Alan Bates

For other people named Alan Bates, see Alan Bates (disambiguation).

Sir Alan Bates CBE
Bates in 1975
Born	Alan Arthur Bates (1934-02-17)17 February 1934 Allestree, Derby, England
Died	27 December 2003(2003-12-27) (aged 69) London, England
Education	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1956–2003
Spouse	Victoria Ward ​ ​ (m. 1970; died 1992)​
Children	2, including Benedick

Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving.

He is also known for his performance with Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek, as well as his roles in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd and The Fixer, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson.

Bates went on to star in The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman, Nijinsky and in The Rose with Bette Midler, as well as many television dramas, including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Harold Pinter's The Collection, A Voyage Round My Father, An Englishman Abroad (as Guy Burgess) and Pack of Lies. He also appeared on the stage, notably in the plays of Simon Gray, such as Butley and Otherwise Engaged.

Early life

The blue plaque on Alan Bates' childhood home. In association with the British Film Institute

Bates was born at the Queen Mary Nursing Home, Darley Abbey, Derby, England, on 17 February 1934, the eldest of three boys born to Florence Mary (née Wheatcroft), a housewife and a pianist, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker and a cellist. They lived in Allestree, Derby, at the time of Bates' birth, but briefly moved to Mickleover before returning to Allestree.

Both parents were amateur musicians who encouraged Bates to pursue music. However, by the age of 11, having decided to become an actor, he studied drama instead. He further developed his vocation by attending productions at Derby's Little Theatre.

Bates was educated at the Herbert Strutt Grammar School, Derby Road, Belper, Derbyshire (now "Strutts", a volunteer led business and community centre) and later gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he studied with Albert Finney and Peter O'Toole, before leaving to join the RAF for National Service at RAF Newton.

Career

Early stage appearances

Bates's stage debut was in 1955, in You and Your Wife, in Coventry.

In 1956 he made his West End debut as Cliff in Look Back in Anger, a role he had originated at the Royal Court and which made him a star. He also played the role on television (for the ITV Play of the Week) and on Broadway. He also was a member of the 1967 acting company at the Stratford Festival in Canada, playing the title role in Richard III.

Television

In the late 1950s Bates appeared in several plays for television in Britain in shows such as ITV Play of the Week, Armchair Theatre and ITV Television Playhouse.

In 1960 appeared as Giorgio in the final episode of The Four Just Men (TV series) entitled Treviso Dam.

Bates made his feature film debut in The Entertainer (1960) opposite Laurence Olivier, his first film role. Bates worked for the Padded Wagon Moving Company in the early 1960s while acting at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City.

Film stardom

Bates played the lead in his second feature, Whistle Down the Wind (1961), directed by Bryan Forbes. He followed it with the lead in A Kind of Loving (1962), directed by John Schlesinger. Both films were very popular, establishing Bates as a film star.

Film critics cited the 1963 film noir, The Running Man, as being one of Alan Bates' finest performances. The film starred Laurence Harvey, Lee Remick and Bates in the supporting role of Stephen Maddox, an insurance company investigator who encounters Harvey and Remick in Spain after Harvey successfully faked his death in an aeroplane crash to cash in on a life insurance policy, leaving wife Lee Remick a small fortune. Fans of film noir enjoyed the many intriguing twists and turns The Running Man offered. The film also offered movie fans a depth of character study worthy of a memorable film noir. Bates' character worked well with Harvey and Remick, helping director Carol Reed craft an ever-guessing, suspenseful story of cat and mouse detective work that moved seamlessly from beginning to end. While many movies in film noir have predictable plots, The Running Man featured a plot that was unpredictable, which was its best asset. The film's finale saw Lee Remick standing wearily on a dock, looking at a departing boat with the Rock of Gibraltar looming in the background.

Bates went into an adaptation of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker (1963) with Donald Pleasence and Robert Shaw. It was directed by Clive Donner who then made Nothing But the Best (1964) with Bates.

He supported Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek (1964) and James Mason in Georgy Girl (1966). Bates returned to TV doing episodes of Wednesday Theatre and starred in Philippe de Broca's King of Hearts (1966).

Bates was reunited with Schlesinger in Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), starring Julie Christie then did the Bernard Malamud film The Fixer (1968), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

In 1969 he starred in Women in Love directed by Ken Russell with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson, in which Bates and Reed wrestled naked. He followed it appearing as Col. Vershinin in the National Theatre's film of Three Sisters, directed by and co-starring Laurence Olivier.

Bates was handpicked by director John Schlesinger (with whom he had previously worked on A Kind of Loving and Far From The Madding Crowd) to play the starring role of Dr. Daniel Hirsh in the film Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). Bates was held up filming The Go-Between (1971) for director Joseph Losey alongside Christie, and had also become a father around that time, and so he had to refuse the role. (The part then went first to Ian Bannen, who balked at kissing and simulating sex with another man, and then to Peter Finch who earned an Academy Award nomination for the role.)

