Ángel Gonzalez Monteverde nació en Mar del Plata, Argentina en tiempos donde apenas comenzaba la revolución Cubana. Es Arquitecto además de: Videísta; Realizador y asistente escenográfico; Escritor y guionista.

Desde temprana edad lleva consigo una cámara, la pasión por documentar ha sido uno de los pilares en su tarea cotidiana de crear.

Su paso por las galerías de filmación, de la mano de Carlos Sorín y Fabián Bielinsky marcó a fuego en su corazón la pasión por el séptimo arte.

Actualmente está escribiendo un guión cinematográfico junto a Pablo Zoya y terminando detalles de su última novela de próxima aparición.

 

Angel Gonzalez Monteverde was born in Mar Del Plata, Argentina in times where as the Cuban revolution began. He is Architect; video producer ; stage scene assistant; Writer and scriptwriter.

From early age it takes with himself a camera, the passion to document has been one of the pillars in its daily task to create.

Its pass by the shooting studies, of the hand of Carlos Sorín and Fabian Bielinsky it marked fire in its heart the passion by the seventh art.

At the moment a cinematographic script next to Pablo Zoya is writing and finishing details of its last novel of next appearance.

 

www.mireyabaglietto.com/gracias1.htm

www.mireyabaglietto.com

 

Vintage Spanish collector's card. Empresa Cinematografica Barcelona, No. A-12. Scene from the Franco-Spanish production La vida de Cristóbal Colon/ Vida de Cristóbal Colón y su descubrimiento de América/ La vie de Christophe Colomb/ Christophe Colomb/ The Life of Christopher Columbus (Gérard Bourgeois, Argos P.C., Films Cinematographiques 1916), starring Georges Wague (Columbus, Jean Garat (Bartholomew Columbus) and Léontine Massart (Queen Isabella). Script by Charles Jean Drossner. Cinematography by Edouard Renault, Ramón de Baños, and José María Maristany. Caption: Soon after the conquering of Granada, Columbus meets the Catholic Royal Couple. While Ferdinand of Aragon is a practical man and doesn't care about theory nor ideals, Queen Isabella is inclined to help Columbus' visions, feeling her generosity may also offer new stars to her crown. This card shows the actors at the Alhambra in Granada.

 

During the First World War, the Spanish company Argos Films of José Carreras, together with the French company Films Cinématographiques, embarked on what was claimed to be the most expensive film made in Spain until then, costing a million pesetas. While the director, scriptwriter and main actors were French, the crew was mostly Spanish. The film was made in two parts, released in France as La Vie de Christophe Colomb and La Découverte de l'Amérique. In France, the second part of the film was only first released in 1919, while the first already had been shown in 1916. For the full film, see also www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/detail/La%20vida%20de%20Crist%....

 

Sources: Cine-Ressources, IMDb, Europeana.

It all started in 1994. TV scriptwriter Stefan Struik had an interview with a meditating hermit in Baarn (NL) who was complaining about gnomes who disturbed the power network in his house. A month later he ran into trolls in a Norwegian clothing store in the Dutch-Frisian village Dokkum. A year before he got surprised by the amount of one meter high garden gnomes just across the border between Germany and Poland. It all seemed to point into a new direction he would hit a few months later. In December 1994 he opened with his sister a small game and bookstore in Delft (NL), named Elf Fantasy Shop. The games were a golden opportunity. Three years later the duo could open an second store in The Hague.

 

In 1995 Stefan also started a new adventure with a free magazine called Elf Fantasy Magazine. In 2001 the magazine became professionalized and despite it never realised any profits it existed until 2009.

 

Stefan and his sister already organised lectures in the Elf Fantasy Shops about druidism, Tolkien and other fantasy related subjects. In 2001 Stefan decided to combine a few things into a totally new and unique festival concept that later would be copied many times: the Elf Fantasy fair. Starting in the historical theme parc Archeon (NL) it moved the year after to the largest castle in the Netherlands: castle de Haar. With the exception of 2004 (castle Keukenhof, Lisse) it remained in castle de Haar, Haarzuilens since then. In 2009 a second version of the Elf Fantasy Fair started 400 meters from the border with Germany in the small village Arcen in Northern Limburg. In January 2013 the name Elf Fantasy Fair™ was replaced by the name Elfia™. The spring edition of Elfia is also called the 'Light Edition', while the autumn edition is characterized as the 'dark edition'.

 

Something is about to change when a foreigner, constantly irritating his neighbour with bouzouki playing, loses his most precious possession

 

Under the Same Roof – monoco.eu/en/underthesameroof

 

Starring: Nikola Dodov, Panagiotis Chronis, Iva Todorova, Alexander Goncharov, Emelyne Bukeyeneza, Kiril Milkov, Emona Tsoncheva

Director & Producer: Simeon Tsonchev

Scriptwriter: Christos Zacharakis

Cinematographer: Dimitar Nedelchev

Production Designer: Vanina Geleva

Sound Designer: Boris Trayanov

Music: Apostolos Chatzichristos, Kostas Skarvelis, Markos Vamvakaris, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Co-producers: Konstantin Popov, Eduard Moskalenko, Boris Trayanov, Krastyo Lambev, Grigor Grigorov

Executive producer: Valentin Marinov Pelo

Production: Mono Collective

Supported by: Bulgarian National Film Centre

[Taken in Paris (France) - 07Apr10]

 

The Forum des Images organizes the first season of the "Series Mania" festival, showing a selection of around 80 episodes of 33 different tv-shows from around the world.

Conferences, debats, and presentations with and from writers, creators, and specialists take place during the entire week. Two entire seasons (True Blood season 2, and Mad Men season 2) are shown during two 12 hours screening marathons.

 

See all the photos of this festival in this set : 06-11Apr10 - Séries Mania Saison 01 [Event]

See all the iPhone Hipstamatic app photos in this set : [iPhone - Hipstamatic]

See all the random portraits in this set : Portraits [Random]

Chef Simon Hulstone from Devon, artist and designer Pascal Anson from Brighton, and scriptwriter Prasanna Puwanarajah from London have been announced as the winners of the BA Great Britons Programme. They were selected as the ‘best in British’ in the categories of Food, Art and Film and will work with the airline and mentors Heston Blumenthal, Tracey Emin and Richard E Grant, in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

 

More information: press.ba.com/?p=1887

North-Macedonian poster cardAstérix & Obélix contre César / Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar (Claude Zidi, 1999) with Christian Clavier, Gérard Depardieux and Roberto Benigni.

 

French comic book hero Astérix by Alberto Uderzo and René Goscinny has become a major film franchise, both in animated and live-action form. Most notable is the feature Astérix & Obélix contre César/Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar (Claude Zidi, 1999), starring Christian Clavier, Gerard Depardieu, and Roberto Benigni. At the time of its release, the film was the most expensive production in French cinema of all time. It was a box-office success and would be followed by several sequels.

 

In 1927, the French comic book artist and scriptwriter Albert Uderzo was born in the town of Fismes, in the Marne department of north-eastern France. In the 1930s, Albert developed a fascination for American comic and animated cartoons and was particularly impressed with the works of Walt Disney. He was a poor student at school but received good grades in sketching and art-related lessons. By the 1950s, Albert had become a professional artist, and he met his partner René Goscinny in 1951. During the 1950s, Uderzo provided the artwork for moderately successful series such as the historical fiction series 'Oumpah-pah' and 'Jehan Pistolet' (both written by Goscinny) and the aviation comic series 'Tanguy et Laverdure' (written by Jean-Michel Charlier). Asterix debuted in October 1959 in the French magazine Pilote, created by René Goscinny and Uderzo. In 1961, the first stand-alone effort, 'Astérix le Gaulois' (Asterix the Gaul), was released. It was turned into an animation film, Astérix le Gaulois/Asterix the Gaul (Ray Goossens, 1965). The comic book series centres around the titular Asterix, the bravest warrior in a small town in the middle of Roman-occupied Gaul in the year 50 B.C. — and the one burg that has not surrendered to the occupation. Instead, with the help of a magic potion that gives him super-strength (and his best friend Obélix, who fell into a cauldron of the potion as a child, and as such is permanently superhumanly strong), he spends each instalment fighting and defeating the Roman army and keeping his village safe from harm. Asterix became one of the most successful European comic book series. There were many film adaptations, including the animation films Astérix et Cléopâtre/Asterix & Cleopatra (René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo, 1968), and Les 12 travaux d'Astérix/The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (René Goscinny, Henri Gruel, Albert Uderzo, Pierre Watrin, 1976). After the success of Astérix & Obélix contre César/Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar (Claude Zidi, 1999) with Christian Clavier as Asterix and Gérard Dépardieu as Obélix, followed more live-action adaptations including Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre/Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (Alain Chabat, 2002) with Monica Bellucci as Cleopatra, and Astérix aux jeux olympiques/Asterix at the Olympic Games (Frédéric Forestier, Thomas Langmann, 2008) with Alain Delon as Julius Caesar. Astérix & Obélix contre César/Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar combines plots of several Asterix stories, mostly Asterix the Gaul (Getafix's abduction), Asterix and the Soothsayer, Asterix and the Goths (the Druid conference), Asterix the Legionary (Obelix becoming smitten with Panacea) and Asterix the Gladiator (the characters fighting in the circus) but jokes and references from many other albums abound, including a humorous exchange between Caesar and Brutus taken from Asterix and Cleopatra, and the villain Lucius Detritus is based on Tullius Detritus, the main antagonist of Asterix and the Roman Agent (known as Tortuous Convolvulus in the English translation of the comic). "Asterix and Obelix Take on Caesar is not a masterpiece in any shape or form and has its problems but it is not an awful movie", Bethany Cox writes on IMDb: "In the French version there are enough deft touches in the script to amuse I think. The pacing is good, while the acting is fine. Christian Clavier and Gerard Depardieu are well cast in the title roles, while Roberto Benigni sinks his teeth into his role as the scheming centurion. In conclusion, nothing fantastic, but it isn't that bad."

 

The Asterix series has gone on to sell more than 400 million copies, translated into more than 100 languages internationally. It makes the series the best-selling European comic book series, and the second best-selling comic book series in history after 'One Piece'. René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo collaborated on the comic until the death of Goscinny in 1977. Uderzo then took over the writing until 2009. Since 1951, Uderzo was married to Ada Milani, with whom he had a daughter Sylvie Uderzo. He sold his shares of the company Editions Albert René (which owns the rights to Astérix) to the publishing company Hachette in 2007. He had a public falling out with daughter Sylvie who also owned shares of the original company and disagreed with her father's decision. After a few years of mostly working on short stories and comic strips, Uderzo announced his retirement in 2011. Since Uderzo's retirement, the work on Asterix has been handled by writer Jean-Yves Ferri and artist Didier Conrad under a deal that allows Lagardere-owned publisher Hachette to continue producing the series. The most recent book is 'L'Iris blanc' (Asterix and the White Iris), published in 2023. It is the first to be written by Fabcaro, and the sixth to be illustrated by Didier Conrad. Parc Astérix, a French theme park based on the property, has brought in 50 million visitors since opening outside Paris in 1989.

 

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard, London, no. FS 200. Photo: Pommer-Laughton 'Mayflower' production. Publicity still for Jamaica Inn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1939).

 

Last Saturday, Irish born Maureen O’Hara, one of the icons of Hollywood’s Golden Age, has died. The feisty and fearless actress starred in John Ford’s Oscar-winning drama How Green Was My Valley (1941), set in Wales, and Ford’s Irish-set The Quiet Man (1952) opposite John Wayne. The famously red-headed actress also worked successfully with Charles Laughton at Jamaica Inn (1939) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), starred in the perennial Christmas hit Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and appeared in the Disney children’s hit The Parent Trap (1961). O'Hara was 95.

 

Maureen O’Hara was born Maureen FitzSimons in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh in 1920. Her mother, Marguerita Lilburn FitzSimons, was an accomplished contralto. Her father, Charles FitzSimons, managed a business in Dublin and also owned part of the renowned Irish soccer team The Shamrock Rovers. From the age of 6 to 17, Maureen trained in drama, music, and dance, and at the age of 10, she joined the Rathmines Theatre Company and worked in amateur theatre in the evenings after her lessons. O'Hara's dream at this time was to be a stage actress. By age 14 she was accepted to the prestigious Abbey Theater and pursued her dream of classical theater and operatic singing. Her first screen test was for a British film called Kicking the Moon Around (Walter Forde, 1938) at Elstree Studios, It was arranged by American bandleader Harry Richman, who was then appearing in Dublin. The result was deemed unsatisfactory, but when Charles Laughton later saw it he was intrigued by her large and expressive eyes. He arranged for her to co-star with him in the British film Jamaica Inn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1939). Laughton was so pleased with O'Hara's performance that she was cast in the role of Esmeralda opposite him in the Hollywood production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (William Dieterle, 1939). The epic film was an extraordinary success and international audiences were now alerted to her natural beauty and talent. From there, she went on to enjoy a long and highly successful career in Hollywood. Director John Ford cast her as Angharad in How Green Was My Valley (1941), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. She starred in Swashbucklers such as The Black Swan (Henry King, 1942), opposite Tyrone Power, and Sinbad the Sailor (Richard Wallace, 1947), with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., She also starred as Doris Walker and the mother of a young Natalie Wood in Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton, 1947), which became a perennial Christmas classic.

 

Maureen O'Hara made a number of films with John Wayne. She met Wayne through director John Ford, and the two hit it right off. O'Hara: "I adored him, and he loved me. But we were never sweethearts. Never, ever.” Opposite Wayne, she played Mary Kate Danaher in The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952), an iconic film that is still very much celebrated in Ireland and abroad. In total, they made five films together between 1948 and 1972, also including Rio Grande (John Ford, 1950), The Wings of Eagles (John Ford, 1957), McLintock! (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1963) and Big Jake (George Sherman, 1971). O’Hara most often played strong and willful women, but offscreen she was the same. In 1957 her career was threatened by scandal when the tabloid Confidential magazine claimed she and a man had engaged in 'the hottest show in town' in the back row of Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. However, as she later told the Associated Press, at the time she “was making a movie in Spain, and I had the passport to prove it”. She testified against the magazine in a criminal libel trial and brought a lawsuit that was settled out of court. The magazine eventually went out of business.

 

Maureen O'Hara was married three times. In 1939, at the age of 19, O'Hara secretly married Englishman George H. Brown, a film producer, production assistant, and occasional scriptwriter, who she had met on the set of Jamaica Inn. The marriage was annulled in 1941. Later that year, O'Hara married American film director William Houston Price (dialogue director in The Hunchback of Notre Dame), but the union ended in 1953, reportedly as a result of his alcohol abuse. They had one child, a daughter named Bronwyn FitzSimons Price (1944). In later life, Maureen O’Hara married her third husband, Brigadier General Charles Blair. The couple lived in the US Virgin Islands, where he operated an airline. He died in a plane crash in 1978 and O’Hara took over management of the airline, which she eventually sold. “Being married to Charlie Blair and traveling all over the world with him, believe me, was enough for any woman,” she said in 1995. “It was the best time of my life.” O'Hara remained retired from acting until 1991, when she starred in the film Only the Lonely (Chris Columbus, 1991), playing Rose Muldoon, the domineering mother of a Chicago cop played by John Candy. In the following years, she continued to work, starring in several made-for-TV films. Her autobiography, 'Tis Herself, was published in 2004 and was a New York Times Bestseller. She was never nominated for an Oscar, instead of being given an honorary award in 2014. After accepting her statuette from a wheelchair, the then 94-year-old star protested when her speech of thanks was cut short. Maureen O'Hara died in her sleep at home in Boise, Idaho. She was 95 years old.

