Alec McCowen, 91; British star of Broadway, West End . By Jill Lawless
Associated Press . LONDON - Alec McCowen, a West End and Broadway star
who had global success with a one-man show about the life of Jesus, has
died. He was 91. The actor's nephew, the Rev. Nigel Mumford, said
Wednesday that Mr. McCowen died Feb. 6 at his London home. Born in
Tunbridge Wells, south of London, on May 26, 1925, Mr. McCowen trained
at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed for troops with the
Entertainment National Service Association at the end of World War II.
He performed in London and New York through the 1950s before joining
the Old Vic Company - alongside Judi Dench and Maggie Smith -and then
the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was a notable Mercutio in Franco
Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" at the Old Vic in 1960, and a witty
Fool alongside Paul Scofield's king in director Peter Brook's "King
Lear" at the RSC in 1962. In 1969, he gained the first of three Tony
Award nominations as a failed priest who fantasizes he is the pope in
"Hadrian the Seventh. He also played the psychiatrist who treats a teen
accused of mutilating horses in Peter Shaffer's "Equus"; in 1973, he
was Henry Higgins opposite Diana Rigg's Eliza Doolittle in "Pygmalion.
A few years later he memorized a large chunk of the New Testament and
turned it into an acclaimed one-man performance of "St. Mark's Gospel.
He performed it around the world, including at the White House for
President Jimmy Carter. A one-man show about the writer Rudyard Kipling
also went to Broadway in the 1980s. Other major roles included an
elderly missionary who returns from Africa to unsettle his Irish family
in Brian Friel's "Dancing at Lughnasa" in 1990; a hostage in Lebanon in
Frank McGuinness's "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" in 1992; and Prospero
in a Sam Mendes-directed "Tempest" for the Royal Shakespeare Company in
1993. For all his acclaim in classical and dramatic roles, Mr. McCowen
once said he "I wanted to be an entertainer, not an actor, when I was
young. I wanted to be Jack Benny. Though best known as a stage actor,
Mr. McCowen appeared in over two dozen films. He was memorable as a
detective in Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" and played gadget-master Q in
the unofficial James Bond film "Never Say Never Again. Mr. McCowen's
partner, Geoffrey Burridge, died in 1987. He leaves his sister and
several nieces and nephews.
