Lucius Blake , born Elusha Ebenezer Blake, was a Jamaica-born actor who appeared in more than 30 British films. The Guardian describes him as "possibly the most prolific black actor in early British cinema." [1] [2]
Blake was born in Jamaica and moved to the United States when he was 23 and later to the UK, where he began his film career. He appeared in more than 30 British films, [1] [3] including a key part alongside Conrad Veidt in King of the Damned (1935). [1] He was sometimes credited as J. Blake or Sam Blake. [1]
British cinema has significantly influenced the global film industry since the 19th century.
James Neville Mason was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes and two BAFTA Awards throughout his career.
Sir John Vincent Hurt was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. He was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in the world". He possessed what was called the "most distinctive voice in Britain". He received numerous awards including four BAFTAs and a Golden Globe in addition to two Academy Awards nominations. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 for his services to drama.
Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert was an English actor. After graduating from RADA and beginning his career on the British stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a successful and prolific performer on television and in film. He received numerous accolades including two BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award, along with a nomination for an Academy Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for services to drama.
James Broadbent is an English actor. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, he came to prominence as a character actor for his many roles in film and television. He has received various accolades including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, an International Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.
William Thomson Hay was an English comedian who wrote and acted in a schoolmaster sketch that later transferred to the screen, where he also played other authority figures with comic failings. His film Oh, Mr Porter! (1937), made by Gainsborough Pictures, is often cited as the supreme British-produced film-comedy, and in 1938 he was the third highest-grossing star in the UK. Many comedians have acknowledged him as a major influence. Hay was also a keen amateur astronomer.
Barbara Shelley was an English film and television actress. She appeared in more than a hundred films and television series. She was particularly known for her work in horror films, notably Village of the Damned; Dracula, Prince of Darkness; Rasputin, the Mad Monk and Quatermass and the Pit.
Adrian Anthony Lester is a British actor. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the London stage, and has also been nominated for a Tony Award.
Earlston Jewett Cameron, CBE, known as Earl Cameron, was a Bermudian actor who lived and worked in the United Kingdom. After appearing on London's West End stage, he became one of the first black stars in the British film industry.
David Mervyn Johns was a Welsh stage, film and television actor who became a fixture of British films during the Second World War. Johns appeared extensively on screen and stage with over 100 credits between 1923 and 1979.
Raymond Lovell was a Canadian actor who performed in British films. He mainly played supporting roles, often somewhat pompous characters.
Sir Horace Shango Ové was a Trinidadian-born British filmmaker, photographer, painter and writer based in London, England. One of the leading black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain in the post-war period, Ové was the first black British filmmaker to direct a feature-length film, Pressure (1976). In its retrospective documentary 100 Years of Cinema, the British Film Institute (BFI) declared: "Horace Ové is undoubtedly a pioneer in Black British history and his work provides a perspective on the Black experience in Britain."
Robert Adams was a British Guyanese actor of stage and screen. He was the founder and director of the Negro Repertory Arts Theatre, one of the first professional black theatre companies in Britain, and became the world's first black television actor when he appeared in Theatre Parade: Scenes From Hassan on BBC TV in 1937. He was also the first Black actor to play a Shakespearian role on television, in 1947.
Old Bones of the River is a comedy film released in 1938 starring British actor Will Hay with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt and directed by Marcel Varnel, based on the characters created by Edgar Wallace.
Evan Gordon Newton Jones was a Jamaican writer based in the United Kingdom. He was educated in Jamaica, the United States and England. Jones remains the most accomplished Jamaican international screenwriter to date. His poetry, especially 'The Song of the Banana Man', is widely anthologised and his output as a playwright for theatre and television spans four decades. He is also the writer of two novels, a biography and collections of Jamaican folk stories.
King of the Damned is a 1935 British prison film directed by Walter Forde and starring Conrad Veidt, Helen Vinson, Noah Beery and Cecil Ramage.
Men of Two Worlds is a 1946 British Technicolor drama film directed by Thorold Dickinson and starring Phyllis Calvert, Eric Portman and Robert Adams. The screenplay concerns an African music student who returns home to battle a witch doctor for control over his tribe.
The American Prisoner is an all-talking sound 1929 British drama film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Carl Brisson, Madeleine Carroll and Cecil Barry. It was adapted from the 1904 novel The American Prisoner by Eden Phillpotts. It was originally conceived as a silent film, but was converted into a All-Talkie in line with widespread practice at British International Pictures during 1928–1929.
Lloyd Reckord was a Jamaican actor, film maker, and stage director who lived in England for some years. Reckord appeared in 1958 in a West End production of Hot Summer Night, which as an ITV adaptation broadcast on 1 February 1959 contained the earliest known example of an interracial kiss on television. His brother was the dramatist Barry Reckord.
Sara Powell is a British-Jamaican stage, screen and voice-over actress and audiobook narrator. Her regular television roles include crown prosecutor Rachel Barker in the BBC's police procedural drama HolbyBlue (2007–2008), driver Sally Reid in ITV's firefighting drama London's Burning (1993–1994) and psychologist Cass in Channel 4's sitcom Damned (2016–2018).