- Richardson, Ian William
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▪ 2008British actorborn April 7, 1934 , Edinburgh, Scot.died Feb. 9, 2007 , London, Eng.was an accomplished actor and a founding member (1960–75) of the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he gained international recognition for his BAFTA-winning performance as the charismatic Machiavellian politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC television trilogy House of Cards (1990), To Play the King (1993), and The Final Cut (1995). Richardson portrayed the sardonic, villainous “FU” with sly wit and made his conspiratorial “You might very well think that—I couldn't possibly comment” a much-quoted catchphrase. Other noteworthy roles included Jean-Paul Marat in the stage (1965) and film (1967) versions of Peter Brook's Marat/Sade, Bill Haydon in the 1979 BBC adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Henry Higgins in a 1976–77 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady, and the imposing chancellor in the BBC's Bleak House (2005). Richardson was made CBE in 1989.
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Universalium. 2010.