Talk:Sebastian Shaw (actor)

older comments

Note: The initial text of this article was copy-and-pasted from Sebastian Shaw on 12 December 2003. See the edit history of that article for details of who wrote it. —Paul A 01:50, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Seb-Husk equation

The Seb-Husk equation sounds like rubbish to me. This is the only reference Google found. Anyone care to prove / dis-prove? --Jones77 15:28, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Removed. For the record, the text was "He was known for his love of mathematics and is credited as the creator of the lesser-known Seb-Husk equation." --Doradus 13:40, Jun 24, 2005 (UTC)

The Cliff Walk

Does anyone know anything about this book The Cliff Walk (1969) that is mentioned in his bibliography? I can't find it in the British Library catalogue. SteveCrook 17:19, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

It's a play he wrote, according to IMDB --Huw Moore 15:58, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Filmography

On pretty much every actors page the filmography goes from earliest work to most recent, This page seems to go the opposite way, is this even worth fixing?Gorkymalorki 06:44, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I should say it's worth fixing, as chronological order is better and more encyclopedic. A few filmographies (see for example Mignon Anderson and Sienna Guillory) do go the other way, which may be because they have been copied and pasted from IMDb. I've turned one or two of these around at Wikipedia, it doesn't take too long. Xn4 13:14, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok fixed it, thanks for the input Xn4.Gorkymalorki 18:45, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

RAF service

An Aircraftman 2nd Class named Sebastian Lewis Shaw was commissioned as an acting pilot officer on probation on 25 April 1941 ("No. 35171". The London Gazette. 23 May 1941.), he was promoted to pilot officer on probation on 16 May 1941 ("No. 35391". The London Gazette. 23 December 1941.), to flying officer on 16 May 1942 ("No. 35606". The London Gazette. 23 June 1942.) and flight lieutenant on 1 July 1944 ("No. 36618". The London Gazette (). 18 July 1944.). He sames to have continued to hold a reserve RAFVR commission after the war until 10 February 1954, when (exceptionally) on resigning the commission he was permitted to retain that rank ("No. 40271". The London Gazette (). 3 September 1954.) Of course it's not entirely impossible that there should have been someone else with the same name in the RAF during the war, but it does seem like the account in The Guardian's obit may not be entirely accurate on this point. David Underdown (talk) 15:36, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Impressive research. The obit certainly seems a bit anecdotal, and not that conclusive: although he "tried to avoid a commission", it doesn't say whether or not he succeeded! The London Gazette seems certainly to refer to him. --Old Moonraker (talk) 16:16, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

This one was quite easy. A search on his full name brought up the initial commission, and then the service number given there found the rest, with no gaps. Often I find that the OCR messes things up and you miss promotions and other bits and pieces. I'll leave i up to you how you want to incorporate the info in the article. David Underdown (talk) 16:26, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Passed as GA

See GA review, at /GA1. Cirt (talk) 05:19, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Proposed trim for Star Wars section

I appreciate the trim of the Star Wars section, but it still seems too long to me. I made an attempt at a further trim as a compromise (on my own, I'd trim further). What do you think? Karanacs (talk) 15:11, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

In 1982, Shaw was chosen for the small but crucial role of Anakin Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, the third and final movie in the original Star Wars trilogy. Although David Prowse played the costumed scenes and James Earl Jones voiced Skywalker's Darth Vader alter-ego, just as they had in the first two films, Shaw was cast in a single scene with Mark Hamill, during the moment aboard Death Star II when Anakin's son Luke unmasks his dying father. Since the scene was arguably the emotional climax of the film, the casting crew wanted an experienced actor for the role.

When Shaw arrived at the set for filming, he ran into his friend Ian McDiarmid, the actor playing Emperor Palpatine. When McDiarmid asked him what he was doing there, Shaw responded, "I don't know, dear boy, I think it's something to do with science-fiction." His presence during the filming was kept secret from all but the minimum cast and crew. The unmasking scene, directed by Richard Marquand, was filmed in one day and required only a few takes, with no alteration from the original dialogue.

Star Wars creator George Lucas also personally directed Shaw for his appearance in the final scene of the movie, in which he is a Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker. When the movie was re-released on DVD in 2004, Shaw's image in this scene was replaced with that of Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin in the prequel films. This attempt to tie the prequel and original trilogies together proved to be one of the least popular changes in the Star Wars re-releases, although some defended the move.

