British Actors Archives

Edward Judd

Edward Judd was born in Shangai in 1932. His career peak was in the mid 1960’s. He starred in one classic science fiction “The Day the Earth Caught Fire”. He went to Hollywood in 1964 but made on ly one film there “Strange Bedfellows” with Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida. His career seems to have stalled with the end of the 1970’s and he died in 2009.

Edward Judd “Guardian” obituary:

Edward Judd, who has died aged 76, seemed set for stardom when he gained a leading role in The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), the film that foresaw global warming. It led to Judd being seriously considered for the role of James Bond in Dr No (1962), the first of the endless series.

However, the career of the well-built, square-jawed British actor, who had worked consistently in films and television since the age of 16, failed to ignite in the way he expected.

In fact, Judd’s role as an out-of-luck reporter suffering the trauma of divorce, writer’s block and alcoholism, who comes across the scoop of the century in The Day the Earth Caught Fire, was not only his first substantial part but probably his best. However, some years later, Val Guest, the director, recalled Judd’s “difficult” behaviour during the shooting, which he put down to feelings of inferiority in his first big role.

In the film, Judd discovers that because the Soviets and the west detonated nuclear tests simultaneously, the earth has been knocked off its axis and is moving closer to the sun. Judd is particularly effective at delivering some witty lines, and the scene where he and Janet Munro strip down to their underwear because of the rapidly rising temperature is surprisingly sexy.

Judd was born to expatriate English parents in Shanghai. On their return to England during the second world war, he got a small role as a public schoolboy in Roy Boulting’s The Guinea Pig (1948). He continued to get parts, often uncredited, in British films in the 1950s: a boxer in The Good Die Young (1954), a soldier in X: The Unknown (1956), a policeman in The Man Upstairs (1958), a naval officer in Sink The Bismarck! and a warder in The Criminal (both 1960).

After his break in The Day the Earth Caught Fire, Judd was given the lead as a rather dour commander of a German submarine manned by a British crew to confuse the enemy in Mystery Submarine (1963). In the same year, he played opposite Susan Hayward in Stolen Hours, a feeble British remake of the Bette Davis melodrama Dark Victory. Poor Hayward is dying of an unspecified disease and Judd is her dashing, racing-driver boyfriend who knows that he could be killed at any time, but says: “I don’t want to be told you’re going to get yours in the 10th lap.”

The following year, Judd was a brawny Viking called Sven in the Anglo-Yugoslav production of The Long Ships, starring Richard Widmark. First Men in the Moon (1964), an enjoyable adaptation of the HG Wells novel, co-starred Judd and Martha Hyer, managing to keep straight faces while being captured by Selenites (men in insect suits) and threatened by a giant caterpillar.

Naturally, he was billed below Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida in Strange Bedfellows (1965), but was visible enough as a London gent who becomes involved with La Lollo. In contrast, playing a scientist, he had to avoid getting caught in the tentacles of slithery creatures that live on bone marrow in Island of Terror (1966). In The Vengeance of She (1968), Judd was a psychiatrist who is bewitched by a girl (Olinka Berova), who thinks she is the reincarnation of a 2,000-year-old queen, Ayesha. He is foolhardy enough to accompany her to an ancient lost city.

Parallel to his film career, Judd appeared regularly on television, from the 1950s series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, and later in Emmerdale Farm, The New Avengers, The Professionals and The Sweeney. He was also in Flambards, a mini-series for Yorkshire TV, as the arrogant and bullying disabled owner of the eponymous mansion.

But his association with Hammer and sub-Hammer horrors continued, with parts in The Vault of Horror (1973); The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983), as the sinister servant Barrymore; and as a police inspector in Jack the Ripper (1988). But there were periods of unemployment, due in part to his heavy drinking.

Judd was married twice, both times to actors. His first wife, Gene Anderson, died in 1965. His second, Norma Ronald, with whom he had two daughters, died in 1993. His daughters survive him.

Edward Judd, actor, born 4 October 1932; died 24 February 2009

Ian McShane (Wikipedia)

Ian McShane is known for his television performances, particularly the title role in the BBC series Lovejoy (1986–1994) and as Al Swearengen on the HBO series Deadwood (2004–2006) and its 2019 film continuation, the original series garnering him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series nomination. He currently portrays Mr. Wednesday in the Starz series American Gods(2017–).

