Ronald Pickup was not a household name.
However he was one of those actors whose presence was often felt even when he was in the company of acting royalty.
Born in Chester in 1940, he did not court publicity but simply got on with the job of being a consummate character actor on stage and screen.
Raised by his lecturer father Eric and mother Daisy, he attended the independent King's School in Chester before studying English at the University of Leeds.
By this stage, he had developed an interest in acting and following his graduation in 1962, he applied for a place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
It was there where he would pick up the Bancroft Medal but, more significantly, also meet his wife Rachel, an actress who he would marry in 1964.
The couple would go on to have two children.
Pickup would start to land work immediately, appearing in a 1964 episode of the BBC's sci-fi show 'Doctor Who' and in a theatre production of 'Julius Caesar' in London directed by Lindsay Anderson.
This would open the door to work with Laurence Olivier in the National Theatre in 'The Royal Hunt of the Sun' and he would become a regular at the Old Vic, appearing in 36 National Theatre productions during his career.
Among Pickup's most acclaimed theatre roles were appearances in Chekhov's 'Three Sisters' and Eugene O'Neill's 'A Long Day's Journey Into the Night'.
In 1998, he would land an Olivier Award nomination for supporting actor in Richard Eyre's production of David Hare's 'Amy's View' with Judi Dench and Samantha Bond.
Such was the regard his fellow actors had for him, he joined Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Simon Callow as Lucky in an acclaimed 2009 production of Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' which toured Britain before enjoying a successful run at the Theatre Royal in Haymarket.
Onscreen, Pickup appeared in a 1967 TV version of 'Much Ado About Nothing' with Frank Finlay and Michael Gambon.
Laurence Olivier and John Sichel directed him in s 1970 film of 'Three Sisters' based on the National Theatre production with Olivier, Joan Plowright, Alan Bates and Derek Jacobi among the cast.
There was an appearance as The Forget in Fred Zinneman's 1973 hitman thriller 'The Day of the Jackal' with Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale, Cyril Cusack, Derek Jacobi and Anton Rogers.
In Ken Russell's 'Mahler,' a year later, Pickup had a minor role in the film starring Robert Powell about the composer Gustav Mahler.
There was a more eye catching role as Lord Randolph Churchill in four episodes of the BBC Emmy award winning miniseries 'Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill' with Lee Remick, Barbara Parsons and Warren Clarke.
The following year, Pickup played another historic figure, William Pitt in a miniseries 'The Fight Against Slavery' with David Collins, Dinsdale Landen and Ronald Lacey.
Pickup had the lead role in Stuart Burge's well received 1975 TV movie of Christopher Hampton's 'The Philanthropist' with Helen Mirren, James Bolam and Charles Gray.
Tony Richardson directed him in a supporting role in the 1977 period comedy 'Joseph Andrews' witn Ann-Margret, Peter Firth, Michael Horden, Beryl Reid and Jim Dale.
A year later, there was a supporting role as Bayliss in Don Sharp's surprise British hit remake of 'The 39 Steps' with Robert Powell, David Warner, Karen Dortrice and John Mills.
Kevin Billington directed him as Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury in a well received BBC TV movie 'Henry VIII' with John Stride, Julian Glover, Claire Bloom and Timothy West in1979.
That year, he was a Lieutenant in Douglas Hickox's underwhelming 'Zulu' prequel 'Zulu Dawn' with Simon Ward, Peter O'Toole, Denholm Elliott, Bob Hoskins and Burt Lancaster which fared okay in cinemas despite mixed reviews.
In ITV's six part miniseries 'Tropic,' Pickup had the lead part of an aspiring writer on a suburban housing estate bordering.a council estate which also starred Hilary Tibdall, Ronald Lacey and Charlotte Howard.
Herbert Ross cast him as the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky in the poorly received biopic 'Nijinksy' with Alan Bates, Janet Suzman and Colin Blakely.
