British Actors Archives - Page 111 of 128

Christopher Blake

Christopher Blake obituary in “The Stage”.

Christopher Blake was born in London in 1949. He is best known for his performance on television in the series “That’s My Boy” with Mollie Sugden which ran from 1981 until 1986. He also appeared in “Love for Lydia”, “Casualty” and “Brookside” amongst others. He died in 2006 at the age of 56.

Obituary from “The Stage”:

Actor and writer Christopher Blake, who enjoyed a prolific career in television, film and theatre, died on December 11, aged 55.

Born Peter Ronald Gray on August 23, 1949, in Chingford, he emigrated as a child with his parents and two brothers to Australia on a government-assisted grant. His education was interrupted by the family coming back to England in 1961 only to leave again shortly afterwards and finally return in 1966. He tried his luck at acting after working as an odd job man at a newly formed experimental theatre, the Brighton Combination.

Accepted in 1969 by the Central School of Speech and Drama, he changed his name to Christopher Blake. There followed more than 20 years of regular employment in theatre, television and film during which he played a vast range of parts. Blake specialized in the unflappable, quietly spoken charmer he was in real life, the type friends and strangers alike immediately trusted. Although best remembered for light comedy in the successful television sitcoms That’s My Boy and Mixed Blessings, he displayed an equal talent for serious drama in The Mill on the Floss, The Lost Boys and in particular an LWT adaptation of HE Bates’ Love for Lydia. In the theatre his roles ranged from farce to the eponymous Alfie, Milo in Sleuth and George in Same Time Next Year. Later in his career he took to playing villains.

More recently he became a regular writer on Channel 5′s Family Affairs and contributed to Sky One’s Dream Team. His last two completed scripts were for the ITV series A Touch of Frost.

Offstage, Blake played cricket and was for many years he was a valuable member of the Lord’s Taverners XI and of the Sargentmen, a side composed mostly of fellow actors, writers and producers. He possessed an easy charm and wry sense of humour that earned him a wide circle of loyal friends throughout his life.

In 1997 Blake met actress and theatrical producer Victoria Little with whom he found fulfilling happiness and contentment. While putting the final touches to a house they renovated in Spain, he was diagnosed with a rare form of Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. To the end he was his own man, battling a debilitating illness with typical fortitude and without a trace of fear or self pity.

He leaves three children, Charlotte, Louise and Sean.

Paul Wheeler

The above “The Stage” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Geraldine James was born in Maidenhead outside London in 1950. She is one of Britain’s most proflic stage and television actresses. She first came to public attention for her role in “The Jewel in the Crown” in 1984 as Sarah Layton. Her films include “Gandhi” in 1982, “Calendar Girls” in 2003 and the forthcoming “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”.

TCM Overview:

This softly attractive brunette is best known to British and American TV viewers as Sarah Layton in the miniseries “The Jewel in the Crown” (1984) to filmgoers as Mirabehn, the fanatical western follower of “Gandhi” (1982) and to theatergoers as Portia opposite Dustin Hoffman in the London and Broadway (1989-90) production of “The Merchant of Venice.” Geraldine James has kept a low profile to American audiences, but has had an active career in her native England, on stage and in film and television. She first won notice on the London stage as Dr. Von Zandt in the 1979 production of “The Passion of Dracula.” She played Jessica in a heralded Coventry production of “The Merchant of Venice” a decade before playing Portia opposite Hoffman.

James’ career was enhanced by playing opposite Dame Peggy Ashcroft in “She’s Been Away” (1989), for which they were both cited as Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. More international notice has come with TV roles including the moderately successful comedy “Blott on the Landscape” (1986), in which she was a woman trying to save her family’s estate, as the beloved teacher in the 1989 miniseries “Echoes” and as Nora’s friend Kristina in “A Doll’s House” (1992). James was also seen in the 1995 HBO miniseries “Band of Gold,” a thriller in which prostitutes were being hunted by a serial killer. She also gained notice for her turn as a courtesan in Pen Densham’s “Moll Flanders” (1996), starring Robin Wright.

Geraldine James. TCM Overview.

