Companion of Honour Recipients
Companion of Honour is one of Britain's highest honors even above Knighthood or Damehood. Only 65 living recipients of this Honour at a given time.
List activity
637 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
191 people
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Born in Blenheim Palace, the residence of his grandfather, the 7th Duke of Marlborough. His father was the Duke's third son, Lord Randolph Churchill. His mother, Jennie Jerome, was the daughter of an American financier.
After passing through famous English public schools such as Harrow, he went on to fulfill his ambition for a life in the army. He fought in various parts of the British Empire until in 1900 when he won the Conservative seat in Oldham in the general election. From here until 1929 he held various offices in British Parliament.
The 1930s saw fascism grow in strength throughout Europe with dictators such as Italy's Benito Mussolini, Germany's Adolf Hitler and Spain's Francisco Franco. When the UK and France declared war on Germany in 1939, Neville Chamberlain was British Prime Minister. On May 10, 1940 Hitler's forces invaded Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg in order to invade France. Chamberlain was widely blamed for the failed British invasion of Norway, although realistically Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty was largely to blame for the failure of the Norwegian Campaign. Chamberlain recommended the King should ask Churchill to succeed him as Prime Minister. He made a speech on 13 May: "You ask: 'What is our policy?' I will say: 'It is to wage war by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalog of human crime.' That is our policy. You ask: 'What is our aim?' I can answer in one word: 'Victory! Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.'"
The United States officially entered the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The US's participation was excellent news to Churchill and after success on D-Day and as the Nazi forces were gradually forced back, the war in Europe gradually drew to a close. He lost the 1945 General Election by a landslide, lost again in 1950, but was re-elected as Prime Minister in 1951 despite receiving fewer votes than Labour. Due to deteriorating health he retired in 1955. He died at Hyde Park Gate, London, on January 24, 1965 at the age of 90. He had succeeded in the uniting of thought and deed. He had succeeded in uniting everyone in the common purpose, inspiring them with fortitude and strength to face whatever hardships that would have to be incurred in the process of first surviving and ultimately winning the war. His daughter Mary wrote to him on his death bed: "I owe you what every Englishman, woman, and child owes you - liberty itself."
As one of the most significant British politicians of the 20th century, Churchill remains one of the country's most widely recognized figures. He has been played by an almost incalculable number of actors on screen, but three of the most notable and acclaimed screen portrayals were by Robert Hardy in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981) (which covers Churchill's life from 1929 to 1939), Albert Finney in The Gathering Storm (2002) (also set in the 1930s before he became Prime Minister) and Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour (2017) (set in May 1940).
As well as a politician, Churchill was also an author and a prolific artist, who painted over 500 canvases, exhibited at the Royal Academy and at Paris, and sold paintings.- Henry Newbolt is known for Father's Doing Fine (1952) and Alvin Purple (1976).
- Novelist and dramatist Hall Caine, though largely forgotten now, was a hugely popular writer in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Born Thomas Henry Hall Caine on May 14, 1853, in Runcorn, Cheshire, England, his father was a Manx Man who moved to Liverpool, where he apprenticed as a ship's smith. After Hall's birth (he hated the name Thomas and never used it, even after he was knighted), the family moved back to Liverpool, where young Hall grew up. Hall Caine frequently took many trips to visit the Caine family on the Isle of Man.
He was apprenticed to an architect and surveyor and plied his trade as a surveyor while self-educating himself through wide reading. He became a lecturer and theatrical critic, which introduced him to some influential people such as actor Sir Henry Irving and author Bram Stoker, who dedicated Dracula (1931) to him. He became the secretary, factotum and nurse to Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the last years of the great poet's life.
Aside from a memoir of Rossetti that sold well, Caine's early endeavors in serious literature met with little success. However, when he abandoned literary criticism for romantic fiction (in the Walter Scott vein), he became popular. "Shadow of a Crime", an 1885 novel featuring a love triangle, was a best-seller. In 1887 he published a critical book about Samuel Taylor Coleridge that failed, but his return to fiction that same year with The Deemster (1917), a romance set in the Isle of Man, was a hit (a deemster is a judge on the Isle of Man).
In all, he published 15 romantic novels over 40 years. Many had themes influenced by his Christian socialist political sympathies. His popularity was immense, and his 1897 novel "The Christian" (later made into a film, The Christian (1915)) was the first novel to sell over a million copies in the United Kingdom. In August 1902, when King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited the Isle of Man, Caine was invited on board the royal yacht as the royal couple toured the island (the queen was a fan). He was a major celebrity in his own right, as well as a celebrated author.
During World War One he wrote propaganda articles urging the United States to join the fight against Germany and her allies. He declined a baronetcy in 1917 but accepted a knighthood, insisting he be styled Sir Caine Hall. After the Great War his popularity began to decline, as his style was considered old-fashioned. His return to fiction in 1921 with "The Master of Man: The Story of a Sin", another romance set in the Isle of Man, did not reach the level of popular success he was accustomed to and was poorly received by critics. He was derided as Victorian.
Many of his novels were made into movies during the silent era. "The Manxman" was turned into The Manxman (1929), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The last film made from a Hall Caine property was The Bondman (1929), also released in 1929. Such was the decline of his reputation and popularity that no sound film has ever been made from his works.
