Eric Porter
Eric Richard Porter ( born April 8, 1928 in London, England; † May 15, 1995 ) was a British actor.
Life
Stage
Originally from a working class family Porter began his stage career at the age of 16 years without having completed previous acting lessons: After an appearance in the Wimbledon Youth Club he had applied in 1945 with Robert Atkins in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and was for one year at the Stratford Company has been contracted.
In the following years he worked at various prestigious theater group stage creators and Sir Lewis Casson and Sir Donald Wolfit. With the latter, the interpretation of the works of William Shakespeare and especially of King Lear influenced him sustained, he even went on stage tour of the UK and Canada. From 1948 to 1950, the young actors found a job at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In the following years he played at different stages in London next big stars of the English theater world such as Sir Alec Guinness and Sir John Gielgud. He made a name for himself as a stage actor at the Old Vic in London and at the Old Vic in Bristol, where he played at the age of only 28 years, the "Lear". Nevertheless, his name remained with the public largely unknown.
Royal Shakespeare Company
The acting breakthrough reached Eric Porter until 1959, when he was in a production of Rosmersholm at the Royal Court Theatre was next to Lady Peggy Ashcroft the " Rosmer ," which was also performed in London's West End. Porter was honored for his performance with the Evening Standard Award and taken from the thus noticed him become Sir Peter Hall for the Royal Shakespeare Company under contract. In the newly formed ensemble with Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Christopher Plummer, Sir Donald Sinden, David Warner and Sir Ian Holm Porter played the " Odysseus " in Troilus and Cressida, the " Leontes " in The Winter's Tale, the " Shylock " The Merchant of Venice, the ' Malvolio ' in Twelfth Night, the title roles in Henry IV and Macbeth, but also in dramas by other authors as the title role in Jean Anouilh's Becket.
TV
A wide audience Porter, however, was not known by his stage performance, but only by the roles that offered him the television. In 26 episodes of a television adaptation of the Forsyte Saga, he embodied the Patriarch " Soames ," from his youth to old age. The role made him known across the country and led to numerous appearances in television adaptations of stage plays of Christopher Marlowe, George Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare, where he sang once more the "Lear".
Afterwards, Porter, who feared the great fame took off, first back into private life. Only in the 1980s, he took over again increased roles in stage, film and television.
His recent television credits include the "Professor Moriarty " in the Sherlock Holmes adaptation The Final Problem ( The Final Problem ) with Jeremy Brett in the role of master detective and David Burke as Dr. Watson, as well as the " Fagin " in a film adaptation of Charles Dickens ' Oliver Twist.
Film
In film productions Porter, whose artistic focus his life remained the stage was a rare guest who was to be seen in this medium almost exclusively in supporting roles. He starred in the epic film The Fall of the Roman Empire in the Hitchcock remake of The 39 Steps, in the thriller The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, the drama A man named Hennessy and the literary adaptation Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
The last years
In 1988, Porter with a representation of the "Big Daddy" in Tennessee Williams' Connect the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof seamlessly to his old stage career. In his last years he played, among others, again the "King Lear" in a production by Jonathan Miller at London's Old Vic, 1991 re Shakespeare's " Malvolio " in a recent collaboration with Sir Peter Hall at the Playhouse Theatre and a year later the "Professor " in Uncle Vanya at the National Theatre, directed by Sean Mathias.
Eric Porter died on 15 May 1995 at the age of 67 years to cancer.