Nigel Davenport

Nigel Davenport
Born	23 May 1928 (1928-05-23) (age 81) Shelford, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom

Nigel Davenport (born 23 May 1928) is an English stage, television and film actor.

Biography

Early life

Davenport was born in Shelford, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, the son of Katherine Lucy (née Meiklejohn) and Arthur Henry Davenport.^[1] He grew up in an academic family. He was educated at St. Peter's Seaford, Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford, originally to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics but switching to English on the advice of his tutors.

Career

Davenport first appeared on stage at the Savoy Theatre, then with the Shakespeare Memorial Company, before joining the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre in the 1960s. He began to appear in British film and television productions in supporting roles, such as playing a theatre manager opposite Laurence Olivier in the film version of The Entertainer (1960). He made an impression as the Duke of Norfolk in 1966's A Man for All Seasons and had the major role of Lord Bothwell in Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1972, he appeared as George Adamson, opposite Susan Hampshire in Living Free, the sequel to Born Free, Davenport took the leading role in the off-beat Phase IV, which failed to find an audience. Since then he has continued to work in supporting roles in film and television as a succession of lords, police inspectors and military officers with a twinkle in their eye, most characteristically as General Lord Ismay opposite Nicol Williamson's Lord Mountbatten of Burma in The Last Viceroy, a classic TV drama series aired in 1986. In the 1974, BBC production of Shaw's "Apple Cart" he excelled as the very shavian King Magnus, along with Prunella Scales and a very young Helen Mirren in supporting roles. In 1996 he starred alongside Sir Donald Sinden in N.J. Crisp's That Good Night, produced by Marc Sinden, son of Sir Donald and directed by Edward Hall, son of Sir Peter Hall.

Trivia For the production of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Davenport read the dialogue of HAL on set for the other actors.

His father was a bursar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, England.

In 2000, he played William Smithers in the Midsomer Murders episode Blue Herrings.

Davenport has been twice married:

1. Helena White; one daughter Laura and one son Hugo.
2. The actress Maria Aitken (1972–80); one son Jack Davenport who is also an actor. According to Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Nigel's son Jack Davenport was cast as the James Norrington character in part due to Nigel's involvement in A High Wind in Jamaica.

He was interviewed in 2008 by the community radio station Radio Winchcombe, as part of an hour long programme on his life and career.

Filmography

• Robin Hood (TV series) Episode entitled "Too Many Earls" (1956)
• Look Back in Anger (1959)
• Peeping Tom (1960)
• The Entertainer (1960)
• Mix Me a Person (1962)
• Ladies Who Do (1963)
• Sands of the Kalahari (1965)
• High Wind in Jamaica (1965)
• A Man for All Seasons (1966)
• Sebastian (1968)
• Play dirty (1968 film)
• The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969)
• The Virgin Soldiers (1969)
• No Blade of Grass (1970)
• Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
• Living Free (1972)
• South Riding (TV series)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (1973)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973)
• Phase IV (1974)
• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977)
• Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977)
• Zulu Dawn (1979 alongside Simon Ward)
• Cry of the Innocent (1980- Gray Harrison Hunt)
• Chariots of Fire (1981)
• Nighthawks (1981)
• Masada (1981)
• Minder (1982)
• An Inspector Calls (Arthur Birling) (1982 TV series)
• A Christmas Carol (1984)
• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
• Caravaggio (1986)
• Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy (1986)
• Death of a snowman
• Without a Clue (1988)
• Howards' Way (TV series) (1985-1990)
• Trainer (TV series as James Brant) (1991)
• Keeping Up Appearances ("The Commodore") (1993)
• Treasure Seekers (1996)
• Longitude (miniseries) (2000)
• David Copperfield (TV series) (2000) (USA)
• Midsomer Murders (TV series) (7 February 2009)

References

External links

• Nigel Davenport at the Internet Movie Database