Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #226817 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Synopsis
In 1956, at the age of 22, Alan Bates was cast in John Osborne's controversial play, "Look Back in Anger". The play changed the course of British theatre - and of Alan's life. With a sudden rush of fame, he became a member of a new circle of actors at the Royal Court: the English Stage Company. He also worked steadily in major films, from "A Kind of Loving" and "Zorba the Greek to Women in Love" - and he won international acclaim for his performance as Guy Burgess in the television adaptation of "An Englishman Abroad". During his career, he appeared in more than 80 plays, 45 films and 32 television dramas, including major works by Simon Gray, Harold Pinter and Alan Bennett, and "Spoto" chronicles his achievements as a performer against the backdrop of a complicated personal life. Alan's friends, family and fellow actors provide rich, poignant and often astonishing anecdotes. His twenty-year marriage to the clever but disturbed Victoria Ward, an unconventional union which resulted in shared child-rearing but separate homes and lives, provides a contrast to his hitherto hidden, sometimes passionate and often tortured liaisons with other women and with men.

Despite this, he and Victoria never divorced, and family was very important to Bates. In 1990, tragedy struck when, at 19, his son Tristan died under mysterious circumstances. Not long after, Victoria also died, leaving Tristan's twin, Benedick, and Alan suddenly alone. Drawing on dozens of interviews with Alan Bates' family, his lovers, colleagues and friends, and with people who knew and worked with him - and mining a rich store of primary research - this exclusively authorised biography paints a portrait of a complex and remarkable personality.

Customer Reviews

A sad story
Donald Spoto's biography of Alan Bates starts off well, but disintegrates into a boring catalogue of his stage, film and television appearances (who cares if he appeared in twelve plays by Simon Gray?), and a seemingly endless list of reassurances from family and friends that Bates was a kind, lovely chap. In reality, like most actors, Bates put his career ahead of his ethics. After finishing the book, my overriding memory was his twin sons, as small boys, neglected and half-starved, existing on a diet of beans and cabbage leaves with an unhappy, unwashed Mummy, and a Daddy who prefers to play Chekhov or Ibsen than footie with his boys in the park. No wonder one of the twins tragically died from a drugs overdose at the age of nineteen. The worst moment in the book is Spoto's description of a dinner party in the 1970s with Bates, his male lover Nickolas Grace, and the weird film director Lindsay Anderson. Bates's mentally unstable and vulnerable wife Victoria (who is the real subject of the book) is also at the party, hiding under the table, and yet Spoto expects the reader to sympathise with Bates. If I'd come from Victoria's messed up background, married a handsome, charismatic and famous chap like Bates, ignored the fact that he is gay, and ended up at a dinner party with him, one of his male lovers and Lindsay Anderson, then I would definitely hide under the table! Though Spoto goes to great lengths to be inclusive, by mentioning or interviewing a succession of Bates's male lovers, I am deeply disappointed the author makes no mention of Bates's reluctance to 'come out' publicly during the years of Gay Liberation and gay politics. No mention of the Wolfenden Report or the 1967 Sexual Act Act when homosexuality was partially decriminalised. In short, the book lacks a gay historical context. To conclude, this biography reinforces the view I've always had about Britain's middle-classes: that they keep their secrets firmly behind closed doors, and when biographers attempt to bring them out into the open, they rally round and call the shots. Bates's family and friends call the shots here. They agree to interviews, but only if the mythical Bates is reinforced. The neglect of his young sons was child abuse, nothing more, nothing less.

The authorised story of the great Sir Alan Bates.
I had often wondered why a biograghy of Alan Bates had not been written. For four decades this great actor had crossed with consumate ease between theatre, film and television, giving performances of weight and depth that stayed long in the memory.
There was another story to be told though. The story of a man who appeared to be confused and haunted with his bisexuality and a deeply personal and caring man who struggled throughout his life in his love for others.
With the support of Alan Bates' son Benedick and brother Martin this book tells the compelling story of the real Alan Bates. Superbly written with many contributions from admiring colleagues we discover a man who was incredibly popular with his peers and public. Alan Bates was an actors actor. His personal complexities were well known within the industry but amazingly no one ever 'outed' him and he quietly protected himself and those that he was involved with.Alan Bates was very generous towards other actors both on stage and off, and here I myself can attest to this.
I met Alan on three occassions after performances he gave and while playing a walk on role in the film 'Hamlet'. He was always charming company and happily talked about his craft in an uncomplicated and non 'starry' way. Giving up his time to advise a fellow actor was a characteristic that he will be remembered for by many.
There were great personal tradegies that Alan had to endure later in his life and these would appear to have taken a toll on his health as he worked constantly for over 40 years.His death at the age of 69 to pancreatic cancer was a huge loss to this country and the theatre.
My only real complaint about this book is that it should have included a full glossary of his stage, tv and film roles.
If you enjoyed Alan's work then read this book and find out how he created such great and memorable characters and performances that will stay with us for a long time to come.