View source for Max Adrian

{{Short description|Irish actor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Max Adrian
| image         = Max Adrian in One Step Beyond (Image of Death).jpg
| image_size    = 
| caption       = Adrian in the TV series ''[[Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond|One Step Beyond]]'', episode "Image of Death" (1959)
| birth_name    = Guy Thornton Bor
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1903|11|1|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Kilkenny]], [[County Kilkenny]], Ireland
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1973|1|19|1903|11|1|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Shamley Green]], Surrey, England
| nationality = Irish 
| resting_place = [[Woking Crematorium]], [[Woking]], Surrey, England
| occupation    = Actor
| years_active  = 1925&ndash;1973
}}

'''Max Adrian''' (born '''Guy Thornton Bor'''; 1 November 1903 – 19 January 1973) was an Irish stage, film and television actor and singer. He was a founding member of both the [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] and the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]].

In addition to his success as a [[character actor]] in classical drama, Adrian was known for his work as a singer and comic actor in [[revue]] and [[musical theatre|musicals]], and in one-man shows about [[George Bernard Shaw]] and [[Gilbert and Sullivan]], and in cinema and television films, notably [[Ken Russell]]'s ''[[Song of Summer]]'' as the ailing composer [[Frederick Delius|Delius]].

==Early years==
Adrian was born in [[Kilkenny]], [[County Kilkenny]], Ireland, the son of Edward Norman Cavendish Bor and Mabel Lloyd Thornton.<ref>[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1916/01327/1548186.pdf "Bor, Guy Thornton"], ''irishgenealogy.ie''</ref> He was born in the provincial [[Bank of Ireland]] branch in Kilkenny, where his father was the bank manager, into a [[Church of Ireland]] family, the seventh of eight children. His paternal ancestry was [[Dutch people|Dutch]], from settlers who arrived in Ireland with [[William III of England|William of Orange]] in 1689.<ref>[http://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G000852.pdf "The Family Of Bor Of Holland And Ireland "], Bor, Edward J, London, England 1911, ''seekingmyroots.com''</ref> He was educated at the [[Portora Royal School]], [[Enniskillen]], whose past pupils also included [[Oscar Wilde]] and [[Samuel Beckett]].<ref name=morley>Morley, page 3.</ref>

Adrian began his career as a chorus boy at a silent moving-picture house, coming on as part of the chorus line while the reels were being changed. He made his stage debut in the chorus of ''Katja the Dancer'' in 1925.<ref>according to his ''[[Who's Who (UK)|Who's Who]]'' entry; Morley dates his debut to August 1926</ref> He then toured with ''[[Lady, Be Good (musical)|Lady Be Good]]'' and ''The Blue Train''. He made his [[West End theatre|West End]] debut in ''The Squall'' at the [[Gielgud Theatre|Globe Theatre]] in December 1927. After working with [[Tod Slaughter]]'s company at [[Peterborough]], he joined the weekly [[Repertory|rep]] in [[Northampton]], where he took some forty roles a year.<ref name=morley/> He made further West End appearances in ''The Best of Both Worlds'' at the [[Players' Theatre]] in 1930, ''The Glass Wall'' at the [[Embassy Theatre (London)|Embassy Theatre]] in 1933, ''First Episode'' by [[Terence Rattigan]] and Philip Heimann at the [[Comedy Theatre]] in 1934 (later toured in the UK and then transferred to Broadway,<ref>Where the play was retitled ''College Sinners'' (ref. Gaye, p. 288)</ref> ''This Desirable Residence'' at the Embassy in 1935, and ''England Expects'', also at the Embassy in 1934.<ref>''The Times'', 25 January 1930, p. 10; 21 February 1933, p. 10; 27 January 1934, p. 8; 28 May 1935, p. 14; and 14 April 1936, p. 8</ref>
==Career==

===Classical roles and revue===
Adrian first achieved wide public notice in a nine-month season at the Westminster Theatre from September 1938, as Pandarus in a modern dress ''[[Troilus and Cressida]]'' and Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonnington in ''[[The Doctor's Dilemma (play)|The Doctor's Dilemma]]'', winning enthusiastic notices from the critics: "Mr Max Adrian triumphantly turns Pandarus into a chattering and repulsive fribble of the glossily squalid night-club type";<ref>''[[The Observer]]'', 25 September 1938, p. 13</ref> "The egregious 'B.B.'... is a great piece of fun, and Mr. Max Adrian rightly draws him with all possible exuberance of line."<ref>''The Times'', 18 February 1939, p. 10</ref>

