Paul Eddington

Paul Eddington, CBE (born June 18, 1927 in London as Paul Clark-Eddington , † November 4, 1995 ibid) was a British actor .

Life

Eddington, who came from an impoverished Quaker family, left school at the age of 17 and initially worked as a window dresser for a supermarket. In addition, he took on stage roles in performances by an amateur theater group. Eventually he turned completely to acting and got a job as an actor with the troop support, the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) . When it became known that Eddington was a staunch pacifist and conscientious objector , he had to leave ENSA.

theatre

In 1951 he finally attended a professional drama school, the renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, for a year . In the following years engagements took him to smaller theater groups such as the Birmingham Repertory Company led by Sir Barry Jackson and to Sheffield. There he met his colleague Patricia Scott , whom he married on April 28, 1952 . Eddington continued to focus on stage work and played medium and large roles in productions of Shakespeare , Shaw and Coward . In 1961 he finally made his debut in London's West End as a rabbi in the comedy The 10th Man at the Comedy Theater .

Although Eddington made a name for himself as a performer of comic and serious roles alike, his acting career gradually stagnated, and he was mostly satisfied with supporting roles. In 1962 he played a. a. with the Bristol Old Vic Company, where he played for some time alongside John Gielgud , who had a decisive influence on his work.

watch TV

In 1956 Paul Eddington made his television debut in the youth series The Adventures of Robin Hood . In a total of 39 episodes of the series, he played changing characters, before he took on one of the permanent roles of the series for two seasons with Will Scarlett in 1959 . But even in this medium, he was only granted supporting roles for many years, such as alongside Richard Attenborough in the thriller Death is late , in the Edgar Wallace film adaptation The Man Who Was Nobody , alongside Christopher Lee in the horror film The Devil's Bride and as Brutus in the history series The Spread of the Eagle . He also made numerous guest appearances in popular television series such as Ivanhoe (with Roger Moore in the title role), Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone , Catweazle , Secret Mission for John Drake and Number 6 .

Artistic breakthrough

Eddington only achieved his artistic breakthrough in his mid-forties. In 1974 he starred alongside Richard Briers in the West End of London in a comedy by Alan Ayckbourn ( Absurd Person Singular ). Among the audience was BBC producer John Howard Davies , who was looking for actors for a new comedy series with a humor similar to Ayckbourn's. The Good Life was about a young couple who dropped out in the idyllic allotment garden in the London suburb of Surbiton . Briers played the main role of Tom Good , Eddington played the buffo part of neighbor Jerry Leadbetter . Although the character was initially only created for a small role, it became a fixture in the popular series and helped Eddington to greater popularity.

Yes, Minister!

After The Good Life was discontinued , Eddington landed a role on the BBC politics sitcom Yes, Minister of the Whimsical Political Actions in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs . Eddington initially wanted to take on the role of Secretary of State Sir Humphrey Appleby , who subtly asserts the self-interests of the civil servants in every episode, but eventually embodied the main role of the naive and enthusiastic Minister James Hacker . His counterpart in this political version of Jeeves & Wooster mimed Nigel Hawthorne . The series was hugely successful with audiences and garnered praise not only from professional critics but also from leading politicians such as Margaret Thatcher . In 1986 a sequel was filmed under the title Yes, Prime Minister , in which James Hacker , as the British head of government, was finally able to realize his own projects against the will of Sir Humphrey. Both Eddington and Hawthorne were awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1987 for their artistic work .

In the last years of his life, Eddington devoted himself more to the theater and seldom took on roles in film and television, for example in the television thriller Murder in the Vicarage (with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple ) and in the drama The Last Days of Innocence .
Instead, he performed on stages in England and Australia and received the London Critics' Circle Theater Award for Best Actor for his performance in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land . Eddington also showed social commitment and, as chairman of the International Committee for Artists' Freedom, collected money for theater productions by dissidents in numerous countries.

Sickness and death

While working on Yes, Minister , Eddington's health deteriorated. The mid- 80s was mycosis fungoides , a form of skin cancer diagnosed. Despite chemotherapy and subsequent heart problems, Eddington continued filming and continued to take on theater roles. Shortly before his death, he gave a detailed interview to the television journalist Jeremy Isaacs in the Face to Face series , in which he also cited his cancer as the reason for his rare appearances in film and television: While close-ups would have clearly shown the traces of the disease , he could cover up his unstable health on stage. Eddington's last television appearance in an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV (with Ronald Pickup in the title role) first aired just ten days before his death. He died on November 4, 1995 at the age of 68.

In 1995 Eddington's memoir was published under the title So Far, So Good . In 2001 the BBC broadcast the half-hour portrait Paul Eddington: A Life Well Lived in honor of the actor , in which u. a. Richard Briers, Margaret Thatcher and the Yes, Minister co-stars Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds shared their memories of Eddington.

Filmography (selection)

• 1956: The Secret of the Forest
• 1956-1960: The Adventures of Robin Hood ( The Adventures of Robin Hood , television series, 64 episodes)
• 1958: The Diary of Samuel Pepys (TV series, 8 episodes)
• 1959: Death is Belated (Jet Storm)
• 1960: The Man Who Was Nobody
• 1963: The Spread of the Eagle
• 1968: The Devil (The Devil Rides Out)
• 1971: Catweazle (TV series, episode The Heavenly Twins )
• 1972: The Amazing Mr. Blunden
• 1973: Baxter and the Bad Mother (Baxter!)
• 1974: The Specialists ( Special Branch ; TV series, 11 episodes)
• 1975–1978: The Good Life (TV series, 30 episodes)
• 1980–1984: Yes, Minister (TV series, 22 episodes)
• 1982–1983: Let There Be Love (TV series, 12 episodes)
• 1986–1987: Yes, Prime Minister ( Yes, Prime Minister ; television series, 16 episodes)
• 1986: Miss Marple - Murder at the Vicarage ( The Murder at the Vicarage , TV movie)
• 1992: The Last Days of Innocence ( The Camomile Lawn ; TV miniseries, 4 episodes)
• 1995: Henry IV. (TV movie)

literature

• Memoirs: So Far, So Good , London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Web links

• Paul Eddington in the Internet Movie Database (English)