Tom Courtenay Article Index for
Tom
Website Links For
Tom
 

Information About

Tom Courtenay





BIOGRAPHY

He was born in Hull , England , and made his stage début in 1960 with the Old Vic company. His Hamlet at the Edinburgh Festival of 1968 marked him out as one of Britain's leading stage actors as well as a film actor. He showed his comic talent again by creating the role of Norman in Alan Ayckbourn 's trilogy, '' The Norman Conquests ''.

He was briefly married to actress Cheryl Kennedy . His television appearances have been relatively few, but have included '' She Stoops To Conquer '' on BBC and several Ayckbourn plays. He appeared in '' I Heard The Owl Call My Name '' on US television in 1973.


CAREER


His best known film role after the 1960s is probably in '' The Dresser '' (from Ronald Harwood 's play of the same name, in which he also appeared) with Albert Finney . He won a nomination for Best Actor in the 1984 Academy Awards for that role, losing to Robert Duvall .

For his role as the dedicated revolutionary leader Pasha Antipov in '' Doctor Zhivago '' (1965), he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor award, being beaten out by Martin Balsam .

For reasons which remain obscure at this late date, he was cast as Bill Cosby 's loyal valet in the notorious 1987 flop '' Leonard Part 6 ''. In 1998 he teamed with Albert Finney again for the acclaimed BBC drama A Very English Marriage.

In 2003 he appeared on the West End stage again in the one-man show Pretending To Be Me, as Philip Larkin .


TRIVIA

  • He was knighted in 2001.

  • He is the subject of the song "Tom Courtenay" by Yo La Tengo .