- William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright now widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. His surviving works include at least 38 plays, two long narrative poems and 154 sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, and at 18 married Anne Hathaway, … - Paul Scofield
David Paul Scofield, CH, CBE (21 January 1922 – 19 March 2008) was an award-winning English actor of stage and screen. Noted for his distinctive voice and delivery, Scofield won both an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for his role as Sir Thomas More in the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons; he had previously originated the role in the stage version both in the West End and on Broadway, winning a Tony Award. - Romola Garai
Romola Sadie Garai (born 6 August 1982) is an award-winning English actress. - Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained a A.B. at Vassar College, then earned a M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. While working towards her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar. - Richard Eyre
Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE (born 28 March, 1943) is an English theatre, television, film director. - Frances Barber
Frances Barber (born on 13 May 1958 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England) is an English actress with a long and distinguished stage career. She has also worked extensively in BBC, Granada and ITV television drama. With the Pet Shop Boys, she starred in their musical "Closer to Heaven" in 2001 as well as guest singer for the song "Friendly Fire" on their 2006 live concert at the Mermaid Theatre. - Richard Burbage
Richard Burbage (July 7, 1568 - March 13 1619) was an actor and theatre owner. He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage. Burbage came from a poor family and was a popular actor by his early 20s. His early acting career is poorly documented. It has been suggested that it included a stint in the Earl of Leicester's company, but there is no good evidence for this. He probably was acting with the Admiral's Men in 1590, with Lord Strange's Men in 1592, … - Philip Bosco
Philip Bosco (born September 26 1930) is a Tony Award-winning American actor. New Jersey-born Bosco began his career in Broadway theatre. He received a Tony Award nomination for his debut in "The Rape of the Belt" in 1960 and spent the next three decades supporting major stars in classic revivals like "Cyrano de Bergerac", "King Lear," and "Twelfth Night." His specialty was George Bernard Shaw, … - Grigori Kozintsev
Grigori Mikhailovich Kozintsev (Kiev, - Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, 11 May 1973) was a Soviet Russian film director. He studied in the Imperial Academy of Arts and started making films in 1921. His silent features, including "The Overcoat" (1926) and "New Babylon" (1929), had a ring of Expressionism, while the early sound film "Odna" (1931) used experimental montage sound techniques. - Lena Olin
Lena Maria Jonna Olin (born March 22, 1955 in Stockholm, Sweden) is an internationally acclaimed Academy Award-nominated Swedish actress. - Adrian Noble
Adrian Keith Noble (born 19 July 1950) was the Artistic Director and Chief Exectutive of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1990 to 2003. After he graduated from the Chichester High School he studied at the university of Bristol. He began his professional career as a director at the London Drama Centre. In 1976 he moved on to the Bristol Old Vic and working at the same time for the TV. From 1980 till 1981 he worked at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, … - Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy (October 29, 1924 - November 7, 1990) was a member of the Irish folk singing group The Clancy Brothers. Some may say he had the most powerful voice of the three brothers, a voice he initially used in his earlier career as an actor, appearing in numerous stage productions, including an appearance with Orson Welles in "King Lear". Much of his earlier life was entwined with that of his older brother Patrick Clancy; both men were born in Carrick-on-Suir, … - Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars (born 1957) is an American theater director, renowned for his modern stagings of classical operas and plays. Sellars is professor of World Arts and Culture at U.C.L.A. where he teaches "Art as Social Action" and "Art as Moral Action". Sellars was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended Harvard University, graduating in 1981. As an undergraduate, he performed a puppet version of Wagner's Ring cycle, … - Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed (died c. 1580) was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as "Holinshed's Chronicles", was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays. Raphael Holinshed, or Raphael Hollingshead, probably belonged to a Cheshire family. Relatively little is known about him. He is thought to have come from Cheshire, but lived in London, where he worked as a translator for the printer Reginald Wolfe. - David Bradley
David Bradley (born April 17, 1942) is an English character actor. He has recently become known for playing the caretaker of Hogwarts, Argus Filch, in the hugely popular "Harry Potter" series of films. Bradley was born in York, England. He became an actor in 1971, first appearing on television that year in the successful comedy "Nearest and Dearest" playing a police officer. - Colin Blakely
