British Actors Archives - Page 81 of 130

Steven Waddington

Steven Waddington. TCM Overview.

Steven Waddington was born in 1968 in Leeds. He made his movie debut in 1991 in Derek Jarman’s “Edward the 2nd”. The following year he garnered very positive reveiws for his performance as the doomed major in “The Last of the Mohicans”. His other movies include “Carrington”, “Prince of Jutland” and “Sleepy Hollow”. Interview with Steven Waddington on “Loose Women” here.

TCM Overview:

Born and raised a steelworker’s son in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, actor Steven Waddington enjoyed a long, if somewhat unsung career. After portraying the title lead in “Edward II” (1991), an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s play about Britain’s only acknowledged gay monarch – a conflict which eventually led to civil war – Waddington came to prominence with “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992). In Michael Mann’s historical adventure, Waddington played the persistent, but ultimately spurned suitor of the daughter (Madeline Stowe) of an English officer (Maurice Roeves) rescued in the woods by the adopted son of the Mohican, Chingachgook (Daniel Day-Lewis). He continued his period pieces trend with the dismal “1492: The Conquest of Paradise” (1992), before returning to a contemporary setting in “Don’t Get Me Started” (1993), playing the old friend of a former mob hit man (Trevor Eve) who is threatening to expose his criminal past on national television.

After an unceremonious role as a construction worker in the NBC movie, “Take Me Home Again” (1994), Waddington returned to the past with “Royal Deceit” (1994), Saxo Grammaticus’ 12th century chronicle about a young prince who sees his father and brother murdered by his uncle and feigns madness to exact revenge – the very story William Shakespeare based Hamlet on. In another period film, “Carrington” (1995), Waddington played a strapping young army officer who marries painter Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson), but attracts the attention of literary critic and author, Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce). He next played a British SAS officer sent with a team to destroy SCUD missiles inside Iraq during Operation Desert Storm in “The One That Got Away” (A&E, 1996), before portraying the onetime cellmate of a leftist political activist (Robert Carlyle) who plans the robbery of a major London security firm in “Face” (1997). Another unceremonious role – this time as a cowboy in a bank in “Breakdown” (1998) – was followed by a meatier role as a ruthless explorer trying to find the lost city of Opar in “Tarzan and the Lost City” (1998).

Following a bit part in Tim Burton’s creepy “Sleepy Hollow” (1999), Waddington appeared in “The Parole Officer” (2001), playing a former boxer-turned-fisherman and only one of three convicts ever rehabilitated by a klutzy parole officer (Steve Coogan). Waddington was little more than window dressing in “The Hole” (2003), a straight-to-video thriller about four private school students who investigate a mysterious hole leading to an abandoned World War II bomb shelter.

He next played King Prasutagus in “Warrior Queen” (PBS, 2003), leader of a Celtic tribe on the British Isles in the 1st century A.D. who dies and leaves his queen (Alex Kingston) to defend his people against the Roman emperor Nero (Andrew Lee Potts). Waddington next portrayed Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex and chief minister to King Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in “The Tudors” (2007- ), Showtime’s lavish 10-part series depicting the brutal monarch in younger, thinner times, before he split with the Catholic Church. The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Joanna McCallum was born in 1950 and is the daughter of actors Googie Withers and John McCallum. She made her film debut in her mother’s movie made in Australia “Nickel Queen” in 1971. She gained great reviews for her performance in TV’s “Testament of Youth” in 1979 and “Good Behaviour” in 1983. Recently she has been very active on British television drama series such as “Doctors”, “New Tricks”, “Law & Order UK” and “Holby City”.

Agent’s page here.

Kate O’Mara obituary in “The Guardian” in 2014.

