Yes, fame took its time

By Teri Fitsell

Advice to all struggling actors: hang on in there.

That was one message which emerged from Yes, Sir Nigel, last night's profile on TV One of respected British actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne.

It turns out Sir Nigel was 50, before he got his mega-break playing Sir Humphrey Appleby, the pompous, crafty and scene-stealing character in Yes Minister. Before that he spent a soul-destroying 29 years struggling to make a living doing bit parts and walk-ons.

And even in those small roles he was "not very good," according to Dad's Army scriptwriters Jimmy Perry and David Croft. They had given Hawthorne a one-line role in an episode of the popular series and watched as he had struggled through his nerves and several takes to get it right.

Odd, because he is one of those actors who seems to have always been around. Photographic evidence suggests perhaps one of the reasons it took him so long to get anywhere was because as a younger man he was, er, quite aesthetically challenged. He only really grew into his face in his 40s. As Janet Suzman (his co-star in The Miser) said, "He never looked like a shining juvenile."

But Helen Mirren (co-star in The Madness of King George) pointed out: "He was one of those actors you knew would make it later in life."

And how. Hawthorne is now aged 70. Last night's documentary centred on Hawthorne's preparation for an Anglo-Japanese production of King Lear, a role, he pointed out most actors tackle in their 40s.

He was born in England and brought up from age 3 in South Africa, whence the documentary cameras followed him on a return visit home. As the programme later revealed, the British press rather pathetically - given that most had known for years - outed him as a homosexual.

It became apparent during the African segment that no one had outed him to Lena the family maid, whose only concern was that he had never married. A sin of omission she clearly hoped would be remedied soon.

The tabloids treatment of Sir Nigel included such sensitive headlines as "Sir Bumphrey."

It was interesting that many of Hawthorne's co-stars felt the need to defend him in some way. For the man, while having something of a melancholy air about, him can clearly fight his own battles, as witnessed by his determination to hold on to the lead in the film version of The Madness of King George, a role he had created to thunderous acclaim on stage.

To boost his profile stateside, Hawthorne took on what was an unlikely part for him, a bad guy in the 1993 no-brainer Demolition Man, with Sylvester Stallone. It worked: he won the role of George III and then an Oscar nomination for it.

As the story was related, you couldn't help thinking that the constantly conniving Sir Humphrey would have approved of the scheme, and that he would have had a suitably withering response to Stallone's apparent snubbing of Sir Nigel at the Oscar ceremony.

The good news is, to get an idea of the kind of response Sir Humphrey would make, you can watch reruns of early episodes of Yes Minister 10.30 pm on Sundays.

They're classics, as is Sir Nigel.