Alan Badel
| Alan Badel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Alan Fernand Badel 11 September 1923 Rusholme, Manchester, Lancashire, England |
| Died |
19 March 1982 (aged 58) Chichester, Sussex, England |
| Cause of death | heart attack |
| Years active | 1952–82 |
| Spouse(s) | Yvonne Owen (1942-1982; his death) |
| Children | Sarah Badel |
Alan Fernand Badel[1] (/bəˈdɛl/;[2] 11 September 1923 – 19 March 1982) was an English stage actor who also appeared frequently in the cinema, radio and television and was noted for his richly textured voice which was once described as "the sound of tears".
Early life
Badel was born in Rusholme, Manchester, and educated at Burnage High School. He fought in France and Germany during the Second World War, serving as a paratrooper on D-Day.[3]
Career
In his early career, he played leading parts, including Romeo and Hamlet, with the Old Vic and Stratford companies.
Badel's earliest film role was as John the Baptist in the Rita Hayworth version of Salome (1953), a version in which the story was altered to make Salome a Christian convert who dances for Herod in order to save John rather than have him condemned to death. He portrayed Richard Wagner in Magic Fire (1955), a biopic about the composer. He also played the role of Karl Denny, the impresario, in the film Bitter Harvest (1963). Around the same time, he played opposite Vivien Merchant in a television version of Harold Pinter's play The Lover (also 1963) and as Edmond Dantès in a BBC television adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (1964).
Badel also played the villainous sunglasses-wearing Najim Beshraavi in Arabesque (1966) with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. He also played the French Interior Minister in The Day of the Jackal (1973), a political thriller about the attempted assassination of President Charles de Gaulle, and in the political television drama Bill Brand (1976), the government's Employment minister David Last, a former backbench left-wing MP who had recently joined the frontbench after 30 years in the Commons. One of his last roles was that of Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg in the Paramount film Nijinsky (1980). A television adaptation for the BBC of The Woman in White (1982) by Wilkie Collins, in which Badel played the role as Count Fosco, was shown posthumously.[4]
Personal life
Badel married the actress Yvonne Owen in 1942 and they remained married until his death from a heart attack in Chichester, aged 58. Their daughter Sarah Badel is an actress.
Selected filmography
- The Stranger Left No Card (1952) - Stranger
- Salome (1953) - John the Baptist
- Will Any Gentleman...? (1953) - The Great Mendoza
- Three Cases of Murder (1955) - Owen (segment "Lord Mountdrago") / Mr. X (segment "In the Picture") / Harry (segment "You Killed Elizabeth")
- Magic Fire (1955) - Richard Wagner
- This Sporting Life (1963) - Gerald Weaver
- Bitter Harvest (1963) - Karl Denny
- Children of the Damned (1964) - Dr. David Neville
- Arabesque (1966) - Beshraavi
- Otley (1968) - Sir Alex Hadrian
- Where's Jack? (1969) - The Lord Chancellor
- The Adventurers (1970) - President Rojo
- The Day of the Jackal (1973) - The Minister
- Luther (1973) - Thomas De Vio
- Telefon (1977) - Colonel Malchenko
- The Medusa Touch (1978) - Barrister
- Force 10 from Navarone (1978) - Petrovitch
- Agatha (1979) - Lord Brackenbury
- The Riddle of the Sands (1979) - Dollmann
- Nijinsky (1980) - Baron de Gunzburg
- Shōgun (1980) - Father Dell'Aqua
References
- ↑ "Alan Badel | BFI". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 2015-07-02. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
- ↑ G. M. Miller, BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names (Oxford UP, 1971), p. 9.
- ↑ "Alan F Badel". ParaData.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
- ↑ "Alan Badel". BFI Film Forever. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
