Contemporary Actors
Chris Fountain was born in 1987 in Bradford, Yorkshire. He came to national fame in the U.K. with his role in “Hollyoaks”. He went on to play P.C. Paul Tait in the BBC drama “Five Days”. He is currently on “Coronation Street” as Tommy Duckworth the cheeky lodger of Tyrone Dobbs.
Conor Mullen was born in 1962 in Dublin. His many television credits include “Holby City”, “Single-handed”, “Rough Diamond”and “Proof”. On film he has starred in “The Tiger’s Tail” and “Puckoon”.
Article by Ciara O’Dwyer in “Independent.ie”:
‘THE older you get, the more you think, Jesus, I better start being a bit more serious,” says Sutton-born actor Conor Mullen. “But then again, it has worked out fine for me so far. You always want to do better work and better paid work if you can get it, but you don’t want to spend your time constantly working towards something and missing everything along the way. I wouldn’t be terribly driven. For me, the more relaxed I am, the better I work anyway.”
He shouldn’t change a thing. Mullen is a marvellous actor. He has real presence, a wonderfully rich voice and he is believable in everything he does. And with his blue eyes, high cheekbones and blond hair, theSteve McQueen lookalike is very easy on the system too. I once travelled to London especially to see a production of a play in which he starred. It was Conor McPherson‘s brilliant This Lime Tree Bower at the Bush Theatre. (After a quiet run in Dublin at the Crypt Theatre, London audiences couldn’t get enough of it. And they were right.) It was well worth the trek.
That spell in the Bush proved to be very fruitful for Mullen. It was then that his extensive career in television dramas in the UK took off. Producers and agents spotted him and snapped him up. Soon they were offering him great work. A part in the television series Reckless, starring Francesca Annis, was followed by a stint in Soldier, Soldier. And on he soared. Many people may know him from his work in Holby City and Silent Witness.
A lot of the time, Mullen plays bad guys. At the moment, you can see him on your TV screen in Raw, where he plays Larry Deane.
“I’m usually a nasty piece of work,” says Mullen. “I play all the psychopaths. Type-cast again.” He laughs. He has a very easy way about him. It is refreshing to come across someone so calm and laid -back, especially in these frantic times.
When I meet him, he has just finished a day’s rehearsal for No Romance. (It is running in the Peacock until April 2.) Mullen plays the part of Michael, a frazzled man who travels down to West Cork with his PlayStation-addicted son, and plans to take his own mother up to Dublin and put her in a nursing home.
“He is a man under a severe amount of pressure and he doesn’t respond well to pressure,” says Mullen. “His marriage has fairly recently broken down acrimoniously. He’s trying to cultivate a relationship with his son and that’s not working out. (He tells him to get his head out of that f***ing PlayStation.) And he’s trying to put his mother into a nursing home because he’s worried that something is going to happen to her, but she doesn’t want to go. He’s trampling on her rights. The play deals with the question of when are you within your rights to take away somebody else’s rights?
“Michael is a very selfish individual. It’s all about what the situation means to him and how is he going to cope with it. He is falling apart. He’s so wired. It’s good fun because there are great lines in it. It’s so well written. Usually the best writing doesn’t feel like work. It’s the easiest to do.”
It has been a while since Mullen has been on our Dublin stages. Four years ago, he was at the Gate in Lady Windermere’s Fan and before that it was in the Peacock in Patrick Marber‘s Closer. “It’s about time that I got back out,” he says.
Whether people know it or not, Mullen infiltrates our lives. He does a lot of voice-over work, and in particular most people probably have daily contact with him as the voice of Eircom. It is his golden voice that you can hear when you pick up the phone to be told: “You have no new messages.”
“All actors are delighted to get a voice-over job,” he says. “You’ve got to have a few strings to your bow. If you decided that you’re only going to do theatre, the chances are you’re not going to be going from one play to the next. You wouldn’t be able to survive. Some people do character voices for cartoons and some do voice-overs, so you do whatever you can to keep going.”
There was a spell when it seemed there was only a handful of actors doing voice-overs, but Mullen says that it’s different these days. “The voice-over work is still going strong, but there’s a lot more people doing it now.”
All the same, his voice is beautifully resonant. What does he do to keep it so rich? “It’s just bad living,” he says.
