Brittish Actors
Nicholas Jones was born in 1946 in London. He is the son of actor Griffith Jones and his older sister is actress Gemma Jones. He gained national prominence in the UK with his role opposite John Thaw in the television series “Kavanagh QC”. His films include “Daisy Miller” in 1974 and “Vera Drake” in 2004.
Peter Capaldi was born in Glasgow in 1958. He rose to prominence in 1983 with the success of the film “Local Hero”. Other movie credits include “Turtle Diary”, “Lair of the White Worm” and “December Bride” and of course “Dr Who”.
TCM overview:
Scottish actor Peter Capaldi was one of the United Kingdom’s best-kept secrets for decades until the summer of 2013, when he went from being “who?” to Doctor Who. A native Glaswegian, the wiry Capaldi gravitated towards performing in his youth, and initially gained notice for his supporting role in the beloved comedic drama “Local Hero” (1983). He went on to become a British television mainstay, while occasionally appearing in feature films. Following recurring roles or guest spots on various small-screen productions, he sidestepped into writing and directing with the short film “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life” (1995), which won both a BAFTA and Academy Award. Primarily sticking to on-screen work, Capaldi found his breakout role in 2005 as the fierce political mastermind Malcolm Tucker on the biting comedy “The Thick of It” (BBC, 2005-2012). In 2009, his international reputation grew when the series spun off into the acclaimed feature comedy “In the Loop” (2009), co-starring James Gandolfini. However, his profile was later raised considerably higher when it was announced that Capaldi would be the Twelfth Doctor on the venerable sci-fi series “Doctor Who” (BBC, 1963-1989, 1996, 2005- ), bringing him instant global attention.
Born in Glasgow and raised by a mother and father with Irish and Italian roots, respectively, Capaldi was naturally inclined to perform and appeared in theater productions as a teenager. While studying at the Glasgow School of Art, Capaldi fronted a punk band known as Dreamboys, which featured future comedian and talk-show host Craig Ferguson as its drummer. Capaldi turned to screen acting in the early 1980s, and landed a featured part in “Local Hero,” a charming Scottish-set tale starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert. Aside from a key role in Ken Russell’s eccentric horror film “The Lair of the White Worm” (1988) and a small part in the period drama “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988), Capaldi mainly stuck to British TV gigs and became the epitome of the working England-based actor. In 1993, he had a memorable part in the Helen Mirren-starring TV movie “Prime Suspect 3” (ITV, 1993), but he soon won acclaim behind the camera for his own playfully witty short, “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring Richard E. Grant, which won a 1995 Oscar, among other awards. After portraying an unlikely angel in the fantasy series “Neverwhere” (BBC, 1996), Capaldi once again donned his writer/director cap for the overlooked crime drama “Strictly Sinatra” (2001), featuring Ian Hart as a trouble-prone lounge singer.
Returning his focus to acting, Capaldi appeared opposite Hugh Laurie on the sitcom “Fortysomething” (ITV, 2003), and two years later, he joined the cast of Armando Iannucci’s barbed comedy series “The Thick of It,” a satirical and politically themed show that allowed the actor to cut loose as the tightly wound, profanity-spewing communications director Malcolm Tucker. Capaldi also turned up in guest spots on various popular British programs, including the police procedurals “Midsomer Murders” (ITV, 1997- ) and “Waking the Dead” (BBC, 2000-2011) and the teen-oriented drama “Skins” (Channel 4, 2007- ). In 2008, he had a one-off appearance on an episode of “Doctor Who,” opposite the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, and he remained on in the Whoverse for a 2009 stint on “Torchwood” (BBC, 2006-2011) as bureaucrat John Frobisher. Around this time, Capaldi was able to shift his unforgettably ruthless character of Malcolm from “The Thick of It” to the big screen as part of Iannucci’s critically beloved feature “In the Loop,” which brought Gandolfini into the mix as an American general.
Returning to the director’s chair, Capaldi helmed numerous episodes of the hospital-set sitcom “Getting On” (BBC, 2009-2012) and appeared in a few installments as well. After bidding farewell to “The Thick of It” for its fourth and final season, he joined the ensemble of the period drama “The Hour” (BBC, 2011-12), only to help usher that series to its finale, too. After writing and directing the British mockumentary “The Cricklewood Greats” and playing a small role in the 2013 zombie epidemic epic “World War Z,” it was announced that Capaldi was taking over the role of the time-traveling Doctor from Matt Smith, following months of speculation. A fan of the intergalactic adventure series from his childhood, Capaldi seemed a fine fit for the role, with sci-fi devotees eagerly awaiting his first episode as the always-eccentric Doctor.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Irish born actress Peggy Marshall made her film debut in 1955 in “Tim Driscoll’s Donkey”. Her other films include “Woman of Straw” with Gina Lollobrigida, “The Fighting Prince of Donegal” with Peter McEnery and “The Jigsaw Man” in 1984.
