Colin Blakely
| Colin Blakely | |
|---|---|
Colin Blakely as Dr. John H. Watson (left) and
Sir Robert Stephens as Sherlock Holmes in Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes |
|
| Born |
Colin George Blakely 23 September 1930 Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, UK |
| Died | 7 May 1987 (aged 56) London, England, UK |
| Cause of death | leukaemia |
| Years active | 1960–1987 |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Whiting (1961–87) |
Colin George Blakely (23 September 1930 – 7 May 1987) was a Northern Irish character actor. He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for the Academy Award-nominated film Equus.
Born in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, Blakely attended Sedbergh School in Yorkshire. At 18 he started work in his family's sports goods shop, before going on to work as a timber-loader on the railways. In 1957, after a spell of amateur dramatics with the Bangor Operatic Society, he turned professional with the Group Theatre, Belfast.
In 1957, at the age of 27, Blakely made his stage debut as Dick McCardle in Master of the House. He also appeared in several Ulster Group Theatre productions, including Gerard McLarnon's Bonefire (1958) and Patricia O'Connor's A Sparrow Falls (1959). From 1957 to 1959 he was at the Royal Court Theatre, appearing in Cock-A-Doodle Dandy, Serjeant Musgrave's Dance and, to critical approval, The Naming of Murderers Rock. In 1961, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon and from 1963 to 1968 was with the National Theatre at the Old Vic.
In 1969, Blakely's controversial role as Jesus Christ in Dennis Potter's Son of Man gained him wide recognition. From that time onwards, he was a regular on British television, and in the same year played the leading role in a BBC adaptation of Trollope's The Way We Live Now.
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