Michael Bryant (actor)

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Michael Bryant (April 5, 1928 – April 25, 2002) was a British actor who produced many acclaimed performances on stage and television.

Bryant made his film debut in 1955. His greatest role was Mathieu in BBC2's 1970 adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre's Roads to Freedom trilogy. His cameo role in the BBC drama series, Colditz, is still widely remembered. He continued to appear in films and television (notably as Lenin in Nicholas and Alexandra) and in several Shakespearean productions, but never became a household name.

Bryant did have one brush with great success, when he was chosen by Orson Welles to play the lead role in his adaptation of the Charles Williams novel Dead Calm. The production frequently ran out of money, though, and when co-star Laurence Harvey died, Orson Welles stopped production and announced the movie -- which had been completed except for one special effects shot of a ship exploding -- would not be released. (The novel was finally adapted to film in 1989.)

In 1969 Bryant took his love of the stage on a strange trip into the realm of cult fillms, playing a clever male prostitute who outwits a delusional family of killers in the dark comedy Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly, an adaptation of a play by Maisie Mosco. Due to poor marketing and a lack of faith in the film by the distributor, the film quickly sank into obscurity even before it could develop a cult following.

In 1980, he won the London Drama Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor, and his other theatrical performances were equally well thought of. Bryant won Laurence Olivier Awards in 1988 and 1990 and was nominated twice more.