One of Britain's most distinguished and versatile stage and screen actors, Alan Rickman enjoys tremendous popularity with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
Rickman was born in London and trained and worked as a graphic designer before receiving a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, when he won the Bancroft Gold Medal.
Rickman has since worked extensively in experimental theatre including The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival.
The Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, in which he portrayed Valmont, was one of the London stage's greatest sensations. Rickman came with the show to Broadway and earned a Tony nomination.
While on Broadway, Joel Silver offered him the role of Hans Gruber in the blockbuster Die Hard, introducing Rickman to American audiences. Since then, Rickman's film career has blossomed with Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply; Stephen Poliakoff's Close My Eyes; Pat O'Connor's The January Man; Simon Wincer's Quigley Down Under; Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts; and Kevin Reynolds' Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. He recently completed work on Mesmer.
On stage, Rickman was most recently seen in London's West End in Tango at the End of Winter, directed by Yukio Ninagawa, and in the Riverside Studio production of Hamlet, directed by Robert Sturua.
Earlier this year, Rickman directed The Winter Guest by Sharma Macdonald at London's Almeida Theatre. This summer, he will film Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee, and The Michael Collins Story, directed by Neil Jordan.
The response to Hugh Grant's performance in Mike Newell's Four Weddings and a Funeral, for which he won a Golden Globe, has been phenomenal worldwide. He and Newell reteamed for An Awfully Big Adventure, set in postwar Liverpool and Grant enjoyed the challenge of playing a more eccentric and villainous part than his role in Four Weddings.
Grant's first acting success came while he was studying English at Oxford. He had appeared in a number of student productions and was cast in the lead in Michael Hoffman's Privileged. Following Oxford, Grant worked in repertory theatre, the milieu of An Awfully Big Adventure. He was soon cast in Merchant/Ivory's Maurice and he and his co-star, James Wilby, shared the Best Actor award at the 1987 Venice Film Festival.
Grant's other feature films include The Dawning, with Anthony Hopkins and Jean Simmons; Ken Russell's Lair of the White Worm; The Big Man, co-starring Joanne Whalley-Kilmer; Sirens, directed by John Duigan and starring Sam Neill, Tara Fitzgerald and Elle Macpherson; Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon; James Lapine's Impromptu, in which he played Chopin; and Merchant/Ivory's acclaimed The Remains of the Day, with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. His British television credits include The Trials of Oz and The Changeling, opposite Bob Hoskins and Elizabeth McGovern.
In 1994, Grant formed his own production company, Simian Films. Since completing production on An Awfully Big Adventure, Grant has starred in An Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain and Nine Months.
Georgina Cates was an unknown 16-year-old, from Liverpool, when she beat out thousands of other young actresses for the coveted lead role of Stella, the feisty heroine of An Awfully Big Adventure. She had never acted before but her resemblance to the character was so striking that the casting director chose her over all the others with experience because she so clearly embodied the fresh, unstudied Stella. What the producers discovered after shooting, however, was that Georgina was more like Stella than they could have imagined. Georgina was actually Clare Woodgate, from London, who had studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and had appeared in small roles on television. When her photo and resume failed to result in an audition for the part, Clare transformed herself into the unknown Georgina, won the part, and delivers a magnificent -- and very believable -- performance as a young woman who would do anything to be in the theatre.
Woodgate, who has now legally changed her name to Cates, will be seen this fall in Michael Lindsay-Hogg's Frankie Starlight.
Alun Armstrong has been nominated for six Laurence Olivier Awards, for performances in Trevor Nunn's The Baker's Wife, The Father, The Jew of Malta, Les Miserables, The Winter's Tale and The Crucible. He won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for Sweeney Todd.
Armstrong's feature films include Ridley Scott's The Duellist, Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far, Mike Hodges' Get Carter, Karel Reisz's The French Lieutenant's Woman, Peter Yates' Krull, Clint Eastwood's White Hunter Black Heart, and Philip Noyce's Patroit Games. He recenty appeared in Braveheart, directed by Mel Gibson. Armstrong has also appeared frequently on British television and is better known for his performance as Ray Grade in Good Bye Cruel World, which won the Pre Europa Award for Best European Drama in 1994. On Broadway, Armstrong appeared in the role of Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby.
Peter Firth is perhaps best-known for his film and stage portrayal of Alan Strang in Equus, a role which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, an Academy Award nomination, a Tony Award nomination, the Theatre World Award and the Plays and Players Award for Best Young Actor.
Firth's other film credits include Franco Zeffirelli's Brother Sun Sister Moon, Aces High, Tony Richardson's Joseph Andrews, Robert Altman's When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder, Roman Polanski's Tess, Chris Bernard's Letter to Brezhnev, John McTiernan's The Hunt for Red October and Richard Attenborough's Shadowlands.
An Awfully Big Adventure reunites Firth with director Mike Newell, who he worked with on television's The Young Indy Chronicles. Besides countless other British television performances, Firth has appeared onstage in numerous productions including Bill Bryden's Romeo and Juliet and Spring Awakening, both at the National Theatre, and Peter Hall's Amadeus on Broadway.
Prunella Scales is one of Britain's most celebrated actresses who trained at the Old Vic Theatre School and with Uta Hagen in New York. Her many films include Wolf, Howard's End, Chorus of Disapproval, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, Wagner, The Boys from Brazil and The Hound of the Baskervilles. She is probably best-known, however, for her portrayal of Sybil in the popular British comedy series Fawlty Towers, with John Cleese.
On stage, Scales appeared in repertory in Huddersfield, Salisbury, Oxford, Bristol and the Old Vic and has completed seasons at Stratford-upon-Avon and the Chichester Festival Theatre. Her numerous stage credits include The Merchant of Venice, What the Butler Saw, Buried Treasure, The Seagull, School for Scandal and Long Days Journey Into Night.
Born in Liverpool, Tushingham was a student at the Liverpool Playhouse. She burst into the film scene with her acclaimed performance in Tony Richardson's A Taste of Honey. Her numerous film credits include Doctor Zhivago, The Knack, The Bed-Sitting Room, The Human Factor, A Judgement in Stone and Resurrected.
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