Drawing: Patrick Stewart in Shakespeare

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Cut Bar at the Young Vic is a popular theatre restaurant. Named after the street location rather than the state of its patrons…. mostly, it provides a convivial place to wait for the talent as they slip through to the stage door and the bar’s western hall.

I had heard that Sir Patrick wasn’t likely to sign going in, so left this sketch of him in his role as William Shakespeare in Bingo at the theatre rather than suffer a rejection in person. I was finishing a quiet ale in the aforementioned establishment, when Captain Picard walked past me. I was sketching at the time and he complimented me, we exchanged some pleasantries, but I decided not to mention my request. The Shakespeare sketch was returned, signed.

Drawing: Roger Allam

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Roger Allam was the original Javert in the London production of Les Misérables – one of his many high profile parts in an illustrious theatrical career, which has included winning three Olivier Awards.

He signed this sketch at Shakespeare’s Globe in October 2010, playing the role of Falstaff in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor. He is currently back on stage at the Globe playing Prospero in The Tempest and on the telly as Magister Illyrio Mopatis in the popular Game of Thrones.

Drawing: Dame Edna and Barry Humphries

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sent my sketch of Dame Edna Everage to the New Wimbledon Theatre in January 2012 and received this back:

Drawing: Adrien Brody in The Pianist

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

A sketch of Adrien Brody from The Pianist (2002), directed by Roman Polanski, who won the Oscar for Best Director and Adrien became the youngest actor (age 29) to win the Best Actor Academy Award and the only American actor to receive the French César Award.

He was filming King Kong at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand in late 2009 and was happy to sign my sketch.

Cartoon: Russell Crowe

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

New Zealand-born Russell Crowe returned to his hometown of Wellington in April 2006 with his band “The Ordinary Fear of God” (TOFOG) as part of a three gig tour. His former band “Thirty Odd Food of Grunts” dissolved and evolved into the new TOFOG the previous year.

In 2002, he won a Golden Globe for his performance in A Beautiful Mind, and went on to win the BAFTA, but missed out on the Oscar when Denzel Washington pipped him for Training Day. However, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave him the Globe, but didn’t have a gong for New Zealand’s big hope, Peter Jackson’s first instalment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring.

I sent him a copy of an editorial cartoon I did back then to mark the event. He signed and sent it back – writing his name under his usual ‘Russell’ siggy, just in case I didn’t know it was his ‘graph.

Drawing: Andrew Sachs and Manuel

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Yesterday I received back in the mail (very quickly, I might add) my sketch of Andrew Sachs as the infamous Manuel, which completes my set of drawings from the Fawlty Towers series. My John Cleese drawing is here, and Connie Booth and Prunella Scales are here.

Drawing: Sir Anthony Hopkins

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sir Anthony Hopkins is considered to be one of the greatest living actors. His role as the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs won him a Best Actor Academy Award – surprisingly his only Oscar, given the diversity and acclaim of his career. In fact, it’s one of the shortest lead roles to win the coveted gong. He only appears for little over 16 minutes (14% of the film’s running time). The American Film Institute have listed his character as film’s number one villain.

However, it’s a role Sir Anthony shuns. When I met him while filming The World’s Fastest Indian, the biopic of speed bike racer Burt Munro, in my hometown of Invercargill in New Zealand, he said he wanted to move on and had refused to sign Lecter images. Some years earlier I sent him a portrait based on the character and he signed it. In his trailer he had piles of fanmail wanting ‘graphs on Silence of the Lambs material, which he was ignoring. So I drew an Indian sketch, which he loved and wanted the original. He signed some copies for me. One with ‘Tony’ which is the name he’s known by in the industry, except by one Steven Spielberg, who was so in awe of him that he refused to call him ‘Tony’ and always referred to him on the set of Amistad as “Sir Anthony”.

Drawing: Robert Redford

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The second Sundance London Film and Music Festival has just concluded after a four day run at the O2 Arena. It’s a condensed version of the original Sundance Festival held earlier in Utah. It’s founder and President, the legendary Robert Redford, also returned this year after a successful inaugural event in 2012.

Mr Redford… or “Bob” to some, is not known to be an accommodating signer in public. I attended his Q+A last year and was one of three people waiting at the exit , but his PA said, “Mr Redford doesn’t sign autographs.” He was right.

This year he attended all four days, including the History of the Eagles, Part I documentary and Q+A with the band members after the screening. I don’t know anyone who got his autograph, or even tried. However, when he’s around his numerous offices, he is apparently a good signer, according to the autograph aficionados.

Late in 1994 I was in Los Angeles, more specifically in Santa Monica. He has an office on Montana Ave. I found out he was around that day. I duly found it and left my sketch with a nice note and a reply envelope. It duly arrived back, signed!

In 1998 I had the pleasure of working with ‘Bob’ and Sam Neill to arrange the New Zealand Premiere and Charity Screening of The Horse Whisperer, when I managed Movieland 5 in Invercargill. He not only secured a print for us from the distributors, but sent a signed message from the event’s programme.

Drawings: Prunella Scales and Connie Booth

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

I left this drawing of Prunella Scales at the stage door of the Apollo Theatre, London, where she was performing Carrie’s War in July 2009. It was returned to me, signed, through the mail.

I also received my Connie Booth sketch signed back through the mail. She now works as a psychotherapist in London, after ending her acting career in 1995. I sent the sketch to her North London clinic. She very rarely signs, and had declined to talk about Fawlty Towers for 30 years until she had agreed to participate in a documentary about the series in 2009, so I was very happy to get it back signed and dedicated.

Caricature: John Cleese

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Back in New Zealand in 2005 John Cleese premiered his latest stage show John Cleese—His Life, Times and Current Medical Problems at the Civic Theatre in Invercargill. This is my cartoon, published in The Southland Times to commemorate the occasion, and John was lovely enough to sign it for me and write a short note.