Donald Pleasence(1919-1995)
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Balding, quietly spoken, of slight build and possessed of piercing blue
eyes -- often peering out from behind round, steel-rimmed glasses --
Donald Pleasence had the necessary physical attributes which make a
great screen villain. In the course of his lengthy career, he relished
playing the obsessed, the paranoid and the purely evil. Even the Van
Helsing-like psychiatrist Sam Loomis in the
Halloween (1978) franchise seems only
marginally more balanced than his prey. An actor of great intensity,
Pleasence excelled on stage as Shakespearean villains. He was an
unrelenting prosecutor in
Jean Anouilh's "Poor Bitos" and
made his theatrical reputation in the title role of the seedy, scheming
tramp in Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker"
(1960). On screen, he gave a perfectly plausible interpretation of the
head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, in
The Eagle Has Landed (1976).
He was a convincingly devious Thomas Cromwell in
Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972),
disturbing in his portrayal of the crazed, bloodthirsty preacher Quint
in Will Penny (1967); and as sexually
depraved, alcohol-sodden 'Doc' Tydon in the brilliant Aussie outback
drama Wake in Fright (1971). And,
of course, he was Ernst Stavro Blofeld in
You Only Live Twice (1967).
These are some of the films, for which we may remember Pleasence, but
there was a great deal more to this fabulous, multi-faceted actor.
Donald Henry Pleasence was born on October 5, 1919 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, to Alice (Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence. His family worked on the railway; his grandfather had been a signal
man and both his brother and father were station masters. When Donald
failed to get a scholarship at RADA, he joined the family occupation
working as a clerk at his father's station before becoming station
master at Swinton, Yorkshire. While there he wrote letters to theatre
companies eventually being accepted by one on the island of Jersey in
Spring 1939 as an assistant stage manager. On the eve of World War II,
he made his theatrical debut in "Wuthering Heights". In 1942, he played
Curio in "Twelfth Night", but his career was then interrupted by
military service in the RAF. He was shot down over France, incarcerated
and tortured in a German POW camp. Once repatriated, Donald returned to
the stage in Peter Brook's 1946
London production of "The Brothers Karamazov" with Alec Guinness
although he missed the opening due to measles, followed by a stint on
Broadway with Laurence Olivier's
touring company in "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "Anthony and Cleopatra".
Upon his return to England, he won critical plaudits for his
performance in "Hobson's Choice". In 1952, Donald began his screen
career, rather unobtrusively, in small parts. He was only really
noticed once having found his métier as dastardly, sneaky Prince John
in
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955).
It took several more years, until international recognition came his
way: first, through the filmed adaptation of
The Guest (1963); and,
secondly, with his blind forger in
The Great Escape (1963), a role
imbued with added conviction due to his own wartime experience.
Some of his best acting Donald reserved for the small screen. In 1962,
the producer of
The Twilight Zone (1959),
Buck Houghton, brought Donald to the
United States ('damn the expense'!) to guest star in the third-season
episode "The Changing of the Guard". He was given a mere five days to
immerse himself in the part of a gentle school teacher, Professor Ellis
Fowler, who, on the eve of Christmas is forcibly retired after
fifty-one years of teaching. Devastated, and believing himself a
failure who has made no mark on the world, he is about to commit
suicide when the school's bell summons him to his classroom. There, he
is confronted by the spirits of deceased students who exhort him to
consider that his lessons have had fundamental effects on their lives,
even leading to acts of great heroism. Upon hearing this, Fowler is now
content to graciously accept his retirement. Managing to avoid maudlin
sentimentality, Donald's performance was intuitive and, arguably, one
of the most poignant ever accomplished in a thirty-minute television
episode. Once again, against type, he was equally delightful as the
mild-mannered Reverend Septimus Harding in
Anthony Trollope's
The Barchester Chronicles (1982).
