British fan card by The Adam Faith Fan Club, London. Photo: Parlophone Records.
English pop singer, actor and financial journalist Adam Faith (1940-2003) started as one of the more popular British teen idols, turned into a top actor and then became a financier. In the early 1960’s he was the first British artist with his initial seven hits lodging in the Top 5, just before the Beatles came along and changed the entire musical landscape.
Adam Faith was born as Terence (Terry) Nelhams-Wright in London in 1940. The third in a family of five children, Nelhams grew up in a council house in a working class area of London. He started work at 12, delivering and selling newspapers while still at school. Faith began his musical career in 1957, while working as a film cutter in London in the hope of becoming an actor, singing with and managing a skiffle group, The Worried Men. The group played in Soho coffee bars after work, and became the resident band at The 2i's Coffee Bar, where they appeared on the BBC Television live music program Six-Five Special. The producer, Jack Good, was impressed by the singer and arranged a solo recording contract with HMV under the name Adam Faith. His debut record (Got a) Heartsick Feeling and Brother Heartache and Sister Tears in January 1958, failed to make the charts. His second release later that year was a cover of Jerry Lee Lewis' High School Confidential, but this also failed. Faith returned to work as a film cutter at National Studios at Elstree until March 1959, when Barry invited him to audition for a BBC TV rock and roll show, Drumbeat. The producer, Stewart Morris, gave him a contract for three shows, extended to the full 22-week run. Faith was becoming popular through television appearances. Faith's success on Drumbeat enabled another recording contract with EMI's Parlophone label. His next record in 1959, What Do You Want?, written by Vandyke and produced by Barry and John Burgess, received good reviews in the NME and other music papers, as well as being voted a hit on Juke Box Jury. It soared to number one on the British charts in the course of a 19-week run. His pronunciation of the word 'baby' as 'bay-beh' became a catch phrase.
Adam Faith became an immediate star, with his matinee-idol looks and charismatic screen presence. At the time, he was distinctive for his hiccupping glottal stops and exaggerated pronunciation. He did not write his own material, and much of his early success was through partnership with songwriter Les Vandyke and John Barry, whose arrangements were inspired by Don Costa's pizzicato arrangements for Buddy Holly's It Doesn't Matter Anymore. With songs such as Poor Me (another UK chart topper), Someone Else's Baby (a UK #2) and Don't That Beat All, he established himself as a rival to Cliff Richard in British popular music. Poor Me also later became the title of his first autobiography. He became an actor by taking drama and elocution lessons, and appeared as a pop singer in the film Beat Girl (1959, Edmond T. Gréville), according to Bruce Eder on All Music “a fairly gritty British delinquency drama”. His next film Never Let Go (1960, John Guillermin) starred Peter Sellers and Richard Todd. A UK variety tour was followed by a 12-week season at Blackpool Hippodrome and an appearance on the Royal Variety Show. His next release was a double A-side single, Made You/When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Both made the Top Ten, despite a BBC ban for Made You for 'a lewd and salacious lyric'. His 1960 novelty record Lonely Pup (In a Christmas Shop), to coincide with his Christmas pantomime, gained a silver disc. His debut album Adam was released on in 1960 to critical acclaim for the inventiveness of Barry's arrangements and Faith's own performances. Still 20 and living with his parents, he bought a house in Hampton Court for £6000, where he moved with his family from their house in Acton. In January 1961, NME reported that Faith had been booked to headline the television show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Faith's third film, the comedy What a Whopper (1961, Gilbert Gunn) with Sid James and Carole Lesley, opened to a terrible pasting from the press. On IMDb reviewer Peter Yates writes: “Almost makes Plan 9 seem workable”. Faith’ next film project, Mix Me a Person (1962, Leslie Norman) starring Anne Baxter, received good reviews. This was a thriller in which his character (Harry Jukes) spent a great deal of time behind bars. He did manage to sing a couple of songs, however, en route; the title song and a version of La Bamba.
Adam Faith's teen pop became less popular in the mid 1960’s with competition from The Beatles. In 1965 he made his only two appearances in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart with It's Alright (#31) and Talk About Love (#97). He made six further albums and 35 singles, with a total of 24 UK chart entries. After a final single in 1968 he parted company with EMI and concentrated on acting in repertory theatre. After a number of small parts, he was given a more substantial role in Night Must Fall, playing opposite Dame Sybil Thorndike. In autumn 1969 he took the lead in a touring production of Billy Liar. Faith began 1970 by appearing on the BBC's review of the sixties music scene, Pop Go The Sixties, performing What Do You Want and Someone Else's Baby live on the show's broadcast on BBC1, on 1 January 1970. Later in the 1970’s, he went into music management, managing Leo Sayer among others. Faith also co-produced Sayer's 1975 album, Another Year, and earlier had co-produced Roger Daltrey's album, Daltrey (1973). He starred as the eponymous hero in the television series Budgie (1971-1972), about an ex-convict, but his career declined after a car accident in which he almost lost a leg. He restarted with a role as the manipulative manager of rock star David Essex, in Stardust (1974, Michael Apted). He was nominated for a BAFTA award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 1980 he starred with Roger Daltrey in McVicar (1980, Tom Clegg), and appeared with Jodie Foster in Foxes (1980, Adrian Lyne). He played the role of James Crane in the TV film Minder on the Orient Express (1985). Faith appeared in another TV series, Love Hurts (1992-1994) starring with Zoë Wanamaker, the BBC series, The House That Jack Built (2002, Nick Philips) and an episode of Murder in Mind (2003). In the 1980’s, Faith became a financial investments advisor, but he still continued to perform. In 1986, he was hired as a financial journalist, by the Daily Mail and its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday. He had a financial involvement with television's Money Channel, but the channel proved unsuccessful and closed in 2001. Faith was declared bankrupt owing a reported £32 million. In 1985, he appeared on a BBC Radio 2 tribute program to James Dean, written and presented by Terence Pettigrew. You're Tearing Me Apart was aired on the 30th anniversary of Dean's death. Dean had been his idol, and the film Rebel Without A Cause had inspired the teenage Faith to become a singer and actor. Faith had had heart problems since 1986, when he had open heart surgery. He became ill after his stage performance in the touring production of Love and Marriage at the Regent Theatre, and died in a hospital in Stoke-on-Trent of a heart attack in 2003. Since 1967, Adam Faith was married to former dancer Jackie Irving and they had one daughter Katya Faith, a television producer.