Caine is little remembered today, as his novels are considered badly written; the characterizations are fuzzy and one plot is much like the other. In 1931 G.K. Chesterton wrote his literary epitaph: "Bad story writing is not a crime. Mr. Hall Caine walks the streets openly, and cannot be put in prison for an anticlimax."
He died on August 31, 1931, at the age of 78, the same year that Chesterton dismissed him as a bad writer. He was the father of Sir Derwent Hall Caine, 1st Baronet (1891-1971), actor, publisher and Labour politician. - Actress
- Soundtrack
One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor Robert Stephens and to playwright Beverley Cross. Her marriage to Stephens ended in divorce in 1974. She was married to Cross until his death in 1999. She had two sons with Stephens, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens who are also actors.
Maggie Smith's career began at the Oxford Playhouse in the 1950s. She made her film debut in 1956 as one of the party guests in Child in the House (1956). She has since performed in over sixty films and television series with some of the most prominent actors and actresses in the world. These include: Othello (1965) with Laurence Olivier, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), California Suite (1978) with Michael Caine and Jane Fonda, A Room with a View (1985), Richard III (1995) with Ian McKellen and Jim Broadbent, Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (1999) with Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Cher and Gosford Park (2001) with Kristin Scott Thomas and Clive Owen, directed by Robert Altman. Maggie Smith has also been nominated for an Oscar six times and won twice, for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978).
Smith later appeared in the very successful 'Harry Potter' franchise as the formidable Professor McGonagall as well as in Julian Fellowes' ITV drama series, Downton Abbey (2010) (2010-2011) as the Dowager Countess of Grantham.- John Jowett was born on 8 November 1921 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England, UK. He is a writer, known for There Was a Young Lady (1953), All Aboard (1958) and The Betty Driver Show (1952).
- Stanley Bruce was born on 15 April 1883 in St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was a writer, known for Give Me Action (1930). He was married to Ethel Dunlop Anderson. He died on 25 August 1967 in London, England, UK.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Frederick Delius was born on 29 January 1862 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. He was a composer, known for Crush (2001), A Village Romeo and Juliet (1992) and The Yearling (1946). He was married to Helene Jelka Rosen. He died on 10 June 1934 in Grez-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne, France.- Margaret MacMillan was born on 23 December 1943 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a writer, known for Paris 1919: Un traité pour la paix (2009), CBC News Network with Andrew Nichols (2012) and The Sunday Programme (1994).
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Laurence Binyon is known for The Awakening (2011).- Joseph Lyons was born on 15 September 1879 in Stanley, Tasmania, Australia. He was married to Enid Burnell. He died on 7 April 1939 in Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- John Spender was born on 2 December 1935 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He has been married to Catherine since 2011. He was previously married to Carla Zampatti.
- Nancy Astor was born on 19 May 1879 in Danville, Virginia, USA. She was married to Waldorf Astor and Robert Gould Shaw II. She died on 2 May 1964 in Grimsthorpe Castle, Bourne, Lincolnshire, England, UK.
- James Garvin is known for Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950).
- Frederick Marquis was born on 23 August 1883 in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK. He died on 14 December 1964 in Arundel, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Soundtrack
Henry Wood was born on 3 March 1869 in London, England, UK. He was married to Muriel Ellen Greatrex and Olga Michailoff. He died on 19 August 1944 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, UK.- Godfrey Huggins was born on 6 July 1883 in Bexley, Kent, England, UK. He was married to Blanche Elizabeth Slatter. He died on 8 May 1971 in Salisbury, Rhodesia.
- Clement Attlee was one of Britain's most significant political figures. He was the leader of Britain's Labour Party from 1935-1955 and Deputy Prime Minister of the UK during the wartime coalition against Nazi Germany (1940-45). He won a landslide victory in the 1945 general election, defeating Churchill, and while Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1945-1951) he established the National Health Service and India gained Independence from the British empire.
- H.D.G. Crerar was born in 1888 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He died on 1 April 1965 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
- Julian Amery was born on 27 March 1919 in Chelsea, London, England, UK. He was married to Catherine Macmillan. He died on 3 September 1996.
- Hastings Ismay was born on 21 June 1887 in Nainital, North-Western Provinces, British India [now Uttarakhand, India]. He died on 17 December 1965 in Broadway, Worcestershire, England, UK.
- Archibald Hall was born on 17 June 1924 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK. He died on 16 September 2002 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK.
- George Gibson was born on 22 July 1880 in London, Ontario, Canada. He died on 25 January 1967 in London, Ontario, Canada.
