Denholm Elliott

Presenter0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Denholm Elliott0:08

I will land on it.

Denholm Elliott0:10

Yes, I was born in London.

Denholm Elliott0:12

Um

Denholm Elliott0:13

Educated at Malvern College, I see Yes, my father was there, and then he was killed in what was then Palestine in the riots, and he was a barrister. And I was brought up because he'd been a Mason, the Masons very kindly educated me at Malvern College, which was very generous of them.

Presenter0:29

Why did you want to be an actor? How did that come into your system?

Denholm Elliott0:33

Well, when I left school uh um

Denholm Elliott0:37

I don't know. I was very unhappy at school and um

Denholm Elliott0:43

was sent to um

Denholm Elliott0:45

The psychoanalyst, as a matter of fact, are trying to sort our head out. And she suggested that uh

Denholm Elliott0:51

Some therapeutic. This is how my career started. That a good therapy would be the stage, you see. So how did you set about it? Well that I applied um to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Presenter0:58

How did you set about it?

Denholm Elliott1:03

and managed to get in, but I only lasted one term because they wrote from my mother.

Denholm Elliott1:08

and said that, you know, much as we like the little fellow, he's wasting your money and our time. Take him away.

Denholm Elliott1:16

Uh

Presenter1:16

Uh

Denholm Elliott1:16

And that was it. This was just before the war. Yes, yes.

Presenter1:17

Yes.

Denholm Elliott1:19

And then I begin went into the Air Force, and my mother said, Well, there you are, dear. You see, you've tried, and it hasn't worked. Now you can get on with something else. Yes. And in the R E F you flew in bombers. I was in Cheshire Squadron, seventy sixth Squadron.

Presenter1:31

Yes.

Denholm Elliott1:32

And um I was shot down in September nineteen forty two over

Denholm Elliott1:37

Um, Denmark. You came down in the sea, did you not? Yeah, Flensburg. We hit Flensburg flying in Halifaxes at a thousand feet and landed near Silt, which is now a nudist colony. It wasn't then.

Denholm Elliott1:49

Yeah.

Denholm Elliott1:51

Well you picked up fairly soon. Well we got into the rubber dinghy which at first didn't come out but finally we managed to get it out.

Denholm Elliott1:58

And uh

Denholm Elliott1:59

Some of the crew suggested paddling what four hundred miles to Norway, and I regret to say I said, Well, why don't we all just sort of get ashore and have something warm to eat? It wasn't very bold and brave.

Presenter2:07

Have some

Presenter2:11

But at least for a lie today. Yes, and you had what? Three years in a prison camp. How did you occupy your time in the camp? Were there any theatricals?

Denholm Elliott2:19

They were theatricals, they built a theatre and I applied for a part and I was given an understudy. That's a bit rough.

Presenter2:27

Yeah. Yeah.

Denholm Elliott2:27

Is it rough?

Presenter2:28

When you returned to London, when you were repatriated, you still hadn't made your professional debut in the theatre then?

Denholm Elliott2:34

No, I went to uh see Oliver Gordon at Windsor, who was running Windsor then.

Denholm Elliott2:40

And he c hasn't got any room for me. And um but he sent a letter.

Denholm Elliott2:45

To the Amersham Refugee Company was Carol Jenner was running.

Denholm Elliott2:49

And because I got what they call compassionate uh exit from the Air Force, having been in the bag or something, you know, they either rehabilitate you or you can elect to go out immediately, which I did.

Denholm Elliott2:58

Um, so I got out sort of a month or two, I suppose, before.

Denholm Elliott3:02

Some of the other boys I quite a few jobs around and I managed to get into this repertory theatre, but I played the old man and the drunkard.

Denholm Elliott3:10

And then one other part.

Denholm Elliott3:12

And then almost instantly Windsor came along and asked me to go there. I did two plays at Windsor, and then Tennants took me in the guinea pig, the Criterion, where it went for a year and a half. So you were in the West End pretty quickly? I was in the West End five weeks after I started.

Presenter3:27

Splendid.

