Early life

Bates was born at the Queen Mary Nursing Home, Darley Abbey, Derby, England, on 17 February 1934, the eldest of three sons of Florence Mary (née Wheatcroft), a housewife and a pianist, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker and a cellist, who lived in Allestree, Derby, at the time. The family briefly moved to Mickleover, then returned to Allestree.

Both of his parents were amateur musicians, and encouraged him to pursue music, but by the age of 11, young Bates already had determined his life's course as an actor, and so they sent him for dramatic coaching instead. He also saw productions at Derby's Little Theatre.

He was educated at the Herbert Strutt Grammar School, Derby Road, Belper, Derbyshire (now 'Strutts', a volunteer led Business & Community Centre) and later gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he studied with Albert Finney and Peter O'Toole, before leaving to join the RAF for National Service at RAF Newton.

Career

Bates's stage debut was in 1955, in You and Your Wife, in Coventry. In 1956 he made his West End debut as Cliff in Look Back in Anger, a role he had originated at the Royal Court and which made him a star. He also played the role on television (for the ITV Playhouse) and on Broadway. In the late 1950s Bates appeared in several plays for television in Britain. In 1960 he appeared in The Entertainer opposite Laurence Olivier, his first film role. Bates worked for the Padded Wagon Moving Company in the early 1960s while acting at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City. Throughout the 1960s he starred in several major films including Whistle Down the Wind (1961), A Kind of Loving (1962), Zorba the Greek (1964), Philippe de Broca's King of Hearts (1966), Georgy Girl (1966), Far From the Madding Crowd (1967) and the Bernard Malamud film The Fixer (1968), which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969 he starred in Women in Love.

Bates was handpicked by director John Schlesinger (with whom he had previously worked on A Kind of Loving and Far From The Madding Crowd) to star in the film Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) to play Dr. Daniel Hirsh. Bates was held up filming The Go-Between (1971) for director Joseph Losey, and had also become a father around that time, and so he had to refuse the role. (The part then went first to Ian Bannen, who balked at kissing and simulating sex with another man, and then to Peter Finch who earned an Academy Award nomination for the role.)

Around this time he appeared as Col. Vershinin in the National Theatre's film of Three Sisters, directed by and co-starring Laurence Olivier. He later worked with Olivier for television in the Laurence Olivier Presents version of Harold Pinter's The Collection (1976) and A Voyage Round My Father (1982).

Bates starred in such international films as An Unmarried Woman (1978) and Nijinsky (1980), and also played Bette Midler's ruthless business manager in the film The Rose (1979). On television, his parts included Michael Henchard, the ultimately-disgraced lead in The Mayor of Casterbridge - which he described as his favourite role - in the serial adaptation by Dennis Potter (1978). Two diametrically-opposed roles were in An Englishman Abroad (1983), as Guy Burgess, a member of the Cambridge spy ring by then exiled in Moscow, and Pack of Lies (1987), in which he played a British Secret Service agent tracking several Soviet spies. He continued working in film and television in the 1990s, including the role of Claudius in Mel Gibson's version of Hamlet (1990), though most of his roles in this era were more low-key.

In 2001 Bates joined an all-star cast in Robert Altman's critically acclaimed period drama Gosford Park, in which he played the butler Jennings. He later played Antonius Agrippa in the 2004 TV film Spartacus, but died before it premiered. The film was dedicated to his memory and that of writer Howard Fast, who wrote the original novel that inspired the film Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick.

On stage Bates had a particular association with the plays of Simon Gray, appearing in Butley, Otherwise Engaged, Stage Struck, Melon, Life Support and Simply Disconnected, as well as the film of Butley and Gray's TV series Unnatural Pursuits. In Otherwise Engaged, his co-star was Ian Charleson, who became a friend, and Bates later contributed a chapter to a 1990 book on his colleague after Charleson's early death.

Bates was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1996, and was knighted in 2003. He was an Associate Member of RADA and was a patron of The Actors Centre, Covent Garden, London, from 1994 until his death in 2003.

Personal life

Bates was married to Victoria Ward from 1970 until her death in 1992, although they had separated many years earlier. They had twin sons, born in November 1970, the actors Benedick Bates and Tristan Bates. Tristan died following an asthma attack in Tokyo in 1990. Other sources report Tristan died of a heroin overdose in a public toilet.

Bates had numerous homosexual relationships throughout his life, including those with actors Nickolas Grace and Peter Wyngarde and with Olympic skater John Curry. In 1994 Curry died from AIDS in Bates' arms. Even when homosexuality was partially decriminalised in Britain in 1967, Bates rigorously avoided interviews and questions about his personal life, and even denied to his male lovers that there was a homosexual component in his nature. While throughout his life Bates sought to be regarded as a ladies' man or at least as a man who, as an actor, could appear attractive to and attracted by women, he also chose to take on many roles with an aspect of homosexuality or bisexuality. He let this part of his life appear as he played the role of the sexually-frustrated Rupert in the 1970 film Women in Love.

In the later years of his life, Bates had a relationship with the Welsh actress Angharad Rees and in the last years, his companion was his lifelong friend, actress Joanna Pettet, his co-star in the 1964 Broadway play Poor Richard. They divided their time between New York and London.

Bates had undergone a hip replacement shortly before being diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in January 2003. He suffered a stroke later that year, and died in December after going into a coma.

Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates

The posthumous publication of Donald Spoto's 2007 book, Otherwise Engaged: The Life of Alan Bates, is the only authorised biography of Alan Bates. It was written with the full and complete cooperation of his son Benedick Bates and Bates's younger brother Martin, and includes more than one hundred interviews with people such as Michael Linnit and Rosalind Chatto.

