Born in Berlin and brought up in London, Oscar and BAFTA winner Sir Ken Adam was undoubtedly the father of “larger-than-life film sets”. The creator of the “War Room” in Dr Strangelove and the hollow from which Ernst Stavro Blofeld launched spacecraft to provoke nuclear war in You Only Live Twice, Adam trained as an architect but will be remembered for creating “the greatest [sets] in the history of movies” according to Steven Spielberg. He was one of very few German born pilots for the RAF during the Second World War and in later years had a penchant for Rolls-Royces.
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Two stories to keep beside you
Lady Ridsdale DBE (1921 – 2009, née Victoire Bennett)
Dame Paddy Ridsdale, as she generally known, was an intelligence operative, secretary to Ian Fleming during WW2 and the inspiration for the Bond character Miss Moneypenny. A Conservative Party stalwart and married to Member of Parliament for Harwich from 1954 to 1992 Sir Julian Ridsdale CBE (1915 – 2004), Dame Paddy – or Vicky, […]
Robert Adam
With such a name, this suave gent just had to design landmarks. University of Westminster educated and Hampshire based Robert Adam (born 1948) followed his more famous namesake (1728 – 1792) and became a designer of “progressive neo-classical style buildings” in 1975. He won “the richest prize in architecture” in January 2017 and counts the […]
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5 comments
This man is to be admired in a special way….
I had a Jewish friend, who was also a Pauline of the same vintage as Sir Ken – he was a navigator on Lancasters thus running the gauntlet; as concentration camps were a consequence of being shot down
To run the risk of being shot down over German occupied countries as an allied flyer was one thing, to be shot down as a Jew was another; but to be shot as a Jew of German birth was dangerous in the extreme
I hope that he had lots of fun with his career and his Rolls – Royce cars
Anglo Jews were amazingly courageous in the war. I recommend this by my old friend, John Jay.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Facing-Fearful-Odds-Captivity-Resistance/dp/1473827345
His father’s war was an extraordinary one.
He recounts a a story of a Black Watch major(Jewish). The German prison guards asked all the officer to line up and any Jewish officers to step forward. Cohen was the only one. As he stepped forward so did a hundred or so other officers. That ended the German effort to identify the Jews amongst the prisoners.
Anyway, it a thrillingly written book and show badly equipped and trained the first conscripts were. Al they had was youth and enthusiasm.
Great man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great films!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry he’s gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish you’d disappear Jones.
Seconded….Rod you really are a pest and reduce interesting subjects to the ultra mundane