 A short, charismatic, witty actor who came to notice in Frederic Raphael's brilliant TV plays, The Glittering Prizes (BBC, 1976), and followed this with Alan Ayckbourn's droll trilogy, The Norman Conquests (ITV, 1977). Film has offered few comparable rewards: he worked for Joseph Losey (Galileo, UK/Canada, 1974), Ridley Scott (The Duellists, 1977) and Nagisa Oshima (Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, UK/Japan, 1983) without repeating his television impact. Much of the '80s and '90s was spent in US films and TV, receiving an Oscar nomination for Reuben, Reuben (US, d. Robert Ellis Miller, 1983) but gradually settling into supporting roles. He was Pauline Collins's Greek fling in Shirley Valentine (UK/US, d. Lewis Gilbert, 1989), but she got the plaudits. Born in Paisley on 22 November 1941 and stage-trained at the Glasgow College of Drama, he won a 1979 Tony for his performance as the paraplegic in Whose Life Is It Anyway?. Also a trained classical pianist, he starred in the stage musical, They're Playing Our Song(1980). He married actress Kara Wilson in 1967. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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FILM & TV CREDITS
