Andy "One Shot" Gotts! Hollywood's Very Favorite Photographer, on Realizing his Dream of a 36-Year 'Wish List' of Who to Photograph, John Hurt's Last Recording, Monty Python and on Never Chasing Fame!

When Andy Gotts was 18, a stranger in Norfolk asked him why he didn't look happy. That single question and the Photography Teacher it quietly led him to, set in motion a 36 year path from a college darkroom in King's Lynn to Hollywood's most idiosyncratic black-and-white portraits.

In this Stories of Distinction & Genius episode, Chris Grimes welcomes Andy "One Shot" Gotts into The Clearing to trace the whole arc: From the 300 letters with not a single reply, the 1 yes from Joss Ackland at his son's wedding in Clovelly, and the line "what do you do and who shagged who?!" that finally gave the wish list its theme.

Andy talks about the 150 Actors he set out to photograph in 1995, the long, patient pursuit of Gary Oldman that ended this year through Big Mo and a young actress sliding into his DMs, and how Paul Newman himself christened him "One Shot Gotts" after a 4 minute shoot in Connecticut.

The conversation moves through the people who shaped him: His milkman father leaving for work at 3:00 every morning, his devoted mother, Dr Tony Leach who taught him Photography on Saturdays in Holt, Stephen Fry whose 90 second portrait at a college Q&A genuinely started his career, and Sir John Hurt, born on the very same day as Andy's dad. Andy shares the afternoon in East Runton when John told him over a pint of red wine that he had cancer and months to live, and asked Andy back the following weekend to direct him. What followed - John in his late father's priest's robes, speaking 'Imagine' as a parable in a single take - became John Hurt's last ever recording.

There are also the secret Monty Python reunion shoots at Duke's at 3:00 in the morning; LS Lowry, Hitchcock and Sidney Poitier's story about Tony Curtis and The Defiant Ones; Bob Ross's happy little clouds taking over lockdown; three years spent funding a degree as a Norfolk Nightclub Bouncer; an unwavering refusal to retouch a single line on a face; and the epitaph Ringo Starr gave him, "the Ansel Adams of faces."

A warm, story-rich hour and a half about tenacity, taste, and what it really means to "stay on the bus!"

🌐 andygotts.com

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CONTACT ANDY GOTTS

WEBSITE:

https://www.andygotts.com

X:

https://x.com/DrGotts

FACEBOOK:

https://www.facebook.com/drgotts

INSTAGRAM:

https://www.instagram.com/drgotts/

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

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