Early stage appearances Bates's stage debut was in 1955, in
You and Your Wife, in
Coventry. In 1956, Bates made his West End debut as Cliff in
Look Back in Anger, a role he had originated at the
Royal Court and which made him a star. He also played the role on television (for the
ITV Play of the Week) and on Broadway. He also was a member of the 1967 acting company at the
Stratford Festival in Canada, playing the title role in
Richard III.
Television In the late 1950s, Bates appeared in several plays for television in Britain in shows such as
ITV Play of the Week,
Armchair Theatre and
ITV Television Playhouse. In 1960, Bates appeared as Giorgio in the final episode of
The Four Just Men (TV series) entitled Treviso Dam. Bates worked for the
Padded Wagon Moving Company in the early 1960s while acting at the
Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City.
Film stardom (1960–1979) Bates made his feature film debut in
The Entertainer (1960) opposite
Laurence Olivier,
Joan Plowright,
Albert Finney, and the rest of the ensemble cast. Bates played the lead in his second feature,
Whistle Down the Wind (1961), opposite
Hayley Mills and directed by
Bryan Forbes. He followed it with the lead in
A Kind of Loving (1962), directed by
John Schlesinger in his film debut. Both films were very popular in the UK, with the latter earning him a
BAFTA nomination for Best Actor and establishing Bates as a film star. Some film critics cited the 1963 crime drama
The Running Man as being one of Bates's finest performances. The film starred
Laurence Harvey as a man who fakes his death and
Lee Remick as his increasingly conflicted wife, with Bates in the supporting role of Stephen Maddox, an insurance company investigator. for his film debut,
The Entertainer (1960). Bates next co-starred in an adaptation of
Harold Pinter's
The Caretaker (1963) along with
Donald Pleasence and
Robert Shaw. It was directed by
Clive Donner, who then made
Nothing But the Best (1964) with Bates. He was the co-lead alongside
Anthony Quinn in the Academy Award-winning hit
Michael Cacoyannis film
Zorba the Greek (1964); the lead in a short film,
Once Upon a Tractor (1965); and starred in
Philippe de Broca's
King of Hearts (1966). Bates also starred as the male lead opposite
Lynn Redgrave as the titular
Georgy Girl (1966), which also featured
James Mason and
Charlotte Rampling in supporting roles. He was reunited with Schlesinger in
Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), starring
Julie Christie,
Terence Stamp, and
Peter Finch. For these two films, Bates earned himself three Golden Globe nominations:
Best Comedy/Musical Actor and
Best Male Newcomer; and
Best Drama Actor the following ceremony, respectively. In 1968, Bates starred alongside
Dirk Bogarde and
Ian Holm in the
John Frankenheimer film
The Fixer (1968), adapted from the
Bernard Malamud novel based on the true story of
Menahem Mendel Beilis. It earned Bates an
Academy Award nomination for
Best Actor, as well as another Golden Globe nomination. He followed that up with
Women in Love (1969), directed by
Ken Russell and co-starring
Oliver Reed and
Glenda Jackson, in which Bates and Reed wrestled completely naked. The scene was groundbreaking for
taboos of the time, as it was
the first studio film to ever feature full frontal male nudity. Bates also earned another BAFTA nomination for Best Actor for his performance. Following that success, he appeared as Col Vershinin in the
National Theatre's film of
Three Sisters, reuniting him with Olivier (who directed) and Plowight. He was handpicked by director Schlesinger to play the male lead in the film
Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). However, he was preoccupied filming
The Go-Between (1971) for director
Joseph Losey alongside Christie again, and had also become a father around that time, so thusly refused the role (which ultimately went to Finch opposite co-lead Jackson). Bates starred in the film adaptation of
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972) with
Janet Suzman and produced and appeared in a short,
Second Best (1972). He starred in
Story of a Love Story (1973). He also starred in two adaptations of his successful theatrical roles: his
Tony-winning role in
Butley (1974), as well as
In Celebration (1975). He was the villain in
Royal Flash (1975). He appeared alongside
Susannah York and
John Hurt in
The Shout (1978); and opposite
Jill Clayburgh in
An Unmarried Woman (1978). He also played
Bette Midler's ruthless business manager in the film
The Rose (1979).
Film and television (1980s) Bates starred in the TV movie
Piccadilly Circus (1977) and
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978). In the latter he played Michael Henchard, the ultimately-disgraced lead, which he described as his favourite role. Bates played two diametrically opposed roles in
An Englishman Abroad (1983), as
Guy Burgess, a gay member of the Cambridge spy ring exiled in Moscow, and in
Pack of Lies (1987), as a British Secret Service agent tracking several Soviet spies.
still of Bates, 1970. His film roles this decade were more sparse, but included
Herbert Ross's
Nijinsky (1980), in which he portrayed yet another role as both a closeted gay lover and a domineering mentor. The following year, he was part of
James Ivory's
Quartet (1981), also starring
Maggie Smith,
Isabelle Adjani, and
Anthony Higgins. Bates succeeded that with
The Return of the Soldier (1982), which reunited him with
Julie Christie,
Glenda Jackson, and
Ian Holm.
The Wicked Lady (1983) teamed him up with
Faye Dunaway but received poor reviews. Bates then starred alongside
Julie Andrews as the husband of her
violinist who is stricken with
multiple sclerosis in
Duet for One (1986). In the
North Irish IRA thriller
A Prayer for the Dying (1987) from director
Mike Hodges, he plays the main
antagonist opposite
Mickey Rourke and
Bob Hoskins. And in
We Think the World of You (1988), he portrays the older lover of young convict
Gary Oldman—the latter of whom gets sent to jail and entrusts his beloved, mischievous
German Shepherd ( Alsatian) to the former's care.
Later career Bates continued working in film and television in the 1990s, including the role of Claudius in
Franco Zeffirelli's version of
Hamlet (1990). In 2001 he joined an all-star cast in
Robert Altman's critically acclaimed period drama
Gosford Park, in which he played the
butler Jennings. He later played Antonius Agrippa in the 2004 TV film
Spartacus, but died before it premiered. The film was dedicated to his memory and that of writer
Howard Fast, who wrote the
original novel that inspired the film
Spartacus by
Stanley Kubrick. On stage, Bates had a particular association with the plays of
Simon Gray, appearing in
Butley,
Otherwise Engaged,
Stage Struck,
Melon,
Life Support, and
Simply Disconnected, as well as the film of
Butley and Gray's TV series
Unnatural Pursuits. In
Otherwise Engaged, his co-star was
Ian Charleson, who became a friend, and Bates later contributed a chapter to a 1990 book on his colleague after Charleson's early death. Bates was made a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
1995 Birthday Honours, and was
knighted in the
2003 New Year Honours, in both cases for services to drama. and was a patron of The Actors Centre,
Covent Garden, London, from 1994 until his death in 2003. ==Personal life==