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With his feature film directorial debut, Hungarian émigré Peter Medak created a provocative U.K. classic and launched one of the most unique careers in cinema history: When a young couple—Peter McEnery of Entertaining Mr. Sloane and two-time Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson in her film debut—grows bored with their kinky roleplay games, they invite an uninhibited photographer (Academy Award nominee Diane Cilento of Tom Jones and The Wicker Man) to come between them. Maurice Denham (Sunday Bloody Sunday) co-stars in the groundbreaking 1968 drama that “leaves nothing to the imagination” (NY Daily News), now scanned in 4K from the original camera negative by the British Film Institute. Also included is a bonus disc of the “magnificent” (NY Post) 1963 comedy Sparrows Can’t Sing starring James Booth (Zulu) and Barbara Windsor (the Carry On series)—directed by Joan Littlewood (Oh! What a Lovely War) and assistant directed by Medak...

The Hunger Games and Peaky Blinders star Sam Claflin's new period drama has received a season order from PBS Masterpiece. Claflin leads a new adaptation of author Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo.

The public broadcaster has ordered The Count of Monte Cristo along with picking Michael Caine's final acting role in The Great Escaper. Claflin leads The Count of Monte Cristo as the doomed sailor Edmond Dantes, a sailor who is wrongfully imprisoned for treason and locked away in a grime island prison known as the Château d’If.

Sam Claflin Will Play the Classical Literary Hero Edmond Dantes

The official synopsis for The Count of Monte Cristo reads: "After many years of captivity, Dantes finally escapes and discovers treasure, making him one of the richest men in the world. Under the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo, he plans to take revenge on those who wrongly accused him.

After one of the greatest cinematic acting careers in history, Michael Caine has retired from show business. And now his final performance, in the 2023 British film The Great Escaper, is set to make its U.S. TV debut. PBS' long-running anthology series Masterpiece will air the film this fall. Masterpiece has also acquired the 2024 miniseries adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, which stars Sam Claflin in the title role; it will premiere in 2026.

The Great Escaper stars Caine as real-life World War II veteran Bernard Jordan. Living in a nursing home in 2014, he hopes to attend the 70th anniversary ceremony for the D-Day landings in Normandy, but can't get a place on a group tour. Undeterred, he makes a daring escape from the home. The Great Escaper also features the final performance from Oscar-winning actor Glenda Jackson, who died shortly after completing it; she plays Irene, Jordan's wife of sixty years.

Masterpiece has picked up The Great Escaper and The Count of Monte Cristo, and they will air on for US audiences. The Great Escaper will arrive later this year, and The Count of Monte Cristo is set for a 2026 release.

Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson, in their final roles, star in The Great Escaper. The series tells the true story of Bernard Jordan (Caine), who escaped his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy to celebrate the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

As for The Count of Monte Cristo, Masterpiece shared the following about the series:

“The Count of Monte Cristo is a lushly lensed adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ iconic masterpiece. In the epic series directed by two-time Palme d’Or and Oscar®-winner Bille August, Sam Claflin (Daisy Jones and the Six) stars as Edmond...

Mariska Hargitay will shine the spotlight on her mother, actress Jayne Mansfield, in the documentary My Mom Jayne, premiering Friday, June 27 at 8/7c on HBO.

“Mariska Hargitay was three years old when her mother, Jayne Mansfield, tragically died in a car accident at the age of 34,” reads the official description. “The film follows Mariska as she seeks to know, understand, and embrace her mother for the first time. Through intimate interviews and a collection of never-before-seen photos and home movies, she grapples with her mother’s public and private legacy and discovers the layers and depth of who Jayne was,...

Billy Williams, the esteemed British cinematographer who shared an Oscar for shooting Gandhi and also was nominated for his work on the Glenda Jackson-starring Women in Love and Henry Fonda’s final film, On Golden Pond, has died. He was 96.

Williams’ death was announced in British Cinematographer magazine. No details on the cause of death were provided.

“With deep sorrow, we bid farewell to Billy Williams — an outstanding British cinematographer, laureate of the ‘Golden Frog’ for exceptional achievements in the art of cinematography at the Camerimage Festival in 2000,” tweeted the official X account of Camerimage, the Poland-based film festival dedicated to cinematography.

Williams also served as the director of photography on John Milius’ The Wind and the Lion (1975), Stuart Rosenberg’s Voyage of the Damned (1976), Martin Brest’s Going in Style (1979) and Peter Yates’ Suspect (1987).

The London native received an early career break when he was hired for Ken Russell...

Masterpiece has nabbed two programs for the 2025 and 2026 season — The Great Escaper featuring Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson in their final acting roles, and The Count of Monte Cristo starring Sam Claflin and Jeremy Irons.

The Great Escaper, which will premiere this fall in the U.S., tells the true story of Bernard Jordan (Caine) who made global headlines in the summer of 2014 after staging a “great escape” from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy to commemorate D-Day’s 70th anniversary.