Kate O’Mara

Beautiful Kate O’Mara was born in 1939 in Leicester. She made her stage debut in “The Merchant of Venice” in 1963. Among her film credits are “Great Catherine” with Peter O’Toole and Jeanne Moreau and “The Tamarind Seed” in 1974 with Omar Sharif, Julie Andrews and Sylvia Syms. She has an extensive career in television drama including “The Brothers”, “Howards Way” and in Hollywood as Carress Morell sister of Joan Collins in “Dynasty”. She sadly died in 2014.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Kate O’Mara was born Frances Meredith Carroll on August 10, 1939 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. A hard-looking brunette with high cheekbones, Kate was the daughter of actress Hazel Bainbridge and John Carroll and prodded into performing as a child. Educated at the Aida Foster School, she began an early career as a speech therapist at a Sussex Girls’ School, but her attraction to acting got the best of her and she switched gears, making her debut in a stage production of “The Merchant of Venice” in 1963 at age 24.

She continued to appear in classical works throughout the next two seasons until television series spots started coming her way. Kate attracted gothic notice in Hammer Studio horror films as tawdry, darkly alluring femmes in both The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) and The Vampire Lovers (1970), but her film load over the years would remain sporadic.

She had remained focused on stage endeavours in the ensuing years and had appeared in many British television series as well as various femme fatales or shady ladies. She made little leeway in America but did appear as Joan Collins equally bitchy sister for one season of Dynasty (1981) in 1986. She was also delightfully vindictive in episodes ofDoctor Who (1963) and Absolutely Fabulous (1992) in England. She relished a standout role in the long-running British soap opera Crossroads (2001). In the 1980s, she founded and toured in a theatre company (The British Actor’s Theatre Company), which had continued running into the millennium. She had since published two books: “When She Was Bad” in 1991 and “Good Time Girl” in 1993. Kate O’Mara died at age 74 on March 30, 2014 after a short illness in a nursing home in Sussex, England.

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

Her obituary fron the Guardian newspaper can be accessed here.

Steve Huison was born in 1963 in Leeds.He made his acting debut in 1991 in the television series “Stay Lucky”. He came to national fame in the UK in the megahit film “The Full Monty” in 1997. His other films include “Among Giants” and “L.A. Without A Map”. Recently he was Eddie Windass the endearing layabout in “Coronation Street”.

Jean Aubrey is a Briitish actress who made her movie debut in 1955 in “Three Cornered Fate”. Her other films include “The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp”, “As Long As They’re Happy” and “Date At Midnight”.

Robert Hardy was born in Cheltleham in 1925. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in the long running television series “All Creatures Great and Small” which ran from 1978 until 1990. His films include “Torpedo Run” in 1959,”Psychomania” in 1971 and “Young Winston”.

IMDB entry:

One of England’s most enduringly successful character actors, Robert Hardy is noted for his versatility and depth. Born in Cheltenham in 1925, he studied at Oxford University and, in 1949, he joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon. Television viewers most fondly remember him as the overbearing Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small (1978) but his most critically acclaimed performance was as the title character of Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981). His portrayal of Britain’s wartime leader was so accurately observed that, in the following years, he was called on to reprise the role in such productions as The Woman He Loved (1988) and War and Remembrance (1988).

Unlike some British character actors, Hardy has never been recognized by Hollywood and his work in films has therefore been restricted to appearances in predominantly British-based productions such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), Frankenstein(1994) and Sense and Sensibility (1995). He has been awarded the CBE for services to acting.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: anonymous

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Winifrid Shotter was born in 1904 in London. She made her film debut in 1929 in “Peace and Quiet”. Her other films include “Rookery Nook”, “Candles at Nine” with Jessie Mathews and her final film “John & Julie” in 1955. She died in 1996 at the age of 91.

“Independent” obituary by Molly Weir:

Winifred Shotter was an unforgettable star in the famous Aldwych farces written by Ben Travers, which were staged before and during the Second World War

Long before Brian Rix was dropping his trousers at the Whitehall Theatre in the Fifties, Shotter was appearing at the Aldwych Theatre as an enchanting “flapper” who had to be hidden for fear of discovery by prim visiting relatives, and she sent the house into screams of warning appreciative laughter as she raced downstairs from the bedroom and across the stage clad only in exquisitely revealing pink crepe-de-Chine camiknickers.

