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- Luke Thompson grew up in France from the age of 2, but was born in Southampton, UK. He speaks French and English. His father was an engineer and his mother a teacher , and he is one of three children. He attended a French school in Fontainebleau with an Anglophone Section from 1997 to 2005. Arriving in the UK in 2006, Thompson spent a year with the Year Out Drama Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. He studied English and Drama at the University of Bristol and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, graduating in 2013.
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Matt Czuchry is an American Actor and Producer known for his work on The Resident (2018), The Good Wife (2009) and Gilmore Girls (2000).
Matt graduated from College of Charleston with Summa Cum Laude honors, and B.A degrees in the disciplines of both History and Political Science. In his senior year at the College, Matt was presented with The Bishop Robert Smith award. This award is the highest honor given to a graduating senior and represents valued contributions in academics, sports, and leadership within the Charleston community.
Throughout his studies at Charleston, Matt was focused on making the practice of law his next path in life after graduation. However, when his embarrassingly awful Law School Admission Test results arrived in the mail the summer before his senior year, he began to meticulously reflect on his early childhood in an effort to find a renewed sense of purpose for his adult life.
During this process of personal evaluation at the beginning of his senior year at CofC, Matt could not ignore the magical impact movies, television, characters, and storytelling had upon his youth. Moments like exiting a dilapidated movie theater while crying inconsolably after experiencing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Or times spent as a tiny kid running around his parent's home in purple-dyed underwear, smashing couches while watching The Incredible Hulk (1978) on TV.
Through this process of searching his past to find a path towards his future, Matt slowly began to clearly define his purpose for his adult life. For the next journey in his life after college, Matt wanted to make his own indelible mark on the hearts and minds of audiences across the world from all walks of life through the power of storytelling.
In an effort to pursue this intention and purpose, nearly immediately after graduating from the College of Charleston, Matt filled his crappy car with everything he owned, put his awful Law School Admission Test scores in the rear view mirror, and embarked upon a westward journey from his childhood home in Johnson City Tennessee to Los Angeles California.
Since graduating from The College of Charleston in 1999 and making the cross country journey to Los Angeles, Matt has worked on projects such as Gilmore Girls (2000), the two time Emmy nominated and Peabody winning series, The Good Wife (2009), and his current show on Fox, The Resident (2018), where Matt plays the title character.
Throughout his acting career from 1999-present, Matt has worked alongside Oscar winners, Tony Winners, and Emmy winners. And during that time Czuchry has found a way to make his own indelible mark on the arts. For his work on The Resident (2018), Czuchry was honored in 2020 with the Entertainment Weekly/SCAD Maverick Award. The Resident (2018) has also been nominated for two Teen Choice awards, and Matt has been nominated for three Teen Choice awards for his work as Logan Huntzberger in the series Gilmore Girls (2000). For his work on The Good Wife (2009) (where ironically Matt played a lawyer with exceptional Law School Admission Test scores) he was nominated for three consecutive Screen Actors Guild Ensemble awards in 2011, 2012, 2013, he won the Entertainment Weekly Best Supporting Actor award in 2011, and Czuchry was also selected to both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety magazine's prestigious Emmy Contenders list for 2015.
Czuchry's Charleston education came to a pinnacle in 2018 when he gave the commencement address to that year's College of Charleston graduating class. His commencement address was noted in Teen Vogue as one of the standout speeches of 2018 along with Oprah Winfrey and Apple CEO Tim Cook. That same year the College of Charleston recognized Matt with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. This humbling honor completed Matt's journey from college graduate with crap LSAT scores and an unclear path forward, to an established actor contributing on the highest level to the arts.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Martin Freeman is an English actor, known for portraying Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy, Tim Canterbury in the original UK version of sitcom mockumentary The Office (2001), Dr. John Watson in the British crime drama Sherlock (2010) and Lester Nygaard in the dark comedy-crime drama TV series Fargo (2014).
