THE VIRTUOSO (REMEMBERING IAN HOLM)

Ian Holm was a virtuoso film actor.

Often cast in supporting roles, he frequently stole scenes from the stars of the movies he acted in.

When he did get the chance to lead a film, he simply dominated it.

So respected was he that he worked with the likes of Ridley Scott, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Richard Attenborough, Steven Soderbergh, David Cronenberg and Peter Jackson.

Born Ian Holm Cuthbert in a mental hospital in Essex in 1939 to Scottish parents who were both employed there, he caught the acting bug early.

Inspired to pursue a career in acting after he saw 'Les Miserables' at the age of eight, he cut his teeth in amateur dramatics in Worthing, where his parents retired.

A chance encounter with Henry Bayton during a visit to the dentists led to him being schooled by the celebrated Shakespearean actor.

Bayton helped Holm hone his acting skills to the point where he was able to secure a prestigious place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1949 at the age of 18.

His studies were interrupted after a year by national conscription and he was drafted into the British Army who posted him to Klagenfurt in Austria, attaining the rank of Lance Corporal.

Holm returned to RADA but interrupted his studies again to gain acting experience on a tour of the United States.

Following his graduation in 1953, Holm continued to master his trade in Stratford in various theatre productions.

In 1955, Holm wed his first wife, Lynn Mary Shaw but the marriage would last ten years.

He would marry three more times, wedding Sophie Baker in 1982, the actress Penelope Wilton in 1991 (five years after his second divorce) and the artist Sophie de Stempel in 2003 (two years after another divorce).

A father of five from three of his marriages, he would remain with de Stempel, a protege and former life model for Lucien Freud, until his death.

Holm would later be stung by tabloid stories about his marriage break ups, dubbing him 'Lord of the Flings' and took exception to claims that he had walked out on his children.

He told The Independent in 2004 that as upsetting as it was, he also had a tendency to remember any negative reviews from theatre critics.

Having served his time in the theatre, Holm started to secure more substantial lead roles - revealing himself to be a skilful lead.

In 1965, Holm was the original actor who portrayed Lenny in Harold Pinter's 'The Homecoming' - a performance that he would recreate for Peter Hall in a 1973 movie version with Paul Rogers and Cyril Cusack.

The production would transfer from London's West End to Broadway where he would capture a Tony award two years later.

There were other notable stage performances as Troilus in the RSC's 'Troilus and Cressida', Claudio in 'Measure for Measure,' Ariel in 'The Tempest' and as Romeo in 'Romeo and Juliet'.

With Holm now riding high as a theatre actor, he inevitably started to attract attention from casting directors in film and television.

His first notable role was as Gunner Flynn in  Jack Gold's 1968 British military drama 'The Bofurs Gun' alongside David Warner, Nicol Williamson, John Thaw and Peter Vaughan.

The film earned decent reviews on both sides of the Atlantic and land him a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor.

Prior to that, Holm had learned his screen craft with roles in ITV's 'Play for the Week', as Puck in a Peter Hall directed movie of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' with Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren and Michael Elliott's TV movie version of 'The Cherry Orchard' with Judi Dench, John Geilgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Dorothy Tutin.

Hall's Shakespearean adaptation secured a cinemarcinema in Europe but was broadcast on CBS television in the US and received poor reviews.

John Frankenheimer also directed him in the Russian court drama 'The Fixer' with Dirk Bogarde which landed co-star Alan Bates with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

In 1969, Richard Attenborough cast him as the tenth President of France, Raymond Poincaré in his star-studded comedy musical 'Oh, What A Lovely War!' with Maggie Smith, Dirk Bogarde, Corin Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave and Laurence Olivier.

The following year he would appear alongside Attenborough as a wine merchant whose marriage is falling apart in Dick Clement's big screen adaptation of Iris Murdoch's 'A Severed Head' with Lee Remick and Claire Bloom.

There was an eye catching role as a Bolshevik revolutionary in Franklin J Schaffner's lavish 1971 Tsarist drama 'Nicholas and Alexandra' with Laurence Olivier, Janet Suzman, Michael Jayston, Jack Hawkins, Michael Redgrave and Tom Baker.

