The Greatness of British Actors/Actresses.

[LRK]

Alan Rickman! My favourite HP character - Snape.

Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Julie Walters, Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent, David Thewlis, Gary Oldman, Jason Isaacs, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Timothy Spall...

Apropos Timothy Spall, I'm really looking forward to this movie - Mr Turner:

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=41035

He has already received high praise for his role as the painter J M W Turner.

 

[BusyMom]

^Richard Griffiths, John Hurt and Jason Issacs.

 

[skatedreamer]

Alan Rickman! My favourite HP character - Snape.

Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Julie Walters, Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent, David Thewlis, Gary Oldman, Jason Isaacs, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Timothy Spall...

Apropos Timothy Spall, I'm really looking forward to this movie - Mr Turner:

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=41035

He has already received high praise for his role as the painter J M W Turner.

LRK/Busy Mom -- every single one of them!

Just thought of someone else: Zoe Wanamaker, who played Madam Hooch (Quidditch coach) in HP 1. Can't remember whether she was in any of the others.

I love JMW Turner but hadn't heard about the film; thanks!

Rickman was also deliciously evil as the Sheriff of Nottingham in "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" (late 80s-early 90s).

Isaacs as the elder Malfoy was so nasty that I wanted to reach through the screen and smack him.

 

[BusyMom]

^Ian Hart also in HP2 as Prof. Quirrell/Voldemort. One of his movie is The End of The Affair with Ralph Fiennes(Voldemort) and Isaacs.

 

[Alba]

C'MON ENGLAND! You can do it!

 

[Alba]

Sorry, wrong topic.

 

[BusyMom]

Sorry, wrong topic.

Not exactly. Many Britons actors are football mania.

 

[Alba]

Not exactly. Many Britons actors are football mania.

:thumbsup:

 

[Alba]

Any Harry Potter fans out there?

I'm asking because the cast of each HP film is essentially a "Who's Who" of British theater, too many to name them all. For me, some of the most memorable were:

Dumbledore -- Richard Harris, then Michael Gambon. Gambon was good but Harris was simply the quintessential Dumbledore.
Prof McGonagall -- the one and only Maggie Smith.
Hagrid -- Robbie Coltrane. Is there anyone else on earth who could have played the part quite that well?
"Mad Eye" Moody -- Brendan Gleeson. Such crazed eccentricity...

And...Imelda Staunton, whose odiously sanctimonious Dolores Umbridge totally made my skin crawl.

Wonderful as the films were, they wouldn't have been nearly as good if it hadn't been for those extraordinary actors. So glad they all committed to the project and stuck with it through completion of the series!

Not a Harry Potter fan (I'm LoTR fan) but I love all the actors you mentioned.
RIP Richard Harris. I still miss him.

 

[BusyMom]

Not a Harry Potter fan (I'm LoTR fan) but I love all the actors you mentioned.
RIP Richard Harris. I still miss him.

LOTR and Hobbits casts deserved the mention too. Do we have John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) on this yet? He is only one from the Fellowship who didn't get the pack tattoo. http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfi2x1W6Xe1qbx2i7.jpg

 

[skatedreamer]

Not a Harry Potter fan (I'm LoTR fan) but I love all the actors you mentioned.
RIP Richard Harris. I still miss him.

Well, we agree on just about everything else, right? I've never been able to get into LoTR, so I guess we're even.

Richard Harris was extraordinary. Someone else has probably mentioned how wonderful he was in the film version of "Camelot" as King Arthur -- funny, sexy, vulnerable, and completely human.

And Richard Burton's King Arthur in the stage version -- another treasure! I'd follow that voice of his to h*** and back. What's amazing is that he doesn't really sing (he does sort of a singspiel instead), the soul of the music comes across perfectly because he delivers the text so well.

I'm going to start hunting down your creepy cat movie!

 

[Alba]

Well, we agree on just about everything else, right? I've never been able to get into LoTR, so I guess we're even.

:yes:

Richard Harris was extraordinary. Someone else has probably mentioned how wonderful he was in the film version of "Camelot" as King Arthur -- funny, sexy, vulnerable, and completely human.

And Richard Burton's King Arthur in the stage version -- another treasure! I'd follow that voice of his to h*** and back. What's amazing is that he doesn't really sing (he does sort of a singspiel instead), the soul of the music comes across perfectly because he delivers the text so well.

Never seen "Camelot". I have to now. Richard Burton it's another actor to die for.
Burton, Harris and above all the great O'Toole for me were MAGNIFICENT!
I mean I could listen Peter O'Toole, just speaking, all day long. So intelligent, so profound, so funny, so classy.

I'm going to start hunting down your creepy cat movie!

Good luck with that.
It would be fanstastic though. I don't know if this might help you, but another detail came to my mind. The owner of that cat (or the house?) it's a woman, I think.
I'm not sure but I think to remember so.

 

[LRK]

I like Harry Potter - but I adore LOTR.

Richard Harris was great as Cromwell in the movie of the same name.

The next book I'm going to read after the one I'm reading now is "My Cousin Rachel" by Daphne Du Maurier - I've already seen a movie version of it starring Olivia De Havilland and... Richard Burton.

 

[Alba]

The next book I'm going to read after the one I'm reading now is "My Cousin Rachel" by Daphne Du Maurier - I've already seen a movie version of it starring Olivia De Havilland and... Richard Burton.

I love that movie.

 

[skatedreamer]

I like Harry Potter - but I adore LOTR.

Richard Harris was great as Cromwell in the movie of the same name.

The next book I'm going to read after the one I'm reading now is "My Cousin Rachel" by Daphne Du Maurier - I've already seen a movie version of it starring Olivia De Havilland and... Richard Burton.

I love Daphne duMaurier! She's a wonderful writer and storyteller, underrated I think because her subjects are generally romantic. Have you read "Rebecca?" If you haven't, please do. The film version, with Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier, is superb (Oscars in 1940, IIRC). It also features Dame Judith Anderson in one of the scariest performances you'll ever see. Not in-your-face scary, but subtle scary -- which IMO is way worse (as I think Alba will agree ).

There's also a more recent, excellent BBC or ITV adaptation of "Rebecca" with Charles Dance, who has been one of my crushes since I saw him in "The Jewel in the Crown."

 

[LRK]

This will be my first Daphne Du Maurier - and I'm looking forward to it. I've seen Rebecca - great movie. My favourite Hitchcock (of the movies of his I've seen.)

 

[BusyMom]

The combination of Du Maurier and Hitchcock? Nothing beats The Birds. I always avoid large group of birds every where I go.

 

[skatedreamer]

The combination of Du Maurier and Hitchcock? Nothing beats The Birds. I always avoid large group of birds every where I go.

Even just one bird by itself can be pretty dangerous. Once upon a time I got pooped on by a pigeon while standing in a line at Rockefeller Center.

 

[LRK]

I won't be caught dead watching The Birds! I'm faaaaar to wimpy!

 

[BusyMom]

Even just one bird by itself can be pretty dangerous. Once upon a time I got pooped on by a pigeon while standing in a line at Rockefeller Center.

Just once? You're lucky. I lost count a long time ago. Now I have a pigeon's nest behind my aircon compressor. I'm too scare of the bird attack to remove them. Today the female moved down to my balcony to have babies. I think she is too big to flew up to their nest.