- Tom Adams, The Fighting Prince of Donegal, 1965. The young turks of the hour – Brooks, David Hemmings, John Hurt – were in the Disney frame for Henry O’Neill, best buddy of Peter McEnery’s titular hero during the warring Irish clans, circa 1587. Brooks stayed in television, most memorably as Carol White’s luckless husband in Ken Loach’s homelessness drama, Cathy Come Home – it brought the UK to its knees on March 28, 1969. (What a birthday week that was!)
- John Hurt, I, Claudius, TV, 1976. While the the stuttering Roman emperor-to-be, version Robert Graves, was offered to Ronnie Barker, Charlton Heston, Peter Sellers (and finally, Derek Jacobi) – Caligula was just a battle between Brooks and Hurt. And their schedules. This absolute jewel in the BBClassics’ crown took six months to shoot.
- William Gaunt, Doctor Who #142: Revelation of the Daleks, 1985. For the second time, 25 actors were up for a single rôle… in a Doctor flaming Who. How preposterous..! An unlikely choice for a mercenary, Gaunt was selected late in the game after an exhausting Orcini search through Brooks (from the lumpily-titled 1955 movie, Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 AD), Joss Ackland, James Ellis, John Fraser, Peter Gilmore, Denis Lill, Philip Madoc, Peter Vaughan… Plus survivors of the astonishing army of 203 candidates for just 18 roles in that year’s Lifeforce movie mess: Tom Adams, George Baker, John Carson, Frank Finlay, Julian Glover, Michael Gothard, Del Henney, Peter Jeffrey, TP McKenna, Patrick Mower, Clifford Rose, Patrick Stewart, Nigel Stock, Anthony Valentine, David Warner and Frank Windsor. The differecne being that Who was science fiction, Lifeforce was science fart.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 3