Although he is serious about his work, the delightful thing about Mullen is that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. I’ve always had a soft spot for him, ever since he told me that he was great at staring out of a window and doing nothing. I interviewed him 10 years ago and he still looks very fresh faced; so glowing, that I presume he’s just back from a holiday. Not so. “It’s probably blood pressure,” he says.
The 49-year-old has hardly aged at all. It feels a bit odd to ask a man what he does to keep so youthful, but he does look incredibly well. U2’s Larry Mullen Jr is his cousin and he is another Dorian Gray. So, is this from the Mullen side of the family? “My father passed away last year. He was 85 and he looked great, but my mother will be reading this, so you better say that it’s from her side of the family.”
But what does he do? “No, I’m not doing facials and I haven’t had Botox.” Then he pulls a pious face. “Prayer. I have my faith and it stood to me.” There’s more laughter.
In some ways, Mullen is an accidental actor. He tried many lives for size before he made up his mind that he was going to have a bash at this acting lark. He grew up in Sutton, the third of six children. His mother was a keen theatre-goer and so the family were treated to trips to the Gaiety pantomime.
Both parents were pharmacists and they had a chemist shop in Terenure. Mullen confesses that he didn’t really apply himself when he was at school and then he was shocked when his Leaving Cert results were mediocre. University was not an option.
Instead, he did an Anco course in sales and, supplied with a car, he went on to work as a sales merchandiser for Guinness and later Wrigley chewing gum. Then his father offered him a job. (By that stage, he was selling medical supplies instead of working in the Terenure pharmacy.)
“I knew nothing about it,” says Mullen. “I was selling everything from mammary implants to TB drugs to blood filters. The products were very good. They spoke for themselves, apparently, because I didn’t know how to speak for them.”
When I ask how his love of theatre began, he is at a loss to pinpoint a specific event. He tells me that he just started going to see plays. Joe Dowling’s production of Death of a Salesman, starring Ray McAnally, had a lasting effect on him. It wasn’t long before he signed up for acting classes at the Brendan Smith Academy and shortly after that he headed to New York, to study acting at The Neighbourhood Playhouse for two years.
“I wanted to get away and it was a toss of a coin really,” he says. “It was going to be London, but London wasn’t far enough away. I wanted to be gone and to have a whole new world.”
New York fitted the bill. “I stayed with an old maiden aunt for a few weeks, then crashed on a couch and eventually I was living in Manhattan in a sublet. One of the first jobs I got was a lifeguard in a swimming pool in a 24-hour gym.”
Was he qualified? “Not at all. I told them that my certification was in the post. I could just about swim. I could splash around and tell people to get out of the water. I worked from 11 at night until seven in the morning. It was like something out of a David Lynch film, sitting by the pool at three in the morning with no one in it.”
He adds: “The thing about New York, and I’m sure that it’s still the same, from the moment you arrive, you feel part of it, because New York is whoever is there at that moment.”
Did he go wild while he was there? “I did go a bit feral all right.”
When he returned to Dublin, he started auditioning for roles. Eventually, theatre work came in. And along the way, he was approached to do some voice-over work.
These days, Mullen lives in Howth with his wife, the Scottish actress Fiona Bell, and their three-year-old daughter Cassie. (He has two daughters — Hannah and Georgia — from his first marriage.)
Does he feel ancient being a father second time around? “No. I don’t feel ancient anyway. I know it’s a cliche, but kids keep you young. Cassie is great. She’s at that age where she’s all chat and running around the place and coming up with mad ideas.
“Hannah is in college doing Communications and Georgia is still at school. But it’s nice with Cassie there — Hannah and Georgia are around more, playing with her.”
When Cassie was born, Mullen decided to take a bit of time off and stay at home. He had done six months of TV work in the UK, so life was good. But after his break, the phone didn’t ring.
“It was kind of like falling off a cliff,” he says. “It’s only in recent years when you’re too old to do anything else, you think, how am I going to pay the bills? I started getting worried and saying this is a tough job. It was always a tough job, but the last few years I’ve been out of work for longer periods than ever before.”
After a very quiet year, work picked up. He did Single-Handed, Raw and When Harvey Met Bob. Is it a worry with two actors in the house? “If you’re not working, you’re not paying the bills. It doesn’t matter who is working, as long as somebody is working. But mostly I’ve been fortunate,” he adds, then smiles.
