Advanced search

Actor Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born on December 22, 1962 in Suffolk, England, to Jennifer Anne Mary Alleyne (Lash), a novelist, and Mark Fiennes, a photographer. He is the eldest of six children. Four of his siblings are also in the arts: Martha Fiennes, a director; Magnus Fiennes, a musician; Sophie Fiennes, a producer; and Joseph Fiennes, an actor. He is of English, Irish, and Scottish origin.

A noted Shakespeare interpreter, he first achieved success onstage at the Royal National Theatre. Fiennes first worked on screen in 1990 and then made his film debut in 1992 as Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1992), opposite Juliette Binoche. 1993 was his "breakout year". He had a major role in the controversial Peter Greenaway film The Baby of Mâcon (1993), with Julia Ormond, which was poorly received. Later that year he became known internationally for portraying the amoral Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993). For this he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. He did not win, but did win the Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for the role, as well as Best Supporting Actor honors from numerous critics groups, including the National Society of Film Critics, and the New York, Chicago, Boston, and London Film Critics associations. His portrayal as Göth also earned him a spot on the American Film Institute's list of Top 50 Film Villains. To look suitable to represent Goeth, Fiennes gained weight, but he managed to shed it afterwards. In 1994, he portrayed American academic Charles Van Doren in Quiz Show (1994). In 1996, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Count Almásy the World War II epic romance, and another Best Picture winner, Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996), in which he starred with Kristin Scott Thomas. He also received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, as well as two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations, one for Best Actor and another shared with the film's ensemble cast.

Since then, Fiennes has been in a number of notable films, including Strange Days (1995), Oscar and Lucinda (1997), the animated The Prince of Egypt (1998), István Szabó's Sunshine (1999), Neil Jordan-directed films The End of the Affair (1999) and The Good Thief (2002), Red Dragon (2002), Maid in Manhattan (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005), In Bruges (2008), The Reader (2008), co-starring Kate Winslet, Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar®-winning The Hurt Locker (2008), Clash of the Titans (2010), Mike Newell's screen adaptation of Charles Dickens'Great Expectations (2012), with Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine, and Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).

He is also known for his roles in major film franchises such as the Harry Potter film series (2005-2011), in which he played the evil Lord Voldemort. His nephew, Hero Fiennes Tiffin played Tom Riddle, the young Lord Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). Ralph also appears in the James Bond series, in which he has played M, starting with the 2012 film Skyfall (2012).

In 2011, Fiennes made his directorial debut with his film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy political thriller Coriolanus (2011), in which he also played the title character, opposite Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave. Fiennes has won a Tony Award for playing Prince Hamlet on Broadway.

In 2015, Fiennes played a music producer in Luca Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash (2015), starring opposite Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts, and in 2016, Fiennes starred in Joel and Ethan Coen's Hail, Caesar! (2016).

Since 1999, Fiennes has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK.

English actor Sam Claflin was born in Ipswich, England, to Susan A. (Clarke), a classroom assistant, and Mark J. Claflin, a finance officer. As a child, he was football-mad, often going to see his favorite team, Norwich City. He was a talented footballer, playing for Norwich schools at city level and Norfolk county level. However, he suffered two broken ankles and at 16 gave up thinking about a footballing career. He took up performing arts and a teacher from Costessey High School was impressed with his performance in a school play, and encouraged him to take up drama. He joined the local youth group at Norwich's Theatre Royal and went on to gain entry to LAMDA drama school in 2006 graduating with a 3 year acting degree in 2009. He is the 3rd eldest of 4 boys, his older brothers Dan and Ben are not involved in drama but his younger brother Joe Claflin commenced at the same drama school in 2009 also doing a 3 year acting degree.

In 2010, Clafin made his debut screen performances in two award-winning series, The Pillars of the Earth (2010) and Any Human Heart (2010). His film debut came playing footballer Duncan Edwards, one of the 'Busby Babes', in United (2011). Clafin then came to the attention of cinemagoers across the world when he was cast as Philip in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011). Various roles followed, including Jack in White Heat (2012) and Prince William in Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). He played Finnick Odair in the sequels The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015).

