Edward Tudor-Pole
Encyclopedia
Edward Tudor-Pole is an English
musician
, singer (as Eddie Tenpole), TV
presenter
and actor
.
in 1974, and eventually came to prominence after appearing in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
as a possible replacement for Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols
. He sang "Who Killed Bambi?", "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
" and a cover version of "Rock Around The Clock
" in the film and on the soundtrack.
Tenpole Tudor returned in 1980, signing to Stiff Records
and releasing two successful albums, Eddie, Old Bob, Dick And Gary
and Let the Four Winds Blow. They had three hit singles, one of them UK
Top 10 hit "Swords Of A Thousand Men".
His live acoustic shows tend to attract both aging punks and new fans attracted by his TV
and film roles, and exhibit a mix of punk rock
, country-western
and pure rock 'n' roll. Each of his tunes pays tribute to a variety of stars. Standard punk anthems stand side by side with influences as diverse as Status Quo, Freddie Mercury
, Tammy Wynette
and Shakin' Stevens
.
s and plays, as well as appearances on Top of the Pops
, and was the presenter on The Crystal Maze
, replacing Richard O'Brien
from 1993 until the show's end in 1995.
His film and play credits include The Rocky Horror Show
(written by his Crystal Maze predecessor), Jim Cartwright
's play 'Road' at the Royal Court Theatre
,The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
, Absolute Beginners
, Drowning By Numbers
, The Queen's Sister
, White Hunter, Black Heart with Clint Eastwood
, and several films by Alex Cox
including Sid and Nancy
and Straight to Hell. He also was seen in Quills
alongside Geoffrey Rush
and Kate Winslet
, and in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
as Spike Milligan
. Most recently he had a small part in an episode of 'Agatha Christie's Marple' entitled 'A Pocket Full of Rye
', shown in 2009.
His appearance in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
as Mr. Borgin, the owner of Borgin and Burke's store, was cut from the film, but is included as a deleted scene on the DVD. He also appeared as a sleazy landlord in the 1998 film version of Les Misérables
starring Liam Neeson
.
and was educated at King Edward's School, Witley
. He is the grandson of the spiritualist, Wellesley Tudor Pole
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, singer (as Eddie Tenpole), TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
presenter
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Musical career
Tudor-Pole formed the band Tenpole TudorTenpole Tudor
Tenpole Tudor are an English punk band fronted by Edward Tudor-Pole. The band has been active intermittently since 1977.-Origins:Tenpole Tudor formed in 1977 when Tudor-Pole met guitarist Bob Kingston , bassist Dick Crippen, and drummer Gary Long...
in 1974, and eventually came to prominence after appearing in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is a mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas about the British punk rock band Sex Pistols....
as a possible replacement for Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
. He sang "Who Killed Bambi?", "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (song)
"The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" is the title song of The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle movie soundtrack album.The single was released on 12 September 1979 and featured vocals by Edward Tudor-Pole on both sides.-Recording:...
" and a cover version of "Rock Around The Clock
Rock Around the Clock
"Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar-blues-based song written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954...
" in the film and on the soundtrack.
Tenpole Tudor returned in 1980, signing to Stiff Records
Stiff Records
Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976, by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007....
and releasing two successful albums, Eddie, Old Bob, Dick And Gary
Eddie, Old Bob, Dick and Gary
Eddie, Old Bob, Dick and Gary was the debut album by UK punk rock band Tenpole Tudor. A moderately successful seller, peaking at #44 in the UK, the album launched three singles: "Three Bells in a Row", "Wunderbar" and "Swords of a Thousand Men". "Wunderbar" reached #16 on the charts...
and Let the Four Winds Blow. They had three hit singles, one of them UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Top 10 hit "Swords Of A Thousand Men".
His live acoustic shows tend to attract both aging punks and new fans attracted by his TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and film roles, and exhibit a mix of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, country-western
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and pure rock 'n' roll. Each of his tunes pays tribute to a variety of stars. Standard punk anthems stand side by side with influences as diverse as Status Quo, Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
, Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette
Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of the genre's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
and Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens, also known as "Shaky" is a platinum selling Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter who holds the distinction of being the UK's biggest-selling singles artist of the 1980s . His recording and performing career began in the late 1960s, although it was not until 1980 that he saw...
.
