Benedick bates biography of donald

Niema Ash, another neighbour, recalled: "The house was a mess, and her fads about eating were astonishing. She once went to a food guru, and he said, 'If you eat an onion, you have to eat the skins! When they came over to our house, they were so happy just for a bowl of soup. Many of the couple's friends felt that Victoria's strange behaviour stemmed from her own miserable childhood.

She spent several years in an orphanage when her parents could not afford to feed or clothe her, and had also, she confided to Alan, been sexually abused by her father. The result was irremediable insecurity and a deep distrust of affection - which was, of course, exactly what she needed. After no more than two years the Bates marriage began to unravel.

Victoria indulged in a series of liaisons - with, among others, a composer, a playwright, an architect and a Scandinavian painter - while in came Alan's first serious extramarital affair with another man. Alan and Nickolas, who was 25, became in the latter's words "very close and very loving, in an intense affair that was one of the most important relationships of my life".

But for Alan, the relationship brought to the surface all his fears that the secret side of his life would be discovered and made public - an anxiety that had tormented him during the ten years he had lived with the actor Peter Wyngarde in the Sixties. But at other times he was reserved and frightened, whispering to me, 'Don't say this If they travelled by car together, "he made me lie down in the back - he didn't want me to be seen with him.

That was an indication of the fear that he had". It was the universal opinion of those who knew him that Alan was a firm, loyal and unwavering friend to a remarkable array of men and women. But he was not made for marriage - nor perhaps for any permanent intimacy. When the inevitable split with Nickolas came, it was brutal. He spoke as if they had been polite colleagues on a project, or fellow travellers on a train journey.

It took Nickolas months to recover. Meanwhile, Victoria's behaviour was becoming increasingly bizarre. Nickolas tells the story of how, when he was once invited to join her and Alan for supper with a group of theatre friends, she crawled beneath the dining table and remained there for the rest of the evening. To cope with this, everyone's acting abilities were tested to the utmost.

Alan confided to another friend, the benedick bates biography of donald Marty Feldman, that Victoria was "driving him mad". The couple's son Benedick recalls: "When my mother was happy, life was OK. But then there began a long, slow deterioration and even her physical appearance declined. It is impossible to blame the collapse of the marriage on one side or the other - either to fault Victoria's pathetic self-absorption, which was certainly neurotic, or to criticise Alan's refusal to face the consequences of his other commitments, both professional and romantic.

I loved Alan dearly, and our friendship lasted 40 years, but sometimes he didn't think what he was doing. It was really very unfair. But other friends believe that Alan's treatment of Victoria could not have been kinder. ByVictoria's unhappiness had found a new expression: she was tormenting and teasing Alan mercilessly. Instead of countering her attacks with further skirmishes, he chose retreat and decided to move back to a house in St John's Wood where he had lived some years previously.

For the boys, life took a distinct turn for the worse. She wouldn't have central heating, and I remember having to go to bed in a sleeping bag, my fingers shaking with cold in the winter. It was a very strange way to live. When Alan was not travelling the twins spent weekends with him, raiding his fridge out of sheer ravenous hunger. My brother and I often asked one another, 'Has Mum spoken to you this week?

And there was no food in the fridge - we were living like feral children in an attic. When she dropped in at Alan's when we were there, she was dressed like a homeless person, and she sat at the table in total silence and started writing in a notebook. Or she might say, 'Oh, shut up - you are such a bore, just shut up! Inwhen the boys were 12, matters came to a head when they knocked at Alan's door and asked to live with him.

With a handsome income from a film role that year, Alan bought the coach house next to his home and converted it for the boys.

Benedick bates biography of donald

He arranged for staff to cook and clean for them, and accepted only offers of work that did not take him far from home. As a welcome relief from his domestic turmoil, Alan was now in the midst of an intense, two-year romance with the British figure skater John Curry. Celebrated for combining ballet and modern dance with intricate athletics on ice, Curry had won the Olympic and World Championships in and had founded a touring company that thrilled audiences in Europe and America.

A German newspaper caused a brief scandal by revealing Curry's homosexuality inbut he ignored the publicity and pursued his career and his lovers with joyful abandon. Alan couldn't sustain emotional bonds with lovers: he always saw them as unwelcome entanglements. And there was another complication that overlapped the Curry affair - a new love that Alan could neither ignore nor blithely terminate, and one that eventually endured longer than any other.

In he had been introduced at a party to a young artist 26 years his junior named Gerard Hastings, at that time just The attraction was immediate. At first Alan and Gerard met only intermittently. References [ edit ]. Companies House. Retrieved 28 October Retrieved 23 April New York Magazine. The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 November Retrieved 4 November Tristan Bates Theatre.

Tony Awards. They acknowledge several different recipients, have runners-up, and have third place. Since this is a specific recognition and is different from losing an award, runner-up mentions are considered wins in this award tally. For simplification and to avoid errors, each award in this list has been presumed to have had a prior nomination.

Film [ edit ]. Television [ edit ]. Stage [ edit ]. Awards [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. However, there is no evidence to substantiate this claim on any other database as of yet. This release was 17 years posthumously after the death of Bates in Osborn, was never broadcast on television. Co-starring Sheila Allen and Joanna Dunham ; it was deemed "too controversial " due to the " unrepentantly " unmarried-and-pregnant aspect[ 2 ] and reportedly ordered to be destroyed.

No copies are known to exist. However, little verification seems to validate the existence of this program, other than its IMDb entry. References [ edit ]. Rusbridger, Alan ed. The Guardian. ISSN OCLC Retrieved British Film Institute. Three on a Gas Ringa play about a single mother recorded inwas considered 'too shocking' to transmit and, according to some accounts, was banned by the Independent Television Authority.

British Television Drama. It was one of three Saville productions of the period to be recorded and then shelved indefinitely. Theater Mania. Raines, Howell ed. The New York Times. Archived from the original on Retrieved — via WayBack Machine. External links [ edit ]. Categories : Male actor filmographies British filmographies Lists of awards received by British actor Theatre-related lists.

Toggle the table of contents. List of roles and awards for Alan Bates. Add languages Add topic. Awards and nominations Award Wins. The Entertainer. Film debut. Whistle Down the Wind. A Kind of Loving. The Running Man. Nothing but the Best. Zorba the Greek. Once Upon a Tractor. King of Hearts. Far from the Madding Crowd. Gabriel Oak. Three Sisters.

Aleksandr Ignatyevich Vershinin. Part of the American Film Theatre series. The Go-Between. A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. Short film; also producer. Adapted from a D. Lawrence benedick bates biography of donald story. Originated each role on stage. Both films part of the American Film Theatre series. Hands Up! Originally film, re-edited.

The Return of the Soldier. The Wicked Lady. A Prayer for the Dying. We Think the World of You. Force Majeure. James Prentis, V. Also re-release a. Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets. The Cherry Orchard. Leonid Andreyevitch Gayev. The Mothman Prophecies. The Sum of All Fears. Hollywood North. Play of the Week. Mini-film : Look Back in Anger ; Originated role on stage.

Mini-film: The Square Ring. Armchair Theatre. Lost [ c ]. Episode: "Three on a Gas Ring" never aired.