His other notable film roles include the romantic comedy Love Actually (2003) and the comic science fiction film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005).- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Amanda Leigh Moore was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on April 10, 1984, to Stacy (Friedman), a former news reporter, and Don Moore, an airline pilot. During her childhood, her family moved to Orlando, Florida, where she was raised. She has Russian Jewish (from her maternal grandfather), English, Scottish, and Irish, ancestry.
After seeing the musical "Oklahoma!", she decided that she wanted to pursue a career in singing. As a child, she performed the National Anthem at several athletic events around her hometown of Orlando, Florida, and became known as the "National Anthem girl". At the ripe age of fourteen, while she was recording in a studio in Orlando, a Fed-Ex worker who happened to be passing through heard her and was interested in her talent. He happened to know someone at Sony as well. Moore worked on cutting a demo and shortly thereafter signed a record deal with Sony 550 Music. At 15, her first record "So Real" was released. Her first tour was with the Backstreet Boys.
As her touring and recording schedule demanded more of her time, Moore withdrew from Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando and opted for a tutor/correspondence. She has stated that her education is important to her and says that the fact that she wants to go to college motivates her to continue with her schooling.
Though Moore's record sales were not up in the ranks of Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, she has proved to be a formidable talent both in singing and in acting, and snagged an MTV Movie Award in June 2002 for her first feature film role in A Walk to Remember (2002). Her biggest dream, though, is to perform on Broadway someday.
Throughout the 2000s, Mandy headlined several films, ranging from the little-seen drama Try Seventeen (2002) to mid-level releases like How to Deal (2003), Chasing Liberty (2004), Racing Stripes (2005), and the more broadly comedic Because I Said So (2007) and License to Wed (2007). She also appeared in the odd-ball sci-fi film Southland Tales (2006), and voiced Rapunzel in the Disney blockbuster CGI animation Tangled (2010).
In the mid 2010s, she re-emerged as a star actress, headlining the show This Is Us (2016) and the hit thriller film 47 Meters Down (2017), with more film roles to come.- Actress
- Camera and Electrical Department
Frances Fisher began by apprenticing at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. She spent 14 years based in New York City, playing leads in over 30 productions of plays by such noted writers as John Arden, Noël Coward, Emily Mann, Joe Orton, Sam Shepard, William Shakespeare, Jean-Claude van Itallie, Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams. She won a Drama Logue Award - Best Ensemble for the American Premier of Caryl Churchill's "Three More Sleepless Nights", played in the American premier of Judith Thompson's "The Crackwalker" and originated roles in Elia Kazan's "The Chain" and Arthur Miller's last play "Finishing the Picture". Besides working with Kazan and Miller, some of Ms. Fisher's more interesting theater experiences were creating roles from two great works of literature: George Orwell's "1984" and Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Ms. Fisher worked at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles alongside Annette Bening and Alfred Molina in Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard". Fisher starred in "Sexy Laundry" with Paul Ben-Victor at the Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles. She studied with Stella Adler and became a lifetime member of the Actors Studio by actually "walking up the stairs" and auditioning for legendary acting teacher Lee Strasberg. Ms. Fisher recently completed The Host (2013), Love on the Run (2016), Red Wing (2013) and will work with Catherine Hardwicke in her new film Plush (2013) in August 2012. Ms. Fisher was honored for a Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 in her old hometown of the Pacific Palisades, California.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Colin Andrew Firth was born into an academic family in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. His mother, Shirley Jean (Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University, and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, lectured on history at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's College) in Winchester, and worked on education for the Nigerian government. His grandparents were missionaries. His siblings Katie Firth and Jonathan Firth are also actors.
Firth's first acting experience came in infant's school when he played "Jack Frost" in a Christmas pantomime. Three of his four grandparents were Methodist missionaries and he spent his early childhood in Nigeria, returning to England at age five where he entered a comprehensive school in Winchester. He spent two years at the Drama Centre, then in Chalk Farm, where he was "discovered" whist playing "Hamlet" during his final term. His first professional role was as "Bennet" in the West End production of "Another Country". From this performance, he was chosen to play the character of "Judd" in the movie of the play. He went on to play a variety of character parts in both film and television. For his portrayal of "Robert Lawrence" in the 1989 TV production Tumbledown (1988), he received the Royal Television Society Best Actor award and also a BAFTA nomination. He also received a BAFTA nomination for "Mr. Darcy" in the 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice (1995). In 2011, he won the Oscar for Best Actor for his commanding leading role, playing British King George VI in The King's Speech (2010).- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Sarah Silverman was most recently the host of the two-time Emmy-nominated weekly topical series, I Love You America, which streamed on Hulu and also received a Writers Guild Awards nomination.
