When he later re-encounters the original boy on the beach he swaps the medal for his old "invisible watch" and clears his conscience. The Renown Crime Collection Volume 1 [DVD], The Foreman Went To France Fiddlers Three [DVD], Ealing Studios Rarities Collection: Volume 11 [DVD], Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. Profession Actor. I also enjoyed hearing the Northern accents on the scruffy boys who rough-up then adopt Johnny once they find out they have a common enemy in the police. (1997), Never Ever After a six-year interruption for military service in the Second World War, his acting career did not reach the heights of his early years. William Gilbert was an English physician and natural philosopher who wrote a six-volume treatise that compiled all of the information regarding magnetism and electricity known at the time. (1998), Jinnah As far as I know, William / James is still alive and will be 80 years old next year, which gives some idea of just how long ago this film was made. A collection of location stills and corresponding contemporary photographs is hosted at reelstreets.com. After six years service Fox was demobbed with the rank of major (and had had a spell as an acting lieutenant-colonel). Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Younger; produced the musical "Chess" on both the Broadway and London stages; formerly married to Natasha Richardson. (1992), Afraid Of The Dark He enjoyed early success on the stage playing juvenile roles. living now in New Brighton,where the film is set and mostly filmed,and being at an age the be able to remember the 50's well,I was actually born the year this film was made,but it was a total delight to watch,seeing the overhead railway again,the beach,the Perch rock,the indoor fairground,I spent half my youth in there,and spotting all the locations around was wonderful,every person over 50 living on the Wirral should see this little film,not many real "scouse" accents though !did anybody spot the businessman on the Overhead railwaysurely that was Arthur Lowe but not mentioned in the credits,wonderful wonderful film. Scene from the classic movie "The Magnet" (1950) in which William (later James) Fox sets his eyes on a younger boy's favorite toy. I'd simply remembered that it existed, and was amazed to find something about it on this site. James Fox. No one wants it though and it keeps coming back allowing it to be repeatedly auctioned. (2004), Cambridge Spies WAITING. He has since appeared in a wide range of film and TV . WATCHED. . Johnny . His film credits included roles in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Secret Partner (1961), The Queen's Guards (1961), She Always Gets Their Man (1962), Ransom (1974), Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981) and Mata Hari (1985). It's main theme of "cheats not prospering" was a fine ideal then, and still applies today. William Fox Actor 26 January 1911to 19 September 2008 A character actor familiar for playing authority figures, Fox appeared in popular series such as When The Boat Comes In (1976-77), Crown Court (1975-84), Yes Minister (1981) and All Creatures Great & Small (1988). While the storyline of The Magnet can become a bit too unbelievable at times, on the whole, it is a fine morality story with a solid leading performance from a young James Fox (credited as William Fox). Every time this cuts to something ten year old Johnny likes doing in his spare time, I lost it practicing writing with his toes, squatting on the fireplace to see if he can get around his room without touching the floor, befriending a sailor shaving his legs with a cut-throat razor, electrical experiments, melancholy donkey petting. so after all the stories from Nan and granddad about how great New Brighton was you get to see for yourself. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2021. William Hubert Fox TD (26 January 1911 20 September 2008) was a British character actor and writer. This pleasant, easy-going film has all the hallmarks of an Ealing classic, with a particularly excellent and likable performance from its young star. (1964), Tamahine He enjoyed early success on the stage playing juvenile roles. During the 1950s and 1960s Fox's career was mixed; he did a season at Stratford and took on several West End comedies. (1988), The Whistle Blower The actor William Fox joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1951, not the Royal Shakespeare Company, as we reported in his obituary above. One of his roles involved helping to administer the meeting between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin in Tehran in 1943. Fox was married twice; first when aged 21, to the actress Carol Rees, with whom he had a daughter. (2013), Bunny and the Bull (1952), The Lavender Hill Mob To put it in a nutshell this male brat is avoiding 'growing up ' and wearing long trousers by behaving ( in 1950's terms ) badly. William Fox, the character actor who died on Saturday aged 97, was for some 60 years an elegant exponent of high English comedy; his captains and kings, judges and generals, counts and. I worked with many colleagues in Hackney (east London) where they was born bred and worked - most had a beautiful speaking voices and were well spoken. 