Advanced search

Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Edna (McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican. His father was an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life, so Malcolm was packed off to boarding school at age 11. He attended the Tonbridge School and the Cannock House School in Eltham, Kent. At school, he was beaten with the slipper or cane every Monday for his wayward behavior. Whilst at school, he decided that he wanted to become an actor; it was also around this time that his love for race cars began. He attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) to study acting. Meanwhile, he worked at his parents' pub but lost his job when the pub went bankrupt, his father drinking all the profits. He then had a variety of jobs, from coffee salesman to messenger.

His first big-screen role was in Poor Cow (1967), although his two-minute scene was ultimately cut from the completed film. Soon after, he caught the attention of director Lindsay Anderson who cast him in the role of a rebellious student in his film If.... (1968). The film catapulted Malcolm to stardom in Britain but failed everywhere else. He was so enthusiastic about the film's success that he wanted to do another right away. He began writing what would become the semi-autobiographical O Lucky Man! (1973). Then he starred as Alex DeLarge in Stanley Kubrick's controversial A Clockwork Orange (1971), a role that gave him world fame, and legendary status (although typecasting him as a in villainous roles). In early 1976, he spent nearly a year working on what would later be one of the most infamous films of all time, the semi-pornographic Caligula (1979), financed by Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione. Around that time, the British film industry collapsed, forcing him to flee to America to continue working. His first American film was Time After Time (1979). He then did Britannia Hospital (1982), the last part of Lindsay Anderson's working-class trilogy that started with If.... (1968).

In the mid-1980s, the years of alcohol and drug abuse, including $1000 a week on cocaine, caught up with him. Years of abuse took its toll on him; his black hairs were now gray. Looking older than he really was, nobody wanted to cast him for playing younger roles. The big roles having dried up, he did many B-rated movies. The 1990s were kinder to him, though. In 1994, he was cast as Dr. Tolian Soran, the man who killed Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Generations (1994). He was back on the track, playing villains again. He played another in the classic BBC miniseries Our Friends in the North (1996). Today, with more than 100 films under his belt, he is one of the greatest actors in America. In 2021 McDowell got his American citizenship. Prior to getting his citizenship, McDowell has stated that he likes the no-nonsense American ways. He resides in the northern suburbs of Los Angeles, California.

Fourteen-year-old Reginald Lawrence Knowles was being readied to take his place with other relatives in the family bookbinding business (in Leeds) when he ran off to become an actor. He was inevitably brought back home, but he made good his second escape a few years later - his willful Knowles Yorkshire origin would not be denied. What stage experience he had amounted to a few seasons in regional theater, but he started in British sound films early (1932), calling himself Patric Knowles. He was the proverbial tall, dark and handsome type and headed for romantic lead roles. He rose slowly rose up the ranks of featured players in an array of 14 British films that included one of director Michael Powell's early successes, The Girl in the Crowd (1934). The last of his British efforts was Crown v. Stevens (1936) which, being a British Warner Bros. production, was scouted for the studio's Hollywood home base. This and a few previous films that year were lead vehicles for Knowles, and for this last he was recommended for a Hollywood contract. His first American effort was the big-screen soap opera Give Me Your Heart (1936) with notable Warner players, in which he played a noble cad. His chance for a more romantic introduction came later in the year with The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), where he joined an already popular new Angle face, Errol Flynn. Knowles played his younger brother in this well received bit of revisionist historical drama.

Through the remainder of the 1930s Knowles had a few leads with second-tier featured stars, but more often he was second lead as strait-laced but engaging in comedies as well as dramas. There were other films with Flynn, most notably the classic The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) in which he played Will Scarlett (in bright red jerkin). Knowles was a licensed private pilot and during free time provided some white-knuckle moments for Flynn, whose on-screen derring-do cloaked several phobias including vertigo. Knowles preferred freelancing to the confinement of long contract associations--one means of dodging the pitfall of being typecast. He was at RKO to play - with great verve - the shallow and rich playboy on the ill-fated plane of Five Came Back (1939). At Twentieth Century-Fox he played - very effectively - one of the big brothers of the Morgan family in the classic How Green Was My Valley (1941). Of course, freelancing could also lead to typecasting. Knowles parked himself at Universal in 1943, condemned to play clean-up hero in its formula horror films, such as The Wolf Man (1941) and the less engaging Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). He also had to endure straight man duty to the insipid antics of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, among other indignities suffered as a utility player at Universal.

