ANNE BAXTER Adam Faith MIX ME A PERSON Original POSTER

MORE INFO ON ADAM FAITH: Terence (Terry) Nelhams-Wright, known as Adam Faith (23 June 1940, East Acton, London – 8 March 2003, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) was an English singer, actor and financial journalist. Teen idol turned top actor then financial wizard, Faith was one of the most charted acts of the 1960s. He became the first UK artist to lodge his initial seven hits in the Top 5. He was also one of the first UK acts to record original songs regularly. His distinctive voice and striking looks made him one of the most popular British teen idols in the pre-Beatles era.

Terence Terry Nelhams-Wright was born at 4 Churchfield Road, Acton, London. He was unaware his surname was Nelhams-Wright until he applied for a passport and obtained his birth certificate. He was known as Terry Nelhams. The third in a family of five children, Nelhams grew up in a council house in a working class area of London, where he attended John Perryn Junior school. He started work at 12, delivering and selling newspapers while still at school. His first full-time job was odd-job boy for a silk screen printer.

Faith became one of Britain's significant early pop stars. At the time, he was distinctive for his hiccupping glottal stops and exaggerated pronunciation. He did not write his own material, and much of his early success was through partnership with songwriter Les Vandyke and John Barry, whose arrangements were inspired by Don Costa's pizzicato arrangements for Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore".

Faith began his musical career in 1957, while working as a film cutter in London in the hope of becoming an actor, singing with and managing a skiffle group, The Worried Men. The group played in Soho coffee bars after work, and became the resident band at The 2i's Coffee Bar, where they appeared on the BBC Television live music programme Six-Five Special. The producer, Jack Good, was impressed by the singer and arranged a solo recording contract with HMV under the name Adam Faith.

His debut record "(Got a) Heartsick Feeling" and "Brother Heartache and Sister Tears" in January 1958, failed to make the charts. Good gave him a part in the stage show of Six-Five Special, along with The John Barry Seven but the show folded after four performances. His second release later that year was a cover of Jerry Lee Lewis' "High School Confidential", backed with the Burt Bacharach and Hal David penned "Country Music Holiday", but this also failed.

Faith returned to work as a film cutter at National Studios at Elstree until March 1959, when Barry invited him to audition for a BBC TV rock and roll show, Drumbeat. The producer, Stewart Morris, gave him a contract for three shows, extended to the full 22-week run. His contract with HMV had ended, and he sang one track, "I Vibrate", on a six-track EP released by the Fontana record label. Barry's manager, Eve Taylor, got him a contract with Top Rank, but his only record there, "Ah, Poor Little Baby" / "Runk Bunk" produced by Tony Hatch, failed to chart due to a lack of publicity caused by a national printing strike.

Despite the failure, Faith was becoming popular through television appearances. He became an actor by taking drama and elocution lessons, and appeared as a pop singer in the film, Beat Girl. The script called for Faith to sing a songs, and as Barry was arranging Faith's recordings and live Drumbeat material, the film company asked him to write the score.

Faith's success on Drumbeat enabled another recording contract with Parlophone. His next record in 1959, "What Do You Want?", written by Vandyke and produced by Barry and John Burgess, received good reviews in the NME and other music papers, as well as being voted a hit on Juke Box Jury. This became his first number one hit in the UK Singles Chart,[2] and his pronounciation of the word 'baby' as 'bay-beh' became a catch phrase. "What Do You Want?" was the first number one hit for Parlophone, Faith the only pop act on the label.

With songs such as "Poor Me" (another UK chart topper), "Someone Else's Baby" (a UK #2) and "Don't That Beat All", he established himself as a rival to Cliff Richard in British popular music. Poor Me also later became the title of his first autobiography. A UK variety tour was followed by a 12-week season at Blackpool Hippodrome and an appearance on the Royal Variety Show.

His next release was a double A-side single, "Made You" / "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", Both made the Top Ten, despite a BBC ban for "Made You" for 'a lewd and salacious lyric'. His 1960 novelty record "Lonely Pup (In a Christmas Shop"), to coincide with his Christmas pantomime, gained a silver disc.

His debut album Adam was released on 4 November 1960 to critical acclaim for the inventiveness of Barry's arrangements and Faith's own performances. The material ranged from standards such as "Summertime", "Hit The Road To Dreamland" and "Singin' In The Rain" to more contemporary songs, such as Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman's "I'm A Man", Johnny Worth's "Fare Thee Well My Pretty Maid", and Howard Guyton's "Wonderful Time".

Still 20 and living with his parents, he bought a house in Hampton Court for £6000, where he moved with his family from their house in Acton. In December 1960 he became the first pop artist to appear on the TV interview series Face to Face with John Freeman. In January 1961, NME reported that Faith had been booked to headline the television show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium. In November that year, Faith gave a concert at Leicester Prison.

In July 1964, an impromptu song in Faith's dressing room by his then seventeen year old fan Sandie Shaw, was rewarded with her being given a recording contract by Pye Records.

In 1965 Faith made his only two appearances in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart with "It's Alright" (#31) and "Talk About Love" (#97).

