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Alan Bates
Alan Bates

Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving. He is also known for hi... more

Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving. He is also known for his tour-de-force with Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek, as well as his roles in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Fixer, which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the Ken Russell film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson. Bates went on to star in The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman, Nijinsky, and The Rose with Bette Midler, as well as playing varied roles in television drama, including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Harold Pinter's The Collection, A Voyage Round My Father, An Englishman Abroad (as Guy Burgess), and Pack of Lies. He also continued to appear on the stage, notably in the plays of Simon Gray, such as Butley and Otherwise Engaged.

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Gosford Park
(2001)
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1930’s England, a group of pretentious rich and famous gather together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.
Runtime:
131 min
Director:
Robert Altman
Cast:
Helen Mirren, Clive Owen, Maggie Smith, Geraldine Somerville, Charles Dance
7.2
86%
90
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The Sum of All Fears
(2002)
Action, Drama, Thriller
When the president of Russia suddenly dies, a man whose politics are virtually unknown succeeds him. The change in political leaders sparks paranoia among American CIA officials, so CIA director Bill Cabot recruits a young analyst to supply insight and advice on the situation. Then the unthinkable happens: a nuclear bomb explodes in a ...
Runtime:
124 min
Director:
Phil Alden Robinson
Cast:
Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell, James Cromwell, Ken Jenkins
6.4
59%
45
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The Mothman Prophecies
(2002)
Drama, Horror, Mystery
Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror and unthinkable chaos when fate draws him to a sleepy West Virginia town whose residents are being visited by a great winged shape that sows hideous nightmares and fevered visions.
Runtime:
119 min
Director:
Mark Pellington
Cast:
Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Will Patton, Bob Tracey, Debra Messing
6.4
52%
52
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Zorba the Greek
(1964)
Drama
An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.
Runtime:
142 min
Director:
Mihalis Kakogiannis
Cast:
Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova, Sotiris Moustakas
7.7
82%
N/A
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Hamlet
(1990)
Drama, History
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans revenge.
Runtime:
130 min
Director:
Franco Zeffirelli
Cast:
Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield, Ian Holm
6.7
76%
53
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The Rose
(1979)
Drama, Music, Romance
Rock-and-roll singer Mary Rose Foster's romantic relationships and mental health are continuously imperilled by the demands of life on the road.
Runtime:
125 min
Director:
Mark Rydell
Cast:
Bette Midler, Alan Bates, Harry Dean Stanton, David Keith, Barry Primus
7.0
78%
67
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Women in Love
(1969)
Drama, Romance
Growing up in the sheltered confines of a 1920's English coal-mining community, free-spirited sisters Gudrun and Ursula explore erotic love with a wealthy playboy and a philosophical educator, with cataclysmic results for all four.
Runtime:
131 min
Director:
Ken Russell
Cast:
Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, Jennie Linden, Eleanor Bron
7.6
N/A
N/A
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Evelyn
(2002)
Drama
Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children—Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice—make it clear to the authorities this is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Do...
Runtime:
92 min
Director:
Bruce Beresford
Cast:
Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Vavasseur, Aidan Quinn, Julianna Margulies, Stephen Rea
7.0
64%
55
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Far from the Madding Crowd
(1967)
Drama, Romance
Bathsheba Everdine, a willful, flirtatious, young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and becomes romantically involved with three widely divergent men.
Runtime:
166 min
Director:
John Schlesinger
Cast:
Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Terence Stamp, Alan Bates, Peter Finch
7.2
64%
55
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Arabian Nights
(2000)
Drama, Family, Fantasy
Scheherezade puts herself in danger to save Sultan Schariar, her childhood friend, from the madness that has gripped him since the death of his cheating wife at his own hands.
Runtime:
175 min
Director:
Steve Barron
Cast:
Mili Avital, Dougray Scott, Jason Scott Lee, Vanessa Mae, Alan Bates
7.6
N/A
N/A
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King of Hearts
(1966)
Comedy, Drama, War
An ornithologist mistaken for an explosives expert is sent alone into a small French town during WWI to investigate a garbled report from the resistance about a bomb which the departing Germans have set to blow up a weapons cache.