And so it will continue. Conor Mullen will be just fine. He’s very good at what he does. Cream always rises to the top.
No Romance is showing at the Peacock Theatre until April 2, and is directed by Wayne Jordan. Tickets are priced from €13. For more information, visit www.abbeytheatre.ie or telephone (01) 878-87222
Sunday Indo Living
The above “Independent.ie” article can also be accessed online here.
Robert De Niro is a true icon of the cinema and one of the very best of American actors. He was born in 1943 in New York City. He made his film debut at the age of 20 in 1963 in Brian De Palma’s “The Wedding” with Jill Clayburgh. In 1973 he came to international acclaim for his performance in “Bang the Drum Slowly”. The folowing year he won a major role in “TYhe Godfather Part 2” and won a best supporting actor for his performance.His other major films include “Mean Streets”, “Taxi Driver”, “Raging Bull (for which he won a Best Actor Oscar) ,”The King of Comedy”, “Goodfellas”, “Casino” and “Heat”
TCM overview:
Often regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was also one of the most enigmatic and remained famously tight-lipped about his personal life throughout his career. After gaining attention in “Bang the Drum Slowly” (1973), De Niro exploded onto the public’s consciousness as the reckless Johnny Boy in “Mean Streets” (1973), which commenced his partnership with Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest actor-director combos of all time. He earned his first Academy Award as a young Vito Corleone in “The Godfather Part II” (1974) and delivered his most iconic performance as would-be vigilante Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver” (1976). De Niro offered a haunting turn as a Vietnam veteran in “The Deer Hunter” (1978), before gaining 60 pounds to play boxer Jake La Motta in “Raging Bull” (1980). From there, he delivered great performances in “The King of Comedy” (1983), “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), “The Untouchables” (1987) and “Awakenings” (1990). He reunited with Scorsese for “Goodfellas” (1990) and “Casino” (1995), and starred opposite Al Pacino in “Heat” (1995), but took a surprising turn to comedy in “Analyze This” (1999) and “Meet the Parents” (2000), both commercial hits that opened him up to criticism that he had sold out. Despite calls that he was past his prime, there was never any doubt as to where De Niro stood in the history of acting – he was a towering figure with an amazing body of work unmatched by most actors of any generation.
The full TCM overview can be accessed here.
Zeljko Ivanek was born in Slovenia in 1957. When he was three years old, his parents emigrated to the U.S. His movie debut came in 1982 in “The Soldier”. Another early film credit was “Mass Appeal” with Jack Lemmon. He has had an extensive career on the stage and in television. He was part of the cast of the long running HBO series “Oz”.
TCM overview:
Even though most people could not pronounce Zeljko Ivanek’s name, there was no denying he made an impression every time he appeared onscreen. Already an accomplished stage star, Ivanek appeared in several film and TV projects, often as conniving and evil men who wore three-piece suits. His performance as a smooth-talking Southern lawyer in “Damages” (FX, 2007- ) earned the Slovenian-born actor his first time Emmy Award nomination and win in 2008, where he went up against his co-star Ted Danson for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
Zeljko Ivanek (pronounced Zhel-ko Ee-vah-nik) was born on Aug. 15, 1957 in Ljubljana, Slovenia (then a part of Yugoslavia). The actor was just three years old when his parents brought him to the United States in 1960. Ivanek graduated from Yale University in 1978 before attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. “I started in theater in New York, and it’s a smaller community, and it feels like you know the ins and outs more,” Ivanek said. His theater training paid off in 1981, when the actor won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, for a production of Caryl Churchill’s “Cloud Nine.” A year later, he originated the role of Hally in the Athol Fugard play, “Master Harold and the Boys.”
Broadway gave Ivanek an outlet to showcase his exceptional acting skills, even honoring him with multiple Tony Award nominations, including one for his performance in the original production of “Brighton Beach Memoirs” (1983). He also received critical praise – and more Tony nods – for “Two Shakespearean Actors” (1992) and for playing Captain Queeg in “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial” (2006). The marquee star never thought about changing his name, stating that even though it had been suggested, “it always seemed very peculiar to have my parents see me using a different name.”