A much-acclaimed stage actress, she was born of French ancestry as Jane Elizabeth Marie Lapotaire in Ipswich, England. She had a troubled childhood. Abandoned by her mother at the age of six months and having never known her father, she was fostered by a woman she called Granny Grace (aka Grace Chisnell), who, in turn, had raised Lapotaire's (orphaned) French biological mother. Her mother reclaimed her when she was twelve, though Jane opted to remain with Grace. Both her mother and her partner, Lapotaire's de facto stepfather, disapproved of Jane's acting ambitions. Eventually accepted by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School after failing an earlier audition at RADA, she studied acting from 1961 to 1963. As a member of the Old Vic Theatre Company, Lapotaire made her debut two years later as Ruby Birtle in J.B. Priestley's Victorian comedy When We Are Married. After seasons with the National Theatre under the direction of Laurence Olivier (1967-70), she helped to found the Young Vic Theatre in London where her classical repertoire encompassed Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew, Jocasta in Oedipus and Isabella in Measure for Measure. In 1974, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, portraying, among others, Rosalind in As You Like It, Viola in Twelfth Night and Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View. She later toured with the RSC in Henry VIII (as Katherine of Aragon). In a 2015 interview Lapotaire declared "Being a classical actor is a vocation - you don't do it to be famous or get rich. You do it because you love the language."

In 1978, she created her famous role as Édith Piaf which transferred from London theatres to Broadway in 1981 and won her a Best Actress Tony Award. Contemporary New York Times reviewer Frank Rich commented: "Miss Lapotaire's performance burns with such heart-stopping intensity that one never questions her right to stand in for the 'little sparrow'." In 1985, Lapotaire headlined opposite Anthony Quayle in the title role of Saint Joan at the York Theatre Royal. Returning to the RSC, she was Gertrude to Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1992-93), the Duchess of Gloucester in Richard II and Queen Isobel in Henry V.

Lapotaire's career on the screen, though largely subordinated to the stage, has seen her notably prominent in period drama and in adaptations of literary classics, from Antony and Cleopatra (1972) to Macbeth (1983), from Lady Jane (1986) to Uncle Silas (1989). She portrayed the influential and wealthy Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Devil's Crown (1978), Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett (later Barrett-Browning) in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1982) and the Dowager Empress Dagmar of Russia in Edward the King (1975). She starred (and was nominated for a TV BAFTA) as the titular Nobel Prize-winning pioneer scientist in the miniseries Marie Curie (1977). A more recent role saw her as the émigré Russian aristocrat Irina Kuragin in an episode of Downton Abbey (2010). Lapotaire also received a second BAFTA nomination for her role as a left-wing feminist barrister in the judiciary-themed miniseries Blind Justice (1988).

Jane Lapotaire has served as honorary president of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Club. She has written several memoirs, including Grace and Favour (1989) and Everybody's Daughter, Nobody's Child (2007), both detailing the difficult years of her childhood. Another book, Time Out of Mind (2005), recounted her recovery from a cerebral hemorrhage in 2000.

Milo Parker was born on 4 October 2002 in Ipswich, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Mr. Holmes (2015), Robot Overlords (2014) and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016).

An award winning British Screen and Theatre Actress born in Ipswich, Suffolk First professional acting job at the age of 12 in the New Wolsey Theare Ipswich's production of the Railway Children, playing the role of Phyllis. Studied for three years at Royal Holloway in London and a year in Modern Dance at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Started out in theatre, co-creating her own theatre company, Sweetfa, with fellow actress Frederica Dunstan in 2001. The company put on their own show at the Jermyn St Theatre in London, where Alice first gained representation. Best known for her powerful portrayal of the infamous Livia Drusilla in the HBO smash Rome (2005), also worked with David Cronenberg on _Eastern Promises (2007)_, acting opposite Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel.

Born 13 January 1931 in Ipswich, England, Ian Hendry's career began rather inauspiciously, playing the fall guy for a circus clown. After attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama, things started progressing nicely when he starred as "Dr. Geoffrey Brent" in Police Surgeon (1960). This led directly to The Avengers (1961) but, after only one season, he left to pursue film. This proved a fruitful move as he found plenty of work (perhaps not surprisingly, often as doctors and police officers), although he made occasional returns to the small screen, even guest-starring in an episode of The New Avengers (1976). His career was cut short on 24 December 1984, as he died from an internal hemorrhage at age 53.

