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Shanghai Ballet: Echoes of Eternity
Shanghai Ballet presents 'Echoes of Eternity ' at the London Coliseum, choreographed by Patrick de Bana and inspired by the ancient Chinese poem ‘Song of Everlasting Sorrow. 7-21 August 2016.
Choreographer: Patrick de Bana
Set designer: Jaya Ibrahim
Costume designer: Agnes Letestu
Light designer: James Angot
Scriptwriter: Jean Francois Vazelle
Literature Consultant: Sifu TANG
Dancers:
Emperor: WU Husheng
Lady Yang: QI Bingxue
Moon Fairy: ZHAO Hanbing
Gao Lishi: ZHANG Yao
Chen Xuanli: WU Bin
An Lushan: ZHANG Wenjun
photo - © Foteini Christofilopoulou | All rights reserved | For all usage/licensing enquiries please contact www.foteini.com
I think I may have been her subject (in my dreams).
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Paparazzi tend to be independent contractors, unaffiliated with mainstream media organizations, and photos taken are usually done so by taking advantage of opportunities when they have sightings of high-profile people they're tracking. Some experts have described the behavior of paparazzi as synonymous with stalking, and anti-stalking bills in many countries address the issue by reducing harassment of public figures and celebrities, especially with their minor children. Some public figures and celebrities have expressed concern at the extent to which paparazzi go to invade their personal space. The filing and receiving of judicial support for restraining orders against paparazzi has increased, as have lawsuits with judgements against them.
A news photographer named Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita directed by Federico Fellini) is the eponym of the word "paparazzi". In his book Word and Phrase, Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini took the name from an Italian dialect word that describes a particularly annoying noise, that of a buzzing mosquito. As Fellini said in his interview to Time magazine, "Paparazzo ... suggests to me a buzzing insect, hovering, darting, stinging." Those versions of the word's origin are confirmed by Treccani, the most authoritative Italian encyclopaedia, but sometimes contested. For example, in the Abruzzi dialect spoken by Ennio Flaiano, co-scriptwriter of La Dolce Vita, the term "paparazzo" refers to the local clam (Venerupis decussata), and is also used as a metaphor for the shutter of a camera lens.
Due to the reputation of paparazzi as a nuisance, some states and countries restrict their activities by passing laws and curfews, and by staging events in which paparazzi are specifically not allowed to take photographs. In the United States, celebrity news organizations are protected by the First Amendment.
To protect the children of celebrities, California passed a new bill in September 2013. The purpose of the new bill is to stop paparazzi from taking pictures of children in a harassing manner, regardless of who their parents are. This new law increased the penalty on harassment and the penalty for harassment of children.
In 1972, paparazzo photographer Ron Galella sued Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis after the former First Lady ordered her Secret Service agents to destroy Galella's camera and film following an encounter in New York City's Central Park. Kennedy counter-sued claiming harassment. The trial lasted three weeks and became a groundbreaking case regarding photojournalism and the role of paparazzi. In Galella v. Onassis, Kennedy obtained a restraining order to keep Galella 150 feet (46 m) away from her and her children. The restriction later was dropped to 25 feet (7.6 m). The trial is a focal point in Smash His Camera, a 2010 documentary film by director Leon Gast.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 79. Photo: not indicated but could be made by Evans.
Charles Ray (1891-1943) was an American actor, scriptwriter, and director of the silent screen, who knew a parabole from rags to riches and back again, working for e.g. Paramount, his own company, United Artists and MGM. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, he was a very popular actor and one of Hollywood's best-paid stars.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. 2775. Photo: Franz Grainer, München. Grainer was a court photographer.
Ferdinand Bonn (1861-1933) was a German actor, playwright and theatre director. Between 1914 and 1932 he had a career in German and Austrian silent and early sound cinema.
Ferdinand Franz Josef Bonn, pseudonyms Florian Endli and Franz Baier, was born in 1861 in Donauwörth. He was the son of Franz and Bertha Bonn, née Promoli. Franz already wrote his own plays while still at school, in which he himself took part. In 1880 he graduated from the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich and began studying law at the University of Munich. He turned first to painting and then to acting. Bonn took acting lessons with Ernst Possart and made his debut in 1885 at the Nuremberg City Theatre as the Dervish in 'Nathan the Wise'. In the same year, he played at the Deutsches Theater in Moscow and stayed there for one season. Later he acted in Munich and at the Burgtheater in Vienna, where he became known as Hamlet, Franz Moor in 'Die Räuber', and Raskolnikov in 'Schuld und Sühne'.
In 1905 Ferdinand Bonn founded Ferdinand Bonn's Berliner Theater in Berlin. Numerous stage plays written by Bonn were premiered here. Bonn "professed an aesthetic style that deliberately employed an exuberant set and all kinds of stage effects." His directorship of the Berlin theatre lasted only two years and was, according to theatre historian Peter W. Marx, "artistically and economically a failure." Nevertheless, Bonn "made himself and his theatre the talk of the town," among other things by using live animals on stage. He adapted tales by Arthur Conan Doyle about the master detective Sherlock Holmes with himself as Holmes, namely 'Sherlock Holmes' in 1906, and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' and 'The Dancing Men' in 1907. His patriotic stage drama 'Der junge Fritz' was banned by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had attended another of the Sherlock Holmes performances, to which Bonn reacted strongly. In 1911, Bonn staged Shakespeare's drama 'Richard III' at the Circus Busch, taking the lead role himself. The spectacular performance, which was largely rejected by critics, was particularly marked by the use of numerous live horses, which earned Bonn the derisive name of "Pferdinand". He was forced to declare bankruptcy before the First World War and then went back to touring the theatre.
In the film Ferdinand Bonn started in some Danish productions, first as the scriptwriter of the Sherlock Holmes adaptation Millionobligationen (Nordisk, 1911), starring Alwin Neuss, but soon after acting as father figures in four Nordisk films directed by August Blom: Historien om en moder/The Tragedy of a Mother (1912) with Ragna Wettergreen, Hjærternes Kamp/ A High Stake (1912) also with Robert Dinesen and Else Fröhlich, Elskovs Magt/Man's Great Adversary (1913) with Valdemar Psilander, and Hans vanskeligste Rolle/His Most Difficult Part (1913) with again Dinesen and Fröhlich. He became famous in 1913 with Ludwig II. von Bayern/ Ludwig II of Bavaria, in which he not only played the title role but he also produced the film. He performed this film in a private screening for the King of Bavaria. It was highly acclaimed (but IMDB doesn't mention it). After four more films produced by his own company, Bon started to act in films by Richard Oswald: Lache, Bajazzo (1914), Die Geschichte der stillen Mühle (1914), and Hampels Abenteuer (1914), after which he acted in Max Mack's Der Katzensteg (1915). In Mack's film Robert und Bertram, die lustigen Vagabunden (1915), Ernst Lubitsch starred alongside him. During the First World War Bonn acted with various firms such as Berliner Film Manufaktur, Oliver, Deuko, and Frankfurter Film Co. With the latter, he starred as a famous elderly stage actor in Don Juans letztes Abenteuer (Heinz Carl Heiland, 1918). In the late 1910s, he did various films with Carl Heinz Wolff for the Kowo company, such as Die rätselhafte Sphinx (1919). and with Friedrich Zelnik and Karl Grüne for Zelnik's company Berliner Film-Manufaktur, such as Hölle der Jungfrauen (Zelnik, 1919), Menschen in Ketten (Grüne, 1919), and Manon (Zelnik 1920) with Lya Mara.
In 1920 Ferdinand Bonn once again portrayed the fairytale king Ludwig II in Das Schweigen am Starnberger See (Rolf Raffé, released 1921). Bonn played again under the direction of Richard Oswald. He preferred to play detectives and in 1919 he impersonated both Kaiser Wilhelm II and der Hauptmann von Köpenick in Kaiser Wilhelm's Glück und Ende (Willy Achsel, released 1920). In 1920 Bonn made one film in Hungary: Végszó by Miklós Pásztory. Between 1920 and 1924 he appeared in Austrian films (including two German-Austrian coproductions by Oswald, and the Jewish themed Der Fluch by Robert Land, 1924). From 1924 Bonn acted in German cinema again, but by now he got mostly only smaller roles, even if he still had two major supporting parts in Oswald's comedy Eine tolle Nacht (1926-27) with Ossi Oswalda and Harry Liedtke, and Victor Janson's comedy Donauwalzer (1929), Bonn's last silent film. In the sound era, Bonn still did a handful of films, but apart from So lang' noch ein Walzer von Strauß erklingt (Conrad Wiene, 1931), his roles were bit parts, even uncredited. He continued to act until his death in 1933, lastly in Friederike (Fritz Friedmann-Frederich, 1932). In his first marriage, Bonn was married to a sister of the opera singer Emma Moerdes.
Sources: Wikipedia (German), IMDb, and Filmdatabasen.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
French postcard. Festival International du Film. Cine Classics. Jane Marken as Mme Dufour and Jacques B. Brunius as Rodolphe in Une partie de campagne/ Partie de campagne (Jean Renoir, 1936), starring Sylvia Bataille and George Darnoux.
The film was based on a bittersweet tale by Guy de Maupassant. While the family Dufour visits the countryside, two young men court mother and daughter Dufour. Young Henriette (Bataille) thus gets her first kisses by Henri (Darnoux). Renoir's film was shot in 1936, but because of bad weather and loss of interest by Renoir, the film remained unfinished. In 1946 producer Pierre Braunberger had Marguerite Renoir and Marinette Cadix finish the editing and provided a haunting, romantic score by Joseph Kosma. The short film was released in France in 1946 and in the US in 1950. Meanwhile, it has become a classic.
Assistants to Renoir were, in addition to Brunius and Cartier-Bresson, also the future film directors Jacques Becker, Yves Allégret, Claude Heymann, and future stage and screen director Luchino Visconti - whose first professional film job this was. Renoir's son Alain played a small role in the film, while Claude Renoir, son of Jean Renoir's brother Pierre, did the cinematography. A passing priest and three seminarians were played by writer & scriptwriter Pierre Lestringuez, Cartier-Bresson, Becker, and the philosopher George Bataille, Sylvia Bataille's husband.
Dutch postcard, no. P. 13730. Photo: M.G.M.
Between 1914 and 1958, Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959) made 70 silent and sound films. He is a founding father of the American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. DeMille is synonymous with religious epics: The Ten Commandments (1923 and 1956), The King of Kings (1927), and Samson and Delilah (1949). He blended spectacle, sex, and spellbinding narrative to convey a message of faith. His silent films also included social dramas, comedies, and Westerns. DeMille created the image of the omnipotent director, megaphone in hand, wearing boots and a visored cap. DeMille created numerous stars: Wallace Reid, Gloria Swanson, William Boyd, Claudette Colbert, Jean Arthur, and Charlton Heston.
Cecil Blount DeMille was born in 1881 in a boarding house on Main Street in Ashfield, Massachusetts, where his parents had been vacationing for the summer. He was the second of three children of Henry Churchill DeMille and his wife Matilda Beatrice DeMille. His brother, William C. DeMille, was born in 1878. Cecil grew up in New York City where his father worked as a playwright, administrator, and faculty member during the early years of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, established in New York City in 1884. DeMille's mother Beatrice was a literary agent and scriptwriter. Henry DeMille frequently collaborated with David Belasco when playwriting. Cecil gained his love of theatre while watching his father and Belasco rehearse their plays. His father died when he was 12, and his mother supported the family by opening a school for girls and a theatrical company. DeMille attended and graduated in 1900 from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he attended for free due to his father's service to the Academy. His graduation performance was the play 'The Arcady Trail'. In the audience was Charles Frohman who would cast DeMille in his play 'Hearts are Trumps', DeMille's Broadway debut. For twelve years he was actor/manager of his mother's theatrical company. At the age of twenty-one, Cecil B. DeMille married actress Constance Adams in 1902. They had a daughter, Cecilia, in 1908, who would be his only biological child. DeMille performed on stage with actors whom he would later direct in films: Charlotte Walker, Mary Pickford, and Pedro de Cordoba. In the 1910s, he began to direct stage productions. A collaboration of DeMille and Jesse Lasky, who was then a vaudeville producer, produced a successful musical called 'California' which opened in New York in January 1912. DeMille also produced many flops and he became disinterested in working in theatre. DeMille's passion for film was ignited when he watched the French film Les Amours de la Reine Élisabeth/Queen Elizabeth (Henri Desfontaines, Louis Mercanton, 1912) starring Sarah Bernhardt and Lou Tellegen. Desiring a change of scene, Cecil B. DeMille, Jesse Lasky, Sam Goldfish (later Samuel Goldwyn), and a group of East Coast businessmen created the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company in 1913 over which DeMille became director-general. His first film was The Squaw Man (Oscar Apfel, Cecil B. DeMille, 1914), with Dustin Farnum in the lead role. It was also the first full-length feature film shot in Hollywood. Its interracial love story made it commercially successful and it first publicised Hollywood as the home of the American film industry. DeMille's next project was the comedy Brewster's Millions (Oscar Apfel, Cecil B. DeMille, 1914), which was wildly successful. Cecil B. DeMille's second film credited exclusively to him was the Western The Virginian (1914), again starring Dustin Farnum. DeMille had directed twenty films by 1915, including successes as Rose of the Rancho (Cecil B. De Mille, 1914) with Bessie Barriscale, and the haunted-house horror film The Ghost Breaker (Cecil B. DeMille, Oscar C. Apfel, 1914). Wikipedia: "DeMille adapted Belasco's dramatic lighting techniques to film technology, mimicking moonlight with U.S. cinema's first attempts at "motivated lighting" in The Warrens of Virginia. This was the first of few film collaborations with his brother William." DeMille also created the posts of studio story editor, art director, and concept artist. In December 1914, Constance Adams brought home John DeMille, a fifteen-month-old, whom the couple legally adopted three years later. DeMille's most successful film was The Cheat (Cecil B. De Mille, 1916) with Fannie Ward and Sessue Hayakawa. DeMille's direction in the film was acclaimed. In 1916, the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company, becoming Famous Players-Lasky. Zukor became president with Lasky as the vice president. DeMille was maintained as director-general and Goldwyn became chairman of the board. One of its first successes was the historical epic Joan the Woman (Cecil B. De Mille, 1916) with Geraldine Farrar. It was the first film to use the Handschiegl Color Process. In 1920, DeMille and Adams adopted Katherine Lester whom Adams had found in the orphanage over which she was the director. In 1922, the couple adopted Richard DeMille.
After five years and thirty hit films, Cecil DeMille became the American film industry's most successful director. DeMille's trademark scenes included bathtubs, lion attacks, and Roman orgies. A number of his films featured scenes in two-color Technicolor. His first biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. De Mille, 1923) starring Theodore Roberts, was both a critical and commercial success. The film was produced on a large budget of $600,000, the most expensive production at Paramount. However, the film turned out to be the studio's highest-grossing film. It held the Paramount revenue record for twenty-five years. When a censorship board called the Hays Code was established, DeMille's depiction of on-screen immorality came under fire. DeMille left Paramount in 1924 despite having helped establish it. Instead, he joined the Producers Distributing Corporation. DeMille directed The King of Kings (Cecil B. De Mille, 1927), a biography of Jesus, which gained approval for its sensitivity and reached more than 800 million viewers. The Kings of Kings established DeMille as "master of the grandiose and of biblical sagas". In the silent era, he was further renowned for Male and Female (Cecil DeMille, 1919) with Thomas Meighan and Gloria Swanson, Manslaughter (Cecil DeMille, 1922) with Meighan and Leatrice Joy, The Volga Boatman (Cecil DeMille, 1926) with William Boyd, and The Godless Girl (Cecil DeMille, 1928) with Marie Prevost. When sound film was introduced in 1928, Cecil B. DeMille made a successful transition. He devised a microphone boom and a soundproof camera blimp and also popularised the camera crane. The Sign of the Cross (Cecil B. DeMille, 1932) is said to be the first sound film to integrate all aspects of cinematic technique. Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934) was his first film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. From 1936 to 1945 he hosted and directed the hour-long 'Lux Radio Theatre', which brought the actors and stories of many films to the airwaves and further established him as the symbol of Hollywood. In these years, his fame as a filmmaker was surpassed by his fame as a radio star. In 1939, Union Pacific (Cecil B. DeMille, 1939) was successful through DeMille's collaboration with the Union Pacific Railroad. The Union Pacific gave DeMille access to historical data, early period trains, and expert crews, adding to the authenticity of the film. DeMille first used three-strip Technicolor in North West Mounted Police (Cecil B. DeMille, 1940). DeMille wanted to film in Canada; however, due to budget constraints, the film was instead shot in Oregon and Hollywood. Critics were impressed with the visuals but found the scripts dull, calling it DeMille's "poorest Western". Despite the criticism, it was Paramount's highest-grossing film of the year. In 1942, DeMille released Paramount's most successful film, Reap the Wild Wind (Cecil B. DeMille, 1942). It was produced with a large budget and contained many special effects including an electronically operated giant squid. DeMille's subsequent film Unconquered (Cecil B. DeMille, 1947) had the longest running time (146 minutes), longest filming schedule (102 days) and largest budget of $5 million. The sets and effects were so realistic that 30 extras needed to be hospitalised due to a scene with fireballs and flaming arrows. It was commercially very successful.
After more than thirty years in film production, Cecil DeMille reached a pinnacle in his career with Samson and Delilah (Cecil DeMille, 1949), starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. This biblical epic with sex became the highest-grossing film of 1950. He appeared as himself in the classic Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) with his former star Gloria Swanson as the fictitious disturbed former silent film actress Norma Desmond. DeMille received his first nomination for the Oscar for Best Director for his circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth (Cecil DeMille, 1952), starring James Stewart, Cornel Wilde, and Betty Hutton. It won both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey were paid $250,000 for use of the title and facilities. DeMille toured with the circus while helping write the script. Noisy and bright, it was not well-liked by critics but was a favorite among audiences. His last and best-known film, The Ten Commandments (Cecil DeMille, 1956). It was the longest (3 hours, 39 minutes) and most expensive ($13 million) film in Paramount history. The Exodus scene was filmed on-site in Egypt with the use of four Technicolor-VistaVision cameras filming 12,000 people. They continued filming in 1955 in Paris and Hollywood on 30 different sound stages. Post-production lasted a year and the film premiered in Salt Lake City. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, it grossed over $80 million, which surpassed the gross of The Greatest Show on Earth and every other film in history, except for Gone with the Wind. In 1954, while in Egypt filming the Exodus sequence, the 73-year-old DeMille climbed a 33 m ladder to the top of the massive Per Rameses set and suffered a serious heart attack. Despite the urging of his associate producer, DeMille wanted to return to the set right away. DeMille developed a plan with his doctor to allow him to continue directing while reducing his physical stress. Although DeMille completed the film, his health was diminished by several more heart attacks, and this film would be his last. Due to his frequent heart attacks, DeMille asked his son-in-law, actor Anthony Quinn, to direct a remake of his 1938 film The Buccaneer. DeMille served as executive producer, overseeing producer Henry Wilcoxon. Cecil B. De Mille died in 1959 following a heart attack. He was entombed at the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery, now known as Hollywood Forever. In addition to his Best Picture Awards, Cecil B. DeMille received an Academy Honorary Award for his film contributions, the Palme d'Or (posthumously) for Union Pacific (1939), a DGA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was the first recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, which was named in his honour. DeMille’s authority extended beyond the confines of his studio. He was a power in aviation, banking, politics, and real estate, and he was one of the 36 co-founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Although married to wife Constance Adams for fifty-six years, DeMille had long-term affairs with two other women: writer Jeanie Macpherson and actress Julia Faye, occasionally entertaining both women simultaneously on his yacht or his ranch. His wife knew of the affairs but preferred to live with their children in the main house.
Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), CecilBDeMille.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Dr. Charles E. Gannon’s award-winning Caine Riordan/Terran Republic hard sf novels have, to date, all have been Nebula finalists and national best-sellers. The fourth in the series, Caine’s Mutiny, will be available in February 2017.
His epic fantasy series, The Broken World, is forthcoming from Baen Books.
Dr. Gannon is a Distinguished Professor of English at St. Bonaventure University. He holds degrees from Brown, Syracuse, and Fordham. A Fulbright Senior Specialist from 2004 to 2009,
he held Fulbright Fellowships in England, Scotland, and the Czech Republic.
Chuck also received Fulbright and Embassy Travel grants to these countries as well as
The Netherlands, Slovakia, England, and Italy.
Dr. Gannon belongs to SIGMA, the "SF think-tank" that advises intelligence and defense agencies. He has been a featured expert on the Discovery Channel and NPR.
He has also been a scriptwriter/producer in New York City for clients such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and PBS.
Here’s Chuck’s site.
Here’s our site to register for the Con.
Italian postcard. Photo: G. De Virgiliis, Genova. Annibale Betrone as Liliom in the play 'La leggenda di Liliom' by Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. Liliom was one of Betrone's best-known stage roles.
Annibale Betrone (1883-1950) was an Italian film, stage, and radio actor, who did some silent films but was rather highly active in Italian sound cinema of the 1930s and 1940s.