Runtime:
102 min
Director:
Philippe de Broca
Cast:
Alan Bates, Geneviève Bujold, Pierre Brasseur, Michel Serrault, Jean-Claude Brialy
7.5
89%
N/A
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Spartacus
(2004)
Action, Drama
Sentenced to spend out the rest of his adult life laboring in the harsh deserts of Egypt, the Thracian slave Spartacus gets a new lease on life when he is purchased by the obese owner of a Roman gladiator school. Moved by the defiance of an Ethiopian warrior, Draba, Spartacus leads a slave uprising which threatens Rome's status quo. As...
Runtime:
174 min
Director:
Robert Dornhelm
Cast:
Goran Visnjic, Alan Bates, Angus Macfadyen, Rhona Mitra, Ian McNeice
6.8
N/A
N/A
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The Go-Between
(1971)
Drama, Romance
British teenager Leo Colston spends a summer in the countryside, where he develops a crush on the beautiful young aristocrat Marian. Eager to impress her, Leo becomes the "go-between" for Marian, delivering secret romantic letters to Ted Burgess, a handsome neighboring farmer.
Runtime:
116 min
Director:
Joseph Losey
Cast:
Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave, Dominic Guard
7.4
N/A
N/A
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An Unmarried Woman
(1978)
Comedy, Drama, Romance
A wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of 16 years leaves her for a younger woman.
Runtime:
124 min
Director:
Paul Mazursky
Cast:
Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy, Cliff Gorman, Patricia Quinn
7.2
89%
N/A
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The Entertainer
(1960)
Drama, Music
Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.
Runtime:
96 min
Director:
Tony Richardson
Cast:
Laurence Olivier, Brenda De Banzie, Roger Livesey, Joan Plowright, Alan Bates
7.1
77%
70
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Whistle Down the Wind
(1961)
Crime, Drama
When an injured wife-murderer takes refuge on a remote Lancashire farm, the farmer’s three children mistakenly believe him to be the Second Coming of Christ.
Runtime:
99 min
Director:
Bryan Forbes
Cast:
Alan Bates, Hayley Mills, Bernard Lee, Norman Bird, Diane Clare
7.8
100%
N/A
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The Statement
(2003)
Drama, Thriller
The film is set in France in the 1990s, the French were defeated by the Germans early in World War II, an armistice was signed in 1940 which effectively split France into a German occupied part in the North and a semi-independent part in the south which became known as Vichy France. In reality the Vichy government was a puppet regime c...
Runtime:
120 min
Director:
Norman Jewison
Cast:
Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Northam, Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling
6.2
24%
45
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A Prayer for the Dying
(1987)
Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Jack Higgins' straightforward thriller about a guilt-ridden IRA bomber forced into "one last job"
Runtime:
107 min
Director:
Mike Hodges
Cast:
Mickey Rourke, Bob Hoskins, Alan Bates, Sammi Davis, Christopher Fulford
6.4
63%
N/A
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Georgy Girl
(1966)
Comedy, Drama, Romance
A traditional girl resists the advances of a swinger who wants her as his mistress in 1960s London.
Runtime:
99 min
Director:
Silvio Narizzano
Cast:
James Mason, Alan Bates, Lynn Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling, Bill Owen
6.9
90%
N/A
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The Shout
(1978)
Drama, Horror
Bored while officiating a cricket match at a psychiatric hospital, Crossley tells Graves (a visitor) the tale of a mysterious stranger (also named Crossley) who invades the lives and house of a local musician and his wife. The stranger claims knowledge of real magic, which he uses to displace his host and dominate his wife. The musicia...
Runtime:
86 min
Director:
Jerzy Skolimowski
Cast:
Alan Bates, Susannah York, John Hurt, Robert Stephens, Tim Curry
6.8
N/A
N/A
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Royal Flash
(1975)
Adventure, Comedy, Romance
Cowardly rogue Harry Flashman's (Malcolm McDowell) schemes to gain entry to the royal circles of 19th-century Europe go nowhere until he meets a pair of devious nobles with their own agenda. At their urging, Flashman agrees to re-create himself as a bogus Prussian nobleman to woo a beautiful duchess. But the half-baked plan quickly com...
