Nigel Terry: Morte D'Arthur

One of my online roles seems to be as an unofficial Keeper of the Flame for John Boorman's film Excalibur, which I've written about here, and here, and here. So I was saddened to learn this week of the death of its star, Nigel Terry. A west country lad and a superb actor, he made a magnificent Arthur, convincing and passionate all the way from callow youth to sorrowful old age.

When I first saw the film I imagined he would go on to star in dozens of other big movies, but although he was a fine Caravaggio a few years later in the Derek Jarman film, I lost track of him for many years after that, until the 1990s, when he began turning up from time to time on TV. He was Svidrigailov in a BBC adaptation of Crime and Punishment and Mr Boldwood in ITV's Far From The Madding Crowd, where he appeared alongside actor-turned-excellent-YA-author Andy Robb (who wrote on Facebook yesterday that he was 'one of the funniest men I've ever met - and possibly the most miserable bastard to walk the earth'. (He also turned up in a Dr Who episode - I must have missed that one.) And, although he seems to have been quite a private and reclusive man, he appeared along with the rest of the Excalibur cast in the Behind the Sword in the Stone documentary (which I wish I could link to, but it's still in search of a distribution deal).

Anyway, he was a fine actor, and he will always be King Arthur to me.

Here is a link to the Guardian's obituary.