TCM Overview:

Geoffrey Hughes has been associated with three massivly popular television series, “Coronation Street” where he played binman Eddie Yeats, lodger of Stan and Hilda Ogden from 1974 until 1983, “Keeping Up Appearances” as Onslow the lazy, feckless brother-in-law of Patricia Routledge’s Hynicth Bucket from 1990 iuntil 1995 and most recently as Twiggy friend of Jim Royle in the hilarious “Royle Family”. He was born in 1944 in Cheshire. His film roles include “Smashing Time” with Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave in 1967 and “The Virgin Soldiers” in 1969 again with Lynn Redgrave and Hywel Bennett. Geoffrey Hughes lives on the Isle of Wight.

His “Guardian” obituary by Anthony Hayward:

The actor Geoffrey Hughes, who has died of prostate cancer aged 68, played gormless Eddie Yeats in the ITV soap opera Coronation Streetfrom 1974 to 1983, and thereafter was typecast on television as a lovable rogue.

Hughes contributed enormously to the comedy that Bernard Youens and Jean Alexander – as Stan and Hilda Ogden – brought to No 13 Coronation Street. His character, Eddie, a former Borstal boy and Walton Prison inmate, helped Stan on his window-cleaning round and was forever involved in money-making schemes – hiring out a timid guard dog and selling Albert Tatlock’s allotment vegetables, dodgy watches and curtains run up by Hilda – before finding work as a refuse collector and becoming the Ogdens’ lodger.

“He was always a softy,” Hughes told the writer Daran Little in 1995. “His villainy had been opportunist nicking, or thinking of a good idea and it didn’t matter if it was actually legal or not.” Eddie was also responsible for the mountain mural, or “muriel” as Hilda called it, in the Ogdens’ living room – at one time graced with three ornamental flying ducks. In 1983, Hughes chose to leave Coronation Street, and Eddie was married off and moved to Bury. He made a brief return four years later for a hospital visit by Eddie to Hilda.

Later, in the long-running drama Heartbeat, set in the 60s, he was Vernon Scripps (2001-07), who dreamed up hare-brained get-rich-quick schemes and had a small share in his half-brother Bernie’s garage.

Hughes was a more objectionable version of Eddie and Vernon in the sitcom Keeping up Appearances (1990-95), written by Roy Clarke. He played Onslow, the workshy, beer-guzzling slob married to the social-climbing Hyacinth Bucket’s sister Daisy and living in a council house. The vest-wearing Onslow irked Hyacinth by occasionally leading her husband, Richard, astray and rebuffed his wife’s advances with the excuse: “I’ve got a headache.”

The formula was much the same in The Royle Family, in which Hughes appeared on and off as Twiggy (1998-2008), the former convict visiting Jim and Barbara Royle with stolen goods.

Hughes was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, and attended Abbotsford Road secondary modern school, in the Norris Green area of Liverpool. While working as a car salesman, he performed with Merseyside Unity theatre company, where he was spotted by the actor Tom Bell, who introduced him to an agent.

Hughes turned professional and joined the rep company at the Victoria theatre, Stoke-on-Trent. His first West End role came in 1964 in the Lionel Bart-Alun Owen musical Maggie May (at the Adelphi theatre), about trade union disputes in Liverpool’s dockland.

In 1966, Hughes made his screen debut in The Likely Lads and was soon working regularly on television. His first appearance in Coronation Street was in 1967, as Phil Ferguson, a thug who beat up Albert Tatlock. A big break came in 1968, when Hughes voiced Paul McCartney in the Beatles cartoon film Yellow Submarine and, a year later, he was one of the young recruits featured in The Virgin Soldiers, based on Leslie Thomas’s comic novel. He then played Dick in Curry & Chips (1969), the writer Johnny Speight’s controversial television sitcom set in a factory and starring a blacked-up Spike Milligan. It was axed by the Independent Television Authority after six episodes.

Hughes continued to take one-off character parts in both dramas and sitcoms – four alone in Z Cars (1968-74) – until fame came as Eddie Yeats. This led to a lead role in The Bright Side (1985) as the mild-mannered prison warden Mr Lithgow, constantly being wound up by an inmate’s wife played by Paula Wilcox. The sitcom made little impression on viewers, but Hughes is still remembered by Doctor Who aficionados for his subsequent role as Mr Popplewick at a trial of the Time Lord in the story The Ultimate Foe (1986).

