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1-9 of 9
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
The son of a surveyor, Charles Gray was born and raised in Queen's Park, Bournemouth. As a young actor, he received his vocal training from the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and at the Old Vic, having long abandoned his first job as clerk for a real estate agent. His voice was to become one of his most valuable tools. In fact, from January 1966, he subtly, almost imperceptibly, dubbed for Jack Hawkins after this actor became unable to speak his lines due to throat cancer. In later years, Gray's trademark voice was regularly heard on television commercials.
Gray's theatrical debut came in 1952 in the part of Charles the Wrestler (he measured 6 foot, 1 inches in height) in "As You Like It", appearing under his original name, 'Donald Gray'. From 1956, as 'Charles' Gray (since there already was a one-armed actor named Donald Gray), he took to leading dramatic roles, and won critical plaudits as Achilles in "Troilus and Cressida", Macduff in "Macbeth" and as the gluttonous Sir Epicure Mammon in Tyrone Guthrie's up-dated version of "The Alchemist", in 1962. He repeated his Old Vic performance as Henry Bolingbroke for his Broadway debut at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1956. A notable later performance, while touring the U.S. and Canada, was as the Prince of Wales in Peter Stone's tale of the famous 19th century actor Edmund Kean ("Kean", 1961). In 1964, Gray won the Clarence Derwent Award as Best Supporting Actor for his part in the controversial play "Poor Bitos", by Jean Anouilh, co-starring Donald Pleasence. He was offered his first role on the big screen, reprising a success on the West End stage in 1958, as Captain Cyril Mavors,in the satirical musical Expresso Bongo (1959).
For the next forty years, heavy-set, silver-haired, jut-jawed Charles Gray used his imposing frame and mellifluous voice to great effect in creating for the screen a memorable gallery of egocentric, imperious toffs, and suave, sardonic super-villains. While his performances at times verged on the camp, Gray cheerfully allowed himself to be cast within his range of basically unsympathetic characters, which he could play well and with ease. He tended to favour television as his preferred medium, though some of his most popular roles were for the big screen. Among his niche of staple characters were the coldly pompous military heavies (General Gabler in The Night of the Generals (1967), or the perpetually sneering, overbearing upper-class twits (true-to-form, as defecting spy Hillary Vance in the Thriller (1973) episode "Night is the Time for Killing"). At his evil best, he was commanding as the demonic acolyte Mocata, in The Devil Rides Out (1968) and as the feline-stroking, velvety-voiced nemesis of James Bond, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). He was also suitably sinister as Bates the Butler, one of the red herrings of Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd (1980).
Gray's recurring roles included Lord Seacroft (senior, as well as junior) in the short-lived satirical miniseries The Upper Crusts (1973) as a down-on-his-heels aristocrat, keeping up appearances after being forced to live in a high-rise housing estate; and as the sedentary brother of the famous sleuth at 221b Baker Street, Mycroft, in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976). Later, he was utilised as temporary replacement, first for Edward Hardwicke,and, subsequently, for the hospitalised star Jeremy Brett, in Granada Television's various instalments of the Sherlock Holmes saga (1985-1994). Gray died of cancer in March 2000, aged 71.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Pee Wee King was born on 18 February 1914 in Abrams, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Planet Terror (2007), Gangster Squad (2013) and Natural Born Killers (1994). He was married to Lydia Frank. He died on 7 March 2000 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.- Chelita Salvatori was born to a wealthy white Trinidadian family - her mother, Connie, was English, and her father's family were from Corsican origin. As a girl, Chelita was sketched by Pablo Picasso, and was educated at the Lycee in South Kensington, London, and in Paris, from where she ran away because, as her childhood friend Barry Powell recalls, "she hated the nuns". When she was 18, her father died from burns after his yacht had blown up.
Returning to London in 1963, Chelita Salvatori was taken up by the photographer Norman Parkinson, a family friend whose introductions helped launch her into the fluid 1960s society. Parkinson also introduced her to Harpers Bazaar, beginning a career in journalism during which she worked for IPC (as features editor for Woman), and as fashion editor of Nova. She also met and married the pop manager Tony Secunda. In 1966, when the designer Ossie Clark's collection combined blue and green, Secunda "dyed her hair blue to celebrate and became her PR". She joined Clark and Alice Pollock's venture, Quorum, as promoter of Clark's designs, and would work with Sir Mark Palmer in his model agency, English Boy. Soon Chelita was on phone number terms with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and was responsible for hiring such models as Amanda Lear. She pre-empted glam rock with her "mad rainbow eye make-up - green and orange, her cheeks highlighted in pink, and over that, reflective diamonds and sequins". In 1970 Chelita was engaged by Marc Bolan's wife June as PR for Bolan's group T. Rex. In 1972 Chelita made a cameo appearance in Bolan's film, Born to Boogie (1972), dressed as a nun. She was T.Rex' Mickey Finn's lover during the heyday of T.Rex, and like him she battled serious addiction to heroin for many years.
In 1979 Chelita left London for Trinidad with the intention of "escaping the smack stigma and setting up a small hotel," She did recover, attending Narcotics Anonymous; in 1988 she went to the Wiltshire clinic "Clouds", and kicked the habit. In the mid-1980s she became the London correspondent for the Parisian magazine City; and later performed the same role for the influential Japanese magazine Hanatsubaki. Derek Jarman gave her a part in his 1986 film Caravaggio (1986).
Chelita organized the Alternative Miss World competitions for Andrew Logan, who had known her since the early days. Logan's 1987 portrait shows her clad in a bright yellow turban, with a heart containing a portrait of her daughter, Tallulah. Chelita had only recently moved to Marrakesh, where she had been working single- handedly to open a hotel, an effort which may have brought on the heart attack that killed her. - Jack Sanford was born on 18 May 1929 in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, USA. He died on 7 March 2000 in Beckley, West Virginia, USA.
- Eileen Fowler was born on 13 May 1906 in Tottenham, London, England, UK. She was married to John Morgan Carson. She died on 7 March 2000 in Colchester, Essex, England, UK.
- Music Department
Margaret Harris was born on 15 September 1943 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is known for The Shape of Things (1973), African American Musicians and Composers (1971) and Soul! (1968). She died on 7 March 2000 in New York City, New York, USA.- Kató Eõry was born on 6 September 1905 in Budapest, Hungary. She was an actress, known for Te csak pipálj Ladányi (1938), Miss Iza (1933) and A bor (1933). She was married to Tibor Mátyássy. She died on 7 March 2000.
- Bill Hamilton was born on 1 August 1936 in Cairo, Egypt. He died on 7 March 2000 in London.
- Kirsten Jessen was born on 24 September 1922 in Frederiksberg, Denmark. She was an actress, known for Far betaler (1946), Penge som græs (1948) and Vores lille by (1954). She was married to Axel Strøbye. She died on 7 March 2000.