- Nigel Hawthorne
-
Nigel Hawthorne CBE 
as the Duke of Clarence in the 1995 film Richard IIIBorn 5 April 1929[1]
Coventry, Warwickshire, EnglandDied 26 December 2001 (aged 72)[1]
Hertfordshire, EnglandOccupation Actor Years active 1950–2001 Partner Trevor Bentham Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne, CBE (5 April 1929 – 26 December 2001) was an English actor, perhaps best remembered for his role as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role he won four BAFTA Awards during the 1980s in the 'Best Light Entertainment Performance' Category. In the 1990s he won two more BAFTAs, one as Best TV Actor for The Fragile Heart, and one as Best Film Actor for The Madness of King George. His role in the latter also garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Contents
Early life
Hawthorne was born in Coventry, England, the son of Agnes Rosemary (née Rice) and Charles Barnard Hawthorne, a physician.[2] He grew up in South Africa, where he was educated at St George's Grammar School, Cape Town and Christian Brothers College.[3] He enrolled at the University of Cape Town but withdrew and returned to the United Kingdom in the 1950s to pursue a career in acting.[3]
Career
Hawthorne made his professional stage debut in 1950, playing Archie Fellows in a Cape Town production of The Shop at Sly Corner.[3]
In a long and varied career, which began with an advert for Mackeson stout and a bit part in Dad's Army, his most famous roles were as Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary of the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in the television series Yes Minister (and Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister), for which he won four BAFTA awards, and as King George III in Alan Bennett's stage play The Madness of George III (Olivier Award) and the film version entitled The Madness of King George, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Hawthorne was also a voice actor, and lent his voice to two Disney films. In 1985, he voiced Fflewddur Fflam in The Black Cauldron, and in 1999, he voiced Professor Porter in Tarzan.
Honours
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1987, and was knighted in 1999.[1]
Personal life and death
An intensely private individual, he was upset at having been involuntarily "outed" as gay in 1995 in the publicity surrounding the Academy Awards, but he did attend the ceremony with his long-time partner Trevor Bentham, speaking openly about being gay in interviews and his autobiography, Straight Face, which was published posthumously.[4]
Hawthorne had several operations for pancreatic cancer, although his immediate cause of death was from a heart attack, aged 72. He was survived by his partner, Trevor Bentham, and buried at the Parish Church of Thundridge near Ware, Hertfordshire.
Filmography
Television
- Dad's Army (1969) … Angry Man
- Mrs Wilson's Diary (1969) … Roy Jenkins
- Alma Mater (1971) … Major
- The Floater (1975)
- Eleanor Marx: Tussy (1977)
- Eleanor Marx: Eleanor (1977)
- Marie Curie (1977) … Pierre Curie
- Destiny (1978)
- Holocaust (1978) … General Otto Ohlendorf
- Warrior Queen (1978) … Catus Decianus
- Edward and Mrs. Simpson (1978) … Walter Monkton
- Going Straight (1978) … Worm Wellings
- Thomas & Sarah (1979) … Wilson
- The Knowledge (1979) … Mr. Burgess
- Yes Minister (1980–1984) … Sir Humphrey Appleby, Permanent Secretary
- The Tempest (1980) … Stephano
- A Tale of Two Cities (1980) … Mr. C. J. Stryver
- Jessie (1980) … Mr. Edmonds
- Jukes of Piccadilly (1980) … Brinsley Jukes
- A Brush with Mr. Porter on the Road to Eldorado (1981)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982) … Magistrate at Esmeralda's trial
- A Woman Called Golda (1982) … King Abdullah
- The World Cup: A Captain's Tale (1982)
- The Critic (1982)
- The Barchester Chronicles (1982) … Archdeacon Grantly
- The Tartuffe or Imposter (1983) … Orgon
- Pope John Paul II (1984) … Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski
- The House (1984)
- Mapp & Lucia (1985) … Georgie Pillson
- Jenny's War (1985) … Colonel
- Yes, Prime Minister (1986–1988) … Sir Humphrey Appleby, Cabinet Secretary
- Spirit of Man (1989) … Rev. Jonathan Guerdon (segment "From Sleep and Shadow")
- Relatively Speaking (1990) … Philip Carter
- The Trials of Oz (1991) … Brian Leary
- Flea Bites (1991) … Kryst
- Inside (1996) … Colonel Kruger
- The Fragile Heart (1996) … Edgar Pascoe
- Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone (1997) … David Livingstone
- Animal Stories (1998–2000) … Narrator
- Victoria & Albert (2001) … William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
- Call Me Claus (2001) … St. Nick
Film
- Young Winston (1972) (uncredited) … Boer sentry
- S*P*Y*S (1974) … Croft
- The Hiding Place (1975) … Pastor De Ruiter
- Watership Down (1978) (voice) … Campion
- Sweeney 2 (1978) … Dilke
- The Sailor's Return (1978) … Mr. Fosse
- History of the World: Part I (1981) … Citizen official
- Memoirs of a Survivor (1981) … Victorian father
- Firefox (1982) … Pyotr Baranovich
- The Plague Dogs (1982) (voice) … Dr. Robert Boycott
