Doreen Cannon
Encyclopedia
Doreen Cannon was born and raised in NYC. She trained as an actress at the HB Studio
in Manhattan
for over 10 years with the famous Uta Hagen
and Herbert Berghof
. Her contemporaries and fellow students were Peter Falk
, Geraldine Page
, Sandy Dennis
, Maureen Stapleton
, Anne Meara
and Jerry Stiller
. She appeared in many plays off Broadway and in Summer Stock alongside such stars as Dorothy Lamour
, Robert Alda
, Alan Alda
and Basil Rathbone
. She married an English Property Developer David Cannon in NYC and came over to London
in 1959. She was subsequently invited by George Devine
to teach master workshops at The Royal Court Theatre.
She was instrumental in being one of the first practitioners to bring over the Stanislavski technique - method acting
from the USA. Consequently she was invited to be Head of Acting at Drama Centre London in 1963. This was the first "Method" school to open in the United Kingdom
. She taught and directed there for 20 years and was responsible for training such actors as: Pierce Brosnan
, Colin Firth
, Geraldine James
, Frances de la Tour
, Penelope Wilton
and Simon Callow
, who wrote about his training with Doreen in his book "Being an actor". She formed her own theatre company in the 1970s Theatre 84 which was one of the first fringe companies in London. She produced and directed premiers of European plays never before seen in England.
In 1983 Cannon was invited to become Head of Acting at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
(RADA). This marked a major change in the training at RADA and after 80 years this was the first time they decided to embrace the Stanislavski technique - Method
as taught by Doreen Cannon. At the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
she trained such notable actors as: Michael Sheen
, Adrian Lester
, Indira Varma
, Matthew Macfadyen
and Ioan Gruffudd
. As well as being known for teaching acting technique at these leading drama schools, she was also invited to guest teach and direct in Sweden
at Göteborg Teaterhögskolan i Göteborg and Teaterhögskolan Malmö which she did for over 20 years. Doreen's views on acting were published in a book Masters of the Stage She also conducted various master classes and was a guest teacher at the HB Studio
in New York City
. She was well known for her Saturday morning acting classes, training such actors as Warren Mitchell
, Oscar James
and Rachel Weisz
, which she conducted lovingly for over 30 years. There are hundreds and thousands of actors and directors from all over the world who owe a lot of their success to Doreen Cannon and her tireless efforts to make them be "Truthful" at all costs. Her son Desmond Cannon is an Executive of Post Production at Sony Pictures Entertainment
in Los Angeles
. Her daughter Dee Cannon went on to become senior acting teacher at RADA
for the last 17 years and is considered one of the top acting coaches in the United Kingdom
.
Doreen Cannon died on the 18 September 1995.
HB Studio
Founded in 1945 by Herbert Berghof, the HB Studio is a school that offers professional training in the performing arts. Located in Greenwich Village in New York City, its curriculum includes classes in a variety of areas, including acting, directing, playwrighting, screenwriting, musical theatre,...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
for over 10 years with the famous Uta Hagen
Uta Hagen
Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...
and Herbert Berghof
Herbert Berghof
Herbert Berghof was an Austrian American actor, director and acting coach. He co-founded HB Studio in New York City with his wife Uta Hagen in 1945...
. Her contemporaries and fellow students were Peter Falk
Peter Falk
Peter Michael Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo...
, Geraldine Page
Geraldine Page
Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. Although she starred in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater...
, Sandy Dennis
Sandy Dennis
Sandra Dale “Sandy” Dennis was an American theater and film actress. In 1966, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.-Early life:...
, Maureen Stapleton
Maureen Stapleton
Maureen Stapleton was an American actress in film, theater and television.-Early life:Stapleton was born Lois Maureen Stapleton in Troy, New York, the daughter of Irene and John P. Stapleton, and grew up in a strict Irish American Catholic family...
, Anne Meara
Anne Meara
Anne Meara is an American actress and comedian. She and Jerry Stiller were a prominent 1960s comedy team, appearing as Stiller and Meara, and are the parents of actor/comedian Ben and actress Amy Stiller.- Personal life :...
and Jerry Stiller
Jerry Stiller
Gerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller is an American comedian and actor.He spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife Anne Meara...
. She appeared in many plays off Broadway and in Summer Stock alongside such stars as Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope .-Early life:Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise Dorothy...
, Robert Alda
Robert Alda
Robert Alda was an American actor. He was the father of actors Alan Alda and Antony Alda.-Life and career:...
, Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
and Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
. She married an English Property Developer David Cannon in NYC and came over to London
London
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...
in 1959. She was subsequently invited by George Devine
George Devine
George Alexander Cassady Devine CBE was an extremely influential theatrical manager, director, teacher and actor in London from the late 1940s until his death. He also worked in the media of TV and film.-Biography:...
to teach master workshops at The Royal Court Theatre.
