Hugh Armstrong (actor)
{{Short description|British actor}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Hugh Armstrong
| image = Hugh_Armstrong_(actor).jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 3 June 1944England and Wales, Death Index, 2007-2017
| birth_place = East Retford, NottinghamshireEngland & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007
| death_date = {{dda|2016|1|df=y|26|1944|6|3}}
| death_place = London, England
| nationality = British
| other_names =
| occupation = Actor
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| website =
}}
Hugh Armstrong (3 June 1944 – 26 January 2016) was a British stage, television and film actor.Obituary in Eagle News, The Magazine of the Old Bedford Modernians' Club, Issue 113, Summer 2016 He is best known for his portrayal of the monster in the 1972 cult British horror movie, Death Line, and as Harry Wax in How to Get Ahead in Advertising, acting alongside Richard E. Grant.Obituary in Eagle News, The Magazine of the Old Bedford Modernians' Club, Issue 113, Summer 2016, p.24 His obituary, written in the magazine of his old school by Clive Akass, stated that 'life was Hugh's theatre. He was a travelling entertainment and until the illness that marred his later years, and sometimes even then, he brought laughter wherever he went'.
Life
Armstrong was born in 1944 and educated in Bedford at Bedford Modern School. After a brief spell in the army he decided to take up acting, initially training at the Rose Bruford drama school.
Armstrong's first major role was as Ted the chauffeur in the 1968 film Prudence and the Pill, starring David Niven and Deborah Kerr.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-goH8EEbKD8C&dq=hugh+armstrong+prudence+and+the+pill&pg=PA156|title=David Niven: A Bio-bibliography|first=Karin J.|last=Fowler|date=1 January 1995|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313280443|accessdate=1 September 2016|via=Google Books}}{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/1967/film/reviews/prudence-and-the-pill-1200421580/|title=Review: 'Prudence and the Pill'|author=Variety Staff|date=1 January 1968|accessdate=1 September 2016}} His next major role was playing the monster in Death Line alongside Donald Pleasence and Christopher Lee; his performance was said to have achieved the impossible by making a 'grotesque violent cannibal seem pitiful and sympathetic'.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=85g-CgAAQBAJ&dq=hugh+armstrong+actor+death+line&pg=PA245|title=The Christopher Lee Filmography: All Theatrical Releases, 1948–2003|first1=Tom|last1=Johnson|first2=Mark A.|last2=Miller|date=27 April 2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476608969|accessdate=1 September 2016|via=Google Books}}{{cite web|url=https://culthorror.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/mind-the-doors-its-death-line-2/|title=Mind the doors…it's Death Line!|last=feringea|date=19 January 2013|accessdate=1 September 2016}}
Following his role in the 1972 film, Eagle in a Cage, Armstrong spent many years travelling the world, spending several years in India.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1c7eCwAAQBAJ|title=British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set – The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film|first=Denis|last=Gifford|date=1 April 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317740636|accessdate=1 September 2016|via=Google Books}} He formed a theatre company at the Pune ashram of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and under his direction the company toured India, at one point performing before Indira Gandhi. As a member of the Rajneesh movement he left India for the United States, but left before the movement's scandalous collapse in Oregon.
Armstrong returned to the UK to work in film and television productions. He appeared as Jun Priest in the 1982 film, The Beastmaster, and played Harry Wax in How to Get Ahead in Advertising alongside Richard E. Grant.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NthxW1PEDVMC|title=The Film Yearbook, 1984|first=Al|last=Clark|date=1 October 1983|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=9780394624884|accessdate=1 September 2016|via=Google Books}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7hUIAQAAMAAJ|title=The Motion Picture Annual: 1990|last=Cinebooks|author-link=Cinebooks|date=1 August 1990|publisher=CineBooks|isbn=9780933997288|accessdate=1 September 2016|via=Google Books}} He took part in a number of television series throughout the 1990s and his final role was in the 2007 TV movie, Stuart: A Life Backwards.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/stuart-life-backwards-2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915015815/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/stuart-life-backwards-2007|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 September 2016|title=STUART – A LIFE BACKWARDS – British Board of Film Classification|accessdate=1 September 2016}}
In addition to his work in film and television, Armstrong was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and later the National Theatre. In 1975 he played R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool alongside Bill Nighy and Julie Walters.{{cite web|url=http://www.everymantheatrearchive.ac.uk/search/PerformancesByActorID.aspx?fkActorID=184|title=Everyman Theatre Archive Database|accessdate=1 September 2016}}
Armstrong died on 26 January 2016. In the magazine of Armstrong's old school, Clive Akass wrote: 'Life was Hugh's theatre. He was a travelling entertainment and until the illness that marred his later years, and sometimes even then, he brought laughter wherever he went'.
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable"|Notes |
|---|
| 1989
| How to Get Ahead in Advertising | Harry Wax | |
| 1982
| Jun Priest | |
| 1972
| English soldier | |
| 1972
| The Man | |
| 1970
| Girly | Friend in No. 5 | |
| 1968
| Ted the chauffeur | |
| 1968
| Guest | |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable"|Notes |
|---|
| 2007
| Old Drunk | |
| 2002
| Barbara Wood: Hounds and Jackals | Albert Rossiter | |
| 1999
| Dad | |
| 1989–98
| The Bill | Billy Baines (1989), Declan Keely (1998) | |
| 1993
| Ken | Episode 6.7 |
| 1992–1993
| Det. Supt. Alwyne (1992), Chief Whip (1993) | |
| 1993
| Police Inspector | |
| 1992
| Amos | |
| 1991
| Minder | Station Officer | |
| 1990
| Michael Finch | |
| 1989
| Crime Monthly | Det. Insp. Steve Hobbs | |
| 1971
| UFO | SHADO Mobile 3 Officer | |
| 1967
| Nightclub guest | |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|nm0035729}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Hugh}}
Category:Military personnel from Nottinghamshire
Category:20th-century British Army personnel
Category:British Army soldiers
Category:English male film actors
Category:English male stage actors
Category:English male television actors