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- Nicholas Clay was an English actor, most famous for playing the legendary knight Lancelot du Lac (Lancelot of the Lake) in the medieval fantasy film "Excalibur" (1981).
Clay was born in London.His father was a professional soldier, who served in the Corps of Royal Engineers (nicknamed "Sappers"). The Clay family eventually settled in Kent, where Clay was raised. Clay became interested in acting as a teenager, and performed with the Little Medway Theatre Club. He was later formally educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Clay made his film debut in the science fiction horror film "The Damned" (1963), concerning children with a mutation which makes them resistant to nuclear fallout. He was only 17-years-old at the time. He remained a theatrical actor for the rest of the 1960s.
Clay's next film role was that of handyman Billy Jarvis in the thriller "The Night Digger" (1971). In the film, Jarvis represented a threat to the film's female protagonists Maura and Edith Prince (played respectively by Patricia Neal and Pamela Brown). Clay's first leading role was that of naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) in the biographical film "The Darwin Adventure" (1972),
Clay returned to the horror genre in the film "Terror of Frankenstein" (1977). He played Henry Clerval, the best friend of Victor Frankenstein. Clay found a notable role in the television miniseries "Will Shakespeare" (1978), where he played Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573-1624). In real-life poet William Shakespeare had dedicated two narrative poems to Wriothesley: "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece". Wriothesley is also mentioned in Shakespeare's Sonnets, under the name of the "Fair Youth", as a subject of the poet's admiration.
Clay played Lieutenant Raw in the war film "Zulu Dawn" (1979), which depicted the historical Battle of Isandlwana (1879). The film was released at the centennial of the battle. Clay had key roles in two Arthurian films released in 1981, playing Lancelot du Lac in "Excalibur" and Tristan in "Lovespell". Both Lancelot and Tristan were knights of Arthurian legends, known for their romantic affairs with married women. Lancelot was romantically involved with Queen Guinevere (Arthur's wife), and Tristan was romantically involved with his aunt-by-marriage Iseult of Ireland (wife of his uncle Mark of Cornwall).
Clay had another romantic role as gamekeeper Oliver Mellors in "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (1981), an adaptation of the 1928 novel David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930). Both the novel and its film adaptation portrayed a love affair between Mellors and the wife of of his employer, Constance Reid, Lady Chatterley.
Clay next found a leading role in television as the historical monarch Alexander the Great, King of Macedon (356-323 BC, reigned 336-323 BC) in the miniseries "The Search for Alexander the Great". Next he appeared in a couple of crime novel adaptations. He played murder suspect Patrick Redfern in the mystery film "Evil Under the Sun" (1982), based on the 1941 novel by Agatha Christie. He also played murder suspect Jack Stapleton in the television film The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1983), based on the 1902 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Clay next had a supporting role in another literary adaption. He played the Greek nobleman Glaucus in the miniseries "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1984), an adaptation of the 1834 novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He had a guest star role as Dr. Percy Trevelyan in a 1985 episode of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". The episode was an adaptation of the short story "The Adventure of the Resident Patient" (1893), where Trevelyan was Sherlock Holmes' client.
Clay played the Prince in the fantasy film "Sleeping Beauty" (1987), based on the traditional fairy tale recorded by both Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. He next played nobleman Charles De Montfort in the Crusade-themed adventure film "Lionheart" (1987). This was his last role in a feature film.
In the same year, Clay played the historical figure Alexis Mdivani (1905-1935) in the television film "Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story" (1987). The real-life Mdivani was a Georgian nobleman who married American heiress Barbara Hutton (1912-1979). He was killed in an automobile accident when only 30-years-old.
Clay's last notable role in the 1980s was that of self-made businessman Mike Savage in the dramatic television series "Gentlemen and Players" (1988-1989). The series focused on an intense personal rivalry between Savage and "blue-blooded" businessman Miles "Bo" Beaufort (played by Brian Protheroe). It lasted 2 seasons, and a total of 13 episodes.
In the 1990s, Clay taught drama at the Actors' Centre and the Academy of Live and Performing Arts, and became an associate Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His career declined, and he mostly appeared in television roles. He had guest-star roles in then-popular television series, such as "Zorro", "The New Adventures of Robin Hood", and "Highlander: The Series".
His last substantial television roles were that of mythological king Menelaus of Sparta in the miniseries "The Odyssey" (1997), and Lord Leo in the Arthurian miniseries "Merlin" (1998). His last recurring role was that of Dr. Angus Harvey in the controversial medical drama "Psychos" (1999) which only lasted 6 episodes. The series was at the time accused of reinforcing stereotypes and prejudice towards people involved in mental health.
Clay died in May 2000, suffering from liver cancer. He was 53-years-old. He was interred in the graveyard of St Peter's Church, Sibton, Suffolk. He was survived by his wife, actress Lorna Heilbron. The couple had two daughters. - Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Frantisek Lederer was born on November 6th, 1899, in Czechoslovakia. His father was a leather merchant, and young Frantisek began his working life as a department store delivery boy in Prague. He fell in love with acting from a young age, and was soon on stage touring Moravia and then all over Central Europe with people like Peter Lorre.
Lederer was easily lured into film by German actress Henny Porten and her producer husband. And it wasn't long before he was starring in the legendary German silent movie Pandora's Box (1929).
Whilst Lederer, who was using the German name of Franz, shifted from silents to talkies easily and was fast becoming one of Germany's top stars, he hadn't yet learned to speak any English.
By 1934, Lederer, (now using Francis), had begun working in America. And he was getting top billing too. Irving Thalberg had planned to make Lederer "the biggest star in Hollywood" but Thalberg's untimely death put a stop to that. But Lederer continued successfully in film and TV for many years.
