Iain Cuthbertson
Encyclopedia
Iain Cuthbertson was a Scottish
character actor
. At 6' 4", he was known for his tall imposing build and also his distinctive "gravelly" heavily accented voice.
(where he graduated with a MA
Honours in French
and Spanish
). His first break as an actor was on radio while studying at Aberdeen University.
He spent two years national service
in the Black Watch
. During that time he was ordered to act as prisoner's friend at the court martial of a soldier accused of appearing late on parade, and then assaulting his superior officer when he eventually did turn up. He managed to get the soldier cleared of the more serious charge. The soldier's comment afterwards was "Thanks awfully fur pretendin ah didnae dae it sur".
His original wish was for a job in the Foreign Office, but he became a radio journalist with the BBC in Glasgow.
in 1958 and became General Manager and Director of Productions in 1962. Three years later he became Associate Director of London's Royal Court Theatre
.
(London Weekend Television
/ITV
) with Adam Faith
(1971–72) and its sequel Charles Endell, Esq (Scottish Television
/ITV
) in 1979.
Other roles include the lead in The Borderers
(1968), Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971) (as Thomas Arnold
), The Stone Tape
(BBC
, 1972), Sutherland's Law
(1973), Children of the Stones
(HTV
/ITV
, 1977), and Danger UXB
(Thames Television
/ITV
, 1979). He appeared in the pilot episode of Rab C Nesbitt (1988) as a magistrate.
He suffered a crippling stroke in January 1982, which forced him to give up theatre for fear of forgetting his lines. He resumed television and film work, though, as his lines could be written on crib boards. His first role following his stroke was as the villainous Scunner Campbell in Super Gran (Tyne Tees Television
/ITV
, 1985). In 1989 he played the villain, Brett Savernake in the episode of Campion
entitled "Sweet Danger".
Minor parts in ongoing series include appearances in Z-Cars
(BBC), The Avengers
(ABC
/ITV), Inspector Morse
(Central Television/ITV), Bulman
(Granada Television
/ITV), Ripping Yarns
(BBC), The Duchess of Duke Street
, Colonel Mannering in Adam Adamant Lives!
story D For Destruction (1966) and Garron in the Doctor Who
story The Ribos Operation
. He also appeared in: Diamond Crack Diamond, The Onedin Line
(BBC), Scotch on the Rocks
, Black Beauty
(London Weekend/ITV), The Ghosts of Motley Hall
(Granada/ITV), The Mourning Brooch, Casting the Runes and McPhee the Mother and Me.
In film, he appeared as Charles Waterbury in The Railway Children
.
in 1964, was dissolved in 1988. He is survived by his second wife, Janet Smith.
From 1975 to 1978, he served as Rector of the University of Aberdeen
. He listed his hobbies as sailing and fishing, and, after retiring, he lived in Dalrymple, Ayrshire
.
Suffered a life-threatening stroke in 1982 which caused paralysis down one side of his body as well as speech loss. It took him the best part of two years to recover from this and be able to act again (an achievement of sheer will-power in itself as he had not been expected by doctors to recover at all). Although he avoided live theatre work thereafter, due to a fear of forgetting and/or stumbling on lines, he was still able to take parts in films and TV.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
. At 6' 4", he was known for his tall imposing build and also his distinctive "gravelly" heavily accented voice.
Early life
Born and brought up in Glasgow, he was educated at Glasgow Academy, Aberdeen Grammar and the University of AberdeenUniversity of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
(where he graduated with a MA
Master of Arts (Scotland)
A Master of Arts in Scotland can refer to an undergraduate academic degree in humanities and social sciences awarded by the ancient universities of Scotland – the University of St Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh, while the University of...
Honours in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
). His first break as an actor was on radio while studying at Aberdeen University.
He spent two years national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in the Black Watch
Black Watch
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....
. During that time he was ordered to act as prisoner's friend at the court martial of a soldier accused of appearing late on parade, and then assaulting his superior officer when he eventually did turn up. He managed to get the soldier cleared of the more serious charge. The soldier's comment afterwards was "Thanks awfully fur pretendin ah didnae dae it sur".
His original wish was for a job in the Foreign Office, but he became a radio journalist with the BBC in Glasgow.
Theatre career
Cuthbertson started acting at the Glasgow Citizens' TheatreCitizens' Theatre
The Citizens Theatre is based in Glasgow, Scotland and is the principal producing theatre in the west of Scotland. The theatre includes a 500-seat Main Auditorium, and two studio theatres, the Circle Studio and the Stalls Studio .The Citizen's Theatre repertory group, originally called the Citizen's...
in 1958 and became General Manager and Director of Productions in 1962. Three years later he became Associate Director of London's Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
.
