Dave williams2 at 14:54, 14 June 2025

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Dave williams2: Created page with "category:Male Contributor"

2020-11-06T17:13:34Z

Created page with "category:Male Contributor"

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[[category:Male Contributor]]

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 Sinden featured in the film Mogambo (1953) and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including The Cruel Sea (1953), Doctor in the House (1954), Simba (1955), Eyewitness (1956) and Doctor at Large (1957). He then became highly regarded as an award-winning Shakespearean and West End theatre actor and television sitcom star, winning the 1977 Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for King Lear, and starring in the sitcoms Two's Company (1975–79) and Never the Twain (1981–91).
-[Early life]
+== [Early life] ==
 Sinden was born in St Budeaux, Plymouth, Devon on 9 October 1923, the middle child of chemist Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes (née Fuller). His elder sister Joy became an English teacher at Claverham Community College in Battle, East Sussex, and younger brother Leon (1927–2015) became an actor. They grew up in Ditchling, East Sussex, where their home 'The Limes' doubled as the local chemist's shop. After attending a number of private schools, Donald was sent to Hassocks Primary, and thence to Burgess Hill Secondary School after failing his 11-plus qualifying test.
-[Career]
+== [Career] ==
 Sinden made his first stage appearance at the amateur Brighton Little Theatre (of which he later became president) in 1941, stepping into a part in place of his cousin Frank, who had been called up to war and so was unable to appear. Offered a professional acting part by the Brighton impresario Charles F. Smith, he made his first professional appearance in January 1942, playing Dudley in a production of George and Margaret for the Mobile Entertainments Southern Area company (known as MESA) and in other modern comedies, playing to the armed forces all along the South Coast of England during the Second World War and later trained as an actor for two terms at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
-Rejected for World War II naval service because of asthma, Sinden joined a theatrical company that entertained soldiers, sailors and airmen during the war.
+Rejected for World War II naval service because of asthma, Sinden joined a theatrical company that entertained soldiers, sailors, and airmen during the war.
 In 1942, in Hove, Sinden befriended Lord Alfred Douglas (known as "Bosie"), who had been Oscar Wilde's lover. He is believed to have been the last surviving person to have known Douglas.
-[Rank Organisation and Pinewood Studios]
+== [Rank Organisation and Pinewood Studios] ==
 After the critical and financial success of his first screen leading role in The Cruel Sea (1953), made by Ealing Studios, in which he co-starred and received top-billing with Jack Hawkins, Sinden was contracted for seven years to the Rank Organisation at Pinewood Studios and subsequently had prominent roles in 23 movies during the 1950s and early 1960s, including Mogambo; Doctor in the House; Above Us the Waves; The Black Tent; Eyewitness; Doctor at Large; The Siege of Sidney Street and Twice Round the Daffodils.
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 However, Sinden never became a top movie star.
-[Theatre]
+== [Theatre] ==
 In 1949, he appeared in The Heiress at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket opposite Ralph Richardson and Peggy Ashcroft, directed by John Gielgud. In his Sky Arts documentary series Great West End Theatres, Sinden said that the play ran for 644 performances (19 months) and he was the only member of the cast not to have missed a performance: "As the play is the longest run in the Haymarket theatre's history, I therefore gave more consecutive performances in this theatre than any other actor since it was built in 1820." The management gave him an engraved silver ashtray as a present in recognition of the fact, which he showed in the episode.
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 Sinden was a leading figure in the campaign to found the Theatre Museum in London's Covent Garden in the 1980s. In 2007, Sinden embarked on a UK, European and American theatre tour to talk about his life, work and anecdotes in An Evening with... Sir Donald Sinden. Produced by his son Marc, this included, on 8 November 2007 as part of Marc's British Theatre Season, Monaco, a performance in front of Prince Albert of Monaco (the son of Grace Kelly, his co-star in the film Mogambo) at the Théâtre Princesse Grace, Monte Carlo.