Colin Blakely (September 23, 1930 - May 7, 1987) was a British character actor. He was born in Bangor, Northern Ireland and attended Sedbergh School, in Yorkshire. Among his most celebrated film roles were as Maurice Braithwaite in "This Sporting Life" (1963) and as Dr. Watson to Robert Stephens's Holmes in "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970). Other roles include "The National Health", "A Man for All Seasons", "Young Winston", … - William Gaunt
William Charles Anthony Gaunt (born 3 April 1937) is an English actor, sometimes credited as Bill Gaunt. After minor roles in series such as "Z Cars", "The Avengers", and "Edgar Wallace Mysteries" throughout the early 1960s, he found fame as the super-powered secret agent Richard Barrett in the 1968 British espionage/science fiction adventure series "The Champions". - Jeffrey Demunn
Jeffrey DeMunn (born April 25, 1947 in Buffalo, New York) is an American theatre, film and television actor. DeMunn graduated from Union College with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He moved to England in the early 1970s, receiving theatrical training at the Old Vic Theatre. When he returned to the States, he performed in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of "King Lear" and several off-Broadway productions, including "Bent", … - Anton Lesser
Anton Lesser (born 14 February 1952) is a British actor, he attended Moseley Grammar School and the University of Liverpool before going to RADA in 1977 where he was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal as the most promising actor of his year. As an Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) he has played many of Shakespeare's most demanding roles, including Troilus ("Troilus and Cressida"), Edgar ("King Lear"), Petruchio, Romeo and Richard III. - Robert Stephens
Sir Robert Stephens (14 July 1931 - 12 November 1995) was a leading actor in the early years of England's Royal National Theatre. Stephens was born in Bristol, England, and rose to become one of the most respected actors of his generation. By the 1960s he was regarded as the natural successor to Laurence Olivier. He and his third wife, actress Maggie Smith appeared together on stage and in film, notably in the film version of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969. - David Threlfall
David Threlfall (born 12 October 1953, Manchester) is a British actor known for his role as Frank Gallagher in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series "Shameless". Threlfall has notched up a wide range of film and television credits since his screen debut in "Scum" in 1977. Television appearances include Edgar in the 1984 Granada Television "King Lear" opposite Lord Laurence Olivier, … - Paul Rhys
Paul Rhys (December 19, 1963), is a Welsh actor, best known for his television work. Rhys was born in Neath, and studied at RADA. While there, he obtained his first major screen role, in "Absolute Beginners" (1986). The following year he appeared in the BBC serialisation of "My Family and Other Animals". Since then he has seldom been off UK television screens. In 1995, he portrayed Simon Templar (aka "The Saint") for a series of radio plays. - Jeremy Kemp
Jeremy Kemp (born 3 January 1935) is an English actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as PC Bob Steele in the BBC television police series "Z Cars". Kemp was born Jeremy Walker in Chesterfield, Derbyshire to Elsa May Kemp and Edmund Reginald Walker, an engineer. His TV credits include: "Colditz", "Space: 1999" and a number of American series such as: "Hart to Hart", "The Greatest American Hero", … - Jonathan Hyde
Jonathan Hyde (born May 21, 1947) is an Australian-born English stage actor. He is known for his role as J. Bruce Ismay, the managing director of the White Star Line in the 1997 movie blockbuster "Titanic". Hyde was born in Brisbane, Queensland. He is a respected member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Among his many roles, he played Ferdinand in a 1985 production of John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi". - Donald Wolfit
Donald Wolfit was an English actor-manager, knighted in 1957 for his services to the theatre. Wolfit was born in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and attended the Magnus Grammar School (now Magnus Church of England School) and made his stage début in 1920. He first appeared in the West End in 1924, playing "The Wandering Jew" but had limited success afterwards, … - Michael Kitchen
Michael Kitchen (born October 31, 1948 in Leicester) is an English actor. Since 2002, he has been the star of the ITV television detective series "Foyle's War". Since the early 1970s, Kitchen has been a fixture of UK television. His early appearances include roles in "Play for Today" ("Hell's Angels" by David Agnew, 1971), "Thriller" and "Beasts". - Ken Stott
Kenneth Campbell Stott (born 1955, Edinburgh) is a Scottish film and television actor, particularly known in the United Kingdom for his many roles in the latter medium. His father was a Scot and his mother was Sicilian. For three years in his youth he was a member of a band called Keyhole, members of which later went on to form the Bay City Rollers. - Hiroyuki Sanada