Television career
His most memorable television role was as the criminal and businessman Charlie Endell in both BudgieBudgie (TV series)
Budgie was a popular British television series starring former popstar Adam Faith which was produced by ITV company London Weekend Television and broadcast on the ITV network between 1971 and 1972....
(London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
/ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
) with Adam Faith
Adam Faith
Terence "Terry" Nelhams-Wright, known as Adam Faith was a Teen idol English singer, actor and later financial journalist. He was one of the most charted acts of the 1960s. He became the first UK artist to lodge his initial seven hits in the Top 5...
(1971–72) and its sequel Charles Endell, Esq (Scottish Television
Scottish Television
Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...
/ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
) in 1979.
Other roles include the lead in The Borderers
The Borderers
The Borderers is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1970.- Setting :A historical drama series, The Borderers was set during the 16th century and chronicled the lives of the Ker family, who lived in the Scottish Middle March on the frontier between England and Scotland...
(1968), Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971) (as Thomas Arnold
Thomas Arnold
Dr Thomas Arnold was a British educator and historian. Arnold was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement...
), The Stone Tape
The Stone Tape
The Stone Tape is a television play directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Michael Bates and Iain Cuthbertson. It was broadcast on BBC Two as a Christmas ghost story in 1972...
(BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, 1972), Sutherland's Law
Sutherland's Law
Sutherland's Law is a television series made by BBC Scotland between 1973 and 1976.The series had originated as a stand alone edition of the portmanteau programme Drama Playhouse in 1972 in which Derek Francis played Sutherland and was then commissioned as an ongoing series.Sutherland's Law dealt...
(1973), Children of the Stones
Children of the Stones
Children of the Stones is a television drama for children produced by HTV in 1976 and broadcast on the United Kingdom's ITV network in January and February 1977. A one-off serial, the story was depicted over seven episodes and produced by Peter Graham Scott, with Patrick Dromgoole as executive...
(HTV
HTV
HTV, now legally known as ITV Wales & West, is the ITV contractor for Wales and the West of England, which operated from studios in Cardiff and Bristol. The company provided commercial television for the dual-region 'Wales and West' franchise, which it won from TWW in 1968...
/ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, 1977), and Danger UXB
Danger UXB
Danger UXB is a 1979 British ITV television series developed by John Hawkesworth and starring Anthony Andrews as Lieutenant Brian Ash, a new direct commission officer in World War II....
(Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
/ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, 1979). He appeared in the pilot episode of Rab C Nesbitt (1988) as a magistrate.
He suffered a crippling stroke in January 1982, which forced him to give up theatre for fear of forgetting his lines. He resumed television and film work, though, as his lines could be written on crib boards. His first role following his stroke was as the villainous Scunner Campbell in Super Gran (Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
/ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, 1985). In 1989 he played the villain, Brett Savernake in the episode of Campion
Campion (TV series)
Campion is a television show made by the BBC, adapting the Albert Campion mystery novels written by Margery Allingham. Two seasons were made, in 1989 and 1990, starring Peter Davison as Campion, Brian Glover as his manservant Magersfontein Lugg and Andrew Burt as his policeman friend Stanislaus...
entitled "Sweet Danger".
Minor parts in ongoing series include appearances in Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
(BBC), The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
(ABC
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
/ITV), Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....
(Central Television/ITV), Bulman
Bulman
Bulman was a Granada TV series which ran from 1985-1987 and followed the fortunes of the major character from the earlier XYY Man and Strangers series....
(Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
/ITV), Ripping Yarns
Ripping Yarns
Ripping Yarns is a British television comedy series, shown on BBC 2 from 1976 to 1979. It was written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame...
(BBC), The Duchess of Duke Street
The Duchess of Duke Street
The Duchess Of Duke Street is a BBC television drama series set in London between 1900 and 1935. It was created by John Hawkesworth, the former producer of the highly successful ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs...
, Colonel Mannering in Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...
story D For Destruction (1966) and Garron in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
story The Ribos Operation
The Ribos Operation
The Ribos Operation is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from September 2 to September 23, 1978. This serial introduces Mary Tamm as the companion Romana. After finishing his first year as producer of Doctor Who,...