His film roles include Harry Brown in The Wild and the Willing (1962), Charlie Cartwright in If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), Wolfe Lissner in Villain (1971), Teddy Bass in Sexy Beast (2000), Frank Powell in Hot Rod (2007), Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda(2008), Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and Winston in the John Wick film series (2014–).

McShane was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, the only child of Irene (née Cowley; born 1921) and Scottish footballer Harry McShane (1920–2012). His father was Scottish, from Holytown, Lanarkshire, and his mother, who was born in England, was of Irish and English descent. McShane grew up in Davyhulme, Manchester, and attended Stretford Grammar School. After being a member of the National Youth Theatre, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), alongside Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt. He shared a flat with Hurt, whom McShane called his “oldest friend in the business”. He was still a student at RADA when he appeared in his first film, The Wild and the Willing (1962).

In the United Kingdom, McShane’s best known role may be that of antiques dealer Lovejoy in the eponymous series. He also enjoyed fame in the United States as British film director Don Lockwood in Dallas and as a British cockfighting aficionado in Roots. Even before Lovejoy, he was a pin-up as a result of appearances in television series, such as Wuthering Heights (1967, as Heathcliff), Jesus of Nazareth (1977, as Judas Iscariot), and Disraeli (1978)—as well as films like Sky West and Crooked (1965) and Battle of Britain (1969).

In the United States, he is known for the role of historical figure Al Swearengen in the HBO series Deadwood, for which he won the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama. He was also nominated at the 2005 Emmy Award and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Among science fiction fans, McShane is known for playing the character Dr. Robert Bryson in Babylon 5: The River of Souls. In a 2004 interview with The Independent, McShane stated that he wished that he had turned down the role of Bryson as he had struggled with the technical dialogue and found looking at Martin Sheen, who was wearing an eye in the middle of his forehead, to be the most embarrassing experience that he had ever had while acting.

In 1985, he appeared as an MC on Grace Jones‘ Slave to the Rhythm, a concept album which featured his narration interspersed throughout and which sold over a million copies worldwide.

Other recent roles include Captain Hook in Shrek the Third, Ragnar Sturlusson in The Golden Compass, Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda (for which he received an Annie Award nomination), and Mr. Bobinsky in Coraline. In live-action, he has performed in Hot Rod, the action/thriller Death Race, and The Seeker. He has appeared in The West Wing as a Russian diplomat. During 2007–08, he starred as Max in the 40th anniversary Broadway revival of Harold Pinter‘s The Homecoming, co-starring Eve Best, Raúl Esparza, and Michael McKean, and directed by Daniel Sullivan, at the Cort Theatre (16 December 2007 – 13 April 2008).

In 2009, McShane appeared in Kings, which was based on the biblical story of David. His portrayal of King Silas Benjamin, an analogue of King Saul, was highly praised with one critic saying: “Whenever Kings seems to falter, McShane appears to put bite marks all over the scenery.”

In 2010, McShane starred in The Pillars of the Earth as Bishop Waleran Bigod. The series was an historical drama set in 12th-century England and adapted from Ken Follett‘s novel of the same name

Also in 2010, the Walt Disney Company confirmed that McShane would portray Blackbeard in the fourth instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, On Stranger Tides. In 2013, McShane played King Brahmwell in Bryan Singer‘s Jack the Giant Slayer.

Since 2010, McShane has narrated the opening teases for each round of ESPN‘s coverage of The Open Championship. In 2012, McShane had a guest role for two episodes as Murder Santa, a sadistic serial killer in the 1960s in the second season of American Horror Story. In 2016, he joined the cast of Game of Thrones in Season 6 as Ray.

McShane announced on April 20, 2017 that a script for a two-hour Deadwood movie had been submitted by creator David Milch to HBO and that a film is as close as ever to happening. “[A] two-hour movie script has been delivered to HBO. If they don’t deliver [a finished product], blame them,” McShane said.^[34] The film began production in October 2018.^[35]

On 30 August 1980, McShane married actress Gwen Humble (born 4 December 1953). They live in Venice, California.