 

Sources: The Guardian, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief. Comic Relief is one of the two high profile telethon events held in the United Kingdom, the other being Children in Need, held annually in November.

 

It’s been 25 years since Red Nose Day first burst onto our screens and this year, once again, the nation is gearing up to put on their Noses, pull out all the stops, and get fundraising.

 

Whether it’s at work, at school or at home, the money raised is used to transform the lives of countless people, both here at home in the UK and across Africa.

Uzbekistan

Amber Fort is a short bus ride out from the historic center of Jaipur, and is well worth the journey. Unfortunately, these photos were all taken as the light was starting to fade, but hopefully you get some sense of the spectacular scale and great sequence of spaces along the length of this huge complex. And that's not even considering the emergency backup fort, Jaigarh, visible uphill in the background; it was too late in the day to attempt a visit there. I can only assume it's worth it, even just for the view back down to Amber Fort.

 

But the absolute, number one reason to visit this place is (wait for it) the preposterous audio guide. While it eschews the madcap, left-field uselessness and character of the genre's apex, it has such a wonderfully stupid conceit that it's become one of my standard Tales of India for my archi-friends.

 

Essentially, the idea is this: the narrators (I recall there being two, for some reason) will regale you with some long-winded anecdote about the feature of the building you're currently observing. Then, just as you're about to hit "stop" and walk on to the next thing, they'll pull the Reading Rainbow card: "But you don't have to take my word for it! Let's ask the building itself what it's like to be an entry pavilion!"

 

What?

 

"Oh, Gate, tell us what it was like in the days of the first maharajas of Jaipur!" "Oh...ho...hoooo! Truly these were wonderful times in which to be a gate! Each day I had many people coming and going through me, bringing gifts and news to the mighty maharaja. (pause, change to a sadder tone) Then for so many years, it was silent in the fort, and it was a lonely time to be a gate. (The voice brightens.) However, thanks to the great generosity of the current maharani of Jaipur, the fort is restored and open to the public and once again I get to welcome people from all over the world!"

 

And so on. By itself, this would be a kooky, basically harmless redundancy. However, presumably to add some more back-and-forth liveliness, the scriptwriters introduce an unfortunate plot twist: often, the narrators are wrong about the fort, and have to be corrected by the mighty rumble of the building's voice. "Tell us, Courtyard, how many elephant jousts were there in this place?" "Ha ha ha! Oh, Abhijit, what miserable so-and-so told you such a lie? I am far too small of a courtyard to host an elephant joust, and anyway, what sense would it make to bring elephants all the way up here where no-one could see them, rather than hosting the battles in the center of town! Such a joker!"

 

I appreciate the myth-busting approach, but God help you if you just cut this silliness off before the "building interview" segment comes in to disabuse you of the popular wisdom. It's a really strange choice, and anyway it just makes the audio tour take way too long. Granted, I'm a relatively impatient and fidgety tourist, and could stand to slow down a little more. But with a guide like this, you're more inclined to turn it off entirely and just start sprinting around in order to catch what's left of the sunlight and the opening hours, having wasted half your time on the great elephant courtyard debate.

 

The opposite temptation, of course, is to stay and listen in hopes of catching an even goofier exchange, but such pleasures are ephemeral and it is a very big fort. But perhaps I'm wrong about this. Let's ask the Internet itself for comments on whether this is a good idea!

French postcard. Cinématographes Méric. Publicity still for the French romantic and adventurous road movie through France: La course à l'amour (Charles Keppens/ Paul Barlatier, 1924), starring Gina Relly, Edouard Mathé and Mario Guaita - Ausonia.

 

Athletic muscleman Mario Guaita aka Ausonia (1881-1956) was an Italian actor, director, producer and scriptwriter in the silent era. He had his international breakthrough with Spartaco (Enrico Vidali 1913) and became a major actor in the Italian forzuto genre. In the early 1920s he moved to Marseille, made a few films there and ran a cinema. Gina Relly (1891-1985) was an actress of the French silent cinema, who starred in L'empereur des pauvres (René Leprince, 1921), with Léon Mathot. Édouard Mathé (1886-1934) was an extremely popular French actor, in particular in the silent crime serials by Louis Feuillade.

It all started in 1994. TV scriptwriter Stefan Struik had an interview with a meditating hermit in Baarn (NL) who was complaining about gnomes who disturbed the power network in his house. A month later he ran into trolls in a Norwegian clothing store in the Dutch-Frisian village Dokkum. A year before he got surprised by the amount of one meter high garden gnomes just across the border between Germany and Poland. It all seemed to point into a new direction he would hit a few months later. In December 1994 he opened with his sister a small game and bookstore in Delft (NL), named Elf Fantasy Shop. The games were a golden opportunity. Three years later the duo could open an second store in The Hague.

 

In 1995 Stefan also started a new adventure with a free magazine called Elf Fantasy Magazine. In 2001 the magazine became professionalized and despite it never realised any profits it existed until 2009.

 

Stefan and his sister already organised lectures in the Elf Fantasy Shops about druidism, Tolkien and other fantasy related subjects. In 2001 Stefan decided to combine a few things into a totally new and unique festival concept that later would be copied many times: the Elf Fantasy fair. Starting in the historical theme parc Archeon (NL) it moved the year after to the largest castle in the Netherlands: castle de Haar. With the exception of 2004 (castle Keukenhof, Lisse) it remained in castle de Haar, Haarzuilens since then. In 2009 a second version of the Elf Fantasy Fair started 400 meters from the border with Germany in the small village Arcen in Northern Limburg. In January 2013 the name Elf Fantasy Fair™ was replaced by the name Elfia™. The spring edition of Elfia is also called the 'Light Edition', while the autumn edition is characterized as the 'dark edition'.

 

In the 3rd part of Golem & The Mechanical Man of the Future focused on Golem and Czech animation.

 

The old school and the new school of Czech animation is represented in this photo.

 

In the back you can see stills from the Golem animation created by Old Prague Legends, that will be screened at EXPO 2015 in Milan, and in the front, film screenwriter and writer, Prof. MgA. Edgar Dutka, who is the script-writer of Jiri Barta's Golem animation.

 

Dutka finished FAMU in Prague (Department of Screenwriting and Dramaturgy) in 1971 and spent next 17 years in animation studios (Jiri Trnka and Brothers in Trick) as a dramaturg, screenwriter and director.

 

He realised as a writer or co-writer 44 animated films. His films got many awards on International Film Festivals as End of the Cube Prix of jury in Cannes (1980) and nomination of the British Academy Award, The Club of Disposed (1989) in Bilbao or The incredible Dream for UNO etc.

 

He had cooperated as a writer with many directors-animators and specially with his colleque and friend Jiri Barta to these days.

 

From 1992 he went back to FAMU as a teacher, and as a professor of History of animation he wrote two textbooks - The Animated Film and Minimum from the history of the Czech animation and Minimum from the history of the World animation.

Dutch postcard by Art Unlimited, Amsterdam, no. B 1198. Photo: Erwin Olaf, 1987. Caption: Theo & Thea 'Fashion'.

 

Arjan Ederveen (1956) is a Dutch actor, comedian, TV scriptwriter and TV director. He participated in the classical satirical Dutch TV series Theo en Thea / Theo and Thea (1985-1989), Kreatief met Kurk / Creative with Cork (1993-1994) and 30 minuten / 30 Minutes (1995-1997). He also played in the stage musicals 'Hairspray' and 'Lang en Gelukkig' (Happily Ever After) and appeared in several films.

 

Arjan Ederveen Janssen was born in 1956 in Hilversum, The Netherlands. His mother, Greetje van Schaik, was an actress, who appeared in the popular radio show De bonte dinsdagavondtrein. He had two brothers, who both died young, respectively of AIDS and a rare blood disease. Ederveen did his high school education at Comenius College in Hilversum. During a school project, he made his first film, Appel aan de Stok: De Musical (1971). With this film, he won a local film competition. Ederveen studied at the Academie voor Kleinkunst in Amsterdam where he met fellow student Kees Prins. After graduating, they started their career together as The Duos. Between 1981 and 1984, they created four theatre performances and the television programme De Duo's doen alsof / The Duos are pretending. Ederveen made his screen debut in the German Werktheater production Waldeslust / Bosch en Lucht (Friedrich Schaller, 1981) with Joop Admiraal and Kees Prins. He also appeared in two Dutch films, the Virginia Woolf adaptation Golven / Waves (Annette Apon, 1981) and another Werktheater production, Een zwoele zomeravond / A Hot Summer Night (Frans Weisz, Shireen Strooker, 1982) with Gerard Thoolen. He also played a bellboy in the American comedy Still Smokin' (Tommy Chong, 1983) in which Cheech and Chong fly to the marijuana capital of the world, Amsterdam. Together with Tosca Niterink, Ederveen formed a new TV duo Theo & Thea (Robert Wiering, Pieter Kramer, 1985-1989). The characters became hugely famous in The Netherlands and a whole generation remembers the duo with the big front teeth. Although Theo & Thea was a children's programme, it became popular among students. Incidentally, the series was not always popular with parents. The programme was criticised for its adult themes, such as drugs, sexual harassment and prostitution. Theo and Thea returned in the film Theo en Thea en de Ontmaskering van het Tenenkaasimperium / Theo and Thea and the Unmasking of the Toe Cheese Empire (Pieter Kramer, 1989) with Adèle Bloemendaal and Marco Bakker. Other features in which Ederveen appeared were Everybody Wants to Help Ernest (Alejandro Agresti, 1991) and Filmpje! (Paul Ruven, 1995) starring Paul de Leeuw. In the 1990s Ederveen made the mockumentary TV series Kreatief met Kurk / Creative with Cork (Pieter Kramer, 1993-1994), 30 minuten / 30 Minutes (Pieter Kramer, 1995-1997) and Borreltijd / Schnaps Time (Pieter Kramer, 1996), in which he also played recurring roles. All his shows were critically praised. Especially 30 minuten, a stylistic satire of documentaries and reality television, earned Ederveen and director Pieter Kramer several awards, including the Zilveren Nipkowschijf (Silver Nipkow Disk) and a Gouden Kalf (Golden Calf). The title refers to its half-hour length and was inspired by the BBC documentary series Sixty Minutes. The series is filmed in a mockumentary style with tragicomic undertones.

 

In 2001, Arjan Ederveen starred in a spin-off of 30 minuten, 25 minuten / 25 Minutes (Pieter Kramer, 2001), which was more absurd in its mockumentary style. In 2004, he wrote and acted in the VPRO television series De Troubabroers (Pieter Kramer, 2004), together with Alex Klaasen. The following year, he made the garden show Wroeten / Rooting (Lernert Engelberts, 2005). Ederveen also participated in several children's films, including as the choreographer in the musical Ja zuster, nee zuster / Yes Nurse! No Nurse! (Pieter Kramer, 2002) starring Loes Luca, chemist Geelman in Pietje Bell / Peter Bell (Maria Peters, 2002), Mr. Pen and his brother, a hermit, in Pluk van de Petteflet / Puffin's Pluck (Ben Sombogaart, Pieter van Rijn, 2004) and Professor Lupardi in Kapitein Rob en het Geheim van Professor Lupardi / Captain Rob and the secret of Professor Lupardi (Hans Pos, 2007) with Thijs Römer en Katja Schuurman. In 2010 he was a recurring panel member in the game show Wie van de drie? / To Tell the Truth. Besides his television and film work, Ederveen was also active as a stage actor. He performed the role of Cinderella's stepmother in the Ro Theater's show 'Lang en Gelukkig', which was also filmed as Lang & Gelukkig / Happily Ever After (Pieter Kramer, 2010). He played Fabio, the right-hand man of the Greek goddess Hera, in 'Hera, de goddelijke musical' (Hera, the Divine Musical) (2008-2009). In 2009, he starred with Jack Wouterse at the Ro Theatre in the play 'Tocht' (Journey), an Easter play he wrote himself. In the 2009/2010 season, he performed the role of Edna Turnblad in the musical 'Hairspray'. In the 2010/2011 season, he wrote and starred in the Ro Theatre's play 'Moord in de Kerststal' (Murder in the Nativity Scene). In 2018, he played the role of Pontius Pilate in The Passion (David Grifhorst, 2018). As a voice actor, Ederveen provided the voice of Rex in the Dutch version of Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) and the sequels. He also dubbed Gonzo in The Muppets (James Bobin, 2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (James Bobin, 2014) as well as Vlad in Hotel Transylvania 2 (Genndy Tartakovsky, 2015) and Hotel Transylvania 3 (Genndy Tartakovsky, 2018). Ederveen played Doctor Feelgood in My Foolish Heart (Rolf van Eijk, 2018) about the mysterious demise of jazz icon Chet Baker and he was James in the comedy Bon Bini: Judeska in da House (Jonathan Herman, 2020) starring Jandino Asporaat. Last year, Arjan Ederveen appeared in the television show The Masked Singer. He also played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in Scrooge Live (David Grifhorst, 2024). This year, he appeared in the American film Jimpa (Sophie Hyde, 2025) starring John Lithgow and Olivia Coleman. The film is a celebration of LGBTQI+ culture. Arjan Ederveen is openly gay and has an American husband, Howie.

 

Sources: Theater.nl (Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

It all started in 1994. TV scriptwriter Stefan Struik had an interview with a meditating hermit in Baarn (NL) who was complaining about gnomes who disturbed the power network in his house. A month later he ran into trolls in a Norwegian clothing store in the Dutch-Frisian village Dokkum. A year before he got surprised by the amount of one meter high garden gnomes just across the border between Germany and Poland. It all seemed to point into a new direction he would hit a few months later. In December 1994 he opened with his sister a small game and bookstore in Delft (NL), named Elf Fantasy Shop. The games were a golden opportunity. Three years later the duo could open an second store in The Hague.

 

In 1995 Stefan also started a new adventure with a free magazine called Elf Fantasy Magazine. In 2001 the magazine became professionalized and despite it never realised any profits it existed until 2009.

 

Stefan and his sister already organised lectures in the Elf Fantasy Shops about druidism, Tolkien and other fantasy related subjects. In 2001 Stefan decided to combine a few things into a totally new and unique festival concept that later would be copied many times: the Elf Fantasy fair. Starting in the historical theme parc Archeon (NL) it moved the year after to the largest castle in the Netherlands: castle de Haar. With the exception of 2004 (castle Keukenhof, Lisse) it remained in castle de Haar, Haarzuilens since then. In 2009 a second version of the Elf Fantasy Fair started 400 meters from the border with Germany in the small village Arcen in Northern Limburg. In January 2013 the name Elf Fantasy Fair™ was replaced by the name Elfia™. The spring edition of Elfia is also called the 'Light Edition', while the autumn edition is characterized as the 'dark edition'.

