Alec McCowen

An incredible dull personality, even for a British actor.

He also toured the world and recited The Gospel of Mark.

I just became aware of him last night while watching Travels With My Aunt! Great performance, so I looked him up and he was gay and seemingly out as long ago as the '80s, which made me like him even more.

He's nerdishly appealing in TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT.

His later appearances were ruined by wretched toupees.

Mr. McCowen's Desert Island Disc

He was good as the old queen in The Age of Innocence. He was 1870's DL

He's a whore darling

Loved him in Frenzy.

[quote]His partner, the actor Geoffrey Burridge, died from AIDS complications in 1987

Oh, dear.

Who??

I'm loving the Desert Island Discs - the plummy voices. Great fun.

R12 Yes! DID is one of my favorite shows of all time.

Martin Scorsese always said good things about him. Called him a thespian

He really was a talented actor. I would have loved to see him on the stage

so sexy in his day. thank you OP.

[quote] He was good as the old queen in The Age of Innocence. He was 1870's DL

Oh no, that was HE ? I want to cry now

He was a FB for director Nicholas Martin in the olden days.

[quote] His later appearances were ruined by wretched toupees

All his appearances were ruined by two nostrils on his nose which rather resembled that of a rabbit.

So disconcerting.

he reminds me of that hot dish who was in DARLING

^ But that hot dish named Roland has normal nostrils.

Nobody rocks a 'stache quite like an englishman IMO. Michael Craig as "the irresistible Mark"-who-was-in-love-with-a-bloke-at-Eton, was never sexier

[quote] He was a FB for director Nicholas Martin in the olden days.

I assume that is from your personal acquaintance as it's nowhere on Google, Wiki etc.

McCowen's performance in the play Hadrian VII in 1969 was a big hit. Tony nominated. Was said to be amazing.

Martita Hunt got a Tony in '49.

He was such a bitch in the age of innocence. I remember that scene when he tells Archer that Ellen is going down now since Beaufort has lost his assets, and Archer slaps him and cries "KEEP MADAME OLENSKA'S NAME OUT OF YOUR STUPID MOUTH"

I liked him in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. He plays one of the scheming archbishops along with Charles Kay.

^ He played the role that Helpmann did in the original.

The nostrils.

It was silly for Fox to put him on contract. He had face for radio or the stage.

R27 your point?

R28 I don't think they are bad. Would be good for a British upper crust snob

He's the most boring actor ever.

R30 how so?

R30, R31 He was typecast in movie roles as a small person. We never saw him live in Shakespeare.

R30 that's a bit harsh

[quote] he was gay and seemingly out as long ago as the '80s, which made me like him even more

you didn't need to be "out " those days. NOBODY expected a british stage actor to be anything but "gay", or at the very least "bi". you just knew. People would watch the telly and giggle "he's a naughty boy" or " sails and steams this one ". Miss those days

I always had a crush on him.

McCowen's best film: Personal Services with Julie Walters and Shirley Stelfox.

[quote] Alec McCowen…His film roles include … The Agony and the Ecstasy…

I never saw him in this lush movie.

R14 I don’t think that’s a nice thing to call anyone, unless you’re talking about a gay woman.

R38 it means he is a very good classically trained actor.

His partner was hot

Sir Georg Solti leads the London Symphony in Oedipus Rex, narrated by Alec McCowen.

Top or bottom?

" I interviewed McCowen as he was about to play Prospero at Stratford, and I asked him about being a young gay actor. 'Oh,' he said, 'most actors are more or less gay ... [exquisite pause] ... with the possible exception of Jack Hawkins.'" -- W Stephen Gilbert

Was he HUNG?

Alec McCowen talks to Michael Hasted

“I was a very secretive little boy,” McCowen said. “I was the little boy who smiled too much. I found real life either dull or overwhelming. Real life was something I didn't want to participate in.”

Instead, he listened for hours to record of music hall performer Jack Buchanan singing “Good Night, Vienna,” because “Jack Buchanan had grace. He represented show business to me.” To this day McCowen has photograph of Buchanan stuck on his dressing room mirror.

Another one of his childhood idols was Jack Benny. “I saw his movies and was fascinated by him. His face was a mask. He never seemed to do anything but you knew exactly what he was thinking.”

R46 I wonder why he wasn't in the movie version of Equus.

Burton hadn't had a hit movie in years, but was probably still considered a bigger potential box office draw than McCowen or Anthony Hopkins, who had played the lead role on stage. Although the movie got some OK reviews and Academy Award nominations, it wasn't a box office success.

I saw McGowan live in 3 different plays: “After the Rain” and “Hadrian the Seventh “ on Broadway, and some newspaper drama of political skullduggery in London, which I went to more to see Paul Scofield, who played McGowan’s boss. Not the greatest play, but I loved seeing them onstage.

“Hadrian the Seventh” was kind of a gimmick play: what happens when a reclusive nobody out of the blue is declared Pope? Best moment in it was the end of Act I, when a gorgeously appareled papal procession marches down the aisles to declare him Pope. Curtain.

He was very generic, but he's in 3 films I like. THE DEEP BLUE SEA with Vivien (never noticed, must be someone who opens a door). SILENT ENEMY with hotties Michael Craig AND Laurence Harvey (nothing part). and of course THE WITCHES

[quote]I saw McGowan live in 3 different plays: “After the Rain” and “Hadrian the Seventh “ on Broadway, and some newspaper drama of political skullduggery in London, which I went to more to see Paul Scofield, who played McGowan’s boss. Not the greatest play, but I loved seeing them onstage.

His name was McCowen.

Bump because he was a Hammer Horror regular