Donald Pleasence

Donald Pleasence
Pleasence in London, 1973
Born	Donald Henry Pleasence (1919-10-05)5 October 1919 Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, UK
Died	2 February 1995(1995-02-02) (aged 75) Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Alpes-Maritimes, France
Cause of death	Heart failure
Resting place	Cremated
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Ecclesfield School
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1939-1995
Spouse(s)	Miriam Raymond (1941-1958) Josephine Crombie (1959-1970) Meira Shore (1970-1988) Linda J. Kentwood (1988-1995; his death)
Children	5

Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE (5 October 1919 - 2 February 1995) was an English film, television, and stage actor. His most notable film roles include villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, RAF Flight Lieut. Colin Blythe in The Great Escape, and psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis in the Halloween series.

Early life

Pleasence was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, the son of Alice (née Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence, a railway stationmaster. He was brought up as a strict Methodist, and raised in the small village of Grimoldby, Lincolnshire. Pleasence attended Ecclesfield Grammar School, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, and subsequently dropped out to work as a railway clerk, while looking for a job as an actor. During World War II Pleasence was initially a conscientious objector, but later changed his stance and was commissioned into the Royal Air Force, serving with 166 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command. His Avro Lancaster was shot down on 31 August 1944, during a raid on Agenville. He was taken prisoner and placed in a German prisoner-of-war camp, where he produced and acted in plays. He would later play Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe in The Great Escape where much of the story takes place inside a German POW camp.

Career

Stage

In 1939 Pleasence started working in repertory theatre as an assistant stage manager with Jersey Repertory, making his acting debut with the company as Hareton in Wuthering Heights. He subsequently worked in repertory theatre in Birmingham and Bristol before making his London stage debut as Valentine in Twelfth Night in 1942.

In the 1950s Pleasence's stage work included performing as Willie Mossop in a 1952 production of Hobson's Choice at the Arts Theatre and as Dauphin in Jean Anouilh's The Lark (1956).

In 1960 Pleasence won acclaim as the tramp in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre, a part he would again play in a 1990 revival. Other stage work in the 1960s included Anouilh's Poor Bitos (1967) and Robert Shaw's The Man in The Glass Booth (1967), for which he won the London Variety Award for Stage Actor of the Year in 1968.

Pleasence's later stage work included performing in a double bill of Pinter plays, The Basement and Tea Party, at the Duchess Theatre in 1970.

Television

Pleasence made his television debut in I Want to Be A Doctor in 1946. In 1954 he received critical acclaim as Syme in a BBC adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The adaptation was by Nigel Kneale and also starred Peter Cushing, another British actor who would go on to find fame in many horror-film roles.

Pleasence played Prince John in several episodes of the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1956–1958). He appeared twice with Patrick McGoohan in the British spy series, Danger Man, in episodes "Position of Trust" (1960) and "Find and Return" (1961). Pleasence's first appearance in America was in an episode of The Twilight Zone, playing an aging (and suicidal) teacher at a boys' school in the episode "The Changing of the Guard" (1962). In 1963, he appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits entitled "The Man With the Power". He hosted the 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live with music guest Fear (which, because of Fear's raucous performance and the ultra-dark humour of the sketches, has never been re-transmitted on television since its original airing).

In 1973 Pleasence played the murderer in an episode of Columbo entitled "Any Old Port in a Storm". He also had the distinction of playing a culprit captured by Mrs. Columbo in "Murder is a Parlour Game" (1979). In 1978, he played a Union general in James A. Michener's Centennial. Pleasence starred as the Reverend Septimus Harding in the BBC's 1982 TV series The Barchester Chronicles.

In 1986, Pleasence joined Ronald Lacey and Polly Jo Pleasence for the television thriller 'Into The Darkness', filmed in Manchester and Malta by David Kent-Watson for his Ice International Films. Co-stars Brett Paul and John Ryan, and the supporting cast of models and actresses found Donald to be a most supportive actor and the most jovial and delightful company off-set. The film has been renamed 'Poisoned Minds' for its re-release.

