#Sir Norman Hartnell

[pers-books]

Obituary

William Russell obituary

Stage and screen actor who was part of the original cast of Doctor Who

Michael Coveney Tue 4 Jun 2024 17.40 BST

William Russell, left, as Ian Chesterton, with William Hartnell as the Doctor, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara and Carole Ann Ford as Susan in the Doctor Who serial The Keys of Marinus, 1964. Photograph: BBC

On 23 November 1963 – the day after the assassination of President John F Kennedy – the actor William Russell, who has died aged 99, appearing in a new BBC television series, approached what looked like an old-fashioned police box in a scrapyard, from which an old chap emerged, saying he was the doctor. Russell responded: “Doctor Who?”

And so was launched one of the most popular TV series of all time, although the viewing figures that night were low because of the political upheaval, so the same episode was shown again a week later. It caught on, big time, with Russell – as the science schoolteacher Ian Chesterton – and William Hartnell as the Doctor establishing themselves alongside Jacqueline Hill as the history teacher Barbara Wright and Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman.

Russell stayed until 1965, returning to the show in 2022 in a cameo appearance as Ian and, since then, participating happily in all the hoop-la and fanzine convention-hopping, signing and schmoozing that such a phenomenon engenders.

Before that, though, Russell had achieved prominence in the title role of the ITV series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-57) – he was strongly built with an air of dashing bravado about him; he had been an RAF officer in the later stages of the second world war – and as the lead in a 1957 BBC television adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, transmitted live in 18 weekly episodes.

William Russell on the set of the 1950s television series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images

When Sir Lancelot went to the US, the first British TV import to be shot in colour for an American audience, Russell rode down Fifth Avenue on a horse in full regalia, like some returning, mystical, medieval knight in the heart of Normandy. The show was a smash hit.

By now he was established in movies, playing a servant to John Mills in The Gift Horse (1952) and a clutch of second world war action movies including They Who Dare (1954) opposite Dirk Bogarde, directed by Lewis “All Quiet on the Western Front” Milestone – he met his first wife, the French model and actor Balbina Gutierrez on a boat sailing to Cyprus to a location shoot in Malta – and Ronald Neame’s The Man Who Never Was (1956), the first Operation Mincemeat movie, in which he played Gloria Grahame’s fiance.

Until this point in his career, he was known as Russell Enoch. But Norman Wisdom, with whom he played in the knockabout comedy farce One Good Turn (1955) objected to his surname because he felt (oddly) that it would publicise a vaudevillian rival of his called Enoch. So, somewhat meekly, and to keep Wisdom happy, he became William Russell, although, in the 1980s, for happy and productive periods with the Actors Touring Company and the RSC, he reverted to the name Russell Enoch. Later, he settled again on William Russell. All very confusing for the historians. His doorbell across the road from me in north London bore the legend “Enoch”.

He was born in Sunderland, the only child of Alfred Enoch, a salesman and small business entrepreneur, and his wife, Eva (nee Pile). They moved to Solihull, and then Wolverhampton, where William attended the grammar school before moving on to Fettes college in Edinburgh and Trinity College, Oxford, where his economics tutor was the brilliant Labour parliamentarian Anthony Crosland.

But Russell didn’t “get” the economics part of the PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) course and switched, much to Crosland’s relief, to English. In those years, 1943-46, he worked out his national service and appeared in revues and plays with such talented contemporaries as Kenneth Tynan, Tony Richardson and Sandy Wilson.

Derek Ware, a fight co-ordinator, runs through a scene with Russell during a break in filming the Doctor Who story The Crusades at the BBC studios, Ealing, in 1965. Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images

On graduating, he played in weekly rep in Tunbridge Wells, fortnightly rep at the Oxford Playhouse and featured, modestly, in the Alec Guinness Hamlet of 1951 at the New (now the Noël Coward) theatre. He had big roles in seasons at the Bristol Old Vic and the Oxford Playhouse in the early 60s, while on television he was in JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls with John Gregson, and was St John Rivers in Jane Eyre.

