Film extra recalls Hollywood blockbuster role

Lady L was shot at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire and released in 1965

A matter of weeks into his first job as a photographer, Keith Massey felt like his career might already have peaked after Hollywood's biggest stars descended on North Yorkshire.

Sixty years on from the filming of Lady L at Castle Howard, Mr Massey recalls rubbing shoulders with A-listers Sophia Loren, Paul Newman and David Niven.

Then just 19, he had spotted a casting call in the newspaper for extras in a Hollywood film being shot in Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire Evening Press photographer jumped at the opportunity, and days later he found himself inside the famous stately home acting as an on-screen snapper.

"I took great comfort that it was a week well spent in my career," he says.

"It stayed with me throughout, that experience with big stars."

Sophia Loren, then aged 30, played a character 50 years her senior

Lady L, billed as "a triangle of love, laughter and inspired lunacy" in its trailer, tells the story of Lady Lendale, played by Loren.

Although now a wealthy duchess, she confesses she had once been a poor laundress and that the love of her live was an anarchist, portrayed by Newman.

However, she ended up marrying a Lord, played by Niven, because he agreed to save her true love from jail after a politically-motivated assassination attempt.

Keen to gain experience in cinematography, Mr Massey landed the bit-part role of a young photographer hired to photograph Lendale's wedding.

"I think I was the only person playing themselves," he jokes.

"Some people spent a couple of weeks filming and didn't see themselves, they ended up on the cutting-room floor."

Lady L was met with underwhelming reviews upon its release

Mr Massey recalls the fanfare around the production, believed to be one of the first Hollywood blockbusters shot in Yorkshire.

"It was all great excitement for North Yorkshire, to say the least," he recalls.

"David Niven used to pop off to the pub in Welburn to go and have some lunch and a drink.

"They rented one of the many stately homes in the area for Sophia Loren so she had privacy."

He describes Loren, Newman and Niven as "mega" Hollywood stars of the era.

Hollywood royalty David Niven also enjoyed a glittering career

Mr Massey described Loren, then aged 30 but playing the role of an 80-year-old woman, as "absolutely beautiful".

"She had to spend three to four hours every morning being made up - it was a mammoth job for the makeup artists to make her look 80," he says.

"The irony is I'm 80 now and I don't think I have as many lines as poor old Sophia."

Now 90, Loren has been described by the Academy Awards as "one of the world's most iconic movie stars".

In 1961, she made history as the first performer to win an Academy Award for a foreign-language role for her part in Two Women.

"She captured my heart and probably lots of other people's as well," Mr Massey says.

"I thought at one time during filming she actually looked at me eye-to-eye for a long time, I have never forgotten that."

"At 19 or 20 you take those things as important - I just wondered what would have happened if I had run away with her and lived happily ever after."

Despite its big budget, Lady L was a "flop", according to Mr Massey, bringing the curtain down on his fledgling acting career.

"I think the problem was that the cinema industry was just starting to change and Lady L was just slightly out of date," he says.

Sophia Loren has been described as "one of the world's most iconic movie stars"

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