Showing posts with label robert powell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robert powell. Show all posts

Tuesday 2 June 2020

TELEVISIONS FIRST MR DARCY : BRIAN COX AND ROBERT POWELL : SIR JOHN MILLS AND CUSHING LAST SHERLOCK ADVENTURE


WAY BEFORE Colin Firth or Matthew Macfadyen got gals and ladies hearts a fluttering with their portrayal of Mr Darcy in Jane Austin's 'Pride and Prejudice' on film, #PeterCushing was gracing homes and living rooms of UK families, on their newly purchased cathode-ray tubed TV set, with every intention of going over the heads of hubby and grandad's ... making his wanted targets faint and call for the smelling salts with two #BBC drama productions!

IN 1952 CUSHING was well on his way to making BBC drama on tv and radio his domain. The chillers of his BBC Orwell's '#1984' and Nigel Kneale's 'The Creature' would have to wait a few weeks... right now he wasn't interested in STAKING hearts, his was really making them throb and pound with affection, passion and much interest! Cushing was television's FIRST Mr Darcy and he followed it just two years later with his portrayal of Beau Brummell... what a heat throb!
 
 
 
OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS we have marked and celebrated.. oh and forgotten to post, TWO great actors BIRTHDAYS! First, actor BRIAN COX, who as most of us know here, starred with Peter Cushing in the Hammer House of Horror TV series episode, SILENT SCREAM in 1980. We said, 'An extremely reputable actor with an outstanding CV and who has never stopped working since he started in the mid 1960's. Some amazing characters in movies and recently the role of Churchill in a very entertaining drama..... Manhunter is a firm favorite with many, with Cox playing Dr. Hannibal Lecktor in 1986 . . . maybe a firm fav with you?' Many of you did! This was a very popular post and several of you mentioned a recent interview were Cox shared his thoughts of working with Peter in 'Silent Scream' and had only very god things to say! So, it was Happy Birthday Brian Cox..


THEN ON JUNE SECOND, I did the unthinkable... thankfully just this once. I with my aged memory, forgot to share a banner i had made just a few days before, for marking actor Robert Powell's birthday! 😖 So with apologies here it is below and was posted with the following text along with a shared memory of my own.. I was surprised I could remember this, even if i couldn't remember what i had prepared just a few days ago! 😐 


“I never cease to say and I repeat it to the world since 1977. I am not Jesus Christ, I am just an actor and British comedian” - Robert Powell.

.. A BELATED #HAPPYBIRTHDAY! to actor #RobertPowell who was born on the 1st June 1944! I missed it! Powell is best known for the title roles in 'Mahler' (1974) and 'Jesus of Nazareth' (1977), and for his portrayal of secret agent in Richard Hannay in 'The Thirty Nine Steps' and its subsequent spin-off television series. For us, we recall his performance in one of the very ace AMICUS films of the 70's 'Asylum' his 'innocent' Dr. Martin! He had some superb scenes with both actors Geoffrey Bayldon and #HerbertLom.
 
 
'A few years ago at a press Q and A for a film Powell was appearing in and the press meet he was also attending, I over heard a stuffy reporter behind me say to his friend, 'I don't know why he always says that about telling people he was only PLAYING Jesus, it's like he thinks he as the only one who has! You never heard Graham Chapman say that!' Where I had to turn around and tell him..'That's because Powell played Jesus Christ... Chapman played Brian!!' ...... - Marcus
 
 
 
'ASYLUM' is one of the many portmanteau films that Amicus did so well. #PeterCushing played the 'suspect' Mr Smith in the 'The Weird Tailor' story along with Barry Morse, written by #RobertBloch and directed by Roy Ward Baker. Without giving any spoilers, Powell had the perfect face and demeanour for the role, where you just couldn't help but want to shout, 'BEHIND YOU!' Listen out for many voice overs from Powell on UK tv advertisements and documentaries, he has a gift for it! Please join us wishing a 'belated' Happy Birthday to #RobertPowell, our birthday wishes / card is not in the post, but right here 😊


