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1-34 of 34
- Actor
- Soundtrack
The British character actor Laurence Naismith was a Merchant Marine seaman before becoming an actor. He made his London stage debut in 1927 in the chorus of the musical "Oh, Boy." Three years later, he joined the Bristol Repertory and remained with them until the outbreak of World War II. After serving nine years in the Royal Artillery (with the final rank of Acting Battery Commander), Naismith returned to the stage and also made his film debut. His seafaring background came in handy in a number of film roles, including the steamboat captain in Mogambo (1953), Dr. Hawkins in Boy on a Dolphin (1957), the captain of the Titanic in A Night to Remember (1958), and the First Sea Lord in Sink the Bismarck! (1960). Naismith also made numerous television appearances, including the recurring roles of Judge Fulton on The Persuaders! (1971) and Father Harris on Oh, Father! (1973).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jean Margaret Hodgkinson, known by the stage name Jean Alexander, was a British television actress. She was best known to British television viewers as Hilda Ogden in the soap opera Coronation Street (1960), a role she played from 1964 until 1987, and also as Auntie Wainwright in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010. For her role in Coronation Street (1960), she won the 1985 Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance, and received a 1988 BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actress.
Alexander was born at 18 Rhiwlas Street Toxteth, Liverpool, in 1926, to Nell and Archie Hodgkinson; her father worked as an electrician and the family lived in a terraced house with no indoor lavatory. Alexander had an elder brother, Kenneth. She aspired to become an actress from an early age, and later said that she was inspired by variety acts she saw at the Pavilion theatre in her home city. She attended St Edmund's College for Girls in Princes Park, Toxteth and as a teenager, she joined an amateur theatre group and took elocution lessons.
Alexander spent five years as a library assistant in Liverpool before she began her acting career in 1949 at the Adelphi Guild Theatre in Macclesfield. She first appeared as Florrie in Sheppey by Somerset Maugham. She later worked in rep in Oldham, Stockport and York. Most of her parts were minor, and she also worked as a wardrobe mistress and stage manager. Her television debut is variously given as in the police series Z-Cars or in Deadline Midnight.
Alexander first appeared in Coronation Street in 1962 in a minor role as a landlady. Two years later, she returned to the programme as Hilda Ogden. She started playing the role on 8 July 1964, finally leaving on 25 December 1987. Ogden became highly popular with viewers and Alexander was often identified with her character.
The British League for Hilda Ogden was established in 1979 by Sir John Betjeman, Willis Hall, Russell Harty, Laurence Olivier and Michael Parkinson, among others. In 1984, hundreds of fans sent her condolence cards after the death of her on-screen husband Stan Ogden, played by Bernard Youens, who had died a few months before his character was killed off. In 1985 she received the Royal Television Society Award for her performance on Coronation Street. When she decided to leave the show in 1987, fans started "Save Hilda!" campaigns; however, many did not realise that she had made her own decision to depart. Her final scenes in the programme were aired on 25 December 1987, attracting nearly 27 million viewers, the highest number in the show's history.
In 2005 the UK TV Times poll voted her as the "Greatest Soap Opera Star of All Time".- Actress
- Additional Crew
Annette Kellerman was born on 6 July 1887 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She was an actress, known for Venus of the South Seas (1924), Jephtah's Daughter: A Biblical Tragedy (1909) and Queen of the Sea (1918). She was married to James R. Sullivan. She died on 5 November 1975 in Southport, Australia.- Dustin Gee was born on 24 June 1942 in York, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Madhouse (1980), Rock Follies (1976) and Who Do You Do (1972). He died on 3 January 1986 in Southport, Merseyside, England, UK.
- Andy Devine was born on 28 February 1942 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Emmerdale Farm (1972), Queer as Folk (1999) and Coronation Street (1960). He died on 27 January 2022 in Southport, Merseyside, England, UK.
- Additional Crew
Albert Pierrepoint was often called the official Chief Executioner of the United Kingdom. The Home Office called him the most efficient executioner. Despite the US release title of the 2005 movie about him he was not the last hangman, executions continued for over eight years after his resignation.
Between 1932 and 1955 he conducted or assisted at about 450 hangings, following in the footsteps of his father Henry and uncle Thomas who were also executioners. Albert gained a reputation as a swift and efficient executioner, and he aimed to minimise the length of time the condemned person had to suffer fear - his record for removing the condemned prisoner from his cell until "the drop" was seven and a half seconds.
He resigned in January 1956 over a row about his fees (he was paid a fixed rate per hanging, rather than a salary), and his reputation was such that the government wrote to him to beg him to reconsider his resignation.
Pierrepoint appeared as himself in the 1961 BBC documentary, "The Death Penalty" (ironically, he had come to believe that the death penalty was not a deterrent to crime, as most murders were committed in the heat of the moment rather than premeditated; however, he kept his opinion to himself until the 1974 publication of his autobiography, "Executioner: Pierrepoint"). Pierrepoint was first portrayed by Clive Revill in "Let Him Have It" (1991), and later by Timothy Spall in the 2005 TV biopic, "The Last Hangman".- Actor
- Writer
- Composer
Freddie Marsden was born on 23 November 1940 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Zodiac (2007), Beast (2017) and Supernatural (2005). He was married to Margaret Naylor. He died on 9 December 2006 in Southport, Merseyside, England, UK.- Arthur Spreckley was born on 21 February 1915 in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for The Secret Garden (1993), Crown Court (1972) and Drowning by Numbers (1988). He died in 2002 in Southport, Lancashire, England, UK.