Annibale Betrone was born in Turin in 1883. Unlike many of his stage colleagues, he was no ‘figlio d’arte’, his father was a tailor, who was passionate about the stage. Annibale found a way to study acting with Domenico Bassi. His debut came at the age of 17, in 1900, with the title of ‘second actor’ in the company of the brothers Marchetti. He was then hired by the company of Ermete Novelli, with whom he remained from 1901 to 1908. He passed the whole trajectory going from extra, to lover, to the young first actor, and finally the first actor. He then moved over to Virgilio Talli’s company for a long period (1909-1921), where he established a famous triad with Maria Melato and Alberto Giovannini. Between the two wars, he formed famous companies with some of the most reputed actresses, such as Maria Melato, Giannina Chiantoni, Tatiana Pavlova, Emma Gramatica, Paola Borboni, Kiki Palmer, Margaret Bagni, Olga Solbelli, and many more. Betrone was an actor of a strong dramatic, sometimes explosive, temperament, and moved around within a vast repertory. He achieved great fame. Among his greatest successes are Il beffardo by Nino Berrini and Glauco by Ercole Luigi Morselli. He also played in Anfissa by Leonid Andreev and in La sonata di Kreutzer (The Kreutzer Sonata) by François Nozières, after Leo Tolstoy. He was Bruneri-Canella in L’uomo no. 15 by E. Wool, and also recited in plays by Rosso di San Secondo (Il delirio dell’oste Bassà) and Diego Fabbri. In 1945, in the just liberated Rome, he performed in The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck, directed by Vito Pandolfi. In the late 1930s, he had his own company, together with Anna Magnani. He directed her and Salvo Randone in several plays at the Roman Teatro Eliseo. In 1940 he worked with Letitia Maria Celli and Angelo Calabrese, but after the outbreak of the war and the immediate post-war period, he reduced his presence on stage and focused on film acting.
Annibale Betrone was very active in cinema, though his silent parts were scarce. He began in 1916 with the silent films Tigrana (Edouard Micheroux de Dillon, 1916) and Alcova tragica (Edouard Micheroux de Dillon, 1916), both with Betrone, Mary Light and Sergio Tofano. After this followed two films with Italia Almirante Manzini: L’innamorata (Gennaro Righelli, 1920) and L’arzigogolo (Mario Almirante, 1924). In the early 1930s. Betrone had a new breakthrough in the Italian sound film, when he got a critical and public success playing king Vittorio Emanuele II in the feature film Villafranca (Gioacchino Forzano, 1934). A year earlier, he had also acted in Forzano's fascist propaganda film Camicia nero (Gioacchino Forzano, 1933). Later he was admired as the human uncle in Piccolo mondo antico/Old-Fashioned World (Mario Soldati, 1941) - where he rivaled with the icy Ada Dondini - and the sensitive father of Doris Duranti in Nessuno torna indietro (Alessandro Blasetti, 1943).
During the war years, Annibale Betrone acted in some 26 films, ranging from propaganda films like Giarabub (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1942) to comedies like Teresa Venerdi (Vittorio De Sica, 1941) with Vittorio De Sica himself and Adriana Benetti, and (melo)dramas like the two-part film Noi vivi/Addio Kira! (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1943) with Alida Valli, Rossano Brazzi and Fosco Giachetti. In 1912, Betrone had married Elvira Sanipoli - who later took the name of Elvira Betrone - and who often played with him on stage and on the screen, such as in the films Teresa Venerdi, Noi vivi, and Nessuno torna indietro. Betrone was also the father of the young assistant-director, scriptwriter, and editor Gino (Cino) Betrone, who e.g. edited the film Tosca (1941) by Carl Koch and Jean Renoir. As lieutenant of the Alpine soldiers, he fell on the Greek-Albanian front in 1941. Dedicated to his memory was the film Quelli della montagna (Aldo Vergano, 1943) with Amedeo Nazzari and Mariella Lotti. Cino had delivered the idea for this film, and Annibale played a small part in it. After the war, Betrone was active on the radio. Among his last film roles were minor parts in two epics: Fabiola (Alessandro Blasetti, 1949) and Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (Marcel L’Herbier, Paolo Moffa, 1950), starring Micheline Presle and Georges Marchal. Annibal Betrone died in Rome in 1950. His wife Elvira Betrone died in Milan in 1961.
Sources: Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German promotion card by Mercury / Nina Hagen-Fanclub, Erlangen. Image: Pierre et Gilles.
German singer, songwriter, and actress Nina Hagen (1955) is known for her theatrical vocals and is often referred to as the ‘Godmother of Punk due to her prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During her 40-years-career she appeared in several European films.
Catharina ’Nina’ Hagen was born in 1955) in the former East Berlin, German Democratic Republic. She was the daughter of scriptwriter Hans Hagen and actress and singer Eva-Maria Hagen (née Buchholz). Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (her father was Jewish). Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up, she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine. When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen. Hagen left school at age sixteen and went to Poland, where she began her career. She later returned to Germany and joined the cover band, Fritzens Dampferband (Fritzen's Steamboat Band). She added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the ‘allowable’ set lists during shows. From 1972 to 1973, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduating, she formed the band Automobil and released in 1974 the single Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen (You Forgot the Colour Film), a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state. Nina became one of the country's best-known young stars. She also appeared in several East-German films and TV films sometimes alongside her mother Eva-Maria Hagen, including Heiraten/Weiblich/Marrying/Female (Christa Kulosa, 1975), Heute ist Freitag/Today is Friday (Klaus Gendries, 1975), Liebesfallen/Love Traps (Werner W. Wallroth, 1976) and Unser stiller Mann/Our Quite Man (Bernhard Stephan, 1976). Her career in the GDR was cut short after her stepfather Wolf Biermann's East German citizenship was withdrawn from him in 1976. Hagen and her mother followed him westwards to Hamburg. The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his adopted home country.
Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from CBS Records. Her label advised her to acclimatise herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits and Sex Pistols. Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, Nina Hagen Band, which included the single TV-Glotzer (a cover of White Punks on Dope by The Tubes, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, about West Berlin's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The album also included a version of Rangehn (Go for It), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music. The album received critical acclaim for its hard rock sound and for Hagen's theatrical vocals, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. It was a commercial success selling over 250,000 copies. Relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour. The band released one more album Unbehagen (Unease) before their break-up in 1979. It included the single African Reggae and Wir Leben Immer... Noch, a German language cover of Lene Lovich's Lucky Number. Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar. She starred in two films. In Germany she made the experimental film Bildnis Einer Trinkerin/Portrait of a Female Drunkard (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979) with Tabea Blumenschein, Magdalena Montezuma and Eddie Constantine. She also acted with Dutch rocker Herman Brood and singer Lene Lovich in the Dutch film Cha Cha (Herbert Curiel, 1979). Brood and Hagen would have a long romantic relationship that would end when Hagen could no longer tolerate Brood's drug abuse. She would refer to Brood as her ‘soulmate’ long after Brood committed suicide in 2001. In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be the Dutch guitarist Ferdinand Karmelk, who died in 1988, and she moved to Los Angeles. Her daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen, was born in Santa Monica in 1981. In 1982, Hagen signed a new contract with CBS and released her debut solo album NunSexMonkRock, a dissonant mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera. Her first English-language album became also her first record to chart in the United States. She then went on a world tour with the No Problem Orchestra. Her next album the Giorgio Moroder-produced Fearless (1983), generated two major club hits in America, Zarah (a cover of the Zarah Leander song Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen) and the disco/punk/opera song, New York New York, which reached no. 9 in the USA dance charts. She followed this with one more album, Nina Hagen in Ekstasy (1985), which featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Paul Anka's My Way. The album fared less well and her contract with CBS expired in 1986 and was not renewed. Hagen's public appearances became stranger and frequently included discussions of God, UFOs, her social and political beliefs, animal rights and vivisection, and claims of alien sightings. In 1987 she released the Punk Wedding EP independently, a celebration of her marriage to a 18-year-old punk South African nicknamed 'Iroquois'.
In 1989, Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from Mercury Records. She released three albums on the label: Nina Hagen (1989), Street (1991), and Revolution Ballroom (1993). However, none of the albums achieved notable commercial success. In 1989 she had a relationship with Frank Chevallier from France, with whom she has a son, Otis Chevallier-Hagen (b. 1990). In 1992 Hagen became the host of a TV show on RTLplus. She also collaborated with Adamski on the single Get Your Body (1992). In the 1990s, Hagen lived in Paris with her daughter Cosma Shiva and son Otis. In 1996, she married David Lynn, who is fifteen years younger, but divorced him in the beginning of 2000. In 1999, Hagen became the host of Sci-Fright, a weekly science fiction show on the British Sci-Fi Channel. In 1999, she played the role of Celia Peachum in The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, alongside Max Raabe. She also appeared as a witch in the German-Russian fairy-tale film Vasilisa (Elena Shatalova, 2000). At IMDb, Howard Roarschawks writes: “I saw this eye-popping film at the 2001 Sarasota Film Festival. I entered the theater without expectations, having chosen the film randomly. From shot one, my jaw dropped slack and my eyes waxed wide. Vasilisa is a gorgeously filmed, brilliantly scripted, boldly acted, confidently directed, lushly designed masterpiece of unseen cinema.” Hagen made her musical comeback with the release of her album Return of the Mother (2000). In 2001 she collaborated with Rosenstolz and Marc Almond on the single Total eclipse/Die schwarze Witwe that reached no. 22 in Germany. Later albums include Big Band Explosion (2003), in which she sang numerous swing covers with her then husband, Danish singer and performer, Lucas Alexander. This was followed by Heiß, a greatest hits album. The following album, Journey to the Snow Queen, is more of an audio book — she reads the Snow Queen fairy tale with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in the background. Besides her musical career, Hagen is also a voice-over actress. She dubbed the voice of Sally in Der Albtraum vor Weihnachten, the German release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), and she has also done voice work on the German animation film Hot Dogs: Wau - wir sind reich!/Millionaire Dogs (Michael Schoemann, 1999). She appeared as the Queen opposite Otto Waalkes and her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen as Snowwhite in the comedy7 Zwerge – Männer allein im Wald/7 Dwarves – Men Alone in the Wood (Sven Unterwaldt Jr., 2004) which follows the fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the second most popular film in German cinemas in 2004, reaching an audience of almost 7 million. She returned in the sequel 7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug/Seven Dwarves - The Forest Is Not Enough (Sven Unterwaldt, 2006). She wrote three autobiographies: Ich bin ein Berliner (1988), Nina Hagen: That's Why the Lady Is a Punk (2003), and Bekenntnisse (2010). She is also noted for her human and animal rights activism. After a four-year lapse Nina Hagen released the album Personal Jesus in 2010. William Ruhlmann at AllMusic: “Personal Jesus, which featured 13 faith-based tracks that dutifully blend rock, blues, soul, and gospel into a sound that’s distinctly hers.” It was followed by Volksbeat (2011). Her latest films are Desire Will Set You Free (Yony Leyser, 2015) with Amber Benson and Rosa von Praunheim and Gutterdämmerung (Bjorn Tagemose, 2016) with Henry Rollins, Grace Jones and Iggy Pop.
Sources: William Ruhlmann (AllMusic), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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.
French postcard. in the Les Vedettes du Cinéma series by Editions Filma, no. 90. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma.
Andrew Brunelle (1894-1943) was a French screen actor of the silent and sound era.
Andrew Brunelle was born on July 13, 1894 in Cambrai, Nord, France as André François Achille Eugène Brunelle. Brunelle's first serious role as a film actor - he had already played small parts in short comedies with Prince - was when playing Dr. Howey in Louis Feuillade's Gaumont serial sequel La nouvelle mission de Judex (1917), starring René Cresté as Judex. Brunelle played an evil doctor, a member of the dangerous gang La rafle aux secrets (the raiders of the secrets), who avid to steal and resell important technological inventions. Together with his accomplice, the dangerous Baronne d'Apremont (Juana Borguèse), he has the capacity to hypnotise the innocent female leading characters and make them do things against their will. Dr. Hewey and the Baronne die when their boat explodes.
After that, Brunelle switched to Pathé, where he played for years, in films such as La Maison d'argile (Gaston Ravel, 1918), Chignole (René Plaissetty, 1919), La Force de la vie (René Leprince, 1920), L'aiglonne ( Émile Keppens, René Navarre, 1922), and L'Empereur des pauvres (René Leprince, 1922) starring Léon Mathot. For Film d'Art he acted in Louis Delluc's films Le Silence (1920) and Fièvre (1921). Subsequently, he played opposite Édouard de Max in Le Carillonneur (René Coiffard, 1922), opposite Manuel Caméré, Claude Mérelle and Gaston Rieffler in Stella Lucente (Raoul d'Auchy, 1922), and opposite Pierre Alcover in La Faute des autres (Jacques Oliver, 1923). He repeated his role of Jimmy Bartnett in the prequel to Chignole, La Grande envolée (René Plaissetty, 1927), and his last role was in the period piece Tarakanova (Raymond Bernard, 1930), opposite Edith Jéhanne in the female lead, and Olaf Fjord as her lover. Brunelle also was a film director, of mostly short films, starting with the silent comedy Théodore cherche des allumettes (1923), but most of his directions were in the sound era (1931-1936) after he stopped acting. Examples are Bouton d'or (1933) with Jeanne Helbling and Vaccin 48 (1934) with Alice Tissot. All in all, Brunelle directed 9 films and acted in 13 ones. He ended his career as scriptwriter of the 1938 farce, Deux de la réserve (René Pujol), and editor of the comedy, Bach en correctionnelle (Henry Wulschleger, 1940). Brunelle died young, at the age of 49, on August 17, 1943, in Paris, France.
For La nouvelle mission de Judex, see our blogpost: filmstarpostcards.blogspot.com/2014/01/la-nouvelle-missio...
Sources: IMDB, Ciné-ressources.
Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini Firenze Editori, no. 4248. Photo: Scalera Film. Imperio Argentina in Tosca (Jean Renoir, Carl Koch, 1941). While Renoir started the film, his scriptwriter and assistant Carl Koch finished the film and shot most of it. Luchino Visconti was an assistant director for this film. This postcard refers to a scene in which Argentina sings the aria of 'Caro mio ben' by Giuseppe Giordani.
Imperio Argentina (1906-2003) was a singer, dancer and actress, who appeared in more than 30 films. Although she was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was successful all over South America, she was a Spanish citizen. Besides in Spain and South America, she also worked in France, Italy and Germany.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Shanghai Ballet: Echoes of Eternity
Shanghai Ballet presents 'Echoes of Eternity ' at the London Coliseum, choreographed by Patrick de Bana and inspired by the ancient Chinese poem ‘Song of Everlasting Sorrow. 7-21 August 2016.
Choreographer: Patrick de Bana
Set designer: Jaya Ibrahim
Costume designer: Agnes Letestu
Light designer: James Angot
Scriptwriter: Jean Francois Vazelle
Literature Consultant: Sifu TANG
Dancers:
Emperor: WU Husheng
Lady Yang: QI Bingxue
Moon Fairy: ZHAO Hanbing
Gao Lishi: ZHANG Yao
Chen Xuanli: WU Bin
An Lushan: ZHANG Wenjun
photo - © Foteini Christofilopoulou | All rights reserved | For all usage/licensing enquiries please contact www.foteini.com
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 147/75. Photo: DEFA.
German singer, songwriter, and actress Nina Hagen (1955) is known for her theatrical vocals and is often referred to as the ‘Godmother of Punk due to her prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During her 40-years-career she appeared in several European films.
Catharina ’Nina’ Hagen was born in 1955) in the former East Berlin, German Democratic Republic. She was the daughter of scriptwriter Hans Hagen and actress and singer Eva-Maria Hagen (née Buchholz). Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (her father was Jewish). Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up, she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine. When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen. Hagen left school at age sixteen and went to Poland, where she began her career. She later returned to Germany and joined the cover band, Fritzens Dampferband (Fritzen's Steamboat Band). She added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the ‘allowable’ set lists during shows. From 1972 to 1973, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduating, she formed the band Automobil and released in 1974 the single Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen (You Forgot the Colour Film), a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state. Nina became one of the country's best-known young stars. She also appeared in several East-German films and TV films sometimes alongside her mother Eva-Maria Hagen, including Heiraten/Weiblich/Marrying/Female (Christa Kulosa, 1975), Heute ist Freitag/Today is Friday (Klaus Gendries, 1975), Liebesfallen/Love Traps (Werner W. Wallroth, 1976) and Unser stiller Mann/Our Quite Man (Bernhard Stephan, 1976). Her career in the GDR was cut short after her stepfather Wolf Biermann's East German citizenship was withdrawn from him in 1976. Hagen and her mother followed him westwards to Hamburg. The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his adopted home country.
Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from CBS Records. Her label advised her to acclimatise herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits and Sex Pistols. Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, Nina Hagen Band, which included the single TV-Glotzer (a cover of White Punks on Dope by The Tubes, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, about West Berlin's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The album also included a version of Rangehn (Go for It), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music. The album received critical acclaim for its hard rock sound and for Hagen's theatrical vocals, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. It was a commercial success selling over 250,000 copies. Relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour. The band released one more album Unbehagen (Unease) before their break-up in 1979. It included the single African Reggae and Wir Leben Immer... Noch, a German language cover of Lene Lovich's Lucky Number. Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar. She starred in two films. In Germany she made the experimental film Bildnis Einer Trinkerin/Portrait of a Female Drunkard (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979) with Tabea Blumenschein, Magdalena Montezuma and Eddie Constantine. She also acted with Dutch rocker Herman Brood and singer Lene Lovich in the Dutch film Cha Cha (Herbert Curiel, 1979). Brood and Hagen would have a long romantic relationship that would end when Hagen could no longer tolerate Brood's drug abuse. She would refer to Brood as her ‘soulmate’ long after Brood committed suicide in 2001. In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be the Dutch guitarist Ferdinand Karmelk, who died in 1988, and she moved to Los Angeles. Her daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen, was born in Santa Monica in 1981. In 1982, Hagen signed a new contract with CBS and released her debut solo album NunSexMonkRock, a dissonant mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera. Her first English-language album became also her first record to chart in the United States. She then went on a world tour with the No Problem Orchestra. Her next album the Giorgio Moroder-produced Fearless (1983), generated two major club hits in America, Zarah (a cover of the Zarah Leander song Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen) and the disco/punk/opera song, New York New York, which reached no. 9 in the USA dance charts. She followed this with one more album, Nina Hagen in Ekstasy (1985), which featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Paul Anka's My Way. The album fared less well and her contract with CBS expired in 1986 and was not renewed. Hagen's public appearances became stranger and frequently included discussions of God, UFOs, her social and political beliefs, animal rights and vivisection, and claims of alien sightings. In 1987 she released the Punk Wedding EP independently, a celebration of her marriage to a 18-year-old punk South African nicknamed 'Iroquois'.
In 1989, Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from Mercury Records. She released three albums on the label: Nina Hagen (1989), Street (1991), and Revolution Ballroom (1993). However, none of the albums achieved notable commercial success. In 1989 she had a relationship with Frank Chevallier from France, with whom she has a son, Otis Chevallier-Hagen (b. 1990). In 1992 Hagen became the host of a TV show on RTLplus. She also collaborated with Adamski on the single Get Your Body (1992). In the 1990s, Hagen lived in Paris with her daughter Cosma Shiva and son Otis. In 1996, she married David Lynn, who is fifteen years younger, but divorced him in the beginning of 2000. In 1999, Hagen became the host of Sci-Fright, a weekly science fiction show on the British Sci-Fi Channel. In 1999, she played the role of Celia Peachum in The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, alongside Max Raabe. She also appeared as a witch in the German-Russian fairy-tale film Vasilisa (Elena Shatalova, 2000). At IMDb, Howard Roarschawks writes: “I saw this eye-popping film at the 2001 Sarasota Film Festival. I entered the theater without expectations, having chosen the film randomly. From shot one, my jaw dropped slack and my eyes waxed wide. Vasilisa is a gorgeously filmed, brilliantly scripted, boldly acted, confidently directed, lushly designed masterpiece of unseen cinema.” Hagen made her musical comeback with the release of her album Return of the Mother (2000). In 2001 she collaborated with Rosenstolz and Marc Almond on the single Total eclipse/Die schwarze Witwe that reached no. 22 in Germany. Later albums include Big Band Explosion (2003), in which she sang numerous swing covers with her then husband, Danish singer and performer, Lucas Alexander. This was followed by Heiß, a greatest hits album. The following album, Journey to the Snow Queen, is more of an audio book — she reads the Snow Queen fairy tale with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in the background. Besides her musical career, Hagen is also a voice-over actress. She dubbed the voice of Sally in Der Albtraum vor Weihnachten, the German release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), and she has also done voice work on the German animation film Hot Dogs: Wau - wir sind reich!/Millionaire Dogs (Michael Schoemann, 1999). She appeared as the Queen opposite Otto Waalkes and her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen as Snowwhite in the comedy7 Zwerge – Männer allein im Wald/7 Dwarves – Men Alone in the Wood (Sven Unterwaldt Jr., 2004) which follows the fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the second most popular film in German cinemas in 2004, reaching an audience of almost 7 million. She returned in the sequel 7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug/Seven Dwarves - The Forest Is Not Enough (Sven Unterwaldt, 2006). She wrote three autobiographies: Ich bin ein Berliner (1988), Nina Hagen: That's Why the Lady Is a Punk (2003), and Bekenntnisse (2010). She is also noted for her human and animal rights activism. After a four-year lapse Nina Hagen released the album Personal Jesus in 2010. William Ruhlmann at AllMusic: “Personal Jesus, which featured 13 faith-based tracks that dutifully blend rock, blues, soul, and gospel into a sound that’s distinctly hers.” It was followed by Volksbeat (2011). Her latest films are Desire Will Set You Free (Yony Leyser, 2015) with Amber Benson and Rosa von Praunheim and Gutterdämmerung (Bjorn Tagemose, 2016) with Henry Rollins, Grace Jones and Iggy Pop.
Sources: William Ruhlmann (AllMusic), Wikipedia and IMDb.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 626/4. Photo: Viggo Larsen Tempelhof. Publicity still of Viggo Larsen and Erra Brognar in Der Fürst der Diebe und seine Liebe/The King of Thieves and His Love (Viggo Larsen, 1919).
Der Fürst der Diebe und seine Liebe was a four-part film which premiered in Berlin on November 4, 1919. Scriptwriter was Hans Hyan, photographer Julius Balting. Initially, the state censorship of 1921, completely forbade the film but after cuts, it remained only forbidden for youngsters.