Although he was cast to type in his later successes, Hughes still managed to fit in other screen work. He played a detective in the TV film The Man from the Pru (1990) and Trinculo in The Tempest (1992), and supplied the voice of Dirk, a cynical talking dog, in the sitcom I, Lovett (1993). In the BBC’s Liverpool Nativity (2007), he led the cast as the Angel Gabriel, directing events as they unfolded live in the city centre. He also took three roles (2007-09) in the teen drama Skins. Hughes’s other films included the big-screen version of Till Death Us Do Part (1968), The Bofors Gun (1968), Carry On at Your Convenience (1971), Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1974) and Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976). In the West End, he appeared in Say Goodnight to Grandma (St Martin’s theatre, 1973), Run for Your Wife (Criterion theatre, 1984-85) and Semi-Monde (Royalty theatre, 1987-88).

During his time in Coronation Street, Hughes and his wife, Sue, had a smallholding in Northamptonshire and owned a nearby craft centre. Later, they moved to Newport, on the Isle of Wight, where they ran a wood supply company. In 2009, Hughes was appointed deputy lord lieutenant of the island.

He is survived by his wife.

• Geoffrey Hughes, actor, born 2 February 1944; died 27 July 2012.

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Tony Anholt was born in 1941 in Singapore. During his childhood he also lived in South Africa and Australia before settling in Britain. His television appearances include “Space 1999”, “Howard’s Way” and “Only Fools and Horses”. He starred in the series “The Protectors” with Robert Vaughn and Nyree Dawn Porter. His films include “Fear Is the Key” in 1973. Tony Anholt died in 2002.

Dennis Barker’s obituary of Tony Anholt in “The Guardian”:

Dark-haired, bedroom-eyed, with an engaging smile and what used to be called matinee-idol good looks, the actor Tony Anholt, who has died aged 61 after a period of illness caused by a brain tumour, had a flair for light comedy which tended to obscure a more serious side. He was a voracious reader of books on philosophy and a practical advocate of meditation: when news of his illness first emerged, thousands of fellow meditators included him in their thoughts.

He will be most widely remembered as Charles Frere, the personable and wealthy heartbreaker son of a wealthy father, Sir Edward Frere, played by Nigel Davenport, in the television series Howard’s Way, which ran for five years from 1985. Set around the river Hamble, it dealt with an aircraft designer who had become a boat builder, and whose daughter had an on-off-on affair with the character played by Anholt. The daughter was played by Tracey Childs, who became Anholt’s real-life second wife after an affair that began while the series was still running.

Howard’s Way became compulsive viewing because of interest in Frere’s way with the ladies, as well as a more general interest in the social terrain – fast boats, millionaires, big houses, resplendent cars and good living. Anholt was ideally cast, and undoubtedly the series established his reputation among a broader public; but he played varying roles in many other British television series as well as in the American mini series The Last Days Of Pompeii, with a cast including Ernest Borgnine.

To Anholt’s agents Roger and Primi Carey, he was an actor who died before he could reach the full limits of his potential as a performer on the lines of Cary Grant – one who could switch brilliantly from light to shade. When he played in Anthony Shaffer’s duel of wits, Sleuth, on the West End stage (1978), with Patrick Cargill as the older villain, this sly way with light and shade was tested to the full – as it was in the more heavyweight Amadeus at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, in which he played a darkly sardonic Salieri. Other theatre roles included parts in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, The Tempest, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and Brian Clark’s Whose Life Is It Anyway? In all these, he radiated darkness as well as the ladies’ man stock-in-trade. The Boys In The Band (his first West End appearance, 1969) and Death And The Maiden (1992), both plays he toured nationally, also had a dark side.

Tony Anholt was born in Singapore of an Anglo-Dutch family, and from his schooldays was a pillar of dramatic societies. As a child during the war he was evacuated to Australia, went from there to South Africa and then to Britain. His father had been taken prisoner by the Japanese, was forced to work on the Burma railway and died when his son was three. His mother remarried five years later.

