Nigel Hawthorne

Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne CBE (5 April 1929 – 26 December 2001) was an English actor. He portrayed Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role, he won four BAFTA TV Awards for Best Light Entertainment Performance. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying King George III in The Madness of King George (1994). He later won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor, for the 1996 series The Fragile Heart. He was also an Olivier Award and Tony Award winner for his work in the theatre.
== Early life ==
Hawthorne was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, the second of four children of Agnes Rosemary (née Rice) and Charles Barnard Hawthorne, a physician.[1] When Nigel was three years old, the family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where his father had bought a practice. Initially they lived in the Gardens and then moved to a newly built house near Camps Bay.[2] He was educated at St George's Grammar School, Cape Town and, when the family moved, the now defunct Christian Brothers College,[3] where he played on the rugby team.[4]He described his time at the latter as not being a particularly happy experience.[2]He enrolled at the University of Cape Town, where he met and sometimes acted in plays with Theo Aronson,[5] later a well-known biographer, but withdrew and returned to the United Kingdom in the 1950s to pursue a career in acting.
== Career ==
Hawthorne made his professional stage debut in 1950, playing Archie Fellows in a Cape Town production of The Shop at Sly Corner.[3] He made his Broadway debut in 1974 in As You Like It. He returned to the New York stage in 1990 in Shadowlandsand won the 1991 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.[6]
In a long and varied career in film, which began with an advert for Mackeson Stoutand smaller roles in various British television series since the late 1950s, his most famous roles were as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary of the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in the television series Yes Minister(and Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister), for which he won four BAFTA awards during the 1980s, and as King George III in Alan Bennett's stage play The Madness of George III (for which he won a Best Actor Olivier Award) and the film version entitled The Madness of King George, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and won the BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor. He won a sixth BAFTA for the 1996 TV mini-series The Fragile Heart.
Hawthorne was also a voice actor, and lent his voice to two Disney films: Fflewddur Fflam in The Black Cauldron (1985), and Professor Porter in Tarzan (1999).
== Personal life ==
An intensely private person, he was upset at having been involuntarily outed as gay in 1995 in the publicity surrounding the Academy Awards, but he did attend the ceremony with his long-time partner Trevor Bentham, speaking openly about being gay in interviews and his autobiography, Straight Face,[7] which was published posthumously.[8]
They met in 1968 when Bentham was stage-managing the Royal Court Theatre. From 1979 until Hawthorne's death in 2001, they lived together in Radwell near Baldock and latterly at Thundridge, both in Hertfordshire, England. The two of them became fund raisers for the North Hertfordshire hospice and other local charities.[9]
== Death ==
Hawthorne had several operations for pancreatic cancer, although his immediate cause of death was from a heart attack, aged 72. He was survived by Bentham, and his funeral service was held at St Mary's, the Parish Church of Thundridge near Ware, Hertfordshire, following which he was cremated at Stevenage Crematorium.[10] His funeral was attended by Derek Fowlds, Maureen Lipman, Charles Dance, Loretta Swit and Frederick Forsyth along with friends and local people. The service was led by the Right Reverend Christopher Herbert, the Bishop of St Albans. The coffin had a wreath of white lilies and orchids and Bentham was one of the pallbearers.[11]