He played Shylock and Ford (in the Merry Wives of Windsor) in 1968-69 at the Open Air, Regent’s Park, before joining the RSC in 1970 as the Provost in Measure for Measure (with Ian Richardson and Ben Kingsley), Lord Rivers in Norman Rodway’s Richard III and Salisbury in a touring King John, with the title role played by Patrick Stewart.

His billing slipped in movies, but he played small parts in good films such as Superman (1978), starring Christopher Reeve, as one of the Elders; as a passerby drawn into the violence in the Spanish-American slasher film Deadly Manor (1990); and in Bertrand Tavernier’s Death Watch (1980), a sci-fi futuristic fable about celebrity, reality TV and corruption, starring Romy Schneider and Harvey Keitel.

With John Retallack’s Actors Touring Company in the 80s, he was a lurching, apoplectic Sir John Brute in John Vanbrugh’s The Provok’d Wife, possessing, said Jonathan Keates in the Guardian, “a weirdly philosophical elegance”; a civilised Alonso, expertly discharging some of the best speeches in The Tempest; and a quick-change virtuosic king, peasant, soldier and tsar in Alfred Jarry’s 1896 surrealist satire Ubu Roi in the Cyril Connolly translation.

Back at the RSC in 1989, he was the courtly official Egeus in white spats (Helena wore Doc Martens) in an outstanding production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by John Caird, and both the Ghost and First Player in Mark Rylance’s pyjama-clad Hamlet directed by Ron Daniels. In 1994 he took over (from Peter Cellier) as Pinchard in Peter Hall’s delightful production of Feydeau’s Le Dindon, retitled in translation An Absolute Turkey, which it wasn’t.

He rejoined Rylance in that actor/director’s opening season in 1997 at the new Shakespeare’s Globe. He was King Charles VI of France in Henry V and Tutor to Tim in Thomas Middleton’s riotous Jacobean city comedy, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Many years later, in 2021, his son Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter movies), would play on the same stage as a fired-up Romeo.

Russell is survived by his second wife, Etheline (nee Lewis), a doctor, whom he married in 1984, and their son, Alfred, and by his children, Vanessa, Laetitia and Robert, from his marriage to Balbina, which ended in divorce, and four grandchildren, James, Elise, Amy and Ayo.

 William Russell Enoch, actor, born 19 November 1924; died 3 June 2024.

-- I'm a bit annoyed there's no mention of the fact that William continued to play Ian Chesterton for Big Finish.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

This left a mark: Christian Dior & Saks partnered for Light up the NYC Night for Christmas 2023

No doubt "DIOR Contract" was at the top of the 2017 RMM- DIANA 2.0 vision board & megxit manifesto. In other words: Sparry's 'honey do' for MeMe list: Meet Beyonce (on yellow carpet)✔ Disney (princess) gig✔. oh to be a fly on a Cali wall after that Dior ANNOUNCEMENT: guttural moans & tears for weeks! 😬

Dior in 2018: MEgain's inappropriate Dior cocktail dress w/pinwheel headpiece for 1st balcony appearance. She also appeared to lose a tooth during the reception.

2019-"Christening"

2021 & 2022 New York City

2022 Jubilee as Wallis Simpson & 2023 Sparry

A word to the wise and to the Meghans: The REAL Santa knows whose on the MARKLED List.

Play stupid games and MARKLE yourselves!

I'll buy that Jill Smoller (formerly Gina) badgered Dior on behalf of MEgain, but no way would Dior sully their brand with the toxic, mentally unstable, over seas royals who can't be bothered to iron 🙄

"Oh & I took FRENCH for 8 years in high school or was it 4 years?" 😉

"...but but I'm not a model, I'm just a mom. Thankfully Sparry was here to coach me that I can be both. I wonder how he became so wise?" Variety 2022

Please follow the link to subscribe to "Woman Behind Kate" & LIKE👍

Princess Diana 2.0 caught in the act

Sparry, YOU MARKLED yourselves. Stop blaming the BRF for your failures to launch.

Princess Diana 2.0 Tom Bower

The Sun: What is the history between Dior and the royal family?

December 12, 2023 || Born in 1905, Christian Dior, the fashion designer, climbed the ranks of several Parisian fashion houses before establishing his own establishment in 1946.

