Denholm Elliott

Denholm Elliott CBE
Elliot as Marcus Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Born	Denholm Mitchell Elliott (1922-05-31)31 May 1922 Ealing, London, England, United Kingdom
Died	6 October 1992(1992-10-06) (aged 70) Ibiza, Spain
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1949–1992
Spouse(s)	Virginia McKenna (1954; divorced) Susan Robinson (1962–1992; his death)

Denholm Elliott, CBE (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits. In the 1980s, he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in three consecutive years.

Early life

He was born Denholm Mitchell Elliott in London, England, the son of Nina (née Mitchell) and Myles Laymen Farr Elliott. He attended Malvern College and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

In World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force, training as a sergeant radio operator and gunner and serving with No. 76 Squadron RAF under the command of Leonard Cheshire. On the night of 23/24 September 1942, his Handley Page Halifax bomber took part in an air raid on the U-boat pens at Flensburg, Germany. The aircraft was hit by flak and subsequently ditched in the North Sea near Sylt, Germany. Elliot and two other crew members survived; and he spent the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp in Silesia, during which time he became involved in amateur dramatics.

Career

After making his film debut in Dear Mr. Prohack (1949), he went on to play a wide range of parts, often such ineffectual and occasionally seedy characters as the journalist Bayliss in Defence of the Realm, the abortionist in Alfie, and the washed-up film director in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Elliott and Natasha Parry played the main roles in the 1955 television play, The Apollo of Bellac.

Elliott made many television appearances, notably in plays by Dennis Potter, including Follow the Yellow Brick Road (1972), Brimstone and Treacle (1976), and Blade on the Feather (1980). He took over for an ill Michael Aldridge for one season of The Man in Room 17 (1966) and appeared in the series Thriller (1975).

In the 1980s, he won three consecutive British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards – Best Supporting Actor for Trading Places as Dan Aykroyd's kindly butler, A Private Function, and Defence of the Realm – as well as an Academy Award nomination for A Room with a View. He also became familiar to a wider audience as the well meaning but addlepated Dr. Marcus Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A photograph of his character appears in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and a reference is made to Brody's death. In 1988, Elliott was the Russian mole Povin, around whom the entire plot revolves, in the television miniseries Codename: Kyril.

Having filmed Michael Winners' The Wicked Lady (1983), Elliott was quoted in a BBC Radio interview as saying that he and Marc Sinden "are the only two British actors I am aware of who have ever worked with Winner more than once and it certainly wasn't for love. But curiously, I never, ever saw any of the same crew twice." (Elliott in You Must Be Joking! (1965) and The Wicked Lady and Sinden in The Wicked Lady and Decadence). Elliott had also worked with Sinden's father, Donald Sinden, in the film The Cruel Sea (1953).

He also starred with Katharine Hepburn and Harold Gould in the television film, Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (1986).

In 1988, Elliott was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting. His career included many stage performances, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Personal life

Privately bisexual, Elliott was married twice, the first to the British actress Virginia McKenna for a few months in 1954 and later, in an open marriage, to actress Susan Robinson, with whom he had two children, a son named Mark and a daughter named Jennifer. His daughter Jennifer Elliott (1964–2003) was driven to hang herself when Paul McMullan of the News of the World claimed that she was living on the street and working as a prostitute.

Death

Elliott was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and died of AIDS-related tuberculosis at his home on Ibiza, Spain, in 1992. He was cremated. His widow set up a charity, the Denholm Elliott Project, in his honour and collaborated on his biography. She also worked closely with the UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS. She died on April 12, 2007, following a fire in her flat in London.

Filmography and television work

• Dear Mr. Prohack (1949)
• The Ringer (1952)
• The Sound Barrier (1952)
• The Holly and the Ivy (1952)
• The Cruel Sea (1953)
• The Heart of the Matter (1953)
• They Who Dare (1954)
• Lease of Life (1954)
• The Man Who Loved Redheads (1955)
• The Night My Number Came Up (1955)
• Pacific Destiny (1956)
• Scent of Mystery (1960)
• Nothing But the Best (1964)
• The High Bright Sun (1964)
• You Must Be Joking! (1965)
• King Rat (1965)
• Alfie (1966)
• The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966)
• The Night They Raided Minsky's (1967)
• Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1967)
• The Sea Gull (1968)
• Too Late the Hero (1970)
• The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)
• Quest for Love (1971)
• Percy (1971)
• The House That Dripped Blood (1971)
• Follow the Yellow Brick Road (1972; television play)
• Madame Sin (1972)
• A Doll's House (1973)
• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974)
• Brimstone and Treacle (1976; television play)
• Robin and Marian (1976)
• To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
• Voyage of the Damned (1976)
• A Bridge Too Far (1977)
• Shooting the Chandelier (1977; television film)
• Watership Down (1978; voice)
• The Boys from Brazil (1978)
• Sweeney 2 (1978)
• Cuba (1979)

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• Zulu Dawn (1979)
• Saint Jack (1979)
• A Game for Vultures (1979)
• Bad Timing (1980)
• Blade on the Feather (1980)
• Rising Damp (1980)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Brimstone and Treacle (1982)
• Marco Polo (1982; television miniseries)
• The Missionary (1982)
• Trading Places (1983)
• The Wicked Lady (1983)
• The Razor's Edge (1984)
• Camille (1984)
• A Private Function (1984)
• A Room with a View (1985)
• Past Caring (1985; television film)
• Bleak House (1985; television series)
• Defence of the Realm (1985)
• Mrs Delafield Wants to Marry (1986; television film)
• The Whoopee Boys (1986)
• Hotel du Lac (1987; television film)
• Maurice (1987)
• September (1987)
• A Child's Christmas in Wales (1987)
• Codename: Kyril (1988; television series)
• The Bourne Identity (1988; television film)
• Noble House (1988; television miniseries)
• Stealing Heaven (1988)
• Bangkok Hilton (1989)
• Killing Dad (1989)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• Return from the River Kwai (1989)
• The Love She Sought (1990; television film)
• Kick Series 1-5 1987-1991
• Toy Soldiers (1991)
• Scorchers (1991)
• A Murder of Quality (1991)
• Noises Off (1992)

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See also

• List of British actors and actresses
• List of celebrities appointed to the Order of the British Empire
• List of people from Ealing
• List of RADA alumni

External links

• Denholm Elliott at the BFI's Screenonline
• Denholm Elliott at Find a Grave
• Denholm Elliott at the Internet Broadway Database
• Denholm Elliott at IMDb
• Performances in the Theatre Archive University of Bristol

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