Patrick Magee (actor)
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Patrick Magee (31 March 1922 – 14 August 1982) was a Tony Award winning Irish actor best known for his collaborations with Samuel Beckett and his role as the victimised writer Mr. Alexander in Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange.
He was raised Catholic in Armagh Northern Ireland; his name at birth was Patrick McGee. When he moved to London in 1957, he changed the spelling of his surname so as to appear less provincial. He appeared in Beckett's All that Fall at the Royal Court Theatre and impressed the writer so much that Beckett wrote the play Krapp's Last Tape especially for Magee (a BBC version was made in 1972). Magee's large eyes and eyebrows and distinctive voice cast him as a character actor, usually as a deranged authority figure, although his early film roles also included the brave and dedicated British army surgeon in Zulu. The critic John Simon wrote that Magee "has a way of turning every syllable he speaks into overripe Limburger cheese: he is the only actor I can think of to whom one listens with one's nose."
He also played a doctor in Francis Ford Coppola's first film Dementia 13. This film was produced by Roger Corman and Magee became a regular in Corman's low-budget productions and other horror films, especially Hammer Films. He also appeared in Harold Pinter's The Servant as a bishop.
In 1964 Magee joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, then under the direction of Peter Brook. He premiered in Pinter's The Birthday Party (and also appeared in the film version) and then had a major part in Marat/Sade. The play transferred to Broadway and won Magee a Tony Award, and again he went on to appear in the film version. Magee always regarded film and television work as a means to subsidise theatre work but following Marat/Sade Magee appeared in many prestigious film and TV projects leading to A Clockwork Orange.
Four years later, Kubrick cast Magee again in Barry Lyndon, but the decline of film production in Britain in the 1970s and 80s left Magee with fewer outlets. His last major role was in a European production, Walerian Borowczyk's Docteur Jekyll et les femmes.
Always known as a heavy drinker, Magee died of a sudden heart attack in 1982 at age 60.
[edit] Trivia
At the Royal Shakespeare Company, Magee worked with Malcolm McDowell. When they were cast opposite each other, the pair had enough confidence in each other that they mostly improvised their scenes.
