1. Arthur Nigel Davenport was an English stage, television and film actor, best known as the Duke of Norfolk in the Academy Award-winning films A Man for All Seasons and Chariots of Fire, respectively.
13 Facts About Nigel Davenport
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Nigel Davenport's father was an engineer, educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge before being employed as an engineer for the Midland Railway, and was later a lecturer in engineering, a Fellow, and the bursar at his alma mater, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; Arthur Davenport had served for four years in the Royal Engineers during World War I, and was awarded a Military Cross.
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Nigel Davenport grew up in an academic family and was educated at St Peter's School, Seaford, Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford.
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Nigel Davenport first appeared on stage at the Savoy Theatre and then with the Shakespeare Memorial Company, before joining the English Stage Company, one of its earliest members, at the Royal Court Theatre in 1956.
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Nigel Davenport began appearing in British film and television productions in supporting roles, including a walk-on in Tony Richardson's film, Look Back in Anger.
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Nigel Davenport appeared again in The Saint in season 3, episode 16 as Charles Voyson.
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Nigel Davenport made an impression as Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk in A Man for All Seasons, co-starred with Michael Caine in the war movie Play Dirty, and had a major role as Lord Bothwell in Mary, Queen of Scots.
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Nigel Davenport took the leading role in the off-beat Phase IV, which failed to find an audience.
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Nigel Davenport appeared as Ebenezer Scrooge's grudging father Silas in the George C Scott version of A Christmas Carol, and played opposite Michael Caine again in the 1988 Sherlock Holmes spoof Without A Clue, which was Davenport's second-last feature film.
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Nigel Davenport portrayed The Duke of Holdernesse in a 1993 BBC Radio dramatisation of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Priory School".
11.
In February 1997, Nigel Davenport was the subject of This Is Your Life when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at David Nicholson's stables near Cheltenham.
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Nigel Davenport was president of Equity from 1986 to 1992.
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Nigel Davenport was married twice, first to Helena Margaret White whom he met while he was studying at Oxford University.