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An oddly fascinating bloke with prominent bony cheeks and rawboned figure, Peter William (Pete) Postlethwaite was born on February 16, 1946 and was a distinguished character actor on stage, TV and film. Growing up the youngest of four siblings in a Catholic family in Warrington, Lancashire (near Liverpool) in middle-class surroundings to working-class parents, he attended St Mary's University (London). However, while completing his studies, he developed an interest in theatre, to the chagrin of his father, who wanted his children to find secure positions in life.

A drama teacher initially at a Catholic girls convent school, he decided to follow his acting instincts full-time and gradually built up an impressive array of classical stage credits via repertory, including the Bristol Old Vic Drama School, and in stints with Liverpool Everyman, Manchester Royal Exchange and the Royal Shakespeare Company. By the 1980s he was ready to branch out into film and TV, giving a startling performance as a wife abuser in the Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988).

By 1993 he had crossed over into Hollywood parts and earned his first Oscar nomination for his superb role as Daniel Day-Lewis' father in In the Name of the Father (1993). Other quality roles came his way with The Usual Suspects (1995), Brassed Off (1996), and Amistad (1997). He did fine work on television in Sharpe's Company (1994), Lost for Words (1999), and The Sins (2000). Postlethwaite worked equally both in the UK and abroad, and avoided the public limelight for the most part, except for occasional displays of political activism.

Postlethwaite lived quietly out of the spotlight in England and continued on in films with roles in The Shipping News (2001), The Limit (2004), Dark Water (2005), The Omen (2006), Ghost Son (2007) and Solomon Kane (2009). In 2010, he was seen in Clash of the Titans (2010), Inception (2010) and The Town (2010).

Postlewaite died on January 2, 2011, at age 64, of pancreatic cancer. He was surrounded by his wife and son, and by his daughter from a prior relationship.

Norman Jones was born on 16 June 1932 in Donnington, Telford, Shropshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for You Only Live Twice (1967), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Curtain of Fear (1964). He died on 23 April 2013 in Newport, Shropshire, England, UK.

The Oscar-winning screenwriter John Osborne, better known as one of the most important British playwrights of the 1950s generation that revolutionized English-speaking theater, was born on December 12, 1929 in London, England. His father, Thomas Godfrey Osborne, a native of Newport, Monmouthshire, was a copywriter, and his mother, Nellie, was a Cockney barmaid. John's father died in 1941 when he was 11 years old. The insurance settlement allowed him to go to Belmont College, Devon.

After completing school, Osborne did not go on to university but returned to London to live with his mother, where he tried to make it as a journalist. He was introduced to the theater through a job tutoring a touring company of junior actors. Smitten by the theater, he became a stage manager and actor, eventually becoming a member of Anthony Creighton's provincial touring company. Osborne wrote his second play, "Personal Enemy", in collaboration with Anthony Creighton (their "Epitaph for George Dillon" would be staged at the Royal Court in 1958, after Osborne had broken through as a solo artist with the watershed production of "Look Back in Anger", also at the Royal Court).

Look Back in Anger (1959), which opened on May 8, 1956 at the Royal Court, the 11th anniversary of V-E Day (the surrender of Germany and the cessation of hostilities in the European theater of World War II), was revolutionary, as it gave voice to the working class. A press agent came up with the phrase "Angry Young Man" that would stick to Osborne and his compatriots, who created a new type of theater rooted in Bertolt Brecht and class consciousness. Though it initially received mix reviews, the play was a smash in London,and it made the transfer to Broadway, where it ran for a year. "Look Back in Anger" was nominated for a 1958 Tony Award for Best Play (Osborne and producer David Merrick, Best Actress in a Play (Mary Ure, whom Osborne made his second wife), and Best Costume Design (The Motley). It eventually was made into a movie starring Richard Burton and directed by Tony Richardson.