Anholt met his first wife Sheila when he was teaching Latin in a Surrey prep school and she was teaching infants. They went to Spain, first to teach and then to work as holiday resort representatives, later teaching in Paris before returning to Britain. They married in 1964 when he was working on a trade periodical and she was in advertising.

Anholt trained in mask, mime, movement, drama and voice at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and then went into repertory at the Leas Pavilion in Folkestone, where he was in 26 plays in 27 weeks.

In the 1960s and 1970s he made his transformation from theatre idol to a wider range of parts on television. Series he appeared in included Only Fools And Horses, Juliet Bravo, Minder, Citizen Smith, Space 1999, The Sweeney, The Protectors and Kate. His films included The Late Nancy Irving for Hammer Films (1984) and Fear Is The Key (1972). He also worked extensively as a continuity announcer for BBC World Service.

Tony Anholt’s first marriage to his wife Sheila, by whom he had a son, the actor Christien Anholt, ended in divorce in 1986. He and Tracey Childs married in 1990, but divorced eight years later. His relations with both wives remained good: both were at his bedside when he died.

· Anthony Anholt, actor, born January 19 1941; died July 26 2002

The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Bill Ward is best known as Charlie Stubbs the control freak in “Coronation Street” who met his waterloo by Tracy Barlow thumbing him with a vile lamp shade. Bill Ward was born in 1967 in Newcastle-on-Tyne. He is a graduate of Bristol University with a Degree in History. His film debut was in 1984 in “Secret Places”. Other TV appearances include “Doctors”, “Midsomer Murders” and “Jonathan Creek”. He acts frequently on the stage and has starred in “Look Back in Anger”. Video clip here.

Garfield Morgan is best known for his role as Dect. Inspector Frank Haskins in the very popular TV series of ther 70’s “The Sweeney”. He was born in 1931 in Birmingham. He appeared in many many television series such as “The Likely Lads”, “Softly, Softly” and “The Bill”. His films include “The Odessa File” with Jon Voight in 1974 and “28 Weeks Later”. Garfield Morgan died in 2009 at the age of 78.

His “Independent” obituary by Anthony Hayward:

The balding head and impassive manner that Garfield Morgan brought to many of his television roles was most prominent in The Sweeney, in which he played Chief Inspector Frank Haskins, the nervy and long-suffering boss of John Thaw and Dennis Waterman’s no-holds-barred Flying Squad detectives, Regan and Carter. Haskins’ disapproval of their unorthodox methods, in a programme notable for its violent action and strong language, brought him into frequent arguments with Regan. The Sweeney (1975-78) trail-blazed the next generation of police series after Z-Cars and Softly Softly, which showed that those who dispensed law and order could themselves be flawed.

Morgan’s own character was just as flawed as those for whom he took responsibility. Haskins constantly had marriage problems, gulped down glasses of milk to ease the pain from his ulcer and was not immune to taking wrong decisions at work. Once, when a bank manager and female customer were taken hostage by robbers, he and Regan disagreed about whether to use police marksmen to kill the criminals or sweat it out. Haskins’ decision to choose the latter led to disaster, with the manager dead and the woman hideously disfigured. As a character actor and private man who never sought fame, Morgan brought the same dispassionate manner to sitcom roles, including that of the confectionery firm owner A. C. Strain employing the Northerner grappling with moving south (Rodney Bewes) in Dear Mother… Love Albert (1969-71) and its sequel, Albert (1972).

Born in Birmingham in 1931, Morgan began his working life as an apprentice dental mechanic but decided to follow his love of acting by training at a Birmingham drama school. His first job was with the touring Arena Theatre Company, based in Sutton Coldfield. He was soon acting and directing for the stage, becoming director of productions at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (1957-58), and Library Theatre, Manchester (1959-60). Later, he was associate director at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter (1976-78), and the Nottingham Playhouse (1978-80).

By then, Morgan was a prolific actor on television. He had already played villains in Z-Cars, as well as policemen and vicars on screen, by the time he was cast as Detective Chief Inspector Gwyn Lewis in the first series of Softly Softly (1966), the Z-Cars spin-off. He followed it with a string of character roles in popular series such as The Avengers (1967-69), The Baron (1967), The Saint (1967) and Man in a Suitcase (1967), before becoming a regular as Webster in the gangland drama Spindoe (1968) and Tao Gan in Judge Dee (1969), which adapted ancient Chinese detective stories. The Sweeney followed a 1974 “Armchair Cinema” pilot, Regan, which gave a clue of what was to come, with John Thaw’s loud, “shoot now, ask questions later” detective inspector slamming down the phone on his “guv’nor” more than once.

