Your favorite actors from the musical cats
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Sir John Mills, one of the most popular and beloved English actors, was born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills on February 22, 1908, at the Watts Naval Training College in North Elmham, Norfolk, England. The young Mills grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk, where his father was a mathematics teacher and his mother was a theater box-office manager. The Oscar-winner appeared in more than 120 films and TV movies in a career stretching over eight decades, from his debut in 1932 in Midshipmaid Gob (1932) through Bright Young Things (2003) and The Snow Prince (2009).
After graduating from the Norwich Grammar School for Boys, Mills rejected his father's academic career for the performing arts. After brief employment as a clerk in a grain merchant's office, he moved to London and enrolled at Zelia Raye's Dancing School. Convinced from the age of six that performing was his destiny, Mills said, "I never considered anything else."
After training as a dancer, he started his professional career in the music hall, appearing as a chorus boy at the princely sum of four pounds sterling a week in "The Five O'Clock Revue" at the London Hippodrome, in 1929. The short, wiry song-and-dance man was scouted by Noël Coward and began to appear regularly on the London stage in revues, musicals and legitimate plays throughout the 1930s. He appeared in a score of films before the war, "quota quickies" made under a system regulating the import of American films designed to boost local production. He was a juvenile lead in The Ghost Camera (1933), appeared in the musical Car of Dreams (1935), and then played lead roles in Born for Glory (1935), Nine Days a Queen (1936) and The Green Cockatoo (1937). His Hollywood debut was in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) with Robert Donat, but he refused the American studios' entreaties to sign a contract and stayed in England.
Mills relished acting in films, finding it a challenge rather than the necessary economic evil that many English actors at the time, such as Laurence Olivier, felt it was, and it was the cinema that would make him an internationally renowned star. He anchored his film career in military roles, such as those in his early pictures Born for Glory (1935) (a.k.a. "Forever England") and Raoul Walsh's You're in the Army Now (1937). He appeared in the classic In Which We Serve (1942), where he worked with his mentor Coward and with Coward's co-director David Lean, who would go on to direct Mills in some of his most memorable performances.
Throughout his film career Mills played a wide variety of military characters, portraying the quintessential English hero. He later tackled more complex characterizations, such as the emotionally troubled commander in Tunes of Glory (1960). He also played Field Marshal Haig in the satire Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) that mocked the entire genre. However, it was in his World War II films, which included We Dive at Dawn (1943), Waterloo Road (1945) and Johnny in the Clouds (1945), that Mills established himself as an innovative English film star.
With his ordinary appearance and everyman manner, Mills seemed "the boy-next-door," but the Mills hero was decent, loyal and brave, as well as tough and reliable under stress. In his military roles, he managed throughout his career to include enough subtle variations on the Mills heroic type to avoid appearing typed. He could play such straight heroes as Scott of the Antarctic (1948) as well as deconstruct the type in Ice Cold in Alex (1958) and "Tunes of Glory." The latter film features one of his finest film roles, that of the brittle Col. Basil Barrow, the new commander of a Scots battalion. Mills superbly played an emotionally troubled martinet in a role originally slated for Alec Guinness, his Great Expectations (1946) co-star, who decided to take the flashier role of the colonel's tormentor. It was one of Mills' favorite characters.
No male star of English cinema enjoyed such a long and rewarding career as a star while appearing predominantly in English films. As an actor, Mills chose his roles on the basis of the quality of the script rather than its propriety as a "star" turn. Because of this, he played roles that were more akin to character parts, such as shoemaker Willy Mossop in Hobson's Choice (1954). As he aged, his proclivity for well-written roles enabled him to make a seamless transition from a lead to character lead to character actor from the 1950s to the 1960s.
Almost 40 years after his film debut, Mills won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for playing the mute village idiot in Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970), an uncharacteristic part. In addition to "In Which We Serve" and "Ryan's Daughter," Lean had also directed Mills in memorable performances in This Happy Breed (1944) and "Hobson's Choice". He gave one of his finest turns as Pip in Lean's masterpiece "Great Expectations", in which Mills' performance was central to the success of the picture.