Bernie’s adventure that spanned a mere 48 hours also marked the culmination of his 60-year marriage to Rene (Jackson). The Great Escaper celebrates their enduring love but always with an eye to the lessons we might learn from the Greatest Generation.

From Pathé and BBC Films, The Great Escaper is an Ecosse Film production made in co-production with Film I Väst and Filmgate Films.

PBS Masterpiece has acquired The Great Escaper, starring Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson in their final acting roles, and The Count of Monte Cristo, starring Sam Claflin and Jeremy Irons, for its 2025 and 2026 seasons. The network announced the acquisition on Wednesday, May 21. The Great Escaper is a British film that first debuted in October 2023 in the U.K. It will air on PBS Masterpiece this fall in its U.S. television debut. Two-time Palme d’Or and Oscar-winner Bille August is at the helm of this latest adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, which already aired in Italy to much success. The adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ iconic masterpiece will premiere on PBS in 2026. An exact premiere date will be announced at a later time for the eight-episode limited series. Masterpiece Head of Scripted Content and Executive Producer Susanne Simpson announced the acquisitions at the PBS Annual Meeting today (May...

Winners of the 2025 Drama League Awards were announced today in a ceremony hosted by Emmy-winning NY1 reporter Frank Dilella at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. In a competitive year for theater awards, both Maybe Happy Ending and Sunset Boulevard added important feathers to their caps on their march to the Tony Awards.

Nicole Scherzinger took home the Drama League’s highly coveted Distinguished Performance prize for her radical reinterpretation of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Actors can only win this catch-all performance award once in their careers.

The winner of this award repeats that victory at the Tonys more often than not. Last year, Sarah Paulson won the Drama League before clinching a Tony win for her role in the play Appropriate. Other recent Drama League winners who went on to win a Tony in the same year include Danny Burstein (Moulin Rouge!), Bryan Cranston (Network), Glenda Jackson (Three Tall Women), Ben Platt...

Exclusive: Aisling Walsh’s upcoming bio-pic Lucia, starring Maya Hawke as the titular Lucia Joyce, has sold into two major European territories within hours of being announced by sales company The Veterans.

Arp Sélection, which is in Cannes with Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, has acquired French rights, while Vertigo Films has taken Spain. Its Cannes titles this year include Exit 8 and Young Mothers.

Walsh’s psychological drama biopic Lucia, stars Hawke as the troubled figure of Lucia Joyce opposite Rhys Ifans as her father, the celebrated Irish writer James Joyce.

Born in Trieste in 1907, as the second child of Ulysses writer Joyce and Nora Barnacle (later Nora Joyce), Lucia Joyce spent her early childhood in the cosmopolitan port city as well as Zurich, before the family moved to Paris in 1920, where she pursued her dream of becoming a dancer.

With a screenplay written by Michael Kinirons, the film...

Exclusive: Maya Hawke is set to play Lucia Joyce opposite Rhys Ifans as her father, the Irish writer James Joyce, in Aisling Walsh’s psychological drama biopic Lucia, which was written by Michael Kinirons.

The Veterans have boarded sales on the feature for a Cannes market launch.

The biopic is based on the life of Lucia Joyce, the talented but troubled daughter of James Joyce, who was briefly the lover of Samuel Beckett.

Hawke has amassed a veteran’s resume as an actor in less than a decade, working with auteurs such as Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, and Gia Coppola, while also starring in Netflix’s TV show Stranger Things. Her other credits include Inside Out 2 (as the voice of Anxiety), Wildcat, which she starred in and co-produced, Maestro, The Good Lord Bird, Little Women, and more.

Ifans was seen most recently in Inheritance and House of the Dragon...

by Eric Blume

Kieran Culkin will have to wait a bit longer before he can add a Tony to his Succession Emmy and A Real Pain Oscar. | © Searchlight Pictures

Back in 2016, I wrote an article here when one of my favorite actresses, Jessica Lange, won a Tony for Long Day’s Journey into Night, thereby joining the club of elite actors who had achieved the Triple Crown of Acting. Only 24 actors have ever achieved this, and since Lange eight years ago, only two people have joined that list (Viola Davis in 2017 with her Emmy; Glenda Jackson in 2018 with her Tony).

I thought it would be fun to take a look at who is a realistic possibility to join that club. I’m reminded of it because, until just a few days ago, there was a chance that person was going to be Kieran Culkin! Culkin had been largely predicted to be...

Exclusive: House of the Dragon star Emma D’Arcy has joined Tom Cruise in Oscar-winning filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s untitled feature movie that’s shooting at Pinewood Studios in the UK.

D’Arcy confirmed the news in a comment they released exclusively to Deadline. “I’m delighted to be working with such extraordinary and exacting artists as Alejandro and Tom,” they told us. “They are the masters of their craft, and witnessing them in combination has been a privilege.”

Back in December, Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment announced that González Iñárritu’s film will premiere on October 2, 2026. Per the synopsis, the movie concerns “the most powerful man in the world [who] embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.”

