The Movies > Sorcerer's Stone Cast, Part 5

PART 5 – MORE GHOSTS, A VILLAIN,
STUNTMEN AND BODY DOUBLE

Bayler appears as Slytherin's fierce resident ghost. Bayler was born 24 January 1930 in Wangunui, New Zealand.

He established a long association with the British comedy group Monty Python (which included "Nearly Headless Nick," John Cleese) by first appearing in their movie The Life of Briain (1975). He also had roles in The Rutles, a Beatles parody by Python troupe members Eric Idle and Michael Palin. He also acted for Pythonite turned director Terry Gilliam in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985). Bayler’s most recent theatrical credit was in The Remains of the Day (1993) with Anthony Hopkins.

Bayler’s debut was at age 22 in Broken Barrier, (1952), a New Zealand film. He had additional roles in movies and television in the UK and in his native country. In 1971, he starred as Macduff in Roman Polanski's bizarre take on Shakespeare's Macbeth.

ELIZABETH SPRIGGS (The Fat Lady)

Spriggs is the woman in the painting whom the Gryffindor kids must pass in order to get to their living quarters. She is a veteran stage actress who was born 18 September 1929 in Buxton, Derbyshire County, England.

Spriggs studied at the Royal School of Music and began her career with the Bristol Old Vic and Birmingham Repertory in 1958. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962 and currently is an associate artist with the organization. She joined the National Theatre in 1976. Spriggs' film and television credits date to 1967. In British TV, she played an unselfish wife and mother in the drama series Fox, and a strong-willed wife and mother in the comedy Shine On, Harvey Moon. She also took her role in Love Letters on Blue Paper from the small screen to the stage and won the West End Managers Award in 1978.

Spriggs has appeared in numerous literature and drama adaptations. She co-starred with David Bradley (Argus Filch) in Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit on the BBC; George Eliot’s Middlemarch; and with Emma Thompson in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (1995). She also was in a BBC production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Other film roles include Paradise Road, The Secret Agent, The Hour of the Pig and Impromptu.

She also has appeared in North American fare. Spriggs had a role in the Canadian sci-fi kids’ show The Tomorrow People and a guest role U.S. cable's Tales from the Crypt. She also co-starred with Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) in the American TV version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1999) and in Dickens' A Christmas Carol the same year, with Patrick Stewart.

NINA YOUNG (The Grey Lady)

Nina Young is Ravenclaw’s mysterious resident spirit. Young is a native of Australia who was born in 1966.

She is a former “Bond girl,” having appeared as Tamara Steel with Pierce Brosnan as Agent 007 in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). She began her film career in the mid-1990s with two British TV movies – England, My England and Two Golden Balls. She also had a supporting role in Sliding Doors (1998) with Gwyneth Paltrow.

Young has continued her British TV roles as well, with a recurring part on Big Bad World (1999), the sitcom Pilgrim's Rest and the period movie Take a Girl Like You (2000).

SIMON FISHER-BECKER (The Fat Friar)

This comedian-actor is the jolly ghost who hangs out with Hufflepuff House.

In his own biography he stresses his character acting range by listing roles as “doctor, lawyer, politician, bank manager” -- and as legendary comic Oliver Hardy (of the duo Laurel & Hardy). He has logged 10 years of character parts, appearing in productions ranging from his native UK to Europe and Japan.

Fisher-Becker was born in November 1961 in London and raised by his grandparents in Middlesex County. Before attending drama school, he was a civil servant and earned a bachelor’s degree in business.

In 1987 he was first runner-up in acting at the Ediburgh Festival in Scotland, where he appeared as Peter III, husband of Russia’s Catherine the Great. In 2001, he also starred in a one-man show, Hamlet: Tragedy of a Fat Man, written especially for him by Paddy Gormley.

Fisher-Becker has had numerous TV roles, including Doctors and Crimewatch on the BBC and London's Burning, One Foot in the Grave, The Good Guys and Hale & Pace. He has had stage roles as diverse as Shakespeare, the musical Oliver! kid fare, such as Jack and the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty, and "pantomimes," musical comedies aimed at families and common in Great Britain.

Fisher-Becker also has appeared in corporate and training videos and specializes in being a narrator and radio presenter. Also check out his Web site.

RICHARD BREMMER (Lord Voldemort)

Bremmer is the leader of the wizards of the Dark Side, who kills Harry Potter’s parents but nearly meets the same fate when he tries to do the same to the baby wizard. His best-known international role to date is as a Viking with whom Antonio Banderas’ Arab scholar travels in The 13th Warrior (1999).

