PROFILE OF DONALD PLEASENCE




[Acting is] more of a compulsive thing. I alternate between being terrified
and being bored, yet there is a curious excitement in it the whole time.

---Donald Pleasence


The following profile is incomplete. Please e-mail me with any additions and/or corrections.




NAME: Donald Pleasence

BORN: October 5, 1919 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England

DIED: February 2, 1995 in St. Paul de Vence, France

AGE AT TIME OF DEATH: 75 years old

CAUSE OF DEATH: Complications from heart valve replacement surgery.



HEIGHT: 5 ft. 7 in.

WEIGHT: 140 pounds (in the 1960s)

EYE COLOR: Pleasence described them as "duck-egg blue."

HAIR COLOR: Before he went bald, it was brown.



FATHER: Thomas Stanley Pleasence

MOTHER: Alice (Armitage) Pleasence



BROTHER: Ralph Pleasence



WIFE #1: Miriam Raymond (1941-1958)

WIFE #2: Josephine Martin Crombie (1959-1970)

WIFE #3: Meira Shore (1970-1988)

WIFE #4: Linda Kentwood (1988-1995)



DAUGHTER #1: Angela Daphne Pleasence (to Miriam Raymond)

DAUGHTER #2: Jean Denise Pleasence (to Miriam Raymond)

DAUGHTER #3: Lucy Alice Maria Pleasence (to Josephine Martin Crombie)

DAUGHTER #4: Polly Jo Alexis Helena Pleasence (to Josephine Martin Crombie)

DAUGHTER #5: Miranda Pleasence (to Meira Shore)



EDUCATION: The Ecclesfield Grammer School in Ecclesfield, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England (1931-1937)

MILITARY SERVICE: Served with the British Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1942-1946. Spent 1944-1946 in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. Discharged in 1946 with the rank of flight lieutenant.



HOBBIES: Birds, Boats, Flowers, Motor Cars (according to a 1961 article, he drove a Jaguar), and what Pleasence described as "very bad golf."

CLUBS: Member of the British and American AEA; SAG; the Arts Club (London); Royal Automobile Club (London).

RECREATION: Pleasence is quoted as saying: "Having dinner with good friends and talking too much."




AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS:


1958-----British Television Actor of the Year

1960-----LONDON CRITICS AWARD: Best Actor (The Caretaker)

1962-----TONY NOMINATION: Best Dramatic Actor (The Caretaker)

1965-----TONY NOMINATION: Best Dramatic Actor (Poor Bitos)

1967-----LONDON VARIETY AWARD: Stage Actor of the Year (The Man in the Glass Booth)

1969-----TONY NOMINATION: Best Dramatic Actor (The Man in the Glass Booth)

1972-----TONY NOMINATION: Best Dramatic Actor (Wise Child)

1982-----KNOKKEHEIST FILM FESTIVAL: Best Actor (Race for the Yankee Zephyr)

1987-----AUSTRALIAN FILM INDUSTRY NOMINATION: Best Supporting Actor (Ground Zero)

1989-----FANGORIA HORROR HALL OF FAME

1994-----Pleasence was appointed an officer of the ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.



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