Faith made six further albums and 35 singles, with a total of 24 UK chart entries. In the early 1960s, Faith's backing group was The Roulettes. They finally split with him in October 1965 after a three year partnership, having backed Faith on several chart hits, starting with 1963's "The First Time", and including his biggest US success, "It's Alright".

Faith's teen pop became less popular in the mid 1960s with competition from The Beatles. After a final single in 1968 he parted company with EMI and concentrated on acting. Whilst a musician he had appeared in the films Beat Girl (1961), Never Let Go, and television dramas such as the Rediffusion/ITV series, No Hiding Place, but now he concentrated on repertory theatre. After a number of small parts, he was given a more substantial role in Night Must Fall, playing opposite Dame Sybil Thorndike. In autumn 1969 he took the lead in a touring production of Billy Liar.

In the 1970s, he went into music management, managing Leo Sayer among others. Faith also co-produced Sayer's 1975 album, Another Year, and earlier had co-produced Roger Daltrey's album, Daltrey (1973).

He starred as the eponymous hero in the 1970s television series Budgie (LWT/ITV), about an ex-convict, but his career declined after a car accident in which he almost lost a leg. He restarted with a role as the manipulative manager of rock star David Essex, in Stardust. He was nominated for a BAFTA award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 1980 he starred with Roger Daltrey in McVicar, and appeared with Jodie Foster in Foxes.

He played the role of James Crane in the 1985 TV movie Minder on the Orient Express - part of the Minder franchise.

From 1992 to 1994, Faith appeared in another TV series, Love Hurts starring with Zoe Wanamaker, and in 2002 he appeared in the BBC series, The House That Jack Built. In 2003, Faith appeared in an episode of Murder in Mind.

He married Jackie Irving in 1967 and they had one daughter Katya Faith who became a television producer. In 1986, he was hired as a financial journalist, by the Daily Mail and its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday.

In 1985, he appeared on a BBC Radio 2 tribute programme to James Dean, written and presented by Terence Pettigrew. You're Tearing Me Apart was aired on the thirtieth anniversary of Dean's death. Dean had been his idol, and the film Rebel Without A Cause had inspired the teenage Faith to become a singer and actor. "That movie changed my life", he admitted on the programme, which was produced by Harry Thompson, who later found fame as the originator and long-time producer of BBC TV's award-winning Have I Got News for You.

Faith had heart problems since 1986, when he had open heart surgery.

In the 1980s, Faith became a financial investments advisor. He had a financial involvement with television's 'Money Channel'. But the channel proved unsuccessful and closed in 2001. Faith was declared bankrupt owing a reported £32 million. He also advised and invested monies for Michael Winner via Sir Nicholas Goodison and also with Roger Levitt's financial group. However, both these investments lost money.

He became ill after his stage performance in the touring production of Love and Marriage at the Regent Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent on the Friday evening, and died at North Staffordshire Hospital of a heart attack early on Saturday, 8 March 2003. He left a wife, Jackie, and a daugther, Katya.

British tabloid newspapers reported his last words as "Channel Five is all shit, isn't it? Christ, the crap they put on there. It's a waste of space". Although it is not certain these were his words, it has become an urban myth.

MORE INFO ON ANNE BAXTER: Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 1985) was an American actress known for her performances in films such as All About Eve, The Razor's Edge and The Ten Commandments

Baxter was born in Michigan City, Indiana to Kenneth Stuart Baxter and Catherine Wright; her maternal grandfather was the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Baxter's father was a prominent executive with the Seagrams Distillery Co. and she was raised in New York City in a well-to-do home, and attended the prestigious Brearley School. At age 10, Baxter attended a Broadway play starring Helen Hayes, and was so impressed that she declared to her family that she wanted to become an actress. By the age of 13, she had appeared on Broadway. During this period, Baxter learned her acting craft as a student of the famed teacher Maria Ouspenskaya.

Baxter as Eve Harrington, from the trailer for All About Eve (1950)

At 16 Baxter screen-tested for the role of Mrs. DeWinter in Rebecca, losing out to Joan Fontaine because director Alfred Hitchcock considered her "too young" for the role, but the strength of that first foray into movie acting secured her a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox. Her first movie role was in 20 Mule Team in 1940. She was chosen by director Orson Welles to appear in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), based on the novel by Booth Tarkington. Baxter co-starred with Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney in 1946's The Razor's Edge, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1950, she was chosen to co-star in All About Eve, largely because of a resemblance to Claudette Colbert, who had initially been chosen to co-star in the film; the original idea being to have her character gradually come to visually mirror Colbert's over the course of the film. Baxter received a nomination for Best Actress for the title role of Eve Harrington. Later during that decade, Baxter also continued to act in professional theater. According to a program from the production, Baxter appeared on Broadway in 1953 opposite Tyrone Power in Charles Laughton's John Brown's Body, a play based upon the narrative poem by Stephen Vincent Benét (though the Internet Broadway Database states that Power's co-star was Judith Anderson). In 1953 she appeared opposite Montgomery Clift in Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess.