Iconic British actor David Warner, who had memorable big screen performances in films such as “The Prophecy”, “The Ballad of the Desert”, “Tron” and “Escape to the Future”, died this Sunday. 80 in Northwood, north of London.
The interpreter, born in Manchester, England, died of a cancer-related illness on July 29, 1941, his family told the BBC, according to the Variety portal. “Over the past 18 months, she has approached her diagnosis with her distinctive grace and dignity,” her family said.
He received acting training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, and made his professional stage debut at the Royal Court Theater in January 1962, playing a supporting role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Tony Richardson. In March of the same year, at the Belgrade Theater in Coventry, he played Conrad in Much Ado About Nothing, and also appeared in David Rudkin’s Late Night at the New Arts Theatre, London.
He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1963, performing “The Tempest”, “Julius Caesar” and “Henry VI”, Parts I, II and III. At London’s Aldwich Theatre, he reprized the role of Henry VI in the 1964 Complete Wars of the Roses story cycle. Upon his return to Stratford, he played the title role in “Richard III”, Moldy in “Henry IV, Part 1” and “Henry VI”.
He played the title role in “Hamlet” (1965) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, repeated in the 1966 Stratford season, and Sir Andrew Eguchek in “Twelfth Night”. In January 1970 at Aldwich, he played Julian in Edward Alby’s Tiny Alice.
In 2001 he made his American stage debut playing Andrew Undershaft in the Broadway revival of “Major Barbara”, and back in the UK, he appeared in “A Fest of Snails” and “Where’s a Will” at the Lyric Theatre. In 2005 at the Theater Royal, Bath he played the title role in “King Lear” at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
He returned to Stratford in August 2007, for the first time in four decades, as an honorary performer to play Sir John Falstaff in the Courtyard Theatre’s revival of “Henry IV”, Parts 1 and 2.
The actor made his big screen debut with a supporting role in “Tom Jones” (1963), which starred Albert Finney, and shared with Vanessa Redgrave in Karel Reese’s 1966 comedy “Morgan: A Clinical Case”, In which he played the role of a man. With Karl Marx and the Gorilla.
He worked for Sidney Lumet in “Call for the Dead” (1967), with James Mason, Simone Signoret and Maximilian Schell, and with Alan Bates and Dirk Bogard in “The Man from Kyiv” (1968) for John Frankenheimer did.
In Sidney Lumet’s adaptation of “The Seagull” (1968), he played Arcadina’s writer son Konstantin, played by Simone Signoret, and that same year he appeared in the Peter Hall-directed adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
In “The Prophecy” (1976), one of the major horror films of the 1970s, he played the photographer who develops images onto which the specific manner of death of the people depicted is superimposed.
He played Stevenson, a friend of H.G. Wells who turns out to be a creepy Jack the Ripper in the 1979 thriller “Escape to the Future”, which reveals that Wells actually built the time machine described in his book; In the same year she starred with Nick Mancuso in the horror film “Wings of the Night”.
He also made three films with cult director Sam Peckinpah: “The Ballad of the Desert” (1970), about his performance as a somewhat cynical preacher, the violent “Straw Dogs” (1971) and World War II. 1977 thriller ” Iron Cross”. He appeared in “A Doll’s House” (1973), by Joseph Losi with Jane Fonda, and “Providence” (1977), by French director Alain Resnais, with Dirk Bogarde and John Gilgaud.
In “Tron” (1982), which featured state-of-the-art special effects for its time, Warner is a villain who steals some video game plans and splits the protagonist into a void and played by Jeff Bridges. represent life inside the computer, where the two fight within that world in a scenario unlike anything seen before.
He played an ape senator in the 2001 remake of “Planet of the Apes” and a doctor in the 2005 hit comedy “Fiddler from the Sea.”
Other important credits from that period include Terry Gilliam’s The Adventurers of Time (1981), Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves (1985).
He most recently appeared in “Mary Poppins Returns” (2018), and was previously among the greats of James Cameron’s epic “Titanic” (1997) as well as the other “Planet of the Apes” (2001) . Tim Burton.
On TV, Warner was nominated for an Emmy for playing a Nazi officer who was a key architect of the Final Solution in the 1978 historical miniseries “Holocaust” and the tragic Roman political opportunist Pomponius in the mini-series “Masada”. Won an Emmy for portraying Falco. (1981).
He was married twice: Harriet Lindgren (1969–72) and Sheila Kent (1979–2005), with whom he had a daughter, Melissa.
