The Go-Between (1971) - IMDb (Los Angeles) – See all my reviews In 1900 Norfolk, England, twelve-year-old Dominic Guard (as Leo Colston) goes to spend the summer at the beautiful country estate of blond school chum Richard Gibson (as Marcus Maudsley). The lads have fun wrestling while young Mr. Guard gets to know his pal's family. His chief interest is young Mr. Gibson's alluring sister Julie Christie (as Marian). An extremely beautiful woman, Ms. Christie arouses those "coming of age" feelings in Guard. She makes a "fuss" over Guard, dressing a knee wound and buying him a new suit. While Gibson is bedridden with measles, Guard is coerced into delivering love notes as "The Go-Between" for Christie and hunky neighboring farmer Alan Bates (as Ted Burgess)... But, Christie is engaged to Edward Fox (as Hugh Trimingham), a member of her own social class. As Guard experiences his own sexual awakenings, he becomes conflicted about continuing to deliver the love notes, especially as he genuinely likes Christie and both of the men she is involved with.

This story of sex and class has some major problems - like the underwritten villainess played by Margaret Leighton, the parallel witchcraft being practiced by the protagonist, and the sputtering "flash-forward" ending. But, "The Go-Between" is a spectacular-looking film, with cinematographer Gerry Fisher and the crew making it well worth eyeing - and Joseph Losey leads Guard and his co-stars to fine performances. ******* The Go-Between (12/70) Joseph Losey ~ Dominic Guard, Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Richard Gibson 2 of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes Jim Broadbent's forgotten role in The Go-Between - Telegraph TV and Radio Jim Broadbent's forgotten role in The Go-Between Jim Broadbent cast in remake of The Go-Between 43 years after making his debut as an uncredited extra in a scene with Julie Christie Jim Broadbent, (seated, with hat & tie) nade his debut as an uncredited extra in The Go-Between By Anita Singh , Arts and Entertainment Editor 12:54PM BST 29 Sep 2014 When Jim Broadbent made his film debut in The Go-Between in 1971, it was such a minor part that he failed to make the credits. Jim Broadbent in a scene with Julie Christie He played a spectator at a cricket match, briefly glimpsed in the background behind a radiant Julie Christie but without a line to speak. Four decades and one Oscar later, Broadbent is returning to the scene of that very first role. The BBC is remaking The Go-Between, an adaptation of LP Hartley’s famous novel, and this time Broadbent is playing one of the leads.

He has been cast alongside Vanessa Redgrave, who also has a special link to the story: her father, Michael Redgrave, appeared in the original production. Broadbent will step into Redgrave’s shoes as Leo Colston, who narrates the story and looks back at his childhood summer of 1900. Related Articles Lady Chatterley to be adapted by Line of Duty writer 24 Apr 2014 The young Leo becomes infatuated with his schoolfriend's older sister, Marion, and innocently agrees to deliver messages between her and a local farmer, Ted Burgess, unaware that they are engaged in an illicit affair that will lead to tragedy. Julie Christie played Marion Maudsley in The Go-Between, one of her most memorable roles The lovers in the original film were played by Christie and Alan Bates. With a screenplay by Harold Pinter, it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival and today regularly makes lists of the best British films of all time. Broadbent was a 21-year-old drama student when he landed his first film role.

Broadbent, now 65, said he was "thrilled" to be cast in the BBC's new adaptation “I was an extra in The Go-Between for a few weeks, and it was fascinating to see the game going on," he has said. "For me it was a huge and complex thing but totally collaborative – no shouting or arguing – and I could see there was a way to get things to happen very quickly. It was a very impressive and exciting way to see for the first time what it was all about.” The original adaptation of The Go-Between won the Palme d'Or at Cannes The role did not catapult Broadbent to stardom. It was another seven years before he earned his first screen credit - as "fielder in cowpat" in British horror film The Shout, which also starred Alan Bates. The new BBC drama is part of a season of classic 20th century literary adaptations planned for the coming year. Joanna Vanderham, star of BBC One drama The Paradise, will play the role originally taken by Julie Christie Redgrave will play the older Marion, while Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise) and Ben Batt (Shameless) will play the doomed lovers.

Jack Hollington, 13, will play the schoolboy Leo. Broadbent said last night: “Having been an extra in the first adaptation, I was thrilled to be asked to be in this new version.” Sir Alan Bates, 69, dies after cancer battle | UK news | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close Sir Alan Bates, the actor who made his name with a string of acclaimed stage and screen performances spanning almost five decades, has died aged 69. He had been suffering from cancer of the liver and died at a London clinic on Saturday night. Sir Alan, one of the most versatile and explosive actors of his generation, came to prominence in 1956 after his performance in John Osborne's landmark play Look Back in Anger. He went on to establish himself as an accomplished screen actor, appearing in more than 50 films. Earlier this year he was knighted in the new year's honours list, adding to the CBE he was awarded in 1996. The Oscar-winning actor and MP Glenda Jackson, who starred with Bates in Women in Love, in which he wrestled naked with Oliver Reed, said he had been unafraid to take risks.

"The longer he lived, the better an actor he became," Ms Jackson told Sky TV. "Look Back in Anger totally transformed British theatre. But as he matured as an individual his acting became broader and deeper and he always brought the unexpected to everything he did," she said. The son of an insurance broker, Bates won a a scholarship to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Rada) where he met Peter O'Toole and Albert Finney. In 1956 he took a starring role in Look Back in Anger. His performance made him an overnight sensation in Britain and America and triggered a lifelong love affair with the theatre. He also appeared in some of the most memorable films of the 1960s, including Bryan Forbes' Whistle Down the Wind, and John Schlesinger's A Kind of Loving and Far From The Madding Crowd. He married Victoria Ward in 1970 and a year later she gave birth to twin sons, Tristan and Benedick, who both took up acting. Tristan died in 1990 following an asthma attack and Bates' wife passed away two years later.

After his son's death, Bates and his remaining son, Benedick, set up the Tristan Bates Theatre at the Actors Centre in Covent Garden, London. Paul Hill, a close friend and neighbour of the actor for the last 30 years, said: "Alan was a very warm, considerate and self-effacing man who took his work very seriously. He was not interested in being a celebrity, he just cared about the art of acting - he was interested in quality." Mr Hill, 62, a university professor who befriended Bates when the actor's parents moved to the village of Bradbourne, in Derbyshire, added: "He cared about people. There was nothing extrovert about him and he never expected special treatment from anyone. He will be sorely missed." Despite widespread respect from his peers, Bates was nominated for only one Oscar - best actor in 1969 for John Frankenheimer's The Fixer. The British Academy of Film and Television nominated him on six occasions, most recently for the 2001 mini-series Love in a Cold Climate, based on Nancy Mitford's satire of the British aristocracy.

