Early life

Courtenay was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, the son of Annie Eliza (née Quest) and Thomas Henry Courtenay, a boat painter. He attended Kingston High School and studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.

Career

Courtenay made his stage debut in 1960 with the Old Vic theatre company at the Lyceum, Edinburgh, before taking over from Albert Finney in the title role of Billy Liar at the Cambridge Theatre in 1961. In 1963, he played that same title role in the film version, directed by John Schlesinger. He said of Albert Finney, "We both have the same problem, overcoming the flat harsh speech of the North."

Courtenay's film debut was in 1962 with Private Potter, directed by Finnish-born director Caspar Wrede, who had first spotted Courtenay while he was still at RADA. This was followed by The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, directed by Tony Richardson and Billy Liar, two highly acclaimed films and performances which helped usher in the British New Wave of the early-to-mid-1960s. For these performances Courtenay was awarded the 1962 BAFTA Award for most promising newcomer and the 1963 BAFTA Award for best actor respectively. For his role as the dedicated revolutionary leader Pasha Antipov in Doctor Zhivago (1965), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but was bested by Martin Balsam. Among his other well-known films is King & Country, directed by Joseph Losey, where he played opposite Dirk Bogarde; the all-star war film, Operation Crossbow, directed by Michael Anderson (starring George Peppard and Sophia Loren); King Rat, directed by Bryan Forbes and costarring James Fox and George Segal; and The Night of the Generals, directed by Anatole Litvak with Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif.

Despite being catapulted to fame by the aforementioned films, Courtenay has said that he has not particularly enjoyed film acting; and from the mid-1960s concentrated more on stage work. In 1968 Courtenay began a long association with Manchester when he played in The Playboy of the Western World for the Century Theatre at Manchester University directed by Michael Elliott. The theatre was a precursor of the Royal Exchange Theatre, which was founded in 1976 where he was to give many performances, firstly under the direction of Casper Wrede. His first roles for the Royal Exchange were as Faulkland in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals and the hero of Heinrich von Kleist's The Prince of Homburg. Since then he has played a variety of roles, including in 1999 the leading role in the theatre's production of King Lear, and in 2001 Uncle Vanya.

Courtenay's working relationship with Wrede returned to film when he played the title role in the latter's 1970 production of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. His best known film role since then was in The Dresser, from Ronald Harwood's play of the same name (in which he also appeared) with Albert Finney. Both Courtenay and Finney received nominations for Best Actor in the 1984 Academy Awards for their roles, losing to Robert Duvall. He played the father of Derek Bentley (Christopher Eccleston) in the 1991 film Let Him Have It.

Courtenay's television and radio appearances have been relatively few, but have included She Stoops to Conquer in 1971 on BBC and several Ayckbourn plays. He appeared in I Heard the Owl Call My Name on US television in 1973. In 1994 he starred as Quilp opposite Peter Ustinov in a Disney Channel 'made for television' version of The Old Curiosity Shop. Rather unexpectedly, he had a cameo role as the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski in the 1995 US TV film Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye. In 1998 he teamed with Albert Finney again for the acclaimed BBC drama A Rather English Marriage. He played the role of God, opposite Sebastian Graham-Jones, in Ben Steiner's radio play "A Brief Interruption", broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004. Also for Radio 4, he played the title role in Nick Leather's The Domino Man of Lancashire and Maurice in Richard Lumsden's Man in the Moon, both broadcast in 2007. Courtenay also appeared in the 2008 Christmas special of the BBC show The Royle Family, playing the role of Dave's father, David Sr.

In 2002, based on an idea by Michael Godley, Courtenay compiled a one-man show Pretending To Be Me based on the letters and writings of poet Philip Larkin, which first played at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. It later transferred to the Comedy Theatre in the West End in London.

In 2007, Courtenay appeared in two films: Flood, a disaster epic in which London is overwhelmed by floods, and The Golden Compass, an adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel, playing the part of Farder Coram. In 2008 he appeared in the BBC adaptation of Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, playing William Dorrit, and the Christmas edition of The Royle Family, playing David (Senior). In March 2011, he joined the cast of Gambit, a film starring fellow RADA alumnus Alan Rickman that began filming in May. The film was released in Great Britain in November 2012. In 2012, he co-starred in Quartet, directed by Dustin Hoffman.

Personal life

Courtenay was married to actress Cheryl Kennedy from 1973 to 1982. In 1988, he married Isabel Crossley, a stage manager at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. They have homes in Manchester and Putney in London.

In 2000, Courtenay's memoir Dear Tom: Letters From Home was published to critical acclaim. It comprises a selection of the letters exchanged between Courtenay and his mother, interspersed with his own recollections of life as a young student actor in London in the early 1960s.

Courtenay is the President of Hull City AFC's Official Supporters' Club.

