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1-45 of 45
- The son of a car dealer, the British actor Simon Ward was born in London, England, in 1941, and educated there at Alleyn's School, the home of the National Youth Theatre, which he joined at age 13 and stayed with for eight years. After attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he worked in repertory in Northampton, Birmingham and Oxford, and occasionally in London's West End. His big break in theater came in 1967 when he played in Joe Orton's "Loot" which led to a number of small film and television roles. Perhaps his best work is his portrayals of the lead characters in Young Winston (1972) and All Creatures Great and Small (1975).
- Born in Beckenham, Kent, English character actor Maurice Denham first came to public notice in the 1940s on radio, appearing on many of the most popular comedy series of the day in a variety of characters. His debut in films came in 1947 with The Smugglers (1947). His talents came to the forefront in the animated feature Animal Farm (1954), in which he voiced all of the animal characters. A prolific actor, his familiar sharp features and bald head appeared in dozens of films over the following years, often as charming but slightly 'barmy' characters and well-bred cads, although he was more than capable of playing straight drama, as he did in the war picture Sink the Bismarck! (1960) as a naval officer helping to hunt down and sink the German battleship. He began appearing regularly in television in the 1970s and also worked steadily on the stage.
He died of natural causes at age 92 in London, England. - Actor
- Soundtrack
The lean, rather emaciated-looking John Bennett studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. After years in repertory theatre, he made his feature debut in 1960, and, thereafter, appeared regularly on British screens. He was prone to perform in diverse ethnic guises, often adopting heavy make-up and using his penchant for accents and dialects. One of his first notable appearances was as the evil Injun Joe in the BBC children's series The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1960). He came to be much in demand for crime-time TV series, like The Avengers (1961), The Saint (1962) and Z Cars (1962), effortlessly switching from menacing roles to law enforcement.
In feature films, he was generally confined to background support, except for his titular lead in the little-seen drama The Barber of Stamford Hill (1963). He also provided an effective thread connecting the various vignettes of The House That Dripped Blood (1971), as the sceptical investigating Chief Inspector. Bennett also appeared as Joseph Goebbels in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973), French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau in the excellent miniseries Fall of Eagles (1974), and as Greek historian and philosopher Xenophon in I, Claudius (1976). He twice guested in Doctor Who (1963), giving one of his most indelible performances as the Fu Manchu look-alike, Li H'sen Chang, an evil Chinese magician and hypnotist roaming Victorian-era London in search of victims to aid in his master's reincarnation, in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang". Bennett managed to avoid the pitfalls of caricature and gave a thoroughly convincing performance, managing to portray the arch villain with dignity and, ultimately, even a degree of sympathy.
In addition to his work on screen, Bennett remained an exceedingly busy stage performer, at once in classical roles at the National Theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in West End revivals of noted musicals like "The King and I" (1979) and "The Sound of Music" (1981).- The role which best epitomised James Cossins was the fussy, repressed Brown in Villain (1971). He began movie acting in the mid '60s and featured in such films as Richard Lester's How I Won the War (1967), Hammer's The Lost Continent (1968), the Jack Wild vehicle Melody (1971) and the aforementioned cult classic Villain (1971) with Richard Burton. He was also particular effective as a driving test examiner in the comedy thriller Otley (1969) with Tom Courtenay.
His contribution was usually limited to no more than a few minutes of screentime but he was always effective. On television he was quite prolific putting in appearances in, to name just a few, The Avengers (1961), Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973), Bless This House (1971), Bergerac (1981), Minder (1979) and perhaps most memorably, Fawlty Towers (1975). He was a specialist in officious, blustering characters. In 1974 he joined a number of British character actors to have featured in a Bond movie, playing Colthorpe in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). It was five years before he returned to cinema screens in The Great Train Robbery (1978).
After appearing as Lord Carnaryon in Sphinx (1981) he made his last big film in 1982, Gandhi (1982), though he was far down the cast list. Two more films of little note were to follow, Grand Larceny (1987) and Immaculate Conception (1992) before his final appearance in the TV movie Unnatural Causes (1993) in 1993. He died in 1997. - Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Peter Frampton was born on 22 April 1950 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), Almost Famous (2000) and Dazed and Confused (1993). He has been married to Tina Elfers since 13 January 1996. They have one child. He was previously married to Barbara Gold and Mary Lovett.- Writer
- Actor
- Music Department
One of British TV's most popular performers with a career that spanned over four decades, funny-man Bob Monkhouse started off as a radio broadcaster (1947) and stand-up comic. He earned success early on as a gag writer, partnering with Denis Goodwin.
