| Nigel Davenport | |
| Birth Name: | Arthur Nigel Davenport |
| Birth Date: | 23 May 1928 |
| Birth Place: | Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Death Place: | Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 3, including Jack Davenport |
| Yearsactive: | 1953–2003 |
Arthur Nigel Davenport (23 May 1928 – 25 October 2013) was an English stage, television and film actor,[1] best known as the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Birkenhead in the Academy Award-winning films A Man for All Seasons and Chariots of Fire, respectively.
Davenport was born in Great Shelford,[2] Cambridgeshire, son of Arthur Henry Davenport and Katherine Lucy (née Meiklejohn).[3] His father was an engineer, educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge before being employed as an engineer for the Midland Railway, and was later a lecturer in engineering, a Fellow, and the bursar at his alma mater, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge;[1] [4] Arthur Davenport had served for four years in the Royal Engineers during World War I, and was awarded a Military Cross. Nigel's great-uncle, Major Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn, was awarded a Victoria Cross during the Second Boer War.[5]
He grew up in an academic family and was educated at St Peter's School, Seaford, Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford.[1] [6] Originally he chose to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics but switched to English on the advice of one of his tutors.[7]
In the 1950s Davenport undertook National Service with the Royal Army Service Corps as a disc jockey on the British Forces Broadcasting Service in Hamburg.[5]
Davenport first appeared on stage at the Savoy Theatre and then with the Shakespeare Memorial Company, before joining the English Stage Company, one of its earliest members, at the Royal Court Theatre in 1956.[8] He began appearing in British film and television productions in supporting roles, including a walk-on in Tony Richardson's film, Look Back in Anger (1959). Subsequent roles included a theatre manager opposite Laurence Olivier in the film version of The Entertainer and a policeman in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (both 1960).[8] In the 1962 last episode of the first season of the TV series The Saint, titled "The Charitable Countess", with Roger Moore as Simon Templar and Patricia Donahue as Countess Rovagna, Davenport played a supporting role as the Countess's confidant, Aldo Petri. Davenport appeared again in The Saint in season 3, episode 16 (titled "The Rhine Maiden") as Charles Voyson.
He made an impression as Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk in A Man for All Seasons (1966),[9] co-starred with Michael Caine in the war movie Play Dirty,[7] and had a major role as Lord Bothwell in Mary, Queen of Scots.[9] In 1972, he appeared as George Adamson, opposite Susan Hampshire in Living Free,[7] the sequel to Born Free.[6]
During the production of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Davenport read the lines of HAL 9000 off-camera during the computer's dialogues with actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. However, Kubrick thought that Davenport's English accent was too distracting, and after a few weeks he dismissed him, so Canadian actor Douglas Rain was ultimately chosen for the role.[10] Davenport took the leading role in the off-beat Phase IV (1974), which failed to find an audience. In 1979, he portrayed King George III in Prince Regent.[1]
He appeared as Ebenezer Scrooge's grudging father Silas in the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol (1984), and played opposite Michael Caine again in the 1988 Sherlock Holmes spoof Without A Clue, which was Davenport's second-to-last feature film.
He portrayed The Duke of Holdernesse in a 1993 BBC Radio dramatisation of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Priory School".[11]
In February 1997, Davenport was the subject of This Is Your Life when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at David Nicholson's stables near Cheltenham.
He was president of Equity from 1986 to 1992.[1] [9]
Davenport was married twice, first to Helena Margaret White[1] whom he met while he was studying at Oxford University. They married in 1951 and had a daughter, Laura, and a son, Hugo.[1] [6] His second wife was actress Maria Aitken[1] with whom he had a second son, Jack, also an actor, best known for appearing in Pirates of the Caribbean.[12] [6] According to Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Jack was cast as the James Norrington character, partly because of Nigel's involvement in A High Wind in Jamaica.
