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Ken Russell people



Strangers in the Night

Russell tends to create stars rather than work with them- Glenda Jackson, Oliver Reed.  And other appeared at the beginnings of their career- Donald Sutherland and William Hurt.  But a number have appeared in his films.

 

Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave in The Devils

When Glenda Jackson turned down The Devils, Vanessa Redgrave was Russell's next choice. 

Vanessa Redgrave in The Devils

 Redgrave was born into a famous acting family just as her own children became actors- Natasha Richardson appeared in Gothic 15 years after The Devils.  Although she is mainly a stage actress, she has appeared in over a hundred films including Julia, Blow Up, Prick up Your Ears, Howard's End and Mission Impossible.  She has long been a political activist from protesting against the Vietnam to being a prominent member of the Workers Revolutionary Party.

An early success, Redgrave as Jane in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blow-up.

Images from The Devils and Blow-up.


Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant Lair of the White Worm Ken Russell 

Given his later film success, Lair of the White Worm (above) is probably a film he wants to forget.  He had already gained acclaim for James Ivory's Maurice, but would later earn his reputation for light comedies such as Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary.  On working with Ken he is quoted "'Ken Russell screamed at him: "Forget how it f***ing feels, do it how I f***ing showed you, you c**t.'" (NZ Herald, 1 Dec 2020 here).

His later career has some similarities with Dirk Bogart with the move from matinee idol to more serious work including Polanski's Bitter Moon, Merchant-Ivory's The Remains of the Day, Tom Tykwer- Wachoskis' Cloud Atlas and Stephen Frears' television A Very English Scandal (below) portraying Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party and caught up in a gay sex scandal, one of his best acting roles.

Hugh Grant A Very English Scandal



Kathleen Turner

Kathleen Turner Crimes of Passsion

Turner's career took off after Romancing the Stone.  She then appeared on John Huston's Prizzi's Honor and Francis Ford Coppola's Peggy Sue Got Married.  Later she would appear in Coppola's daughter Sofia's The Virgin Suicides.

For Ken she did Crimes of Passion from 1984 alongside Anthony Perkins "Ken Russell was one of a kind. He wanted to bring the lives of all the great composers to the screen, like the one about Tchaikovsky with Richard Chamberlain [1971’s The Music Lovers]. That’s what he saw as his essential work.  But in between those, Ken had to make Hollywood films because he didn’t wanna lose his place in the zeitgeist.  He wanted to have one foot in Hollywood’s door, which meant he shot himself in that foot a lot on something like Crimes of Passion… But Ken was a genius, and I wanted to work with him"  (The Many Lives of Kathleen Turner by Keaton Bell, in Vogue 13 Dec 2021 click here).

Kathleen Turner says:

“I feel to this day it was some of my best work even though I wasn’t so thrilled about the film as a whole… Ken Russell, the director, is truly a genius, but a mad, self-sabotaging genius... China Blue "proved her power by becoming sexually attractive to men.  I see that confusion about sexuality in many women, and ultimately in myself.  I hoped other women would see it and identify with her when she regains her sense of self" (Kathleen Turner and Gloria Veldt, Send Yourself Roses, 2008).

Kathleen Turner - The Virgin Suicides

Kathleen Turner later appeared in Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides from 1999 "Their parents are a maths teacher and his religious homemaker wife, played with sympathy and intelligence by James Woods and Kathleen Turner" (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 26 Jul 2023, click here)

Images from Crimes of Passion and The Virgin Suicides.

 


Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins

A gifted actor but sadly again in his "Psycho" role in Crimes of Passion from 1984.  His previous film was Psycho 2 and his next film would be Psycho 3.

Ken Russell says that for his part Perkins slept in his clothes to obtain the shabby look.  And the small box he stands on to preach was made by Perkins, and includes small alternating photos of angels and pornography, too small to see on the screen but helping Perkins establish his role.

Co-star Kathleen Turner says "Anthony Perkins was a nightmare. It was such a shame to watch- he would huff benzyl nitrate before every take… Anthony would break into sweats, turn bright red, and start mumbling very fast and incoherently.  Anything we’d rehearsed before the scene would completely go out the window.  And Ken was hardly one to criticize him because he was always drunk" (The Many Lives of Kathleen Turner by Keaton Bell, in Vogue 13 Dec 2021 click here).

Ken Russell and Anthony Perkins were friends and Perkins carried out the wedding ceremony for Russell's second marriage- during the shooting of Crimes of Passion "Ken Russell, who was about to get married a second time, decided that Tony would be the ideal man to bless the union... Tony wrote off to the Universal Life Church Inc. enclosing ten dollars (vide Russell) or twenty-five dollars (vide Perkins) with an application form.  He immediately received by return a certificate proclaiming his ordination as a bone fide minister of the said church, with powers to solemnise birth, marriages and deaths... It resulted in Tony's getting the diploma and, dressed in shining white, actually marrying Ken and Vivian Russell on the Queen Mary" (Ronald Bergan, Anthony Perkins A Haunted Life, 1995, chapter 30).

