citron

Happy 96th Birthday, Michael Gough!

by

Tag on del.icio.us Share on Facebook Bookmark and Share
Share on print Share on email


Michael Gough (above) was born 96 years ago today in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, and remarkably, he is still alive. An incredibly sly and versatile English character actor - equally at home reading the dialogue of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Pinter, Berthold Brecht, or Jimmy Sangster (the principal scribe of Hammer horror) - Mr. Gough has worked with more good film directors than you can name - among them, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Laurence Olivier, Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, John Huston, Ken Russell, Joseph Losey, Franklin Schaffner, Derek Jarman, Sidney Pollack, Martin Scorsese, and Tim Burton. *Whew.* I'm amazed he hasn't been knighted!

His best known roles are probably Arthur Holmwood in Terence Fisher's Horror of Dracula (1958), and Bruce Wayne's faithful butler, Alfred, in the Burton-initiated Batman film series.

His next film appearance will be as the voice of the Dodo in Burton's 3-D Alice in Wonderland (2010).  (He previously appeared as the March Hare in Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland here.) We wish him all the best.

Copyright © 2013 by

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/09619696729617824184 Matthias

    ...According to Wikipedia, he's 92, not 96.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/10901663264449536920 C. Jerry Kutner

    Yes, Matthias, but the IMDB says he was born in 1913. In my brief net research I found three different birth years: 1913, 1916, and 1917. Does anybody know for sure when this gent was born?

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/08501032829800803300 Flickhead

    In Horror of Dracula, Mr. Gough played Arthur Holmwood. Jonathan Harker was played by John Van Eyssen.

    Nonetheless, thanks for remembering him. He's got one of the most distinctive voices in film.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/10901663264449536920 C. Jerry Kutner

    By Jove, you're right. Lucy and Mina have so many fiances in so many different versions of this tale that it's hard to keep them all straight. In any event, thanks, Flickhead. Harker is now corrected to Holmwood.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/07678537250333277334 Seeing_I

    He also played two roles in the original "Doctor Who" series. He was a malevolently playful Q-like figure in "The Celestial Toymaker" all the way back in 1965, and played a treacherous Time Lord in the 1980s.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/medialibrary/images/misc/your_greatest_moments_gallery/the_celestial_toymaker.jpg

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/09212743923364795680 Tom

    he's playing the dodo? Interesting!

  • Jan Newton

    Hello
    My name is Jan Newton.

    Not sure you can help me, i a am trying to find Michael Gough,i am an old friend of the family from when they lived in Norfolk England (uk) i am the son of Richard Newton.
    If it is poss to get this info to Michael Gough or someone close to him.

    I am living in Norway now not far from my mother Anne-lise Newton.
    I used to live on the fairstead in Cley next the sea.Holt,Norfolk not far from Michael and family when they first came to Norfolk to make the film The Go-Between
    Thank you and hope you can help me get in contact.

    All the best Jan Newton