According to The Hollywood Reporter, British stage, film and TV actor Donald Sinden has passed away at the age of 90 after suffering from prostate cancer, his son told the BBC today. Best known as a Shakespearean actor, the actor also appeared in over 70 film and TV productions.
After the huge success of his first film The Cruel Sea in 1953, Sinden was CONTRACTED for 7 years to the Rank Organisation at Pinewood Studios and subsequently starred in 23 movies, many of them outstanding British films of the 1950s and early 1960s including Mogambo; Doctor in the House; Above Us The Waves; The Black Tent; Eyewitness; Doctor at Large; The Siege of Sidney Street and Twice Round the Daffodils.
He became popularly associated with his character of "Benskin" in the Doctor film series, as the duffel-coated medical student, regularly failing his finals and spending most of his time chasing pretty nurses, accompanied by his trade-mark 'wolf-growl'.
In 1949, he appeared in The Heiress at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket opposite Ralph Richardson and Peggy Ashcroft, directed by John Gielgud. In his Sky Arts documentary series Great West End Theatres, Sinden said that the play ran for 644 performances.
The actor won Best Actor awards for his appearances in the Ray Cooney farces Not Now, Darling (1967); Two into One (1984) and Out of Order (1990). In 1976 he was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actor for his performance on Broadway as Arthur Wicksteed in Alan Bennett's comedy Habeas Corpus. His Other memorable leading performances in the commercial theatre included roles in productions such as There's a Girl in My Soup (1966); In Praise of Love (1973); An Enemy of the People (1975); Present Laughter (1981); The School for Scandal (1983); The Scarlet Pimpernel (1985); Major Barbara (1988); Diversions and Delights (one-man show as Oscar Wilde, 1989); That Good Night (1996) and Quartet (1999).
Joining the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company in 1946, Sinden was an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) from 1967.
Outstanding among his many notable stage appearances for the RSC, both at Stratford-upon-Avon and in London's West End , was his performance in 1963 as the Duke of York in The Wars of the Roses opposite Peggy Ashcroft as Queen Margaret.
Other memorable performances by Sinden for the company were as Lord Foppington in The Relapse in 1967; Malvolio in Twelfth Night (opposite Judi Dench as Viola) in 1969 and again with Judi Dench and her husband Michael Williams in 1974, as Sir Harcourt Courtly in London Assurance (Albery Theatre) for which, after the production transferred to New York in 1975, Sinden was the first recipient of the Broadway Drama Desk Special Award.
In 2013 Sinden presented a documentary series called Great West End Theatres, which describes the history and stories associated with each of the 40 London theatres. Directed and produced by his son Marc Sinden, it was to be released as a 40-part DVD and Sky Arts TV series, with the first 10 episodes showing on Sky Arts 2 during the autumn of 2013.
Sinden achieved wide fame with the television-viewing public in 1963 through the Associated Rediffusion series Our Man at St Mark's followed by Our Man from St Mark's. Other featured television roles included guest-starring as the Colonel in the "Many Happy Returns" episode of the cult 1967 series The Prisoner.
After starring in the 1971 series The Organisation, he co-starred in 1975 in the London Weekend Television situation comedy Two's Company, in which he played an English butler, Robert, to Elaine Stritch's American character, Dorothy. The program was nominated for a 'Best Situation Comedy' BAFTA in 1977. Stritch and Sinden also sang the theme tune for the opening credits to the program, which received a BAFTA nomination. They each received a BAFTA nomination in 1979 for 'Best Light Entertainment Performance' and the show received a further 2 BAFTA nominations that year.
In 1988 he presented a documentary series on BBC TV about his love of The English Country Church, inspired by his grandfathers architectural drawings and watercolours.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Donald Sinden: (NOTE: Slight modifications have been made to the original work)
Photo: Facebook/Donald Sinden