On hearing of Hawthorne's death, Alan Bennett described him in his diary, "Courteous, grand, a man of the world and superb at what he did, with his technique never so obvious as to become familiar as, say, Olivier's did or Alec Guinness's."[12]
== Honours ==
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1987 New Year Honours, and was knighted in the 1999 New Year Honours.[13]
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1958	Carve Her Name with Pride 	Polish Soldier in Park	Uncredited
1972	Young Winston 	Boer Sentry 	Uncredited
1974	S*P*Y*S 	Croft 	film debut
1975	The Hiding Place 	Pastor De Ruiter 	
1975	Decisions, Decisions 	unknown role 	Short film
1977	Spiderweb 	Lonnrot 	Short film
1978	Sweeney 2 	Dilke 	
1978	Watership Down 	Captain Campion 	Voice, credited as Nigel Hawthorn
1978	The Sailor's Return 	Mr. Fosse 	
1981	History of the World: Part I 	Citizen Official 	(The French Revolution)
1981	Memoirs of a Survivor 	Victorian Father 	
1982	Firefox 	Pyotr Baranovich 	
1982	The Plague Dogs 	Dr. Boycott 	Voice
1982	Gandhi 	Kinnoch 	
1983	Dead on Time 	Doctor 	Short film
1984	The Chain 	Mr. Thorn 	
1985	The Black Cauldron 	Fflewddur Fflam 	Voice
1985	Turtle Diary 	The Publisher 	
1988	Rarg 	Storyteller 	Short film
1989	A Handful of Time 	Ted Walker 	
1990	King of the Wind 	Achmet 	
1992	Freddie as F.R.O.7. 	Brigadier G 	Voice
1993	Demolition Man 	Dr. Raymond Cocteau 	
1994	The Madness of King George 	George III 	
1995	Richard III 	Clarence 	
1996	Twelfth Night or What You Will	Malvolio 	
1997	Murder in Mind 	Dr. Ellis 	also Associate Producer
1997	Amistad 	Martin Van Buren 	
1998	The Object of My Affection 	Rodney Fraser 	
1998	Madeline 	Lord Covington 	(segment "Lord Cucuface")
1998	At Sachem Farm 	Uncle Cullen 	also Executive Producer
1999	The Big Brass Ring 	Kim 	
1999	The Winslow Boy 	Arthur Winslow 	
1999	A Reasonable Man 	Judge Wendon 	
1999	Tarzan 	Professor Porter 	Voice
1999	The Clandestine Marriage 	Lord Ogleby 	also Associate Producer
=== Television ===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1956 	Cry Wolf! 	PC Bray 	Television Movie
television debut
1956 	The Goose Girl 	unknown role 	Television Movie
1957 	The Royal Astrologers 	Third Thief 	Television Movie
1957 	Bonehead 	Bit Part 	Episode: "Pilot"
1957 	Huntingtower 	Sinister man 	Episode: "#1.3"
1957 	Villette 	Second Footman 	Television Miniseries; 2 episodes
1962 	The Last Man Out 	Gestapo Man 	Episode: "The Way Out"
1963 	The Desperate People 	Cliff Fletcher 	recurring role; 4 episodes
1963 	Man of the World 	Assistant director 	Episode: "The Bandit"
1963 	Bud 	Trefor Jones 	Episode: "#1.5"
1964 	Detective 	Temple Doorkeeper 	Episode: "Death in Ecstacy"
1964 	Emergency-Ward 10 	Colin Davies 	Episode: "#1.769"
1965 	Jury Room 	David Hemming - Jurror 	Episode: "The Dilke Affair"
1969 	Mrs. Wilson's Diary 	Roy Jenkins 	Television Movie
1969 	The Gnomes of Dulwich 	Gnome 	Episode: "#1.6"
1969 	Dad's Army 	the Angry Man 	Episode: "The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones"
1971 	The Last of the Baskets 	Mr. Snodgrass 	Episode: "For Richer, for Poorer"
1971 	Hine 	Freddy Ambercourt 	Episode: "Everything I Am I Owe"
1973 	Hadleigh 	Oliver Mason 	2 episodes
1974 	Occupations 	Libertini 	Television Movie
1974 	Miss Nightingale 	Dr. Lewis 	Television Movie
1976 	Couples 	Mr. Laker 	recurring role; 3 episodes
1976 	Bill Brand 	Browning 	Television Miniseries; Episode: "Yarn"
1977 	Crown Court 	Dr. William Ranford 	Episode: "Beauty and the Beast (Part 1)"
1977 	Eleanor Marx 	Engels 	2 episodes
1977 	Marie Curie 	Pierre Curie 	Television Miniseries; 4 episodes
