Sir Alan Bates CBE
Born	Alain Arthur Bates (1934-02-17)17 February 1934 Allestree, Derbyshire, England, UK
Died	27 December 2003(2003-12-27) (aged 69) Westminster, London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1956–2003
Spouse	Victoria Ward (m. 1970–1992) (her death)

Sir Alain Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, 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, which gave him 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 The Rose with Bette Midler, as well as playing varied roles in television drama, 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 continued to appear on the stage, notably in the plays of Simon Gray, such as Butley and Otherwise Engaged.

Early life[link]

Bates was born at the Queen Mary Nursing Home,^[1] Darley Abbey, Derby, England, on 17 February 1934, the eldest of three sons of Florence Mary (née Wheatcroft), a housewife and a pianist, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker and a cellist,^[2] who lived in Allestree, Derby at the time. The family briefly moved to Mickleover, then returned to Allestree.

The Blue Plaque on Alan Bates' childhood home. In association with The British Film Institute

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.^[3] 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.

Career[link]

Bates' stage debut was in 1955, in You and Your Wife, in Coventry.^[4] In 1956, Bates debuted in London in the West End 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 Playhouse) and on Broadway. In the late 1950s, he appeared in several plays for television in Britain. In 1960, he appeared in The Entertainer 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. Throughout the 1960s he starred in several major films including Whistle Down the Wind (1961), A Kind of Loving (1962), Zorba the Greek (1964), Philippe de Broca's King of Hearts (1966), Georgy Girl (1966), Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), and in the Bernard Malamud film The Fixer (1968), which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in Women in Love.

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 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.^[5]

Bates continued to work in film and television throughout the 1970s and 1980s, 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 British Secret Service agent tracking several Soviet spies). 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[6]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Bates was married to Victoria Ward from 1970 until her death from a wasting disease in 1992, although they had separated many years earlier.^[7][8] 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.^[9] Bates had numerous homosexual relationships throughout his life, including those with actors Nickolas Grace and Peter Wyngarde, and Olympic skater John Curry.^[10] In 1994 Curry died from AIDS in Bates's arms.^[10] Even when homosexuality was partially decriminalised in Britain in 1967,^[11] Bates rigorously avoided interviews and questions about his personal life, and even denied to his male lovers that there was a gay component in his nature.^[10] Whilst 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 to take on many roles with an aspect of homosexuality or bisexuality.^[10] He let this part of his life appear as he played the role of the sexually frustrated Rupert in the 1970 film Women in Love.

In the later years of his life, Bates's companion was his lifelong friend, actress Joanna Pettet, his co-star in the 1964 Broadway play Poor Richard. They divided their time between New York and London.

Bates died of pancreatic cancer in 2003.^[3]

[edit] Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates

The posthumous publication of Donald Spoto's 2007 book, Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates,^[12] is the only authorised biography of Alan Bates. It was written with the full and complete cooperation of his son Benedick Bates and Bates's younger brother Martin, and includes more than one hundred interviews with people such as Michael Linnit and Rosalind Chatto.

Tristan Bates Theatre[link]

Bates and his family set up the Tristan Bates Theatre at the Actors' Centre in Covent Garden, in memory of his son, Tristan, who died at the age of 19.^[13] Tristan's twin brother, Benedick, is a vice-director.^[14]

Selected filmography[link]

Other projects and contributions[link]

• When Love Speaks (2002, EMI Classics)—"Sonnet 66" ("Tired with all these, for restful death I cry")

Awards[link]

• 2002 Best Actor Tony and Drama Desk, for Fortune's Fool
• 2000 Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award for Unexpected Man
• 1983 Variety Club Award for A Patriot for Me
• 1975 Variety Club Award for Otherwise Engaged
• 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)
• 1959 Clarence Derwent Award for A Long Day's Journey Into Night

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Alan Bates at the Internet Movie Database
• Alan Bates at the Internet Broadway Database
• Alan Bates at AllRovi
• Alan Bates at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• The Alan Bates Archive
• "Alan Bates". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8214917. Retrieved 3 September 2010. 

