British Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson, best known for his role in The Full Monty, has died aged 75, his family has announced.
The Yorkshire-born star played the character Gerald Arthur Cooper in the 1997 comedy, which tells the story of a group of redundant steelworkers from Sheffield on their journey to set up an all-male striptease act.
Wilkinson received a BAFTA for best supporting actor for his performance.
He featured in the 1998 romcom Shakespeare in Love, and the 2005 Christopher Nolan blockbuster, Batman Begins.
Wilkinson also starred alongside Dame Judi Dench, Dame Penelope Walton, and Bill Nighy, in the star-studded all-British ensemble cast in the 2011 comedy-drama, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Across an illustrious career spanning nearly 50 years, Wilkinson received two Oscar nominations.
The first was for best actor for his performance in the 2001 drama In the Bedroom.
He was also nominated for best supporting actor for his performance in the 2007 legal thriller Michael Clayton.
Wilkinson also won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for best supporting actor for his performance as Benjamin Franklin in the 2008 HBO series John Adams.
Born the son of farmers in the Yorkshire valley of Wharfedale in 1948, Wilkinson moved with his family to Canada as a young boy, but returned five years later.
He studied English and American literature at the University of Kent, where he developed a keen interest in acting and directing.
Wilkinson got his first break in acting in 1976, going on to make appearances in a number of British television shows – the most notable being the 1986 political drama, First Among Equals.
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Tom Wilkinson in Shakespeare in Love
But it was his starring role in The Fully Monty for which he gained fame and critical acclaim, playing Gerald Arthur Cooper – a steel factory foreman who attempts to hide his redundancy from his wife.
However, after seeing Cooper’s wife at a dance class, the film’s two main characters, Gaz and Dave, played by Robert Carlisle and Mark Addy, recruit her to help them learn to dance for their Chippendale-style act.
His BAFTA-winning performance in the film was followed by a string of high-profile acting credits, including the mobster Carmine Falcone in the 2005 Hollywood blockbuster, Batman Begins.
Wilkinson’s career later had a string of credits in high-profile US TV dramas, including John Adams.
He was most recently reunited with his The Full Monty co-stars, Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy, in a Disney+ series of the same name.
In a statement announcing his death, his family said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30. His wife and family were with him.
“The family asks for privacy at this time.”
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Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.
In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.
The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.
Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.
“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.
“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”
Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.
But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.
Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.
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The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.
While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.
“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.
“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”
In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.
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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough
“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”
In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.
“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”
Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November
Cillian Murphy and his wife Yvonne McGuinness have bought a cinema the Oscar-winning actor used to visit as a child.
The couple will refurbish The Phoenix Cinema in Dingle, County Kerry, south-west Ireland, next year.
The venue, which had previously been used as a dance hall, had been in operation for more than 100 years, and on the market for three before Murphy and McGuinness bought the building.
Oppenheimer and Peaky Blinders star Murphy, from Cork, said: “I’ve been going to see films at The Phoenix since I was a young boy on summer holidays.
“My dad saw movies there when he was a young man before me, and we’ve watched many films at The Phoenix with our own kids. We recognise what the cinema means to Dingle.”
McGuinness added: “We want to open the doors again, expand the creative potential of the site, re-establishing its place in the cultural fabric of this unique town.”
The Phoenix is the only cinema in the tourist area of the Dingle Peninsula, and without it, the closest other movie theatre for residents of the town is in Tralee, almost 30 miles away.
It opened in 1919 and was reconstructed twice in the decades that followed, after fires damaged the building.
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Its previous owners struggled to keep The Phoenix going amid the COVID-19 pandemic and shut the cinema’s doors in November 2021, citing rising costs, falling attendance and challenging exhibition terms.
Murphy took awards season by storm this year, winning a Golden Globe, a Bafta and an Oscar for his performance as the titular character in Oppenheimer.
Next year, he will reprise one of his most well-known roles by playing Tommy Shelby in a movie version of Peaky Blinders.
Ed Sheeran helped Ipswich Town to sign a player over the summer just before getting on stage with Taylor Swift, according to the club’s chief executive.
Mark Ashton claims the pop star got on a video call to encourage a prospective new signing to seal his move to the East Anglia outfit.
He did not reveal the player’s name, but said he is “certainly scoring a few goals” and is a fan of Sheeran, who is a minor shareholder at his hometown club.
“Ed jumped on a Zoom call with him at the training ground, just before he stepped on stage with Taylor Swift,” Ashton told a Soccerex industry event in Miami.
“Hopefully that was a key part in getting the player across the line.”
Sheeran and pop icon Swift were on stage together on 15 August at Wembley Stadium, one day before Sammie Szmodics signed from Blackburn.
After scoring an overhead kick in Ipswich’s 2-1 win over Tottenham this month, he shared a picture of himself with Sheeran on Instagram.
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