His skill for picking classy projects was underlined when he appeared in the 2001 film Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman. The film received critical acclaim in Britain and the US. In an interview with the Sunday Times in January this year, Bates said the deaths of his wife and son had had a profound effect on him. "That was a hugely strong part of my life and it's gone, when it shouldn't have gone. But my feelings didn't die." He added: "Whatever is left of my life, and I might die tomorrow, I am still doing for them. If life is that tenuous you have got to use the time." A Guardian review of his portrayal of Solness, an ageing architect in Peter Hall's 1995 production of Ibsen's The Master Builder, praised the actor's ability to transform himself into a "haunted, conscience-stricken figure", which ensured that the production was "exquisitely balanced". Life in films BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Your tributes to Sir Alan Bates Your tributes to Sir Alan Bates Sir Alan Bates was knighted in 2003 Below are some of your tributes to actor Sir Alan Bates, who died on Saturday aged 69.

I was the producer on the BBC 1 Production of Love in a Cold Climate in 2000 for which Alan was nominated for a BAFTA . I will always remember him fondly for the support and encouragement he gave the young director and the younger members of the cast and the friendship he gave to all of us. It was also a crackingly funny performance that he clearly relished giving. Kate Harwood, London, England As a neighbour for several years one could see the devoted father, the totally approachable and lovable, open man, free of his 'fame'. Peter Burian, London UK What a presence he had! Such a gorgeous man, and also a truly superb character actor. An Englishman Abroad remains one of the most fantastic things ever seen on TV, in my opinion. Bless you, Alan, and you shan't be forgotten. Maggie Donaldson, Oxford, UK What a great shame to hear of the passing of Alan Bates, I had the pleasure of meeting him in the early 60s in the privacy of a relative's home. The most down to earth man you could meet and over the years never changed. Myself and I know everyone from Derby will miss him.

Terry Chapman, Tiverton, Devon, UK I was privileged to see his Petruchio at Stratford in 1973. It was the best portrayal I've ever seen, and was the highlight of a fantastic production. My most treasured memory was the way Alan Bates handled a potentially disastrous interruption from the audience; someone stood up halfway through the first act, shouting that the interpretation was a disgrace and generally causing a fuss. Alan stood still a second, then advanced downstage, leaned across the footlights, and hissed "**** off!". Cue a standing ovation by a grateful audience. Alan - you were a fine actor who never got the recognition you deserved. Thank you for all the enjoyment you gave us, and rest in peace. John Masters, East Molesey, UK Alan Bates was once me. That's to say, he played me - in Nicholas' Gift, a made-for-television film about the murder of my seven year-old son, Nicholas, in Italy. Both he and Jamie Lee Curtis, who played my wife, were so caught up in the unfolding drama - and the subsequent inspiration when Nicholas' donated organs saved the lives of five young Italians - that neither appeared to be acting at all.

The memory of the loss of his own son clearly added an extra dimension of awareness. The scene, when Nicholas has just been shot and is taken away in an ambulance, he told me, was one of the bleakest moments of his life, though fully aware, of course, that it was just a stage prop with a boy actor inside. It was the ability to sink himself into the character he was playing, and yet remain detached enough to cope with all the fussy complications of film-making, that helped make him such a compelling performer. Thank you, Alan, for the pleasure you have given us all. Reg Green, Bodega Bay, California, USA I was stunned to hear of my favourite actor's untimely passing. He had many great roles ahead. He is gone too soon. I shall always remember him as Gabriel Oak in Far From the Madding Crowd and Ted Burgess in The Go-Between. There are no words to express my sadness. Claudette Harris, Austin TX USA A truly magical performance in Women in Love not forgetting of course Far from the Madding Crowd. He will never be forgotten. Hoping to see more of him on the screen in the next few weeks - especially A Kind of Loving.

So sorry to hear of his passing. Will miss his good looks. Condolences to his family. G Haberfield, Millom, Cumbria. Alan Bates was one of the best actors of all time. He was an outstanding and excellent actor. Unfortunately he died too young, he will be missed. My condolences to his family Danielle, The Netherlands May 28, 2002, my sister Donna, my husband Lorenzo, and myself saw Alan Bates in Fortune's Fool. It was on of the highlights of our lives, having adored him in all his film performances. We met him after the performance. He kindly gave us autographs and chatted. What a charming and talented man. When we told him that surely the Tony was going to be his, he touched his heart and said, "One can only hope." Thank you for touching our hearts, Mr. Bates. We will never forget you. Marie Laliberte, Naples, Florida, USA What to add? Except to say that I will never forget the thrill of Alan Bates, when the world was young.

But he has brought me even greater pleasure in later years in An Englishman Abroad, Oliver's Travels, Gosford Park, The Cherry Orchard, and Love in a Cold Climate. I have celebrated his marvellous career with an Alan Bates Video Festival this week, watching Quartet, An Unmarried Woman, Far From the Madding Crowd, The King of Hearts and Georgie Girl (twice). Though now I will never see him on the stage and meet him at the stagedoor as others have done, I can watch these splendid performances over and over again and remember and dream. Thank you Sir Alan Bates. Judith Cheney, Asheville, North Carolina, USA I'm the manager of Alan's website, the Alan Bates Archive, Over the last ten years he became a dear friend, and my family and I already miss him terribly. Alan was at the top of his form as an actor; he had come through the refining fire of years of personal tragedy, was once again savouring life, and seemed ready to do his best work. We are missing his Falstaff, his Lear, his further ventures into comedy, and so much more.

I have one request to the BBC on behalf of legions of fans: please PLEASE issue "Oliver's Travels" on DVD, or even VHS! I have had thousands of requests since 1995, from all over the world for this charming mini. Now is the time, as a tribute to Alan's fine work at the BBC. Karen Rappaport, Stow, Massachusetts USA and Lewisham, South London I was fortunate enough to work with Alan in A Patriot For Me at the Ahmanson in L.A. When I first met him in London during rehearsals, I told him that I loved everything he had been in. He replied " Surely, not everything!". I will miss you my friend. Nameer El-Kadi, Los Angeles U.S.A, My wife Jan, daughter Lara and I were immensely privileged to have known Alan. We found him to be a bright light in our lives. He was above all modest, caring and genuine, the best type of human being. Our friendship was very important to us and the time spent with him was always happy and enjoyable.

Once after watching him on Broadway in 'The Unexpected Man' Alan treated us to a meal at The Firebird in New York and we had a wonderful evening in his company. On leaving the restaurant we walked arm in arm towards our hotel and came across a tramp curled up in a doorway. Alan went over to the guy and spoke to him for several minutes before giving him some money for food. It wasn't the money he gave the man but the time he spent talking to him which made Alan the person he was. Larger than life and always giving of himself to others. Yes he was a great man in his own right, remarkable and wonderful and we feel so lucky to have spent time together. Some people have said that he wasn't a SUPERSTAR, well let me tell you that he was and if you care to look at his web site you will be blown-away by the quality, quantity and breadth of his work. Our thoughts are with all Alan's friends and family, but especially to Ben, Joanna and Rosemary who gave him so much love, and to Karen who has made Alan's website a tribute to the man.

Mike Palmer, St John - Torpoint - England I am so glad I went way out of my way to see a number of his stage performances...including a long queue for his Philip Larkin poetry at the National. His Antony, unexpected by many, was superb. Early on I saw Butley; I wanted to see it again but was persuaded by friends to see my first Ayckbourn instead; I sat through it unimpressed, thinking repeatedly "I could be watching Bates as Butley!" A deep sense of loss for a masterful actor. Susan, Chicago USA He was the finest actor to emerge from that astonishing bumber crop of talent in the early sixties. My favourite Bates performance was the one he gave in A Kind of Loving. Robert del Valle, Detroit USA I was extremely saddened to hear of the death of Sir Alan Bates, a favourite actor of mine for many years. I was never fortunate to see him on stage but enjoyed (and will continue to do so) his film roles immensely. My favourite role of his, as many have said already is in 'Far from the Madding crowd'. My sympathies to his family and friends now he has taken his final bow.

