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After leaving grammar school in Derbyshire, England, Alan Bates earned a scholarship to the London Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Following a two-year career detour in the Royal Air Force, Mr. Bates took to the stage 1955 with the Midland Theatre Company at Coventry and the following year made his London West End stage debut at the age of 22.
Incredible films like Zorba the Greek, Georgy Girl, and Far From the Madding Crowd introduced the world to the incredible talent of Alan Bates in the 1960’s. Mr. Bates has consistently avoided the mainstream blockbuster type of movies to concentrate on projects that offered more artistic fulfillment than money. In 1969, Mr. Bates was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Fixer.
During the next ten years, Alan Bates chose to concentrate more on his family than this career. He married actress Victoria Ward in 1970. When asked what he most remembered about the filming of The Go-Between in 1971, Mr. Bates replied that he remembered being pre-occupied with the eminent arrival of the twins that he and Victoria were expecting. Sons Benedick and Tristan were born in 1971.
In 1990, one of the twins died tragically during an asthma attack. Broken hearted, Victoria passed away only two years later. Coping with personal loss, Alan Bates threw himself back into his work.
During the decade that followed, Alan Bates starred in a wealth of films as well as stage productions including Zeffirelli’s production of Hamlet, Secret Friends, Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets and the Cherry Orchard.
His television credits include title roles in ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre's The Mayor of Casterbridge, Hard Times, The Spying Game, Nicholas' Gift, Oliver's Travels, Dr. Fischer of Geneva, and 102 Boulevard Haussmann. Alan Bates played Jethro the Midianite in the miniseries, In the Beginning. Continuing his television presence during 2000, Mr. Bates appeared in The Prince and the Pauper and St. Patrick: The Irish Legend. In 2001, Alan Bates appeared in Robert Altman’s Gosford Park and Love in a Cold Climate, both critically acclaimed and rewarded. Alan Bates will also appear as Lentulas Agrippa in the upcoming television mini-series, Spartacus.
During 2002, Mr. Bares played Tom Connoly in the movie, Evelyn; Dressler in The Sum of All Fears, and King George V in Bertie and Elizabeth.
Alan Bates is the patron of the Actors Centre in London, a venue set up in the 1970s by actors John Alderton, Sheila Hancock and Clive Swift for the training of performers. He has also endowed a theatre at the Covent Garden Centre in the memory of his son, Tristan.
He was awarded a CBE in 1996 and received a knighthood in 2003. Sir Alan won a Tony Award in 2002 for best leading man for Fortune's Fool, an adaptation of an 1848 work by Russian author Ivan Turgenev. His role opposite Sir Michael Caine in The Statement may very well earn him an Oscar nomination this year.
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