ROBERT HARDY

Written by Michael Darvell
 

(29 October 1925 - 3 August 2017)

Robert Hardy

The actor Robert Hardy, who has died aged 91, may well be remembered for two roles, although he played a wide variety of parts on stage, in films and on television. He seemed to have cornered the market on TV as Winston Churchill and latterly as Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter films. Early on in his career he worked in Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon and later gave a fine performance as Henry V in the BBC’s An Age of Kings series. He graced many a period drama series, including the title role in David Copperfield, Henry Grandcourt in Daniel Deronda, Dudley in Elizabeth R, Prince Albert in Edward the Seventh, Caesar in The Cleopatras, Arthur Broke in Middlemarch and Tite Barnacle in Little Dorrit. He was popular as Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small on TV but it was as Churchill that he made his greatest mark in The Wilderness Years, War and Remembrance and Churchill: 100 Days That Saved Britain. He also played the great man in the stage musical Winnie, created by Robin Hardy (no relation). Some of the films he made include The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, How I Won the War, 10 Rillington Place, Young Winston (as a headmaster), Gawain and the Green Knight, David Hare’s Paris by Night, Sense and Sensibility, An Ideal Husband and four Harry Potters. He was married first to Elizabeth Fox and then Sally Pearson. He has three children.

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.

Previous

TY HARDIN
Next

JEANNE MOREAU