Patrick George Magee (né McGee, 31 March 1922 – 14 August 1982) was an Irish actor and theatre director. He was noted for his collaborations with playwrights Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter (being sometimes described as "Beckett's favourite actor") as well as for creating the role of the Marquis de Sade in the original stage and screen productions of Marat/Sade.

Known for his distinctive voice, he also appeared in numerous horror films and in two Stanley Kubrick films – A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Barry Lyndon (1975) – and three Joseph Losey films – The Criminal (1960), The Servant (1963) and Galileo (1975). He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1964 to 1970.

After Magee's death, critic Antonia Quirke described him as "a presence so full of strangeness and charisma and difference and power", while scholar Conor Carville wrote that Magee was an "avant-garde bad-boy" and a "very important and unjustly forgotten figure who represents an important aspect of the cultural ferment of the 1960s and 1970s in Britain".

Early life McGee (he changed the spelling of his surname to Magee when he began performing, most likely to avoid confusion with another actor) was born into a middle-class Catholic family at 2 Edward Street, Armagh, County Armagh. The eldest of five children, he was educated at St. Patrick's Grammar School.

Career

Stage His first stage experience in Ireland was with Anew McMaster's touring company, performing the works of Shakespeare. It was here that he first worked with Pinter. He was then brought to London by Tyrone Guthrie for a series of Irish plays. He met Beckett in 1957 and soon recorded passages from the novel, Molloy, and the short story, From an Abandoned Work, for BBC radio. Impressed by "the cracked quality of Magee's distinctly Irish voice," Beckett requested copies of the tapes and wrote Krapp's Last Tape especially for the actor.Cited in Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett (2004), ed. Ackerley and Gontarski, 339. First produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 28 October 1958, the play starred Magee, directed by Donald McWhinnie. A televised version with Magee directed by McWhinnie was later broadcast by BBC2 on 29 November 1972.Ackerley and Gontarski (ed.), 302 Beckett's biographer Anthony Cronin wrote that "there was a sense in which, as an actor, he had been waiting for Beckett as Beckett had been waiting for him."Anthony Cronin: Samuel Beckett The Last Modernist, London 1997 , p. 471

In 1964, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, after Pinter, directing his own play The Birthday Party, specifically requested him for the role of McCann, and stated he was the strongest in the cast. In 1965 he portrayed the Marquis de Sade in Peter Brook's production of Peter Weiss' Marat/Sade, and when the play transferred to Broadway he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He also appeared in the 1966 RSC production of Staircase opposite Paul Scofield. In 1969, he played Inspector Hawkins in the RSC's original production of Dutch Uncle. His last play with the company was Battle of Shrivings in 1970, at the Lyric Theatre, under the direction of Peter Hall.

In 1970, he played Daniel Webster in Scratch, a Broadway adaptation of The Devil and Daniel Webster by Archibald MacLean.

Film and television Early film roles included Joseph Losey's The Criminal (1960) Dementia 13 (1963) and The Servant (1963), the latter an adaptation scripted by Pinter. He also appeared as Surgeon-Major Reynolds in Zulu (1964), Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), Anzio (1968), and in the film versions of Marat/Sade (1967; as de Sade) and The Birthday Party (1968). He is perhaps best known for his role as the victimised writer Frank Alexander, who tortures Alex DeLarge with Beethoven's music, in Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange (1971). His other role for Kubrick was as Redmond Barry's mentor, the Chevalier de Balibari, in Barry Lyndon (1975). He reprised his role as the Marquis de Sade in the 1966 film adaptation of Marat/Sade, also directed by Peter Brook.

Magee also appeared in King Lear (1971), Young Winston (1972), The Final Programme (1973), Galileo (1975), Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980) and Chariots of Fire (1981), but was most often seen in horror films. These included the early Francis Ford Coppola outing Dementia 13 (1963), Roger Corman's The Masque of Red Death (1964), and the Boris Karloff vehicle Die, Monster, Die! (1965) for AIP; The Skull (1965), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), and And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973) for Amicus Productions; Demons of the Mind (1972) for Hammer Film Productions; Lucio Fulci's The Black Cat (1981), and Walerian Borowczyk's Docteur Jekyll et les femmes (1981), which proved his final film role.

Personal life Magee married Belle Sherry, also a native of County Armagh, in 1958. The couple had two children, twins Mark and Caroline (b. February 1961), and remained together until Magee's death.

He was known as something of a "hellraiser." He often struggled with bouts of alcoholism and gambling that adversely affected his finances, and his professional relationships.

He was a staunch Irish republican, and an active campaigner for left-wing social and political causes. In 1976, he played an instrumental role in persuading his trade union Equity to boycott South Africa over the country's apartheid laws.

Death A heavy drinker, Magee died from a heart attack at his flat in Fulham, southwest London, on 14 August 1982, at the age of 60, according to obituaries in The Glasgow Herald and The New York Times. and NYT Magee obituary His final role was in an episode of Play for Today which aired on 14 December 1982, three months after his death.

Legacy Conor Carville, of the University of Reading, wrote of Magee:

"[Magee] is a very important and unjustly forgotten figure who represents an important aspect of the cultural ferment of the 1960s and 1970s in Britain. The persona he had off-stage was that of a hell raiser, and this blended into the roles he was cast in. He was at the forefront of theatrical and cinematic experiment of the time, and yet, as a BBC stalwart on both radio and TV and a West End actor, he was also ensconced in the mainstream. As well as this, his immersion in the new British horror genre meant he moved in underground circles. My research has revealed an undercurrent of desperation in his career, as he took on such roles for the income they provided. It is this multifaced character that makes Magee a lightning rod for the tensions and contradictions of his era."

