Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton
The great Tom Wilkinson has died at the age of 75. He was rarely the star of the big films he appeared in, but Wilkinson made every film, television series and play he appeared in better. A bad project was made watchable every time it appeared on screen, a good project was elevated to perfection, and a great one was made impossible by this most human and versatile of actors.
He could convey the seriousness of a statesman, the savage fun, the simmering villainy or the normality of an everyman – sometimes all in the same performance – and was a refreshingly down-to-earth presence behind the scenes who kept a low profile and once said: “I don't like giving interviews.” and I give them very rarely,” for obvious reasons: “actors always sound stupid.”
Wilkinson was not stupid at all. Although the somewhat scattered nature of the roles he played, especially towards the end of his career, suggested that he was often attracted to roles because of the generous checks they offered – roles such as one-off cameos such as the IMF director in Mission: Impossible: Protocol Ghosts” hardly revealed his considerable talent – he was also an endlessly intriguing character in smaller, quirkier roles.
Perhaps his last truly interesting role was also a rare starring role as a bumbling killer in 2018's Dead in a Week or Your Money Back, where he imbued his aging hitman with pathos and excess charm. The film was not widely seen, but those who seek it out now will discover Wilkinson's typically nuanced and rich performance, a far cry from his best-known roles in films such as The Full Monty, Michael Clayton or Shakespeare in Love “, but still just as effective.
Picking five performances for which Wilkinson will be remembered is phenomenally difficult. I regret not being able to include his stern, slightly hapless father, obsessed with the demands of getting into university, in Jack Rosenthal's TV films “Eskimo Day” and “Cold Enough to Snow” or his typically excellent performance as Benjamin Franklin in the acclaimed mini- series “John Adams”. .
And while his role as the Marquess of Queensberry in Oscar Wilde's biopic Wilde may have been a standard villain, Wilkinson still managed to make him oddly likable and sympathetic – not least in Stephen Fry's memorable dinner scene with Wilde, when Queensberry admits that he also writes poetry and delivers the opening line to a surprised Wilde: “When I die, cremate me.”
The mark of a truly incomparable actor is that his best work lasts as long as it can still be seen. Here are five brilliant Tom Wilkinson performances that everyone should find and enjoy.
5. Martin Chuzzlewit (1994)
Martin Chuzzlewit is not generally considered one of Dickens's greatest novels, hence the reluctance of the writers and producers to adapt it again from the version written by David Lodge. However, this may also be a tacit admission that this excellent adaptation cannot be improved upon. However, among a brilliant cast that includes the likes of Paul Schofield, John Mills and the rarely best Keith Allen, what stands out is Wilkinson's exemplary performance as one of Dickens's greatest comic characters, the unctuous hypocrite Pecksniff.
With his hair pulled up into what looks like electric shock bangs, Wilkinson perfectly captures Pecksniff's sycophancy, vanity and pomposity, making him both hilarious and disgusting and doing full justice to his awfulness. Before Pecksniff, for which he was nominated for a Bafta, Wilkinson was a respected but little-known character actor. Then the roles became much more interesting.
4. The Full Monty (1997)
The recent TV series The Full Monty, which featured Wilkinson's final screen role, did not receive the same recognition as the Peter Cattaneo film, which at one point became the highest-grossing British film of all time. In the bittersweet and often raucous tale of a group of hapless and unemployed steel welders who almost accidentally become male strippers, Wilkinson gives a fine performance as former foreman Gerald, whose pride and vanity lead him to hide his unemployment from his wife.
Peter Cattaneo, Mark Addy, William Snape, Robert Carlyle, Steve Hewson and Tom Wilkinson in The Full Monty Photo credit: Alamy
While many other actors would have turned Gerald into a standard comedian, an authority figure brought down to earth by the humiliation and pathos of his situation, Wilkinson not only made him likable and likable, but also demonstrated an unparalleled sense of humor that allowed him to stand out from the crowd. his co-stars Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy are in more prominent roles. He deservedly won a Bafta for his performance.
3. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
How do you get attention for a movie that's full of scene-stealing actors? Well, it's a tough call, but according to Elizabethan theater impresario Hugh Fenniman, who begins the picture with complete skepticism of both show business and Shakespeare and ends it starstruck and completely seduced by the theatre, Wilkinson is not only stands up to the likes of Judi Dench, Geoffrey Rush and Gwyneth Paltrow, but makes every moment he's in both hilarious and (a word that comes up a lot when discussing his work) poignant as we watch this raw, violent man gets excited about the opportunity to take a part on stage.
By the time he nervously appears in the climactic production of Romeo and Juliet in a cameo role as an apothecary, proudly donning an expensive blue velvet cap and leaping through his lines with the exuberance of an actor, it is as touching and funny. like everything else in the film. His voice is the first we hear in the film, and while the central romance dominates memories of Shakespeare in Love, Wilkinson's beautiful, subtle work also lingers long in memories. He was again nominated for a Bafta, losing to Rush; the decision could easily have gone the other way.
2. In the bedroom (2001)
For much of the past year, Todd Field has been the darling of filmmakers everywhere thanks to his indelible masterpiece Tar, but it's his first film, the underrated and little-known In the Bedroom, that audiences should seek out as well. Its superb portrayal of a wealthy upper-middle-class family torn by tragedy and revenge is not only written and directed by Field with a moral force approaching the classical simplicity of Ibsen or Racine, but also features a central performance from Wilkinson – in a comparatively rare leading role on screen for a successful The middle-aged doctor who reluctantly takes revenge after the murder of his son is striking in his sheer strength and power.
Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek in the film “In the Bedroom” Photo: John Clifford
Wilkinson's American accent may vary – his Italian-American Carmine Falcone in Christopher Nolan's excellent Batman Begins was caricatured, to say the least – but here he conveys with consummate skill the complexities and ambiguities of a man faced with unimaginable moral choices. He was nominated for an Oscar, losing to Denzel Washington's more flamboyant performance in Training Day; two decades later it is clear that if there was any justice, he should have won.
1. Michael Clayton (2007)
If you were George Clooney, playing one of his biggest roles as a morally challenged lawyer in Tony Gilroy's directorial debut, you might be annoyed that the series was completely stolen from you by your co-stars: Oscar winner Tilda Swinton as more amoral lawyer, and Wilkinson is a once respected lawyer who suffered a manic breakdown and is now seen as unstable and a potential professional liability.
Wilkinson was often a restrained and subtle actor, which meant he had the opportunity to play a more dramatic role . and the flamboyant performance style – all of which were beautifully judged and perfectly complemented his character – he seized on and attacked with rare gusto. His Arthur Edens is funny, scary, morally complex and – in one of the most chillingly matter-of-fact death scenes ever committed to film – completely heartbreaking. He was nominated for a second Oscar, losing to Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men: a difficult decision, but Wilkinson's memorable performance here remains indelible.
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