William Ernest Henley
Born	23 August 1849 Gloucester, England
Died	11 July 1903(1903-07-11) (aged 53)
Occupation	Poet, critic, and editor
Nationality	English
Education	The Crypt School, Gloucester
Period	c. 1870–1903
Notable work(s)	Invictus

William Ernest Henley (23 August 1849 – 11 July 1903) was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus".

Life and career[link]

Henley was born in Gloucester and was the eldest of a family of six children, five sons and a daughter. His father, William, was a bookseller and stationer who died in 1868 and was survived by his young children and creditors. His mother, Mary Morgan, was descended from the poet and critic, Joseph Warton. From 1861–67 Henley was a pupil at the Crypt Grammar School (founded 1539).

A Commission had attempted recently to revive the school by securing the brilliant and academically distinguished T. E. Brown (1830–1897) as headmaster. Brown's appointment was relatively brief (c.1857–63) but was a "revelation" for Henley because it introduced him to a poet and "man of genius—the first I'd ever seen". This was the start of a lifelong friendship and Henley wrote an admiring obituary to Brown in the New Review (December 1897): "He was singularly kind to me at a moment when I needed kindness even more than I needed encouragement".^[1]

From the age of 12 Henley suffered from tuberculosis of the bone which resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee during either 1865 or 1868–69.^[2] According to Robert Louis Stevenson's letters, the idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by his real-life friend Henley. Stevenson's stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, described Henley as "..a great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music; he had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet". In a letter to Henley after the publication of Treasure Island Stevenson wrote "I will now make a confession. It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver...the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound, was entirely taken from you".

Frequent illness often kept him from school, although the misfortunes of his father's business may also have contributed. In 1867, Henley passed the Oxford Local Schools Examination and soon afterwards moved to London where he attempted to establish himself as a journalist.^[3] However, his work over the next eight years was interrupted by long periods in hospital because his right foot was also diseased. Henley contested the diagnosis that a second amputation was the only way to save his life by becoming a patient of the pioneering surgeon Joseph Lister (1827–1912) at The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. After three years in hospital (1873–75), during which he wrote and published the poems collected as In Hospital, Henley was discharged. Lister's treatment had not effected a complete cure but enabled Henley to have a relatively active life for nearly 30 years.

On 22 January 1878 he married Hannah (Anna) Johnson Boyle (1855–1925), the youngest daughter of Edward Boyle, a mechanical engineer from Edinburgh and his wife, Mary Ann née Mackie.^[4]

His literary acquaintances also resulted in his sickly young daughter, Margaret Henley (born 4 September 1888), being immortalised by J. M. Barrie in his children's classic Peter Pan.^[5][6] Unable to speak clearly, the young Margaret referred to her friend Barrie as her "fwendy-wendy", resulting in the use of the name Wendy, which was coined for the book. Margaret never read the book; she died on 11 February 1894 at the age of 5 and was buried at the country estate of her father's friend, Harry Cockayne Cust, in Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire.^[5][6]

After his recovery, Henley earned a living in publishing. In 1889 he became editor of the Scots Observer, an Edinburgh journal similar to the old Saturday Review. It was transferred to London in 1891 as the National Observer and remained under Henley's editorship until 1893. Though, as Henley confessed, the paper had almost as many writers as readers, and its fame was confined mainly to the literary class, it was a lively and influential feature of the literary life of its time. Henley had an editor's gift of discerning talent, and the "Men of the Scots Observer", as Henley affectionately and characteristically termed his band of contributors, in most instances justified his insight. Charles Whibley was friends with Henley and assisted Henley edit the Scots Observer and also the National Observer. The journal's outlook was conservative and was often sympathetic to the growing imperialism of its time, and among other services to literature it published Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads.

