Get a closer look at some of Hollywood's perfect pairs.

Hollywood Power Couples

Get a closer look at some of Hollywood&#39;s perfect pairs.

See which big screen releases you can watch from the comfort of your couch.

Theatrical Releases Coming to Streaming

Get a closer look at these actors from their many TV and streaming series roles.

Streaming Stars, Then and Now

A grand, well-respected character lead and support of stage, film and television, most people mistakenly think New Zealander Clive Revill is British. A delightfully comic eccentric praised for his sterling work on the musical stage, the blue-eyed, curly, red-haired gent is also highly regarded for his formidable dramatic work in Shakespearean roles.

Clive Selsby Revill was born on April 18, 1930, in Wellington, New Zealand, and educated at Rongotai College and Victoria University (Wellington). Once trained for a career as an accountant, he abruptly switched gears and made his stage debut in Auckland, New Zealand playing Sebastian in "Twelfth Night" in 1950. He then moved to England to study with the Old Vic School in London. While there he appeared at Stratford-on-Avon in mid-1950s presentations of "Hamlet", "Love's Labour's Lost", "The Merchant of Venice", "Julius Caesar" and "The Tempest", among others.

Having made his Broadway debut back in 1952 with "Mr. Pickwick", the man of many skills took a juicy chunk out of the Big Apple upon returning to New York in the 1960s with his critically lauded, Tony Award-nominated work in "Irma La Douce" and as "Fagin" in "Oliver!" He has amused audiences for years with his larger-than-life musical roles, particularly in such Gilbert and Sullivan operettas as "The Mikado" and "The Pirates of Penzance". Others have included "Sherry", "Lolita" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" -- replacing the late George Rose in the last mentioned after that actor's untimely death in 1988.

Making an inauspicious debut in an unbilled role in 1956, his more pronounced movie work includes Kaleidoscope (1966), The Assassination Bureau (1969), The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), Avanti! (1972), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, The Legend of Hell House (1973) (a rare lead), Mack the Knife (1989), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). Quite proficient at ethnic roles (playing everything from Chinese to Russian), Clive's acute sense of comic timing and uncanny use of body language is parallel to none, often engaging audiences as delightfully pompous, even "hissable" gents.

From the 1990s into the millennium, Clive has pretty much settled in the States. His distinctive voice has been greatly utilized in animated features and video games (Dr. Doom, Darth Gravus, Jetfire), plus a few films including Intrepid (2000), Crime and Punishment (2002), Gentlemen Broncos (2009) and The Queen of Spain (2016). Twice divorced, Revill has one daughter, Kate Selsby (aka Kate Selsby Revill), by his second marriage to Suzi Schor-Revill. He makes his home in Los Angeles.

[on Star Wars fans at sci-fi conventions]: They come up to me and I tell them to get close and shut their eyes. Then I say (in the Emperor&#39;s haunting voice), &#39;There is a great disturbance in the Force.&#39; People turn white, and one nearly fainted!

[on Ian McDiarmid replacing his emperor in the 2004 edition of &#39;Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back&#39;]: I was the original Emperor, but they wanted continuity with the later movies. They made a good choice with McDiarmid.

[on playing the final murderer on the 1970s &#39;Columbo&#39; series] It was the last episode Peter Falk did in the original Columbo series, But there was no sense of regret on the set that the show was ending. Peter and I had a lot of creative fun interacting with each other&#39;s characters.

The first film I vividly remember working on is &#39;Modesty Blaise&#39;. I got the makeup man to transform me into an Arab, then marched over to (director) Joseph Losey who was drinking in his hotel room. The makeup and my accent were so good, he didn&#39;t recognize me until I said &#39;Joe, it&#39;s Clive&#39; and he almost dropped his drink. So I ended up with the two roles.

Quotes

Clive Revill

Contribute to this page

More from this person

More to explore

Recently viewed