- Victoria Mary Sackville-West was born on 9th March 1892 at Knole in Kent, her family's ancestral home. Her family was both aristocratic, (they held the title of Earl of Dorset), and literary. Two of her ancestors, Thomas Sackville (1536-1608), and Charles Sackville (1638-1706) were distinguished poets. Vita, as she was known to her friends and family, was educated at home. She became a prolific writer, and her published work spans a number of different genres. Her literary output includes family history, ('Knole and Sackvilles', which was first published in 1922), and verse. Her poem 'The Land' won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927. She married the writer and diplomat Harold Nicolson on 1st October 1913. They had two sons, Ben, born 6th August 1914, and Nigel, born 19th January 1917. In 1930 Vita and Harold bought Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, where they created their famous garden. Vita was also romantically linked to Violet Trefusis. The novelist Virginia Woolf was a close friend of Vita's and Virginia used Vita as the inspiration for the eponymous protagonist of Woolf's 1928 novel 'Orlando'. Vita's own novels include 'The Edwardians' (1930) and 'All Passion Spent' (1931). 'All Passion Spent' was dramatized for television by the BBC in 1986. In this dramatization Wendy Hiller played the part of Lady Slane. Vita's last novel, 'No Signposts in the Sea', was published in 1961 and takes the form of a journal written by Edmund Carr, a Fleet Street journalist taking an ocean cruise. Vita Sackville-West died at Sissinghurst on 2nd June 1962.
- Walter De La Mare was born on 25 April 1873 in Charlton, Kent, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Tales of Tomorrow (1951), Shades of Darkness (1983) and Post Tenebras Lux (2017). He was married to Elfrida Ingpen. He died on 22 June 1956 in Twickenham, London, England, UK.
- David Cecil was born on 19 April 1902 in Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He died on 1 January 1986 in Cranborne, Dorset, England, UK.
- Stafford Cripps was born on 24 April 1889 in London, England, UK. He was married to Isobel Swithinbank. He died on 21 April 1952 in Zurich, Switzerland.
- Robert Gordon Menzies was born on 20 December 1894 in Jeparit, Victoria, Australia. He was married to Pattie Maie Menzies. He died on 15 May 1978 in Malvern, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
- Herbert Morrison was born on 3 January 1888 in London, England, UK. He died on 6 March 1965.
- E.M. Forster was born on 1 January 1879 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Howards End (1992), A Room with a View (1985) and The Machine Stops (2009). He died on 7 June 1970 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, UK.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Benjamin Britten was born on 22 November 1913 in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, UK. He was a composer and writer, known for Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Lobster (2015) and The Machine (2013). He died on 4 December 1976 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England, UK.- R.A. Butler was born on 9 December 1902 in Attock, India now Pakistan. He was married to Mollie Montgomerie Courtauld and Sydney Elizabeth Courtauld. He died on 8 March 1982 in Great Yeldham, Essex, England, UK.
- Writer
- Actor
Popular British novelist, playwright, short-story writer and the highest-paid author in the world in the 1930s, Somerset Maugham graduated in 1897 from St. Thomas' Medical School and qualified as a doctor, but abandoned medicine after the success of his first novels and plays. During World War I he worked as a secret agent and in 1928 settled in Cap Ferrat in France, from where he made journeys all over the world. Maugham's spy novel "Ashenden; or The British Agent" (1928) is partly based on his own experiences in the secret service. In making the transition from secret agent to writer, Maugham carried on in the tradition of such classic writers as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and Daniel Defoe to such contemporary writers as Graham Greene, John le Carré, John Dickson Carr, Alec Waugh and Ted Allbeury. Maugham's skill in handling plot is compared by critics to that of Guy de Maupassant. In many of Maugham's novels the surroundings are international and the stories are told in a clear, economical style with a cynical or resigned undertone. Although Maugham was successful as an author he was never knighted and his relationship with Gerald Haxton, his secretary, has been subject to speculation.- Art Department
Spencer Moore was born on July 30th, 1898 in Castleford, Yorkshire, England. He was an English sculptor and artist. Moore is known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures usually of the female body and other public works of art, many of which are located around the world. He founded the Moore Foundation, which supports education and promotion of the arts. Moore volunteered for army service at the start of WWI. At the Battle of Cambrai in 1917 he was injured in a gas attack. During WWII Moore was commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee to draw people taking shelter in the underground during the German night bombings as they passively waited for the all-clear, he also drew the contributions of the miners working the coal-faces. Moore had a long and successful career as an artist with many exhibitions throughout his life. He died on August 31, 1986 in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, England.- Arnold Toynbee was born on 14 April 1889 in London, England, UK. He died on 22 October 1975 in York, North Yorkshire, England, UK.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Thomas Beecham was born on 29 April 1879 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, UK. He is known for The Red Shoes (1948), Atonement (2007) and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). He was married to Shirley Hudson, Betty Humby-Beecham and Utica Celestia Welles. He died on 8 March 1961 in London, England, UK.- Osbert Sitwell was born on 6 December 1892 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for A Place of One's Own (1945), Mystery and Imagination (1966) and Between the Wars (1973). He died on 4 May 1969 in Montegufoni, Italy.
- Kenneth Clark was born on 13 July 1903 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Civilisation (1969), Carved in Ivory (1976) and The Lively Arts (1969). He was married to Nolwen de Janzé and Elizabeth Macgregor Martin. He died on 21 May 1983 in Hythe, Kent, England, UK.
- Tunku Abdul Rahman was born on 8 February 1903 in Alor Setar, Kedah, British Malaya [now Malaysia]. He was married to Sharifah Rodziah binti Saiyid Alwi Barakbah. He died on 6 December 1990 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- Selwyn Lloyd was born on 28 July 1904 in West Kirby, Wirral, Cheshire [now Merseyside], England, UK. He died on 17 May 1978 in Preston-Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire, England, UK.