She was instrumental in being one of the first practitioners to bring over the Stanislavski technique - method acting
Method acting
Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques used by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances...
from the USA. Consequently she was invited to be Head of Acting at Drama Centre London in 1963. This was the first "Method" school to open in the United Kingdom
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...
. She taught and directed there for 20 years and was responsible for training such actors as: Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
, Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
, Geraldine James
Geraldine James
Geraldine James, OBE is an English actress.-Early life and family:James was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, to a cardiologist father...
, Frances de la Tour
Frances de la Tour
Frances de la Tour is an English actress perhaps best known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the British sitcom Rising Damp, and as Madame Olympe Maxime in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.-Early life and family:De la...
, Penelope Wilton
Penelope Wilton
Penelope Alice Wilton, OBE is an English actress.-Life and career:Penelope Alice Wilton was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, to a former actress mother and a businessman father. She is a niece of actors Bill Travers and Linden Travers and a cousin of the actor Richard Morant...
and Simon Callow
Simon Callow
Simon Phillip Hugh Callow, CBE is an English actor, writer and theatre director. He is also currently a judge on Popstar to Operastar.-Early years:...
, who wrote about his training with Doreen in his book "Being an actor". She formed her own theatre company in the 1970s Theatre 84 which was one of the first fringe companies in London. She produced and directed premiers of European plays never before seen in England.
In 1983 Cannon was invited to become Head of Acting at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
(RADA). This marked a major change in the training at RADA and after 80 years this was the first time they decided to embrace the Stanislavski technique - Method
Method
Method may refer to:* Scientific method, a series of steps taken to acquire knowledge* Method , a piece of code associated with a class or object to perform a task...
as taught by Doreen Cannon. At the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
she trained such notable actors as: Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen
Michael Christopher Sheen, OBE , is a Welsh stage and screen actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England and made his professional debut opposite Vanessa Redgrave in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991...
, Adrian Lester
Adrian Lester
-Personal life:Lester was born in Birmingham, England, the son of Jamaican immigrants Monica, a medical secretary, and Reginald, a manager for a contract cleaning company. He sang as a boy treble in the choir of St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham...
, Indira Varma
Indira Varma
Indira Varma is an English actress. Her first major role was in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. She has gone on to appear in the television series Rome and Human Target.-Early life and background:...
, Matthew Macfadyen
Matthew Macfadyen
David Matthew Macfadyen is an English actor, known for his role as MI5 intelligence officer Tom Quinn in the BBC television drama series Spooks and for starring as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.In June, 2010 Macfadyen won a British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting...
and Ioan Gruffudd
Ioan Gruffudd
Ioan Gruffudd is a Welsh actor.Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he started off in Welsh language film productions, then came to international attention as Fifth Officer Harold Lowe in the film Titanic , and as Lt. John Beales in Black Hawk Down...
. As well as being known for teaching acting technique at these leading drama schools, she was also invited to guest teach and direct in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
at Göteborg Teaterhögskolan i Göteborg and Teaterhögskolan Malmö which she did for over 20 years. Doreen's views on acting were published in a book Masters of the Stage She also conducted various master classes and was a guest teacher at the HB Studio
HB Studio
Founded in 1945 by Herbert Berghof, the HB Studio is a school that offers professional training in the performing arts. Located in Greenwich Village in New York City, its curriculum includes classes in a variety of areas, including acting, directing, playwrighting, screenwriting, musical theatre,...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. She was well known for her Saturday morning acting classes, training such actors as Warren Mitchell
Warren Mitchell
Warren Mitchell is an English actor who rose to initial prominence in the role of bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part , and its sequels Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health , all of which were written by Johnny Speight...
, Oscar James
Oscar James
Oscar James is a Trinidadian actor, who is based in the United Kingdom. He has had a long and varied career, but is best known for appearing on British television, in particular the BBC soap opera EastEnders, where he played original character, Tony Carpenter, for over two years...
and Rachel Weisz
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz born 7 March 1970)is an English-American film and theatre actress and former fashion model. She started her acting career at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she co-founded the theatrical group Cambridge Talking Tongues...
, which she conducted lovingly for over 30 years. There are hundreds and thousands of actors and directors from all over the world who owe a lot of their success to Doreen Cannon and her tireless efforts to make them be "Truthful" at all costs. Her son Desmond Cannon is an Executive of Post Production at Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Her daughter Dee Cannon went on to become senior acting teacher at RADA
Rada
Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
for the last 17 years and is considered one of the top acting coaches in the United Kingdom
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...
.
Doreen Cannon died on the 18 September 1995.