Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer Ivor Novello was born on this date in 1893. 10 facts about him:
His real name was David Ivor Davies, and he was born in Cardiff. His father was a tax collector and his mother was a famous singing teacher called Dame Clara Novello Davies.
As a boy, he had a notable soprano voice which won him a scholarship to study at Magdalen Choir School in Oxford. He was known there as the Welsh Prodigy, and began writing songs and was getting them published by the age of 15.
After leaving school he gave piano lessons in Cardiff for a while, then moved to London with his mother. They took a flat above the Strand Theatre, which became his London home for the rest of his life.
He served in the Royal Naval Air Service during WWI and survived two crash landings.
His acting debut was in 1919 in a French silent film called The Call of the Blood. The film was a box office success people started calling Novello the New Valentino.
In 1924, he wrote a play in collaboration with actor Constance Collier. It was called The Rat. Novello starred in it, and also in the film adaptation which came along later.
While he was known for being very good looking ("the most handsome man in England" according to the American press) and perfect for roles as the male romantic lead, he could also pull off playing a villain, as he did as the sinister suspected serial killer in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger.
He spent some time in prison, eight weeks, to be exact, in 1944 for misusing petrol coupons during rationing. He tried to bribe an arresting officer, which didn’t help. Some say he never got over the public humiliation, and it could well have cost him a knighthood.
He was also gay, which at that time could have counted against him in the knighthood stakes as well. He had a 35 year relationship with a fellow actor called Bobby Andrews.
Novello died suddenly on March 6, 1951 of a coronary thrombosis only hours after performing in his own play The King's Rhapsody. He was 58. 7,000 people attended his funeral, at which women outnumbered men 50 to one.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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