Nominated for six Oscars, three Golden Globes and three BAFTAs, the film was favourably received by critics. 

Holm was cast as the Italian private secretary of Vanessa Redgrave's 'Mary, Queen of Scots' in Charles Jarrott's Oscar nominated 1971 movie of the same name with Glenda Jackson as Elisabeth I, Timothy Dalton, Nigel Davenport and Trevor Howard.

Attenborough would direct him again in his successful 1972 biopic 'The Young Winston' in which he played The Times editor George Earl Buckle opposite Simon Ward as Churchill, Robert Shaw, Anne Bancroft, Jack Hawkins, John Mills and Anthony Hopkins.

After strong reviews for his performance in Peter Hall's movie of 'The Homecoming', Holm had his first outing as Napoleon Bonaparte in the ITV series 'Napoleon and Love' which depicted the French leader's relationships with women.

The cast included Billie Whitelaw, Peter Bowlers, Stephanie Beacham, TP McKenna, Sorcha Cusack, Diana Quick and Tim Curry.

He would also memorably appear as Napoleon in Terry Gilliam's amusing 1981 fantasy comedy 'Time Bandits' with David Rappaport, John Cleese, Sean Connery, Ralph Richardson, Shelley Duvall and Michael Palin.

There would be an acclaimed third outing as the French General in Alan Taylor's 2001 historical drama 'The Emperor's New Clothes' which imagined an attempt to escape exile in St Helena. 

There was an appearance in Richard Lester's 1974 British maritime thriller 'Juggernaut' with Richard Harris, Omar Sharif and Anthony Hopkins which stuttered at the box office.

However a performance in 1976 as King John in Lester's 'Robin and Marian' with Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw, Nicol Williamson and Richard Harris further cemented Holm's status as a skilful character actor.

He also relished playing a mute servant in Peter R Hunt's hit African war adventure 'Shout At The Devil' with Lee Marvin, Roger Moore and Barbara Parkins.

Holm brought his stage career that year to a stunning halt, after he developed a bad bout of stage fright during a production of 'The Iceman Cometh'.

In 1977 there was another Gallic role as the Chevalier Duvall in Mike Newell's TV movie of 'The Man In The Iron Mask' with Richard Chamberlain, Patrick McGoohan, Jenny Agutter and Ralph Richardson.

Such was the high regard for his talent that he landed the role of Zerah who manipulates Ian McShane's Judas Iscariot in Franco Zeffirelli's star studded, epic miniseries 'Jesus of Nazareth' with Robert Powell, Olivia Hussey, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, James Earl Jones, Anne Bancroft, Claudia Cardinale, Anthony Quinn, Rod Steiger, Cyril Cusack, Peter Ustinov and Donald Pleasance.

A year later, he would portray Heinrich Himmler in Gerald Green's acclaimed four part miniseries for NBC 'Holocaust' with Meryl Streep, Timothy Bottoms, Michael Moriarty, David Warner and James Woods.

There would be BAFTA nominations for two TV roles as the 'Peter Pan' creator JM Barrie in the docudrama 'The Lost Boys' and the drama 'Do You Remember?'

Holm would also finally land a part in a CBS adaptation of his beloved 'Les Miserables' as the criminal Thenardier with Richard Jordan, Anthony Perkins and Cyril Cusack.

However in 1979, after appearances in the TV dramas 'SOS Titanic' and 'All Quiet On The Western Front' with Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine, he was to turn in one of his most admired performances in Ridley Scott's cult sci-fi horror movie 'Alien'.

As Ash, Holm was a chillingly subversive presence on the commercial space craft Nostromo and gelled perfectly with a cast led by Sigourney Weaver and including Yaphet Kotto, Tom Skerrit, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright and Harry Dean Stanton.

'Alien' was a massive commercial and critical hit.

However, his next appearance on the big screen in 1981 would net him a BAFTA, a Cannes Film Festival award for Best Supporting Actor and an Oscar nomination in Hugh Hudson's stirring British Olympic Games drama 'Chariots of Fire'.