Silverman is currently working on a musical adaptation of her 2010 memoir and New York Times Bestseller called The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee. The musical, The Bedwetter, will premiere Off Broadway at the Atlantic Theatre Company in April 2020.
On-stage, Silverman continues to cement her status as a force in stand-up comedy. In May 2017, she released her latest standup special A Speck of Dust on Netflix, which culminated in two Emmy Award nominations and a Grammy Award nomination. In 2013, she debuted her hour-long HBO standup special Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles, which earned her the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special." The special received an additional Primetime Emmy Awards nomination that year for "Outstanding Variety Special" in addition to a Writers Guild Awards nomination. In September 2014, Silverman released the special as an audio album through Sub Pop Records, which went on to receive a 2015 Grammy Awards nomination for "Best Comedy Album." Previously, Silverman made an impressive splash with her concert-meets-comedy film Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, which garnered major attention at the Toronto Film Festival.
In the film world, Silverman was most recently seen opposite Emma Stone and Steve Carell in the critically-acclaimed film Battle of the Sexes, which was based on the true story of the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. She also starred in I Smile Back, the film adaptation of the Amy Koppelman novel. The drama premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was later released in theaters by Broad Green Pictures. Silverman received much praise for her role as "Laney Brooks," culminating in a 2016 Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for "Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role." Her additional film credits include The Book of Henry, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Ashby, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Take This Waltz, Gravy, Peep World, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, The School of Rock, There's Something About Mary, The Way of The Gun. Silverman also lent her voice as "Vanellope" in the Oscar-nominated smash hit Wreck It Ralph and Golden Globe nominated Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Silverman was nominated for a 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series" for her portrayal of a fictionalized version of herself in her Comedy Central series The Sarah Silverman Program. This marked Comedy Central's first ever Emmy nomination in a scripted acting category. Silverman also received a Writers Guild Award nomination for her work on the show. In 2008, Silverman won a Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics" for her musical collaboration with Matt Damon. Additionally, she was honored with a Webby Award for "Best Actress" for her online video "The Great Schlep," in which she persuaded young kids to encourage their grandparents in Florida to vote for President Obama prior to the 2008 Presidential Election.
Silverman has made memorable guest appearances on a number of acclaimed and notable television shows, including Monk, which earned her a 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards nomination for "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series." Silverman also lends her voice to Emmy Award-winning FOX animated series Bob's Burgers. Her additional television work includes buzzed-about roles on HBO's Crashing, Masters of Sex, The Good Wife, The Larry Sanders Show, Seinfeld, and Mr. Show with Bob and David. Silverman has hosted a number of major awards shows, including the 2007 MTV Movie Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards.
Silverman grew up in New Hampshire and attended one year of New York University. In 1993 she joined Saturday Night Live as a writer and feature performer and has not stopped working since.
She currently lives in Los Angeles.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Eliza grew up in Plymouth, New Hampshire and graduated from Plymouth Regional High School.
Coupe first garnered industry attention in 2006 when her hilarious and irreverent one-woman show, The Patriots, performed at UCB/NYC, was selected for HBO's prestigious US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Coupe won the festival's jury award for Breakout Actor of 2006 for her performance, an award designated by a panel of TV and film industry executives. That same year Coupe was featured in Variety as one of their, "10 Comics to Watch."
