Richard Beckinsale

Richard Arthur Beckinsale(6 July 1947 – 19 March 1979) was an English actor. He playedLennie Godberin the BBCsitcomPorridge(along with its sequel seriesGoing Straight) and Alan Moore in the ITV sitcomRising Damp. He is the father of actressesSamanthaandKate Beckinsale.
Richard Beckinsale was born inCarlton, Nottinghamshire, the youngest of three children, to anAnglo-Burmesefather, Arthur John Beckinsale, and an English mother, Maggie Barlow.Richard stated in 1977 that he may have been a distant relative of the actorCharles Laughton.
While attending College House Junior School inChilwell, Richard appeared in his first of many school plays, playing Dopey inSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs.As a teenager at Alderman White Secondary Modern School, he played the lead inTobias and the Angeland also appeared as Hsieh Ping-Kuei inLady Precious Stream, which earned him a positive review in theNottingham Evening Post.Richard left school at 15 with ambitions to become a professional actor but he was still too young to go to drama school. He spent a year working in numerous manual labour jobs, including spells as an upholsterer's apprentice, a pipe inspector, and an assistant in a grocery business.
At 16, Richard enrolled at Clarendon College (later part ofNottingham College) taking the drama teacher's training programme and spent the next two years there, until he was old enough to apply to theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art.After failing his first audition for RADA, Richard was accepted on his second attempt, becoming just one of 31 successful applicants from a total of more than 12,500.While at RADA, Richard won a prize for comedy.
After graduating in 1968,he moved toCreweto begin inrepertory theatre. He also appeared in various other repertory productions around the country, including Hull, Leeds, London and Colchester. While at Crewe, Richard played such roles as the Scarecrow inThe Wizard of Oz, Sir Andrew Aguecheek inTwelfth Night, and the title role in Shakespeare'sHamlet.Following his stint in 1969 playing Hamlet, Richard took a brief hiatus from acting and worked at a bottle factory, before returning to acting soon after.
Richard made his television debut in 1969 as a police officer inCoronation Street, in which he had to arrest veteran characterEna Sharples.He later had a small role in a 1970 episode ofA Family at War, playing a young soldier.
After being recommended by several other actors for the part, Richard landed his first starring role as Geoffrey in the sitcomThe Lovers(1970–71), opposite fellow newcomerPaula Wilcox.The show put both leading performers in the eye of the public and afilm versionwas made in 1973 with both Richard and Wilcox reprising their roles.
From 1974 to 1977, Richard starred as prison inmateLennie GodberalongsideRonnie Barkerin the hit BBC sitcomPorridge. Richard expressed relief at landing the role, owing to his concern about being typecast as Geoffrey fromThe Lovers.Barker had suggested actorPaul Henryfor the role of Godber, owing to Henry's being fromBirmingham(as Godber was meant to be), but directorSydney Lotterbychose Richard Beckinsale instead. Richard initially played Godber with a Birmingham accent, but this was eventually abandoned.ActorBrian Glover, who played the characterCyril HesloponPorridge, stated that Heslop's line "I read a book once; green it was" from the first episode,New Faces, Old Hands, was actually Richard's idea.
While appearing inPorridgeon the BBC, Richard simultaneously starred as naive medical student Alan Moore in the ITV sitcomRising Dampalso from 1974 to 1977. Richard was the only member of the cast not to have appeared inThe Banana Box, the play on whichRising Dampwas based. WriterEric Chappellstated: "Although not the oldest, he was the most experienced sitcom actor of the quartet, having already appeared inThe LoversandPorridge. This allowed him to be something of a calming influence on the show – a calming influence that was often needed."Richard had previously worked withLeonard Rossiterin the 1974Johnny SpeightdramaIf There Weren't Any Blacks You'd Have To Invent Them.Because of a scheduling conflict with the musicalI Love My Wife, in which he was starring, Richard was unable to appear in the fourth series ofRising Damp.