Presenter3:28

Now you had a year and a half run in the Guinea pig, you were playing leading parts already in in the West End, and quite soon you had the distinction of being in Bernard Shaw's last play.

Denholm Elliott3:40

Yes, but I after the guinea pig I'd done a lot of work at various places like Kew Theatre and that sort of thing, and radio, Howard Rose and

Denholm Elliott3:48

And I was chosen to play this leading part in Boyant Billions, which was the last page Shaw wrote, and it went down with Esme Percy, who was directing it to A. at St. Lawrence, and was um sort of directed by Shaw, who was then ninety-six or something. It was about a year before he died. He had all the makings of a first rate actor, I believe. Oh, yes, unbelievable. I was un quite una I was unaware how broad his Irish accent was. It was really quite extreme.

Presenter4:06

I was

Presenter4:10

Uh And Arm Deshaw's buoyant brilliance, you you appeared in plays by Christopher Fry and Annui.

Denholm Elliott4:17

Yes, I

Denholm Elliott4:18

Livier came to see me in Borant Billions and asked me to play his son in Venus Observed, which is his first venture as a manager after his triumphant season at The New. And

Denholm Elliott4:31

I did that and one day in the wings he said, because this time Schofield was playing the twins in Ring Round the Moon, he said, How would you like to go to New York and play the Prince in Rink Round the Moon? And then went on and let's drop the subject for two days. You can imagine. And he just um Gilbert Miller said, Larry, you know, who should I take to New York for the juvenile? And uh Larry said, Why don't you take Debra? Why don't you take my juvenile?

Presenter4:45

Two days.

Denholm Elliott4:55

And just like that, you know, when the great ones nod, you your whole career is changed. And I went to New York and played that at

Presenter5:02

And I went to the

Presenter5:04

It didn't do terribly well in New York.

Denholm Elliott5:05

It did five months, I think. Did it? I managed to get the Donaldson Award out.

Presenter5:08

And you appeared in in some in, I think, two of T S Eliot's plays, didn't you?

Denholm Elliott5:16

And they came straight back after that to do the Christopher Fry's Leave of Prisoners in Saint Thomas's Church.

Denholm Elliott5:21

And then the confidential clerk in the lyric theatre.

Denholm Elliott5:25

Margaret Leighton.

Presenter5:27

You were much in demand for films. You you were usually under contract to somebody.

Denholm Elliott5:31

Yes, I'm David Lean saw me in play at the Criterion.

Denholm Elliott5:36

or third person

Denholm Elliott5:38

and asked me to play The Sun in the Sound Barrier with Ralph Richardson. And Lean and that's just an example of what I was saying. Um Lean and Corda were having lunch at the Savoy one day, surrounded by aides sitting with pads and shorthand things all at the ready.

Denholm Elliott5:55

And Corda said, Tell me, how's this boy coming on? Is he any good? And Lean said, um

Denholm Elliott5:59

Yes, I think he is quite good. I think you should give him a contract. And Corder, according to an eye witness, i inclined his head half an inch to the left and said, Give him au contras.

Denholm Elliott6:09

So I just scribbled it down. And I was under contract for five thousand pounds a year, I think it was, which then was a great deal of money, for fourteen years.

Presenter6:18

And nice.

Denholm Elliott6:18

A nice, steady job, very handy. It was an incredible job. My agent at the time was Dennis Van Tal, who fixed a quite an outrageous contract for me. Wonderfully. All the applause is on my side. And the following week he left the agency and became

Denholm Elliott6:33

He took the job of the person he'd done the contract with, so he was in the position of trying to argue himself out of a contract that he'd fixed the week before.

Denholm Elliott6:42

You were backwards and forwards to New York quite a lot. Yes, um, shortly after the my New York theater time, the the kitchen sink period came in, you know, with the Osborne and Kenneth Hague and Look Back in Anger and that sort of thing.

Denholm Elliott6:55

And um I was very strictly tennis anyone, you know, I only I wasn't a kitchen sink wasn't my thing at all.