Sources: Bruce Eder (All Music Guide), Geoff Leonard and Pete Walker (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
Adam Faith
Adam Faith
Hertha Feiler appeared in many popular films of the 1940s and 1950s
Hertha Feiler
Beautiful Austrian actress Hertha Feiler (1916-1970) was the elegant and charming wife of Heinz Rühmann, off-screen and also on-screen in many popular films of the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Hertha Feiler was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria), in 1916. Her parents were Josef Anton Feiler and his wife Margarethe née Schwarz. Hertha studied at the Realgymnasium. She originally wanted to become a pianist but tendinitis (an inflammation at her arm) prevented this. When she looked for another artistic activity and decided to take acting classes. In 1936 she debuted on stage at the Wiener Scala, and one year later she already made her film debut with Liebling der Matrosen/Favourite of the Sailors (1937, Hans Hinrich) starring the Austrian Shirley Temple, Traudl Stark. In the following years Hertha became a popular actress who knew how to interpret ladylike and cheerful roles with charm. In 1938, when she worked on Heinz Rühmann's debut as a film director, Lauter Lügen/Many Lies (1939, Heinz Rühmann), they fell in love and got married in 1939. In the following years they often made films together like Kleider machen Leute/Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds (1940, Helmut Käutner), Quax in Afrika/Quax in Africa (1944-1947, Helmut Weiss) and Der Engel mit dem Saitenspiel/Angel with a Harp (1944, Heinz Rühmann). Although Hertha Feiler was considered to be ‘one fourth Jew’ by the Nazi regime and was only able to work with a special permission, she and Heinz Rühmann were presented in the press as a model married couple. Their son Peter was born in 1942.
After the end of the war Hertha Feiler took part in Rühmann’s production company Comedia. After this company went bankrupt, her film career halted also. She started to appear more often in stage productions. In the mid-1950's followed more mature film roles in which she often impersonated self-confident and cheerful women who also knew the darker side of life. To her well-known films of that decade belong Pünktchen und Anton/ Punktchen and Anton (1953, Thomas Engel) based on the children’s book by Erich Kästner, Die schöne Müllerin/The Beautiful Miller (1954, Wolfgang Liebeneiner), Charley's Tante/Charley’s Aunt (1955, Hans Quest), Opernball/Opera Ball (1956, Ernst Marischka) opposite Johannes Heesters, and Der Maulkorb/The Muzzle (1958, Wolfgang Staudte) with O.E. Hasse. With Heinz Rühmann she took part in her last and 33rd film Die Ente klingelt um halb acht/ The Duck Rings at Half Past Seven (1968, Rolf Thiele). She had to retire from the film business because she was ill with cancer. Hertha Feiler died in München (Munich), Germany, in 1970.
Gallery for vintage actress Hertha Feiler
Hilde Krahl was one of the most demanded stars of the German cinema of the 1940s and 1950s
Hilde Krahl
Austrian actress Hilde Krahl (1917-1999) was one of the most demanded stars of the German cinema of the 1940’s and 1950’s. She could excell in nearly all genres.
Gallery for vintage acress Hilde Krahl
Joan Crawford 1930s
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford March 23, 1905 – May 10, 1977, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in travelling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hard working young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s she was labelled "box office poison" source
Gallery for vintage actress Joan Crawford
Pier Angeli
Pier Angeli
Pier Angeli (19 June 1932 – 10 September 1971) was an Italian-born television and film actress. Her American cinematographic debut was in the starring role of the 1951 film Teresa, in which she won a Golden Globe Award. Twenty years later, she had been chosen to play a part in The Godfather, but died before filming began. She had romantic relationships with actors Kirk Douglas and James Dean before going on to marry Vic Damone. Born Anna Maria Pierangeli in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. Her twin sister is the actress Marisa Pavan. Angeli made her film debut with Vittorio de Sica in Domani è troppo tardi (1950), after being spotted by director Léonide Moguy and Vittorio de Sica. She was discovered by Hollywood, and MGM launched her in her first American film, Teresa (1951). Directed by Fred Zinnemann, this film also saw the joint debuts of Rod Steiger and John Ericson. Reviews for her performance in the film compared her to Greta Garbo, and she won the Golden Globe Award source
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
