Honor Blackman

[denis rigg]

Happy Birthday, Honor Blackman! 93 years old!!!

Just found rare Swedish magazine with Honor on cover.

[Brian Flagg]

It is an "honor" that I share a birthday with the classy Ms. Blackman (I'm a bit younger). I only recently discovered this.

[denis rigg]

It is an "honor" that I share a birthday with the classy Ms. Blackman (I'm a bit younger). I only recently discovered this.

Aha, this is interesting. Turns, when for many years it was believed that Honor was born in August 1926 and even December 1927, you were bit older?

[cyberrich]

Happy birthday Honor! For many years I thought she had been born in 1926, as this was reported in many film books, etc. Only last year did I discover that Honor was a year older. I'm not sure where the missing year went. Maybe one of the first researchers initially wrote down the wrong year, and this was reported as fact for many years after. I've even thought that maybe Honor knocked a year off her age when she heard The Avengers were auditioning. She certainly looked years younger than her age anyway. It's incredible to think she was 39 when Goldfinger was released. She looked a good 6 or 7 years younger.

[denis rigg]

Happy birthday Honor! For many years I thought she had been born in 1926, as this was reported in many film books, etc. Only last year did I discover that Honor was a year older. I'm not sure where the missing year went. Maybe one of the first researchers initially wrote down the wrong year, and this was reported as fact for many years after. I've even thought that maybe Honor knocked a year off her age when she heard The Avengers were auditioning. She certainly looked years younger than her age anyway. It's incredible to think she was 39 when Goldfinger was released. She looked a good 6 or 7 years younger.

Yes, since most sources indicated 1926, it seemed that this was true. Fun, among many years ago was amusing to study different information in the books and newspapes, where sometimes even 1929 was mentioned. That's the number!
I know that before 1954, there was correct information for this. For example, book "Motion Picture and Television Almanac, 1954" indicates: Honor born August 22, 1925.

It looked like at some point (somewhere at from 1954 to 1962) many different tricks were made with her birthday to confuse. It's hard to say who was the initiator, but most likely one of the actor agencies who knowingly did rumors in the media.

So, somewhere from the first half of 1960s to 2014, it was customary to assume that Honor was born in 1926. Very long years.

Things changed after the release of Mike Richardson's book "Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots" in 2014, where was mentioned that Honor born 12 December 1927. I ordered this book in August of the same year, but received it only on October 3, 2014. When I read this I came to the conclusion that I was must to seriously study this issue, since the confusion with her age began to get stronger thanks to IMDb, where someone indicated December 12, 1927 as Honor's birthdate at the time and hence it came into Mike's book.
I felt my responsibility because at that time I was already seriously studying the data for the Avengers crew and performers on IMDb, and I knew that 1927 was wrong, because it did not correspond to the results of my early studies at all. Personally, I thought like many others at the time that 1926 was like the truth and so my goal was to prove it and fix the information on IMDb. And what was my surprise when I finally found the proof that Honor was born in ... 1925!!! The confirmation was in the form of a certificate of her birthdate. In fact, it is logical, considering that previously official sources (before 1954) referred to this information.

Yes, I realized that if I had taken this clue more seriously, I could have come to an answer earlier. I think somewhere in late October 2014 I provided proof of my research to IMDb and afterwards began to disseminate the information on other sources. So since October 2014 things have returned to their place, and like old times, most sources began to write that Honor was born in 1925. Cheers!

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Recently there was a similar discovery with actress Elizabeth Sellars, who played in Avengers episode Take-over (1969). This is indicated in all the books I studied and other sources that she was born in 1923, but it turned out that the birth certificate refers to 1921. I already changed the data in Wikipedia, while for some reason IMDb still goes with a delay for.

Definitely there are similar situations with wrong year of birth for other performers, who played in The Avengers.

For example, Pamela Ann Davy.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0205853/

Indicated as Born: 1939 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

This is an absolute fib. In fact, she is older and I think, on the basis of my research, she was born in Melbourne.


Famous actress, Carole Gray:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0336500

Indicated as Born: 1940

Again, wrong information. She is older.


Mark Heath

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372685

Indicated as Born: 1940 in Kingston, Jamaica

Very far from the truth as for year of birth.

I think this is somewhere 1925 in reality.

