John alderton pauline collins biography of michael

English actor (born 1940)

This article is about the actor. For the American football player, see John Alderton (American football).

John Alderton (born 27 November 1940) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in Upstairs, Downstairs, Thomas & Sarah, Wodehouse Playhouse, Little Miss (original television series), Please Sir!, No - Honestly and Fireman Sam (the original series). Alderton has often starred alongside his wife, Pauline Collins.

Early life

Alderton was born on 27 November 1940 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, the son of Ivy (née Handley) and Gordon John Alderton. He grew up in Hull where he attended Kingston High School.

Career

He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1961 and appeared in their production of The Doctor and The Devils by Dylan Thomas. Alderton first became familiar to television viewers in 1962, when he played Dr Moone in the ITV soap opera Emergency Ward 10. After an uncredited role in Cleopatra (1963), and appearing in British films such as The System (1964), Assignment K (1968), Duffy (1968) and Hannibal Brooks (1969), he played the lead in the comedy series Please Sir!, as hapless teacher Mr Hedges, which later resulted in him also playing the character in the 1971 feature film of the same name. He was cast by Richard Lester in the title role of a film version of Flashman but the project was abandoned.

In 1972, he appeared with Hannah Gordon in the BBC comedy series My Wife Next Door which ran for 13 episodes, and for which he won a Jacob's Award in 1975. He then transferred to another top

British actress (born 1940)

Pauline Collins (born 3 September 1940) is a British actress who first came to prominence portraying Sarah Moffat in Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1973) and its spin-off Thomas & Sarah (1979). In 1992, she published her autobiography Letter to Louise.

Collins played the title role in the play Shirley Valentine for which she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress, and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She reprised the role in the 1989 film adaptation of the play, winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also starred in the television dramas Forever Green (1989–1992) and The Ambassador (1998–1999). Her other film appearances include City of Joy (1992), Paradise Road (1997), Albert Nobbs (2011), Quartet (2012), and The Time of Their Lives (2017).

Early life and career

Collins was born in Exmouth, Devon, the daughter of Mary Honora (née Callanan), a schoolteacher, and William Henry Collins, a school headmaster. She is of Irish extraction, and was brought up as a Catholic in Wallasey, Cheshire. Her great-uncle was Irish poet Jeremiah Joseph Callanan.

Collins was educated at Sacred Heart High School and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Before turning to acting, she worked as a teacher until 1962. She made her stage debut at Windsor in A Gazelle in Park Lane in 1962 and her West End debut in Passion Flower Hotel in 1965. During the play's run, she made her first film, titled Secrets of a Windmill Girl, released in 1966. More stage roles followed.

Collins played Samantha Briggs in the 1967 Doctor Who serial The Faceless Ones and was offered the chance to continue in the series as a new companion for the Doctor, but declined the role.

Other early TV credits include the U

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - John Alderton, actor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at a petrol station on the A40 while being driven from Pinewood Studios to London's West End, where he was due to appear on stage in the play Judies at the Comedy Theatre.

John, who grew up in Hull, first acted in school plays but worked as a driving instructor until winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After graduating in 1961, he joined the Theatre Royal, York repertory company before making his London debut in the play Spring and Port Wine at the Mermaid Theatre in 1965.

He became familiar to television viewers in 1962 when he played Dr Moone in the ITV soap opera Emergency – Ward 10, and would later appear in regular roles in both the ITV comedy series Please Sir! as the hapless teacher Mr Hedges and in the ITV drama series Upstairs Downstairs as Thomas, the chauffeur.

"I'll kill them. I'll kill them all Eamonn!"

For many, actress Pauline Collins will always be associated with the title role in the film Shirley Valentine (d. Lewis Gilbert, 1988), and for the maid Sarah in Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-1973), ITV's long-running drama of turn-of-the-century manners in a London household. However, straddling these roles is an impressive range of TV, film, and theatre work that was recognised with an OBE in 2001 for services to drama.

She was born in Exmouth, Devon on 3rd September 1940, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. In 1964 she became pregnant and made the painful decision to put her daughter up for adoption, a period of her life chronicled in her biography Letter to Louise (1992). The two were finally reunited in 1986.

In 1967 she played Samantha Briggs in the Doctor Who story 'The Faceless Ones'. She was to reappear in the revived Doctor Who series in 2006 playing Queen Victoria in 'Tooth and Claw'. She also initially played opposite Polly James in the first series of the popular sitcom The Liver Birds (BBC, 1969) before scheduling clashes caused her to be replaced by Nerys Hughes.

But by then, Collins had become a household name in Upstairs, Downstairs. She also met and worked with her husband John Alderton on the programme, and the two branched out together as husband and wife in ITV's cosy comedy No Honesty (1974-1975), and then in the Upstairs, Downstairs spin-off series Thomas and Sarah (ITV, 1979) while also appearing in the BBC's Woodenhouse Playhouse (1975) series of dramas. The couple also narrated the BBC's children's animated series Little Misses (1983) and appeared together in the film Mrs. Caldicot's Cabbage War (d. Ian Sharp, 2002).

However, Pauline Collins' big claim to international fame came in Willy Russell's comedy of bored housewife Shirley Valentine, who has a holiday romance in Greece. First, she won a Tony Award for Best Actress for the Broadway stage version in 1989 and then repris