 

British postcard by Karizzma Enterprises in the series Coronation Street Hall of Fame, ref K K6. Photo: Granada Promotions, 1986.

 

Coronation Street (1960-) is the world's longest-running TV soap with more than 8,000 episodes. The British series focuses on the everyday lives of working class people in Greater Manchester, England. 'Corrie' is now a significant part of British culture and has been one of the most financially lucrative programmes on commercial television in the U.K., underpinning the success of Granada Television and ITV.

 

The programme centres on Coronation Street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on Salford, its terraced houses, corner shop, newsagents, textile factory and The Rovers Return pub. The fictional street was built in the early 1900s and named in honour of the coronation of King Edward VII. At the centre of many early stories, there was Ena Sharples (Violet Carson), caretaker of the Glad Tidings Mission Hall, and her friends: timid Minnie Caldwell (Margot Bryant), and bespectacled Martha Longhurst (Lynne Carol). The trio were likened to the Greek chorus, and the three witches in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, as they would sit in the snug bar of the Rovers Return, passing judgement over family, neighbours and frequently each other. Other central characters during the 1960s were Elsie Tanner played by Patricia Phoenix and Annie Walker played by Doris Speed. y remained with the show for 20 years and like Ena Sharples became archetypes of British soap opera.

 

Coronation Street was devised in 1960 by scriptwriter Tony Warren at Granada Television in Manchester. Warren's initial kitchen sink drama proposal was rejected by the station's founder Sidney Bernstein, but he was persuaded by producer Harry Elton to produce the programme for thirteen pilot episodes. The first episode was aired on 9 December 1960. Between 9 December 1960 and 3 March 1961, Coronation Street was broadcast twice weekly, on Wednesday and Friday. In March 1961, Coronation Street reached No.1 in the television ratings and remained there for the rest of the year. 15 million viewers tuned into Corrie at the end of 1961, and by 1964 the programme had over 20 million regular viewers. Coronation Street's creator, Tony Warren continued to write for the programme intermittently until 1976.

 

Coronation Streetis made by Granada Television at MediaCity near Manchester and shown in all ITV regions, as well as internationally. On 17 September 2010, it became the world's longest-running TV soap opera in production. Coronation Street is noted for its depiction of a down-to-earth working class community combined with light-hearted humour, and strong characters. After appearing in 288 episodes, Violet Carson and her character Ena Sharples left the series in 1980. William Roache, who plays Kenneth Barlow, is the only remaining member of the original cast,Coronation Street. This currently makes him the longest-serving actor in Coronation Street , as well as in British and global soap history. Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire) has remained in the series since first appearing in early 1961, when the show was just weeks old. Helen Worth as Gail Platt, who appears since 1974 in the series, has played in the most episodes: 1.780, according to IMDb. Today, the programme still rates as one of the most watched programmes on UK television for every day it is aired. Coronation Street is also shown in various countries worldwide. In Australia it was in 1966 more popular than in the UK. Other countries which aired - or still air - Coronation Street are Canada, Ireland, United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands, where it was broadcasted by the Vara between 1967 and 1974. I dearly remember watching the series as a kid with the whole family.

 

Sources: Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.

How does it feel to be portraying legendary Hollywood Icon Marilyn Monroe when it's raining on Hollywood Blvd and ruining your makeup, your expensive Marilyn wig and strapless, low-cut dress and high heels ? How do you keep your poise and flash that gorgeous smile with a runny nose and cold toes, all for a Dollar tip, day after day ? You just do it, like Melissa J. Weiss the Indie Scriptwriter, Actress, Producer, Director, Dancer and Choreographer among other things, does.

 

Check out her YouTube page : www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuqpeXw0MNc

 

My Blog about this encounter :

virtualpoona.blogspot.com/2009/12/celluloid-heroes-revisi...

He also lived in Walthamstow(See comment below)

Famous for writing Goodbye Mr Chips and Lost Horizon in this house. James Hilton was born in Leigh, Lancs and died in California. Hilton brought us the utopian concept of Shangri-La, a fictional place in Lost Horizon ; allso a popular name for a house (not this one)

The plaque resides on a pleasant and very early George V house

It all started in 1994. TV scriptwriter Stefan Struik had an interview with a meditating hermit in Baarn (NL) who was complaining about gnomes who disturbed the power network in his house. A month later he ran into trolls in a Norwegian clothing store in the Dutch-Frisian village Dokkum. A year before he got surprised by the amount of one meter high garden gnomes just across the border between Germany and Poland. It all seemed to point into a new direction he would hit a few months later. In December 1994 he opened with his sister a small game and bookstore in Delft (NL), named Elf Fantasy Shop. The games were a golden opportunity. Three years later the duo could open an second store in The Hague.

 

In 1995 Stefan also started a new adventure with a free magazine called Elf Fantasy Magazine. In 2001 the magazine became professionalized and despite it never realised any profits it existed until 2009.

 

Stefan and his sister already organised lectures in the Elf Fantasy Shops about druidism, Tolkien and other fantasy related subjects. In 2001 Stefan decided to combine a few things into a totally new and unique festival concept that later would be copied many times: the Elf Fantasy fair. Starting in the historical theme parc Archeon (NL) it moved the year after to the largest castle in the Netherlands: castle de Haar. With the exception of 2004 (castle Keukenhof, Lisse) it remained in castle de Haar, Haarzuilens since then. In 2009 a second version of the Elf Fantasy Fair started 400 meters from the border with Germany in the small village Arcen in Northern Limburg. In January 2013 the name Elf Fantasy Fair™ was replaced by the name Elfia™. The spring edition of Elfia is also called the 'Light Edition', while the autumn edition is characterized as the 'dark edition'.

 

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

Tanglefoot is Mickey Mouse's horse, who was first seen in the "Mickey Mouse and his Horse Tanglefoot" storyline in the Mickey Mouse daily comic strip, which ran from June 12 to October 7, 1933.

 

Shortly after Mickey Mouse's adventure as a Mail Pilot when he helped the government's secret service find and save missing pilots and their plane, and to bring the criminals Sylvester Shyster and Pete to justice, he was awarded $5000 (which was a great deal of money in 1933). Mickey then took the money and his girlfriend, Minnie Mouse, to the local carnival. While there, Mickey and Minnie discussed how they were going to invest the reward money. Mickey decided it would be a great source of revenue to invest in a champion racehorse. Two unnamed crooked gamblers overheard the conversation, bought a rickety old nag named Tanglefoot from the "glue factory" and then convinced Mickey he was a thoroughbred racehorse. Gullible Mickey paid the asking price of $5000 to the crooks and soon Mickey entered Tanglefoot in a race where the judges gave him 1000 to 1 odds of winning. True to his name, the shabby old nag stumbled all over himself and lost the race. Mickey, still not realizing Tanglefoot was no longer a fit horse, proceeded to train and believe in his new friend. Once more, Mickey entered Tanglefoot into a horse race, and once more the steed became entangled in his own reigns. However, Tanglefoot, strengthened by Mickey's care and belief in him, got up on his unencumbered hind legs and ran the rest of the race as a biped. He soon passed all of the other horses and emerged as the qualified winner. Tanglefoot was used in a few more of Gottfredson's tales but, other than appearing in some merchandise, Tanglefoot hasn't been seen in USA comics for decades. He may have been used by writers in some foreign Mickey mouse comics, however.

 

Carl Barks, when he was working as a scriptwriter and storyboarder at the Disney studio, worked on a Mickey Mouse cartoon which was to feature Tanglefoot — it would have had Mickey as a riding policeman chasing Pete on horseback through the wilderness, with Mickey as the hero and Tanglefoot as the comedy relief. However, the cartoon never went beyond the storyboarding stage. Tanglefoot was notably also featured on the poster for Mickey's Polo Team (despite that he didn't appear in it), but he remains a comics-only character to this day.

 

Here, hundreds of researchers, businesses and progressive home- owners will be living and working side-by-side, along with great food, drink and entertainment venues. A collection of stunning public spaces for everyone, of all ages, to use.

Everyone here is united by one purpose: to help families, communities and cities around the world to live healthier, longer, smarter and easier lives. In short, to live better. In the process, our businesses will continue to grow, employ more local people and help ensure Newcastle excels.

 

Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a member of the Russell Group, an association of research-intensive UK universities.

 

The university finds its roots in the School of Medicine and Surgery (later the College of Medicine), established in 1834, and the College of Physical Science (later renamed Armstrong College), founded in 1871. These two colleges came to form the larger division of the federal University of Durham, with the Durham Colleges forming the other. The Newcastle colleges merged to form King's College in 1937. In 1963, following an Act of Parliament, King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

The university subdivides into three faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The university offers around 175 full-time undergraduate degree programmes in a wide range of subject areas spanning arts, sciences, engineering and medicine, together with approximately 340 postgraduate taught and research programmes across a range of disciplines.[6] The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £592.4 million of which £119.3 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £558 million.

 

History

Durham University § Colleges in Newcastle

The establishment of a university in Newcastle upon Tyne was first proposed in 1831 by Thomas Greenhow in a lecture to the Literary and Philosophical Society. In 1832 a group of local medics – physicians George Fife (teaching materia medica and therapeutics) and Samuel Knott (teaching theory and practice of medicine), and surgeons John Fife (teaching surgery), Alexander Fraser (teaching anatomy and physiology) and Henry Glassford Potter (teaching chemistry) – started offering medical lectures in Bell's Court to supplement the apprenticeship system (a fourth surgeon, Duncan McAllum, is mentioned by some sources among the founders, but was not included in the prospectus). The first session started on 1 October 1832 with eight or nine students, including John Snow, then apprenticed to a local surgeon-apothecary, the opening lecture being delivered by John Fife. In 1834 the lectures and practical demonstrations moved to the Hall of the Company of Barber Surgeons to accommodate the growing number of students, and the School of Medicine and Surgery was formally established on 1 October 1834.

 

On 25 June 1851, following a dispute among the teaching staff, the school was formally dissolved and the lecturers split into two rival institutions. The majority formed the Newcastle College of Medicine, and the others established themselves as the Newcastle upon Tyne College of Medicine and Practical Science with competing lecture courses. In July 1851 the majority college was recognised by the Society of Apothecaries and in October by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and in January 1852 was approved by the University of London to submit its students for London medical degree examinations. Later in 1852, the majority college was formally linked to the University of Durham, becoming the "Newcastle-upon-Tyne College of Medicine in connection with the University of Durham". The college awarded its first 'Licence in Medicine' (LicMed) under the auspices of the University of Durham in 1856, with external examiners from Oxford and London, becoming the first medical examining body on the United Kingdom to institute practical examinations alongside written and viva voce examinations. The two colleges amalgamated in 1857, with the first session of the unified college opening on 3 October that year. In 1861 the degree of Master of Surgery was introduced, allowing for the double qualification of Licence of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, along with the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Doctor of Medicine, both of which required residence in Durham. In 1870 the college was brought into closer connection with the university, becoming the "Durham University College of Medicine" with the Reader in Medicine becoming the Professor of Medicine, the college gaining a representative on the university's senate, and residence at the college henceforth counting as residence in the university towards degrees in medicine and surgery, removing the need for students to spend a period of residence in Durham before they could receive the higher degrees.

 

Attempts to realise a place for the teaching of sciences in the city were finally met with the foundation of the College of Physical Science in 1871. The college offered instruction in mathematics, physics, chemistry and geology to meet the growing needs of the mining industry, becoming the "Durham College of Physical Science" in 1883 and then renamed after William George Armstrong as Armstrong College in 1904. Both of these institutions were part of the University of Durham, which became a federal university under the Durham University Act 1908 with two divisions in Durham and Newcastle. By 1908, the Newcastle division was teaching a full range of subjects in the Faculties of Medicine, Arts, and Science, which also included agriculture and engineering.

 

Throughout the early 20th century, the medical and science colleges outpaced the growth of their Durham counterparts. Following tensions between the two Newcastle colleges in the early 1930s, a Royal Commission in 1934 recommended the merger of the two colleges to form "King's College, Durham"; that was effected by the Durham University Act 1937. Further growth of both division of the federal university led to tensions within the structure and a feeling that it was too large to manage as a single body. On 1 August 1963 the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act 1963 separated the two thus creating the "University of Newcastle upon Tyne". As the successor of King's College, Durham, the university at its founding in 1963, adopted the coat of arms originally granted to the Council of King's College in 1937.

 

Above the portico of the Students' Union building are bas-relief carvings of the arms and mottoes of the University of Durham, Armstrong College and Durham University College of Medicine, the predecessor parts of Newcastle University. While a Latin motto, mens agitat molem (mind moves matter) appears in the Students' Union building, the university itself does not have an official motto.

 

Campus and location

The university occupies a campus site close to Haymarket in central Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located to the northwest of the city centre between the open spaces of Leazes Park and the Town Moor; the university medical school and Royal Victoria Infirmary are adjacent to the west.

 

The Armstrong building is the oldest building on the campus and is the site of the original Armstrong College. The building was constructed in three stages; the north east wing was completed first at a cost of £18,000 and opened by Princess Louise on 5 November 1888. The south-east wing, which includes the Jubilee Tower, and south-west wings were opened in 1894. The Jubilee Tower was built with surplus funds raised from an Exhibition to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. The north-west front, forming the main entrance, was completed in 1906 and features two stone figures to represent science and the arts. Much of the later construction work was financed by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, the metallurgist and former Lord Mayor of Newcastle, after whom the main tower is named. In 1906 it was opened by King Edward VII.

 

The building contains the King's Hall, which serves as the university's chief hall for ceremonial purposes where Congregation ceremonies are held. It can contain 500 seats. King Edward VII gave permission to call the Great Hall, King's Hall. During the First World War, the building was requisitioned by the War Office to create the first Northern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties. Graduation photographs are often taken in the University Quadrangle, next to the Armstrong building. In 1949 the Quadrangle was turned into a formal garden in memory of members of Newcastle University who gave their lives in the two World Wars. In 2017, a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was erected in the inner courtyard of the Armstrong Building, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his honorary degree from the university.

 

The Bruce Building is a former brewery, constructed between 1896 and 1900 on the site of the Hotspur Hotel, and designed by the architect Joseph Oswald as the new premises of Newcastle Breweries Limited. The university occupied the building from the 1950s, but, having been empty for some time, the building was refurbished in 2016 to become residential and office space.

 

The Devonshire Building, opened in 2004, incorporates in an energy efficient design. It uses photovoltaic cells to help to power motorised shades that control the temperature of the building and geothermal heating coils. Its architects won awards in the Hadrian awards and the RICS Building of the Year Award 2004. The university won a Green Gown award for its construction.