1996-2022, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. His imagination - coupled with his stricken conscience - takes over, as the boy with the magnet becomes of interest to the local authorities. 'The Magnet' (1950) is a gentle comedy about childhood, guilt and half-truths starring a young James Fox (then known by his real name, William Fox) as Johnny Brent, a mischievous boy who tricks a younger boy (Keith Robinson) into giving him his magnet in return for an 'invisible' clock. Awards Collect, curate and comment on your files. The story involves a young Wallasey boy, Johnny Brent (Fox), who obtains the eponymous magnet by deception, leading to much confusion. They had a son and a daughter together. (1994), Shadow on the Sun : Actor Born in London, the younger brother of Edward Fox, he began as a child actor (William Fox), playing the son in The Miniver Story (d. H.C.Potter, 1950) and starring as the mendacious owner of The Magnet (d. Charles Frend, 1950). On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. His parents were amateur actors and managed a medical technical school. Incidents come and go but James Fox is annoying as an actor and his accent is totally out of character in Liverpool, and the rest of the actors suffer from the same Kensington/Chelsea complaint, or should I say Belgravia and Mayfair. BAFTA Guru is BAFTAs content hub for career starters packed full of inspirational videos, podcasts and interviews. (1999), Circle of Passion It is very amusing having Fox listen to adults having conversations that have nothing to do with him and getting more guilt-ridden with every adult boys he hears. He appeared in several notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including King Rat, The Servant, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Performance, before quitting the screen for several years to be an evangelical Christian. 216726). : THE MAGNET (u) (1950). He was initially trained to join a ski battalion which was to be sent to Finland to aid that country in the Winter War against the Soviet Union. His second wife was actress Patricia Hilliard, whom he first met in 1938 when they were in a play together. 100 1 _ a Fox, William, d 1911-2008 100 0 _ a William Fox c British actor and writer (1911-2008) 4xx's: Alternate Name Forms (11) In 1916 Fox was sent to preparatory school, then attended Haileybury public school. Author. Aside from that, this wasn't too bad I guess. After feeling guilt (and particularly the fear of being caught out) he hands the . Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2019, Wonderful 1950 movie filmed on the Cheshire Wirral Peninsula featuring established stars such as Stephen Murray. , ASIN (1952), The Miniver Story Please consider upgrading to a Pro accountfor less than a couple bucks a month, youll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages (example), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads! He has traded in a magnet for an alleged invisible watch, and gives it away to clear his conscience yet can't escape what he did. (2015), The Double Childhood & Early Life. He's left to himself, apparently he has no friends, and wanders around on his own. It does do an effective job showing the way guilt couples with the normal blithe egocentrism of childhood to create a shadowy antagonistic web so vast that everyone around you is in on your shame and looking to bring you down. (1992), Patriot Games The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. The long, complicated adventure in the main body of the film is a good, very worthwhile one, but does not have quite the same legendary status as the beginning and ending. (2011), The Kid [2][3][5] After the war he continued to hold a reserve commission as a captain and honorary major until 1961, when he reached the age limit for service. He lives in New Brighton on the North West coast. The association did this by performing extracts from well-known plays and inviting agents and producers to watch. Got this dvd mainly for the nostalgia of the 50s and to show my grandchildren the old Liverpool waterfront with the Overhead Railway. As far as I know, William / James is still alive and will be 80 years old next year, which gives some idea of just how long ago this film was made. When he is acclaimed as a hero, he is shamed by his own sense of guilt. Michael Andrew Fox (Edmonton, Alberta; 9 de junio de 1961), ms conocido como Michael J. (1968), Duffy While he was receiving military training he also happened to be playing a Nazi officer in a play called Weep for the Spring, about life in Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. The Magnet is a 1950 British comedy film featuring Stephen Murray, Kay Walsh and in his first starring role James Fox (then billed as William Fox). - Read William Fox's Times Obituary, 2018. actor. A classic Ealing comedy in which a young boy steals a magnet and becomes a hero. It's all