While no content description of the film could be found, it is clear the plot deals with a gentleman criminal, played by Larsen himself. Critic Friedrich Sieburg in 1920 wrote about a terrifying experience he had when viewing this very film when suddenly the musicians stopped playing while the film went on. "In act 3, as Der Fürst der Diebe was roaring along in his car (his shawl fluttering like a flag, wind blowing briskly through the high grass of the passing landscape), the musicians in the small orchestra - violin and piano for lively scenes, organ for deathly scenes - suddenly decided to break for dinner. The music stopped. Silence. The reels whirred. The light hissed. The action sped ahead. I tell you, it was frightening. I felt as if I was six feet under." (Anton Kaes/ Michael Cowan ed., The Promise of Cinema: German Film Theory, 1907–1933).
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.
Chinese postcard. Jeanne Moreau in Jules et Jim/Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, 1962).
Legendary film star Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017) was the personification of French womanhood and sensuality. She had a diverse career as a magnificent stage and film actress, a producer, screenwriter, and film director, a successful singer with a substantial recording career, and a theatre and opera director. She combined off-kilter beauty with strong character in Nouveau Vague (New Wave) classics as Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) and Les Amants (1959). Her role as the flamboyant, free-spirited Catherine with her devil-may-care sensuality, in Jules et Jim (1962) is one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema. Throughout her long career with more than 130 films, Moreau continued to work with some of the most notable film directors.
Jeanne Moreau was born in 1928, in Paris, France. Her father, Anatole-Désiré Moreau, owned a restaurant in Montmartre. Her mother, Katherine Buckley, was an English dancer who had come to the Folies Bergère with the Tiller Girls. Jeanne grew up living part of the time in Paris, and part of the time in Mazirat, her father's native village. During the Second World War, Katherine and Jeanne were forced to stay in Paris; classified as alien enemies. She attended the Lycee Edgar Quinet in Paris and began to discover her love of literature and the theatre. When her parents divorced in the late 1940s and her mother returned to England, Jeanne remained with her father in Montmartre. Opposing her father's wishes, she decided to become an actress. She trained for the stage at the Paris Conservatoire and made her theatrical debut in 1947 at the Avignon Festival. In 1948, when she was only 20 years old, she became the youngest full-time member of the Comédie-Française, France's most prestigious theatrical company. Her first play was Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country, directed by Jean Meyer. She soon was one of the leading actresses of the troupe and was recognised as the prime stage actress of her generation. She left in 1951, finding the Comédie-Française too restrictive and authoritarian, and joined the more experimental Théâtre Nationale Populaire. Moreau also began playing small roles in films like Dernier amour/Last Love (Jean Stelli, 1949). During the 1950s, she appeared in several mainstream films like the superb thriller Touchez pas au grisbi/Grisbi (Jacques Becker, 1953) with Jean Gabin and the colourful historical drama La reine Margot/Queen Margot (Jean Dréville, 1954).
Jeanne Moreau was almost 30 before her film career took off thanks to her work with first-time director Louis Malle. His murder mystery Ascenseur pour l'échafaud seemed to be in the same thriller genre as her earlier films, but after seeing the first week of dailies for Ascenseur the technicians at the film lab went to the producer and said: “You must not let Malle destroy Jeanne Moreau”. Louis Malle later explained: “She was lit only by the windows of the Champs Elysées. That had never been done. Cameramen would have forced her to wear a lot of make-up and they would put a lot of light on her, because, supposedly, her face was not photogenic”. This lack of artifice revealed Moreau's ‘essential qualities’: "She could be almost ugly and then, ten seconds later, she would turn her face and would be incredibly attractive. But she would be herself.” Ascenseur pour l'échafaud/Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle, 1958) was immediately followed by the controversial Les amants/The Lovers (Louis Malle, 1958). Moreau starred as a provincial wife who abandoned her family to marry a man she had just met. Her earthy, intelligent and subtle portrayal of the adulteress caused a scandal in France. The erotic scenes caused censorship problems all over the world. The American gossip columnists tagged her as 'The New Bardot' and Moreau instantly became an international sex symbol. Malle and his star separated privately, but professionally they would make several more films together, including the excellent Le feu follet/The Fire Within (1963).
Jeanne Moreau went on to work with many of the best-known Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) and avant-garde directors. Her most enduring role is the flamboyant and magnetic Catherine in Truffaut's explosive Jules et Jim/Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, 1962). She co-produced Jules et Jim herself and also co-produced La baie des anges/Bay of Angels (Jacques Demy, 1963) and Peau de banane/Banana Peel (Marcel Ophüls, 1963). Her teaming with Brigitte Bardot in Viva Maria! (Louis Malle, 1965) was one of the major media events of 1965. Thanks to the on-screen chemistry between the two top French female stars of the period, the film became an international hit. Five years after Jules et Jim, she worked again with François Truffaut, starring as an icy murderess in the popular Alfred Hitchcock homage La mariée était en noir/The Bride Wore Black (1967). She also worked with such notable directors as Michelangelo Antonioni at La notte/The Night (1961), and Beyond the Clouds (1995), Orson Welles (Le procès/The Trial, 1962; Campanadas a medianoche/Chimes at Midnight, 1965; L’histoire immortelle/The Immortal Story, 1968; and the unfinished The Deep, 1970), Joseph Losey (Eva, 1962; Mr. Klein, 1976), Luis Buñuel (Le journal d'une femme de chambre/Diary of a Chambermaid, 1964), Elia Kazan (The Last Tycoon, 1976), Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Querelle, 1982), and Wim Wenders (Bis ans Ende der Welt/Until the End of the World, 1991). Her stage hits include Anna Bonacci's 'L'heure éblouissante' (The Dazzling Hour, 1953), Jean Cocteau's 'La machine infernale' (1954, as the Sphinx), George Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion' (1955, as Eliza Doolittle), Tennessee Williams' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' (1956, as Maggie), Frank Wedekind's 'Lulu' (Loulou, 1976, title role), and Tennessee Williams' 'The Night of the Iguana (1985, as Hannah Jelkes). She won the Best Actress Molière Award (the French equivalent of the Tony Award) in 1988 for her acclaimed performance in Hermann Broch's 'Le récit de la servante Zerline', a huge theatrical success which toured 11 countries. Moreau also enjoyed success as a vocalist. She released several albums and once performed with Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall. Her name has been often associated, both socially and professionally, with that of writer-director Marguerite Duras. Apart from their close friendship, Moreau starred in two films based on Duras' novels, Moderato cantabile/Seven Days ... Seven Nights (Peter Brooks, 1960) and The Sailor from Gibraltar (Tony Richardson, 1970). Duras herself directed Moreau in Nathalie Granger (1972), and she was the narrator in another Duras screen adaptation, L'amant/The Lover (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1992). She even went on to portray Duras in the biopic Cet amour-là/This Love (Josée Dayan, 2001). Other major literary figures among her close friends were Jean Cocteau, Jean Genet, Henry Miller, and Anaïs Nin. Jeanne Moreau was the president of Equinoxe, an organisation which supports new European scriptwriters.
As her leading lady days began to wane, Jeanne Moreau made a graceful transition to character parts. She used her standing in the French industry to foster the careers of young directors such as Bertrand Blier, in whose 1974 feature Les Valseuses/Going Places, she gave a cryptic but memorable performance, and Andre Techiné. In 1975 she made her debut as a director with Lumière/Light (1975), the story of several generations of actresses. She also wrote the script and played Sarah, an actress the same age as Moreau. She also helmed L'Adolescente/The Adolescent (1978), a semi-autobiographical tale of a girl sent to live with her grandmother in 1939, and Lillian Gish (1984), an homage to the silent screen heroine. She was the only actress who has presided twice over the jury of the Cannes Film Festival (in 1975 and 1995) and she was president of the jury at the Berlin Film Festival in 1983. She has won several honours, including two BAFTA Awards, three Cesars (the French Oscar), a Golden Lion for career achievement at the 1991 Venice Film Festival and a 1997 European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1998 the American Academy of Motion Pictures presented her a life tribute. She also was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of her outstanding contribution to film culture. In 1995, she was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#76). In 2000 she made her debut as a stage director with a Geneva and Paris production of Margaret Edson's Wit. The following year she was the first woman to enter the Academie des Beaux-Arts of Paris. In 2001 she also made her debut as an opera director with an Opera National de Paris production of Giuseppe Verdi's Attila. Among her last films are Le temps qui reste/Time to Leave (François Ozon, 2005), Disengagement (Amos Gitai, 2007) and Visage/Face (Ming-liang Tsai, 2009). Jeanne Moreau was romantically involved with Louis Malle, Francois Truffaut, Lee Marvin, and fashion designer Pierre Cardin. Vanessa Redgrave named Moreau as co-respondent in her 1967 divorce from director Tony Richardson on grounds of adultery. Richardson and Moreau would never marry. Jeanne Moreau married - and divorced - three times: to actor-director Jean-Louis Richard (1949-1951), Greek actor Teodoro Rubanis (1966-1967), and Exorcist director William Friedkin (1977-1980). She had a son with Richard, Jérôme Richard (1950) who is a successful painter.
Sources: Rebecca Flint Marx (AllMovie), Dale O'Connor (IMDb), Filmreference.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
British postcard in the Cinema Stars series by Lilywhite Ltd., no. G.M. 28. Photo: Fox.
George Walsh (1889-1981) was an American film actor, who despite a successful career in silent cinema is best remembered for the part that was taken off from him: the title role in Ben-Hur (1925).
George Walsh was born in New York as the younger brother of later Hollywood director Raoul Walsh. In 1911, he graduated from the High School of Commerce, where he excelled in sports such as baseball and swimming. Later, he also attended the Fordham and Georgetown University. He followed his brother Raoul to Hollywood, where he made his first films in 1915, including a bit part in D.W. Griffith's controversial epic, The Birth of a Nation. Griffith gave him a bigger part as the bridegroom at the wedding of Kana in Intolerance. In the following years, the dark-haired, handsome Walsh established himself as a popular leading actor, both in comedies and in adventure films. In 1919 he also directed The Seventh Person with himself in the lead role, but it remained his only film direction.
At the Fox Film Studios between ca. 1916 and 1920, Walsh starred in a large series of successful films, by which Walsh became a fierce rival to Douglas Fairbanks as a daredevil, who combined stunts with comic relief. Most of Walsh's films at Fox were later destroyed by a fire at Fox in 1937 and thus have disappeared today. Many of these were directed by Walsh'brother Raoul. In 1920 Walsh had a conflict with Fox about his salary and left.
After two years of ups and downs, Walsh got a contract at Goldwyn Pictures. His confirmation as Goldwyn star Walsh got in 1923 when directed by Ernst Lubitsch as the partner of Mary Pickford in Rosita. As the charming Don Diego, he defends Pickford's rebellious Rosita but soon ends up in prison himself, destined to be hanged. The perfidious King (Holbrook Blinn) arranges a mock marriage before Diego will be hanged, but in the end, the Queen (Irene Rich) saves the situation and Diego's life. Even more spectacular was Walsh selection by scriptwriter June Mathis for the title role in the super production Ben-Hur, produced by Goldwyn. Walsh had already shot the film halfway with director Charles Brabin in Italy - despite a wide range of problems - when Spring 1924 Goldwyn merged with Metro (the future MGM). The new management unceremoniously replaced Brabin by Fred Niblo and Walsh by rising star Ramon Novarro, Metro's new star after Valentino had left. Walsh learned of his dismissal only through the newspaper, which seriously disappointed him.
After that, Walsh continued acting but at the independent company Chadwick Pictures and the even more low budget company Excellent Pictures. It was not until 1932 he started to do his first talking picture: Me and My Pal (Raoul Walsh, 1932) alongside Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett. Walsh played a sleazy mobster who eyes a naive girl, but her sister (Bennett) and her friend, a cop (Tracy), save her from his clutches. Walsh continued to play supporting parts and bit parts until 1936.
After about 80 films, Walsh retired in 1936 and then managed the numerous horses of his brother, who were bred and raced on racecourses. George Walsh was married to the actress Seena Owen (1894-1966) from 1916 to 1924, the marriage was divorced. In 1981, seven months after his brother, George Walsh died of pneumonia at the age of 92 years and was buried at the San Gabriel Cemetery in San Gabriel.
Sources, IMDB, English and German Wikipedia.
Italian postcard. G.B. Falci, 1012. Fotolux. Elettra Raggio in the Italian silent film Seduzione (Seduction). This title does not exist in the reference works, only the title Le due seduzioni (The Two Seductions, Milano Film 1916) which Raggio directed and in which she had the female lead as well, opposite Giovanni Donadio and Felice Minotti. The title may also refer to a play or revue, or may simply be generic.
Elettra Raggio, pseudonym of Ginevra Francesca Rusconi (1887 – 1973), was an Italian film actress, director, scriptwriter and producer of the silent era. Raggio came from the theater where she was "first actress" in the company of Ermete Novelli. Of Genoese origin, she settled in Milan where she was hired in 1915 by the film production company Milano Films. There she acted in Verso l'arcobaleno (Towards the Rainbow, Eugenio Perego, 1916) - about a Belgian family menaced by the German invasion, the sensational film La cattiva stella (The Bad Star, Perego, 1916) about a millionnaire (Ugo Gracci) who trades identity with a drowned man. In the same year, as well as Raggio's first own direction at Milano: Le due seduzioni (The Two Seductions, 1916), which she also scripted and produced. Also in 1916, Raggio founded her own film company within the aegis of Milano Film, which operated as distributor for Raggio Film. First came the poetic phantasy Primavera (Spring, Achille Mauzan, 1916), and the romantic comedy Galeotto fu il mare... (The Sea was such a Lovemaker, Mauzan, 1916). Mauzan also designed the posters for both films. In 1917 Raggio acted in Il fango (The Mud, Adelardo Fernández Arias, 1917), produced by Arias Film and starring Aras himself, but in 1918 she was apparently away from the set.
In her book Streetwalking on a Ruined Map, Giuliana Bruno gives some information on Raggio's films, indicating that Elettra Raggio focused on female suffering. Raggio's script for La valanga (The Avalanche, Francesco Bertolini, 1919) deals with a woman who takes revenge after being betrayed but then encounters an avalanche of obstacles. With Ivo Illuminati as co-director (Martinelli in his Il cinema muto italiano ascribes direction to Illuminati only), Raggio wrote, produced and directed the Stella Dallas-like drama Automartirio (1917), about a mother giving away her son to get him a better future. The plot told by Martinelli is another one. A woman fallen from grace is saved by a count (Ermete Novelli) and marries him, but doesn't tell him she has a child, kept in a boarding school. She shoots a blackmailer who, dying, accuses of her illicit love. Years after, the count threatens to kill her when he thinks her child may be her lover, but all ends well. Raggio's daughter Maria, who often co-acted in Raggio's films, played the son's love interest. A highly artistic series of film posters by Carlo Nicco was designed for the film.
In 1918 Raggio did a sidestep as supporting actress in the forzuti film Maciste medium (Vincenzo Denizot, supervision Giovanni Pastrone, 1918), for which she was praised in the press. At Raggio film, she acted in La morte che assolve (Death Absolves, Alberto Carlo Lolli 1918). The film makes clear a man (Ermete Novelli) deserves to die, as he not only killed the woman he refused to marry and treated as a slave, but, moreover, tries to seduce her daughter (Raggio). The film was praised by critic Tito Alacci for its intelligent and expressive acting, its original script, but also the outdoor locations of Villa Borghese and the Tivolo based Villa d'Este.
After La valanga, which was praised by critic Aurelio Spada for its noble intentions and exquisite execution, Raggio's last film direction, co-directed with Emiio Roncarolo, was San-Zurka-San (1920), a story of intrigue and black magic, on a priestess (Raggio) in love with a doctor who works in the morgue (Lamberto Picasso). After that, Raggio only acted in one more film, Tempesta sul nido (Nino Valentini, Milano Film 1926), before fully retiring from the film world.
Sources: Italian Wikipedia; IMDB; Giuliana Bruno, Streetwalking on a Ruined Map; Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano.
British postcard in the Cinema Stars series by Lilywhite Ltd., no. CM 411 C. Photo: Fox.
George Walsh (1889-1981) was an American film actor, who despite a successful career in silent cinema is best remembered for the part that was taken off from him: the title role in Ben-Hur (1925).
George Walsh was born in New York as the younger brother of later Hollywood director Raoul Walsh. In 1911, he graduated from the High School of Commerce, where he excelled in sports such as baseball and swimming. Later, he also attended the Fordham and Georgetown University. He followed his brother Raoul to Hollywood, where he made his first films in 1915, including a bit part in D.W. Griffith's controversial epic, The Birth of a Nation. Griffith gave him a bigger part as the bridegroom at the wedding of Kana in Intolerance. In the following years, the dark-haired, handsome Walsh established himself as a popular leading actor, both in comedies and in adventure films. In 1919 he also directed The Seventh Person with himself in the lead role, but it remained his only film direction.
At the Fox Film Studios between ca. 1916 and 1920, Walsh starred in a large series of successful films, by which Walsh became a fierce rival to Douglas Fairbanks as a daredevil, who combined stunts with comic relief. Most of Walsh's films at Fox were later destroyed by a fire at Fox in 1937 and thus have disappeared today. Many of these were directed by Walsh'brother Raoul. In 1920 Walsh had a conflict with Fox about his salary and left.
After two years of ups and downs, Walsh got a contract at Goldwyn Pictures. His confirmation as Goldwyn star Walsh got in 1923 when directed by Ernst Lubitsch as the partner of Mary Pickford in Rosita. As the charming Don Diego, he defends Pickford's rebellious Rosita but soon ends up in prison himself, destined to be hanged. The perfidious King (Holbrook Blinn) arranges a mock marriage before Diego will be hanged, but in the end, the Queen (Irene Rich) saves the situation and Diego's life. Even more spectacular was Walsh selection by scriptwriter June Mathis for the title role in the super production Ben-Hur, produced by Goldwyn. Walsh had already shot the film halfway with director Charles Brabin in Italy - despite a wide range of problems - when Spring 1924 Goldwyn merged with Metro (the future MGM). The new management unceremoniously replaced Brabin by Fred Niblo and Walsh by rising star Ramon Novarro, Metro's new star after Valentino had left. Walsh learned of his dismissal only through the newspaper, which seriously disappointed him.
After that, Walsh continued acting but at the independent company Chadwick Pictures and the even more low budget company Excellent Pictures. It was not until 1932 he started to do his first talking picture: Me and My Pal (Raoul Walsh, 1932) alongside Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett. Walsh played a sleazy mobster who eyes a naive girl, but her sister (Bennett) and her friend, a cop (Tracy), save her from his clutches. Walsh continued to play supporting parts and bit parts until 1936.
After about 80 films, Walsh retired in 1936 and then managed the numerous horses of his brother, who were bred and raced on racecourses. George Walsh was married to the actress Seena Owen (1894-1966) from 1916 to 1924, the marriage was divorced. In 1981, seven months after his brother, George Walsh died of pneumonia at the age of 92 years and was buried at the San Gabriel Cemetery in San Gabriel.
Sources: Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.
American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, no. CL/Personality # 132.
German singer, songwriter, and actress Nina Hagen (1955) is known for her theatrical vocals and is often referred to as the ‘Godmother of Punk due to her prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During her 40-years-career she appeared in several European films.
Catharina ’Nina’ Hagen was born in 1955) in the former East Berlin, German Democratic Republic. She was the daughter of scriptwriter Hans Hagen and actress and singer Eva-Maria Hagen (née Buchholz). Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (her father was Jewish). Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up, she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine. When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen. Hagen left school at age sixteen and went to Poland, where she began her career. She later returned to Germany and joined the cover band, Fritzens Dampferband (Fritzen's Steamboat Band). She added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the ‘allowable’ set lists during shows. From 1972 to 1973, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduating, she formed the band Automobil and released in 1974 the single Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen (You Forgot the Colour Film), a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state. Nina became one of the country's best-known young stars. She also appeared in several East-German films and TV films sometimes alongside her mother Eva-Maria Hagen, including Heiraten/Weiblich/Marrying/Female (Christa Kulosa, 1975), Heute ist Freitag/Today is Friday (Klaus Gendries, 1975), Liebesfallen/Love Traps (Werner W. Wallroth, 1976) and Unser stiller Mann/Our Quite Man (Bernhard Stephan, 1976). Her career in the GDR was cut short after her stepfather Wolf Biermann's East German citizenship was withdrawn from him in 1976. Hagen and her mother followed him westwards to Hamburg. The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his adopted home country.
Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from CBS Records. Her label advised her to acclimatise herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits and Sex Pistols. Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, Nina Hagen Band, which included the single TV-Glotzer (a cover of White Punks on Dope by The Tubes, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, about West Berlin's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The album also included a version of Rangehn (Go for It), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music. The album received critical acclaim for its hard rock sound and for Hagen's theatrical vocals, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. It was a commercial success selling over 250,000 copies. Relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour. The band released one more album Unbehagen (Unease) before their break-up in 1979. It included the single African Reggae and Wir Leben Immer... Noch, a German language cover of Lene Lovich's Lucky Number. Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar. She starred in two films. In Germany she made the experimental film Bildnis Einer Trinkerin/Portrait of a Female Drunkard (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979) with Tabea Blumenschein, Magdalena Montezuma and Eddie Constantine. She also acted with Dutch rocker Herman Brood and singer Lene Lovich in the Dutch film Cha Cha (Herbert Curiel, 1979). Brood and Hagen would have a long romantic relationship that would end when Hagen could no longer tolerate Brood's drug abuse. She would refer to Brood as her ‘soulmate’ long after Brood committed suicide in 2001. In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be the Dutch guitarist Ferdinand Karmelk, who died in 1988, and she moved to Los Angeles. Her daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen, was born in Santa Monica in 1981. In 1982, Hagen signed a new contract with CBS and released her debut solo album NunSexMonkRock, a dissonant mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera. Her first English-language album became also her first record to chart in the United States. She then went on a world tour with the No Problem Orchestra. Her next album the Giorgio Moroder-produced Fearless (1983), generated two major club hits in America, Zarah (a cover of the Zarah Leander song Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen) and the disco/punk/opera song, New York New York, which reached no. 9 in the USA dance charts. She followed this with one more album, Nina Hagen in Ekstasy (1985), which featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Paul Anka's My Way. The album fared less well and her contract with CBS expired in 1986 and was not renewed. Hagen's public appearances became stranger and frequently included discussions of God, UFOs, her social and political beliefs, animal rights and vivisection, and claims of alien sightings. In 1987 she released the Punk Wedding EP independently, a celebration of her marriage to a 18-year-old punk South African nicknamed 'Iroquois'.
