Alan Bates

ActorProducer Feb 17 (died age 69) Allestree, Derbyshire, England 1951–2025 (74 year career)

5.9 avg rating

Biography

Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving. He is also known for his tour-de-force with Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek, as well as his roles in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Fixer, whic…

Known For

Film

The Sum of All Fears

Dressler

Film

Gosford Park

Jennings

Film

Zorba the Greek

Basil

Film

The Mothman Prophecies

Alexander Leek

Film

Hamlet

Claudius

Film

The Go-Between

Ted Burgess

Film

The Rose

Rudge Campbell

Film

Women in Love

Rupert Birkin

Filmography

Acting (99)

Movies (83)

Love Left the Masquerade: Peter Medak's Cinema of Pretenders

2025

as Archive

10.0

Shuttlecock: Sins of a Father

2020

as Major James Prentis (archival footage)

6.0

Nothing Like a Dame

2018

as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

6.8

Discovering Hamlet

2011

as Claudius (archive footage)

Spartacus

as Antonius Agrippa

Hollywood North

as Michael Baytes

The Statement

as Armand Bertier

Meanwhile

as Father Peter

Celebrity Naked Ambition

2003

as Self (archive footage)

The Sum of All Fears

as Dressler

Bertie and Elizabeth

as King George V

The Mothman Prophecies

as Alexander Leek

Evelyn

as Thomas Connolly

Salem Witch Trials

as Sir William Phips

The Making of Gosford Park

as Self

Gosford Park

as Jennings

Anthony Quinn: The Final Words

2001

as Self

The Prince and the Pauper

2000

as Re Enrico VIII

6.2

St. Patrick: The Irish Legend

as Calpornius

The Cherry Orchard

as Gayev

Nicholas’ Gift

as Reg Green

The Grotesque

as Sir Hugo Coal

Hard Times

as Josiah Bounderby

Silent Tongue

as Eamon McCree

Shuttlecock

as Major James Prentis VC

2.0

Losing Track

1992

as Henry Sitchell

Unnatural Pursuits

1992

as Hamish Partt

Secret Friends

as John

Hamlet

as Claudius

Dr. M

as Dr, Marsfeldt / Guru

4.4

Mister Frost

1990

as Felix Detweiler

6.2

102 Boulevard Haussmann

1990

as Marcel Proust

6.0

Uncontrollable Circumstances

1989

as Malcolm Forrest

6.2

The Dog It Was That Died

1989

as Blair

The Ray Bradbury Theater: And So Died Riabouchinska

1988

as John Fabian

We Think the World of You

as Frank Meadows

Pack of Lies

as Stewart

A Prayer for the Dying

as Jack Meehan

Duet for One

as David Cornwallis

One for the Road

as Nicholas

Hands Up!

1985

as Self (1981 footage)

5.8

A Voyage Round My Father

1984

as John Mortimer

7.6

Dr. Fischer of Geneva

1984

as Dr. Alfred Jones

5.6

The Return of the Soldier

1983

as Captain Chris Baldry

6.2

Separate Tables

1983

as John Malcolm / Maj. Pollock

An Englishman Abroad

as Guy Burgess

The Wicked Lady

as Captain Jerry Jackson

Britannia Hospital

as Macready

Very Like a Whale

as Sir Jock Mellor

Quartet

as H.J. Heidler

The Trespasser

as Siegmund

Nijinsky

as Sergei Diaghilev

The Rose

as Rudge Campbell

The Shout

as Charles Crossley

An Unmarried Woman

as Saul Kaplan

The Collection

as James

In Celebration

as Andrew Shaw

Two Sundays

as Charles

Royal Flash

as Rudi Von Sternberg

5.8

Plaintiffs and Defendants

1975

as Peter

7.0

The Story of Jacob and Joseph

as Narrator (voice)

Butley

as Ben Butley

Impossible Object

as Harry

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

as Bri

Second Best

as Tom

The Go-Between

as Ted Burgess

Three Sisters

as Col. Vershinin

Women in Love

as Rupert Birkin

Look at Life: All in a Day's Work

1969

as Self

The Fixer

1968

as Yakov Bok

6.0

Location: Far from the Madding Crowd

1967

as Himself

Far from the Madding Crowd

1967

as Gabriel Oak

6.8

Lionpower from MGM

1967

as Self - Gabriel Oak (archive footage) (uncredited)

Georgy Girl

as Jos Jones

King of Hearts

as Charles Plumpick

Once Upon a Tractor

as Joe Turrel

Zorba the Greek

as Basil

Nothing But the Best

as Jimmy Brewster

The Caretaker

as Mick

The Running Man

as Stephen

A Kind of Loving

as Victor Arthur 'Vic' Brown

7.0

Whistle Down the Wind

1961

as The Man, Arthur Alan Blakey

7.2

The Entertainer

1960

as Frank Rice

6.2

Television (16)

The Graham Norton Show

as Self

Spartacus

as Antonius Agrippa

Love in a Cold Climate

as Uncle Matthew

In the Beginning

as Jethro

Arabian Nights

as Storyteller

Oliver's Travels

as Oliver

Hard Times

as Josiah Bounderby

Unnatural Pursuits

as Hamish Partt

Pebble Mill

as Self

The Ray Bradbury Theater

1985

as John Fabian

6.8

The Mayor of Casterbridge

1978

as Michael Henchard

5.7

Laurence Olivier Presents

Great Performances

as James

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

as Self

Armchair Theatre

as Lewis Black

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

as Stewart

8.6

Crew (1)

Movies (1)

Second Best

1972

Producer

5.0