Sylvia May Laura Syms, OBE (January 6, 1934 - January 27, 2023) was an English actress of film, television, and stage. One of the major players in films from the mid-1950s until mid-1960s, she was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her role in Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957). She is also known for her roles in films like Ice-Cold in Alex (1958), No Trees in the Street (1959), Victim (1961), and The Tamarind Seed (1974).
Yolande Donlan (born June 2, 1920 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American actress who has worked extensively in the United Kingdom.
She is the daughter of James Donlan, who was a hard working character actor in Hollywood films of the 1930s. It is thought that she had some uncredited roles in films including Pennies From Heaven and Love Finds Andy Hardy immediately following her father's death in 1938, but these have not been confirmed.
Her early credited roles include Frenchy the maid in the horror film The Devil Bat in 1940 and she followed this up with several small roles, generally as similar French-accented maid characters.
A notable stage success as Billie Dawn in a Boston production of Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin was the start of bigger things for Donlan. The production transferred to London's West End for a long run. Donlan was initially denied a work permit to star in the lead in Peter Pan due to complaints from Actors Equity who felt that a British star should have the lead.
After it ended, Donlan remained in the United Kingdom and began accepting film work. After Traveller's Joy in 1949, Donlan worked for the director Val Guest in several films including Mister Drake's Duck, Penny Princess (in the title role) and The Body Said No.
Donlan married Guest in 1954 and afterwards her film work included many of her husband's films such as Expresso Bongo and 80,000 Suspects, as well as a small number of films for other directors. In 1955 she penned the autobiographical travelogue, Sand in my Mink an amusing tale of adventures taken with her husband, across Europe, which makes a light hearted read of how travel used to be.
A further stage success came in 1959 in Jack Popplewell's And Suddenly It's Spring opposite Margaret Lockwood.
Her most recent film credit is Seven Nights in Japan from 1976. The same year saw publication of her autobiography, Shake the Stars Down, which concentrates on her childhood years growing up in the Hollywood of the 1930s.
Guest retired from directing in 1985 and the couple moved back to the United States of America in the late 1980s, where they resided in Palm Springs until his death in 2006. Donlan now lives in Belgravia, London.
Sir Cliff Richard OBE (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an English singer who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and is the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart history, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Richard was originally marketed as a rebellious rock and roll singer in the style of Presley and Little Richard. With his backing group, the Shadows, he dominated the British popular music scene in the pre-Beatles period of the late 1950s to early 1960s. His 1958 hit single "Move It" is often described as Britain's first authentic rock and roll song. In the early 1960s, he had a prosperous screen career with films including The Young Ones, Summer Holiday and Wonderful Life and his own television show at the BBC. Increased focus on his Christian faith and subsequent softening of his music led to a more middle-of-the-road image, and he sometimes ventured into contemporary Christian music.
In a career spanning nearly 65 years, Richard has amassed several gold and platinum discs and awards, including two Ivor Novello Awards and three Brit Awards. More than 130 of his singles, albums, and EPs have reached the UK Top 20, more than any other artist. Richard has had 67 UK top ten singles, the second highest total for an artist (behind Presley). He holds the record, with Presley, as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its first six decades (1950s–2000s). He has achieved 14 UK No. 1 singles, and is the only singer to have had a No. 1 single in the UK in each of five consecutive decades. He also had four UK Christmas No. 1 singles, two of which were as a solo artist; "Mistletoe and Wine" and "Saviour's Day".
Richard has sold more than 250 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has never achieved the same popularity in the United States despite eight US Top 40 singles, including the million-selling "Devil Woman" and "We Don't Talk Anymore". In Canada, he had a successful period in the early 1960s, the late 1970s and early 1980s, with some releases certified gold and platinum. He has remained a popular music, film, and television personality at home in the UK as well as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Northern Europe and Asia, and retains a following in other countries. When not touring, he divides his time between Barbados and Portugal. In 2019, he relocated to New York.