In 1989, Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from Mercury Records. She released three albums on the label: Nina Hagen (1989), Street (1991), and Revolution Ballroom (1993). However, none of the albums achieved notable commercial success. In 1989 she had a relationship with Frank Chevallier from France, with whom she has a son, Otis Chevallier-Hagen (b. 1990). In 1992 Hagen became the host of a TV show on RTLplus. She also collaborated with Adamski on the single Get Your Body (1992). In the 1990s, Hagen lived in Paris with her daughter Cosma Shiva and son Otis. In 1996, she married David Lynn, who is fifteen years younger, but divorced him in the beginning of 2000. In 1999, Hagen became the host of Sci-Fright, a weekly science fiction show on the British Sci-Fi Channel. In 1999, she played the role of Celia Peachum in The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, alongside Max Raabe. She also appeared as a witch in the German-Russian fairy-tale film Vasilisa (Elena Shatalova, 2000). At IMDb, Howard Roarschawks writes: “I saw this eye-popping film at the 2001 Sarasota Film Festival. I entered the theater without expectations, having chosen the film randomly. From shot one, my jaw dropped slack and my eyes waxed wide. Vasilisa is a gorgeously filmed, brilliantly scripted, boldly acted, confidently directed, lushly designed masterpiece of unseen cinema.” Hagen made her musical comeback with the release of her album Return of the Mother (2000). In 2001 she collaborated with Rosenstolz and Marc Almond on the single Total eclipse/Die schwarze Witwe that reached no. 22 in Germany. Later albums include Big Band Explosion (2003), in which she sang numerous swing covers with her then husband, Danish singer and performer, Lucas Alexander. This was followed by Heiß, a greatest hits album. The following album, Journey to the Snow Queen, is more of an audio book — she reads the Snow Queen fairy tale with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in the background. Besides her musical career, Hagen is also a voice-over actress. She dubbed the voice of Sally in Der Albtraum vor Weihnachten, the German release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), and she has also done voice work on the German animation film Hot Dogs: Wau - wir sind reich!/Millionaire Dogs (Michael Schoemann, 1999). She appeared as the Queen opposite Otto Waalkes and her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen as Snowwhite in the comedy7 Zwerge – Männer allein im Wald/7 Dwarves – Men Alone in the Wood (Sven Unterwaldt Jr., 2004) which follows the fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the second most popular film in German cinemas in 2004, reaching an audience of almost 7 million. She returned in the sequel 7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug/Seven Dwarves - The Forest Is Not Enough (Sven Unterwaldt, 2006). She wrote three autobiographies: Ich bin ein Berliner (1988), Nina Hagen: That's Why the Lady Is a Punk (2003), and Bekenntnisse (2010). She is also noted for her human and animal rights activism. After a four-year lapse Nina Hagen released the album Personal Jesus in 2010. William Ruhlmann at AllMusic: “Personal Jesus, which featured 13 faith-based tracks that dutifully blend rock, blues, soul, and gospel into a sound that’s distinctly hers.” It was followed by Volksbeat (2011). Her latest films are Desire Will Set You Free (Yony Leyser, 2015) with Amber Benson and Rosa von Praunheim and Gutterdämmerung (Bjorn Tagemose, 2016) with Henry Rollins, Grace Jones and Iggy Pop.
Sources: William Ruhlmann (AllMusic), Wikipedia and IMDb.
Italian postcard. Photo by Bettini, Roma, No. 132.
As far as known, acclaimed opera singer Gabriella Besanzoni (1888-1962) only acted in one silent film: Stefania (Armando Brunero, Brunestelli Film, 1916). her co-actor in this film was the more active actor Ciro Galvani, who already started at Cines in 1909, was most active in the 1920s and played major parts in Nemesis (1920), La mirabile visione (1921), La nave (1921), La cavalcata ardente (1925), and Scipione l'Africano (1937). Scriptwriter of Stefania was Fausto Maria Martini, known for his work on Rapsodia satanica (1917) with Lyda Borelli. Yet, the Roman critic 'Fandor' considered the performance of the interpreters insufficient for the filmic medium.
Gabriella Besanzoni was attracted to music from a young age and decided to study opera singing in Rome, at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, where she was a pupil of Alessandro Maggi and Ibilda Brizzi. During this period she initially set her voice as a light soprano, later forced to modify her training path, realizing that she was more suitable for supporting parts for dramatic soprano and mezzo-soprano and finally obtaining a vocal register which by extension, although capable of reaching shrill high notes, managed to have a robust low register. Her debut took place in Viterbo in 1911, where as a soprano she gave voice to the character of Adalgisa in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, but it was at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma that two years later interpreting Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's A Masked Ball. a mezzo-soprano career.
Between the twenties and the early thirties Besanzoni was mainly active in South America, singing in numerous opera houses including the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires where she enjoyed considerable success and was praised by the Argentine public. During this period she alternated the South American stages with the European ones, in Berlin as well as in Italy, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan where she played Orfeo and Amneris, in Havana, Cuba, and in the United States, several times guest of the opera houses in Chicago and at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York where she joined, albeit without much success, Enrico Caruso in the 1919-20 season. In 1920, when Caruso and she were performing AIda for the last time in Havana, a bomb exploded in the audience. Back in Italy, again at La Scala, in 1932 she successfully interpreted Carmen and Mignon, before returning to Argentina where she sang at the Colón until 1935.
Besanzoni played numerous roles during her career: in addition to those already mentioned, Dalila, Santuzza (by the will of Mascagni himself), La Cieca, Preziosilla, Azucena, Mrs. Quickly, Marina, Leonora in La Favorita by Gaetano Donizetti as well as several Rossinian characters, funny like Isabella, Cenerentola and Rosina, but also the serious one in Arsace's travesti. He took part in several world premieres, including Melenis and Francesca da Rimini by Riccardo Zandonai, respectively on 13 November 1912 at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, and on 19 February 1914 at the Teatro Regio in Turin, in the smaller parts of Calpurnia and a slave, and Jacquerie by Gino Marinuzzi senior, in the role of Glorianda di Chivry.
After having had a romantic relationship with the pianist Arthur Rubinstein in 1918 while the two worked together in Madrid, Buenos Aires and New York, Besanzoni married the Brazilian industrialist Henrique Lage in 1924, thus settling with him in Latin America. where, in Rio de Janeiro, she opened a free singing school for young beginners. After having thinned out her public appearances, limited above all to charity shows, Besanzoni wanted to bid farewell to her stage career by resuming her greatest workhorse, Carmen, in Rome, at the Baths of Caracalla, in 1939. Returned almost immediately in Brazil, she was widowed two years later, in 1941, and therefore had to face serious difficulties with the Brazilian authorities in relation to the enormous inheritance of her late husband. In 1951, she definitely returned to Italy, settling back in her hometown and resuming her free activity as a singing teacher.
Married a second time in 1956, Gabriella Besanzoni died in Rome in 1962, and was buried in her costume of the fourth act of Carmen.
Source: Italian Wikipedia, Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano, 1916, II.
The Hatton Gallery is Newcastle University's art gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is based in the university's Fine Art Building.
The Hatton Gallery briefly closed in February 2016 for a £3.8 million redevelopment and reopened in 2017.
History
The Hatton Gallery was founded in 1925, by the King Edward VII School of Art, Armstrong College, Durham University (Newcastle University's Department of Fine Art), in honour of Richard George Hatton, a professor at the School of Art.
Richard Hamilton's seminal Man, Machine and Motion was first exhibited at the Hatton in 1955 before travelling to the ICA, so the Hatton can claim to have been the birthplace of Pop Art.
In 1997, the university authorities voted to close down the gallery, but a widespread public campaign against the closure, leading to a £250,000 donation by Dame Catherine Cookson, ensured the survival of the gallery.
As part of the Great North Museum project, the gallery's future is secure. Unlike the university's other collections, the Hatton Gallery was not transferred into the Hancock, but remained in the Fine Art Building.
The Hatton Gallery closed on 27 February 2016 for a £3.8 million redevelopment and reopened in October 2017 with the exhibition Pioneers of Pop.
Exhibitions
The permanent collection comprises over 3,500 works, from the 14th century onward – including paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings – and starring the Merzbarn, the only surviving Merz construction by Kurt Schwitters, which was rescued from a barn near Elterwater in 1965 and is now permanently installed in the gallery.
Other important artists represented in the collection include Francis Bacon, Victor Pasmore, William Roberts and Paolo di Giovanni, Palma Giovane, Richard Hamilton, Panayiotis Kalorkoti, Thomas Bewick, Eduardo Paolozzi, Camillo Procaccini, Patrick Heron and Richard Ansdell. Watercolours by Wyndham Lewis, Thomas Harrison Hair and Robert Jobling are also held.
Important exhibitions held in the gallery in recent years include No Socks: Kurt Schwitters and the Merzbarn (1999) and William Roberts (2004).
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 in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 542/2. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Viggo Larsen and Käthe Haack in Der Sohn des Hannibal/The Son Of Hannibal (Viggo Larsen, 1918).
Plot: The racing team owner Count Ferdinand Muntaniz buys a racehorse, a descendant of the stallion Hannibal, and calls it "Imperator". Immediately he bets with Count Szivarwany that the horse will win the first derby. Due to race shifts and game losses, Count Ferdinand is forced to resell Imperator but he has recovered his losses through the bet.
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.
"When Mizoguchi died on August 24th, 1956, aged 58, art director Hiroshi Mizutani made a death mask. Scriptwriter Yoshikata Yoda, who also worked with Mizoguchi, hung it in his study."
Vintage postcard.
German singer, songwriter, and actress Nina Hagen (1955) is known for her theatrical vocals and is often referred to as the ‘Godmother of Punk due to her prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During her 40-years-career she appeared in several European films.
Catharina ’Nina’ Hagen was born in 1955) in the former East Berlin, German Democratic Republic. She was the daughter of scriptwriter Hans Hagen and actress and singer Eva-Maria Hagen (née Buchholz). Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (her father was Jewish). Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up, she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine. When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen. Hagen left school at age sixteen and went to Poland, where she began her career. She later returned to Germany and joined the cover band, Fritzens Dampferband (Fritzen's Steamboat Band). She added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the ‘allowable’ set lists during shows. From 1972 to 1973, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduating, she formed the band Automobil and released in 1974 the single Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen (You Forgot the Colour Film), a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state. Nina became one of the country's best-known young stars. She also appeared in several East-German films and TV films sometimes alongside her mother Eva-Maria Hagen, including Heiraten/Weiblich/Marrying/Female (Christa Kulosa, 1975), Heute ist Freitag/Today is Friday (Klaus Gendries, 1975), Liebesfallen/Love Traps (Werner W. Wallroth, 1976) and Unser stiller Mann/Our Quite Man (Bernhard Stephan, 1976). Her career in the GDR was cut short after her stepfather Wolf Biermann's East German citizenship was withdrawn from him in 1976. Hagen and her mother followed him westwards to Hamburg. The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his adopted home country.
Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from CBS Records. Her label advised her to acclimatise herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits and Sex Pistols. Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, Nina Hagen Band, which included the single TV-Glotzer (a cover of White Punks on Dope by The Tubes, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, about West Berlin's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The album also included a version of Rangehn (Go for It), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music. The album received critical acclaim for its hard rock sound and for Hagen's theatrical vocals, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. It was a commercial success selling over 250,000 copies. Relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour. The band released one more album Unbehagen (Unease) before their break-up in 1979. It included the single African Reggae and Wir Leben Immer... Noch, a German language cover of Lene Lovich's Lucky Number. Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar. She starred in two films. In Germany she made the experimental film Bildnis Einer Trinkerin/Portrait of a Female Drunkard (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979) with Tabea Blumenschein, Magdalena Montezuma and Eddie Constantine. She also acted with Dutch rocker Herman Brood and singer Lene Lovich in the Dutch film Cha Cha (Herbert Curiel, 1979). Brood and Hagen would have a long romantic relationship that would end when Hagen could no longer tolerate Brood's drug abuse. She would refer to Brood as her ‘soulmate’ long after Brood committed suicide in 2001. In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be the Dutch guitarist Ferdinand Karmelk, who died in 1988, and she moved to Los Angeles. Her daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen, was born in Santa Monica in 1981. In 1982, Hagen signed a new contract with CBS and released her debut solo album NunSexMonkRock, a dissonant mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera. Her first English-language album became also her first record to chart in the United States. She then went on a world tour with the No Problem Orchestra. Her next album the Giorgio Moroder-produced Fearless (1983), generated two major club hits in America, Zarah (a cover of the Zarah Leander song Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen) and the disco/punk/opera song, New York New York, which reached no. 9 in the USA dance charts. She followed this with one more album, Nina Hagen in Ekstasy (1985), which featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Paul Anka's My Way. The album fared less well and her contract with CBS expired in 1986 and was not renewed. Hagen's public appearances became stranger and frequently included discussions of God, UFOs, her social and political beliefs, animal rights and vivisection, and claims of alien sightings. In 1987 she released the Punk Wedding EP independently, a celebration of her marriage to a 18-year-old punk South African nicknamed 'Iroquois'.
In 1989, Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from Mercury Records. She released three albums on the label: Nina Hagen (1989), Street (1991), and Revolution Ballroom (1993). However, none of the albums achieved notable commercial success. In 1989 she had a relationship with Frank Chevallier from France, with whom she has a son, Otis Chevallier-Hagen (b. 1990). In 1992 Hagen became the host of a TV show on RTLplus. She also collaborated with Adamski on the single Get Your Body (1992). In the 1990s, Hagen lived in Paris with her daughter Cosma Shiva and son Otis. In 1996, she married David Lynn, who is fifteen years younger, but divorced him in the beginning of 2000. In 1999, Hagen became the host of Sci-Fright, a weekly science fiction show on the British Sci-Fi Channel. In 1999, she played the role of Celia Peachum in The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, alongside Max Raabe. She also appeared as a witch in the German-Russian fairy-tale film Vasilisa (Elena Shatalova, 2000). At IMDb, Howard Roarschawks writes: “I saw this eye-popping film at the 2001 Sarasota Film Festival. I entered the theater without expectations, having chosen the film randomly. From shot one, my jaw dropped slack and my eyes waxed wide. Vasilisa is a gorgeously filmed, brilliantly scripted, boldly acted, confidently directed, lushly designed masterpiece of unseen cinema.” Hagen made her musical comeback with the release of her album Return of the Mother (2000). In 2001 she collaborated with Rosenstolz and Marc Almond on the single Total eclipse/Die schwarze Witwe that reached no. 22 in Germany. Later albums include Big Band Explosion (2003), in which she sang numerous swing covers with her then husband, Danish singer and performer, Lucas Alexander. This was followed by Heiß, a greatest hits album. The following album, Journey to the Snow Queen, is more of an audio book — she reads the Snow Queen fairy tale with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in the background. Besides her musical career, Hagen is also a voice-over actress. She dubbed the voice of Sally in Der Albtraum vor Weihnachten, the German release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), and she has also done voice work on the German animation film Hot Dogs: Wau - wir sind reich!/Millionaire Dogs (Michael Schoemann, 1999). She appeared as the Queen opposite Otto Waalkes and her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen as Snowwhite in the comedy7 Zwerge – Männer allein im Wald/7 Dwarves – Men Alone in the Wood (Sven Unterwaldt Jr., 2004) which follows the fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the second most popular film in German cinemas in 2004, reaching an audience of almost 7 million. She returned in the sequel 7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug/Seven Dwarves - The Forest Is Not Enough (Sven Unterwaldt, 2006). She wrote three autobiographies: Ich bin ein Berliner (1988), Nina Hagen: That's Why the Lady Is a Punk (2003), and Bekenntnisse (2010). She is also noted for her human and animal rights activism. After a four-year lapse Nina Hagen released the album Personal Jesus in 2010. William Ruhlmann at AllMusic: “Personal Jesus, which featured 13 faith-based tracks that dutifully blend rock, blues, soul, and gospel into a sound that’s distinctly hers.” It was followed by Volksbeat (2011). Her latest films are Desire Will Set You Free (Yony Leyser, 2015) with Amber Benson and Rosa von Praunheim and Gutterdämmerung (Bjorn Tagemose, 2016) with Henry Rollins, Grace Jones and Iggy Pop.
Sources: William Ruhlmann (AllMusic), Wikipedia and IMDb.
Vintage postcard.
German singer, songwriter, and actress Nina Hagen (1955) is known for her theatrical vocals and is often referred to as the ‘Godmother of Punk due to her prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During her 40-years-career she appeared in several European films.
Catharina ’Nina’ Hagen was born in 1955) in the former East Berlin, German Democratic Republic. She was the daughter of scriptwriter Hans Hagen and actress and singer Eva-Maria Hagen (née Buchholz). Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (her father was Jewish). Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up, she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine. When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen. Hagen left school at age sixteen and went to Poland, where she began her career. She later returned to Germany and joined the cover band, Fritzens Dampferband (Fritzen's Steamboat Band). She added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the ‘allowable’ set lists during shows. From 1972 to 1973, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduating, she formed the band Automobil and released in 1974 the single Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen (You Forgot the Colour Film), a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state. Nina became one of the country's best-known young stars. She also appeared in several East-German films and TV films sometimes alongside her mother Eva-Maria Hagen, including Heiraten/Weiblich/Marrying/Female (Christa Kulosa, 1975), Heute ist Freitag/Today is Friday (Klaus Gendries, 1975), Liebesfallen/Love Traps (Werner W. Wallroth, 1976) and Unser stiller Mann/Our Quite Man (Bernhard Stephan, 1976). Her career in the GDR was cut short after her stepfather Wolf Biermann's East German citizenship was withdrawn from him in 1976. Hagen and her mother followed him westwards to Hamburg. The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his adopted home country.
Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from CBS Records. Her label advised her to acclimatise herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits and Sex Pistols. Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, Nina Hagen Band, which included the single TV-Glotzer (a cover of White Punks on Dope by The Tubes, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, about West Berlin's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The album also included a version of Rangehn (Go for It), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music. The album received critical acclaim for its hard rock sound and for Hagen's theatrical vocals, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. It was a commercial success selling over 250,000 copies. Relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour. The band released one more album Unbehagen (Unease) before their break-up in 1979. It included the single African Reggae and Wir Leben Immer... Noch, a German language cover of Lene Lovich's Lucky Number. Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar. She starred in two films. In Germany she made the experimental film Bildnis Einer Trinkerin/Portrait of a Female Drunkard (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979) with Tabea Blumenschein, Magdalena Montezuma and Eddie Constantine. She also acted with Dutch rocker Herman Brood and singer Lene Lovich in the Dutch film Cha Cha (Herbert Curiel, 1979). Brood and Hagen would have a long romantic relationship that would end when Hagen could no longer tolerate Brood's drug abuse. She would refer to Brood as her ‘soulmate’ long after Brood committed suicide in 2001. In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be the Dutch guitarist Ferdinand Karmelk, who died in 1988, and she moved to Los Angeles. Her daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen, was born in Santa Monica in 1981. In 1982, Hagen signed a new contract with CBS and released her debut solo album NunSexMonkRock, a dissonant mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera. Her first English-language album became also her first record to chart in the United States. She then went on a world tour with the No Problem Orchestra. Her next album the Giorgio Moroder-produced Fearless (1983), generated two major club hits in America, Zarah (a cover of the Zarah Leander song Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen) and the disco/punk/opera song, New York New York, which reached no. 9 in the USA dance charts. She followed this with one more album, Nina Hagen in Ekstasy (1985), which featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Paul Anka's My Way. The album fared less well and her contract with CBS expired in 1986 and was not renewed. Hagen's public appearances became stranger and frequently included discussions of God, UFOs, her social and political beliefs, animal rights and vivisection, and claims of alien sightings. In 1987 she released the Punk Wedding EP independently, a celebration of her marriage to a 18-year-old punk South African nicknamed 'Iroquois'.
In 1989, Nina Hagen was offered a record deal from Mercury Records. She released three albums on the label: Nina Hagen (1989), Street (1991), and Revolution Ballroom (1993). However, none of the albums achieved notable commercial success. In 1989 she had a relationship with Frank Chevallier from France, with whom she has a son, Otis Chevallier-Hagen (b. 1990). In 1992 Hagen became the host of a TV show on RTLplus. She also collaborated with Adamski on the single Get Your Body (1992). In the 1990s, Hagen lived in Paris with her daughter Cosma Shiva and son Otis. In 1996, she married David Lynn, who is fifteen years younger, but divorced him in the beginning of 2000. In 1999, Hagen became the host of Sci-Fright, a weekly science fiction show on the British Sci-Fi Channel. In 1999, she played the role of Celia Peachum in The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, alongside Max Raabe. She also appeared as a witch in the German-Russian fairy-tale film Vasilisa (Elena Shatalova, 2000). At IMDb, Howard Roarschawks writes: “I saw this eye-popping film at the 2001 Sarasota Film Festival. I entered the theater without expectations, having chosen the film randomly. From shot one, my jaw dropped slack and my eyes waxed wide. Vasilisa is a gorgeously filmed, brilliantly scripted, boldly acted, confidently directed, lushly designed masterpiece of unseen cinema.” Hagen made her musical comeback with the release of her album Return of the Mother (2000). In 2001 she collaborated with Rosenstolz and Marc Almond on the single Total eclipse/Die schwarze Witwe that reached no. 22 in Germany. Later albums include Big Band Explosion (2003), in which she sang numerous swing covers with her then husband, Danish singer and performer, Lucas Alexander. This was followed by Heiß, a greatest hits album. The following album, Journey to the Snow Queen, is more of an audio book — she reads the Snow Queen fairy tale with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in the background. Besides her musical career, Hagen is also a voice-over actress. She dubbed the voice of Sally in Der Albtraum vor Weihnachten, the German release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), and she has also done voice work on the German animation film Hot Dogs: Wau - wir sind reich!/Millionaire Dogs (Michael Schoemann, 1999). She appeared as the Queen opposite Otto Waalkes and her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen as Snowwhite in the comedy7 Zwerge – Männer allein im Wald/7 Dwarves – Men Alone in the Wood (Sven Unterwaldt Jr., 2004) which follows the fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the second most popular film in German cinemas in 2004, reaching an audience of almost 7 million. She returned in the sequel 7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug/Seven Dwarves - The Forest Is Not Enough (Sven Unterwaldt, 2006). She wrote three autobiographies: Ich bin ein Berliner (1988), Nina Hagen: That's Why the Lady Is a Punk (2003), and Bekenntnisse (2010). She is also noted for her human and animal rights activism. After a four-year lapse Nina Hagen released the album Personal Jesus in 2010. William Ruhlmann at AllMusic: “Personal Jesus, which featured 13 faith-based tracks that dutifully blend rock, blues, soul, and gospel into a sound that’s distinctly hers.” It was followed by Volksbeat (2011). Her latest films are Desire Will Set You Free (Yony Leyser, 2015) with Amber Benson and Rosa von Praunheim and Gutterdämmerung (Bjorn Tagemose, 2016) with Henry Rollins, Grace Jones and Iggy Pop.
