Joss Ackland

Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland, known professionally as Joss Ackland, was born on 29 February 1928 in North Kensington, London, and died on 19 November 2023 in Clovelly, Devon, at the age of 95. The son of Sydney Norman Ackland, an Irish journalist, and Ruth Izod, he grew up in the Ladbroke Grove area under financially constrained circumstances, describing his upbringing as very poor. He was initially educated at Dame Alice Owen's School before leaving at fifteen to pursue acting. He trained under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then located at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and made his professional stage debut at seventeen in the 1945 production of The Hasty Heart.

Ackland married actress Rosemary Kirkcaldy on 18 August 1951, having met her while both were performing in Pitlochry, Scotland. In 1954, the couple relocated to Lilongwe in what was then Nyasaland, now Malawi, where Ackland managed a tea plantation for six months before they moved on to Cape Town, South Africa, where both found steady acting work. They returned to England in 1957. The following year, Ackland appeared on Broadway in 1958, with credits including the play King Henry V, the comedy Twelfth Night, and the play Hamlet. During his stage career he also joined the Old Vic, where he performed alongside Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Tom Courtenay. In September 2013, Jonathan Miller directed a Gala Performance of King Lear at the Old Vic in London, with Ackland in the title role.

Among his most prominent stage achievements was creating the role of Juan Perón in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita, opposite Elaine Paige. He also starred in the London production of Stephen Sondheim's and Hugh Wheeler's A Little Night Music alongside Jean Simmons and Hermione Gingold, and performed on the RCA Victor original London cast album of that production.

Ackland accumulated more than 130 film, radio, and television credits over the course of his career. His film work in the 1980s included The Sicilian, Lethal Weapon 2, The Hunt for Red October, and White Mischief, in which he portrayed Jock Delves Broughton and received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. On television, he played Jerry Westerby opposite Alec Guinness in the 1979 serial Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and appeared as Jephro Rucastle in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes episode entitled The Copper Beeches, alongside Jeremy Brett and David Burke. He portrayed C. S. Lewis in the television version of Shadowlands, a role later taken by Nigel Hawthorne on stage and Anthony Hopkins in the theatrical film. Additional television appearances included the two-part serial Hogfather, based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld, and a 2008 episode of Midsomer Murders entitled Vixens Run, in which he played Sir Freddy Butler. His voice was also heard reading quotations in several episodes of Jacob Bronowski's 1973 documentary series The Ascent of Man.

Ackland appeared in the Pet Shop Boys' 1988 film It Couldn't Happen Here and in the music video for their version of Always on My Mind. He later stated in an interview with the Radio Times that he had taken part because his grandchildren enjoyed the band's music. In 1992 he co-starred as Hans in the Disney film The Mighty Ducks alongside Emilio Estevez, reprising the role in 1996's D3: The Mighty Ducks. In a 2001 BBC interview, Ackland described himself as a workaholic and acknowledged regretting certain projects, including Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2001 New Year Honours List for services to drama.

Ackland and Rosemary were married for 51 years and had seven children, 32 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. In 1963, a fire at their home in Barnes led Rosemary to jump from a bedroom window while pregnant, breaking her back; after 18 months at Stoke Mandeville Hospital she recovered the ability to walk and subsequently gave birth. Their eldest son, Paul, died of a heroin overdose in 1982 at the age of 29. Rosemary was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2000 and died on 25 July 2002. Ackland published an autobiography, I Must Be In There Somewhere, in 1989, and a further memoir, My Better Half and Me, in 2010.