- Paul Henri Spaak was born on 25 January 1899 in Schaerbeek, Brussels-Capital, Belgium,. He was married to Simonne Deal and Margaret Malevez. He died on 31 July 1972 in Braine-l'Alleud, Walloon Brabant, Belgium.
- Patrick Blackett was born on 18 November 1897 in Kensington, London, England, UK. He died on 13 July 1974 in London, England, UK.
- Emanuel Shinwell was born on 18 October 1884 in Spitalfields, London, England, UK. He died on 8 May 1986.
- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Graham Greene was one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century and his influence on the cinema and theatre was enormous. He wrote five plays and almost all of his novels, including "Brighton Rock", "The Ministry of Fear" and "The End of the Affair", have been brought to the screen. A superb storyteller, he also wrote the screenplays for such classics as The Fallen Idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949).
A colorful and larger-than-life figure, Greene traveled widely throughout the world, from the jungles of Liberia to the Mexican desert to the Far East and the Soviet Union. In World War Two was a member of MI-6 (the British intelligence service) working with the double-agent Kim Philby, and he numbered among his friends such diverse personalities as Evelyn Waugh, Noël Coward and Panamanian dictator Gen. Omar Torrijos. A notorious womanizer, he married only once but had a string of extra-marital affairs and confessed he was "a bad husband and a fickle lover." During the 1920s and 1930s he confessed that he had had relationships with over 50 prostitutes.
Born in Hertforshire, England, in 1904, the son of the headmaster of Berkhamstead School, Greene was educated at Berkhamstead and later Oxford. At Oxford he published more than 60 poems and stories and soon after graduation converted to Roman Catholicism. "I had to find a religion to measure my evil against" he said. His first novel, "The Man Within", came out in 1929, to public and critical acclaim. "Stamboul Train" (1934), a topical political thriller, was the first to reach the screen (as Orient Express (1934)) and a string of other taut suspense dramas followed: "This Gun For Hire" (1942), "The Ministry of Fear" (1943) and "The Confidential Agent" (1945). It was his novel "Brighton Rock", however, which depicted Pinkie, a teenage gangster with demonic spirituality, that eventually became a milestone in British cinema. Originally a successful stage play starring Richard Attenborough as Pinkie, Greene co-wrote the 1947 screenplay Brighton Rock (1948)) with Terence Rattigan.
Greene's collaboration with director _Carol Reed' produced three distinctive films: The Fallen Idol (1948), starring Ralph Richardson, The Third Man (1949) and Our Man in Havana (1959). One of the peaks in British filmmaking, "The Third Man", starring Orson Welles as Harry Lime, was a skillful tale of deception and drug trafficking. Greene developed the screenplay from a single sentence: "I had paid my last farewell to Harry a week ago, when his coffin was lowered into the frozen February ground, so that it was with incredulity that I saw him pass by, without a sign of recognition, amongst a host of strangers in the Strand". The character of Harry Lime later inspired an American radio series starring Orson Welles, short stories published by the News of the World and the TV series The Third Man (1959), starring Michael Rennie. In Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994). Kate Winslet fantasizes about Harry.
As well as writing novels, Greene reviewed films for "The Spectator", then for the short-lived "Night and Day", which folded after he was accused of a "gross outrage" on 'Shirley Temple (I)'--then nine years old--in his review of Wee Willie Winkie (1937). He wrote that "her admirers--middle-aged men and clergymen--respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body, packed with enormous vitality". In the view of the prosecuting counsel it was "one of the most horrible libels one could well imagine."
Greene was an intelligent and sophisticated playwright. His first play written directly for the stage was "The Living Room" (1953), a powerful drama of suicide and despair which starred Dorothy Tutin. It was followed by "The Potting Shed" (1957), a drama about an atheist's pact with God, and "The Complaisant Lover" (1959), a comedy of manners in which a husband and lover knowingly share a wife's favors, which starred Michael Redgrave. Many of his played were televised.
Greene's work continues to fascinate actors, filmmakers and cinema goers throughout the world. In 1973 Maggie Smith and Alec McCowen starred in "Travels With My Aunt" (Smith's role had originally been offered to Katharine Hepburn), Nicol Williamson and Ann Todd starred in The Human Factor (1979) and Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore starred in a remake of The End of the Affair (1999).
Greene said of his writing: "When I describe a scene . . . I capture it with the moving eye of the cine-camera rather than with the photographer's eye--which leaves it frozen. In this precise domain I think the cinema has influenced me."
Towards the end of his life Greene lived in Vevey, Switzerland, with his companion Yvonne Cloetta. He died there peacefully on April 13, 1991.- Mortimer Wheeler was born on 10 September 1890 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Men, Women and Clothes (1957), Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? (1952) and An Evening with... (1968). He was married to Kim Norfolk (née Collingridge), Mavis Cole and Tessa Verney. He died on 22 July 1976 in Leatherhead, Surrey, England, UK.
- Harold Edward Holt, prime minister of Australia, was born on 5 August 1908 at Stanmore, NSW, Australia; elder son of Thomas James Holt, schoolteacher, and his wife Olive May, née Williams, both Australian born.
