Daniel Massey; Acclaimed Film, Stage Actor

Daniel Massey, an award-winning stage and film actor and member of a distinguished theatrical family, has died at the age of 64.

Massey, who had returned to the stage in 1995 after a battle with Hodgkin’s disease, died Wednesday in a London hospital, said his agent, Wim Hance.

A tall and slender actor, he was famous for his deep, mellifluous voice in such musicals as Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies.”

Massey was also ideally suited to Noel Coward’s drawing-room comedies.

He portrayed Coward--who in real life was his godfather--in the 1968 motion picture “Star,” featuring Julie Andrews as Gertrude Lawrence. Although the film bombed at the box office, Massey won a Golden Globe award and an Academy Award nomination for what a Times reviewer called his “tour de force portrayal.”

The actor’s most recent motion picture popular in the United States was 1993’s “In the Name of the Father,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

Massey also won critical praise for demanding stage roles in London and New York, such as his acclaimed portrayal of German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler in the Ronald Harwood play “Taking Sides.”

Other Broadway performances included his appearance in the original 1963 production of “She Loves Me” and his role as Gaston in “Gigi” a decade later.

Massey was the son of Canadian actor Raymond Massey and British stage star Adrianne Allen. His younger sister, Anna Massey, is one of Britain’s most respected actors in plays, film and television.

Massey’s parents split up when he was 6. His father went to Hollywood, where he became a success playing young Abe Lincoln and many other roles, finally ending as a television star in “Doctor Kildare.” Daniel Massey remained in England and rarely saw his father. They later became close when the son worked in America as an actor.

Massey, who was married three times, is survived by a son, Paul, and a daughter, Alice.