Research Guru / Moderator
Posted:
Mar 26, 2008, 12:37 PM
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British Shakespearean actor Tony Church dead at 77
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British actor Tony Church, a founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and dean of the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver, Colorado, died Tuesday at a London nursing home. He was 77.
As the voice of the Third Civil Servant, Church worked with such famed British actors as John Hurt and Nigel Hawthorne in the moving 1982 animated feature film The Plague Dogs.
The first dean of the Denver Center's National Theatre Conservatory graduate program (1989-96), Church performed in over 70 Shakespearean productions in 13 countries. He acted in 31 of Shakespeare's 37 plays, which made him known as Denver's Baron of the Bard.
Born James Anthony Church in London on May 11, 1930, he was schooled at Cambridge University and became a professional actor in 1953. Spending seven years in TV, radio and repertory, he became a founding member of the RSC in 1960. There, he was an associate artist until 1987, playing such parts as King Lear, Henry IV, Polonius, Friar Lawrence and Gloucester.
Church was appointed director of drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1982. He later left to move to Denver, where he became the dean of the National Theatre Conservatory in 1989.
In 1988, he joined the National Theatre Company at the invitation of Sir Peter Hall. He took leading parts in The Winter's Tale, The Tempest and Cymbeline.
Church appeared in numerous TV series as both a regular and a guest. Early in his career, he was Inspector Fellowes in The Gentle Killers (1957) and Detective-Sergeant Spaice in Charlesworth (1959).
He also made a name for himself in historical mini-series, portraying Squire Bancroft in Lillie and Sir Samuel Hoare in Edward & Mrs. Simpson (both 1978). In the 1984 mini-series Playing Shakespeare, he appeared as himself.
His movies included Tess (1979, as Parson Tringham) and Krull (1983, as Turold).
Former Denver Center Theatre Company actor Jamie Horton said of his own experience in The Dresser: "It was glorious because of Tony Church. It's an experience I'll never forget."
"You can't look at that man's life and come away with any other conclusion than that he just about did it all," said Horton. "And the thing was, he never tired of it. He never stopped wanting to do it, and I loved him for that. He was such a great spirit."
Church appeared in dozens of DCTC plays. At age 73, he retired after playing comic scholar Holofernes in 2003's Love's Labor's Lost. Though cast to play the Doge in The Merchant of Venice (2004), he became too ill to perform.
In a 2004 interview, Church considered being a working actor the greatest privilege possible: "I've never been paid a lot, but the theater has kept me, and for that I shall be eternally grateful."
Asked if he had one more role to play, Church said that he'd like to play Lear a sixth time. "Because I am still not 80, and Lear is, so I've still got more time to have another shot at him -- and I won't have to wear any makeup," he quipped.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Denver University in 1998.
Tony Church is survived by wife Mary Gladstone, as well as by three children from a previous marriage who live in England.
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