Robert Peck (23 August 1945 – 4 April 1999) was an English actor who played Ronald Craven in the television serial ''
Edge of Darkness
''Edge of Darkness'' is a British television drama serial produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International and originally broadcast in six 55-minute episodes in late 1985. A mixture of crime drama and politica ...
'', for which he won the
BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor. He was also known for his role as game warden
Robert Muldoon in the film ''
Jurassic Park''.
Early life
Robert Peck was born into a working-class family in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
,
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
, on 23 August 1945. He attended
Leeds Modern School in
Lawnswood
Lawnswood is a small suburb in the north west of the city of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. As such it is north north east of the West Yorkshire Urban Area. The suburb falls within the Adel and Wharefdale Ward of the City of Leeds Council.
...
, and performed with the
National Youth Theatre for six weeks when he was 15. He then studied at
Leeds College of Art
Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds.
History
It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Scho ...
, where he received a Diploma in Art and Design, and where he was involved in student amateur dramatics.
Career
Stage career
Before breaking into film and television work, Peck was a regular actor with the
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) alongside
Ian McKellen,
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden (9 October 1923 – 12 September 2014) was a British actor.
Sinden featured in the film ''Mogambo'' (1953), and achieved early fame as a Rank Organisation film star in the 1950s in films including ''The Cruel Sea (195 ...
and
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her ...
. Between 1979–80 he played
Iago
Iago () is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago ha ...
alongside Donald Sinden in ''
Othello'', in both
Stratford and London. He made a memorable appearance on stage in the RSC production of ''
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
''Nicholas Nickleby'' or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (or also ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the ...
'', originally by
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
, playing two characters: the boisterous Yorkshireman John Browdie and the predatory Sir Mulberry Hawk, and repeated these roles on Broadway and when the production was
filmed for television in 1982. He played the character of
Macduff in
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is a British theatre director. He has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed dramas ...
's acclaimed 1976 stage and television versions of ''
Macbeth'', and re-appeared in another production of the play in 1982, this time playing
Macbeth himself. According to Peck's fellow RSC performer and veteran McKellen, Peck is the actor he considers he "learned the most from".
''Edge of Darkness''
Peck's television career began in the 1970s, with his first television roles being in the BBC's ''Thirty-Minute Theatre'' anthology series in 1972, in which he appeared in the episode "Bypass". He also appeared in various other successful television productions such as ''
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debut ...
'' and ''
Play for Today''. He also appeared in the films ''
Royal Flash
''Royal Flash'' is a 1970 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the second of the Flashman novels. It was made into the film '' Royal Flash'' in 1975 and remains the only Flashman novel to be filmed.
Plot summary
''Royal Flash'' is set durin ...
'' and ''
Parker''.
In 1985
television writer Troy Kennedy Martin
Troy Kennedy Martin (15 February 1932 – 15 September 2009) was a Scottish-born film and television screenwriter. He created the long-running BBC TV police series ''Z-Cars'' (1962–1978), and the award-winning 1985 anti-nuclear drama ''Edge of ...
- who had previously written the screenplay for the film ''
The Italian Job
''The Italian Job'' is a 1969 British comedy caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres around Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, r ...
'' and created the popular
police procedural television series ''
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debut ...
'' (in which Peck had appeared during the 1970s) - cast Peck in the starring role of policeman Ronald Craven in his television miniseries ''
Edge of Darkness
''Edge of Darkness'' is a British television drama serial produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International and originally broadcast in six 55-minute episodes in late 1985. A mixture of crime drama and politica ...
''. This
crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...
/
political thriller
A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle, high stakes and suspense is the core of the story. The genre often forces the audiences to consider and understand the importance of politics. The st ...
follows Peck's character as he attempts to unravel the truth behind the brutal murder of his daughter, portrayed in the series by
Joanne Whalley
Joanne Whalley (born 25 August 1961) is an English actress who began her career in 1974. She has appeared primarily on television, but also in nearly 30 feature films, including '' Dance with a Stranger'' (1985), ''Willow'' (1988), ''Scandal'' ( ...
. Another of Peck's co-stars in the series was American actor
Joe Don Baker, along with fellow British actors
Charles Kay and
Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice (born 2 October 1950) is an English film and television actor. He found fame portraying government agent Harcourt in the 1985 television series '' Edge of Darkness'', and went on to feature in popular films such as ''The Englishma ...
.
The series was broadcast on
BBC Two in six episodes from 4 November to 9 December 1985. During its run the show attracted four million viewers and spiralled Peck to fame, winning him a
British Academy Television Award for Best Actor at the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
Awards. After the series ended, Peck had become a figure of popularity and a national favourite.
Film success
After gaining popularity for his starring role in ''
Edge of Darkness
''Edge of Darkness'' is a British television drama serial produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International and originally broadcast in six 55-minute episodes in late 1985. A mixture of crime drama and politica ...
'', Peck began appearing in films. After a few theatre appearances, Peck made his first appearance as a main character in a film again playing a policeman, John Graham, based in
Kenya
)
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, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
in 1950, who takes under his wing the son of a murdered black priest in the 1987 film ''
The Kitchen Toto''. He also appeared in the 1987 film ''
On the Black Hill
''On the Black Hill'' is a novel by Bruce Chatwin published in 1982 and winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for that year. In 1987 it was made into a film, directed by Andrew Grieve.
Plot summary
The novel's setting is the borde ...
'', adapted from the 1982 novel
of the same name by
Bruce Chatwin
Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, ...