Gaynor Kaufman, Perivale, England I first saw Alan Bates in 1971 appearing in "The Go Between". He was a handsome devil then as he continued to be throughout his life. Then there was a re-run of television's "Far From The Madding Crowd". I shall never forget that scene where he shot that dog because his sheep were killed. Very disturbing. The killing was all off camera but one could see the savagery in Bates' face when he held that rifle. Now that is an actor! Pamela Harvey-Declouette, College Park, Georgia I loved every movie Sir Alan acted in, he was a very talented actor and I shall miss him terribly although I will be able to view many of his movies on T.V. and videos, may he rest in peace. Jean Scales, Toronto,Canada A great, great loss to British stage and cinema, and to all persons capable of appreciating his craftsmanship. Alas being in the antipodes I never got to see him on stage, but every film performance I have seen is exemplary. Like many other viewers I particularly loved his performance in Far from the Madding Crowd, and equally in Women in Love.

The Go-Between was also a triumph for him. Very very sorely missed. Jeff Perkins, Sydney Australia The wind has been knocked out of me since hearing of the death of the wonderful Alan Bates. I was 12 when I first saw him, in Georgy Girl, and I followed his career ever after. When I was younger I had a joke with my boyfriends, that the only man I'd ever leave them for was Alan Bates. I told my husband, though, that I wouldn't even leave him for Alan Bates - the ultimate compliment. In Alan Bates's movie and television roles, he explored intensely all aspects of his characters' connections to the world and to other people. He did this unflinchingly, but, to my observation, with deep humanism, honesty, and care. Bless you for protecting the integrity of your characters. It always seemed an act of generosity. I watched you get old - and maybe not quite as pretty - but your continuing searches into souls, and your seeming goodness and intelligence and imagination deepened your beauty, especially your gaze. And that makes me feel good about having loved you when I was 12. You provided a model of spirit, love, strength, and, always, honesty.

Ruth Klue, Hartford, Connecticut When I saw the film of "Butley" in 1974, Alan Bates instantly became the most fascinating actor I had ever seen, and he has been my favourite ever since. I saw him on stage many times, and met him personally several times as well; he was a great man both on stage and off. The only bright spot in the darkness of his passing is that he won the Tony Award and received his knighthood before he left us. Carol Robinson, New York, USA A great loss, I shall always remember Separate Tables, and his performance in the Man from Kiev, among many others, a sad loss, for everyone who loved good acting. Hernando Canardo, Buenos Aires, Argentina One of the best actors has died, he will be missed. I always enjoyed his work and I will continue to do so. Thanks for the great work. I will remember you. My condolences to his family. Danielle, The Netherlands You will be greatly missed, Dear Alan. "You're The TOP!" It just doesn't get any better than Alan Bates. Linda, North Carolina, USA I'm 35 years old. When I was a teenager I loved Tom Cruise.

Then, around the age of 21 or 22 I saw Georgy Girl. Goodbye Tom, hello Alan Bates. Love at first sight. He is a joy to watch. No matter how heart-wrenching the scene, I always have a little smile on my face. Pure joy. Thank you, Sir Alan. Amelia Matthers, Lake City, Pennsylvania, USA My most cherished theatrical memory is of seeing the original production of Look Back in Anger at the Royal Court in 1956. Alan Bates gave a stellar performance as Cliff Lewis: physically energetic and emotionally sensitive, he was brilliant. And everything he did after that was also brilliant in different ways. Deirdre David, London, UK Sir Alan Bates was indeed one of the finest actors of our time. He was one of a kind and will be sorely missed. Fortunately, we can still watch him perform in the many great movies he made. Derek O'Neil, Halifax, Canada. Wonderful actor with perfect performances in movies like The Go-Between, Women in Love, An Unmarried Woman. His final encounter with Jill Clayburgh in Paul Mazursky's forgotten masterpiece An Unmarried Woman is one of the best scenes of its kind.

Sina Ohadinia, UK The warmth of this fine actor showed itself so beautifully in the television serial, Oliver's Travels, and this fine quality, paired with the finest of acting skills to be found, projected a dimension that went straight to our hearts and minds until one felt that he was as familiar as a much-loved family member. I hope he knew how much he touched a willing audience. He will be missed.. Christine Dugdale, Montreal, Quebec, Canada His brilliant performance in Fortune's Fool restored my faith in Broadway theatre. Gerald Williams, New York, USA A great loss to the theatre and film world. There is now a void which will not be easily filled. Jill Chapman, Luton, England Such a sad loss to the world of British cinema and theatre. A true gentleman. Kind, courteous, modest, and understated. My condolences to his family and friends. Alex, What a great loss to film, television and theatre! I had the pleasure of working with him about 10 years ago, and also talking to him on the phone as a customer a couple of years later. He came aross as a quiet, intelligent, friendly and polite man who will be greatly missed.

Claire Driver, London, England The man was incredible to watch in every film he was in. His brooding intelligence flowed across the screen. Alas, I never had the privilege of seeing him do live theatre. Melissa Bell, Cabin John, Maryland USA So very sad to hear the news. A brilliant and charismatic actor who we can never replace. Jenny Crockwell, Lichfield, England Sadly, we didn't see nearly enough of this fine actor in the UK. Sir Alan Bates's presence was captivating especially in Far From the Madding Crowd. My daughter, who was two at the time of this performance, sent a sketch of him in the role and he very kindly sent a lovely letter in return. I think he is a very sad loss for many of us. Juliet, S.W. England Looking at today's tv programmes and seeing that The Mayor of Casterbridge was to be shown, I thought of Alan Bates and his inimicable performance. How ironic. Rest in Peace Alan, we shan't forget you! Rosemary Watkins, Hampshire So sad to hear the news of Alan Bates' death.

We will no longer be able to enjoy his charismatic stage appearances but I'm sure his wonderful films will continue to give much pleasure over the years. Jenny Crockwell, Lichfield, England Alan Bates's performances in two Simon Gray plays of the seventies, Butley and Otherwise Engaged were masterful. I've since seen these plays performed by other respected actors, but he brought a depth to them I've not seen replicated. Utter class. Phil Atkinson, Edinburgh, UK A great actor, Sir Alan will be greatly missed. I have been a fan of Sir Alan's for many years. He seemed to be a natural. My sympathies to his family. Josephine Harrison, Coventry, W Midlands Alan Bates's acting displayed all kinds of emotions and tones but there was an underlying sweetness that was very special and uplifting. If Zorba were around he would be deeply saddened to see his "boss" depart. Phil Mader, Ottawa, Canada I hope that Alan's family will gain comfort from the appreciative comments made by his fans on the net and by the fact that there are so many of them from all over the world.

