Clive Selsby Revill (18 April 1930 – 11 March 2025) was a New Zealand actor and singer, best known for his performances in musical theatre and the London stage. A veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he also starred in numerous films and television programmes, often in character parts. He was a two-time Tony Award nominee, as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Irma La Douce and Best Actor in a Musical for Oliver!.
His film work also included voicing Emperor Palpatine in the original theatrical version of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and roles in Modesty Blaise (1966), The Assassination Bureau (1969), The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Legend of Hell House (1973), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). Revill was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Billy Wilder's Avanti! (1972). Later in his career, he was active as a voice actor in many animated productions and video games.
Early life
Clive Selsby Revill was born on 18 April 1930 in Wellington, the son of Eleanor May (née Neel) and Malet Barford Revill. He was educated at Rongotai College and Victoria University of Wellington.
Career
Stage
Revill originally trained to be an accountant in New Zealand, but decided to change his career path in 1950 when he made his stage debut as Sebastian in Twelfth Night. In the same year, he moved to London, where he studied acting at the Old Vic Theatre School. He appeared in The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company's celebrated 1956–1958 season of productions in Stratford, which included Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar and The Tempest. He went on to have such varied stage roles as Bob (narrator) in Irma la Douce, Ratty in Toad of Toad Hall and Jean-Paul Marat in Marat/Sade. He was also known for his roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas, on both stage and television. He starred in the first national tour of the musical Drood in 1988, replacing George Rose, who was murdered during the run.
Revill also participated in the workshop production of Tom Jones: The Musical, playing the role of Squire Western and reprising it on the cast recording.
Film
Revill's red hair and distinctive Mr. Punch-like features often saw him cast as comic eccentrics in a number of British films of the 1960s and 1970s such as Kaleidoscope (1966), Modesty Blaise (1966), The Double Man (1967), Fathom (1967), The Assassination Bureau (1969), A Severed Head (1970), The Black Windmill (1974) and One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975). He also had notable supporting turns in Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) opposite Laurence Olivier, and his American film debut A Fine Madness (1966), as well as a rare leading role in the horror film The Legend of Hell House (1973).
He was often cast as humorous foreign characters (he has played everything from Chinese to Russian). Two of his highest profile roles of this kind were in two films for Billy Wilder: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) and Avanti! (1972), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his part as put-upon hotel manager Carlo Carlucci.
He made his final film appearance in the 2016 Spanish film The Queen of Spain, directed by Fernando Trueba.
Television
In the 1978 television miniseries Centennial, he played the Scottish accountant Finlay Perkin. He played both Ko-Ko (the starring role) in The Mikado (which he had played in 1962 at Sadler's Wells Opera), and the title character, John Wellington Wells, in The Sorcerer, for the Brent Walker television series of Gilbert and Sullivan productions, shown by the BBC in 1983.
After relocating to the United States, he guest-starred in many television series, such as Columbo (1978, "The Conspirators"); Revill has also featured in numerous cartoons such as The Transformers and DuckTales and more video games, including Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Conquest: Frontier Wars.
Personal life
Revill was married twice and had a daughter, Kate Selsby Revill, with his second wife.
Death
Revill died of complications from dementia at a Sherman Oaks nursing home, on 11 March 2025, at the age of 94.
Partial stage credits
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!Role
!Venue
!Notes
|-
|1950
|Twelfth Night
|Sebastian
|
|
|-
|1952
|Mr. Pickwick
|Sam Weller
|Plymouth Theatre
|
|-
|1955
|Listen to the Wind
|Pearson
|Arts Theatre
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1957
|The Tempest
|Trinculo
| rowspan="2" |Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
|
|-
|Toad of Toad Hall
|Ratty
|
|-
|1958–60
| rowspan="2" |Irma La Douce
| rowspan="2" |Bob-Le-Hotu
|Lyric Theatre
|
|-
|1960–61
|Plymouth Theatre
|Nominated–Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical
|-
|1962
|The Mikado
|Ko-Ko
|Sadler's Wells Theatre
|
|-
|1963–64
|Oliver!
|Fagin
|Imperial Theatre
|Nominated–Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical
|-
| rowspan="2" |1964
|Marat/Sade
|Jean-Paul Marat
| rowspan="2" |Royal Shakespeare Company
|
|-
|The Jew of Malta
|Barabas
|
|-
|1967
|Sherry!
