Nigel Patrick

Nigel Patrick
Born	Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss-Gorman (1912-05-02)2 May 1912 Clapham, London, England
Died	London, England
Occupation	Actor/director/stage manager/writer
Years active	1932–81
Spouse(s)	Beatrice Campbell (1951–79) (her death) 2 children
Awards	Zulueta Award – Best Actor 1960 The League of Gentlemen

Nigel Patrick (born Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss-Gorman; 2 May 1912 – 21 September 1981) was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family.

Biography

Patrick was born in London, England, the son of actress Dorothy Turner (d. 1969). He made his professional stage debut in The Life Machine at the Regent Theatre, King's Cross in 1932 following a period in repertory. Thereafter he appeared in many successful plays including the long-running George and Margaret at the Wyndham's Theatre which ran for 799 performances.

His film career was put on hold until after service in World War II during which, as a Lieutenant Colonel in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, he fought in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy.

During the late 1940s and 1950s he became a popular, debonair leading man in British film with notable success in The Sound Barrier (1952), under the direction of David Lean. Exhibitors voted him the seventh most popular British film star with the public in 1952. Patrick later appeared in The League of Gentlemen (1960) and Sapphire (1959), winner of Best British Film at the 1960 BAFTA Film Awards.

In the 1960s he made a strong return to the theatre, occupying the dual role of actor/director in numerous West End productions including a revival of the Noël Coward work Present Laughter at the Queen's Theatre (1965) and Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking (1967) at the Duke of York's Theatre.

He married the actress Beatrice Campbell at St James's Roman Catholic Church, Spanish Place, Marylebone, London on 12 January 1951. She predeceased him in 1979 and he died two years later from lung cancer on 21 September 1981.

Filmography

As an actor

• Mrs Pym of Scotland Yard (1940) as Richard Loddon
• Spring in Park Lane (1948) as Mr. Bacon
• Uneasy Terms (1948) as Lucien Donnelly
• Noose (1948) as Bar Gorman
• Silent Dust (1949) as Simon Rawley
• The Jack of Diamonds (1949) as Alan Butler
• The Perfect Woman (1949) as Roger Cadevinsh
• Morning Departure (1950) as First Lieutenant Harry Manson
• Trio (1950) as Max Kealada (Segment: "Mr. Know-All")
• Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) as Stephen Cameron
• The Browning Version (1951) as Frank Hunter
• Young Wives' Tale (1951) as Rodney Pennant
• Encore (1951) as Tom Ramsay (Segment: "The Ant and the Grasshopper")
• Who Goes There! (1952) as Miles Cornwall
• The Sound Barrier (1952) as Tony Garthwaite
• Meet Me Tonight (1952) as Toby Cartwrigth: Ways and Means
• The Pickwick Papers (1952) as Mr. Jingle
• Grand National Night (1953) as Gerald Goates
• Forbidden Cargo (1954) as Insp. Michael Kenyon

• The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954) as Flight Sgt. Singsby
• A Prize of Gold (1955) as Brian Hammell
• All for Mary (1955) as Capt. Clive Norton
• How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957) as Henry
• Raintree County (1957) as Prof. Jerusalem Webster Stiles
• Count Five and Die (1957) as Major Julien Howard
• The Man Inside (1958) as Sam Carter
• Sapphire (1959) as Superintendent Robert Hazard
• The League of Gentlemen (1960) as Race
• The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) as Sir Edward Clarke
• Johnny Nobody (1961) as Father Carey
• The Informers (1963) as Chief Insp. John Edward Johnnoe
• Battle of Britain (1969) as Group Captain Hope
• The Virgin Soldiers (1969) as R.S.M. Raskin
• The Executioner (1970) as Colonel Scott
• Tales from the Crypt (1972) as Major William Rogers (segment 5 "Blind Alleys")
• The Great Waltz (1972) as Johann Strauss Sr.
• The Mackintosh Man (1973) as Soames-Trevelyan
• Silver Bears (1978) as Financial Mediator (uncredited)

As a director

• How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957)
• Johnny Nobody (1961)

As a writer

• The Jack of Diamonds (1949)

As a narrator

• Arrivederci Roma (1958)
• Goal! (1966)
• The Year of Sir Ivor (1969)

Theatre credits

As an actor

• The Life Machine (1932)
• Half a Crown (1934)
• Ringmaster (1935)
• Roulette (1935)
• The Lady of La Paz (1936)
• Madmoiselle (1936)
• George & Margaret (1937)
• Tony Draws a Horse (1939)
• Children to Bless You (1939)
• Fools Rush In (1946)
• To-morrow's Child (1946)
• Noose (1947)
• Who Goes There! (1951)
• Escapade (1953)

• Birthday Honours (1953)
• Green Room Rags (1954)
• The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1955)
• The Egg (1957)
• Pleasure of His Company (1959)
• Settled Out of Court (1960)
• The Schoolmistress (1964)
• Present Laughter (1965)
• Best of Friends (1970)
• Reunion in Vienna (1971)
• Habeas Corpus (1974)
• The Pay Off (1974)
• Dear Daddy (1976)
• Peter Pan (1978)

As a director/stage manager

• No Way to Kill (1958)
• Not in the Book (1958)
• Pleasure of His Company (1959)
• Settled Out of Court (1960)
• Past Imperfect (1964)
• Present Laughter (1965)
• Relatively Speaking (1967)
• The Others (1967)
• Avanti! (1968)
• Out of the Question (1968)
• Trio (1969)
• Three (1970)
• The Pay Off (1974)
• Suite in Two Keys (1978)
• The Last of Mrs Cheyney (1980)

Television

• Morning Departure (1946)
• Zero One (1962–65)
• Looks Familiar
• It Takes a Thief – "Flowers from Alexander" (1969)
• Sunday Night Thriller – "Blunt Instrument" (1981)

References

External links

• Nigel Patrick at the Internet Movie Database
• Nigel Patrick at the Internet Broadway Database
• Nigel Patrick at Find a Grave