Eliza is well-known for her starring role in David Caspe created Happy Endings, and for Futureman, produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.- Elizabeth Jane Hurley was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, to Angela Mary (Titt), a teacher, and Roy Leonard Hurley, an army major. Wanting to be a dancer, Hurley went to ballet boarding school at 12, but soon returned home. When it came time to go to college, Hurley won a scholarship to the London Studio Centre which taught courses for dance and theater. Soon, Hurley wore the punk rock look with pink hair and a nose ring, but to get work, she had to change her image to one that was castable. After college, Hurley worked in the theater and made her screen debut in Aria (1987). Roles in Television and a film, Rowing with the Wind (1988), which included a young actor named Hugh Grant, soon followed. European films followed her appearance in the BBC serial Christabel (1988). Her film debut in a Hollywood movie was in the Wesley Snipes action drama Passenger 57 (1992). When Hugh Grant was picked up with Divine Brown, Hurley became headline news. Added to this was the fact that she was the model representing top cosmetics house Estée Lauder, and there was nowhere Hurley could go to get away from the press. In 1994, Hurley and Hugh Grant set up Simian Films in partnership with Castle Rock Entertainment. As Head of Development, Hurley found the script and produced her first film Extreme Measures (1996), which stars Hugh Grant.
- Production Designer
- Director
- Writer
Robert Houston Eggers is an American filmmaker and production designer. He is best known for writing and directing the historical horror films The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019), as well as directing and co-writing the historical fiction epic film The Northman (2022). His films are noted for their folkloric elements, as well as his efforts to ensure historical authenticity.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
A dynamic young actor, Sam Huntington was born in Peterborough, New Hampshire, on April 1, 1982. His father is a cabinet maker and owns his own business. His mother, Christen Stabile, is an actress on stage and screen (most famously in Knots Landing (1979)). She also is a teacher and writer.
Sam began acting at the age of nine, under the direction of his mother as a part of her children's theater, The Black Box. Sam was also a part of Andy's Summer Playhouse in Wilton for three summers and performed at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge. His professional acting career began at the celebrated Peterborough Players in Peterborough where he was cast in four seasons from 1991 to 1994, in such roles as Jem in To Kill A Mockingbird, opposite James Rebhorn.
Although Sam wanted to begin screen acting right away, his mother encouraged him to gain more experience. In 1995, Sam signed with the JM Bloom Agency in New York City. Sam and his mother moved to an apartment there for a year, and Sam attended 7th grade at The Professional Children's School, where he became friends with Macaulay Culkin. During this year, Sam was cast in three television commercials, a voice-over for The Magic School Bus (1994), an instructional video for the Windows 95 computer operating system, the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Harvest of Fire (1996), and in the Winona Ryder film Boys (1996), but his scenes in the latter were edited out. Sam also signed a three-movie contract with the Walt Disney Company; the first film under this contract was in the key role of Mimi-Siku in the hit comedy Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), which also starred Tim Allen and and Martin Short. Filming for that picture began in April 1996 and lasted about 3 months. It was filmed entirely on location in New York City; Pound Ridge, NY; and Canaima National Park in Venezuela. During this time, Sam was accompanied by his mother (and often his father and sister) and had a tutor who kept him up on his 8th-grade studies. Sam also had a guest appearance on the award-winning television show Law & Order (1990) in December 1997.
Sam starred as 'Ox' in Columbia Pictures' ensemble comedy Not Another Teen Movie (2001), the teen movie Sleepover (2004), and the anticipated smash Superman Returns (2006). He appeared in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (2006) for Warner Bros., playing Jimmy Olsen, the Daily Planet reporter who works a alongside Lois Lane and Clark Kent. He also had memorable roles in Fanboys (2009), opposite Kristen Bell, Christopher Rodriguez Marquette, Dan Fogler, and Jay Baruchel, playing 'Jam' in New Line Cinema's Detroit Rock City (1999), opposite Edward Furlong, Not Another Teen Movie (2001), and 'Dinkadoo Murphy' in Thomas Haden Church's Rolling Kansas (2003).- Egerton attended Ditcham Park School near Petersfield in Hampshire, where she says she was bullied. She also states she truanted, preferring to go to modeling shoots. After finishing school at 16 with nine A-grade GCSEs, Egerton decided to pursue acting rather than going to university. She had a brief job as a babysitter for three children. She previously shared a flat in Marylebone, Central London, with her St. Trinian's (2007) castmate, Talulah Riley, whom she described as her "soulmate". She lived in Hampstead with theatre producer Jamie Hendry.