He was born 27 January 1953 in Warwickshire, England. He studied theater at Valparaiso University in Indiana, USA, and finished his drama studies at the Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama in London, England.

Bremmer has numerous credits on stage, including at the Leicester Haymarket, Royal Exchange and Derby Playhouse. He appeared in numerous productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company, including many plays by "the Bard," and modern titles, such as They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Other stage credits include Disappeared, As You Like It, The Beaux' Strategem and Dreaming.

Bremmer’s career features several cinema adaptations of classic novels or plays. He appeared in Shakespeare's Richard II (1996) which co-starred Fiona Shaw (Aunt Petunia), who raised controversy playing the title king. He also “went Russian,” appearing Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1998 TV miniseries) and in Onegin with Ralph Fiennes, in a drama set in St. Petersburg.

Bremmer also appeared in the silly comedy Just Visiting as the king of France in 2001, with Jean Reno and Christina Applegate. TV credits include The Buddha of Suburbia, Scarlet and Black, Sharpe, The Bills and Picking Up the Pieces.

JOSS GOWER (Voldemort Stunt Double)

Two of the biggest jobs on this stunt player’s resume to date are doubling for Liam Neeson in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, (1999) and for Hayden Christensen on Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002). His stunt work for Phantom Menace involved working with light sabers and jumping and falling from platforms and various levels during fights.

Gower also was William Hurt’s stunt double on Lost in Space (1998); for Colin Firth on Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001); and for Aidan Quinn in Haunted. He also worked on two James Bond movies, GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies (Nina Young, the “Grey Lady,” was a cast member). Gower’s extensive TV credits include Prime Suspect, starring Helen Mirren.

Besides fighting and falls, Gower lists horseback riding and falling, fire stunts, driving, swimming, wire and rope action and stunt safety as specialties.

THEO KYPRI (Voldemort Stunt Double)

Theo Kypri also was a double, more than likely for Richard Bremmer, for Lord Voldemort sequences on The Sorcerer’s Stone. He was born 20 September 1969 in London, England. He attended Highbury Grove Secondary School, not far from the Arsenal Football Club, which was located in the area where he grew up.

Kypri took up trampolining when he was 13 and two years later was accepted to the Great Britain Youth Squad in the sport. As a professional trampolinist, he earned 10 national titles in the United Kingdom and was a top 10 worldwide finisher and World Cup Champion.

Kypri joined the British Register of Stunt Performers in 1996 and had his first credit on Shooting Fish the following year. Kypri's many other credits inclue Tomorrow Never Dies, with veteran stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong; with Sorcerer's Stone stunt coordinator Gregory Powell on The Mummy Returns, and the TV miniseries Band of Brothers and Arabian Nights.

Kypri’s recent credits include Dungeons and Dragons, Spy Game, 102 Dalmatians, Entrapment and Tomb Raider (in which Sorting Hat voice Leslie Phillips had a role). Other television work was for Horatio Hornblower and Hope and Glory in the UK, and the hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the U.S.

Kypri is a specialist in acrobatics, tumbling, trampoline and aerial work. He also lists sword fighting, martial arts, inline skating, snowboarding, boxing and diving. He received his theater training from the Anna Scher Drama Theatre in London.

Kypri said in an e-mail to this site that he was the stuntman seen playing Lord Voldemort in the unicorn scenes in the Forbidden Forest. "They used a stuntman because there was a lot of specialist work involved," he added.

Visit Kypri’s Web site at www.stuntaction.com.

MARTIN BAYFIELD (Hagrid Body Double)

This 6-foot-10, 280-pound man doubled for Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid in certain scenes to suggest the Keeper of the Key's great height and bulk.

Bayfield was one of the United Kingdom's premier rugby football players before a neck injury ended his career. Martin Christopher Bayfield was born 21 December 1966 in Bedford, England.

He worked as a police constable with the Bedfordshire Police Force in the 1980s. As a police officer, he represented the Barbarians, Midlands and British Police teams and played for the Metropolitan Police and Bedford rugby clubs. He joined the Northampton Saints and in 1991 made his debut with the British Lions, the UK national team, and played for the first team until his injury in 1998.

During his career, Bayfield earned 31 caps (awards for playing on the English team). He played in five of the six tests (games between two national teams) in the 1995 Rugby World Cup against South Africa. He played in all three tests on the British Lions' New Zealand tour in 1993.

Bayfield now is a rugby broadcaster for BBC Sport and frequently appears as an after-dinner speaker, specializing in motivational talks. He also coaches a rugby youth development team.

**Photo of Bremmer by Alexander Brattell and is used with his permission. Visit this London photographer's Web site at www.zetetic.co.uk.