Acting career
Tudor-Pole has appeared in numerous filmFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s and plays, as well as appearances on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
, and was the presenter on The Crystal Maze
The Crystal Maze
The Crystal Maze was a British game show, produced by Chatsworth Television and shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom between 15 February 1990 and 10 August 1995. There was one series per year, with the first four series presented by Richard O'Brien and the final two by Ed Tudor-Pole, who made...
, replacing Richard O'Brien
Richard O'Brien
Richard Timothy Smith , better known under his stage name Richard O'Brien, is an English writer, actor, television presenter and theatre performer. He is perhaps best known for writing the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show and for his role in presenting the popular TV show The Crystal Maze...
from 1993 until the show's end in 1995.
His film and play credits include The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
(written by his Crystal Maze predecessor), Jim Cartwright
Jim Cartwright
Jim Cartwright is an English dramatist, born at Farnworth, Lancashire, England. Cartwright's first play, Road, won a number of awards before being adapted for TV and broadcast by the BBC....
's play 'Road' at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
,The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is a mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas about the British punk rock band Sex Pistols....
, Absolute Beginners
Absolute Beginners (film)
Absolute Beginners is a 1986 British rock musical film adapted from the Colin MacInnes book of the same name about life in late 1950s London. The film was directed by Julien Temple, featured David Bowie and Sade, and a breakout role by Patsy Kensit...
, Drowning By Numbers
Drowning by Numbers
Drowning by Numbers is a 1988 British film directed by Peter Greenaway. It was entered into the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:The film's plot centers on three women — a grandmother, mother and daughter — each named Cissie Colpitts. As the story progresses each woman successively drowns her husband...
, The Queen's Sister
The Queen's Sister
The Queen's Sister is a 2005 British television movie directed by Simon Cellan Jones. The teleplay by Craig Warner is a semi-fictionalized account of the life of Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, from 1952 until the mid-1970s. It was produced by Touchpaper Television,...
, White Hunter, Black Heart with Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, and several films by Alex Cox
Alex Cox
Alexander Cox is a British film director, screenwriter, nonfiction author and sometime actor, notable for his idiosyncratic style and approach to scripts...
including Sid and Nancy
Sid and Nancy
Sid and Nancy is a 1986 British biopic directed by Alex Cox. The film portrays the life of Sid Vicious , bassist of the seminal punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and his relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen .-Plot:The film opens with several police officers dragging Sid Vicious out of the Hotel...
and Straight to Hell. He also was seen in Quills
Quills
Quills is a 2000 period film directed by Philip Kaufman and adapted from the Obie award-winning play by Doug Wright, who also wrote the original screenplay. Inspired by the life and work of the Marquis de Sade, Quills re-imagines the last years of the Marquis' incarceration in the insane asylum at...
alongside Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
and Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
, and in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is a 2004 film about the life of English comic actor Peter Sellers, based on Roger Lewis' book of the same name...
as Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...
. Most recently he had a small part in an episode of 'Agatha Christie's Marple' entitled 'A Pocket Full of Rye
A Pocket Full of Rye
A Pocket Full of Rye is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 9, 1953, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.75...
', shown in 2009.
His appearance in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a 2002 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the second instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman...
as Mr. Borgin, the owner of Borgin and Burke's store, was cut from the film, but is included as a deleted scene on the DVD. He also appeared as a sleazy landlord in the 1998 film version of Les Misérables
Les Misérables (1998 film)
Les Misérables is a 1998 film adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel of the same name, directed by Bille August. It stars Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman, and Claire Danes....
starring Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson
Liam John Neeson, OBE is an Irish actor who has been nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and three Golden Globe Awards.He has starred in a number of notable roles including Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List, Michael Collins in Michael Collins, Peyton Westlake in Darkman, Jean Valjean in Les...
.
Personal life
Tudor-Pole was born on December 6, 1955 in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and was educated at King Edward's School, Witley
King Edward's School, Witley
King Edward's School, Witley is an independent co-educational boarding and day school, founded in 1553 by King Edward VI and Nicholas Ridley. The School is located in the village of Wormley , Surrey, England, having moved to its present location in 1867. The School became fully co-educational in 1952...
. He is the grandson of the spiritualist, Wellesley Tudor Pole
Wellesley Tudor Pole
Major Wellesley Tudor Pole O.B.E. was a spiritualist and early British Bahá'í.He authored many pamphlets and books and was a lifelong pursuer of religious and mystical questions and visions, being particularly involved with spiritualism and the Bahá'í Faith as well as the quest for the Holy Grail...
.