Patrick Magee (actor)


Patrick George McGee, known professionally as Patrick Magee, was a Northern Irish actor and director of stage and screen. He was known for his collaborations with Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, as well as creating the role of the Marquis de Sade in the original stage and screen productions of Marat/Sade. He also appeared in numerous horror films and in two Stanley Kubrick films, A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon.

Early life

McGee was born into a middle-class family at 2 Edward Street, Armagh, County Armagh. The eldest of five children, he was educated at St. Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh.

Stage career

His first stage experience in Ireland was with Anew McMaster's touring company, performing the works of Shakespeare. It was here that he first worked with Pinter. He was then brought to London by Tyrone Guthrie for a series of Irish plays. He met Beckett in 1957 and soon recorded passages from the novel, Molloy, and the short story, From an Abandoned Work, for BBC radio. Impressed by "the cracked quality of Magee's distinctly Irish voice," Beckett requested copies of the tapes and wrote Krapp's Last Tape especially for the actor. First produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 28 October 1958, the play starred Magee directed by Donald McWhinnie. A televised version with Magee directed by McWhinnie was later broadcast by BBC2 on 29 November 1972. Beckett's biographer Anthony Cronin wrote that "there was a sense in which, as an actor, he had been waiting for Beckett as Beckett had been waiting for him."
In 1964, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, after Pinter, directing his own play The Birthday Party, specifically requested him for the role of McCann, and stated he was the strongest in the cast. In 1965 he appeared in Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade, and when the play transferred to Broadway he won a Tony Award. He also appeared in the 1966 RSC production of Staircase opposite Paul Scofield.

Film career

Early film roles included Joseph Losey's The Criminal and The Servant, the latter an adaptation scripted by Pinter. He also appeared as Surgeon-Major Reynolds in Zulu, Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Anzio, and in the film versions of Marat/Sade and The Birthday Party. He is perhaps best known for his role as the victimised writer Frank Alexander, who tortures Alex DeLarge with Beethoven's music, in Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange. His other role for Kubrick was as Redmond Barry's mentor, the Chevalier de Balibari, in Barry Lyndon.
Magee also appeared in Young Winston, The Final Programme, Galileo, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, The Monster Club and Chariots of Fire, but was most often seen in horror films. These included Roger Corman's The Masque of Red Death, and the Boris Karloff vehicle Die, Monster, Die! for AIP; The Skull, Tales from the Crypt, Asylum, and And Now the Screaming Starts! for Amicus Productions; Demons of the Mind for Hammer Film Productions; and Walerian Borowczyk's Docteur Jekyll et les femmes.

Personal life

Magee married Belle Sherry, also a native of County Armagh, in 1958. The couple had two children, twins Mark and Caroline, and remained together until Magee's death.
Magee was a staunch Irish republican, and an active campaigner for left-wing social and political causes. In 1976, he played an instrumental role in persuading his union Equity to boycott South Africa over the country's apartheid legislation.
A heavy drinker, Magee died from a heart attack at his flat in Fulham, southwest London on 14 August 1982 at the age of 60, according to obituaries in The Glasgow Herald and The New York Times.
On 29 July 2017, actor Stephen Rea, who appeared alongside Patrick Magee in a production of Samuel Beckett's play Endgame, unveiled a blue plaque commemorating Magee's birthplace at 2 Edward Street, Armagh.

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1960The CriminalBarrowsaka Concrete Jungle
1961Rag DollFlynnaka Young, Willing and Eager
1961Never Back LosersBen Black
1962The BoysMr Lee
1962A Prize of ArmsRSM Hicks
1963RicochetInspector Cummins
1963The Young RacersSir William Dragonet
1963The Very EdgeSimmonds
1963The ServantBishop
1963Dementia 13Justin Caleb
1963Operacija TicijanDr. Morisijusaka Operation Titian
1964ZuluSurgeon James Henry Reynolds
1964Séance on a Wet AfternoonWalsh
1964The Masque of the Red DeathAlfredo
1965The SkullPolice Surgeon
1965Die, Monster, Die!Dr HendersonAlternative title: Monster of Terror
1965Portrait in TerrorMauricio Zaroni
1967Marat/SadeMarquis de Sade
1968AnzioGeneral Starkey
1968Decline and Fall... of a BirdwatcherManiac
1968The Birthday PartyShamus McCann
1969Hard ContractAlexi
1970CromwellHugh Peters
1970You Can't Win 'Em AllThe General – Atatürk
1971King LearCornwall
1971The Trojan WomenMenelaus
1971A Clockwork OrangeMr Alexander
1972Tales from the CryptGeorge Carter
1972The FiendMinisteraka Beware My Brothern
1972AsylumDr Rutherford
1972Young WinstonGeneral Bindon Blood
1972Pope JoanElder monk
1972Demons of the MindFalkenberg
1973And Now the Screaming Starts!Dr Whittle
1973Lady IcePaul Booth
1973The Final ProgrammeDr Baxteraka The Last Days of Man on Earth
1974LutherHans
1974SimonaLe père
1975GalileoCardinal Bellarmin
1975Barry LyndonThe Chevalier du Balibari
1977TelefonGeneral Strelsky
1979The Brontë SistersReverend Bronte
1980Rough CutErnst Mueller
1980The Sleep of DeathMarquis
1980Hawk the SlayerPriest
1980Sir Henry at Rawlinson EndReverend Slodden
1981Chariots of FireLord Cadogan
1981The Monster ClubInnkeeper – Luna's Father
1981The Black CatProfessor Robert Miles
1981Blood of Dr. JekyllGeneral William Danvers Carewaka ''The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
1981---

Television