Born in Ipswich in 1942 to a father who was in the RAF so his early life was spent in various RAF bases. After obtaining a history degree at Cambridge he spent 2 years in Repertory and made his West End debut in 'The Rivals' at London's Haymarket Theatre. he made his name in the television series Poldark.

Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue/Green Height: 5'11"

2003 Honors Graduate Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts

Played Orlando in the Opre Arts 2010 Production of "As You Like It" available on HD DVD from BBC video. Naomi Frederick and Jack Laskey star in a Thea Sharrock production of the Shakespeare comedy.

BASSC Certificate in Stage Combat, period dance, singing (tenor)

Jenny Platt was born on 10 July 1979 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Raggedy Rawney (1988), Coronation Street (1960) and Mapp & Lucia (2014). She has been married to Rupert Hill since 11 May 2013. They have one child. She was previously married to Oliver Ford.

Jeremy John Wade, a native of rural Suffolk, England, UK where he grew up on the banks of the Suffolk Stour, currently resides in the countryside near Bath, Somerset, UK when he's not traveling to some far off land to catch "monster" fish and film the TV Series, River Monsters, a production of Icon Films for Animal Planet. He has a degree in Zoology from Bristol University and a postgraduate teaching certificate in biological sciences from the University of Kent. Besides his latest occupation as host of River Monsters, Jeremy Wade has worked as a secondary school biology teacher, tour leader, motorcycle dispatch rider, supply teacher, art tutor, translator (Portuguese-English), public relations consultant, dishwasher, senior copywriter (at an advertising agency) and newspaper reporter.

He is a self-taught writer, with several published articles on poaching, fair trade, travel, natural history, and of course fishing. Besides his newspaper and magazine articles for The Times, Guardian, Sunday Telegraph, The Field and BBC Wildlife magazine, to name a few, he has also co-written a book in 1992 with Paul Arthur Boote called, "Somewhere Down the Crazy River." Described by many as an unusual, quirky, and strange tale of the perils faced by the two anglers, it is considered an angling classic. He has completed a new book, "River Monsters: True Stories of the Ones That Didn't Get Away," that will cover his fishing adventures worldwide which is scheduled for release in April 2011.

At age 16, he was the youngest member of the British Carp Study Group (The B.C.S.G. is a national single species organization for experienced and successful carp anglers). His first overseas trip was to the mountain rivers of India in 1982 where his desire for tracking down large and little-known fresh-water fish became unquenchable and possibly border-lined on obsessive. Although he has mostly fished in the Congo and the Amazon rainforests of Brazil, his travels have taken him to many lands where he has had the misfortune of catching Malaria, been jailed overnight as a suspected spy, almost drowned, survived a plane crash, had an Alaskan bear steal his fish, and found himself facing the wrong end of a gun. Who knows what perils he may face in the future.

During his career he has achieved a number of notable 'firsts'. These include filming a large mystery creature in an Amazon lake (dubbed 'the Amazon Nessie' by BBC Wildlife magazine) which turned out to be a malformed pink river dolphin, and getting the first underwater footage (with cameraman Rick Rosenthal) of the 'Giant Devil Catfish' in India.

His tenacity is to be admired as he studied Portuguese for three hours a day for three months to prepare for a trip to Brazil. He has since worked as a Portuguese-English translator and speaks a half dozen languages well enough to get around although, in an episode, he admits that German is not one of them.

He became a TV personality beginning in 2002 hosting his first TV series, "Jungle Hooks," filmed for Discovery Europe which was highly popular and followed by "River Monsters" in 2009 which has achieved the highest-ever audience figures in the history of Animal Planet.

When not fishing, he enjoys scuba diving (mostly cold, low-visibility water around the U.K. coast) along with free diving and rock climbing when the weather allows.

Robert Coleby was born in 1947 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Patrol Boat (1979), Paradise Beach (1993) and House of Hancock (2015). He is married to Lena Coleby. They have two children.

Sophie Fiennes was born on 12 February 1967 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. She is a director and producer, known for Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (2017), Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (2010) and The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012).

Gentle-mannered British character actress, the daughter of an engineer and a district nurse. Trained as a dancer at the Arts Educational School in London. Gave up a dancing career after injuring her knee and began acting in local repertory theatre. Acted on screen from 1949, and provided voices for most of the female characters in "The Goon Show" on radio (1951-60). On television, best known as housekeeper Amy Winthrop in "The Adventures of Black Beauty" (1972). From the mid-60's, also active as a playwright and screenwriter.