Sources: William Ruhlmann (AllMusic), Wikipedia and IMDb.
Spanish collectors card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, no. 4 of 6. Photo: Pasquali Film. Suzanne De Labroy in Salambò (Domenico Gaido, 1914), very freely adapted from Gustave Flaubert's classic novel. This card shows Salammbô's trip to Matho's camp, in order to get the veil back.
Suzanne De Labroy plays the title role of the Carthaginian princess Salammbô, keeper of the sacred veil of the goddess Tanit and daughter of general Amilcar. When Matho (Mario Guaita/ Ausonia), head of the mercenaries, steals the veil, Salammbô is ordered to get it back but by doing so she falls in love. Prince Narr Havas helps Amilcar conquer Matho's army and the latter is caught and destined to die. While in the book he is killed by Salammbô after which she commits suicide, in the film there is a happy end, when Matho's aid Spendius pretends to be the Voice of Tanit, ordering marriage between Matho and Salammbô.
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.
Shanghai Ballet: Echoes of Eternity
Shanghai Ballet presents 'Echoes of Eternity ' at the London Coliseum, choreographed by Patrick de Bana and inspired by the ancient Chinese poem ‘Song of Everlasting Sorrow. 7-21 August 2016.
Choreographer: Patrick de Bana
Set designer: Jaya Ibrahim
Costume designer: Agnes Letestu
Light designer: James Angot
Scriptwriter: Jean Francois Vazelle
Literature Consultant: Sifu TANG
Dancers:
Emperor: WU Husheng
Lady Yang: QI Bingxue
Moon Fairy: ZHAO Hanbing
Gao Lishi: ZHANG Yao
Chen Xuanli: WU Bin
An Lushan: ZHANG Wenjun
photo - © Foteini Christofilopoulou | All rights reserved | For all usage/licensing enquiries please contact www.foteini.com
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
Spanish postcard by Amattler Marca Luna chocolate, series 7, no. 1. Photo: a scene from Carnevalesca (Amleto Palermi, 1918), after Lucio D'Ambra. Photography was by Giovanni Grimaldi. Here left of the marshall we see Livio Pavanelli and Augusto Poggioli, on the back in the flowery dress, Lyda Borelli, and right of her the unknown actor who plays Pietro.
Four carnivals take place at the castle of Malazia. The white carnival shows the young children of the sovereign and their little cousins, who enjoy themselves with merry games. By the help of a detective, the Court Marshall of the old King Luigi of Malazia discovers that the king's son, Luciano (Augusto Poggioli), heir to the throne, has an affair with young Ms Thea (the actress Thea); she is pregnant. After threats by the marshall, Luciano sacrifices the throne in order not to dishonour and abandon his mistress and flees with her. Who will be heir to the throne then? The blue carnival starts. At night, during a big ball, the king makes the first will in favour of his nephew Carlo (Pavanelli), of whom we already know he is vile and evil, winning a boat race by cheating. The king rethinks and instead selects Luciano's sister, Maria Teresa (Lyda Borelli), with her fiançe, Prince Pietro (actor unknown). Spies spread the two versions of the will. At last, the king decides to postpone his decision, so a third option arises. Everybody is confused during the ball, because of this. Beforehand, Pietro has demonstrated his prestigious dagger, with which he once had to kill a scoundrel. An unknown person steals the dagger and kills the king with it. The red carnival starts. According to the second will, Maria Teresa becomes queen, to Carlo's utmost jealousy. Luciano returns to the kingdom to avenge his father's death. Carlo more and more puts the suspicion on Pietro, right during the wedding day of Maria Teresa and Pietro. Vengeful, she fills Pietro with champagne, to confess his murder, but he only tells he once killed a man with it. That's enough for her, so she stabs him to death. Luciano, entering with Carlo, tells her she has made an atrocious mistake. She understands she has been misled by Carlo. Moreover, she presses him to confess the murder of her father. In shock, she leaves the castle and flees. It is the black carnival.
Scriptwriter/director Lucio d'Ambra remembered how Cines producer Baron Fassini, just like he had drilled sailors when in the navy, now drilled his crew, but treated his star Borelli with the highest regard. D'Ambra was commanded to write the script for Carnevalesca in ten days. He himself hoped to elevate the film by a score by Mascagni but nothing came of it, so the ordinary cinema music and Viennese waltz accompanied it. After the film came out, Puccini enthusiastically came to him announcing they had to collaborate on it, but, again, nothing came of it. In 1993 the film was restored by the Cineteca di Bologna. See also sempreinpenombra.com/2011/03/06/carnevalesca-cines-1918/. Clips from the film were used in Diva dolorosa by Peter Delpeut (1999). NB sources have been unclear about the actors, and also mixing up names. Also, plots giving in paper sources are making mistakes. By viewing the film, we recognized Augusto Poggioli as Prince Luciano and Thea as Ms Thea, but alas, we were not able to trace the actor who plays Pietro. It is for sure not Alberto Capozzi as some sources pretend.
At the time the journal Vita cinematografica considered the antinaturalistic, Symbolist film, not only because of its decadent visuals but also for its erudite, Dannunzian intertitles, as too excessive and artificial, fearing that soon the American realism, backed by their endless funding, would wipe away the Italians. The journal also blamed D'Ambra by starting the real drama too late, during the red carnival.
Lyda Borelli (1887-1959) was already an acclaimed stage actress before she became the first diva of the Italian silent cinema. The fascinating film star caused a craze among female fans called 'Borellismo'. Livio Pavanelli (1881-1958) was an Italian actor of the Italian and in particular German silent cinema. He also worked in Italian sound cinema as actor and as production manager. He directed four Italian films, both in the silent and the sound era.
Spanish collectors card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, no. 6 of 6. Photo: Pasquali Film. Mario Guaita-Ausonia in Salambò (Domenico Gaido, 1914), very freely adapted from Gustave Flaubert's classic novel. This card shows the capture of Matho. Left on the horse we see Hamilcar, with a Greek-like helmet. On the right horse is Narr Havas.
Plot: Suzanne De Labroy plays the title role of the Carthaginian princess Salammbô, keeper of the sacred veil of the goddess Tanit and daughter of general Amilcar. She first meets Matho (Mario Guaita/ Ausonia) when he is still a slave in the granaries, and a sparkle ignites between them. Two years after, Hamilcar, leader of Carthage, asks the mercenaries to help him fight the Romans. Matho, who has become the head of the mercenaries, accepts the challenge against a fat payment. He defeats the Roman army by ruse and by fight and the mercenaries are treated on a banquet at Carthage, which, however, turns into an orgy. The mercenaries abduct the priestesses of Tanit, so Salammbô comes to rescue. Matho recognizes her, lets the women go and fights his mercenary partner Narr Havas, who wants to rape her. The mercenaries return to their camp, waiting for their gold. Evil Giscone, one of the Carthaginians, suggests to replace the due money by false money. The fraud is discovered and Matho threatens to pillage Carthage. An old man of the mountains tells Spendius, Matho's aid that if the mercenaries steal the sacred veil of Tanit, they will win. Matho, whose heart now burns for Salammbô, sees it as the opportunity to win her love. Matho and Spendius secretly enter the city by the water system, unknowingly followed by Narr Havas and his men. The bad guys close off all exits to Matho and Spendius, so they are bound to drown. But this Matho is Ausonia, the iron bars bender, so they manage to escape. They enter the palace, steal the veil, have a brief meeting with Salammbò and escape thanks to the veil the Carthaginians are not allowed to look at. Spendius additionally weakens Carthage by draining the aquaduct. Salammbô is ordered by Tanit (rather a priest hidden in the statue) to get the veil back. When they meet again, Matho is overcome with passion and joy. Meanwhile Narr Havas offers Hamilcar to betray Matho in exchange of Salammbô's hand and joining their armies they attack Matho's. Matho is captured because of Narr Havas' treachery and Salammbô's witnesses this. Giscone brings her back to town. Spendius, who has survived the massacre of the mercenaries, secretly enters town, dressed as a Carthaginian soldier. He manages to give Matho a potion that simulates death and dresses as a golddigger. Meanwhile Salammbô is about to be married to Narr Havas and the latter orders before everybody to have Matho killed, but Matho feigns a deathly heart attack by use of the potion. Spendius warns a terrified Salammbô about the scam. While the lovers escape, Spendius pretends to be the Voice of Tanit, ordering marriage between Matho and Salammbô, and their reigning together of Carthage. Hamilcar obliges the Oracle, and Narr Havas disappears from the narrative.
American distributor George Kleine was so smitten with Ausonia's previous Antiquity film Spartaco (1913) that he co-produced Salambò with his Chicago based company Photodrama. Apart from a poor DVD version, even if tinted, of Kleine's print, no other restored print resurfaced up till now, alas. At the time, the Italian press was less impressed after such Antiquity films such as Cabiria, but the Spanish press lauded the epic spectacle for its rare beauty and technical perfection.
Of course this happy ending of the Kleine version quite deviates from the original novel, in which Salammbô kills her lover before everybody and then dies on the spot. The novel also much more focuses on the eroticism connected with Salammbô - actually rather presented as an adolescent girl, a young woman, and connected to a sacred snake - and doesn't narrate of Matho's strongman feats. Moreover, the siege of Carthage, the hunger and thirst, and the horrific children sacrifices to Moloch - part of Pastrone's Cabiria - are all blatantly absent, as well as the suspicion Matho and Salammbô had sex and therefore she is doomed. NB the plot description in Vittorio Martineli's Il cinema muto italiano deviates from the Kleine version, suggesting that Spendius eliminates Narr Havas (was it censored afterward?). The description by Jon Solomon in his book The Ancient World in the Cinema as even bigger deviations from the Kleine print. As from Spartaco exist two different final scenes, a sad ending for the European and Latin-American market and a happy end for the Northern-Americans, it would be interesting to know if this existed for Salambò too. In addition, it would also interesting to know the name and whereabouts of the Afro-European actor who plays Spendius, as his name is unmentioned in the film and in reference works. The settings of the film are really impressive, e.g. the elephant statues in the architecture of the palace and temple remind of those in Cabiria, while the Tanit statue reminds of the statues in Cabiria - but also the Tanit statue as depicted by the painter G.A. Rochegrosse in his illustrations for Flaubert's novel Salammbô, in an edition released in 1900.
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.
Very little is known about Suzanne De Labroy. In 1912-1913 she acted at the Turinese company Savoia, while from 1913 she acted at Pasquali, e.g. in the Othello adaptation Bianco e negro/ The Iron Fist (Ubaldo Maria Del Colle, 1913), and Jone ovvero gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/ The Last Days of Pompeii (Enrico Vidali, 1913), the latter a rival to the simultaneously released version by Ambrosio. Salambò was Labroy's final film, both at Pasquali and in general. At the French site Gallica, her name is absent, so she probably didn't have a career in France and she might even have been an Italian actress.
Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 25555. Photo: serie Cines / Pittaluga.
Leda Gloria (1912-1997) was one of Federico Fellini’s favorite film actresses, having a prolific career in the 1930s and 1940s but is also remembered as wife of Peppone in the Don Camillo films.
Leda Gloria, pseudonym of Leda Nicoletti Data was born in Rome, on 30 August 1912 . She started her film career already at a young age, winning a film contest held by an American film company in Italy. She dropped her studies as harpist and acted in various silent Italian and German films, one of which next to Lil Dagover, the German early sound film Es gibt eine Frau die dich niemals vergisst (Leo Mittler 1930), also with Ivan Petrovich. Gloria’s first film seems to have been the comedy Ragazze non scherzate (Alfred Lind 1929) with Maurizio D’Ancora. With the coming of sound cinema she became one of the most active and popular Italian actresses. She first made her mark two films by Alessandro Blasetti, Terra madre (1931) and Palio (1932), playing lively and spontaneous country girls. In Terra madre Gloria played country girl Emilia opposite Sandro Salvini, former love interest in the silent diva films. Here he plays a duke who wants to sell his estate and move to the city, but after a fire extinguished with the help of the farmers he decides to stay. In Palio, in which jockey’s representing various neighborhoods (contrada’s) fight each other, love makes blind. Jockey Zarre (Guido Celano) breaks his affair with young Fiora (Gloria) when she is courted by a captain from a rival contrada. When a singer in whom he is infatuated, sets up a trap with his rival in love and horse-riding, Zarre almost fails but stills manages to win the Palio, gaining Fiora back as bonus. Contrasting the bleak and bloodless 19th century vamps, Gloria showed a healthy beauty and simple but often convincing and solid acting, as in La tavola dei poveri (Blasetti 1932) and Il cappello a tre punte (Mario Camerini 1934). She encountered a big success with her first dramatic character in Montevergine (Carlo Campogalliani 1939), starring Nazzari and a story about a man bound for revenge as he has been wrongly accused of murder and innocently imprisoned.
Among Gloria’s films from the war years were Antonio Meucci (Enrico Guazzoni 1940) starring Luigi Pavese as the telephone inventor and Gloria as his wife Ester, Anime in tumulto (Giulio Del Torre 1942) on a surgeon’s wife who steals a baby when she cannot have one, and Dagli Appennini alle Ande (Flavio Cavalzara 1943) on a boy (Cesare Barbetti) crossing the ocean and the whole of Argentine in search of his mother (Gloria). After the war she was involved in variety at the Company of Giulio Donadio, returning with a serious, supporting part in the neorealist film Il mulino del Po (Carlo Lizzani 1949), starring Carla Del Poggio and Jacques Sernas and situated in the late 19th century countryside near Ferrara. Future film director Federico Fellini was one of the scriptwriters for this film. Subsequently she satisfied with parts as supporting actress, often as mothers of the leading characters, but always playing moderated and well-delivered, e.g. as Cosetta Greco’s’s mother in Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna (Luciano Emmer 1952) and Raf Mattioli’s mother in Guendalina (Alberto Lattuada 1957). Gloria is well remembered as Gino Cervi’s wife Maria Botazzi in the Don Camillo films with Cervi as the communist mayor Peppone and Fernandel as Don Camillo: Don Camillo (Julien Duvivier 1952), Il ritorno di Don Camillo (Julien Duvivier 1953), Don Camillo e l’onorevole Peppone (Carmine Gallone 1955), Don Camillo monsignore… ma non troppo (Carmine Gallone 1961) and Il compagno Don Camillo (Luigi Comencini 1965). She also played Eduardo De Filippo’s wife in the comedy Napoli milionaria (Side Street Story, Eduardo De Filippo 1950) about a Neapolitan cafe owner during WWII. Il compagno Don Camillo was Gloria’s last film. After a long illness, Leda Gloria died in Rome on 16 March 1997. She was one of Federico Fellini’s favorite actresses.
Sources: Adnkronos, Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.
French collectors card in the Hit Collection series by Figurine Panini, no. 69by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 893. Photo: Barclay.
On 28 May 2020, French actor, scriptwriter, stand-up comedian, and singer Guy Bedos (1934-2020) passed away. As an actor, he is best known for the films Un éléphant ça trompe énormément/Pardon Mon Affaire (Yves Robert, 1976) and the sequel Nous irons tous au paradis/We Will All Meet in Paradise (Yves Robert, 1977). On TV, he was popular for his satirical political sketches in Music-Hall. One of his wives was Sophie Daumier, with whom he appeared in several films.
French film actress and singer Sophie Daumier (1934 – 2004) appeared in 28 films between 1956 and 1979. She was also a successful stage actress and singer.
Sophie Daumier was born as Elisabeth Simone Juliette Clemence Hugon in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. She was the daughter of composer Georges Hugon, who was also the director of music school of Boulogne-sur-Mer. She trained in classical ballet at the Théâtre de Chatelet, Paris, and at 16 began touring with a cancan troupe under her own name, Betty Hugon. Blessed with a good singing voice, a vivacious personality, excellent comedic timing and mimicry talent, and a resemblance to Brigitte Bardot, she had a successful cabaret act. She appeared in La Nouvelle Ève (The New Eve), billed as Betty Laurent. She had acting classes by Pierre Dux, Marcel Achard and Raymond Girard. She made her film debut in the comedy Paris canaille/Maid in Paris (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1955) starring Dany Robin. She was now billed as Betty Daumier, her mother’s maiden name. This debut was followed by such films as Les Collégiennes/The Twilight Girls (André Hunebelle, 1956) with Gaby Morlay, La Peau de l'ours/Skin of the Bear (Claude Boissol, 1957), and the crime drama Quand la femme s'en mêle/Send a Woman When the Devil Fails (Yves Allégret, 1957) starring Edwige Feuillère. She had her first major stage hit in her old teacher Marcel Achard's comedy 'Patate' (Spud) (1957), about a testy, ill-tempered character nicknamed Patate. It played to sold-out theaters in Paris for six (6) years! Urged by Achard to choose a new surname, she picked Sophie for unknown reasons. Sophie Daumier would be her definite stage name.
In the early 1960s, Sophie Daumier had an affair with rocker Vince Taylor. Then she met actor and stand-up comedian Guy Bedos on stage in 'Cyrano de Bergerac' and again on the set of the film musical Dragées au poivre/Sweet and Sour (Jacques Baratier, 1963). They teamed up again in the film Aimez-vous les femmes/A Taste for Women (Jean Léon, 1964). The couple married in 1965, and through the 1960s and 1970s, she often paired with Bedos. Daumier also continued to play supporting roles in such films as the crime comedy Carambolages/Carom Shots (Marcel Bluwal, 1963) with Jean-Claude Brialy and Louis de Funès. Film de France reviews: “Carambolages is that rarest of things in French cinema - an effective mix of black comedy and vaudevillian farce garnished in a sour sprinkling of social satire. (...) Some fine supporting contributions from Michel Serrault and Sophie Daumier (a dead-ringer for Bardot) keep the comedy express chugging along nicely, and whilst the film doesn’t come anywhere near to achieving its full comic potential, it is an enjoyable romp - even if most of the gags revolve around people falling from great heights to their deaths or else being blown up with homemade incendiary devices.” Then, she was the leading lady of Jean-Paul Belmondo in the crime drama Par un beau matin d'été/Crime on a Summer Morning (Jacques Deray, 1965). Daumier also worked in Italy on Duccio Tessari’s Una voglia da morire/A desire to die (1965) with Raf Vallone, and the Spaghetti-Western Per pochi dollari ancora/Die Now, Pay Later (Giorgio Ferroni, 1966) with Giuliano Gemma.
In the following decade, Sophie Daumier was seen in such films as Violette & François (Jacques Rouffio, 1977) featuring Isabelle Adjani and Jacques Dutronc, the comedy-drama Comme la lune/As the moon (Joël Séria, 1977), and the beautiful Une histoire simple/A Simple Story (Claude Sautet, 1978) starring Romy Schneider. The latter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and James Travers writes at Films de France: “Sautet’s treatment of the subject makes it a compelling and deeply moving piece of cinema, full of poetry, charged with meaning, so touchingly sincere, so refreshingly unsentimental.” Gradually, there were problems with Daumier, writes Bob Hufford at Find A Grave: “Always a bit ‘zany’, Sophie now became impossible either to work or to live with. Unable or unwilling to take stage direction, she was violent and destructive at home, leading to divorce in 1977.” After her final screen turn in the comedy flop Les Givrés/The Frozen (Alain Jaspard, 1979), she published her autobiography 'Parle à mon cœur, ma tête est malade' (Talk to My Heart, My Head is Sick) (1980). Hufford: “Her head was, indeed, sick; the source of her behaviour, and of her random spastic movements, became clear when she was diagnosed with Huntington's chorea, a hereditary, progressive, and fatal neuromuscular disorder. Stating that he would never have left her had he known the reason for her problems, Bedos, who had remarried in 1978, assumed the financial responsibility of Sophie's care for the remainder of her life as she became semi-vegetative.” Sophie Daumier died from Huntington's disease on New Year's Day 2004 in Paris. She was 69. Her son Philippe later had the same disease as his mother, as had her mother before her. She also had a daughter with Bedos, Mireille (1977).
Sources: Bob Hufford (Find A Grave), James Travers (Films de France), Films de France, Wikipedia (French and English), and IMDb.
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Vintage postcard.
Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin (1873–1938) was an international sensation and is considered as the greatest Russian singer of the twentieth century, as well as the greatest male operatic actor ever. The possessor of a large, deep and expressive basso profundo, he was celebrated at major opera houses all over the world and established the tradition of naturalistic acting in operas. The only sound film which shows his acting style is Don Quixote (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1933).
