1966) and The Further Adventures of the Musketeers (1967), "Augustus" in I, Claudius (1976), and "Long John Silver" in Return to Treasure Island (1986) and has been a part of various reenactments including Catherine the Great (1995), Lady Chatterley (1993), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) and Kidnapped (1995).
On film, he has appeared in robust support in several William Shakespeare adaptations, including Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), Macbeth (1997) and the title role in King Lear (1999), which he also directed.
More recently, he appeared in Oliver Stone's epic-scale Alexander (2004) and in Kenneth Branagh's film version of William Shakespeare's As You Like It (2006).
In recent years, the octogenarian has been heard more than seen with voice work in video games, documentaries and such animated TV programs as Kika & Bob (2007) (as Bob); The Amazing World of Gumball (2011) (as Santa Claus); Wizards vs. Aliens (2012) (as the Necross King); Henry Hugglemonster (2013) (as Eduardo Enormomonster); and Peppa Pig (2004) as Grampy Rabbit.
He is married to British actress Hildegard Neil, who made an appearance with him in Macbeth (1997).- Actor
- Additional Crew
Alan Rothwell was born on 9 February 1937 in Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Alan Partridge (2013), Nothing But the Best (1964) and Coronation Street (1960). He was previously married to Maureen Haydon and Marjorie Ward.- Paxton Whitehead was born on 17 October, 1937 in Kent, England, UK. He trained at London's Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts starting at the age of 17. After attending the academy for two years he went to work in stock companies starting with the "weekly rep", small touring companies that rehearsed and performed a new play each week. He made his professional debut in 1956, and within two years was signed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Whitehead produced with Doric Wilson, directed and starred in "And He Made A Her" (1961), a production at the off-off-Broadway venue Caffe Cino. He made his Broadway debut in "The Affair" (1962) after appearing in Canadian stage and TV productions. Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Paxton Whitehead provided vocals on the track "Some Thoughts From Aboard" from the comedy album "Beyond The Fringe '64". He went on to appear with the American Shakespeare Company to direct in regional repertory.
Whitehead was the Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival, the second-largest repertory theatre in North America. The Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake began as an amateur summer happening. It developed into a professional, international event, particularly under Paxton Whitehead, its dedicated artistic director from 1966 to 1977. Notable appearances there included Magnus in "The Apple Cart", Cusins in "Major Barbara", "The Philanderer", Sergius in "Arms and the Man", Lord Summerhays in "Misalliance", Fancourt Babberly in "Charley's Aunt", Tempest in the North American premiere of Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On" and Hector in "Heartbreak House" with Jessica Tandy and Tony Van Bridge, a role he repeated at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London with Rex Harrison and Diana Rigg. Whitehead was also the Artistic Director for The Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company from 1971 to 1973.
Whitehead appeared opposite Carol Channing in "The Bed Before Yesterday" (1976) at the Robert Morris University, Colonial Theatre, Pennsylvania. He received an honourary degree in arts from Trent University in 1978. At the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Main Stage July 11 - July 15, 1978, Whitehead played Leo in "Design for Living". Suzanne Grossman and Paxton Whitehead translated and adapted the plays by Georges Feydeau "The Chemmy Circle" in 1979 and "A Flea in her Ear" in 1982.
Whitehead earned a Tony Award nomination for his appearance in "Camelot" during 1980. He has appeared in numerous Broadway productions including "My Fair Lady", opposite Richard Chamberlain, "The Harlequin Studies" with Bill Irwin, Noël Coward's "Suite in Two Keys", "A Little Hotel on the Side", "Lettice and Lovage" (playing an emotionally shut-down police investigator), "Artist Descending A Staircase", "Run For Your Wife", "The Crucifer of Blood", "Habeas Corpus", "Candida", "Beyond the Fringe" (1964), "The Affair" and "London Suite" (a comedy by Neil Simon). Whitehead appeared in "Noises Off" (September 22 - November 27, 1983) with Linda Thorson, his Marblehead Manor (1987) co-star.
He moved to California in 1980 to rear his children and has been a resident of Irvine, California for many years. The Shaw Festival of Canada debuted at the Annenberg Centre with "Charley's Aunt" starring Paxton Whitehead. Whitehead has also appeared in the Los Angeles productions of "Woman in Mind" with Helen Mirren, "The Rocky Horror Show", "Pirates of Penzance", "How the Other Half Loves" and "Beyond The Fringe", as well as duplicating some of his Broadway roles. Paxton Whitehead directed the Seattle Repertory Theatre production of "The Real Thing" in 1986. He was nominated for Best Lead Performance at the 1988-1989 20th Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for "How the Other Half Loves".
Whitehead appeared in the June 1992 Tiffany Theatre production of "Woman in Mind". In 1996 Whitehead appeared in the Studio Arena Theatre production of "Springtime for Henry". From January 7 to February 15, 1997, Paxton Whitehead starred in Hugh Leonard's play "The Mask of Moriarty" at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Whitehead was the narrator for the February 1999 Tiffany Theater production of "The Rocky Horror Show".