In Douglas Camfield's 1982 ITV and CBS TV movie adaptation of the historical romance 'Ivanhoe,' he joined Anthony Andrews, James Mason, Olivia Gusset, Lysette Anthony and Sam Neill in a decent Knight's adventure.
He was reunited with Lee Remick in a Golden Globe nominated ABC TV movie of Somerset Maugham's 'The Letter' with Ian McShane and Jack Thompson.
There was a high profile role as another conposer Giuseppe Verdi in the nine part Italian miniseries 'Verdi' on RAI with Carla Fracci, Giampiero Albertini and Burt Lancaster as the narrator.
The following year he would turn as Frederick Nietzsche in the 10 part miniseries 'Wagner' about the German composer with Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, Gemma Craven, Gabriel Byrne, John Geilgud, Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson.
Pickup appeared in Irvin Kershner's 007 movie 'Never Say Never Again' which allowed Sean Connery to step into the shoes of James Bond once more with Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer Max Von Sydow,Barbara Carrera, Edward Fox and Rowan Atkinson which performed well at the box office.
Pickup landed a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a TV drama for a BBC1 Piers Haggard directed version of NC Hunter's play 'Waters of the Moon' with Penelope Keith, Virginia McKenna and Joan Sims.
In Herbert Wise's 1984 CBS TV movie 'Pope John Paul II,' he played Jan Tyranowski, an influential figure in the shaping of the future Pontiff, in a well received biopic that started Albert Finney, Caroline Bliss, Brian Cox, Nigel Hawthorne and John McEnery.
He popped up in the handsome Hallmark TV movie 'Camille' with Greta Scaachi, Colin Firth, John Geilgud, Billie Whitelaw, Ben Kingsley and Denholm Elliott - an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 'La Dame aux Camilias'.
He was among the supporting cast in Peter Yates' 1985 movie 'Eleni' with John Malkovich, Kate Nelligan, Linda Hunt and Glenne Headley.
Pickup got the chance to portray Albert Einstein in a four part European TV miniseries with Maria Dubois and Anny Romans.
There was a shortlived stint in 1985 as Penelope Keith's husband in the ITV comedy drama 'Moving' with Roger Lloyd Pack and Prunella Gee which had only six episodes.
1986 saw him land an eye catching role as a Portuguese slave trader in Roland Joffe's handsome religious epic 'The Mission' with Robert de Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, Cherie Lunghi, Aidan Quinn, Liam Neeson and Chuck Low.
A year later, he was among a starry cast in John. Mackenzie's hit espionage drama 'The Fourth Protocol' with Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Ned Beatty, Ian Richardson, Ray McAnally, Joanna Cassidy, Michael Gough and Julian Glover.
However it was his performance as the eccentric Prince Yakimov in the seven part BBC miniseries 'The Fortunes of War' with Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Alan Bennett, Robert Stephens and Rupert Graves that was to earn him some of the best notices of his career on the small screen.
Pickup played the Soviet military leader Mikhail Tukhachevsky in Tony Palmer's well received 1998 musical drama 'Testimony' with Ben Kingsley and Sherry Baines which picked up awards at several film festivals.
He turned up in 1988 in ITV's popular Sherlock Holmes adventure 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' with Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke as Barrymore.
There was a notable role as Judi Dench's ex-husband in the acclaimed 1988 Channel 4 miniseries 'Behaving Badly' with Francesca Folan, Frances Barber, Douglas Hodge, Maurice Denham and Joely Richardson.
In Gavin Millard's 1989 adaptation of Roald Dahl's 'Danny, Champion of the World' with Jeremy Irons, Samuel Irons, Robbie Coltrane, Cyril Cusack and Michael Horden, he played Captain Lancaster.
There was also a juicy role in Euzhan Palcy's anti-Apartheid movie 'A Dry White Season' with Donald Sutherland, Susan Sarandon, Zakes Mokae, Janet Suzman, Jürgen Prochnow, Michael Gambon and Marlon Brando.
He was the voice of Aslan too in the BBC's six part CS Lewis adaptation 'Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader' with Samuel West, Joe McGann and Warwick Davis.
