fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Arthur Nigel Davenport (23 May 1928 – 25 October 2013) was an English stage, television and film actor,[1] best known as the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Birkenhead in the Academy Award-winning films A Man for All Seasons and Chariots of Fire, respectively.

Nigel Davenport
Davenport as Abraham Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula
Born	Arthur Nigel Davenport (1928-05-23)23 May 1928 Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, England
Died	25 October 2013(2013-10-25) (aged 85) Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England
Years active	1953–2003
Spouse(s)	Helena White ​ ​ (m. 1951; div. 1960)​ Maria Aitken ​ ​ (m. 1972; div. 1981)​
Children	3, including Jack Davenport

Early life and education

Davenport was born in Great Shelford,[2] Cambridgeshire, son of Arthur Henry Davenport and Katherine Lucy (née Meiklejohn).[3] His father was an engineer, educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge before being employed as an engineer for the Midland Railway, and was later a lecturer in engineering, a Fellow, and the bursar at his alma mater, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge;[4][1] he had served for four years in the Royal Engineers during World War I, and was awarded a Military Cross. Nigel's great-uncle, Major Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn, was awarded a Victoria Cross during the Second Boer War.[5]

He grew up in an academic family and was educated at St Peter's School, Seaford, Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford.[1] Originally he chose to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics but switched to English on the advice of one of his tutors.[6]

In the 1950s Davenport undertook National Service with the Royal Army Service Corps as a disc jockey on the British Forces Broadcasting Service in Hamburg>.[5]

Career

Davenport first appeared on stage at the Savoy Theatre and then with the Shakespeare Memorial Company, before joining the English Stage Company, one of its earliest members, at the Royal Court Theatre in 1956.[7] He began appearing in British film and television productions in supporting roles, including a walk-on in Tony Richardson's film, Look Back in Anger (1959). Subsequent roles included a theatre manager opposite Laurence Olivier in the film version of The Entertainer and a policeman in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (both 1960).[7]

In the 1962 last episode of the first season of the TV series The Saint, titled "The Charitable Countess", with Roger Moore as Simon Templar and Patricia Donahue as Countess Rovagna, Davenport played a supporting role as the Countess's confidant, Aldo Petri.

He made an impression as Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk in A Man for All Seasons (1966),[8] co-starred with Michael Caine in the war movie Play Dirty,[6] and had a major role as Lord Bothwell in Mary, Queen of Scots.[8] In 1972, he appeared as George Adamson, opposite Susan Hampshire in Living Free,[6] the sequel to Born Free.

During the production of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Davenport read the lines of HAL 9000 off-camera during the computer's dialogues with actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. However, Kubrick thought that Davenport's English accent was too distracting, and after a few weeks he dismissed him, so Canadian actor Douglas Rain was ultimately chosen for the role.[9] Davenport took the leading role in the off-beat Phase IV (1974), which failed to find an audience. In 1979, he portrayed King George III in Prince Regent.[1]

He appeared as Ebenezer Scrooge's grudging father Silas in the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol (1984), and played opposite Michael Caine again in the 1988 Sherlock Holmes spoof Without A Clue, which was Davenport's second-to-last feature film.

He portrayed The Duke of Holdernesse in a 1993 BBC Radio dramatization of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Priory School".[10]

In February 1997, Davenport was the subject of This Is Your Life when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at David Nicholson's stables near Cheltenham.^{[citation needed]}

He was president of Equity from 1986 to 1992.[1][8]

