Hello, everyone. I'm holding the update until the Tony winners are
announced late tonight (Roy is up for an award). In practice, that means
I'll update on Monday. In the meantime, my thanks to Helper Judy Adams, who
tells us that "Not only will Ron's movie "The Trial of Old Drum" come on at
7 PM central  (8 EDT) Friday June 9th, but it will be on at 9 PM (10 EDT)
and 11 PM (12 m EDT) also [on the Animal Planet cable channel].  It's
coming on three times in a row on its premiere day!"

And I pass along to you a lovely profile of Roy Dotrice from last Friday's
Wall Street Journal, which is too long to add to any update but needs  to
be a post in its own right. I owe it to the kindness of friend Mary
Cropper, who's not in the fandom but knew *I* would be interested in news
about Roy (as indeed I am) and clipped and brought it to me. My boss'
family have acquired a scanner, so I shall ask her to scan the accompanying
picture of Roy in all his grungy glory (as Phil Hogan) and add it to the
article on the HN website as soon as I have it (probably Tuesday or
Wednesday). Not for nothing is this called Helpers' Network! Without
helpers, some within the fandom, some not, I would have nothing to report.
So I thank my boss, Mary Jo Wakeman, M.D., in advance for her help in
scanning the photo.

More later...Nan
~~~~~~~~~~~~
From The Wall Street Journal, Friday, June 2, 2000

View/Theater

The 'Character Man' Up for a Tony
by Lisa Gubernick

New York-Roy Dotrice plays Phil Hogan, the rheumy-eyed pig farmer in Eugene
O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten" with a series of snorts, scratches,
belches, and expectorations. His overalls, a misshapen patchwork of gingham
and crusted grime, hang stiffly off his sloped shoulders. Mr. Dotrice has
already won two awards for this, his 12th turn on Broadway, and he's up for
a Tony Award Sunday night for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
When Mr. Dotrice appears for a meeting at the St. Regis Hotel, the
strength of his performance resonates; the man is virtually unrecognizable.
The tufts of greasy hair are now carefully coifed, the rough stubble a neat
beard. He is resplendent in French cuffs and a smart pink-and-yellow
striped silk tie. A captain's blazer, a gilded eagle crest from the Royal
Air Force emblazoned on the breast pocket, hangs sharply off his squared
shoulders. The transformation is a testament to a give-decades-long career
as what the British call "a character man."
"When I make my second entrance, the greatest compliment is to hear the
program rustling as people check to see who I am," he says, picking over a
breakfast of tea and a plain omelet.
At 77, he looks a full two decades younger. His face is miraculously
unlined, his eyes uncommonly bright. He still takes a child-like joy in the
world," says Gabriel Byrne, who has the starring role as the doomed James
Tyrone in A Moon for the Misbegotten."
That warmth infuses Mr. Dotrice's portrayal of Phil Hogan. "I've seen this
play twice before and I've never understood the way it's been played-a
crusty, bad-tempered moneygrubber," he says. "Hogan is full of regret at
the end of the play, there's no belligerence left. I try to make it as
moving as possible. Hopefully it works."

The RAF Years

If he doesn't get the Tony for his acting, Mr. Dotrice should surely
receive a special commendation for his resume; his Play bill biography is
the most original in years: "Roy Dotrice began his acting career in a
German prisoner-of-war camp in 1942, having been shot down after flying
with the Royal Air Force Bomber Command," it announces, and goes on for
another quarter page detailing unlikely encounters with the luminaries of
British theater.
Born in 1923 on the Channel Island of Guernsey, he escaped to the mainland
in 1940 when the Germans occupied the island. He lied about his age to
enlist in the RAF-and kept acting long after the Germans shot down his
plane in 1942. He spent time in five POW camps; in each, the prisoners put
on dramas to keep themselves amused. "I played the female parts," he says.
"My first Shakespeare roles was as Portia in 'The Merchant of Venice.'
Eventually I graduated to male roles, for which my wife has never ceased to
be grateful."
In his late 70's, Mr. Dotrice hit the Guinness Book of World Records with
the longest running one-man show in history, appearing on the London stage
more than 1,700 times as the Elizabethan diarist John Aubrey. Mr. Dotrice
is, of course, even better with the tales from his own life, stories
delivered in a well-timed tumble, a pause at the end for the appreciative
chuckle.
Stay long enough and you hear about cricket with Peggy Ashcroft, a
half-naked Charles Laughton ("a great friend") wandering about one of
England's Druidical stone circles in search of inspiration for a new
version of "King Lear," and the unlikely story of the trans-sexual surgeon
who, after replacing the Queen Mother's hip, performed a similar service
for Mr. Dotrice.
"When I had my first interview he was all in black and quite terse," says
Mr. Dotrice, warming to his audience. "Several weeks later I got a letter
saying, 'I've decided to come out into the open and will be known as
Sarah.' On my next visit the man in black had become a bosomy blonde. The
most extraordinary thing was the hospital nurses. They said that he was all
right, but she is a bundle of laughs. God bless him.her."

The RSC Years

Mr. Dotrice's journey, while more biologically conventional, is nearly as
unlikely. After liberation, he went into repertory theater, graduating to
the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1957, where he not only worked with what
he says were "the world's greatest actors and directors" but became an
enthusiast for all things American. Along with Shakespeare, the Canadians
at his POW camp had taught him baseball. He introduced the sport to the
RSC, "previously," he notes wryly, "a cricket stronghold."
The RSC took on the American Air Force bases in Warwickshire and Stratford.
"We played the officers," says Mr. Dotrice, which helped even the odds. The
officers came decked out in full baseball regalia. The RSC boys turned out
in white Hamlet blouses, short trousers and tights-outfits more than
matched by the team lineup: Paul Robeson (Othello) at second base; Sam
Wanamaker (Iago) at third; Laurence Oliver (Coriolanus) at short stop;
Charles Laughton (Lear) as plate umpire; and Albert Finney as catcher. As
Mr. Dotrice tells it, the Brits took it 12 to 11 "because we had a great
pitcher. Namely, me."
"I fell in love with the Americans' enthusiasm, their generosity," he
says. It is that same enthusiasm, he says, that his brightened his stay on
Broadway. "The Americans love to rub shoulders with success. The awards,
the receptions, the luncheons, the dinners-this doesn't happen in England,
they're too laid back. I love the American way."
Though he and his wife of 53 years still keep a home in London, they all
but resettled in a Los Angeles apartment decade4s ago. "That's where the
work is," he shrugs. His face is familiar from scores of television shows
and films-his Web site (155 visitors recorded to date) lists 66 of
them-everything from "The A-Team" to "Picket Fences" to "Amadeus" To
"Cheech and Chong's The Corsican Brothers" to "Suburban Commando," which
starred Hulk Hogan. "I don't remember exactly why I did that one," he
muses. Most. likely it had more to do with the lucre than the
glory-character men, after all, don't bring down those seven-figure
salaries. He still works, he says, for the salary as well as the satisfaction.
He may have found both in his next role. Gabriel Byrne has cast him as his
father on the ABC half-hour comedy series he'll be producing and starring
in this fall, "The Madigan Men," about a father, son and grandson sharing
an oversized New York City apartment. "Gabriel is the best thing that's
happened to me in years," says Mr. Dotrice. "I don't see any retirement in
the south of France on the horizon for me," he reflects. "The only thing I
can hope, if this television series is a success and we can get some
pennies in the bank, is that I can get a bit picky about my roles in my old
age."



ndibble@fuse.net
http://home.fuse.net/helpnet