González Iñárritu is once again collaborating with his Birdman co-writers Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone, with Sabina Bierman also sharing a screenwriting credit.

The Academy Awards have been handing out a Best Actress trophy since the very first ceremony in 1928. Janet Gaynor for a combo of 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans was the first recipient for his leading roles.

Since then, only one woman has won the category four times: Katharine Hepburn for Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond. Next with three is Frances McDormand. The ladies with two lead wins have included Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Jodie Foster, Glenda Jackson, Vivien Leigh, Luise Rainer, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep, and Hilary Swank. Streep holds the record of most lead nominations at 17.

The oldest winner was Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy) at age 80. The oldest nominee was Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) at age 85. The youngest winner was Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser...

Marianne Faithfull, the iconic English singer and songwriter who first appeared in the mid-1960s, then returned after years of personal problems, including heroin addiction and homelessness, with her masterful 1979 album “Broken English,” died surrounded by her family at her London home on January 30. Though known mainly for her music, in the late 1960s she embarked on a career as a film actress (best known for “The Girl on a Motorcycle”) that was cut short by turmoil in her life. She was 78.

Best known initially for “As Tears Go By” in 1964 when she was only 17 (the song was co-written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) her father was a career military man and intelligence officer and Italian literature professor, her mother from Austrian-Hungarian nobility. She was initially discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ manager.

She quickly fell in with the Stones (eventually becoming Jagger’s lover and sometime...

Mash's Wayne Rogers exited the show early and went on to front his own medical comedy - a hit show that was quickly ruined by a disastrous firing. Wayne Rogers left Mash after season three, largely due to his role being gradually reduced. When the star signed on, the sitcom was intended as a two-hander focused on Rogers' Trapper John and Alan Alda's Hawkeye. When it became clear Alda was the breakout star, the writers focused their attention on him, while Trapper increasingly became the sidekick.

Following the shock death of Henry Blake in Mash's season 3 finale, Rogers decided to leave before the fourth series. Compared to many of the actors who exited Mash during its run, Rogers did quite well in the years that followed, including fronting the detective series City of Angels and appearing in gender-flipped It's a Wonderful Life remake It Happened One Christmas in...

Meryl Streep is the best of the best.

Her performance in Sophie’s Choice (1982) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actress winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 movie champs.

Diane Keaton ranked second for Annie Hall (1977), with Jodie Foster following in third for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972) and Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actress winners is Mary Pickford for Coquette (1929). Just above that film in the rankings are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Loretta Young for The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), and Marie Dressler for Min and Bill (1931).

Another recent Gold Derby poll of cinema experts declared The Godfather (1972) as the greatest Best Picture Oscar winner of all...

The performance by Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice (1982) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actress winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 97 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is Diane Keaton for Annie Hall (1977). Following in third place is Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Rounding out the top five are Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972), and Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actress winners is Mary Pickford for Coquette (1929). Just above that film in the rankings are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Loretta Young for The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), and Marie Dressler for Min and Bill (1931).

Another recent poll had The Godfather (1972) declared as the greatest Best Picture Oscar winner of all time (view...

Victoria Preminger, daughter of director Otto Preminger, died Feb. 7 in Studio City, Calif. following a fall at home. She was 63.

Her mother was actress Hope Bryce Preminger and her uncle was film producer Ingo Preminger, the literary agent who represented clients such as Dalton Trumbo and Ring Lardner, who were both blacklisted throughout the McCarthy period.

Born in New York in 1960, Preminger studied at the Lycée Français de New York and later graduated with honors from Smith College. During her undergraduate career, she starred in a number of television soap operas as well as the 1988 feature “Spike of Bensonhurst,” which was directed by Paul Morrissey.

Four years later, she graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law. She spent the following six years producing audiobooks in Beverly Hills, Calif. for Dove Audio, one of the premier audio book companies nationally. She went on to produce, edit and lead celebrities including Glenda Jackson,...

Throughout 2024, we will continue to update this In Memoriam photo gallery with notable celebrity deaths from film, television, theater and music. Major entertainment figures to be honored in the 2024 gallery are TV legends Bob Newhart and Phil Donahue, Oscar/Tony/Emmy winner Dame Maggie Smith, Emmy/Tony/Grammy winner James Earl Jones, music legend and Grammy/Tony/Emmy winner Quincy Jones, Oscar winner Louis Gossett, Jr., Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Gena Rowlands, Oscar nominee Teri Garr, director/producer Norman Jewison, broadway legend Chita Rivera, country music superstars Kris Kristofferson and Toby Keith and actors Dabney Coleman, Donald Sutherland and Carl Weathers.

Featured in the 2023 gallery were Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Jeff Beck, Robbie Robertson and David Crosby, Oscar and Tony winner Alan Arkin, Oscar/Emmy/Tony winner Glenda Jackson, Oscar and Grammy winner Burt Bacharach, Oscar winner William Friedkin, Grammy legend Tony Bennett,...