Ivanek’s first feature film appearance was playing a hitchhiker in “Tex” (1982). Since that time, the actor’s roles got bigger and meatier, with unforgettable turns as Bobby Kennedy in “The Rat Pack” (1998), a District Attorney in Lars Von Trier’s heartbreaking “Dancer in the Dark” (2000), and a doctor in “Hannibal” (2001). Von Trier was so enthralled by the passion and depth Ivanek brought his characters that he cast the actor in two more films, “Dogville” (2003) and “Manderlay” (2005).
Perhaps even more than his stage and film appearances, Ivanek was mostly recognized for his extensive and impressive television resume. While still acting on Broadway, Ivanek joined the cast of the mystery soap series “The Edge of Night” (CBS, 1956-1975, ABC, 1975-1984) as Sammy Wheaton. He had supporting roles throughout the 1980s in shows like “St. Elsewhere” (NBC, 1982-88) and “L.A. Law” (NBC, 1986-1994) before landing a recurring role as prosecuting attorney Ed Danvers in “Homicide: Life on the Street” (NBC, 1993-99).
In 1998, Ivanek was cast as Astronaut Ken Mattingly in the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon” (HBO). He reprised his role of Ed Danvers for the 2000 film “Homicide, and two years later, Ivanek got cast in another recurring role – this time as Andre Drazen, the man who plotted to kill Senator David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) and frame Jack Bauer ( Keifer Sutherland) in “24” (FOX, 2001- ).
Ivanek was not one to take on one acting job at a time. While acting in “24,” he also appeared on episodes of “The Practice” (ABC, 1997-2004), “The Twilight Zone” (UPN, 2002-03), and the gritty prison drama “Oz” (HBO, 1997-2003). In the latter, Ivanek played chillingly evil Governor James Devlin, the inmate-hated politician who advocated “No perks for prisoners.” The year 2007 proved to be a big year for the Slovenian star, playing FBI Agent Molina in the film “Live Free or Die Hard” with Bruce Willis, and getting cast as the charmingly manipulative Southern lawyer Ray Fiske in the FX series “Damages.”
Though his character ended up committing suicide in the first season of the show, Ivanek’s performance caught the attention of Emmy voters, who gave him the statue in 2008. Asked about the irony of getting nominated for a role he could not reprise, the actor said, “It was just such a great part that when it happened, it was a wonderful way to end it and put a cap on it. It was such a nice bow to tie it all up.” That same year, Ivanek portrayed Pennsylvania representative John Dickinson in the HBO miniseries “John Adams,” opposite Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney.
Colin Salmon was born in 1962 in London. He is perhaps probably best known for his participation as Charles Robinson in three of the James Bond movies, “Tomorrow Never Dies” in 1997″The World Is Not Enough” and “Die Another Day” in 2002, all of which starred Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Salmon has also starred in “Freeze Frame”, “Match Point” and “Clubbed”. He is a very striking looking actor with a magnificent voice.
IMDB entry:
Colin Salmon is one of Britain’s most renowned actors. With a bold voice and posture, Colin makes his characters a favorite among audiences for every role he plays. He made his feature debut as Sgt. Robert Oswald in the British mega-hit mini-series Prime Suspect 2 (1992), which gave him much acclaim among British audiences. He has a recurring role in the James Bond films as Charles Robinson, M’s Chief of Staff. He has also appeared as the Commander James “One” Shade in the video game-to-movieResident Evil (2002) and played Oonu, squad leader of the Skybax in the mini-seriesDinotopia (2002) . His other film credits include Captives (1994), The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998), Fanny and Elvis (1999), Mind Games (2001), and My Kingdom (2001). His theater credits include Ariadne at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
A laconic performer whose trademark bushy mustache and deep gravely voice made him perfect for Western roles, actor Sam Elliott unfortunately emerged at a time when that particular genre had run its course.
As one of the last actors to sign an exclusive contract under the old studio system, Elliott struggled to find his footing in the feature world, which led to getting his start on the small screen with a regular series role on “Mission: Impossible” (CBS, 1966-1973) during the show’s last season.
Following several made-for-television movies and guest starring roles on episodes of “Hawaii Five-O” (CBS, 1968-1980) and “Police Woman” (NBC, 1974-78), he earned critical acclaim – as well as the enmity of Paramount Pictures – for his leading role in the cult favorite, “Lifeguard” (1976).
But Elliott made his greatest impression in the following decade, particularly as a rough-and-tumble, but good-hearted biker in “Mask” (1985), a performance that brought the actor widespread attention.
