Actor Michael Jayston, who has died at the age of 88, was an outstanding actor on stage and screen. The roles that made him famous were as the doomed Tsar Nicholas II in Franklin Schaffner’s gorgeous tale of the end of the Romanov dynasty, Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), and in John le Carré’s He played Alec Guinness’s secret agent role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He never sang or danced about himself and, perhaps as a result, never made his Hollywood debut like many of his contemporaries.
Before this two-parter, he had already played a key role in TV’s Power Games and played Cromwell’s son-in-law Henry in Ken Hughes’ masterpiece Cromwell (1969). Ireton was played by Richard Harris in the title role, and King Charles was played by Guinness. I. And this followed five years at the Royal Shakespeare Company, including a visit to Broadway in Harold Pinter’s Homecoming, where he replaced Michael Bryant, returning to America and bringing his wife to London. He played the role of Teddy, the younger brother who he left behind to “take care of.” his father and brothers.
Not a flashy beauty, but with a steely no-nonsense demeanor and a steady, penetrating gaze, Jayston could “play” Pinter’s menace as well as anyone, and his cast also included Peter Hall’s 1973 film also starred Pinter’s then-wife Vivian Merchant, as well as Paul Rodgers and Ian Holm.
Jayston found a replacement family in the theater. Michael James was born in Nottingham and was the only child of Myfanwy (née Llewellyn) and Vincent. His father died of pneumonia after a serious accident on the rugby field when Michael was one year old, and his mother died when Michael was still a teenager. He was then raised by his grandmother and uncle and became involved in amateur theater while doing national service in the army. He directed the production of The Happiest Days of Your Life.
While continuing his amateur acting career, he worked for two years as an apprentice accountant at the National Coal Board and the Nottingham fish market, before winning a scholarship at the age of 23 to attend London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, five years his senior. . more than anyone else on his course. He represented Northern Ireland at Bangor and Salisbury Playhouse, before joining Bristol Old Vic for two seasons in 1963.
From 1965 onwards, he played many good roles at the RSC, including Oswald in The Ghost, Bertram in All’s Well That Ends Well, Laertes in David Warner’s Hamlet, and a role in Hall’s film Midsummer Night. He played Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968), and Warner played Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A romantic foursome with Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren.
But his status as an RSC associate did not lead to the stardom of, say, Alan Howard, Warner, Judi Dench or Ian Richardson at the time. Although he was never swayed or undervalued by this company, his career progressed in a somewhat ambiguous manner, and despite the success and fuss, Nicholas and Alexandra left the United States for him. Didn’t bring in any offers.
Instead, he played Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972). The film is a decent British musical adaptation, with music and lyrics by John Barry and Don Black, and starring Michael Crawford as the White Rabbit and Peter Sellers as the White Rabbit. March Hare. In 1979, he played the role of Colonel in Zulu Dawn, a prequel that tells the history of his previous blockbuster Zulu.
As an actor, he didn’t seem to be aiming for glory. Instead, in the 1980s he gave a stylish and well-received lead performance opposite Maria Aitken in Noel Coward’s Private Lives, The Duchess (1980). In London’s first major revival of The Sound of Music at the Apollo Victoria in 1981, he played Captain von Trapp opposite Petula Clark. Best of all, William Gaskill’s brilliant retelling of William Congreve’s The Ways of the World at Chichester and the Haymarket in 1984, starring Miraman’s Maggie as Mirabel, an often unappreciated role. – He played the role opposite Smith.
He also had no qualms about taking over lead roles in plays such as Peter Shaffer’s Equus (1973) and Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa (1992). These roles were first played by Alec McCowen in London. He had previously played Gratiano in Jonathan Miller’s 1974’s The Merchant of Venice with Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright, but he was also cast as Gratiano in Alan Bennett’s blissful Edwardian revival of The Wind in the Willows. He returned to the National Theater to play the delightful Home Counties Ratty in the film. 1994.
On television, he was David Jason’s favorite sidekick in episode 13 of David Nobbs’s A Bit of a Do (1989), where he was the lawyer’s favorite sidekick at a series of social events and parties across West Yorkshire. In addition to playing Neville Badger, he also appeared in four episodes of the film. Darling Buzz of May (1992): As Ernest Bristow, a brewery owner. He reappeared alongside Jason in a 1996 episode of Only Fools and Horses.
He first became known on fan sites when he appeared in the 1986 Doctor Who season, The Trial of a Time Lord, as the prosecuting attorney Valeyard. In the new millennium, he has gone on to star in both EastEnders and Coronation Street, as well as powering some of the most horrifying storylines in Emmerdale (2007-08). He was Donald de Souza, who had a falling out with his family and caused his disgruntled wife to push him in a wheelchair off a cliff in the wilderness, where she later died of a heart attack.
Jayston, who now lives on the south coast, played a crusty old colonel married to Wendy Craig in Coward’s charming early play Easy Virtue in 1999, and three years later in 2002. was easily drawn to Chichester in the role of a difficult husband. She is addressed to Hector, Patricia Routledge’s Solitary Duchess, translated by Timberlake Wertenbaker from Jean Anouilh’s Leocadia under the title The Wild Orchids.
And in 2007, he exuded tough spirituality as a confessor to David Suchet’s pragmatic Pope in The Last Confession, an old-fashioned but charming Vatican thriller told in flashback. Roger Crane’s play moved from Chichester to Haymarket and toured overseas with senior British actors, including Jayston.
After another collaboration with Jason and Warner, the TV movie Albert’s Memorial (2009), a moving film that sees one of his old wartime comrades buried on the German soil where they first met. The story, and went on a theater tour with Ronald. She formed Harwood’s Retired Musicians Quartet in 2010 with Susannah Yorke, Gwen Taylor and Timothy West, and has made occasional television appearances on shows such as Midsomer Murders, The Doctors and Casualty. Last year he introduced a rerun of his Tinker His Tailor on BBC Four. He always seemed busy and available in all seasons.
As an avid cricketer (he also played darts and chess), Jayston was a member of MCC and Lord’s Taverners. After moving to Brighton, he became a member of Sussex County Cricket Club, playing for Rottingdean, where he also served as chairman.
His first two marriages – to actor Lynn Farley in 1965 and to glass sculptor Heather Sneddon in 1970 – ended in divorce. From his second marriage, he had two sons, Tom and Ben, and a daughter, Leanne. In 1979 he married Anne Smithson, a nurse, and they had a son, Richard, and a daughter, Katie.