Two-time Academy Award Winning Actor Sir Michael Caine, who is releasing a new memoir this spring, is opening up about the first time he met Tom Cruise. Per The Times, which released an excerpt of his new book, Dont Look Back, Youll Trip Over My Guide to Life, Caine talked about meeting Cruise in 1983.

For my 90th birthday, Shakira - my wife of 51 years - arranged for Tom Cruise to come to my dinner at the River Caf as a surprise. I was very touched, Caine, now 91, wrote. Ive known Tom for more than 40 years. We were doing a big event for Educating Rita (1983) and I turned around and there was this young actor, very polite, asking questions about how not to be just a flash in the pan.

That was Tom, probably around the time of Risky Business, Caine wrote, referring to one of Cruises breakout roles. I cant remember what I said,...

To judge from the electric response of the youthful audience at the Sam Gold-helmed production of Romeo + Juliet, the casting of Rachel Zegler and Kit Connor as William Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers will be enough to persuade their fans that this story is dope Af. It’s not hard to imagine teens, having just watched Connor’s Romeo dangle in the air from Juliet’s suspended bed before doing a pull-up to hoist himself up to kiss her, begging their drama teachers to stage a Shakespeare tragedy this spring instead of, say, Clue.

In Gold’s previous Shakespeare outings on Broadway—2019’s Glenda Jackson-headlined King Lear and 2022’s Macbeth, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga—you really had to know the plays well to have any idea of what was going on. While critics cited the incoherence of their abstractions, I found much to relish in the...

Exclusive: Slow Horses star Gary Oldman is stepping back on stage in April 2025 for the first time after an absence of nearly four decades to star in Samuel Beckett’s celebrated one-man play Krapp’s Last Tape for a limited season at the British theatre where the actor began his professional career in 1979.

Oldman, who won an Oscar for Darkest Hour, is in London shooting season 6 of the acclaimed Apple TV+ spy drama Slow Horses. He will play Beckett’s famous old-timer, struggling to listen to a tape he recorded 39 years ago, at York Theatre Royal in North Yorkshire from April 14 through May 17.

There are no plans to transfer the production to London’s West End or Broadway, Douglas Urbanski, the actor’s longtime business partner and manager, told me when I tracked him down in the early hours of Wednesday in London.

In performing Beckett’s 1958 classic, Oldman retraces...

It’s understandable that most movie and TV fans remember Maggie Smith for her dynamic work in the “Harry Potter” films and “Downton Abbey.” More recent and far more widely seen in their time, they are worthy examples of her outstanding work.

But unknown to even some of the most knowledgeable cinephiles is most of her screen work before the 1980s beyond her two Oscar wins (Best Actress for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and Supporting Actress for “California Suite”). Her passing at 89 represents a chance to look back at not only roles that conveyed her later brilliance but also, in some cases, present a broader range than what became the standard — though always with nuance and distinctiveness — Maggie Smith role of later years.

When reviewing her film career until at least 2008, it’s critical to remember that she was first and foremost a stage actor. She joined Laurence Olivier...

A quarter century after winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “Girl, Interrupted,” Angelina Jolie is hoping to pick up the Best Actress trophy for her performance in “Maria.” In terms of Oscar history, she’d join Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange, Cate Blanchett, and Renée Zellweger, who all won for featured performances before prevailing again for star turns.

Jolie’s role, that of real-life opera singer Maria Callas, has already been proven to be awards-worthy and won Jane Seymour an Emmy nearly four decades ago. This English rose featured in the 1988 TV movie “Onassis: The Richest Man in the World,” opposite Raul Julia as Aristotle Onassis and Anthony Quinn as his father, Socrates. This remains her only Emmy win from five nominations.

Zellweger won Best Actress for her sensitive portrayal of Judy Garland in the 2020 flick “Judy.” Back in 2001, Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis took home Emmys for their work...

To date, there are 24 distinguished individuals (living and deceased) who have won competitive Oscar, Emmy and Tony Awards. The Triple Crown of Acting, as it’s known — see the list below. And there’s no horsing around.

Glenda Jackson became the most recent person to join the club when she received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in for “Three Tall Women” in 2018.

While the recent 77th Tony Awards didn’t produce another Triple Crown Acting champion (there was no Tony-less Oscar and Emmy winner in contention), it is possible that some unsuspecting thespian was put on course to becoming the 25th name on the list above. And so the awards plot thickens.

See Watch our lively chats with hundreds of 2024 Emmy contenders

I’ll appropriately start with Sarah Paulson, who accepted the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for “Appropriate.” (It marked her first Tony nomination.

In September 2021, Olivia Colman bagged her first career Emmy for “The Crown” despite having failed on her Oscar bid for “The Father” five months earlier. This made her the 16th performer to triumph at the Emmys after going home empty-handed at the same year’s Oscars and the fourth to do so during the 21st century. The release of the 2024 Emmy nominations ballots confirmed that nine of the 16 actors who lost at the latest Oscars ceremony are capable of joining Colman on said list.