BACK IN 1980, plans had announced for Peter Cushing to appear as Sherlock Holmes in a project that would see Holmes being encouraged out of retirement by Watson, for one last case. This project would eventually emerge in 1984 as Tyburn films 'The Masks of Death', a film for UK's TV Channel Four directed by Roy ward Baker. Roy described the film as 'a film made by Holmes enthusiast, for Holmes enthusiasts!' Cushing played an elderly but still spry Sherlock with John Mills as Dr Watson and Anne Baxter as Irene Alder. The production started rolling on July 21st 1984, a full four years after Cushing had signed on the line and after Cushing had been diagnosed and fought off prostate cancer


CUSHING PLAYED SHERLOCK with quite some punch and moxie! He would be around for another ten years.. and some of his best private and public days were yet to come 😊 There was plans for another Cushing Holmes film 'The Abbot's Cry' and another film based on the career of an actor much like Cushing... but PC decided it was time to hang up the deerstalker and all the other hats and give his last bow. In this post at the How do you think he would have worked out in that second and last Sherlock 'The Abbot's Cry' based on his performance in 'Masks of Death'? He was to have appeared in an episode of Jeremy Brett's Granada Holmes series 'The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes: The Last Vampyre' too! Even though he didn't think he could do Abbots Cry, would you have liked to have see him try?


YOU MAY REMEMBER I did a gallery of the amazing artwork of #DarylJoyce back in 2017 HERE and at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE? Well there's more! Here is a selection of some of his latest amazing Hammer film #PeterCushing #Frankenstein work! 


SOME YOU MAY have seen previously, but they have now been fashioned to carry tittles and casts, just like a cinema or press poster! I think 'Created Woman' and 'Destroyed' are my favs. Do you have a fav? Oh many thanks to good friend, Johnny Thunders Martin for suggesting this post and providing the details - Marcus


Sunday 14 January 2018

THE SIR ROBERT STEPHENS APPRECIATION SOCIETY



CONSIDERING THERE ARE SO MANY film, actor fan pages and groups, across facebook and the web, I only belong to a handful, mainly because, just posting a fuzzy photograph or asking you name your top five films, every other day. . .doesn't quite cut it for me personally. I want to see some thought put in and some interesting and engaging material. . . .please...! Rare photographs / memorabilia shared and a true insight to the subject matter of said page / group. I want to feel when I have taken time to visit there, that I have learned something or and had fun.








THE SIR ROBERT STEPHENS APPRECIATION SOCIETY, has only recently been launched, and I am very happy to say, that if what has been shared there already, is anything like we can expect in the future.... Joanna Keani Jones, who creates the posts and admins the group, is doing a fabulous job.


"The Sir Robert Stephens Appreciation Society is a celebration of the life & artistry of this incredibly gifted actor. Sir Robert always gave his best in performance and in the process, created a myriad of incredible character studies in which the viewer could relate to, understand and very often, find sympathy with, regardless of the character's intentions.

Because of Sir Robert's ability to create such emotion-fueled, nuanced portrayals in film, theatre, TV & radio, he garnered many admirers of his work which continues on today, some 20-plus years after his passing. This group has been created to discuss and share information with like-minded enthusiasts of all things Sir Robert." -Joanna Keani Jones  


YOU HAVE TO BE PASSIONATE TO CREATE banners, images and content like Joanna has. Rare theatre programmes, stills, reviews, clippings. It's ALL there and shared in hi res. As I mentioned in our early post, Stephens was a very rare talent indeed. A complicated man, with a complicated life. I can assure you, the content at the 'Sir Robert Stephens Appreciation Society Group', will never be dull, just because Stephens was far from dull, and Joanna shares material that really does show the breath of his career and the diverse roles he played.






I CAN'T PRAISE THIS GROUP enough and I am so happy to see someone doing such a fine job. Don't take my word for it, first watch the excellent promo trailer below and then if you have a facebook account, GO SEE FOR YOURSELF. THEN LIKE and come back and tell us, what you think? .Thank you. - Marcus



REMEMBER! IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA     

Friday 3 August 2012

PETER CUSHING AND BARRY MORSE : A REAL LIFE ESCAPE FROM DEATH IN WAR TIME LONDON




ASYLUM (Amicus 1972) :  Mr Smith (Peter Cushing) lies dead on the floor, next to his son's open casket, while the Taylor (Barry Morse) tries to make an escape for his life. We ALL know what happens next! 


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