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Alan Bates

Known for: Acting

Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving. He is also known for his tour-de-force with Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek, as well as his roles in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Fixer, which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson. Bates went on to star in The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman, Nijinsky, and The Rose with Bette Midler, as well as playing varied roles in television drama, including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Harold Pinter's The Collection, A Voyage Round My Father, An Englishman Abroad (as Guy Burgess), and Pack of Lies. He also continued to appear on the stage, notably in the plays of Simon Gray, such as Butley and Otherwise Engaged.

Filmography 47

Nothing Like a Dame 2018Movie as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Women in Love 1969Movie as Rupert Birkin
The Statement 2003Movie as Armand Bertier
Hard Times 1994TV show as Josiah Bounderby
Hamlet 1990Movie as Claudius
The Wicked Lady 1983Movie as Captain Jerry Jackson
King of Hearts 1966Movie as Charles Plumpick
Evelyn 2002Movie as Thomas Connolly
Shuttlecock: Sins of a Father 2020Movie as Major James Prentis (archival footage)
Whistle Down the Wind 1961Movie as The Man, Arthur Alan Blakey
Mr. Frost 1990Movie as Felix Detweiler
Royal Flash 1975Movie as Rudi Von Sternberg
A Kind of Loving 1962Movie as Victor 'Vic' Brown
The Shout 1978Movie as Charles Crossley
Discovering Hamlet 2011Movie Magellan TV as Claudius (archive footage)
Quartet 1981Movie as H.J. Heidler
Nijinsky 1980Movie as Sergei Diaghilev
Butley 1974Movie as Ben Butley
Three Sisters 1970Movie as Col. Vershinin
Separate Tables 1983Movie as John Malcolm / Maj. Pollock
Hollywood North 2004Movie as Michael Baytes
The Grotesque 1995Movie as Sir Hugo Coal