In 1999, Courtenay was awarded an honorary doctorate by Hull University.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1962	Private Potter	Private Potter
1962	The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner	Colin Smith	BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
1963	Billy Liar	Billy Fisher	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1964	King & Country	Private Hamp	Volpi Cup Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1965	Operation Crossbow	Robert Henshaw
1965	King Rat	Lt. Robin Grey
1965	Doctor Zhivago	Pasha Antipov / Strelnikov	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1967	The Night of the Generals	Lance Cpl. Kurt Hartmann
1967	The Day the Fish Came Out	The Navigator
1968	A Dandy in Aspic	Gatiss
1968	Otley	Gerald Arthur Otley
1970	One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich	Ivan Denisovich
1971	To Catch a Spy	Baxter Clarke
1971	She Stoops to Conquer	Marlow
1983	The Dresser	Norman	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1987	Happy New Year	Edward Saunders
1987	Leonard Part 6	Frayn
1991	The Last Butterfly	Antoine Moreau
1991	Let Him Have It	William Bentley
1996	Famous Fred	Kenneth
1996	The Boy from Mercury	Uncle Tony Cronin
1998	A Rather English Marriage	Southgate	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1999	Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?	Harold Smith
2001	Last Orders	Vic	National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Nominated—European Film Award for Best Actor
2002	Nicholas Nickleby	Newman Noggs	National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
2007	Flood	Leonard Morrison
2007	The Golden Compass	Farder Coram
2011	Gambit	The Major
2012	Quartet	Reginald Paget
2013	Night Train to Lisbon	Older João Eca
2015	45 Years	Geoff Mercer	Silver Bear for Best Actor London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actor of the Year Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Actor Nominated—European Film Award for Best Actor Nominated—Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor
2016	Dad's Army	Lance Corporal Jones	Film adaptation of original BBC sitcom

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1960	Inside Story	Bert	Episode: "A Present for Penny"
1970	Solo	D.H. Lawrence	Episode: "Tom Courtenay as D.H. Lawrence"
1998	Kavanagh QC	Dr. Felix Crawley	Episode: "Memento Mori"
2007	Little Dorrit	Mr. Dorrit	14 episodes Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
2008	The Royle Family	David Best, Sr.	Episode: "The New Sofa"
2015	Unforgotten	Eric Slater	6 episodes British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor

Stage

His roles include:

• Konstantin Trepylef, The Seagull by Anton Chekhov as the Old Vic, London (1960)
• Poins, Henry IV, Part 1 at the Old Vic (1961)
• Feste, Twelfth Night at the Old Vic (1961)
• Billy Fisher, Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse at the Cambridge Theatre, London (1961)
• Andri, Andorra by Max Frisch for the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic (1964)
• Trofimov, The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov at the Chichester Festival Theatre (1966)
• Malcolm, Macbeth at the Chichester Festival Theatre (1966)
• Lord Fancourt Babberley, Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas for Century Theatre at the University of Manchester Theatre (1967)
• Christy Mahon, The Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge for Century Theatre at the University of Manchester Theatre (1968)
• Romeo, Romeo and Juliet for Century Theatre at the University of Manchester Theatre (1968)
• Hamlet for the 69 Theatre Company at the Edinburgh Festival (1968)
• Young Marlow, She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith for the 69 Theatre Company at the University of Manchester Theatre and then at the Garrick Theatre, London (1969)
• Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen for the 69 Theatre Company at the University of Manchester Theatre (1970)
• Lord Fancourt Babberley, Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas for the 69 Theatre Company at the University of Manchester Theatre and then at the Apollo Theatre, London (1972)
• Leonard, Time and Time Again by Alan Ayckbourn at the Comedy Theatre, London (1972)
• Captain Bluntschli, Arms and the Man for the 69 Theatre Company at ‘the Tent’ in the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1973)
• Norman, The Norman Conquests by Alan Ayckbourn at the Greenwich Theatre and then at the Globe Theatre (1974)
• John Clarke, The Fool by Edward Bond at the Royal Court Theatre (1975)
• Faulkland, The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1976)
• The Prince of Homburg by Heinrich von Kleist at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1976)
• Simon, Otherwise Engaged by Simon Gray at the Plymouth Theatre, New York (1977)
• Malvolio, Twelfth Night at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1978)
• Owen, Clouds by Michael Frayn at the Duke of York's Theatre, London (1978)
• Raskolnikov, Crime and Punishment at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1978)
• Norman, The Dresser by Ronald Harwood at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, then at the Queens Theatre, London (1980). Then at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York (1981)
• Alceste, The Misanthrope by Moliere at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1981)
• Andy Capp by Alan Price and James Maxwell at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1982)
• George, Jumpers by Tom Stoppard at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1984)
• Rookery Nook by Ben Travers at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London (1986)
• The Hypochondriac by Moliere at the Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith) (1987)
• Dealing with Clair by Martin Crimp at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond (1988)
• Harpagon, The Miser by Moliere at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1992)
• Eric Wells, Poison Pen by Ronald Harwood at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1993)
• Moscow Stations from the novel by Venedict Yerofeyev, one man show at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh then toured (1993)
• Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov at the Circle in the Square Theatre, New York (1995)
• Serge, 'Art' by Yasmina Reza at Wyndham's Theatre, London (1996)
• King Lear at the Royal Exchange, Manchester at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (1999)
• Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (2001)
• Pretending To Be Me, one man show at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds then toured (2003)

Singles

• Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (1963), Decca F 11729. Originally sung by Courtenay in The Lads, a British 1963 TV play.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]