Robert Hardy Biography

Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy, CBE, FSA (29 October 1925 - 3 August 2017) was an English actor who enjoyed a long career in the theatre, film and television.

Early life

Hardy was born in Cheltenham in 1925 to Jocelyn (ne Dugdale) and Henry Harrison Hardy, the headmaster of Cheltenham College and later of Shrewsbury School. He was educated at Rugby School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where his studies were interrupted by service in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He trained as a pilot, receiving part of his instruction in Terrell, Texas, in the British Flying Training School Program. While he visited Los Angeles when on leave from flight training at Terrell, his later acting career never gained a foothold in Hollywood. After service in the RAF, he returned to gain a BA (Hons) in English. On BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs he described the degree he obtained as "shabby", although he treasured the time spent studying under C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Career

Hardy began his career as a classical actor. In 1959 he appeared as Sicinius opposite Laurence Olivier in Coriolanus at Stratford-upon-Avon, directed by Peter Hall. He then appeared in Shakespeare's Henry V on stage and in television's An Age of Kings (1960), and subsequently played Coriolanus in The Spread of the Eagle (BBC, 1963) and Sir Toby Belch for the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Twelfth Night in 1980. Over the years, Hardy played a range of parts on television and film. His first continuing role in a TV series was as businessman Alec Stewart in the award-winning oil company drama The Troubleshooters for the BBC, which he played from 1966 to 1970. He won further acclaim for his portrayal of the mentally-unhinged Abwehr Sgt. Gratz in LWT's 1969 war drama Manhunt. In 1975, Hardy portrayed Albert, Prince Consort in the award-winning 13-hour serial Edward the Seventh.

He was seen as the irascible senior veterinarian Siegfried Farnon in the long-running All Creatures Great and Small (1978-90), an adaptation of James Herriot's semi-autobiographical books.

Hardy also made an appearance in the 1986-88 ITV comedy series Hot Metal, in which he played the dual roles of newspaper proprietor Twiggy Rathbone (who bore more than a passing resemblance to Rupert Murdoch) and his editor, Russell Spam. In 1993 Hardy appeared in an episode of Inspector Morse, playing Andrew Baydon in "Twilight of the Gods". In 2002, he played the role of pompous and eccentric Professor Neddy Welch in a WTTV/WGBH Boston co-production of Lucky Jim, adapted from the novel by Kingsley Amis. It aired originally as part of the Masterpiece series on PBS in the U.S. and starred Stephen Tompkinson in the title role of Jim Dixon, a luckless lecturer at a provincial British university.

Hardy played both Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, each on more than one occasion. He played Churchill most notably in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), for which he won a BAFTA award, but also in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance. On 20 August 2010, he read Churchill's famous wartime address "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the speech. He played Roosevelt in the BBC serial, Bertie and Elizabeth, and in the French TV mini-series, Le Grand Charles, about the life of Charles de Gaulle.

He also played Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in Elizabeth R, and Prince Albert in Edward the Seventh (known as Edward the King to the American audience). He took the role of Sir John Middleton in the 1995 film version of Sense and Sensibility.

His big screen roles included Professor Krempe in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter films.

His voice performance as Robin Hood in Tale Spinners For Children, an LP from the 1960s, is considered one of the best Robin Hood renditions. His voice was also the voice of D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers, and of Frdric Chopin, in The Story of Chopin.

Awards

Hardy was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1981 Birthday Honours.

Personal life

His first marriage, in 1952, was to Elizabeth Fox, the daughter of Sir Lionel Fox; they had a son, Paul. This marriage ended in 1956. In 1961 he married Sally Pearson, the daughter of the baronet Sir Neville Pearson and Dame Gladys Cooper as well as a sister-in-law of Robert Morley. This marriage ended in 1986. Robert Hardy has two other children, one of whom is Justine Hardy, a journalist, activist, and psychotherapist who founded Healing Kashmir. His second daughter, Emma, is a mother of three and a photographer.

He was a close friend of actor Richard Burton, whom he met at Oxford University. He shared some memories of their wartime friendship and read extracts from Burton's newly-published diaries at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2012.