In April 2000, Hayley Mills appeared with Whitehead in "Suite in 2 Keys", "Shadows of the Evening" and "A Song at Twilight". Whitehead played the celebrated British poet and Latin Professor A.E. Housman in "The Invention of Love" at Court Theatre, Chicago, Illinois (September 6 - October 21, 2000). On October 10, 2001, The UCLA Centre for the Performing Arts for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies sponsored "Lady Windermere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde, a staged reading by John Lithgow and friends with Lord Augustus Lorton played by Paxton Whitehead. In the Signature Theatre Company production of "The Harlequin Studies" (October 2003) featured Whitehead as Harlequin's master, Pantalone. Performances of Whitehead's are available on audio CDs of "The Doctor's Dilemma" (January 11, 2003), "Thank You, Jeeves" and "The Foreigner" (May 17, 2003) from L.A. Theatre Works.
Whitehead is an Associate Artist of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. His appearances there include "The Miser", "Richard III", "Sir Peter Teazle", "Sir Anthony Absolute" and "Benedick". In Costa Mesa he has been seen in "Heartbreak House", "How the Other Half Loves" and "The Circle". He has appeared as Lear in Manitoba and several Ray Cooney farces. He has recent regional credits that include "The Voysey Inheritance" (December 13, 2003), W. Somerset Maugham's "The Circle", A.E.H. in the Chicago production of Tom Stoppard's "The Invention of Love" and "Where's Charley?" (Williamstown Theatre Festival, June 19-30, 2002). Whitehead played Clive Champion-Cheney in "The Circle" by W. Somerset Maugham at South Coast Repertory. During the rehearsal of "The Circle" he played Malvolio in The Globe's "Twelfth Night". He appeared with John Lithgow, Melissa Errico, Roger Daltrey and Rosemary Harris and played Col. Pickering in a semi-staged production of Alan Jay Lerner and Enrique Loewe's Classic Musical "My Fair Lady" at the Hollywood Bowl on August 3, 2003. Paxton Whitehead headed the cast of The Huntington Theatre Company presentation of "What the Butler Saw" as Dr. Rance at the Boston University Theatre, March 5-April 4, 2004 for which he received the Norton Awards for Outstanding Actor, Large Company. He is co-author on the books "The Doctor's Dilemma" and "The Voysey Inheritance" published by L.A. Theatre Works. Whitehead appeared in "Don Juan in Hell" at 92nd Street Y on January 28, 2005. - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Kenneth Colley was born on 7 December 1937 in Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Firefox (1982) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). He has been married to Mary Dunne since 1962.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Stephen Moore was born on 11 December 1937 in Brixton, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Boat That Rocked (2009), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). He was married to Noelyn George, Beth Morris, Celestine Randall and Barbara Mognaz. He died on 4 October 2019.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Brian Cooke was born on 13 December 1937 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK. He is a writer, known for George & Mildred (1976), Man About the House (1973) and Starting from Scratch (1988).- Michael Culver was born on 16 June 1938 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), A Passage to India (1984) and Breakaway (1980). He was married to Amanda Ward and Lucinda Curtis. He died on 27 February 2024.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Terence was born in London and spent his early years watching American films and dreamed of being like the stars on the screen, He was awarded a scholarship for the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art. In his second year, during an audition, Peter Ustinov signed him for the title role in Billy Budd (1962). This was not only his remarkable film debut but his performance earned him his first and only Oscar nomination too in 1962 and marked the start of his international stardom. He consolidated his career by working with some of the top directors such as William Wyler (The Collector (1965)), Joseph Losey (Modesty Blaise (1966)), John Schlesinger (Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)), Ken Loach (Poor Cow (1967)) and Pier Paolo Pasolini (Teorema (1968)). He then took a break from films and traveled around the world returning to cinema in a variety of films including, among others, Superman (1978), Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979), Superman II (1980), The Hit (1984) (for which he was awarded the Grand Medaille de Vermeil in Paris), Legal Eagles (1986), The Sicilian (1987), Wall Street (1987), Young Guns (1988), Alien Nation (1988), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Valkyrie (2008) and Unfinished Song (2012). He has also published the first two instalments of his autobiography, Stamp Album, which became a best seller.- British leading actor, born Patrick Archibald Shaw, one of three siblings of Welsh and English parentage. A 1962 graduate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he was at the peak of his popularity in the late 60s and early 70s. On the London stage from 1963, he also began acting on television the following year. Mower did not achieve prominence until 1967, when he was given his first opportunity to shine as paranormal investigator Michael West in the miniseries Haunted (1967). Though briefly considered and auditioned for the part of James Bond in 1968, he was deemed as too young for the part.