Bates starred in the film of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972) and produced and appeared in a short, Second Best (1972).

He starred in Story of a Love Story (1973), and some play adaptations, Butley (1974) and In Celebration (1975). He was the villain in Royal Flash (1975) and appeared on television in Plays for Today and the Laurence Olivier Presents version of Harold Pinter's The Collection (1976).

Television (1970s and 80s)

Bates starred in the TV movie Piccadilly Circus (1977) and The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978). In the latter he played Michael Henchard, the ultimately-disgraced lead, which he described as his favourite role.

He starred in such international films as An Unmarried Woman (1978) and Nijinsky (1980), and also played Bette Midler's ruthless business manager in the film The Rose (1979). He was also in The Shout (1979) and Very Like a Whale (1980).

He played two diametrically opposed roles in An Englishman Abroad (1983), as Guy Burgess, a member of the Cambridge spy ring exiled in Moscow, and in Pack of Lies (1987), as a British Secret Service agent tracking several Soviet spies.

Later career

Bates continued working in film and television in the 1990s, including the role of Claudius in Franco Zeffirelli's version of Hamlet (1990). In 2001 he joined an all-star cast in Robert Altman's critically acclaimed period drama Gosford Park, in which he played the butler Jennings. He later played Antonius Agrippa in the 2004 TV film Spartacus, but died before it premiered. The film was dedicated to his memory and that of writer Howard Fast, who wrote the original novel that inspired the film Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick.

On stage Bates had a particular association with the plays of Simon Gray, appearing in Butley, Otherwise Engaged, Stage Struck, Melon, Life Support and Simply Disconnected, as well as the film of Butley and Gray's TV series Unnatural Pursuits. In Otherwise Engaged, his co-star was Ian Charleson, who became a friend, and Bates later contributed a chapter to a 1990 book on his colleague after Charleson's early death.

Bates was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1996, and was knighted in 2003. He was an Associate Member of RADA, and was a patron of The Actors Centre, Covent Garden, London, from 1994 until his death in 2003.

Personal life

Bates was married to actress Victoria Ward from 1970 until her death from a heart attack in 1992, although they had separated many years earlier. They had twin sons, born in November 1970, the actors Benedick Bates and Tristan Bates. Tristan died following an asthma attack in Tokyo in 1990.

Bates had numerous gay relationships, including those with actor Nickolas Grace and Olympic skater John Curry as detailed in Donald Spoto's authorised biography Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates. Spoto characterised Bates's sexuality as ambiguous, and said, "he loved women but enjoyed his closest relationships with men". Even after homosexuality was partially decriminalised in England in 1967, Bates rigorously avoided interviews and questions about his personal life, and even denied to his male lovers that there was a homosexual component in his nature. Throughout his life Bates sought to be regarded as a ladies' man or at least as a man who, as an actor, could appear attractive to and attracted by women. He also chose some roles with an aspect of homosexuality or bisexuality, including the role of Rupert in the 1969 film Women in Love and the role of Frank in the 1988 film We Think the World of You.

In the later years of his life, Bates had a relationship with the Welsh actress Angharad Rees.

Death

Bates died of pancreatic cancer in December 2003 after going into a coma. He is buried at All Saints' Church, Bradbourne in Derbyshire.

Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates

Donald Spoto's 2007 book, Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates, is a posthumous authorised biography of Alan Bates. It was written with the cooperation of his son Benedick and includes more than one hundred interviews, such as those with Michael Linnit and Rosalind Chatto.

