Colin Blakely Dies; Portrayed Heroes, Villains

Colin Blakely, a portly character actor whose portrayals of comic heroes and classical villains brought him widespread recognition in his native Great Britain, is dead of leukemia, it was learned last week.

Blakely was 56 when he died May 7 in a London hospital, his agent, Julian Belfrage, said.

Blakely, whose most recent credits were in the TV miniseries “Paradise Postponed” and “A Chorus of Disapproval” on the London stage, had a 30-year career in stage, motion pictures and television. He appeared often with the biggest theatrical names of the day--Alec Guinness, John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier.

In a rare solo appearance in 1976, he opened in London in the 27,000-word monologue “Judgment,” in which he faced a royal court theater audience for 2 1/2 hours portraying a Soviet army officer imprisoned by the Nazis in a monastery cellar without food or water.

Born in Northern Ireland, Blakely was a veteran of stages in Belfast and Wales before making his London debut in 1959 as the Second Rough Fellow in Sean O’Casey’s “Cock-a-Doodle-Dandy.”

With the Royal Shakespeare Company he appeared in “As You Like It” and “Richard III” in the early 1960s, then spent the rest of that decade with the National Theater.

He was on stage with Olivier in the London production of Arthur Miller’s “Crucible” and with Gielgud in Seneca’s “Oedipus.”

On film he was seen in “This Sporting Life,” “A Man for All Seasons” with Paul Scofield,” as Dr. Watson in “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,” “Equus” and “The Pink Panther Strikes Again.”

Americans became more familiar with his talents when he appeared on television with Guinness in “Little Lord Fauntleroy” and in Shakespeare’s “Anthony and Cleopatra.” He also appeared on TV with Olivier in “King Lear.”