# Joss Ackland

Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE (29 February 1928 – 19 November 2023) was an English actor who appeared in more than 130 film, radio and television roles. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for portraying Jock Delves Broughton in White Mischief (1987).

## Early life

Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland was born in a basement flat in "then insalubrious" North Kensington, London, on 29 February 1928, the son of Sydney Norman Ackland (died 1981), an Irish journalist who had been sent to England to live with an aunt by his parents for seducing their maid, but subsequently seduced his aunt's maid, Ruth Izod (died 1957), whom he married. The Acklands' basement flat was one of "a string of similar places" in which they lived, invariably with "one bedroom and the absolute bare essentials"; Ackland described his upbringing in the Ladbroke Grove area as being "very poor".
Ackland was trained by Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Ackland and Rosemary Kirkcaldy were married on 18 August 1951, when Ackland was 23 and she was 22. She was an actress and Ackland wooed her when they appeared on stage together in Pitlochry, Scotland. The couple struggled initially as Ackland's acting career was in its infancy. In 1954 they moved to Lilongwe in what was then Nyasaland, now Malawi, where Ackland managed a tea plantation for six months but, deciding it was too dangerous, they moved to Cape Town, South Africa. Though they both obtained steady acting jobs in South Africa, after two years they returned to England in 1957.

## Career

After attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama, he made his professional debut on stage at just 17 years old, starring in the 1945 production of The Hasty Heart. Ackland joined the Old Vic, appearing alongside other notable actors including Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Tom Courtenay. Ackland worked steadily in television and film in the 1960s and 70s.
He worked opposite Alec Guinness in the 1979 television serial Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, playing sporting journalist and intermittent British espionage operative Jerry Westerby, and his career advanced through the 1980s with important parts in such films as The Sicilian, Lethal Weapon 2, The Hunt for Red October and White Mischief. On television Ackland appeared as Jephro Rucastle with Jeremy Brett and David Burke in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; the episode entitled "The Copper Beeches". Other appearances included Passion of Mind with Demi Moore and the two-part TV serial Hogfather based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld. He played C. S. Lewis in the television version of Shadowlands before it was adapted into a stage play starring Nigel Hawthorne and then a theatrical film with Anthony Hopkins in the same role. His voice (as well as that of Roy Dotrice) was heard reading quotations in several episodes of Jacob Bronowski's 1973 documentary series The Ascent of Man.
His voice was also a mainstay of many British television commercials including Yellow Pages, WK Kellogg Co and Homepride.
Ackland's stage roles included creating the role of Juan Perón in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita opposite Elaine Paige. He also starred in the London production of Stephen Sondheim's and Hugh Wheeler's A Little Night Music with Jean Simmons and Hermione Gingold, performing on the RCA Victor original London cast album.
Ackland appeared in the Pet Shop Boys' 1988 film It Couldn't Happen Here, and in the video for their version of the song Always on My Mind, which was taken from the film. Several years later, he said in an interview with the Radio Times that he had appeared with the band purely because his grandchildren liked their music.
Ackland also co-starred as Emilio Estevez's mentor and friend Hans in the 1992 Disney The Mighty Ducks. He reprised the role four years later in 1996's D3: The Mighty Ducks.
In a 2001 interview with the BBC, Ackland said that he had appeared in some "awful" films due to being a workaholic. He said that he "regretted" appearing in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and the Pet Shop Boys music video. He also criticised former co-star Demi Moore as "not very bright or talented", though he worked with her again years later in Flawless (2008).
Also in 2007, Ackland appeared in the film How About You opposite Vanessa Redgrave, portraying a recovering alcoholic living in a residential home after being forced to retire and losing his wife to cancer.
In 2008, Ackland returned to the small screen as Sir Freddy Butler, a much married baronet, in the ITV1 show Midsomer Murders. The episode was entitled Vixens Run.
In September 2013, Jonathan Miller directed a Gala Performance of William Shakespeare's King Lear at the Old Vic in London, with Ackland in the role of Lear.