Although Shaw's unmasking scene lasted only two minutes and seven seconds and included just 24 words of dialogue spoken by Shaw, he received more fan mail and autograph requests from Return of the Jedi than he had for any role in his career. He later reflected that he very much enjoyed his experience filming for Return of the Jedi and expressed particular surprise that an action figure was made of him from the film.

• I appreciate your patience, making cuts is by far the hardest thing for me. lol. That being said, I think this is mostly fine. The one thing I would suggest is that we include the part that says his contract actually included a stipulation taht he couldn't even discuss this film secrets with his own family. As I said, I'd love to keep the McDiarmid line if possible, but given a choice between the two, I'd keep in the contract stipulation instead. (Also, if we're going to drop the Barbican Centre performance mention from here, do you think we should mention it as one of his performances in the Royal Shakespeare Company section?) --Hunter Kahn (talk) 16:40, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

References

Old Mercury Theatre?

The article includes the text

Significant theatre roles that decade included ... Hern Lawrance in I Said to Myself at the Old Mercury Theatre in 1947,

This appears to be fairly dodgy: The role name seems improbable, the show title I don't recognise, and I believe there's no such place as the theatre. I think the theatre might well mean the Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate. Can anyone help? SamuelTheGhost (talk) 18:25, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Star Wars fans have identified this as the Mercury Theatre, Colchester. Still looking for a reference we can use. --Old Moonraker (talk) 21:08, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I'd seen that. The performance in question took place in 1947, while the Colchester theatre was builr in 1972, so I think there's been some rather dubious guesswork going on there. There was a previous company in Colchester, but it was then called the Colchester Repertory Company. The name Mercury, like the bullding, seems only to date from 1972. SamuelTheGhost (talk) 22:31, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Good point: will RV self. --Old Moonraker (talk) 22:55, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I think this link is enough to establish the name of the show and the location. I still have my doubts about the name of the role, but I'm inclined to give up on that. SamuelTheGhost (talk) 08:51, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Shaw as "Hern Lawrance" is apparently mentioned in the Telegraph obit, but I don't have access to it. This comes from a Star Wars fan site tribute copy. --Old Moonraker (talk) 09:24, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I'd seen that, but my faith in its accuracy was undermined by other apparent mistakes, for example "Measure of Measure" instead of Measure for Measure and "Hugo von Hofmanstahl" for Hugo von Hofmannsthal. SamuelTheGhost (talk) 11:27, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

You're ahead of me again: I'm giving up as well. --Old Moonraker (talk) 14:24, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

The recent confident spelling correction has led me to a source in Who's Who in the Theatre. Shall I add it, or is this the one you are using? --Old Moonraker (talk) 15:08, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes to both quesions. SamuelTheGhost (talk) 19:28, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Added a contemporary press advertisement as source, with acknowledgement to research by User:SamuelTheGhost. Shaw and the writer, Florida Scott-Maxwell, were the only names the management put in the press adverts: at the time he must have been regarded as the star. --Old Moonraker (talk) 22:58, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Well done. I'd never heard of Florida Scott-Maxwell. It's interesting what you find out; that's why wikipedai is fun. SamuelTheGhost (talk) 20:53, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Performances with the RSC

Here is a link to a search engine on the RSC Archive website: http://calm.shakespeare.org.uk/dserve/dserve.exe?dsqserver=srv-ex1&dsqCmd=Searchnames.tcl&dsqDb=Roles&dsqApp=Archive If you type 'Sebastian Shaw' into the search box, you will get a list of his performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Hope this helps. 13:52, 6 February 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ixobel (talk • contribs)

Filmography revisited...

In most articles, the WP:FILMOGRAPHY table is usually split into two tables for "Film" and "Television". This is a Featured article, so before I start mucking with anything – does anyone object to splitting the Filmography table into two as described? --IJBall (contribs • talk) 05:00, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Memoirs

I think it is worth adding that his memoirs have been published with a full list of his films and plays. Its a small publisher so they're not available on Amazon http://www.shawpress.co.uk/ ixo (talk) 22:23, 16 January 2019 (UTC)