In the 1950s he took part in four meetings of the C.P.A. and was chairman (1952-55) of its general council. He was a guest at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953,
Holt became Prime Minister of Australia in January 1966. The Holt Government continued the dismantling of the White Australia policy, amended the constitution to give the federal government responsibility for indigenous affairs. In 1967 Holt disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach, Victoria. His body was never recovered, and he was declared dead in absentia. - Patrick Gordon Walker was born on 7 April 1907 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK. He was married to Audrey Muriel Rudolf. He died on 2 December 1980 in London, England, UK.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Adrian Boult was born on 8 April 1889 in Chester, Cheshire, England, UK. He is known for Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Scoop (2006) and Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018). He died on 23 February 1983 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK.- John McEwen was born on 29 March 1900 in Chiltern, Victoria, Australia. He was married to Mary Eileen Byrne and Anne Mills McLeod. He died on 20 November 1980 in Toorak, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
John Barbirolli was born on 2 December 1899 in Bloomsbury, London, England, UK. He is known for Bronson (2008), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Husbands and Wives (1992). He was married to Evelyn Rothwell and Marjorie Parry. He died on 29 July 1970 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.- Writer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
English novelist and essayist Alan Patrick Herbert was born in London, England, in 1890. An Oxford graduate, he served in the Royal Navy in World War I and took part in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, which resulted in heavy casualties and a resounding defeat for the Allied forces. He later fought in France, where he was so severely wounded that he received a medical discharge. He was admitted to the bar in 1918, and served for two years as a private secretary to a member of the British Parliament. In 1924 he became a staff writer for "Punch" magazine--to which he had been a contributing writer since 1910--and in 1935 he was elected to the British Parliament as an Independent representing Oxford. His best-known novels are probably "The House by the River" and "The Water Gipsies", both of which were turned into successful films.- Kuan Yew Lee was born on 16 September 1923 in Singapore. He was married to Kwa Geok Choo. He died on 23 March 2015 in Outram, Singapore.
- Additional Crew
- Actor
- Writer
The founding father of British ballet, he developed the "English style" of classical dancing. He saw Anna Pavlova dance in 1917, which inspired him to a lifetime in ballet. He studied in London with Léonide Massine and Marie Rambert. He joined the Vic-Wells ballet, which later became the Royal Ballet of London, of which he eventually became director, succeeding Ninette de Valois during one of its greatest periods.- Actress
- Soundtrack
This distinguished theatrical tragedienne will be remembered forever if only for the fact George Bernard Shaw wrote his classic "Saint Joan" work specifically for her. Her over six-decade career allowed for a gallery of sterling, masterful portrayals, both classic and contemporary, performing all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and both Western and Eastern Europe. She was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1931, when her career was not quite half over, and in 1970 was made Companion of Honor to Queen Elizabeth.
Born Agnes Sybil Thorndike on October 24, 1882 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, she was the daughter of a minor canon of Rochester Cathedral. She was the eldest of four children. One younger brother, Frank, was killed in WWI action, a tragedy that left her father inconsolable. He himself would die a few months later. Sybil first became a concert pianist until nerve injuries in her hands quickly altered her destiny. She, at brother Russell Thorndike's suggestion, decided upon acting. Russell would later become a novelist and his sister's biographer.
Not a classic beauty by any stretch, Dame Sybil had sharp features, prominent cheek bones and a pronounced chin that gave her a rather severe look. At age 21 she and her brother began professionally in a touring company guided by actor-manager Ben Greet. She performed as Portia in a production of The Merchant of Venice in 1907 while touring in New York. The following year she met playwright George Bernard Shaw while understudying the role of Candida in a tour which was being directed by the writer himself. It was also during this tour that Sybil met and married actor Sir Lewis Casson and solidified one of the most respected personal and professional relationships the acting realm has known. She stayed with The Old Vic for five years (1914-1919) and in 1924 earned stardom as Shaw's Joan of Arc.
Sybil's film career, unlike that of her esteemed contemporary Edith Evans, fell far short of expectations. Silent films recreated some of her finest theatrical experiences, including Lady Macbeth and, of course, Joan of Arc, but she would not evolve into a film star. She was sporadically utilized in later years as a flavorful character support and played a number of queens, dowagers and old crones with equal finesse. Such classic costumed fare would include Major Barbara (1941), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947), Stage Fright (1950), Gone to Earth (1950), The Lady with a Lamp (1951), Melba (1953), as Queen Victoria, and The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) in which she managed to grab focus during her scenes with Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. In 1969, Sybil lent her name to the new theatre in Leatherhead, Surrey, which became The Thorndike. Despite her 87 years, she performed in the new play There Was An Old Woman in its first season. It was to be her final theatrical performance. Always a healthy, vigorous woman, she died of a heart attack on June 9, 1976 at the ripe young age of 93. She was survived by four children and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Arthur Bliss was born on 2 August 1891 in London, England, UK. He was a composer and actor, known for Things to Come (1936), Seven Days from Now (1957) and Christopher Columbus (1949). He was married to Gertrude Hoffmann. He died on 28 March 1975 in London, England, UK.- Joseph Luns was born on 28 August 1911 in Rotterdam. He was married to Lia van Heemstra. He died on 17 July 2002 in Brussels, Belgium.