## Personal life and death

Ackland and his wife Rosemary (née Kirkcaldy) were married for 51 years. They had seven children, thirty-two grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Despite his filming taking him to far-flung locations, he said Rosemary and he "were hardly ever apart". Daughter Kirsty married Anthony Shawn Baring, a descendant of the merchant banker Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet and a descendant of Robert Rundell Guinness, founder of the merchant bank Guinness Mahon.
In 1963, their house in Barnes caught fire. Rosemary, who was pregnant at the time, saved their five children but broke her back when jumping from the bedroom window. She was told she would miscarry and never walk again, but she later gave birth and after 18 months in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, was able to walk again. Their eldest son, Paul, died of a heroin overdose in 1982, aged 29. In 2000, Rosemary was diagnosed with motor neurone disease; she died on 25 July 2002.
In 2020, Ackland participated in the "Letters Live" project, and was recorded from his home in Clovelly, Devon. His letter reflected on the COVID-19 crisis and his hopes for how the country could draw "strength from adversity".
Ackland died at home in Clovelly, on 19 November 2023, aged 95.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1949 | Landfall | O'Neill (uncredited) | |
| 1950 | Seven Days to Noon | | |
| 1952 | Ghost Ship | Ron, a seaman | |
| 1959 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | | |
| 1962 | In Search of the Castaways | Seaman on yacht (uncredited) | |
| 1966 | Rasputin: the Mad Monk | The Bishop | |
| 1969 | Crescendo | Carter | |
| 1970 | The House That Dripped Blood | Neville Rogers | |
| 1971 | Villain | Edgar Lewis | |
| 1971 | Mr. Forbush and the Penguins | The Leader | |
| 1972 | The Happiness Cage | Dr Frederick | |
| 1973 | Hitler: The Last Ten Days | Gen. Burgdorf | |
| 1973 | Penny Gold | Jones | |
| 1973 | England Made Me | Haller | |
| 1973 | The Three Musketeers | D'Artagnan's Father | |
| 1974 | The Black Windmill | Chief Supt. Wray | |
| 1974 | S*P*Y*S | Martinson | |
| 1974 | The Little Prince | The King | |
| 1974 | Great Expectations | Joe Gargery | |
| 1975 | One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing | B.J. Spence | |
| 1975 | Royal Flash | Sapten | |
| 1975 | Operation Daybreak | Janák | |
| 1977 | The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation as We Know It | President | |
| 1978 | Watership Down | Black Rabbit (voice) | |
| 1978 | Silver Bears | Henry Foreman | |
| 1978 | The Greek Tycoon | (uncredited) | |
| 1978 | Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? | Cantrell | |
| 1979 | A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square | Prison Warden (uncredited) | |
| 1979 | Saint Jack | Yardley | |
| 1980 | Rough Cut | Insp. Vanderveld | |
| 1980 | The Apple | Hippie Leader/Mr Topps | |
| 1985 | A Zed & Two Noughts | Van Hoyten | |
| 1986 | Lady Jane | Sir John Bridges | |
| 1987 | White Mischief | Sir Jock Delves Broughton | |
| 1987 | The Sicilian | Don Masino Croce | |
| 1987 | It Couldn't Happen Here | Priest/Murderer | |
| 1988 | To Kill a Priest | Colonel | |
| 1989 | Lethal Weapon 2 | Arjen 'Aryan' Rudd | |
| 1990 | Dimenticare Palermo AKA The Palermo Connection | Mafia boss | |
| 1990 | The Hunt for Red October | Ambassador Andrei Lysenko | |
| 1990 | Tre colonne in cronaca | Gaetano Leporino | |
| 1991 | The Object of Beauty | Mr Mercer | |
| 1991 | Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey | Chuck De Nomolos | |
| 1992 | The Sheltering Desert | Col. Johnston | |
| 1992 | Once Upon a Crime | Hercules Popodopoulos | |
