Sally Thomsett with Julian Glover and others

Sally Thomsett with Julian Glover and others

Cork Film Festival, Sally Thomsett, Julian Glover, Yvonne O'Reilly, Nora Prendergast, Shane Briant, Rank Organisation

This is a black and white photo of the English actor Sally Thomsett with the actors Julian Glover and Shane Briant and others. The small group are standing in a busy room, decorated with promotional adverts for Harp Lager. A tentative Sally Thomsett, at the centre in a dark velour jacket, looks towards Glover as he speaks. Born in 1935, Julian Glover is an English actor of stage, television and film including The Empire Strikes Back (aka Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back) (Irvin Kershner, 1980), For Your Eyes Only (John Glen, 1981), and as the voice of Aragog, the giant spider in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) directed by Chris Columbus. Most recently he had a recurring role in Game of Thrones (2011-2016) as Grand Maester Pycelle, and has appeared in an episode of the historical television series The Crown (2019). Around the time of this photo, dated 1972, Glover had appeared in Nicholas and Alexandra (Franklin J Schaffner, 1971), and Antony and Cleopatra (1972) directed by Charlton Heston who also played the main role of Mark Antony. The film was made by Rank Organisation who were key players in the early days of the film festival and would sent their stars and representatives to the festival – some of whom can be seen in the archive.

Glover, standing next to a young woman identified as Yvonne O’Reilly, is looking towards Sally Thomsett in this picture. Thomsett, born in 1950, is an actor best known for her role as one of the children (Phyllis Waterbury) in the 1970 film The Railway Children directed by Lionel Jeffries. Around the time of this photo she had just completed the thriller Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971) starring Dustin Hoffman and the Irish actor Jim Norton. On the far right the fair-haired actor Shane Briant, in a velvet jacket over a white ruffled tuxedo shirt, is turned towards his companion, identified as Nora Prendergast from Cork. Briant is best known for his roles in Hammer Film Productions and worked with Virginia Wetherell, who also came to the festival in 1972, in the British horror film Demons of the Mind (1972) directed by Peter Sykes.

University College Cork, Cork Film Festival

Cork Film Festival Collection

University College Cork

1972

Photo
TIFF
JPEG

1972
Cork, Ireland

Photo

240 x 158mm