Much-loved character actor who specialised in playing slightly sleazy/slightly eccentric and often flawed upper middle class English gentlemen. His career spanned nearly 40 years, becoming a well-known face both in Britain and in the States.
He served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. His plane was shot down over Germany in 1942 and he spent the rest of the War in Stalag 8B Prisoner of War camp in Silesia.
He had two children, Jennifer Elliott and Mark Elliott. Jennifer became addicted to heroin and hanged herself in 2003.
He lost the top of his right thumb in a childhood accident with a lawnmower.
He was awarded the CBE in the 1988 Queens New Year Honours List for his services to Drama.
Although he became widely recognized as a screen actor, he also had a prolific stage career, which included classical performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
A bisexual with many partners during his life, he tested HIV positive in 1987 and was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988. He continued working until a year before he died in 1992. Following his death, some sources stated that he acquired the AIDS virus from a blood transfusion. However, his widow Susan documented their open marriage and her husbands bisexuality in her book "Denholm Elliott: Quest for Love", published two years after his death.
According to the American film critic Leonard Maltin , he became most widely known to movie audiences as the academic Marcus Brody in two installments of the hugely successful Indiana Jones series, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , and as the valet, Coleman, in the Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd comedy Trading Places .
He was educated at Malvern College, a private school in Worcestershire, England.
Rather than recast the role of Marcus Brody in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , director Steven Spielberg and writer David Koepp created a new character, Charles Stanforth, played by Jim Broadbent. The passing of Marcus Brody is acknowledged several times in the film, with a portrait of him hanging in the hallway outside Indys classroom, a statue of him in a University courtyard, and a malt shop named "Brodys.".
His father was Myles Layman Elliott and his mother was Nina Mitchell.
His wife Susan, born March 7th, 1942 in Cleveland, died from injuries from a fire in her one bedroom flat April 12, 2007 in north London. Her neighbour, journalist Rob Lyons, tried to save her during the fire and was able to move her from her wheelchair down to the street waiting for the ambulance to arrive, she died a day later.
He performed (with Joss Ackland ) the first gay kiss seen on a West End stage in John Mortimer s play "Bermondsey" in 1971.
He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) but was asked to leave after one term. As Elliott later recalled: "They wrote to my mother and said, Much as we like the little fellow, hes wasting your money and our time. Take him away!".
In the 1980s, he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in three consecutive years, the only actor ever to have achieved this.
Due to Elliotts scene-stealing abilities, Gabriel Byrne , his co-star in Defence of the Realm , once joked "never act with children, dogs, or Denholm Elliott".
He was on the list of possible actors for the roles of Fallanda, Bukovsky, Dr. Armstrong and Sir Percy in Lifeforce .
He was of English, Scottish, and Irish descent.
He starred in two adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle s 1902 novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles": The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Hound of the Baskervilles . He played Stapleton in the former and Dr. Mortimer in the latter.
He appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Alfie , Raiders of the Lost Ark and A Room with a View .
He served as an RAF Officer during World War II and later played such an officer in A Bridge Too Far .
He appeared in four films with Sean Connery : Robin and Marian , A Bridge Too Far , Cuba and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade .
The British magazine "TV Times" stated in 1975 that "since the death of Dennis Price he has cornered the market in playing upper-class drunks and con-men. But Prices villains were suave, Elliotts are seedy".
I always think instinct is more interesting than anything you can think,up. I mistrust and am rather bored with actors who are of the,Stanislavski school who think about detail. God almighty. Children just,do it when they act. I think we should too - jump in and do it.
[on RADA] I was asked to leave. They said I had no talent. I disliked it,intensely there. It was all filled with acting students who thought,they were so grand and knew it all. It made me feel ridiculously,stupid.