is a Japanese actor. He began training with Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club. Originally aiming to be an action star, he developed good all-round martial arts ability. He was first noticed as a serious actor in the movie "Mahjong Hourouki" directed by Makoto Wada. Wada and Sanada's relationship is similar to that of John Huston and Humphrey Bogart and since then Sanada has acted in every one of Wada's movies. - Len Cariou
Len Cariou (born September 30, 1939) is a Canadian actor. - Geraint Wyn Davies
Geraint Wyn Davies (b. April 20 1957, Swansea, Wales) is a Welsh-Canadian actor. The son of a Welsh Congregationalist preacher, he moved with his family to Canada at the age of seven, where he attended Upper Canada College. His most famous role is that of vampire turned police detective Nick Knight on the television series "Forever Knight". Previous to this role, he had also played a vampire in "Dracula: The Series". - Samuel Harsnett
Samuel Harsnett (June 1561 - May 1631) was an English writer on religion and Archbishop of York from 1629. He was born in Colchester, Essex and later educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he became a fellow and then master (1605-1616). Harsnett became Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. In 1584 he was disciplined by Archbishop Whitgift for preaching against predestination, but became Archbishop of York in 1629 after being Bishop of Norwich from 1619 to 1628. - Michael Jayston
Michael Jayston (born 29 October, 1935 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire) is an English actor. Jayston was born as Michael James. He worked briefly as a trainee accountant at the offices of the National Coal Board before obtaining a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to train as an actor. He made his professional debut, aged 27, in a production of "The Amorous Prawn", going on to work on the stage at the Salisbury Repertory, … - Samuel Phelps
Samuel Phelps was an English actor, born in Devonport. Phelps made his "début" as Shylock in London at the Haymarket Theatre in 1837 and appeared under the management of William Charles Macready at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, who recognized Phelps as a potential rival and gave him little opportunity to display his talents, … - Mike Gwilym
Mike Gwilym (born March 5 1949), is a Welsh actor. Born in Neath, Gwilym is the brother of actor Robert Gwilym. He began his acting career with the Oxford University Dramatic Society, and went on to join the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1974, and starred in many of their productions during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including "King Lear" (as Edgar), "Troilus and Cressida", … - Dominic Muldowney
Dominic Muldowney (born 1952 in Southampton) is a British composer. He studied at the universities of Southampton (with Jonathan Harvey) and York (with Bernard Rands and David Blake), and took private lessons with Harrison Birtwistle. From 1974 to 1976 he was composer-in-residence to the Southern Arts Association. From 1976 he worked with the Royal National Theatre in London, and succeeded Birtwistle as its music director, a post he held from 1981 to 1997. - Queen Cordelia
Queen Cordelia was a legendary queen of the Britons as accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. She was the youngest daughter of Leir and the second ruling queen of Britain. Cordelia was Leir's favorite daughter, being the younger sister to Goneril and Regan. When Leir decided to divide his kingdom between his daughters and their husbands, Cordelia refused to flatter him. In response, Leir refused her any land in Britain or the blessing of any husband. - Robert Sturua
Robert Sturua (born July 31, 1938) is a Georgian theater director, who gained international acclaim for his original interpretation of the works of Brecht, Shakespeare, Chekhov. He is based at the Shota Rustaveli Dramatic Theater in Tbilisi, and has staged productions throghout the world. Robert Sturua was born into an artistic family. His father, Robert Ivanovich Sturua was a notable painter, whose works are part of the permanent exposition at the Tbilisi Art Museum. - Solomon Mikhoels
Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels (real surname - Vovsi), ; (January 12/13, 1948) was a Soviet Jewish actor and director in Yiddish theater and the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Born Shloyme Vovsi in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils), Latvia, Mikhoels studied law in Saint Petersburg, but left school in 1918 to join Alexander Granovsky's Jewish Theater Workshop, which was attempting to create a national Jewish theater in Russia based on the Yiddish language. - Ming Cho Lee
Ming Cho Lee (born 1930, Shanghai) is a prolific American theatrical set designer and a longtime professor at the Yale School of Drama. Lee, born to parents who were both Yale University graduates, moved to the United States in 1949 and attended Occidental College. He first worked on Broadway as a second assistant set designer to Jo Mielziner on The Most Happy Fella in 1956. - Tanya Moiseiwitsch
Tanya Moiseiwitsch (3 December 1914 - 19 February 2003) was an English theatre designer. Born in London, the daughter of Daisy Kennedy, an Australian concert violinist and Benno Moiseiwitsch, a famous Ukrainian classical pianist, she attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts. A pioneering figure in 20th century theatre design, she was the founding designer of the Canadian Stratford Festival and its theatre, and designed the interior of St. Catherine's Chapel, …
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