Brian Gilbert is a film director. Born in England, he spent much of his childhood in Australia, where he was a child actor of film, television and radio. Returning to England at the age of fourteen, he attended the Harrow County Grammar School for Boys and completed his education at Oxford University.
He continued working as a professional actor until 1979, when he joined the National Film and Television School as a directing student. So well-received was his graduation film, The Devotee [1] that producer David Puttnam immediately commissioned[ citation needed ] him to write and direct a feature-length film for the Channel Four First Love series in the 1980s. From there, he went on to direct The Frog Prince (French Lessons US title), a French-English co-production.
Subsequently, he has worked in both Hollywood and the UK, directing Vice Versa in 1988, and in 1991 - Not Without My Daughter , the adaptation of the controversial best-seller of the same name, which starred Sally Field as Betty Mahmoody.
Four years later came Tom & Viv starring Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson, the story of poet T. S. Eliot's first marriage, nominated for two Academy Awards. This was eventually followed by the 1997 production Wilde , starring Jude Law and Stephen Fry, based on the Richard Ellmann biography of Oscar Wilde. In 2003, he directed The Gathering , starring Christina Ricci. He wrote and directed the documentary Lord Haw-Haw: Portrait of a Fanatic for UK and Irish television, and in 2006, directed the stage version of Mary Kenny's play Allegiance, starring Mel Smith, and produced by Daniel Jewel, at the Edinburgh Festival. He is currently a regular guest tutor at the National Film and Television School.
Melvyn Kenneth Smith was an English comedian, actor and director. Smith worked on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the United Kingdom's largest producers of television comedy and light entertainment programming.
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways. Some contemporary reviews praised the play's humour and the culmination of Wilde's artistic career, while others were cautious about its lack of social messages. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play.
Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first performed on Saturday, 20 February 1892, at the St James's Theatre in London.
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who enjoyed a lengthy career in both Britain and the United States. He was frequently cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment, often in supporting roles. In 1939 he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of King Louis XVI in Marie Antoinette.
Rupert James Hector Everett is an English actor. Everett first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film Another Country (1984) as a gay pupil at an English public school in the 1930s; the role earned him his first BAFTA Award nomination. He received a second BAFTA nomination and his first Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), followed by a second Golden Globe nomination for An Ideal Husband (1999).
William Francis Nighy is an English actor.
Brian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, most notably Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and Walter "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine. His lugubrious world-weary face was a staple of British television for forty years.
Salome is a one-act tragedy by Oscar Wilde. The original 1891 version of the play was in French; an English translation was published three years later. The play depicts the attempted seduction of Jokanaan by Salome, step-daughter of Herod Antipas; her dance of the seven veils; the execution of Jokanaan at Salome's instigation; and her death on Herod's orders.
Brian Manion Dennehy was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe, and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Dennehy had roles in over 180 films and in many television and stage productions. His film roles included First Blood (1982), Gorky Park (1983), Silverado (1985), Cocoon (1985), F/X (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Ratatouille (2007), and Knight of Cups (2015). Dennehy won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Willy Loman in the television film Death of a Salesman (2000).
Wilde is a 1997 British biographical film directed by Brian Gilbert and starring Stephen Fry in the title role. The screenplay by Julian Mitchell is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 biography of Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann.
Brendan Gleeson is an Irish actor and film director. He is the recipient of three IFTA Awards, two British Independent Film Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award and has been nominated twice for a BAFTA Award and four times for a Golden Globe Award.
The Gathering Storm is a BBC–HBO co-produced television biographical film about Winston Churchill in the years just prior to World War II. The title of the film is that of the first volume of Churchill's largely autobiographical six-volume history of the war, which covered the period from 1919 to 3 September 1939, the day he became First Lord of the Admiralty.
Georg Stanford Brown is an American actor and director, perhaps best known as one of the stars of the ABC police television series The Rookies from 1972 to 1976. On the show, Brown played the character of Officer Terry Webster.
Adrian Dunbar is a Northern Irish actor and director, known for his television and his theatre work. Dunbar co-wrote and starred in the 1991 film Hear My Song, nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the BAFTA awards. He is also known for playing 'Ted Hastings' in the BBC show Line Of Duty.
Anthony "Anton" Rodgers was an English actor and occasional director. He performed on stage, in film, in television dramas and sitcoms. He starred in several sitcoms, including Fresh Fields, its sequel French Fields, and May to December.
Marc Samuelson is a British TV and film producer and executive producer.
Joanna McCallum is an English theatre, film and television actress.
Francis Martin Sewell Stokes was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years overlooking the British Museum. It was here that Sewell Stokes did much of his writing in the Reading Room, used by so many distinguished writers over the years.
Joseph O'Conor was an Irish actor and playwright.
Oscar Wilde's life and death have generated numerous biographies.