Nigel Hawthorne

Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne (5 April 1929 – 26 December 2001) was an English actor. He is known for his stage acting and his portrayal of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the permanent secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role, he won four British Academy Television Awards for Best Entertainment Performance.

He won the BAFTA Award for Best Lead Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award in the same category for portraying King George III in The Madness of King George (1994), having previously won the Laurence Olivier Award for the stage version. He later won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor, for the 1996 series The Fragile Heart. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play winner for his performance in 1991 Broadway production of Shadowlands.

Life and career Early years Hawthorne was born on 5 April 1929 in Coventry, Warwickshire (now West Midlands), the second of four children of Agnes Rosemary (née Rice) and Charles Barnard Hawthorne, a physician.

When Hawthorne was three years old, the family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where his father had bought a practice. Initially they lived in Gardens and then moved to a newly built house near Camps Bay.

He attended St George's Grammar School, Cape Town, and, although the family was not Catholic, a now-defunct Christian Brothers College, where he played in the rugby team. He described his time at the latter as not being a particularly happy experience.

Although Hawthorne had appeared in small roles in various British television series since the late 1950s, such as reformed ex-con Worm Wellings in an episode of Going Straight opposite Ronnie Barker, one of his most famous roles was as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary of the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in the television series Yes Minister (and Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister), for which he won four BAFTA awards during the 1980s. He became a household name throughout the United Kingdom, which opened the doors to film roles.

In 1982, Hawthorne appeared in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, alongside a cast including Martin Sheen, John Mills, Candice Bergen, John Gielgud, Ian Charleson, and Ben Kingsley. The same year, he starred opposite Clint Eastwood in the Cold War thriller Firefox, where he played a dissident Russian scientist. Other film roles during this time included Demolition Man.

This period led into Hawthorne's role of King George III in Alan Bennett's stage play The Madness of George III (for which he won a Best Actor Olivier Award) and the film adaptation titled The Madness of King George, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and won the BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor.

After this success, Hawthorne's friend Ian McKellen asked him to play his doomed brother, Clarence, in Richard III, and Steven Spielberg asked him to play lame-duck president Martin Van Buren in Amistad. He won a sixth BAFTA for the 1996 TV mini-series The Fragile Heart. He also drew praise for his role of Georgie Pillson in the London Weekend Television series Mapp and Lucia.

Hawthorne was also a voice actor and lent his voice to two Disney films: Fflewddur Fflam in The Black Cauldron (1985) and Professor Porter in Tarzan (1999). He also voiced Captain Campion in the animated film adaptation of Watership Down (1978).

Personal life An intensely private person, Hawthorne was annoyed at having been outed as gay in 1995 in the publicity surrounding the 67th Academy Awards, but attended the ceremony with his long-time partner, Trevor Bentham and afterwards spoke openly about being gay in interviews and in his autobiography, Straight Face, that was published posthumously.

Hawthorne met Bentham in 1968 when the latter was stage-managing the Royal Court Theatre. From 1979 until Hawthorne's death in 2001 they lived together in Radwell and then at Thundridge, both in Hertfordshire. The two of them became fund-raisers for the North Hertfordshire hospice and other local charities.

Death Hawthorne died from a heart attack at his home on 26 December 2001, aged 72. His funeral was attended by Derek Fowlds, who had played Bernard in Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, Maureen Lipman, Charles Dance, Loretta Swit, and Frederick Forsyth along with friends and local people. The service was led by the Right Reverend Christopher Herbert, the Bishop of St Albans. The coffin had a wreath of white lilies and orchids and Bentham was one of the pallbearers.

On hearing of Hawthorne's death Alan Bennett described him in his diary: "Courteous, grand, a man of the world and superb at what he did, with his technique never so obvious as to become familiar as, say, Olivier's did or Alec Guinness's."

Acting credits Film Year Title Role Notes 1958 Carve Her Name with Pride Polish Soldier in Park Uncredited 1972 Young Winston Boer Sentry 1974 S*P*Y*S CroftParody / Action / Comedy 1975 The Hiding Place Pastor De RuiterPrison Drama / History Decisions, Decisions Unknown Short 1977 Spiderweb Lonnrot 1978 Sweeney 2 DilkeAction / Crime / Thriller Watership Down Captain Campion Voice, credited as Nigel Hawthorn The Sailor's Return Mr FosseDrama 1981 History of the World: Part I Citizen Official (The French Revolution) Memoirs of a Survivor Victorian FatherSci-Fi 1982 Firefox Dr Pyotr BaranovichAdventure / Action / Thriller The Plague Dogs Dr Boycott Voice Gandhi Kinnoch 1983 Dead on Time Doctor Short 1983 Monty Python's The Meaning of Life Clerk/pirate The Crimson Permanent Assurance short 1984 The Chain Mr Thorn 1985 The Black Cauldron Fflewddur Fflam Voice Turtle Diary The Publisher 1988 Rarg The Storyteller Short film 1989 A Handful of Time Ted Walker 1990 King of the Wind Achmet 1992 Freddie as F.R.O.7. Brigadier General Voice 1993 Demolition Man Dr Raymond Cocteau 1994 The Madness of King George King George III 1995 Richard III Clarence 1996 Twelfth Night or What You Will Malvolio 1997 Murder in Mind Dr Ellis Also associate producer Amistad President Martin Van Buren 1998 The Object of My Affection Rodney Fraser Madeline Lord Covington (segment "Lord Cucuface") At Sachem Farm Uncle Cullen Also executive producer 1999 The Big Brass Ring Kim The Winslow Boy Arthur Winslow A Reasonable Man Judge Wendon Tarzan Professor Porter Voice The Clandestine Marriage Lord Ogleby Also associate producer

