The Briton Tom Wilkinson, whose presence strengthened the cast of more than 130 films and television series, died this Saturday at the age of 75, his family announced. After graduating from the Royal School of Dramatic Arts in London and accumulating supporting roles in film and television, he gained wide fame in 1997 when he took part in the cast of a low-budget film shot in his native Yorkshire. “The Full Monty” became a mass phenomenon and earned him a BAFTA, the British Academy Film Award, for Best Supporting Actor.
This increased his reputation and landed him roles in major films on both sides of the Atlantic. The following year, 1998, he appeared in Shakespeare in Love, a role that earned him another BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 2002, his portrayal of a father facing the turmoil of a family tragedy in Todd Field's “In the Room” earned him several awards at independent film festivals and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. His second nomination came in 2007 for the role of a lawyer affected by a terrible revelation in Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney.
According to the Encyclopaedia of British Film, Wilkinson was “a star of great character and one of several remarkable gifts for conveying inner pain.” He was born in Leeds, England, and moved to Canada as a child. At the age of 18 he directed a play for the first time.
He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, the BBC reports today. In 1986, he got his first major film role in the miniseries “First Among Equals,” based on the best-selling novel by Jeffrey Archer. He married actress Diana Hardcastle in 1998. They played husband and wife in The Kennedys (2011) and the action film Good People (2014). They had two daughters, Alice and Molly.
He was cast as a former factory foreman who performs a striptease show with his unemployed colleagues in “The Full Monty.” “I was simultaneously offered the lead role in a television series and a possible role in a low-budget film,” he once said. The low-budget film proved to be the highest-grossing film in the UK to date and took his career to new heights on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2005, Wilkinson was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the theater.
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