Kenneth Haigh

Kenneth William Michael Haigh (25 March 1931 – 4 February 2018) was an English actor. He first came to public recognition for playing the role of Jimmy Porter in the play Look Back in Anger in 1956 opposite Mary Ure in London's West End theatre. Haigh's performance in the role on stage was critically acclaimed as a prototype dramatic working-class anti-hero in post-Second World War English drama.

Early life Born in Mexborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, Haigh studied drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama, which at the time was based at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Career He played the central role of Jimmy Porter in the premiere production of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger in 1956 at the Royal Court Theatre. Haigh's performance in a 1958 Broadway theatre production of that play so moved one young woman in the audience that she mounted the stage and slapped him in mid-performance.

For the film version released in 1959, he was passed over in favour of Richard Burton. Haigh went on to portray the explorer and adventurer Richard Francis Burton in the BBC production of The Search for the Nile. He also briefly appeared in the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night (1964), uncredited. His other major historical roles were as Brutus in Cleopatra and starring as Napoleon in Eagle in a Cage.

Later he portrayed Joe Lampton – a character created by John Braine in the novel Room at the Top – in the television series Man at the Top (1970–72) and its eponymous spin-off film (1973). Haigh also released an LP in 1973, titled How to Handle a Woman. That same year, in the role as Mr. Barnet in the Wessex Tales episode "Fellow Townsmen", Haigh portrayed a sufferer of fictional misfortune that would later echo his last years of his own life that imitated the tragic irony a Thomas Hardy story.

Haigh made occasional guest appearances on television; for some, the most recognisable is that of time-travelling Flight Lieutenant William Terrence Decker, in the Twilight Zone episode "The Last Flight" (1960). He had already played, three years earlier, another pilot, in High Flight, and had portrayed Pat Casey in Lionel Bart's Maggie May.

Personal life Haigh married the West Indies model Myrna Stephens in 1974. They divorced in 1985, but remained good friends; she nursed him through his final years of ill-health.

Death Haigh died on 4 February 2018, aged 86. He had spent his last years in a nursing home after oxygen deprivation led to brain damage in 2003, following his accidental swallowing of a bone in a restaurant in Soho.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes 1954 Companions in Crime John Kendall 1956 My Teenage Daughter Tony Ward Black 1957 Saint Joan Brother Martin Ladvenu High Flight Anthony 'Tony' Winchester 1960 The Twilight Zone, episode "The Last Flight" Lieutenant Terrance Decker, RFC 1963 Cleopatra Brutus 1964 A Hard Day's Night Simon Marshall Uncredited Weekend at Dunkirk Atkins 1967 The Deadly Affair Bill Appleby 1968 A Lovely Way to Die Jonathan Fleming 1971 Journey to Murder Dirk Brogan Example 1972 Eagle in a Cage Napoleon Bonaparte 1973 Man at the Top Joe Lampton 1976 Robin and Marian Sir Ranulf 1978 A Walk in the Sun George 1979 The Bitch Arnold Rinstead 1983 Night Train to Murder Cousin Milton / Cousin Homer 1985 Wild Geese II Colonel Reed-Henry 1986 A State of Emergency 1991 Shuttlecock Dr. Quinn 2004 Mr. Blue Mr. Blue Short Final film role

Theatre

Othello (Drogheda, 1952) The Archers Stage Play (Various, 1953) Dear Little Liz (Open Air, Regent's Park, 1955) Look Back in Anger (Royal Court, London, 1956) – Jimmy Porter The Mulberry Bush (1956) – Peter Lord The Crucible (1956) – Rev John Hale Cards of Identity (1956) – Beaufort Caligula (Broadway, 1960; Phoenix, London, 1964) – Caligula Zoo Story (Arts, London, 1961) Altona (Royal Court / Saville Theatre, London, 1961) – Franz von Gerlach The Collection (Aldwych, London, 1962) Playing with Fire (Aldwych, 1962) Julius Caesar (Stratford, RSC 1962) – Mark Antony Maggie May (Adelphi, London, 1964) – Patrick Casey Too Good To Be True (Edinburgh Festival, 1965) – Burglar Prometheus Unbound (Yale University Theatre, 1967) – Prometheus Henry IV (Yale, 1967) The Hotel in Amsterdam (Duke of York's Theatre, London, 1969) – Laurie Much Ado About Nothing (Manchester, 1969) – Benedick Equus (Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Alberta, 1969–70) – Dysart Prometheus Unbound (Mermaid, London, 1971) – Prometheus Marching Song (Mermaid, 1974) – Rupert Foster The Father (Haymarket, Leicester, 1975) – Father California Suite (Eugene O’Neill Theatre, Broadway, 1977) – Replacement: William, Sidney, Stu The Aspern Papers (Chichester Festival, 1978) Twelfth Night (Stratford, CT, 1979) – Malvolio Julius Caesar (Stratford, CT, 1979) – Brutus The Tempest (Stratford, CT, 1979) – Prospero Clothes for a Summer Hotel (Broadway, 1980) – F Scott Fitzgerald Othello (Young Vic, London, 1982) – Othello

Television

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1957) – James Boswell Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 4 Episode 29: "Banquo's Chair" (1959) – John Bedford Season 5 Episode 12: "Specialty of the House" (1959) – Mr. Costain Danger Man (1960) episode: "Josetta" – Juan Strange Report (1969) episode: "HOSTAGE — If You Won't Learn, Die!" Search for the Nile (1971) Man at the Top (Thames Television, 1971–73) – Joe Lampton Wessex Tales ("Fellow Townsmen") 1973 https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1970s/wessex-tales/ Moll Flanders (ITV, 1975) – Jemmy Earle Hazlitt in Love (1977) – William Hazlitt Maybury (BBC, 1981) Lady Killers (ITV, 1981) – George Joseph Smith The Testament of John (1984) The Fourth Floor (Thames Television, 1986) – George Payne The Blackheath Poisonings (1992) – Charles Russell