Arthur Nigel Davenport (23 May 1928 - 25 October 2013) was an English stage, television and film actor,[1] best known as the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Birkenhead in the Academy Award-winning films A Man for All Seasons and Chariots of Fire, respectively.

Davenport was born in Great Shelford,[2] Cambridgeshire, to Katherine Lucy (née Meiklejohn) and Arthur Henry Davenport.[3] His father was a bursar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.[1] He grew up in an academic family and was educated at St Peter's School, Seaford, Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford.[1] Originally he chose to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics but switched to English on the advice of one of his tutors.[4]

Career

Davenport first appeared on stage at the Savoy Theatre and then with the Shakespeare Memorial Company, before joining the English Stage Company, one of its earliest members, at the Royal Court Theatre in 1956.[5] He began appearing in British film and television productions in supporting roles, including a walk-on in Tony Richardson's film, Look Back in Anger (1959). Subsequent roles included a theatre manager opposite Laurence Olivier in the film version of The Entertainer and a policeman in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (both 1960).[5]

In the 1962 last episode of the first season of the TV seriesThe Saint tilted "The Charitable Countess" with Roger Moore as Simon Templar and Patricia Donahue as Countess Rovagna, Davenport played a supporting role as Countess's confidant, Aldo Petri.

He made an impression as Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk in A Man for All Seasons (1966),[6] co-starred with Michael Caine in the war movie Play Dirty,[4] and had a major role as Lord Bothwell in Mary, Queen of Scots.[6] In 1972, he appeared as George Adamson, opposite Susan Hampshire in Living Free,[4] the sequel to Born Free.

During the production of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Davenport read the lines of HAL 9000 off-camera during the computer's dialogues with actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. Canadian actor Douglas Rain was ultimately chosen for the role of HAL's voice.[7] Davenport took the leading role in the off-beat Phase IV (1974), which failed to find an audience. In 1979 he portrayed King George III in Prince Regent.[1]

In February 1997, Davenport was the subject of This Is Your Life when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at David Nicholson's stables near Cheltenham.

He was president of Equity from 1986 to 1992.[1][6]

Personal life

Davenport was married twice, first to Helena Margaret White[1] whom he met while he was studying at Oxford University. They married in 1951 and had a daughter, Laura and a son, Hugo.[1] His second wife was actress Maria Aitken[1] with whom he had a second son, Jack, also an actor, best known for appearing in Pirates of the Caribbean.[8] According to Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Jack was cast as the James Norrington character, partly because of Nigel's involvement in A High Wind in Jamaica.[citation needed]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Ref.
1959	Look Back in Anger	1st Commercial Traveller	[5]
1960	Peeping Tom	Det. Sgt. Miller	[5]
	The Entertainer	Theatre Manager	[4]
1962	Mix Me a Person	Juke's Stepfather
1963	Ladies Who Do	Mr Strang
1964	The Third Secret	Lew Harding
1965	A High Wind in Jamaica	Mr Thornton	[1]
	Sands of the Kalahari	Sturdevan
1966	A Man for All Seasons	Duke of Norfolk	[1]
1968	Play Dirty	Captain Cyril Leech	[5]
	2001: A Space Odyssey	HAL (replaced)
1969	The Virgin Soldiers	Sergeant Driscoll	[5]
1970	No Blade of Grass	John Custance
	The Mind of Mr. Soames	Dr Maitland
1971	Mary, Queen of Scots	Lord Bothwell	[4]
	The Last Valley	Gruber
1972	Living Free	George Adamson	[4]
1973	Bram Stoker's Dracula	Van Helsing	[6]
	The Picture of Dorian Gray	Sir Harry Wotton	[6]
1974	Phase IV	Dr Ernest D. Hubbs
1975	The Regent's Wife
1976	Death of a Snowman	Lt. Ben Deel
1977	The Island of Dr. Moreau	Montgomery
	Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers	Sgt. Driscoll	[4]
1979	The London Connection / The Omega Connection	Arthur Minton
1979	Zulu Dawn	Colonel Hamilton-Brown	[9]
1980	Cry of the Innocent	Gray Harrison Hunt
1981	Chariots of Fire	Lord Birkenhead	[1]
	Nighthawks	Peter Hartman
1984	A Christmas Carol	Silas Scrooge
	Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes	Major Jack Downing	[1]
1986	Caravaggio	Giustiniani
	Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy	Lord Ismay
1988	Without a Clue	Lord Smithwick
1997	The Opium War		[5]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	! Ref.
1957-1958	The Adventures of Robin Hood	St Peter Marston, Claude the Seneschal, Barty and others	7 episodes	[8]
1963	The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (TV series) - Return to Sender	Dino Stefano	1 episode
1966-68	The Avengers	Lord Barnes / Robertson		[8]
1969	The Name of the Game	David Windom	1 episode
1972	The Edwardians	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	1 episode
1974	South Riding	Robert Carne	11 episodes	[5]
1975	Oil Strike North	Jim Fraser	13 episodes	[5]
1979	Prince Regent	King George III	8 episodes, TV mini-series	[5]
1981	Masada	Sen. Mucianus	Part 1
	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Theseus
1982	Bird of Prey	Charles Bridgnorth		[4]
1982-83	Don't Rock The Boat	Jack Hoxton	12 episodes, TV mini-series	[4]
1985-1990	Howards' Way	Sir Edward Frere	29 episodes	[8]
1991	Trainer	James Brant	13 episodes	[10]
1993	Keeping Up Appearances ("The Commodore")	The Commodore	1 episode	[8]
1994	Woof!	Mr. Wellesby	1 episode	[11]
1996	The Treasure Seekers	Lord Blackstock		[5]
2000	David Copperfield	Dan Peggotty	TV movie	[8]
	Midsomer Murders	William Smithers	1 episode	[8]

[ Source: Wikipedia ]