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Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport
	Davenport as Abraham Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula
Born	Arthur Nigel Davenport; 23 May 1928; Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, England
Died	25 October 2013 (aged 85); Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England
Years active	1953–2003
Spouses	; Helena White (m. 1951; div. 1960) ; Maria Aitken (m. 1972; div. 1981)
Children	3, including Jack Davenport

Arthur Nigel Davenport (23 May 1928 – 25 October 2013) was an English stage, television and film actor,^[1] best known as the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Birkenhead in the Academy Award-winning films A Man for All Seasons and Chariots of Fire, respectively.

Early life and education

Davenport was born in Great Shelford,^[2] Cambridgeshire, son of Arthur Henry Davenport and Katherine Lucy (née Meiklejohn).^[3] His father was an engineer, educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge before being employed as an engineer for the Midland Railway, and was later a lecturer in engineering, a Fellow, and the bursar at his alma mater, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge;^[1]^[4] Arthur Davenport had served for four years in the Royal Engineers during World War I, and was awarded a Military Cross. Nigel's great-uncle, Major Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn, was awarded a Victoria Cross during the Second Boer War.^[5]

He grew up in an academic family and was educated at St Peter's School, Seaford, Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford.^[1]^[6] Originally he chose to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics but switched to English on the advice of one of his tutors.^[7]

In the 1950s Davenport undertook National Service with the Royal Army Service Corps as a disc jockey on the British Forces Broadcasting Service in Hamburg.^[5]

Career

Davenport first appeared on stage at the Savoy Theatre and then with the Shakespeare Memorial Company, before joining the English Stage Company, one of its earliest members, at the Royal Court Theatre in 1956.^[8] He began appearing in British film and television productions in supporting roles, including a walk-on in Tony Richardson's film, Look Back in Anger (1959). Subsequent roles included a theatre manager opposite Laurence Olivier in the film version of The Entertainer and a policeman in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (both 1960).^[8]

In the 1962 last episode of the first season of the TV series The Saint, titled "The Charitable Countess", with Roger Moore as Simon Templar and Patricia Donahue as Countess Rovagna, Davenport played a supporting role as the Countess's confidant, Aldo Petri. Davenport appeared again in The Saint in season 3, episode 16 (titled "The Rhine Maiden") as Charles Voyson.

He made an impression as Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk in A Man for All Seasons (1966),^[9] co-starred with Michael Caine in the war movie Play Dirty,^[7] and had a major role as Lord Bothwell in Mary, Queen of Scots.^[9] In 1972, he appeared as George Adamson, opposite Susan Hampshire in Living Free,^[7] the sequel to Born Free.^[6]

During the production of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Davenport read the lines of HAL 9000 off-camera during the computer's dialogues with actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. However, Kubrick thought that Davenport's English accent was too distracting and dismissed him after a few weeks. Canadian actor Douglas Rain was ultimately chosen for the role.^[10] Davenport took the leading role in the off-beat Phase IV (1974), which failed to find an audience. In 1979, he portrayed King George III in Prince Regent.^[1]

He appeared as Ebenezer Scrooge's grudging father Silas in the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol (1984), and played opposite Michael Caine again in the 1988 Sherlock Holmes spoof Without A Clue, which was Davenport's second-last feature film.

He portrayed The Duke of Holdernesse in a 1993 BBC Radio dramatisation of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Priory School".^[11]

In February 1997, Davenport was the subject of This Is Your Life when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at David Nicholson's stables near Cheltenham.^{[citation needed]}

He was president of Equity from 1986 to 1992.^[1]^[9]

