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- Dark, mustachioed and broodingly handsome in an Oliver Reed placid manner, Jon Finch was born in Caterham, Surrey, England, on March 2, 1942, the son of a merchant banker. Educated at Caterham School, his first stage role was in elementary school at age 13 playing a Roman noblewoman(!) After gaining experience in amateur theatre groups and following a short stint with a folk singing group, he suddenly left for military service at age 18, serving with a parachute regiment.
Following military duty, Jon returned to acting and delved seriously into classical theatre with several different Shakespeare/repertory companies, appearing in over 50-60 plays, including "Night of the Iguana" and "She Stoops to Conquer," while also serving as stage manager and/or assistant director for several of these companies.
Jon made his on-camera debut on TV in 1964 with guest parts on such British series as the daytime soap "Crossroads," "The Fellows," "Tom Grattan's War," "Z Cars" and the part of Sir Edward Mortimer in the BBC-TV play "Mary, Queen of Scots." This culminated in a leading role in the sci-fi British series Counterstrike (1969). A few years later he broke into films with supporting roles in the Hammer Studio horror classics The Vampire Lovers (1970) and The Horror of Frankenstein (1970). This was a rather intense, dramatic sign as to the direction his cinematic career would take.
Jon's gloomy, Gothic-edged film career peaked in the early 70s with such classy fare as Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971), in which he played the tormented title role, in a particularly gory and controversial presentation; as cuckold husband William Lamb in the historical romancer Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) opposite Sarah Miles; in Alfred Hitchcock's macabre serial-killer thriller Frenzy (1972), in which he is a suspect in the dastardly crimes; in The Final Programme (1973), an end-of-the-world sci-fi adventure that has since earned cult status; and in the all-star production of Death on the Nile (1978), an elegant whodunnit, courtesy of Agatha Christie. More importantly, he took part in several Shakespearean pieces that were transferred to TV -- Richard II (1978), Henry IV Part I (1979), Henry IV Part II (1979) and Much Ado About Nothing (1984). He also took on another TV series Ben Hall (1975) as the title Australian bushranger
After filming the Spanish historical drama The Second Power (1976) written and directed by José María Forqué and the Swedish/Spanish co-production of La Sabina (1979) written by the notorious filmmaker José Luis Borau, the upcoming 1980's decade would promise more erratic and erotic filming in international drama. Another Spanish-made co-starring role came his way with Gary Cooper, que estás en los cielos (1980) (Gary Cooper, Who Art in Heaven) written and directed by Pilar Miró, followed by the German drama Doktor Faustus (1982); a brief return to English soil to co-star with Glenda Jackson in the political drama Giro City (1982); a pair of German psychological dramas Plaza Real (1988) and The Voice (1988); the Israeli political thriller Streets of Yesterday (1989); and the steamy Italian film La più bella del reame (1989) (Most Beautiful in the Kingdom) opposite sensuous American model-turned-European film actress Carol Alt.
A gentleman with infinite class, intelligence and charm, Jon's pronounced aversion to publicity and preference for privacy kept him from achieving major stardom. Finch turned more and more to British TV work as the years wore on. He appeared as an apparition of Christ in three episodes of the sci-fi mini-series The Martian Chronicles (1980); portrayed the apostle Luke in the biblical drama Peter and Paul (1981); played Uncle Tom in the small screen version of D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow (1988); appeared as the antagonist King Vortigern in the King Arthur story Merlin of the Crystal Cave (1991); played Count Sylvius in the mini-series The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994); and headed up the cast in the TV-movie murder mystery Bloodlines: Legacy of a Lord (1998). On film, he starred in the horror opus Lurking Fear (1994), filmed in Romania, and co-starred in the Philippine-made horror Darklands (1996). Jon made his last large screen appearance in the Orlando Bloom adventure about the Crusades, Kingdom of Heaven (2005).
Finch was interested in race car driving in the early 1970's but could not obtain a race car license after being diagnosed with diabetes. He was briefly married (1980-1987) to actress Catriona MacColl and they had one child. They co-starred together in the Spanish-made film drama Power Game (1983). He died on December 28, 2012 at age 70 in Sussex, England. - Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Harry H Corbett (he added the "H" to avoid being confused with Sooty's friend) was born in Burma in 1925. His father was an officer in the army. His mother died when he was very young and he moved to England as a child and was brought up in Manchester by an aunt.
