Michael Allan Warren (born 26 October 1948) is an English portrait photographer, primarily known for his images of members of high society.
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 in "The
Five O'clock Club", which afforded him the opportunity to
associate with a variety of people, including a young Marc Bolan
(then performing as "Toby Tyler") who would later employ
Warren as his first manager.
Warren started his
photographic career at the age of 17 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 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. When in
New York for personal reasons, he attended an audition for the
Broadway production of Minnie's Boys. However, he later declined the
role offered to him in favour of returning to London and pursuing
photography as his vocation.
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 Warren embarked on a quest to photograph all 26
non-royal and four royal dukes. Together with the 12th Duke of
Manchester he set up the Duke's Trust, a charity for children in
need.
In the early '90s
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.
"The British
hereditary peerage (barons and above) today numbers some 900, not
counting the four royal duchies -- but of the four dozen or so
dukedoms created, only twenty-six survive today: eighteen of England,
Great Britain, and the United Kingdom; six of Scotland; and two more
of Ireland only. Of these, only three -- Norfolk, Somerset, and
Hamilton -- predate Charles II, who created four dukedoms for his
illegitimate sons. Nevertheless, the present hereditary dukes bear
the names (and subordinate titles) of the great medieval and Tudor
families: Fitzalan, Howard, Seymour, Vere, Douglas, Montagu, Mowbray,
Percy, Beaufort, and Fitzgerald, among others. Moreover, only two of
the surviving dukedoms -- Marlborough and Wellington -- were
conferred originally on men who held no hereditary title of any kind
at the start of their careers. And with present sentiment regarding
hereditary peerages at its lowest ebb in centuries, there are
unlikely to be any new creations. Some dukes lived like potentates
with miniature courts, others made shrewd marriages, many were active
Whigs, some heeded the warnings of the Industrial Revolution and
established philanthropies and learned societies. But all have shared
in what Trollope called "the ancient mystery of wealth and
rank." An engrossing, well illustrated, sometimes titilating
book which does not spare its subjects the foibles of their
ancestries."
THE DUKES OF BRITAIN
Allan Warren
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