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| Birth Name(s) : Ian Richardson |
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Full Ian Richardson Biography
Ian William Richardson CBE (7 April 1934 – 9 February 2007) was a Scottish actor best known for playing the machiavellian conservative politician Francis Urquhart in the House of Cards trilogy for the BBC. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1989.
Richardson was born in Edinburgh, the son of Margaret (née Drummond) and John Richardson. He was educated at Balgreen Primary School and Tynecastle High School in the city, prior to training at the College of Dramatic Arts in Glasgow. After a period at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre (at what is now the Old Rep), he subsequently appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), of which he was a founding member, from 1960 to 1975.
Richardson's claim to greatness lies in his stage performances. His first engagement after training was with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where his performance of Hamlet led to an offer of a place with the RSC. He was a versatile member of the company for more than fifteen years, playing villainy, comedy and tragedy to equal effect. He played the part of Jean-Paul Marat in Peter Brook's production of Marat/Sade in London and on Broadway in 1964 and would return to the part for the 1967 film version. His roles for the RSC included Pericles in Terry Hands's 1969 production. In 1974, he played Iachimo in John Barton's RSC production of Cymbeline. It was, however, for Shakespeare's great historical roles that he will be chiefly remembered. His Richard II (alternating the parts of the king and Bolingbroke with Richard Pasco) in 1974, and repeated in New York and London in the following year, set a standard unequalled for a generation: more than thirty years later notable performances of King Richard were still being compared with the production.
On leaving the RSC he played Professor Henry Higgins in the 1976 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady and received a Tony nomination. He also appeared on Broadway in 1981 in the original production of Edward Albee's play Lolita, an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's book, but this is not regarded as having been a success.
He played one musical role on film - the Priest in Man of La Mancha, the 1972 screen version of the hit Broadway musical. In 1987, he played a variation on this role, when he portrayed the Bishop of Motopo in the non-musical telefilm Monsignor Quixote, based on Graham Greene's modernized take on the Quixote story.
He made many film appearances, including Brazil (1985), Dark City (1998), Polonius in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), Martin Landau's butler in the Halle Berry film B*A*P*S (1997), Cruella de Vil's solicitor, Mr. Torte, in the live action movie 102 Dalmatians (2000) and From Hell (2001). He also played the Judge in the family-based 2005 film, The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby. His final film appearance was as Judge Langlois in Becoming Jane, released shortly after his death.
Richardson's most famous and most acclaimed role was as machievellian politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's adaptation of Michael Dobb's House of Cards Trilogy. He won the BAFTA Best Television Actor Award for his portrayal in the first series, House of Cards (1990), and was nominated for both of the sequels To Play the King (1993) and The Final Cut (1995). He also received another BAFTA film nomination for his role as the 1992 film An Ungentlemanly Act, and played another corrupt politician, Michael Spearpoint, British Director of the European Economic Community in the ambitious satirical series The Gravy Train and The Gravy Train Goes East.
In 2005, he took on the role of a curiously detached Chancellor in the highly successful TV drama Bleak House. In that year he appeared in ITV's main Christmas drama 'The Booze Cruise 2', playing Marcus Foster, a slimy upper class businessman forced to spend time with 'the lower classes'. He returned to this role for a sequel the following Easter. In June 2006 he was made an honorary Doctor of the University of Stirling. The honour was conferred on him by the university's chancellor, fellow actor Dame Diana Rigg. In December 2006, Richardson starred in Sky One's two-part adaptation of the Terry Pratchett novel Hogfather. He voiced the main character of the novel, Death, the Grim Reaper who steps in to take over the role of the Father Christmas-like Hogfather. The DVD of that miniseries, released shortly after his death, opens with a dedication to his memory.
He was also familiar to American television viewers as the man in the Rolls-Royce who asks "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" in the commercials for Grey Poupon Dijon mustard. During the last fifteen years of his life Richardson appeared five times on television acting opposite his son, Miles Richardson, though this was usually with one or other in a minor role. In ITV's Marple, an uncredited Miles played Ian Richardson's son.
He died suddenly on the morning of February 9, 2007, aged 72. According to his agent, he had not been ill and had in fact been due to start filming an episode of Midsomer Murders the following week. He is survived by his wife, Maroussia Frank, also an actor, and two sons, one of whom, Miles, is an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company. |
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