# Alan Badel

Alan Fernand Badel (/bəˈdɛl/; 11 September 1923 – 19 March 1982) was an English actor who appeared frequently on stage, in film, on radio and on television.

## Early life

Badel was born in Rusholme, Manchester, and educated at Burnage High School. He fought in France and Germany during the Second World War, serving as a paratrooper on D-Day. He partially lost his hearing when a shell exploded near him.

## Career

Badel's earliest film role was as John the Baptist in the Rita Hayworth version of Salome (1953), a version in which the story was altered to make Salome a Christian convert who dances for Herod in order to save John rather than have him condemned to death. He portrayed Richard Wagner in Magic Fire (1955), a biopic about the composer. He also played the role of Karl Denny, the impresario, in the film Bitter Harvest (1963). Around the same time he played opposite Vivien Merchant in a television version of Harold Pinter's play The Lover (also 1963) and as Edmond Dantès in a BBC television adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (1964).
Badel also played the villainous sunglasses-wearing Najim Beshraavi in Arabesque (1966) with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. He played the French Interior Minister in The Day of the Jackal (1973), a political thriller about the attempted assassination of President Charles de Gaulle. In the political television drama Bill Brand (1976) he played David Last, the government's Employment Minister, a left-wing former backbench MP who had recently joined the front bench after 30 years in the House of Commons. One of his last roles was that of Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg in the Paramount film Nijinsky (1980). A television adaptation for the BBC of The Woman in White (1982) by Wilkie Collins, in which Badel played the role of Count Fosco, was shown posthumously.

## Personal life

Badel married the actress Yvonne Owen in 1942 and they remained married until his death from a heart attack in Chichester, aged 58. Their daughter, Sarah Badel, is an actress.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1952 | The Stranger Left No Card | Stranger | Short film |
| 1953 | Salome | John the Baptist | |
| 1953 | Will Any Gentleman...? | The Great Mendoza | |
| 1955 | Three Cases of Murder | Owen/Mr. X/Harry | |
| 1955 | Magic Fire | Richard Wagner | |
| 1961 | The Complaisant Lover | Clive Root | TV film |
| 1963 | This Sporting Life | Weaver | |
| 1963 | The Lover | Richard | TV film |
| 1963 | Bitter Harvest | Karl | |
| 1964 | Children of the Damned | Dr. David Neville | |
| 1966 | Arabesque | Beshraavi | |
| 1969 | Otley | Alec Hadrian | |
| 1969 | Where's Jack? | The Lord Chancellor | |
| 1969 | The Siegfried Idyll | Richard Wagner | TV film |
| 1970 | The Adventurers | President Rojo | |
| 1973 | The Day of the Jackal | The Minister | |
| 1974 | Luther | Cardinal Cajetan de Vio | |
| 1976 | Where Adam Stood | Philip Gosse | TV film |
| 1977 | Telefon | Colonel Malchenko | |
| 1978 | The Medusa Touch | Quinton | |
| 1978 | Force 10 from Navarone | Major Petrovitch | |
| 1979 | Agatha | Lord Brackenbury | |
| 1979 | The Riddle of the Sands | Dollmann | |
| 1980 | Nijinsky | Baron de Gunzburg | |
| 1980 | Shōgun | Father Dell'Aqua | TV film |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1951 | Michèle and René | Poins | Episode: "Up the River" |
| 1953 | Omnibus | Fool/Napoleon | Episodes: "King Lear" & "The Man of Destiny" |
| 1956–1957 | Vanity Fair | Rawdon Crawley | Series regular, 6 episodes |
| 1957 | Sunday Night Theatre | Fouguier-Tinville | Episode: "The Public Prosecutor" |
| 1958 | Pride and Prejudice | Fitzwilliam Darcy | Series regular, 6 episodes |
| 1958 | Armchair Theatre | Don Juan | Episode: "Death of Satan" |
| 1961 | Theatre 70 | Roger Webb | Episode: "The Substitute" |
| 1962 | ITV Play of the Week | Don Juan | Episode: "Don Juan in Hell" |
| 1962 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | Don Juan | Episode: "Don Juan in Hell" |
| 1963 | BBC Sunday-Night Play | The Prisoner | Episode: "The Prisoner" |
| 1963 | ITV Play of the Week | Hero | Episode: "The Rehearsal" |
| 1963 | Chronicle | Julius Caesar | Episode: "Four Views of Caesar" |
| 1964 | The Count of Monte Cristo | Edmond Dantès | Series regular, 12 episodes |
| 1965 | ITV Play of the Week | Tom | Episode: "A Couple of Dry Martinis" |
| 1965 | Famous Gossips | Oscar Wilde | Episode: "Oscar Wilde: Monsieur Sebastien Melmoth" |
| 1966 | Play of the Month | General Gordon | Episode: "Gordon of Khartoum" |
| 1967 | Theatre 625 | Henry IV of England | Episode: "Henry IV" |
| 1968 | Play of the Month | Father | Episode: "The Parachute" |
| 1968 | The Wednesday Play | Rory Farquhar | Episode: "Toggle" |
| 1968 | Theatre 625 | David de Beaudrigue | Episode: "The Fanatics" |
| 1970 | ITV Playhouse | Edward Kimberley | Episode: "The Creeper" |
| 1970 | Biography | Charles I | Episode: "A King and His Keeper" |
| 1974 | A Raging Calm | Tom Simpkins | Series regular, 7 episodes |
| 1976 | Bill Brand | David Last | Series regular, 6 episodes |
| 1976 | Play of the Month | Svengali | Episode: "Trilby" |
| 1977 | BBC2 Play of the Week | Michael Arlen | Episode: "Exiles" |
| 1977 | Play of the Month | Sir Robert Morton | Episode: "The Winslow Boy" |
| 1978 | Horizon | Henry Winstanley | Episode: "The Eddystone Lights" |
| 1978 | The CBS Festival of Lively Arts for Young People | Charles Dickens | Episode: "The Secret of Charles Dickens" |
| 1978 | The Sunday Drama | Buster Barnes | Episode: "The One and Only Buster Barnes" |
| 1980 | Shōgun | Father Dell'Aqua | Series regular, 5 episodes |
| 1982 | The Woman in White | Count Fosco | Series regular, 5 episodes |
| 1982 | Play of the Month | Sir Fretful Plagiary | Episode: "The Critic" |
| 1982 | The Agatha Christie Hour | Sir Alington West | Episode: "The Red Signal" |