Not only did I find him extremely sexy, as another person has mentioned, but he was also a superb actor in so many parts and appeared to be such a nice person. It is impossible to single out films, as they all have their merits, and I am only sorry that he can't read all these comments now and realise how much he was admired. Della Russell, Macclesfield, England Although a very private man, Alan Bates was unfailingly kind to fans who wished to meet him after a stage performance. My husband and I had the privilege of meeting him on several occasions - a note to the stage door before a performance would guarantee this - and he would chat to us with great warmth and friendliness, always modest and unassuming about his work. On one occasion he telephoned personally to apologise for forgetting to thank us for a first-night 'good luck' card. Such amazing kindness and courtesy towards a middle-aged fan. It is surely a coincidence worthy of Thomas Hardy that his death was announced on the day that a new TV production of 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' was screened. The 1978 BBC version was one of Bates's finest roles.

Perhaps the BBC will consider a season of Bates's films to mark the passing of this great actor? He will be sorely missed. Josephine Pentney, Taunton, England I wrote a movie for Alan Bates. When he was in L.A. performing "Voyage Round My Father", I snuck backstage and introduced myself, explaining that I was a young filmmaker and wrote this character of an irreverent sometimes lunatic headmaster especially for him . He graciously took the script, and within days agreed to play the part. Incredibly, a major studio then "green lit" the movie - until Dustin Hoffman inserted himself and the studio stopped the presses and it became an Dustin Hoffman movie which, naturally, never got made. I flew to London to meet Alan at a coffee shop in Hampstead, we both liked to tell him in person, and to apologise. We were both disappointed, and I'll never forget his kindness. My condolences to his family. Alan Bates was an extraordinarily gifted actor of great power and joie de la vie whose distinctive impish twinkle could make me laugh and cry at will. Goodbye, Mr. Bates. Alan Shapiro, Los Angeles, CA, USA My condolences to his loved ones.

I saw Alan Bates' wonderful performance in "Fortune's Fool" on Broadway. He made me laugh and cry simultaneously in the scene where he becomes drunker and drunker and funnier and funnier and heartbreaking at last. What a fine actor, and it sounds like he was a decent man, too. Stephanie Kasper, Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA I was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Sir Alan Bates to the world. He was a wonderfully talented actor and he has left a tremendous body of work. I offer my deepest condolences and prayers to his son Benedick, and to all of his loved ones. S. Trahan, Lafayette, Louisiana USA The world has lost a great actor. I will always remember him in his role in Zorba The Greek. My deepest sympathy to his family and to his admirers. Abdel R Mohammad, Columbus, Ohio, USA On Saturday night, a friend invited me to watch a movie I had often mentioned as having played a key role in my life : Zorba the Greek.

I was about 19 when I had seen it for the first time and, watching it again, I could hardly believe how, some 37 years later, it resonated as deeply in my soul, with a noticeable difference though: I now understand why. When we finished watching the movie, I said: "Next time, why don't you rent "Women in Love", that is another milestone movie I would love to see again." The next morning, I heard on the news that Alan Bates, a leading actor in both movies had passed away during that same night, maybe as we were watching him on a screen. Struck by that synchronicity, I doubt I will ever forget the dialogue between Antony Quinn and Alan Bates: Q- Why do the young die? Why does anybody die, tell me? B- I don't know. Q - What's the use of all your damn books? If they don't tell you that, what the hell do they tell you? B - They tell me about the agony of men who can't answer questions like yours. Why did you die, Alan Bates, or... did you? Thank you for having given voice to such depth.

Daniel Laguitton, Sutton, Canada I had the pleasure of working with him on a TV movie I wrote once. I was a little shy of meeting him because I'd grown up watching his work (I'm particularly fond of The Collection, the TV version of the Pinter he did with Olivier, Helen Mirren and Maloclm McDowell). He couldn't have been more gracious or charming. A couple years back, he starred on Broadway in Fortune's Fool. It was easily one of a handful of great performances I have seen in a lifetime of theatre-going. The Tony Awards got it right and gave him a "best actor" trophy. A great career and a lovely man. Jeffrey Sweet, NYC, NY It was 1968, when the film Zorba the Greek, came to my small and isolated town in Fiji.The name Anthony Quinn actually drew the crowd. But little did I know, that I was about to add another actor in my list of favourites that eventually became my top film actor of all times. Sir Alan's performance in this film was brilliant in every sense of the word. Soon the whole town knew this new actor Alan Bates..

"the Englishman in white suit!" Since 1968 I have made it my mission to see every film that he has acted in. None have disappointed me. The world has lost a great actor and a good human being. He has left a legacy that will be hard to match.....truely "A man for all seasons." My deepest condolences to his family and friends. Shafeed Rahman, Prince George , B.C., Canada. I've for years looked to Britain for the best performances and productions. Alan Bates was one of the most gifted and is a great loss. Barbara Jepson, Sequim, Washington, USA A tragic loss to the theatrical world; a unique artistic talent is not replaceable... PM Bates, UK/US I had the great pleasure to meet Sir Alan when he was playing in A Patriot For Me at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket while I worked there. He was a true star, I think, who was equally riveting on stage and on film (a rare commodity). I remember the raw power of his performance in The Shout, and the heartbreak of The Go-Between in particular. My condolences to his family. Keith Gumery, Philadelphia, PA USA A shame, a damn shame.

Martyn Twidle, Kings Lynn, UK He was a wonderful actor and I always looked forward to seeing him on the screen. Such great range but you always could sense the gentility of the man. I so much enjoyed seeing him in Gosford Park recently. I only wish I could have seen him on stage. He will be sorely missed. Jack, USA Far From the Madding Crowd was always our favourite and I found myself always taping it when it appeared again on television, I now have 3 VHS copies. He always excelled playing in Victorian masterpiece theatre on TV and we will all miss him. Michael & Bernadette Cahill, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA A wonderful actor and I always enjoyed seeing him on the screen. He had such range but you always sensed the gentility of the man. Was very happy to see him in Gosford Park recently. He will be sorely missed. Jack, USA A great loss to British theatre and cinema. I never missed his films or when ever I was able to see him perform in London theatre. Truely a brilliant and sensitive actor. Prof. Moussa B.H.

Youdim, Haifa, Israel Alan Bates belonged to that group of actors who added depth to the resurgent British movie industry of the 1960s. Along with Albert Finney, Tom Courteney, Richard Harris and others, Alan Bates was a vital force in restoring the international reputation of British film acting. Eric Nellis, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada He brought class and style to all his projects. His last New York stage performance in Fortunes Fool was dazzling and stands as a magnificent testament to the actor he was. Barry H. Greene, New York, NY A great actor. Over the years I have enjoyed so many of his performances. My condolences to his family. He will be greatly missed. Anne Docherty, Montreal, Canada Very sad to hear of the loss of Alan Bates, one of my favourite actors over many years. I had the privilege of seeing him perform on stage in a Shakespeare play as Richard III in Stratford, Ontario in 1967 and he was a familiar face around town for that summer, always friendly and polite. My deepest sympathies go to his family and friends. He will be missed by many around the world.

