Clive Revill

Born on 18 April 1930 in Wellington, New Zealand, Clive Selsby Revill built the bulk of his professional life around screen and small-screen character parts while maintaining an extensive catalogue of straight-theatre credits. He nevertheless found time for musical-theatre engagements on both sides of the Atlantic. Beginning in the mid-1950s he moved fluidly between cinema and the stage as well as between the United States and Britain. On the West End and Broadway stages he portrayed Bob-le-Hotu in Irma La Douce (1957) and received an unsuccessful Tony Award nomination for the role. During the same period his screen credits included Reach For The Sky (1956) and The Headless Ghost (1959). In the early 1960s he took the part of Ko-Ko in a London revival of The Mikado (1962) and then played Fagin in the Broadway mounting of Oliver! (1963), again earning an unsuccessful Tony nomination. He next assumed the leading role in the 1967 Broadway musical Sherry!, an adaptation of The Man Who Came To Dinner that closed as a commercial disappointment. He has also performed in British productions of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan works that encompass The Pirates Of Penzance and The Sorcerer.

Additional screen appearances from the 1960s onward comprise Modesty Blaise (1966), The Shoes Of The Fisherman (1968), The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970), Avanti! (1972), One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975), Zorro The Gay Blade (1981), Mack The Knife (1990) and Let Him Have It (1991). His voice supplied The Emperor for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Transformers: The Movie (1986). On television he portrayed Finlay Perkin in the 1978 mini-series Centennial.