She has cited Takeshi Kitano as her favourite film director. - Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Stephen Wilson Bethel born February 24, 1984, professionally known as Wilson Bethel, is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Wade Kinsella on Hart of Dixie and as Ryder Callahan on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. He is also the star and creator of the web series Stupid Hype on the The CW's new online platform CWD. Bethel was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, the son of Stephen Bethel and author Joyce Maynard. Before becoming a regular on The Young and the Restless, Bethel had been seen on television in various one-time roles on shows such as JAG, Cold Case, and NCIS.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Matty Cardarople has always wanted to be an entertainer. Born and raised in Exeter, New Hampshire, Cardarople fueled his creative passion by entertaining friends and family with his comedic skills. After moving to Los Angeles he studied acting at The Beverly Hills Playhouse and has been perfecting his craft studying with Lesly Kahn. Ultimately Cardarople was discovered by Luke and Owen Wilson who gave him his career start with roles in the feature films Blonde Ambition and Drillbit Taylor.
Cardarople went on to appear in the blockbuster hit Jurassic World and Dumb and Dumber To, where he worked with his childhood idol Jim Carrey whom he cites as his career inspiration. Cardarople quickly continued to add to his credits with roles in the indie comedy The 4th, the critically-acclaimed Amazon rom-com The Big Sick and the Steven Soderbergh directed film Logan Lucky.
Cardarople got another big break with a starring role in the hit Netflix show A Series of Unfortunate Events, as Orlando, the "Hench Person of Indeterminate Gender" in the Troupe of Count Olaf played by Neil Patrick-Harris. The series is streaming now and is a favorite of audiences and critics alike. And as his impressive success continues, Cardarople can be seen in the highly-talked about second and third season of the Netflix instant classic Stranger Things.
He also stars as Noodle in the Netflix comedy film Wheels of Fortune alongside actors Matt Jones (Breaking Bad), Jeff Fahey, Noureen DeWulf, and John Ducey. The film follows a down-on-his-luck mechanic and his best friend as they head to competitions to win a big inheritance.
Recently Cardarople can be heard as the voice of Preston in Archibald's Next Big Thing streamable on Netflix. Cardarople continues to keep busy with roles such as Roger in Lazy Susan, Roy Meyer in I Am Woman, and Frank White in the Hulu anthology series Monsterland. He has also been cast as Ansel in the Taika Waititi project Reservation Dogs, Remy in "Made for Love", and the upcoming Netflix animated series "We Lost Our Human" alongside Ben Schwartz.
Things aren't slowing down for Cardarople, he can be seen in the blockbuster hit Free Guy alongside Ryan Reynolds. The film is "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes. Coming up next, he will also play Clay Elliot, a young inattentive father in the romance thriller American Cherry from writer/director Marcella Cytrynowicz.
Cardarople has been seen on notable television shows such as New Girl, Angie Tribeca, Scrubs, Ray Donovan, You're The Worst, Comedy Bang! Bang! Selfie and Chasing Life.
Cardarople is accomplished in other arenas as well. He spends time drawing and writing poetry; his first self-published book of poems is titled Space Cadet and he just released his second titled Happy Birthday Everyday which both are available for purchase online. When not on set, Cardarople devotes his efforts to a number of worthy causes such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation, and local animal shelters.
Cardarople currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, cats and a rescue pomeranian named Azoun.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
James Lance was born on 29 September 1975 in Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Northern Soul (2014), Bronson (2008) and Marie Antoinette (2006). He has been married to Kate Quilton since 2016. They have one child.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
David Oakes is a British actor who trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and graduated in 2007. He is represented by Conway Van Gelder Grant Inc.
Before training professionally as an actor he studied at Manchester University where he received a first class degree in English and Drama. David was also on the board of governors for the Conservatoire of Dance and Drama.