Denholm Elliott7:01

And I couldn't find anything. I couldn't and so I used to just pay my way up to New York and announce my arrival, really.

Presenter7:08

Would it be fair to say that for a number of years you were better known in the States than than you were here?

Denholm Elliott7:12

Yeah.

Presenter7:12

Yeah.

Denholm Elliott7:13

I did a lot of a great many television shows. I remember I I I went to I think on twice a month uh to New York to do television shows and uh

Denholm Elliott7:22

I remember coming from the airport down Third Avenue once and uh as the taxi stopped to the lights and the laundryman rushed out, said, Hey, you left your shoes, where you been, out of town? And uh I really felt that, you know, just home. And I was married. My wife's American, Susan, and I'm both my children were born on the road, actually, one in New York and the other in um

Denholm Elliott7:44

In San Francisco. In the same basket. In the same basket, yeah.

Presenter7:46

Same basket, yes.

Presenter7:47

You must have played in innumerable films by now, some here, some in America. Which ones do you like to remember in particular?

Presenter7:55

Yeah.

Denholm Elliott7:55

Station Six Sahara with uh Ian Bannon. And uh from that I got my breakthrough in films, which was nothing but the best with Alan Bates and um.

Denholm Elliott8:05

And then an Alphi and all those other things. Some nice exotic locations. Marvellous locations, some are in the Pattern of Islands.

Denholm Elliott8:15

Um

Denholm Elliott8:17

Morocco and Station Six Sahara. Any films recently?

Denholm Elliott8:20

I guess I did um

Denholm Elliott8:23

I recently won in Canada about uh f six months ago in Montreal called um Daddy Kravitz which has had rave reviews and is extremely successful. I I have written in a cameo in it, but it's a great deal of fun.

Denholm Elliott8:35

And I've just done the new Percy one.

Presenter8:37

Uh

Denholm Elliott8:38

And all the time a great deal of television, either here or there. I haven't done a lot of television lately, because I had done so much lastly with the sextet being redone again, and a lot of plays that one about the cameraman who was out of work and

Denholm Elliott8:51

And um

Denholm Elliott8:52

You know that I've really rather

Denholm Elliott8:55

I was off to series the other day and I didn't do it, but I

Denholm Elliott8:58

I think you can be terribly overexposed. I've been always very careful in my career to um do theatre. It takes you out of the television eye, the people are glad to see you back again. I mean, if you're on every week, I w one week last year I was on, I think, five times a week in different things reruns of films and plays and things.

Presenter9:13

Rewind.

Denholm Elliott9:15

Uh Now you wanna go?

Presenter9:15

Paul's been a very busy actor. Right from the start you've played leading roles in first-rate productions, but somehow you've never stayed in one place long enough to be recognised as a a top-ranking star. Does that worry you?

Denholm Elliott9:21

But some

Presenter9:27

Yeah.

Denholm Elliott9:28

It doesn't worry me because at my where I am at the moment I know that I could be, if I wished to be a top ranking star, because I have the power and the technique.

Denholm Elliott9:37

I think to take on.

Denholm Elliott9:39

Um

Denholm Elliott9:41

Anyone?

Denholm Elliott9:42

And um the only thing that has stopped me from being a top-ranking star is my desire to be, which I've never wanted.

Denholm Elliott9:48

And uh and only recently I have I

Denholm Elliott9:52

If I achieve the weight.

Denholm Elliott9:54

too if I want to be. I mean, I could go to Stratford and play Prospero. I could you know, I could I could have taken a television series and I built myself up and, you know, and done all sorts of things. But I don't. I like an an anonymity and I like

Denholm Elliott10:06

Sort of in a sense being an amateur. You have then to an extent planned your career.

Denholm Elliott10:11

Yes, I love my freedom, and I and I hate the the demands that are made on you if you really I mean, the number of jobs actually that I turned down is incredible. If I took them all and pushed and was seen in the right places and did all that nonsense, I suppose one could you know.

Denholm Elliott10:27

become a top rankers. I I think the price is too high, quite honestly.