From there, Elliott went back and forth between television and features, turning in one quality performance after another, many of which were variations on the gruff cowboy or the tough, but wise authority figure.
Though initially frustrated with playing virtually the same role in numerous projects, Elliott came to appreciate the fortune given to him. With rock solid supporting performances in “Tombstone” (1993), “The Big Lebowski” (1998), “The Contender” (2000) and “Thank You for Smoking” (2006),
Elliott had established himself as one of Hollywood’s most prolific and sought-after character actors.
Kathy Najimy was born in 1957 in San Diego. She is perhaps best known for her roles in television’s “Veronic’a Closet” and Sister Mary Patrick in “Sister Act”. Other roles include “Soapdish”, “The Fisher King” and “Hocus Pocus”.
TCM Overview:
A dark-haired, comic character actress with stage experience, Kathy Najimy played small, outlandish roles (e.g., a crazed video store customer in “The Fisher King” 1991; the observing costume mistress in “Soap Dish” 1991) in several films before her scene-stealing turn as the rotund, maniacally sunny-spirited Sister Mary Patrick in the unexpectedly popular “Sister Act” (1992). She followed up with her role as the obsequious, ever-hungry Mary Sanderson, one of a trio of witches accidentally reincarnated, in the Disney comedy, “Hocus Pocus” (1993) before recreating her religious role in the inevitable sequel, “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit” (1993). Reportedly. For the sequel she reportedly demanded and received $1 million. Oddly, other feature film roles did not follow and she was almost entirely off the big screen until 1995’s “Jeffrey”, in what amounted to a cameo, and “Nevada” (1997), a contemporary Western about a town seemingly populated only by women.
Najimy’s TV career began as an extension of her stage work. She reprised her OBIE-winning performance in “The Kathy & Mo Show” in two HBO specials, “Kathy & Mo: Parallel Lives” (1993) and “Kathy & Mo: The Dark Side” (1995), winning CableACE Awards along the way. Along with partner Maureen ‘Mo’ Gaffney, Najimy produced, wrote and co-starred in the shows, which were tinges with feminist and Catholic humor. The pair portrayed a variety of characters ranging from teenagers to elderly women to angels. Gaffney also adopted male personae, ranging from a macho date to a gay bartender.
Najimy shed some 100 pounds before she re-appeared on the small screen in 1996 in the recurring role of Dr Barbara Konstadt, a physician struggling with manic-depression, on the CBS medical drama “Chicago Hope”. The following year, she provided the voice of the long-suffering wife, Peggy Hill, in Michael Judge’s animated series “King of the Hill” (Fox, 1997- ). After giving birth to a daughter in December 1996, Najimy reteamed with her “Nevada” co-star Kirstie Alley for the NBC sitcom “Veronica’s Closet” in 1997, a role she departed in 2000 in order to concentrate on her film career.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Lena Headley was born in 1973 in Bermuda. She made her film debut in Britain in “Waterland” in 1992. Her other movie appearances include “The Remains of the Day”, “The Devil’s Advocate” and “Mrs Dalloway”.
TCM overview:
Having barely begun her career on British television, actress Lena Headey was wooed by American feature directors who were captivated by her emotional realism and timeless beauty. A big fan of British films, Headey maintained a demanding international schedule in more lucrative American fare to finance her love of homegrown period pieces and art house dramas like “Face” (1997) and “Onegin” (1999). But it was her acclaimed performance in the hyper-real historical epic “300” (2007) that propelled the actress into true international stardom and opened the door for higher-profile projects. From there, Headey was tapped to play single mom and cyborg battler Sarah Connor in the popular, but short-lived sci-fi spin-off, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” (Fox 2008-09). With each role, Headey reinforced her unique screen presence and ability to embody both the china doll delicacy and the fierce independence that she put on fine display in the medieval series “Game of Thrones” (HBO, 2011- ), which helped underscore her versatility in a wide range of projects.