Many of Morgan’s subsequent regular roles were in sitcoms. He played Desmond, porter of the flats where the university-educated layabout played by Hywel Bennett lived in the later series of Shelley (1982-84), Thora Hird’s fellow Salvation Army officer Brigadier Langton in the second run of Hallelujah! (1984), Tim Brooke-Taylor’s boss Gerald in You Must Be the Husband (1987-88), the golf club captain George Brady in the writer Johnny Speight’s The Nineteenth Hole (1989) and the Labour Party whip Norman in No Job for a Lady (1990-92, starring Penelope Keith as a female MP).

There was an element of an in-joke when the actor was reunited with Dennis Waterman in four episodes of the comedy-drama Minder (1985-9), in which he played Superintendent Mason alongside George Cole as the second-hand car salesman Arthur Daley and Waterman as the conman’s bodyguard, Terry McCann. Morgan also took one-off parts in Lovejoy (1992), Heartbeat (2003), Holby City (2004) and The Bill (2005).

His film appearances were only occasional, and included The Odessa File (1974, playing an Israeli general), the comedy The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995) and the zombie apocalypse picture 28 Weeks Later (2007), but he continued to act on stage throughout his years on television. He also provided the narration for four Rick Wakeman albums, including The Seven Wonders of the World (1995), and appeared with the musician in live performances.

A keen horse rider, Morgan competed in eventing and show jumping. He was secretary of the Stage Golfing Society from 2005 until his death.

Anthony Hayward

This “Independent” interview can also be accessed online here.

Tessie O’Shea

Tessie O’Shea was born in Cardiff in 1913. At a young age she became a performer in British music halls. She performer in Blackpool in the 1930’s. She began appearing in movies in 1948 with “Holidays With Pay”. Her other films include “The Shiralee” which was made in Australia in 1957 with Peter Finch. Noel Coward brought her to Broadway in 1963 to star in “The Girl Who Came to Supper” for which she won a Tony for feature player. The following year she appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, the night the Beatles made their U.S. television debut. In 1966 she was cast in the U.S. film “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” as the town postmistress. Her last film was the Disney musical “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” with Angela Lansbury in 1971. Tessie O’Shea died in Florida in 1995 at the age of 82.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

She was aptly and affectionately dubbed “Two Ton Tessie” not only for her plentiful girth but for the tons of talent she possessed as one of the British Isle’s most beloved, unabashed music hall entertainers. Welsh star Tessie O’Shea was born Teresa O’Shea and was already showing off as a youngster capturing prizes for the talent contests she entered with her singing and dancing. The once-slim performer made her solo debut at the age of 12 at the Bristol Hippodrome and never stopped working. She buried her burgeoning weight under loads of comic clothing — complete with over-sized hats, striped stockings and elastic boots while belting out such bawdy favorites as “Don’t Have Any More, Missus Moore” and “Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy.” By the late 30s Tessie had become a major star on radio and stage and won the hearts and respect of soldiers everywhere touring with ENSA during World War II. She later went out on the road with band-leader Billy Cotton in a highly successful musical revue called “Tess and Bill.” In the 60s she had U.S. audiences eating out of the palm of her hand. She became a certifiable hit on Broadway with her scene-stealing song “London” in “The Girl Who Came to Supper,” a 1963 musical adaptation of Terence Rattigan‘s play “The Sleeping Prince,” and was rewarded with a Tony for her efforts. She returned to Gotham three years later with the musical “A Time for Singing” which was based on Richard Llewellyn‘s “How Green Was My Valley.” Seen practically everywhere, she was a featured regular in the CBS show The Entertainers (1964) in 1964, took her musical act to Las Vegas, and even won an Emmy nomination in 1968 for her feisty, atmospheric musical turn in Jack Palance‘s version of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Film appearances were extremely rare, however, appearing in cameos in both The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). Back in Britain in the 70s she appeared to great advantage on TV and, of course, always seemed at home on the bawdy stage. Tessie died in 1995 of congestive heart failure at age 82, having lived quite the happy, hearty life, and allowing audiences everywhere in on much of it.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Charles Dance