While playing Henry V, Hardy developed an interest in medieval warfare, and in 1963 he wrote and presented an acclaimed television documentary on the subject of the Battle of Agincourt. He also wrote two books on the subject of the longbow, Longbow: A Social and Military History, and The Great Warbow; From Hastings to the Mary Rose with Matthew Strickland. He was one of the experts consulted by the archaeologist responsible for raising the Mary Rose. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Bowyers of the City of London from 1988 to 1990. In 1996 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

In February 2013, Hardy withdrew from his scheduled performance as Winston Churchill in Peter Morgan's play, The Audience, after suffering cracked ribs as the result of a fall.

Hardy died on 3 August 2017 aged 91 at Denville Hall, a home for retired actors.

TV and filmography

Films

• Torpedo Run (1958) .... Lt. Redley
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) .... Dick Carlton
• Berserk! (1967) .... Supt. Brooks
• How I Won the War (1967) .... British General
• Psychomania (1971) .... Chief Inspector Hesseltine
• 10 Rillington Place (1971) .... Malcolm Morris
• Young Winston (1972) .... Headmaster
• Demons of the Mind (1972) .... Zorn
• Gawain and the Green Knight (1973) .... Sir Bertilak
• Yellow Dog (1973) .... Alexander
• The Gathering Storm (1974) .... Joachim von Ribbentrop
• The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984) .... King Richard
• The Shooting Party (1985) .... Lord Bob Lilburn
• Paris by Night (1988) .... Adam Gillvray
• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) .... Professor Krempe
• A Feast at Midnight (1995) .... Headmaster
• Sense and Sensibility (1995) .... Sir John Middleton
• Gulliver's Travels (1996) .... Dr. Parnell
• Mrs. Dalloway (1997) .... Sir William Bradshaw
• The Tichborne Claimant (1998) .... Lord Rivers
• An Ideal Husband (1998) .... Lord Caversham
• The 10th Kingdom (2000) .... Chancellor Griswold
• The Gathering (2002) .... The Bishop
• Thunderpants (2002) .... Doctor
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) .... Cornelius Fudge
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) .... Cornelius Fudge
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) .... Cornelius Fudge
• Lassie (2005) .... Judge Murray
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) .... Cornelius Fudge
• Margaret (2009) .... Willie Whitelaw
• Old Harry (Short) (2009) .... Old Harry
• Churchill: 100 Days That Saved Britain (2015) .... Winston Churchill
• Joseph's Reel (short) (2015) .... Old Joseph
• Snapshot Wedding (2017 pre-production) .... Donald

Television

• An Age of Kings (1960)
• The Spread of the Eagle (1963) .... Coriolanus
• The Troubleshooters (1966-70)
• The Baron (1966), episode "A Memory of Evil"
• The Saint (1968), season 6, episode 4, "The Desperate Diplomat"
• Manhunt (1969) .... Abwehr Sgt Graz
• Elizabeth R (1971) .... Robert Dudley
• Edward the Seventh (1975) .... Albert, Prince Consort
• Upstairs, Downstairs (1975), season 5, episode 8, "Such A Lovely Man"
• The Duchess of Duke Street (1976) Episode: "A Lady of Virtue"
• All Creatures Great and Small (1978-1980 and 1988-1990; entire series) .... Siegfried Farnon
• Twelfth Night (1980)
• The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, episode "The Master Blackmailer" (1991) .... Charles Milverton
• Jenny's War (1985) .... Klein
• Northanger Abbey (1986) .... General Tilney
• Hot Metal (1986-88) .... Terence "Twiggy" Rathbone
• War and Remembrance (1988) .... Winston Churchill
• Middlemarch (1994) .... Mr. Brooke
• Inspector Morse, episode "Twilight of the Gods"
• Midsomer Murders (1999), season 2, episode 3, "Dead Man's Eleven"
• Foyle's War, "The German Woman"
• Spooks (2003), second series, episode 4, "Blood and Money" .... Bank of England supreme manager
• Making Waves (2004)
• Agatha Christie's Marple, series 2, episode "The Sittaford Mystery" (2006) .... Winston Churchill
• Little Dorrit (2008)
• Lewis, series 4, episode "Dark Matter" (2010)