 A RADA-trained ex-bookseller who came to prominence in the '60s as a young Hamlet with the RSC (1965) and, after a couple of supporting roles in films, as Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (d. Karel Reisz, 1966), an eccentric, possibly insane protagonist, and a key figure of the new British cinema of the decade. Tall, rangy and without the conventional looks of a film leading man, he filmed steadily throughout the '60s and '70s. He was a memorable figure as mean-spirited Blifil in Tom Jones (d. Tony Richardson, 1963), Konstantin in The Sea Gull (d. Sidney Lumet, 1968) and Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream (d. Peter Hall, 1968), and the village idiot in Straw Dogs (d. Sam Peckinpah, 1971). He is too severe and brusque as Torvald in Joseph Losey's A Doll's House (UK/France, 1973) to make one believe Nora would ever have married him, and he settled into character roles, often menacing like Jack the Ripper in Time After Time (US, d. Nicholas Meyer, 1979), shortly after, his British films sparsely scattered among masses of TV (e.g., The Choir, BBC, 1995) and international films, including Titanic (US, d. James Cameron, 1997). He made news in 2002 when, after 30 years, he returned to the stage in The Feast of Snails (2002). Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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