- Peter Medawar was born on 28 February 1915 in Petrópolis, Brazil. He died on 2 October 1987 in Camden, London, England, UK.
- Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet was a French entrepreneur, diplomat, financier, administrator, and political visionary. An influential supporter of European unity, he is considered one of the founding fathers of the European Union. Jean Monnet has been called "The Father of Europe" by those who see his innovative and pioneering efforts in the 1950s as the key to establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, the predecessor of today's European Union. Although Monnet was never elected to public office, he worked behind the scenes of American and European governments as a well-connected "pragmatic internationalist".
- Arnold Goodman was born on 21 August 1913. He died on 12 May 1995.
- Herbert Howells was born on 17 October 1892 in Lydney, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He died on 23 February 1983 in London, England, UK.
- Production Designer
- Costume Designer
- Writer
John Piper was born on 13 December 1903 in Epsom, Surrey, England, UK. He was a production designer and costume designer, known for Theatre Night (1957), Music for You (1951) and The Best Laid Schemes (1962). He was married to Myfanwy Piper and Eilenn Holding. He died on 28 June 1992 in Fawley Bottom, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.- Duncan Sandys was born on 24 January 1908 in Manor House, Sandford Orcas, Dorset, England, UK. He was married to Marie-Claire Schmitt and Diana Churchill. He died on 26 November 1987 in London, England, UK.
- Additional Crew
Irene Ward is known for Refuge from the Storm (2012).- William Whitelaw was born on 28 June 1918 in Nairn, Scotland, UK. He was married to Celia Sprot. He died on 1 July 1999 in Penrith, Cumbria, England, UK.
- Quintin Hogg was born on 9 October 1907 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Camera Three (1955), Viewpoint (1959) and This Week (1956). He was married to Deirdre Shannon and Mary Martin. He died on 11 October 2001 in London, England, UK.
- John George Diefenbaker was born in Neustadt, Ontario, to William Thomas Diefenbaker and Mary Florence Bannerman. He had one younger brother, Elmer Clive Diefenbaker. Throughout most of his early career, Diefenbaker served in the Canadian Army during World War I, but he left due to injuries. In 1919, Diefenbaker moved to Wakaw, Saskatchewan, although with its population with only 300. In 1929, Diefenbaker married his first wife, Edna Brower. Their marriage lasted for 21 years. Edna died from leukemia on February 7, 1951. Diefenbaker remarried in 1953, to Olive Freeman. Diefenbaker become leader of the Conservative Party, winning on December 14, 1956. The following year, Diefenbaker became Prime Minister of Canada, succeeding Louis St. Laurent. In 1958, Diefenbaker won the election against Lester B. Pearson. But things went downfall for Diefenbaker, because in 1963, the Liberal leader Pearson defeated Conservative leader John George Diefenbaker. Diefenbaker tried again in the 1965 election, but he lost because of Pearson. Diefenbaker remained active throughout the 1970's. His second wife died in 1976. At the age of 83, Diefenbaker ran for public office in Prince Albert. He won the seat, but three months later on August 16, 1979, Diefenbaker died of a heart attack. He was 83 years old.
- Frederick Elwyn Jones was born on 24 October 1909 in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK. He was married to Pearl Binder. He died on 4 December 1989 in Kemp Town, Brighton, Sussex, England, UK.
- Malcolm Fraser was born on 21 May 1930 in Toorak, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was married to Tamie Fraser. He died on 20 March 2015 in Victoria, Australia.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in London, England, John Gielgud trained at Lady Benson's Acting School and RADA, London. Best known for his Shakespearean roles in the theater, he first played Hamlet at the age of 26. He worked under the tutelage of Lilian Bayliss with friend and fellow performer Laurence Olivier and other contemporaries of the National Theatre at the "Old Vic", London. He made his screen debut in 1924. Academy Award Best Supporting Actor, 1981, for Arthur (1981), Academy Award Nomination, 1964, for Becket (1964).- Barbara Wootton was born on 14 April 1897 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. She was married to George Wright and Jack Wootton. She died on 11 July 1988 in Nutfield, Surrey, England, UK.
- Denis Healey was born on 30 August 1917 in Mottingham, Kent, England, UK. He was married to Edna Healey. He died on 3 October 2015 in Alfriston, Sussex, England, UK.
- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Michael Tippett was born on 2 January 1905 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and composer, known for Akenfield (1974), New Year (1991) and The Midsummer Marriage (1984). He died on 8 January 1998 in London, England, UK.- Frederick Sanger was born on 13 August 1918 in Rendcomb, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He was married to Margaret Joan Howe. He died on 19 November 2013 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.
- Additional Crew
- Actress
- Writer
It has been rightly suggested that Dame Ninette de Valois is one of the most important women of the century. It was due to her drive and ambition that the modern English ballet was created. In that respect she changed history single handed. Born in Ireland, young Ninette (her stage name was her mother's suggestion) came to England aged 7 to study dance.
At that time (1905) the only ballet seen in England was touring Russian or French companies. Inspired by a perfromance of the Ballets Russes under Diaghilev, she joined them in 1923. By the mid 1920's she was convinced that Britain needed and should be capable of producing it's own National Ballet and she set about working towards it with a single minded determination.
