ABSTRACT
Alan Bates was born in Derbyshire in 1934. He was amongst the first actors to perform with the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre, creat ing the role of Cliff in John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger. Bates starred in Pinter’s The Caretaker on stage in London and New York, and duplicated his role in the film version. He received the Clarence Derwent Award for his performance as Edmund in Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill. The actor has appeared in Arnold Wesker’s Four Seasons, Lindsay Anderson’s productions of David Storey’s In Celebration (which was also filmed) and Life Class. Bates played the title role in Hamlet, first in Nottingham, then in London. He starred in The Taming of the Shrew at Stratford, and Pinter’s production of Simon Gray’s Butley in both London and New York. For this performance, Bates received the Evening Standard Award as Best Actor, and the Tony Award on Broadway. The actor’s association with Gray continued with starring roles in Otherwise Engaged, Melon and Life Support. Other key performances have been in The Seagull Osborne’s A Patriot For Me, The Dance of Death, Ivanov, Much Ado About Nothing, The Master Builder and Turgenev’s Fortune's Fool. Bates also performed in a one-man show at the Edinburgh Festival entitled A Muse of Fire.