Tristan Bates Theatre

Bates and his family set up the Tristan Bates Theatre, at the Actors' Centre in Covent Garden, in memory of his son, Tristan, who died at the age of 19. Tristan's twin brother, Benedick, is a vice-director.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	ITV Play of the Week	Cliff Lewis	episode: Look Back in Anger
1959	ITV Television Playhouse	Rikki Barofski	episode: The Jukebox
	ITV Play of the Week	Eddie Burke Charles Tritton	episode: The Square Ring episode: The Wind and the Rain
	Armchair Theatre	Lewis Black	episode: The Thug
1960	The Entertainer	Frank Rice
	ITV Television Playhouse	Ralph Freeman	episode: Incident
	ITV Play of the Week	Peter Garside	episode: The Upstart
	The Four Just Men	Giorgio	episode: Treviso Dan
1961	Whistle Down the Wind	The Man
1962	A Kind of Loving	Victor Arthur 'Vic' Brown	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1963	The Caretaker	Mick	(also known as The Guest)
	The Running Man	Stephen Maddux
1964	Zorba the Greek	Basil
	Nothing But the Best	Jimmy Brewster
1966	Georgy Girl	Jos Jones	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Male
	King of Hearts	Charles Plumpick
	The Wednesday Play	Grigor Pecharin	episode: A Hero of Our Time
1967	Far From the Madding Crowd	Gabriel Oak	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1968	The Fixer	Yakov Bok	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1969	Women in Love	Rupert Burkin	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1970	Three Sisters	Col. Vershinin
1971	The Go-Between	Ted Burgess
1972	A Day in the Death of Joe Egg	Bri
1973	Story of a Love Story	Harry
1974	Butley	Ben Butley
	The Story of Jacob and Joseph	Narrator	(voice only)
1975	In Celebration	Andrew Shaw
	Royal Flash	Rudi Von Sternberg
	Play for Today	Charles Peter	episode: Two Sundays episode: Plaintiffs and Defendants Nominated—BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor
1976	Great Performances	James	episode: The Collection
1977	Piccadilly Circus	Gray	episode: Plaintiffs and Defendants
1978	An Unmarried Woman	Saul
	The Shout	Crossley
	The Mayor of Casterbridge	Michael Henchard	(TV miniseries) 7 episodes
1979	The Rose	Rudge Campbell
1980	Nijinsky	Sergei Diaghilev
1981	Rece do góry	Wikto
	Quartet	H.J. Heidler
	The Trespasser	Siegmund	(TV movie)
	Very Like a Whale	Sir Jock Mellor	(TV movie)
1982	The Return of the Soldier	Chris Baldry
	Britannia Hospital	Macready
1983	The Wicked Lady	Jerry Jackson
	Separate Tables	John Malcolm Maj. Pollock	(TV movie) CableACE Award for Best Actor in a Theatrical or Non-Musical Program
	An Englishman Abroad	Guy Burgess	(TV movie) BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Actor CableACE Award for Best Actor in a Theatrical or Dramatic Special Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance
1984	A Voyage Round My Father	John Mortimer	(TV movie)
1985	Dr. Fischer of Geneva	Alfred Jones	(TV movie)
1986	Duet for One	David Cornwallis
1987	A Prayer for the Dying	Jack Meehan
	Pack of Lies	Stewart	(TV movie)
1988	We Think the World of You	Frank Meadows
	The Ray Bradbury Theater	John Fabian	episode: And So Died Riabouchinska
1989	Force majeure	Malcolm Forrest
	The Dog It Was That Died	Blair	(TV movie)
1990	Mister Frost	Felix Detweiler
	Hamlet	Claudius	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
	Dr. M	Dr. Marsfeldt Guru
	Screen Two	Marcel Proust	episode: 102 Boulevard Haussmann
1991	Shuttlecock	Major James Prentis VC
	Secret Friends	John
1992	Screen One	Henry Sitchell	episode: Losing Track
	Unnatural Pursuits	Hamish Partt	episode: I Don't Do Cuddles episode: I'm the Author Nominated—BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor
1993	Silent Tongue	Eamon McCree
1994	Hard Times	Josiah Bounderby	(TV series) 4 episodes
1995	The Grotesque	Sir Hugo Coal	(also known as Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets)
	Oliver's Travels	Oliver	(TV miniseries) 5 episodes
1998	Nicholas' Gift	Reg Green	(TV movie)
1999	The Cherry Orchard	Gayev
2000	The Prince and the Pauper	King Henry VIII	(TV movie)
	Arabian Nights	Storyteller	(TV movie)
	St. Patrick: The Irish Legend	Calpornius	(TV movie)
	In the Beginning	Jethro	(TV movie)
2001	Gosford Park	Jennings	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Satellite Award for Best Cast - Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
	Love in a Cold Climate	Uncle Matthew	(TV miniseries) Nominated—BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor
2002	The Sum of All Fears	Dressler
	The Mothman Prophecies	Alexander Leek
	Evelyn	Tom Connolly
	Bertie and Elizabeth	King George V	(TV movie)
	Salem Witch Trials	Sir Williams Phips	(TV movie)
2003	Hollywood North	Michael Baytes
	Meanwhile	Father Peter
	The Statement	Armand Bertier
2004	Spartacus	Antonius Agrippa	(TV movie)

Source: "Alan Bates". IMDb. Retrieved 3 April 2014.

Awards

• 1959 Clarence Derwent Award for A Long Day's Journey Into Night
• 1971 Evening Standard Best Actor Award for Butley
• 1972 Best Actor Tony for Butley (a performance he recreated in the film version of the same name, Butley in 1974)
• 1975 Variety Club Award for Otherwise Engaged
• 1983 Variety Club Award for A Patriot for Me
• 2000 Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award for Unexpected Man
• 2002 Best Actor Tony and Drama Desk, for Fortune's Fool

[ Source: Wikipedia ]