Laurence Olivier had taken Arthur Miller and his wife Marilyn Monroe to see the play when Olivier was shooting The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) in London with MM. Olivier was abashed by the play, but Miller convinced him of its greatness as a theatrical work. Olivier, sensing a sea-change in culture that could make actors of his ilk obsolete, engaged Osborne to write a play for him, and the playwright followed up "Anger" with another brilliant work, The Entertainer (1960). Olivier reinvented himself as well as realigned himself with the new youth movement shaking the theater, giving a tour de force performance as Archie Rice, a down-at-the-heels, third-rate music hall entertainer facing emigration to Canada or oblivion. Osborne used the decline of the music hall, once the premier venue of British entertainment, as a metaphor for the post-war decline of the British Empire in light of the recent debacle in Suez, when the U.K., France and Israel were rebuffed by Egypt and the U.S. when the three countries invaded Egypt to seize the recently nationalized Suez Canal.

Osborne's career continued strong in the 1960s. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Tony Richarson's movie version of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1963), which won Richardson an Oscar as Best Director and was named Best Picture of 1963. He followed this success up with his last great play Luther (1974), in which the cinematic Tom Jones, Albert Finney, won raves playing Osborne's take on Martin Luther, the man who revolutionized Christianity 1,500 years after The Christ. Fitting, that the rebel, the protester Osborne would take on the father of Protestantism. The play, first performed in England in 1961 and transferred to Broadway in 1963, won Osborne a 1964 Tony Award for Best Play, as well as a Tony Award nomination for Albert Finney. (Laurence Olivier had received his sole Tony nomination for "The Entertainer" when he had brought his legendary performance to Broadway.)

Other important plays followed. "Inadmissible Evidence", first performed in 1964, made Nicol Williamson a star (both Osborne and Williamson were nominated for Tony Awards in 1966 after the show transferred to Broadway). His other major play, "A Patriot for Me" (London debut 1965), dealt with the blackmailing of the Austro-Hungarian officer Colonel Redl (also dramatized in István Szabó's Colonel Redl (1985)), who was a homosexual and possibly a Jew in a pre-World War One society that was virulently anti-gay and anti-semitic. The production of the play helped erode theatrical censorship in Britain. The Lord Chamberlain, the theatrical censor in Britian, was opposed to the play and denied it the exhibition license the theater needed to put on public shows due to its frank depiction of homosexuality.

In exchange for an exhibition license, The Lord Chamberlain demanded multiple cuts, which would have resulted in the excision of half the play, according to Alan Bates in a B.B.C. interview during a 1983 revival of the play. Osborne and The Royal Court refused, and -- denied a license -- the theater had to be turned into a private club in order to produce the play in London as to produce it legitimately would have been impossible as half the play would have been censored. "A Patriot for Me" won "The Evening Standard" Best Play of the Year award (as would one of his latter plays, "The Hotel in Amsterdam" in 1968), though it was a succes d'estime, the theater taking a heavy loss on the production.

The year 1968 was a watershed in Osborne's professional life. Not only is 1968 the year that the counterculture "won", sweeping away all before it (and whose effects, as well as detritus, has yet to be replaced by anything else), it was the year of his last successful play, "The Hotel in Amsterdam", and the year that Tony Richardson's masterful satire The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) -- based on a screenplay by Osborne -- was released. He would not enjoy the same success as he had in the 1950s and '60s in the latter part of his life. Starring Maximilian Schell, "A Patriot for Me" was not a success on Broadway, lasting but 49 performances in 1969, testifying to Osborne's decreasing commercial prowess in the theater, which once again was undergoing a revolution, but from the anarchist left with such productions as Tom O'Horgan's Hair (1979).

The five-times married Osborne died from complications of diabetes on December 24, 1994, two weeks after his 65th birthday. His last produced play was "Déjà Vu" (1991), a sequel to his first great success, "Look Back in Anger". His legacy was a transformed British theater, which had broken its links to the ossified D'Oly D'Carte of the former generation, in which the theater was more about elocution by actors playing toffs than it was about life as lived by most Britons. Osborne and the legions of playwrights he influenced made language important, as well as introduced an emotional intensity into the theater. Osborne and his brethren used the theater as a soapbox on which to attack class barriers (and a theater which reinforced those class distinctions).