Adrian joined the [[Old Vic]] company in 1939, playing the Dauphin in Shaw's ''[[Saint Joan (play)|Saint Joan]]'', "a beautifully malicious study in slyness, effeminacy, meanness, and a curious lost, inverted dignity."<ref>''The Times'', 12 October 1939, p. 6</ref> He continued classical work with [[John Gielgud]]'s company at the [[Haymarket Theatre]] (1944–45), where he appeared as [[Puck (Shakespeare)|Puck]] in ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', Osric in ''[[Hamlet]]'', and Tattle in [[William Congreve]]'s ''Love for Love''.<ref name=timesobit>''The Times'', 20 January 1973, p. 16</ref>

Away from the classics, Adrian played the Scarecrow in ''The Wizard of Oz'' at the [[Phoenix Theatre (London)|Phoenix Theatre]] in 1943. In 1947, at the [[Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith]], Adrian began performing in a series of [[revue]]s (''Tuppence Coloured'', ''Oranges and Lemons'', ''Penny Plain'', ''[[Airs on a Shoestring]]'', ''From Here to There,'' and ''Fresh Airs'') in which he played more than 2,000 performances,<ref>''The Times'' 12 July 1955, p. 5</ref> and established himself, in [[Sheridan Morley]]'s words, "as a superlative – if eccentric – light comedian."<ref name=morley/> Fellow performers in the revues included [[Joyce Grenfell]], [[Rose Hill (actress)|Rose Hill]] and [[Elisabeth Welch]]. Contributors included [[Michael Flanders]], [[Donald Swann]] and [[Alan Melville (writer)|Alan Melville]], and the producer was [[Laurier Lister]], who became Adrian's lifelong partner.<ref>"Obituary of Mr Laurier Lister", ''The Times'', 2 October 1986</ref> Adrian's musical numbers included "Prehistoric Complaint" (as a misfit caveman), "Excelsior" (as a put-upon [[Sherpa people|Sherpa]]), "Guide to [[Benjamin Britten|Britten]]" (as a manic conductor), "In the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company|D'Oyly Cart]] [''sic'']" (as a jaded [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] performer), and "Surly Girls" (as headmistress of [[St. Trinian's]]).

When revue became less popular in the mid-1950s, Adrian went to America in 1956 to appear as Dr. Pangloss and Martin in [[Leonard Bernstein]]'s operetta ''[[Candide (operetta)|Candide]]'' on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]. The original production was a failure, but the original cast recording has rarely been out of the catalogues in the subsequent half century. He remained in the U.S., working in summer stock in roles as varied as Doolittle in ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]'', Jourdain in ''[[Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme]]'', Shylock in ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'', and Sir Peter Teazle in ''[[The School for Scandal]]''.<ref>Gaye, p. 289</ref> He returned to London in 1959 to appear in [[Noël Coward]]'s play ''[[Look After Lulu!]]'' in which he also later played on Broadway.<ref name=morley/>

In 1960, Adrian joined [[Peter Hall (theatre director)|Peter Hall]]'s newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in [[Stratford-upon-Avon]], together with such actors as [[Peggy Ashcroft]], [[Peter O'Toole]] and [[Diana Rigg]]. He played Jaques in ''[[As You Like It]]'', Feste in ''[[Twelfth Night]]'', Pandarus in ''Troilus and Cressida'', the Cardinal in [[John Webster]]'s ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'', and Father Barré in ''[[The Devils (play)|The Devils]]'', as well as a range of smaller parts. He also starred with [[Dorothy Tutin]], [[Richard Johnson (actor)|Richard Johnson]] and [[John Barton (director)|John Barton]] in ''The Hollow Crown'', an anthology of prose and verse about the monarchs of England, devised by Barton and frequently revived in later years.<ref name=whoswho>[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U151627 "Adrian, Max"], ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2007, Retrieved 27 January 2009</ref>

Adrian was one of the original members of [[Laurence Olivier]]'s [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre Company]] at the [[Old Vic Theatre|Old Vic]] from 1963, and appeared as [[Polonius]] in the opening production of ''[[Hamlet]]'', in which Peter O'Toole played the Prince. ''[[The Guardian]]'' called his performance, "sly, dry, and not quite stuffy enough, but every sally from this character was touched with a look of great complicity towards the audience which made something special of this sometimes over-charged part."<ref name=guardian>''The Guardian'', 20 January 1973, p. 7</ref> He then played
the Inquisitor in ''[[Saint Joan (play)|Saint Joan]]'', Serebryakov in ''[[Uncle Vanya]]'', Balance in ''[[The Recruiting Officer]]'' and Brovik in ''[[The Master Builder]]''.<ref name=morley/>

