Dai Bradley
| Dai Bradley | |
|---|---|
| Born |
David Bradley 27 September 1953 Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
David "Dai" Bradley (born 27 September 1953) is an English actor who became well known for his first time role of Billy Casper in the critically acclaimed 1969 film Kes, directed by Ken Loach.
David Bradley was born in the hamlet of Stubbs, near Barnsley. By his own account, he had an unremarkable childhood, and was not involved in any acting apart from amateur Christmas pantos. At the age of 14, he won the part of Billy Casper in Kes.
Bradley has said that the making of the film was a happy one. The cast was "like one huge family" and he spent much of his time playing with the other young boys who appeared in the film. One of his less happy memories is of the football scene. Several thousand gallons of water had been pumped onto the field to create mud. But although it was mid-August, it was one of the coldest August days on record, and Bradley and the other cast members were intensely cold throughout the day-long shoot. Bradley spent several hours after each day's filming training with the three kestrels used in the film. One of the birds didn't take to the training though and was reintroduced to the wild as soon as possible. Bradley says that he was told director Ken Loach would have to kill one of the remaining birds for the final scene. Bradley was deeply upset by this revelation, and his emotional response in the film's final scenes are indicative of how angry and depressed he was. Bradley told an interviewer that after shooting for these scenes ended, he rushed to the local farm where the kestrels were kept. He discovered that no birds had been killed after all (the filmmakers had used a kestrel which had died of natural causes).
He received BAFTA's Award for Best Newcomer for his role. The film required extensive time training the two kestrels used for the film. One critic called Bradley's performance "one of the great adolescent portraits in cinema, joining the likes of Jean-Pierre Leaud in The 400 Blows".
Bradley left school at the age of 17. He moved to London and began training as an actor with the Royal National Theatre. In time, he worked with Anthony Hopkins, Joan Plowright and Derek Jacobi. Bradley changed his first name to Dai when he joined Equity, the actors' union, who already had an actor by that name on their books.
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