Lena Headey was born on Oct. 3, 1976 (though some sources cite 1973) in Bermuda, where her father, a British police officer, had recently been transferred for his job. She spent her earliest years in the British territory before she and her parents returned to England, where Headey grew up mainly in Yorkshire. A shy tomboy with one younger brother, Headey began to take an interest in acting through a local youth theater group. While still in high school at Yorkshire’s Shelley College, she was “discovered” during a theatrical performance and offered a role in “Waterland” (1992), making a saucy debut in a supporting role as a sexually precocious schoolgirl. The following year she portrayed a quiet young woman who consents to marriage with a thoroughly unbearable man twice her age (Jeremy Irons) in “The Summer House” (1993), also landing a small role in the Merchant-Ivory period drama “The Remains of the Day” (1993). She moved to London following school completion and set about looking for acting jobs – not with stars in her eyes and dreams of Hollywood, but rather as someone with a sturdy work ethic who saw an opportunity to make a living doing something she enjoyed.
Headey never received any formal dramatic training, but from the beginning it was clear that her talent lay in her natural ability to access emotions in an intense, passionate way. She parlayed that innate sense into immediate acting work, landing on British drama series including “Soldier Soldier” and “Spender.” Her first American production was Disney’s live-action take on “Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” (1994), in which she played the virginal heroine, and following a role in the ABC TV movie, “MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday” (1995) she returned to the U.K. and stayed busy with a run of British TV appearances in “Band of Gold,” and “Ballykissangel,” among others. Her film career received a boost with a co-starring role alongside Sting in the period drama “The Grotesque” (1995) and big screen roles began to outweigh TV ones. In “Face” (1997), Headey starred as a girlfriend trying to persuade her boyfriend (Robert Carlyle) to abandon his life of crime, and in the period drama, “Mrs. Dalloway” (1997), she added a buoyancy and verve as the daring Sally Seton, who not only flirts with Natascha McElhone, but also runs naked through the Edwardian household.
Headey lent her beauty and charm to the role of the bewitching girl whom two guys want to marry in the disappointing time-travel romance “Twice Upon Yesterday/If Only” (1998). She was perfectly cast as Guinevere in the swashbuckling NBC miniseries “Merlin” (1998), which rejoined her with Sam Neill – who had portrayed her father in “Jungle Book” – here, cast as the legendary sorcerer. After enjoying a pivotal role as Liv Tyler’s sister Olga in Martha Fiennes’ feature directorial debut “Onegin” (1999), Headey sank her teeth into the role of a bitchy college student in the dark comedy “Gossip” (2000) – the first film of a two-picture deal with Warner Bros. She additionally starred in the festival-screened “Aberdeen” (2000), earning praise for her turn as a lawyer reconnecting with her estranged parents, an alcoholic father and a domineering mother dying of cancer. Over the next several years, Headey’s reputation as an intelligent, unfussy beauty landed her key supporting appearances in Neil LaBute’s romantic mystery “Possession” (2002); the acclaimed HBO Winston Churchill biopic, “The Gathering Storm” (2002); the adaptation of author Patricia Highsmith’s lesser known Thomas Ripley tale, “Ripley’s Game” (2002); and other British and American productions.
In 2005, Headey turned heads with two wildly different titles. First, came Terry Gilliam’s “The Brothers Grimm” (2005), in which she played the tough-as-nails love interest of the Bavarian fairy tale tellers, in which she impressively held her own opposite Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in the otherwise disappointing film. For her first sci-fi horror thriller, “The Cave” (2005), she played one of a team of explorers who stumble upon a new species of unique and unwelcoming beings dwelling beneath the ruins of a 13th century Romanian abbey. Another dramatic shift in gears saw her as a bohemian London flower shop owner who woos a new bride (Piper Perabo) in the lesbian romantic comedy “Imagine Me & You” (2005). The film opened to predictably less-than-stellar returns, but Headey rebounded from the string of lackluster box office receipts with her next film.
The visually stunning adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel, “300” (2007), was a loose telling of the famed Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartan warriors inflicted heavy damage to a massive Persian army led by Xerxes I (Rodrigo Santoro). Headey, who was a stand-out for most film critics, regally portrayed Queen Gorgo, wife of Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), whose valor and sacrifice inspired all of Greece to unite against the Persian army after he and his outnumbered forces fought to the death. Following a co-lead in the Wesley Snipes direct-to-DVD actioner “The Contractor” (2007), the ever-versatile Headey portrayed Miss Dickinson in “St. Trinians” (2007), the sixth installment in the beloved British franchise about an unruly girl’s school.
