Anthony Andrews

Anthony Andrews
Andrews in 1982 by Allan Warren
Born Anthony Colin Gerald Andrews
(1948-01-12) 12 January 1948
Finchley, London, England
Occupation Actor
Spouse(s)
Georgina Simpson (m. 1971)

Anthony Colin Gerald Andrews[1] (born 12 January 1948) is an English actor best known for his role as Lord Sebastian Flyte in the 1981 ITV miniseries Brideshead Revisited (1981). He is also known for playing the title roles in Ivanhoe, Operation Daybreak and The Scarlet Pimpernel, and for portraying Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in The King's Speech (2010). For his performance in Brideshead Revisited Andrews won a Golden Globe and BAFTA TV Award, as well as being nominated for an Emmy.

Life and career

Andrews was born in London, the son of Geraldine Agnes (née Cooper), a dancer, and Stanley Thomas Andrews, an arranger and conductor for the BBC.[1] He grew up in the North Finchley district of London. At the age of eight he undertook dancing lessons, making his stage debut as the White Rabbit in a stage adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.[2]

After a series of short term "fill-in" jobs that included catering, farming and journalism, he secured a position at the Chichester Theatre where he worked as an assistant stage manager and later as a stand-in producer. He auditioned in 1968 for a production of Alan Bennett's new play, Forty Years On, which featured John Gielgud as the headmaster of a British public school during the First World War period. Andrews was cast as Skinner, one of twenty schoolboys. In 1974 he had a role in the production of Upstairs Downstairs as Lord Robert, Marquis of Stockbridge. In 1975 he had a leading role in the Spanish film Las adolescentes (The Adolescents), opposite Koo Stark.[3]

In June 1977, he was cast in the role of Bodie in the ITV series The Professionals. However, after three days of filming, the creator and producer Brian Clemens felt that the chemistry between Andrews and Martin Shaw (Doyle) did not work and that "the pair did not have the required undercurrent of menace to carry off the concept". Lewis Collins replaced Andrews in the part.[4] Following that, in 1979, Andrews was the main star of the ITV television series Danger UXB, in which he played a British bomb disposal officer in the London Blitz.[5] The series first aired in the United States in 1979 on Masterpiece Theatre.

His subsequent work includes the leading role of Lord Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited.[5] In 1982, he won a Golden Globe and BAFTA TV Award for his performance and was nominated for an Emmy Award. In the United States, Andrews is best known for his portrayal of the titular character in Ivanhoe as well as that of Sir Percy Blakeney in the 1982 film The Scarlet Pimpernel.[5]

He played Professor Higgins in a stage version of My Fair Lady (2001), and Count Fosco in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White.[6]

He was the narrator for a 21st Anniversary BBC Radio 2 special broadcast of Cameron Mackintosh's musical Les Misérables, sung by the then West End cast at the Mermaid Theatre in London on Sunday 8 October 2006. Andrews appeared as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in the 2010 film The King's Speech, for which he won a SAG Award along with Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush and Timothy Spall.

Andrews survived a case of water intoxication in 2003. The condition, known as hyponatraemia, is caused by the dilution of sodium in the body. It has similar symptoms to dehydration, such as headaches, nausea and cramps. Whilst performing as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady he would consume up to eight litres of water a day. He lost consciousness and spent three days in intensive care.[7]

He married Georgina Simpson of the Simpsons of Piccadilly department store family. Their daughter Amy is a god-daughter of Princess Anne, The Princess Royal.[8]

Selected filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1972A Day OutBrother
1974Percy's ProgressCatchpole
1974Take Me HighHugo Flaxman
1975The AdolescentsJimmy
1975Operation DaybreakJozef Gabcik
1981Mistress of ParadiseBuckley
1982IvanhoeWilfred of Ivanhoe
1982The Scarlet PimpernelSir Percy Blakeney
1983Sparkling CyanideTony Browne
1984Under the VolcanoHugh Firmin
1985The Holcroft CovenantJohann von Tiebolt / Jonathan Tennyson
1987The LighthorsemenMaj. Richard Meinertzhagen
1987The Second VictoryMaj. Hanlon
1988BluegrassMichael Fitzgerald
1988Hanna's WarMcCormack
1990Hands of a MurdererProfessor Moriarty
1991Lost in SiberiaAndrei Miller
1995HauntedRobert Mariell
1997MothertimeRobin
2000David CopperfieldEdward Murdstone
2010The King's SpeechPrime Minister Stanley BaldwinScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1968The Wednesday PlayHarry
1972Dixon of Dock GreenPaul Richards
1972DoomwatchCarlos
1972FollyfootLord Beck
1972A War of ChildrenReg HoggAmerican (CBS) TV film set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles
1972Thirty-Minute TheatreMichael Warren / Vernon WarrenEpisode "The Judge's Wife"
1974The Fortunes of NigelSir Nigel Olifaunt
1974QB VIIStephen Kelno
1974The PallisersLord Silverbridge
1974David CopperfieldJames Steerforth
1975Upstairs, DownstairsLord Robert Stockbridge / The Marquis of Stockbridge
1976The Duchess of Duke StreetMarcus Carrington
1976–1977Play of the MonthVarious charactersIn "French Without Tears", "London Assurance", and "The Country Wife"
1977WingsLt. Walker
1977ITV Sunday Night DramaHarryEpisode "A Superstition"
1978Romeo and JulietMercutioBBC Television Shakespeare
1979Danger UXBBrian Ash
1981The Love BoatTony Selkirk
1981Brideshead RevisitedLord Sebastian FlyteBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
1984Play for TodayJohn LoomisEpisode "Z for Zachariah"
1985A.D.Nero
1988American PlayhouseJohnnie AysgarthEpisode "Suspicion"
1988The Woman He LovedKing Edward VIII
1989A Fine RomanceMichael Trent
1989Columbo: Columbo Goes to the GuillotineElliot Blake
1989Nightmare ClassicsDr. Jekyll / Mr. HydeEpisode "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
1992JewelsWilliam Whitfield
1992Screen TwoChristopher Edwardes
1996The Ruth Rendell MysteriesLuke Crossland
1996Tales from the CryptJonathanEpisode "About Face"
2001Love in a Cold ClimateBoy
2003Cambridge SpiesKing George VI
2004Rosemary & ThymeRichard OakleyEpisode "The Invisible Worm"
2006Marple: By the Pricking of My ThumbsTommy Beresford
2012BirdsongColonel Barclay
2015The SyndicateLord Hazelwood

Producer

  • Lost in Siberia (1991)
  • Haunted (1995)

Theatrical roles

References

  1. 1 2 "Anthony Colin Andrews Biography (1948-)". Filmreference.com. 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  2. ↑ "Debut : Anthony Andrews". The Independent. London, UK. 25 April 2001.
  3. ↑ "Adolescentes, Las" in Luis Gasca, Un siglo de cine español (Planeta, 1998), p. 17
  4. ↑ "Obituary :Lewis Collins". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK: TMG. 28 November 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Quinlan, David (1996) Quinlan's Film Stars, Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-7751-2, p. 16
  6. ↑ "Anthony Andrews". flyrope.com. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2006.
  7. ↑ "Actor Andrews in water overdose". BBC News. London: BBC. 4 July 2003. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  8. ↑ Demoskoff, Yvonne (2009). "Godchildren of HRH The Princess Royal". Yvonne's Royalty Home Page. Retrieved 25 February 2016.

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