He went to school in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he eventually became the head boy at Bishop Wordsworth's Grammar School.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Often credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers to a well-off acting family in 1925 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. He was the son of Agnes Doreen "Peg" (Marks) and William "Bill" Sellers. His parents worked in an acting company run by his grandmother. His father was Protestant and his mother was Jewish (of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi background). His parents' first child had died at birth, so Sellers was spoiled during his early years. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served during World War II. After the war he met Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine, who would become his future workmates.
After the war, he set up a review in London, which was a combination of music (he played the drums) and impressions. Then, all of a sudden, he burst into prominence as the voices of numerous favorites on the BBC radio program "The Goon Show" (1951-1960), and then making his debut in films in Penny Points to Paradise (1951) and Down Among the Z Men (1952), before making it big as one of the criminals in The Ladykillers (1955). These small but showy roles continued throughout the 1950s, but he got his first big break playing the dogmatic union man, Fred Kite, in I'm All Right Jack (1959). The film's success led to starring vehicles into the 1960s that showed off his extreme comic ability to its fullest. In 1962, Sellers was cast in the role of Clare Quilty in the Stanley Kubrick version of the film Lolita (1962) in which his performance as a mentally unbalanced TV writer with multiple personalities landed him another part in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) in which he played three roles which showed off his comic talent in play-acting in three different accents; British, American, and German.
The year 1964 represented a peak in his career with four films in release, all of them well-received by critics and the public alike: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), for which he was Oscar nominated, The Pink Panther (1963), in which he played his signature role of the bumbling French Inspector Jacques Clouseau for the first time, its almost accidental sequel, A Shot in the Dark (1964), and The World of Henry Orient (1964). Sellers was on top of the world, but on the evening of April 5, 1964, he suffered a nearly fatal heart attack after inhaling several amyl nitrites (also called 'poppers'; an aphrodisiac-halogen combination) while engaged in a sexual act with his second wife Britt Ekland. He had been working on Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid (1964). In a move Wilder later regretted, he replaced Sellers with Ray Walston rather than hold up production. By October 1964, Sellers made a full recovery and was working again.
The mid-1960s were noted for the popularity of all things British, from the Beatles music (who were presented with their Grammy for Best New Artist by Sellers) to the James Bond films, and the world turned to Sellers for comedy. What's New Pussycat (1965) was another big hit, but a combination of his ego and insecurity was making Sellers difficult to work with. When the James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967) ran over budget and was unable to recoup its costs despite an otherwise healthy box-office take, Sellers received some of the blame. He turned down an offer from United Artists for the title role in Inspector Clouseau (1968), but was angry when the production went ahead with Alan Arkin in his place. His difficult reputation and increasingly erratic behavior, combined with several less successful films, took a toll on his standing. By 1970, he had fallen out of favor. He spent the early years of the new decade appearing in such lackluster B films as Where Does It Hurt? (1972) and turning up more frequently on television as a guest on The Dean Martin Show (1965) and a Glen Campbell TV special.
In 1974, Inspector Clouseau came to Sellers rescue when Sir Lew Grade expressed an interest in a TV series based on the character. Clouseau's creator, writer-director Blake Edwards, whose career had also seen better days, convinced Grade to bankroll a feature film instead, and The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) was a major hit release during the summer of Jaws (1975) and restored both men to prominence. Sellers would play Clouseau in two more successful sequels, The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) and Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), and Sellers would use his newly rediscovered clout to realize his dream of playing Chauncey Gardiner in a film adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's novel "Being There". Sellers had read the novel in 1972, but it took seven years for the film to reach the screen. Being There (1979) earned Sellers his second Oscar nomination, but he lost to Dustin Hoffman for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).
Sellers struggled with depression and mental insecurities throughout his life. An enigmatic figure, he often claimed to have no identity outside the roles that he played. His behavior on and off the set and stage became more erratic and compulsive, and he continued to frequently clash with his directors and co-stars, especially in the mid-1970s when his physical and mental health, together with his continuing alcohol and drug problems, were at their worst. He never fully recovered from his 1964 heart attack because he refused to take traditional heart medication and instead consulted with 'psychic healers'. As a result, his heart condition continued to slowly deteriorate over the next 16 years. On March 20, 1977, Sellers barely survived another major heart attack and had a pacemaker surgically implanted to regulate his heartbeat which caused him further mental and physical discomfort. However, he refused to slow down his work schedule or consider heart surgery which might have extended his life by several years.
