Max Adrian
Max Adrian | |
---|---|
Shamley Green, Surrey, England | |
Resting place | Woking Crematorium, Woking, Surrey, England |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1925–1973 |
Max Adrian (born Guy Thornton Bor; 1 November 1903 – 19 January 1973) was an Irish stage, film and television actor and singer. He was a founding member of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.
In addition to his success as a character actor in classical drama, he was known for his work as a singer and comic actor in revue and musicals, and in one-man shows about George Bernard Shaw and Gilbert and Sullivan, and in cinema and television films, notably Ken Russell's Song of Summer as the ailing composer Delius.
Early years
Adrian was born in Kilkenny, County Kilkenny, Ireland, the son of Edward Norman Cavendish Bor and Mabel Lloyd Thornton.[1] He was born in the provincial Bank of Ireland branch in Kilkenny, where his father was the bank manager, into a Church of Ireland family, the seventh of eight children. His paternal ancestry was Dutch, from settlers who arrived in Ireland with William of Orange in 1689.[2] He was educated at the Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, whose past pupils also included Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett.[3]
Adrian began his career as a chorus boy at a silent moving-picture house, coming on as part of the chorus line while the reels were being changed. He made his stage debut in the chorus of Katja the Dancer in 1925.
Career
Classical roles and revue
Adrian first achieved wide public notice in a nine-month season at the Westminster Theatre from September 1938, as Pandarus in a modern dress Troilus and Cressida and Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonnington in The Doctor's Dilemma, winning enthusiastic notices from the critics: "Mr Max Adrian triumphantly turns Pandarus into a chattering and repulsive fribble of the glossily squalid night-club type";[7] "The egregious 'B.B.'... is a great piece of fun, and Mr. Max Adrian rightly draws him with all possible exuberance of line."[8]
Adrian joined the
Away from the classics, he played the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz at the
When revue became less popular in the mid-1950s, Adrian went to America in 1956 to appear as Dr. Pangloss and Martin in
In 1960, Adrian joined
Adrian was one of the original members of
Solo shows and screen work
In the late 1960s, Adrian toured as George Bernard Shaw in the one-man show An Evening with GBS, which played in London, on Broadway, and in Asia, Africa and Australia.[16] The Times said that the show "presented a deeply understanding portrait... impish, malicious, playful, outrageous, affectionate, angry and almost always eloquent."[10] His later one-man show about Gilbert and Sullivan was a lesser, but real, success.[3]
Adrian's first film was in 1934. He appeared in several British films in the 1940s, before playing the Dauphin in the Laurence Olivier production of Henry V (1944). He also appeared in Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) as the vampire Dr Blake, The Deadly Affair (1966), and in several Ken Russell films: The Music Lovers (1970; as Anton Rubinstein), The Boy Friend (1971) and The Devils (1971).
He was also featured in Russell's acclaimed award-winning 1968
Also on television, he appeared in
His voice and acting style were notably distinctive. The Times referred to his "Osric-like elaborations of manner", and his voice "like no other heard on the English stage of his day, vestigially Irish and harshly attractive." The Times also described his 1934 performance in England Expects (Embassy Theatre) as "a gilded habitué of the backstairs" as outstanding.
Death
Adrian died at age 69 from a heart attack, at his and Lister's home, Smarkham Orchard,
Personal life
His elder brother was the botanist Dr.
His younger brother, Fetherston Briscoe Bor, remained a farmer in Ireland until his death in 1965.Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1934 | The Primrose Path | Julian Leigh | |
1936 | A Touch of the Moon | Francis Leverton | |
The Cardinal | Barber | Uncredited | |
To Catch a Thief | Salesman | ||
The Happy Family | Noel Hutt | ||
Nothing Like Publicity | Bob Wharncliffe | ||
1937 | Why Pick on Me? | Jack Mills | |
When the Devil Was Well | David | ||
1938 | Macushla | Kerry Muldoon | |
Merely Mr. Hawkins | Mr. Fletcher | ||
1941 | Kipps | Chester Coote | |
Jeannie | |||
Penn of Pennsylvania | Elton | ||
1942 | The Young Mr. Pitt | Sheridan | |
Talk About Jacqueline | Lionel | ||
1944 | Henry V | The Dauphin | |
1950 | Her Favourite Husband | Catoni | |
1951 | Pool of London | Charlie Vernon, acrobat / George | |
1952 | The King and the Mockingbird | The King | English version, voice |
The Pickwick Papers | Aide | ||
1959 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Robert Stone | Season 4 Episode 29: "Banquo's Chair" |
1963 | Uncle Vanya | Professor Alexander Serebryakov | |
1965 | Dr. Terror's House of Horrors | Dr. Blake | (segment "Vampire") |
1967 | The Deadly Affair | Morton, Adviser | |
The Terrornauts | Dr. Henry Shore | ||
1968 | Song of Summer | Frederick Delius | |
1971 | The Music Lovers | Nicholas Rubinstein | |
The Devils | Ibert | ||
The Boy Friend | Max Mandeville aka Mr. Max / Lord Hubert Brockhurst |
References
- ^ "Bor, Guy Thornton", irishgenealogy.ie
- ^ "The Family Of Bor Of Holland And Ireland ", Bor, Edward J, London, England 1911, seekingmyroots.com
- ^ a b c d e f Morley, page 3.
- ^ according to his Who's Who entry; Morley dates his debut to August 1926
- ^ Where the play was retitled College Sinners (ref. Gaye, p. 288)
- ^ The Times, 25 January 1930, p. 10; 21 February 1933, p. 10; 27 January 1934, p. 8; 28 May 1935, p. 14; and 14 April 1936, p. 8
- ^ The Observer, 25 September 1938, p. 13
- ^ The Times, 18 February 1939, p. 10
- ^ The Times, 12 October 1939, p. 6
- ^ a b The Times, 20 January 1973, p. 16
- ^ The Times 12 July 1955, p. 5
- ^ "Obituary of Mr Laurier Lister", The Times, 2 October 1986
- ^ Gaye, p. 289
- ^ "Adrian, Max", Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2007, Retrieved 27 January 2009
- ^ a b The Guardian, 20 January 1973, p. 7
- ^ The show was sometimes given under the title "By George!" See The New York Times
- ^ "Song of Summer" Archived 6 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine at DVD Beaver
- ^ The Myth Makers at the BBC's Doctor Who episode guide.
- ^ Max Adrian at the IMDB database.
- ^ Elsom, John: Adrian, Max (1903–1973), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2007 Retrieved 28 Jan 2009
- ^ Roll of Honour rnsubs.co.uk
Bibliography
- Gaye, Freda: Who's Who in the Theatre, fourteenth edition, 1967, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, London
- Morley, Sheridan: The Great Stage Stars, Angus & Robertson, London, 1986. ISBN 0-8160-1401-9
External links
- "The Bishop Orders His Tomb, by Robert Browning" on YouTube, read by Max Adrian