Author Topic: Six Degrees of Ken Russell  (Read 9410 times)

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Online Iain Fisher

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Bowie and Ken
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2016, 12:20:02 AM »
Just thinking of Bowie and Ken:

First attempt:
- Ringo and Lisztomania, Ringo and Lennon, Lennon and Bowie (they wrote Bowie's Fame single)

Second attempt:
- Twiggy and The Boyfriend, Twiggy and Bowie's song Life on Mars ("Twig the wonderkid")- and also the album cover of Bowie's Pin Ups which features Bowie and Twiggy.

Interesting to have seen Ken doing a Bowie video, or to have Bowie in a cameo role, maybe in Gothic.

Bowie was great, he will be missed.

Online Iain Fisher

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Re: Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #11 on: November 25, 2008, 08:17:39 PM »
Sutherland is a rich link, he also leads to Fellini (Casanova) and Bertolucci (1900) plus many others.

Offline regal26

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Re: Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #10 on: November 24, 2008, 10:07:47 PM »
Can't resist...here's another for Fritz Lang working backwards.

Donald Sutherland had a one-line bit part in Ken Russell's 'Billion Dollar Brain.'

That same year Donald Sutherland appeared in 'The Dirty Dozen' with Lee Marvin.

Lee Marvin appeared in Fritz Lang's noir thriller 'The Big Heat' (1953).

Offline regal26

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Re: Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2008, 02:10:17 PM »
Here's another.

The great Indian director Satyajit Ray to Ken Russell:

Satyajit Ray directed 'The Chess Players' (1977) in which Richard Attenborough had a key role.

Attenborough directed the film 'Magic' with Ann-Margaret who was in Ken Russell's 'Tommy'

Online Iain Fisher

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Kubrick and Fritz Lang
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2008, 11:55:42 PM »
Ken to Kubrick is easy- Murray Melvin in lots of Ken films such as The Devils, and also Barry Lyndon by Kubrick.  I am ignoring Color Me Kubrick which Ken appears in.

Ken to Fritz Lang, someone who influenced Ken a lot?  Difficult because Lang died in 1976.  Here is an invalid route...

Michael Caine was in Ken's Billon Dollar Brain and also The Quiet American, based on a Graham Greene novel.  Graham Greene worked with Fritz Lang on The Ministry of Fear.  Short route but invalid, because Greene was dead when The Quiet American was made, so Caine never met Greene on the filming.  Any valid routes?

Offline regal26

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Re: Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #7 on: November 17, 2008, 01:48:55 PM »
Here's another Pasolini one, a little longer though.

Pasolini's short film 'La Ricotta' (1962) starred Orson Welles who directed 'The Trial' starring Anthony Perkins, who appeared in Ken Russell's 'Crimes of Passion'

Offline Nick Jones

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Re: Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2008, 04:26:21 AM »
You're welcome.  ;D

Ken to Helen Mirren (I think you know which film). Like Hitchcock, you can go from Helen to innumerable connections - including John Boorman (Excalibur) and Peter Greenaway (The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover .)

Online Iain Fisher

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Re: Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2008, 01:28:12 AM »
Wow, thanks.  You made me try Pasolini- I tried lots of ways until a very simple one appeared- Terence Stamp was in Ken's Mindbender and Pasolini's Theorem.

Offline Nick Jones

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Re: Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2008, 04:42:46 AM »
An easy one for Iain:

Ken Russell to Tony Perkins to Hitchcock. Multitudes of connections to and from the actors Hitchcock worked with. Jon Finch was in Hitchcock's Frenzy, as well as the title character in Polanski's MacBeth. Three to Hitchcock, five to Polanski.  ;D

Offline regal26

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Re: Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2008, 02:18:28 PM »
Here's mine.

I've taken some classes with director Jan Egleson who made a film called 'A Shock to the System' starring Michael Caine...who appeared in Billion Dollar Brain directed by...what's his name? Ken something?

Online Iain Fisher

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Re: Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2008, 01:16:56 AM »
I've met Ken, so here goes with another route.

I met the playwright Athol Fugard in Oxford- a really nice humble person who is also highly intelligent who was kind enough to give me his email address.  He acted in the film The Killing Fields which Bill Patterson also acted in (a good Scots actor especially good in the stage play Death and the Maiden with Juliet Stevenson which I saw).  Patterson was in The Return of the Musketeers with Oliver Reed who...

Four or five moves, not sure.  Good fun this, now I want to see how close I am to Kubrick, Polanski, Hitchcock etc.

Who's next?

Iain

Offline Nick Jones

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Six Degrees of Ken Russell
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2008, 01:09:06 AM »
The Six Degrees of Separation Game: the concept that we are separated from anyone in the world by six degrees, i.e., knowing someone who knows someone who knows..., etc. Usually played with actor Kevin Bacon, we'll substitute our favorite director. Anyone who has actually met the man can't play, obviously.

Joe Alaskey was a comedian in the Boston comedy club scene in the '80s. He now has a successful Hollywood career as a voice actor in films (Forrest Gump, animated series, and recreating the voices of the classic Warner Brothers cartoon characters originated by the late Mel Blanc (whose tombstone actually says, "That's All Folks"! http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=100.)

I met Joe Alaskey in Boston, but I never knew him well. My flatmate, Welton Barker, however, was friends with him, so that's one or two degrees, depending on how you look at it.
Alaskey starred in his single lead role, that I know of, in a dark comedy about cannibalism, incest, and having guests for Christmas dinner (obvious double entendre there) called Lucky Stiff (1988.) The film was directed by none other than Anthony Perkins - no surprise, considering the subject matter.
Perkins worked with Russell in, of course, Crimes of Passion.

So that's my three, or four, degrees. Anyone else want to play?   ;D