Relationships on and off screen are vitally important in the acting business. Having a good relationship with your Director, Producer and fellow Actors can mean the difference between a good or great performance and an indifferent one and as always the audience knows. And for an actor like me it is the difference between a job and an experience to remember. Good chemistry is all.
When I started in the business I was incredible lucky. I came out of RADA after two years (the length of the course then, now it’s longer), having found myself an agent, or rather she found me from an end of term (semester) performance – the unforgettable Elisabeth Robinson. I am so grateful to her. She was just starting her career as an agent and took on about twelve young actors and actresses, straight out of drama school and off we went in search of work. Forget fame and fortune, they were bi- products, if you were lucky. We just wanted to work. I fell into a major role, playing Lorna Doone opposite Bill Travers, in a BBC television serialisation of the book., my first job!
I was excited and nervous, Bill was worried that he was too old for John Ridd, he wasn’t and I cannot imagine anyone else in the part. He was a gentle giant. We got on very well and I learned a lot from him and his considerable experience in the business.
I have been very fortunate with my co-stars. Most have been generous and good to work with. I had good chemistry with Oliver Reed in “The System” (US. Title- “The Girl-Getters”!). Oliver was quite a private person and I didn’t know quite what to make of him. He seemed more comfortable with the crew, rather than the other actors. It didn’t matter, our parts called for a strange distance between the characters, so what we had worked. However I saw his human side one day when I was stung by a wasp in the arm twice. My arm swelled like a balloon and it was incredibly painful. Director = Michael Winner was irritated by the time we were losing, but Oliver turned into Florence Nightingale, looking after me and was kindness itself. His “hard man” image, quite transformed.
Most of the English co-stars I had, took the work very seriously. They were trained and very focused on the job in hand. On the whole it was a pleasure working with them. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing put everything they had into the horror films, as did the Director,Terence Fisher and I think they were a lot responsible for the great success Hammer Films had.
Hollywood was different. It was a lot more about the fame and the money, but again I had the good fortune to work with dedicated hard -working actors, who took their work seriously. In television, they had killing schedules. We took ten working days to make an hour long television episode in England, “The Saint”, “Dangerman “ “The Prisoner” etc.
In Hollywood they did in in five days, working long, long hours and at a terrific pace. The studio sets were all pre-lit. However again I was lucky with my leading men, the three think of most fondly were Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and Bill Bixby. Bill was all business, but thoughtful, very intelligent and incredibly hard-working, a real man of Hollywood TV. He told me “be a regular, lead or co-star on three successful series and you are made for life, financially.” He did, but tragically did not live long enough to enjoy his success…he died of cancer, too young.
Leonard was very creative and more into the actual job of acting, a gentler soul, again very hard working and thoughtful. I liked him. I played his love interest in a episode of “Mission Impossible”…he was so happy to leave the ears of Doctor Spock behind and play a real person. I worked with William Shatner, at least twice, maybe three. Bill just loves being a star, being in the limelight and doing the parts., he enjoys himself and what he does. Smart man, Hollywood was and still is a tough town, all about the business and the money. It’s going through some hard times now with much of the work in runaway production in Ireland, the UK and Canada.
That’s all for now friends…more tales to tell next time.
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