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Article: Alan Bates: Impressive range over a long career.
- Article from:
- The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA)
- Article date:
- January 2, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Philadelphia Inquirer. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Desmond Ryan
Alan Bates was an actor rightly celebrated for his versatility. He started out on the stage as the raging Jimmy Porter in "Look Back in Anger" in 1956 and wound up being knighted by the queen last year.
Bates, who died from cancer Dec. 28 at the too-early age of 69, arguably commanded the greatest range of all the dazzling talents that brightened British cinema in the `60s.
Fittingly, he first made his real mark in movies with Albert Finney in Tony Richardson's bleak and incisive "The Entertainer" (unrated, 3 out of 4 stars). They played the skeptical sons of Archie Rice, that unforgettable broken-down vaudevillian created ...