Tony Barry was a busy Australian film and television character actor of considerable versatility. He was born in Ipswich, Queensland, and educated at Saint Patrick's College.

His working life began with a diversity of short-lived jobs -- including in retail, as a storeman, barkeeper and waiter-- before he eventually made his screen debut in 1968. Barry's malleable, weather-beaten features have since enhanced numerous films (beginning with a small role in The Mango Tree (1977)) and television episodes in both Australia and New Zealand.

In the 'land of the long white cloud', he became best known for his role in the comedy Goodbye Pork Pie (1980), a road movie described by one writer as 'Easy Rider meets the Keystone Kops'. The picture achieved instant cult status in New Zealand, Barry receiving the sobriquet of 'honorary Kiwi' and even being featured on a postage stamp.

In the Australian cinema revival of the 1970s and 1980s, Barry featured in many classic films, including Newsfront (1978) (Greasy), The Odd Angry Shot (1979) (Vietnam vet Black Ronnie) and We of the Never Never (1982) (station hand Mac). He latterly excelled at father figures, both the kindly and the cruel variety (I Can Jump Puddles (1981), Home by Christmas (2010), Jack Be Nimble (1993)), as police officers (The Picture Show Man (1977)), underworld figures ('Nipper' Jackson in Scales of Justice (1983)), tycoons (Sir Frank Packer in Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo (2011)) and barristers (Hell Has Harbour Views (2005)).

His final recurring role was as Ioan Gruffudd's former boss and mentor in the forensic crime drama Harrow (2018).

Tony Barry was for a number of years afflicted by melanoma, culminating in a 2013 leg amputation. He nonetheless battled on and continued his acting career right up to his death on 21 December 2022, at the age of 81.

Brian Cant was born on 12 July 1933 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Doctor Who (1963), Dixon of Dock Green (1955) and ITV Play of the Week (1955). He was married to Cherry Britton and Sylvia Mary Gibson. He died on 19 June 2017 in Denville Hall, Northwood, Hillingdon, London, England, UK.

Trevor Nunn was born on 14 January 1940 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. He is a director and writer, known for Twelfth Night (1996), Les Misérables (2012) and Cats (2019). He was previously married to Imogen Stubbs, Sharon Lee Hill and Janet Suzman.

Benn Northover grew up on the east coast of England. Notable film roles include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Baztán film Trilogy, indie hit House of Boys and Mike Figgis' Lucrezia Borgia. His early screen appearances included TV dramas Silent Witness and Hostage to Terror, for which he received The Times Critics Choice. Northover has narrated several documentary films including the 2015 feature documentary Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire, alongside Robert Duvall and Bernardo Bertolucci.

Peter Tuddenham, actor, born November 27 1918; died July 9 2007.

The amiable actor Peter Tuddenham died aged 88, he was always content to remain in supporting roles; in fact, he was most recognised for his off-screen work. He provided the contrasting voices of the computers in the science-fiction series Blake's 7 (BBC, 1978-81).

Tuddenham, who was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, and brought up in the seaside resort of Felixstowe, had made his professional debut before the second world war, in repertory on the pier at Hastings. In the wartime Royal Army Service Corps, he was one of many who honed their performing skills appearing with Stars in Battledress.

Demobbed after the war, he joined a production of Ivor Novello's The Dancing Years; later, in 1959, BBC productions of this and another Novello musical, Perchance to Deam, were among his early television appearances. In 1950, he appeared in Noel Coward's Ace Of Cards, but although the play was well received on tour, it had negative reviews in London's West End.

Tuddenham's small-screen debut was in The Granville Melodramas (1955), one of ITV's earliest productions, starring then husband and wife Hattie Jacques and John Le Mesurier. He took a regular role in Anglia Television's Weavers Green (1966), a short-lived, twice-weekly soap that made an early use of location videotape recording. As an expert on the Suffolk accents, he became Anglia's regular dialect coach.

Characteristically, Tuddenham was heard but not seen as the spirit of East Anglia, in Akenfield (1974), Sir Peter Hall's film adaptation of Ronald Blythe's book, which had an otherwise amateur cast. In a now commonplace move, most of the funding came from London Weekend Television in exchange for the cinema rights; unlike subsequent cinema crossovers it was first screened on television and then released theatrically. This led to good ratings but poor box office. Still, Tuddenham became the dialogue coach for Hall's 1985 production at Glyndebourne of Benjamin Britten's opera, Albert Herring, which was televised on BBC2.