Other significant films in which Mills appeared include The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), King Vidor's War and Peace (1956), The Chalk Garden (1964), King Rat (1965), The Wrong Box (1966), Lady Caroline Lamb (1972), Young Winston (1972) and Stanley Kramer's Oklahoma Crude (1973). He also appeared with his daughter Hayley Mills in Tiger Bay (1959) and The Family Way (1966) and had a cameo in her Disney hit The Parent Trap (1961). Mills appeared in a Disney hit of his own, Swiss Family Robinson (1960), as the paterfamilias. He had one of the better cameo parts in producer Mike Todd's epic Around the World in 80 Days (1956), playing a carriage driver, and appeared in a non-speaking part as Old Norway in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996).
In 1967 he appeared in the short-lived American TV series Dundee and the Culhane (1967) on CBS. In the hour-long series Mills played an English lawyer named Dundee who roamed the Wild West with a young American lawyer named Culhane, who was also a fast draw with a six-gun. The network was disappointed with the quality of the show's writing and cancelled it after 13 episodes. One of the series' directors was Ida Lupino, who played Mills' sister in "The Ghost Camera" over 30 years before (Lupino also directed Hayley in The Trouble with Angels (1966)). Mills' most famous television role was probably the title character in ITV's Quatermass (1979).
He appeared on Broadway during the 1961-62 season as the lead character in Terence Rattigan's "Ross," a fictionalization of the life of T.E. Lawrence, for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Tony Award. His only other Broadway appearance was in the 1987 revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," in which he played Alfred Doolittle. The play was nominated for a Tony for Best Revival, and Amanda Plummer, playing his character's daughter, Eliza, also received a Tony nomination.
After divorcing Aileen Raymond, whom he had married at the age of 19, Mills married playwright Mary Hayley Bell on January 16, 1941. Since he was serving in the army, they could not have a church service, and they renewed their vows at St. Mary's Church, next to their home, Hills House, in Denham, England, in 2001.
Mills has worked as both producer and director: in 1966, he directed daughter Hayley in Gypsy Girl (1966) (a.k.a. "Gypsy Girl), from a script written by his wife. He produced "The Rocking Horse Winner" and The History of Mr. Polly (1949), the latter film featuring his older daughter Juliet Mills as a child. Whistle Down the Wind (1961) in which Hayley's character mistakes a runaway convict played by Alan Bates for Jesus Christ, was based on a novel written by Mary.
Living in Hollywood during the 1960s where his daughter Hayley enjoyed her own Oscar-winning career as a child star, Mills and his wife became very popular with members of the movie colony. After Hayley grew out of her child actress roles, Mills returned to England, where he continued his film work. He became a council member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and a life patron of the Variety Club.
Mills was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 1960 and was knighted in 1976. Although he suffered from deafness and failing eyesight and went almost completely blind in 1990, he continued to act, playing both blind and sighted characters with his customary joie de vivre and panache. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts honored him with a Special Tribute Award in 1987 and a Fellowship, its highest award, in 2002. He was honored with a British Film Institute Fellowship in 1995 and was named a Disney Legend by The Walt Disney Co.
