From the Family Album of RA!

/ December 28, 2021

And just like that another article drops. I first saw this picture RTd .

And when investigating the photographer, I came across a brand new article in the WSJ that contains some never-before seen gems. Read the article HERE.

And now for the family album.

Ah, it’s nice to see Richard with his mum… Those are the pictures that warm the ❤. I am hoping my son will become a rockstar and our family album will end up on fan sites in the future, too 😂.  And so is the two brothers, school-ties and all. Nice of RA to share a tiny glimpse of his past. It doesn’t happen often. Hence the two-post day on Guylty.net today 😉

PS: Nice to see Richard is holding on to his clothes for a long time. Didn’t that shirt first make its premiere on the Hobbit circuit ca. 2013 somewhere in an interview with whatsisname Luke Welsh guy in Spain?

Actually, no. It’s more recent but popped up in Spain this past year.

 

 

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79 thoughts on “From the Family Album of RA!”

  1. Thanks for keeping us informed!!

    Nice detail about RA’s life before he was someone we “knew.” As a tall woman myself, I’m struck by how tall his mother appears to be in the photo. I can’t tell if she’s wearing heels or not, but I guess it makes sense that she would be tall. For some reason it just never really occurred to me.

    Cheers!

    Liz

    On Tue, Dec 28, 2021 at 12:41 PM Guylty Pleasure wrote:

    > Guylty posted: “And just like that another article drops. I first saw this > picture RTd . > https://twitter.com/FranEvergreen/status/1475874892214112258?s=20 And > when investigating the photographer, I came across a brand new article in > the WSJ that contains some never” >

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    • Good point. It actually hadn’t occurred to me but you are right, she looks quite tall there. I don’t remember her looking very tall when I saw her in Berlin. I’m wondering though whether some of it is an illusion – standing just a teeny tiny bit in front of RA, and possibly her hair making her look taller? But well, he must have his height from *somewhere*…

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  2. Love, love, loved this article. One of the more personal ones I’ve seen. It thrills me no end that his mom delivered the mail. My great grandfather and my grandmother were the mail carriers in my home town for over half a century and now I own the house that contained the post office. I grumble about the public mailbox outside every time it snows because I’m paranoid about someone falling there, so I always put down to a of gravel and clean my sidewalk religiously, but I cannot bring myself to have it moved. We’ve always been “the house with the mailbox” and so it remains.

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    • It was a treat because it came across as so intimate. Yet I can’t say that there were huge new revelations in there. He elaborated a bit on things that were already known, and his mother as post deliverer was new to me. But nevertheless, the images made it a very sweet and personal piece. (As I said, it totally warms my heart that he is so fond of his mum and mentions her so frequently and so warmly. What a son. Eh. What a man, full stop.)
      That’s neat, your own postal connection! During Covid I have gained a new perspective on the post men and women. Not only are my post men really friendly and chatty, but in rural Ireland they are also a sort of emergency service who check in on elderly people. During lockdown they also provided a postal pick-up service, picking up letters and cards that people wanted to send.
      Does your house still noticeably have a downstairs room that used to be the post office, with a big window and a separate door?

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      • No, nothing earth shattering, but enjoyably intimate. He really comes across as very likable.
        We love our postal service as well. Some of the regulars we know by name and they’re always lovely.
        The house is unchanged and the Post (as that room has and always will be referred to even when it was turned into a family room after my grandma retired) still has a barred window because she also did banking from there and had cash and of course lots of stamps on hand. No separate door. People would have to come into the foyer of the actual house from where you could access my grandparents other rooms as well. It was just part of their family home. Wild. The foyer was also where the phone was located for people who needed to make calls before everyone had a phone in their house. My dad wrote a wonderful Mundart story about it once. I should record it.

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  3. Love the photos! There’s a pay wall here in the U.S. though, so I can’t actually read the article. 😔

    I wonder if he didn’t do hus usual Christmas message because he knew there was a flurry of press coming up. He does have that weird thing about not want to wear out his welcome, so maybe decided to do the Just Giving appeal instead?

