Michael Gough

Francis Michael Gough was born on 23 November 1916 in Kuala Lumpur, Federated Malay States, the son of Francis Berkeley Gough, an English rubber planter, and Frances Atkins. He was educated at Rose Hill School in Tunbridge Wells and at Durham School before attending Wye Agricultural College, which he left to train at The Old Vic. During World War II, Gough served as a conscientious objector in the Non-Combatant Corps, as a member of 6 Northern Company based in Liverpool. He died on 17 March 2011 at his home in Salisbury, Wiltshire, at the age of 94.

Gough made his film debut in 1948 in Blanche Fury and went on to accumulate more than 150 film and television appearances over the course of his career. In 1955, he appeared in Laurence Olivier's Richard III, portraying one of the two murderers responsible for killing the Duke of Clarence, played by John Gielgud, as well as the Princes in the Tower. He became closely associated with the horror genre following his role as Sir Arthur Holmwood in Hammer's Dracula in 1958, after which he appeared in a succession of horror productions including Horrors of the Black Museum, Konga, The Phantom of the Opera, Black Zoo, Trog, The Corpse, Horror Hospital, and Satan's Slave. He also appeared in the comedy film Top Secret! in 1984 alongside Val Kilmer.

Gough's most enduring screen role came when he was cast as Alfred Pennyworth in Tim Burton's Batman in 1989, a part he reprised in Batman Returns in 1992, Batman Forever in 1995, and Batman & Robin in 1997, the latter two directed by Joel Schumacher. He was one of only two actors to appear across all four films in the Burton-Schumacher Batman series, the other being Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon. Gough also voiced the character in two BBC radio dramas, Batman: The Lazarus Syndrome in 1989 and a 1994 adaptation of Batman: Knightfall. He subsequently appeared in three additional Burton projects, retiring after Sleepy Hollow in 1999 but returning as a favor to the director to voice Elder Gutknecht in Corpse Bride and the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland.

On British television, Gough appeared in two separate Doctor Who serials, playing the titular villain in The Celestial Toymaker in 1966 and Councillor Hedin in Arc of Infinity in 1983. He portrayed the automation-obsessed Dr. Armstrong in the 1965 Avengers episode "The Cybernauts" and returned the following season as the Russian spymaster Nutski in "The Correct Way to Kill." His television work also included the role of Prime Minister Anthony Eden in the Ian Curteis play Suez 1956 in 1979, a reunion with Laurence Olivier in Granada Television's Brideshead Revisited in 1981, and the role of Mikhel in the television adaptation of John le Carré's Smiley's People in 1982. In 1957, Gough received a BAFTA TV Award, and in 1971 he received a BAFTA Film Award nomination for his work in The Go-Between.

Gough's Broadway career spanned from 1959 to 1987 and included appearances in The Fighting Cock, Bedroom Farce, and Breaking the Code. He first performed in Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce at the National Theatre in London in 1977, playing a resigned and rueful parent, before the production transferred to Broadway in 1978. For that performance, Gough won the 1979 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He received a second Tony nomination in the same category in 1988 for Breaking the Code. Gough was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for both productions, in 1979 and 1988 respectively.

Gough was married four times. His first marriage, to Diana Graves in 1937, produced a son, Simon Peter, born in 1942, and ended in divorce in 1948. He married Anne Elizabeth Leon in 1950; their daughter Emma Frances was born in 1953, and the couple divorced in 1962. His third wife was actress Anneke Wills, who played the Doctor's companion Polly in Doctor Who. Gough adopted Wills's daughter Polly, and the couple had a son, Jasper, born in 1965. Polly died in a motorcycle accident in 1982 at the age of 19. Gough married his fourth wife, Henrietta Lawrence, in 1981, and they remained together until his death. He was survived by Henrietta, his daughter Emma, and his sons Simon and Jasper.