Nigel Hawthorne

Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne was an English actor born on 5 April 1929 in Coventry, Warwickshire, the second of four children of Agnes Rosemary Hawthorne and Charles Barnard Hawthorne, a physician. When Hawthorne was three years old, the family relocated to Cape Town, South Africa, where his father had established a medical practice. He attended St George's Grammar School in Cape Town and a Christian Brothers College, where he played rugby, though he later described his time there as unhappy. Hawthorne enrolled at the University of Cape Town, where he occasionally acted alongside Theo Aronson, who would later become a noted biographer, but withdrew from his studies and returned to the United Kingdom in the 1950s to pursue acting professionally.

Hawthorne made his professional stage debut in 1950 in a Cape Town production of The Shop at Sly Corner, playing the role of Archie Fellows. After moving to London, he took on small parts in various productions and made a television appearance in a 1969 episode of the comedy series Dad's Army. He was later persuaded by Ian McKellen and Judi Dench to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. To supplement his income during this period, he appeared in television commercials, including one for Mackeson Stout, and in the early 1990s starred alongside Tom Conti in a long-running series of advertisements for Vauxhall.

Hawthorne's Broadway career spanned 1974 to 1990. His first New York stage appearance came in a 1974 production of As You Like It, and he returned to Broadway in 1990 to star in Shadowlands. That performance earned him the 1991 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

One of Hawthorne's most widely recognized roles came on British television, where he played Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary of the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister, and reprised the character as Cabinet Secretary in the sequel series Yes, Prime Minister. For this work he received four BAFTA Awards for Best Entertainment Performance. He also drew attention for his portrayal of Georgie Pillson in the London Weekend Television series Mapp and Lucia, and played a reformed ex-convict in an episode of Going Straight opposite Ronnie Barker.

His film career included a role in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi in 1982, alongside a cast that featured Martin Sheen, John Mills, Candice Bergen, John Gielgud, Ian Charleson, and Ben Kingsley. That same year he appeared opposite Clint Eastwood in the Cold War thriller Firefox, playing a dissident Russian scientist. He also appeared in Demolition Man. Hawthorne's most acclaimed film performance came when he portrayed King George III in Alan Bennett's stage play The Madness of George III, for which he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, and then in the 1994 film adaptation The Madness of King George, for which he won the BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Following that success, Ian McKellen invited Hawthorne to play Clarence in Richard III, and Steven Spielberg cast him as President Martin Van Buren in Amistad. He won a further BAFTA, for Best Actor in Television, for the 1996 mini-series The Fragile Heart.

Hawthorne also worked as a voice actor, providing the voice of Fflewddur Fflam in the Disney animated film The Black Cauldron in 1985, Captain Campion in the 1978 animated adaptation of Watership Down, and Professor Porter in Disney's Tarzan in 1999.

In his personal life, Hawthorne met his long-time partner Trevor Bentham in 1968, when Bentham was stage-managing the Royal Court Theatre. From 1979 until Hawthorne's death, the two lived together in Radwell and later Thundridge, both in Hertfordshire, and together they fundraised for the North Hertfordshire hospice and other local charities. Hawthorne was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1987 New Year Honours and was knighted in the 1999 New Year Honours for services to theatre, film, and television. His autobiography, Straight Face, was published posthumously.

Hawthorne died of a heart attack at his home on 26 December 2001, aged 72, having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in mid-2000 and having undergone several operations. His funeral service was held at St Mary's Church in Thundridge, conducted by the Right Reverend Christopher Herbert, the Bishop of St Albans, after which he was cremated at Stevenage Crematorium. Among those attending were Derek Fowlds, Maureen Lipman, Charles Dance, Loretta Swit, and Frederick Forsyth.