Just read that British actor David Warner has died, just a few days before his 81st birthday.
Some of the films I loved him in are: Straw Dogs, The Omen, Cross of Iron, Time Bandits, Tron, The Company of Wolves Waxwork and two Star Trek films. Most will remember him from Titanic. He also did some fabulous voice acting work in particular as Doctor Who for Big Finish.
I was lucky enough to meet him in 2019 and had a nice chat while he signed a reproduction of the Map from Time Bandits. He was a great actor, especially when portraying a villain, and a top bloke.
He was a terrific Bob Cratchit to George C. Scott’s Ebenezer Scrooge. Where most Cratchits tend towards the meek, Warner’s Bob projects reserves of quiet strength and dignity, whether asserting his right to Christmas Day off, or bearing the grief of his son’s death (in a timeline which, thankfully, didn’t come to pass).
The earliest thing he did that I’ve seen is Tom Jones but I can’t picture his character off the top of my head. The next earliest thing is Morgan! which I well remember and have rewatched “recently”.
But, like others, it’s Time Bandits for me. Here’s a longer clip that contains the earlier quote and many other beauties.
His interactions with Benson are great. E.g., “Dear Benson, you are so mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence.” More here. But it doesn’t include the turning him into a dog line.
Yes, yes! I just watched this last week. (Actually, I rewatched the entire Hornblower series.) He was deranged in this episode and yet seemed sane at the moment of his death in the company of a very young midshipman. Gut-wrenching episode.
He was the villian Jon Irenicus in the computer game Baldur’s Gate 2 and he was great. The last role I saw him in was as Van Helsing in Penny Dreadful, and it hit me that he wasn’t getting any younger. None of us are I guess. I never saw Titanic, and didn’t know he was in it until now. But I’ll remember him for Time Bandits, Tron, his voice acting, and the myraid other things I saw him in. He had a good run.
I saw him as Hamlet in 1965 for the R.S.C.
Having looked it up to refresh my memory I saw that Ophelia was Glenda Jackson. I had completely forgotten, if I had ever noticed in the first place.
Speaking of rare appearances as a good guy, he was great in Star Trek VI: a kingly man of reason who knows he isn’t exactly negotiating from a position of strength, but also knows that both sides could reluctantly accept peace-treaty terms that’d be less bad than the war he’s working to avert.