Personal life

Davenport was married twice, first to Helena Margaret White[1] whom he met while he was studying at Oxford University. They married in 1951 and had a daughter, Laura, and a son, Hugo.[1] His second wife was actress Maria Aitken[1] with whom he had a second son, Jack, also an actor, best known for appearing in Pirates of the Caribbean.[11] According to Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Jack was cast as the James Norrington character, partly because of Nigel's involvement in A High Wind in Jamaica. ^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Ref.
1959	Look Back in Anger	1st Commercial Traveller	[7]
1960	Peeping Tom	Det. Sgt. Miller	[7]
	The Entertainer	Theatre Manager	[6]
1962	Mix Me a Person	Juke's Stepfather
1963	Ladies Who Do	Mr Strang
	Bitter Harvest	Police Inspector
1964	The Third Secret	Lew Harding
1965	A High Wind in Jamaica	Mr Thornton	[1]
	Sands of the Kalahari	Sturdevan
1966	A Man for All Seasons	Duke of Norfolk	[1]
	Where the Spies Are	Parkington
1968	Play Dirty	Captain Cyril Leech	[7]
1969	The Virgin Soldiers	Sergeant Driscoll	[7]
	Sinful Davey	Richardson
	The Royal Hunt of the Sun	Hernando de Soto
1970	No Blade of Grass	John Custance
	The Mind of Mr. Soames	Dr Maitland
1971	Villain	Bob Matthews
	Mary, Queen of Scots	Lord Bothwell	[6]
	The Last Valley	Gruber
1972	Living Free	George Adamson	[6]
1973	The Picture of Dorian Gray	Sir Harry Wotton	[8]
1974	Bram Stoker's Dracula	Van Helsing	[8]
	Phase IV	Dr Ernest D. Hubbs
1975	The Regent's Wife	Álvaro Mesía
1976	Death of a Snowman	Lt. Ben Deel
1977	The Island of Dr. Moreau	Montgomery
	Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers	Sgt. Driscoll	[6]
1979	The London Connection / The Omega Connection	Arthur Minton
	Zulu Dawn	Colonel Hamilton-Brown	[12]
1980	Cry of the Innocent	Gray Harrison Hunt
1981	Chariots of Fire	Lord Birkenhead	[1]
	Nighthawks	Peter Hartman
1984	A Christmas Carol	Silas Scrooge
	Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes	Major Jack Downing	[1]
1986	Caravaggio	Giustiniani
1988	Without a Clue	Lord Smithwick
1997	The Opium War		[7]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	! Ref.
1957-1958	The Adventures of Robin Hood	St Peter Marston, Claude the Seneschal, Barty and others	7 episodes	[11]
1957	Mister Charlesworth	Sergeant Spence	6 episodes
1958	Big Guns	Sergeant Spence	6 episodes
1962	Sir Francis Drake	Miguel Cervantes	1 episode
1963	The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre	Dino Stefano/Larry Mason.	2 episodes: NB: The Verdict (1964 film)
1964	The Saint	Charles Voyson	1 episode
1964	Espionage (TV series) ('Snow on Mount Kama', episode)	Frank Marston
1966-68	The Avengers	Lord Barnes / Robertson		[11]
1969	The Name of the Game	David Windom	1 episode
1972	The Edwardians	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	1 episode
1974	South Riding	Robert Carne	11 episodes	[7]
1975	Oil Strike North	Jim Fraser	13 episodes	[7]
1979	Prince Regent	King George III	8 episodes, TV mini-series	[7]
1981	Masada	Sen. Mucianus	Part 1
	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Theseus
1982	Minder	Ray
1982	Bird of Prey	Charles Bridgnorth	[6]
1982-83	Don't Rock The Boat	Jack Hoxton	12 episodes, TV mini-series	[6]
1985-1990	Howards' Way	Sir Edward Frere	29 episodes	[11]
1986	Ladies in Charge	Count Litvinoff	1 episode
	Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy	Lord Ismay
1991	Trainer	James Brant	13 episodes	[13]
1993	Keeping Up Appearances ("The Commodore")	The Commodore	1 episode	[11]
1994	Woof!	Mr. Wellesby	1 episode	[14]
1996	The Treasure Seekers	Lord Blackstock		[7]
2000	David Copperfield	Dan Peggotty	TV movie	[11]
	Midsomer Murders	William Smithers	1 episode	[11]
	Longitude	Sir Charles Pelham	TV Movie

References

External links

• Nigel Davenport at the British Film Institute
• Nigel Davenport at IMDb

На других языках

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[de] Nigel Davenport

Arthur Nigel Davenport (* 23. Mai 1928 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; † 25. Oktober 2013 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire[1]) war ein britischer Schauspieler.

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- [en] Nigel Davenport

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[es] Nigel Davenport

Arthur Nigel Davenport (Cambridgeshire, 23 de mayo de 1928 - ibídem, 25 de octubre de 2013) fue un actor británico de cine y televisión.[1]

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[ru] Дэвенпорт, Найджел

Найджел Дэвенпорт (англ. Nigel Davenport; 23 мая 1928 — 25 октября 2013) — английский актёр, выступавший на сцене, телевидении и в кино.

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