 

Plans for additions and improvements to the campus were made public in March 2008 and completed in 2010 at a cost of £200 million. They included a redevelopment of the south-east (Haymarket) façade with a five-storey King's Gate administration building as well as new student accommodation. Two additional buildings for the school of medicine were also built. September 2012 saw the completion of the new buildings and facilities for INTO Newcastle University on the university campus. The main building provides 18 new teaching rooms, a Learning Resource Centre, a lecture theatre, science lab, administrative and academic offices and restaurant.

 

The Philip Robinson Library is the main university library and is named after a bookseller in the city and benefactor to the library. The Walton Library specialises in services for the Faculty of Medical Sciences in the Medical School. It is named after Lord Walton of Detchant, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Neurology. The library has a relationship with the Northern region of the NHS allowing their staff to use the library for research and study. The Law Library specialises in resources relating to law, and the Marjorie Robinson Library Rooms offers additional study spaces and computers. Together, these house over one million books and 500,000 electronic resources. Some schools within the university, such as the School of Modern Languages, also have their own smaller libraries with smaller highly specialised collections.

 

In addition to the city centre campus there are buildings such as the Dove Marine Laboratory located on Cullercoats Bay, and Cockle Park Farm in Northumberland.

 

International

In September 2008, the university's first overseas branch was opened in Singapore, a Marine International campus called, NUMI Singapore. This later expanded beyond marine subjects and became Newcastle University Singapore, largely through becoming an Overseas University Partner of Singapore Institute of Technology.

 

In 2011, the university's Medical School opened an international branch campus in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia, namely Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia.

 

Student accommodation

Newcastle University has many catered and non-catered halls of residence available to first-year students, located around the city of Newcastle. Popular Newcastle areas for private student houses and flats off campus include Jesmond, Heaton, Sandyford, Shieldfield, South Shields and Spital Tongues.

 

Henderson Hall was used as a hall of residence until a fire destroyed it in 2023.

 

St Mary's College in Fenham, one of the halls of residence, was formerly St Mary's College of Education, a teacher training college.

 

Organisation and governance

The current Chancellor is the British poet and artist Imtiaz Dharker. She assumed the position of Chancellor on 1 January 2020. The vice-chancellor is Chris Day, a hepatologist and former pro-vice-chancellor of the Faculty of Medical Sciences.

 

The university has an enrolment of some 16,000 undergraduate and 5,600 postgraduate students. Teaching and research are delivered in 19 academic schools, 13 research institutes and 38 research centres, spread across three Faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The university offers around 175 full-time undergraduate degree programmes in a wide range of subject areas spanning arts, sciences, engineering and medicine, together with approximately 340 postgraduate taught and research programmes across a range of disciplines.

 

It holds a series of public lectures called 'Insights' each year in the Curtis Auditorium in the Herschel Building. Many of the university's partnerships with companies, like Red Hat, are housed in the Herschel Annex.

 

Chancellors and vice-chancellors

For heads of the predecessor colleges, see Colleges of Durham University § Colleges in Newcastle.

Chancellors

Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland (1963–1988)

Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley (1988–1999)

Chris Patten (1999–2009)

Liam Donaldson (2009–2019)

Imtiaz Dharker (2020–)

Vice-chancellors

Charles Bosanquet (1963–1968)

Henry Miller (1968–1976)

Ewan Stafford Page (1976–1978, acting)

Laurence Martin (1978–1990)

Duncan Murchison (1991, acting)

James Wright (1992–2000)

Christopher Edwards (2001–2007)

Chris Brink (2007–2016)

Chris Day (2017–present)

Civic responsibility

 

The university Quadrangle

The university describes itself as a civic university, with a role to play in society by bringing its research to bear on issues faced by communities (local, national or international).

 

In 2012, the university opened the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal to address issues of social and economic change, representing the research-led academic schools across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences[45] and the Business School.

 

Mark Shucksmith was Director of the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal (NISR) at Newcastle University, where he is also Professor of Planning.

 

In 2006, the university was granted fair trade status and from January 2007 it became a smoke-free campus.

 

The university has also been actively involved with several of the region's museums for many years. The Great North Museum: Hancock originally opened in 1884 and is often a venue for the university's events programme.

 

Faculties and schools

Teaching schools within the university are based within three faculties. Each faculty is led by a Provost/Pro-vice-chancellor and a team of Deans with specific responsibilities.

 

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

School of Arts and Cultures

Newcastle University Business School

Combined Honours Centre

School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences

School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics

School of Geography, Politics and Sociology

School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Newcastle Law School

School of Modern Languages

Faculty of Medical Sciences

School of Biomedical Sciences

School of Dental Sciences

School of Medical Education

School of Pharmacy

School of Psychology

Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology (CBCB)

Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering

School of Computing

School of Engineering

School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics

School of Natural and Environmental Sciences

Business School

 

Newcastle University Business School

As early as the 1900/1 academic year, there was teaching in economics (political economy, as it was then known) at Newcastle, making Economics the oldest department in the School. The Economics Department is currently headed by the Sir David Dale Chair. Among the eminent economists having served in the Department (both as holders of the Sir David Dale Chair) are Harry Mainwaring Hallsworth and Stanley Dennison.

 

Newcastle University Business School is a triple accredited business school, with accreditation by the three major accreditation bodies: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS.

 

In 2002, Newcastle University Business School established the Business Accounting and Finance or 'Flying Start' degree in association with the ICAEW and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The course offers an accelerated route towards the ACA Chartered Accountancy qualification and is the Business School's Flagship programme.

 

In 2011 the business school opened their new building built on the former Scottish and Newcastle brewery site next to St James' Park. This building was officially opened on 19 March 2012 by Lord Burns.

 

The business school operated a central London campus from 2014 to 2021, in partnership with INTO University Partnerships until 2020.

 

Medical School

The BMC Medicine journal reported in 2008 that medical graduates from Oxford, Cambridge and Newcastle performed better in postgraduate tests than any other medical school in the UK.

 

In 2008 the Medical School announced that they were expanding their campus to Malaysia.

 

The Royal Victoria Infirmary has always had close links with the Faculty of Medical Sciences as a major teaching hospital.

 

School of Modern Languages

The School of Modern Languages consists of five sections: East Asian (which includes Japanese and Chinese); French; German; Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies; and Translating & Interpreting Studies. Six languages are taught from beginner's level to full degree level ‒ Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese ‒ and beginner's courses in Catalan, Dutch, Italian and Quechua are also available. Beyond the learning of the languages themselves, Newcastle also places a great deal of emphasis on study and experience of the cultures of the countries where the languages taught are spoken. The School of Modern Languages hosts North East England's only branches of two internationally important institutes: the Camões Institute, a language institute for Portuguese, and the Confucius Institute, a language and cultural institute for Chinese.

 

The teaching of modern foreign languages at Newcastle predates the creation of Newcastle University itself, as in 1911 Armstrong College in Newcastle installed Albert George Latham, its first professor of modern languages.

 

The School of Modern Languages at Newcastle is the lead institution in the North East Routes into Languages Consortium and, together with the Durham University, Northumbria University, the University of Sunderland, the Teesside University and a network of schools, undertakes work activities of discovery of languages for the 9 to 13 years pupils. This implies having festivals, Q&A sessions, language tasters, or quizzes organised, as well as a web learning work aiming at constructing a web portal to link language learners across the region.

 

Newcastle Law School

Newcastle Law School is the longest established law school in the north-east of England when law was taught at the university's predecessor college before it became independent from Durham University. It has a number of recognised international and national experts in a variety of areas of legal scholarship ranging from Common and Chancery law, to International and European law, as well as contextual, socio-legal and theoretical legal studies.

 

The Law School occupies four specially adapted late-Victorian town houses. The Staff Offices, the Alumni Lecture Theatre and seminar rooms as well as the Law Library are all located within the School buildings.

 

School of Computing

The School of Computing was ranked in the Times Higher Education world Top 100. Research areas include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and ubiquitous computing, secure and resilient systems, synthetic biology, scalable computing (high performance systems, data science, machine learning and data visualization), and advanced modelling. The school led the formation of the National Innovation Centre for Data. Innovative teaching in the School was recognised in 2017 with the award of a National Teaching Fellowship.

 

Cavitation tunnel

Newcastle University has the second largest cavitation tunnel in the UK. Founded in 1950, and based in the Marine Science and Technology Department, the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel is used as a test basin for propellers, water turbines, underwater coatings and interaction of propellers with ice. The Emerson Cavitation Tunnel was recently relocated to a new facility in Blyth.

 

Museums and galleries

The university is associated with a number of the region's museums and galleries, including the Great North Museum project, which is primarily based at the world-renowned Hancock Museum. The Great North Museum: Hancock also contains the collections from two of the university's former museums, the Shefton Museum and the Museum of Antiquities, both now closed. The university's Hatton Gallery is also a part of the Great North Museum project, and remains within the Fine Art Building.

 

Academic profile

Reputation and rankings

Rankings

National rankings

Complete (2024)30

Guardian (2024)67

Times / Sunday Times (2024)37

Global rankings

ARWU (2023)201–300

QS (2024)110

THE (2024)168=

 

Newcastle University's national league table performance over the past ten years

The university is a member of the Russell Group of the UK's research-intensive universities. It is ranked in the top 200 of most world rankings, and in the top 40 of most UK rankings. As of 2023, it is ranked 110th globally by QS, 292nd by Leiden, 139th by Times Higher Education and 201st–300th by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Nationally, it is ranked joint 33rd by the Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide, 30th by the Complete University Guide[68] and joint 63rd by the Guardian.

 

Admissions

UCAS Admission Statistics 20222021202020192018

Application 33,73532,40034,55031,96533,785

Accepte 6,7556,2556,5806,4456,465

Applications/Accepted Ratio 5.05.25.35.05.2

Offer Rate (%78.178.080.279.280.0)

Average Entry Tariff—151148144152

Main scheme applications, International and UK

UK domiciled applicants

HESA Student Body Composition

In terms of average UCAS points of entrants, Newcastle ranked joint 19th in Britain in 2014. In 2015, the university gave offers of admission to 92.1% of its applicants, the highest amongst the Russell Group.

 

25.1% of Newcastle's undergraduates are privately educated, the thirteenth highest proportion amongst mainstream British universities. In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 74:5:21 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 51:49.

 

Research

Newcastle is a member of the Russell Group of 24 research-intensive universities. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, Newcastle is ranked joint 33rd by GPA (along with the University of Strathclyde and the University of Sussex) and 15th for research power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted).

 

Student life

Newcastle University Students' Union (NUSU), known as the Union Society until a 2012 rebranding, includes student-run sports clubs and societies.

 

The Union building was built in 1924 following a generous gift from an anonymous donor, who is now believed to have been Sir Cecil Cochrane, a major benefactor to the university.[87] It is built in the neo-Jacobean style and was designed by the local architect Robert Burns Dick. It was opened on 22 October 1925 by the Rt. Hon. Lord Eustace Percy, who later served as Rector of King's College from 1937 to 1952. It is a Grade II listed building. In 2010 the university donated £8 million towards a redevelopment project for the Union Building.

 

The Students' Union is run by seven paid sabbatical officers, including a Welfare and Equality Officer, and ten part-time unpaid officer positions. The former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron was President of NUSU in 1991–1992. The Students' Union also employs around 300 people in ancillary roles including bar staff and entertainment organisers.

 

The Courier is a weekly student newspaper. Established in 1948, the current weekly readership is around 12,000, most of whom are students at the university. The Courier has won The Guardian's Student Publication of the Year award twice in a row, in 2012 and 2013. It is published every Monday during term time.

 

Newcastle Student Radio is a student radio station based in the university. It produces shows on music, news, talk and sport and aims to cater for a wide range of musical tastes.

 

NUTV, known as TCTV from 2010 to 2017, is student television channel, first established in 2007. It produces live and on-demand content with coverage of events, as well as student-made programmes and shows.

 

Student exchange

Newcastle University has signed over 100 agreements with foreign universities allowing for student exchange to take place reciprocally.

 

Sport

Newcastle is one of the leading universities for sport in the UK and is consistently ranked within the top 12 out of 152 higher education institutions in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) rankings. More than 50 student-led sports clubs are supported through a team of professional staff and a network of indoor and outdoor sports facilities based over four sites. The university have a strong rugby history and were the winners of the Northumberland Senior Cup in 1965.

 

The university enjoys a friendly sporting rivalry with local universities. The Stan Calvert Cup was held between 1994 and 2018 by major sports teams from Newcastle and Northumbria University. The Boat Race of the North has also taken place between the rowing clubs of Newcastle and Durham University.

 

As of 2023, Newcastle University F.C. compete in men's senior football in the Northern League Division Two.

 

The university's Cochrane Park sports facility was a training venue for the teams playing football games at St James' Park for the 2012 London Olympics.

 

A

Ali Mohamed Shein, 7th President of Zanzibar

Richard Adams - fairtrade businessman

Kate Adie - journalist

Yasmin Ahmad - Malaysian film director, writer and scriptwriter

Prince Adewale Aladesanmi - Nigerian prince and businessman

Jane Alexander - Bishop

Theodosios Alexander (BSc Marine Engineering 1981) - Dean, Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology of Saint Louis University

William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong - industrialist; in 1871 founded College of Physical Science, an early part of the University

Roy Ascott - new media artist

Dennis Assanis - President, University of Delaware

Neil Astley - publisher, editor and writer

Rodney Atkinson - eurosceptic conservative academic

Rowan Atkinson - comedian and actor

Kane Avellano - Guinness World Record for youngest person to circumnavigate the world by motorcycle (solo and unsupported) at the age of 23 in 2017

B

Bruce Babbitt - U.S. politician; 16th Governor of Arizona (1978–1987); 47th United States Secretary of the Interior (1993–2001); Democrat

James Baddiley - biochemist, based at Newcastle University 1954–1983; the Baddiley-Clark building is named in part after him

Tunde Baiyewu - member of the Lighthouse Family

John C. A. Barrett - clergyman

G. W. S. Barrow - historian

Neil Bartlett - chemist, creation of the first noble gas compounds (BSc and PhD at King's College, University of Durham, later Newcastle University)

Sue Beardsmore - television presenter

Alan Beith - politician

Jean Benedetti - biographer, translator, director and dramatist

Phil Bennion - politician

Catherine Bertola - contemporary painter

Simon Best - Captain of the Ulster Rugby team; Prop for the Ireland Team

Andy Bird - CEO of Disney International

Rory Jonathan Courtenay Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan - heir apparent to the earldom of Cork

David Bradley - science writer

Mike Brearley - professional cricketer, formerly a lecturer in philosophy at the university (1968–1971)

Constance Briscoe - one of the first black women to sit as a judge in the UK; author of the best-selling autobiography Ugly; found guilty in May 2014 on three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice; jailed for 16 months

Steve Brooks - entomologist; attained BSc in Zoology and MSc in Public Health Engineering from Newcastle University in 1976 and 1977 respectively

Thom Brooks - academic, columnist

Gavin Brown - academic

Vicki Bruce - psychologist

Basil Bunting - poet; Northern Arts Poetry Fellow at Newcastle University (1968–70); honorary DLitt in 1971

John Burgan - documentary filmmaker

Mark Burgess - computer scientist

Sir John Burn - Professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University Medical School; Medical Director and Head of the Institute of Genetics; Newcastle Medical School alumnus

William Lawrence Burn - historian and lawyer, history chair at King's College, Newcastle (1944–66)

John Harrison Burnett - botanist, chair of Botany at King's College, Newcastle (1960–68)

C.

Richard Caddel - poet

Ann Cairns - President of International Markets for MasterCard

Deborah Cameron - linguist

Stuart Cameron - lecturer

John Ashton Cannon - historian; Professor of Modern History; Head of Department of History from 1976 until his appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1979; Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1983–1986

Ian Carr - musician

Jimmy Cartmell - rugby player, Newcastle Falcons

Steve Chapman - Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University

Dion Chen - Hong Kong educator, principal of Ying Wa College and former principal of YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College

Hsing Chia-hui - author

Ashraf Choudhary - scientist

Chua Chor Teck - Managing Director of Keppel Group

Jennifer A. Clack - palaeontologist

George Clarke - architect

Carol Clewlow - novelist

Brian Clouston - landscape architect

Ed Coode - Olympic gold medallist

John Coulson - chemical engineering academic

Caroline Cox, Baroness Cox - cross-bench member of the British House of Lords

Nicola Curtin – Professor of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics

Pippa Crerar - Political Editor of the Daily Mirror

D

Fred D'Aguiar - author

Julia Darling - poet, playwright, novelist, MA in Creative Writing

Simin Davoudi - academic

Richard Dawson - civil engineering academic and member of the UK Committee on Climate Change

Tom Dening - medical academic and researcher

Katie Doherty - singer-songwriter

Nowell Donovan - vice-chancellor for academic affairs and Provost of Texas Christian University

Catherine Douglas - Ig Nobel Prize winner for Veterinary Medicine

Annabel Dover - artist, studied fine art 1994–1998

Alexander Downer - Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (1996–2007)

Chloë Duckworth - archaeologist and presenter

Chris Duffield - Town Clerk and Chief Executive of the City of London Corporation

E

Michael Earl - academic

Tom English - drummer, Maxïmo Park

Princess Eugenie - member of the British royal family. Eugenie is a niece of King Charles III and a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. She began studying at Newcastle University in September 2009, graduating in 2012 with a 2:1 degree in English Literature and History of Art.

F

U. A. Fanthorpe - poet

Frank Farmer - medical physicist; professor of medical physics at Newcastle University in 1966

Terry Farrell - architect

Tim Farron - former Liberal Democrat leader and MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale

Ian Fells - professor

Andy Fenby - rugby player

Bryan Ferry - singer, songwriter and musician, member of Roxy Music and solo artist; studied fine art

E. J. Field - neuroscientist, director of the university's Demyelinating Disease Unit

John Niemeyer Findlay - philosopher

John Fitzgerald - computer scientist

Vicky Forster - cancer researcher

Maximimlian (Max) Fosh- YouTuber and independent candidate in the 2021 London mayoral election.

Rose Frain - artist

G

Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster - aristocrat, billionaire, businessman and landowner

Peter Gibbs - television weather presenter

Ken Goodall - rugby player

Peter Gooderham - British ambassador

Michael Goodfellow - Professor in Microbial Systematics

Robert Goodwill - politician

Richard Gordon - author

Teresa Graham - accountant

Thomas George Greenwell - National Conservative Member of Parliament

H

Sarah Hainsworth - Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University

Reginald Hall - endocrinologist, Professor of Medicine (1970–1980)

Alex Halliday - Professor of Geochemistry, University of Oxford

Richard Hamilton - artist

Vicki L. Hanson - computer scientist; honorary doctorate in 2017

Rupert Harden - professional rugby union player

Tim Head - artist

Patsy Healey - professor

Alastair Heathcote - rower

Dorothy Heathcote - academic

Adrian Henri - 'Mersey Scene' poet and painter

Stephen Hepburn - politician

Jack Heslop-Harrison - botanist

Tony Hey - computer scientist; honorary doctorate 2007

Stuart Hill - author

Jean Hillier - professor

Ken Hodcroft - Chairman of Hartlepool United; founder of Increased Oil Recovery

Robert Holden - landscape architect

Bill Hopkins - composer

David Horrobin - entrepreneur

Debbie Horsfield - writer of dramas, including Cutting It

John House - geographer

Paul Hudson - weather presenter

Philip Hunter - educationist

Ronald Hunt – Art Historian who was librarian at the Art Department

Anya Hurlbert - visual neuroscientis

I

Martin Ince - journalist and media adviser, founder of the QS World University Rankings

Charles Innes-Ker - Marquess of Bowmont and Cessford

Mark Isherwood - politician

Jonathan Israel - historian

J

Alan J. Jamieson - marine biologist

George Neil Jenkins - medical researcher

Caroline Johnson - Conservative Member of Parliament

Wilko Johnson - guitarist with 1970s British rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood

Rich Johnston - comic book writer and cartoonist

Anna Jones - businesswoman

Cliff Jones - computer scientist

Colin Jones - historian

David E. H. Jones - chemist

Francis R. Jones - poetry translator and Reader in Translation Studies

Phil Jones - climatologist

Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling - Member of the House of Lords and the Conservative Party

Wilfred Josephs - dentist and composer

K

Michael King Jr. - civil rights leader; honorary graduate. In November 1967, MLK made a 24-hour trip to the United Kingdom to receive an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from Newcastle University, becoming the first African American the institution had recognised in this way.

Panayiotis Kalorkoti - artist; studied B.A. (Hons) in Fine Art (1976–80); Bartlett Fellow in the Visual Arts (1988)

Rashida Karmali - businesswoman

Jackie Kay - poet, novelist, Professor of Creative Writing

Paul Kennedy - historian of international relations and grand strategy

Mark Khangure - neuroradiologist

L

Joy Labinjo - artist

Henrike Lähnemann - German medievalist

Dave Leadbetter - politician

Lim Boon Heng - Singapore Minister

Lin Hsin Hsin - IT inventor, artist, poet and composer

Anne Longfield - children's campaigner, former Children's Commissioner for England

Keith Ludeman - businessman

M

Jack Mapanje - writer and poet

Milton Margai - first prime minister of Sierra Leone (medical degree from the Durham College of Medicine, later Newcastle University Medical School)

Laurence Martin - war studies writer

Murray Martin, documentary and docudrama filmmaker, co-founder of Amber Film & Photography Collective

Adrian Martineau – medical researcher and professor of respiratory Infection and immunity at Queen Mary University of London

Carl R. May - sociologist

Tom May - professional rugby union player, now with Northampton Saints, and capped by England

Kate McCann – journalist and television presenter

Ian G. McKeith – professor of Old Age Psychiatry

John Anthony McGuckin - Orthodox Christian scholar, priest, and poet

Wyl Menmuir - novelist

Zia Mian - physicist

Richard Middleton - musicologist

Mary Midgley - moral philosopher

G.C.J. Midgley - philosopher

Moein Moghimi - biochemist and nanoscientist

Hermann Moisl - linguist

Anthony Michaels-Moore - Operatic Baritone

Joanna Moncrieff - Critical Psychiatrist

Theodore Morison - Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne (1919–24)

Andy Morrell - footballer

Frank Moulaert - professor

Mo Mowlam - former British Labour Party Member of Parliament, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, lecturer at Newcastle University

Chris Mullin - former British Labour Party Member of Parliament, author, visiting fellow

VA Mundella - College of Physical Science, 1884—1887; lecturer in physics at the College, 1891—1896: Professor of Physics at Northern Polytechnic Institute and Principal of Sunderland Technical College.

Richard Murphy - architect

N

Lisa Nandy - British Labour Party Member of Parliament, former Shadow Foreign Secretary

Karim Nayernia - biomedical scientist

Dianne Nelmes - TV producer

O

Sally O'Reilly - writer

Mo O'Toole - former British Labour Party Member of European Parliament

P

Ewan Page - founding director of the Newcastle University School of Computing and briefly acting vice-chancellor; later appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Reading

Rachel Pain - academic

Amanda Parker - Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire since 2023

Geoff Parling - Leicester Tigers rugby player

Chris Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes - British Conservative politician and Chancellor of the University (1999–2009)

Chris M Pattinson former Great Britain International Swimmer 1976-1984

Mick Paynter - Cornish poet and Grandbard

Robert A. Pearce - academic

Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland - Chancellor of the University (1964–1988)

Jonathan Pile - Showbiz Editor, ZOO magazine

Ben Pimlott - political historian; PhD and lectureship at Newcastle University (1970–79)

Robin Plackett - statistician

Alan Plater - playwright and screenwriter

Ruth Plummer - Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research and Fellow of the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences.

Poh Kwee Ong - Deputy President of SembCorp Marine

John Porter - musician

Rob Powell - former London Broncos coach

Stuart Prebble - former chief executive of ITV

Oliver Proudlock - Made in Chelsea star; creator of Serge De Nîmes clothing line[

Mark Purnell - palaeontologist

Q

Pirzada Qasim - Pakistani scholar, Vice Chancellor of the University of Karachi

Joyce Quin, Baroness Quin - politician

R

Andy Raleigh - Rugby League player for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats

Brian Randell - computer scientist

Rupert Mitford, 6th Baron Redesdale - Liberal Democrat spokesman in the House of Lords for International Development

Alastair Reynolds - novelist, former research astronomer with the European Space Agency

Ben Rice - author

Lewis Fry Richardson - mathematician, studied at the Durham College of Science in Newcastle

Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley - Chancellor of the University 1988-1999

Colin Riordan - VC of Cardiff University, Professor of German Studies (1988–2006)

Susie Rodgers - British Paralympic swimmer

Nayef Al-Rodhan - philosopher, neuroscientist, geostrategist, and author

Neil Rollinson - poet

Johanna Ropner - Lord lieutenant of North Yorkshire

Sharon Rowlands - CEO of ReachLocal

Peter Rowlinson - Ig Nobel Prize winner for Veterinary Medicine

John Rushby - computer scientist

Camilla Rutherford - actress

S

Jonathan Sacks - former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

Ross Samson - Scottish rugby union footballer; studied history

Helen Scales - marine biologist, broadcaster, and writer

William Scammell - poet

Fred B. Schneider - computer scientist; honorary doctorate in 2003

Sean Scully - painter

Nigel Shadbolt - computer scientist

Tom Shakespeare - geneticist

Jo Shapcott - poet

James Shapiro - Canadian surgeon and scientist

Jack Shepherd - actor and playwright

Mark Shucksmith - professor

Chris Simms - crime thriller novel author

Graham William Smith - probation officer, widely regarded as the father of the national probation service

Iain Smith - Scottish politician

Paul Smith - singer, Maxïmo Park

John Snow - discoverer of cholera transmission through water; leader in the adoption of anaesthesia; one of the 8 students enrolled on the very first term of the Medical School

William Somerville - agriculturist, professor of agriculture and forestry at Durham College of Science (later Newcastle University)

Ed Stafford - explorer, walked the length of the Amazon River

Chris Steele-Perkins - photographer

Chris Stevenson - academic

Di Stewart - Sky Sports News reader

Diana Stöcker - German CDU Member of Parliament

Miodrag Stojković - genetics researcher

Miriam Stoppard - physician, author and agony aunt

Charlie van Straubenzee - businessman and investment executive

Peter Straughan - playwright and short story writer

T

Mathew Tait - rugby union footballer

Eric Thomas - academic

David Tibet - cult musician and poet

Archis Tiku - bassist, Maxïmo Park

James Tooley - professor

Elsie Tu - politician

Maurice Tucker - sedimentologist

Paul Tucker - member of Lighthouse Family

George Grey Turner - surgeon

Ronald F. Tylecote - archaeologist

V

Chris Vance - actor in Prison Break and All Saints

Géza Vermes - scholar

Geoff Vigar - lecturer

Hugh Vyvyan - rugby union player

W

Alick Walker - palaeontologist

Matthew Walker - Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley

Tom Walker - Sunday Times foreign correspondent

Lord Walton of Detchant - physician; President of the GMC, BMA, RSM; Warden of Green College, Oxford (1983–1989)

Kevin Warwick - Professor of Cybernetics; former Lecturer in Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Duncan Watmore - footballer at Millwall F.C.

Mary Webb - artist

Charlie Webster - television sports presenter

Li Wei - Chair of Applied Linguistics at UCL Institute of Education, University College London

Joseph Joshua Weiss - Professor of Radiation Chemistry

Robert Westall - children's writer, twice winner of Carnegie Medal

Thomas Stanley Westoll - Fellow of the Royal Society

Gillian Whitehead - composer

William Whitfield - architect, later designed the Hadrian Building and the Northern Stage

Claire Williams - motorsport executive

Zoe Williams - sportswoman, worked on Gladiators

Donald I. Williamson - planktologist and carcinologist

Philip Williamson - former Chief Executive of Nationwide Building Society

John Willis - Royal Air Force officer and council member of the University

Lukas Wooller - keyboard player, Maxïmo Park

Graham Wylie - co-founder of the Sage Group; studied Computing Science & Statistics BSc and graduated in 1980; awarded an honorary doctorate in 2004

Y

Hisila Yami, Nepalese politician and former Minister of Physical Planning and Works (Government of Nepal

John Yorke - Controller of Continuing Drama; Head of Independent Drama at the BBC

Martha Young-Scholten - linguist

Paul Younger - hydrogeologist

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 84/3. Photo: Messter-Film / Karl Schenker, Berlin.

 

Viggo Larsen (1880-1957) was a Danish actor, director, scriptwriter and producer. He was one of the pioneers in film history. With Wanda Treumann he directed and produced many German films of the 1910s.

Vintage Swedish postcard. Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, 1686.

 

Helen/ Helene Gammeltoft (1895-?) was an Danish-American actress and scriptwriter.

 

Born 26/3 1895 in Syracuse, America, as Inger Madden or Madsen, she made her debut in film in Britain according to IDMb, in the 1913 film The Eleventh Commandment, and under the name of Helena Callen. The film was also the debut of the popular British stage star Gladys Cooper. The next year, she moved to Denmark, where she debuted at Nordisk Film in August Blom's comedy Bytte Roller/ The Girl of his Heart (1914), starring opposite Nicolai Johannsen as millionnaire Thomas Grey and Frederik Buch as his cook.

 

In 1915, Gammeltoft had leads or important supporting parts in five films at Nordisk: Hans Kusine/ His Cousin (Lau Lauritzen sr.) with Peter Jørgensen, En Død i Skønhed/ Beatrix (Robert Dinesen) with Rita Sacchetto, Olaf Fönss and Nicolai Johannsen, Susanne i Badet (Lau Lauritzen) with Oscar Stribolt, Kærlighed og Mobilisering/ Put me amongst the Girls (Lauritzen) with Frederik Buch, and Den lille Chauffør (August Blom) with Nicolai Johannsen. In 1916 Gammeltoft acted in four films at Nordisk, while in 1917 she acted in six and in 1918 in five films - mostly in the role of 'the pretty girl'. Yet, from 1916 Gammeltoft developed as screenwriter too, writing comedies for Buch, Stribolt, Rasmus Christiansen and others, starting with Den ædle Skrædder (Lauritzen, 1916) and En landlig Uskyldighed (Lauritzen, 1916) - she had the lead in the latter comedy.

 

In 1917-1918 Gammeltoft was most prolific as both actress and screenwriter, mostly in short comedies. She appeared in a small number of 'serious' feature films (e.g. En Lykkeper, Gunnar Sommerfeldt 1918, starring Carlo Wieth) and made just a few films outside Nordisk's direction, Hjerteknuseren (Carl Barcklind, 1919) for Skandinavisk Filmcentral, and Dommens Dag (Fritz Magnussen, 1918) for Olaf Fønss' company Dansk Film Co. After 1918, Gammeltoft's peak as actress and scriptwriter was over, while she did two films in 1919, and the three last films in 1920. In 1920 Lauritzen, who had worked at Nordisk for years, started his own firm Palladium, with which he launched in 1921 the popular comic duo of Long and Short/ Pat & Patachon/ Fy och By, with tall Carl Schenström and short Harald Madsen. Incidentally, Schenström had already played in the comedies by Lauritzen and Gammeltoft at Nordisk.

 

Sources: IMDb, www.dfi.dk/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/person/helen-gamme..., Danish Wikipedia.

 

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

Diana Markosian

Armenia / United States (1989)

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, the first American soap opera aired in Russia after the fall of the USSR, was followed by millions of Russians, including Diana Markosian’s mother. In 1996, when she decided to leave Moscow and the father of her children, she placed an ad with various marriage agencies. She accepted a proposal from a man living in Santa Barbara, California, and moved there with her two children. Years later, Diana devised a docudrama about her mother’s extraordinary story. This artist enlisted the help of one of the scriptwriters of the original soap opera to make a short film with actors embodying her own family drama.

 

Created especially for Images Vevey, Santa Barbara is a poignant piece about the American dream and the disenchantment it could bring, but also about the tenuous line between reality and fiction.

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

 

《毒戰》台前幕後大合照。前排左起：演員郭濤、監製及編劇韋家輝、演員古天樂、海潤電影董事長兼總裁劉燕銘、監製及導演杜琪峯、演員葉璇、鍾漢良；後排左起：演員吳廷燁、張兆輝、林雪、姜皓文、林家棟。

 

Drug War’s cast and crew get together for a group photo. Front row, from left: actor Guo Tao, producer and scriptwriter Wai Ka-fai, actor Louis Koo, President of Hairun Film Liu Yanming, producer and director Johnnie To, actress Michelle Ye and actor Wallace Chung; 2nd row, from left: actor cast members Berg Ng, Eddie Cheung Siu-fai, Lam Suet, Philip Keung Ho-men and Gordon Lam Ka-tung.

Small card.

 

American actor Farley Granger (1925–2011) was best known for his two films with Alfred Hitchcock, Rope (1948) and Strangers on a Train (1951). He also worked in Italy, most famously with Luchino Visconti on Senso (1953).

 

Farley Earle Granger was born in San Jose, California in 1925. He was the son of Eva (née Hopkins) and Farley Earle Granger, a successful car dealer who was financially ruined after the crash of 1929. The family moved to a small apartment in Los Angeles. Granger was enrolled by his mother at Ethel Meglin's, the dance and drama instruction studio where Judy Garland and Shirley Temple had started. With his sensuous face, doe eyes, full lips, jet-black hair, he was a dazzling handsome boy, and in his first small stage production, The Wookie, his good looks were noticed by talent agent Phil Gersh. He contacted Granger's parents and Farley got the small part of a teenaged Russian boy in the Samuel Goldwyn production The North Star (Lewis Milestone, 1943) starring Dana Andrews. This propaganda film, written by Lillian Hellman, praised the Soviet Union at the height of the war. In the Cold War 1950s however, it would be condemned for its political bias. Goldwyn signed the young actor to a seven-year contract for $100 per week. Next, he got a bigger role in another war-film, The Purple Heart (Lewis Milestone, 1944) as a member of a bomber crew captured and tortured by the Japanese. Then Granger had to do naval service and landed in a unit in Honolulu that arranged troop entertainment in the Pacific. Here he made useful contacts with visiting entertainers like Bob Hope, Betty Grable and Hedy Lamarr, and also discovered his bisexuality. After the war director Nicholas Ray cast Granger in his debut feature, the film noir Thieves Like Us. He played the lead role of the emotionally unstable crook Bowie. The film was nearing completion in October 1947 when Howard Hughes acquired RKO Radio Pictures, and the new studio head shelved it for two years before releasing it under the title They Live by Night in a single theatre in London. Enthusiastic reviews led RKO to finally release the film in the States in late 1949. During the two years it had remained in limbo, it had been screened numerous times in private screening rooms, and one of the people who saw it during this period was Alfred Hitchcock.

 

Alfred Hitchcock cast Farley Granger in Rope (1948), a fictionalized account of the Leopold and Loeb murder case. Granger and John Dall portrayed two highly intelligent friends who commit a thrill killing simply to prove they can get away with it. The two characters and their former professor, played by James Stewart, were supposed to be homosexual, and Granger and Dall discussed the subtext of their scenes, but because The Hays Office was keeping close tabs on the project, the final script was so discreet that Laurents remained uncertain of whether Stewart ever realized that his own character was homosexual. Hitchcock shot the film in continuous, uninterrupted ten-minute takes, the amount of time a reel of Technicolor film lasted, and as a result technical problems frequently brought the action to a frustrating halt throughout the twenty-one day shoot. Granger started a romantic relationship with Rope’s scriptwriter Arthur Laurents that lasted about a year and their frequently tempestuous friendship extended for decades beyond their breakup. The film earned mixed reviews but much critical praise for Granger himself. Hitchcock then cast him again in Strangers on a Train. He played the more conventional role of a handsome tennis champion, Guy Haines, mentally seduced by the unhinged Bruno (Robert Walker). Bruno obligingly murders the sportsman's wife, who is holding back Guy's career and social ambitions. When the killer wants repayment in kind – via the death of his own bullying father – matters go horribly wrong. This film also carried a sub-theme of homosexuality, although it was toned down from Patricia Highsmith's original novel. Later, Granger described this as his happiest film-making experience, though he was deeply affected by his friend Walker's accidental drug-death just before the film's release. Strangers on a Train (1951) proved to be a box office hit, the first major success of Granger's career. His subsequent projects including the war film I Want You (Mark Robson, 1951), the Gift of the Magi segment of the anthology film O. Henry's Full House (Henry King a.o., 1952 ), and the musical film Hans Christian Andersen (Charles Vidor, 1952), starring Danny Kaye, were not so successful.

 

Then Farley Granger accepted a role in Italy in Senso (1954), directed by Luchino Visconti He was cast as the embittered romantic Franz Mahler, an Austrian lieutenant in occupied Venice just before the revolution that brought unification to Italy in 1871. He betrays the married woman (Alida Valli) besotted with him. Her marriage, her title, her country are nothing, as her post-coital eyes glow with a sexual intensity—senso—that she feels for the first time. She in turn betrays not only her country, Italy, but also those struggling politically against the invading forces. Richard Corliss in Time: “That was a great break for Granger, who got the role of his lifetime, and for the film—because Senso is the story of a strong woman ruined by her passion for a handsome, weak man, exactly the sort Granger had played before. This is a woman's picture, a domestic tragedy about the destructive effects of a lady's self-deception. Filming in Italy lasted nine months, although Granger frequently was idle during this period, allowing him free time to explore Italy. He met Mike Todd, who cajoled him into making a cameo appearance as a gondolier in his epic Around the World in 80 Days. At the 15th Venice International Film Festival, Visconti was nominated for the Golden Lion award for Senso. The film is now regarded as a masterpiece of the Italian cinema.

 

Farley Granger returned to Hollywood where Darryl F. Zanuck offered him a two-picture deal. In quick succession he made The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (Richard Fleischer, 1955) with Joan Collins and Ray Milland, and the melodrama The Naked Street (Maxwell Shane, 1955), with Anthony Quinn and Anne Bancroft. Then he went to work on Broadway, but his three productions were unsuccessful. With both his film and theatrical career foundering, Granger turned to television. Later he would achieve some success on Broadway in The Seagull (1964), The Crucible (1965), The Glass Menagerie (1965), and Ira Levin’s Deathtrap (1978-1981). In the early 1970s, Granger and his partner since 1963, Robert Calhoun moved to Rome. There he appeared in several Italian films, most notably the successful Spaghetti Western Lo chiamavano Trinità/They Call Me Trinity (E.B. Clucher ka Enzo Barboni, 1970), starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. He appeared with Yul Brynner and Dirk Bogarde in the French thriller Le Serpent/Night Flight from Moscow (Henri Verneuil, 1973). Granger co-starred with Giovanna Ralli and Mario Adorf in the slasher film La Polizia chiede aiuto/What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (Massimo Dallamano, 1974), an hybrid between giallo and poliziottesco. Back in the US, he played in the slasher The Prowler (Joseph Zito, 1981) and in such soap operas as One Life to Live (1976-1977), and As the World Turns (1986-1987), for which Robert Calhoun was executive producer. In 1986 Granger won the Obie Award for his performance in the Lanford Wilson play Talley & Son. Later he appeared in several documentaries discussing Hollywood and Alfred Hitchcock, including The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, 1995), discussing the depiction of homosexuality in film and the use of subtext in various films, including his own. In 2003, Granger made his last film appearance in the documentary Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (Rick MacKay, 2003). In it, he tells the story of leaving Hollywood at the peak of his fame, buying out his contract from Samuel Goldwyn, and moving to Manhattan to work on the Broadway stage. In 2007, Granger published the memoir Include Me Out, co-written with Robert Calhoun Farley Granger died of natural causes in 2011, at age 85. Calhoun had died in 2008.

 

Sources: Richard Corliss (Time), Brian Baxter (The Guardian), Andre Soares (Alt Film Guide), Internet Broadway Database, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Vintage Swedish postcard. Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, 1685.

 

Helen/ Helene Gammeltoft (1895-?) was an Danish-American actress and scriptwriter.

 

Born 26/3 1895 in Syracuse, America, as Inger Madden or Madsen, she made her debut in film in Britain according to IDMb, in the 1913 film The Eleventh Commandment, and under the name of Helena Callen. The film was also the debut of the popular British stage star Gladys Cooper. The next year, she moved to Denmark, where she debuted at Nordisk Film in August Blom's comedy Bytte Roller/ The Girl of his Heart (1914), starring opposite Nicolai Johannsen as millionnaire Thomas Grey and Frederik Buch as his cook.

 

In 1915, Gammeltoft had leads or important supporting parts in five films at Nordisk: Hans Kusine/ His Cousin (Lau Lauritzen sr.) with Peter Jørgensen, En Død i Skønhed/ Beatrix (Robert Dinesen) with Rita Sacchetto, Olaf Fönss and Nicolai Johannsen, Susanne i Badet (Lau Lauritzen) with Oscar Stribolt, Kærlighed og Mobilisering/ Put me amongst the Girls (Lauritzen) with Frederik Buch, and Den lille Chauffør (August Blom) with Nicolai Johannsen. In 1916 Gammeltoft acted in four films at Nordisk, while in 1917 she acted in six and in 1918 in five films - mostly in the role of 'the pretty girl'. Yet, from 1916 Gammeltoft developed as screenwriter too, writing comedies for Buch, Stribolt, Rasmus Christiansen and others, starting with Den ædle Skrædder (Lauritzen, 1916) and En landlig Uskyldighed (Lauritzen, 1916) - she had the lead in the latter comedy.

 

In 1917-1918 Gammeltoft was most prolific as both actress and screenwriter, mostly in short comedies. She appeared in a small number of 'serious' feature films (e.g. En Lykkeper, Gunnar Sommerfeldt 1918, starring Carlo Wieth) and made just a few films outside Nordisk's direction, Hjerteknuseren (Carl Barcklind, 1919) for Skandinavisk Filmcentral, and Dommens Dag (Fritz Magnussen, 1918) for Olaf Fønss' company Dansk Film Co. After 1918, Gammeltoft's peak as actress and scriptwriter was over, while she did two films in 1919, and the three last films in 1920. In 1920 Lauritzen, who had worked at Nordisk for years, started his own firm Palladium, with which he launched in 1921 the popular comic duo of Long and Short/ Pat & Patachon/ Fy och By, with tall Carl Schenström and short Harald Madsen. Incidentally, Schenström had already played in the comedies by Lauritzen and Gammeltoft at Nordisk.

 

Sources: IMDb, www.dfi.dk/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/person/helen-gamme..., Danish Wikipedia.

 

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

Production stills for Seattle based creative agency and film and video production company Spin Creative. The production stills feature behind the scenes of a shoot for a Treehouse brand film and commercial shot in February 2013 on the Canon C300. Treehouse is a Seattle-based non-profit committed to improving the lives of kids living in foster care. The film will debut at the Treehouse annual fundraising luncheon, “Champions for Foster Kids,” on March 20th at the Seattle Sheraton.

 

The brand film that Spin Creative is crafting will be constructed in TV commercial form and will have multiple uses and delivery channels after its initial viewing at the “Champions” event. Spin developed the creative strategy and script for the spot and tells the story of who Treehouse is today, its future and the legacy its building upon. Beyond the fundraising event, the spot will be used for awareness-building and as a tool to convey the Treehouse story in an emotive, powerful way.

 

A huge thanks to all of the organizations and people who donated services and time to make this project happen, including:

 

•Treehouse clients for doing a superb job sourcing and coordinating locations, casting and talent for the project. Emily Lubenow in particular put in countless hours finding talent, locations and sourcing props and did an amazing job.

 

•Our crew and project team who donated additional time and services.

 

•Blanchet High School, Fairview Christian School and All That Dance who donated locations and provided on-camera talent.

 

Project Credits:

Tom Skerritt, Narrator

Matthew Billings, Director + Editor

Jim Lombardo, Scriptwriter + Producer

Ty Migota, DP

Siobhan Macdona, Stylist

Scott Gwin, DIT + Grip

Miguel Cornelio, Casting + Props + Production Stills

Drew Hisey, PA

Eric Lee, PA

Nick Denke at Electric Muses, Music Composer + Audio Mix

  

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

"I think everything must go back to the fact I had a very anxious childhood. You know, my mother never had time for me. You know, when you're the middle child in a family of five million, you don't get any attention."

 

Quote from "Antz" 1998

Scriptwriter Mark Young

 

I wish the ants in India were more like the ants in Scotland ie happy to reside outside and not inside my home!

French postcard in the Collection 9.1/2 series by Editions Humour à la Carte, Paris, no. ST-63. Sent by mail in 2000.

