The Stage

The great pretender - Alec McCowen

Published Friday 20 May 2005 at 11:05 by Patrick Newley

Conviction and clarity are the most important elements of performance, according to Alec McCowen, and he should know. The now-retired actor, who turns 80 this week, has appeared on stage and screen consistently and to rapturous acclaim since 1942. Patrick Newley looks back at his career

Alec McCowen, one of Britain’s greatest stage actors, will celebrate his 80th birthday on May 26. Long remembered for his appearances in the title role of Peter Luke’s Hadrian VII and his remarkable one-man performance of St Mark’s Gospel, he has been described as the most subtle actor since Michael Redgrave. His performance as Hitler in Christopher Hampton’s The Portage to San Cristobal of AH was described by the critic Michael Billington as “one of the greatest pieces of acting I have ever seen”.

Although McCowen claims to have retired from acting, directors all over the world still queue up for his talents. In 2002 Martin Scorsese persuaded him to appear in a cameo role in the blockbuster film Gangs of New York.

“I have always wanted to be an entertainer rather than an actor,” McCowen once remarked. “Well, regretfully, I cannot sing or dance. But I can speak.”

Born in Tunbridge Wells, McCowen’s father was a pram salesman and a devout Christian evangelist. After studying at RADA, McCowen appeared in rep at Macclesfield in 1942 and remained there until 1945, when he toured India and Burma for ENSA.

In the late fifties he began to make a name for himself at the Old Vic Company, where his roles included Touchstone, the Dauphin in St Joan, an electric Mercutio, Oberon and a sharp Malvolio. JC Trewin commented that his Antipholus of Syracuse (1962) at Stratford looked “like a cat about to sneeze”.

In 1968 he gained an international reputation in the title role of Hadrian VII (New York, 1969) which won him the Evening Standard Best Actor Award. A year later he was an outstanding Hamlet at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and in 1970 he was back in London in Christopher Hampton’s The Philanthropist.

McCowen has always excelled in playing comedy. “The hardest acting is comedy acting,” he says. “Good comic acting is the summit of the actor’s art. To be believable in a ridiculous situation is twice as hard as to be believable in an uncomical situation. The ridiculous situation is nearer the borders of unreality and if the actor once becomes unreal, the audience and the play are lost.

“The comic actor is also more complex than the so-called straight character. There is nearly always some juxtaposition of elements in the personality and appearance that are at war with one another. For example, the comedian Jack Benny’s large sad eyes and innocent long-suffering face belied the meaness and envy of his nature.”

In 1978, in London and New York, McCowen gave a brilliant solo performance in which he recited the whole of St Mark’s Gospel from memory. Anthony Thorncroft described the performance in the Financial Times:

“On stage decked with only a table and three chairs he recites the King James version of St Mark. Recites, however, is hardly the word. The effect must be similar to the impact of Homer declaiming the Odyssey and Chaucer his Canterbury Tales. McCowen does not dramatise the work with a range of voices and affected gestures but interprets it as an unfolding story, a saga.”

It took 16 months for McCowen to learn the script. “The most difficult part of an actor’s job is not learning his lines but to bring his lines to life,” he says. “To compel an audience to listen to him and watch him. To hold their attention. To entertain them. The language of the King James version of the Bible has a personality and magic all of its own. The Gospel According to St Mark was the greatest script I ever found.”

McCowen has also enjoyed a quietly spectacular film career playing off-centre men. He made his debut in The Cruel Sea (1953) and went on to play such roles as Brown in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), the nephew in Travels With My Aunt (1972) and the wonderfully comic police inspector who is forced to eat rich gourmet food by his wife night after night in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972). He also appeared as the young man in Stevie (1978) and stole the notices as a kinky client in Personal Services (1987).

“Since my retirement I have devoted myself to tranvestism and sexual perversion. What’s the point of being old if you can’t be dirty?”

McCowen’s later stage work has included spells at the National Theatre and greatly acclaimed performances such as his one-man show about Kipling (1984) and Prospero in The Tempest (1993). Widely admired by his peers, he is known for his underplayed, relaxed style of acting.

“Thought transference is for me the most interesting and challenging aspects of acting,” he says. “Capacity to commicate with the minimum of expression. The ability to convey thoughts and activities of a character by the simplest and cleanest means. There must be absolute involvement and absolute clarity. Over-acting may amuse or even astound an audience for a little while but it quickly becomes a bore.”

Although he scaled down his workload in the nineties, he made infrequent appearances in television drama and films. In 2001 he was seen as Sir Robert Peel in Victoria and Albert.

For many years McCowen shared his life with the actor Geoffrey Burridge, who died in 1987. Nowadays McCowen lives alone at his Chelsea flat but can occasionally be seen dining with friends at clubs such as the Garrick. “I suppose the reason I am as I am today is that I am in love with freedom,” he says. “I was a maverick at school, I didn’t care for the team things. I like to think of life as an adventure. If you ask me what I love, I would immediately think of my car… It’s just that I can take off and go somewhere when I get in it.”

Happy 80th birthday, Alec.

ALEC McCOWEN - A SUMMARY

1925: Born Tunbridge Wells, May 26. Educated Skinner’s School, Tunbridge Wells and RADA.

1942: Makes first appearance at Macclesfield Repertory Theatre.

1945: Tours India and Burma for ENSA.

1950-58: Appears in Ivanov (Arts Theatre) and many West End productions. Films Time Without Pity and A Night to Remember.

1959: Joins Old Vic Company.

1962: Joins RSC, plays Fool to Paul Scofield’s Lear. Tours USSR and USA with RSC. Appears in film The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner

1966: Appears in After the Rain (Duchess Theatre and NY).

1967: Appears in Hadrian VII (Mermaid, London and New York). Wins Best Actor Award from the Evening Standard.

1970: Plays Hamlet in Birmingham and The Philanthropist at the Royal Court. Wins Variety Club Award, appears in Butley at the Criterion.

1972: Stars in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy and Travels With My Aunt.

1973-76: Stars in The Misanthrope (Old Vic), Equus (Old Vic), plays Prof Higgins (Albery) and The Family Dance.

1978-80: Performs Gospel According to St Mark in London, New York and Europe. Writes first vol of autobiography Young Gemini and memoir Double Bill.

1982: Plays Adolf Hitler in The Portage to San Cristobal of AH at the Mermaid.

1984: Stars in one-man show about Kipling at the Mermaid.

1986-89: Appears in Personal Services, Cry Freedom, the TV movie Importance of Being Earnest and Kenneth Branagh’s film Henry V.

1993-99: Features in the film The Age of Innocence and the TV series Kavanagh.

2000: Appears in TV series Longtitude, David Copperfield, Victoria and Albert and Midsomers Murders.

2002: Plays Reverend Raleigh in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.