Twiggy. IMDB

Twiggy was born Lesley Hornby in Neasdon, London in 1949. The 60’s supermodel icon Twiggy made a few films in the 1970’s. “The Boy Friend” directed by Ken Russelll is of particular interest. She is now the fashion face of Marks and Spencer department store.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Top model of the late 1960s who made skinny an “inny” along with other famous skinny models such as Jean Shrimpton (“The Shrimp”), Veruschka von Lehndorff, and Penelope Tree (“The Tree”). She was born Leslie Hornby in Twickenham, Middlesex, England on September 19, 1949, one of three daughters of William Norman and Helen Hornby. By blending pop art with fashion, the doe-eyed, pouty-lipped gamine with the angelic puss and boyish crop took the industry by storm at age 17 defining the age of “flower power”. She originally was nicknamed “Sticks” because of her reed-thin figure, but then switched it to “Twigs” and, finally, “Twiggy.” A model for a scant four years, she had never even walked the runways by the time she exploded onto the scene. Educated at the Kilburn High School for Girls, her look and image was an instant globular sensation. She was even imitated by Mattel when they issued a “Twiggy Barbie” in 1967 and by Milton Bradley who created a board game out of her. Lunch boxes, false eye lashes, tights, sweaters, tote bags and paper dolls — all these bore her famous moniker. In her prime she graced the covers of Vogue and Tatler, and even had her own American publication “Her Mod, Mod Teen World.” The “psychedelic ’60s” would not have been the same without her.

In 1970, Twiggy was able to parlay her incredible success into a respectable career in film and TV and on the musical theater stage. It was the iconoclastic director Ken Russellwho instilled in her the ambition to move away from modeling and study acting, voice and dance. An extra in his movie The Devils (1971), Russell ushered her front-and-center with the jazz-age musical The Boy Friend (1971), his homage to the Busby BerkeleyHollywood musicals. Taking on the role originated on stage by Julie Andrews, Twiggy was awarded a Golden Globe for her efforts.

Her second feature, the thriller W (1974) cast her with future husband Michael Witney, who was nearly two decades her senior. They married in 1977 and later appeared together in There Goes the Bride (1980). She also cameoed in The Blues Brothers (1980) with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Following Witney’s untimely death in 1983, she appeared in The Doctor and the Devils (1985) and the comedy Club Paradise (1986) withRobin Williams before meeting her second husband, actor Leigh Lawson, while filmingMadame Sousatzka (1988) in which she played a singer.

Though Twiggy has worked from time to time on TV, her exposure has been somewhat limited. She hosted a couple of self-titled shows in England and co-starred in the very short-lived sitcom Princesses (1991) here in America, but not too much else. The singing stage is a different story. She made her West End debut as “Cinderella” in 1974 and played Eliza Doolittle in a legit performance of “Pygmalion” in 1981. In 1983 she reunited with her “Boy Friend” co-star Tommy Tune and together dazzled Broadway audiences as a tapping twosome with “My One and Only,” a warm, nostalgic revamping of the Gershwin classic “Funny Face.” The charming waif went on to appear in a 1997 London revival ofNoel Coward‘s “Blithe Spirit,” then played star Gertrude Lawrence alongside Harry Groener‘s Coward in the song-and-sketch musical “Noel and Gertie” (later retitled “If Love Were All”), which focused on the close “blendship” between the two icons all to the accompaniment of 20 Coward songs.

Back to her modeling ways, Twiggy came out of retirement to be photographed by the likes of John Fwanel and Annie Liebovitz in the 90s and has recently joined the professional elite of judges led by Tyra Banks on the reality show America’s Next Top Model (2003).

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

Her website can be accessed here.

Sally Dyneaor & Michael LeVeil

When Sally met Kevin. These two actors are stalwarts of “Coronation Street” who were forever sending their daughters Rosie and Sally upstairs after a feed of beans on toast. Occasionally different actresses came downstairs but Sally and Kevin never seemed to notice.

This actress’s autograph was one of the most elusive to obtain as she retired from the scene some years before her early death in 2002. Her film highlights occurred early in her career as the woebegone Fanny Robin abandoned by Terence Stamp for Julie Christie in “Far From the Madding Crowd”. Her other notable film part was as leading lady to David Hemmings in the Galway made “Alfred the Great”.

