Drawing: Helena Bonham Carter in Sweeney Todd

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

helena bc

I drew this minimal fine line sketch of Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs Lovett in Tim Burton’s film version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street for the 2007 Premiere,but never got it signed. Subsequently, Helena has signed another drawing I did, but this one has, for reasons that became clear yesterday, always stayed in my folder over the years.

I headed to the opening of this year’s BFI London Film Festival yesterday afternoon at the Odeon in Leicester Square, where Suffragette was screening, with Helena attending along with Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan. I hadn’t intended ‘bothering’ Helena again, but the red carpet was invaded by the ‘Sisters Uncut’ action group, protesting against the government cuts in the service for domestic violence victims, which blocked the middle of the red carpet. Helena had just arrived, so while the various authorities tried to sort out the interruption, she was kept down at the drop-off point and had more time to sign. I then remembered the Sweeney sketch was still on my personage…obviously a sign to sign and she did and in a variation I didn’t have in my collection-‘HBCr.’ When asked about the protest, Helena said, “Perfect…if you feel strong enough about something and there’s an injustice you can speak out and try to get something changed, “…an apt synopsis of the film really.

Drawing: Barbara Feldon as Agent 9

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

barabara feldon 99

“They wanted to call her ‘Agent 100′, but ’99’ seemed like a girls number,” said American character actress Barbara Feldon about her famous role as the smart sidekick to ‘Agent 86’, ironically called Maxwell Smart played by Don Adams in the hit 60’s TV comedy Get Smart. Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, it was a parody on the James Bond films and the Cold War politics of the time. Barbara’s character spent most of the show’s episodes trying to stop the dimwitted Smart from doing something stupid. Twice nominated for an Emmy, Barbara’s intelligent portrayal of ‘99′, always having the right answer, went against the trend in that era.…and is why I naturally had a boyhood crush on her.

I was watching a rerun of Get Smart a while back, deciding to draw this sketch and send it to Barbara at her apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhatten in New York. In next to no time it arrived back signed and dedicated, a great memento to add to my nostalgia.

Drawing: Sylvia Milo in The Other Mozart

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sylvia Milo

Wolfgang Armadeus Mozart had a sister who was equally brilliant-a prodigy keyboard virtuoso and composer named Maria Anna, called Marianne or by her nickname Nannerl. They would tour Europe together as the ‘wunderkinder’. However history seemed to forget her, until Polish award-winning actress,playwright and producer…oh,and violinist, non resident in New York, Sylvia Milo wrote and performed her solo play, The Other Mozart about the forgotten sibbling. the new york times described it as ‘strikingly beautiful.’ After a successful off-Broadway run, Sylvia bought it to the St James Theatre in London for a short season last month. “I am writing to you with an erection on my head and i am very much afraid of burning my hair,” she wrote to Wolfgang about her large ‘erected’ hairdo for the Mozart family portrait. Sylvia replecates the hairstyle and an even larger dress that covers the entire stage as she plays the lost genius.

Sylvia signed my sketch and was delivered through my mailbox with a large wet liquid patch on the envelope-like a seal that smelt of some berry juice. unfortunately it didn’t stop there and stained the sketch, so Sylvia’s won’t have to worry about burn in hair with a watermark absorbed into her forehead.

Drawing: Marvin Chomsky

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Marvin Chomsky

8.8.88 is a special date. It doesn’t happen often.It a was quite a special day, when I spent it on the set of Brotherhood of the Rose at the Larnarch’s Castle in the southern port town of Dunedin in New Zealand.It was special in so many ways not the least of being able to watch the great american director and three-time Emmy winner, Marvin J.Chomsky at the helm. The film featured the legendary Robert Mitchum, Peter Strauss, David Morse and Connie Sellecca-all great company, but it was Mr Chomsky and his signature cigar that became the subject of this quick-fire on-the -spot caricature, which he loved and signed.

