Denholm Elliot

Denholm Elliot. Photo courtesy IMDb

Denholm Elliott was a British character actor known for his many supporting roles in film, theater, and television during his 47-year career.

Elliott received his education at Malvern College and briefly studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. During World War II, he served as a radio operator and gunner in the Royal Air Force. After the war, Elliott acted in London’s West End in The Guinea Pig (1946) and with Sir Laurence Olivier in Venus Observed (1950). He made his Broadway debut the same year in Ring Round the Moon .

Elliott began his film career in 1949 with his role in Dear Mr. Prohack . He went on to appear in The Sound Barrier (1952) and The Cruel Sea (1953) and later achieved a breakthrough with Nothing But the Best (1964) and Alfie (1966). Throughout his career, Elliott's roles included a washed-up director in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), a greedy doctor in A Private Function (1984), an emotional father in A Room with a View (1985), and an aging drunken actor in Noises Off (1992), his last motion picture. He also appeared in a number of commercially successful movies including Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Trading Places (1983), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). His last stage appearance was in David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre (1989) in London.

All told, Elliott’s nearly half-century career included an astounding 162 acting credits on screen as well as more than 20 on stage. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1987 for his supporting role in A Room with a View .Denholm Elliot

Elliott had a brief marriage to actress Virginia McKenna in 1954 but later remarried actress Susan Robinson. The couple had two children together. Two years after his death, Robinson wrote a biographical book about her late husband, Denholm Elliott: Quest for Love (1994), in which she revealed that Elliott was bisexual. In the book, Robinson documented their open marriage and her husband's fluid sexuality. Elliott was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and died in 1992.

First published at bi.org