After his war service, he joined a repertory company and during the 1950s appeared in many stage productions. At the end of this period he made the move to the big screen and appeared in about twenty movies (mostly 'B' pictures) during the years from 1959 to 1980, including the starring role of Detective Sergeant Bung in Carry on Screaming! (1966), Rattle of a Simple Man (1964) and the two "Steptoe and Son" movies in the early 1970s. He suffered a series of heart attacks between 1979 and 1982, before his premature death aged 57.- Edward Alexander "Aleister" Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, philosopher, professional writer, and self-proclaimed prophet. In his youth, Crowley joined the occult organization Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887-1903), where he received much of his training in theurgy and ceremonial magic. In 1904, Crowley established his own religion: Thelema (Greek for "the will"). He had supposedly received a divine revelation from an angel. Crowley believed that humans should strive to overcome both their desires and their socially-instilled inhibitions in order to find out the true purpose of their respective lives. Several of Crowley's religious ideas went on to influence Wicca, the practice of chaos magick, Satanism, and Scientology.
In 1875, Crowley was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire to a wealthy family. His father was the retired engineer Edward Crowley (1829-1887), who was 46-years-old at the time of Crowley's birth. Edward had grown wealthy due to being the partial owner of a successful brewery. Cowley's mother was Emily Bertha Bishop (1848-1917), a member of a somewhat prominent family whose members lived in both Devonshire and Somerset.
Crowley's parents were converts of the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian fundamentalist movement whose members believed that the Bible is the only authority for church doctrine and practice. Crowley received his early education at an evangelical boarding school located in Hastings. He was then send to the Ebor preparatory school in Cambridge. The boy grew to hate the abusive Reverend Henry d'Arcy Champney, who inflicted sadistic punishments on his students. Crowley eventually dropped out of this school, due to health problems. The boy had developed albuminuria, a urine disease.
By the time he was 12, Crowley was skeptical about Christianity and its teachings. Years of bible study had resulted in Crowley realizing and memorizing the inconsistencies in the Bible. He eagerly pointed these to his religious teachers. In his teen years, Crowley largely rejected Christian morality. He felt the need to satisfy his sexual urges, and did not view this need as immoral. He received college lessons in chemistry, and started writing poetry as a hobby. In his early 20s, Crowley was also a chess enthusiast, and an increasingly skilled mountaineer. In 1894, Crowley joined the Scottish Mountaineering Club. In 1895, Crowley climbed the peaks of five mountains in the Bernese Alps.
By 1895, Crowley started using his nickname "Aleister" as his legal name. From 1895 to 1898, Crowley attended Trinity College, Cambridge. He studied primarily philosophy and literature. He was the president of the local chess club, and briefly considered pursuing a career as a professional chess player. In 1896, Crowley had his first sexual experience with another man while vacationing in Stockholm, Sweden. He would later embrace his bisexuality. He had sexual sexual relationships with various men while living in Cambridge, though such activities were illegal in Victorian England. In 1897, Crowley started a romantic relationship with the on-stage female impersonator (drag queen) Herbert Charles Pollitt (1871-1942). They eventually broke up because Pollitt refused to join his boyfriend in his studies of mysticism and occultism. Crowley later wrote several texts concerning his lifelong regrets about ending his relationship with Pollitt.
In 1898, Crowley dropped out of Cambridge. He maintained excellent grades, but he lost interest in actually pursuing a degree. Also in 1898, Crowley published two volumes of his poems. Shortly after leaving Cambridge, the novice occultist Crowley started hanging out with members of the occultist organization Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887-1903). He was formally initiated into the organization in November 1898. His initiation ritual was performed by the organization's de facto leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854 -1918). Crowley grew to consider Mathers to be an ineffectual leader.
In the late 1890s, Crowley received training in ceremonial magic by more experienced members of the Golden Dawn. He was fascinated with the ritual use of drugs. He rose through the organization's ranks, but was soon refused entry into the group's inner Second Order. The openly bisexual and libertine Crowley was disliked by several conservative members of the organization. Crowley had started a feud with a fellow member, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). Yeats' friends resented Crowley.
