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Famous Like Me > Actor > W > Ray Winstone

Profile of Ray Winstone on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Ray Winstone  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 19th February 1957
   
Place of Birth: Hackney, London, England, UK
   
Profession: Actor
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

Raymond Andrew Winstone a British actor, born on February 19, 1957 in Hackney, London, England, better known as Ray Winstone.

The Winstones were originally from Cirencester - half of the family shifting to London, the other half to Wales. Moving via Plaistow to Enfield when young Ray was 7, his father (also Raymond) ran a fruit and veg business (he's now a cabbie) while his mother, Margaret, had a job emptying fruit machines. Winstone recalls playing with his friends on bomb sites - until the nation heard the confessions of the Moors Murderers, and all that changed. Raymond was schooled at Edmonton County, which had changed from a Grammar School to a Comprehensive upon his arrival. He didn't take to academic education, eventually leaving school with a single CSE (Grade 2) in Drama.

Drama, he liked. His father would take him to the cinema every Wednesday afternoon (often falling asleep, having been up so early at the markets), and Winstone remembers his first cinematic experience, seeing 101 Dalmations and rushing towards the screen to berate Cruella de Vil. Later, he would witness Albert Finney in Saturday Night, Sunday Morning and the bug would bite - "I thought 'I could be that geezer'", he said later. Other major influences would be John Wayne and the menacing, unhinged characters of James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. So, receiving extra tuition from the drama-teaching mother of a female schoolmate, he took to the stage, appearing as a Cockney newspaper-seller (what else?) in a production of Emile And The Detectives.

Another thing he took to was boxing. Known to his friends as Winnie, at home he was called Little Sugs (his dad already being known as Sugar - after Sugar Ray Robinson). At age 12, Winstone joined the famous Repton Amateur boxing Club and, over the next 10 years, won 80 out of 88 bouts. At welterweight, he was London Schoolboy Champion of three occasions, fighting twice for England. The experience gave him a valuable perspective on his later career. "If you can get in a ring with 2000 people watching and be smacked around by another guy," he said "then walking onstage isn't hard".

Deciding to pursue Drama, Winstone enrolled at the Corona School in Hammersmith. At £900 a term, it was expensive, considering the average wage was some £36 a week. And Ray was way too much of a rebel to make the most of it. Back then he was a skinhead, into ska and natty tonic suits. Once he turned up to ballet class in a leotard and bovver boots, another time he received an exam mark of zero for reciting passages from Julius Caesar in ripe Cockney. He did make his stage debut proper, in What A Crazy World at Stratford East, but he danced badly and sang terribly, leading his usually-supportive father to say "Give it up, while you're ahead".

Then came the crunch. Winstone was not popular with the school establishment, who considered him a bad influence. After some 12 months, he found that he was the only pupil not invited to the Christmas party and decided to take revenge for this slight. Hammering some tacks through a piece of wood, he placed it under the wheel of his headmistress's car and blew out the tire. For this, he was expelled. No problem, he wasn't into it anyway. For a laugh and a farewell drink, he went up to the BBC, where his schoolmates were involved in an audition. Hanging around reception, he flirted with the receptionist and, for an even bigger laugh, wangled his way into an audition of his own. The audition was for one of the most notorious plays in history - Alan Clarke's Scum - and, because Clarke liked his cocky, aggressive boxer's walk, he got the part. Amazingly (also considering the part had been written for a Glaswegian), it seemed he was on his way to the top.

As a boy, Winstone trained as a boxer. He won the London Schoolboy Championship three times, and twice represented England. After leaving school he gave up boxing and studied drama at Corona School in Hammersmith, where he spent one year before being asked to leave. Winstone talked his way into an audition with the BBC for a 1977 play called Scum which was set in a boys' borstal. The play was written by Roy Minton and directed by Alan Clarke and is a brutal depiction of a young offenders institution. Winstone was cast in the leading role of Carlin, a young offender who struggles against both his captors and his fellow cons in order to become the "Daddy" of the institution. Hard hitting and often violent (particularly during the famous "billiards" scene in which Carlin uses two billiard balls stuffed in a sock in order to beat one of his fellow inmates over the head) the play was judged unsuitable for broadcast by the BBC, and was not finally shown until 1991. The banned television play was entirely re-filmed in 1979 for cinematic release with many of the original actors playing the same roles they had in the BBC play. Winstone was once more cast as Carlin, a tough newcomer to the borstal while Alan Clarke again took directing duties. In a recent director's commentary for the "Scum" DVD Winstone cites Alan Clarke as a major influence on his acting and laments the director's death in 1991 from cancer.