Runtime:
102 min
Director:
Richard Lester
Cast:
Malcolm McDowell, Alan Bates, Florinda Bolkan, Oliver Reed, Tom Bell
6.8
N/A
N/A
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Britannia Hospital
(1982)
Comedy, Drama, Horror, Science Fiction
Britannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, an African cannib...
Runtime:
116 min
Director:
Lindsay Anderson
Cast:
Graham Crowden, Leonard Rossiter, Malcolm McDowell, Joan Plowright, Mark Hamill
6.3
60%
N/A
More Information
A Kind of Loving
(1962)
Drama, Romance
As Vic Brown vacillates between infatuation and disinterest for his co-worker Ingrid Rothwell, she finds out that she is pregnant and Vic has to reconcile how he thought his life would go with what life actually has in store for him.
Runtime:
108 min
Director:
John Schlesinger
Cast:
Alan Bates, June Ritchie, Thora Hird, Bert Palmer, Malcolm Patton
7.4
100%
N/A
More Information
Mister Frost
(1990)
Drama, Horror, Thriller
Frost is arrested and committed for murder after he is apprehended burying his victims in the garden. However, even while under psychiatric care and tight hospital security, it becomes obvious that Mr. Frost is not all he seems to be.
Runtime:
104 min
Director:
Philippe Setbon
Cast:
Jeff Goldblum, Alan Bates, Kathy Baker, Daniel Gélin
6.0
20%
N/A
More Information
The Fixer
(1968)
Crime, Drama, Mystery
Set in tsarist Russia around the turn of the century and based on a true story of a Russian Jewish peasant Yakov Bog who was wrongly imprisoned for a most unlikely crime - the “ritual murder” of a Gentile child in Kiev. We witness the unrelenting detail of the peasant-handyman's life in prison and see him gain in dignity as the efforts...
Runtime:
132 min
7.0
71%
N/A
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Quartet
(1981)
Drama, Romance
When her husband's arrest leaves her penniless, a woman accepts an invitation to move in with a strange couple.
Runtime:
101 min
Director:
James Ivory
Cast:
Isabelle Adjani, Alan Bates, Maggie Smith, Anthony Higgins, Suzanne Flon
6.5
N/A
N/A
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Duet for One
(1986)
Drama
When Stephanie, a famous violinist, contracts multiple sclerosis her life begins to fall apart. Her career ends, her husband leaves her for another woman and her favorite pupil leave the country. Unable to bear all this loss, Stephanie attempts suicide.
Runtime:
107 min
Director:
Andrei Konchalovsky
Cast:
Julie Andrews, Alan Bates, Max von Sydow, Rupert Everett, Margaret Courtenay
7.0
N/A
N/A
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Butley
(1974)
Drama
Butley is set in Queen Mary’s College, London and focuses on two English instructors, Ben Butley, a middle-aged former T. S. Eliot expert whose life is now in a shambles, and his protégé, Joey, a homosexual. With both Joey and his wife leaving, Butley faces a life alone, fighting back with wit, obscenity and booze.
Runtime:
127 min
Director:
Harold Pinter
Cast:
Alan Bates, Jessica Tandy, Michael Byrne, Georgina Hale, Susan Engel
7.2
N/A
N/A
More Information
Nijinsky
(1980)
Drama, Music, Romance
The film suggests Nijinsky was driven into madness by both his consuming ambition and self-enforced heterosexuality, the latter prompted by his romantic involvement with Romola de Pulszky, a society girl who joins impresario Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes specifically to seduce Nijinsky. After a series of misunderstandings with Diag...
Runtime:
129 min
Director:
Herbert Ross
Cast:
Alan Bates, George de la Peña, Leslie Browne, Carla Fracci, Ronald Pickup
6.9
40%
N/A
More Information
Salem Witch Trials
(2002)
Drama, History
The film recounts the sobering tale of how 19 innocent lives were taken in a community experiencing paranoid hysteria regarding the suspected - but unproved - presence of the occult in the small New England town.
