| Nigel Davenport | |
|---|---|
| Born | Arthur Nigel Davenport 23 May 1928 Shelford, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Spouse | 1 Helena White (1951– marriage dissolved); 2 Maria Aitken (1972– marriage dissolved 1980) |
Nigel Davenport (born 23 May 1928) is an English stage, television and film actor.
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Davenport was born Arthur Nigel Davenport, however he goes by the first name of Nigel. Davenport was born in Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the son of Katherine Lucy (née Meiklejohn) and Arthur Henry Davenport.[1] Davenport's father was a bursar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He grew up in an academic family. He was educated at St. Peter's Seaford, Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford, originally to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics but switching to English on the advice of his tutors,Which he claims he hadn't realised for himself at the time.
Davenport first appeared on stage at the Savoy Theatre, then with the Shakespeare Memorial Company, before joining the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre in the 1960s. He began to appear in British film and television productions in supporting roles, such as playing a theatre manager opposite Laurence Olivier in the film version of The Entertainer (1960). He made an impression as Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk in A Man for All Seasons (1966) and had the major role of Lord Bothwell in Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1972, he appeared as George Adamson, opposite Susan Hampshire in Living Free, the sequel to Born Free, Davenport took the leading role in the off-beat Phase IV, which failed to find an audience. Since then he has continued to work in supporting roles in film and television as a succession of lords, police inspectors and military officers with a twinkle in their eye, most characteristically as General Lord Ismay opposite Nicol Williamson's Lord Mountbatten of Burma in The Last Viceroy, a classic TV drama series aired in 1986. In the 1974 BBC production of Shaw's "Apple Cart" he excelled as the very shavian King Magnus, along with Prunella Scales and a very young Helen Mirren in supporting roles.
Nigel was the subject of This Is Your Life in February 1997 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at David Nicholson's stables near Cheltenham.
During the production of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Davenport read the lines of HAL 9000 off-camera during the computer's dialogs with actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. Canadian actor Douglas Rain, who was ultimately chosen for the role of HAL's voice, quickly recorded his lines for the final film in post-production.
Davenport was a founder member of the English Stage Company.
Davenport retired from acting in the early 21st century because he could no longer memorize lines from scripts.
[Talking about working with Jack Palance on the Dan Curtis production of 'Dracula'] Davenport said "I was pretty frightened of that gentleman, because he was so bloody tall! He was six-foot-four and, as he wanted to look like Dracula, he had three-inch lifts in his shoes, so he was like six-foot-seven - and he was a big guy".[2]
Davenport was responsible for getting Jack Davenport (his son) his first cameo appearance with John Cleese (as Cleese was Davenport's friend).[3]
Davenport has been married twice, to Helena Margaret White (1929–1978) whom he met while he was studying at Oxford University. They married in 1951, which produced one daughter Laura and one son Hugo, and to the actress Maria Aitken (1972–1980) which produced one son Jack Davenport who is also an actor (most famous for starring in Pirates of the Caribbean. According to Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Nigel's son Jack Davenport was cast as the James Norrington character in part due to Nigel's involvement in A High Wind in Jamaica. As of 2010 Davenport resides in South West, England.[4]