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    • Here is the link again – I tried it just now and it works for me even though I don’t have a subscription, either: https://www.wsj.com/articles/stay-close-actor-richard-armitage-was-named-for-a-monarch-later-praised-by-a-royal-11640706942?fbclid=IwAR3QO2wp03si_83F19ewT-JO7q-0EF6brvS1LVwEDgMUooMHtSoIiwP8lVE
      Hm, that didn’t occur to me re. lack of his customary Christmas message. IDK, I would’ve thought that that is completely separate because it is not aimed at the general public as such but more intended for his fans and followers? But who knows, he has this humility obsession, so you could be right.

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      • Thanks for trying but still no joy. I wonder if it’s different for me because it’s an American paper. Will be interesting to learn if any others in our group have the same difficulties.

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        • I can’t access it that way either, but I can listen to the audio reading of the article. On Twitter I was able to read it behind that overlap of the subscription box. Bit tedious, but enough to see what it said.

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        • Work around: Here is the text, copied.
          ‘Stay Close’ Actor Richard Armitage Was Named for a Monarch, Later Praised by a Royal
          He grew up in an English village dating to 1058, where he was wowed by its history

          Richard Armitage, 50, is an English actor who co-starred in “The Hobbit” film series and TV’s “Berlin Station.” He co-stars in Netflix’s “Stay Close,” a miniseries adaptation of Harlan Coben’s novel. He spoke with Marc Myers.

          I was born on Aug. 22—the day King Richard III died in battle in 1485 at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire, the English county where we lived.

          My parents later told me they had planned to name me Russell, but when I was born on Aug. 22, my dad insisted on Richard. My mother didn’t mind.

          Dad has always been a Richard III fanatic. He felt the monarch was betrayed by Shakespeare and history in general. He is also fascinated by the propaganda used by the House of Tudor during the transition of power.

          We lived in a residential development in Huncote, on the outskirts of Leicester. Our home was a brick box with four windows and a door. All the other houses in the area looked the same.

          My mother, Margaret, was a homemaker and the local postwoman. She’d get up at 4:30 a.m. to sort and deliver the mail on her bike and return in time to make breakfast.

          Once my older brother, Chris, and I were in school, she decided to go back to work and took a job at the local school so she’d be home when we returned.

          She was probably the biggest influence on my life, simply because of her presence at home. She always said to others, “When Richard says he’s going to do something, he does it.”

          My father, John, was a nuclear engineer. In the late 1950s and early ’60s, he worked for General Electric and was on the team that designed the U.K.’s nuclear reactors.

          Most of his career was then spent visiting sites to fix things and update the equipment. He was away from home quite a lot when I was little.

          Every time we drove into Leicester, my dad would point out Bow Bridge, where legend falsely suggested a mob had thrown Richard III’s dug-up body into the River Soar. Once I started grade school, my dad and I would visit Bosworth Field on my birthday.

          Leicester had three theaters when I grew up. For a provincial city, that was a lot. As a child, my parents often took me to the theater. I remember the feeling when the lights went down and the production began to come alive. I lived for that.

          Classical music was important at home. My father had an amazing stereo that he set up in a room. He’d close the door, dim the lights and just listen to Mozart.

          Early on, I associated music with a solitary experience. I loved going up to my room for a couple of hours and practicing on my school instrument.

          At primary school, I took up the cello, had lessons and really enjoyed it. But in high school, lugging the cello around was an ordeal. So I picked the smallest instrument possible, the flute, because it fit inside my school bag.

          Just prior to attending a sports-focused high school, my parents and I had a discussion. I said I wanted to pursue the arts. So we picked Pattison College, a performing-arts school in Coventry.

          Mom went back to work, and all of her wages paid for my education. That was such a big sacrifice. It was a great school. I had been a C-minus student but emerged from Pattison with A’s and B’s.

          In school, I had a brilliant history teacher, Mrs. Speake. She talked about past events in a way that felt very immediate and awakened my imagination.

          Coming to acting was a slow burn for me. After high school, I became a professional musical-theater performer. But at 23, I started to realize I wasn’t interested in a production’s music, singing and dancing. What captured me was the narrative.

