The French House in Soho was the location for this impromptu shot of Francis Bacon. Libbert had called in for a lunchtime pint and found the pub empty apart from the painter, who drank there regularly. There was no film in Libbert’s camera so he loaded it surreptitiously and then secretly took two shots. Bacon was so deep in thought he did not notice him. Libbert never intended the picture to be published but it eventually appeared in the Observer some years later alongside the artist’s obituary Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery, London
The young Mirren was on the verge of her big break when Libbert photographed her for the Observer’s Pendennis column at her flat in south-east London. After a stint in rep and two years of small roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the actress had landed her first leading part, as Cressida in an RSC production of Troilus and Cressida, which had just opened to outstanding reviews. Diarist John Halpern was clearly smitten: 'She is 23, luscious, happy, slightly apprehensive about life and clearly destined for a wonderful career,' he wrote Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery, London
Pinter was at the height of his early fame when Libbert took this photograph at the New Arts Theatre Club, London, during rehearsals of two new plays, The Lover and The Dwarfs. He was on the crest of a wave as a playwright, having produced some of his best work – The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter and The Caretaker – over the previous few years. The Homecoming would follow in 1964. Libbert went on to photograph Pinter many times over the next three decades and grew to know him fairly well. The two men lived in adjacent streets in south Kensington (although Pinter's house was much grander than Libbert's) and occasionally drank together in their local pub, The Builders Arms Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery, London
This picture came about by accident. Libbert had been sent by the Guardian to photograph the annual Trades Union Congress at the Imperial hotel, Blackpool. Jayne Mansfield had flown in a day or two before to switch on the Blackpool illuminations and stayed on for a weekend break. Just as Libbert had persuaded Ted Hill of the Boilermakers’ Society (left), Bill Carron of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (right) and Morgan Phillips, general secretary of the Labour party to line up for a photograph, Mansfield arrived with her chihuahua Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery, London
The English painter and printmaker Edward Burra posed for Libbert five years before his death, at his home in Playden, near Rye. Best known for his depictions of the urban underworld, Burra suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for most of his life and when Libbert met him he could barely open his hands to hold a paintbrush. After the shoot, the two men went for a long pub lunch, along with Barrie Stuart-Penrose, the Observer arts correspondent who was interviewing Burra. They all drank copious amounts of gin and when the time came to say goodbye the artist offered Libbert and Stuart-Penrose the chance to buy a couple of his paintings for a knock-down rate. The journalist accepted eagerly but Libbert declined. He lived to regret his decision when he saw the piece he had turned down some years later in pride of place on the office wall of Stephen Dorrell, who was financial secretary to the Treasury at the time Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery, London
Taken in Lichfield’s studio in Holland Park, this portrait was commissioned by the New York Times. The photographer – the Queen’s first cousin once removed – was 31 and much in demand, due as much to his showbusiness and aristocratic connections as his undoubted talent. Libbert caught him in the early days of a 40-year career during which he snapped everybody from Mick and Bianca Jagger to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in exile, and Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on their wedding day Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery, London
Libbert photographed Paul Robeson for the Guardian backstage at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, after a concert. The great actor, singer and political activist was 60 at the time and in the midst of an international comeback tour he had embarked on in an attempt to resurrect his career after years of being blacklisted by the Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy era. A group of local dignitaries crowded into Robeson's dressing room alongside Libbert, including the Lady Mayoress of Salford (the photographer's home town) whom he remembers kneeling on the ground to kiss Robeson's hand
Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery, London
Libbert took this candid shot of Churchill in conversation with the sculptor and president of the Royal Academy Sir Charles Thomas Wheeler, at Burlington House, the home of the Royal Academy. He had been dispatched by the Guardian to illustrate a breaking news story about the former prime minister’s decision to stand down as a member of parliament, aged 88, and struck lucky after the two men emerged from the RA’s annual banquet, catching Churchill’s eye at just the right moment Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery, London
Amis looks lost in contemplation but he was actually mid-conversation with Peter Sellers. The actor was filming Only Two Can Play, an adaptation of Amis’s novel, That Uncertain Feeling, and had agreed to talk to Amis between takes for a witty “conversation piece” for the Guardian. The setting was distinctly un-Hollywood – the Briton Ferry Public Hall and Institute, near Port Talbot – but perfect for the subject of the book and movie, a satire on life and culture in a Welsh seaside town
Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery London
Captured at the wheel of his Sunbeam Alpine sports car, George Best was 19 when Libbert photographed him for the Sunday Times. He had made his team debut for Manchester United two years previously and was making regular headlines, mainly for his footballing skills rather than his wayward lifestyle – that came later. Libbert and the writer Hunter Davies spent a day with Best touring the bowling alleys and billiard halls of Manchester on a day off from training Photograph: Neil Libbert/National Portrait Gallery, London