Personal life

Davenport was married twice, first to Helena Margaret White^[1] whom he met while he was studying at Oxford University. They married in 1951 and had a daughter, Laura, and a son, Hugo.^[1]^[6] His second wife was actress Maria Aitken^[1] with whom he had a second son, Jack, also an actor, best known for appearing in Pirates of the Caribbean.^[12]^[6] According to Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Jack was cast as the James Norrington character, partly because of Nigel's involvement in A High Wind in Jamaica.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Ref.
1959	Look Back in Anger	1st Commercial Traveller	^[8]
1960	Peeping Tom	Det. Sgt. Miller	^[8]
1960	The Entertainer	Theatre Manager	^[7]
1962	Mix Me a Person	Juke's Stepfather
1963	Ladies Who Do	Mr Strang
1963	Bitter Harvest	Police Inspector
1964	The Third Secret	Lew Harding
1965	A High Wind in Jamaica	Mr Thornton	^[1]
1965	Sands of the Kalahari	Sturdevant
1966	A Man for All Seasons	Duke of Norfolk	^[1]
1966	Where the Spies Are	Parkington
1968	Play Dirty	Captain Cyril Leech	^[8]
1969	The Virgin Soldiers	Sergeant Driscoll	^[8]
	Sinful Davey	Richardson
	The Royal Hunt of the Sun	Hernando de Soto
1970	No Blade of Grass	John Custance
1970	The Mind of Mr. Soames	Dr Maitland
1971	Villain	Bob Matthews
	Mary, Queen of Scots	Lord Bothwell	^[7]
	The Last Valley	Gruber
1972	Living Free	George Adamson	^[7]^[6]
1973	The Picture of Dorian Gray	Lord Harry Wotton	^[9]
1974	Bram Stoker's Dracula	Van Helsing	^[9]
1974	Phase IV	Dr Ernest D. Hubbs
1975	The Regent's Wife	Álvaro Mesía
1976	Death of a Snowman	Lt. Ben Deel
1977	The Island of Dr. Moreau	Montgomery
1977	Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers	Sgt. Driscoll	^[7]
1979	The Omega Connection	Arthur Minton
1979	Zulu Dawn	Colonel Hamilton-Brown	^[13]
1980	Cry of the Innocent	Gray Harrison Hunt
1981	Chariots of Fire	Lord Birkenhead	^[1]
1981	Nighthawks	Peter Hartman
1984	A Christmas Carol	Silas Scrooge
1984	Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes	Major Jack Downing	^[1]
1986	Caravaggio	Giustiniani
1988	Without a Clue	Lord Smithwick
1997	The Opium War		^[8]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1957–1958	The Adventures of Robin Hood	St Peter Marston, Claude the Seneschal, Barty and others	7 episodes	^[12]
1957	Mister Charlesworth	Sergeant Spence	6 episodes
1958	Big Guns	Sergeant Spence	6 episodes
1962	Sir Francis Drake	Miguel Cervantes	1 episode
1962-1965	The Saint	Aldo Petri/Charles Voyson	2 episodes	^[14]
1963	The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre	Dino Stefano/Larry Mason	2 episodes: NB: The Verdict
1964	Madame Bovary	Rodolphe		^[7]
1966–68	The Avengers	Lord Barnes / Robertson		^[12]^[6]
1969	The Name of the Game	David Windom	1 episode
1972	The Edwardians	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	1 episode	^[6]
1974	South Riding	Robert Carne	11 episodes	^[8]^[14]
1975	Oil Strike North	Jim Fraser	13 episodes	^[8]^[6]
1979	Prince Regent	King George III	8 episodes, TV mini-series	^[8]
1981	Masada	Sen. Mucianus	Part 1
1981	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Theseus	TV movie	^[15]
1982	Minder	Ray
1982	Bird of Prey	Charles Bridgnorth		^[7]
1982–83	Don't Rock The Boat	Jack Hoxton	12 episodes, TV mini-series	^[7]
1985–1990	Howards' Way	Sir Edward Frere	29 episodes	^[12]^[6]
1986	Ladies in Charge	Count Litvinoff	1 episode
1986	Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy	Lord Ismay
1991	Trainer	James Brant	13 episodes	^[6]
1993	Keeping Up Appearances	The Commodore	1 episode: The Commodore	^[12]^[6]
1994	Woof!	Mr. Wellesby	1 episode
1996	The Treasure Seekers	Lord Blackstock		^[8]
2000	The Adventures of Captain Pugwash	Narrator	26 episodes
2000	David Copperfield	Dan Peggotty	TV movie	^[12]
	Midsomer Murders	William Smithers	1 episode	^[12]^[6]
	Longitude	Sir Charles Pelham	TV movie

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Coveney, Michael (29 October 2013). "Nigel Davenport obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
^ "Cambridge-born actor Nigel Davenport, star of Chariots of Fire and Howards' Way, dies aged 85". cambridge-news.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
^ Who's Who in the Theatre, 17th ed., vol. 1, part 2, ed. Ian Herbert, Pitman, 1981, p. 167
^ List of Members of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain, 1933, p. 143
^ ^a ^b "Nigel Davenport: There's a glare in there - tough guy actor had 'the look'". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 November 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l "In pictures: Nigel Davenport". BBC News. 30 October 2013. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Hayward, Anthony. "Obituary: Nigel Davenport, character actor sought by directors in all mediums for nearly half a century", The Independent, 30 October 2013
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Obituary: Nigel Davenport, telegraph.co.uk, 29 October 2013
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Actor Nigel Davenport dies at 85". BBC News. 30 October 2013.
^ Dowd, Vincent (30 November 2014). "2001: A Space Odyssey revisited". BBC News. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
^ "The BBC audio complete Sherlock Holmes". merrisonholmes.com.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Actor Nigel Davenport dies at 85". BBC News. 30 October 2013. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
^ "Zulu Dawn". radiotimes.com. Radio Times. Archived from the original on 19 August 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
^ ^a ^b Phil De Semlyen (30 October 2013). "British Actor Nigel Davenport Dies". empireonline.com. Empire. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
^ "A Midsummer Night's Dream". tv.apple.com. Apple TV. January 1981. Retrieved 26 January 2024.