Tim Pigott-Smith Biography

Timothy Peter Pigott-Smith, (13 May 1946 - 7 April 2017) was an English film and television actor and author. He was best known for his leading role as Ronald Merrick in the television drama series The Jewel in the Crown, for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1985. Other noted TV roles included lead roles in The Chief, " Midsomer Murders - Days of Misrule"?,The Vice, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, King Charles III and two Doctor Who stories (The Claws of Axos (1971) & The Masque of Mandragora (1976)). Pigott-Smith appeared in many notable films including: Clash of the Titans (1981), Gangs of New York (2002), Johnny English (2003), Alexander (2004), V for Vendetta (2005), Quantum of Solace (2008), Red 2 (2013) and Jupiter Ascending (2015).

Early life

Pigott-Smith was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, the son of Margaret Muriel (ne Goodman) and Harry Thomas Pigott-Smith, who was a journalist. He was educated at Wyggeston Boys' School, Leicester, King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon and Bristol University. He trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Career

Film and television

After a long career in smaller roles, Pigott-Smith gained his big break with the leading role of Ronald Merrick in the 1984 television serial The Jewel in the Crown. Other appearances include the title role in the crime drama series The Chief (1990-1993), a recurring role in ITV drama The Vice as Ken Stott's nemesis, Vickers, and Bloody Sunday. He appeared in two adaptations of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South; in the 1975 version he played Frederick Hale and in 2004 he played Frederick's father Richard. In 1995, he starred in a serial of the series Ghosts.

He appeared twice in Doctor Who: in the stories The Claws of Axos (1971) and The Masque of Mandragora (1976).

He was a regular narrator of documentary television series. He narrated the Battlefield series, which examines pivotal battles of the Second World War from an operations point of view. Later, he narrated a series on the British Royal Family, entitled Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work. The series followed Queen Elizabeth II for more than a year, including the 2007 state visit to the United States.

He appeared in Lewis in 2015 as a taxidermist in the episode "One For Sorrow". He also appeared on the ITV series, Downton Abbey in the third series' (third season) fifth episode as obstetrician/gynaecologist Sir Philip Tapsell, who was present at the death of Lady Sybil Crawley Branson (Jessica Brown Findlay) from eclampsia after giving birth to her daughter.

His film career included the 2004 film Alexander, The Four Feathers, Clash of the Titans, Gangs of New York, Johnny English, The Remains of the Day and V for Vendetta. He also appeared as Major General Robert Ford in director Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday (2002), and as the Foreign Secretary in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008). In February 2010 Piggott-Smith played Alan Keen in the television film On Expenses. He also had a cameo appearance as Sniggs in the BBC production of Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall in 2017. His final film role was that of Sir Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria's Private Secretary, in Victoria & Abdul (2017).

Stage and radio

Pigott-Smith worked in the theatre in Shakespearean and Greek roles; for instance, he played Posthumus in John Barton's 1974 production of Cymbeline for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In early stage roles he is credited as "Tim Smith".

In 2011 he took the title role in King Lear at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds.

Contemporary works included Enron, playing Ken Lay, for the Chichester Festival Theatre, and then London, in 2009 and Tobias in A Delicate Balance at the Almeida Theatre, London in 2011. He returned to the Almeida in 2014 as a post-accession Charles, Prince of Wales in King Charles III, for which he received a nomination for the Olivier Award for Best Actor, and his first Tony Award nomination for its production on Broadway in 2015. He also appeared as Charles in the 2017 film adaptation of the play.

He was also a radio actor, appearing in many productions on BBC Radio 4.

Novels

During the making of The Jewel in the Crown, Pigott-Smith wrote a diary on his impressions of India. This was published together with an anthology of poetry and prose under the title Out of India.

He wrote two children's books in the series The Baker Street Mysteries, featuring the exploits of Sherlock Holmes' Baker Street Irregulars - The Dragon Tattoo (2008) and Shadow of Evil (2009). He played Holmes in a BBC Radio adaptation of The Valley of Fear.

