Sir Fred Hoyle (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and was one of the authors of the influential B2FH paper. He also held controversial stances on other scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory (a term coined by him on BBC Radio) in favor of the "steady-state model", and his promotion of panspermia as the origin of life on Earth. He spent most of his working life at St John's College, Cambridge and served as the founding director of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Cambridge.
Hope and Glory is a 1987 comedy-drama war film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman based on his own experiences growing up in London during World War II. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures. The title is derived from the traditional British patriotic song "Land of Hope and Glory". The film tells the story of the Rowan family and their experiences, as seen through the eyes of the son, Billy.
Zardoz is a 1974 science fantasy film written, produced, and directed by John Boorman and starring Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling. It depicts a post-apocalyptic world where barbarians worship the stone idol Zardoz while growing food for a hidden elite, the Eternals. The Brutal Zed becomes curious about Zardoz, and his curiosity forces a confrontation between the two camps.
Sir John Boorman is a British film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing feature films such as Point Blank (1967), Hell in the Pacific (1968), Deliverance (1972), Zardoz (1974), Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Excalibur (1981), The Emerald Forest (1985), Hope and Glory (1987), The General (1998), The Tailor of Panama (2001) and Queen and Country (2014).
Exorcist II: The Heretic is a 1977 American supernatural science fiction horror film directed by John Boorman and written by William Goodhart. It is the second installment in The Exorcist film series and the sequel to The Exorcist (1973), and stars Linda Blair, Richard Burton, Louise Fletcher, Max von Sydow, Kitty Winn, Paul Henreid, and James Earl Jones. It was the last film to feature veteran actor Paul Henreid. Set four years after the previous film, the film centers on the now 16-year-old Regan MacNeil, who is still recovering from her previous demonic possession.
Garech Domnagh Browne was an Irish art collector and a notable patron of Irish arts, traditional Irish music in particular. He was often known by a Gaelic translation of his English name, Garech de Brún, or alternatively Garech a Brún, especially in Ireland.
Claddagh Records is a record label, based in Dublin's Temple Bar area, founded in 1959 by Garech Browne and Ivor Browne. It specialises in Irish traditional music and spoken word. Garech had been taking lessons at the time from the master piper Leo Rowsome, who had made many recordings in the 1920s and 1930s with H.M.V. and Decca, was to be the first artist to record on the Claddagh label. Leo, on the first-ever Claddagh album "Rí na bPíobairí", produced virtuoso uilleann piping. The second album released by Claddagh was The Chieftains' first recording who are most arguably well-known artists in their roster.
Ian Edmund Bannen was a Scottish actor with a long career in film, on stage, and on television. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), the first Scottish actor to receive the honour, as well as two BAFTA Film Awards for his performances in Sidney Lumet's The Offence (1973) and John Boorman's Hope and Glory (1987).
Point Blank is a 1967 American crime film directed by John Boorman, starring Lee Marvin, co-starring Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn and Carroll O'Connor, and adapted from the 1963 crime noir pulp novel The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake, writing as Richard Stark. Boorman directed the film at Marvin's request and Marvin played a central role in the film's development. The film grossed over $9 million in theatrical rentals in 1967 and has since gone on to become a cult classic, eliciting praise from such critics as film historian David Thomson.
Alexander Mackendrick was an American-born Scottish film director and screenwriter. He directed nine feature films between 1949 and 1967, before retiring from filmmaking to become an influential professor at the California Institute of the Arts.
Charley Boorman is a British television presenter, travel writer and actor. A motorbike enthusiast, Boorman has made three long-distance motorcycle rides with his friend Ewan McGregor, documented in Long Way Round (2004), Long Way Down (2007), and Long Way Up (2020).
The General is an Irish crime film written and directed by John Boorman about Dublin crime boss Martin Cahill, who undertook several daring heists in the early 1980s and attracted the attention of the Garda Síochána, Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) .The film was shot in 1997 and released in 1998. Brendan Gleeson plays Cahill, Adrian Dunbar plays his friend Noel Curley, and Jon Voight plays Inspector Ned Kenny.
The Bohemian Girl is an Irish Romantic opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Miguel de Cervantes' tale, La gitanilla.
Luggala, also called Fancy Mountain at 595 metres (1,952 ft), is the 230th-highest peak in Ireland on the Arderin scale. Being below 600 metres (2,000 ft), it does not rank on the Vandeleur-Lynam or Hewitt scales. Luggala is in the northeastern section of the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland, and overlooks the Lough Tay, which lies at the base of the steep granite cliffs on Luggala's eastern face. As well as a noted scenic point in County Wicklow, Luggala's eastern cliffs have many graded rock-climbing routes.
Lough Tay, is a small but scenic lake set on private property in the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland. The lake lies between the mountains of Djouce 725 metres (2,379 ft), and Luggala 595 metres (1,952 ft), and is dominated by Luggala's east-facing granite cliffs. The lough is fed by the Cloghoge River, which then drains into Lough Dan to the south. The entire of Lough Tay belongs to the Guinness Estate at Luggala, and has limited public access.
J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), set in his fictional world of Middle-earth, have been the subject of numerous motion picture adaptations across film and television.
Uncle David is a 2010 British black comedy film directed by David Hoyle, Gary Reich, and Mike Nicholls. It was produced by Reich and stars Hoyle, an English performance artist, in the title role alongside English pornographic actor Ashley Ryder. Developed collectively under the banner of the Avant-Garde Alliance, it was filmed in October 2009. Created without a script, every scene was improvised and filmed in a single take.
John Hoesli was a British art and set decorator. He is best known for being the art director on films such as John Huston's The African Queen, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Anthony Asquith's Orders to Kill (1958) with Alan Withy, and Jeannot Szwarc's Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) with Don Dossett. It was Hoesli who found the old steamboat used in The African Queen at Butiaba on Lake Albert.
John Merritt (1920–1999) was a British film and television editor, writer, and director. He was born on 9 June 1920 in London. He died at the age of 79 on 6 July 1999 in Bristol, England. While John Merritt has a list of 20 credits on IMDb in all three of the categories listed above, he is most famous for his work as an editor.
Simon Holland was a British production designer.
