Denholm Elliott

Denholm Elliott
Born	Denholm Mitchell Elliott 31 May 1922(1922-05-31) Ealing, London, England
Died	6 October 1992 (aged 70) Ibiza, Spain
Years active	1949–1992
Spouse(s)	Virginia McKenna (1954) Susan Robinson (1962-death)

Denholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English actor of stage and screen, with over 120 major film and TV credits.^[1]. Today he is probably most known for his roles in the Indiana Jones movies as Dr. Marcus Brody.

Early life

Elliott was born in London, England, the son of Nina (née Mitchell) and Myles Laymen Farr Elliott.^[2] He attended Malvern College and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In the Second World War, he joined the Royal Air Force, training as a radio operator and gunner.^[3] In 1942, his bomber was shot down over Denmark, ditching in the sea, he spent the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp in Silesia.

Career

After the war, he made his film debut in Dear Mr. Prohack (1949). He went on to play a wide range of parts, often playing ineffectual and occasionally seedy characters, such as the journalist Bayliss in Defence of the Realm, the abortionist in Alfie, and the washed-up film director in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.

He made many television appearances, notably in plays by Dennis Potter, including Follow the Yellow Brick Road (1972), Brimstone and Treacle (1976) and Blade on the Feather (1980). He took over for an ill Michael Aldridge for one season of The Man in Room 17 (1966) and also appeared in the series Thriller (1975).

In the 1980s he won three consecutive BAFTA awards as best supporting actor for Trading Places as Dan Aykroyd's kindly butler, A Private Function and Defence of the Realm, as well as an Academy Award nomination for A Room with a View. He also became familiar to a wider audience as the well meaning but ineffectual Dr. Marcus Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Having filmed Michael Winners' The Wicked Lady in 1983, Elliott was quoted in a radio interview as saying that he and Marc Sinden "are the only two British actors I am aware of who have ever worked with Winner more than once and it certainly wasn't for love. But curiously, I never, ever saw any of the same crew twice." (Elliott in You Must Be Joking! (1965), The Wicked Lady and Sinden in The Wicked Lady and Decadence). Elliott had worked with Sinden's father, Sir Donald Sinden, in 1953's The Cruel Sea.

He also starred with Katharine Hepburn and Harold Gould in the 1986 television movie, Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry.

In 1988, Elliott was awarded the CBE for his services to acting. His career included many stage performances, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Personal life

Privately bisexual,^[4] Elliott was married twice, the first time to the British actress Virginia McKenna for a few months in 1954, and the second an open marriage to actress Susan Robinson, with whom he had two children.^[4] His daughter Jennifer Elliott (born in 1964) died by suicide (hanging) in 2003.^[4] Denholm Elliott was diagnosed with HIV in 1987,^[4] and died in 1992 of AIDS-related tuberculosis at his home on Ibiza, Spain. He was cremated. His widow Susan Elliott set up a charity, the Denholm Elliott Project, in his honour and collaborated on his biography.^[5] She also worked closely with the UK Coalition of People living with HIV and AIDS. Susan Elliott died on April 12, 2007 following a fire in her flat in London.^[4]

Filmography

References

External links

• Denholm Elliott at the Internet Movie Database
• Denholm Elliott at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Performances in the Theatre Archive University of Bristol
• Denholm Elliott at the Internet Broadway Database
• Denholm Elliott at Find A Grave