Gold Derby’s current Emmy odds indicate that the man and woman with the best hopes of following in Colman’s footsteps are Ryan Gosling and Jodie Foster, who just earned their respective third and fifth Academy Award notices for their supporting turns in “Barbie” and “Nyad.” They are now generally expected to share in the experience of being first-time acting Emmy nominees thanks to his...

Alan Scarfe, the classically trained British Canadian actor known for his turns as bad guys in Double Impact and Lethal Weapon III and as Dr. Bradley Talmadge on the Upn sci-fi series Seven Days, has died. He was 77.

Scarfe died April 28 of colon cancer at his home in Longueuil, Quebec, his family announced.

Survivors include his son, actor Jonathan Scarfe (ER, Raising the Bar, Hell on Wheels, Van Helsing).

Born in England and raised in Vancouver, Scarfe portrayed the Romulans Tokath and Admiral Mendak on episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1991 and 1993 and was another alien, the powerful Magistrate Augris, on a 1995 installment of Star Trek: Voyager.

“Science fiction on film and television, especially if you are playing some kind of alien character with fantastic make-up, is great for actors with a strong stage background,” he said in a 2007 interview. “The productions need that kind of size and intensity of performance.

In 1967, Agnes Moorehead made history as the first woman (and second performer) to receive Primetime Emmy nominations in two categories at once. By winning for her work on “The Wild Wild West” while also competing as a star of “Bewitched,” she blazed a trail for 55 other actresses who have since been given double or even triple chances at Emmy glory. Scroll through our chronological photo gallery to find out who else is included in this special group.

Over the years, 14 women have simultaneously competed for two acting Emmys at multiple points in their careers. The overall record for most entries on this or the corresponding male list belongs to Cloris Leachman, who was doubly recognized seven different times between 1973 and 2006.

Whereas James Earl Jones is the only male actor to have ever won two Emmys in a single year, eight actresses have accomplished the same feat. Aside from Leachman (1975), that...

Renowned for his visionary filmmaking, Christopher Nolan has established a strong working relationship with a select group of actors, including Christian Bale, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine, who has starred in every Nolan film since Batman Begins, including The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, The Prestige, Interstellar, and Tanet, along with an uncredited cameo in Dunkirk.

Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Christopher Nolan on the set of The Dark Knight | Credit: IMDb

His seamless presence in these movies has been so remarkable that when Caine declined to star in Oppenheimer, the filmmaker turned to an ensemble of Hollywood heavyweights to fill the void left by his most frequent collaborator.

Michael Caine Declined Christopher Nolan’s Offer to Star in Oppenheimer

Michael Caine has been the most frequent collaborator of Christopher Nolan, having worked together on seven films since their first movie together Batman Begins. However, their long-standing partnership was interrupted by the 2023 Oscar-winning film,...

Exclusive: Lord of the Rings star Morfydd Clark and Under the Banner of Heaven’s Billy Howle will star in new versions of John Osborn’s Look Back In Anger and Arnold Wesker’s Roots, which will run in rep at London’s Almeida in what has been dubbed the Angry and Young season. Ahead of the season, Romola Garai will appear in Eline Arbo’s adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s exceptional Noble Prize-winning novel The Years.

Roots, with Clark in the central role of Beatie Bryant who returns to her family in Norfolk after living a highly charged political life in London, will run at the Almeida in Islington, North London, from September 10 through November 23, directed by Diyan Zora.

Howle will take a small part in Roots but in Look Back In Anger, which will run from September 20 through November 23, he’ll play Jimmy Porter, the theater’s original angry young man.

The Drama League Awards unveiled their slate of winners at an in-person ceremony on Friday, May 17. The event was hosted by Frank Dilella at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, where attendees toasted the best of Broadway and Off-Bradway.

The biggest winner of the day was Sarah Paulson, who claimed the coveted Distinguished Performance Award for her fiery role in “Appropriate.” That play, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, also took home the League’s trophy for Best Revival of a Play.

See 2024 Dorian Theater Awards nominations announced: LGBTQ journalists champion ‘Merrily We Roll Along,’ ‘Stereophonic,’ ‘Oh, Mary!‘

The Distinguished Performance Award is unique in that a performer may only win the award once in their career. After prevailing, they are never eligible again. The category is also a massive catch-all race that includes actors of all genders, roles of all sizes, and both Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. This year, 54 thespians were included as nominees.

Winning...

“I felt ashamed of myself for watching. No one should have a chance to see so much desire, so much need for a prize. And so much pain when [it] was not given … I felt disgusted with myself. As though I were attending a public hanging.”

Those were the words of the late Glenda Jackson, as she described to The New York Times her recent experience watching the Academy Awards on television in 1979.

Ironically, it was well after she had already been gifted with two Best Actress Oscars herself. She was not present to accept those honors — for 1970’s “Women in Love” and 1973’s “A Touch of Class.” She was also absent when she was Best Actress-nominated for 1971’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and 1975’s “Hedda.”

