Mancunian David Warner supported himself as a book salesman while studying
at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Warner made his stage debut in
the RSC’s production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal
Court Theatre in 1962, the same year that he first appeared on television.
In films from 1962, Warner made his credited screen debut as the sleazy
Blifil in Tony Richardson's raucous
Tom Jones (1963).
He achieved international fame for his star turn as the insane protagonist
of Karel Reisz's Morgan:
A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966). His appearance as the village
idiot in Sam Peckinpah’s Straw
Dogs (1971) went uncredited due to a foot injury that Warner didn’t
want disclosed.
He went on to give a notable performance as Torvald opposite Jane Fonda
in Joseph Losey's adaptation of
A Doll's House (1973). He soon settled into menacing character roles,
and during the 70s built on this reputation in a small number of unremarkable
films including Perfect
Friday (1970), From Beyond the Grave (1973) and The
Thirty-Nine Steps (1978). Steadily this unconventional leading man
began to warrant more weighty roles and made notable appearances in
Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron (1977), as Jack the Ripper in Time After
Time (1979) and the Evil Genius in Terry Gilliam's Time
Bandits (1983). Warner's output in the 80s and 90s often involved
large-scale spectacle films, such as Tron (1982) and both Star Trek
V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
(1991). Warner also landed parts in Cameron's blockbuster Titanic (1997)
and Tim Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes (2001).
