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| Sunday
December 28th, 2003 |
| VETERAN
BRITISH ACTOR SIR ALAN BATES DIES |
| British
star of stage and screen Sir Alan Bates, 69, has died
after a long battle against cancer. |
His agent Rosalind Chatto said on Sunday: "He has passed
away. He had a long battle with cancer." Alan Bates
died in a London clinic on Saturday.
Alan Bates shot to fame as one of a new breed of gritty
actors as Britain threw off its postwar shackles --
the "Angry Young Man" era -- and was knighted earlier
this year, after a career spanning six decades.
His big break came with John Osborne's play "Look Back
in Anger" in 1956. But Bates went on to play classical
leads on the stage in "Hamlet," "Richard III" and "Antony
and Cleopatra."
On the big screen, he starred in films such as "Zorba
the Greek," "Far From The Madding Crowd" and "Women
in Love," in which he famously grappled naked with Oliver
Reed.
More recently, in 2001, he featured in Robert Altman's
period drama "Gosford Park." One of his most famous
and memorable roles was in a TV movie about that other
famous 60's British export - the middleclass, communist
traitor.
In Alan Bennett's multi- award winning 1985 piece about
the spy Guy Burgess (directed by John Schlesinger),
Bates turned in a sublimely comic performance as the
red snob for whom treason was an intellectual exercise
in 'An Englishman Abroad'.
Bates was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE)
in 1995; and he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II this
year. Bates' son, Tristan (twin of Benedick), 19, died
of an asthma attack in 1990. His wife, the actress Victoria
Ford, died in 1992.
Bates is survived by two brothers, his twin son Benedick
and a granddaughter, his agent Chatto said. Funeral
arrangements were not yet final, she added.
SHORT FILMOGRAPHY
A burly, thoroughly masculine actor who came to
prominence during the "angry young man" phase of British
screen drama, he's best known in America for playing
director Paul Mazursky's Ideal Male in 1978's An Unmarried
Woman While he generally plays solid, decent types,
he's been quite effective in menacing roles too, as
evidenced by his work in The Shout (1978).
Bates played uncle to Mel Gibson's Hamlet in Franco
Zeffirelli's 1990 film of Shakespeare's play. Bates
was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his
work in The Fixer (1968), but he's probably still best
known for his nude wrestling match with Oliver Reed
in Women in Love (1969).
OTHER FILMS INCLUDE: 1960: The Entertainer 1961: Whistle
Down the Wind 1964: The Guest/The Caretaker, Nothing
but the Best, Zorba the Greek 1966: Georgy Girl, King
of Hearts 1967: Far from the Madding Crowd 1971: The
Go-Between 1974: Butley 1975: In Celebration, Royal
Flash 1979: The Rose 1981: Quartet, Return of the Soldier
1982: Britannia Hospital 1984: An Englishman Abroad
(telefilm), A Voyage Round My Father (telefilm); 1986:
Duet for One 1987: A Prayer for the Dying 1989: Club
Extinction (also known as Dr. M 1992: Secret Friends
1994: Silent Tongue. |
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Sir
Alan Bates
1934 - 2003 |
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