Jump to content

Richard Pasco

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Heath St John (talk | contribs) at 19:43, 4 May 2022 (Filmography: Missing title, one link, with note.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Richard Pasco
Born
Richard Edward Pasco

(1926-07-18)18 July 1926
Died12 November 2014(2014-11-12) (aged 88)
OccupationActor
Years active1954–2002
Spouse(s)Greta Watson (1956–1964) (1 child)
Barbara Leigh-Hunt (1967–2014) (his death)
ChildrenWilliam (b. 1960)

Richard Edward Pasco, CBE (18 July 1926 – 12 November 2014) was a British stage, screen and TV actor.

Early life

Pasco was born in Barnes, London, the only child of insurance company clerk Cecil George Pasco (1897-1982) and milliner Phyllis Irene (1895-1989; née Widdison).[1] He was educated at the King's College School, Wimbledon. He became an apprentice stage manager at the Q Theatre, before studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he won the gold medal. He then spent three years with the Birmingham Repertory Company.

Career

One of his earliest screen appearances was as Teddy in Room at the Top (1959). His other films include Yesterday's Enemy (1959), Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960), The Gorgon (1964) and Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966), all for Hammer Studios.

During his lengthy stage career, which began in 1943, he worked with the Old Vic, the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Pasco played the part of Frank Rice in the original stage production of John Osborne's play The Entertainer (1957) with Laurence Olivier.[2] One of his most memorable performances was in John Barton's 1974 production of Richard II for the RSC (alternating the title role and that of Bolingbroke, (pronounceed 'Bullen-brook'), with Ian Richardson).[3] Among his radio successes were his performances of BBC Radio 4's Morning Story for BBC Pebble Mill producer David Shute. He portrayed Lieutenant-Commander Ericson in the 1980 BBC Radio adaptation of Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea. His TV credits include the role of Brutus in Julius Caesar and the "melancholy" Jacques in As You Like It (1979) by William Shakespeare in the BBC's Shakespeare cycle. Pasco played the leading part of Stephen Sorrell in the 1984 TV mini-series Sorrell and Son.[4]

His later work includes Mrs. Brown (1997), the Inspector Morse episode "Dead on Time", A Dance to the Music of Time (1997), and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1998). He married actress Barbara Leigh-Hunt in 1967. He died aged 88 on 12 November 2014.[5]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1957 Kill Me Tomorrow Dr. Fisher
1959 Room at the Top Teddy
1959 Dial 999 (TV series) ('Deadly Blackmail', episode) Willard Billed as 'Willard', but his character's name is never spoken.
1959 Yesterday's Enemy
1960 Sword of Sherwood Forest Edward, Earl of Newark
1964 Hot Enough for June Plakov
1964 The Gorgon Paul Heitz
1966 Rasputin, the Mad Monk Dr. Zargo
1979 Julius Caesar Brutus TV movie
1980 The Watcher in the Woods Tom Colley
1984 Arch of Triumph Veber
1997 Mrs Brown Doctor Jenner
1997 A Dance to the Music of Time Sir Magnus Donners

References

  1. ^ Croall, Jonathan (2018). "Pasco, Richard Edward (1926–2014), actor". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.108113. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8.
  2. ^ http://www.phyllis.demon.co.uk/theatricalia/06lead/leadl-r.htm [dead link]
  3. ^ Coveney, Michael (6 October 2005). "A king with a PM's problems". The Independent. UK. Archived from the original on 10 July 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009. the greatest RSC productions...the best ever was John Barton's with Ian Richardson and Richard Pasco
  4. ^ "Sorrell and Son (TV Mini Series 1984) - IMDb".
  5. ^ PASCO