William Franklyn was born in 1925 in Kensington, London. He made his acting debut in 1946 in “Arsenic and Old Lace” in Southend Pier. His films include “The Secret People” in 1952, “Out of the Clouds”, “Fury at Smuggler’s Bay” in 1961 and Polanski’s “Cul-de-sac” in 1966. He also had an extensive television career. He died in 2005.
Dennis Barker’s “Guardian” obituary:
Unimpressed, Leo decided his son should be a journalist, but agreed to go and see him perform in the comedy Arsenic and Old Lace on the pier at Southsea. “You’re getting your laughs – you’d better stick to it,” was his verdict.
It was the beginning of the career of an intelligent if not intellectual actor, which was to diversify into films, television series and panel games. He was for a time a job-guessing panellist on the BBC’s What’s My Line? quiz programme, made notorious by the irascible Gilbert Harding, in which Franklyn always remained calm. He called it “an acting job until you get relaxed into it”.
At one point, any title with the word “spy” in it obliged producers to telephone his agent. In the late 1970s, after he had survived the Schweppes connection for two years – he was dropped because producers still thought him too close to that role to offer him anything else – he was offered the role of host, quizmaster and interrogator on Master Spy. This was an ITV series in which members of the public were asked to decypher coded messages, disguise themselves, talk their way out of situations, outsmart foreign agents and identify a visiting celebrity wearing disguise. There were also appearances in The Avengers and The Scarlet Pimpernel.
In Pit of Darkness (1962), one of the fairly few cinema films in which he took the starring role, Franklyn was a husband manipulated and compromised in a murder investigation by mysterious conspiracies. Mercilessly exposed as the central player on the big screen, and playing a distracted part for which audience sympathy was vital, he seemed undemonstrative, even wooden.
Later, as a change of gear, he appeared in another television series, Paradise Island (1977), in which he played the entertainments officer of an ocean liner, who shared, after the ship went down, a desert island with Bill Maynard’s puritanical cleric. Neither this nor Master Spy enjoyed the laurels conferred on Top Secret, but they confirmed his reputation as an actor who could get laughs, without being a natural funny man.
Then, after a run of such West End comedies as There’s A Girl In My Soup and Tunnel Of Love, plus many film roles, his acting hit a dead patch. He bought himself a barrow and went from house to house in fashionable areas of London asking for “junk”, which he then sold as antiques from a shop in the Portobello Road. He was proud to say that when he started he had a bank overdraft of £1,700, whereas, when he stopped, as acting work reappeared, he was double that amount in credit.
He was even prouder of his work as a director, beginning with There’s A Girl in My Soup with an Italian cast (who spoke no English) in Italy. Franklyn took a six-week Berlitz crash course in Italian and returned from the production with anecdotes, carefully polished over the years, about how as a director of Italian actors it did not matter whether you spoke Italian or not because they chatted among themselves and took no notice of the director.
Franklyn’s stiff-upper-lip English persona (he loved cricket, squash and tennis and once tried to play for Essex as a fast bowler) was a durable one. In 1991, after appearances in 66 television shows and an eight-year absence from TV, he appeared again, this time as a smooth Tory nastie in Alan Bleasdale’s social drama series GBH. He was a judge in The Courtroom (2004), and in 2004-05, he was the voice of the Book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on Radio 4. His image may have been limiting, but it commanded a definite niche.
He was married first in 1952 to Margo Johns, by whom he had a daughter, and then to Susanna Jupp, by whom he had two daughters. She and his daughters survive him.
· William Franklyn, actor, born September 22 1925; died October 31 2006
Mildred Mayne
Mildred Mayne was born in Dublin. She made her film debut in “Take Me Over” in 1963. She was featured in such series as “Z Cars” and “Crown Court”.
Margaretta Scott was born in 1912 in London. She made her film debut in 1934 in “The Private Life of Don Juan” which starred Douglas Fairbanks. Her other movies include “Peg of Old Drury”, “Things to Come”, “Fanny by Gaslight” in 1945, “A Woman Possessed” in 1958 and “Crescendo” in 1970. She was featured in the very popular television series “All Creatures Great and Small” as Mrs Pumphrey from 1978 until 1980. She died in 2005. Her daughter is the actress Susan Wooldridge.