In 1977,Porridgewas brought to an end with his character of Godber being released from his prison sentence in the final episode. He subsequently starred alongside Barker inGoing Straight(1978), a spin-off ofPorridgein which the two criminal characters are seen on the outside rebuilding their lives. Tentative plans for further episodes of the spin-off were shelved due to Richard's death in 1979.
Richard starred in his final television comedy,Bloomers, the five completed episodes of which eventually aired in September and October 1979 onBBC 2. He played Stan, an out-of-work actor who takes a job as a partner at a flower shop. This was the first sitcom of Richard's in which he had the leading role.
In between series one and two ofThe LoversRichard starred in an ITV children's show titledElephant's Eggs in a Rhubarb Tree. The show featured jokes, poetry, and music.
He had the lead role of a young detective in the 1971Armchair TheatreepisodeDetective Waiting.
Richard appeared in the filmsRentadick(1972)andThree for All(1975) and made appearances in several other television series such as theStephen Frears-directedITV Playhouseepisode "Last Summer" in 1977.
Throughout his TV series run, Richard also did a 19-month run in theWest EndplayFunny Peculiar, for which he was nominated for theLaurence Olivier Awardfor "Actor of the Year in a New Play" and "Comedy Performance of the Year".He later did a six-month run in the London debut of theCy ColemanandMichael StewartmusicalI Love My Wife.
Shortly after his 30th birthday, Richard was the subject of an episode ofThis Is Your Life.  Ronnie Barker and Fulton MacKay ofPorridge, Leonard Rossiter and Don Warrington ofRising Damp, and Paula Wilcox ofThe Loversall gave tributes during the show.
In 1977, he starred in a radio comedy series calledAlbert and Mewith Pat Coombs and John Comer.He also appeared in an advertisement forAsdawhich aired in 1978 and early 1979.  He appeared in thefilm version ofPorridgereleased in 1979. It was to be his last and only completed work of the year.
In October 1980, Frederick Muller Ltd. posthumously published a volume of Richard's poetry entitled "With Love" (ISBN0-584-10387-5).
Richard was married twice.  In 1965, he married his pregnant girlfriend, a local Nottingham woman named Margaret Bradley, whom he had met in 1964 while singing at a folk club. Their daughter, actressSamantha Beckinsale, was born on 23 July 1966. When he was accepted into RADA, they moved to London.  Richard became immersed in student life and he and his wife grew apart.They separated in 1968 when Margaret took Samantha back to live in Nottingham and Richard left London to work in repertory in Crewe.They divorced in 1971 and he did not see his daughter for years. Margaret later remarried and her new husband raised Samantha as his daughter.  Samantha was unaware that her biological father was Richard until she was 11.Richard and Samantha reconnected soon after and spent time together before his death in 1979.
Richard met actressJudy Loein 1968 at Crewe repertory.They soon began dating and lived together for years. Their daughter, actressKate Beckinsale, was born on 26 July 1973.They finally married in 1977, prior to Kate starting nursery school.
Richard enjoyed playing the guitar and singing, and he performed in folk clubs in Nottingham as a teenager.He also enjoyed playing football and often played in charity matches with the Entertainers XI team.He was a fan ofManchester Unitedfootball team.
Richard stated that towards the end of his 19 month run with the playFunny Peculiar, he tookValiumand had several instances of having to start the play over again due to overwork and mental strain.Richard's widow, Loe, stated that he suffered from occasionalpanic attacks.
Because of his good looks and his being on television so often, he received a large amount of fan mail, particularly from women.Although Richard was pleased with the success of the sitcoms he starred in, he expressed a desire to play more serious roles as he got older.
Richard worked on the BBC sitcomBloomers, five episodes of which were filmed prior to Christmas 1978.According to hisBloomersco-starAnna Calder-Marshall, during the recording of the first episode, he told her he had suffered some kind ofblackoutand had some dizzy spells. This concerned him enough to make an appointment to see a doctor, but the doctor could not find anything wrong apart from an overactive stomach lining and slightly highcholesterol. As filming on the series progressed, Richard appeared increasingly tired and "greyer and greyer", according to co-starDavid Swift.Because of an industrial dispute at the BBC in late December 1978, the filming of the sixth episode ofBloomershad to be postponed until March.