Winstone's role in Scum seems to have set a mould for many of his other parts; he is frequently cast as a tough or violent man. His film roles have included parts in Quadrophenia (which stars Phil Daniels, who appeared with Winstone in "Scum"), That Summer (for which he was nominated for the BAFTA for most promising newcomer), Ladybird Ladybird, Nil by Mouth (which gained him his second BAFTA nomination, this time for best actor), "The War Zone" (directed by Pulp Fiction actor Tim Roth), Face, Sexy Beast and Ripley's Game.

Winstone has also been cast against type in some films in which he reveals a softer side. He had a comedic part in Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence, and played the romantic lead in Fanny and Elvis. His favourite role was in the television biopic on the life of England's most notorious monarch, King Henry VIII, who ruled from 1509 until 1547 and was famously married six times. Helena Bonham Carter co-starred as Henry's most important queen, wife number two Anne Boleyn. Emilia Fox played Jane Seymour, Charles Dance played the duke of Buckingham Emily Blunt played Catherine Howard and David Suchet played Cardinal Wolsey.

Winstone met his wife, Elaine, while filming That Summer (1979); they have three daughters. Still, times were hard. Winstone was bankrupted by the Inland Revenue before his marriage, and again soon afterwards. His near-religious refusal to worry saw him through, as it would his occasional run-ins with the police. Winstone's face and carriage might win him regular roles as a villainous hard man, but they also attract the attention of the law. As a kid, he was arrested on sus on several occasions. Later, returning from filming an episode of Bergerac on Jersey, he was stopped on suspicion of gun-running. And, a couple of years after that, he spent 72 hours in a Leeds jail, having been "identified" by a member of the public who'd seen an identikit picture of a criminal on Crimewatch UK.

After a short run in the TV series Fox, and a role in All Washed Up (alongside Diane Lane, Laura Dern and a hosts of real-life punks like Fee Waybill, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Paul Simonon), Winstone got another big break, being cast as Will Scarlet in the Jason Connery-starring series Robin Hood. He proved immensely popular and enjoyed the role, considering Scarlet to be "the first football hooligan" - though he was not so keen on the dubbed German version, which had him sounding like a "psychotic mincer". But once the show was over, the parts dried up. He got involved in co-producing Tank Malling, starring Connery, Amanda Donohoe and ex-Page 3 girl Maria Whittaker, and scored a few TV parts - over the years he's appeared in all manner of shows, including The Sweeney, The Bill, Boon, Fairly Secret Army (as Stubby Collins), Ever Decreasing Circles, Murder Most Horrid, Birds Of A Feather, Minder, Kavanagh QC, Auf Wiedershein Pet and Get Back (with the fledgling Kate Winslet) - but nothing to secure his future. He was increasingly drawn to the theatre, playing in Hinkemann in 1988, then Some Voices in 1994 and Dealer's Choice and Pale Horse the next year.

And it was in the theatre that it all came good. Winstone was asked to appear in Mr Thomas, a play written by his friend and fellow-Londoner Kathy Burke. The reviews were good, and led to Winstone being cast, alongside Burke, in Gary Oldman's crushing, claustrophobic drama Nil By Mouth. As a cocaine-fuelled wife-batterer, he was lauded across the board, receiving a BAFTA nomination (he'd actually got one 17 years earlier, as Best Newcomer for That Summer). The psycho tough guy roles would come rolling in - in the likes of Face and The War Zone (it's worth noting that both Oldman and War Zone director Tim Roth were fellow alumni of Alan Clarke) - but that obvious toughness would also allow him to play decent men softened by love in romantic comedies like Fanny And Elvis and There's Only One Jimmy Grimble. In Last Christmas, he even managed to convince as a dead father, now a trainee angel, who returns from heaven to help his young son cope with his bereavement. There was one distasteful episode, when Ray did a series of Pils ads where he played upon the phrase "Who's the Daddy", thus undermining the seriousness of both Nil By Mouth and The War Zone. Not good.

