:Hywel Bennett
{{Short description|Welsh actor (1944–2017)}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Hywel Bennett
| image = HywelBennett1966.jpg
| caption = Bennett in 1966
| birth_name = Hywel Thomas Bennett
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1944|04|08}}
| birth_place = Garnant, Carmarthenshire, Wales
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2017|07|24|1944|4|8}}
| death_place =
| occupation = Actor
| alma_mater = Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
| years_active = 1965–2007
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Cathy McGowan|1970|1988|reason=div}}
- {{marriage|Sandra Layne Fulford|1998}}
}}
| children = 1
| relatives = Alun Lewis (brother)
Amelia Warner (niece)
Grace Crompton (granddaughter)
}}
Hywel Thomas Bennett{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/aug/04/hywel-bennett-obituary|title=Hywel Bennett obituary|first=Anthony|last=Hayward|date=4 August 2017|via=www.theguardian.com}}{{efn|According to director Roy Boulting, Bennett was not consistent on the pronunciation of his given name: "It's pronounced 'Howell' or 'Hugh-el,' ... {{nowrap|altho [sic]}} he seems to use one pronunciation one day, and another the next."{{cite news |last1=Terry |first1=Clifford |title=Little Hayley Now Mature Miss Mills |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37501423/clifford-terry-little-hayley-now/ |work=Chicago Tribune |date=9 July 1967|via=Newspapers.com}}}} (8 April 1944 – 24 July 2017) was a Welsh film and television actor. He had a lead role in The Family Way (1966) and played the titular "thinking man's layabout" James Shelley in the television sitcom Shelley (1979–1992).
Bennett played opposite Hayley Mills in The Family Way, Twisted Nerve (1968) and Endless Night (1972). Other notable film roles include Private Brigg in the comedy The Virgin Soldiers (1969), Dennis in Loot (1970) and Edwin Antony in Percy (1971). Bennett's character, Ricki Tarr, was pivotal in the BBC serial adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979). In later years, he was often cast in villainous roles including Mr Croup in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (1996), Peter Baxter in ITV police drama The Bill (2002) and crime boss Jack Dalton in EastEnders (2003).
Early life
Bennett was born on 8 April 1944 in Garnant, Carmarthenshire, Wales, the son of Sarah Gwen (née Lewis) and Gorden Bennett.{{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/65/Hywel-Bennett.html|title=Hywel Bennett Biography (1944–)|website=www.filmreference.com}} His first language was Welsh; he learned to speak English in an accent he called "London-Welsh" after the family moved to south London when he was four.{{cite journal |last1=Samuel |first1=Graham |title=His first big role was Ophelia |journal=Aberdeen Press and Journal |date=22 February 1973 |page=10 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000578/19730222/203/0010 |access-date=5 December 2021}}{{cite web |title=Hywel Bennett |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/hywel-bennett-obituary-2jkqdnnkl |website=The Times |access-date=5 December 2021}} He was the brother of actor Alun Lewis, who is best known for playing Vic Windsor in Emmerdale. Bennett attended Sunnyhill School, Streatham, Henry Thornton Grammar School, Clapham (1955–62) and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Career
Bennett debuted on stage in the role of Ophelia in a Queen's Theatre production of Hamlet in 1959. He continued with the company for five years, his roles including Richmond in Richard III at the Scala Theatre in 1963. After a brief period working as a supply teacher, Bennett won a scholarship to train at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed in repertory in Salisbury and Leatherhead.{{cite news|last1=Williamson|first1=Marcus|title=Hywel Bennett obituary: Beloved actor who rose to fame as a sitcom star|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hywel-bennett-actor-thames-television-shelley-a7874336.html|access-date=23 October 2017|work=The Independent|date=3 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023234814/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hywel-bennett-actor-thames-television-shelley-a7874336.html|archive-date=23 October 2017}} He made his television debut in 1964, making early appearances in episodes of Doctor Who and Theatre 625. In 1966, he appeared as the lead Willy Turner in BBC1 Wednesday Play "Where the Buffalo Roam". This role as a mentally disturbed, cowboy-obsessed teenager was the first of many parts in Dennis Potter television plays.{{cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/comment/obituaries/hywel-bennett-obituary|title=Hywel Bennett obituary: fashionable young man who grew up fast – Sight & Sound}}
