Alan Howard

Born in Croydon, Surrey, Howard grew up surrounded by actors including his father Arthur, his uncle Leslie and his great aunt Fay Compton, and first began following in their footsteps during his high school and national service years. Howard made his on-stage debut as a footman in a production of "Half In Earnest" at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre in 1958, before transferring to London where he honed his craft in the likes of The Wesker Trilogy, Jacobean tragedy "The Changeling," and a musical version of John Vanbrugh's "The Relapse" at various West End theatres. Although Howard had also ventured onto the big screen with supporting roles in British suspense thriller "Victim" (1961), and World War II epics "The Americanization of Emily" (1964) and "The Heroes of Telemark" (1965), theatre remained his first love, and after co-starring with Judi Dench and Edward Woodward in a Nottingham Playhouse production of "Richard II," he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, to which he would dedicate the next 17 years of his career.It was a period in which Howard would assert himself as one of the finest classical actors of his generation. In addition to playing every British king in Shakespeare's canon - both Richards, Macbeth, all three Henrys and Lear - Howard also achieved considerable acclaim for his portrayals of Theseus and Oberon in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing." Having also added to his body of on-screen work with roles as dramatist Prosper Merimee in George Sand biopic "Notorious Women" (1974) and spymaster Cragoe in espionage drama "Cover" (ITV, 1981), Howard then took a break from the theatre world to focus on more mainstream work. After playing Rob Lowe's tutor in early Brat Pack movie "Oxford Blues" (1984), he appeared as intelligence officer Jack Brother in John le Carre adaptation "A Perfect Spy" (BBC1, 1987), starred as one of four scientists attempting to discover the structure of DNA in "Life Story" (BBC1, 1987), and guest starred in detective series "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (ITV, 1986) and "Agatha Christie's Poirot" (ITV, 1989-2013). Howard's most memorable big screen performances arrived in the same year when he played bookshop owner Michael, aka The Lover, in "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" (1989), and military leader Oliver Cromwell in Richard Lester's "The Return of the Musketeers" (1989). In 1990, Howard returned to the stage in a Chichester Theatre production of Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes From A Marriage," and went onto become a regular at the Royal National Theatre, receiving plaudits for his roles as Professor Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," George in Jean Cocteau's "Les Parents Terribles" and the Player King in a revival of Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guilenstern Are Dead." Howard continued to make sporadic film and TV appearances throughout the decade, playing Tom French in the adaptation of David Hare's play, "The Secret Rapture" (1993), Sir Cecil Mortimer in World War II miniseries "No Bananas" (BBC1, 1996), and Mr. Spenlow in "David Copperfield" (BBC1, 2000). Peter Jackson then utilised Howard's clarion tones when he cast him as the Voice of the Ring in the first and third installments of his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001), and "The Return of the King" (2003). Appearances as Father Sebastian Morell in detective miniseries "Death in Holy Orders" (BBC1, 2003) and barrister Stephen Beck in "Foyle's War" (ITV1, 2002-2015), then followed, and although ill health forced Howard to cut back on his workload, he still remained relatively active in the theatre world, impressing in the likes of Wedekind's "Lulu" at the Almeida, "Oedipus" at the National, and "The School for Scandal" at the Barbican, before making his final on-screen appearance as Tietjens Senior in period drama "Parade's End" (BBC2, 2012). In 2015, Howard died of pneumonia at London's Royal Free Hospital, aged 77.