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Maurice Elvey
Maurice Elvey (11 November 1887 – 28 August 1967) was one of the most prolific film directors in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year. He also produced more than fifty films – his own as well as films directed by others. Biography Born William Seward Folkard in Stockton-on-Tees, he ran away from home at the age of nine, seeking his fortune in London. There he worked variously as a kitchen hand and hotel pageboy, before ending up as stagehand and actor at the age of 17. He quickly rose to directing and producing plays and established his own theatrical company before switching to films with ''The Great Gold Robbery'' in 1913. He directed a wide array of popular features in a variety of genres, including comedy, drama, literary adaptations – including Robert Louis Stevenson's ''The Suicide Club (Stevenson)#Adaptations, The Suicide Club'' (1914) and a version of William Shak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stockton-on-Tees
Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Valley, on the northern bank of the River Tees. The River Tees was straightened in the early 19th century, so that larger ships could access the town. The ports have since relocated closer to the North Sea, and ships are no longer able to sail from the sea to the town. This is due to the building of the Tees Barrage, which was installed to manage tidal flooding. The Stockton and Darlington Railway served the port during the early part of the Industrial Revolution. The railway was also the world's first permanent steam-powered passenger railway. History Etymology ''Stockton'' is an Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon place name with the common ending ''ton'', meaning ''farm'', or ''homestead''. ''Stock'' is possibly derived from the Anglo-Saxon ''S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949. Activities Purpose The BFI was established in 1933 to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history, heritage and culture of the United Kingdom. Archive The BFI maintain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for '' Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), '' The Third Man'' (1949), and '' Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the Academy Award for Best Director. ''Odd Man Out'' was the first recipient of the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. ''The Fallen Idol'' won the second BAFTA Award for Best British Film. The British Film Institute voted ''The Third Man'' the greatest British film of the 20th century. Early life and career Carol Reed was born in Putney, southwest London.Philip Kem"Reed, Carol (1906–1976)" ''Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Director'', reprinted at BFI Screenonline. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography' has Wandsworth, London as Reed's place of birth. He was the son of actor-producer Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his mistress, Beatrice May Pinney, who later adopted the surname of Reed. He was educated at The King's Sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fay Wray
Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian-American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film ''King Kong''. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international recognition as an actress in horror films. She has been dubbed the first "scream queen". She had minor film roles, and gained media attention as one of the "WAMPAS Baby Stars" in 1926. This led to her contract with Paramount Pictures as a teenager, where she made more than a dozen feature films. After leaving Paramount, she signed deals with various film companies, got her first roles in horror films and many other types, including in '' The Bowery'' (1933) and '' Viva Villa!'' (1934), both of which star Wallace Beery. For RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., Wray starred in her most identifiable film, ''King Kong'' (1933). After its success, she had numerous roles in film and television, retiring in 1980. Life and career Early life Wray was born o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Banks
Leslie James Banks Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (9 June 1890 – 21 April 1952) was an English stage and screen actor, director and producer, now best remembered for playing gruff, menacing characters in black-and-white films of the 1930s and 1940s, but also the Chorus in Laurence Olivier's wartime version of ''Henry V (1944 film), Henry V''. Early life and career Leslie Banks was born in West Derby, Liverpool, Lancashire, to George and Emily (''née'' Dalby) Banks. He attended school at Glenalmond College in Scotland, and later studied at Keble College, Oxford with the intention of becoming a parson, but decided against this. He joined Frank Benson (actor), Frank Benson's company, and made his acting debut in October 1911 at the town hall in Brechin, playing Old Gobbo in ''The Merchant of Venice''. He then toured the United States and Canada with Henry V. Esmond and Eva Moore in 1912 and 1913. Returning to London, he appeared for the first time on the Wes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alastair Sim
Alastair George Bell Sim (9 October 1900 – 19 August 1976) was a Scottish actor. He began his theatrical career at the age of thirty and quickly became established as a popular West End performer, remaining so until his death in 1976. Starting in 1935, he also appeared in more than fifty British films, including an iconic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novella ''A Christmas Carol'', released in 1951 as ''Scrooge'' in Great Britain and as ''A Christmas Carol'' in the United States. Though an accomplished dramatic actor, he is often remembered for his comically sinister performances. After a series of false starts, including a spell as a jobbing labourer and another as a clerk in a local government office, Sim's love of and talent for poetry reading won him several prizes and led to his appointment as a lecturer in elocution at the University of Edinburgh in 1925. He also ran his own private elocution and drama school, from which, with the help of the playwright John D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude Rains