-[Royal Shakespeare Company]
+== [Royal Shakespeare Company] ==
 Joining the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company in 1946, Sinden was an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) from 1967. Outstanding among his many stage appearances for the RSC, both at Stratford-upon-Avon and in London's West End (usually at the Aldwych Theatre), was his performance in 1963 as the Duke of York in The Wars of the Roses opposite Peggy Ashcroft as Queen Margaret.
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 In 1979, he played the title role in Othello, directed by Ronald Eyre, becoming the last 'blacked-up white' actor to play the role for the RSC. Everyman editor and critic Gareth Lloyd Evans observed that his interpretation was "not…about colour or racialism" but one that illuminated the character's personal tragedy.
-[Great West End Theatres series]
+== [Great West End Theatres series] ==
 In 2013, Sinden presented a documentary series, Great West End Theatres, detailing the history and stories associated with each of ten London theatres. Directed and produced by his son Marc, it was intended as a 40-part DVD and Sky Arts TV series, with only the first ten episodes completed. It was shown on Sky Arts 2 in 2013.
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 The Daily Telegraph's review states: "Great West End Theatres is a lovely documentary series, made by the director Marc Sinden. Its star, and – it transpires – the best documentary frontman of all time, is his actor-father: Sir Donald Sinden, 90 years old next month. Sir Donald has been let loose, and the effect is enchanting beyond belief. It is also, at times, incredibly funny. One has the sense of a lifetime spent in this world, being poured out for our delight like glasses of vintage champagne."
-[Television]
+== [Television] ==
 Sinden appeared in ITV's 1960 adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, starring as John Jasper. No audio or video recordings of the production are known to have survived. In 1963, he appeared in the Associated Rediffusion series Our Man at St. Mark's. His other television roles included The Colonel in an episode of The Prisoner ("Many Happy Returns", 1967).
@@ Line 69: / Line 69: @@
 From 2001 to 2007, he played the part of senior judge (and father-in-law of the title character), Sir Joseph Channing in Judge John Deed and was the voice of Totally Viral. In 2008, he played Colonel Henry Hammond in the Midsomer Murders episode "Shot at Dawn." In 2010 he played Sir Henry Clithering in the Agatha Christie's Marple episode "The Blue Geranium".
-[Hollywood]
+== [Hollywood] ==
 He starred in the Walt Disney Productions family film The Island at the Top of the World (1974), playing Sir Anthony Ross, which was filmed at Disney's studios in Burbank, California.
-[Radio]
+== [Radio] ==
 Sinden's distinctive voice was heard frequently on radio, including as Sir Charles Baskerville in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles. He starred in multiple adaptations of John Dickson Carr's Dr. Gideon Fell mysteries, including The House on Gallows Lane, The Hollow Man and Black Spectacles, To Wake the Dead, The Blind Barber and The Mad Hatter Mystery.
-[Books]
+== [Books] ==
 Sinden wrote two autobiographical volumes: A Touch of the Memoirs (1982) and Laughter in the Second Act (1985), edited the Everyman Book of Theatrical Anecdotes (1987), wrote a book to coincide with his BBC TV series The English Country Church (1988) and a collection of "epitaphs and final utterances" titled The Last Word (1994).
-[Recognition and honours]
+== [Recognition and honours] ==
 Sinden was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1979 and knighted in 1997. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in 1966 and received the Freedom of the City of London in 1997.
@@ Line 93: / Line 93: @@
 Sinden received, posthumously, the Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts at the Guildhall, London, during the 2014 Theatre Awards UK ceremony, held on 19 October. The award was collected on his behalf by his son, Marc Sinden.
-[Personal life]
+== [Personal life] ==
 Sinden was married to the actress Diana Mahony from 3 May 1948 until her death from stomach cancer aged 77 on 22 October 2004. The couple had two sons: actor Jeremy Sinden (1950–1996), who died of lung cancer, and actor and filmmaker Marc Sinden (born 1954). Sinden had four grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

Donald Sinden - Revision history

Dave williams2 at 14:54, 14 June 2025

Dave williams2 at 14:51, 14 June 2025

Dave williams2 at 14:42, 14 June 2025

Dave williams2: Created page with "category:Male Contributor"