Cinema

Donald Pleasence in the trailer for the 1967 film Eye of the Devil.

Pleasence made his big-screen debut with The Beachcomber (1954). Some notable early roles include Parsons in 1984 (1956), his second Orwell film, and minor roles opposite Alec Guinness in Barnacle Bill (1957) and Dirk Bogarde in The Wind Cannot Read (1958). In Tony Richardson's film of Look Back in Anger (1959) he plays a vindictive market inspector opposite Richard Burton.

Equipped with a shiny bald head and a quiet but intense voice to go with his trademark penetrating gaze, he specialised in portraying insane or evil characters, including the violent alcoholic Doc Tydon in Wake in Fright (1971), the mad Doctor in the Bud Spencer-Terence Hill film Watch Out, We're Mad (1974), Heinrich Himmler in The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and the Bond arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice (1967), the first film in which the villain's face is clearly seen. His interpretation of the character has become predominate in popular culture considering the popularity of the comic villain, Dr. Evil in the successful Austin Powers film series, which primarily parodies it. In the crime drama Hell is a City (1960) he starred opposite Stanley Baker. The film was shot on location in Manchester.

Perhaps his most sympathetic screen role was as the tragic POW forger Colin Blythe in the 1963 film The Great Escape, who discovers that he is slowly going blind, but nonetheless participates in the mass break-out, only to be shot down by German soldiers because he is unable to see them. In The Night of the Generals (1967), he played another uncharacteristically sympathetic role, this time as an old-school German general involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler. In 1971, he returned to the realm of the deranged, delivering a tour de force performance in the role of an alcoholic Australian doctor in Ted Kotcheff's nightmarish outback drama Wake in Fright.

Pleasence played Lucifer in the religious epic The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). His character taking on many dark, shadowy human disguises throughout the film was unprecedented in breathing life into the Luke 4:13 phrase "... he left Him until an opportune time ..." He was one of many stars who were given cameos throughout the film.

Perhaps his most bizarre and powerful film role occurred in Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac (1966), in which he portrayed the love-sodden husband of a much younger French wife (Françoise Dorléac). In 1968, he ventured successfully into American cowboy territory, playing a sadistic self-styled preacher who goes after stoic Charlton Heston in the Western Will Penny.

In his later years, he became best known to a younger generation of cinema-goers as Dr. Loomis in Halloween (1978), Dr. Kobras in The Pumaman (1980) and the President in Escape from New York. The distinctive, rather sinister accent which Pleasence employed in this and other films may be credited to the elocution lessons that he had as a child. He reprised his role as Dr. Loomis in Halloween II (1981), IV (1988), V (1989) and VI (1995).

Pleasence's acting hero was Sir Laurence Olivier, with whom he worked on-stage in the 1950s, and later on the 1979 film version of Dracula. Two years earlier, Pleasence did an amusingly broad impersonation of Olivier in the guise of a horror-film actor called "Valentine De'ath" in the film The Uncanny.

Spoken records and voiceovers

During the early 1960s, Pleasence recorded several children's-story records on the Atlas Record label. These were marketed as the Talespinners series in the UK. They were also released in the United States as Tale Spinners For Children by United Artists. The stories included Don Quixote and the Brave Little Tailor.

Pleasence provided the voice-over for the British Public Information Film, The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water in 1973. The film, intended to warn children of the dangers of playing near water, attained notoriety for allegedly giving children nightmares.

Books

Pleasence was the author of the 1977 children's book Scouse the Mouse (London: New English Library), which was animated by Canadian animator/film director Gerald Potterton (a friend of the actor, who directed him in the 1973 Canadian film The Rainbow Boys, retitled The Rainbow Gang for VHS release in the United States) and also adapted into a children's recording (Polydor Records, 1977) with Ringo Starr voicing the book's title character, Scouse the Mouse.