Drawing: David Lange

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

New Zealand’s 32nd Prime Minister David Lange was one of the best-loved. Becoming his country’s youngest leader of the 20th Century at the age of 41. Heading the fourth Labour Government in 1984, which proved to be one of the most reforming administrations in New Zealand’s history with some of the most radical economic changes anywhere in the industrialised world. But it was his nuclear-free legislation that remains his legacy He was a PM from a small Pacific nation, who could stride on the International stage and take on the ‘big boys’…a real David and Goliath story. This was highlighted in the 1985 televised Oxford Union Debate when he opposed the American TV evangelist, Jerry Falwell, arguing the proposition that ‘nuclear weapons are morally indefensible.’ In his winning speech filled with gems, one quote has lodged in my mind, when he told the Rev.Falwell, “I can smell the uranium on your breath as you lean towards me.” A cutting wit and eloquence,his oratory was based on a need to compensate for his clumsiness at school.When he graduated from Law school David turned down lucritive career paths to repesent the most dispossessed members of his community.

I drew this toon of David near the end of his leadership when his party was falling apart and his position was under threat, which eventually lead to his resignation in August 1989. He stayed on in Parliament until 1996 when ill-health forced him to retire. David passed away in 2005, aged 63. Politicians and political cartoonists are not always bossom buddies, so I was pleased he signed this and inscribed ‘One of the best’ on it.

Drawing: Amber Topaz in Storm in a D Cup

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Amber Topaz

Christened Michelle Louise Andrew`-‘Sheli’ to family and friends, Amber Topaz is known by many labels such as the ‘Burlesque Supernova’ and the ‘Original Yorkshire Tease’. Blessed with a natural singing voice, she studied at the London Studio Centre before appearing in a number of West End musicals, including Les Miserables. But the inconsistency of work lead her to develop new opportunities with her songwriting and comedy skills.

While modelling, a photograper, who incidently gave her the stagename, suggested trying burlesque to utilize all her talents. She learnt by ‘osmosis’ she said and for a laugh auditioned for the Whoopee Club in front of a live audience at the infamous Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club in 2005. She was an instant hit and immediately signed up with their agents. GQ magazine described her as “an explosion of charisma and stage presence unmatched. Between music and songs. Comedy and seduction.” Recently she starred in Miss Nightengale – A Burlesque Musical, playing Maggie, a northern lass who becomes a burlesque dancer in war-torn 1940’s London.

Amber was at the Leicester Square Theatre last week, performing her show Storm In a D Cup so I popped along with the intention of leaving this sketch at the stagedoor for her to sign. But as good fortune would have it she was doing a photo-shoot outside the theatre which is on a busy corridor between the Square and China Town – home of the good fortune cookie. Needless to say it attracted a… shall we say… person of the perverted persuasion, who lingered back and forth. Added to that I turn up with a drawing, stalking for it to be ‘graphed. This turned out to be a welcome relief for both Amber and her photographer who even took a pic of us together with the drawing.

Drawing: Sir Tom Courtenay in The Dresser

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Tom Courtenay

There’s maybe a dozen actors that I truly admire, some dead at the moment. But very much alive is Tom Courtenay…correction, Sir Tom Courtenay. He was knighted by the Queen in 2001. On a much earlier visit to the Palace (1965 to be precise) at a reception for Doctor Zhivago in which a not-yet-knighted Tom played Pasha Antipov, Her Majesty apparently noticed his shyness and was said to have remarked,”Look at him…and to think he’s just lead a revolution.” My favourite film and play in which the shy-yet -to -be sir starred is Ray Harwood’s The Dresser. There’s a ‘Sir’ in it, but Tom didn’t play him. He played Norman, an ageing actor’s personal assistant who struggles to keep ‘Sir’s’ life together. He played Norman right from the start. The 1980 stage version transferred from Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre to the Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End before moving to Broadway the following year and earning Tom a Tony Award nom. Two years later the film , directed by Peter Yates was released, earning five Academy Award nominations, including one for Tom and for Albert Finney as ‘Sir’. They were both also nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, with Tom picking up the later. Despite his cinematic accolades, Tom prefers his first passion-the stage, which he has excelled in equal measure. One of his solo performances is in Pretending To Be Me, based on the letters and writing of poet Philip Larkin. I drew this sketch of the now-Sir Tom and was planning to ask him to sign it at the British Film Institute earlier this month. He was doing a Q&A after the screening of his latest film 45 Years with Charlotte Rampling in which both won acting Silver Bears at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. I didn’t however, so I posted it to him and he kindly sent it back adding a compliment.