A tall, imposing character actor with a voice to match, John Phillips brought an authoritative manner and dignified military bearing to his many roles on stage and screen. A decorated veteran of the 1944 Normandy Campaign, Phillips frequently appeared on television as uniformed senior officers and police chief constables, from Frontier (1968) to Z Cars (1962). His piercing eyes and forthright manner made him equally suited to portraying magistrates, academics and clergymen.

After a long innings with the Birmingham Repertory prior to 1945, he appeared post-war in Bristol and at the Old Vic in London, playing anything from Henrik Ibsen to Shakespeare. He was critically acclaimed for his roles as Henry VIII and Timon of Athens, Prospero and Tamburlaine the Great (in Christopher Marlowe's play)). Acting on screen from the early 1950's, he was insidious as lawyer Tulkinghorn in Bleak House (1959), and lent gravitas to his Norfolk in Richard III (1955) and Grand Duke Nicholas in Fall of Eagles (1974). He was not beyond parodying his screen personae, being droll and stereotypically stiff-upper-lip, as Colonel Harcourt Badger Owen in the uproarious Ripping Yarns (1976) episode 'Escape from Stalag Luft 112 B'. Phillips retired from the stage in the 1980's and made his celluloid curtain call in the eccentric, off-beat comedy Leon the Pig Farmer (1992).

Peter Lovesey was born on 10 September 1936 in Whitton, Middlesex, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Goldengirl (1979), Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and Cribb (1980). He was married to Jacqueline Lovesey. He died on 10 April 2025 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.

Mark Jones was born on 22 April 1939 in the UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Under Milk Wood (1971) and Doctor Who (1963). He died on 14 January 2010 in Shropshire, England, UK.

Jerry Lordan was born on 30 April 1934 in Paddington, London, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for Free Guy (2021), The Big Hit (1998) and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019). He was married to Petrina and Claudine. He died on 24 July 1995 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.

Edith Pargeter was born on 28 September 1913 in Shropshire, England, UK. She was a writer, known for The Spaniard's Curse (1958), Mystery!: Cadfael (1994) and The Unforeseen (1958). She died on 14 October 1995 in Shropshire, England, UK.

Winston Ryder was born on 25 March 1915 in the UK. He is known for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Krull (1983) and Great Expectations (1946). He died on 24 March 1999 in Shropshire, England, UK.

Cliff Robinson was born on 5 February 1930 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an art director, known for Black Hawk Down (2001), Children of Men (2006) and Troy (2004). He died on 27 April 2011 in Shropshire, England, UK.

Derek Hammond-Stroud was born on 10 January 1929 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Yeomen of the Guard (1975), Iolanthe (1982) and The Merry Widow (1968). He died on 14 May 2012 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.

Gordon Bilboe was born on 5 May 1944 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Dixon of Dock Green (1955), The Expert (1968) and Hunters Walk (1973). He died on 26 February 2005 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.

Kenneth Sandford was born on 28 June 1924 in Godalming, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Mikado (1967), Patience (1965) and Together Again: A Tribute to Kenneth Sandford, John Reed, and Thomas Round (2000). He was married to Pauline Joyce. He died on 19 September 2004 in Market Drayton, Shropshire, England, UK.

Raymond Froggatt was born on 13 November 1941 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, UK. He died on 23 July 2023 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.

Anatole Smirnoff was born on 8 August 1921 in Russia. He was an actor, known for Fire Down Below (1957), Friends and Neighbours (1959) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). He died on 2 September 1986 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.

