Barry Foster

John Barry Foster's acting career began and ended on the stage. At the
age of 20 he won a scholarship to the Central School of Speech and
Drama where he befriended future playwright
Harold Pinter. After two years training,
Barry went on tour with Andrew McMaster
and fellow actors Patrick Magee
and Kenneth Haigh through the Republic of
Ireland. Their repertoire included thirteen plays (mostly
Shakespearean but also included
J.B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls').
Barry's first role was as Lorenzo in 'The Merchant of Venice'.In 1955, he hit the lights of London with 'The Night of the Ball' at
the New Theatre and six years later had his first starring role as
Cornelius Christian in 'Fairy Tales of New York'. During the remainder
of the decade, Barry played through an immensely varied array of
characters ranging from Adhemar in the French comedy
'Let's Get a
Divorce' to King John and Macbeth at the Nottingham Playhouse. He
appeared with Dame Wendy Hiller
in
'Driving Miss Daisy' and with Lotte Lenya
in 'Brecht on Brecht' at The Royal Court. His portfolio also included
two Pinter plays,
'The Basement' and 'The Tea Party'. In 1963, he also
acted on Broadway, San Francisco and Los Angeles in a double
bill: 'The Private Ear' and 'The Public Eye' by Peter Shaffer.
Time Magazine (October 18,1963) described his performance as
Cristoforou as "a remarkable and indefinable creation" and "the most
antic and mythic embodiment of Life Force since Zorba the Greek danced
off the pages of Nikos Kazantzakis novel".While he had appeared in film roles since the mid-1950's, it was on the
small screen where Barry Foster had his greatest success, specifically as the
trench-coated Dutch detective
Van der Valk (1972). Introduced by
the catchy theme song 'Eye Level' (a British chart topper in
1973), this 1970s TV series was filmed on location in Amsterdam and
featured a rather off-beat type of detective: introspective, often rash and moody, at times anti-establishmentarian,
yet with great compassion, wit and intelligence. Barry Foster himself
remarked about the popular Van der Valk: "He is understanding and does
not disapprove. That isn't his job, anyway. He's a lovely guy to play,
a thoughtful, unorthodox cop with a touch of the private eye" (The
Independent, 13/2/2002).Other notable television roles followed. Among the best of them was as
Kaiser Wilhelm in BBC's excellent miniseries
Fall of Eagles (1974). He was
again perfectly cast as eccentric spook Saul Enderby, one of
Smiley's People (1982),
played with typical aplomb and dry humour. In 1978, Barry lent his
voice to an impersonation of the great detective Sherlock Holmes in a
13-part BBC radio series. In films, Barry will be best remembered as
the serial killing grocer Bob Rusk in Hitchcock's thriller
Frenzy (1972). From the
1980s, Barry Foster
concentrated once again on the theatre. In 1995, he toured
Australia with Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls' (playing the part
of Inspector Goole), directed by Stephen Daldry.
Five years later, he starred as Prospero in
'The Tempest' and, just prior to his untimely death, appeared with
Nigel Havers
and Roger Lloyd Pack in the play 'Art'
at the London Whitehall theatre. Barry Foster was a singularly
accomplished and likeable actor who once explained his versatility thus:
"I'm neither very tall nor very short. You can't look at my face and
say 'he's the killer', or 'the guy next door' or 'the mad scientist'.
All I've got is my curly hair - which everyone thinks is a wig anyway"
(The Telegraph, 12/2/2002).