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- Actor
- Soundtrack
An imposing figure (standing at 6'3") with intense, penetrating eyes and possessed of a larger-than-life personality, the actor George Raymond Stevenson began life as one of three sons, born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, to a British pilot in the Royal Air Force. Raised near Newcastle in England after the family relocated, he initially studied art and worked for some time as an interior designer. However, after seeing a play with John Malkovich at the West End, Stevenson became inspired to study drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. By the time of his graduation in 1993, he had already made his debut on the stage at the Barbican Theatre in London in the plays Temptation and Revenger's Tragedy.
He made his first recurring screen appearances in the TV crime drama Band of Gold (1995) (acting alongside his future wife Ruth Gemmell) and as DI Tony Baynham in the BBC procedural police series City Central (1998), which was briefly touted as a rival to The Bill (1984). Though Stevenson first attracted international attention as a dependable Knight of the Round Table in the motion picture King Arthur (2004), it was his charismatic performance as the rascally, hedonistic soldier Titus Pullo in HBO's historical series Rome (2005) which truly put him on the map.
More vigorous or pugnacious warrior roles soon came his way, beginning with a starring turn as the titular anti-hero vigilante Frank Castle in the ultra-violent Punisher: War Zone (2008), for which Stevenson put himself through strenuous martial arts and weapons training under the direction of U.S. Force Reconnaissance (FORECON) Marines. Among his subsequent gallery of colourful characters were the powerful Asgardian warrior Volstagg in Marvel's Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017); the relentless enforcer Redridge in The Book of Eli (2010); an Irish mobster challenging the Cleveland Mafia for control of the city's criminal underworld in Kill the Irishman (2011); Porthos, one of the The Three Musketeers (2011); the much feared Blackbeard in Starz's excellent swashbuckling Black Sails (2014), and the enigmatic Anglo-Saxon missionary and explorer Othere in Vikings (2013).
Stevenson reserved one of the most compelling performances for the strangely sympathetic Russian gangster Isaak Sirko, chief antagonist in season seven of Dexter (2006), overshadowing even that of the star Michael C. Hall (definitely no mean feat!). Add to that another acting standout as the obsessed, revenge-driven Commander Jack Swinburne in the German-produced World War II drama series Das Boot (2018).
Having first joined the Star Wars universe as a voice actor (the Mandalorian Gar Saxon in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)), Stevenson was later cast in the villainous role of dark Force user Baylan Skoll doing battle with the indomitable Ahsoka (2023) Tano (Rosario Dawson), complete with orange/red lightsaber. Stevenson said in a 2020 interview that he had drawn much of his inspiration from veteran tough guys like Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman: "Never a bad performance, and brave and fearless within that caliber. It was never the young, hot leading man; it was men who I could identify with."
Tragically, this supremely accomplished and charismatic actor died in Italy on 21 May 2023 while filming Cassino in Ischia, in which he was cast as a fading movie action hero attempting to revive his career. At the time of his passing he was just 58.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
William Walton came from a musical family. He entered Christ Church, Oxford at the early age of sixteen but left without a degree in 1920. A fine musician, he was essentially self-taught as a composer, except some instruction from Hugh Allen, the cathedral organist. Through literary friends and other associations he became acquainted with the London music and cultural scene. In addition to his own genius for harmonies and texturing (as seen in early choral works), Walton was influenced by the works of Stravinsky, Sibelius, and jazz. The use of the latter brought some early snubbing as a modernist among conservative music critics. But during some lean years of the 1920s, Walton helped support himself playing piano at jazz clubs. But he devoted most time to composing (chamber, concerto, and vocal music) which paid off initially in 1929 with his Viola Concerto, putting him solidly in the British classical music scene. Through the 1930s his choral and symphonic works bolstered that reputation all the more.
His first ventures into film music were in association with the Hungarian émigré director/producer Paul Czinner. Walton did four scores for him, including Walton's first Shakespearean effort, As You Like It (1936) which starred Laurence Olivier. With the outbreak of World War II, Walton entered military service but was given leave to compose music for propaganda films based on his already proficient examples of ceremonial themes. One of these film tasks put him back in acquaintance with Olivier who was adapting Shakespeare's Henry V (1944). Having scored five war period films so far, this would be the first of three scores for Olivier's filmed Shakespeare plays. With its implied spirit of nationalism, the music ranged over rousing heroic sections to Renaissance dance and pastoral elements, so familiar to the public in the efforts of such older contemporaries as Ralph Vaughn Williams. The score was nominated for an Oscar, and it remains perhaps the best known of Walton's film music.
After the war Walton continued to be a public favorite, and though ranging over new projects in all composing areas, his post-Romantic sentiments would continue to be his foundation. Once again Olivier wanted a score, now for his Hamlet (1948). The music was appropriately subdued to reflect the nature of the play. The film was a landmark for the time and garnered four Oscars with Walton again being nominated for the score. He continued work on an opera (Troilus and Cressida, 1954) and his general musical output, which, all told, would surpass 75 works. Walton did no more film work until Olivier came knocking for the third and final time for a Shakespearean score. This time Walton's music for Richard III (1955) swelled with the facade of pomp that edges the play-repeating the main theme throughout-while keeping the nuances of treachery which dominates the play's content to dramatic economy. Although the film proved to be the most popular and perhaps influential of Olivier's trilogy, it received only one nomination as best picture.
The years following into the 1960s were challenging for Walton as composing became difficult and focused on recasting previous work. He scored the music for Battle of Britain (1969), but it was replaced only two weeks before the film was released. Walton composed his last big screen score-again for Olivier-this time for Three Sisters (1970).
Walton was knighted in 1951 and received the Order of Merit in 1968. But as fate will often have it, Walton was not finished with Shakespeare. Into the 1970s he was commissioned to do the music for twelve new productions of plays as part of the ambitious BBC effort "The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare (1978 thru 1985). Though his screen music output of some 28 scores was modest compared to that of Hollywood contemporaries (Steiner, Rozsa, and Newman, but similar to Korngold,), his brand of thematic delivery, a British twist as it were, departed from classic Hollywood scores with their continental Romantic traditions.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Susana Walton was born on 28 August 1926 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was an actress, known for Wagner (1983), Classic Britannia (2007) and The South Bank Show (1978). She was married to William Walton. She died on 21 March 2010 in La Mortella, Ischia, Italy.- Sound Department
Joined Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) in 1940. After a few months at Portland (HMS Osprey), he was posted to Alexandria, Egypt (HMS Nile) where he served 1940-1942. From 1942 up till his death he was borne on the books of the Admiralty [HMS President] "for special and miscellaneous services". He was killed flying home to be demobilized.