Michael Gothard

Michael Gothard
as Emile Locque in For Your Eyes Only, 1981
Born	Michael Alan Gothard (1939-06-24)24 June 1939 London, England
Died	2 December 1992(1992-12-02) (aged 53) Hampstead, London, England
Years active	1961–92

Michael Alan Gothard (24 June 1939 – 2 December 1992) was an English actor, who portrayed Kai in the television series Arthur of the Britons and the mysterious villain Emile Leopold Locque in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.

Michael Gothard was born in London in 1939. As a small child, he lived in both Wales and London. After leaving , he travelled in France for several months before returning home. He went through various jobs, including being a building labourer and a trainee reporter. He even had a brief spell as a clothes model, but he never felt comfortable doing that job. He said: "I was as stiff as a board and I couldn’t overcome my sense of the ridiculous. I was a clothes hanger, an object, not a person."

He joined the New Arts Theatre as a scenery mover, and became part of an amateur film a friend was making. After landing the lead role, he was encouraged to take up the profession. He attended evening classes at an actors' workshop whilst holding down a day job. He was involved working in some of the first "Lunchtime theatre" productions in the 1960s, from pub cellars to top floor spaces off St. Martin's Lane. His first television role was in an episode of Out of the Unknown in 1966 called "The Machine Stops". He was then cast in Don Levy's film Herostratus in 1967 and Up the Junction in 1968. He then acquired a female following after taking a role as the villainous Mordaunt in the BBC's adaptation of Twenty Years After (Further Adventures of the Musketeers).

His performance as the nightclubbing killer Keith in Scream and Scream Again, directed by Gordon Hessler, was a break-out role for him, giving him exposure and leading to other, more prominent parts. In the film, Keith makes one of the most memorable escapes from the police ever seen. The film also starred Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Executive producer Louis M. Heyward said of Gothard's performance: "I felt that Michael Gothard was going to be the biggest thing that ever happened. He had that insane look and that drive, and he was wonderful. Here is a kid who really threw himself into the picture wholeheartedly. Do you remember the scene where he appears to be walking up the cliff? That's a stunt that, as an actor, I would not have agreed to; I’d say, 'Hey, get a double or get a dummy. I ain't either one.' But the kid agreed to do it, without a double—he was that driven. He had a lot of class and a lot of style. Gordon (Hessler) came up with the idea of using an overhead cable to give that illusion of his walking up the cliff."