[R. S. Gwynn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP06F0yynic

[Janice D. Soderling]

I think this his role which I loved most. I cannot read "Sense and Sensibility" without his character overriding the book character. It was not always so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clTG6sYtJig

[Nigel Mace]

I agree, Janice - he had the power to mark a work for all time. Even more telling, for me, was his ineradicable performance as Obadiah Slope in the BBC's adaptation of two of the Barchester novels.

In this his achievement was all the more remarkable as it was surrounded by performances of equally unforgettable perfection from Donald Pleasance as Mr Harding and Nigel Hawthorne as Archdeacon Grantley - as well as comic masterpieces from Geraldine McEewan as Mrs Proudy and Peter Blythe as Bertie Stanhope - with supporting excellence from Susan Hampshire as Signora Neroni and Donald Pleasance's daughter, Angela, as Mrs Grantley. To stand out in such illustrious company and alongside what was one of Pleasance's most intelligent and finely nuanced performances was an accomplishment to be wondered at. His, Pleasance's and Hawthorne's characterisations are now enduring images and sounds whenever I read the originals.

The loss of the year so far.

[Brian Allgar]

Well, it's not literature, but I also remember his hilarious performance in "Galaxy Quest".

[Nigel Mace]

Indeed, Brian - or his heart-stopping one in "Truly, Madly, Deeply". What a man and what a loss. We are so lucky to live in an era in which we can access video and film recordings. I'm already contemplating a domestic commemorative 'season'.

[Clive Watkins]

A very fine actor, the definitive Slope … but I remember seeing him about twenty years ago at performance of Hamlet (with Geraldine McEwan as Gertrude) in which he uttered this famous line –“With this regard their currents turn awry” – so that the last word rhymed with “story”. I jest not.

Clive

[R. S. Gwynn]

He misses "As any she belied with false compare" just slightly. It's as though he thought it meant "As any that she belied with false compare."

[Jayne Osborn]

I loved him as the baddie Hans in Die Hard.

[Susan Breeding]

Not just a great actor, but just an all round good person (which is more important really).

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...rie-play-actor