Famous Willesden Ex-Pupils

Famous Willesden Ex-Pupils

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*R. C. Alabaster*	A World War II bomber ace, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Force Cross. He gained his matriculation in 1934, became a prefect and Saxon House Captain.
*Norman Hudis*	Willesden 1933-38; wrote the original series of scripts for the 'Carry-On' films.
*Ron Goodwin* of ‘Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra' fame	Born 1925, he was at Willesden County in the 30's when he first took up the trumpet, before transferring to Pinner County School. After a vast range of musical contributions in records, radio, television and films, he won three 'Ivor Novello' Awards in 1972 and in 1994 he received the coveted 'Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement in Music'. Click on the picture on the left, for his obituary from the Harrow Observer, Thursday January 16th 2003. His death was noted, amongst other luminaries, during the 2004 BAFTA ceremony.
John Neville, OBE 1963; actor stage, film and TV; director and artistic director	Also born 1925, he had many stage roles at Bristol Old Vic, Nottingham Playhouse Company and the London Theatre. Hon. Professor in Drama, Nottingham University since 1967; Artistic Director, Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario, 1985-89 The picture on the left shows John Neville as Hamlet and (now Dame) Judi Dench as Ophelia in Benthall's 1957 Hamlet.
*Gerry Anderson* of ‘Thunderbirds’ fame	He went to Braintcroft Junior School, Neasden and then progressed to Willesden County School. He left ‘County’ aged 17 in 1946
*Roy Battersby: TV director*	Born 1936, he was at post-war Willesden County when he excelled in the School Plays in 1951-54 (see arts photos section). He took a BSc (Econ.) at University College, London and a PhD in Economic History at the London School of Economics before training at the Nottingham Playhouse and ABC Television. He has directed plays for all the main stream TV Channels and has been a BAFTA award winner. Some of the most notable recent productions include 'Touch of Frost', 'Active Defence', 'Cracker', 'Between the Lines' and 'Inspector Morse' . He is married to actress Judy Loe and is step-father to film star Kate Beckinsale.
Luther Blissett	Watford, AC Milan and England centre-forward star during the early 80's.
Phil DeFreitas & Chris Lewis	England cricketers during the 90's; Willesden High School became the first state school to supply two England internationals in the same match. See the picture on the left for details.
Dave Beasant	Wimbledon Goalie when they beat Liverpool in the Cup during the '80s and last season played for Nottingham Forest
*Shane Ritchie*	TV Celebrity and currently starring in 'Eastenders'
*also, did you know that ..............*	Zadie Smith's book 'White Teeth' is set in the school. She has also used our motto as the motto of her fictional school