===Solo shows and screen work===
In the late 1960s, Adrian toured as George Bernard Shaw in the one-man show ''An Evening with GBS'', which played in London, on Broadway, and in Asia, Africa and Australia.<ref>The show was sometimes given under the title "By George!" See [https://web.archive.org/web/20121020060748/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/411/Max-Adrian ''The New York Times'']</ref> ''The Times'' said that the show "presented a deeply understanding portrait... impish, malicious, playful, outrageous, affectionate, angry and almost always eloquent."<ref name=timesobit/> His later one-man show about [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] was a lesser, but real, success.<ref name=morley/>

Adrian's first film was in 1934. He appeared in several British films in the 1940s, before playing the Dauphin in the Laurence Olivier production of ''[[Henry V (1944 film)|Henry V]]'' (1944). He also appeared in ''[[Dr. Terror's House of Horrors]]'' (1965) as the vampire Dr Blake, ''[[The Deadly Affair]]'' (1966), and in several [[Ken Russell]] films: ''[[The Music Lovers]]'' (1970; as [[Anton Rubinstein]]), ''[[The Boy Friend (1971 film)|''The Boy Friend'']]'' (1971) and ''[[The Devils (film)|The Devils]]'' (1971).

Adrian was also featured in Russell's acclaimed award-winning 1968 ''[[Omnibus (British TV programme)|Omnibus]]'' television film ''[[Song of Summer]]'', as the blind and paralysed composer [[Frederick Delius]]. Adrian once said that, of all the roles he had ever played, he had never had such difficulty in ridding himself of involvement in a character as that of Delius in ''Song of Summer''.<ref>[http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview6/songofsummer.htm "Song of Summer"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106111114/http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview6/songofsummer.htm |date=6 January 2009 }} at DVD Beaver</ref>

Also on television, Adrian appeared in [[Beyond This Place (1957)|a 1957 adaptation]] of [[A. J. Cronin]]'s novel ''[[Beyond This Place (novel)|Beyond This Place]]'', which was directed by [[Sidney Lumet]]. His other television work included the role of Senator Ludicrus Sextus in the first season of ''[[Up Pompeii!]]'' with [[Frankie Howerd]] (1969), [[Fagin]] in the 1962 dramatisation of ''[[Oliver Twist (1962 TV serial)|Oliver Twist]]'', and parts in ''[[The Baron (TV series)|The Baron]]'', ''[[Adam Adamant Lives!]]'' and in 1959, in the Case of the Deadly Toy ''[[Perry Mason (1957 TV series)|Perry Mason]]''. He also appeared in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story ''[[The Myth Makers]]'' as [[Priam|King Priam]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/mythmakers/detail.shtml ''The Myth Makers''] at the BBC's ''Doctor Who'' episode guide.</ref><ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0012451/ Max Adrian] at the IMDB database.</ref><!-- IMDB lists an earlier, 1925, film appearance in ''The Primrose Path'' starring [[Clara Bow]], but this is inconsistent with the known dates of Adrian's acting career and is presumably a different performer of the same name --> He played the part of the Baron de Charlus in the [[BBC]] radio plays ''Six Proust Reconstructions'' by [[Pamela Hansford Johnson]].

Adrian's voice and acting style were distinctive. ''[[The Times]]'' referred to his "Osric-like elaborations of manner", and his voice "like no other heard on the English stage of his day, vestigially Irish and harshly attractive." The Times also described his 1934 performance in England Expects ([[Embassy Theatre (London)|Embassy Theatre]]) as "a gilded habitué of the backstairs" as outstanding.

==Death==
Adrian died at age 69 from a heart attack, at his and Lister's home, Smarkham Orchard, [[Shamley Green]], near [[Guildford|Guildford, Surrey]], after returning from the television studios where he had been recording [[Bertolt Brecht]]'s ''[[The Caucasian Chalk Circle]]'' for the [[BBC]].<ref name=guardian/> At his memorial service, at which the [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]] said the great names of British theatre paid tribute to Max Adrian's style and professionalism, the lessons were read by [[Alec Guinness]] and Laurence Olivier and the eulogy was given by Joyce Grenfell.<ref>Elsom, John: ''Adrian, Max (1903–1973)'', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40447, Retrieved 28 Jan 2009]</ref>

==Personal life==
Adrian's elder brother was the botanist Dr. [[Norman Bor|Norman Loftus Bor]], who predeceased him by four weeks. Another brother, Lieutenant Thomas Humphrey Bor, [[RNR]], was killed when his [[British E-class submarine|E-class]] submarine struck a mine in the North Sea in 1916.<ref>[http://rnsubs.co.uk/crew/roh.html?name=Bor ''Roll of Honour''] ''rnsubs.co.uk''</ref> His younger brother, Fetherston Briscoe Bor, remained a farmer in Ireland until his death in 1965.