Carl Halling, Yahoo Contributor Network
Jul 15, 2010

Prunella Ransome was a fey and hauntingly vulnerable redheaded beauty who only made a handful of major films, and never achieved the major stardom she so richly deserved. However, she was absolutely unforgettable as the pathetic Fanny Robin, abandoned by her lover Sergeant Troy – played by ’60s icon Terence Stamp – for having mistakenly jilted him on their wedding day in John Schlesinger’s masterful 1967 adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s “Far from the Madding Crowd”.Her father, Jimmy Ransome, was the headmaster of West Hill Park, a private school for boys aged 7 to 13 located in Titchfield in Hampshire, from 1952 to 1959; and she was born on the 18th of January 1943 in Croydon in Surrey, a massive suburban area to the south of London which, in demographic terms, could not be more mixed, including as it does many tough multicultural districts, such as West Croydon and Thornton Heath, the largest council estate in Europe in the shape of New Addington, and wealthy middle class enclaves such as Sanderstead.Her career began in 1967 with a television series, “Kenilworth”, based on the historical novel by Sir Walter Scott in which she had the vital role of Amy Robsart, first wife of Lord Robert Dudley, who met her death by falling down a flight of stairs.On the back of this major role, she made her incredible debut as Fanny Robin, for which she was deservedly nominated for the 1967 Golden Globe for best supporting actress, only to lose out to Carol Channing for the role of Muzzy Van Hossmere in “Thoroughly Modern Millie”. While “Crowd” was not a major box office success, despite some critical acclaim, it has come to be viewed by many as an unsung masterpiece. Despite this extraordinary early burst of success, she wasn’t to appear onscreen for a full two years, when she featured opposite another idol of the swinging sixties, David Hemmings, in “Alfred the Great”, directed by Clive Donner, as Alfred’s love interest, Aelhswith.A good deal of British television work followed, until she landed her third and final major film role, as Grace Bass, wife of Zachary Bass – played by Richard Harris – a character loosely based on American frontiersman, Hugh Glass, in the action western, “Man in the Wilderness”, directed by Richard C. Sarafian.

After this, most of her work was for television, although she was to appear in two further films, one of which,

“¿Quién puede matar a un niño?”, directed by Narciso IbáñezSerrador in 1976 has a cult following among horror fans. The other, “Marianne Bouquet” is a little known erotic movie helmed in 1972 by French actor-director, Michel Lemoine.

From ’76 to ’84, she worked pretty solidly for TV, and among the programmes in which she had major roles during this period were “Crime and Punishment” (1979), directed by Michael Darlow, and featuring John Hurt as Raskolnikov and “Sorrell and Son” (1984), based on the novel by Warwick Deeping, and directed by Derek Bennett. After this, though, she vanished from British television screens for a full eight years, and was only to appear in a further three more productions, the last one being in 1996. According to the Internet Movie Database, she died in 2002, although other web sites give the date of her death as 2003, and there is no information as to the circumstances of her death, other than it occurred in Suffolk. For my part, I’ll treasure those few moments she graced the screen in “Far From the Madding Crowd”, and especially the fathomless heartbreak in her face as she watches her beloved Sergeant Troy walk out of her life forever, but for a final reunion so heartbreaking it destroyed both their lives, Fanny’s within a few hours, Troy’s after a period wandering the earth as a soul in torment.

Michael Craig. IMDB.

Michael Craig is a stalwart presence in British Rank films of the 1950’s. He is particularly noteworthy in “The Angry Silence” with Richard Attenborough and the war film “A Hill in Korea”. He emigrated to Australia in the 1970’s and continued his career there mainly in television.

IMDB entry:

A veritable everyman of stage and screen, both big and small, but relatively unfamiliar to American audiences, Michael Craig is of Scots heritage, born in India to a father on military assignment. When he was three, the family returned to England, but by his eleventh year, they moved on to Canada – where he undoubtedly acquired his North American accent. Michael Craig left school for the Merchant Navy at 16, but finally returned to England and the lure of the theater.

By 1947, he debuted on stage and, in 1953, Sir Peter Hall gave him his first lead stage role. In the meantime, he was trying his hand at extra work and had speaking roles by 1954. This eventually led to discovery by Rank Films and a list of lead movie roles into the early 1960s. When his 7-year contract with that company expired, he was optioned by Columbia Pictures and his Hollywood career commenced. Yet his American work is perhaps only modestly remembered in two films, ironically co-American productions with the UK, Mysterious Island (1961), and Australia, the Disney TV installment, Ride a Wild Pony (1975).

