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Desmond Davis
Desmond Stanley Tracey Davis (24 May 1926 – 3 July 2021) was a British film and television director, best known for his 1981 version of '' Clash of the Titans''. Early life and career Desmond Davis joined the British Army film unit serving at the end of the Second World War at age 18. He travelled extensively and the footage of his work can be seen in the Imperial War Museum. After serving his apprenticeship as a clapper boy in the 1940s, working on classic movies such as '' The African Queen'', Davis worked his way up to first camera operator in low-budget British films of the 1950s. In the 1960s, Davis worked as a camera operator on such internationally acclaimed films as ''A Taste of Honey'', ''The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'', '' Freud: The Secret Passion'' (directed by John Huston) and ''Tom Jones'', which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Director Davis made his directorial debut in 1964 with ''Girl with Green Eyes'' winning the US National Board of Re ...
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Clash Of The Titans (1981 Film)
''Clash of the Titans'' is a 1981 fantasy film, fantasy adventure film directed by Desmond Davis and written by Beverley Cross, loosely based on the Greek mythology, Greek myth of Perseus. Starring Harry Hamlin, Judi Bowker, Burgess Meredith, Maggie Smith and Laurence Olivier, the film features the final work of stop motion, stop-motion visual effects artist Ray Harryhausen. co-production (media), Co-produced between the United Kingdom and United States, it was theatrically released on June 12, 1981 and grossed $41 million at the North American box office, which made it the eleventh highest grossing film of the year. A novelization by Alan Dean Foster was also published in 1981. A 3-D film, 3D Clash of the Titans (2010 film), remake of the same name was released by Warner Bros. on April 2, 2010. Plot King Acrisius of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos imprisons his daughter Danaë, trying to prevent a prophecy that her child will bring about his demise. When the god Zeus impregnates Danaà ...
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Sarah Miles
Sarah Miles (born 31 December 1941) is an English actress. She is known for her roles in films '' The Servant'' (1963), '' Blowup'' (1966), ''Ryan's Daughter'' (1970), ''The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing'' (1973), '' White Mischief'' (1987) and '' Hope and Glory'' (1987). For her performance in ''Ryan's Daughter'', Miles received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Early life Sarah Miles was born in Ingatestone, Essex, in south east England; her brother is film director, producer, and screenwriter Christopher Miles. Miles's parents were Clarice Vera Remnant and John Miles, of a family of engineers; her father's inability to secure a divorce from his first wife meant Miles and her siblings were illegitimate. Through her maternal grandfather Francis Remnant, Miles claims to be the great-granddaughter of Prince Francis of Teck (1870–1910), thus a second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II.Sarah Miles, ''A Right Royal Bastard'' (1993), p. 20: "Clarice... the e ...
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Greta Scacchi
Greta Scacchi, OMRI (; born 18 February 1960) is an Italian-Australian actress. She holds dual Italian and Australian citizenship. She is best known for her roles in the films '' White Mischief'' (1987), '' Presumed Innocent'' (1990), '' The Player'' (1992), '' Emma'' (1996), and '' Looking for Alibrandi'' (2000). Her first leading role, in '' Heat and Dust'' (1983), earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer to Film. For her portrayal of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia in the television film, '' Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny'' (1996), she won a Primetime Emmy Award and earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2006, Scacchi received a second Emmy nomination for her role in the television film '' Broken Trail'', and earned her first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Early life Scacchi was born on 18 February 1960 in Milan, Italy, the daughter of Luca Scacchi, an Italian art dealer and painter, and Pamela Risbey, an English dancer a ...
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Camille (1984 Film)
''Camille'' is a 1984 television film based on the 1848 novel and play ''La Dame aux Camélias'' by Alexandre Dumas, ''fils''. It was adapted by Blanche Hanalis and directed by Desmond Davis. It stars Greta Scacchi, Colin Firth, John Gielgud, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Ryecart, Denholm Elliott and Ben Kingsley. Plot Marguerite Gauthier is a courtesan in 19th-century Paris and keeps company with aristocrats and men of riches. She falls deeply in love with a middle-class man, Armand Duval, and the lovers move away to the countryside. Armand's father begs Marguerite not to ruin his son's hope of a career and position, she acquiesces and leaves her lover, letting him believe she is going back to her former lifestyle. Armand returns to live with his father. Sometime later Armand returns to Paris and Marguerite sees him with another woman. She declares her love for Armand and the pair sleep together. In the morning Armand insults her by sending her money and then goes off to work in Eg ...