Charles Dance was born in 1946 in Redditch. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1970’s. He first came to international promence in 1984 in “The Jewel in the Crown” as Guy Perron. The success of the series gave him leading man status in the cinema. he went on to star opposite Meryl Streep in “Plenty” , “Michael Collins” with Liam Neeson and in “The Golden Child”. He also acts and directs on the stage. In 2004 he made his film directorial debut with “Ladies in Lavender” starring Maggie Smith and Judi Dench.

TCM Overview:

After a brief dalliance with leading-man status in the 1980s, Charles Dance built a career of playing highborn heels with a distinctive capacity to menace more heroic types with a suave, icy indifference. The English-born Dance honed his skills with the Royal Shakespeare Company before scoring his breakthrough screen role in the epic miniseries “The Jewel in the Crown” (ITV/PBS, 1984). Able to mix dashing and savoir faire with layered vulnerability, he landed a flurry of above-title bills in award-bait dramas such as “Plenty” (1985), “White Mischief” (1987) and “Pascali’s Island” (1988). As of his turn in “The Golden Child” (1986), however, he developed a niche playing frosty yet textured villains in big-ticket projects such as “Last Action Hero” (1993), “Michael Collins” (1996) and the miniseries “Bleak House” (BBC, 2005), as well as lighter fare a la “Ali G Indahouse” (2002) and “Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal” (Sky1, 2010). The early 2000s saw him increasingly bringing his arch-villainy to highbrow television projects such as the drama series “Trinity” (Channel 4, 2009), the international intrigue series “Strike Back” (Sky1/Cinemax, 2010- ) and, to much fanfare, HBO’s fantasy phenomenon “Game of Thrones” (2011- ). Though he proved himself adept at many character types across stage and screen, Dance showed time and again that few could play the bad guy with such devilish aplomb.

He was born Walter Charles Dance Oct. 10, 1946, in Redditch, Worcestershire, U.K., the second son of Eleanor and Walter Dance, an engineer. He grew up in Plymouth, but Walter’s death when Charles was four left the family nearly destitute. His mother remarried and moved up to the head cook job at a local restaurant. Charles followed his youthful artistic bent to the Plymouth College of Art and, later, the Leicester College of Art and Design. He studied graphic design and photography, but also began picking up amateur acting work with extracurricular theater groups and studied informally with pub friends who were retired actors. He began building his CV with regional repertory work. He married artist Joanna Haythorn in 1970. Dance landed his first television credit in 1974 in a guest-shot on the BBC series “Father Brown” (1974) and the next year was accepted as a company member with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He landed a supporting role as young Prince Eddy in the ITV miniseries “Edward the King” (1975) and took his first lead with RSC during a U.S. tour when he took over the title character in “Henry V.”

In 1979, Dance scored the lead in a West End revival of “Irma La Douce” and his first major TV lead a year later as he rendered the poet Siegfried Sassoon in the “BBC2 Playhouse” (1974-83) telefilm “Fatal Spring.” But his real breakthrough came with Granada Television’s sweeping miniseries “The Jewel in the Crown,” in which Dance played a colonial soldier navigating romance and intrigue in the last days of the British Raj. The 14-part epic, which aired in 1984 on ITV in the U.K. and PBS in the U.S., set him on a groove of prestige period dramas as he essayed the put-upon husband of Meryl Streep in “Plenty”; did a turn as film pioneer D.W. Griffith in “Good Morning, Babylon” (1987); played the womanizing rake in “White Mischief”; and a gadabout grifter opposite Ben Kingsley and Helen Mirren in the World War I-era drama “Pascali’s Island.” He also garnered starring roles in more contemporary thriller fare: a scholar caught up on a matrix of political secrecy in “Hidden City” (1987) and a trailblazing scientist who stumbles upon the creation of a human/gorilla hybrid in the BBC miniseries “First Born” (1988).

