Well, that’s settled now. The Queerguru Team knows what they will be watching this Thanksgiving. No ‘Odyssey , or ]Batman Again], or any other suspect Hollywood blockbuster. Focus Features has just made us very happy by announcing that the highly anticipated film that tells the story of the Scottish actor Ian Charleston will be released. It takes its title ELSINORE from Hamlet, as he died eight weeks, at the age of just 40, after performing the title role in a run of Hamlet, in Richard Eyre‘s production at the Olivier Theatre. The day following Charleson’s final Hamlet performance, when Ian McKellen was given the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for his Iago in Othello, McKellen offered thanks, but said having seen “the perfect Hamlet” at the National Theatre the previous night, he thought that not he but Charleson was truly the Best Actor of 1989, and he gave Charleson his statuette.
Charleston was equally at home in the theatre and on the small screens. In 1979 he was appearing in PIAF at London’s Aldwych Theatre when he was ‘spotted ‘ by filmmaker Hugh Hudson who was looking for ‘new’ talent. The film was Chariots of Fire, and it would go on to win 4 Academy Awards. Charleston had really arrived,
He was in another Oscar-winning movie GANDI, but during his busiest years he never neglected the stage classics and flitted between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in productions of ‘Cat of a Hot Tin Roof ‘, ‘The Tempest’,’ Bent’ ‘As You Like It ‘ ‘Guys and Dolls’ ‘Volpne’ etc
Then in 1986, at the height of his fame, Charleson, who was gay, was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 during the AIDS pandemic, and died 4 years later.
Even when it came to dealing with HIV, he showed the world what a (very) big set of balls he had. Charleson requested that it be announced after his death that he had died of AIDS, to publicise the condition. This unusual decision by a major internationally known actor, the first show-business death in the United Kingdom openly attributed to complications from AIDS, helped promote awareness of HIV and AIDS and acceptance of AIDS patients.
This new film Elsinore, depicts Charleson’s life, in particular his final Hamlet and the odds he faced in preparing for and performing it. The film stars the openly gay actor Andrew Scott as Charleson and co-stars Olivia Colman as his doctor. The screenplay is by Stephen Beresford,(who wrote Queer Palm Award winner PRIDE) the director is Simon Stone, the producer is Andrea Occhipinti, and the studio is StudioCanal.
| In 1990, following his death, 20 of Charleson’s friends, colleagues, and family members, including Ian McKellen, Alan Bates, Hugh Hudson, Richard Eyre, Sean Mathias, Hilton McRae, Ruby Wax, and David Rintoul, contributed to a book of reminiscences about him, called For Ian Charleson: A Tribute, published in October 1990. All royalties from the sale of the book go to the Ian Charleson Trust, a charitable foundation. The book is still available via Amazon |
PLUS. In his honour, the annual Ian Charleson Awards were established in 1991 to reward the best classical stage performances in Britain by actors aged under 30.
The Royal Free Hospital‘s Ian Charleson Day Centre for people with HIV, in London, is named in his memory.
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