Editing Michael Hordern (section)

===Final years and death===

{{multiple image|caption_align=center| align = right | direction = vertical | header_align = center | footer_align = left | footer_background = | image1 =Michael Hordern bronze bust.jpeg| width1 = 210 | caption1 = Bronze bust and memorial plaque of Hordern in "The Hordern Room" at [[Brighton College]]| image2 = Michael Hordern plaque.jpeg| width2 = 210 | caption2 = }}

By the early 1990s Hordern was concentrating more on television. His roles were mostly those of ageing teachers, bank managers, politicians and clergymen.<ref name="HORDERN161">Hordern, p. 161.</ref> In 1989 he appeared alongside [[John Mills]] in an adaptation of [[Kingsley Amis|Kingsley Amis's]] ''Ending Up'',<ref name="Benedick">[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-michael-hordern-1618094.html "Obituary: Sir Michael Hordern"] by Adam Benedick. ''[[The Independent]]'', 3 May 1995, accessed 18 January 2016.</ref> a tale about a group of pensioners growing old together in a residential home. After that he took the part of Godfrey Colston in ''Memento Mori'',<ref name="BFIMORI">[http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/504351/ "''Memento Mori'' (1992)"], [[British Film Institute]], accessed 18 January 2016.</ref> a television film about a group of elderly friends succumbing to old age, which was adapted for television from the [[Muriel Spark]] [[Memento Mori (novel)|novel of the same name]]. The film received excellent notices<ref name="HORDERN161" /> and Hordern's performance was described as outstanding by the critic Neil Sinyard.<ref name="BFIMORI" /> All that was required of Hordern in his next role, the wealthy but terminally ill landowner Peter Featherstone in the BBC adaptation ''[[Middlemarch (TV serial)|Middlemarch]]'', was for him simply to lie in bed and pretend to die.<ref name="HORDERN161" /> It was the kind of role which he found to be most fitting for someone of his advanced years and confirmed to him that the older he got, the more typecast he became. It was a situation that did not altogether bother him as he felt grateful for being employable at the age of 81.<ref name="HORDERN161" />

In January 1995 Hordern was invited back to his old college in Brighton, where a room was named in his honour.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=RYJMAQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Hordern+Room%22+brighton+January+1995&pg=PA61 "Brighton College"], ''Independent Schools Yearbook 2012–2013'', p. 61.</ref> Inside, the college had commissioned the sculptor [[Peter Webster (artist)|Peter Webster]] to create a bronze bust of the actor which is displayed with a plaque. Hordern's last physical acting role came shortly afterwards as Lord Langland in the comedy film ''A Very Open Prison''.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140730032503/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b7e2e2e04 "A Very Open Prison (1995)"], [[British Film Institute]], accessed 20 January 2016.</ref> This was followed by two narration performances, firstly in ''Spode A History of Excellence'',<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120810120521/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b82e6bc39 "Spode A History of Excellence (1995)"], [[British Film Institute]], accessed 20 January 2016.</ref> and then in the five-part film ''Dinosaurs and Their Living Relatives''.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120810120520/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b70c28d23 "Dinosaurs and Their Living Relatives (1995)"], [[British Film Institute]], accessed 20 January 2016.</ref>

Hordern died of [[kidney disease]] at the [[Churchill Hospital]], [[Oxford]], on 2{{nbsp}}May 1995, aged 83.<ref name=dnb /> Medical staff confirmed that he had been suffering from "a long illness and had been receiving dialysis treatment".<ref>[http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12109322.Sir_Michael_Hordern_dies/ "Sir Michael Hordern dies"], ''Herald Scotland'', 3 May 1995, accessed 19 January 2016.</ref>