Everything about Robert Stephens totally explained
Sir Robert Stephens (
14 July 1931 –
12 November 1995) was a leading actor in the early years of England's
Royal National Theatre.
Stephens was born in
Bristol,
England, and rose to become one of the most respected actors of his generation. By the 1960s he was regarded as the natural successor to
Laurence Olivier. He and his third wife, actress
Maggie Smith appeared together on stage and in film, notably in the film version of
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969.
His other films in this period included a minor role as Prince Escalus in
Franco Zeffirelli's
Romeo & Juliet (1968), as well as a starring role in
Billy Wilder's
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
and the science fiction film,
The Asphyx (1973). However, following his departure from the National Theatre in 1970 and the breakup of his marriage in 1973 he suffered a career slump, not helped by heavy drinking.
Although he continued to work on stage (notably in the
National Theatre's
The Mysteries in 1986), film (
The Fruit Machine (1988), a/k/a
Wonderland (USA), and television (notably in the role of Abner Brown in the 1984 BBC TV dramatisation of the children's classic
The Box of Delights), it wasn't until the 1990s that he re-established himself at the forefront of his profession, when the
Royal Shakespeare Company invited him to play
Falstaff in
Henry IV, part 1 and then the title role in
King Lear. He was awarded the
Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1993 for Best Actor, for his performance as Sir John Falstaff in
Henry IV for the
Royal Shakespeare Company. He was
knighted in 1995.
Robert Stephens provided the voice of
Aragorn in the acclaimed 1981
BBC Radio serialisation of
The Lord of the Rings.
Stephens was married four times:
- 1951, to Nora Ann Simmons; they'd one child, Michael Stephens and divorced 1952
- 1956, to Tarn Bassett; they'd one child and divorced 1967
- 1967, to Maggie Smith; their two sons are the actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin; they divorced in 1974
- 1995, to Belfast-born Patricia Quinn (aka Lady Stephens), who appeared with him in Fortunes of War.
Following years of ill health, he died from
cancer at the age of 64, eleven months after he was knighted.
Stephens was one of eight actors profiled in
Roger Lewis' 1989 book
Stage People.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Robert Stephens'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://robert_stephens.totallyexplained.com">Robert Stephens Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
