Ian Charleson

Ian Charleson (11 August 1949 – 6 January 1990) was a notable Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known for his role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. Alongside this, he gained recognition for his portrayal of Rev. Charlie Andrews in the 1982 Oscar-winning film Gandhi. Charleson was highly acclaimed on the British stage and his roles ranged from major leads in Guys and Dolls, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fool for Love, and Hamlet among others. The actor performed numerous Shakespearean roles leading to the establishment of the annual Ian Charleson Awards in 1991, which honor his outstanding contributions, notably his final Hamlet. The Houghton Mifflin Dictionary of Biography refers to Charleson as "a leading player of charm and power" and "one of the finest British actors of his generation". Charleson was born in Edinburgh in 1949, the son of a printer, and grew up in a working-class area of the city. He had a bright, musical, artistic childhood and was performing in local theatre productions by the age of eight. He won a scholarship and attended Edinburgh's Royal High School; in his teens, he joined and performed with The Jasons, an Edinburgh amateur theatrical group. In addition to acting, he also sang solo as a boy soprano in church and in the Royal High School choir, which performed on the radio and in Edinburgh Festival concerts. Charleson won another scholarship to the University of Edinburgh, where he studied architecture before deciding to pursue acting as a career. Charleson was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 and died in 1990 at the age of 40. He requested that it be announced after his death that he had died of AIDS, to publicise the condition. This announcement was critical in promoting awareness and acceptance of the disease.