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Ian Charleson is a Actor Ecossais born on 11 august 1949 at Edinburgh (United-kingdom)

Ian Charleson

Ian Charleson
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Nationality Ecosse
Birth 11 august 1949 at Edinburgh (United-kingdom)
Death 6 january 1990 (at 40 years) at London (United-kingdom)

Ian Charleson (11 August 1949 – 6 January 1990) was a Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known internationally for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell, in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. He is also well known for his portrayal of Rev. Charlie Andrews in the 1982 Oscar-winning film Gandhi.

Charleson was a noted actor on the British stage as well, with critically acclaimed leads in Guys and Dolls, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fool for Love, and Hamlet, among many others. Over the course of his life Charleson performed numerous Shakespearean roles, and in 1991 the annual Ian Charleson Awards were established, particularly in honour of his final Hamlet. The awards reward the best classical stage performances in Britain by actors aged under 30.

The Houghton Mifflin Dictionary of Biography describes Charleson as "a leading player of charm and power" and "one of the finest British actors of his generation." Alan Bates wrote that Charleson was "definitely among the top ten actors of his age group." Ian McKellen said Charleson was "the most unmannered and unactorish of actors: always truthful, always honest."

Charleson was diagnosed with HIV in 1986, and died in 1990 at the age of 40. He requested that it be announced after his death that he had died of AIDS, in order to publicise the condition. This was the first celebrity death in the United Kingdom openly attributed to AIDS, and the announcement helped to promote awareness and acceptance of the disease.

Best films

Chariots of Fire (1981)
(Actor)

Usually with

Dario Argento
Dario Argento
(1 films)
Brian Eno
Brian Eno
(2 films)
Hugh Hudson
Hugh Hudson
(2 films)
Stuart Craig
Stuart Craig
(2 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Ian Charleson (11 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