Now on Hollywood’s radar, he began a second career track with his turn in the Eddie Murphy comedy actioner “The Golden Child” (1986). Dance drew raves in an otherwise critically lambasted film for his devilishly cool nemesis out to capture a Buddhistic Chosen One under the protection of Murphy’s smack-talking private eye. He would become a go-to thespian for suave heels as he donned the mask for the title character in a lavish NBC-aired remake of “Phantom of the Opera” (1990); menaced Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Last Action Hero” (1993); led a young Clive Owen to the darker corners of medicine in “Century” (1993); and schemed to quell Liam Neeson’s rebellious IRA cadres in “Michael Collins.” Dance even did a comedic riff on his smarmy-jerk archetype as a political hatchetman out to get clueless Sacha Baron Cohen’s ultra-poseur and unlikely MP in the comedy “Ali G Indahouse” (2002). Dance would pepper his CV with indie fare such as the steamy potboiler “The Blood Oranges” (1997) and offbeat romantic comedies “What Rats Won’t Do” (1998) and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” (1999), as well as have a small turn as the supportive father of the titular sisters in the acclaimed biopic “Hilary and Jackie” (1998).

In 2001, he joined a rogue’s gallery of loopy characters deconstructing both the whodunit genre and British class strictures in Robert Altman’s much-lauded “Gosford Park.” Meanwhile, Dance and Haythorn’s marriage – which produced two children – soured, leading to a 2004 divorce. Dance shifted into prestige television projects, including a characteristically icy turn as Dickens’ Machiavellian barrister Tulkinghorn in the miniseries “Bleak House” (BBC/PBS, 2005), which earned him an Emmy nomination in the U.S.; the ITV serial-killer miniseries “Fallen Angel” (2007); and, in 2010, one of the Sky1’s lavishly-produced adaptations of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld tales, “Going Postal.” In 2007, he returned to the stage as the scholar and literary giant C.S. Lewis in a West End revival of William Nicholson’s “Shadowlands.” Two years later, Dance took a cast job on ITV’s ambitious series “Trinity,” donning sinister garb again as an erudite dean keeping rein on his ancient university’s rigid caste system.

In 2010, he joined a bevy of the British stage’s most venerable talents in the voluminous cast of HBO’s ambitious series “Game of Thrones.” The epic fantasy adventure, based on George R.R. Martin’s best-selling series of novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, chronicled the power struggle for the eponymous Iron Throne, the seat of power on the mythical continent of Westeros. Comprised of various fiefdoms and family dynasties, the players in the multi-sided gambit of violence and political intrigue were the usurping Baratheons, the wealthy Lannisters, the island-dwelling Greyjoys, and the noble Starks, a clan from the rugged northern region of Westeros. With the show bowing in spring 2011, Dance brought spine-chilling menace to the Machiavellian puppet master Tywin Lannister and, as the series progressed, took an ever more prominent role as he made odious moves to take total control of the island kingdom. In 2012, Dance had a daughter with his girlfriend Eleanor Boorman, but the relationship ended soon after. He continued to lend authoritative, steely characters to high-profile television projects: in 2012, he joined the action-intrigue series “Strike Back” in its third season as a British billionaire whose African philanthropy masks a nefarious scheme; and ventured into chicanery in Parliamentary realms again in the Channel 4 political-thriller miniseries “Secret State” (2012).

By Matthew Grimm

This TCM Overview can also be accessed here.

Ian Ogilvy was born in 1943 in Woking in Surrey. He trained in London at RADA. He is best known for his role as TV’s Simon Templer in the series “The Return of the Saint” which ran from 1978 until 1980. He has acted frequently on the London stage. His films include “Stranger in the House” in 1967 with Geraldine Chaplin and the cult classic “Witchfinder General” with Vincent Price. He also featured in the very popular television series “Upstairs, Downstairs”. Ian Ogilvy now lives in California and has guest starred on American television in such shows as “Murder She Wrote”.

Collection of Classic Brittish Actors

Christopher Blake

Christopher Blake obituary in “The Stage”.

Geraldine James

Geraldine James. TCM Overview.

Geoffrey Hughes

Tony Anholt

Bill Ward

Garfield Morgan

Tessie O’Shea

Charles Dance

Ian Ogilvy

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