Bates, Sir Alan Arthur

▪ 2004

      British actor (b. Feb. 17, 1934, Allestree, Derbyshire, Eng.—d. Dec. 27, 2003, London, Eng.), was considered among the finest and most versatile performers of his generation. He was at home both in the works of such classical writers as William Shakespeare and Anton Chekhov and in those by contemporary playwrights, including Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Simon Gray, and David Storey, and he excelled not only onstage but also in film and in television productions. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, with an interruption for service in the Royal Air Force, Bates made his stage debut in 1955, and the following year he gained the role of a young disaffected working-class man in the play that established his reputation, Look Back in Anger. His edgy performance in The Caretaker (1960) provided further proof of the depth of his talent. Bates had his first important film role in The Entertainer (1960) and followed with a string of successes, among them Zorba the Greek (1964), Georgy Girl (1966), The Fixer (1968), Women in Love (1969), and The Go-Between (1970). Back onstage such productions as In Celebration (1969), Butley (1971), and Otherwise Engaged (1975) continued to showcase his versatility. Many of Bates's most acclaimed roles came late in his career, including the butler Mr. Jennings in the film Gosford Park (2001), the blustering Uncle Matthew in the TV miniseries Love in a Cold Climate (2001), and an impecunious Russian aristocrat in the Broadway production of Fortune's Fool, for which he won a Tony Award in 2002. Bates was made CBE in 1995 and was knighted in January 2003.

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