Whether eccentric, sinister or given to pathos, Donald Pleasence was
always great value for money and his performances have rarely failed to
engage.
eyes -- often peering out from behind round, steel-rimmed glasses --
Donald Pleasence had the necessary physical attributes which make a
great screen villain. In the course of his lengthy career, he relished
playing the obsessed, the paranoid and the purely evil. Even the Van
Helsing-like psychiatrist Sam Loomis in the
Halloween (1978) franchise seems only
marginally more balanced than his prey. An actor of great intensity,
Pleasence excelled on stage as Shakespearean villains. He was an
unrelenting prosecutor in
Jean Anouilh's "Poor Bitos" and
made his theatrical reputation in the title role of the seedy, scheming
tramp in Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker"
(1960). On screen, he gave a perfectly plausible interpretation of the
head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, in
The Eagle Has Landed (1976).
He was a convincingly devious Thomas Cromwell in
Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972),
disturbing in his portrayal of the crazed, bloodthirsty preacher Quint
in Will Penny (1967); and as sexually
depraved, alcohol-sodden 'Doc' Tydon in the brilliant Aussie outback
drama Wake in Fright (1971). And,
of course, he was Ernst Stavro Blofeld in
You Only Live Twice (1967).
These are some of the films, for which we may remember Pleasence, but
there was a great deal more to this fabulous, multi-faceted actor.
Donald Henry Pleasence was born on October 5, 1919 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, to Alice (Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence. His family worked on the railway; his grandfather had been a signal
man and both his brother and father were station masters. When Donald
failed to get a scholarship at RADA, he joined the family occupation
working as a clerk at his father's station before becoming station
master at Swinton, Yorkshire. While there he wrote letters to theatre
companies eventually being accepted by one on the island of Jersey in
Spring 1939 as an assistant stage manager. On the eve of World War II,
he made his theatrical debut in "Wuthering Heights". In 1942, he played
Curio in "Twelfth Night", but his career was then interrupted by
military service in the RAF. He was shot down over France, incarcerated
and tortured in a German POW camp. Once repatriated, Donald returned to
the stage in Peter Brook's 1946
London production of "The Brothers Karamazov" with Alec Guinness
although he missed the opening due to measles, followed by a stint on
Broadway with Laurence Olivier's
touring company in "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "Anthony and Cleopatra".
Upon his return to England, he won critical plaudits for his
performance in "Hobson's Choice". In 1952, Donald began his screen
career, rather unobtrusively, in small parts. He was only really
noticed once having found his métier as dastardly, sneaky Prince John
in
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955).
It took several more years, until international recognition came his
way: first, through the filmed adaptation of
The Guest (1963); and,
secondly, with his blind forger in
The Great Escape (1963), a role
imbued with added conviction due to his own wartime experience.
Some of his best acting Donald reserved for the small screen. In 1962,
the producer of
The Twilight Zone (1959),
Buck Houghton, brought Donald to the
United States ('damn the expense'!) to guest star in the third-season
episode "The Changing of the Guard". He was given a mere five days to
immerse himself in the part of a gentle school teacher, Professor Ellis
Fowler, who, on the eve of Christmas is forcibly retired after
fifty-one years of teaching. Devastated, and believing himself a
failure who has made no mark on the world, he is about to commit
suicide when the school's bell summons him to his classroom. There, he
is confronted by the spirits of deceased students who exhort him to
consider that his lessons have had fundamental effects on their lives,
even leading to acts of great heroism. Upon hearing this, Fowler is now
content to graciously accept his retirement. Managing to avoid maudlin
sentimentality, Donald's performance was intuitive and, arguably, one
of the most poignant ever accomplished in a thirty-minute television
episode. Once again, against type, he was equally delightful as the
mild-mannered Reverend Septimus Harding in
Anthony Trollope's
The Barchester Chronicles (1982).
Whether eccentric, sinister or given to pathos, Donald Pleasence was
always great value for money and his performances have rarely failed to
engage.