[BITList] Among Spielberg's greats

[John Feltham]

In of my favourite actors. He excelled in "Brassed Off."





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Postlethwaite,  Peter William  [Pete]  (1946-2011), actor, was born on 16 February 1946 at 101 Norris Street, Warrington, Lancashire, the younger son and youngest of the four children of William Postlethwaite (1913-1988) and his wife, Mary Geraldine, nee Lawless (1913-2000). He grew up in a happy and secure working-class, Roman Catholic home, where his father, following army service, worked in a variety of jobs, as a cooper, a wood machinist, and later a school caretaker. As a schoolboy he attended a boarding seminary in Ormskirk and considered a career in the priesthood, but his initial encounters with plays and films of the time such as Murder in the Cathedral (1951), Look Back in Anger (1959), and Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (1960) turned his aspirations to acting. He was ambivalent about such a move, however, as the world of the theatre did not seem to him to be an appropriate choice for people of his background. His temporary compromise was to train as a teacher of drama and physical education at St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill, London. After successfully completing his studies and undertaking a short, memorable stint of teaching, first at an approved school in Formby and then at Loreto College, a girls' school in Manchester, he enrolled as a mature student at the Bristol Old Vic, supporting himself through the first year by working as a welder in a sheet-metal factory. He was the star student of that year and was subsequently awarded scholarships from the Bristol Evening Post and the Peter O'Toole scholarship fund. He retained a special relationship with Bristol throughout his working life.

Following graduation from Bristol, Postlethwaite found work in London, especially at the Royal Court, and also in a variety of provincial theatres, most notably returning to his regional roots at the Liverpool Everyman from 1974. There he worked with a talented group of actors including Jonathan Pryce, Antony Sher, Bill Nighy, Alison Steadman, and Julie Walters, all on the verge of upward trajectories towards public recognition and acclaim. During this time Postlethwaite and Walters started a relationship and in the latter part of the 1970s, in between their theatrical commitments, they lived together in Soho. At this stage his work also included performing the classics with a touring company established by Timothy West, and after one performance in Billingham, Prunella Scales reputedly sent Postlethwaite a telegram describing him as the best 'Restoration truck-driver' she had ever worked with  (The Guardian, 24 April 2007). He continued to work and to develop his craft and reputation at the Bristol Old Vic and in other venues. At the Royal Exchange in Manchester, for instance, he was part of an acclaimed production of The Duchess of Malfi in 1980, which starred Helen Mirren and Bob Hoskins. In 1982 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his credits included parts in Richard III, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, as an acclaimed Bottom in the 1986 season. At this stage he neither sought, nor was cast in, major theatrical roles. However, the 1980s did see his work start to shift from the theatre, to encompass performances in films and on television.

Postlethwaite had begun to appear in one-off, small roles in television productions from the mid-1970s. He was in an episode of the popular British comedy series Last of the Summer Wine (1978), had a recurring role in the children's series Horse in the House (1979), and appeared as Detective Sergeant Cross in Coronation Street (1981). His first significant film role was in A Private Function (1984) as the unhinged butcher, Douglas J. Nuttol, in the comedy scripted by Alan Bennett. He was cast in a more substantial role as the brutal, abusive father in the second of Terence Davies's autobiographical trilogy, Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988). Set in the Liverpool of the 1940s and 1950s, this was a challenging role that he was to credit as his 'big break', but he was always keen to distance his own upbringing from that depicted in the film. Further film work followed, with small parts in The Dressmaker (1988) and the film version of Hamlet (1990), directed by Franco Zeffirelli, in which he was cast as the Player King. In the 1990s his work in film developed apace, with performances in Alien 3, Waterland, and The Last of the Mohicans (all 1992). In 1993 his role as Giuseppe Conlon in In the Name of the Father (directed by Jim Sheridan) gave his talents for embodying and portraying the experience and cause of long-suffering political injustice a rich and compelling focus. This was a film role that he had been determined to make his own; he auditioned completely 'in character': 'Belfast accent, old suit from a thrift shop'  (The Observer, 1 Oct 2000), and his subsequent performance, imbued with what were becoming his trademarks of authenticity and emotional sincerity, warranted his Oscar nomination that year and brought him to the attention of Hollywood. From this point onwards he found himself able to choose the roles that he wanted, and as a result he juggled his work in British television and film with that in larger-scale, international films.

In 1994 Postlethwaite appeared as the villainous and dastardly Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill in the popular television adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. In the same year he received his first BAFTA nomination for his performance as the unscrupulous Montague Tigg in the acclaimed and star-studded BBC adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit. The following year he was a surprise in his accomplished performance as the saturnine and sinister lawyer Mr Kobayashi, the emissary and enforcer of the endlessly enigmatic Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects (1995). In 1996, after playing the Franciscan priest Friar Laurence in the big-budget remake of Romeo and Juliet directed by Baz Luhrmann, he appeared in Brassed Off, in what for many in Britain was his most fondly remembered role as Danny Ormondroyd, the dogged, inspirational leader of the 'Grimley' Brass Band. In a moving tribute to the effects on whole communities of the closure of the coal mines in England and Wales after the miners' strike of 1984-5 this latter-day Ealing story of the band orchestrated by Danny acted as a metaphor for a wider political sentiment, which saw social desperation and fragmentation replaced by hope, and the rediscovery of self-respect and solidarity.