Runtime:
240 min
Director:
Joseph Sargent
Cast:
Kirstie Alley, Henry Czerny, Gloria Reuben, Jay O. Sanders, Kristin Booth
6.1
N/A
N/A
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The Prince and the Pauper
(2000)
An adaptation of the classic, "The Prince and the Pauper" is the retelling of Edward Tudor and young Thomas Canty, two amazing look-alikes caught up in imperial intrigue and scandal. In fleeing from his violent father, Tom stumbles into the palace courtyard, and is seen by young Prince Edward, who takes him in. Each desiring to see wha...
Runtime:
90 min
Director:
Giles Foster
Cast:
Aidan Quinn, Alan Bates, Jonathan Hyde, Jonathan Timmins, Robert Timmins
6.6
N/A
N/A
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Bertie and Elizabeth
(2002)
Drama, History, Romance
The duke of York, nicknamed Bertie, was born as royal 'spare heir', younger brother to the prince of Wales, and thus expected to spend a relatively private life with his Scottish wife Elisabeth Bowes-Lyon and their daughters, in the shadow of their reigning father, George V, and next that of his elder brother who succeeded to the Briti...
Runtime:
120 min
Director:
Giles Foster
Cast:
James Wilby, Alan Bates, Juliet Aubrey, David Burke
7.2
N/A
N/A
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The Running Man
(1963)
Crime, Drama
An insurance man (Alan Bates) gets chummy in Spain with a couple (Laurence Harvey, Lee Remick) who have collected on a fake death.
Runtime:
103 min
6.6
N/A
N/A
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An Englishman Abroad
(1983)
Comedy, Drama, TV Movie
Actress Coral Browne travels to Moscow, and meets a mysterious Englishman. Turns out he's the notorious spy, Guy Burgess. Based on a true story, with Ms. Browne playing herself.
Runtime:
60 min
Director:
John Schlesinger
Cast:
Alan Bates, Coral Browne, Charles Gray, Harold Innocent
7.8
N/A
N/A
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Love in a Cold Climate
(2001)
Drama
Adaptation of Nancy Mitford's novel.
Runtime:
150 min
Cast:
Elisabeth Dermot Walsh, Javier Alcina, Rosamund Pike, Alan Bates, Frances Barber
7.2
N/A
N/A
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The Caretaker
(1964)
Drama
Aston, a quiet, reserved man, lives alone in a top-floor cluttered room of a small abandoned house in a poor London district. He befriends and takes in Mac Davies, an old derelict who has been fired from a menial job in a café. In time Aston offers him a job as caretaker of the house. Aston's brother, Mick - a taunting, quasi-sadist - ...
Runtime:
100 min
Director:
Clive Donner
Cast:
Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence, Robert Shaw, Harold Pinter
7.3
N/A
N/A
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Oliver's Travels
(1995)
After his job is terminated, a humanities professor and puzzle addict joins forces with a woman PC to travel the country while solving a cold case murder.
Runtime:
250 min
8.4
N/A
N/A
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Nicholas’ Gift
(1998)
Drama, TV Movie
Fact based drama about an American couple on vacation in Italy in 1994 with their two children who are attacked and shot by highway bandits. Shortly they discover that their son is brain dead. The parents are then faced with the hard decision to donate the boy's organs which ultimately led to saving the lives of seven seriously ill Ita...
Runtime:
90 min
Director:
Robert Markowitz
Cast:
Jamie Lee Curtis, Alan Bates, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Gene Wexler, Isabella Ferrari
7.2
N/A
N/A
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Silent Tongue
(1993)
Western
Mad with grief after the death of his Kiowa wife, Roe awaits death under a tree with her body beside him. She begins to haunt him because he won't bury her. His father, who bought him the wife, thinks her sister might reason with Roe.
Runtime:
102 min
5.3
38%
N/A
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The Return of the Soldier
(1983)
Drama
The horrors of World War I have robbed returning veteran Chris Baldry of his memory. The traumatized soldier doesn't even recognize his own wife, Kitty, or remember their years together. While Baldry attempts to cope with the unfamiliar surroundings of his own home, he seeks out the company of an old flame from his childhood, Margaret ...
Runtime:
99 min
Director:
Alan Bridges
Cast:
Alan Bates, Glenda Jackson, Ann-Margret, Julie Christie, Ian Holm
6.9
N/A
N/A