If I was forever the 'am', this man was the essential 'pro'

I refer to the late Roy Dotrice whose obit features in The Telegraph today.  Not, by a long way, a huge, international star of stage and screen but as far as I can tell he was never out of work since the end of the war.  He was born in the Channel Isles and when the Germans overran them he took a rowing boat and spent four days paddling across to Britain.  There, he lied about his age and instantly joined the RAF as a radio operator/air gunner.  Within three weeks he was shot down and spent three years in various PoW camps.  It was within these camps where there were constant amateur shows that he began to hone his skills as an actor/entertainer.

Roy Dotrice as John Aubrey in Brief Lives Credit: Alamy

Such were his abilities that on return to 'Blighty' after the war he was offered a free scholarship to Rada.  However, he joined a professional company and when he saw the abysmal standard of acting he decided that Rada had nothing to teach him!  He went on working his way through various repertory companies before he joined the RSC under Sir Peter Hall.  He played in every single one of Shakespeare's plays.  He worked with Olivier and then spent some considerable time in America and Canada.

Truly, this man was the 'pro' of 'pros'.

 

 

Comments

[Mayfly]

I am listening to him now, he has done the audio version of "A Game of Thrones" in which he plays something like 72 different parts. He was excellent.

[David Duff]

This "Game of Thrones" seems to have taken over the world - 'SoD' never stops droning on about it! - except for here, deep in the wild hinterland of 'Zummerzet'! So why do I just know, deep down inside myself, that it is probably a load of old codswallop?

[Whitewall]

What a man! I sure hope there are more where he came from.

[Mayfly]

Well, GoT before the television program took over, was indeed excellent. A myriad of interesting characters that the author was never afraid to kill off, with an enthralling story line, the attraction of "Houses" and their banners (a source of endless entertainment) plus magic and dragons. A mystery to be solved; a depiction of barbaric slaughter; companion Dire wolves - a bit for everyone.

And then they started filming it. Which was still good, they pulled in a number of excellent actors (even if we knew that Ned Stark would suffer a fate when they cast Sean Bean). It stuck close to the books, did us a favour by trimming some characters we were never going to remember anyway and kept looking towards G R R Martin's finale. However, he didn't keep up, and the writers have now taken over, and revealed exactly why they write stories for television rather than books. It's still good, but it's a whole new flavour from Martin's writing and is also suffering from "Let's make this one series two series...serieses....seriesi?" and "Let's give this highly successful series some money but not quite enough for their needs" (leading to nonsensical plot changes such as the disappearance of the one remaining Dire wolf). It is good. It is a good series, but I don't think it would have risen above the common herd with the production team it has now if G R R Martin hadn't written so much of it to start with. And now we're going to have some break off series, and it'll end up like "ST:Discovery". They may even throw in a Bechdel test, just for good measure. I am happy that this series will be the last, and I wish G R R Martin a speedy voyage towards his last book(s) which I suspect will be written by his son, or close friend and will never be as good as the original stuff.

[TheBigHenry]

I suppose "a free scholarship" is preferable to one that you have to pay for.

:)