Andrea Pretli, Windsor, Ontario, Canada I remember him as the gentle, somewhat shy, bookish "boss" in Zorba the Greek, who learned how to dance by the end of the film. He was a charismatic, evidently very sensitive man, stylish. Can one have any feeling except a sense of deep personal loss hearing this news? Mr. James Grist, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I loved Alan Bates in The King of Hearts which most people seem to have forgotten. A beautiful film with a quirky sense of humour. He will be missed. Wallace Ryan, St. John's, the Republic of Newfoundland Excellent actor. Very professional. Condolences to his family. Rao Nanduri, Montreal, Canada In his seemingly effortless portrayals of droll, offbeat characters, Alan Bates was the embodiment of fine English acting and, indeed, of Englishness. Will always be fondly remembered for his role in Georgy Girl, a defining film and character for the Sixties generation. John Green, Montreal, Canada Very sad to hear of Sir Alan Bates's death! He was truly a great actor of our time. I particularly enjoyed his performance in Women in Love. What a terrible loss to the acting community and Great Britain!

Alison Dalal-Haugen, Wisconsin, USA He had a presence about him that would make you shut up and really listen to his lines...and believe in the character he played...a real loss. Xavier Garcia, Miami, Florida, USA After having the King of Hearts recommended to me, I realised what a fine actor Bates was indeed. I have followed each of his films and will miss the anticipation of another. Bill McDonald, Los Angeles, California Living and working abroad, whenever I hear of the passing of yet another great talent, I also feel the loss of a fellow countryman who was both a creator and a part of an English creativity, which I miss and of which I am intensely proud. As Alan Bates and others pass into history, there is a feeling that a little piece of history, all our collective memories of growing up and living in their company, is lost. Such was the part Alan Bates and others played in the cultural life of us all. Adrian Parke, Jepara, Indonesia I recall smoking with Alan (backstage) during the filming of The Rose many years ago in Southern California, he was a nice man. Mick Mitchell, San Francisco One of the truly great actors is gone.

For a provincial Swede, adoring the English theatre and the English language, Alan Bates epitomised the very best of a what the English theatre has to offer. Many outstanding performances will be remembered. My favourite is Bates' rendition of John Malcolm, the former Labour politician turned journalist, in Terence Rattigan's oft forgotten little masterpiece "Separate Tables". Jan-Erik Svensson, Stockholm, Sweden Two particular performances from Alan Bates that stick out in my mind was his Claudius in Zefferelli's 1990 Hamlet. Dark, fearful and played with subtle malice, Bates shone and Mel Gibson couldn't steal the spotlight whenever Bates or Glenn Close were around. Bates however is memorable to me from his performance in the virtually unknown Silent Tongue, in which he played a dreadfully eccentric Irishman in 1800s America, who married a Native American and then is forced to go on a travelling circus with his family of half breeds. This film has the distinction of being a memorable movie for the late Richard Harris and River Phoenix's final released film, both of whom are at the top of their game.

Bates was fantastic in the role, I urge you all to try and get your hands on Silent Tongue and watch Mr Bates's mesmerising performance. Alan Bates... RIP Adam TG, Kettering, England David Hemmings... and now Alan Bates... Such great losses for British theatre and film! And yet, we all shall always remember them. They will live in our memories, in the wonderful films they've made. They did not die actually. How could they? Great actors are always immortal. Rest in peace, Sir Alan! God bless you for the art and beauty you shared with us! Alexander Danga, Bucharest, Romania Condolences to all who loved Alan Bates. I saw him perform in the play Fortune's Fool on Broadway. He had me laughing and crying at the same time with his incredible acting abilities. Stephanie Kasper, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA I am very sad to hear of Sir Alan's passing. Over the past few months this 32-year-old American girl has been getting to know this fine actor through DVDs & VHS tapes. I was hoping to see him on the London stage soon but that will never be. He was a treasure & I am so happy that he was knighted last year.

Sir Alan you will be missed! My condolences to Benedick & the whole Bates family. Patricia Holtry, Chicago IL USA I fell in love with Gabriel Oak in my early teens and always followed closely, and gained so much happiness from, all things Alan Bates. To hear of your death on the radio today fills me with sadness. From We Think The World Of You to The Fixer, Women In Love to The Cherry Orchard - pure genius. An absolute delight. "Whenever I look up there shall you be, and whenever you look up there shall I be also" - the greatest film of all time. May the sun shine on you wherever you are. Claire Ruddock, Cambridgeshire Even today, some of the very best actors are from Britain. Of that admirable group, I feel Alan Bates has always been at the top. Anupam Sharma, Oakville, Canada Too many great performances and not enough time on Earth for us all to enjoy them. Rest in Peace, Alan.... Robin Thompson, Odessa FL USA A great actor of enormous depth, versatility and immense charm. His performance as Guy Burgess in An Englishman Abroad remains one of my favourite performances that I never tire of watching. A genuinely sad loss to the world.

Andrew St.John-Brown, Armidale, NSW, Australia Sir Alan also directed several television plays for the BBC in the sixties. I had the pleasure of working for him as his film editor for the play The Prussian Officer. I shall never forget the late night dinners we shared in a workman's cafe just outside Ealing during our long edit sessions. In one scene of the Prussian Officer he gave an amazing performance which he later confided in me was the result of a injury he accidently inflicted on himself in the opening seconds. Christopher J. Hayden, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA His last appearance on the NY stage in Fortunes Fool was a well deserved triumph and to leave us with that last memory is a blessing. His resume of roles onstage and in film will be admired by many generations. Rest in Peace. Barry Greene, New York, NY I remember as a child watching a BBC play called Watch Me I'm a Bird, starring Sir Alan and Ian MacShane. It played a big part in helping me move from a child to a teenager. You did your job well Alan, thank you.

Gary John, Fort McMurray, Canada An actor of tremendous range and versatility, he took what many would consider risks to broaden his talent and art. He has given us and genrations to come some of cinema's most unforgettable characters in films such as: Zorba the Greek, An Englishman Abroad and The Rose and Georgy Girl. Like all greatness, he will never be replaced. John Alaimo, Pittston, USA I have been a fan of Sir Alan for three decades and was saddened to learn of his passing. I only wish I had been fortunate enough to enjoy his stage career as well as his film career. It is truly a loss for the entire world when such a fine and talented actor passes. Condolences to his family and his many devoted fans. I have to agree with the gentleman who said the greatest actors in the world come from Great Britain, and Sir Alan was certainly among the best of them. Melinda Glover, St. Helens, Oregon, USA If I had a choice to watch anything on television, or at the movies, and Alan Bates was it in, that would be what I'd watch. I just knew his part, if anything, would be worth the watching.

I will miss his presence in the world. God bless your soul, Sir Alan. Joanie Alford, Raleigh, NC USA Oliver's Travels and An Englishman Abroad were as good as it gets. He is irreplaceable. Caroline Stipe, Portola Valley, California Born a north countryman, Alan Bates nonetheless played Thomas Hardy's best-known roles with a panache and finesse that made him the quintessential Dorset man. He never descended into "mummerset" as his depictions of Thomas Henchard in The Mayor of Casterbridge and Gabriel Oak in Far From The Madding Crowd made joyously clear. People who remember him from location filming of Far from The Madding Crowd in the Shaftesbury area in 1967 recall a journeyman actor with a huge yet unpretentious feel for the work of the great Wessex author. Irreplaceable, and dead too young. David Humphrey, Bruton, Somerset, UK One of the greatest British actors of all time. A talent that will be sadly missed. May his soul rest in peace. , One of the greatest British actors of all time. Will be sadly missed by many admirers including myself. May his soul rest in peace.

