Nigel Hawthorne has passed away...

One of the great actors has left us. Nigel Hawthorne, who many came to admire after his brilliant performance in THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE, has suffered a fatal heart attack. He had been struggling with cancer recently, and rumor has it that that was the reason he didn't play Jack the Ripper in the Hughes Brothers' FROM HELL as originally cast, before Ian Holm took over the role. My first experience, cinematically speaking, with the great Nigel Hawthorne was with WATERSHIP DOWN, his was the voice of Campion, not a main character. Next Nigel first appeared before my eyes in Mel Brooks' THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART I. Again it was an extremely minor role. Strangely enough I think the first time I REALLY noticed him it was in DEMOLITION MAN... Just on the eve of his great emergence into the league of great actors with his appearance in the brilliant MADNESS OF KING GEORGE and that fantastic RICHARD III in the same year. His stage work is what I most miss having never watched. I've heard he was amongst the very best and I have absolutely no doubt that he was completely entrancing. His bout with cancer had been taking him away from possibly some of his greatest character work, but we will only have to imagine his turn as Jack the Ripper, or the rumor that he was once considered for the role of Gandalf. We have lost one of the greats, that is for certain.