. He also appeared in: Diamond Crack Diamond, The Onedin Line
The Onedin Line
The Onedin Line is a BBC television drama series which ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham.The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and deals with the rise of a shipping line, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin...
(BBC), Scotch on the Rocks
Scotch on the Rocks
Scotch on the Rocks is a novel by Douglas Hurd and Andrew Osmond which was adapted into a TV serial. The book is the third in a loose trilogy, the other two being Send Him Victorious and The Smile on the Face of the Tiger....
, Black Beauty
Black Beauty
Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate bestseller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, long enough to see her first and only...
(London Weekend/ITV), The Ghosts of Motley Hall
The Ghosts of Motley Hall
The Ghosts of Motley Hall was a British children's television series written by Richard Carpenter, produced and directed by Quentin Lawrence, and shown in 1976 by Granada Television.The series relates the adventures of 5 ghosts who haunt Motley Hall...
(Granada/ITV), The Mourning Brooch, Casting the Runes and McPhee the Mother and Me.
In film, he appeared as Charles Waterbury in The Railway Children
The Railway Children (film)
The Railway Children is a 1970 British drama film based on the novel of the same name by E. Nesbit. The film was directed by Lionel Jeffries, and stars Dinah Sheridan, Jenny Agutter , Sally Thomsett and Bernard Cribbins in leading roles...
.
Personal life
Cuthbertson's first marriage, to Anne KristenAnne Kristen
Anne Kristen was a Scottish actress.To friends and family, Anne was also known as Anna or/and Annie.Kristen was married to the actor Iain Cuthbertson from January 1964, until their divorce in 1988....
in 1964, was dissolved in 1988. He is survived by his second wife, Janet Smith.
From 1975 to 1978, he served as Rector of the University of Aberdeen
Rector of the University of Aberdeen
The Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen is the students' representative and chairman in the University Court of the University of Aberdeen. The position is rarely known by its full title and most often referred to simply as "Rector". The Rector is elected by students of the University and...
. He listed his hobbies as sailing and fishing, and, after retiring, he lived in Dalrymple, Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
.
Suffered a life-threatening stroke in 1982 which caused paralysis down one side of his body as well as speech loss. It took him the best part of two years to recover from this and be able to act again (an achievement of sheer will-power in itself as he had not been expected by doctors to recover at all). Although he avoided live theatre work thereafter, due to a fear of forgetting and/or stumbling on lines, he was still able to take parts in films and TV.
Filmography
- The Railway ChildrenThe Railway Children (film)The Railway Children is a 1970 British drama film based on the novel of the same name by E. Nesbit. The film was directed by Lionel Jeffries, and stars Dinah Sheridan, Jenny Agutter , Sally Thomsett and Bernard Cribbins in leading roles...
(1970) - Up the Chastity BeltUp the Chastity BeltUp the Chastity Belt is a 1971 British film, a spin-off from the TV series Up Pompeii! that starred Frankie Howerd and was directed by Bob Kellett.-Synopsis:...
(1971) - The Assam GardenThe Assam GardenThe Assam Garden is a 1985 British drama film made by Moving Picture Company and distributed by Contemporary Films Ltd. The film was directed by Mary McMurray and produced by Nigel Stafford-Clark with Peter Jaques as associate producer. It was written by Elisabeth Bond...
(1985) - Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian FosseyGorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian FosseyGorillas in the Mist is a 1988 American drama film directed by Michael Apted and starring Sigourney Weaver as naturalist Dian Fossey. It tells the true-life story of her work in Rwanda with Mountain Gorillas and was nominated for five Academy Awards....
(1988) - Scandal (1989)
- Antonia and Jane (1991)
- Let Him Have ItLet Him Have ItLet Him Have It is a 1991 British film, which was based on the true story of the case against Derek Bentley, who was hanged for murder under controversial circumstances on 28 January 1953. While Bentley did not directly play a role in the murder of PC Sidney Miles, he received the greater...
(1991) - Chasing the DeerChasing the DeerChasing the Deer is a 1994 British war film directed by Graham Holloway and starring Brian Blessed, Iain Cuthbertson and Mathew Zajac. It depicts the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, in which Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in Scotland, trying to claim the British throne.Chasing The Deer was filmed on...
(1994) - The Tichborne Claimant (1998)
- Strictly SinatraStrictly SinatraStrictly Sinatra is a 2001 British drama film directed by Peter Capaldi. The film was released in the UK in 2001 by Focus Features and stars Ian Hart, Kelly Macdonald, and Brian Cox.-Synopsis:...
(2001)