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Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay (pronounced "Courtney") (born 25 February 1937) is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of critically-acclaimed films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Billy Liar (1963) and Dr. Zhivago (1965). (In the latter two, he appeared alongside Julie Christie).

Biography

He was born in Hull, England and attended Kingston High School there. Courtenay made his stage début in 1960 with the Old Vic company. His Hamlet at the Edinburgh Festival of 1968 marked him out as one of Britain's leading stage actors as well as a film actor. He showed his comic talent again by creating the role of Norman in Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy, The Norman Conquests.

He was briefly married to actress Cheryl Kennedy. His television appearances have been relatively few, but have included She Stoops to Conquer on BBC and several Ayckbourn plays. He appeared in I Heard the Owl Call My Name on US television in 1973.

Later Career

For his role as the dedicated revolutionary leader Pasha Antipov in Doctor Zhivago (1965), he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor award, being beaten out by Martin Balsam. On the set of that film Courtenay met and befriended Rod Steiger, the two remaining close friends until the latter's death in 2002.

Despite being catapulted to the verge of stardom by the aforementioned films, Courtenay's star began to wane in the late '60s, and he reverted primarily to stage work and character roles. His best known film role after the 1960s is probably in The Dresser (from Ronald Harwood's play of the same name, in which he also appeared) with Albert Finney. He won a nomination for Best Actor in the 1984 Academy Awards for that role, losing to Robert Duvall.

For reasons which remain obscure at this late date, he was cast as Bill Cosby's loyal valet in the notorious 1987 flop Leonard Part 6. In 1998 he teamed with Albert Finney again for the acclaimed BBC drama A Very English Marriage.

In 2000 his memoir Dear Tom: Letters From Home was published to critical acclaim. It comprises a selection of the letters exchanged between Courtnenay and his mother Annie Eliza Courtenay, interspersed with his own recollections of life as a young student actor in London in the early 1960s.

In 2003 he appeared on the West End stage again in the one-man show Pretending To Be Me, as Philip Larkin. Tom Courtenay is the President of Hull City AFC's Official Supporters Club. In 1999 he was given an honorary doctorate from Hull University.

Trivia

• He was knighted in 2001.
• He is the subject of the song "Tom Courtenay" by Yo La Tengo.

External links

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