A schism eventually started within the Golden Dawn, between Mathers' supporters and the members who disliked Mathers' autocratic policies. Crowley chose to support Mathers, and tried to take over one of the organization's temples in the name of Mathers. The dispute resulted in a court case between the rival factions of the Golden Dawn, over ownership of the temple. Mathers lost the court case, and Crowley started being treated as a pariah by members of the winning faction.
In 1900, Crowley decided to migrate to Mexico. He settled in Mexico City, where he experimented with the Enochian invocations of the famed occultist and alchemist John Dee (1527-1608/1609). His mountaineering activities led him to reach the top of several Mexican mountains, such as Iztaccihuatl, Popocatepetl, and Colima. After leaving Mexico, Crowley started traveling the world in search of new experiences. He visited California, Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, and France. Crowley took part in a failed mountaineering expedition that attempted to reach the peak of K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth. The expedition reached an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters). They abandon the attempt to reach the peak, as Crowley and several other expedition members were suffering from malaria.
In August 1903, Crowley married Rose Edith Kelly (1874-1932), the sister of one of his close friends. It was a marriage of convenience, not love. Rose wanted to escape an arranged marriage, and was fleeing from domineering family members. Her brother viewed the marriage as a personal betrayal by Crowley. The couple took an extended honeymoon. In February 1904, the couple settled in Cairo Egypt. Crowley started invoking ancient Egyptian deities in magical ceremonies. He also took the opportunity to study Islamic mysticism.
In early April 1904, Crowley started listening to the disembodied voice of the angel Aiwass. It supposedly delivered to Crowley messages from the god Horus, concerning a new age for humanity. Crowley recorded his divine revelations in "The Book of the Law", the first publication of Thelema. The disembodied voice supposedly also requested a number of difficult tasks from Crowley, who simply chose to ignore them as unreasonable demands.
In 1905, Crowley returned to his private estate in Scotland, for the first time in several years. He renounced his former mentor Mathers, as Crowley was convinced that the old man was conspiring against him. Crowley established his own printing company, the "Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth". He chose the name to mock a Christian charity organization, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1698-). The primary purpose of the company was the promotion of Crowley's literary works. By this point, Crowley was relatively famous as a poet. Several of his poems were favorably received by critics, but they never sold well.
Crowley soon resumed world traveling. He led a failed mountaineering expedition to climb the mountain Kanchenjunga in Nepal. Crowley faced a mutiny over his reckless behavior during the expedition. He returned to India, then made an extended tour of Southern China. He also visited Hanoi in Vietnam. He worked on a new ritual while in China, invoking his Holy Guardian Angel. He proceeded to travel through Japan and Canada, and visited New York City in a failed effort to secure funding for a new mountaineering expedition.
Crowley's return to the United Kingdom came with a nasty surprise for him. He learned that his first-born daughter Lilith Crowley had died of typhoid fever during his absence. He also realized that his wife Rose was struggling with alcoholism, and that she was probably not fit to be a parent. His own health was failing at the time, and he underwent a series of surgical operations.
In 1907, Crowley started regularly using hashish in his magic rituals. In 1909, he published an essay concerning the mystical aspects of hashish use. He published several books concerning the occult during the late 1900s. The family fortune which he had inherited was running out at the time, and he tried to secure additional funds. At one point, Crowley was hired by George Montagu Bennett, the Earl of Tankerville, to protect him from evil witchcraft. Crowley realized that Tankerville was a cocaine-addict suffering from paranoia, so Crowley just improvised a drug rehabilitation project for his employer.
In 1908, Crowley realized that horror short stories were selling much better than poetry. So he published a series of his own horror stories. He also became a regular writer for a weekly magazine, the so-called "Vanity Fair" (1868-1914). In 1909, Crowley established his own magazine, "The Equinox" (1909-1998). The magazine specialized in texts about occultism and magick, but also regularly published poetry, prose fiction, and biographies.
In 1909, Crowley divorced his wife Rose, as he was fed-up with her drinking binges. Rose was institutionalized in 1911.In November 1909, Crowley started a long journey through the deserts of Algeria. He chose to recite the Quran on a daily basis while living in the desert. At one point, Crowley offered a blood sacrifice to the demon Choronzon while still in Algeria. He returned to London in January 1910, to find that his old mentor Mather was suing him for publishing secret texts of the defunct Golden Dawn. Crowley both won the court case, and enjoyed the publicity which the case brought him. The yellow press was portraying him as a Satanist, and Crowley found it amusing to embrace various stereotypes about Satanism at the time.