Michael Coveney’s “Guardian” obituary:
Margaretta Scott, who has died aged 93, was often in her later years recognised by the public as Mrs Pumphrey in the television series All Creatures Great And Small. But her distinguished career spanned 70 years of theatre and film and, as the last surviving signatory of the document that established Equity, the British actors’ union, in 1934, she was highly regarded in her profession.She first appeared on stage at the age of 14 as Mercutio’s page in Romeo And Juliet, at the Strand Theatre, starring Jean Forbes Robertson and Robert Lorraine; she was Ophelia in 1931 to the Hamlets of Henry Ainley and Godfrey Tearle. She worked with Tyrone Guthrie and Alec Guinness at the Old Vic, and with Bernard Shaw on the premiere of Androcles And The Lion in 1934. She was the first woman to appear in Shakespeare on television (as Portia) and was Gertrude to Peter O’Toole’s first Hamlet at the Bristol Old Vic in 1958.
Renowned for her poise, beauty, dark auburn hair and rich golden voice, Scott was busy in films and television throughout her career and was tireless in her support of charity organisations, including the Actors Charitable Trust. She enjoyed motoring and chess, but her real hobbies were her life and her family, although she was a widow for almost 50 years.
Her last stage appearances revealed that the romantic lead had grown into a grand dame. In 1985, she returned to the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park (where she had played Viola and Miranda in the 1930s) as Madame Desmortes in Jean Anouilh’s Ring Round The Moon, “a selfish old aristocrat in a wheelchair,” wrote BA Young in the Financial Times, “to whom Margaretta Scott gives all the breeding in France, and a little over”. In Harold Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1995, in a cast led by Leo McKern, Nichola McAuliffe and Graham Turner, her imperious, splendidly articulated Mrs Hepworth had an impeccable sense of middle-class authority in the Salford shoe shop.
She was the daughter of Bertha Eugene and the music critic Hugh Arthur Scott. She was born in London and educated at the Convent of the Holy Child in Cavendish Square and RADA, where she shared a scholarship with Celia Johnson and was awarded the Kendal prize. After a repertory season in Hull, her West End career began in The Lilies Of The Field at the Criterion in 1929.
She soon became known for Shakespeare, notably in Regent’s Park and then as Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Old Vic in 1936, directed by Guthrie. The cast included Guinness, Rachel Kempson, Ernest Milton and Alec Clunes. During the war, she did two seasons at Stratford-on-Avon, as Juliet, Viola, Portia, Lady Macbeth and Rosalind, and she toured with Ensa, the services entertainment organisation, in North Africa and Italy.
She married the composer John Wooldridge, a pupil of Sibelius and contemporary and friend of William Walton; he spent the war in Bomber Command. His promising career ended in a fatal car accident at the age of 39 in 1958. By then, Scott’s film work was almost complete and she concentrated on the stage and her busy London life, in an area bounded by Fitzroy Square, Molyneux Street (in the years of her marriage) and Marble Arch.
Her screen debut was an uncredited appearance in Alexander Korda’s The Private Life Of Don Juan (1934) starring Douglas Fairbanks and Merle Oberon; but she came into her own in Korda’s imaginative production of HG Wells’s Things To Come (1936), with Raymond Massey and Ralph Richardson. Other screen roles followed: as Judith Bentley in Carol Reed’s The Girl In The News (1940); Marcia Royd in Anthony Asquith’s attractive comedy Quiet Wedding (1940); and Alicia in Asquith’s stylish melodrama Fanny By Gaslight (1944). In this period, the British cinema was rich in acting talent – James Mason, Michael Redgrave and Peggy Ashcroft; Scott was part of this elite and continued in it to the 1960s.
Back in the West End, she appeared with Anthony Quayle in William Douglas Home’s The Right Honourable Gentleman (1963), and with Celia Johnson and Ralph Richardson in Angela Huth’s The Understanding (1982). She became a specialist in Oscar Wilde, appearing in London and on tour in the four major comedies. Her television work in the 1970s included leading roles in The Duchess Of Duke Street and Upstairs Downstairs.
She is survived by her daughter, the actor Susan Wooldridge, and her son, the director, Hugh Wooldridge.
· Margaretta Scott, actor, born February 13 1912; died April 15 2005
The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.
Kenneth Farrington was born in 1936. He came to fame for his role as Billy Walker of the Rovers Return in “Coronation Street”. He also starred in “Emmerdale”. His films include “One Way Pendulum” in 1964 and “Robbery” with Stanley Baker in 1967.
“Corriepedia”:
(born 18th April, 1936) is a British actor who had a regular role on Coronation Streetbetween 1961 and 1984 as Billy Walker, the only son of Rovers Return Inn licensees Jack and Annie Walker. His other credits include The Avengers, Redcap, Danger UXB and Family Affairs, although Ken may be more familiar to recent soap opera viewers as the ruthless businessman Tom King in ITV soap Emmerdale, who was killed off in the programme in December 2006.