a bit forced, if somewhat harmless, though I'm not sure it would play to kids today unaccustomed to scarlet fever quarantines, unmonitored outdoor play, iron lungs, and having no toys better than a magnet. The bike shop was Longworths in Rowson St. You went and chose your bike and Mr Longworth told you to come and collect it next week so he had time to put the seat at the right height, check the brakes,oil it for you and check the tyres. [2][3][5], Fox also acted in and wrote radio dramas. Seeing as The Magnet was released in 1950, this suggests that Kaye's waxwork was only on display for, at most, a couple of years the poor chap! 24. After an older boy uses the magnet to cheat at pinball and Johnny is implicated, Johnny continues to try to get rid of the magnet. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 April 2013. i was bought up in the area this film was made and this was made 25 years before i was. Of course, where else would you try to sell iron lungs, but at a bikini contest. Kay Walsh. He did not return to acting until a decade later, but quickly enjoyed success in the role of a haughty but ultimately malleable aristocrat Effie Gray : He would also appear in an opera as Haushofmeister in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne.[2][3]. Available for both RF and RM licensing. William [James] Fox. Since his return to acting in the early 80s, Fox has been more prolific than ever, alternating offbeat, small-scale efforts ("Pavlova" 1983, "As You Like It" 1992), with mainstream Hollywood fare ("The Russia House" 1990, "Patriot Games" 1992) and prestigious historical epics. It's a fine story about growing up and having a bit of an adventure on the way. (1993), The Remains Of The Day : Some of the satire (on the profession of psychology, and in the way a false scenario causes the cash for the iron lung to be raised) is lacking in subtlety, but there are a couple of surreal scenes (young Johnny depicted as various types of urchin as the eccentric inventor parlays the story of the generous child into a fairy tale) which must have been quite innovative in 1950. Please try again. They are looking for him to give it back, thinking he's a poor waif, and he ends up on the run across the river in Liverpool, protected by a bunch of tough street kids, while his parents, Stephen Murray and Kay Walsh, search for him. In the US he had been offered an audition by Warner Bros., but turned it down since his new love, Patricia Hillard was acting in Oxford. And be careful buying your son or daughter a large magnet. Music by William Alwyn. Clarke. This Liverpool set Ealing Comedy is oddly devoid of Scousers until the back end of the film when the boy central to the plot crosses paths with a group of street urchins. , Producers Now everyone, including the police, are trying to find Johnny to give him a medal for giving the man the magnet that helped raise the money for the Iron Lung.Later, Johnny sees the little boy's nanny and overhears her telling her friend (Thora Hird) about her budgie, which she says has died of a broken heart. "ObituaryWilliam FoxVersatile actor and connoisseur of the civilised life", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Fox_(actor)&oldid=1084098812, People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley, Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 22 April 2022, at 15:02. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 May 2012. (1989), Farewell to the King the old pier, the baths the indoor fairground. Mobilesite. William Fox. , Package Dimensions Made by fans in Aotearoa New Zealand. Directed by Charles Frend. TMDb William Fox (actor) was born on 1911-01-26. A classic Ealing comedy in which a young boy steals a magnet and becomes a hero. The relationship did not survive the divergence of their careers. Billy has an older sister, actress and singer Lisa Zane. Film data from TMDb. In 1949 Ealing Studios release three films that established the Ealing Comedy. (2000), Sexy Beast (2004), The Prince & Me Ealing Studios, London. Made film acting debut, billed as 'William Fox' in "The Miniver Story", Played most prominent feature role as a child in "The Magnet", Returned to feature films after a ten-year absence to act in a small role in "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", First adult leading role in film, "The Servant", First American film since "The Miniver Story", "King Rat", Left acting for a time to join an international Christian missionary sect, the Navigators, One-shot return to acting, the religious drama, "No Longer Alone", Returned to acting regularly; appeared in the film, "Country", Played Waldorf on the PBS biographical miniseries, "Nancy Astor", Played Angus Meikle on the "Masterpiece Theatre" miniseries, "A Perfect Hero", Starred in Jonathan Glazer's "Sexy Beast", Cast as the King of Denmark in "The Prince and Me", Played Mr. Salt in Tim Burton's adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic tale "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. AKA William Fox. 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