Editing Alan Bates (section)

==Career==
===Early stage appearances===
Bates's stage debut was in 1955, in ''You and Your Wife'', in [[Coventry]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://alanbates.com/abfeatures/timeline.html|title=Alan Bates Archive Feature: Timeline I, 1954–69|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519032508/http://www.alanbates.com/abfeatures/timeline.html|archive-date=19 May 2011}}</ref>

In 1956, Bates made his West End debut as Cliff in ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'', a role he had originated at the [[Royal Court Theatre|Royal Court]] and which made him a star. He also played the role on television (for the ''[[ITV Play of the Week]]'') and on Broadway. He also was a member of the 1967 acting company at the [[Stratford Festival]] in Canada, playing the title role in [[Richard III (play)|Richard III]].<ref>{{cite web | url =https://archives.stratfordfestival.ca/AIS/Details/people/5295 | title = Alan Bates acting credits | website = Stratford Festival Archives | access-date = 3 June 2019}}</ref><ref name=whitaker>{{Citation|last=Whitaker|first=Herbert|title=The credo of Alan Bates: aim for variety|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|date=8 April 1967|page=26}}</ref>

===Television===
In the late 1950s, Bates appeared in several plays for television in Britain in shows such as ''ITV Play of the Week'', ''[[Armchair Theatre]]'' and ''ITV Television Playhouse''.

In 1960, Bates appeared as Giorgio in the final episode of ''[[The Four Just Men (TV series)]]'' entitled Treviso Dam.

Bates made his feature film debut in ''[[The Entertainer (1960 film)|The Entertainer]]'' (1960) opposite [[Laurence Olivier]]. Bates worked for the ''Padded Wagon Moving Company'' in the early 1960s while acting at the ''[[Circle in the Square Theatre]]'' in New York City.

===Film stardom===
Bates played the lead in his second feature, ''[[Whistle Down the Wind (film)|Whistle Down the Wind]]'' (1961), directed by [[Bryan Forbes]]. He followed it with the lead in ''[[A Kind of Loving (film)|A Kind of Loving]]'' (1962), directed by [[John Schlesinger]]. Both films were very popular, establishing Bates as a film star.<ref name="three">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-moguls-nat-cohen-part-three-1962-68/|date=21 January 2025|access-date=21 January 2025|title=Forgotten British Moguls: Nat Cohen – Part Three (1962-68)}}</ref>
[[File:Alan Bates vintage headshot from "The Entertainer" (1960).jpg|thumb|left|Bates [[head shot]] for his film debut, ''[[The Entertainer (1960 film)|The Entertainer]]'' (1960).]]
Film critics cited the 1963 film noir ''[[The Running Man (1963 film)|The Running Man]]'' as being one of Bates' finest performances. The film starred Laurence Harvey as a man who fakes his death, with Bates in the supporting role of Stephen Maddox, an insurance company investigator.

Bates went into an adaptation of [[Harold Pinter]]'s ''[[The Caretaker (1963 film)|The Caretaker]]'' (1963) with Donald Pleasence and Robert Shaw. It was directed by [[Clive Donner]] who then made ''[[Nothing But the Best (film)|Nothing But the Best]]'' (1964) with Bates.

Bates supported [[Anthony Quinn]] in ''[[Zorba the Greek (film)|Zorba the Greek]]'' (1964) and [[James Mason]] in ''[[Georgy Girl]]'' (1966). Bates returned to TV doing episodes of ''[[Wednesday Theatre]]'' and starred in [[Philippe de Broca]]'s ''[[King of Hearts (1966 film)|King of Hearts]]'' (1966).

Bates was reunited with Schlesinger in ''[[Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film)|Far From the Madding Crowd]]'' (1967), starring [[Julie Christie]] then did the [[Bernard Malamud]] film ''[[The Fixer (1968 film)|The Fixer]]'' (1968), which earned him an [[Academy Award]] nomination for [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]].

In 1969 Bates starred in ''[[Women in Love (film)|Women in Love]]'' directed by [[Ken Russell]] with [[Oliver Reed]] and [[Glenda Jackson]], in which Bates and Reed wrestled naked. He followed it appearing as Col. Vershinin in the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]]'s film of ''[[Three Sisters (1970 Olivier film)|Three Sisters]]'', directed by and co-starring [[Laurence Olivier]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066454/|title=Three Sisters (1970)|date=2 March 1973|publisher=IMDb}}</ref>

Bates was handpicked by director [[John Schlesinger]] (with whom he had previously worked on ''A Kind of Loving'' and ''Far From The Madding Crowd'') to play the starring role of Dr Daniel Hirsh in the film ''[[Sunday Bloody Sunday (film)|Sunday Bloody Sunday]]'' (1971). Bates was held up filming ''[[The Go-Between (1971 film)|The Go-Between]]'' (1971) for director [[Joseph Losey]] alongside Christie, and had also become a father around that time, and so he had to refuse the role. (The part then went first to [[Ian Bannen]], who balked at kissing and simulating sex with another man, and then to [[Peter Finch]] who earned an [[Academy Award]] nomination for the role.)