          The school was close to Stratford-upon-Avon and we would often visit the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. I saw a particularly striking production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” As I watched the performers on stage and their connection with the audience, I realized that’s what I wanted to do. I successfully applied for a scholarship and won a place at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art.

          After school, in 2002, I got my break in a British TV series called “Sparkhouse.” My role ran through four episodes and I finally played an arc of a character. I felt I had become an actor.

          Today, I divide my time between homes in New York and London. I love both cities for different reasons.

          At the Royal Film Performance of “The Hobbit” in London in 2012, my family attended. Before the screening, I was allowed to take one family member to meet Prince William. I took my mother.

          After the screening, as the royals left first, Prince William passed my seat, touched me on the shoulder and said, “Brilliant performance.” My mother was visibly shaking. She saw me do what I’d said I was going to do.

          Richard’s Recall
          What is “Stay Close” about? Three people living lives they never planned have secret pasts that resurface.

          Childhood vacation? We once took a trip to Wylfa in Wales. After Dad’s visit to a reactor, he gave me his little white cap and old reactor blueprints to draw on.

          Regret? Not taking up golf. If I had, I’d be able to join my father now, who, at 85, still plays twice a week.

          Dad tradition? Whenever I’m home, we go for a walk and talk history. Huncote dates from 1058.

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  4. If that was meant as a publicity piece for SC it’s hilarious there was only one line about it! Love the photos (the new one is really elegant 😊) and I too was surprised how tall his mother seems in that pic! I’m sure she seemed shorter in London…

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    • 😂 You are so right. They definitely only put in that one line as an excuse but otherwise focussed entirely on his life. However, the piece is subtitled “House Call”, maybe that is a regularly occurring column in the WSJ? And he is in there for his own sake because they noticed him in the SC PR?

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  5. I was able to read (actually, listen to) the article and the only thing that would have made it more intimate is if RA had narrated it himself!

    I’m wondering if the tone and content of the piece was meant to be personal to balance the comments he made recently about wanting his public to focus on his chaRActers and leave his private life alone. Here he willingly gives us a hitherto unseen glimpse into his childhood, which is sweet and touching, But does it signal a change in his approach towards sharing about his personal life? I doubt it.

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  7. I couldn’t read the article either, maybe the location in the UK or maybe I’ve been on that site before and the second time one needs a subscription… But a kind soul sent me the transcription so now I’ve had the pleasure of reading it. I LOVE when we get to find out something about Richrad’s (Very) private life and his past. And the pics are just adorable 🙂 Russell Armitage… I thik it would have worked well anyways…it has a good sound to it 😉 It’s heartwarming how much Richard loves his family… From that point of view he sounds very Italian :0 Thank you for brinign this gem to our attention

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    • Meh, it only occurred to me now that I could’ve screen shot or copy/pasted the article in here, but upon trying I couldn’t access the site anymore. Locked out, too.
      Yuk, Russell… I’m very glad for his sake that that passed him by.

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          • Nigel 🤣

            Do we know what Chris’ middle name is? I wonder what happened there. First kid: Chris (supposedly normal) middle name. Second kid: How about Russel Crispin?

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            • 😂 Well, speaking from my own experience, I had the names of my four (FOUR!!!) tall, blond and gorgeous sons all mapped out, and they were all fancy-shmancy double-barrel names that I now cringe about. When it came to it, my ONE son was given only first name, not even a middle name. 😂

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              • Now that you mention it, with my ex I also had potential names picked out and yeah—best on all levels that child (and marriage) never came to be. Super cringe.
                My siblings don’t have middle names either. My mom says having to pick four names was stressful enough. 🤣

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                • 😂 I have to admit I still like the names that I picked for those 4 imaginary sons, but I am also glad that I did not choose a pretentious double-barrel name for my kids. 😬
                  I always joke that we couldn’t afford a middle name for our kids because we were too poor at the time. The truth was that I would’ve liked my son to be called Cillian Christopher because we had a very good fried called Christoph. However, said Christoph was very ill at the time with leukemia, and naming our child after him might have looked as if we were preemptively immortalising our friend. Sadly, the friend actually died just a month after Cillian was born… Anyway, and since our first-born had only been given one name, we then felt that our second-born shouldn’t be singled out with a middle name…

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                  • That’s sad. I understand you were reluctant to use the name under the circumstances. (That’s my brother’s name btw.)
                    My chosen whopper for a boy was Gabriel Arkady.