His career was still on the up. After a brief role alongside Kathy Burke again in the tragi-comic and almost universally slated The Martins, came Last Orders, directed by Fred Schepisi (of Roxanne fame), where he starred alongside the weighty likes of Michael Caine, Helen Mirren, David Hemmings and Tom Courtney. This saw three friends meeting up for the funeral of a fourth (Caine), with Ray playing Caine's son, Vince. In flashback, the tale of their lives would be told, including that of Vince's severely handicapped sister, a girl never accepted by her father. Before shooting began, Ray was fearful that meeting these actor-heroes (he loved the likes of Zulu and The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner) might turn out to be disappointing. Thankfully, his co-stars were as impressive as he'd hoped.

Next Ray would nab a prime part in Ripley's Game, the follow-on piece to The Talented Mr Ripley. Here John Malkovich takes over from Matt Damon as the sinister Ripley, playing him as a cold-blooded terror. Ray's an old friend who asks Ripley to murder some Russian enemies of his - Ripley agrees, as long as Ray persuades poor, innocent Dougray Scott to attempt the murders too (Scott being an enemy of Ripley's). Ray is superb as the cajoling thug, showing no mercy in bending Scott to his will. Then would come Lenny Blue, the sequel to Tough Love, and the short The Bouncer, finding real feelings in a tough job.

Also on TV, Ray would appear as Henry VIII in a six-part TV series, desperate to beget a son and battling to hold on to an unruly court and kingdom, his situation made all the worse by his inability to control either his wives or his own emotions. Alongside such heavyweights as Charles Dance, Joss Ackland, Sean Bean and Helena Bonham Carter, he put in an excellent performance, showing Henry as exuberant but also paranoid, suspicious and haunted by his own treacheries.

And, having been told by his dad all those years ago to give it up, his stage-work has improved immeasurably too, having in 2000 starred in To The Green Fields Beyond at the Donmar Warehouse - being directed by Sam Mendes, the man behind American Beauty. 2002 would see him at the Royal Court, as Griffin in The Night Heron, then two years later he'd join Kevin Spacey for 24 Hour Plays at the Old Vic, a series of productions that were written, rehearsed and performed in a single day.

Now internationally known, Ray was next chosen by Anthony Minghella to play Teague, the rough Home Guard boss in his civil war drama Cold Mountain. Empowered to execute Confederate deserters, he runs his outfit with relish, killing a mother's sons before her eyes and also slaughtering a backwards boy. Not believing that Nicole Kidman's lover Jude Law will return from the war, he sets his sights on winning both Kidman and her land, and proves a thoroughly unpleasant villain. Perhaps inspired by Kathy Burke and Gary Oldman, Ray now decided to create his own features, setting up Size 9 and Flicks production companies with his long-time agent Michael Wiggs. The first effort would be She's Gone, where businessman Ray's young daughter disappears in Istanbul (though filming would be held up by unrest in the Middle East). Then there'd be Jerusalem, where Ray would play poet and visionary William Blake.

In the meantime, there would be more action in King Arthur, where Clive Owen's Arthur was a Roman general leading Samartian horsemen during the occupation of Britain. Rome is falling, his henchmen are reaching the end of their terms of service and the Saxons are invading. Will he remain behind and lead the Brits in a battle for freedom? Ray would play Bors, one of Arthur's key knights, in this frantic, romantic drama, produced by the ever-overheated Jerry Bruckheimer. More craziness would follow when Ray provided the voice of Soldier Sam in the long-awaited screen version of The Magic Roundabout.

In 2005 Ray appeared opposite Suranne Jones in ITV drama Vincent, about a team of private detectives.

Nevertheless, having struggled so hard for so long, Ray Winstone's feet are firmly on the ground. He lives with Elaine in Roydon, Essex, still supports West Ham United, and keeps up the physical training, being a regular at Ricky English's gym in Watford (English is the guy who trained Brad Pitt for his part in Guy Ritchie's Snatch). And he loves music, sharing his dad's love of crooners, but also enjoying the soul of Motown, Al Green, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye, as well as punky London poets like Paul Weller, Madness and the late lamented Ian Dury.


Partial Filmography

  • Beowulf (2007)
  • The Departed (2006)
  • Vincent (2005)
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
  • The Magic Roundabout (2005) (voice)
  • King Arthur (2004)
  • Cold Mountain (2003)
  • Ripley's Game (2002)
  • Sexy Beast (2000)
  • Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence (1998)
  • Nil by Mouth (1997)
  • Robin of Sherwood (1984) (TV series)
  • Quadrophenia (1979)
  • Scum (1979)

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ray Winstone