Tom Courtenay 163366 225341619 2008-07-13T04:52:22Z Theatricalic 6086608 I have added a quotation from Films in Review {{Infobox Actor | image = | caption = | birthname = Thomas Daniel Courtenay | birthdate = {{birth date and age|1937|2|25}} | birthplace = [[Hull, England]] | spouse = [[Cheryl Kennedy]] (1973-1982) <br> Isabel Crossley (1988-) | baftaawards = '''[[BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer|Best Newcomer]]''' <br>1962 ''[[The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner]]'' <br> '''Best TV Actor''' <br>1998 ''[[A Rather English Marriage]]'' | goldenglobeawards = '''[[Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama|Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama]]''' <br>1984 ''[[The Dresser]]'' }} '''Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay''' (pronounced "Courtney"; born [[25 February]] [[1937]]) is an [[England|English]] [[actor]] who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of critically-acclaimed films including ''[[The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner]]'' (1962), ''[[Billy Liar (film)|Billy Liar]]'' (1963) and ''[[Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)|Dr. Zhivago]]'' (1965). Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre. Courtenay received a [[knight|knighthood]] in February 2001 for forty years service to cinema and theatre. Tom Courtenay is the President of [[Hull City A.F.C.]]'s Official Supporters Club. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by [[Hull University]]. ==Biography== ===Early life=== Courtenay was born in [[Kingston-upon-Hull|Hull]], the son of Anne Eliza ([[married and maiden names|née]] Quest) and Thomas Henry Courtenay, a boat painter.<ref>[http://www.filmreference.com/film/28/Tom-Courtenay.html Tom Courtenay Biography (1937-)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> He attended [[Kingston High School, Hull|Kingston High School]] there. Courtenay studied drama at the [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]] (RADA) in London. ===Career=== Courtenay made his stage début in 1960 with the [[Old Vic]] theatre company in London, before taking over from [[Albert Finney]] in the title role of ''[[Billy Liar]]'' at the Cambridge Theatre in 1961. In 1963 he would play that same title role in the film version, directed by [[John Schlesinger]]. He said of Albert Finney, "We both have the same problem, overcoming the flat harsh speech of the North." <ref>''Films in Review'', February 1984.</ref> Courtenay's film debut was in 1962 with ''Private Potter'', directed by Finnish-born director [[Casper Wrede]], who had first spotted Courtenay while he was still at RADA. This was followed by ''[[The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner]]'', directed by [[Tony Richardson]] and ''[[Billy Liar (film)|Billy Liar]]'', two highly acclaimed films and performances which helped usher in the [[British New Wave]] of the early-to-mid '60s. For these performance Courtenay was awarded the 1962 [[BAFTA Award]] for most promising newcomer and the 1963 [[BAFTA Award]] for best actor respectively. For his role as the dedicated revolutionary leader Pasha Antipov in ''[[Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' (1965), he was nominated for an [[Academy Award]] for [[Best Supporting Actor]], being beaten out by [[Martin Balsam]]. Among his other well-known films is [[King & Country]] directed by [[Joseph Losey]], where he played opposite [[Dirk Bogarde ]] and ''[[Night of the Generals]]'' directed by [[Anatole Litvak]]. Despite being catapulted to fame by the aforementioned films, Courtenay has said that he has not particularly enjoyed film acting;<ref>"A master in the round", ''Daily Telegraph'', 09/2001 [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2001/09/03/btroyal03.xml]</ref> and from the mid-1960s concentrated more on stage work. In 1966 Courtenay began a long association with the then newly formed [[Royal Exchange Theatre]] in [[Manchester]], firstly under the direction of Casper Wrede. His first roles there were as Faulkland in [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan|Sheridan's]] [[The Rivals]] and the hero of [[Heinrich von Kleist| von Kleist's]] ''The Prince of Homburg''. Since then he has played a variety of roles, including in 1999 the leading role in the theatre's production of ''[[King Lear]]'', and in 2001 ''[[Uncle Vanya]]''. Courtney's working relationship with Wrede returned to film when he played the title role in the latter's 1970 production of ''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970 film)|One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]''. His best known film role since then was in ''[[The Dresser]]'', from [[Ronald Harwood]]'s play of the same name (in which he also appeared) with [[Albert Finney]]. Both Courtenay and Finney received nominations for [[Best Actor]] in the 1984 [[Academy Awards]] for their roles, losing to [[Robert Duvall]]. He played the father of Derek Bentley ([[Christopher Eccleston]]) in the 1991 film ''[[Let Him Have It]]''. Courtney's television and radio appearances have been relatively few, but have included ''[[She Stoops to Conquer]]'' in 1971 on [[BBC]] and several [[Alan Ayckbourn|Ayckbourn]] plays. He appeared in ''[[I Heard the Owl Call My Name]]'' on US television in 1973. In 1994 he starred