Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch was an English-born Australian actor. He is best remembered for his role as crazed television anchorman Howard Beale in the 1976 film Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a Best Actor award from the Golden Globes.
Jack Warner, OBE was a British actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played in the 1950 film The Blue Lamp and later in the television series Dixon of Dock Green from 1955 until 1976, but he was also for some years one of Britain's most popular film stars.
Brian Norman Roger Rix, Baron Rix, was an English actor-manager, who produced a record-breaking sequence of long-running farces on the London stage, including Dry Rot, Simple Spymen and One for the Pot. His one-night TV shows made him the joint-highest paid star on the BBC. He often worked with his wife Elspet Gray and sister Sheila Mercier, who became the matriarch in Emmerdale Farm.
Basil Dearden was an English film director.
Elspet Jean Gray, Baroness Rix was a Scottish actress, who first became known for her partnership with her husband, Brian Rix, and later was cast in many television roles in the 1970s and 1980s. She played Lady Collingford in the television series Catweazle and Mrs. Palmer in the television series Solo, alongside Felicity Kendal.
Sheila Betty Mercier was an English actress, of stage and television, best known for playing Annie Sugden in the soap opera Emmerdale Farm for over 20 years, from the programme's first episode in 1972 until the mid-1990s, with a guest return in 2009.
Ronald Alfred Shiner was a British stand-up comedian and comedy actor whose career encompassed film, West End theatre and music hall.
John Slater was an English character actor who usually portrayed lugubrious, amiable cockney types.
Larry Noble was a stage comedian and actor best known for starring in the Whitehall farces with Brian Rix. He starred in the original production of Reluctant Heroes and as the chirpy French jockey in Dry Rot. On television, he made guest appearances on Last of the Summer Wine in 1975 and Blake's 7 in 1981. He died on 9 September 1993, aged 78.
Dry Rot is a 1956 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey, and starring Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix, Peggy Mount, and Sid James.
The Night We Got the Bird is a 1961 British comedy film and a follow up to the 1959 film The Night We Dropped a Clanger, it was directed by Darcy Conyers and starring Brian Rix, Dora Bryan, Ronald Shiner and Irene Handl. It is based on Basil Thomas's play The Love Birds, and was the last film Ronald Shiner made.
The Whitehall farces were a series of five long-running comic stage plays at the Whitehall Theatre in London, presented by the actor-manager Brian Rix, in the 1950s and 1960s. They were in the low comedy tradition of British farce, following the Aldwych farces, which played at the Aldwych Theatre between 1924 and 1933.
John Roy Chapman was a British actor, playwright and screenwriter, known for his collaborations with Ray Cooney.
Colin Morris was a British playwright, screenwriter and actor. His best known work was the screen version of Reluctant Heroes (1951) based on his own play. As an actor, he appeared in the 1957 film The Silken Affair. Reluctant Heroes premiered in 1950 at the Whitehall Theatre, and was the first of the Brian Rix company's Whitehall farces.
Worm's Eye View is a 1951 British Technicolor comedy film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Ronald Shiner as Sam Porter and Diana Dors as Thelma. Based on the successful play of the same name by R.F. Delderfield, it was produced by Henry Halsted and Byron Film.
Up to His Neck is a 1954 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Ronald Shiner as Jack Carter, Hattie Jacques as Rakiki and Anthony Newley as Tommy. It was shot at Pinewood Studios near London with sets designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky.
Not Wanted on Voyage is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Ronald Shiner, Brian Rix and Catherine Boyle. The film was made at British National Studios. It is based on a play by Ken Attiwill and his wife Evadne Price.
And the Same to You is a 1960 British boxing-themed comedy film directed by George Pollock and starring Brian Rix and William Hartnell. It is based on a stage farce by A.P. Dearsley.
Leo Franklyn was an English actor. Much of his early career was in Edwardian musical comedy; in his later career he was chiefly associated with farce.
The Aldwych farces were a series of twelve stage farces presented at the Aldwych Theatre, London, nearly continuously from 1923 to 1933. All but three of them were written by Ben Travers. They incorporate and develop British low comedy styles, combined with clever word-play. The plays were presented by the actor-manager Tom Walls and starred Walls and Ralph Lynn, supported by a regular company that included Robertson Hare, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter, Ethel Coleridge, and Gordon James.
