David Warner

At 80 years old, David Warner has this physical status:

David Hattersley Warner (born 29 July 1941) is an English actor and voice actor who has worked in film, television, and theatre.

He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s through his lead performance in the Karel Reisz film Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Warner has portrayed both romantic leads and villainous characters across a range of media, including The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Straw Dogs, Cross of Iron, The Omen, Holocaust, The Thirty Nine Steps, Time After Time, Time Bandits, Tron, A Christmas Carol, Portrait in Evil, Titanic, Mary Poppins Returns and various characters in the Star Trek franchise including Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In 1981, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special for his portrayal of Pomponius Falco in the television miniseries Masada.

Early life

Warner was born on 29 July 1941 in Manchester, Lancashire, the son of Ada Doreen Hattersley and Herbert Simon Warner, a nursing home proprietor. He was born out of wedlock and frequently taken to be brought up by each of his parents, eventually settling with his Russian Jewish father and his stepmother.

He graduated from RADA in 1961.

Personal life

Warner was married twice. He married his first wife Harriet Lindgren in 1969. They divorced three years later in 1972. He later married his second wife Sheilah Kent in 1979. The marriage lasted for 26 years, until their divorce in 2005.

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Career

Warner appeared on stage for the first time at the Royal Court Theatre in January 1962, playing Snout, a minor role in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Tony Richardson for the English Stage Company. He appeared in Much Ado About Nothing in March 1962, then Conrad in Much Ado About Nothing in Coventry, and in June, he appeared as Jim in Afore Night Comet At the New Arts Theatre in London.

Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III, which comprised the first two plays from The Wars of the Roses trilogy, appeared in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1963 to play Trinculo in The Tempest and Cinna the Poet in Julius Caesar. In January 1964, he appeared at Aldwych Theatre in the West End's complete War of the Roses (1964). He appeared in Richard II, Mouldy in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry VI, returning to Stratford in April. He was named Valentine Brose in the play Eh at the Aldwych in October 1964. Henry Livings, who appeared in the 1968 film version Work Is a Letter To You?

He appeared in Hamlet for the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1965. In December of that year, this performance was transferred to the Aldwych Theatre. His Hamlet was revived in 1966, Stratford's season, and he appeared alongside Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. He appeared in Tiny Alice again in January 1970, when he was at the Aldwych.

Warner's other theatre appearances included The Great Exhibition at Hampstead Theatre (February 1972); I, Claudius at the Queen's Theatre (February 2002); A Feast of Snails at the Theatre Royal, Bath; and also Major Barbara on Broadway.

In 1963, he appeared in Tom Jones' debut as the villainous Blifil, and in 1965, he appeared as Henry VI in the RSC's The Wars of the Roses cycle of Shakespeare's history plays. He appeared alongside Bob Dylan in the 1963 film Madhouse on Castle Street, his second early television appearance. This was a major step in his career, as the leading role in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966) opposite Vanessa Redgrave, which established his reputation for playing marginally off-the-wall characters. He appeared in Sidney Lumet's 1968 version of Anton Chekhov's The Sea Gull's Konstantin Treplev, and appeared alongside Jason Robards and Stella Stevens as Reverend Joshua Duncan Sloane in Sam Peckinpah's The Ballad of Cable Hogue.

He appeared in many of the horror films From Beyond the Grave, opposite Gregory Peck in The Omen (1976) as ill-fated photojournalist Keith Jennings and the 1979 thriller Nightwing. He appeared in cult classic Waxwork (1988) and appeared in the 1990 film Tripwire alongside a young Viggo Mortensen.

He appeared in films including Time After Time (1978), Time After Time (1979), and Benn's Story (1980), as well as male spy Alpha in Disney's Gargoyles, and Lobe in Freakazoid. In the 1984 telefilm In the 1984 film A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott as Scrooge, he was also cast against type as Henry Niles (1971) and as Bob Cratchit (1974). In addition, he appeared in the film "Mad" - Portrait in Evil - and the television miniseries Holocaust - as sinister millionaire Amos Hackshaw in HBO's original 1991 film Cast a Deadly Spell.

In 1981, Warner received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special for Masada as Pomponius Falco. Mr. North, a Danny Huston film, appeared in 1988.

He appeared in films such as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Avatar (known as Matrix Hunter in the United States), Titanic (1991), Titanic (the third time he appeared in a film that includes a nodal to RMS Titanic) and Scream 2. In 2001, he appeared as Captain James Sawyer in two episodes of A&E's C.S. adaptation. The Hornblower series by Forester. "Thomas Eckhardt" appeared in three episodes of Twin Peaks (1991) as "Thomas Eckhardt." He continued to perform classical roles. He was a Cardassian interrogator in "Chain of Command," an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He based his portrayal on the obnoxious "re-educator" from 1984. He had a second appearance in the low-budget fantasy Quest of the Delta Knights (1993), which was eventually spoofed on Mystery Science Theater 3000. In the film version of Wing Commander, he also played Admiral Tolwyn.

In Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron (1977), where he portrayed Captain Kiesel, Warner's sympathetic side was evident. In "Grail," a first season (1994) episode of Babylon 5 and "Chancellor Gorkon" in "Undiscovered Country (1991), the charismatic "good guy" roles include the charismatic "Aldous Gajic." In an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, he portrayed Superman's deceased Kryptonian father Jor-El, who appeared to his son via holographic recordings. In 1979's Nightwing, Warner played "ambiguous nice guys" like vampire bat exterminator Philip Payne; and Dr. Richard Madden in 1994's Necronomicon: Book of the Dead. Daryush Shokof's Seven Servants co-starred with Anthony Quinn in 1996.

In 2013, he played Professor Grisenko in the Doctor Who episode "Cold War" in which he battled a revived Ice Warrior and developed a friendship with Doctor Clara Oswald, a'sympathetic' role. Warner appeared in two series of the Sky 1 comedy-drama Mad Dogs as Abraham Van Helsing, and appeared in two 2014 episodes of the Horror film Penny Dreadful as Abraham Van Helsing.

Warner contributed "Sonnet 25" to the 2002 compilation album When Love Speaks, which is a collection of Shakespearean sonnets and play excerpts as seen by famous actors and musicians. He appeared in many audio plays, including in the Doctor Who Unbound's Sympathy for the Devil (2004) as an alternative Doctor of the Doctor, as an alternate interpretation of the Doctor, and in a series of plays based on ITV's Sapphire & Steel as Steel. In a sequel, Masters of War (2008), he revived his Doctor incarnation. In 2007, he appeared as Isaac Newton in the Doctor Who audio drama Circular Time and as Cuthbert in four of the four stories in the second fourth Doctor story. He appeared in Nebulous, the BBC Radio 4 science fiction comedy comedy, as Professor Nebulous' arch-enemy Dr. Joseph Klench. Warner co-produced and comedian Mark Gatiss of the League of Gentlemen, and he appears in The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, a 2005 feature film. He has appeared in radio plays for L.A. Theatre Works and the Hollywood Theater of the Ear. Warner also read a new version of Oliver Twist for BBC Radio 2 in 2005 (adapted by Neville Teller and directed by Neil Gardner). He appeared in The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel, a Bernice Summerfield audio play. In the animated Doctor Who film "Dreamland," he appeared as Lord Azlok of the Viperox, an insectoid alien race. In 2016, he returned as his alternate Doctor in a series of audio recordings in which his Doctor briefly travels to the 'prime' universe and enlists Benny Summerfield (Lisa Bowerman) to help him save his universe. In a second series of audios released in 2017, Warner's Doctor continued his travels with Benny. He was confirmed that he would return as his substitute Doctor shortly after his 2022 death and would include scenes with Christopher Eccleston, who appeared as the Ninth Doctor.

He has appeared in a variety of video games, including in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Morpheus.

As Dr. Vic Frankenstein, Warner did voice work on the short-lived FOX animated film Toonsylvania. He was also the first person to voice Nergal from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, but Martin Jarvis later replaced him.

The Disney direct-to-video Pooh's Grand Adventure: Christopher Robin's Find by Warner Warner narrated the Disney epic "The Hunt for Christopher Robin."

Warner would appear in the cast of the Dark Shadows audio drama miniseries Kingdom of the Dead in March 2010.

Warner returned to the stage in 2001 after a nearly three-decade absence to perform Andrew Undershaft in a Broadway revival of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara. Warner made his return to Shakespeare in May 2005 at the Chichester Festival Theatre, playing the title role in Steven Pimlott's production of King Lear. Tim Walker, a journalist for The Sunday Telegraph, wrote: "Warner is physically the most imposing king I have ever seen," he said, but his little, gaunt body helps to highlight the role's vulnerability." The fact that he is older than the majority of the younger cast members makes him even more significant."

In the one-night performance Night Sky with Christopher Eccleston, Bruno Langley, Navin Chowdhry, Saffron Burrows, and David Baddiel, he appeared on stage at The Old Vic Theatre in London on October 30, 2005. He appeared in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather on Sky1 in December 2006. And as an RSC Honorary Artist in August 2007, he returned to Stratford for the first time in over 40 years to play Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2 of the RSC Histories Cycle. He is one of the few actors to play Hamlet (RSC), Lear (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Falstaff (RSC).

In a recent 13-part audio version of Robert Rankin's The Brightonomicon published by Hokus Bloke Productions and BBC Audiobooks, Warner was seen as Hugo Rune. He appeared on cult science fiction actress and Superman actor Sarah Douglas, Rupert Degas, The Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis, Harry Potter villain Jason Isaacs, Mark Wing-Davey, and Martin Jarvis (written by Elliott Stein & Neil Gardner) and directed by Neil Gardner).

In October 2008, Warner played Lord Mountbatten of Burma in BBC Four's film In Love with Barbara, a biography of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland. In BBC One's Wallander, he plays Povel Wallander, Kurt Wallander's father.

Mark Gatiss, a writer and actor, talked to Warner about his appearance in The Omen (1976) on BBC documentary series A History of Horror. David Warner posed for Rory Lewis Photographers' exhibition in November 2013; David's image was purchased by the National Portrait Gallery in London and was the first professional portrait session of David since 1966.

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