In his book British Film Character Actors (1982), Terence Pettigrew described him as 'a potent combination of eyes and voice. The eyes are mournful but they can also be sinister or seedy or just plain nutty. He has the kind of piercing stare which lifts enamel off saucepans.'

Awards

Pleasence was nominated four times for the Tony Award for best performance by a leading actor in a Broadway play: in 1962 for Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, in 1965 for Jean Anouilh's Poor Bitos, in 1969 for Robert Shaw's The Man in the Glass Booth, and in 1972 for Simon Gray's Wise Child.

Pleasence was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to the acting profession by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.

Personal life

Pleasence married four times and had five daughters from his first three marriages. He had Angela and Jean with Miriam Raymond (m. 1947–1958); Lucy and Polly with Josephine Martin Crombie (m. 1959–1970); and Miranda with Meira Shore (m. 1970–1988). His last marriage to Linda Kentwood (m. 1988-1995; his death) produced no children.

Death

In 1995, Pleasence died at the age of 75 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, from complications of heart failure following heart valve replacement surgery.

Legacy

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers and Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, were both dedicated to the memory of Pleasence, the latter of which he did not appear in.

Dr. Evil, the character played by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers comedy films (1997–2002), is a parody of Pleasence's performance as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice.

Donald's grandson from his daughter of second wife Josephine has gone on to be a successful music video director in the UK. Jak O'Hare also known as Jak FrSH, working with Tinie Tempah, Wretch 32, Fazer and Tinchy Stryder. Directing a commercial for Vauxhall Motors "Conductivity".