His first film appearance was as Leonardo in the 1966 Italian Il marito è mio e l'ammazzo quando mi pare ("It's my husband and I'll decide when to kill him"), directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile, a comedy in which a young wife carefully plans to murder her husband, who is 40 years her senior, to marry a young beatnik.{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b740cd528 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311153147/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b740cd528 |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 March 2016 |title=Il MARITO È MIO E L'AMMAZZO QUANDO MI PARE (1967) |publisher=BFI |date=2 July 2015 |access-date=29 February 2016}} Bennett then starred as nervously virginal newlywed Arthur Fitton opposite Hayley Mills in the Boulting brothers' adaptation of Bill Naughton's play The Family Way (1966). He was cast after John Boulting saw him in the Alan Plater play A Smashing Day{{cite book |last1=Bramwell |first1=Tony |title=Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles |date=8 December 2014 |publisher=Portico |isbn=9780312330439 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2E4mEAAAQBAJ&dq=hywel+bennett+a+smashing+time&pg=PT155}} and felt he had "the appearance of both sensitivity and masculinity."[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37501423/clifford_terry_little_hayley_now/ Little Hayley Now Mature Miss Mills], Clifford, Terry. Chicago Tribune 9 July 1967: f13. The success of the film gained Bennett a contract with British Lion Films and led the News of the World to dub him "the face of '67". He considered his looks "a boon and a curse. It won me quick fame, but I was a serious actor being written up as a pin-up boy and sex symbol... ...I used to wish for a broken nose." He was reunited with Mills and the Boultings in the psychological thriller Twisted Nerve (1968), playing Martin Durnley in what the British Film Institute has described as "one of cinema's most striking depictions of evil". In 1969, he starred as Private Brigg in The Virgin Soldiers, a comedy-drama film set during the Malayan Emergency. Bennett described the film as "the story of a young soldier's love affair with a Chinese prostitute. And his fear in combat. One day he runs the wrong way and accidentally becomes a hero." In 1969, contemporary critic Roger Ebert called him "one of England's best young actors".{{cite web |last1=Ebert |first1=Roger |title=Interview with Hywel Bennett |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/interview-with-hywel-bennett |website=Roger Ebert |access-date=5 December 2021}}
Bennett's film roles continued into the 1970s, notably with the film adaptation of Joe Orton's Loot (1970) and Endless Night (1972), an Agatha Christie adaptation again pairing him with Hayley Mills. He was the preferred choice for the role of Brian Roberts in Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972), but wrongly assumed it was a singing role and didn't read the script. The part went to Michael York.{{cite journal |last1=Stacey |first1=Pat |title=Bogie Men |journal=Evening Herald |date=11 August 2007 |page=21 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001730/20070811/115/0021 |access-date=9 December 2021}} He starred in the Ralph Thomas-directed sex comedies Percy (1971), in which he plays a shy young man who becomes the recipient of the world's first penis transplant, and The Love Ban (1973).{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/hywel-bennett-p5393/filmography|title=Hywel Bennett – Movies and Filmography – AllMovie|website=AllMovie}} Of this period in his career, Bennett would later state "I had come in at the tail end of everything, the studio system and so on. I found myself in the early 70s with nowhere to go."