. The role which really launched his career as a film actor was his portrayal of the
android Byron, in the
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...
science-fiction
adventure film ''
Slipstream
A slipstream is a region behind a moving object in which a wake of fluid (typically air or mustard) is moving at velocities comparable to that of the moving fluid, relative to the ambient fluid through which the object is churning. The term sli ...
'' (1989), in which he appeared alongside
Mark Hamill,
Bill Paxton
William Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017) was an American actor and filmmaker. He appeared in films such as '' Weird Science'' (1985), ''Aliens'' (1986), '' Near Dark'' (1987), '' Tombstone'' (1993), ''True Lies'' (1994), '' Apollo 1 ...
,
F. Murray Abraham,
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and tw ...
and
Robbie Coltrane
Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. H ...
. During the late-1980s, he also appeared in television shows including ''
The Storyteller'', ''
The Jim Henson Hour
''The Jim Henson Hour'' is a television series that aired on NBC in 1989. It was developed as a showcase for The Jim Henson Company's various puppet creations, including the Muppet characters.
Nine of the twelve episodes produced aired on NBC bef ...
'' and ''
Screen One
''Screen One'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and distributed by BBC Worldwide, that was transmitted on BBC One from 1989 to 1998. A total of six series were broadcast, incorporating sixty individual fil ...
''.
Peck also voiced all the male characters in the children's live action TV series combined with stop motion animation, ''
Forget Me Not Farm'' on the BBC in 1990.
Peck's image and popularity increased with appearances in films including the 1990 film ''
Lord of the Flies
''Lord of the Flies'' is a 1954 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. Themes ...
'' as the (unnamed) marine officer. He also appeared in ''
Screen Two
''Screen Two'' was a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1985 to 1998 (not to be confused with a run of films shown on BBC2 under the billing ''Screen 2'' between April 1977 and March ...
'', ''
Screenplay'' and ''
A TV Dante
''A TV Dante'' is a 1990 mini-series directed by Tom Phillips and Peter Greenaway. It covers eight of the 34 cantos in Dante Alighieri's ''Inferno'', part of his 14th century epic poem ''Divine Comedy''.
Peter Greenaway and Tom Phillips won ...
'', as well as in the television films, ''
The Black Velvet Gown'' and ''
An Ungentlemanly Act''. In 1993, Peck made his biggest film appearance, when he was cast as park gamekeeper Robert Muldoon in the blockbuster smash hit ''
Jurassic Park''.
After appearing in ''Jurassic Park'', Peck appeared in the television show ''
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'' is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 4, 1992, to July 24, 1993. Filming took place in various locations around the world, with "Old Indy" bookend segments filmed in Wilmington, Nort ...
'' (1993) playing General Targo in one episode. He also played Italian
Romantic composer
Giuseppe Verdi in a television film documenting the life of the composer.
Later years
In the later years of his life and career, Peck appeared in more films, portraying the roles of Captain Sebastian Belger in ''
Merisairas
''Merisairas'' (Finnish: ''Seasick'') is a 1996 thriller film directed by Veikko Aaltonen and starring Bob Peck, Katrin Cartlidge and Peter Firth. An English-language film, it was a co-production between Sweden, Finland and France. The screenplay c ...
'', Françoise's father in ''
Surviving Picasso'', Ravn in ''
Smilla's Sense of Snow'', Harry Briggs in ''
FairyTale: A True Story'' and Denton (based on
Lancelot Dent) in the film ''
The Opium War'' (Chinese: 鸦片战争; pinyin: ''yapian zhanzheng''). He also appeared in the
direct-to-TV film ''
The Scold's Bridle'' (1998).
In 2000, a year after Peck's death from cancer, the
stop-motion animated film ''
The Miracle Maker'', was released, in which Peck voiced the character of
Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea was, according to all four canonical gospels, the man who assumed responsibility for the burial of Jesus after his crucifixion. The historical location of Arimathea is uncertain, although it has been identified with several ...
. The film was dedicated to Peck's memory.
Awards
Peck won the
Award for Best Actor at the
British Academy Television Awards in 1986 for his portrayal of maverick policeman Ronald Craven in the television miniseries ''
Edge of Darkness
''Edge of Darkness'' is a British television drama serial produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International and originally broadcast in six 55-minute episodes in late 1985. A mixture of crime drama and politica ...
''.
Personal life
Peck and actress
Jill Baker
Jill Baker (born 1952) is a British actress who has worked extensively in theatre and television for 50 years.
Personal life
Baker is a graduate of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
She and actor Bob Peck were married for 17 years, from 19 ...
were married for 17 years, from 1982 until his death, in 1999. They had three children: Hannah (born 1983), George (born 1986), and Milly (born 1990).
Death
In November 1994, Peck was diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer. He was said to be undergoing
chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...
and
radiotherapy and his agent claimed that he was making a recovery, but he died at his home in
Kingston-upon-Thames
Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...
,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, on 4 April 1999, at the age of 53.
His funeral took place in London, and his close friend and ''Edge of Darkness'' co-star
Ian McNeice
Ian McNeice (born 2 October 1950) is an English film and television actor. He found fame portraying government agent Harcourt in the 1985 television series '' Edge of Darkness'', and went on to feature in popular films such as ''The Englishma ...
read a eulogy at the service. He was cremated in London and his ashes were given to his family.
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peck, Bob
1945 births
1999 deaths
20th-century English male actors
Alumni of Leeds Arts University
Deaths from cancer in England
English male film actors
English male stage actors
English male television actors
Male actors from Leeds
Male actors from Yorkshire
National Youth Theatre members
People educated at Leeds Modern School
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Best Actor BAFTA Award (television) winners