Later in the year, Headey landed the highest-profile role of her career, when she was asked to portray Sarah Connor in a TV spin-off of the popular “Terminator” film franchise. “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” picked up where “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991) left off, with Headey taking on the iconic role made famous by the buff Linda Hamilton. Fans of the franchise were apparently open to the new chapter and its new cast, as 18 million tuned in to the show’s premiere to watch Headey portray the single mom entrusted to protect her 15-year-old son, John, from predatory cyborgs intent on destroying the future savior of mankind. The series was the surprise hit of the season – helped, no doubt, in some part by the writer’s strike – and an overwhelming critical hit, with Headey proving more than able to fill the shoes of the iconic character. Unfortunately audiences proved fickle and the show was canceled in 2009. Meanwhile, Headey took leading roles in horror thrillers like “The Broken” (2008) and “Laid to Rest” (2009), before returning to series television for the medieval epic “Game of Thrones” (HBO, 2011- ). Headey played the paranoid, politically-minded Queen Cersei Lannister, whose facade of self-control masks an inner world where everything is falling apart.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Craig Cash is best known for his perfmorance as dozy Dave in the wonderfuly “Royle Family” television series. e was born in 1960. began his show business career as a DJ in a Manchester night club.
Gerald Gilbert’s “Independent” interview with Craig Cash in 2011:
I’ve been trying to interview Craig Cash for years now, but the man behind The Royle Family has proved elusive. His writing partner, Caroline Aherne, has tended – reluctantly and for many of the wrong reasons – to hog the media limelight, but I’ve always been curious to meet Cash, a man I have long thought to be something of a comedy genius on the quiet. So quiet, in fact, that, in a trawl of newspaper cuttings, you’ll find less than a handful of interviews with him, and fewer still in which he talks about himself
“I don’t feel worthy,” the 51-year-old says, when we finally do get together in an otherwise empty viewing theatre in London’s Soho, where his new sitcom, The Café, is later to be shown to journalists. “I know I’m not Stephen Fry – you’re not going to get fantastic answers – so I tend not to do interviews.”
Stephen Fry, my arse, as Jim Royle would almost certainly have said in the circumstances. Cash may talk just like his lugubrious character Dave in The Royle Family, but the conversation is obviously more elevated than Dave’s dozy interest in whatever television programme the family happens to be watching. “I don’t actually see a lot of telly,” says Cash. “I watch Grand Designs and that Boardwalk Empire… it’s a bit slow, but who am I to say anything’s slow.” He watches almost no comedy, although he thought the first series of The Flight of the Conchords was “utterly brilliant”. Now he’s agreed to talk because he’s directing and producing a new sitcom co-written by his Royle Family colleague Ralf Little – even better news, Cash and Aherne hope to write a brand new comedy for the BBC.
Cash is still best known for The Royle Family, which he created with Aherne in 1997. Back then, the hit sitcoms – Men Behaving Badly, The Vicar of Dibley and One Foot in the Grave – all followed the same, traditional format: filmed in front of a studio audience, with a laughter track. The Royle Family had no laughter track, and the sort of realism not seen since the Sixties and shows such as Hancock and Till Death Do Us Part. What it also introduced to the British sitcom was a hyper-realistic setting where not a lot happened. Ricky Tomlinson, Sue Johnston, Little, Aherne, Cash et al sat around on a sofa just talking.
Cash and Aherne met in the 1980s on the south Manchester pirate radio station KFM – until that station went legit in 1990 and they both got the heave-ho. “On the night-time shift it was me and Caroline and Jon Ronson, Terry Christian, Sarah Champion and Geoff Lloyd”, says Cash. “There were loads of us and we all got sacked on the same day. It was our first real job in the media, so it was a bit upsetting at the time.” It was Aherne who came to the rescue, asking Cash to help her develop an Irish nun character called Sister Mary Immaculate. “And then we did Mrs Merton…” he says.
Mrs Merton was Aherne’s mock elderly chat show host, most famous for asking Debbie McGee “So, what was it that first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” The Mrs Merton Show was a clever conceit that often succeeded in getting more out of its guests than bona fide chat shows. Like all the best comedy partnerships, Cash and Aherne laugh at the same things, including their own families, which is where the idea for The Royle Family first came from. “Caroline said we should do a sitcom with just real people talking, because ‘if we find it funny, surely everybody else will’,” says Cash. “I kept saying at the time, ‘Let’s just do another Mrs Merton’because I’d got a mortgage by then.”
