Ian Richardson

Ian William Richardson CBE (7 April 1934 – 9 February 2007) was a Scottish actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Conservative politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards (1990–1995) television trilogy, as well as the pivotal spy Bill Haydon in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979). His other notable screen work included a portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in two films (The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles), as well as significant roles in Brazil, M. Butterfly, and Dark City.

Richardson was also a leading stage actor, well known for his Shakespearean works as well as his portrayal of Jean-Paul Marat in the Broadway production of Marat/Sade.

Early life

Richardson was born in Edinburgh, the only son and eldest of three children of John Richardson (1909–1990), a manager at the McVitie & Price factory (where he and his wife met, and, according to his son, where John invented the Jaffa cake), and Margaret ("Peggy") Pollock (1910–1988), née Drummond.

He first appeared on stage at the age of 14, in an amateur production of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. The director encouraged his talent but warned that he would need to lose his Scottish accent to progress as an actor. His mother arranged elocution lessons, and he became a stage manager with the semi-professional Edinburgh People's Theatre.

After National Service in the Army, part of which he spent as an announcer and drama director with the British Forces Broadcasting Service, he obtained a place at the College of Dramatic Arts in Glasgow. After a period at the Old Rep, also known as the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, he appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), of which he was a founding member, from 1960 to 1975. His first engagement after training was with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where his performance of Hamlet led to an offer of a place with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was a versatile member of the company for more than 15 years, playing villainy, comedy and tragedy to equal effect. He was The Herald in Peter Brook's production of Marat/Sade in London in 1964. In the New York City transfer he took the lead role of Jean-Paul Marat, and became the first actor to appear nude on the Broadway stage,

While at the RSC, Richardson played leading roles in many productions for director John Barton. These included the title role in Coriolanus (1967), Cassius in Julius Caesar (1968), Angelo in Measure for Measure (1970) and Iachimo in Cymbeline. Work for other directors at Stratford included the title role in Pericles (1969), directed by Terry Hands; the title role in Richard III (1975), directed by Barry Kyle; and Berowne in David Jones' production of Love's Labour's Lost (1973). Richardson cited the role of Berowne as one of his all-time favorite parts. In 1974, Richardson's Richard II, alternating the parts of the king and Bolingbroke with Richard Pasco, and repeated in New York and London in the following year, was hugely celebrated.

In 1969, a significant Shakespearean cameo role was a brief performance as Hamlet in the gravedigger scene as part of episode six, "Protest and Communication", of Kenneth Clark's Civilisation television series. This was performed at Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire with Patrick Stewart as Horatio and Ronald Lacey as the gravedigger.

On leaving the RSC, he played Professor Henry Higgins in the 20th anniversary Broadway revival of My Fair Lady (1976) and received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He also appeared on Broadway as onstage narrator in the original production of Edward Albee's play Lolita (1981), an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's book that was not critically well received.

In 1995, he played The Miser at Chichester. In 1997, he played The Magistrate, also at Chichester, which transferred to the Savoy Theatre.

Later career

Richardson's most acclaimed television role was as Machiavellian politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC adaptation of Michael Dobbs's House of Cards trilogy. and was nominated for both of the sequels To Play the King (1993) and The Final Cut (1995).

In 1989, he also starred in a TV production of The Winslow Boy with Emma Thompson and Gordon Jackson. He received another BAFTA nomination for his role as Falkland Islands governor Sir Rex Hunt in the film An Ungentlemanly Act (1992), He narrated the BBC docudrama A Royal Scandal (1996).

Other roles in this period include Polonius in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), Sir Mason Harwood in Year of the Comet (1992), the French ambassador in M. Butterfly (1993), Martin Landau's butler in B*A*P*S (1997), a malevolent alien in Dark City (1998), The Kralahome in The King and I (1999), Cruella de Vil's Barrister, Mr. Torte QC, in the live-action film 102 Dalmatians (2000), and a corrupt aristocrat in From Hell (2001).

In 1999, Richardson became known to a young audience as the main character Stephen Tyler in both series of the family drama The Magician's House (1999–2000).

His final film appearance was as Judge Langlois in Becoming Jane (2007), released shortly after his death.

During the last 15 years of his life he appeared five times on television acting opposite his son Miles Richardson, though this was usually with one or the other in a minor role.

Death

Richardson died in his sleep of a heart attack on the morning of 9 February 2007, aged 72. He was survived by his wife, Maroussia Frank, an actress, and two sons, one of whom, Miles, is an actor. Richardson's body was cremated. His ashes were placed in the foundation of the auditorium of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford during renovations in 2008.

Tributes

Helen Mirren dedicated her 2006 Best Actress BAFTA award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the film The Queen to Richardson. In her acceptance speech she said that without his support early in her career, she might not have been so successful, before breaking down and leaving the stage. Other tributes and reminiscences by Richardson's colleagues are offered in a memoir by Sharon Mail, We Could Possibly Comment: Ian Richardson Remembered (2009).

Awards

{| class="wikitable"

!Year

!Nominated work

!Award

!Category

!Result

|rowspan=2|1976

|rowspan=2|My Fair Lady

|Drama Desk Award

|Outstanding Actor in a Musical

|Tony Award

|Best Actor in a Musical

|1991

|House of Cards

|rowspan=4|BAFTA TV Award

|rowspan=4|Best Actor

|1993

|An Ungentlemanly Act

|1994

|To Play the King

|1996

|The Final Cut

Selected filmography

Marat/Sade (1967) – Jean-Paul Marat
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968) – Oberon
The Darwin Adventure (1972) – Capt. Fitzroy
Man of La Mancha (1972) – The Padre
Gawain and the Green Knight (1973) – Narrator (uncredited)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) – Bill Haydon
Charlie Muffin (1979) – Cuthbertson
Gauguin the Savage (1980) – Degas
Private Schulz (1981) - Major Neuheim
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) – Sherlock Holmes
The Sign of Four (1983) – Sherlock Holmes
Brazil (1985) – Mr. Warrenn
Whoops Apocalypse (1986) – Rear Admiral Bendish
The Fourth Protocol (1987) – Sir Nigel Irvine
Cry Freedom (1987) – State Prosecutor
Porterhouse Blue (1987) - Sir Godber Evans
Burning Secret (1988) – Edmund's father
Twist of Fate (1989) – Doctor Schlossberg
King of the Wind (1990) – Bey of Tunis
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) – Polonius
Year of the Comet (1992) – Sir Mason Harwood
Foreign Affairs (1993) – Edwin
M. Butterfly (1993) – Ambassador Toulon
Dirty Weekend (1993) – Nimrod
Words Upon the Window Pane (1994) – Dr. Trench
Savage Play (1995) – Count
Catherine the Great (1995) – Vorontsov
The Treasure Seekers (1996) – Haig
B*A*P*S (1997) – Manley
The Fifth Province (1997) – Dr. Drudy
Incognito (1997) – Turley (prosecutor)
Dark City (1998) – Mr Book
Alice through the Looking Glass (1998) – Wasp
The King and I (1999) – The Kralahome (voice)
102 Dalmatians (2000) – Mr. Torte
From Hell (2001) – Sir Charles Warren
Joyeux Noël (2005) – L'évêque anglais
The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby (2005) – Judge
Désaccord parfait (2006) – Lord Evelyn Gaylord
Becoming Jane (2007) – Judge Langlois (final film role)

References

External links

Ian Richardson at the British Film Institute
Interview with Ian Richardson at the Theatre Archive Project
Ian Richardson's performances in the Theatre Archive, University of Bristol