GB 1993 SHERLOCK HOLMES ROYAL MAIL FIRST DAY COVER SIGNED BY IAN RICHARDSON (73)

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GB 1993 SHERLOCK HOLMES SET ON ROYAL MAIL FIRST DAY COVER SIGNED BY IAN RICHARDSON Ian William Richardson CBE (7 April 1934 – 9 February 2007) was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC 's House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor. Contents [hide ] 1 Early life 2 Stage work 3 Films 4 Television 5 Death 6 Honours 7 Selected filmography 8 References 9 External links [ edit ] Early life Richardson was born in Edinburgh , the son of Margaret (née Drummond) and John Richardson. [1 ] He was educated in the city, at Balgreen Primary School, Tynecastle High School and George Heriot's School .[ 2] [3 ] He first appeared on stage at the age of fourteen, in an amateur production of A Tale of Two Cities . The director encouraged his talent, but warned that he would need to lose his Scottish accent to progress as an actor. His mother arranged elocution lessons and he became a stage manager with the semi-professional Edinburgh People's Theatre. After National Service in the Army (part of which he spent as an announcer and drama director with the British Forces Broadcasting Service ) he obtained a place at the College of Dramatic Arts in Glasgow . After a period at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre he appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), of which he was a founding member, from 1960 to 1975. [ 4] [5 ] [ edit ] Stage work Although he later achieved fame in film and television work such as House of Cards (1990), Ian Richardson was primarily a superb classical stage actor. [6 ] His first engagement after training was with Birmingham Repertory Theatre , where his performance of Hamlet led to an offer of a place with the RSC. He was a versatile member of the company for more than fifteen years, playing villainy, comedy and tragedy to equal effect. He was The Herald in Peter Brook 's production of Marat/Sade in London in 1964; in the New York transfer he took the lead role of Marat (and so became the first actor to appear nude on the Broadway stage), [2 ] a performance he repeated for 1967 film version. In the 1969 season his roles included Pericles in Terry Hands 's production.In 1972, he appeared in the musical Trelawney , with which the Bristol Old Vic reopened after its refurbishment. It proved a great success, transferring to London, first to Sadler's Wells and later to The Savoy . Richardson played the hero, Tom Wrench, a small-part player who wants to write about "real people". He had a song, "Walking On", lamenting his lack of scope in the company, in which he explains that as a "walking gentleman" he will be forever "walking on", whilst Rose Trelawney will go on to be a star. [7 ]Richardson specialised in Shakespearean roles. [5 ] In 1974, he played Iachimo in John Barton 's RSC production of Cymbeline . Richardson's Richard II (alternating the parts of the king and Bolingbroke with Richard Pasco ) in 1974, and repeated in New York and London in the following year, set a standard unequalled for a generation: [2 ] more than thirty years later notable performances of King Richard were still being compared with the production. [8 ]A notable Shakespearean cameo role was a brief performance as Hamlet in the gravedigger scene as part of episode six, 'Protest and Communication', of Kenneth Clark's Civilisation television series in 1969. This was performed at Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire with Patrick Stewart as Horatio and Ronald Lacey as the gravedigger. [9 ]On leaving the RSC, he played Professor Henry Higgins in the 1976 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady and received the Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination. He also appeared on Broadway in 1981 in the original production of Edward Albee 's play Lolita , an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's book , but this is not regarded as having been a success.In 2002 Richardson joined Sir Derek Jacobi , Sir Donald Sinden and Dame Diana Rigg in an internation... read more

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