Col Needham's Story.

There he is – the man himself: one Col Needham; the man a lot of people aspire to be.

At one time everybody wanted to be Clark Gable then other movie stars or pop singers of the day; I wanted to be Elvis, Steve McQueen or James Dean then later Robert De Niro and then James Joyce. Of course as a child I wanted to be Superman, Roy Rogers and then Geoff Duke!!

Women wanted to be the female equivalent - shall we say Marilyn Monroe, then Marilyn Monroe again, then Gertrude Stein.

Others wanted to be sports figures like Joe DiMaggio, George Best and now David Beckham but that man above has taken over; and who is he? He is Col Needham?

Col was born in Manchester on January 26^th 1967; I don't know if his birth name is Colin but he is known as 'Col' and he is one of the hand full of multi-billionaires who have made their fortune by accident, out of a hobby or a convenience they invented. I don't mean a public convenience, like a public lavatory, I mean something they made or adapted or, in the case of Col, wrote a computer programme for.

I made a movie in the 90s in the north of England and next to the place where we shot the scenes, there was a young man listing every film he had ever seen; he was entering the titles, the stars, the directors and the writers and he was filing them away. This was in Cheshire and I often wondered if that was Col; the time line seems to fit.

Because that's what Col, himself, says he was doing around that time!

He wanted the information for easy reference when he wanted to find something. Just the fella to meet at a party eh?

Rather like the driver who always has spare bulbs, spare tyres, a full petrol can in the boot so that when he breaks down he can look rather smugly at everybody else. The last time I had a puncture it was a 'double blow out' in Los Angeles when my two off side wheels went down a sharp pot hole; so my spare was no good as I needed two and to make matters worse, I had just watched a documentary on TV which said that two tyres blowing out in pot holes in Los Angeles was very common after huge downpours of rain!!

Back to Col; he was doing all this stuff before the advent of the world wide web so he invented a little data base to share with friends and to make easy access to it he wrote the computer programme.

When the Internet started someone contacted him and said his site was great but needed writers' details as well so that particular person was asked to put the writers information in; then someone said the site needed composer information and that someone was recruited too.

Of course this led to the giant Internet Movie Data Base which is what it is now – the IMDb – or the imdB (whatever).

In 1998 he sold it to Amazon but he still runs the company and is the CEO or the Managing Director – he runs it with a staff of between 100 – 200 from his office just outside Bristol.

I want to ask one question: why would Amazon want to buy it? Why did Ebay buy everything from Paypal to Skype? Why did Google buy YouTube? Why do they want so much power.

I know why Amazon bought Love Film, because they couldn't buy Netflix; Netflix was started by a couple of computer geeks from Silicon Valley in Northern California (computer guy again) who returned a DVD back to Blockbusters and had to pay a $40 late fee so decided to start his own little business with a partner and what a little business it turned out to be. It's now one of the biggest companies of its kind anywhere in the world – all because he kept Apollo 13 too long and Blockbusters were too greedy. That's the one I'm really pleased about and I'm glad they didn't sell it to the man.

One mistake may I point out to Netflix – you didn't design your envelope too well as you had to put that little sticker to keep the DVD in the packet. You can't see it in the picture but there's another sheet of paper you have to tear off before returning the DVD.

 But back to Mister Needham the IMDb boss: casting was always run by people in the business and records kept by people like The Academy Players and Spotlight but now the casting directors in Los Angeles use the IMDb and that might happen in the UK soon who knows? It'll mean the British actors will have to put their head shots up on there like they do in the USA.

Before I close I have to thank all those who sent emails to me following my last post commemorating my dad's centenary – it was appreciated and I'm glad you liked it.

But who was the guy keeping all the film records if it wasn't the Col?

My second novel has just been published in paperback and is available from Amazon – here we are - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Gertie-Ford-Chris-Sullivan/dp/1482691973/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363609040&sr=8-1 that's for the UK and this is for the USA:

http://www.amazon.com/Who-Gertie-Ford-Chris-Sullivan/dp/1482691973/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363613415&sr=8-1&keywords=who+was+gertie+ford%3F You'll have to copy and paste.