On July 25, 1980, Sellers was scheduled to have a reunion dinner in London with his Goon Show partners, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. However, at around 12 noon on July 22, Sellers collapsed from a massive heart attack in his Dorchester Hotel room and fell into a coma. He died in a London hospital just after midnight on July 24, 1980 at age 54. He was survived by his fourth wife, Lynne Frederick, and three children: Michael, Sarah and Victoria. At the time of his death, he was scheduled to undergo an angiography in Los Angeles on July 30 to see if he was eligible for heart surgery.
His last movie, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980), completed just a few months before his death, proved to be another box office flop. Director Blake Edwards' attempt at reviving the Pink Panther series after Sellers' death resulted in two panned 1980s comedies, the first of which, Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), deals with Inspector Clouseau's disappearance and was made from material cut from previous Pink Panther films and includes interviews with the original casts playing their original characters.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Laura Carmichael was born on 16 July 1986 in Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Downton Abbey (2019), Downton Abbey (2010) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).- Keri Lynn Pratt was born on 23 September 1978 in Concord, New Hampshire, USA. She is an actress, known for A Single Man (2009), America's Sweethearts (2001) and Drive Me Crazy (1999). She has been married to John Barneson since October 2011.
- Raquel Cassidy was born on 22 January 1968 in Fleet, Hampshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Downton Abbey (2019), Downton Abbey (2010) and Teachers (2001).
- Gabriella Wilde was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. She is descended from the aristocratic Gough-Calthorpe family. Her mother, Vanessa Mary Teresa (Hubbard), is the former wife of socialite Sir Dai Llewellyn, 4th Baronet. Her father, businessman John Austen Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, is a former chairman of the Watermark Group, and the grandson of baronet Fitzroy Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe. Her ancestry includes English, as well as some Scottish and Irish.
Vanessa is a former model who sat for David Bailey and John Swannell. Wilde attended Heathfield St Mary's School, Ascot, and St Swithun's School, Winchester, before leaving to pursue a course in art while continuing with her modeling career. She studied fine art at the City and Guilds of London Art School but dropped out to pursue acting. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Juliet Aubrey is a BAFTA-award-winning actress of English and Welsh origin. She has starred in numerous critically acclaimed productions for film (The Infiltrator (2016), playing the female lead opposite Bryan Cranston), theatre ("Ivanov" at The National Theatre, London), and television (Middlemarch (1994), Primeval (2007), Five Daughters (2010), and The Mayor of Casterbridge (2003), to name but a few).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Alex Lawther was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, England in 1995. He is known for his role as the young Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (2014) for which he won the London Film Critics' Circle Award for "Young British Performer of the Year" in January of 2015. Being the youngest of three, and the son of two lawyers, he found out quickly that he had to entertain himself. After joining several different drama groups including The National Youth Theatre, Lawther finally found his big break with a play called South Downs at the age of 16. He also starred alongside Michael Begley and Michelle Collins in the new Hampstead Theatre play The Glass Supper. In addition, Alex featured as the young Alan Turing alongside Keira Knightley and Benedict Cumberbatch in the Oscar-Winning film The Imitation Game. The same year he played Isaac Cooper in the film X+Y. Alex Lawther certainly did find a way to entertain himself and others. He is a brilliant young actor and we will hopefully see more of him in the future.- Robbie Kay was born on 13 September 1995 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Once Upon a Time (2011) and Fugitive Pieces (2007).
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ian McNeice went to Taunton School in Somerset and then had two years at the Salisbury Playhouse as an Acting A.S.M. before going to L.A.M.D.A. 1971-74. The next few years were spent in theatre, including four years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, ending with "Nicholas Nickleby" on Broadway. His TV breakthrough was as Harcourt in the B.A.F.T.A award-wining series Edge of Darkness (1985). His American screen breakthrough was playing opposite Jim Carrey as Fulton Greenwall in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995).