On 29 July 2017, actor Stephen Rea, who appeared alongside Patrick Magee in a production of Samuel Beckett's play Endgame, unveiled a blue plaque commemorating Magee's birthplace at 2 Edward Street, Armagh.

In a retrospective written on what would have been the actor's 100th birthday in 2022 on Senses of Cinema, Mark Lager particularly praised Patrick Magee as the character Krapp in Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and as the character McCann in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party as the best performances of his career, while also considering his character of the blind patient George Carter in Freddie Francis's Tales from the Crypt as his most memorable of many performances in horror films.

Partial stage credits Year Title RoleDirectorOriginal venue Notes1948Mountain PostMatonR.H. MacCandlessUlster Group Theatre, Belfast1949Bannister's CafeWalter BannisterHimselfAlso director1950The Square PegReverend Alexander McCrea 1951 The Passing Day HindTyrone GuthrieAmbassadors Theatre, LondonCredited as 'Pat Magee'1955–56The Queen and the RebelsPeasantFrank HauserTheatre Royal Haymarket, London1956The Shadow of a GunmanAdolphus GregsonJohn GibsonNew Lindsey Theatre Club, London1958Krapp's Last TapeKrappDonald McWhinnieRoyal Court Theatre, London1959The BuskersMaxToby RobertsonArts Theatre, London1959–60RosmersholmGeorge DevineRoyal Court Theatre, London1961Progress to the ParkMr. LaughlinTed KotcheffGrand Theatre, BlackpoolA Whistle in the DarkMichael Carney Sr.Edward BurnhamTheatre Royal Stratford East, LondonFor Theatre Workshop1964The Birthday PartyMcCannHarold PinterAldwych Theatre, LondonFor Royal Shakespeare CompanyAfore Night ComeRocheClifford WilliamsEndgameHammDonald McWhinnieMarat/SadeMarquis de SadePeter Brook1965Mr Puntila and his Man MattiMatti AltonenMichel Saint-DenisHamletGhost of Old DenmarkPeter HallRoyal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonMarat/SadeMarquis de SadePeter BrookAldwych Theatre, London1965–66Martin Beck Theatre, New York CityWon Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play1966The MeteorWolfgang SchwitterClifford WilliamsAldwych Theatre, LondonFor Royal Shakespeare CompanyStaircaseHarry LeedsPeter HallTheatre Royal, BrightonAldwych Theatre, London1966–67Marat/SadeMarquis de SadeDonald DriverMajestic Theatre, Broadway1967Keep It in the FamilyFrank BradyAllan DavisPlymouth Theatre, Broadway1969Dutch UncleInspector HawkinsPeter HallTheatre Royal, BrightonFor Royal Shakespeare CompanyAldwych Theatre, London1970Battle of ShrivingsMarkLyric Theatre, London1971ScratchDaniel WebsterPeter HuntSt. James Theatre, Broadway1974The Master BuilderHalvard SolnessHimselfThorndike Theatre, LeatherheadAlso director1975–76The White DevilMonticelsoMichael Lindsay-HoggThe Old Vic, London1976That TimeDonald McWhinnieRoyal Court Theatre, London1980Doctor FaustusMephistophelesChristopher FettesLyric Hammersmith Theatre, LondonFortune Theatre, London

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes 1960 The Criminal Barrows Alternative title: The Concrete Jungle 1961 Rag Doll Flynn Alternative title: Young, Willing and Eager Never Back Losers Ben Black 1962 The Boys Mr Lee A Prize of Arms RSM Hicks 1963 Ricochet Inspector Cummins The Young Racers Sir William Dragonet The Very Edge Simmonds The Servant Bishop Dementia 13 Justin Caleb Dr. Morisijus 1964 Zulu Surgeon James Henry Reynolds Séance on a Wet Afternoon Walsh The Masque of the Red Death Alfredo1965 Portrait in Terror Mauricio ZaroniRe-edited version of Operation: Titian The Skull Police Surgeon Die, Monster, Die! Dr Henderson Alternative title: Monster of Terror1966Blood BathLinda's HusbandUncredited; re-used footage from Operation: Titian 1967 Marat/Sade Marquis de Sade 1968 Anzio Major-General Starkey Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher Lunatic Prisoner The Birthday Party Shamus McCann 1969 Hard Contract Alexi 1970 Cromwell Hugh Peter You Can't Win 'Em All Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 1971 King Lear Cornwall The Trojan Women Menelaus A Clockwork Orange Frank Alexander 1972 Tales from the Crypt George Carter Segment: "Blind Alleys" The Fiend Minister Alternative title: Beware My Brethren Asylum Dr. Rutherford Young Winston Gen. Bindon Blood Pope Joan Elder Monk Demons of the Mind Falkenberg 1973 And Now the Screaming Starts! Dr. Whittle Lady Ice Paul BoothThe Final Programme Dr. Baxter Alternative title: The Last Days of Man on Earth 1974 Luther Hans Luther Simona Le père 1975 Galileo Cardinal Bellarmin Barry Lyndon The Chevalier du Balibari 1977 Telefon Gen. Strelsky 1979 The Brontë Sisters Patrick Brontë 1980 Rough Cut Ernst Mueller The Sleep of Death Marquis Hawk the Slayer Priest Sir Henry at Rawlinson End Reverend Slodden 1981 Chariots of Fire Lord Cadogan The Monster Club Innkeeper The Black Cat Prof. Robert Miles Blood of Dr. Jekyll Gen. William Danvers Carew Alternative title: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne

Television