|Sheridan Whiteside
|Alvin Theatre
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1968–69
|The Unknown Soldier and His Wife
|The General
| rowspan="2" |Chichester Festival Theatre
|
|-
|The Tempest
|Caliban
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |1969
| rowspan="2" |A Who's Who of Flapland
|
|Royal Court Theatre
|
|-
|
|Theatre Upstairs
|
|-
|1971
|The Incomparable Max
|Max Beerbohm
|Royale Theatre
|
|-
|1974–76
|Sherlock Holmes
|Professor James Moriarty
|Broadhurst Theatre
|Replacement
|-
|1981
|Lolita
|Clare Quilty
|Brooks Atkinson Theatre
|
|-
|1981–82
|The Pirates of Penzance
|Major-General Stanley
| rowspan="2" |Tour
|
|-
|1988
|Drood
|William Cartwright, Your Chairman
|
|}
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!Role
!Notes
|-
| 1956
| Reach for the Sky
| RAF Medical Orderly
| rowspan="2"| Uncredited
|-
| 1958
| The Horse's Mouth
| Art Student
|-
| 1959
| The Headless Ghost
| Ambrose Dudley
|
|-
| 1965
| Bunny Lake Is Missing
| Sgt. Andrews
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1966
| A Fine Madness
| Dr. Menken
|
|-
| Italian Secret Service
| Charles Harrison
|
|-
| Kaleidoscope
| Inspector McGinnis
|
|-
| Modesty Blaise
| McWhirter, Sheik Abu Tahir
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1967
| Fathom
| Serapkin
|
|-
| The Double Man
| Frank Wheatly
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1968
| Nobody Runs Forever
| Joseph
|
|-
| The Shoes of the Fisherman
| Tovarich Vucovich
|
|-
| 1969
| The Assassination Bureau
| Cesare Spado
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 1970
| The Buttercup Chain
| George
|
|-
| The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
| Rogozhin
|
|-
| A Severed Head
| Alexander Lynch-Gibbon
|
|-
| 1972
| Avanti!
| Carlo Carlucci
| Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
|-
| 1973
| The Legend of Hell House
| Dr. Barrett
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1974
| The Black Windmill
| Alf Chestermann
|
|-
| The Little Prince
| The Businessman
|
|-
| 1975
| One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing
| Quon
|
|-
| 1976
| The Great Houdini
| Dundas Slater
|
|-
| 1980
| The Empire Strikes Back
| The Emperor (voice)
| Original theatrical release, replaced by Ian McDiarmid in later releases.
|-
| 1981
| Zorro, The Gay Blade
| Garcia
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1986
| The Transformers: The Movie
| Kickback (voice)
|
|-
|Columbo
|Joe Devlin
|Episode: "The Conspirators"
|-
|Centennial
|Finlay Perkin
|3 episodes
|-
|1982
|Harts on their Toes
|Zabin
| 1 episode
|-
|1983
|Wizards and Warriors
|Wizard Vector
|8 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2" |1984
|George Washington
|Lord Loudoun
|3 episodes
|-
|Snorks
|Dr. Galio Seaworthy (voice)
|65 episodes
|-
|1985, 1988
|Murder, She Wrote
|Jonathan Hawley, Bert Davies
|2 episodes
|-
| rowspan="3" |1984
|Alvin and the Chipmunks
|Additional voices
|13 episodes
|-
|The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show
|Additional voices
|Episode: "Happy Birthday, Scooby-Doo"
|-
|Dragon's Lair
|Storyteller (voice)
|Episode: "Tale of the Enchanted Gift"
|-
|1984–86
|The Transformers
|Kickback (voice)
|5 episodes
|-
| rowspan="3" |1986
|The Twilight Zone
|Agent
|Episode: "Personal Demons"
|-
|Magnum PI
|Walter "Inky" Gilbert
|Episode: "I Never Wanted To Go to France, Anyway"
|-
|Pound Puppies
|Dumas, Lord Belveshire (voice)
|2 episodes
|-
| rowspan="3" |1987
|Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
|Additional voices
|6 episodes
|-
|DuckTales
|Shedlock Jones (voice)
|Episode: "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. McDuck"
|-
|The Law & Harry McGraw
|Oscar Wendell
|Episode: "She's Not Wild About Harry"
|-
|1988
|Alfred Hitchcock Presents
|Hector
|Episode: "Twist"
|-
|1989–90
|Paddington Bear
|Additional voices
|2 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2" |1990
|Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone
|Potsworth (voice)
|13 episodes
|-
|Tiny Toon Adventures
|William Shakespeare (voice)
|Episode: "Weirdest Story Ever Told"