Henley died in 1903 at the age of 53 at his home in Woking and his ashes interred in his daughter's grave in the churchyard at Cockayne Hatley in Bedfordshire.^[7]

Works[link]

Bust of Henley by Rodin

Henley's gravestone, Cockayne Hatley

Arguably his best-remembered work is the poem "Invictus", written in 1875. It is said that this was written as a demonstration of his resilience following the amputation of his foot due to tubercular infection. This passionate and defiant poem should be compared with his beautiful and contemplative acceptance of death and dying in the poem "Margaritae Sorori". The poems of In Hospital are also noteworthy as some of the earliest free verse written in England. With J.S. Farmer Henley edited a seven volume dictionary of Slang and its analogues which inspired his two translations into thieves' slang of ballades by Francois Villon.

In 1890, Henley published Views and Reviews, a volume of notable criticisms, which he described as "less a book than a mosaic of scraps and shreds recovered from the shot rubbish of some fourteen years of journalism". The criticisms, covering a wide range of authors (all English or French save Heinrich Heine and Leo Tolstoy) were remarkable for their insight. In 1892, he published a second volume of poetry, named after the first poem, "The Song of the Sword" but re-titled "London Voluntaries" after another section in the second edition (1893). Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that he had not received the same thrill of poetry so intimate and so deep since George Meredith's "Joy of Earth" and "Love in the Valley". "I did not guess you were so great a magician. These are new tunes; this is an undertone of the true Apollo. These are not verse; they are poetry". During 1892, Henley also published three plays written with Stevenson: Beau Austin, Deacon Brodie and Admiral Guinea. In 1895, Henley's poem, "Macaire", was published in a volume with the other plays. Deacon Brodie was produced in Edinburgh in 1884 and later in London. Herbert Beerbohm Tree produced Beau Austin at the Haymarket on 3 November 1890.

Henley's poem, "Pro Rege Nostro", became popular during the First World War as a piece of patriotic verse. It contains the following refrain:

What have I done for you, England, my England?

What is there I would not do, England my own?

The poem and its sentiments have since been parodied by many people^[who?] often unhappy with the jingoism they feel it expresses or the propagandistic use it is put to.^[opinion] "England, My England", a short story by D. H. Lawrence and also England, Their England the novel by A. G. Macdonell both use the phrase.

While incarcerated on Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela recited the poem "Invictus" to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self mastery.^[8][9] In the 2009 movie Invictus, produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, the poem is referenced several times. It becomes the central inspirational gift from Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman, to Springbok rugby team captain François Pienaar, played by Matt Damon, in advance of the post-apartheid Rugby World Cup hosted in 1995 by South Africa and won by the underdog Springboks.^[10]

The famous Finnish female writer Hella Wuolijoki has mentioned in her memoirs Enkä ollut vanki that the poem "Invictus" also inspired and encouraged her during her incarceration in Katajanokka/Skatudden prison in Helsinki at the end of World War II.^[11]

References[link]

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Henley, William Ernest". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Ernest Henley

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: William Ernest Henley

Wikisource has original works written by or about: William Ernest Henley

• Works by William Henley at Project Gutenberg
• Poetry Archive: 137 poems of William Ernest Henley

Jessica Tandy
Tandy and Hume Cronyn at the 1988 Emmy Awards
Born	Jessie Alice Tandy (1909-06-07)7 June 1909 Hackney, London, England, UK
Died	11 September 1994(1994-09-11) (aged 85) Easton, Connecticut, U.S.A.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1932–94
Spouse	Jack Hawkins (1932–1940) Hume Cronyn (1942–1994; her death)

Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy (June 7, 1909 - September 11, 1994) was an English-American stage and film actress.

She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among other roles, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films. Following the end of her marriage to the British actor Jack Hawkins, she moved to New York, where she met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn. He became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen.

She won the Tony Award for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948, sharing the prize with Katherine Cornell (who won for the female lead in Antony and Cleopatra) and Judith Anderson (for the latter's portrayal of Medea). Over the following three decades, her career continued sporadically and included a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's horror film, The Birds (1963), and a Tony Award-winning performance in The Gin Game (1977, playing in the two-hander play opposite Hume Cronyn). Along with Cronyn, she was a member of the original acting company of the Guthrie Theater.