Margarita Faundez, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada A great man. A great actor. A great loss. David Moore, Bexleyheath, Kent, London I met Alan Bates on the Greek island of Spetses about eight years ago. He was dining with friends in a taverna one lunchtime and l sent his table a bottle of wine. He came over to my table and thanked me profusely for the wine. We chatted for a while about Greece, of which he was very fond and about his work as an actor, of which he was very modest. He explained that since making Zorba The Greek, he returned to Greece nearly every year to holiday with members of the original cast and crew. A great actor who would be remembered for his perfect acting in movies like The Go-between, An Unmarried Woman, Women in Love... His final encounter with Jill Clayburgh in the Paul Mazursky`s forgotten masterpiece, An Unmarried Woman ,is one of the best scenes in its kind. Sina , Cambridge,UK Alan Bates - IMDb IMDb Actor | Soundtrack | Producer Alan Bates decided to be an actor at age 11.

After grammar school in Derbyshire, he earned a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Following two years in the Royal Air Force, he joined the new English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre. His West End debut in 1956, at 22, was also the company's first production. In the ... See full bio » Born: a list of 29 people created 23 Oct 2012 a list of 47 people created 03 Nov 2014 a list of 43 people created 28 Feb 2015 a list of 25 people created 07 Jul 2015 a list of 32 people created 24 Oct 2015 Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Alan Bates's work have you seen? User Polls Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 11 wins & 14 nominations.

See more awards » Known For 2002 Salem Witch Trials (TV Movie) Sir William Phips 2000 Arabian Nights (TV Mini-Series) Storyteller 1999 The Spying Game (TV Series) Narrator (voice) 1998 Nicholas' Gift (TV Movie) Reg Green 1995 Oliver's Travels (TV Mini-Series) Oliver 1992 Screen One (TV Series) Henry Sitchell 1987 Pack of Lies (TV Movie) Stewart 1985 Summer Season (TV Series) Nicholas 1981 The Trespasser (TV Movie) Siegmund 1977 Piccadilly Circus (TV Series) Gray 1976 Great Performances (TV Series) James 1975 Play for Today (TV Series) Charles / Peter 1959-1961 Armchair Theatre (TV Series) Mario / Lewis Black 1959-1960 ITV Television Playhouse (TV Series) Ralph Freeman / Rikki Barofski / Kenneth - Incident (1960) ...

Ralph Freeman 1978 The Mayor of Casterbridge (TV Mini-Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Episode #1.5 (1978) ... (performer: "Early One Morning" - uncredited) 1971 The Go-Between (performer: "Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes" (1889) - uncredited) 1960 The Entertainer (performer: "When There Isn't a Girl About" - uncredited) Hide 1972 Second Best (Short) (producer) Hide 2003 Evelyn: Behind the Scenes (Video documentary short) (special thanks) Hide 2003 Evelyn: Behind the Scenes (Video documentary short) Himself 2002 The Making of Gosford Park (TV Short documentary) Himself 2001 The Authenticity of Gosford Park (Video documentary short) Himself 2000 Legends (TV Series documentary) Himself - Heat 4 (1993) ...

Himself - Contender 1986-1988 Omnibus (TV Series documentary) Himself 1988 Aspel & Company (TV Series) Himself 1985 This Is Your Life (TV Series documentary) Himself 1976 Arena (TV Series documentary) Himself 1972 Cinema (TV Series documentary) Himself 1971 Film Night (TV Series) Himself 2009 Banda sonora (TV Series) Basil 2007 Otan giortazoun oi theoi (TV Series documentary) Himself 2003 Celebrity Naked Ambition (TV Movie documentary) 2002 Arena (TV Series documentary) Mick 1995 Empire of the Censors (TV Movie documentary) Himself 1984 The Wandering Company (TV Movie documentary) Actor of 'Quartet' (uncredited) Audiobook: Narrated "A Winter's Tale" by William Shakespeare (HarperCollins Audio). See more » Publicity Listings: 1 Print Biography | 8 Articles | 2 Pictorials | 4 Magazine Cover Photos | See more » Official Sites: Did You Know?

Personal Quote: I consider Peter Finch and James Mason the two best English actors of the 1960s. But I never understood Finch. How could he do something as beautiful as Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), but also make all that other shit? I mean he could read, couldn't he? See more » Trivia: Patron of The Actors Centre, Covent Garden, London from 1994 until his death in 2003 (previous Patrons: Lord Laurence Olivier , Sir Alec Guinness ). See more » Star Sign: FanPal.com | Alan Bates Alan Bates Birthplace: Allestree, Derbyshire, United Kingdom Popularity: Biography Sir Alan Arthur Bates, CBE (17 February 1934 - 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving.

He is also known for his performance with Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek, as well as his roles in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Fixer, in which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson . Bates went on to star in The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman, Nijinsky, and The Rose with Bette Midler , as well as playing varied roles in television drama, including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Harold Pinter's The Collection, A Voyage Round My Father, An Englishman Abroad (as Guy Burgess), and Pack of Lies. He also continued to appear on the stage, notably in the plays of Simon Gray, such as Butley and Otherwise Engaged. Read more...

Early life Bates was born at the Queen Mary Nursing Home, Darley Abbey, Derby, England, on 17 February 1934, the eldest of three sons of Florence Mary (née Wheatcroft), a housewife and a pianist, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker and a cellist, who lived in Allestree, Derby, at the time. The family briefly moved to Mickleover, then returned to Allestree. Both of his parents were amateur musicians, and encouraged him to pursue music, but by the age of 11, young Bates already had determined his life's course as an actor, and so they sent him for dramatic coaching instead. He also saw productions at Derby's Little Theatre. He was educated at the Herbert Strutt Grammar School, Derby Road, Belper, Derbyshire (now 'Strutts', a volunteer led Business & Community Centre) and later gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he studied with Albert Finney and Peter O'Toole, before leaving to join the RAF for National Service at RAF Newton. Career Bates's stage debut was in 1955, in You and Your Wife, in Coventry.

In 1956 he made his West End debut as Cliff in Look Back in Anger, a role he had originated at the Royal Court and which made him a star. He also played the role on television (for the ITV Playhouse) and on Broadway. In the late 1950s Bates appeared in several plays for television in Britain. In 1960 he appeared in The Entertainer opposite Laurence Olivier , his first film role. Bates worked for the Padded Wagon Moving Company in the early 1960s while acting at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City. Throughout the 1960s he starred in several major films including Whistle Down the Wind (1961), A Kind of Loving (1962), Zorba the Greek (1964), Philippe de Broca's King of Hearts (1966), Georgy Girl (1966), Far From the Madding Crowd (1967) and the Bernard Malamud film The Fixer (1968), which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969 he starred in Women in Love.