with [[Peter Ustinov]] in a [[Disney Channel]] 'made for television' version of ''[[The Old Curiosity Shop]]''. Rather unexpecedly, he had a cameo role as the anthropologist [[Bronislaw Malinowski]] in the 1995 US TV movie [[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles|Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye]]. In 1998 he teamed with [[Albert Finney]] again for the acclaimed BBC drama ''[[A Rather English Marriage]]''. He played the role of God, opposite [[Sebastian Graham-Jones]], in Ben Steiner's radio play "A Brief Interruption", broadcast on [[BBC Radio 4]] in 2004. Also for Radio 4, he played the title role in Nick Leather's ''The Domino Man of Lancashire'', broadcast in 2007. In 2002, based on an idea by Michael Godley, Courtenay compiled a one-man show ''Pretending To Be Me'' based on the letters and writings of poet [[Philip Larkin]], which first played at the [[West Yorkshire Playhouse]] in [[Leeds]]. It later transferred to the [[Comedy Theatre]] in the [[West End theatre|West End]] in London.<ref> Courtenay records in an interview in the newspaper [[The Independent]] (12.2.2002) that he was unhappy about initially being credited as the "author" of the show. The connection between Courtenay and Larkin is the city of Hull, the former's home town and the latter's adopted town. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre/features/tom-courtenay-put-yourself-in-larkins-shoes-609599.html</ref> In 2007 Courtenay appeared in two films: ''[[Flood (film)|Flood]]'', a disaster epic in which [[London]] is overwhelmed by floods, and ''[[The Golden Compass (film)|The Golden Compass]]'', an adaptation of the [[Philip Pullman|Philip Pullman's]] novel, playing the part of Farder Coram. ===Personal life=== Courtenay was married to actress [[Cheryl Kennedy]] from 1973 to 1982. In 1988 he married Isabel Crossley, a stage manager at the Royal Exchange Theatre.<ref>"A master in the round", ''Daily Telegraph'', 09/2001. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2001/09/03/btroyal03.xml</ref> They have homes in Manchester and [[Putney]] in London. In 2000 Courtenay's memoir ''Dear Tom: Letters From Home'' was published to critical acclaim. It comprises a selection of the letters exchanged between Courtnenay and his mother, interspersed with his own recollections of life as a young student actor in London in the early 1960s. ==Filmography== {| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year ! Film ! Role ! Other notes |- |1962 |''Private Potter'' |Private Potter |- |1962 |''[[The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner]]'' |Colin Smith |[[BAFTA Award]] Most promising newcomer |- |1963 |''[[Billy Liar (film)|Billy Liar]]'' |Billy Fisher |[[BAFTA Award]] Best British actor |- |1964 |''[[King & Country]]'' |Private Hamp |[[Venice Film Festival]] Best Actor |- |1965 |''[[Operation Crossbow]]'' |Robert Henshaw |- |1965 |''[[King Rat (1965 film)|King Rat]]'' |Lt. Robin Grey |- |1965 |''[[Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' |Pasha |[[Academy Awards]] Nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role |- |1967 |''[[The Night of the Generals]]'' |Lance Cpl. Kurt Hartmann |- |1967 |''[[The Day the Fish Came Out]]'' |The Navigator |- |1968 |''[[A Dandy in Aspic]]'' |Gatiss |- |1968 |''Otley'' |Gerald Arthur Otley |- |1970 |''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970 film)|One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]'' |Ivan Denisovich |- |1971 |''To Catch a Spy'' |Baxter Clarke |- |1983 |''[[The Dresser]]'' |Norman |1984 [[Academy Awards]] Nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role; 1984 [[BAFTA Award]] Nomination for Best Actor; 1984 [[Golden Globe]] Awards, Best Actor |- |1987 |''Happy New Year'' |Edward Saunders |- |1987 |''[[Leonard Part 6]]'' |Frayn |- |1991 |''The Last Butterfly'' |Antoine Moreau |- |1991 |''Let Him Have it'' |William Bentley |- |1996 |''Famous Fred'' |Kenneth |- |1996 |''[[The Boy from Mercury]]'' |Uncle Tony Cronin |- |1999 |''[[Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?]]'' |Harold Smith |2001, Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, Best Supporting Actor |- |2001 |''[[Last Orders (film)|Last Orders]]'' |Vic |- |2002 |[[Nicholas Nickleby (2002 film)|''Nicholas Nickleby'']] |Newman Noggs |- |2007 |''[[Flood (film)|Flood]]'' |Leonard Morrison |- |2007 |''[[The Golden Compass (film)|The Golden Compass]]'' |Farder Coram |- |} ==Pop Culture References== Tom Courtenay has been referenced several times in pop culture, for example in the song "Tom Courtenay" by [[Yo La Tengo]]. ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *{{imdb name|id=0183822|name=Tom Courtenay}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Courtenay, Tom}} [[Category:1937 births]] [[Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]] [[Category:BAFTA winners (people)]] [[Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners]] [[Category:English film actors]] [[Category:English stage actors]] [[Category:English television actors]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Hull]] [[Category:People associated with the University of Hull]] [[Category:Royal National Theatre Company members]] [[de:Tom Courtenay]] [[fr:Tom Courtenay]] [[it:Tom Courtenay]] [[ja:トム・コートネイ]] [[sr:Том Кортни]] [[fi:Tom Courtenay]] [[sv:Tom Courtenay]]