27 Facts About Tom Courtenay

Tom Courtenay has received numerous accolades including three BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Silver Bear, and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Emmy Award.

Tom Courtenay was knighted for his services to cinema and theatre in the 2001 New Year Honours.

Tom Courtenay received two British Academy Television Awards for his performances in the television film A Rather English Marriage and the first series of the crime drama Unforgotten as well as a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for the PBS miniseries Little Dorrit.

Tom Courtenay was born on 25 February 1937 in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, the son of Annie Eliza and Thomas Henry Tom Courtenay, a boat painter in Hull fish docks.

Tom Courtenay attended Kingston High School and went on to study English at University College London, where he failed his degree.

Tom Courtenay made his stage debut in 1960 with the Old Vic theatre company at the Lyceum, Edinburgh, before taking over from Albert Finney in the title role of Billy Liar at the Cambridge Theatre in 1961.

Tom Courtenay's film debut was in 1962 with Private Potter, directed by Finnish-born director Caspar Wrede, who had first spotted Tom Courtenay while he was still at RADA.

Tom Courtenay was the first to record the song Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter, doing so for the TV play The Lads.

Tom Courtenay provided physical slapstick comedy in the ultimately chilling anti-nuke black comedy The Day the Fish Came Out in 1967.

Tom Courtenay's working relationship with Wrede returned to film when he played the title role in the latter's 1970 production of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

In 1968, Tom Courtenay began a long association with Manchester when he played in The Playboy of the Western World for the Century Theatre at Manchester University directed by Michael Elliott.

In 1969, Tom Courtenay played Hamlet for 69 Theatre Company at University Theatre in Manchester, this being the precursor of the Royal Exchange Theatre, which was founded in 1976 where he was to give many performances, firstly under the direction of Casper Wrede.

Tom Courtenay originated the role of Norman in Ronald Harwood's The Dresser which was first produced in the West End in 1980.

Tom Courtenay then reprised his role on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in 1981, acting opposite Paul Rogers.

Tom Courtenay received nominations for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play for his performance.

Tom Courtenay then was cast as Norman in the film adaptation of The Dresser, acting opposite Albert Finney as Sir with performances from Eileen Atkins, Edward Fox, and Michael Gough.

Tom Courtenay played the father of Derek Bentley in the 1991 film Let Him Have It.

Tom Courtenay appeared in I Heard the Owl Call My Name on US television in 1973.

Tom Courtenay played the role of God, opposite Sebastian Graham-Jones, in Ben Steiner's radio play "A Brief Interruption", broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.

Tom Courtenay appeared in the 2008 Christmas special of the BBC show The Royle Family, playing the role of Dave's father, David Sr, alongside Helen Fraser as Dave's mother, who had played his girlfriend in Billy Liar.

In 2002, based on an idea by Michael Godley, Tom Courtenay compiled a one-man show Pretending To Be Me based on the letters and writings of poet Philip Larkin, which first played at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

In 2007, Tom Courtenay appeared in two films: Flood, a disaster epic in which London is overwhelmed by floods, and The Golden Compass, an adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel, playing the part of Farder Coram.

Tom Courtenay won international awards including the Berlin International Film Festival's Silver Bear and Venice International Film Festival's Volpi Cup for Best Actor.

Harry said he knew the guest had set off some time ago, which was followed by a cut to the 1962 film The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner in which Tom Courtenay's character was running.

Tom Courtenay then entered the studio, apparently out of breath and in the same running kit he'd been wearing in the film.

Tom Courtenay is the President of Hull City AFC's Official Supporters' Club.

In 1999, Tom Courtenay was awarded an honorary doctorate by Hull University.