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1-27 of 27
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Paul Whitehouse was born on 17 May 1958 in Stanleytown, Rhondda, Wales, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Fast Show (1994), The Death of Stalin (2017) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).- Actor
- Producer
Stanley Baker was unusual star material to emerge during the Fifties - when impossibly handsome and engagingly romantic leading men were almost de rigueur. Baker was forged from a rougher mould. His was good-looking, but his features were angular, taut, austere and unwelcoming. His screen persona was taciturn, even surly, and the young actor displayed a predilection for introspection and blunt speaking, and was almost wilfully unromantic. For the times a potential leading actor cast heavily against the grain. Baker immediately proved a unique screen presence - tough, gritty, combustible - and possessing an aura of dark, even menacing power.
Stanley Baker came from rugged Welsh mining stock - and as a lad was unruly, quick to flare, and first to fight. But like his compatriot and friend Richard Burton, the young Baker was rescued from a gruelling life of coal mining by a local teacher, Glyn Morse, who recognized in the proud and self-willed lad a potent combination of a fine speaking voice, a smouldering intensity, and a strong spirit. And like Burton, Stanley Baker was specially and specifically tutored for theatrical success. In fact, early on, Burton and Baker appeared together on stage as juveniles in The Druid's Rest, in Cardiff, in Wales. But later, by way of Birmingham Repertory Theatre and then the London stage, Stanley Baker charted his inevitable course toward the Cinema.
Film welcomed the adult Baker as the embodiment of evil. Memorable early roles cast the actor in feisty unsympathetic parts - from the testy bosun in Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) to his modern-day counterpart in The Cruel Sea (1953), to the arch villains in Hell Below Zero (1954) and Campbell's Kingdom (1957) to the dastardly Mordred in Knights of the Round Table (1953) and the wily Achilles in Helen of Troy (1956). For a time there was a distillation of Baker's screen persona in a series of roles as stern and uncompromising policemen - in Violent Playground (1958), Chance Meeting (1959), and Hell Is a City (1960). But despite never having been cast as a romantic leading man, and being almost wholly associated with villainous roles, Stanley Baker nevertheless became a star by dint of his potent personality.
Although now enthroned by enthusiastic audiences Stanley Baker was obviously aware he need not desert unsympathetic parts - and his relish in playing the scheming Astaroth in Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) and the unscrupulous mobster Johnny Bannion in The Concrete Jungle (1960) was readily evident. But soon there were more principled, if still surly characters, in The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Games (1970), Eva (1962), and Accident (1967), the latter two films reuniting Baker with the American expatriot director of The Criminal, Joseph Losey. Stanley Baker also established a fruitful working relationship with the American director Cy Endfield, following their early collaboration on Hell Drivers (1957). When Baker inaugurated his own film production company - it was Endfield he commissioned to write and direct both Zulu (1964) and Sands of the Kalahari (1965), with Baker allotting himself the downbeat roles of the martinet officer John Chard in Zulu and the reluctant hero Mike Bain in The Sands Of The Kalahari.
Baker must have felt more assured in disenchanted roles - as further films from Baker's own stable still promoted the actor in either criminal or villainous mode - as gangster Paul Clifton in Robbery (1967) and the corrupt thief-taker Jonathan Wild in Where's Jack? (1969). The success of Baker's own productions was timely and did much to enhance the prestige of what was then considered an ailing British film industry. Stanley Baker also took the opportunity to move into the realm of television, appearing in, among other productions, the dramas The Changeling (1974) and Robinson Crusoe (1974), and also in the series How Green Was My Valley (1975).
Knighted in 1976 it was evident that Stanley Baker may well have continued to greater heights, both as an actor and a producer, but he succumbed to lung cancer and died at the early age of forty-eight. But his legacy is unquestioned. He was a unique force on screen, championing characterizations that were not clichéd or compromised. He established his own niche as an actor content to be admired for peerlessly portraying the disreputable and the unsympathetic. In that he was a dark mirror, more accurately reflecting human frailty and the vagaries of life than many of his more romantically or heroically inclined contemporaries. There have forever been legions of seemingly interchangeable charming and virile leading men populating the movies - but Stanley Baker stood almost alone in his determination to be characterized and judged by portraying the bleaker aspects of the human condition. Consequently, more than twenty-five years after his death, his sombre, potent personality still illuminates the screen in a way few others have achieved.- Callum Scott Howells was born on 29 April 1999 in Tonyrefail, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, UK. He is an actor, known for It's a Sin (2021), Relax and The Beautiful Game (2024).
- Producer
- Director
- Editor
Sean James Cameron was born on 23 April 1974 in Llwynypia, Rhondda, Wales, UK. He is a producer and director, known for What's on Theatre (2008), End of an Era (2006) and Building a Greener Britain (2010).- Steve Jones was born in 1977 in Rhondda, Glamorgan, Wales, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008), It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010) and Comedy Lab (1998).