One of the early royal admirers of the designer was Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II.

She became a client of the fashion house and one of Dior's most famous designs, the "Margaret Dress," was named after her.

Queen Elizabeth II also shared a close connection with Dior.

She appointed Doir to design her Coronation gown for the crowning ceremony in 1953.

The gown, famously called the "Hartnell Dress," was a collaboration between Dior and British couturier Sir Norman Hartnell.

Over the years, various royal family members have continued to wear Dior creations for public appearances.

Dior��dressed Prince Harry for King Charles' coronation in May 2023 - as the royal forwent wearing a military uniform. 

Shortly after the coronation ceremony, Dior took to its social media to reveal Kim Jones was the designer behind the suit. 

"Tailoring fit for royalty. Dior is honoured to have dressed Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, for the coronation of King Charles III in a custom design by Kim Jones," the brand wrote on Instagram.

"Seen arriving at Westminster Abbey, gain an insight into the savoir-faire of his three-piece suit next," it added. 

Why was it speculated that Meghan Markle would have a deal with Dior?

In June 2023, it was reported that Meghan was in talks about taking on a deal with Dior.

Following the cancellation of her Spotify podcast after just one season, there was widespread speculation that the Duchess of Sussex was poised for a new role with the French fashion house.

Meghan has worn Dior several times throughout her time as a working royal, including at the late Queen Elizabeth's funeral in September 2022.

However, sources close to the Royals said no contract had been inked.

Dior also expressed its surprise and confusion when the idea of a deal was initially brought up.

A source told the Telegraph: "The Duchess of Sussex is not in talks to sign a deal with Dior.

"There is no truth to the claims that she will partner with the French fashion house,"

A Dior insider said its team was "nonplussed as to how the story came about".

Who became 'the Duchess of Dior' in 2023?

Meghan lost out on the opportunity of a lucrative Dior job to a Kate Middleton actress.

It was revealed in November 2023, that Meg Bellamy, 21, who plays a young Kate Middleton in season six of the hit royal drama The Crown is to be the new face of Dior.

An insider told The Daily Mail: "They have been queuing up for Meg, she is playing the most famous woman in the world in a globally famous television drama, so many labels and brands want some of that.

"She is a total unknown, but she is being treated like Kate, an A-list princess."

What deals and contracts does Meghan Markle have?

After leaving the royal family and their royal duties, Prince Harry and Meghan vowed to become financially independent.

It was reported that the couple would support themselves through Prince Harry's $10 million inheritance from his mother, Princess Diana.

With the world eager to know their story, lucrative million-dollar deals started rolling in from AppleTV, Netflix, and Spotify.

The couple signed a deal with Netflix through their production company, Archewell Productions, with a hefty payment of $100 million for multiple projects.

They have since released one documentary, Harry and Meghan.

Their upcoming documentary series titled, Heart of Invictus, is in the works.

While their third documentary is to be shot in South Africa, the Sussexes are also planning to delve into the rom-com genre with the streaming giant

In June 2023, the couple made headlines when it was reported that their 25-million-dollar deal with Spotify had ended.

According to Rolling Stone, the couple would pay back a portion of their deal money and look for another company to produce podcasts with.

In a joint statement, they said: "Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together."

Royal biographer Tom Bower believes that the couple's "joint ventures are falling apart" and that Meghan is finding it difficult to sell her brand.

"They're beginning to taste the medicine that they handed out after the Oprah interview and they're finding it very very hard to keep their brand reputable," Bower told new magazine.

"They're constantly having to defend themselves and grasping at opportunities that don't exist anymore."

[lordwilde]

Lady Elizabeth Lambart wearing her bridesmaid’s dress in 1947 for her friend Queen Elizabeth II’s marriage to Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. Designed by gay designer and royal favourite Sir Norman Hartnell, it was worn again in 2012 by Kate Moss. It will be auctioned at Christie’s in July 2024.

[catherinetheprincessofwales]

Queen Elizabeth wearing Sir Norman Hartnell designs 🏳️‍🌈. Hartnell gained a Royal Warrant as Dressmaker to the Queen Mother and to Queen Elizabeth II.