| 1992 | Shadowchaser | Kinderman | |
| 1992 | The Bridge | Smithson | |
| 1992 | The Mighty Ducks | Hans | |
| 1993 | Nowhere to Run | Franklin Hale | |
| 1993 | The Princess and the Goblin | King Papa (voice) | |
| 1994 | OcchioPinocchio | Brando | |
| 1994 | Miracle on 34th Street | Victor Landberg (uncredited) | (Store Competitor for Shopper's Express) |
| 1994 | Giorgino | Father Glaise | |
| 1995 | Mad Dogs and Englishmen | Insp. Sam Stringer | |
| 1995 | The Thief and the Cobbler | Brigand (voice) | |
| 1995 | A Kid in King Arthur's Court | King Arthur | |
| 1996 | Surviving Picasso | Henri Matisse | |
| 1996 | D3: The Mighty Ducks | Hans | |
| 1997 | Swept from the Sea | Mr Swaffer |
| 1997 | Firelight | Lord Clare |
| 1998 | My Giant | Monsignor Popescu (uncredited) | |
| 2000 | The Mumbo Jumbo | Mayor Smith | |
| 2000 | Passion of Mind | Dr Langer, the French Psychiatrist | |
| 2002 | No Good Deed | Mr Thomas Quarre | |
| 2002 | K-19: The Widowmaker | Marshal Zelentsov | |
| 2003 | I'll Be There | Evil Edmonds | |
| 2004 | A Different Loyalty | Randolph Cauffield | |
| 2005 | The Christmas Eve Snowfall | (Narrator) | |
| 2005 | Asylum | Jack Straffen | |
| 2006 | These Foolish Things | Albert | |
| 2006 | Moscow Zero | Tolstoy | |
| 2007 | How About You | Donald | |
| 2008 | Flawless | MKA | |
| 2013 | Prisoners of the Sun | Prof. Mendella | |
| 2014 | Katherine of Alexandria | Rufus | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1957 | Destination Downing Street | Immelmann | TV series |
| 1963 | The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling | William Stevens | TV series |
| 1964 | Z-Cars | Mr Shields | Episode: S03E29 "Happy Families" |
| 1966 | David Copperfield | Mr. Peggotty | TV series |
| 1966 | Lord Raingo | Tom Hogarth | TV series |
| 1966 | Theatre 625 | John Hinks | Episode: "On the March to the Sea" |
| 1966–1968 | The Troubleshooters | Mr Gibbon (1966), Sam Jardine (1966-1967), Considine (1968), Lewis (1968) | 5 episodes |
| 1966 | Mystery and Imagination | Herr Scavenius, Mr. Smedhurst | 2 episodes: S02E01 "Room 13", S03E03 A Place of One's Own |
| 1967 | The Further Adventures of the Three Musketeers | d'Artagnan | TV series |
| 1967–1968 | Z-Cars | Det. Insp. Todd | 41 episodes |
| 1969 | The Avengers | Brig. Hansing | Episode: "The Morning After" |
| 1969 | The Gold Robbers | Derek Hartford | |
| 1969 | Before the Party | Harold Bannon | |
| 1969 | Canterbury Tales | The Host in the Wife of Bath's tale | series on BBC Two |
| 1966, 1970 | Play of the Month | Charley, Chebutykin | 2 episodes: S01E08 "Death of a Salesman", S05E04 "The Three Sisters" |
| 1971, 1972 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | The Applicant, The Man | 2 episodes: S07E06 "Getting In", S07E30 "King's Cross Lunch Hour" |
| 1971 | Shirley's World | Inspector Vaughan | Episode: "The Reunion" |
| 1972 | The Persuaders! | Felix Meadowes | Episode: "Read and Destroy" |
| 1972 | Six Faces | Harry Mellor | 2 episodes |
| 1973 | The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes | Grubber | Episode: "The Mystery of the Amber Beads" |
| 1974 | The Protectors | Arthur Gordon | Episode: "Trial" |
| 1976 | Centre Play | Doctor | Episode: "You Talk Too Much" |
| 1976 | The Crezz | Charles Bronte | 12 episodes |
| 1978 | Enemy at the Door | Major General Laidlaw | Episode: "Treason" |
| 1978 | Return of the Saint | Gunther | Episode: "The Nightmare Man" |
| 1978 | The Sweeney | Alan Ember | Episode: "Feet of Clay" |
| 1979 | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy | Jerry Westerby | Episode: "Smiley Sets a Trap" |
| 1980, 1988 | Tales of the Unexpected | Jack Cutler, Colonel George Peregrine | 2 episodes: S03E07 "The Stinker", S09E02 "The Colonel's Lady" |