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Brian Davies was born on 15 November 1938 in Rhondda Valley, Wales, UK. He is an actor, known for American Gigolo (1980), Convoy (1978) and The Age of Innocence (1993). He has been married to Erika Slezak since 4 August 1978. They have two children.- Dorothea Phillips was born on 5 September 1928 in Penygraig, Rhondda, Glamorgan, Wales, UK. She is an actress, known for 102 Dalmatians (2000), Under Milk Wood (1971) and Festival (1963).
- Welsh-born actress, best known for her portrayal of Helen Gordon in TV's The Young Doctors, a role she played continuously from the soap's inception in 1976 until its cancellation by Australia's Nine network in 1982.
Lyn James died in Sydney, Australia in 2017 at the age of 87, her husband having predeceased her. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Ian 'H' Watkins was born on 8 May 1976 in Llwynypia, Rhondda, Wales, UK. He is an actor, known for Steps: To the Beat of My Heart (2021), Steps: What the Future Holds (2020) and Steps & Michelle Visage: Heartbreak in This City (2021).- Production Designer
- Art Department
- Art Director
Leslie Dilley was born on 11 January 1941 in Rhondda, Glamorgan, Wales, UK. He is a production designer and art director, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and The Abyss (1989).- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Director
Shelley Rees was born in Llwynypia, Rhondda, Wales, UK. She is known for Svengali (2013), Emmerdale Farm (1972) and Alys (2011).- Carolyn Hitt was born on 12 October 1968 in Llwynypia, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, UK. She is a producer, known for Sir Gareth Edwards at 70 (2017), Max Boyce: The Road to Treorchy (2011) and A Song for Christmas (1986).
- David Lyn was born in 1927 in Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for Off to Philadelphia in the Morning (1978), St. Ives (1960) and The House Under the Water (1961). He died on 4 August 2012 in Cardiff, Wales, UK.
- Alan Evans was born on 14 June 1949 in Rhondda, Wales, UK. He died on 11 April 1999 in Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, UK.
- Gareth Mortimer was born in 1948 in Maerdy, Rhondda, Wales, UK. He died on 17 December 2015 in Ferndale, Rhondda, Wales, UK.
- Visual Effects
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Editor
Liam Bevan was born on 10 August 1994 in Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales, UK. Liam is an editor, known for Efaciwis: Plant y Rhyfel (2022), Above Your Station (2017) and Wales: Music Nation with Huw Stephens (2022).- Producer
- Director
Richard Lewis was born in 1938 in Ton Pentre, Rhondda Valley, Wales, UK. Richard was a producer and director, known for Halen yn y Gwaed (1994), Nye (1982) and Dylan (1978). Richard was married to Bethan Pierce. Richard died in December 2016 in the UK.- Tommy Farr was born on 12 March 1913 in Blaenclydach, Rhondda, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for All for Mary (1955), Excuse My Glove (1936) and James J. Braddock vs. Tommy Farr (1938). He was married to Muriel 'Monty' Montgomery Germon. He died on 1 March 1986 in Shoreham, Sussex, England, UK.
- Laura Williams was born in September 1983 in Rhondda, Wales, UK.
- David Christopher Kelly was born on 14 May 1944 in Llwynypia, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales, UK. He died on 17 July 2003 in Harrowdown Hill, Longworth, Vale of White Horse District, Oxfordshire, England, UK.
- Leanne Wood was born on 13 December 1971 in Rhondda, Glamorgan, Wales, UK.
- Sarah Davies was born on 6 July 1925 in Llwynypia, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales, UK. She was an actress, known for Folio (1955), The Hill (1960) and The Hill (1959). She was married to Michael James Mccahill. She died in April 1999 in Glamorgan, Wales, UK.
- Dillon Lewis was born on 4 January 1996 in Church Village, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, UK.
- Roderick Jones was born on 2 June 1910 in Ferndale, Rhondda Valley, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for Festival (1963), A House Called Bell Tower (1960) and Secret Agent (1964). He died on 16 September 1992 in Caerleon, Wales, UK.
- John Davies was born on 25 April 1938 in Llwynypia, Rhondda, Wales, UK. He was married to Janet Mackenzie. He died on 16 February 2015 in Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK.
- Music Department
- Actor
Bowles Bevan was born on 6 May 1925 in Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for Gala Performance (1963), Eric Robinson Presents (1967) and Melodies for You (1967). He died on 28 March 2015 in Southall, Middlesex, England, UK.- Claire Mcgourlay was born on 28 January 1972 in Llwynypia, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, UK.