Colin Blakely

Colin George Edward Blakely (23 September 1930 – 7 May 1987) was a Northern Irish stage and screen actor. He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Sidney Lumet's Equus, and was nominated twice for a Best Actor in Television (1970, 1987). He was also an Olivier Award nominee.

According to the British Film Institute, Blakely's "chunky form and rumpled, good-natured features tended to direct him towards hero's-friend roles, but there was also an impressive toughness and intensity about his work."

Early life Blakely was born in Bangor, County Down, the son of Victor and Dorothy Blakely (née Ashmore).

Career

Theatre In 1958, Blakely made his Belfast stage debut as Dick McCardle in Stanley Houghton's Master of the House. and Patricia O'Connor's The Sparrow's Fall (1959). From 1959 he was at the Royal Court Theatre, In the Royal Court production of Saint Joan, starring Joan Plowright, he had the small but prominent role of the English Soldier. Blakely himself said, about his transfer to working in England,

In 1961, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, Laurence Olivier specifically named him as an example of the "Versatile... deeply enthusiastic, courageous, gifted" actors he had sought to hire as director.

Among the many stage plays in which he appeared were The Recruiting Officer, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Filumena Marturano, Volpone and Oedipus. He returned to the Royal Shakespeare in 1971 in Harold Pinter's Old Times and was subsequently in many West End plays.

Film Notable film roles included Maurice Braithwaite in This Sporting Life (1963), Sir Thomas More's house servant Matthew in A Man for All Seasons (1966), Dr. Watson to Robert Stephens's Holmes in Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), In the 1975 British film, It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, derived from the James Herriot books, Blakely played gruff Yorkshire vet Siegfried Farnon.

On stage, Blakely played the psychiatrist in Peter Shaffer's Equus, but for Sidney Lumet's 1977 film adaptation of the play he took the part of the tormented young protagonist's father; he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He appeared in two films based on the Hercule Poirot novels of Agatha Christie, described as having "all-star" casts: Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Evil Under the Sun (1982). Other film roles included The Long Ships (1964), The National Health (1973), The Dogs of War (1980), Nijinsky (1980) and Loophole (1981).

His last film role was in the Italian comedy The World of Don Camillo (1984), directed by and starring Terence Hill.

Television In 1969, Blakely's controversial role as an anguished Jesus Christ in Dennis Potter's Son of Man gained him wide recognition. He became a regular on British television, In The Hanged Man (1975), he starred as a tycoon who fakes his own death in order to find out who has tried to assassinate him.

Noted for his skill in Shakespearean parts, Blakely appeared on television as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra (1981), directed by Jonathan Miller as part of the BBC Television Shakespeare series; and as Kent in the 1983 Granada Television version of King Lear which starred Laurence Olivier. (During his lifetime, Blakely expressed the wish to play Lear himself one day; several obituarists mourned the fact that his early death meant he never had the opportunity.) and Paradise Postponed (1986). His work as a white Zimbabwean adjusting to majority rule, in Douglas Livingstone's BBC-TV play Drums Along Balmoral Drive (1986), won him a BAFTA nomination.

Death Until two months before his death from leukaemia, he was performing in A Chorus of Disapproval in the West End while undergoing chemotherapy. Though visibly in pain from the disease, he recorded a video appeal for routine cancer tests. Blakely died, aged 56, at the Middlesex Hospital on 7 May 1987.

Legacy During his lifetime, Blakely was named as one of a postwar generation of British actors who succeeded in making provincial accents more widely heard; In September 2022, a blue plaque in his honour was unveiled at Bangor Drama Club's Studio 1A site.

Filmography

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) – Loudmouth The Hellions (1961) – Matthew Billings The Password Is Courage (1962) – 1st German Goon This Sporting Life (1963) – Maurice Braithwaite The Informers (1963) – Charlie Ruskin The Long Ships (1964) – Rhykka Never Put It in Writing (1964) – Oscar The Counterfeit Constable (1964) – L'aveugle A Man for All Seasons (1966) – Matthew The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966) – Russian Premier Charlie Bubbles (1967) – Smokey Pickles The Day the Fish Came Out (1967) – The Pilot The Vengeance of She (1968) – George Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher (1968) – Solomon Philbrick Alfred the Great (1969) – Asher The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) – Dr. Watson Something to Hide (1972) – Blagdon Young Winston (1972) – Butcher The National Health (1973) – Edward Loach Murder on the Orient Express (1974) – Cyrus B. Hardman Galileo (1975) – Priuli It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1975) – Siegfried Farnon The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) – Alec Drummond Equus (1977) – Frank Strang The Big Sleep (1978) – Harry Jones Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979) – Tamil The Day Christ Died (1980) - Caiaphas Nijinsky (1980) – Vassili Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980) – Silas Hobbs The Dogs of War (1980) – North Loophole (1981) – Gardner Nailed (1981) – Elder Protestant Evil Under the Sun (1982) – Sir Horace Blatt Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) – Alec Drummond (archive footage) (uncredited) The World of Don Camillo (1984) – Peppone

Awards and nominations