Rennie

Eliot J Huntley:

Did you ever contact Patrick MacNee? In his autobiography, MacNee devotes a couple of pages relating about when he and Dennis Price shared a house/flat. Can't remember a very humourous anecdote about Price at that time.

Elliot J Huntley

Rennie,

I did indeed contact Mr Macnee. If memory serves he refused to co-operate - a response I received with frustrating frequency.

Elliot

Rennie

I am surprised. He was very helpful to me when I was researching his navy career for an entry in the book 'International Stars At War'. However I do sympathise, and understand, your frustrations at the lack of co-operation one receives, or should I say doesn't receive, from certain members of the acting fraternity, and their families when attempting research projects. I think there could even be a book out of it!! My most memorable was a phone call from the son of Michael Rennie ( a UK high court judge) telling me in no uncertain terms to back off from my attempts to interview Rennie's ex wife and his sister. All the answers I wanted were so near, yet so far.

theuofc

Having rewatched "They Drive By Night" (1938) last week, I was struck again with how much I enjoy the work of Edward Thesiger. He was a superb character actor and apparently quite an interesting character in life, according to some of the anecdotes related in Harding's biography of Emlyn Williams. Thesiger's 1927 autobiography is out of print and the odd edition found is quite expensive. There seem to be no biographies written on him and his career, or if there is one, I haven't found it. Yes, I'd very much like a biography, with photos please, of Edward Thesiger, actor, artist, and by accounts an "exquisite embroiderer." He even wrote a book on the subject in 1941.

Best,

Barbara

Ascoyne D'Ascoyne

Thanks for that last remark Elliot. I enjoyed reading your work (so, I'm sure, will others) and watching some of the items from your collection which I hadn't seen before.

Liam

Elliot,

Without meaning to embarrass you I must admit to being VERY VERY impressed with your dedication, obvious hard work and staying power. I remember particularly Dennis Price in "A Jolly Bad Fellow", but he made and excelled in so many memorable movies that it would be impossible to single out a particular performance.
I also would like to purchase a copy of his Bio when available. ..please do post details as soon as you can.
The list of contributors is also impressive and full marks to both you and each of them for your/efforts.
I have been working .....as best I can in the wee small hours outside the "day job", on a Biography of JANET MUNRO for some 5 years now. Like you I have managed to track down and contact several of the main characters in Janet's life. WOLF RILLA, who you mention , was TERRIFIC beyond words. He gave me everything I asked for and so much more. Was saddened to hear of his death last year. JAMES MacARTHUR and TOMMY STEELE also helped greatly as did Director GERRY O'HARA and HARRY TOWB.
But sadly so many others didn't want to know.....either didn't reply or told me bluntly to "get lost".

My Janet biography is some 75% complete with I am delighted to say, an impressive amount of rare and never before seen illustrations , most courtesy of the Munro/Hendry family and originating from their, and Janet's own personal albums. However the final 25% is proving to be the most difficult and taking more effort and time than the previous 75%.

Congratulations to you..

Liam

Janet Munro

liam

theuofc

Dear Liam, if I may,

You have a wonderful tribute website to Janet Munro, so talented and like a lovely butterfly whose life was too fleeting. I'm very happy that dedicated people like you are keeping her memory alive. One of my favorite Janet performances was that of Carol Fancy with Dirk Bogarde in "Sebastian" (1968).

Good luck to you in the completion of the biography. It's a most worthwhile effort.

Best,

Barbara

Steve Crook

Liam,
Can I make a couple of suggestions?
First, please kill that bloody awful music. Or at least make it optional.

Secondly, the pull-down menus under "Galley of photographs" and "Memorabilia" only seem to work when you use Internet Exploder. Why exclude about a third or your potential visitors?

Apart from that, what I could see until the music drove me crazy and I had to leave, looked good.

Steve

David Brent

I've just checked out the Janet Munro website in question and there was no music to be heard.
Like Steve, I couldn't access the "Gallery of Photographs" or "Memorabilia" which was a shame. This may be down to teething problems.
All in all though an excellent and much needed site dedicated to a wonderful Brit actress.

Dave.

theuofc

Hi, Steve,

I must have Internet Explorer. I could access everything and heard no music. Or maybe Munro is opening the trunkline for Bogarde.

Best,

Barbara

Elliot J Huntley

Liam,

Kudos is equally due to you for Janet Munro book. Do you have a publisher? I passionately disagree with the publishers who told me that there was no market for biographies of obscure British movie stars (their words). Stories need to be told, lives need to be celebrated and their memories polished etc. I think Janet Munro is an excellent example of this and I wish you every success with your book.

I have to say that no-one told me to get lost, well maybe a couple, what I found more frustrating was people who told me they didn't know Dennis Price, or couldn't remember him, particularly when I had good reason to believe that they had stories to tell, though some people told me they were saving their stories for their own books which is fair enough I suppose.

You are right about Wolf Rilla, a wonderful man, whose memory and powers of recall seemed undiminished when I spoke to him despite the fact he was by then a very elderly man. I had the privilege of reuniting him with a copy of Piccadilly Third Stop which he hadn't seen for over many many years.

If you don't have a publisher I would be delighted if you wanted to speak to me and perhaps I can make some suggestions.

Elliot

Steve Crook

When I view it with Firefox I don't hear the music but the menus don't work.
When I view it with Internet Explorer the menus work but it plays the music continually on every page with no obvious way to stop it. That's why I couldn't stay there too long.

Steve

Liam

Steve,

Strangely most people LOVE the music...and tell me so. Goes to prove you can keep some people happy all the time and all people happy some of the time, but you can't etc etc.
Most computers have a little Volume icon on the task bar....you just slide the bar on the Volume up for louder and down for lower or all the way down for Off...Result No music...

Yes the people who look after the Web Site tell me its designed for Internet Explorer as 90% of surfers use that. To accomodate Netscape, Safari, Firefox, Opera etc etc would compromise the Internet Explorer surfers....I'm NOT a Web Site expert so I gotta believe what I am told.

Anyways Steve and all others ..many thanks for your replies and interest. Barbara and Elliot etc . I will send you an email direct Elliot.....

Cheers

Liam

Janet Munro

liam

Steve Crook

The usage stats on my Powell & Pressburger site show that only 62% of people use Internet Explorer.

Steve

Wee Sonny MacGregor

"I passionately disagree with the publishers who told me that there was no market for biographies of obscure British movie stars (their words). Stories need to be told, lives need to be celebrated and their memories polished etc. "

Hear, hear Elliot. That attitude is just typical of many publishers, not just for film biogs. Surely there's a market for a fair few British movie stars and maybe a Who's Who.