- Art Department
- Animation Department
- Art Director
Gustaf Adolf Tenggren was a Swedish-American illustrator. He is best known for his Arthur Rackham-influenced fairy-tale style and use of silhouetted figures with caricatured faces. Tenggren was a chief illustrator for The Walt Disney Company in the late 1930s, in what has been called the Golden Age of American animation, when animated feature films such as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Fantasia", "Bambi" and "Pinocchio" were produced. Tenggren's early schooling and artistic influences were solidly grounded in Scandinavian techniques, motifs and myths; he worked with illustrating in the popular Swedish folklore and fairy tales annual "Bland Tomtar och Troll/Among Gnomes and Trolls", where he succeeded illustrator John Bauer. After his first exhibition in 1920, Tenggren immigrated to the U.S. where he joined his sister in Cleveland, Ohio. Moving to New York City in 1922, he made a name for himself in magazine illustration and advertising, while continuing to illustrate children's books.- Thelma Falls-Hand was born on 2 November 1925 in Haslingden, Lancashire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Coronation Street (1960), What's Good for the Goose (1969) and The Liars (1966). She died on 10 January 2020 in Southport, Merseyside, England, UK.
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Tony Tenser was born on 10 August 1920 in London, England, UK. He was a producer and writer, known for Repulsion (1965), Cul-de-sac (1966) and The Tomcat (1967). He died on 5 December 2007 in Southport, Lancashire, England, UK.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Bob Dyer was born on 22 May 1909 in Hartsville, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Pick-A-Box (1957), BP Super Show (1959) and Will Alma Presents a Sensational Vaudeville Extravaganza (1944). He was married to Dolly Dyer. He died on 9 January 1984 in Southport, Queensland, Australia.- Marie Ashton was married to Jack Diamond. She died in 2020 in Southport, Merseyside, England, UK.
- Cyril Wells was born on 25 February 1907 in Belfast, Ireland [now Northern Ireland], UK. He was an actor, known for Order to View (1938), Here's Looking at Them (1939) and The Charcoal-Burner's Son (1939). He died on 29 March 1958 in Southport, Lancashire, England, UK.
- Joyce Ebert was born on 26 June 1933 in Munhall, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Mrs. Soffel (1984), Great Performances (1971) and Law & Order (1990). She was married to Arvin Brown and Michael Ebert. She died on 28 August 1997 in Southport, Connecticut, USA.
- Ron Clarke was born on 21 February 1937 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was married to Helen Grace Louise Woolley. He died on 17 June 2015 in Southport, Queensland, Australia.
- Russ Hinze was born on 19 June 1919 in Oxenford, Queensland, Australia. He was married to Fay Jeanette McQuillan and Ruth Elizabeth Byth. He died on 29 June 1991 in Southport, Queensland, Australia.
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Wally Lester was born on 5 October 1941 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a composer, known for Nerve (2016), The Age of Adaline (2015) and Happy Death Day (2017). He died on 21 April 2015 in Southport, North Carolina, USA.- Producer
- Director
- Editor
Harry Pringle was born on 25 December 1903 in Melbourne, Australia. He was a producer and director, known for Comedy Cabaret (1938), After Dinner (1938) and Cabaret (1936). He was married to Margaret E. Audus or Ingham. He died on 30 March 1985 in Southport, Queensland, Australia.- Peter Wilson died on 23 April 2001 in Southport, Merseyside, England, UK.
- Classically trained veteran actor John Sharp was brought up in Liverpool, where he attended the Liverpool Institute, and was a contemporary of Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Later, he joined the Marlowe Society at Cambridge, appearing as Arviragus in a 1960 production of Cymbeline alongside Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi and Trevor Nunn. Since then, he has been active in both acting and directing at some of the country's main Little Theatres; the People's Theatre in Newcastle, the Stockport Garrick and Southport Dramatic Club. In recent years he has created three stage scripts, a stage version of 'The Story of Oliver Twist,' a translation of Moliere's 'The Miser' and a compilation telling the story of the life of Charles Dickens, all three of which have been performed.
- Blackpool based comic who famously had a relationship with ''Coronation Street'' actress Julie Goodyear. Through his career, Diamond appeared with such stars as Les Dawson, Roy Orbison, and The Beatles. He also made several TV appearances, including "The Diana Dors Show" in 1981. Diamond was described by fellow comedian Bernard Manning as ''a very funny man''. He retired from show business in 2004.
- Larry Bercowitz was born on 12 December 1942 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for Item 72-D: The Adventures of Spa and Fon (1970). He died on 20 September 2009 in Southport, Connecticut, USA.
- Howard Kendall was an actor, known for Reds & Blues: The Ballad of Dixie & Kenny (2010), The Time of Our Lives (2009) and Match of the Eighties (1997). He died on 17 October 2015 in Southport, Merseyside, England, UK.
- Clarence Blakiston born in Biggleswick in 1864, highly well-known classical, melodrama and comedy theatre star from the 1880's. later appeared as a aristocratic gentleman in few silent film roles first in a short drama from the 'Tense Moment from Great Plays' film series starring Sybil Thorndike for the Master (BEF) Film Company in 1922, later worked for the British Gaumont Film Company and then the B&C Film Company. minor roles in few talkies in the mid 1930's. Dead in 1943 age 79.