See Watch our lively chats with dozens of 2024 Emmy contenders

I have to wonder if Miss Jackson ever watched the now-infamous clip of her winning her...

Following his 2015 Emmy win for the final season of “Mad Men,” Jon Hamm took a large step back from TV stardom in order to beef up his film resume with titles such as “Baby Driver,” “Richard Jewell,” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” Now that he has made a splashy return to the small screen by playing new roles on “Fargo” and “The Morning Show” and reprising one on “Good Omens,” his Emmy nominations total could instantly rise from 16 to 19. If all of his possible 2024 bids come to fruition, he will be only the fourth person and second man to ever compete for three acting Emmys at once.

Hamm’s string of recent TV acting gigs began last July when he returned for season two Prime Video’s “Good Omens” as supporting character Gabriel – a humanoid version of the biblical archangel. He then fulfilled the new role of ambitious tech billionaire Paul Marks...

Christopher Durang, a Tony Award-winning playwright who specialized in a particular form of brainy and absurdist comedy, has died. He was 75. The cause was complications from a form of dementia known as logopenic primary progressive aphasia, according to his husband John Augustine.

Durang was best known for writing 1979’s “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” a popular dissection of Catholic doctrine that was frequently staged, drawing occasional protests for its iconoclastic take on religion. A film version, starring Diane Keaton as the title character, aired on Showtime in 2001.

Another Durang play, 1981’s “Beyond Therapy,” which looked at Manhattanites who cope with romantic neurosis with the help of their psychiatrists, was also adapted for the screen by Robert Altman. Despite having a cast that included Glenda Jackson and Jeff Goldblum, critics excoriated the 1987 film as flat and unfunny. It was an opinion shared by Durang, who described it as...

Since the inception of the Academy Awards, the U.S.-based organization behind them has always strived to honor worldwide film achievements. Their extensive roster of competitive acting winners alone consists of artists from 30 unique countries, three of which first gained representation during the 2020s. The last full decade’s worth of triumphant performers hail from eight countries, while 42.1% of the individual actors nominated during that time originate from outside of America.

The academy’s history of recognizing acting talent on a global scale dates all the way back to the inaugural Oscars ceremony in 1929, when Swiss-born Emil Jannings (who was of German and American parentage) won Best Actor for his work in both “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh.” Over the next three years, the Best Actress prize was exclusively awarded to Canadians: Mary Pickford (“Coquette”), Norma Shearer (“The Divorcee”), and Marie Dressler (“Min and Bill...

Since 1994, paying tribute to the artists and filmmakers who died in the past year has become an annual segment at the Oscars. Arguably the most emotional segment of the Night, the In Memoriam section of 2024 kicked off with the remembrance of Alexei Navalny. Other notable names that were honored in the Award ceremony included Matthew Perry, Richard Lewis, Glenda Jackson, Tina Turner, Robbie Robertson, and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

However, like each year, several deceased figures were left out of the montage, which involved many prominent figures, including John Wick Star Lance Reddick, which has caused fans to outburst.

In Memoriam | Oscars

Fans Furious Over Lance Reddick and Other Notable Figures’ Snub From In Memoriam

The Academy is no stranger to leaving out beloved figures from the segment, with Anne Heche and Charlbi Dean being left out in 2023, and 2024 was no different. 2023 saw many notable figures leaving the world behind, which was hard to grasp for fans,...

Dig out your best tuxedo, or don your finest gown – it’s Oscars night! The 2024 Academy Awards are about to get underway, bringing the best of Hollywood together to celebrate cinema, and hand out all kinds of shiny gold statues in the process. As ever, it’s going to be a long haul and a late night, but Team Empire is here to follow with you every step of the way with our live blog, covering every single award, every single winner, and every single unmissable moment. There will be songs, there will be speeches, there will be snubs – though, there probably won’t be another slap.

Read below for the latest updates, be sure to stock up on caffeine and snacks, and we’ll be with you to the end of the line.

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2.30am That’s it! Thanks for following along with us. A strong Oscars year in all,...

Andrea Bocelli performed a rendition of the song “Time to Say Goodbye” with his son Matteo Bocelli to accompany the Academy’s annual obituary section. Perhaps mindful of previous years, in which eagle-eyed viewers have jumped on omissions, this year’s “In Memoriam” — which began with footage of the recently deceased Russian opposition leader and subject of last year’s winning documentary Navalny — seemed comprehensive but at the same time not enough.

Related: ‘Oppenheimer’ Wins Best Picture Oscar & Six Others; Emma Stone & Cillian Murphy Take Lead Acting Prizes – Full List

Beloved actors Lance Reddick, Treat Williams, Apocalypse Now’s Frederic Forrest, Rocky’s Burt Young all relegated to a fine print reference at the end, along with such writers as Norman Lear and No Country for Old Men’s Cormac McCarthy. Also given afterthought treatment were Kenneth Anger, Terence Davies, Carl Davis, David McCallum, Sinead O’Connor and Paolo Taviani in...

