Drawing: Hugh Jackman

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

In 2004 ‘The Sexiest Man Alive’ according to a number of publications, including People Magazine, Australian actor and producer Hugh Jackman won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy From Oz – a jukebox musical based on the life of fellow antipodean singer/songwriter Peter Allen. After it’s world premiere in Sydney on 5 March 1998, it opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on 16 September 2003 with Hugh taking over the lead role from showman Todd McKenney and ran for a year. It also returned to Australia from August/September 2006 with a specifically designed arena production.

Hugh liked the sketch and amongst the madness and mayhem of screaming fans (mostly of the female persuasion) at the UK premiere of The Wolverine he signed it and interrupted his ‘graph to go’ speed signing to pass on complementary remarks.

Drawing: Maggie Smith

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van opened at London’s Queen’s Theatre in late 1999 with Dame Maggie Smith in the lead role as Miss Shepherd, an eccentric bag lady who lived in a van.

Bennett first became aware of ‘the lady in the van’ in the late sixties. She died in 1989, after spending two decades living in her broken down Bedford van in his driveway. She could most kindly be called eccentric, hearing voices and the Virgin Mary appeared to her on a regular basis. The play is the story… or, more accurately, a series of incidents… between the playwright and the delusional, failed nun, Miss S, who was reclusive but not opposed to publicity.

Dame Maggie is once again nominated for another primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the ITV drama Downton Abbey. She is one of the few people to win the ‘triple crown of acting’ (Emmy, Oscar and Tony). Her impressive list includes seven BAFTAS, two Oscars, three Golden Globes and a Tony. She is the only person to receive an Academy Award for playing an Academy Award nominee – Diana Barrie in California Suite (1978).

Despite being nominated six times, she has never won the Olivier Award, the highest honour in British theatre. Her last nomination was in 2000 for her role as Miss Shepherd.

I was fortunate enough to see the play just before it ended in July 2000. Dame Maggie signed my sketch last week at her London office.

Drawing: Olivier Wilde

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Oliva Jane Cockburn has dual citizenship, holding both American and Irish passports. She derived her stage name – Olivia Wilde – from one of the latter’s most famous authors, Oscar Wilde.

She signed this quick profile portrait at the premiere of Cowboys and Aliens at London’s O2 in August 2011, and I later found myself captured and published by the swarming paps.

Drawing: Olga Kurylenko

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Ukranian-born French actress Olga Kurylenko became the Bond girl Camille in the 22nd franchise film, Quantum of Solace in 2008.

She has featured in a number of films since, including Oblivion, with Tom Cruise. She signed my sketch in person at its UK premiere at the BFI IMAX in London in April this year, with her abbreviated ‘premiere graph’ ‘Olga K’.

Back in 2008 I got a full name siggy (and a smiley face) on another sketch at Pinewood Studios while she was filming Bond, apparently a rarity.

Drawing: Anita Dobson and Greta Scacchi

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Anton Burg’s Bette and Joan played the Arts Theatre in London’s West End from May till June in 2011. It starred Anita Dobson as Joan Crawford and Greta Scacchi as Bette Davis. Based on the real life legendary feud between the two stars, the play shows them at a low point in their careers when they meet on the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? which became a surprise hit and propelled them back to stardom.

Both Anita and Greta signed my original and kept copies of the sketch and sent me a thank you letter… so I guess they like it!

Caricature: Barry Humphries

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Barry Humphries has a face destined for caricature. I was visiting Sydney in early 1991, actually I was visiting Sydney every year since the late 70’s … but on this particular occasion Barry was performing his solo show, The Life and Death of Sandy Stone – his third most recognised alter-ego behind Dame Edna, the Melbourne housewife with a rampant ego and Sir Les Patterson, cultural attaché to the court of St James. Sandy Stone is the ‘returned gentleman’ – a digger from WWI.

I saw this great pic of Barry in a local rag, so I drew this caricature. I thought, he could keep the original and sign a copy for me… so I sent 4 copies for good measure. I could donate one or two to my favourite charities.

I dropped it off at the Theatre. I’m not sure which one, I think the Philip Street Theatre where Barry had connections since the late 50’s.

Anyway, a week later a parcel arrived back in New Zealand with the copies all signed… as you would expect with a witty twist. This one is simply his sig. On the others – remembering it was a copy of the same sketch – he wrote “I like this one,” “this one’s not me,” and “not a bad likeness”.

I couldn’t get a ticket to his show – sold out – but he is doing a farewell tour, which is headed for London later this year and includes Sandy Stone. So here’s hoping!

Drawing: Hayley Mills

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills found fame at the age of 13 in Walt Disney’s Pollyanna. She won a special juvenile Oscar for her role and went on to make five other films for Disney to become one of the most popular actresses of the early sixties. Despite her long and successful career, Hayley isn’t sure she would have made it in acting had she not been a child star. “I started work at the right time. At 13 I was still spontaneous and unselfconscious.”

She mad an early stage debut as well, in the 60s West End revival of Peter Pan, as the title character. Her Godfather was the playwright, actor and singer, Sir Noël Coward. In 1992 she toured New Zealand, Australia and the UK in his play Fallen Angels with her sister Juliet. It played my home town of Invercargill, New Zealand, and I was lucky enough to meet them both at the stage door of the Civic Theatre.

Hayley signed my sketch in London, at her agent’s office in 2010.

Drawing: Neil Diamond

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Neil Diamond is considered one of the greatest pop songwriters/performers of the modern age. ‘The Jewish Elvis’ has sold over 125 million records worldwide and is the third most successful adult contemporary artist ever on the Billboard Chart behind Barbra Streisand and Sir Elton John.

He originally wanted to be a Laboratory Biologist and find a cure for cancer, but in his senior year at New York University a music publishing company offered him $50 a week to write songs, and the rest, as they say, is history. Medicine’s loss was music’s gain.

The Solitary Man himself simply sums it up “I write these little songs and go and sing them in a recording studio and later, in front of a lot of people. It seems an odd way to gain an inner sense of acceptance of the self. But, it’s what I do.”

In March 1996 he broke a 3 year touring hiatus with a world tour, starting in New Zealand and signed my sketch after the Westpac Centre concert in Christchurch.

Drawing: Chris Isaak

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

One of my favourite performers and all round good guys, Chris Isaak loved the the sketch and signed it at the Wellington Town Hall, New Zealand, in July 1995 as part of his Forever Blue Australasian Tour that year.

Drawing: Jimmy Barnes

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

James Dixon Swain was born in Scotland, fifty something years ago. He emigrated to Australia at an early age and became a music icon… better known as Jimmy Barnes. The ocker rocker songwriter has more hit alblums than any other Aussie entertainer, as a solo artist and as lead singer of the band ‘Cold Chisel’.

His career took a bit of a dive in the mid 1990s but began to revive by 1996. He embarked on a six-gig ‘little New Zealand’ stint, playing smaller, more intimate venues. One of those was the Lake Hawea Motor Inn in Central Otago. I did this quick sketch to illustrate my review for The Southland Times. he signed the original backstage. It was called the Long, Hot, Summer Tour, but from memory, it was neither long (an hour and a bit), hot or felt like Summer, with the weather closing in. Hardly Barnes-storming, but it threatened! More importantly he was a decent bloke, with a ripper encore set.