Showing posts with label Hamlet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hamlet. Show all posts

Wednesday, 31 October 2018

Roy Evans



Actor Roy Evans in 'Vault Of Horror'

Roy Evans: 

With his hangdog demeanour and baleful gaze, we seem to often see Roy Evans in either roles of brooding menace or slight gormlessness. He's a minor Doctor Who favourite, having appeared in several stories: as the sinister razor-toothed Trantis from the long 1965 adventure 'The Dalek's Master Plan', and two Pertwee-era classics, 'The Green Death' and 'The Monster Of Peladon'.      


Roy Evans as Trantis in the 1965 'Dr Who'
story, 'The Daleks' Master Plan'
A skim through his film roles shows up a lot of incidental characters, the sort that appear in the credits as 'coachman', 'tall undertaker', 'sewerman', blind beggar', etc, but he's been in some interesting productions. He's in a lot of cult horror: 'The Fearless Vampire Killers' (1967), The Blood Beast Terror' (1968),'The House That Dripped Blood' (1971), and 'Dr Jeckyll & Sister Hyde' (1971). And in the cult favourite 'Psychomania' (1973), he's the unfortunate motorist who first encounters Nicky Henson's resurrected ton-up zombie as he roars out of his stone-circle grave. On the lighter side, he shows up in  'Oliver!' (1968) - he plays one of the workhouse inmates chasing Oliver around the dining hall after he asks for more - and he's in the Albert Finney 'Scrooge' (1970), and interesting bigger budget fare like the space western 'Moon Two Zero' (1969), 'Jabberwocky' (1977), 'The Elephant Man' (1980) and 'The Company Of Wolves' (1984).     


In 'Dr Who: The Green Death'  
Television work has included semi-classic stuff ranging from 'Doctor Who', 'Minder', 'The Protectors', 'Return Of The Saint', 'Budgie', 'Adam Adamant Lives!', 'The Changes', 'Cribb', 'Blakes 7' and David Bowie's 'Baal', to better kids' programmes such as 'Dramarama', 'Worzel Gummidge' and er, 'Here Come The Double Deckers'. Comedy appearances include: 'The Black Adder', 'Murder Most Horrid', 'Only Fools And Horses', as well as popular dramas such as 'Porterhouse Blue', 'Poldark', 'Secret Army', 'Campion' and the 1977 TV adaptation of 'Treasure Island'.     
Spooked by undead motorbike noises in 'Psychomania' (1973) 


In another cult classic, 'The Blood Beast Terror' (1968)

All round, an interesting CV. He seems to be retired since the early 2000s, but there's a good chance of spotting him in something from that long back catalogue.   


Roy Evans-imdb

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

Barry Stanton


Barry Stanton - British actor


Barry Stanton:

A classical actor who knows his way around his 'King Lear' and his 'Hamlet' (he plays Claudius in the bizarre Quentin Crisp 1976 version), but also an archetypal 1970s 'big bloke', often playing a plain clothes copper who's a bit handy in a scrap, or the sort of hefty hard-nut who gets up slowly in a pub to show his size, before getting an unlikely duffing-up from a leading man. Barry Stanton appears in a fair bit of TV drama from the late-'60s on, such as 'The Saint', 'Z Cars', 'The Baron', 'Manhunt', 'Survivors',  'The Protectors', 'The Sweeney', 'Minder', and 'The Professionals'. He also turns up in the sadly-lost supernatural drama serial 'Witch Hunt' from 1967, high on many TV collector's list of BBC holy grails.   

As Noma in the 'Doctor Who' story 'The Twin Dilemma'
As Jim Hacker's press officer in 'Yes, Prime Minister'
In more recent years, he has been given less generic TV roles, such as his turns as a Jacondan alien in the first Colin Baker story for Doctor Who', 1984's 'The Twin Dilemma', and as Tory press officer Malcolm Warren in 'Yes, Prime Minister'. There was also the Shakespeare play cycle 'The Wars of the Roses' televised in 1990. 
   
As Claudius in the adventurous 'Hamlet' (1976) which featured Helen
Mirren as both Gertrude and Ophelia, and Quentin Crisp as Polonius 

'Demons Of The Mind (1972)

Film roles are also more varied: aside from 'Sweeney 2' (1978), there was Hammer horror 'Demons Of The Mind' (1972), 'Leon the Pig Farmer' (1993) and 'Robin Hood' (1991) - not the Kevin Costner 'Prince of Thieves' one from that year, another one starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman. He's in the Jackie Chan kung-fu in Victorian England romp, Shanghai Knights (2003), and portrays the playwright/MP Sheridan in 'The Madness of King George' (1994).

As the Lord Chancellor in, 'Shanghai Knights' (2003)
A rare leading role came in the Roy Clarke sitcom 'Mann's Best Friends' in which he appeared with the likes of Fulton McKay, Patricia Brake, and Bernard Bresslaw. Sadly, it seems to have disappeared without a trace. He's also the splendidly over-acting postman who delivers the vampire Alexei Sayle in the 'Young Ones' episode 'Nasty'. 

As miserly boss Mr Grayson in 'Tucker's Luck'