1977 	Just William 	Mr. Croombe 	Episode: "The Great Detective"
1978 	Warrior Queen 	Catus Decianus 	recurring role; 4 episodes
1978 	Breakaway Girls 	Derek Carter 	Episode: "Sarah Carter"
1978 	Going Straight 	Worm Wellings 	Episode: "Going Going Gone"
1978 	Holocaust 	Ohldendorf 	Television Miniseries; Episode: "Part 2"
1978 	Edward & Mrs. Simpson 	Walter Monkton 	recurring role; 5 episodes
1979 	Thomas and Sarah 	Wilson 	Episode: "The New Rich"
1979 	The Other Side 	Skellow 	Episode: "Underdog"
1979 	The Knowledge 	Mr. Burgess 	Television Movie
1980 	Festival: The Misanthrope 	Philinte 	Television Movie
1980 	The Tempest 	Stephano 	Television Movie
1980 	Jukes of Piccadilly 	Brinsley Jukes 	recurring role; 6 episodes
1980 	The Good Companions 	Reverend Chillingford 	Television Miniseries; Episode: "Miss Trant Pays the Bill"
1980 	A Tale of Two Cities 	Mr. CJ Stryver 	Television Movie
1980–1984	Yes Minister 	Sir Humphrey Appleby 	series regular; 22 episodes
1981 	Tales of the Unexpected 	Charles Drummond 	Episode: "The Last Bottle in the World"
1982 	The Hunchback of Notre Dame 	Magistrate at Esmeralda's Trial	Television Movie
1982 	A Woman Called Golda 	King Abdullah 	Television Movie
1982 	The World Cup: A Captain's Tale 	John Westwood 	Television Movie
1982 	The Barchester Chronicles 	Archdeacon Theophilus Grantly 	Television Miniseries; 7 episodes
1983 	Tartuffe, or the Imposter 	Orgon 	Television Movie
1984 	Pope John Paul II 	Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski 	Television Movie
1984 	The House 	General Fagg 	Television Movie
1985–1986	Mapp & Lucia 	Georgie Pillson 	recurring role; 10 episodes
1985 	Jenny's War 	Colonel 	recurring role; 4 episodes
1986–1988	Yes, Prime Minister 	Sir Humphrey Appleby 	series regular; 16 episodes
1989 	The Play on One 	John 	Episode: "The Shawl"
1990 	Relatively Speaking 	Philip Carter 	Television Movie
1994 	Late Flowering Lust 	Cousin John 	Television Movie
1996 	Inside 	Colonel 	Television Movie
1996 	The Fragile Heart 	Dr. Edgar Pascoe 	unknown episode
1996 	The Happy Prince 	Narrator 	Television Movie
1997 	Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone	David Livingstone 	Television Movie
1998 	Animal Stories 	Narrator 	unknown episode
2000 	The Last Polar Bears 	Narrator 	Television Short
2001 	Victoria & Albert 	Lord William Lamb 	Television Movie
2001 	Call Me Claus 	Nick 	Television Movie, (final film role)
== Awards and nominations ==
Year	Title 	Accolade 	Category 	Result
1977	Privates on Parade 	Laurence Olivier Award 	Best Actor in a Supporting Role 	Won
1981	Yes Minister 	Broadcasting Press Guild Award 	Best Actor in a Light Entertainment Program	Won
1982	Yes Minister 	British Academy Television Award	Best Light Entertainment Performance 	Won
1983	Yes Minister 	British Academy Television Award	Best Light Entertainment Performance 	Won
1987	Yes, Prime Minister 	British Academy Television Award	Best Light Entertainment Performance 	Won
1988	Yes, Prime Minister 	British Academy Television Award	Best Light Entertainment Performance 	Won
1989	Yes, Prime Minister 	CableACE Award 	Actor in a Comedy Series 	Nominated
1990	Shadowlands 	Laurence Olivier Award 	Best Actor 	Nominated
1991	Shadowlands 	Tony Award 	Best Actor in a Play 	Won
1992	The Madness of King George III	Laurence Olivier Award 	Best Actor 	Won
1995	The Madness of King George 	Academy Award 	Best Actor 	Nominated
1996	The Madness of King George 	British Academy Film award 	Best Actor in a Leading Role 	Won
1996	The Madness of King George 	Empire Award 	Best Actor 	Won
1996	The Madness of King George 	London Critics Circle Film Award	British Actor of the Year 	Won
1997	The Fragile Heart 	British Academy Television Award	Best Actor 	Won
1999	The Object of My Affection 	London Critics Circle Film Award	British Supporting Actor of the Year 	Won