Actor Ben Cross, who
was best known for playing athlete Harold Abrahams in the film Chariots of
Fire, has died at the age of 72.
His other roles
included the leads in HBO's first ever mini-series, The Far Pavilions, in 1984,
and the 1991 horror series Dark Shadows.
His representatives
said he died "suddenly" following a short illness.
His daughter Lauren
wrote on Facebook that she was "utterly heartbroken" that her
"darling father" had passed away.
She said he had been
"sick for a while" but there had been a "rapid decline over the
past week".
His representatives
said he had just finishing shooting horror film The Devil's Light and later
this year will appear in a leading role in the romantic drama film Last Letter
From Your Lover.
He was born Harry
Bernard Cross in London to a working-class Catholic family.
Ben Cross as British
athlete Harold Abrahams in Chariots of Fire
After graduating
from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Rada), he moved from the stage to
screen and took a minor role in the 1977 war film A Bridge Too Far, which
starred Sir Sean Connery and Sir Michael Caine.
He became a member
of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the same year, before gaining wider acclaim
as Billy Flynn - the lawyer representing murderer Roxie Hart - in a 1978
version of the stage musical Chicago.
It was a performance
that was widely believed to have earned him his role in 1981's Chariots Of
Fire, which went on to win four Oscars including best picture.
Cross played Jewish
runner Harold Abrahams in the film, which was based on the true story of two
British men racing for Olympic gold in 1924.
BBC religion editor
Martin Bashir said Cross's portrayal of Abrahams had "captured the burden
of being an outsider".
After Chariots of
Fire, Cross was cast as a British officer in 19th Century colonial India in The
Far Pavilions, which was described by The New York Times as "the most
expensive, ambitious production ever risked by a pay cable service".
He later appeared as Malagant in the 1995 film First Knight and Sarek in
the 2009 Star Trek reboot.
Cross also played Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess in the 2006 BBC
production Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial.
James Bond star Colin Salmon, who worked on The Devil's Light alongside
Cross, tweeted: "It was good working with him, seeing his twinkle &
his craft.
"He wrote songs for the Sinatra of Bulgaria, had so many stories &
spoke in Bulgarian and German on set. Go Well Ben RIP."
US television and
film director Todd Holland also shared a tribute, saying he had met Cross early
in his own career.
"We shot a
screen test at Pinewood Studios. I went to his home for dinner with his
family," he said.
"Ben Cross was
a lovely man and talented actor. That movie never got made. But... what a
classy guy."
Cross, who died in Vienna, Austria, had two children, Lauren and Theo.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53829798
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