Although there are encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries of contemporary British film and theatre actors, most lack the intimacy of face-to-face interviews. Typically drawn from secondary sources, collections of interviews often repeat tired anecdotes about an actor’s film or stage roles, with very little nuance or fresh insights.
Great Britons of Stage and Screen: In Conversation features interviews with some of the leading actors of the last fifty years and more. In this collection, Barbara Roisman Cooper presents interviews she personally conducted with more than twenty stars of film, television, and theatre. Held in intimate surroundings—including the actors’ private homes and theatre dressing rooms between performances—these interviews provide readers with a rounded understanding of the creative process and the dedication required to develop a performance.
Including many well-known Oscar, Tony, Olivier, and BAFTA winners, each interview is preceded by a short introduction and followed by the performer’s most significant credits, both on the stage and screen. The actors and actresses who shared their stories in this volume include
- Dame Eileen Atkins
- Isla Blair
- Simon Callow
- Dame Joan Collins
- Peggy Cummins
- Sinéad Cusack
- Samantha Eggar
- Stephen Fry
- Julian Glover
- Stephen Greif
- Jeremy Irons
- Sir Derek Jacobi
- Felicity Kendal
- Sir Ben Kingsley
- Dame Angela Lansbury
- Sir John Mills
- Alfred Molina
- Lynn Redgrave
- Jean Simmons
- David Suchet
- Richard Todd
- Michael York
Designed to serve as a resource for those studying or writing about the worlds of theatre and film in general—and the art and craft of acting, specifically—Great Britons of Stage and Screen will also appeal to the many fans of the artists who have entertained audiences for decades.
Industry Reviews
Rowman & Littlefield have published an absolutely delightful book of interviews with some of the leading lights of English actors. Written by Barbara Roisman Cooper, Great Britons of Stage and Screen in Conversation is the book as just exactly what you would think it would be, and so very, very much more. Books of this nature tend to fall into two groups: Academic, dry as dust dissertation on theory and technique; or, worse, gossip-filled fluff full of rumor and innuendo. Magically, this book seems to be a delightful self-examination of 22 British stage and screen celebrities of the last half a century. Each profile offers a short introduction followed by the performer’s most significant credits, both on the stage and screen. Questions cued by Cooper offer lovely autobiographical sketches, amazingly neither boring nor salacious, and the reader comes away with the warm feeling of actually chatting up these titans of theatre and cinema, which Cooper did, in intimate surroundings including the performers' private homes and dressing rooms between performances. . . .In nearly 400 pages, the wealth of experience and knowledge of the last century in the British entertainment world is dissected and discussed. For casual fan or rabid student, this book is not to be missed.