In 1910, Crowley organized the Rites of Artemis, a public performance of magic and symbolism. All the performers were associates and followers of Crowley. The celebrations received favorable reviews from the press. The encouraged Crowley soon organized the Rites of Eleusis in Westminster, but this performance received mostly negative reviews. There were press reports at the time that Crowley was homosexual, but the authorities made no attempt to arrest him. Crowley devoted the next couple of years to his writing activities, completing 19 works on magic and mysticism in this period. He also continued publishing poetry and fiction.
In 1912, Crowley published the magical book "The Book of Lies", one of his best-reviewed works. Crowley found himself accused of plagiarizing the works of the German occultist Theodor Reuss (1855-1923), based on the similarities between their ideas. Crowley managed to convince Reuss that the similarities were coincidental, and befriended Reuss in the process. Crowley was then initiated in Reuss' own occult organization, the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). With Reuss' permission, Crowley established a British branch of the organization and completely rewrote most of the organization's rituals. OTO was practicing sex magic, and Crowley liked that idea.
In 1913, Crowley served as the producer for a group of female violinists. Primarily because the group's leader was a close friend and lover of Crowley. He followed them during 6 weeks of performances in Moscow, Russia. Crowley wrote several new works while in Moscow. In January 1914, Crowley and his long-term lover Victor Neuburg settled together in a Parisian apartment. The couple experimented with sex magic rituals, which involved the use of strong drugs. At the time, Crowley regularly invoked the Roman gods Jupiter and Mercury in his new rituals. Noticing that Neuburg had started distancing himself from Crowley by the end of their vacation in Paris, Crowley had an intense argument with him and ritually cursed Neuburg.
By 1914, Crowley was nearly bankrupt. He financially depended on donation by his followers. In May 1914, he transferred the ownership of his estate in Scotland. Later that year, Crowley suffered from a bout of phlebitis. Following his recovery, he decided to migrate to the United States for financial reasons. He settled in New York City, where he became a regular writer for the American version of the magazine "Vanity Fair" (1913-1936). He continued experimenting with sex magic while living in the Big Apple.
During World War I, Crowley declared his support for the German Empire against the British Empire. His sympathies were possibly influenced by his German friends in the OTO. In 1915, Crowley was hired as a writer for the propagandist newspaper "The Fatherland", which championed German interests in the United States. Crowley left New York City for a while, going on an extended tour of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. He visited Vancouver to make contact with the local variation of the OTO. Crowley spend part of the winter of 1916 in New Orleans, which was his favorite American city. In February 1917, Crowley headed to Florida for a family reunion with a number of his evangelical Christian relatives who had settled there.
Later in 1917, Crowley returned to New York City. He struggled with unemployment, as several of the newspapers and magazines which had previously hired him had shut down. In 1918, Crowley worked on a new translation of the Taoist book "Tao Te Ching". At the time, Crowley claimed to have started experiencing past life memories. Fueled by his belief in reincarnation, Crowley proclaimed himself to be a reincarnation of Pope Alexander VI/Rodrigo de Borja (1431-1503, term 1492-1503). Having more free time than usual while living in Greenwich Village, Crowley found a new hobby in painting. He exhibited several of his painting at a local literary club, and attracted some attention from the local press.
In 1919, the impoverished Crowley moved back to London. The local press labeled a traitor for his Germanophile tendencies. He was suffering from asthma attacks at the time. An English doctor prescribed a supposedly miraculous drug for Crowley, which promised to cure his asthma. The drug was actually heroine, and was highly addictive. Crowley developed a drug addiction. In January 1920, Crowley moved to the Parisian apartment of his lover Leah Hirsig. While there, he started efforts to establish a new organization, the Abbey of Thelema. He named it after a fictional organization which had appeared in the works of Francois Rabelais (c. 1483-1553).
In April 1920, Crowley settled in Sicily with a number of his supporters and their families. They established the Abbey of Thelema. They established daily rituals for the sun god Ra. Crowley offered a libertine education for the children of his followers, and allowed them to witness sex magic rituals. The organization soon attracted new followers, but Crowley's drug addiction was increasingly out of control. In 1922, Crowley published the autobiographical novel "Diary of a Drug Fiend". The British press criticized it for supposedly promoting the use of drugs.