Her ladylike terror as she reacted to Robertson Hare’s horrified cries of “Oh calamity!” enchanted the audience; Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls aided and abetted the chase. Winifred Shotter was classy, frightened femininity at its best.

Those farces filled the Aldwych for years. The first was in 1925. Shotter appeared in Rookery Nook (1926), Thark (1927), Plunder (1928), A Cup of Kindness (1929) and Turkey Time (1931). She also performed in early British films with great success, and may be seen occasionally in old black-and- white films on television. Several of the Aldwych plays (Rookery Nook, 1930, produced by Herbert Wilcox, was one) were also made into films.

When she became engaged in 1951 to Gilbert Davis, one of the band of English actors who found fame in Hollywood because of his impeccable manners and excellent speaking voice, I shared in the most glamorous occasion of my life. To celebrate their betrothal Davis booked the Royal Box at Drury Lane on 1 November 1951 for the first night of South Pacific.

Bewigged flunkies with breaches and silk hose attended to us, served tea and sandwiches at the interval, and the royal loo was ours for the evening. Great names stared up curiously from the stalls to see who occupied the box and we looked down upon the Attenboroughs and the John Millses and others as splendid. Everyone was there but Winifred Shotter. She was appearing in the show she did every Christmas season, Where the Rainbow Ends, and not even a betrothal would allow her to miss a performance and disappoint her audience. She joined us at the Caprice for supper. After her marriage, Shotter virtually gave up acting. When taxation rose vertiginously in Britain, she and Davis moved to Montreux, in Switzerland, where they stayed until his death, when Shotter returned to England. She lived for some years in Surrey. I think Winifred Shotter must be one of the last actresses who never lost her elegance or her perfect manners, or her charm. She adorned every occasion she attended.

Winifred Shotter, actress: born 5 November 1904; married 1931 Michael Green (marriage dissolved), 1952 Gilbert Davis (deceased); died Redhill, Surrey 4 April 1996.

The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Michael Kitchen. IMDB.

Michael Kitchen is perhaps best known for his portryal of Inspector Foyle in the long running television series “Foyle’s War” which is set during World War Two in Britain. He was born in 1948 in Leicester. He studied at RADA and has been a prolific presence in quality productions on television since 1973. Among his TV credits are “Brimstone and Treacle” and “Caught On A Train” opposite Peggy Ashcroft. His films include “Goldeneye” and “Out of Africa”.

IMDB entry:

Michael Kitchen was born on October 31, 1948 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. He is an actor and producer, known for Out of Africa (1985), GoldenEye (1995) and The World Is Not Enough (1999). He has been married to Rowena Miller since 1988. They have two children.ociate Member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.Graduated from RADA.On Foyle’s War (2002):

When the series first went out in the States, for example, at the front of each episode a rather eminent historian spent a couple of minutes on camera explaining how that episode related to the period of war it’s set in, what actual incidents have inspired it along with various things to look out for during the course of the programme. I think it’s a great shame something similar doesn’t happen when the series is screened in the UK. It undeniably adds another level and depth to the programme, not to mention the success this sort of prologue or introduction has had in the past – the Alfred Hitchcock series for example.

Catherine McCormack was born in Hampshire in 1972. She won the role of leading lady to Mel Gibson in “Braveheart” in 1985. Her other films include “Dangerous Beauty” and “Dancing at Lughnasa”. She has an extensive body of work in the theatre.

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

Steven Waddington

Steven Waddington. TCM Overview.

Joanna McCallum

Kate O’Mara

Kate O’Mara obituary in “The Guardian” in 2014.

Steve Huison

Jean Aubrey

Robert Hardy

Winifrid Shotter

Michael Kitchen

Michael Kitchen. IMDB.

Catherine McCormack

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