![Derby Arboretum is a public arboretum and park in the city of Derby in England. It was the first publicly owned, landscaped, urban, recreational park in England. It is located in the Rose Hill area, about a mile south of Derby city centre. After many years of neglect, the Arboretum has recently been extensively refurbished with the aid of a National Lottery grant of almost £5 million. It is listed on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.[1]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110821010859im_/http://cdn8.wn.com/pd/96/3e/591e496488733b448db0b725ec38_grande.jpg "Derby Arboretum is a public arboretum and park in the city of Derby in England. It was the first publicly owned, landscaped, urban, recreational park in England. It is located in the Rose Hill area, about a mile south of Derby city centre. After many years of neglect, the Arboretum has recently been extensively refurbished with the aid of a National Lottery grant of almost £5 million. It is listed on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.[1]")
| Birth name | Alan Arthur Bates |
|---|---|
| Birth date | February 17, 1934 |
| Birth place | Allestree, Derbyshire, England |
| Death date | December 27, 2003 |
| Death place | Westminster, London, England |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1956–2003 |
| Spouse | Victoria Ward (1970–1992)[Her death]}} |
Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 193427 December 2003) was an English actor.
Both of his parents were amateur musicians, and encouraged him to pursue music, but by age 11, young Bates already had determined his life's course as an actor, and so they sent him for dramatic coaching instead. He also saw productions at Derby's Little Theatre.
He was educated at the Herbert Strutt Grammar School (amalgamated in 1973 with two secondary modern schools and renamed Belper High School, which has now become Belper School although the former buildings are now the Herbert Strutt primary school) on Thornhill Avenue in Belper, Derbyshire and later earned 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.
Bates was handpicked by director John Schlesinger (with whom he had previously worked on Far From The Madding Crowd) to star in the film Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) in the role of Dr. Daniel Hirsh. Bates was held up filming The Go-Between (1970) for director Joseph Losey, and had also become a father around that time, and so he had to pass on the project. 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.
Around this time he appeared as Col. Vershinin in the National Theatre's film of Three Sisters, directed by and co-starring Laurence Olivier.
Bates continued to work in film and television throughout the 1970s and 80s, and starred in such international films as An Unmarried Woman (1978), Nijinsky (1980), and also played Bette Midler's ruthless business manager in the 1979 film The Rose. On television, his parts ranged from classic roles such as 1978's The Mayor of Casterbridge (his favourite role he said), in the Laurence Olivier Presents episode of Harold Pinter's The Collection (1976), A Voyage Round My Father (1982) working again with Laurence Olivier, An Englishman Abroad (1983) (playing Guy Burgess), and Pack of Lies (1987) (in which he played a Russian spy). He continued working in film and television in the 1990s, including the role of Claudius in Mel Gibson's version of Hamlet (1990), though most of his roles in this era were more low-key.
In 2001, Bates 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 debuted. 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, Bates' co-star was Ian Charleson, who became a good friend, and Bates later contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.
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.
Bates had numerous homosexual relationships throughout his life, including those with actors Nickolas Grace and Peter Wyngarde, and Olympic skater John Curry. Even when homosexuality was partially decriminalised in Britain in 1967, Bates rigorously avoided interviews and questions about his personal life, and even denied to his lovers that there was a gay component in his nature. is the only authorized biography of Alan Bates. It was written with the full and complete cooperation of his son Benedick Bates and Bates' younger brother Martin, and includes more than one hundred interviews with people such as Michael Linnit and Rosalind Chatto.
Category:1934 births Category:2003 deaths Category:Actors awarded British knighthoods Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:Audio book narrators Category:Bisexual actors Category:Cancer deaths in England Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:English film actors Category:English radio actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:English voice actors Category:LGBT people from England Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Derby Category:Royal Air Force personnel Category:Royal National Theatre Company members Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Shakespearean actors Category:Tony Award winners
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![Derby Arboretum is a public arboretum and park in the city of Derby in England. It was the first publicly owned, landscaped, urban, recreational park in England. It is located in the Rose Hill area, about a mile south of Derby city centre. After many years of neglect, the Arboretum has recently been extensively refurbished with the aid of a National Lottery grant of almost £5 million. It is listed on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.[1]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110821010859im_/http://cdn7.wn.com/pd/96/3e/591e496488733b448db0b725ec38_thumb.jpg "Derby Arboretum is a public arboretum and park in the city of Derby in England. It was the first publicly owned, landscaped, urban, recreational park in England. It is located in the Rose Hill area, about a mile south of Derby city centre. After many years of neglect, the Arboretum has recently been extensively refurbished with the aid of a National Lottery grant of almost £5 million. It is listed on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.[1]")
