Ben Daniels

Ben Daniels (born 10 June 1964)^[1] is an English actor. On television, he has appeared in The Lost Language of Cranes (1991), Conspiracy (2001), Cutting It (2002–2005), Ian Fleming: Bondmaker (2005), The Virgin Queen (2005), and The State Within (2006). Daniels has also appeared in films such as The Bridge (1992), Beautiful Thing (1996), Passion in the Desert (1997), I Want You (1998), Madeline (1998), and Doom (2005).

Daniels was nominated for Best Actor at the Evening Standard Awards for Best Supporting Actor in the Laurence Olivier Awards for Never the Sinner (1991), 900 Oneonta (1994), Best Actor in the M.E.N. Theatre Awards for Martin Yesterday (1998). He eventually won the Olivier award at the 25th Laurence Olivier Awards in 2001, as well as the Best Supporting Actor award at the 2001 Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Theatre Awards, for his performance in the Arthur Miller play All My Sons. Other theatre credits include Tales From Hollywood (2001), Three Sisters (2003), Iphigenia at Aulis (2004), The God of Hell (2005), The Wild Duck (2005–2006), and Thérèse Raquin (2006). In 2008, Daniels made his Broadway début in a revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.

Early life

Daniels was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.^[2] His father was an engineer at Rolls-Royce and later a grocer, while his mother owned a children's clothes shop. He has recalled: "I was quite a shy child, but quite disruptive as well. I was very sneaky and underhanded."^[3] According to Daniels, drama lessons at O-levels gave him a voice, and when he attended sixth form studies at Stratford College between 1980 and 1982, doing A-levels in theatre studies and English literature, he attended Royal Shakespeare Company performances.^[3] A fellow student recalled that Daniels, whom he knew as Dave, "was very serious about his work, and struck me as incredibly intelligent... you got the sense his mind was working; the cogs were ticking over".^[1] Daniels subsequently trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) for three years.^[2][4]

Career

One of Daniels' earliest roles was as Justin Hayward, the lead singer of the Moody Blues, as a teenager in two of the band's music videos, "Your Wildest Dreams" (1986) and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" (1988). In 1992, he made an appearance in the infamous plane crash episode "Cascade" of the television show Casualty, playing the co-pilot of the doomed plane. He has taken on parts in many British television dramas, such as Robin in The Lost Language of Cranes (1991), the Biblical character Jonathan in the 1997 Emmy-nominated TV film David, the philandering Finn Bevan in Cutting It (2002–2005), and Nicholas Brocklehurst in the BBC television miniseries The State Within (2006). The latter role was notable for an unexpected same-sex kiss between Daniels' character and another person.^[5] In 2008 he appeared in Lark Rise to Candleford, a BBC production based on three semi-autobiographical novels about the English countryside written by Flora Thompson.

Daniel has also played a number of real-life characters, such as German State Secretary Dr. Josef Bühler in Conspiracy, a 2001 dramatisation of the Wannsee Conference at which the Final Solution was endorsed. He also played the English author and journalist Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, in Ian Fleming: Bondmaker (2005), as well as Sir Francis Walsingham in The Virgin Queen (2005) and English writer Saki in Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? (2007).^[6] In addition, he has made guest appearances in a number of British TV drama series, including Soldier Soldier (1992), A Touch of Frost (1992), Outside Edge (1994), and Spooks (2005).

Charlotte Emmerson and Ben Daniels as Thérèse and Laurent in Zola's Thérèse Raquin (2006).

Daniels may be most recognisable to American audiences for appearing in the 1996 gay film Beautiful Thing. Daniels portrayed Tony, boyfriend of Sandra, the protagonist Jamie's mother. In an independent film directed by Lavinia Currier titled Passion in the Desert (1997), Daniels played a French soldier named Augustin Robert.^[7] The film was nominated for a Golden Seashell award. Other feature films that Daniels has starred in are The Bridge (1992), I Want You (1998), Madeline (1998), and Doom (2005). He was offered roles in the 2000 releases The Patriot and Vertical Limit, but turned them down and stated that "the money was good, but it wasn't for me".^[8]

Daniels has said that he loves acting on stage because "it's tough and keeps you on your toes as an actor".^[9] He appeared in All's Well That Ends Well and As You Like It (1999–2000), and played Mercutio in a 1994 TV adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Other theatre credits include Waiting for Godot (1994) and 900 Oneonta (1994), which earned him a nomination for Best Actor at the Evening Standard Awards.^[2] He also acted in Martin Yesterday (1998), for which he was nominated as Best Actor in the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards,^[2] Naked (1998), Tales From Hollywood (2001), Three Sisters (2003), Iphigenia at Aulis (2004), The God of Hell (2005), and The Wild Duck (2005–2006). In 2006, Daniels appeared in Thérèse Raquin as Laurent, for which a reviewer labelled his performance "riveting".^[10]

Daniels won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Theatre Awards^[11] and the 25th Laurence Olivier Awards^[12][13] in 2001 for his performance in the Arthur Miller play All My Sons. He was first nominated for the latter award earlier in his career, in 1991, for his performance as murderer Richard Loeb in the play Never the Sinner at the Playhouse Theatre.^[12] In 2008, Daniels fulfilled a lifetime ambition^[8][14] when he made his Broadway début, headlining as the Vicomte de Valmont in a revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.^[15] The show opened on 1 May 2008.^[16] Daniels was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role.^[17]

Personal life

Daniels is openly gay. He remarked: "Out? I've never been in."^[3] He lives with actor Ian Gelder.^[18] They began seeing each other during a 1993 production of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane.^[19] Daniels was already sure of his sexuality in his teens, although he did not discuss the matter with his parents because they did not have a very close emotional relationship. He was "cautious about mentioning it when I left drama school, because AIDS was terrifying everyone and there was a huge homophobic backlash". He decided to come out at the age of 24, while appearing in an all-star benefit performance of Martin Sherman's Bent.

Daniels said in an interview: "Homophobia is still shockingly prevalent in film and TV. I know I've lost work because of being gay, and it is always an issue. Even on a serious BBC Two drama, there will be some suit in some office going, "Hmmm, isn't he a poof?" I don't consider myself politically gay, but whenever I catch a whiff of that now, I'm on it like a ton of bricks."^[3] In 2007, Daniels was ranked number 79 in the annual Pink List of 100 influential gay and lesbian people in Britain published by The Independent on Sunday,^[20] down from number 47 in 2006.^[21]

In his spare time, he is an amateur painter and practitioner of Ashtanga yoga.^[8]

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Notes

References

• Curtis, Nick (17 June 2004), Cutting it on stage, Thisislondon.co.uk, Evening Standard, retrieved 28 December 2007 
• Ben Daniels, Markham & Froggatt, retrieved 28 December 2007 

Further reading

• "Ben Daniels (Tony)", Beautiful Thing, Sony Pictures Classics, 6 September 1996, retrieved 28 December 2007 
• "Answer the questions! Ben Daniels – 'I'd love to go into space'", The Independent on Sunday (reproduced on Findarticles.com), 27 July 2003 

External links

• Ben Daniels at the Internet Movie Database
• Ben Daniels at bbc.co.uk Drama
• Ben Daniels at Film4
• Ben Daniels at GaydarNation
• Ben Daniels at Hello!
• Ben Daniels at the Royal National Theatre
• "Ben Daniels on IRC, the logfile..." – transcript of an online chat with Ben Daniels from the Official Dutch Beautiful Thing Fanclub
• Official website of Cutting It
• Official website of The State Within
• Official website of Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway, 12 April – 6 July 2008