Movies - Marie Antoinette (2006), Garden State (2004), Decision to leave (2022), The Aviator (2004), Oldboy (2003), Normal People (2020), Harry Potter and the Order Of Phoenix (2007), I'm Thinking Of Ending Things (2020), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), The King's Speech (2010)
RIP Sir Michael Gambon (1940-2023) - Veteran Irish actor best remembered for his role as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter franchise after Richard Harris' passing in 2002, died today. Notable for villainous and authoritary roles, Gambon has worked in all possible genres, a long career that began on stage in the 1960's. Credits include Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989), the villainesque General Zevon of Toys (1992), The Wings of the Dove (1997), The Insider (1999), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Gosford Park (2001), as Lyndon Johnson in HBO's Path to War (2002), Sylvia (2003), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Captain Sky and the World of Tomorrow (2004), The Good Shepherd (2006), The Omen (2006), The King's Speech (2010), and Judy (2019). On TV he's best remembered for his Bafta winning performance in The Singing Detective. He retired from stage in 2015 and later on from movies in 2019 after suffering symptoms of memory loss.
'Oppenheimer has overtaken Bohemian Rhapsody to become the highest ever grossing biopic at the worldwide box office.
Christopher Nolan’s film about J Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos laboratory that developed the first nuclear weapons, has passed $912m in revenue across the globe since its cinema release on 19 July, according to the Box Office Mojo website. Bohemian Rhapsody, which focused on Freddie Mercury and the band Queen, took over $910m following its release in October 2018.
Oppenheimer has no doubt benefited from its simultaneous release with Barbie, an even bigger box-office hit (currently standing at $1.4bn worldwide), with the #Barbenheimer hashtag encouraging cinemagoers to watch both films. Bohemian Rhapsody had considerable help from its success on the awards circuit, winning four Oscars, including best actor for Rami Malek, two Baftas and two Golden Globes. Oppenheimer, which stars Cillian Murphy, also features Malek in small role as nuclear physicist David L Hill.
Prior to Bohemian Rhapsody, the most successful biopic was American Sniper, about US army marksman Chris Kyle ($547m) and released in 2014; other successful examples of the genre include royal drama The King’s Speech ($484m), Phineas T Barnum musical The Greatest Showman ($435m), and stock-market crime comedy The Wolf of Wall Street ($406m).'
8th May 1945 marked the official end of the war in Europe, known as VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Newspaper and radio sources had all but confirmed the Allied triumph, and a ceasefire had been declared on the previous day. Wanting to celebrate, thousands of people flocked outside Buckingham Palace, calling out ‘We want the King!’
At around 3:11pm, King George VI, accompanied by Queen Elizabeth and the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, made the first of several balcony appearances that day (later to also be joined by Winston Churchill).
In this photo, The King is wearing the uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet. Princess Elizabeth is seen wearing the uniform of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (the ATS) which she had joined earlier in the year; the first woman in the Royal Family to serve as a full-time active member of the Armed Forces, albeit for only a few months. Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret were both in blue.
This was also the day that the two princesses (along with other members of the Royal Household) disguised themselves amongst the crowds outside the Palace gates and cheered for their parents from the ground! ❤️