 Michael York first acted with the National Youth Theatre before joining OUDS while at Oxford, graduating in 1964. His blond, blue-eyed boyish looks and plummy accent incarnated a traditionally English public-school manliness, which Joseph Losey exploited in York's first screen role as the doomed aristocrat William in Accident (1967). Then, as Tybalt in Franco Zeffirelli's innovative Romeo and Juliet (UK/US, 1968), he demonstrated a sinewy athleticism rare amongst English actors. He used this quality to great effect as Viking chieftain Guthrum in Alfred the Great (d. Clive Donner, 1969), and D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (Panama, d. Richard Lester, 1973) and sequel The Four Musketeers (Panama/Spain, d. Lester, 1974) Although York continued to play derring-do heroes in The Last Remake of Beau Geste (US, d. Marty Feldman, 1977) and as the quintessentially English Charles Carruthers in The Riddle of the Sands (d. Tony Maylam, 1979), he also performed convincing variations on the introspective, bored, dissipated or disillusioned Englishman in Justine (US, d. George Cukor, 1969), Cabaret (US, d. Bob Fosse, 1972), England Made Me (d. Peter Duffell, 1972) and Conduct Unbecoming (d. Michael Anderson, 1975). In the '80s and '90s, he played supporting or cameo roles and became familiar to younger audiences as Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers films (US, d. Jay Roach, 1997, 1999, 2001). Bibliography
Autobiography: Travelling Player, 1991. Andrew Spicer, Encyclopedia of British Film
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