The man had quite the range. He was Evil...[...]
In a statement to the BBC, Warner’s family said: “Over the past 18 months he approached his diagnosis with a characteristic grace and dignity … He will be missed hugely by us, his family and friends, and remembered as a kind-hearted, generous and compassionate man, partner and father, whose legacy of extraordinary work has touched the lives of so many over the years. We are heartbroken.”
Warner was born in Manchester, in 1941. His parents were unmarried and he spent time in the care of both, describing his childhood as “troubled” and “messy”. His Russian-Jewish father sent him to a succession of boarding schools. His mother disappeared from his life when he was a teenager, he revealed.
After school he studied at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. From the outset, Warner was insecure about his acting ability and his looks. Tall (6 foot 2) and rangy, he never imagined himself as a leading man. But after joining the Royal Shakespeare Company, aged 21, he was cast as the lead in Karel Reisz’s critically acclaimed film Morgan, A Suitable Case For Treatment, and the RSC cast him as Hamlet in 1965.
Warner’s portrayal of Shakespeare’s prince as a proto-student radical horrified traditional critics but chimed with the younger audiences. “When I was a kid and saw Shakespeare, I never heard the actors for all the posturing and declaiming,” he later said. “I thought surely kids today were the same as I was, not wanting Shakespeare shoved down their throats. I wanted to make them come back again, of their own free will.”
[...]
but quite controlled.
He was a warrior-poet bringing a message of peace...
who touched our minds...
and our very souls.
He leaves an empty spot behind, which so very few can fill. May he rest in peace and may his works endure the test of time.
-David WarnerIf people are given quality stuff to watch, they'll watch it.