Cliff Richard was born Harry Rodger Webb on 14 October 1940 at King George's Hospital (now KGMU Hospital), Victoria Street, in Lucknow, which was then part of British India. His parents were Rodger Oscar Webb, a manager for a catering contractor that serviced the Indian Railways, and the former Dorothy Marie Dazely. His parents also spent some years in Howrah, West Bengal. After the violence of Direct Action Day, they decided to relocate to England permanently. Richard is primarily of English heritage, but he had one great-grandmother who was of half Welsh and half Spanish descent, born of a Spanish great-great-grandmother named Emiline Joseph Rebeiro. ...
Source: Article "Cliff Richard" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Hermione Youlanda Ruby Clinton-Baddeley (13 November 1906 - 19 August 1986) was an English character actress of theatre, film and television.
She is the sister of Angela Baddeley, best known for playing Mrs Hudson in the television series 'Upstairs Downstairs'.
She died in California following a series of strokes on 19th August 1986.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Avis Bunnage (22 April 1923, Manchester, England, UK – 4 October 1990, England) was a British actress of film, stage and television.
She attended Manley Park Municipal School and Chorlton Central School in Manchester. She worked as a secretary and a nursery teacher before deciding to become an actress. She gained stage experience in rep and made her first professional appearance at Chorlton Rep Theatre in Manchester in 1947. Most notably, she appeared as Veronica, the wife of Rigsby, in Rising Damp, for one episode. Bunnage was a member of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. There she created the role of Helen, the mother in A Taste of Honey, her first West End role when the play transferred to Wynndems Theatre, and also a role in Oh, What a Lovely War! at Stratford East, which also transferred to Wyndams Theatre. When Avis was on holiday from this production for two weeks, her role was taken over by Danny La Rue. Among her other roles for Theatre Workshop were Mrs. Lovitt in Christopher Bond's play Sweeny Todd (the basis for the Sondheim musical), and the title role in a play about the music hall legend Marie Lloyd. In the early years of Coronation Street she played Lucile Hewitt's auntie. She was in the musical Billy at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, playing the mother of 'Billy Liar'. She played Golda in Fiddler on the Roof, opposite Alfie Bass, at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.
Married to Derek Orchard, she died in Thorpe Bay, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, aged 67.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Avis Bunnage, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Susan Hampshire, Lady Kulukundis, OBE (born 12 May 1937) is an English actress best known for her many television and film roles. Her appeal has always been that of an "English rose".
Description above from the Wikipedia article Susan Hampshire licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Patrick Cargill (3 June 1918 – 23 May 1996) was a British actor known for his role on the British television sitcom Father, Dear Father.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Patrick Cargill, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
Esma Ellen Charlotte Littman, credited as Esme or Esma Cannon, was a diminutive (4 feet 7 inches) Australian-born character actress and comedian, who moved to Britain in the early 1930s. Although she frequently appeared on television in her latter years, Cannon is best known as a film actress, with a lengthy career in British productions from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Burt Kwouk OBE, born Herbert Kwouk, was an English-born actor of Chinese descent, known for many television appearances and for his role as Cato in the Pink Panther films.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Burt Kwouk, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Extremely prolific and ubiquitous British background player Victor James Harrington was born on August 27, 1909 in Casal Paola, Malta. Harrington first began appearing in movies in uncredited minor roles in the mid-1930's. One of the most busy and tireless of British bit players, Victor could be frequently spotted in countless films and TV shows as a patron in a pub, nightclub, casino, or restaurant, a party guest, a military officer, a spectator at a sporting event, or an audience member at a play or concert. His daughter Victoria Harrington was also an actress. Harrington died at age 70 on July 23, 1980 in Brighton, East Essex, England.
Hank Brian Marvin, born Brian Robson Rankin, is an English multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist for the Shadows, a group which primarily performed instrumentals and was the backing band for Cliff Richard.
Terence "Jet" Harris was an English musician, played bass with The Shadows from 1958 until April 1962, and had subsequent success as a soloist and as a duo with the drummer Tony Meehan.