He maintained a career in the theatre. His Puck in a 1967 Edinburgh Festival production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was described by Illustrated London News as "the best since Leslie French".{{cite journal |last1=Trewin |first1=J. C. |title=Fantasy at Edinburgh |journal=Illustrated London News |page=30 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001578/19670902/059/0029 |access-date=6 December 2021}} He returned to the festival in 1990 as Long John Silver in a stage adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.{{cite journal |last1=Snape |first1=Tony |title=Treasure Island |journal=The Stage |date=4 October 1990 |page=25 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19901004/133/0025 |access-date=6 December 2021}} He appeared in several National Theatre productions including playing Mark Antony in Julius Caesar (the Young Vic, 1972) and Marlow in the She Stoops to Conquer (the Lyttelton Theatre, 1984). Other notable roles include Prince Hal in Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 (the Mermaid Theatre, 1970), the lead in Hamlet on a 1974 South African tour and Andrey Prozorov in Three Sisters (the Albery Theatre, 1987). He also directed productions in provincial theatres, including a 1975 adaptation of J. B. Priestley's I Have Been Here Before at Theatr Gwynedd, Bangor.{{cite journal |title=Show hits the road |journal=North Wales Weekly News |date=30 January 1975 |page=16 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003119/19750130/407/0016 |access-date=6 December 2021}}
Bennett's television career resumed with appearances in episodes of Play for Today (1973) and The Sweeney (1976).{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b740cd528|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311153147/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b740cd528|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 March 2016|title=Il MARITO È MIO E L'AMMAZZO QUANDO MI PARE (1967)|date=2 July 2015|publisher=BFI|access-date=29 February 2016}} In 1978, he appeared in Dennis Potter's musical drama Pennies from Heaven as Tom, a pimp. In 1979, Bennett appeared as the field agent Ricki Tarr in Arthur Hopcraft's six-part BBC2 adaptation of John le Carré's novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979), playing the character with "an ever-thinning veneer of boyish charm masking years of self-delusion and betrayal" according to the BFI. Bennett then starred in two further BBC miniseries - Malice Aforethought (1979) and The Consultant (1981).{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b852ea58a|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211060755/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b852ea58a|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 December 2017|title=Malice Aforethought Part 3 (1979)}} In 1981, he played occult novelist Gideon Harlax in David Rudkin's television play Artemis 81.{{cite web |title=Artemis 81 |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e4712cf3ce794d8d9c47c637bf8dbadd |website=BBC Genome |access-date=6 December 2021}}
In 1979 he took the lead role in the Thames Television sitcom Shelley (1979–84) as the titular "professional freelance layabout" James Shelley, a philosophical and sardonic geography graduate with no desire to work. The series, created by Peter Tilbury, drew audiences of up to 18 million viewers.{{cite web |title=Hywel Bennett dies aged 73 |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/news/2724/hywel_bennett_rip/ |website=British Comedy Guide |access-date=5 December 2021}} According to Bennett, "the writers had done something pretty amazing. They had created what was almost a monologue and turned it into a popular sitcom." The programme resumed, initially under the title The Return of Shelley, in 1988 and continued until 1992.
During the 1980s, Bennett was the voice of British Rail in their advertisements featuring the slogan "We're getting there". He provided further voiceovers for Budweiser and Hoffmeister advertisements.{{cite journal |last1=Bonner |first1=Hilary |last2=Bennett |first2=Hywel |title=The Day I Nearly Died |journal=Daily Mirror |date=20 September 1988 |page=9 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000560/19880920/039/0009 |access-date=8 December 2021}} In 1986, he played the investigative journalist Allan Blakeston in Paula Milne's single drama Frankie and Johnnie, a production he described as "one of the best things I've done in quite a long time". He lost weight to give the character a "hungry and haunted look".