By 1926 she opened her first school in London, called the Academy of Choreographic Arts. By the early 1930s she had, with the help of Lillian Bayliss, the director of The Old Vic that the theater needed it's own ballet company and school. With help from Lillian Bayliss, Madame (as she was known by her pupils), bought the old Sadler's Wells Theatre and opened her new Ballet School there.
As well as starting the new theatre and ballet school she also found time to choreograph such works as The Rake's Pregress (based on the Hogarth prints) for the new company. She soon attracted quite a few talented people around her including the young Frederick Ashton.
By 1934 the new theatre and ballet school were in full operation and they produced full length ballets such as Giselle and Copellia (featuring Alicia Markova). That year a young dancer may have been found in the ranks by the name of Margot Fonteyn. de Valois had realised from the beginning that the only way to make a truly British Ballet was to have a complete system in place from school to stage.
She had developed what came to be known as the English Ballet style of narrative, lyrical ballet and this was taught in the school. She was also still an innovative choreograph such innovative works as Checkmate (1937). During the years of the second world war they toured extensively and became a major morale booster.
For all her work Ninette was created a Dame of the Order of the British Empire in 1951. In 1955 she started a new ballet school in White Lodge, Richmond Park, Surrey. Away from the busy metropolis the Royal Ballet (as they had become) had a perfect home here. Although retired since 1963, Dame Ninette is still a powerful force in the world of ballet.- Lord Peter Carrington was born in 1919. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and was inducted into the House of Lords in 1940 as a hereditary peer. He served in World War II. After the war, he got active in politics, serving as a junior minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, then the Ministry of Defense in the government of Winston Churchill. He was High Commissioner to Australia from 1954 to 1959. Upon his return to Britain, he was named First Lord of the Admiralty by Prime Minister Harold MacMillan. In 1963, he was appointed Leader of the House of Lords, a position he held until the Conservative Party lost the election of 1964. Six years later, when the Conservatives won the 1970 election, Lord Carrington was appointed Minister of Defence. He was also briefly Party Chairman. He was moved to the Ministry of Energy in 1973 and held that position until the Tories lost the 1974 General Election. When Margaret Thatcher led the Conservative Party back to power in 1979, Lord Carrington was appointed Foreign Secretary. As Foreign Secretary, he guided Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to legal independence and chaired the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in which all the factions in Rhodesia agreed to a new constitution and free elections. Zimbabwe gained its independence in April 1980. Two years later, when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, Lord Carrington blamed himself for the breakdown in diplomatic negotiations and failing to predict the Argentine invasion. He resigned as Foreign Secretary in April 1982. To make up for his resignation, Margaret Thatcher secured the position of Secretary General of NATO for him; he served in that capacity from 1984 to 1988. He continues to be a member of the House of Lords.
- Freud is the grandson of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. In 1933, the year the National Socialists came to power, he emigrated to England with his family. Freud attended the Central School of Art and Goldsmith's College in London and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Dedham from 1938 to 1943. He gained international fame through his portraits and nude paintings, which he created in a consistently realistic style from 1952 onwards. In his early work the artist was based on surrealism and neo-romanticism. But he quickly found his own image character, which was characterized by a realistic wealth of detail. The work entitled "Interior in Paddington" was created in 1951 and reveals its realism in the dark mood of the picture. Today the work hangs in the Walker Gallery in Liverpool. Freud's surreal images show mysterious connections between plants and people. In his nude paintings, the artist depicted naked, spongy bodies, which he often decorated with offensive details.
Another feature of these bodies are the partially visible veins that run through them. His first wife, Kathleen Garman Epstein, often modeled for him. He executed these subjects with unusual sensitivity. Later, Freud concentrated on a more expressive style of painting with a more pronounced contrast in color. In this way he created, among other things, a series of portraits of his mother. In 1939 Lucian Freud became a British citizen. In 1944 his first exhibition took place at the Lefevre Gallery. In 1948 he married Kathleen Garman Epstein. After his divorce, he married Caroline Blackwood. In 1954 he took part in the Venice Biennale. In 1982 a monograph on Lucian Freud was published, written by Lawrence Gowing. In 1982 Freud began using the technique of etching. The result is an extensive work that has an exciting interaction with his paintings. The artist's etchings and paintings stand side by side on an equal footing in his entire oeuvre. In 1983 the artist was made an honorary knight. His pictures have been present at numerous exhibitions around the world. In his etching work the artist implements all the themes that also occupied him in painting. This mainly results in portraits and nudes, but also landscapes.
Some of the etchings are realized in large format and impress with their complex line work. The subjects are not depictions of ideality, but rather show physical naturalness and unvarnished personality. Freud used a variety of graphic means and applied a sophisticated printing technique to bring out nuances and sensitivity. In 2002, some of his works were shown at Art Chicago. His work titles include "Girl with a White Shirt" (1951 - 1952), "John Minton" (1952), "Hotel Bedroom" (1954), "Naked Girl Sleeping II" (1968), "Factory in North London" ( 1981 - 1983), "Reflection" (1985), "Bella" (1987). In May 2002 his portrait of the British Queen Elizabeth II was exhibited. In the same month, on May 12, 2002, Lucian Freud received the "Jerg Ratgeb Prize", which is awarded every three years by the HAP Grieshaber Foundation, at the Spendhaus Reutlingen Municipal Art Museum. In June 2002, an exhibition of more than 140 of the artist's paintings, etchings and drawings opened in London. After the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008), the Center Pompidou in Paris showed an internationally acclaimed solo exhibition in 2010.
