- Home
- Alan Bates
Alan Bates
Known for: ActingSir 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
The Sum of All Fears
+5
as Dressler 
The Mothman Prophecies
+5
as Alexander Leek 
Arabian Nights
as Storyteller 
Zorba the Greek
as Basil 
Love in a Cold Climate
+1
as Uncle Matthew 
Nijinsky
as Sergei Diaghilev 
The Mayor of Casterbridge
as Michael Henchard 
Salem Witch Trials
as Sir William Phips 
Nothing Like a Dame
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited) 
Women in Love
as Rupert Birkin 
Far from the Madding Crowd
+1
as Gabriel Oak 
A Prayer for the Dying
as Jack Meehan 
The Statement
as Armand Bertier 
Hard Times
as Josiah Bounderby 
The Shout
+2
as Charles Crossley 
The Go-Between
+3
as Ted Burgess 
Georgy Girl
as Jos Jones 
Hamlet
as Claudius 
Britannia Hospital
as Macready 
The Prince and the Pauper
as Re Enrico VIII 
The Wicked Lady
as Captain Jerry Jackson 
King of Hearts
as Charles Plumpick 
Evelyn
+3
as Thomas Connolly 
Shuttlecock: Sins of a Father
+2
as Major James Prentis (archival footage) 
The Running Man
as Stephen 
Butley
as Ben Butley 
Whistle Down the Wind
as The Man, Arthur Alan Blakey 
Hollywood North
+1
as Michael Baytes 
The Grotesque
as Sir Hugo Coal 
Mr. Frost
as Felix Detweiler 
Royal Flash
as Rudi Von Sternberg 
Quartet
as H.J. Heidler 
A Kind of Loving
as Victor 'Vic' Brown 
Silent Tongue
as Eamon McCree 
The Return of the Soldier
+3
as Captain Chris Baldry 
The Cherry Orchard
as Gayev 
We Think the World of You
as Frank Meadows 
Discovering Hamlet
as Claudius (archive footage) 
Bertie and Elizabeth
as King George V 
The Story of Jacob and Joseph
as Narrator (voice) 
Separate Tables
as John Malcolm / Maj. Pollock 
The Entertainer
+1
as Frank Rice 
Pack of Lies
as Stewart 
A Voyage Round My Father
as John Mortimer 
Three Sisters
as Col. Vershinin 
An Englishman Abroad
as Guy Burgess 
Nicholas’ Gift
as Reg Green