{{cite journal |last1=Mafham |first1=Rowena |title=Old style journalist is new role for 'Shelley' |journal=Aberdeen Press and Journal |date=30 January 1986 |page=4 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000578/19860130/095/0004 |access-date=5 December 2021}} The following year, he played an architect whose reaction to urban violence is to steadily turn his suburban home into a virtual fortress in Andy Hamilton's black comedy Checkpoint Chiswick, part of the Tickets for the Titanic anthology series.{{cite journal |title=Checkpoint Chiswick |journal=The Stage |date=31 July 1986 |page=17 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19860731/109/0017 |access-date=5 December 2021}}
By the mid-1990s alcoholism and treatment for an overactive thyroid had altered Bennett's appearance.{{cite journal |last1=Pendreigh |first1=Brian |title=Obituary - Hywel Bennett, actor best-known for the sit-com Shelley |journal=The Herald |date=4 August 2017 |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/15455143.obituary---hywel-bennett-actor-best-known-sit-com-shelley/ |access-date=8 December 2021}} He was often cast in unsavoury roles including club owner Arthur 'Pig' Mallion in Dennis Potter's final, linked television plays Karaoke and Cold Lazarus (both 1996) and the villainous Mr Croup in Neil Gaiman's serial Neverwhere (1996).{{cite web|url=https://www.hellomagazine.com/film/2017080441262/EastEnders-star-Hywel-Bennett-passes-away/|title=EastEnders star Hywel Bennett passes away aged 73|date=4 August 2017}} On film, he played in Dr. Crippen in Deadly Advice (1994) and Jean-Baptiste Colbert in Vatel (2000). He appeared in Lock, Stock... (2000) as Deep Throat{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b846a10a4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211055217/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b846a10a4|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 December 2017|title=Lock, Stock...And Spaghetti Sauce (2000)}} and joined the cast of the long-running soap opera EastEnders in 2003, playing Jack Dalton – the ruthless gangland kingpin of Walford. Other late television appearances include ten appearances as sex offender Peter Baxter in The Bill (2002–2005) and as Dr. Mike Vine in the first episode of Jam & Jerusalem (2006).{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba124f9ec|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804053856/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba124f9ec|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 August 2017|title=Hywel Bennett}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tv.com/shows/jam-and-jerusalem/cast/|title=Jam and Jerusalem|last=TV.com|website=TV.com}} His final television role was opposite Peter Davison in an episode of The Last Detective (2007).{{cite web |title=Dangerous Liaisons |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0901206/?ref_=tt_ch |website=Imdb |access-date=5 December 2021}}
Personal life and death
In 1970 Bennett married Cathy McGowan, who had been the presenter of the music television programme Ready Steady Go! (1963–66). They had a daughter, Emma. The marriage was dissolved in 1988. In September 1986, Bennett sought treatment for alcoholism at the Priory Hospital, Roehampton.{{cite journal |last1=Belsham |first1=Philip |title=TV Shelley dries out |journal=Daily Mirror |date=9 September 1986 |page=1 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000560/19860909/004/0001 |access-date=8 December 2021}} In 1998, he married Sandra Layne Fulford and they later moved to an old cottage near the sea, at Deal, Kent.{{cite news |title=hywel-bennett-actor-best-known-shelley-obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/08/03/hywel-bennett-actor-best-known-shelley-obituary/ |access-date=28 April 2025 |work=telegraph.co.uk |date=2017-08-03}} Bennett retired from acting in 2007 after being diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. He died on 24 July 2017 at the age of 73.{{cite web |title=Hywel Bennett |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2841219 |website=The Gazette |access-date=12 December 2021}}{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40814843|work=BBC News|title=Hywel Bennett, star of television and film, dies aged 73|date=3 August 2017|access-date=3 August 2017}}
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 1964
| TV film |
| 1966
| Arthur Fitton | |
| rowspan="2"|1968
| Il marito è mio e l'ammazzo quando mi pare | Leonardo | Italian |
| Twisted Nerve
| Martin Durnley/Georgie Clifford | |