==Filmography==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
|-
|1934|| ''[[The Primrose Path (1934 film)|The Primrose Path]]'' || Julian Leigh ||
|-
| rowspan=5 | 1936|| ''[[A Touch of the Moon]]'' || Francis Leverton ||
|-
| ''[[The Cardinal (1936 film)|The Cardinal]]'' || Barber || Uncredited
|-
| ''[[To Catch a Thief (1936 film)|To Catch a Thief]]'' || Salesman ||
|-
| ''[[The Happy Family (1936 film)|The Happy Family]]'' || Noel Hutt ||
|-
| ''[[Nothing Like Publicity]]'' || Bob Wharncliffe ||
|-
| rowspan=2 | 1937|| ''[[Why Pick on Me? (1937 film)|Why Pick on Me?]]'' || Jack Mills ||
|-
| ''When the Devil Was Well'' || David ||
|-
| rowspan=2 | 1938|| ''[[Macushla (film)|Macushla]]'' || Kerry Muldoon ||
|-
| ''Merely Mr. Hawkins'' || Mr. Fletcher ||
|-
| rowspan=3 | 1941|| ''[[Kipps (1941 film)|Kipps]]'' || Chester Coote ||
|-
| ''[[Jeannie (film)|Jeannie]]'' || ||
|-
| ''[[Penn of Pennsylvania]]'' || Elton ||
|-
| rowspan=2 | 1942|| ''[[The Young Mr. Pitt]]'' || Sheridan ||
|-
| ''[[Talk About Jacqueline]]'' || Lionel ||
|-
|1944|| ''[[Henry V (1944 film)|Henry V]]'' || The Dauphin ||
|-
|1950|| ''[[Her Favourite Husband]]'' || Catoni ||
|-
|1951|| ''[[Pool of London (film)|Pool of London]]'' || Charlie Vernon, acrobat / George ||
|-
| rowspan=2 | 1952|| ''[[The King and the Mockingbird]]'' || The King || English version, voice
|-
| ''[[The Pickwick Papers (1952 film)|The Pickwick Papers]]'' || Aide ||
|-
|1959|| ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]'' || Robert Stone || Season 4 Episode 29: "Banquo's Chair"
|-
|1963|| ''[[Uncle Vanya (1963 film)|Uncle Vanya]]'' || Professor Alexander Serebryakov ||
|-
|1965|| ''[[Dr. Terror's House of Horrors]]'' || Dr. Blake || (segment "Vampire")
|-
| rowspan=2 | 1967|| ''[[The Deadly Affair]]'' || Morton, Adviser ||
|-
| ''[[The Terrornauts]]'' || Dr. Henry Shore ||
|-
|1968|| ''[[Song of Summer]]'' || Frederick Delius ||
|-
| rowspan=3 | 1971|| ''[[The Music Lovers]]'' || Nicholas Rubinstein ||
|-
| ''[[The Devils (film)|The Devils]]'' || Ibert ||
|-
| ''[[The Boy Friend (1971 film)|The Boy Friend]]'' || Max Mandeville aka Mr. Max / Lord Hubert Brockhurst ||
|}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
*Gaye, Freda: ''Who's Who in the Theatre'', fourteenth edition, 1967, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, London
*Morley, Sheridan: ''The Great Stage Stars'', Angus & Robertson, London, 1986. {{ISBN|0-8160-1401-9}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{YouTube|cO-4MRteUSk|"The Bishop Orders His Tomb, by Robert Browning"}}, read by Max Adrian
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [http://www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/search/people_sub_plays_all?forename=Max&amp;surname=ADRIAN&amp;job=Actor&amp;pid=14626&image_view=Yesamp;x=19amp;y=17 Performances in the Theatre Archive University of Bristol]
*{{IMDb name}}
*{{IBDB name}}
*{{iobdb name}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adrian, Max}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1973 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish male actors]]
[[Category:Actors from County Kilkenny]]
[[Category:Gay singers]]
[[Category:Irish LGBTQ actors]]
[[Category:Irish LGBTQ singers]]
[[Category:Irish male film actors]]
[[Category:Irish male stage actors]]
[[Category:Irish male television actors]]
[[Category:Irish people of Dutch descent]]
[[Category:People educated at Portora Royal School]]
[[Category:People from Kilkenny (city)]]
[[Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members]]