In 1923, Crowley was at the center of an international scandal. A young Thelemite follower died from a liver infection, after drinking polluted water. His widow published stories of the unsanitary conditions in the Abbey, and of self-harm rituals which Crowley had created for his followers. The international press published scathing stories for Crowley. Benito Mussolini, the fascist Prime Minister of Italy (1883-1945, term 1922-1943) decided to deport Crowley in April 1923. The Abbey was not officially targeted by the fascist government, but it soon collapsed due to its lack of leadership. There was no way to attract more followers of Crowley to Sicily without using Crowley's physical presence as a tool for recruitment.
In self-exile in Tunis during much of 1923, Crowley started working on his autobiography, "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley". In January 1924, Crowley moved back to France in preparation for a series of nasal operations. For the next few years, Crowley spend part of each year in Tunis and part of each year in France. He wrote a few significant works at the time, though some of his personal relationships deteriorated.
In the mid-1920s, Crowley declared himself to be the new leader of the OTO, following the death of Reuss. His right to leadership was questioned by other candidate leaders,. The OTO soon split itself to several rival factions, each proclaiming itself to be the true continuation of the original organization. In 1928, Crowley was deported from France. Due to Crowley's past loyalty to the German Empire, the French authorities worried that he may be a German agent.
In 1929, Crowley moved back to the United Kingdom. He secured a book deal with Mandrake Press, which agreed to publish his autobiography and several works of prose fiction. The Great Depression negatively affected Crowley. In November 1930, Mandrake went into liquidation. Crowley was left with no regular published for his works, and no regular source of income. Crowley spend part of the year 1930 in Berlin, Germany, where his expressionistic paintings were displayed in a gallery. His works gained favorable press reviews, but few of them were actually sold. Painting was not a profitable occupation for Crowley.
In January 1932, Crowley started socializing with German communists and other far left figures in Berlin, despite having never previously expressed any interest in their ideologies. Some of his biographers suspect that Crowley was merely acting as a spy for British intelligence at this time. Later that year, he returned to London for another nasal surgery. In desperate need of money, Crowley launched a series of court cases for libel against his perceived enemies. The litigation proved more expensive than he expected, and he was declared bankrupt in February 1935. The bankruptcy case revealed that Crowley's expenses over the past few years had far exceeded his income.
In 1936, Crowley published "The Equinox of the Gods". It was his first new book in half a decade, and sold unusually well. Crowley also managed to secure funding from the Agape Lodge, a Californian splinter faction of the OTO. His benefactor was the Lodge's de facto leader, the rocket engineer Jack Parsons (1914-1952). Crowley was concerned at the time about the disestablishment of the German faction of the OTO, whose members faced persecution by the Nazi Party. Several of Crowley's German friends had been arrested, and others had fled the country.
During World War II, Crowley was closely associated with the British intelligence community. His biographers are uncertain whether he was working as a British agent, or merely assisting actual agents. Among Crowley's close associates during the War were two fellow British writers who were working as intelligence agents: Roald Dahl (1916-1990) and Ian Fleming (1908-1964). Crowley supposedly helped create a new war slogan for the BBC, called "V for Victory". His asthma attacks worsened during the war, in part because the medication he needed was unavailable. He was briefly hospitalized in Torquay. Among Crowley's last published works was a wartime book about the concept of human rights.