Many other international film roles followed. In 1997 Steven Spielberg cast Postlethwaite as Roland Tembo, the hunter-philosopher in the Jurassic Park sequel, The Lost World, and later that year he worked with Spielberg again in the film Amistad. Spielberg said at this time that Postlethwaite was 'one of the greatest actors in the world today'  (Sunday Times, 25 May 1997). This was an accolade subsequently rebuffed with characteristic self-deprecation by Postlethwaite, who claimed that what Spielberg had actually said was that 'Pete thinks he's the best actor in the world'  (The Times, 26 March 2005).

By the late 1990s Postlethwaite was in more or less constant demand. After working on Among Giants (1998) he returned to British television with significant parts in the moving and poignant Lost for Words (2000) and The Sins (2001), the latter a seven-part series in which he starred with Frank Finlay. Both of these performances won him further recognition in the form of BAFTA best actor nominations. Cameo appearances in large budget films also continued to attract him: for instance he featured in The Shipping News (2001) and The Constant Gardener (2005).

During the last stage of his career Postlethwaite rediscovered his appetite for stage acting and mixed this with continuing work in film and television. In 2001 he worked up a solo stage show, Scaramouche Jones, in which he featured as a hundred-year-old clown reflecting on his life on the last night of his life. This was premiered in Dublin but he toured with it in later years, to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. While he was in Australia a chance meeting with an old friend from his days at the seminary led to his part in a project documenting aspects of the Aboriginal experience of racism and prejudice, resulting in Liyarn Ngarn (2007). Also in 2007 his distinctive performance as Prospero at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, won him overdue plaudits for a leading Shakespearian role. At the same time he appeared in the controversial but award-winning BBC serial Criminal Justice. The Age of Stupid (2008) was a powerful documentary drama addressing the theme of environmental politics, by this time a political cause close to Postlethwaite's heart. He starred as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking back at the profligate, short-sighted 'stupidity' of energy policies in 2008.

In 2009 Postlethwaite returned to the Liverpool Everyman to play King Lear. His performance in Rupert Goold's challenging production did not initially find favour with all the critics, although it provided further evidence of his theatrical maturity and growing confidence to do things 'his way'. Sadly it was towards the end of this run that he was diagnosed with cancer. In spite of a nephrectomy and subsequent courses of debilitating chemotherapy this led to his death some two years later. During this time, when his declining health would allow, he continued to work on demanding film projects, notably parts in Clash of the Titans, Inception, and The Town (all 2010), receiving a posthumous BAFTA best actor nomination for the latter, and his final film, Killing Bono (2011). To the end Postlethwaite remained a deeply committed actor whose integrity and performances made him widely liked and respected by professionals and the public alike.

On 27 September 2003, in a church ceremony in Itchenor, Sussex, Postlethwaite married his long-term partner, Jaqueline Mary Morrish (b. 1956), daughter of John Frederick Jeffery Morrish, local government officer. The wedding was attended by their two children, Will (b. 1989) and Lily (b. 1996). Postlethwaite was appointed OBE in 2004. He lived with his family latterly on a farm in More, near Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, a county that he loved and regarded as his home and haven. He died on 2 January 2011 at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. His funeral was a small, private family service held near his home on 15 January. A memorial service was held at St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch, on 16 February. This was attended by many of his friends and colleagues, and members of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band played 'Danny Boy'. He was survived by Jacqueline and their two children.

Tim O'Sullivan 

Sources  J. Walters, That's another story: the autobiography (2008) + P. Postlethwaite, A spectacle of dust: the autobiography (2011) + Warrington Guardian (3 Jan 2011) + Daily Telegraph (4 Jan 2011) + The Times (4 Jan 2011); (7 Jan 2011); (10 Jan 2011); (13 Jan 2011) + The Independent (4 Jan 2011) + The Guardian (4 Jan 2011); (8 Jan 2011); (25 Jan 2011) + New York Times (4 Jan 2011) + Yorkshire Post (4 Jan 2011) + The Journal [Newcastle] (7 Jan 2011) + The Spectator (8 Jan 2011) + Bristol Post (16 Feb 2011); (17 Feb 2011) + Cheshire Life (20 Sept 2011) + www.imdb.com/name/nm0000592,  accessed on 8 Sept 2014 + WW (2011) + b. cert. + m. cert. + d. cert.
Archives  FILM BFI NFTVA, performance footage SOUND BL NSA, performance recording
Likenesses  photographs, 1960-2011, Rex Features, London · photographs, 1977-2009, PA Photos, London · photographs, 1993-2009, Getty Images, London · C. Thompson, oils, 2002, NPG [see illus.] · photographs, Camera Press, London · photographs, Photoshot, London
Wealth at death  under £185,000: probate, 17 June 2011, CGPLA Eng. & Wales




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