Actor or actress; that is the question!

Brian Croucher.

There he is, above; my old mate Brian Croucher. I have known him for more years than either of us care to remember. We kind of met when we were both in the soap opera Crossroads. When I say 'kind of met' I remember him sitting across from me in the green room, chatting away to someone else, whilst I was being warned that I was sitting in the star of the show's seat; it was her day off.

Well it's Brian's birthday today (Jan 23) and as he reads this blog on a regular basis I am wishing him many happy returns. I won't say how old he is as the IMDb will lap it up and put it there with everyone else's.

As well as Crossroads, Brian has been in many TV productions such as the cult sci-fi classic Blake's 7 where he wore an eye patch. He was also in Eastenders for a couple of years and at the Royal Court Theatre.

Unlike me, Brian doesn't like the Academy Awards – the Oscars – I seem to remember. I knew an actor in Los Angeles, Bruce French, who would drive out to Santa Monica on the day of the Oscars, cutting himself off from reality, where he would read a book till it was all over. It starts quite early on TV at 5:00 pm.

I think I mentioned before that the one thing I will miss is the awards season; everybody going to Oscar parties, buying pizza and beer from rock'n'roll Ralphs and inviting friends around or just sitting there with your loved ones, giving your whole day to the Academy Awards. The pre show starts earlier in the day, and then there are the after shows live from the big parties; a bit like FA Cup Final day in Britain – or what it used to be like.

Last week they held The Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood; compared again by Ricky Gervaise. The Golden Globes is one of the biggest and best parties held in Hollywood but people in the business don't take the actual awards too seriously; some of their awards over the years have been laughable.

The Golden Globes is produced by the Hollywood Foreign Press; these are people from local newspapers all over the world who live in Los Angeles; there's one from the Standard in London who lived in the same building as us when we lived in Hollywood. I have been to some of their screenings but there are very few of them and these few people are the ones who vote for the winners in The Golden Globes.

The rest of the world don't know this; they know that the winners of the other awards – Oscars, BAFTAs etc – are voted for by many members of the profession.

As you may know Meryl Streep won best actress for a dramatic role – okay okay I've gone on about her enough – and Michelle Williams won for best actress in a musical or comedy.

When the Oscar nominations are announced soon they will both be in the same category and also when the British Oscars, the BAFTAs are announced, that too will just be best actress. But in a couple of months there will be the SAG awards where they will be nominated, if they are nominated, as best female actor in a leading role.

Best female actor in a leading role!!!!

Now what is the matter with the word actress? It has always been used so why change it? I don't think it has anything to do with women's rights and equality – it's just a word.

I don't know anybody who thinks that women are inferior to men or that both men and women should be paid different rates of pay for doing the same job. I don't think the people who actually pay the different rates believe in it either, they just take advantage of it! I know there are people who think the male is the superior but you know what – they are men!

The Guardian has stopped the use of the word actress in their obituaries? When the actress Dulcie Gray died recently, she was very famous in Britain and was 92, The Guardian put her description as the 'actor' Dulcie Gray.

The French would have called her an actrice, the Spanish an actriz, the Italians an attrice and the Germans a Schauspielerin as opposed to a Schauspieler - I think if I were a German actress I might be a bit put out at being called a Schauspielerin but you know what I mean!

We are all actors, male and female, because we act. Actress is not like being called a poetess or an authoress; if that were the case it would be actoress.

Isn't it about time we, and The Guardian climbed down from our use of political correctness, which ties people's tongues and speech flow; it's like speaking a foreign language.

I thought that when The Guardian described Dame Wendy Hiller, in 2003, as the actor Dame Wendy Hiller they would have 'copped on.'

So there we are – happy birthday Brian; it's my brother's birthday tomorrow so – happy birthday, Pat.