Mower instead made his mark with featured roles in Hammer's The Devil Rides Out (1968) and AIP's Cry of the Banshee (1970), plus with guest spots in popular action series like Department S (1969), UFO (1970) and Paul Temple (1969). Between 1970 and 1973, he had a breakthrough --back-to-back-- as the unscrupulous assassin James Cross in Callan (1967) and as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Haggerty in the police drama Special Branch (1969). On the strength of the latter, he received first billing in another cop show, Target (1977), as Detective Superintendent Steve Hackett. Not wanting to be typecast, he was content to move on after Target's cancellation in the wake of season two. He also made an impact in a trio of miniseries: as Edmund, the main antagonist of King Lear (1974), as Brother Damian in Marco Polo (1982) and in the gripping BBC supernatural drama The Dark Side of the Sun (1983), in which the early death of his character on the island of Rhodes leads to the uncovering of a sinister conspiracy.
More recently, Mower has become a small screen favorite once again in the regular role of Rodney Blackstock in the soap opera Emmerdale Farm (1972), a character he has portrayed in over 1300 episodes (to date) since October 2000. On the stage, he has portrayed Mortimer in Edward II, Orsino in Twelfth Night, Richard Sherman in The Seven Year Itch (Tom Ewell's role in the classic Hollywood film) and Manderley's stern owner Maxim de Winter, in Rebecca (famously played on screen by Laurence Olivier). - Eminent English actor Oliver Ford Davies began his career in academia. The son of a teacher, he studied at Merton College, Oxford University, where he became president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society and performed on stage with the experimental Theatre Club at the age of twenty. After graduating with a PhD, he then lectured in history for two years at Edinburgh University, eventually coming to realize that he would rather spend his working life as an actor. This was, at least in part, inspired by witnessing Paul Scofield's commanding performance in Peter Brook's acclaimed production of King Lear in 1962.
Davies made his professional theatrical debut at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1967 and has since acted on diverse stages throughout England. He spent several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, beginning in 1975 with a role as Mountjoy in Henry V. The classical stage has seen him in productions of Henry IV, The Hollow Crown, As You Like It, Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet and Julius Caesar. Davies has regarded being cast as the lead in David Hare's Racing Devil at the National Theatre as his career breakthrough. This performance garnered him an Olivier Best Actor Award in 1990. Davies also headlined as King Lear at the Almeida in Islington, London, in 2001.
Since his first television appearance in 1968, Davies has often been typecast as clerics, doctors and academics, usually characters somewhat older than his years. He had a recurring role as barrister Peter Foxcott in Kavanagh QC (1995) and enjoyed guest spots on popular detective shows like Van der Valk (1972), Maigret (1992), Wycliffe (1993), Pie in the Sky (1994), Poirot (1989), Foyle's War (2002) and Father Brown (2013). He has also played portrait painter John Hunter Thompson in The Brontës of Haworth (1973), the infirm Mr. Wickfield, lawyer and employer of Uriah Heep, in BBC's David Copperfield (1999) and the Archbishop of Canterbury in the film Johnny English (2003). Since the 90s, Davies has become more familiar to international audiences for his role as Queen Amidala's councillor Sio Bibble in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and as Cressen, the maester of Dragonstone and servant of Stannis Baratheon in HBO's blockbuster series Game of Thrones (2011).
Davies published his memoir, "An Actor's Life in 12 Productions", in 2022. For his services to drama, he was awarded an OBE in the 2024 New Year Honours List. - Actor
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Peter Gill was born on 7 September 1939 in Cardiff, Wales, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Zulu (1964), Plays for Britain (1976) and As You Like It (1963).- Malcolm Hebden is an English television and stage actor known for his role as Norris Cole in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
Hebden was born in Chester before his family moved to Burnley, Lancashire, three weeks later. He was educated at West Gate High School and began his career as a window dresser in Burnley. He was involved in amateur dramatics groups, one of which included Richard Moore, called The Highcliffe Players. When aged 28, he attended the Rose Bruford Drama School in London before beginning a career in theatre.
Hebden first appeared in Coronation Street in 1974, as Mavis Riley's Spanish boyfriend Carlos.
He first appeared as Norris Cole in Coronation Street (1960) in 1994 and left in 1997, before returning to the role in December 1999 for his current stint in the show.
Hebden appeared as a shopkeeper in the film Lost for Words (1999) starring Thora Hird and Pete Postlethwaite.
Along with his on-screen business partner Barbara Knox (Rita Sullivan), Hebden won the 'Best Onscreen Partnership' award at the British Soap Awards in May 2006. Additionally he won the 'Funniest Character' title for two consecutive years at the 2001 and 2002 Inside Soap Awards. He also made an appearance in Last of the Summer Wine.
In April 2008, Malcolm Hebden suggested to Coronation Street producers that Andrew Sachs should have a guest role in the soap playing Norris's brother, an idea they accepted.No MBE yet. - Actor
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An English actor active in the theater since 1961, having made few theatrical movies, none of which particularly outstanding, with the exception of John Boorman's Zardoz (1974) and Nigel Cole's popular Calendar Girls (2003), John Alderton has become famous thanks to British television. Appearing in approximately two hundred TV series episodes, TV movies or specials, he is best remembered as the teacher facing the rowdy students in the series Please Sir! (1968), from 1968 to 1972, Thomas, the chauffeur, in Upstairs, Downstairs (1971), between 1971 and 1975, and the narrator and sole voice artist for the English dub of Fireman Sam (1987) from 1987 to 1994.