After University I went to see The Seagull with Vanessa Redgrave and Jonathan Pryce (see below).
Nigel Havers was also doing bits and pieces with the Prospect Theatre Company. He has played in many comedies and dramas on large and small screens, usually as an upper class character.
Laurence Olivier needs no introduction. I saw him as Shylock at the NT.
Patrick Stewart went from Hector in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida with The Royal Shakespeare Comany (RSC) to Jean-Luc Picard. Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley were in the same production (see below).
Timothy West has had an illustrious career on TV and the cinema, as well as the theatre, most recently in Bleak House. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he was playing small roles with the Prospect Theatre Company.
Stephen Moore was a National Theatre player when he recorded Marvin the Paranoid Android in the original radio broadcast of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
Jim Dale was already a star in the Carry On films when we went to see him in Peter Nichols's play The National Health. It was a true tour-de-force. Later it was made into a movie.
John Rhys-Davies is now famous for his roles with Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies. Back then he was playing in Henry IV Parts I and II at The Mermaid Theatre.
Jonathan Pryce was already famous in the UK when he was in The Seagull with Vanessa Redgrave, but found fame worldwide in Jumping Jack Flash with Whoopi Goldberg.
Ah, Edward Woodward, The Equalizer himself, who had the privilege of working with Our Vincent. I saw him in the NT production of Webster's play The White Devil.
Helen Mirren was Cressida in the RSC's production of Troilus and Cressida. Will she win the Best Actress Oscar tonight?
Sir Ian McKellen hadn't been knighted when I saw him as Richard II in the Prospect Theatre Company's production. We also travelled to Brighton to see him play Hamlet. We knew even then - nearly 40 years ago - that here was something special.
Recently he gave an interview in which he spoke about a previous Conservative government's Home Secretary who, some years ago, was trying to push through "Clause 28", which banned teachers from "promoting homosexuality". The Minister asked for McKellen's autograph for his daughter. McKellen wrote "Fuck you, I'm gay"!!
Ben Kingsley (now also a Sir) was Aeneas in the RSC production of Troilus and Cressida. I imagine most people associate him with his role as Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's film.
Celia Johnson had already been as famous as a person can be - she was Laura in Brief Encounter, one of the most celebrated films of all time. I saw her as Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, in a production starring Alan Bates (see below).
Christopher Timothy was playing the tiniest of bit-parts when I saw him at the NT. He went on to play vet James Herriot in the autobiographical series All Creatures Great And Small, where he was often seen with his arm apparently up a cow's rectum.
julie...
ReplyDeleteVal-awesome job. Thank you for this treat. You are fortunate to have seen them perform. Extremely talented these folks are. I grew up watching Masterpiece Theater and remember Derek Jacobi and Alan Bates well. I had a crush on Alan Bates. He is hot in this picture. I loved the Equalizer show too. I hope Helen Mirren gets the Oscar tonite.
Wow Val! You sure have seen a lot of fantastic thespians!!
ReplyDeleteThe time I went to England on a school trip, we went to Stratford on Avon and saw Derek Jacobi perform in "Much Ado About Nothing" at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. However, we were all so exhausted from the jetlag and go-go-go schedule, that every single one of us fell asleep during the play!!!!
We saw another play in London the first night we got there, a comedy, but I don't remember what it was called. I'll have to dig out my old travel journal from that trip.