On December 1, 1947, Crowley died due to chronic bronchitis, aggravated by pleurisy. He was 72-years-old at the time of his death. Despite Crowley maintaining several friendly and professional contacts during the last years of his life, only about a dozen people bothered to attend his funeral. His body was cremated, and his ashes were delivered to the next leader of the OTO, Karl Gemer. Gemer was living at the time in exile in the United States. Gemer buried Crowley's ashes in a garden located in Hampton, New Jersey. Crowley remains one of the most famous and influential occultists of his era, thought the nature of his legacy remains a controversial topic. - Producer
- Writer
- Director
Philip D'Antoni was born on 19 February 1929 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for The French Connection (1971), Bullitt (1968) and The Seven-Ups (1973). He was married to Ruth Wiederecht. He died on 15 April 2018 in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Rod Hull was born on 13 August 1935 in Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Emu's World (1982), Grotbags (1991) and E.M.U. TV (1989). He was married to Cher Hylton-Hull and Sandra Hull. He died on 17 March 1999 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.- Actor
- Writer
Norman MacOwan was born on 2 January 1877 in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Kidnapped (1960), The City of the Dead (1960) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). He was married to Violet [Ellen] Stephenson (actress). He died on 31 December 1961 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.- Maureen Crombie was born on the 6th January 1943 as Maureen Blott. She graduated from RADA in 1962 and went straight into the play 'Believe it or Not' at a theatre in Coventry. Then into films where on the set of 'Joey Boy' she met 'Steptoe and Son' actor Harry H Corbett whom she later married. They had two children together, a son Jon and a daughter Susannah who went on to be an actress and writer of children's books. Susannah also wrote the excellent biography of her father, 'The Front Legs of the Cow'.
Maureen had suffered from cancer for a number of years and finally succumbed at home in November 1999 surrounded by her family. - Director
- Writer
- Producer
Henry Cass was born on 24 June 1903 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Mr. Brown Comes Down the Hill (1965), The Glass Mountain (1949) and Give a Dog a Bone (1965). He was married to Joan Hopkins and Nancy Hornsby. He died on 15 March 1989 in Hastings, Sussex, England, UK.- Georgina Melville was born on 28 March 1949 in Westminster, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Doctor at the Top (1991), Thriller (1973) and The Saint: The Brazilian Connection (1989). She was married to Rory Fellowes. She died on 12 December 2004 in Hastings, Sussex, England, UK.
- Michael Golden was born on 15 August 1913 in Bray, Ireland. He was an actor, known for Murder She Said (1961), Quatermass II (1955) and The Man Without a Body (1957). He died in 1983 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Peter George was born on 26 March 1924 in Treorchy, Wales, UK. He was a writer, known for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He died on 1 June 1966 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Binnie Hale was born on 22 May 1899 in Liverpool, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Phantom Light (1935), A Night of Terror (1937) and Hyde Park Corner (1935). She was married to Jack Raine. She died on 10 January 1984 in Hastings, England, UK.
- Daniel Moynihan was born in 1932 in Deptford, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Elizabeth (1998), The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970) and The Avengers (1961). He was married to Julia Geraldine Elizabeth Shepperdson. He died on 30 March 2022 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Born in Kingston-upon-Thames in 1918, Frank Cordell (his full original name) won a Melody Maker poll at age 17 for most promising jazz pianist of 1935. However, his skills at arranging and conducting were acquired while serving in the RAF (1940-1946), during which time he was appointed musical director of Forces Radio. In 1947 Frank married Magda Lustigova, a 26-year-old Hungarian artist who in 1952 would become a founding member of The Independent Group (IG), a British art movement best known for launching Pop Art. Also in 1947, Frank joined the BBC as composer and arranger for radio and television, and his most notable radio score was the historical drama The Gay Galliard (1951) starring Valerie Hobson as Mary, Queen of Scots. His film scores date from 1952, and he composed music for many advertising commercials. Leaving the BBC in 1955, he became musical director of HMV Records (later EMI) up to 1962. Apart from his feature film scores, he scored the eight-part cliffhanger serial Project Z (1968) for the Children's Film Foundation, and music for several TV series. Although usually based in London, he travelled to Japan to score Flight from Ashiya (1964). Today, Frank Cordell is chiefly remembered for scoring two large-scale epics Khartoum (1966) and then Cromwell (1970) for which he received an Oscar nomination. In between film scores he wrote concert hall works including the Concerto for Cello, the Concerto for Horn and a wind quartet entitled Interplay. Before his untimely death in Hastings in 1980 at the age of 62 he scored two documentary shorts, Tiger Tiger (1977) and Fathers of Pop (1979), the latter of which charted the story of The Independent Group. Magda married fellow IG founder John McHale and adopted the professional name Magda Cordell McHale. Frank Cordell's original manuscripts are preserved at the Trinity College of Music in London.- Sutton Vane was born on 9 November 1888 in England, UK. He was a writer, known for Between Two Worlds (1944), Outward Bound (1930) and Two Lancashire Lasses in London (1916). He died on 18 June 1963 in Hastings, Sussex, England, UK.
- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Born Prestatyn, North Wales in 1957. Educated at Charterhouse School, Surrey, England. 1976 Signed to ATV Music 1978 Musical Director of Rocky Horror Show in London West End. 1983 In the musical group "The Waterboys" Waterboys CDs: 1984:A Pagan Place, 1985:This is The Sea. 1985 Left "The Waterboys" and formed "World Party" World Party Discography: 1986:Private Revolution 1990:Goodbye Jumbo 1993: Bang! 1997:Egyptology 2000: Dumbing Up Grammy nomination: 1990 for Goodbye Jumbo UK Q Award for album of the year (Readers Vote): 1990: Goodbye Jumbo Misc: 1988: Opened Seaview Studios in London England 1994: Score for Reality Bites (1994) Has contributed songs (original and cover versions) to many films including: Clueless (1995) _Armageddon (1998)_ _The MatchMaker (1997)_ Say It Isn't So (2001) _Sidewalks Of New York (2001)_ amongst others. Cover Versions: 2000: She's The One (written originally for the film of the same name) taken to Number #1 in UK by Robbie Williams. 2001: Founding Seaview Television- a production company for Film, Video and Music. 2002: Produced first World Party DVD entitled "'til I Got You"- Alex Sanders was born on 6 June 1926 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK. He was married to Maxine Sanders. He died on 30 April 1988 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Michael Ingham was born on 3 July 1922 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Blackmailed (1951), United! (1965) and Swizzlewick (1964). He was married to Phillida Caryl Pantlin, Hilary Tawse (actress) and Joanna Duncan. He died on 4 January 1989 in Hastings, Sussex, England, UK.
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
- Actor
Peter Ling was born on 27 May 1926 in Croydon, Surrey, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Crossroads (1964), The Avengers (1961) and Champion House (1967). He was married to Sheilah Ward. He died on 14 September 2006 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.- Daniel Thorndike was born on 10 March 1920 in Headington, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Julius Caesar (1963), The Avengers (1961) and Romeo and Juliet (1962). He was married to Janet Douglas Lindsay. He died on 5 April 2016 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Nigel Clarke was born on 21 February 1892 in Epsom, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor, known for San Demetrio London (1943), BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950) and The Hundred Hour Hunt (1952). He died on 5 July 1976 in Hastings, Sussex, England, UK.
- In 1986 a man attending Mr. Bestrom's church noticed his resemblance to Mr. Lincoln without a beard and said, "You look like Lincoln!". Upon his suggestion, Mr. Bestrom started growing a beard and them it all fell into place. Several years later he terminated his employment, at age 61, and "hit the road". Mr. Bestrom has been in 26 states and many schools. He traveled the country in an RV painted to resemble a log cabin. Now he gives his time and talent to senior citizens, those forgotten people of the last generation who have given so much to us and our heritage. Mr. Bestrom is able to rekindle the era of Lincoln for them. They love it as does he. Mr. Bestrom's family includes a former wife, three children, and two grandchildren.
- Christopher Guinee was born on 6 September 1932 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Brothers Karamazov (1964), Les Misérables (1967) and Softly Softly (1966). He died in 2001 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Composer
- Writer
- Music Department
Pete Brown was born on 25 December 1940 in Surrey, England, UK. He was a composer and writer, known for True Lies (1994), Backdraft (1991) and Road House (1989). He was married to Sheridan MacDonald. He died on 19 May 2023 in Hastings, Sussex, England, UK.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1921, William Davies began in 1950 as an arranger and his early work includes adaptations of Welsh and Irish traditional melodies such as "All Through the Night" and the "Londonderry Air." After much scoring for BBC radio he entered the film industry in 1956 with a number of B-movie scores for British Lion. Additionally, his television stock music was utilized in numerous U.S. series, notably Mr. Magoo, Ozzie and Harriet and The Ann Sothern Show. In the early 1960s Davies became musical director for former ITV company Southern Television, and he specialized in children's tv-scores such as Little Bigtime, The Pingwings, Noggin The Nog and Ivor the Engine. He also scored for the Children's Film Foundation, and later did music for BBC television, including America, The Tuesday Documentary and Time for a Song. In 1992 he went to Germany to re-score the 1919 Ernst Lubitsch classic The Oyster Princess, the composer's last score to date before retiring to his home near Hastings.