 Colin Blakely's early death from leukemia robbed British screen of a major character star. His chunky form and rumpled, good-natured features tended to direct him towards hero's-friend roles, like that in This Sporting Life (d. Lindsay Anderson, 1963), or as Dr Watson in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (d. Billy Wilder, 1970), but there was also an impressive toughness and intensity about his work. Born in Bangor, Northern Ireland, in 1930, his early experience with Bangor Operatic Society may have informed his stage performance in Alan Ayckbourn's A Chorus of Disapproval (1986), one among many theatrical successes, and he was a notably moving Kent to Olivier's Lear in TV's 1984 King Lear. He was married to actress Margaret Whiting. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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