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Eric Porter

Eric Porter

Birthday: 1928-04-08 | Place of Birth: Shepard's Bush, London, UK

A highly respected Shakespearean for five decades until his death of colon cancer in 1995, classical actor Eric Porter's claim to international fame would, ironically, be outside of that realm, with one superb portrayal in one superb miniseries, The Forsyte Saga(1967), in which he won the BAFTA award. The son of Richard John Porter and Phoebe Elizabeth Spall, Porter first attended Wimbledon Technical College before stepping onto the stage as a walk-on in a production of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" in February 1945 at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge. He continued in repertory until joining the National Service with the RAF during the war years. Early post-war credits would include touring with Sir Donald Wolfit and Sir Barry Jackson in their prestigious companies. Favorite roles in his repertoire would eventually include "Macbeth", "King Lear" and "Uncle Vanya". He won London's Evening Standard Award for "Rosmersholm" in 1959. Joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1960, he became a prime, esteemed resident for decades. Porter made his film debut in mid-career with The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) at age 36, but it was the BBC that made him an international favorite as the ever-proper but intensely emotional and unhinged "Soames Forsyte". Taboos were broken on that series with a violent rape scene that had people talking for months. Along with the newly acquired fame came leads in lesser films such as The Lost Continent(1968) and Hands of the Ripper (1971), adding class to both those atmospheric horrors. On the plus side, Porter engaged himself frequently in quality TV miniseries fare includingAnna Karenina (1977), The Jewel in the Crown (1984) and Oliver Twist (1985) (as Fagin), while transferring many classics to TV as well, with "Cyrano de Bergerac", "Man and Superman" and "Macbeth" being but a few.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2001
The Best of Morecambe and Wise

as    Self (archive footage)

1994
Message for Posterity

as    James Player

1985
Oliver Twist

as    Fagin

1985
Oliver Twist

as    Fagin

1984
The Jewel in the Crown

as    Dimitri Bronowsky

1984
The Jewel in the Crown

as    Dimitri Bronowsky

1982
A Shilling Life

as    Petersham

1981
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years

as    Neville Chamberlain

1980
The Thirty Nine Steps

as    Chief Superintendent Lomas

1980
The Crucible

as    Deputy Governor Danforth

1980
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

as    Dr. Nicholson

1980
Little Lord Fauntleroy

as    Mr. Havisham

1980
Hamlet

as    Polonius

1979
Churchill and the Generals

as    Gen. Sir Alan Brooke

1977
Anna Karenina

as    Karenin

1977
The Shetland Experience

as    Narrator (voice)

1976
The Belstone Fox

as    Asher Smith

1975
The Final Solution

as    Narrator

1975
The Two Deaths of Adolf Hitler

as    Narrator

1975
Hennessy

as    Tobin

1974
Callan

as    Hunter

1973
Hitler: The Last Ten Days

as    Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim

1972
Hands of the Ripper

as    Dr. John Pritchard

1972
Antony and Cleopatra

as    Enobarbus

1970
Macbeth

as    Macbeth

1970
Separate Tables

as    Major Pollock / John Malcolm

1968
The Lost Continent

as    Lansen