Nigel Davenport

Arthur Nigel Davenport was born on 23 May 1928 in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, England, and died on 25 October 2013. He came from an academic household: his father, Arthur Henry Davenport, had studied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, worked as an engineer for the Midland Railway, and later returned to Sidney Sussex as a lecturer, Fellow, and bursar. The elder Davenport also served four years in the Royal Engineers during World War I and received a Military Cross. On his mother's side, Davenport's great-uncle, Major Maury Meiklejohn, was awarded a Victoria Cross during the Second Boer War. Davenport was educated at St Peter's School in Seaford, Cheltenham College, and Trinity College, Oxford, where he initially enrolled in Philosophy, Politics and Economics before switching to English at a tutor's suggestion. During his National Service in the 1950s, he served with the Royal Army Service Corps as a disc jockey for the British Forces Broadcasting Service in Hamburg.

Davenport began his stage career at the Savoy Theatre and subsequently performed with the Shakespeare Memorial Company. In 1956 he became one of the earliest members of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre. His Broadway career brought him to New York in 1960, where he appeared in A Taste of Honey. That same year he also appeared on screen in two British films: as a theatre manager opposite Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer and as a policeman in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom. His film work had begun slightly earlier with a walk-on part in Tony Richardson's Look Back in Anger in 1959.

Among his most recognized film roles was that of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk in A Man for All Seasons in 1966. He co-starred with Michael Caine in the war film Play Dirty and took a major role as Lord Bothwell in Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1972 he appeared as George Adamson opposite Susan Hampshire in Living Free, the sequel to Born Free. He portrayed Lord Birkenhead in Chariots of Fire, and played Ebenezer Scrooge's father Silas in the 1984 George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol. He appeared opposite Michael Caine a second time in the 1988 Sherlock Holmes spoof Without a Clue. During pre-production on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, Davenport read HAL 9000's lines off-camera opposite actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, but Kubrick dismissed him after a few weeks, finding his English accent too distracting; the role ultimately went to Canadian actor Douglas Rain.

Davenport's television work included two appearances in The Saint: in the 1962 season one finale, "The Charitable Countess," he played Aldo Petri, and he returned in season three, episode sixteen, "The Rhine Maiden," as Charles Voyson. In 1979 he starred in a radio serialization of Jilly Cooper's novel Prudence alongside Felicity Kendal and portrayed King George III in Prince Regent. In 1993 he played the Duke of Holdernesse in a BBC Radio dramatization of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Priory School." He served as president of Equity from 1986 to 1992. In February 1997 he was the subject of This Is Your Life, surprised by Michael Aspel at David Nicholson's stables near Cheltenham.

Davenport married twice. His first wife was Helena Margaret White, whom he met at Oxford; they wed in 1951 and had a son and a daughter. His second wife was actress Maria Aitken, with whom he had a son, Jack Davenport, an actor known for his appearances in Pirates of the Caribbean.