Codename: Kyril, 3h28
Directed by Ian Sharp
Origin United-kingdom
Actors Edward Woodward, Ian Charleson, Joss Ackland, Richard E. Grant, John McEnery, Espen Skjønberg
Rating69% 3.4912953.4912953.4912953.4912953.491295
In Moscow, Marshal Stanov (Peter Vaughan), the head of the KGB, realizes that there must be a traitor within the KGB Moscow Center who is leaking high-level information to MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service. He secretly sends his most trusted operative, Colonel Ivan Bucharensky (Ian Charleson), as an agent provocateur to the West in order to force the traitor to reveal himself out of fear of exposure.
Opera
Opera (1987)
, 1h47
Directed by Dario Argento
Origin Italie
Genres Thriller, Horror
Themes Films about music and musicians, Serial killer films, Musical films
Actors Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson, Urbano Barberini, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Daria Nicolodi, William McNamara
Roles Marco
Rating68% 3.448543.448543.448543.448543.44854
The film centers around young, insecure opera singer Betty (Cristina Marsillach). After the lead in Verdi's Macbeth is injured in a car accident, Betty is reluctantly thrust into the role in the opera. During her first performance, a murder takes place in one of the opera boxes. Mysterious murders continue throughout the film as Betty is stalked and those around her meet their unfortunate end. The killer binds and places tape under Betty's eyelids with needles attached so she is unable to blink, and therefore forced to watch as the murders take place. Meanwhile, Betty continues to have frightening dreams involving a masked person and her mother. During the final performance of the opera the killer is revealed, and Betty must confront her past in a terrifying climax.
Car Trouble
Directed by David Green
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy
Actors Julie Walters, Ian Charleson, Vincent Riotta, Stratford Johns, Hazel O'Connor, Dave Hill
Roles Gerald
Rating49% 2.468222.468222.468222.468222.46822
In the throes of a midlife crisis, a man buys a new Jaguar, and it immediately becomes his new love. What he doesn't know is that his wife is as attracted to the Jaguar salesman as he is to the car.
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, 2h10
Directed by Hugh Hudson
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Romance
Themes Films set in Africa, Films about animals, Films about children, Le thème de l'enfant sauvage, Films about apes, L'enfance marginalisée, Tarzan films, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Christophe Lambert, Andie MacDowell, Cheryl Campbell, Ian Holm, Ralph Richardson, Nigel Davenport
Roles Jeffson Brown
Rating63% 3.1993953.1993953.1993953.1993953.199395
John, Lord Clayton (Paul Geoffrey), the heir to The 6th Earl of Greystoke, and his wife Alice (Cheryl Campbell) set sail and are quickly shipwrecked on the African coast. After John (or 'Jack') builds a home in the trees, Alice gives birth to a son. Soon after, Alice grows delirious and dies. When Lord Clayton finds her recently dead, the tree house is visited by curious gorillas, and John is killed by one of the apes. The female of the group, Kala, carries her dead infant, but upon hearing the cries of the infant human in his crib, she adopts the boy and raises him among the family of Mangani. The little human child thus grows up naked, wild, and free.
Louisiana
Louisiana (1984)
, 3h7
Directed by Jacques Demy, Philippe de Broca, Emmanuel Gust
Origin France
Genres Drama, War, Historical, Romance
Actors Margot Kidder, Ian Charleson, Andréa Ferréol, Victor Lanoux, Lloyd Bochner, Len Cariou
Roles Clarence Dandridge
Rating53% 2.678992.678992.678992.678992.67899
L'action se situe en Louisiane au milieu du XIX siècle. Virginia va se battre pour entrer en possession du domaine de Bagatelle.
The Sun Also Rises, 3h20
Directed by James Goldstone
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Actors Hart Bochner, Jane Seymour, Robert Carradine, Ian Charleson, Željko Ivanek, Leonard Nimoy
Roles Mike Campbell
Rating61% 3.050213.050213.050213.050213.05021
American expatriates journalist Jake Barnes (Hart Bochner), war veteran Bill Gorton (Željko Ivanek), and novelist/boxer Robert Cohn (Robert Carradine), take advantage of the Paris night life. Barnes meets former paramour Lady Brett Ashley (Jane Seymour) who is about to divorce her husband to marry Scotsman Mike Campbell (Ian Charleson). Barnes' attraction to Ashley causes him to follow her movements and Gorton and Cohn follow as Cohn becomes enamored as well. Ashley expresses continuing interest in open relations. The group ventures to see bullfighting in Pamplona, Spain, where Ashley develops an appetite for matador Pedro Romero (Andrea Occhipinti). Cohn pummels Romero upon discovering her latest conquest although it does not impress Ashley. A bruised Romero enters the bullring as the curtains come down.
Reilly, Ace of Spies, 50minutes
Directed by Martin Campbell
Actors Sam Neill, Leo McKern, Tom Bell, Peter Egan, Ian Charleson, Kenneth Cranham
Roles R. H. Bruce Lockhart
Rating81% 4.090334.090334.090334.090334.09033
Gandhi
Gandhi (1982)
, 3h11
Directed by Richard Attenborough
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Biography, Adventure, Historical
Themes Films set in Africa, Films about racism
Actors Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Martin Sheen, Edward Fox, Roshan Seth, John Gielgud
Roles Reverend Charlie Andrews
Rating79% 3.9978753.9978753.9978753.9978753.997875
The screenplay of Gandhi is available as a published book. The film opens with a statement from the filmmakers explaining their approach to the problem of filming Gandhi's complex life story:
Chariots of Fire, 1h59
Directed by Hugh Hudson
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Biography, Comedy-drama, Historical
Themes Films about religion, Sports films, Athletics films, Films about the Olympic Games, Films about Jews and Judaism, Children's films
Actors Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, Cheryl Campbell, Alice Krige, Ian Holm
Roles Eric Liddell
Rating70% 3.547943.547943.547943.547943.54794
In 1919, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) enters the University of Cambridge, where he experiences anti-Semitism from the staff, but enjoys participating in the Gilbert and Sullivan club. He becomes the first person to ever complete the Trinity Great Court Run – running around the college courtyard in the time it takes for the clock to strike 12. Abrahams achieves an undefeated string of victories in various national running competitions. Although focused on his running, he falls in love with a leading Gilbert and Sullivan soprano, Sybil (Alice Krige).
Jubilee
Jubilee (1978)
, 1h40
Directed by Derek Jarman
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Fantasy, Musical
Themes Films about magic and magicians, Films about music and musicians, Films about sexuality, LGBT-related films, Musical films, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film
Actors Jenny Runacre, Ian Charleson, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Richard O'Brien, Sam Spruell
Roles Angel
Rating59% 2.950462.950462.950462.950462.95046
In Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre) is transported forward in time by the occultist John Dee (Richard O'Brien) through the spirit guide Ariel (a character from Shakespeare's The Tempest). Elizabeth arrives in the shattered Britain of the 1970s. Queen Elizabeth II is dead, killed in an arbitrary mugging, and Elizabeth I moves through the social and physical decay of the city observing the activities of a group of sporadic nihilists, including Amyl Nitrite (Jordan), Bod (Runacre in a dual role), Chaos (Hermine Demoriane), Crabs (Nell Campbell), and Mad (Toyah Willcox).