David Hattersley Warner (29 July 1941 – 24 July 2022) was an English actor who portrayed a variety of villainous characters, as well as more sympathetic roles, in a career spanning six decades across stage and screen. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Warner trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), with whom he made his stage debut in 1962 and, in 1964, played Henry VI in the Wars of the Roses cycle at the West End's Aldwych Theatre. The RSC then cast him as Prince Hamlet in Peter Hall's 1965 production of Hamlet. Warner made his Broadway debut in the 2001 revival of Major Barbara.
He gained prominence as the lead in the film Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (Karel Reisz, 1966), for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. His other roles include those in The Omen (1976), Time After Time (1979), Time Bandits (1981), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Tron (1982), A Christmas Carol (1984), Seven Servants (1996), Titanic (1997), Scream 2 (1997), Ladies in Lavender (2002), and Mary Poppins Returns (2018). He is also known for his roles in the films Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).
For his work in television, Warner received two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie nominations, for his portrayals of Reinhard Heydrich in the NBC miniseries Holocaust (1978) and Pomponius Falco in the ABC miniseries Masada (1981); he won for the latter.
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Early life
Warner was born on 29 July 1941, in Manchester, Lancashire, the son of Ada Doreen Hattersley and Herbert Simon Warner, a nursing home proprietor. He was born out of wedlock and frequently taken to be brought up by each of his parents, eventually settling with his stepmother and his father, a Russian Jew. At 18 years of age he started at RADA, from which graduated in 1961 with an Acting (RADA Diploma).
Career
Theatre
Warner made his professional stage debut at the Royal Court Theatre in January 1962, playing Snout, a minor role in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Tony Richardson for the English Stage Company. In March 1962, at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, he played Conrad in Much Ado About Nothing, following which in June he appeared as Jim in Afore Night Come at the New Arts Theatre in London.
He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1963 to play Trinculo in The Tempest, and Cinna the Poet in Julius Caesar, and in July was cast as Henry VI in the John Barton adaptation of Henry VI, Parts I, II and III, which comprised the first two plays from The Wars of the Roses trilogy. At the West End's Aldwych Theatre in January 1964, he again played Henry VI in the complete The Wars of the Roses history cycle (1964). Returning to Stratford in April, he performed the title role in Richard II, Mouldy in Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry VI. At the Aldwych in October 1964, he was cast as Valentine Brose in the play Eh? by Henry Livings, a role he reprised in the 1968 film adaptation Work Is a Four-Letter Word.
He first played the title role in Hamlet for the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1965. This production transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in December of that year. In the 1966, Stratford season, his Hamlet was revived and he also played Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. Finally at the Aldwych in January 1970, he played Julian in Tiny Alice.
According to his 2007 programme CV, Warner's other work for the theatre included The Great Exhibition at Hampstead Theatre (February 1972); I, Claudius at the Queen's Theatre (July 1972); A Feast of Snails at the Lyric Theatre (February 2002); Where There's a Will at the Theatre Royal, Bath; King Lear at Chichester Festival Theatre (2005), see details below); and also Major Barbara on Broadway in 2001.
Film and television
In 1963, he made his film debut as the villainous Blifil in Tom Jones, and in 1965, starred as Henry VI in the BBC television version of the RSC's The Wars of the Roses cycle of Shakespeare's history plays. He starred alongside Bob Dylan in the 1963 play Madhouse on Castle Street. A major step in his career was the leading role in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), opposite Vanessa Redgrave, which established his reputation for playing slightly off-the-wall characters. He also appeared as Konstantin Treplev in Sidney Lumet's 1968 adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Sea Gull and starred alongside Jason Robards and Stella Stevens as Reverend Joshua Duncan Sloane in Sam Peckinpah's The Ballad of Cable Hogue.
In horror films, he appeared in one of the stories of From Beyond the Grave, opposite Gregory Peck in The Omen (1976), as the ill-fated photojournalist Keith Jennings, and the 1979 thriller Nightwing. He also starred in cult classic Waxwork (1988), and featured alongside a young Viggo Mortensen in the 1990 film Tripwire.