And etc.

Luckily, 80 percent, I think, the information for the performers and crew who participated in The Avengers is true accordingly to IMDb.

[Ian Wegg]

Performers have been obfuscating their real age for decades, it was the accepted practice. With the dawn of the internet it's harder for them to get away with it.

A few years ago the Screen Actors Guild backed a legal action against IMDB in an attempt to stop them publishing birth dates. (The action failed):

Actor suing IMDb for revealing her age loses landmark lawsuit

Quote: "An actor's actual age is irrelevant to casting. What matters is the age range that an actor can portray. For the entire history of professional acting, this has been true but that reality has been upended by the development of IMDb ..."

[denis rigg]

Thank you, Ian, for the information.

I just add that it was and is a common practice for musicians, actors and other artists who have a certain desire to hide their age.

In addition to IMDb, these book directories of type "Motion Picture and Television Almanac" also have a tendency to write true information about those performers that are trying to hide it. As for example in the case of Honor Blackman. When in 2015 she turned 90 and one journalist did acccent on it when talking with her - she answered that he was mistaken and she is still not 90 years old (it is clear that she tryed to continue to hide, as looks she still was not aware that since October 2014 information about her true age has become available to the public).
Was it my fault? Well, there were many sources including BFI that contributed to this (I will not name those that I think I should not name - as for BFI, it's known that they are study this information too). Thus, the Internet has become destructive for "shelter", because if before you had to go to libraries or directories to learn information, now you can do it sitting at the computer.

As for me, I understand this situation perfectly, so I inform about those people who do not hide it or they give clues themselves about. As a fact, I know information about some other people that many would like to know, but I will not tell this because of confidentiality. The main thing in this area is a good understanding of who is trying to hide, and whoever on the contrary wants his datas to fall into the base or they are indifferent to this.

As a rule, this is that kind of creative people who hide their age already at the first stage of their career in order to avoid leakage of information. If they first give the right information and only after years start to hide - in such cases, someone will sooner or later calculate. Like the case with Honor Blackman. Exactly BFI came with a certificate.
In general, there are many associated with this and IMDb is simply the most popular source.

As for Screen Actors Guild, I think in our modern times it would not be a serious help if the IMDb would agree to the terms, as there are a lot of other sources and people who are engaged in these studies.
I think that those creative people who are trying to continue to hide their age and other information - the best way now is to try to get confused by misinformation more. Definitely it always works and will work. And I'm sure they do so.

[Ian Wegg]

It is almost impossible for anyone to hide their age these days now that civil birth records are so easily accessible, at least in the UK. For instance, it's taken me just seconds using FindMyPast to find the birth entry for Honor Blackman as the third quarter of 1925 in West Ham. If I want more accuracy another couple of clicks will order her birth certificate! Of course, you need to know the person's birth name which can be the hardest part. I've done this a number of times to verify details.

One unusual discrepancy I found was with the actor Ronald Leigh-Hunt ("Dragonsfield", "The Cybernauts" and "Three Handed Game"). Most sources, including his obituary in The Stage, gave his year of birth as 1916 but the Register Office records it as 1920. A rare case of an actor making himself older.

I expect you have found as I have that if you update Wikipedia and IMDB the other "sources" tend to follow!

~iw

[denis rigg]

Yes, everything works just so with the exception of especially tricky types like Peter Wyngarde. He confused so professionally that before his death it was impossible to compute the data through Ancestry or any other source.

Many of the people that I figured were not the way like Ancestry or any open source too - had to learn a lot of stuff to somewhere to find mention about. This is the reason why information about these people has not been made publicly before (even by the researchers of the series Doctor Who, who investigate the topic for the performers of their favorite TV series to). Simply can not know for sure where you will find an mention.

As for the case of the actors who played in The Avengers and they are still not identified, some of these I found simply in individual mentions on different websites (this was not by searching in Google or other search systems - it was akin to detective work) You read one source, analyze, go to another and so examine the chain until you come to total.

[denis rigg]

By the way, a good example for the topic "privacy" is stuntman Dwayne McLean. I already knew many years ago that he was born in 1940, but I did not mention it, considering it to be confidential. When recently I found his personal mention about on Facebook, I realized that this was not taboo and posted the information here.