 

French actor Bernard Giraudeau (1947-2010) was with his bright blue eyes one of the most attractive but also talented stars of the French cinema. For his roles, he was twice nominated for the French Oscar, Le César. Giraudeau also worked as film director, scriptwriter, producer and writer.

 

Bernard René Giraudeau was born in 1947 in La Rochelle, France. In 1963 the 15-years-old enlisted in the French navy as a trainee engineer, qualifying as the first in his class a year later. He completed two around the world cruises before his service ended. He served on the helicopter carrier Jeanne d'Arc in 1964–1965 and 1965–1966, and subsequently on the frigate Duquesne and the aircraft carrier Clemenceau before leaving the navy to try his luck as an actor. He studied acting at the CNSAD (Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique). Giraudeau first appeared on film in the Franco-Italian crime film Deux hommes dans la ville/Two men in Town (José Giovanni, 1973) starring Jean Gabin and Alain Delon. He played a kidnapper in Revolver (Sergio Sollima, 1973) with Oliver Reed. Two years later he had a supporting part in another crime drama by José Giovanni, Le Gitan/The Gypsy (José Giovanni, 1975), starring Alain Delon and Annie Girardot. In 1977, he played the male lead in the coming-of-age erotic romantic drama Bilitis (1977) directed by photographer David Hamilton with a music score by Francis Lai. It starred Patti D'Arbanville as Bilitis. The film was shot in the soft-focus schmaltz style that was common of David Hamilton's photography. Giraudeau also co-starred with Jodie Foster in the French film Moi, fleur bleue/Stop Calling Me Baby! (Eric le Hung, 1977). He co-starred again with Alain Delon in the futuristic war film Le Toubib/The Medic (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1979), and appeared in the hit comedy Boum/The Party (Claude Pinoteau, 1980) with Sophie Marceau in her film début. Then followed his breakthrough as a handsome dashing officer who falls desperately in love with an ugly but passionate woman (Valeria d’Obici) in the Italian drama Passione d'amore/Passion of Love (Ettore Scola, 1981). The film was entered into the 1981 Cannes Film Festival and served as the inspiration for the 1994 Broadway musical Passion by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. Soon followed leading roles in international films like the French-Swiss drama Hecate (Daniel Schmid, 1982) with Lauren Hutton, the French-Canadian crime film Le Ruffian/The Ruffian (José Giovanni, 1983) also starring Lino Ventura and Claudia Cardinale, and the French drama L'année des méduses/The Year of the Jellyfish (Christopher Frank, 1985) with Valérie Kaprisky. Another box-office hit in France was the buddy-action film Les Spécialistes/The Specialists (Patrice Leconte, 1985). in which he co-starred with Gérard Lanvin. DB Dumonteil at IMDb: “A deft, energetic buddy movie interspersed with unexpected twists, suspenseful chases and stunts and a sharp humor into the bargain. Everything you could wish for to spend a comfortable evening in front of the telly without reservations. (…) One shouldn't forget the two main actors which contribute in making the film a little winner. Gérard Lanvin and Bernard Giraudeau are on top form.”

 

In 1987, Bernard Giraudeau made his first film as director the TV film La Face de l'ogre (1988), though he continued to work as an actor. He co-starred with Isabelle Huppert in the romance Après l'amour/Love After Love (Diane Kurys, 1992). In the drama Le Fils préferé/The Favourite Son (Nicole Garcia, 1994), he played the brother of Gérard Lanvin and Jean-Marc Barr. He also appeared in the lauded historical drama Ridicule (Patrice Leconte, 1996), set in the 18th century at the decadent court of Versailles. The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and received several César awards, but Giraudeau was only nominated as best Supporting Actor. He played Molière in another historical film, Marquise (Véra Belmont, 1997) with Sophie Marceau and Lambert Wilson. In Italy he appeared in the drama Marianna Ucrìa (Roberto Faenza, 1997). In France he starred in François Ozon’s drama Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes/Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000, based on a German play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Tropfen auf heisse Steine, written when he was 19 years old. Elbert Ventura at AllMovie: “The movie has an undercurrent of absurdist humor, but its laughs are muffled for the most part, with the exception being an out-of-left-field dance number that injects some needed energy into the dour, claustrophobic story. Beautifully structured and meticulously filmed, Water Drops on Burning Rocks is clearly the work of an intelligent filmmaker.”Also interesting is 'Une affaire de goût/A Question of Taste (Bernard Rapp, 2000). About the growing dependency between a rich CEO (Giraudeau) and a handsome young waiter (Jean-Pierre Lorit) whom the C|EO hires at an astronomical sum to serve as a personal food taster. David Anderson at Bunched Undies: “A Matter of Taste is a well-executed film: excellent production, nicely photographed and well-acted. But by the time it’s over, like the principle characters, you may find yourself feeling a bit empty.” The film received 5 César Award nominations, including nominations for Best Film and for Giraudeau as Best Actor.

 

As a writer, Bernard Giraudeau wrote the text of books of photography and published children's stories (Contes d'Humahuaca, 2002) and several novels. He was also the reader on the French audiobooks of the Harry Potter series. Since 1976, he was married to actress and author Anny Duperey, whom he had met while acting in the same play. They acted together on-screen in five productions, the TV series La nuit des Césars/The Night of the Césars (1976), the crime drama Le grand pardon/Grand Pardon (Alexandre Arcady, 1982), Meurtres à domicile/Evil in the house (Marc Lobet, 1982), La face de l'ogre (Bernard Giraudeau, 1988), and Contre l'oubli/Against Oblivion (Bernard Giraudeau a.o., 1991). They divorced in 1993. From 1996 to his death, he was the companion of Tohra Mahdavi. Giraudeau and Duperey had two children: son Gaël and daughter Sara. Sara Giraudeau achieved success as an actress. In 2000 Bernard Giraudeau suffered a cancer which led to the removal of his left kidney, with a subsequent metastasis in 2005 affecting his lungs. He said that the cancer led him to re-evaluate his life and understand himself better. He devoted some of his time to the support of cancer victims through the Institut Curie and the Institut Gustave-Roussy in Paris. His later films included La petite Lili/Little Lili (Claude Miller, 2003), featuring Ludivine Sagnier, the comedy Ce jour-là/That Day (Raúl Ruiz, 2003), and . the thriller Je suis un assassin/The Hook (Thomas Vincent, 2004) with François Cluzet and Karin Viard. In 2010, Bernard Giraudeau died of his cancer in a Paris hospital. He was 63.

 

Sources: David Anderson (Bunched Undies), DB Dumonteil (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

前排左起：編劇黃子桓、演員吳尊、林峯、于波及周渝民；後排左起：演員鄭伊健、電影策劃沈月明、導演于仁泰、監製黃百鳴、主角鄭少秋及天馬電影行政總裁莊澄。

Front row, from left: scriptwriter Edmund WONG, actors WU Chun, Raymond LAM, YU Bo and Vic CHOU; 2nd row, from left: actor Ekin CHENG, associate producer Annette SHUM, director Ronny YU, producer Raymond WONG, actor Adam CHENG and CEO of Pegasus Motion Pictures John CHONG.

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

Production stills for Seattle based creative agency and film and video production company Spin Creative. The production stills feature behind the scenes of a shoot for a Treehouse brand film and commercial shot in February 2013 on the Canon C300. Treehouse is a Seattle-based non-profit committed to improving the lives of kids living in foster care. The film will debut at the Treehouse annual fundraising luncheon, “Champions for Foster Kids,” on March 20th at the Seattle Sheraton.

 

The brand film that Spin Creative is crafting will be constructed in TV commercial form and will have multiple uses and delivery channels after its initial viewing at the “Champions” event. Spin developed the creative strategy and script for the spot and tells the story of who Treehouse is today, its future and the legacy its building upon. Beyond the fundraising event, the spot will be used for awareness-building and as a tool to convey the Treehouse story in an emotive, powerful way.

 

A huge thanks to all of the organizations and people who donated services and time to make this project happen, including:

 

•Treehouse clients for doing a superb job sourcing and coordinating locations, casting and talent for the project. Emily Lubenow in particular put in countless hours finding talent, locations and sourcing props and did an amazing job.

 

•Our crew and project team who donated additional time and services.

 

•Blanchet High School, Fairview Christian School and All That Dance who donated locations and provided on-camera talent.

 

Project Credits:

Tom Skerritt, Narrator

Matthew Billings, Director + Editor

Jim Lombardo, Scriptwriter + Producer

Ty Migota, DP

Siobhan Macdona, Stylist

Scott Gwin, DIT + Grip

Miguel Cornelio, Casting + Props + Production Stills

Drew Hisey, PA

Eric Lee, PA

Nick Denke at Electric Muses, Music Composer + Audio Mix

  

Gor Greg!

 

Spanish postcard by Postalcolor, Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 123, 1964. Photo: Sirman Press. Nancy Kwan in Flower Drum Song (Henry Koster, 1961).

 

Chinese-American actress Nancy Kwan (1939) played a pivotal role in the acceptance of actors of Asian ancestry in major Hollywood film roles. She is best known for her debut as a free-spirited Hong Kong prostitute who captivates artist William Holden in The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine, 1960). She followed it the next year with the hit musical, Flower Drum Song (1961). Kwan spent the 1960s commuting between film roles in America and Europe.

 

Nancy Kwan Ka Shen (Chinese: 關家蒨) was born in Hong Kong in 1939 and grew up in Kowloon Tong. She is the daughter of Kwan Wing Hong, a Cantonese architect and Marquita Scott, a European model of English and Scottish ancestry. Kwan has an older brother, Ka Keung. In fear of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during World War II, Wing Hong, in the guise of a coolie, escaped from Hong Kong to North China in Christmas 1941 with his two children, whom he hid in wicker baskets. Kwan and her brother were transported by servants, evading Japanese sentries. They remained in exile in western China for five years until the war ended, after which they returned to Hong Kong and lived in a spacious, contemporary home her father designed. Scott escaped to England and never rejoined the family. Kwan's parents divorced when she was two years old. Her mother later moved to New York and married an American. Remaining in Hong Kong with the children, her father married a Chinese woman, whom Kwan called "Mother". Her father and her stepmother raised her, in addition to her brother and five half-brothers and half-sisters Five of Kwan's siblings became lawyers. Kwan attended the Catholic Maryknoll Convent School until she was 13 years old, after which she travelled to Kingsmoor School in Glossop, England a boarding school that her brother, Ka Keung, was then attending. Her brother studied to become an architect and she studied to become a dancer, soon also at the Royal Ballet School in London. Afterward, she travelled back to Hong Kong, where she started a ballet school. Stage producer Ray Stark posted an advertisement in the Hong Kong Tiger Standard (later renamed The Standard) regarding auditions for the character Suzie Wong for a play. Kwan was discovered by Stark in a film studio constructed by her architect father. After auditioning for Stark, she was asked to screen test to play a character in the film The World of Suzie Wong. Kwan did three screen tests, and a deadlock existed between whether to choose Kwan or France Nuyen, who played Suzie Wong on stage. Owing to Kwan's lack of acting experience, at Stark's request, she travelled to the United States, where she attended acting school in Hollywood and resided in the Hollywood Studio Club, a chaperoned dormitory, with other junior actresses. She later moved to New York. Kwan signed a seven-year contract with Stark's Seven Arts Productions at a beginning salary of $300 a week though she was not given a distinct role. When The World of Suzie Wong began to tour, Kwan was assigned the part of a bargirl. In addition to her small supporting character role, Kwan became an understudy for France Nuyen. Though Stark and the male lead William Holden preferred Kwan, despite her somewhat apprehensive demeanor during the screen test, she did not get the role. Paramount favored the eminent France Nuyen, who had been widely praised for her performance in the film South Pacific (1958) Stark acquiesced to Paramount's wishes. Nuyen received the role and Kwan later took the place of Nuyen on Broadway. In a September 1960 interview with Associated Press journalist Bob Thomas, she said, "I was bitterly disappointed, and I almost quit and went home when I didn't get the picture." In 1959, one month after Nuyen was selected for the film role and while Kwan was touring in Toronto, Stark told her to screen test again for the film. Nuyen, who was in an unstable relationship with Marlon Brando, had a nervous breakdown and was fired from the role because of her erratic actions. The film's director, Jean Negulesco, was fired and replaced by Richard Quine. Kwan began filming in London with co-star William Holden.

 

The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine, 1960) was a "box-office sensation". Critics lavished praise on Kwan for her performance. She was given the nickname "Chinese Bardot" for her unforgettable dance performance. Kwan and two other actresses, Ina Balin and Hayley Mills, were awarded the Golden Globe for the "Most Promising Newcomer–Female" in 1960. Scholar Jennifer Leah Chan of New York University wrote that Suzie provided an Asian actress—Kwan—with the most significant Hollywood role since actress Anna May Wong's success in the 1920s. Kwan was on the October 1960 cover of Life, cementing her status as an eminent sex symbol in the 1960s. In 1961, Nancy Kwan starred in Flower Drum Song (Henry Koster, 1961) in a related role. The film, based on the Broadway musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, was distinguished for being the first major Hollywood feature film with an all-Asian cast. It would be also the last film to do so for more than 30 years. Her prior ballet education provided a strong foundation for her role in Flower Drum Song, where she had much space to dance. After starring in The World of Suzie Wong and Flower Drum Song, Kwan's fame peaked in 1962. As a Hollywood icon, Kwan lived in a house atop Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. She commuted in a white British sports car and danced to Latin verses. The 22-years-old Kwan was dating Swiss actor Maximilian Schell. Kwan's success in her early career was not mirrored in later years, due to the cultural nature of 1960s America. Kwan had to journey to Europe and Hong Kong to escape the ethnic typecasting in Hollywood that confined her largely to Asian roles in spite of her Eurasian appearance. Her third film was the British drama The Main Attraction (Daniel Petrie, 1962) with Pat Boone. She played an Italian circus performer who was the love interest of Boone's character. While she was filming in the Austrian Alps, she met Peter Pock, a hotelier and ski teacher, with whom she immediately fell in love. After several weeks, the two married and resided in Innsbruck, Austria. Kwan later gave birth to Bernhard "Bernie" Pock. Her contract with Seven Arts led her to travel around the world to make films. In 1963, Kwan starred as the title character of the comedy Tamahine (Philip Leacock, 1963), opposite Dennis Price. She played an English-Tahitian ward of the headmaster at an old English public school. In the aviation disaster film Fate Is the Hunter (Ralph Nelson, 1964), her seventh film, Kwan played an ichthyologist opposite Glenn Ford. It was her first role as a Eurasian character. Kwan's roles were predominantly comic characters. She divorced Peter Pock in 1968. Kwan met Bruce Lee when he choreographed the martial arts moves in the spy comedy The Wrecking Crew (Phil Karlson, 1969), starring Dean Martin as Matt Helm. In Kwan's role in the film, she fought the character played by Sharon Tate by throwing a flying kick. Her martial arts move was based not on karate training, but on her dance foundation. In 2019, the film was referenced and briefly seen in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which Tate is shown enjoying the film at the Fox Bruin Theater. She became close friends with Lee and met his wife and two children. In the 1970s, both Kwan and Lee returned to Hong Kong, where they carried on their companionship.

