Paul Bhattacharjee

Gautam Paul Bhattacharjee (4 May 1960 – c. 10 July 2013) was a British actor who worked on stage, film and television.

Early life and career

The son of Gautam Bhattacharjee, a member of the Indian Communist Party who had to flee from the country in 1942, and Anne, a woman from a family of Russian descent, he was educated at state schools in Harrow. In the 1970s, Paul was a member of "The Young Theatre" at North Harrow where he was very involved in their productions (including an early role in ''The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew'' in 1974) and began to learn his trade as an actor. An association with Jatinder Verma and his theatre company Tara Arts began in 1979,Suman Bhuchar, "Bhattacharjee, Paul" in Alison Donnell (ed.), ''Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture'', Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2002, p. 32. when he was, according to Verma "passionately idealistic, both artistically and politically" and had the desire "to use theatre to change the world". Bhattacharjee appeared in ''Yes Memsahib'' (1979), "the story of the formation of modern East Africa by colonial Indian 'coolie' labour", and ''Diwali'' (1980), which he also directed, "the story behind the annual Festival of Lights", among other productions.

Bhattacharjee's first regular television role was in the short-lived soap ''Albion Market'' (1985) in which his character was charged by the police for the murder of a racist; it was the actor's work as a teenage anti-racism activist which had led to his first meeting with Jatinder Verma in 1977. He played Omar Khayyam, a narrator named after the poet, in ''Iranian Nights'' (1989) by Howard Brenton and Tariq Ali, at the Royal Court, a satirical response to the controversy over Salman Rushdie's novel ''The Satanic Verses'',Marcus Williamson
"Paul Bhattacharjee: Actor whose work took in the RSC, the Royal Court and 'EastEnders'"
''The Independent'', 23 July 2013. which was later shown in a television version on Channel 4.

He had successfully taken over Art Malik's role in the West End run (at the Aldwych Theatre) of ''Indian Ink'' by Tom Stoppard in 1995 after originally playing the character's son, and had appeared in '' Murmuring Judges'' (Royal National Theatre, 1991), one of the plays in David Hare's trilogy examining British institutions.

After 2000

At the time of the actor's early death, Michael Billington admitted to most "treasuring"Michael Billington
"Paul Bhattacharjee: 'He could play just about anything'"
guardian.co.uk, 18 July 2013. Bhattacharjee's performance as Hari Hobson in a version of ''Hobson's Choice''. The adaptation of the original Harold Brighouse play by Tanika Gupta, produced at the Young Vic theatre in 2003, transposed the characters to contemporary Salford's Asian business community. In his contemporary review, Billington observed that in the role he "captures both the blazered posturing and alcoholic pathos of the defeated Hobson".Michael Billington
"''Hobson's Choice'' (Young Vic, London)"
guardian.co.uk, 3 July 2003.

He was cast as Inzamam Ahmed in ''EastEnders'', recurring in the soap opera for two years from 2008, and appeared in the films '' Dirty Pretty Things'' (2002), '' Casino Royale'' (2006), and ''The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'' (2012).

Bhattacharjee appeared during 2012 as Benedick in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of ''Much Ado About Nothing'' at the RSC's Courtyard Theatre in Stratford, with Meera Syal as Beatrice. Paul Cavendish, reviewing the production for ''The Daily Telegraph'', thought Bhattacharjee delivered the best performance of the ensemble.

Bankruptcy and death

HM Revenue and Customs had successfully petitioned for the actor to be declared insolvent; no other creditors are known. On 10 July 2013, a day after he had been declared bankrupt in the High Court of Justice, Bhattacharjee, aged 53, went missing, when the cast were towards the end of the rehearsal period for ''Talk Show'', a black comedy by Alistair McDowall for the Royal Court. On 12 July, his body was found at the foot of Splash Point cliffs in Seaford, East Sussex, but was not conclusively identified until five days later. A post-mortem examination found that he died from multiple injuries. Police were not treating Bhattacharjee's death as suspicious. According to Michael Billington in July 2013, he "was one of those actors whose" credit in a theatre "programme gave you the reassuring sense that you were in safe hands" and "just one of those actors whom it was always a delight to see". In November 2013, Bhattacharjee's death was declared to be a suicide while he was severely depressed, by the coroner of East Sussex.

Filmography

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharjee, Paul
1960 births
2013 deaths
2013 suicides
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors
Actors from the London Borough of Harrow
English male film actors
English people of Indian descent
English people of Bengali descent
English people of Russian-Jewish descent
English male soap opera actors
English male stage actors
Suicides by jumping in England
People from Harrow, London