Bates was handpicked by director John Schlesinger (with whom he had previously worked on A Kind of Loving and Far From The Madding Crowd) to star in the film Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) to play Dr. Daniel Hirsh. Bates was held up filming The Go-Between (1971) for director Joseph Losey, and had also become a father around that time, and so he had to refuse the role. (The part then went first to Ian Bannen , who balked at kissing and simulating sex with another man, and then to Peter Finch who earned an Academy Award nomination for the role.) Around this time he appeared as Col. Vershinin in the National Theatre's film of Three Sisters, directed by and co-starring Laurence Olivier. He later worked with Olivier for television in the Laurence Olivier Presents version of Harold Pinter's The Collection (1976) and A Voyage Round My Father (1982). Bates starred in such international films as An Unmarried Woman (1978) and Nijinsky (1980), and also played Bette Midler's ruthless business manager in the film The Rose (1979).

On television, his parts included Michael Henchard, the ultimately-disgraced lead in The Mayor of Casterbridge - which he described as his favourite role - in the serial adaptation by Dennis Potter (1978). Two diametrically-opposed roles were in An Englishman Abroad (1983), as Guy Burgess, a member of the Cambridge spy ring by then exiled in Moscow, and Pack of Lies (1987), in which he played a British Secret Service agent tracking several Soviet spies. He continued working in film and television in the 1990s, including the role of Claudius in Mel Gibson 's version of Hamlet (1990), though most of his roles in this era were more low-key. In 2001 Bates joined an all-star cast in Robert Altman 's critically acclaimed period drama Gosford Park, in which he played the butler Jennings. He later played Antonius Agrippa in the 2004 TV film Spartacus, but died before it premiered. The film was dedicated to his memory and that of writer Howard Fast, who wrote the original novel that inspired the film Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick.

On stage Bates had a particular association with the plays of Simon Gray, appearing in Butley, Otherwise Engaged, Stage Struck, Melon, Life Support and Simply Disconnected, as well as the film of Butley and Gray's TV series Unnatural Pursuits. In Otherwise Engaged, his co-star was Ian Charleson , who became a friend, and Bates later contributed a chapter to a 1990 book on his colleague after Charleson's early death. Bates was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1996, and was knighted in 2003. He was an Associate Member of RADA and was a patron of The Actors Centre, Covent Garden, London, from 1994 until his death in 2003. Personal life Bates was married to Victoria Ward from 1970 until her death in 1992, although they had separated many years earlier. They had twin sons, born in November 1970, the actors Benedick Bates and Tristan Bates. Tristan died following an asthma attack in Tokyo in 1990. Other sources report Tristan died of a heroin overdose in a public toilet.

Bates had numerous homosexual relationships throughout his life, including those with actors Nickolas Grace and Peter Wyngarde and with Olympic skater John Curry. In 1994 Curry died from AIDS in Bates' arms. Even when homosexuality was partially decriminalised in Britain in 1967, Bates rigorously avoided interviews and questions about his personal life, and even denied to his male lovers that there was a homosexual component in his nature. While throughout his life Bates sought to be regarded as a ladies' man or at least as a man who, as an actor, could appear attractive to and attracted by women, he also chose to take on many roles with an aspect of homosexuality or bisexuality. He let this part of his life appear as he played the role of the sexually-frustrated Rupert in the 1970 film Women in Love. In the later years of his life, Bates had a relationship with the Welsh actress Angharad Rees and in the last years, his companion was his lifelong friend, actress Joanna Pettet, his co-star in the 1964 Broadway play Poor Richard. They divided their time between New York and London.

Bates had undergone a hip replacement shortly before being diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in January 2003. He suffered a stroke later that year, and died in December after going into a coma. Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates The posthumous publication of Donald Spoto's 2007 book, Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates, is the only authorised biography of Alan Bates. It was written with the full and complete cooperation of his son Benedick Bates and Bates's younger brother Martin, and includes more than one hundred interviews with people such as Michael Linnit and Rosalind Chatto. Tristan Bates Theatre Bates and his family set up the Tristan Bates Theatre, at the Actors' Centre in Covent Garden, in memory of his son, Tristan, who died at the age of 19. Tristan's twin brother, Benedick, is a vice-director.

Filmography Alan Bates - Movies and TV | TWC Central Share Alan Bates Sir Alain Arthur Bates, CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving . He is also known for his performance with Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek , as well as his roles in King of Hearts , Georgy Girl , Far From the Madding Crowd , and The Fixer , which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson. Talk about them!

Sir Alan Bates - Telegraph Sir Alan Bates 12:02AM GMT 29 Dec 2003 Sir Alan Bates, the actor who died on Saturday aged 69, was a leading interpreter on stage and screen of the new wave of dramatic writing which heralded the renaissance of modern drama in the post-war British theatre and continued into the 1960s and 1970s. One of the earliest and most intelligent of the so-called "red-brick" actors, Bates belonged to an acting generation whose social backgrounds and unpolished tones added authenticity to the anti-heroes and angry young men of "kitchen-sink" drama. Bates himself was rarely wrathful, and it was as Cliff, the quiet, sympathetic friend of Jimmy Porter, the quintessentially angry young protagonist of John Osborne's Look Back In Anger, that he came to prominence in 1956. The part took him to Moscow, to Broadway and on a tour of America. He made the part his own, just as Kenneth Haigh was the only true Jimmy Porter, however many players succeeded them in the roles.

When Bates returned to London it was to play the younger, tubercular brother Edmund in Long Day's Journey Into Night (Edinburgh Festival and Globe 1958) for which he gained the Clarence Derwent award as the year's most promising actor in the West End. Two years later he created another stir as the fast-talking, menacing Mick in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, another role he had the right to call his own. Having thus done so well in the first hits of the two leading playwrights of the new dramatic movement, Bates found himself in demand in the coming decades for the works of such other new wave writers as Arnold Wesker, David Storey, Alan Bennett and Simon Gray, in two of whose plays, Butley and Otherwise Engaged, he triumphed. What distinguished Bates was his quietness, reticence and emotional reserve. No towering rages for him or tirades of invective, though he could, if called upon, bring down an opponent with his wry, dry, sardonic sense of humour and his cucumber-cool contempt. In all kinds of plays and films, he showed the subtlest skill in portraying men of seemingly invulnerable indifference and callousness.

Bates types never did wear their hearts on their sleeves, yet they had hearts. Irony was usually their chief weapon, understatement their preferred style of expression - though as the intellectual and emotionally indifferent protagonists of Butley or Otherwise Engaged he could be, in his more debonair manner, as blistering and blithely unconcerned for others' feelings as Jimmy Porter. Something of this rude, restless and dramatically arresting spirit crept into many of his films, though it came out most characteristically in Bates's brilliant portrayal of the traitor Guy Burgess in Alan Bennett's television film, An Englishman Abroad, for which he won the 1984 Bafta best television actor award. In A Kind of Loving; Nothing But The Best; Zorba the Greek and Georgy Girl, Bates battled against a tendency to become merely a wry romantic modern hero, able to laugh at himself; and though he won a nomination for an Oscar as the suffering victim of prejudice in The Fixer (1968), he feared Hollywood's type-casting policies, which from a review of that film seemed to extend to his private parts.