Part of every awards show is the In Memoriam segment, which honors those who have died in the past year. And that also means that part of every awards show is taking note of who didn’t make the cut (as happens every time). The 2024 Oscars are no exception. Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo performed “Time to Say Goodbye” for the 2024 Oscars In Memoriam segment. Among the names part of the segment—at the end, the broadcast directed viewers to a website for the “many other legends we lost”—were: Michael Gambon, Harry Belafonte, Alan Arkin, Julian Sands, Andre Braugher, Chita Rivera, Tom Wilkinson, Glynis Johns, Jane Birkin, Paul Reubens, Piper Laurie, Richard Roundtree, Ryan O’Neal, Matthew Perry, Richard Lewis, Lee Sun-Kyun, Carl Weathers, William Friedkin, Glenda Jackson, and Tina Turner. The In Memoriam segment, which you can watch above, did end with a long list of names on...

The In Memoriam section of the Academy Awards is always one of the most emotional moments of the show. This year was no exception, as the 96th Oscars celebrate the performers, filmmakers and artisan talents who died in the past year. The In Memoriam segment kicked off with a remembrance of Alexei Navalny, the political prisoner who died Feb. 16 and was profiled in last year’s documentary feature winner “Navalny.”

The names unfurled onscreen was Andrea Boccelli and his son, Matteo, sang “Time to Say Goodbye.”

Every year, the Academy leaves a few beloved names out of the montage, causing anger among some viewers. Though a much longer list is presented on the Oscars.org website, outrage over who makes it onscreen is part of the Oscar-watching tradition.

Read more: All the 2024 Oscar winners

This year several beloved late performers and filmmakers didn’t make the main segment, including Treat Williams,...

The Academy Awards paid tribute to Alan Arkin, Paul Reubens, Harry Belafonte, and directors William Friedkin and Norman Jewison during the In Memoriam portion of the 2024 Oscars.

Andrea Bocelli and his son Mateo Bocelli led the tribute with a moving delivery of “Time to Say Goodbye.” During the segment, dozens of dancers took the stage for a performance art piece, embracing and twirling around each other.

The 2024 #Oscars show their In Memoriam tribute pic.twitter.com/NmGBnrhxt3

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 11, 2024

The past year since the 2023 Academy Awards also...

Oppenheimer won the marquee Cast in a Motion Picture prize as the 30th annual SAG Awards were presented Saturday, and its star Cillian Murphy might have wrestled Oscar front-runner status away from Paul Giamatti by taking the trophy for Male Actor in a Leading Role.

Lily Gladstone was cemented as the favorite for the Best Actress Oscar, winning Female Actor in a Leading Role for Killers of the Flower Moon at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in a ceremony streaming live on Netflix for the first time.

Related: Lily Gladstone Calls For Compassion In Emotional Speech After Historic SAG Awards Win

Robert Downey Jr won the Male Actor in a Supporting Role for Oppenheimer in a mini-upset. But the evening’s first film award wasn’t much of a surprise as Da’vine Joy Randolph continued her awards-season dominance with a Supporting win for The Holdovers.

Related: “Your Solidarity Ignited Workers Around The World,...

The 2024 BAFTA Awards was held recently and many amazing films received deserving awards in various categories. Major films like Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things dominated the event by winning seven and five BAFTA awards respectively. Nolan’s Oppenheimer went on to win the top prize for Best Film.

David Tennant hosted the 2024 BAFTA Awards

Additionally, many high-profile celebrities who made their name in films, games, and TV who passed away last year were honored at the event. Many were shocked that the BAFTAs omitted Friends star Matthew Perry. The Academy has now released its mistake and has addressed the situation.

BAFTA Will Now Honor Matthew Perry at Its TV Awards Later This Year Fans were pissed at the BAFTAs for not including Matthew Perry during their In Memoriam segment

The BAFTA awards were held recently, celebrating the best film of the past year. Christopher Nolan and...

After a few years in limbo, the BAFTAs finally found a host to replace the much-missed Stephen Fry in David Tennant. The Doctor Who actor proved an amiable and funny emcee, although much of his humor would have gone way over the non-Brits in the audience, starting with a lengthy filmed skit riffing on his BBC TV series Staged, co-starring Michael Sheen. (You can watch it above.)

It was a night of surprises, not especially pleasant ones for the teams behind Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon, and there were no egregious upsets. Neither were there any of the usual technical nightmares that have plagued the event in the past.

Instead, there were lots of low-key but memorable moments, like Oppenheimer’s Robert Downey Jr., dressed in a gray tail suit to collect his Best Supporting Actor award recalling his life in 30 seconds.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph was similarly charming on accepting her Best Supporting Actress award, swooning over presenter Chiwetel Ejiofor and bringing her Holdovers co-star Paul Giamatti to tears when she told him, “I cry every time I see your name.” Equally emotional were June Givanni, receiving this year’s Outstanding Contribution award; Samantha Morton, whose BFI Fellowship was awarded after filmed testimony from Tom Cruise; and the whole audience, who went wild for Still’s Michael J. Fox who handed out the Best Film award to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

Wonka star Keegan-Michael Key, presenting, sustained a surprisingly funny attempt to pretend to be British, and, taking the first award of the night for Best Original Screenplay, husband and wife team Justine Triet and Arthur Harari joked that their murderous marital drama Anatomy of a Fall had taken on a life of its own.

