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1922-2008
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While
still in his teens, he trained as an actor at the
Croydon
Repertory
Theatre
School
followed the
Mask
Theatre
School
in London. During World War II, he worked in touring
companies and entertained
British troops. Upon the war's end, he joined the Birmingham Repertory
Theatre, and moved
to
Stratford-upon-Avon
a year later. Having sunken roots in the birthplace of William
Shakespeare, he had his initial great successes, the title role in
"Henry V,"
Cloten in
"Cymbeline"; Don Adriano de Armado in "Love's Labour's
Lost", Lucio in "Measure for Measure," and then
"Hamlet," and many more as he blossomed into one the great
Shakespearean actors of the 20th century.
He went on to commercial theater in 1949 when he took the lead role of
Alexander the Great in playwright 'Terence Rattigan's' unfortunately
ill-received "Adventure Story." Meanwhile, had the
opportunity to play that great lead part for which became his best known
role, that of the great
English humanist and chancellor Sir Thomas More,
who defied the ogre King Henry VIII in his wish to put aside his
first wife for Anne Bolyne, in a new play by Robert
Bolt "A Man for
All Seasons" which debuted
it in London in 1960, subsequently appearing on Broadway
the following year, and ran into 1962.
Returning to Shakespeare in 1962 with noted British director and producer Peter
Brook. Brook
directing him as Lear at the recently formed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
at
Stratford. This was a pioneering minimalist production, in efforts to emulate the
somewhat sparse environment of Shakespeare's day.
After Lear was "Coriolanus" and "Love's Labour's Lost"
for the Shakespeare Festival in
Stratford
,
Ontario
in 1963. His third film appearance was his standout performance in "The Train" in 1964,
produced by his co-star Burt
Lancaster that grew
in size and budget with the entrance of
Lancaster's second choice for director, John Frankenheimer. |
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Then came the film version of A Man For All Seasons With
Bolt handling the screenplay and a superlative supporting cast. The
film version garnered some thirty-three international awards, including a sweeping of the prime Oscar categories
plus three additional Oscars, one being the Best Actor Award in 1966.Other
films included Peter Brooks' "Tell Me Lies" in 1968,
"Bartleby" in
1970-71. Despite some oddball
camera work, He was magnificent and got his chance to show that he is
perhaps the best King Lear of modern times.
In
1973 He joined former co-star Lancaster for the spy thriller "Scorpio",
playing a memorable role as Lancaster's World War II Russian comrade who is caught in late Cold War spy craft
brutality.
Through the 1980s he worked on
a mix of TV and film on both sides of the
Atlantic
. But his Shakesperean blood, although in humbler parts, such as the
French king first in Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V " in 1989 and the following year as The Ghost in the
Franco
Zeffirelli's "Hamlet"
with Mel Gibson
playing the lead role.
Later
roles included Judge Thomas Danforth in
Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", in 1996, and a TV voice over
as Boxer in Orwell's "Animal Farm" in 1999. |
             
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