Benjamin Whitrow

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Benjamin John Whitrow (born February 17, 1937 in Oxford , England , † September 28, 2017 ) was a British theater and film actor .

Life

Benjamin Whitrow was born in 1937 in Oxford, the second son of Philip Whitrow, a teacher, and his wife Mary Alexandra (née Flaunders) . After attending the Dragon School in Oxford and the Tonbridge School in Tonbridge , Whitrow trained as a theater actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art . From 1956 to 1958 he did his military service with the King's Dragoon Guards and was also stationed in Malaysia . In 1959 he made his theatrical debut at the Empire Theater in Belfast as Hector Hushabye in George Bernard Shaw's House of Heart Death . In the following years he was also seen on the theater stage in Liverpool , Worthing , Bristol and the West End of London .

In the late 1960s he joined the National Theater Company, with whom he performed regularly at the Old Vic Theater in London until the mid-1970s in plays such as King Oedipus , The Merchant of Venice , The School for Scandal and Was ihr wollt . Laurence Olivier , who ran the National Theater Company at the time, attested Whitrow that he “never gave a bad performance”. In 1981 Whitrow became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company .

From 1963 he was seen regularly in British television films and series, including four episodes of the crime series Die Füchse in 1978 and one of the series Detective Agency Blunt (1983) based on short stories by Agatha Christie . From 1979 he also played supporting roles in a number of movies, such as in Hawks - The Falcons (1988), Restoration - Time of Sensuality (1995) and The Saint - The Man Without a Name (1997). He gained international fame as the cynical and humorous Mr. Bennet in the BBC television series Pride and Prejudice (1995) alongside Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth . For this role, Whitrow received a BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actor.

In the 2003 Emmy- winning two-part television film Henry VIII , he played the historical character of Thomas Boleyn and thus the father of Anne Boleyn, played by Helena Bonham Carter . In his last film role, he starred in 2017 as the conservative politician Samuel Hoare alongside the multi-award-winning Gary Oldman in the drama The Darkest Hour , which recounts Winston Churchill's early years as Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II . Whitrow said goodbye to the stage in 2015 at the Tobacco Factory Theater in Bristol with a performance of the comedy The School for Scandal .

In addition to two children, Hannah and Tom, from a marriage to the nurse Catherine Cook, Whitrow had a son, the actress Celia Imrie , the actor Angus Imrie (* 1994).

Filmography (selection)

Stage appearances (selection)

  • 1959: Heartbreak House - as Hecktor Hushabye; Empire, Belfast
  • 1967: Love for Love - National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater , London
  • 1967: Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) - National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1968: Volpone - as Peregrine; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1968: King Oedipus (Οἰδίπους Τύραννος) - National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1968: The White Devil - as Camillo; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1969: Home and Beauty - as Frederick Lowndes; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1970: The Merchant of Venice (The Merchant of Venice) - as Doge of Venice; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1970: The Idiot (Идиот) - as Radomski; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1971: The School for Scandal - as Snake; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1971: Amphitryon 38 - New Theater, New York City
  • 1971: The Captain of Koepenick - National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1971: The Merchant of Venice - as Arragon; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1972: The Front Page - as Bensinger, National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1972: Richard II (The Tragedy of King Richard the Second) - as Buschy; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1973: What you want (Twelfth Night) - as Malvolio; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1974: The great day or Figaro's wedding (La Folle journée ou le Mariage de Figaro) - as Dr. Bartholo; National Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1975: The Importance of Being Earnest - as Cannoon Chasuble; Greenwich Theater, London
  • 1978: Ten Times Table - as Donald; Globe Theater , London
  • 1979: What the Butler Saw - as Dr. Prentice; Prospect Theater Company, Old Vic Theater, London
  • 1980: Mrs. Cheney's End (The Last of Mrs. Cheyney) - Chichester Festival, Chichester
  • 2000: Henry IV (2nd part) - Royal Shakespeare Theater , Stratford-upon-Avon
  • 2000: The Rivals - as Sir Anthony Absolute; Royal Shakespeare Company Theater, Stratford-upon-Avon

Awards

  • 1996: Nomination for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for Pride and Prejudice

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Michael Coveney: Benjamin Whitrow obituary . In: The Guardian , September 29, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b Michael Quinn: Obituary: Benjamin Whitrow . In: The Stage , October 11, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Benjamin Whitrow has never given a bad performance." quoted after Michael Coveney: Benjamin Whitrow obituary . In: The Guardian , September 29, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Whitrow, Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Whitrow, Benjamin John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Oxford , England
DATE OF DEATH 28th September 2017