After much radio work, including the soaps Mrs Dale's Diary and Waggoner's Walk, Tuddenham became an off-screen voice in the Doctor Who stories The Ark in Space and The Masque of Mandragora, in 1975 and 1976, both starring Tom Baker. He was then cast in Blake's 7, the adventures of interplanetary rebels fighting an omnipotent Federation. This was created by Terry Nation, who had previously given the world the Daleks.

Tuddenham provided the voices of the computers (eventually three of them - Zen, Orac and Slave) in the show that featured the ship which Clive James, in the Observer, described as "a tasteless light-fitting known as the Liberator". James's view that the series was "flaring nonsense from beyond the galaxy" was widespread among critics. Jokes about the sets and special effects were frequent, and even the large audiences who enjoyed the series generally viewed it as nothing more than hokum.

However, it developed a passionate and vocal cult following, and many maintain that it and Doctor Who represent the pinnacle of British television. Tuddenham reprised his roles in revivals for radio, and in audio tapes made by fans.

Not that he lacked for work in serious drama, generally playing doctors and authority figures. He was in North and South (1975), after the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, and supported Ian Holm as JM Barrie in The Lost Boys (1978), and Eileen Atkins in The Burston Rebellion (1985), about two Norfolk teachers in 1914 who were dismissed for their leftwing beliefs: their pupils went on strike. Anything More Would Be Greedy (1989), again for Anglia, a six-part critique of the 1980s by Malcolm Bradbury, gave Tuddenham the small but vital role of the returning officer at the local elections.

His lighter guest appearances included Nearest and Dearest, Only Fools and Horses, and One Foot in the Grave. He appeared regularly as the friend of academic dropout Michael Williams in the gentle comedy Double First (1988).

Tuddenham remained a genial character, and was an unfailingly popular guest at sci-fi conventions. Rosie, his second wife, and their son Julian survived him in 2007, together with a son from his first marriage. Another son had predeceased him.

Anne Collings was born on 16 April 1939 in Ipswich, England, UK. She is an actress, known for A Storm in Summer (1970), The Mask (1961) and The Streets of San Francisco (1972). She was previously married to Lawrence Dobkin and Edward J. Fenwick.

Linda Cunningham was born on 28 March 1953 in Ipswich, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Then Churchill Said to Me (1982), Mission: Impossible (1988) and Jason King (1971).

Kerry Jane Ellis is an English actress and singer who is best known for her work in musical theatre and subsequent crossover into music. Born and raised in Suffolk, Ellis began performing at an early age before training at Laine Theatre Arts from the age of 16. She has also worked sporadically in film and television. After meeting Queen guitarist Brian May in 2002, Ellis expanded her repertoire as a solo artist. In addition to her musical work, Ellis involves herself in charity work for the Born Free Foundation with May and is the patron of several arts organizations. In 2019, Ellis received an honorary fellowship from the University of Suffolk.

As a young lad Percy was fascinated by the wild creatures of his native Suffolk and found his ability to imitate them made an interesting "party piece" from the age of 12. His first broadcast experience came in the BBC radio series "Vaudeville" in 1930. He made hundreds of broadcasts until his "official" retirement in 1989. He became a household name after his animal imitations in the radio shows Ray's a Laugh with 'Ted Ray' and Life of Bliss, and in later years was in constant demand by television and film companies. In 'real life' Percy was a distinguished ornithologist although he always described himself as an 'entertainer'. He could accurately imitate over 600 birds as well as making many other animal sounds. he played the whales in 'Orca (1977)', The Reindeer in 'Santa Claus (1985)' and the voice (?) of the Alien in 'Alien (1979)'.

Bryan Grant was born on 19 November 1931 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), Matinee Theatre (1955) and Border Patrol (1959). He was previously married to Ursula Hansen.

Bella Altamura was born on 21 January 2002 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Unplanned (2019), Peter Five Eight (2024) and The Back Pages (2017).

Pippa Cross was born on 13 March 1956 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK. She is a producer, known for The Hole (2001), Ghost World (2001) and August (1996).