Television Year Title Role Notes 1956 Cry Wolf! PC Bray Television movietelevision debut 1957 The Goose Girl Unknown Television movie The Royal Astrologers Third Thief Bonehead Bit Part Episode: "Pilot" Huntingtower Sinister Man Episode: "#1.3" Villette Second Footman Television miniseries; 2 episodes 1962 The Last Man Out Gestapo Man Episode: "The Way Out" 1963 The Desperate People Cliff Fletcher recurring role; 4 episodes Man of the World Assistant Director Episode: "The Bandit" Bud Trefor Jones Episode: "#1.5" 1964 Detective Temple Doorkeeper Episode: "Death in Ecstasy" Emergency-Ward 10 Colin Davies Episode: "#1.769" 1965 Jury Room David Hemming, Juror Episode: "The Dilke Affair" 1969 Mrs Wilson's Diary Roy Jenkins Television movie The Gnomes of Dulwich Gnome Episode: "#1.6" Dad's Army The Angry Man Episode: "The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones" 1971 The Last of the Baskets Mr Snodgrass Episode: "For Richer, for Poorer" Hine Freddy Ambercourt Episode: "Everything I Am I Owe" 1973 Hadleigh Oliver Mason 2 episodes 1974 Occupations LibertiniTelevision movie Miss Nightingale Dr Lewis 1976 Couples Mr Laker recurring role; 3 episodes Bill Brand Browning Television Miniseries; Episode: "Yarn" 1977 Crown Court Dr William Ranford Episode: "Beauty and the Beast (Part 1)" Eleanor Marx Engels 2 episodes Marie Curie Pierre Curie Television miniseries; 4 episodes Just William Mr Croombe Episode: "The Great Detective" 1978 Warrior Queen Catus Decianus recurring role; 4 episodes Breakaway Girls Derek Carter Episode: "Sarah Carter" Going Straight "Worm" Wellings Episode: "Going Going Gone" Holocaust Ohldendorf Television miniseries; Episode: "Part 2" Edward & Mrs. Simpson Walter Monckton recurring role; 5 episodes 1979 Thomas and Sarah Wilson Episode: "The New Rich" The Other Side Skellow Episode: "Underdog" The Knowledge Mr Burgess Television movie 1980 The Misanthrope Philinte The Tempest Stephano Jukes of Piccadilly Brinsley Jukes recurring role; 6 episodes The Good Companions Reverend Chillingford Television miniseries; Episode: "Miss Trant Pays the Bill" 1980 A Tale of Two Cities Mr C.J. Stryver Television Movie 1980–1984 Yes Minister Sir Humphrey Appleby series regular; 22 episodes 1981 Tales of the Unexpected Charles Drummond Episode: "The Last Bottle in the World" 1982 The Hunchback of Notre Dame Magistrate at Esmeralda's Trial Television movie A Woman Called Golda King Abdullah The World Cup: A Captain's Tale John Westwood The Barchester Chronicles Archdeacon Theophilus Grantly Television miniseries; 7 episodes The Funny Side of Christmas Sir Humphrey ApplebyTelevision movie 1983 Tartuffe, or the Imposter Orgon 1984 Pope John Paul II Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski The House General Fagg 1985–1986 Mapp & Lucia Georgie Pillson recurring role; 10 episodes 1985 Jenny's War Colonel recurring role; 4 episodes 1986–1988 Yes, Prime Minister Sir Humphrey Appleby series regular; 16 episodes 1989 The Play on One John Episode: "The Shawl" 1990 Relatively Speaking Philip Carter Television movie 1994 Late Flowering Lust Cousin John - poetry reader A "blend of music, poetry, dance, actor/dancers..." 1994 Betjeman Revisited Narrator Hawthorne reads Betjeman's script for three 1962 programmes on Chippenham & Crewkerne, Sherborne, and Sidmouth, where the soundtrack was missing 1995 Russia's War: Blood upon the Snow Narrator Documentary series, 10 episodes 1996 Inside Colonel Television movie The Fragile Heart Dr Edgar Pascoe unknown episode The Happy Prince Narrator Television movie 1997 Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone David Livingstone 1998 Animal Stories Narrator unknown episode 2000 The Last Polar Bears Television short 2001 Victoria & Albert Lord William Lamb Television movie Call Me Claus Nick Television movie, (final film role)

Theatre Video games

Awards and honours Hawthorne was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1987 New Years Honours List and was knighted in the 1999 New Years Honours List "for services to the Theatre, Film and Television."

Awards and nominations