Nigel Patrick

Nigel Patrick (born Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss‑Gorman on 2 May 1912 in Clapham, London) was an English actor, stage director, stage manager and writer who came from a theatrical family; his mother, Dorothy Hilda Turner, was an actress and his father, Thomas Joseph Charles Aubrey Wemyss‑Gorman, had theatrical connections. He began his professional career in the early 1930s, making his stage debut in The Life Machine at the Regent Theatre in 1932 and quickly establishing himself in repertory work before moving on to a series of successful West End productions such as Half a Crown (1934), Ringmaster (1935) and the iconic long‑run of George and Margaret (1937) which logged 799 performances. His career was interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served as a Lieutenant‑Colonel in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, seeing action in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy, experiences that later informed his portrayals of disciplined military characters. After the war Patrick returned to the stage and screen, making his film debut in Mrs. Pym of Scotland Yard (1940) and gaining prominence in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a debonair leading man in British cinema, notably in David Lean’s The Sound Barrier (1952) where he played a daring test pilot. He demonstrated remarkable versatility, alternating between charming gentlemen, roguish spivs and authority figures, appearing in titles such as Spring in Park Lane (1948), The Jack of Diamonds (1949) – a film he also co‑wrote – and the crime thriller The Informers (1963). In addition to acting, Patrick ventured into directing for Warwick Films, helming How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957) and the morally complex Johnny Nobody (1961), while continuing to act and direct stage productions, including the acclaimed Present Laughter (1965) and Alan Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking (1967). He married fellow actress Beatrice Campbell in 1951, and the couple had two children; Campbell died in 1979 and Patrick followed two years later, succumbing to lung cancer on 21 September 1981. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, from 1932 to 1981, he left an indelible mark on both British theatre and film, remembered for his elegance, professionalism and the breadth of his artistic contributions.