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (Russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, or Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin) was born in 1873, into a poor peasant family in Omet Tawi, near Kazan, Russia. His childhood was full of suffering, hunger, and humiliation. From the age of 10, he worked as an apprentice to a shoemaker, a sales clerk, a carpenter, and a lowly clerk in a district court before joining, at age 17, a local operetta company. In 1890, Chaliapin was hired to sing in a choir at the Semenov-Samarsky private theatre in Ufa. There he began singing solo parts. In 1891, he toured Russia with the Dergach Opera. In 1892, he settled in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), because he found a good teacher, Dmitri Usatov, who gave Chaliapin free professional opera training for one year. He also sang at the St. Aleksandr Nevsky Cathedral in Tbilisi. In 1893, he began his career at the Tbilisi Opera, and a year later, he moved to Moscow upon recommendation of Dmitri Usatov. In 1895 ,Chaliapin debuted at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre as Mephistopheles in Charles Gounod’s Faust, in which he was a considerable success. In 1896 he also joined Mamontovs Private Russian Opera in Moscow, where he mastered the Russian, French, and Italian roles that made him famous. Savva Mamontov was a Russian industrialist and philanthropist, who staged the operas, conducted the orchestra, trained the actors, taught them singing and paid all the expenses. At Mamontov's, he met in 1897 Sergei Rachmaninoff, who started as an assistant conductor there. The two men remained friends for life. With Rachmaninoff he learned the title role of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, which became his signature character. Rachmaninoff taught him much about musicianship, including how to analyse a music score, and insisted that Chaliapin learn not only his own roles but also all the other roles in the operas in which he was scheduled to appear. When Chaliapin became dissatisfied with his performances, Chaliapin began to attend straight dramatic plays to learn the art of acting. His approach revolutionised acting in opera. In 1896, Savva Mamontov introduced Chaliapin to a young Italian ballerina Iola Tornagi, who came to Moscow for a stage career. She quit dancing and devoted herself to family life with Chaliapin. He was very happy in this marriage. From 1899 until 1914, he also performed regularly at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The couple settled in Moscow and had six children. Their first boy died at the age of 4, causing Chaliapin a nervous breakdown.
In 1901, Feodor Chaliapin made his sensational debut at La Scala in the role of the devil in Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito under the baton of conductor Arturo Toscanini. Other famous roles were Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky's opera, King Philip in Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos. Bertram in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, and Ivan the Terrible in The Maid of Pskov by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His great comic characterizations were Don Basilio in Gioachino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Leporello in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In 1906, Chaliapin started a civil union with Maria Valentinovna Petzhold (also called: Maria Augusta Eluchen) in St. Petersburg, Russia. She had three daughters with Chaliapin in addition to 2 other children from her previous family. He could not legalize his second family, because his first wife would not give him a divorce. Chaliapin even applied to the Emperor Tsar Nicholas II with a request of registering his three daughters under his last name. His request was not satisfied. In 1913, Chaliapin was introduced to London and Paris by the brilliant entrepreneur Sergei Diaghilev. He began giving well-received solo recitals in Paris in which he sang traditional Russian folk songs as well as more serious fare, and also performed at the Paris Opera. His acting and singing was sensational to the western audiences. He made many sound recordings, of which the 1913 recordings of the Russian folk songs Vdol po Piterskoi and The Song of the Volga Boatmen are best known. In 1915, he made his film debut as Czar Ivan IV the Terrible in the silent Russian film Tsar Ivan Vasilevich Groznyy/Czar Ivan the Terrible (Aleksandr Ivanov-Gai, 1915) opposite the later director Richard Boleslawski. Fourteen years later, he appeared in another silent film, the German-Czech coproduction Aufruhr des Blutes/Riot of the blood (Victor Trivas, 1929) with Vera Voronina and Oscar Marion.
Feodor Chaliapin was torn between his two families for many years, living with one in Moscow, and with another in St. Petersburg. With Maria Petzhold and their three daughters, he left Russia in 1922 as part of an extended tour of western Europe. They would never return. Ther family settled in Paris. A man of lower-class origins, Chaliapin was not unsympathetic to the Bolshevik Revolution and his emigration from Russia was painful. Although he had left Russia for good, he remained a tax-paying citizen of Soviet Russia for several years. Finally he could divorce in 1927 and marry Maria Petzhold. Chaliapin worked for impresario Sol Hurok and from 1921 on, he sang for eight seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His debut at the Met in the 1907 season had been disappointing due to the unprecedented frankness of his stage acting. In 1921, the public in New York had grown more broad-minded and the eight seasons were a huge success. According to Steve Shelokhonov at IMDb, Chaliapin was the undisputed best basso in the first half of the 20th century. He had revolutionised opera by bringing serious acting in combination with great singing. His first open break with the Soviet regime occurred in 1927 when the government, as part of its campaign to pressure him into returning to Russia, stripped him of his title of 'The First People’s Artist of the Soviet Republic' and threatened to deprive him of Soviet citizenship. Prodded by Joseph Stalin, Maxim Gorky, Chaliapin’s longtime friend, tried to persuade him to return to Russia. Gorky broke with him after Chaliapin published his memoirs, Man and Mask: Forty Years in the Life of a Singer (Maska i dusha, 1932), in which he denounced the lack of freedom under the Bolsheviks.
The only sound film which shows Chaliapin's acting style is Don Quixote/Adventures of Don Quixote (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1933). He had also starred onstage as the knight in Jules Massenet's 1910 opera, Don Quichotte, but the 1933 film does not use Massenet's music, and is more faithful to Miguel de Cervantes' novel than the opera. In fact there were three versions of this early sound film. Georg Wilhelm Pabst shot simultaneously with the German language version also English and French versions. Feodor Chaliapin Sr. starred in all three versions of Don Quixote, but with a different supporting cast. Sancho Pansa was played by Dorville in the German and French versions but by George Robey in the English version. Benoit A. Racine at IMDb: "These films (the French, English and German versions) were an attempt to capture his legendary stage performance of this character even though the songs are by Jacques Ibert. Ravel had also been asked to compose the songs for the film but he missed the deadline and his songs survive on their own with texts that are different from those found here. The interplay between the French and English versions is fascinating. Some scenes are done exactly the same for better or worse, some use the same footage, re-cut to edit out performance problems, while others have slight variants in staging and dialogue. (The English version was doctored by Australian-born scriptwriter and director John Farrow, Mia's father, by the way.) Even though the films are short and they transform, reduce and simplify considerably the original novel, they still manage to carry the themes and the feeling that would make Man of La Mancha a hit several decades later and to be evocative of Cervantes' Spain." In the late 1930s, Feodor Chaliapin Sr. suffered from leukaemia and kidney ailment. In 1937, he died in Paris, France. He was laid to rest is the Novodevichy Monastery Cemetery in Moscow. Chaliapin was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6770 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. In 1998, the TV film Chaliapin: The Enchanter (Elisabeth Kapnist, 1998) followed. His son Boris Chaliapin became a famous painter. who painted the portraits used on 414 covers of the Time magazine between 1942 and 1970. Another son Feodor Chaliapin Jr. became a film actor, who appeared in character roles in such films as the Western Buffalo Bill, l'eroe del far west/Buffalo Bill (Mario Costa, 1965) with Gordon Scott, and Der Name der Rose/The Name of the Rose (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986), starring Sean Connery. His first wife, Iola Tornagi, lived in the Soviet Union until 1959, when Nikita Khrushchev brought the 'Thaw'. Tornagi was allowed to leave the Soviet Union and reunited with her son Feodor Chaliapin Jr, in Rome, Italy.
Sources: Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Benoit A. Racine (IMDb), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3709/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa.
Nicolas Koline aka Nikolai Kolin (1878-1966) was a Russian actor who emigrated to Western Europe after the revolution and performed in French and German silent films and afterwards in German films from the sound era.
Nicolas Koline was born Nikolaj Kolin in Russia in 1878. He was one of the Russian actors fleeing from the country after the revolution and during the Civil War. Together with his compatriots he moved to France. There he played in several films directed by Russian emigré directors. The first was L'angoissante aventure/Agonizing Adventure (Yakov Protazanov, 1920), a film with several fled Russian actors: Ivan Mozzhukhin (the lead and the scriptwriter of the film, together with Alexander Volkov), Nathalie Lissenko, Dimitri Buchowetzki, Vera Orlova and Nicolas Panoff. The film was started during the trip of the emigrés from Yalta to Paris and finished in the Montreuil studio in Paris. It was the second film of the Ermolieff company, which a few years after turned into Albatros Films. The newly formed company Ermolieff Films (1920) gathered the Russian emigrés; this also included Russian cameramen such as Fédote Bourgassoff and Nicolas Toporkoff.
After this first film Nicolas Koline appeared in La tourmente/The Storm (Serge Nadejdine, 1921), Justice d'abord/Justice at First (Yakov Protazanov, 1921), Les Contes de mille et une nuits/The Tales of a Thousand and One Nights (Viatcheslav/Victor/Viktor Tourjansky, 1921), the serial La maison du mystère (Alexander Volkov, 1922) which was also released as a feature, Nuit de carnaval (Viktor Tourjansky, 1922), and Calvaire d'amour/Ordeal of Love (Viktor Tourjansky, 1923). Koline had leading parts in Le brasier ardent/The Burning Brazier (Ivan Mozzhukin, Alexander Volkov, 1923), Le Chant de l'amour triomphant/The Triumphant Love Song (Viktor Tourjansky, 1923), and Kean/Edmund Kean: Prince Among Lovers (Alexander Volkov, 1923). He was even the main star of Le Chiffonnier de Paris/The Ragman of Paris (Serge Nadejdine, 1924), after the famous drama by Félix Pyat. In the same year he played leading roles opposite Nathalie Kovanko and Nicolas Rimsky in La Dame masquée/The Masked Lady (Viktor Tourjansky, 1924) and opposite Andrée Brabant and again Rimsky in La Cible/The Target (Serge Nadejdine, 1924).
In the late 1920s, Nicolas Koline started to play in German films by the Ufa. First he appeared in the Franco-German coproduction Die geheimnisse des Orients/The Secrets of the Orient (Alexander Volkov, 1928), a film with an internatinal cast including Hungarian Ivan Petrovich, Italian Marcella Albani and French Gaston Modot. It was followed by Hurrah! Ich lebe!/Hurray! I Live! (Wilhelm Thiele, 1928) where Koline played opposite his compatriot Natalia Lissenko, and Gaukler/Les saltimbanques (1929/1930), a multilingual directed by Robert Land in the German version and by Jacquelux in the French version.
From 1934 on, Nicolas Koline played minor parts in German films such as the coproduction Variétés/Vaudevilles (Nicolas Farkas, 1935) with Annabella, Menschen ohne Vaterland/People Without Fatherland (Herbert Maisch, 1936) with Willy Fritsch, Patrioten/Patriots (Karl Ritter, 1937) with Lida Baarova, Ab Mitternacht/From Midnight (Carl Hoffmann, 1938) with Gina Falckenberg, and several films directed by Victor Tourjansky: Geheimzeichen LB17/Secret Sign LB17 (1938), Der Gouverneur/The Governor (1939), Feinde/Enemies (1940), and in particular Illusion (1941) with Johannes Heesters and Brigitte Horney, and Tonelli (1943) with Ferdinand Marian and Winnie Markus. Koline had one major part in those years, in Johann (1943, Robert A. Stemmle). He also played several small roles until the end of the decade. He appeared in films by a.o. G.W. Pabst and Hans Steinhoff such as Komödianten/The Comedians (1941) and Rembrandt (1942).
After the war, Nicolas Koline remained in Germany and played small parts in films from 1947 on again, but in 1948 he also had a major lead again in Tragödie einer Leidenschaft/Tragedy of a Passion by Kurt Meisel, an adaptation of the Nikolai Leskov novel. Koline continued to play in German films until his death in 1954. He usually played small parts but occasionally a bigger one as in Cuba Cabana (Fritz Peter Buch, 1952), starring Zarah Leander. Some of Koline's parts were again in films by Tourjansky, such as Dreimal Komödie/Three Times Comedy (1949), Der blaue Strohhut/The Blue Straw Hat (1949) and Salto mortale (1953). Nicolas Koline died in 1954.
Sources: François Albéra, Albatros - des Russes à Paris 1919-1929 (1995), filmportal.de, and IMDb.
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"I'm still too dumb to make choices just because it's going to be successful. In terms of this being a giant production, I still chose the same way I choose other films. I really saw something in the character I could do something with."
- Johnny Depp on taking the role of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Is there anyone out there who hasn't heard of or seen this movie?
For those of you who haven't seen Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, here's the scoop: The drive to make this movie was described as Disney's effort to revitalize a 40-year-old theme park ride called Pirates of the Caribbean. But the film isn't really based on the ride, which doesn't have a story to it. Apparently, the writers somehow incorporated a few of the ride's characteristics and minor characters for familiar audience members to wink at as they watched the movie, but they created an original story that could stand on its own. I believe it because there's no way a theme park ride could have such an intricate backstory. At the end of the audio commentary on the DVD, co-writer Ted Elliott actually lists out the plot points one-by-one, ending with, "See? It makes sense, right?!" It does, I swear!
Having several simultaneous stories going on is part of what makes this movie so good! The story begins in the late 1700s or so on a sailing ship with the governing body of England's Port Royal, including Governor Swann (Jonathan Pryce) and his 8-year-old daughter Elizabeth, aboard. Peering in the distance, Elizabeth discovers a boy drifting in the ocean and rescues him. She learns that his name is Will Turner and steals the medallion around his neck to hide it from the others for fear that it marks him as a pirate. Ten years later, Elizabeth (Kiera Knightly) and Will (Orlando Bloom) are still friends but have a societal gap between them: She's the Governor's daughter being courted by Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport), but she's really in love with Will, who is just a working-class blacksmith. (Isn't that always the case!)
Elizabeth doesn't realize that the medallion she stole all those years ago set a hunt in motion: Everyone comes looking for it. Led by Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), pirates sail The Black Pearl and attack Port Royal, looking for the trinket and its owner. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), previous captain of The Pearl before his crew committed mutiny and left him stranded on an island, arrives in search of his ship but soon discovers that Elizabeth possesses the rare medallion. So, things get interesting: Ultimately, Elizabeth is captured by the Barbossa's crew, with the medallion, and Will enlists Jack--who has his own vested interests--to help rescue her. Adventure ensues. Enjoy the ride!
Johnny's gone to the other side!
When word got out that Johnny had signed on to star in a Disney production focused around one of its faded theme-park rides, everyone said he had sold out: He'd given up his indy roots and infiltrated "the enemy camp" for blockbuster success! This idea never occurred to me and hearing it over and over started to irritate me. Do critics really think that signing Johnny Depp to star in a Disney movie about pirates in a story based on an old theme-park ride is a successful recipe? It really didn't sound like one to me. Johnny has never approached his roles thinking about the money he's going to make from it. In fact, he's done the opposite and worked for free just for the experience or as a favor to his friends.
Signing on for a Disney movie was a definite surprise, but surprises are one of the many Joys of Johnny. I chalked this decision up to Johnny having kid movies on his brain since the birth of his daughter in 2001 and left it at that. But Johnny doesn't go into those details to explain these things. Instead, he says things like, "I just had a good feeling about it--a really, really good feeling." He's telling the truth here. He goes on, "It was mentioned that they were considering a movie based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and I said I was in. There was no screenplay, no director, nothing. For some unknown reason, I just said I was in."
Trusting Johnny's instincts, I wanted this movie to be really great--mainly just to disprove all the speculation and skepticism around it. Though wild with anticipation, a part of me feared that it could go horribly wrong. This was a new experience and a risk but no more or less exciting to me than any of Johnny's other movies were when they premiered: I didn't see what the big deal or difference was about this one. Good or bad, I knew Johnny would do something different to keep things interesting, which is good enough for me.
I have a date with Captain Jack Sparrow!
One day, I came home from work, sifted through my mail, and found two free tickets to see an early preview of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl at my local theater in Georgetown. I don't remember asking for these, entering any contests, or giving out my address to strangers. I have no idea how they ended up in an envelope addressed to me in my mailbox. Creepy? Yes, but I squealed and jumped around in my apartment anyway! In reality, these tickets were no big deal because I planned to be first in line to buy tickets to this movie, but I prefer to see these surprise treats--magic tickets to see this movie few days earlier than everyone else--as fateful Johnny Gifts that make my day. Thanks, whoever sent them. (Was it you, Walt Disney?)
While my friend and I were among the first to arrive at the theater that night (because I'm neurotic that way), it was eventually packed. (Apparently, I wasn't the only one to get free tickets.) More important, I'm pretty sure we all really enjoyed the movie! I was relieved.
The story is rich with side characters and story lines among the stars handling the main plot. Everyone in the cast, straight down to the extras, have distinct personalities, detailed histories, and their own little quirks. It makes for an entertaining soup. To top things off, the script--which really what sold Johnny on the project--is filled with smart humor. During the entire production, scriptwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were on set to make changes, so director Gore Verbinski, Johnny, and the rest of the cast had plenty of freedom to give input and test ideas on the spot. I was also impressed with the special effects. There are things in this movie I'd never seen before, and it's all so detailed! (I love details!) For example, the curse in this story only appears in moonlight, making the night-time scenes and battles extra special. And, instead of your typical treasure hunt, this curse requires that the pirates return rather than keep the goods. I think all these different elements made Pirates of the Caribbean the summer blockbuster it became--I mean, aside from the obvious key ingredient.
Johnny's in his element.
You have to think back to a time before you ever saw or knew Captain Jack Sparrow. I know it's difficult because he may be in everyone's psyche at this point, whether you're a fan or not. If you think back to before you first saw him, you'll realize what an amazing transformation Johnny made into this one-of-a-kind pirate. He disappeared into this role with the costume, the walk, the voice--every movement and every joke. Granted, I'm biased, but I gasped during Johnny's first scene when he started interacting with people. I really couldn't believe that it was the same person.
As always, Johnny did a ton of research for this role. After reading a bunch of books about pirates during that time period, he considered them the rock stars of their day. So, most noticeably, the captain is based on Kieth Richards, guitarist for the Rolling Stones, who Johnny considers the greatest of all rock stars. Johnny also spent a lot of time in saunas thinking about the character and what it'd be like to be on the ocean fighting the elements for hours on end. Captain Jack, he assumed, would be a little off due to the intense heat on the high seas. "With Jack, it was more that I liked the idea of being ambiguous, of taking the character and making everything a little bit....questionable." Also in the mix are bits of Lee Marvin's character from Cat Ballou and the great Pepe Le Pew. (I love it!)
When Johnny showed up at the studio in his costume, the rest of the cast was baffled. "That first day, we were all like, 'What's he doing?'" says Kiera Knightly. When the studio heads saw the dailies, they thought Johnny was ruining the movie. "I was sure I was going to be fired, absolutely!" Johnny says. "They had a few questions: Is he gay? Is he drunk? Is he gay and drunk?" Johnny also had to barter for his look. The studio felt that a mouthful of gold teeth was too much for audiences to bear, but Johnny counted on this concern and removed the two extra gold teeth he considered his barginning chips."When you hire Johnny, you want him to do something unique and different," producer Jerry Bruckhiemer says. They got it. "The characterization, the personality of Jack is what we wrote," screenwriter Ted Elliott notes. "The expression of that personality is purely Johnny Depp. It was exactly what we described but nothing like we anticipated." Johnny is pretty genius in this role, no matter how sick of Captain Jack you may be by now.
But you have to keep it all in perspective, I suppose. Scriptwriter Terry Rossio expains, "Johnny's performance is amaazing, but it's framed by all the other characters and sustained by the situations he gets put in. Everything goes into a performance like that--the cinematography, editing, but particularly the surrounding characters who have to create the environment for him to play off of." It's true. All the supporting characters perfectly fit their roles. Aside from Jack, everyone loves the beautiful people--Orlando Bloom as Will and Kiera Knightly as Elizabeth--who are fantastic. But no one ever mentions Geoffrey Rush. The more I watch his performance, the more I marvel at his Captain Barbossa, who is your classic "Argh!" kind of pirate up against Johnny's uncategorical Captain Jack. As Terry Rossio notes, "Geoffrey Rush's eyeballs deserve an Academy Award nomination." It's true.
Well, they didn't get one, but Johnny did! Did you hear me scream and jump around the moment his nomination was announced? Only Johnny could get nominated for starring in a Disney summer blockbuster as an ambiguously gay, drunk pirate. Granted, he should have at least five Oscars by now, but it's delicious that, after all this time, this is the one that got him nominated. I never would have guessed, yet I wasn't surprised. Johnny probably didn't care as much as I did. Maybe it was the 17-year wait, but I Was Thrilled!!! Alas, he lost to his friend, Sean Penn, who won for Mystic River. Johnny was probably relieved that he didn't have to make a speech. But the only reason I'm just the tiniest bit relieved about his loss is that Johnny didn't go down in history holding an Oscar sporting that night's weird greasy hairstyle. You know I would have had to keep that photo forever, despite what his hair looked like that day. Crisis averted.
Up to this point, Johnny performances generally received critical acclaim, but his characters were always labeled "outsiders" or "oddballs." Hiring Johnny was considered a risk because "he can't open a weekend" or "he's too weird." He's always described his career as one built on a bunch of box office failures. Johnny's movies were not mainstream, and many people didn't see them unless they were in the know and made the effort.
Imagine the shock of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl becoming a gazillion-dollar blockbuster overnight, Captain Jack and all the characters going down in Disney history, and talk of sequels already buzzing! Did I fully express the inexplicable magnitude of my joy about this? Really, I felt this couldn't have happened to a better person after all the equally stellar work before this crazy pirate movie. Making this movie didn't mean that Johnny sold out: No one could plan for or predict the ridiculous meteoric success of The Pirates of the Caribbean.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was nominated for four other technical Oscars and at a bunch of different award shows that season. It earned quite a few awards. Most exciting to me was that Johnny won the Best Actor award that year from the Screen Actor's Guild, an honor voted by other actors. Ah, the love gave me a warm fuzzy feeling (even if he couldn't attend to accept it in person).
The Kitties have already heard of Captain Jack Sparrow.
