Clive Revill

Clive Selsby Revill (born April 18, 1930) is a New Zealand character actor best known for his performances in musical theatre and on the London stage.

Early life and stage career

Revill was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Eleanor May (née Neel) and Malet Barford Revill.^[1] He originally trained to be an accountant in his homeland of New Zealand, but decided to change his career path in 1950 when he made his stage debut as Sebastian in Twelfth Night. He then moved to England, where he appeared in The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company's (later renamed The Royal Shakespeare Company) celebrated 1956–1958 season of productions, which included Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest. He went onto have such varied stage roles as Ratty in Toad of Toad Hall, and Jean-Paul Marat in The Marat/Sade.

He made his Broadway debut in 1952, playing Mr. Pickwick in The Pickwick Papers, and went on to appear in Irma La Douce, The Incomparable Max, and Oliver!, for which his Fagin was nominated for a Tony Award. He is also known for his roles in the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, on both stage and television.

He 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 career

His 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 '70s such as Kaleidoscope (1966), Modesty Blaise (1966), Fathom (1967), The Assassination Bureau (1969), 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, Mack The Knife (1989), and his US film debut A Fine Madness (1966), as well as a rare leading role in the horror film The Legend of Hell House (1973).

Often cast as humorous foreign characters (he has played everything from Chinese to Russian), two of his most notable roles in this capacity were in films for Billy Wilder: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), and Avanti! (1972), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for his part as harassed hotel manager Carlo Carlucci.

Television career

Later relocating to America, he has guest-starred in many well known TV series such as Columbo, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, Magnum, P.I., The Love Boat, Remington Steele, Murder She Wrote, Babylon 5, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He starred as the wizard Vector in the short-lived but cult classic, Wizards and Warriors.

Voice work

He is also known for his voice work, which includes Emperor Palpatine in the original 1980 version of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (he was later replaced by Ian McDiarmid in the 2004 DVD version for continuity's sake, though Revill is still credited); numerous cartoons such as The Transformers, Batman: The Animated Series and DuckTales; and more recently video games, including Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Conquest: Frontier Wars.

References

External links

• Clive Revill at the Internet Movie Database
• Clive Revill at the Internet Broadway Database
• Clive Revill at Film Reference