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Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard. First appearing in print in 1887's '' A Study in Scarlet'', the character's popularity became widespread with the first series of short stories in '' The Strand Magazine'', beginning with " A Scandal in Bohemia" in 1891; additional tales appeared from then until 1927, eventually totalling four novels and 56 short stories. All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian eras, between about 1880 and 1914. Most are narrated by the character of Holmes's friend and biographer Dr. John H. Watson, who usually accompanies Holmes during his investigations and often shares quarters with him at the ...
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Ian Richardson
Ian William Richardson (7 April 19349 February 2007) was a Scottish actor. He portrayed the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's '' House of Cards'' (1990–1995) television trilogy. Richardson was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor. Richardson's other notable work included a portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in two films ( ''The Sign of Four'' and ''The Hound of the Baskervilles''), significant roles in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', ''Brazil'', ''M. Butterfly'', and '' Dark City'', and as the lead in the Broadway production of ''Marat/Sade''. Early life Richardson was born in Edinburgh, the only son and eldest of three children of Margaret (née Drummond; 1910–1988) and John Richardson (1909–1990). He was educated in the city, at Balgreen Primary School, Tynecastle High School and George Heriot's School. He first appeared on stage at the age of 14, in an amateur production of Charles Dickens' ''A Tale of Two Cities''. The director encourage ...
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The Sign Of Four (1983 Film)
''The Sign of Four'' (a.k.a. ''Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four'') is a 1983 British made-for-television mystery film directed by Desmond Davis and starring Ian Richardson and David Healy. The film is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1890 novel of the same name, the second novel to feature Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Production In 1982, American producer Sy Weintraub partnered with English producer Otto Plaschkes to make six television films of Sherlock Holmes stories.Sherlock Holmes Society of London
was enlisted to pen the screenplays but only ''The Sign of the Four'' and ''

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Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 â€“ 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, " J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the ''Mary Celeste''. Name Doyle is often referred to as "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" or "Conan Doyle", implying that "Conan" is part of a compound surname rather than a middle name. His baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Ar ...
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Faye Dunaway
Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France made her an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. Her career began in the early 1960s on Broadway. She made her screen debut in the 1967 film '' The Happening'', the same year she made "Hurry Sundown" with an all-star cast, and rose to fame with her portrayal of outlaw Bonnie Parker in Arthur Penn's ''Bonnie and Clyde'', for which she received her first Academy Award nomination. Her most notable films include the crime caper '' The Thomas Crown Affair'' (1968), the drama '' The Arrangement'' (1969), the revisionist western '' Little Big Man'' (1970), "Oklahoma Crude", a western with George C Scott (1973), an adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic ''The Three Musketeers'' (1973), the neo-noir mystery ''Chinatown'' (1974) for which ...
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Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films '' Citizen X'' (1995) and '' Path to War'' (2002); the former also earned him a Primetime Emmy Award. An inductee of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Canadian Walk of Fame, he also received a Canadian Academy Award for the drama film '' Threshold'' (1981). Multiple film critics and media outlets have cited him as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. In 2017, he received an Academy Honorary Award for his contributions to cinema. In 2021, he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries for his work in the HBO miniseries '' The Undoing'' (2020). Sutherland rose to fame after starring in films including ''The Dirty Dozen'' (1967), ''M*A*S*H'' (1970), '' Kelly's Heroes'' (1970), '' ...
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Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 â€“ 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery '' The Mousetrap'', which has been performed in the West End since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. ''Guinness World Records'' lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Christie was born into a wealthy upper middle class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with si ...
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BBC Television Shakespeare
The ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and broadcast by BBC Television. Transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985, it spanned seven series and thirty-seven episodes. Development began in 1975 when Messina saw that the grounds of Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's ''As You Like It'' for the ''Play of the Month'' series. Upon returning to London, however, he had come to envision an entire series devoted exclusively to the dramatic works of Shakespeare. When he encountered a less than enthusiastic response from the BBC's departmental heads, Messina bypassed the usual channels and took his idea directly to the top of the BBC hierarchy, who greenlighted the show. Experiencing financial, logistical and creative problems in the early days of production, Messina persevered and served as executive producer for two years ...
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