In January 1979, for an insurance policy for a film, Richard passed a full medical examination in which his heart, lungs, breathing, and blood pressure were checked.He spent January and February working onPorridgeand then prepared to start work onBloody Kidsin March.
A week before he died, Richard complained to his wifeJudy Loeof feeling unwell and said he was unable to take her to hospital. At the time, they both put it down to nerves; she was due to have an operation to increase the couple's chances of having another child.Loe underwent the operation on Wednesday 14 March and while she remained in the hospital recuperating, Richard continued to work onBloody Kidsand resumed work on the sixth episode ofBloomers, commuting between London by day andSouthend-on-Seaby night.
On the evening of Saturday, 17 March, he attended a farewell party forThe Two Ronnies, who were about to leave for Australia.According toDavid Jason, who was at the party, Richard left the party at around 11:30, in order to attend another friend's party.Jo Apted, wife ofThe LoversdirectorMichael Apted, stated that Richard attended a party at her house on Saturday night and felt unwell the next day.On Sunday 18 March, he worked onBloomersand gave Anna Calder-Marshall a lift home afterwards.To her surprise, he began to talk about his fear of dying and of being alone in the house.He then took his five-year-old daughter Kate to visit Loe in hospital. Upon leaving the hospital, Richard dropped his daughter off with relatives to spend the night. Afterwards, he returned to his house inSunningdale,Berkshire. At some point that day, he called his older daughter Samantha and made plans to spend some time with her the following weekend. Before going to bed, he telephoned a couple of friends, and, during the conversation, he repeated that he had been feeling unwell, and also said that he had some pain in his chest and arms. He seemed in good humour, however, and made a joke out of it.
When he did not arrive at the rehearsal for the sixth and final episode ofBloomersthe next morning, a member of the production team rang his house, and the phone was answered by family friend Rosana Bradley, who had been staying at the house to help take care of Kate, but had not been there the previous night. She said Richard was still sleeping, and she left the phone to wake him up. When she returned, she said that she was unable to wake him, and was advised to call a doctor. Shortly after, it was confirmed that he had died during the night of what appeared to be a massiveheart attack.
Thepost-mortem examinationrevealed that he hadcoronary artery disease, which caused the heart attack.Richard had expressed worries about hischolesterolto friendStephen Frearsover dinner just days earlier, but he seemed healthy and fit and had nocardiacproblems in his medical records. According to Frears, Richard's high cholesterol may have been a factor in his early death.
Richard's death was met with great shock.Rising Dampco-starFrances de la Tourstated: "It is such a shock that someone as young and obviously fit as him should die so suddenly. The last time I saw him he had given up smoking, not that he smoked very much, anyway. He was always concerned about keeping fit and we used to tease him about it. He used to play a lot of charityfootball, but the terrible thing is that he was a family man. I am most distressed for his family."The LoverscreatorJack Rosenthalstated: "He must have had one of the biggest futures any actor could hope for. He was a very honest boy and he had that same quality in his acting."
Richard wascrematedduring a private service inBracknell, Berkshire,and his remains were then taken toMortlake Crematorium.Although Richard left more than £65,000 (equivalent to £420,000 in 2023) in his will, only approximately £18,000 was left after taxes and other costs.On 19 April 1979, one month after his death, more than 300 people attended a memorial service at the actors' churchSt Paul'sinCovent Garden.Leonard Rossiter,Fulton MacKay,Richard Briers, andPorridgewritersDick ClementandIan La Frenaisgave tributes during the service.  La Frenais stated:  "I was always amazed by Richard's talent. I'm convinced he would have become an international actor." Briers said: "The character of Lennie Godber had a kind of innocence which was a danger but also a kind of protection against prison life. Richard had a similar innocence. It made him vulnerable but he was never one for upstaging, scene-stealing and the kind of action which substituted technique for truth. Richard made us laugh and also charmed us. He was an effortless charmer."  Richard's widow, Judy, stated:  "It was a celebration, not a memorial service."A memorial plaque was later placed in the church in Beckinsale's honour.
