

Alan Bates
Actor · ProducerSir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving. He is also known for his tour-de-force with Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek, as well as his roles in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Fixer, which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson. Bates went on to star in The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman, Nijinsky, and The Rose with Bette Midler, as well as playing varied roles in television drama, including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Harold Pinter's The Collection, A Voyage Round My Father, An Englishman Abroad (as Guy Burgess), and Pack of Lies. He also continued to appear on the stage, notably in the plays of Simon Gray, such as Butley and Otherwise Engaged.
More details at TMDB
KNOWN FOR
FILMOGRAPHY
ACTOR82

Love Left the Masquerade: Peter Medak's Cinema of Pretenders
2025
Archive

Shuttlecock: Sins of a Father
2020
Major James Prentis (archival footage)

Nothing Like a Dame
2018
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Discovering Hamlet
2011
Claudius (archive footage)

Spartacus
2004
Antonius Agrippa

Hollywood North
2004
Michael Baytes

The Statement
2003
Armand Bertier

Meanwhile
2003
Father Peter

Celebrity Naked Ambition
2003
Self (archive footage)

The Mothman Prophecies
2002
Alexander Leek

Bertie and Elizabeth
2002
King George V

Evelyn
2002
Thomas Connolly

The Sum of All Fears
2002
Dressler

The Making of Gosford Park
2002
Self

Gosford Park
2001
Jennings

Anthony Quinn: The Final Words
2001
Self

The Prince and the Pauper
2000
Re Enrico VIII

St. Patrick: The Irish Legend
2000
Calpornius

The Cherry Orchard
1999
Gayev

Nicholas’ Gift
1998
Reg Green

The Grotesque
1995
Sir Hugo Coal

Silent Tongue
1994
Eamon McCree

Hard Times
1994
Josiah Bounderby

Shuttlecock
1993
Major James Prentis VC

Losing Track
1992
Henry Sitchell

Unnatural Pursuits
1992
Hamish Partt

Secret Friends
1991
John

Hamlet
1990
Claudius

Mister Frost
1990
Felix Detweiler

Dr. M
1990
Dr, Marsfeldt / Guru

102 Boulevard Haussmann
1990
Marcel Proust

Uncontrollable Circumstances
1989
Malcolm Forrest

The Dog It Was That Died
1989
Blair

We Think the World of You
1988
Frank Meadows

The Ray Bradbury Theater: And So Died Riabouchinska
1988
John Fabian

A Prayer for the Dying
1987
Jack Meehan

Pack of Lies
1987
Stewart

Duet for One
1986
David Cornwallis

One for the Road
1985
Nicholas

Hands Up!
1985
Self (1981 footage)

A Voyage Round My Father
1984
John Mortimer

Dr. Fischer of Geneva
1984
Dr. Alfred Jones

An Englishman Abroad
1983
Guy Burgess

The Wicked Lady
1983
Captain Jerry Jackson

Separate Tables
1983
John Malcolm / Maj. Pollock

The Return of the Soldier
1983
Captain Chris Baldry

Britannia Hospital
1982
Macready

Quartet
1981
H.J. Heidler

Very Like a Whale
1981
Sir Jock Mellor

The Trespasser
1981
Siegmund

Nijinsky
1980
Sergei Diaghilev

The Rose
1979
Rudge Campbell

An Unmarried Woman
1978
Saul Kaplan

The Shout
1978
Charles Crossley

The Collection
1976
James

Royal Flash
1975
Rudi Von Sternberg

In Celebration
1975
Andrew Shaw
- Two Sundays
Two Sundays
1975
Charles
- Plaintiffs and Defendants
Plaintiffs and Defendants
1975
Peter

Butley
1974
Ben Butley

The Story of Jacob and Joseph
1974
Narrator (voice)

Impossible Object
1973
Harry

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
1972
Bri

Second Best
1972
Tom

The Go-Between
1971
Ted Burgess

Three Sisters
1970
Col. Vershinin

Women in Love
1969
Rupert Birkin

Look at Life: All in a Day's Work
1969
Self

The Fixer
1968
Yakov Bok

Far from the Madding Crowd
1967
Gabriel Oak
- Location: Far from the Madding Crowd
Location: Far from the Madding Crowd
1967
Himself

Lionpower from MGM
1967
Self - Gabriel Oak (archive footage) (uncredited)

Georgy Girl
1966
Jos Jones

King of Hearts
1966
Charles Plumpick

Once Upon a Tractor
1965
Joe Turrel

Zorba the Greek
1964
Basil

The Caretaker
1964
Mick

Nothing But the Best
1964
Jimmy Brewster

The Running Man
1963
Stephen

A Kind of Loving
1962
Victor Arthur 'Vic' Brown

Whistle Down the Wind
1961
The Man, Arthur Alan Blakey

The Entertainer
1960
Frank Rice