In 1953, the duo won their own TV show called Fast and Loose (1954), which was sketch-comedy based. A nightclub comedian to boot, he also pursued films on occasion appearing in such slapstick dillies as Carry on Sergeant (1958), Dentist in the Chair (1960), Dentist on the Job (1961) and A Weekend with Lulu (1961). But TV would be his prime venue, and he moved quite easily into various parlor game and variety show hosting duties.
For Love or Money (1959) was his first, a Brit version of "Candid Camera". Along the way, he found emceeing chores with The London Palladium Show (1966), The Golden Shot (1967) (which made him a household name), Celebrity Squares (1975) (based on The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965)), Family Fortunes (1980), "The $64,000 Question", Opportunity Knocks (1956), The National Lottery (1994), and many others. Monkhouse died in 2003 of prostate cancer.- Raymond Adamson was born on 7 July 1920 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Orchard End Murder (1981), The Avengers (1961) and The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970). He died on 25 March 2002 in Kent, England, UK.
- Brian McDermott was born on 23 July 1934 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Zoe (2001), Melissa (1964) and I Promised to Pay (1961). He died on 5 November 2003 in St John's Wood, London, England, UK.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Over a three decade career Ben has produced over a dozen features from micro-budget to multi-million pound projects, with clients including US television network Hallmark. His most recent features - political thriller Election Night and Give Them Wings, the 1980s-set true story of a disabled football fan growing up in northern England - scooped numerous film festival awards ahead of release in 2022. Ben is also a director, making his debut with London- and Paris-set thriller Two Days in the Smoke in 2014. It has recently been on Netflix. He returned to the director's chair in 2018 for psychological thriller Welcome to Curiosity. The world's first investor crowd-funded feature (which he also produced) saw a limited North American theatrical run before hitting VOD platforms.
His debut novel Freiheit, a dystopian alternative history exploring what Britain would have looked like today if the Nazis had won the Battle of Britain, was published in 2019.
His television projects Local Boys and The Copper Kings were finalists and semi-finalists respectively in the 2020 Filmarkethub UK Online Pitchbox, while in 2021 he was a double-finalist with Hostage and Let It Go and a semi-finalist with The Tank.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Dick Walter was born on 13 December 1946 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. Dick is a composer, known for Brick Mansions (2014), The Wedding Date (2005) and High Fidelity (2000).- Kate Lawler was the winner of Big Brother (2000). The beautiful 22 year old IT worker from Kent came through the 12 weeks, and when put to the public vote to win, Kate received over 3 million votes, and over 1 million more votes than runner-up Johnny.
- Producer
- Actress
- Music Department
British producer Betty Box started out as a commercial artist. Her brother Sydney Box was a documentary filmmaker, and during World War II he asked Betty to join him at Verity Films. She took to it like a fish to water, and by the time the war ended she was in charge of almost a dozen documentary units at the studio. She stayed at Verity until 1946, when she was hired by Gainsborough Pictures to make features. After making several films at Gainsborough she went over to Pinewood Studios, where she turned out such well-received films as The Clouded Yellow (1950) and Doctor in the House (1954) in partnership with director Ralph Thomas. In fact, "Doctor in the House" was such a hit that the studio insisted that she and Thomas make more of them, despite the fact that they both wanted to move on to bigger and better things. In the end, though, they turned out a string of sequels, one of which (Doctor at Sea (1955)) introduced French sex kitten Brigitte Bardot to British audiences.
While prolific, the quality of her output declined somewhat in the latter part of her career, and by the 1970s she and Thomas were reduced to making smarmy sex comedies such as Percy (1971) and It's Not the Size That Counts (1974), about a young man who had the world's first penis transplant. She made her last film in 1975, and died in 1999 in London, England, of cancer. She was 83.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Nick Heyward was born in Beckenham, Kent, on May 20th 1961. On leaving Kelsey Park School in 1977, he went to work as a commercial artist, but he had dreams of becoming a pop star. "I got into music because my girlfriend chucked me and because of Paul McCartney's beard when he sung in 'Let It Be'," Nick told Paul Gorman in Music Week in 1995. And soon, Heyward and his friends were ditching names such as Boat Party and Captain Pennyworth left, right and center and became Haircut 100.
