Tony Beckley

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Derek Anthony "Tony" Beckley (born October 7, 1929 in Southampton , † April 19, 1980 in Los Angeles ) was an English actor . He often embodied negative characters or psychopaths.

Childhood and youth

Beckley, who was born out of wedlock, never met his father. His mother, Beatrice Michell, was a stewardess and worked on the liner ships RMS Mauretania and RMS Aquitania . Because of her job, she was rarely at home, so Beckley was mainly cared for by another woman whom he referred to as his "aunt".

At the age of five he moved to Portsmouth with his mother and at the beginning of World War II he was sent to boarding school (Winton House) in Winchester . At school he discovered his interest in acting. A performance by the local ensemble in Portsmouth of Emlyn Williams' "The Corn is Green" left Beckley enthusiastic and determined to become an actor - to the chagrin of his mother, who wanted her son to have a "safe" civil service.

He left school at 16 to pursue an acting career. His first theater job also involved making tea and cleaning the stage. Beckley did this for two or three months and then moved to London . There he made his way through doing odd jobs as a waiter and in an ice cream factory. In his spare time he often saw plays at the New Theater with well-known actors such as Laurence Olivier , Ralph Richardson and Alec Guinness .

Shortly before his 18th birthday, Beckley enlisted in the Royal Navy and spent two years as a seaman aboard the destroyer HMS Scorpion . There he found time to prepare for the entrance exam to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He was accepted and received a financial grant as an ex-Navy sailor. During his two year theater training, Beckley made friends with actress Sheila Hancock and playwright Charles Laurence.

Career

After completing his acting training, Beckley first played for various small-town ensembles. By joining a theater company near London, there was finally an opportunity to work for television. This was followed by guest roles in popular television series such as Sergeant Cork , The Saint ( Simon Templar ) and Z-Cars, as well as a regular contribution to the novel satirical program Dig This Rhubarb . 1965 Beckley got his first film role as Ned Poins in Orson Welles ' Chimes at Midnight . He then starred in several Peter Collinson films , such as The Penthouse (1967), The Long Day's Dying (1968) and The Italian Job (1969).

Beckley's greatest film role was that of the psychotic Kenny Wemys in The Fiend (1972). In his last film, he played another psychopath, Curt Duncan in When a Stranger Calls . He has also appeared in the films The Lost Continent (1968), Get Carter (1971), Assault (1971), Sitting Target (1972), Gold (1974), and Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978).

On television, he has guest roles on the British series Manhunt , Callan , Jason King and The Specialists (Special Branch). Perhaps his best-known television role was that of megalomaniac plant collector Harrison Chase in the Doctor Who episode The Seeds of Doom .

Beckley also took on many theater roles and played with Elaine Strich in Tennessee Williams ' Small Craft Warnings and in Snap with Maggie Smith .

death

Beckley died shortly after the main filming of the American film When a Stranger Calls was completed . At this point he had already accepted roles for other film projects in the States, and a television film entitled My Fat Friend was in the works. Beckley would also play a role in the film American Dreamer and a part in the NBC miniseries Beulah Land .

Cancer ( brain tumor ) is commonly cited as the cause of Beckley's death . According to Sheila Hancock, however, the circumstances of death were "mysterious". She suggested that Beckley died of AIDS; the disease was still unknown at the time. Beckley died in the University of California Hospital in Los Angeles and was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

personality

Beckley said in an interview in 1979 that there was no inferior family history as to why he became an actor, except perhaps for "a need for attention that I didn't get very much as a kid."

His personality seems to be in stark contrast to his troubled movie characters. He is described by people who worked with him as an extremely friendly and funny person who was good at telling stories. Beckley himself remarked that he was wondering if someone could discover something psychotic in his behavior.

Beckley had a relationship with the film producer Barry Krost for over 15 years. When he opened his own management company, Beckley was his first customer. Krost produced Beckley's last film When a Stranger Calls and was a production assistant for The Penthouse .

Shortly before his death, Beckley moved to California. He lived in an apartment in West Hollywood.