After a brief illness, Sir John Mills died at the age of 97 on April 23, 2005, in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. He was survived by his widow (who survived him by eight months), his son Jonathan, his daughters Juliet and Hayley, and his grandson Crispian Mills, the lead singer of the hit pop music group Kula Shaker. He was the author of an autobiography, "Up in the Clouds, Gentleman Please," published in 1981.- Actor
- Production Designer
- Soundtrack
Ken Page is an African-American actor who is widely known for voicing Oogie Boogie from Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas and it's various spin-offs and video games including Kingdom Hearts. He also acted in various movies and stage productions including All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Little Mermaid and Little Shop of Horrors.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Rosemarie Ford was born in Spring of 1962 in North Yorkshire. She has been dancing since 8-years-old, appearing in several children's television programs until she was 14. She took her dancing lessons and exams in a local dancing school in Leeds, then, before coming to London. She was once a host on Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game (1971) and presented Come Dancing (1949). She was also a reporter on Rolf's Amazing World of Animals (1998). She's also sung in Royal Variety shows and has released her own album - 1991's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". Rosemarie also enjoys decorating and going out on her bike, she is a dog lover and it has been reported that if she could only bring 3 things to a desert island, she would bring her 2 dogs (count as one thing), the pictures of family and friends, and an old teddy bear. Rosemarie has played her favorite "Cats" character, "Grizabella", in 1995 and 1996 in London. Then, in another production in the West End, she played "Bombalurina" in 1997. She married Robert Lindsay, another respected theatre performer in 2006.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Musical theatre actor. Trained at Royal Ballet School, Bush Davies; and Performing Arts School Doreen Bird. Began career in the Cats UK national tour as dance captain, playing several roles (Alonzo, Rumpus Cat, u/s Rum Tum Tugger/Mistoffelees. Credits: (West End) The Hunting of the Snark - as 'Butcher', Cats as 'Rum Tum Tugger', Starlight Express - as 'Electra', Grease - as 'Roger', Tommy- as 'The Hawker'/'Captain Walker', The Fix - ensemble, Black Goes with Everything - as 'Performer', Notre Dame de Paris - as 'Gringoire'; (Germany) Cats - as 'Munkustrap', RENT - as 'Roger Davis'. Plus several commercials. Recordings: The New Starlight Express (1993) - as 'Electra'; RENT- Original German Cats Recording (1999) - as 'Roger Davis'.- Actress
Aeva May was born on 15 January 1962 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. She is an actress, known for Cats (1998) and Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh (1998). She has been married to David John Beckham since July 2004.- Actor
- Soundtrack
James Barron was born on 24 December 1964 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Cats (1998), Judge John Deed (2001) and The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (2011).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jo is from the town of Bo'ness in Scotland. She first began her training at The Dance School of Scotland in Glasgow, then continuing in Epsom at Laine Theatre Arts.
Her first appearance in a London West End show was at the New London Theatre playing Rumpleteaser in ANdrew Weber's Cats. She also understudied and played the roles of Demeter and Jemima in that same production. Later she was offered the role of Rumpleteaser in a video production of Cats.
Some of her other theatre work includes Dance Captain/Swing on Disney's Beauty and the Beast, at the Dominion Theatre, London; Columbia in the national tour of The Rocky Horror Show; and Pearl, in the final cast of Starlight Express at the Apollo Theatre, Victoria.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Drew Varley was born on 9 April 1971 in Tolworth, Surrey, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Cats (1998) and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999). He has been married to Stephen Matthews since 2014.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Susie McKenna is known for Cats (1998), Emmerdale Farm (1972) and Jack & Sarah (1995). She has been married to Sharon D Clarke since 15 June 2008.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Jacob Brent was born on 14 August 1973 in Graham, North Carolina, USA. He is an actor, known for Cats (1998), Santa Girl (2019) and Diminishing Returns (2016). He has been married to Derek Tucker since 1 October 2022.- Phyllida hails from the Isle of Wight (off the South Coast of England), where she began training at the age of four at her mother's dancing school.
From the age of sixteen she studied at the Bush Davies School of Theatre Arts, during which time she won the Cosmopolitan Magazine Young Dancer of the Year Award for choreography, the Noreen Bush Award for classical ballet and the Dancing Times Award for choreography.
Her theatre credits include the West End productions of Phantom of the Opera, in which she appeared as "Meg Giry" and lead dancer, Cats - playing "Victoria" and "Demeter", Fame - the Original London Cast and Grease in which she appeared as "Frenchie".
Other theatre work includes Gillan Lynne and Friends at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, Oklahoma! National Tour playing Dream Laurie, Heathcliff National Tour and Robinson Crusoe at Wimbledon. She has also appeared in several charity galas including Dance for Life at Her Majesty's Theatre and A Handful of Keys at the Prince Edward Theatre.
