Daniel Massey
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Biography
This incisive character player was the son of acclaimed stage and screen actors Raymond Massey and Adrianne Allen and brother of Anna Massey. Always prominently cast and adept at sophisticated roles, Daniel Massey has acted primarily on the stage, but has made fairly regular film and TV appearances since the late 1950s. He first appeared in film at age eight in his godfather Noel Coward's moving tribute to the WWII British military, "In Which We Serve" (1942). Massey proceeded to cut his acting teeth on the British stage and did not return to films for 15 years. His first important film credit was as part of the sterling company enacting John Osborne's blistering play, "The Entertainer" (1960).
Massey began to conquer audiences on the other side of the Atlantic when he played one of the leading roles in the Broadway musical, "She Loves Me" (1963). With his dapper appearance and polished, actorly flair, he again invoked his stage origins in his most acclaimed US film performance, as his own godfather in the otherwise disappointing biopic of Gertrude Lawrence, "Star!" (1968). Massey upstaged Julie Andrews in his carefully realized and slightly parodic rendition of Coward and won himself a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Subsequent films included biopics ("Mary, Queen of Scots" 1971, "The Incredible Sarah" 1976) and courtroom drama ("Scandal" 1989; "In the Name of the Father," as the prosecuting attorney, 1993). Massey also showed a fondness for old-fashioned entertainment with the fun horror fare of "Vault of Horror" (1973), in which he acted opposite his sister, and the likable remake, "The Cat and the Canary" (1979). His fop was but one memorable item in Nicholas Roeg's obsessive "Bad Timing" (1980).
In between stage work, Massey worked in TV ranging from fine PBS adaptations ("The Roads to Freedom" 1972, "The Golden Bowl" 1973) to offbeat turns in eclectic fare. He played Trotsky in HBO's "Stalin" (1992), romanced Marilu Henner in "Love With a Perfect Stranger" (Showtime, 1986) and was moving as an AIDS sufferer in "Intimate Contact" (HBO, 1987).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1942
Made feature film debut at age eight in "In Which We Serve", co-directed and starring his godfather, Noel Coward
1956
Stage acting debut in "Peril at End House" in Worthing
1957
London stage debut, "The Happiest Millionaire"
1958
Returned to films to make his second feature and play first adult role, "Girls at Sea"
1963
Played on Broadway in the musical, "She Loves Me"; billed third after Jack Cassidy and Barbara Cook; American stage debut
1968
First US film, "Star!", in which he played Noel Coward and received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor
1971
Played Robert Dudley opposite Glenda Jackson and Vanessa Redgrave in "Mary, Queen of Scots"
1972
Had featured role in the British TV adaptation of "War and Peace"
1972
Earliest US TV appearances included his leading role in the PBS adaptation, "The Roads to Freedom", based on a trilogy of novels by Jean-Paul Sartre
1973
Acted in the six-part made-for-TV miniseries, "The Golden Bowl", based on the novel by Henry James; miniseries was aired on PBS in the USA
1973
Acted opposite his sister Anna Massey in the "Midnight Mass" segment of the five-part horror anthology film, "Vault of Horror"
1977
Scored a critical success opposite Claire Bloom in the London stage production of Ibsen's "Rosmersholm"
1981
Last feature film for eight years, "Escape to Victory"
1986
Earliest work made specifically for American TV, the Showtime TV-movie, "Love With a Perfect Stranger"
1987
Starred opposite Diana Rigg and Julia McKenzie in the London production of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical "Follies"
1987
Co-starred with Claire Bloom in the HBO production "Intimate Contact", playing a businessman who contracts AIDS after a liaison during a trip to Asia
1989
Returned to film work with a role in the British-made feature, "Scandal"
1993
Last feature film, played the prosecutor in "In the Name of the Father"
1995
Final London stage appearance, originating the role of conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler in "Taking Sides"
1996
Returned to US stage reprising his London role in "Taking Sides", co-starring with Ed Harris
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