Hudson's drama starring Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers and John Geilgud would scoop four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for its writer Colin Welland.

The subtlety of Holm's performance as Harold Abraham's coach Sam Mussabini was hailed by critics, with Roger Ebert noting the way he dominated every scene he was in.

He would turn up as a doctor treating Alan Bates' shell-shocked First World War British Army captain in Alan Bridges' well received 1982 drama 'Return of the Soldier' with Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson, Ann-Margaret and Frank Finkay.

ABC's TV movie 'Inside The Third Reich' gave him another opportunity to play a well known Nazi, Joseph Goebbels opposite Rutger Hauer,  Randy Quaid, John Geilgud, Derek Jacobi and Robert Vaughn in an Emmy award-winning drama.

He was reunited with Hugh Hudson in the handsome but underwhelming minor hit 'Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan' with Christophe Lambert, Andie MacDowell, James Fox, Ralph Richardson and Ian Charleson.

However Holm's performance as the Belgian explorer Captain Phillippe d'Arnot stood out, earning him another BAFTA Best Supporting Actor nomination.

In 1985, he had a rare lead role as Andrew Crocker-Harris in a BBC adaptation of Terrence Rattigan's 'The Browning Version' and earned positive reviews for his depiction of a man of the cloth in the Dennis Potter scripted Gavin Millar movie 'Dreamland' about the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland'.

David Hare directed him in the 1985 British mystery drama 'Wetherby' with Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Judi Dench, Tim McInerny and Tom Wilkinson in which he played the husband of a middle class couple rocked by the suicide of a guest at a dinner they attend.

Holm memorably played an uptight office boss in Terry Gilliam's Orwellian comedy 'Brazil' with Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Katherine Helmond, Michael Palin, Bob Hoskins and Robert de Niro.

Rounding off an exceptional year on the big screen, Holm played a lovelorn admirer of Miranda Richardson's Ruth Ellis in Mike Newell's critically lauded true story 'Dance With A Stranger' with Rupert Everett.

In 1988 he landed the hole of the spy hunter, Bernard Danson in ITV's Len Deighton espionage series 'Game, Set and Match' but while he was BAFTA nominated for his performance, the show flopped.

Woody Allen directed him in 'Another Women' in which he played the unfaithful husband of Gena Rowlands' philosophy professor.

One of Allen's more serious films, it has grown in stature over the years and Holm more than held his own among a cast that included Mia Farrow, Gene Hackman, Blythe Danner and John Houseman.

The high quality of his screen work was striking, with him turning up in 1989 as Fluellen in Kenneth Branagh's Oscar nominated directorial debut 'Henry V', as Polonius one year later in Franco Zeffirelli's 'Hamlet' with Mel Gibson, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Bates and Glenn Close and as the mysterious Control in Bryan Forbes' two part TV spy thriller 'The Endless Game' with Albert Finney, George Segal and Kristin Scott Thomas.

David Cronenberg directed him alongside Peter Weller, Judy Davis and Roy Scheider in his bold 1991 adaptation of William S Burroughs's 'The Naked Lunch', while in Steven Soderbergh's mystery drama 'Kafka' he played a functionary Doctor Murnau alongside Theresa Russell, Jeroen Krabbe and Alec Guinness.

In 1992, he appeared with his wife Penelope Wilton in a popular six episode series of 'The Borrowers' for the BBC and reprised the role of Pod Clock a year later in 'The Return of the Borrowers'.

He joined Michael Caine, Sean Young and Bob Hoskins in Russell Mulcahy's 1993 spy thriller 'Blue Ice,' while he appeared in Belfast director Gabriel Megahey's BBC film 'Year of the Pig,' a 15th Century tale of animals prosecuted for crimes with Colin Firth, Donald Pleasance, Nicol Williamson, Lysette Anthony and Michael Gough that got a theatrical release in the US.

