David Warner

Présentation

Date de naissance
29 juillet 1941 · Manchester, Angleterre, Royaume-Uni
Date de décès
24 juillet 2022 · Denville Hall, Northwood, Londres, Angleterre, Royaume-Uni (cancer)
Nom de naissance
David Hattersley Warner
Taille
1,88 m

Biographie

Famille

Conjoints
Enfants
Parents

Marque commerciale

Deep smooth voice
Often played menacing, sinister villains
Often played eccentric characters

Anecdotes

Had vertigo and was doubled in Bandits, bandits... (1981) in the scene where the Evil Genius walks up the steps after caging the bandits, because he could not handle the drop below him.
Had played three dissimilar species in the Star Trek universe: a human in Star Trek V : L'Ultime Frontière (1989), a Klingon in Star Trek VI : Terre inconnue (1991), and a Cardassian in Star Trek: La nouvelle génération (1987).
Warner's limp in Les Chiens de paille (1971) was real. He smashed both his heels in a fall sometime before filming began and it was a long time before he could walk normally again. He clarified in a 2017 interview that this was unrelated to the fact his name is not in the credits (as has been claimed): his agent wanted him to have above-the-title billing with Dustin Hoffman and Susan George, Hoffman and George's agents refused, and he decided to resolve the quarrel by going uncredited.
In C'était demain (1979), he played John Leslie Stevenson (Jack the Ripper). In Au-delà du réel - l'aventure continue (1995) episode "Ripper", he played Inspector Harold Langford, who was investigating Dr. John York (Cary Elwes), who was suspected of being Jack the Ripper.
He took over the role of Gul Madred on Star Trek: La nouvelle génération (1987) (two-part episode "Chain of Command") on three days' notice. He could not learn his lines in that short time, so he had to use cue cards. He said: "Every line I said, I actually was reading over Patrick Stewart's shoulder or they put it down there for me to do it. After I finished it, I thought it worked, which obviously it did.".

Citations

[on La Malédiction (1976)] I never saw it as a horror movie.
It's all out of one's hands. One goes and does one's best. That's what Albert Finney says -- one main hit, that's all you can hope for.
[on La Malédiction (1976)] What was so good about that picture was that there was no blood in it, really. It's not a gorefest. Strange things happen, but it's got the mood and the music and everything. So of its type, of its kind, I think it's quite a superior film. But either way, you don't say no if you're asked to work with Gregory Peck. And he was wonderful, by the way.
[on Bandits, bandits... (1981)] Time Bandits is one of Terry Gilliam's brilliant visual feasts, of bringing to the screen what you could only dream about. When they talk about "vision" and all that, he's the only person I know of who could put his crazy dreams onto the screen. He's truly a conjurer. Just an extraordinary mind.
In America, I met some fantastic people making films. But going there felt like a bit of a defeat. I mean, why should I leave my country to work? But there was far more television and film in American then. At the time, I didn't like the psoriasis with the stage fright, but it may have made me more sensitive and introverted, which might have led to it.