Filmography

Movie

watch TV

  • 1958: ITV Television Playhouse (Miss Em # 3.45)
  • 1963: ITV Play of the Week (War and Peace # 8.29)
  • 1963: ITV Play of the Week (The Kidnapping of Mary Smith # 8.30)
  • 1963: Suspense (Sense of Occasion # 2.21)
  • 1963: Sergeant Cork (The Case of the Two Drowned Men (# 1.3)
  • 1963: Dig This Rhubarb (all episodes)
  • 1963: Simon Templar (The Saint - Marcia # 2.6)
  • 1963: Simon Templar (The Saint - The Saint Plays With Fire # 2.11)
  • 1964: Z-Cars (Whistle And Come Home # 3.33)
  • 1964: Tempo (The Christopher Marlowe Murder Mystery)
  • 1964: Sergeant Cork (The Case of the Wounded Warder # 1.36 or # 4.2)
  • 1965: Knock on Any Door (First Offender # 1.6)
  • 1966: Sergeant Cork (The Case of a Lady's Good Name # 2.11)
  • 1966: ITV Sunday Night Drama (Four Triumphant: St David)
  • 1968: ITV Playhouse (Murder: The Dancing Man # 1.31)
  • 1970: Parkin's Patch (The Journey # 1.16)
  • 1970: Kate (Say It With Flowers # 1.7)
  • 1970: Manhunt (The Ugly Side of War # 1.17)
  • 1970: Manhunt (Machine # 1.20)
  • 1970: Callan (Suddenly - At Home # 3.5)
  • 1972: Jason King (Toki # 1.12)
  • 1973: Arthur of the Britons (The Swordsman # 2.1)
  • 1974: The Specialists (Special Branch) (Catherine the Great # 4.2)
  • 1976: Doctor Who (The Seeds of Doom)
  • 1976: The Little Lord (Little Lord Fauntleroy , 3 episodes)
  • 1977: This Is Your Life (Sheila Hancock)
  • 1977: The Velvet Glove (Happy in War # 1.1)
  • 1977: The Cost of Loving (The Assailants # 1.5)

theatre

  • 1960: time limit!
  • 1961: Mother
  • 1962: The Bed Bug
  • 1962: Arden of Faversham
  • 1962: Infanticide in the House of Fred Ginger
  • 1966: Lorca
  • 1969: Hedda Gabler
  • 1973: Small Craft Warnings
  • 1974: Snap

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i van Gelder, Lawrence. 1979. "New Face: Tony Beckley - Awesome Movie Maniac With English Roots." in New York Times , October 19th, 1979, Section The Weekend, Page C3.
  2. ↑ California Death Records - Beckley, Derek Anthony , accessed February 27, 2013
  3. ↑ a b Hancock, Sheila. 2004. The Two of Us - My Life with John Thaw . London: Bloomsbury.
  4. ↑ Outsider. 1963. "Digging it up" in The Observer Weekend Review , September 22, 1963, p. 23 ( http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/pdf/observer/wideningradioshorizons22september1963.pdf )
  5. ↑ a b Tony Beckley ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0065777/ ) last accessed on March 1, 2013
  6. ↑ "Deaths Elsewhere -Tony Beckley" in The Blade: Toledo, Ohio , 28 April 1980 p. 15. ( http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ah1PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jwIEAAAAIBAJ&dq=tony-beckley&pg=7197%2C3831633 ).
  7. ^ "Stars added to cast" in The Free Lance-Star Town & County Magazine , January 12, 1980, p. 15. ( http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hv5NAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1IsDAAAAIBAJ&dq=tony-beckley&pg=2668%2C1631981 )
  8. ^ A b "Tony Beckley, Starred In 'Stranger Calls' Film", in: The New York Times Biographical Service , Volume 11, April 1980, p. 495
  9. ↑ Osborne, Charles. 1986. Giving it away: the memoirs of an uncivil servant. London: Secker & Warburg. p. 75
  10. ^ Tony Beckley - Find A Grave , last accessed March 18, 2013
  11. ↑ Philip Hinchcliffe and John Challis on the Doctor Who - The Seeds of Doom DVD Extra "Podshock", 2010
  12. ↑ Koffler, Kevin. 1994. Out . Volume 3, Issues 1-5, p. 88
  13. ^ British Film Institute - Tony Beckley ( http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba123ba84 ) last accessed on March 8, 2013
  14. ^ Plays and Players , Volume 8, Hansom Books, 1960.
  15. ^ "Drama With Too Much Doctrine" in The Times , May 16, 1961, p. 17th
  16. ^ "Balloons of Dialogue" in The Times , Apr. 26, 1962, p. 8th
  17. ↑ Theatricalia.com ( http://theatricalia.com/play/4y/infanticide-in-the-house-of-fred-ginger/production/10g )
  18. ^ "Playwright makes Lorca a lay figure" in The Times , 7 Sep. 1966, p. 16
  19. ^ "Fenella Fielding as Hedda Gabler" in The Times , Mar 20, 1969, p. 16
  20. ^ "Entertainments - Theaters" in The Times , Aug. 5, 1974, p. 6th

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Beckley, Tony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beckley, Derek Anthony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Southampton
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1980
Place of death los Angeles