Robert Eddison

Robert Leadam Eddison,

Eddison was an award-winning actor, known for his mellifluously resonant, baritone voice and long, lean 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) figure. Throughout his 60-year career he was constantly in demand as an actor and worked with many of Britain's greatest stage actors, often during the early formative years of their careers including Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi and Maggie Smith.

Early life

Eddison was born in

From the age of five, Eddison knew that he wanted to be an actor. Both of his parents were members of the Yokohama Dramatic Club, where he often saw them both perform on stage. He recalls in his later memoir how "As they bent down to kiss me goodnight...the smell of the make-up and powder totally bewitched me. My father's make-up box had the same smell of spirit-gum and its effect on me was very potent".^[citation needed]

His father was a civil engineer and died in 1917. Consequently, his mother decided to return to England with her four sons by way of British Columbia, Canada. It was here that Eddison along with his twin brother went to boarding school in Victoria for the next few years. After the Armistice in 1919, the family arrived back in England. Although his mother's family originally came from Leeds, she settled in Haywards Heath, Sussex.^[2]

Education

Eddison, aged 14, along with his three other brothers, were all educated at Charterhouse School. He was extremely disappointed to discover that there was no dramatic society, especially considering that its past alumni included such theatre luminaries as Johnston Forbes-Robertson, Cyril Maude, Richard Goolden and Max Beerbohm.^[3]

It was anticipated that he would follow in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather and paternal uncle and become a doctor, consequently yet uncertain, Eddison later studied at

It was whilst at Cambridge that Eddison made his professional debut at the Festival Theatre, Cambridge in Lady Audley's Secret on 23 June 1930 opposite Flora Robson as Lady Audley. Eddison later said he viewed this as his first professional credit, however "In fact, I drew no salary, but a silver cigarette-case at the end of the ten weeks."^[3]

As a result of his passions evidently remaining elsewhere, Eddison later revealed that he "came down" without a degree, but "didn't think it mattered at all, but had my chosen profession failed me, I would probably not have felt in any way light-hearted."^[3]

Early career

In his early career, he spent a year at the

Ian McKellen later recalled one anecdote of Eddison's wartime experience when he was performing the Gertrude Lawrence part in an officers' performance of Coward's Red Peppers and Fumed Oak: "After the show, the Petty Officer breathed heavily, what Robert always considered the best notice he ever had: 'You know, Eddison, I never knew you were so f*****g lovely!'"^[6]

Eddison was finally demobbed in March 1946. Not long after, he spent two further seasons at the

In 1950 he was invited to join the prestigious Old Vic Company and was part of the company who reopened London's

In 1967 he was engaged to play The Player in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in New York. The play opened in Washington, with Variety saying he was "superb", but after five performances he was replaced, an experience which left him feeling very wounded. "It seemed that the trouble was that I wasn't Graham Crowden" he would later remember.

In 1969, he developed a lifelong friendship with

When being interviewed by McKellen's biographer he reminisced that "It was a wonderful time… At the Piccadilly Theatre there were always queues at the Box Office and the younger members of the cast got very excited and I thought, poor things, they have been deprived". Eddison loved being in the company and had "the greatest admiration and affection for Ian. The Duke of York was a dull part, really, but I loved playing it - and Richard Cottrell exercised his considerable persuasive powers [as director] on me to do this and Lightborn. I was quite happy to do that as I thought it was the only possible part for me - I couldn't really see myself as one of those Lancastrian barons."^[8]

In 1974, he was invited to join McKellen and Edward Petherbridge's democratically run Actor's Company. The aim of the Company, through majority decisions, meant that the collective company of actors would all choose the plays on a democratic basis and to alternate between leading and supporting parts. Eddison later stated "I was very touched when I was asked to join the company. I was so much older than all the others. But it was all the greatest fun, huge fun, though I did find the meetings endless and ghastly. I never knew what to say!"^[8]

During the season he played the title role in King Lear, a part he played to great acclaim. Upon being offered the part Eddison later remembered "I was very touched to be asked to play Lear. I had been to do a play at Colchester and on my return I found this note from the rest of the company offering me the part. I wept, amazingly, for I had always wanted to do the part."^[8]

During this period he performed in both the UK and America. McKellen later recalled how when performing Chekhov's 'The Wood Demon' at the Brooklyn Academy of Music they shared the stage-level dressing-room where Enrico Caruso reputedly died.^[9]

He was part of the company at the National Theatre during its final performance at the Old Vic. On 4 October 1976 he delivered the first speech in the Olivier Theatre at the

In 1985, he was later asked by his friend McKellen to join the new McKellen/Petherbridge Company at the Royal National Theatre, which sadly he was unable to join, but was again "touched to be asked".

Eddison also made his mark in radio, in countless BBC dramas through the decades, with some of his last roles including Death in The Canterbury Tales and parts in an adaptation of Japanese Noh plays. His television work included a bravura performance as Uncle Silas in a 1968 production for the Thames Television series Mystery and Imagination. His film career was limited, but included a supporting role in Peter Ustinov's 1948 comedy Vice Versa, the electrical 'Nick' in The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972) and the college president in American Friends (1991).

However, Eddison's most notable, albeit small, role was in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the ancient Grail Knight. The part was briefly considered to be played by Laurence Olivier, but he was too ill.^[10] Eddison was 81 at the time of filming. His line "He chose poorly" is one of the film's most famously quoted lines. Julian Glover, who played villain Walter Donovan, recalled Eddison was excited and nervous for his return to film, often asking if he had performed correctly. Recalling working with Eddison later on Glover said:

"He was such a wonderful actor, Robert. Fantastic voice too, a wonderful rolling voice. He came in and I thought he lent a tremendous gravitas to that part, but at the same time, he was able to take that wonderful line "He chose poorly" in such a dry way, that it was really funny. When I saw it, it got an absolute belly laugh"

His final production with McKellen was in Martin Sherman's Bent as Uncle Freddie in 1990, the same part McKellen was later to play in the 1997 film.

Eddison was awarded the OBE in the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.

Death

A lifelong smoker, and despite annually giving up smoking for

Throughout his lengthy career, Eddison amassed an extensive personal collection of theatrical material. The collection included ceramics, architectural plans and drawings, and watercolours, prints, rare books and wax figures. The majority of the collection was built up following World War II, with acquisitions from well-known London dealers and from country outlets visited while on tour. It was regarded as "One of the finest collections of Georgian theatrical material in private hands, with a high proportion of the material being rare or unique and of national importance". Upon his death, the collection was later acquired by the Theatre Museum from the Executors of his estate as an acceptance in lieu of Inheritance Tax. His collection is now curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum.^[12]

He was later discovered to have written the beginnings of a memoir titled Majestic Service: An Autobiographical Memoir. The 22 pages were later published by the Society for Theatre Research in 1992.

Eddison was the great uncle of the television presenter Dallas Campbell. Campbell later said "I remember sitting in the cinema as a ten-year-old in 1981 watching Harrison Ford in the first Indiana Jones film and immediately getting interested in archaeology. I was in my late teens when Uncle Bob was in the third film, The Last Crusade, and I was so proud of him. I remember going to the cinema and telling people he was my uncle, but nobody believed me."

Filmography

Television

References