| Year | Title | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Look Back in Anger | 1st Commercial Traveller | |
| 1960 | Peeping Tom | Det. Sgt. Miller | |
| The Entertainer | Theatre Manager | ||
| 1962 | Mix Me a Person | Juke's Stepfather | |
| 1963 | Ladies Who Do | Mr Strang | |
| Bitter Harvest | Police Inspector | ||
| 1964 | The Third Secret | Lew Harding | |
| 1965 | A High Wind in Jamaica | Mr Thornton | |
| Sands of the Kalahari | Sturdevant | ||
| 1966 | A Man for All Seasons | Duke of Norfolk | |
| Where the Spies Are | Parkington | ||
| 1968 | Play Dirty | Captain Cyril Leech | |
| 1969 | The Virgin Soldiers | Sergeant Driscoll | |
| Sinful Davey | Richardson | ||
| The Royal Hunt of the Sun | Hernando de Soto | ||
| 1970 | No Blade of Grass | John Custance | |
| The Mind of Mr. Soames | Dr Maitland | ||
| 1971 | Villain | Bob Matthews | |
| Mary, Queen of Scots | Lord Bothwell | ||
| The Last Valley | Gruber | ||
| 1972 | Living Free | George Adamson | |
| 1973 | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Lord Harry Wotton | |
| 1974 | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Van Helsing | |
| Phase IV | Dr Ernest D. Hubbs | ||
| 1975 | The Regent's Wife | Álvaro Mesía | |
| 1976 | Death of a Snowman | Lt. Ben Deel | |
| 1977 | The Island of Dr. Moreau | Montgomery | |
| Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers | Sgt. Driscoll | ||
| 1979 | The Omega Connection | Arthur Minton | |
| Zulu Dawn | Colonel Hamilton-Brown | [13] | |
| 1980 | Cry of the Innocent | Gray Harrison Hunt | |
| 1981 | Chariots of Fire | Lord Birkenhead | |
| Nighthawks | Peter Hartman | ||
| 1984 | A Christmas Carol | Silas Scrooge | |
| Major Jack Downing | |||
| 1986 | Caravaggio | Giustiniani | |
| 1988 | Without a Clue | Lord Smithwick | |
| 1997 | The Opium War | ||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957–1958 | The Adventures of Robin Hood | St Peter Marston, Claude the Seneschal, Barty and others | 7 episodes | |
| 1957 | Mister Charlesworth | Sergeant Spence | 6 episodes | |
| 1958 | Big Guns | Sergeant Spence | 6 episodes | |
| 1962 | Sir Francis Drake | Miguel Cervantes | 1 episode | |
| 1962-1965 | The Saint | Aldo Petri/Charles Voyson | 2 episodes | [14] |
| 1963 | The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre | Dino Stefano/Larry Mason | 2 episodes: NB: The Verdict | |
| 1964 | Madame Bovary | Rodolphe | ||
| 1966–68 | The Avengers | Lord Barnes / Robertson | ||
| 1969 | The Name of the Game | David Windom | 1 episode | |
| 1972 | The Edwardians | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | 1 episode | |
| 1974 | South Riding | Robert Carne | 11 episodes | |
| 1975 | Oil Strike North | Jim Fraser | 13 episodes | |
| 1979 | Prince Regent | King George III | 8 episodes, TV mini-series | |
| 1981 | Masada | Sen. Mucianus | Part 1 | |
| A Midsummer Night's Dream | Theseus | TV movie | [15] | |
| 1982 | Minder | Ray | ||
| Bird of Prey | Charles Bridgnorth | |||
| 1982–83 | Don't Rock The Boat | Jack Hoxton | 12 episodes, TV mini-series | |
| 1985–1990 | Howards' Way | Sir Edward Frere | 29 episodes | |
| 1986 | Ladies in Charge | Count Litvinoff | 1 episode | |
| Lord Ismay | ||||
| 1991 | Trainer | James Brant | 13 episodes | |
| 1993 | Keeping Up Appearances | The Commodore | 1 episode: The Commodore | |
| 1994 | Woof! | Mr. Wellesby | 1 episode | |
| 1996 | The Treasure Seekers | Lord Blackstock | ||
| 2000 | The Adventures of Captain Pugwash | Narrator | 26 episodes | |
| 2000 | David Copperfield | Dan Peggotty | TV movie | |
| Midsomer Murders | William Smithers | 1 episode | ||
| Longitude | Sir Charles Pelham | TV movie |