Death

Pigott-Smith died suddenly on 7 April 2017, aged 70. He had been scheduled to appear in a touring production of Death of a Salesman, with opening night in Northampton only three days later. His wife Pamela Miles was also to appear in the play but she had withdrawn after breaking a bone and needing surgery. On 2 May 2017 Coroner for Northamptonshire Anne Pember confirmed she ruled that Mr Pigott-Smith died of natural causes and therefore she will not hold an inquest into his death.

Filmography and more

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director(s)	Notes
1976	Aces High	Maj. Stoppard	Jack Gold
1977	Joseph Andrews	Cornet	Tony Richardson
1980	Sweet William	Gerald	Claude Whatham
	Richard's Things	Peter	Anthony Harvey
1981	Clash of the Titans	Thallo	Desmond Davis
	Escape to Victory	Maj. Rose - The English	John Huston
1986	A State of Emergency	Ft. Joe Ryan	Richard C. Bennett
1993	The Remains of the Day	Thomas Benn	James Ivory
2002	Safe Conduct	Fleming	Bertrand Tavernier
	Bloody Sunday	Maj. Gen. Robert Ford	Paul Greengrass
	The Four Feathers	Gen. Faversham	Shekhar Kapur
	Gangs of New York	Calvinist Minister	Martin Scorsese
2003	Johnny English	Pegasus, Head of MI7	Peter Howitt
2004	Alexander	Omen Reader	Oliver Stone
2005	V for Vendetta	Peter Creedy	James McTeigue
2006	L'Entente Cordiale	S.I. Masterson	Vincent De Brus
	Flyboys	Mr. Lowry	Tony Bill
2008	Quantum of Solace	Foreign Secretary	Marc Forster
2010	Alice in Wonderland	Lord Ascot	Tim Burton
2011	My Piece of the Pie	Mr. Brown	Cdric Klapisch
2013	RED 2	Director Philips	Dean Parisot
2015	Jupiter Ascending	Malidictes	The Wachowskis
2016	Whisky Galore!	Woolsey	Gillies MacKinnon
2017	6 Days	William Whitelaw	Toa Fraser	Posthumous release
	King Charles III	Charles III	Rupert Goold	Posthumous release
	Victoria & Abdul	Sir Henry Ponsonby	Stephen Frears	Posthumous release
	The Little Vampire 3D	Frederick	Richard Claus & Karsten Kiilerich	Posthumous release, Voice, (final film role)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Director(s)	Notes
1979	Measure for Measure	Angelo	Desmond Davis	BBC Shakespeare series
1982	I Remember Nelson	Capt. Thomas Hardy		4 episodes
2014	37 Days	Herbert Henry Asquith	Justin Hardy	TV 3-part miniseries

Audiobook narration

Note: "Vocal performance" would be more accurate than "narration," in that each character in each book has a distinctive voice, women as well as men, and class differences and accents are made plain. In The Fortune of War, for example, Pigott-Smith portrayed 22 British, 9 Americans, and 2 French.

Year	Book title	Author	Notes
2000	Blue at the Mizzen	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: July 5
2000	The Fortune of War	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: July 5
2000	Desolation Island	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: July 5
2000	The Far Side of the World	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: November 7
2000	The Ionian Mission	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: July 5
2000	The Letter of Marque	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: July 4
2000	The Mauritius Command	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: July 5
2001	The Nutmeg of Consolation	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: August 7
2000	The Reverse of the Medal	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: July 5
2000	The Surgeon's Mate	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: July 5
2001	The Thirteen Gun Salute	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: June 5
2001	The Truelove	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: October 9
2002	The Wine-Dark Sea	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: January 22
2000	Treason's Harbour	Patrick O'Brian	Release Date: October 10
2000	Seven Years in Tibet	Heinrich Harrer	Release Date: July 5
1995 (?)	The Warlord Trilogy	Bernard Cornwell

Awards and honours

Pigott-Smith won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in 1985, for his role in The Jewel in the Crown. In 2014-15, he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award and the Tony Award for his lead role in the play King Charles III. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to drama.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1985	BAFTA TV Awards	Best Actor	The Jewel in the Crown
2002	Fantasporto Award	Directors' Week Award for Best Actor	Bloody Sunday