Donald Pleasence began his career on stage in the West End before transitioning into a screen career, where he played numerous supporting and character roles including RAF Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe in The Great Escape, the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, SEN 5241 in THX 1138, and the deranged Clarence "Doc" Tydon in Wake in Fright.
37 Facts About Donald Pleasence
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The series' popularity and critical success led to a resurgent career for Donald Pleasence, who appeared in numerous American and European-produced horror and thriller films.
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Donald Pleasence collaborated with Halloween director John Carpenter twice more, as the President of the United States in Escape from New York, and as the Priest in Prince of Darkness.
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Donald Pleasence was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, the son of Alice and Thomas Stanley Donald Pleasence, a railway station master.
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Donald Pleasence was brought up as a strict Methodist in the small village of Grimoldby, Lincolnshire.
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In December 1939, Donald Pleasence initially refused conscription into the British Armed Forces, registering as a conscientious objector, but changed his stance in autumn 1940, after the attacks upon London by the Luftwaffe, and volunteered with the Royal Air Force.
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Donald Pleasence served as aircraft wireless-operator with No 166 Squadron in Bomber Command, with which he flew almost sixty raids against the Axis over occupied Europe.
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On 31 August 1944, his Lancaster NE112 was shot down during an attack on Agenville, and he was captured and imprisoned in the German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft I Pleasence produced and acted in many plays for the entertainment of his fellow captives.
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In 1960, Donald Pleasence gained excellent notices as the tramp in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre, a role he would again play in a 1990 revival.
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Donald Pleasence made his television debut in I Want to Be a Doctor.
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Donald Pleasence received positive critical attention for his role as Syme in the BBC version of Nineteen Eighty-Four from the novel by George Orwell.
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Donald Pleasence played Prince John in several episodes of the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood.
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Donald Pleasence appeared twice with Patrick McGoohan in the British spy series, Danger Man, in episodes "Position of Trust" and "Find and Return".
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In 1973, Donald Pleasence played a sympathetic murderer in an episode of Columbo entitled "Any Old Port in a Storm".
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Donald Pleasence portrayed a murderer captured by Mrs Columbo in "Murder Is a Parlor Game".
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Donald Pleasence starred as the Reverend Septimus Harding in the BBC's TV series The Barchester Chronicles.
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Donald Pleasence hosted the 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live with music guest Fear.
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In 1986, Donald Pleasence joined Ronald Lacey and Polly Jo Donald Pleasence for the television thriller Into the Darkness.
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Donald Pleasence appeared as the mild-mannered and good-natured POW forger Colin Blythe in the film The Great Escape, who discovers that he is slowly going blind, but nonetheless participates in the mass break-out, only to be shot down by German soldiers because he is unable to see them.
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Donald Pleasence played Lucifer in the religious epic The Greatest Story Ever Told.
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Donald Pleasence was one of many stars who were given cameos throughout the film.
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Donald Pleasence acted in Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac, in which he portrayed the love-sodden husband of a much younger French wife.
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Donald Pleasence ventured successfully into American cowboy territory, playing a sadistic self-styled preacher who goes after stoic Charlton Heston in the Western Will Penny.
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Donald Pleasence portrayed SEN 5241 in THX 1138, opposite Robert Duvall which was the directorial debut of George Lucas.
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Donald Pleasence appeared as Dr Samuel Loomis in John Carpenter's horror film Halloween.
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Donald Pleasence played the teacher, Kantorek in All Quiet on the Western Front, Dr Kobras in The Pumaman and the held-hostage President of the United States in Escape from New York.
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Donald Pleasence reprised his Dr Sam Loomis role in Halloween II, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.
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Later that year, Donald Pleasence played a retiring inspector who investigates the disappearance of the sister of Tom Schanley's character in Nothing Underneath.
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Donald Pleasence collaborated with Carpenter again when he starred in Prince of Darkness, where he played a priest who seeks the aid of a professor and a few of the latter's quantum physics students to uncover the mystery of a glowing liquid in a canister.
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Donald Pleasence admired Sir Laurence Olivier, with whom he worked on-stage in the 1950s, and later on the film version of Dracula.
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Two years earlier, Donald Pleasence did an amusingly broad impersonation of Olivier in the guise of a horror-film actor called "Valentine De'ath" in the film The Uncanny.
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Donald Pleasence provided the voice-over for the British public information film, The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water.
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Donald Pleasence has the kind of piercing stare which lifts enamel off saucepans.
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Donald Pleasence was nominated four times for the Tony Award for best performance by a leading actor in a Broadway play: in 1962 for Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, in 1965 for Jean Anouilh's Poor Bitos, in 1969 for Robert Shaw's The Man in the Glass Booth, and in 1972 for Simon Gray's Wise Child.
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Donald Pleasence was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to the acting profession by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.
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Donald Pleasence married four times and had five daughters from his first three marriages.
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On 2 February 1995, Donald Pleasence died at age 75 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, from complications of heart failure following heart valve replacement surgery.