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1952	The Dybbuk	Second Batlon	TV film
1952	BBC Sunday-Night Theatre	Corporal	TV series (episode: Arrow to the Heart (I))
1954	The Beachcomber	Tromp
1954	Montserrat	Juan Alvarez	TV film
1954	The Face of Love	Alex	TV film
1954	BBC Sunday-Night Theatre	Chamberlain	TV series (episode: Such Men Are Dangerous)
1954	Orders Are Orders	Corporal Martin	Credited as Donald Plesance
1954	BBC Sunday-Night Theatre	Syme	TV series (episode: Nineteen Eighty-Four)
1955	Value for Money	Limpy
1955	BBC Sunday-Night Theatre	Foreign Minister	TV series (episode: The Moment of Truth)
1956	1984	R. Parsons
1956	The Black Tent	Ali
1956	The Adventures of Robin Hood	Prince John	TV series (4 episodes)
1956	The Adventures of Robin Hood	Bailiff Baldwin	TV series (episode: A Village Wooing)
1956	ITV Television Playhouse	William	TV series (episode: Ever Since Paradise)
1956	ITV Television Playhouse	Albert	TV series (episode: Chance Meeting)
1957	The Man in the Sky	Crabtree	(titled Decision Against Time in the U.S.)
1957	Assignment Foreign Legion	Commandant	TV series (episode: The Coward)
1957	Manuela	Evans
1957	Barnacle Bill	Cashier	(titled All at Sea in the U.S.)
1958	I Spy	Mr. Frute	TV film
1958	ITV Television Playhouse	Captain Browne	TV series (episode: Fate and Mister Browne)
1958	A Tale of Two Cities	John Barsad
1958	Heart of a Child	Spiel
1958	The Wind Cannot Read'	Doctor
1958	The Man Inside	Organ-grinder
1958	The Two-Headed Spy	General Hardt
1959	The Scarf	Detective Inspector Harry Yates	TV series (6 episodes)
1959	Look Back in Anger	Hurst
1959	ITV Television Playhouse	Leonard Browne	TV series (episode: Mr. Browne Comes Home)
1959	BBC Sunday-Night Theatre	Doctor	TV series (episode: The Millionairess)
1959	ITV Television Playhouse	Robert Robertson	TV series (episode: The Silk Purse)
1959	The Adventures of William Tell	The Spider	TV series (episode: The Spider)
1959	The Traitor	Grantley Caypor	TV film
1959	Killers of Kilimanjaro	Captain
1959	The Battle of the Sexes	Irwin Hoffman
1960	The Shakedown	Jessel Brown
1960	Hell Is a City	Gus Hawkins
1960	The Four Just Men	Paul Koster	TV series (episode: The Survivor)
1960	Interpol Calling	Karl Haussman	TV series (episode: The Absent Assassin)
1962	The Inspector	Sergeant Wolters
1963	The Great Escape	RAF Flight Lieutenant. Colin Blythe, "The Forger"
1963	The Outer Limits	Prof. Harold Finley	TV series (episode: The Man With the Power)
1965	The Hallelujah Trail	Oracle Jones
1966	Fantastic Voyage	Dr. Michaels
1966	Cul-de-sac	George
1967	You Only Live Twice	Ernst Stavro Blofeld
1968	The Other People	Clive
1968	Will Penny	Preacher Quint
1970	Soldier Blue	Isaac Q. Cumber
1971	THX 1138	SEN 5241
1971	Wake in Fright	Doc Tydon
1972	Death Line	Inspector Calhoun
1972	Henry VIII and His Six Wives	Thomas Cromwell
1972	The Jerusalem File	Major Samuels
1972	Wedding in White	Jim Dougall
1973	Columbo	Adrian Carsini	TV series (episode: Any Old Port in a Storm)
1974	Watch Out, We're Mad	The Doctor
1974	From Beyond the Grave	Jim Underwood	Segment: "An Act of Kindness"
1975	Escape to Witch Mountain	Lucas Deranian
1976	The Eagle Has Landed	Himmler
1976	The Passover Plot	Pontius Pilate
1977	Oh, God!	Dr. Harmon
1977	Telefon	Nikolai Dalchimsky
1978	Halloween	Dr. Loomis
1978	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	B.D. Hoffler/B.D. Brockhurst
1978	Power Play	Blair
1979	Dracula	Dr. Jack Seward
1980	The Pumaman	Dr. Kobras
1980	Halloween: Extended Edition	Dr. Loomis	Appeared in 3 out of 4 scenes and 12 minutes of additional footage for the NBC Television broadcast filmed during the production of Halloween II with co-star Jamie Lee Curtis and director John Carpenter.
1981	Halloween II	Dr. Loomis
1981	Race for the Yankee Zephyr	Gilbert "Gibbie" Carson
1982	Escape from New York	Mr. President
1982	Alone in the Dark	Dr. Leo Bain
1982	The Barchester Chronicles	Reverend Septimus Harding	TV series
1983	Warrior of the Lost World	Prossor
1983	The Devonsville Terror	Dr. Warley
1984	A Breed Apart	J.P. Whittier
1985	Phenomena	John McGregor
1987	Django 2	Gunn
1987	Prince of Darkness	Priest
1988	Hanna's War	Captain Thomas Rosza
1988	Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers	Dr. Loomis
1989	Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers	Dr. Loomis
1989	Ten Little Indians	Judge Lawrence Wargrave
1991	Shadows and Fog	Doctor
1992	Dien Bien Phu (film)	Howard Simpson (writer, journalist)
1993	The Thief and the Cobbler	Phido the Vulture (voice)
1993	The Hour of the Pig	Pincheon
1995	Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers	Dr. Loomis	The film was dedicated to his memory.
1996	Fatal frames: Fotogrammi mortali	Professor Robinson
1998	Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later	Dr. Loomis	Picture and voice only. The film was dedicated to his memory.

External links

• Donald Pleasence at the Internet Movie Database
• Donald Pleasence at the Internet Broadway Database
• Donald Pleasence at TV Tropes
• Donald Pleasence at screenonline
• Donald Pleasence-bio at (re)Search my Trash
• The Man with the Hypnotic Eye A Tribute to Donald Pleasence
• Photograph of a theatrical production in prisoner of war camp featuring Donald Pleasence
• Lonely Water Public Information Film