Colin George Edward Blakely[Clarke, Frances (2009). "Blakely, Colin George Edward". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrirved 3 October 2024.] (23 September 1930 – 7 May 1987) was a Northern Irish stage and screen actor. He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Sidney Lumet's Equus (1977), and was nominated twice for a Best Actor in Television (1970, 1987). He was also an Olivier Award nominee.
According to the British Film Institute, Blakely's "chunky form and rumpled, good-natured features tended to direct him towards hero's-friend roles, but there was also an impressive toughness and intensity about his work."
Early life
Blakely was born in Bangor, County Down, the son of Victor and Dorothy Blakely (née Ashmore).
His mother was a singer in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his father owned a sports retail shop in
Belfast.
He attended
Sedbergh School in
Yorkshire (now
Cumbria), England.
At the age of 18, he started work in his family's sports goods shop in Belfast, before going on to work as a timber-loader on the railways. In 1957, after a spell of amateur dramatics with the Bangor Drama Club, he turned professional with the Group Theatre, Belfast.
Career
Theatre
In 1957, at the age of 27, Blakely made his stage debut as Dick McCardle in
Master of the House. He also appeared in several Ulster Group Theatre productions, including
Gerard McLarnon's
Bonefire (1958) and Patricia O'Connor's
A Sparrow Falls (1959). From 1957 to 1959 he was at the Royal Court Theatre, appearing in
Cock-A-Doodle Dandy,
Serjeant Musgrave's Dance and, to critical approval,
The Naming of Murderers Rock. In 1961, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon and from 1963 to 1968 was with the National Theatre at the
Old Vic.
Among the many stage plays in which he appeared were The Recruiting Officer, Saint Joan, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Filumena Marturano, Volpone and Oedipus. He returned to the Royal Shakespeare in 1972 in Harold Pinter's Old Times and was subsequently in many West End plays.
In 1977, he was nominated for the Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play for his performance in Just Between Ourselves.
Film
Notable film roles included Maurice Braithwaite in
This Sporting Life (1963), Vahlin in
The Long Ships (1964), Sir Thomas More's house servant Matthew in
A Man for All Seasons (1966),
Doctor Watson to
Robert Stephens's
Sherlock Holmes in
Billy Wilder's
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), and
Joseph Stalin in
Jack Gold's
Red Monarch (1983). In the 1975 British film,
It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, derived from the
James Herriot books, Blakely played the eccentric
Siegfried Farnon. (Blakely's
Son of Man co-star
Robert Hardy would play the role in the 1978-1990
BBC television series
All Creatures Great and Small.)
Blakely also appeared in Young Winston (1972), The National Health (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Equus (1977), The Dogs of War (1980), Nijinsky (1980) and Evil Under the Sun (1982).
His last film role was as Peppone in the Italian comedy The World of Don Camillo (1984), directed by and starring Terence Hill.
Television
On television, Blakely appeared in the "
Armchair Theatre" series in 1962, episode "The Hard Knock" and director
Charles Crichton unusually cast Blakely in two different roles during the same run of episodes of the 1967 series
Man in a Suitcase.
In 1969, Blakely's controversial role as an anguished Jesus Christ in Dennis Potter's Son of Man gained him wide recognition. From that time onwards, he was a regular on British television, and in the same year played the leading role in a BBC adaptation of Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now.
A noted Shakespearean actor, Blakely appeared on television as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra (1981), directed by Jonathan Miller as part of the BBC Television Shakespeare series; and as Kent in the 1983 Granada Television version of King Lear which starred Laurence Olivier. Other television appearances included Loophole (1981), The Beiderbecke Affair (1985), Operation Julie (1985) and Paradise Postponed (1986).
Personal life
Blakely was married to British actress Margaret Whiting for 26 years and had three sons, including twins.
Death
Blakely died of
leukaemia, aged 56, in
London on May 7, 1987.
Awards and nominations
| +
!Year
!Awards
!Category
!Nominated work
!Result
!Ref. |
| 1970 | British Academy Television Awards | Best Actor | / The Way We Live Now | | |
| 1977 | Laurence Olivier Awards | Actor of the Year in a New Play | Just Between Ourselves | | |
| 1978 | British Academy Film Awards | Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Equus | | |
| 1987 | British Academy Television Awards | Best Actor | | | |
Filmography
-
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) – Loudmouth
-
The Hellions (1961) – Matthew Billings
-
The Password Is Courage (1962) – 1st German Goon
-
This Sporting Life (1963) – Maurice Braithwaite
-
The Informers (1963) – Charlie Ruskin
-
The Long Ships (1964) – Rhykka
-
Never Put It in Writing (1964) – Oscar
-
The Counterfeit Constable (1964) – L'aveugle
-
A Man for All Seasons (1966) – Matthew
-
The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966) – Russian Premier
-
Charlie Bubbles (1967) – Smokey Pickles
-
The Day the Fish Came Out (1967) – The Pilot
-
The Vengeance of She (1968) – George
-
Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher (1968) – Solomon Philbrick
-
Alfred the Great (1969) – Asher
-
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) – Dr. Watson
-
Something to Hide (1972) – Blagdon
-
Young Winston (1972) – Butcher
-
The National Health (1973) – Edward Loach
-
Murder on the Orient Express (1974) – Cyrus B. Hardman
-
Galileo (1975) – Priuli
-
It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1975) – Siegfried Farnon
-
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) – Alec Drummond
-
Equus (1977) – Frank Strang
-
The Big Sleep (1978) – Harry Jones
-
Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979) – Tamil
-
The Day Christ Died - Caiphas
-
Nijinsky (1980) – Vassili
-
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980) – Silas Hobbs
-
The Dogs of War (1980) – North
-
Loophole (1981) – Gardner
-
Nailed (1981) – Elder Protestant
-
Evil Under the Sun (1982) – Sir Horace Blatt
-
Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) – Alec Drummond (archive footage) (uncredited)
-
The World of Don Camillo (1984) – Peppone
External links