All night, speeches were crisp and clean, with only the teams behind The Zone of Interest and 20 Days in Mariupol bringing politics into the conversation, even after Tennant gave the go-ahead by mentioning the recent murder of Alexei Navalny, subject of last year’s Best Documentary winner.

The musical numbers left a lot to be desired. Sophie Ellis-Bextor performed her Saltburn showstopper “Murder on the Dancefloor,” which is more than a few rungs down from Shirley Bassey doing “Diamonds Are Forever” in 2022. Meanwhile, Hannah Waddingham doing a slowed-down version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” wasn’t quite what the particularly touching obituary sequence was crying out for. By far the worst of all, though, was a comedy routine by Nick Mohammed performing as a sweaty light entertainer called Mr. Swallow. We must never think or speak of it again.

Throughout the 96-year history of the Academy Awards, the amount of acting lineups consisting only of first-time nominees has reached 37, or about 10% of the overall total. While that number may not seem high in a general sense, these cases actually outnumber those exclusively involving veteran contenders by a ratio of three to one. However, although this list expanded as recently as 2023, rookie-only acting lineups are gradually becoming less common than veteran-only ones, the amount of which has nearly doubled within the last dozen years.

Whereas 75% of veteran-only acting quintets have involved lead performers rather than supporting ones, almost the exact opposite is true of lineups full of newcomers. For instance, only one existing case of the former kind concerns supporting actresses, whereas the same category has produced 15 rookie-only rosters. The last such group consisted of 2000 winner Angelina Jolie and nominees Toni Collette (“The Sixth Sense”), Catherine Keener (“Being John Malkovich...

Throughout 2023, we have been updating our “In Memoriam” photo gallery (view above). Scroll through to remember 36 entertainers from film, television, theater and music. Many were winners at the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and/or Tonys. Here is a closer look at just a few of those we celebrate in our gallery:

Veteran actor Alan Arkin died on June 29 at age 89. He was an Oscar winner for “Little Miss Sunshine” and was also nominated for “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” and “Argo.” He was a six-time Emmy nominee and won a Tony Award for “Enter Laughing.”

Composer Burt Bacharach died on February 8 at age 94. He was a six-time Grammy winner and also won at the Oscars and Emmys. Some of hit songs included “Walk on By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” “Alfie,” “What the World...

Embark on a journey into the fascinating life of one of Britain’s acting legends with “Talking Pictures,” airing at 5:15 Pm on Saturday, December 30, 2023, exclusively on BBC Two. In this special episode, Celia Imrie narrates the captivating story of Glenda Jackson, a double Oscar winner and one of the nation’s greatest-ever acting talents.

The documentary unfolds the remarkable tale of Glenda Jackson, who, despite her immense success in the world of cinema, made a daring decision to turn her back on her flourishing screen career. Delve into the intriguing chapters of her life as she transitions from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to a life dedicated to politics.

Tune in at 5:15 Pm on BBC Two for an intimate portrayal of a multifaceted career and a glimpse into the motivations that led Glenda Jackson to pursue a different path. “Talking Pictures” promises an engaging narrative, shedding light...

Who’s ready for a cinematic evolution? Years after the recent Planet Of The Apes trilogy came to an end – closing out the story of Caesar and the global simian uprising – a new story is about to start. :a[Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/kingdom-planet-apes-new-trilogy-300-years-after-caesar-exclusive/' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'} is coming in 2024, bringing a whole new take on the world, a fresh generation of characters, and an adventure tone set to take the sci-fi saga into brand new territory. And you can read all about it in Empire’s world-exclusive cover feature, in the February 2024 issue. Order a copy online here.

It’s not hitting newsstands until Thursday 21 December – but you can take a sneak peek inside below.

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes

New apes, new team, new kingdom. Empire gets the inside story on...

Throughout 2023, we will continue to update this In Memoriam photo gallery with notable celebrity deaths from film, television, theater and music. The first major entertainment figures to be honored in the 2023 gallery are Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Jeff Beck, Robbie Robertson and David Crosby, Oscar and Tony winner Alan Arkin, Oscar/Emmy/Tony winner Glenda Jackson, Oscar and Grammy winner Burt Bacharach, Oscar winner William Friedkin, Grammy legend Tony Bennett, Emmy nominee Matthew Perry, Emmy winner Norman Lear, Emmy winner Andre Braugher, Emmy winner Ron Cephas Jones, along with rock legend Elvis Presley‘s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and actresses Melinda Dillon, Annie Wersching and Cindy Williams.