During the 1990s, Pickup appeared in shows like ITV's 'Boon,' 'El C..I.D,' and 'Inspector Morse,' 'The Bill,' Melvyn Bragg's BBC drama 'A Time to Dance,''Lovejoy,' 'Medics,' 'Silent Witness,' 'Dalziel and Pascoe,' 'Casualty' and Channel 4's 'The Rector's Wife,'
In John Henderson's so so 1997 British big screen hitman comedy 'Bring Me The Head of Mavis Davis,' he joined Rik Mayall, Jane Horrocks, Danny Aiello and Marc Warren.
Pickup played the father of the young Humbert in Adrian Lyne's well received but little watched movie adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's'Lolita' with Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, Melanie Griffith and Frank Langella.
In 2005, John Henderson directed him in a movie again in 'The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby' with James Cosmo, Gina McKee, Sean Pertwee, Christopher Lee and Ardal O'Hanlon.
There was a role in Pete Riski's 2008 Finnish horror movie 'Dark Floors' which featured members of the Eurovision Song Contest winning band Lordi as monsters.
The 2000s also saw him turn up in episodes of the BBC's 'The Inspector Lynley Mysteries,' 'Waking the Dead,' Hustle,' 'Holby City,' 'New Tricks, 'Lark Rise To Candleford' and ITV's 'The Last Detective,' 'Foyle's War,' 'Midsomer Murders,'and 'Inspector Lewis.'
He was a gay uncle to Sarah Alexander's character in the sitcom 'The Worst Week Of' with Ben Miller, Alison Steadman and Geoffrey Whitehead which ran for three seasons on BBC1 from 2004 to 2006.
2010 would see Pickup pop up as a King who adopts the street urchin Dastan in Mike Newell's Disney adventure 'Prince of Persia' with Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Toby Kebbell and Alfred Molina, a video game inspired tale which made a profit despite lukewarm reviews.
Pickup played a General in the BBC and HBO's acclaimed Tom Stoppard and Ford Madox Ford scripted, BAFTA and Emmy nominated First World War miniseries 'Parade's End' with Rebecca Hall, Benedict Cumberbatch, Roger Allan, Rupert Everett, Miranda Richardson and Janet McTeer.
The 2010s also saw him appear in episodes of the BBC's sitcom 'Pramface,' the epic' Atlantis,''Call the Midwife,' ITV's 'Doc Martin,' 'Coronation Street,''Downton Abbey,' 'Vera' and Netflix's 'The Crown' in which he played the Archbishop of Canterbury.
He was an ageing lothario in John Madden's 2012 box office hit comedy 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' with Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie, Dev Patel, Ton Wilkinson and Maggie Smith.
Pickup would reprise the role in Madden's equally successful 2015 sequel 'The Second Best Marigold Hotel' which reunited most of the cast and added Richard Gere, Davisd Strathairn and Tamsin Greig.
In Roger Goldby's 2017 big screen comedy 'The Time of their Lives,' Pickup played Pauline Collins' irascible husband in a well received road movie with Joan Collins, Franco Nero and Joely Richardson.
That year, he also appeared as Neville Chamberlain in Joe Wright's award winning hit film 'The Darkest Hour' which earned Gary Oldman a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill and also featured Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, Stephen Dillane and Ben Mendelssohn among the cast.
He was a judge in Rupert Everett's acclaimed 2018 Oscar Wilde film 'The Happy Prince' with Everett in the lead role, Colin Firth, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Beatrice Dalle and Colin Morgan.
His final roles would be in Mark Murphy's 2020 horror film 'End of Term' with Peter Davison, Julie Graham and David Banner and as a gambler in his son Simon's movie 'Schadenfraude' with Ian McKellen, Steven Sweney and Moya Brady.
Pickup remained dedicated to his craft right into his final year and it was that dedication that made him do popular witn his contemporaries and audiences.
He simply excelled in all media and will be remembered with great fondness for many years to come.
(Ronald Pickup passed away at the age of 80 on February 24, 2021)
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