Factory Birds
The Fair Maid of the West
The Family Reunion
Lynn Farleigh
George Farquhar
David Farr
Farrah
Nicholas Farrell
Mia Farrow
Fashion
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Faust
Ray Fearon
Michael Feast
Jules Feiffer
Emma Fielding
Joseph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Peter Flannery
James Fleet
Susan Fleetwood
John Fletcher
Flight
The Fool
Footfalls
John Ford
Oliver Ford Davies
The Forest
Emilia Fox
Philip Franks
Paul Freeman
Geoffrey Freshwater
Max Frisch
Frozen Assets
Christopher Fry
Athol Fugard
Oliver Ford Davies was a leading member of the Dramatic Society at Oxford—he played Falstaff in Henry IV (Peter Dew, 1962) and the title role in Othello (1963)—but on graduating he initially pursued a career as an academic historian (and part-time dramatist). He has acted (and occasionally directed) professionally since 1967. Early roles included John of Gaunt in Richard II at the Birmingham Rep (1967); the Bishop of Caerleon in Hadrian VII (Mermaid and Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1968); Colonel Pickering in Pygmalion (Birmingham and Chicago, 1970); Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet (Oxford Playhouse, 1972); Mr Moreland in Mary Rose (London, 1972); Horatio in Hamlet and Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal (both Cambridge Theatre Company, 1973).
From 1975 to 1986 he was a popular player at the RSC. His ability to give life to supporting roles was particularly evident in Terry Hands's productions of the Histories and John Barton's The Greeks. The complete list: Montjoy/Governor of Harfleur in Henry V (Terry Hands, RST, 1975, International Tour, 1976, RST 1977, Aldwych, 1978); Sir Michael/Sheriff/Morton/Wart in Henry IV (Hands, RST, 1975); Earl of Huntly in John Ford's Perkin Warbeck (Barry Kyle, TOP, 1975); Somerset in Henry VI (Hands, RST, 1977); Duke Senior in As You Like It (Trevor Nunn, RST, 1977); Junius Brutus in Coriolanus (Hands, RST, 1977, European Tour, 1979); Boyet, succeeding Alan Rickman, in Love's Labour's Lost (John Barton, Aldwych, 1979); Old Man/Priam/Polymestor/Peleus in The Greeks (Aldwych, 1980); Milonov in Alexander Ostrovsky's The Forest (Adrian Noble, TOP, 1981, Warehouse, 1981, Aldwych, 1982); Nestor in Troilus and Cressida (Hands, Aldwych, 1981); Mulligan in Sean O'Casey's The Shadow of a Gunman (Michael Bogdanov, Warehouse, 1981); the camp doctor in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Love-Girl and the Innocent (Clifford Williams, Aldwych, 1981); Senator in Timon of Athens (Daniels, Warehouse, 1981); Marullus/Titinius in Julius Caesar (Ron Daniels, RST, 1983, Barbican, 1984); Gardiner in Henry VIII (Howard Davies, RST, 1983, Barbican, 1984); Provost in Measure for Measure (Noble, RST, 1983, Barbican, 1984); Jean D'Armagnac in John Whiting's The Devils (Barton, Pit, 1984); Gilbert Wedgecroft in Granville-Barker's Waste (Barton, Pit, 1985); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Bill Alexander, Barbican, 1986); Scaramuré in Giordano Bruno's Il Candelaio (Williams/Paul Marcus, Pit, 1986); Fouquier-Tinville in Pam Gems's The Danton Affair (Daniels, Barbican, 1986); and Norton Quinn in Richard Nelson's Principia Scriptoriae (David Jones, Pit, 1986).
His career has been based around an ability to play figures of minor authority—he looks and sounds instantly right as a cleric, lawyer or schoolmaster. His Olivier Award winning performance in David Hare's Racing Demon at the National (Eyre, Cottesloe and Olivier, 1990) is the best example. Other work at the National: The Saughraun (Howard Davies, Olivier, 1989); Player King in the Daniel Day-Lewis Hamlet (Richard Eyre, Olivier, 1989); David Edgar's The Shape of the Table (Jenny Killick, Cottesloe, 1990); the David Hare Trilogy—Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges and The Absence of War (Eyre, Olivier, 1993); the Cardinal Inquisitor in Bertolt Brecht's The Life of Galileo (Davies, Olivier); and the Inquisitor in Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan (Marianne Elliot, Olivier, 2007).
In the late 1990s he joined the Almeida for two high-profile productions directed by Jonathan Kent—the Ralph Fiennes Ivanov (1997) and Luigi Pirandello's Naked (1998), in which he played Ludovico Nota to Juliette Binoche's Ersilia. He returned in 2002 to play the title role in King Lear (Kent, Almeida at King's Cross). In 2003 he was at his dry, sardonic best as Lamberto Laudisi in Franco Zeffirelli's production of Pirandello's Absolutely! (Perhaps) at the Wyndham's, before playing the title role in his own play King Cromwell at the Orange Tree (Sam Walters).
Television: The Brontës of Haworth (ITV, 1973); A Very British Coup (Mick Jackson, Channel Four, 1988); Kavanagh QC (ITV, 1995-99); A Taste for Death (ITV, 1988); A Dance to the Music of Time (Channel Four, 1997); Mr Wickfield in David Copperfield (BBC, 1999); The Way We Live Now (BBC, 2001); Archbishop Lang in Bertie and Elizabeth (ITV, 2002); My Uncle Silas (ITV, 2003); Sparkling Cyanide (ITV, 2003); Waking the Dead (BBC, 2007).
Film credits: Luther (Guy Green, 1973); Defence of the Realm (David Drury, 1985); Scandal (Michael Caton-Jones, 1988); Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995); Mrs Brown (John Madden, 1997); Mrs Dalloway (Marleen Gorris, 1997); Danforth in An Ideal Husband (Oliver Parker, 1999); Star Wars: episodes 1-3 (George Lucas, 1999, 2001, 2005); Blow Dry (2001); Revelation (2001); Johnny English (Peter Howitt, 2003); The Mother (Roger Michell, 2003); Heidi (2005).
Education: King's School, Canterbury; Merton College, Oxford
RSC: Joined 1975
Seasons: 1975 (Strat.)-76 (Lond./International Tour); 1977 (Strat.)-78/79 (Lond./International Tour); 1979 (Lond.); 1980 (Lond.); 1981 (Strat./Lond.); 1983 (Strat.)-84/85 (Lond.); 1986 (Lond.)
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