Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
1-14 of 14
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Clement George Freiherr von und zu Franckenstein is the son of Georg Freiherr von und zu Franckenstein, born in 1878, later Sir George Franckenstein, the former Austrian Ambassador to the Court of St. James. George Franckenstein had been the Austrian Minister in London for eighteen years when the Nazis took over Austria (1938) and recalled him. Instead he stayed in London, was naturalized a British subject, and knighted on 26 July 1938. There he met and married Editha King on 31 July 1939, by whom he had Clement George. His parents were killed together in a plane crash on 15 October 1953, after which he was raised by British friends. He was educated at Eton College and served for three years as a lieutenant in the Royal Scots Greys in the Middle East and Germany. He holds both British and Austrian citizenship. he studied opera for about three years, was baritone going up to tenor, was good but not really good enough to be a professional, so he decided to become an actor. Until the time he came to US, he sang in nightclubs and had a lot of performing experience before getting into acting at age 27. His first job was in the mini-series QB VII (1974) starring Ben Gazzara and Lee Remick.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Script and Continuity Department
Alvin Sargent was an American screenwriter who wrote Ordinary People and the Marvel screenplays for Sony: Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man. His writing for Spider-Man 2 got widespread acclaim. He also wrote a few episodes of Paper Moon. He was married to film producer Laura Ziskin, who produced the Spider-Man films he had written.- Actress
Allene Roberts was born on 1 September 1928 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for The Red House (1947), Knock on Any Door (1949) and Bomba on Panther Island (1949). She was married to Ralph Cochran. She died on 9 May 2019 in Huntsville, Alabama, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
The tale of Freddie Starr is a long twisting turning plot of "rags to riches" fame, ending in near destitution and self destruction.
In the end his immense success led to absolute failure. If things had developed a little more slowly for him this unique talent could have been one of the true heroes of British comedy...
By far the most outrageous mainstream UK comedian of his generation Fredie Starr was (and to a degree still is) a unique comedy talent of unequalled popularity.
Reknowned for being a loose canon, audiences could never predict what madcap stunt Starr would pull off next. Invariably audiences were the target of his trademark uncouth or simply outrageous stunts.
But while some comedians would have been heckled or derided for such stunts Starr always got away with it. And that was part of his appeal, he was a good looking, charming, lovable rogue with a twinkle in his eyes and audiences loved him!
The story starts in the 1970s when Starr began his short-lived television career on the ITV show Who Do You Do (1972) as an impressionist. At this time he was also a highly popular stand up comedian and variety act on the comedy club circuit. His TV exposure meant more and more people got to know about him and naturally this lead to larger audiences buying tickets to see his variety shows.
The variety acts he performed showcased his stand-up prowess, and no-one could touch him. He had that rare ability to just walk on stage and make people laugh without even saying a word.
Variety was his forte and as well as great stand-up, he was a highly accomplished singer. A most animated and energetic man, Starr was both a visual spectacle and a skillful wordsmith.
By the mid 1970s Freddie became a Superstar in the UK. His handsome good looks coupled with an amazing singing voice won him the adoration of thousands of loyal fans. His popularity acquired him a small fortune and he found himself working flat out 50 weeks of the year to sell-out audiences.
During the mid to late seventies he continued working hard, keeping to punishing and relentless performance schedules. His popularity never wavered, but his enthusiasm did. His workload had taken its toll - he wasn't used to all the fame and fortune and he quickly grew tired and fatigued. His personal life began to suffer, too, and this is where his career took a dramatic downward turn.
By the early eighties he had lost that certain spark he once had. Television work started to become less frequent because his outrageous stunts concerned many television producers who thought he was just too much of a loose cannon to show to a British family audience.
Luckily his popularity never dwindled on the comedy circuit and his loyal fan base continued to pack out theaters and clubs around the UK to support him despite his 'lack of of sparkle'.
But it wasn't over yet. By the mid-eighties Freddie made a great comeback! A clever publicity stunt which received masses of media attention helped to kick him back into he public eye.
On 13 March 1986, The Sun tabloid newspaper published one of its most famous front-page headlines "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster". Lea La Salle, a model, claimed that he had put her live hamster (called "Supersonic") in between two pieces of bread and eaten it after he arrived home and asked her to cook him supper. This was, of course, a complete fallacy, concocted by publicist Max Clifford to promote Starr's forthcoming tour, but nevertheless it caused outrage - something Freddie does best - and amazingly instead of decreasing his popularity it raised his profile and he was soon guesting on talk show after talk show and more and more people packed into clubs and theaters to watch him perform on stage. In his autobiography Unwrapped (2001) he denied the hamster incident, pointing out that he had been vegetarian since he was a child.
Freddie was then once again offered his own TV show, another great chance to get back into the limelight but alas his antics were again just too much for TV producers and after one series he was axed.
In the 90s he was offered the chance to do An Audience with Freddie Starr (1996) on ITV. And what a good move it was - Freddie turned in an amazing 'tour de force' performance - 12 million viewers tuned in to watch. Critics loved it. In fact, it was so popular that ITV asked him to do another "Audience With" which he duly accepted.
But his second show was very poor, after halfway through the show he abandoned his script written by top comedians especially for him and just regurgitated old material he'd been doing years before. As a result the audience cringed with embarrassment. He just wasn't funny!
In 1996 Starr was again given his own TV show, but it just wasn't modern enough. The material featured just didn't appeal to a now younger audience and after one series the programme was axed.
TV work since dried up but he was still a very popular comedian on the comedy circuit. He divided his time between the UK and Spain where he owned a large villa.
With an internal self-destruct button which seems to be pressed just when things are going great, Starr always seems to somehow close the door on good opportunities that come his way and that's a terrible shame.
His comic genius was brilliant but it could have been legendary, and perhaps if things were different he could have been something much much greater than he is today. Then again the brightest "stars" shine for the shortest time and who knows maybe just maybe he will make a comeback!
He was found dead in his Spanish house on 9 May 2019.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born in Oakland, CA, in 1931, Preston Epps learned to play various percussion instruments, including the bongos, while he was in the US military during the Korean War, where he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. After his hitch was over he moved to Southern California and began to make some money playing bongos in coffee houses around the area. He came to the attention of Los Angeles disc jockey Art Laboe, who owned Original Sound Records and signed Epps to that label. In 1959 it released his single "Bongo Rock", which shot to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His follow-up record, "Bongo Bongo Bongo", sold respectably but didn't reach the heights that "Bongo Rock" did. In 1960 he released an album, but the public's taste for bongo music had begun to ebb. He released a string of bongo music over the next few years, but they didn't go anywhere
In 1957 he appeared (uncredited) as a bongo player in Calypso Heat Wave (1957) and in 1968 he had a small part in Girl in Gold Boots (1968), also as a bongo player. He continued to work as a session musician in the L.A. recording scene in the 1960s and 1970s. He also kept busy playing in various clubs and nightspots into the 1990s.- Nelli Kornienko was born on 23 May 1938 in Moscow, USSR. She was an actress, known for Skandalnoye proishestviye v Brikmille (1981), Lovtsy gubok (1960) and Svidaniye s molodostyu (1982). She was married to Yuri Vasilyev. She died on 9 May 2019 in Moscow, Russia.
