Barry Foster (actor)

(John) Barry Foster (21 August 1927 – 11 February 2002) was a British actor who played numerous film roles and gained acclaim as the TV detective in the five-series-long ITV program Van der Valk that spanned 20 years.

Early life

He was born in Beeston (recorded as Basford), in the south of Nottinghamshire in England. When a few months old, his family moved to Hayes in Middlesex. His father was a toolsetter. He attended Southall County Grammar School (became Villiers High School in the 1970s) on Boyd Road and Villiers Road. Foster worked as a plastics organic chemist at the local EMI Central Research Laboratories, whilst unsuccessfully submitting ideas to advertising agencies. He embarked on a career in acting. Foster trained as an actor for two years at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, arriving there at the age of 20, a little older than the other students. It was here he became friends with an actor called David Baron, better known as playwright Harold Pinter. Foster would go on to appear in two of Pinter's plays, The Basement and The Tea Party.

Career

Foster's professional stage debut came in 1952 as 'Lorenzo' in The Merchant of Venice in County Cork, then in 1955 he made his London stage debut as the Electrician in The Night of the Ball at the New Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre). His first film role came in 1956 in the war film Battle of the River Plate. Over the years, he played in a wide variety of film and television roles, including David Lean's epic Ryan's Daughter, Battle of Britain, Joseph Losey's King and Country, The Troubleshooters, The Family Way, The Wild Geese, Robbery, Sweeney! and Inspector Clouseau, Merchant Ivory's Heat and Dust and Maurice, and up to his final film Rancid Aluminium in 2000. But it was in 1972 that he was to play two memorable roles, on opposite sides of the law. First was cynical Dutch detective Van der Valk and second was Bob Rusk, the necktie murderer in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy. The Van Der Valk role would resurface twice more in his career, in 1977 and once more in the early 1990s. Shortly after the third series in 1978, Foster was to take on the role of the most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, in a series of radio appearances for the BBC. He recorded 13 episodes of the Holmes canon, with David Buck as Watson. In 1974 he was also seen in Fall of Eagles in the role of Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1980 he played the condescending chief of British intelligence in the BBC adaptation of the John le Carré novel Smiley's People, starring Alec Guinness.

From the 1990s onwards, he mainly performed for stage. He took on the role of Inspector Goole in J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls directed by Stephen Daldry. In 2001, he started performing Yasmina Reza's 'Art' alongside Nigel Havers and Roger Lloyd Pack. Once he left that, he returned in 2002, but on 11 February he died of a heart attack while being cared for at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford. Some obituaries (e.g. BBC Online) incorrectly stated his year of birth as 1931, the British Film Institute website provides definitive year of birth as 1927, based on a check of the birth and marriage certificates held at the Family Records Centre, London.

Personal life

His marriage in 1955 in Birkenhead to singer and actress Judith Shergold was a long and happy one; the couple were married for forty years. His daughters Miranda and Joanna are both actresses, but his son Jason has not gone into acting. After Foster's death, a trust was set up, The Barry Foster Memorial Appeal to help disabled children become involved in the theatre.

Filmography

• Rancid Aluminum (2000) - Doctor
• The Free Frenchman (1989) - Maj. Trent
• King of the Wind (1989) - Mr. Williams
• The Killing Game (1988) - Jack
• Maurice (1987) - Dean Cornwallis
• Three Kinds of Heat (1987) - Norris
• Beyond the Next Mountain (1987) - Actor
• The Whistle Blower (1986) - Charles Greig
• Heat and Dust (1983) - Major Minnies, the Political Agent
• Smiley's People (1982) - Saul Enderby
• Danger on Dartmoor (1980) - Green
• The Wild Geese (1978) - Thomas Balfour
• Sweeney! (1977) - Elliott McQueen
• The Last Word (1975) - Edward
• A Quiet Day in Belfast (1974) - John Slattery
• Frenzy (1972) - Robert Rusk
• Ryan's Daughter (1970) - Tim O'Leary
• Battle of Britain (1969) - Squadron Leader Edwards
• The Guru (1969) - Chris
• Twisted Nerve(1968) - Gerry Henderson
• Inspector Clouseau (1968) - Addison Steele
• Robbery (1967) - Frank
• The Family Way (1966) - Joe Thompson
• King & Country (1964) - Lt. Webb
• Playback (1962) - Dave Hollis
• Surprise Package (1960) - US Marshal
• Yesterday's Enemy (1959) - Actor
• Desert Patrol (1958) - Cpl. Matheson
• Sea Fury (1958) - Vincent
• Dunkirk (1958) - Don R
• High Flight (1957) - Wilcox
• Yangtse Incident (1957) - PO McCarthy RN
• The Battle of the River Plate (1956) - Bill Roper, Capt. Bell's messenger, HMS Exeter (uncredited)
• The Baby and the Battleship (1956) - Bit Role (uncredited)

Radio

• Space Force (1984-1985) - Saxon Berry
• A fall of Moondust (1981) - Chief Engineer Jim Lawrence
• Sherlock Holmes (1978) - Sherlock Holmes, with David Buck as Dr. Watson

Sources

• BFI Film & TV Database

External links

• Barry Foster at the Internet Movie Database
• Independent 2002
• Telegraph 2002
• BBC 2002