Farrington was born and brought up in Peckham, London and won a scholarship to Alleyn’s school in Dulwich where he was encouraged in acting by English teacher Michael Croft. After leaving school he joined the National Youth Theatre and RADA. After the interruption of his national service he worked at the Duchess Theatre and the Old Vic before resuming his training at RADA. Until 1981 he was married to Patricia Heneghan who appeared in Coronation Street as Marian Lund in 1961.
Tania Mallet was one of the top models in Britain in the 1960’s. She was born in 1941 in Blackpool. She only made one major films but is remembered fondely for her role as Tilly Masterson, sister of Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) in the best James Bond of all “Goldfinger” in 1964 opposite Sean Connery. Ms Mallet died in 2019 aged 77.
IMDB entry:
Tania Mallet was born in the seaside resort of Blackpool, England. She took a course at Lucy Clayton’s School Of Modelling, and started working as a model at just 16 years old.
In 1963 she was considered for the role of the lead Bond girl in From Russia with Love(1963) , but she didn’t get it. However, the following year she was cast in the next Bond film, Goldfinger (1964) , playing the ill-fated, Tilly Masterson. She agreed to appear in “Goldfinger” as an experiment. She was earning £2,000 a week as a model, and after much bargaining managed to secure only £150 a week as her fee for the film. She claimed that she could not afford to continue working as an actress, because she was earning more as a model.
Tania had mixed feelings about her time on “Goldfinger”. Filming was fun, but in her personal life her long-time boyfriend had died at the same time. She took a couple of other tiny roles in smaller films, including Michael Winner‘s The Girl-Getters (1964) but had no desire to pursue a career as an actress. She is married to her second husband. She continues to attend Bond events and autographs her photographs at these events.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Ramstep
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Standing against the dramatic backdrop of the Furka Pass, high in the Swiss Alps, Tania Mallet looked so prim and proper in her white blouse and sensible skirt that she might have passed muster as Julie Andrews’s understudy in The Sound of Music.
The wholesome image was only marred by the telescopic rifle in her right hand, for her mission as Tilly Masterson in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger was murderous.
One of three Bond girls in the film, Mallet was cast as the avenging sister of Jill Masterson (played by Shirley Eaton), aide-de-camp to the film’s eponymous villain who, after being seduced by Sean Connery’s Bond, is painted gold as a punishment for betraying her boss and dies from “skin suffocation”.
After tracking Goldfinger down to Switzerland, Tilly fails to kill her prey and meets her own grisly end, courtesy of an accurate throw of Oddjob’s hat with sharpened steel rim.
After this flirtation with Hollywood stardom she returned to the better-paid job of modelling for glossy fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harpers & Queen. The decision to walk away from a film career was entirely her own. At the time she was earning up to £1,000 a week as a model.
“The money was dreadful,” she said of her brief time as a Bond girl. “Originally I was offered £50 per week, which I managed to push up to £150. But even so I earned more than that in a day modelling, so the six months I was retained to work on Goldfinger were a real sacrifice.”
She was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, in 1941. Her father, Henry Mallet, was a successful car salesman. Olga (née Mironoff), her Russian mother, was a chorus girl whose father had been a colonel in the Imperial Russian Army. He was in Britain to negotiate an arms deal when the Russian Revolution broke out and he and his family were stranded and unable to return home.
The story grew more colourful after Tania’s parents divorced and her mother married George Dawson, the controversial property magnate who served a prison sentence for fraud. Her mother’s brother, Vasily Mironoff, was the father of Helen Mirren, making them first cousins. Mirren wrote in her autobiography that her “impossibly beautiful and kind” cousin had “survived this extraordinary upbringing and came out miraculously a loyal and generous person”, who supported her mother financially and paid for her brothers’ education.
After attending schools in England and France, at 16 she enrolled at a modelling school, the Lucie Clayton Charm Academy, where friends and contemporaries included Jean Shrimpton, Celia Hammond and Sandra Howard, the wife of Michael Howard, the former Conservative Party leader. By the late Fifties she had become one of the London fashion scene’s hottest properties, appearing on magazine covers photographed by everyone from Cecil Beaton to David Bailey.
Sean Gallagher was born in 1965 in Luton. In 2006 he starred as Paul Connor in “Coronation Street”. His other roles include Chip in “Doctor Who” with David Tennant and Mal Faith in TV’s “Rock Rivals”. His films include “Jock of the Bushveld” in 1992 and “Offending Angels” in 2000.
IMDB entry:
Sean Gallagher was born in 1967 in Kent, England as Sean Campbell Gallagher. He is an actor, known for Coronation Street (1960), Jock: A True Tale of Friendship (1994) andMaking a Killing (2002).
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.