[qudachuk]

The satin dress, created by Sir Norman Hartnell, is regarded as one of the most important examples of 20th century design.

[malinda-knowles]

Queen Elizabeth II's Iconic Fashion Moments

Queen Elizabeth II's Iconic Fashion Moments @royalfamily #icon #wedding #royal

PHOTO: SERGE LEMOINE/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY ; TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY ; SERGE LEMOINE/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY ; INDIGO/GETTY What will we do without Queen Elizabeth II? I am deeply saddened by her passing but I know she lived a ripe full life well into her 90s and was very blessed. I wish I could jet over there now. Her work in communities and around the world is highly notable. She even challenged…

[europesroyalsweddings]

✵ April 24, 1963✵

Princess Alexandra of Kent & Sir Angus Ogilvy

[ephemeral-elegance]

Crinoline Evening Gown, 1938

Designed by Norman Hartnell. Worn by Queen Elizabeth in a portrait by Sir Gerald Kelly.

via Royal Collection Trust

[crownedlegend]

Evening gown, by Sir Norman Hartnell, 1960. Duchesse satin, pearls, sequins, beads, diamantes. Royal Collection Trust/All Rights Reserved.

H.M. Queen Elizabeth II wore the gown to the opening of Parliament in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on December 12, 1961 (see above photo, via romanbenedikhanson on Flickr).

[heavyarethecrowns]

Another excerpt about queen elizabeth and prince philip?

OK, a mixture of facts and possible antedotes, hopefully something new here for you. 

Queen Elizabeth met her spouse at the 1934 wedding or Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark to Prince George, Duke of Kent, when she was only eight years old.

The British royal couple began their courtship through written correspondence in 1939

When Philip came back from WWII in 1946, he would frequent Buckingham Palace and later spent a month at Balmoral Castle, where he proposed to the then Princess - all other details have remained private.

Queen Elizabeth's father agreed, but only if the two kept the engagement a secret until after the bride-to-be's 21st birthday.

Although the King agreed to the marriage he did have worries. 

"Despite Philip's British background and his fine war record, George VI was deeply worried about how British opinion, particularly its left wing, would take to a Greek Prince as the husband of the heiress presumptive.

There was also something about his daughter's brash young man with his loud, boisterous laugh and his blunt, seagoing manners that irritated the gentle King. Besides, the fellow couldn't shoot."

At the King's request, Lord Louis Mountbatten began quietly sussing out what the public's opinion of the match might be. When a poll in the Sunday Pictorial (now the Sunday Mirror) showed that 64 percent of its readership was rooting for the couple, Elizabeth finally got her way.

Prince Philip has Philip Antrobus made the 3-carat engagement ring with ten smaller diamonds around it, using diamonds from his mother's tiara.

Princess Alice of Battenberg was gifted the tiara by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia on her wedding day.

As part of British tradition, the Queen carried a spring of myrtle from the garden at Osborne House in her white orchid bouquet.The tradition began with Queen Victoria and was carried for years up until today.

Sir Norman Hartnell had the honor of designing Princess Elizabeth's wedding gown, and he took his inspiration from Primavera, a large panel, 15th-century work by famed Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. Specifically, according to the Royal Trust Collection, he believed that it symbolised "rebirth and growth after the war.”

Hartnell's design for the dress was not approved until the middle of August, giving him less than three months to complete the dress, which was made of ivory silk and decked out with crystals and 10,000 carefully curated seed pearls.

Although they tried to keep the wedding simple, the guest list summed up to 2000 guests

While the couple agreed to keep the ceremony itself as low-key as possible, Philip's stag party was another story. The night before the wedding, Philip hosted a bachelor party at London's Dorchester Club with media in attendance.

"An eager press had been invited, but it was meant to observe the protocol of the day, which respected the privacy of the royals. The prince's group must have been having some kind of fun, because eventually the flash bulbs of the journalists' cameras were torn off and stamped on the ground, with the groom's party moving on to the closed doors of the Belfry Club."

Because the wedding took place after World War II, it was not right for Philip's German relatives to step foot on the ceremony. Hence, his three sisters, who were wed to German princes, were not invited.