Bates starred in the film of ''[[A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (film)|A Day in the Death of Joe Egg]]'' (1972) and produced and appeared in a short, ''Second Best'' (1972).

Bates starred in ''[[Story of a Love Story]]'' (1973), and some play adaptations, ''[[Butley (film)|Butley]]'' (1974) and ''[[In Celebration]]'' (1975). He was the villain in ''[[Royal Flash (film)|Royal Flash]]'' (1975) and appeared on television in ''Plays for Today'' and the ''[[Laurence Olivier Presents]]'' version of [[Harold Pinter]]'s ''[[The Collection (play)|The Collection]]'' (1976).

===Television (1970s and 80s)===
[[File:Publicity still of Alan Bates (c.1960s).jpg|thumb|right|[[Press kit|Publicity]] [[film still|still]] of Bates, {{c.}}1970.]]
Bates starred in the TV movie ''Piccadilly Circus'' (1977) and ''[[The Mayor of Casterbridge (TV series)|The Mayor of Casterbridge]]'' (1978). In the latter he played Michael Henchard, the ultimately-disgraced lead, which he described as his favourite role.
He starred in such international films as ''[[An Unmarried Woman]]'' (1978) and ''[[Nijinsky (film)|Nijinsky]]'' (1980), and also played [[Bette Midler]]'s ruthless business manager in the film ''[[The Rose (film)|The Rose]]'' (1979). He was also in ''[[The Shout]]'' (1979) and ''[[John Osborne#Works|Very Like a Whale]]'' (1980).

Bates played two diametrically opposed roles in ''[[An Englishman Abroad]]'' (1983), as [[Guy Burgess]], a member of the Cambridge spy ring exiled in Moscow, and in ''[[Pack of Lies]]'' (1987), as a British Secret Service agent tracking several Soviet spies.

===Later career===
Bates continued working in film and television in the 1990s, including the role of Claudius in [[Franco Zeffirelli]]'s version of ''[[Hamlet (1990 film)|Hamlet]]'' (1990). In 2001 he joined an all-star cast in [[Robert Altman]]'s critically acclaimed period drama ''[[Gosford Park]]'', in which he played the [[butler]] Jennings. He later played Antonius Agrippa in the 2004 TV film ''[[Spartacus (miniseries)|Spartacus]]'', but died before it premiered. The film was dedicated to his memory and that of writer [[Howard Fast]], who wrote the [[Spartacus (Fast novel)|original novel]] that inspired the film ''[[Spartacus (film)|Spartacus]]'' by [[Stanley Kubrick]].

On stage, Bates had a particular association with the plays of [[Simon Gray]], appearing in ''[[Butley (play)|Butley]]'', ''[[Otherwise Engaged]]'', ''Stage Struck'', ''Melon'', ''Life Support'', and ''Simply Disconnected'', as well as the film of ''Butley'' and Gray's TV series ''Unnatural Pursuits''. In ''Otherwise Engaged'', his co-star was [[Ian Charleson]], who became a friend, and Bates later contributed a chapter to a 1990 book on his colleague after Charleson's early death.<ref>Ian McKellen, Alan Bates, Hugh Hudson, et al. ''For Ian Charleson: A Tribute''. London: Constable and Company, 1990. pp. 1–5.</ref>

Bates was made a [[Order of the British Empire|Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[1995 Birthday Honours]],<ref name="GB">The United Kingdom:{{London Gazette |issue=54066 |date=16 June 1995 |pages=8 |supp=1}}</ref> and was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the [[2003 New Year Honours]], in both cases for services to drama.<ref name=GBR>{{London Gazette |issue=56797 |date=31 December 2002 |pages=1  |supp=y}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Taylor |first=Matthew |date=29 December 2003 |title=Actor Sir Alan Bates, 69, dies after cancer battle |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/dec/29/film.arts |access-date=23 March 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> {{Citation needed span|text=He was an Associate Member of RADA,|date=March 2023}} and was a patron of The Actors Centre, [[Covent Garden]], London, from 1994 until his death in 2003.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Learn More |url=https://actoratthecentre.com/learn-more/ |access-date=23 March 2023 |website=actor at the centre |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=3 September 2001 |title=In the Name of the Son: Alan Bates Bails Out UK's Actors Centre |url=https://playbill.com/article/in-the-name-of-the-son-alan-bates-bails-out-uks-actors-centre-com-98405 |website=Playbill}}</ref>