Phyllida's choreographic work includes Bouncers in Harlow, a natural history series entitled Who's Afraid Of... for the BBC, The Larks at the Dolman Theatre, Newport, and several pieces for Doreen Bird College. Television work includes Peak Practice, The Ghost's of Oxford Street, Children in Need, The Olivier Awards, Talking Telephone Numbers and the Brit Awards 1991.
Phyllida features in the recording of a childrens series for BBC Radio called The Song Tree: Octavia and Friends in which she plays 'Millie the Millipede'!
She has recorded the "Original Cast Albums" of Fame and Heathcliff and Dave's Brother Al with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Also as part of the 'Fame' company, she recorded a song for the album We Can Be Kind which was in aid of the charity 'West End Cares'.
She has both choreographed and performed in "On Broadway" a tribute to the great Stage Musicals; at various venues in England and Wales.
She can also be seen in the exclusive video of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Cats', in which she returns to her West End role of 'Victoria the White Cat'. - Actor
- Art Director
Bryn Walters is known for Dog Soldiers (2002), Great Performances (1971) and Love's Labour's Lost (2000).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Veerle Casteleyn was born on 6 March 1978 in Vlaanderen, Belgium. She is an actress, known for Cats (1998), Flikken (1999) and De wet volgens Milo (2004).- Tommi Sliiden was born in Sweden. He is known for Cats (1998), The Snowman: The Film of the Stage Show (1998) and Sarah Brightman: One Night in Eden - Live in Concert (1999).
- Karl Morgan was born on 26 December 1973 in Liverpool, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Holby City (1999), Peak Practice (1993) and Captain Mack (2008).
- Actress
Jo Bingham was born on 4 February 1972 in London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Cats (1998) and The Basil Brush Show (2002).- Born in Glasgow, Fergus trained at the Royal Ballet School and Central School of Ballet. After graduating Fergus went to Northern Ballet Theatre one of the country's leading dance/drama companies. Throughout his time with NBT, Fergus danced all principal and soloist roles as well as many leading roles being created on him.
On leaving NBT, Fergus was asked to join the UK tour of "CATS" playing Mr Mistoffolees, and subsequently in the London West End production. This transition into musical theatre was followed by many other appearances in West End shows including "Oklahoma!" at the National Theatre and Lyceum Theatre London West End (Dir. Trevor Nunn. Choreo. Susan Stroman.) "Burn the Floor" Australian Tour, " Fosse" London West End (Dance Captain and leading performer) and "My Fair Lady"(Dance Captain) again at the National Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane London West End (Dir. Trevor Nunn. Choreo Matthew Bourne.), where Fergus then became the show's Resident Choreographer for the West End transfer. Fergus was then asked by Susan Stroman to be Resident Director/Choreographer on the London West End production of the Broadway hit show "Contact". More recently he has been choreographic assistant on staging the new German and European tour of "CATS" and choreographic assistant to Susan Stroman for the first new full-length ballet in 32 years for New York City Ballet. Fergus was also responsible for staging the 2005 U.S tour of "Contact" for Miss Stroman.
Film Credits include- "CATS" the movie, "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Oklahoma!", "Burn the Floor", "Beyond the Sea" (Dir. Kevin Spacey). - Actress
- Producer
- Composer
Betty Buckley, who has been called "The Voice of Broadway," is one of theater's most respected and legendary leading ladies. She is an actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She is a 2012 Theatre Hall of Fame inductee and the 2017 recipient of the Julie Harris Awards from the Actor's Fund for Artistic Achievement.
She won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. She received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a musical for her performance as Hesione in Triumph of Love, and an Olivier Award nomination for her critically acclaimed interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway.
Her other Broadway credits include 1776, Pippin, Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Carrie. Off-Broadway credits include the world premiere of Horton Foote's The Old Friends for which she received a Drama Desk Nomination in 2014, White's Lies, Lincoln Center's Elegies, the original NYSF production of Edwin Drood, The Eros Trilogy, Juno's Swans and Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road. Regional credits include The Perfectionist, Gypsy, Threepenny Opera, Camino Real, Buffalo Gal, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Old Friends at Houston's Alley Theatre and Grey Gardens at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY and The Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles in 2016 for which she received an Ovation Award Nomination. In London she starred in Promises, Promises for which she was nominated for An Evening Standard Award and in 2013 the British premiere of Dear World.