Universal Life Church certificate

As a test I applied to the church to become a minister.  I applied by email and was immediately accepted (above).

Anthony Perkins - The Trial - Orson Welles

Above Perkins above in one of his best roles, Joseph K. in Kafka's The Trial directed in 1962 by Orson Welles "an excellent cast headed by Anthony Perkins, an inspired choice to play Josef K, the guilt-ridden everyman arrested for an unspecified crime in an unnamed authoritarian country" (Philip French, The Guardian, 14 Oct 2012, click here).

Images from Crimes of Passion and the Trial plus my online certificate.


Theresa Russell

Theresa Russell in Whore

Very good in Whore. The wife of Nicolas Roeg, she was in his Eureka, Bad Timing, the excellent Insignificance, Track 29, Cold Heaven and part of the Aria compilation, in which Ken Russell also contributed.  Her career seems to have plummeted to SciFi Channel television and cheap straight to video films such as the 2001 remake Earth vs the Spider.  Despite her name she is no relation to Ken.

Ken Russell Whore Theresa Russell



Jack Nicholson and Ann-Margret

Jack Nicholson and Ann-Margret in Ken Russell's Tommy

Tommy was Ken Russell's most star studded film and a hint of what he could have had if he wanted to go the conventional route.

Although Nicholson can't sing Tommy was a logical step as he was being groomed for stardom with the best new challenging directors- Dennis Hopper and Easy Rider in 1969, Rafaelson and Five Easy Pieces in 1970, Polanksi and Chinatown in 1975, Antonioni and Reporter in 1975 and Tommy in 1975.

Jack Nicholson in Ken Russell's Tommy

Ann Margret in Ken Russell film of The Who Tommy

Ann-Margret, full name Ann-Margret Olsson Smith, looks like she is having fun in the scene covered in soap suds then beans. She was rebuilding her career after a near-fatal fall.  Nicholson and Swedish Ann-Margret had appeared earlier in Carnal Knowledge.

Jack Nicholson in The Shining

In other films Nicholson is memorable as Jack Torrance from Stephen King's novel filmed in 1980 by Stanley Kubrick  "Jack Nicholson’s performance... is exactly right: Jack is not an ordinary man about to be assaulted by the extraordinary, he is primed from the start for this demonic promotion, and Nicholson’s greedy over-eagerness, both complaisant and contemptuous, is the eeriest screen evil for some time" (Richard Combs, 31 October 2017, British Film Institute, click here).

Images from Tommy and The Shining.


Tina Turner

Tina Turner in Ken Russell film of The Who Tommy 

Tina Turner plays the iconic acid queen in Tommy, one of highlights, visually and musically, of the film.

"As a young girl growing up in Tennessee, Anna Mae Bullock liked to sing and recite movie dialogue to entertain her family. By age 20 she had a new name- Tina Turner- and a burgeoning music career with her partner, Ike [Turner]. But behind the scenes, he was abusing her. Eventually, she found the courage to leave him and move on as a chart-topping, world-touring solo artist... 'Acting in movies was always a big dream, even though I had never expressed it outside my private prayers. So it was a total surprise when I was asked to play a starring role in the rock opera film Tommy. That was a real dream come true, as was starring in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome'" (Alison Beard, Harvard Business Review, January–February 2021, click here).

Tina Turner says "I was offered the role of the Acid Queen....  Ike [Turner] kept me on a very short leash, so it was exciting whenever there was an opportunity to get out from under his shadow.  I was thrilled... I brought my own clothes to the set, just in case I didn't like the costumes.  Thank God!  You should have seen how they would have dressed me... The costume designer, Russell's wife Shirley, said that I could wear them, although she came up with the Acid Queen's clunky platform shoes.  Ken Russell loved the way I looked" (Tina Turner, My Love Story, 2018 chapter 5).

"Tina Turner’s Acid Queen sequence is a mini-masterpiece of visual inventiveness and dramatic cohesion, helped in no small measure by Turner’s extraordinary showmanship" (Jonathan Rosenbaum, British Film Institute, 27 Nov 2019, click here).

Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyong the Thuderdome

She went on to do a few more acting roles including in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Images from Tommy and Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdrome.



Barbara Windsor

Ken Russell Barbara Windsor 

Famous for her bimbo roles in the British Carry On series of films, she appeared in The Boyfriend.  She says in her autobiography Barbara "At the start of filming, Ken took each one of the principals out for dinner individually, presumably in order to find out what made us tick... When he asked me about making the Carry Ons, I told him we never did more than a couple of takes at the most... I soon discovered that Ken can do as many as 50 takes before he is satisfied".

Barbara Windsor in The Boyfriend

 


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