Nicholas Clay

Nicholas Clay (18 September 1946 – 25 May 2000) was an English actor born in Streatham, London, the son of a professional soldier serving in the British Army's Royal Engineers. The family settled in Kent, where Clay developed an early interest in acting through work at the Medway Little Theatre Club. He later trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

Clay's screen career began in the early 1960s with television appearances in Ask Mr. Pastry (1961), The Pocket Lancer (1961), and Tales of Mystery, followed by a film debut in These Are the Damned (1962). Further television work during this period included Dixon of Dock Green, William, Sergeant Cork, and Drama 61-67. He returned to film with the 1971 horror production The Night Digger, alongside Patricia Neal, and took the starring role of Charles Darwin in The Darwin Adventure (1972), as well as appearing in William: The Life, Works and Times of William Shakespeare (1972).

On stage, Clay built a substantial reputation through his association with Laurence Olivier's Old Vic productions and the National Theatre, where he accumulated a range of significant roles during the 1970s. His National Theatre credits included Aumerle in Richard II, Giovanni in Tis Pity She's a Whore directed by Roland Joffe, Nugget in Equus, a Jumper in Jumpers directed by Peter Wood, Rocca in Saturday Sunday Monday directed by Franco Zeffirelli, Young Seward in Macbeth directed by Michael Blakemore, and Acaste in The Misanthrope. Blakemore also directed him as Young Inna in Arturo Ui at Nottingham Playhouse, where Clay additionally performed in Jonathan Miller's production of King Lear. He played Hastings in Clifford Williams's world tour of She Stoops to Conquer. On the West End, his credits included Maurice in Flint at the Criterion Theatre and Trigorin in The Seagull at the Cambridge Theatre.

It was his performance as Acaste in The Misanthrope at the National Theatre that brought Clay to the United States. In 1975 he appeared on Broadway in The Misanthrope, a comedy, reprising the role he had originated in London. That same year he appeared in the television film In This House of Brede with Diana Rigg, who had also been his co-star in The Misanthrope.

Clay's film work continued through the latter half of the 1970s with Terror of Frankenstein (1977) and a small role in Zulu Dawn (1979), as well as the television production Saturday Sunday Monday (1978) with Laurence Olivier. In 1978 he portrayed Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton in the drama series Will Shakespeare. He played Alan in the 1976 television version of The Picture of Dorian Gray alongside Peter Firth, and took the role of Orestes in The Greeks: A Journey in Space and Time (1980).

The year 1981 marked Clay's most prominent period of screen visibility. He played Lancelot in the film Excalibur, followed by the title role in The Search for Alexander the Great and the role of Mellors in Just Jaeckin's adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. He also appeared in Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun (1982), reuniting him with Diana Rigg. Lovespell, filmed in 1979, received its release in 1981 as well.

Television work in the early 1980s included The Agatha Christie Hour (1982), Russian Night... 1941 (1983), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983), and The Last Days of Pompeii (1984). He played Doctor Percy Trevelyan in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes episode "The Resident Patient" and Mike Preston in the Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense episode "Child's Play" (1984). Further television credits included The Corsican Brothers (1985), Das Martyrium des heiligen Sebastian (1984) in Germany, supporting roles in Sleeping Beauty (1987), Lionheart (1987), and Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987), and the ITV series Gentlemen and Players (1988–89). In 1992 he appeared with Kim Thomson in the BBC series Virtual Murder. Later television appearances spanned The New Adventures of Robin Hood, Zorro, Kavanagh QC, Shine on Harvey Moon, The Odyssey, Shanghai 1937, Bugs, Highlander, Psychos, and the 1998 miniseries Merlin starring Sam Neill, in which Clay played Lord Leo. His final screen appearance was in Roger Ashton-Griffiths' short film And Beyond.

Later stage work included Design for Living in 1995. In his final years Clay taught drama at The Actors' Centre and the Academy of Live and Performing Arts, and worked in association with RADA in a capacity that involved promoting the organization and advising acting students.

In 1980 Clay married actress Lorna Heilbron; they had two daughters. He died in London on 25 May 2000, at the age of 53, from liver cancer.