Britain’s answer to Frank Sinatra. Okay, Matt was no Ol’ Blue Eyes but he carved out a successful career as a romantic ballad singer both in Britain and America in an age dominated by raucous pop singers. His rise to fame against the Elvis Presley tide was a singular achievement for a small man with… Continue reading Matt Monro
Month: February 2009
Ronnie Laine
Ronnie Laine, bassist and founder member of The Small Faces, was born in Plaistow, East London, on April 1, 1946, son of a lorry driver. At 16 he left school and began working as a plumber’s mate then, aged 17, he bought his first guitar and began playing in a band called The Outcasts with… Continue reading Ronnie Laine
Bob Hoskins
Short, bad baldie who rose to fame in The Long Good Friday, Hoskins was born in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk in 1942 where his mother had been sent to escape the Blitz. They couldn’t have enjoyed it too much because Hoskins was sent back to London with his mother when he was only two… Continue reading Bob Hoskins
Charles Dance
Walter Charles Dance was born in Birmingham, England, in 1946, son of a parlour maid and a civil engineer who died when he was four. When the son was four that is, not the father. Dance junior dropped Walter from his name because he didn’t fancy having the initials WC. He was a nervous child… Continue reading Charles Dance
Russ Conway
He was the pianist who brought joy with his tinkling fingers and his twinkling smile. This attractive combination brought Russ Conway huge success in live concert and on record, and made him one of Britain’s biggest-selling artists of the 1950s and 1960s. From his first chart success in 1957 with a medley of other artists’… Continue reading Russ Conway
Michael Caine
Born Maurice Mickelwhite – not a lot of people know that – actually everyone knows that – in St Olaves Hospital in South London in 1933. In 1986, the same building became Bob Hoskins’ production offices for the making of Mona Lisa, which starred Hoskins and Caine. The son of a fish market porter, Maurice… Continue reading Michael Caine
Gabriel Byrne
Born in Dublin in May, 1950, Gabriel Byrne set out to become a priest but was somewhat put off by being molested by his Latin teacher while at an English seminary preparing for the cloth. That was enough to send him on a number of different career paths from archaeologist and schoolteacher, short-order cook and… Continue reading Gabriel Byrne
Lee Marvin
Born February 19, 1924, in New York City, Lee Marvin quit high school to enter the Marine Corps and while serving in the South Pacific was wounded in the Battle of Saipan. That sounds pretty heroic until you realise he was wounded in the buttocks. He spent a year in recovery before returning to the… Continue reading Lee Marvin
Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle
A comic genius from the golden age of the silent cinema, the Prince of Whales was the first comedian ever to be hit by an on-screen custard pie. He was working as an overweight plumber in 1913 when he was discovered by Mack Sennett. He had come to unclog the film producer’s drain but Sennett… Continue reading Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle
Allan Williams
The first manager of a Liverpool combo known as The Beatles. This plumber and owner of the Jacaranda club was the man who took them to Hamburg in 1960 and set them on the road to a relatively successful career. He first met the Fab Four when they came into the Jacaranda and was the… Continue reading Allan Williams