JULIAN CURRY

27 Jun

(8 December 1937 - 27 June 2020)

The actor Julian Curry, who has died aged 82, was well-known for his work on television, stage and film. He was a member of the RSC, the National, The Old Vic and Prospect theatre companies. On television he is particularly remembered for playing the rather prissy barrister Claude Erskine-Browne in John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey. His first film was Smashing Time in 1967. After twelve years of TV he played Mr Smith in The Brontë Sisters then Escape to Victory, The Missionary, Hollywood Monster, Loch Ness, Seven Days to Live and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, his last film in 2004. A wine expert, Curry toured the world in his one-man show and wrote books on Shakespeare, interviewing famous actors on their roles. He married the actress Shelia Reid, then Josephine Edmunds, with whom he has two sons, Finn and Patrick, and finally the actress and writer Mary Chater.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

JULIAN CURRY

LOUIS MAHONEY

LINDA CRISTAL