Monday, July 19, 2010
AS SEEN IN:
'Anna And The King'
AS PLAYED BY:
Anna Leonowens (26 November 1831–19 January 1915) was an Anglo-Indian travel writer, educator, and social activist, known for working in Siam from 1862–1868, where she taught the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam. She is also known for co-founding the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Leonowens's experiences in Siam were fictionalised in Margaret Landon's 1944 bestselling novel Anna and the King of Siam and in various films and television miniseries based on the book, most notably Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 hit musical The King and I.
In 1972 Twentieth Century Fox produced a 13-part American television adaptation for CBS, with Samantha Eggar taking the part of Leonowens and Brynner reprising his role as the king. Landon charged the makers with 'inaccurate and mutilated portrayals' of her literary property and sued unsuccessfully for copyright infringement. In the TV series, however, Mrs. Leonowens and her son Louis were portrayed as Americans instead of Welsh, and their names were changed to Anna and Louis Owens. Otherwise the story remained basically the same. Such nationality changes were seen before in Toobworld: the actress Emma Thompson, for example. Her televersion was actually born in Akron, Ohio - or so it was revealed on the sitcom 'Ellen'.....