"Alan Bates's bare posterior," said one critic,"known to us from Georgy Girl and King of Hearts, makes another timely appearance here, thus becoming one of the most exposed arses in cinematic annals." His buttocks went on show again for Women in Love, when he wrestled in the nude with Oliver Reed. Determined that every new role should "cut across the previous one, so people won't know what to expect next", he paid almost as much attention to the theatrical classics as to new plays. In Shakespeare he played Hamlet, Claudius, Richard III and Petruchio. In Chekhov it was Ivanov and Trigorin in The Seagull, and in Strindberg, Edgar in The Dance of Death. But although his portrait of the predatory, cold novelist Trigorin met with approval, and his pathetic younger brother in O'Neill's Long Day's Journey, won golden opinions, he never looked as much at ease in old plays as new. Alan Arthur Bates was born on February 17 1934 at Allestree, Derbyshire, the eldest of three sons of a cellist who had to earn his living as an insurance salesman.

Alan was educated at the Herbert Strutt Grammer School, Belper, where he acted in school plays; when he was 11 his mother began taking him to the Derby Little Theatre Club, where John Osborne and John Dexter were the leading actors. He did his National Service in the RAF and trained for the stage at Rada, where he gained the Forbes-Robertson award. His fellow students included Albert Finney, Peter O'Toole, Richard Briers, Peter Bowles and Keith Baxter. He then joined Frank Dunlop's Midland Repertory Company, Coventry, as stage manager, and first appeared on stage in You and Your Wife (1955). After just six months he was snapped up by the English Stage Company for its first repertory season at the Royal Court Theatre. His third play was Look Back In Anger. Of his success in Pinter's The Caretaker (Arts and Duchess), Bates said: "It was an unforgettable piece of good fortune, the only play I have ever done in which I have not for one second thought 'Oh, God, I've got to do this again next week'.

It was sheer joy to play all the time." Only after that did he start making films - as Frank, the son to Laurence Olivier's Archie Rice in The Entertainer; as Mick, again, in The Caretaker; as the working-class hero in John Schlesinger's A Kind of Loving; as the murderous tramp in Bryan Forbes's Whistle Down the Wind; as the quiet adulterer in Carol Reed's The Running Man; as the attractively contemptible upstart in Clive Donner's Nothing But The Best; as an inhibited Englishman embarrassed by his virility in Michael Cacoyannis's Zorba The Greek and as the lover who realised he had chosen the wrong girl in Silvio Narizzano's Georgy Girl. Meanwhile, on stage, after Arnold Wesker's The Four Seasons (Saville 1965), he moved to Stratford, Ontario, as Richard III and as Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Returning to the English Stage Company as the dangerous, jesting brother in David Storey's family play, In Celebration (Royal Court 1969), he learned, he used to say, more about acting from its director Lindsay Anderson than from anyone else.

"He showed me that acting wasn't to do with power games or insecurity or trying to prove anything. It's to do with knowing yourself, not hiding behind techniques or disguises." But the technique that can sustain the role of Hamlet for more than four hours without monotony was not forthcoming at either the Nottingham Playhouse in 1970 or the Cambridge, London, a few months later. It may have been well within Bates's range to play tormented and self-divided characters with emotional truth and technical finesse, but he took the lines so fast in London that his sotto voce style rendered him inaudible. In The Daily Telegraph, Eric Shorter noted that while the actor was in his element in the snarling, sardonic passages, he "can give us scarcely a glimpse of such qualities as grace, tenderness or charm, so our hearts go out quickly to his victims".

Elsewhere in Shakespeare though, his invincible sense of comedy came often to his rescue, especially in The Taming of the Shrew (Stratford-upon-Avon, 1973), in which he rubbed his hands from time to time as if he knew its ending, and as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (Strand 1989), he seemed ill at ease with the verse and its declamatory implications. He proved more at home as a muddled, middle-aged and entertainingly self-destructive teacher in the title role of Butley (Criterion), a set piece of uninterrupted invective which brought him the Evening Standard's best actor award and transferred to Broadway. Back at the Royal Court again in Storey's Life Class, as a fashionably disillusioned art teacher, he could indulge his gift for sardonic disdain by descending to impish limericks and slogans; and as the emotionally distant and debonair publisher in Gray's Otherwise Engaged (Queen's Theatre, 1975), his glacial detachment, comic timing and imperturbable self-possession earned him another Evening Standard award for the year's best West End actor.

As a bearded, dishevelled and extremely calm Trigorin in The Seagull (Derby Playhouse and Duke of York's, 1976), he pointed up the play's ironies and sadness in what Shorter called "a characteristically cool interpretation", before starring three years' later in another Gray play, the thriller, Stage Struck (Vaudeville). In a 1983 revival of Osborne's A Patriot for Me (Chichester and Haymarket) his acting elevated the play's status - and his own - as the uneasy homosexual Colonel Redl, whose "tiny vocal inflections, quick facial tics, faint finger twitches and lightning eye-changes are giveaway signals of a secret life inside the military armature of stiff-backed, blank-faced obedience", said Richard Findlater.

"As with all front-rank actors," he added, "his silences speak volumes." In a double bill (Lyric Studio, Hammersmith) he acted in Harold Pinter's first overtly political play, One For The Road, dealing with victims of torture in the former Communist eastern bloc; and in 1985, after playing Edgar in Strindberg's The Dance of Death (Riverside Studios), he took the title role in Peter Shaffer's pseudo-biblical epic, Yonadab (National Theatre). Among Bates's many other feature films were Far From The Madding Crowd; The Three Sisters (National Theatre Co); A Day in the Death of Joe Egg; The Go-Between; Butley; In Celebration; An Unmarried Woman; The Shout; The Rose; Nijinsky; The Return Of The Soldier; The Wicked Lady; Duet For One; Prayer For The Dying; Britannia Hospital and Hamlet, in which he played to Mel Gibson's Prince a singularly lecherous Claudius with Glenn Close as Gertrude in Zeffirelli's film.

On television he appeared in Look Back In Anger; The Wind and the Rain; A Memory of Two Mondays; Plaintiffs and Defendants; Two Sundays; The Collection; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Very Like A Whale; The Trespasser; A Voyage Round My Father; Separate Tables; Dr Fischer of Geneva; One For the Road; Pack of Lies and The Dog It Was That Died. His later stage roles included Kuzovkin in the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Turgenev's Fortune's Fool (1996), and a return as the now retired publisher Simon Hench in Gray's Simply Disconnected (1996), the icily bleak sequel to Otherwise Engaged. "Bates is suberb," wrote Charles Spencer in the Telegraph, "coldly polite, perpetually irritated and brilliantly suggesting a dead soul that revives only to die again." In 2000 he played Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the Barbican, opposite Frances de la Tour, and in 2001 he appeared as Jennings, the butler, in Robert Altman's film Gosford Park.

Alan Bates was appointed CBE in 1995, and was knighted in 2003. He married, in 1970, Victoria Ward, a former model. They had twin sons, Tristan and Benedick, both of whom went on to the stage. Tristan died in 1990, following an asthma attack, and in 1992 Victoria Bates also died suddenly. In his son's memory, Alan Bates established the Tristan Bates Theatre at the Actor's Centre, Covent Garden.

Question: Which English actor appeared in The Go Between, Women in Love and Shout
Answer: Alan Bates