After two brief marriages his third lasted 59 years. He invested in property well and made a fortune in the Canoga Park, California area. He founded the National Academy of Performing Arts on which his close friend Joan Crawford was on the Advisory Board. He loved to teach.
Lederer was still teaching the week before he died in 2000, aged 100 years.- Music Department
- Actor
- Writer
Majrooh Sultanpuri's reputation as a poet was ironically overshadowed by his being a lyricist for popular Bollywood films. It has happened very frequently that the real merit of a person is pushed into the background by some lesser work that is done for a medium with a bigger outreach or for some popular event. Though Majrooh was a very successful lyricist and his "geets" were hummed by millions of people in continents where Indian cinema is the rage, yet it would be unfair to judge him based solely on this lesser work. He was a serious poet who made significant contributions to the development of a sensibility and an idiom, that was truly inspired by the Progressive Writers Movement. In the early years after partition the poets felt hugely hemmed in by the their lack of reaching out to the people they were supposed to be addressing. Though they had a steady audience, it was very tiny compared to that enjoyed by popular media including that of the cinema. It was decided by a few poets and literary organisations to ride on the back of a popular medium to exploit the greater outreach of the cinema, and as it were, to spread the message. Pardeep, Sahir Ludhianvi, Qamar Jalalabadi, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Shakeel Badayuni, Saghar Nizami, Rajinder Krishen and Majrooh Sultanpuri, were all sucked into the insatiable vortex of the film world with Sahir having remained the most outstanding but Majrooh Sultanpuri being a close second. It may be said that when these poets agreed to write for the films the quality of poetry in the context of the film lyrics showed a vast improvement. If it was a loss to urdu poetry it was surely a gain for the "filmi" song text and the vast divide of serious writing and popular writing was narrowed a little by the Bombay films. Majrooh had earlier fought the hardest battle of his life as a ghazalgo. It was an article of faith with the early progressive poets that the stylised form of ghazal with its well wrought references and associated inferences was not suitable for the new sensibility which needed a new form. The same rationale was also behind the movement known as the naturi shairi of the mid nineteenth century but it was sponsored from the top by the establishment. Like all movements the Progressive Writers too took an extreme position and denounced much in the name of being a product of feudalism. Literature and the arts were seen in the framework of a one to one relationship and the entire effort seemed to be based on exclusion rather than incorporation. But Majrooh did not tow the line and held the position that ghazal could retain its glory through its ability to say new things for the new age. He was himself an outstanding ghazal poet and introduced new imagery and new diction into the heavily stylised format. He was able to maintain the lyrical quality of the ghazal which is its real spirit and test without losing on the vigour that was supposed to be an integral part of this new poetic idiom. The awareness of where the exploitation has taken the ordinary man and a whipping up of emotions for greater activism was the twin aim of these poets. Majrooh was not alone in this struggle. He had support from a contemporary, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who too was not keen on losing the rich referential and allusive matrix of the traditional ghazal while talking about the main contradiction of the class divide that cut across board. It was the awareness that the rejection of the ghazal would be a turning away from our tradition that made its acceptance and currency possible again by the fifties. When Majrooh appeared on the scene Faiz's Naqsh e Faryadi, Majaz's Aahang, Ali Sardar Jaffery's Parwaz, Jazbi's Ferozaan and Makhdoom's Surkh Sawera had already been published with leading critics like Ehtesham Hussain and Doctor Alim, being the real opponents of the ghazal, wanting to do away with this archaic form as a critical canon. Faiz and Majrooh gradually introduced the themes generally associated with the Progressive Movement, and transformed the ghazal without losing on its strength. During the fifties ghazal was gradually and grudgingly accepted as a legitimate form of poetry even by Ehtesham Hussain who wrote about it then. Poetry thus disengaged itself from being a mere slogan, and moved towards the lyrical and melodic richness generally associated with ghazal. It abandoned the harsh declamatory style meant to exhort the listener to take up arms against the sea of troubles for a more introspective mood where awareness became part of a larger collective consciousness. The Urdu poets found themselves being edged out in the new socio-cultural environment of India and saw their language shrink and the literate audience dwindle. Amidst the growing demand of Hinduising Urdu Majrooh stood his ground and fought for the rightful place of his language with a rich heritage. Perhaps history will judge Majrooh as a poet who partially frittered away his talent by writing for the films. The limited opportunity and the constraints of the situation do not let the poet grow and prosper in the same manner when he is just writing poetry as a an autonomous form. But Majrooh's contribution in giving a new meaning to the ghazal will keep the torch of his name burning for quite some time.- Giulio Sbarigia was born on 20 March 1914 in Rome, Italy. He was a producer, known for A Matter of Time (1976), Lettere di una novizia (1960) and Ciao, ciao bambina! (Piove) (1959). He died on 25 May 2000.
- Bohumil Seda was born on 30 March 1920 in Urbanov, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Everything Ends Tonight (1955), Vítezný lid (1977) and Nejmladsí z rodu Hamru (1975). He died on 25 May 2000 in Prague, Czech Republic.
- Producer
- Writer
Kid Severin was born on 17 April 1909 in Stockholm. He was a producer and writer, known for Som du vill ha mej (1943), Tidsresor i modets värld (2011) and Gäst hos Hagge (1975). He died on 25 May 2000.- Art Department
- Additional Crew
- Art Director
Michal Krska was born on 23 February 1951. Michal was an art director, known for Kafka (1991), Léto s kovbojem (1976) and Swing Kids (1993). Michal died on 25 May 2000 in Prague.