At the time of his death, Richard had almost completed the BBC sitcomBloomers. WriterJames Saunders's original script reveals that Richard was due to attend the sixth and last rehearsal for the final episode of the series on the day he died, with the show to be recorded the following day. The five completedBloomersepisodes were aired later in the year.
Plans had been drawn up to make a film version ofRising Dampand ultimatelythe filmwas made in 1980.Christopher Strauliwas recruited to replace Richard, playing a different character.
He was also in the middle of making a television film,Bloody Kids, which then had to be re-cast. This role marked a change in direction for Richard, playing a hard-nosed detective character in contrast to the naive characters he had played before. Although Richard does not noticeably appear in the film, director Stephen Frears stated that there are a small number of scenes in which Richard is just off camera, as well as a scene in which he is in a car, although indistinguishable to the viewer.Some of the footage of Richard, which could not be included in the film, was shown during the 2000ITVtribute,The Unforgettable Richard Beckinsale, as well as the 2016ITV3documentary,Rising Damp Forever. One scene showed Richard questioning a character in the film with a tough stance, and looking quite different than his usual appearance with much shorter cropped hair.
Three days after Richard's death,Going Straightwon aBAFTAaward. A clearly shaken and upset Ronnie Barker delivered a brief acceptance speech in tribute to his co-star. Richard holds the distinction of having starred in three different sitcoms, each of which won the BAFTA forBest Situation Comedy, in three successive years:Porridgein 1977,Rising Dampin 1978, andGoing Straightin 1979.
When Richard's book of poetry,With Lovewas published in 1980, Judy Loe, Ronnie Barker, and Richard Briers appeared onThe Russell Harty Showto talk about the book and recite some of the poetry.
In 2000, 21 years after his death, a documentary was broadcast onITVin tribute, calledThe Unforgettable Richard Beckinsale. It featured interviews with his widow, the actressJudy Loe, as well as his father, sister, closest school friend and two daughters. Also contributing were his co-stars,Ronnie BarkerofPorridgeandDon WarringtonofRising Damp. Barker, remembering Richard's premature death, said: "He was so loved. He hadn't done much but he was so loved that there was a universal sort of grief that went on."
In the 2006 filmVenus, during a scene inside the actors' church,St Paul's,Peter O'Toole's character, an aging actor, points out Richard's plaque, as an example of an actor who died in his prime.
In 2007,Alan Daviesnominated Richard as his chosen subject for theBBC Radio 4seriesGreat Lives.  Judy Loe and Stephen Frears participated in the discussion of Beckinsale's life and career.
A biography of Richard, titledThe Richard Beckinsale Storywas published in 2008 by author David Clayton. It featured interviews with family, friends, and co-workers of Richard's.
In 2013, ablue plaquein Richard's memory was unveiled at his former school, College House Junior School inChilwell.  Kate Beckinsale, Judy Loe,David Walliams, andMichael Sheenattended the ceremony.
UK Goldaired a three-part documentary in 2014 calledPorridge: Inside Out, in celebration ofPorridge's 40th anniversary. During this series, there was a memorial segment dedicated to Richard, in which Judy Loe and Kate Beckinsale took part.
ITV3aired a two-part documentary in 2016 calledRising Damp Foreverwhich looked back at the making ofRising Damp. There was a memorial segment for Richard during the series in which his daughters, Samantha and Kate took part.
In 2018, as part of an art project in Richard's former hometown ofBeeston, a mural of him was commissioned by the town council and painted by the French street artist, Zabou.
Rising Dampco-starFrances de la Toursaid of Richard's acting ability:  "Richard was a brilliant young actor as so many have testified. His comedy was based on the truth. That is what people mean by 'timing.' So we believed him at all times.  There is no greater testament. Ronnie Barker was similar, which is why they worked so well and movingly together."