 

Nancy Kwan married Hollywood scriptwriter David Giler in July 1970 in a civil ceremony in Carson City, Nevada. That year, Kwan returned to Hong Kong with her son because her father was sick. She initially intended to remain for one year to assist him, but ultimately remained for about seven years. In 1972 she divorced Giler. She did not stop her work, starring as Dr. Sue in the action film Wonder Women (Robert Vincent O'Neil, 1973), Supercock (Gus Trikonis, 1975), and Fear/Night Creature (Lee Madden, 1978) with Donald Pleasance and Ross Hagen. The latter introduced her to filmmaker Norbert Meisel, who became her third husband. . While in Hong Kong, Kwan founded a production company, Nancy Kwan Films, which made dozens of commercials for the Southeast Asia market. In 1979, she returned to the United States, because Kwan wanted her son Bernie to finish his schooling there. There she played characters in the television series Fantasy Island (1978), Knots Landing (1984), and The A-Team (1986). In 1987, Nancy Kwan co-owned the dim sum restaurant, Joss. Kwan, producer Ray Stark, and restaurateur and Hong Kong film director Cecile Tang financed the restaurant, located on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. In 1993, Kwan played Gussie Yang, a tough-talking, soft-hearted Hong Kong restaurateur, in the fictional Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (Rob Cohen, 1993). starring Jason Scott Lee. She played a pivotal role in the film, a character based on Seattle restaurateur and political leader Ruby Chow who hires Bruce Lee as a dishwasher and gives him the funds to open a martial arts school. She also wrote, directed, and starred in a film about Eurasians, Loose Woman With No Face (Nancy Kwan, 1993). She was asked about whether she was confronted with racism as a leading Asian Hollywood actress in the 1960s. Kwan replied, "That was 30 years ago and (prejudice) wasn't such a heavy issue then. I was just in great Broadway productions that were turned into films. I personally never felt any racial problems in Hollywood." In the 1990s, she faced a severe shortage of strong roles. She attributed this to both her age and the movie enterprise's aversion to selecting Asians for non-Asian roles. In earlier years, she was able to play an Italian and a Tahitian. She passed on a role in The Joy Luck Club (1993) because the filmmakers refused to excise a line calling The World of Suzie Wong a "...horrible racist film". In 1993, Kwan co-starred in the two-character play Arthur and Leila about two siblings who struggle with their Chinese identities, and in 1994 she assumed the role of 52-year-old Martha in Singapore Repertory Theatre's showing of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' by Edward Albee. She and her husband produced the feature film Biker Poet. of which Bernie was the director and an actor. In 1996, when he was 33, Kwan's son, Bernie, died after contracting AIDS. Four years after his death, poet and actress Amber Tamblyn compiled her debut poetry book 'Of the Dawn' and dedicated it to Pock. She acted in the film Biker Poet with him when she was nine. Into the 1990s, Kwan appeared on television commercials and appeared in infomercials as the spokesperson for the cosmetic Oriental Pearl Cream. Kwan has been involved in philanthropy for AIDS awareness. In 1997, she published 'A Celebration of Life – Memories of My Son'. In 2006, Kwan reunited with Flower Drum Song co-star James Shigeta to perform A. R. Gurney's two-person play Love Letters. Kwan appeared in the documentary Hollywood Chinese (Arthur Dong, 2007). Kwan and her husband Norbert Meisel wrote, directed, and produced Ray of Sunshine (Norbert Meisel, 2007), a Bildungsroman film starring Cheyenne Rushing and with Kwan in a supporting role. Kwan wrote an introduction for the 2008 book 'For Goodness Sake: A Novel of the Afterlife of Suzie Wong' by James Clapp. During her career, Kwan has appeared in two television series and over 50 films. Kwan currently resides in Los Angeles and has family members in Hong Kong. She recently appeared in the feature Paint It Black (Amber Tamblyn, 2016), and the documentary Be Water (Bao Nguyen, 2020) about Bruce Lee.

 

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Production stills for Seattle based creative agency and film and video production company Spin Creative. The production stills feature behind the scenes of a shoot for a Treehouse brand film and commercial shot in February 2013 on the Canon C300. Treehouse is a Seattle-based non-profit committed to improving the lives of kids living in foster care. The film will debut at the Treehouse annual fundraising luncheon, “Champions for Foster Kids,” on March 20th at the Seattle Sheraton.

 

The brand film that Spin Creative is crafting will be constructed in TV commercial form and will have multiple uses and delivery channels after its initial viewing at the “Champions” event. Spin developed the creative strategy and script for the spot and tells the story of who Treehouse is today, its future and the legacy its building upon. Beyond the fundraising event, the spot will be used for awareness-building and as a tool to convey the Treehouse story in an emotive, powerful way.

 

A huge thanks to all of the organizations and people who donated services and time to make this project happen, including:

 

•Treehouse clients for doing a superb job sourcing and coordinating locations, casting and talent for the project. Emily Lubenow in particular put in countless hours finding talent, locations and sourcing props and did an amazing job.

 

•Our crew and project team who donated additional time and services.

 

•Blanchet High School, Fairview Christian School and All That Dance who donated locations and provided on-camera talent.

 

Project Credits:

Tom Skerritt, Narrator

Matthew Billings, Director + Editor

Jim Lombardo, Scriptwriter + Producer

Ty Migota, DP

Siobhan Macdona, Stylist

Scott Gwin, DIT + Grip

Miguel Cornelio, Casting + Props + Production Stills

Drew Hisey, PA

Eric Lee, PA

Nick Denke at Electric Muses, Music Composer + Audio Mix

  

Dutch freecard by Boomerang, no. P 20-09. Photo: VPRO. Arjan Ederveen and Tosca Niterink as Theo & Thea. Caption: Have you ever won liverwurst too? Card to promote the Theo & Thea TV marathon on 3 October 2009.

 

Arjan Ederveen (1956) is a Dutch actor, comedian, TV scriptwriter and TV director. He participated in the classical satirical Dutch TV series Theo en Thea / Theo and Thea (1985-1989), Kreatief met Kurk / Creative with Cork (1993-1994) and 30 minuten / 30 Minutes (1995-1997). He also played in the stage musicals 'Hairspray' and 'Lang en Gelukkig' (Happily Ever After) and appeared in several films.

 

Arjan Ederveen Janssen was born in 1956 in Hilversum, The Netherlands. His mother, Greetje van Schaik, was an actress, who appeared in the popular radio show De bonte dinsdagavondtrein. He had two brothers, who both died young, respectively of AIDS and a rare blood disease. Ederveen did his high school education at Comenius College in Hilversum. During a school project, he made his first film, Appel aan de Stok: De Musical (1971). With this film, he won a local film competition. Ederveen studied at the Academie voor Kleinkunst in Amsterdam where he met fellow student Kees Prins. After graduating, they started their career together as The Duos. Between 1981 and 1984, they created four theatre performances and the television programme De Duo's doen alsof / The Duos are pretending. Ederveen made his screen debut in the German Werktheater production Waldeslust / Bosch en Lucht (Friedrich Schaller, 1981) with Joop Admiraal and Kees Prins. He also appeared in two Dutch films, the Virginia Woolf adaptation Golven / Waves (Annette Apon, 1981) and another Werktheater production, Een zwoele zomeravond / A Hot Summer Night (Frans Weisz, Shireen Strooker, 1982) with Gerard Thoolen. He also played a bellboy in the American comedy Still Smokin' (Tommy Chong, 1983) in which Cheech and Chong fly to the marijuana capital of the world, Amsterdam. Together with Tosca Niterink, Ederveen formed a new TV duo Theo & Thea (Robert Wiering, Pieter Kramer, 1985-1989). The characters became hugely famous in The Netherlands and a whole generation remembers the duo with the big front teeth. Although Theo & Thea was a children's programme, it also became popular among students. Incidentally, the series was not always popular with parents. The programme was criticised for its adult themes, such as drugs, sexual harassment and prostitution. Theo and Thea returned in the film Theo en Thea en de Ontmaskering van het Tenenkaasimperium / Theo and Thea and the Unmasking of the Toe Cheese Empire (Pieter Kramer, 1989) with Adèle Bloemendaal and Marco Bakker. Other features in which Ederveen appeared were Everybody Wants to Help Ernest (Alejandro Agresti, 1991) and Filmpje! (Paul Ruven, 1995) starring Paul de Leeuw. In the 1990s Ederveen made the mockumentary TV series Kreatief met Kurk / Creative with Cork (Pieter Kramer, 1993-1994), 30 minuten / 30 Minutes (Pieter Kramer, 1995-1997) and Borreltijd / Schnaps Time (Pieter Kramer, 1996), in which he also played recurring roles. All his shows were critically praised. Especially 30 minuten, a stylistic satire of documentaries and reality television, earned Ederveen and director Pieter Kramer several awards, including the Zilveren Nipkowschijf (Silver Nipkow Disk) and a Gouden Kalf (Golden Calf). The title refers to its half-hour length and was inspired by the BBC documentary series Sixty Minutes. The series is filmed in a mockumentary style with tragicomic undertones.

 

In 2001, Arjan Ederveen starred in a spin-off of 30 minuten, 25 minuten / 25 Minutes (Pieter Kramer, 2001), which was more absurd in its mockumentary style. In 2004, he wrote and acted in the VPRO television series De Troubabroers (Pieter Kramer, 2004), together with Alex Klaasen. The following year, he made the garden show Wroeten / Rooting (Lernert Engelberts, 2005). Ederveen also took part in several children's films, including as the choreographer in the musical Ja zuster, nee zuster / Yes Nurse! No Nurse! (Pieter Kramer, 2002) starring Loes Luca, chemist Geelman in Pietje Bell / Peter Bell (Maria Peters, 2002), Mr. Pen and his brother, a hermit, in Pluk van de Petteflet / Puffin's Pluck (Ben Sombogaart, Pieter van Rijn, 2004) and Professor Lupardi in Kapitein Rob en het Geheim van Professor Lupardi / Captain Rob and the secret of Professor Lupardi (Hans Pos, 2007) with Thijs Römer en Katja Schuurman. In 2010 he was a recurring panel member in the game show Wie van de drie? / To Tell the Truth. Besides his television and film work, Ederveen was also active as a stage actor. He performed the role of Cinderella's stepmother in the Ro Theater's show 'Lang en Gelukkig', which was also filmed as Lang & Gelukkig / Happily Ever After (Pieter Kramer, 2010). He played Fabio, the right-hand man of the Greek goddess Hera, in 'Hera, de goddelijke musical' (Hera, the Divine Musical) (2008-2009). In 2009, he starred with Jack Wouterse at the Ro Theatre in the play 'Tocht' (Journey), an Easter play he wrote himself. In the 2009/2010 season, he performed the role of Edna Turnblad in the musical 'Hairspray'. In the 2010/2011 season, he wrote and starred in the Ro Theatre's play 'Moord in de Kerststal' (Murder in the Nativity Scene). In 2018, he played the role of Pontius Pilate in The Passion (David Grifhorst, 2018). As a voice actor, Ederveen provided the voice of Rex in the Dutch version of Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) and the sequels. He also dubbed Gonzo in The Muppets (James Bobin, 2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (James Bobin, 2014) as well as Vlad in Hotel Transylvania 2 (Genndy Tartakovsky, 2015) and Hotel Transylvania 3 (Genndy Tartakovsky, 2018). Ederveen played Doctor Feelgood in My Foolish Heart (Rolf van Eijk, 2018) about the mysterious demise of jazz icon Chet Baker and he was James in the comedy Bon Bini: Judeska in da House (Jonathan Herman, 2020) starring Jandino Asporaat. Last year, Arjan Ederveen appeared in the television show The Masked Singer. He also played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in Scrooge Live (David Grifhorst, 2024). This year, he appeared in the American film Jimpa (Sophie Hyde, 2025) starring John Lithgow and Olivia Coleman. The film is a celebration of LGBTQI+ culture. Arjan Ederveen is openly gay and has an American husband, Howie.

 

Sources: Theater.nl (Dutch), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

It all started in 1994. TV scriptwriter Stefan Struik had an interview with a meditating hermit in Baarn (NL) who was complaining about gnomes who disturbed the power network in his house. A month later he ran into trolls in a Norwegian clothing store in the Dutch-Frisian village Dokkum. A year before he got surprised by the amount of one meter high garden gnomes just across the border between Germany and Poland. It all seemed to point into a new direction he would hit a few months later. In December 1994 he opened with his sister a small game and bookstore in Delft (NL), named Elf Fantasy Shop. The games were a golden opportunity. Three years later the duo could open an second store in The Hague.

 

In 1995 Stefan also started a new adventure with a free magazine called Elf Fantasy Magazine. In 2001 the magazine became professionalized and despite it never realised any profits it existed until 2009.

 

Stefan and his sister already organised lectures in the Elf Fantasy Shops about druidism, Tolkien and other fantasy related subjects. In 2001 Stefan decided to combine a few things into a totally new and unique festival concept that later would be copied many times: the Elf Fantasy fair. Starting in the historical theme parc Archeon (NL) it moved the year after to the largest castle in the Netherlands: castle de Haar. With the exception of 2004 (castle Keukenhof, Lisse) it remained in castle de Haar, Haarzuilens since then. In 2009 a second version of the Elf Fantasy Fair started 400 meters from the border with Germany in the small village Arcen in Northern Limburg. In January 2013 the name Elf Fantasy Fair™ was replaced by the name Elfia™. The spring edition of Elfia is also called the 'Light Edition', while the autumn edition is characterized as the 'dark edition'.

 

The legendary Ian Smokie Gray, musician, raconteur and Beano chief sub and scriptwriter, was in the foreground of this picture in June, 2005, showing cheques being presented after a revival of Arbroath Folk Club nights.

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.

I was born in 1989 in Estonia.

 

I have Estonian citizenship but a Danish father. I have lived in different countries (Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Denmark) because my father was a diplomat.

I became an author as a result of the passing of my mother who died of cancer in 2006 after seven years of illness.

 

Who am I?

 

I believe I am a friendly guy. I would personally say that I have no humor. Though I think people around me would say that is debatable. I have a passion for learning and trying out new things. People might find me punctual at times. I have a tendency to appear at least one hour before the start of the meeting.

 

It started from these extra classes of French I took while I visited my father and my little brother in Brussels (Saint Job). Apparently from Saint Job there were only two trains I could pick either to come two hours before or then 5 minutes late. I picked the first alternative.

 

About True Story of Dracula:

 

True Story of Dracula is a horror book. It is written as if Dracula had existed. So it starts with Vlad III, from his early childhood, and tries to give him a character one can relate to, until the moment he was killed and how he was transformed into Dracula. How Dracula was and acted among his fellow humans. Not to forget how he managed to stay hidden for all those years.

 

Then we begin with the main plot of the book, a class from California traveling to Romania on a research trip. As they are to discover it turns from a research trip to a getaway trip.