| 1969
| Private Brigg | |
| rowspan="2"|1970
| France | |
| Loot
| Dennis | |
| 1971
| Percy | Edwin Anthony | |
| rowspan="2"|1972
| Michael Rogers | |
| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
| Duckworth | |
| 1973
| Mick Goonahan | |
| 1981
| Gideon Harlax | TV film |
| 1985
| Murder Elite | Jimmy Fowler | |
| 1987
| Deadline | Mike Jessop | |
| 1991
| Gareth D. Lewis | TV film |
| 1994
| Dr. Crippen | |
| rowspan="2"|1997
| Hospital! | Dickie Beaumont | TV film |
| Harpur and Iles
| ACC Desmond Iles | TV film |
| rowspan="3"|1999
| The Captain | |
| Nasty Neighbours
| The Boss | |
| Mary, Mother of Jesus
| Herod | TV film |
| rowspan="2"|2000
| Vatel | |
| Married 2 Malcolm
| Reg | |
| rowspan="2"|2003
| Dr. Freddie Marks | TV film |
| One for the Road
| Richard Stevens | |
| rowspan="2"|2004
| Ronno | TV film |
| The Final Quest
| Ronno | TV film |
=Television=
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 1964
| Redcap | Brown | Episode: "Nightwatch" |
| rowspan="3"|1965
| Rynian |
| Jury Room
| Joe Mintz | Episode: "The Side of Mercy" |
| rowspan="2"|Theatre 625
| Lipstrob | Episode: "Unman, Wittering and Zigo" |
| rowspan="4"|1966
| Beliayev | Episode: "A Month in the Country" |
| The Idiot
| Hypolite Terentiev | Mini-series |
| Thirteen Against Fate
| Gilles Mauvaisin | Episode: "The Traveller" |
| rowspan="2"|The Wednesday Play
| Willy Turner | Episode: "Where the Buffalo Roam" |
| rowspan="2"|1967
| Oliver Treefe | Episode: "Death of a Teddy Bear" |
| BBC Play of the Month
| Romeo | Episode: "Romeo and Juliet" |
| 1973
| Tony | Episode: "Three's One" |
| 1976
| Steve Castle | Episode: "Sweet Smell of Succession" |
| rowspan="2"|1978
| Tom | Episode: "Better Think Twice" |
| Strangers
| Jack Slater | Episode: "Silver Lining" |
| rowspan="3"|1979
| Dr. Edmund Bickleigh | Mini-series |
| Play for Today
| Harry Essendorf | Episode: "Coming Out" |
| Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
| Ricki Tarr | Mini-series |
| 1979-1984
| Shelley | James Shelley | Series regular |
| 1982
| Mr. King/Mr. Puff | Episode: "The Critic" |
| 1983
| The Consultant | Chris Webb | Mini-series |
| 1985
| John | Episode: "Absent Friends" |
| rowspan="3"|1986
| Allan Blakeston | Episode: "Frank and Johnnie" |
| The Twilight Zone
| Grant | Episode: "Devil's Alphabet" |
| Robin of Sherwood
| Episode: "The Inheritance" |
| 1987
| Brian Stebbings | Episode: "Checkpoint Chiswick" |
| rowspan="2"|1988
| The Modern World: Ten Great Writers | Professor | Episode: "Joseph Conrad's 'The Secret Agent{{'"}} |
| Boon
| Richard Jay | Episode: "Charity Begins at Home" |
| 1988-1992
| James Shelley | Series regular |
| 1991
| James Williams | Mini-series |
| rowspan="3"|1992
| Purvis | Mini-series |
| Virtual Murder
| Harold Bingham | Episode: "A Bone to Pick" |
| Screen One
| Ralph | Episode: "Trust Me" |
| rowspan="2"|1993
| Casualty | Paul Lawson | Episode: "Life in the Fast Lane" |
| Frank Stubbs Promotes
| Clive Riley | Episode: "Book" |
| 1994
| Clancy | Episode: "Smashing Bird" |
| rowspan="4"|1996
| Karaoke | rowspan="2"|Arthur 'Pig' Mallion | Mini-series |
| Cold Lazarus
| Mini-series |
| Frontiers
| DS Eddie Spader | Series regular |
| Neverwhere
| Mr. Croup | Mini-series |
| rowspan="2"|2000
| Dirty Work | Mostyn Hughes | Episode: "A Fish Called Rhondda" |
| Lock, Stock...
| Deep Throat | Episode: "...And Spaghetti Sauce" |
| 2001
| Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) | Roger Whale | Episode: "Whatever Possessed You?" |
| rowspan="4"|2002
| Kevin | Episode: "It All Began with an Old Volvo Headlamp" |
| Time Gentlemen Please
| Barsteward in Wheelchair | Episode: "Optics Wide Shut" |
| The Quest
| Ronno | Mini-series |
| The Bill
| Peter Baxter | Recurring role |
| 2003
| Recurring role |
| rowspan="2"|2005
| David Wincott | Episode: "Interactive: Something We Can Do" |
| High Hopes
| Uncle Tom | Episode: "Uncle Tom" |
| 2006
| Dr. Mike Vine | Episode: "Sudden Death" |
| 2007
| Reggie Conway | Episode: "Dangerous Liaisons" |
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20170804053856/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba124f9ec Hywel Bennett] at the British Film Institute
- {{IMDb name|0071799}}
- [http://www.terrynorm.ic24.net/hywel%20bennett.htm HYWEL BENNETT]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Hywel}}
Category:20th-century Welsh male actors
Category:21st-century Welsh male actors
Category:Welsh-speaking actors
Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Category:Welsh male film actors
Category:Welsh male soap opera actors