Lucian Freud died on July 20, 2011 in London. - Additional Crew
Steven Runciman was born on 7 July 1903. He is known for Mastermind (1972), Secret Lives (1995) and Crusades (1995). He died on 1 November 2000.- Sacheverell Sitwell was born on 15 November 1897 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was married to Georgia Doble. He died on 1 October 1988 in Towcester, Northamptonshire, England, UK.
- Pierre Trudeau was born Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau on October 18, 1919 in Montreal, Quebec. He was the son of Charles-Émile Trudeau and Grace Elliott. Trudeau had an older sister and a younger brother, Suzette and Charles Jr.
Trudeau's father died when Pierre was 15. After that, Trudeau and his brother and sister were raised by their mother, who Trudeau remained in contact for the rest of her life.
Throughout World War II to the 1950's, little did the know about the man named Pierre Elliott Trudeau. He started his career in the late 1940's and the early 1950's.
Then, in 1968, Trudeau started to make headlines, as he became the 15th Prime Minister of Canada after Lester B. Pearson retired as Prime Minister and Liberal.
His personal life brought shock and surprises. In 1971, Trudeau married Margaret Sinclair, a woman almost thirty years younger than him. Together they had three sons, Justin, Alexandre and Michel. The Trudeaus separated in 1977 and the divorced was finalized in 1984.
On June 4, 1979, Trudeau was defeated by the Conservatives leader Joe Clark. But just nine months after the Clark government was defeated and weeks after Trudeau resigned, Trudeau undid his resignation and glided his way back to 24 Sussex, with another majority government. This was Trudeau's last chance too.
On June 30, 1984, Trudeau retired and John Turner took his spot in office. Later on, Trudeau fathered a daughter with Deborah Coyne, named Sarah Elisabeth Coyne, when he was 71 years old.
In November of 1998, Canadians saw Trudeau grieving the death of his youngest son Michel in an avalanche. Friends would say that Trudeau was never the same.
On September 28, 2000, Trudeau died at the age of 80. He was suffering from Parkinson's disease, but the cause of Trudeau's death was prostate cancer. His funeral was held on October 3 in Montreal. Trudeau will be remembered for his strength of character. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Hugh Casson was born on 23 May 1910 in 4 Grossfield Road, London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for A Hundred Years Old (1938), Evil Under the Sun (1982) and ABC Weekend Specials (1977). He was married to Margaret Macdonald Troup. He died on 15 August 1999 in London, England, UK.- English poet. His father Sydney was City Treasurer of Coventry. Philip was educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. By the age of 16 he was already having poetry published in the school magazine, The Coventrian. In 1940 he went to St. John's College, Oxford, to study English. On graduating (with first-class honours) in 1943 he became chief librarian of the municipal library in Wellington, Shropshire. In 1946 he began a job as assistant librarian at University College Leicester; in 1950 he was appointed one of two sub-librarians at Queen's University Belfast. In 1955 he became Librarian of the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull, a post he held until his death. His first volume of poetry, "The North Ship", met with minimal response when published in 1945. It was followed by two novels, "Jill" (1946) and "A Girl in Winter" (1947). It was his second book of poetry, "The Less Deceived" (1955), which established him as a poet. The subject-matter of Larkin's poetry is resolutely unglamorous: British provincial life, public transport, sexual dissatisfaction, boredom, illness and death. His tone however is resigned and comic as often as it is melancholy. He was also the Daily Telegraph's jazz correspondent, and a collection of his reviews was published in 1970 as "All What Jazz". Among the many awards he received were the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry and the W.H. Smith Award. In 1975 he was made a Commander of the British Empire. In 1976 he was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the FVS Foundation of Hamburg.
Towards the end of Larkin's life his output became very scarce: between the publication of his fourth book of poetry, "High Windows", in 1974, and his death, only 8 of his poems were published. When in 1984 he declined the offer of the post of Poet Laureate it was on the grounds that he was not able to produce poetry for state occasions. In accordance with his will, his diaries were burned after his death. In 1992, however, a selection of his letters was published. This caused controversy by making public his racist tendencies and interest in pornography. He never married, but from 1983 until his death he lived with the lecturer Monica Jones, whom he had first met in Leicester. - Keith Joseph was born on 17 January 1918 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. He was married to Yolanda Victoria Sheriff and Hellen Louise Guggenheimer. He died on 10 December 1994 in London, England, UK.
- Sydney Brenner was born on 13 January 1927 in Germiston, Gauteng, South Africa. He was married to May Covitz Balkind. He died on 5 April 2019 in Singapore.
- Peter Scott was born on 14 September 1909 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Vanishing Wilderness (1974), Look (1955) and Wild Wings (1965). He was married to Phillipa Scott and Elizabeth Jane Howard. He died on 29 August 1989 in Bristol, England, UK.
- Norman Tebbit was born on 29 March 1931 in Enfield, Middlesex, England, UK. He was previously married to Margaret Tebbit.