The BBC was nonplussed when the couple presented the Royles to them. “I remember having this read-through of the script and Kathy Burke was there – Kathy was originally going to be Cheryl [the greedy neighbour eventually played by Jessica Hynes]. Ricky and Sue were there. We sat in a semi-circle at Granada in front of executives, and they were climbing the walls because nothing was happening. I remember them saying, ‘You need a beginning, middle and end’ – all the conventional things…. We said, would those things make it any funnier? And, to her credit, Caroline dug her heels in and said, ‘If you don’t do this I’m not going to make another Mrs Merton’.”
The rest is television history, including several Baftas and a working relationship that remains as combustible as it is successful. “We both care about stuff,” says Cash. “We have fights on set – ask Ricky or Sue – we both want the same thing in the end, but it’s hard to see that at the time. It’s like any married couple rowing.”
Ten days after I met Cash, The Sun newspaper reported that he and Aherne, after producing Royle Family Christmas specials for the past three years, had not managed to get a script written in time for this Christmas. Via the BBC, Cash and Aherne put out a statement blaming other commitments and apologising to the show’s fans. To which all I can add is what Cash admitted to me about his and Aherne’s approach to scripts: “We do leave it late. It’s like doing homework, and we’d put it off and off.”
Their collaboration on The Royle Family, with Cash and Aherne also playing on-screen husband and wife, eventually took its toll, and the pair had a widely reported falling out in 2000. “She just decided, I think, that she’d had enough,” says Cash. “At the time, she was under an intense media spotlight for anything she did, and I think the pressure became too much. She got on a plane to Australia.”
The media interest centred on her drinking habits. “I was as pissed as Caroline, but women get put under an intense spotlight,” says Cash. “We were naive as well, I guess. Coming to London for dos and awards was a huge thrill for us and we were just overexcited. We’d get on the train at Manchester and be pissed by Macclesfield.”
Before her vanishing act, Aherne had been due to play a barmaid in Early Doors, a sort of British Cheers and Cash’s follow-up solo project to The Royle Family. The sitcom, Cash believes, was badly handled by the BBC when it was broadcast in 2003 and 2004, despite being loved by its viewers. “I had a big row with them over it because I didn’t feel they were pushing it,” he says. “They showed the first episode on the final night of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! They wanted a third series but I said ‘No, you’re not having one’, which they were a bit shocked about.”
Cash’s latest sitcom, The Café, is for Sky and finds Cash behind the scenes, as director and executive producer. Cash says he enjoys “a kind of big brother thing” with the show’s co-writer Ralf Little. “I think we auditioned Ralf when he was about 16 or 17 –and I’ve known him in a weird kind of a family way – in The Royle Family way – for a long time. “Ralf said, ‘I’ve written this thing with Michelle [Terry], my friend. Would you have a look at it? And I thought, ‘Do I have to? How am I going to tell him?’ I kept it in its brown envelope for a couple of months, then I read it one day and I was really pleasantly surprised.”
The Café is a sweet, warm sitcom set in a café in Weston-super-Mare – as such, it marks a big change for Cash. “All these years we’ve been writing and it’s always in bloody Manchester,” he says. “It’s work wherever you go, really, but it was a pleasure to get out of Manchester.”
Cash himself lives in a village on the border of Cheshire and Derbyshire, with his wife, Stephanie, and his two sons, Billy, 13, and 14-year-old Harry, both of whom have now grown out of being embarrassed by their dad’s association with Dave from The Royle Family. Stephanie used to work at KFM – “reading the news very badly. She used to listen to BBC local news and then write a version of it. But it was pirate radio, so fair play.”
The house is close enough to his roots in Stockport, where his father – a former joiner – lives, and Manchester, where Aherne now has a home. Next year is already looking busy: presumably, there will be a prompt start on The Royle Family Christmas special, as well as the planned new sitcom with Aherne (“We don’t know what”).
Whatever it is, it will, like The Café, no doubt, be imbued with the trademark Cash warmth. “The Café is no big deal, it’s just living with these people who work in the café,” he says. “The world’s grim enough as it is. Hopefully, this is a bit of escapism, and you don’t need a thesis in comedy or plots to watch it.”
The above interview from “The Independent” can also be accessed online here.
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.