The Caretaker Group
5 of 17 portraits by Peter Rand
The Caretaker Group
by Peter Rand
bromide print, 7 January 1963
13 3/8 in. x 10 1/2 in. (341 mm x 266 mm) image size
Purchased, 2011
Photographs Collection
NPG x136008
Sittersback to top
- Sir Alan Arthur Bates (1934-2003), Actor. Sitter in 7 portraits. Identify
- Harold Pinter (1930-2008), Playwright, actor and director. Sitter in 21 portraits. Identify
- Donald Pleasence (1919-1995), Actor. Sitter in 7 portraits. Identify
- Robert Shaw (1927-1978), Actor, playwright and author. Sitter in 8 portraits. Identify
Artistback to top
- Peter Rand (1940-), Photographer. Artist or producer of 17 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.
This portraitback to top
Photographed on location in a house in Islington, London, this portrait shows the cast of the 1963 film adaptation of Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker (1960). First staged at the Arts Theatre, London on 27 April 1960, Pinter's breakthrough play explores the power struggle that ensues when a vulnerable man, Aston, who lives with his younger brother Mick, takes in an elderly tramp, Davies. For the film version, Alan Bates, Donald Pleasance and Robert Shaw played the roles of Mick, Davies, and Aston respectively. The composition of Rand's portrait deliberately reflects the claustrophobia of Clive Donner's 1963 film, for which Pinter provided the screenplay.
Published in Vogue March 1963.
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- Spotlight on Peter Rand: 10 Photographs from the 60s (16 April 2012 - 16 September 2012)
Events of 1963back to top
Current affairs
The Secretary of State for War, John Profumo is found to have lied to the House of Commons when he denied having an affair with the showgirl, Christine Keeler. The Profumo Affair was a public scandal for the Conservative party, and ultimately contributed to the resignation of Harold Macmillan.Art and science
Doctor Who is first broadcast on the BBC with William Hartnell playing the Doctor. This long running science fiction series about an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his police-box-shaped Tardis has been watched by generations of viewers (often from behind the back of the sofa), and features imaginative, but traditionally low-budget, special effects, innovative electronic music, and the Doctor's greatest enemy, the Daleks.International
John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Texas. The arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald for his murder did not prevent a score of conspiracy theories involving Cuba, the CIA, the KGB, and the Mafia among others.Martin Luther King delivers his 'I have a dream' speech, marking an important moment in the civil rights movement in America and helping to secure him the Nobel Peace Prize' in 1964.
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