I've actually submitted a couple Illustration Friday drawings inspired by Captain Jack already. Illustration Friday's word of the week, "skyline," stumped me for a few days in 2006. But, eventually, my brain made its way to the last line of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, in which Johnny mentions the horizon. (It counts, right? They're synonyms, aren't they? Well, even if I tried, I couldn't think of anything else once the seed was planted.) Everyone was stumped on how to end this movie, but Johnny had a eureka moment and ran to the writers like a little kid, yelling, "I've got it! I've got it!"
See that drawing here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2006/07/illustration-friday-....
By 2007, the word "captain" instantly and only made me think of the captain on his ship, The Black Pearl. (It still does.)
You can see that drawing here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2007/08/illustration-friday-....
But drawing a specific tribute to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl for Johnny Kitties was daunting! At first, I thought I'd have to draw several illustrations to cover the entire cast of beloved characters. Then, I figured I'd have a few more chances to capture them later. So, I went with my original idea, which flashed in my head when I first thought up the Johnny Kitties project. It's true that Johnny's character shines best when all those "normal" people are reacting around him, but ultimately the greatest thing this movie does is introduce audiences to Johnny's Captain Jack Sparrow. Not only should his entrance go down in film history as one of the best ever, but--once introduced--there's no turning back. As soon as he sets foot in Port Royal, you know you're in for something special. And, he's here to stay. Savvy?
What's Next?
And now for something completely different: Johnny represents the CIA in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and I'm guessing they wish he didn't.
For more information about Johnny Kitties or images from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, see my original blog post here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2012/11/johnny-kitties-celeb....
Italian postcard. Spartaco condannato a servire fra i gladiatori (Spartacus condemned to serve among the gladiators). While in prison because of the false accusation of having killed consul Crassus, Spartacus (Ausonia) discovers his sister Mirza (Cristina Ruspoli) is imprisoned nearby, so he bends the irons to free her (preceding a similar scene in Cabiria, in which Maciste bends the bars with his bare hands). Mirza has overheard that Metrobio has killed Crassus with the aid of two villains. While Spartacus is led to the arena to be killed, she flees and warns Spartacus friends who round up the real culprits.
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).
Mario Guaita was born in Milan on 21th November, 1881, and member of a well-to-do family of Lombardy. He left his studies of medicine and dedicated himself to athletics and vaudeville. As member of the Trio Ausonia, ‘Gladiators of the Twentieth Century’, he did tableaux vivants of famous paintings and sculptures and knew triumphant successes not only in Italy but all over Europe. In 1912 he switched to cinema and played at the Pasquali company of Turin his first – supporting - role in Sui gradini del trono (Ubaldo Maria Del Colle 1912), starring Alberto Capozzi. Here Guaita already acted under his stage name Ausonia. He would use this name all through his film career since. After another supporting part in a film with Capozzi, L’ultimo convegno (Giovanni Enrico Vidali 1913), Guaita had a major role in La zia di Carlo (Umberto Paradisi 1913), an adaptation of Charley’s Aunt. His real and international breakthrough, however, Ausonia had in the epic film Spartaco – Il gladiatore della Tracia (1913, released early 1914), a prestigious production by Pasquali and directed by Enrico Vidali, who had co-acted with Ausonia in Sui gradini del trono and had directed him in L’ultimo convegno. The Italian film journal Vita cinematografica praised Guaita for ‘the plastic beauty of his appearance, the attraction and at the same time the power and swiftness of his perfect body, his penetrating glance, and his perfect acting.’ And in American publicity he was described as ‘a celebrated Italian wrestler and fine actor, whose physique and finely chiseled face make him an extraordinary prototype [sic!] of the ancient gladiator.’ Actually in Spartaco the camera is often focusing on Ausonia’s naked upper body, his muscular arms and his stern look into the camera. The film was strongly based on the novel by Raffaello Giovagnoli on Spartacus, but where the hero dies on the battlefield in the novel, Ausonia’s Spartacus marries Crassus's sister Valeria. So romantic love conquers political conflict - at least in the American version of the film. In the European version, Spartacus is killed by beasts in the arena, though Metronio is too.
After a minor part in Il posto vuoto (Giuseppe Giusti 1914), Guaita-Ausonia played the lead in Il principe saltimbanco (Vidali, 1914-1915), about a kidnapped little prince who becomes an acrobat. While the press mocked the audience’s tears over the melodrama, it praised Guaita’s restrained acting. Pasquali also exploited the success of Spartaco by having Ausonia perform in another epic, Salammbo (1914, released early 1915), with Suzanne De Labroy in the title role, and Ausonia as Matho. The film was made in coproduction with George Kleine, the biggest importer of Italian films in the US at the time. Ausonia then acted in other films (athletic and other) at the Gloria company (Il romanzo di un atleta, Vittorio Rossi-Pianelli 1915; Il romanzo di un atleta, Rossi-Pianelli, 1915; Un dramma tra le belve, Amleto Palermi 1915; Il più forte, Guido Di Nardo, 1915; Il mistero dell’educanda di Sant-Bon, Di Nardo 1915-1916; Un grande drama in un piccolo cuore, Di Nardo, 1915-1916). During the First World War Guaita-Ausonia served in the army, but obtained several leaves for reasons of film parts. Leaving Gloria, Ausonia shifted to the Jupiter company of Turin to play opposite Diana Karenne in the drama Il marchio (Armand Puget 1916) – the press praised the mise-en-scene and cinematography of the film but disliked Karenne - and to another Torinese company, Phoenix, for Panther (Gero Zambuto 1916) where Guaita starred opposite Zambuto’s wife Claudia in an adventure film. In 1917 Ausonia played in but one film, Vittime (Giuseppe Pinto), produced by Jupiter, while he did no films in 1918.
At De Giglio in Turin, Guaita, by now known as Ausonia, obtained his greatest successes. Films such as La cintura delle amazzoni, Eracleide and Atlas, had vast diffusion and obtained positive response all over. In 1919 Ausonia relaunched himself in L’atleta fantasma by Raimondo Scotti, about a bland society man who leads a Zorro- or Batman-like double life as a masked athlete – exactly the kind of man his fiancée dreams about. He stops two antiquarians from robbing a precious jewel from a museum, by posing as the statue of the Dying Athlete, which then becomes alive during the robbery. He kicks the thieves out, but those hire a gang to steal the jewel again and to kidnap the fiancée. The whole film constantly plays with Guaita’s physique and powers, from the opening images showing the man with and without clothes to when the fiancée mockingly asks whether he wouldn’t like to be like the statue in the museum. After this film Ausonia did a whole series of films at De Giglio directed by himself and often with Elsa Zara as his female partner, starting with Lotte di gigantic/Eracleide (1919), about a Duke who wants to refresh his offspring, so he needs a modern Hercules as the man for his daughter. In the two-part film Atlas (Ausonia 1920) he is a European child raised by Indians. One day other Europeans are captured, Atlas’s European roots come back and he flees with them. Back in Europe he discovers the mystery which destroyed his family and marries his Kate. Next followed La cintura delle Amazzoni (Ausonia 1920), a modern adventure film which had little to do with one of the works of Hercules, the two-part La mascotte di Sparta (Ausonia 1921), and the Balzac adaptation Sotto i ponti di Parigi (Ausonia 1920), which was well received by both press and audiences. In Frisson (Ausonia 1922) he tries to extort money from his aunts to buy a theatre. La nave dei milliardi (Ausonia 1922) doubled much of the plot of Atlas and probably used parts of the other film in flashbacks, while in Il pescatore di perle (Ausonia 1922) Ausonia models for a statue of a wave and afterwards ends up in an island, which afterwards proves to be very close to the coastline. In Gli spettri della fattoria (Ausonia 1923), shot in the mountains of Northern Italy, Guaita is a new country doctor who discovers a former, Spanish girlfriend resides there. She pretends there are ghosts on a farm, to mask the shady business of her husband and herself.
Guaita’s reckless acrobatic tours astounded, even if to avoid suspension of his work he also used a fixed understudy, an extra and athlete called Franco.
When the crisis hit Italian cinema in the early 1920s, Ausonia moved to France, where he founded in Marseille the Société Cinématographe Ausonia. According to cinematographer Fiorio who worked with Ausonia in France, ‘it was his wife, the little attractive Mrs. Felicie, who wrote the scripts and collaborated in the direction of the films. She was a very good woman who patiently supported the caprices of her husband. We worked in a little studio in the outskirts of Marseille, very badly equipped and of no importance.’ In Marseille Guaita made the films Dans les mansardes de Paris (1924) and L’emeraude de la folie (Ausonia & Luigi Fiorio 1925). Guaita also acted in Mes petits/Le calvarie d’un saltimbanque (Pierre Barlatier/Charles Keppens 1923) and in La course à l’amour (Barlatier/Keppens 1924),both starring Edouard Mathé and Gina Relly, and made at the Marseille based Lauréa Films company. After one last film shot in Turin: La donna carnefice/Nel paese dell’oro/Alaska, paese dell’oro (1926), an adaptation of a novel by Arnaldo Cipolla, Ausonia left the film world and established himself in Marseille, where he opened a small cinema at the Pointe-Rouge in the periphery of the city. He stopped this as well in 1947, when he retired altogether. ‘Calm, slow in his gestures, rosy, fresh, smiling, with an eternal cigarette on his lips, dressed with sportive elegance’, scriptwriter Giovanni Drovetti remembers him. Mario Guaita alias Ausonia died in Marseille on 20th December 1956. He was married to Emilia Amoroso, and after she died, he remarried with Renée Felicie Deliot.
Sources:
Vittorio Martinelli, Maciste & Co.; Thomas Späth, Margit Tröhler, ‘ Spartacus – Männermuskeln, Heldenbilder, oder: die Befreiung der Moral’, in: Antike im Kino; IMDB; CinéRessources.
American postcard.
Charles Ray (1891-1943) was an American actor, scriptwriter, and director of the silent screen, who knew a parabole from rags to riches and back again, working for e.g. Paramount, his own company, United Artists and MGM. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, he was a very popular actor and one of Hollywood's best-paid stars.
Coronation Street (informally known as Corrie) is a British soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960.
The programme centres on Coronation Street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner city Salford, its terraced houses, café, corner shop, newsagents, building yard, taxicab office, salon, restaurant, textile factory and the Rovers Return pub. In the show's fictional history, the street was built in the early 1900s and named in honour of the coronation of King Edward VII.
The show typically airs five times a week; Monday and Friday 7.30–8 pm & 8.30–9 pm and Wednesday 7.30–8 pm, however this occasionally varies due to sport or around Christmas and New Year. From late 2017 the show will air six times a week.
The programme was conceived in 1960 by scriptwriter Tony Warren at Granada Televisionin 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 13 pilot episodes. Within six months of the show's first broadcast, it had become the most-watched programme on British television, and is now a significant part of British culture.
The show has been one of the most lucrative programmes on British commercial television, underpinning the success of Granada Television and ITV.
Coronation Street is made by Granada Television at MediaCity 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.
On 23 September 2015, Coronation Street was broadcast live to mark ITV's 60th anniversary.
Coronation Street is noted for its depiction of a down-to-earth working class community combined with light-hearted humour, and strong characters.
British postcard, presented with Girl's CINEMA, May 20th, 1922.
Charles Ray (1891-1943) was an American actor, scriptwriter, and director of the silent screen, who knew a parabole from rags to riches and back again. He worked for Paramount, his own company, United Artists and MGM. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, he was a very popular actor and one of Hollywood's best-paid stars.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Shanghai Ballet: Echoes of Eternity
Shanghai Ballet presents 'Echoes of Eternity ' at the London Coliseum, choreographed by Patrick de Bana and inspired by the ancient Chinese poem ‘Song of Everlasting Sorrow. 7-21 August 2016.
Choreographer: Patrick de Bana
Set designer: Jaya Ibrahim
Costume designer: Agnes Letestu
Light designer: James Angot
Scriptwriter: Jean Francois Vazelle
Literature Consultant: Sifu TANG
Dancers:
Emperor: WU Husheng
Lady Yang: QI Bingxue
Moon Fairy: ZHAO Hanbing
Gao Lishi: ZHANG Yao
Chen Xuanli: WU Bin
An Lushan: ZHANG Wenjun
photo - © Foteini Christofilopoulou | All rights reserved | For all usage/licensing enquiries please contact www.foteini.com
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
French postcard. Les Vedettes de Cinéma, No. 221, A.N., Paris. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Charles Ray (1891-1943) was an American actor, scriptwriter, and director of the silent screen, who knew a parabole from rags to riches and back again, working for e.g. Paramount, his own company, United Artists and MGM. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, he was a very popular actor and one of Hollywood's best-paid stars.
Charles Ray was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, and moved several times in his youth before settling Los Angeles, where he finished his education. While he started his career as an actor on stage, he later started as an actor of short films, first in The Fortunes of War (Thomas Ince, 1911). From 1913 he had a steady career as the male lead in one- and two-reel short Western, Quaker, and Civil War dramas at Kaybee Pictures, Broncho Pictures, and Domino Pictures, in which he would be paired with actresses such as Enid Markey, Bessie Barriscale, Louise Glaum, and Dorothy Davenport. Ray must have worked fast then, as in 1913 and in 1914 he had a ratio of a film every two weeks. At Kaybee, Ince would direct him at times, at times also Raymond West, while at Bronco he was often directed by Charles Giblyn, and in 1915 a few times by William S. Hart.
In 1915 Ray had his breakthrough in his first feature The Coward, produced by Thomas Ince for Kay-Bee and directed by Reginald Barker. In this Civil War drama, Ray played the son of a Virginia colonel (Frank Keenan), who needs to overcome his cowardice. Ray's popularity rose after appearing in a series of films, as Wikipedia writes "which cast him in juvenile roles, primarily young, wholesome hicks or naive "country bumpkins" that foiled the plans of thieves or con men and won the heart of his dream girl." Ray's Kay-Bee films were now distributed by Triangle Distributing. Victor Schertzinger, the musician who had also provided the music for The Coward, turned director at Kay-Bee and directed Ray in several films in 1917. Ray, Ince, and Schertzinger moved over to Paramount in 1917, where Ince got his own production company and where Schertzinger directed Ray in more films, such as The Claws of the Hun (1918), a propaganda film signaling the US's participation in the First World War.
Ray's star rose and rose, so by 1920, he was earning a reported $11,000 a week (approximately $138,000 today). Ray had also earned a reputation for being egomaniacal and difficult to work with. In 1920, he left Paramount after studio head Adolph Zukor refused to give him a substantial pay raise. Ray started his own production company. Charles Ray Productions, and bought a studio on Sunset Boulevard where he began producing and shooting his own films. While he initially was fairly successful, an experiment for First National with a film without intertitles, The Old Swimmin' Hole (1921), co-starring Laura La Plante, had critical but not a huge popular success. Mind you, this was years before Murnau's famous Last Laugh was made with only one intertitle.
In 1922 Ray signed a contract with United Artists and starred in e.g. The Girl I Loved (1923) with Patsy Ruth Miller. He was fed up with the hillbillies types and strived to profile himself as a romantic lead and man of the world. Against everybody's advice to avoid lengthy historical drama, Ray insisted on the making of The Courtship of Miles Standish (1923), investing $500,000 (approximately $7,353,000 today) of his own money, including a $65,000 (approximately $956,000 today) 180-ton replica of the Mayflower. The film was a box office failure, Ray lost all his money and his reputation went down too. It did not mean his career was all over (despite what Wikipedia writes), because he first continued as a leading actor at smaller companies, produced by Ince, and in 1925 he got a contract at MGM, where he played for two years and acted as the male lead opposite actress such as Pauline Starke. Joan Crawford, and May McAvoy. In those years Ray and his wife Clara Grant were enormous spendthrifts, with an over-the-top villa in Beverly Hills, huge staff, expensive cars and Grant would never wear a dress two times. Yet, in December 1925 Ray had to file for bankruptcy and his production company went under as well. Though he continued to act, after MGM the companies he worked for were less prestigious, such as Universal. In 1928 he made his last silent film, The Count of Ten, after which he acted on stage for years, in off-Broadway productions, without much success.
In 1932 Ray returned to the sets, but not with success and in 1934 he declared for bankruptcy again. In 1935 he got divorced from Clara Grant, from whom he was already separated as of 1930. Ray still acted in cinema but now in minor parts in the mid-1930s and uncredited parts in the early 1940s. He tried to earn money by writing short stories and a popular movie magazine but to no avail. Ray died of a systemic infection caused by an impacted wisdom tooth in 1943. In 1960 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the motion picture industry.
Sources: English, French and Italian Wikipedia, and IMDb.
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 143. Photo: Sam Lévin.
American actor, director, writer and producer Orson Welles (1915-1985) worked in theatre, radio and film, both in the US and in Europe. He is remembered for his innovative work in all three media, most notably Caesar (1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar and the debut of the Mercury Theatre; The War of the Worlds (1938), one of the most famous broadcasts in the history of radio; and Citizen Kane (1941), ranked as one of the all-time greatest films. His other films include The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Touch of Evil (1958) and Le Procès/The Trial (1962).
George Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1915. He was the second son of Beatrice (née Ives) and Richard Hodgdon Head Welles. In 1919, his parents separated and moved to Chicago. His father, who made a fortune as the inventor of a popular bicycle lamp, became an alcoholic and stopped working. His brother ‘Dickie’ was institutionalized at an early age because he had learning difficulties. Welles's mother, a beautiful concert pianist, had to support her son and herself. In 1924, Beatrice died of hepatitis in a Chicago hospital, just after Welles's ninth birthday. He was taken in by Dudley Crafts Watson. At the age of ten Orson ran away from home with Watson's third daughter, Marjorie. They were found a week later, singing and dancing for money on a street corner in Milwaukee. Welles' father died when Orson was 15. Maurice Bernstein, a physician from Chicago, became his guardian. His school teacher Roger Hill provided Welles with an ad hoc educational environment that proved invaluable to his creative experience, allowing Welles to perform and stage theatrical experiments and productions. Welles was awarded a scholarship to Harvard University, but he chose instead to travel to Europe. In Ireland, he strode into the Gate Theatre in Dublin and claimed he was a Broadway star. The manager of Gate, Hilton Edwards, was impressed by his brashness and an impassioned quality in his audition. Welles made his stage debut at the Gate in 1931, appearing in Jew Suss as the Duke. He acted to great acclaim, word of which reached the United States. On returning to the United States he wrote the immensely successful Everybody's Shakespeare. In 1933, he toured in three off-Broadway productions with Katharine Cornell's company, including two roles in Romeo and Juliet. In 1934, he shot his first film, an eight-minute short titled The Hearts of Age, and he married Chicago actress Virginia Nicholson. By 1935 Welles was supplementing his earnings in the theatre as a radio actor, working with many actors who would later form the core of his Mercury Theatre.
In 1936, the Federal Theatre Project (part of Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration) put unemployed theatre performers and employees to work. Orson Welles was hired by John Houseman and assigned to direct a play for the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Theatre Unit. His production of Macbeth was set in the Haitian court of King Henri Christophe, with voodoo witch doctors for the three Weird Sisters. The play was received rapturously and later toured the nation. At 20, Welles was hailed as a prodigy. A few minutes of Welles’ ‘Voodoo Macbeth’ was recorded on film in the documentary We Work Again (1937). Welles rehearsed Marc Blitzstein's political operetta, The Cradle Will Rock, but because of severe federal cutbacks in the Works Progress projects, the show's premiere at the Maxine Elliott Theatre was cancelled. In a last-minute move, Welles announced to waiting ticket-holders that the show was being transferred to the Venice, twenty blocks away. Some cast, crew and audience members walked the distance on foot. Lacking the participation of the union members, The Cradle Will Rock began with Blitzstein introducing the show and playing the piano accompaniment on stage with some cast members performing from the audience. This impromptu performance was well received and played at the Venice for two more weeks. Welles and Houseman then formed the Mercury Theatre, of which Welles became executive producer and whose repertory company eventually included the actors Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotten, Dolores del Río, Everett Sloane and Erskine Sanford. The first Mercury Theatre production was William Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar, set in a contemporary frame of fascist Italy. The production was widely acclaimed. In the second year of the Mercury Theater, Welles shifted his interests to radio. He adapted, directed and played Hamlet for CBS and Les Misérables for Mutual with great success. CBS gave the Mercury Theatre a weekly hour-long show to broadcast radio plays based on classic literary works. In 1938, their adaptation of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells brought Welles instant fame. The combination of the news bulletin form of the performance with the between-breaks dial spinning habits of listeners from the rival more popular Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy program was later reported in the media to have created widespread confusion. Wikipedia: “Panic was reportedly spread among listeners who believed the news reports of a Martian invasion. The myth of the result created by the combination was reported as fact around the world and disparagingly mentioned by Adolf Hitler in a public speech some months later. The 1975 docudrama The Night That Panicked America was based on events centering on the production of, and events that resulted from the program.”
Orson Welles's growing fame drew Hollywood offers, lures that the independent-minded Welles resisted at first. RKO Radio Pictures president George Schaefer eventually offered him complete artistic control and signed Welles in a two-picture deal, although Welles had a budget limit for his projects. In Hollywood, Welles toyed with various ideas for his first project. RKO rejected Welles's first two movie proposals, but agreed on the third offer, Citizen Kane (1941), for which Welles co-wrote, produced, directed and performed the lead role. Co-scriptwriter Joseph Mankiewicz based the original outline on an exposé of the life of William Randolph Hearst, whom he knew socially and came to hate, having once been great friends with Hearst's mistress, Marion Davies. Kane's megalomania was modelled loosely on Robert McCormick, Howard Hughes and Joseph Pulitzer as Welles wanted to create a broad, complex character, intending to show him in the same scenes from several points of view. On Welles's instruction, John Houseman wrote the opening narration as a pastiche of The March of Time newsreels. Autobiographical allusions to Welles were worked in, most noticeably in the treatment of Kane's childhood and particularly, regarding his guardianship. Once the script was complete, Welles attracted cinematographer Gregg Toland, and actors from his Mercury Theatre. After gossip columnist Hedda Hopper saw a preview screening of Citizen Kane, the attempted suppression of Citizen Kane started. Hearst's media outlets boycotted the film. They exerted enormous pressure on Hollywood, but RKO gave the film a limited release. The film was well-received critically, and garnered nine Academy Award nominations. Welles was nominated as a producer, director, writer and actor, but won only for Best Original Screenplay, shared with Mankiewicz. Today, the film is considered by most film critics and historians to be one of the classics in film history.