He often played villains, in films such as The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), Time After Time (1979), Time Bandits (1981), Tron (1982), Hanna's War (1988). Warner's voice acting roles in television include Ra's al Ghul in Batman: The Animated Series, Herbert Landon in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Alpha in Men in Black: The Series, the Archmage in Disney's Gargoyles, and the Lobe in Freakazoid!. He was also cast against type as Henry Niles in Straw Dogs (1971) and as Bob Cratchit in the 1984 telefilm A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott as Scrooge. In addition, he played German SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich both in the film Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil, and the television miniseries Holocaust; as sinister millionaire Amos Hackshaw in HBO's original 1991 film Cast a Deadly Spell.
In 1981, Warner received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special for Masada as Pomponius Falco. In 1988, he appeared in the Danny Huston film Mr. North.
He subsequently appeared in films such as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Avatar (known as Matrix Hunter in the US), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991), Titanic (the third time he appeared in a film that is about or includes reference to RMS Titanic) and Scream 2. In 2001, he played Captain James Sawyer in two episodes of A&E's adaptation of C.S. Forester's Hornblower series. He appeared in three episodes of the second season of Twin Peaks (1991) as "Thomas Eckhardt". He also continued to play classical roles. In "Chain of Command", an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, he was a Cardassian interrogator. He based his portrayal on the evil "re-educator" from 1984. He appeared in Murder, She Wrote in 1993 as a Hong Kong-based detective. His less-spectacular roles included a double-role in the low-budget fantasy Quest of the Delta Knights (1993) which was eventually spoofed on Mystery Science Theater 3000. He also played Admiral Tolwyn in the film version of Wing Commander.
Return to theatre and later work
In 2001, Warner returned to the stage after a nearly three-decade hiatus to play Andrew Undershaft in a Broadway revival of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara. In May 2005, at the Chichester Festival Theatre Warner made a return to Shakespeare, playing the title role in Steven Pimlott's production of King Lear. Tim Walker, reviewing the performance in The Sunday Telegraph, wrote: "Warner is physically the least imposing king I have ever seen, but his slight, gaunt body serves also to accentuate the vulnerability the part requires. So, too, does the fact that he is older by decades than most of the other members of the youthful cast."
On 30 October 2005, he appeared on stage at The Old Vic theatre in London in the one-night play Night Sky alongside Christopher Eccleston, Bruno Langley, Navin Chowdhry, Saffron Burrows and David Baddiel. In December 2006, he starred in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather on Sky One as Lord Downey. And in August 2007, as an RSC Honorary Artist, he returned to Stratford for the first time in over 40 years to play Sir John Falstaff in the Courtyard Theatre revival of Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 which were part of the RSC Histories Cycle.
In February 2008, Warner was heard as the popular fictional character Hugo Rune in a new 13-part audio adaptation of Robert Rankin's The Brightonomicon released by Hokus Bloke Productions and BBC Audiobooks. He starred alongside some high-profile names including cult science fiction actress and Superman star Sarah Douglas, Rupert Degas, The Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis, Harry Potter villain Jason Isaacs, Mark Wing-Davey and Martin Jarvis (written by Elliott Stein & Neil Gardner, and produced/directed by Neil Gardner).
In October 2008, Warner played the role of Lord Mountbatten of Burma in the BBC Four television film In Love with Barbara, a biopic about the life of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland. He played Povel Wallander, the father of Kurt Wallander, in BBC One's Wallander.
Other work
In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Warner about his role in The Omen (1976) for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror. In November 2013, David Warner posed for Rory Lewis Photographers 'Northerners' Exhibition, Warner's image was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in London, and was the first professional portrait sitting of Warner since 1966.
Personal life and death
Warner married his first wife, Harriet Lindgren, in 1969; they divorced in 1972. He married his second wife, Sheilah Kent, in 1981; they had a daughter in 1982, and divorced in 2002. Warner's partner from 2006 until his death in 2022 was Lisa Bowerman, an actress.
Warner died of a cancer-related illness at Denville Hall, in Northwood, London, on 24 July 2022, aged 80.
