Oscar Profile #195: Tom Courtenay

Born February 25, 1937 in East Yorkshire, England to a ship painter and his wife, Thomas Daniel (Tom) Courtenay overcame his humble beginnings to become one of England’s most promising actors of the 1960s along with contemporaries Albert Finney and Alan Bates. While Finney and Bates continued to excel on film, Courtenay spent most of his prime years in doing what he preferred, stage work.

Courtenay had roles on British TV as early as 1956, but established his reputation as a stage actor, most notably at the Old Vic in The Seagull and Twelfth Night before replacing Finney’s on the London stage in Billy Liar which brought him to the attention of film makers. He made his screen debut in the starring role in 1962’s Private Potter and followed that up with the starring role in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner which earned him international acclaim.

After winning the BAFTA for Best Newcomer of 1962 for The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner he, not Finney, was given the lead in the film version of 1963’s Billy Liar, a huge hit in the U.K. and an art-house hit in the U.S. He followed that with the critically acclaimed 1964 film, King and Country. He was nominated for BAFTAs as Best British Actor of 1963 and 1964 for Billy Liar and King and Country, respectively, after which he was cast in major, albeit not necessarily starring roles in Hollywood films.

In 1965 alone he had major roles in Operation Crossbow; Doctor Zhivago and King Rat, earning his first Oscar nomination for Doctor Zhivago. In 1967 he was in The Night of the Generals and had the lead role in The Day the Fish Came Out;. In 1968 he was in A Dandy in Aspic and had the lead in Otley. In 1970 he starred in A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and then returned to the British stage, appearing occasionally on British TV until he re-emerged on screen in 1983’s The Dresser for which he and Finney both received Oscar nominations for Best Actor.

After the success of The Dresser, Courtenay repeated his earlier pattern of returning to the British stage with occasional time out for British TV, only occasionally appearing on screen where he made noteworthy appearances in 1991’s Let Him Have It; 2001’s Last Orders; 2002’s Nichols Nickleby; 2007’s The Golden Compass and 2012’s Quartet.

Seen most recently in Gambit and Night Train to Lisbon, the actor has 45 Years in post-production and is currently filming The Legend of Barney Thomson.

Married to actress Cheryl Kennedy from1973 to 1982, he has been married to second wife Isabel Crossley since 1988. Knighted in 2001, Sir Tom Courtenay is still one of our finest actors at 77.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER (1962), directed by Tony Richardson

This British film had tremendous impact on audiences in Britain and in the U.S., especially New York where it ran and ran. The story of a juvenile delinquent given a chance at a new life by ostensibly winning a marathon race for the reformatory was one of the first and best anti-authoritarian films of the era. The performance of Michael Redgrave as the head of the institution is outstanding and Tom Courtenay’s portrayal of the runner is unforgettable. Courtenay’s extensive training for the big race and his deliberate loss at the end were heartbreakingly real in what has often been called the best British film ever made. Courtenay won the BAFTA for Best Newcomer over Terence Stamp in Billy Budd the year that Peter O’Toole won for Best British Actor for Lawrence of Arabia.

BILLY LIAR (1963), directed by John Schlesinger

Schlesinger followed his highly successful big screen debut with A Kind of Loving with this film version of the successful London play that had originally starred Albert Finney, choosing Courtenay who had been Finney’s replacement on stage, or so the story goes. Maybe it was that Finney was busy filming Tom Jones for Courtenay’s Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner director, Tony Richardson. In any event, Courtenay is once again terrific as the provincial North England clerk living in a fantasy world. The role earned him another BAFTA nomination, this time for Best British Actor. He and Finney in Tom Jones both lost to Dirk Bogarde in The Servant.

Julie Christie, who received great notices for her supporting work in the film would go on to win an Oscar for Schlesinger’s Darling the same year she also starred in Doctor Zhivago for which Courtenay received that film’s only acting nomination in a supporting role as Christie’s husband.

KING AND COUNTRY (1964), directed by Joseph Losey

Dirk Bogarde, who won the BAFTA for Best British Actor for The Servant over Courtenay’s Billy Liar received top billing as Courtenay’s defense attorney in his court-martial in this devastating anti-war drama. It was Courtenay, though, who earned all the awards for this one, including the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival as well as another BAFTA nomination for Best British Actor, losing this time to Richard Attenborugh for Guns at Batsai and Séance on a Wet Afternoon.

Courtenay plays a simple foot soldier who after three years of horrendous combat conditions during World War I quietly cracks under the pressure and goes on a walk in France intending to walk all the way back to England. Arrested for desertion, he is put on trial and given a fierce defense by Bogarde who, in one of the film’s most devastating scenes, rebuffs Courtenay’s thanks after the trial by telling him he thinks he should be shot. Moments later the grim news of the verdict is delivered and the film’s final scenes depict a man going uncomprehendingly to his death. The film’s shocking last scene is still a kick in the gut.

THE DRESSER (1983), directed by Peter Yates

Recreating his Tony nominated performance opposite Paul Rogers who was also Tony nominated, Courtenay returned to the big screen after an absence of more than a dozen years to renewed acclaim. Both he and Albert Finney received Oscar nominations for their portrayals of a deteriorating stage actor and his assistant who gets him through a difficult production of King Lear. Courtenay’s portrayal of the assistant won him a Golden Globe on his first nomination as well as a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. He shared the Globe with Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies. He and Finney lost the Oscar to Duvall and the BAFTA to Haing S. Ngor in The Killing Fields.

The character of the actor was allegedly based on Sir Donald Wolfit.

QUARTET (2012), directed by Dustin Hoffman

Based on a play and written for the screen by Ronald Harwood who served in the same capacity for The Dresser, great things were expected of Dustin Hoffman’s first credited work as a director, but neither he nor Maggie Smith, coming off the dual success of Downton Abbey and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, met audiences’ high expectations.

The simple, some would say simplistic, plot is about a group of friends in an old age home played by Tom Coutenay; Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins who are nervously awaiting a reunion with the fourth member of their long ago quartet (Smith) who has since moved onto bigger and better things as a diva of international renown. With a plot like that the only payoff would be a full out stage production with all four playing and singing their hearts out. Alas, the story ends as they are about to take the stage.

Courtenay, as Smith’s ex-husband, is good as ever but is under-utlized.