Jon Ellison began his musical career at age nine as a boy soprano in the Parish Church choir in Whitchurch. As a baritone soloist he later won a prize at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod, prior to arriving at Technical College (where he studied building construction) and joining the Army. In the summer of 1953 he auditioned for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Birmingham, and was promptly accepted into the chorus, beginning his D'Oyly Carte career on September 1, 1953. He remained in the Carte chorus until December 1956, when he and his wife of one year, Joy Mornay, left the Company to work in Glasgow pantomime. They subsequently worked in television, eventually returning to London where he appeared in the Howard and Wyndham pantomimes at the London Palladium. In April 1958, Jon Ellison rejoined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company chorus, leaving in July 1966. He returned, however, in 1968, and continued playing small roles until 'George Cook' left in 1969, when he was promoted to some of the larger, minor roles. He left the D'Oyly Carte for the final time in 1979. His roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company included Cox in "Cox And Box", The Foreman, Judge and Usher in "Trial by Jury", The Notary in "The Sorcerer", both Bill and Bob in "HMS Pinafore" (he recorded Bill for Decca), Samuel in "The Pirates of Penzance", Bunthorne's Solicitor and Major Murgatroyd in "Patience", Scynthius in "Princess Ida", Go-To in "The Mikado", Old Adam Goodheart in "Ruddigore", both the 1st and 2nd Citizens in "The Yeomen of the Guard", Antonio and Annibale in "The Gondoliers", Tarara in "Utopia Limited" (also recorded for Decca), and Ben Hashbaz in "The Grand Duke" (also recorded for Decca). He also understudied many principal roles. His subsequent appearances include those with "Gilbert & Sullivan a la Carte" (including Wilfred Shadbolt in "The Yeomen of the Guard" at the Barbican) and various G&S concerts, "The Best of Broadway", "Evita", "Hello Dolly" (with Dora Bryan) at London's Dominion Theatre, and appearances in Gawsworth Hall's open air theatrical productions of "H.M.S. Pinafore" (as Bill Bobstay, 1992) and "Ruddigore" (as Old Adam, 1995). Jon has also run a violet farm with his wife since leaving the D'Oyly Carte, and has also appeared in some of the popular "Together Again" concerts. His many fans hope that one day he will publish his autobiography.

Maurice Rootes was born on 12 April 1917 in Surrey, Kent, England, UK. He was an editor, known for Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Spaceways (1953) and First Men in the Moon (1964). He died on 17 June 1997 in Ludlow, South Shropshire, England, UK.

Roger Squires was born on 22 February 1932 in Tettenhall Wood, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Crossroads (1964), Hey Presto! It's Rolf (1965) and Crackerjack! (1955). He died on 1 June 2023 in Shropshire, England, UK.

John Biffen was born on 3 November 1930 in Combwich, Somerset, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Wolves of Kromer (1998), This Question of Pressures (1969) and This Week (1956). He was married to Sarah Wood. He died on 14 August 2007 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.

Richard Yeoman-Clark is known for Blake's 7 (1978) and Connections (1978). He died on 16 September 2019 in Shropshire, England, UK.

Tina Humphrey was born in 1972. She was married to Steve Jetley. She died on 12 May 2017 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.

Ted Cutlack was born on 12 April 1917 in Fulham, London, England, UK. Ted is known for Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967), Thunderbirds Are GO (1966) and Thunderbirds (1965). Ted died in 1992 in Oswestry, Shropshire, England, UK.

Lionel Brown was born on 5 October 1888 in Dublin, Ireland. He was a writer, known for The Price of Wisdom (1935), To Have and to Hold (1951) and Lilli Palmer Theatre (1955). He died on 15 June 1964 in College Hill, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.

Liam Treadwell was born on 3 January 1986 in Arundel, West Sussex, England, UK. He died on 23 June 2020 in Billingsley, Shropshire, England, UK.

Marian Martin was born on 11 December 1936 in Bootle, Liverpool, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Fireside Theatre (1949), Patience (1965) and Street Scene (1992). She was married to George Cook. She died on 3 May 2003 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, UK.