William Claude Rains (10 November 188930 May 1967) was a British and American actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. He was the recipient of numerous accolades, including four Academy Award nominations for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and is considered one of the screen's great character stars who played cultured villains during the Golden Age of Hollywood. From McFarlane's ''Encyclopedia of British Film''. London: Methuen/BFI, 2003, p. 545 The son of a stage actor, Rains began acting on stage in his native London in the 1900s. He became a leading thespian on the West End theatre, West End, and an acting teacher at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He moved to the United States in the late 1920s and became a successful Broadway theatre, Broadway star, before making his American film debut as Griffin (The Invisible Man), Dr. Jack Griffin in ''The Invisible Man (1933 film), The Invisible Man'' (1933). He went on to play prominent rol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was a British actress, singer and comedian. A star of cinema and music hall, she was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the highest paid film star in the world in 1937. Fields was known affectionately as ''Our Gracie'' and ''the Lancashire Lass'' and for never losing her strong, native Lancashire accent. She was appointed a Order of the British Empire, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and an Venerable Order of Saint John, Officer of the Venerable Order of St John (OStJ) in 1938, and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1979. Life and work Early life Fields was born Grace Stansfield, a daughter of Frederick Stansfield (1874–1956) and his wife Sarah Jane 'Jenny' Stansfield née Bamford (1879–1953), over a Fish and chips, fish and chip shop owned by her grandmother, Sar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benita Hume
Benita Hume (14 October 1907 – 1 November 1967) was an English theatre and film actress. She appeared in more than 40 films from 1925 to 1955. Life and career She was married to film actor Ronald Colman from 1938 to his death in 1958; they were the parents of a daughter, Juliet. She starred with Colman in both versions of the situation comedy '' The Halls of Ivy'', an NBC Radio programme (1950–1952) and a CBS Television show (1954–1955). She also made occasional guest appearances with her husband on '' The Jack Benny Show'' on radio, and the Colmans were portrayed as Benny's long-suffering next-door neighbours, roles they reprised once on his television show. After Colman's death, she married actor George Sanders in 1959, and they remained together until her death in 1967. Sanders originally was signed to play Sheridan Whiteside in the musical '' Sherry!'', but when Hume became terminally ill with cancer, he withdrew from the project.James Lipton. ''Inside Inside'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was a British actress, director, writer, and producer. Throughout her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed eight, working primarily in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948. She is widely regarded as the most prominent female filmmaker working in the 1950s during the Hollywood studio system. With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several social-message films and became the first woman to direct a film noir, '' The Hitch-Hiker,'' in 1953. Among Lupino's other directed films, the best known are '' Not Wanted'' (1949), about unwed pregnancy (she took over for a sick director and refused directorial credit); '' Never Fear'' (1950), loosely based upon her own experiences battling paralyzing polio; '' Outrage'' (1950), one of the first films about rape; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. He was born into a musical family, and his first successes were as a songwriter. His first big hit was " Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1914), which was enormously popular during the First World War. His 1917 show, '' Theodore & Co'', was a wartime hit. After the war, Novello contributed numbers to several successful musical comedies and was eventually commissioned to write the scores of complete shows. He wrote his musicals in the style of operetta and often composed his music to the libretti of Christopher Hassall. In the 1920s he turned to acting, first in British films and then on stage, with considerable success in both. He starred in two silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, '' The Lodger'' and '' Downhill'' (both 1927). On stage, he played the title c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director, producer and writer.Obituary, '' Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and '' Vanity Fair'' and was one of the biggest box-office draws and movie idols of the 1930s. Active in both Britain and Hollywood, Howard played Ashley Wilkes in ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939). He had roles in many other films, including ''Berkeley Square'' (1933), '' Of Human Bondage'', '' The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (both 1934), '' The Petrified Forest'' (1936), '' Pygmalion'' (1938), '' Intermezzo'' (1939), '' "Pimpernel" Smith'' (1941), and ''The First of the Few'' (1942). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for ''Berkeley Square'' and ''Pygmalion''. Howard's Second World War activities included acting and filmmaking. He helped to make anti-German propaganda and shore up support for the Allies; two years after his death, the ''British Film Ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