Tristan Bates Theatre

Bates and his family created the Tristan Bates Theatre at the Actors' Centre in Covent Garden, in memory of his son Tristan who died at the age of 19. Tristan's twin brother, Benedick, is a vice-director.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	It's Never Too Late	King Lear	Uncredited
1960	The Entertainer	Frank Rice
1961	Whistle Down the Wind	The Man
1962	A Kind of Loving	Vic
1963	The Running Man	Stephen
	Caretaker	Mick
1964	Nothing But The Best	Jimmy Brewster
	Zorba the Greek	Basil
1966	Georgy Girl	Jos Jones
	King of Hearts	Le Soldat Charles Plumpick
1967	Far from the Madding Crowd	Gabriel Oak
1968	The Fixer	Yakov Bok
1969	Women in Love	Rupert Birkin
1970	Three Sisters	Colonel Aleksandr Vershinin
1971	The Go-Between	Ted Burgess
1972	A Day in the Death of Joe Egg	Bri
1973	Impossible Object	Harry
1974	Butley	Ben Butley
	The Story of Jacob and Joseph	Narrator	TV film
1975	In Celebration	Andrew Shaw
	Royal Flash	Rudi von Sternberg
1978	An Unmarried Woman	Saul Kaplan
	The Shout	Charles Crossley
1979	The Rose	Rudge Campbell
1980	Very Like a Whale	Sir Jock Mellor	TV film
	Nijinsky	Sergei Diaghilev
1981	Quartet	H.J. Heidler
	Ręce do góry	Wikto
	The Trespasser	Siegmund	TV film
1982	A Voyage Round My Father	John Mortimer	TV film
	The Return of the Soldier	Captain Chris Baldry
	Britannia Hospital	Macready - guest gatient
1983	Separate Tables	John Malcolm/Major Pollock	TV film
	The Wicked Lady	Captain Jerry Jackson
	An Englishman Abroad	Guy Burgess	TV film
1984	Doctor Fischer of Geneva	Alfred Jones	TV film
1986	Duet for One	David Cornwallis
1987	Pack of Lies	Stewart	TV film
	A Prayer for the Dying	Jack Meehan
1988	We Think the World of You	Frank Meadows
1989	The Dog It Was That Died	Giles Blair	TV film
	Force Majeure	Malcolm Forrest
1990	Mister Frost	Felix Detweiler
	Dr M	Dr Marsfeldt
	Hamlet	Claudius
1991	Secret Friends	John
	Shuttlecock	Major James Prentis VC
1993	Silent Tongue	Eamon McCree
1995	The Grotesque	Sir Hugo Coal
1998	Nicholas' Gift	Reg Green	TV film
1999	The Cherry Orchard	Leonid Andreievitch Gayev
2000	St. Patrick: The Irish Legend	Calpornius	TV film
	The Prince and the Pauper	King Henry VIII	TV film
2001	Gosford Park	Mr Jennings
2002	The Mothman Prophecies	Alexander Leek
	Bertie and Elizabeth	King George V	TV film
	The Sum of All Fears	Richard Dressler
	Evelyn	Tom Connolly
	Salem Witch Trials	Sir William Phips	TV film
2003	Meanwhile	Father Peter
	Hollywood North	Michael Baytes
	The Statement	Armand Bertier

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	ITV Play of the Week	Cliff Lewis	Episode: "Look Back in Anger"
1959		Eddie Burke	Episode: The Square Ring
		Charles Tritton	Episode: "The Wind and the Rain"
	Armchair Theatre	Lewis Black	Episode: "The Thug"
			Episode: "Three on a Gas Ring"
	ITV Television Playhouse	Kenneth	Episode: "A Memory of Two Mondays"
		Rikki Barofski	Episode: "The Jukebox"
1960		Ralph Freeman	Episode: "Incident"
	ITV Play of the Week	Peter Garside	Episode: "The Upstart"
	The Four Just Men	Giorgio	Episode: "Treviso Dam"
1961	Armchair Theatre	Mario	Episode: "Duel for Love"
1966	The Wednesday Play	Grigor Pecharin	Episode: "A Hero of Our Time"
1975	Play for Today	Peter	Episode: "Plaintiffs and Defendants"
		Charles	Episode: "Two Sundays"
1976	Great Performances	James	Episode: "The Collection"
1977	Piccadilly Circus	Gray	Episode: "Plaintiffs and Defendants"
1978	The Mayor of Casterbridge	Michael Henchard	Mini-series
1985	Summer Season	Nicholas	Episode: "One for the Road"
1988	The Ray Bradbury Theater	John Fabian	Episode: "And So Died Riabouchinska"
1990	Screen Two	Marcel Proust	Episode: "102 Boulevard Haussmann"
1992	Screen One	Henry Sitchell	Episode: "Losing Track"
	Unnatural Pursuits	Hamish Pratt	2 episodes
1994	Hard Times	Josiah Bounderby	Mini-series
1995	Oliver's Travels	Oliver	Miniseries
2000	Arabian Nights	Storyteller	Miniseries
	In the Beginning	Jethro	Miniseries
2001	Love in a Cold Climate	Uncle Matthew	Miniseries
2004	Spartacus	Agrippa	Miniseries

Awards

• 1959 Clarence Derwent Award for A Long Day's Journey into Night
• 1971 Evening Standard Best Actor Award for Butley
• 1972 Best Actor Tony for Butley (a performance he recreated in the film version of the same name, Butley in 1974)
• 1975 Variety Club Award for Otherwise Engaged
• 1983 Variety Club Award for A Patriot for Me
• 2000 Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award for Unexpected Man
• 2002 Best Actor Tony and Drama Desk, for Fortune's Fool

External links

• Alan Bates at IMDb
• Alan Bates at the Internet Broadway Database
• Alan Bates at AllMovie
• Alan Bates at the BFI's Screenonline