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                    • oh, that is a whopper, indeed. And veering towards my double-barrel madness, too. Here come mine:
                      First-born: Jan-Philipp
                      Second: Carl-Hendrik
                      Third: Sebastian-Arved
                      Fourth: Kieran-Aidan
                      😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤢😂🤣🥴😂🤣🙄

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      • I am grateful his dad insisted on Richard.
        Hihi, now I realized that using my second name (Margaret) would be simpler for everyone. But I don’t like it so much.

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  8. My dear Sonja, maybe it’s just my idea, but I have a feeling that he is on a turning point. He wants to keep his private life for himself, but he is willing to share something from his past. But a childhood photo is a treasure for everyone. And I also feel that he has not accepted his mother’s death, maybe because it happened within few months (january I think to early May). Or perhaps I am wrong.

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    • Maybe he has understood that the best way of keeping one’s private life private, is by actually distracting the public with a few carefully curated insights.
      Yes, it sounds as if his mother’s passing has been a time of huge turmoil. I wonder whether it helped or hindered the grieving process that he was very busy at the time, working on projects back to back. Sometimes it is great to distract oneself that way. But ignoring the initial stages of the grieving process is probably not good, either.

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    • I agree that there’s a difference between sharing his childhood “private life” (which he has done regularly over the years; this interview just adds a few more details) and sharing his adult personal life, which he continues to avoid.

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  9. You are right, It’s different for every person. I’ve lost my both parents and my brother and I had a different reaction to their death. As for RA’s personal life, well, that distraction may be his alibi. Who knows!!! I sure hope he is healthy and happy.

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  10. Holy moly, I’m befuddled by WSJ, also. I read the article a few hours ago from a link on twitter, no problems, but I was shocked to see it was WSJ, because they are really, really careful about their paywall (don’t give anything away for free). For the forensic fans, fyi, I am in Brooklyn, NY, and I don’t have a “special” web browser or any special powers (that I know of).

    So I tried Guylty’s link just now, and…locked out. WTH???

    I searched through my browser history and found the link I used earlier, tried it, and…there it is. So HERE it is. Use it now, ladies, FAST: https://www.wsj.com/articles/stay-close-actor-richard-armitage-was-named-for-a-monarch-later-praised-by-a-royal-11640706942

    I also made screen grabs for, you know, posterity, let me know if you need them, G.

    Just doing my fan service. Wink, wink.

    By the way, WSJ added a photo credit for that 2021 NYC (so identified) portrait since earlier: KAITLYN MIKAYLA. What do we know about her? Get busy, fans! It’s a stunning shot, isn’t it?

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    • The access issue was really weird. I was initially able to access the article (and like you wondered why – as all their pieces usually are behind a paywall for me) and re-read it several times on my laptop. The same link did not work on my iPad, though.
      As soon as I saw the photographer credit, I searched for Kaitlyn. She is a NYC based photographer and has a website and IG. No further shots of RA anywhere, though. Looks to me that she is mainly shooting fashion and also celebrity.

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  12. That new photo is gorgeous! Stubble!! Loved the little insights into his early years. I agree, it’s a distraction, drip feeding the occasional personal information when it suits him to keep them – and us – happy. We’ve found out more about his past with this interview than his “now”.
    RichardArmitageFanPage on Tumblr has screenshot the interview here: https://richardarmitagefanpage.tumblr.com/post/671850982170296320/new-interview-with-richard-for-the-wall-street
    I could see it once on my iPad but somehow the website must recognise the server because I’ve been unable to access it again on my laptop.

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    • I had the same experience – article accessible on laptop but not on tablet. Weird.
      The pictures in the article were the best thing, including the new one of him. Very nice, especially the return of the stubble. The clean-shaven look just is a little bit too clinical for my taste…

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  13. Pingback: *ooof*: Fair and Square | Guylty Pleasure

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