The King's brother, King Edward VIII, who became the Duke of Windsor, was also not part of the guest list after marrying Wallis Simpson.

Two hundred million listeners tuned in to hear the wedding service broadcast on radio

Princess Elizabeth’s tiara snapped just as she was leaving to go to the service. The royal jeweler was luckily on stand-by and got it fixed.

Elizabeth did her own make-up

Prince Philip asked for tea and coffee to be taken out to the waiting photographers at Kensington Palace.

The Act of Settlement, 1701. meant some changes had to happen in addition to renouncing his Greek and Danish titles, (he took on the surname of his - British - mother's family.) He was also required to convert from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism. 

King George made it worth his while though: the day before the wedding, he bestowed the "His Royal Highness" address styling on Philip. On the morning of their wedding, he was also given other titles: Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich.

The newlyweds received 10,000 telegrams of well-wishes and over 2,500 gifts from around the globe, including cotton lace that Mahatma Gandhi spun himself.

Among the weddings loot were 131 nylon stockings, 24 handbags, 12 bottles of sloe gin, 500 tins of pineapple, and a box of apples.

The gifts given to the royal couple were used to benefit charity through a wonderful display of royal wedding gifts.

For a year, over 200,000 people swarmed St. James's Palace to have a glimpse at the presents, which were again put on display in 2007 as part of their Diamond Wedding anniversary.

[fawnvelveteen]

SIR NORMAN HARTNELL (1901-79)

Evening Gown worn by the Queen for the British Red Cross Society Centenary Film performance at the Royal Festival Hall, 9 May 1963

[yourdailyqueer]

Sir Norman Hartnell (deceased)

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

DOB: 12 June 1901  

RIP: 8 June 1979

Ethnicity: White - British

Occupation: Fashion designer

[artanddesignmatters]

Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation gown by Sir Norman Hartnell, 1953. The gown was displayed flat like this for the exhibition ‘Fashioning a Reign’ in 2016 due to concerns about it’s fragility, but I believe it is displayed upright this year at Windsor Castle. From ‘The Telegraph Magazine’, 4 June 2022. Repost: @thefashionablereader #thetelegraphmagazine #thedailytelegraph #telegraphmagazine #thetelegraph #hermajestythequeen #queenelizabethii #queenelizabeth #coronationdress #coronationgown #royalstyle #royalfashion #normanhartnell #sirnormanhartnell #1950sfashion #1950sdress #vintagefashion #vintagedress #vintagehartnell #vintagenormanhartnell https://www.instagram.com/p/CixpFRdp6TX/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[aloneinstitute]

Rainha Elizabeth II em vestes de coroação, 1953-56, pintado por Sir Herbert James Gunn.

Óleo sobre tela | 244,5 x 152,9 cm. Em exposição no Castelo de Windsor.

O retrato de estado da Rainha foi encomendado para comemorar a Coroação de Sua Majestade, que ocorreu em 2 de junho de 1953. Usando seu vestido de coroação e o Robe of Estate roxo, a Rainha estava na Sala do Trono no Palácio de Buckingham. Seu manto cai sobre o trono feito especialmente para a ocasião e a Coroa Imperial do Estado e o cetro são colocados na mesa ao lado dela. A Rainha usa o Diadema feito para George IV, o colar de diamantes da Rainha Vitória e os brincos de diamante e o Colar e Distintivo da Ordem da Jarreteira.

O vestido de Sua Majestade, feito de cetim branco, foi desenhado por Sir Norman Hartnell, o principal costureiro da Rainha. O desenho do bordado incorpora emblemas nacionais e da Commonwealth executados em pérolas, cristais, sedas coloridas e fios de ouro e prata. A decoração do manto é composta por uma orla de espigas de trigo e ramos de oliveira, simbolizando paz e fartura. Foi bordado pela Royal School of Needlework, que trabalhou por um total de 3.500 horas entre março e maio de 1953.

Foto: @Royal Collection Trust.

[steliosagapitos]

      Queen Elizabeth in a gown by Sir Norman Hartnell, c. 1957.