Young Winston star Simon Ward dies aged 70 By LIZ THOMAS PUBLISHED: 11:40 EST, 22 July 2012 | UPDATED: 18:52 EST, 22 July 2012 (DAILY MAIL)

The acclaimed actor Simon Ward, who made his name in Richard Attenborough’s Churchill biopic Young Winston, has died aged 70 after a long illness.

His wife Alexandra and daughters Sophie, Claudia and Kitty, who is married to comedian Michael McIntyre, were by his bedside when he died in his sleep on Friday.

The son of a car dealer from Beckenham in Kent, Ward decided to go into acting when he was in his teens.


He joined the National Youth Theatre at 13 before going on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

His first break came in 1967 when he played the lead in Joe Orton’s dark satire Loot in the West End.

His film career began five years later after Attenborough picked him for the title role in Young Winston, alongside Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft.




He went on to play the Duke of Buckingham in The Three Musketeers, William Vereker in Zulu Dawn and author and veterinarian James Herriot in the film adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small.

He starred alongside his daughter Sophie in Wuthering Heights and ITV1’s Heartbeat, and more recently appeared in the historical drama The Tudors.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2177309/Simon-Ward-death-Young-Winston-actor-passes-away-following-long-illness-aged-70.html

Tune in and swoon over telly’s unlikely hunks (Mail On-Line)

By Kathryn Knight
Last updated at 12:22 PM on 16th January 2012


Quite unexpectedly, our TV screens have been over-run by dishy thesps.

We’ve had the delightful spectacle of Benedict Cumberbatch swooshing around the small screen with mesmerising intensity as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.

An offbeat hunk he may be, but I defy any woman not to feel a frisson at the way he swirls his black coat.

Swoon! Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock (left) and Iain de Caestecker as the youthful James Herriot

Prefer a historical romance? There’s been an embarrassment of breeches. No sooner had we wiped away the tears after chisel-cheekboned Dan Stevens’s snowy proposal in the Downton Abbey Christmas special than we were able to whisk ourselves back to Victorian times and the spectacle of Douglas Booth as the doe-eyed Pip in the BBC’s Great Expectations.

Hot on his heels we had more Victorian smoulder in The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, with Freddie Fox in the title role and Matthew Rhys as the brooding John Jasper.
Shaun Evans kicked off 2012 in heart-fluttering fashion as a young Inspector Morse in a Mod-style jacket, while Iain de Caestecker charmed us as the youthful James Herriot.

While there have always been telly hunks (I grew up fixated with Dempsey & Makepeace, moving on to Robin of Sherwood as played by Michael Praed), it was slim pickings compared to what the menfolk were offered.

For every Robin of Sherwood there was Miss World and dozens of game shows with middle-aged males fawned over by skimpily clad blondes.

Double whammy: Matthew Rhys as John Jasper (left) and Freddie Fox as Edwin Drood in the BBC's adaptation of Dickens' final novel

Model performances: Dan Stevens' Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey (left) and Douglas Booth as Pip in Great Expectations

So it was time for TV parity. Why it’s come now is hard to say, though it can’t be entirely coincidence that there are more women in TV’s top jobs.

Who’s to say they don’t have a tick list of top ten telly hunks on their desk when they commission the latest three-parter?

The process wouldn’t be a million miles away from how female roles seem to have been cast in television since the first black and white picture flickered into life (‘Long hair? Decent pair of a legs and a cleavage? You’re in.’).

Now it’s our turn. Who’s for an updated Play Your Cards Right with a parade of shapely men in trunks?


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2087049/Benedict-Cumberbatch-Sherlock-Downton-Abbeys-Dan-Stevens-TVs-unlikely-hunks.html#ixzz1jcuqBWlS