Ms. Buckley most recently appeared in the new M. Night Shyamalan hit film Split co-starring James McAvoy, released in January 2017. She was nominated for a Saturn Award for her work in the film. Her other films include her debut in Brian de Palma's screen version of Stephen King's Carrie, Bruce Beresford's Tender Mercies, Roman Polanski's Frantic, Woody Allen's Another Woman, Lawrence Kasden's Wyatt Earp and M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening.
On television, Buckley most recently guest starred in the NBC Series Chicago Med and in the HBO series The Leftovers and Getting On. She appeared in The Pacific also for HBO and twice on the Kennedy Center Honors. She also starred for three seasons in the HBO series Oz and as Abby Bradford in the hit series Eight Is Enough. She has appeared as a guest star in numerous television series, miniseries and films for television including Evergreen, Roses For The Rich, Without A Trace, Law & Order: SVU and Pretty Little Liars.
Buckley tours in concert worldwide with her ensemble of musicians and recently was featured in the Royal Albert Hall concert of Follies in celebration of Stephen Sondheim's 85th birthday. She has recorded 17 CD's: including Ghostlight produced by T Bone Burnett released in 2014 and most recently Story Songs released in April 2017.
She received a Grammy Nomination for Stars and The Moon, Betty Buckley Live at the Donmar. She received her second Grammy Nomination for the audio book The Diaries of Adam and Eve. For over forty years Ms. Buckley has been a teacher of scene study and song interpretation, giving workshops in Manhattan and various universities and performing Arts Conservatories around the country. She has been a faculty member in the theatre department of the University of Texas at Arlington and teaches regularly at the T. Schreiber Studio in New York City, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX and in Los Angeles, Denver and Oklahoma.
In 2009, Ms. Buckley received the Texas Medal of Arts Award for Theater and was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2007. She has two honorary doctorates from The Boston Conservatory and Marymount College and has been honored with three Lifetime Achievement Awards for her contributions to theater from the New England Theater Conference, The Shubert Theater in New Haven and the Terry Schreiber School in NYC.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Terrence Vaughn Mann was born to Charles and Helen Mann in Ashland, Kentucky on July 1, 1951. Terry left Jacksonville University after two years there (1969-1971), and later graduated with honors from the North Carolina School for the Arts (1971-73, 1975-76). During his first summer in Paul Green's outdoor drama, "The Lost Colony", Terry was Ira David Wood III's understudy for the role of Old Tom. Terry eventually took over the role. Terry became the Children's Theatre Director for Raleigh, North Carolina's Theatre In The Park when David Wood broadened the theatre's scope. While at TIP, Terry appeared in a number of main stage productions including "A Christmas Carol", "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Romeo & Juliet". After spending a couple of years performing at the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Terry moved to New York and landed a spot in the chorus of "Barnum", directed by Joe Layton (Director of The Lost Colony.) Shortly thereafter, he auditioned for the role of Rum Tum Tugger in "Cats", and a star was born.
Terry spent the rest of the 1980s starring in such films as Critters (1986) and A Chorus Line (1985), making television guest appearances on shows like The Equalizer (1985) and various soap operas, and originating such roles as Saul in "Rags" and Javert in "Les Miserables".
Terry is happily married to his second wife, a fellow Broadway veteran, Charlotte d'Amboise. For the past ten years, he seems to have switched his focus to directing and TV movies, and has honed his talents by starring as the Beast in the Broadway production of "Beauty & the Beast" and Chauvelin in "The Scarlet Pimpernel". For a time, he served as Artistic Director for The North Carolina Theatre, based in Raleigh. Terry is currently working on a rock musical version of William Shakespeare's classic, "Romeo & Juliet". He has served as Director of "The Lost Colony" for the past two summers.