By the mid-1970s, Michael Craig’s TV and film work was heavily concentrated in Australia (where he still resides) and composed a depth or roles, both comedic and dramatic, that has included memorable and solid character pieces as he has matured in age. As a screen writer, he has written for and created several British TV series. And he has never been far from the stage, remaining a familiar face in both London and New York theater.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: William McPeak

“Wales Online”:

He’s romanced some of the country’s finest leading ladies on stage and on screen but now actor Michael Craig is preparing for the role of a retired judge. Karen Price asks him about his career MICHAEL CRAIG has worked with some of the biggest leading actresses during his career.

Original Cinema 3-Sheet Poster – Movie Film Posters

From playing Barbra Streisand’s husband in the hit West End production Funny Girl, to co-starring with Julie Andrews in the film Star and Honor Blackman in the play Move Over Mrs Markham. But it’s now, at the age of 80, he says he’s found the role of a lifetime.

The actor, who lives in Monmouthshire, is playing Judge John Biddle in the play Trying, which opens next week at London’s Finborough Theatre. Michael Craig, who spent many years living in Australia, premiered the role in Sydney to great acclaim.

Written by Canadian playwright, Joanna McLelland Glass, it deals with coming to terms with ageing, loss of status, physical and mental deterioration and the acceptance of the inevitability of all that. It also charts the building of a loving, trusting relationship between two apparently incompatible people: an 81-year-old retired American judge and his 25-year-old Canadian secretary. They are both based on real people – the judge, Francis Biddle, was the Chief Justice at the Nuremberg Trials and subsequently Attorney General to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, and the playwright was actually his secretary, who is called Sarah in the play. “It’s a fine piece of writing and in the best sense of the words, a really entertaining evening in the theatre,” says Craig, who was born in India to British parents as his father was in the forces. The play was a success in Sydney and when Michael Craig and his second wife Susan decided to relocate to the UK to be nearer their family, he had the idea of staging it here. His brother Richard Gregson is an experienced producer and agent and after reading the play he started making inquiries about revising it for British audiences.

It’s now set to be staged at the London theatre and it’s proving to be something of a family affair – his niece Sarah is one of the producers. Craig, who now lives in Whitebrook, near Monmouth, enjoys playing the character. He has been forgotten and it kind of rankles a bit: next page “He has been forgotten and it kind of rankles a bit,” he says of the judge. “It’s true that people do get forgotten, no matter how eminent they’ve been.” The actor admits he’s nervous about opening the play in London. “But I’m also being optimistic. When we did it in Sydney it was a real crowd pleaser.”

Michael Craig began his career as a stage assistant for a rep company in Farnham, Surrey, and the roles started coming in. “I did a lot of movies, many of which come back to haunt me on late-night telly,” he laughs. He describes Streisand as “a great talent” and Andrews as “a real pro”. He also worked with a young Judi Dench before she started her career as an actress. “She would come and paint scenery at the Theatre Royal in York. Her brother was in the company,” he says. “It was great fun working with her.”

Many years later he played Horner to her Mrs Pinchwife in Wycherly’s The Country Wife at the Nottingham Playhouse. Craig’s other stage roles include playing opposite Peggy Ashcroft in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Wars of the Roses and with Ian Holm, in Harold Pinter’s Tony award-winning production of The Homecoming in New York.

Michael Craig television credits include, The Commodore in Doctor Who, Saint Joan with Janet Suzman and John Gielgud, and for his long-standing role as the curmudgeonly Doctor William Sharp in the long-running Australian Medical series, G.P. He was recently amazed to find himself voted The Most Trusted Man in Australia.

As well as acting, he is also an award-winning writer. His television play, The Fourth Wish won two Australian Best TV Drama awards. So does he miss all those roles which saw him romancing some of our finest leading actresses? “There’s no point in missing what you can’t have,” he laughs. “It’s enough to be able to think, ‘been there, done that, now what’s next?’.”

The Michael Craig “Wales Online” can be accessed here.

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

Edward Judd

Ian McShane

Ian McShane (Wikipedia)

Twiggy

Twiggy. IMDB

Sally Whittaker and Michael La Veil

Prunella Ransome

Michael Craig

Michael Craig. IMDB.

ABOUT ME

CATEGORIES

RECENT POSTS