Sir Tom Courtenay
Sir Tom Courtenay - Actor
Sir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay was born on 25 February 1937; the family lived in Harrow Street off Hessle Road, and Tom’s father worked on the Fish Dock. Tom is a Hull City supporter, and attended Kingston High School in the late 1940s and early 1950s, eventually becoming Head Boy. Like John Alderton and Malcolm Storry, whose biographies are also outlined in this Alumni section of our website, Tom was encouraged by English teacher Mr E.J.C. Large to follow his acting dreams. In his autobiographical book Dear Tom: Letters from Home (2000), Tom pays tribute to the role of Mr Large in his development as a public speaker and actor. Tom went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and in 2001, was awarded a Knighthood for 40 years service to cinema and theatre. In 2018 he was awarded the Freedom of Hull for his achievements in drama and for his contribution to Hull’s UK City of Culture during the previous year. Tom dedicated this award to the Hessle Road fishing community, where he grew up.
Tom made his stage début in 1960 with the Old Vic theatre company at the Lyceum in Edinburgh, before taking over from Albert Finney in the title role of Billy Liar at the Cambridge Theatre in 1961. In 1963, Tom played the same title role in the film version. In the early 1960s, films such as The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Billy Liar became part of the British new wave cinema, and for these performances, Tom was awarded a BAFTA for the most promising newcomer and one for best actor respectively.
In 1965, he was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor in the film Dr Zhivago, playing Pasha Antipov. His other films include Operation Crossbow, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, King Rat and Night of the Generals. In 1984, Tom was again nominated for an Academy Award for best actor, as was his co-star Albert Finney. More recently, Tom starred in Flood (2007), Quartet (2012), Dads’ Army (2016) and The Railway Children Return (2022).
Tom has played many stage roles in Manchester theatres and elsewhere, in plays such as The Playboy of the Western World, The Rivals, King Lear and Uncle Vanya. In 2002, he compiled a one-man show Pretending To Be Me, based on the letters and writings of poet Philip Larkin, who lived in Hull for many years when he was the University of Hull Librarian.
On television and radio, Tom has appeared in She Stoops to Conquer on the BBC (1971) and in several Alan Ayckbourn plays. In 1998, he again played opposite Albert Finney in the BBC drama A Rather English Marriage. Tom also appeared in the 2008 Christmas special of the BBC show The Royle Family, playing the role of Dave's father, and in the same year, played the role of William Dorrit in a BBC adaptation of Dickens’ book.