| 1980 | A Question of Guilt | Samuel Kent | |
| 1980 | The Love Tapes | Narrator (uncredited) | TV movie |
| 1980 | The Gentle Touch | Ivor Stocker | Episode: "Menaces" |
| 1981 | Dangerous Davies – The Last Detective | Chief Insp. Yardbird | TV movie |
| 1981 | Thicker Than Water | Joseph Lockwood | TV series |
| 1982 | The Confessions of Felix Krull | Mr. Twentyman | TV series |
| 1982 | The Barretts of Wimpole Street | Edward Moulton-Barrett | TV movie |
| 1984 | Shroud for a Nightingale | Stephen Courtney-Briggs, surgeon | Mini-series |
| 1984 | The Tragedy of Coriolanus | Menenius | TV movie |
| 1985 | Shadowlands | C. S. Lewis | TV movie |
| 1985 | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Jephro Rucastle | Episode: "The Copper Beeches" |
| 1987 | A Killing on the Exchange | Sir Max Sillman | TV movie |
| 1987 | Queenie | Sir Burton Rumsey | Mini-series |
| 1987 | When We Are Married | Henry Ormonroyd | TV movie |
| 1988 | The Man Who Lived at the Ritz | Hermann Göring | Mini-series |
| 1988 | Codename: Kyril | 'C' | Mini-series |
| 1989 | A Quiet Conspiracy | Theo Carter | Mini-series |
| 1989 | The Justice Game | Sir James Crichton | 2 episodes |
| 1989 | First and Last | Alan Holly | TV movie |
| 1990 | Jekyll & Hyde | Charles Lanyon | TV movie |
| 1990 | Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming | Gen. Gerhard Hellstein | TV movie |
| 1991 | A Murder of Quality | Terence Fielding | TV movie |
| 1991 | A Woman Named Jackie | Aristotle Onassis | Mini-series |
| 1991 | Ashenden | Cumming | Mini-series |
| 1991 | They Do It with Mirrors | Lewis Serrocold | TV movie |
| 1992 | Incident at Victoria Falls | King Edward | TV movie |
| 1992 | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | The Prussian | Episode: "Austria, March 1917" |
| 1993, 1996 | Screen Two | Sir Charles (Archie) Peverall, Captain | Episodes: S09E08 "Voices in the Garden", S14E02 "Deadly Voyage" |
| 1994 | Citizen Locke | Lord Ashley | TV movie |
| 1994 | Shakespeare: The Animated Tales | Julius Caesar (voice) | 1 episode: "Julius Caesar" |
| 1994 | Jacob | Isaac | TV movie |
| 1995 | Citizen X | Bondarchuk | TV movie |
| 1995 | Daisies in December | Gerald Carmody | TV movie |
| 1996 | Hidden in Silence | German factory manager | |
| 1996 | To the Ends of Time | King Francis | TV movie |
| 1996 | Testament: The Bible in Animation | Noah (voice), Samuel (voice) | 2 episodes: S01E05 "Creation and the Flood", S01E09 "David and Saul" |
| 1998 | Heat of the Sun | Max van der Vuurst | 1 episode |
| 2001 | Othello | James Brabant | TV movie |
| 2003 | Henry VIII | Henry VII | TV movie |
| 2005 | Icon | General Nikolai Nikolayev | TV movie |
| 2006 | Midsomer Murders | Sir Freddy Butler | Episode: "Vixen's Run" |
| 2006 | Hogfather | Mustrum Ridcully | Mini-series |
| 2006 | Above and Beyond | Winston Churchill | Mini-series |
| 2007 | Kingdom | Mr Narbutowicz | 1 episode |

### Video games

* Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003) (voice) as Pieter Van Eckhardt

### Audio books

* Rise of the Ogre (Audiobook) (2006) (Narrator)

## Honours

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Civil Division for Services to Drama in the 2001 New Years Honours List.

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Awards | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 1982 | Laurence Olivier Awards | Actor of the Year in a Revival | Henry IV, Part 1 and 2 | Nominated |
| 1989 | British Academy Film Awards | Best Actor in a Supporting Role | White Mischief | Nominated |
| 1990 | British Academy Television Awards | Best Actor | First and Last | Nominated |