- Gandhi (1982) … Kinnoch
- Dead On Time (1983) ... Doctor
- Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) … Man walking by Crimson Insurance building as anchor is raised
- The Chain (1984) … Mr. Thorn
- The Black Cauldron (1985) (voice) … Fflewddur Fflam
- Turtle Diary (1985) … The publisher
- Rarg (1988) (voice)
- King of the Wind (1989) … Achmet
- En Håndfull tid (1989) … Ted Walker
- Freddie as F.R.O.7 (1992) (voice) … Brigadier G
- Demolition Man (1993) … Dr. Raymond Cocteau
- The Madness of King George (1994) … George III
- Richard III (1995) … George, Duke of Clarence
- Twelfth Night (1996) … Malvolio
- Murder in Mind (1997) … Dr. Ellis
- Amistad (1997) … Martin Van Buren
- The Object of My Affection (1998) … Rodney Fraser
- Madeline (1998) … Lord Covington (segment "Lord Cucuface")
- At Sachem Farm (1998) … Uncle Cullen
- The Winslow Boy (1999) … Arthur Winslow
- The Big Brass Ring (1999) … Kim Mennaker
- Tarzan (1999) (voice) … Professor Porter
- A Reasonable Man (1999) … Judge Wendon
- The Clandestine Marriage (1999) … Lord Ogleby
References
- ^ a b c Barker, Dennis; "Sir Nigel Hawthorne" Guardian.co.uk, 27 December 2001 (Retrieved: 18 August 2009)
- ^ "Nigel Hawthorne Biography (1929–2001)" FilmReference.com (Retrieved: 18 August 2009)
- ^ a b c "Biography for Nigel Hawthorne" TCM.com (Retrieved: 18 August 2009)
- ^ Hubbard, Michael; "Straight Face by Nigel Hawthorne" MusicOMH.com (Retrieved: 18 August 2009)
External links
- Nigel Hawthorne at the Internet Movie Database
- Nigel Hawthorne at the Internet Broadway Database
- Nigel Hawthorne at Find a Grave
Awards for Nigel Hawthorne BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (1980–1999) John Hurt (1980) · Burt Lancaster (1981) · Ben Kingsley (1982) · Michael Caine / Dustin Hoffman (1983) · Haing S. Ngor (1984) · William Hurt (1985) · Bob Hoskins (1986) · Sean Connery (1987) · John Cleese (1988) · Daniel Day-Lewis (1989) · Philippe Noiret (1990) · Anthony Hopkins (1991) · Robert Downey, Jr. (1992) · Anthony Hopkins (1993) · Hugh Grant (1994) · Nigel Hawthorne (1995) · Geoffrey Rush (1996) · Robert Carlyle (1997) · Roberto Benigni (1998) · Kevin Spacey (1999)
Complete list · (1952–1959) · (1960–1979) · (1980–1999) · (2000–2019) British Academy Television Award for Best Actor (1980–1999) Alec Guinness (1980) · Denholm Elliott (1981) · Anthony Andrews (1982) · Alec Guinness (1983) · Alan Bates (1984) · Tim Pigott-Smith (1985) · Bob Peck (1986) · Michael Gambon (1987) · David Jason (1988) · Ray McAnally (1989) · John Thaw (1990) · Ian Richardson (1991) · Robert Lindsay (1992) · John Thaw (1993) · Robbie Coltrane (1994) · Robbie Coltrane (1995) · Robbie Coltrane (1996) · Nigel Hawthorne (1997) · Simon Russell Beale (1998) · Tom Courtenay (1999)
Complete list · (1955–1959) · (1960–1979) · (1980–1999) · (2000–2019) Empire Award for Best Actor Nigel Hawthorne (1996) · Morgan Freeman (1997) · Kevin Spacey (1998) · Tom Hanks (1999) · Pierce Brosnan (2000) · Russell Crowe (2001) · Elijah Wood (2002) · Tom Cruise (2003) · Johnny Depp (2004) · Matt Damon (2005) · Johnny Depp (2006) · Daniel Craig (2007) · James McAvoy (2008) · Christian Bale (2009) · Christoph Waltz (2010) · Colin Firth (2011)Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor (1985–2000) Antony Sher (1985) · Albert Finney (1986) · Michael Gambon (1987) · Oliver Ford Davies (1990) · Ian McKellen (1991) · Nigel Hawthorne (1992) · Robert Stephens (1993) · Mark Rylance (1994) · David Bamber (1995) · Alex Jennings (1996) · Antony Sher (1997) · Ian Holm (1998) · Kevin Spacey (1999) · Henry Goodman (2000)
Complete list · (1985–2000) · (2001–2025) Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (1976–2000) John Wood (1976) · Al Pacino (1977) · Barnard Hughes (1978) · Tom Conti (1979) · John Rubinstein (1980) · Ian McKellen (1981) · Roger Rees (1982) · Harvey Fierstein (1983) · Jeremy Irons (1984) · Derek Jacobi (1985) · Judd Hirsch (1986) · James Earl Jones (1987) · Ron Silver (1988) · Philip Bosco (1989) · Robert Morse (1990) · Nigel Hawthorne (1991) · Judd Hirsch (1992) · Ron Leibman (1993) · Stephen Spinella (1994) · Ralph Fiennes (1995) · George Grizzard (1996) · Christopher Plummer (1997) · Anthony LaPaglia (1998) · Brian Dennehy (1999) · Stephen Dillane (2000)
Complete list · (1947–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025) Categories:- 1929 births
- 2001 deaths
- Actors awarded British knighthoods
- BAFTA winners (people)
- Best Actor BAFTA Award winners
- Best Actor Empire Award winners
- Cancer deaths in England
- Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
- Deaths from myocardial infarction
- Deaths from pancreatic cancer
- English film actors
- English stage actors
- English television actors
- English voice actors
- Gay actors
- Knights Bachelor
- LGBT people from England
- LGBT television personalities
- Laurence Olivier Award winners
- People from Coventry
- People from Hertfordshire
- Royal National Theatre Company members
- Royal Shakespeare Company members
- Shakespearean actors
- Tony Award winners
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
