About the Players
Camilla Rutherford (Isobel McCordle)
Camilla Rutherford is at the start of a promising film career. Before acting with Robert Altman's Gosford Park ensemble, the U.K. native starred in movies for Bruce McDonald (Picturing Claire, with Juliette Lewis and Gina Gershon, which world-premiered at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival) and Denys Arcand (the film festival favorite Stardom, with Jessica Paré and Dan Aykroyd). She also starred in Toby MacDonald's short film Je t'aime John Wayne [I Love You John Wayne].
Maggie Smith (Constance, Countess of Trentham)
Dame Maggie Smith's acting career, which spans five decades, has encompassed indelible comedic roles and memorable dramatic performances in all mediums.
Her first stage appearance was in 1952, with the Oxford University Drama Society (OUDS). Four years later, she made her professional stage debut, in New York City in the New Faces of 1956 revue. Returning to the U.K., she joined the Old Vic Company in 1959 and began working extensively on the stage. For her performances in The Private Ear and The Public Eye at the Globe Theatre, she received the (London) Evening Standard Award for Best Actress of 1962.
The following year, Dame Maggie joined The National Theatre and also starred at Chitchester as Desdemona in Othello, opposite Laurence Olivier in the title role. Among her other notable stage performances over the next few years were portrayals of Miss Julie and Hedda Gabler. She continued to perform onstage in not only the U.K., but also in the U.S. and Canada. Among the honors that she has earned for her stage performances are two Variety Club Awards for Best Actress (for Mary Mary and Private Lives); three more (London) Evening Standard Awards for Best Actress (for Virginia, The Way of the World, and, most recently, Three Tall Women); and a Tony Award for Lettice and Lovage.
Her television performances include the Alan Bennett Talking Heads monologue Bed Among the Lentils (for which she received the Royal Television Society Award, and a BAFTA Award nomination, for Best Actress); the title role in the teleplay Mrs Silly ; Richard Eyre's 1992 telefilm version of Suddenly, Last Summer (for which she received an Emmy Award nomination); Jack Clayton and Jim Hubbard's Memento Mori; and Simon Curtis' 1999 miniseries version of David Copperfield (for which she earned Emmy and BAFTA Award nominations).
Dame Maggie's notable initial films include Seth Holt's Nowhere to Go (her film debut, which brought her a BAFTA Award nomination); Jack Cardiff's Young Cassidy (for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination); the 1965 Stuart Burge/Laurence Olivier film version of Othello (for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination); Richard Attenborough's Oh! What a Lovely War; and Ronald Neame's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. For her portrayal of the title character in the latter, she was honored with the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
Her films over the next two decades included George Cukor's Travels with My Aunt (for which she received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress); John Guillermin's Death on the Nile (for which she a BAFTA Award nomination); Herbert Ross' film version of Neil Simon's California Suite (for which she was honored with her second Academy Award, this time for Best Supporting Actress, and for which she was also honored with a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress); Merchant Ivory's Quartet (which she starred in with Alan Bates of Gosford Park, and which earned her a BAFTA Award nomination); Alan Bennett's A Private Function (for which she received BAFTA and Variety Club Awards for Best Actress); Merchant Ivory's A Room with a View; (for which she received a second Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress); and Jack Clayton's The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (for which she earned a third consecutive, and fourth overall, BAFTA Award for Best Actress).
More recently, Dame Maggie's films have included Steven Spielberg's Hook; Emile Ardolino's Sister Act; Agnieszka Holland's The Secret Garden ([1993] for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination) and Washington Square (1997); Richard Loncraine's Richard III (1995); Hugh Wilson's The First Wives Club; Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (for which she received a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress); Deborah Warner's The Last September (starring with Michael Gambon of Gosford Park); Chris Columbus' globally anticipated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone; and Callie Khouri's justwrapped Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
In the 1970 New Year's Honours List, she received the CBE. In 1990, she received the DBS and became Dame Maggie Smith. She was awarded the Hamburg Shakespeare Prize in 1991 and a Silver BAFTA Award in 1993. She is a fellow of the British Film Institute, a patron of the Jane Austen Society, and honorary degrees from Cambridge University and St. Andrews.
Geraldine Somerville (Louisa, Lady Stockbridge)
Geraldine Somerville will be soon be seen, along with fellow Gosford Park star Maggie Smith, in Chris Columbus' eagerly awaited Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone (in which she plays Lily Potter).
Her other film credits include Ferdinand Fairfax' True Blue, Lewis Gilbert's Haunted, Stephen Poliakoff's Close My Eyes (which marked her screen debut, and which toplined fellow Gosford Park star Clive Owen), and Coral Houtman's Augustine (in which she played the title role, and which was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Houston International Film and Video Festival).
Somerville's U.K. television credits include adaptations of Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (in which she played Juliet); and David Caffrey's miniseries Aristocrats. In addition, she starred for three seasons as Penhaligon on the popular Cracker series (for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination).
Trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she has performed onstage several times at the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Court. She has essayed such roles as Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House, Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (at the [Bristol] Old Vic), and Laura in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (for which she received a [Manchester] Evening News Award nomination).
more...
