Paul Potts Welsh Tenor Born This Day in 1970

From the Wikipedia:- "Paul Robert Potts (born 13 October 1970) is a British tenor who won the first series of ITV's Britain's Got Talent in 2007, singing an operatic aria, "Nessun dorma" from Puccini's Turandot. Potts was a manager at Carphone Warehouse who also performed in amateur opera from 1999 to 2003"....MORE. LINKS The Official Paul Potts Site

Actor and Producer Kenneth Griffith Born This day - Oct 12th 1921

From the Wikipedia:-"Born Kenneth Reginald Griffiths in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales,Six months after his birth his parents both left Tenby,going their separate ways and leaving Kenneth with his paternal grandparents, Emily and Ernest, who immediately became his mother and father. A lively rugby union scrum-half, he attended the local Wesleyan Methodist chapel three times every Sunday. Griffths passed the Eleven plus and attended Greenhill Grammar School, where he met English literature teacher Evelyn Ward, who recognised his writing and acting talent. Before leaving school, his headmaster J.T. Griffth suggested that he drop the English "S" from his name as it was an anglicization, which he did from that point onwards." ...MORE. Griffith appeared in the following movies:- . "The Farmer's Wife" (1941) "Forbidden" (1948) "Waterfront" (1950) "The Naked Truth" (1957), "A Night To Remember"(1958) "I'm All Right Jack" (1959) "Snowball" (1960) "Circus of Horrors" (1960) "The Painted Smile" (1962) "The Lion in Winter" (1968) "The Gamblers" (1970). "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994) "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain" (1995) He also appeared in the 1960's television series "The Prisoner". He made two highly controversial documentaries about the IRA:- "Hang Out Your Brightest Colours: The Life and Death of Michael Collins." LINKS Kenneth Griffith on YouTube Kenneth Griffith on FindaGrave.

R. S. Thomas - Born This Day 1913

From the Wikipedia:- "Ronald Stuart Thomas (29 March 1913 – 25 September 2000) (published as R. S. Thomas) was a Welsh poet and Anglican clergyman, noted for his nationalism, spirituality and deep dislike of the anglicisation of Wales. He was one of the most famous Welsh poets.

In 1955, John Betjeman, in his introduction to the first collection of Thomas’s poetry to be produced by a major publisher, Song at the Year's Turning, predicted that Thomas would be remembered long after Betjeman himself was forgotten.

Professor M. Wynn Thomas said: "He was the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn of Wales because he was such a troubler of the Welsh conscience. He was one of the major English language and European poets of the 20th century."

LINKS

Poemhunter - R.S.Thomas on poemhunter.com.

The Literary Encyclopaedia - R.S. Thomas on the Literary Encyclopaedia.

Google Book Search - R.S Thomas on Google Book Search.

The Guardian - R.S. Thomas' obituary from the Guardian. A thoughtful
and insifghtful appraisal of the man and his career.

The Crooked Timber - Short blog post about R.S. Thomas including Harri
Webbs' hilarious parody:- “Ianto Rhydderch, Tch Tch”

R.S. Thomas on Amazon