(1911–1995)
After a brief career in teaching, Michael Hordern made his stage debut in 1937 and eventually appeared in 80 productions. His first appearance in film was in an uncredited role in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), followed by A Girl Must Live (1939); but his acting efforts were put on hold by a stint in the military during World War II. In 1946, he resumed his film career with roles in no less than four films that year, including David Lean’s Great Expectations. He later appeared in the delightful Ealing Studios comedy Passport To Pimlico (1949), and was a memorable Jacob Marley in the classic film of A Christmas Carol (1951; released in Britain as Scrooge), opposite Alastair Sim’s Scrooge.(Hordern would later reprise Marley’s ghost in a 1972 television version of the Dickens classic; still later, he would play Scrooge in a 1977 TV production. )
Hordern’s film roles most often veered into comedy, as he played easily frustrated government officials and/or henpecked husbands, as in Richard Lester’s A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1966), and The Bed-Sitting Room (1969). He was also known for his Shakespearean performances, as King Lear and as Prospero in productions of The Tempest.
Hordern’s work for STANLEY KUBRICK consists of a single role, that of the narrator in BARRY LYNDON (1975). The narrator is Kubrick’s departure from the novel, as WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY’s novel consists of Barry’s first-person narrative. Never appearing onscreen, Hordern’s narrator describes the action, interprets the characters’ motivations (seldom flatteringly), and even makes pointed political commentary. The narrator opens the film with what amounts to a joke. As two men stand in a field, preparing for a duel,we learn from the narrator that Barry’s (RYAN O’NEAL) father had been “bred to the profession of the law, and that he would doubtless have made an eminent figure in that profession. ” As the narrator pauses, the figures in the field fire upon each other; one falls dead, and the narrator finishes his sentence: “. . . had he not been killed in a duel, which arose over the purchase of some horses. ” By the end of the film, however, the narrator is no longer laughing, nor is he timing his delivery to such comic effect. His final words amount to a shrug, as he admits he has not the power to follow Barry’s final years with any accuracy. He does make one last statement of fact, though—that Barry never saw Lady Lyndon (MARISA BERENSON) again.
It is worth noting that the acid content of the narration lessens in the later sections of the film, as Barry’s fortunes turn for the worse. What are virtually the narrator’s only positive words about Barry come in a description of Barry’s abilities as a father to young Brian, soon followed by the revelation that the child has not got long to live. Hordern’s tones are warm and mellow, serving to deepen the tragedy to come, and the restraint with which he expresses relief that the child is at least in no pain is one of the most moving moments in the film.
Hordern was knighted in 1983, for services to the theater. His last screen role was in the 1994 TV miniseries Middlemarch, as Peter Featherstone.
References
■ “Michael Hordern,” Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com;
■ “Michael Hordern” (obituary), Variety, May 5, 1995, p. 64.
T. D.