Orson Welles's second film for RKO was The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Booth Tarkington. At RKO's request, Welles worked also on an adaptation of Eric Ambler's spy thriller, Journey into Fear (Norman Foster, 1943), co-written with Joseph Cotten. In addition to acting in the film, Welles was the producer. Changes throughout RKO caused re-evaluations of both projects. RKO took control of The Magnificent Ambersons, and ordered to edit the film into a ‘commercial’ format. They removed fifty minutes of Welles's footage, re-shot sequences, rearranged the scene order, and added a happy ending. It resulted in an expensive flop for RKO, although The Magnificent Ambersons received four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for Agnes Moorehead. Welles found no studios interested in him as a director after the disaster of The Magnificent Ambersons and worked on radio. In 1943, he married Rita Hayworth. They had one child, Rebecca Welles, and divorced five years later in 1948. In between, Welles found work as an actor in other films. He starred in the film adaptation of Jane Eyre (Robert Stevenson, 1944), trading credit as associate producer for top billing over Joan Fontaine. He had a cameo in the wartime salute Follow the Boys (A. Edward Sutherland, 1944), in which he performed his magic act ‘sawing’ Marlene Dietrich in half. In 1946, Sam Spiegel produced The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946), starring Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young and Welles. The film follows the hunt for a Nazi war criminal living under an alias in the United States. Although disputes occurred during editing between Spiegel and Welles, the film was a box office success and it helped his standing with the studios. He then filmed The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947) for Columbia Pictures, in which his then-estranged second wife Rita Hayworth co-starred. Cohn disliked Welles's rough-cut, and ordered extensive editing and re-shoots. Approximately one hour of Welles's first cut was removed, including much of a climactic confrontation scene in an amusement park funhouse. The film was considered a disaster in America at the time of release, though the closing shootout in a hall of mirrors has since become a touchstone of film noir. Welles convinced Republic Pictures to let him direct a low-budget version of Macbeth (Orson Welles, 1948). Republic initially trumpeted the film as an important work but decided it did not care for the Scottish accents and held up general release for almost a year after early negative press reaction. In the late 1970s, a fully restored version of Macbeth was released that followed Welles's original vision.
Orson Welles left Hollywood for Europe. In Italy he starred as Cagliostro in Black Magic (Gregory Ratoff, 1948) with Akim Tamiroff. His co-star impressed Welles so much that Tamiroff would appear in four of Welles's later productions. Welles starred as Harry Lime in Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949), alongside Joseph Cotten. The film was an international smash hit. Welles also appeared as Cesare Borgia in the Italian film Prince of Foxes (Henry King, 1949), and as the Mongol warrior Bayan in The Black Rose (Henry Hathaway, 1950), both with Tyrone Power. Welles was channelling his money from acting jobs into a self-financed film version of Shakespeare's play Othello. From 1949 to 1951, Welles filmed Othello (1952) on location in Europe and Morocco. Suzanne Cloutier co-starred as Desdemona. When it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival it won the Palme d'Or, but the film did not receive a general release in the United States until 1955. Welles's daughter, Beatrice Welles-Smith, restored Othello in 1992 for a wide re-release. Welles played the murdered victim in Trent's Last Case (Herbert Wilcox, 1952) and the title role in the 'Lord Mountdrago' segment of Three Cases of Murder (George More O'Ferrall, 1954). Herbert Wilcox cast Welles as the antagonist in Trouble in the Glen (1954) opposite Margaret Lockwood, and John Huston cast him as Father Mapple in Moby-Dick (1956), starring Gregory Peck. Welles's next turn as director was Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles, 1955), filmed in France, Germany, Spain and Italy on a very limited budget. Welles played a billionaire who hires a man (Robert Arden) to delve into the secrets of his past. The film co-starred Welles's third wife, Paola Mori. Frustrated by his slow progress in the editing room, producer Louis Dolivet removed Welles from the project and finished the film without him as Confidential Report. In 1956, Welles returned to Hollywood and guest starred on radio and television shows. His next film role was in Man in the Shadow (Jack Arnold, 1957) for Universal Pictures, starring Jeff Chandler. Around this time period Welles began to suffer from weight problems that would eventually cause a deterioration in his health. Welles stayed on at Universal to co-star with Charlton Heston in Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958). Originally only hired as an actor, Welles was promoted to director by Universal at the insistence of Heston. He reunited with many actors and technicians with whom he had worked in the 1940s including Joseph Cotten, Marlene Dietrich and Akim Tamiroff. Filming proceeded smoothly, but after the end of production, the studio re-edited the film, re-shot scenes, and shot new exposition scenes to clarify the plot. In 1978, a longer preview version of the film was discovered and released. Next, Welles filmed his adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote in Mexico, starring Mischa Auer as Quixote and Akim Tamiroff as Sancho Panza. While filming would continue in fits and starts for several years, Welles would never complete the project. Welles continued acting, notably in The Long, Hot Summer (Marin Ritt, 1958) and Compulsion (Richard Fleischer, 1959), but soon he returned to Europe.
In Italy, Orson Welles directed his own scenes as King Saul in David e Golia/David and Goliath (Ferdinando Baldi, Richard Pottier, 1959). In Hong Kong he co-starred with Curt Jürgens in Ferry to Hong Kong (Lewis Gilbert, 1959). In Paris he co-starred in Crack in the Mirror (Richard Fleischer, 1960). In Yugoslavia he starred in I tartari/The Tartars (Richard Thorpe, 1962) and Bitka na Neretvi/Battle of Neretva (Veljko Bulajić, 1969). In 1962, Welles directed Le Procès/The Trial (Orson Welles, 1962), based on the novel by Franz Kafka and starring Anthony Perkins as Josef K, Jeanne Moreau and Romy Schneider. The film failed at the box-office, but during the filming, he met Oja Kodar, who became his muse, star and mistress for the rest of his life. Welles played a film director in La Ricotta (1963)—Pier Paolo Pasolini's segment of the anthology film Ro.Go.Pa.G. He continued taking what work he could find acting, narrating or hosting other people's work, and began filming Campanadas a medianoche/Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1966). Filmed in Spain, it was a condensation of five Shakespeare plays, telling the story of Falstaff (Welles) and his relationship with Prince Hal (Keith Baxter). Then followed Histoire immortelle/The Immortal Story (Orson Welles, 1968) with Jeanne Moreau, which had a successful run in French theatres. He appeared as Cardinal Wolsey in A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 1966) for which he won considerable acclaim. Welles began directing The Deep, based on the novel Dead Calm by Charles Williams and filmed off the shore of Yugoslavia. The cast included Jeanne Moreau, Laurence Harvey and Oja Kodar. Personally financed by Welles and Kodar, they could not obtain the funds to complete the project, and it was abandoned a few years later after the death of Harvey. The surviving footage was eventually edited and released by the Filmmuseum München. In 1969, Welles played a supporting role in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter. Drawn by the numerous offers he received to work in television and films, and upset by a tabloid scandal reporting his affair with Kodar, Welles moved back to America in 1970.
In Hollywood, Orson Welles continued to self-finance his own film and television projects. While offers to act, narrate and host continued, Welles also found himself in great demand on television talk shows. His primary focus during his final years was The Other Side of the Wind, an unfinished project that was filmed intermittently between 1970 and 1976. Written by Welles, it is the story of an aging film director (John Huston) looking for funds to complete his final film. Financed by Iranian backers, ownership of the film fell into a legal quagmire after the Shah of Iran was deposed, and disputes still prevent its release. Welles portrayed Louis XVIII of France in Waterloo (Sergey Bondarchuk, 1970), and narrated the historical comedy Start the Revolution Without Me (Bud Yorkin, 1970). He appeared in La décade prodigieuse/Ten Days' Wonder (Claude Chabrol, 1971), co-starring with Anthony Perkins. Wikipedia: “That same year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him an honorary award "For superlative artistry and versatility in the creation of motion pictures". Welles pretended to be out of town and sent John Huston to claim the award. Huston criticized the Academy for awarding Welles, even while they refused to give Welles any work.” Welles played Long John Silver in Treasure Island (John Hough, 1972), an adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel. He completed F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973) , a personal essay film about art forger Elmyr de Hory and the biographer Clifford Irving, and his documentary Filming Othello (Orson Welles, 1979). During the 1980s, Welles worked on such film projects as The Dreamers, based on two stories by Isak Dinesen. His last film appearance was in Henry Jaglom's Someone to Love (1987), released after his death. Welles had three daughters: Chris Welles Feder (1938), with Virginia Nicholson; Rebecca Welles Manning (1944–2004), with Rita Hayworth; and Beatrice Welles (1955), with Paola Mori. His only known son, British director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (1940), is from Welles's affair with Irish actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, then the wife of Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th baronet. On 10 October 1985, Orson Welles appeared on his final interview on The Merv Griffin Show. He died several hours later of a heart attack at his home in Los Angeles. His estranged wife Paola Mori refused to allow most of Welles's friends to attend the funeral, limiting the mourners to just nine: herself, Welles's three daughters, Roger Hill and three of Welles's friends, as well as the doctor who had signed Welles's death certificate. Welles's companion for the last 20 years, Oja Kodar, was not invited, nor were either of his ex-wives. Welles's ashes were taken to Ronda, Spain, where they were buried in an old well covered by flowers, within the rural property of a long-time friend, retired bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez.
Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
French postcard, no. 3. Cliché X.
André Deed (1879-1940) was one the most popular comedians in French and Italian silent cinema under the names of Boireau and Cretinetti. He also was a film director and scriptwriter.
Born Henri André Augustin Chapais, in Le Havre on 22 February 1879, and after lyceum in Nice, André Deed started his career around 1900 as a circus acrobat and music-hall singer. In 1901 he did his first steps in the movie world in supporting roles, working for film pioneer Georges Méliès. In 1906 he started his own series of short comedies at Pathé Frères, around a comic character designed by himself: Boireau. Between 1906 and 1908 he made some 27 films for Pathé, directed by pioneer filmmakers like Georges Hathot and Georges Monca, though of several films no director is known.
Because of the huge popularity of the Boireau comedies, in 1908 the Torinese company Itala lured him to Italy, where Deed started the series of Cretinetti [which more or less stands for ‘little stupid’]. He not only acted but also directed his own films now. Just like in the French films, Deed behaved in a quite anarchic way, creating destruction and pursuits all over. Between 1909 and 1911 and between 1915 and 1920 Deed interpreted some 90 shorts with Cretinetti, such as the absurdist Cretinetti e le donne (1910), in which fanatic women tear the man to pieces. In the end, all his loose limbs gather again. Boireau and Cretinetti were famous in the whole world under different names: Foolshead in English, Müller in German, Toribio in Spanish, Turíbio in Portuguese, Lehmann in Hungary, Glupyuskin in Russia, and so on. In Turin Emilio Ghione and Alberto Collo starting their career in Deed’s films. He also met there his future wife Valentina Frascaroli, who would perform in many of his films.
In 1912 Deed went back to Pathé to perform as Boireau again, and as Cretinetti was named Gribouille in France, his first film for Pathé was entitled Comment Gribouille redevient Boireau/ How Gribouille became Boireau again (1912). Frascaroli collaborated under the character name of Gribouillette. From 1912 on Deed would make some 70 shorts again as Boireau. In 1913 Deed and Frascaroli did a big European and Latin American theatrical tour. When the First World War broke out in 1914, Deed was drafted first, but in 1915 Itala producer Giovanni Pastrone called him back to Italy, where he a.o. directed and played in the war propaganda film La paura degli aereomobili nemici (1915) and Cretinetti e gli stivali del brasilero (1916), which had Bartolomeo Pagano alias Maciste in a supporting part as a police officer, plus special effects by Segundo De Chomon. Afterward, Deed returned in France where he served in various sections of the army, though it is unknown whether he fought in the trenches. In 1918 he married Frascaroli and in 1919 he was demobilised.
In 1920-1921 Deed started a trilogy of Italian fantasy-adventure-films: Il documento umano (1920), L’uomo meccanico (1921) and Lo strano amore di Mado. The latter was never realised, while a copy of L’uomo meccanico was found and restored by the Cineteca Comunale di Bologna. It is a film about an indestructible robot which in the end only creates havoc. Deed returned to France, where he still acted in films, in the early sound era as well, but only in minor parts. Eventually, he became nightwatch at the Pathé studios. By the late 1930s, Deed was so forgotten, that André Siscot indicated he died in 1938, even if that happened two years after. Official documents though are not entirely clear about the exact date of Deed’s passing: 4 October 1940. He was buried in Paris, while his wife Valentina Frascaroli survived him; she died in 1955.
Sources: Italian, French and English Wikipedia, IMDB.
Italian postcard. Domenico Gambino (Saetta). Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, No. 71. Card perhaps for Caporal Saetta (Eugenio Perego 1924).
Domenico Maria Gambino (1891-1968) was an Italian actor, director, scriptwriter and producer. He was well-known as the acrobatic comedian Saetta and often directed his own films.
Gambino was born in Turin on 17th May 1891 and came from a family of pastry bakers. At a young age he ran away from home and joined a circus but his dad brought him back. He then passed on to the stage where he became part of company by Enrico Gemelli, performing in dialect. According to Vittorio Martinelli, one day in 1908 he saw a shooting on location by the Itala film company and noticed an actor who had fallen from a coach, was not eager to repeat this, Gambino offered to replace him. True or not, in 1909 Gambino was hired by the rival company of Pasquali to star in the title role in the historical film Ettore Fieramosca – La disfida di Barletta (Ernesto Maria Pasquali 1909). Despite spectacular battle scenes and a final scene with Gambino jumping from a rock with his horse, the film wasn’t a big success unfortunately. Between 1910 and 1916 Gambino worked for the Itala company, appearing as extra in the comedies with Cretinetti (André Deed) and in comedies with other actors, often dressing up as woman. In 1911 he started his own comic series of Saltarelli, starting with Saltarelli ha fatto bagno nel caucciù (1911), followed by Vista corta, ma testa dura (1912). In Maciste & Co., Martinelli also mentions Saltarelli e l’ascensore and Saltarelli ladro per forza, but these are lacking in the Bernardini/Martinelli reference books. In 1912 Gambino returned to the stage as ‘young actor’ in the dialectic company of Carlo Nunziata, but in the following year he was again hired by Itala as actor and stuntman in the comedy L’attrice burlona (Mario Morais 1913) with Ernesto Vaser and the comedy Più forte che Sherlock Holmes (Giovanni Pastrone 1913) with Emilio Vardannes (Totò), the latter film with ingenious special effects by Segundo De Chomon. In 1914 Gambino appeared in the cast of the historical epic Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone 1914), starring Lydia Quaranta, Umberto Mozzato, Bartolomeo Pagano and Italia Almirante. In 1915 he had a supporting part in André Deed’s La paura degli aeromobili nemici (André Deed 1915). In 1915 Gambino returned to Pasquali for a supporting part in a remake of Ettore Fieramosca (Umberto Paradisi 1915), this time with Giovanni Cimara in the title role, and for a leading part as a heroic athlete in an adventure film by scenographer-turned-director Domenico Gaido: Mascherata in mare (1917-1918) starring Henriette Bonard. Apparently the tide was turning for Gambino, as in the same year he moved to Ambrosio and directed his first film: La spirale della morte (1917-1918), starring Luciano Albertini and Cecil Tryan, and with Bonard and Gambino in supporting parts. It dealt with a marine officer who, with the help of circus artists, fights an enemy navy. The film was well received by the press. In those years Gambino was a jack-of-all-trades at Itala, worked as assistant-director for Pastrone as well, and supposedly pointed him out Bartolomeo Pagano, who would become famous as Maciste.
In 1918 Gambino founded his own film company Delta Film, and started interpreting a new comic character, named Saetta by his regular scriptwriter Fantasio (Riccardo Artuffo). Saetta protects the good people against the evil ones, often helped by his animals (dogs, monkeys etc.). As a true acrobat he is specialised in climbing facades and doing daredevil jumps, meticulously preparing his stunts. Despite the crisis in Italian cinema in the 1920s, he manages to make several films each year. In 1919 Gambino directed and starred as Saetta in Un demone gli disse…/Il demone rosso (1919), after that he left directing to Ettore Ridoni in Il salto della morte (1919-1920) and I tre vagabondi (1919-1920). By now the character was so popular that Gambino made a film simply called Saetta (Ridoni 1920), followed by Saetta salva la regina (Ridoni 1920). After that Gambino retook directing in Il sotterraneo fatale (1921) and in co-direction with Michele Malerba: Saetta contro Golia (1920-1921), the latter for Albertini-Film. Eventually Saetta was a name Gambino also gave to his film company, altered in Saetta Film. Here he made Saetta e il club dei ciuffi (co-dir. Mario Roncoroni, 1921), Saetta contro l’orco di Marcouff (co-dir. Malerba, 1921), and Saetta più forte di Sherlock Holmes (co-dir. Roncoroni 1921-1922). Often Pina Majelli was the love interest of Saetta in these flms. While in 1922 he was momentarily away, he returned in 1923 with Il capolavoro di Saetta (Eugenio Perego 1923), Saetta contro la ghigliottina (Emilio Vardannes 1923), and I millioni di Saetta (Ubaldo Pittei 1923), while in 1924 he made Saetta impara a vivere (Guido Brignone 1924), he was Maciste’s sidekick in Maciste imperatore (1924), then continued with Caporal Saetta (Perego 1924), and Saetta principe per un giorno (Mario Camerini 1924). Until 1925 Gambino interpreted the prosperous series of Saetta, the last ones being Saetta e le sette mogli del Pascià (Luciano Doria 1925) and Saetta Mefistofele (Gambino 1925).
After this Gambino was supposed to shoot a film called Saetta fascista, but he refused and went abroad to Germany. There he shot a modest number of films between 1928 and 1935, starting with Die letzte Galavorstellung des Zirkus Wolfsohn, then Diebe (1928). Switching to German sound film even he didn’t speak the language very well, he shot Ich hab’ mein Herz im Autobus verloren (1929), Der Bergführer von Zakopane (1930), Dynamit (1932), and Meister Petz in Wintersport (1935). These films were almost always done in co-direction with German filmmakers. Gambino also acted in a series of films with the character Billy, directed by Edmund Heuberger, plus some other films. Returning to Italy in 1935, film boss Luigi Freddi didn’t forgive Gambino’s earlier refusal, so he became jobless for a year. He tried to return with the film Un bacio a fior d'acqua, a cheap film which tried to revamp his old glories as Saetta, but it flopped. Between 1938 and 1941 Gambino managed to shoot some adventure films and cheap thrillers: Lotta nell’ombra (1939), La traversata nera (1939), Il segreto di Villa Paradiso (1940), La donna perduta (1941), and La pantera nera (1942). He had a last finest hour with Arditi civili (1940), a film on the fire brigades. Leaving actors and firemen breathless, he did several daring stunts as stand-in. After the war Gambino still did a handful of film acting and directing before retiring. As actor he peaked in Abbasso la ricchezza! (1948), opposite Anna Magnani and Vittorio De Sica as main actors. Gambino’s last film was La Luciana, which he directed in 1954. Domenico Gambino died in Rome on 17th April 1968.
Sources: IMDB, Italian Wikipedia, Vittorio Martinelli, Maciste & Co., Aldo Bernardini/Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano.
Dutch collectors card by Monty, no. 59, 1970. Photo: Gerard Soeteman. Rutger Hauer in Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969).
The Dutch TV series Floris (1969) was the start of the successful careers of director Paul Verhoeven, scriptwriter Gerard Soeteman and of course actor Rutger Hauer. Hauer played the exiled knight Floris. With his Indian friend Sindala (Jos Bergman), he tries to get his birth right papers back from Maarten van Rossem (Hans Culeman), an evil lord. During their quest they get help from Wolter van Oldenstein (Ton Vos), a noble man who offers them a place in his castle. They also meet the pirate Lange Pier (Hans Boskamp).
Source: IMDb.
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The Hatton Gallery is Newcastle University's art gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is based in the university's Fine Art Building.
The Hatton Gallery briefly closed in February 2016 for a £3.8 million redevelopment and reopened in 2017.
History
The Hatton Gallery was founded in 1925, by the King Edward VII School of Art, Armstrong College, Durham University (Newcastle University's Department of Fine Art), in honour of Richard George Hatton, a professor at the School of Art.
Richard Hamilton's seminal Man, Machine and Motion was first exhibited at the Hatton in 1955 before travelling to the ICA, so the Hatton can claim to have been the birthplace of Pop Art.
In 1997, the university authorities voted to close down the gallery, but a widespread public campaign against the closure, leading to a £250,000 donation by Dame Catherine Cookson, ensured the survival of the gallery.
As part of the Great North Museum project, the gallery's future is secure. Unlike the university's other collections, the Hatton Gallery was not transferred into the Hancock, but remained in the Fine Art Building.
The Hatton Gallery closed on 27 February 2016 for a £3.8 million redevelopment and reopened in October 2017 with the exhibition Pioneers of Pop.
Exhibitions
The permanent collection comprises over 3,500 works, from the 14th century onward – including paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings – and starring the Merzbarn, the only surviving Merz construction by Kurt Schwitters, which was rescued from a barn near Elterwater in 1965 and is now permanently installed in the gallery.
Other important artists represented in the collection include Francis Bacon, Victor Pasmore, William Roberts and Paolo di Giovanni, Palma Giovane, Richard Hamilton, Panayiotis Kalorkoti, Thomas Bewick, Eduardo Paolozzi, Camillo Procaccini, Patrick Heron and Richard Ansdell. Watercolours by Wyndham Lewis, Thomas Harrison Hair and Robert Jobling are also held.
Important exhibitions held in the gallery in recent years include No Socks: Kurt Schwitters and the Merzbarn (1999) and William Roberts (2004).
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