He continued through the 1940s to 1951 with a mix of capable first and second lead roles with other studios, but that somewhat bored and deepening grimness on his face perhaps reflected frustration with typecast characters, as well as the realization that big fame would never come his way. He continued to be game, though, and fairly leaped at the new live playhouse theater phenomenon of early television. Along with one or two movies a year, he worked in this pioneering small screen theater starting in 1951. He also embraced episodic TV and made the rounds of the popular western and private eye shows of the period. Big- and small-screen work gradually tapered off for him through the 1960s. In the late part of the decade he was playing dignified military officers, such as Lord Mountbatten in the hit The Devil's Brigade (1968). He spent time doing college lecturing, commercials, and wrote a novel called "Even Steven." Retiring to the north end of the San Fernando Valley in Woodland Hills, Knowles was close to the Motion Picture Country Home in Calabasas, where he spent much time volunteering to help with the various functions provided for the many elderly show business people, many of whom had not been as fortunate as Knowles to have graced nearly 125 film efforts.

Frazer Hines has a particular distinction in the world of Doctor Who (1963) as the most prolific companion in the original 26-year run of the series; only the first four Doctors, William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, appeared in more episodes. He was born and raised in England and is of Scottish descent on his mother's side, who came from Port Glasgow. He came to prominence as a child actor, appearing in several films before he was fifteen, including X the Unknown (1956) and Charlie Chaplin's A King in New York (1957). In 1957 he played Napoleon in the six part BBC serial Huntingtower and followed this with the role of Jan in the seven part BBC serial The Silver Sword (1957-8). Other credits as a child actor include Run to Earth (1958) and William Tell (1958). Other television roles in the sixties include the characters of Tim Birch in Emergency Ward 10 (1963-4), and Roger Wain in Coronation Street (1965).

His big break came when he was cast to play the part of Jamie McCrimmon in the BBC series Doctor Who, a companion of the second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton. Frazer appeared in the series regularly from 1966 to 1969, earning himself a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest running companion of the Doctor. He returned to the show twice, as a cameo in the 30th anniversary show 'The Five Doctors' (1983), and alongside Patrick Troughton (second Doctor) and Colin Baker (sixth Doctor) in 'The Two Doctors' (1985).

In 1972, Frazer was cast in the soap opera Emmerdale Farm as Joe Sugden, a role he played regularly until 1994. Since leaving the show he has concentrated on a career in the theatre, appearing in many plays, and he currently believes he holds the record for the second most consecutive pantomime appearances - the record holder being Christopher Biggins with 38 appearances. His most recent theatre tour was in John A Penzotti's Five Blue Haired Ladies Sitting On A Green Park Bench (2011).

Frazer has continued his association with Doctor Who and has appeared in and narrated several of the audio adventures published by Big Finish. He has also provided audio commentaries for several of his stories when released on DVD, and has narrated some of the soundtrack releases put out by BBC Audio and AudioGO.

In 1996 Frazer released his autobiography, Films, Farms and Fillies, but at the time of publication, the publishers were in the process of being sold, and so his book only received a rather lack-lustre paperback release. In 2010 therefore, he released a reissued hardback edition of the book, retitled Hines Sight, which corrected many of the typographical and production errors of the first release. This edition was then released in paperback in 2011, and as an audio edition in 2012. In 2013 he released a photographic book of images from his life called Fifty Shades of Frazer. Both are available from his website.

Angela started her career young, playing truant from school to appear in 'Jane Eyre' by a touring company. She won the Gilbert award for Comedy, the Tree award for Drama and the Emile Littler award for Outstanding Talent during her years at RADA. By the time she had joined "Coronation Street" in 1960 she had already appeared as lead in many theatre productions, including Lily Smalls in the original stage production of 'Under Milk Wood'. Her television credits included "The Laughing Woman", playing opposite Peter O'Toole, and "The Dance Dress". Today, Angela is as busy as ever with her theatre work.

Kathryn Apanowicz (born Horsforth, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England) is a British actress best known for her 1980s television appearances in the BBC soap operas, Angels, where she played Nurse Rose Butchins, and EastEnders, where she played the caterer Magda Czajkowski. She has also had minor roles in Emmerdale Farm (1972) and Coronation Street (1960), and as a child appeared in the film Bugsy Malone. Before being cast in these shows, Apanowicz had worked in children's programmes for Yorkshire Television with Mark Curry.

In the early 1990s she presented talk-based magazine programme Afternoon Live for cable channel Wire TV. In 2000, she enjoyed a regular stint as one of the presenters of ITV's daytime magazine show for women, Live Talk. She is both a presenter for BBC Radio Leeds, and a guest presenter for BBC Radio York.

From 1994 to 2005, Apanowicz was the partner of Countdown host Richard Whiteley. After his death, she published a biography of Whiteley titled Richard by Kathryn. Apanowicz donated three pairs of Whiteley's spectacles to optical charity Vision Aid Overseas (VAO), who sent them with a team of optical professionals to Ethiopia, where they were fitted to three locals with the same prescription. The BBC followed this story on their Inside Out programme which was broadcast on 19 September 2007.