Clive Revill
| Clive Revill | |
|---|---|
| Born | Clive Selsby Revill 18 April 1930 Wellington, New Zealand |
| Occupation | Character actor |
Clive Selsby Revill (born 18 April 1930) is a New Zealand-born British character actor best known for his performances in musical theatre and on the London stage.
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[edit] Early life and stage career
Revill was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Eleanor May (née Neel) and Malet Barford Revill.[1] He originally trained to be an accountant in his homeland of New Zealand, but decided to change his career path in 1950 when he made his stage debut as Sebastian in Twelfth Night. He then moved to England, where he appeared in The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company's elebrated 1956–1958 season of productions in Stratford, which included Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest. He went on to have such varied stage roles as Ratty in Toad of Toad Hall, and Jean-Paul Marat in The Marat/Sade.
He made his Broadway debut in 1952, playing Mr. Pickwick in The Pickwick Papers, and subsequently appeared in Irma La Douce, The Incomparable Max, and Oliver!, for which his Fagin was nominated for a Tony Award. He is also known for his roles in the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, on both stage and television.
He also participated in the workshop production of Tom Jones: The Musical, playing the role of Squire Western and reprising it on the cast recording.
[edit] Film career
His red hair and distinctive Mr. Punch-like features often saw him cast as comic eccentrics in a number of British films of the 1960s and '70s such as Kaleidoscope (1966), Modesty Blaise (1966), Fathom (1967), The Assassination Bureau (1969), and One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975). He also had notable supporting turns in Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) opposite Laurence Olivier, Mack the Knife (1989), and his US film debut A Fine Madness (1966), as well as a rare leading role in the horror film The Legend of Hell House (1973).
He was often cast as humorous foreign characters (he has played everything from Chinese to Russian). Two of his highest profile roles of this kind were in two films for Billy Wilder: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), and Avanti! (1972), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for his part as put-upon hotel manager Carlo Carlucci.
[edit] Television career
He played Ko-Ko (the starring role) in a television production of The Mikado (1983) for Brent Walker which was shown by the BBC. Relocating to America, he has guest-starred in many TV series, such as Columbo episode: "The Conspirators" (1978), Hart to Hart, Dynasty, Magnum, P.I., The Love Boat, Remington Steele, Murder She Wrote episodes: "Murder to a Jazz Beat" (1985) and "Curse of the Daanau" (1988), Babylon 5, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He starred as the wizard Vector in the short-lived cult series Wizards and Warriors.
[edit] Voice work
He is also known for his voice work, which includes the voice of Emperor Palpatine in the original 1980 version of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (he was later replaced by Ian McDiarmid in the 2004 DVD version for continuity's sake, though Revill is still credited); numerous cartoons such as The Transformers, Batman: The Animated Series and DuckTales; and more recently video games, including Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Conquest: Frontier Wars.
[edit] Selected filmography
- Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
- Modesty Blaise (1966)
- A Fine Madness (1966)
- Kaleidoscope (1966)
- Fathom (1967)
- The Assassination Bureau (1969)
- The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
- Boulevard du Rhum (1971)
- Avanti! (1972)
- The Legend of Hell House (1973)
- The Black Windmill (1974)
- One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975)
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Zorro, The Gay Blade (1981)
- The Frog Prince (1986)
- The Transformers: The Movie (1986)
- Mack the Knife (1989)
- Let Him Have It (1991)
- The Thief and the Cobbler (1993)
- Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
- Crime and Punishment (2002)
- Return to Neverland (2002)
- 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2003)
- The Jungle Book 2 (2003)
