Derek Falkner

Derek Falkner, CBE, MBE, (born Augustus Derek Giuseppe Humphries; January 26, 1945) is an English actor of stage and screen, who also works as a novelist and an environmentalist for the English Heritage. Despite starring as the title character in a 1977 direct-to-video version of Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles, Falkner achieved true critical success with his performance of Greek myth Agamemnon in the 1980 film King Agamemnon, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA and an Emmy. From 1980 Falkner swiftly gained the attention of the public, starring in films such as The Birds and the Bees in 1983, Casebook in 1986 and Sunny Side Up in 1988, as well as supporting roles in films including Gandhi, The Bounty, The Fourth Protocol and Henry V and the Terry Gilliam films Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
As his success progressed into the 1990s he began to move more into American cinema, first appearing in the Quentin Tarrantino films Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. In 1992, he was both awarded and nominated for multiple awards for his performance of Capt Robert Falcon Scott, leader of the fatefull Terra Nova Expedition, in the film entitled Terra Nova. From then on he has achieved worldwide recognition for his work in both British and American cinema. Altogether, since his big screen debut in the 1969 film Battle of Britain, the amount of films which Falkner has featured in estimates to over 100.
Early Life
Career
Early Work (1967-79)
Critical Success (1980-91)
Worldwide Recognition (1992-07)
Recent Fame (2008-Present)
Roles Turned Down By Falkner
Falkner has turned down mutltipe roles. He has been offered a role in four films in the James Bond films, first being offered the role of James Bond in Moonraker (1979), but he himself deemed himself too young and Roger Moore resumed the role from previous films, and was offered the same role as a replacement for Moore in the Bond film The Living Daylights (1987), but turned it down once again and was replaced by Timothy Dalton. In the third Bond film he was offered a role in, he was offered the role of M in GoldenEye (1995), but he himself recommended that they should have a female actress play M for a change, and Dame Judi Dench played the role instead. In 1997 he was offered the role of main villain Elliot Carver in the fourth Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, but turned it down and was replaced by Jonathan Pryce.
Other roles offered to and turned down by Falkner include that of Eric Lidl in Chariots of Fire in 1981 (replaced by the late Ian Charleson), Myron in The Hit in 1984 (replaced by Tim Roth), Johnny in My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985 (replaced by Daniel Day-Lewis), Hans Gruber in Die Hard in 1988 (replaced by Alan Rickman), Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 (replaced by Anthony Hopkins), Éamon de Valera in Michael Collins in 1995 (once again replaced by Alan Rickman and instead playing Eoin Waver in the film), Spicer Lovejoy in Titanic in 1997 (replaced by David Warner and instead playing Eduardo Del Monté in the film), Cassius in Gladiator in 2000 (replaced by the late David Hemmings), Tiberius in Kingdom of Heaven in 2005 (replaced by Jeremy Irons) and Horace Slughorn in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2009 (replaced by Jim Broadbent).
Awards, Nominations and Honors
* Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) - 1998
* Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) - 2005
Stage Work
Other Work
Personal Life
Marriages and Family
Hobbies
Health Issues
Filmography

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See Also

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