The IMDb being sued by mysterious actress.

Clint Eastwood

(all 6'2" of him according to the IMDb)

Well what about that aye? The almighty IMDB is being sued for being amateurish; well they are amateurs they are run by a computer which is owned by Amazon. Yes Amazon.com or more likely Amazon.co.uk by people who know nothing about the film business.

Most of the contributions are made by people of the profession who write their own biographies and then deny it and put bits of information in themselves about themselves.

I was in a movie a few years ago and before I got home from the audition it was on the IMDB and put there by an assistant director who wanted his first credit to be on there.

When you put a film up on there you need at least 3 or 4 heads of department and they had that and put me in as the only actor in the movie – and I wasn't playing the lead.

Let me tell you what this is all about: the IMDB or the IMDb, as they like to be known, publish as many films and TV productions details as they can. They have a page for every film and everybody in that film from the top producer to the poor fella who has to wipe the shit from the stars' arses have another page to themselves. Incidentally the arse wiper is usually called the Associate Producer.

On that page the IMDb like to put as much information as possible including our age. Now if we look 15 years younger than we actually are we won't ever play our true age. But if they show your age and the casting director casts from the IMDb, as they do these days in Hollywood, they will presume it's an old picture and won't see you or audition you.

The Spotlight in London and The Academy Players, in Los Angeles, would never dream of publishing an actor's age; they have been in the business since the 1930s and they are the professionals.

An actress has sued Amazon.com for more than $1m (£639,000) after her age was posted on its Internet Movie Database.

The unnamed actress says the website misused her legal date of birth after she signed up to the IMDbPro service in 2008.

She says revealing her age on the site will lose her acting opportunities.

Amazon and its movie database subsidiary are accused of breach of contract, fraud, violation of privacy and consumer protection laws. (source BBC.co.uk).

The IMDb is a Johnny come lately and novice casting directors with novice directors have given it more credence than it deserves. It is here to stay and is an important new tool in American TV and film and this will spread to the UK and because of this it needs to be professional. I don't know what the answer is as they don't charge anybody to have a page, as the others do, but if they are that important they should answer to somebody; the profession??

Years ago I did a fringe play at the Soho Poly Theatre, in London, and I played a rebellious 25 year old. I was 34; my pal the director knew roughly what age I was but one day the writer found out how old I was and was shocked – I suddenly looked 34 to him.

The performance was successful so nothing really happened.

People tend to believe you look the age that you are and directors and casting directors have no imagination. In Hollywood if you go for the part of a cowboy that is how you go to the audition. I sat outside a casting directors office one day when I first went there and saw about 30 actors walk across the parking lot as if they were on their way to the OK Corral!

I've spoken about suits before.

So we will see what happens with that case.

But it struck me, if they are so determined to get the ages right for whatever stupid reason, maybe they should be sure to get the other information right – the height!!!!

I have read loads of biographies and interviews of actors and in a lot of them their height is mentioned.

I know that Steve McQueen was 5”7”, Marlon Brando 5'8”, Mel Gibson 5'6” - I put those actors heights down as they are leading players and usually thought to be tall; Humphrey Bogart 5”8” - these actors never minded playing with taller actors unlike a certain actor in a TV series when I first went to Hollywood who wouldn't allow people to audition who were over a certain height.

Paul Newman and Robert Redford about 5'7” each!

So why don't they go up to these actors and measure them. Let's have some phantom measurer (I know no such word) approaching actors with a tape and getting the truth?

But who puts these false height on the IMDb? Why their publicists, of course! Did you really think James Dean towered over people?

And what height am I? I am a half inch taller than Sylvester Stallone – no matter what is says on the IMDb!!

By the way – here I am; http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0838002/ you'll have to copy and paste it, I think, as it probably can't be hyper-text for you to click on to. No it actually works on my computer so give it a go.

James Cagney (5'6½" according to the IMDb)

Charlie Chaplin (5'5" according to IMDb)