BEN CROSS, HAROLD ABRAHAMS IN 'CHARIOTS OF FIRE'

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Ben Cross, the English stage and film actor, who was born on a day like today in 1947.

Harry Bernard Cross (16 December 1947-18 August 2020) was an English stage and film actor. He was best known for playing Billy Flynn in the original West End production of the musical Chicago, and his portrayal of the British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.

Harry Bernard Cross was born in London on 16 December 1947, to a working-class family. He was the son of Catherine (née O'Donovan), a cleaner, and Harry Cross, a doorman. His father died of tuberculosis when Cross was aged eight. While his father was a member of the Church of England, Cross grew up in his Irish mother's Catholic faith, in the Tulse Hill neighbourhood of London.

Cross started his career by taking manual jobs, including working as a window cleaner, waiter, and joiner. He also worked as a carpenter for the Welsh National Opera, and was the Property Master at The Alexandra theatre in Birmingham.

In 1970 at the age of 22, he was accepted into London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), but later expressed little interest in pursuing the classical arts route.

After graduating from RADA, Cross performed in several stage plays at The Dukes theatre in Lancaster where he was seen in Macbeth, The Importance of Being Earnest and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. He then joined the Prospect Theatre Company and played roles in Pericles, Twelfth Night, and The Royal Hunt of the Sun. 

Cross also joined the cast of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and played leading roles in Peter Shaffer's Equus, Mind Your Head, and the musical Irma la Douce -all at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre.

Cross's first big-screen film appearance came in 1976 when he went on location to Deventer, Netherlands, to play Trooper Binns in Joseph E. Levine's Second World War epic A Bridge Too Far, which starred an international cast, including Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Michael Caine and James Caan.

In 1977, Cross became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; he performed in the premiere of Privates on Parade as Kevin Cartwright and played Rover in a revival of a Restoration play titled Wild Oats. Cross's path to international stardom began in 1978 with his performance in the musical Chicago, in which he played Billy Flynn, the slick lawyer of murderess Roxie Hart.

During Cross's performance in Chicago he was recognised and recommended for a leading role in the multiple Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire in 1981. The film was based on the true story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice.

Cross trained hard for his role as Abrahams; his co-star Ian Charleson played Liddell. The pair were shown in the opening scene running barefoot with a group of others along a Scottish beach, accompanied by Vangelis's music. Considered one of the most memorable opening scenes in film history, Cross acknowledged the scene's effectiveness but remembered the water was freezing. For their performances in the film, Cross and Charleson both won Most Promising Artiste of 1981 awards from the Variety Club Awards in February 1982.

Cross's starring role in Chariots of Fire has been credited with continuing a transatlantic trend in elegant young English actors that had been set by Jeremy Irons in Brideshead Revisited. The film went on to win multiple Academy Awards, including the one for Best Picture.

Cross was also a director, writer, and musician. He wrote music, screenplays, and articles for English-language publications, and lyrics.

More information: The New York Times

I have great admiration for athletes.
They are just like actors in a lot of ways.
They have tremendous pressures and conflicts.
They have to compete, and they can't stay home
just because they have a head cold.

Ben Cross