Tony Beckley
Derek Anthony " Tony" Beckley ( born October 7, 1929 † 19 April 1980) was an English actor. He often portrayed negative characters, and psychopaths.
Childhood and youth
Beckley was born in Southampton. He was an illegitimate child and never got to know his father. His mother, Beatrice Michell, was a stewardess and worked on the ships of the line RMS Mauretania and RMS Aquitania. Because of her work, she was little at home, why Beckley was mainly looked after by another woman, which he described as his " aunt ".
At the age of five years Beckley and his mother moved to Portsmouth and the beginning of the second world war he was sent to a boarding school ( Winton House ) in Winchester. In school Beckley liked reading, English and art and there he discovered his interest in acting. A performance of local ensembles in Portsmouth by Emlyn Williams' " The Corn is Green " Let Beckley excited and back to become an actor with the decision - to the chagrin of his mother, who had a "safe" career civil servants for her son desired.
With 16 years Beckley left to pursue school to pursue a career as an actor. His first theater job included cooking tea and brushing the stage. Beckley made this work two or three months and then moved to London. There, he was initially able to find work in the theater and therefore cutting himself with odd jobs as a waiter and in an ice cream factory. In his spare time he saw often plays in the New Theatre with famous actors like Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and Alec Guinness.
Shortly before his 18th birthday, Beckley reported to the Royal Navy and spent two years as a sailor on board the destroyer HMS Scorpion. There he found the time to prepare for the entrance examination at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art ( RADA ). He was accepted and received as an ex- Navy sailor a financial grant. During his two-year theater training Beckley made friends with the actress Sheila Hancock and the playwright Charles Laurence.
Career
After completing his training as an actor, Beckley played for various small-town ensembles. Through membership in a theater company near London finally found a way for television work. This was followed by guest roles in popular television series such as Sergeant Cork, The Saint (Simon Templar ) and Z -Cars as well as a regular contributor to the new satire show Dig This Rhubarb. In 1965 Beckley his first film role as Ned Poins in Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight. In the following, he played in a series of films by Peter Collinson: The Penthouse (1967); The Long Day's Dying (1968); and The Italian Job (1969).
Beckleys biggest film role was as the psychotic Kenny Wemys in The Fiend (1972). In his last film, he played another psychopath; Curt Duncan in When a Stranger Calls. In addition, Beckley was among others in the films The Lost Continent (1968), Get Carter (1971 ), Assault ( 1971) Sitting Target (1972 ), Gold ( 1974), and to see Revenge of the Pink Panther ( 1978).
On television, he guest starred in the British series Manhunt, Callan, Jason King and Special Branch. Perhaps his most famous television role was that of the megalomaniac plant collector Harrison Chase in the Doctor Who episode The Seeds of Doom.
Beckley also took many theater roles and has played with Elaine stroke in Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings and snap in with Maggie Smith.
Death
Beckley died shortly after completion of principal photography for the U.S. film When a Stranger Calls. At this time he had already accepted roles for other film projects in the States. A TV movie called My Fat Friend was in the works. Beckley should also play a role in another film (American Dreamer ) and a Part in the NBC miniseries, Beulah land.
The cause of death Beckleys (brain tumor) is commonly called cancer. According to Sheila Hancock Beckleys circumstances of his death, however, were " mysterious ". She speculates that Beckley died of AIDS, a disease which was then still unknown. Beckley died at the Hospital of the University of California at Los Angeles and is buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Personality
Beckley said in an interview in 1979, that of his family circumstances could not explain why he became an actor, except perhaps out of " a desire for attention that as a child I did not get very much. "
Beckleys personality seems to stand in stark contrast to his troubled movie characters. From people who worked with him, he is described as a very friendly and funny person who was good at telling stories. Beckley himself remarked that he would be surprised if someone could discover something Psychotic in his behavior.
Beckley had a 15 years long relationship with film producer Barry Krost. When he opened his own management company, Beckley was his first customer. Krost produced Beckley 's last film, When a Stranger Calls and was production assistant for The Penthouse.
Shortly before his death drew Beckley to California. He lived in an apartment in West Hollywood.