They played the pop game perfectly, tucking their Aran jumpers into their trousers, riding the post-new romantic funk wave, marrying Chic with the Monkees and opening their shows with a blistering cover of Low Rider by War. Haircut 100 burnt briefly and brightly - the ultimate group of pals who, within a year, had hit the big time. It finished as quickly as it began; the band parted ways and Nick's first solo album, North Of A Miracle, was released in September 1983.
North Of A Miracle set out his stall; a production masterpiece by Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick (XTC had initially wanted to produce Heyward), it contained heavyweight session players; Uncut were to say retrospectively that "If Elvis Costello had released this album, it might just feature in the lower reaches of those lists of all-time greats."
Nick's career continued through the next decade and a half - supporting Wham! at Wembley at their farewell shows; shaving his mustache off on live TV; releasing charming records, of which his first two of the nineties From Monday To Sunday and Tangled chimed with Britpop. He played the record company game across the years - and he has great experience of major labels and sizable Indies; Arista, Warner and Sony have all sought him out; when Alan McGee was flush with Oasis cash in the late 90s and wanted to sign his personal favorites, Nick Heyward was at the top of that list, and 1998's The Apple Bed was released on Creation.
But those days are over - you don't have to be a voracious follower of musical trends to know conventional release channels have altered forever. Nick self released his latest album, Woodland Echoes, on his own label, Gladsome Hawk. While the battle for the music industry was playing out as the 00s became the 10s, Nick stood aside from all this, released two albums under the radar, and got on with the business of life; seeing his children grow up, and finding love. "Up until the Creation time it used to really matter that you were not around - now it doesn't seem to matter if you haven't been around for one year or 20 years; you can pick up where you left off. It's the way that music has turned out - there was a time when people cared about disappearance, but now there isn't; it's not an issue anymore."- Producer
- Cinematographer
- Additional Crew
John Tiffin was born on 4 February 1930 in Beckenham, London, England, UK. John was a producer and cinematographer, known for 60 Minutes (1968), The 21st Century (1967) and Without Walls (1990). John died on 4 March 2010 in Rusper, West Sussex, England, UK.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Actress
Sheila Hodgson was born on 22 December 1921 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. She was a writer and actress, known for Mrs Thursday (1966), Our Miss Pemberton (1957) and Scary Stories Around the Fire (2021). She was married to David Middleton. She died on 25 December 2001 in South Newton, Wiltshire, England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Wende Snijders was born on 10 October 1978 in Beckenham, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Zurich (2015), Amazones (2004) and Annie MG (2010).- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Stephen Dade was born on 13 August 1909 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. He was a cinematographer, known for Zulu (1964), Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961) and Department S (1969). He died in 1975 in Kent, England, UK.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
John Counsell was born on 24 April 1905 in Beckenham, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937), Theatre Night (1957) and The Ghost Train (1937). He was married to Mary Kerridge. He died on 23 February 1987 in London, England, UK.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Darryn Welch was born on 22 May 1979 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. He is a producer and director, known for The Divide (2011), Goal! The Dream Begins (2005) and Wish You Were Here (2005).- Jacqueline Gold was born on 16 July 1960 in Beckenham, Bromley, Greater London, England, UK. She was married to Dan Cunningham. She died on 16 March 2023 in Surrey, England, UK.
- Lydia Henderson-Boyle was born in Beckenham, Bromley, United Kingdom. She is known for Shrinks (1991), The Big Fish (1992) and Mr. Bean (1990).
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Carey Blyton was born on 14 March 1932 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. Carey was a composer, known for Doctor Who (1963), The Wednesday Play (1964) and W. Somerset Maugham (1969). Carey was married to Mary Mills. Carey died on 13 July 2002 in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, UK.- Make-Up Department
Robin Grantham was born on 20 March 1942 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. He is known for Never Say Never Again (1983), An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Return to Oz (1985).- Stephen Jenn was born on 30 March 1950 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (1987), Marked Personal (1973) and Goodbye Mr. Chips (1984). He died on 26 February 2012 in London, England, UK.
- Producer
- Writer
- Production Manager
Sydney Box was born on 29 April 1907 in Beckenham, Kent, England, UK. He was a producer and writer, known for The Seventh Veil (1945), Holiday Camp (1947) and Forbidden Cargo (1954). He was married to Muriel Box. He died on 25 May 1983 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia.