Ian Bannen

Ian Edmund Bannen (29 June 1928 – 3 November 1999) was a Scottish^[1] stage and screen actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), the first Scots actor to receive the honour. He was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for his performance in Sidney Lumet's The Offence (1973) and John Boorman's Hope and Glory (1987).

On stage, Bannen was an original member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and renowned for his interpretations of William Shakespeare and Eugene O'Neill. He won the 1981 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Brian Friel's Translations. He received BAFTA Scotland's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.^[2]

Bannen was born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, the son of lawyer John James Bannen (died 1958), of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, and Agnes Clare (née Galloway).^[3][4][5] His family was Roman Catholic.

After attending St Aloysius' College, Glasgow and Ratcliffe College, Leicestershire, Bannen served in Egypt as a corporal in the British Army.^[1][6][7] He studied acting at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, where he made his stage debut in a 1947 production of Armlet of Jade.

Bannen became a successful figure on the London stage, making a name for himself in the plays of both Shakespeare and Eugene O'Neill. He was an original member of the Royal Shakespeare Company^[1][8] and played leading roles in productions of Othello, Hamlet, and As You Like It.

Aside from his Shakespearean roles, Bannen was also well-known for his interpretations of Eugene O'Neill's dramas. He played Hickey in the original 1958 West End production of The Iceman Cometh and James (Jamie) Tyrone Jr. in Long Day's Journey into Night (opposite Alan Bates and Anthony Quayle) the same year. Over 20 years later, he reprised the role in O'Neill's sequel A Moon for the Misbegotten, first on the West End and then in the 1984 Broadway revival.^[9] He also played Cornelius Melody in a 1962 staging of A Touch of the Poet, first in Dublin and then in Venice.

He starred in the West End debut of Brian Friel's play Translations, which earned him a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1981. The same year, he played Jesus Christ in Thine is the Kingdom, a passion play staged at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. His other notable West End work included roles in A View from the Bridge (opposite Anthony Quayle and Richard Harris), the title role in Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, Toys in the Attic, and The Devil's Disciple. He played Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler at the 1977 Edinburgh International Festival.

His last stage role was in a 1992 revival of All My Sons at the Young Vic.

Bannen's film debut was in the early 1950s with a small role in Pool of London (1951), and he quickly rose to prominence, primarily in a wide range of supporting roles. He had a very significant role as Stoker Samuel Bannister in Yangtse Incident. During the early stages of his career he worked with the Boulting Brothers on Private's Progress and Carlton-Browne of the F.O.. His performance as "Ratbags" Crow in The Flight of the Phoenix earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, making him the first Scots actor to receive this honour; he also received a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year – Actor. That same year, he starred alongside Sean Connery in the WWII prison drama The Hill.

Director John Schlesinger cast him as a replacement for Alan Bates in the part of well-off gay doctor Daniel Hirsh in his controversial film Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), after Bates was deemed unavailable to shoot. According to screenwriter Penelope Gilliatt, Bannen never felt comfortable with the part. The anxiety adversely affected his performance during the early filming. Schlesinger replaced Bannen with Peter Finch, who received an Oscar nomination for the role. Bannen later regretted this and apologised for his conduct, saying not taking the role had set back his career.

Bannen received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as suspected child molester Kenneth Baxter in The Offence (1973). He also won acclaim for his roles as Jim Prideaux in the BBC adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979), Brother Benedict in Lamb (1986), Grandfather George in John Boorman's Hope and Glory (1987) (for which he received a second Best Supporting Actor BAFTA nomination), the elder Robert de Brus in Braveheart (1995) and as the touchingly crafty villager in Waking Ned (1998), the latter of which earned him both Screen Actors Guild Award and a Satellite Award.

In 1996, he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award from BAFTA Scotland.^[2]

He was the subject of an episode of This is Your Life in 1999, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel.

Bannen married Marilyn Salisbury, a veterinary physician for the Ministry of Agriculture, in 1978. He had met Salisbury, 17 years his junior, in a car park following a performance as Hamlet.^[10][11][12] They had no children.^[13]

Bannen was killed, aged 71, in a car accident near Loch Ness in November 1999. He and his wife, who had been driving, were discovered in an overturned vehicle in Knockies Straight between Inverness and Fort Augustus.^[14] Marilyn suffered only minor injuries, and lived until 2019.^[15]

His final films, Best and The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, were released posthumously in 2000.

Coatbridge College, Lanarkshire annually presents the Ian Bannen Memorial Award to the best actor or actress in its classes.^[16]

Bannen was posthumously given the 2000 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award.^[17]

Sources: ^[18][19]

• Ian Bannen at IMDb
• Ian Bannen at Theatricalia
• Ian Bannen at the BFI's Screenonline
• Ian Bannen at Find a Grave