In the mid 1980s she had a career revival. She appeared with Cronyn in the Broadway production of Foxfire in 1983 and its television adaptation four years later, winning both a Tony Award and an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Annie Nations. During these years, she appeared in films such as Cocoon (1985), also with Cronyn.

She became the oldest actress to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), for which she also won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). At the height of her success, she was named as one of People's "50 Most Beautiful People". She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1990, and continued working until shortly before her death.

Early life[link]

The youngest of three siblings, Tandy was born in Geldeston Road in Hackney, London.^[1] Her mother, Jessie Helen (née Horspool), was the head of a school for mentally handicapped children, and her father, Harry Tandy, was a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer.^[2] Her father died when Tandy was 12, and her mother subsequently taught evening courses to earn an income. Tandy was educated at Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington.

Acting career[link]

Tandy in Alfred Hitchcock Presents "The Glass Eye" (1957)

Tandy began her career at the age of 16 in London, establishing herself with performances opposite such actors as Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. She entered films in Britain, but after her marriage to Jack Hawkins failed, she moved to the United States. In 1942, she married Hume Cronyn and over the following years played supporting roles in several Hollywood films.

She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross (1944). She also appeared in The Valley of Decision (1945), The Green Years (1946, as Cronyn's daughter), Dragonwyck (1946) starring Gene Tierney and Vincent Price and Forever Amber (1947). She won a Tony Award for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948. After this (she lost the film role to actress Vivien Leigh), she concentrated on the stage, becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1952.

Over the next three decades, her film career continued sporadically, but included The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) opposite James Mason, The Light in the Forest (1958), and a role as a domineering mother in Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds (1963). She gained a Tony Award for her performance in The Gin Game (1977).

The beginning of the 1980s saw a resurgence in her film career, with character roles in The World According to Garp, Best Friends, Still of the Night (all 1982) and The Bostonians (1984). She and Cronyn were now working together more regularly on stage and television, including the films Cocoon (1985), *batteries not included (1987) and Cocoon: The Return (1988) and the Emmy Award winning television film Foxfire (1987, recreating her Tony winning Broadway role). However, it was her colourful performance in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), as an aging, stubborn Southern-Jewish matron, that earned her an Oscar.

She gained a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in the grassroots hit Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), and co-starred in The Story Lady (1991 telefilm, with daughter Tandy Cronyn), Used People (1992, as Shirley MacLaine's mother), television film To Dance with the White Dog (1993, with Cronyn), Nobody's Fool (1994), and Camilla (also 1994, with Cronyn). Camilla was to be her last performance, at the age of 84.

Other awards[link]

Tandy was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1990.

• 1979 - Sarah Siddons Award Chicago theatre
• 1986 - Drama Desk Special Award
• 1990 - National Medal of Arts
• 1991 - Women in Film Crystal Award^[3]
• 1994 - Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement shared with her husband, Hume Cronyn

Personal life[link]

Tandy's first marriage to British actor Jack Hawkins in 1932, produced one daughter, Susan Hawkins (born 1934). The couple divorced in 1940. Tandy married her second husband, Canadian actor Hume Cronyn, in 1942; the marriage lasted until her death in 1994. They had two children, daughter Tandy Cronyn (an actress who would co-star with her mother in the NBC telefilm The Story Lady), and son Christopher.

Death[link]

Prior to moving to Connecticut, she lived with Cronyn for many years in nearby Pound Ridge, New York and they remained together until her death in 1994. In 1990, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer which she battled for four years, during which she continued to work. She had previously been treated for angina and glaucoma. She died at home on 11 September 1994 in Easton, Connecticut. Her ashes were given to her family.

Work[link]

Broadway credits[link]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jessica Tandy

• Jessica Tandy at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jessica Tandy at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Jessica Tandy at the Internet Movie Database
• Jessica Tandy at Find a Grave
• Movie Magazine International Tribute
• Lifetime Honors - National Medal of Arts
• Obituary New York Times 12 September 1994