Since the death of Richard Attenborough was announced yesterday, we have been reminded of the prolific work of this British theatrical and film genius, which scooped up endless awards over his very long career.
Advertisements
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Attenborough, CBE as he should be correctly addressed, was known to everyone who knew him simply as ‘Dickie’, a moniker we learned about from Eric Idle in his funny parody sketch in Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He will be remembered for both his creative work behind and in front of the camera and also for his seemingly endless contributions to public bodies and organisations.
Here at THE GAY UK we have chosen three things in particular as our personal memories of this great quintessential Englishman.
Firstly when he played the part of sadistic Inspector Treadway in the 1970 film version of Joe Orton’s black comedy LOOT which made a mockery of all those Agatha Christie whodunit mysteries.
In 1985 Attenborough directed the long awaited movie version of the Broadway smash hit musical ‘A CHORUS LINE’, which received mixed notices, mainly because everyone had such fond memories of the stage show. Attenborough though was singled out in some of the really good reviews, and the film has now become a ‘classic cult gay movie’
But despite all the heady acclaim of his two Oscar win for the blockbuster GANDHI and all his other high profile work, we will always remember him with great fondness in his breakthrough film acting role in John Boulting’s version of the Graham Greene novel ‘BRIGHTON ROCK”.
So farewell PINKIE BROWN …. R.I.P.
