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Wikipedia / Allan Warren

Michael Allan Warren (born 26 October 1948) is an English portrait photographer, writer and former actor, renowned for his distinctive images of high-society figures, entertainers, politicians, and members of the British royal family. Warren began his professional life as a child actor in London's theatre scene during the early 1960s, later appearing in acclaimed stage productions such as Alan Bennett's Forty Years On (1968), alongside Sir John Gielgud. He also appeared in films, including Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1968) and Porridge (1979).

His photographic career gained prominence through intimate sittings with icons such as Salvador Dalí, Sir Noël Coward, Gloria Swanson, and Cary Grant, as well as royalty including Charles III, Prince Philip, and Lord Mountbatten, the latter of whom became a close friend. His portraits of numerous prominent public figures - often rendered in distinctive black-and-white and characterised by dramatic lighting - have been widely published and archived, establishing him as a visual chronicler of twentieth-century cultural and aristocratic life.

Early life and education

After growing up in post-war London with his mother, Warren attended Terry's Juveniles, a stage school based in the Drury Lane Theatre. It was during this period that he attended auditions through which he received several assignments. One such piece of work was as a child presenter on Five O'Clock Club (1964), which afforded him the opportunity to associate with individuals such as Marc Bolan (then performing as "Toby Tyler"), who would later employ Warren as his first manager.

His godfather was the actor Billy Milton (1905–1989).

Career

Warren started his photographic career at the age of 20, when he was acting in Alan Bennett's play Forty Years On with John Gielgud in the West End at the Apollo Theatre. Around this time, Warren bought his first second-hand camera and began to take photographs of his fellow actors. His first major assignment was in 1969 when his friend Mickey Deans asked him to cover his wedding to Judy Garland, which marked the beginning of Warren's work as a professional photographer. After this decisive event, Warren embarked on his photography career, throughout which he took portraits of personalities including many actors, writers, musicians, politicians and members of the British royal family. In the early 1980s he embarked on a quest to photograph all 30 British dukes. Together with Angus Montagu, 12th Duke of Manchester he set up the Duke's Trust, a charity for children in need. Warren has uploaded many pictures from his archive to Wikimedia Commons, and many of those images have been used on Wikipedia pages, including the page on Warren himself.

He held his first exhibition of photographs titled The Last Picture Show at the Photographic Training Centre's Night Gallery, Earl's Court, in 1980.

In the early 1990s, Warren embarked on writing plays. One of his works, The Lady of Phillimore Walk, was directed by Frank Dunlop and critics went as far as comparing it to Sleuth, a thriller written by Anthony Shaffer. The cast of The Lady of Phillimore Walk consisted of Zena Walker and Philip Lowrie; and saw productions in the United States.

Warren invented the Hankybreathe, a handkerchief which allows the user to inhale air through a carbon filter at the mouth, to filter out the noxious effects of exhaust emissions. The invention, which is meant to be dabbed in eucalyptus oil, harks back to the nosegay and stems from Warren's experience with asthma in heavily polluted London.

Stage credits

Filmography

Feature films

Television

As Self

Source: IMDB

Exhibitions

  • The Last Picture Show: An Exhibition by Allan Warren, Lauderdale House, 1980

  • Just One More: An Exhibition of Allan Warren's Photographs, Gallery of Contemporary Art, 1987

  • Come Up and See Me Sometime, Louise Hallett Gallery, 1988

  • Swedish Navy by Allan Warren, The Box, Seven Dials, 2003

  • Art of Giving, Saatchi Gallery, 2010

  • Legende Celebrity Art & Art of Giving Pop-Up Gallery, Mayfair, 2010

  • Christmas Show, La Galleria Pall Mall, 2010

Gallery

Bibliography

Photography books and memoirs

  • Nobs & Nosh: Eating with the Beautiful People (1974)

  • Confessions of a Society Photographer (1976)

  • The Dukes of Britain (1986)

  • Dukes, Queens and Other Stories (1999)

  • Strangers in the Buff (2007)

  • Nein Camp: My Struggle (2012)

  • Stand By to Repel All Boarders (2014)

Plays and fiction

  • The Lady of Phillimore Walk (1991)

  • The Carpet Dwellers (2007) (illustrated children's book)

  • The Matching Pair Part 1: No Good Deed (2021)

  • The Matching Pair Part 2: Double Act (2022)

  • The Sweet Revenge of Peter Brock (2023)

References