Holm was cast by Kenneth Branagh as Victor Frankenstein's father in 1994's 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein' with Robert de Niro, Helena Bonham Carter, Aidan Quinn, Tom Hulce, John Cleese and Richard Briers.

His firm belief as an actor was that "The most important thing in the face is the eyes and if you can make the eyes talk, you're halfway there."

Nowhere was this better demonstrated than in Nicholas Hytner's screen version of Alan Bennett's 'The Madness of King George' where his physician and clergyman uses his presence to subdue Nigel Hawthorne's ailing monarch, King George' III.

While Hawthorne, Helen Mirren and Rupert Everett had the showiest roles, Holm arguably turned in the most underrated and controlled performance in the critically acclaimed movie.

Campbell Scott cast Holm as a restaurant owner in 1996 in the deligtful comedy 'Big Night' with Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rosselllini, Tony Shalhoub, Minnie Driver and Allison Janney.

He played a Water Bailiff in Jon Henderson's 1996 light drama 'Loch Ness' with Ted Danson and Joely Richardson.

In Sidney Lumet's 'Night Falls On Manhattan,' which was released a year later, Holm was a dodgy New York detective and father to Andy Garcia's up and coming District Attorney in a classic tale of corruption in the justice system.

Acting alongside James Gandolfini, it was another strong performance among a cast that also included Richard Dreyfuss, Lena Olin and Ron Leibman.

However he was to turn in arguably his finest dramatic screen performance as a lawyer who has a strained relationship with his drug addicted daughter and is also involved in helping grieving families in British Columbia take a class action against the authorities over a bus tragedy that killed 14 children.

Atom Egoyan's 'The Sweet Hereafter' with Bruce Greenwood, Maury Chakin and Sarah Polley won seven Genies in Canada including Best Actor for Holm, the Grand Prix at Cannes and earned two Academy Award nominations.

French director Luc Besson cast him as a priest in the science fiction fantasy 'The Fifth Element' with Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman and Milla Jovovich which divided critics but was a hit with audiences and has since become something of a cult classic.

In Danny Boyle's disappointing dark romantic comedy 'A Life Less Ordinary', Holm was the wealthy businessman father of Cameron Diaz's spoiled rich daughter who ends up being abducted by Ewan McGregor's janitor while two guardian angels, Holly Hunter's O'Reilly and Delroy Lindo's Jackson are Heaven sent to bring them together.

There was also an appearance in John Badham's jumbled wannabe Hitchcockian thriller 'Incognito' with Jason Patric, Irene Jacob, Rod Steiger and Ian Richardson.

1997 also saw Holm make a triumphant return to the stage as 'King Lear' in London's Cottelsoe Theatre which would earn him an Olivier Award and an Emmy nomination for the televised version. 

1998 saw him become a Knight Bachelor for services to drama - having previously being awarded a CBE in 1989.

John Henderson cast him as The White Knight in the well received Channel 4 film 'Alice Through The Looking Glass' with Kate Beckinsale, Sian Philips, Greg Wise and Penelope Wilton as the White Queen.

Holm joined Mickey Rourke, David Warner and Andrew Connolly in Dennis C Lewiston's clunky 'Shergar' which reimagined a real story about the IRA kidnapping of the champion racehorse.

He provided the voice of Squealer in a TV movie version of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' for TNT with Kelsey Grammer, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Scofield, Julia Ormond, Patrick Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Peter Ustinov.

David Cronenberg teamed up with him again on the sci-fi horror 'eXistenZ' with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Sarah Polley, Willem Dafoe and Christopher Eccleston.

The winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Cronenberg's film, in which Holm played a mentor to Jason Leigh's game designer, was well received by critics but failed to draw audiences who were entranced by 'The Matrix'.

He played The Devil in Ben Hopkins' 19th Century Polish tale 'Simon Magus' about a Jewish man being used to convert to Christianity with Noah Taylor, Stuart Townsend and Sean McGinley which also premiered at Berlin and received mostly positive reviews.

Holm provided the narration for James Marsh's acclaimed BBC and Cinemax documentary 'Wisconsin Death Trap' and would also provide narrative voiceovers for the BBC and Channel 4 series that aired on Animal Planet in 2004 and Channel 4's historical two-part series '1066: The Battle for Middle Earth' in 2009 which looked at the Norman invasion from the perspective of ordinary citizens.

There were also appearances in the so-so Scottish romantic comedy 'The Match' with Max Beesley, Laura Fraser, Isla Blair, Richard E Grant and Samantha Fox, as the lead in Stanley Tucci's well received drama 'Joe Gould's Secret,' as a drummer in Gilles MacKinnon's gentle BBC and HBO comedy 'The Last of the Blonde Bombshells' with Judi Dench, Olympia Dukakis, June Whitfield, Romola Garai and Joan Simms for which he earned an Emmy Best Actor nomination, in Stephen Metcalfe's critically lambasted comedy 'Beautiful Joe' with Billy Connolly, Sharon Stone and JK Simmons, in Arnaud Desplechin's debut English language feature 'Esther Khan' which struggled to find a distributor, as a cleric in Chuck Russell's slated supernatural horror 'Bless the Child' with Kim Bassinger and he provided the voice of Pontius Pilate in the stop motion animated 'The Miracle Maker' 

In 2001 Holm had a health scare, undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

This personal challenge coincided with his appearance as Bilbo Baggins in one of his most celebrated screen roles in Peter Jackson's beloved 'Lord of the Rings' films - 'The Fellowship of the Ring' and 'The Return of the King'.

Holm would reprise the role for Jackson in his last two big screen outings in 'The Hobbit' movies - 'An Unexpected Journey' in 2012 and 'The Battle of the Five Armies' in 2014.

There was also an appearance as Queen Victoria's personal surgeon Sir William Gull in the Hughes Brothers' Jack the Ripper movie 'From Hell' which starred Johnny Depp, Heather Graham and a host of British acting talent like Robbie Coltrane, Ian Richardson, Jason Flemyng and Susan Lynch.

The film drew mixed reviews.

Holm played in 2004 an oceanographer based in Scotland in Roland Emmerich's hit environmental disaster movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' with Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Emmy Rossum and Sela Ward.

That year, he also worked with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese in their handsome and enjoyably epic Howard Hughes biopic 'The Aviator' with Cate Blanchett, Alan Alda, Jude Law and Gwen Stefani, playing a meteorology professor.

In Zach Braff's quirky romantic comedy 'Garden State', he played Braff's stiff and distant psychiatrist father who summons him home after the death of his mother.

There was an eye catching role as the business partner of Nicolas Cage's arms dealer in Andrew Niccol's cynical 2005 crime drama 'Lords of War' with Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto and Bridget Monahan and a small role in the uneven David Letterman produced and Paul Dinello directed 'Strangers With Candy' starring Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Dan Hedaya and the director.

Martha Fiennes' 'Chromophobia' saw Holm play a High Court judge in a sprawling, overlapping drama starring Ralph Fiennes, Penelope Cruz, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rhys Ifans and Damian Lewis about the English upper class.

He portrayed the Israeli leader David Ben Gurion in Elle Chouraqui's historical drama 'O Jerusalem!' with Said Taghmaoui, Maria Pappas and Tom Conti.

In 2007, he would pick up a Genie Award for his voicework as the nasty restaurant owner Skinner in Brad Bird's delightful Disney animated culinary comedy 'Ratatouille' with Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garofalo, Brian Dennehy and Peter O'Toole among the cast.

A battle with Parkinson's Disease in his final years would confine to a wheelchair and eventually claim his life.

Holm's son Harry married the actress Samantha Morton who, on the hours after his passing, described her father in law as funny, inspiring and generous.

Other actors from Elijah Wood to Eddie Izzard gushed about his work.

But the most striking thing about Holm's body of work was how consistently strong and varied it was and how he always managed to really get under the skin of his characters.

Holm instinctively knew how to mesmerise audiences.

If aspiring actors want to learn stage and screen craft, they would do well to study Ian Holm's stunning work.

(Ian Holm passed away at the age of 88 on June 19, 2020)