Ben Cross

Harry Bernard Cross (16 December 1947 – 18 August 2020) was an English stage and film actor. He was best known for playing Billy Flynn in the original West End production of the musical ''Chicago'', and his portrayal of the British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the 1981 film ''Chariots of Fire''.

Early life

Harry Bernard Cross was born in London on 16 December 1947, to a working-class family. He was the son of Catherine (née O'Donovan), a cleaner, and Harry Cross, a doorman. His father died of tuberculosis when Cross was aged eight. While his father was a member of the Church of England, Cross grew up in his Irish mother's Catholic faith, in the Tulse Hill neighbourhood of London.

Career

Early career

Cross started his career by taking manual jobs, including working as a window cleaner, waiter, and joiner. He also worked as a carpenter for the Welsh National Opera, and was the Property Master at The Alexandra theatre in Birmingham.

In 1970 at the age of 22, he was accepted into London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), but later expressed little interest in pursuing the classical arts route.Wolf, Matt (11 May 1985) "Ben Cross Builds Stage Career Playing Americans", Associated Press.

After graduating from RADA, Cross performed in several stage plays at The Dukes theatre in Lancaster where he was seen in '' Macbeth'', ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' and Arthur Miller's ''Death of a Salesman.'' He then joined the Prospect Theatre Company and played roles in ''Pericles'', ''Twelfth Night'', and ''The Royal Hunt of the Sun''. Cross also joined the cast of the musical '' Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' and played leading roles in Peter Shaffer's '' Equus'', ''Mind Your Head'', and the musical ''Irma la Douce'' — all at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre.

Cross's first big-screen film appearance came in 1976 when he went on location to Deventer, Netherlands, to play Trooper Binns in Joseph E. Levine's Second World War epic '' A Bridge Too Far'', which starred an international cast, including Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Michael Caine and James Caan.

In 1977, Cross became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; he performed in the premiere of ''Privates on Parade'' as "Kevin Cartwright" and played Rover in a revival of a Restoration play titled ''Wild Oats''. Cross's path to international stardom began in 1978 with his performance in the musical ''Chicago'', in which he played Billy Flynn, the slick lawyer of murderess Roxie Hart.

1980s–1990s

During Cross's performance in ''Chicago'' he was recognised and recommended for a leading role in the multiple Oscar-winning film ''Chariots of Fire'' in 1981. The film was based on the true story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice. Cross trained hard for his role as Abrahams; his co-star Ian Charleson played Liddell. The pair were shown in the opening scene running barefoot with a group of others along a Scottish beach, accompanied by Vangelis's music. Considered "one of the most memorable opening scenes in film history", Cross acknowledged the scene's effectiveness but remembered the water was freezing. For their performances in the film, Cross and Charleson both won "Most Promising Artiste of 1981" awards from the Variety Club Awards in February 1982. Cross's starring role in ''Chariots of Fire'' has been credited with continuing a transatlantic trend in elegant young English actors that had been set by Jeremy Irons in ''Brideshead Revisited''. The film went on to win multiple Academy Awards, including the one for Best Picture.

Cross followed up ''Chariots of Fire'' with performances as a Scottish physician, Dr Andrew Manson, struggling with the politics of the British medical system during the 1920s, in ''The Citadel'', a 10-part BBC Television dramatisation of A. J. Cronin's novel, and as Ashton (Ash) Pelham-Martyn, a British cavalry officer torn between two cultures in the ITV miniseries ''The Far Pavilions''.

In 1982, the U.S. union Actors' Equity, in a landmark reversal of a previous ruling, allowed Cross to appear in John Guare's off-Broadway play ''Lydie Breeze''. The decision was tied to a joint effort by Actors' Equity, the League of New York Theatres and the British union Equity to allow British and U.S. actors unrestricted opportunities to work in both countries. The agreement eventually led to regular equal exchange agreements for equivalent acting jobs between London and New York City.

During the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, Cross appeared in a commercial for American Express ('Don't leave home without it') with the 87-year-old Jackson Scholz, a sprinter for the 1924 American Olympic team whose character was featured in the film ''Chariots of Fire''. When Cross talks about beating Scholz, the latter remarks, "''You'' didn't beat me!" with mock indignation. Proving he is 'still pretty fast', Scholz beats Cross to the draw in picking up the tab with his credit card.

He subsequently replaced James Garner as the featured actor endorsing the Polaroid Spectra camera in 1986. Cross was also featured in ''GQ Magazine'' as one of the annual "Manstyle" winners in January 1985 followed by a featured photo shoot in March 1985.

In 1985, he played Barney Greenwald in a revival of Herman Wouk's courtroom drama ''The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial'' at the Queen's Theatre, London, alongside castmates Charlton Heston (as Captain Queeg) and John Schuck.

In a 1985 interview, the actor admitted he preferred American roles because of their emotionalism, saying of English acting: "Over here, people hide behind mannerism and technique and don't come up with any soul. American actors are much freer with the emotions. It's pretty hard in Europe not to have experience of Americans because we're exposed to a lot of American product." Cross also said that he was sympathetic to the American dream of success: "I am ambitious. There's no point of being ashamed of the fact that one has ambitions. Despite what a lot of people think in our profession, you can have ambitions and still turn in good work and still earn a living. There's no clash there." Cross expressed the hope that his reputation would "span the Atlantic," and that those in the industry would not ignore him because he did not live in Los Angeles or New York City. "A prospective director would have to convince me that I could bring something new, fresh and exciting to a classical part that hundreds of other people have played," he said.

During this time, Cross' career included several roles in made-for-television productions, as well as the stage. In the 1988 HBO spy film ''Steal the Sky'' he played Munir Redfa, an Iraqi pilot blackmailed into flying a MiG aircraft from Iraq to Israel. In Ian Sharp's 1989 NBC-TV miniseries ''Twist of Fate'', he played German Nazi SS colonel and war criminal Helmut von Schraeder, who has his face and voice surgically changed to pose as a Jew in a concentration camp to avoid post-war capture and war crime punishment by the approaching Allies, then after his liberation at the war's end by the title's name becomes a Zionist and one of Israel's early founders and leading military generals. He twice portrayed a vampire, first in the 1989 USA Network film ''Nightlife'', then again as Barnabas Collins in the 1991 MGM miniseries remake of the cult classic TV soap opera ''Dark Shadows''. Cross also appeared as Sir Harold Pearson in the 1994 Italian production ''Caro Dolce Amore (Honey Sweet Love)'', Solomon in the 1997 Trimark Pictures production '' Solomon'' and Captain Nemo in the 1997 CBS film ''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea''.

2000–2020

Cross played Ikey Solomon in the Australian production ''The Potato Factory'' in 2000. In 2005, Cross, an anti-death penalty campaigner, starred as a death-row prisoner in Bruce Graham's play '' Coyote on a Fence'', at the Duchess Theatre. He played Rudolf Hess in the 2006 BBC
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